Monday, February 29, 2016

WATCH: Oscar Winner, 'Shape Shifter' Brie Larson on the Challenges of Making 'Room' (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

Rising indie distributor A24 harbored high awards hopes for Lenny Abrahamson's intense prison escape drama "Room," so they took the film to world premiere at Telluride, where it popped with audiences and critics, and then to Toronto — both of which Larson thanked in her winsome Oscar acceptance speech for giving the movie "a platform." It's holding its own at the box office, with $23 million worldwide in the till so far. The film's rising star, Brie Larson, also landed Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Indie Spirit wins on the way to the Oscar. Finally, with "Room," Larson, who was so fine as a conflicted social worker in "Short...

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Wednesday, February 24, 2016

COLCOA Announces French Classics and Focus on a Filmmaker Programs

COLCOA French Film Festival, "9 Days of Film Premieres in Hollywood," and its producer, the Franco-American Cultural Fund, have  announced the Focus on a Filmmaker program as well as an exclusive line up of predominantly digitally restored French Classics, presented as World, International or U.S. Premieres. All screenings will take place at the Directors Guild of America. The COLCOA Classics Series will be shown from Tuesday 19 to Saturday 23 and on Monday April 25 as part of the 20th anniversary program. Focus on a Filmmaker: Academy Award0 Nominee...

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Doha Film Institute Selects 33 Projects from 19 Countries to Participate in Second Edition of Qumra

Directors and producers from 19 countries are attached to 13 narrative feature films, 10 feature documentaries and 10 short films participating in the 6 day program of industry sessions designed to progress their projects and prepare them for international markets. The emphasis is on supporting first-and-second-time filmmakers with projects in development and post-production. The Doha Film Institute's second edition of Qumra will be taking place in Doha, Qatar from March 4-9. 15 projects are from Qatar-based filmmakers, 12 from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region and 6 from the rest of the world. 11 of the 33 projects are features films in development,...

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Filmmakers James Schamus and Joshua Oppenheimer Unveiled as Final Two Qumra Masters

The second edition of Qumra, March 4 - 9, the industry development event organized by the Doha Film Institute to nurture emerging voices in cinema with a focus on first and second-time filmmakers, will include as Masters, James Schamus and Joshua Oppenheimer along with Naomi Kawase, Aleksandr Sokurov and Nuri Bilge Ceylan participating in a series of master classes and one-on-one sessions with selected Qumra filmmakers and their projects along with screenings and Q&A sessions for Doha audiences throughout the week. Read about previously announced Qumra Masters. Held at the incredibly beautiful Museum of Islamic Art, designed by...

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Monday, February 22, 2016

Cinema Tropical Celebrates Its 15th Anniversary with Festival at Museum of the Moving Image

Cinema Tropical, the acclaimed New York-based organization dedicated to promoting Latin American cinema in the United States, is celebrating its 15th Anniversary with the 2016 edition of the Cinema Tropical Festival presented with the Museum of the Moving Image. Presenting six feature films from Argentina, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, and Puerto Rico, the festival will feature select winners and nominees from the 6th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards, which were announced at a special ceremony at the New York Times Company headquarters last month. Founded in 2001 by Carlos A. Gutiérrez and Monika Wagenberg with the mission of distributing, programming and promoting what...

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US in Progress Paris 2016 Launches its Call for Entries for U.S. Films in Post

US in Progress Paris, a three-day works in progress event targeted at American independent filmmakers and European buyers, will take place in the scope of Champs-Elysées Film Festival on June 07-14 2016 in Paris. The event is looking for 5 U.S. independent films at post-production stage (rough & fine cuts). The call for entries is open till April 8th 2016. The application requirements for the films are the following: * Narrative feature projects in post-production are eligible. * Production Company needs to be US based. * Films looking for completion money, services and sales agent or European distribution should apply. * Films in post-production when applying, with at...

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Attention, Filmmakers: Hamptons International Film Festival Now Accepting Submissions

READ MORE: Hamptons International Film Festival Announces 'Spotlight' and Carol as Centerpiece Films The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) announced this morning that the submission process for its 24th year has officially begun. Documentary filmmakers may especially want to pay attention to the festival this year as HIFF is an Academy Award-qualifying festival for the Documentary Short Subject award. Screening your documentary short at the festival will make it eligible for the Oscar even if the short doesn't end up getting theatrical distribution. HIFF has been granted the opportunity in light of its successful year of short films in 2015. Specifically, three of this year's...

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'The Third Man,' 'Blow Out' and More are Heading to Ebertfest 2016

READ MORE: Watch: Explore the History of Eberfest in Exclusive Documentary Featurette Though Roger Ebert passed away three years ago, his legacy continues to live on each year when Chicago cinephiles gather in Champaign, Illinois for Ebertfest. 2016 marks the festival's 18th year, and organizers and host Chaz Ebert have just announced the first wave of special screenings and festival attendees. Chaz Ebert and Festival Director Nate Kohn select the films for the festival following Ebert's notorious rubrik of a so-called Eberfest film. Thanks to their efforts and deliberation, this year's festival will include special guests like Gil Robertson, president of the African American Film...

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Saturday, February 20, 2016

'Fire At Sea' Wins Berlinale Golden Bear

Italian Gianfranco Rosi’s powerful and apposite documentary "Fire at Sea," made in the eye of the storm of the refugee crisis, has won the Golden Bear in Berlin. It is the second major film festival where Rosi has scooped the top prize, following his Golden Lion in Venice for "Sacro Gra," in 2013. For one documentary filmmaker to triumph in festival competitions dominated by fiction is accomplishment enough; for the same director to do so at different festivals in quick succession is extraordinary. READ MORE: Berlin Review: 'Fire at Sea' Offers a Superb Snaphot of the Refugee Crisis In an evening where every award went to a different film, Mia...

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Friday, February 19, 2016

Berlin Review: 'Fire at Sea' Offers a Superb Snapshot of the Refugee Crisis

One of the two documentaries in competition at this year’s Berlinale happens to chime with the festival’s vocal and practical support of the refugees that have arrived in the city. But there’s nothing faddish about the presence of Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire At Sea” ("Fuocoammare") in the line-up, as is confirmed by the fact that it remains one of the most persistent favorites for the Golden Bear. Unlike so many documentaries about the refugee crisis that have been rushed into production in recent months — which in their frequently slapdash quality suggest filmmakers running at the subject without any clear idea of the actual film they wish to make — Rosi’s is a...

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TV Series 'Babylon Berlin' by Tykwer, Borries and Handloegten Starts Shooting in April

"Babylon Berlin," the path-breaking joint serial project of X-Filme, ARD Degeto, Sky and Beta Film, is finalizing its pre-production and will start shooting in April. The high-end series, set in the roaring 1920s in Berlin, will be produced until the end of the year. Created by showrunner Tom Tykwer (“Sense 8”, “Cloud Atlas”, “Run Lola Run”) and his writer/director team Achim von Borries (“Alone in Berlin”) and Hendrik Handloegten (“Good Bye, Lenin”), "Babylon Berlin" stars “Generation War”-lead Volker Bruch and multiple-award-winning and up-and-coming actress Liv Lisa Fries (“She Deserved It”). The four partners have already signed in for two seasons....

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Thursday, February 18, 2016

Sun Valley Film Festival Names 2016 Competition Finalists (EXCLUSIVE)

The Sun Valley Film Festival has revealed the finalists for its 2016 competitions, including The Film Lab, Screenwriters Lab High Scribe, Nat Geo WILD TO INSPIRE, and One Potato.  READ MORE: "Sun Valley Film Festival Slate Features 'The Man Who Knew Infinity,' 'I Saw the Light' (EXCLUSIVE)" The Film Lab  Hosted by Sundance director of programming Trevor Groth, The Film Lab, which presents two films in their final post-production stage. With the director, producer, and writer of each on hand, The Film Lab’s audience will have the opportunity to meet the filmmakers, give feedback, and participate in voting for the top work-in-progress.  The Lab’s winning...

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4 Women-Directed Gothenburg Film Fest Features to Put on Your Radar

This is the third of three dispatches from the 2016 Gothenburg International Film Festival.  As the largest film festival in Scandinavia, the world's leader in gender equality, the Gothenburg International Film Festival would be expected to showcase a multitude and a variety of works by female filmmakers.  The 2016 iteration of GIFF definitely delivered on that front, but we wanted to spotlight four features -- two narrative films and two documentaries, all about women -- that you should definitely keep on your radar.  Fragility - Directed by Ahang Bashi (Sweden) In this often painfully intimate film diary, director Ahang Bashi chronicles her depression and chronic panic...

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True/False Film Festival Unveils 2016 Lineup

The always-imaginative programming at True/False, founded in 2004 by festival organizers David Wilson and Paul Sturtz, also includes Brian Oakes' "Jim: The James Foley Story," which won the Audience Award at Sundance and recently aired on HBO, and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's portrait of legendary TV writer and producer Norman Lear, "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You."      READ MORE: "Sundance Doc Audience Award Winner 'Jim: The James Foley Story' Paints Harrowing Portrait of ISIS Captive" This year's theme, "Off the Trail," is inspired by "secret missions, treasure maps, personal geographies, and the virtue...

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Berlin: Michael Moore Delivers Surprise Video Message to Festival Audience

Michael Moore has surprised Berlinale audiences with a special video message explaining his absence at the festival. In it, the director, who is recovering from pneumonia, spoke of his pride in the fact that “this is the first time ever that a film has been introduced by a man in his bathrobe. I hope that counts for something.” Moore had been expected to accompany the European premiere of “Where to Invade Next.” The decision to pull out was announced on Tuesday in a brief written statement. But the colorful director clearly wanted to send a more personal message — and the last-minute screening of the film added on Wednesday now seems likely to have been arranged for that very...

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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Berlin Review: Thomas Vinterberg's 'The Commune' Packs an Emotional Punch

After adeptly dipping his toe into the very English material of “Far From The Madding Crowd,” terrific Danish director Thomas Vinterberg returns to home soil for his new film. “The Commune” (“Kollektivet”) isn’t as dark as most of his output, from “Festen” to “The Hunt,” but despite its nostalgic comic surface it packs a characteristic emotional punch. It’s the mid-'70s. When an architect, Eric (Ulrich Thomsen), inherits his father’s enormous house in an upmarket suburb of Copenhagen, his first thought is to sell it. But Eric’s TV newsreader wife Anna (Trine Dyrholm) and teenage daughter Freja like the idea of actually living in it; more than that, Anna wants to fill it...

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Berlin Review: The U.S. Is Knee-Deep In Cyber-Terrorism in Alex Gibney's 'Zero Days'

Will Alex Gibney ever run out of conspiracies and evildoing to expose? Of course not, and there's no better man for the job. With his new documentary “Zero Days,” Gibney turns his tenacious, headline-friendly and extremely well-sourced attentions to cyber war — that fanciful-sounding but very real, very dangerous newcomer to the world of state malfeasance. While much his subject matter here is already known, or suspected, he dramatizes it well enough to make me sleep a little less well tonight. The starting point, of the film and his trail, is the omnipotent computer virus Stuxnet, first identified in 2010 when it wormed its way into and set back Iran's nuclear program, before...

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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

UPDATE: Glas Festival Programming Finalized and Tickets Now Available

All you really need to know about the GLAS Animation Festival in Berkeley, March 3rd through 6th, is answered below in this newly released trailer: The final schedule for GLAS Animation Festival 2016 is online here. To enjoy all the benefits of GLAS 2016 and to be able to attend every event at the inaugural festival in Berkeley, register here for a Festival Pass. There are discounts for students and ASIFA members. Join the likes of Henry Selick, Jeremy Clapin, Kristen Lepore, Phil Tippet, Paul Vester ... and me (screening rare Ub Iwerks cartoons).  For more detailed information about festival passes or to purchase Click Here.   See you there!

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How 'The New Yorker Presents' Got Made for Amazon Streaming

 "The New Yorker Presents" debuted its first two shows at Sundance, where I sat down with series’ showrunner Kahane Cooperman (winner of 11 Emmys and 2 Peabodys as executive producer of Jon Stewart's “The Daily Show”) and Jigsaw Productions' Stacey Offman. The series debuts February 26th on Amazon.  The series brings together a range of filmmakers for a fascinating mix of shorts and doc features based on content from The New Yorker: Steve James, Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, Lucy Walker, Dawn Porter and Roger Ross Williams among them. Produced by Condé Nast Entertainment and Jigsaw Productions, "The New Yorker Presents" is unlike anything...

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Fresh Off Controversial Remarks, Meryl Streep Champions Women in Film in Berlinale Master Class

Meryl Streep rarely minces words, but when asked last week about the issue of diversity, and the lack of it on the Berlinale jury of which she's currently serving as president, the legendary performer hedged — and blundered into a rare controversy. To hear her remarks in context is to know that it wasn't nearly as bad as the flippant "We're all Africans, really" that circulated in the press and on social media. (Watch highlights from the jury's press conference above, and catch the full version here.) But for Streep, usually so charming and eloquent that her awards-season acceptance speeches are a form of entertainment in their own right, her apparent unwillingness to...

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Berlin Film Festival: Michael Grandage and John Logan Talk 'Genius'

“Genius,” which has just premiered in competition in Berlin, charts the extraordinarily creative but troubled — and ultimately tragic — relationship between one of America’s greatest writers, Thomas Wolfe, and the editor who steered his unwieldy talent towards the page, Maxwell Perkins. Based on Scott Berg’s acclaimed biography “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” the film offers a reminder that books don’t simply burst fully formed from the creative loins of a talented and unimpeachable scribe; not unlike films, they need editing, and as in cinema editing doesn’t just mean cutting, but shaping, honing, finessing; even though in Wolfe's case, cutting — a lot of cutting — was...

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Berlinale: Jury Announces Winners of the Film Prize of Robert Bosch Stiftung

The Robert Bosch Stiftung, which continues the charitable pursuits of the founder of the company and the foundation Robert Bosch (1861 - 1942), has revealed the three Film Prize winners during Berlinale Talents. The Film Prize for the documentary film project went to the Lebanese-German documentary "Miguel 's War" by director Eliane Raheb and co-producers Lissi Muschol and Margot Haiböck. The Film Prize for the short fiction project went to "Tshweesh" (Lebanon-Germany) by director Feyrouz Serhal and producer Stefan Gieren, whereas the Film Prize for the animation film project went to "Four Acts for Syria"...

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'Film Hawk' Reflects on Bob Hawk's Life Well-Lived Through American independent Cinema

Bob Hawk is the Pierre Rissient of American Independent Films. Pierre was for French cinema what Bob is to American independent cinema. When he discovered a film and told Cannes about it, Cannes programmed it. Those who know Pierre and those who know Bob know that their influence cannot be quantified by the number of films they have fostered in one way or another. Bob’s influence extends in innumerable ways throughout the independent film world. Independent films are Bob Hawk's life, and now his life is an independent film. After the thrill of watching the documentary “Film Hawk” by JJ Garvine and Tai Parquet whose first, ever-so-shocking film “Keeping the...

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Monday, February 15, 2016

Berlin Review: The complicated world of Madonna revisited in festival doc "Strike A Pose"

Backing singers are rarely name-checked, let alone encouraged to let their own personalities shine alongside that of the star they’re supporting. So the fact that an extraordinarily gifted group of male dancers was front and centre of Madonna’s acclaimed and controversial Blond Ambition Tour of 1990, and the accompanying backstage documentary “Truth or Dare”, was incredibly significant. For the seven dancers – six gay, one straight – who were plucked from obscurity by Madonna herself, this was a life-changing experience. But it was also, inevitability, short-lived. Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan’s very touching documentary considers two things: the complicated, even messy ...

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Berlin Review: Cynthia Nixon is Excellent as Emily Dickinson in Terence Davies' 'A Quiet Passion'

READ MORE: Terence Davies and His 'Quiet Passion' Cast Talk Emily Dickinson in Berlin Who else but Terence Davies could condense Emily Dickinson's life into a question of religious rebellion? With "A Quiet Passion," the Liverpool-born auteur interprets the nineteenth century poet as a tailor-made conduit for his chief concerns and interests: family, patriarchy, death and Catholicism. Given its themes and the tragic circumstances of Dickinson's life, "Passion" is a refreshingly humorous work. Its firecracker dialogue is invigorating; the assured, measured compositions are equally compelling. And in its sensitivity to intersecting conflicts related to womanhood and...

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Sunday, February 14, 2016

Berlin Review: Emily Dickinson Biopic 'A Quiet Passion' Fails to Stir

Considering the enigma of Emily Dickinson’s life, her reclusiveness, her being largely unpublished while alive and the posthumous popularity of her work, the poet is an ideal subject for a film biography, something that might ignite an image of her in the audience’s imagination. Terence Davies, that most sensitive and, himself, poetic of artists, would seem an ideal person to accomplish that task. So the fact that “A Quiet Passion” doesn’t succeed, seeming to push Dickinson further into darkness — or more accurately, gloom — is greatly disappointing. Paradoxically, the reason may be that the director feels too much empathy for his subject, feels her pain too exquisitely. If this is...

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Saturday, February 13, 2016

Women Activists Rocked Sundance, Celebrating a Sea Change

Women were all over the recent Sundance Film Festival, from many films directed and produced by them to a series of events celebrating the rise of women's power.  The Producer's Brunch was dominated by keynoters Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler, whose 20-year-old Killer Films has produced 80 movies including "Still Alice" and 2016 Oscar contender "Carol" and boasted four films at the festival ("Wiener Dog," "Frank and Lola," "Goat" and "White Girl"). And New Yorker Julie Goldman was honored for documentary producing ("Life, Animated," "Wiener"). Women in Film hosted a panel and...

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Berlin Review: In 'L'Avenir,' Isabelle Huppert Takes Stock of Her Life

Isabelle Huppert excels as a middle-aged woman forced to think again about her life in "L'Avenir." MIa Hansen-Love's films have always demonstrated a maturity of insight beyond her years, which she’s applied to her observations on people her own age or younger. Now 35, with her fifth feature "L’Avenir" ("Things To Come") she’s looking ahead of herself for the first time, and to the experience of a middle-aged woman suddenly forced to reappraise her life. Also for the first time, the director has at her disposal an actress of considerable experience and talent, Isabelle Huppert. This pair are perfectly matched, with both director and actress...

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Lucky Puff Short flick | Smoking | 2016

Friday, February 12, 2016

Berlin Review: Could 'War on Everyone' Be the Best Bad Cop Comedy Ever?

I’m not sure if any bad cops in the whole genre of  bad cop comedy have paid so little lip service to actual policing as the pair in John Michael McDonagh’s "War on Everyone."  And I’m not sure that the genre has produced such an irresistibly funny film. When we first see New Mexico police officers Bob Balaño (Michael Peña) and Terry Monroe (Alexander SkarsgÃ¥rd), they are speeding after a Marcel Marceau look-alike who’s on foot. “I’ve always wondered — if you hit a mime, does he make a sound?” asks Bob of his colleague at the wheel, a drunk who’s unable, or more likely unwilling, to drive in a straight line. They soon find the answer....

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Berlin Review: With 'Midnight Special,' Jeff Nichols Offers Up a Very Special Sci-Fi Thriller

After the Huck Finn-like "Mud," a coming-of-age fable rooted on terra firma, Jeff Nichols returns to the supernatural portent of his earlier "Take Shelter," with all manner of bells on. Doffing its cap overtly to John Carpenter, less obviously to Spielberg, but with Nichols’ perennial preoccupations intact, this is a family drama, chase movie and science-fiction thriller rolled into one fascinating and immensely gripping package. With Nichols regular Michael Shannon bringing his usual intensity to the table, it’s likely to be one of the buzziest competition entries in this year’s Berlinale. In "Take Shelter" Shannon played a man obsessed with...

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Full Frame to Honor Director/Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson With Award, Retrospective

Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson will be feted at the 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Johnson will receive this year's Tribute Award and have her 27-year career behind the camera showcased in a retrospective at the festival. Among the scheduled films is "Cameraperson," her widely acclaimed documentary feature that premiered at Sundance last month.  Johnson's previous directorial credits include the 2004 documentary "Deadline" (co-helmed with Katy Chevigny) and the HBO doc "Innocent Until Proven Guilty." She has served as principal cinematographer on more than 40 feature-length nonfiction films, including Laura Poitras'...

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Locarno Film Festival to Highlight Polish Filmmakers This Summer

READ MORE: How Did a Black-and-White Polish Film Become the Year's Surprise Foreign-Language Hit? The Locarno Film Festival has announced it will be collaborating with the Polish Film Institute and Fundacja Polskie Centrum Audiowizualne to bring five to seven films in various stages of post-production to the festival this year in order to be developed. The endeavor is part of the festival's annual mission to aid aspiring filmmakers from a set region of the world. Previous years have focused on helping filmmakers from Israel (2015), Brazil (2014), Chile (2013), Mexico (2012) and Columbia (2011).  The creative minds behind the chosen projects will have the opportunity to screen their...

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Thursday, February 11, 2016

London's Biggest LGBT Film Festival to Open With Football Film 'The Pass'

READ MORE: Happy Pride Month: Here's 43 Great LGBT Films To Help You Celebrate The BFI announced today that it will host first-time feature filmmaker Ben A. Williams' adaptation of "The Pass" at the opening night ceremony of this year's BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. As the UK's longest running LGBT film event, the Flare features 50 hand-chosen submissions from nearly 23,000 submissions.  "The Pass," produced by Duncan Kenworthy of "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill" and "Love Actually" fame, discusses the personal and profession ramifications of coming out as an athlete. The film stars "Looking" breakout...

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Doha Film Institute to Offer Screenwriting Workshops with International Partner TorinoFilmLab

The Doha Film Institute, in partnership with the Torino Film Lab, will host two script development and screenwriting workshops to mentor local and regional talent, and support the future development of film and creative industries within the MENA region. The partnership between the two organizations is aimed at training and capacity development, and will focus on enhancing script-writing skills and explore the universal appeal of local and regional films. The program includes a Short Screenwriting Lab and the Hezayah Screenwriting Lab, designed to strengthen the individual filmmaker's personal voice and provide an opportunity to advance professional...

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Markham Street Films Brings Danishka Esterhazy's 'Level 16' to Berlin with Dream Cast

Markham Street Films is excited to announce that rising stars Devery Jacobs ("Rhymes for Young Ghouls") and Imogen Waterhouse ("Nocturnal Animals"), are on board to star in "Level 16," the new Young Adult thriller from the Toronto-based production company. Devery and Imogen will join Sara Canning ("The Vampire Diaries, ""War for the Planet of the Apes"), who is on board to play Ms. Brixil, the head of The Vestalis Academy, the boarding school at the center of the film. "Level 16" will start production this summer with screenplay and direction by Danishka Esterhazy ("Black Field"). “Devery and...

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Rachid Bouchareb's Topical New Feature 'Road to Istambul' to Premiere in Berlin

French-born Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb's new film "Road to Istanbul" (La route des lacs) is premiering at this year's Berlinale in the Panorama section. This is a film that looks particularly interesting to me as it deals with a mother and her only daughter - a 20-year-old who has left Belgium to join ISIS. Bouchareb's artfully crafted films "Dust of Life," "Days of Glory," and "Outside the Law" were nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, making Algeria the African country with the most nominations in the category and solidifying the director as the most important figure in North African cinema today. Intentional sales...

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9 Exciting New Films at This Year's Berlin International Film Festival

READ MORE; 2016 Berlinale Completes Competition Lineup For 2016 Edition The 66th of the Berlin International Film Festival — aka the Berlinale — which runs February 11-21, kicks off with an out-of-competition screening of the Coen brothers' "Hail, Caesar!" The Coens have come a long way since their debut feature "Blood Simple" in 1984. That same year, the Berlinale celebrated its 34th edition. The German capital was divided. John Cassavetes' "Love Streams" won the Golden Bear. The lineup began with "Le Bal" by Ettore Scola, the Italian director who died aged 84 just last month, nine days after David Bowie, who had famously adopted this city as his...

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Idan Haguel's 'Inertia' Premieres at Forum Program at Berlinale 2016

Claudia Landsberger, after 20 years as head of international promotion for Holland Film (now Eyeworks) where she was known and loved by so many people and helped the Dutch win two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, has gone independent. Idan Haguel's "Inertia," which will premiere in the Berlinale Forum, is the first film she has engaged in selling through Baseworx For Film, so check it out as she is known for her good taste in films. Taking place by the shores of the Mediterranean, the film is a deadpan surrealist and blackly comic examination of a woman's identity crisis - utterly modern yet timeless in it's exploration of the impact of dreams and desires.  On...

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BFI Awards National Lottery Funding to Yorkshire Screen Industries Hub

The BFI has awarded National Lottery funding to the Yorkshire Screen Industries Hub through its Creative Clusters Challenge Fund which aims to support the growth of emerging screen sector centers outside London and the South-East and enable the UK film, TV and games industry to expand and maintain its competitiveness in a global industry. The Yorkshire Screen Industries Hub which comprises a consortium of organizations in Yorkshire and the Humber will receive £127,000 through the BFI’s Creative Clusters Fund as seed funding for a plan to expand the region’s creative sector infrastructure and skills base, attract further private investment and enable the...

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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

WATCH: 9 Oscar-Nominated Screenwriters on How They Got Their Start, Their Writing Process, and Much More

Representing eight of the 10 films nominated for Original and Adapted Screenplay at this year's Oscars, there's a very good chance that at least one of the nine screenwriters on the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's "It Starts with the Script" panel will be on stage at the Kodak Theatre later this month.  This is always my favorite panel of the year, where we get to hear from the year’s most lauded and gifted screenwriters. This year's was the biggest group ever: Writer-directors Pete Docter ("Inside Out") and Charlie Kaufman ("Anomalisa") are both nominated for Best Animated Feature. Novelist-turned-screenwriter Alex Garland...

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Jews in the News: Daniel Burman's 'The Tenth Man' to Screen at Berlinale

Argentine director Daniel Burman will premiere his latest work "The Tenth Man" (El rey del Once) as part of the Berlinale's Panorama section on February 12, 2016. Burman's previous directorial effort "The Mystery of Happiness" became a local box-office success when it opened in Argentina back in 2014 and was distributed in the U.S. by Strand Releasing. "The Tenth Man" stars Julieta Zylberberg and Alan Sabbagh. International sales are being handled by FilmSharks International. U.S. Rights are still available.  The official synopsis reads as follows: Ari, who has built a successful career in New York, thinks he has left his past behind. But his distant...

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Call for Entries: American Film Festival 2016 are Open!

Submissions for the 2016 edition of American Film Festival are now open till July 15, 2016. Set in Wroclaw, the 2016 European Capital of Culture and host city of T-Mobile New Horizons IFF, American Film Festival is now accepting submissions for its 7th edition, to take place October 25- 30, 2016. As one of the "25 Coolest Film Festivals 2015" according to MovieMaker Magazine, AFF programs some of the most exciting American movies of the year. And in particular honor of Wroclaw's title as the 2016 European Capital of Culture, AFF aims to highlight and connect the traditions and influences between American and European cinemas. Submissions can be...

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SXSW Reveals More Titles for 2016, Including Midnighters and Fest Favorites

The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival (March 11 to 19, 2016) has completed its lineup with the Midnighters, Festival Favorites, Shorts Programs and Special Events for its 23rd year in Austin, Texas. As already announced, Austin fave Richard Linklater will open SXSW with “Everybody Wants Some.” In total, 139 features and 114 shorts will play the fest. Jury Awards will be revealed during the SXSW Film Awards on Tuesday, March 15 at the Paramount Theatre. Other awards announced will include Narrative Feature Competition and Documentary Feature Competition, Design Awards and Special Award winners. All feature film categories, except Special Events, will be eligible for Audience...

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Guanajuato International Film Festival's 'Identity and Belonging' Collegiate Documentary Project

One of the Guanajuato International Film Festival’s primary objectives is to support the creation of film in the region by educating young people in the community and providing them with professional training that they could not receive elsewhere in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. In 2010 GIFF established the “Identity and Belonging” Collegiate Documentary Project. This educational program aims to strengthen the roots of Guanajuato youth by encouraging them to find their own identity and feel sense of belonging in a region that is rich in history and tradition. The contest requires that students find their own subjects, research within their own communities and trains...

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Saturday, February 6, 2016

White Female Gaze: How This Year's Sundance Confronted Racial Tensions in America (and Beyond)

Editor's note: This is the first of three dispatches on the 2016 Sundance Film Festival written by participants in this year's Roger Ebert Fellowship for Film Criticism. For more on this year's participants, go here. It's fitting that in the era of #OscarsSoWhite, this year’s Sundance movies took a more critical look at whiteness. Last year’s "Dope" was a freshman year essay on race and black identity; this season there are a few more people of color a little more thoroughly drawn. The clearest success is "Birth of a Nation," where Nate Parker writes, directs, produces, and stars in a movie that reclaims a narrative of slavery and rightfully recasts it as less a human...

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Friday, February 5, 2016

Sundance '16: 'The Lure' Director Agnieszka Smoczynska on Bringing Her 80s Mermaid Tale to Life

Be forewarned, this article contains spoilers. 100% original Polish mermaid musical, "The Lure" directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska in the Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Section is Agnieszka’s first film and is an accomplished, multi layered send-up of a pair of mermaid sisters. More siren-like than the little mermaid we know and love, the film is reminiscent of Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid and Le Motte Fouque’sOndine. Two mermaid sisters play out the dark and light side of the archetypical mythological creatures. Marta Mazurek plays Silver, the Ondine character who gives up her life for love of a mortal while Golden, played by the...

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Sundance Doc Audience Award Winner 'Jim: The James Foley Story' Paints Harrowing Portrait of ISIS Captive

Access often makes the difference between a good and a great documentary. When the family of the late freelance war journalist James Foley—who was executed on camera by Isis for the world to see, something that is not shown in HBO's "Jim: The James Foley Story"—decided to pursue a documentary about their son, they went to one of his oldest friends, New York graphic designer and filmmaker Brian Oakes ("Living with Lincoln").  His first solo feature world premiered in the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition and won the Audience Award. Gravitas Ventures has acquired U.S. VOD and DVD rights. “I made this film to carry on the stories that Jim needed us to...

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Athena Film Festival to Honor Paul Feig with Inaugural 'Leading Man' Award

The Athena Film Festival will present the director, producer, and screenwriter with its inaugural Athena Leading Man Award on Saturday, February 20, recognizing Feig for a body of work that's proven female-led comedies can attract both critics and audiences — from his big-screen breakout, 2011's "Bridesmaids" to "The Heat" (2013), "Spy" (2015), and his highly anticipated "Ghostbusters" remake (July 15), starring Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy. Feig is the first male to be honored by the Festival. READ MORE: "Athena Film Festival Honors Women in Entertainment with 'Suffragette,'...

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Paul Feig Named As the Recipient of the Inaugural Athena Leading Man Award at Athena Film Fest

Paul Feig has been named the recipient of the inaugural Athena Leading Man Award by the Athena Film Festival, an annual celebration of women and leadership.  The "Ghostbusters" helmer is the first man to be honored by the Festival.  Check out Feig's ridiculously impressive filmography to get a sense of why a female-centric film festival would recognize the director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Feig's career choices -- unlike those of so many others in the industry -- illustrate his belief that women are worthy of being at the center of stories. And this belief -- and faith that there's an audience for films with female protagonists -- has been rewarded with...

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Sun Valley Film Festival Slate Features 'The Man Who Knew Infinity,' 'I Saw the Light' (EXCLUSIVE)

This year's lineup also includes several favorites from the festival circuit, such as Trey Edward Shults' 2015 SXSW prizewinner "Krisha," Joachim Trier's Cannes competition entry "Louder Than Bombs," Don Cheadle's Miles Davis biopic "Miles Ahead," and popular Sundance 2016 selection "The Fits." Sony Pictures Classics' delayed "I Saw the Light," starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams, will close the festival in advance of its March 25 theatrical release. READ MORE: "TIFF: In Defense of the Conventional Movie, from 'Spotlight' to 'The Man Who Knew Infinity'"   In addition to screening more...

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