The film Circus Without Borders will open 2015 Montreal First Peoples Festival on Wednesday, July 29th. This 69 minutes documentary produced and directed by Susan Gray and Linda Matchan, tells the story of two circus companies, one in Nunavut, the other in Guinea-Conakry, have brought young people together from the ends of the earth to overcome the limits geography and history have set along their road to fulfilment. An invitation to go beyond.
https://vimeo.com/124206024
CIRCUS WITHOUT BORDERS is a documentary about Guillaume Saladin and Yamoussa Bangoura, best friends and world-class acrobats from remote corners of the globe who share the same dream: To bring hope and change to their struggling communities through circus. Their dream unfolds in the Canadian Arctic and Guinea, West Africa, where they help Inuit and Guinean youth achieve unimaginable success while confronting suicide, poverty and despair.
Seven years in the making, this tale of two circuses — Artcirq and Kalabante — is a culture-crossing performance piece that offers a portal into two remote communities, and an inspiring story of resilience and joy.
The First Nations festival goes on until August 5th and will spread its wings at Place des Festivals: thrilling concerts, an exacting selection of films and videos, the great multicultural parade along Saint-Catherine Street and many indoor venue and gallery events.Film Festivals
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CIRCUS WITHOUT BORDERS to Open 2015 Montreal First Peoples Festival | TRAILER
The film Circus Without Borders will open 2015 Montreal First Peoples Festival on Wednesday, July 29th. This 69 minutes documentary produced and directed by Susan Gray and Linda Matchan, tells the story of two circus companies, one in Nunavut, the other in Guinea-Conakry, have brought young people together from the ends of the earth to overcome the limits geography and history have set along their road to fulfilment. An invitation to go beyond.
https://vimeo.com/124206024
CIRCUS WITHOUT BORDERS is a documentary about Guillaume Saladin and Yamoussa Bangoura, best friends and world-class acrobats from remote corners of the globe who share the same dream: To bring hope and change to their struggling communities through circus. Their dream unfolds in the Canadian Arctic and Guinea, West Africa, where they help Inuit and Guinean youth achieve unimaginable success while confronting suicide, poverty and despair.
Seven years in the making, this tale of two circuses — Artcirq and Kalabante — is a culture-crossing performance piece that offers a portal into two remote communities, and an inspiring story of resilience and joy.
The First Nations festival goes on until August 5th and will spread its wings at Place des Festivals: thrilling concerts, an exacting selection of films and videos, the great multicultural parade along Saint-Catherine Street and many indoor venue and gallery events.
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STEVE JOBS Selected as Centerpiece of the 53rd New York Film Festival | TRAILER
Steve Jobs, written by Academy Award® winner Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, Charlie Wilson’s War) and directed by Academy Award® winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours), has been selected as the Centerpiece of the upcoming 53rd New York Film Festival taking place September 25 to October 11, to screen on Saturday, October 3.
Boyle and Sorkin joined forces to create this film about the brilliant man at the epicenter of the digital revolution, working from Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography. Steve Jobs stars Michael Fassbender in the title role, Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman, Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, Michael Stuhlbarg as Andy Hertzfeld, and Katherine Waterston as Chrisann Brennan.
New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said: “You hear that a bio of Steve Jobs is being produced, and of course you see multiple possible movies in your head . . . but not this one. Steve Jobs is dramatically concentrated, yet beautifully expansive; it’s extremely sharp; it’s wildly entertaining, and the actors just soar—you can feel their joy as they bite into their material.”
“I am honored that our film has been selected as the Centrepiece of this year’s festival,” said Boyle. “And thrilled and terrified too, unlike the subject of our film, who would have taken the whole thing very much in his stride. Steve Jobs was a thoroughly contradictory and complex character who forged our digital age. He’s the kind of brilliant, flawed character that Shakespeare would have relished writing about, and storytellers of all kinds will be fashioning and re-fashioning the mythology of the digital revolution for generations to come. I hope that festivalgoers enjoy our take.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEr6K1bwIVs
Sorkin and Boyle have created a dynamically character-driven portrait of the co-founder of Apple, weaving the multiple threads of their protagonist’s life into three daringly extended backstage scenes, as Jobs prepares to launch the first Macintosh, the NeXT workstation, and the iMac. The film is a dazzlingly executed cross-hatched portrait of Jobs, set against the changing fortunes and circumstances of the home computer industry and the ascendancy of branding, of products, and of oneself.
Steve Jobs is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin working from Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography of the Apple founder. The producers are Mark Gordon, Guymon Casady, Scott Rudin, Boyle, and Christian Colson.
NYFF previously announced Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk as Opening Night, Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead as Closing Night and Luminous Intimacy: The Cinema of Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, the first-ever complete dual retrospective of the experimental filmmakers.
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Benicio Del Toro to Receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at 21st Sarajevo Film Festival
Academy Award®-winning actor Benicio Del Toro will receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award for his extraordinary contribution to the art of film at the 21st Sarajevo Film Festival.
Previous recipients of the festival’s most prestigious award include among others Angelina Jolie, Gael Garcia Bernal, Steve Buscemi and acclaimed international award-winning directors Jafar Panahi, Mike Leigh, Béla Tarr and Danis Tanovic. The Heart of Sarajevo Award was designed by French designer and filmmaker, Agnès B, who is also a patron of the festival.
Del Toro will present Fernando León de Aranoa’s drama “A Perfect Day”, in which he has a starring role, and which recently premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. The film will be screened as a part of the Open Air Program, the festival’s largest screening venue, where Del Toro will also receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo in front of an audience of 3,000 film enthusiasts.
The acclaimed actor will also hold a master class for the participants of Talents Sarajevo, a networking and training platform for emerging film professionals from Southeast Europe and Southern Caucasus. Since it was founded in 2007, Talents Sarajevo has become the regional hub for meeting and training of aspiring film professionals.
Throughout his career, Del Toro has earned critical accolades including winning an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic” and an Oscar® nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu’s “21 Grams.” Re-teaming with Soderbergh to star in “Che”, the biography of Che Guevera, Del Toro’s performance won him the Best Actor award at Cannes in 2008 and again the following year at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spain.
Del Toro made his motion picture debut in John Glen’s “License to Kill” opposite Timothy Dalton’s James Bond and has earned critical acclaim for his performances ever since. In addition to winning a Best Supporting Oscar® for “Traffic,” he has also garnered a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA Awards, Berlin International Film Festival’s Silver Bear Award as well as recognition from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics, and the Chicago Film Critics Association.
Loved by audiences and critics alike, Del Toro has worked with such directors as Paul Thomas Anderson, Oliver Stone, Robert Rodriquez, Peter Weir, George Huang, Abel Ferrara, Guy Ritchie, Sean Penn, Susanne Bier, Terry Gilliam.
Del Toro can next be seen starring in Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” opposite Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, which is scheduled for a September 18th, 2015 release by Lionsgate in the U.S.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQfqygkNMqE
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Un otoño sin Berlín (An Autumn Without Berlin) to World Premiere at Basque Film Gala at 2015 San Sebastian International Film Festival
Un otoño sin Berlín (An Autumn without Berlin) directed by Lara Izagirre will have its premiere at the 2015 San Sebastian International Film Festival, in the Basque Film Gala on September 21st in the Victoria Eugenia Theatre.
Un otoño sin Berlín is programmed as part of the Festival’s Zinemira section and competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award, which goes to the best Basque film presented as a world premiere.
The film stars Irene Escolar, Tamar Novas, Ramón Barea and Lier Quesada. It tells the story of June, a young girl who comes back the town of her birth by surprise after spending time abroad. The return home will be painful: her family and her first love, Diego, have changed. She too has changed, and repairing the broken ties won’t be easy. But just like the autumn wind, June will take the place by storm.
Un otoño sin Berlín is the feature film debut of Lara Izagirre (Amorebieta, 1985). A graduate in Audiovisual Communication from the University of the Basque Country, she continued her film studies at the New York Film School. In Barcelona, she completed her master’s degree in screenwriting at the Escuela Superior de Cine y Audiovisuales de Cataluña (ESCAC). It was there that she started writing the screenplay of Un otoño sin Berlín, for which she received a grant from the Basque Government for its development. In 2010 she founded the production company Gariza Produkzioak, with which she produced and directed several shorts: Bicycle Poem(2010), KEA (2011), Next Stop Greenland (2012) and Larroxa (2013). Her short film Sormenaren Bide Ezkutuak(2013) was premiered as part of the Culinary Zinema section at the 61st edition of the San Sebastian Festival.
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ONCE IN A LIFETIME (LES HÉRITIERS) Wins Audience Award at 2015 Wave Film Festival | TRAILER
ONCE IN A LIFETIME (LES HÉRITIERS), Marie-Castille Mention Schaar’s emotional drama about an inner city high school teacher who enrolls her students in a competition around what it meant to be a teen in a Nazi concentration camp, took home the audience award in the third annual “Wave Film Festival”.
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36th Durban International Film Festival Awards; SUNRISE Wins Best Film
The 36th Durban International Film Festival announced the award-winners at the closing ceremony, prior to the screening of the closing film, The Prophet directed by Roger Allers. The award for the Best Feature Film, went to Sunrise directed by Partho Sen-Gupta. The film was described by the jury as “an uncompromising, brilliantly-crafted film that takes us through a fragmented mind, into a shady world allowing us to enter the reality of Mumbai’s underbelly”. (pictured above)
The award for Best South African Feature Film went to Necktie Youth directed by Sibs Shongwe-La Mer, described by the jury as “a film desperate to reconcile the seemingly disparate realities of its country, and whose urgent questions about South African life are posed with such mischievous energy that they cannot help provoke debate, itself one of the most important responsibilities of cinema.” (pictured above)
Shongwe La-Mer also won the award for Best Direction, for Necktie Youth, “for displaying a unique, contemporary voice weaving together poetic images and a striking view of South African youth with a boldness seldom seen in South African cinema.”
The Best Documentary and Best SA Documentary awards went toBeats of the Antonov directed by Hajooj Kuka and The Dream of the Shahrazad directed by Francois Verster, respectively. The jury awarded Beats of the Antonov “for its story, characters, relevance and visual interpretation,” and for a “story told with grace, while honouring the integrity of the people who gave them access as well as the subject matter.”
The Dream of the Shahrazad was awarded for the way in which “the filmmakers pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone, taking mythology and bringing it into the centre of modernity,” and for being “an ambitious film..(that) addresses life post revolution and what is left after heartbreak.” (pictured above)
Didier Michon for his charismatic and captivating performance in Fevers directed by Hicham Ayouch received the Best Actor Award. (pictured above)
The award for Best Actress went to Anissa Daoud for her portrayal of a determined activist who takes a stand, in an important film Tunisian Spring directed by Raja Amari.
Best African Short Film award went to The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometre 375 directed by Omar el Zohairy. The jury described this as an “exceptional film explores and pushes new avenues in political satire and the cinema.” (pictured above)
Unomalanga and The Witch directed by Palesa Shongwe, and cited by the jury as “a gentle and unexpected film (that) sheds light on the subtleties of relationships between women”, won the Best South African Short Film award.
A new award, the Production Merit Award goes to Rights of Passage directed by Ntombizodwa Magagula, Mapula Sibanda, Lerato Moloi, Valencia Joshua, Zandile Angeline Wardle, Tony Miyambo, Rethabile Mothobi, Yashvir Bagwandeen. (pictured above)
Sabrina Compeyron and David Constantin, won the Best Screenplay Award for “craftily tracking the age-old struggle between capital and labour spanning the end of industry and the disenfranchisement of a society” in Sugar Cane Shadows directed by David Constantin.
Jean-Marc Ferriere, took the honours for Best Cinematography “for creating a distinctive, atmospheric, highly-crafted and visually dynamic world depicted almost entirely in the dark”, in Sunrise directed by Partho Sen-Gupta.
Special Mention for Direction was made of Kivu Ruhorahoza for Things Of The Aimless Wanderer, “for a courageous and single-minded attempt by a director harnessing all means at his disposal to tell a personal, intricate and political story.”
A Special Mention for Best Film was given to Tunisian Spring by Raja Amari, “for it’s powerful depiction of an event that has, and continues to have, resonance in the world.” (pictured above)
Democrats directed by Camilla Nielsson, got a Special Mention for a Documentary,which is “commended for putting a human face on a story that is complex and sometimes almost opaque.” (pictured above)
The Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award for the film that best reflects human rights issues went to The Shore Break, directed by Ryley Grunenwald. The jury citation reads “The film powerfully portrays a struggle within a local community regarding foreign mining rights in a pristine environment…(and) concisely and movingly uncovers this complex and urgent matter, which is still under investigation and in need of public support.” (pictured above)
The DIFF Audience Award also went to The Shore Break directed by Ryley Grunenwald.
A further Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Honorary Award was given to The Look of Silence directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, a film that “bravely uncovers the genocide in Indonesia in the 1960’s.”
Arterial Network’s Artwatch Africa Award, for an African film that meaningfully engages with the issues of freedom of expression, went to Beats of the Antonov, directed by Hajooj Kuka. The jury citation said “This compelling film shows how the power of music, dancing and culture sustains the displaced people living in the remote war-ravaged areas of Southern Sudan.” (pictured above)
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World Premiere of Don Cheadle’s MILES AHEAD to Close 53rd New York Film Festival
Don Cheadle’s directorial debut Miles Ahead will make its World Premiere as the Closing Night selection of the upcoming 53rd New York Film Festival taking place September 25 to October 11, 2016. Cheadle, who co-wrote the script, stars as the legendary musician opposite Emayatzy Corinealdi and Ewan McGregor.
New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said: “I admire Don’s film because of all the intelligent decisions he’s made about how to deal with Miles, but I was moved—deeply moved—by Miles Ahead for other reasons. Don knows, as an actor, a writer, a director, and a lover of Miles’ music, that intelligent decisions and well-planned strategies only get you so far, that finally it’s your own commitment and attention to every moment and every detail that brings a movie to life. ‘There is no longer much else but ourselves, in the place given us,’ wrote the poet Robert Creeley. ‘To make that present, and actual … is not an embarrassment, but love.’ That’s the core of art. Miles Davis knew it, and Don Cheadle knows it.”
Don Cheadle added: “I am happy that the selection committee saw fit to invite us to the dance. It’s very gratifying that all the hard work that went into the making of this film, from every person on the team, has brought us here. Miles’ music is all-encompassing, forward-leaning, and expansive. He changed the game time after time, and New York is really where it all took off for him. Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center… feels very ‘right place, right time.’ Very exciting.”
Miles Davis was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. And how do you make a movie about him? You get to know the man inside and out and then you reveal him in full, which is exactly what Don Cheadle does as a director, a writer, and an actor with this remarkable portrait of Davis, refracted through his crazy days in the late-70s. Holed up in his Manhattan apartment, wracked with pain from a variety of ailments and fiending for the next check from his record company, dodging sycophants and industry executives, he is haunted by memories of old glories and humiliations and of his years with his great love Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Every second of Cheadle’s cinematic mosaic is passionately engaged with its subject: this is, truly, one of the finest films ever made about the life of an artist. With Ewan McGregor as Dave Brill, the “reporter” who cons his way into Miles’ apartment. The film was produced by Don Cheadle, Pamela Hirsch, Lenore Zerman. Along with Daniel Wagner, Robert Barnum, Vince Willburn and Daryl Porter.
NYFF previously announced Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk as the Opening Night selection and Luminous Intimacy: The Cinema of Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, the first-ever complete dual retrospective of the experimental filmmakers.
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Its a Tie. ASTRAEA and COME TO MY VOICE Win 18th Maine International Film Festival Audience Award
The 18th Maine International Film Festival closed on Sunday and unveiled the winner of its audience favorite award, with Astraea and Come To My Voice tied as the MIFF audience’s favorite.
“We’re thrilled that MIFF audiences once again were adventurous and enthusiastic about exploring and discussing films from around the world,” said Festival Director Shannon Haines. “We had a fabulous slate of guests and an incredible array of films for MIFF audiences to enjoy. We look forward to seeing you all next year”
In the film Astraea, directed by Kristjan Thor, – when an epidemic nearly wipes out the human race, a telepathic teenage girl named Astraea has visions of survivors living in New Brunswick. She leads her doubting brother on a 5000-mile journey through a silent and abandoned America into the snowbound wilderness, hoping to rebuild life as she knew it. As they head north, her clairvoyance intensifies and they encounter a wary young couple, homesteading on a remote lake in Western Maine. The grief and complexity—as well as the excitement and comfort—of encountering other normal humans pits itself against Astraea’s desire to keep moving and find her family. This post-apocalyptic film, spectacularly shot in wintry Maine landscapes, uses sensitivity and intellect rather than special effects to show not what humanity is running from, but what we’re running towards.
https://vimeo.com/118208194
In Come To My Voice, directed by Hüseyin Karabey, which takes place in a snowy Kurdish mountain village, in the east of Turkey, an old woman Berfé and her granddaughter Jiyan are distressed. The only man in the household, Temo, the son of one and the father of the other, was arrested by the Turkish military. The commanding officer has been told that the villagers are hiding weapons, so he arrested all the men and announced that they will be kept in prison until their families hand over the weapons. The problem is that there are no weapons in the village. Desperate, Berfé and Jiyan embark on a long journey, in search of a gun which they could exchange for their beloved Temo. Will the old woman and her innocent granddaughter find a way out of the inextricable Kurdish identity conflict?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Xbi0l61k0
Learning To Drive and Samba were tied for second place and Au Bord du Monde came in third place for the audience favorite award. Forty-four of the 47 films eligible for the award received at least one vote.
Acclaimed actor Michael Murphy was presented the Mid-Life Achievement Award in honor of his diverse career that includes a long-time collaboration with director Robert Altman and work with Woody Allen, P.T. Anderson, Elia Kazan and Oliver Stone. MIFF screened the U.S. premiere of Murphy’s new film Fall before the award presentation on July 16.
For the first time, MIFF hosted the World Filmmakers’ Forum through a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. Filmmakers from France, Argentina, Turkey and Mexico will show their work and discuss their creative process and the state of international film.
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Le Dep by Sonia Bonspille-Boileau to Close 25th First Peoples Festival l TRAILER
Le Dep, directed by Sonia Bonspille-Boileau will close the 25th edition of First Peoples Festival in Montreal, Canada. The film stars Eve Ringuette (a Jutra nominee for the film Mesnak) Marco Colin, Charles Buckell-Roberston, also in the Mesnak cast, and Yan England.
One evening, in an Outaouais region Amerindian community, Lydia (Eve Ringuette) is just about to close her father’s convenience store where she occasionally works for the night. But an armed and masked individual suddenly bursts inside, and orders her to hand over the cash. However she recognizes the thief from his voice and eyes. Her subsequent decisions will have many consequences in her life.
“The story takes place in an Aboriginal community, and exposes modern Aboriginal problems in Canada, but the emotions I wanted to convey and the characters I tried to create aim first and foremost to develop public awareness”. Sonia Bonspille-Boileau
The film production received a grant from Telefilm Canada’s microbudget program. The producer and director will take part in workshops focusing on this type of production, as part of the professional workshops organized by First Peoples Festival.
Le Dep, distributed by K-Films Amérique, will be released in Quebec on August 7th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzwTbICOLPY
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TIKKUN, HOTLINE Win Top Awards at 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival
TIKKUN, directed by Avishai Sivan is the winner of the The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature Film at the 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival. Tikkkun also won the awards for The Anat Pirchi Award for Best Script, The Haggiag Award for Best Actor to Khalifa Natour for his role in Tikkun, and The Van Leer Award for Best Cinematography to Shai Goldman.
Tikkun follows Haim-Aaron, a bright, Ultra-Orthodox religious scholar living in Jerusalem. His talents and devotion are envied by all. One evening, following a self-imposed fast, Haim-Aaron collapses and loses consciousness. The paramedics announce his death, but his father takes over resuscitation efforts and, beyond all expectations, Haim-Aaron comes back to life. After the accident, try as he might, Haim-Aaron remains apathetic to his studies. He feels overwhelmed by a sudden awakening of his body and suspects this is God testing him. He wonders if he should stray from the prescribed path and find a way to rekindle his faith. The father notices his son’s changed behavior and tries to forgive him. He is tormented by the fear of having crossed God’s will, the night he resuscitated his son.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8hlHhX_H14
HOTLINE, directed by Silvina Landsmann is the winner of the Van Leer Award for Best Documentary Film. Hotline delves into the heart of a small Tel Aviv-based NGO – a human rights organization called the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants – shedding light on its activities and revealing its reality, while observing the functions of an NGO in the democratic arena. The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants is dedicated to promoting the rights of refugees and undocumented migrant workers in Israel. In addition to its direct services through weekly visits to detention centers and its hotline, the NGO’s work also includes legal advocacy and public policy activities. The Hotline works to ensure that existing laws protecting basic human rights are implemented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN9n45YWJOo
The complete list of 2015 Awards of 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival
The Haggiag Competition for Full-Length Israeli Features
The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature Film granting 120,000 ILS:
Tikkun, directed by Avishai Sivan, produced by Ronen Ben Tal, Moshe and Leon Edery.
Jury: For its very impressive artistic achievement in telling a deep and delicate story with great sensitivity.
The Anat Pirchi Award for Best First Film granting 20,000 ILS
Wedding Doll, directed and produced by Nitzan Gilady.
The Anat Pirchi Award for Best Script granting 10,000 ILS
Avishai Sivan for his film Tikkun.
The Haggiag Award for Best Actor granting 10,000 ILS
Khalifa Natour for his role in Tikkun.
The Haggiag Award for Best Actress granting 10,000 ILS
Asi Levi for her performance in Wedding Dolls.
The Van Leer Award for Best Cinematography granting 9,000 ILS
Shai Goldman for filming Tikkun.
The Haggiag Award for Best Editing granting 10,000 ILS
Reut Han, Yoav Paz and Doron Paz for editing JeruZalem.
Israel Critics’ Forum Award for Best Feature Film
A.K.A. Nadia, directed by Tova Ascher, produced by Estee Yacov-Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg.
The Audience Favorite Award
JeruZalem, directed by Yoav Paz, Doron Paz, produced by Yoav Paz, Doron Paz, Nir Miretzky and Rotem Levim.
The Van Leer Competition for Israeli Documentary Cinema
The Van Leer Award for Best Documentary Film granting 30,000 ILS
Hotline, directed by Silvina Landsmann, produced by Silvina Landsmann, Pierre-Olivier Bardet.
The Van Leer Award for Best Director of a Documentary granting 18,000 ILS
Nirit Aharoni for her film, Strung Out.
The Haggiag Award for Best Music granting 10,000 ILS
The jury has elected to present this award to a musician who contributed to a documentary: Ophir Leibovitch, for his work in Strung Out.
Honorary Mention to a Documentary
Thru You Princess, directed by Ido Haar, produced by Liran Aztmor.
The jury of the Israeli Feature Film Competition was comprised of Elma Tataragić from the Sarajevo Film Festival, Matthijs Wouter Knol from the Berlin Film Festival/EFM, Turkish director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu and Israeli film critic Yael Shuv.
The Wim Van Leer “In the Spirit of Freedom” Competition
The Cummings Award for Best Feature Film granting 4,000$
Three Windows and a Hanging, directed by Isa Qosja.
The Ostrovsky Award for Best Documentary Film grating 2,000$
The Pearl Button, directed by Patricio Guzman
Honorary Mention
Mussa, directed by Anat Goren, produced by Daniela Rachminov-Sidi, Anat Goren.
The In the Spirit of Freedom jury was comprised of Israeli director and screenwriter Tali Shalom-Ezer, French actress Laëtitia Eïdo and French journalist Hélène Schoumann.
The FIPRESCI International Debuts Competition
The FIPRESCI Award for Best First Film
Songs my Brothers Taught Me, directed by Chloe Zhao.
Honorary Mention to an Israeli Debut
Wedding Doll, directed and produced by Nitzan Gilady.
The FIPRESCI jury was comprised of José Luis Losa García of Spain, Jack Mener of Belgium and Yair Raveh of Israel.
The Israeli Short Film Competition
The Van Leer award for Best Short Feature Film granting 9,000 ILS
Line of Grace, directed by Rotem Kapelinsky, produced by Eyal Shirai.
The Van Leer Award for Best Director of a Short Feature granting 9,000 ILS
Yehonatan Indursky for his film The Cantor and the Sea.
The Van Leer award for Best Short Documentary Film granting 7,000 ILS
Mazal Means Luck, directed by Mazal Ben Yishai, Maaleh Film School.
The Van Leer Award for Best Short Animation Film granting 7,000 ILS
Warm Snow, directed by Ira Elshansky, Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design.
The jury of the Short Film Competition was comprised of Mexican director and producer Gabriel Ripstein, Israeli director and screenwriter Elad Keidan and Israeli director, screenwriter and poet Netalie Braun.
The Experimental Cinema and Video Art Competition
The Lia Van Leer Award, donated by Rivka Saker, granting 12,000 ILS
Factory, directed by Maya Geller.
The Ostrovsky Family Foundation Award granting 8,000 ILS
Last Person Shooter, directed by Boaz Levin and Adam Kaplan.
The jury was comprised of Austrian artist and filmmaker Manu Luksch, Israeli curator Ran Kasmy-Ilan and Israeli curator Edna Moshenson.
The Jewish Experience Competition
The Leah Van Leer Award for Films about Jewish Heritage
Zelda: A Simple Woman, directed by Yair Qedar
The Avner Shalev – Yad Vashem Chairman’s Award for Holocaust-Related Films
My Nazi Legacy: What Our Fathers Did, directed by David Evans.
The International Children’s Films Competition
The Cummings Award for Best Children’s Film granting 3,000$
Paper Planes, director by Robert Connolly
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Restored Anti-apartheid Film, A Dry White Season, will Screen on Mandela Day 2015 for Durban International Film Festival
The award-winning and world-renowned French filmmaker Euzhan Palcy will showcase her most celebrated work, A DRY WHITE SEASON (1989), as part of the film’s 25th anniversary at this year’s Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). The film was adapted from a book by the acclaimed South African writer Andre Brink who died earlier this year. Palcy will be honoring Brink on Mandela Day (July 18).
Additionally, in a tribute to her contribution to the South African film industry, Palcy will be honoured at the Simon Sabela Awards on July 19. Karina Brink, Dame Janet Suzman and Thoko Ntshinga will attend both the screening and the awards.
At the time the film was produced, Ms. Palcy (pictured above) was distinguished for being the first black female director to be hired by a major Hollywood studio (MGM) and to direct an anti-apartheid film during Nelson Mandela’s prison sentence. She is also the only woman to have directed Marlon Brando and the first black person to win a French Oscar.
Andre Brink’s book, a narrative about the social movements of South Africa and the 1976 Soweto riots inspired Palcy’s impassioned response to illustrate an accurate account of the reality of apartheid. Palcy made the film in 1989 after doing extensive research undercover in Soweto. The film stars Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman, Marlon Brando, Zakes Mokae, Susan Sarandon, John Kani, Winston Ntshona, Jürgen Prochnow amongst others.
“We are pleased to be able to present an important work created by a black woman, which highlights and even represents the lost voices of the people of this continent; the unspoken narratives and the untold stories,” says Pedro Pimenta, Director of DIFF. “Her courage to create a work which could stand out and give three dimensional life to Brink’s book, and by association the voiceless at the time, required an enormous amount of bravery. We are proud to be able to salute her at the DIFF this year.”
The South African event will kick off on 17 July with the opening of an exhibition of David James’ still photographs from A DRY WHITE SEASON at the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts. James is the 2011 Society of Cinematographer Lifetime achievement award winner in stills photography and was the official photographer of the 81st to the 84th Oscars ceremonies. The exhibition will run for the duration of the DIFF until the 26 July.
A DRY WHITE SEASON will be screened on Mandela Day at Suncoast on Saturday, 18 July at 20:00. This will be followed by a question and answer session with Ms. Palcy. Her first classic award winning film, SUGAR CANE ALLEY, which Brink apparently screened in secret to his students, celebrates its 30th anniversary and will be screened as a South African premiere at Suncoast on Monday, 20 July at 19:30, in which she will also be in attendance.
Comment from Patrick Aglae director of communications for Euzhan Palcy and producer of A DRY WHITE SEASON: the 25th anniversary tour:
It has been a long journey since we decided to officially screen A DRY WHITE SEASON in South Africa on the big stage. Euzhan Palcy had made the promise to Nelson Mandela to comeback one day to officially screen the film. In March at the Andre Brink’s Memorial at the University of Cape Town she said “Let’s make it happen”. So to do it on the Mandela Day is magnificent. I’d like to thank DIFF’s new leadership to make this dream a reality alongside MGM and Park Circus, its worldwide distribution partner which played a key role to restore this film and make the DCP on time. To make it so fast speaks volume about their respect for the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbNbN3KSkI8
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2015 trinidad+tobago film festival Reveals First Ten Classic Caribbean Films on Lineup
The 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) unveiled the first selections of ten classic Caribbean films for this year’s edition of the Festival.
These ten films will screen in a special sidebar to the main program, in honor of the ttff’s tenth anniversary. The Festival takes place from September 15–29.
“Many people are unaware that there has been a Caribbean film industry for quite some time, or that almost every country in the region has produced feature films,” said Bruce Paddington, ttff Founder and Festival Director. “We are therefore very proud to present ten of the very best classic films from the Caribbean that will help one to appreciate and enjoy the rich diversity of the region.”
Comprising films from nine different countries, the sidebar ranges across the English-, Spanish-, French- and Dutch-speaking sections of the region.
The lineup includes the Jamaican classic, The Harder They Come, and Bim, from T&T.
Memories of Underdevelopment, the oldest film in the lineup, is from 1968, while the most recent, Strawberry and Chocolate, was released in 1993. Both of those films hail from Cuba.
The full slate of films is as follows:
Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1968)
The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1972)
Bim (Hugh A. Robertson, Trinidad and Tobago, 1974)
One People (Pim de la Parra, Suriname, 1976)
Sugar Cane Alley (Euzhan Palcy, Martinique, 1983)
One Way Ticket (Agliberto Menéndez, Dominican Republic, 1988)
What Happened to Santiago (Jacobo Morales, Puerto Rico, 1989)
Ava and Gabriel: A Love Story (Felix de Rooy, Curaçao, 1990)
The Man on the Shore (Raoul Peck, Haiti, 1993)
Strawberry and Chocolate (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, Cuba, 1993)
Caption: A still from The Harder They Come