The 30th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will open with All is True directed by Kenneth Branagh on Friday, January 4, and close with Ladies in Black, directed by Bruce Beresford on Sunday, January 13. The Festival will screen 223 films from 78 countries, with a focus on cinema from France, India and Mexico, Premieres, Talking Pictures, Book to Screen, Special Presentations, FLOS: Foreign Language Oscar Submissions, Gay!La, Local Spotlight, Modern Masters, True Stories, World Cinema Now, a 30-film retrospective of selections from past festivals and more.
In All is True, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen star in Branagh’s intimate, revelatory portrait of William Shakespeare in the last act of his life. His career over, he returns to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon to encounter old ghosts, old loves, and his resentful family. Branagh is expected to attend.
Ladies in Black, set in Sydney in 1959, Oscar®-nominated writer/director Bruce Beresford takes us back to the heyday of glamorous upscale department stores, when a concierge met you at the door and clerks wore gloves. The film from Lumila Films stars Julia Ormond, Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor, Ryan Corr, Shane Jacobson and Alison McGirr. Beresford, Ormond, Taylor and McGirr are expected to attend.
El Angel directed by Luis Ortega[/caption]
Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 91st Academy Awards. Malawi and Niger are first-time entrants.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
The 91st Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
The 2018 submissions are:
Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director;
Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director;
Argentina, “El Ángel,” Luis Ortega, director;
Armenia, “Spitak,” Alexander Kott, director;
Australia, “Jirga,” Benjamin Gilmour, director;
Austria, “The Waldheim Waltz,” Ruth Beckermann, director;
Bangladesh, “No Bed of Roses,” Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;
Belarus, “Crystal Swan,” Darya Zhuk, director;
Belgium, “Girl,” Lukas Dhont, director;
Bolivia, “The Goalkeeper,” Rodrigo “Gory” Patiño, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Never Leave Me,” Aida Begić, director;
Brazil, “The Great Mystical Circus,” Carlos Diegues, director;
Bulgaria, “Omnipresent,” Ilian Djevelekov, director;
Cambodia, “Graves without a Name,” Rithy Panh, director;
Canada, “Family Ties,” Sophie Dupuis, director;
Chile, “…And Suddenly the Dawn,” Silvio Caiozzi, director;
China, “Hidden Man,” Jiang Wen, director;
Colombia, “Birds of Passage,” Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra, directors;
Costa Rica, “Medea,” Alexandra Latishev, director;
Croatia, “The Eighth Commissioner,” Ivan Salaj, director;
Czech Republic, “Winter Flies,” Olmo Omerzu, director;
Denmark, “The Guilty,” Gustav Möller, director;
Dominican Republic, “Cocote,” Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias, director;
Ecuador, “A Son of Man,” Jamaicanoproblem, director;
Egypt, “Yomeddine,” A.B. Shawky, director;
Estonia, “Take It or Leave It,” Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo, director;
Finland, “Euthanizer,” Teemu Nikki, director;
France, “Memoir of War,” Emmanuel Finkiel, director;
Georgia, “Namme,” Zaza Khalvashi, director;
Germany, “Never Look Away,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director;
Greece, “Polyxeni,” Dora Masklavanou, director;
Hong Kong, “Operation Red Sea,” Dante Lam, director;
Hungary, “Sunset,” László Nemes, director;
Iceland, “Woman at War,” Benedikt Erlingsson, director;
India, “Village Rockstars,” Rima Das, director;
Indonesia, “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts,” Mouly Surya, director;
Iran, “No Date, No Signature,” Vahid Jalilvand, director;
Iraq, “The Journey,” Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji, director;
Israel, “The Cakemaker,” Ofir Raul Graizer, director;
Italy, “Dogman,” Matteo Garrone, director;
Japan, “Shoplifters,” Hirokazu Kore-eda, director;
Kazakhstan, “Ayka,” Sergey Dvortsevoy, director;
Kenya, “Supa Modo,” Likarion Wainaina, director;
Kosovo, “The Marriage,” Blerta Zeqiri, director;
Latvia, “To Be Continued,” Ivars Seleckis, director;
Lebanon, “Capernaum,” Nadine Labaki, director;
Lithuania, “Wonderful Losers: A Different World,” Arunas Matelis, director;
Luxembourg, “Gutland,” Govinda Van Maele, director;
Macedonia, “Secret Ingredient,” Gjorce Stavreski, director;
Malawi, “The Road to Sunrise,” Shemu Joyah, director;
Mexico, “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón, director;
Montenegro, “Iskra,” Gojko Berkuljan, director;
Morocco, “Burnout,” Nour-Eddine Lakhmari, director;
Nepal, “Panchayat,” Shivam Adhikari, director;
Netherlands, “The Resistance Banker,” Joram Lürsen, director;
New Zealand, “Yellow Is Forbidden,” Pietra Brettkelly, director;
Niger, “The Wedding Ring,” Rahmatou Keïta, director;
Norway, “What Will People Say,” Iram Haq, director;
Pakistan, “Cake,” Asim Abbasi, director;
Palestine, “Ghost Hunting,” Raed Andoni, director;
Panama, “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name,” Abner Benaim, director;
Paraguay, “The Heiresses,” Marcelo Martinessi, director;
Peru, “Eternity,” Oscar Catacora, director;
Philippines, “Signal Rock,” Chito S. Roño, director;
Poland, “Cold War,” Pawel Pawlikowski, director;
Portugal, “Pilgrimage,” João Botelho, director;
Romania, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians,” Radu Jude, director;
Russia, “Sobibor,” Konstantin Khabensky, director;
Serbia, “Offenders,” Dejan Zecevic, director;
Singapore, “Buffalo Boys,” Mike Wiluan, director;
Slovakia, “The Interpreter,” Martin Šulík, director;
Slovenia, “Ivan,” Janez Burger, director;
South Africa, “Sew the Winter to My Skin,” Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, director;
South Korea, “Burning,” Lee Chang-dong, director;
Spain, “Champions,” Javier Fesser, director;
Sweden, “Border,” Ali Abbasi, director;
Switzerland, “Eldorado,” Markus Imhoof, director;
Taiwan, “The Great Buddha+,” Hsin-Yao Huang, director;
Thailand, “Malila The Farewell Flower,” Anucha Boonyawatana, director;
Tunisia, “Beauty and the Dogs,” Kaouther Ben Hania, director;
Turkey, “The Wild Pear Tree,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
Ukraine, “Donbass,” Sergei Loznitsa, director;
United Kingdom, “I Am Not a Witch,” Rungano Nyoni, director;
Uruguay, “Twelve-Year Night,” Álvaro Brechner, director;
Venezuela, “The Family,” Gustavo Rondón Córdova, director;
Vietnam, “The Tailor,” Buu Loc Tran, Kay Nguyen, directors;
Yemen, “10 Days before the Wedding,” Amr Gamal, director.
MEMOIR OF WAR, Emmanuel Finkiel’s haunting adaptation of seminal author Marguerite Duras’ semi-autobiographical novel “The War: A Memoir” starring Mélanie Thierry (THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER) in a riveting performance as Duras will be released via Music Box Films. An emotionally complex story of love, loss, and perseverance against the backdrop of war, MEMOIR OF WAR will open in New York on August 17 at Film Forum and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and in Los Angeles on August 24 at the Laemmle Royal. Other cities will follow.
It’s 1944, and Duras is an active Resistance member along with her husband, writer Robert Antelme, and a band of fellow subversives in Nazi-occupied Paris. When Antelme is deported to Dachau by the Gestapo, she becomes friendly with French collaborator Rabier (Benoît Magimel) to gain information at considerable risk to her underground cell. But as the months wear on without news of her husband, she must begin the process of confronting the unimaginable. Through subtly expressionistic images and voiceover passages of Duras’ writing, Finkiel evokes the inner world of one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary writers.
Marguerite Duras was a highly successful novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, essayist and experimental filmmaker. Her script for Alain Resnais’ seminal film HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. She went on to write over 30 novels and direct 19 films. Duras won the Prix Goncourt (France’s most distinguished literary prize) for “The Lover.” “The War: A Memoir” (“La Douleur”) was written in 1944 and first published in 1985. The book has been translated and released in over 20 countries.
Award-winning writer-director Emmanuel Finkiel began his career as an assistant director to Bertrand Tavernier, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Jean-Luc Godard. His first outing as a filmmaker, MADAME JACQUES ON THE CROISETTE, won a César Award for Best Short Film. His first feature length film, VOYAGES, which follows the travels of three elderly Jewish women whose lives were touched by the Holocaust, earned him two César Awards (Best First Film and Best Editing) and the Youth Award in Cannes. In 2008, he won the prestigious Jean Vigo Award for NOWHERE PROMISED LAND which debuted at the Locarno Film Festival. He has also directed documentaries including CASTING (2001) and JE SUIS (2012).