’No Me Llame Ternera’ features interview with a former leader of the Basque terrorist group Eta.
The San Sebastian Film Festival has rejected public calls for it to withdraw a Netflix documentary from its line-up that features an exclusive interview with a former leader of Basque terrorist group Eta.
Directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez, No Me Llame Ternera is set to open the festival’s Made in Spain section on September 22.
The documentary explores some of Eta’s decisive moments until it disbanded in 2018, and has an interview between Évole and Josu Urrutikoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera,...
The San Sebastian Film Festival has rejected public calls for it to withdraw a Netflix documentary from its line-up that features an exclusive interview with a former leader of Basque terrorist group Eta.
Directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez, No Me Llame Ternera is set to open the festival’s Made in Spain section on September 22.
The documentary explores some of Eta’s decisive moments until it disbanded in 2018, and has an interview between Évole and Josu Urrutikoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera,...
- 9/13/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
BBC Storyville commissioning editor Philippa Kowarsky is departing the corporation to pursue other ventures. Director of BBC Film Eva Yates will be the interim commissioning contact for BBC Storyville until a replacement for Kowarsky is found.
In a notice to BBC staff, seen by Variety, Yates wrote: “I’m writing to let you know that Philippa Kowarsky will be leaving the team to pursue other ventures outside of the BBC. I would like to personally thank Philippa for her contribution to the success of Storyville over the past year, during which time she has built a rich and varied slate of films. I wish her all the best for her future plans.”
“We will update you soon on next steps for Storyville. In the interim, please come to me with any issues or commissioning decisions that may arise,” Yates added.
As director of BBC Film, Yates already had oversight of Storyville.
In a notice to BBC staff, seen by Variety, Yates wrote: “I’m writing to let you know that Philippa Kowarsky will be leaving the team to pursue other ventures outside of the BBC. I would like to personally thank Philippa for her contribution to the success of Storyville over the past year, during which time she has built a rich and varied slate of films. I wish her all the best for her future plans.”
“We will update you soon on next steps for Storyville. In the interim, please come to me with any issues or commissioning decisions that may arise,” Yates added.
As director of BBC Film, Yates already had oversight of Storyville.
- 8/4/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Philippa Kowarsky, executive producer of 2021 Sundance winner “Flee,” has been appointed commissioning editor of prestigious documentary brand BBC Storyville.
Kowarsky’s focus will be identifying and co-producing outstanding original documentary feature films from around the world. She will report to Rose Garnett, director of BBC Film.
Kowarsky joins the BBC from Cinephil, the international sales and advisory firm which she founded in 1997 and where she is currently MD. At Cinephil she represented and oversaw a diverse slate of films including Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn’s BAFTA winning “The Act of Killing” and Alexander Nanau’s Academy and BAFTA and Oscar nominated “Collective.”
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s, “Flee,” which Kowarsky executive produced, won the grand jury prize in the world cinema documentary section at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was in the official selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. Kowarsky’s credits also include Dror Moreh’s Oscar nominated “The Gatekeepers...
Kowarsky’s focus will be identifying and co-producing outstanding original documentary feature films from around the world. She will report to Rose Garnett, director of BBC Film.
Kowarsky joins the BBC from Cinephil, the international sales and advisory firm which she founded in 1997 and where she is currently MD. At Cinephil she represented and oversaw a diverse slate of films including Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn’s BAFTA winning “The Act of Killing” and Alexander Nanau’s Academy and BAFTA and Oscar nominated “Collective.”
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s, “Flee,” which Kowarsky executive produced, won the grand jury prize in the world cinema documentary section at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was in the official selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. Kowarsky’s credits also include Dror Moreh’s Oscar nominated “The Gatekeepers...
- 8/12/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Film Fest Košice loves Asian Movies. They have a whole section dedicated to them, called Eastern Promises, and curated by Kristina Aschenbrennerova (also a contributor of Asian Movie Pulse).
But beside Eastern Promises they also have always a good selection of Asian Titles within the general Programme. Let’s have a look at those titles.
Asian Films in The Programme
International Competition Of Feature Films (Peter Nágel)
(1st-3rd feature films of the director produced after 1 January 2018)
Still Human by Oliver Chan, 2018, Hk
The Day After I`m Gone, by Nimrod Eldar, 2019, Il
A Tale of Three Sisters, by Emin Alper, 2019, Tr-de-nl-gr
A Tale of Three Sisters
International Competition Of Short Films
(Short films (up to 30 minutes) produced after 1 January 201)
Brotherhood by Meryam Joobeur, 2018, CA-tn-qa-se
The Fox by Sadegh Javadi Nikjeh, 2018, Ir
Tungrus by Rishi Chandna, 2018, In
Tungrus
Around The World (Peter Nágel)
Bag of Rice by Kiseye Berendj, 1996, Ir-jp...
But beside Eastern Promises they also have always a good selection of Asian Titles within the general Programme. Let’s have a look at those titles.
Asian Films in The Programme
International Competition Of Feature Films (Peter Nágel)
(1st-3rd feature films of the director produced after 1 January 2018)
Still Human by Oliver Chan, 2018, Hk
The Day After I`m Gone, by Nimrod Eldar, 2019, Il
A Tale of Three Sisters, by Emin Alper, 2019, Tr-de-nl-gr
A Tale of Three Sisters
International Competition Of Short Films
(Short films (up to 30 minutes) produced after 1 January 201)
Brotherhood by Meryam Joobeur, 2018, CA-tn-qa-se
The Fox by Sadegh Javadi Nikjeh, 2018, Ir
Tungrus by Rishi Chandna, 2018, In
Tungrus
Around The World (Peter Nágel)
Bag of Rice by Kiseye Berendj, 1996, Ir-jp...
- 6/5/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
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50 fabulous documentary films, covering hard politics through to music, money and films that never were...
Thanks to streaming services such as Netflix, we’ve never had better access to documentaries. A whole new audience can discover that these real life stories are just as thrilling, entertaining, and incredible as the latest big-budget blockbuster. What’s more, they’re all true too. But with a new found glut of them comes the ever more impossible choice, what’s worth your time? Below is my pick of the 50 best modern feature length documentaries.
I’ve defined modern as being from 2000 onwards, which means some of the greatest documentaries ever made will not feature here. I’m looking at you Hoop Dreams.
50. McConkey (2013)
d. Rob Bruce, Scott Gaffney, Murray Wais, Steve Winter, David Zieff
Shane McConkey was an extreme skier and Base jumper who lived life on the edge, and very much to the full.
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50 fabulous documentary films, covering hard politics through to music, money and films that never were...
Thanks to streaming services such as Netflix, we’ve never had better access to documentaries. A whole new audience can discover that these real life stories are just as thrilling, entertaining, and incredible as the latest big-budget blockbuster. What’s more, they’re all true too. But with a new found glut of them comes the ever more impossible choice, what’s worth your time? Below is my pick of the 50 best modern feature length documentaries.
I’ve defined modern as being from 2000 onwards, which means some of the greatest documentaries ever made will not feature here. I’m looking at you Hoop Dreams.
50. McConkey (2013)
d. Rob Bruce, Scott Gaffney, Murray Wais, Steve Winter, David Zieff
Shane McConkey was an extreme skier and Base jumper who lived life on the edge, and very much to the full.
- 11/12/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
[Editor's Note: This post is presented in partnership with Movies On Demand. Catch up on this year’s Awards Season contenders and past winners On Demand. Today's selection is "The Act of Killing." This article originally ran during last year's awards race following the film's Oscar nomination for Best Documentary.] "The Act of Killing" is a polarizing film — one that rattles you to your core and gives rise to your worst fears. We see killers take joy in their work. It’s a close-up view of evil like you've never seen it before. Unsurprisingly, there are audiences who are angry with Joshua Oppenheimer (and presumably with his co-directors, Christine Cynn and another who had to remain anonymous) for giving license to this uncomfortable truth, as if it’s a celebration of the worst of humanity.But "The Act of Killing" is an act of hope. On the simplest level, it brings attention to the forgotten as the best documentaries do: While it might be sad but...
- 1/29/2015
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
Projects range from a film about centenarians to documentaries about renowned hunger striker Bobby Sands, Winnie Mandela, Ratko Mladic and Madonna’s backing dancers.Scroll down for full list of projects
Idfa (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) has unveiled the 50 titles that will be presented at its international co-finance and production market, the Idfa Forum (Nov 24-26).
At the market, filmmakers and producers will present their documentary projects to commissioning editors from international television stations and other financiers with the aim of completing finance for their documentary projects.
A total of 50 projects have been selected for the upcoming Idfa Forum, including new projects by Heddy Honigmann, Janus Metz and Vitaly Mansky.
The Idfa 2014 programme contains 17 documentaries that were presented as projects at previous editions of the Idfa Forum.
Projects selected for this year’s Idfa Forum will be pitched in a variety of settings: the central pitches in the main auditorium of the Compagnietheater, the round table...
Idfa (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) has unveiled the 50 titles that will be presented at its international co-finance and production market, the Idfa Forum (Nov 24-26).
At the market, filmmakers and producers will present their documentary projects to commissioning editors from international television stations and other financiers with the aim of completing finance for their documentary projects.
A total of 50 projects have been selected for the upcoming Idfa Forum, including new projects by Heddy Honigmann, Janus Metz and Vitaly Mansky.
The Idfa 2014 programme contains 17 documentaries that were presented as projects at previous editions of the Idfa Forum.
Projects selected for this year’s Idfa Forum will be pitched in a variety of settings: the central pitches in the main auditorium of the Compagnietheater, the round table...
- 10/14/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
My neighbors were children when Hitler ruled Germany, gifted innocence by virtue of being born late enough but damned to the fallout of a divided country by being born too early. Every time we talk about the war, Oma signals that she’s done reliving the past by saying, “There are bad men in every country, there are good men in every country.” When she first said it, I thought it was a defense mechanism. A reminder for herself and for us as outsiders that they recognize a pitch dark evil that now goes greatly unspoken. When she repeated the mantra in subsequent conversations, I realized that it’s the required coda that recognizes the real lesson of the Holocaust: it isn’t only Germany that has the capacity for large-scale terror, it’s every society in the world. There’s a woman in Anonymous and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence that looks remarkably like...
- 9/21/2014
- by Scott Beggs
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
As previously reported by my HitFix colleagues, 2014’s fall festivals represent something of a battle royale for various heavyweight Oscar hopefuls. The oldest fest in the big four, venerable Venice, is up against younger North American counterparts Toronto, Telluride and New York in the perennial fight to deliver a truly memorable Competition. Which films will be left standing once the critics have had their way with them? Contenders hoping to emerge victorious from La Biennale’s royal rumble include Alejandro González Iñárritu’s opening nighter "Birdman" starring Michael Keaton, David Gordon Green’s Al Pacino vehicle "Manglehorn" and Andrew Garfield vs Michael Shannon in Ramin Bahrani’s real estate showdown "99 Homes." As far as awards season goes, for me the big hitter to beat from Cannes is "Foxcatcher," an extraordinary and illuminating piece of filmmaking from Bennett Miller, a director I’ve not been personally persuaded by before now. In the documentary category,...
- 8/21/2014
- by Catherine Bray
- Hitfix
As reported over at The Dissolve, highly respected British film magazine Sight & Sound is famous for its list of the greatest films off all time released once every decade. Since 1952, Citizen Kane held the number one spot until Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo dethroned it in the 2012 poll. Now for the first time Sight & Sound has released a list of the 50 greatest documentary films of all time. The list was compiled after polling from over 200 critics and curators and 100 filmmakers, including “John Akomfrah, Michael Apted, Clio Barnard, James Benning, Sophie Fiennes, Amos Gitai, Paul Greengrass, Jose Guerin, Isaac Julien, Asif Kapadia, Sergei Loznitsa, Kevin Macdonald, James Marsh, Joshua Oppenheimer, Anand Patwardhan, Pawel Pawlikowski, Nicolas Philibert, Walter Salles, and James Toback”.
The top 10 are:
Man With A Movie Camera, (Dziga Vertov, 1929) Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985) Sans Soleil, (Chris Marker, 1982) Night And Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955) The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1989) Chronicle Of A Summer (Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin,...
The top 10 are:
Man With A Movie Camera, (Dziga Vertov, 1929) Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985) Sans Soleil, (Chris Marker, 1982) Night And Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955) The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1989) Chronicle Of A Summer (Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin,...
- 8/1/2014
- by Max Molinaro
- SoundOnSight
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave pulled a five finger discount at the 2014 Indie Spirit Awards grabbing hardware in the Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography categories. Apart from the larceny in the Best Doc category, the winners in the above mention category (excluding Bobbitt’s work) and the double win pairing of Leto and McConaughey along with Cate Blanchett’s perf win in Blue Jasmine will likely repeat itself less than 24 hours later at tomorrow’s Academy Awards celebrations obviously begging many to ponder the following: who needs the 86th Academy Awards when we have the Indie Spirit Awards? While today’s most pleasurable wins come from the truly indie kudos for Best First Feature (Ryan Coogler for Frutivale Station) the John Cassavetes award for Chad Hartigan’s This is Martin Bonner, and the Piaget Producers Award to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints...
- 3/2/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Like a press conference with more fans than journalists, Reddit AMAs have provided many an interesting fact from entertainers in all fields. That was most certainly the case with Oscar-winning documentary director Errol Morris (The Fog of War), who was mostly answering question in promotion for Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn.s powerful Best Documentary nominee The Act of Killing, for which Morris served as executive producer with Werner Herzog. In talking about his upcoming narrative debut Holland, Michigan, Morris shared that Breaking Bad.s Bryan Cranston and Wrath of the Titans.s Édgar Ramírez will take on the film.s two main roles. Now, a Reddit Ama (via TheWrap) is hardly the most concrete of news sources, and no confirmation from the actors has been made. But if you can.t trust the guy who gave us The Thin Blue Line, who can you trust? The actors would ...
- 2/25/2014
- cinemablend.com
Like a press conference with more fans than journalists, Reddit AMAs have provided many an interesting fact from entertainers in all fields. That was most certainly the case with Oscar-winning documentary director Errol Morris (The Fog of War), who was mostly answering question in promotion for Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn.s powerful Best Documentary nominee The Act of Killing, for which Morris served as executive producer with Werner Herzog. In talking about his upcoming narrative debut Holland, Michigan, Morris shared that Breaking Bad.s Bryan Cranston and Wrath of the Titans.s Édgar Ramírez will take on the film.s two main roles. Now, a Reddit Ama (via TheWrap) is hardly the most concrete of news sources, and no confirmation from the actors has been made. But if you can.t trust the guy who gave us The Thin Blue Line, who can you trust? The actors would ...
- 2/25/2014
- cinemablend.com
Oscar 2014 predictions: From ‘Gravity’ to ‘The Great Gatsby’ (photo: George Clooney in ‘Gravity’) See previous post: "Oscar 2014 Predictions: From ‘American Hustle’ to ‘The Hunt.’" Among those listed are Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, David O. Russell, Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Judi Dench, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Fassbender, Steve McQueen, Bruce Dern, June Squibb, James Gandolfini, Alfonso Cuarón, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, and Emma Thompson. Below is the follow up list to our last-minute Oscar 2014 predictions. All lists are in alphabetical order. The only categories that feature runners-up and long shots are the two screenplay categories. Curiously, several major movies and/or widely touted potential Oscar contenders have been completely shut out of our Oscar 2014 predictions (top five films). Among these are Zack Snyder-Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel; Lee Daniels-Forest Whitaker’s The Butler; Denis Villeneuve-...
- 1/16/2014
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Tim here. As Team Experience’s representative lover of The Act of Killing above all other movies in 2013 (if “love” is the right word for such an bleak portrait of humanity’s worst side), it naturally falls to me to trumpet the Good News that one of the year’s best-reviewed films that you probably haven’t had a chance to see yet is now on DVD and Blu-Ray. At just the right moment, too, in advance of the Oscar nomination that I’m honestly not expecting it to receive; the Documentary branch hasn’t been in the business of making me that happy, and it’s not fair to expect otherwise.
It’s not the kind of film that readily lends itself to breathless statements of the “you Have to see this!” sort. For it is, after all, a documentary about mass political killings, one of the unlikeliest subjects...
It’s not the kind of film that readily lends itself to breathless statements of the “you Have to see this!” sort. For it is, after all, a documentary about mass political killings, one of the unlikeliest subjects...
- 1/10/2014
- by Tim Brayton
- FilmExperience
Who? Kátia Lund, the co-director, alongside Fernando Meirelles, of “City of God” - the breakout Brazilian drama nominated for four Oscars in 2004. So why are you talking about it now? Because the controversial policy which saw Meirelles nominated for Best Director but Lund denied looks set to hit again next week. Christine Cynn, co-director of “The Act of Killing”, is likely to join Lund in failing to be Oscar-nominated while her fellow director Joshua Oppenheimer is tipped for a nod. I don’t get it. The Coen Brothers were nominated as co-directors. It’s a different scenario. The Coen Brother each receive a “director” credit, and are co-directors because there are two of them. But while Oppenheimer is also credited as director, Cynn’s credit is “co-director”. And that doesn’t qualify her for directing awards? It depends. If “The Act of Killing” does receive a nomination on Thursday, it...
- 1/9/2014
- by Matthew Hammett Knott
- Indiewire
’12 Years a Slave’: 2013 movie about slavery in the American South is Best Film of the year for some U.S. critics’ groups (photo: Chiwetel Ejiofor in ’12 Years a Slave’) Directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave remains one of the favorites — perhaps the favorite 2013 release — among U.S.-based critics’ groups. Below is the list of winners from four of those: the Austin Film Critics Association, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society. Their winners were announced within the last week or so. McQueen’s slavery drama was the top choice of three of the aforementioned groups. The one exception was the Austin Film Critics, who went for Spike Jonze’s Her, in which Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with a computer with Scarlett Johansson’s voice. In the acting categories, 12 Years a Slave‘s...
- 12/27/2013
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
The picks of the year, from Gravity – the first 3D must-see – to a harrowing documentary about Indonesia
Read the Observer critics' reviews of the year in full here
It was the year that someone finally made a movie which made me think that 3D might not be just a headache after all. After the adventurous experiments of Ang Lee's Life of Pi and Martin Scorsese's Hugo (both of which used the format inventively, but not essentially), Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity was a latterday space odyssey which demanded to be seen in its stereoscopic incarnation. Significant, too, that the dazzling visual effects were conjured here in the UK (London's Framestore working with live action footage shot at Shepperton and Pinewood), with British technicians and digital artists once again proving themselves the best in the world.
At the other end of the financial spectrum, the "British film industry", whatever that may be,...
Read the Observer critics' reviews of the year in full here
It was the year that someone finally made a movie which made me think that 3D might not be just a headache after all. After the adventurous experiments of Ang Lee's Life of Pi and Martin Scorsese's Hugo (both of which used the format inventively, but not essentially), Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity was a latterday space odyssey which demanded to be seen in its stereoscopic incarnation. Significant, too, that the dazzling visual effects were conjured here in the UK (London's Framestore working with live action footage shot at Shepperton and Pinewood), with British technicians and digital artists once again proving themselves the best in the world.
At the other end of the financial spectrum, the "British film industry", whatever that may be,...
- 12/22/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
San Francisco Film Critics Awards 2013: ’12 Years a Slave,’ Chiwetel Ejiofor win (photo: Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor in ’12 Years a Slave’) The 2013 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards were announced this past Sunday, December 15, at a gathering of 31 Bay Area film critics at the Variety Club Preview Room on Market Street. Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave was chosen as the Best Picture of 2013; additionally, the slavery drama earned John Ridley the Best Adapted Screenplay Award, while Chiwetel Ejiofor was voted Best Actor for his performance as free man Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped and forced into slave work at a Southern plantation in the 1850s. However, Gravity received the most awards from the San Francisco Film Critics: four in all, namely, Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón, Best Film Editing (Cuarón and Mark Sanger), Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), and Best Production Design (Andy Nicholson). Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney,...
- 12/18/2013
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Leonardo DiCaprio, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’: 2013 San Francisco Film Critics Awards nominations (photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’) There were few surprises among the nominations for the 2013 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards. First of all, the somewhat surprising absentees: Amy Adams and Christian Bale for American Hustle; Emma Thompson for Saving Mr. Banks; Julia Roberts for August: Osage County; Forest Whitaker for The Butler; Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips; Joaquin Phoenix for Her; Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis. Additionally, Spike Jonze’s Her is missing from the Best Picture roster, even though Jonze was nominated in both the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay categories. (See San Francisco Film Critics Awards 2013 Winners.) Now, among the surprising inclusions are Best Actress nominee Brie Larson for Destin Cretton’s Short Term 12 (Larson is turning out to be 2013′s Elizabeth Olsen — think Martha Marcy May Marlene...
- 12/15/2013
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Omar, set in the occupied West Bank, has won best film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs).Scroll down for full list of winners
David Gerson, who produced the film alongside Waleed F Zuaiter and writer/director Hany Abu-Assad, accepted the award at the ceremony at Brisbane’s City Hall in Australia.
Apsa organisers said Omar is the first feature to be fully funded by the film industry in Palestine.
The jury also decided to award two Jury Grand Prizes to the film Television from Bangladesh and to Ritesh Batra for his direction of The Lunchbox. Batra also won the top award for his screenplay for this film, set in Mumbai.
It was Anthony Chen who won the directing category with his debut film Ilo Ilo from Singapore, with special mentions given to Emir Baigazin for Harmony Lessons and Hiner Saleem for My Sweet Pepper Land.
Cultural worth is one of the judging criteria at the...
David Gerson, who produced the film alongside Waleed F Zuaiter and writer/director Hany Abu-Assad, accepted the award at the ceremony at Brisbane’s City Hall in Australia.
Apsa organisers said Omar is the first feature to be fully funded by the film industry in Palestine.
The jury also decided to award two Jury Grand Prizes to the film Television from Bangladesh and to Ritesh Batra for his direction of The Lunchbox. Batra also won the top award for his screenplay for this film, set in Mumbai.
It was Anthony Chen who won the directing category with his debut film Ilo Ilo from Singapore, with special mentions given to Emir Baigazin for Harmony Lessons and Hiner Saleem for My Sweet Pepper Land.
Cultural worth is one of the judging criteria at the...
- 12/12/2013
- by Sandy.George@me.com (Sandy George)
- ScreenDaily
Los Angeles Film Critics Awards winners 2013 (photo: Sandra Bullock in ‘Gravity’) The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca), which has been around since the early ’70s, announced earlier today, December 8, 2013, their list of 2013 winners and runners-up. Although there were a handful of offbeat choices, what’s most surprising is how mainstream were most of the Los Angeles Film Critics’ picks this year — Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity was the top film, with a total of four wins — and that there were no less than three ties, including one for Best Picture: Gravity and Spike Jonze’s Her. See below. (See also: Full list of Boston Society of Film Critics 2013 winners.) Best Picture (tie): Gravity and Her. Best Foreign-Language Film: Blue Is the Warmest Color, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. Runner-up: The Great Beauty, directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Best Documentary: Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah Polley Runner-up: The Act of Killing,...
- 12/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
12 Years a Slave tops Boston Film Critics Society 2013 Awards (photo: Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor in ’12 Years a Slave’) The Boston Society of Film Critics announced its 2013 winners earlier today. They were much quicker at it than their fellow critics on the West Coast; the Los Angeles Film Critics Association members have been debating their favorites for the past two hours and a half hours. In Boston, the film critics selected 12 Years a Slave as the top film of 2013. Steve McQueen’s slavery drama won awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays a free black man kidnapped and forced into slavery in a Southern plantation. 12 Years a Slave is the second movie in a row to be a major awards-season contender, following Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, which ultimately won Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz). Boston...
- 12/8/2013
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen Brothers’ sly fable of the artist’s life set in the ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene, was awarded the Best Feature prize at last night’s Ifp Gotham Awards, held at Cipriani Wall Street. The film was something of a surprise winner, with many predicting Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave to take the top prize. Also scoring at the Gothams was Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which won the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor for Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, respectively. The Best Documentary Award went to Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous’s The Act […]...
- 12/3/2013
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen Brothers’ sly fable of the artist’s life set in the ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene, was awarded the Best Feature prize at last night’s Ifp Gotham Awards, held at Cipriani Wall Street. The film was something of a surprise winner, with many predicting Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave to take the top prize. Also scoring at the Gothams was Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which won the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor for Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, respectively. The Best Documentary Award went to Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous’s The Act […]...
- 12/3/2013
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Film Independent announced nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards this morning.
Film Independent President Josh Welsh presided over the press conference held at the W Hollywood, with actresses Octavia Spencer and Paula Patton presenting the nominations.
Nominees for Best Feature included 12 Years a Slave, All Is Lost, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska.
Mud was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.
In its commitment to recognizing the importance of below the line contributions to the art of filmmaking, Film Independent has now introduced, for the first year, the Best Editing category in the Spirit Awards.
Winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 1, 2014. The awards ceremony will be held as a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, with the premiere broadcast airing later that evening...
Film Independent President Josh Welsh presided over the press conference held at the W Hollywood, with actresses Octavia Spencer and Paula Patton presenting the nominations.
Nominees for Best Feature included 12 Years a Slave, All Is Lost, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska.
Mud was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.
In its commitment to recognizing the importance of below the line contributions to the art of filmmaking, Film Independent has now introduced, for the first year, the Best Editing category in the Spirit Awards.
Winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 1, 2014. The awards ceremony will be held as a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, with the premiere broadcast airing later that evening...
- 11/26/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Adding to the awards show season buzz, the list of hopefuls for 2014 Film Independent’s Spirit Awards was just unveiled.
Hosted by Patton Oswalt, the much-anticipated event is slated to get underway on March 1st in Santa Monica, and there will be plenty of stars to be seen.
Bruce Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oscar Isaac, Michael B. Jordan, Matthew McConaughey, and Robert Redford will all compete in the Best Male Lead Category, while the Best Female Lead nominees are Cate Blanchett, Julie Delpy, Gaby Hoffman, Brie Larson, and Shailene Woodley.
The 29th Spirit Awards contenders are:
Best Feature
12 Years A Slave
All is Lost
Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Best Director
Shane Carruth, Upstream Color
J.C. Chandor, All Is Lost
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
Jeff Nichols, Mud
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
Best Female Lead
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson, Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley,...
Hosted by Patton Oswalt, the much-anticipated event is slated to get underway on March 1st in Santa Monica, and there will be plenty of stars to be seen.
Bruce Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oscar Isaac, Michael B. Jordan, Matthew McConaughey, and Robert Redford will all compete in the Best Male Lead Category, while the Best Female Lead nominees are Cate Blanchett, Julie Delpy, Gaby Hoffman, Brie Larson, and Shailene Woodley.
The 29th Spirit Awards contenders are:
Best Feature
12 Years A Slave
All is Lost
Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Best Director
Shane Carruth, Upstream Color
J.C. Chandor, All Is Lost
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
Jeff Nichols, Mud
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
Best Female Lead
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson, Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley,...
- 11/26/2013
- GossipCenter
Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" led the pack of the nominations for the 29th Annual Film Independent Spirit Award. The film received 7 nominations including best feature, director, and acting noms for Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, and Michael Fassbender.
Winners of the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, March 1st at a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica with the premiere broadcast airing later that evening at 10:00 pm Et/Pt exclusively on IFC.
Congrats and good luck to all the nominees!
Here's the complete list of the nominees of the 2014 Spirit Awards:
Best Feature (Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not awarded)
12 Years a Slave
Producers: Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad
All Is Lost
Producers: Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb
Frances Ha
Producers: Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Rodrigo Teixeira, Lila Yacoub...
Winners of the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, March 1st at a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica with the premiere broadcast airing later that evening at 10:00 pm Et/Pt exclusively on IFC.
Congrats and good luck to all the nominees!
Here's the complete list of the nominees of the 2014 Spirit Awards:
Best Feature (Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not awarded)
12 Years a Slave
Producers: Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad
All Is Lost
Producers: Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb
Frances Ha
Producers: Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Rodrigo Teixeira, Lila Yacoub...
- 11/26/2013
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave is in contention for seven Spirit Awards followed closely by Alexander Payne’s Nebraska on six as Film Independent top brass announced nominees on November 26.
McQueen earned a director nomination and will compete against Alexander Payne for Nebraska, Jc Chandor for All Is Lost, Jeff Nichols for Mud and Share Carruth for Upstream Color.
Not surprisingly given the strength and depth of this awards season, the categories are strong across the board.
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is among a mighty crop of international contenders that includes Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Sebastian Lelio’s Gloria, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt and A Touch Of Sin from China’s Jia Zhang-Ke.
12 Years A Slave’s Chiwetel Ejiofor will contest the lead actor race with veterans Bruce Dern for Nebraska and Robert Redford for All Is Lost, as well as...
McQueen earned a director nomination and will compete against Alexander Payne for Nebraska, Jc Chandor for All Is Lost, Jeff Nichols for Mud and Share Carruth for Upstream Color.
Not surprisingly given the strength and depth of this awards season, the categories are strong across the board.
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is among a mighty crop of international contenders that includes Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Sebastian Lelio’s Gloria, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt and A Touch Of Sin from China’s Jia Zhang-Ke.
12 Years A Slave’s Chiwetel Ejiofor will contest the lead actor race with veterans Bruce Dern for Nebraska and Robert Redford for All Is Lost, as well as...
- 11/26/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Last night at the Times Centre in New York, Britdoc’s Puma Impact Award was bestowed upon the visibly shell-shocked filmmakers behind the year’s most innovative film, The Act of Killing. Director Joshua Oppenheimer, co-director Christine Cynn, and producer Signe Byrge Sørensen assumed the stage to collect their iridescent trophy – and its accompanying 50,000 Euro prize, to be split between the team and their activist efforts – from jurors Susan Sarandon, Zadie Smith, and Ricken Patel. Absent were two members of the jury, Gael García Bernal and Eric Schlosser, but, perhaps more notably, The Act of Killing’s anonymous co-director and 60 crew […]...
- 11/14/2013
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Last night at the Times Centre in New York, Britdoc’s Puma Impact Award was bestowed upon the visibly shell-shocked filmmakers behind the year’s most innovative film, The Act of Killing. Director Joshua Oppenheimer, co-director Christine Cynn, and producer Signe Byrge Sørensen assumed the stage to collect their iridescent trophy – and its accompanying 50,000 Euro prize, to be split between the team and their activist efforts – from jurors Susan Sarandon, Zadie Smith, and Ricken Patel. Absent were two members of the jury, Gael García Bernal and Eric Schlosser, but, perhaps more notably, The Act of Killing’s anonymous co-director and 60 crew […]...
- 11/14/2013
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Palestine’s Omar and Bangladesh’s Television among best feature nominees in the upcoming Asia Pacific Screen Awards.Scoll down for full list of nominations
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s Television is one of six films in the running to win best feature at the 7th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs) - the first film from Bangladesh to ever be nominated.
Television directly deals with issues of modernity versus tradition in rural Bangladesh, making it a film well worth debating within the context of the APSAs, which celebrate both quality cinema and the cultural importance of film.
Television closed the Busan International Film Festival last year. If it wins Apsa’s highest accolade it will have impressed the jury more than Omar from Palestine; With You, Without You from Sri Lanka; Like Father, Like Son from Japan; The Turning;, an anthology film from Australia and The Past, directed by one of Apsa’s most high-profile regular contenders, Iranian...
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s Television is one of six films in the running to win best feature at the 7th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs) - the first film from Bangladesh to ever be nominated.
Television directly deals with issues of modernity versus tradition in rural Bangladesh, making it a film well worth debating within the context of the APSAs, which celebrate both quality cinema and the cultural importance of film.
Television closed the Busan International Film Festival last year. If it wins Apsa’s highest accolade it will have impressed the jury more than Omar from Palestine; With You, Without You from Sri Lanka; Like Father, Like Son from Japan; The Turning;, an anthology film from Australia and The Past, directed by one of Apsa’s most high-profile regular contenders, Iranian...
- 11/11/2013
- by Sandy.George@me.com (Sandy George)
- ScreenDaily
Infinite Anticipation
Here at the Vienna International Film Festival there are no multiplexes devoted to the festival. Every cinema is a single screen—all quite beautiful and some, like the Urania, Metro, Künstlerhaus, and Austrian Film Museum, very special indeed—and, scattered at a bit of a distance from one another, they trace a lopsided kind of ellipsis, a loop of cinema if you plan your itinerary right.
Above: Out 1, noli me tangere.
I came anticipating this particular suggestion of cinematic infinity, not just because of my memories of the last two years of repeatedly treading this touring path around the constrained city center of Vienna, but because of the promise of a much desired (by Jonathan Rosenbaum since 1996, and thereafter by an untold multitude of tantalized cinephiles) festival pairing of Jacques Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman's improvised serial intended for television, Out 1, noli me tangere (1971), and Louis Feuillade's...
Here at the Vienna International Film Festival there are no multiplexes devoted to the festival. Every cinema is a single screen—all quite beautiful and some, like the Urania, Metro, Künstlerhaus, and Austrian Film Museum, very special indeed—and, scattered at a bit of a distance from one another, they trace a lopsided kind of ellipsis, a loop of cinema if you plan your itinerary right.
Above: Out 1, noli me tangere.
I came anticipating this particular suggestion of cinematic infinity, not just because of my memories of the last two years of repeatedly treading this touring path around the constrained city center of Vienna, but because of the promise of a much desired (by Jonathan Rosenbaum since 1996, and thereafter by an untold multitude of tantalized cinephiles) festival pairing of Jacques Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman's improvised serial intended for television, Out 1, noli me tangere (1971), and Louis Feuillade's...
- 11/3/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Drafthouse Films has unveiled a new Mondo poster on behalf of director Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act Of Killing. The upcoming documentary from executive producers Errol Morris & Werner Herzog opens in select theaters starting this Friday, July 19.
Artist: Jay Shaw
In this chilling and inventive documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris (The Fog Of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), the filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass killings in the style of the American movies they love.
The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.
Shaking audiences at the 2012 Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals, The Act Of Killing is an unprecedented film and, according to the Los Angeles Times, “could well change how you view the documentary form.
Artist: Jay Shaw
In this chilling and inventive documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris (The Fog Of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), the filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass killings in the style of the American movies they love.
The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.
Shaking audiences at the 2012 Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals, The Act Of Killing is an unprecedented film and, according to the Los Angeles Times, “could well change how you view the documentary form.
- 7/18/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Sarajevo Film Festival’s documentary competition will include seven world premieres. Non-competitive sidebar Kinoscope will feature 17 films.Scroll down for full lists
The documentary competition at the the 19th Sarajevo Film Festival is to include 20 shorts and features, with seven world premieres and four international debuts.
World premieres include Escape by Serbian director Srdjan Keča, whose previous film Mirage won the Best Central and East European Documentary Award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and Best Short Documentary award at London Short Film Festival; and A Slave by Bosnia’s Pjer Žalica, best known for fiction films Fuse and Days And Hours.
International premieres include Marta Popivoda’s Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body, which screened in Berlinale’s Forum Expanded section; and Here… I Mean There by Laura Capatana-Juller, winner of the Romanian Days Award For Feature Film at the Transylvania International Film Festival.
Among regional premieres, there are three...
The documentary competition at the the 19th Sarajevo Film Festival is to include 20 shorts and features, with seven world premieres and four international debuts.
World premieres include Escape by Serbian director Srdjan Keča, whose previous film Mirage won the Best Central and East European Documentary Award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and Best Short Documentary award at London Short Film Festival; and A Slave by Bosnia’s Pjer Žalica, best known for fiction films Fuse and Days And Hours.
International premieres include Marta Popivoda’s Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body, which screened in Berlinale’s Forum Expanded section; and Here… I Mean There by Laura Capatana-Juller, winner of the Romanian Days Award For Feature Film at the Transylvania International Film Festival.
Among regional premieres, there are three...
- 7/17/2013
- ScreenDaily
News.
The Criterion Collection has announced its batch of new releases for September, and we're particularly excited for this set: A new issue of The Seventh Art is now online, meaning there's a few great video interviews (Paul Schrader, Margarethe von Trotta, Barbara Hammer) well worth your time to watch. Steven Spielberg & George Lucas are predicting that the film industry will implode.
Finds.
Above: Writing for the Independent Cinema Office, our own Adrian Curry takes a look at "The Aesthetics of Film Festival Posters" Above: via Revista Lumière's Facebook page, a photo of Jean-Luc Godard being arrested during May '68 in Paris. Via David Hudson and The Keyframe Daily, Daniel Ludwig has some insight from the set of Jean-Luc Godard's Adieu au langage:
'On this particular drizzly day in Nyon by Lake Geneva, Ludwig, sitting in the back of a silver Mercedes Sl 500, is driven at breakneck speed,...
The Criterion Collection has announced its batch of new releases for September, and we're particularly excited for this set: A new issue of The Seventh Art is now online, meaning there's a few great video interviews (Paul Schrader, Margarethe von Trotta, Barbara Hammer) well worth your time to watch. Steven Spielberg & George Lucas are predicting that the film industry will implode.
Finds.
Above: Writing for the Independent Cinema Office, our own Adrian Curry takes a look at "The Aesthetics of Film Festival Posters" Above: via Revista Lumière's Facebook page, a photo of Jean-Luc Godard being arrested during May '68 in Paris. Via David Hudson and The Keyframe Daily, Daniel Ludwig has some insight from the set of Jean-Luc Godard's Adieu au langage:
'On this particular drizzly day in Nyon by Lake Geneva, Ludwig, sitting in the back of a silver Mercedes Sl 500, is driven at breakneck speed,...
- 6/19/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
It's time for the Los Angeles Film Festival!
Filmforum is the community sponsor for two films at the festival: The Island of St. Mathews by Kevin Jerome Everson, and The Act of Killing, by Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn. Details below:
La Film Festival
June 13-23rd
Mostly at L.A. Live, downtown
http://www.lafilmfest.com/
Now in its nineteenth year, the Los Angeles Film Festival is widely recognized as a world-class cinematic event, showcasing the best in new American and international cinema and providing the movie-loving public with access to some of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals and emerging new talent by bringing them together in the heart of the entertainment capital of the world.
The Festival features unique signature programs including the Filmmaker Retreat, several Outdoor Screenings, intimate Coffee Talks and more. Additionally, the Festival screens short films created by high school students and has a special section devoted to music videos. Passes and Tickets are on sale Now! lafilmfest.com
--------
The Island of St. Matthews
preceded by Walker
Documentary Competition
(USA, 2013, 70 mins)
North American premiere
Directed By: Kevin Jerome Everson
Producer: Madeleine Molyneaux
Cinematographers: Lindsey 'Lnz' Arturo, Kevin Jerome Everson, Taka Suzuki
Trailer
With a filmmaking style that draws upon fiction, documentary and experimental traditions, filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson deftly explores aspects of the African American experience in critically acclaimed work that is as likely to be seen in an art museum as at a film festival.
For his most recent feature (he has also directed over 70 short films), Everson turns to the community of Westport, Miss., where the nearly annual flooding of the Tombigbee River has touched everyone, including Everson's own family. In 1973, the raging waters threatened to wash away the entire town, along with countless family heirlooms and photo albums. Today, those waters can still trouble, but they also unite the community, bound together by flood barriers and baptisms.
Screening:
Sun, Jun 16th 4:00pm, Regal Cinemas 14
Mon, Jun 17th 7:20pm, Regal Cinemas 13
---The Act of Killing
International Showcase
(Denmark, 2012, 125 mins, Dcp)
In Indonesian with English subtitles
Directed By: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn
Executive Producers: Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, André Singer, Torstein Grude, Bjarte Mørner Tveit, Joram ten Brink
By turns chilling, surreal and philosophical, this debate-worthy documentary revisits modern Indonesia's brutal origins by inviting those who mass-slaughtered ethnic Chinese, alleged Communists and intellectuals in the 60's to re-enact their long-ago killings in elaborate tableaux evoking classic movie genres. At the center of directors Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn's bold experiment in hellish nostalgia are gangster/paramilitary leader Anwar Congo and his followers, proud nationalists with cinema-inspired visions of themselves, who are nonetheless seen as heroes in their country today. But as set-designed, costumed pretend violence for the cameras sparks further recollections of death squad protocol, the weight of remembered atrocities takes its toll, particularly on dream-haunted Anwar.
Early screenings of this disturbing, one-of-a-kind meditation on history, sanctioned evil and self-mythologizing, so galvanized Werner Herzog and Errol Morris that they became executive producers.
Screening:
Fri, Jun 14th 10:00pm, Regal Cinemas 13
Sun, Jun 16th 7:00pm, Directv Theatre/Regal 9
------------------
Also recommended:
Our Nixon (USA, 2013, 85 mins, HDCam)
Directed By: Penny Lane
Assembled from over 500 reels of Super 8 film shot during the Nixon White House by top aides (and Watergate participants) H.R Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Dwight Chapin, Penny Lane's documentary provides a unique insider's view of the most infamous presidency in American history.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/Oo
Screening:
Sat, Jun 15th 1:40pm, Regal Cinemas 8
Sun, Jun 16th 9:30pm, Regal Cinemas 13
Shorts Program 3
This group of films takes us into dreamlike and hyper-real worlds in which fear and sadness are offset by the warmth of extraordinary human connections. Including films by Shaz Bennett, Jean-Guillaume Bastien, Ethan Clarke, Kevin Jerome Everson, and more.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/SS
Shorts Program 4
Explorations about the complex challenges of childhood and playful young-adulthood are juxtaposed with stories of tradition and old age--with a monkey movie for good measure! Including films by Rachel Mayeri, Frances Bodomo, Ian Samuels, Tony Donoghue, and more.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/SS
Purgatorio
With striking imagery, director Rodrigo Reyes re-imagines the Mexico/U.S. border as a mythical place comparable to Dante's purgatory. Leaving politics aside, he takes a fresh look at the brutal beauty of the border and the people caught in its spell.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/Pp
Screening:
Sat, Jun 15th 1:30pm, Regal Cinemas 12, Door Only
Thu, Jun 20th 7:00pm, Regal Cinemas 12
------------------------
Filmforum is supported by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.
Coming Soon to Los Angeles Filmforum:
June 23 – Highlights from the Oberhausen Film Festival – Artist Film & Video
June 30 – Flaherty on the Road: Free Land by Minda Martin, Minda Martin in person!
Los Angeles Filmforum is the city's longest-running organization screening experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. 2013 is our 38th year.
Memberships available, $70 single, $105 dual, or $50 single student
Contact us at lafilmforum[a]yahoo.com.
Find us online at http://lafilmforum.org.
Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LosAngFilmforum!
Filmforum is the community sponsor for two films at the festival: The Island of St. Mathews by Kevin Jerome Everson, and The Act of Killing, by Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn. Details below:
La Film Festival
June 13-23rd
Mostly at L.A. Live, downtown
http://www.lafilmfest.com/
Now in its nineteenth year, the Los Angeles Film Festival is widely recognized as a world-class cinematic event, showcasing the best in new American and international cinema and providing the movie-loving public with access to some of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals and emerging new talent by bringing them together in the heart of the entertainment capital of the world.
The Festival features unique signature programs including the Filmmaker Retreat, several Outdoor Screenings, intimate Coffee Talks and more. Additionally, the Festival screens short films created by high school students and has a special section devoted to music videos. Passes and Tickets are on sale Now! lafilmfest.com
--------
The Island of St. Matthews
preceded by Walker
Documentary Competition
(USA, 2013, 70 mins)
North American premiere
Directed By: Kevin Jerome Everson
Producer: Madeleine Molyneaux
Cinematographers: Lindsey 'Lnz' Arturo, Kevin Jerome Everson, Taka Suzuki
Trailer
With a filmmaking style that draws upon fiction, documentary and experimental traditions, filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson deftly explores aspects of the African American experience in critically acclaimed work that is as likely to be seen in an art museum as at a film festival.
For his most recent feature (he has also directed over 70 short films), Everson turns to the community of Westport, Miss., where the nearly annual flooding of the Tombigbee River has touched everyone, including Everson's own family. In 1973, the raging waters threatened to wash away the entire town, along with countless family heirlooms and photo albums. Today, those waters can still trouble, but they also unite the community, bound together by flood barriers and baptisms.
Screening:
Sun, Jun 16th 4:00pm, Regal Cinemas 14
Mon, Jun 17th 7:20pm, Regal Cinemas 13
---The Act of Killing
International Showcase
(Denmark, 2012, 125 mins, Dcp)
In Indonesian with English subtitles
Directed By: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn
Executive Producers: Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, André Singer, Torstein Grude, Bjarte Mørner Tveit, Joram ten Brink
By turns chilling, surreal and philosophical, this debate-worthy documentary revisits modern Indonesia's brutal origins by inviting those who mass-slaughtered ethnic Chinese, alleged Communists and intellectuals in the 60's to re-enact their long-ago killings in elaborate tableaux evoking classic movie genres. At the center of directors Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn's bold experiment in hellish nostalgia are gangster/paramilitary leader Anwar Congo and his followers, proud nationalists with cinema-inspired visions of themselves, who are nonetheless seen as heroes in their country today. But as set-designed, costumed pretend violence for the cameras sparks further recollections of death squad protocol, the weight of remembered atrocities takes its toll, particularly on dream-haunted Anwar.
Early screenings of this disturbing, one-of-a-kind meditation on history, sanctioned evil and self-mythologizing, so galvanized Werner Herzog and Errol Morris that they became executive producers.
Screening:
Fri, Jun 14th 10:00pm, Regal Cinemas 13
Sun, Jun 16th 7:00pm, Directv Theatre/Regal 9
------------------
Also recommended:
Our Nixon (USA, 2013, 85 mins, HDCam)
Directed By: Penny Lane
Assembled from over 500 reels of Super 8 film shot during the Nixon White House by top aides (and Watergate participants) H.R Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Dwight Chapin, Penny Lane's documentary provides a unique insider's view of the most infamous presidency in American history.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/Oo
Screening:
Sat, Jun 15th 1:40pm, Regal Cinemas 8
Sun, Jun 16th 9:30pm, Regal Cinemas 13
Shorts Program 3
This group of films takes us into dreamlike and hyper-real worlds in which fear and sadness are offset by the warmth of extraordinary human connections. Including films by Shaz Bennett, Jean-Guillaume Bastien, Ethan Clarke, Kevin Jerome Everson, and more.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/SS
Shorts Program 4
Explorations about the complex challenges of childhood and playful young-adulthood are juxtaposed with stories of tradition and old age--with a monkey movie for good measure! Including films by Rachel Mayeri, Frances Bodomo, Ian Samuels, Tony Donoghue, and more.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/SS
Purgatorio
With striking imagery, director Rodrigo Reyes re-imagines the Mexico/U.S. border as a mythical place comparable to Dante's purgatory. Leaving politics aside, he takes a fresh look at the brutal beauty of the border and the people caught in its spell.
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2013/filmguide/Title/Pp
Screening:
Sat, Jun 15th 1:30pm, Regal Cinemas 12, Door Only
Thu, Jun 20th 7:00pm, Regal Cinemas 12
------------------------
Filmforum is supported by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.
Coming Soon to Los Angeles Filmforum:
June 23 – Highlights from the Oberhausen Film Festival – Artist Film & Video
June 30 – Flaherty on the Road: Free Land by Minda Martin, Minda Martin in person!
Los Angeles Filmforum is the city's longest-running organization screening experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. 2013 is our 38th year.
Memberships available, $70 single, $105 dual, or $50 single student
Contact us at lafilmforum[a]yahoo.com.
Find us online at http://lafilmforum.org.
Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LosAngFilmforum!
- 6/13/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Act of Killing Trailer. Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn‘s The Act of Killing (2012) movie trailer stars Haji Anif, Syamsul Arifin, Sakhyan Asmara, Anwar Congo, and Jusuf Kalla. The Act of Killing‘s plot synopsis: “In this chilling and inventive documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris (The Fog Of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), [...]
Continue reading: The Act Of Killing (2012) Movie Trailer: A Documentary on True Horror...
Continue reading: The Act Of Killing (2012) Movie Trailer: A Documentary on True Horror...
- 5/24/2013
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Another year and another great festival wraps up deep in the heart of Texas. As the curtains draw to a close on the Paramount and the music fades, Friday marked the end of another great festival at South by Southwest. With over a hundred films screened, this year’s festival has introduced a plethora of great films to audiences. The festival has been a chance to showcase big headliners like Evil Dead as well as highlight fantastic indies like Zero Charisma. The greatest thing about these festivals is the air of collaboration between various artists, admirers, and professionals alike. Hearing a conversation between a music badge holder, film badge press, and interactive entrepreneurs sums up South by Southwest succinctly. It really captures the spirit of South by Southwest and reminds us why Austin is a true Mecca for creativity and collaboration. Signing off from Austin, TX, see y’all next year!
- 3/17/2013
- by David Tran
- SoundOnSight
The Act of Killing
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn
Denmark/Norway/UK, 2013
The documentary film opens with a pertinent and incredibly insightful quote by Voltaire followed by a surreal dance sequence of killers in drag set against a waterfall. After 1965 where the military overtook the Indonesian government, a martial rule was in place and all those deemed “Communists” (farmers, intellectuals, dissenters, ethnic Chinese) were murdered en masse. To carry out these killings, the government enlisted the aid of paramilitary groups such as the Pancasila Youth draped in orange camouflage as well as common gangsters. They carried out heinous war crimes, killing millions over the next decades.
The Act of Killing follows these men after forty years, approaching Anwar Congo, former killer, to create a film reenacting these killings. Along the way, Congo and many others face their heinous crime in a variety of ways from remorse to unadulterated pride and joy.
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn
Denmark/Norway/UK, 2013
The documentary film opens with a pertinent and incredibly insightful quote by Voltaire followed by a surreal dance sequence of killers in drag set against a waterfall. After 1965 where the military overtook the Indonesian government, a martial rule was in place and all those deemed “Communists” (farmers, intellectuals, dissenters, ethnic Chinese) were murdered en masse. To carry out these killings, the government enlisted the aid of paramilitary groups such as the Pancasila Youth draped in orange camouflage as well as common gangsters. They carried out heinous war crimes, killing millions over the next decades.
The Act of Killing follows these men after forty years, approaching Anwar Congo, former killer, to create a film reenacting these killings. Along the way, Congo and many others face their heinous crime in a variety of ways from remorse to unadulterated pride and joy.
- 3/16/2013
- by David Tran
- SoundOnSight
10. Leviathan
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s follow-up to their fascinating depiction of traveling sheep herders in Sweetgrass, is this year’s quintessential art doc. With a myriad of weather-proof digital cameras strapped to a North America trolling ship, the film documents the grotesque nature of the commercial fishing profession on a very physical level. We slosh about the deck bathed in the blood of countless sea creatures while we watch weathered men be pelted by an ever present downpour as hungry gulls flutter against a black sky hoping to score some remains. This is Deadliest Catch without the embellishments of competition, personality or theme music and it is a purely guttural experience to be had.
9. Post Tenebras Lux
Carlos Reygadas’s latest is the only film on the list that debuted at Cannes this year that I’ve managed to see (I’m still patiently awaiting Holy Motors, Amour,...
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s follow-up to their fascinating depiction of traveling sheep herders in Sweetgrass, is this year’s quintessential art doc. With a myriad of weather-proof digital cameras strapped to a North America trolling ship, the film documents the grotesque nature of the commercial fishing profession on a very physical level. We slosh about the deck bathed in the blood of countless sea creatures while we watch weathered men be pelted by an ever present downpour as hungry gulls flutter against a black sky hoping to score some remains. This is Deadliest Catch without the embellishments of competition, personality or theme music and it is a purely guttural experience to be had.
9. Post Tenebras Lux
Carlos Reygadas’s latest is the only film on the list that debuted at Cannes this year that I’ve managed to see (I’m still patiently awaiting Holy Motors, Amour,...
- 12/31/2012
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn's "The Act of Killing" topped the winners of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) this past weekend, taking the festival's Dox:award prize. Other winners at the ceremony -- held at the Bremen Theater in downtown Copenhagen -- included Bill & Turner Ross's "Tchoupitoulas," Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel's "Leviathan" and Jonas Poher Rasmussen's "Searching For Bill." Full list of winners below with jury statements. Dox:award: The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer "The Jury would like to award a film for its ability to show the construction of fear in a society and for its courageous re-enactment of the madness of the past, still echoing in the present." Special mention to Tchoupitoulas, Bill & Turner Ross "The Jury wants to give a special mention for its freedom and chaotic...
- 11/12/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous’s jaw-dropping tale of war crimes, guilt and moviemaking, took the top prize at Cph:dox here in Copenhagen Friday night. The film, pictured above, boasts Werner Herzog and Errol Morris as executive producers and follows a group of former death squad leaders as they make Hollywood-style movies based on their murders of communists, ethnic Chinese and intellectuals following Indonesia’s military coup in 1965. Director Edwin (Postcards from the Zoo) presented the award and read the jury’s statement: “The Jury would like to award a film for its ability to show the construction of fear in a society and for its courageous re-enactment of the madness of the past, still echoing in the present.” As an Indonesian, Edwin added a personal testament to the film’s powerful confrontation of the country’s history. Accepting the award, Oppenheimer thanked the country’s community of survivors,...
- 11/11/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
This year’s Toronto was competing in my psyche with the recent loss of my mother. My focus was less on finding the greatest of films this year. I hear from others that the festival offered a good mix, if not the most outstanding, selection of films. Personally, I am discovering that a new community has opened its arms to me and the films that are standing out most for me are by women and about women. My community, those women who have lost their mothers, is sharing a unique and profound rite of passage whose meaning continuously unfolds.
In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.
18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.
Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.
Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.
Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."
Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.
Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.
Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:
Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.
Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.
Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?
Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%
Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic
Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)
Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)
Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.
Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs
Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide
Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%
Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk
Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???
City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???
Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)
90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.
Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.
In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.
18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.
Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.
Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.
Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."
Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.
Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.
Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:
Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.
Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.
Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?
Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%
Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic
Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)
Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)
Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.
Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs
Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide
Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%
Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk
Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???
City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???
Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)
90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.
Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.
- 9/21/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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