Tony and Emmy award winner Billy Crystal will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 23rd annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival, taking place as a virtual experience October 24 – October 31. Crystal will receive his award on Monday, October 26 following the screening of his latest critically acclaimed film Standing Up, Falling Down.
The 16th annual HollyShorts Film Festival will open with the premiere of Jackson Lewis Lee’s new short film THOMPSON FARM. Jackson Lewis Lee is the son of legendary filmmaker and Oscar-Winning writer/director Spike Lee. Thompson Farm will screen as part of the HollyShorts opening night lineup on Monday, November 9th.
The 43rd Denver Film Festival (DFF43) kicks off tonight, Opening Night, October 22 with Searchlight’s NOMADLAND. The film will also receive DFF43’s Rare Pearl Award which will be accepted by director, Chloé Zhao, in a video presentation before the film screening. The Rare Pearl Award highlights a film whose beauty and uniqueness stand out as finest of the year. Recent Rare Pearl Award winners include Portrait of a Lady on Fire (DFF42) and Roma (DFF41).
The 43rd Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF43) and the DocLands Documentary Film Festival (which ran in tandem this year) concluded on October 18th after 11 days of virtual and drive-in screenings, panels, and special events.
Filmmakers Aaron Sorkin and Chloé Zhao will receive honors at SFFILM Awards Night, which this year has shifted from its traditional seated dinner and onstage presentation format to a dynamic live-streamed showcase, taking place December 9.
The drama Valley of the Gods (Dolina Bogów) written and directed by Lech Majewski, starring Josh Hartnett, John Malkovich, Bérénice Marlohe, John Rhys-Davies, Jaime Ray Newman and Laura Ecas is the winner of the Best Feature Movie Award at the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) in Berlin 2020.
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival unveiled films selected for November’s special four-day event “KVIFF 541⁄2” including the psychological British-Canadian drama The Nest starring Jude Law from director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January.
The 64th BFI London Film Festival came to a close on Sunday night with the audience award for Best Film going to Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round. Best Short Film was presented to Tommy Gillard for Shuttlecock, Best Documentary went to Benjamin Ree for The Painter and the Thief, and Best XR/Immersive Art was presented to Anna West and David Callanan for To Miss The Ending.
Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival announced the winners of the 38th edition of the festival. The festival was held virtually this year from September 24 to October 7. The prize for Best Narrative Feature Film Jury Award went to Trinh Dinh Le Minh’s heart-melting romantic dramedy Goodbye Mother (Thưa mẹ con đi) and for Best Documentary Jury Award went to The Many Lives of Kojin (Toutes les vies de Kojin) directed by Diako Yazdani.
What can history tell us about the present?
The 29th Heartland International Film Festival (HIFF) announced the award winners and more than $60,000 in cash prizes via its virtual Awards Show this evening. Wuhan COVID-19 outbreak documentary “76 Days” is HIFF’s big winner, taking both the $20,000 Grand Prize for Documentary Feature and $2,000 Richard D. Propes Social Impact Award, Documentary Feature. Earlier this week MTV Documentary Films acquired the North American rights to “76 Days” at HIFF.
The new documentary Restaurant Hustle 2020: All On The Line follows world-class chefs Maneet Chauhan, Antonia Lofaso, Christian Petroni,and Marcus Samuelsson as they each picked up a camera and with the help of friends and family to document the challenges their restaurants faced during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The film from Executive Producer Guy Fieri, will have its World Premiere at the virtual 2020 DOC NYC festival in November, and will premiere nationally on Food Network on Sunday, December 27th at 9pm ET/PT.