Monday, November 30, 2015

35th Hawaii International Film Festival Audience Award Winners

The 35th edition of Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) recently announced their Audience Award winners. Throughout the festival, ballots were distributed for the screenings of every eligible film. Audiences voted on their favorite narrative feature, documentary feature and short film. The audience award for Best Narrative Feature went to "Kitarajanipon," a feature comprised of four short films directed by four leading Thai directors. Each film was inspired by the songs from His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej’s (also known as King Rama IX) royal songbook, which threads each film together into one feature presentation. "The Singers" directed by...

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Film London Jarman Award Winner Announced

Film London announced Seamus Harahan as winner of the 2015 Jarman Award tonight. Harahan was presented with the £10,000 prize by celebrated filmmaker and Jarman contemporary Terence Davies. He was selected from a six-strong shortlist which also included Adam Chodzko, Gail Pickering, Alia Syed, Bedwyr Williams and Andrea Luka Zimmerman. For the first time in the history of the Award, all members of the shortlist will receive broadcast commissions for Channel 4’s Random Acts strand. The Jury said of the winner: “Seamus Harahan was selected for this year’s Jarman Award...

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Saturday, November 28, 2015

Antayla Prepares for its 52nd Festival Despite Growing Political Tensions

Turkey’s longest-running film festival will host its 52nd edition of the Antalya International Film Festival this year from November 29 – December 6 in the culture capital on the Turkish Riviera. This year’s festival dates were adapted to accommodate the G20 Summit that took place in Antalya on November 15 &16. Festival Director Elif Dağdeviren is returning for a second time to run the event, under the auspice of the Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality’s Menderes Türel. IAFF whose sponsors include Turkish Airlines attracted over 40,000 guests last year and brings together renowned international and national film industry leaders and artistic...

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Friday, November 27, 2015

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Cairo Film Connection Reveals Details on the Awards for 2015

Cairo Film Connection (CFC) has revealed the list of prizes for its new edition within 37th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) (November 11 - 20). The program also unveiled the film projects and names of cinema industry figures who will attend the CFC course for 3 days during the CIFF. CFC jury includes Paul Baboudjian, director of Screen Institute Beirut, Catherine Buresi who has been working in the media and film industry for almost 20 years in addition to Intishal Al Timimi, Director of the Arab Programming at SANAD Film Fund. CFC offers $ 10.000 monetary prize in the name of the SANAD Abu Dhabi Film Fund, in...

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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

2015 Napa Valley Film Festival Award Winners and Final Impressions

Much larger in sponsorships, this year's Napa Valley Film Festival (November 11-15) has become so popular that the main road between Napa, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga is jammed and the smaller theaters are playing to SRO crowds. The St.Helena Cameo Cinema is longest running single screen theater in the United States, going back to 1913 and “featuring 400 seats, 150 opera chairs, a modern stage and two standing sets" Culinary, wine and film mixed well here. This year we were invited to dine with second-generation vintner Ron Nicholsen, at his estate, Kelham Vineyards, where chief Tyler Rodde from Oenotri, the southern Italian restauranteur from the town...

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Mohamed Khan's 'Before the Summer Crowds' to World Premiere at DIFF

The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has revealed the selection of director Mohamed Khan's film "Before the Summer Crowds" to compete in the Muhr Feature Competition at the 12th edition of the festival (December 9 - 16). The new film will land its world premiere at DIFF which also hosted the world premiere of Khan's previous award-winning film, "Factory Girl," in 2013. "Before the Summer Crowds" stars Maged El Kedwany, Hana Shiha, Ahmed Dawood, LanaMushtaq and Hany El Metennawy. Set in a seaside resort, the film tracks a group of people who meet each other by the beginning of summer season. The film was produced by Middle...

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How Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander and Tom Hooper Explore Gender Identity in 'The Danish Girl' (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

Before making "The Danish Girl" (Focus Features, November 27) Alicia Vikander thought she knew what it was like to be female. And Eddie Redmayne explored a place he had never been when channeling transgender pioneer Lili Elbe. At the start of the movie directed by Oscar-winner Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") and written by British playwright/screenwriter Lucinda Coxon (from the novel by David Ebershoff), Elbe is a happily married painter who is trying to be supportive of his wife Gerda Wegener's attempts to make her mark as an artist. It's when he puts on hair and makeup, stockings and a tutu to fill in for a missing model and experiences what...

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Central American International Film Festival (CAIFF) Announces Winners

Central American International Film Festival (CAIFF), the West Coast’s first festival to showcase works from the movement emerging among isthmus-based and emigré Central American filmmakers, announced the winners of its first edition. The festival presented 25 of the best cutting-edge and modern Central American films at the University of South California (USC) during its three days run. Among the highlighted events, they presented a retrospective of Salvadorian-Canadian filmmaker and spokesperson Patricia Chica ("Serpent’s Lullaby," "A Tricky Treat") and a Q & A with actor Erick Chavarria ("The Funhouse Massacre,"...

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How a 56-Minute YouTube Vision of a Harmony Korine Novel Points to the Future of Documentary

READ MORE: Is CPH:DOX Ruining Documentary Film or Saving It? CPH:DOX, the informal, angularly hip moniker of the event officially labeled the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival, takes place in Dongara every year, some 8,237 miles from Copenhagen. Since 2003, CPH:DOX — "DOX" for even shorter — has sought to showcase the best of the planet's non-fiction filmmaking, while simultaneously challenging and redefining exactly what "documentary cinema" means in the 21st century. Many DOX films wouldn't even be regarded as documentaries by squarer, more traditional festivals, including several winners of the top prize in the centerpiece "Dox:Award"...

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How Paul Verhoeven Survived 'Showgirls' and Turned His Back on Hollywood

READ MORE: 'Spotlight' and 'Carol' to Headline 4th Annual Key West Film Festival (Plus Full Lineup) "I survived 'Showgirls,'" Paul Verhoeven told the crowd at the awards ceremony for the Key West Film Festival last weekend. He wasn't entirely joking: Twenty years ago, the Dutch filmmaker's sultry Vegas-set tale of an aspiring dancer (Elizabeth Berkley) who gets drawn into the seedier side of show business was reviled far and wide. Verhoeven himself never made peace with the project, but still had a few more years of Hollywood material left in him. A visionary filmmaker who leveraged his success in Holland into making subversive blockbusters ranging from "Robocop" to...

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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

WATCH: 'Room' Best Actress Contender Brie Larson (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

A24 harbors high awards hopes for Lenny Abrahamson's intense prison escape drama "Room," and so they took the film to world premiere at Telluride, where it popped with audiences and critics, and then to Toronto, where it took home the coveted audience award, which often presages a strong Oscar contender.  READ MORE: 'Room' Wins Toronto's Audience Award, Oscar Bellwether Finally, with "Room" (A24, October 16) actress Brie Larson, who was so fine as a conflicted social worker in "Short Term 12," after supporting roles in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," "The United States of Tara," "The Spectacular Now," "21 Jump...

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Afrofuturist Film Festival in Sao Paulo (Brasil) Now Through December

The Afrofuturist movement is not just just for African Americans; it's a global African diaspora phenomenon. Elements of science fiction, fantasy, magic realism and other speculative concepts combine with Afrocentricity to give life to a new way of thinking that re-examines and revises previously established ideas, and creates new ways of approaching wide-ranging issues involving people of color. So it should not surprising that, right now, in Sao Paulo, Brazil (the fourth largest city in the world), one of largest Afrofuturist film and music festivals ever, is taking place. Titled Afrofuturismo: Cinema, Music and the Intergalactic Diaspora, the event kicked off last Thursday, and will...

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Watch: In New Trailer for Terrence Malick's Meandering 'Knight of Cups,' Christian Bale Floats Through Hollywood

Terrence Malick has evolved a cinematic style over his two films since "Tree of Life," all shot by Oscar-winning Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, that involves following his protagonists through various spaces and landscapes, accompanied by voice-over narrations and lush classical music. Austin-based Malick, age 69, likes to shoot in an improvisational piecemeal way as inspiration hits and his actor collaborators are at hand. (They never know how or if they will wind up in the final product, shaped over time in the editing room.) Malick usually follows a male protagonist (Sean Penn, Ben Affleck, Christian Bale) through interactions with other characters, often women partners. ...

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Moët British Independent Film Awards to Honor Chiwetel Ejiofor

READ MORE: British Independent Film Awards Launch First-Ever Public Screenings Program for Nominated Films The Moët British Independent Film Awards announced this morning that Chiwetel Ejiofor ("12 Years A Slave") will be honored at this year's ceremony with the Richard Harris Award. The award has been chosen based on Ejiofor's major contribution to the UK film industry, in addition to the attention he has brought internationally as an ambassador for British film. The actor is currently shooting Marvel’s "Doctor Strange" with Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton. The Richard Harris Award started in 2002 in honor of the...

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Monday, November 23, 2015

Kevin Smith and Rob Zombie Lead 2016 Sundance Film Festival Midnight Section

READ MORE: The 12 Major Breakouts of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival The fall festival season has finally settled down, meaning all eyes now turn to the new year for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Proving its never too early to start shoring up anticipation, the Sundance Institute has announced surprisingly early the nine titles that will make up the festival's famous Midnight section, which has helped launch horror and genre breakouts like "The Blair Witch Project," "The Babadook," "Super Troopers" and "What We Do in the Shadows" in the past. More of the Sundance lineup will be revealed in the coming weeks, including the Midnight section's...

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Saturday, November 21, 2015

Irish Short Film 'Love is a Sting' Wins Grand Prix at 60th Cork Film Festival

Irish short film "Love is a Sting" has a chance of Oscars® glory, after being selected as the Grand Prix Irish short film winner at the Awards Ceremony of the 60th Cork Film Festival, principally funded by the Arts Council. Vincent Gallagher’s film will go forward to the Academy Awards® longlist to be considered next for the 89th Academy Awards in the Live Action Short Film category. The Cork Film Festival achieved the status of Academy Award® Qualifying Festival last year. The film follows struggling writer Harold Finch, played by Séan T. Ó Meallaigh, who has an unexpected house guest in the form of Anabel – a hyper-intelligent...

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Friday, November 20, 2015

2015 Ajyal Youth Film Festival Brings Inspiring Films to Qatar

The third annual Ajyal Youth Film Festival presented by the Doha Film Institute (November 29 to December 5) showcases feature films from 20 countries and a series of short film programs in Katara, Qatar. Fatma Al Remaihi, Festival Director and CEO of the Doha Film Institute, says: “By providing young people with access to international cinema, filmmakers from around the world, and the space to discuss their ideas and develop critical thinking, Ajyal empowers the youngest members of our community and develops their understanding of the world around them.” Academy Award nominated director, Hany Abu-Assad and Arab Idol champion Mohammed Assaf, whose life story...

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Learn from International Masters Faith Akin, Abbas Kiarostami, and Park Chan-wook at Marrakech 2015

The 15th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival will include "master classes" with world cinema titans Faith Akin ("The Edge of Heaven"), Abbas Kiarostami ("Certified Copy," above), and Park Chan-Wook ("Oldboy"), continuing its tradition of attracting major figures such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. This year's festival runs from Dec. 4 to Dec. 12. READ MORE: "Scorsese's Marrakech International Film Festival Jury Winners Led by 'Han Gong-Ju' (TRAILER)" In addition, Marrakech will pay tribute to performers Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, and India's Madhuri Dixit; Moroccan filmmaker Kamal Derakaoui, and The...

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Thursday, November 19, 2015

'Motley's Law' and 'Class Divide' Win DOC NYC Grand Jury Prizes

READ MORE: The 2015 DOC NYC Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item DOC NYC is wrapping up its sixth edition by announcing its handful of 2015 award winners. This year’s event, which ran from November 12-19 at IFC Center, SVA Theatre and the Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas in New York City, resulted in record-breaking ticket sales and screened 104 feature-length documentaries, 27 of which were world premieres. Filmmakers who attended included Michael Moore, Frederick Wiseman, Barbara Kopple, Jon Alpert, Ethan Hawke, Amy Berg, Kirby Dick, Alex Gibney and more.  "DOC NYC significantly increased its reach this year, from the new DOC NYC PRO Conference and Lounge that attracted...

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2016 Locarno Film Festival to Honor Open Doors Initiative

READ MORE: Memo to Distributors: Buy These 10 Movies from thE 2015 Locarno Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival has announced that it will operate slightly differently next year; in order to abide by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation's creation of the Open Door Initiative, it will now showcase films and directors from Southern Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This will be the first major undertaking for Sophie Burdon, who will be hosting the event for the first time.  The policy, which was developed by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, will last from 2016 until 2018. The...

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Richard Ayoade to Host 2015 Moët British Independent Film Awards

READ MORE: British Independent Film Awards Launch First-Ever Public Screenings Program for Nominated Films The Moët British Independent Film Awards has just announced that BIFA-winning writer, director and actor Richard Ayoade will host the 2015 awards ceremony. Ayoade's history in the film business includes two BIFA nominations and a BAFTA for his first film, "Submarine," for which he also won the BIFA for Best Screenplay in 2010. Ayoade has also won a BAFTA for playing Moss in "The IT Crowd." Additionally, he is an accomplished author of cinema studies, having published the novel "Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey" in 2014. Audiences might...

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Animation Block Party Announces 2016 Dates

The thirteenth annual Animation Block Party film festival will run from July 28th-31st at Rooftop Films and BAMcinématek. ABP 2016 will open for animation submissions on Friday, December 4th. The Animation Block Party 2015 festival reached 5k plus in attendance for the second consecutive summer. ABP looks to continue expanding its festival scope with a fresh lineup of retrospectives, rare features, studio exclusives and the world’s best animated shorts of all genres in 2016. Taylor Armstrong has been added to the ABP team as the new Animation Block Party festival manager. Armstrong has previously participated in Animation Block Party with his band Plushgun in 2008...

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

SXSW Opens with Austin's Own Richard Linklater

The South by Southwest® (SXSW Film Conference and Festival will world premiere favorite son Richard Linklater's 80s college baseball comedy "Everybody Wants Some" as its Opening Night film for the 23rd edition of SXSW Film on March 11, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Austin-based Linklater has directed "Slacker," "Dazed and Confused," "Waking Life," "Scanner Darkly," "School of Rock," "Bernie," "Fast Food Nation," the "Midnight" trilogy and last year’s Oscar contender "Boyhood" which won Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette. Linklater still serves as the Artistic Director for the Austin...

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Monday, November 16, 2015

Finnish Independent Film is Doing Better Than You Might Think

This year, the Love and Anarchy film festival in Helsinki dedicated one of its program sections to Finnish indie films. A closer look reveals that outside the system of state-funding, indie films that go off the beaten track with their storytelling, genre films and alternatively produced, niche fiction and documentary films have actually thrived in the last few years. Influenced by pieces of international popular culture as diverse as film noir, poetic novellas and even sci-fi epics, Finnish indies seem to be very much alive and kicking. A Diverse BunchThe program offered an array of documentaries, a traditional strong point of Finnish filmmaking, dealing with topics as diverse as...

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Animation Block Party Announces 2016 Dates

The thirteenth annual Animation Block Party film festival will run from July 28th-31st at Rooftop Films and BAMcinématek. ABP 2016 will open for animation submissions on Friday, December 4th. The Animation Block Party 2015 festival reached 5k plus in attendance for the second consecutive summer. ABP looks to continue expanding its festival scope with a fresh lineup of retrospectives, rare features, studio exclusives and the world’s best animated shorts of all genres in 2016. Taylor Armstrong has been added to the ABP team as the new Animation Block Party festival manager. Armstrong has previously participated in Animation Block Party with his band Plushgun in 2008...

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Sunday, November 15, 2015

LGBT Documentary Makes it to the Indian Panorama 2015

In an unprecedented first time, the prestigious Indian Panorama will include a film that exposes the violation faced by gay, lesbian and transgender persons due to the draconian law Sec 377 and the history of the Indian LGBT community. Director Sridhar Rangayan said enthusiastically, “This is indeed huge, especially considering the topic is highly controversial and also very political. The film is honest and highlights the issues of the community without sensationalising. I compliment the maturity of the jury members and the unbiased attitude of the government in including this film”. As part of the Indian Panorama, ‘Breaking Free’ will screen at the International Film Festival...

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Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival Winners and Disappointments

This meant the creation of festival strands that explored diversity in the documentary form, championing in particular that fruitful zone between documentary and fiction. Recently, though, the festival’s programming has been responding as much to trends in content as form; and that “content” is invariably culled from the news pages. This year’s edition included the F:act Award for documentaries informed by investigative journalism; Reality: Check, a three-day strand of films and events considering the state of democracy in 2015; a program of politically charged films co-curated by the campaigning writer Naomi Klein, whose own doc about climate change, “This Changes Everything” ...

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Could 'A Good American' William Binney Have Prevented 9/11 and Other Terrorist Attacks?

These are questions that have been raised in recent years in Madrid, in London, and in the US after 9/11.  So in a tragic way, the latest atrocity makes the documentary “A Good American” even more timely. The film had its North American premiere at DOC NYC and hit theaters this weekend. For many it will make upsetting viewing.  Directed by Austrian Friedrich Moser, it charts the former NSA analyst William Binney’s development of ThinThread, a targeted surveillance system that Binney and his colleagues claim would have categorically prevented 9/11 – had the agency not sidelined their work in favor of a rival system that was generating huge amounts of income for both the agency and...

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Saturday, November 14, 2015

Napa Valley Film Festival 2015 Day One

Napa Valley Film Festival kicked off with (what else?) a wine movie. “Somm: Into the Bottle," the second documentary exploring the Exclusive Court of Master Sommeliers. To be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, "Somm: Into the Bottle", as told through the eyes of the world’s greatest sommeliers and winemakers, raises the curtain on the seldom-seen world that surrounds the wine we drink and gives viewers close-up access to the most accomplished sommeliers in the world and to some of the most prestigious winemakers working today. By opening some of the world’s most rare bottles of wine, the viewer understands how a wine ages and just what happens in a...

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Friday, November 13, 2015

7 Questions with Rick Alverson, Director of 'Entertainment'

Uncompromising, complex and unexpected are the adjectives that best describe Rick Alverson’s films. His vision is not influenced by trends or the need to simplistically label the stories he wants to tell. Instead, Alverson makes sharp observations about modern society via his characters and challenge us to experience the bold and provocative ideas he is exploring.   His latest work, “Entertainment,” starring Gregg Turkington, John C. Reilly, Tye Sheridan and Michael Cera , premiered in Los Angeles as August as part of NEXT FEST. The film was followed by a musical performance from Sharon Van Etten....

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Nitehawk Shorts Festival Proves Just How Much is Possible in 20 Minutes or Less

READ MORE: Dinner and a Movie (and Drinks!) is the Future of Movie Theaters: Nitehawk Shows How It's Done Short films are rarely consumed by the general public these days, but last night at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn, a full house reaffirmed the unique ability of short films to pack a punch in a succinct running time. The third annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival's opening night boasted an eclectic mix of nine short films, each under 20 minutes, that demonstrate how short filmmaking is a medium unto itself and is truly its own beast. From "The Wolfpack" brothers' family effort "Mirror Heart" to Reinaldo Marcus Green's festival sensation "Stop," the...

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Thursday, November 12, 2015

DOC NYC: 'Missing People' Is an Award-Winning Documentary That's Impossible to Market

There's no possible elevator pitch for "Missing People," the new documentary from David Shapiro ("Keep The River On Your Right," "Finishing Heaven") which recently won Best Documentary at the Hamptons International Film Festival and will soon screen at DOC NYC. READ MORE: 10 Must-See Documentaries at DOC NYC Even attempting to describe the film gets tricky; there's no social issue or feel-good story in sight. The ostensible subject of the film is Martina Batan, director of a prominent Manhattan art gallery, who is obsessed with the work of Roy Ferdinand, the late African-American artist who depicted the violence of '90s New Orleans in all its vivid color. But...

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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

AFI FEST REVIEW: Will Smith-Starrer 'Concussion' Argues Case Against NFL

With earnest biopic "Concussion," investigative journalist-turned-writer-director Peter Landesman ("Parkland") constructs a strong argument against the NFL's callous dishonesty about the dangers of football. (Clearly a flurry of stories suggesting the opposite were not based on seeing the film.) Will Smith is moving and believable as brilliant and obsessive Nigerian neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered the concussion-related disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which has driven many pro football players out of their minds. Dr. Omalu's reward: to be professionally destroyed and forced out of Pittsburgh by the mighty NFL. Like Boston-set...

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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

After Kurosawa: Why the Japanese Independent Film Industry is Hopeful For the Future

READ MORE: Takashi Murakami on Bringing Art to Life in Directorial Debut 'Jellyfish Eyes' Ask most cinephiles to define Japanese film today, and they're likely to cite the usual suspects: Akira Kurosawa and his "Seven Samurai." Yasujiro Ozu and his "Tokyo Story." Hayao Miyazaki and his "Princess Mononoke." While their golden years may have ended over a decade ago (or, in some cases, several), their legendary works have left indelible marks not only on contemporary filmmakers within Japan, but on the styles of significant American cinema from Martin Scorcese and Quentin Tarantin to Pixar. But their era — the indisputable height of the nation's cinematic...

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Monday, November 9, 2015

Line-Up for 1st Annual GLAS Animation Festival Annouced - March 3-6 in Berkeley

Here it is - the world class international animation festival the US has been craving. 2016 marks the launch of the first annual GLAS Animation Festival in Berkeley California. Festival director Jeanette Bonds states, "We are expanding the scope of animation by bringing new voices, new talents, new themes, and a new generation of independent filmmakers and curators to the United States. We highlight contemporary independent animation while curating special programs of the most significant periods of animation history that serve as an inspiration for the new generation of filmmakers.  "At GLAS Animation Festival we feature a breadth of programs including...

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Mexico's Morelia Film Festival Builds Warm Community of Cinephiles

Glowing reports from the Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (FICM) inspired me to fly down to Michoacan in late October for the 13th edition. I was not disappointed. After launching as a shorts festival, gradually director Daniela Michel and her co-founder, Cinepolis CEO Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, have added a Mexican Oscar-qualifying shorts as well as a feature competition section to a wide-ranging international program, as well as a works-in-progress showcase for international buyers, complete with cash awards. Arguably, this festival has done much to bolster Mexican filmmaking by nurturing talent, supporting talented shorts directors through their early...

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Director Tom McCarthy Puts 'Spotlight' on Sexually Predatory Catholic Priests

Tom McCarthy is not only a veteran actor—he was the young Baltimore Sun reporter in Season 5 of "The Wire"—but a gifted writer-director. "Spotlight" is rare for several reasons: it's an original script about real people devoted to their jobs who remind us of what great journalism is supposed to be. Like Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein (depicted in the 1976 Alan Pakula classic "All the President's Men"), the Boston Globe's Spotlight investigative staff of four (an editor and three reporters) brought to light an ongoing crime that had been hidden for decades. It's hard to remember where we were before this Pulitzer-prize-winning team exposed...

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Saturday, November 7, 2015

Michael Moore on Entertaining Audiences and 'Where to Invade Next' (VIDEO)

Two weeks after Michael Moore unveiled his first doc in five years, the hugely entertaining agitprop doc "Where to Invade Next" to Toronto festgoers on opening night, the movie found a buyer, just ahead of its New York Film Festival screening.  After WME's Ari Emmanuel made certain demands (including a high minimum guarantee and theatrical 2015 Oscar-qualifying release), many of the usual suspects dropped away. Delivering an Oscar-qualifying year-end run is the new as-yet unnamed distributor founded by exiting TWC-Radius partners Tom Quinn and Jason Janego (who have handled many top docs including last year's Oscar-winner "Citizenfour" and this year's contender...

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Amazon Studios Scoops Up Next Nicolas Winding Refn Flick

It's no surprise that Amazon Studios has acquired Nicolas Winding Refn’s “The Neon Demon,” which stars Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks and Jena Malone. First of all, Amazon Studios distribution chief Bob Berney released Refn's "Drive" when he was at FilmDistrict; the Ryan Gosling actioner was also funded by Wild Bunch, and won a directing prize at Cannes. "The Neon Demon" is a co-production of Wild Bunch and Gaumont, who also partnered on Refn’s subsequent Cannes entry, "Only God Forgives."  Elle Fanning stars as a young Los Angeles model in "The Neon Demon." Refn produced with his Space Rocket partner, Lene Borglum...

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Copenhagen Doc Fest Review: 'The Fear of 13' Is Thrilling True Crime Documentary

Floating teasingly and compellingly between true crime documentary and thriller, "The Fear of 13" is a good fit for the CPH:DOX film festival in Copenhagen, which encourages films that explore the grey areas between fiction and documentary, and where it screens in competition Saturday ahead of its showing this month at DOC NYC. The film wastes no time in setting us on the back foot. A caption tells us that after 20 years on Death Row, Nick Yarris has requested his own execution.Yet here he is, clean-shaven, dapper in a crisply-ironed shirt, speaking to the camera – not from a cell, but in one of those artfully neutral documentary spaces. He's smooth too, articulate in a way that...

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EVENT: The CTN-Expo in Burbank - Peter Lord, William Joyce, Brad Bird To Appear

The Creative Talent Network (CTN) is back! The seventh annual CTN Animation eXpo (CTN-X) will commence Friday, November 20st – Sunday, November 22rd. Thousands of animation professionals, students and fans will descend on Burbank for this 3-day event - which includes industry leaders from such studios as DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Walt Disney Animation, Sony Pictures Animation as well as studios from around the world. This Annie Award winning event takes place at the Burbank Marriott Convention Center - across the street from the Bob Hope Burbank Airport. Special guests this year include Peter Lord (who will be interviewed by Animation Scoop's Charles Solomon on Friday November...

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Friday, November 6, 2015

PODCAST: How Angelina Jolie, Spike Lee, Tarantino and 'Star Wars' Complicate the Fall Movie Season

READ MORE: Could Netflix Numbers Help 'Beasts of No Nation'? Another week, another set of movies to complicate the fall season: Angelina Jolie’s “By the Sea” opened AFI FEST on Thursday night, and while reviews are mixed, the film itself opens up fascinating questions about the state of filmmaking in Hollywood today. Meanwhile, new trailers for “Star Wars” and Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" remind us that more is yet to come. All these issues factor into this week’s episode of Screen Talk, in which co-hosts Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson also address the upcoming Michael Moore documentary "Where to Invade Next" and wonder who's really responsible for Quentin Tarantino’s publicity...

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The Biggest Challenges the AFI FEST 2015 Filmmakers Faced

READ MORE: Attention, First-Time Filmmakers: Here's the Best Advice from the 2015 AFI FEST Filmmakers The 2015 AFI FEST runs from November 5-12. In advance of the festival, Indiewire sent a questionnaire to the filmmakers with films at AFI FEST asking them a variety of questions, including, "What was the biggest challenge in completing this project?" Below we've highlighted an assortment of responses. "The film was made all by me and my wife, who is the producer, actress and production designer. We did the cinematography and sound together, I edited and also did the color correction. From the beginning till the end, we did everything. That was pretty...

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'Alaska is a Drag' by Shaz Bennett and Producer Melanie Miller Emerge as US in Progress Winners

The 5th edition of the US in Progress co-production forum was held on October 22-23, 2015, during the 6 th American Film Festival in Wrocław. Director Shaz Bennett and producer Melanie Miller acquired the most awards and therefore emerged as US in Progress winners for "Alaska is a Drag." US in Progress is an industry event that aims to strengthen the trans-Atlantic film industry collaborations and partnerships and help European film professionals establish working relationships with new emerging American filmmakers. The event is a bi-annual program conducted at the Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris during the summer before kicking-off in...

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Berlinale Talents 2016 Explores 'The Nature of Relations'

Under the title “The Nature of Relations," Berlinale Talents its 14th edition will focus on the power, force and energy of interconnected thinking and creating. 300 outstanding Talents will be invited to a program with international experts, again held at the three venues of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, from February 13 -18, 2016. Berlinale Talents will host around 100 talks, workshops and networking events providing Talents and festival guests with a vibrant testing field for collaboration and exchange. In this edition, Berlinale Talents will practically explore new methods for collective and interdisciplinary film work, immerse into the inner coherences of...

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From 'Blue Velvet' to 'The Virgin Suicides': Here Are the Films that Inspired the 2015 AFI FEST Filmmakers

In advance of the 2015 AFI FEST, Indiewire sent out a questionnaire to filmmakers with films in competition asking them a variety of questions about their projects. We also asked them which films inspired them. It's no surprise to see films by Albert Hitchcock, Antonioni Fellini, Werner Herzog, David Lynch and Roman Polanski make the list, but there were some surprising picks, including "The Craft," the 1996 teen horror film starring Neve Campbell, as well as more obscure films such as Jon Alpert's "Life of Crime 2," which aired on HBO back in 1998. See a selection of responses below: READ MORE: AFI FEST 2015 Announces New Auteurs and American Independents...

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6 Must-See New Korean Films

READ MORE: 10 Essential Films of the Korean New Wave Now entering its 13th year, the annual New York Korean Film Festival remains unparalleled in its mission to collate an eclectic assortment of films that collectively capture the singular eccentricity of Korean cinema. From existential rom-coms to brooding neo-noirs, buddy cop movies minus the buddies to cubicle slashers, the films of the NYKFF are nothing short of audacious. For the first time, the NYKFF is partnering with the Museum of the Moving Image, which will host all of the screenings on one of the city’s finest towering screens. The festival runs from November 6-11. "Office," directed by Hong Won-chanA midlevel...

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Documentary Filmmaking is Having a Moment — in Portugal

"The Glory of Filmmaking in Portugal" is the title of Manuel Mozos' new film, which recently competed for the main prize at Doclisboa, Portugal's largest documentary film festival. But it's also an apt summation of documentary's current state in the country. Settled like a lowered fog over the city, with movies showing throughout the day in four of the local cinemas and cinematheques, the festival offers an array of diverse programs, each in their own way about as bold as it gets: an international competition of startling breadth and quality; several retrospectives encompassing a vast array of archival treasures known and unknown, largely presented on celluloid; contemporary...

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Thursday, November 5, 2015

Attention, First-Time Filmmakers: Here's the Best Advice from the 2015 AFI FEST Filmmakers

Indiewire invited AFI FEST directors to tell us about their films, including what inspired them and the challenges they faced. The festival runs from November 5-12. READ MORE: AFI FEST 2015 Announces New Auteurs and American Independents Lineups, Including 'James White' and 'Krisha' We asked the AFI filmmakers to share advice for first-time filmmakers. Below is a selection of their answers: "Be honest and find the right friends to surround you." - César Acevedo, "Land and Shade" "Enjoy the process because it’s all you really have. And if there is no true joy in the making then clearly it isn’t the right thing to be doing or you’re not doing it the...

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Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Film Independent Finds Theatre Hub for its LA Film Festival

Cheers to Film Independent which has finally abandoned its downtown experiment for summer's LA Film Festival in favor of a new home with LA's most successful theaters, ArcLight Cinemas, around the city. Non-profit Film Independent, which produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards as well as the Festival, will mount the 22nd edition of the LA Film Festival (June 1 – June 9, 2016) at ArcLight Cinemas, including ArcLight Hollywood and the brand new ArcLight Santa Monica. The Festival headquarters will be at ArcLight Culver City.  Under the leadership of Stephanie Allain, the LA Film Festival has been pursuing a mission to showcase diversity and innovation, with mixed...

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