Filmfest Dresden announced the complete program for the 35th edition taking place April 18 to 23, 2023. A total of 371 short films from 66 countries are being presented in the competitions and special programs over 188 screenings. In addition to the competition sections, during the festival week, numerous events in the special program with an array of country-based and thematic highlights are being held under the motto of Antiracism: Exit Happyland.
Filmed over two years across the UK, Europe and the US, the documentary Ithaka follows 76 year-old retired builder, John Shipton’s tireless campaign to save his son, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Director Liliana Cavani and actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai will each receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 80th Venice Film Festival (International Film Festival of the Biennale di Venezia) taking place August 30 to September 9, 2023.
Burning Days directed by Emin Alper won the Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature at the 26th annual Sonoma International Film Festival which ran March 22-26, 2023. The Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature went to The Grab by Gabriela Cowperthwaite.
The 25th anniversary edition of Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) taking place in-person across Sarasota through April 2, 2023 opened on Saturday, March 25 with Dawn Porter’s Cirque Du Soleil: Without A Net. The film offers a behind-the-scenes look into “O”, Cirque’s flagship production, on its journey back after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Motherland, a documentary on violence and abuse in the Belarusian military, has won the DOX:AWARD at the 2023 CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
Alena Lodkina’s new feature film Petrol will have its North American Premiere as part of NYC’s New Directors/New Films (ND/NF). The film starring Nathalie Morris (Black Christmas, Bump) and Hannah Lynch, had its world premiere at Locarno International Film Festival, and its national premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Films from Bay Area filmmakers bookend the lineup for the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival), set to take place in theaters across San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley from April 13 to April 23, 2023.
The 2023 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival announces the film lineup for 29th edition running April 25 to May 7. The 29th edition of the festival opens with Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry and will close with Marvin Samel’s IMordecai.
The Old School Kung Fu Fest returns to the Metrograph theater, promising the biggest retrospective of Taiwanese wuxia (sword fighting hero) movies ever seen in New York City.
Flamin’ Hot, the biopic drama directed by Eva Longoria on the story of Richard Montañez, the Frito-Lay janitor who claimed to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos won the Audience Award in the Headliners category at the 31st SXSW Film & TV Festival. The film will stream on both Hulu and Disney+ on June 9.
