‘Tis the season to be streaming. And if you’re going to be streaming, consider streaming some independent films.
With the holidays approaching, streamers are predictably focusing their energy on stocking their libraries with Christmas and family films. As a result, there’s less great non-seasonal indies coming to Netflix, Hulu, Max, and the other major platforms this month than usual. That’s not to say there aren’t a few classics from yesteryear coming our way; Netflix is complimenting its new original “May December” with “Black Swan,” another film that sees Natalie Portman at her scariest. Paramount+ offers up two late ’90s and early ’00s gems with Sofia Coppola’s debut “The Virgin Suicides” and scrappy football charmer “Bend It Like Beckham.” On Prime Video, you can enjoy one of the 2010s best comedies, Andrew Bujalski’s “Support the Girls.” And on Max, you can check out “The Souvenir,...
With the holidays approaching, streamers are predictably focusing their energy on stocking their libraries with Christmas and family films. As a result, there’s less great non-seasonal indies coming to Netflix, Hulu, Max, and the other major platforms this month than usual. That’s not to say there aren’t a few classics from yesteryear coming our way; Netflix is complimenting its new original “May December” with “Black Swan,” another film that sees Natalie Portman at her scariest. Paramount+ offers up two late ’90s and early ’00s gems with Sofia Coppola’s debut “The Virgin Suicides” and scrappy football charmer “Bend It Like Beckham.” On Prime Video, you can enjoy one of the 2010s best comedies, Andrew Bujalski’s “Support the Girls.” And on Max, you can check out “The Souvenir,...
- 12/1/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
On Friday, October 20, 2023, at 10:00 Pm, PBS will air Season 11, Episode 3 of “Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century,” titled “Friends & Strangers.”
This episode will feature four artists: Linda Goode Bryant, Miranda July, Cannupa Hanska Luger, and Christine Sun Kim.
Viewers can anticipate a closer look at these artists and their work. “Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century” explores the creative minds and the artistic processes of a diverse range of contemporary artists.
In this particular episode, Linda Goode Bryant, Miranda July, Cannupa Hanska Luger, and Christine Sun Kim will be the focal points. Their artistry, perspectives, and the stories behind their work will be shared with the audience.
This series offers a unique opportunity to gain insights into the world of contemporary art and the minds of the artists who shape it.
Tune in to PBS for “Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century” and discover the...
This episode will feature four artists: Linda Goode Bryant, Miranda July, Cannupa Hanska Luger, and Christine Sun Kim.
Viewers can anticipate a closer look at these artists and their work. “Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century” explores the creative minds and the artistic processes of a diverse range of contemporary artists.
In this particular episode, Linda Goode Bryant, Miranda July, Cannupa Hanska Luger, and Christine Sun Kim will be the focal points. Their artistry, perspectives, and the stories behind their work will be shared with the audience.
This series offers a unique opportunity to gain insights into the world of contemporary art and the minds of the artists who shape it.
Tune in to PBS for “Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century” and discover the...
- 10/13/2023
- by Jules Byrd
- TV Everyday
Miranda July has not announced another feature since she directed 2020’s “Kajillionaire.” But that should hardly be a surprise from the offbeat filmmaker whose previous movie, “The Future,” came out a decade prior. The Los Angeles-based artist fills in her time with visual and performance art as well as writing novels and short stories. Her novels tend to be about middle-aged women changing the course of their lives, as was the case with 2015’s sexually adventurous “The First Bad Man” and now next year’s “All Fours,” which July explains in the Art21 clip below is about “the second half of a woman’s life. And it’s also a romance.”
July shares an update on “All Fours” in this excerpt from “Friends and Strangers,” the third and final episode of Season 11 of Art21’s “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” broadcasting on PBS October 20.
July also opens the door (just...
July shares an update on “All Fours” in this excerpt from “Friends and Strangers,” the third and final episode of Season 11 of Art21’s “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” broadcasting on PBS October 20.
July also opens the door (just...
- 10/4/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Alena Lodkina’s first feature, “Strange Colours” (2017) took her deep into the Australian outback, to the rough-as-guts opal-mining town of Lightning Ridge, before bringing her to the Venice Film Festival, where the film premiered. It augured a distinctive new mood in Australian cinema – understated but keenly observed; a little sinister – as represented in recent editions of Rotterdam (David Easteal’s “The Plains”; James Vaughan’s “Friends & Strangers”) and Cannes (Thom Wright’s “The Stranger”).
Her second feature, produced by Kate Laurie at Arenamedia and funded by Screen Australia, VicScreen, the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund, Sbs, and Orange Entertainment, takes its bow at the 75th Locarno Film Festival.
In the evasively-titled “Petrol,” the Russian-born filmmaker turns her gaze towards the city she calls home: the film ascribes a certain kind of decadent mystique to Melbourne, where Lodkina has lived for the last 10 years. “You don’t see cities portrayed in Australia that much,...
Her second feature, produced by Kate Laurie at Arenamedia and funded by Screen Australia, VicScreen, the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund, Sbs, and Orange Entertainment, takes its bow at the 75th Locarno Film Festival.
In the evasively-titled “Petrol,” the Russian-born filmmaker turns her gaze towards the city she calls home: the film ascribes a certain kind of decadent mystique to Melbourne, where Lodkina has lived for the last 10 years. “You don’t see cities portrayed in Australia that much,...
- 8/9/2022
- by Sona Karapoghosyan and Keva York
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Camera (David Cronenberg)
One of David Cronenberg’s most haunting projects contains nary an exploding head or freshly formed orifice. 2000’s Camera instead turns its smeary digital lens towards an aging thespian, his depressive musings compounded by the most rapid-fire tempo Cronenberg’s ever waged. A key part of the canon that’s nevertheless flown under-radar, and Le Cinéma Club present it, free, for one week as Crimes of the Future arrives. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Fire Island (Andrew Ahn)
Fire Island is primarily a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. In a similar vein to Clueless, the masterful modernization of another Jane Austen novel, Ahn and writer / co-lead Joel Kim Booster have updated the classic romance novel with a fresh twist.
Camera (David Cronenberg)
One of David Cronenberg’s most haunting projects contains nary an exploding head or freshly formed orifice. 2000’s Camera instead turns its smeary digital lens towards an aging thespian, his depressive musings compounded by the most rapid-fire tempo Cronenberg’s ever waged. A key part of the canon that’s nevertheless flown under-radar, and Le Cinéma Club present it, free, for one week as Crimes of the Future arrives. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Fire Island (Andrew Ahn)
Fire Island is primarily a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. In a similar vein to Clueless, the masterful modernization of another Jane Austen novel, Ahn and writer / co-lead Joel Kim Booster have updated the classic romance novel with a fresh twist.
- 6/3/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Mubi’s U.S. lineup for next month has been unveiled, including some essential recent releases, notably James Vaughan’s Friends and Strangers, Radu Muntean’s Întregalde, Alice Diop’s We (Nous), the Isabel Sandoval-led short The Actress, Ougie Pak’s Clytaemnestra, and the new restoration of Hong Sangsoo’s Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors.
As part of Pride month and fitting as his latest film arrives, Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night is among the selections, alongside And Then We Danced, Being 17, and Lilting. Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, a pair of films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Kim Bora’s House of Hummingbird are also in the lineup.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
June 1 – Wet Sand, directed by Elene Naveriani | Viewfinder | Pride
June 2 – And Then We Danced, directed by Levan Akin | Pride Unprejudiced: LGBTQ+ Cinema
June 3 – Friends and Strangers, directed by James Vaughan | Mubi Spotlight
June 4 – Final Set,...
As part of Pride month and fitting as his latest film arrives, Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night is among the selections, alongside And Then We Danced, Being 17, and Lilting. Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, a pair of films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Kim Bora’s House of Hummingbird are also in the lineup.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
June 1 – Wet Sand, directed by Elene Naveriani | Viewfinder | Pride
June 2 – And Then We Danced, directed by Levan Akin | Pride Unprejudiced: LGBTQ+ Cinema
June 3 – Friends and Strangers, directed by James Vaughan | Mubi Spotlight
June 4 – Final Set,...
- 5/24/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: The Temenos screening in Lyssarea, Greece.Registration for Temenos 2022, which will premiere a new section of avant-garde master Gregory Markopoulos's epic Eniaios, is now open. This very special event, which usually takes place every four years, will be taking place June 9-19 in Lyssarea, Greece. For more information on the Temenos screenings and the ongoing restoration of Eniaios, visit here.Hou Hsiao-hsien has announced two new projects: the long-gestating, Shu Qi-led film Shulan River, an adaptation of the Hsieh Hai-meng novel about a river goddess; and a yet unnamed project starring Chang Chen about "an elderly father and his son." Filmmaker, painter, writer, Nick Zedd has died. In addition to his darkly funny no-budget films like They Eat Scum (1979) and his zine Underground Film Bulletin, Zedd is coining the term "Cinema of...
- 3/2/2022
- MUBI
Acquaintances Ray (Fergus Wilson) and Alice (Emma Diaz) bump into each other in Brisbane, discover they’re both about to drive back to Sydney and decide to stop along the way for a night of camping—one of the first of many unexpected detours in Friends and Strangers, a fresh, funny and unorthodox rarity of an arthouse comedy. The title of this 2021 Rotterdam premiere gives some indication of how writer-director-editor James Vaughan’s feature debut unfolds: it takes some time to discern that Ray is the film’s main subject, as he keeps encountering new people and the film seems like it could go […]
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/25/2022
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Acquaintances Ray (Fergus Wilson) and Alice (Emma Diaz) bump into each other in Brisbane, discover they’re both about to drive back to Sydney and decide to stop along the way for a night of camping—one of the first of many unexpected detours in Friends and Strangers, a fresh, funny and unorthodox rarity of an arthouse comedy. The title of this 2021 Rotterdam premiere gives some indication of how writer-director-editor James Vaughan’s feature debut unfolds: it takes some time to discern that Ray is the film’s main subject, as he keeps encountering new people and the film seems like it could go […]
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/25/2022
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
A Banquet (Ruth Paxton)
It’s a question we ask through the duration of our lives: what’s the point? Maybe you say these words in search of meaning where humanity as a species is concerned. Maybe it’s to find purpose as an individual when nothing seems to be going right. Jason (Richard Keep) wonders what the point of surviving is when his fate has already been sealed. His wife Holly (Sienna Guillory) is being forced into the role of caretaker while also wading through the reality that she’s now a single mother, regardless of breath remaining in his lungs. Is hers and their daughters’ (Jessica Alexander’s Betsey and Ruby Stokes’ Isabelle) suffering worth it? Will ripping the Band-Aid...
A Banquet (Ruth Paxton)
It’s a question we ask through the duration of our lives: what’s the point? Maybe you say these words in search of meaning where humanity as a species is concerned. Maybe it’s to find purpose as an individual when nothing seems to be going right. Jason (Richard Keep) wonders what the point of surviving is when his fate has already been sealed. His wife Holly (Sienna Guillory) is being forced into the role of caretaker while also wading through the reality that she’s now a single mother, regardless of breath remaining in his lungs. Is hers and their daughters’ (Jessica Alexander’s Betsey and Ruby Stokes’ Isabelle) suffering worth it? Will ripping the Band-Aid...
- 2/25/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)Visual FX pioneer Douglas Trumbull has died at the age of 79. Among Trumbull's many achievements are his VFX contributions to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (which Trumbull worked on at the age of 25), Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and Terrence Malick's Tree of Life. In a 2012 interview with the New York Times, Trumbull described his ongoing experiments with new technology and his belief that "if you want to get people to go out to the movies, to pay a premium price for some kind of premium experience, it better be damned premium. It better be extraordinary.”With this year's Oscar nominations, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car becomes the first Japanese film to be nominated for Best Picture.
- 2/10/2022
- MUBI
"Is it about what's right, or what's practical?" Grasshopper Film has revealed a new US trailer for Friends and Strangers, an experimental indie from Australia which originally premiered at last year's Rotterdam Film Festival. The film also played at New Directors/New Films Fest and the Chicago Film Festival last year. Friends and Strangers follows two upper-middle class wanderers in a dryly comic exploration displacement and ennui in contemporary Australia. Reviews talk about how eccentric but uniquely amusing it is: "Friends and Strangers had me cackling at its dry and gleeful absurdity... it's mumblecore par excellence but laced with a satire of white Australia and its historical amnesia." I can't figure out what to make of the couple in the middle of this trailer. Is it about them, and what's happening to them, or about something else going on and they're just a part of the bigger picture? This film...
- 2/7/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
One of the final things I latched onto at Grasshopper Film was Friends and Strangers. I’d heard no word before its Rotterdam programming and it caught my attention in an early-year festival crush for no other reason than a) some pleasant stills and b) the promise of an Australian comedy, which had more or less never come into my sight in five years of distribution.
Within, say, two minutes I knew this had to be followed through—James Vaughn’s perfectly lit images of metropolitan life were composed like Heinz Emigholz, its performances willingly stilted, the vibe vaguely threatening. Progressively the thing grows funnier, its direction harder to guess, structure slightly bewildering yet fully determined. By film’s end Friends and Strangers is plainly fucking hilarious, teetering on the possibility of violent outburst, finally a wise statement on personal misdirection.
Cut to one year later. Though I no longer...
Within, say, two minutes I knew this had to be followed through—James Vaughn’s perfectly lit images of metropolitan life were composed like Heinz Emigholz, its performances willingly stilted, the vibe vaguely threatening. Progressively the thing grows funnier, its direction harder to guess, structure slightly bewildering yet fully determined. By film’s end Friends and Strangers is plainly fucking hilarious, teetering on the possibility of violent outburst, finally a wise statement on personal misdirection.
Cut to one year later. Though I no longer...
- 2/7/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
“The Girlfriend Experience” director Lodge Kerrigan’s 2004 movie “Keane,” starring Damian Lewis and Abigail Breslin, is getting a 4K restoration and a U.S. theatrical release.
Grasshopper Film snapped up distribution rights to the critically acclaimed pic, which is executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and produced by Andrew Fierberg. “Keane” — in 4K — will premiere in cinemas in early 2022, followed by releases on VOD, TV and home video. (The movie received a limited theatrical release in New York back in 2005.)
“Keane” turns on William Keane (Lewis) who is struggling to cope six months after his six-year-old daughter was abducted from New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal while traveling with him. Repeatedly drawn to the site of the abduction, Keane wanders the bus station, compulsively replaying the events of that fateful day as if hoping to change the outcome. When one day he meets a financially strapped woman, Lynn Bedik...
Grasshopper Film snapped up distribution rights to the critically acclaimed pic, which is executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and produced by Andrew Fierberg. “Keane” — in 4K — will premiere in cinemas in early 2022, followed by releases on VOD, TV and home video. (The movie received a limited theatrical release in New York back in 2005.)
“Keane” turns on William Keane (Lewis) who is struggling to cope six months after his six-year-old daughter was abducted from New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal while traveling with him. Repeatedly drawn to the site of the abduction, Keane wanders the bus station, compulsively replaying the events of that fateful day as if hoping to change the outcome. When one day he meets a financially strapped woman, Lynn Bedik...
- 12/14/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
The Jeonju International Film Festival opened its submissions for International Competition on November 24 (Wednesday), and it’ll remain open until January 10 (Monday), 2022, 18:00 Kst.
In order to be eligible to submit, the film must be the filmmaker’s first or second feature film. At Jeonju Iff, films shorter than 40 minutes are considered shorts, and films over 40 minutes are classified as feature films. Films of all genres including narrative, documentary, experimental, and animation are eligible to submit. However, applicants must note that the project should have been completed after January of 2021, and its world premiere, international premiere, or Asian premiere must be available for the 23rd Jeonju Iff.
· When
– Submissions Open: Wednesday, November 24, 2021
– Submissions Deadline: Monday, January 10, 2022 / 18:00 (Kst)
· Eligibility
– Pre-condition: the first or second feature of the director(s)
– Running Time (including credits): longer than 40 minutes in length
– Date of Completion: After January 2021
– Premiere Status: at least Asian premiere...
In order to be eligible to submit, the film must be the filmmaker’s first or second feature film. At Jeonju Iff, films shorter than 40 minutes are considered shorts, and films over 40 minutes are classified as feature films. Films of all genres including narrative, documentary, experimental, and animation are eligible to submit. However, applicants must note that the project should have been completed after January of 2021, and its world premiere, international premiere, or Asian premiere must be available for the 23rd Jeonju Iff.
· When
– Submissions Open: Wednesday, November 24, 2021
– Submissions Deadline: Monday, January 10, 2022 / 18:00 (Kst)
· Eligibility
– Pre-condition: the first or second feature of the director(s)
– Running Time (including credits): longer than 40 minutes in length
– Date of Completion: After January 2021
– Premiere Status: at least Asian premiere...
- 11/26/2021
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
A French comedy following an oddball duo on an unconventional road trip and an Australian documentary about four refugees that compete in the World Wine Blind Tasting Championships have topped the audience awards at this year’s Sydney Film Festival.
Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien’s Beautiful Minds and Robert Coe and Warwick Ross’ Blind Ambition were voted number one feature film and documentary respectively, following the announcement of the official awards on Sunday.
Inspired by the real-life experiences of Jollien, Beautiful Minds details an unlikely friendship between workaholic funeral director Louis (Campan) and Igor (Jollien), a grocery worker with cerebral palsy, as a chance encounter leads them on a journey across France, during which they discuss everything from Nietzsche to being pigeon-holed.
France also features heavily in Blind Ambition as the setting for World Wine Blind Tasting Championships that Zimbabweans Joseph, Tinashe, Marlvin, and Pardon set out to attend.
Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien’s Beautiful Minds and Robert Coe and Warwick Ross’ Blind Ambition were voted number one feature film and documentary respectively, following the announcement of the official awards on Sunday.
Inspired by the real-life experiences of Jollien, Beautiful Minds details an unlikely friendship between workaholic funeral director Louis (Campan) and Igor (Jollien), a grocery worker with cerebral palsy, as a chance encounter leads them on a journey across France, during which they discuss everything from Nietzsche to being pigeon-holed.
France also features heavily in Blind Ambition as the setting for World Wine Blind Tasting Championships that Zimbabweans Joseph, Tinashe, Marlvin, and Pardon set out to attend.
- 11/16/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
James Vaughan's Friends and Strangers is showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries starting November 10, 2021 in the series Debuts.I’ve been writing this in the days immediately after the hometown premiere of Friends and Strangers at the Sydney Film Festival. It’s an event that stirred up a lot of emotion for me, as many of the faces in the audience were people whose influence from near or far had directly shaped a project very much about the mysterious, almost self-steering drift both toward and away from acquaintances and friends in the period of early adulthood.It was emotional for other reasons too, in that this was a film about something more than just some of the individuals from a certain layer of Sydney—but about their relationship with Sydney itself, and Australia too. Not the celebrated Australia of post-wwii migrant success stories, but the ruthlessly extractive and...
- 11/10/2021
- MUBI
Documentary ‘Landscapes Of Resistance’ and black comedy ‘Friends And Strangers’ also pick up awards.
Natalia Garayalde’s Argentinian documentary Splinters was awarded the Grand Prize at South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival last night (May 5).
The feature, which played in the international competition, centres on a home video of a 1995 munitions factory explosion that was shot by Garayalde when she was 12 years old. Jeonju’s top award includes a prize of $17,800 (KW20m).
The festival is hosting its second pandemic edition as a hybrid event, running from April 29 to May 8 in its traditional Jeonju Film Street area as well...
Natalia Garayalde’s Argentinian documentary Splinters was awarded the Grand Prize at South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival last night (May 5).
The feature, which played in the international competition, centres on a home video of a 1995 munitions factory explosion that was shot by Garayalde when she was 12 years old. Jeonju’s top award includes a prize of $17,800 (KW20m).
The festival is hosting its second pandemic edition as a hybrid event, running from April 29 to May 8 in its traditional Jeonju Film Street area as well...
- 5/6/2021
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
Documentaries and pictures made by female filmmakers dominated the prize ranks of South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival. Some, including “Splinters” which won the festival’s Grand Prize, were qualified on both counts.
“Splinters” aka “Esquirlas,” is an Argentinian-made documentary about the military-industrial complex, which premiered last year at the Mar Del Plata festival. It emerged as an expansion of a home video shot by director Natalia Garayalde, who recorded the explosion of an arms factory in 1995, when she was 12 years old.
Another documentary, Marta Popivoda’s “Landscapes of Resistance,” took the best picture award in the festival’s international competition.
A third film, “Friends and Strangers,” took the special jury prize. Directed by James Vaughan, the black comedy is pitched as a depiction of current day Australia from the viewpoint of Millennials.
The festival kicked off on April 29, 2021 and runs until Saturday (May 9) when it will close with...
“Splinters” aka “Esquirlas,” is an Argentinian-made documentary about the military-industrial complex, which premiered last year at the Mar Del Plata festival. It emerged as an expansion of a home video shot by director Natalia Garayalde, who recorded the explosion of an arms factory in 1995, when she was 12 years old.
Another documentary, Marta Popivoda’s “Landscapes of Resistance,” took the best picture award in the festival’s international competition.
A third film, “Friends and Strangers,” took the special jury prize. Directed by James Vaughan, the black comedy is pitched as a depiction of current day Australia from the viewpoint of Millennials.
The festival kicked off on April 29, 2021 and runs until Saturday (May 9) when it will close with...
- 5/6/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
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