Director François Girard’s Hochelaga, Land of Souls (Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes) will represent Canada in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards.
This is François Girard’s first time representing Canada in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Academy Awards.
“This is a great honour that reflects on Hochelaga, Land of Souls and on all those who worked on the film, starting with my dear friend and producer Roger Frappier,” said director François Girard. “In the film, French is heard alongside Mohawk and Algonquin, the languages of the two great founding nations of our people.”
In the film, a tremendous downpour hits Montreal, and a spectacular sinkhole opens up in Percival-Molson Stadium in the middle of a football game. The stadium is evacuated, and a few hours later, it becomes a protected archaeological site. Centuries of history are revealed beneath the field. Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny begins investigating, and he will discover the multitude of generations who have occupied this land, each with buried secrets. Baptiste then sets out to find what he has spent his career searching for: the vestiges of the village of Hochelaga where his Iroquoian ancestors met French explorer Jacques Cartier in October 1535. Hochelaga, Land of Souls explores 750 years of history in one single spot where the souls of all centuries and all cultures come together.
The impressive cast includes Samian, Vincent Perez, Wahiakeron Gilbert, Raoul Trujillo, Sébastien Ricard, Siân Phillips, Linus Roache, Emmanuel Schwartz, David La Haye, Tanaya Beatty, Gilles Renaud and Naïade Aoun, to name just a few.
The film will be released theatrically in Canada in Fall 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzSP0ztC9EAwards
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HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS is Canada’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Director François Girard’s Hochelaga, Land of Souls (Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes) will represent Canada in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards.
This is François Girard’s first time representing Canada in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Academy Awards.
“This is a great honour that reflects on Hochelaga, Land of Souls and on all those who worked on the film, starting with my dear friend and producer Roger Frappier,” said director François Girard. “In the film, French is heard alongside Mohawk and Algonquin, the languages of the two great founding nations of our people.”
In the film, a tremendous downpour hits Montreal, and a spectacular sinkhole opens up in Percival-Molson Stadium in the middle of a football game. The stadium is evacuated, and a few hours later, it becomes a protected archaeological site. Centuries of history are revealed beneath the field. Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny begins investigating, and he will discover the multitude of generations who have occupied this land, each with buried secrets. Baptiste then sets out to find what he has spent his career searching for: the vestiges of the village of Hochelaga where his Iroquoian ancestors met French explorer Jacques Cartier in October 1535. Hochelaga, Land of Souls explores 750 years of history in one single spot where the souls of all centuries and all cultures come together.
The impressive cast includes Samian, Vincent Perez, Wahiakeron Gilbert, Raoul Trujillo, Sébastien Ricard, Siân Phillips, Linus Roache, Emmanuel Schwartz, David La Haye, Tanaya Beatty, Gilles Renaud and Naïade Aoun, to name just a few.
The film will be released theatrically in Canada in Fall 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzSP0ztC9E
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YOU DISAPPEAR is Denmark’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Peter Schønau Fog’s drama “You Disappear” has been selected as Denmark’s official entry to the Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Academy Awards.
The film was chosen from a shortlist of three titles that also comprised Henrik Ruben Genz’ “Word of God” and Fenar Ahmad’s “Darkland.”
Peter Schønau Fog’s drama is based on Danish writer Christian Jungersen’s bestselling novel. Mia is married to the successful headmaster Frederik who is caught embezzling from his own school. But did he do this of his own free will – or has his personality been altered by the tumour lurking in his brain? The film is a story about the challenges we face as neuroscience forces us to rethink what we are as human beings.
“You Disappear” made its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, where critics emphasized Trine Dyrholm and Nikolaj Lie Kaas’ “powerful” and “moving” performances as Mia and Frederik. The cast also features Mikkel Boe Følsgaard and the late Michael Nyqvist.
“You Disappear” is Schønau Fog’s second film after his critically acclaimed feature debut “The Art of Crying” (2007), which was also selected for the Toronto Film Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf4kORjB04w&t=30s
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Six Documentary Films Win 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Awards
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The Feeling of Being Watched[/caption]
SFFILM announced the six winners of the 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund awards totaling $125,000, which support feature-length documentaries in postproduction.
Assia Boundaoui’s The Feeling of Being Watched, RaMell Ross’ Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, Leslie Tai’s How to Have an American Baby, Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family, Heaven Through the Back Door by Anna Fitch and Banker White, and A Machine to Live In by Yoni Goldstein and Meredith Zielke, were each awarded significant funding that will help push them towards completion.
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has an excellent track record for championing important films that have gone on to earn great acclaim. Previous DFF winners include Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for documentary and SFFILM Festival’s Bay Area Documentary Award, and will be released this fall by Kino Lorber; Peter Bratt’s Dolores, which won the 2017 SFFILM Festival Audience Award for Documentary Feature following its Sundance premiere; Jamie Meltzer’s True Conviction, which won a Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival; and Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; among many others.
Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly half a million dollars to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2017 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to an expanded gift from the Jenerosity Foundation.
The panelists who reviewed the ten finalists’ submissions are Jennifer Battat, founder of the Jenerosity Foundation; Noah Cowan, SFFILM Executive Director; Caroline von Kühn, Director of Artist Development at SFFILM; Jenny Slattery, Associate Director of Foundations and Artist Development at SFFILM and independent producer Corey Tong.
“We are thrilled to support these six filmmaking teams, each of which is telling an important story with boldness and passion,” remarked the jury. “This group of projects represents a wide range of artistic visions, subjects, and approaches to nonfiction filmmaking—from the intimate portrayal of an independent woman’s last days to an arresting journey into the surreal, futuristic city of Brasilia. We very much look forward to supporting these films as they evolve, make their way into the world, and leave their imprint on audiences, fellow filmmakers, and our collective sense of what can be achieved through the documentary form.”
2017 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND WINNERS
The Feeling of Being Watched – Assia Boundaoui, director/producer; Jessica Devaney, producer – $25,000 When a filmmaker investigates rumors of surveillance in her Arab-American neighborhood in Chicago, she uncovers one of the largest FBI terrorism probes conducted before 9/11 and reveals its enduring impact on the community. Hale County, This Morning, This Evening – RaMell Ross, director; Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim, producers – $15,000 What is the experience of coming-of-age in the Black Belt region of the US? This film presents the lives of two young men in a series of visual movements that replace narrative arc with orchestral form. Heaven Through the Back Door – Anna Fitch and Banker White, co-director/producers; Sara Dosa, producer – $20,000 Heaven Through the Backdoor is a contemplative documentary that tells the story of Yo (Yolanda Shae), a fiercely independent 88-year old woman whose unique brand of individualist feminism impacts how she chooses to live in the final years of her life. (Former SFFILM FilmHouse resident; Bay Area-based project) How to Have an American Baby – Leslie Tai, director/producer; Jillian Schultz, co-producer – $20,000 There is a city in Southern California that abounds with pregnant women from China. Told through multiple perspectives, How to Have an American Baby is a kaleidoscopic voyage behind the closed doors of the Chinese birth tourism industry. (SFFILM FilmHouse resident; SFFILM fiscally sponsored filmmaker; Bay Area-based project) A Machine to Live In – Yoni Goldstein and Meredith Zielke, co-directors; Sebastian Alvarez, producer; Andrew Benz, co-producer – $20,000 Hovering over what remains of Brazil’s modernist future, this film looks at how social control, rational design, and space-age architecture gave rise to a vast landscape of transcendental and mystical utopias. (Bay Area-based project) Midnight Family – Luke Lorentzen, director; Kellen Quinn, producer; Daniela Alatorre,and Elena Fortes, co-producers – $25,000 In Mexico City, 16-year-old Juan Ochoa struggles to legitimize his family’s unlicensed ambulance business, as corrupt police in the neighborhood begin to target this cutthroat industry.
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MY PURE LAND is Britain’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
British-Pakistani director Sarmad Masud’s Urdu language debut film My Pure Land has been selected as Britain’s submission for the best foreign language film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film stars Suhaee Abro, Eman Malik, Syed Tanveer-Hussain, Razia Malik, Atif Akhtar Bhatti, Tayyab Azfal and Ahsen Murad.
My Pure Land world premiered at this year’s 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival is based on a remarkable true story, told in partial flashbacks, about how a mother and her two daughters try to protect their remote Pakistan home, picking up machine guns to fight off a virtual army of armed men.
MY PURE LAND is a film based on a true story. A young woman called Nazo and her mother and sister are called to defend their home after a bitter family feud leads to her father’s incarceration. In their isolated farmhouse in Pakistan, the women find themselves surrounded by armed men hired by their Uncle Mehrban to take back the land. When Nazo’s resistance leaves two of the men dead, an enraged Mehrban calls in a local ragtag militia – two hundred armed bandits. But even with only a handful of bullets left, Nazo refuses to give in…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdY8bKCVIC0
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SAAWAN is Pakistan’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Saawan directed by Farhan Alam has been selected by Pakistan as the country’s selection in the ‘Foreign Language Film Award’ category at the 90th Academy Awards.
Saawan written and produced by Mashood Qadri, is based on a true story of a disabled child who lives in a valley in the mountains of Balochistan. He is rejected by his father, intimidated by society, harassed by friends and left alone due to his disability. Strengthened by memories and dreams of the love of his mother, he begins a perilous journey back to his family in the main city. The film features Saleem Mairaj, Syed Karam Abbas, Arif Bahalim, Najiba Faiz and Imran Aslam in the lead roles. The other cast includes Tipu Sharif, Hafeez Ali, Sehrish Qadri, Sohail Malik, Shahid Niazmi, Muhammad Abbas, Danial Yunus, Mehek Zulfiqar and Syed Muhammad Ali. The film won ‘Best Foreign Language Feature Film’ award at the 2017 Madrid International Film Festival and the Best Film and Best Soundtrack Award earlier this month at the 2017 Salento International Film Festival in Italy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyVzwJeOzY
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Actress / Director Julie Delpy will Receive Honorary Award at European Film Awards
Julie Delpy will receive the honorary award “European Achievement in World Cinema”at the 30th European Film Awards, “in recognition of a rich and diverse career in front of and behind the camera”.
Born in Paris, Julie Delpy was discovered when she was 14 years old by Jean-Luc Godard, who cast her in DETECTIVE (1985). She graduated in Filmmaking from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written or acted in more than 30 films. She played the lead in Bertrand Tavernier’s THE PASSION OF BEATRICE (1987), for which she was nominated as Most Promising Actress for a French César. In THE DARK NIGHT by Carlos Saura she was the Virgin Mary and in 1990 her breakthrough came with EUROPA EUROPA by Agnieszka Holland. Her first EFA Nomination followed in 1991 for HOMO FABER by Volker Schlöndorff. She also worked with Krzysztof Kieslowski as Dominique in the THREE COLOURS trilogy (1993/1994), Jim Jarmusch in BROKEN FLOWERS (2005) and Todd Solondz in WIENER-DOG (2016).
Probably most unforgettable is Julie Delpy’s performance with Ethan Hawke in Richard Linklater’s BEFORE series: BEFORE SUNRISE (1995), BEFORE SUNSET (2004), and BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013). She co-wrote these and received an Oscar nomination in Screenwriting for the latter two as well as a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
She has directed six feature films and received her second EFA Nomination in 2007 for 2 DAYS IN PARIS for which she was also nominated for a César. Her film LE SKYLAB received the Special Prize of the jury at the San Sebastian IFF 2011 and LOLO premiered at the Venice IFF in 2015.
Julie Delpy will be an honorary guest at the 30th European Film Awards Ceremony on December 9th in Berlin.
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A FANTASTIC WOMAN is Chile’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) directed by Sebastian Lelio has been selected as Chile’s submission for the best foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring transgender star Daniela Vega premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award, and the Silver Bear for best script.
Marina and Orlando are in love and planning for the future.
Marina is a young waitress and aspiring singer. Orlando is 20 years older than her, and owns a printing company.
After celebrating Marina’s birthday one evening, Orlando falls seriously ill. Marina rushes him to the emergency room, but he passes away just after arriving at the hospital.
Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando’s family don’t trust her. A woman detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death. Orlando’s ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral. And to make matters worse, Orlando’s son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando.
Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando’s family, her sexual identity is an aberration, a perversion.
So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now – a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgDhpy9Z-NM
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SHEIKH JACKSON is Egypt’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Sheikh Jackson directed by Amr Salama has been selected as Egypt’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
Starring Ahmed El-Fishawy, Ahmed Malek, Maged El-Kedwany and Amina Khalil, Sheikh Jackson is set to World Premiere on the final day of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
June 25, 2009. Any Michael Jackson fan can tell you where they were on this date, the day the King of Pop died. Director and writer Amr Salama transports us back to that moment through the eyes — and the kaleidoscopic, MTV-inspired dreams — of a young imam (Ahmad Alfishawy), whose devout and devoted life is thrown into chaos by the passing of The Gloved One.
The tabloid event triggers memories of his teen years (rising star Ahmed Malek steps in here) when he worshiped everything Jacko did, from the Thriller-era haircut to the bondage pants from the Bad tour. But MJ’s passing also stirs up emotions around the death of the young cleric’s mother and its aftermath, when his gruff father (Maged El Kedwany) offered little support. With the sheikh’s past increasingly encroaching onthe present, he begins to question not just how to moonwalk but what it means to be a man, to have faith, and to be true to oneself. TIFF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsijix35ORE
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SPOOR is Poland’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Spoor (Pokot) by Agnieszka Holland has been selected as Poland’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
The film is based on Olga Tokarczuk’s best-selling novel “Drive Your Plough over the Bones of the Dead”, published in 2009; and stars Agnieszka Mandat, Wiktor Zborowski, Jakub Gierszał, Borys Szyc, Andrzej Grabowski, Tomasz Kot, Katarzyna Herman, Patricia Volny, Miroslav Krobot, Marcin Bosak, and Andrzej Konopka.
Spoor follows retired engineer Janina Duszejko, living in the Polish Sudeten mountains. One snowy winter night, she stumbles upon the dead body of her neighbor. The man, a poacher, had died a mysterious death. The only visible tracks around his house are roe deer hooves. Seeing the ineptitude of the police, Duszejko begins an unconventional investigation of her own.
Spoor (Pokot) had its world premiere at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, where the film won the Silver Bear, the Alfred Bauer award for opening new perspectives in film art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O96ZznajP5s
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BARRAGE Starring Isabelle Huppert is Luxembourg’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Barrage directed by Laura Schroeder has been selected to represent Luxembourg in the 90th edition of the Academy Awards in the category “Foreign Language Film Award”.
This film, written by Laura Schroeder and the French novelist Marie Nimier, is a drama about three generations of women, and stars Lolita Chammah, Isabelle Huppert as well as Themis Pauwels. Luxembourg actors Charles Müller, Marja-Leena Juncker and Luc Schiltz complete the cast.
Barrage celebrated its world premiere in February 2017 in the Forum section of the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival – it is the first feature film of a Luxembourg filmmaker hosted in official selection at the Festival. The Luxemburgish premiere took place in March 2017 at the Luxembourg City Film Festival. The film was also presented at the Vilnius Film Festival (Lithuania), the Titanic International Film Festival Budapest (Hungary), the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (Argentina), the Jeonju International Film Festival (South Korea) Jove – Valencia International Film Festival (Spain) and the New Horizons International Film Festival (Wroclaw, Poland). Barrage was released in Luxembourg and French cinemas on July 19, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJUiV378Aw
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FROST is Lithuania’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Frost (Šerkšnas) directed by Sarunas Bartas has been selected as Lithuania’s submission for best foreign-language film at the upcoming 2018 Oscars.
The film that premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes in 2017, stars young Lithuanian newcomers Mantas Jančiauskas and Lyja Maknavičiūtė. The cast also includes the French star Vanessa Paradis and the famous Polish actor Andrzej Chyra.
Filmed during a complicated expedition to the front lines of the Ukraine, Frost tells the story of Inga and Rokas carrying aid from Vilnius to the Ukraine. At the line of engagement in Donetsk, the young couple, raised in the independent Lithuania without the experience of war, quickly realizes the feelings of people in the face of hatred, aggression, violence and ruin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93acrZ2dnqY
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SONG OF GRANITE is Ireland’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Song of Granite has been selected by Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) as Ireland’s submission for the Foreign Language category at the 90th Academy Awards. There were three titles eligible this year, Song of Granite, Rocky Ros Muc and Aithrí (Penance).
Directed by Pat Collins (Silence), ‘Song of Granite’ premiered to critical acclaim at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year.
Acclaimed filmmaker Pat Collins brings the dramatic life story of legendary seannós singer Joe Heaney to the screen, an audacious exploration of the man and his music. With an approach that marries traditional narrative episodes with documentary footage, the film celebrates the music Joe Heaney created while painting an unflinching portrait of Heaney, the man. Enigmatic and complex, Joe Heaney was one of the greats of traditional Irish singing. Shaped by the myths, fables and songs of his upbringing in the west of Ireland, his emergence as a gifted artist came at a personal cost. Featuring performances from Lisa O’Neill, Damien Dempsey, Seamus Begley and sean nós singers Micheál O’Confhaola and Pól Ó Ceannabháin, the film is an intense exploration of music and song.
Áine Moriarty – IFTA CEO said: “The Irish Academy is delighted that this hauntingly beautiful and lyrical film from Pat Collins will represent Ireland in the Oscar Foreign Language contest – with Richard Kendrick’s masterful cinematography, Ireland’s picturesque landscape and unique culture of song and story takes centre stage, as the story of legendary singer Joe Heaney is skilfully brought to life – a story that will resonate with many immigrants worldwide from diverse cultural backgrounds.”
Pat Collins – Director and co-writer of ‘Song of Granite’ said: “Joe Heaney, the subject of this film, was a great teacher and advocate for the Irish traditional singing and taught singing to students all over America. He remains one of the great traditional singers. I think he would have liked the notion of a film with sean nós singing at its core representing Ireland in an international competition like the Oscars.”
Alan Maher and Jessie Fisk of Marcie Films “We are so proud that Song of Granite has been selected as the Irish entry for the Foreign Language Oscar. The film’s journey to date has been a real labour of love and it makes us all so happy to receive this very special recognition”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBbfPpWPuoE