Prominent Paris-based producer Marianne Slot, who has been instrumental to bringing works by auteurs such as Lars Von Trier, Lucrecia Martel, and Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso to the big screen, is being honored by the Locarno Film Festival.
Slot will receive the Swiss festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico prize for a producer who epitomizes the indie ethos. She will be bestowed with the award on Aug. 5 with a tribute that will include a screening of Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s environmental-themed black comedy “Woman At War,” followed by an on-stage conversation on Aug. 6.
Born in Denmark, Slot set up the Paris-based production company Slot Machine in 1993. She has been Von Trier’s French producer since 1995, starting with “Breaking the Waves.” Over the years Slot has shepherded works by a slew of indie auteurs at various stages of their careers. Besides Martel and Erlingsson these include Bent Hamer, Małgorzata Szumowska, Paz Encina,...
Slot will receive the Swiss festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico prize for a producer who epitomizes the indie ethos. She will be bestowed with the award on Aug. 5 with a tribute that will include a screening of Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s environmental-themed black comedy “Woman At War,” followed by an on-stage conversation on Aug. 6.
Born in Denmark, Slot set up the Paris-based production company Slot Machine in 1993. She has been Von Trier’s French producer since 1995, starting with “Breaking the Waves.” Over the years Slot has shepherded works by a slew of indie auteurs at various stages of their careers. Besides Martel and Erlingsson these include Bent Hamer, Małgorzata Szumowska, Paz Encina,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Adding to its slate of auteurs from all over the world, Raphael Berdugo’s Cité Films has boarded “The Fire Doll,” from Chilean director-to-track Niles Atallah (“Rey”) and “Left Over,” from San Sebastian Gold Shell winning Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu (“Pandora’s Box”).
Produced by Catalina Vergara at Chile’s Globo Rojo Films, “The Fire Doll” (“La muñeca de fuego”) is one of the 14 projects to be pitched at this month’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of the Spanish festival’s centerpiece industry events.
Atallah, whose second film, “Rey,” won a Rotterdam Special Jury Prize in 2017, turns in “The Fire Doll” to the transformation process experienced by a 9-year-old girl, Aurora, who loses part of her memory and goes to her the countryside to spend Easter wither father, an alcoholic in remission.
He lives in a mysterious house partially destroyed by fire decades ago. Aurora discovers a terrible...
Produced by Catalina Vergara at Chile’s Globo Rojo Films, “The Fire Doll” (“La muñeca de fuego”) is one of the 14 projects to be pitched at this month’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of the Spanish festival’s centerpiece industry events.
Atallah, whose second film, “Rey,” won a Rotterdam Special Jury Prize in 2017, turns in “The Fire Doll” to the transformation process experienced by a 9-year-old girl, Aurora, who loses part of her memory and goes to her the countryside to spend Easter wither father, an alcoholic in remission.
He lives in a mysterious house partially destroyed by fire decades ago. Aurora discovers a terrible...
- 9/1/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.
The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.
A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.
Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up
The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.
Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.
The programme...
The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.
A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.
Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up
The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.
Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.
The programme...
- 11/8/2016
- ScreenDaily
Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.
The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.
A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.
Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up
The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.
Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.
The programme...
The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.
A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.
Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up
The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.
Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.
The programme...
- 11/8/2016
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Copenhagen’s festival, in new autumn dates, will show a record 226 features kicking off with Doctor Strange.
Copenhagen’s Cph Pix festival, now in its new autumn dates, has revealed a record 226 feature films in its lineup.
The 14-day festival (Oct 27 - Nov 9), which now also includes kids and family festival Buster, will show 46 features for young people in its daytime programmes and 180 films for teenagers and adults in the evenings.
As previously reported, the eighth edition of festival will open with a gala premiere of Marvel’s Doctor Strange (Mads Mikkelsen will attend).
There will be four main awards at Pix: the New Talent Grand Pix for a debut feature (with $11,200 (€10,000)); the Politiken Audience Award that comes with Danish distribution support, and the Nordisk Film Fond prizes for best children’s feature and best children’s short.
Terence Davies [pictured] will be given a full retrospective as well as showing his latest film A Quiet Passion and participating...
Copenhagen’s Cph Pix festival, now in its new autumn dates, has revealed a record 226 feature films in its lineup.
The 14-day festival (Oct 27 - Nov 9), which now also includes kids and family festival Buster, will show 46 features for young people in its daytime programmes and 180 films for teenagers and adults in the evenings.
As previously reported, the eighth edition of festival will open with a gala premiere of Marvel’s Doctor Strange (Mads Mikkelsen will attend).
There will be four main awards at Pix: the New Talent Grand Pix for a debut feature (with $11,200 (€10,000)); the Politiken Audience Award that comes with Danish distribution support, and the Nordisk Film Fond prizes for best children’s feature and best children’s short.
Terence Davies [pictured] will be given a full retrospective as well as showing his latest film A Quiet Passion and participating...
- 10/3/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
When a few hundred films stop by the 41st Toronto International Film Festival, it’s certainly impossible to cover everything, but we were able to catch over 120 features — and, with that, it’s time to conclude our experience, following the festival’s own award winners. We’ve rounded up our top 20 films seen during the festival, followed by a list of the complete coverage.
Stay tuned over the next months (or years) as we bring updates on films as they make their way to screens. Note that we didn’t include films screened at other festivals in our “best of” round-up, but you can see Venice, Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance wrap-ups at those links, which feature some of the most-praised films of the festival, including La La Land, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, Certain Women, Elle, Things to Come, Nocturnal Animals, and many more.
One can also click here for...
Stay tuned over the next months (or years) as we bring updates on films as they make their way to screens. Note that we didn’t include films screened at other festivals in our “best of” round-up, but you can see Venice, Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance wrap-ups at those links, which feature some of the most-praised films of the festival, including La La Land, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, Certain Women, Elle, Things to Come, Nocturnal Animals, and many more.
One can also click here for...
- 9/19/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Life for a woman like Elmas (Ecem Uzun) in Turkey is a living nightmare. An eighteen-year old all but sold to a willing husband (Serkan Keskin‘s Koca) much older than she to clean his house, give her mother-in-law (Sema Poyraz‘s Kaynana) across the hall insulin shots, and — marriage or not — get raped every night, she’s gradually losing her sense of identity and mind. She’s so young and unversed in the world that she makes a game out of folding the sheets atop their bed to see whether a coin will slide from one end to the other without hitting a fold. Elmas’ sole release is watching her neighbor in the adjacent building dance to pop music while sneaking a cigarette on the balcony when no one is looking.
This is the conservative Muslim life we in the western world believe women in the Middle East endure.
This is the conservative Muslim life we in the western world believe women in the Middle East endure.
- 9/11/2016
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Acquisitions ahead of the festival include Mijke de Jong’s Layla M, which premieres in Tiff’s Platform strand.
Germany-based international sales agent Beta Cinema has added four titles to its slate ahead of this month’s Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 8-18).
The company has picked up Mijke de Jong’s drama Layla M [pictured], which is set to premiere in the Platform competition section. The film follows an 18-year-old Dutch girl with Moroccan roots who joins a group of radical Muslims.
Director de Jong won a Crystal Bear at Berlin Film Festival in 2004 for his music drama Bluebird. Layla M was produced by Topkapi Films, Menuet, Chromosom Film, Schiwago Film, and Ntr and will receive its European Premiere in competition at the BFI London Film Festival in October.
Beta has also moved for Mahmoud al Massad’s dark comedy Blessed Benefit, which follows a Jordanian contractor who is imprisoned on an unfair fraud charge. Once inside...
Germany-based international sales agent Beta Cinema has added four titles to its slate ahead of this month’s Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 8-18).
The company has picked up Mijke de Jong’s drama Layla M [pictured], which is set to premiere in the Platform competition section. The film follows an 18-year-old Dutch girl with Moroccan roots who joins a group of radical Muslims.
Director de Jong won a Crystal Bear at Berlin Film Festival in 2004 for his music drama Bluebird. Layla M was produced by Topkapi Films, Menuet, Chromosom Film, Schiwago Film, and Ntr and will receive its European Premiere in competition at the BFI London Film Festival in October.
Beta has also moved for Mahmoud al Massad’s dark comedy Blessed Benefit, which follows a Jordanian contractor who is imprisoned on an unfair fraud charge. Once inside...
- 9/6/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
New film from Pascal Chaumeil, director of A Long Way Down, secures biggest support of more than $500,000; next film in the Department Q series also receives support.
Eurimages is to plough $4.7m (€4,444,000) into 18 feature films and two documentaries, following its latest meeting in London from March 9-12.
Among the titles to receive support is Walking To Paris, from British auteur Peter Greenaway, which received $300,000 (€280,000).
The biopic of sculptor Constantin Brancusi is being made with Dutch producer Kees Kasander. The film will focus on the 18 months when a 27-year-old Brancusi walked through Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France.
The film is due to begin shooting this month in Switzerland.
Speaking to ScreenDaily about the feature early this year, Greenaway said: “Along the way, living off the land as his years of being a shepherd boy had taught him, he had adventures - comic, violent, sexual and romantic - and certainly formative of his future sculpture, constantly building...
Eurimages is to plough $4.7m (€4,444,000) into 18 feature films and two documentaries, following its latest meeting in London from March 9-12.
Among the titles to receive support is Walking To Paris, from British auteur Peter Greenaway, which received $300,000 (€280,000).
The biopic of sculptor Constantin Brancusi is being made with Dutch producer Kees Kasander. The film will focus on the 18 months when a 27-year-old Brancusi walked through Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France.
The film is due to begin shooting this month in Switzerland.
Speaking to ScreenDaily about the feature early this year, Greenaway said: “Along the way, living off the land as his years of being a shepherd boy had taught him, he had adventures - comic, violent, sexual and romantic - and certainly formative of his future sculpture, constantly building...
- 3/18/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Other winners include Joko Anwar’s A Copy Of My Mind, July Jung’s Dora and Davy Chou’s Diamond Island.
This year’s Asian Project Market wrapped today with the Busan Award going to Phan Dang Di’s Vietnamese project Full-Moon Party, and the inaugural Heyi Film & Youku Tudou Award going to Pema Tsedan’s Chinese project The Killer.
Established by Busan Metropolitan City, the first award comes with $20,000.
Currently in development, Full-Moon Party is about a son and his father who flee their village in the wake of a rape and murder and find themselves at a full-moon party with the father’s old classmates.
Phan has previously won awards at Venice and Cannes with Adrift and Bi, Don’t Be Afraid.
Winner of the Heyi Film & Youku Tudou Award, which comes with $30,000, The Killer tells the story of a Tibetan truck driver who meets a Khampa man searching for his father’s murderer in the...
This year’s Asian Project Market wrapped today with the Busan Award going to Phan Dang Di’s Vietnamese project Full-Moon Party, and the inaugural Heyi Film & Youku Tudou Award going to Pema Tsedan’s Chinese project The Killer.
Established by Busan Metropolitan City, the first award comes with $20,000.
Currently in development, Full-Moon Party is about a son and his father who flee their village in the wake of a rape and murder and find themselves at a full-moon party with the father’s old classmates.
Phan has previously won awards at Venice and Cannes with Adrift and Bi, Don’t Be Afraid.
Winner of the Heyi Film & Youku Tudou Award, which comes with $30,000, The Killer tells the story of a Tibetan truck driver who meets a Khampa man searching for his father’s murderer in the...
- 10/8/2014
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
New projects by the producers of Ida and Crulic are among 13 selected from Albania to Ukraine to be pitched at this year’s Connecting Cottbus East-West co-production market (November 6-7).
Poland’s Opus Film, which produced Pawel Pawlikowski’s multi-award winner Ida and co-produced Fatih Akin’s Venice competition title The Cut, and production partner Teamwork Production will be presenting leading Polish stage director Grzegorz Jarzyna’s Owl, The Baker’s Daughter, first pitched in public at the Polish Days in Wroclaw in July.
Romanian producer-director Anca Damian’s (Crulic) Aparte Film will be in Cottbus with In Perfect Health about the son of a judge looking for the reason for his father’s unexpected death and the rest of his life.
Other projects selected for the 16th edition include:
Alexander Kviria’s The Button, which is being produced by Ablabuda Film, the company set up last year by Tamara Tatishvili, the former...
Poland’s Opus Film, which produced Pawel Pawlikowski’s multi-award winner Ida and co-produced Fatih Akin’s Venice competition title The Cut, and production partner Teamwork Production will be presenting leading Polish stage director Grzegorz Jarzyna’s Owl, The Baker’s Daughter, first pitched in public at the Polish Days in Wroclaw in July.
Romanian producer-director Anca Damian’s (Crulic) Aparte Film will be in Cottbus with In Perfect Health about the son of a judge looking for the reason for his father’s unexpected death and the rest of his life.
Other projects selected for the 16th edition include:
Alexander Kviria’s The Button, which is being produced by Ablabuda Film, the company set up last year by Tamara Tatishvili, the former...
- 9/25/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Directors include Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho.Scroll down for full list
Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up including films from directors Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho and July Jung.
Winner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or, Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forbidden Land) will present Sri Lankan project Hair Of The Dog That Bit You.
The drama is about a female tourist guide’s loss of memory and identity, and her struggle to come to terms with what is left of her life and an unknown future.
Cannes 2009 Best Director winner Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay) has Philippines-France-Germany co-production Fowl in the Apm line-up.
The story follows Ramon, a Filipino contract worker working at Singapore Post. When his wife Jenny suddenly dies, he has to travel back to the Philippines with her as if she were one of the many parcels he is so used to handling.
Korean directors...
Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up including films from directors Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho and July Jung.
Winner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or, Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forbidden Land) will present Sri Lankan project Hair Of The Dog That Bit You.
The drama is about a female tourist guide’s loss of memory and identity, and her struggle to come to terms with what is left of her life and an unknown future.
Cannes 2009 Best Director winner Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay) has Philippines-France-Germany co-production Fowl in the Apm line-up.
The story follows Ramon, a Filipino contract worker working at Singapore Post. When his wife Jenny suddenly dies, he has to travel back to the Philippines with her as if she were one of the many parcels he is so used to handling.
Korean directors...
- 8/19/2014
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Directors include Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho.
Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up including directors Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho and July Jung.
Winner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or, Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forbidden Land) will present Sri Lankan project Hair Of The Dog That Bit You.
The drama is about a female tourist guide’s loss of memory and identity, and her struggle to come to terms with what is left of her life and an unknown future.
Cannes 2009 Best Director winner Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay) has Philippines-France-Germany co-production Fowl in the Apm line-up.
The story follows Ramon, a Filipino contract worker working at Singapore Post. When his wife Jenny suddenly dies, he has to travel back to the Philippines with her as if she were one of the many parcels he is so used to handling.
Korean directors include July Jung, the [link=nm...
Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up including directors Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho and July Jung.
Winner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or, Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forbidden Land) will present Sri Lankan project Hair Of The Dog That Bit You.
The drama is about a female tourist guide’s loss of memory and identity, and her struggle to come to terms with what is left of her life and an unknown future.
Cannes 2009 Best Director winner Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay) has Philippines-France-Germany co-production Fowl in the Apm line-up.
The story follows Ramon, a Filipino contract worker working at Singapore Post. When his wife Jenny suddenly dies, he has to travel back to the Philippines with her as if she were one of the many parcels he is so used to handling.
Korean directors include July Jung, the [link=nm...
- 8/19/2014
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Special country focus on Turkey; youth programme moves to neighbouring Buzet.
The Motovun Film Festival is aiming to go back to its “radical roots” for the 17th edition’s programme, which runs July 26-30.
The main programme of 21 films is:
Kelly+Victor, Kieran EvansBad Hair, Mariana RondonBlack Coal. Thin Ice, Diao YinanBoyhood, Richard LinklaterAll Is Lost, J. C. ChandorStratos, Yannis EconomidesIda, Pawel PawlikowskiIn Order Of Disappearance, Peter MollandForce Majeure – Turist, Ruben OstlundVarvari, Ivan IkićAna Ana, Petr LomDjeca Tranzicije, Matija VukšićParis Of The North, Hafsteinn Gunnar SigurdssonFrank, Lenny AbrahamsonBroj 55, Kristijan MilićPolice Officer’s Wife, Phillip GroeningTribe, Miroslav SlaboshpitskyBlind, Eskil VogtHuman Capital, Paolo VirziFinal Cut, Gyorgy Palfi
A surprise film will be added later.
The unusual ‘jury in exile’ will be comprised of people live in exile, are under house arrest or experience travel bans. Femen’s Inna Schevchenko from the Ukraine will be in Motovun but remote jurors will include Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin of the Belarus...
The Motovun Film Festival is aiming to go back to its “radical roots” for the 17th edition’s programme, which runs July 26-30.
The main programme of 21 films is:
Kelly+Victor, Kieran EvansBad Hair, Mariana RondonBlack Coal. Thin Ice, Diao YinanBoyhood, Richard LinklaterAll Is Lost, J. C. ChandorStratos, Yannis EconomidesIda, Pawel PawlikowskiIn Order Of Disappearance, Peter MollandForce Majeure – Turist, Ruben OstlundVarvari, Ivan IkićAna Ana, Petr LomDjeca Tranzicije, Matija VukšićParis Of The North, Hafsteinn Gunnar SigurdssonFrank, Lenny AbrahamsonBroj 55, Kristijan MilićPolice Officer’s Wife, Phillip GroeningTribe, Miroslav SlaboshpitskyBlind, Eskil VogtHuman Capital, Paolo VirziFinal Cut, Gyorgy Palfi
A surprise film will be added later.
The unusual ‘jury in exile’ will be comprised of people live in exile, are under house arrest or experience travel bans. Femen’s Inna Schevchenko from the Ukraine will be in Motovun but remote jurors will include Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin of the Belarus...
- 7/8/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Special country focus on Turkey; youth programme moves to neighbouring Buzet.
The Motovun Film Festival is aiming to go back to its “radical roots” for the 17th edition’s programme, which runs July 26-30.
The main programme of 21 films is:
Kelly+Victor, Kieran EvansBad Hair, Mariana RondonBlack Coal. Thin Ice, Diao YinanBoyhood, Richard LinklaterAll Is Lost, J. C. ChandorStratos, Yannis EconomidesIda, Pawel PawlikowskiIn Order Of Disappearance, Peter MollandForce Majeure – Turist, Ruben OstlundVarvari, Ivan IkićAna Ana, Petr LomDjeca Tranzicije, Matija VukšićParis Of The North, Hafsteinn Gunnar SigurdssonFrank, Lenny AbrahamsonBroj 55, Kristijan MilićPolice Officer’s Wife, Phillip GroeningTribe, Miroslav SlaboshpitskyBlind, Eskil VogtHuman Capital, Paolo VirziFinal Cut, Gyorgy Palfi
A surprise film will be added later.
The unusual ‘jury in exile’ will be comprised of people live in exile, are under house arrest or experience travel bans. Femen’s Inna Schevchenko from the Ukraine will be in Motovun but remote jurors will include Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin of the Belarus...
The Motovun Film Festival is aiming to go back to its “radical roots” for the 17th edition’s programme, which runs July 26-30.
The main programme of 21 films is:
Kelly+Victor, Kieran EvansBad Hair, Mariana RondonBlack Coal. Thin Ice, Diao YinanBoyhood, Richard LinklaterAll Is Lost, J. C. ChandorStratos, Yannis EconomidesIda, Pawel PawlikowskiIn Order Of Disappearance, Peter MollandForce Majeure – Turist, Ruben OstlundVarvari, Ivan IkićAna Ana, Petr LomDjeca Tranzicije, Matija VukšićParis Of The North, Hafsteinn Gunnar SigurdssonFrank, Lenny AbrahamsonBroj 55, Kristijan MilićPolice Officer’s Wife, Phillip GroeningTribe, Miroslav SlaboshpitskyBlind, Eskil VogtHuman Capital, Paolo VirziFinal Cut, Gyorgy Palfi
A surprise film will be added later.
The unusual ‘jury in exile’ will be comprised of people live in exile, are under house arrest or experience travel bans. Femen’s Inna Schevchenko from the Ukraine will be in Motovun but remote jurors will include Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin of the Belarus...
- 7/8/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Actor prizes go to Dame Judi Dench and Jesse Eisenberg; Enough Said, starring the late James Gandolfini, wins audience award.Scroll down for full list of winners
The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.
The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.
The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.
The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best...
The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.
The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.
The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.
The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best...
- 10/31/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Actor prizes go to Dame Judi Dench and Jesse Eisenberg; Enough Said, starring the late James Gandolfini, wins audience award.
The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.
The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.
The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.
The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best actress for her performance in Stephen Frears’ [link...
The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.
The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.
The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.
The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best actress for her performance in Stephen Frears’ [link...
- 10/31/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The 11th Pune International Film Festival (January 10-17, 2013) has announced its slate for 2013. These films will be screened under nine sections: International Competition, Marathi Competition, Student Competition (live action and animation), Global Cinema, Country Focus, Retrospective, Tribute, Indian Cinema and Regional Cinema.
Israeli film Hayuta and Berl by Amir Manor will open the festival on 10th January. See the schedule here.
Feature films at the festival contend for the Best Film, Best Director and Government of Maharashtra “Sant Tukaram” Best International Marathi Film Award. The Marathi films in competition will vie for the Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography Awards. The Student Competition will also have a Special Award and a cash prize.
Eighty contemporary films from more than 50 countries will be screened under the Global Cinema section. Hungary and South Korea will be the Countries in Focus with the screening of six and seven films, respectively.
Israeli film Hayuta and Berl by Amir Manor will open the festival on 10th January. See the schedule here.
Feature films at the festival contend for the Best Film, Best Director and Government of Maharashtra “Sant Tukaram” Best International Marathi Film Award. The Marathi films in competition will vie for the Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography Awards. The Student Competition will also have a Special Award and a cash prize.
Eighty contemporary films from more than 50 countries will be screened under the Global Cinema section. Hungary and South Korea will be the Countries in Focus with the screening of six and seven films, respectively.
- 1/9/2013
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
The Doha Tribeca Film Festival (Dtff), the annual cultural celebration of Doha Film Institute (Dfi), has announced the juries to select the winners of the Arab Film Competition, the only competition at any regional film festival dedicated wholly to honouring Arab cinema talent. The members of the four juries, drawn from across the world, include internationally acclaimed film professionals, authors and cultural thought leaders. They will evaluate the Arab Film Competition's three segments - Feature Narrative, Feature Documentary and Short Film - as well as the 'Made in Qatar' segment of the festival, devoted to films made by Qatar-based talent. The awards have total prize money of over Us$440,000. The Feature Narrative jury will be headed by renowned Tunisian actress Hend Sabry (The Yacoubian Building, Whatever Lola Wants and Asmaa). The other jury members are: Indian director Ashutoush Gowariker (Lagaan, Jodhaa Akbar); Dr. Emad Amralla Sultan, Deputy General Manager of...
- 11/19/2012
- by Bollywood Hungama News Network
- BollywoodHungama
A luscious exploration of halfway points in love, morally and freedom against the backdrop of industrial Turkey. Since her debut in 1994 with .The Trace,. Turkish filmmaker Yesim Ustaoglu continued her string of successes with .Pandora.s Box. (winning at San Sebastian) and now her latest, .Araf. screening at the New York Film Festival. Simmering with sadness, heartbreak and redemption, the film reflects a style and depth reminiscent of the Golden Days of cinema. Each long, thoughtful take, carefully blocked and presented, is a photographic fantasy to be savored. This is not an action movie. The action takes place within the hearts and minds of the lead character Zehra (Neslihan Atagül) and her lovers Olgun (Baris Hacihan) and Mahur (Özcan...
- 10/19/2012
- by Ron Wilkinson
- Monsters and Critics
There isn’t much that can prepare you for the drastic second-half turn of “Araf,” an often-gorgeous drama playing in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival. Evocative and somewhat alien in equal measure, “Araf” takes place in a withered Turkish countryside that might as well be another planet. We see the economic strife through the lava runoff that occurs in the very first shot of the film, lumbering out of a cauldron, spilling out onto the land. Though fairly mundane within the lives of the characters (one of whom is discussing sex in voiceover as the orange-red substance burns all that lies underneath it), it’s an introduction that rivals the eye-opening early shots of Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” though while it was that film’s high point, here it’s an example of a world dying while underdeveloped, neglected, managed and monitored by day laborers barely getting by on their own.
- 10/3/2012
- by Gabe Toro
- The Playlist
To my friends and readers: We are about to conclude the Jewish High Holidays which began 10 days ago with Rosh Hashanah and ends tomorrow with Yom Kippur. In the spirit of this season, I must ask everyone, if I have offended any of you, whether knowingly or unknowingly, I ask your forgiveness. If I have not published articles I promised you I would, please forgive me. I meant to when I said I would but have so many other commitments and things I must do. I am sure that the article is not forgotten and I may get to it in the coming year. But I ask forgiveness for overreaching and for commitments and promises I have not kept.
By the way this free ranging stream of consciousness blog will go, it could also be called Jews in the News, the “News” being New Years and New York, and of course films. Imagining this as a new feature, and because it might only run once a year, I am going to use it here as a platform to mention everyone on my mind as they come up as a sort of New Year’s wrap up of things left undone.
To begin, I am writing about all the people and things I saw and did in New York and, again, I hope friends I don’t mention will forgive me. Like Lynda Hansen whom I did see at New York Film Society's Walter Reade Theater…or Wanda Bershan whom I saw across the room at a press screening or Gary Crowdes the editor-in-chief of Cineaste Magazine and whom I meant to greet but didn’t. I saw so many old New York friends and acquaintances and because it was New Years and a time of reflection, I revisited what were my circumstances when I left it in 1985 to return to L.A.
When I first moved to New York in 1980 to work for ABC Video Enterprises, I had spent 5 years practicing Orthodox Judaism. Being in New York represented the apotheosis of all things Jewish (outside of Israel, whose films and festivals will be the subject of another blog - excuse me Katriel Schory of the Israeli Film Fund and Alesia Weston the new director of the Jerusalem Film Festival). In New York, even those who were not Jewish by religion seemed Jewish to me by virtue of living in New York. When I realized this, my own Orthdoxy fell away from me as if I were shedding a cloak. I understood that my Jewish self was Jewish no matter what life style I would live. And I liked the New York life style most of all.
After Tiff 12 (Toronto International Film Festival 2012), Peter and I came for a week of relaxation to New York City. What a city! So New York, in-your-face, loud, crowded, lots of horns honking, and people: People. The best. We saw our friends, we saw New York with New Eyes.
We arrived by train from the airport, straight to our apartment! What great rapid transit, even if it is old and ugly, so blackened by dirt and age. I noticed new decorations on some walls of some stations, some works were better than others. I wish we had such a quick easy way to zoom around our fair city of L.A.
We stayed in an apartment in Chelsea – that of our daughter’s mother-in-law who lives half the year in the apartments built by the Amalgamated Ladies Garment Union. (The other half she spends in Truro.) Such history! Coincidently these are the very apartments I had wanted to live in when I was leaving NYC in 1985.
We were invited to a screening by Hisami Kuroiwa, whose friendship goes back to our early days in Cannes, or back to the days she produced Smoke and Blue in the Face with my other old friend Peter Newman. Araf (Venice Ff, Tokyo Ff, Isa: The Match Factory), which she associate produced, will be presented at the New York Film Festival (NYFF50), September 28 – October 14. The press screening at the new Walter Reade Theater was a great treat. The film’s director, Yesim Ustaoglu, ♀, who also directed Journey to the Sun and Pandora’s Box spoke via Skype at the press Q&A afterward.
Araf in Turkish means “somewhere in between”. The Somewhere in Between in the film is a 24-hour restaurant halfway between Ankara and Istanbul. The young girl whose first job it is; her friend – an “older” woman, not much older than herself who becomes her guide to adulthood; the girl’s childhood friend who works there as a teaboy and whose mother is not much older than the other two women and a truck driver who comes through en route, are the protagonists in this piece which brings to life a very distant place where the people’s most intimate issues are very much like our own to the degree that all the women share the same life issues of sex, love, work and family today in a world where traditions are giving way to the exigencies of modern life.
The issues are so much the same as what we are facing today, namely, our own bodies and all that entails. Parenthetically, these are the same issues in The Patience Stone (Isa: Le Pacte), which takes my prize for the Best Female Film at Tiff 12.
Both of these films deeply affected me in my own ways. When I say “affected”, what I mean is that some thought comes into my head which seems unrelated to the film but comes so suddenly and vividly to me and illuminates some part of my life. When this happens to me during a film, I know the film is really good because it is affecting a subconscious part of me and of something of concern to me. A thought comes to me which makes my life come together in a new way and I sometimes feel transformed by the experience. This is my criteria for what makes a good film. Of course story, script, direction, cast, music, costume and art decoration also count, but in the end, it is the emotional impact a film has upon me as a passive viewer which makes it a winning film for me. The same pertains to me for all art, whether painting, architecture (Wow factor here for NYC on the architecture front!) , sculpture, music, dancing, etc.
We were given a week’s guest pass to The Sports Center at Chelsea Piers by Alan Adelson whose documentary about James Joyce's hero, Leo Bloom in Ulysses, In Bed with Ulysses, is an exciting new film which I hope to see in the upcoming festival circuit. At the dinner, prepared and served by Alan and his wife Katie Taverna, an editor, who also has a new documentary about to surface, I was astounded by their home - so New York. Only in New York could someone live in Tribeca’s 19th century warehouse district in such an architecturally unique home amid such astounding works of art. Docu filmmaker, Deborah Schaffer and her late dear husband, the N.Y. architecht, Larry Bagdanow, introduced us to Alan several years ago. He also publishes Jewish Heritage Press, and he gave me a beautiful book entitled, The Last Bright Days: A Young Woman’s life in a Lithuanian Shtetl on the Eve of the Holocaust . Beile Delechy who, along with her brother, were the photographers for a small town called Kararsk in Lithuania, brought her photographs with her when she left Europe for the U.S. in 1938. They show the everyday reality for Jews and Lithuanians during the 1930s. Published by Jewish Heritage and Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, this book embodies my own aspirations. If I could have my books on my family published in such a way as this, I would die happy.
Speaking of Lithuania and this blog, being Jews in the News, must also cover some other Eastern European news because like New York, its innate character still seems Jewish, even though there are very few Jews there. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in the subject however, among the third generation since the Shoah.
Kaunas International Film Festival’s Tomas Tangmark, who heads distribution for the festival, is also a filmmaker whom I met at Wroclaw’s American Film Festival last November. By now his 12 minute short films should have wrapped. In Cannes, when we met again, he showed me his financial plan for “Breshter Bund – A Union Forever” which has received Development Support from the Swedish Film Institute and money from Swedish TV, has a production budget of around €25,000. It is about the workers at the Vindsberg factory in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania in 1896. Influenced by the current events in the world, the workers at the factory organize a strike. Their demand is a 10-hour working day. Whether they win, or lose, the outcome could change The Russian Empire. It was to shoot on location in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania in Yiddish this year.
This 12 minute short is only 1 of the 2 Yiddish language films we have heard about. Peter also heard about a feature which will be entirely in Yiddish. Thank you Coen Brothers whose A Serious Man opened the way!
When I was in Cannes this past year, I heard about Jewish Alley (Judengasse) at The Short Film Corner. Unfortunately Blancke Degenhardt Schuetz Film Produktion GmbH did not include any contact information on the brochure I picked up. Judengassse tells of the ordeal that the Jewish family Blumenfeld undergoes from 1933 to 1938. It is shot in B&W from a single camera position and presents the Holocaust and thoughts for the coexistence of different cultures in our modern society.
Also in Cannes I was so sorry to miss Raphael Berdugo’s second film since he left his company, Roissy Films, in the hands of EuropaCorp in 2008. The Other Son (Le fils de l’Autre) (Isa: La Cite, U.S.: Cohen Media Group) directed by Lorraine Levy ♀ about a man preparing to join the Israeli army who discovers he is not his parents’ biological son. In fact, he was inadvertently switched at birth with the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank.
Returning to the subject of Eastern Europe in Cannes, Odessa comes to mind. Odessa cinema tradition began in 1894, a year and a half before the Lumiere brothers showed on the Boulevard des Capucines and its first studio opened in 1907. Serge Eisenstein made Odessa legend. On the very place where Battleship Potemkin was filmed, the Odessa Film Festival holds an open-air screening for 12,000 with a view of the sea. During their first year, there were 30,000 attendees. By year three, there were 100,000. It takes place in an opera house on a level of that in Vienna, but their emperor did not pay as in Austria; the people themselves paid for the building. There are $15,000 cash prizes giving for Best Film, Best, Director, and Best Actor. Tomboy won last year. It has a small market for Russian and Ukrainian films, a pitch session and a “summer school” where the students live in tents at attend master classes and a sort of Talent Campus. There is good food by the sea! Don’t you want to attend? I’m hoping to find a way to go, especially after Ilya Dyadik, the program director, so graciously showed me all that goes on there and introduced me to Denis Maslikov, the Managing Director of the Ukrainian Producers Association. It takes place in July.
Estonia is another country on my mind. During Tiff A Lady in Paris (Isa: Pyramide) warmed my soul. Starring Jeanne Moreau, and costarring Laine MÄGI, an actress who reminds me of Katie Outinen, (Kaurimaki's favorite actress) the film was about women and love and oh so French! How could you not love the imperious Jeanne Moreau wearing Chanel and being won over by an Eastern European drudge who, under Moreau’s tutelage transforms herself in a vividly chic woman. And ,Patrick Pineau, who plays the owner of of those upscale cafes you like to have lunch in when in Paris, only needs to take one small step toward Laine, and oh la la, you too fall in love with him!
Edith Sepp, the film advisor for the Estonian Ministry of Culture, met us originally at the Vilnius Film Festival in Lithuania and we had a lot of fun hanging out there. We already had a connection to Estonia because the Estonian American documentary The Singing Revolution was our client’s film. We introduced our client to Richard Abramowitz in 2006 who did extraordinarily well with the film’s theatrical release. Edith invited us to their Cannes reception at Plage des Palmes and we continued our conversation. At Tiff 12 and Karlovy Vary, their film Mushrooming screened, but the one I am really eager to see is In the Crosswind. It shot through four seasons. The director is a 23 year old young man and this is his first film. It cost 700,000 Euros which went into historical costumes, extras and a new technology he is creating to make a profound drama about the relocation of whole populations by the Soviets, a theme which has shaped European history. I hope to see it in Berlin…or Cannes…or Venice.. The film is a sort of documentary story, somewhat similar to Waltz with Bashir, but it is old in live action and with still photography. During Cannes, they were seeking 200,000 Euros to complete the film. There is much to say about both of the Eastern European countries with their new generation of articulate and talented filmmakers. I hope they will be the subject of another blog or two in the coming year.
One last note on Eastern European films. A veteran Czech producer, Rudolf Biermann whom we know since the early days of Karlovy Vary's freedom from the Soviet bloc, is still producing young, fresh comedies like the one one that showed at Tiff 12, The Holy Quaternity by Jan Hrebejk (Isa: Montecristo). This romp brings marital sex which has become boring to a new and simple solution between two couples who have been best friends throughout their marriage. It's risque and sweet and plays with two generations' differing views on the sex games we play for fun.
But I have digressed from New York...And now I must go to Yom Kippur services for the rest of today. This blog will be continued tomorrow!! Watch for Part II which will be about New York!
By the way this free ranging stream of consciousness blog will go, it could also be called Jews in the News, the “News” being New Years and New York, and of course films. Imagining this as a new feature, and because it might only run once a year, I am going to use it here as a platform to mention everyone on my mind as they come up as a sort of New Year’s wrap up of things left undone.
To begin, I am writing about all the people and things I saw and did in New York and, again, I hope friends I don’t mention will forgive me. Like Lynda Hansen whom I did see at New York Film Society's Walter Reade Theater…or Wanda Bershan whom I saw across the room at a press screening or Gary Crowdes the editor-in-chief of Cineaste Magazine and whom I meant to greet but didn’t. I saw so many old New York friends and acquaintances and because it was New Years and a time of reflection, I revisited what were my circumstances when I left it in 1985 to return to L.A.
When I first moved to New York in 1980 to work for ABC Video Enterprises, I had spent 5 years practicing Orthodox Judaism. Being in New York represented the apotheosis of all things Jewish (outside of Israel, whose films and festivals will be the subject of another blog - excuse me Katriel Schory of the Israeli Film Fund and Alesia Weston the new director of the Jerusalem Film Festival). In New York, even those who were not Jewish by religion seemed Jewish to me by virtue of living in New York. When I realized this, my own Orthdoxy fell away from me as if I were shedding a cloak. I understood that my Jewish self was Jewish no matter what life style I would live. And I liked the New York life style most of all.
After Tiff 12 (Toronto International Film Festival 2012), Peter and I came for a week of relaxation to New York City. What a city! So New York, in-your-face, loud, crowded, lots of horns honking, and people: People. The best. We saw our friends, we saw New York with New Eyes.
We arrived by train from the airport, straight to our apartment! What great rapid transit, even if it is old and ugly, so blackened by dirt and age. I noticed new decorations on some walls of some stations, some works were better than others. I wish we had such a quick easy way to zoom around our fair city of L.A.
We stayed in an apartment in Chelsea – that of our daughter’s mother-in-law who lives half the year in the apartments built by the Amalgamated Ladies Garment Union. (The other half she spends in Truro.) Such history! Coincidently these are the very apartments I had wanted to live in when I was leaving NYC in 1985.
We were invited to a screening by Hisami Kuroiwa, whose friendship goes back to our early days in Cannes, or back to the days she produced Smoke and Blue in the Face with my other old friend Peter Newman. Araf (Venice Ff, Tokyo Ff, Isa: The Match Factory), which she associate produced, will be presented at the New York Film Festival (NYFF50), September 28 – October 14. The press screening at the new Walter Reade Theater was a great treat. The film’s director, Yesim Ustaoglu, ♀, who also directed Journey to the Sun and Pandora’s Box spoke via Skype at the press Q&A afterward.
Araf in Turkish means “somewhere in between”. The Somewhere in Between in the film is a 24-hour restaurant halfway between Ankara and Istanbul. The young girl whose first job it is; her friend – an “older” woman, not much older than herself who becomes her guide to adulthood; the girl’s childhood friend who works there as a teaboy and whose mother is not much older than the other two women and a truck driver who comes through en route, are the protagonists in this piece which brings to life a very distant place where the people’s most intimate issues are very much like our own to the degree that all the women share the same life issues of sex, love, work and family today in a world where traditions are giving way to the exigencies of modern life.
The issues are so much the same as what we are facing today, namely, our own bodies and all that entails. Parenthetically, these are the same issues in The Patience Stone (Isa: Le Pacte), which takes my prize for the Best Female Film at Tiff 12.
Both of these films deeply affected me in my own ways. When I say “affected”, what I mean is that some thought comes into my head which seems unrelated to the film but comes so suddenly and vividly to me and illuminates some part of my life. When this happens to me during a film, I know the film is really good because it is affecting a subconscious part of me and of something of concern to me. A thought comes to me which makes my life come together in a new way and I sometimes feel transformed by the experience. This is my criteria for what makes a good film. Of course story, script, direction, cast, music, costume and art decoration also count, but in the end, it is the emotional impact a film has upon me as a passive viewer which makes it a winning film for me. The same pertains to me for all art, whether painting, architecture (Wow factor here for NYC on the architecture front!) , sculpture, music, dancing, etc.
We were given a week’s guest pass to The Sports Center at Chelsea Piers by Alan Adelson whose documentary about James Joyce's hero, Leo Bloom in Ulysses, In Bed with Ulysses, is an exciting new film which I hope to see in the upcoming festival circuit. At the dinner, prepared and served by Alan and his wife Katie Taverna, an editor, who also has a new documentary about to surface, I was astounded by their home - so New York. Only in New York could someone live in Tribeca’s 19th century warehouse district in such an architecturally unique home amid such astounding works of art. Docu filmmaker, Deborah Schaffer and her late dear husband, the N.Y. architecht, Larry Bagdanow, introduced us to Alan several years ago. He also publishes Jewish Heritage Press, and he gave me a beautiful book entitled, The Last Bright Days: A Young Woman’s life in a Lithuanian Shtetl on the Eve of the Holocaust . Beile Delechy who, along with her brother, were the photographers for a small town called Kararsk in Lithuania, brought her photographs with her when she left Europe for the U.S. in 1938. They show the everyday reality for Jews and Lithuanians during the 1930s. Published by Jewish Heritage and Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, this book embodies my own aspirations. If I could have my books on my family published in such a way as this, I would die happy.
Speaking of Lithuania and this blog, being Jews in the News, must also cover some other Eastern European news because like New York, its innate character still seems Jewish, even though there are very few Jews there. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in the subject however, among the third generation since the Shoah.
Kaunas International Film Festival’s Tomas Tangmark, who heads distribution for the festival, is also a filmmaker whom I met at Wroclaw’s American Film Festival last November. By now his 12 minute short films should have wrapped. In Cannes, when we met again, he showed me his financial plan for “Breshter Bund – A Union Forever” which has received Development Support from the Swedish Film Institute and money from Swedish TV, has a production budget of around €25,000. It is about the workers at the Vindsberg factory in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania in 1896. Influenced by the current events in the world, the workers at the factory organize a strike. Their demand is a 10-hour working day. Whether they win, or lose, the outcome could change The Russian Empire. It was to shoot on location in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania in Yiddish this year.
This 12 minute short is only 1 of the 2 Yiddish language films we have heard about. Peter also heard about a feature which will be entirely in Yiddish. Thank you Coen Brothers whose A Serious Man opened the way!
When I was in Cannes this past year, I heard about Jewish Alley (Judengasse) at The Short Film Corner. Unfortunately Blancke Degenhardt Schuetz Film Produktion GmbH did not include any contact information on the brochure I picked up. Judengassse tells of the ordeal that the Jewish family Blumenfeld undergoes from 1933 to 1938. It is shot in B&W from a single camera position and presents the Holocaust and thoughts for the coexistence of different cultures in our modern society.
Also in Cannes I was so sorry to miss Raphael Berdugo’s second film since he left his company, Roissy Films, in the hands of EuropaCorp in 2008. The Other Son (Le fils de l’Autre) (Isa: La Cite, U.S.: Cohen Media Group) directed by Lorraine Levy ♀ about a man preparing to join the Israeli army who discovers he is not his parents’ biological son. In fact, he was inadvertently switched at birth with the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank.
Returning to the subject of Eastern Europe in Cannes, Odessa comes to mind. Odessa cinema tradition began in 1894, a year and a half before the Lumiere brothers showed on the Boulevard des Capucines and its first studio opened in 1907. Serge Eisenstein made Odessa legend. On the very place where Battleship Potemkin was filmed, the Odessa Film Festival holds an open-air screening for 12,000 with a view of the sea. During their first year, there were 30,000 attendees. By year three, there were 100,000. It takes place in an opera house on a level of that in Vienna, but their emperor did not pay as in Austria; the people themselves paid for the building. There are $15,000 cash prizes giving for Best Film, Best, Director, and Best Actor. Tomboy won last year. It has a small market for Russian and Ukrainian films, a pitch session and a “summer school” where the students live in tents at attend master classes and a sort of Talent Campus. There is good food by the sea! Don’t you want to attend? I’m hoping to find a way to go, especially after Ilya Dyadik, the program director, so graciously showed me all that goes on there and introduced me to Denis Maslikov, the Managing Director of the Ukrainian Producers Association. It takes place in July.
Estonia is another country on my mind. During Tiff A Lady in Paris (Isa: Pyramide) warmed my soul. Starring Jeanne Moreau, and costarring Laine MÄGI, an actress who reminds me of Katie Outinen, (Kaurimaki's favorite actress) the film was about women and love and oh so French! How could you not love the imperious Jeanne Moreau wearing Chanel and being won over by an Eastern European drudge who, under Moreau’s tutelage transforms herself in a vividly chic woman. And ,Patrick Pineau, who plays the owner of of those upscale cafes you like to have lunch in when in Paris, only needs to take one small step toward Laine, and oh la la, you too fall in love with him!
Edith Sepp, the film advisor for the Estonian Ministry of Culture, met us originally at the Vilnius Film Festival in Lithuania and we had a lot of fun hanging out there. We already had a connection to Estonia because the Estonian American documentary The Singing Revolution was our client’s film. We introduced our client to Richard Abramowitz in 2006 who did extraordinarily well with the film’s theatrical release. Edith invited us to their Cannes reception at Plage des Palmes and we continued our conversation. At Tiff 12 and Karlovy Vary, their film Mushrooming screened, but the one I am really eager to see is In the Crosswind. It shot through four seasons. The director is a 23 year old young man and this is his first film. It cost 700,000 Euros which went into historical costumes, extras and a new technology he is creating to make a profound drama about the relocation of whole populations by the Soviets, a theme which has shaped European history. I hope to see it in Berlin…or Cannes…or Venice.. The film is a sort of documentary story, somewhat similar to Waltz with Bashir, but it is old in live action and with still photography. During Cannes, they were seeking 200,000 Euros to complete the film. There is much to say about both of the Eastern European countries with their new generation of articulate and talented filmmakers. I hope they will be the subject of another blog or two in the coming year.
One last note on Eastern European films. A veteran Czech producer, Rudolf Biermann whom we know since the early days of Karlovy Vary's freedom from the Soviet bloc, is still producing young, fresh comedies like the one one that showed at Tiff 12, The Holy Quaternity by Jan Hrebejk (Isa: Montecristo). This romp brings marital sex which has become boring to a new and simple solution between two couples who have been best friends throughout their marriage. It's risque and sweet and plays with two generations' differing views on the sex games we play for fun.
But I have digressed from New York...And now I must go to Yom Kippur services for the rest of today. This blog will be continued tomorrow!! Watch for Part II which will be about New York!
- 9/26/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The full line-up for the 2012 New York Film Festival has been announced. I've been impressed with the line-ups for the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, but they both have a surprising omission: Michael Haneke's Amour, which one the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. However, it won't be bypassing the fall festival circuit entirely, and it will make its North American debut at Nyff. The festival will also open with Ang Lee's Life of Pi and Robert Zemeckis' Flight. In between, you have other exciting films like David Chase's Not Fade Away, Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, Roger Michell's Hyde Park on Hudson, Brian de Palma's Passion, and more. Hit the jump for the full line-up. Tickets for the 2012 New York Film Festival go on sale September 9th. The festival runs from September 28 – October 14th. Thanks to The Playlist...
- 8/16/2012
- by Matt Goldberg
- Collider.com
HollywoodNews.com: After a little bit of pondering on my part, the question of what will be playing this year at the New York Film Festival has now been answered. 32 films will comprise the main section of the fest, according to the Nyff website (here), and besides the movies already known about, we'll also be seeing 'Amour', 'Frances', 'Holy Motors', 'Hyde Park on Hudson', and 'Passion' represent some of the most notable entries. After the jump you can see the full lineup, but it's looking like a really stellar film festival (I'm especially interested in that new flick from Noah Baumbach). Amour (Michael Haneke, Austria/France/Germany) Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner of Cannes 2012 is a merciless and compassionate masterpiece about an elderly couple dealing with the ravages of old age. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Araf—Somewhere In Between (Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Turkey/France...
- 8/16/2012
- by Clayton Davis
- Hollywoodnews.com
After Venice and Toronto unveiled their strong assembly of titles, the 50th annual New York Film Festival have released this year’s primary lineup. Short answer: We won’t be left out in the cold this fall.
Though not necessarily on the same massive scale as last year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center look to be offering some of world cinema’s finest options for 2012. The biggest title would, unquestionably, have to be Michael Haneke‘s Palme d’Or winner, Amour, while “the rest,” if you’re so callous as to call it that, include some of our favorite Cannes selections — including Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone in Love, or Leos Carax‘s Holy Motors. Sure, maybe Beyond the Hills was a flat bore that didn’t live up to its director’s last effort, but at least I get to find out for myself.
Past those obvious picks,...
Though not necessarily on the same massive scale as last year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center look to be offering some of world cinema’s finest options for 2012. The biggest title would, unquestionably, have to be Michael Haneke‘s Palme d’Or winner, Amour, while “the rest,” if you’re so callous as to call it that, include some of our favorite Cannes selections — including Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone in Love, or Leos Carax‘s Holy Motors. Sure, maybe Beyond the Hills was a flat bore that didn’t live up to its director’s last effort, but at least I get to find out for myself.
Past those obvious picks,...
- 8/16/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
by Terence Johnson
HollywoodNews.com: Hot on the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival announcing their titles comes word from Venice about the films to be featured at the 69th Venice Film Festival.
With 60 films, the selection includes a wide range of anticipated titles such as Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, Passion from Brian De Palma and The Company You Keep directed by Robert Redford, as well as 20 films from female directors. Surprisingly, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is not included in the lineup, might this mean it will be skipping the festivals? Check out the full list after the jump!
Competition Films
Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas (France)
Outrage: Beyond, Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
Fill The Void, Rama Burshtein (Israel)
To the Wonder, Terrence Malick (U.S.)
Pieta, Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)
Dormant Beauty, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
E’ stato il figlio, Daniele Cipri (Italy)
At Any Price,...
HollywoodNews.com: Hot on the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival announcing their titles comes word from Venice about the films to be featured at the 69th Venice Film Festival.
With 60 films, the selection includes a wide range of anticipated titles such as Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, Passion from Brian De Palma and The Company You Keep directed by Robert Redford, as well as 20 films from female directors. Surprisingly, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is not included in the lineup, might this mean it will be skipping the festivals? Check out the full list after the jump!
Competition Films
Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas (France)
Outrage: Beyond, Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
Fill The Void, Rama Burshtein (Israel)
To the Wonder, Terrence Malick (U.S.)
Pieta, Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)
Dormant Beauty, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
E’ stato il figlio, Daniele Cipri (Italy)
At Any Price,...
- 7/26/2012
- by Clayton Davis
- Hollywoodnews.com
With the line-up for the Toronto International Film Festival dropping a few days ago and the list for Venice out today, the festival circuit has arrived!
The lead stories for the Venice line-up aren't nearly as exciting as those coming out of Toronto. Harmony Korrine's "Spring Breakers" with James Franco and Selena Gomez will make its debut, as will Brian De Palma's "Passion" with Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams.
Perhaps the biggest headline here is the absence of Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," a film that was expected to appear here. Skipping Venice is just more proof that the rumors of a Fantastic Fest debut may be true.
Check out the full line-up (via The Playlist) after the jump!
Opening Film (Out Of Competition)
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist," Mira Nair (U.S.,Qatar)
Competition
"To The Wonder," Terrence Malick (U.S.)
"Something in the Air," Olivier Assayas (France)
"Outrage:Beyond,...
The lead stories for the Venice line-up aren't nearly as exciting as those coming out of Toronto. Harmony Korrine's "Spring Breakers" with James Franco and Selena Gomez will make its debut, as will Brian De Palma's "Passion" with Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams.
Perhaps the biggest headline here is the absence of Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," a film that was expected to appear here. Skipping Venice is just more proof that the rumors of a Fantastic Fest debut may be true.
Check out the full line-up (via The Playlist) after the jump!
Opening Film (Out Of Competition)
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist," Mira Nair (U.S.,Qatar)
Competition
"To The Wonder," Terrence Malick (U.S.)
"Something in the Air," Olivier Assayas (France)
"Outrage:Beyond,...
- 7/26/2012
- by Kevin P. Sullivan
- MTV Movies Blog
The complete lineup for the 69th Venice Film Festival has been announced! Despite rumors, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master will not be playing at the festival, but the slate remains just as exciting, with new entries from Assayas, Kitano, de Palma, Korine, Ramin Bahrani, and Kim Ki-Duk—plus Raúl Ruiz's second "last film" of the season (Lines of Wellington, completed by his widow and longtime editor Valeria Sarmiento) and the infamously meditative Terrence Malick's second feature in two years.
In Competition
Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas (France)
At Any Price, Ramin Bahrani (Us, UK)
Dormant Beauty, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
La Cinquieme Saison, Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth (Belgium-Netherlands-France)
Fill The Void, Rama Bursztyn and Yigal Bursztyn (Israel)
E' stato il figlio, Daniele Cipri (Italy)
Un Giorno Speciale, Francesca Comencini (Italy)
Passion, Brian De Palma (France-Germany)
Superstar, Xavier Giannoli (France-Belgium)
Pieta, Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)
Outrage: Beyond,...
In Competition
Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas (France)
At Any Price, Ramin Bahrani (Us, UK)
Dormant Beauty, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
La Cinquieme Saison, Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth (Belgium-Netherlands-France)
Fill The Void, Rama Bursztyn and Yigal Bursztyn (Israel)
E' stato il figlio, Daniele Cipri (Italy)
Un Giorno Speciale, Francesca Comencini (Italy)
Passion, Brian De Palma (France-Germany)
Superstar, Xavier Giannoli (France-Belgium)
Pieta, Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)
Outrage: Beyond,...
- 7/26/2012
- MUBI
French actor known for her role as the cantankerous widow in Tatie Danielle, the 1990 film directed by Étienne Chatiliez
With her remarkable portrayal of the cantankerous, mean-spirited and selfish widow in Tatie Danielle (1990), Tsilla Chelton joined the ranks of those elderly female performers who, after a long career in show business, suddenly find themselves as film stars. Like Katie Johnson in The Ladykillers (1955) and Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude (1972), Chelton, who has died aged 93, finally moved into the limelight in her 70s.
In this second feature directed by Étienne Chatiliez, Auntie Danielle manipulates everyone around her, including her great-nephew, his family and a housekeeper whom she regularly abuses, until she meets her match in a young woman paid to look after her. Not pathetic or twinkly-eyed, as older people are generally depicted in the movies, Chelton, in the antipathetic title role, is on screen most of the time, not seeking understanding,...
With her remarkable portrayal of the cantankerous, mean-spirited and selfish widow in Tatie Danielle (1990), Tsilla Chelton joined the ranks of those elderly female performers who, after a long career in show business, suddenly find themselves as film stars. Like Katie Johnson in The Ladykillers (1955) and Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude (1972), Chelton, who has died aged 93, finally moved into the limelight in her 70s.
In this second feature directed by Étienne Chatiliez, Auntie Danielle manipulates everyone around her, including her great-nephew, his family and a housekeeper whom she regularly abuses, until she meets her match in a young woman paid to look after her. Not pathetic or twinkly-eyed, as older people are generally depicted in the movies, Chelton, in the antipathetic title role, is on screen most of the time, not seeking understanding,...
- 7/22/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
From Turkish versions of Tarzan and Dracula to wintry weepies, via (whisper it) Midnight Express, Fiachra Gibbons picks out the best films shot in Istanbul
• As featured in our Istanbul city guide
From Russia with Love, Terence Young, 1963
"They dance for him, they yearn for him, they die for him …" From Russia with Love is not only arguably the best of the Bond films, it set the template for all that followed, right down to the corny one-liners. This is Tatiana, the Russian double-agent love interest succumbing to Sean Connery's charms: "The mechanism is… Oh James… Will you make love to me all the time in England?" "Day and night, darling… Go on about the mechanism…" The film was shot when the city's population was less than two million (it has mushroomed to more than 13 million today), and it's a magic carpet ride back to a time when Istanbul teemed with hamals,...
• As featured in our Istanbul city guide
From Russia with Love, Terence Young, 1963
"They dance for him, they yearn for him, they die for him …" From Russia with Love is not only arguably the best of the Bond films, it set the template for all that followed, right down to the corny one-liners. This is Tatiana, the Russian double-agent love interest succumbing to Sean Connery's charms: "The mechanism is… Oh James… Will you make love to me all the time in England?" "Day and night, darling… Go on about the mechanism…" The film was shot when the city's population was less than two million (it has mushroomed to more than 13 million today), and it's a magic carpet ride back to a time when Istanbul teemed with hamals,...
- 9/14/2011
- by Fiachra Gibbons
- The Guardian - Film News
Berlin -- The Berlin Film Festival's World Cinema Fund (Wcf) has picked three new projects -- from Uzbekistan, Israel and Boliva -- in its latest round of production funding.
The Wcf granted around $105,000 in financing to "40 Days of Silence" from Uzbek director Saodat Ismailova, $75,000 for Israeli drama "The Slut" from Hagar Ben Ashaer and some $45,000 towards production of the documentary "Out of Place" from Bolivian director Diego Mondaca.
Berlin-based production company Rohfilm will act as co-producer on both "40 Days" and "The Slut," in the later case re-teaming with Isreal's Transfax Film. Pucara Films will produce "Out of Place."
The Wcf also approved distribution funding for the German release of four films it helped co-finance: Claudia Llosa's Berlin Golden Bear winner "The Milk of Sorrow;" "Ajami" from Israel's Yaron Shani and Palestinian director Scandar Copti, and Turkish features "Autumn/Herbst" from Ozcan Alper and Yesim Ustaoglu's "Pandora's Box."
The World Cinema Fund,...
The Wcf granted around $105,000 in financing to "40 Days of Silence" from Uzbek director Saodat Ismailova, $75,000 for Israeli drama "The Slut" from Hagar Ben Ashaer and some $45,000 towards production of the documentary "Out of Place" from Bolivian director Diego Mondaca.
Berlin-based production company Rohfilm will act as co-producer on both "40 Days" and "The Slut," in the later case re-teaming with Isreal's Transfax Film. Pucara Films will produce "Out of Place."
The Wcf also approved distribution funding for the German release of four films it helped co-finance: Claudia Llosa's Berlin Golden Bear winner "The Milk of Sorrow;" "Ajami" from Israel's Yaron Shani and Palestinian director Scandar Copti, and Turkish features "Autumn/Herbst" from Ozcan Alper and Yesim Ustaoglu's "Pandora's Box."
The World Cinema Fund,...
- 11/10/2009
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
London -- European parliament members will take a break from political debate to choose the winner of the Lux prize, which will come from a list of 10 Eurozone films announced by organizers Friday.
The 10 movies will be whittled down to three before the 736 members of the Ep vote on the winner after the trio of titles are named and screen during the Venice Film Festival in September.
Among the 10 movies shortlisted to compete are Claire Denis' "35 Rhums," Hans-Christian Schmid's "Sturm" and Caroline Strubbe's "Lost Persons Area."
The final selected trio will be shown at the European Parliament from Nov. 2-20 before the Euro MP vote.
The award will be given at the European Parliament on Nov. 25 in Strasbourg.
The Lux Prize aims to spotlight the wealth and diversity that characterizes European cinema by selecting films which deal, in different ways, with European issues such as immigration and public freedom.
The 10 movies will be whittled down to three before the 736 members of the Ep vote on the winner after the trio of titles are named and screen during the Venice Film Festival in September.
Among the 10 movies shortlisted to compete are Claire Denis' "35 Rhums," Hans-Christian Schmid's "Sturm" and Caroline Strubbe's "Lost Persons Area."
The final selected trio will be shown at the European Parliament from Nov. 2-20 before the Euro MP vote.
The award will be given at the European Parliament on Nov. 25 in Strasbourg.
The Lux Prize aims to spotlight the wealth and diversity that characterizes European cinema by selecting films which deal, in different ways, with European issues such as immigration and public freedom.
- 6/12/2009
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- After a crazy year where they brought six or seven titles to Cannes (including Tulpan, Waltz with Bashir) in various competition categories, this year The Match Factory bring only a pair of titles in Ajami and Kinatay. Nonetheless, they also bring along their batch of well-performing films from Berlin. They aren't a production company, but highly selective sales company that work with producer's from all over the world. And that is why I'm including them in this producer's patch series. Update: they just included Aktan Arym Kubat’s next feature The Light to their stable. Contact High by Michael Glawogger - Completed The Dust Of Time by Theo Angelopoulos - Completed Ajami by Scandar Copti - Completed Dorfpunks by Lars Jessen - Completed Germany 09 (Deutschland 09) by Fatih Akin - CompletedGIGANTE by Adrián Biniez - Completed Kinatay by Brillante Mendoza - Completed The Milk Of Sorrow by Claudia Llosa -
- 5/14/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
And here's the rest, including the Midnight Section, all after the break.
Encounters
This collection of engaging and entertaining narrative features and documentaries, a mixture of dark comedies and lighter fare, offers work from returning filmmakers, established talent, and popular subjects, and includes 10 World Premieres. Included in Encounters are performances from Academy Award®-nominated actors Thomas Haden Church, Melissa Leo, Elisabeth Shue; directorial debuts from both Eric Bana and Cheryl Hines (from a screenplay by Adrienne Shelly); stories ranging from an ill-fated man's discovery of inspiration and happiness, dysfunctional families, and unrequited high school crushes to a doc on the emergence of New York’s independent film scene.
• Blank City, directed by Celine Danhier. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Celine Danhier’s kinetic doc mirrors the urgent, anything-goes energy of her subject: the Diy independent film movement that emerged in tandem with punk rock in late ‘70s downtown New York.
Encounters
This collection of engaging and entertaining narrative features and documentaries, a mixture of dark comedies and lighter fare, offers work from returning filmmakers, established talent, and popular subjects, and includes 10 World Premieres. Included in Encounters are performances from Academy Award®-nominated actors Thomas Haden Church, Melissa Leo, Elisabeth Shue; directorial debuts from both Eric Bana and Cheryl Hines (from a screenplay by Adrienne Shelly); stories ranging from an ill-fated man's discovery of inspiration and happiness, dysfunctional families, and unrequited high school crushes to a doc on the emergence of New York’s independent film scene.
• Blank City, directed by Celine Danhier. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Celine Danhier’s kinetic doc mirrors the urgent, anything-goes energy of her subject: the Diy independent film movement that emerged in tandem with punk rock in late ‘70s downtown New York.
- 3/11/2009
- QuietEarth.us
Amsterdam -- The Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf), part of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, announced Thursday financial contributions to 25 film projects in 19 countries for a total amount of 362,500 euros ($466,000).
The projects include new films by independent filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pablo Larrain, Rodrigo Moreno, Raya Martin, Tariq Teguia and Sinisa Dragin as well as many projects by first time filmmakers.
About thirty new films supported by the Hbf will be selected for the upcoming 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam, including those that picked up top prizes during the fall 2008 festival season. These have included: Venice, San Sebastian, Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro and Pusan, where Haile Gerima (“Teza”), Yesim Ustaoglu (“Pandora’s Box”), Emily Tang (“Perfect Life”), Matheus Nachtergaele (“The Dead Girl’s Feast”) and Yang Jin (“Er Dong”) took home awards or special mentions. All filmmakers are expected to present their works during the next Rotterdam edition.
The projects include new films by independent filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pablo Larrain, Rodrigo Moreno, Raya Martin, Tariq Teguia and Sinisa Dragin as well as many projects by first time filmmakers.
About thirty new films supported by the Hbf will be selected for the upcoming 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam, including those that picked up top prizes during the fall 2008 festival season. These have included: Venice, San Sebastian, Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro and Pusan, where Haile Gerima (“Teza”), Yesim Ustaoglu (“Pandora’s Box”), Emily Tang (“Perfect Life”), Matheus Nachtergaele (“The Dead Girl’s Feast”) and Yang Jin (“Er Dong”) took home awards or special mentions. All filmmakers are expected to present their works during the next Rotterdam edition.
- 11/6/2008
- by By Ab Zagt
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Pandora’s Box by Yesim Ustaoglu won two awards in San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, including the top award, Golden Shell. The best actress prize award went to Tsilla Chelton, famed with her role in the 1990 French movie Tatie Denielle. She learned Turkish for her part in Pandora’s Box, an Alzheimer’s afflicted mother of three mid-aged siblings who decide to bring her into the city from the Black Sea village she lives after learning about her developing condition. Chelton, whose performance had already received praises in early reviews is accompanied by Derya Alabora, Ovul Avkiran and Osman Sonant.
Pandora’s Box recently has been shown in North America, in the Toronto International Film Festival. Below is the synopsis from the film’s page on Tiff web site. A collection of clips from the movie can be found at San Sebastian Film Festival’s site, linked below.
Pandora...
Pandora’s Box recently has been shown in North America, in the Toronto International Film Festival. Below is the synopsis from the film’s page on Tiff web site. A collection of clips from the movie can be found at San Sebastian Film Festival’s site, linked below.
Pandora...
- 9/30/2008
- by Z
- Screen Anarchy
San Sebastian, Spain -- Yesim Ustaoglu's "Pandora's Box" walked away with the Golden Shell in a ceremony Saturday night that sprinkled prizes broadly and wrapped the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Michael Winterbottom took the best director honor for "Genova," starring Colin Firth, while Samira Makhmalbaf's Iranian-French "Two-Legged Horse" won the special jury prize.
Cao Baoping's "The Equation of Love and Death" won the coveted 90,000-euro Altadis-New Directors Prize, to be split between the director and the Spanish distributor of the film.
"Pandora's Box" protagonist Tsilla Chelton shared the best actress award with Melissa Leo for her role in "Frozen River," while Oscar Martinez won the actor award for his role as a writer struggling with his children's growing independence in "Empty Nest."
"Nest," directed by Daniel Burman, also picked up the prize for Hugo Colace's cinematography, while Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern won the best screenplay prize for "Louise-Michel.
Michael Winterbottom took the best director honor for "Genova," starring Colin Firth, while Samira Makhmalbaf's Iranian-French "Two-Legged Horse" won the special jury prize.
Cao Baoping's "The Equation of Love and Death" won the coveted 90,000-euro Altadis-New Directors Prize, to be split between the director and the Spanish distributor of the film.
"Pandora's Box" protagonist Tsilla Chelton shared the best actress award with Melissa Leo for her role in "Frozen River," while Oscar Martinez won the actor award for his role as a writer struggling with his children's growing independence in "Empty Nest."
"Nest," directed by Daniel Burman, also picked up the prize for Hugo Colace's cinematography, while Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern won the best screenplay prize for "Louise-Michel.
- 9/28/2008
- by By Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Madrid -- Six movies have been added to the slate of films competing for the Golden Shell Prize at the 56th San Sebastian Film Festival, organizers said Thursday.
Briton Michael Winterbottom will bring "Genova," Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf's entry is "Two-Legged Horse," and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda will unspool "Still Walking."
Yesim Ustaoglu of Turkey will show "Pandora's Box," and Spaniard Javier Fesser's "Camino" will compete in the lineup. Making her feature-film debut is Belen Macias, also of Spain, with "El Patio de Mi Carcel" ("My Prison Yard").
The festival runs Sept. 18-27 in the northern Spanish seaside resort.
Briton Michael Winterbottom will bring "Genova," Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf's entry is "Two-Legged Horse," and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda will unspool "Still Walking."
Yesim Ustaoglu of Turkey will show "Pandora's Box," and Spaniard Javier Fesser's "Camino" will compete in the lineup. Making her feature-film debut is Belen Macias, also of Spain, with "El Patio de Mi Carcel" ("My Prison Yard").
The festival runs Sept. 18-27 in the northern Spanish seaside resort.
- 7/25/2008
- by By Benjamin Jones
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Toronto -- A year after providing festgoers with glimpses of his work-in-progress, Larry Charles is headed back to the Toronto International Film Festival with "Religulous," this time for the film's world premiere.
The Lionsgate documentary follows Bill Maher on an irreverent whistle-stop tour of world religious shrines, and festival organizers expect Maher's take on religious extremism to get people talking.
"The film's a chance to laugh about the thing that we hold very sacred and that, in a way, remains a taboo in our society to question," festival documentary programmer Thom Powers said Thursday.
Toronto also has booked Fox Searchlight Pictures' "Secret Life of Bees," by U.S. director Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Paramount Vantage's Keira Knightley starrer "The Duchess" for high-profile world premieres at Roy Thomson Hall.
Toronto, which in recent years has become a launching-pad for Oscar contenders, also rolled out a slew of world and North American premieres for its Special Presentations sidebar that already have U.S. distribution deals in place.
These include David Koepp's "Ghost Town" from Paramount, which stars Ricky Gervais and Gregg Kinnear; Wong Kar Wai's "Ashes of Time Redux" from Sony Pictures Classics; Miramax's Mike Leigh title "Happy-Go-Lucky"; and the Guy Ritchie crime thriller "RocknRolla" from Warner Bros.
James Stern and Adam Del Deo's theatrical documentary "Every Little Step," which is to receive a world premiere, has yet to snag U.S. distribution.
Toronto also unveiled some Masters and Contemporary World Cinema titles Thursday, including world premieres for Jan Troell's "Everlasting Moments," Francois Velle's "The Narrows" and Yesim Ustaoglu's "Pandora's Box."...
The Lionsgate documentary follows Bill Maher on an irreverent whistle-stop tour of world religious shrines, and festival organizers expect Maher's take on religious extremism to get people talking.
"The film's a chance to laugh about the thing that we hold very sacred and that, in a way, remains a taboo in our society to question," festival documentary programmer Thom Powers said Thursday.
Toronto also has booked Fox Searchlight Pictures' "Secret Life of Bees," by U.S. director Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Paramount Vantage's Keira Knightley starrer "The Duchess" for high-profile world premieres at Roy Thomson Hall.
Toronto, which in recent years has become a launching-pad for Oscar contenders, also rolled out a slew of world and North American premieres for its Special Presentations sidebar that already have U.S. distribution deals in place.
These include David Koepp's "Ghost Town" from Paramount, which stars Ricky Gervais and Gregg Kinnear; Wong Kar Wai's "Ashes of Time Redux" from Sony Pictures Classics; Miramax's Mike Leigh title "Happy-Go-Lucky"; and the Guy Ritchie crime thriller "RocknRolla" from Warner Bros.
James Stern and Adam Del Deo's theatrical documentary "Every Little Step," which is to receive a world premiere, has yet to snag U.S. distribution.
Toronto also unveiled some Masters and Contemporary World Cinema titles Thursday, including world premieres for Jan Troell's "Everlasting Moments," Francois Velle's "The Narrows" and Yesim Ustaoglu's "Pandora's Box."...
- 7/10/2008
- by By Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- The Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) has added some highly anticipated pictures to its roster.Special Presentations will include Larry Charles's Religulous, a Lionsgate production. Last year's festival included clips from the then-unfinished piece, so it is only appropriate that the film's world premiere be at Tiff. This humorous documentary follows comedian Bill Maher on his journey to various religious sites across the world. Charles previously directed Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which premiered at Tiff 2006. The Gala Presentations category includes the world premiere of Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Secret Life of Bees. The film, based upon the bestselling novel, details 14 year-old Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) and her quest to discover her deceased mother's secret past. Paul Bettany, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, and Queen Latifah also star in this Fox Searchlights Production.Acclaimed director Wong Kar-wai's latest work, Ashes of Time Redux,
- 7/10/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Spacey's 'Sea' leads way for Berlin sidebar
COLOGNE, Germany -- Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea, Sally Potter's romantic drama Yes and the latest from Canadian cult directors Bruce McDonald and Don McKellar are among the films selected for the Panorama sidebar section at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, Panorama organizers said Thursday. Joining McKellar's comedy Childstar and McDonald's comedy-thriller The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess on the Panorama slate are the French comedy Mariscos Beach, from Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau; Ira Sachs' music-tinged drama Forty Shades of Blue; Dallas, from Romanian helmer Robert-Adrian Pejo; Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu's Waiting for the Clouds; Finnish drama For the Living and the Dead, by Kari Paljakka; and Saratan, a Germany-Kyrgyzstan co-production from Ernest Abdyjaparov.
- 1/7/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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