Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) revealed the recipients of the the “Napa Valley Filmmaker Awards” honoring some of this year’s leading talent at this year’s event taking place virtually November 10-14. Also, a new series of “Culinary Cinema Awards” will make its debut at this year’s festival paying tribute to remarkable achievements in storytelling devoted to food, wine, and spirits.
Magnet Releasing debuted the new official trailer for Agnes, the horror film starring Hayley McFarland, Molly Quinn, Jake Horowitz, Sean Gunn, Chris Browning, Ben Hall, Mary Buss, Chris Sullivan that premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Mickey Reece, Agnes will be released in theaters and on demand on December 10, 2021.
The Savannah College of Art and Design announced the award winners for the 24th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival. In the professional competition, Best Documentary Feature went to Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story, directed by Paul Michael Angell; and Best Narrative Feature went to The Falconer, directed by Adam Sjöberg and Seanne Winslow in addition to the Best Director honors.
IFC Films released the official trailer for Benedetta, the drama directed by Paul Verhoeven based on the true story of Benedetta Carlini, a 17th-century nun in Tuscany who believed she saw visions of Christ and engaged in a lesbian affair with a fellow sister.
Sony Pictures Classics will release Mothering Sunday directed by Eva Husson in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on February 25, 2022 before expanding to other markets over the following weeks. The film will also receive a one-week qualifying run at The Landmark in Los Angeles starting November 17, 2021, qualifying the film for all potential awards.
Film at Lincoln Center announced the eighth edition of Art of the Real, the essential showcase for vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking, from November 19-21, 2021. Aptly subtitled “Counter Encounters,” this year’s Art of the Real presents one feature and 41 shorts, and encompasses works by historical and contemporary filmmakers, artists, collectives, and communities. Their practices not only disturb classical ethnographic paradigms, but also reinvent an art of the real in itself.
At the 57th Chicago International Film Festival, the Gold Hugo in the International Competition went to Memoria, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s beguiling, beautiful film following a Scotswoman (Tilda Swinton) living in Bogotá haunted by a noise that only she seems to hear. Along with a young sound engineer, her search for the origin of the mysterious sound takes her to the interior of the lush Colombian jungle where past, present, and future blur.
Indie Memphis Film Festival 2021 announce the award-winners with top Jury Award prizes – Best Narrative Feature for Nana Mensah’s Queen of Glory (winner of $1K cash prize), Best Documentary Feature for Nadia Szold’s Larry Flynt for President (winner of $1K cash prize) and Best Hometowner Feature for Zachary Barr and Peter Mortimer’s Reel Rock: Black Ice (winner of $1K cash prize).
Amazon Prime Video released the official trailer for A Man Named Scott, the new documentary on rapper and actor Scott Mescudi aka Kid Cudi. Directed by Robert Alexander and featuring Kanye West, Timothée Chalamet, Shia LaBeouf, Willow Smith, Jaden Smith, Lil Yachty, along with Pharrell Williams, the film premieres globally on November 5, 2021 on Prime.
Russia has selected Kira Kovlaneko’s Unclenching the Fists as its Official Submission for Best International Feature Film for the 94th Academy Awards. Unclenching the Fists had its World Premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize in Un Certain Regard.
The chilling creature feature Unwelcome directed by Irish-born Jon Wright (Grabbers, Robot Overlords) spins a tale of what happens to people who come in contact with the violent, bloodthirsty goblins known originally in Irish folklore as the fear dearg or “far darrig,” now often referred to worldwide as the “Redcaps.” The film will open in U.S. theaters from Well Go USA on March 17, 2022.
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s ‘Flee’ which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival has been selected as Denmark’s contender in the International Feature Film category for the 2022 Academy Awards. The animated documentary film will be released in the US on December 3.