IFC Films released the official trailer for Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, a biography of author Kurt Vonnegut, and the 25-year friendship with the filmmaker Robert Weide, who set out to document it. The documentary plays at DOC NYC from November 11 – 19, 2021 and opens in theaters and on VOD on November 19, 2021.
SING 2, the new animated feature film written and directed by Garth Jennings will World Premiere at AFI FEST 2021 as a Red Carpet Premiere. The film will screen in-person at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre on Sunday, November 14 and open in theaters on December 22, 2021.
After showcasing over 115 independent films, the 2021 Festival of Cinema NYC announced this year’s filmmaker award winners with Holger Borggrefe and Stefan Hering’s Two is a Magic Number winning Best Feature Film- Narrative, Loving Mona directed by Terry Katz winning Best Documentary and Samuel Tressler IV’s Leda won Audience Choice for Best Feature Film.
The German gay drama Boy Meets Boy from filmmaker Daniel Sanchez Lopez opens in select theaters and on streaming platforms on October 26.
The 2021 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) unveiled the selected films in premiere-only sections Luminous and Frontlight, along with its first competition selections in the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary and the IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary. IDFA also announced the selected titles in interdisciplinary program IDFA on Stage, chief among them the world premiere of the newly restored Dziga Vertov film The History of the Civil War. The 34th edition of IDFA takes place from November 17 to 28 in Amsterdam.
Out on Film announced the filmmaker awards for the recently concluded 34th edition of the Oscar ® qualifying, Atlanta-based LGBTQIA+ film festival. Marley Morrison’s Sweetheart was a jury favorite, winning Best Narrative Feature and Best Ensemble. T.J. Parsell’s Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music won both the Jury’s favor for Best Documentary, as well as the Audience Award for Best Documentary, and filmmaker Lauren Hadaway announced herself with Jury nods for both Best First Feature for her film The Novice, as well as capturing the Best Director prize.
The 44th Mill Valley Film Festival came to a close after 11 days of films, panels, parties, and musical performances at the annual autumn showcase. Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast was voted MVFF Overall Audience Favorite with other top audience awards going to Last Film Show by Pan Nalin won Audience Favorite / World Cinema, C’mon C’mon by Mike Mills won Audience Favorite / US Cinema and The Rescue by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin won Audience Favorite / Documentary.
King Richard starred and produced by Will Smith, won the Overall Audience Choice Award, earning the top score across this year’s entire film lineup at the 30th Heartland International Film Festival. HIFF also honored Will Smith with the Pioneering Spirit Award in celebration of Smith’s portrayal of Richard Williams, which he accepted via surprise video message before the Anniversary Gala Event screening of “King Richard” on October 16 at Newfields.
The 30th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) will be held November 4-21, 2021 in a hybrid format — with virtual screenings along with in-person screenings on all three screens of the Tivoli Theatre from November 4-14 and November 18-21.
Features by two first-time documentarians, Ascension by Jessica Kingdon and Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson lead this year’s nominations for the 6th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (CCDA) with six each.
Oscilloscope Labs debuted the official trailer for the documentary, So Late So Soon, “An intimate portrait of the energetic and beautifully eccentric Chicago-based artists Jackie and Don Seiden, married for five decades.” Directed by Daniel Hymanson, the documentary was an official selection of multiple festivals including True/False Documentary Film Festival, DOC NYC, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Calgary Underground Film Festival. Oscilloscope Labs will release the documentary in theaters in November 2021.
