The fourth edition of Animation First, the only film festival in the US dedicated to France’s animation studios and schools presented by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) will take place entirely online from Friday, February 5 to Monday, February 15, 2021.
You Will Die At Twenty, the feature debut of director Amjad Abu Alala and Sudan’s very first Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film, will open in virtual cinema on January 22, 2021. Starring Mustafa Shehata, Moatasem Rashid, Islam Mubarak, Mahmoud Alsarraj,Bonna Khalid and Talal Afifi, the film is only the eighth narrative feature filmed in Sudan.
The Chicago Indie Critics announced their nominees for their fifth annual film awards. Leading all films with an impressive nine nominations is Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom helmed by Best Director nominee George C. Wolfe and starring acting nominees Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis.
Once upon a time, the Venezuelan village of Congo Mirador was prosperous, alive with fishermen and poets. Now it is decaying and disintegrating – a small but prophetic reflection of Venezuela itself. The massive political and economic crisis and one of the world’s largest refugee crises in Venezuela is the backdrop of the documentary Once Upon A Time In Venezuela, selected as Venezuela’s official Oscar submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
The 6th annual British Urban Film Festival (BUFF) came to a close with the annual awards ceremony streamed online via the festival website (see video below) and hosted by actor, writer and director Femi Oyeniran. How to Stop a Recurring Dream directed by Ed Morris won the Victor Adebodun Award: Best Feature along with Best Actress for Ruby Barker. Exploring themes of separation and loss this dreamy trip takes place over a weekend in the lives of two sisters. In the film, an imminent family separation forces the oldest daughter to kidnap her sister in an attempt to reconnect before they part.
Kamikaze Dogfight and Gravitas Ventures will release the psychological thriller, “Go/Don’t Go” written and directed by first time filmmaker, Alex Knapp on digital and cable VOD platforms on January 12, 2021. The thriller stars Alex Knapp, Olivia Luccardi, Nore Davis, Bettina Skye, Tom Essig, and Zoey Wagner.
Sony Classics released the trailer for Pedro Almodóvar’s The Human Voice. starring Tilda Swinton. The Human Voice, running approximately 30 minutes, is a very free adaptation of the original stage play by Jean Cocteau, with which Pedro Almodóvar has been dreaming of for decades. It tells the story of a desperate woman (Tilda Swinton), who waits for the phone call of the lover who has just abandoned her. It marks Pedro Almodóvar’s first time shooting in English.
Nina Hoss and Lars Eidinger star in the Swiss drama, My Little Sister opening in virtual cinema on January 15, 2021. The film selected as Switzerland’s Official Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film, also stars Marthe Keller, Jens Albinus, Thomas Ostermeier,Linne-Lu Lungerhausen, and Noah Tscharland.
The Music City Film Critics Association (MCFCA) – based in Nashville announced their nominees representing the best in film for 2020. Films receiving multiple nominations including for Best Film include Nomadland, Sound of Metal, and The Father.
Lifetime released a trailer for the new documentary Whitney Houston & Bobbi Kristina: Didn’t We Almost Have It All, which premieres on Saturday, February 6 at 8pm ET/PT, immediately followed by an encore presentation of the Lifetime original movie Whitney (2015) at 10pm ET/PT.
The Greater Western New York Film Critics Association’s announced the nominations for the third annual end-of-year Film Awards. Leading the 2020 nominations are Sound of Metal (8 nominations), Nomadland (6 nominations), and Mank, Minari, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and The Father (5 nominations each).
The Florida Film Critics Circle awarded its 2020 Best Picture prize to First Cow, Kelly Reichardt’s adaptation of Jonathan Raymond’s The Half Life. Los Fuertes, the Chilean drama about young men in love, won the Best Foreign Film category; and You Don’t Nomi, about the filming of the 1995 camp classic Showgirls, won Best Documentary.