Dune, The Power of the Dog and Belfast lead the nominations for the BAFTAs – EE British Academy Film Awards in 2022. A total of 48 feature films received nominations include Licorice Pizza, After Love, Boiling Point, Cyrano, Don’t Look Up, CODA, Drive My Car and The French Dispatch.
Here is the official trailer for Giga Agladze’s thriller The Other Me starring Jim Sturgess, Rhona Mitra, Orla Brady Antonia Campbhell-Hughes, and Andreja Pejic. The film was written and directed by Giga Agladze and executive produced by David Lynch. The Other Me opens in select theaters and on digital on February 4, 2022 by Gravitas Ventures.
AFI FEST 2022 officially announced its dates and opened the call for entries. The 36th edition of AFI FEST will take place in Los Angeles, CA, on November 2-6, 2022.
The timely documentary Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting co-directed by Aviva Kempner and Ben West (Cheyenne) will make its world premiere at California’s American Indian & Indigenous Film Festival. The festival highlights the best of current films from American Indian filmmakers, producers, directors, and actors working through Indian Country. Imagining the Indian will close out the Festival on Sunday, April 3, 2022 with a screening, Q&A, and post-screening reception.
HBO documentary Icahn: The Restless Billionaire directed by Bruce David Klein, explores the fascinating contradictions at the heart of the famed financier, Carl Icahn. Amassing close to $20 billion dollars over the last half century and at the forefront of some of the most legendary business deals of our times, Icahn, often referred to as the “Lone Wolf of Wall Street,” is a feared negotiator and master strategist in the art of corporate takeovers and investments. A polarizing figure described as both an activist investor and a ruthless corporate raider, Icahn rose from modest beginnings in Queens to become one of the richest men in the world, embodying the American Dream, whose impact on companies, products, CEOs, stock markets, and capitalism itself is vast. Yet, he openly criticizes corporate excess and the huge wealth inequality gap. In his own words and with commentary from family members, journalists, and fellow titans of industry, Icahn: The Restless Billionaire probes Icahn’s humble roots, his business acumen, and his obsessive drive to stay atop America’s corporate hierarchy.
South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals announced the full program for the 29th edition of the SXSW Film Festival set to take place in-person from March 11-20, 2022, with select films available online.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced the competition award winners for its 51st edition with the Tiger Award going to EAMI by Paraguayan filmmaker Paz Encina. Paraguayan director Paz Encina travelled to Chaco for this film. She immersed herself in Ayoreo-Totobiegosode mythology, and listened to heartrending stories about how the people are being chased off their land. Based on the knowledge she acquired, she made a dreamy, magic-realist film about a little girl called Eami.
IFC Films released the official trailer for Huda’s Salon, Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad’s political thriller which premiered at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival. The film starring Maisa Abd Elhadi, Manal Awad and Ali Suliman explores a dangerous clash between two women struggling to cope with life under occupation.
Focus Features acquired Brian and Charles, the Sundance breakout film directed by Jim Archer (who also directed the original short film). It stars David Earl, Chris Hayward, Louise Brealey, James Michie and Nina Sosanya. This marks Archer’s feature directorial debut after cutting his teeth shooting comedy sketches with friends before writing and directing several short films culminating in winning gold at the Young Director Awards in Cannes for the short film version of Brian and Charles.
Showtime acquired Nothing Compares directed by Kathryn Ferguson (Taking the Waters, Space to Be), the documentary charting Sinéad O’Connor’s phenomenal rise to worldwide fame and examines how she used her voice at the height of her stardom before her iconoclastic personality led to her exile from the pop mainstream. Focusing on Sinéad’s prophetic words and deeds from 1987 to 1993, the film presents an authored, richly cinematic portrait of this fearless trailblazer through a contemporary feminist lens.
Following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, Bleecker Street acquired Abi Damaris Corbin’s (The Suitcase) debut feature 892 starring John Boyega (Star Wars, Attack the Block), the late Michael Kenneth Williams in his final film role (“The Wire”, 12 Years a Slave), Nicole Beharie (Shame, 42), Connie Britton (Promising Young Woman, “Friday Night Lights”), Olivia Washington (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, The Little Things), Selenis Leyva (Spider-Man: Homecoming, “Orange Is the New Black”), London Covington (Hunters) and Jeffrey Donovan (“Burn Notice”, Changeling).
Now in its eighth year, the Nitehawk Shorts Festival taking place from March 2-6, will feature over 60 short films, with filmmakers in attendance for Q&As, including many based in New York City. Continuing its mission to represent diverse backgrounds, voices, and perspectives with our selection of exceptional short-form films, female-directed films make up a majority of this year’s festival program.