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SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER Wins Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER

The 2015 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival revealed the winners in the festival’s four competition categories and SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER which documents Norweigan siblings Magnar and Oddny won the Feature Award.

MINI-DOC AWARD – (15 minutes and under)

Winner: CAILLEACH, directed by Rosie Reed Hillman
Artistic Vision Award: OMID, directed by Jawad Wahabzada
Jury statements: CAILLEACH is a portrait of Morag, an 86-year old woman who revels in her aloneness on the Isle of Harris in the house in which she was born. This stunning film reconciles how time can stand still while the years pass by in rhythmic ruggedness.
The craft of storytelling is alive in OMID, which looks in the face of contemporary cinema to open the eyes of the world.
Jury: Filmmakers John Cohen and Adam Singer; Tracy Rector, Longhouse Media

SHORT FILM AWARD – (15 and 40 minutes in length)

Winner: LA REINA, directed by Manuel Abramovich
Jury statement: LA REINA is a devastating combination of artistic vision, storytelling, cinematic composition, and perspective as we follow the experience of a young, privileged Argentinian girl who is pushed to excel in a way that one imagines extends to every facet of her life. It is truly devastating – in the best sense of that word.
Jury: Alexandra Hannibal, Tribeca Film Institute; Christoph Green, Trixie Film; Noland Walker, ITVS

BIG SKY AWARD –
Presented to a film that artistically honors the character, history, tradition and imagination of the American West.

Winner: LOVE AND TERROR ON THE HOWLING PLAINS OF NOWHERE, directed by Dave Janetta.
Artistic Vision Award: FISHTAIL, directed by Andrew Renzi
Jury statement: FISHTAIL presents a quiet nostalgic beauty for a way of life that has drifted from mainstream consciousness. Its poetic, intimate story, portrayed through magnificent cinematography, shows a vibrant American West in which the ranchers connect deeply with their work and the land.
Jury: Producer Sandy Itkoff; Julie Campfield, ro*co films; Nikki Hayman, POV

FEATURE AWARD – (over 40 minutes in length)

Winner: SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER
Jury statement: SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER is a poetic and warm portrayal of the siblings Magnar and Oddny, whose existence and everyday life seems frozen in time. Capturing the beauty of family ties, as well as of the Norwegian landscape. Stunning cinematography.
Jury: Brian Newman, Sub-Genre Media; Journalist Erik Augustin-Palm; Mia Desroches, National Film Board of Canada; Tracy Rector, Longhouse Media.
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First Films Revealed for Art of the Real Doc Fest in NY

Iec Long

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the initial selections for Art of the Real, the second annual documentary-as-art festival, taking place April 10-26.

Opening Night will premiere new works by João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata (The Last Time I Saw Macao,Mahjong), Eduardo Williams, and Matt Porterfield (I Used to Be Darker), and all filmmakers will be in attendance. The U.S. Premiere of Rodrigues & Guerra da Mata’s Iec Long, screening this week at the Berlinale, mixes archival footage, photographs, figurine-based reconstructions, and oral testimony in an eclectic depiction of a derelict Macao fireworks factory. Argentinian director Williams’s spellbinding and enigmatic I Forgot, which will also have its U.S. Premiere, follows a group of Vietnamese teenagers as they stave off boredom by leaping from one building to the next. A North American Premiere, Porterfield’s Take What You Can Carry, in competition at the 2015 Berlinale shorts program, is a delicate portrait of a young American woman in Berlin (Hannah Gross) attempting to reconcile her need for a stable sense of identity with her itinerant lifestyle.

The lineup will also feature The Actualities of Agnès Varda, a retrospective of the filmmaker’s work in the context of her career-long focus on merging fact and fiction. Varda will be in attendance for several screenings, and the spotlight will feature many new digital restorations, including her debut feature, La Pointe Courte, the landmark Vagabond, and all of her “California Films” (Lion’s Love, Documenteur, Mur Murs, Black Panthers, Uncle Yanco). The spotlight will also feature some of Varda’s most celebrated documentaries, such as Daguerrotypes and The Gleaners and I. Varda is a longtime favorite of the New York Film Festival, and several of her works will return to the big screen at the Film Society, including Documenteur(NYFF ’81), The Gleaners and I (NYFF ’00), Lions Love (NYFF ’69), and Mur Murs (NYFF ’80).

The films in Repeat as Necessary: The Art of Reenactment trace a partial history of reenactment as its own medium, an act of repetition that often leads to revelation. Recent films like The Act of Killing and The Arbor have called attention to its uses, but reenactment has a rich history as an invaluable mode of documentary art, employed as a tool of dramatization, an investigative strategy, and a means of creating art from the archive. The spotlight will feature works by a wide range of artists and filmmakers working today and over the past several decades, from Jean Eustache, Juan Downey, and Harun Farocki to Elisabeth Subrin, Ming Wong, Simon Fujiwara, Jill Godmilow, and many more.
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SNL Documentary to Open 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

The world premiere of the “Saturday Night Live” documentary Live From New York!, will open the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 15. “Saturday Night Live” has been reflecting and influencing the American story for 40 years. Live From New York! explores the show’s early years, an experiment that began with a young Lorne Michaels and his cast of unknowns, and follows its evolution into a comedy institution. Archival footage is interwoven with stolen moments and exclusive commentary from “SNL” legends, journalists, hosts, crew and others influenced by the comedy giant. Live From New York! captures what has enabled “SNL” to continually refresh itself over nearly 800 episodes and keep America laughing for 40 years. Live From New York! is directed by Tribeca alum Bao Nguyen and produced by JL Pomeroy and Tom Broecker. Tickets for the TFF 2015 Opening Night Gala go on sale on March 23 at tribecafilm.com/festival. The Tribeca Film Festival runs April 15 to April 26. “’SNL’s’ contribution to the arts and to pop culture has been—and continues to be—groundbreaking, and Live From New York!offers an inside look at the show’s inimitable ability to both reflect and impact American news, history and culture,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “This is the story of a creative journey from pilot to institution and a tribute to the moments that kept us laughing and talking long after the episodes aired. We are excited to welcome Bao Nguyen back to Tribeca to open our 14^th Festival with the world premiere of Live From New York!.” “After 40 years, the timing just felt right,” said Lorne Michaels. “The selection of Live from New York! to open the 14th Tribeca Film Festival is personally gratifying to me on several levels. Having hosted SNL three times, and guested on several occasions, I speak from a first-hand experience about “SNL’s” rightful place in our culture as well as a welcome addition to our Festival,” said Robert De Niro, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “’Saturday Night Live’ is such a revered institution and we really wanted to make a film that reflected its significance not just to the American comedic tradition but also to American culture and society,” said director Bao Nguyen. “I want to thank Lorne Michaels for allowing us to film in the storied halls of Studio 8H. I’d also like to thank JL Pomeroy and Tom Broecker for trusting me with their creative vision. Finally, I can’t thank Tribeca enough for all their support. We couldn’t dream of a better place to world premiere Live From New York! than at New York City’s own Tribeca Film Festival.”
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Full Frame Doc Film Fest Reveals 2015 Tribute Award Honoree

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will honor Marshall Curry with the 2015 Tribute Award, presenting a retrospective of his work; and this year’s Thematic Program will be curated by filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal.

Curry is a two-time Academy Award®–nominated documentary director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. His first film, Street Fight, won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, AFI/Discovery SilverDocs Festival, and Hot Docs Film Festival. It also received the Jury Prize at Hot Docs and was nominated for a Writer’s Guild of America Award, an Oscar®, and an Emmy. Curry’s next film, Racing Dreams, won the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival Jury Prize for Best Documentary. His film If a Tree Falls: The Story of the Earth Liberation Front won the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Documentary Editing and was nominated for an Academy Award®. Curry’s most recent film, Point and Shoot, won Best Documentary at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award, an IDA Award, and a Cinema Eye Honors Award. Curry’s films have been broadcast nationally on PBS, and have played around the world on the BBC, HBO Latin America, and others. Curry also served as executive producer of Mistaken for Strangers, which opened the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013.

For this year’s Thematic Program, Full Frame will focus on the complex moral questions around documentation, tapping filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal to curate.

Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for 20 years. Her films include Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles, about enigmatic expatriate novelist Paul Bowles; The True Meaning of Pictures,about the work of Appalachian photographer Shelby Lee Adams; Manufactured Landscapes, about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky; Act of God, about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning; Payback, a documentary adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth; and Watermark(co-directed by Edward Burtynsky), about human interaction with water around the world. Her films have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival, and have won an International Emmy Award for Best Arts Documentary, the Toronto Film Critic’s Association prize for Best Canadian Film, the Canadian Media Awards prize for Best Documentary, and numerous other awards.

“The ethics and politics of representation have preoccupied me since I started making films two decades ago,” said Baichwal. “It came to a head in 2003 with The True Meaning of Pictures. I realized that by showing the photographs of Shelby Lee Adams in our film, we were subject to exactly the same criticism leveled against him for taking them. And I knew we had to address this in some way beyond having people argue about whether the representation was ethical or not. I also realized that there is no overall rule for tackling these issues: each context, each situation, demands its own complex, delicate, honest, ethical approach.”

The 18th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 9-12, 2015, in Durham, N.C., with Duke University as the presenting sponsor.

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New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival Unveils 2015 Lineup

When Marnie Was There

The New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival announced the complete lineup for its 2015 event, which runs February 27-March 22.

The Oscar® qualifying film festival will be held at New York’s DGA Theater, IFC Center, Scholastic Theater, SVA Theatre, and Village East Cinema.

Highlights include US and North American feature film premieres of Studio Ghibli’s When Marnie Was There (Japan), BBC’s Enchanted Kingdom 3D(UK), Mune (France), and Moomins on the Riviera (France), the US premiere of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (Various Countries), the east coast premiere of the new Aardman feature Shaun the Sheep the Movie (UK), six Oscar®-qualifying short film programs,Best of Aardman Shorts, a collection of four decades of short films from Aardman Animations, and a special program of Nick Park’s Wallace & Gromit Shorts. The Festival will culminate in the Closing Night Celebration, which will include the announcement of the 2015 award winners and a special program of the Best of the Fest short films.

OPENING NIGHT FILMS:

SHAUN THE SHEEP THE MOVIE – East Coast Premiere, Animation, UK, Mark Burton/Richard Starzack; No Dialogue.
The newest film from stop-motion maestros, Aardman Animations – a grass-fed, farm-to-screen adventure brimming with humor, charm, and wit. Shaun the Sheep, the woolly stop-motion star whose vocal range is limited to bleats and baas, first appeared in Nick Park’s 1995 Oscar^®-winning Wallace and Gromit adventure. In his first feature film, Shaun tires of the everyday routine on Mossy Bottom Farm and concocts a plan to lead his flock in rebellion.

WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE – North American Premiere, Animation, Japan, Hiromasa Yonebayashi; In Japanese with English subtitles.
The newest feature from Japan’s famed Studio Ghibli is a sweeping story of friendship, mystery, and discovery that delivers stirring emotions and breathtaking animation as only Ghibli can. When shy, artistic Anna moves to the seaside to live with her aunt and uncle, she stumbles upon an old mansion surrounded by marshes, and the mysterious young girl, Marnie, who lives there. The two girls instantly form a unique connection and friendship that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

CLOSING DAY FILMS:

ENCHANTED KINGDOM 3D – North American Premiere, Documentary, UK, Patrick Morris/Neil Nightingale; In English.
The creators of BBC’s groundbreaking Walking with Dinosaurs 3Dand Earth take us on a spell-binding journey through seven realms of with extraordinary timelapse photography. Sweeping aerial shots and macro and micro lensed 3D, propel us from enchanted forests to the boiling edge of the underworld, from celestial ice-capped mountains and lava-spewing volcanoes to crashing waterfalls and deep fantastical seas. Narrated by Idris Elba.

KAHLIL GIBRAN’S THE PROPHET – US Premiere, Animation, Various Countries, Roger Allers; In English.
The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, is among the most popular volumes of poetry ever written, selling over 100 million copies in forty languages since its publication in 1923. The timeless verses have been given enchanting new form in this painterly cinematic adventure about freedom and the power of human expression. Written and directed by Roger Allers (The Lion King), the film intersperses Gibran’s elegant verses with stunning animated sequences by Festival favorite filmmakers Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), Bill Plympton (Guide Dog), and a host of award-winning animators from around the world. Featuring the voices of Liam Neeson, Salma Hayak, and Quvenzhané Wallis, and music from Damien Rice, Glen Hansard, and Yo-Yo Ma.

NYICFF 2015 FEATURE FILMS (ALPHABETICAL):

BALLET BOYS – Documentary, Norway, Kenneth Elvebakk; In Norwegian with English subtitles.
Ballet Boys takes us through four years in the lives of three young dancers. The only boy dancers in a world of girls, they strive to get into Norway’s most prestigious ballet academy. Beautifully constructed, slow-motion dance sequences and life-altering auditions provide a pulse of drama throughout their journey, but the film is ultimately the story of their friendship, disappointments, victories, first loves, dreams, and doubts.

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – New York Premiere, Live Action, France, Nicolas Vanier; In French with English subtitles.
A story of friendship, courage, and loyalty set against the jaw-dropping scenery and alpine panoramas of the Haute Maurienne-Vanoise region of France. Sebastian lives with his grandfather, César, in a vertiginous mountain village, where he crosses paths with a giant and dirty Pyrenean Mountain Dog who the locals have dubbed “the Beast” for allegedly killing their livestock. But Sebastian sees something good in the misunderstood canine and befriends the animal, renaming her “Belle.” Their budding friendship is put to the test when Nazis march into town looking to root out a band of resistance fighters who are guiding Jewish refugees to neighboring Switzerland.

HOCUS POCUS ALFIE ATKINS – East Coast Premiere, Animation, Norway, Torril Kove; In English.
Academy Award^® winning director Torill Kove’s first feature film is a refreshingly warm and intimate tale based on beloved children’s book character Alfie Atkins. Seven-year-old Alfie dreams of owning a dog, but his father insists that he is too small for such a big responsibility. Undaunted, Alfie finds an unlikely ally in George, a kindly magician who performs tricks for the neighborhood kids and has just adopted a puppy of his own. Lovingly animated with thoughtful, honest character interactions, Hocus Pocus offers an emotionally and visually rich cinema experience for audiences of all ages.

JELLYFISH EYES – Live Action/Animation, Japan, Takashi Murakami; In Japanese with English subtitles.
Pop art superstar Takashi Murakami makes his feature film debut with a campy, genre-defying adventure that mixes lo-fi Japanese disaster movie, new kid-on-the-block coming-of-age story, andPokémon-style anime with a delirious abundance of wonderfully imagined magical creatures. Setting Murukami’s fantastical animated designs in an otherwise live action film, Jellyfish Eyes tells the story of Masashi, a young boy who moves to a sleepy town in the Japanese countryside in the wake of a natural disaster.

LANDFILLHARMONIC – East Coast Premiere, Documentary, USA, Brad Allgood/Graham Townsley; In Spanish with English subtitles.
The world generates over a billion tons of garbage a year, much of it ending up in poor rural communities like Cateura, Paraguay, where over 2,000 families survive by separating garbage for recycling. When a teen music program there can’t afford new instruments, a garbage picker named Cola fashions a violin from an empty oil tin – thus inspiring the Recycled Orchestra. The film follows the young musicians as they reach even greater heights, performing concerts in the US, Europe, and Asia – even sharing the stage with heavy metal super-group, Metallica.

LOU! – US Premiere, Live Action, France, Julien Neel; In French with English subtitles.
Twelve-and-a-half-year-old Lou lives alone with her absurdly immature mother, Emma. Her mom has been in a funk lately, eating junk food in her pajamas, playing video games, and generally behaving more like a teen than her on-the-cusp-of-adolescence daughter. But all this changes with arrival of the new bohemian neighbor, Richard, who ignites her goofy mother’s romantic interests. Neel has turned the French comic and animated TV series into a quirky, mom and daughter buddy movie, with vibrant and brilliantly kitschy bubble-gum production design and plenty of cringe-worthy, awkward comedic situations.

MOOMINS ON THE RIVIERA – North American Premiere, Animation, Finland/France, Xavier Picard; in English.
Sixty years ago, when Finnish author and illustrator Tove Jansson launched the Moomin comic strip, little did she know it would reach 20 million daily readers in more than 40 countries. In celebration of her 100th birthday, French director Xavier Picard brings Jansson’s carefree and adventurous Moomin family to life, with delicately animated characters set within beautifully designed and colored backgrounds, and the comic’s traipsing storylines translated to the screen with just the right amount of absurdity and humor.

MUNE (3D) – North American Premiere, Animation, France, Alexandre Heboyan/Benoît Phillippon; In English.
A world of wonder, magic and mythology is the setting in this sumptuously animated CGI adventure about a land divided between the realms of day and night. As legend has it, the first Guardian of the Sun threw a harpoon into the cosmos and roped the sun to bring light and warmth to all of humanity. Then the Guardian of the Moon lured the moon to the Land of Darkness to provide a balance to the sun and supply the world with dreams. At a momentous ceremony to appoint the two new guardians, an accident seems to occur; the heir apparent is passed over, and the title Guardian of the Moon is bestowed on the waif-like Mune, a small and frightened forest faun who seems wholly unprepared to take on such a weighty responsibility.

SATELLITE GIRL AND MILK COW – New York Premiere, Animation, South Korea, Chang Hyung-yun; In Korean with English subtitles.
Festival award-winning Wolf Daddy director Chang Hyung-yun has created a wholly original, exuberantly outrageous, sci-fi love story unlike anything before it. An orbiting, out-of-commission female satellite picks up a lovelorn pop song on its radio antenna and descends to Earth to try to discover who could be the source of such heartfelt emotions. On the way, it is transformed into the titular Satellite Girl, complete with Astroboy-like rocket shoes and weapon-firing limbs, while the balladeer in question — a loser twenty-something playing at an open mic in a coffee shop — meets the fate that befalls all broken-hearted lovers: he is turned into a farm animal (albeit one who can walk around in a poorly-fitting human suit).

SECRETS OF WAR – New York Premiere, Live Action, Netherlands, Dennis Bots; In Dutch with English subtitles.
Netherlands, 1943. Best friends Tuur and Lambert spend their time dreaming up adventures and discovering secret passages in the caves and forests that surround their close-knit village. Homemade wooden pistols serve as props in their playful war games, as they make light of the conflict that is building all around them. When new girl Maartje enters their social circle, the boys’ friendship faces a challenge typical of adolescence – and Lambert begins to feel more and more like the third wheel. Secrets of War, with its lush backdrops and strong emotional performances from three young leads, expertly balances the universality of shifting young friendships with the moral complexity of war.

WOLFY, THE INCREDIBLE SECRET – US Premiere, Animation, Belgium/France, Grégoire Solotareff/Eric Omond; in English.
Though they’re from opposite ends of the food chain, Wolfy and Tom (a wolf and rabbit, respectively) are best friends. Wolfy has always believed he was an orphan, until one day a gypsy tells him that his mother is still alive in the distant dynasty of Wolfenberg, Land of the Wolves. Despite his fear, Tom agrees to accompany his friend as they venture far from their peaceful countryside home. They arrive in the midst of Carne Festival— a grand meeting of the world’s most renowned carnivores — and Wolfy’s quest for self-discovery quickly turns into Tom’s quest for survival. This beautifully animated film is based on the wildly popular French children’s book series LouLou from writer and director Grégoire Solotareff.
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Yves Saint Laurent Bio Pics Lead 2015 César Award Nominations

Saint Laurent by Bertrand Bonello

Biopics on French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent lead the Césars (the French Oscars); Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent is the top leader with 10 nominations, including best film, best actor for Gaspard Ulliel and best director.

Thomas Cailley’s Les Combattants followed closely with nine, and Oscar nominee Timbuktu with eight. The other biopic, Yves Saint Laurent, directed by Jalil Lespert, recevied seven nominations.

The nominees for the best foreign film were 12 Years a Slave, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Two Days, One Night, Mommy and Winter Sleep.

In a big first, Kristen Stewart became the first American actress to be nominated for a César, she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Clouds of Sils Maria.

Sean Penn will receive the Academy’s Honorary Cesar this year.

The 40th annual César Awards will be held on Feb. 20 at Paris’ Chatelet Theatre

Complete list of nominations for 40th César Awards

Best Film
Les Combattants
Eastern Boys
La Famille Bélier
Saint Laurent
Hippocrate
Sils Maria
Timbuktu

Best Director
Céline Sciamma, Bande De Filles
Thomas Cailley, Les Combattants
Robin Campillo, Eastern Boys
Thomas Lilti, Hippocrate
Bertrand Bonello, Saint Laurent
Olivier Assayas, Sils Maria
Abderrahmane Sissako, Timbuktu

Best Actor
Pierre Niney, Yves Saint Laurent
Romain Duris, Une Nouvelle Amie
Gaspard Ulliel, Saint Laurent
Guillaume Canet, La Prochaine Fois Je Viserai Le Coeur
Niels Arestrup, Diplomatie
François Damiens, La Famille Bélier
Vincent Lacoste, Hippocrate

Best Actress
Juliette Binoche, Sils Maria
Catherine Deneuve, Dans La Cour
Marion Cotillard, Deux Jours, Une Nuit
Emilie Dequenne, Pas Son Genre
Adèle Haenel, Les Combattants
Sandrine Kiberlain, Elle L’Adore
Karin Viard, La Famille Bélier

Best Supporting Actor
Eric Elmosnino, La Famille Bélier
Jérémie Renier, Saint Laurent
Guillaume Gallienne, Yves Saint Laurent
Louis Garrel, Saint Laurent
Reda Kateb, Hippocrate

Best Supporting Actress
Marianne Denicourt, Hippocrate
Claude Gensac, Lulu Femme Nue
Izïa Higelin, Samba
Charlotte Le Bon, Yves Saint Laurent
Kristen Stewart, Sils Maria

Best Adapted Screenplay
La Chambre Bleue
Diplomatie
Pas Son Genre
Lulu Femme Nue
La Prochaine Fois Je Viserai Le Coeur

Best Original Screenplay
Les Combattants
La Famille Bélier
Hippocrate
Sils Maria
Timbuktu

Best Cinematography
La Belle Et La Bête
Saint Laurent
Sils Maria
Timbuktu
Yves Saint Laurent

Best Costumes
La Belle Et La Bête
La French
Saint Laurent
Une Nouvelle Amie
Yves Saint Laurent

Best Editing
Les Combattants
Hippocrate
Party Girl
Saint Laurent
Timbuktu

Best Set Design
La Belle Et La Bête
La French
Saint Laurent
Timbuktu
Yves Saint Laurent

Best Score
Bande De Filles
Bird People
Les Combattants
Timbuktu
Yves Saint Laurent

Best Sound
Bande De Filles
Bird People
Les Combattants
Saint Laurent
Timbuktu

Best Animated Film
Muniscule — La Vallée Des Fourmis Perdues
Jack Et La Mécanique Du Coeur
Le Chant De La Mer

Best Documentary
Caricaturistes – Fantassins De La Démocratie
Les Chèvres De Ma Mère
La Cour De Babel
National Gallery
The Salt Of The Earth

Best Foreign Film
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Deux Jours, Une Nuit
Ida
Mommy
12 Years a Slave
Winter Sleep

Best Newcomer (Male)
Kevin Azaïs, Les Combattants
Ahmed Dramé, Les Héritiers
Kirill Emelyanov, Eastern Boys
Pierre Rochefort, Un Beau Dimanche
Marc Zinga, Qu’Allah Bénisse La France

Best Newcomer (Female)
Lou de Laâge, Respire
Joséphine Japy, Respire
Louane Emera, La Famille Bélier
Ariane Labed, Fidelio, L’Odyssée D’Alice
Karidja Touré, Bande De Filles

Best Debut Feature
Les Combattants
Elle L’Adore
Fidelio, L’Odyssée D’Alice
Party Girl
Qu’Allah Bénisse La France

Best Short Film
Aïssa
La Femme De Rio
Inupiluk
Les Jours D’Avant
Où Je Mets Ma Pudeur
La Virée A Paname

Best Animated Short
Bang Bang!
La Bûche De Noël
La Petite Casserole D’Anatole
Les Petits Cailloux
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Sony Pictures Classics to Release GRANDMA Starring Lily Tomlin

GRANDMA, written and directed by Paul Weitz, and premiering Friday at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival has been picked up for release by Sony Pictures Classics.

GRANDMA stars Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer, Laverne Cox and Sam Elliott. GRANDMA is produced by Andrew Miano, Weitz, Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis and Terry Dougas and executive produced by Stephanie Meurer, Dan Balgoyen and Danielle Renfrew Behrens.

In GRANDMA, Lily Tomlin is Elle Reid. Elle has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when Elle’s granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing $600 before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets.
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Darren Aronofsky to Head 2015 Berlinale Competition Jury

Darren Aronofsky

Director, screenwriter and producer Darren Aronofsky will serve as Jury President, the International Jury who will decide who will receive the Golden Bear and Silver Bears of the 2015 Berlinale Competition.

The other members of the International Jury are Daniel Brühl, Bong Joon-ho, Martha De Laurentiis, Claudia Llosa, Audrey Tautou and Matthew Weiner.

Darren Aronofsky, Jury President, USA
Following his studies at Harvard University, Darren Aronofsky celebrated his feature film debut in 1998 with Pi, which won the award for Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival and Best Script at the Independent Spirit Awards. He presented his highly acclaimed cinematic adaptation Requiem for a Dream at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, and the cult film The Fountain at the Venice Film Festival in 2006. Again in Venice, his film The Wrestler won the Golden Lion in 2008, and was hailed as the film of the year at the AFI Awards in Los Angeles. The film’s success also represented a sensational comeback of actor Mickey Rourke.

In 2011, Darren Aronofsky presented Black Swan, a psychological thriller taking place in the world of professional ballet. It was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Director’s Guild of America Awards and the BAFTAs. His visually sweeping film Noah was released in 2014.

Daniel Brühl, Germany
Daniel Brühl is one of a handful of German movie stars who have also established a successful international career. Following his distinction with the German Film Award for Das weiße Rauschen,Vaya con Dios and Nichts bereuen in 2002, he celebrated his breakthrough in 2003 with Good Bye, Lenin!, which screened inCompetition at the Berlinale. For that role, Daniel Brühl received the European Film Award as well as another German Film Award. His international work has included roles in Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate and Michael Winterbottom’s The Face of an Angel. Following various productions in Germany, Spain, France and the US, he was recently nominated for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe Award, for his work in Ron Howard’s Rush. His most recent role was alongside Helen Mirren in Simon Curtis’s Woman in Gold.

Bong Joon-ho, South Korea
Born in 1969 in Seoul, South Korea, Bong Joon-ho studied sociology before graduating from the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA). He initially worked as a screenwriter and director’s assistant while also making many short films of his own. His feature film debut Barking Dogs Never Bite was released in cinemas in 2000. His film Memories of Murder was screened at the San Sebastián film festival, among others, and won numerous awards. In 2006, following its world premiere in the Quinzane des Réalisateurs in Cannes, The Host would go on to become the biggest box office hit ever in South Korea. Bong Joon-ho was invited to Cannes once again in 2009 forMother, this time in the section Un Certain Regard. His English language film debut Snowpiercer, featuring Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton and John Hurt, was a selection in the 2014 Berlinale Forum program.

Martha De Laurentiis, USA
Martha De Laurentiis and her husband Dino founded their production firm – today known as the De Laurentiis Company – in 1980. Since then it has been responsible for over 40 feature films and television series, including Stephen King’s directorial debut Maximum Overdrive, The Bedroom Window by Curtis Hanson, Michael Cimino’s Desperate Hours, Breakdown and U-571 by Jonathan Mostow and Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon. It produced Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of Hannibal, which screened out of competition at the Berlinale in 2001. De Laurentiis Company is also an executive producer of the Hannibal television series, which stars Mads Mikkelsen and has entered its third season in the US. At the 2014 festival, Martha De Laurentiis talked about the Hannibal series at Berlinale Talents.

Claudia Llosa, Peru
Peruvian native Claudia Llosa studied Communication Studies in Lima and later scriptwriting at the Escuela TAI in Madrid. She began her career in advertising before starting her own film production company. Her first feature film Madeinusa was released in 2006. Three years later, the WCF-funded film The Milk of Sorrow was a selection in the Berlinale Competition program and went on to win the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2012, her short film Loxoro was a selection in the Berlinale Shorts program and won the Teddy Award. Her English-language film debut Aloft, starring Jennifer Connelly, Mélanie Laurent and Cillian Murphy, screened in Competition in 2014 and Sundance Spotlight 2015.

Audrey Tautou, France
Audrey Tautou’s feature film debut – in the comedy Venus Beauty Institute – garnered her a César Award. Her international breakthrough came in 2001, when she starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie and was nominated for the European Film Award, as well as for another César and a BAFTA in 2002. Other films in her repertoire include Cédric Klapisch’s acclaimed L’Auberge Espagnole trilogy, Not on the Lips by Alain Resnais, Salvadori’s Priceless, Coco Before Chanel, and international productions such as The Da Vinci Code and Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things. Most recently, the French actress worked with Claude Miller (Thérèse Desqueyroux) and Michel Gondry (Mood Indigo).

Matthew Weiner, USA
Since 2007, Matthew Weiner has been the creator, executive producer and writer of the successful and critically acclaimed television series Mad Men, whose seventh and last season is currently running in the US. To date, he has received nine Emmys, two BAFTAS, three Golden Globes, numerous WGA awards and many other distinctions recognising his work on the series. As a director, he has been nominated twice by the DGA for his work behind the camera. Are You Here, starring Owen Wilson and Amy Poehler, marks his feature film debut as a writer, director and producer. Weiner’s other credits as a writer include the television series Becker, The Naked Truth, and The Sopranos – for which he was also an executive producer.
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IFC Film to Release Comedy THE D TRAIN Starring Jack Black

IFC Films announced from the 2015 Sundance Film Festival that the company will release Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel’s comedy THE D TRAIN, with plans to roll the film out in theaters nationwide this year.

The film, with an original screenplay by Paul and Mogel, stars Jack Black, James Marsden, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike White, Kathryn Hahn and Kyle Bornheimer. THE D TRAIN was produced by David Bernad, Mike White, Jack Black, Priyanka Mattoo, Ben Latham-Jones and Barnaby Thompson.

“Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel prove with this film that they have arrived as one of the great new filmmaking teams in Hollywood. They have crafted a smart, sensitive and hilarious film which features a terrific ensemble, led by the immense talent of Jack Black and James Marsden,” says Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films. “Our team fell in love with this film and we are planning to put the full weight of the studio behind it with the goal of rolling the film out in theaters across the country.

This is the first acquisition for IFC Films at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, who came to the festival just one year ago with Richard Linklater’s Academy Award nominated film BOYHOOD. BOYHOOD, which also received an aggressive theatrical release over the summer and is still in theaters, has now grossed nearly $25 million theatrically. THE D TRAIN will follow a similar theatrical rollout with another aggressive social media and marketing campaign.

In the film, Dan Landsman (Jack Black) is the overly enthusiastic head of his high school reunion committee and also the group’s laughingstock. To impress his so-called friends, he vows to convince their most famous former classmate—Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), the star of a national Banana Boat TV commercial—to attend the reunion to increase attendance. Dan travels to Los Angeles and spins a web of lies, igniting an intoxicating excitement for the first time in his humdrum life. In exchange for Oliver’s precarious friendship, Dan sacrifices his relationships with his wife, son, and boss, and loses himself in his obsession for approval and recognition

THE D TRAIN premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition Section of the festival.

IFC Films is a sister label to IFC Midnight and Sundance Selects, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.
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Sundance Selects to Release Laura Gabbert’s CITY OF GOLD

Laura Gabbert’s CITY OF GOLD which recently premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival has been picked up for distribution by Sundance Selects.

The film made its world premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition section at the festival this week.

The festival program describes the film as “a richly penetrating documentary odyssey” saying “Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold shows us another Los Angeles, where ethnic cooking is a kaleidoscopic portal to the mysteries of an unwieldy city and the soul of America. Bombing through colorful neighborhoods in his green pickup truck, Gold is sniffing out his next strip-mall discovery—whether Oaxacan grasshopper soup, hand-cut tonkotsu ramen, or a particularly unctuouspad see ew. As piping-hot platters are served up, so are stories of immigrants whose secret family recipes are like sacred offerings pledged for the opportunity to build their American Dream. With eternal curiosity, razor-sharp intellect, and existential longing, Gold is a culinary geographer taking us where no critic has gone before. Like the film, Gold makes low culture high and high culture relevant, teasing out the meaning of life from a Korean taco, and pondering all that makes us different and all that makes us exactly the same.”

“Laura’s film is an amazing portrait of today’s diverse culture as told through the eyes of inimitable food critic Jonathan Gold,” says President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films Jonathan Sehring. “Our entire team fell in love with CITY OF GOLD and we look forward to working with the filmmaking team on its release.”

“We are very excited to be partnering with Sundance Selects on CITY OF GOLD. Jonathan Sehring and his team bring incredible passion and experience to the project and we’re looking forward to bringing Jonathan Gold’s Los Angeles to the world,” says Gabbert.

Previous Sundance Selects documentaries include CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, PINA, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, BUCK, DIRTY WARS and this year’s Academy Award nominated film FINDING VIVIAN MAIER.

Sundance Selects is a sister label to IFC Films and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.
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2015 Sundance Film Festival Announces Short Film Awards

World of Tomorrow

Sundance Film Festival announced the 2015 jury prizes in short filmmaking. The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to World of Tomorrow directed by Don Hertzfeldt.

This year’s Short Film program is comprised of 60 short films selected from 8,061 submissions. The Short Film jurors are: K.K. Barrett, Alia Shawkat and Autumn de Wilde.

2015 Jury Prizes in Short Filmmaking:

The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to:
World of Tomorrow / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Don Hertzfeldt) — A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of the distant future.

The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to:
SMILF / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Frankie Shaw) — A young single mother struggles to balance her old life of freedom with her new one as mom. It all comes to a head during one particular nap-time when Bridgette invites an old friend over for a visit.

The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction was presented to:
Oh Lucy! / Japan, Singapore, U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Atsuko Hirayanagi) — Setsuko, a 55-year-old single so-called office lady in Tokyo, is given a blonde wig and a new identity, Lucy, by her young unconventional English-language teacher. “Lucy” awakens desires in Setsuko she never knew existed.

The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction was presented to:
The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul / Australia (Director: Kitty Green) — Adorned in pink sequins, little girls from across a divided, war-torn Ukraine audition to play the role of Olympic champion figure skater Oksana Baiul, whose tears of joy once united their troubled country.

The Short Film Jury Award: Animation was presented to:
Storm hits jacket / France (Director and screenwriter: Paul Cabon) — A storm reaches the shores of Brittany. Nature goes crazy, two young scientists get caught up in the chaos. Espionage, romantic tension, and mysterious events clash with enthusiasm and randomness.

A Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting was presented to:
Back Alley / France (Director and screenwriter: Cécile Ducrocq) — Suzanne, a prostitute for 15 years, has her turf, her regular johns, and her freedom. One day, however, young African prostitutes settle nearby, and she is threatened.

A Short Film Special Jury Award for Visual Poetry was presented to:
Object / Poland (Director: Paulina Skibińska) — A creative image of an underwater search in the dimensions of two worlds — ice desert and under water — told from the point of view of the rescue team, of the diver, and of the ordinary people waiting on the shore.
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Sundance’s ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL To Get A Release

Fox Searchlight Pictures has partnered with Indian Paintbrush for worldwide distribution on the poignant coming of age story ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL, which received a standing ovation following its Sundance Film Festival debut.

The film is directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon from the Black List screenplay by Jesse Andrews, adapted from his eponymous novel. The film stars Thomas Mann, Olivia Cook, R.J. Cyler with Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Jon Bernthal and Connie Britton. The film is produced by Steven Rales, Dan Fogelman and Jeremy Dawson with Nora Skinner as executive producer. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released in 2015.

“We are so thrilled to be a part of this film – the movie completely floored us and stole our hearts. The response at the festival has been extraordinary. The performances are honest and relatable and the film is smart, funny and original,” said Gilula and Utley.

“On behalf of the filmmaking team, we are thrilled to be partnering with Fox Searchlight. Steve, Nancy and the team have such a great emotional connection to our movie and we are confident our film is in the best hands moving forward,” said producers Rales, Fogelman and Dawson.

“For a film that was such a personal labor of love, I am delighted to find partners who have embraced the film which such enthusiasm,” said director Gomez-Rejon.

In ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL, Thomas Mann plays Greg Gaines, an awkward high school senior whose mom forces him to spend time with Rachel – a girl in his class (Olivia Cooke) whom he hasn’t spoken to since kindergarten – who was just diagnosed with cancer.
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