Submissions Deadline Approaches for San Sebastian Films in Progress 30

Films in Progress, the twice-yearly event organized by the San Sebastian and Toulouse Festivals, is now receiving submissions for its 30th edition. The initiative has the objective of promoting the completion of Latin-American feature films faced with difficulties at the post-production stage and of promoting their international distribution. The films must have a running time of more than 60 minutes and must be totally or partially produced by production companies in Latin American countries. Films in Progress has contributed to the completion and dissemination of remarkable Latin American productions. Films presented at the last three editions of Films in Progress, such as "Matar a...

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Hollywood Take Note: Here Are 16 Women Who Dominated the Cannes Film Festival

Forget the Cannes jury awards. This year, the most famous film festival in the world showcased something much bigger than a couple of prize-winners: Women filmmakers and actors at the top of their game. It was hard to miss how much the women before and behind the camera were front and center, dominating the conversation in Cannes. More of the Official Selection films were focused on women than ever before. And a new kind of protagonist emerged at Cannes 2016. She's independent, strong, often androgynous, and not defined by her relationships with men.  Hollywood producers, executives and filmmakers, take note. This is how it can be done.  Check out the fabulous women...

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Vilnius Film Festival: Polish and Lithuanian Coproductions

Although they are neighboring countries, Poland and Lithuania have not had much cooperation in the field of cinema until recent years. The first initiative to boost cinematic relations between the two countries comes in the form of a journey for producers from both countries on a sailing boat last year. In fact, the Lithuanian Film Centre together with the Polish Film Institute and Film Commission Poland, established quite a unique project – an expeditionary workshop for Lithuanian and Polish producers on a route across the Baltic sea.  Six producers hailing from Lithuania and six from Poland spent the days between 12 and 14 September 2015 on the deck of the Brabander and...

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Vilnius: Visions du Réel Express Bridges Switzerland and Lithuania Via Audrius Stonys

As I was leaving Vilnius and its film festival, I ventured into FilmBox LT, the Vilnius Airport movie theatre, and I was transported directly to the Visions du Réel Film Festival in Nyon, Switzerland. There, an impressive and comprehensive retrospective of Audrius Stonys’ work was held, from his first film, "Open the Door to Him Who Comes" (1989), to the most recent, "Gates of the Lamb" (2014). Indeed, with this event, Lithuania was one of the festival’s focus countries with a total of twenty films – eighteen that pertained to the aforementioned retrospective and two that screened in the official program. The initiative came from the director of...

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Indiewire's 2016 Cannes Critics Poll Results: A Strong Year for Women

The prize-winners at the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony drew some ire from both critics and observers from afar on Sunday evening, when the jury awarded the Palme d'Or to director Ken Loach's "I, Daniel Blake." Although the film has drawn positive notice from some of the writers covering this year's festival, there were a variety of other titles with fresh voices behind the camera — and some strong women in front of them — that many felt were worth recognizing.  So, as part of our traditional post-fest Critics Poll, we gave over two dozen of those dissatisfied writers a chance to champion their favorites. The results produced a collection of films and...

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The Marché du Film and Cinando Award Best Seller Pitches at Cannes

This Cannes, the Marché du Film and Cinando handed out their first-ever prize: the Cinando Best Seller Award. Thirteen sales agents from all horizons were invited to participate in a pitching contest that took place on May 17th at the Marché du Film. Selected pitchers were given details of a real project, “Codename Madeleine”, inspired by historical events, from an original idea by Pan Nalin, its director. They then had 48 hours to prepare a 5-minute pitch that would convince the Cinando Awards jury composed of three distributors: Norio Hatano from Longride (Japan), Ira von Gienanth from Prokino (Germany), Dylan Leiner from Sony Pictures Classics (USA) and...

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10th Los Angeles Greek Film Festival Announces Annual International Project Discovery Forum Details

Now in its fourth edition, the International Project Discovery Forum (IPDF), Los Angeles Greek Film Festival’s Industry Section and development workshop will present six impressive new projects by filmmakers from the Balkans and the Middle­ East region. IPDF Director A​raceli Lemos,​ in talking about this year’s selections remarks,"For this edition,we chose projects which are bold, diverse and thought­provoking. We are excited to meet all the filmmakers in person and work with them." The 20​16 IPDF projects a​re from both new and established filmmakers. They are A​lexis Alexiou'​s (“Wednesday 4:45”) third feature project...

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