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British actor and director Ralph Fiennes will receive the CineMerit Award at the 2019 Munich International Film festival (Filmfest München). The festival will also screen the German premiere of his new film The White Crow, which Fiennes has both directed and starred in, playing the part of renowned Leningrad ballet master Alexander Pushkin.
The Quiet One directed by Oliver Murray, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the life and career of Bill Wyman, former founding member of The Rolling Stones. The documentary film will open in New York and Los Angeles on June 21 via Sundance Selects.
After world premiering at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival, Ever After (Endzeit) directed by Carolina Hellsgård will open theatrically at the IFC Center in New York on June 21. Many other cities will follow.
Rohena Gera’s Sir which opened 19th New York Indian Film Festival won the prize of Best Film at the festival, along with the award of Best Actress for Tillotama Shome. The award for Best Documentary Feature went to Sindhustan directed by Sapna Bhavnani. Ritesh Batra won the Best Director prize for his latest film Photograph starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra which Amazon Studios will release in U.S. theaters starting this Friday, May 17.
Mountainfilm’s 2019 festival takes place May 24 to 27, showcasing some 150 documentaries. Films include Changing the Game, a masterfully told story of three transgender high school athletes navigating the complex world of sports and gender; Any One of Us, a heart-rending film about a professional mountain biker recovering from a devastating spinal cord injury; The Weight of Water, which chronicles blind kayaker Erik Weihenmayer’s inspiring attempt to kayak the Grand Canyon and 17 Blocks, an astonishing verité documentary that follows a Washington, D.C., family over two decades as they wrestle with addiction, loss and hope.
Montclair Film Festival announced the winners of the 2019 film competitions with MONOS, directed by Alejandro Landes awarded the festival’s Fiction Feature Prize and HONEYLAND, directed by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, took home the Bruce Sinofsky Award in the festival’s Documentary Feature Competition.
IFC Films will release Lynn Shelton’s Sword of Trust starring Marc Maron, Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins and Jon Bass in New York on July 12 at the IFC Center and The Landmark at 57 West; and in Los Angeles on July 19 at the Landmark’s Nuart Theatre.
Two Indigenous filmmakers, Kyle Bell (Creek-Thlopthlocco Tribal Town) and Peshawn Bread (Comanche) have been chosen to participate in the 2019 Sundance Institute Native Filmmakers Lab, continuing the Institute’s commitment to supporting Native American and Indigenous storytellers since its founding. This year’s recently selected Indigenous Program Full Circle Fellows also will attend the Native Filmmakers Lab.
Filmmakers from the U.S., Lebanon, Palestine, and the United Kingdom have been selected for the 2019 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah.
Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg is on a quest to explore the story of the iconic Statue of Liberty in the new documentary Liberty: Mother of Exiles. From Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World of Wonder (HBO’s Emmy(R)-nominated “Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking,”) the documentary follows Diane von Furstenberg, “godmother” of the statue, in her quest to discover how sculptor Auguste Bartholdi’s dream became a reality and what the statue means to people around the world. Liberty: Mother of Exiles will debut on HBO this fall.
The 23rd American Black Film Festival (ABFF) announced the 2019 lineup of narrative features, documentaries and short films in competition. Films will screen in Miami from June 13 to 15 at the Regal Cinemas South Beach and the New World Center.
The documentary Running with Beto, a behind-the-scenes look at Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate campaign, premiered at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival, where it received the Audience Award for Documentary Spotlight. The film will make its TV debut on Tuesday, May 28, exclusively on HBO.