Locarno, Switzerland — Two doc features framing mordant alternative visions of war and soccer – Tiago Hespanha’s “Campo” and Pedro Filipe Marques “Viveiro” (Breeding Ground) – shared the top prizes at the 8th Locarno First Look showcase, the Festival announced Sunday evening.
A pix-in-post focus on six-or-so titles from a national cinema, or region, First Look is one of the main industry draws of the Swiss Festival.
Produced by Terratreme Filmes’, a company created by filmmakers which backed 2017 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “The Nothing Factory,” “Campo” won a €65,000 in post-production services from Cinelab Bucharest.
Backed by Luis Urbano and Sandro Aguilar at O Som e a Furia, a classic arthouse producer whose credits include Ivo M. Ferreira’s “Letters from War” and Miguel Gomes’ “Arabian Nights,” “Breeding Ground” won € 5,600 in advertising, donated by Le Film Français, and an award worth €5,000 donated by Kaiju Cinema D/ffusion for the production of a key art design.
A pix-in-post focus on six-or-so titles from a national cinema, or region, First Look is one of the main industry draws of the Swiss Festival.
Produced by Terratreme Filmes’, a company created by filmmakers which backed 2017 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “The Nothing Factory,” “Campo” won a €65,000 in post-production services from Cinelab Bucharest.
Backed by Luis Urbano and Sandro Aguilar at O Som e a Furia, a classic arthouse producer whose credits include Ivo M. Ferreira’s “Letters from War” and Miguel Gomes’ “Arabian Nights,” “Breeding Ground” won € 5,600 in advertising, donated by Le Film Français, and an award worth €5,000 donated by Kaiju Cinema D/ffusion for the production of a key art design.
- 8/5/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Father To Son and The Bold, The Corrupt And The Beautiful were also big winners at awards held during Taipei Film Festival.
Sung Hsin-yin’s animated feature On Happiness Road won the $33,000 (Nt$1m) Grand Prize at this year’s Taipei Film Awards, while Dear Ex was the biggest winner overall with four prizes.
On Happiness Road, the story of a young woman reminiscing about her childhood after returning to Taiwan from the Us, also picked up the audience award and shared the Best Animation prize with Pan Sz-yu’s musical animation Neon.
Dear Ex (pictured), about a woman feuding...
Sung Hsin-yin’s animated feature On Happiness Road won the $33,000 (Nt$1m) Grand Prize at this year’s Taipei Film Awards, while Dear Ex was the biggest winner overall with four prizes.
On Happiness Road, the story of a young woman reminiscing about her childhood after returning to Taiwan from the Us, also picked up the audience award and shared the Best Animation prize with Pan Sz-yu’s musical animation Neon.
Dear Ex (pictured), about a woman feuding...
- 7/18/2018
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
With their trio of prior films together, director Stéphane Brizé and actor Vincent Lindon have declared a low-key manifesto of sorts. All three — culminating in 2015’s tremendous “The Measure of a Man,” which won the Cannes Best Actor award for Lindon — are richly attentive portraits of working men fighting to protect their interpersonal relationships and to retain dignity and self-determination, in tightrope circumstances that benefit from no social safety net. To find this furious brand of class consciousness so effortlessly allied to moral class conscience is rare in modern cinema, but it makes the capital-versus-labor quandary explored in their new collaboration, “At War,” seem like a natural progression. And in Union leader, spokesperson and factory worker Laurent Amédéo, Lindon adds another rivetingly real characterization to his muscular everyman repertoire.
It begins as it continues: in a riotous, talky, argumentative scene of disbelief and dismay.. An automotive parts plant in Agen...
It begins as it continues: in a riotous, talky, argumentative scene of disbelief and dismay.. An automotive parts plant in Agen...
- 5/15/2018
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
On May 14, Acid Trip #2, an initiative of the Association for Independent Film Distribution, is dedicated to Portuguese cinema. It will screen three films selected by the Portuguese Directors’ Association (Apr) – Pedro Cabeleira’s “Damned Summer”, Teresa Villaverde’s “Colo” and Leonor Teles’ “Terra Franca.”
The Apr’s note accompanying the selection stated that Portugal’s cinema is “persistent and resilient, and despite production difficulties, it invents its own conditions to continue to exist and create.”
Portuguese films in at Cannes this year include Un Certain Regard-player “The Dead and the Others” by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, acquired for sales by Paris-based Luxbox; Carlos Diegues’ “The Great Mystical Circus”, sold by Latido Films; soccer-themed “Diamantino”, by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, which could be a break out in Critics’ Week; and short film “Amor, Avenidas Novas”, by Duarte Coimbra, again playing in Critics’ Week; and Terry Gilliam’s closing pic,...
The Apr’s note accompanying the selection stated that Portugal’s cinema is “persistent and resilient, and despite production difficulties, it invents its own conditions to continue to exist and create.”
Portuguese films in at Cannes this year include Un Certain Regard-player “The Dead and the Others” by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, acquired for sales by Paris-based Luxbox; Carlos Diegues’ “The Great Mystical Circus”, sold by Latido Films; soccer-themed “Diamantino”, by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, which could be a break out in Critics’ Week; and short film “Amor, Avenidas Novas”, by Duarte Coimbra, again playing in Critics’ Week; and Terry Gilliam’s closing pic,...
- 5/14/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGThe conversation surrounding the liberties of restorations continues with this eye-opening new video from Krishna Ramesh Kumar comparing different versions of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.With Claire Denis's new film Let the Sunshine In currently in cinemas, we're delighted to discover that one of the director's rarest films, her 2005 documentary Towards Mathilde—which was for a long time only available on Mubi, back when the platform was called The Auteurs—will finally be receiving distribution in the Us. Below is the magnetic new trailer for this largely undiscovered gem:Gus Van Sant returns to the biopic genre with Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, about Portland cartoonist John Callahan, played in the film by Joaquin Phoenix. We caught it at the Berlin Film Festival and found it sweet and moving,...
- 5/2/2018
- MUBI
Pedro Pinho's The Nothing Factory (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from April 20 - May 20, 2018 as a Special Discovery.Rainy season has begun in Quito. After a long day, I take a crowded Ecovía—one of the city’s public transportation lines—to be dropped right in front of the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana Benjamín Carrión. This institution houses the Cinemateca Ecuatoriana Ulises Estrella, which is carrying out an exhibition on the best films of 2017. The year has just initiated in deceiving rhythms that haven’t allowed me to watch many films. The Nothing Factory by Pedro Pinho will be the third of the year. An image with men of different ages and heights raising their arms with the palms of their hands spread widely, wearing blue coats and expressing protest and discontent in their faces, kept appearing in front of me...
- 4/29/2018
- MUBI
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Behemoth (Zhao Liang)
There’s just one thing missing from Zhao Liang’s visually masterful documentary Behemoth: a before image of what this wasteland of coal and rock used to be before God’s beast was unleashed. That creature — as represented by the industrial machine — devours the mountains of Mongolia, exploding large formations into rubble to be separated by the Sichaun people acting as minions. These citizens become the cause and effect,...
Behemoth (Zhao Liang)
There’s just one thing missing from Zhao Liang’s visually masterful documentary Behemoth: a before image of what this wasteland of coal and rock used to be before God’s beast was unleashed. That creature — as represented by the industrial machine — devours the mountains of Mongolia, exploding large formations into rubble to be separated by the Sichaun people acting as minions. These citizens become the cause and effect,...
- 4/20/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Now in its 47th year, New Directors/New Films is a stellar showcase for new voices in cinema, both domestic and international, and this year’s lineup is no exception. Opening with a bang with the M.I.A. documentary Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. and closing with one of our Sundance favorites, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, the slate also includes one of the best films we’ve seen at Berlinale, An Elephant Standing Still, as well as festival favorites from last year, including Milla, Cocote, The Nothing Factory, and more.
“The purpose of New Directors/New Films is to seek out emerging filmmakers who are working at the vanguard of cinema,” said Film Society Director of Programming Dennis Lim. “This is as diverse and wide-ranging a lineup as we’ve assembled in years: full of pleasures and provocations and, above all, surprises—proof that film remains a medium ripe...
“The purpose of New Directors/New Films is to seek out emerging filmmakers who are working at the vanguard of cinema,” said Film Society Director of Programming Dennis Lim. “This is as diverse and wide-ranging a lineup as we’ve assembled in years: full of pleasures and provocations and, above all, surprises—proof that film remains a medium ripe...
- 2/22/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In the past year, musical films have emerged as the new noir. Decades after Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet blazed a trail with their stark and entirely sync-sound adaptations of Schonberg operas, austere auteurs have again begun to appropriate the genre as a velvet glove for their hard-hitting coups de grace. Following Bruno Dumont's reflections on religious piety with Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc and Pedro Pinho's critique of modern-day capitalism in The Nothing Factory, in comes perhaps the one outlier that trumps them all: a seething critique...
- 2/20/2018
- by Clarence Tsui
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cinema will seemingly never run out of stories in which sons go in search of their missing/lost fathers, but if the results were always as charming as Joao Miller Guerra and Filipa Reis' ambling picaresque Djon Africa, few audiences would complain. Written by Pedro Pinho, currently riding high on the film-festival circuit with The Nothing Factory, this co-production between Portugal and its former colonies Cape Verde and Brazil was one of the more notable world premieres at Rotterdam this year. Accessible and atmospheric, built around an engaging performance by Miguel Moreira as the eponymous "Djon," it should...
- 2/4/2018
- by Neil Young
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A bold mash-up of realism, polemic and musical set in a Portuguese factory where staff face the axe
Just shy of three hours in length, featuring sprawling polemical discussions about the collapse of capitalism and including an endearingly shambolic musical sequence, The Nothing Factory should be pretty much unwatchable. But this fearlessly unconventional project, which combines bracing realism with devices expressly designed to take us out of the film, is a curious, compelling oddity.
A film that evokes Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure of a Man, the social engagement and righteous anger of Ken Loach but also Godard at his most militantly iconoclastic, The Nothing Factory will not be for everyone. Director Pedro Pinho goes from heated debates – fluidly filmed, with a shallow focus that flits from face to face – to characters breaking the fourth wall, chatting to their heavy machinery and attempting robotic dancing on the factory floor. I...
Just shy of three hours in length, featuring sprawling polemical discussions about the collapse of capitalism and including an endearingly shambolic musical sequence, The Nothing Factory should be pretty much unwatchable. But this fearlessly unconventional project, which combines bracing realism with devices expressly designed to take us out of the film, is a curious, compelling oddity.
A film that evokes Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure of a Man, the social engagement and righteous anger of Ken Loach but also Godard at his most militantly iconoclastic, The Nothing Factory will not be for everyone. Director Pedro Pinho goes from heated debates – fluidly filmed, with a shallow focus that flits from face to face – to characters breaking the fourth wall, chatting to their heavy machinery and attempting robotic dancing on the factory floor. I...
- 1/28/2018
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
Pedro Pinho’s sprawling, deadpan drama about a Portuguese lift factory threatened with shutdown is finally evasive with acted with force
Pedro Pinho’s A Fábrica de Nada, or The Nothing Factory, is a sprawling, intriguing, but finally exhausting film: a near three-hour documentary-style epic in a mysteriously deadpan tone and described by one of its characters as a “neorealist musical”. Actually, the musical numbers appear only towards the end, almost as an afterthought. The film is more an experiment in social realism, or meta-realism, with something of Ken Loach or Miguel Gomes.
It is inspired by the story of the Fataleva lift factory in Portugal, which was run collectively by its own workers from 1975 to 2016, although this film imagines this collectivist adventure beginning, not ending, in the present day – as a passionate rebuke to the crisis in capitalism. But it is oddly coy in terms of finally coming to...
Pedro Pinho’s A Fábrica de Nada, or The Nothing Factory, is a sprawling, intriguing, but finally exhausting film: a near three-hour documentary-style epic in a mysteriously deadpan tone and described by one of its characters as a “neorealist musical”. Actually, the musical numbers appear only towards the end, almost as an afterthought. The film is more an experiment in social realism, or meta-realism, with something of Ken Loach or Miguel Gomes.
It is inspired by the story of the Fataleva lift factory in Portugal, which was run collectively by its own workers from 1975 to 2016, although this film imagines this collectivist adventure beginning, not ending, in the present day – as a passionate rebuke to the crisis in capitalism. But it is oddly coy in terms of finally coming to...
- 1/26/2018
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
'Good Time' with Robert Pattinson: All but completely bypassed at the Cannes Film Festival, Ben and Joshua Safdie's crime thriller – co-written by Joshua Safdie and Ronald Bronstein – may turn out to be a key contender in various categories next awards season. Bypassed Palme d'Or contenders (See previous post re: Cannes winners Diane Kruger & Sofia Coppola's Oscar chances.) The Cannes Film Festival has historically been both U.S.- and eurocentric. In other words, filmmaking from other countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific tend to be ignored either at the awards ceremony or at the very outset – in other words, they don't even get the chance to compete for the Palme d'Or. This year was no different, with a mere two non-u.S., non-European productions (or co-productions) among the 19 films in the Official Competition: Naomi Kawase's Japanese romantic drama Radiance and Hong Sang-soo's South Korean romantic drama The Day After. Both came out empty-handed. Among the other movies that failed to win any of the Official Competition awards, several may have a shot in some category or other come Oscar time. Notably: The socially conscious family drama Happy End, produced by veteran Margaret Ménégoz (Pauline at the Beach, Europa Europa) and a Sony Pictures Classics release in North America. Dir.: Michael Haneke. Cast: Isabelle Huppert. Jean-Louis Trintignant. Mathieu Kassovitz. The mix of time-bending mystery and family drama Wonderstruck, a Roadside Attractions / Amazon Studios release (on Oct. 20) in the U.S. Dir.: Todd Haynes. Cast: Julianne Moore. Millicent Simmonds. Cory Michael Smith. The crime drama Good Time, an A24 release (on Aug. 11) in the U.S. Dir.: Ben and Joshua Safdie. Cast: Robert Pattinson. Jennifer Jason Leigh. Barkhad Abdi. Cannes non-win doesn't mean weaker Oscar chances It's good to remember that the lack of a Cannes Film Festival win doesn't necessarily reduce a film's, a director's, a screenwriter's, or a performer's Oscar chances. Case in point: last year's Cannes Best Actress “loser” Isabelle Huppert for Elle. Here are a few other recent examples of Cannes non-winners in specific categories that went on to receive Oscar nods: Carol (2015), Best Actress (Cate Blanchett) nominee. Two Days, One Night / Deux jours, une nuit (2014), Best Actress (Marion Cotillard) nominee. The Great Beauty / La grande bellezza (2013), Best Foreign Language Film winner. The Hunt / Jagten (2012), Best Foreign Language Film nominee (at the 2013 Academy Awards). The Artist (2011), Best Picture and Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius) Oscar winner. And here's a special case: Amour leading lady and 2012 Best Actress Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva could not have won the Best Actress Award at Cannes, as current festival rules prevent Palme d'Or winners from taking home any other Official Competition awards. In other words, Isabelle Huppert (again), Julianne Moore, and Robert Pattinson – and their respective films – could theoretically remain strong Oscar contenders despite the absence of Cannes Film Festival Official Competition victories. Mohammad Rasoulof and Leslie Caron among other notable Cannes winners Besides those already mentioned in this article, notable winners at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival include: Mohammad Rasoulof's A Man of Integrity. Having infuriated Iran's theocracy, in 2010 Rasoulof was sentenced to a year in prison following accusations of “filming without a permit.” He has been out on bail. In 2011, Rasoulof won the Un Certain Regard sidebar's Best Director Award for Goodbye. Two years later, his Un Certain Regard entry Manuscripts Don't Burn won the International Film Critics' Fipresci Prize. Veteran Leslie Caron and her 17-year-old pet rescue dog Tchi Tchi shared the Palm DogManitarian Award for their work in the British television series The Durrells in Corfu / The Durrells. Caron, who will be turning 86 on July 1, made her film debut in Vincente Minnelli's 1951 musical An American in Paris – that year's Best Picture Academy Award winner. She would be shortlisted twice for the Best Actress Oscar: Lili (1953) and The L-Shaped Room (1963). Last year, she was the subject of Larry Weinstein's documentary Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star and will next be seen in Thomas Brunot's short The Perfect Age. Faces Places / Visages, villages, which offers a tour of the French countryside, won Cannes' Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary. The directors are veteran Agnès Varda (Cléo from 5 to 7, Vagabond), who turned 89 on May 30, and photographer/muralist Jr. Faces Places is supposed to be Varda's swan song, following a career spanning more than six decades. Her 2008 César-winning documentary The Beaches of Agnès was one of the 15 semi-finalists for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. See below a comprehensive list of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival winners. Leslie Caron in 'The Durrells in Corfu.' TV series a.k.a. 'The Durrells' earned the veteran two-time Best Actress Oscar nominee ('Lili,' 1953; 'The L-Shaped Room,' 1963) and her dog companion Tchi Tchi this year's Palm DogManitarian Award at the Cannes Film Festival. 2017 Cannes Film Festival winners Official Competition Palme d'Or: The Square (dir.: Ruben Östlund). Grand Prix: 120 Beats per Minute (dir.: Robin Campillo). Jury Prize: Loveless (dir.: Andrey Zvyagintsev). Best Screenplay (tie): The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou. You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay. Best Actress: Diane Kruger, In the Fade. Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here. Best Director: Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled. Best Short Film: A Gentle Night (dir.: Qiu Yang). Short Film Special Mention: Katto (dir.: Teppo Airaksinen). Un Certain Regard Un Certain Regard Award: A Man of Integrity (dir.: Mohammad Rasoulof). Jury Prize: April's Daughter / Las hijas de abril (dir.: Michel Franco). Best Director: Taylor Sheridan, Wind River. Best Actress / Best Performance: Jasmine Trinca, Fortunata. Prize for Best Poetic Narrative: Barbara (dir.: Mathieu Amalric). International Film Critics' Fipresci Prize Official Competition: 120 Beats per Minute. Un Certain Regard: Closeness (dir.: Kantemir Balagov). Directors' Fortnight: The Nothing Factory / A Fábrica de Nada (dir.: Pedro Pinho). Directors' Fortnight / Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Prix Sacd (Société des Auteurs Compositeurs Dramatiques) (tie): Lover for a Day / L'amant d'un jour (dir.: Philippe Garrel). Let the Sunshine In / Un beau soleil intérieur (dir.: Claire Denis). C.I.C.A.E. Art Cinema Award: The Rider (dir.: Chloe Zhao). Europa Cinemas Label: A Ciambra (dir.: Jonas Carpignano). Prix Illy for Best Short Film: Back to Genoa City / Retour à Genoa City (dir.: Benoît Grimalt). Critics' Week Grand Prize: Makala (dir.: Emmanuel Gras). Visionary Award: Gabriel and the Mountain / Gabriel e a Montanha (dir.: Fellipe Barbosa). Gan Foundation Award for Distribution: Version Originale Condor, French distributor of Gabriel and the Mountain. Sacd Award: Léa Mysius, Ava. Discovery Award for Best Short Film: Los desheredados (dir.: Laura Ferrés). Canal+ Award for Best Short Film: The Best Fireworks Ever / Najpienkniejsze Fajerwerki Ever (dir.: Aleksandra Terpinska). Other Cannes Film Festival 2017 Awards 70th Anniversary prize: Nicole Kidman. Caméra d'Or for Best First Film: Montparnasse Bienvenue / Jeune femme (dir.: Léonor Serraille). Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary: Faces Places / Visages, Villages (dir.: Agnès Varda, Jr). Prize of the Ecumenical Jury: Radiance (dir.: Naomi Kawase). Queer Palm: 120 Beats per Minute. Queer Palm for Best Short Film: Islands / Les îles (dir.: Yann Gonzalez). Cannes Soundtrack Award for Best Composer: Daniel Lopatin, Good Time. Vulcan Prize for Artist Technicians: Josefin Åsberg, The Square. Kering Women in Motion Award: Isabelle Huppert. Palm Dog: Einstein the Dog for The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). Palm DogManitarian Award: Leslie Caron and the dog Tchi Tchi for The Durrells in Corfu. Chopard Trophy for Male/Female Revelation: George MacKay and Anya Taylor-Joy. This article was originally published at Alt Film Guide (http://www.altfg.com/).
- 6/21/2017
- by Steph Mont.
- Alt Film Guide
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