The Savannah College of Art and Design announces the award winners for the 23rd annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival. A key stop on the festival circuit leading up to the Academy Awards, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival screened 153 films, including 21 narrative films, 17 documentary films, and 112 shorts with 14 world premieres. More than 1,700 films were submitted for the festival.
The short film I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face directed by Sameh Alaa was named the unanimous winner of the Palme d’or at the three-day “Cannes 2020 Special.”
Indie Memphis Film Festival 2020 screened over 230 feature films, shorts, and music videos, and announced this year’s award-winners. Top Jury prizes went to Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby for Best Narrative Feature, and Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire for Best Documentary Feature.
The Twin Cities Film Fest selected more than 25 finalists for its top awards, and among the 2020 contenders for the top Best Feature Film Award are Darius Marder’s electrifying drummer drama Sound of Metal, Hisonni Johnson’s gritty urban thriller Take Out Girl and Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland.
After screening 70 films representing 15 countries, Flickers’ Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Film Festival announced the winners with the Grand Prize for Best Horror Feature going to “The Unfamiliar” directed by Henk Pretorius.
The 2020 Naples International Film Festival announced the filmmaker award winners with the top Jury Prizes going to David Gutnik’s Materna for Best Narrative Feature, and Brian Morrison’s Bastards’ Road for Best Documentary Feature. Audience Awards went to Lanie Zipoy’s The Subject (Best Narrative Film) and Lynn Montgomery’s Amazing Grace (Best Documentary Film).
Festival-goers of the 56th Chicago International Film Festival voted Nomadland the third feature film from director Chloé Zhao, the winner of the Audience Choice Award for Feature Film. The film stars Frances McDormand as Fern who, after the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. Nomadland features real nomads Linda May, Swankie, and Bob Wells as Fern’s mentors and comrades in her exploration through the vast landscape of the American West.
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2020 will open with the world premiere of Nothing but the Sun by Paraguayan-Swiss director Arami Ullón. A quietly earth-shattering film, Nothing but the Sun lucidly contrasts the hot, arid atmosphere of Paraguay’s Chaco region with the devastating stories of the Ayoreo people, an Indigenous community violently uprooted from their ancestral territory by white missionaries. Between past and present, forest and desert, folk songs and church hymns, Ullón’s poetic feature lays bare the raw emotions of the human condition, seen through a culture on the brink of disappearing, but not without a voice.
The 23rd annual Revelation Perth International Film Festival returns December 9 – 13, showcasing a curated program of international and local content.
Film at Lincoln Center announced the lineup of 16 features and 11 shorts for the seventh edition of Art of the Real, an essential showcase for the most vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking. Original set to take place in April, Art of the Real will now take place over the course of two weeks from November 13-26, exclusively in the FLC Virtual Cinema.
The five- minute heart-racing mini comedic thriller short film Wichita by creative duo Sergine Dumais (director) and Bo Price (writer/producer) continues its festival tour at the Austin Film Festival, Hollyshorts, Festival du Cinéma International Rouyn-Noranda and many more. Wichita was recently awarded the honorable mention at the LA FEMME Film Festival in Los Angeles.
