Love, Gilda[/caption]
The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival will open with the world premiere of the documentary Love, Gilda on Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Love, Gilda opens a window into the world of celebrated Emmy® and Grammy® award-winning comedian Gilda Radner who became a cultural icon the moment audiences first laughed with her on Saturday Night Live’s debut episode. A trailblazer for female comedians, her impact on the entertainment industry has endured almost four decades. The film will premiere opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, the city she called home when she catapulted to fame. The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival runs April 18-29.
Love, Gilda is directed and produced by Lisa D’Apolito with the support of the Gilda Radner estate. The film is a true autobiography of a pioneering woman, told in her own words and in her own voice. It weaves together audiotapes, rare home movies, diary entries, and interviews with her friends and those inspired by her including: Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Cecily Strong; SNL original cast members Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, and Paul Shaffer; as well as Lorne Michaels (SNL creator and producer), Alan Zweibel (SNL writer), Stephen Schwartz (Broadway composer); Andrew Alexander (CEO of Second City), and long-time friend and actor Martin Short.
Gilda Radner captivated millions of television viewers as an original cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1975-1980. The popularity of her now classic comedic characters Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, and Lisa Loopner fueled the young talent to meteoric fame in television, movies, and on Broadway. After finding happiness in love with Gene Wilder she received the cruelest joke of all, cancer. Her fight against the disease served as an inspiration to people impacted by the illness to stay positive and to keep laughing no matter what challenges life brings you.
“As a Festival that has always supported women’s voices and is largely run by women we are incredibly proud to celebrate the inimitable voice of Gilda during the opening night of our Festival,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder and CEO of the Tribeca Film Festival. “Gilda Radner was a powerful comedic force of nature who opened doors and thrilled audiences while becoming one of the most prolific comedians of a generation. Her cutting edge humor was only second to her dedicated leadership in cancer care with her eponymous Gilda’s Club.”
“Love, Gilda is the right film at the right time and the perfect way to open our Festival,” said Paula Weinstein, EVP of Tribeca Enterprises. “Gilda is a woman for the ages, an extraordinary talent in film, television, and theater who overcame her personal struggles to make us laugh, to make us cry. She understood the healing power of laughter not simply for her audience but in her own life as she struggled with cancer and lead the way for all of us to make the world a better place.”
First time feature filmmaker Lisa D’Apolito commented, “I fell in love with Gilda Radner while doing pro bono work at Gilda’s Club, the cancer support organization Gene Wilder founded in honor of Gilda, in Greenwich Village where I grew up. This started my journey to discover who Gilda was as a person and as a performer. Gilda inspired me and many other women with her remarkable spirit and unique talent that changed the world of comedy. I’m grateful and honored to share the extraordinary legacy of Gilda Radner at the Tribeca Film Festival.”-
LOVE, GILDA, Documentary on Comedian Gilda Radner, to Open 2018 Tribeca Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_26877" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Love, Gilda[/caption]
The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival will open with the world premiere of the documentary Love, Gilda on Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Love, Gilda opens a window into the world of celebrated Emmy® and Grammy® award-winning comedian Gilda Radner who became a cultural icon the moment audiences first laughed with her on Saturday Night Live’s debut episode. A trailblazer for female comedians, her impact on the entertainment industry has endured almost four decades. The film will premiere opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, the city she called home when she catapulted to fame. The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival runs April 18-29.
Love, Gilda is directed and produced by Lisa D’Apolito with the support of the Gilda Radner estate. The film is a true autobiography of a pioneering woman, told in her own words and in her own voice. It weaves together audiotapes, rare home movies, diary entries, and interviews with her friends and those inspired by her including: Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Cecily Strong; SNL original cast members Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, and Paul Shaffer; as well as Lorne Michaels (SNL creator and producer), Alan Zweibel (SNL writer), Stephen Schwartz (Broadway composer); Andrew Alexander (CEO of Second City), and long-time friend and actor Martin Short.
Gilda Radner captivated millions of television viewers as an original cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1975-1980. The popularity of her now classic comedic characters Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, and Lisa Loopner fueled the young talent to meteoric fame in television, movies, and on Broadway. After finding happiness in love with Gene Wilder she received the cruelest joke of all, cancer. Her fight against the disease served as an inspiration to people impacted by the illness to stay positive and to keep laughing no matter what challenges life brings you.
“As a Festival that has always supported women’s voices and is largely run by women we are incredibly proud to celebrate the inimitable voice of Gilda during the opening night of our Festival,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder and CEO of the Tribeca Film Festival. “Gilda Radner was a powerful comedic force of nature who opened doors and thrilled audiences while becoming one of the most prolific comedians of a generation. Her cutting edge humor was only second to her dedicated leadership in cancer care with her eponymous Gilda’s Club.”
“Love, Gilda is the right film at the right time and the perfect way to open our Festival,” said Paula Weinstein, EVP of Tribeca Enterprises. “Gilda is a woman for the ages, an extraordinary talent in film, television, and theater who overcame her personal struggles to make us laugh, to make us cry. She understood the healing power of laughter not simply for her audience but in her own life as she struggled with cancer and lead the way for all of us to make the world a better place.”
First time feature filmmaker Lisa D’Apolito commented, “I fell in love with Gilda Radner while doing pro bono work at Gilda’s Club, the cancer support organization Gene Wilder founded in honor of Gilda, in Greenwich Village where I grew up. This started my journey to discover who Gilda was as a person and as a performer. Gilda inspired me and many other women with her remarkable spirit and unique talent that changed the world of comedy. I’m grateful and honored to share the extraordinary legacy of Gilda Radner at the Tribeca Film Festival.”
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Jason Reitman’s TULLY Starring Charlize Theron to Open 35th Miami Film Festival | Trailier
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TULLY[/caption]
Jason Reitman latest film Tully, written by Diablo Cody and starring Charlize Theron, will premiere as the Opening Night film of the 35th edition of Miami Film Festival, on Friday, March 9th at the Olympia Theater.
“Charlize Theron’s fearless performance as a struggling suburban mother on the brink of losing mental control is made possible by another brilliant collaboration by the creators of Juno and Young Adult,” said Festival director Jaie Laplante. “Tully is both a parable and a salve for our stressed-out times – it reminds us all of who we are, and there is no more beautiful way to open our 35th edition than with this film.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRtBP07gIHY
The Festival will give its Precious Gem – Icon Award to the great French actress Isabelle Huppert, recent Oscar nominee for Elle and the most nominated actress in César Award history – a total of 16 nominations from France’s Academy – winning twice. She has also twice won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, in a career that has seen her work with some of the greatest directors of contemporary times. Huppert will be honored on Friday, March 16th at the Olympia Theater.
“Isabelle Huppert has made profound contributions to cinema over the course of her illustrious career,” Laplante said. “With her recent performances in Things to Come and Elle, as well as Souvenir and Claire’s Camera, both of which we will be screening in conjunction with her Festival appearance, Ms. Huppert reaches ever-new pinnacles that continually astonish us, and add to her iconic status.”
The Festival will give its Precious Gem – Master Award to Spain’s greatest living filmmaker, Carlos Saura, on the occasion of a new documentary about the master’s career and family life, Félix Viscarret’s Goya-lauded Saura(s), on Sunday, March 11th at the Olympia Theater.
“Carlos Saura returns to Miami after receiving the Festival’s Career Achievement Tribute Award at our 20th edition in 2003,” said Laplante. “At that time, he was 71. Now, he’s 86 and has made eight more brilliant films since his last visit to Miami – but with Saura(s), we see him in a new light, as both a filmmaker and a family-maker. He is a peerless master, and we celebrate the life that continues to nourish his art.”
In all, the Festival will present 148 feature narratives, documentaries and short films of all genres, from 50 different countries, including three countries being represented in the Festival’s Official Selection for the first time– Benin, Georgia and Swaziland. The 35th edition of the Festival runs March 9th – 18th. Thirty-eight of the films are directed or co-directed by women filmmakers. The Festival will wrap up with an Awards Night Gala screening at Olympia Theater of the International premiere of Curro Velázquez’s smash hit Spanish comedy Holy Goalie (Que baje Dios y lo vea), with star Alain Hernández in attendance. All Olympia Theater screenings are part of the Festival’s CINEDWNTWN GALA series, sponsored by Miami Downtown Development Authority. A KORBEL Awards Night Party at The Historic Alfred I. Dupont Building will follow the Awards Night ceremony and screening.
Academy Award winning filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) and revered American screenwriter and director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Affliction) will attend the Festival for Marquee presentations of their newest films. The Festival’s Marquee series features screenings accompanied by on-stage conversations with major film personalities of the moment, discussing their career and sharing an exciting new work. Hazanavicius will present Godard Mon Amour, his serio-comic look at Jean-Luc Godard’s love affair with the actress Anne Wiazemsky during the shooting of his classic films La Chinoise and Weekend. Schrader will present First Reformed, a dramatic thriller starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried and Cedric The Entertainer. They join (previously announced) Mateo Gil and Jean-Marc Barr in the Marquee section.
Ten finalists were selected for the Festival’s signature $40,000 Knight Competition, open to feature films directed by filmmakers who have presented at least one feature in a previous edition of the Festival. Three of these films will also screen as CINEDWNTWN GALAS at the Olympia Theater.
The finalists are:
Another Story of the World (Uruguay, directed by Guillermo Casanova).
April’s Daughter (Mexico, directed by Michel Franco).
In Love & In Hate (Argentina, directed by Alejandro Maci). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
The Laws of Thermodynamics (Spain, directed by Mateo Gil). *WORLD PREMIERE
My Love or My Passion (Argentina, directed by Marcos Carnevale). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Sergio and Sergei (Cuba/Spain, directed by Ernesto Daranás).
A Sort of Family (Argentina, directed by Diego Lerman).
The Summit (Argentina/Spain, directed by Santiago Mitre). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Time Share (Mexico, directed by Sebastián Hofmann).
The Warning (Spain, directed by Daniel Calparsoro).
Eleven finalists were selected for the Festival’s inaugural $10,000 Knight Made in MIA Competition, which is open to any film – short or feature, documentary or narrative – in the Festival’s Official Selection that features a qualitatively/quantitatively substantial portion of its content (story, setting and actual filming location) in South Florida, from West Palm Beach to the Florida Keys, and that most universally demonstrates a common ground of pride, emotion, and faith for the South Florida community. The new award was inspired by the international success and 2017 Best Picture Oscar win by the Miami-set Moonlight, directed by former Miami resident Barry Jenkins and co-written by Tarell McCraney. The finalists are:
“#THECONNECTEDMAN”, directed by Fabián Cárdenas.
“Ayita’s Dream”, directed by Isis Masoud, Roger Ingraham.
“Fight Like a Girl”, directed by Agustín Gonzalez, Nicole Wulf.
Gladesmen: The Last of The Sawgrass Cowboys, directed by David Abel.
Latinegras: The Journey of Self-Love Through An Afrolatina Lens, directed by Omilani Alarcón. *WORLD PREMIERE
Love in Youth, directed by Quincy Perkins. *WORLD PREMIERE
Make Love Great Again, directed by Aaron Agrasanchez.
“Noa”, directed by Angel Barrota. *WORLD PREMIERE
Operation Odessa, directed by Tiller Russell.
“Roadside Attraction”, directed by Ivette Lucas, Patrick Bresnan.
“Supermarket”, directed by Rhonda Mitrani. *WORLD PREMIERE
Two significant Soiree nights will pair a major film event with one of Miami Film Festival’s world-famous parties. An Evening with Tim Clancy, the showrunner of HBO’s acclaimed Vice series through six seasons, will present a big-screen return look at three significant Vice episodes, followed by an in-depth, on-stage conversation about Vice’s Emmy Award-winning approach, philosophies and techniques. “HBO NIGHT” continues with a party at downtown Miami’s newest hotspot, The Wharf. Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon will have its Festival premiere at the Regal Cinemas South Beach and continue with a Light Box Love Story soiree at Miami Light Project’s Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood.
The fiercely-contested, audience-voted $10,000 Knight Documentary Achievement Award, sponsored by Knight Foundation, returns with 24 finalists, including 4 world premieres, and new films from Oscar winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom), Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, In America), Goya winners Félix Viscarret and Gustavo Salmerón, Emmy winner Rene Balcer (Law & Order), Sundance 2018 prize winners Tim Wardle and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Abel and the late Oscar winner Jonathan Demme, as executive producer on The Foreigner’s Home. Subjects featured in the films include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Edwidge Danticat, Toni Morrison, Mr. Rogers, Andre Agassi, Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds in the Live Nation production Believer, Cuban-America playwright María Irene Fornés and Miami’s Rene Lecour. The finalists are:
6 Weeks To Mother’s Day (USA, directed by Marvin Blunte).
Above The Drowning Sea (Canada, directed by Rene Balcer, Nicola Zavaglia).
Amigo Skate, Cuba (USA, directed by Vanesa Wilkey-Escobar). *WORLD PREMIERE
Believer (USA, directed by Don Argott).
Cuban Food Stories (USA, directed by Asori Soto).
Dolphin Man (Greece/Canada/France/Japan, directed by Lefteris Charitos).
Foreign Land (Israel, directed by Shlomi Eldar).
The Foreigner’s Home (USA/France, directed by Rian Brown, Geoff Pingree).
Gladesmen: The Last of The Sawgrass Cowboys (USA, directed by David Abel).
In Search of Voodoo: Roots To Heaven (USA/Benin, directed by Djimon Hounsou). *WORLD PREMIERE
Liyana (USA/Qatar/Swaziland, directed by Aaron Kopp, Amanda Kopp).
Lots of Kids, A Monkey and a Castle (Spain, directed by Gustavo Salmerón).
Love Means Zero (USA, directed by Jason Kohn).
The Music of the Spheres (Cuba/USA, directed by Marcel Beltrán). *WORLD PREMIERE
Nuyorican Basquet (Puerto Rico, directed by Julio César Torres, Ricardo Olivero Lora).
The Oldies (Cuba/USA/Venezuela, directed by Rosana Matecki).
Operation Odessa (USA, directed by Tiller Russell).
Our New President (USA, directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin).
RBG (USA, directed by Betsy West, Julie Cohen).
The Rest I Make Up (USA, directed by Michelle Memran).
Saura(s) (Spain, directed by Félix Viscarret).
Three Identical Strangers (USA, directed by Tim Wardle).
When The Beat Drops (USA, directed by Jamal Sims). *WORLD PREMIERE
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (USA, directed by Morgan Neville).
HBO returns as sponsor of the Festival’s $10,000 Ibero-American Feature Film Competition, this year featuring 25 finalists, including three world premieres. Three of the films in this section star Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi, prompting Festival organizers to declare Monday, March 12th “DOLORES FONZI DAY” at Miami Film Festival. The finalists are:
Al Berto (Portugal, directed by Vicente Alves do Ó).
Another Story of the World (Uruguay, directed by Guillermo Casanova).
April’s Daughter (Mexico, directed by Michel Franco).
Ashes (Ecuador/Uruguay, directed by Juan Sebastián Jácome). *WORLD PREMIERE
Bingo: The King of the Mornings (Brazil, directed by Daniel Rezende).
Candelaria (Colombia/Cuba/Argentina/Germany/Norway, directed by Jhonny Hendrix-Hinestroza).
Cocote (Dominican Republic, directed by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias).
The Eternal Feminine (Mexico, directed by Natalia Beristáin).
The Future Ahead (Argentina, directed by Constanza Novick). *DOLORES FONZI DAY Film
Hunting Season (Argentina/USA/Germany/France, directed by Natalia Garagiola).
In Love & In Hate (Argentina, directed by Alejandro Maci). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Killing Jesus (Colombia/Argentina, directed by Laura Mora).
La Familia (Venezuela/Chile/Norway, directed by Gustavo Rondón Córdova).
The Last Suit (Argentina/Spain, directed by Pablo Solarz).
The Laws of Thermodynamics (Spain, directed by Mateo Gil). *WORLD PREMIERE
On The Seventh Day (USA, directed by Jim McKay).
The River (Bolivia/Ecuador, directed by Juan Pablo Richter). *WORLD PREMIERE
Sergio and Sergei (Cuba/Spain, directed by Ernesto Daranás).
The Skin of the Wolf (Spain, directed by Samu Fuentes).
A Sort of Family (Argentina, directed by Diego Lerman).
The Summit (Argentina/Spain, directed by Santiago Mitre). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Tigre (Argentina, directed by Silvina Schnicer, Ulises Porra Guardiola).
Time Share (Mexico, directed by Sebastián Hofmann).
The Warning (Spain, directed by Daniel Calparsoro).
Wind Traces (Mexico, directed by Jimena Montemayor Loyo). *DOLORES FONZI DAY Film
The highly sought-after $10,000 Jordan Ressler Screenwriting Award, won in recent years by Oscar nominated Theeb, Venice Golden Lion winner From Afar and Chilean world premiere launch Little White Lie, has 20 diverse and intriguing first-produced screenplays in competition. All but two of the finalists also directed his or her screenplay. The finalists are:
Michael Pearce for Beast (UK).
Cory Bowles for Black Cop (Canada).
Taylor Allen, Andrew Logan for Chappaquiddick (USA).
Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias for Cocote (Dominican Republic).
Xavier Legrand for Custody (France).
Feifei Wang for From Where We’ve Fallen (China).
Constanza Novick for The Future Ahead (Argentina).
Sonja Maria Kröner for The Garden (Germany).
Lucien Bourjeily for Heaven Without People (Lebanon).
Natalia Garagiola for Hunting Season (Argentina).
Christian Papierniak for Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town (USA).
Blake Jenner for Juvenile (USA).
Quincy Perkins for Love in Youth (USA). *WORLD PREMIERE
Molly McGlynn for Mary Goes Round (Canada).
Ziyang Zhou for Old Beast (China).
Juan Pablo Richter for The River (Bolivia/Ecuador). *WORLD PREMIERE
Ana Urushadze for Scary Mother (Georgia).
Samu Fuentes for The Skin of the Wolf (Spain).
Silvina Schnicer for Tigre (Argentina).
Hlynur Palmason for Winter Brothers (Denmark).
Films showing out of competition include selections by Oscar-nominee Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead), Oscar-nominee and Emmy-winner Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, HBO’s Veep), and a US premiere starring retired NFL veteran and South Florida resident, actor/producer Thomas Q. Jones (A Violent Man). The films are:
Ali’s Wedding (Australia, directed by Jeffrey Walker).
Darling (Denmark, directed by Birgitte Stærmose).
The Death of Stalin (UK, directed by Armando Iannucci).
“The Driver is Red” (USA, directed by Randall Christopher).
Grace and Splendor (Panama/Dominican Republic, directed by Arturo Montenegro).
The Journey (Iran/UK/France/Qatar/The Netherlands, directed by Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji).
Kiss Me Not (Egypt, directed by Ahmed Amer).
Life is a Bitch (Brazil, directed by Julia Rezende).
Racer and the Jailbird (Belgium/France, directed by Michaël R. Roskam).
Sollers Point (USA, directed by Matthew Porterfield).
Three Peaks (Germany/Italy, directed by Jan Zabeil).
Under The Tree (Iceland/Denmark/Poland/Germany, directed by Hafsteinn Gummar).
A Violent Man (USA, directed by Matthew Berkowitz).
Wajib (Palestine/France/Germany/Colombia/Norway/Qatar, directed by Annemarie Jacir).
The Festival takes a special look at the Chinese film market this year in Cinema & China. This section features the Florida premiere of the Cannes Film Festival 2017’s Palme d’Or winner for Best Short Film, “A Gentle Night”, directed by Yang Qui, and the documentary Above the Drowning Sea, a historical look at an amazing story of European Jews being safeguarded by Shanghai and Chinese diplomats during World War II. A day-long symposium on the trends and markets will be held, in conjunction with the Festival screening of four Chinese-produced features:
From Where We’ve Fallen, directed by Feifei Wang.
Love Education, directed by Sylvia Chang.
Old Beast, directed by Ziyang Zhou. *KEYNOTE FILM
Walking Past The Future, directed by Li Ruijun.
The Festival’s exceedingly popular Reel Music section returns with five outstanding selections, including a world premiere from Panama and a feature about famed flamenco star Diego “El Cigala” as he explores the world of salsa in Cuba and beyond:
Guaco: Semblanza (Venezuela, directed by Alberto Arvelo).
I Tita, A Life of Tango (Argentina, directed by Teresa Constantini).
Indestructible: The Soul of Salsa (Spain, directed by David Pareja).
Me, My Father and the Cariocas: 70 Years of Music in Brazil (Brazil, directed by Lucia Verissimo).
A Night of Calypso (Panama, directed by Fernando Muñoz). *WORLD PREMIERE
MIFFecito, the beloved Films for Families section, returns with four new feature films for film fans of all ages. This section includes Fishtronaut The Movie (Brazil), Home Team (Uruguay/Brazil/Argentina), Lila’s Book (Colombia/Uruguay) and Zombillenium (France/Belgium). An animated short film winner from MDC’s Miami Animation and Gaming International Complex 2017 MIA Animation Conference & Festival will also be shown in this section.
South Florida’s college film students will again battle it out in Cinemaslam 2018. The nine finalists include films from Center of Cinematography, Arts & Television’s Lidia Rosa Hernandez; Miami Dade College’s Armando Stephano Rivero, Robert Requejo Ramos, Christopher Foode and Fernando Dumas; and University of Miami’s Chantal Gabriel, Jorge Martinez and Vasisth Sukul.
The Festival’s parallel industry activities include a French film market sponsored by Unifrance, and a Producing in South Florida panel moderated by Kevin Sharpley.
The Festival will co-present three special events during this year’s event. A “From The Vault” of Todd Haynes’ classic Velvet Goldmine will be held on Sunday, March 11th in partnership with Flaming Classics. On Friday, March 16th, in partnership with The Black Lounge Series, a screening of In The Morning with filmmaker Nefertiti Nguvu in person. In celebration of the Festival’s Tribute to Carlos Saura, one of Saura’s greatest classics, Cría cuervos, will screen on Sunday, March 18th at Miami Beach Cinematheque.
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“The Shape of Water” and “City of Ghosts” Among Winners of 70th DGA Awards
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Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
The winners of the Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards for 2017 were announced on Saturday night during the 70th Annual DGA Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills hosted byJudd Apatow. Guillermo del Toro won the DGA’s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for The Shape of Water, and Matthew Heineman won the Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for City of Ghosts.
70th Annual DGA Awards Winners
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film GUILLERMO del TORO The Shape of Water (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Mr. del Toro’s Directorial Team: Unit Production Manager: J. Miles Dale Production Manager: Dennis Chapman First Assistant Director: Pierre Henry Second Assistant Director: Tyler Delben This is Mr. del Toro’s first DGA Award nomination. Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film JORDAN PEELE Get Out (Universal Pictures) Mr. Peele’s Directorial Team: Unit Production Managers: Marcei A. Brown, Rick A. Osako (Fairhope Unit) First Assistant Director: Gerard DiNardi Second Assistant Directors: Ram Paul Silbey, Marc Newland (Fairhope Unit), Jack McKenna (New York Unit) Second Second Assistant Director: Maggie Ballard Location Manager: Kurt Enger (New York Unit) This was one of two DGA Award nominations this year for Mr. Peele. He was also nominated in the Feature Film category for Get Out. Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary MATTHEW HEINEMAN City of Ghosts (Amazon) This is Mr. Heineman’s second DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary in 2015 for Cartel Land. Outstanding Directorial Achievement inDramatic Series REED MORANO The Handmaid’s Tale, “Offred” (Hulu) Ms. Morano’s Directorial Team: Unit Production Manager: Joe Boccia This is Ms. Morano’s first DGA Award nomination Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series BETH McCARTHY-MILLER Veep, “Chicklet” (HBO) Ms. McCarthy-Miller’s Directorial Team: Unit Production Manager: David Hyman First Assistant Director: Dale Stern Second Assistant Director: Jeff Rosenberg Second Second Assistant Director: Yarden Levo Additional Second Assistant Director: Chalis Romero This is Ms. McCarthy-Miller’s twelfth DGA Award nomination. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series in 2013 for the 30 Rock episode “Hogcock!/Last Lunch.” She was also nominated that year, together with Rob Ashford, in the Movies for Television and Mini-Series category for The Sound of Music Live! She was previously nominated in the Comedy Series category for 30 Rock episodes “Live from Studio 6H” in 2012, “Live Show” in 2010, “The Reunion Episode #304” in 2008 and “Somebody to Love” in 2007. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety twice, in 2001 for America: A Tribute to Heroes (co-directed with Joel Gallen) and in 2000 for the “Val Kilmer and U2” episode of Saturday Night Live. She was also twice nominated in that category for Saturday Night Live episodes “Christopher Walken and The Foo Fighters” in 2003 and the 25th Anniversary episode in 1999. She was also nominated in 2015 in the Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials category for Adele Live in New York City. Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series JEAN-MARC VALLÉE Big Little Lies (HBO) Mr. Vallée’s Directorial Team: Unit Production Managers: Barbara A. Hall, G.D. Fienberg First Assistant Director: David Ticotin Second Assistant Director: Christine Danahy Second Second Assistant Director: Bob Riley Additional Second Assistant Directors: Bryan Landrine, Rob Burgess, Allison Rushton, Mallory Squeo This is Mr. Vallée’s first DGA Award nomination. Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming DON ROY KING Saturday Night Live, “Host: Jimmy Fallon” (NBC) Mr. King’s Directorial Team: Associate Directors: Michael Mancini, Michael Poole, Bob Caminiti Stage Managers: Gena Rositano, Chris Kelly This is Mr. King’s twelfth DGA Award nomination. He previously won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in this category for Saturday Night Live, “Host: Dave Chappelle” in 2016 and for Saturday Night Live “Host: Justin Timberlake” in 2013. Mr King also won the DGA Award for Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials for Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special in 2015. He was previously nominated for Saturday Night Live episodes in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, and in 2015 in the Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming category for the Saturday Night Live episode, “Host: Tracy Morgan/Musical Guest: Demi Lovato.” Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials GLENN WEISS The 89th Annual Academy Awards (ABC) Mr. Weiss’s Directorial Team: Associate Directors: Ken Diego, Eve Adair, Susan Kopensky, Lori Margules, Robin Mishkin Abrams, Michael Polito Stage Managers: Gary Natoli, Rita Cossette, Dave Cove, John Esposito, Valdez Flagg, Chris Hines, Alissa Levisohn Hoyo, Arthur Lewis, Roxanne Lozano, Ron Paul, Tammy Raab, Jason Seligman, Jackie Stathis, Cheryl Teetzel-Moore, Debbie Williams, Ari Woog This is Mr. Weiss’s fourteenth DGA Award nomination. He previously won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials in 2013, 2014 and 2016 for the 67th, 68th and 70th Annual Tony Awards and in the Musical Variety category in 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012 for the 61st, 64th, 65th, and 66th Annual Tony Awards. He was also nominated in the Musical Variety category in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2008 for the 55th, 56th, 59th, 60th, and 62nd Annual Tony Awards. Additionally, Mr. Weiss was nominated in 2015 for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series, together with Rob Ashford, for Peter Pan Live! Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs BRIAN SMITH MasterChef, “Vegas Deluxe & Oyster Shucks” (FOX) Mr. Smith’s Directorial Team: Associate Director: Anna Moulaison Stage Managers: Drew Lewandowski, Brady Hess This is Mr. Smith’s fifth DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs in 2012 for MasterChef, “Episode #305.” He was previously nominated in this category for episodes of MasterChef in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, and in 2016 for S.T.R.O.N.G., “Welcome to Strong.” Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs NIKI CARO Anne with an E, “Your Will Shall Decide Your Destiny” (Netflix) This is Ms. Caro’s first DGA Award nomination Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials MARTIN de THURAH (Epoch Films) Festival, StubHub – Goodby Silverstein First Assistant Director: Charles Conner Machines, StubHub – Goodby Silverstein First Assistant Director: Charles Conner Mad World, WealthSimple – WealthSimple In House First Assistant Directors: Jey Wada Second Assistant Director: Custis Smith This is Mr. de Thurah’s second DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials in 2013 for The Man Who Couldn’t Slow Down (Hennessy VS) and Human Race (Acura MDX 2014). Lifetime Achievement & Service Award Recipients MICHAEL APTED Honorary Life Member Award Given in recognition of leadership in the industry, contribution to the Guild and the profession of directing, and outstanding career achievement. DWIGHT WILLIAMS Frank Capra Achievement Award This award is given to an Assistant Director or Unit Production Manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry and service to the Directors Guild of America. JIM TANKER Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award This award is given to an Associate Director or Stage Manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry and service to the Directors Guild of America.
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Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 3rd Neighboring Scenes to Showcase Latin American Cinema
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ALANIS[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Cinema Tropical will present the third annual Neighboring Scenes, a 17-film showcase of contemporary Latin American cinema from February 28 to March 4, 2018 at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City.
Opening night is the U.S. premiere of Anahí Berneri’s award-winning Alanis, an unflinching portrait of a young mother eking out a living as a prostitute in Buenos Aires. Unfolding over the course of three days, Berneri’s fifth film explores the challenges of urban life as an immigrant woman, and is anchored by Sofía Gala’s fearless performance.
Closing out the weekend is the world premiere of a new restoration of Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes (1998), celebrating its 20th anniversary. Bruno Stagnaro and Adrián Caetano’s landmark film, which follows a pair of less than talented thieves, launched the New Argentine Cinema movement and has continued inspiring Latin American filmmakers for generations.
Other highlights in this year’s lineup include such festival favorites as Niles Atallah’s formally daring Rey, which won the Special Jury Prize at Rotterdam; Santiago Mitre’s political thriller The Summit, an Un Certain Regard selection from Cannes, featuring an impressive international cast; and Fellipe Barbosa’s around-the-world travelogue Gabriel and the Mountain, a two-time prizewinner at Cannes Critics’ Week. The festival also features documentaries about Mexican fishermen, showgirls of the ’70s and ’80s, and the colonialist history of Easter Island; adaptations of Dostoevsky (António, One, Two, Three) and Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Match Girl); and a number of debut features including visual artist Adrián Villar Rojas’s The Theater of Disappearance, a cinematic reimagining of his acclaimed Met rooftop installation.
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
Opening Night Alanis Anahí Berneri, Argentina, 2017, 82m U.S. Premiere Winner of the Best Director and Best Actress awards at the San Sebastian Film Festival, the fifth feature by Argentinian filmmaker Anahí Berneri is a poignant and compelling drama that portrays three days in the life of a young Buenos Aires mother and sex worker struggling to survive. Featuring a potent performance by Sofía Gala Castaglione in the title role (alongside her real-life son Dante), the film offers an unsentimental and non-moralizing take on a self-determined woman trying to live her unapologetic life while facing contradictory prostitution laws that are intended to protect her but often do the opposite. António, One, Two, Three / António um dois três Leonardo Mouramateus, Portugal/Brazil, 2017, 95m Portuguese with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Reminiscent of the films of Hong Sangsoo and Matías Piñeiro, Mouramateus’s debut offers a simple yet scrambled tale of love, longing, and the theater. After angering his father, António seeks refuge in his ex-girlfriend Mariana’s Lisbon apartment, where he meets Débora, a Brazilian woman on her way to Russia. Inevitably, he ends up romantically involved in different ways with each of them. Meanwhile, António’s autobiographical play—which borrows from Dostoevsky’s White Nights—complicates our understanding of his motivations and our own relationship to the film (which is also based on White Nights). As the film goes on, repetitions of scenes (with slight alterations) further speak to the ambivalence of young love. Beauties of the Night / Bellas de noche María José Cuevas, Mexico, 2016, 91m Spanish with English subtitles New York premiere María José Cuevas’s engrossing and captivating debut feature, winner of the Best Documentary award at the Morelia Film Festival, is a moving portrait of five of Mexico’s most popular and iconic showgirls of the late 1970s and ’80s, almost 40 years after they ruled Mexico’s entertainment world. Eight years in the making, with a keen eye and devoid of any sensationalism, the documentary enters the fascinating world of these women, who have struggled to reinvent themselves after the decline of the burlesque heyday. Fuera del campo Marcelo Guzmán and Mauricio Durán, Bolivia, 2017, 60m Spanish, Aymara with English subtitles U.S. Premiere On November 2, 1972, 67 Bolivian political prisoners executed a daring escape from a makeshift jail in the middle of Lake Titicaca during a soccer game; the prisoners then sought asylum in Peru. Their stand against the brutality of Hugo Banzer’s dictatorship was a watershed moment, but interviews with locals who were forced to assist the dissidents reveal the cruel and complicated legacy of this “heroic” tale. The directors of this film admit their inability (personal and creative) to fully deal with history and memory, relying on a series of narrative devices, sometimes controversial, but always cinematic, to tell the story. Screening with: Las nubes Juan Pablo González, 2018, Mexico/USA, 20m Spanish with English subtitles New York Premiere Affected by violence and broken family relationships, a man goes on a journey through memory and time. Gabriel and the Mountain / Gabriel e a Montanha Fellipe Barbosa, Brazil/France, 2017, 131m Portuguese, English, and French with English subtitles New York Premiere Winner of two prizes at Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2017, Fellipe Barbosa’s follow-up to his acclaimed debut, Casa Grande, follows Gabriel Buchmann (Joao Pedro Zappa) as he travels the world for one year before entering a prestigious American university. After ten months on the road, he arrives in Kenya determined to discover the African continent. Everything changes, however, when he reaches the top of Mount Mulanje, Malawi. The film is based on the true story of Barbosa’s friend from school. Lightning Falls Behind / Atrás hay relámpagos Julio Hernández Cordón, Costa Rica/Mexico, 2017, 82m Spanish with English subtitles New York Premiere The sixth film by Mexican-Guatemalan filmmaker Julio Hernández Cordón (I Promise You Anarchy, ND/NF 2016), and his first shot in Costa Rica, is a rakish slacker movie that follows rebellious girls Sole (Adriana Alvarez) and Ana (Natalia Arias). While biking around San José, and planning to create a vintage cab company, they find something inside the trunk of a car that they’d rather forget. Lightning Falls Behind, featuring playful and fluid camerawork, is a prime example of the kind of recent Central American cinema that has delighted viewers on the international film circuit. The Little Match Girl / La vendedora de fósforos Alejo Moguillansky, Argentina, 2017, 71m Spanish with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Moguillansky’s follow-up to The Gold Beetle is a fantasia that elegantly weaves together disparate elements: Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of the title, Bresson’s saintly abused donkey Balthazar, a Red Army Faction member’s correspondence with an Argentine pianist, and a composer trying to mount an opera at the Teatro Colón. Winner of Best Argentine Film at last year’s BAFICI, The Little Match Girl is infused with emotion, and never devolves into the obscure or didactic, despite its many literary and cinematic references. Featuring exquisite cinematography from Inés Duacastella, this spectacular work is not to be missed. Mariana Chris Gude, Colombia, 2017, 64m Spanish with English subtitles U.S. Premiere In this experimental road movie, director Chris Gude (Mambo Cool) follows two smugglers attempting to cross into Colombia from Venezuela. As the men drive across the sun-soaked terrain of the Guajira Peninsula, occasionally stopping off to wander or play pool in the lonely ruins of abandoned buildings, their journey comes to symbolize a search for an idealized land. Gesturing toward Colombia’s colonial legacy (such as when the pair listen to a Hugo Chávez radio broadcast about Simón Bolívar), this beautifully photographed film gives the viewer ample room to ponder questions of space and identity. Screening with: The Mouth / La Bouche Camilo Restrepo, France, 2017, 19m Susu with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Following his 2016 film Cilaos, Restrepo again experiments with the musical genre in a film that uses radical aesthetics as a means of standing up to social injustice. Rey / King Niles Atallah, France/Chile/The Netherlands/Germany/Italy/Qatar, 2017, 90m Spanish and Mapuche with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Recipient of the Special Jury Prize at Rotterdam, Rey tells the curious story of Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, a French lawyer who attempted to create an independent state for the indigenous peoples of Araucanía (part of present-day Chile) and Patagonia (Argentina) in 1860 and claimed he was its king. Honoring the ambiguous nature of Tounens’s life—it’s unclear if he was a spy, a huckster, an above-average colonial exploiter, or actually summoned by a Mapuche deity—Rey uses a variety of formal techniques and visual styles, including papier-mâché masks, battered 16mm stock, and educational film aesthetics. Ruinas tu reino / Ruins, Your Realm Pablo Escoto, Mexico, 2016, 64m Spanish with English subtitles U.S. Premiere This lyrical and immersive documentary, reminiscent of films by Peter Hutton and Kazuhiro Soda, follows the rhythms of Mexican fishermen in extreme, minute detail. Fish are glimpsed underneath the water and gasping on the deck of a ship; men hoist their nets and sails. Interspersed with these quotidian images are snippets of text and poetry, juxtaposed against a black background. Screening with: Amundsen’s Dogs / Los perros de Amundsen Rafael Ramírez, Cuba 2017, 27m Spanish and English with English subtitles Rafael Ramírez connects the avant-garde and the political in this intertwining of fiction and documentary that tells the story of an industrial accidents inspector. Solitary Land / Tierra Sola Tiziana Panizza, Chile, 2017, 107m Spanish, Rapa Nui, and English with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Easter Island (Rapa Nui) has long been a grand mystery of archeology—how did such a large civilization fall, and does it foreshadow our own ruin? For the indigenous people who currently live there, the island’s past carries a very different legacy: one of colonial abuse and inescapable remoteness. Panizza’s film shows the legacy of this exploitation, as well as the daily rhythms of the small prison on the island, in a film constructed from pieces of 32 documentaries (many of which include similar voiceovers and framing, despite being shot by crews from different countries) and original present-day footage. Winner of Best Chilean Film at the Valdivia Film Festival. The Summit / La cordillera Santiago Mitre, Argentina/France/Spain, 2017, 114m Spanish with English subtitles New York premiere Santiago Mitre (The Student) continues his ongoing cinematic investigation into politics with his third feature, set at a summit of Latin American presidents in Chile. Here, the Argentine president—played by acclaimed actor Ricardo Darín—endures a political and familial drama that will force him to face his own demons. This high-profile thriller, an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, boasts an impressive international cast including Dolores Fonzi, Erica Rivas (Wild Tales), Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live In), Paulina García (Gloria), Daniel Giménez Cacho (Zama), Alfredo Castro (The Club), and Christian Slater. The Theater of Disappearance / El teatro de la desaparición Adrián Villar Rojas, Argentina/South Korea, 2017, 120m U.S. Premiere Sharing the same title as his 2017 installation from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop, acclaimed Argentine visual artist Adrián Villar Rojas’s The Theater of Disappearance is a hypnotic triptych portraying the current state of latent war on different continents. Using disparate styles and sensual, sometimes randomly connected imagery, Villar Rojas searches for beauty through a wordless portrait of a Moroccan pottery workshop, an almost surreal study of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, and a camera tour of different locations around the world. 20th Anniversary Screening—New restoration! Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes / Pizza, birra, faso Bruno Stagnaro & Adrián Caetano, Argentina, 1998, 80m Spanish with English subtitles Restoration World Premiere Bruno Stagnaro and Adrián Caetano’s milestone debut feature heralded the deeply influential New Argentine Cinema, fostered the careers of a vast generation of international filmmakers, and fueled the Latin American cinema renaissance of the past two decades. Rarely seen in the United States, Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes is set in the Buenos Aires criminal underworld, and follows two impoverished teens who graduate from petty theft to armed robbery, though they’re incompetent at both. This restoration, by the Action Program to rescue the Argentine cinema, a joint initiative between CINAIN (Cinematheque and National Image Archive of Argentina) and the DAC (Argentine Cinematographic Directors), was carried out in 4K from the original negative in the framework of the Plan Recuperar DAC / Gótika, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the supervision of Bruno Stagnaro, Adrián Caetano and cinematographer Marcelo Lavintman.
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Human Rights Watch Film Festival, London Will Feature 14 Award Winning Films, Opens with “Naila and the Uprising” | Trailers
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Naila and the Uprising[/caption]
The Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London from March 8 to 16, 2018, will feature 14 award-winning international documentary and feature films, half of them directed by women. The films offer fresh perspectives and critical insights on human rights concerns impacting people around the world today.
The festival will open at the Barbican on March 8, International Women’s Day, with Naila and the Uprising directed by Julia Bacha, which celebrates the courageous Palestinian women activists who played a pivotal role in the first Intifada, 30 years ago.
“In a year in which women have collectively raised their voices against discrimination and abuse, the 22nd edition of the festival spotlights strong women who push back against formidable forces within their respective societies,” said John Biaggi, creative director of the Human Rights Watch Film festival. “We are thrilled to open with the powerful Naila and the Uprising, which showcases women change-makers, and we look forward to welcoming the director Julia Bacha and film subjects Naila Ayesh and Zahira Kamal”.
When a nationwide uprising breaks out in 1987, Naila Ayesh must make a choice between love, family and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three, joining a clandestine network of women in a movement that forces the world to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination for the first time.
“I call on women all over the world, I call on Israeli mothers: double your efforts to lift the injustices from my people, so my son, and your son, and all children can live side by side,” said Ayesh, who will attend opening night.
In the closing night film Silas, directed by Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman, the activist Silas Siakor and a network of dedicated citizen reporters respond with swift action when the rights to one-third of Liberia’s land are illegally signed away to multinational companies. “When they tear down the trees and strip the land, they tear down our people and strip away their lives,” Siakor said.
“Silas compellingly demonstrates how dedicated individuals can lead and create change,” Biaggi said. “We look forward to welcoming Silas Siakor and the director Anjali Nayar to London.”
The themes of female defiance, activists and resistance, environmental plunder and closed worlds are seen throughout the festival.
In The Poetess, directors Stefanie Brockhaus and Andreas Wolff introduce Hissa Hilal, who through her poetry performances challenges the repressive patriarchy ruling Saudi Arabia. In Margarita Cadenas’ Women of the Venezuelan Chaos, five resilient women creatively defend their fellow citizens, their families, and their very survival amid the national crisis that has enveloped their country. Sadaf Foroughi’s timely coming-of-age drama, Ava, portrays a strong and complex teenager who is pushed to the limits as she fights to find her voice, despite the constraints of her conservative, patriarchal community in Tehran.
The closing night theme of resistance and environmental plunder continues in Chris Kelly’s A Cambodian Spring, in which a fearless Buddhist monk and bold female leaders rally neighbors to oppose land-grabbing politicians and businesses, but at considerable cost to their personal lives and friendships.
Directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, Whose Streets? takes an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising in the US, told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice. “We are raising activists, we have to create a generation of activists if there’s gonna be any change”, said Aurellia Davis-Whitt, activist and film subject.
The festival will screen three films that expose viewers to worlds usually closed from the public eye: Mohammed Naqvi’s Insha’Allah Democracy shows a surprisingly intimate side of the former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; Peter Nicks’ The Force brings us inside the Oakland Police Force in the USA, which is struggling to make change amidst serious corruption and misconduct, and Adam Sobel’s The Workers Cup presents an exposé on working conditions that migrant workers face in building the 2022 World Cup site in Qatar, following a group of young laborers hoping to become footballers themselves.
Three compelling cinema-verité-style documentaries reveal how war and bureaucracy can force institutions of care and shelter to become places of imprisonment and containment. Set in France where each year 92,000 people are placed under psychiatric care without their consent, Raymond Depardon’s 12 Days captures the raw and vulnerable interactions at the border of justice and psychiatry, humanity and bureaucracy when a crucial decision must be made: will a patient be forced to stay in a hospital or granted freedom.
In Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander and Tamir Elterman’s Muhi – Generally Temporary, a young boy from Gaza has been trapped in an Israeli hospital for over eight years. Rushed there in his infancy with a life-threatening immune disorder, Muhi, and his doting grandfather, Abu Naim, are caught in an immigration limbo and only permitted to reside within the constraints of the hospital walls. And in The Long Season, the award-winning filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich (Position Among the Stars) spent a year-and-a-half in the Majdal Anjar refugee camp in Lebanon capturing the intimate daily lives of Syrians whose futures are postponed by war.
This year’s benefit gala on March 7 at RIBA features Daniel McCabe’s This Is Congo, an immersive and unfiltered look at this lush, mineral-rich country, from the rise of Rwandan and Ugandan-backed M23 rebels in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 to the present day, via four profoundly resilient characters. Described by Timo Meuller, researcher in the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch as, “the best documentary I’ve seen on the Democratic Republic of Congo. McCabe cares deeply about the country and does a great job walking the audience through the complicated historical trajectory of the Congo.” This is Congo will also screen within the festival program.
12 Days
Filmmaker(s):Raymond Depardon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn6CbSBi3ho
A Cambodian Spring
Filmmaker(s):Chris Kelly
https://vimeo.com/209625471
Ava
Filmmaker(s):Sadaf Foroughi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9pDPmF3is
Insha’allah Democracy
Filmmaker(s):Mohammed Naqvi
https://vimeo.com/237785739
Muhi – Generally Temporary
Filmmaker(s):Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander and Tamir Elterman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Ej_v-_IwQ
Naila and the Uprising
Filmmaker(s):Julia Bacha
https://vimeo.com/242161763
Silas
Filmmaker(s):Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman
The Force
Filmmaker(s):Peter Nicks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrS5Okom6ow
The Long Season
Filmmaker(s):Leonard Retel Helmrich
https://vimeo.com/248278067
The Poetess
Filmmaker(s):Stefanie Brockhaus and Andreas Wolff
https://vimeo.com/241193553
The Workers Cup
Filmmaker(s):Adam Sobel
https://vimeo.com/218488667
This Is Congo
Filmmaker(s):Daniel McCabe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WfWODjDYAk
Whose Streets?
Filmmaker(s):Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upiJnjJSerw
Women of the Venezuelan Chaos
Filmmaker(s):Margarita Cadenas
https://vimeo.com/227763820
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6 Independent Film Directors Selected for Film Independent’s 18th Directing Lab
Film Independent has picked 6 emerging independent film directors for its 18th annual Directing Lab, an intensive eight-week program designed to support the directors on their feature films.
Daniel Barnz (Cake, Phoebe in Wonderland), Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said, Friends with Money) and James Ponsoldt (The End of the Tour, The Spectacular Now) are the 2018 Directing Lab Creative Advisors. Additional Advisors and guest speakers include: Ruth Atkinson, Rodrigo García, Catherine Hardwicke, Alex O’Flinn, Lisa Robertson, Nancy Schreiber, ASC, Emily Schweber and Chloé Zhao.
Under the guidance of established industry professionals who serve as Creative Advisors, Directing Lab Fellows receive script feedback, discuss their visions, and select short scenes from their screenplays to workshop. Each director then casts actors and rehearses their scenes in the Lab before undertaking a mini-production; Film Independent provides Fellows with digital camera, lighting and sound packages and small stipends to shoot their scenes, and offers access to experienced casting directors, cinematographers, and editors with whom to collaborate and consult. The process creates an opportunity to see the work through from pre- to post-production, and culminates in a group screening for fellow Lab participants and Advisors.
Past Directing Lab Fellows include Christina Choe with Nancy (2018 Sundance Film Festival), Sheldon Candis with LUV (2012 Sundance Film Festival), Cherien Dabis with Amreeka (2010 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominee, FIPRESCI Award Winner at 2009 Cannes Film Festival) and Robbie Pickering with Natural Selection(2012 Spirit Award Nominee, Winner SXSW Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award).
The 2018 Directing Lab participants and their projects are:
Title: DOHA – The Rising Sun
Director/Writer: Eimi Imanishi
Logline: Disheartened by her deportation from Europe, Mariam is forced to return home to Western Sahara. Adrift in the very place that’s supposed to be her home, she searches for the means to assert agency over her own life.
Title: Followers
Director/Writer: Tim Marshall
Logline: A recent widow sees the face of Jesus on her gay Aqua Aerobics instructor’s swimming shorts and sets out to convince him that he is Jesus.
Title: Girl with Child
Director/Writer: Maria Abraham
Logline: Near Quito, Ecuador, teenager Diana escapes from an institution for troubled girls with her toddler. The goal: travel to pick up her younger sister from their abusive childhood home and start a new life. But along the way, Diana ends up down and out and must figure out how to survive with her young son, whom she’s not even sure she wants.
Title: The Hiding House
Director/Writer: Ally Pankiw
Logline: An awkward Canadian teen befriends the mysterious girl next door, and discovers that her new neighbor is actually the “child bride” of a notorious, polygamous FLDS leader wanted by the FBI.
Title: Toughest MoFo in Portland, Oregon
Director: Ryan Velásquez
Logline: A hyper-belligerent teen, sent to live with his estranged brother in Portland, Oregon, struggles to cope with his best friend’s suicide and the very real possibility that he is losing his mind.
Title: Valley of Exile
Director/Writer/Producer: Anna Fahr
Logline: In the arid valley of Eastern Lebanon, two Syrian sisters set out in search of their missing brother uncertain of where their own journey into exile will lead.
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Crime Documentary OPERATION ODESSA to World Premiere at 2018 SXSW Film | Trailer
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Caption: Leonid “Tarzan” Fainberg with unidentified Soviet Admiral posing beside a foxtrot submarine purchased on behalf of the Cali Cartel. | Credit: International Fugitive Nelson Tony Yester[/caption]
Operation Odessa is a true crime documentary about a Russian mobster, a Miami playboy and a Cuban spy who sold a Soviet submarine to a Colombian drug cartel for $35 million.
Operation Odessa directed by Tiller Russel will make its world premiere at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, followed by its debut on Showtime on Saturday, March 31 at 9 PM ET/PT.
An early ’90s gangster epic that hopscotches from Brooklyn to Miami and Cali to Moscow, the film tells the true story of three friends who set out to hustle the Russian mob, the Cali cartel and the DEA for the score of a lifetime. What really happened to the sub, the money and the three amigos has remained a shadowy underworld myth until now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct6hXDt_yqM
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Watch First Trailer + Poster for Sundance Horror Film HEREDITARY Starring Toni Collette
Here is the first trailer for Ari Aster’s Hereditary, the Toni Collette horror sensation that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and will hit theaters nationwide on June 8th.
Hereditary also stars Gabriel Byrne, Ann Dowd, Milly Shapiro, and Alex Wolff.
When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6wWKNij_1M
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Award-Winning French-Canadian Zombie Movie “Les Affamés” to Debut on Netflix | Trailer
The award-winning French-Canadian film Les Affamés, written and directed by Robin Aubert (Saint Martyrs of the Damned, Crying Out) has been acquired by Netflix and will debut on the streaming platform on March 2, 2018.
The critically acclaimed film stars Marc-André Grondin, Monia Chokri, Micheline Lanctôt, Brigitte Poupart, Charlotte St-Martin, Marie-Ginette Guay Luc Proulx and Édouard Tremblay-Grenier.
In Les Affamés, Aubert returns to his horror roots to tell the story of a changed small and remote village in upstate Quebec. Locals are not the same anymore–their bodies are breaking down and they have turned against their loved ones. A handful of survivors goes hiding into the woods, looking for others like them.
“I am so excited that viewers around the world will get the chance to watch Les Affamés. I’m also proud for the Netflix audience to experience its thrills and chills in its original Québécois version, my mother tongue, which is so rich and colorful, full of history and mystery, something that fully characterizes my universe as a filmmaker,” said writer/director Robin Aubert. “Even if I truly believe in mankind, I’m terrified when rage and hate get the best of us. Les Affamés echoes the current state in western societies. Making a zombie movie was my own personal way of expressing both my fears and hopes about what’s lying ahead of us.”
Les Affamés premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2017 where it won Best Canadian Feature, and later played Fantastic Fest, Montreal Festival du nouveau cinéma where it won the Temps Ø Audience Award, The Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, and Torino Film Festival.
The film was released theatrically in Canada in October 2017 and is now nominated for five Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture. In December, TIFF named the film to its list of 2017’s ten best Canadian films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vCIPWQXjec
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47th International Film Festival Rotterdam Winners – “The Widowed Witch” Wins Hivos Tiger Award
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The Netherlands, Rotterdam, 02 February 2018. The 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam – IFFR 2018. IFFR 2018 Award Ceremony. All winners on stage after ceremony. Photo: 31pictures.nl / (c) 2018, www.31pictures.nl[/caption]
The Widowed Witch by Cai Chengjie won the prestigious prize – the winner of the Hivos Tiger Competition 2018 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Rami Alayan was awarded the Special Jury Award for exceptional artistic achievement for his screenplay of The Reports on Sarah and Saleem. Gustav Möller’s The Guilty was the audience favorite, and therefore winner of the IFFR Audience Award. The Bright Future Award was picked up by Tiago Melo for his film Azougue Nazaré.
This year’s VPRO Big Screen Award went to Nina by Olga Chajdas; the film therefore will be broadcast on Dutch TV and released in Dutch theaters. All Hubert Bals Fund-supported films screening at IFFR 2018 were eligible for the Hubert Bals Fund Audience Award. This year, the award was won by The Reports on Sarah and Saleem by Muayad Alayan.
In congratulating all winners, Festival Director Bero Beyer said: “We’re very happy that the strong winners represent the bold spirit of the festival’s entire programming. They are filmmakers, both emerging and established, who use their talent to deliver a new view on our world. As diverse as they are, there seems to be a common thread: the beautiful and human thread of cinema!”
Two new awards were presented in 2018. Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows by Nika Autor won the Found Footage Award and Joy in People by Oscar Hudson won the Voices Short Audience Award.
Two awards from critics’ organisations were presented. The FIPRESCI Award went to Balekempa by Ere Gowda. The KNF Award, given by the Circle of Dutch Film Journalists, was won by Zama by Lucrecia Martel.
Nervous Translation by Shireen Seno won the NETPAC Award for best Asian film and the winner of the IFFR Youth Jury Award is The Guilty by Gustav Möller.
Complete list of award winners and jury reports
Hivos Tiger Competition
Winner Hivos Tiger Award: The Widowed Witch by Cai Chengjie Jury report: “This year’s Hivos Tiger Award winner is a film of epic dimensions with a narrative that is greater than one person or moment. It takes a feminist viewpoint with a strong central character, who refuses to be a victim. The struggle of her journey is framed in an emotional way that depicts her complexity, while never becoming sentimental, and the film even contains a laconic sense of humour. Its bold vision, created by a lyrical layering of cinematographic elements, makes this film stand out.” Winner Special Jury Award: the screenplay of The Reports on Sarah and Saleem written by Rami Alayan (dir. Muayad Alayan) Jury report: “This well-crafted screenplay shows us four humans, each with their own flaws and desires, who have to face the consequences of their actions in a complicated, divided world. The screenplay intertwines the personal and the political and manages to balance a complex plot with convincing characters. This proves to be the basis for a strong film by a talented director and an excellent cast.”Bright Future Award
Filmmakers presenting the world or international premiere of their first feature-length film in the Bright Future Main Programme are eligible for the Bright Future Award worth €10,000. Winner: Azougue Nazaré by Tiago Melo Jury report: “For its singular vision, electrifying cinematic language, depiction of the explosive coexistence between good and evil, and for its ability to incorporate supernatural elements in an almost anthropological portrait of a small community, we proudly present the Bright Future Award to Tiago Melo for his film Azougue Nazaré.” Special mention: “What begins as a personal quest gradually transforms into a reflection on loneliness, belonging, and existential homecoming. For this reason, the jury felt compelled to give a special mention to Malene Choi Jensen’s The Return.”VPRO Big Screen Award
Winner: Nina by Olga Chajdas Jury report: “It was a close call and we’d like to give a special mention to the runner-up, The Guilty by Gustav Möller. But another film ultimately connected with us in a more instinctive way. The winning film is a universal story about love, identity and hope. It’s about internalising society’s expectations and struggling to break free and be true to yourself. The story avoids easy solutions and gives us a somewhat idealised version of the world, thereby avoiding the stereotypical struggles and making it a more personal experience. It’s also visually beautiful with lingering and intimate shots and gives us wonderful performances by the main actors.”IFFR Audience Award
Winner: The Guilty by Gustav MöllerHubert Bals Fund Audience Award
Winner: The Reports on Sarah and Saleem by Muayad AlayanVoices Short Audience Award
Winner: Joy in People by Oscar HudsonFIPRESCI Award
Winner: Balekempa by Ere Gowda Jury report: “For its subtle and delightful portrayal of a universal theme against the background of a rich local culture.”KNF Award
The KNF Award is given to the best Dutch, or Dutch co-produced, feature film that is selected for IFFR 2018, as awarded by a jury from the Circle of Dutch Film Journalists. Winner: Zama by Lucrecia Martel Jury report: “This bold project illustrates how co-producing can allow an immensely gifted filmmaker to enter different territory, just as the film itself transports the audience to an alien world. Without signposts or hand-holding, viewers are challenged to use all their senses in order to navigate this foreign land. The filmmaker’s sensory approach to cinema also poses a challenge to us critics; we’ve been struggling to find words that do justice to a film that ultimately can only be experienced.”NETPAC Award
The NETPAC Award is presented to the best Asian feature film world premiering at IFFR by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. Winner: Nervous Translation by Shireen Seno Jury report: “For its singularly original representation of childhood that beautifully captures a unique view of the world – one that is full of contradictory interactions, introspection, social and political dissonance, and disquietude. With this film, the director has succeeded in creating an unforgettable cinematic universe.”IFFR Youth Jury Award
The film that makes the biggest impression on this jury of young people is awarded the IFFR Youth Jury Award. Winner: The Guilty by Gustav Möller Jury report: “This film captivated us from beginning to end and was able to make the audience aware of its own preconceived notions of reality. The director deliberately withholds information from the audience, thereby creating uncertainty which leaves room for imagination. The film is a masterclass in suspense; it managed to keep our eyes glued to the screen throughout the entire film. Furthermore, we believe that this film will be attractive to a younger audience, as it is a good introduction into arthouse cinema.”Found Footage Award
The new Found Footage Award is granted to a filmmaker who has made outstanding use of archive material. The award, worth €2,500, is supported by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Winner: Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows by Nika Autor Jury report: “This film convincingly introduces a new critical paradigm in which every new image questions the entire history of film as a medium and its role within society. It does so through brilliant use of the train as a rich metaphor for human aspiration and technological advancement, connecting the first Lumière film all the way through to the current practice of shooting smartphone footage to document refugees on their quest for a better life.”
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LEANING INTO THE WIND, Portrait of Artist Andy Goldsworthy Sets Release Date | Trailer
Leaning Into The Wind – Andy Goldsworthy, Thomas Riedelsheimer’s followup to his 2001 sleeper hit Rivers and Tides, a portrait of innovative British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy, will open on Friday, March 9 at New York’s Film Forum with a national rollout to follow.
Sixteen years after the release of the groundbreaking film Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time director Thomas Riedelsheimer has returned to work with the artist. Leaning into the Wind – Andy Goldsworthy follows Andy on his exploration of the layers of his world and the impact of the years on himself and his art. As Goldsworthy introduces his own body into the work it becomes at the same time even more fragile and personal and also sterner and tougher, incorporating massive machinery and crews on his bigger projects. Riedelsheimer’s exquisite film illuminates Goldsworthy’s mind as it reveals his art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQYGbfVfpm0
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Watch New Trailer + Poster for Raoul Peck’s THE YOUNG KARL MARX
The Orchard has released a brand new trailer and poster for The Young Karl Marx, celebrated Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s first film since the Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro. A fervently intelligent chronicling of the blood, sweat and debate that went into the creation of a manifesto and a movement, the film premiered at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.
Timed to the anniversary of the original publishing date of The Communist Manifesto, The Orchard will open The Young Karl Marx theatrically on Friday, February 23rd in New York and Los Angeles, with a national rollout to follow.
At the age of 26, Karl Marx (August Diehl; Inglorious Basterds, The Counterfeiters) embarks with his wife Jenny (Vicky Krieps; Phantom Thread) on the road to exile. In 1844 Paris they meet young Friedrich Engels (Stefan Konarske), son of a factory owner and an astute student of the English proletariat class. Engels brings Marx the missing piece to the puzzle that composes his new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and police raids, riots and political upheavals, they will preside over the birth of the labor movement, which until then had been mostly makeshift and unorganized. This will grow into the most complete theoretical and political transformation of the world since the Renaissance – driven, against all expectations, by two brilliant, insolent and sharp-witted young men.