Celebrating France’s rich tradition as a pioneer of animation, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) presents the 2020 Animation First Festival, showcasing the vast history, enduring ingenuity, and diversity of France’s renowned animation studios and schools.
ArtMattan Films acquired the award winning drama Made In Bangladesh by Rubaiyat Hossain, based on the life of Daliya Akter, a garment worker who escaped child marriage and went on to lead a trade union fighting for workers’ rights in Bangladesh capital, Dhaka.
Film at Lincoln Center will present The Bong Show, a retrospective of internationally beloved South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, January 7 to 14.
Beanpole, the Russian post-WWII drama from director Kantemir Balagov is one step closer to winning an Oscar, as the film made the Oscar shortlist for Best International Feature Film. Beanpole opens in theaters in NYC at Film Forum on January 29 and in Los Angeles at Landmark Nuart on February 14.
Cinema Tropical, the non-profit media arts organization leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States, announced its Third Annual Shortlist, comprising 25 Latin American films from eight different countries plus six U.S. Latinx productions that the New York–based organization has selected as the best of the year.
Georgian film director Zaza Urushadze known internationally for his film Tangerines passed away on December 7th, reportedly of heart attack, according to local news sites. He was 53.
The French historical drama film Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma is the winner of the European University Film Award 2019. The award will be presented on Friday, December 6, at the European Film Awards Weekend in Berlin.
Amazon released the trailer for Invisible Life, Brazil’s Official Submission for International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. Invisible Life directed by Karim Aïnouz and starring Carol Duarte, Julia Stockler and Fernanda Montenegro opens in theaters on December 20th.
Film at Lincoln Center and Cinema Tropical announce Veredas: A Generation of Brazilian Filmmakers, December 6 to 11. The range of boundary-pushing works of Brazilian film has had few parallels in recent years, with filmmakers such as Kleber Mendonça Filho, Gabriel Mascaro, Karim Aïnouz, Juliana Rojas, João Dumans, and Affonso Uchôa radically revising the world’s understanding of their national cinema.
Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin’s funny and unique bro-mance The Climb which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard, and won the Jury Coup de Couer Prize will be released on March 20, 2020 by Sony Pictures Classics.
French artist and filmmaker Éric Baudelaire’s Un Film Dramatique which had its international premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in August and played the Toronto International Film Festival followed by New York Film Festival this fall was acquired by Cinema Guild for release in the U.S. In October, Baudelaire was announced as the winner of the Prix Marcel Duchamp, France’s biggest art prize. Cinema Guild will open the film in U.S. theaters in 2020.
ArtMattan Films acquired Brazilian action drama Marighella, the directing debut from journalist, musician, and actor Wagner Moura (Elite Squad; Pablo Escobar in Narcos.)