The 2019 Sun Valley Film Festival will open with the documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name with director A.J. Eaton attending, and close with the HBO documentary Running with Beto directed by David Modigliani. The festival will screen two world premieres documentaries Apollo: Missions to the Moon and Hostile Planet: Mountains.
The Writers Guild of America announced the winners of the 2019 Writers Guild Awards with the top film awards going to Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade for Original Screenplay, and Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, based on the book by Lee Israel for Adapted Screenplay. Bathtubs Over Broadway, written by Ozzy Inguanzo & Dava Whisenant won the award for Documentary Screenplay.
Synonymes (Synonyms) by Nadav Lapid won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. Based on his own experiences, Nadav Lapid explores the challenges of putting down roots in a new place.
When criminal court Judge Craig Mitchell starts a running club on LA’s notorious Skid Row and begins training a motley group of addicts and criminals to run marathons, lives begin to change. Directed by Mark Hayes, SKID ROW MARATHON follows Judge Mitchell and the members of the Midnight Mission Runners Club over a period of four years. The Judge, who suffers from a painful spinal condition, has been told by his doctors to stop running, but he chooses to ignore their advice. He needs the club and the balance it provides in his life, giving him the opportunity to change the world in a way that he can’t in his own courtroom. If club members stay clean, off the streets and out of jail, the Judge will take them around the world to run marathons. The runners fight the pull of addiction and homelessness at every turn. Not everyone crosses the finish line. Their story is one of hope, friendship and dignity.
On the final evening of Perspektive Deutsches Kino at 2019 Berlin International Film Festival, the Compass-Perspektive-Award 2019 for the best film was presented to the film Born in Evin by Maryam Zaree. The award is endowed with prize money, and as a trophy, the director received a real compass, which is intended to serve as symbolic orientation and show her the direction to take going into the future.
The 21st Panorama Audience Awards of the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival went to 37 Seconds for best fiction film and Talking About Trees for best documentary. The awards are presented by the Berlinale Panorama section.
A Colony (Une colonie) by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles of Canada was awarded the Crystal Bear for the Best Film in Generation Kplus by the Children’s Jury at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the Best Feature Film went to A First Farewell (Di yi ci de li bie) by Wang Lina, People’s Republic of China.
The first trailer is released for the upcoming cosmic horror Starfish, featuring a dazzling lead performance from Virginia Gardner (Halloween 2018, Marvel’s The Runaways). The film begins its theatrical roadshow tour starting in NYC on March 13 with a rollout in other cities through late April, followed by the Digital/VOD release May 28.
Jordan Noel’s THIS WORLD ALONE won the top Hoka award for Best Narrative Feature, and Suzannah Herbert and Lauren Belfer’s WRESTLE won for Best Documentary Feature at the 2019 Oxford Film Festival.
The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, will open with the world premiere of director Roger Ross Williams and HBO’s new documentary film The Apollo. Helmed by the Oscar and Emmy-winning Williams (Music by Prudence; Life, Animated), The Apollo chronicles the unique history and contemporary legacy of the New York City landmark, the Apollo Theater.
Writer/director Matthew Montgomery’s Devil’s Path follows two men who meet up in a popular wilderness park for a casual hookup. Winner of Best First Narrative Feature and Best Supporting Actor at FilmOut San Diego, Devil’s Path opens in Los Angeles on March 1, DVD and VOD on March 5.
The 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival will kick off with the World Premiere of Netflix’s new original series Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, on Wednesday, April 10, 7:00 pm at the Castro Theatre. Showrunner, writer, and executive producer Lauren Morelli; director and executive producer Alan Poul; author and executive producer Armistead Maupin; and star and executive producer Laura Linney are expected to attend and participate in a post-screening Q&A.