Camille Rewinds Dominates Nominations for 2013 César Awards

Camille Rewinds Dominates Nominations for 2013 César Awards

Camille Rewinds

The nominations for the César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscar, were announced and the French comedy, drama “Camille Rewinds” aka “Camille Redoubles” dominated with 13 nominations.  Actress/director Noémie Lvovsky’s “ebullient twist on the comedy of remarriage transposes Frances Ford Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married to present day France, which means that when the titular Camille—who’s in the throes of  divorcing her husband of 25 years—passes out drunk, she wakes up as a high school senior in the mid-1980s.”| NYFF

Oscar nominee “Amour” and historical drama “Farewell My Queen,” received nine nominations, while “Rust and Bone” and “Holy Motors” each received eight nods. 

The César Awards will be announced at the awards ceremony in Paris on February 22, 2013.

The full list of nominees:

Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess Wins 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance Film Festival

Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess Wins 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance Film Festival

Computer Chess, directed and written by Andrew Bujalski, has been awarded the 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and will receive a $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Now in its tenth year, the Prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.

Computer Chess is an existential comedy about the brilliant men who taught machines to play chess – back when the machines seemed clumsy and we seemed smart. The cast includes Patrick Riester, Myles Paige, James Curry, Robin Schwartz, Gerald Peary and Wiley Wiggins. The jury presented the award to the film for its “off-beat and formalistically adventurous exploration of questions of artificial intelligence and human connections, unfolding during an early computer chess tournament.”

Neighbouring Sounds, The Lifeguard Top 3rd Annual Cinema Tropical Awards

Neighbouring Sounds, The Lifeguard Top 3rd Annual Cinema Tropical Awards

Neighbouring Sounds (O som ao redor)

The winners of the 3rd Annual Cinema Tropical Awards were announced last week in New York City. The Brazilian film, Neighbouring Sounds (O som ao redor) took the top prize for Best Feature Film. A thrilling debut from a breakout talent, Neighboring Sounds delves into the lives of a group of prosperous middle-class families residing on a quiet street in Recife, close to a low-income neighborhood. The private security firm hired to police the street becomes the catalyst for an exploration of the neighbors’ discontents and anxieties—their feelings exacerbated by the palpable unease of a society that remains unreconciled to its troubled past and present inequities. 

The Lifeguard (El Salvavidas) from Chile, was awarded the prize for Best Documentary. In the film, Mauricio, a lifeguard on a Chilean beach, considers himself to be a model of efficiency and professionalism. His colleagues, however, think otherwise, and speculate on why he never goes into the water. Maite Alberdi’s visually gorgeous feature documentary debut has the intensity of a short story; beginning as a quirky character study of lifeguards and beachgoers, it becomes something altogether darker and more shocking when events take a dramatic turn.| EIFF.

The complete list of winners

HBO Grabs TV Rights for Pussy Riot Documentary from 2013 Sundance Film Festival

HBO Grabs TV Rights for Pussy Riot Documentary from 2013 Sundance Film Festival

HBO Documentary Films has snapped up the U.S. television rights for the documentary “Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer” which had its world premiere Friday night to a sold out crowd at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, the film is expected to premiere on the HBO channel at a future date. “Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer” tells the incredible story of three young women: Nadia, Masha and Katia.   As members of the […]

Gravitas Ventures to Release 3 Films From 2013 Slamdance Film Festival

Gravitas Ventures to Release 3 Films From 2013 Slamdance Film Festival

The Bitter Buddha, Steven Feinartz

Gravitas Ventures will release three “raucous Slamdance films” from 2013 Slamdance Film Festival in the next three months: Steven Feinartz’s documentary The Bitter Buddha, Michael Urie’s comedy He’s Way More Famous Than You and Peter Baxter’s documentary Wild In The Streets. 

First up debuting in select theatres on February 15, 2013 and on VOD on February 19th is The Bitter Buddha, Steven Feinartz’s perceptive look at alt-comic genius Eddie Pepitone. Though often revered as a “comic’s comic”, Eddie Pepitone is a man at war with himself. And he has the scars to prove it. The Bitter Buddha takes the viewer backstage in the alternative comedy scene to reveal one of its most undervalued treasures. This portrait of a comedian looks at Pepitone’s off beat humor and lifestyle as he battles the world around him. Stand-up comedy, original animation and interviews with Patton Oswalt, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis and others provide insight into this beloved career comedian known as ”the guitarist that all the other guitarists go to see.”

CBS Films to Release Toy's House from 2013 Sundance Film Festival

CBS Films to Release Toy’s House from 2013 Sundance Film Festival

CBS Films has grabbbed the coming-of-age comedy film TOY’S HOUSE, that premiered on Saturday at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. TOY’S HOUSE, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, from a screenplay by Chris Galletta,stars Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Erin Moriarty, Marc Evan Jackson, Thomas Middleditch and Tony Hale. TOY’S HOUSE follows three teenage boys (Robinson, Basso and Arias) as they head into the wilderness with a […]

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Announces Opening Films for Generation Programs

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Announces Opening Films for Generation Programs

The Generation 14plus competition at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, will open with the world premiere of the Turkish entry Jîn by Reha Erdem (Kosmos, Berlinale 2010).   The director and his leading actress, Deniz Hasgüler, who plays a young fighter caught between the fronts in Turkey’s Kurdish regions, will be in attendance. The Dutch-Belgian co-production Nono, Het Zigzag Kind (The Zigzag Kid) by Vincent Bal will kick off the competition of Generation Kplus. Isabella Rossellini and Burghart Klaussner (Das weisse Band) are […]

2013 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards, Polish Film The Whistle Wins Tops Prize

2013 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards, Polish Film The Whistle Wins Tops Prize

The Whistle

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival presented the awards for the jury prizes and honorable mentions in short filmmaking at a ceremony in Park City, Utah.

The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to The Whistle / Poland (Director: Grzegorz Zariczny) — Marcin, a lowest-leagues football referee who lives in a small town near Krakow, dreams of better times. At his mother’s urging, he decides to change his life and find himself a girlfriend and a better job.

The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to Whiplash / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Damien Chazelle) — An aspiring drummer enters an elite conservatory’s top jazz orchestra.

Other Short Film Awards include

Four directors from India, Italy-US, Brazil and UK-Germany Win 2013 2013 Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards

Four directors from India, Italy-US, Brazil and UK-Germany Win 2013 2013 Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards

Sarthak Dasgupta, THE MUSIC TEACHER from India; Jonas Carpignano, A CHJANA from Italy-US; Aly Muritiba, THE MAN WHO KILLED MY BELOVED DEAD from Brazil; and Vendela Vida & Eva Weber, LET THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ERASE YOUR NAME from UK-Germany-US were announced yesterday as the winning directors and projects of the 2013 Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards. Each of the four winning filmmakers will receive a cash award of $10,000 in addition to other prizes.

The awards were presented at a private ceremony at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A., by Rohit Khattar.

The winners of the 2013 Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award are:

Magnolia Pictures Picks Up Prince Avalanche for US Release After 2013 Sundance Film Festival Premiere

Magnolia Pictures Picks Up Prince Avalanche for US Release After 2013 Sundance Film Festival Premiere

Magnolia Pictures has picked up the film PRINCE AVALANCHE after its Sunday premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The new film from writer/director David Gordon Green, PRINCE AVALANCHE stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. Loosely adapted from an Icelandic film called Either Way, PRINCE AVALANCHE is described as an offbeat comedy about two men played by Rudd and Hirsch, painting traffic lines on a desolate country highway that’s been ravaged by wildfire. Against this dramatic […]

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Completes Panorama Program Lineup

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Completes Panorama Program Lineup

Yesterday Never Ends

The Panorama section lineup for the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival is now officially complete with a total of 52 feature films. 16 films are showing in the main program, another 16 are in Panorama Special, 20 features are screening in Panorama Dokumente and two short films will be shown as supplements. 

Ayer no termina nunca (Yesterday Never Ends) by Isabel Coixet, is the last addition to the Panorama Special section. “Spain is at the lowest point of the crisis, more than seven million people are unemployed. A couple meet at their son’s grave, which has to make way for a new casino town. Anger, hatred and bitterness erupt. A nightmarish film that goes far beyond personal grief to evoke the end of a society.”

The Panorama Dokumente will open with the world premiere of a Swedish documentary, Simon Klose’s TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard. “In the early years of the 21st century, the Pirate Bay, a Swedish file sharing platform that allows Internet users to share films and music, grew enormously. The trial against the founders appears to be an unequal fight between Hollywood and three open-minded computer hackers, who come across very differently in Klose’s film than Hollywood’s media lawyers depict them. The film will be released for free online at the same time as it premieres in Panorama.”

The following newly announced titles, completes the line-up of films: