Bernardo Bertolucci, the 9-time Oscar winning Italian director and screenwriter of “The Last Emperor”, whose movies include “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), “The Sheltering Sky” (1990), and “The Dreamers” (2003) in The Cannes Movie Stars Lounge at the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival. During the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Mr. Bertolucci was awarded the “Palme d’Honneur” for his life’s work in film.
Eighteen film projects by African filmmakers have been selected for the finance forum of the Durban FilmMart (DFM) which takes place from July 19 to 22 during the 34th Durban International Film Festival held July 18 to 28 in Durban South Africa.
BLUE RUIN, one of the select few American films world premiering in Director’s Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is expected to get a Fall 2013 US release date after being snagged by The Weinstein Co.’s label RADiUS – TWC.
Kino Lorber is expected to release the award winning film “THE ROCKET” in US theaters this Fall 2013 after it snagged the top awards early this year at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival.
“THE ROCKET,“ the first feature film from director and writer Kim Mordaunt, won the Best Narrative Feature award, the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film and the Best Actor in a Narrative Feature award for 10-year-old Sitthiphon Disamoe at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival; and the Crystal Bear – Generation Kplus prize for Best Film, Best First Feature award and The Amnesty International Award at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.
Phase 4 Films is planning an early Winter 2013 theatrical release in the US for Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker’s documentary “THE CRASH REEL” which premiered earlier this year at 203 Sundance Film Festival.
Sean Ellis’ acclaimed thriller, METRO MANILA, which had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for “Best Film” in the World Cinema dramatic competition will be released in the US by distribution partners 108 Media and Paladin.
See the first “Official” clip of the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight film, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE, directed by Jim Mickle, and starring Julia Garner.
In WE ARE WHAT WE ARE, a re-imagining of the 2010 Mexican film of the same name, Jim Mickle paints a gripping and gruesome portrait of an introverted family struggling to keep their macabre traditions alive.
by Morgan Davies
The Moment, the sophomore feature from director Jane Weinstock, is a slippery film: we never quite know whether what we’re seeing is reality or filtered through protagonist Lee’s unstable mind. Lee, a war photographer played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, is first convinced that her ex-boyfriend John (Martin Henderson) is missing, then that she murdered him, but as her therapist reminds her, any of her particularly intense convictions could simply be fantasies. She is suffering from PTSD from her wartime experiences and injuries, and has moved from a rehab facility for the body (where she met John) to one for her mind.
The documentary, FREE CHINA: THE COURAGE TO BELIEVE, directed by Michael Perlman (Tibet: Beyond Fear), in which survivors of Chinese forced labor prisons share their stories, opens in LA on May 31 and New York City on June 7. The film will also be released online on June 4th, which marks the historic anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The 35th Mountainfilm in Telluride festival will run Memorial Day Weekend, May 24 to May 27, 2013 in Telluride, Colorado OA and according to Festival Director David Holbrooke, “This is one of the strongest years for documentaries that we’ve ever seen.” “From films we scouted at the earlier festivals in the year — Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca — to our own submissions, there just seemed to be an unusual number of really fine films for consideration.”
The films range from shorts of just a few minutes to feature-length films, and they cover a spectrum of topics that ranges from adventure and action sports to pressing environmental and social issues.
Highlighted films include:
Thirteen students from nine U.S. colleges and universities as well as three students from foreign universities have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards competition. This year saw first-time honors go to Elon University, Occidental College and the University of Michigan in the U.S. competition, as well as to Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland, and RITS School of Arts, Belgium, in the foreign competition. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in each of the award categories will be announced at the official aawards ceremony on June 8, 2013.
The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title):
The Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival – Chicago (ADIFF- Chicago) will celebrate its 11th anniversary in Chicago from June 13 to June 20, 2013. The festival will kick off with the Chicago Premiere of Opening Night Film African Independence, written, directed and produced by scholar, filmmaker and PBS History Detectives host, Professor Tukufu Zuberi.