Film Festivals

Lineup Announced for Sundance’s First Ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival

BLUE CAPRICE directed by Alexandre Moors

The lineup of 10 feature films, 10 short films and related programming was announced today for the first-ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival, August 8-11, 2013 in Los Angeles. NEXT WEEKEND described as – an extension of the popular NEXT <=> section at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah – is a summer film festival presenting four days of screenings, parties and artist programs that celebrate the renegade spirit of independent filmmaking. As announced last week, NEXT WEEKEND will kick off with an outdoor screening of Chris Smith’s documentary American Movie and Mark Borchardt’s horror film Coven on August 8.

FEATIURE FILMS

12 O’CLOCK BOYS / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Lotfy Nathan) — Pug, a bright 13-year-old boy living on a dangerous, west-side block in Baltimore, dreams of joining the 12 O’Clock Boys – a notorious Urban dirt bike pack who invade the streets, popping wheelies and cruising at high speeds through traffic while clashing with police. (Documentary) LA PREMIERE

BLUE CAPRICE / U.S.A. (Director: Alexandre Moors, Screenwriters: R. F. I. Porto, Alexandre Moors) — An abandoned boy is lured to America and drawn into the shadow of a dangerous father figure in this film inspired by the real-life events that led to the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.Cast: Isaiah Washington, Tequan Richmond, Joey Lauren Adams, Tim Blake Nelson, Cassandra Freeman, Leo Fitzpatrick. LA PREMIERE

CUTIE AND THE BOXER / U.S.A. (Director: Zachary Heinzerling) — Over the course of the chaotic 40-year marriage between New York-based Japanese artists Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, their headstrong, yet complementary personalities form a graceful rumination on companionship, sacrifice and the creative spirit. (Documentary) LA PREMIERE

THE FOXY MERKINS / U.S.A. (Director: Madeleine Olnek, Screenwriters: Madeleine Olnek, Jackie Monahan, Lisa Haas) — Two lesbian hookers work the streets of New York. One is a down-on-her-luck newbie; the other is a beautiful – and straight – grifter who is an expert on picking up women. Together they face bargain-hunting housewives and double-dealing conservative women in this subversive buddy comedy.Cast: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Alex Karpovsky, Susan Ziegler, Sally Sockwell, Deb Margolin. WORLD PREMIERE

HOW TO BE A MAN / U.S.A. (Director: Chadd Harbold, Screenwriters: Bryan Gaynor, Chadd Harbold, Gavin McInnes) — When former comedian Mark is faced with a rare form of cancer, he hires an impressionable cameraman to document his crude and comical lessons on what it means to be a man for his unborn son. But when Mark nearly loses everything, he realizes he has the most to learn. Cast: Gavin McInnes, Liam Aiken, Paulo Costanzo, Megan Neuringer, Nigel DeFriez, Nicole Balsam. WORLD PREMIERE

IT FELT LIKE LOVE / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Eliza Hittman) — On the outskirts of Brooklyn, a 14-year-old’s sexual quest takes a dangerous turn when she pursues an older guy and tests the boundaries between obsession and love. Cast: Gina Piersanti, Giovanna Salimeni, Ronen Rubinstein, Jesse Cordasco, Nick Rosen, Case Prime. LA PREMIERE

NEWLYWEEDS / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Shaka King) — A Brooklyn repo-man and his globetrotting girlfriend forge an unlikely romance. But what should be a match made in stoner heaven turns into a love triangle gone awry in this dark ballad of chemical dependency — part coming of age romance, part hallucinatory adventure. Cast: Amari Cheatom, Trae Harris, Tone Tank, Colman Domingo, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Adrian Martinez. LA PREMIERE

STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS/ U.S.A. (Director: Sam Fleischner, Screenwriters: Rose Lichter-Marck, Micah Bloomberg) — When a young, autistic Mexican boy runs away from his undocumented family on the outskirts of New York City, he embarks on an 11-day odyssey in the city’s subway system, forcing his splintered family to reconcile their differences in order to bring him home. Cast: Andrea Suarez Paz, Jesus Sanchez-Velez, Azul Zorrilla, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Marsha Stephanie Blake. LA PREMIERE

A TEACHER / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Hannah Fidell) — A popular young high school teacher in a wealthy suburban Texas high school has an affair with one of her students. Her life begins to unravel as the relationship comes to an end.Cast: Lindsay Burdge, Will Brittain, Jennifer Prediger, Jonny Mars, Julie Phillips, Chris Doubek. LA PREMIERE

THIS IS MARTIN BONNER / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Chad Hartigan) — In this 2013 Sundance Film Festival award-winning film we discover two men, each searching in their quiet solitude to begin a new life amidst an unspoken need for encouragement and support. Cast: Paul Eenhoorn, Richmond Arquette, Sam Buchanan, Robert Longstreet, Demetrius Grosse. LA PREMIERE

SHORT FILMS

THE APOCALYPSE / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Andrew Zuchero) — Four uninspired friends try to come up with a terrific idea for how to spend their Saturday afternoon. Cast: Martin Starr, Ella Rae Peck, Kate Lyn Shiel, Benjamin Pike, Chanel Michaels, Duke Dlouhy.

THE CUB / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Riley Stearns) — Wolves make the best parents. Cast: Davey Johnson, Savannah Lathem, Mandy Olsen, Alexis McGraw. LA PREMIERE

THE EVENT / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Julia Pott, Screenwriter: Tom Chivers) — Love and a severed foot at the end of the world. Cast: Alex Britton, Laura Free.

K.I.T. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Michelle Morgan) — A guilt-ridden, but well-intentioned yuppie goes to great lengths to prove she is a decent person. Cast: Michelle Morgan, Stephanie Allynne, John F. Beach, Ryan Harrison, Jeff Grace. LA PREMIERE

#POSTMODEM / U.S.A. (Directors: Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva, Screenwriters: Lucas Leyva, Jillian Mayer) — A comedic, satirical, sci-fi pop-musical based on the theories of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists, this is the story of two Miami girls and how they deal with technological singularity, as told through a series of cinematic tweets. Cast: Jillian Mayer, Kayla De La Cerda, Arly Montes, Zoom Zoom, Jesse Miller, Shivers Thedog. LA PREMIERE

SERAPH / U.S.A. (Director: Dash Shaw, Screenwriters: John Cameron Mitchell, Dash Shaw) — Seraph is an animated short film about how a boy’s childhood scars his later life. LA PREMIERE

SOCIAL BUTTERFLY / France, U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Lauren Wolkstein) — When a 30-year-old American woman attends a teenage party in the South of France, guests wonder who she is and what she is doing there. Cast: Anna Margaret Hollyman, Camille Claris, Ulysse Grosjean.

A STORY FOR THE MODLINS / Spain (Director: Sergio Oksman, Screenwriters: Carlos Muguiro, Emilio Tomé, Sergio Oksman) — The tale of Elmer Modlin who, after appearing inRosemary’s Baby, fled with his family to a far-off country and shut himself away in a dark apartment for 30 years. LA PREMIERE

UNTIL THE QUIET COMES / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Kahlil Joseph) — Shot in the Nickerson Gardens housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles, this film deals with themes such as violence, camaraderie and spirituality, through the lens of magic-realism. Cast: Solomon Gibbs, Storyboard P.

WHAT DO WE HAVE IN OUR POCKETS? / U.S.A., Israel (Director: Goran Dukic, Screenwriters: Goran Dukic, based on a short story by Etgar Keret) — A most unusual love story unravels when the objects in a young man’s pockets come to life. Cast: Azazel Jacobs, Diaz Jacobs.
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Director Giuseppe Tornatore and Actor Geoffrey Rush Among Lineup of Guests for 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival

Academy Award winning Italian film director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore and actor Geoffrey Rush are among the lineup of international and local guests expected to attend the 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). Giuseppe Tornatore and Geoffrey Rush are set to visit Melbourne with the Italian film THE BEST OFFER. which stars MIFF Patron Geoffrey Rush, Donald Sutherland, Jim Sturgess and newcomer Sylvie Hoeks in a mystery drama set in a high-society world of art deals and closed doors.

The 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival(MIFF) will host a stellar lineup of international and local guests, spanning established auteurs, sporting idols, new faces in international cinema and a whole lot more.

Academy Award winning Italian film director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore(Cinema Paradiso) is set to visit Melbourne with the Italian box office smash, The Best Offer. Part of MIFF’s International Panorama program, The Best Offer, stars MIFF Patron Geoffrey Rush, Donald Sutherland, Jim Sturgess and newcomer Sylvie Hoeks in a mystery drama set in a high-society world of art deals and closed doors. Geoffrey Rush will join Giuseppe Tornatore at the Australian Premiere on Wednesday 31 July.

Melbourne will also play host to American rock band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, including acclaimed actor and front man of the band, Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream). Under the pseudonym Bartholomew Cubbins, Leto directs Artifact, which follows the band as they record their third album, providing an often Spinal Tap-esque insight into the realities of modern music. Also part of the Backbeat program are guests Maureen Gosling, director of This Ain’t No Mouse Music!, which traces one man’s obsession with the American South’s music, and Nathaniel Kohn, producer of Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker, an exploration of the life and music of the New Orleans piano legend.

Cannes Best Screenplay winner, director Jia Zhang-ke and actress Zhao Tao, will be in town to present A Touch of Sin, a confronting character-driven tale of modern China and the domestic conflict its newfound wealth has wrought. Accelerator alumnusAnthony Chen will return to Melbourne with this year’s Camera d’Or winner, Ilo Ilo, the stirring tale of a Singaporean family who take in a Filipino woman as a live-in maid. Also fresh from Cannes is the winner of the Un Certain Regard Directing Prize, Alain Guiraudie, with his steamy thriller Stranger by the Lake; and hot on the heels of Cannes, young German filmmaker Katrin Gebbe will be presenting her film Nothing Bad Can Happen, a harrowing tale of a vulnerable young Christian man.

The American contingent is strongly represented this year. Champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce will be in Melbourne to present the SXSW Audience Award-winning film The Crash Reel, which documents the rise and literal fall of his career, which was cut short at age 22 in a near-fatal crash. Also from the This Sporting Life section and jetting in from the US is Michelle Major who will present her directorial debut, Venus and Serena – a fascinating insight into the legendary athletes and sisters, Venus and Serena Williams. From the Next Gen program first-time filmmaker Marta Cunningham will be presenting her affecting documentary Valentine Road, about 14-year-old Brandon McInerney from Oxnard, California, who shot and killed his cross-dressing classmate, Lawrence King. Meanwhile indie filmmaker Matt Porterfield, will be in town to present I Used to be Darker – a striking picture of quotidian family dynamics and revelations which will screen in MIFF’s new spotlight, States of Play: American Independents.

Mark Albiston will be crossing the Tasman with his debut feature Shopping – a coming-of-age drama set in 1981 New Zealand and winner of the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury for Best Feature Film at this year’s Berlinale. Also set in New Zealand is Denmark-based director Daniel Joseph Borgman’s debut feature, The Weight of Elephants – a captivating exploration of childhood fragility. Daniel Joseph Borgman will be a guest of the festival and both films will screen in MIFF’s International Panorama program.

Other international guests include: Chilean actress Paulina García, whose standout performance in Gloria won her the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actress at this year’s Berlinale; Nicholas Bonner, co-director of Comrade Kim Goes Flying – a vivacious romantic comedy and extremely rare Western–North Korean co-production, screening in MIFF’s new spotlight, Juche Days: North Korea on Film; João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, who co-direct the audacious documentary hybrid The Last Time I Saw Macau, which screens in MIFF’s TeleScope: Visions from the EU program; and Axel Straschnoy, director of Kilpisjärvellä, which presents the Northern Lights as they are experienced by someone watching them from the ground. Kilpisjärvellä will screen as part of the Planetarium Fulldown Showcase, a special program of jaw-dropping fulldome screenings at the Melbourne Planetarium.

Former British Film Institute and London Film Festival Director Adrian Wootton returns exclusively to Melbourne for another series of his acclaimed Illustrated Film Talks, this year celebrating major icons of screen culture. The Adrian Wootton Talks Icons series runs from Thursday 1 – Sunday 4 August. Celebrated LA-based developer, writer and lecturer Wendall Thomas is also returning exclusively to Melbourne for more of her popular series unlocking the secrets of films’ script structure with a series of four standalone all-day seminars, running from Monday 29 July – Thursday 1 August.

MIFF will also host an array of leading Australian talent featured in this year’s festival program. Walking the red carpet on Saturday 3 August for the world premiere of this year’s Centrepiece Gala Tim Winton’s The Turning will be Tim Winton, Robert Connolly, Mia Wasikowska, Tony Ayres, Warwick Thornton, Rhys Graham, Hugo Weaving and producer Maggie Miles. Tim Winton’s The Turning is part of the 2013 MIFF Premiere Fund slate.

Australian thriller Patrick is another film from this year’s MIFF Premiere Fund that will have its world premiere on Saturday 27 July. Director Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood, MIFF ‘08) reinterprets the classic Aussie horror flick and will be attending alongside cast including Rachel Griffiths, Peta Sergeant, Damon Gameau, Jackson Gallagher, Simone Buchanan and producer Antony I. Ginnane. Other Premiere Fund guests include: writer/director Anna Broinowski (Forbidden Lie$, MIFF ‘07) and producer Lizzette Atkins, with the revolutionary film within a film, Aim High in Creation!, based on the creative manifesto by North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong-il; writer/director Rhys Graham (Words from the City, MIFF ‘07), who tells the story of four teens whose lives are forever scarred by tragedy in Galore, will be joined by cast members Lily Sullivan and Maya Stange and producer Philippa Campey; writer/director Lynn-Maree Milburn (Autoluminescent: Roland S Howard, MIFF ‘11), who shines the spotlight on local Catholic provocateur Father Bob Maguire in the documentary In Bob We Trust, will be joined by Father Bob Maguire, producerRichard Lowenstein and cinematographer Andrew de Groot; and writer/director Zak Hilditch, actor Nathan Phillips (Wolf Creek), rising star Angourie Rice and producerLiz Kearney will be in town to present the apocalyptic thriller These Final Hours.

Music lovers are in for a treat with a number of Australian talent attending this year’s festival including local punk rock band Cosmic Psychos and Matt Weston, the director of Cosmic Psychos: Blokes you can Trust, which charts the colourful three-decade history of the group; director Kaye Harrison with The Sunnyboy, a film about rock, redemption and the healing power of getting the band back together one last time; and director Juliet Lamont and documentary subject Nikki May with Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls, the insightful documentary of Burma’s first girl band.

MIFF’s home-grown contingent of guests continues with legendary surfer Wayne Lynch, the documentary subject of Uncharted Waters by director Craig Griffin, which follows Wayne’s career and the evolutionary influence he had on the sport. Director Kim Mordaunt will be in town to present the multi-award-winning feature, The Rocket, a heart-warming coming of age story set in war-ravaged Laos. Other Australian guests include Lawrence Johnston, director of Fallout about the untold story of Nevil Shute’s famed novel On The Beach and the film of the same name; Award-winning director Ivan Sen (Toomelah, MIFF 11), director of Australian thriller Mystery Road and cast members Aaron Pedersen, Jack Charles and Damian Walshe-Howling; Steve Ostrow, documentary subject of Continental, which explores the notorious venue that sparked a revolution and cemented its place in legend; Haydn Keenan, director of the extraordinary TV series Persons of Interest; Warwick Ross and David Roach, co-directors of Red Obsession which charts the modern fortunes of Bordeaux’s most famous export; Shannon Swan and Angelo Pricolo, co-directors of Lygon Street – Si Parla Italiano, the true story of Melbourne’s most iconic street, as told by the men and women who made it; and from the made-for-ABC-TV Nowhere Boys, by the prolific Matchbox Pictures, director Daina Reid and cast will attend the screening.

Melbourne International Film Festival runs 25 July – 11 August 2013.

via press release
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Keith Carradine Honored at Maine International Film Festival with Mid-Life Achievement Award

Award-winning actor, songwriter, and producer Keith Carradine was honored at this year’s Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) with the 2013 Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) Mid-Life Achievement Award. Carradine was presented with his award at the Monday, July 15 screening of Nashville. Carradine’s song for the film, “I’m Easy,” garnered both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Carradine can currently be seen, starring in AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS, which received the award for best cinematography at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and is featured at MIFF this year. “AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS” will be released on August 16, 2013.

Each year MIFF honors an individual who has made significant contributions to the art of cinema. Past winners include: Thelma Schoonmaker (Raging Bull, The Departed), Lili Taylor (I Shot Andy Warhol, Mystic Pizza), Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde), Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, Badlands), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), John Turturro (Miller’s Crossing, The Big Lebowski) , Ed Harris (Empire Falls, Pollack), Peter Fonda (Easy Rider), Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom), Jos Stelling (Duska), Walter Hill (The Warriors), and Bud Cort (Harold and Maude).
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African Diaspora International Film Festival – Washington D.C. to Feature 7 Films; Opens with D.C. Premiere of African Independence

AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE written, directed and produced by scholar, filmmaker and PBS History Detectives host, Professor Tukufu Zuberi.

The African Diaspora International Film Festival – Washington D.C. (ADIFF- DC) will celebrate its 7th anniversary in Washington D.C. from August 16 to 18, 2013 with a lineup of 7 films. The African Diaspora International Film Festival – D.C. will open with the Washington D.C. Premiere of AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE, an award-winning, feature-length documentary written, directed and produced by scholar, filmmaker and PBS History Detectives host, Professor Tukufu Zuberi.

AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE retraces the history of the independence movement throughout Africa using archival footage as well as interviews with such personalities as President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia,Hon. SamiaYaaba Nkrumah, daughter of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah- Ghana’s first President, President F.W. de Klerk of South Africa and many others.

ADIFF-D.C. will also present the Washington D.C. Premiere of award winning film from Senegal THE PIROGUE by Moussa Toure, official selection in the Un Certain Regard section of 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This powerful drama in which a group of 30 men and a woman sail to Europe in a pirogue, facing the sea and the possibility of never reaching their destination in exchange for the myth of a better life in Europe, was called by A.O. Scott of The New York Times “a remarkably clear-eyed, quietly ambitious film [that] deals with emotionally charged events matter-of-factly, rather than melodramatically.”

In collaboration with the Swiss Embassy, ADIFF will screen the Senegal/Switzerland/Luxembourg musical documentary RETURN TO GORÉE by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud which follows Senegalese musician and current Culture Minister of Senegal, Youssou N’Dour, as he recruits musicians to prepare for a concert on the Gorée Island that today symbolizes the slave trade and stands to honor its victims.

Also in the program is the Washington D.C. premiere screening of NISHAN, a new thriller set in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia about a young businesswoman who dreams of leaving Ethiopia to seek her fortune abroad. When her father mortgages the house to support her emigration, an unsigned document creates a disastrous domino effect in this thrilling feature debut by Ethiopian filmmaker Yidnekachew Shumete Desalegn.

Other films on the program include the Washington D.C. premiere showing of award-winning dance film from South Africa THE AFRICAN CYPHER and the presentation of German film OTOMO by Frieder Schlaich starring award-winning actor Isaach de Bankolé (Miami Vice, Casino Royal, Ghost Dog, The Way of the Samourai; Otomo; Chocolat) about the last 24 hours in the life of an African immigrant in Germany.

ADIFF Washington D.C. will close with the premiere screening of the Shakespeare play TANGO MCBETH by Philadelphia based independent filmmaker Nadine M. Patterson.
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Central Florida Film Festival Returns to Ocoee, Florida August 30 thru September 1

This year’s Central Florida Film Festival returns over the Labor Day weekend in Ocoee, Florida, running from Friday, August 30th thru Sunday, September 1st at the West Orange Cinemas. Horror ‘scream queen’ Felissa Rose and “Supernatural’s” Richard Speight Jr., are two of the Hollywood Celebrities expected to be in attendance.

CENFLO will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the horror cult classic, “SLEEPWAWAY CAMP,” which will screen on Saturday evening at 7:45 pm followed by a Question and Answer by the film’s star, Felissa Rose who will also pose for photos after the screening. Felissa played young Angela in the film that has also brought four sequels over the years.

Earlier on Saturday (1:00 pm) “Supernatural’s” Richard Speight Jr., will highlight a short series of films with his movie “America 101.” Richard will also perform a Question and Answer with two other filmmakers during the program.

image via Facebook
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WATCH Official Trailers for 2013 Rural Route Film Festival

BAIKONUR

Rural Route will screen what the festival describes as “4 of the BEST new independent films to the beautiful big screen” at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York City on August 3 and 4, 2013. The 4 films are TALL AS THE BAOBAB TREE directed by Jeremy Teicher, SALT directed by Diego Rougier, THE MOSUO SISTERS directed by Marlo Poras and BAIKONUR directed by Veit Helmer.

Festivial Official Trailer

http://youtu.be/6NAUxFILLdo

TALL AS THE BAOBAB TREE

http://youtu.be/og05DpepTi0

SALT

http://youtu.be/3GGtGu4DZuM

THE MOSUO SISTERS

http://youtu.be/1QT-e9e5siQ

BAIKONUR

http://youtu.be/_-90Pfde1rM
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“AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA” “A COMMON MAN” Win Top Awards at 2013 Madrid International Film Festival

AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA

AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA won the big prize at the 2013 Madrid International Film Festival, the Best Film of the Festival along with the award for Best Foreign Language Feature. Other winners include A COMMON MAN which won the awards for Best Feature Film, Best Director for Chandran Rutnam, and Best Lead Actor for Sir Ben Kingsley,

AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA is described as “Following the underhanded murder of Pancho Villa on the outskirts of Parral, Chihuahua, on July 20, 1923, the whole city mourned his death. The wake for the revolutionary hero was held in downtown Parral, at the Hidalgo Hotel, owned by Pancho Villa, by his closest collaborators and all sorts of admirers. Standing out among the mourners were the four women with whom Cillas was having intimate relationships at the time of his death, which made for an awkward confrontation. In a conversation with the past, Luz Corral, his first wife, recognized as such by both the Mexican and US governments, offers a review of Pancho Villa’s affairs of the heart- the high spirited general marries 18 times- and military and philosophical adventures, and goes into his unusual passion and hunger for life and justice in an intimate and human portrait of the Centaur of the North. As expected, the tension between the women grows and intensifies, with the personal interests of each of them coming to the fore, culmination in a dramatic surprise ending of communion in memory of Francisco Villa.”

A COMMON MAN

A COMMON MAN is a psychological thriller film starring Oscar Award winner Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross and directed by veteran film maker Chandran Rutnam. Set in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a mysterious man (Kingsley) has planted 5 bombs in the politically-scarred city that are set to explode unless four major terrorists are immediately released from prison. When he calls in his demands to the Deputy Inspector General of the Colombo Police Department (Cross), it sets in motion an ideological and deadly confrontation between the truth and duty.

The complete list of winners of 2013 Madrid International Film Festival

Best Film of the Festival
AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA
Lourdes Deschamps
Jorge Rubio Salazar
Juan Andres Bueno
Luz Maria Deschamps

Best Director
A COMMON MAN
Chandran Rutnam

Best Director of a Short Film
SOUTHERN DYSCOMFORT
Patrick McEveety

Best Director of a Foreign Film
COUNTING HAPPINESS
Venetia Evripiotou

Best Lead Actor
A COMMON MAN
Sir Ben Kingsley

Best Lead Actress
SONIA’S STORY
Alba Grigatti

Best Supporting Actor
ETERNITY
Ralph Johnson

Best Supporting Actress
BOLERO
Lucy Rayner

Jury Award
THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER
Michelle Mower

Best Feature Film
A COMMON MAN
Paul Mason
Manohan Nanayakkara
Radha Krishnan

Best Foreign Language Feature
AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA
Lourdes Deschampes
Jorge Rubio Salazar
Juan Andres Bueno
Luz Maria Deschamps

Best Original Screenplay of a Feature Film
BETSY & LEONARD
Luke Foster

Best Unproduced Script Based on a Drama
ARBAA HADARIM
Tamar Komem

Best Unproduced Script Based on a Novel
SICILIAN SECRETS
David Healey

New Star Scriptwriting Award
HOPES NOCTURNAL & THE ABYSS OF PAIN
David Sabbath

Best Unproduced Script Based on a Historical Drama
SCOTCH VERDICT
Suzanna Stroh

Best Unproduced Short Script
DATING ALFIE
Paul Ellington

Best Short Film
HEADS UP
Alex Merkin
Robert Krakovski
Ben Carlin

Best Editing of a Short Film
DATE IN TIME
Norman Hussey

Best Original Screenplay of a Short Film
HIDE & SEEK
Cecilia Rossiter

Best Foreign Language Short
PAIN STAKING
Adolfo Martinez Perez

Best Special Effects
THE SWALLOW TAILED PAPER
Francesca Mercandelli
Paolo Luiselli

Best Producer
SURKHAAB
Vivek Kumar
Barkha Madan

Best Soundtrack
IMBOLC
Jenny McCaffrey

Best Directing of a Feature Documentary
PROJECT CENSORED: THE MOVIE
Christopher Oscar
Doug Hecker

Best Directing of a Short Documentary
FROM QUEENS TO CAIRO
Sherif Sadek

Best Feature Documentary
COWBOY CHRISTMAS
H.D. Motyl

Best Editing of a Feature Documentary
RISING ABOVE THE BLUES: THE STORY OF JIMMY SCOTT
Yoon-ha Chang
Raif Kemper

Best Short Foreign Documentary
MEMOIRS OF A SCATTERBRAIN
Jan Thijssen

Best Editing of a Feature Film
ETERNITY
Nick Swinglehurst
Alex Galvin

Talented New Director
REVOLVE
Bryan Becker
Brandon Miradi

Best Cinematography
FAT CAT
Evgeny Sinelnikov

Best Short Documentary
DELTA 180: CHANGING LIVES IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
Anne Rayner

Best Music
DISSENT
Enrico Ascoli
Luigi Esposito

Best Makeup and Hair
ISN’T THIS LOVE?
Ioanna Sourmeli-Terzopoulou

Best Costume
THOSE CITY GIRLS
Suchismits Dasgupta

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2013 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival Announces Finalist Films

The popular Philippine indie festival Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival will be held on July 26 to August 4, 2013. 15 full length finalists/ filmmakers (10 new breed and 5 directors showcase) and 10 short films have been selected to be featured at the festival. The films in the New Breed Full Length Category will compete for the coveted Balanghai Award. Awards are also given in the Short Feature Category and the Directors Showcase.

The ten finalists in the NEW BREED CATEGORY are:

BABAGWA (Spider)
By Jason Paul Laxamana
An Internet scammer falls in love with a wealthy old maid while trying to swindle her using a fake Facebook profile.

DEBOSYON
By Alvin B. Yapan
Mando, a Bikolano devotee of Ina, Virgin of Peñafrancia, Patroness of Bikolandia, injures himself in the middle of the forest at the foot of the Mayon Volcano. He will be nursed back to health by a mysterious woman, Salome, living there. They will fall in love with each other. But when Mando invites her to come with him to the plains, Salome refuses, saying a curse prohibits her from leaving the forest. Salome holds a secret that will devastate Mando’s love for her. Mando relies on his devotion to the Virgin of Peñafrancia to lift the curse, making him realize just how inextricably linked are the virtues of love and faith.

INSTANT MOMMY
By Leo Abaya
In order to solve a personal predicament, Bechayda, a wardrobe assistant in TV commercials, pretends to be pregnant.

The film is one summer’s journey with her as she reaches the fateful decision amidst a highly visualized world where the video screen not only reigns supreme but is also the frame within which a usually unsuspecting public accesses the content of image-makers.

NUWEBE
By Joseph Israel M. Laban
Inspired by the actual story of one of the youngest mothers in Philippine history, NUWEBE follows the story of Krista who at the tender age of 9 got pregnant from the sexual abuse perpetrated by her own father. Her story is complex. Krista refuses to see herself as a victim. With an almost documentary style, NUWEBE follows Krista’s story as she demonstrates a level of resilience uncommon to her age. Her mother on the other hand is torn between her love for her child and her love for her husband.

PUROK 7
By Carlo Obispo
A countryside dramedy (drama-comedy) that follows the story of 14-year-old Diana and her younger brother who live by themselves after their mother went abroad and their father lived with another woman.

QUICK CHANGE
By Eduardo Roy Jr.
Life of Dorina a middle-aged transsexual looking for his niche amidst the complexities of the world he is in. This is a story of suffering, acceptance and hope.

REKORDER
By Mikhail Red
REKORDER tells the story of a former 1980’s film cameraman who now currently works as a movie pirate operating in present day Manila. He routinely smuggles a digital camcorder into movie theaters in order to illegally record films. One night he records something else… And the footage goes viral.

THE DIPLOMAT HOTEL
By Christopher Ad Castillo
Victoria Lansang is a popular news reporter who has been requested to mediate a hostage crisis. And in front of a national television audience, something horribly goes wrong and people are killed while Victoria suffers a mental breakdown.

A year later, she’s eager to get back into the game but the only assignment she can get is to do a documentary on the last night of The Diplomat Hotel in Baguio City, a crumbling and abandoned building infamously known for its bloody past and its hauntings and has carved a place in Philippine ghost lore.

Looking for redemption, she arrives there with her crew and they start filming. But as they get deeper into the night, the place starts to exert its will on them and they find out exactly what monstrous evil awaits at The Diplomat Hotel.

By daybreak, their lives will never be the same again.

TRANSIT
By Hannah Espia
TRANSIT begins and ends in an airport during a father and son’s transit flight from Tel Aviv to Manila. It tells the story of Moises, a Filipino single-dad working as a caregiver in Herzliya, Israel, who comes home to his son Joshua’s 4th birthday. It was on that day that Moises, together with their Filipino neighbors, Janet and her daughter Yael, find out that the Israeli government is going to deport children of foreign workers. Afraid of the new law, Moises and Janet decide to hide their children from the immigration police by making them stay inside the house.

DAVID F.
By Manny Palo
Black is scientifically the absence of color, but not all who see it are color-blind, figuratively.

David F. weaves three stories that take a look at the lineage of African Americans in the Philippines – from American soldiers in the Fil-Am war to the Amboys in the former Clark Airfield, and how we Pinoys take to them.

It begins with the Philippine-American war in the early 1900’s when two Filipinos want to get the reward money for capturing David Fagan, the African-American soldier who deserted the U.S. army to join the Filipino revolutionaries against the new colonizers. Another thread of the film takes a look at the life of a Filipina during the Japanese occupation before the return of General Douglas MacArthur in 1944 who gives birth to a baby that turns out to be black-skinned.

And then in contemporary times, a black gay impersonator in a comedy bar, whose father is an African American soldier based in Clark Air Base in Angeles City, tries to find his father who abandoned them.

In the course of history, the “F” in “David F.” may spell different levels of discrimination. But would we also admit that we Filipinos are bigots ourselves?

The ten finalists in the DIRECTORS SHOWCASE CATEGORY are:

AMOR y MUERTE
By Ces Evangelista
AMOR y MUERTE is an erotic 16th Century period drama; an examination of the initial encounter between the Indios (natives) and their colonizers (Spaniards) and their conflicting views on love, passion, religion and sexuality.

EXTRA
By Jeffrey Jeturian
EXTRA (A Bit Player) is a socio-realist drama-comedy film, which follows a seemingly usual day in the life of LOIDA MALABANAN (Vilma Santos) as she embarks on yet another shooting day of a soap opera as an extra. As the shoot goes on, we get a glimpse of the truth in the ruling system of the production as well as the exploitation on the marginalized laborers like her.

PORNO
By Adolfo B. Alix Jr.
Three souls, one explicit illusion. To find the ultimate joy in their empty lives. A safe haven, where passion and love mean humanity, ecstasy means enlightenment; and the soul is the ultimate arbiter of the truth.

SANA DATI
By Jerrold Tarog
Andrea Gonzaga has accepted her fate by agreeing to marry a man she does not love. But a few hours before her wedding, someone arrives to remind her of the true love she once had and lost. SANA DATI is a love story about bittersweet compromises and real- life decisions. It is the third part of Jerrold Tarog’s Camera Trilogy after CONFESSIONAL and MANGATYANAN.

THE LIARS
By Gil M. Portes
The Liars is the story of a journalist (Eloisa) whose expose’ of the truth results in life-changing consequences to a baseball team of poor boys. Inspired by a true story.

The ten finalists in the SHORT FILM CATEGORY are:

BAKAW by Ron Segismundo
Bakaw is a day in the life of a child who steals at the Navotas fishport.

KATAPUSANG LABOK by Aiess Athina E. Alonso
Katapusang Labok depicts the struggles of fishermen who must deal with environmental abuse and the effects of coral harvesting on their livelihood.

MISSING by Zig Madamba Dulay
Missing tackles the subject of forced disappearances.

ONANG by Jann Eric S. Tiglao
Onang is the classic tale of a young probinsyana who seeks her fortune in the big city.

PARA KAY AMA by Relyn A. Tan
Para kay Ama is about a young Chinese-Filipino girl who discovers she has a half-brother when she meets him on the last day of her father’s wake. <p”>PUKPOK by Joaquin Adrian M. Pantaleon
Pukpok is one adolescent’s transition to manhood as he hurdles a case characterized by excessive blood, superstition and a man with failing eyesight.

SA WAKAS by Ma. Veronica Santiago
Sa Wakas is a reflection on the bond of a father and daughter tested by cultural, political and religious hypocrisy.

TAYA by Philip Adrian Bontayam
Taya is about a 12-year-old boy who learns to play the game of life with a new set of friends. The film highlights how traditional Filipino games reflect the realities and disparities of our society.

THE HOUSEBAND’S WIFE by Paulo P. O’Hara
The Houseband’s Wife is an essay about a typical OFW family, with the OFW wife as breadwinner and the husband left in the Philippines to care for the children. Technology and the internet bridges the physical distance but shatters domestic harmony when the wife, on a Skype video call, sees a bra, not hers, hanging in the marital closet.

TUTOB by Kissza Mari V. Campano
Tutob begins when recent bombings in the region put authorities on alert. A mysterious, strange-looking native Maranao man dressed up in Muslim attire shows up. He is tasked to fetch a package from his boss’ contact. From a rural area in the mountains, he rides his motorcycle to the city to get the package. On his way back, he is stopped at an army checkpoint. Speaking Maranao, he says he doesn’t know what’s in the package, but the Visayan-speaking soldiers don’t understand him and insist on opening it.
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Documentary “AMERICAN MOVIE” and Horror Film “COVEN” to Kick Off First Ever NEXT WEEKEND Film Festival in LA

AMERICAN MOVIE

The first-ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival (an extension of the popular NEXT <=> section at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah) will be held August 8-11, 2013 at venues throughout Los Angeles. The festival will kick off with an outdoor screening of Chris Smith’s cult documentary AMERICAN MOVIE and Mark Borchardt’s horror film COVEN on August 8.

AMERICAN MOVIE (Director: Chris Smith) — Inspired by such films as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead, Mark Borchardt has been making movies since he was a teenager. He has all the passion and drive it takes; but what he sorely lacks is money. In a questionable business move, he decides to finish and peddle his short film, Coven, in order to finance his dream picture, Northwestern. (Documentary – 107 minutes)

American Movie premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. It was named by the New York Times as one of “The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.”

COVEN (Director and screenwriter: Mark Borchardt) — In COVEN – the short film whose production is chronicled inAmerican Movie – an alcohol/drug abuser re-examines his life until he nearly dies from an overdose. Then a friend convinces him to join a self-help group which turns out to be demonic. (36 minutes)
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New York Times’s Op-Docs is Looking For Documentary Filmmakers

Op-Docs, the New York Times’s editorial department’s forum for short opinionated documentaries is looking for opinionated documentary shorts (running 3 to 10 minutes), Documentary filmmakers in the United States are invited to apply for a new pitch opportunity at this year’s Camden International Film Festival (CIFF): The pitch will take place as part of the Camden International Film Festival’s Points North Documentary Forum running from September 26 – 29, 2013.

Six finalists will be selected to present their projects on stage in Camden, Maine, before a panel of judges from The New York Times (including the commissioning editor for opinion video, Jason Spingarn-Koff; Op-Docs coordinating producer Kathleen Lingo and series researcher Lindsay Crouse) and veteran Op-Docs filmmakers. This will be the first live video pitch event in North America for The New York Times. The event builds on the success of a recent Op-Docs pitch competition in England, at Sheffield Doc/Fest, which attracted more than 120 submissions.

Op-Docs is The New York Times’s editorial department’s forum for short opinionated documentaries, produced with wide creative latitude and a range of artistic styles, covering current affairs, contemporary life and historical subjects. Contributors range from Oscar winners (Errol Morris, Alex Gibney, Roger Ross Williams, Jessica Yu) to emerging filmmakers and artists. View the films at NYTimes.com/OpDocs.

The filmmaker with the winning pitch will have an opportunity to produce an Op-Doc video for The New York Times with a budget of $2,000 (USD). Subject to The New York Times’s approval, the documentary will premiere on NYTimes.com.

The deadline for entries is Friday, August 9, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. For more information and a link to the online application see Camden International Film Festival’s Points North Documentary Forum.

image via New York Times
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Rural Route Film Festival in Queens NYC Releases Full Line-Up for July 27 & Aug. 1-4

TALL AS THE BAOBAB TREE

The Rural Route Film Festival is back for 2013 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York City, and kicks off with a special July 27 environmental ‘Green’ screening of director Jared Fletcher’s “SOURLANDS” and will close with a Sunday night shorts party on August 4.

The film lineup for the 2013 Rural Route Film Festival includes some of what the festival describes as ‘the best-but-least-seen’ new indie features, such as a fairytale space romance on the Kazakh Steppe, a Chilean western, a touching Senegalese drama, and a documentary about sub-Himalayan sisters caught in the crunch of modern China.

Highlighted films include

Opening Night Film | NY Premiere SOURLANDS. Dir. Jared Flesher. 78min. Documentary. 2012. Sourlands, NJ.

“SOURLANDS” weaves a provocative tale of ecology, energy, and agriculture through a deep forest surrounded by the sprawling suburbs of New Jersey. It’s a rampaging deer herd, invasive plants, and wholesale habitat destruction threatening the local ecosystem. Farmers in the surrounding valley struggle against high land prices, high property taxes, and increasingly erratic weather patterns; a local entrepreneur struggles to find a market for his innovative clean-tech product. But pay close attention, and the challenges facing this community look a lot like the challenges facing ecosystems, farmers, and visionary entrepreneurs everywhere. The message of cautious hope presented in the film is just as universal: to start solving complicated environmental problems, we need to forgo quick fixes and start restoring the natural world – and people’s connection to it – from the forest floor up.

Director Jared Flesher is an award-winning reporter, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker. His articles have been published by The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Grist, The Huffington Post, The Columbia Journalism Review. His first feature documentary, The Farmer and the Horse, has aired more than 40 times on PBS and is distributed nationally by Chelsea Green Publishing and Passion River Productions.

TALL AS THE BAOBAB TREE. Dir. Jeremy Teicher. 82min. Narrative. 2012. Sinthiou Mbadane & Mbour, Thiès, Senegal.

Coumba and her little sister Debo are the first to leave their family’s remote West African village, where meals are prepared over open fires and water is drawn from wells, to attend school in the bustling city. But when an accident suddenly threatens their family’s survival, their father decides to sell 11-year-old Debo into an arranged marriage. Torn between loyalty to her elders and her dreams for the future, Coumba hatches a secret plan to rescue her young sister from a fate she did not choose.

“As Tall as the Baobab Tree” was shot on location by a U.S. director who did work in the same region two years earlier, receiving an Academy Award nomination for a piece in which he gave locals cameras to film their own stories. This is the first feature film in the Pulaar language, with a cast made up of local villagers playing roles that mirror their own lives: the two main characters are played by real-life sisters who actually are the first kids from their family to go to school. The actors’ improvisational approach culminates in a dramatic and uniquely authentic ensemble performance, with scenes often resulting in spontaneous truthful moments that blur the lines between fiction and reality. A highlight of this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival ‘Bright Futures’ section

SALT Dir. Diego Rougier. 112min. Narrative. 2011. Región de Tarapacá, Chile.

Sergio is a washed-up Spanish director, obsessed with making a western in Chile’s Atacama Desert (the driest place in the world). Producers in Barcelona tear his screenplay to shreds, sending him on a journey to northern Chile in search of the inspiration that will salvage his story. Once Sergio arrives, however, he is mistaken for the region’s long-lost gunslinger hero, pitting him up against thugs involved with ‘shady business’ across the Bolivian border. The local crime boss suddenly has an old score to settle with him, and apparently so does his attractive wife. Sergio will have a good script…if he leaves alive.

“SALT” is the journey of an author becoming his own character and his impossible return. This gorgeous widescreen film pays loving homage to Sergio Leone while playfully subverting the old school western genre in modern South America. Rougier’s feature film debut has been winning awards around the world, including Best Film at First Time Fest in NY earlier this year.

For the complete lineup, visit Rural Route Film Festival
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János Szász’s THE NOTEBOOK Wins GRAND PRIX – CRYSTAL GLOBE at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

THE NOTEBOOK (LE GRAND CAHIER / A nagy füzet ) directed by János Szász

THE NOTEBOOK (LE GRAND CAHIER / A NAGY FÜZET ) directed by János Szász won the GRAND PRIX – CRYSTAL GLOBE at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival which took place from June 28th to July 6th in Czech Republic. THE NOTEBOOK is described as a fascinating and hard-hitting adaptation of the controversial first novel by Hungarian writer Agota Kristof about 13-year-old twins forced to spend the last years of the Second World War with their cruel grandmother somewhere near the Hungarian border. A FIELD IN ENGLAND directed by Ben Wheatley was awarded the SPECIAL JURY PRIZE. In the film, which takes place in England during the Civil War, a group of men flee from a raging battle but they are captured and forced to take part in a hunt for treasure supposedly buried somewhere in a field. But before they start digging, they gobble up some strange-looking mushrooms and then everything goes ‘crazy.’

GRAND PRIX – CRYSTAL GLOBE (25 000 USD)
LE GRAND CAHIER / A NAGY FÜZET
Directed by: János Szász
Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, 2013

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE (15 000 USD)
A FIELD IN ENGLAND
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
United Kingdom, 2013

BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
Jan Hřebejk
for the film HONEYMOON / LÍBÁNKY
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2013

BEST ACTRESS AWARD
Amy Morton
for her role in the film BLUEBIRD
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

Louisa Krause
for her role in the film BLUEBIRD
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

Emily Meade
for her role in the film BLUEBIRD
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

Margo Martindale
for her role in the film BLUEBIRD
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

BEST ACTOR AWARD
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
for his role in the film XL
Directed by: Marteinn Þórsson
Iceland, 2013

SPECIAL MENTION
PAPUSZA
Directed by: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
Poland, 2013

EAST OF THE WEST – FILMS IN COMPETITION

EAST OF THE WEST AWARD (20 000 USD)
FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS / PŁYNĄCE WIEŻOWCE
Directed by: Tomasz Wasilewski
Poland, 2013

SPECIAL MENTION
MIRACLE / ZÁZRAK
Directed by: Juraj Lehotský
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, 2013

DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN COMPETITION

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM OVER 30 MINUTES LONG (5 000 USD)
PIPELINE / TRUBA
Directed by: Vitaly Manskiy
Russia, Germany, Czech Republic, 2013

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM UNDER 30 MINUTES LONG (5 000 USD)
BEACH BOY
Directed by: Emil Langballe
United Kingdom, 2013

SPECIAL MENTION
THE MANOR
Directed by: Shawney Cohen
Canada, 2013

FORUM OF INDEPENDENTS

INDEPENDENT CAMERA AWARD
THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE / LAS COSAS COMO SON
Directed by: Fernando Lavanderos
Chile, 2012

AUDIENCE AWARD
REVIVAL
Directed by: Alice Nellis
Czech Republic, 2013

CRYSTAL GLOBE FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD CINEMA

Theodor Pištěk
Czech Republic

Oliver Stone
USA

John Travolta
USA

FESTIVAL PRESIDENT´S AWARD

Vojtěch Jasný
Czech Republic

NON-STATUTORY AWARDS

AWARD OF INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI)
SHAME / STYD
Directed by: Yusup Razykov
Russia, 2013

THE ECUMENICAL JURY AWARD
BLUEBIRD
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012

FEDEORA AWARD
VELVET TERRORISTS / ZAMATOVÍ TERORISTI
Directed by: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík, Peter Kerekes
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Croatia, 2013

EUROPA CINEMAS LABEL AWARD
LE GRAND CAHIER / A NAGY FÜZET
Directed by: János Szász
Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, 2013
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