• THEORY OF EVERYTHING Based on Story of Physicist Stephen Hawking Sets US Release Date

    Eddie Redmayne in Les MisérablesEddie Redmayne in Les Misérables

    The romantic drama THEORY OF EVERYTHING directed by Academy Award winner James Marsh (Man on Wire) will be released in the US by Focus Features in exclusive engagements beginning Friday, November 7th, 2014.  THEORY OF EVERYTHING stars Eddie Redmayne (Les Misérables) as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, world-famous as the author of A Brief History of Time, opposite Gotham Independent Film Award winner Felicity Jones (Like Crazy).

    The movie explores the excitement of the 1960s for Stephen as he studies at Cambridge University. At the dawn of a brilliant life’s work, he falls passionately in love with arts student Jane Wilde. Their relationship leads him through personal and scientific challenges and breakthroughs, and as his world opens up he opens up the entire world to new ways of seeing.

    Jane’s memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen inspired the new film; the screenplay is by Anthony McCarten, who is producer on the film with Lisa Bruce (producer of Working Title’s Mary and Martha) and Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

    The cast of THEORY OF EVERYTHING also includes two-time Academy Award nominee Emily Watson and David Thewlis (Harry Potter). The creative team also includes cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (Lawless), production designer John Paul Kelly (Working Title’s About Time), costume designer Steven Noble (Under the Skin), and film editor Jinx Godfrey (marking her seventh feature with Mr. Marsh).

    via wearemoviegeeks

    Read more

  • Tribeca Film Festival Announces Digital Opportunities for National Audiences to Experience Festival, Launches Tribeca N.O.W. + Online Festival

     Ice Poison(Bing Du)Ice Poison(Bing Du)

    The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) announced a variety of programming that will allow domestic audiences to experience the Festival from across the country, including the addition of the Tribeca N.O.W. program, the lineup and programming for the Tribeca Online Festival, and Tribeca Film’s video-on-demand offerings during TFF. The 13th annual Tribeca Film Festival will run from April 16-27, 2014, in New York City. 

    The Festival announced the program for the fifth annual Tribeca Online Festival (TOF), a digital initiative that offers front row access to exclusive Festival content and new storytelling opportunities. A new addition to TOF this year is Tribeca N.O.W., a newly designed program that recognizes creators of new online work (N.O.W.) aiming to discover, highlight, and celebrate the next generation of storytellers who choose to create and share their work in the online space.

    During TOF, Tribeca N.O.W. will showcase the innovative talent of 12 creators chosen by the TFF programming team from nearly 100 candidates nominated for their innovative storytelling and robust creative vision by an advisory board of creative professionals. The program optimizes Tribeca’s mission to find the newest, most original forms of storytelling and sharing it with the widest possible audience.  The projects include unique music videos, short documentaries, and imaginative webseries. Each nominee and their work will be featured on the Tribeca website and granted access to 2014 TFF events.

    Back for its second year as part of TOF is the Tribeca Film Festival’s #6SECFILMS competition. The online juried competition uses the six-second, micro-movie making app Vine to create shorts in the categories of genre, comedy, drama and animation. This year, in addition to the jury awards, online audiences can view the very short film entries on www.tribecafilm.com/6secfilms and vote for their favorite, through April 12, to receive the #6SecFilms Audience Award. Winners will be announced on April 15.

    As in years past, TOF will provide free streaming of Festival films. Eight titles including features Ice Poison(Bing Du), Ne Me Quitte Pas, True Son and Vara: A Blessing (which will each be streamed just after their Festival theatrical premieres), and short films Love in the Time of March Madness, Parachute, Peepers,and Scratch will be accessible on tribecafilm.com/online. Through the same site, audiences can vote on the best online feature and short, with the winners receiving a total of $15,000 in prize money. 

    “The growth of digital, social and mobile platforms has made it possible for us to deliver new artistic talent to audiences on more than just one screen,” said Genna Terranova, Director of Programming. “While online storytelling is in abundance, curation is not yet as evolved or readily available as the independent film world. Tribeca N.O.W. is a platform to draw attention to these artists and support them as they continue their careers, whether that be in the online sphere or beyond.”

    Tribeca Film will also release 2014 TFF selections Beneath the Harvest Sky, The Bachelor Weekend, andBright Days Ahead nationwide via on demand during the Festival window. The titles will be available in more than 50 million homes in the U.S. through all major cable video-on-demand providers, as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Xbox, Google Play and YouTube.

    Details on the Tribeca Online Festival, VOD offerings and the Tribeca N.O.W creators follow:

    TRIBECA ONLINE FESTIVAL

    TRIBECA N.O.W. CREATORS

    Katja Blichfeld & Ben Sinclair, High Maintenance. Highlighted by the likes of The New Yorker and Filmmaker Magazine, Katja Blichfeld & Ben Sinclair’s brainchild, High Maintenance, is a wildly funny webseries that is tailor-made for the internet. Starring Sinclair as a pot deliveryman simply credited as “The Guy,” each episode of the series follows this nameless dealer as he delivers to his clients throughout New York City. Yet despite its straightforward concept, Blichfeld & Sinclair’ s finely-tuned series hilariously dissects the craving for privacy in the city, and its conflict with a craving of a different kind. www.vimeo.com/channels/highmaintenance/videos  

    Claire Edmondson. Feeling unfulfilled creatively as an artist, Toronto-based Claire Edmondson abandoned her career as a stylist in favor of direction, creating dark, distinctive fashion films and music videos for indie artists like Broken Social Scene, Austra, and Jasper, and designers Jeremy Laing and Pink Cobra. Moving forward, Edmondson is focused on assembling her commercial reel and moving into commercial direction while also developing a short film and a feature script, all while continuing to work with fashion and music videos as a creative outlet. www.vimeo.com/m/claireedmondson

    Jonathan Gales, Paul Nicholls and Kibwe Tavares, Factory Fifteen. Visionary is the best way to describe Factory Fifteen. Directors Jonathan Gales, Paul Nicholls and Kibwe Tavares have harnessed their wide-ranging artistic backgrounds to create a film and animation powerhouse. Its prolific work is redefining the structure and aesthetics of filmmaking, while challenging the expectations of its audience and industry world-wide. This multi-award winning creative studio has had their work exhibited around the world in various film festivals and galleries such as Ars Electronica, Alpha-ville, The Creators Project, Frieze Art Fair, The Whitechapel Gallery, and The Royal Academy. www.factoryfifteen.com

    Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer & Jake Watson, Corridor Digital. Piloted by directors Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer and producer Jake Watson, Corridor Digital creates action-packed, VFX-infused, reference-laden shorts that trade on an encyclopedic knowledge of video games, action movies, viral trends, and filmmaking tropes to create hilariously entertaining short pieces. Frenetic in pace but never skimping on rich detail, Corridor Digital’s body of work demonstrates that low-budget online work doesn’t have to look cheap, and its effects-driven, referential world is a perfect evocation of our digital, plugged in, interactive moment. www.youtube.com/user/CorridorDigital

    Rob Michael Hugel, I Hate Being Single. Rob Michael Hugel is the mind behind I Hate Being Single, an uncomfortable yet ultimately heartwarming comedy webseries starring Hugel as a lonely hipster looking for love. In addition to working on the show’s second season, Rob is increasingly prolific within the New York comedy scene as a member of the UCB-based sketch troupe, Onassis. In the past, Rob’s eccentric style brilliantly lent itself to the much-loved webseries—and now, TV series—Broad City, for which he served as a writer, director, and editor on several episodes. www.youtube.com/user/IHateBeingSingle

    Matt Lambert. LA Born and Berlin-based, Matt Lambert is a filmmaker whose recent work explores identity and sexuality, and looks to open a debate around the way youth perceives and presents itself in the digital space. His work is deeply entrenched in global sub-cultures spanning a breadth of cultural and sexual identities with a keen focus on expanding the methods and styles of documentary and short film making.  Lambert injects his projects with an intimacy, excitement and conceptual depth that resonate far beyond the engaging and intriguing surface. www.vimeo.com/m/dielamb

    Wendy McColm. Known as an actor on MTV’s “Hey Girl”, “Community”, and “How I Met Your Mother”, and as a performer for Upright Citizens Brigade, Wendy McColm’s diverse talents are on full display in her range of online short form work, written, directed by, and starring herself. With a distinctive style that melds quirky humor, feminine sensibility, and just a pinch of strangeness, all wrapped up in an of-the-moment indie patina, this multi-hyphenate writer-director-performer’s funny and delightful persona jumps out of her surprising and always entertaining pieces. www.wendyfilms.com

    Steven Mertens. Presented with eclectic 2-dimensional objects, Steven Mertens uses magician-like skill to transform and enliven them in unexpected ways, creating fantastic worlds and abstract stories. Dry-erase drawings, photographs, videos and vibrant hand-drawn illustrations are meticulously pieced together in his unique stop-motion music videos. Mertens’ eccentric imagery has been paired with the popular music of Deca, The Chapin Sisters, Streets of Laredo and Boogarins. Before starting his career in animation, he toured extensively as a session bass player with The Moldy Peaches, Adam Green, and Here We Go Magic, among others. www.stevenmertens.com

    Mollie Mills. Trained as a photographer, UK-based Mollie Mills creates absorbing short form documentaries on idiosyncratic subjects ranging from figure skaters and boxers to New York City subway dancers and tattoo artists, finding intimacy in the singular focus of her human subjects and beauty in the details of their unique surroundings. With a style that expands small moments of space and time to revel in their beauty, Mills gives voice to her subjects’ everyday experience in a way that infuses the routine with meaning and significance. www.molliemills.co.uk

    Victor Quinaz, Anna Martemucci and Philip Quinaz, Periods.Films. PERIODS is an anachronistic comedy film series that adapts historical epochs and famous works of literature for a new generation. Comprised of an ensemble of actors and featuring the occasional guest star, PERIODS. is semi-improvised comedy with a unique cinematic approach. Created by Victor Quinaz, Anna Martemucci and Philip Quinaz and crafted by the entire PERIODS. films crew. Their first feature film, BREAKUP AT A WEDDING, was released from Oscilloscope Labs on June 18th, 2013. PERIODS. has been featured in the LA Times, Huffington Post, New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog, Jezebel, and, yes, even High Times. www.periodsfilms.com

    Alexandra Roxo & Natalia Leite, Be Here Nowish. Independent writers and filmmakers Alexandra Roxo and Natalia Leite make their webseries debut with this funny and sexy story of two friends who flee New York to find themselves in Los Angeles. Featuring biting wit and distinctive characters, and set at the collision between the queer-alternative and new age milieus, Be Here Nowish stands out among its webseries compatriots for its fresh, fearless, and current voice. www.drinkpurplemilk.com/be-here-nowish

    Lena Waithe, Ashley Blaine Featherson, Numa Perrier, Dennis Dortch, Hello Cupid. Created by Lena Waithe, Ashley Blaine Featherson, NumaPerrier and Dennis Dortch, Hello Cupid follows the adventures of best friends Whitney and Robyn, two very different single women looking for love online. Taking on real issues in the African-American community but always anchored in the friendship story of its two lead characters, Hello Cupid is a smart and funny romantic comedy webseries that exemplifies the potential for the form to imbue entertaining serialized storylines with intelligent, timely content. www.hellocupid.vhx.tv

    The full list of short films streamed on the Tribeca Online Festival is as follows:

     Love in the Time of March Madness, directed by Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano, written by Melissa Johnson. (USA) – World Premiere.

     Parachute, directed by Peter Stebbings, written by Peter Mooney. (Canada) – World Premiere.

     Peepers, directed by Ken Lam, written by Laura Grey and Jordan Klepper. (USA) – New York Premiere.

     Scratch, directed and written by Philip Kelly, co-written by Liam Ryan. (Ireland) – New York Premiere.

    FREE STREAMING OF OFFICIAL FESTIVAL SELECTIONS:

    Four feature titles and four short films from the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival will be available on TOF. Each film will have limited screening windows and capacity. Online viewers will be able to vote for the Best Tribeca Online Feature Film, a prize of $10,000, and the Best Tribeca Online Short Film, a prize of $5,000. Winners will be announced at the Tribeca Film Festival Awards on April 24.

    The full list of feature films streamed on the Tribeca Online Festival is as follows:

    Ice Poison (Bing Du), directed and written by Midi Z. (Myanmar, Taiwan R.O.C.) – North American Premiere, Narrative. Faced with diminishing returns on his harvest, a poor young farmer in Myanmar pawns his cow for a moped and seeks alternative income as a taxi driver. Among his first fares is a woman making a new start after escaping an arranged marriage in China. Together, they are lured into the lucrative business of selling “ice poison” (crystal meth) around town. With an unobtrusive documentary style, Burmese-Taiwanese director Midi Z captures the struggles faced by many in an unseen part of the world. In Burmese and Chinese Yunnan with subtitles.

    Ne Me Quitte Pas, directed and written by Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koevorden.(Netherlands, Belgium) – International Premiere. Left by his wife for another man, Marcel falls into alcoholism and a deep depression, with only his friend Bob, also an alcoholic, to look after him. The friendship between the two men captures the frailty of the male ego and the natural comedy borne from their candid conversations. Ne Me Quitte Pas follows this downward spiral of mid-life crisis in a tender, often humorous, sometimes disturbing, examination of the ‘crisis of masculinity,’ alongside a mesmerizing exploration of mundane rural existence. In Flemish and French with subtitles.

    True Son, directed by Kevin Gordon. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Stockton, California is considered one of the worst cities in the United States, riddled with financial crisis and crime rates rivaling Afghanistan. But where everyone else saw hopelessness, 22-year-old Michael Tubbs saw possibility. In 2012, Tubbs decided to run for City Council to reinvent his hometown, building his campaign from the ground up. In Kevin Gordon’s passionate and inspirational documentary he sets out to beat a politician twice his age and bring his community back from bankruptcy.

    Vara: A Blessing, directed and written by Khyentse Norbu. (Bhutan) – North American Premiere, Narrative. Raised in a sheltered village, young Lila yearns for a life devoted to Hindu worship, like that of herdevadasi mother, but she begins to encounter worldly obstacles to her spiritual fulfillment. Guileless, Lila agrees to model for a lowly village boy who hopes to become a sculptor, unknowingly endangering both of their lives under the ever-present gaze of the villagers, especially the village landlord’s son.

    TRIBECA FILM ON-DEMAND

    Beneath the Harvest Sky, directed and written by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly. (USA) – U.S. Premiere, Narrative. Bored and restless, best friends Dominic and Casper are making plans to escape their small town in Northern Maine to start new lives in Boston. In order to earn the money, Dominic spends the summer harvesting potatoes, while Casper becomes involved in the family business—smuggling drugs over the Canadian border. The divergent paths of the two boys, both trapped in their circumstances in different ways, will change their friendship forever. Brought to life by two stellar lead performances, Beneath the Harvest Sky is an authentic portrayal of adolescent frustration, culminating in a heartbreaking coming-of-age drama.  A Tribeca Film release.

    The Bachelor Weekend, directed and written by John Butler. (Ireland) – U.S. Premiere, Narrative.Pressured by his best man to spend a bachelor’s weekend camping, foppish groom-to-be, Fionan, reluctantly agrees. But when his fiancée’s alpha-male brother, nicknamed ‘The Machine,’ unexpectedly turns up, the camping trip takes a turn for the worst. Fionan and his genteel friends are no match for the uncouth bully, and the trip begins to look like it will become Fionan’s worst nightmare. A slapstick, good-natured comedy, Bachelor Weekend hilariously delves into the stereotypical realm of masculinity that is camping and the great outdoors.  A Tribeca Film release.

    Bright Days Ahead (Les beaux jours), directed by Marion Vernoux, written by Fanny Chesnel. (France) – U.S. Premiere, Narrative. In this sophisticated and sexy drama, a newly retired woman in her 60s (French cinema icon Fanny Ardant, 8 Women, Confidentially Yours) finds herself tumbling into an affair with a much younger man (Laurent Lafitte, Little White Lies), her computer teacher at the local seniors’ club. As she finds herself courting danger—taking her young lover to places they could easily be discovered by her husband (Patrick Chesnais, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)—she must decide if her retirement will mark the end for her marriage, or a new beginning. In French with English Subtitles. A Tribeca Film Release.

    Read more

  • 44th USA Film Festival Dates + Schedule + Lineup incl. “Fading Gigolo” “Finding Neighbors”

     Fading GigoloFading Gigolo

    The USA Film Festival announced the schedule for the 44th annual festival, taking place April 22 to 27, 2014. Actor, author and native Dallasite Stephen Tobolowsky returns to his home town (and the USA Film Festival) to host the program. All programs will be held at the Angelika Film Center, 5321 E. Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, Texas. 

    Program highlights include:

    Actor/writer/director John Turturro will present his new film Fading Gigolo

    Noted sound editor Mark Levinson will present his new documentary Particle Fever

    Academy Award®-winning sound editor Ron Judkins will present his film Finding Neighbors

    Superstar wine expert Charlie Arturaolo will present the new film El Camino Del Vino (“The Ways of Wine”) in which he stars

    36th annual National Short Film & Video Competition (an Academy-qualified program); the 2014 National Jury includes: writer/producer Paul Marcarelli; actor/writer/director Catherine Dent; actor/writer/director Christina Beck; actor/director/producer Charles Haid; and actor/writer Elisabeth Harmon

    Stephen Tobolowsky hosts a free program of narrative short films and filmmakers (featuring several actors making their short film debuts, including Tim Guinee with The One Armed Man, Henry Ian Cusick with Dress, and Eden Sher with The Suitcase); Several additional short film compilation programs will be presented (Narrative, Nonfiction, Student, Animation) at no admission cost

    Community Showcase programs featuring short films with ties to Texas (including a special nod to Dallas actor Larry Jack Dotson) and the works of area students 

    Tributes to Master Artists:

    Salute to actor Ed Harris with screening of writer/director Michael Berry’s new film Frontera (The Ed Harris Tribute will include a film clip compilation program hosted by actor/director Charles Haid)

    Salute to actor Carol Kane with screening of her new film Clutter (The Carol Kane Tribute will include a film clip compilation program)

    Salute to actor Fionnula Flanagan with screenings of two of her new films Tasting Menu and Life’s a Breeze

    Salute to actor Linda Gray (The Linda Gray Tribute will include a film clip compilation and on-stage conversation hosted by FOX4 news anchor Clarice Tinsley; Honorary Chairman for the evening is Caroline Rose Hunt)

    Salute to actor Morgan Fairchild (The Morgan Fairchild Tribute will include a film clip compilation and on-stage conversation hosted by fellow native Dallasite and actor Stephen Tobolowsky and actor/producer Corbin Bernsen.

    The Festival will also reveal a sneak peek of footage from the trio’s new film project.) Salute to actor Peter Riegert with screening of new short film The Walk

     

    Read more

  • PARTY GIRL to Open Official Selection of Un Certain Regard of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival

     PARTY GIRLPARTY GIRL

    PARTY GIRL, the first film written and directed by Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis, has been chosen to open the Official Selection of Un Certain Regard of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.  

    Party Girl shows the life of Angélique, a 60 year-old night club hostess who still loves men and enjoys partying, but now as the senior member on staff, feels she has reached the end of the line. On an impulse, she agrees to marry her regular client, Michel. The film is a portrait of a free woman who has chosen to live on the margins of conventional society, and delves deep into a France that is often underrepresented. With total realism, the lead role is played by the real-life Angélique.

    The three co-directors met at Fémis, where they studied screenwriting and editing and began their collaboration. They produced short films that amassed awards at several festivals: Forbach (Cinéfondation Second Prize, Festival de Cannes 2008 and Grand Prix at the 2009 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival),  C’est gratuit pour les filles (Semaine de la Critique 2009 – César Award for Best Short Film, 2010), and Demolition Party (2013).

    With its mission to discover new talents, Un Certain Regard will provide excellent exposure for a collective first work that is innovative both in its form and its subject. The choice reflects the wish of Pablo Trapero, President of the Jury for Un Certain Regard 2014, “to present a passionate selection of established masters, young talents and new forms of cinema.”

    PARTY GIRL will be screened as the opening of Un Certain Regard, Thursday 15th May 2014. 

    Read more

  • Film Society of Lincoln Center Reveals Lineup for 2014 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema; Opens with “Those Happy Years (Anni felici)”

     Those Happy Years (Anni felici)Those Happy Years (Anni felici)

    The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the lineup for Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, which will take place from June 5-12, 2014. Open Roads has served as the leading North American showcase of contemporary Italian cinema for the past 13 years. This exceptionally strong and diverse edition includes the latest work from established veterans (Gianni Amelio, Roberto Andò, Daniele Luchetti) and top award winners, alongside promising new talents from both the commercial and independent spheres, with in-person appearances at many screenings.

    This year’s festival highlights the emergence of exciting works by many documentarians, and explores hybrid combinations of documentaries and fiction, with more than a third of the films focused on the medium with rich and fascinating results. Top prizewinners include Gianfranco Rosi’s Sacro GRA, the first documentary to win the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, which explores Rome’s 43.5-mile highway Grande Raccordo Anulare that encircles the city by focusing on absorbing, moving individual portraits that emerge from the areas drivers pass through but never see, to reveal a different side of the bustling city’s inhabitants. Alberto Fasulo’s docudrama debut Tir won the top prize at the Rome Film Festival and follows a former teacher from Bosnia who takes a job driving a tractor trailer (“tir”) through Europe. Combining professional actors and real truck drivers, Fasulo has created a striking film about what life is really like on the road—one that simulates a documentary.

    Other documentaries include Vincenzo Marra’s Naples-set The Administrator, which looks at a building administrator’s dealings with his larger-than-life tenants, providing a tough-minded yet affectionate portrait of an Italy mired in crisis. Gianni Amelio’s Happy to Be Different is a moving, enlightening work of oral history of gay life in Italy from the fall of Fascism through the early 1980s.

    Several films in this year’s lineup explore the evolution of Italy’s political transformation. including the opening-night selection, Daniele Luchetti’s Those Happy Years, a charming, coming-of-age autobiographical tale of the director’s childhood as a budding filmmaker growing up in Rome in the 1970s during a radical, transformative period in Italy. Giovanni Veronesi’s The Fifth Wheel is a humorous tale that takes audiences on a journey of a half-century of pivotal political events through the eyes of actor and screenwriter Ernesto Fioretti.

    Politics and social issues facing Italians also play a role in Gianni Amelio’s A Lonely Hero, starring comedian and actor Antonio Albanese, whose character learns to reinvent and adapt himself to any job as a professional substitute (train conductor, fishmonger, tailor, etc.), as a result of the country’s unstable unemployment crisis. Roberto Andò’s Long Live Freedom is a scathing critique of Italian political dynamics and stars Toni Servillo as a seasoned politician navigating the decline of his party by fleeing to Paris and hiding out at the home of his ex-girlfriend. Renowned TV host and political comedian Pierfrancesco Diliberto wrote, directed, and stars in The Mafia Only Kills in Summer, his feature debut about a young boy and his obsession with the Mafia’s presence in his city… and a beautiful schoolmate who remains his love interest until adulthood. The love story is set against a backdrop of some of Italy’s most tragic past criminal events. Edoardo Winspeare’s Quiet Bliss follows three generations of women who seek refuge in their family’s olive grove after their small textile business collapses and their efforts to revive their lives in the wake of economic catastrophe and the recession.

    FILMS, DESCRIPTIONS & SCHEDULE

    Opening Night
    U.S. Premiere
    Those Happy Years (Anni felici)
    Daniele Luchetti, Italy, 2013, DCP, 100m
    Italian with English subtitles
    Luchetti’s warm-hearted, bittersweet autobiographical account of his childhood as a budding filmmaker growing up in Rome in the ’70s stars Kim Rossi Stuart and Micaela Ramazotti as unconventional parents caught up in turbulent times. He’s an avant-garde artist and she’s wrestling with gender roles as she discovers feminism and free love. Luchetti (My Brother Is an Only Child) brilliantly re-creates the atmosphere of urgency and rapid change surrounding the family. He also poignantly conveys his own coming-of-age perspective, that of a boy grappling with radical transformations inside his family and on the street, capturing it all with his brand-new Super-8 camera.

    U.S. Premiere
    The Administrator (L’amministratore)
    Vincenzo Marra, Italy, 2013, 83m
    Italian with English subtitles
    In the lively and absorbing fifth installment in a series of docs celebrating his native Naples, Marra turns a spotlight on the life of Umberto Montella, a building administrator whose job seems to demand skills in management as much as in therapy. An effortless arbiter of the passionate conflicts that arise among tenants, the Quixotic Montella leads us in and out of the homes of his larger-than-life clients, rich and poor Neapolitans whose lives illuminate the city’s volatile moods. Sometimes funny and always poignant, these profoundly human stories flow in and out of one another following a natural rhythm. However specific the tales, characters, and places, the immersion into these entangled lives is also a tough-minded yet affectionate look at an Italy mired in crisis.

    U.S. Premiere
    The Fifth Wheel (L’ultima ruota del carro)
    Giovanni Veronesi, Italy, 2013, DCP, 113m
    Italian with English subtitles
    Veronesi’s irresistible romantic comedy takes a journey through pivotal events in four decades of recent Italian history, as seen through the lens of Ernesto Fioretti’s unexceptional life. Played with charm and a disarming sense of humor by Elio Germano, Ernesto is a good-hearted, honest middle-class guy who struggles to keep up with changes and is always a step behind. His father disparaged Ernesto by likening him to the “fifth wheel of the wagon,” and his aspirations and involvement through the rise and fall of Socialism and the Berlusconi era are accordingly modest. But his protagonist’s apparent simplicity is precisely one of the strengths of this Tuscan director’s fifteenth feature, which opened the Rome Film Festival last year to great acclaim. Rich in emotions, its ups and downs coinciding with those of the country, Ernesto’s life serves as the perfect platform for abundant laughter and tears.

    Happy to Be Different (Felice chi è diverso)
    Gianni Amelio, Italy, 2014, 93m
    In Italian with English subtitles
    A moving and enlightening work of oral history, Gianni Amelio’s new documentary is a chronicle of gay life in Italy from the fall of Fascism through the early 1980s. Amelio combines interviews with a wide range of older gay Italian men (including Pasolini muse Ninetto Davoli), newsreel footage, and clips from “educational” films warning against homosexuality, and in the process reveals a profound gap between the subjects’ firsthand experiences and the Italian media’s representations of them. The resulting film is a deeply personal account of the advent of gay culture amid the ruins of Mussolini’s Italy and the eternally poignant story of how persecuted individuals developed pragmatic ways to attain everyday happiness.

    U.S. Premiere
    The Human Factor (La variabile umana)
    Bruno Oliviero, Italy, 2013, DCP, 82m
    Italian with English subtitles
    Matters get very complicated for chief inspector Monaco (Silvio Orlando) after the murder of a high-profile member of Milan’s seedy nightlife. He is a widower with a teenage daughter, and, one night, all his neglected personal issues seem to catch up with him, forcing him out of the slump he’s been in since the death of his wife. Rendered darkly beautiful as a noir setting, Milan is the electric backdrop for this detective story that delves as much into the intimate life of one man and his daughter as into this elegant city’s underworlds. In his fiction debut, Olivierio’s extensive documentary experience is palpable in his portrait of Milan—a character in itself—as well as in the vivid and telling details with which he characterize its inhabitants.

    U.S. Premiere
    I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Smetto quando voglio)
    Sydney Sibilia, Italy, 2014, 100m
    Italian with English subtitles
    A band of brilliant unemployed and underemployed academics—two Latinists, a chemist, a neurobiologist, an anthropologist, and an economist—turn to a life of crime in order to survive. Deftly assimilating such influences as Breaking Bad and Trainspotting, this biting parody on the plight of the Italian middle class in the aftermath of the economic crisis boasts a fast pace, witty dialogue, and a terrific cast. A debut to watch from Salerno-native Sibilia, the film was a resounding commercial and critical hit when released in Italy earlier this year.

    U.S. Premiere
    A Lonely Hero (L’intrepido)

    Gianni Amelio, Italy, 2013, DCP, 104m

    Italian with English Subtitles


    Amelio follows his 2011 Camus adaptation, The First Man, with a deadpan parable about a small everyday hero from Milan who contends with the unemployment crisis in a very particular way: he’s a “professional” substitute worker, skilled and knowledgeable enough to replace anyone in any job. True to his name, Antonio Pane is as good and essential as bread. Whether working as a train conductor, fishmonger, tailor, street sweeper, or bricklayer, he approaches the country’s instability with a deep moral consistency as he reinvents himself everyday. Amelio wrote this film especially for actor Antonio Albanese, who personifies the film’s dark humor and underlying sense of hope. An Emerging Pictures release.

    U.S. Premiere
    Long Live Freedom (Viva la libertà)
    Roberto Andò, Italy, 2013, DCP, 93m
    Italian with English Subtitles
    Enrico Oliveri (a brilliant Toni Servillo) is a seasoned center-left politician and president of the opposition who realizes that the decline of his party is inevitable. As the polls announce he will lose dramatically in the upcoming elections, he falls into a profound existential crisis and disappears. We later learn that he has fled to Paris and is hiding out at the home of his ex-girlfriend Danielle (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). While his colleagues panic, his top aide (Valerio Mastandrea) discovers that Enrico has a twin brother living in a psychiatric institution. What at first seems like a crazy plan soon proves to be their only solution. A scathing critique of Italian political dynamics, Andò’s film is also a pulsating thriller with great comic moments that brings together some of the most talented actors working in Italy today.

    U.S. Premiere
    The Mafia Only Kills in Summer (La mafia uccide solo d’estate)
    Pierfrancesco Diliberto, Italy, 2013, DCP, 89m
    Italian with English subtitles                                                                  
    Pierfrancesco Diliberto (a renowned TV host and political comedian, better known as Pif) wrote, directed, and stars in this subversive, irreverent feature debut about Arturo, a young boy whose obsession with the Mafia’s casual presence in his city surpasses even his passion for Flora, the beautiful schoolmate who remains his main love interest until adulthood. Pif uses Arturo’s unrequited love story as the vehicle to narrate the most tragic events in Italy’s recent history, starting with the Cosa Nostra’s criminal actions in Sicily in the ’70s, which soon spread through the country (encompassing the barbaric murder of judges Falcone and Borsellino, an event that Pif handles with astounding boldness). Winner of the Audience Award at the Torino Film Festival, Mafia is a brave and intelligent dark comedy with a powerful message.

    Quiet Bliss (In grazia di Dio)
    Edoardo Winspeare, Italy, 2014, 127m
    In Italian with English subtitles
    Three generations of women seek refuge in their family’s Salento olive grove after their small textile business collapses in Winspeare’s warm and vibrant drama. Against the backdrop of a radiant southern Italian landscape, Winspeare’s characters—serene Salvatrice (Anna Boccadamo), hardened Adele (Celeste Casciaro), loudmouthed Ina (Laura Licchetta), and aspiring thespian Maria Conchetta (Barbara De Matteis)—revive their lives in the wake of economic catastrophe. Turning to a back-to-basics existence as a means of healing the wounds wrought by the recession, they undergo transformations that the director renders with equal parts pathos, insight, and humor.

    U.S. Premiere
    The Referee (L’arbitro)
    Paolo Zucca, Italy/Argentina, 2013, 96m
    Italian with English subtitles
    Sardinian third-league soccer team Atletico Pabarile is suddenly winning every match of the season, after years of losing consistently to Montecrastu, the team led by cocky and abusive landowner Brai. The return of soccer wizard Matzutzi from a sojourn in Argentina has turned the team of farmers into unexpected champions—and now it feels like anything is possible. Enter Cruciani (a great Stefano Accorsi), a young referee greedily climbing his way to the top, and two cousins playing for Montecrastu who are involved in an escalating conflict about archaic sheep-breeding codes in Sardinia. These disparate plots come together explosively in the lush black-and-white world of Zucca’s slyly funny and utterly distinctive first feature.

    U.S. Premiere
    Sacro GRA
    Gianfranco Rosi, Italy/France, 2013, DCP, 93m
    Italian with English subtitles
    The first documentary to win the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, the latest from Gianfranco Rosi (El Sicario, Room 164 and Below Sea Level), reveals the sheer diversity of life bubbling around the margins of Rome’s Grande Raccordo Anulare, the 43.5-mile highway that encircles the city, the longest in all of Italy. The absorbing and often moving individual portraits that emerge—an ambulance driver caring for his ailing mother, a scientist studying palm trees ravaged by beetles, an eel fisherman nostalgic for old traditions—give visibility and a human face to the places Sacro GRA drivers pass through but never see, while exposing the city’s striking contradictions. Inspired in part by Italo Calvino’s novelInvisible Cities, Rosi’s captivating chorale plunges the viewer into this paradoxical reality, allowing us a more direct, even sensorial experience of life in the shadow of progress.

    U.S. Premiere
    Small Homeland (Piccola Patria)
    Alessandro Rossetto, Italy, 2013, DCP, 111m
    Italian with English subtitles
    Best friends Luisa and Renata long above all else to leave their stifling provincial town in northeastern Italy, where tensions between locals and immigrants are forever threatening to boil over. They work as maids in a hotel but supplement their income with sexual trysts, sometimes assisted by Luisa’s Albanian boyfriend, and hatch a blackmail scheme that fails to play out as expected. The rhythms of daily life in this border zone—where city meets countryside—are captured in vivid detail in the highly promising fiction debut by Rossetto, an experienced documentarian working mainly with nonprofessional actors.

    U.S. Premiere
    South Is Nothing (Il Sud e niente)
    Fabio Mollo, Italy, 2013, DCP, 86m
    Italian with English subtitles
    Grazia was 12 years old when she was told by her widower father that her beloved older brother Pietro had died, and never spoken a word since. Now a tomboyish 18, after one of her regular arguments with her father, Grazia flees to the seaside and into the water, where she has an otherworldly experience and thinks she sees her brother. Thus begins her quest to discover another truth, not only about her lost sibling but also about herself. This poised and striking debut by the young Mollo, who shot this film in the Reggio Calabria village where he grew up, features a remarkable central performance by the young Miriam Karlkvist.

    U.S. Premiere
    A Street in Palermo (Via Castellana Bandiera)
    Emma Dante, Italy, 2013, DCP, 92m
    Italian with English subtitles
    Based on her own novel, Emma Dante’s first feature is set in Palermo and shot almost entirely in a narrow alleyway in a run-down neighborhood. On a hot Sunday afternoon, three women are caught in what turns out to be a tragic confrontation. Rosa (Dante) and her partner, Clara (Alba Rohrwacher), have just driven in from Milan and are on their way to a friend’s wedding. As they turn onto Via Castellana Bandiera, they find the Calafiore family jammed into a car driven by Samira (Elena Cotta), a mule-headed Sicilian of Albanian descent. Both drivers stubbornly refuse to back up, as tensions escalate and the neighborhood looks on. An accomplished theater director, Dante includes some knowing nods to spaghetti Westerns and genre conventions in her ambitious film debut, and coaxes formidable performances from her skilled cast (Cotta won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival).

    U.S. Premiere
    Tir
    Alberto Fasulo, Italy/Croatia, 2013, 83m
    Italian with English Subtitles
    The first Italian film to win the top prize at the Rome Film Festival, Fasulo’s striking fiction debut follows Branko (played by Branko Zavrsan, from the Oscar-winning No Man’s Land), a former teacher from Bosnia who takes a job driving a tractor trailer (“tir”) through Europe. A native of Friuli with a documentary background, Fasulo immerses the viewer in the experience of the trucker on the road—the sounds, the landscape, and the longing for company (Branko’s phone conversations with his wife are particularly poignant). Part of a growing movement of Italian filmmakers exploring hybrid combinations of documentary and fiction, Fasulo uses both professional actors and real truck drivers, and his approach yields both an intimate connection to his characters and an evocative sense of place.

    Read more

  • Argentinean Filmmaker Pablo Trapero is President of the Jury for Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard 2014

     Pablo TraperoPablo Trapero

    Pablo Trapero, Argentinean scriptwriter, producer and director, will preside over the Jury for Un Certain Regard, Official Selection of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. He stated: “I am very proud to serve as President of the Jury for Un Certain Regard. Proud to take part in another way in the adventure in Cannes. Un Certain Regard, where I have presented three of my films, is always a very exciting selection. It brings us grand masters, promising young talent, new countries and new forms of cinema.”

    Pablo Trapero was born in Argentina in 1971. His first feature film Mundo Grúa received the Critics’ Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1999. His second, El Bonaerense, was selected in 2002 at the Festival de Cannes (Un Certain Regard). In 2008, Leonera, screened in Competition at the Festival de Cannes, reveals the exceptional talent of actress Martina Gusman. Carancho (2010) and Elefante blanco (2012), critically acclaimed internationally, were both presented in Un Certain Regard.

    Each of Pablo Trapero’s films portrays a harsh social reality in an almost documentary style, through a plot that is akin to a thriller and offers an uncompromising look at contemporary political issues.

    In 2002, he founded Matanza Cine, an independent company that produces young Argentinean filmmakers, including in particular Lisandro Alonso (La Libertad), Enrique Bellande and Raúl Perrone.

    Pablo Trapero follows Thomas Vinterberg, who presided over last year’s Jury for Un Certain Regard, which presented the award to the Franco-Cambodian film L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture), by Rithy Panh.

    The winner of the Prize for Un Certain Regard will be announced on Friday, May 23, on the eve of the 67th Festival closing night awards ceremony, which will take place this year, as an exception, on Saturday night.

    Read more

  • New York Indian Film Festival Taking Place May 5 – 10, Announces Full Film Lineup

    ,

     Post CardPost Card

    The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the full lineup last night for their 14th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, and Diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent (May 5 – 10) at the SoHo Tiffin Junction. Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 34 screenings (23 narrative, 11 documentary) –all seen for the first time in New York City. 

    The festival highlights various cinemas of India’s different regions – Marathi, Bengali and two films from the Northeast. In addition the festival covers cinemas from the neighboring South Asian countries – four films by Pakistani filmmakers, two from Sri Lanka – a feature and a documentary, and one from Nepal.  

    The festival’s Marathi films include POSTCARD and multiple-award winning films ASTU and FANDRY. Directed by Nagraj Manjule, FANDRY received rave reviews in India, winning the grand jury prize at the Mumbai Film Festival in October 2013.  The film revolves around an ‘untouchable’ or Dalit boy and his love for a girl from a higher caste. Hollywood Reporter calls FANDRY “a film made with anger and indignation at India’s caste system,” and names Manjule “an explosive new filmmaking talent.”

    “We are thrilled to be able to share this film with New York audiences,” states Aseem Chhabra, NYIFF festival director. “FANDRY is, in my book, perhaps the best film made in India in 2013.”

    Among the Pakistani entrants, Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi’s ZINDA BHAAG is notable for being Pakistan’s very first submission for the foreign language Oscar race. Set in Lahore, the film follows three young men desperate to get on the fast track to success in an eye-opening glimpse of modern Pakistan. The film features the acting talents of veteran performer Naseeruddin Shah, whose credits include Western crossover hits such as MONSOON WEDDING and THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN.

    ACCEPTANCE, by Ryan Matthew Chan (World Premiere), tells the true story of an underprivileged scholar from India (played by newcomer Vinesh Nagrani) who lies about being accepted into Harvard to gain access to the opulent life of his peers. Chan is somewhat of a filmmaking prodigy well acquainted with the pressures of Ivy League culture, as he is still working on his undergraduate Yale degree while touring ACCEPTANCE on the festival circuit. 

    AN AMERICAN IN MADRAS a documentary by Karan Bali traces American-born filmmaker Ellis R. Dungan’s years in India.  Born in 1909 and hailing from Barton, Ohio, Dungan reached the shores of India on February 25th, 1935 intending to stay for 6 months but ended up staying for 15 years! During this period, he brought many technical innovations to the developing Tamil Film Industry of the 1930s and ‘40s, and infused a sense of professionalism into its filmmaking. All this, without understanding a word of the language!  

    The documentary SONGS OF THE BLUE HILLS, directed by Utpal Borpujari, will also be a NYIFF 2014 World Premiere and is one of the two films from the Northeast. This wide-sweeping exploration of the Nagas, a series of ethnic communities spanning from Northeast India to Northwest Myanmar, examines the link between Naga folk songs and their tradition of oral history, and is the first-ever film to present such a wide range of Naga music and musicians. 

    “The 2014 festival features a wide array of films from all over the South Asian diaspora,” states IAAC founder Aroon Shivdasani. “This is exemplified by Borpujari’s fascinating work highlighting Naga culture, and also through the inclusion of three Bengali films, four films by Pakistani filmmakers, the Sri Lankan film WITH YOU, WITHOUT YOU, the film from Nepal WAITING FOR MAMU and 3 Marathi films, as well as NYIFF’s first Assamese film AS THE RIVER FLOWS.”

    Mahesh Pailoor’s BRAHMIN BULLS, a character study about the reunion of a disillusioned architect and his distant father, is another film sure to delight for its star-studded cast. The film features the estimable Roshan Seth as the father (GANDHI, MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE, MISSISSIPPI MASALA, and MONSOON WEDDING) opposite Sendhil Ramamurthy as the architect (HEROES), in addition to Justin Bartha (THE HANGOVER).

    The 2014 festival will also feature a film that even those in India might not have gotten the chance to see. Nagesh Kukunoor’s LAKSHMI missed its January 17th Indian premiere date due to censorship issues, because of its daring subject matter of child prostitution and human trafficking. Instead the film premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best narrative feature and received much critical acclaim.

    Festival Passes and Individual Tickets can be purchased at the festival’s website.

    Full line up Schedule with films synopsis:

    The 14th Annual NYIFF’s features selections include:

    OPENING NIGHT SELECTION 

    UGLY
    Directed by Anurag Kashyap
    India 2014, Feature Film, 128 minutes, Hindi (with English subtitles)
    Cast – Rahul Bhatt, Abir Goswami, Sandesh Jhadev, Siddhant Kapoor. 

    CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION 

    GOYNAR BAKSHO
    Directed by Aparna Sen
    India, 2013, Feature Film, 141 minutes, Bengali (with English subtitles)
    Cast –  Konkona Sen Sharma, Moushumi Chatterjee, Saswata Chaterjee, Paran Banerjee

    CENTERPIECE SELECTION 

    LIAR’S DICE
    Directed by Geethu Mohandas
    India 2014, Feature Film, 104 minutes, Hindi (with English subtitles)
    Cast –  Nawazuddin Siddiqui,  Geetanjali Thapa, Manya Gupta

    http://youtu.be/St5isHzupe8

     

    Acceptance
    Directed by Ryan Matthew Chan
    Feature Film, 51 minutes, English
    Cast- Vinesh Nagrani, Ethan Song, Ann Mayo-Smith, Nathan Hartono, Pierre Cassini and Clay Burell
    WORLD PREMIERE AT NYIFF 2014

    Art=(Love)2
    Directed by Mumtaz Hussein
    2012, Feature Film, 90 minutes, English 

    Amka and The Three Golden Rules
    Directed by Babar Ahmed
    USA, 2014, Feature Film, 80 minutes, Mongolian (with English Subtitles)
    Cast – Genzorig Telmen, Dashnyam Maralgua, Hereltogoo Chuluunbaatar

    An American In Madras
    Directed by Karan Bali
    2013, Documentary, 80 minutes, English, Tamil, Hindi (with English subtitles)

    Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa (Sniffer) Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa (Sniffer)

    Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa (Sniffer) 
    Directed by Budhadeb Dasgupta 
    India, 2013, Feature, 132 Mins, Hindi (with English Subtitles) 
    Cast – Nawazuddin Siddique, Pankaj Tripathy, Niharika Singh

    Apur Panchali
    Directed by Kaushik Gnguly
    India, 2014, Feature Film, 97 minutes, Bengali (with English subtitles)
    Cast- Ardhendu Banerjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Gaurav Chakraborty

    As the River Flows (Ekhon Nodir Xipare)As the River Flows (Ekhon Nodir Xipare)

    As the River Flows (Ekhon Nodir Xipare)
    Directed by Bidyut Kokoty
    India, 2013, Feature Film, 97 minutes, Assamese (with English subtitles)
    Cast – Victor Banerjee, Sanjay Suri, Raj Zutshi, Nakul Vaid, Naved Aslam and Ms. Bidita Bag

    Astu
    Directed by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar India, 2013, Feature Film, 123 minutes, Marathi (with English subtitles)
    Cast – Dr. Mohan Agashe, Iravati Harshe, Milind Soman, Amruta Subhash, Devika Daftardar

    The Auction House
    Directed by Ed Owles
    United Kingdom, 2013, Documentary, 85 minutes, Bengali, Hindi, Bhojpuri and English (with English Subtitles)
    Cast- Anwer, Arshad 

    Bhaji on the Beach
    Directed by Gurinder Chadha
    United Kingdom, 1994, Feature Film, 101 minutes, Hindi, English & Punjabi (with English subtitles)
    Cast: Kim Vithana, Jimmi Harkishin , Sarita Khuraja, Akbar Kurtha, Zohra Segal 

    Brahmin Bulls
    Directed by Mahesh Pailoor
    U.S.A, 2013, Feature Film, 115 minutes, English
    Cast – Sendhil Ramamurthy, Roshan Seth, Cassidy Freeman, Justin Bartha

    Faith Connections
    Directed by Pan Nalin
    India/France 2013, Documentary, 117 minutes, Hindi (with English Subtitles)
    Cast- Kishan Tiwari, Hatha Yogi Baba, Vivekanandji, Umeshji, Mamta Devi 

    FandryFandry

    Fandry
    Directed by Nagraj Manjule
    India 2014, Feature Film, 103 minutes, Marathi (with English subtitles)
    Cast– Kishor Kadam, Chhaya Kadam, Somnath Avghade, Suraj Pawar Payeshari

    Gulabi Gang
    Directed by Nishtha Jain
    India/Norway/Denmark, 2012, Documentary Feature Film, 96 minutes, Hindi (with English subtitles)
    Cast – Sampat Devi Pal, Suman Singh, Chuhan Hemlata, Patel Jaiprakash      

    I Am Offended
    Directed by Jaideep Varma
    India, 2014, Documentary, 99 minutes, English and some Hindi (with English subtitles)

    Lakshmi
    Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor
    India, 2014, Feature Film, 115 minutes, Hindi (with English subtitles)
    Cast –  Monali Thakur, Shifaali Shah, Ram Kapoor

    Mrs. Scooter
    Directed by Shiladitya Moulik 
    India, 2014, Feature Film, 96 minutes, Language Hindi with English Subtitles 
    Cast – Anjali Patil, Satyakam Anand

    Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You, Without You)
    Directed by Prasanna Vithanage
    Sri Lanka/India, 2014, Feature Film, 90 minutes, Sinhala/Tamil (with English subtitles) 
    Cast – Shyam Fernando , Anjali Patil, Wasantha Moragoda, Maheshwarie Ratnam

    Post Card
    Directed by Gajjendra Ahirey
    India, 2013, Feature Film, 125 minutes, Marathi (with English subtitles)
    Cast – Dilip Prabhawalkar, Girish Kulkarni, Kishor Kadam, Subodh Bhave, Vaibhav Mangale

    Rangbhoomi
    Directed by Kamal Swaroop India, 2013, Documentary Feature Film, 80 minutes, Hindi (with English subtites)
    Cast – Dada Saheb Phalke, Kamal Swarrop 

    Shesher Kobita
    Directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay
    India, 2013, Feature Film, 123 minutes, Bengali with (English Subtitles)
    Cast – Rahul Bose , Konkona Sen Sharma, Swastika Mukherjee, Debdut Ghosh, Tulika Basu

    Songs of the Blue Hills
    Directed by Utpal Borpujari
    India, Documentary, 96 minutes, English and Nagamese (with English subtitles)
    Cast –Guru Sademmeren Longkumer, Lipokmar Tzudir, Lamtsala Sangtam
    WORLD PREMIERE AT NYIFF 2014

    Sound Check
    Directed by Neela Venkatraman
    India, 2011, Documentary Feature Film, 52 minutes, English
    Cast – Dhruv Ghanekar, members of the bands Advaita, Agam, Indian Ocean, MotherJane 

    Sulemani Keeda
    Directed by  Amit V Masurkar
    India, USA 2013, Feature Film, 89 minutes, Hindi (with English subtitles)
    Cast- Naveen Kasturia, Mayank Tewari, Aditi Vasudev, Karan Mirchandani, Krishna Bisht, Rukshana Tabassum 

    The Coffin Maker
    Directed by Veena Bakshi,
    India 2013, Feature Film, 120 minutes, English
    Cast- Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Randeep Hooda, Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal, Anand Tiwari, Benjamin Gilani, DenzilSmith, Yadu Sankalia, Amit Sial, Shilpa Shukla

    The Unseen Sequence
    Directed by Sumantra Ghosal
    India, 2013, Documentary Feature Film, 98 minutes, Language English 
    Cast – Malavika Sarukkai

    Tropical Amsterdam
    Directed by Alexa Oona Schulz Sri Lanka/Germany, 2013, Documentary Feature Film, 52 minutes, Language English 
    Cast – Deloraine Brohier, Jean Arasanayagam

    with 

    Waiting for Manu
    Directed by Francois Caillaud, Dan Chen, Thomas A. Morgan USA/Nepal. 2013, Documentary, 40 minutes, Language English
    Cast: Pushpa Basnet

    Virgin TalkiesVirgin Talkies

    Virgin Talkies
    Directed by K.R Manoj
    India, 2013, Feature Film, 1 hour 55 minutes, Malyalam (with English Subtitles)
    Cast – Murali Gopy, Lena Kumar, Alencier Ley, Indrans

    Zinda Bhag
    Directed by Farjad Nabi and Meenu Gaur
    Pakistan 2013, Feature Film, 115 minutes, Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu (with English Subtitles)
    Cast: Amna Ilyas, Naseeruddin Shah 

    Read more

  • 2014 Cine Las Americas International Film Festival Unveils Films Selected to Screen in ‘Hecho en Tejas’ Program

    Chateles del campo (Country Kids)Chateles del campo (Country Kids)

    Following an announcement earlier this week of their official Opening/Closing night films, Cine Las Americas announced today the list of titles selected for participation in the Hecho en Tejas program at the 17th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, which runs April 22-27, 2014.

    For this year, the Hecho en Tejas program showcases 14 films representing work by filmmakers from around the state, including Austin, Arlington, Corinth, Edinburg, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, and San Marcos. While some of these films are indeed made by upcoming talent, bringing diverse content and maturing, local voices that can reach universal audiences, the selection also includes the works of veteran filmmakers. As a whole, these films add to Cine Las America’s level of diversity and artistic excellence, and compliment the festival’s international lineup, which includes more than 140 films from over 30 different countries.

    “This year has been amazing for Texas films and filmmakers, and with 5 features and 9 shorts, our Hecho en Tejas program is bigger than ever! I think that audiences will be surprised by the level of diversity within this Hecho en Tejas lineup. Both in terms of places in Texas being represented, and Texas filmmakers traveling outside of the state to tell stories of local, national and international interest,” Jean Lauer, Programming Director, Cine Las Americas.

    Other sections of the festival also feature Texas-ties, including films in the Emergencia Youth Film Competition, the Cine Joven: Mundos Diferentes telenovela from Austin School of Film, and a retrospective of early Chicano films directed by San Antonio native, Efraín Gutiérrez. More details to come about these programs.

    About the ‘Hecho en Tejas’ program

    Cine Las Americas presents “Hecho en Tejas,” a series of films shot and/or produced in Texas, to showcase the wide variety of work being produced in the state by filmmakers with varied backgrounds. This year’s Hecho en Tejas film presentations will take place during the festival on Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27 at the Marchesa Hall and Theater, Austin Film Society’s new home for classic, independent and art house film programming. For a fifth consecutive year, Cine Las Americas is pleased to count on a partnership with the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI), to present a jury award to the best “Hecho en Tejas” film.

    About the films

    Features

    Chateles del campo (Country Kids)
    Dir. Jason Outenreath Nicaragua/USA, Documentary, 2013

    CHATELES DEL CAMPO is a playful and deeply personal documentary about growing up in rural Nicaragua. Connecting educators, parents, and kids, the film explores crucial issues facing the country through the lighthearted tone of its youthful protagonists. Following the students and teachers of two rural elementary schools over the course of an academic year, school is revealed not just as a place of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also a place to learn the responsibilities of adulthood that loom large over many children’s daily lives. CHATELES DEL CAMPO explores the space where the forces of education, environment, and childhood collide, and celebrates the fact that no matter the country, culture, or language, kids will be kids.

    LaDonna Harris: Indian 101
    Dir. Julianna Brannum USA/ New Zealand, Biographical Documentary, 2013

    The film is the first documentary about Native activist and national civil rights leader, LaDonna Harris. After moving from Walters, OK to Washington DC with her US Senator husband, Harris began an extensive and public life of Indian political and social activism. One of her first assignments was to educate the executive branch of the US government on the unique role of American Indian Tribes and their relationship with the federal government. This course was called “Indian 101” and was taught for over 35 years. The film explores her achievements, the personal struggles that led her to become a voice for Native peoples, and her contemporary work to reshape Indian Country in America and abroad.

    Las Marthas
     Dir. Cristina Ibarra USA/ Mexico, Documentary/History, 2013

    The annual debutante ball in Laredo, Texas is unlike any other. Part of the largest celebration of George Washington’s birthday in the world, a select group of mostly Mexican-American girls is chosen each year to dress in elaborate gowns representing iconic figures from America’s colonial history. Their goal: to recreate a party hosted by Martha Washington, but this time set along the US/Mexico border. A year in the making, each girl’s dress can weigh 100 lbs and cost up to $30,000 — nearly the median family income of Laredo. Las Marthas follows two of the girls — Laurita Garza Hovel and Rosario Reyes — as they prepare for this extraordinary rite of passage. The theatrical release of this film, which we are pleased to present, features footage and delves more into complexities not included in the broadcast version.


    Micha
    Dir. Eugene Martin USA, Drama/Coming of Age, 2013

    The death eight years ago of Micha’s Lebanese father left he and his Mexican mother destitute. When his mother dies suddenly, it leaves Micha no choice but to leave Mexico and seek work and a future in the United States. Micha attempts to navigate the northern route of migrant and service workers to build a life for himself in Texas. After staying on the streets in Brownsville and Dallas, Micha lands in the small town of Denton, Texas where he meets a homeless young woman, Penny, who helps him learn how to survive and find community. 

    Waiting for Sandoval
    Dir. David B. Carren USA, Thriller/Fantasy, 2014

    Daniel Ortiz lost the only thing that mattered to him when his fiancé was murdered in the jungles of Central America ten years ago. When he attends a stage play about that painful era, Daniel is suddenly pulled into the production itself, and finds himself trapped in a Central American prison the woman he loves. Will he save her? Will they get a second chance? Or will they die together in a place with no name or hope?

    Shorts

    Almost Crimes Dir. Diego Vega Peru/USA, Drama, 2013
    Ex-Votos     Dir. Ivete Lucas Mexico/USA, Drama, 2013
    Gift of Gab     Dir. Diego Rico USA, Comedy, 2013
    Hinojosa     Dir. Juan Pablo González USA/Mexico, Biographical Documentary, 2013
    La cuesta: Worlding a Sidewalk     Dir. Alvaro Torres, Daniel Perera Costa Rica/Guatemala/USA, Experimental Documentary, 2013
    Life of Giorgio     Dir. Sergio Carvajal-Leoni USA/Italy, Comedy, 2013
    La dama y el caballo     (The Horse Bride) Dir. Simon Quiroz USA, Drama/Fantasy, 2012
    The Good Kind     Dir. Ofelia Yanez USA, Drama/Coming of Age, 2013
    The Book of Joe     Dir. Mario Pena USA, Action/Sci-Fi, 2013

    Read more

  • 3 Filmmakers Win 2014 San Francisco Film Society Documentary Film Fund

    Street Fighting ManStreet Fighting Man

    The San Francisco Film Society today announced the three winners of the 2014 SFFS Documentary Film Fund awards totaling more than $75,000, which support feature-length documentaries in postproduction. The SFFS Documentary Film Fund was created to support singular nonfiction film work that is distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and an innovative visual approach. Moby Longinotto’s The Joneses, Jason Zeldes’s Romeo Is Bleeding and Andrew James’s Street Fighting Man were each awarded significant funding that will help push them towards completion.

    The SFFS Documentary Film Fund has an excellent track record for championing compelling films that have gone on to earn great acclaim. Previous DFF winners include Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary, was distributed theatrically by RADiUS-TWC and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s American Promise, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize in the documentary category; and Shaul Schwarz’s Narco Cultura, which premiered to strong reviews at Sundance the same year.

    Since its launch in 2011, the SFFS Documentary Film Fund has distributed more than $300,000 to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. Expected to grow in the coming years as further underwriting is secured, the 2014 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to a generous gift from Jennifer Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation.

    The panelists who reviewed the 11 finalists’ submissions are Jennifer Battat, founder of the Jenerosity Foundation; Cristine Dewey, managing director of Ro*Co Films International; Athena Kalkopoulou, SFFS documentary program coordinator; documentary filmmaker Jesse Moss; Joanne Parsont, SFFS Director of Education; and Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360. The jury noted that they were moved by the stories of individuals transcending their challenging circumstances and simultaneously uplifting their communities in profound and unique ways. Additionally they were impressed with the level of trust between the filmmakers and their subjects, which resulted in intimate and honest filmmaking.

    “We are thrilled to continue our tradition of supporting innovative documentary films that feature compelling stories told through a strong visual aesthetic,” said Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360. “This round of winners has captivated us with their striking and charismatic characters, and we can’t wait to see the finished films and experience the unique and fascinating worlds their subjects inhabit. Our deepest thanks go to Jennifer Battat, whose generous support has been critical to the growing success of the Documentary Film Fund.”

    2014 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND WINNERS

    The JonesesThe Joneses

    The Joneses
    Moby Longinotto, director and Aviva Wishnow, producer
    $30,627

    The Joneses is a portrait of Jheri, a 73-year-old transgender trailer park matriarch, who lives in bible belt Mississippi. Reconciled with her family after years of estrangement, and now living with two of her sons, Jheri embarks on a new path to reveal her true self to her grandchildren. Will their family bonds survive?  

    Moby Longinotto studied at England’s National Film School where his graduation film Make Me Proud screened at multiple festivals and won numerous awards. His subsequent work includes Bad Boy, a piece made for the BBC about a young man released from prison attempting to integrate back into society; and Smalltown Boy, which follows a 15-year-old boy, once kicked out of his foster home for being gay as he attempts to win the Carnival Queen crown. Longinotto has also directed and shot multiple non-scripted television series for BBC, Channel 4 and SwissTV.

    Romeo Is BleedingRomeo Is Bleeding

    Romeo Is Bleeding
    Jason Zeldes, director and Michael Klein, producer
    $22,500

    Donte Clark’s poetic voice was honed on the violent street corners of a struggling city. Yet rather than succumb to the pressures of Richmond, CA, Clark uses his artistic perspective to save his city from itself. For more information visit RomeoIsBleedingFilm.com.

    Jason Zeldes is an editor in LA’s documentary scene. The first feature film he edited, Twenty Feet From Stardom, premiered on opening night of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, continued on to a successful theatrical run, and won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Prior to that film, Zeldes spent years working with acclaimed filmmakers such as Patrick Creadon, Doug Blush and Kirby Dick, learning the documentary craft at its highest level, and earning credits on films like the Oscar-nominated Invisible War. Zeldes graduated from USC in 2009.

    Street Fighting Man
    Andrew James, director; Sara Archambault and Katie Tibaldi, producers
    $22,500

    In a new America where the promise of education, safety and shelter are in jeopardy, three Detroit men fight to build something lasting for themselves and future generations. For more information visit streetfightingmanthemovie.com. 

    Andrew James is the writer/director of Una Vida Mejor and the coproducer/codirector of the feature-length documentary Cleanflix. Una Vida Mejor has screened at festivals worldwide and was the recipient of the Special Jury Prize for artistic vision at the 2008 Cinequest Film Festival. Cleanflix had its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival before screening at more than 25 festivals around the world. Street Fighting Man was also selected for IFP’s 2012 Independent Film Week and the 2013 Hot Docs International Pitch Forum, and has received support from the Sundance’s Documentary Fund and Documentary Edit & Story Lab. 

    Read more

  • First 10 Films Revealed for 2014 Maryland Film Festival incl. Michael Tully’s PING PONG SUMMER

    Ping Pong SummerPing Pong Summer

    Maryland Film Festival has begun unveiling the lineup for its 16th annual festival, which will take place May 7-11, 2014, in downtown Baltimore and include approximately 50 feature films and 10 short-film programs from around the world. The first ten feature films announced for MFF 2014 include the area premieres of a number of highly anticipated independent, documentary, and international features, including Michael Tully’s star-studded, shot-in-Maryland Ping Pong Summer; Josephine Decker’s beautiful and provocative Thou Wast Mildand Lovely; Fernando Eimbcke’s poignant coming-of-age comedy Club Sandwich; and Stanley Nelson’s riveting civil-rights documentary Freedom Summer.

    Maryland Film Festival has distinguished itself as a creatively charged meeting place for filmmakers and audiences, offering all its U.S. feature films hosted by a filmmaker in a relaxed and competition-free environment. The festival is also known for its close relationship with legendary filmmaker John Waters, who selects and hosts a favorite film within each year’s festival. Building on record ticket sales and submissions over the last several years, the festival expanded to five days in 2013, and will again offer five days of programming in 2014, using seven screens in and around Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

    Lineup announcements will continue over the next 2 weeks. The first ten titles announced for MFF 2014 are:

    CLUB SANDWICHCLUB SANDWICH

    CLUB SANDWICH (Fernando Eimbcke) Poignant drama, gentle comedy, and a hint of transgression mix brilliantly as we observe the coming of age of a 15-year-old teen vacationing with his single mother in a sleepy Mexican beachfront resort. From the director of Lake Tahoe and Duck Season.

    FIGHT CHURCHFIGHT CHURCH

    FIGHT CHURCH (Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel) Christianity and the world of Mixed Martial Arts collide in this thought-provoking and expectation-challenging documentary from Academy Award Winner Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel.

    Freedom SummerFreedom Summer

    FREEDOM SUMMER (Stanley Nelson) In the summer of 1964, a thousand civil-rights volunteers worked to combat segregation in Mississippi. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders; Jonestown: The Life & Death of Peoples Temple; The Murder of Emmett Till) tells their story.

    Happy ChristmasHappy Christmas

    HAPPY CHRISTMAS (Joe Swanberg) Following his breakthrough hit Drinking Buddies, Joe Swanberg re-teams with star Anna Kendrick and cinematographer Ben Richardson (Beasts of the Southern Wild) for an insightful look at family and friendship centered around a Chicago Christmas. With Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber, and Lena Dunham.

    KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER

    KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER (David Zellner) The Zellner brothers (Goliath, KID-THING) bring their unique mix of resonant drama and offbeat comedy to an expanded canvas, following a young Japanese woman who believes her worn VHS copy of Fargo contains instructions to recover that film’s buried treasure.

    PING PONG SUMMER (Michael Tully) The director of Septien returns with a sweet and hilarious love letter to summers spent in Ocean City, MD during the golden era of hip-hop, boasting a cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Lea Thompson, Amy Sedaris, and Robert Longstreet.

    THE STRANGE LITTLE CATTHE STRANGE LITTLE CAT

    THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT (Ramon Zürcher) This strikingly original film builds on Robert Bresson’s ideas of space and sound to create a moving-image sculpture inside a Berlin apartment during a family gathering. Notes of gentleness and tension merge to form a strange visual symphony.

    THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELYTHOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY

    THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY (Josephine Decker) Following her Butter on the Latch, which premiered at MFF 2013, Josephine Decker further explores themes of budding romance and psychological terror against a backdrop of bucolic beauty. Fresh from its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).

    WHO TOOK JOHNNYWHO TOOK JOHNNY

    WHO TOOK JOHNNY (David Beilinson, Michael Galinsky, and Suki Hawley) When Johnny Gosch disappeared in 1982, his picture appeared on milk cartons, catapulting the issue of missing children into the public’s imagination. The team behind Horns and Halos and Battle for Brooklyn follows the search for answers over decades of stunning twists and turns, resulting in an unforgettable documentary experience that will have audiences questioning everything and everyone.

    WILD CANARIESWILD CANARIES

    WILD CANARIES (Lawrence Michael Levine) From the director of 2010’s Gabi on the Roof in July comes this captivating blend of comedy, romance, and mystery set in contemporary Brooklyn. The all-star indie cast includes Levine alongside Sophia Takal, Alia Shawkat, Annie Parisse, Jason Ritter, and Kevin Corrigan.

    Read more

  • LAST CALL(TERCERA LLAMADA) to Open and BAD HAIR (PELO MALO) to Close 17th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival

     TERCERA LLAMADA (LAST CALL)TERCERA LLAMADA (LAST CALL)

    The 17th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, which runs April 22-27, 2014, will open with Francisco Franco’s TERCERA LLAMADA (LAST CALL), Winner of Audience Awards in Lima and Guadalajara, Best Editing at the Havana Film Festival and the award for the entire female cast at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in 2013. TERCERA LLAMADA stars Irene Azuela, Ricardo Blume, Anabel Ferreira, Kristyan Ferrer, Karina Gidi, Rebecca Jones, Fernando Luján, Jorge Poza, Cecilia Suárez, Mariana Treviño, and Silvia Pinal in her first film role in 20 years.

    PELO MALO (BAD HAIR) PELO MALO (BAD HAIR)

    Closing the festival is PELO MALO (BAD HAIR), directed by Mariana Rondón, PELO MALO, which has enjoyed great international success, including acclaimed premieres in Toronto and Cartagena, and the prestigious Concha de Oro award for best film at the 2013 San Sebastián International Film Festival.  

    The story of TERCERA LLAMADA is based on a play written by director Francisco Franco in which a theater group goes through a challenging process in trying to bring to stage the play Caligula for an international theater festival.The incredible cast of the film provide moments of great humor and drama, and the film offers subtle and fresh points of view on contemporary Mexican society. TERCERA LLAMADA is a Habanero Films release.

    In PELO MALO (BAD HAIR) from Venezuela, nine year old Junior is fed up with his “bad hair,” and wants to straighten it for his yearbook picture so he can look like a fashionable pop singer. This elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother, who finds it increasingly difficult to tolerate Junior’s fixation with his looks. The film portrays contemporary life in Caracas from the perspective of regular citizens who try day by day to get ahead in their lives. PELO MALO is a FiGa Films release.

    ABOUT THE FILMS

    Tercera llamada (Last Call)
    A film by Francisco Franco
    Mexico, Comedy/Drama, 2013
    In Spanish with English subtitles

    Starring: Irene Azuela, Ricardo Blume, Anabel Ferreira, Kristyan Ferrer, Karina Gidi, Rebecca Jones, Fernando Luján, Jorge Poza, Cecilia Suárez, Mariana Treviño, and Silvia Pinal

    In one and a half months, a theater company will premiere “Caligula,” the play by Albert Camus. The neurotic director is constantly disagreeing with his cast. The diva is offended, the old actor cannot remember his lines, the producer is only sober when asleep, the assistant director believes the ghost of Pedro Infante appears in the theater, and the main actress is in panic. Will they be ready for Last Call?

    A Habanero Release

    http://youtu.be/w_fTLl6DYVs

    Pelo malo (Bad Hair)
    A film by Mariana Rondón
    Starrring: Samuel Lange, Samantha Castillo, Nelly Ramos
    Venezuela, Drama, 2013
    Spanish with English subtitles

    Junior is nine years old and has “bad hair.” He wants to straighten his hair for his yearbook picture so he can look like a fashionable pop singer. This elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother, who finds it increasingly difficult to tolerate Junior’s fixation with his looks. The more he tries to look sharp to make his mother love him, the more she rejects him. Eventually, he is cornered, faced with a painful decision.

    A FiGa Films Release

    http://youtu.be/mIN-DuZ416k

    Read more

  • Toni Collette, Christine Lahti, Jeff Goldblum, Whoopi Goldberg Among Jurors Announced for 2014 Tribeca Film Festival

     Toni Collette, Christine Lahti, Jeff Goldblum, Whoopi Goldberg Among Juror Announced for 2014 Tribeca Film Festival

     The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), today announced its jurors – a diverse group of 33 industry leaders, including award-winning filmmakers, writers, producers, acclaimed actors, respected journalists and entrepreneurs. The jury will be divided among the seven competitive Festival categories. The winning films, filmmakers and actors in each category will be announced at the TFF Awards Night ceremony on April 24. The 2014 Festival runs from April 16 –27.

    “The diverse group of voices that make up this year’s jury will make for very interesting deliberations,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. 

    The seven TFF juries will award $150,000 in cash and prizes. Announced earlier this year, 8 of the winners will also receive a work of original art by an acclaimed artist as part of the Tribeca Film Festival Artists Awards program, sponsored by CHANEL. In addition to the Festival’s main competition juries, the three jurors for the second annual $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize, recognizing a female writer or director, were also announced.

    The 2014 TFF Juror Welcome Lunch will be presented for the first time by Condé Nast.  Later this year the media leader will relocate to its new global headquarters at 1 World Trade Center where it will play a prominent role in the resurgence of Lower Manhattan.

    Following is a list of all 2014 Festival jurors and their respective categories.

    World Competition Categories

    The jurors for the 2014 World Narrative Competition are:

    Lake Bell:  Independent Spirit Award-nominated triple threat whose recent film, In A World…, she directed, wrote, and starred in. Other acting credits include Black Rock, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, and the soon-to-be released Million Dollar Arm, The Coup, and Man Up.

    Steve Conrad: Screenwriter and director whose writing credits include The Weather Man, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the soon to be released The Business Trip. He directed and wrote The Promotion and the upcoming film, Belushi.   

    Bart Freundlich: Director, screenwriter, and producer whose credits include The Rebound, Trust the Man, Catch That Kid, World Traveler, his feature-film debut and Sundance hit, The Myth of Fingerprints, and numerous episodes of Showtime’s Californication.

    Catherine Hardwicke: Director best known for the blockbuster hit Twilight. Her critically-acclaimed debut feature Thirteen received the Director’s Award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, two Golden Globe nominations, and an Independent Spirit Award. Additional directing credits include Red Riding Hood and Lords of Dogtown.

    Ben Younger:  Independent Spirit Award-winning screenwriter and director whose credits include Boiler Room, Prime, and the soon-to-be released, Bleed for This.

    The jurors for the 2014 World Documentary Competition are:

    David Edelstein: Movie critic of New York Magazine, NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and CBS Sunday Morning. He guest hosted for Turner Classic Movies in 2011 and 2013. He has written for Slate, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

    Nick Fraser: London-based journalist, independent television producer, and program editor. He is currently Commissioning Editor of Storyville, the BBC’s long-running and award-winning series of international documentaries.

    Andrea Meditch: Founding president of Back Allie Films whose executive producing credits include Academy Award®-winning Man on Wire, Academy Award®-nominated Encounters at the End of the World, Grizzly Man, and Buck.

    Jenni Wolfson: Executive Director of Chicken & Egg Pictures, which supports women nonfiction filmmakers whose diverse voices and dynamic storytelling have the power to catalyze change, at home and around the globe.

    Marina Zenovich: Director and producer whose films have screened at Tribeca, Cannes, Sundance, New York, and Toronto Film Festivals. Credits include NAACP Image Award-winning Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic, Emmy Award-winning Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, and Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out.

    Emerging Competition Categories

    The jurors for the 2014 Best New Narrative Director are:

    Jeff Goldblum: Renowned Academy Award and Emmy Award-nominated actor and director. Film credits include Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Igby Goes Down, Adam Resurrected, Nashville, and Death Wish. He starred on television in Law and Order: Criminal Intent and appeared on Broadway in The Pillowman.

    Nadine Labaki: Lebanese filmmaker and actress named to Variety’s 2008 list of “10 Directors to Watch” for her first feature film Caramel, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won numerous prestigious awards. Her second feature film, Where Do We Go Now?, debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, won a Special Mention from the Cannes Film Festival, and received the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival.

    Dorothy Lyman: Emmy Award-winning actress best known for her roles as the dynamic “Opal Gardner” on ABC’s All My Children and “Naomi Harper” onMama’s Family. Film credits include acting in Ruby in Paradise, I Love Trouble, Blow, and The Departed, as well as directing The Northern Kingdom and Split Ends.

    Adepero Oduye: Independent Spirit and NAACP Image Award-nominated actress. Credits include Pariah, Twelve Years a Slave, and the 2012 television adaptation of Steel Magnolias with Alfre Woodard. She debuted on Broadway in the acclaimed revival of The Trip to Bountiful with Cicely Tyson.

    Mickey Sumner: Actress whose film credits include Noah Baumbach’s critically-acclaimed Frances Ha, 2014 SXSW Film Festival selection, The Mend, recently shot indie, The End of the Tour, directed by James Ponsoldt, festival award-winner Missed Connections, Girl Most Likely, and CBGB. She’s had recurring television roles in Low Winter Sun and The Borgias.

    The jurors for the 2014 Best New Documentary Director are:

    Rebecca Cammisa: Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated documentary film director, producer, and cinematographer. Credits include Sister Helen, Which Way Home, and God is the Bigger Elvis.

    Heather Graham: Independent Spirit Award-nominated actress for her breakout role in Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy. Additional credits includeSwingers, Boogie Nights,  Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Hangover 1 & 3, and At Any Price.

    Nate Parker: Actor honored as one of Variety’s 2012 “10 Actors to Watch” and Sundance fellowship recipient for his screenplay for the Nat Turner biopic, Birth of a Nation. Film credits include The Great Debaters, Arbitrage, Red Hook Summer, The Secret Life of Bees, Red Tails, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, and Non-Stop.

    Doug Pray: Emmy Award-winning feature documentary film director focusing on American subcultures and maverick individuals. Work includes Art & Copy, Surfwise, Big Rig, Infamy, Scratch, Hype!, and the upcoming Levitated Mass.

    Michael Stuhlbarg: Golden Globe Award-nominated and Independent Spirit Award-winning actor best known for his role in Boardwalk Empire, which won him two SAG Awards. Film credits include A Serious Man, Blue Jasmine, Lincoln, Hitchcock, and Hugo; television credits include Damages and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; theatrical credits include The Invention of Love, Cabaret, and The Pillowman, for which he received a Tony Award Nomination and Drama Desk Award.

     Alfonso Arau: Award-winning Mexican character actor and prominent filmmaker of the Latino community in Hollywood. He made his American debut in The Wild Bunch and achieved international acclaim for directing Like Water for Chocolate, one of the most successful foreign-language films ever released in the U.S.

    Whoopi Goldberg: One of an elite group of artists who have won an Academy, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award. Film and television credits includeThe Color Purple, Ghost, Sister Act, Boys on the Side, The Lion King, For Colored Girls, and The View on ABC. She made her directorial debut with the 2013 TFF selection Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley.

    Christine Lahti: An Emmy, Golden Globe and Oscar-winning actress and director of film, television, and theater.

    Sheila Nevins: President, HBO Documentary Films. She has been responsible for overseeing the development and production of more than 1,000 documentaries for HBO, HBO2, and Cinemax. As an executive producer or producer, she has received 26 Primetime Emmy® Awards, 31 News and Documentary Emmys®, and 37 George Foster Peabody Awards. During her tenure, HBO’s critically-acclaimed documentaries have gone on to win 23 Academy Awards®.

    Paul Wesley: Actor currently starring in the CW’s Vampire Diaries. Made his directorial debut with the episode “Resident Evil.” He co-produced and co-starred in the feature film Before I Disappear, which premiered in competition at the SXSW Film Festival. Film credits include Shot in the Heart, Peaceful Warrior, Baytown Outlaws, Roll Bounce, and the forthcoming Sam & Amira. Television credits include Fallen, Everwood, American Dreams, 8 Simple Rules, and 24.

    Lindsay Burdge: Actress, producer, and casting director who has starred in films screened at Tribeca, Sundance, and SXSW Film Festivals. Credits include A Teacher and First Winter as well as the soon-to-be-released The Midnight Swim and Some Beasts.

    Toni Collette: Australian Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress. Best known for her performances in Muriel’s Wedding, The Sixth Sense, for which she received an Academy Award nomination, About A Boy, The Hours, Little Miss Sunshine, the acclaimed Showtime series The United States of Tara,The Way, Way Back, and Enough Said. She is currently co-starring in The Realistic Joneses on Broadway and will next appear in the upcoming films Lucky Them and A Long Way Down.

    Regina Dugan: Vice President of Engineering at Google named Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business 1000” and CNN’s “Top 10 Thinkers.” She leads the Advanced Technology and Projects group charged with breakthrough innovations in mobile computing and accelerating the development of promising technologies to market.

    Simon Kilmurry: Twelve time Emmy Award and three time George Foster Peabody Award-winning executive producer of POV, the long-running PBS showcase of independent documentaries. Serves as chief executive of American Documentary, POV’s non-profit parent organization.

    Anton Yelchin: Critically-acclaimed actor with performances in Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, The Beaver, and Charlie Bartlett. He was honored for his starring role in Like Crazy with the “Artist to Watch” Award at the 2011 Aspen Film Festival and the “Hollywood Spotlight Award” at the 2011 Hollywood Film Festival. Upcoming films include Only Lovers Left Alive, Cymbeline, Rudderless, and 5 to 7, which will premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.

    Paola Antonelli: Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA whose work investigates design’s influence on everyday experience. Appointed to direct a new research and development initiative in 2012 and named one of the top 100 most powerful people in the world of art by Art Review.

    Kira Pollack: Director of Photography at TIME Magazine and executive producer of Red Border Films, TIME’s new documentary film project. Named Photo Editor of the Year at the 2011 Lucie Awards and spearheaded TIME’s Emmy Award-winning Beyond 9/11 project.

    Caspar Sonnen: Curator and festival organizer working in the still largely undefined spaces between cinema, digital storytelling, and interactive art. He started the new media program IDFA DocLab at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam as well as co-founded the Open Air Film Festival Amsterdam.

    Delia Ephron: Best-selling author, screenwriter, journalist, and playwright. Film credits include Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Michael, and Hanging Up. She has written numerous novels, non-fiction essays, humor books, and a hit play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, in collaboration with her sister Nora Ephron.

    Natasha Lyonne:  Successful on stage and screen, Natasha Lyonne continues to display her creative versatility and talent after more than two decades in the industry. She will soon return as “Nicky Nichols” in Orange Is The New Black, the popular Netflix drama series.

    Gary Ross: Four-time Oscar nominated writer and director whose credits include The Hunger Games, Big, Pleasantville, and Seabiscuit. His first book,Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind, an illustrated children’s fantasy, was released last year.

    Short Film Competition Categories

    The jurors for the 2014 Narrative Short Film Competition are:

    The jurors for the 2014 Documentary and Student Visionary Award Competitions are:

    Storyscapes

    The jurors for the 2014 BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Award for transmedia are:

    Nora Ephron Prize

    The jurors for the 2014 Nora Ephron Prize are:

    ·Delia Ephron: Best-selling author, screenwriter, journalist, and playwright. Film credits include Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Michael, and Hanging Up. She has written numerous novels, non-fiction essays, humor books, and a hit play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, in collaboration with her sister Nora Ephron.

    Natasha Lyonne:  Successful on stage and screen, Natasha Lyonne continues to display her creative versatility and talent after more than two decades in the industry. She will soon return as “Nicky Nichols” in Orange Is The New Black, the popular Netflix drama series.

    Gary Ross: Four-time Oscar nominated writer and director whose credits include The Hunger Games, Big, Pleasantville, and Seabiscuit. His first book,Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind, an illustrated children’s fantasy, was released last year.

    Read more