American Fiction directed by Cord Jefferson took the TIFF 2023 People’s Choice Award at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival which concluded on Saturday with the Closing Night screening of Thom Zimny’s Sly. Starring Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction is both a wickedly smart satire about the commodification of marginalized voices and a bittersweet portrait of an artist forced to re-examine the terms of his integrity.
Prime Video shared the official trailer for Cassandro, the biopic drama on gay wrestler Cassandro, the “Liberace of lucha libre.”
31st Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) unveiled the full lineup of films with Bradley Cooper’s Maestro as closing night film along with “A Conversation with…” Series with Paul Simon. Filmmaker Celine Song will also attend the festival for a Special Screening of her latest narrative feature Past Lives, and will receive the festival’s Breakthrough Artist Award.
Gravitas Ventures will release Danny Madden’s 15 Cameras, the horror thriller film starring Will Madden, Angela Wong Carbone, Hilty Bowen, James Babson, Shirley Chen, Hannah Mckechnie, Skyler Bible, Courtney Dietz, Erik Leupp, Donna Allen, Brianne Moncrief, Jim Cummings, Stephen Ruffin. Gravitas Ventures previously released the film’s predecessors 13 Cameras and 14 Cameras.
NewFest, New York’s LGBTQ+ film festival announced its full lineup of 132 films from 26 countries for the 35th milestone anniversary year set for October 12 – 22 in theaters within New York, and virtually throughout the United States on NewFest’s on-demand platform through October 24. The festival’s in-person premieres will take place in Manhattan at SVA Theatre and The LGBT Community Center, and in Brooklyn at Nitehawk Prospect Park and The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
Academy Award-winner Jessica Chastain will be presented with the prestigious Golden Icon Award at the the Zurich Film Festival taking place September 28 to October 8. Alongside her director Michel Franco and co-star Peter Sarsgaard, Chastain will also present her new film, the romantic drama Memory.
Dekanalog debuted the official trailer for Mami Wata, the black and white Nigerian fantasy drama based on West African folklore directed by C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi.
Prime Video debuted the official trailer for The Burial, the courtroom drama film starring Jamie Foxx as a personal injury lawyer in over his head helping funeral home owner Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe, played by Tommy Lee Jones, sue a large funeral home company over a contractual dispute.
In his new documentary Silver Dollar Road, filmmaker Raoul Peck follows a Black family in North Carolina fighting a decades-long battle with land developers trying to seize their waterfront property.
Graham Streeter’s “Unfix” won the prestigious Best Feature award at the Prague Independent Film Festival 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic. Streeter’s film delves into the poignant journey of Ari, who, after enduring Conversion Therapy at a young age, finds himself questioning his identity during a global pandemic. “Unfix” is a poignant exploration of self-discovery and the complexity of human emotions.
Linh Tran’s debut film, the drama Waiting For The Light To Change stars Sam Straley (‘Jay’), who appeared in the Hulu series The Dropout, and as a series regular on The Kids Are Alright (ABC) and Welcome to Flatch (Fox), along with Eric Barrientos (‘Alex’), Qun Chi (‘Lin’), Joyce Ha (‘Kim’), and Jin Park (‘Amy’).
Longtime collaborators Director Todd Haynes (Carol, MVFF 2015) and Producer Christine Vachon will be honored at the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival with the Lifetime Achievement for Collaboration Award along with a special onstage conversation, and the West Coast Premiere of their latest film May December.