Awards

EVA (YEVA) is Armenia’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | Trailer

Eva (Yeva) directed by Anahid Abad, has been selected by Armenia as the country’s submission for the best foreign-language film race at the 2018 Oscars. The Armenian-language film stars many recognized actors and actresses from Armenia, such as Narine Grigoryan, Shant Hovhannisyan, Marjan Avetisyan, Rozi Avetisyan, Sergey Tovmasyan, Vrezh Qasuni, Tigran Davtyan, Nanor Petrosyan, Evelina Adamyan, and Marat Davtyan.
The film follows Yeva, a young woman, who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh, after her husband’s tragic death and takes refuge in one of the villages of Karabakh, Armenia. A complete stranger in the village, the woman is obliged to live her life in disguise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t8rxzDQ5o0
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ZAMA is Argentina’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | Trailer

Zama directed by Lucrecia Martel has been selected by Argentina as the country’s submission in the foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscar, as well as the Spanish Goya Awards. The decision was made by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Argentina (Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de la Argentina).
This long-awaited adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto’s 1956 classic of Latin American modernism transports us to a remote corner of 18th-century South America, where a servant of the Spanish crown slowly loses his grip on reality. Written and directed by Lucrecia Martel, the Argentine auteur behind The Holy Girl and The Headless Woman, Zama is that rarest of creative feats: a perfect coupling of literary source material and cinematic sensibility. Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho) leads a suspended existence as a sort of upper-tier government clerk in what is now Paraguay. He has not seen his wife and children in years. His relationships with his fellow Europeans are strained due to competition and confusion, while his interactions with the settlement’s Black and Indigenous servants are addled by desire and hostility. Zama’s entire sense of purpose is tied up in the promise that he will soon be delivered to his rightful position in faraway Buenos Aires, but the waiting seems endless. As time passes, Zama’s paranoia and capacity for violence burgeons — while his circumstances become only more precarious. TIFF https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3bJeHCOwYo
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THE WOUND is South Africa’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | Trailer

The Wound (“Inxeba”), directed by John Trengove, has been selected as South Africa’s submission in the foreign-language category at the 2018 Oscars. The film explores tradition and masculinity, and the clash between age-old rituals and modernity. The Wound stars musician and novelist Nakhane Touré as Xolani, a lonely factory worker who joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When Kwanda (Niza Jay Ncoyini), a defiant initiate from the city, discovers his mentor’s secret, Xolani’s entire existence begins to unravel. The Wound is the first feature from writer-director John Trengove, and is co-written by Trengove, Thando Mgqolozana and Malusi Bengu. The Xhosa initiation ritual which forms the landscape of the film is also the subject of ‘Inxeba’ co-writer Mgqolozana’s novel, ‘A Man Who Is Not a Man’. The Wound premiered at this year’s 2017 Sundance Film Festival and later opened Berlinale Panorama; and went on to win a string of awards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubSlj-G4P6I
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KHACHA is Bangladesh’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film

Khacha directed by Akram Khan has been selected as Bangladesh’s entry to represent the country in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 90th Academy Awards. Based on author Hasan Azizul Haque’s short story Khacha, the screenplay for the film was co-written by actor Azad Abul Kalam and the film’s director Akram Khan. The film also stars Mamunur Rashid, and Jaya Ahsan; and chronicles the plight of a Hindu family trying to migrate to India after the Indian Parition of 1947. Khacha and Shonabondhu directed by the Jahangir Alam Sumon, were the only two films submitted to the Bangladesh Oscar selection committee this year.
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ONE THOUSAND ROPES is New Zealand’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER

Tusi Tamasese’s One Thousand Ropes is New Zealand’s submission for the best foreign language category of the 90th Academy Awards. Written and directed by Tamasese and produced by Catherine Fitzgerald, One Thousand Ropes is the story of a Samoan family living in suburban New Zealand, re-connecting and putting to rest the ghosts that haunt them. Starring Uelese Petaia, Frankie Adams, Beulah Koale and Sima Urale, One Thousand Ropes is Tamasese’s follow up to his much-awarded feature debut, The Orator. The film had its world premiere in the Panorama section of the 2017 Berlin Film Festival. One Thousand Ropes is a powerful character drama of a father reconnecting with his youngest daughter and together putting to rest the ghosts that haunt them. She arrives vulnerable: badly beaten and heavily pregnant. He struggles on one hand, with the inner temptation and the encouragement from the men in his life to take revenge in the way he knows best, and on the other, to build the new family and companionship so desperately missing from his life. One Thousand Ropes is a deeply moving film about connections, redemption and new beginnings. One Thousand Ropes will next be seen in October’s London Film Festival and Adelaide Film Festivals, with more festival outings to follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWsfITbkkTc
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BIRDSHOT is Philippines’ Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER

The Film Academy of the Philippines has officially selected Birdshot as the Philippine entry to the best foreign language film category of the 90th Oscar Awards. The other films reviewed by the committee were Die Beautiful by Jun Lana; 1st SEM by Dexter Hernandez and Allan Ibanez; Ang Araw sa Likod Mo by Dominic Nuesa; Kita Kita by Sigfrid Bernardo; Ang Manananggal sa Unit 23B by Prime Cruz; Patay na si Hesus by Victor Villanueva; Triptiko by Miguel Franco Micelena; and Sunday Beauty Queen by Baby Ruth Villarama. Birdshot is directed by Mikhail Red and stars Mary Joy Apostol, Arnold Reyes, Ku Aquino and John Arcilla. Birdshot is a coming-of-age thriller that tells the story of a young farm girl who wanders off into a Philippine forest reserve. Deep within the reservation she mistakenly shoots and kills a critically endangered and protected Philippine Eagle. As the local authorities begin a manhunt to track down the poacher of a national bird, their investigation leads them to an even more horrific discovery.
Maya, a naïve 14-year-old girl is tasked to watch over cornfields with her caretaker father Diego. Their isolated farmland is situated in the valley of the Sierra Madre in Isabela Northern Luzon. Often at conflict with her world-weary father, Maya dreams of an escape from her rural life. One day Diego entrusts Maya with his birdshot shotgun after teaching her how to hunt in the wilderness. Maya ventures on her own into the nearby protected forest, she later mistakenly shoots and kills an endangered Philippine Eagle in hopes to prove herself to her father. Upon discovering her crime, Diego decides to bury the shotgun and consume the carcass of the eagle to conceal the evidence. Later, authorities begin a manhunt to track down the eagle’s killer. Diego is ultimately apprehended as he surrenders himself to protect his daughter. Towards the end of the film Maya comes face to face with the consequences of her crime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Z6ShPLtbw
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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

[caption id="attachment_23721" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] 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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Awards

2017 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND WINNERS