Film Festivals

First Wave of Films Announced for 2013 Austin Film Festival

NEBRASKA, written by Bob Nelson and directed by Alexander Payne

The Austin Film Festival (AFF) celebrating its 20th anniversary, announced the first ten films in this year’s lineup taking place from October 24th to 31st, 2013. The 2013 Festival will also include a special retrospective series of films presented by Panelists, showcasing films that have inspired their own work. One retrospective film track: “Out of the Vault: Jonathan Demme” will include films selected by the 2013 Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking award recipient and Academy Award® winning director, Jonathan Demme, including a work in progress of his latest film, Fear of Falling, written by Wallace Shawn — an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play ‘The Master Builder’ based on the story of an architect increasingly caught up in his own fantasies.

Additional retrospectives include: Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad, and AFF’s 2013 Outstanding Television Writer award recipient, presenting William Friedkin’s classic crime thriller The French Connection, written by Ernest Tidyman. Shane Black, writer and director of Iron Man 3 and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, will present Morrie Ryskind’s screwball comedy, My Man Godfrey. Jim Taylor, long-time collaborator of Alexander Payne and writer of Sideways, About Schmidt and Citizen Ruth, will host a screening of Election, his 1999 screenplay following a high school student election that is taken to the extreme. Norman Steinberg will show the revolutionary comedy that he co-wrote with Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor, Blazing Saddles.

Other Festival highlights include:

NEBRASKA, written by Bob Nelson and directed by Alexander Payne. After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father (Bruce Dern) thinks he’s struck it rich, and wrangles his son (Will Forte) into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Shot in black and white across four states,Nebraska tells the stories of family life in the heartland of America.

COFFEE, KILL BOSS (World Premiere), the first feature film from director Nathan Marshall, follows ten executives who secretly meet to sell off their company but instead become victims of an outrageous murder scheme. The script, written by Sigurd Ueland — a 2010 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition Semifinalist — is a dark comic romp through the halls of corporate America.

INNOCENCE (World Premiere), written and directed by Hilary Brougher (director, Stephanie Daley), produced by Christine Vachone (Bluebird, Boys Don’t Cry), follows a young woman who discovers that her elite private school harbors a dark secret. This suspenseful horror film, based on Jane Medelsohn’s 2000 novel explores themes of loss, love, and theInnocence will screen as a part of AFF’s Dark Matters Category.

THE ODD WAY HOME (World Premiere), directed by Rajeev Nirmalakhandan, co-written by Nirmalakhandan and Jason Ronstadt, and produced by Peter Touche. The film follows Maya (Rumer Willis), the product of a neglected childhood, and Duncan (Chris Marquette), a slave to his obsessions of order and pattern, as they journey through the American Southwest, finding happiness in the unlikeliest of places.

SIREN (North American Premiere), Television writer Jesse Peyronel’s feature script directorial debut. Starring Vinessa Shaw (3:10 to Yuma, The Hills Have Eyes) and Rob Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Siren is a dark fairytale about a woman with an unusual curse: an alluring scent. She is irresistible to every man she meets, but when confronted with a man immune to her power, she is presented with the possibility of real love.

SPEAK NOW (World Premiere), directed by Noah Harald and written by Erin Cardillo, Speak Now is a Romantic Dramedy following high school friends reuniting for a wedding. Old offenses and newly mounting scandal plunge the group back into a pool of high-school drama. Entirely improvised from an outline and character studies, the whole feature was shot in three days. Speak Now will screen as part of Austin Film Festival’s new WRITE/REC Series, focusing on the best in low-budget storytelling.

TAKE AWAY ONE (World Premiere), the first feature film written and directed by seasoned tv editor William Lorton (Face Off, Bridezillas), this documentary film follows Lorton’s aunt, Mary Baratta-Lorton, and her mysterious unsolved murder. Mary, in her short 38 years, rose from obscurity to become one of the most famous teachers in the US. Personally inept with math, yet placed as a UC Berkeley student-teacher in one of the roughest inner-city classrooms of the San Francisco Bay Area – Mary’s intuitive strategy of teaching arithmetic with hands-on manipulative materials quickly blossomed into a nation-wide career as an author, lecturer, and movement leader.

MOM, DAD, I’M MUSLIM (US Premiere), a documentary film, written and directed by Anat Tel Mendelovich and distributed by Seventh Art Releasing, examines the trials of May Davidovich, a 22-year old devout Muslim searching for equilibrium between her belief in Islam and her parents’ devotion to Judaism. The religious conflict between May and her parents makes for a fascinating case study on the balance between pursuing spiritual fulfillment and inherent family expectations.

SOMBRAS DE AZUL, (World Premiere), the Spanish-language feature film debut of local Austin writer/director, Kelly Daniela Norris, who re-imagines her own experience of bereavement following the death of her brother by weaving together real memory and personal reflection through the sights and sounds of Cuba.
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Chicago International Film Festival Announces First Films for 2013

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

The Chicago International Film Festival announced the first 21 feature-length and short films, a preview of the more than 150 films that will be presented during the 49th edition of the festival taking place October 10 – 24, 2013. Films include THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE directed by George Tillman which follows 13-year-old Mister whose mother, played by Chicago native Jennifer Hudson, is apprehended by the police, leaving Mister and his nine-year-old brother Pete alone to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the projects.

Films Include:

BIG BAD WOLVES (Directors: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado • Israel): When the lead suspect in a brutal child murder is released due to a police blunder, a vigilante police detective and a grieving father take the law into their own hands in this fantastically intense, darkly funny revenge thriller from one of the pioneers of Israeli horror cinema.

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Director: Abdellatif Kechiche • France): Teenager Adèle’s life is turned upside down the night she meets blue-haired Emma in this scandalous winner of the top prize at Cannes. Adèle’s passionate sexual awakening and the couple’s ensuing relationship – spanning several years – are depicted in searing, intimate detail with sharp, controlled direction and breathtaking performances from the two leads.

ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME (Director: Chiemi Karasawa • USA): A ferocious, funny and poignant portrait of the one-of-a-kind Broadway legend as she reaches her 87th year, “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me” showcases the brash, uncompromising Tony and Emmy Award-winner both onstage and off. Stritch’s inimitable personality is on full display in this hilarious, affectionate tribute.

THE GIRLS ON LIBERTY STREET (Director: John Rangel • USA): A teenager on the verge of leaving for the army, Brianna spends her last week at home trying to mend tensions with her friends and family. Eschewing melodrama, the film imbues this simple story with a deft style and effortlessly natural performances, creating an assured portrait of a young woman in transition.

GRIGRIS (Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun • Chad): Despite a paralyzed leg that keeps him on the fringes of society, Grigris comes alive at the local nightclub, tearing up the dance floor every night. When a relative falls critically ill, the desperate Grigris turns to black market kingpin Moussa to pay the hospital bills and soon finds himself in over his head.

HELI (Director: Amat Escalante • Mexico): In a misguided attempt to finance his elopement with 12-year-old Estela, police cadet Beto steals two large packages of cocaine, setting off a string of increasingly violent consequences for him and for Estela’s family in this unflinching look at the cycle of drugs and violence in contemporary Mexico.

THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE (Director: George Tillman • USA): During a sweltering summer in New York City, 13-year-old Mister’s hard-living mother (Jennifer Hudson) is apprehended by the police, leaving Mister and his nine-year-old brother Pete alone to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the projects. “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete” is a beautifully observed, moving film about salvation through friendship.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu • Japan): The lives of success-driven architect Ryota and his shy wife Midori are turned upside down when they discover that, due to a hospital mix-up six years earlier, their son Keita is not their own. The foundations of their identities as loving parents begin to crumble as they meet their biological child.

THE MISSING PICTURE (Director: Rithy Panh • Cambodia): How do you document a genocide when no footage of the atrocities exists? Rithy Panh attempts to answer this question in this Cannes prize-winning film recounting a childhood under the Khmer Rouge, illustrating his memories with hand carved clay figures. This innovative documentary explores the intersection of historical memory and the power of images.

MONSOON SHOOTOUT (Director: Amit Kumar • India): As heavy monsoon rains lash Mumbai, rookie cop Adi raises his gun to a criminal and must decide whether or not to pull the trigger. “Monsoon Shootout” presents three alternate scenarios, each sending Adi spiraling on a downward journey that pits him against fate and a system that presents a quagmire of moral ambiguity.

MY SWEET PEPPER LAND (Director: Hiner Saleem • Iraq): A godforsaken border town in newly-autonomous Kurdistan serves as the setting for this Western-inspired tale of justice and honor. Both Baran, a former Kurdish independence war hero, and Govend, a beautiful young woman defying tradition to become a teacher, are determined to see order and civilization restored to their damaged country.

THE PRIEST’S CHILDREN (Director: Vinko Bresan • Croatia): Troubled by his small island’s rapidly dwindling population, the dogmatic young Father Fabijan sabotages the town’s birth control. Soon the picturesque island town is awash with pregnant women, and the absurd unintended consequences of the plan begin piling up in this irreverent, hilarious dark comedy.

SALVO (Directors: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza • Italy): Mafia hitman Salvo is solitary, callous, and ruthless. His deep-rooted cold-bloodedness is tested, however, when, on his latest job, he discovers his target’s sister, a blind woman named Rita. Disturbed by her unseeing stare, Salvo spares her life, fully aware of the inexorable consequences of this ill-fated choice.

UNDER THE RAINBOW (Director: Agnès Jaoui • France): “Look At Me” writer-director-star Agnès Jaoui returns with a witty, charming, modern day mélange of familiar fairy tales. When young Laura meets Sandro at a party, she thinks she may have met her Prince Charming. And then she meets Maxime. Laura must choose between them as they, and their families, deal with the tragicomic realities of romance.

WALESA: MAN OF HOPE (Director: Andrzej Wajda • Poland): Legendary director Andrzej Wajda tells the inspiring story of Lech Walesa, Nobel laureate and Poland’s first post-Soviet president. The charismatic Wałesa rises from the shipyard to union leadership and becomes the voice and face of the growing solidarity movement, standing up to the feared Soviet Union and leading Poland’s fight for independence.

DIE WELT (Director: Alex Pitstra • Tunisia): In the summer of 2011, Tunisia is finally free of its dictatorial shackles, but 23-year-old Abdallah still dreams of escaping to Europe. Following a chance encounter, Abdallah’s passion to reach the other side of the Mediterranean burns brighter than ever before, prompting a desperate gamble for escape.

WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW? (Director: Arvin Chen • Taiwan): Introvert Weichung’s measured life as a family man is shaken when a chance encounter revives feelings from his long suppressed gay past, forcing him to choose between love and security. Fantastical flourishes color this bittersweet romantic comedy that is all at once wise and funny in its exploration of formal notions of family, sexuality, and friendship.

Short Films: Highlights from this year’s program include: 23-year-old Tim attempts to seduce the ladies, but his stutter gets in the way in “Stammering Love.” In “Needle,” a young girl’s feelings about her parents’ divorce are explored when she goes to get her ears pierced. A teenager develops an awkward attraction in “Peach Juice.”
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deadCENTER Film Festival Announces 2014 Dates

The 14th annual deadCENTER Film Festival, named for its central geographic location (in Oklahoma City, the center of the U.S.), announced 2014 dates – the festival will take place Wednesday, June 11 through Sunday, June 15, 2014 in downtown Oklahoma City. Filmmakers may submit their films for review beginning on Monday, Aug. 19.

Films will be selected in the following categories: narrative feature, documentary feature, narrative short, documentary short, student film, Oklahoma film and short screenplay. Submissions can be made online at www.deadcenterfilm.org. The early bird deadline is Nov. 30 and entry fees vary based on the type of submission: $40 for narrative and documentary features, $25 for narrative and documentary shorts and Oklahoma films, $20 for college films and screenplays. High school films are free to submit.

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Complete List of Official Selection Films + Descriptions of 35 Films in Lineup for 51st New York Film Festival

The New York Film Festival unveiled the names of the 35 films that will comprise the main slate of official selections for the 51st edition film that will run September 27-October 13, 2013. American and British comedies are a significant presence in this year’s lineup of of main slate official selections with Richard Curtis’s ABOUT TIME, a romantic comedy about a family whose men have the ability to travel in time, starring Bill Nighy and Rachel McAdams; Declan Lowney’s ALAN PARTRIDGE, which brings Steve Coogan’s legendary television character to the big screen for the first time; Roger Michell’s LE WEEK-END, featuring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as a couple visiting Paris with hopes of rekindling their relationship; and Alexander Payne’s NEBRASKA, about a father and son (Bruce Dern and Will Forte) on a road trip to pick up a million dollar prize that may or may not await them; and the previously announced Centerpiece and Closing Night Gala selections, Ben Stiller’s THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY and Spike Jonze’s HER.

Documentary filmmaking legends Claude Lanzmann and Frederick Wiseman each make their third appearances in NYFF’s main slate. Lanzmann returns with THE LAST OF THE UNJUST, a portrait of Benjamin Murmelstein, the last Jewish elder of Theresienstadt, once despised by many of its surviving inhabitants. Wiseman turns his camera toward the University of California, Berkeley, with his latest film, AT BERKELEY.

Films & Descriptions

ABOUT TIME (2013) 123min
Director: Richard Curtis
Country: UK
Richard Curtis adds a touch of time-travel to this hilarious romantic comedy, a perfect vehicle for the comic talents of Bill Nighy, Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Duncan, and emerging star Domhnall Gleeson. A Universal Pictures release.

ABUSE OF WEAKNESS (Abus de Faiblesse) (2013) 105min
Director: Catherine Breillat
Country: France
Catherine Breillat’s haunting film about her 2004 stroke and subsequent self-destructive relationship with star swindler Christophe Rocancourt, starring Isabelle Huppert.

ALAN PARTRIDGE (2013) 90min
Director: Declan Lowney
Country: UK/France
In the long-awaited big-screen debut of Steve Coogan’s singular comic creation, the vain and obliviously tactless Alan Partridge must serve as an intermediary when North Norfolk Digital is seized at gunpoint by a down-sized DJ.

ALL IS LOST (2013) 107min
Director: J.C. Chandor
Country: USA
Robert Redford as you’ve never seen him before, gives a near-wordless all-action performance as a lone sailor trying to keep his yacht afloat after a collision with a discarded shipping container in the middle of the Indian Ocean. A Roadside Attractions release.

AMERICAN PROMISE (2013) 135min

Directors: Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson
Country: USA
Two Brooklyn filmmakers follow their son Idris and his friend Suen from their enrollment in the Dalton School as children through their high school graduations in this devastating, years-in-the-making documentary that takes a hard look at race and class in America.

AT BERKELEY (2013) 244min
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Country: USA
Another masterfully constructed documentary from Frederick Wiseman, examining the University of California, Berkeley from multiple angles – the administrators, the students, the surrounding community – to arrive at a portrait that is as rich in detail as it is epic in scope.

BASTARDS (Les Salauds) (2013) 100min
Director: Claire Denis
Country: France/Germany
Claire Denis’s jagged, daringly fragmented and deeply unsettling film inspired by recent French sex ring scandals is the rarest of cinematic narratives—a contemporary film noir, perfect in substance as well as style.

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (La Vie d’Adèle) (2013) 179min

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Country: France
The sensation of this year’s Cannes Film Festival is an intimate – and sexually explicit – epic of emotional transformation, featuring two astonishing performances from Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux. A Sundance Selects release.
Please be advised that this film has scenes of a sexually explicit nature.

BURNING BUSH (Hořicí Keř) (2013) 234min
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Country: Czech Republic
A passionately brilliant Czech mini-series from Agnieska Holland about the events that followed student Jan Palach’s public self-immolation in protest against the Soviet invasion after Prague Spring.

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (2013) 143min
Director: Paul Greengrass
Country: USA
Paul Greengrass has crafted an edge-of-your-seat thriller based on the true story of the seizure of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship in 2009 by four Somali pirates, with remarkable performances from Tom Hanks and four first-time actors, Barkhad Abdi, Faysal Ahmed, Barkhad Abdirahman and Mahet M. Ali. A Sony Pictures release.

CHILD OF GOD (2013) 104min
Director: James Franco
Country: USA
James Franco’s uncompromising excursion into American Gothic, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 1973 novel, about an unstable sociopath in early 60s rural Tennessee who descends into an animal-like state – not for the faint-hearted.

GLORIA (2013) 110min

Director: Sebastián Lelio
Countries: Chile/Spain
A wise, funny, liberating movie from Chile, about a middle-aged woman who finds romance but whose new partner finds it painfully difficult to abandon his old habits.

HER (2013)
Director: Spike Jonze
Country: USA
In Spike Jonze’s magical, melancholy comedy of the near future, lonely Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his new all-purpose operating system (the voice of Scarlett Johansson), leading to romantic and existential complications. A Warner Bros. Pictures release.

THE IMMIGRANT (2013) 120min
Director: James Gray
Country: USA
In James Gray’s richly detailed period tragedy, set in a dusty, sepia-toned 1920s Manhattan, a young Polish immigrant (Marion Cotillard) is caught in a dangerous battle of wills with a shady burlesque manager (Joaquin Phoenix). A Radius-TWC release.

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (2013) 105min
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Country: USA/France
Joel and Ethan Coen’s picaresque, panoramic and wryly funny story of a singer/songwriter is set in the New York folk scene of the early 60s and features a terrific array of larger-than-life characters and a glorious score of folk standards. A CBS Films release.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (2013) 111min
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Country: UK
Ralph Fiennes directs and stars as Charles Dickens in this adaptation of Claire Tomalin’s revelatory 1992 biography, which brought the upright Victorian author’s secret 13-year affair with a young actress to light. A Sony Pictures Classics Release.

JEALOUSY (La Jalousie) (2013) 77min
Director: Philippe Garrel
Country: France
Another intimate, handcrafted work of poetic autobiographical cinema from French director Philippe Garrel, in which his son Louis and Anna Mouglalis star as actors and lovers trying to reconcile their professional and personal lives.

JIMMY P: PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN (2013) 114min
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Country: France
In Arnaud Desplechin’s intelligent and moving depiction of a successful “Talking Cure,” the encounters between patient (Benicio del Toro) and therapist (Mathieu Amalric) are electric with discovery.

THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Le Dernier des injustes) (2013) 218min

Director: Claude Lanzmann
Countries: France/Austria
This moral and cinematic tour de force from the creator of SHOAH will cause you to reconsider your understanding of Adolph Eichmann and of Benjamin Murmelstein, the last Jewish elder of Theresienstadt and the film’s central figure.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) (2013) 120min
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Country: Japan
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s sensitive drama takes a close look at two families’ radically different approaches to the horribly painful realization that the sons they have raised as their own were switched at birth. A Sundance Selects release.

THE MISSING PICTURE (L’image manquante) (2013) 92min
Director: Rithy Panh
Country: Cambodia
Filmmaker Rithy Panh’s brave new film revisits his memories of four years spent under the Khmer Rouge and the destruction of his family and his culture; without a single memento left behind, he creates his “missing images” with narration and painstakingly executed dioramas. A Strand release.

MY NAME IS HMMM… (Je m’appelle Hmmm…) (2013) 121min

Director: agnès B
Country: France
In this deeply personal, incandescent first feature from designer agnès B, a young girl holding her family together and bearing the weight of sexual abuse runs away from home and enjoys a carefree idyll with a kindly Scottish trucker.

NEBRASKA (2013) 115min
Director: Alexander Payne
Country: USA
This masterful film from Alexander Payne, about a quiet old man (Bruce Dern) whose mild-mannered son (Will Forte) agrees to drive him from Montana to Nebraska to claim a non-existent prize, shades from the comic to multiple hues of melancholy and regret. A Paramount Pictures release.

NOBODY’S DAUGHTER HAEWON (Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon) (2013) 90min
Director: Hong Sang-soo
Country: South Korea
A young student at loose ends after her mother moves to America tries to define herself one encounter and experience at a time, in reality and in dreams, in another deceptively simple chamber-piece from South Korean master Hong Sang-soo.

NORTH, THE END OF HISTORY (Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan) (2013) 250min

Director: Lav Diaz
Country: Philippines
Filipino director Lav Diaz’s twelfth feature – at four-plus hours, one of his shortest – is a careful rethinking of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, with a tortured anti-hero who is a haunting embodiment of the dead ends of ideology.

OMAR (2013) 96min
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Country: Palestinian Territories
A tense, gripping, ticking clock thriller about betrayal, suspected and real, in the Occupied Territories, from Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now).

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (2013) 123min

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Country: USA
Jim Jarmusch’s wry, tender and moving take on the vampire genre features Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as a centuries-old couple who watch time go by from separate continents as they reflect on the ever-changing world around them. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (2013)
Director: Ben Stiller
Country: USA
Ben Stiller stars in and directs this sweet, globe-trotting (but New York-based) comic fable about an up-to-the-minute everyman, co-starring Kristen Wiig as the woman of his dreams, Sean Penn as a legendary photographer and Shirley MacLaine as Walter’s mother. A Twentieth Century Fox release.

THE SQUARE (2013) 104min
Director: Jehane Noujaim
Country: USA/Egypt
Jehane Noujaim’s tense, vivid verité portrait of events as they unfolded in Tahrir Square through Arab Spring and beyond, in a newly revised, up-to-the-minute version.

STRANGER BY THE LAKE (L’Inconnu du lac) (2013) 97min

Director: Alain Guiraudie
Country: France
Alain Guiraudie’s lethally precise, sexually explicit film, which unfolds entirely in the vicinity of a gay cruising ground, is both a no-holds-barred depiction of a hedonistic subculture and a perverse and unnerving tale of amour fou. A Strand release.
Please be advised that this film has scenes of a sexually explicit nature.

STRAY DOGS (Jiao You) (2013) 138min
Director: Tsai Ming-liang
Country: Taiwan/France
Tsai Ming-liang’s fable of a homeless family living the cruelest of existences on the ragged edges of the modern world is bracingly pure in its anger and its compassion, and as visually powerful as it is emotionally overwhelming.

A TOUCH OF SIN (Tian Zhu Ding) (2013) 133min

Director: Jia Zhangke
Country: China
Jia Zhangke’s bloody, bitter new film builds a portrait of modern-day China in the midst of rapid and convulsive change through four overlapping stories of marginalized and oppressed citizens pushed to murderous rage. A Kino Lorber release.

LE WEEK-END (2013) 93min
Director: Roger Michell
Country: UK
A magically buoyant, bittersweet comedy drama about a middle-aged and middle class English couple who go to Paris for a weekend holiday, starring two of Britain’s national treasures, Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan. A Music Box Films release.

WHEN EVENING FALLS ON BUCHAREST OR METABOLISM (2013) 89min

Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
Countries: Romania/France
A rigorously structured and fascinatingly oblique new film from Corneliu Porumboiu that examines the life of a film director during the moments on a shoot when the camera isn’t rolling.

THE WIND RISES (Kaze Tachinu) (2013) 126min
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Country: Japan
The great Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s new film is based on the life of Jiro Hirokoshi, the man who designed the Zero fighter. An elliptical historical narrative, THE WIND RISES is also a visionary cinematic poem about the fragility of humanity.

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Milwaukee Film Festival Announced Line-up for 2013 Rated K: For Kids Program

Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda

The Milwaukee Film Festival announced the line-up for its Rated K: For Kids program, formerly known as the Milwaukee Children’s Film Festival. According to the festival, Rated K will continue to present the best international children’s films for ages 3-12 years. Rated K: For Kids will feature four feature-length films, including a 25th anniversary screening of children’s classic THE LAND BEFORE TIME, and three of “the best international features on the children’s film festival circuit.” Rated K also features three separate short film showcases, programmed for age-specific audiences: Size Small (ages 3+), Size Medium (ages 6+), and Size Large (ages 10+).

RATED K: FOR KIDS LINE-UP:

THE LAND BEFORE TIME
(USA, Ireland / 1988 / Director: Don Bluth)

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZA41HbwPLs
The plucky young Apatosaurus Littlefoot must find the life-supporting, plant-filled Great Valley after his homeland is destroyed by an earthquake and a frightening battle that leaves him orphaned. Along the way he’s joined by fellow dino-kids Cera, Petrie, Ducky and Spike, and these decidedly different species of dinosaurs learn the value of teamwork and diversity as they brave the dangerous journey toward a new beginning. This 35 mm screening provides the perfect chance for 20- to 30-somethings to revisit a childhood favorite (celebrating its 25th anniversary!) or to introduce its handmade charms (Don Bluth’s superb animation) to an entirely new generation.

TAKING CHANCES
(Netherlands, Belgium / 2011 / Director: Nicole van Kilsdonk)
Trailer: n/a
When Kiek, a spunky and fearless young lady often found astride her skateboard, learns her father is being sent to a war zone to deliver medical aid, she can’t help but worry. Sure, he’s not actually fighting in the war itself, but accidents happen, and Kiek feels she has to take measures in order to ensure his safety. Immersed in the logic of a child coping with the effects of war on her family, Taking Chances includes tense scenes surrounding potential deaths of a mouse and a family dog (much of which is done through cheeky animation), but it is perfect viewing for older, imaginative kids. Subtitles will not be read aloud.

WOLF CHILDREN
(Japan / 2012 / Director: Mamoru Hosoda)
Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns8PWyfEz60
The latest flight of fancy from Mamoru Hosoda ( Summer Wars), this English-dubbed anime tells the tale of Hana, a woman who falls in love and forms a unique family with a man able to shape-shift between man and wolf. Tragedy leads Hana to take her children to the Japanese countryside, all the better for two kids who frequently transform into woodland creatures. A lyrical, gentle tale of children learning to fit in despite their differences (even if theirs are furrier than most!), Hosoda’s tale of family ties is imbued with a natural wonder and sense of the fantastic impossible to resist.

ZARAFA
(France / 2012 / Directors: Rémi Bezançon, Jean-Christophe Lie)
Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSdlenkDEc

Young Maki has escaped the grasp of evil slave-traders when he forms an unbreakable bond with the orphaned giraffe Zarafa. He’s swept up in a globe-trotting adventure in order to bring his beloved giraffe back home, meeting a female pirate and hot-air balloonist along the way. Based on the true story of the Paris Zoo’s first giraffe, Zarafa is a tale of bravery and loyalty that doesn’t shy away from engaging with dramatic historical issues such as racism and colonialism but whose positive message and sweet conclusion (not to mention gorgeous 2-D animation) will satisfy both adventurous and sensitive young viewers. Subtitles will be read aloud.

Kids Shorts: Size Small
This all-ages, all-animated lineup of short films is guaranteed to delight viewers young and old, with the final installment of Mo Willems’ Knuffle Bunny (MFF 2010) series and an adaptation of Madison-based Kevin Henkes’ Caldecott-winning story Kitten’s First Full Moon counted among its diverse animation styles. These colorful bursts of energy are perfect for the whole family. Subtitles will be read aloud.

Aston’s Presents (Sweden / 2012 / Directors: Uzi Geffenblad, Lotta Geffenblad)
Choir Tour (Latvia / 2012 / Director: Edmunds Jansons)
Chopin’s Drawings (USA / 2011 / Director: Dorota Kobiela)
Eskimal (Mexico / 2011 / Director: Homero Ramirez Tena)
How Shammies Guessed (Latvia / 2012 / Director: Edmunds Jansons)
Kitten’s First Full Moon (USA / 2011 / Director: Gary McGivney)
Knuffle Bunny Free (USA / 2012 / Director: Karen Villarreal)
The Little Bird and the Leaf (Switzerland / 2012 / Director: Lena Von Döhren)
Mira’s Night (USA / 2011 / Director: Elyse Kelly)
A Tangled Tale (USA / 2013 / Director: Corrie Francis Parks)

Kids Shorts: Size Medium
A mix of live-action and animation highlights the Size Medium program, packed with shorts celebrating the logic and wonder that can only be examined through a child’s perspective. Andrea Dorfman (MFF 2011) returns with her puppet stop-motion tale Big Mouth, one of many shorts that deal with common issues like bullying and taking care of the environment. Subtitles will be read aloud.

Big Mouth (Canada / 2012 / Director: Andrea Dorfman)
Boris the Rat Dresses Warmly (Finland / 2012 / Directors: Kaisa Penttilä, Leena Jääskeläinen)
Chinti (Russia / 2012 / Director: Natalia Mirzoyan)
Colosse – A Wood Tale (USA / 2012 / Director: Yves Geleyn)
The Fox and the Chickadee (Canada / 2012 / Director: Evan Derushie)
Frog Weather (Germany / 2011 / Director: Pauline Kortmann)
Jonah and the Crab (USA / 2012 / Director: Laurel Cohen)
My First Spellbook (Scotland / 2011 / Director: Gavin Laing)
Paulie (USA / 2012 / Director: Andrew Nackman)
Shame and Glasses (Italy / 2013 / Director: Alessandro Riconda)
Wing (Denmark / 2011 / Directors: Asger Grevil, Mette Vestergaard Madsen)

Kids Shorts: Size Large
This batch of shorts for the older kids (10+) deals with social and historical issues such as divorce and racism, but with a hopeful, lighthearted touch — perhaps none more so than MFF favorites The Rauch Brothers returning with Eyes on the Stars, a tribute to the second African-American man to reach outer space, Ronald E. McNair. Subtitles will not be read aloud.

Bot (USA / 2010 / Director: Mustafa Lazkani)
Eyes on the Stars (USA / 2012 / Director: The Rauch Brothers)
A Girl Named Elastika (Canada / 2012 / Director: Guillaume Blanchet)
High Noon (Venezuela / 2013 / Director: Ivan Mazza)
I’m Going to Mum’s (New Zealand / 2012 / Director: Lauren Jackson)
Krake (Germany / 2012 / Director: Regina Welker)
The Maiden and the Princess (USA / 2011 / Director: Ali Scher)
Monster, Me (USA / 2013 / Director: Milt Klingensmith)
Song of the Spindle (USA / 2011 / Director: Drew Christie)
Sounds for Mazin (Netherlands / 2012 / Director: Ingrid Kamerling)
Turning a Corner (USA / 2012 / Director: David B. Levy)
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‘ANOTHER HOUSE’ to Open, ‘ADORE’ to Close 37th Montreal World Film Festival

L’AUTRE MAISON (ANOTHER HOUSE)

L’AUTRE MAISON (ANOTHER HOUSE), the first fiction feature by Quebec director Mathieu Roy (Surviving Progress) will open the 37th Montreal World Film Festival on August 22, and ADORE the new film by French director Anne Fontaine, will close the festival on September 2. The Montreal World Film Festival will be held August 22 to September 2, 2013.

ANOTHER HOUSE stars Marcel Sabourin in the role of the father, Roy Dupuis in the role of Gabriel, the jet-setting reporter, Émile Proulx-Cloutier in the role of Eric, the pilot in training, and Florence Blain in the role of Maia. The film also features French actress Julie Gayet and the Senegalese musician Zal Sisshoko.

Henri Bernard, 86, suffers from memory loss and periodically escapes from his house in search of a more comfortable one. His two sons, Gabriel, a war reporter, and Éric, a pilot-in-training, disagree on how to deal with their father’s condition. However, the two brothers will have to renew the ties that bind them in order to accompany their father to the enigmatic destination he’s looking for.

ADORE

Set in Australia and starring Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, James Frecheville and Xavier Samuel, ADORE was scripted by Christopher Hampton, winner of the best screenplay Oscar in 1988 for Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons.

Roz and Lil are the best of friends, and have been since childhood, growing up as neighbors in an idyllic beach town. As adults, their teenaged sons have developed a friendship as strong as that which binds their mothers. One perfect summer the boys, along with their mothers, are confronted by the simmering emotions that have been mounting between them… Afraid of facing the ire and judgment of their insular seaside community, they continue the relationships in secret over the years. Once the affairs are discovered, the revelation threatens to tear apart their lives and those of the young men, who must eventually choose between following a well-worn path or their true desires.

“The short novel (The Grandmothers) by Doris Lessing from which my film was adapted,” explained Ms. Fontaine, “contains everything I like to develop: an ambiguous and strange love story, a contained universe that is yet open to the world, and the opportunity to push exceptional actors to plumb their deepest personal truths… I hope Canadian audiences, who I know to be open minded, will be sensitive to this portrait of particular passions.”

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19th Sarajevo Film Festival Opens Today, Friday August 16th with Film “AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER | TRAILER

AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER

The 19th Sarajevo Film Festival opened today, Friday, August 16, 2013, (thru August 24, 2013) with a ceremony at the National Theatre hosted by Bosnian-Herzegovinian actress Marija Pikić. The ceremony was followed by a screening of AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian director Danis Tanović. This latest film by Danis Tanović won the Silver Bear at the 63rd International Film Festival in Berlin. The film’s protagonist Nazif Mujić also received a Silver Bear. In addition to the two official awards, the film received a special mention by the Ecumenical Jury.

AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER is based on a true story and it deals with alienation and discrimination in contemporary Bosnian-Herzegovinian society. The film follows Nazif, who supports his family by gathering scrap metal. After his wife Senada is denied emergency treatment for a miscarriage, Nazif is ready to do everything in his power to save her life—desperately gathering more scrap metal and asking for help from non governmental and state institutions. In the following ten days, Nazif and Senada are fully exposed to the callousness of contemporary society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtFrHUktgP8
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Calgary International Film Festival Picks Comedy Film “THE GRAND SEDUCTION” to Kickoff 2013 Festival

The comedy film “THE GRAND SEDUCTION” has been selected to open 2013 Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) on Thursday, September 19, 2013. “The Grand Seduction is a laugh-out-loud comedy, and we’re overjoyed to present the Western Canadian premier of this major release. The film is a who’s who of talent from across Canada, from director Don McKellar and the incredible cast, to co-writer Michael Dowse, who is well known in Calgary and abroad for Fubar and others. Last year’s Opening Gala was the largest and most talked about in the festival’s history, and we look forward to an even bigger night this year.” – Steve Schroeder, Executive Director, The Calgary International Film Festival

THE GRAND SEDUCTION, a remake of Ken Scott’s 2001 film Le Grande Séduction (Seducing Doctor Lewis), we follow along as a small Newfoundland fishing town looks for a new lease on life. Plans for a lucrative factory contract in tiny Tickle Head are contingent on the town’s ability to secure a resident doctor—and none have jumped on board. Things are looking grim, until Murray French (Brendan Gleeson) concocts an elaborate scheme and enlists his neighbors to charm a big-city doctor (Taylor Kitsch) to stay behind.

The 11-day festival continues through to September 29, showing nearly 200 multi-genre films.
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‘GRAVITY’ ‘DIANA’ Among First Gala Premieres Announced for 9th Zurich Film Festival

The 9th Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) taking place from 26 September to 6 October 2013, announced its first Gala Premieres: GRAVITY by Alfonso Cuarón, DEVIL’S KNOT by Atom Egoyan, THE RAILWAY MAN by Jonathan Teplitzky, JOE by David Gordon Green, DIANA by Oliver Hirschbiegel, ALL IS LOST by JC Chandor and LE WEEKEND by Roger Michell.

GRAVITY
Alfonso Cuarón
In his latest work, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón ventures into the infinite realm of deep space in a film did is Already drawing comparison to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. In GRAVITY, Cuaron presents a production did pulls the audience into extraordinary spectacle of. The two astronauts Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) and Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), are on a space mission When a seemingly routine spacewalk turns into a disaster: The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Ryan and Matt completely alone, tethered to nothing but each and spiraling into complete blackness.

DEVIL’S KNOT
Atom Egoyan
Armenian-Canadian auteur filmmaker Atom Egoyan, is renowned for his powerful and haunting film-drama. Loss and mourning form two key aspects of his oeuvre – and therefore apply to his most recent work DEVIL’S KNOT. Based on true events, the story centers round the brutal murder of three children – so-called synthesis Memphis Murders kept the USA holding its breath in 1993. Three victims, all eight-year-old boy scouts are found naked and mutilated in a ditch in West Memphis. Rumours circulate soon did the children were murdered as part of satanic rituals. Three men are Suspected of committing the crime. Working for free for the defendants, private investigator Ron Lax (Colin Firth) goes in search of evidence to prove them innocent. Pam Hobbs (Reese Witherspoon), mother of one of the murdered boys, is Convinced the trio is guilty – until the first feelings of doubt surface.

THE RAILWAY MAN
Jonathan Teplitzky
THE RAILWAY MAN, by Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky, is the screen adaptation of an autobiographical novel of the same name by Eric Lomax: officer During the Second World War, this Scottish (Colin Firth) is captured by the Japanese and sent to a prisoner of was camp, where he is forced to work on the Thai-Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, after more than 100 000 victims perished during the laying of its tracks. Lomax survives but Continues to suffer the psychological trauma of his wartime experiences. Years later, Lomax, supported by his wife Patti (Nicole Kidman) and his best friend Finlay (Stellan Skarsgård), returns to the scene of his torture where he meets his former captor. Will this journey turn into a campaign of revenge – or wants Lomax finally manage to put his past and its ghosts to rest?

JOE
David Gordon Green
In the dirty unruly world of small-town Texas, ex-convict Joe Ransom (Nicolas Cage) has tried to put his dark past behind him and to live a simple life. He works for a lumber company by day, by night drinks. But When 15-year-old Gary (Tye Sheridan) – a kid trying to support his family – comes to town, desperate for work, Joe has found a way to atone for his sins – to finally be someone’s hero. As Joe tries to protect Gary, the pair will take the twisting road to redemption in the hope for a better life in this tough, hard-hitting but incredibly moving story.

Equally as overwhelming as it is gloomy, this is a beautifully filmed modern-day fairytale by Southern State Director Gordon Green (GEORGE WASHINGTON, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS) based on a 1991 novel of the same name by Larry Brown.

DIANA
Oliver Hirschbiegel
So is the highly anticipated biopic of one of the most popular royals of all time: Diana, Princess of Wales, played by Naomi Watts. Following the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles, Princess Diana finds her great love in the heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews). When this relationship collapses Following Following enormous media interest, Diana begins a new affair with Dodi Al-Fayed.

Approximately 15 years after her tragic accidental death in Paris, Oliver Hirschbiegel highlights Diana’s personal path to happiness and her commitment to humanitarian issues. DIANA is the portrait of a strong yet distraught woman balancing motherhood, her duties and her heart’s desires.

Hirschbiegel (DAS EXPERIMENT, THE DOWNFALL et al.) Attended the 2 ^nd Zurich Film Festival as a jury member and therefore presented FIVE MINUTES TO HEAVEN as a gala premiere here in 2009.

ALL IS LOST
JC Chandor
The one-man odyssey ALL IS LOST depicts the thrilling adventure of an experienced sailor (Robert Redford) cruising the Indian Ocean in his sailboat. A spectacular fight for survival begins Following Following a collision with a freight container. Despite his nautical skills and incredible will to survive, the skipper soon finds himself having to stare death in the eye.

Director of this gripping survival drama is Jeffrey C. Chandor, Whose Oscar-nominated MARGIN CALL production celebrated a gala premiere screening at the 7 ^th Zurich Film Festival.

LE WEEKEND
Roger Michell
LE WEEKEND is an accurate and humorous excursion into the nature of love, or more described precisely: How a long-married British couple attempt to rekindle Their love life. Played by Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan, the two Protagonists return to Paris for the first time since Their honeymoon. There They bump into a former colleague (Jeff Goldblum) who turns Their Lives upsidedown. LE WEEKEND is a captivating and enjoyable celebration of big emotions set before the mundane backdrop of the City of Lights and directed by Roger Michell (NOTTING HILL, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON).

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WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL? by Sono Sion Among 15 Films from 70th Venice International Film Festival to Screen Online

JIGOKU DE NAZE WARUI (WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL?) by Sono Sion

12 feature-length films from the Orizzonti section and 3 feature-length films from the brand-new Biennale College – Cinema from the 70th Venice International Film Festival will be available online as part of the Web Theatre program, at the same time as they are screening at the festival which runs 28 August – 7 September 2013.

The films at the Web Theatre

Orizzonti

WOLFSKINDER (WOLFSCHILDREN) by Rick Ostermann (Germany, 91’)
Germany, World War II. Several orphans from Eastern Prussia organize their survival, hiding from the Soviet occupiers, living in abandoned sites. One of thesewolf children is Hans, who is searching for his lost little brother. Rick Ostermann is a German director who made his debut in 2009 with the short film Still,but has brought his first feature-length film here to the 70th Venice International Film Festival. He has been an assistant director for many years in both television and film productions.

JIGOKU DE NAZE WARUI (WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL?) by Sono Sion (Japan, 126’)
Muto is a gangster who wants to make his daughter Mitsuko’s dream come true: to act in a movie. Ikegami is Muto’s rival and enemy, but he falls in love with Mitsuko thereby triggering a series of violent and bizarre situations for an action movie reminiscent of Kill Bill, written by the director when he was barely fifteen years old. Sono Sion is a Japanese director, poet and composer. He has made important films and in 2010 came to the 67th Venice International Film Festival for the first time with Tsumetai nettaigyo (Cold Fish). The following year he returned to present Himizu, which won the “Marcello Mastroianni” prize, awarded to Fumi Nikaidô and Shôta Sometani.

ALGUNAS CHICAS by Santiago Palavecino (Argentina, 100’)
With her marriage on the rocks, Celina goes to visit an old friend. Her attention immediately shifts to Paula, the friend’s adopted daughter, who apparently attempted suicide and nothing has been heard from her since… A mystery, suspended between reality and nightmare. SantiagoPalavecino, born in 1974, made several short films before shooting his first feature-length film, Otra vuelta, in 2002, which was presented in the Atelier section of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2011 he made La vida nueva. Algunas Chicas is his fourth feature-length film.

PICCOLA PATRIA by Alessandro Rossetto (Italy, 100’)
In the ambitious and petty atmosphere of north-eastern Italy, young Luisa blackmails Menon on sexual grounds. The situation is further complicated by the friendship between Menon and Luisa’s father, forever ruining the relationship between the protagonists. Alessandro Rossetto was born in Padua, and studied documentary filmmaking in Paris. He is known for his film Chiusura dedicated to the people that drift around his mother’s hairdresser’s shop and The Colony.

JE M’APPELLE HMMM… by Agnès B. (France, 120’)
Céline is eleven years old and has run away from an incestuous father. In her wanderings she meets Peter, 45 years old, a man deeply hurt by the loss of his wife and daughter. He will give himself completely to Céline, restoring the girl’s will to live and her carefree childhood. Agnes B. is a French fashion designer, artist and director. In 2012 she was one of the producers of Spring Breakersin competition at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. Her debut film was the short film Une sorte de journal video. In Venice this year she is presenting her first feature-length film.

MEDEAS by Andrea Pallaoro (USA, Italy, 98’)
The film is a lyrical exploration of a particular family situation and the human relationships within it. Devoid of any moral judgment, the eye of the director studies the boundaries of human behaviour and explores how far an inpidual can go, driven by love and the spirit of survival. AndreaPallaoro was born in Trento but at the age of 17 moved to California to study filmmaking. His short film Wunderkammer was presented at the Sundance Film Festival. This year he brings his first feature-length film to the Orizzonti section.

RUIN by Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Michael Cody (Australia, 90’)
Phirun is 19 years old and lives in Phnom Penh. One day he is accused of theft and involuntarily injures his employer. Phirun escapes and during his flight, he meets Sovanna; a powerful bond grows between the two of them, and develops into love. Amiel Courtin-Wilson is Australian, and made his debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000 with Chasing Buddha; since then he has made many films, screened at the major film festivals. In 2011 he directed Hail, presented at the 68th Venice International Film Festival in the Orizzonti section. Michael Cody, producer, director and screenwriter, has often collaborated with Courtin-Wilson and now they are back together with Ruin.

LA VIDA DESPUÉS by David Pablos (Mexico, 90’)
Two brothers, Samuel and Rodrigo, live with their mother in a suburban town. One day the mother, who has mental health problems, disappears leaving nothing behind but a note. David Pablos is a young Mexican filmmaker, born in 1982. His first short film, El mundo al atardecer, was made in 2007. La canción de los niños muertos (2008) was his second short film; he presented his first feature-length film Una frontera, todas las fronteras (2010) at the Berlinale Talent Campus before coming to Venice with his second film, La vida despues, for the 70th Venice International Film Festival.

EASTERN BOYS by Robin Campillo (France, 128’)
Gare du Nord, Paris. Young men from Eastern Europe spend all day at the station where it appears that they engage in prostitution. A fifty-year old man, Muller, sets his eyes on one of them, Marek, and invites him to his home the next day. A trap has been set for him there. Robin Campillo is a French filmmaker who has collaborated for years, first as an editor and then as a co-author for the screenplay, with director Laurent Cantet. He made his debut as a director in 2005 with Les revenants and he now brings his second feature-length film to the Venice Film Festival.

BAUYR (LITTLE BROTHER) by Serik Aprymov (Kazakhstan, 95’)
Yerken is nine years old and lives alone in a remote village in the mountains. When his older brother returns after a long absence, the young boy’s heart leaps with joy. But it doesn’t last long, his older brother has become a cold and heartless person… Serik Aprymov was born in 1960 in Kazakhstan and studied film at the Moscow Film School (VGIK). Along with other young directors from his country, he became part of the “new wave” of Kazakh cinema. At the Locarno Film Festival in 2004, he presented Okhotnik (The Hunter), in which a young boy suffers the contrast between the traditions of his people now on the decline and the progress of an increasingly urbanized new society.

LA PRIMA NEVE by Andrea Segre (Italy, 104’)
Michele is eleven years old and lives in a small town in the mountains of Trento, with his mother and his paternal grandfather Pietro; his father has recently died. The boy’s pain meets that of Dani, a boy from Togo, who is a total ‘stranger’ to that place covered in snow which he has never seen before in his life.Andrea Segre, born in 1976, is a director who has made many prestigious works. He has participated several times in the Venice Film Festival, in particular in the 68th Festival with Io son Li (2011) and in the 69th Festival with Mare Chiuso (2012), a Special Event.

MAHI VA GORBEH (FISH & CAT) by Shahram Mokri (Iran, 134’)
While camping in the Caspian region, some students end up sharing a cabin with three cooks. The latter are looking for meat for their restaurant, but the only meat there is on the students themselves. This film is shot in a single long take based on a true story. Shahram Mokri is a young Iranian director, born in 1977. He studied filmmaking at Teheran’s Soureh College. He made his directorial debut in 2009 with Ashkan, angoshtar-e motebarek va dastan-haye digar (Ashkan, the Charmed Ring and Other Stories), a film in which two blind men plan a robbery with the help of Ashkan, who wants to kill himself.

Biennale College – Cinema

YURI ESPOSITO by Alessio Fava (director) and Max Chicco (producer) (Italiy, 73’)
Yuri Esposito is a man whose slowness pervades every action in his life and comes to constitute its essence, but his perennial lethargy is challenged by a surprise paternity. Alessio Fava was born in 1976 in Turin where he studied at the Accademia Internazionale di Arti e Media before attending the Scuola d’Arte Cinematografica in Genoa. In 2012 he made his first short film Project Genesis, an ironic film set in the future in which, reversing the stereotypes of this genre, the machines give life to human beings, whom they use for their own personal enjoyment.

MEMPHIS byTim Sutton (director) and John Baker (producer) (USA, 84’)
Ezra Jack is a soul-blues singer looking for spiritual salvation. He lives in Memphis, a decadent city immersed in music. This is where Ezra hopes to bring his personal renaissance to term. Timothy Sutton is a filmmaker from Brooklyn. He made his directorial debut in 2012 with Pavilion, which follows a laconic adolescent as he travels from a peaceful lakefront town to his father’s home in the arid state of Arizona. A film that describes adolescence as a period of great creativity, while underlining the fragility that goes with it.

MARY IS HAPPY, MARY IS HAPPY by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director) and Aditya Assarat (producer) (Thailand, 125’)
Mary is a student in her last year of high school. She will be graduating in a few months, and must address the changes in her life, love and friendships. In the meantime, strange things start to happen without any apparent reason. The girl tries to make sense of it all at a moment in which her life seems to be spiraling out of control. NawapolThamrongrattanarit is from Thailand but studied filmmaking in China. In 2002 he made his first feature-length film 36,and this year presents his second film at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, thanks to the first edition of Biennale College – Cinema.
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Hollywood Black Film Festival Announces 2013 Lineup

The 13th Hollywood Black Film Festival scheduled to take place October 2 – 6, 2013, announced the lineup of Official Selections which includes 2 Features, 38 Shorts, 11 Student Films, 7 Docs and 2 Web Series. Features on the lineup include HARD TIME BUS directed by Dean Charles and THY WILL BE DONE directed by Albert Johnson.

HARD TIME BUS, is the story of Mark Bishop, who after a rude awakening, his carefree womanising lifestyle, comes crashing back to reality, forcing him to make hasty plans to marry devoted girlfriend, Denise. His decision opens his eyes to the life he lead and the friends he thought he knew, but will the years of complacency finally catch up with him before he makes it to the alter.”

In THY WILL BE DONE, an ex-pastor, whose church was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, loses his faith and becomes a homeless wanderer. After surviving a near death experience, he mysteriously awakens in a church that is in desperate need of a pastor..

FEATURES

Hard Time Bus
Writer: Owen Mowatt – Director: Dean Charles

THY Will Be Done
Writer/Director: Albert Johnson

SHORTS

’00:03:00 THRILLER’
Writer: Teri Woods – Director: Dupuy Fatal III

Anger Mis Manangement
Writer/Director: Jorge Sanchez

Bored of the Rings
Writer/Director: Rashim Cannad

Charity Case
Writer: Jerod Brennen – Director: Jenn Shaw

Clean Teeth Wednesdays
Writer/Director: Catherine Bruhier

Colored My Mind
Writer/Director: Nia Hill

Descent of a Superstar
Writer: Alexander McCoy-Smith – Director: Omari Matlock

Faux Pas
Writer: Aaron Coats – Director: Raphael Nash

Finding Our Voice
Writer/Director: Daniel Lir

Five Dollars
Writer: Chris Cromie – Director: Reza Dahya

Free.Lunch
Writer/Director: Ricky Horne

If I Were A Bell
Writer/Director: Sherese Robinson Lee

Lil Tokyo Reporter
Writer/Director: Jeffrey Chin

Living & Loving In The Moment
Writer/Director: Jonathan A. Lewis

Lou’s Prey
Writer/Director: Juan Davis

Lunch with Jeremiah
Writer: Elijah Rock – Director: Shelton Mack

Nameless
Writer/Director: Jacquin Deleon

One Night A Stranger
Writer/Director: Chris Strikes

Perfect Day
Writer/Director: Derrick L. Sanders

Prima Facie
Writer: David Tinsley/Story Michael Shahin – Director: David Tinsley

Ritechus Cry
Writer: Jacolby Percy/Co-Writer Byron Morris – Director: Jacolby Percy

Silhouettes
Writer/Director: Akil DuPont

Solace
Writer/Director: Tchaiko Omawale

Soul Mates
Writer/Director: Reginald Jackson

String of Light
Writer/Director: Asher Emmanuel

Sunday’s at Noon
Writer: Lyric Anderson/Co-Writer Tami Roman – Director: Karamuu Kush

The Bully
Writer/Director: Jamie Burton-Oare

The Bully
Writer/Director: Frederick Fields

The Coffers
Writer/Director: Eric Wilson

The Companion
Writer/Director: Dreka Shevon

The Silent Treatment
Writer/Director: Martine Jean

The Vacancy
Writer/Director: James Dinkins

The Watch
Writer/Director: Roger Franks

Troubled Man
Writer/Director: Aaron Lewis

Undefiled
Writer: Raykel Tolson – Director: Raykel Tolson/Co Director Jamall Crenshaw

Used to BE
Writer: John Calhoun – Director: Steve Toles

Victim Of Circumstance
Writer: Torrei Hart – Director: Zaahir Abdullah

Ying and Yang
Writer: Devere Rogers – Director: Kevin Darnell Walker

STUDENT

Beyond the Echo of the Drum
Writer/Director: Lori Webster

Death of a Wizard
Writer: Alex Thompson/Co Writer Sasha Whitaker – Director: Edward Varine

Dust
Writer/Director: ShaneBook

Fall Beats
Writer/Director: Misa Spencer

Girls Like Us! Part 1
Writer: Anike Bay – Director: Chan Smith / Co-Director: James McFarland

Hub-City
Writer/Director: McKinley Johnson

Jump
Writer/Director: Anthony Harper

Nigga… Nigga… NIGGA!
Writer/Director: Michael Blevins

Secrets For Strangers
Writer/Director: Boniquea Matthews

Southern Hospitality
Writer: Atoki Lleka – Director: Dennis Hodges

Tin
Writer/Director: Brandon Lake

DOCUMENTARIES

Adopted ID
Writer: Andrew Togobo – Director: Sonia Godding-Togobo

American Beatboxer
Writer/Director: Manauvskar Kublall

A Profile In Courage: Linda L. Smith
Writer/Director: Reginald Brown

In Search of the Black Knight
Writer/Director: Tamarat Makonnen

Prison Body – Freedom Soul: The Saga Of Robert Coney
Writer/Director: Richard Willis Jr

Step Up
Writer/Director: Noube Rateau

Take Us Home
Writer/Director: Aileen LeBlanc/Co-Director Orly Malessa

WEB SERIES

Life Coach Chronicles
Writer/Director: Freda Hobbs

Mommy Unsensored: Confessions of a Real Mom
Writer: Adrian Dukes/Charity Jordan/Keilana Franklin/Neil Maxwell/Shannon Byrd/Sonya Tate-Smith/Zoie Sykes/
Director: Christine Horn/Justin Jordan/David Kote/Nik Mynyon/Sharell Luckett/

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Second Wave of Films Announced for 2013 Fantastic Fest

BLUE RUIN

Fantastic Fest announced the second wave of programming for the ninth edition of Fantastic Fest, taking place September 19 – 26 at Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline in Austin, Texas. See below for descriptions of nineteen new World, North American & US premiere films at this year’s festival.

FIELD IN ENGLAND, A (England, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director – Ben Wheatley, 90 mins
During the British Civil War, when magic was science, an alchemist forces a group of deserters to help him locate buried treasure, and sends them all straight into the mouth of madness.

AFFLICTED (Canada, 2013)
US Premiere
Directors – Clif Prowse and Derek Lee, 85 mins
Derek and Clif, best friends documenting their journey across the world, are in for an unexpected adventure when one of them comes down with a sinister sickness.

ALMOST HUMAN (USA, 2013)
US Premiere
Director – Joe Begos, 80 mins
A man who disappeared under mysterious circumstances returns to wreak havoc upon a small town.

BLUE RUIN (USA, 2013)
US Premiere
Director – Jeremy Sauliner, 90 mins
A classic American revenge story, Blue Ruin follows a mysterious outsider whose quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.

COHERENCE (USA, 2013)
World Premiere
Director – James Ward Byrkit, 127 mins
On the night a comet is passing near Earth, a dinner party takes an odd turn. When the power goes out, eight friends discover that the only house on the street left with power also holds many secrets.

CONGRESS, THE (Israel, Germany, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director – Ari Folman, 122 mins
Robin Wright (playing herself) receives the last offer she’ll ever get from a Hollywood studio in Ari Folman’s adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s classic scifi novel, and his follow-up to WALTZ WITH BASHIR.

GOLDBERG AND EISENBERG (Israel, 2013)
World Premiere
Director – Oren Carmi, 91 mins
A psychopath develops a dangerous obsession with a schlubby computer programmer.

GRAND PIANO (Spain, 2013)
World Premiere
Director – Eugenio Mira, 90 mins
A renowned concert pianist (Elijah Wood) returns to the stage for one final performance, only to become the target of a sadistic cat-and-mouse game with a faceless sniper (John Cusack).

HENTAI KAMEN: FORBIDDEN SUPER HERO (Japan, 2013)
Texas Premiere
Director – Yuichi FUKUDA, 105 mins
A new hero has arisen in Japan: One with fishnet stockings, a mankini, and a pair of women’s panties over his face. When conventional justice fails, make way for the Hentai Kamen.

MARUYAMA THE MIDDLE SCHOOLER (Japan, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director – Kankuro Kudo, 119 mins
A middle school student prone to wild daydreams devotes his waking hours to stretching and flexibility exercises with the ultimate goal of one day being able to lick his own penis.

MIRAGE MEN (United Kingdom, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director – John Lundberg, 85 mins
A mind-scrambling documentary that posits that popular myths about the existence of UFOs originated from a disinformation campaign by the U.S. government.

O’APOSTOLO (Spain, 2013)
Texas Premiere
Director – Fernando Cortizo, 87 mins
Gothic legends are brought to life by gorgeous stop-motion animation in this adult fantasy film from Spain.

OUR HEROES DIED TONIGHT (France, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director – David Perrault, 94 mins
Freshly returned home from a stint in the French Foreign Legion, Victor finds work as a reluctantly villainous masked wrestler in this marvelously crafted ode to film noir from first-time director David Perrault.

PATRICK (Australia, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director – Mark Hartley, 95 mins
Nurse Kathy Jaquard didn’t expect a lot of trouble on the coma ward but she gets more than she can handle when she meets the telekinetic Patrick in Mark Hartley’s remake of the Ozsploitation classic.

PROXY (USA, 2013)
US Premiere
Director – Zack Parker, 120 mins
American director Zack Parker delivers an unexpected, nasty little thriller about a woman whose life spins out of control following an attack on her unborn child.

SEPTIC MAN (Canada, 2013)
World Premiere
Director – Jesse Thomas Cook, 83 mins
An erstwhile plumber undergoes a hideous transformation when trapped inside a septic tank and tormented by the bizarre residents of his town’s sewage treatment plant.

TALES FROM THE ORGAN TRADE (Canada, 2013)
Austin Premiere
Director – Ric Bienstock, 82 mins
David Cronenberg narrates this fascinating documentary about the secret world of international organ trafficking.

WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL (Japan, 2013)
US Premiere
Director – Sion Sono, 126 mins
Things get insanely bloody when an inspiring film troupe known as The Fuck Bombers collide with a yakuza boss who wants to make a movie with his daughter, in Fantastic Fest veteran Sion Sono’s (LOVE EXPOSURE; SUICIDE CLUB) latest.

WITCHING & BITCHING (Spain, 2013)
US Premiere
Director – Alex de la Iglesia, 120 mins
Hit Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia (THE LAST CIRCUS) returns to Fantastic Fest with a hilarious and gory tale of thieves who find themselves in over their heads when faced with a coven of bloodthirsty witches.
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