After rumblings from the man himself that he was at work restoring much of his incredible filmography, Frederick Wiseman and Zipporah Films have confirmed today that the five-year process of restoration and digitizing 33 of his features has been completed and will start coming to theaters this year. See the press release below.
Zipporah Films is pleased to announce that, for the first time, all Frederick Wiseman films are now available in digital formats. The process, which took nearly five years, involved the restoration and digitization of 33 Wiseman films from 1969 through 2006 that have not previously been available, except in film. Now 45 Wiseman films are available in digital formats, removing barriers so that these films can reach a wider audience, as many were only available in 16mm prior to the restoration.
I am enormously grateful to the individuals and organizations whose support made possible the digitizing and restoration of my films, which...
Zipporah Films is pleased to announce that, for the first time, all Frederick Wiseman films are now available in digital formats. The process, which took nearly five years, involved the restoration and digitization of 33 Wiseman films from 1969 through 2006 that have not previously been available, except in film. Now 45 Wiseman films are available in digital formats, removing barriers so that these films can reach a wider audience, as many were only available in 16mm prior to the restoration.
I am enormously grateful to the individuals and organizations whose support made possible the digitizing and restoration of my films, which...
- 5/10/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Frederick Wiseman’s filmography will now be available for the first time ever in digital formats.
IndieWire can announce that after a five-year process, all of Wiseman’s 45 films are now available in digital formats. Thirty-three of Wiseman’s features from 1969 through 2006 had to be digitized, as many were shot on film.
“I am enormously grateful to the individuals and organizations whose support made possible the digitizing and restoration of my films, which will now provide new access to the films,” said Wiseman in a statement.
The Library of Congress was involved in delivering the original 16mm negatives for 32 films and one 35mm negative — for “The Last Letter,” a filmed version of the stage play he directed in 2002 at the Comédie-Française — along with the Harvard Film Archive sending the sound elements to DuArt Laboratory and then to Goldcrest Post Production after the historic DuArt closed. The negatives were scanned and color graded by Jane Tomachyov,...
IndieWire can announce that after a five-year process, all of Wiseman’s 45 films are now available in digital formats. Thirty-three of Wiseman’s features from 1969 through 2006 had to be digitized, as many were shot on film.
“I am enormously grateful to the individuals and organizations whose support made possible the digitizing and restoration of my films, which will now provide new access to the films,” said Wiseman in a statement.
The Library of Congress was involved in delivering the original 16mm negatives for 32 films and one 35mm negative — for “The Last Letter,” a filmed version of the stage play he directed in 2002 at the Comédie-Française — along with the Harvard Film Archive sending the sound elements to DuArt Laboratory and then to Goldcrest Post Production after the historic DuArt closed. The negatives were scanned and color graded by Jane Tomachyov,...
- 5/10/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
It can be a fine line between goodbye and good riddance. Carlo Chatrian might have breathed a sigh of relief when his tenure as Berlinale’s creative director came to an end this February, yet wherever the festival goes from here, his reign will be warmly remembered. Not least for Encounters, the sidebar he instituted, which fast became a home and launching pad for films too daring or challenging for the competition proper. This year’s edition opened with a film that felt like a legacy pick: in 2022, Ruth Beckermann’s Mutzenbacher became the first documentary to win the top prize, and Beckermann returned this year with Favoriten, a work that itself seemed to echo and engage with another gem of the Chatrian reign, Mr. Bachman and His Class, a film about a multi-cultural classroom in a German high school. Beckermann’s film moves that concept to the most diverse neighborhood in Vienna,...
- 4/29/2024
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The section that we criminally need to overlook while covering the festival, the Cannes Classics films (excluding Le Cinéma de la Plage) are the last batch of titles to be programmed for the next edition. Packed with film-related docus, restored prints and anniversary 4K restorations, some of the big names including Jean-Luc Godard’s very last short, Faye Dunaway, Wim Wenders, Sylvia Chang, Costa-Gavras, Raymond Depardon, Marco Bellocchio, Ron Howard, Frederick Wiseman, Dong-ho Kim, Montxo Armendáriz and more…
Events
100 years of Columbia Pictures
Gilda
Charles Vidor
1946, 1h50, United States
A Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation. Restoration from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm nitrate internegative.…...
Events
100 years of Columbia Pictures
Gilda
Charles Vidor
1946, 1h50, United States
A Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation. Restoration from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm nitrate internegative.…...
- 4/25/2024
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Cannes Classics, the festival’s selection for tributes and retrospectives, has announced the rest of its program after the previously-announced opening night film “Napoleon Par Abel Gance.”
Among the highlights are a restoration of Charles Vidor’s 1946 “Gilda” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, with Tom Rothman, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, attending. Wim Wenders will be on hand for a 40th anniversary screening of Palme d’Or winner “Paris, Texas,” while Faye Dunaway will be present for the screening of “Faye,” the first documentary about her life.
Ron Howard will present his documentary “Jim Henson Idea Man,” while Nanette Burstein brings the premiere of her documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes.”
See the full program of Cannes Classics below.
100 years of Columbia Pictures
“Gilda”
Charles Vidor
1946, 1h50, United States
A Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation. Restoration from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm nitrate internegative.
Among the highlights are a restoration of Charles Vidor’s 1946 “Gilda” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, with Tom Rothman, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, attending. Wim Wenders will be on hand for a 40th anniversary screening of Palme d’Or winner “Paris, Texas,” while Faye Dunaway will be present for the screening of “Faye,” the first documentary about her life.
Ron Howard will present his documentary “Jim Henson Idea Man,” while Nanette Burstein brings the premiere of her documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes.”
See the full program of Cannes Classics below.
100 years of Columbia Pictures
“Gilda”
Charles Vidor
1946, 1h50, United States
A Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation. Restoration from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm nitrate internegative.
- 4/25/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Though festivals and distributors were very excited to sell you a “final” film by Jean-Luc Godard, Fabrice Aragno made clear Phony Wars would not be the last transmission. Continuing Tupac-like beyond-the-grave releases, it’s been announced this year’s Cannes Film Festival will include in their “Events” sidebar the “ultimate film by Jean-Luc Godard,” Scenarios, which I cannot possibly summarize better than their official description and thus:
Scenarios is the title that Jean-Luc Godard chose to give to a final 18-minute gesture, made, literally, the day before his voluntary death. Furthermore, Jean-Luc Godard recorded a 34-minute film in which, mixing still images and moving images, halfway between reading and vision, he presented the Scenarios project .
Worth noting that Scenario was, with Phony Wars, one of two films with which Godard planned to end his career. A project made with single-digit hours left on Earth… well, one’s mind reels at the potential.
Scenarios is the title that Jean-Luc Godard chose to give to a final 18-minute gesture, made, literally, the day before his voluntary death. Furthermore, Jean-Luc Godard recorded a 34-minute film in which, mixing still images and moving images, halfway between reading and vision, he presented the Scenarios project .
Worth noting that Scenario was, with Phony Wars, one of two films with which Godard planned to end his career. A project made with single-digit hours left on Earth… well, one’s mind reels at the potential.
- 4/25/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The Cannes Film Festival’s Classics sidebar celebrates 20 years this year with a lineup of films including a 4K restoration of Wim Wenders’s Palme d’Or winning Paris, Texas, and a debut screening of Ron Howard’s 2024 doc Jim Henson Idea Man.
Wenders and Howard will be on the ground in Cannes, where they will present the films alongside Faye Dunaway, who will present the feature-long doc Faye about her life and career.
Other Cannes Classics screenings will include a 4k restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai to mark the late Japanese filmmaker’s 70th birthday while Frederick Wiseman will present his 1969 documentary Law And Order. Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman will also attend to screen Charles Vidor’s 1946 film Gilda as part of a 100-year celebration of Columbia Pictures.
The sidebar will also screen Scénario, an 18-minute film by Jean-Luc Godard. The project was...
Wenders and Howard will be on the ground in Cannes, where they will present the films alongside Faye Dunaway, who will present the feature-long doc Faye about her life and career.
Other Cannes Classics screenings will include a 4k restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai to mark the late Japanese filmmaker’s 70th birthday while Frederick Wiseman will present his 1969 documentary Law And Order. Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman will also attend to screen Charles Vidor’s 1946 film Gilda as part of a 100-year celebration of Columbia Pictures.
The sidebar will also screen Scénario, an 18-minute film by Jean-Luc Godard. The project was...
- 4/25/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Sales and production house Film Constellation is launching world sales rights on U.S. comedy drama “Eephus,” directed by Carson Lund, set to world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section in Cannes in May.
In the film, as an imminent construction project looms over a beloved small-town baseball field, a pair of New England Sunday league teams face off for the last time over the course of a day. Tensions flare up and ceremonial laughs are shared as an era of camaraderie and escapism fades into an uncertain future.
“Eephus” is the feature directorial debut of American filmmaker Lund, who also has a cinematography credit on another Directors’ Fortnight title, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.”
“Eephus” is produced by Lund, Tyler Taormina, Michael Basta, David Entin and Gabe Klinger for U.S.-based Omnes Films, in collaboration with executive producers Michael Tonelli, Ashish Shetty, Brian Clark and Jim Christman of Magmys.
In the film, as an imminent construction project looms over a beloved small-town baseball field, a pair of New England Sunday league teams face off for the last time over the course of a day. Tensions flare up and ceremonial laughs are shared as an era of camaraderie and escapism fades into an uncertain future.
“Eephus” is the feature directorial debut of American filmmaker Lund, who also has a cinematography credit on another Directors’ Fortnight title, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.”
“Eephus” is produced by Lund, Tyler Taormina, Michael Basta, David Entin and Gabe Klinger for U.S.-based Omnes Films, in collaboration with executive producers Michael Tonelli, Ashish Shetty, Brian Clark and Jim Christman of Magmys.
- 4/18/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The 77th edition of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight will kick off with “This Life of Mine,” a dramedy directed by Sophie Fillières, a renowned French filmmaker who died last year. Presented posthumously, the film is headlined by French stars including Agnès Jaoui, Philippe Katerine and Valérie Donzelli. The independent selection, which has recently gone through a rebranding and is now spearheaded by artistic director Julien Rejl, will close with another French film, Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s “Plastic Guns,” an offbeat crime comedy headlined by popular actor Jonathan Cohen.
The lineup includes as many as four U.S. features, three of which are feature debuts, including India Donaldson’s coming-of-age film”Good One” which premiered at Sundance and garnered solid reviews. Set in upstate New York, “Good One” follows 17-year-old Sam as she joins her father and his oldest friend, Matt, on their annual backpacking trip in the Catskill Mountains. “Good One” has...
The lineup includes as many as four U.S. features, three of which are feature debuts, including India Donaldson’s coming-of-age film”Good One” which premiered at Sundance and garnered solid reviews. Set in upstate New York, “Good One” follows 17-year-old Sam as she joins her father and his oldest friend, Matt, on their annual backpacking trip in the Catskill Mountains. “Good One” has...
- 4/16/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Pride started early in 2024 with the SXSW premiere of “Sense8” actor Brian J. Smith’s debut documentary “A House Is Not a Disco,” a kaleidoscopic look at the LGBT past and present of Fire Island. Part fly-on-the-wall immersion — Smith invokes Frederick Wiseman when talking about it — part introductory guide for newbies who maybe knew a bit on how Fire Island Pines is a gay mecca but don’t really know what all the fuss is about, it’s an exuberant, colorful, many-faceted view of a place where many gay men first felt fully free to be themselves completely uninhibited. Or as Smith puts it, it was where he “learned how to be a gay man.”
Still seeking distribution, “A House Is Not a Disco” is remarkable for capturing that Fire Island Pines is a place where joy is currency — but far from the only emotion to be experienced there. Smith...
Still seeking distribution, “A House Is Not a Disco” is remarkable for capturing that Fire Island Pines is a place where joy is currency — but far from the only emotion to be experienced there. Smith...
- 4/12/2024
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
UK filmmaker Andrea Arnold will be honoured with the Directors’ Fortnight’s Carrosse d’Or award at the 56h edition of the Cannes parallel section running May 15-25.
She will receive the prize from French directors guild La Société des Réalisateurs (Srf) during the opening ceremony.
Launched in 2002, the Carosse d’Or - or “Golden Coach” in French - recognises “innovative” directors for their storied careers behind the camera.
Last year, Souleyman Cissé received the honour that has also previously been given to Frederick Wiseman, John Carpenter, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Aki Kaurismaki, Jia Zhangke, Naomi Kawase and Nanni Moretti.
She will receive the prize from French directors guild La Société des Réalisateurs (Srf) during the opening ceremony.
Launched in 2002, the Carosse d’Or - or “Golden Coach” in French - recognises “innovative” directors for their storied careers behind the camera.
Last year, Souleyman Cissé received the honour that has also previously been given to Frederick Wiseman, John Carpenter, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Aki Kaurismaki, Jia Zhangke, Naomi Kawase and Nanni Moretti.
- 4/9/2024
- ScreenDaily
British filmmaker Andrea Arnold is set to receive the Golden Coach Award at this year’s Directors Fortnight, which runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival.
The ceremony will take place on May 15 during the opening ceremony for Directors’ Fortnight.
The honorary award, handed out by the governing body of the Cannes sidebar the Society of French Directors (Sfr), launched in 2002 and is handed out to filmmakers boasting “innovative qualities, courage and independent-mindedness of his or her work.”
The French guild described Arnold as an “avid explorer of the fringes of society” and “a dynamiter of social film codes” who has “a knack of sounding out the power of bodies and souls.”
Arnold’s latest film, “Bird,” is rumored to be in the pipeline for this year’s competition roster at the Cannes Film Festival.
“From ‘Milk’ to ‘Red Road,’ from ‘Wuthering Heights’ to ‘American Honey,’ you scrutinize society from every angle,...
The ceremony will take place on May 15 during the opening ceremony for Directors’ Fortnight.
The honorary award, handed out by the governing body of the Cannes sidebar the Society of French Directors (Sfr), launched in 2002 and is handed out to filmmakers boasting “innovative qualities, courage and independent-mindedness of his or her work.”
The French guild described Arnold as an “avid explorer of the fringes of society” and “a dynamiter of social film codes” who has “a knack of sounding out the power of bodies and souls.”
Arnold’s latest film, “Bird,” is rumored to be in the pipeline for this year’s competition roster at the Cannes Film Festival.
“From ‘Milk’ to ‘Red Road,’ from ‘Wuthering Heights’ to ‘American Honey,’ you scrutinize society from every angle,...
- 4/9/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Two new Australian films, both enjoying their world premiere, are among the first titles confirmed to play at the Sydney Film Festival in June.
“In Vitro,” a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a remote cattle farm in the near future, hails from directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith (“Beast”) and stars Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”).
With “The Pool,” director Ian Darling (“The Final Quarter”) paints a cinematic portrait of a year in the life of the iconic Bondi Icebergs, the pool and the people who cherish it.
They will be joined by New Zealand actor Rachel House (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who makes her feature directorial debut with “The Mountain,” which centers on three children discovering friendship’s healing power through the spirit of adventure as they trek through spectacular New Zealand landscapes. It is executive produced by Taika Waititi and will be eligible for Sydney’s recently announced First Nations Award,...
“In Vitro,” a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a remote cattle farm in the near future, hails from directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith (“Beast”) and stars Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”).
With “The Pool,” director Ian Darling (“The Final Quarter”) paints a cinematic portrait of a year in the life of the iconic Bondi Icebergs, the pool and the people who cherish it.
They will be joined by New Zealand actor Rachel House (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who makes her feature directorial debut with “The Mountain,” which centers on three children discovering friendship’s healing power through the spirit of adventure as they trek through spectacular New Zealand landscapes. It is executive produced by Taika Waititi and will be eligible for Sydney’s recently announced First Nations Award,...
- 4/2/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
We live in strange times. This young century has been defined by harrowing disasters both natural and man-made, political tribalism, and existential threats to the future of the planet. What better time for documentary filmmaking?
Non-fiction cinema has been evolving since the birth of the medium while capturing a world in motion. From the actualités of the Lumière brothers in the late 19th century to the heavily manipulated ethnographic films of the 1920, from the vérité films of the Maysles brothers to the man-on-the-street agitprop popularized by Michael Moore, documentaries have naturally always been more responsive to their times than any other mode of filmmaking.
Not only do they reveal our world to us, but they shape how we view it, and the early years of the 21st century have proven that to be more true than ever before. On one hand, digital technology has infinitely expanded our range of vision,...
Non-fiction cinema has been evolving since the birth of the medium while capturing a world in motion. From the actualités of the Lumière brothers in the late 19th century to the heavily manipulated ethnographic films of the 1920, from the vérité films of the Maysles brothers to the man-on-the-street agitprop popularized by Michael Moore, documentaries have naturally always been more responsive to their times than any other mode of filmmaking.
Not only do they reveal our world to us, but they shape how we view it, and the early years of the 21st century have proven that to be more true than ever before. On one hand, digital technology has infinitely expanded our range of vision,...
- 3/27/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
American Cinematheque Launches Major New L.A. Documentary Festival This Is Not a Fiction (Exclusive)
The American Cinematheque is kicking off a robust new Los Angeles nonfiction film festival dubbed This Is Not a Fiction, running from April 10-18. The festival opens with docuseries “Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story,” with Jon Bon Jovi in-person at the Aero Theatre for the L.A. premiere screening.
The event will include in-person tributes to distinguished documentary filmmakers including Barbara Kopple, Joe Berlinger, Brett Morgen, Bill Morrison, Kirsten Johnson, Terry Zwigoff, Jeff Tremaine and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, as well as a virtual Q&a with Frederick Wiseman.
Other premieres will include “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” “Power,” “Strong Island,” “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg,” a restoration of “Lumumba: Death of a Prophet” and “Incident,” plus special presentations of Morgan Neville’s “Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces” and “Girls State.” A celebration of the 15th anniversary of “30 for 30” will feature a panel...
The event will include in-person tributes to distinguished documentary filmmakers including Barbara Kopple, Joe Berlinger, Brett Morgen, Bill Morrison, Kirsten Johnson, Terry Zwigoff, Jeff Tremaine and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, as well as a virtual Q&a with Frederick Wiseman.
Other premieres will include “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” “Power,” “Strong Island,” “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg,” a restoration of “Lumumba: Death of a Prophet” and “Incident,” plus special presentations of Morgan Neville’s “Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces” and “Girls State.” A celebration of the 15th anniversary of “30 for 30” will feature a panel...
- 3/19/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
"We torture our students." Film Movement has revealed an official trailer for a documentary film titled Art Talent Show, a peculiar creation from the two Czech filmmakers Tomás Bojar & Adéla Komrzý. This first premiered at the 2022 Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Czechia, and it also stopped by the IDFA, Docs Against Gravity, and True/False Film Festivals last year as well. In the vein of Frederick Wiseman's work, Art Talent Show offers insightful commentary on the intergenerational cultural dissonance surrounding contemporary topics like identity politics and social justice in relation to art and its practice. A "documentary less about art or talent than about the Sisyphean task of assessing one and nurturing the other", the filmmakers take a sensitive and ultimately light-hearted approach to the examination of art school admission (to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague). The film wonders: "How do you assess artistic talent? And what...
- 3/18/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
And the Razzie Goes to . . .
As much as we hate to give Razzies any sort of promotion, The Criterion Channel has a new series to show just how wrong the execrable organization has been over the past decades. Launching today, they are spotlighting comedic gems like Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered, Elaine May’s Ishtar, and Neil Labute’s The Wicker Man, alongside Cruising, Heaven’s Gate, Xanadu, Querelle, Under the Cherry Moon, Cocktail, Showgirls, Barb Wire, The Blair Witch Project, Swept Away and Gigli.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score.
And the Razzie Goes to . . .
As much as we hate to give Razzies any sort of promotion, The Criterion Channel has a new series to show just how wrong the execrable organization has been over the past decades. Launching today, they are spotlighting comedic gems like Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered, Elaine May’s Ishtar, and Neil Labute’s The Wicker Man, alongside Cruising, Heaven’s Gate, Xanadu, Querelle, Under the Cherry Moon, Cocktail, Showgirls, Barb Wire, The Blair Witch Project, Swept Away and Gigli.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score.
- 3/1/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHard Truths.Mike Leigh’s forthcoming Hard Truths will reunite him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, star of Secrets and Lies (1996). It will be the British director’s first film set in the present day since Another Year (2010).Jia Zhangke has divulged some details of We Shall Be All, now in the early stages of post-production. In production off and on since 2001, the film will be his first feature since Ash Is Purest White (2018). “I travelled with actors and a cameraman to shoot, without a script, without any obvious story,” the director told Variety. “This is a work of fiction, but I have applied many documentary methods.”Robert Bresson’s rarely seen Four Nights of a Dreamer is being restored by MK2 Films, set for a spring release.
- 2/28/2024
- MUBI
"Cultural heritage is immaterial and material," says a student in the second part of Mati Diop’s account of the return of artefacts from France to Benin in 2021, a snapshot of the current pressure on former colonial powers to repatriate their museum pieces. The student is one of several who take the podium in what is the most charged and inspiring part of this slender but stirring documentary, a glimpse of academic debate that suggests future conservation in Benin and its attendant issues will be in safe hands.
What precedes it is a forensic Frederick Wiseman-like procedural, following the transportation of pieces, including a statue of 17th century leader King Ghezo from their positions in Paris’ Musee du Quai Branly to where their journey first began before being plundered by French troops in the late 1800s. Where the film departs from standard documentary fare is in Diop’s imaginative choice to.
What precedes it is a forensic Frederick Wiseman-like procedural, following the transportation of pieces, including a statue of 17th century leader King Ghezo from their positions in Paris’ Musee du Quai Branly to where their journey first began before being plundered by French troops in the late 1800s. Where the film departs from standard documentary fare is in Diop’s imaginative choice to.
- 2/27/2024
- by Sunil Chauhan
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Berlin film festival
Mati Diop’s documentary is told partly in the ‘voice’ of one of the looted treasures, in a realist jeu d’esprit about the legacy of plunder
Franco-Senegalese actor and film-maker Mati Diop made history in 2019 as the first woman of colour to have a movie selected for competition at Cannes, the poetic migrant drama Atlantique. Now she brings an intriguing, 67-minute long documentary feature to Berlin: a kind of realist jeu d’ésprit or interrogative reverie about colonialism, culture, the past and the present. Dahomey is about the return in 2021 of looted treasures from France to the west African state of Benin, items plundered by French troops in 1892. These include the bold and mysterious zoomorphic figures of King Ghezo (who ruled what was then called Dahomey from 1797 to 1818) and his heirs Glele and Béhanzin, shown with the heads of a bird or a lion or a...
Mati Diop’s documentary is told partly in the ‘voice’ of one of the looted treasures, in a realist jeu d’esprit about the legacy of plunder
Franco-Senegalese actor and film-maker Mati Diop made history in 2019 as the first woman of colour to have a movie selected for competition at Cannes, the poetic migrant drama Atlantique. Now she brings an intriguing, 67-minute long documentary feature to Berlin: a kind of realist jeu d’ésprit or interrogative reverie about colonialism, culture, the past and the present. Dahomey is about the return in 2021 of looted treasures from France to the west African state of Benin, items plundered by French troops in 1892. These include the bold and mysterious zoomorphic figures of King Ghezo (who ruled what was then called Dahomey from 1797 to 1818) and his heirs Glele and Béhanzin, shown with the heads of a bird or a lion or a...
- 2/23/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
With her mesmerizing 2019 debut feature, the lyrical Senegalese ghost story Atlantics, as well as the nonfiction project that preceded it, A Thousand Suns, Mati Diop jumped to the forefront of diasporic Black European directors reclaiming their ancestral African roots. The director’s own path as a cultural revenant continues to be inextricably woven through her work, alongside a contemplative consideration of repatriation and reparations, in her multifaceted medium-length docu-fictional essay Dahomey.
The film is both a response to Alain Resnais and Chris Marker’s 1953 inquiry into African art and colonialism, Statues Also Die, and an ongoing debate on the significance of returned artifacts and the responsibility of new generations to continue the vital work of conservation and cultural reclamation.
Running just over an hour but loaded with thematic weight and aesthetic beauty, Dahomey sprang from the French government’s return, in 2021, of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey to...
The film is both a response to Alain Resnais and Chris Marker’s 1953 inquiry into African art and colonialism, Statues Also Die, and an ongoing debate on the significance of returned artifacts and the responsibility of new generations to continue the vital work of conservation and cultural reclamation.
Running just over an hour but loaded with thematic weight and aesthetic beauty, Dahomey sprang from the French government’s return, in 2021, of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey to...
- 2/18/2024
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Plenty of worthy documentaries manage to tackle a subject from all angles, offering a well-rounded portrait of a specific social issue, historical figure or cultural phenomenon. Much rarer are those that go beyond the subject to reveal something deeply and essentially human, using the camera to uncover truths that aren’t always visible to us.
French director Nicolas Philibert’s latest work, At Averroes & Rosa Parks, is one of those films. On the surface, it’s a long and immersive plunge into two psychiatric wards at the Esquirol Hospital facility, located in a leafy suburb outside of Paris. Through extended sessions between patients and their doctors, we get to know a group of people who’ve been committed with varying levels of mental illness.
By giving the patients considerable time and space to bare themselves before the camera, Philibert grants us access to the the darker sides of the human psyche,...
French director Nicolas Philibert’s latest work, At Averroes & Rosa Parks, is one of those films. On the surface, it’s a long and immersive plunge into two psychiatric wards at the Esquirol Hospital facility, located in a leafy suburb outside of Paris. Through extended sessions between patients and their doctors, we get to know a group of people who’ve been committed with varying levels of mental illness.
By giving the patients considerable time and space to bare themselves before the camera, Philibert grants us access to the the darker sides of the human psyche,...
- 2/16/2024
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Taste Of Things, a meditation on turn-of-the-century French cooking — no chicken wings or nachos in sight — is stirring up a nice weekend for IFC Films with $126k and the best per-theater opening of the year so far on Super Bowl weekend.
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days from Neon is looking at $100k on five screens. In wider release, Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness is at a solid $1 million on circa 900 screens. American Fiction and Poor Things are holding in the top ten.
The Taste Of Things, which premiered at Cannes, winning Best Director for Vietnamese-born French filmmaker Tràn Anh Hùng, is seeing a $42k PTA from three screens. Originally The Pot-au-Feu, it stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel as cook Eugenie and her boss Dodin, longtime partners in love and in the kitchen of Dodin’s country villa.
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days from Neon is looking at $100k on five screens. In wider release, Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness is at a solid $1 million on circa 900 screens. American Fiction and Poor Things are holding in the top ten.
The Taste Of Things, which premiered at Cannes, winning Best Director for Vietnamese-born French filmmaker Tràn Anh Hùng, is seeing a $42k PTA from three screens. Originally The Pot-au-Feu, it stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel as cook Eugenie and her boss Dodin, longtime partners in love and in the kitchen of Dodin’s country villa.
- 2/11/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Hopefuls for the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague face a probing from their professors in a documentary that looks for answers about art, institutions and ourselves
Shot over the course of a week-long entrance examination held by the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, this rigorous yet witty documentary brings to mind the observational, accumulative style of Frederick Wiseman; film-makers Adéla Komrzý and Tomáš Bojar are interested not only in the individual subjects, but also the hidden machinations of cultural institutions.
Designed to weed out the less qualified entrants, the first stage of the exam involves drawing portraits of live subjects. The second round, however, is when things get more interesting. In addition to a written test on art history, the applicants are asked to respond to prompts such as climate change. The film only affords us glimpses of the resulting artworks, but much more screen time is devoted...
Shot over the course of a week-long entrance examination held by the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, this rigorous yet witty documentary brings to mind the observational, accumulative style of Frederick Wiseman; film-makers Adéla Komrzý and Tomáš Bojar are interested not only in the individual subjects, but also the hidden machinations of cultural institutions.
Designed to weed out the less qualified entrants, the first stage of the exam involves drawing portraits of live subjects. The second round, however, is when things get more interesting. In addition to a written test on art history, the applicants are asked to respond to prompts such as climate change. The film only affords us glimpses of the resulting artworks, but much more screen time is devoted...
- 1/8/2024
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
By Glenn Charlie Dunks
Like any sane and rational person, I devoted eight precious hours of my festive season to watching the two four-hour documentaries that have been offered up by famous directors. Length notwithstanding, the very idea of new films by Frederick Wiseman and Steve McQueen should be hard to pass up most of the time and so we have Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros and Occupied City, two very different movies that use their epic lengths to differing effect. Some better than others.
Although Wiseman’s familiarity with such a runtime makes his film the perhaps more naturally more successful, McQueen at least has enough ideas to make his latest work of non-fiction to (somewhat) keep up with the pace set by the chefs of three supreme eateries in France. Although it becomes quite clear that length, in this case, is not equal.
Like any sane and rational person, I devoted eight precious hours of my festive season to watching the two four-hour documentaries that have been offered up by famous directors. Length notwithstanding, the very idea of new films by Frederick Wiseman and Steve McQueen should be hard to pass up most of the time and so we have Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros and Occupied City, two very different movies that use their epic lengths to differing effect. Some better than others.
Although Wiseman’s familiarity with such a runtime makes his film the perhaps more naturally more successful, McQueen at least has enough ideas to make his latest work of non-fiction to (somewhat) keep up with the pace set by the chefs of three supreme eateries in France. Although it becomes quite clear that length, in this case, is not equal.
- 1/7/2024
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Lily Gladstone and Charles Melton were among the big winners at the 2024 New York Film Critics Circle Awards this week!
The rising stars were both in attendance at the event on Wednesday night (January 3) at Tao Downtown in New York City.
Lily won the Best Actress award for Killers of the Flower Moon while Charles took home the Best Supporting Actor prize for May December.
Best Actor went to Passages‘ Franz Rogowski and Best Supporting Actress went to The Holdovers‘ Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
Head inside to check out the full list of winners…
More stars in attendance included winners Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Justine Triet, and Celine Song, as well as Dane DeHaan, Paul Dano, Lucas Hedges, Benny and Josh Safdie, and married couple Rebecca Hall and Morgan Spector.
Keep scrolling to see the full list of winners…
Best Film: “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Best Director: Christopher Nolan,...
The rising stars were both in attendance at the event on Wednesday night (January 3) at Tao Downtown in New York City.
Lily won the Best Actress award for Killers of the Flower Moon while Charles took home the Best Supporting Actor prize for May December.
Best Actor went to Passages‘ Franz Rogowski and Best Supporting Actress went to The Holdovers‘ Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
Head inside to check out the full list of winners…
More stars in attendance included winners Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Justine Triet, and Celine Song, as well as Dane DeHaan, Paul Dano, Lucas Hedges, Benny and Josh Safdie, and married couple Rebecca Hall and Morgan Spector.
Keep scrolling to see the full list of winners…
Best Film: “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Best Director: Christopher Nolan,...
- 1/5/2024
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
As an end-of-year gift to our writers and readers, we've compiled a user-friendly overview of our publishing highlights from 2023. The collection is broken down by category: essays, interviews, festival coverage, and recurring columns.Browse at your leisure, and raise a glass to our brilliant contributors!Meanwhile, you can catch up with all of our end-of-year coverage here.{{notebook_form}}ESSAYSContemporary Cinema:Cinema as Sacrament: The Limitations of Killers of the Flower Moon by Adam PironA Change of Season: Trần Anh Hùng and Frederick Wiseman's Culinary Cinema by Phuong LeWalking, Talking, & Hurting Feelings: Nicole Holofcener's Everyday Dramas by Rafaela BassiliThe Limits of Control: Lines of Power in Todd Field's Tár by Helen CharmanThe Art of Losing: Joanna Hogg's Haunted Houses by Laura StaabTreading Water: Avatar: The Way of Water by Evan Calder WilliamsThe African Accent and the Colonial Ear by Maxine SibihwanaTen Minutes, but a Few Meters Longer:...
- 1/3/2024
- MUBI
The Taste of Things.How do you solve a riddle like Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things? Revolving around the professional and romantic companionship between a master chef and his faithful cook, the feature, which won the Vietnamese-French filmmaker the Best Director award at Cannes, enjoys largely rapturous reviews in international press, yet its critical reception in France is much more divisive. Dismissed by publications such as Le Monde, Libération, and Cahiers du cinéma as a “bourgeois” and “old-fashioned” effort, Taste was simultaneously embraced by the right-wing outlet Causeur, which exalts the meat-centric feature as a return to tradition, and a slap in the face to the quinoa-eating, so-called “woke” crowd. To be selected over Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and other shortlisted nominees as France’s official submission to the Oscars was yet another sin. Months before its cinema release, Taste received an extraordinary amount...
- 1/3/2024
- MUBI
The list of feature documentaries still in contention for the Oscars has been cut to 15 finalists, a brutal culling from a contingent of 167 qualifiers. The annual shortlist announcement leaves a handful of filmmakers celebrating, many more disappointed, and documentary watchers with much to debate.
Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast cohosts John Ridley and Matt Carey analyze the shortlist that advanced films from Oscar winners Davis Guggenheim and Roger Ross Williams, and Oscar nominees Matthew Heineman, Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. The shortlist brought recognition to filmmakers from Tunisia, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Chile, Uganda, Canada, and the U.S., further evidence of the way international members of the Oscar Documentary Branch have become definitive in determining the nonfiction films that continue in the race for nominations.
Snubs and surprises abounded in the shortlist. The new episode of Doc Talk explores why legends like Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman missed the cut.
Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast cohosts John Ridley and Matt Carey analyze the shortlist that advanced films from Oscar winners Davis Guggenheim and Roger Ross Williams, and Oscar nominees Matthew Heineman, Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. The shortlist brought recognition to filmmakers from Tunisia, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Chile, Uganda, Canada, and the U.S., further evidence of the way international members of the Oscar Documentary Branch have become definitive in determining the nonfiction films that continue in the race for nominations.
Snubs and surprises abounded in the shortlist. The new episode of Doc Talk explores why legends like Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman missed the cut.
- 1/2/2024
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
As we continue to explore the best in 2023, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage as well as a glimpse into 2024.
Most-Read Reviews
1. Body Parts
2. The Exorcist: Believer
3. Barbie
4. Beau Is Afraid
5. Priscilla
6. Suzume
7. Hypnotic
8. No Hard Feelings
9. The Zone of Interest
10. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Most-Read Interviews
1. Claire Simon on Capturing the Female Body and What Sets Her Apart From Frederick Wiseman
2. “I Don’t Think Directors Should Be Amenable”: Erik Messerschmidt on Shooting The Killer and David Fincher’s Simple Process
3. Richard Kelly on Creative Heartbreak, Political Cinema, and Future Projects
4. Christopher Blauvelt on May December, Formatting for Netflix and 35mm, and Life Lessons from Harris Savides
5. Brandon Cronenberg on Infinity Pool,...
Most-Read Reviews
1. Body Parts
2. The Exorcist: Believer
3. Barbie
4. Beau Is Afraid
5. Priscilla
6. Suzume
7. Hypnotic
8. No Hard Feelings
9. The Zone of Interest
10. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Most-Read Interviews
1. Claire Simon on Capturing the Female Body and What Sets Her Apart From Frederick Wiseman
2. “I Don’t Think Directors Should Be Amenable”: Erik Messerschmidt on Shooting The Killer and David Fincher’s Simple Process
3. Richard Kelly on Creative Heartbreak, Political Cinema, and Future Projects
4. Christopher Blauvelt on May December, Formatting for Netflix and 35mm, and Life Lessons from Harris Savides
5. Brandon Cronenberg on Infinity Pool,...
- 1/1/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
The greatest year in cinema since the monumental offerings of 2007––a transformative year that set the seeds for this very site to come into existence––2023 offered a resounding affirmative that indeed the medium is alive and well: auteurs flexing what they do best, newcomers providing a hopeful voice for the future of filmmaking, along with a plethora of worthwhile offers. Along with my personal favorites when it came to U.S. releases, two films also premiered that would’ve topped this list had they come out in 2023: Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast and Víctor Erice’s still-shockingly-undistributed Close Your Eyes.
While they didn’t make the top 15 cut below, I must make mention for the most essential, one-and-done viewing of the year with De Humani Corporis...
The greatest year in cinema since the monumental offerings of 2007––a transformative year that set the seeds for this very site to come into existence––2023 offered a resounding affirmative that indeed the medium is alive and well: auteurs flexing what they do best, newcomers providing a hopeful voice for the future of filmmaking, along with a plethora of worthwhile offers. Along with my personal favorites when it came to U.S. releases, two films also premiered that would’ve topped this list had they come out in 2023: Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast and Víctor Erice’s still-shockingly-undistributed Close Your Eyes.
While they didn’t make the top 15 cut below, I must make mention for the most essential, one-and-done viewing of the year with De Humani Corporis...
- 12/25/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Updated 12/22/2023 with details on shortlisted A Still Small Voice. Updated with quotes, 1:37 Pm: American Symphony, the Obamas-executive produced documentary about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, scored a remarkable hat trick today as the Oscar shortlists were revealed, but a couple of documentary icons were left on the bench.
In more headlines from the announcement, a beloved documentary filmmaker who died unexpectedly in August earned a place on the nonfiction feature shortlist. And the film about cherished actor Michael J. Fox, directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, made the list. Two films earned double recognition – making shortlists for doc feature and International Feature Film. [See full shortlists for doc feature and doc short below].
Suleika Jouad and Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
The most eye-popping takeaway is the recognition for American Symphony, the Netflix film directed by Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman and produced by Higher Ground, the production company of former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. It made the...
In more headlines from the announcement, a beloved documentary filmmaker who died unexpectedly in August earned a place on the nonfiction feature shortlist. And the film about cherished actor Michael J. Fox, directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, made the list. Two films earned double recognition – making shortlists for doc feature and International Feature Film. [See full shortlists for doc feature and doc short below].
Suleika Jouad and Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
The most eye-popping takeaway is the recognition for American Symphony, the Netflix film directed by Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman and produced by Higher Ground, the production company of former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. It made the...
- 12/21/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSBreak no.1 & Break no.2..The lineups for select sections of the 2024 editions of the Berlinale and International Film Festival Rotterdam have been unveiled, with films from Panorama, Forum, Forum Expanded, Generation, and Berlinale Special announced for the former, and the Tiger and Big Screen competitions at the latter. In Berlin, so far, we are excited by the prospect of new films by Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) and Jérémy Clapin (I Lost My Body), whereas in Rotterdam, we have our eye on new work by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and Lei Lei. As the year comes to a close, the Best of 2023 lists keep coming. Sight & Sound shared the seventh edition of their always-interesting poll of the best video essays of the year,...
- 12/20/2023
- MUBI
2023 had its fair share of memorable scores and music. Any year with new work from Joe Hisaishi and Mica Levi is going to be one for the books, but the last 12 months also gave us Robbie Robertson’s swan song and a Dev Hynes/Paul Schrader collaboration. In terms of performance, Bradley Cooper conducting the London Philharmonic was irresistible, but no more so than Talia Ryder’s opening number in The Sweet East or the hero of Fallen Leaves experiencing his moment of clarity while listening to a Swedish synth group. Maybe the best musical performance I saw in a movie this year comes at the beginning of Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant, a documentary about a psychiatric care center that sits on the river Seine and provides a port for inner storms. The singer’s name is François, an angular, middle-aged man who growls a raw rendition of...
- 12/20/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The Oscars shortlist voting period has closed as of 5:00 p.m. Pt.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the finalists in 10 categories — documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (15), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), sound (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (15), live action short film (15), and visual effects (10) — on Thursday, Dec. 21.
We expect to see multiple best picture contenders in various races, including Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s historical biopic “Oppenheimer.” When it comes to “Barbie,” we are forecasting six mentions for the movie, including three of its songs — “Dance the Night,” “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For,” which feels like it sealed the deal with Billie Eilish’s moving musical performance on this week’s “Saturday Night Live.”
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
Varying mediums and genres could find representation throughout the lists.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the finalists in 10 categories — documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (15), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), sound (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (15), live action short film (15), and visual effects (10) — on Thursday, Dec. 21.
We expect to see multiple best picture contenders in various races, including Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s historical biopic “Oppenheimer.” When it comes to “Barbie,” we are forecasting six mentions for the movie, including three of its songs — “Dance the Night,” “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For,” which feels like it sealed the deal with Billie Eilish’s moving musical performance on this week’s “Saturday Night Live.”
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
Varying mediums and genres could find representation throughout the lists.
- 12/19/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
As various critics groups and awards bodies dole out their top films of the year, it can be hard to parse which ones are actually worth paying attention to. Following our top 50 films of 2023, one such list has arrived today with Film Comment’s annual end-of-year survey. Revealed at a special live talk last night, Todd Haynes’s May December, Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon grabbed the top three spots, while Eduardo Williams’s The Human Surge 3, Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, and Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes topped the best undistributed films.
“It speaks to the ongoing vitality of cinema as an art form, as well as the discernment of our critics in the year of ‘Barbenheimer,’ that this year’s top films represent some of the most boundary-pushing, complex movies of recent times—three new classics from contemporary masters,...
“It speaks to the ongoing vitality of cinema as an art form, as well as the discernment of our critics in the year of ‘Barbenheimer,’ that this year’s top films represent some of the most boundary-pushing, complex movies of recent times—three new classics from contemporary masters,...
- 12/15/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The table is set for Oscar shortlist voting to begin on Thursday. In the documentary feature category, Academy Doc Branch members will be choosing from a buffet of 167 films, among them Frederick Wiseman’s Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros.
The filmmaking legend’s latest documentary reveals in his characteristically meticulous style the workings of several restaurants in rural France owned and operated by the Troisgros family for going on a hundred years. Their signature establishment, Le Bois Sans Feuilles, is acclaimed as one of the finest restaurants in the world, with the Michelin stars (three of them) to prove it.
Carrying on the culinary tradition is chef Michel Troisgros and sons César and Léo (Michel’s wife Marie-Pierre runs a family-owned hotel). Wiseman, who turns 94 in a few weeks, lives for much of the year in Paris, and traveled to the area of Ouches outside Lyon to document the Troisgros’ and the...
The filmmaking legend’s latest documentary reveals in his characteristically meticulous style the workings of several restaurants in rural France owned and operated by the Troisgros family for going on a hundred years. Their signature establishment, Le Bois Sans Feuilles, is acclaimed as one of the finest restaurants in the world, with the Michelin stars (three of them) to prove it.
Carrying on the culinary tradition is chef Michel Troisgros and sons César and Léo (Michel’s wife Marie-Pierre runs a family-owned hotel). Wiseman, who turns 94 in a few weeks, lives for much of the year in Paris, and traveled to the area of Ouches outside Lyon to document the Troisgros’ and the...
- 12/13/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
“You can observe a lot by watching.”
Although attributed to the late Major League Baseball Hall of Famer/wit/pitchman Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, one could imagine Albert Maysles, Frederick Wiseman or other legends of the observational/vérité strand of documentary positing this as a driving theme of a keynote address. Such is the understated prowess of this often misunderstood cultural icon, whose considerable achievements both on and off the field warrant a worthy documentary profile.
Enter filmmaker Sean Mullin, whose canon has consisted primarily of fiction features. Back in 2018, his producer, Peter Soboloff, was impressed with Rbg, about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, about television icon Fred Rogers, and he suggested that Mullin consider Yogi Berra as a protagonist. Soboloff then introduced Mullin to the Berra family.
Yogi Berra
“I’d done my research by the time I met with them,” says Mullin,...
Although attributed to the late Major League Baseball Hall of Famer/wit/pitchman Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, one could imagine Albert Maysles, Frederick Wiseman or other legends of the observational/vérité strand of documentary positing this as a driving theme of a keynote address. Such is the understated prowess of this often misunderstood cultural icon, whose considerable achievements both on and off the field warrant a worthy documentary profile.
Enter filmmaker Sean Mullin, whose canon has consisted primarily of fiction features. Back in 2018, his producer, Peter Soboloff, was impressed with Rbg, about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, about television icon Fred Rogers, and he suggested that Mullin consider Yogi Berra as a protagonist. Soboloff then introduced Mullin to the Berra family.
Yogi Berra
“I’d done my research by the time I met with them,” says Mullin,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Tom White
- Deadline Film + TV
Andrew Haigh wins best screenplay for ’All Of Us Strangers’
A wide open awards season saw the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) award The Zone Of Interest best film and Jonathan Glazer best director, while Sandra Huller, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph dominated the gender-neutral acting categories.
The Lafca best film picks are a strong bellwether of Oscar best picture nominations, with only five winners since 2000 missing out on a nod. Last year’s winner for example, Everything Everywhere All At Once, went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
Anatomy Of A Fall...
A wide open awards season saw the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) award The Zone Of Interest best film and Jonathan Glazer best director, while Sandra Huller, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph dominated the gender-neutral acting categories.
The Lafca best film picks are a strong bellwether of Oscar best picture nominations, with only five winners since 2000 missing out on a nod. Last year’s winner for example, Everything Everywhere All At Once, went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
Anatomy Of A Fall...
- 12/10/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Going deep inside the human body, rethinking a Thelonious Monk interview, solitary island life, capturing one of the finest restaurants in the world, exploring the trans experience, and examining how we listen to movies—just a few of the subjects and stories this year’s documentaries brought us. With 2023 wrapping up, we’ve selected the non-fiction features that left us most impressed. If you’re looking for where to stream them, check out our handy guide here.
32 Sounds (Sam Green)
Filmmaker Sam Green captures something so specific here: he makes audio the star of a motion picture. It’s a lovely inclination and a worthwhile escapade. There are funny moments, clever moments, plenty that are heartfelt. Sound can do so many different things! This is an exceedingly well-produced work, its perfect length and the audible narrative it designs building succinctly to a lovely finale. Toss on those headphones and get...
32 Sounds (Sam Green)
Filmmaker Sam Green captures something so specific here: he makes audio the star of a motion picture. It’s a lovely inclination and a worthwhile escapade. There are funny moments, clever moments, plenty that are heartfelt. Sound can do so many different things! This is an exceedingly well-produced work, its perfect length and the audible narrative it designs building succinctly to a lovely finale. Toss on those headphones and get...
- 12/4/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Scorsese’s crime epic, Oppenheimer, May December win two awards each.
New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has announced its winners and named Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon best film and Christopher Nolan best director for Oppenheimer.
Both films earned two awards on Thursday as Lily Gladstone was named best actress for Killers Of The Flower Moon and Hoyte van Hoytema triumphed for cinematography on Oppenheimer.
NYFCC announced its winners via X (formerly Twitter) and is the first major critics group to unveil its selections. It is, however, not a particularly reliable bellwether of the Oscar winner...
New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has announced its winners and named Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon best film and Christopher Nolan best director for Oppenheimer.
Both films earned two awards on Thursday as Lily Gladstone was named best actress for Killers Of The Flower Moon and Hoyte van Hoytema triumphed for cinematography on Oppenheimer.
NYFCC announced its winners via X (formerly Twitter) and is the first major critics group to unveil its selections. It is, however, not a particularly reliable bellwether of the Oscar winner...
- 11/30/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Voting for the 89th New York Film Critics Circle Awards has ended and the awards have been announced. The NYFCC winners list is one of the most anticipated in the awards season leading up to the Oscars, partly due to it being the first major critics group to issue awards each year, partly due to the exceptional caliber of its members (among whom IndieWire’s Kate Erbland and David Ehrlich are counted) and partly due to their inclination to embrace true cinephilia rather than awards season narratives. Check out the full winners list below.
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer,” and “May December” were the only films to win two awards each. “Flower Moon” won the top prize, Best Film, along with Best Actress for Lily Gladstone. Christopher Nolan won Best Director for “Oppenheimer,” which also took Best Cinematography for Hoyte van Hoytema. The two films, from Apple and Universal respectively,...
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer,” and “May December” were the only films to win two awards each. “Flower Moon” won the top prize, Best Film, along with Best Actress for Lily Gladstone. Christopher Nolan won Best Director for “Oppenheimer,” which also took Best Cinematography for Hoyte van Hoytema. The two films, from Apple and Universal respectively,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Updated with complete list of winners: The New York Film Critics Circle on Thursday voted Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon as its Best Film of 2023.
The oldest critics group in the U.S. gave the Apple Original Films pic two wins in voting today, also bestowing Best Actress to Lily Gladstone. Franz Rogowski was named Best Actor for Ira Sachs’ Passages.
Christopher Nolan won Best Director for Oppenheimer.
Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the tragic true story of the killings of dozens of Osage Nation people in 1920s Oklahoma in an attempt to steal their wealth derived from oil and gas on their land. Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who was married to white settler Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio). Robert De Niro also stars in the script written by Eric Roth based on David Grann’s bestseller.
Last year, the NYFCC’s membership of newspaper,...
The oldest critics group in the U.S. gave the Apple Original Films pic two wins in voting today, also bestowing Best Actress to Lily Gladstone. Franz Rogowski was named Best Actor for Ira Sachs’ Passages.
Christopher Nolan won Best Director for Oppenheimer.
Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the tragic true story of the killings of dozens of Osage Nation people in 1920s Oklahoma in an attempt to steal their wealth derived from oil and gas on their land. Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who was married to white settler Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio). Robert De Niro also stars in the script written by Eric Roth based on David Grann’s bestseller.
Last year, the NYFCC’s membership of newspaper,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
The New York Film Critics Circle has significantly boosted the Oscar prospects for Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” by anointing the Western epic best film and naming Lily Gladstone best actress.
The film, distributed by Apple Original Films in partnership with Paramount Pictures (overseeing theatrical distribution), marks the streaming service’s inaugural win from the NYFCC.
NYFCC’s winner for best film has typically had a strong correlation with the Academy Awards’ best picture prize. Since the expansion to 10 nominees in 2009, only “Carol” (2015) and “First Cow” (2020) have missed out on a best picture nom. The latter was the first film in the organization’s long history to fail to garner a single Oscar nom. Since 1935, NYFCC and the Academy have matched 43% of the time.
Scorsese claimed his third top prize from the NYFCC, following “Goodfellas” (1990) and “The Irishman” (2019). His achievement places him among a select few directors...
The film, distributed by Apple Original Films in partnership with Paramount Pictures (overseeing theatrical distribution), marks the streaming service’s inaugural win from the NYFCC.
NYFCC’s winner for best film has typically had a strong correlation with the Academy Awards’ best picture prize. Since the expansion to 10 nominees in 2009, only “Carol” (2015) and “First Cow” (2020) have missed out on a best picture nom. The latter was the first film in the organization’s long history to fail to garner a single Oscar nom. Since 1935, NYFCC and the Academy have matched 43% of the time.
Scorsese claimed his third top prize from the NYFCC, following “Goodfellas” (1990) and “The Irishman” (2019). His achievement places him among a select few directors...
- 11/30/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
In hindsight, it shouldn’t be surprising that the cinema of 2023 was so preoccupied with the unknown, as the first proper year after the start of the pandemic was always going to find the movie industry plunging into a brave new world.
Some of the most pressing questions we had at the start of January were answered with resounding force. Would the studios — some of which had fatally diluted their brands with streaming options in a desperate bid to appease the stock market — find that once-reliable franchises had lust their luster? Yes. Would audiences — so eager for a different breed of “event film” that they had already started to redefine the term themselves — actually follow through on the “Barbenheimer” meme that first spread across social media in late 2022? Yes. Would titans like Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and Wes Anderson make good on the breathless chatter that surrounded their latest projects...
Some of the most pressing questions we had at the start of January were answered with resounding force. Would the studios — some of which had fatally diluted their brands with streaming options in a desperate bid to appease the stock market — find that once-reliable franchises had lust their luster? Yes. Would audiences — so eager for a different breed of “event film” that they had already started to redefine the term themselves — actually follow through on the “Barbenheimer” meme that first spread across social media in late 2022? Yes. Would titans like Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and Wes Anderson make good on the breathless chatter that surrounded their latest projects...
- 11/28/2023
- by David Ehrlich and Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Anticipation Builds for Wiseman’s New Documentary Frederick Wiseman, a titan in the realm of documentary filmmaking, is set to grace the screens with his latest work. Known for his incisive and thought-provoking explorations of institutions and everyday life, the anticipation for his upcoming release is palpable among documentary enthusiasts and cinephiles alike. Mark Your Calendars for the Documentary Release The wait for Frederick Wiseman’s newest masterpiece is almost over. Wiseman’s latest documentary, City Hall, will premiere on PBS on December 22. This release promises to offer viewers another immersive experience into the intricate workings of urban governance, with a special...
- 11/23/2023
- by Steve Delikson
- TVovermind.com
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has filmed a lot of things — dismissive budget negotiations among Uc Berkeley administrators, dead end conversations inside a New York welfare center, a live capuchin monkey being decapitated by scientists. But before he saw any of that, the Boston native saw Bill Russell win the NBA Finals.
“I shared season tickets to the Celtics with a friend, so every other game I went and the others I watched on the telly. As the expression goes, I go way back with the Celtics,” Wiseman tells Variety over the phone. “I happened to be at the game where Russell scored with five seconds left that gave them the championship. And I used to take my sons to the game.”
In previous interviews, the 93-year-old filmmaker has expressed that he doesn’t watch much TV beyond basketball and tennis. Now spending his golden years in France, he confesses that...
“I shared season tickets to the Celtics with a friend, so every other game I went and the others I watched on the telly. As the expression goes, I go way back with the Celtics,” Wiseman tells Variety over the phone. “I happened to be at the game where Russell scored with five seconds left that gave them the championship. And I used to take my sons to the game.”
In previous interviews, the 93-year-old filmmaker has expressed that he doesn’t watch much TV beyond basketball and tennis. Now spending his golden years in France, he confesses that...
- 11/22/2023
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
Veteran director Frederick Wiseman, aged 93 and renowned for his distinct fly-on-the-wall documentary style, turns his lens to the Troisgros family restaurant in his latest work. This French culinary landmark has maintained its prestigious three Michelin stars for over five decades. Known for his immersive approach in direct cinema, Wiseman's Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros marks his 50th documentary, presenting four hours of meticulous observation within the realm of haute cuisine. Wiseman's half-century career is reflected in this film's detailed portrayal of the renowned establishment's daily operations The Troisgros family, embodying the essence of French cuisine, has navigated the evolving culinary landscape with a blend of innovation and respect for tradition. Frederick Wiseman's documentary captures the present-day stewardship by César Troisgros while hinting at the dynasty's...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 11/22/2023
- Screen Anarchy
Haute cuisine as a form of artistic creation—one both time-intensive in its preparation and ephemeral in its shelf-life—and how to keep such a tradition alive is at the center of Frederick Wiseman’s Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros. Whittled down from 150 hours of footage, the four-hour documentary takes on a leisurely pace matching both the unhurried unfolding of the dining experience at the titular restaurant and the elaborate process of crafting a meal. Beyond showing us the preparation of the food and every conceivable method of cookery, Wiseman brings us the source of it, too, following the Troisgois chefs as they visit […]
The post “I Have Never Seen Any Restaurant Movies”: Frederick Wiseman on Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Have Never Seen Any Restaurant Movies”: Frederick Wiseman on Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 11/22/2023
- by Elissa Suh
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Haute cuisine as a form of artistic creation—one both time-intensive in its preparation and ephemeral in its shelf-life—and how to keep such a tradition alive is at the center of Frederick Wiseman’s Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros. Whittled down from 150 hours of footage, the four-hour documentary takes on a leisurely pace matching both the unhurried unfolding of the dining experience at the titular restaurant and the elaborate process of crafting a meal. Beyond showing us the preparation of the food and every conceivable method of cookery, Wiseman brings us the source of it, too, following the Troisgois chefs as they visit […]
The post “I Have Never Seen Any Restaurant Movies”: Frederick Wiseman on Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Have Never Seen Any Restaurant Movies”: Frederick Wiseman on Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 11/22/2023
- by Elissa Suh
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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