• Seattle International Film Festival Announces Lineup for 2013 Women in Cinema festival

    [caption id="attachment_2828" align="alignnone" width="600"]GINGER & ROSA[/caption]

    The Seattle International Film Festival announced today the official lineup for the 2013 Women in Cinema festival. The Women in Cinema, produced by SIFF, and sponsored by OSKA in addition to LUNAFEST, will run January 23-27, 2013. 

    “After a ten-year hiatus, we are excited to revive SIFF’s popular festival devoted to women directors. There is an abundance of extraordinary films directed by women this year and we look forward to showcasing a lively selection of the best new films from around the world,” said SIFF Artistic Director, Carl Spence. The 2013 Women in Cinema festival will showcase 10 feature films and a program of shorts from women filmmakers all around the globe.

    Women in Cinema 2013 will open with Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic, HANNAH ARENDT (Germany, 2012) about the philosopher famous for her controversial reporting on the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann and her shocking conclusion of “the banality of evil,” to describe the ordinariness of the Holocaust’s perpetrators. Actress Barbara Sukowa gives what is “

    The festival will close with GINGER & ROSA (United Kingdom, 2012), the story of two best friends (Elle Fanning and Alice Englert) growing up in Great Britain during the sixties. The girls discover that with the newfound freedom of the sexual revolution comes a heavy price in this salutary tale. Turning her lens on her own generation, ORLANDO writer-director Sally Potter looks back on the roots of feminism with admiration for the idealism of her young heroine, and also with a keen eye for the naïveté of that age and that time. The film also stars Oliver Platt, Timothy Spall, Jodhi May, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks and Annette Bening.

    “With women directors working in every cinematic genre, SIFF celebrates a broad range of films with women at the helm at the Women in Cinema festival,” said SIFF Director of Programming, Beth Barrett. Women in Cinema will also include presentations of following celebrated films: THE DANDELIONS (dir. Carine Tardieu, France), 2012 Locarno Film Festival Audience Award-winner LORE (dir. Cate Shortland, Australia/Germany/UK), MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN (dir. Deepa Mehta, Canada/UK), SATELLITE BOY ((dir. Catriona McKenzie, Australia), 2012 Fantastic Fest Award-winner VANISHING WAVES (dir. Kristina Buozyte, Lithuania/France/Belgium), and THE WORLD BEFORE HER (dir. Nisha Pahuja, Canada).

     Additional Women in Cinema programs will include a selection of female-helmed short films and the festival forum, Beyond the Director.

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  • Palm Springs International Film Festival Announces Film Eligible for Cine Latino Award at 2013 Festival

     

    [caption id="attachment_3053" align="alignnone" width="550"]La Playa D. C.[/caption]

    The 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival(PSIFF) announced the new Cine Latino Award, which will be presented to the best Iberoamerican film screening at the Festival scheduled to run January 3-14, 2013.  Sponsored by the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) and the University of Guadalajara Foundation/USA, the winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize.  

    This year’s eligible films are:

    7 Boxes (Paraguay), Director: Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schémbori

    After Lucia (Mexico), Director: Michel Franco

    Beauty (Argentina), Director: Daniela Seggiaro

    Blancanieves (Spain/France), Director: Pablo Berger

    Checkmate (Dominican Republic), Director: José María Cabral

    Clandestine Childhood (Argentina/Brazil/Spain), Director: Benjamín Ávila

    The Cleaner (Peru), Director: Adrian Saba

    The Clown (Brazil), Director: Selton Mello

    The Dead Man and Being Happy (Spain), Director: Javier Rebollo

    Drought (Mexico), Director: Everardo González

    The Girl (USA/Mexico), Director: David Riker

    Here and There (Spain/USA/Mexico), Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza

    La Playa D. C. (Colombia/Brazil/France), Director: Juan Andrés Arango García

    Multiple Visions (The Crazy Machine) (Mexico/France/Spain), Director: Emilio Maillé

    The Passion of Michelangelo (Chile/France), Director: Esteban Larraín

    Sadourni’s Butterflies (Argentina), Director: Darío Nardi

    The Sleeping Voice (Spain), Director: Benito Zambrano

    The Snitch Cartel (Colombia), Director: Carlos Moreno

    Tabu (Portugal/Brazil/France/Germany), Director: Miguel Gomes

    The End (Spain), Director: Jorge Torregrossa

    Una Noche (Cuba/UK/USA), Director: Lucy Mulloy

    White Elephant (Argentina/Spain/France), Director: Pablo Trapero

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  • Beasts of the Southern Wild Among 2013 Producers Guild Awards Nominees

    [caption id="attachment_2324" align="alignnone" width="550"]Beasts of the Southern Wild[/caption]

    The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today the motion picture nominations for the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards. The categories include: The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures and The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures. The documentary film category and other television category nominations were already announced by the Guild in November 2012.

    All 2013 Producers Guild Award winners will be announced on January 26th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. This year, the Producers Guild will also present special honors to Bob and Harvey Weinstein (Milestone Award), Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner(David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures), J.J. Abrams (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television), Russell Simmons (Visionary Award) and BULLY (Stanley Kramer Award).

    The 2013 Producers Guild nominated films are listed below in alphabetical order by category, along with producers. The producers’ names listed for each nominated production are listed in alphabetical order and are not necessarily the proper order of credits.

    The theatrical motion picture nominees are:

     The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

    “Argo” (Warner Bros.)
    Producers: Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov

    “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
    Producers: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn

    “Django Unchained” (The Weinstein Company)
    Producers: Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone, Stacey Sher

    “Les Misérables” (Universal Pictures)
    Producers: Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh

    Life of Pi” (Fox 2000 Pictures)
    Producers: Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark

    “Lincoln” (Touchstone Pictures)
    Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

    “Moonrise Kingdom” (Focus Features)
    Producers: Wes Anderson & Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales

    “Silver Linings Playbook” (The Weinstein Company)
    Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon

    “Skyfall” (MGM/Columbia Pictures)
    Producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson

    “Zero Dark Thirty” (Columbia Pictures)
    Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison

    The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:

    “Brave” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
    Producer: Katherine Sarafian

    “Frankenweenie” (Walt Disney Pictures)
    Producers: Allison Abbate, Tim Burton

    “ParaNorman” (Focus Features)
    Producers: Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner

    “Rise of the Guardians” (Paramount Pictures)
    Producers: Nancy Bernstein, Christina Steinberg

    “Wreck-It Ralph” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
    Producer: Clark Spencer 

    The Producers Guild of America earlier announced the Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture, Television Series and Non-Fiction Television Nominations; the following list includes complete producer credits.

    The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures:

    “A People Uncounted” (Urbinder Films)
    Producers: Marc Swenker, Aaron Yeger

    “The Gatekeepers” (Sony Pictures Classics)
    Producers: Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky, Dror Moreh

    “The Island President” (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
    Producers: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen

    “The Other Dream Team” (The Film Arcade)
    Producers: Marius Markevicius, Jon Weinbach

    “Searching For Sugar Man” (Sony Pictures Classics)
    Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

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  • Academy Extends Oscar Nominations Voting Period to January 4

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has apparently hit a snafu with the introduction of online balloting and will extended the deadline for members to vote for Oscar nominations by one day to Friday, January 4, 2013, 5.p.m. PT.  (The original date was Thursday, January 3, 5 p.m. PT).  Members may vote online or submit a paper ballot.  Any votes received after the deadline will not be counted.

    “By extending the voting deadline we are providing every opportunity available to make the transition to online balloting as smooth as possible,” said Ric Robertson, Academy COO.  “We’re grateful to our global membership for joining us in this process.” 

    The 85th Academy Awards® nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, and the Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. 

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  • Review: Django Unchained

     

    by Cecily Witcher

    Django Unchained is a shootem-up-bang-bang western-style movie that strives hard to convey the feeling of being in the 1800’s during the period when slavery was the law of the land in some parts of the USA. The film is set in the South where a slave, Django, (played by Jamie Foxx) ends up partnering with Dr.King Schultz, a white German bounty hunter (played by Christoph Waltz.) Shultz is looking for the Brittle Brothers as they have a huge bounty on their head and are wanted “Dead or Alive.” Django promises Schultz that he will lead him to the brothers if he will help him find his wife, a German-speaking slave named Broomhilda (played by Kerry Washington) from whom he was separated during a slave trade.

    Schultz teaches Django how to be a precise marksman and they start their journey to find the Brittle Brothers and Broomhilda. Their hunt for the brothers was successful. The search for Broomhilda leads them to a plantation known as “Candy Land.” The master of Candy Land, Calvin Candie is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Schultz and Django are welcomed to the plantation with the understanding that they are offering to buy a nigger to fight “kind of like dog fighting” but they used the slaves instead as a form of “entertainment”. Calvin Candie couldn’t resist that type of offer and the scheme to buy a nigger to fight and then include Broomhilda in the package would’ve went off without a hitch until a loyal house slave, Stephen (Samuel Jackson) who had been with the plantation for years told Calvin Candie that he was getting conned by a nigger. He told him that they were not interested in buying a fighting nigger; they came for the gal Broomhilda. This infuriated Calvin Candie and he forced Django and Schultz to pay $12,000 for Broomhilda or he was going to kill her right there, so they paid up and Broomhilda freedom papers were drawn up and signed. As a final condition, Calvin insisted that Schultz shake his hand to seal the deal before he would give him her emancipation papers. Schultz declined, but Calvin insisted and finally, Schultz acted as if he was going to shake Calvin’s hand and shot him directly in the chest. This started a chain of more bloody events with tons of shooting, nigger calling, explosions and more blood.

    If you want to know if Django was able to rescue Broomhilda since Schultz didn’t shake Calvin Candi’s hand and Calvin still held her freedom papers, or even if Django, Schultz and Broomhilda survived the shootout following the killing of Calvin Candi, you will have to go check out the film.

    This film is rated R and for very good reason. There is so much violence, bloodshed and every other word is nigger. I literally had a nightmare when I went to bed that night. So I will say this film is not for the squeamish. Over all I give it 2 stars out of 5 

    Rated: R, 2 hr. 46 min.

    Western, Drama

    Directed By: Quentin Tarantino

    Written By: Quentin Tarantino

    In Theaters: Dec 25, 2012 Wide

    The Weinstein Co.

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  • Rome Film Festival to Honor Director Quentin Tarantino

    The 7th Rome Film Festival (Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma) will honor director Quentin Tarantino with the Career Achievement Award. The American director, screenwriter, actor, and producer, winner of an Oscar® for Pulp Fiction, the author of Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill:Vol.1, Kill Bill:Vol.2 and Inglourious Basterds, will receive the award on January 4th on the occasion of the gala screening of the new film he has written and directed, Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Di Caprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington. The celebrated film-composer Ennio Morricone will be presenting the award to the director. 

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  • Isabella Rossellini, Hélio Oiticica And Richard Foreman In The Forum Expanded Program at 2013 Berlin International Film Festival

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    [caption id="attachment_3045" align="alignnone" width="550"]Hélio Oiticica by Cesar Oiticica Filho[/caption]

    The 8th Forum Expanded film program of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival will feature the work of Isabella Rossellini, Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, and Richard Foreman. Isabella Rossellini returns to the festival to showcase her new work,  Mammas, described as the continuation of the Green Porno series of short films, which she presented at the Berlinale in 2008. Once again, the actress and director takes on a broad range of different animal roles – this time round in order to explore the maternal instincts of different species. 

    Another key focus of this year’s Forum Expanded program is the work of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, who died in 1980. The festival will present the film Hélio Oiticica, a documentary by Cesar Oiticica Filho, the artist’s nephew and curator for his estate. Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, the co-curator of this section of the program, presents a selection of historical Super 8 film material with and by Oiticica.

    Richard Foreman is another guest at this year’s Forum Expanded. The founder of the legendary New York Ontological Hysteric Theatre returns to the big screen for the first time in over 30 years with his film Once Every Day. The piece is edited together from loops, ellipses and fragments to form a congenial cinematic realization of his unique approach to theatew and will be receiving its European premiere at HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

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  • 2013 Palm Springs International Film Festival to Screen Foreign Language Oscar Shortlist and Canadian Films

    [caption id="attachment_3043" align="alignnone" width="550"]War Witch[/caption]

    The 24th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will screen eight of the nine films selected to advance in the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 85th Academy Awards® and in partnership with Telefilm Canada will screen 12 Canadian features.  The 24th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is scheduled from January 3-14, 2013.

    The foreign language films on the Oscar shortlist, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

    Amour (Austria), Director Michael Haneke
    War Witch (Canada), Director Kim Nguyen
    A Royal Affair (Denmark), Director Nikolaj Arcel
    The Intouchables (France),Director Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache
    The Deep (Iceland), Director Baltasar Kormákur
    Kon-Tiki (Norway), Director Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg
    Beyond the Hills (Romania), Director Christian Mungiu
    Sister (Switzerland), Director Ursula Meier

    The Canadian film line-up includes: 

    Camion (Canada) – Refreshingly honest and precisely observed, this Quebecois drama examines the lives of a trucker and his two estranged sons after the former is involved in a terrible crash.  Director: Rafaël Ouellet. Cast: Julien Poulin, Patrice Dubois, Stéphane Breton, Jacob Tierney, Noemie Godin-Vigneau.

    The End of Time (Canada/Switzerland) – A meditative, free-associative but entirely engrossing contemplation of the nature of time by the innovative non-fiction filmmaker Peter Mettler. Director: Peter Mettler. Cast: George Mikenberg, Jack Thompson, Richie Hawtin, Rajeev Agrawal, Julia Mettler.

    The Final Member (Canada/Iceland/Italy/USA) – Forget Hollywood, the funniest comedy of the year may be this documentary about the Icelandic Phallological Museum.  That’s right, a penis museum.  Join “Siggi” Hjartarson on his quest to find the one thing that will make his museum complete – a human penis. Director: Jonah Bekhor, Zach Math.

    The Fruit Hunters (Canada) – Environmental docs come in all shapes and sizes, but you won’t have seen any as appetizing as this sensual, seductive tribute to nature’s sweetest bounty.  Join Bill Pullman and the fruit detectives in their quest for a wider world of taste sensation. Director: Yung Chang. Cast: Bill Pullman.  US Ppremiere.

    Inch’Allah (Canada) – Every day young Canadian obstetrician Chloe crosses the checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah, fraternizing with locals on both sides of the border but increasingly pushed towards taking a stand of her own.  A thoughtful, humane take on the Israel/Palestine divide. Director: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette.Cast: Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani, Sivan Levy, Yousef Sweid. International Premiere.

    Inescapable (Canada/South Africa) – Rubba Nadda follows her hit Cairo Time with this timely thriller about a father returning to Syria to try to find his missing daughter. Director: Ruba Nadda. Cast: Alexander Siddig, Marisa Tomei, Joshua Jackson, Oded Fehr, Saad Siddiqui. International Premiere.

    Laurence Anyways (Canada/France) – Xavier Dolan’s terrifically stylish love story is set in 1990s Montreal and stars Melvil Poupaud as a transgender man whose decade-long relationship with his lover Frédérique makes for a dazzling and entertaining mini-epic. Director: Xavier Dolan. Cast: Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clément, Nathalie Baye, Monia Chokri.

    Margarita (Canada) – A cash-strapped middle-class Toronto family reluctantly fires their Mexican-born nanny Margarita, only to discover just how indispensable she really is.  Unfortunately she is also illegal, which makes everything that much stickier in this quirky lesbian-themed comedy-drama. Director: Laurie Colbert, Dominique Cardona. Cast: Nicola Correia Damude, Patrick McKenna, Christine Horne, Claire Lautier, Maya Ritter, Marco Grazzini.

    Midnight’s Children (Canada/UK) – Salman Rushdie adapts his own monumental novel – a picaresque that doubles as a history of modern India – into a rich, sprawling, unruly movie, full of romance, satire, magic and anger. Director:  Deepa Mehta. Cast: Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Rahul Bose, Ronit Roy, Shabana Azmi, Irrfan Khan, Charles Dance.

    Molly Maxwell (Canada) – Molly Maxwell is a precocious 16-year-old who attends an alternative school where every student is perceived to be a prodigy. Molly develops a close relationship with a young teacher who opens her world but the relationship potentially threatens her future. Director: Sara St. Onge. Cast: Lola Tash, Charlie Carrick, Krista Bridges, Rob Stewart. World Premiere.

    Still (Canada) – An exquisite love story wrapped in a classic tale of modernity versus tradition. James Cromwell plays a farmer who is determined to provide a comfortable home for his ailing wife and is confronted by the realities of their situation. Director: Michael McGowan. Cast: James Cromwell, Genevieve Bujold, Campbell Scott, Julie Stewart. US Premiere.

    War Witch (Canada) – Canada’s Foreign Language Oscar submission, this award-winning, harrowing tale of a young African girl’s kidnap by rebel soldiers features an astonishing performance by its non-professional lead.  Punctuated with moments of magic and wonder, this is a powerful testament to human resilience in the darkest of times. Director: Kim Nguyen. Cast: Rachel Mwanza, Alain Bastien, Serge Kanyinda, Ralph Prosper, Mizinga Mwinga.

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  • KOCH, documentary about NYC Mayor Ed Koch opens in NYC on February 1 and LA on March 1

    KOCH, a documentary by Neil Barsky chronicling the former NYC Mayor Ed Koch opens in NYC on February 1 and in Los Angeles on March 1.  The film had its World Premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and will have its West Coast Premiere at the 2013 Palm Springs Film Festival. 
     
    Former Mayor Ed Koch is described as the quintessential New Yorker. Still ferocious, charismatic, and hilariously blunt, the now 88-year-old Koch ruled New York from 1978 to 1989—a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. 

    With KOCH, first-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky crafts what is described as an intimate and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive 1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, KOCH thrillingly chronicles the personal and political toll of running the world’s most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention. 

    KOCH is also described as a beautiful documentary examining one man’s fascinating journey into rehabilitating the very unhealthy city of New York in the 1980s.  Sometime stubborn and unapologetic, Koch also opens the door to his much-speculated-about private life, which he doesn’t mind being asked about, so long you don’t mind being told to mind your own business. With his trademark greeting “How I’m Doin, ’’ his combative energy and his charming wit, Ed Koch makes for the perfect documentary subject. Says director Neil Barsky: “Making a documentary about Ed Koch was an easy call. I cannot think of a New Yorker as popular or as polarizing. Ed Koch’s story is in many ways the story of the city.” 

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  • Race For Foreign Language Film Oscar Narrowed to 9 Films

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    [caption id="attachment_3039" align="alignnone" width="550"]The Intouchables[/caption]

    Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 85th Academy Awards®. Seventy-one films had originally qualified in the category.

    The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

         Austria, “Amour,” Michael Haneke, director; 
         Canada, “War Witch,” Kim Nguyen, director;
         Chile, “No,” Pablo Larraín, director;
         Denmark, “A Royal Affair,” Nikolaj Arcel, director;
         France, “The Intouchables,” Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, directors;
         Iceland, “The Deep,” Baltasar Kormákur, director;
         Norway, “Kon-Tiki,” Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, directors;
         Romania, “Beyond the Hills,” Cristian Mungiu, director;
         Switzerland, “Sister,” Ursula Meier, director.

    The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, and the Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. 

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  • Taye Diggs, Melissa George, Julia Stiles Among Actors Featured in 2013 Slamdance Film Festival Special Screenings

    Slamdance announced their Special Screenings Program for the 19th Annual Slamdance Film Festival and the official launch of the Slam Collective. The Special Screenings Program presents a variety of films featuring cast members Taye Diggs, Melissa George, Julia Stiles, Sean Young, Larry Fessenden, Mike Epps, Sanaa Lathan, and Forest Whitaker, among others.

    One of this year’s Special Screening selections, Jug Face, was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2011 Slamdance Screenwriting & Teleplay Competition. The Slam Collective features seven Slamdance filmmakers from five continents coming together to make I Want To Be An American, Slamdance’s first documentary feature. In the spirit of the Surrealist parlor game of chance Exquisite Corpse, each filmmaker makes a documentary short film based on imagery forwarded on by the previous filmmaker in the chain. The composite story forms a global independent filmmaking experience. The Slam Collective will World Premiere at Slamdance Film Festival, January 21st, 2013 and then online.

    The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival will take place January 18 – 24, 2013 in Park City, Utah, at the Treasure Mountain Inn: 255 Main Street, Park City, UT 84060.
     
    SPECIAL SCREENINGS PROGRAM:
    Between Us
    Director: Dan Mirvish, Screenwriters: Joe Hortua & Dan
    Mirvish
    (USA)
    In this darkly comedic drama based on a hit Off-Broadway play, twocouples reunite over the course of two volatile evenings where anything can happen.
    Cast: Taye Diggs, Melissa George, David Harbour, Julia Stiles
     
    Jug Face
    Director & Screenwriter: Chad Crawford Kinkle
    (USA) World Premiere 
    Teen, pregnant with her brother’s child, tries to escape from a backwoods community when she discovers that she must sacrifice herself to a creature in a pit in this dramatic horror offering.
    Cast: Lauren Ashley Carter, Sean Bridgers, Sean Young, Larry Fessenden,Daniel Manche, Scott Hodges, Katie Groshong, Alex Maisus
     
    Vipaka
    Director: Philippe Caland, Screenwriter: Shintaro Shimosawa
    (USA) World Premiere 
    You reap what you sow.
    Cast: Forest Whitaker, Anthony Mackie, Mike Epps, Sanaa Lathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Ariana Neal

    SLAM COLLECTIVE: I WANT TO BE AN AMERICAN
    (United States, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, India) World Premiere

    I Want To Be An American – Director: Dale Yudelman
    Stix, a 19-year-old youth has lived on the streets of Cape Town and the suburb of Manenburg all his life. The Americans he mentions are a notorious gang on the Cape Flats, but what Stix really wants is to see the world andAmerica someday.

    Clown In The Crowd – Director: Maya Newell
    Yani, a 29-year-old Peruvian refugee, leads a double life: part wife and mother, part clown.

    Aidee – Director: Dylan Verrechia
    The story of Aidee, a stripper living in Tijuana struggling relentlessly to provide her daughter with a good education and a better life.

    Suzanne Takes Me Down – Director: Q
    Through the course of one night, Suzanne, a transgender sex worker, walks the streets of Kolkata, confessing her dreams.

    Listen – Director: Monteith McCollum
    A story about man’s love affair with shortwave radio.

    All About Eve – Director: Peter Baxter
    Eve, an outgoing 12-year-old girl living in Hollywood, California is preparing to meet the world and life in the 21st Century.

    Rosa – Director: Daniel J. Harris
    Rosa is about a traditional wedding song in Cape Malay culture, now sung mostly at choral competitions.

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  • 2013 Palm Springs International Film Festival Announces Lineup of Opening, Closing Films, Film Premieres and Films From Emerging Directors

     [caption id="attachment_3036" align="alignnone" width="1020"]Blancanieves [/caption]

    The 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) announced its complete line-up including Galas, Premieres and New Voices/New Visions.  The Festival will launch on Thursday, January 3 with a screening of the Foreign Language Oscar submission from Spain Blancanieves directed by Pablo Berger and wraps on Sunday, January 13 with the US premiere of Paul Andrew Williams’ Unfinished Song starring Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave.  180 films from 68 countries, including 61 premieres (3 world, 21 North American and 37 U.S.), will unspool at the Festival, running from January 3-14 in Palm Springs, California.

    GALAS
    The Festival will open with the screening of Blancanieves (Spain/France), the Best Foreign Language Oscar submission from Spain.  Directed by Pablo Berger, Blancanieves is the spectacular silent movie adaptation of Snow White, where the daughter of a famous bullfighter is mistreated by her wicked stepmother.  When she runs away and joins a band of dwarfs, her natural bullfighting talent is discovered, but her stepmother plots to bring her down.  The film stars Maribel Verdú, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Pere Ponce, Sofía Oria,  Macarena Garcia, Ángela Molina, José María Pou and  Inma Cuesta.  Berger will attend the film screening.

    Closing the Festival is The Weinstein Company’s Unfinished Song (UK), directed by Paul Andrew Williams and starring Terence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave, Gemma Arterton, Christopher Eccleston and Anne Reid.  Marking its US premiere, the film is about a curmudgeonly pensioner who takes his ailing wife’s place in their unconventional local choir, with hilarious results.  Terence Stamp will attend the film’s screening.

    PREMIERES
    The Festival will offer a selection of 61 premieres of highly anticipated films, showcasing the diversity of international cinema (for a list of film descriptions, please see attached):

    World premieres include: Elephants (France), Molly Maxwell (Canada) and Smiling Through the Apocalypse – Esquire in the 60s (USA), a documentary featuring Gore Vidal and Nora Ephron.

    North American premieres include: 900 Days (Netherlands), Breakaway (Philippines), Crawl (France),The Daughter (Russia), Dreamers (France), Filmistaan (India), Goltzius and the Pelican Company (United Kingdom) starring F. Murray Abraham, The Hypnotist (Sweden) directed by Lasse Hallström, I Belong(Norway), Jews of Egypt (Egypt), Mental (Australia/USA) starring Toni Collette, Liev Schreiber and Anthony LaPaglia, Papadopoulos & Sons (UK/Greece), The Passion of Michelangelo (Chile/France),Playground Chronicles (France), Purge (Finland/Estonia), Sadourni’s Butterflies (Argentina), The Snitch Cartel (Colombia), The Third Half (Macedonia), Two Lives (Germany/Norway) starring Liv Ullmann, This Life – Some Must Die, So Others Can Live (Denmark), and Yema (Algeria/France)

    U.S. premieres include: 4Some (Czech Republic), 7 Boxes (Paraguay), Allez, Eddy!(Belgium/Luxembuorg/The Netherlands), Call Girl (Sweden), Caught in the Web (China), Children of Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), The Color of the Chameleon (Bulgaria), The Deep (Iceland/Norway),Eagles (Israel), Emperor (Japan/USA) directed by Peter Webber and starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones, The Fifth Season (Belgium/Netherlands/France), First Comes Love (USA), Flying Blind (UK), The Fruit Hunters (Canada) featuring Bill Pullman, Great Expectations (UK/USA) directed by Mike Newell and starring Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Grainger, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane and Sally Hawkins, Hannah Arendt (Germany) starring Barbara Sukowa and Janet McTeer, Imagine(Poland/France/Portugal), Inescapable (Canada/South Africa) starring Marisa Tomei, Joshua Jackson and Oded Fehr, Jump (Ireland/UK), Mold (Turkey), More Than Honey (Germany/Austria/Switzerland), Multiple Visions (The Crazy Machine) (Mexico/France/Spain), Mumbai’s King (India), Nuala (Ireland), Our Homeland (Japan), Satellite Boy (Australia), The Shine of Day (Austria), Shores of Hope (Germany),Soongava: Dance of the Orchids (Nepal/France), Still (Canada) starring James Cromwell and Campbell Scott, Suicide Shop (France/Canada/Belgium), Unfinished Song (UK), What is this Film Called Love? (UK),When Day Breaks (Serbia/Croatia/France), When I Saw You (Palestine), White Tiger (Russia) and A World Not Ours (UK/Lebanon/Denmark).

    NEW VOICES/NEW VISIONS
    The New Voices/New Visions Award will honor one of ten films from top emerging international directors marking their feature film debut at the Festival, with the additional criteria that the films selected are currently without US distribution.  The winner is selected by a jury of US distributors and will receive a $60,000 Panavision camera rental package.  Films selected for this year include:

    7 Boxes(Paraguay) – 17-year-old Victor is offered $100 to transport seven boxes across a crowded outdoor marketplace, but the contents are linked to a serious crime and a lot of money and soon he finds himself in an adrenaline-fuelled race to outrun cops and bad guys. Director: Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schémbori. Cast: Celso Franco, Lali González, Víctor Sosa, Nico García.

    Beauty(Argentina) – An intimate and poetic evocation of the experience of a young girl from an indigenous tribe in northern Argentina working as a maid in a middle class home. Director: Daniela Seggiearo. Cast: Rosmeri Segundo, Sasa Sharet, Ximena Banus, Camila Romagnolo, Risabel Mendoza, Victor Hugo Carrizo.

    The Cleaner(Peru) – In the midst of a mysterious and deadly epidemic in Lima, Perù, a depressed and isolated man cleans up after the dying. When he takes in a frightened young boy who has lost his mother, he’s quietly transformed by the experience of caring for another human being. Director: Adrian Saba. Cast: Victor Prada.

    The Daughter(Russia) – A haunting crime drama with Dostoevskian overtones, set in provincial Russia where a serial killer is murdering teenage girls. It’s a beautifully shot, marvelously performed film about faith, hope and love. Director: Alexander  Kasatkin, Natalya Nazarova. Cast: Maria Smolnikova, Yana Osipova, Igor Mazepa, Oleg Tkachev, Vladimir Mishukov.

    I Belong(Norway) – A Norwegian tragicomedy about how people who mean well end up hurting one another, and how acting on integrity and feelings is seen as troublesome in a rationalist society. Director: Dag Johan Haugerud. Cast: Ane Dahl Torp, Anne Marit Jacobsen, Birgitte Larsen, Henriette Steestrup, Laila Goody, Ragnhild Hilt, Trine Wiggen.

    Mumbai’s King(India) – Slumdog Millionaire minus the millions, this unadorned, neo-realist peep into the lives of kids from the Mumbai slums serves as a tribute to their spirit and ability to live life to the fullest. Director: Manjeet Singh. Cast: Rahul Bairagi, Arbaaz Khan, Tejas Parvatkar, Dhanshree Jain, Aftab Khan, Salman Khan.

    Playground Chronicles(France) – Brahim Fritah conveys the magic of childhood through whimsical visuals in this comedic chronicle of 10-year-old Brahim’s adventures in the Parisian suburbs, circa 1980.  With charm to burn, its evocation of those last, best days of youth is warmly infectious. Director: Brahim Fritah. Cast: Yanis Bahloul, Rocco Campochiard, Vincent Rottiers, Anne Azoulay, Philippe Rebbot, Mostefa Djadjam, Dalila Ibnou Ennadre.

    Sadourni’s Butterflies(Argentina) – In this dazzling neo-silent black and white melodrama an ex-circus dwarf convicted of a crime of passion gets out of prison and tries to restart his life.  Falling in love with a fellow porn movie voice over artiste, he dreams of the operation that would make her attainable…  A thrilling, poetic love story like nothing you have seen before. DirectorL Dario Nardi. Cast: Christian Medrano, Antonella Costa, Nicola Costantino, Ale Sergi.

    Satellite Boy(Australia) – Stunningly shot in the Australian Outback, Catriona McKenzie’s deeply felt exploration of Aboriginal folkways focuses on a ten-year-old boy forced to rely on the wisdom imparted by his grandfather when he gets lost in the wilds. Director: Catriona McKenzie. Cast: David Gulpilil, Cameron Wallaby, Joseph Pedley, Rohanna Angus, Dean Daley-Jones.

    This Life – Some Must Die, So Others Can Live(Denmark) – Based on a true story, this authentic, moving tale of Danish resistance to Nazi occupation has rivaled Flame & Citron as a local box office sensation. Director: Anne-Grethe  Bjarup Riis. Cast: Jens Jørn Spottag, Bodil Jørgensen, Thomas Ernst, Marie Bach Hansen, Bjarne Henriksen, Anne Louise Hassing.

    Other Festival films with notable talent and directors include: Michael Haneke’s Amour (Austria); Leslie Zemeckis directs Bound By Flesh (USA); Bebe Neuwirth narrates Defiant Requiem (USA); Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Ashley Judd narrating A Fierce Green Fire (USA); Elle Fanning, Alessandro Nivola and Annette Benning in Ginger & Rosa (UK); Abbie Cornish in The Girl (USA/Mexico); Charlotte Rampling and Gabriel Byrne in I, Anna (UK/France/Germany); Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Alicia Witt in I Do(USA); Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (USA) featuring Ice-T, Chris Rock, Snoop Dogg and Quincy Jones;La Source (USA/Haiti) narrated by Don Cheadle; Love, Marilyn (USA) featuring Elizabeth Banks, Lindsay Lohan, Evan Rachel Wood, Ben Foster, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Viola Davis, Jeremy Piven, Ellen Burstyn, Adrien Brody, Marisa Tomei and Glenn Close; Jeff Bridges in A Place at the Table (USA); Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone (France/Belgium); and Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Julianna Marguiles and Alan Arkin in Stand Up Guys (USA).

     

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