Films

VIDEO | Watch Trailer for TOM’S RESTAURANT, Documentary About Famous Diner on Seinfeld

Tom’s Restaurant was the locale that inspired Suzanne Vega’s 1987 song “Tom’s Diner” but it is probably more known for its exterior which became famous worldwide thanks to the popular sitcom Seinfeld, since Jerry Seinfeld’s and his friends regularly gathered to eat and chat at the diner. However, Tom’s Restaurant is a diner located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Frequented by artists, musicians, comedians, students and faculty of nearby Columbia University, it has been owned and operated by the Greek-American family of Minas Zoulis since the 1940s.

The documentary highlights past and present owners, clientèle and pop culture references. When President Barack Obama was a student at Columbia, he frequently used to eat at Tom’s Restaurant, and Senator John McCain often ate at Tom’s when he visited his daughter Meghan when she was a student at Columbia.

http://youtu.be/7mphrlxJl5k
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THE RAID 2 to World Premiere at 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Sets US Release Date | Watch TRAILER

Gareth Evans’s THE RAID 2, scheduled to World Premiere at the upcoming 2014 Sundance Film Festival will be released in the United States on March 28, 2014. THE RAID 2 picks up right where the first film left off and follows Rama (Iko Uwais) as he goes undercover and infiltrates the ranks of a ruthless Jakarta crime syndicate in order to protect his family and uncover the corruption in his own police force.

http://youtu.be/3MuXrN8L9ro
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VIDEO: Watch TRAILER for Israel’s Oscar Entry BETHLEHEM

The official trailer has been released for Yuval Adler’s BETHLEHEM, winner of six Israeli Academy Awards and Israel’s Official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film – 86th Academy Awards. BETHLEHEM tells the story of the unlikely bond between Razi, an Israeli secret service officer, and his Palestinian informant Sanfur. BETHLEHEM is set to be released in the U.S. on February 21, 2014.

Sanfur is the younger brother of a senior Palestinian militant. Razi recruited him when he was just 15, and developed a very close, almost fatherly relationship to him. Now 17, Sanfur tries to navigate between Razi’s demands and his loyalty to his brother, living a double life and lying to both. When the Israeli secret service discovers how deeply involved Sanfur is in his brother’s activities, Razi is faced with an impossible dilemma.

http://youtu.be/k-lz14rIs-A
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Oscilloscope Lab Grabs 95 Seconds Short Film TIM AND SUSAN HAVE MATCHING HANDGUNS

Joe Callander’s 95 seconds short film TIM AND SUSAN HAVE MATCHING HANDGUNS, scheduled to have its world premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, has been snagged for U.S. release by Oscilloscope Laboratories. TIM AND SUSAN HAVE MATCHING HANDGUNS is described as a romantic tale of love, life, and the right to bear arms.

About the acquisition, O-Scope’s Dan Berger and David Laub said, “TIM AND SUSAN is a remarkably assured, economical, and entertaining film. Joe’s deft filmmaking and Tim and Susan’s undeniable connection will warm the cockles of your heart. We’re gonna figure out a way to put this film in front of your faces.”

Filmmaker Joe Callander said, “I’ve been watching Oscilloscope films for years and it’s quite the unexpected honor to be working with them on this short. My first film was two minutes long, this one is 95 seconds. I’m hoping that if this trend continues, one day I’ll just wake up, sneeze, and everything will become pure light.”

TIM AND SUSAN was produced by Dave Munson and Saddleback Leather, purveyors of fine leather goods and fine films. Joe Callander is Saddleback Leather’s filmmaker in residence.
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WATCH Trailer for Mitt Romney Documentary to Premiere on Netflix

Netflix has released the trailer for the Mitt Romney documentary, “MITT,” scheduled to premiere exclusively online on Friday, January 24, 2014. The Netflix original documentary, provides an intimate, rarely seen, behind-the-scenes look at a candidate running for the presidency.

From director Greg Whiteley (“New York Doll,” “Resolved”) and executive producer Seth Gordon (“Undefeated,” “The King of Kong”), “Mitt,” which will make its feature debut at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival as the Salt Lake City Gala on Friday, January 17th, follows Romney’s presidential aspirations beginning Christmas 2006 to his initial run to become the Republican nominee in 2008 and through his Presidential concession speech in 2012. Given unprecedented access by Mitt and his family, Whiteley travels alongside the campaign through interactions with potential voters, preparations for the debates, personal moments with his family, and concluding with final presidential election night results.“It feels like a full circle moment to premiere this movie at Sundance,” said filmmaker, Greg Whiteley. “I first met and filmed the Romney family in Park City in 2006 as they gathered to discuss whether Mitt should run for President. Over the next 7 years I couldn’t believe I was filming inside rooms and situations I had no business being in. Now that I’ve finished I couldn’t be more pleased to share this experience with audiences around the world through Netflix.”

http://youtu.be/rLHxbemvpxY

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WATCH Trailer for Egyptian Protest Documentary “THE SQUARE”

Netflix has released the trailer for its original documentary, “THE SQUARE,” described as a riveting, deeply human chronicle of the Egyptian protest movement from director/producer Jehane Noujaim (“Control Room”; “Startup.com”; “Rafea: Solar Mama”) and producer Karim Amer (“Rafea: Solar Mama”). THE SQUARE is set to premiere exclusively on Netflix territories on January 17, 2014.

Winner of this year’s Best Documentary Award at 2013 International Documentary Awards, the Best Documentary at the Dubai International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival Documentary People’s Choice Award and the Audience Award at the Montreal International Documentary Festival, “The Square” is an epic documentary that tells the behind-the-headlines story of the Egyptian Revolution through the eyes of young activists who have sought for the last two years to build a better Egypt. An earlier version of “The Square” won the Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The film was also an Official Selection at the 2013 New York Film Festival.

The film captures the immediacy and intensity of the protests in Tahrir Square from the 2011 overthrow of military leader Hosni Mubarak through the ousting of Mohammed Morsi in 2013, providing a kaleidoscopic, visceral portrait of the events as they unfold before Magdy, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khalid Abdalla, an Egyptian actor who played the lead in “The Kite Runner” and the charismatic Ahmed, whose poetic storytelling carries the narrative. Armed with nothing more than cameras, social media, deep consciousness, and a resolute commitment to change, these young revolutionaries give us a front-line perspective of the ongoing struggle fought with new weapons.

http://youtu.be/6eWBmVprInQ
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IN BLOOM, Georgia’s Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Film, Sets January 2014 U.S. Release Date | WATCH Trailer

IN BLOOM, an award-winning film co-directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, and Georgia’s Official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film, will open in New York at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center onJanuary 10, 2014. A national release will follow.

IN BLOOM, the directorial debut of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, is inspired by Nana’s personal memories of her youth in the troubled early 1990s in Georgia. The film follows inseparable friends Eka and Natia, both fourteen years old and at the end of their childhood in the early nineties Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country is facing violence, war on the Black Sea coast (Abkhazia) and vigilante justice that plague society. But for Eka and Natia, life just unfolds: in the street, at school, with friends or elder sisters who are already dealing with male dominance, early marriage and disillusioned love. For these two girls in bloom, life just goes on…

IN BLOOM premiered at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the C.I.C.A.E. prize. The film went on to screen at a number of international film festivals picking up multiple prizes along the way, including the Special Jury Prize at the Montreal Film Festival and the FIPRESCI prize and Golden Firebird in Hong Kong. In US, the film screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival and at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where it won the New Auteurs Award for Personal Storytelling. IN BLOOM has been selected to screen at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2014.

http://youtu.be/ynYAVerw9fY
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ArtMattan Films to Release Banned Film JEWS OF EGYPT in U.S. | WATCH Trailer

Amir Ramses’ award-winning controversial documentary film JEWS OF EGYPT from the 21st Annual New York African Diaspora International Film Festival, will be released in the U.S. by ArtMattan Films. Banned in Egypt for a year by Egyptian authorities, JEWS OF EGYPT is described as a documentary that captures fragments of the lives of the Egyptian Jewish community in the first half of the twentieth century until their second grand exodus after the tripartite attack of 1956

With this film, director Amir Ramses attempts to understand the change in the identity of the Egyptian society that turned from a society full of tolerance and acceptance of one another to a rejection of the minorities.

The film asks the question: “How did the Jews of Egypt turn in the eyes of Egyptians from partners in the same country to enemies?”

http://youtu.be/cYFwtgeOypQ
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Oprah Winfrey Hosts Screening of Hemingway Documentary RUNNING FROM CRAZY | WATCH Trailer

Oprah Winfrey recently held a private LA screening of a documentary she’s executive producing called RUNNING FROM CRAZY, directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, American Dream). The film, which goes behind the long history of mental illness and suicide in the famed Hemingway family, is currently in theaters in select cities and will air on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in 2014.

Hailed as one of the most distinguished families in American literature, the Hemingways have always exposed their brilliance while often living in the shadows of deep emotional struggle. Two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s newest documentary focuses on Mariel Hemingway, a granddaughter of the legendary writer Ernest, as she explores her family’s disturbing history of mental illness and suicide. As a child, Mariel grew up on the Hemingway family farm in Idaho, the same place her famous grandfather took his own life months before she was born. The youngest of the three sisters, Mariel followed her older sister Margaux into acting and modeling, while her oldest sister Muffet struggled with mental illness and drifted in and out of mental hospitals. Kopple’s bold film intertwines haunting archival footage of the three Hemingway sisters with scenes from Mariel’s life today as she seeks to live a rigorously healthy lifestyle to combat what appears to be a difficult family birthright. Mariel’s courageous journey of introspection and reflection allows her to view her family that has shaped her life through new eyes and, for the first time, strive for peace and acceptance.

Image: (L-R) Sheri Salata, president of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and Harpo Studios; Oprah Winfrey, chairman and CEO of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and Harpo Studios; Barbara Kopple, filmmaker and Mariel Hemingway at the LA premiere screening of “Running From Crazy.”

Courtesy: OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

http://youtu.be/kfGYqdTAxEk
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WATCH NSFW Trailer and SEE Posters for Lars Von Trier’s ‘NYMPHOMANIAC’

The trailer and official posters have been released for Lars Von Trier’s “NYMPHOMANIAC,” which stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Bell, Shia Labeouf, Stacy Martin, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater and Udo Kier. NYMPHOMANIAC is the wild and poetic story of a woman’s journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg). On a cold winter’s evening the old, charming bachelor, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), finds Joe beaten up in an alley. He brings her home to his flat where he cares for her wounds while asking her about her life. He listens intently as Joe over the next 8 chapters recounts the lushy branched-out and multifaceted story of her life, rich in associations and interjecting incidents.

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WATCH Trailer for Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s THE PAST

THE PAST (LE PASSÉ), Iran’s official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film – 86th Academy Awards, directed by Oscar winning director Asghar Farhadi of A Separation (A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award) has released its trailer. THE PAST opens in theaters on December 20th, 2013.

Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)’s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie’s relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad’s efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past.

http://youtu.be/7kdUF8UZb4M
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TRAILER and First Look at Tony Jopia’s British comedy horror ‘CRYING WOLF’

The British comedy horror ‘CRYING WOLF’ from director Tony Jopia and starring Caroline Munro, Gary Martin, Joe Egan, Kristofer Dayne and Ian Donnelly, has released its official trailer and first look images from the upcoming film. Due for release in the U.K. in 2014, the comedy horror movie, ‘Crying Wolf’ starts its tale in the small village of Deddington where prankster Andy is bitten by a werewolf that kills his friend Charlotte. Andy tries to warn his friends, but winds up turning them into a pack of werewolves. Enter a pair of hapless journalists doomed to a grizzly end, then add a pair of hard boiled vigilantes hot on the heels of the werewolf pack and before you know it, everyone’s ‘Crying Wolf! during a bloody camping holiday in the Cotswolds’

http://youtu.be/uKY7ehVyowI
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