After working in French cinema for the past 30 years, for such masters as Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, André Téchiné, Leos Carax, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Abbas Kiarostami, Claire Denis and Olivier Assayas, Juliette Binoche will be the first French actress to receive the Golden Icon Award for her acting career at the 16th Zurich Film Festival.
Tayler Montague’s debut short film In Sudden Darkness, set during 2003 NYC blackout, will receive its NY premiere at the 2020 New York Film Festival, in the Currents section (Program #8: New York Stories). The film will also receive its international premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, and had its world premiere at the 2020 Blackstar Film Festival.
For the first time, the Zurich Film Festival opens with a movie directed by a female director. The world-premiere of the Swiss tragicomedy My Wonderful Wanda (Wanda, Mein Wunder) by Bettina Oberli opens the 16th Zurich Film Festival on September 24.
Austin Film Festival (AFF) announced the first wave of screenings to be included in their 2020 film slate, taking place virtually October 22-29.
The film My Little Sister (Schwesterlein) directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond has been submitted by Switzerland to represent the country in the International Feature Film category for the 93rd Academy Awards. The film starring Nina Hoss, Lars Eidinger, along with legendary Swiss actress Marthe Keller celebrated its world premiere in Competition at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival.
Ahead of the world premiere as the opening film of the Orizzonti (Horizons) section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival, the first trailer is released via Hollywood Reporter for Apples (Mila), the feature debut of Greek director Christos Nikou.
The first in-depth film biography of iconic musician Ronnie Wood titled Somebody Up There Likes Me by acclaimed director Mike Figgis, will be available in North America as a Virtual Cinema release starting September 18, running through October. This will be followed by a DVD, Blu-ray and deluxe hardback book release on October 9.
Netflix has unveiled a trailer for The 40-Year-Old-Version, “knockout” feature debut of Radha Blank that world premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and won the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic.
Artsploitation Films and Kino Lorber released Benjamin, a quirky, anxiety-fueled gay rom-com directed by Simon Amstell (“Nevermind the Buzzcocks”) and starring Colin Morgan (Merlin, The Happy Prince), on DVD and digital platforms including Kino Now.
Out on Film announced the lineup of films and events for the 33rd edition of the Atlanta-based LGBTQIA+ film festival, its first as an Oscar qualifying film festival. This year’s film festival will be a virtual edition taking place September 24-October 4.
Film at Lincoln Center announced Spotlight films for the 58th New York Film Festival (September 17 – October 11) featuring new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Sofia Coppola, David Dufresne, Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés, Spike Lee, and Orson Welles.
The 23rd Annual Arpa International Film Festival (Arpa IFF) announced its full lineup of 65 films from 19 countries, for this year which will take place online this year.