The Woodstock Film Festival announced its New for 2015 World Cinema Competition, including a special Focus on Dutch Cinema in partnership with the Netherlands Consulate General in New York. The Woodstock Film Festival has programmed three Dutch narratives to showcase the vast range Dutch cinema has to offer: RENDEZ-VOUS, MEET ME IN VENICE, and SUMMER. All Dutch filmmakers will be in attendance.
Sparked by this joint venture with the Netherlands Consulate and the superb selection of other international films at the festival, the
2015 Woodstock Film Festival has launched its inaugural World Cinema Competition Award. Joining the three Dutch films are two additional World Cinema highlights, MOSCOW NEVER SLEEPS (Irish-Russian) and THERE SHOULD BE RULES (Swedish), to forge a strong line-up of international competition.
WORLD CINEMA COMPETITION FILMS:
FOCUS ON DUTCH CINEMA- THE NETHERLANDS
RENDEZ-VOUS, DIRECTED BY ANTIONETTE BEUMER (pictured in main image above)
US PREMIERE
Simone needs a change. Together with her husband Eric and their two children, she buys a decrepit mansion in the south of France, to turn it into a home and B&B. While the chaos of the renovation grows, Simone flees into a thrilling affair with one of the French construction workers, the gorgeous twenty-year-old Michel. She slowly loses control of her life and the French dream turns into her worst nightmare.
MEET ME IN VENICE, DIRECTED BY EDDY TERSTALL
US PREMIERE
Recounted by Lisa through a video she makes for her son, this Dutch father-daughter story of reconciliation unfolds between a woman and the father she first meets in adulthood. When the absentee Mauro invites Lisa to join him in Venice, she decides to go. But the journey doesn’t stop there, and the father-daughter road trip takes them from Italy to Istanbul along the Orient Express route, with breathtaking imagery of the Balkans and heartwarming musical interludes. In getting to know her father, Lisa gets to know herself.
SUMMER (ZOMER), DIRECTED BY COLETTE BOTHOF
NEW YORK PREMIERE
“Zomer” (“Summer”) is sweltering in a Dutch village where everyday life is dominated by the continually droning power plant. Anne, a quiet girl who longs to escape the confines of her small town, often feels like an outsider — until she meets Lena, a new girl in town who rides a motorbike, wears leather and is different from everybody else. With the awkward tenderness of youth and innocence, the two girls quickly form a bond and the audience gets to watch as young love unfolds. Authentic performances and cinematography that captures the languor and heat of summertime create a beautiful story of sexual awakening and a girl daring to be different. For those who have traveled beyond the teenage years, it is a reminder of the possibilities life holds.
MOSCOW NEVER SLEEPS, DIRECTED BY JOHNNY O’REILLY
RUSSIA – US PREMIERE
Moscow Never Sleeps is a multi-narrative drama about the hidden bonds that connects us all. The film dives headlong into the volatile intersections of contemporary Moscow and the intimate lives of five people.
O’Reilly’s short The Terms screened at the 2001 Woodstock Film Fest, winning for Best Short Film.
THERE SHOULD BE RULES, DIRECTED BY LINDA-MARIE BIRBECK
SWEDEN – EAST COAST PREMIERE
Mia and Mirjam, two passionate, free-spirited 14-year-olds, along with Karl, who is inventive and wise beyond his years, are a close knit threesome in a small town in Sweden where nothing ever happens. Mia wishes there were no rules and tempts life again and again. Mirjam, seeking love, finds her road to adulthood in a steamy romance with an older man who claims he loves her. Karl, supporting Mia’s sense of loss as her best friend is pulled away by new love, helps concoct ways to bring Mirjam back to them. While friendship and family bonds are tested and facades eventually crumble, the teens declare, “we are never becoming ordinary.”
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The Orchard has released the poster and official trailer for the lost severed leg documentary FINDERS KEEPERS that premiered earlier this year at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and opening in select theaters on September 25th. FINDERS KEEPERS is directed by Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel.
When his amputated leg is discovered in a grill sold at a North Carolina auction, John Wood finds himself at the center of a worldwide media frenzy. Believing the new-found attention to be his chance at doing some great things in an otherwise disappointing, wayward life, he’s quickly swept up in the hysteria as the leg’s enterprising buyer, Shannon Whisnant, then sues to regain its custody. But the stranger-than-fiction chain of events, fueling John’s drug addiction and compounded by generations of his familial dysfunction, soon sets John on the streets and heading to his certain demise. Just in time, however, another twist in these fantastical occurrences gives John a final shot at becoming whole for the first time in his life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZEsctQNCI
PARTISAN directed by Ariel Kleiman and starring Vincent Cassel as Gregori, a cult leader, along with Jeremy Chabriel and Florence Mezzara will open in theaters and On Demand October 2, 2015. PARTISAN premiered earlier this year at the 
The 2015 Milwaukee Film Festival announced its Cream City Cinema lineup which showcases the best new work from Milwaukee-based filmmakers and awards one local filmmaker with a $5,000 cash award.
This year’s 
The 2015 HollyShorts Awards winners are crowned, and Jamie Donoughue took home the Zype Best Short Film Grand Prize and $15,000 Cash Prize for his short film called SHOK (pictured above). SHOK is a short film set in Kosovo during the occupation in the 90’s.
https://vimeo.com/113622429
The Grand Jury Award Presented by Company 3 went to Moon Molson for his short THE BRAVEST, THE BOLDEST. In THE BRAVEST, THE BOLDEST, two Army Casualty Notification Officers arrive at a Harlem housing project to deliver Sayeeda Porter some news about her son
Patrick Kennelly’s feature film debut, EXCESS FLESH about an obsessive woman who imprisons her new roommate in their apartment in a sick attempt to bring them closer together, will have its U.S. theatrical release early next year 
ASTHMA the directorial debut of Dustin Hofman’s son, Jake Hoffman, 
Austin Film Festival (AFF) announced the first slate of films included in the 2015 lineup of Festival screenings this October 29-November 5. The complete list of programming at the 22nd Austin Film Festival, including short films, competition titles, and Conference panels, will be announced in mid-September.
SUM OF HISTORIES by Lukas Bossuyt will be presented at the 2015 Montreal World Film Festival in the Best First Fiction Feature Film category. The director Lukas Bossuyt, the producer Ivy Vanhaecke and the main actor, Koen de Graeve, will be in attendance.
Despite a tragic accident that occurred during their youth, the famous scientist Viktor lives a happy life with Lena. Along with his enthusiastic assistant, Titus, he has a groundbreaking discovery at the university : they can send e-mails to the past. Viktor’s desire to change Lena and his own past compels him to send an e-mail. But no matter how small the change, tampering with the past comes with certain risk.
Lukas Bossuyt, a graduate of the London Film School, directed two short films Strawberry Flavour and Elizabeth, both got awards for advertising purposes. In addition, he has two scripted television series : Aspe and De Rodenburgs. Sum of histories is his first feature film.
The actor in the role of Viktor, Koen de Graeve, was honored for his work in 2010 in the category Best Actor at the Star of Flemish TV and the Flemish Film Prize.
Sum of stories also stars Matteo Simoni (Safety First – The Movie), Karina Smulders (Bride Flight), Charlotte Anne Bongaerts (De Behandeling) and Robrecht Vanden Thoren (De Laatste Zomer).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39nlqnphK6E
Manhattan Short revealed the 10 Finalists for its 18th Short Film Festival, a worldwide event taking place in over 250 cinemas across six continents between