Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool starring Academy Award nominee Annette Bening, BAFTA Award winner Jamie Bell, Academy Award nominee Julie Walters, and Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for release in the US.
The film directed by Paul McGuigan is premiering in Gala Presentations at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
Based on Peter Turner’s memoir, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool follows the playful but passionate relationship between Turner (Bell) and the eccentric Academy Award-winning actress Gloria Grahame (Bening) in 1978 Liverpool. What starts as a vibrant affair between a legendary femme fatale and her young lover quickly grows into a deeper relationship, with Turner being the person Gloria turns to for comfort. Their passion and lust for life is tested to the limits by events beyond their control.
“Annette Bening in the role of a lifetime as an elusive personality whose dramatic true story defies belief. Supported to perfection by Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave and the rest of the cast, embodied by Paul McGuigan’s precise direction. And then there’s producer Barbara Broccoli whose diligence over many years made it all happen. Independent filmmaking doesn’t come better than this. It is a privilege to be involved in bringing this remarkable film to the public,” said Sony Pictures Classics.
Sony Pictures Classics has also acquired rights for North America, Eastern Europe, Germany and Asia Pay Television.Films
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Sony Pictures Classics Grabs FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL Starring Annette Bening
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool starring Academy Award nominee Annette Bening, BAFTA Award winner Jamie Bell, Academy Award nominee Julie Walters, and Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for release in the US.
The film directed by Paul McGuigan is premiering in Gala Presentations at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
Based on Peter Turner’s memoir, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool follows the playful but passionate relationship between Turner (Bell) and the eccentric Academy Award-winning actress Gloria Grahame (Bening) in 1978 Liverpool. What starts as a vibrant affair between a legendary femme fatale and her young lover quickly grows into a deeper relationship, with Turner being the person Gloria turns to for comfort. Their passion and lust for life is tested to the limits by events beyond their control.
“Annette Bening in the role of a lifetime as an elusive personality whose dramatic true story defies belief. Supported to perfection by Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave and the rest of the cast, embodied by Paul McGuigan’s precise direction. And then there’s producer Barbara Broccoli whose diligence over many years made it all happen. Independent filmmaking doesn’t come better than this. It is a privilege to be involved in bringing this remarkable film to the public,” said Sony Pictures Classics.
Sony Pictures Classics has also acquired rights for North America, Eastern Europe, Germany and Asia Pay Television.
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Sports Legends Navratilova, Nicklaus, Comaneci, Moses and Vergeer Featured in Documentary WINNING | Trailer
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Martina Navratilova, WInning[/caption]
Winning is the compelling and inspiring story of the journeys of five legendary athletes – tennis champion Martina Navratilova, golf great Jack Nicklaus, Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci, track and field star Edwin Moses, and Dutch Paralympian Esther Vergeer.
The film will be hitting movie theaters starting September 8 at Cinépolis Chelsea in New York City.
Through candid interviews and footage of their most exciting championship moments, Winning reveals their dreams, challenges, triumphs and explores why some athletes achieve greatness. As they reminisce about the highs and lows of their careers, these iconic athletes share a unique and intimate window into their lives.
Winning features rare archival footage of the athletes’ childhoods, as well as some of their most memorable and historic moments at the Olympics, Wimbledon, The Masters, US Open, British Open, French Open/Roland Garros, PGA Tour and The Paralympics.
The film features interviews with the athletes’ families, coaches, agents and competitors including Olympic Gold Medalists, Bart Conner and Derrick Adkins, track and field Olympians, Benn Fields and Herb Douglas, tennis star, Pam Shriver, legendary coaches, Sven Groeneveld and Robert Lansdorp, Duke University Professor of Sports Psychology, Greg Dale, Barbara Nicklaus, Jana Navratilova and former Olympic gymnastics coach, Paul Ziert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HM2D2qScrA
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Documentary Fairy Tale SPETTACOLO to Open in New York on September 6th
Spettacolo is described as a documentary fairy tale directed by Jeff Malberg (Marwencol) and Chris Shellen, about a tiny Italian farming village that turns their lives into a play. The film which had it’s world premiere at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival, will open in theaters in New York on September 6th, 2017.
Once upon a time, villagers in a tiny hill town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: they turned their lives into a play. Every summer, their piazza became their stage and residents of all ages played a part – the role of themselves. Monticchiello’s annual tradition has attracted worldwide attention and kept the town together for 50 years, but with an aging population and a future generation more interested in Facebook than farming, the town’s 50th anniversary performance just might be its last. Spettacolo tells the story of Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, interweaving episodes from its past with its modern-day process as the villagers turn a series of devastating blows into a new play about the end of their world.
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for PROSPERITY Documentary Featuring Pedram Shojai (aka Urban Monk)
Prosperity is the new documentary film following Pedram Shojai as he explores how every day spending can affect the world around us. The film directed by Mark van Wijk will open in select theaters nationwide beginning September 29, 2017, in New York at IFC Center and Los Angeles at Music Hall.
Dr. Pedram Shojai is an author, filmmaker, founder of Well.Org, Urban Monk, husband and father. Prosperity is a feature documentary about his journey across the Americas to discover a more sustainable way for us all to do business and thrive on our Planet. ‘The Urban Monk’ tracks the organic roots of Rodale Publishing; the food revolution of Whole Foods Market; Guayaki’s waged war for rainforest redemption; Terra Cycle’s scheme to drain the oceans of plastic; architect CookFox’s carbon-reducing skyscraper design, alongside many others. Through these companies and more, the documentary explores an exploding conscious business movement, one fueled by social responsibility, transparency, millennials, and the realization that business-as-usual can’t go on. The film unveils effective ways for everyone to be a part of this movement and really drive the positive change needed in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGwySLuQdHQ
image via screen grab
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Brazilian Teen Horror Drama KILL ME PLEASE Sets US Release Date
Anita Rocha da Silveira’s debut feature KILL ME PLEASE, is described as “a unique blend of coming-of-age drama with slow-burning horror.”
The film, an official selection at SXSW, Venice and New Directors / New Films, snagged the awards for Best Director (Fiction) and Best Actress, given to Valentina Herszage, at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival. Slated to open Friday, September 1, at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn, the film will expand nationwide during the fall. A VOD and physical media release is expected by May 2018.
Bia (Valentina Herszage), Michele (Júlia Roliz), Mariana (Mariana Oliveira) and Renata (Dora Freind) are a clique of affluent high school girls. They waste away their days wandering the fields between the vertigo-inducing high rises in Barra da Tijuca, an affluent new neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Both privileged and abandoned by busy parents, the girls spend most of their time together.
When a wave of murders begins to terrorize the neighborhood, the girls develop a morbid curiosity with the victims – and lines separating life, desire and death begins to break down.
Blending coming-of-age with slow-burning horror, partly inspired by the 1980s teen slasher genre, Kill Me Please is a disturbing and funny dive into teenage sexuality, spirituality, loneliness and fragility – as well as an ambitious feature debut by a young and promising Brazilian director, Anita Rocha da Silveira.
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for Summer Gay Romance Drama CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Here is the first official trailer for Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino and adapted from André Aciman’s novel of the same name, about a summer love affair between two young men.
The film which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival starring newcomer Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer will be released in theaters on November 24.
It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian boy, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows wit h natural delights. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9AYPxH5NTM
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THE DIVINE ORDER is Switzerland’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
The Divine Order directed by Petra Volpe has been selected by Switzerland as the country’s official entry in the Foreign Language Film category of the 90th Academy Awards.
The period dramedy set in 1971 about the fight for women’s suffrage in Switzerland screened earlier this year at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Narrative Award, the Nora Ephron Prize for Petra Volpe, and Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film for Marie Leuenberger.
1971: Nora is a young housewife and mother, living in a quaint little village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Nora’s life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.
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VIDEO: Watch First Trailer for Religious Drama NOVITIATE Starring Melissa Leo, Margaret Qualley
Check out the first trailer for the Novitiate, written and directed by Maggie Betts, which premiered at earlier this year at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film starring Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson and Dianna Agron will be released in theaters in NY and LA on October 27.
Spanning over a decade from the early 1950s through to the mid-60s, Novitiate is about a young girl’s first experience with love. In this case, her first love is God. Raised by a vehemently non-religious, single mother in rural Tennessee, a scholarship to Catholic school soon finds Cathleen drawn into all the mystery and romanticism of a life devoted to the worship and servitude of God. With the dawn of the Vatican II era, radical changes in the Church are threatening the course of nuns’ lives. Cathleen finds herself struggling with issues of faith, sexuality, and the changing administration. As she progresses from the postulant to the novitiate stage of training, she finds her faith repeatedly confronted and challenged by the harsh, often inhumane realities of being a servant of God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kKexutLfE0
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Documentary MAMA AFRICA: MIRIAM MAKEBA on South African Singer to Be Released in US | Trailer
The documentary Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba by Mika Kaurismaki on South African singer Miriam Makeba will be released in the US by ArtMattan Films, the film distribution arm of ArtMattan Productions
Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba by Mika Kaurismaki introduces to a new generation of Americans the world-famous South African singer Miriam Makeba and her legacy. Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) spent half a century traveling the world spreading her political message to fight racism, poverty and promote justice and peace. Through rare archive footage of her performances and through testimonies of her contemporaries and supporters including Harry Belafonte, Stokely Carmichael, Hugh Masekela, Paul Simon, Angélique Kidjo and many others – we discover Miriam Makeba’s remarkable journey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maTw6zAJQEw
THEATRICAL DATES:
ADIFF DC – 8/18/17 Parkway Theater, Baltimore – 8/18 to 8/24 Austin Film Society – 9/23 & 9/30 Virginia Film Festival – 11/10 & 11/12 Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, Toronto – 2/27/18
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for TROPHY, Documentary on the World of Big-Game Hunting
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Trophy[/caption]
Shaul Schwarz’s (Narco Cultura) and Christina Clusiau’s provocative new documentary Trophy is a startling exploration of the evolving relationship between big-game hunting and wildlife conservation that emerged a critical favorite of the 2017 Sundance and SXSW film festivals. The film will open in New York at the Quad Cinema (and in Los Angeles) on Friday, September 8. The traditional theatrical release will be complemented by exclusive, one-night event screenings on September 26 in approximately 100 cities across the country.
Endangered African species like elephants, rhinos and lions march closer to extinction each year. Their devastating decline is fueled in part by a global desire to consume these majestic animals. Trophy journeys viewers across lush African forests and vast plains and into the world’s largest hunters’ convention in Las Vegas as it investigates the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation. Through the eyes of impassioned individuals who drive these industries—from a Texas-based trophy hunter to the world’s largest private rhino breeder in South Africa—the film grapples with the consequences of imposing economic value on animals. What are the implications of treating animals as commodities? Do breeding, farming and hunting offer some of the few remaining options to conserve our endangered animals? Trophy will leave you debating what is right, what is wrong and what is necessary in order to save the great species of the world.
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Watch Trailer + Poster for Kevin Phillips’ SUPER DARK TIMES
The Orchard has released the trailer and poster for Super Dark Times, described as a harrowing but meticulously observed look at teenage lives in the era prior to the Columbine High School massacre. The film marks the feature debut of gifted director Kevin Phillips, whose critically acclaimed 2015 short film “Too Cool For School” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Super Dark Times, starring Owen Campbell, Charlie Tahan, Elizabeth Cappuccino, Max Talisman, Sawyer Barth, Amy Hargreaves, will be released in NY, LA and additional markets on September 29th, and on digital and on-demand on October 3rd.
Zach (Owen Phillips) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) are best friends growing up in a leafy Upstate New York suburb in the 1990s, where teenage life revolves around hanging out, looking for kicks, navigating first love and vying for popularity. When a traumatic incident drives a wedge between the previously inseparable pair, their youthful innocence abruptly vanishes. Each young man processes the tragedy in his own way, until circumstances grow increasingly complex and spiral into violence. Phillips dives headlong into the confusion of teenage life, creating evocative atmosphere out of the murky boundaries between adolescence and adulthood, courage and fear, and good and evil.
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Award Winning Indie Film YEAR BY THE SEA, Starring Karen Allen Sets Release Date | Trailer
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Year By The Sea (USA) – Alexander Janko, Director[/caption]
The award-winning independent film Year By The Sea is based on the New York Times and international best-selling memoir by Joan Anderson and stars highly acclaimed screen and stage actress Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Animal House). Written, directed and composed by Alexander Janko, the film will open at Lincoln Plaza in New York on September 8 and at Laemmle Royal, Town Center and Playhouse 7 in Los Angeles on September 15. A national release will follow.
After a season of high-powered female super heroes, Year By The Sea settles the pace with a crowd-pleasing journey of self-discovery and friendship featuring three women of the baby-boomer generation.
Winner of 16 festival awards – from Audience Choice to Best Feature/Actress/Music and Screenplay – Year By The Sea chronicles empty-nester Joan Anderson’s (Karen Allen) decision not to follow her relocated husband to Kansas. Instead, she retreats to Cape Cod to rediscover herself and redefine her life. Plagued with guilt, she questions her decision until stumbling upon a spirited mentor, Joan Erikson (Celia Imrie) – author and wife of famed psychologist Erik Erikson, who coined the term “identity crisis.” With a support group that includes her literary agent and a host of locals, Joan learns to embrace the ebb and flow of life – ultimately discovering the balance between self and sacrifice, obligation and desire.
It was Joan Anderson’s honesty and courage to embrace change that attracted filmmaker Alexander Janko (composer, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) to her work nearly nine years ago—and a labor of love that propelled his journey to bring it to the big screen as writer, director and composer.
Karen Allen (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Celia Imrie (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), and S. Epatha Merkerson (Chicago Med) headline this Golden Globe, Emmy, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning cast alongside Yannick Bisson (Murdock Mysteries) and Michael Cristofer (Mr. Robot).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAlD3YxZCGw