The Sprout Film Festival returns for its 12th year in New York City, over the weekend of May 31st-June 1st, 2014, screening films featuring people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The festival announced the official selections for the 2014 Sprout Film Festival, which will showcase 37 independent short films, documentaries, animations, music videos and features from 11 different countries.
The 5th Annual Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) will be held October 16th – 25th in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The Shops at West End and Showplace ICON Theatre & Lobby Lounge will once again be the exclusive venues for this year’s festival.
`40th Student Academy Award winners
Forty-one students from 23 U.S. colleges and universities as well as 10 students from foreign universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Student Academy Awards competition.
The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award® winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.
MATEO directed by María Gamboa
Cine Las Americas announced the award winners for the 17th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, which took place April 22 to 27 in Austin, Texas. The festival grants jury awards in the categories of Narrative Feature Film, Documentary Feature Film, Narrative Short Film, and Documentary Short Film. The Hecho en Tejas Jury Award is presented in partnership with the Texas Archive for the Moving Image (TAMI). In addition, four audience awards are recognized: Audience Award for Narrative Feature, Audience Award for Documentary Feature, Audience Award for Best Hecho en Tejas Film and the Emergencia Audience Award, granted to the most popular youth film. MATEO directed by María Gamboa swept the major awards winning both the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature and the Audience Award for Narrative Feature.
Eric Rohmer’s A SUMMER’S TALE (Conte d’été), the third entry in the TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS cycle—and the only one never previously released theatrically in the US will finally get a release date. A SUMMER’S TALE will open at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York on June 20, and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal, Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and Town Center in Encino on July 18. A national release will follow.
Rooftop Films in New York City, announced the selection of short films to screen on opening night, of the the 18th annual Rooftop Films Summer Series. Under the title, THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN BY SHORT FILMS, opening night on Friday, May 16th, will highlight some of the most exciting and original short films from around the world. The following night, Rooftop Films will present a special sneak preview screening of the upcoming A24 Films release OBVIOUS CHILD, described as a subversive, modern-day romantic comedy from writer/director Gillian Robespierre.
The One I Love
Seattle International Film Festival unveiled the complete lineup of films and events for the 40th annual Festival taking place May 15 to June 8, 2014. This year, SIFF will screen 440 films: 198 features (plus 4 secret films), 60 documentaries, 14 archival films, and 168 shorts, representing 83 countries. The Festival will open with the previously announced screening of JIMI: All Is By My Side, the Hendrix biopic starring Outkast’s André Benjamin from John Ridley, Oscar®-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, and close with Charlie McDowell’s twisted romantic comedy The One I Love, produced by Seattle’s Mel Eslyn and starring Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass.
New Zealand director, producer and screenwriter Jane Campion, winner of the Palme d’or for The Piano, will be the President of the Jury of the 67th Cannes Film Festival. In addition to Campion, the Jury will also include five women and four men. Their task will be to decide between the 18 films in Competition in order to select the winners – to be announced on stage at the ceremony on Saturday 24th May. The winner of the Palme d’or will be screened during the Festival’s closing evening on Sunday 25th of May, in the presence of the Jury and the entire team of the winning film.
Nine filmmaking teams will receive a total of $300,000 in funding in the latest round of San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) / Kenneth Rainin Foundation (KRF) Filmmaking Grants, to help with their next stage of production, from screenwriting to postproduction. The Film Society’s flagship SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to filmmakers for narrative feature films that will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community.
THE CASE AGAINST 8, which garnered its co-directors Ben Cotner, and Ryan White the award for Best Director at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and many other awards since, has been selected as the opening night film of this year’s QDoc: Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival. While other films have dealt with the electoral ups and downs of the marriage battle, THE CASE AGAINST 8 focuses on the extraordinary legal strategies that altered the landscape for marriage equality around the country, including Oregon.
Keep On Keepin’ On
Chef, written and directed by Jon Favreau, won the Heineken Audience Narrative award, and Keep On Keepin’ On, directed by Alan Hicks, received the Heineken Audience Documentary award at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Each award comes with a cash prize of $25,000..
Little Accidents
Maryland Film Festival concluded its 2014 lineup announcements by unveiling its Opening Night Shorts program, and its Closing Night film, Sara Colangelo’s LITTLE ACCIDENTS. Also announced were two late-breaking features added to MFF 2014’s lineup, Riley Stearns’ FAULTS, and Desiree Akhavan’s APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR.