Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s moving autobiographical tale of life as a young boy in Belfast in 1969 in the midst of the Troubles, lead the nominations for the 2021 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) with 11 nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Caitríona Balfe, Best Supporting Actress for Judi Dench, Best Supporting Actor for Ciarán Hinds and a Breakthrough Performance nomination for newcomer Jude Hill.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced the first confirmed titles for its 51st edition which takes place in Rotterdam from January 26 to February 6, 2022. The festival is planned as a physical event that celebrates the reunion of audiences, filmmakers, industry and press with a full festival program. As IFFR veterans including Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tan Chui Mui return, there are world premieres for feature debuts by Alberto De Michele and David Easteal.
Netflix released the official trailer for 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible set to world premiere at the upcoming 2021 DOC NYC film festival. In the documentary, Nepalese mountain climber Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja in 2019, sets out to do the unthinkable by climbing the world’s fourteen highest summits in less than seven months. Following the premiere, the documentary, directed by Torquil Jones, will then debut on Netflix starting November 29th, 2021.
The documentary The Hunt for Planet B, directed by Academy Award nominee Nathaniel Kahn follows scientists as they build and plan for the December launch of NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, a massive machine that will be able to peer more than 13 billion light-years into deep space, towards the very first stars and galaxies in the universe. It will also yield new data into the search for possible signs of life on “exoplanets,” planets outside of our solar system.
Whistler Film Festival (WFF) announced the full film lineup of 81 epic, bold and inspiring films, for its 21st edition with a hybrid offering of online and in-theatre screenings. 20 of 40 features and 25 of 41 shorts directed or co-directed by women or non-binary individuals.
Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the recording of the landmark Cuban album “Buena Vista Social Club,” Cuban-American director Hugo Perez is set to premiere his latest feature documentary Omara on the life of Afro-Cuban singer and cultural icon Omara Portuondo in the Sonic Cinema section at the 12th edition of DOC NYC, taking place in-person and online from November 11-18, 2021. Notably, Perez will also have a second title in its world premiere at this year’s festival, the documentary Once Upon a Time in Uganda, co-directed with Cathryne Czubek.
The Calgary Underground Film Festival revealed the first look at the CUFF.Docs 2021 film lineup, as CUFF gets ready to celebrate its first in-person festival in two years. The 9th CUFF.Docs will take place from November 24-28 at Globe Cinema and Online.
The First Call by Angela Onuora won the prize for Best Feature Film and Subjects of Desire by Jennifer Holness won for Best Feature Documentary at the 2021 CineFAM Film Festival.
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s Writing With Fire is a powerful documentary about the fearless journalists behind Khabar Lahariya, India’s only newspaper run by Dalit (“untouchable”) women.
The 10th Anniversary edition of the San Pedro International Film Festival (SPIFF) taking place November 4-14 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, will once again celebrate the work of emerging filmmakers from around the world, both in-person and virtually.
Here is the new official trailer for All is Forgiven, the debut feature of writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve opening in theaters and on digital exclusively at Metrograph on Friday, November 5.
Lissette Feliciano’s Women Is Losers won the jury prize for Best Narrative Feature (and a cash prize of $2,500) and Justin Monroe’s Holy Frit won the jury prize for Best Documentary Feature (and $2,500) at the 2021 Naples International Film Festival. Audience Awards went to Jonathan Keijser’s Peace by Chocolate (Best Narrative Feature), Christopher Chambers’ A Fire Within (Best Documentary Feature) and Maria Brendle’s Ala Kachuu – Take and Run (Best Short Film). Both feature films received cash prizes of $1,000 and the short film winner received a cash prize of $500.