Ten short films have been selected as finalists for the Juried Short Film competition at the 2019 Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival. More than 350 entries from 25 countries were submitted for review. To be eligible, the films must have been completed within the past year and under 20 minutes in length.
The PBS documentary series Independent Lens, recently honored with two Peabody Awards, a Primetime Emmy nomination and 12 News & Documentary Emmy nominations, returns for a new season on Monday, October 28 with Made in Boise. The film is an engrossing look at the complex and controversial world of gestational surrogacy told through the stories of four women carrying babies for gay men and infertile couples in the conservative heartland of Idaho — the unofficial “surrogacy capital” of the United States.
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival returns to Brooklyn from October 17th to 24th, opening with the North American Premiere of the spellbinding THE BEACH HOUSE, Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Brooklyn-shot DANIEL ISN’T REAL hits NYC as Centerpiece film, and a trio of bold emerging South American visions in Fear in Focus: Brazil sidebar.
“I think he’s the best goaltender in the history of the NHL.”
Wayne Gretzky
The International Federation of Film Critics, FIPRESCI picked ROMA as best film of 2019. The organization considers all films released after 1 July 2018. The other finalists were Dolor y Gloria (Pain and Glory), by Pedro Almodóvar, for which Antonio Banderas won the best actor award at Cannes, Gisaenchung / Parasite, by Bong Joon-ho, Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival, which will participate in Perlak, and The Favourite, by Yorgos Lanthimos, winner of an award at Venice 2018 and for which Olivia Colman won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Cinema Guild released the Trailer for the documentary I’m Leaving Now (Ya me voy), by Lindsey Cordero and Armando Croda, an intimate portrait of an undocumented worker.
The 2019 AFI Latin American Film Festival will take place September 12–October 2 at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. Celebrating its 30th edition this year, the festival honors Ibero-American cultural connections during National Hispanic Heritage Month. This year’s festival will showcase 53 films, nearly 40% of the films are directed by women.
Persecuted in Myanmar, forced to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh and then exploited and trafficked to places unknown. That’s the reality for many Rohingya Muslims living in Cox’s Bazar – now the world’s largest refugee camp accommodating nearly one million people – as they are targeted by human traffickers and lured from the refugee camp with false promises of employment and better living conditions.
Timely and vital, the documentary Parkland Rising directed by two-time Emmy Award winner Cheryl Horner McDonough, follows the high-school students and families who became fierce leaders of the national movement for gun reform after the February 2018 shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida. The documentary film, executive produced by Katie Couric and will.i.am, will World Premiere at the upcoming 20th anniversary Woodstock Film Festival, taking place October 2 to 6, 2019.
The Whistlers (La Gomera) directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, that premiered at 2019 Cannes Film Festival is Romania’s pick for submission in the Best International Feature Film category of the 2020 Oscars.
The animated film Weathering With You (Tenki no ko) directed by Makoto Shinkai has been selected by Japan Motion Picture Producers Association (Eiren) to represent Japan in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2020 Oscars.
