(L to R) Borders (Frontières) director, Woye Apolline Traore, and Senagalese actress, Amelie Mbaye, take home coveted staff awards for “Best Narrative Feature.”Photo Credit: Venus Bernardo Photography[/caption] After 12 full days of showcasing an impressive slate of 173 films, the 26th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) announced the winners of its 2018 season. Borders (Frontières) directed by Woye Apolline Traoré was awarded the prize for Best Narrative Feature, and Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me directed by Samuel D. Pollard was awarded the prize for Best Documentary Feature. The 27th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival will take place February 7 through February 18, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
Science Fair directed by Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster[/caption]
The 7th edition of the Sun Valley Film Festival taking place over the weekend of March 14 to 18, 2018, announced the lineup, which includes five days of films, including three World Premieres, one U.S. premiere, and two episodic premiere screenings. The festival will open on March 14 with the documentary 
Nazif Mujic in “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker”[/caption]
Bosnian actor Nazif Mujic, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actor at 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, for his performance in “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker” passed away on February 18, 2018. He was 48.
The Berlin International Film Festival issued a statement:
Berlinale Mourns the Loss of Nazif Mujić
The Berlin International Film Festival was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Nazif Mujić, who passed away on February 18, 2018.
In 2013, Nazif Mujić was a guest of the Berlinale Competition with Danis Tanović’s documentary drama An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, in which he re-enacts an episode from his own life as scrap collector in Bosnia and Herzegovina together with his family. Nazif Mujić was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtFrHUktgP8
Richard Linklater[/caption]
The 53rd Karlovy Vary IFF will dedicate a special section to the Austin Film Society, which was founded in 1985 by Richard Linklater, who will be among guests of the program focusing on filmmakers from Texas. AFS began as a film club that attracted students, artists and cinema die-hards which quickly grew into an institution supporting film culture and film production in a vibrant and growing Texas film community.
Founder and Artistic Director Richard Linklater commented on the Karlovy Vary honor with the following: “I’m so proud that AFS is receiving this incredible honor from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. KVIFF is fully committed to the discovery of new voices. It’s deeply humbling that they’ve chosen to tribute AFS by shining a light on the community of independent artists that we’ve worked so hard to nurture. With this series of films, KVIFF celebrates creativity and uniqueness of vision, which have been the only consistent themes in the many wonderful films that have come out of Texas over the past 40 years.”
Made in Texas: Tribute to Austin Film Society will present nine feature-length films and two programs of short films. Slacker, the iconic first feature of the Austin Film Society’s founder Richard Linklater, takes us to roam around Austin’s streets during an ordinary hot Texas day, meeting one-of-a-kind locals and eccentrics. Contemporary western action El Mariachi, the debut feature by Robert Rodriguez, tells the story of a kind-hearted musician who accidentally gets entangled in a web of violence.
Offbeat indie The Slow Business of Going by Greek writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari showcases a more experimental side of film production coming from Austin. The documentary scene will be represented by Laura Dunn’s The Unforeseen, a striking, deeply poetic take on the clash between greedy developers and the local community defending the environment of the recreational area in Barton Springs.
Among the recent films from Texas, the festival will show Take Shelter, the award-winning psychological thriller of Cannes favourite Jeff Nichols, David Zellner’s minimalistic drama Kid-Thing, Bob Byington’s witty comedy Somebody Up There Likes Me and Andrew Bujalski’s retro stylised drama Computer Chess, set in a software programmers’ community, as well as a program of contemporary short films by notable up-and-coming Texas filmmakers.
The section will also include Last Night at the Alamo directed by a pioneer of Texas independent film scene, Eagle Pennell, and shot two years before the foundation of the Austin Film Society. Other early works will include a program of six shorts originally curated by Jonathan Demme as a snapshot of the punk and new wave scenes of Austin in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Three monetary prizes were awarded to selected narrative film projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market which was held from February 17 to 21, 2018.
The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, endowed with 20,000 euros, was presented on Sunday to the project The War Has Ended, represented by the producers from Madants, Poland, Match Factory Productions, Germany and Transfax Film Productions, Israel. The prize money is intended as a project development grant from the European film subsidy organization Eurimages. The first Eurimages Co-Production Development Award in Berlin in 2015 went to the project 
The new one-take short Accidence from Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, will receive its world premiere on Tuesday 20th February, 2018 at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.
Accidence is based on music composed by Ensign Broderick, an enigmatic experimental songwriter from Toronto, Canada. The song, officially titled “Accidence PSA,” is found on his forthcoming album Feast of Panthers, to be released on March 9, 2018. To illuminate his unique creative process, Ensign Broderick recently shared two alternate versions of the song as an accompanying Triptych.
In a deadly and maddeningly endless loop of crime and punishment, Accidence explores the narrative potential of the mundane architectural projection. In Maddin’s words, “Every balcony is a poem, a chant — a muscle! But whoever lives with that extra blueprint luxury of a balcony lives on the wrong side of a cross-section, on the busy, narrative-addled side of something like an ant-farm window, a brazen architectural arrangement selling cheap peeks into the naked sideshows of the quotidian — even the grisly. Step right up! Behold! A ten story wall of solid twitching muscle!”
Based on the metaphor that we are each our own victims, each of us the worst perpetrators of our own worst traumas, and each the most tireless prosecutors of the crimes we commit against ourselves, Accidence follows the nightmarish cycle of a man who hurls to his death a doppelganger of himself from an apartment balcony, and is then pursued by a detective who is yet another doppelganger. The perpetrator is pursued from apartment to apartment, to the homes of his parents, and of his girlfriend, flats where he seeks sanctuary from persecution. By the end of the film, the perpetrator joins his victim in death as he is hurled from the balcony by his lookalike pursuer of justice, who promptly considers himself a perp, and who is promptly dogged by yet another lookalike agent of justice. And endless loop of crime and punishment is thus established. Everyone else living in the apartment block, at least those visible out on their balconies, is also caught in their own personal loops of varying activities. We all live in loops, each of us condemned to repeat ourselves in essential ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV0pK6BerHw
The Sarasota Film Festival unveiled the special edition 20th Anniversary poster for the upcoming 2018 festival designed by local designer, Kelsey Hunt-Dolan. This year the festival will take place April 13th through the 22nd, 2018.
This year’s artwork represents the 20th celebration of the Sarasota Film Festival and the lasting impact from various artists. The Roman numerals “XX” on the poster commemorate the historic 20 year anniversary for the festival. John Ringling’s David statue, a replica of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s original masterpiece, is known as the symbol of Sarasota and resides in The Ringling Museum courtyard. John Ringling carved this statue between the mid-19th to early 20th century as a momentum for local artists. He had hoped to open a school of art prior to his demise, but left this statue behind to inspire future artists.
“We are very pleased with this year’s collaborative effort at designing our twentieth anniversary poster containing Michelangelo’s Statue of David, one of the most beautiful pieces of art known to man and a symbol of our great city,” said Mark Famiglio, President of the Sarasota Film Festival. “In these last 20 years, we have watched the festival evolve into a captivating and engaging showcase of diverse films, highlighting the unique and distinct voice from artists nationally and internationally. We look forward to the next 20 years as we salute our community and film lovers from around the world.”
MY DAYS OF MERCY[/caption]
The 32nd edition of BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival which takes place from 
POSTCARDS FROM LONDON[/caption]
The European Premiere of Steve McLean’s stylish and sexy POSTCARDS FROM LONDON will feature as the Closing Night Gala. The film tells the story of beautiful teenager Jim (Harris Dickinson, 
PICKINGS[/caption]
The MidWest WeirdFest today announced the full program for its second annual film festival – a cinematic celebration of of all things fantastic, frightening, offbeat, and just plain weird – which will take place March 9-11, 2018 at the Micon Cinemas Downtown in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Opening the festival is the Wisconsin premiere of PICKINGS from director Usher Morgan. In this neo-noir, western, thriller a short-tempered mobster and his gang of thugs try to shake down a neighborhood bar. But they’re soon confronted with the wrath of its owner: a mysterious southern mother with a dangerous past. PICKINGS is a twisting, blood-drenched, super-stylized, thrill ride, sure to delight fans of Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL and Robert Rodriguez’s SIN CITY.
And for closing night, MidWest WeirdFest presents director Amara Cash’s DADDY ISSUES. A compelling and at times confronting film that tracks a bizarre love triangle: Maya, a desperate young artist, is unaware that her new girlfriend is involved in an emotionally charged, co-dependent, fetish relationship with a neurotic and drug-addicted sugar daddy: a man who is also Maya’s biological father. All three lovers are oblivious to the dark secret of their entanglement, and revelation will change them, forever…
“This year’s festival program runs a weird and wonderful gamut, ranging from the boldest and bloodiest in sci-fi and horror, through documentaries of the strange and macabre, to twisting thrillers and erotic underground dramas” says festival director Dean Bertram, an Australian expatriate and veteran of the international film festival scene. “Whether you want to be thrilled, terrified, mesmerized or titillated you’re going to find an abundance of entertaining films in this unique cinematic smorgasbord.”
Some other fantastic titles the festival announces today include:
CANNIBALS AND CARPET FITTERS (Dr: James Bushe) A ragtag group of carpet layers are sent on a job to an old English country house in the middle of nowhere. They soon discover it’s a trap set up by a savage cannibalistic family. The carpet fitters must fight for their lives or risk ending up as the evening’s dinner. Horrific delights abound in this gore filled dish of a horror comedy, that tastes like a wickedly decadent blend of SHAUN OF THE DEAD and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.
IMPOSSIBLE HORROR (Dr: Justin Decloux) Lily, an insomniac filmmaker, hears a sinister scream outside her window every night. Determined to help the screaming person, she heads into the darkness of her neighbourhood. There she meets Hannah, a veteran “scream hunter”, obsessed with putting a stop to the nightly occurrence. The young women join forces to solve the bloodcurdling mystery, and quickly discover that its source may be an otherworldly threat that drives its victims into madness – and Lily and Hannah are next.
THE MILWAUKEE MAFIA: FRANK BALISTRIERI (Director: Jason Love)
Frank Peter Balistrieri (AKA “Mr. Big”, “Big Frank”, “Mr. Slick”, and “Mad Bomber”) was the most notorious and dangerous Mob Boss in Milwaukee’s history. In this documentary, learn about the secret world of organized crime through the lens of the most dangerous man in Milwaukee. Known for using car bombs to murder his enemies, Frank Balistrieri was willing to do anything to keep his power over the city.
OFFICER PIGSLEY (Director: Kevin Losani, Michael J. Widger) In a a city full of superheroes and monstrous villains, a clumsy police officer stumbles upon an evil conspiracy. He has to decide whether it’s worth taking the law into his own hands – and risking his life – to save a city that despises him. An indie epic, that bats miles above its meager budget, and delivers laughs, gasps, and feels.
BIG TIME[/caption]
The Architecture & Design Film Festival returns to Los Angeles this Spring, from March 14 to 18, 2018, at the historic Los Angeles Theatre Center, providing the film capital of the world a unique lens to explore architecture and design. ADFF: LA will bring a selection of 30+ compelling short length and feature films. The screenings will explore the life and work of revered architects and designers such as desert modernist Albert Frey, contemporary starchitect Bjarke Ingels, and fashion designer Dries van Noten. Films will also cover timely topics such as the power of design to instill positive change and the building of a model city to solve urban problems.
Kicking off with the Short Films Walk (SFW: LA) on March 10, design aficionados are invited to explore the Helms Bakery District, where six showrooms including Arcana Books, Harbour Outdoor, H.D. Buttercup, Scandinavian Designs, Room & Board and Vitra will open their doors and screen over 24 short film documentaries throughout the day from 10am-7pm. The event will conclude with a public screening of Building Hope: The Maggie’s Centres, a beautifully shot film by award-winning director Sarah Howitt that tells the story of Maggie’s, their approach to cancer care, and the role that great design plays in the cancer support they offer. The film will be followed by a talk with Frances Anderton, host of KCRW’s DnA.
ADFF: LA opens on Thursday, March 14 with 
The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) will introduce the future of cinema to audiences – the Hong Kong premiere of Tsai Ming-Liang’s The Deserted, HTC’s first virtual reality (VR) Chinese language film. World-renowned Taiwanese master TSAI Ming-Liang and Golden Horse Award Best Leading Actor LEE Kang-Sheng will lead the Hong Kong audience through an unparalleled eye-opening VR experience, and share their thoughts and visions of this cinematic innovation in a Master Class.
Winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival with Vive L’amour (1994), TSAI Ming-Liang has established himself as one of contemporary cinema’s most accomplished auteurs. In addition to bringing films into the art world, he has been constantly exploring multi-media and new technology in filmmaking. The Deserted, his debut VR work, is an attempt to break the established dichotomy of traditional cinema, and create an interactive film experience that blurs the lines between reality and creative expression.
The work is an elliptical tale of love, death and memory, starring LEE Kang-Sheng as a man recuperating from an illness in the mountains. Unable to communicate with his late mother or the female ghost next door, his only companion is a lone fish who swims with him in the bathtub. The Deserted offers a dreamlike 3D experience which immerses viewers in the construction of the scenes, and the characters’ personal journeys.
The 55-min piece is a milestone in Chinese language cinema and selected for the first-ever Virtual Reality competition at the Venice Film Festival. It received overwhelming response at the Golden Horse Festival, selling out all 13 sessions within seconds. The Deserted is supported by HTC VIVE, ZOTAC and the Academy of Film of Hong Kong Baptist University.