A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) directed by Sebastian Lelio has been selected as Chile’s submission for the best foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring transgender star Daniela Vega premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award, and the Silver Bear for best script.
Marina and Orlando are in love and planning for the future.
Marina is a young waitress and aspiring singer. Orlando is 20 years older than her, and owns a printing company.
After celebrating Marina’s birthday one evening, Orlando falls seriously ill. Marina rushes him to the emergency room, but he passes away just after arriving at the hospital.
Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando’s family don’t trust her. A woman detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death. Orlando’s ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral. And to make matters worse, Orlando’s son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando.
Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando’s family, her sexual identity is an aberration, a perversion.
So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now – a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgDhpy9Z-NM-
A FANTASTIC WOMAN is Chile’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) directed by Sebastian Lelio has been selected as Chile’s submission for the best foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring transgender star Daniela Vega premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award, and the Silver Bear for best script.
Marina and Orlando are in love and planning for the future.
Marina is a young waitress and aspiring singer. Orlando is 20 years older than her, and owns a printing company.
After celebrating Marina’s birthday one evening, Orlando falls seriously ill. Marina rushes him to the emergency room, but he passes away just after arriving at the hospital.
Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando’s family don’t trust her. A woman detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death. Orlando’s ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral. And to make matters worse, Orlando’s son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando.
Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando’s family, her sexual identity is an aberration, a perversion.
So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now – a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgDhpy9Z-NM
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SHEIKH JACKSON is Egypt’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Sheikh Jackson directed by Amr Salama has been selected as Egypt’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
Starring Ahmed El-Fishawy, Ahmed Malek, Maged El-Kedwany and Amina Khalil, Sheikh Jackson is set to World Premiere on the final day of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
June 25, 2009. Any Michael Jackson fan can tell you where they were on this date, the day the King of Pop died. Director and writer Amr Salama transports us back to that moment through the eyes — and the kaleidoscopic, MTV-inspired dreams — of a young imam (Ahmad Alfishawy), whose devout and devoted life is thrown into chaos by the passing of The Gloved One.
The tabloid event triggers memories of his teen years (rising star Ahmed Malek steps in here) when he worshiped everything Jacko did, from the Thriller-era haircut to the bondage pants from the Bad tour. But MJ’s passing also stirs up emotions around the death of the young cleric’s mother and its aftermath, when his gruff father (Maged El Kedwany) offered little support. With the sheikh’s past increasingly encroaching onthe present, he begins to question not just how to moonwalk but what it means to be a man, to have faith, and to be true to oneself. TIFF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsijix35ORE
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Rob Reiner to Receive Award + World Premiere SHOCK AND AWE at Zurich Film Festival
Director, actor and writer Rob Reiner will receive the A Tribute to…Award at this year’s 2017 Zurich Film Festival which takes place from September 28 to October 8, 2017.
Reiner will be in Zurich to receive the prestigious award in person on Saturday September 30. ZFF will host the World Premiere of his latest film SHOCK AND AWE.
Reiner will also take part in a special ZFF Masters session on the same day, and as part of the A Tribute to… award, ZFF will present a retrospective featuring several of Reiner’s most iconic films including THIS IS SPINAL TAP, STAND BY ME, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, MISERY, A FEW GOOD MEN and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (the latter two both written by fellow ZFF honoree Aaron Sorkin).
SHOCK AND AWE
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the government of the United States, led by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, began maneuvering and mobilizing for an invasion of Iraq. In the absence of concrete evidence, the White House and its allies concocted a platform for invasion justified almost entirely on questionable intelligence and misleading information. The media bought their tale. Every media organ in America became a megaphone for the hawks in Washington, amplifying the Administration’s hysteria and pushing its propaganda; every major news organization became complicit in the path to war – except one. Knight Ridder was a consortium of 31 newspapers across the country. Based in Washington, D.C., its newsroom counted among its millions of readers a sizable number of soldiers and their families at dozens of military bases nationwide. This is the untold true story of an intrepid team of four reporters who dared to ask the questions their colleagues did not. They tapped sources which others ignored. They remained sceptical when others were easily convinced. They wrote stories disputing the Administration’s claims that Iraq was complicit in the attacks of 9/11 and that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. They were called anti-American. They were labelled traitors. They were told time and again that they were wrong – by the government, by pundits, and by colleagues. Reporters Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson) and Warren Strobel (James Marsden), working with the support of their editor John Walcott (Rob Reiner) and famous war correspondent Joe Galloway (Tommy Lee Jones), set forth to sift through the chaos and official lies, uncover the truth, and report it to the public. In the face of intense scrutiny and pressure, during a time of pro-invasion cheerleading by the majority of their media colleagues, they dared to uphold the best tenets of their profession. Theirs is a story of speaking truth to power – and the public – in a time when America needed it the most. The government got its war, but these reporters got it right.
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VIDEO: Netflix Debuts THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON Trailer
Netflix debuted the trailer for The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, documentary on the self-described “street queen” of NY’s gay ghetto found floating in New York’s Hudson River in 1992.
The documentary that premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, launches on Netflix on Friday, October 6, 2017.
Who killed Marsha P Johnson? When the beloved, self-described “street queen” of NY’s gay ghetto was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992, the NYPD chalked it up as a suicide and refused to investigate. However, as shown in Academy Award(R) nominated director and journalist David France’s (How to Survive A Plague) new film, it’s a decision many questioned.
Having played a pivotal role in the previous year’s Stonewall Riots, in 1970, Johnson and fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera formed the world’s first trans-rights organization, STAR (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries). And despite their many challenges over the years-homelessness, illness, alcoholism-Marsha and Sylvia ignited a powerful and lasting civil rights movement for gender nonconforming people.
Now, a quarter century later, at a time of unprecedented visibility and escalating violence in the transgender community, Marsha’s old friend and fellow activist Victoria Cruz has taken it upon herself to reexamine what happened to Marsha. Dipping deep into jaw-dropping archival footage of another era of New York City life, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson follows as this champion pursues leads, mobilizes officials, and works to tell the story of Marsha’s life and get to the bottom of Marsha’s death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pADsuuPd79E
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VIDEO: James Franco’s THE DISASTER ARTIST Trailer is Finally Here
Here is the full trailer for James Franco’s The Disaster Artist. The film premiered to raucous laughter and standing ovations at the Toronto International Film Festival‘s Midnight Madness last night.
The Disaster Artist is directed by James Franco, and also stars James Franco, along with Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, Alison Brie, Jacki Weaver, and Josh Hutcherson; and opens in theaters on December 1.
With The Disaster Artist, James Franco transforms the tragicomic true-story of aspiring filmmaker and infamous Hollywood outsider Tommy Wiseau—an artist whose passion was as sincere as his methods were questionable—into a celebration of friendship, artistic expression, and dreams pursued against insurmountable odds. Based on Greg Sestero’s best-selling tell-all about the making of Tommy’s cult-classic disasterpiece The Room (“The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”), The Disaster Artist is a hilarious and welcome reminder that there is more than one way to become a legend—and no limit to what you can achieve when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMKX2tE5Luk
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SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP to Open, BECKS to Close NewFest – LGBTQ Film Fest in NYC
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Susanne Bartsch: On Top[/caption]
The New York premiere of Anthony&Alex’s highly anticipated and acclaimed film SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP will kick off this year’s 2017 NewFest.The documentary is an inside look at the legendary New York City party promoter and LGBTQ advocate Susanne Bartsch and features a who’s who of NYC nightlife heroes, including RuPaul, Amanda Lepore, Michael Musto and Bill Cunningham. Following the screening, Michael Musto will moderate a special talkback with Susanne Bartsch and Anthony&Alex.
Continuing in the cross-generational vein is the New York premiere of Vincent Gagliostro’s AFTER LOUIE, which will screen as the festival’s New York Centerpiece film. Starring Alan Cumming and Zachary Booth (KEEP THE LIGHTS ON), AFTER LOUIE is a touching and lyrical cross-generational look at the effect the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic had on individuals and their art as well as at how that history informs and influences the most recent generation of creative LGBTQ New Yorkers.
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY is the award-winning feature-length debut from writer/director/actor Francis Lee and serves as the fest’s International Centerpiece film. This New York premiere introduces audiences to a bold new voice in LGBTQ filmmaking with this masterful story of longing, loneliness and love. GOD’S OWN COUNTRY continues to rack up awards, including the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Directing Award and the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, among many others.
Daniel Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh’s BECKS, starring Tony Award winner Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Oscar winner Christine Lahti (Best Live Action short film Lieberman in Love) and Mena Suvari, will bring NewFest to a close with the New York premiere of this award-winning romantic drama. Inspired by the life of singer and songwriter Alyssa Robbins, BECKS brings the festival themes of uncovering unity and compassion through artistic self-expression full circle and features an extraordinary lead performance from Hall. A special live acoustic performance by Lena Hall will follow the screening of the film, which won the US Fiction Award at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival .
NewFest will run run from October 19 – 24, 2017 at New York’s SVA Theatre, Cinépolis Chelsea, and The LGBT Community Center.
OPENING NIGHT FILM
SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP
New York Premiere
Thursday, October 19
A mesmerizingly expressive portrait of a fiercely individual New York counterculture icon, SUSANNE BARTSCH: ON TOP candidly captures the titular “Queen of the Night” and patron saint of LGBTQ inclusion and advocacy with a commanding voice and sharp wit, much like its subject. More than just a tribute to the “Queen of the Night” and staunch LGBTQ advocate, this dynamic debut from directing duo Anthony&Alex captures the essence of Bartsch’s everyday balance between compassion and control. As Bartsch prepares for an FIT exhibit of her nightlife fashions, she faces the challenges of a changing New York City landscape (as well as the construction within her homestead of many decades, the iconic Chelsea Hotel) while reconciling how her legacy lives on today.
Her ability to bring communities together while promoting LGBT rights and self-expression reached its apex with the star-studded Love Ball in 1989, which she hosted to raise money to fight AIDS and celebrated the Harlem Vogue scene before “Paris is Burning” was released. And she continues to gather and inspire multi-generational crowds at her parties to this day. Featuring superstars and LGBTQ nightlife luminaries RuPaul, Simon Doonan, Michael Musto, and Amanda Lepore, this dazzling documentary homecoming for a living icon who has unapologetically been a champion for all things New York and queer.
The screening will be followed by a talkback with Anthony&Alex and Susanne Bartsch, and moderated by Michael Musto.
INTERNATIONAL CENTERPIECE
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY
New York Premiere
Saturday, October 21
Gritty yet tender, austere yet beautiful, carnal yet romantic–GOD’S OWN COUNTRY is masterfully directed with powerful focus and authenticity by first-time feature filmmaker Francis Lee. Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor) is an overworked 25-year-old sheep farmer who feels as though life has already passed him by. He whiles away the time with drunken hookups in his small community in Northern England. When his ailing father takes a turn for the worse, handsome Romanian migrant Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu) is brought in to assist Johnny. Although Johnny resents Gheorghe at first, the two are quickly drawn to each other, and during an excursion to the highlands, they forge an even deeper connection. Winner of Sundance’s World Cinema Directing Award for its beautiful depiction of the English countryside—this assured new milestone marks a bold new epoch in textured, LGBTQ storytelling.
NEW YORK CENTERPIECE
AFTER LOUIE
New York City Premiere
Sunday, October 22
Sam (Alan Cumming) is an artist and activist from ACT UP who lived through the early years of HIV/AIDS, struggling with survivor’s guilt. He’s bewildered by the younger generation of gay men, until he meets the seductive Braeden (Zachary Booth, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON) at a bar late one night. Their pants quickly come down and, eventually, so does Sam’s guard. An intergenerational relationship blossoms between them—reawakening Sam’s artistic soul and reviving his wilted heart.
Beyond the beautifully evocative performances and setting, Vincent Gagliostro’s AFTER LOUIE is a love letter to New York City: engaging its rich backdrop while honoring the history of the gay rights movement and the progress that’s been made–reconciling the past so we as a community can look forward to the future.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
BECKS
New York City Premiere
Tuesday, October 24
Following a NYC to LA cross country move that ends in a breakup, singer-songwriter Becks (Lena Hall, a Tony Winner for Hedwig and the Angry Inch) returns to her Midwestern hometown, reluctantly moving back in with her mom. The time-warp sensation of being back in her childhood home is interrupted by an unexpected whirlwind affair with self-proclaimed “lonely housewife” Elyse (tenderly played with exceeding warmth by Mena Suvari) who finds inspired new life through the guitar lessons and generous spirit Becks provides.
This electrifyingly effusive film from co-directors Daniel Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh features strong supporting turns by Dan Fogler as her old classmate-turned-drinking- buddy and Christine Lahti as Becks’ former nun mother who is still coming to terms with her daughter’s homosexuality. But it’s Lena Hall, who contributed original songs to the film and delivers a beautifully assured, live-in performance that makes BECKS really sing.
Special live acoustic performance by Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee Lena Hall, the star of BECKS.
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Jordan Peele to Deliver Filmmaker Keynote Address at Film Independent Forum
Filmmaker Jordan Peele (Get Out, Key & Peele) will deliver the Filmmaker Keynote address at the 13th Film Independent Forum. The Forum takes place the weekend of October 20-22 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.
“Through the years, the Film Independent Forum has had the most influential filmmakers and executives come and “tell it like it is” – so it is very exciting to offer our audience the opportunity to hear from a multi-hyphenate artist like Jordan Peele, whose directorial debut Get Out proved that social critique, entertainment and box office success need not be mutually exclusive,” said Maria Raquel Bozzi, Senior Director of Education and International Initiatives.
During the Forum, Film Independent will award the Alfred P. Sloan Producers Grant to support a fiction film that explores science or technology themes. The grant provides a $30,000 production grant and acceptance into the Film Independent Producing Lab. Following the Opening Night Film, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Reception will celebrate the Sloan grantee and the 2017 Film Independent Producing Lab Fellows and give attendees the opportunity to network.
Topics for this year’s panels are:
Getting Creative about Getting Money
Documentary: Making Docs and Making a Living
Pitching Clinic: Start Shopping Your Project
Case Study: Documentarians Get Real
The Complete Picture: The Wide World of Episodic TV
Film Independent Documentary Works-in-Progress
Case Study: Narrative Features
Case Study: Web Series
Marketing & Distribution Clinic: Discover Your Audience
Short Circuit: VR, Digital and New Forms of Engagement
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SPOOR is Poland’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Spoor (Pokot) by Agnieszka Holland has been selected as Poland’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
The film is based on Olga Tokarczuk’s best-selling novel “Drive Your Plough over the Bones of the Dead”, published in 2009; and stars Agnieszka Mandat, Wiktor Zborowski, Jakub Gierszał, Borys Szyc, Andrzej Grabowski, Tomasz Kot, Katarzyna Herman, Patricia Volny, Miroslav Krobot, Marcin Bosak, and Andrzej Konopka.
Spoor follows retired engineer Janina Duszejko, living in the Polish Sudeten mountains. One snowy winter night, she stumbles upon the dead body of her neighbor. The man, a poacher, had died a mysterious death. The only visible tracks around his house are roe deer hooves. Seeing the ineptitude of the police, Duszejko begins an unconventional investigation of her own.
Spoor (Pokot) had its world premiere at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, where the film won the Silver Bear, the Alfred Bauer award for opening new perspectives in film art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O96ZznajP5s
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World Premiere of “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America” to Open Boston Film Festival
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In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America[/caption]
The 33rd Boston Film Festival, taking place September 21 to 24, will open with the world premiere of “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America,” a documentary narrated by Liam Neeson that weaves the dramatic efforts of Nobel-Prize winning John Hume to secure peace in Northern Ireland.
Hume, who was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., rose from the riot-torn streets of Northern Ireland to enlist vital aid from American Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The film includes interviews with both presidents and various U.S. senators and congressmen who assisted in securing the accord. Interviews also include Irish leaders and former British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major. This is a timely film that reveals the steady leadership and international cooperation that are needed to win the peace. Also interviewed are U2 singer Bono and Tom O’Neill, former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Maurice Fitzpatrick directs and Bill Whelan (Riverdance) wrote the score.
The festival’s diverse lineup includes five documentaries: the poignant “Augie,” “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America,” “What Haunts Us,” “Heal,” and “The Bullish Farmer.”
The world premiere of “Damascus Cover” stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“Mission: Impossible III,” “The Tudors”), Olivia Thirlby (“Juno”), John Hurt (in his final performance) and Navid Negahban (“American Sniper”), as written and directed by Daniel Berk (a Brandeis University graduate). After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a veteran spy is sent undercover into Syria to smuggle a chemical weapons scientist and his family out of Damascus. However, the spy soon realizes that he’s being followed, his partner doesn’t show up, his local contact disappears – and a group of men are trying to kill him.
Another world premiere is “What Haunts Us” produced by Kennedy Marshall, Frank Marshall and Matt Tolmach (“Spiderman”). Within 35 years after their graduation from the 1979 class of Porter Gaud High School in Charleston, S.C., six of the 49 boys have committed suicide. When Paige Goldberg Tolmach gets word that another former student from her beloved high school has killed himself, she delves into her past to uncover the surprising truth and release the ghosts that still haunt her hometown. Goldberg Tolmach directs from Mark Monroe’s script.
The documentary, “Augie” is from James Keach, the director of the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated “Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me.” Buoyed by an irreverent humor and a boundless love of life, paralysis has done little to slow down Augie Nieto twelve years post diagnosis – a genius visionary and founder of LifeFitness, who has channeled his entrepreneurial spirit into finding a cure for ALS.
“American Satan” centers on a young Anglo-American rock band whose members drop out of college and move to the Sunset Strip to chase their dreams. Living in a van, their passion and talent exceed their means of survival, and they find themselves caught up in a Faustian web when they meet an enigmatic stranger who manipulates them during a time of weakness. Can the lads re-claim their own destiny before it’s too late? Malcolm McDowell (“A Clockwork Orange”), John Bradley (“Game of Thrones”), Booboo Stewart (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) and Rhode Island native Olivia Culpo (2012 Miss America), Andy Biersack (“Black Veiled Brides”).
The scripted film “Dabka” is directed and written by Massachusetts native Bryan Buckley and produced by Matt Lefebvre (a New Hampshire native). The true story concerns a rookie reporter (Jay Bahadur) who forms a half-baked plan in 2008 to embed himself among the pirates of the Somalia coast. He ultimately succeeds in providing the first close-up of who the men are, how they live and the forces that drive them. Bahadur wrote the book “Pirates of Somalia.” Oscar winner Al Pacino, Melanie Griffith and Barkhad Abdi (“Captain Phillips”) also star.
In the documentary “Heal” , director Kelly Noonan embarks on a scientific and spiritual journey where discoveries indicate that our thoughts, beliefs and emotions greatly impact our health and ability to heal. Citing the latest science, the film argues that people have more power over their health and life itself than we believe. Among the many featured speakers are Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Marianne Williamson, Dr. Michael Beckwith and Rob Wergin
”The Bullish Farmer” tells the story of John Umbaldo (as himself), a successful Wall Street investment banker who quits his job after the loss of a friend in the September 11 terrorist attacks – and trades his former life for one as a farmer on 185 acres in upstate New York. Umbaldo soon transforms into a passionate activist who lobbies for GMO labeling, animal rights and the reduction of chemical fertilizers to help preserve small farms and rural America. Ken Marsolais is the director and co-producer and Nancy Vick is the writer and co-producer
Written by New Hampshire native Jeremy Catalino and produced by William Horberg (“Milk”) and Alexander Payne (“The Descendants”), Crash Pad” is a smart, laugh-out-loud battle of the sexes that finds a sentimental slacker and a misfit. Stensland (Domhnall Gleeson) is caught up in a love triangle between Morgan (Christina Applegate, “Anchorman”) and her alpha-male husband (Thomas Haden Church, “Sideways”). What begins as a one-night stand leads to blackmail, revenge and drunken debauchery as Grady moves into Stensland’s apartment and takes over his life. But Stensland knows that his survival depends on reuniting the married couple. Kevin Trent directs and Nina Dobrev (“The Vampire Diaries”) also stars.
In addition, the Boston Film Festival (BFF) will welcome NBC’s “The Brave,” an all-new drama brought to the festival in conjunction with NBC Boston, starring Anne Heche and Mike Vogel who will be on hand for the screening. The BFF also will showcase the riveting “Tales of Suspense,” a one-man live show presented by bestselling author and master storyteller Casey Sherman. Sherman, who is the author of “Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy” (which became the film “Patriot’s Day”) and “The Finest Hours,” and will share gripping behind-the-scenes stories about those New England-based projects.
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BARRAGE Starring Isabelle Huppert is Luxembourg’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Barrage directed by Laura Schroeder has been selected to represent Luxembourg in the 90th edition of the Academy Awards in the category “Foreign Language Film Award”.
This film, written by Laura Schroeder and the French novelist Marie Nimier, is a drama about three generations of women, and stars Lolita Chammah, Isabelle Huppert as well as Themis Pauwels. Luxembourg actors Charles Müller, Marja-Leena Juncker and Luc Schiltz complete the cast.
Barrage celebrated its world premiere in February 2017 in the Forum section of the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival – it is the first feature film of a Luxembourg filmmaker hosted in official selection at the Festival. The Luxemburgish premiere took place in March 2017 at the Luxembourg City Film Festival. The film was also presented at the Vilnius Film Festival (Lithuania), the Titanic International Film Festival Budapest (Hungary), the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (Argentina), the Jeonju International Film Festival (South Korea) Jove – Valencia International Film Festival (Spain) and the New Horizons International Film Festival (Wroclaw, Poland). Barrage was released in Luxembourg and French cinemas on July 19, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJUiV378Aw
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8 Films Competing for ‘Cooperación Española Award’ at San Sebastian Film Festival
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ALANIS[/caption]
Eight films at the 2017 San Sebastian Film Festival will compete for the Cooperación Española Award, an award created to acknowledge the producer of the Ibero-American film that best contributes to human development, the eradication of poverty and the full exercise of human rights. The Award comes with a prize of 10,000 euros.
Films competing for the Cooperación Española Award
OFFICIAL SELECTION
ALANIS ANAHÍ BERNERI (ARGENTINA) Alanis works as a prostitute. She has a baby and, with her friend Gisela, shares the flat in which she lives and attends to her clients, until two municipal inspectors close down her home and arrest Gisela, accused of procurement. Let down by everybody, Alanis heads for her aunt’s place, across from the Plaza Miserere. From this mixed race and violent neighbourhood, Alanis struggles to recover her dignity, help her friend and take care of her son. She offers her services in the street, but even that has its own rules and Alanis must fight for her place. UNA ESPECIE DE FAMILIA (A SORT OF FAMILY) DIEGO LERMAN (ARGENTINA – BRAZIL – POLAND – FRANCE) Malena is a middle-class doctor in Buenos Aires. One afternoon she receives a call from Dr Costas, telling her she must leave immediately for the north of the country: the baby she was expecting is about to be born. Suddenly and almost without a thought, Malena decides to set out on an uncertain voyage, packed with crossroads at which she has to deal with all sorts of legal and moral obstacles to the extent that she constantly asks herself to what limits she is prepared to go to get the thing she wants most.NEW DIRECTORS
MATAR A JESÚS (KILLING JESUS ) LAURA MORA (COLOMBIA – ARGENTINA) Paula, a 22 year-old student, witnesses the murder of her beloved father, a popular political sciences professor at a public university in Medellin. From the distance, she catches a glimpse of the murderer as he beats a hasty retreat on a motorcycle. Devastated by the pain of their loss, Paula and her family will have to deal with official lethargy. The authorities will make no effort to clarify the events and the case is soon archived and abandoned. When Christmas comes round, a couple of months after the murder, Paula accidentally bumps into Jesús, the young man who killed her father. So what happens when revenge becomes a real possibility? Paula decides to approach the man, initially motivated by an almost primitive instinct to get answers and eventually to find the courage to cross the moral and ethical line of killing a man, thereby avenging her father’s death. PRINCESITA (PRINCESS) MARIALY RIVAS (CHILE – SPAIN – ARGENTINA) Films in Progress 28 In a far-off country at the end of the world Tamara, aged 12, lives under the wing of charismatic cult leader Miguel, a man she adores. That summer the girl will be given a mission: to have a holy child with him immediately she has her first period. Tamara realises that the life she wants for herself is not the same as the fate imposed on her. Her disobedience will lead to her violent development from child to woman, forcing her to gain her freedom in a way she had never imagined.HORIZONTES LATINOS
UNA MUJER FANTÁSTICA (A FANTASTIC WOMAN) SEBASTIÁN LELIO (CHILE- GERMANY – SPAIN – USA) OPENING FILM (IN COMPETITION) Marina is a young waitress and wannabe singer; Orlando owns a printing company. Together they plan their future. When Orlando dies suddenly, Marina has to stand up to his family and society to show them what she truly is: a complex, strong, forthright and… fantastic woman. LA EDUCACIÓN DEL REY (REY’S EDUCATION) SANTIAGO ESTEVES (ARGENTINA – SPAIN) Films in Progress 30 Bolting from his first ever heist, Reynaldo Galíndez, alias ‘Rey’, lands in the patio of the house inhabited by Carlos Vargas, a retired security guard. Vargas offers a deal: the young boy will repair the damage to his home in return for not being handed over to the police. The lessons given to the teenager by the former guard develop into a relationship not unlike the old legends of educating a king (for the “Rey” of his name, meaning “king”). But the agreement will start to fall apart when the loose ends of the robbery Reynaldo had been involved in start closing in around them. Films in Progress Industry Award and CAACI / Ibermedia TV Films in Progress Award in 2016. LA FAMILIA GUSTAVO RONDÓN CÓRDOVA (VENEZUELA – CHILE – NORWAY) Films in Progress 30 Twelve year-old Pedro roams the streets with his friends in the violent urban atmosphere of a working-class district of Caracas. When Pedro seriously injures another boy in a fight, his single father, Andrés, decides that they must make a run for it and hide. Although Andrés will realise that as a father he is incapable of controlling his son, the situation will bring them closer than they have ever been. LOS PERROS MARCELA SAID (CHILE – FRANCE) Films in Progress 31 Mariana (42) belongs to the Chilean upper class; she spends her days managing an art gallery and learning how to ride a horse. Her riding instructor, Juan, 20 years her senior, is an ex-cavalry officer known as El Coronel, under investigation for human rights abuses committed during the Chilean dictatorship. When Mariana embarks on a romance with her mysterious teacher, she finds herself caught up in a complex situation from which she is loathe to escape on discovering her father’s close relationship with the man being investigated.
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Netflix to Release Chris Smith’s Documentary on Jim Carrey’s Portrayal of Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon
Netflix will release director Chris Smith’s deep dive into actor Jim Carrey’s time spent portraying famed and complicated comedian Andy Kaufman. The film titled “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” use approximately 100 hours of footage shot on the set of Man on the Moon documenting Carrey’s transformation into Kaufman for four months.
In 1999 Milos Forman cast Jim Carrey to play cult comedian Andy Kaufman in his biopic Man on the Moon. What followed was an intensely bizarre and emotional film production. Surrounded by Kaufman’s friends and family on set, Carrey thoroughly “became” Andy and, alternately, Tony Clifton, Kaufman’s obnoxious lounge singer alter ego. Much like Kaufman’s comedy, Carrey’s acting took on a performance art quality during the film. He never broke character on set, the cast and the crew referred to him as either ‘Andy’ or ‘Tony’ depending on who he was embodying (he had created complete and separate identities for each).
Jim Carrey earned critical acclaim and a Golden Globe for the performance, but many of the production’s most Kaufmanesque moments played out behind the scenes, thankfully captured on video by Andy’s former girlfriend, Lynne Margulies and former writing partner, Bob Zmuda. In Jim & Andy, Carrey looks back at the resulting footage 18 years later, reflecting on how he and Andy came up in oddly parallel universes, his experience channelling Andy and Tony and more broadly the spiritual journey of his career.
The VICE Documentary Films production premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival and is produced by Academy Award – winner Spike Jonze, and VICE Films’ Danny Gabai and Brendan Fitzgerald.