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God Never Dies (Dios Nunca Muere)[/caption]
The Shorts lineup at AFI FEST 2018 presented by Audi will feature 47 films from filmmakers from all over the world, showcasing their distinct international viewpoints. As the only juried section of the festival, the Grand Jury Award winners for Live Action and Animated Short will be eligible for the 2019 Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short Academy Awards®.
The Shorts jury is comprised of Alison Becker (actor on PARKS AND RECREATION, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM), Chinonye Chukwu (director/writer), Alicia Malone (host on Turner Classic Movies), Michael Mohan (co-creator of the Netflix original series EVERYTHING SUCKS!), Eliza Skinner (comedian and writer on THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN) and Sasheer Zamata (comedian, actress, writer and former SNL cast member).
AFI FEST takes place November 8 to 15, 2018, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and other events will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
SHORTS
III – A sudden meeting of a man and a woman begins a hypnotic act — a game of pleasure and discomfort. III is a portrait of a woman in an exhausting relationship with a man, which allures and repulses at the same time. DIR Marta Pajek. SCR Marta Pajek. Poland
49 MILE SCENIC DRIVE – The compelling and amusing story behind one of San Francisco’s most visually arresting signposts and the design change that tarnished a legacy. DIR Bradley Smith, Tyler McPherron. USA
ADA – Ada is an unlikeable competitive walker who makes a dress out of toilet paper and has an unfortunate run-in with a hose. DIR Eleanore Pienta. USA
ALL INCLUSIVE – Under the spell of mass entertainment on the high seas. DIR Corina Schwingruber Ilić. Switzerland
APPLIED PRESSURE – Ease the pain from past physical and mental distress. The body remembers. Aches may linger. Lay prone, breathe deeply, release tension, let go of the pain. DIR Kelly Sears. USA
BABY BROTHER – My baby brother moves back in with our parents. DIR Kamau Bilal. USA
BIRDIE – A casual gesture of friendliness quickly spirals into a paralyzing moment for a woman on a train. DIR Shelly Lauman. Australia
BLOOMSTREET 11 (BLOEISTRAAT 11) – As summer progresses, the bodies of inseparable best friends start to morph and shift as puberty interrupts their bond. DIR Nienke Deutz. Belgium, Netherlands
CAT DAYS (NEKO NO HI) – Jiro, a little boy, feels sick. His father takes him to the doctor. She diagnoses a harmless condition, but it shakes the core of the boy’s identity. DIR Jon Frickey. Germany, Japan
COME ON MANDY – A wheelchair-bound woman trying to get her dog to come when she calls. DIR Joshua Wilmott. USA
CONCUSSION PROTOCOL – By the end of the 2017-18 season, more than 250 players in the NFL will have sustained concussions. For his latest project, data artist Josh Begley tracked these injuries. DIR Josh Begley. USA
COUNTERFEIT KUNKOO – In a city that houses millions, Smita discovers a strange prerequisite for renting a house in middle-class Mumbai. She would make an ideal tenant, except for one glaring flaw — she is an Indian woman without a husband.
DIR Reema Sengupta. India
CYCLISTS (BICIKLISTI) – During the final race of the cycling season, two men in the lead compete for more than the Grand Trophy. DIR Veljko Popovic. Croatia, France
DESERT RATS – Out in the Salt Flats, people think nothing can survive, but Lily did. DIR Shaz Bennett. USA
DOWN THERE – A blissful night is unexpectedly interrupted by a sound from downstairs. Different reactions are triggered as well as indifference. DIR Zhengfan Yang. China, France
DULCE – In coastal Colombia, a mother teaches her daughter how to swim, so that she may go to the mangroves and harvest piangua shellfish with other women in the village. DIR Angello Faccini, Guille Isa. Colombia, USA
EGG – A woman is locked in her home with an egg. She eats the egg, she repents. She kills it. She lets the egg die of hunger. DIR Martina Scarpelli. France, Denmark
FAUVE – Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer. DIR Jeremy Comte. Canada
GINGERBREAD – In 1862, during the bloodiest days of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln reluctantly agrees to join Mary Todd in a séance to contact their recently departed son. DIR Kendell Courtney Klein. USA
GOD NEVER DIES (DIOS NUNCA MUERE) – Living in hidden America, Paula, a Mexican farmworker, struggles to raise her two children on her own. DIR Barbara Cigarroa. USA, Ireland
GOOD PEOPLE – Overwhelmed by guilt after an intense affair, Emma returns home to her family hoping to reconnect with her husband. An AFI Conservatory thesis film. DIR Gregory Kohn. USA
HAIR WOLF – The staff of a black hair salon fend off a strange new monster: white women intent on sucking the lifeblood from black culture. DIR Mariama Diallo. USA
HALF A CHICKEN – Bryan struggles to keep to his chicken alive. DIR Sarah Ginsburg, Will Lennon. USA
INSTINCT – A psychosexual thriller about Isabelle, a lonely gallery owner, who meets a dangerously seductive performance artist and discovers they have more in common than expected. An AFI Conservatory thesis film. DIR Maria Alice Arida. USA
IRISH PRINCE – When an older Irish gentleman reveals to his pals how he met his wife, the story turns out to be a lot more familiar than expected. DIR Joey Garfield. USA
JEOM – A strange and wonderful story about a special connection between father and son. DIR Kangmin Kim. USA
A LITTLE BREAK (LES PETITES VACANCES) – While on their summer break, two young women explore their sexuality. DIR Louise Groult. France
MAGIC ’85 – During the height of the AIDS epidemic in LA, Gabriel, a lonely hospice worker, helps lead his patients to a conscious death. An AFI Conservatory thesis Film. DIR Annika Kurnick. USA
MAGIC ALPS – An Afghani refugee arrives in Italy with his goat and seeks political asylum for both of them. DIR Andrea Brusa, Marco Scotuzzi. Italy
MATRIA – Faced with the challenges presented by her daily routine, Ramona tries to take refuge in the relationship that ties her to her daughter and granddaughter. DIR Alvaro Gago. Spain
METEORITE – Bird men suffer mysterious falls in the search for where the sun rises. An altered reality through rites that converge in one objective: die to generate life. DIR Mauricio Sáenz. Mexico
NORMAL APPEARANCES – An unsettling supercut of the women of #BachelorNation watching themselves being watched. DIR Penny Lane. USA
THE ORPHAN (O ÓRFÃO) – Jonathas is adopted but then returned due to his “different” way. Inspired by true events. DIR Carolina Markowicz. Brazil
PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. – In an effort to improve feminine hygiene, a machine that creates low-cost biodegradable sanitary pads is installed in a rural village in Northern India. DIR Rayka Zehtabchi. USA
PIU PIU – A restless young woman yearns to escape the confines of romance in order to find her superpower. DIR Naima Ramos-Chapman. USA
REBIRTH IS NECESSARY – A video-art film exploring the magic and dynamism of Blackness in a realm where time and space are altered. DIR Jenn Nkiru. UK
SHE (AJO) – To escape an early marriage arranged by her father, Zana has to make a courageous decision. DIR More Raca. Kosovo
A SIEGE (OSTROM) – A lonely woman in war-torn Sarajevo embarks on a journey to find water, and neither her neighbors nor sniper fire can stop her. DIR István Kovács. Hungary
THE SUMMER OF THE ELECTRIC LION (EL VERANO DEL LEON ELECTRICO) – Hidden in a house far from the city, Alonso accompanies his dear sister, Daniela. She expects to become the seventh wife of The Lion, a prophet who (according to stories) electrocutes you when you touch him. DIR Diego Céspedes. Chile
UMBRA (TARIKI) – A few minutes after midnight, a young woman realizes that her partner has disappeared after sex. Worried, she goes out to find him in the dark streets. DIR Saeed Jafarian. Iran
WAR PAINT – A young, South LA black girl experiences a series of events that intersect racism and sexism during the Fourth of July holiday. An AFI Directing Workshop for Women film. DIR Katrelle Kindred. USA
THE WATER SLIDE – Tragedy strikes the world’s tallest water slide. DIR Nathan Truesdell. USA
WHERE THE WATER RUNS – During the most drastic and prolonged drought in California history, a water truck delivery driver uses his resources to return water to the communities that need it most. An AFI Conservatory thesis film. DIR DuBois Ashong. USA
WHILE I YET LIVE – Five acclaimed African-American quilters from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, talk about love, religion and the fight for civil rights as they continue the tradition of quilting that originally brought them together. DIR Maris Curran. USA
X – X, a young black kid, wanders through Los Angeles while confronting the difficult realities of adolescence while being black in America. DIR Yara Shahidi. USA
YAEL (CONCEPTION: YAEL) – Becoming a mother is one of the most transformative life experiences. DIR Margaret Cheatham Williams, Jordan Bruner. USA
YASAMIN – Amid the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Yasamin moves to the USA and navigates the trials and tribulations of assimilation through the waxing of a unibrow. DIR Julia Elihu. USA
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Director-writer Daniel Sawka’s feature debut Icebox tells the story of Óscar, played by Anthony Gonzalez (“Coco”), a 12-year-old Honduran boy who is forced to flee his home and seek asylum in the United States, only to find himself trapped in the U.S. immigration system. HBO Films has acquired the worldwide rights to the film, which will debut Friday, December 7 on HBO.
Icebox which also stars Omar Leyva, Johnny Ortiz, Matthew Moreno, Jessica Juarez and Genesis Rodriguez, premiered in the Discovery section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
As Óscar attempts to reach his uncle, Manuel (Leyva), in Arizona, he is apprehended by Border Patrol and placed in “the Icebox,” a detention facility where he joins scores of other migrant children being held without their families. Faced with a seemingly impenetrable immigration system, Óscar struggles to navigate a path to freedom, with a journalist (Rodriguez) and his uncle, himself a recent immigrant, as his only lifelines.
“The narrative and characters in Icebox are inspired by so many personal stories that were told to me through years of research and outreach – stories that unfortunately have become all too prevalent in today’s world,” says Daniel Sawka. “I can’t think of a better partner than HBO Films with which to present this incredibly timely issue.”
Filmed on location in New Mexico, the film was shot primarily in Spanish with English subtitles. Sawka originally wrote and directed Icebox as a short film for his 2016 American Film Institute MFA thesis project. This short was subsequently shortlisted for the 2018 Academy Awards(R), won the Grand Jury Award at AFI fest, and screened at Telluride Film Festival.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?[/caption]
The Cinema Eye Honors unveiled the first awards announcements for their 12th Annual awards, including The Unforgettables, their annual list of notable and significant nonfiction film subjects; The Shorts List, an annual list of the year’s ten top Nonfiction Short Films; and nominees in four categories: Broadcast Film; Broadcast Series; the Heterodox Award, which recognizes fiction films that actively blur the line between fiction and documentary; and the annual Audience Choice Prize. The full list of nonfiction film and craft nominees, including the five nominees for Outstanding Nonfiction Short Film, will be revealed on Thursday, November 8.
Eight films – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s 
Woman at War[/caption]
Kabul, City in the Wind[/caption]
Kabul, City in the Wind by Aboozar Amin, a sobering, intimate and warm account of daily life in Kabul during the silent intervals between suicide bombings, will open this year’s 31st International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) on Wednesday November 14th.
“Amini introduces himself as an original uncompromising artist of film, he absorbed the work of Abbas Kiarostami and made it his very own,” Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia comments.
Aboozar Amini (Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 1985) arrived in the Netherlands as a teenager and graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2010. Amini returned to reside in Afghanistan after his studies in the Netherlands. Kabul, City in the Wind is a co-production between Afghanistan, Japan and the Netherlands and was made with support from the IDFA Bertha Fund.
IDFA also revealed the the complete list of nominees for the 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg biographical drama 
With intimate footage and stunning animation, 
In 2014, the Open Art Foundation put together a theater workshop with Syrian women refugees in Beirut to create a space for community and to provide tools to help the women process their trauma as a result of the ongoing conflict in Syria.
We Are Not Princesses focuses on the strong, resilient, and often hilarious Syrian women who are moving forward in spite of the ever-worsening situation back home. With intimate footage and stunning animation, the film follows how this group of women find laughter and purpose behind the scenes, as they come together to perform the ancient Greek play, Antigone.
Whether they are gossiping at a seaside café or engaging in long-forgotten pleasures at a night-time fairground, these poignant scenes are where intense discussion and transformation take place. Smoking cigarettes and wearing makeup become acts of rebellion against societal and patriarchal authority. And never far from the surface are the horrifying backstories which brought the women to Beirut.
Mona tells of the death of her child; Fedwa hyperventilates as she attempts to rehearse the story of her son whom she was unable to bury; Heba remembers her starving brother’s last wish for noodles and yogurt.
These stories provide context for the Syrian war, and also establish the women’s point of access into the story of Antigone, a story through which the women begin the work of processing their personal and national traumas.
We Are Not Princesses focuses strong Syrian women picking up the pieces of their broken society and moving forward.
THE HATE U GIVE[/caption]
George Tillman, Jr.’s powerful and moving 
UNITED SKATES[/caption]
Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s 
Following the film’s Toronto premier at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, the genre festival favorite punk rock slasher 
Tito and the Birds / Tito e os Pássaros[/caption]
Twenty-five features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 91st Academy Awards®. Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.
Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process. Sixteen or more films must qualify for the maximum of five nominees to be voted.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
The 91st Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Ana y Bruno”
“Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch”
“Early Man”
“Fireworks”
“Have a Nice Day”
“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation”
“Incredibles 2”
“Isle of Dogs”
“The Laws of the Universe – Part I”
“Liz and the Blue Bird”
“Lu over the Wall”
“MFKZ”
“Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms”
“Mirai”
“The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl”
“On Happiness Road”
“Ralph Breaks the Internet”
“Ruben Brandt, Collector”
“Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero”
“Sherlock Gnomes”
“Smallfoot”
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
“Tall Tales”
“Teen Titans Go! To the Movies”
“Tito and the Birds”
Glenn Close in The Wife[/caption]
Glenn Close, most recently gracing the silver screen in Sony Pictures Classics’ 
Bergman – a Year in a Life[/caption]
Provocative cinema, historical film epics, and an homage to Swedish master director Ingmar Bergman are the hallmarks of the Specials section of the 60th Nordic Film Days Lübeck, which runs from October 30 to November 4. In honor of the centenary of Bergman’s birth, the festival, which showed the maestro’s classic “Sawdust and Tinsel” at the very first NFL in 1956, will this year screen two relatively unknown Bergman gems – “From the Life of the Marionettes” (GER/SWE 1980), and “The Touch” (SWE/US 1970), in some cases newly digitized. In addition, the documentaries “Bergman – a Year in a Life” (SWE/NOR 2018), “Ingmar Bergman” (SWE 1971), and “The Memory of Ingmar Bergman” (FIN 2018) use personal remembrances, or special times in the director’s life, to take a look back at his life and work. Another film takes a very different approach to Bergman’s oeuvre. “Bergman revisited” (SWE 2018) is a compilation of short films – some irreverent, some experimental, some classic – by six Swedish filmmakers that completely reinterpret motifs from Bergman’s life and art.
The Specials section also has a showcase for another world-renowned Swede. Pernille Fischer Christensen’s film “