The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), celebrating its 12th anniversary and taking place December 1 to 12, revealed the lineup of films screening in the festival’s competition and sidebar sections.
This year, the Festival will showcase more than 130 films from 40 different countries including nine international premieres, 28 Caribbean premieres, and all are Bahamian premieres.
The four competition categories at BIFF are Spirit of Freedom: Narrative; Spirit of Freedom: Documentary; New Visions; and Short Film. Additional categories out of competition are World Cinema Narrative and World Cinema Documentary; Caribbean Spotlight Narrative and Caribbean Spotlight Documentary; Comedy; and non-Jury Short Films.
There will be special screenings throughout the Festival of Brian Klugman’s “Baby Baby Baby”, Ben Bowman’s “Knucklehead”, Daryl Wein’s “Consumed”, Julien Leclercq’s “The Crew”, Samuel Benchetrit’s “Asphalte” (Macadam Stories)” and Jean Michel Costeau’s “The Secret Ocean”.
The official BIFF feature lineup is comprised of the following films:
SPIRIT OF FREEDOM (NARRATIVE)
EADWEARD (Canada) / Director: Kyle Rideout
SHOWING ROOTS (USA) / Director: Michael Wilson
SIN AND ILLY (Germany) / Director: Maria Hengge
THE SLEEPING TREE (Bahrain) / Director: Mohammed Rashed BuAli (pictured above)
unINDIAN (Australia) Director: Anupam SHarma
WILDLIKE (USA) / Director: Frank Hall Green
SPIRIT OF FREEDOM (DOCUMENTARY)
ALL EYES ALL EARS (China, USA) / Director: Vanessa Hope
GAZELLE – THE LOVE ISSUE (Brazil) / Director: Cesar Terranova
I AM THALENTE (South Africa) / Director: Natalie Johns
INDIA’S DAUGHTER (India) Director: Leslee Udwin
MY LIFE IN CHINA (USA) Director: Kenneth Eng
QUEEN MIMI (USA) Director: Yaniv Rokah
SPEED SISTERS (Iran) Director: Amber Fares
MADINA’S DREAM (Sudan) Director: Andrew Berends
CROCODILE GENNADIY (Ukraine) Director: Steve Hoover
NEW VISIONS (Sponsored by JetBlue Airways)
A BEAUTIFUL NOW (USA) / Director: Daniela Amavia
AFTER THE WEDDING (USA) / Director: Claudia Cifuentes
BAD MOON RISING (Japan) / Director: Hiritaka Asano
EMPIRICA (USA) / Director: Patrick Shanahan
GOLDEN KINGDOM ( Myanmar ) / Director: Brian Perkins
JACKRABBIT (USA) / Director: Carleton Ranney
JOHNNY WALKER (USA) / Director: Kris De Meester
THE PREPPIE CONNECTION (USA) / Director: Joseph Castelo
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE (USA) / Director: Lanre Olabisi
THE AMBASSADOR TO BERN (Hungary) / Director” Attila Szasz
THE CENTER (USA) / Director” Charlie Graik
SINGAPORE SLING (Brazil,USA) / Director: Marcus Sigrist
LA EXTRANA (Dominican Republic) / Director: César Rodríguez
WORLD CINEMA NARRATIVE (Sponsored by CornèrTrader)
ANTI SOCIAL (UK) / Director: Reg Traviss
OMBRE (Bulgaria) / Director: Zachary Iliev Paunov
JASMINE (Hong Kong, USA), / Director: Dax Phelan
MEET PURSUIT DELANGE (UK) / Director: Howard Webster
NORTH VS. SOUTH (UK) / Director: Steven Nesbit
REMITTANCE (Singapore, USA) / Director: Joel Fendelman
WEEPAH WAY FOR NOW SOUND (USA) / Director: Stephen Ringer
WHY DO YOU SMELL LIKE THE OCEAN (USA) / Director: Kevin Baggott
LET’S DANCE TO THE RHYTHM (India) / Director: Bardroy Barretto
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY (Sponsored by CornèrTrader)
GORED (USA, Spain) / Director: Ido Mizrahy
HYDRO (USA) / Directors: Rafa G. Sánchez, Xavi Tello
NEW CAMBODIAN (Cambodia) / Director: Isabella Astengo
WHEN VOICES MEET (South Africa) / Director: Nancy Sutton Smith
EVERY CHILD COUNTS (Canada) / Director: Wendy Loten
CARIBBEAN SPOTLIGHT NARRATIVE
BATTLE DREAMS CHRONICLES (Martinique) / Director: Alain Bidard
BAZODEE (Trinidad & Tobago) / Director: Todd Kessler
STONE SHACKS (Bahamas) / Director: Tyrone Burrows
TRAFFICKED (Trinidad & Tobago) / Director: Sean Hodgkinson
CARIBBEAN SPOTLIGHT DOCUMENTARY
CONGO BEATS THE DRUM (Israel, Jamaica) / Director: Ariel Tagar
DREADLOCKS STORY (Jamaica) / Director: Linda Aïnouche
EXUMA (Bahamas) / Director: Colin Ruggiero
VANISHING SAIL (The Grenadines) / Director: Alexis Andrews
COMEDY
ART ACHE (USA) / Director: Berty Cadilhac
DEPENDENT’S DAY (USA) / Director: Michael David Lynch
DRIVING WHILE BLACK (USA) / Director: Paul Sapiano
IT HAD TO BE YOU (USA) / Director: Sasha Gordon
THE FUNERAL GUEST (USA) / Director: Matthew Kohnen
THE RIGHT JUICE (UK, Portugal) / Director: Kristjan KniggeVIMOOZ
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Kim Beamish “Tentmakers of Cairo” and Iiris Harma “Leaving Africa: A Story of Friendship and Empowerment” Win 2015 Margaret Meade Filmmaker Award
For the first time in the festival’s history, two filmmakers Kim Beamish for “Tentmakers of Cairo” and Iiris Harma for “Leaving Africa: A Story of Friendship and Empowerment” are winners of the 2015 Margaret Meade Filmmaker Award. The award honors documentary filmmakers who have made films that present a new perspective on a foreign nation or culture.
A documentary filmed over three years, “Tentmakers of Cairo” tells the story of Egypt’s struggle with democracy through the lives of a community of artisans whose craft has remained largely unchanged since Pharaonic times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve_L_0JYHvE
In “Leaving Africa: A Story of Friendship and Empowerment” Riitta from Finland and Kata from Uganda, aged 66 and 63 respectively, run sexual health and gender equality education in Uganda. The pair find themselves in a difficult situation however, when an anonymous letter, addressed to the Ugandan parliament, accuses them of organizing workshops that are promoting and recruiting children to homosexuality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2aqqXcZkBk
The festival also presented a Special Mention Award to Aldona Watts for her film “Land of Songs.” In a region of Lithuania known as the “Land of Songs,” five charming grandmothers are the bearers of their village’s ancient folk singing tradition. Singing has nourished their lifelong friendships, and helped them to cope with decades of war and occupation. As the village’s youth move away, the grandmothers struggle to keep their songs alive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqFzzfYJDMc
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Documentary IRAQI ODYSSEY, Switzerland’s Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film, Sets Fall Release Date | TRAILER
The documentary Iraqi Odyssey, Switzerland’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film will be released in New York and Los Angeles on November 27 before expanding nationwide in 2016. Typecast Films will release the English-language version of the film in US theaters, but the version that has qualified as the Swiss Oscar entry is in German.
While there are no precise statistics, it is estimated that four to five million Iraqis live outside Iraq today. Award-winning filmmaker Samir was born in Baghdad and has lived in Switzerland since he was child, while the members of his extended family are scattered all over the world — Abu Dhabi, Auckland, Sydney, Los Angeles, Buffalo, London, Paris, Zurich, and Moscow — with only a handful remaining in Iraq. Recounting his family’s stories of departures and uprootings, in Iraqi Odyssey Samir also chronicles how Iraqis’ dreams of building a modern and just society after their nation achieved independence in the 1950s were brutally dashed over the course of half a century.
Loosely organized in three acts, the film begins with Samir’s grandfather and his role in the struggle against British colonialism. The second act traces the successive waves of emigration as his relatives sought safe havens around the globe to escape from the series of coups and counter-coups in the 1960s and 1970s that resulted in the establishment of Saddam Hussein’s three-decade dictatorship over the country. Saddam’s deposition by the 2003 US invasion, and the iconic image of his statue being toppled in Firdos Square, signals the film’s final act, and the last tale of departure.
Weaving together the ironic, wistful, and witty testimonies of Samir’s relatives with rare documents from private and state archives, Ottoman film footage and 3D technology, Iraqi Odyssey is a riveting epic that creates a genuine people’s history of Iraq, at once humble and majestic.
Shedding a new light on a grossly misrepresented country, Iraqi Odyssey is the veteran director’s most personal, ambitious, and accomplished feature to date.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTs2IMlv7rY
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VIVA, Ireland’s Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Film, to Get 2016 Release
Viva, directed by Irish filmmaker Paddy Breathnach, and Ireland’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Film, will be released in theaters in 2016 via Magnolia Pictures.
The film, which received a positive response when it premiered at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival in September, stars Hector Medina, Luis Alberto Garcia and Jorge Perugorria.
“Viva stars Héctor Medina as Jesus, a young hairdresser working at a Havana nightclub that showcases drag performers, who dreams of being a performer himself. Encouraged by his mentor, Mama (Luis Alberto García), Jesus finally gets his chance to take the stage. But when his estranged father Angel (Jorge Perugorría) abruptly reenters his life, his world is quickly turned upside down. As father and son clash over their opposing expectations of each other, ‘Viva’ becomes a love story as the men struggle to understand one another and reconcile as a family.”
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TRANSFATTY LIVES, Patrick O’Brien’s Battle with ALS, Sets Fall 2015 Release Date
TransFatty Lives, directed by Patrick O’Brien, a DJ and internet personality who goes by ‘TransFatty’, and winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, will be released in theaters and On Demand on November 20, 2015 via FilmBuff.
Ten years in the making, TransFatty Lives has quietly been amassing 35mm footage in filmmaker Patrick O’Brien’s epic battle with ALS.
At 30, Patrick O’Brien was TransFatty, a New York City DJ, internet personality, and filmmaker. He spent his days as a beer-drinking creative force, making art films about perverts, vulnerable souls, and Howard Johnson’s restaurants. Then his legs started shaking.
Defying sentimentality, TRANSFATTY LIVES takes you on an emotional rollercoaster from Patrick’s wild, fun-loving days into the dark heart of ALS (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease). Given 2 to 5 years to live, Patrick first loses his ability to walk, then move his arms, then to swallow, and even to breathe.
With the support of his bewildered friends and family Patrick braves the unthinkable and turns his camera onto himself. As the director and star of his own documentary, Patrick films every step of his debilitating journey from first diagnosis through his current paralysis. Forcefully lacking self-pity, he captures the emotion, humor, and absurdity of real life as he makes art, gets political, falls in love, fathers a son, and fights extreme depression and paranoia.
At 40, Patrick has completed this film by typing directions to his editors with the movements of his pupils. Miraculously, TRANSFATTY LIVES is not a movie about death. Because, while Patrick’s brain stopped being able to control his muscles, it remains brilliantly alive, allowing him to ask: “What if my diminishing physical abilities can be inversely proportional to my journey inward? And, more importantly, “will there be bacon and unicorns once I get there?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqPqbpHageQ
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10 Documentary Shorts on 2015 Oscar’s Shortlist | TRAILERS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 88th Academy Awards® has been narrowed to 10 films, of which five will earn Oscar® nominations.
Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s 74 eligible entries and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tabulation.
The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:
“Body Team 12,” RYOT Films and Vulcan Productions (pictured above)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2eT2P1TfB8
“Chau, beyond the Lines,” Cynasty Films
“Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah,” Jet Black Iris America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJPWP3udqE8
“50 Feet from Syria,” Spin Film
https://vimeo.com/141567000
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” SOC Films
“Last Day of Freedom,” Living Condition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5diBuNHV75U
“Minerita,” Kanaki Films
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY5mbbmN0V4
“My Enemy, My Brother,” Fathom Film Group
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42YFUwCnWzE
“Starting Point,” Munk Studio – Polish Filmmakers Association
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAUTn6q2TVo
“The Testimony,” Atria Film in association with Escape Artists
The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The 88th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
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Benjamin Barber to Present Film Program at 2015 IDFA Reflecting on Jihad vs. McWorld
The 1995 book Jihad vs. McWorld by American political theorist Benjamin Barber forms the starting point for the special program Benjamin Barber: Jihad vs. McWorld 2015 at the upcoming 2015 IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. This year a new 20th anniversary edition of the book will be published with the subtitle ‘ISIS on the Internet’.
At IDFA, Benjamin Barber, an internationally renowned political theorist and the author of eighteen books, will present his own selection of documentaries from the IDFA program that engage with many contemporary themes, including global capitalism, terrorism, the politics of fear, refugees, populism and economic inequality.
3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets (USA) by Marc Silver
A Syrian Love Story (UK) by Sean McAllister
Among the Believers (Pakistan/USA/India) by Mohammed Ali Naqvi & Hemal Trivedi
At Home in the World (Denmark) by Andreas Koefoed
Cartel Land (USA/Mexico) by Matthew Heineman
Checks and Balances (France/Algeria) by Malek Bensmaïl
The Chinese Mayor (China) by Hao Zhou
The Dybbuk: A Tale of Wandering Souls (Poland/Ukraine/Sweden) by Krzysztof Kopczynski
For Kibera! (Finland) by Kati Juurus
Land Grabbing (Austria) by Kurt Langbein
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (USA) by Alex Gibney
This Is Exile: Diaries of Child Refugees (England) by Mani Y. Benchelah (pictured above)
Ukrainian Sheriffs (Ukraine/Latvia/Germany) by Roman Bondarchuk
We Are Not Alone (Spain) by Pere Joan Ventura
Welcome to Leith (USA) by Christopher K. Walker & Michael Nichols
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THE JUDGEMENT Bulgarian Oscar Entry Wins Best Film at 2015 Heartland Film Festival
The 2015 Heartland Film Festival which ran October 16 to 25, 2015, announced its full slate of winners. “The Judgment” (pictured above) Bulgarian entry in the foreign-language film category of the 2016 Academy Awards® wins $45,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature. “Romeo is Bleeding” wins $45,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Feature, “The Way of Tea” wins $5,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short and “The 100 Years Show” wins $5,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Short.
The Heartland Film Festival has earned the special designation of being a qualifying festival for the Annual Academy Awards® within the Short Films category. This means that the winner of the Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short Film, “The Way of Tea,” directed by Marc Fouchard, will qualify for consideration in the Live Action Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards®.
The 2015 Heartland Film Festival winners include:
$45,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature
“The Judgment,” directed by Stephan Komandarev (Bulgaria)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCAYsrl37s
$45,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Feature
“Romeo is Bleeding,” directed by Jason Zeldes (USA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjdh-TmRQCQ
$5,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short
Underwritten by Heartland Film Endowment’s Sparks Vision Award
“The Way of Tea,” directed by Marc Fouchard (France)
$5,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Short
Underwritten by Heartland Film Endowment’s Sparks Vision Award
“The 100 Years Show,” directed by Alison Klayman (USA)
$5,000 Best Premiere for Narrative Feature
“Borderless,” directed by Amir Hossein Asgari (Iran)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVF7DtgDDG4
$5,000 Best Premiere for Documentary Feature
“Big Voice,” directed by Varda Bar-Kar (USA)
$5,000 Indiana Spotlight Winner
“Citizen Teklit,” directed by Tim Taylor (USA)
$3,000 Summer White Lynch Memorial Award Winner – High School Film Competition Grand Prize
Underwritten by Gary D. & Marlene Cohen
“This Home Is Not Empty,” directed by Carol Nguyen (Canada)
$2,000 prizes for the Jimmy Stewart Memorial Crystal Heart Awards
“The Heart Thief,” directed by Ella Rubeli (Australia)
“Leidi,” directed by Simon Mesa Soto (Columbia, UK)
Audience Choice Award Winner, Narrative Feature
“Marie’s Story,” directed by Jean-Pierre Améris (France)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5qJv_I7K6M
Audience Choice Award Winner, Documentary Feature
“dream/killer,” directed by Andrew Jenks (USA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU1hl5rgAI4
Audience Choice Award Winner, Narrative Short
“Moving On,” directed by Marcia Fields and Mike Spear (USA)
Audience Choice Award Winner, Documentary Short
“Teen Press,” directed by T.C. Johnstone (USA)
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Female Indian Buddy Movie “Angry Indian Goddesses” Wins People’s Choice Award at 2015 Rome Film Fest | TRAILER
Angry Indian Goddesses “the first female Indian “buddy movie”” by Pan Nalin is the winner of the BNL People’s Choice Award at the 10th Rome Film Fest. Angry Indian Goddesses stars Sarah-Jane Dias, Rajshri Deshpande, Sandhya Mridul, Amrit Maghera, Pavleen Gujral, Anushka Manchanda, and Tannishtha Chatterjee.
In the film, Frieda, a fashion-commercial photographer trying to find her own art, gathers her closest girlfriends from all over India to travel to Goa for a surprise announcement: she is getting married! Thus begins an impromptu bachelorette celebration that lasts for a full week. A riotous roller-coaster ride of girl bonding; friendships, break ups, make ups, fuck ups, passion, devastation, hesitation, terrorization and self realization. Amidst the fun and frenzy, heartbreak and heartache, passion and obsession, youth and innocence, secrets tumble out, tensions emerge, bonds are formed and emotions run high. Soon events will take a more serious turn, but for the moment these women are determined to seize the day.
Director Pan Nalin states, “For years I longed to do a film with firebrand Indian women in lead roles, because shockingly 96% of female roles in Indian cinema portray the woman as an accessory, a decoration, or a lover, or playing a mother, or sister whose “izzat”(honour) the hero or “big bro” must protect. Alternatively, she is the ultimate ‘IT’ girl! Her male lead must have a gun and a female counterpart but the film caters to males: it must be a testosterone-driven film. Female roles are glamourized and there’s always a dance or ‘gaana’ (song). Of course, the glamour doesn’t dignify the woman and it’s still the guy’s movie!”
“Be it action, rom-com, thriller… the man must dominate more screen time, say the real lines and win the women over. Even the recent Bollywood buddy movies run high on male testosterone, as if women don’t “buddy” or connect with each other! As a filmmaker who loves women and everything feminine, I have been witnessing an outcry from Indian women for gender equality, respect and dignity. Thus, I was compelled to use their fury as my fuel to fire up the Angry Indian Goddesses!”
A self-taught filmmaker, Nalin was born in a remote village in Gujarat, India. He came into the global spotlight in 2001 with his debut feature film Samsara. The movie was a commercial and critical success worldwide and won over thirty awards. His multiple award-winning feature documentary Ayurveda: Art of Being was released in theatres worldwide and to date remains the highest grossing Indian documentary film. Nalin’s romantic epic Valley of Flowers, filmed in Japan and in the remote, high altitudes of the Himalayas, won Best Picture at IFFLA Los Angeles. His latest feature documentary, Faith Connections (2013) was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival (2013) and won the Audience Choice Award at the IFFLA Los Angeles. In 2014 Pan Nalin was included in The Better India’s prestigious list of “25 NRI Across The World Who Have Made India Proud”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feRWnYXe0X4
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“Carol” “Remember” Added to Gala Program of 2015 Los Cabos International Film Festival
Carol directed by Todd Haynes, and Remember by the Canadian director, Atom Egoyan, (pictured above) have been added to the Galas Program of the upcoming 2015 Los Cabos International Film Festival; in addition 3 films have been confirmed to the World Highlights program.
The Festival will hold the Gala Screening of Carol as a Latin American Premiere. This film had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival where Rooney Mara won the award for Best Actress. Atom Egoyan’s Remember will have its Mexican premiere at Los Cabos Film Festival. This film was part of Venice Film Festival’s competition, and won the Vittorio Veneto Award. Featuring an extraordinary performance by Christopher Plummer, who plays a sick widower who leaves his nursing home to take vengeance on the Nazi commander who killed his family 70 years earlier, Remember shines a spotlight on Canadian talent celebrated in the Festival.
The Festival presents its World Highlights program, a carefully chosen selection of films from different parts of the world, with a curatorship focused on the works that have been acclaimed at the world’s most important film festivals:
The films in this program are:
45 YEARS
Director: Andrew Haigh (Gladiator, Weekend)
Starring: Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling
Premiered and won the Silver Bear at Berlinale.
UK
THE CLAN (Premiere in Mexico)
Director: Pablo Trapero (Carancho, Elefante Blanco, Leonera)
Cast: Antonia Bengoechea, Gastón Cocchiarale and Guillermo Francella
Premiered and won the Silver Lion at Venice Film Festival.
Argentina
THE CLUB (Premiere in Mexico)
Director: Pablo Larraín (No, Tony Manero, Post Mortem)
Cast: Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers and Alfredo Castro
Premiered and won the Jury Prize at Berlinale.
Chile
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‘A Childhood’ ‘Volta à Terra’ ‘Underground Fragrance’ Win Gold Hugos at 51st Chicago International Film Festival
The French film A Childhood directed by Philippe Claudel won the Gold Hugo for Best Film at the 51st Chicago International Film Festival. In this tender, keenly observed look at growing up in poverty in small town France, 13-year-old Jimmy dreams of a bourgeois life with family vacations and games of tennis. Trapped in an unstable household with a drug-addicted mother and her criminal boyfriend, Jimmy is forced to grow up too quickly. Over the course of a sweltering summer, Jimmy must find moments of hope in a world full of strife.
The Gold Hugo for Best Documentary went to Volta à Terra, directed by João Pedro Plácido, and in the New Directors Competition, the Gold Hugo went to Underground Fragrance directed by Pengfei Song.
The 51st Chicago International Film Festival also presented Director Michael Moore with the Founder’s Award for his film “Where To Invade Next.” “Chicago is the Capital of the Midwest and I just won the Founder’s Award here,” said Michael Moore.
The winners of the 2015 Chicago International Film Festival
International Film Competition
Gold Hugo, Best Film:
A Childhood
Country: France
Director: Philippe Claudel
Silver Hugo, Special Jury Prize:
Paulina
Country: Argentina, Brazil
Director: Santiago Mitre
Silver Hugo, Best Director:
The Club
Country: Chile
Director: Pablo Larrain
Silver Hugo, Best Male Actor:
Alexi Mathieu, Jules Gauzelin (A Childhood)
Country: France
Director: Philippe Claudel
Silver Hugo, Best Female Actor:
Lizzie Brochere (Full Contact)
Country: Netherlands, Croatia
Director: David Verbeek
Silver Plaque, Best Ensemble:
The Club
Country: Chile
Director: Pablo Larrain
Silver Plaque, Best Cinematography:
Frank Van den Eeden (Full Contact)
Country: Netherlands, Croatia
Director: David Verbeek
Silver Plaque for Best Screenplay:
Writers Guillermo Calderon, Daniel Villalobos, Pablo Larrain (The Club)
Country: Chile
Director: Pablo Larrain
Silver Plaque for Best Art Direction:
Toma Baqueni (My Golden Days)
Country: France
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
New Directors Competition
Gold Hugo:
Underground Fragrance
Country: China
Director: Pengfei Song
Silver Hugo:
Sparrows
Country: Iceland
Director: Runar Runarsson
Roger Ebert Award: The Roger Ebert Award will be presented annually to an emerging filmmaker whose film presents a fresh and uncompromising vision. Films competing in the Festival’s New Directors Competition are eligible for this award.
Nahid
Country: Iran
Director: Ida Panahandeh
Documentary Competition
This selection of international documentaries competing for the Gold Hugo go beyond the headlines in telling those true stories that surprise, entertain and challenge us.
Gold Hugo:
Volta à Terra
Country: Portugal, Switzerland
Director: João Pedro Plácido
Silver Hugo:
In The Underground
Country: China
Director: Song Zhantao
Gold Plaque Special Mention:
Time Suspended
Country: Mexico, Argentina
Director: Natalia Bruschtein
Q Hugo Award
Chosen from the Festival’s OUT-Look program, the winners of this award exhibit new artistic perspectives on sexuality and identity.
Gold Q Hugo:
Carol
Country: USA
Director: Todd Haynes
Silver Q Hugo:
Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party
Country: USA
Director: Stephen Cone
Short Film Awards
Gold Hugo, Live Action:
Leidi
Country: Colombia, UK
Director: Simón Mesa Soto
Silver Hugo, Live Action:
The Exquisite Corpus
Country: Austria
Director: Peter Tscherkassky
Gold Plaque, Live Action:
One-minded
Country: South Korea
Director: Sébastien Simon and Forest Ian Estler
Silver Plaque, Live Action:
over
Country: UK
Director: Jörn Threlfall
Silver Plaque, Live Action:
Ramona
Country: Romania
Director: Andrei Cretulescu
Silver Hugo, Documentary:
Santa Cruz del Islote
Country: US, Colombia
Director: Luke Lorentzen
Gold Plaque, Documentary:
A Tale of Love, Madness and Death
Country: Chile
Director: Mijael Bustos Gutiérrez
Silver Hugo, Animated:
Sunday Lunch
Country: France
Director: Céline Devaux
Gold Plaque, Animated:
The Same River Twice
Country: USA
Director: Weijia Ma
Silver Plaque, Animated:
Waves ’98
Country: Lebanon, Qatar
Director: Ely Dagher
Chicago Award
Chicago Plaque
Radical Grace
Country: USA
Director: Rebecca Parrish
INTERCOM
One of the longest-running international competitions of its kind, INTERCOM honors a wide range of corporate-sponsored, educational and branded films.
Gold Hugo, Business – Communications
Patrick Frost
Company/Entrant: Seed Audio-Visual Communications
Silver Hugo, Sales & Marketing
Black Ink
Company/Entrant: Kemper Kommunikation GmbH
Gold Plaque, Public Relations
Porsche at Le Mans 2015
Company/Entrant: Kemper Kommunikation GmbH
Gold Plaque, Business – Communications
Argyle Pink Diamonds, Beyond Rare
Company/Entrant: Bengar Films
Silver Plaque, Business – Promotion
Soapbox Race 2015
Company/Entrant: Strange Loop Studios
Silver Plaque, Business – Communications
Australia Post, Privacy and You
Company/Entrant: Bengar Films
Silver Plaque, Educational – Youth Audience
Summiteers
Company/Entrant: Seed Audio-Visual Communications
Certificate of Merit, Sports & Recreation
Spa 2015
Company/Entrant: Kemper Kommunikation GmbH
Certificate of Merit, Science/Research/Technology
Antarctic Edge: 70 Degrees South
Company/Entrant: Rutgers Film Bureau

One hundred twenty-four features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 88th Academy Awards®.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Above and Beyond”
“All Things Must Pass”
“Amy”
“The Armor of Light”
“Ballet 422”
“Batkid Begins”
“Becoming Bulletproof”
“Being Evel”
“Beltracchi – The Art of Forgery”
“Best of Enemies”
“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution”
“Bolshoi Babylon”
“Brand: A Second Coming”
“A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story”
“Call Me Lucky”
“Cartel Land”
“Censored Voices”
“Champs”
“CodeGirl”
“Coming Home”
“Dark Horse”
“Deli Man”
“Dior and I”
“The Diplomat”
“(Dis)Honesty – The Truth about Lies”
“Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”
“Dreamcatcher”
“dream/killer”
“Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon”
“Eating Happiness”
“Every Last Child”
“Evidence of Harm”
“Farewell to Hollywood”
“Finders Keepers”
“The Forecaster”
“Frame by Frame”
“Gardeners of Eden”
“A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile”
“Godspeed: The Story of Page Jones”
“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”
“He Named Me Malala”
“Heart of a Dog”
“Hitchcock/Truffaut”
“How to Change the World”
“Human”
“The Hunting Ground”
“I Am Chris Farley”
“In Jackson Heights”
“In My Father’s House”
“India’s Daughter”
“Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words”
“Iraqi Odyssey”
“Iris”
“Janis: Little Girl Blue”
“Karski & the Lords of Humanity”
“Killing Them Safely”
“Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck”
“Lambert & Stamp”
“A Lego Brickumentary”
“Listen to Me Marlon”
“Live from New York!”
“The Look of Silence”
“Meet the Patels”
“Meru”
“The Mind of Mark DeFriest”
“Misery Loves Comedy”
“Monkey Kingdom”
“A Murder in the Park”
“My Italian Secret”
“My Voice, My Life”
“1971”
“Of Men and War”
“One Cut, One Life”
“Only the Dead See the End of War”
“The Outrageous Sophie Tucker”
“Peace Officer”
“The Pearl Button”
“Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer”
“Poached”
“Polyfaces”
“The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers”
“Prophet’s Prey”
“Racing Extinction”
“The Resurrection of Jake the Snake”
“Ride the Thunder – A Vietnam War Story of Victory & Betrayal”
“Rosenwald”
“The Russian Woodpecker”
“Searching for Home: Coming Back from War”
“Seeds of Time”
“Sembene!”
“The Seven Five”
“Seymour: An Introduction”
“Sherpa”
“A Sinner in Mecca”
“Something Better to Come”
“Song from the Forest”
“Song of Lahore”
“Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine”
“Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans”
“Stray Dog”
“Sunshine Superman”
“Sweet Micky for President”
“Tab Hunter Confidential”
“The Tainted Veil”
“Tap World”
“(T)error”
“Thao’s Library”
“Those Who Feel the Fire Burning”
“3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets”
“The Touch of an Angel”
“TransFatty Lives”
“The True Cost”
“Twinsters”
“Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists”
“The Wanted 18”
“We Are Many”
“We Come as Friends”
“We Were Not Just…Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism”
“Welcome to Leith”
“What Happened, Miss Simone?”
“What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy”
“Where to Invade Next”
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” (pictured above)
“The Wolfpack”
Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December.
Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.
The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The 88th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.