The 2019 Sundance Film Festival which kicks off later this week will host dozens of offscreen events, including inclusive and intersectional conversations on the next wave of storytelling, radical data transparency, the future of democracy at its intersection with the arts, behind-the-scenes panels on the art of filmmaking and musical performances that range from intimate to raucous.
The Panorama program lineup of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival is complete, and will feature a total of 45 controversial, political and challenging films from 38 countries. 34 films celebrate their world premiere and 19 of the films are debut works. Among the 45 films are 29 feature films and 16 documentary films.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Mexican drama Roma was named Film of the Year, while Cuarón also won Director of the Year at the 39th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards ceremony on Sunday night.
Aretha Franklin’s spine-tingling and uplifting Amazing Grace, a rare gem in the crown of the late musical genius, will open this year’s 27th Pan African Film & Arts Festival. The documentary film was originally directed by Sydney Pollack in 1972 at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California but remained unreleased due to technical and rights issues.
WU-TANG CLAN: OF MICS AND MEN is a four-part limited docuseries from filmmaker Sacha Jenkins (BURN MOTHERF*CKER, BURN!) that transcends the music documentary genre by creating a new lane that merges music, socio-cultural commentary and intimate family portrait. The first two episodes of the series will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, January 28, and the full series will air on Showtime later this spring.
“Green Book won the top prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Picture, at last night’s 30th Producers Guild Awards. The PGA awards has matched the Academy Award for best picture in 20 of its 29 year history, making Green Book the favorite for this year’s award.
Dark Sky Films released the trailer and poster for the dystopian thriller Level 16, about a group of teen girls who are trapped in a mysterious and cruel boarding school that hides a dark secret. Level 16 opens in theaters and VOD on March 1, 2019.
The 31st edition of Filmfest Dresden lures film-loving audiences to the capital of Saxony, Germany from April 9 to 14, 2019. Filmfest Dresden is already proving a foretaste of several of this year’s special programs.
Noir City, the world’s most popular Film Noir festival, returns to the legendary Egyptian theater in Seattle, Washington, from February 15 through 21, 2019 for a week-long indulgence of danger, desire, and despair. The 2019 festival presents 20 classic films covering the years 1949 to 1959, as they were experienced on their original releases, pairing a top-tier studio “A” with a shorter, low-budget second feature, or “B” film. Many of the films will be presented in glorious 35mm. Czar of Noir and host of TCM’s “Noir Alley,” Eddie Muller, will host the week-long Festival.
Ronny Sen’s Cat Sticks, captured in amazing black and white visuals, about junkies in Kolkata, released the official poster and trailer. The film which is set to world premiere at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival, stars Tanmay Dhanania, Sumeet Thakur, Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Rahul Dutta, Saurabh Saraswat, Sreejita Mitra, Raja Chakravorty, and Kalpan Mitra
Described as part film, part baptism, Khalik Allah’s Black Mother brings us on a spiritual journey through Jamaica. Beginning Friday March 8, Black Mother will begin its exclusive NY theatrical run at Metrograph.
Neighboring Scenes, the annual festival of contemporary Latin American cinema organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Cinema Tropical, returns for the 4th edition in New York City with 13 features and 10 shorts with seven filmmakers in person, from February 22 to 26.