
The indie legal thriller Created Equal continues its award winning sweep, winning prizes at the Action On Film Festival in Las Vegas and the BronzeLens Film Festival in Atlanta.

The indie legal thriller Created Equal continues its award winning sweep, winning prizes at the Action On Film Festival in Las Vegas and the BronzeLens Film Festival in Atlanta.
After almost 25 years, Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF, announced today that 2018 will be his final year leading the Toronto International Film Festival.
“Because of Piers’ leadership, TIFF is the leading cultural organization it is today, with a global reach and impact,” said Jennifer Tory, Chair of the Board of Directors of TIFF. “We are all indebted to him for his years of vision, innovation and dedication to the art of film.”
Handling’s tenure at TIFF has been both ground-breaking and prolific, with career highlights including:
Here are the trailers for two Netflix original documentary shorts – Heroin(e) and Long Shot premiering this weekend at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival.
Heroin(e), making its world premiere, focuses on the once bustling industrial town, Huntington, West Virginia that has become the epicenter of America’s modern opioid epidemic. With an overdose rate 10 times the national average, the crisis threatens to tear this community apart. West Virginia native Sheldon highlights three women working to change the town’s narrative and break the devastating cycle of drug abuse one person at a time. Heroin(e) shows how the chain of compassion holds one town together. The Netflix original documentary short, by Peabody award-winning filmmaker, Elaine McMillion Sheldon (Hollow), will launch on September 12.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khSO7qEKbvo
Also making its’ world premiere, Long Shot, an improbable story where justice prevails with a series of events that could only happen in Hollywood. An innocent man is accused of murder, leading his dedicated attorney on a wild chase to confirm his alibi among thousands of people in a baseball stadium. To tell the whole story, the search would lead him from the LA Dodgers, to a cellphone tower, to the office of the entertainer Larry David. On the night in question, television cameras happened to be positioned throughout the stadium, and captured a story of remarkable circumstance. Directed by Jacob LaMendola (Anosmia), Long Shot launches September 29.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDxISykYRc4
The World Premiere of Dan Gilroy’s Roman J. Israel, Esq., starring Denzel Washington will complete the 2017 Official Program Selection lineup of the Toronto International Film Festival. Written and directed by Gilroy and featuring an amazing transformation by Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq. is the newest and final addition to TIFF’s Special Presentations program.
“The Toronto International Film Festival has a wonderful history with both Dan Gilroy and Denzel Washington,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of TIFF. “Three years ago TIFF had the honor of premiering Gilroy’s directorial debut, Nightcrawler, at the Festival. In addition to previously screening The Equalizer and presenting the World Premiere of Training Day, which earned Washington an Oscar for Best Actor, the Washington-starring The Magnificent Seven was our Opening Night film last year. A project that teams up both of these remarkable creators is one not to be missed.”
“We always hoped to premiere at Toronto and couldn’t be happier that TIFF audiences will be the first to see the film,” said Gilroy. “Thanks to Cameron and the entire Festival crew for embracing us and bringing Roman Israel to the world.”
Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a dramatic thriller set in the underbelly of the overburdened Los Angeles criminal court system. Denzel Washington stars as a driven, idealistic defense attorney whose life is upended when a turbulent series of events challenge the activism that has defined his career. Colin Farrell costars as the ambitious, monied lawyer who recruits Roman to his firm.
This star-led cast features Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, Lynda Gravatt, Amanda Warren, Hugo Armstrong, Sam Gilroy, Tony Plana, DeRon Horton and Amari Cheatom. R
The 42nd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7 to 17, 2017.
Actor Danny Glover and Producer Joslyn Barnes of Louveture Films will attend the 2017 Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival, where they will receive the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society’s 2017 Global Citizen Award. The Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival will take place September 5 to 10, 2017.
A screening of White Sun, a film produced by Glover and Barnes will immediately follow the on-stage conversation with Ms. Barnes and Mr. Glover about their careers and achievements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDeqkHyt8Rk
Danny Glover
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Louveture Films
In addition to being one of the most acclaimed actors of our time, Mr. Glover is also the recipient of countless awards for his humanitarian and advocacy efforts on behalf of economic and social justice causes, Glover is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Amnesty International.
His career spans 35 years and includes film classics like “Places in the Heart,” “The Color Purple,” the “Lethal Weapon” series and the acclaimed “To Sleep with Anger.” Mr. Glover has also executive produced numerous projects for film, television and theatre. Among these are “Good Fences,” “3 AM,” “Freedom Song,” “Get on the Bus,” “Deadly Voyage,” “Buffalo Soldiers,” “The Saint of Fort Washington,” and “Mooladé,” as well as the series “Courage and America’s Dream.”
Joslyn Barnes
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Louveture Films
Joslyn Barnes is a writer and producer. In 2017, Ms. Barnes was the recipient of both the Cinereach Producer Award and the Sundance Institute Amazon Studios Producer Award.
Prior to co-founding Louverture, she served as a program officer and expert consultant at the United Nations. She has lived and traveled widely in Africa and Asia, and has written numerous articles covering trade and social development issues, as well as contributing to books on the establishment of electronic communications in developing countries, food security in Africa, and strategic advocacy for the inclusion of gender perspectives on the international development agenda.
Ms. Barnes also wrote and directed the short film Prana for Cinétévé France as part of an internationally distributed series of 30 short films to promote awareness of environmental issues.
THE TRIP TO SPAIN[/caption]
Culinary Zinema, the San Sebastian Film Festival section combining food and film will feature seven films, and close with The Trip to Spain directed by Michael Winterbottom.
The opening film, Michelin Stars – Tales from the Kitchen, looks at the highs and lows of the Michelin Guide in this golden age of gastronomy. It is directed by Rasmus Dinesen, author of the films Det forbudte landshold (The Forbidden Team), about the first Tibetan national football team; Verdens bedste kok (World’s Finest Chef), about the victory of Danish chef Rasmus Kofoed at the Bocuse d’Or championship; and the documentary TV series Star Chefs about Michelin-starred restaurants.
Laura Collado collaborated with Justin Webster (Muerte en León and El fin de ETA / The Demise of ETA, Zinemira 2016) on the Al Jazeera series People & Power. Jim Loomis has worked as a cinematographer and editor for productions by BBC, ARTE and CNN. Together they helm the feature film Constructing Albert, about the “most underrated chef in the world”, Albert Adrià, brother of the man who created El Bulli.
In her first feature film, E il cibo va / Food on the Go, Mercedes Córdova, director of the prize-winning short Acá nunca está nublado, looks at the tradition of Italian food in the diaspora a hundred years after millions of Italians immigrated to Argentina.
Another first work is The Cakemaker, by Ofir Raul Graizer, whose short film La discotheque screened in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2015. The film, a co-production between Germany and Israel which competed at Karlovy Vary, tells the tale of a young German pastry chef who heads for Jerusalem in search of answers when his lover dies.
Koki Shigeno, a veteran director of TV documentaries, has now made his first feature-length film, Ramen Heads, selected for Hot Docs (Canadian International Documentary Film Festival). The film follows Osamu Tomita, today’s king of the ramen in Japan, on a 15-month tour of the lives of the masters of this dish and its legions of followers.
Masakazu Fukatsu debuts in feature films with Papa no obento wa sekaiichi / Dad’s Lunch Box, the true story of a father and his daughter -which went viral on social media- brought together by the bento box in which people carry their packed lunches in Japan.
Michael Winterbottom, to whom the Festival dedicated a retrospective in 2003, formerly competed in the Official Selection with Nine Songs (2004), winner of the Best Cinematography Award, Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005) and Genova (2008), recognized with the Silver Shell for Best Director. The Trip to Spain, selected for Tribeca, is his first incursion to Culinary Zinema. After The Trip and The Trip to Italy, Winterbottom renews his collaboration with actors Steve Coogan (Philomena) and Rob Brydon (Would I Lie to You?) to analyze six meals in six places on a road trip through Spain, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean coast.
To complete the experience, the screenings will be followed by meals linked to the content of the films.
The Marvelous Time[/caption]
The 2017 Busan International Film Festival will hold a Special Program ‘Sakha Cinema: World of Magical Nature and Myth’ to spotlight the unexplored Sakha films for the first time. Special Program in Focus introduces 7 feature-length films and 5 short films to embrace around 30 year-history of the contemporary Sakha cinema from 1990s to 2017, including Mother by Alexey Romanov, a pioneering work of Sakha cinema.
The Sakha Republic (also referred as Yakutia), located in far Eastern Russia, is a republic under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. With thousands years of Far East tradition blended with the Russian social system, Sakha has significant socio-cultural features.
This year’s special program focuses on Sakha cinema which develops an independent film industry and has exclusive cinematic style, regardless of its short history. Sakha cinema, combines regional legends and folk religions with contemporary values and film, shows authentic charm that is rarely found in other regional films. Sakha cinema is constantly drawing attention from the international society, experiencing growth with the active production of The National Film Company ‘Sakha Film’, a rapid wave of young and independent filmmakers in art-house film scene and success in commercial films in Yakutian. After Bonfire by Dmitri Davidov premiered in 2016 Busan International Film Festival, Sakha cinema has been presented in many international film festivals including Belinale and additional broadcasts outside of Russia.
With the attempt to across boundaries of diverse genre and style and the blending of tradition, nature, changes and freshness, Sakha cinema will provide a unique experience to cinephiles visiting the 22nd Busan International Film Festival. Other additional events, where directors and critics from the region will introduce films, will also be placed as part of the special program.
Thierry Frémaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, will screen his film Lumière! L’aventure commence at the 2017 San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Lumière! L’aventure commence (2016) is a collection of restored Lumière brother copies, of which Frémaux is the director, the editor together with Thomas Valette, the producer accompanied by Bertrand Tavernier, and the voice of a film in which, as well as the siblings Auguste and Louis, and we can see Martin Scorsese. The movie was screened at the Cannes Classics and at the Official Selection in Toronto.
On the 23rd he will introduce and comment on the film in the Tabakalera cinema as part of the San Sebastian Festival framework. “I am extremely happy and proud to show my film, Lumière!, at the San Sebastian Festival, which is one of my favorite film festivals in the world, and not only because it is, with Lyon, the best place to eat on the planet”, he says.
“As an ambassador of the Lumière brothers, I will follow the path of Alexandre Promio, the Lumière brother’s famous cinematographer who came to Spain for the first time in 1896. With me, I have a feature film by the Lumières, a programme I have composed to show how rich, fascinating and powerful that cinema was. Louis Lumière was not only a creator, he was a true artist, the last inventor and the first director. At the age of thirty, he was young and full of joy, exactly what this 90 minute programme reveals. The world shown by the Lumières was fashioned from generosity, sensitivity and artistic quality. I will be on stage to explain that and it will be a marvellous journey for all of us”, Frémaux ends.
LUMIÈRE!
THIERRY FRÉMAUX (FRANCE)
A journey into the universe of the founders of cinema, narrated by Frémaux with passion and humour, Lumière! delivers unforgettable images and a unique view of France and the world at the dawn of the modern era; truly essential films that illuminate the world of contemporary filmmaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVcRXIN_woc
BATTLE OF THE SEXES[/caption]
Telluride Film Festival today announced its official program selections for the 44th edition of the Telluride Film Festival, which takes place Friday, September 1 to Monday, September 4, 2017 in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. TFF will screen over sixty feature films, short films and revival programs representing twenty-six countries, along with special artist Tributes, Conversations, Panels, Student Programs and Festivities.
44th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program:
ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)
A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)
FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)
FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)
HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)
HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)
HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)
THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)
LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)
LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)
LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)
LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)
LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)
LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)
A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)
THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)
THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)
TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)
THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)
THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)
WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)
WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)
Two documentary shorts, HEROIN(E) (d. Elaine McMillion Sheldon, U.S., 2017) and LONG SHOT (d. Jacob LaMendola, U.S., 2017) will also play together in the main program.
The 2017 Silver Medallion Awards, given to recognize an artist’s significant contribution to the world of cinema, will be presented to Academy Award winning actor Christian Bale (TFF selection HOSTILES), and Oscar nominated cinematographer Ed Lachman (TFF selection WONDERSTRUCK). Tribute programs include a selection of clips followed by the presentation of the Silver Medallion, an onstage interview and a screening of the aforementioned films.
Guest Director Joshua Oppenheimer, who serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s program, presents the following revival programs:
EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL (d. Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1970)
HOTEL OF THE STARS (d. Jon Bang Carlsen, Denmark, 1981)
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (d. Charles Laughton, U.S., 1955)
SALAM CINEMA (d. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran, 1995)
TITICUT FOLLIES (d. Frederick Wiseman, U.S., 1967)
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (d. Jacques Demy, France, 1964)
Additional film revival programs, all newly restored, include THE BAKER’S WIFE (d. Marcel Pagnol, France, 1938); THE COTTON CLUB ENCORE (d. Francis Ford Coppola, U.S., 1984/2017); KEAN, OR DISORDER AND GENIUS (d. Aleksandr Volkoff, France, 1924), with the Mont Alto Orchestra; and
SUCH IS LIFE (d. Carl Junghan, Czechoslovakia, 1929).
Telluride Film Festival annually celebrates a hero of cinema who preserves, honors and presents great movies. This year’s Special Medallion award goes to Katriel Schory, director of the Israeli Film Fund.
Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room featuring behind-the-scenes movies and portraits of artists, musicians and filmmakers, will screen the following programs:
CINEMA THROUGH THE EYE OF MAGNUM (d. Sophie Bassaler, France, 2017)
FILMWORKER (d. Tony Zierra, U.S., 2017)
HITLER’S HOLLYWOOD (d. Rüdiger Suchsland, Germany, 2017)
JAMAICA MAN (d. Michael Weatherly, U.S., 2017)
PORTRAIT OF VALESKA GERT (d. Volker Schlöndorff, Germany, 1977) + EDGE OF ALCHEMY (d. Stacey Steers, U.S., 2017)
SLIM GAILLARD’S CIVILISATION (d. Anthony Wall, U.K., 1989)
THAT SUMMER (d. Göran Hugo Olsson, Sweden-U.S.-Denmark, 2017)
“Telluride Film Festival has long been a platform for films from many different cultures and backgrounds that celebrate diversity,” said Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger. “We feel it’s more important than ever to promote the unique and beautiful differences that exist in the world. From a wide range of new American and foreign cinema to eye-opening documentaries and gorgeous restorations, we are proud to present this 44th program and honor those artists who have made it possible.”
Telluride Film Festival’s shorts program, Filmmakers of Tomorrow, includes three sections: Student Prints, Great Expectations, and Calling Cards from sixteen emerging filmmakers from around the globe.
Telluride Film Festival’s Student Programs present students the opportunity to experience film as an art and expand participants’ worldview through film screenings and filmmaker discussions. The Student Symposium provides 50 graduate and undergraduate college students with a weekend-long immersion in cinema. The City Lights Project brings 15 high school students and five teachers from three schools the opportunity to participate in a concentrated program of screenings and discussions. FilmLAB offers a master-class program for UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduate filmmaking students. The FilmSCHOLAR program gives young film scholars and aspiring critics the opportunity to immerse themselves in a weekend of cinema and learn from some of the best in the field. Created in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin. University Seminars offer university professors and students special festival programming throughout the weekend.
Telluride Film Festival’s Talking Heads programs allow attendees to go behind the scenes with the Festival’s special guests. Six Conversations take place between Festival guests and the audience about cinema and culture, and three outdoor Noon Seminars feature a panel of Festival guests discussing a wide range of film topics. These programs are free and open to the public.
Additional Festivities will take place throughout the Festival including a Poster Signing with 2017 poster artist Lance Rutter; Book Signings with Loung Ung (First They Killed My Father), Peter Turner (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool), Alice Waters (Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook), and Willie Vlautin (Lean on Pete); and a special outdoor screening of AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER (d. Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, U.S., 2017) with Al Gore.
Euphoria[/caption]
Euphoria directed by Lisa Langseth and starring Alicia Vikander will receive its European premiere as a Gala Premiere at the 2017 Zurich Film Festival on September 29. The film also stars Eva Green, Charlotte Rampling, Charles Dance, Mark Stanley, Adrian Lester.
In the film, two sisters Ines (Alicia Vikander) and Emilie (Eva Green), who have become estranged, after years apart, meet up again and undertake a profound journey together.
In addition to previous Gala Premieres, the festival also announced new films from Tonie Marshall, Destin Daniel Cretton, Amanda Sthers and Silvio Soldini.
NUMÉRO UNE
Directed by: Tonie Marshall
Cast: Emmanuelle Devos, Suzanne Clement, Richard Berry, Benjamin Biolay, Sami Frey
THE GLASS CASTLE
Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
Cast: Brie Larson, Naomi Watts, Woody Harrelson, Max Greenfield
MADAME
Directed by: Amanda Sthers
Cast: Toni Collette, Harvey Keitel, Rossy de Palma, Michael Smiley
IL COLORE NASCOSTO DELLE COSE
Directed by: Silvio Soldini
Cast: Adriano Giannini, Laura Adriani, Valeria Golino, Arianna Scommegna, Anna Ferzetti, Andrea Pennacchi
Loving Vincent is a stunning, fully painted animated feature, starring Douglas Booth and Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman. The film will have its UK Premiere at the 61st BFI London Film Festival, broadcasting live from the National Gallery on Monday October 9th.
Loving Vincent explores the life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh, told by his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them. The intrigue unfolds through interviews with the characters closest to Vincent and through dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to his death.
Loving Vincent stars Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Chris O’Dowd, Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan, Aiden Turner, Helen McCrory, Eleanor Tomlinson and John Sessions. Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman co-directed the feature with Hugh Welchman also producing alongside Sean Bobbitt for the Oscar-winning BreakThru Films (Peter and the Wolf) and Ivan MacTaggart for Trademark Films (Shakespeare in Love). David Parfitt and Silver Reel’s Claudia Bluemhuber and Ian Hutchinson served as executive producers. The film’s musical score was composed and arranged by Grammy nominated Clint Mansell (Black Swan).
Hugh Welchman, co-director of Loving Vincent, says: “The London Film Festival programmes great films, and The National Gallery has one of the great painting collections of the world, so we couldn’t be happier that they have partnered up to do a very special premiere for Loving Vincent.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRDSTw6mNwY
Actor Sir Patrick Stewart will be the recipient of the Gregory Peck Award for Excellence in Cinema at the 2017 San Diego International Film Festival (SDiFF). The awards will be presented October 5th at The VARIETY Night of the Stars Tribute.
“Patrick Stewart has captivated audiences for years with spectacular performances, from Star Trek to his career defining performance in Logan earlier this year, as well as his Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated performance as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, a role which Mr. Peck made famous more than 40 years earlier. We couldn’t be more excited to honor him this year with the Gregory Peck Award,” said Tonya Mantooth, Executive and Artistic Director of the San Diego International Film Festival.
Created in honor of famed actor and San Diego area native Gregory Peck, with the support of his family, this award is given to an individual whose work has made a profound impact on the art of cinema. Launched in 2014, the first recipient of the award was Alan Arkin, with Annette Bening receiving the award last year.
The festival, now in its 16th year, will run from October 4th through October 8th in San Diego, California, and feature a lineup of 117 films total, 10 Narrative Spotlight Competition films, 18 Narrative Competition films, 12 Documentary Competition films, 5 Documentary Spotlight Competition films, and 72 Short films.