Hochwald by Evi Romen (Austria, Belgium) is the winner of the Golden Eye of the 16th Zurich Film Festival for the best film in focus competition. The film tells the story of Mario, who breaks out of his South Tyrolean homeland with his childhood friend Lenz and visits a gay bar in Rome with him. When Lenz falls victim during an armed attack, Mario returns to his home village, where his life gradually falls apart.
The American Film Institute (AFI) announced the program for the AFI Summit that will take place at AFI FEST held online this year from October 15 – 22, 2020. The lineup includes Riz Ahmed, Rachel Brosnahan, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan and Andy Samberg among panelists; and a conversation with Academy Award® nominee, producer, director and writer Ava DuVernay about elevating and supporting BIPOC filmmakers through her company Array.
Slamdance will take a break from Park City in 2021 by moving virtually to slamdance.com, YouTube and physically to Joshua Tree, California. The festival will run February 12 – 25, 2021 with free viewing, filmmaker revenue share and a new program for creators with disabilities.
German actor and director Til Schweiger was moved and visibly delighted as he received the Golden Eye Award at The Zurich Film Festival for his filmmaking, “It’s great to be here in Zurich – at last. I am overjoyed and moved to receive the Golden Eye Award tonight. Many thanks again to the festival, this award means a lot to me!”
Juan José Campanella’s delightfully dark comedy The Weasel’s Tale won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature at the 36th Chicago Latino Film Festival held virtually this year. The Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary went to Jaime Murciego and Pablo Iraburu’s moving documentary Cholitas about a group of Aymará who climb Argentina’s Aconcagua Mountain.
The highly buzzed and acclaimed documentary Maxima directed by Claudia Sparrow follows Peruvian indigenous farmer Máxima Acuña in her fight to protect her land as she stands up to the largest gold producer in the world: US-based Newmont Mining Corporation.
Twin Cities Film Fest, set to run October 22-31 via a ‘Hybrid’ format opens on October 22 with the acclaimed documentary Black Boys, an intimate, inter-generational story that offers profound insight into black identity and opportunity at the nexus of sports, education and criminal justice.
Lübeck Nordic Film Days (Nordische Filmtage Lübeck) will open this year’s 62nd edition of the festival with the German premiere of “The Good Traitor” (“Vores mand i Amerika”), directed by Christina Rosendahl, on November 4, 2020. Inspired by true events, the film is the story of Henrik Kauffmann, who was the Danish ambassador to the USA at the start of World War II, and who fought for the freedom and independence of Denmark after the Nazis occupied the country. A political rebel and man of the world, Kauffmann is masterfully embodied in the film by Ulrich Thomsen (“The Celebration”, “The World is not Enough”, “The International”). Boasting exquisite camerawork, “The Good Traitor” also looks at Kauffmann’s personal life before his tragic death in 1963.
Artis – Naples announced the complete program lineup for the 12th Annual Naples International Film Festival (NIFF) to be held October 22-25, 2020 featuring both virtual and in-person events. NIFF’s in-person screenings will include two documentaries, opening on October 22 with Alice Gu’s award-winning documentary The Donut King, and closing on October 25 with Aurélia Rouvier and Seamus Haley’s festival favorite Banksy Most Wanted. Both screenings will be outdoors on a large screen in the Norris Garden on the Artis – Naples Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus.
French filmmaker Maïwenn accepted the A Tribute To… Award at the 16th Zurich Film Festival. The festival’s most prestigious accolade for auteur filmmakers was presented to Maïwenn at the premiere of her most recent film ADN (DNA) at the Arthouse Le Paris cinema.
Edouard Joubeaud’s Haingosoa was named Best Narrative Feature, with George King’s Thumbs Up for Mother Universe: Stories from the Life of Lonnie Holley taking the award for Best Documentary Feature at the virtual edition of the 2020 Harlem International Film Festival (Hi). Maryna Er Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er’s Omar and Us was cited as Best World Film (Narrative) and Cam Cowan’s Opeka took the prize for Best World Documentary.
Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference (AFF) announced today the full schedule of films and panels for the 27th annual Festival, this October 22-29, to be held exclusively online.