RiverRun International Film Festival announced the Jury Awards for the 2021 Festival with Best Film going to Fires in the Dark directed by Dominique Lienhard and Best Documentary Feature going to Sapelo directed by Nick Brandestini. In addition to Best Film, Fires in the Dark also won Best Director along with Best Screenplay for Dominique Lienhard and Best Cinematography for Philippe Kress.
Filmmaker Kristine Stolakis’ debut feature, the documentary Pray Away, which examines the enduring harm of conversion therapy and the “pray the gay away” movement, will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Director Steven Soderbergh’s highly anticipated crime drama No Sudden Move will world premiere as the Centerpiece Gala selection for the Tribeca Festival’s 20th anniversary. The outdoor premiere of the film will take place at The Battery in New York City on Friday, June 18 as part of Tribeca’s 12-day celebration to re-open New York and bring live entertainment back.
AFI DOCS, the American Film Institute’s documentary film festival will honor filmmaker Dawn Porter as the 2021 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.
Fantasia International Film Festival announced the first wave of programming for its upcoming 25th edition, set to run from August 5 – 25, 2021 as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada.
After ten days of virtual and in-person screenings at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, the 2021 DocLands Documentary Film Festival ended with the awards ceremony. The 2021 DocLands Audience Favorite Award went to Jennifer Abbott for her deeply intimate and thought-provoking feature-length documentary The Magnitude of All Things.
The international premiere of the film “Polański, Horowitz. Hometown” by Mateusz Kudła and Anna Kokoszka-Romer will open the 61st Krakow Film Festival on May 30th. The film featuring director Roman Polański and his friend, world-famous photographer Ryszard Horowitz is described as a colorful story about childhoods, friendship, the common Jewish fate of the protagonists and about Krakow. Polański, Horowitz. Hometown will be presented in the Polish competition of this year’s Festival.
The World to Come by Norwegian filmmaker and actress Mona Fastvold opens the 50th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Wednesday June 2. The European premiere of Japanese animation Poupelle of Chimney Town by director Hirota Yusuke closes the festival on Sunday June 6.
The Tribeca Festival will bring the Festival directly to neighborhoods around New York City with its new Borough to Borough screening series.
Sheffield DocFest announced their 2021 full program including the World Premiere of Uprising, by Steve McQueen and James Rogan. Uprising is a vivid and visceral three-part series which examines three events from 1981: in January, the New Cross Fire which killed 13 black teenagers; in March, Black People’s Action Day, which saw more than 20,000 people join the first organized mass protest by black British people; and then the Brixton riots in April.
The independent film Under the Lantern Lit Sky directed by Michelle Bossy will premiere at the 23rd Brooklyn Film Festival on June 12 at Windmill Studios in Brooklyn. Billed as written in the tradition of Tennessee Williams, the period piece drama explores female trauma, sisterhood, LGBTQ+ issues and the sacrifices we make for those we love.
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal, The Night of) will receive this year’s Excellence in Acting Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF). His latest film, Mogul Mowgli, which he co-wrote, produced and stars in, will be screened during the festival. The film follows the story of a British Pakistani rapper who, on the cusp of his first world tour, is struck down by an illness that forces him to face his past, his family, and the uncertainty of his legacy. Ahmed will be honored in a virtual conversation during the festival. Strand Releasing will open the film in theaters on September 3.