Film Festivals

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” Sam Rockwell to Receive Award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_26578" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Sam Rockwell, left, and Frances McDormand in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri[/caption] Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award winner Sam Rockwell will be honored with the 2018 American Riviera Award at the 33rd Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which runs from January 31 to February 10, 2018. Rockwell will be fêted with a Tribute celebrating his remarkable performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The film opened in November of 2017 to critical acclaim. The Tribute will take place Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at the historic Arlington Theatre. “In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, audiences are treated to the kind of mesmerizing and extraordinary performance we have come to expect from Sam Rockwell,” stated Roger Durling, Executive Director of SBIFF. “We are long overdue to celebrate this tremendous talent who has lit up the screen for decades.” Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, follows a mother who, when the police in her town fail to find a suspect in her daughter’s murder, purchases three billboards to call public attention to the unsolved crime. When the town’s revered chief of police and his second-in-command get involved, the battle between the mother and Ebbing’s law enforcement becomes exacerbated. The American Riviera Award was established to recognize actors who have made a significant contribution to American Cinema. Rockwell will join a prestigious group of past recipients, including last year’s honoree Jeff Bridges (2017), Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Mark Ruffalo (2016), Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke (2015), Robert Redford (2014), Quentin Tarantino (2013), Martin Scorsese (2012), Annette Bening (2011), Sandra Bullock (2010), Mickey Rourke (2009), Tommy Lee Jones (2008), Forrest Whitaker (2007), Philip Seymour Hoffman (2006), Kevin Bacon (2005) and Diane Lane (2004). The 33rd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from Wednesday, January 31st through Saturday, February 10th. The festival previously honored Judi Dench with its Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film. The festival has also announced that it will honor Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) with its Santa Barbara Award, Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) with its Maltin Modern Master Award, Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) with its Cinema Vanguard Award, and Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Hong Chau (Downsizing), John Boyega (Detroit), Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Mary J. Blige (Mudbound), and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name) with the Virtuosos Award.
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2018 Noir City Film Festival Returns to Seattle, Unveils Lineup + Opens with “The Maltese Falcon”

[caption id="attachment_26573" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] The Maltese Falcon[/caption] The Film Noir festival, Noir City, returns to the legendary Egyptian theater in Seattle for the 2018 edition from February 16 through 22, with exceptional films from the most “noir” of decades, 1941 to 1951. The festival presents 18 classic films as they were experienced on their original releases, pairing a top-tier studio “A” with a shorter, low-budget second feature, or “B” film. All but two of the films will be presented in glorious 35mm. The host of Noir City, Czar of Noir Eddie Muller, will also be back to delight audiences with twisted tales and anecdotes about each film. If you’ve seen his show “Noir Alley” on Turner Classic Movies, then you know what an incomparable master of the darkest corners of human motivation he is. Eddie is available for interviews via phone or SKYPE. Opening Night the Egyptian will be transformed into a haven for gangsters, molls, vixens, and villains, with Noir-themed wine and a shadowy cityscape photo booth to capture patrons at their sinister best. Presented in 35mm, the Opening Night film, The Maltese Falcon (1941), John Huston’s remarkable directorial debut, sets the tone for this year’s stellar line-up. The As include The Blue Dahlia (1946), starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, which incredibly is making its first appearance in Noir City, and Flesh and Fantasy (1943), by renowned French director Julien Divivier and featuring a dazzling cast including Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Boyer, Edward G. Robinson, and Robert Cummings. The Bs include Quiet Please, Murder (1942), a surprisingly racy film starring George Sanders as a cunning forger that must match wits with an equally cunning femme fatale (Gail Patrick), and Bodyguard (1948), a film that ironically stars real-life lawbreaker Lawrence Tierney as a lawman framed for a murder in a meat-packing plant. This breakneck-paced thriller is also distinguished by the co-writer, Robert Altman. On closing night, the Film Noir Foundation’s latest restoration, an independently made noir crowd pleaser The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950), will have its Seattle premiere (the world premiere is only a couple of weeks earlier at the San Francisco Noir City). Thanks to the generosity of FNF donors, the Foundation was able to fully fund the restoration of this film. Starring Lee J. Cobb, this James M. Cain-style thriller gets maximum impact from its San Francisco locations, including a memorable climax at Fort Point. “We are excited for this year’s Noir City to return,” says SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett. “The 1915 Masonic Temple building that houses the Egyptian has some dark shadows of its own. There’s definitely no better or more atmospheric movie palace to host Noir City in Seattle, one of the greatest movie-going cities in the nation.”
NOIR CITY 2018 LINEUP
The Maltese Falcon (35mm) Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical, tough-talking private eye, becomes ensnared in a web of deceit when a simple missing persons case becomes a deadly hunt for a missing statuette.(d: John Huston c: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, 1941 101 min) Quiet Please, Murder (35mm) A book thief/forger sells a fake book to a Nazi through a female agent. A detective tries to uncover who the forger is and gets in the middle of a three way struggle for rare books and revenge in a public library. (d: John Larkin c: George Sanders, Gail Patrick, Richard Denning, 1942, 70 min) Shadow of a Doubt (35mm) In Alfred Hitchcock’s glimpse into the dark side of suburbia, a young woman discovers her visiting uncle may not be the man he seems to be. (d: Alfred Hitchcock c: Joseph Cotton, Teresa Wright, Hume Cronyn, 1943, 108 min) Address Unknown (35mm) The film tells the story of two families caught up in the rise of Nazism in Germany prior to the start of World War II. (d: William Cameron Menzies c: Paul Lukas, Peter van Eyck, Carl Esmond, 1944, 75 min) Flesh and Fantasy (35mm) Two members of a gentlemen’s club tell three tales of the supernatural in this atmospheric pre-cursor to “The Twilight Zone.” (d: Julien Divivier c: Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Boyer, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Cummings, 1943, 94 min) Destiny (35mm) Originally conceived as a fourth “episode” in Flesh and Fantasy, this expanded story is about a cynical ex-con and the blind girl that may be the key to his redemption. (d: Reginald Le Borg c: Alan Curtis, Gloria Jean, Frank Craven,1944, 65 min) Mildred Pierce (35mm) Joan Crawford delivers a ferocious, Oscar®-winning performance as a hard-working housewife who struggles to provide the best life for her little girl Veda, only to find herself trapped in a dark world of thwarted desires. (d: Michael Curtiz c: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Ann Blyth, Eve Arden, Bruce Bennett, 1945, 111 min) Jealousy (35mm) A successful alcoholic writer is murdered and his wife is accused. (d: Gustav Machatý c: Jane Randolph, John Loder, Karen Morley, Nils Asther, 1945, 71 min) The Blue Dahlia (35mm) Writer Raymond Chandler’s only original screenplay is a classic about a returning vet being framed for his unfaithful wife’s murder. (d: George Marshall c: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Doris Dowling, William Bendix, 1946, 96 min) The Big Sleep (35mm) Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he’s seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love. (d: Howard Hawks c: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, Elisha Cook Jr., 1946, 114 min) Kiss of Death (Digital) With his law-breaking lifestyle in the past, an ex-con, along with his family, attempt to start a new life, knowing a betrayed someone from the past is bound to see otherwise. (d: Henry Hathaway c: Victor Mature, Richard Widmark, Coleen Gray, Karl Malden, 1947, 99 min) Blind Spot (35mm) Veteran Columbia star Chester Morris delivers a terrific performance as a hard-drinking, hard-luck writer who pitches his skeptical publisher an ingenious “locked room” mystery . . . only to have the crime come true. (d: Robert Gordon c: Chester Morris, William Forrest, Constance Dowling, 1947, 73 min) I Walk Alone (Digital) An ex-convict leaves prison expecting his equal share from his ex-partner. But his partner has no intention of sharing. (d: Byron Haskin c: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, Marc Lawrence, Wendell Corey, 1948, 97 min) Bodyguard (35mm) An ousted Los Angeles homicide detective goes to work for a widow and is framed for murder. (d: Richard Fleischer c: Lawrence Tierney, Priscilla Lane, Phillip Reed, Steve Brodie,1948, 62 min) The Accused (35mm) When a college student grows inappropriately fond of his psychology professor and tries to rape her, she fights back. But as she defends herself, she accidentally kills her attacker. (d: William Dieterle c: Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey, Douglas Dick, 1949, 101 min) The Threat (35mm) Murderer Arnold “Red” Kluger has a score to settle: When he was convicted, he promised revenge on the people who put him in prison. (d: Felix E. Feist c: Charles McGraw, Virginia Grey, Michael O’Shea, Anthony Caruso, 1949, 66 min) The Man Who Cheated Himself A woman in the process of divorce shoots her husband and gets her police lieutenant boyfriend to help hide the body. (d: Felix E. Feist c: Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, John Dall, Harlan Warde,1950, 81 min) Roadblock An honest LA insurance detective becomes corrupt and turns to crime after falling in love with a gold-digger model. (d: Harold Daniels c: Charles McGraw, Joan Dixon, Lowell Gilmore, 1951, 73 min)
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Seven Restorations to Celebrate Their World Premieres in Berlinale Classics 2018 at Berlin International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_26567" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Letyat Zhuravli (The Cranes are Flying)[/caption] The Berlinale Classics section of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival will present the world premieres of a total of seven films in digitally restored versions. Wim Wenders’ prize-winning classic Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire, Federal Republic of Germany / France 1987) returns to the screen in a new, digitally restored 4K DCP version. Two guardian angels keep watch over Berlin, until one of them falls in love with a mortal woman. He chooses to become human, giving up his immortality, and an entirely new world is revealed to him. The film was shot on both black-and-white and colour stock. At the time, that required several additional steps in the lab in order to produce a final colour negative, which was several generations removed from the camera negatives. This version, restored by the Wim Wenders Foundation, is based on the original negatives; STUDIOCANAL will be releasing it in German cinemas in the near future. Az én XX. századom (My 20th Century, Hungary / Federal Republic of Germany 1989), the feature debut of the winner of the 2017 Golden Bear, Ildikó Enyedi, is a complex, poetic fairy tale, and an homage to silent movies. Shot in black-and-white, the film follows the very different live of identical twins in Old Europe at the dawn of the 20th century. Using the original camera negative and the magnetic sound track, the film was digitally restored in 4K by the Hungarian National Film Fund – Hungarian National Film Archive, working with Hungarian Filmlab. Cinematographer Tibor Máthé (HSC – Hungarian Society of Cinematographers) supervised the digital grading. Sidney Lumet’s thriller Fail Safe (USA 1964) is an impressive critique of the Cold War military doctrine. When an errant U.S. bomber threatens to destroy Moscow, the president calls the Soviet premier on the red phone to try to prevent a retaliatory nuclear strike. The film was restored in 4K under the aegis of Sony Pictures Entertainment and its head of restoration, Grover Crisp. The incomplete camera negative was supplemented with the use of a duplicate negative. Conforming the various different source materials presented a special challenge to the restoration team. Letyat Zhuravli (The Cranes Are Flying, USSR 1957) by Mikhail Kalatozov was Soviet cinema’s first international hit after World War II. Made during the period of liberalisation that followed Joseph Stalin’s death, this unusual black-and-white film’s expressionist images tell the tragic story of two lovers after Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. The film brought international fame to Mikhail Kalatozov and his lead actress, Tatiana Samoilova. Letyat Zhuravli was restored by Mosfilm under the leadership of general director Karen Shakhnazarov. The ditigal 2K restoration, on the basis of the original negative, was supervised by the head of restoration Igor Bogdasarov. Director Assi Dayan was lauded by the International Jury of the Berlinale in 1993 for the courage and honesty of his HaChayim Al-Pi Agfa (Life According to Agfa, Israel 1992). The film revolves around a Tel Aviv bar, where a world of bohemians, business people, junkies, tourists, pimps, and soldiers all meet. The events of a single night, captured in black-and-white photos, are a microcosm of a society that considers itself liberal and tolerant, but in which seemingly trivial actions can become explosive. The 4K restoration was produced by the Jerusalem Cinematheque – Israel Film Archive, where the negative was scanned. It was supervised by cinematographer Yoav Kosh and supported by the Israel Film Fund. With Tokyo Boshoku (Tokyo Twilight, Japan 1957), Berlinale Classics will provide a rare opportunity to see a largely unknown and seldom shown work by Yasujiro Ozu. The theme of the end of a family living together is one that Japanese directing maestro Yasujiro Ozu often reworks, and here he has given it a dramatic twist. In wintery Tokyo, a family’s silence leads to its breakdown. Tokyo Boshoku, considered Ozu’s most sombre post-war film, was digitally restored in 4K on the basis of the 35mm duplicate negative provided by the Japanese production company Shochiku, managed by Shochiku MediaWorX Inc. Colour correction was led by Ozu’s former assistant cameraman Takashi Kawamata and cinematographer Masashi Chikamori. The Berlinale Classics section will open on February 16, 2018, at 5 pm in the Friedrichstadt-Palast with the premiere of the Deutsche Kinemathek’s digital restoration of the 1923 silent film classic Das alte Gesetz (The Ancient Law) directed by E.A. Dupont (see press release of December 5, 2017). ZDF/ARTE commissioned French composer Philippe Schoeller to create new music for this version, which will be presented by the Orchester Jakobsplatz München with Daniel Grossmann at the podium. The full programme of the Berlinale Classics section: Das alte Gesetz (The Ancient Law) Dir: Ewald André Dupont, Germany, 1923 World premiere of the digitally restored version in 2K DCP Az én XX. századom (My 20th Century) Dir: Ildikó Enyedi, Hungary / Federal Republic of Germany, 1989 Presented by Ildikó Enyedi and Tibor Máthé World premiere of the digitally restored version in 4K DCP Fail Safe Dir: Sidney Lumet, USA, 1964 World premiere of the digitally restored version in 4K DCP HaChayim Al-Pi Agfa (Life According To Agfa) Dir: Assi Dayan, Israel, 1992 World premiere of the digitally restored version in 4K DCP Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) Dir: Wim Wenders, Germany / France, 1987 Presented by Wim Wenders World premiere of the digitally restored version in 4K DCP Letyat Zhuravli (The Cranes are Flying) Dir: Mikhail Kalatozov, USSR, 1957 World premiere of the digitally restored version in 2K DCP Tokyo Boshoku (Tokyo Twilight) Dir: Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1957a Presented by Wim Wenders World premiere of the digitally restored version in 4K DCP
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65 Films to Compete in Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus Competition at 2018 Berlin International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_26562" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] 303[/caption] Selected from considerably more than 2,000 submissions, this year a total of 65 full-length and short films have been invited to compete in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival. Highly contemporary, the selection reflects on both cinematic developments as well as current socio-political situations. The diversity in content and format relentlessly reflects a complex and frequently inconsistent world while at the same time leaving room for interpretation. In the zone between reality and imagination, the filmmakers open doors for alternative options – not only for the young protagonists – and simultaneously reframe a young generations’ yearning for commitment. “Every single selection is an invitation to the audience to experience life from the perspective of youth. They are films with young people, as opposed to about them. An impressive characteristic throughout the program is not only the deep respect with which the filmmakers paint portraits of their protagonists, but also the immediacy and intimacy with which they approach these very individual world views,” says section head Maryanne Redpath about this year’s program. The Generation 14plus competition will open at Haus der Kulturen der Welt with the road movie 303, with director Hans Weingartner (White Noise and The Edukators, among others) and cast attending. The Generation Kplus competition will open with an adventurous journey of an altogether different nature: the fast-paced Danish animation Den utrolige historie om den kæmpestore pære (The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear) by Philip Einstein Lipski, Amalie Næsby Fick and Jørgen Lerdam.
Generation 14plus
Adam Germany / Iceland / USA by Maria Solrun World premiere After her debut film Jargo (Generation 14plus 2004), Icelandic director Maria Solrun presents a feature film for the second time in Generation. The aurally handicapped young protagonist Adam and his mother, a techno musician, have always lived in different worlds. At the same time, they are symbiotically connected: he feels her music directly with his body. When his mother is diagnosed with irreversible brain damage caused by alcohol, Adam suddenly has to look after himself. He faces his mother’s eager death wish in his very own laconic way, and the director gives him his voice, as well as plenty of space to develop. Dressage Iran by Pooya Badkoobeh World premiere Motivated primarily by boredom rather than greed, Golsa and her friends rob a corner shop. But while evaluating the booty, they are dismayed to realise that they forgot to take the security camera footage. One of them must return to the crime scene and retrieve it. The vote falls on Golsa, who bravely completes the mission. Her friends’ behaviour makes her think, and she hides the hard drive somewhere secret. But her accomplices and their well-to-do families put more and more pressure on Golsa, worried about their social standing. Director Pooya Badkoobeh radically staged story about control, blackmail and the power of money holds an uncompromising mirror up to Iranian society. Fortuna Switzerland / Belgium by Germinal Roaux World premiere Amidst the snow-covered mountains of the Swiss Simplon Pass, 14-year-old Fortuna clasps her hands in prayer. She hasn’t seen her parents since their traumatic crossing of the Mediterranean. Like many other refugees, the young girl from the Ethiopia/Eritrea border area has found refuge in an Augustinian monastery. The feelings of loneliness and yearning for love that tear at Fortuna are weighed against a secret that she can’t even tell the head friar – insightfully played by Bruno Ganz. Director Germinal Roaux fathoms the depths of Christian charity in expressive black-and-white imagery. Hendi & Hormoz Iran / Czech Republic by Abbas Amini World premiere After Valderama (Generation 2016), Iranian director Abbas Amini presents his second feature film in Generation 14plus. Hendi & Hormoz takes place on Iran’s Hormuz Island in the Persian Gulf, where hematite deposits in the soil turn the ocean waves blood-red. 16-year-old Hormoz is married to Hendi, three years his junior, after he promises that he can work as a miner. But the young man, stirringly played by Hamed Alipour (Valderama), finds closed doors instead of a job. When Hendi becomes pregnant unexpectedly, Hormoz is forced to make an ill-advised pact with a smuggler. Director Amini portrays the existential struggle of two young people who must abandon their carefree youth in a harsh world. High Fantasy South Africa by Jenna Bass European premiere After The Tunnel (Berlinale Shorts 2010), Berlinale Talents alumna and London native Jenna Bass now presents a film in Generation 14plus. Filmed by the four protagonists exclusively on smartphones in the wide expanses of the South African veldt, Bass’s second feature film High Fantasy brings a common vision to life: being inside the body of another person. When Lexi and her friends experience exactly that during a camping trip, a suspense-laden dynamic ensues between the three women and Thami, the only man with them, but also between Lexi, who is white and Xoli, who is black. A smart and biting essay on the unrelenting politics of the human body – and still highly relevant even decades after the alleged end of Apartheid. Kissing Candice Ireland / United Kingdom by Aoife McArdle European premiere Candice, 17, has a vivid imagination. In the glaring and graphic realms she experiences during her epileptic seizures, a man appears with whom she falls in love. Soon after, she meets him in the real world. But that’s just one bit of trouble in the Irish town where the young people see a pony as a status symbol on par with a car. One boy is missing and a violent clique of youths is terrorising the village inhabitants. Candice’s father, a police officer who longs for the “good old days” of “the Troubles”, is on the case. In her debut film, director Aoife McArdle stages highly aesthetic chaos against the harsh backdrop of a coastal Irish village. The director’s ample experience making music videos is clearly visible throughout. Retablo Peru / Germany / Norway by Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio L. European premiere 14-year-old Segundo lives with his parents in a village high in the magnificent mountains of Peru. His father Noé is a respected artist and Segundo’s role model. Noé hand-crafts altarpieces, decorated shrines for church and home, and is teaching Segundo the necessary skills to carry on in his footsteps. But cracks have developed in their close relationship because Noé is keeping a dark secret. With brutal honesty and saturated colours, the film peeks behind the facade of a seemingly intact village community where homophobic attidtudes enforced by patriarchal laws are carried out with remorseless violence. It sketches a visually powerful panorama of a world in which a young artist is searching for his niche. What Walaa Wants Canada / Denmark by Christy Garland World premiere The Palestinian girl Walaa – whose mother was incarcerated in an Israeli prison for eight years for allegedly aiding an assassination – shows little interest in school. She’d rather join the Palestinian National Authority – the provisional governmental body that governs the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza – as soon as possible, were it not for her distrust of any kind of authority. Director Christy Garland’s documentary follows the obstreperous young woman over the course of five years, from age 15 to 20. Always maintaining a level playing field with her young protagonist, Christy Garland gives an intimate look at the rebellious girl fighting at times uncontrollably but tenaciously for her dream. 303, Germany, Hans Weingartner — WP Cobain, Netherlands / Belgium / Germany, Nanouk Leopold — WP Danmark (Denmark), Denmark, Kaspar Rune Larsen — IP Güvercin (The Pigeon), Turkey, Banu Sıvacı — WP Les faux tatouages (Fake Tattoos), Canada, Pascal Plante — EP Para Aduma (Red Cow), Israel, Tsivia Barkai Jacov — WP Unicórnio (Unicorn), Brazil, Eduardo Nunes — IP Virus Tropical, Colombia, Santiago Caicedo — EP
Short films in Generation 14plus
Fry-Up, United Kingdom, Charlotte Regan — EP Follower, Germany, Jonathan B. Behr — WP Je fais où tu me dis (Dressed for Pleasure), Switzerland, Marie de Maricourt — IP Juck, Sweden, Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira — IP Kiem Holijanda, Netherlands, Sarah Veltmeyer — IP Na zdrowie! (Bless You!), Poland, Paulina Ziólkowska — WP Neputovanja (Untravel), Serbia / Slovakian Republic, Ana Nedeljković, Nikola Majdak Jr. — WP Nuuca, USA / Canada, Michelle Latimer — EP Playa (Beach), Mexico, Francisco Borrajo — EP Pop Rox, USA, Nate Trinrud — EP Premier amour (First Love), Switzerland, Jules Carrin — IP Sinfonía de un mar triste (Symphony of a Sad Sea), Mexico, Carlos Morales — EP Tangles and Knots, Australia, Renée Marie Petropoulos — EP Three Centimetres, United Kingdom, Lara Zeidan — WP Vermine (Vermin), Denmark, Jeremie Becquer — WP Voltage, Austria, Samira Ghahremani — IP
Generation Kplus
Blue Wind Blows Japan by Tetsuya Tomina World premiere In his poetic full-length film debut, director Tetsuya Tomina follows shy Ao, who lives with his mother and younger sister Kii on the Japanese island of Sado. Their father recently disappeared without a trace, but nobody talks much about that. Ao and Kii wander around the island and vent their incomprehension to the expanses of the sea. Then Ao finds a soulmate in the secretive Sayoko. These two daydreamers need only a few words and feel immediately connected to one another. Against the impressive backdrop of an industrial coastal village, Tomina (who also wrote the screenplay) tells a touching story about hope, loss and letting go. Ceres Belgium / Netherlands by Janet van den Brand World premiere In her full-length documentary debut, Dutch director Janet van den Brand accompanies her four young protagonists as they go about their daily agricultural business. Piglets are born, as well as calves, lambs and chicks. Sowing, planting and harvesting. Butchering. No matter what, the camera is close by, along with Koen, Daan, Sven and Jeanine. They help with the farm work from a young age, learning to take responsibility, and to say farewell. Will they run their parents’ farms one day? Using documental imagery, Van den Brand presents a realistic picture of life and work in agriculture – one without idealism, and yet full of poetry. Cirkeline, Coco og det vilde næsehorn (Circleen, Coco and the Wild Rhinoceros) Denmark by Jannik Hastrup World premiere The works of Danish director Jannik Hastrup, seasoned master of animation film, have competed in the Generation programmes since 1985. This year he presents the fourth screen adventure of the matchbook-sized elf Cirkeline. Travel is once again on the agenda, this time with Princess Coco and a moody baby rhinoceros, who both want to return to their home in Africa. Cirkeline and her mouse friends spontaneously decide to go along. A musical story told in episodes and lively, colorful images, Hastrup’s film once again illustrates how travel can open our eyes, and that not everything is the way it seems at first glance. Los Bando Norway / Sweden by Christian Lo International premiere Best friends Axel and Grim finally want to perform at this year’s Norwegian rock championship with their band, Los Bando Immortale. Nine-year-old runaway and cellist Thilda, and underage rally driver Martin complete the troupe, and the quartet sets off on a turbulent road trip to the wild north. With the police and crazy relatives on their tail, and confronted with harsh truths in life and love, the four friends continue toward their dream, unperturbed. After Bestevenner (2010), Norwegian director Christian Lo presents his second feature film in Generation Kplus. Mochila de plomo (Packing Heavy) Argentina by Darío Mascambroni World premiere 12-year-old Tomás tolerated it for far too long – being put off by the grownups, who built a labyrinth of silence, excuses and contradictions all around him. But today is the day of truth. Today, the man who killed his father will be released from prison. And Tomás is ready. In his rucksack is a loaded gun. Restless and determined to liberate himself from the half-truths of the adults, Tomás takes a trip through his hometown. Following his debut Primero enero (Generation Kplus 2017), director Darío Mascambroni once again demonstrates his talent for the attentively observed father-son narrative, told in atmospheric images and in close proximity to his protagonists. Wang Zha de yuxue (Wangdrak’s Rain Boots) People’s Republic of China by Lhapal Gyal World premiere After heavy rains, puddles and mud cover the streets of the Tibetan mountain village. It’s good for the crops, but bad for young Wangdrak, the only boy in the village without rubber boots. While his father is busy with other worries, Wangdrak’s mother fulfills her son’s wish. But new shoes bring new problems. For Wangdrak, a battle against the blue sky and for the rain begins, fought alongside his loyal friend Lhamo. Nestled in the inimitable mountain landscape, director Lhapal Gyal uses vivid imagery to show us a culture steeped in ancient traditions, paying special attention to the young protagonist’s dreams. Allons enfants (Cléo & Paul), France, Stéphane Demoustier — WP Den utrolige historie om den kæmpestore pære (The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear), Denmark, Philip Einstein Lipski, Amalie Næsby Fick, Jørgen Lerdam — IP Dikkertje Dap (My Giraffe), Netherlands / Belgium / Germany, Barbara Bredero — IP El día que resistía (The Endless Day), Argentina / France, by Alessia Chiesa — WP Gordon och Paddy (Gordon and Paddy), Sweden, Linda Hambäck — IP Les rois mongols (Cross My Heart), Canada, Luc Picard — EP Sekala Niskala (The Seen and Unseen), Indonesia / Netherlands / Australia / Qatar, Kamila Andini — EP Supa Modo, Germany / Kenya, Likarion Wainaina — WP
Short films in Generation Kplus
A Field Guide to Being a 12-Year-Old Girl, Australia, Tilda Cobham-Hervey — IP L’après-midi de Clémence (The Afternoon of Clémence), France, Lénaïg Le Moigne — WP Vdol´ i poperyok (Between the Lines), Russian Federation, Maria Koneva — WP Brottas (Tweener), Sweden, Julia Thelin — IP Cena d’aragoste (Lobster Dinner), USA / Italy, Gregorio Franchetti — IP De Natura, Romania, Lucile Hadžihalilović — IP Fisketur (Out Fishing), Sweden, Uzi Geffenblad — IP Fire in Cardboard City, New Zealand, Phil Brough — EP Hvalagapet, Norway, Liss-Anett Steinskog — IP Jaalgedi (A Curious Girl), Nepal, Rajesh Prasad Khatri — EP Lost & Found, Australia, Bradley Slabe — WP Neko no Hi (Cat Days), Germany, Jon Frickey — WP Paper Crane, Australia, Takumi Kawakami — WP Pinguin (Penguin), Germany, Julia Ocker — WP Snijeg za Vodu (Snow for Water), Bosnia and Herzegovina / United Kingdom, Christopher Villiers — IP Toda mi alegría (All My Joy), Argentina, Micaela Gonzalo — IP Tråder (Threads), Norway / Canada, Torill Kove — EP Trois rêves de ma jeunesse (Three Dreams of My Childhood), Romania, Valérie Mréjen, Bertrand Schefer — IP Yover, Colombia, Edison Sánchez — WP
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Berlin International Film Festival Complete 13th Forum Expanded Program Lineup

[caption id="attachment_26557" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Der Schwarze Samurai Yasuke in Café Togo von Musquiqui Chihying, Gregor Kasper Darsteller*: Yugen Yah[/caption] 34 film and video works, along 15 installations will be featured in the 13th Forum Expanded program at the upcoming 2018 Berlin International Film Festival, which opens on February 14 under the title “A Mechanism Capable of Changing Itself.” The program is now complete. This year’s program once again includes a variety of works that use documentary techniques to examine and explore the potential for both cinema and music to question, illustrate, analyze and bring about change in such a way that they are capable of intervening in social and political events on the global stage. In so doing, they also expand the very concept of the documentary. The title of Margaret Honda’s work 6144 X 1024 recalls James Benning’s 11 x 14 from 1977. 6144 X 1024 separates out the entire colour spectrum of a digital projector in a computer-generated screening. This process lasts 36 hours in total and will be shown for a few hours each day over the course of the festival in the smaller of the two Arsenal cinema auditoria. Like Benning’s work, Honda’s piece turns form into content and seems almost paradigmatic for the demands to which contemporary cinema is once again subject. While for Benning the primary focus was on finding a new cinematic language, today the emphasis has shifted to altered spatial, temporal and power relations, as well as the new systems of reference within reality that dictate structure. The resulting need for alternative histories is apparent in many of the works in the programme: Kudzanai Chiurai’s film We Live in Silence: Chapters 1-7 takes Med Hondo’s classic Soleil Ô as a point of departure for staging historical narratives and visions of the future that reject the assumption that African migrants are supposed to think, speak and understand language in the way their colonisers do. Alternative history is also what structures High Dam, a slide installation by Ala Younis which focusses on two films made by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine about the Aswan Dam in the 1960s and 1970s. High Dam shines a light on the politics of the era and Chahine’s efforts to evade censorship. The installation Café Togo by Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper examines the campaign to rename streets with colonial connotations in the so-called African Quarter of Berlin-Wedding. It also explores Black activist Abdel Amine Mohammed’s vision of a multidimensional politics of memory. Laura Horelli’s installation Namibia Today is also set in Berlin. In an underground station in former East Berlin, seven people talk about the history of the magazine “Namibia Today“, which was published in the GDR between 1980 and 1985. Zach Blas’s Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033 is inspired by Derek Jarman’s queer punk film Jubilee (1978). Blas shows philosopher Ayn Rand and economist Alan Greenspan on a drug trip in 1955, during which they witness the end of the Internet in 2033. In Watching the Detectives, Chris Kennedy takes a critical look at the internet as we know it today by retracing the efforts of amateur detectives to reconstruct the events of the Boston Marathon bombing. In the Marshall McLuhan Salon at the Embassy of Canada, Forum Expanded presents an installation by artist-duo Bambitchell in which surveillance is investigated as an aesthetic practice. The exhibition opens on February 15. Its title, Special Works School, refers to the code name used by the British War Office between 1917 and 1919 for a group of artists employed to design camouflage patterns and technologies. SAVVY Contemporary will present an exhibition by artist and filmmaker Jasmina Metwaly from February 13 onwards. We Are Not Worried in the Least confronts viewers with footage from the film archive that she put together in Egypt between 2001 and 2016. Egypt’s turbulent social and political landscape during this period form the historical backdrop to these images. Music, Avant-garde and Underground A series of works bring together film and music as interrelated elements of social and artistic movements which each carry the same importance. The Third Part of the Third Measure is an audio-visual composition by The Otolith Group that can be seen and heard in the group exhibition. It stages an encounter with the militant minimalism of avant-garde composer Julius Eastman, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the ecstatic aesthetics of black radicalism, which Eastman himself once described as “full of honour, integrity and boundless courage”. Andreas Reihse, who is well-known as a member of the band Kreidler, collaborated with artist and author Mohamed A. Gawad and filmmaker and author Dalia Neis (aka Dice Miller) in composing two audio essays. Entitled Celluloid Corridors, these two works will be presented as a cinematic event. Morgan Fisher, one of the most famous representatives of structural cinema, will present his response to Bruce Conner’s classic found-footage film A Movie (1958), which he has dubbed Another Movie. By making reference to Ottorino Respighi’s composition “Pini di Roma”, Fisher generates visual associations to Conner’s film almost automatically. Three more representatives of the North American avant-garde and underground scene that emerged in the 1970s will be showing their new works at Forum Expanded: James Benning, whose installation L. Cohen will be in the group exhibition, as well as Barbara Hammer and Ken Jacobs. And both Heinz Emigholz and Ben Russell once again return to the programme, the latter with Ben Rivers. At silent green Kulturquartier Forum Expanded will be presenting a concert by The Invisible Hands, an Egyptian band co-founded in Cairo in 2011 by Alan Bishop (aka Alvarius B., best-known as a member of Sun City Girls). The band is also the subject of Marina Gioti’s and Georges Salameh’s documentary of the same name, which was shown for the first time at the documenta 14 in Athens. Another two documentaries are dedicated to underground icons: In Eu sou o Rio, Gabraz Sanna and Anne Santos create both a portrait of Brazilian artist and musician Tantão and of the city of Rio. In Escape From Rented Island: The Lost Paradise of Jack Smith, Jerry Tartaglia combines glamorous pictures of the performer and filmmaker, who died in 1989, with music from his own eccentric record collection. Archival Constellations “Think Film No. 6 – Archival Constellations”, an international symposium on themes relating to film archives and alternative archive projects, will take place on February 22 at silent green Kulturquartier in Berlin-Wedding. Film archives and projects from Nigeria, Egypt, Palestine, Mexico, Japan and India have all been invited to take part. During the festival, Prinzessinnengärten will be responsible for designing the foyer of the Arsenal cinema, with b_books once again offering a selection of literature.
Films
‘abl ma ‘ansa by Mariam Mekiwi (Egypt / Germany, 27´) 6144 X 1024 by Margaret Honda (USA, 360´) A Movie by Bruce Conner (USA, 12´) Aala Kad Al Shawk – Le Voyage Immobile by Ghassan Salhab and Mohamed Soueid (Lebanon / France, 23´) Another Movie by Morgan Fisher (USA, 22´) Araf by Didem Pekün (Turkey / Greece / Bosnia and Herzegovina, 47´) Ard al mahshar by Milad Amin (Lebanon / Syria, 19´) Bayna Hayakel Studio Baalbeck by SISKA (Lebanon / Germany, 48´) Celluloid Corridors: Sermon by Mohamed A. Gawad, Dalia Neis and Andreas Reihse (Germany, 11´) Celluloid Corridors: Timehelix by Mohamed A. Gawad, Dalia Neis and Andreas Reihse (Germany, 9´) Cinema Olanda Film by Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Netherlands, 17´) Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033 by Zach Blas (USA / United Kingdom, 29´) The Disappeared by Adam Kaplan and Gilad Baram (Germany / Israel, 46´) DUG by Jan Peter Hammer (Germany / Norway, 27´) Escape From Rented Island: The Lost Paradise of Jack Smith by Jerry Tartaglia (USA, 88´) Eu sou o Rio by Gabraz Sanna and Anne Santos (Brazil, 78´) Evidence of the Evidence by Alexander Johnston (USA, 22´) Evidentiary Bodies by Barbara Hammer (USA, 10´) The Invisible Hands by Marina Gioti and Georges Salameh (Greece / Egypt, 97´) It by Anouk De Clercq and Tom Callemin (Belgium, 13´) Manila Scream Expanded by Roxlee (Philippines, 66´) Onward Lossless Follows by Michael Robinson (USA, 17´) Optimism by Deborah Stratman (USA / Canada, 15´) The Rare Event by Ben Rivers and Ben Russell (Switzerland / France / United Kingdom, 48´) RIOT: 3 Movements by Rania Stephan (Lebanon / United Arab Emirates, 17´) Die Schläferin by Alex Gerbaulet (Germany, 16´) Shelley Duval is Olive Oyl by Ken Jacobs (USA, 21´) Song for Europe by John Smith (United Kingdom, 4´) Today Is 11th June 1993 by Clarissa Thieme (Germany / Bosnia and Herzegovina, 15´) TWO BASILICAS by Heinz Emigholz (Denmark / Germany, 36´) An Untimely Film For Every One and No One by Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri (USA / Palestine / Armenia, 90´) wa akhiran musiba by Maya Shurbaji (Syria,15´) Watching the Detectives by Chris Kennedy (Canada, 36´) We Live in Silence: Chapters 1-7 by Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe, 36´)
Group exhibition at Akademie der Künste am Hanseatenweg
Article 9303 by Ash Moniz (Egypt, 7´) Bläue by Kerstin Schroedinger (Germany / United Kingdom, 48´) Café Togo by Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper (Germany / Taiwan, 27´) Cold Body Shining by Marta Hryniuk (Poland, 33´) Come Back Alive Baby by Song Sanghee (Republic of Korea, 17´) Extended Sea by Nesrine Khodr (Lebanon / United Arab Emirates, 705´) High Dam by Ala Younis (Jordan, 7´) Cohenby James Benning (USA, 45´) Namibia Today by Laura Horelli (Germany / Finland, 21´) Pink Slime Caesar Shift by Jen Liu (USA, 24´) Strange Meetings by Jane Jin Kaisen (Republic of Korea, 11´) The Third Part of the Third Measure by The Otolith Group (United Kingdom / United Arab Emirates / USA, 50´) Ultima Ratio Δ Mountain of the Sun by Bahar Noorizadeh (Lebanon / Canada, 13´)
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Miami Film Festival to Spotlight Filmmakers Jean-Marc Barr and Mateo Gil as First Two Marquee Events

[caption id="attachment_26547" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS (Las leyes de la termodinámica)[/caption] Filmmakers Jean-Marc Barr and Mateo Gil have been confirmed as headliners of the first two Marquee events of the upcoming 35th anniversary edition of the Miami Film Festival to be held March 9 to 18, 2018. The Festival’s Marquee series features film screenings accompanied by on-stage conversations with major film personalities of the moment, discussing their career and sharing an exciting new work. Spanish filmmaker Mateo Gil will present the World premiere of his latest film, The Laws of Thermodynamics (Las leyes de la termodinámica), a unique romantic comedy co-produced by Spain’s Zeta Cinema and Atresmedia. The film stars Vito Sanz (Maria (and the Others)) as a Sciences graduate student who blames his disastrous love life, such as being dumped by his girlfriend (played by Berta Vázquez of Palm Trees in the Snow), on the mysteriously comic laws of cosmic thermodynamics. Prior to presenting his high-profile new film, Gil will participate in an extended conversation about his career, which includes such highlights as co-writing the Academy Award-winning film The Sea Inside, co-writing Open Your Eyes, later remade as Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise; and his numerous Goya Award wins from Spain’s Academy of Cinematographic Arts & Sciences. As a director, Gil’s films “Allanamiento de morada”, Nobody Knows Anybody, Blackthorn and Realive have all been presented in the US by Miami Film Festival. “The Laws of Thermodynamics is Mateo Gil’s most astoundingly original creation yet, in which he brilliantly dissects the romantic comedy genre at the same time he elevates it with explosive new levels of movie-star chemistry and expertly-timed wit,” said Festival director Jaie Laplante. “We could not be more honored to present the world premiere of a film that will be the talk of 2018 in Spain and beyond.” French-American actor and filmmaker Jean-Marc Barr will attend the North American premiere of the new documentary Dolphin Man, about the life and legacy of the French free diving legend Jacques Mayol, whom Barr played in Luc Besson’s 1988 international blockbuster hit, The Big Blue. Barr is featured prominently in Dolphin Man, which is directed by Lefteris Charitos and includes prominent coverage of the beginning of Mayol’s career working with dolphins at Miami Seaquarium in the 1950s. The Marquee evening will feature an extended conversation with Barr, and be paired with a 4K digital retrospective screening of The Big Blue. After the international success of The Big Blue, Barr continued to make an international mark in a long association with Danish provocateur Lars von Trier, as the star of such films as Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville and many others. As a director, screenwriter and producer he has made numerous films in collaboration with Pascal Arnold, including Lovers and American Translation. His most recent film is Grain, winner of the 2017 Grand Prize at Tokyo Film Festival. “After making Jacques Mayol’s incredible life known the world over in the 1980s, Jean-Marc Barr honors Mayol and Miami by personally presenting this wonderous new documentary about Mayol,” added Laplante. “Presenting the film to North America for the first time in the same community that Mayol began his journey is all the more special for Miami.” In addition to The Laws of Thermodynamics, the Festival also announced two more high-profile new Spanish films which will screen for the first time to US audiences. DOLPHIN MAN (Greece, Canada, France / Directed by Lefteris Charitos) Tells the life story of Jacques Mayol, the greatest free-diver in recorded history, whose life became the inspiration for Luc Besson’s cult-movie The Big Blue (Le Grand Bleu). Dolphin Man will additionally compete for the audience-voted Knight Documentary Achievement Award, and as a Canadian co-production, is in part presented in Miami by Telefilm Canada.
THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS (Las leyes de la termodinámica) (Spain / Directed by Mateo Gil) A unique romantic comedy about a Sciences graduate student who blames his disastrous love life, such as being dumped by his girlfriend (played by Berta Vázquez of Palm Trees in the Snow), on the mysteriously comic laws of cosmic thermodynamics. The Laws of Thermodynamics will additionally compete in Knight Competition and HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Competition.
THE WARNING (El aviso) (Spain / Directed by Daniel Calparsoro) A high-octane thriller from Chris Sparling, the American screenwriter of Ryan Reynolds’ hit film Buried, and Alex de la Iglesia’s frequent screenwriter Jorge Guerricaechevarría, directed by Daniel Calparsoro, and starring Raúl Arévalo and Aura Garrido, will premiere in Miami just a week following its opening in Spanish theaters. The supernatural thriller is being compared to the Brad Pitt-Terry Gilliam hit 12 Monkeys, and will debut in two of the Festival’s competition sections, Knight Competition and HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Competition. Calparsoro’s most recent film, Cien años de perdón, was an official selection of Miami Film Festival in 2016. THE SKIN OF THE WOLF (Bajo la piel de lobo) (Spain / Directed by Samu Fuentes) A dramatic thriller with stunning wide-screen photography set in Spain’s spectacular Asturias-Huescas region from first-time feature writer-director Samu Fuentes, will debut in the Festival’s Jordan Ressler Screenwriting Competition, as well as the HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Competition. Starring Spanish mega-star Mario Casas, Ruth Díaz (The Fury of a Patient Man) and Irene Escolar, The Skin of the Wolf is a film of sparse dialogue connected to a complex visual storytelling design, making it a top contender for the Ressler Award.
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Film Comment Selects Reveals 2018 Lineup, Opens with “Life and Nothing More”

[caption id="attachment_26540" align="aligncenter" width="1296"] Life and Nothing More[/caption] The Film Comment magazine’s annual cinematic showcase series, Film Comment Selects, returns for the 18th edition, February 23 to 27, 2018, featuring films curated by the magazine’s editors. The festival opens with the New York premiere of Antonio Mendez Esparza’s Life and Nothing More, an intimate chronicle of an African American family living on the margins in Florida, starring an astonishing non-professional cast. Other new works in the lineup are Ildikó Enyedi’s Berlinale Golden Bear-winner On Body and Soul; Mrs. Fang, Wang Bing’s unflinching document of an elderly woman in her final days, which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno; the North American premiere of Katharina Wyss’s powerful debut feature Sarah Plays a Werewolf, about a woman who channels her fears into theater; Govinda Van Maele’s fiction feature debut Gutland, featuring Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps; the U.S. premiere of Slovenian director Rok Biček‘s The Family, a compassionate portrait of a young man’s life over the course of 10 years; and experimental artist Bertrand Mandico’s exhilarating, gender-bending Wild Boys. In addition to these anticipated new works, the 2018 slate features a retrospective of radical filmmaker Nico Papatakis, who had a “body of work that blends anarchic fury with visceral and transcendent poetry” (Yonca Talu, Film Comment). All five features directed by Papatakis, who subversively and provocatively explored themes of race, class, gender, and politics and produced films by Cassavetes and Genet, will be screened, including the meta terrorist drama Gloria Mundi, Cannes selection Les Abysses, and Walking a Tightrope, which stars Michel Piccoli as writer Jean Genet (a personal friend of the filmmaker). Film Comment Selects will also present a 25th anniversary screening of Tom Joslin & Peter Friedman’s extraordinarily powerful documentary Silverlake Life: The View from Here, which follows Joslin and his partner Mark Massi as they struggle to live with AIDS. “It’s a rare chance to see the lively mix of films that our critics have raved about but that haven’t hit New York theaters yet,” said Nicolas Rapold, Editor-in-Chief of Film Comment. “This year’s edition is made especially exciting by a rare retrospective of the inimitable Nico Papatakis, whose work will be exciting for many to discover.”
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
Opening Night Life and Nothing More Antonio Mendez Esparza, U.S./Spain, 2017, 114m “The African American single mom and teenage son at the center of this drama are lifelong residents of northern Florida but remain, at best, provisional citizens of their own country. Rendering characters they developed in tandem with their director, these non-professional but astoundingly gifted performers convey so much of what matters in so many working-class black lives.” —Nick Davis, Toronto Film Festival 2017 online coverage New York premiere The Family Rok Biček, Slovenia/Austria, 2017, 106m “Slovenian director Rok Biček started The Family as a film-school student and proceeded to film a life in full: a boy, Matej, seen growing up, watching his father die and becoming a father himself, breaking up with his girlfriend, and battling her for child custody. A twist on observational cinema, Biček’s portrait of the anti-heroic young man defies stereotypes of working-class and dysfunctional families, refrains from passing moral judgments, and retains an open fondness of his subject.” —Tina Poglajen, Nov/Dec 2017 issue U.S. premiere Gutland Govinda Van Maele, Luxembourg/Belgium/Germany/France, 2017, 107m “A stranger wends through twilit wheat fields in the exquisite opening moments of Govinda Van Maele’s fiction feature debut [starring Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps] … By the following morning he’s courted by an elder who finds him a gig and lodging—and then Gutland quietly maunders from folktale to pastoral noir to Polanski-esque uncanny and, finally, back to folk tale. Call it a ‘village film,’ with an eerie ambiance of secrets, insularity, and sinister solidarity.” —José Teodoro, Nov/Dec 2017 issue New York premiere Mrs. Fang Wang Bing, China, 2017, 86m “Wang Bing’s latest documentary trains its camera very tightly on the face of a bedridden elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s in a small rural Chinese village. For a while, it seems as though Mrs. Fang is content to use the camera as a tool to unflinchingly record a human being close to her final breath. Yet Wang Bing is after something completely different, as the filmmaker goes into other territory, somehow more and less tangible than a portrait of dying.” —Michael Koresky, Toronto Film Festival 2017 online coverage New York premiere On Body and Soul Ildikó Enyedi, 2017, Hungary, 116m Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin, Ildikó Enyedi’s visually imaginative film tracks the highs and lows of an unforeseen romance conducted partly through dreams. Film Comment celebrated Enyedi’s “ludic, freewheeling storytelling” with last year’s home-video release of her 1989 favorite My Twentieth Century, and her newest marks a triumphant return for this Hungarian filmmaker. A Netflix release. New York premiere Sarah Plays a Werewolf Katharina Wyss, Switzerland/Germany, 2017, 86m “Katharina Wyss’s heady debut feature centers on Sarah, a young woman channeling her powerful depth of feeling into the artistic and psychological outlet of theater. As the 17-year-old protagonist in a staid Swiss town, Loane Balthasar is unnervingly transparent, giving herself over to her character—and, like Sarah, 20 times more present than anyone around her. The film’s title captures a life fraught with energy.” —Nicolas Rapold, Jan/Feb 2018 issue North American premiere Wild Boys Bertrand Mandico, France, 2017, 110m “Some might be quick to suggest Mandico’s similarities with Guy Maddin due to his new film’s whacked-out narrative, alienating use of studio sets, and brusquely outré acting. Exiled teenagers are sentenced to hard labor on a mysterious island, left to their own devices and then transformed… All the teens are played by actresses, with ever-fearless, weather-beaten Elina Löwensohn leading the way. Little else in 2017 was quite as exhilarating, eye-popping, intoxicating, seductive, carefree, funky, sexy, and fun.” —Olaf Möller, Jan/Feb 2018 issue New York premiere 25th Anniversary Screening Silverlake Life: The View from Here Tom Joslin & Peter Friedman, U.S., 1993, 99m Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, this is one of the cornerstone documentaries abot the AIDS crisis. “Silverlake Life is about a couple, and one of the guys is filming his boyfriend, who is ill and dying. I didn’t want to represent the disease too much [in BPM (Beats Per Minute)], because I thought it was so real in Silverlake Life. I didn’t want to make the same thing because you can’t do more than this film, because it was real and it’s a very, very moving film. I love it so much.”—Robin Campillo, director of BPM (Beats Per Minute), interviewed in July/Aug 2017 issue Special Section: Five Films by Nico Papatakis “It’s become a cliché to call a filmmaker ‘rebellious,’ but from Gance to Eisenstein to Pasolini to Buñuel, the 20th century saw true rebels who fiercely defied both the cinematic and political establishments of their time. Nikos Papatakis (1918-2010)—nicknamed Nico in France—holds a profound and unique place in this lineage through a body of work that blends anarchic fury with visceral and transcendent poetry. Born in Addis Ababa to an Ethiopian mother and a Greek father, Papatakis was an outcast by nature, mocked and ostracized as a child for being biracial. Deeply rooted in personal experience, Papatakis’s films are politically, morally, and formally subversive explorations of race, gender, and class that use the medium as a vehicle of opposition and dissent.” —Yonca Talu, Sept/Oct 2017 issue Les Abysses Nico Papatakis, France, 1963, 90m This allegorical portrait of the Algerian resistance was inspired by the real-life story of the Papin sisters, two maids who brutally murdered their employers in 1930s France—also the basis for Jean Genet’s influential 1947 play The Maids and Claude Chabrol’s 1995 psychological thriller La Cérémonie. The Shepherds of Disorder Nico Papatakis, Greece, 1967, 117m The Shepherds of Disorder (aka Thanos and Despina) juxtaposes an anthropological and materialist study of a rigid rural community with the mythologically imbued, forbidden romance between a rebellious shepherd and the angelic and compliant daughter (Olga Karlatos) of a rich conservative family, engaged in an erotically charged power game. Gloria Mundi Nico Papatakis, France, 1976, 115m Papatakis’s most psychedelic film, Gloria Mundi centers on an actress (Olga Karlatos) playing an Arab terrorist who takes her role to another level. Papatakis’s virulent denunciation of consumer capitalism and a hypocritical left-wing intelligentsia that deems itself political but does not take any action, begins with a scream and ends with an explosion. The Photograph Nico Papatakis, Greece/France, 1986, 102m Papatakis’s most accessible, gripping, and poignant work is a meticulously crafted, intimate meditation on immigration and exile centering on a 26-year-old Greek man fresh out of prison (where he was tortured for being a communist’s son) who leaves for France in hopes of a better life and strikes up a complicated friendship with a distant relative. Walking a Tightrope / Les Équilibristes Nico Papatakis, France, 1992, 120m The director’s final film—starring Michel Piccoli as a fictional version of Papatakis’s friend Jean Genet—is a compendium of the themes and motifs that pervade his distinctive filmography, including the torturous nature of love, the suffering induced by exile, and suicide as an act of rebellion.
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Jada Pinkett Smith, Octavia Spencer, Ruben Östlund and More Among Jury for 2018 Sundance Film Festival

24 “experts in film, art, culture and science” will adjudicate the award feature-length work shown at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival with 28 prizes, handed out at the Awards ceremony on January 27. Hosting the Awards ceremony is Jason Mantzoukas, actor, comedian and star of Hannah Fidell’s The Long Dumb Road (Premieres section). The awards, which recognize standout artistic and story elements, are voted on by each of seven section juries, including, in the case of the new-this-year NEXT Innovator’s Award, a jury of one. As in years past, Festival audiences have a role in deciding the 2018 Audience Awards, which will recognize five films in the U.S. Competition, World Competition and NEXT categories; new this year, audiences will vote on a Festival Favorite film across categories, which will be announced the week following the Festival. Search, which premiered in the NEXT section, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, announced previously. The 2018 Sundance Film Festival Jury members are:
U.S. Documentary Jury
Barbara Chai Barbara Chai is head of arts and culture coverage at Dow Jones Media Group, a suite of publications including Barron’s, Penta, MarketWatch and the U.K.’s Financial News. She is also the editor of MarketWatch Entertainment. She was previously a longtime arts and news editor at The Wall Street Journal and was the managing editor of Speakeasy, the WSJ’s pop culture and entertainment site. In 2012, Chai traveled to Dharamsala, India, to blog about Buddhism and conduct the first of two video interviews with the Dalai Lama. She has lived and worked overseas for a decade, in Brussels and Hong Kong as an international news editor, and in Taiwan as a volunteer English teacher. Chai received her M.F.A. in fiction and poetry from Hollins University, where she also taught undergraduate creative writing as a fellow. Simon Chinn Simon Chinn conceived and produced Man on Wire, which won the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win an Academy Award and 40 other international awards. He followed that up with a string of award-winning feature documentaries including The Imposter, Project Nim, and Searching for Sugar Man, which also won an Academy Award and two prizes at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2014 Simon launched Lightbox with his LA-based cousin, Jonathan Chinn. Focused on producing high-end nonfiction for multiple platforms, Lightbox has produced major projects for big and small screen alike, including LA 92 for National Geographic and the only authorized documentary about Whitney Houston, directed by Kevin Macdonald, which will be released theatrically around the world in 2018. Chaz Ebert Chaz Ebert is the CEO of the movie review site RogerEbert.com, heads the TV and movie production company Ebert Productions LLC, and is the co-founder of Ebertfest (Roger Ebert’s Film Festival), now entering its 20th year. As president of the Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation, her civic interests include endowing programs to help break the glass ceiling for women and people of color, providing education and arts for women, children, and families, and encouraging empathy, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Through these programs she also supports emerging writers, filmmakers, and technologists at various film festivals and universities. Ebert’s affiliation with Sundance Institute includes supporting a program for Ebert Fellowship recipients at the Sundance Film Festival and participating as a creative investor in both the Catalyst Forum and Catalyst Women. She has also provided grants to many documentary films, among them Radical Grace, Strong Island, and They Call Us Monsters. Ezra Edelman Ezra Edelman is an award-winning filmmaker. He directed O.J.: Made in America, which won the 2016 Academy Award for best documentary feature and is the third film Edelman has made for ESPN’s acclaimed 30 for 30 documentary series. Edelman has also produced and directed three films for HBO, including the Peabody Award–winning Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals and the Emmy-winning Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush. In 2013, Edelman co-produced the Academy Award–nominated documentary Cutie and the Boxer. A native of Washington, DC, Edelman graduated from Yale University and currently lives in Brooklyn. Matt Holzman Matt Holzman is host and producer of The Document, a new mash-up of radio and documentaries from NPR’s Southern California flagship station, KCRW. A veteran public radio producer and reporter for film, culture, and the arts, Holzman previously created The Business, KCRW’s weekly radio show about the entertainment industry, and has appeared regularly on PRI’s Studio 360 and The World. On his new program, Holzman works with documentary filmmakers to tell riveting stories—with no pictures. Holzman is also the creator and host of KCRW’s documentary screening series.
U.S. Dramatic Jury
Rachel Morrison, A.S.C. Cinematographer Rachel Morrison has emerged as a refreshing talent in contemporary cinema. She has shot several features that have played at the Sundance Film Festival in recent years, including Fruitvale Station (which won both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award); indie breakout Dope; What Happened, Miss Simone? (an Academy Award nominee for best documentary feature); and most recently, the period drama Mudbound. Morrison has a background in photojournalism and completed a master’s degree in cinematography at the American Film Institute. She has also been nominated for two Emmys and received the Kodak Vision Award. Morrison’s next film, Black Panther, reunited her with Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler and made her the first woman to be director of photography on a blockbuster superhero film. Jada Pinkett Smith Jada Pinkett Smith was born in Baltimore and has starred in many successful films. Her most recent film, Girls Trip, became the first film that starred and was produced, directed, and written by African Americans to break $100 million at the U.S. box office. Smith has also produced several films, including The Secret Life of Bees, The Karate Kid, and Free Angela and All Political Prisoners. Other films she has starred in include The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Nutty Professor, as well as voicing Gloria in the Madagascar films. The Will and Jada Smith Foundation launched Careers in Entertainment—an initiative to help underrepresented voices enter the entertainment industry—in 2016, and then in 2017 the Foundation partnered with Sundance Institute to support diverse independent filmmakers through the Screenwriters Intensive. Octavia Spencer As a veteran character actress and one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents, Octavia Spencer has become a familiar fixture on both television and the silver screen. Her critically acclaimed performance as Minny in the DreamWorks film The Help won her an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics’ Choice Award, among numerous other accolades. Earlier this year, Spencer portrayed real-life mathematician Dorothy Vaughan in the Academy Award-nominated drama Hidden Figures, for which she also received her second individual Academy Award nomination. She can currently be seen in Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy drama, The Shape of Water, which won the coveted Golden Lion Award at this year’s Venice Film Festival and has since been awarded a wide range of accolades including individual Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Spencer. Michael Stuhlbarg Michael Stuhlbarg can currently be seen in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, and Steven Spielberg’s The Post. His other film credits include Doctor Strange, Arrival, Miles Ahead, Trumbo, Lincoln, Hugo, and A Serious Man, the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Stuhlbarg received his BFA from The Juilliard School; he also studied at UCLA, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the British American Drama Academy, Balliol College and Keble College (both of the University of Oxford), and with Marcel Marceau. Stuhlbarg is also known for his acting on the stage, having worked numerous times with Shakespeare in the Park and earning a Tony nomination for his performance in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. Joe Swanberg Joe Swanberg has directed several films, including Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas, and Win It All. He contributed to the anthology horror film V/H/S and has acted in Adam Wingard’s You’re Next, Ti West’s The Sacrament, and Annie Clark’s segment of XX. He is the creator of the Netflix original series Easy, which he produces, writes, and directs, and his directing work in television includes episodes of HBO’s Looking and Netflix’s Love. In addition to his own work, Swanberg finances and produces films through his Forager Films production company, including Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth and Golden Exits, Zach Clark’s Little Sister, and Dustin Guy Defa’s Person to Person. Swanberg works in Chicago, where he lives with his wife – filmmaker Kris Swanberg – and their two children.
World Cinema Dramatic Jury
Hanaa Issa Hanaa Issa has held several senior responsibilities through the founding and establishment of the Doha Film Institute in Qatar. Currently, as director of strategy and development, she oversees initiatives for film funding, training, and development, as well as the institute’s programming, and she ensures that DFI’s core programs deliver on their mission of nurturing and strengthening local and regional film industries. Some of the films supported by the institute include the Academy Award nominees Timbuktu (by Abderrahmane Sissako) and Mustang (by Deniz Gamze Ergüven), Loving Vincent (by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman), and the Academy Award–winning The Salesman (by Asghar Farhadi). Issa is also the deputy director of Qumra, DFI’s annual industry event that provides mentorship, hands-on development, and international market access to emerging filmmakers from around the world. Ruben Östlund As an avid skier, Ruben Östlund directed ski films for five years, solidifying his taste for long sequence shots. In his mid 20s he went on to study film at the University of Gothenburg, where he developed his skill in constructing well-thought-out sequence shots, and this knowledge has continued to evolve through all his films. His works are best described as both humorous and accurate observations of human social behavior—film blended with sociology. His last four feature films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival; Force Majeure won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2014, and his latest film, The Square, won the Palme d’Or, was distributed in over 75 territories, and became a box-office success. Östlund is also a professor of film at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Michael J. Werner Michael J. Werner is an American-born, Hong Kong–based producer, strategic consultant, and producer’s representative. He has been credited as a producer or executive producer on nearly 30 high-profile independent films, including Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster, Tran Anh Hung’s Norwegian Wood, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus and How to Talk to Girls at Parties, and Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin. Werner was a partner in the pioneering foreign-sales company Fortissimo Films. He has served as a consultant or advisor to numerous industry and festival events in Asia, including the Hong Kong’s HAF, the Asian Film Awards, Screen Singapore, the Busan International Film Festival, and the International Film Festival and Awards of Macao. He most recently was a consultant to Fox International Productions and was an executive producer on 212 Warriors, their new Indonesian-language co-production. Currently he is producing a new film (Suk Suk) from Hong Kong director Ray Yeung.
World Cinema Documentary Jury
Joslyn Barnes Among the films Joslyn Barnes has been involved with producing since co-founding Louverture Films are Bamako (directed by Abderrahmane Sissako), Trouble the Water (Carl Deal and Tia Lessin), The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975 and Concerning Violence (both directed by Göran Hugo Olsson), The House I Live In (Eugene Jarecki), The Time that Remains (Elia Suleiman), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Cemetery of Splendour (both directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul), House in the Fields (Tala Hadid), White Sun (Deepak Rauniyar), Zama (Lucrecia Martel), and Strong Island (Yance Ford). Forthcoming films include Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross); Angels Are Made of Light (James Longley); and Aquarela (Victor Kossakovsky). In 2017, Barnes received both the Cinereach Producer Award and the Amazon Studios Producers Award. Billy Luther Billy Luther (Navajo, Hopi, and Laguna Pueblo) is the director and producer of the award-winning documentary Miss Navajo, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and aired on PBS’s Independent Lens. He studied film at Hampshire College and worked on various projects for the National Museum of the American Indian’s film and video center. His second documentary feature, Grab, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on public television. His latest short documentary film, Red Lake, premiered at the 2016 LA Film Festival and was nominated for best short at the 2016 International Documentary Association Awards. He is currently in production on alter-NATIVE, a docuseries exploring the world of Native American fashion designers. Paulina Suárez Paulina Suárez is director of Ambulante, a non-profit organization that supports and promotes documentary cinema culture across Mexico. She holds a BA from UNAM (Mexico’s national university), an MA from the University of Chicago, and is completing her PhD at NYU. Her research and writing have focused on Mexican cinematic modernity, fictional and nonfictional melodramas, and expanded documentary cultures. Since 2016, Suárez has directed Ambulante’s film training program and its annual traveling festival, which screens nonfiction works at over 140 venues across Mexico. Suárez is committed to cinema’s vocation as a public art and to exploring its potential as a catalyst for social change.
Short Film Jury
Cherien Dabis Cherien Dabis is an award-winning filmmaker and television writer/director who made her feature debut with Amreeka, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the coveted FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It went on to win several more international awards (including the Humanitas Prize), was nominated for the IFP Gotham Award for best feature, and was named one of the top 10 independent films of the year by the National Board of Review. Dabis made her onscreen debut in her second feature, May in the Summer, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Dabis has also written and directed for several television series, such as Showtime’s groundbreaking The L Word, Fox’s hit Empire, and USA Network’s critically acclaimed crime thriller The Sinner. Shirley Manson Shirley Manson is best known as the lead vocalist of the critically acclaimed alternative rock band Garbage and has been an active recording artist for more than 30 years. Garbage has sold over 12 million records during the course of an award-winning career that includes the recording of the James Bond movie theme “The World Is Not Enough” and the formation of their own independent record label, STUNVOLUME. Last year they released an autobiographical coffee-table book titled This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake and embarked upon a co-headline tour across North America with the legendary post-punk band Blondie. They are currently in the studio working on their seventh record, and they expect to be hitting the road later in 2018 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Grammy-nominated record, Version 2.0. Chris Ware Chris Ware is the author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth and Building Stories, which was named a top 10 book of the year by the New York Times and a top 10 fiction book of the year by Time. A regular contributor of comic strips and over two dozen covers to the New Yorker, his work has been exhibited at MOCA Los Angeles, the MCA Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and he was a focus of the “Chicago” episode of the PBS program Art in the 21st Century in late 2016. His book Monograph by Chris Ware was released by Rizzoli in October 2017.
NEXT
RuPaul Charles RuPaul Charles is an actor, singer, songwriter, and the two-time Emmy-winning host and executive producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race. RuPaul studied theatre before moving to New York City in the mid-eighties, where he was crowned the Queen of Manhattan in 1989. RuPaul shot to international fame with the 1992 hit song “Supermodel (You Better Work),” followed by a seven-year contract as the first face of MAC Cosmetics. In addition to Drag Race, RuPaul has appeared in more than 50 films and television sitcoms, released 13 solo albums, published 2 books, and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2017. RuPaul currently hosts the weekly podcast What’s the Tee? with Michelle Visage as well as the bi-annual drag convention RuPaul’s DragCon.
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Jury
Robert Benezra Dr. Robert Benezra is a member of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a professor of biological sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University. He received his doctoral degree in biological sciences at Columbia University and completed his postdoctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Heather Berlin Dr. Heather Berlin is a cognitive neuroscientist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Passionate about science communication, Berlin is a committee member of the National Academy of Science’s Science & Entertainment Exchange and the New York Times series TimesTalks. She hosts StarTalk All-Stars with Neil deGrasse Tyson, and she hosted the CUNY TV series Science Goes to the Movies and the Discovery Channel series Superhuman Showdown. Kerry Bishé Kerry Bishé is an actor and writer for theatre, film, and television. Her work can be seen in movies including Argo, Red State, and Blue Highway. She played computer engineer Donna Clark on AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire. Kerry is an ardent science enthusiast who works to expand access to computer science education and help scientists articulate their message for a broad audience. Nancy Buirski Nancy Buirski is the director/producer/writer of The Rape of Recy Taylor, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Human Rights Nights Award. It is also a nominee for the NAACP Image Award for outstanding documentary. Buirski is also the director/producer of By Sidney Lumet (2015), Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq (2013), and the Peabody Award–winning and Emmy-winning The Loving Story (2012). Buirski is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
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Sundance 2018: Watch Trailer for Gloria Allred Documentary SEEING ALLRED

As sexual-violence allegations grip the nation, the revealing Gloria Allred documentary “Seeing Allred” provides a candid look at one of the most public crusaders against the war on women. Seeing Allred will World Premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and debut on Netflix February 9, 2018. Through rare archival footage and revealing interviews with both her supporters and critics, this fascinating biographical portrait examines Gloria Allred’s personal trauma and assesses both her wins and setbacks on high-profile cases against Bill Cosby and Donald Trump. Featuring interviews with Gloria Steinem, Don Lemon, Alan Dershowitz, Allred’s daughter Lisa Bloom and others, Seeing Allred is a portrait of a woman everyone thinks they know, at a time when women need her the most. Seeing Allred is directed by Sophie Sartain (Mimi and Dona, 2015) and Roberta Grossman (Above and Beyond, 2014); and produced by Grossman, Sartain, Marta Kauffman (co-creator of Friends and Grace & Frankie), Robbie Rowe Tollin (The Zookeeper’s Wife), and Hannah KS Canter (Grace & Frankie). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC8Eg0odTfY
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Women Directed + Horror Themed 3rd Final Girls Berlin Film Festival Announces Lineup, Opens with THE BOOK OF BIRDIE

[caption id="attachment_24277" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] The Book of Birdie[/caption] The 3rd edition of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival will take place in Berlin, Germany from February1st to the 3rd, 2018, showcasing horror films that were directed, written, and/or produced by women and non-binary filmmakers. The 2018 Final Girls Berlin Film Festival lineup consists of 5 feature films, six curated short blocks, a horror storyboarding workshop, a talk on vampires and women, and a filmmaker panel. Festival co-director Eli Lewy says “this year we have selected a range of unnerving feature films – most of which are also exclusive German premieres!” Fellow co-director Sara Neidorf adds “we’re excited for another three days of communal fear and challenging discussions with filmmakers and spectators. Underground horror cinema is alive and well with the works of women who are steadily reshaping the landscape of the genre.” The opening night feature is Anami Tara Shucart and Elizabeth E. Schuch’s offering THE BOOK OF BIRDIE. When a fragile, imaginative teenager is placed in a remote convent, will her unusual obsessions and hallucinations become a mark of sainthood or dark heresy? Reserved teen Birdie is sequestered to a life of religious servitude by her grandmother, in the hope that it will suppress the young girl‘s dark thoughts. Now far from home, her interests remain far from pious, as she develops a fascination with blood and sparks a romance with the groundkeeper’s daughter. This haunting and aesthetically arresting directorial debut of Elizabeth E. Schuch features an all-woman cast. UK, dir. Elizabeth E. Schuch (2017, German Premiere) A mother’s grief turns to paranoia when she begins to suspect her eccentric neighbors are involved in a satanic pact. Starring Gaby Hoffmann (Transparent, Girls) and Ingrid Jungermann (WOMEN WHO KILL), and paying homage to ROSEMARY’S BABY, this queer psychological horror LYLE, brings the viewer through a nightmarish journey of gaslighting, loss, loneliness, and mistrust. USA, dir. Stewart Thorndike (2014, Berlin Premiere) Iona and her mother are new in town and excited about starting a new chapter in their lives, but things don’t go as they hoped in this off-kilter, heart-wrenching film about two generations of outcasts. This ‘social horror’ film PIN CUSHION world premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival. UK, dir. Deborah Haywood (2017, German Premiere) A pitch black, wryly British comedy, PREVENGE follows Ruth, a pregnant woman on a killing spree that’s as funny as it is vicious. It’s her misanthropic unborn baby dictating Ruth’s actions, holding society responsible for the absence of a father. The child speaks to Ruth from the womb, coaching her to lure and ultimately kill her unsuspecting victims. Struggling with her conscience, loneliness, and a strange strain of prepartum madness, Ruth must ultimately choose between redemption and destruction at the moment of motherhood. UK, dir. Alice Lowe (2016) MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND is a psychological thriller set in the world of undocumented female immigrants hoping to make a life in New York City. Shot on Super 16mm with an intimate, voyeuristic sensibility, MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND chronicles one harrowing day in the life of Luciana, a young woman struggling to make ends meet while striving to escape her past. As Luciana’s day unfolds, she is whisked, physically and emotionally, through a series of troublesome and unforeseeable extremes. USA, Dir. Ana Asensio (2017, German Premiere)
Short Film Programs

Obsession
PLEASE LOVE ME FOREVER (Dir. Holy Fatma, France, 2016) FRY DAY (Dir. Laura Moss, USA, 2017) NOTHING A LITTLE SOAP AND WATER CAN’T FIX (Dir. Jennifer Proctor, USA, 2017) 🙁 (Dir. Sydney Clara Brafman, USA, 2017) WASTE (Dir. Justine Raczkiewicz, USA, 2016) DON’T EVER CHANGE (Dir. Don Swaynos, US, 2017) DEAD. TISSUE. LOVE (Dir. Tasha Austin-Green, UK, 2017)
Mind Games
BBROWN WRECK-LOOSE (Dir. Tristian Montgomery, USA, 2017) LIZ DRIVES (Dir. Mia’kate Russell, Australia, 2017) THE HEAVY ATOMS (Dir. Alice Evermore, Germany, 2017) THE CLIP (Dir. Maria Forslin, Sweden, 2016) TONE DEATH (Dir. Sinnead Stoddart, UK, 2017) HIGHWAY (Dir. Vanessa Gazy, Australia, 2016) BLACK COAT (Dir. Tatiana Vyshegorodseva, Russia, 2017) DON’T OPEN YOUR EYES (Dirs. Adrián García Bogliano & Andrea Quiroz, Sweden, 2017)
Dark Gatherings
WHAT METAL GIRLS ARE INTO (Dir. Laurel Veil, USA, 2017) BLOOD SISTERS (Dir. Caitlin Koller, Australia, 2017) SPOTLIGHT (Dir. Joe Savage, UK, 2017) MADDER ISLE (Dir. Laura Spark, UK, 2017) THE PENNY DROPPED (Dir. A D Cooper, UK, 2016) MAB (Dir. Katie Bonham, UK, 2017) PRAYERS (Dir. Edda Manriquez, USA, 2016) THE CONTEST (Dir. Aimee Morgan, USA, 2017) DEVIL IS ON HIS WAY (Dir. Ophelie Neve, Belgium, 2017)
Metamorphosis
TALKING HEADS (Dir. Alyx Melone, Canada, 2017) THE DAY MUM BECAME A MONSTER (Dir. Joséphine Hopkins, France, 2017) APOCALYPSE BABIES (Dir. Anabelle Berkani, Canada, 2017) BEAUTIFUL INJURIES (Dir. Judith Beauvallet, France, 2017) NANA (Dir. Yunxuan Wang, China 2017) LE PEAU SAUVAGE (Dir. Ariane Louis-Seize, Canada, 2016)
Family Dysfunction
UNBEARING (Dir. Aidan Weaver, USA, 2016) MADAME MACABRE TELLS A TERRIBLE TALE ABOUT RONGUES (Dir. Tracy Rosenblum, USA, 2017) METAMORPHOSIS (Dir. Elaine Xia, USA/China, 2017) HOME EDUCATION (Dir. Andrea Niada, UK, 2017) CRESWICK (Dir. Natalie Erika James, Australia, 2016)
Serial Killers
STRANGE AS ANGELS (Dir. Austin Elston, USA, 2017) HOBBY SHOP (Dirs. Stephanie Liquorish & Isabel Stanfield, Australia, 2017) MARTA (Dir. Lucia Forner Segarra, Spain, 2017) DON’T EVER CHANGE (Dir. Don Swaynos, USA, 2017) SHOES (Dir. Ray Kermani, Belgium, 2017) FRY DAY (Dir. Laura Moss, USA, 2017)
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DAMSEL Starring Robert Pattinson + More Films Added to 2018 Berlin Film Festival Competition and Berlinale Special Lineup

[caption id="attachment_26511" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson in Damsel.[/caption] Another ten films including Damsel starring Robert Pattinson, have been added to the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Three more have also been selected for the program of the Berlinale Special. Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong – China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA. Further films of the Competition and Berlinale Special programme will be revealed soon.
Competition
The following films will be celebrating world or international premieres in the Competition of the Berlinale 2018. 3 Tage in Quiberon (3 Days in Quiberon) Germany / Austria / France By Emily Atef (Molly’s Way, The Stranger In Me) With Marie Bäumer, Birgit Minichmayr, Charly Hübner, Robert Gwisdek, Denis Lavant World premiere Black 47 Ireland / Luxembourg By Lance Daly (Kisses, The Good Doctor) With Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene, Jim Broadbent World premiere – Out of competition Damsel USA By David Zellner, Nathan Zellner (Kid-Thing, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter) With Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Robert Forster, Joe Billingiere International premiere Eldorado – Documentary Switzerland / Germany By Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full, More Than Honey) World premiere – Out of competition Las herederas (The Heiresses) Paraguay / Germany / Uruguay / Norway / Brazil / France By Marcelo Martinessi With Ana Brun, Margarita Irún, Ana Ivanova World premiere – First Feature Khook (Pig) Iran By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, A Dragon Arrives!) With Hasan Majuni, Leila Hatami, Leili Rashidi, Parinaz Izadyar, Ali Bagheri World premiere La prière (The Prayer) France By Cédric Kahn (Red Lights, Wild Life) With Anthony Bajon, Damien Chapelle, Alex Brendemühl, Louise Grinberg, Hanna Schygulla World premiere Toppen av ingenting (The Real Estate) Sweden / United Kingdom By Måns Månsson (The Yard, Mr Governor), Axel Petersén (Avalon) With Léonore Ekstrand, Christer Levin, Christian Saldert, Olof Rhodin, Carl Johan Merner, Don Bennechi World premiere Touch Me Not Romania / Germany / Czech Republic / Bulgaria / France By Adina Pintilie (Don’t Get Me Wrong) With Laura Benson, Tómas Lemarquis, Christian Bayerlein, Grit Uhlemann, Hanna Hofmann, Seani Love, Irmena Chichikova World premiere – First Feature Transit Germany / France By Christian Petzold (Yella, Barbara, Phoenix) With Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Sebastian Hülk, Emilie de Preissac, Antoine Oppenheim World premiere
Berlinale Special Gala at the Friedrichstadt-Palast
Monster Hunt 2 People’s Republic of China / Hong Kong, China By Raman Hui (Monster Hunt) With Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Baihe Bai, Boran Jing European premiere
Berlinale Special at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Gurrumul – Documentary Australia By Paul Williams International premiere – Debut film In Cooperation with NATIVe Viaje a los Pueblos Fumigados – Documentary Argentina By Fernando Solanas (The Hour Of The Furnaces, Tangos, The Exile Of Gardel, Memoria del saqueo – A Social Genocide) World premiere
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“Finding Your Feet” and “Skid Row Marathon” Win Audience Awards at Palm Springs International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_26505" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Finding Your Feet[/caption] Finding Your Feet and Skid Row Marathon have been voted the winners of the Audience Awards at the 29th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) held from January 2 to 15, 2018. Finding Your Feet (UK), directed by Richard Loncraine received the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. When snooty “Lady” Sandra Abbott discovers that her husband of 40 years has been having an affair, she packs her designer bags and flees to the shabby council flat of her estranged older sister. A sterling British cast give their all in this heartwarming romantic comedy. The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Skid Row Marathon (US) directed by Mark Hayes. Judge Craig Mitchell believes in second chances. This inspiring documentary tracks the running club Mitchell founded for the homeless on L.A.’s Skid Row, hoping that through the discipline of running, these men and women who had lost everything, could reclaim a sense of dignity.
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