A Taxi Driver directed by Jang Hun, has been selected as South Korea’s official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Oscars.
The film, starring Song Kang-ho, Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hai-jin, and Ryu Jun-yeol, is based on the true story of German reporter Jürgen Hinzpeter and Korean taxi driver Kim Sa-Bok.Jürgen Hinzpeter covering the Gwangju Uprising, which took place from May 18-27, 1980 in Gwangju, South Korea.
A Taxi Driver had its international premiere as the closing night film of the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival, where Song Kang-ho won the award for Best Actor.
May, 1980, Seoul. Demonstrations denouncing the martial law proclaimed by the dictator Chun Doo-hwan disrupt the routine of Man-seob, a cranky taxi driver who curses the protesters who prevent him from working. Raising his daughter alone after the death of his wife, Man-seob is crushed by debt. Every fare counts. When he hears a colleague boast that he’s about to receive a colossal sum for taking a Westerner to Gwangju, Man-seob rushes to the rendezvous point to rob him of his client, a German journalist calling himself Peter. The latter intends to investigate clandestinely rumours that Gwangju is under siege by the army and that the government has cut off all communication between the city and the rest of the country. Man-seob, however, lies about his understanding of English and the reasons for their journey. He has no idea what he has embarked on. Their fate will be closely bound to that of the inhabitants of Gwangju.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbUwOP9HZQkNews
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A TAXI DRIVER is South Korea’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
A Taxi Driver directed by Jang Hun, has been selected as South Korea’s official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Oscars.
The film, starring Song Kang-ho, Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hai-jin, and Ryu Jun-yeol, is based on the true story of German reporter Jürgen Hinzpeter and Korean taxi driver Kim Sa-Bok.Jürgen Hinzpeter covering the Gwangju Uprising, which took place from May 18-27, 1980 in Gwangju, South Korea.
A Taxi Driver had its international premiere as the closing night film of the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival, where Song Kang-ho won the award for Best Actor.
May, 1980, Seoul. Demonstrations denouncing the martial law proclaimed by the dictator Chun Doo-hwan disrupt the routine of Man-seob, a cranky taxi driver who curses the protesters who prevent him from working. Raising his daughter alone after the death of his wife, Man-seob is crushed by debt. Every fare counts. When he hears a colleague boast that he’s about to receive a colossal sum for taking a Westerner to Gwangju, Man-seob rushes to the rendezvous point to rob him of his client, a German journalist calling himself Peter. The latter intends to investigate clandestinely rumours that Gwangju is under siege by the army and that the government has cut off all communication between the city and the rest of the country. Man-seob, however, lies about his understanding of English and the reasons for their journey. He has no idea what he has embarked on. Their fate will be closely bound to that of the inhabitants of Gwangju.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbUwOP9HZQk
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QUIT STARING AT MY PLATE is Croatia’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Quit Staring at My Plate (Ne gledaj mi u pijat), the debut feature film from director Hana Jušić’, has been selected by Croatia as its official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring Mia Petričević, Nikša Butijer, Arijana Čulina, Zlatko Buric had its World Premiere at the 2016 Venice Days where the film won the FEDEORA Award for Best European Film.
In the film Marijana’s life revolves around her family, whether she likes it or not. They live on top of one another in a tiny apartment, driving one another crazy. Then her controlling father has a stroke and is left completely bedridden, and Marijana takes his place as head of the clan. Soon, she is working two jobs to keep everything afloat, while her mother and disabled brother do their best to scupper the ship. Driven to the edge, Marijana finds comfort in seedy sex with random strangers; and this taste of freedom leaves her wanting more. But now that she has finally found freedom, what’s she meant to do with it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjE6IE9QgNk
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SCARY MOTHER is Georgia’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Ana Urushadze’s award-winning debut feature film, Scary Mother (Sashishi deda), has been selected by Georgia as its official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring Nata Murvanidze, Ramaz Ioseliani, Dimitri Tatishvili, and Avtandil Makharadze, World Premiered at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival where the film won the Swatch First Feature Award (Prize for Best First Feature). After the Locarno Film Festival, the film competed at the 2017 Sarajevo Film Festival where it won the the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film; and the Cineuropa Prize.
Scary Mother follows the story of a 50-year-old housewife, Manana (Nato Murvanidze), struggling with a dilemma: she has to choose between her family life and a love for writing she has repressed for years. When she finally decides to follow her passion, she is ready to sacrifice everything for it, mentally and physically.
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Annemarie Jacir’s WAJIB is Palestine’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Wajib, a film written and directed by Annemarie Jacir, has been selected by Palestine as its official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring Mohammad Bakri, Saleh Bakri, Maria Zreik and Leila Bakri, World Premiered in official competition at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival, and will have its North American premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
In the film, Abu Shadi is a divorced father and a school teacher in his mid-60s living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father in hand delivering the wedding invitations as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.
This is director Annemarie Jacir’s third time representing Palestine at the Academy Awards, having been submitted for Salt of the Sea (2008) and When I Saw You (2012).
Click here to see a clip from Wajib
Wajib by @AnnemarieJacir is selected to rep. #Palestine in the Best Frgn Film category at the 90th Academy Awards. #Oscars, here we come! pic.twitter.com/cE4ZiEHmNt
— Noor (@suleimannh) August 29, 2017
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BLACK LEVEL is Ukraine’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
The Ukraine Oscar Committee has selected Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Black Level, as its candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Odesa International Film Festival, where it won the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI prize.
“Black Level” is a documentary-feature drama telling the story of a 50-year-old wedding photographer facing the prospect of losing everything he has ever loved.
50-year anniversary is the beginning of a complicated phase in the life of a wedding photographer Kostya. All that he loved and to which had been tied to, permanently disappears. Although there are not so many such things in his life: father, paralyzed by a stroke; girlfriend, working as a stylist in a wedding magazine; an old cat and photographic slides in which Kostya is young and happy. Kostya is photographing someone else’s happiness all of his life. For him, it is a daily routine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0D0CRejU3A
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Film Independent Selects 6 for Screenwriting Lab + Sam McGoldrick Wins Screenwriting Fellowship
Film Independent has selected six screenwriters for its 19th annual Screenwriting Lab. Under the guidance of Lead Creative Advisor Robin Swicord (Wakefield, Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Fellows will workshop these projects over the course of the Lab. Additional guest speakers and advisors include Sheila Hanahan Taylor (Final Destination Series), Meg LeFauve (Inside Out, Captain Marvel), and Script Consultant Ruth Atkinson.
Past Screenwriting Lab projects include Spirit Award Winner Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night, which premiered in competition at Sundance and won the Grand Jury prize at Outfest; Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which premiered in competition at Sundance and in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes; and Robbie Pickering’s SXSW winner Natural Selection.
“This extraordinary group of artists brings a breadth of fresh and dynamic voices to the 2017 Screenwriting Lab,” said Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development at Film Independent. “We know they’ll enrich the Film Independent community, and we’re excited to offer them an opportunity to develop not only their projects but their filmmaking careers.”
For the sixth year, Film Independent will present the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television Screenwriting Fellowship. This year’s Fellowship is being awarded to alumnus Sam McGoldrick who will be awarded a $10,000 grant to develop his script Strawberry Fields through the Screenwriting Lab.
The 2017 Screenwriting Lab participants and their projects are:
Title: The Dance Crusader
Writer, Director: Marcos Davalos
Logline: After witnessing his father’s deportation, a gay undocumented Latino teen enters a dance competition determined to win a cash prize the top cash prize in order to keep his family together.
Title: The Dust
Writer, Director: Amanda Brennan
Logline: In 1930’s Oklahoma, when wheat prices drop and dust storms begin, one girl, at odds with her sexuality, believes she is the cause.
Title: Ghost Stories
Writer, Director: Michael Lei
Logline: During the height of the Cold War a mythical, shape-shifting room plays a pivotal role in the lives of several families desperate to escape across the Berlin Wall.
Title: Jawbone
Writer: Allison Lee
Logline: A Korean woman’s dreams come true after she undergoes drastic plastic surgery but everything begins to fall apart when she gives birth to a daughter who looks nothing like her.
Title: Strawberry Fields
Writer: Sam McGoldrick
Logline: At a CIA black site in Guantanamo Bay, a Muslim-American psychologist resorts to increasingly grave methods to dissect the mind of a terrorist suspect. As she pushes deeper into his troubled psyche, she discovers a growing darkness in herself.
Title: Valley of Exile
Writer, Director: Anna Fahr
Logline: In the arid valley of Eastern Lebanon, two Syrian sisters set out in search of their missing brother uncertain of where their own journey into exile will lead.
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WOODPECKERS is Dominican Republic’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
José María Cabral’s Woodpeckers (Carpinteros) was selected this week as Dominican Republic’s official submission for the 2018 Foreign Language Oscar category.
Woodpeckers (Carpinteros) which premiered earlier this year at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival tells the story of handsome Dominican-Haitian Julián (actor Jean Jean in a breakout role) who begins a begins a jail sentence for petty theft inside the notorious Najayo prison just outside Santo Domingo. He becomes immersed in the system of “Woodpecking,” the unique sign language the male prisoners use to communicate with women in the adjacent penitentiary just over 400 feet away. Julián’s entanglement with one female inmate, Yanelly (the astonishing Dominican actress Judith Rodriguez Perez), is the fuse that ignites the events of Woodpeckers, which was shot on location at the actual prison using real inmates for all but the lead roles.
Director José María Cabral’s first feature film, Jaque Mate (2011), was selected as the Dominican entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.
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RACER AND THE JAILBIRD is Belgium’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Michaël R Roskam’s Racer and the Jailbird (Le Fidèle), has been selected as Belgium’s official candidate for the best foreign-language film at the 2018 Oscar.
In Racer and the Jailbird, starring Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, Our Souls at Night) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color), it’s love at first sight at a racing circuit when gangster Gino (‘Gigi’) meets Benedicte (‘Bibi’), a wealthy and fearless racing driver. Fierce and loyal, Gigi and Bibi fight for their love against fate, but also against reason and their own weaknesses. But how far can endurance be stretched? How far can they go to try and save what may already be lost?
Michaël R Roskam’s was previously nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar for his feature debut Bullhead in 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onPQ8MnfZl4
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Can Ulkay’s AYLA is Turkey’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Can Ulkay’s debut feature Ayla: The Daughter of War has been selected as Turkey’s official candidate for the best foreign-language film at the 2018 Oscar.
The film tells the story of a soldier (played by Ismail Hacioglu as the young soldier, and Cetin Tekindor as an older man) who risks his own life to save a young girl Ayla ( played by Kim Seol as a young girl and Lee Kyung-Jin as an older woman) he finds half-frozen and on the verge of death, smuggling her into his army base. Despite being unable to communicate with each other, the two form a strong bond. When the war ends and the soldier must return home, he cannot bear to abandon the girl but is forced to hand her over to an orphanage, hoping one day to be reunited with her. The pair were finally reunited 60 years later.
The film is based on the true story of Korean War veteran Süleyman Astsubay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PELOIYaEiw
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Ruben Östlund’s THE SQUARE is Sweden’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Ruben Östlund’s The Square, 2017 Palme d’Or winner, has been selected as Sweden’s official entry for the 2018 Foreign Language Oscar category.
Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West and Terry Notary star in the satirical drama set in the art world, about an art museum chief curator whose plans to promote an exhibit spiral out of control.
Christian is the respected curator of a contemporary art museum, a divorced but devoted father of two who drives an electric car and supports good causes. His next show is “The Square”, an installation which invites passersby to altruism, reminding them of their role as responsible fellow human beings. But sometimes, it is difficult to live up to your own ideals: Christian’s foolish response to the theft of his phone drags him into shameful situations. Meanwhile, the museum’s PR agency has created an unexpected campaign for ”The Square”. The response is overblown and sends Christian, as well as the museum, into an existential crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcmMYzyVt5Y
This is Ruben Ostlund’s third time representing Sweden at the Oscars – Involuntary was the official submission in 2009, and he made the shortlist in 2014 with Force Majeure but was disappointedly not nominated. In response he made the YouTube video “Swedish director freaks out when he misses out on Oscar nomination.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTWqLmnjt0
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Fatih Akin’s IN THE FADE is Germany’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Fatih Akin’s In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts) will represent Germany as the country’s official submission for the 90th Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
In the film, Katja’s (played by Diane Kruger) life collapses after the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack. The police arrest two suspects: a young neo-Nazi couple. Katja wants justice – for her, there is no alternative.
In the Fade world premiere in competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, where Diane Kruger won the award for Best Actress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKBqOE3WNu0
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Former VP Al Gore and Blumhouse Productions Jason Blum to Be Honored at 2017 IFP Gotham Awards
Former Vice President Al Gore will receive the Humanitarian Tribute and Film Producer and Founder of Blumhouse Productions Jason Blum will receive the Industry Tribute at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards. The ceremony will be held on Monday, November 27, 2017, at Cipriani Wall Street, New York City.
“We are thrilled to be presenting Vice President Al Gore with the Humanitarian Tribute and Jason Blum with the Industry Tribute” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center. “Mr. Gore’s urgent message on the dangers of climate change has been heard and seen around the globe, motivating individuals, communities, businesses, and world leaders to take action, reminding us of the power of cinema and its ability to affect change. Jason Blum has shown the industry how creative and innovative models that support smart, original filmmakers- and produced with an economy of means –can be a potent force in connecting with audiences and achieving popular success.”
The IFP Humanitarian Tribute recognizes an individual who, through cinema, has had a profound, transformative global impact. Vice President Gore is the ideal recipient recognizing his decades of work on the climate crisis, most recently brought to the attention of audiences through his films Academy Award®-winner AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006) and AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER (2017).
The Industry Tribute is awarded each year to an individual whose unique vision, innovation and contributions have made a significant impact on the motion picture and television industry. Jason Blum has proven himself to be such by pioneering a new model of high-quality micro-budget films. As founder of the multi-media company, Blumhouse Productions, Blum has produced more than 70 films and as well as numerous television projects, making Blumhouse one of the most prolific production companies in the industry. Earlier this year, Blum expanded his television footprint by launching an indie TV Studio.
Blum founded Blumhouse Productions, known for leading the “low budget” horror film genre in 2000. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, which was made for $15,000 and grossed nearly $200 million worldwide, launched the Blumhouse model and became the most profitable film of all time. In 2017 Blumhouse produced the blockbusters SPLIT from M. Night Shyamalan and GET OUT from Jordan Peele, which with combined budgets of less than $15 million, have already grossed more than $500 million worldwide. In addition, Blumhouse has produced the highly profitable THE PURGE, INSIDIOUS, SINISTER and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchises which together have grossed more than $1.7 billion at the global box office.
In addition to his staggering commercial success, Blum is an Academy Award®-nominated and two-time Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award® for producing WHIPLASH, won Emmys® for producing HBO’s The Normal Heart and The Jinx and two Peabody Awards for The Jinx and the documentary How to Dance in Ohio. In addition, Blum received the 2016 Producer of the Year Award at CinemaCon and was named to the TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people in 2017. Before launching Blumhouse, Blum served as Co-President of Acquisitions at Miramax.