The European Film Academy announced the 46 films on this year’s EFA Feature Film Selection, the list of feature-length fiction films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2019. With 31 European countries represented, the list illustrates the great diversity in European cinema.
This year’s lineup for the 48th annual New Directors/New Films (ND/NF), March 27 to April 7, will introduce 24 features and 11 short films to New York audiences, with 15 films directed or co-directed by women, and 11 works by first-time feature filmmakers.
11 films competed for nine awards in the Competition section as well as six film in the “New Chinese Cinema” for the Best New Chinese-language Film of the Year at the 3rd International Film Festival & Awards Macao (“IFFAM” or the “Film Festival”). The Film Festival screened 54 spectacular films this year and winners were revealed at the Awards Ceremony on Friday night.
The Competition section once again spotlighted first and second-time feature film directors this year, pitting 11 films against each other for nine accolades attributed by the jury and the Macao Audience Choice Award, of which the winner was voted by local audiences. The 11 films include “School’s Out”, “The Guilty”, “Clean up”, “The Good Girls”, “Ága”, “Scarborough”, “Suburban Birds”, “White Blood”, “All Good”, “Jesus” and “The Man Who Feels No Pain” with Best Film awarded to “Clean up.”
The new competition section “New Chinese Cinema” pitted six films against each other including “Dear Ex”, “Baby”, “Xiao Mei”, “Up the Mountain”, “Fly by Night” and “The Pluto Moment”. “Up the Mountain” took home the Best New Chinese-language Film of the Year.
Besides the above awards, an array of other accolades was presented at the Awards Ceremony to commend outstanding films and filmmakers for their achievements. Internationally-acclaimed film director and Jury President of the 3rd IFFAM, Chen Kaige, directed his first film “Yellow Earth” in 1984, which garnered a number of awards and ushered in the new era for Chinese cinema. Recognized as one of the Chinese film classics, his acclaimed masterpiece “Farewell My Concubine” (1993) won the Palme d’Or at the 46th Cannes Film Festival in the same year, making Chen the only Chinese director who has received this top accolade to this day. At the Awards Ceremony, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR Government, Alexis Tam, presented the “Spirit of Cinema” Achievement Award to film director Chen Kaige.
In addition, the NETPAC Award went to “Suburban Birds” (presented by Mimi Plauché, Sunny Joseph and Marco Martins, jury members from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC)). The Asian Blockbuster Film 2018 went to the film “Crazy Rich Asians”, whereas the Variety Asian Star: Up Next Award went to five actors and actresses as follows: Anne Curtis, Iqbaal Ramadhan, Zaira Wasim, Xana Tang and Ryan Zheng Kai.
At Eternity’s Gate[/caption]
From November 30 to December 8, 2018, festival-goers and cinema-lovers alike will discover no fewer than 80 films coming from 29 different countries at the 17th Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM). The Festival with open with At Eternity’s Gate directed by Julian Schnabel, the remarkable biopic that depicts the most celebrated period of the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh will open the Festival.
The line-up is divided into several sections, the main ones including the Official Competition; Gala Screenings; Special Screenings; The 11th Continent; Moroccan Panorama; Jamaa El-Fna Square Screenings; Audio-described Cinema; and a Tribute section. International Film Festival.
Fourteen (14) films, six directed by women, are in the running to win the Marrakech Etoile d’Or (or, the Gold Star), in the Official Competition. Tributes will be made to four great names in cinema, namely: Robert De Niro, Jillali Ferhati, Agnès Varda, and Robin Wright.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes[/caption]
The 26th Hamptons International Film Festival on Monday, announced their award winners at a ceremony in East Hampton, with the top awards going to ALL GOOD “ALLES IST GUT”, directed by Eva Trobisch and DIVIDE AND CONQUER: THE STORY OF ROGER AILES, directed by Alexis Bloom.
ALL GOOD “ALLES IST GUT”, directed by Eva Trobisch, won the Award for Best Narrative Feature, and DIVIDE AND CONQUER: THE STORY OF ROGER AILES, directed by Alexis Bloom, received the Award for Best Documentary Feature. FENCE “GARDHI”, directed by Lendita Zeqiraj, and GUAXUMA, directed by Nara Normande, received the Award for Best Narrative Short Film and for Best Documentary Short Film, respectively. Both Short Films will qualify for Academy® consideration. All four films were directed by female filmmakers.
BORDER “GRÄNS”, directed by Ali Abbasi, received a Special Jury Prize for acting for the two lead actors, Eva Melander and Eero Milonoff. The film was selected as Sweden’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
AND BREATHE NORMALLY, directed by Ísold Uggadóttir (HIFF Screenwriters Lab 2015 Alumni), was awarded the 2018 Brizzolara Family Foundation Award for a Film of Conflict and Resolution, which is accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize.
CROSS MY HEART, directed by Sontenish Myers, was awarded the Vimeo Staff Pick Award, which provides a $3,000 cash prize and Vimeo Staff Pick to winning film.
ONLY THE WIND IS LISTENING, directed by Emily Anderson, was awarded the Suffolk County Next Exposure Grant. This program supports the completion of high quality, original, director-driven, low-budget independent films from both emerging and established filmmakers who have completed 50% of principal photography within Suffolk County. The film was awarded a $3,000 grant.
THE CAT RESCUERS, directed by Rob Fruchtman and Steven Lawrence, was awarded the Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award. This award is presented to a film that raises public awareness about contemporary social issues, including the moral and ethical treatment and the rights of animals as well as environmental protection. The film was awarded a $2,500 grant.
THE SILENCE OF OTHERS was presented with the Victor Rabinowitz & Joanne Grant Award 2 2 for Social Justice. The film is directed by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar. The annual award is handed to a film that exemplifies the values of peace, equality, global justice and civil liberties, and is named after iconic civil rights lawyer Victor Rabinowitz and his wife Joanne Grant, an author, filmmaker and journalist. The award, which is accompanied by a cash prize of $1,500, is named in honor of two people who spent their entire lives fighting for those values.
Terry Lawler, the outgoing longtime Executive Director of NYWIFT, was presented with the “Industry Advocate for Women Award” from HIFF Executive Director Anne Chaisson. This was the inaugural presentation named to an industry advocate for women.
Alan Alda was also honored with the “The Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award,” presented by Alec Baldwin at the festival; and 2018 Breakthrough Artists included Kayli Carter (PRIVATE LIFE), Cory Michael Smith (1985) & Amandla Stenberg (THE HATE U GIVE).
Elisabeth Moss in HER SMELL[/caption]
Highlighting rising feature film directors and the best of independent filmmaking, the American Film Institute announced today the films that will be featured in the New Auteurs and American Independents sections at AFI FEST 2018 presented by Audi.
New Auteurs is the festival’s platform for upcoming filmmakers from all over the world to showcase their new films. This year, the section is comprised of 18 films, with 12 helmed by female filmmakers.
The American Independents section represents the best of independent filmmaking this year. Pushing boundaries of form and content across narrative and documentary cinema, this section includes 10 films — half of which are directed by women — from both new voices and filmmakers returning to AFI FEST.
“The New Auteurs and American Independents sections are where you will find some of the boldest and most experimental work in the festival,” said Lane Kneedler, Director of Programming, AFI Festivals. “We encourage audiences to explore these unique films, and become acquainted with the emerging and provocative voices of their directors.”
AFI FEST takes place November 8–15, 2018, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and other events will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt. The Opening Night Gala will be the World Premiere of ON THE BASIS OF SEX (directed by AFI Conservatory alumna Mimi Leder) and the Closing Night Gala will be the World Premiere of MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (directed by Josie Rourke).
The 26th Hamptons International Film Festival which will take place over the upcoming Columbus Day Weekend, October 4 to 8, 2018, unveiled the full slate of films. The festival also revealed the anticipated films, Yorgos Lanthimos’ THE FAVOURITE, starring Academy Award®- winning actresses Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz and Golden Globe®-winning actress Olivia Colman, about two cousins fighting to be the court favorite of Queen Anne, which will serve as the Friday Centerpiece; and Marielle Heller’s CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, which wll screen as the Sunday Centerpiece, a biopic based on the life of writer Lee Israel and starring Academy Award®-nominated actress Melissa McCarthy.
The festival added two films to the Spotlight section: Academy Award®-winning director Steve Mc Queen’s WIDOWS, starring Academy Award®-winning actress Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo, the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities; and the East Coast Premiere of Felix Van Groeningen’s (HIFF 2009 & 2013 alum) BEAUTIFUL BOY, starring Academy Award®-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet and Golden Globe®-nominated actor Steve Carell, adapted from father and son David and Nic Sheff’s best-selling memoirs about a son’s struggle with drug addiction that threatens to tear a family apart.
This year’s Narrative and Documentary Competition slate offers a wide variety of stories to audiences and represents the best of the industry with the Competition slate consisting of 50% female directors and 50% male directors. Overall, the festival’s full slate is 47% female directors. Narrative Competition films include the New York Premiere of Yen Tan’s 1985, the U.S. Premiere of Eva Trobisch’s ALL GOOD, Ali Abbasi’s BORDER, the U.S. Premiere of Zsófia Szilágyi’s ONE DAY, and Dominga Sotomayor’s TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG.
Documentary Competition Films include the World Premiere of Jesse Sweet’s CITY OF JOEL, Alexis Bloom’s DIVIDE AND CONQUER: THE STORY OF ROGER AILES, the East Coast Premiere of Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldon’s GHOST FLEET, and the New York Premiere of Daniel Zimmerman’s WALDEN, as well as the East Coast Premiere of the previously announced THE LAST RACE from Michael Dweck, also screening in the Views From Long Island Section.
As part of their Signature Programs, the Views From Long Island section will also include BLACK MOTHER, directed by Khalik Allah, about two different worlds on the island of Jamaica, through the lens of an intimate documentary portrait; as well as the World Premieres of Emily Anderson’s short film ONLY THE WIND IS LISTENING, set against the backdrop of an unforgiving Montauk winter and Ross Kauffman’s STILL PLAY WITH TRAINS, where John Scully reconstructs his idyllic 1950s childhood in the form of one of the world’s largest model train sets in his East Hampton basement.
The Air, Land & Sea program will present Academy Award®-nominated director Rory Kennedy’s ABOVE AND BEYOND: NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW, a Discovery Channel documentary chronicling the history and exploration of America’s space force, as well as Nicolas Brown’s THE SERENGETI RULES, about five international scientists during the 1960s and their attempt to learn more about the planet. The section will also include the previously announced U.S. Premiere of GRIT, directed by Sasha Friedlander and Cynthia Wade.
The Compassion, Justice, & Animal Rights program will include a World Premiere presentation of Rob Fruchtman and Steven Lawrence’s THE CAT RESCUERS, about four activists in Brooklyn setting out to provide housing for the over one million cats abandoned in New York City alone. The section will also include the previously announced East Coast Premiere of Richard Miron’s FOR THE BIRDS.
The Conflict & Resolution program will include five films: the New York Premiere of Talal Derki’s OF FATHERS AND SONS, which provides a look at war-torn Syria through the eyes of a photojournalist posing as pro-jihadist; the New York Premiere of Chris Martin’s UNDER THE WIRE, about the final mission of war correspondent Marie Colvin and photographer Paul Conroy; Charles Ferguson’s WATERGATE, examining the Watergate scandal from new interviews and subjects from all sides of the investigation; and Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar’s THE SILENCE OF OTHERS, about six individuals looking to bring those responsible for Spain’s 40-year dictatorship to justice. The section will also include the previously announced New York Premiere of Ísold Uggadóttir’s AND BREATHE NORMALLY.
In the World Cinema Narrative section the slate includes the addition of the U.S. Premiere of “I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS” directed by Radu Jude, as well as NON-FICTION, directed by Olivier Assayas, and PRIVATE LIFE, directed by Tamara Jenkins; in addition to the previously announced World Premiere of ASK FOR JANE directed by Rachel Carey; the U.S. Premieres of LETO directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, STYX directed by Wolfgang Fischer, and WOMEN AT WAR directed by Benedikt Erlingsson; the New York Premiere of BIRDS OF PASSAGE directed by Christina Gallego and Ciro Guerra (Colombia’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®); and BURNING directed by Lee Changdong, COLD WAR directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, DEAD PIGS directed by Cathy Yan, THE GUILTY directed by Gustav Möller, HAPPY AS LAZZARO, directed by Alice Rohrwacher, SHOPLIFTERS directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar), and WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY directed by Madeleine Olnek.
In the World Cinema Documentary section, the full slate includes the addition of Academy Award®-winning director Morgan Neville’s THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD; the U.S. Premiere of THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING, directed by Tom Donahue; MARIA BY CALLAS, directed by Tom Volf, MONROVIA, INDIANA, directed by Frederick Wiseman, and TIME FOR ILHAN, directed by Norah Shapiro; as well as the previously announced World Premieres of HENRI DAUMAN: LOOKING UP, directed by Peter Jones, and THE PANAMA PAPERS directed by Alex Winter; the East Coast Premiere of MAKING THE GRADE, directed by Ken Wardrop; the New York Premiere of THE TRUTH ABOUT KILLER ROBOTS, directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin; A MURDER IN MANSFIELD, directed by Barbara Kopple, THE PROPOSAL, directed by Jill Magid, ROLL RED ROLL, directed by Nancy Schwartzman, SHIRKERS, directed by Sandi Tan. World Cinema Documentary is sponsored by Investigation Discovery.
HIFF also announced eight programs of short films this year, including Narrative and Documentary Short Film Competitions; New York Women In Film and Television: Women Calling the Shots; Zoom! Shorts For All Ages; University Short Films Showcase; Let’s Go Crazy; Never Going Back Again; Please Don’t Tell; and five short films that will play before features.
Academy Award®-winning director Damien Chazelle, whose film FIRST MAN will screen in the Spotlight section; Emilio Estevez, whose film THE PUBLIC will screen in the Spotlight section; and Academy Award®- and Golden Globe®-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who stars in the festival’s Opening Night film THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER, will all participate in the festival’s signature program “A Conversation With…” series. All events will take place at Bay Street with Gyllenhaal on Friday, October 5th at 3:00PM, Estevez on Saturday, October 6th at 3:30PM, and Chazelle on Sunday, October 7th at 12:30PM.
The festival will present a special screening of Dava Whisenant’s BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY, winner of the 2018 SummerDocs Audience Award, sponsored by Candescent Films.
HIFF will feature an immersive storytelling and VR experience THE HIDDEN, a political thriller that literally drops you in the middle of a high-stakes game of cat and mouse without telling you who is hunting whom, which will be available for audiences at Mulford Farm in the afternoons on October 5-8. This program is presented with the support of the Organización Latinoamericana de Alcaldes (OLA).
HIFF also announced the jury members for the 2018 festival. The Narrative Jury will include Geralyn Dreyfous, Academy Award®-winning producer of BORN INTO BROTHELS, THE SQUARE and THE INVISIBLE WAR and founder of the Utah Film Center and co-founder of Impact Partners Film Fund, Jamie Patricof, producer of THE AFTER PARTY, THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC and BLUE VALENTINE, and Linus Sandgren, FSF, Academy Award®-winning Cinematographer who collaborated on films including FIRST LAND, LA LA LAND, JOY and AMERICAN HUSTLE. The Documentary Jury will currently include Rory Kennedy, Academy Award®-nominated director of films including ETHEL, LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM and the upcoming ABOVE AND BEYOND: NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW, screening at the festival. Additional jurors will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Kindergarten Teacher[/caption]
THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Sara Colangelo
Writer/director Sarah Colangelo (LITTLE ACCIDENTS, HIFF 2014 and Screenwriters Lab 2013) returns to the festival with her prize-winning sophomore feature. Based on Nadav Lapid’s 2014 Israeli drama, THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER follows Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a Staten Island teacher who accidentally discovers her young student’s prodigious gift for poetry. Desperately seeking her own creative recognition, Lisa’s fascination with the boy quickly unravels into an all-encompassing fixation. Anchored by Gyllenhaal’s fearless performance, THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER is a electrifyingly unpredictable morality tale about the precarious line between protection and obsession.
A PRIVATE WAR[/caption]
A PRIVATE WAR (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Matthew Heineman In an industry defined by those willing to place themselves in the midst of tremendous danger, photojournalist Marie Colvin (Academy-Award® nominee Rosamund Pike) distinguished herself as one of the world’s most celebrated war correspondents. In his feature narrative debut, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman (CARTEL LAND, CITY OF GHOSTS) pays tribute to Colvin’s extraordinary life both on and off the battlefield. Portrayed with rebellious conviction by Pike, and aided by a supporting cast including Jamie Dornan and Stanley Tucci, A PRIVATE WAR is a thrilling look at one individual’s devotion to bringing a voice to the voiceless.
BEAUTIFUL BOY (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Felix van Groeningen
Adapted from father and son David and Nic Sheff’s best-selling memoirs, HIFF alum Felix van Groeningen (THE MISFORTUNATES, HIFF 2009 and THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN, HIFF 2013) chronicles the struggle with drug addiction that threatened to tear their family apart in this emotionally charged drama. Passionately led by Academy Award®-nominees Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet (following up his breakthrough role in last year’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME), BEAUTIFUL BOY portrays their story as a heartbreaking—and ultimately inspiring—story of a family struggling to stay on top of the waves of recovery and relapse as Nic moves in and out of his father’s life.
BEN IS BACK (USA)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Peter Hedges
On Christmas Eve, the Burns family is stunned by the unexpected arrival of their son Ben (Academy Award® nominee Lucas Hedges), returning home for the first time after entering rehab for opioid addiction. His mother, Holly (Academy Award® winner Julia Roberts), is quick to eagerly welcome her son in, while the rest of the family are more skeptical of the reasons for his surprise return. As Ben is torn between proving his sobriety and falling into his old ways, Roberts perfectly portrays a mother struggling with her own warring instincts in this affecting look at one family’s struggle with a national epidemic.
CAPERNAUM (Lebanon)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Nadine Labaki
Scraping by on the chaotic streets of Beirut, 12-year-old Zain (Zain al Rafeea) is one of many children born into an uncertain future in the city’s slum. Living a deeply troubled life on the streets and branded the sole caretaker of an abandoned toddler, Zain makes the desperate move of suing his negligent parents for giving him life and trapping him in a hostile world. Utilizing a cast of non-professional actors (including two revelatory performances from its child leads), Lebanese director Nadine Labaki’s Cannes Jury Prize-winner is a stirring slice of social-realist protest cinema, driven equally by righteous anger and enduring empathy, and sure to be one of the most talked about films of the year.
EVERYBODY KNOWS (France/Spain/Italy)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Transplanting his trademark psychological drama from his native Iran to the foothills of Spain, two-time Academy Award®-winning director Asghar Farhadi (THE PAST [HIFF 2014], THE SALESMAN [HIFF 2017]) returns with a story of secrets and intrigue in Spanish wine country. Returning to her childhood home to celebrate a family wedding, Laura (Penélope Cruz) finds long-simmering tensions coming to the surface when her daughter suddenly disappears amidst a power outage, with her distanced family and ex (Javier Bardem) the most likely suspects. Beautifully realized and constantly engrossing, Farhadi has crafted another masterful thriller with a deep ensemble cast of Spanish legends, led by Bardem, Cruz, and Bárbara Lennie.
GREEN BOOK (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Peter Farrelly
It’s 1962 America, and impeccably stylish jazz musician Don Shirley (Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali) needs to hire a bodyguard to get him safely from venue to venue on his upcoming Southern tour. Enter Tony “Lip” Valelonga (Viggo Mortensen): a loud-mouthed Italian-American bouncer who’s quicker to enter a situation fists first if it means coming out on top. Together, the unlikely pair set out on a road trip through the American South, using the Negro Motorist Green Book as a guide to find welcoming lodging; along the way, they forge a surprising camaraderie in this heartwarming and comedic true story.
ROMA (Mexico)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Inspired by the early 1970’s Mexico City of his childhood, celebrated auteur Alfonso Cuarón (GRAVITY, CHILDREN OF MEN, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) returns with this semi-autobiographical look at a middle-class family making a life for itself within a time of political turbulence and patriarchal rule. Filmed on a giant canvas in 65mm and utilizing stunningly detailed black and white photography, ROMA recreates the world of his past with a cinematic grandeur and vibrancy. Acting as his own cinematographer and working with a remarkable cast of largely unknown actors, Cuarón places the viewer in the middle a world alive with the anxious energy of the period, while paying respect to the individuals that would help to shape his life.
THE HAPPY PRINCE (Germany/Belgium/Italy)
Director: Rupert Everett
In the final three years of his life (1897-1900), Oscar Wilde finds himself adrift. Coming off the heels of his trial for indecency and subsequent imprisonment, Wilde lives out his last days in exile, moving between a small group of enduring friends (Colin Firth, Edwin Thomas) under assumed names and torn between whether to go back to his ex-lover (Colin Morgan) or estranged wife (Emily Watson). Written, directed by, and starring Rupert Everett as the ailing Wilde, THE HAPPY PRINCE is at once a moving evocation of the literary genius’ final act and a stirring paean to the brilliant wit that endured to his last moments.
THE HATE U GIVE (USA)
Director: George Tillman Jr.
As a way to escape the limited options of the streets she grew up on, sixteen-year-old black teenager Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is torn between two lives: one at school amidst her predominantly rich, upper-class white classmates, and another within her working-class neighborhood. But Starr’s dual life is torn apart when a reunion with a childhood sweetheart ends in tragedy at the hands of a local police officer, forcing her to take a side amidst a swelling of protests in the local community. Adapting Angie Thomas’s award-winning novel to the big screen with the same sense of urgency that shot it to the top of the bestsellers list, THE HATE U GIVE is a stirring look at one teenager’s personal awakening.
THE PUBLIC (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Emilio Estevez
As the day’s activities wind down and library workers Stuart (Emilio Estevez) and Myra (Jena Malone) prepare to close for the day, a group of homeless patrons decide to stage an act of rebellion when they refuse to leave the building to find somewhere to sleep in the wintry night. Soon the scene outside becomes a carnival of riot gearwearing officers and local news reporters, leading to a standoff between the city’s have’s and have-not’s. Aided by a deep supporting cast, including Jeffrey Wright, Michael K. Williams, and Alec Baldwin, writer, director, and star Emilio Estevez continues to showcase his skills as a gifted multi-hyphenate force with his latest ode to the struggles of the disenfranchised.
TO DUST (USA)
Director: Shawn Snyder
Shmuel (Geza Rohrig, last seen at HIFF with 2015’s SON OF SAUL), a Hasidic cantor living in upstate New York, is unable to cope with the untimely death of his wife. Struggling to find religious solace in the face of tremendous grief and plagued by nightmares about his wife’s decaying body, Shmuel looks to Albert (Matthew Broderick), a community college biology professor, to teach him more about the decomposition process facing her. In director Shawn Snyder’s darkly comic first feature, the two form an unlikely bond via clandestine biological experiments, despite the blasphemous consequences.
WIDOWS (UK/USA)
Director: Steve Mc Queen
From Academy Award®-winning director Steve Mc Queen (12 YEARS A SLAVE) and co-writer and bestselling author Gillian Flynn (GONE GIRL) comes a blistering, modernday thriller set against the backdrop of crime, passion and corruption. WIDOWS is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Oscar® winner Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms. WIDOWS also stars Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, Lukas Haas and Brian Tyree Henry.
WILDLIFE (USA)
Director: Paul Dano
In 1960s Montana, Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds his family at yet another crossroads when he loses his job at the local golf course. With a wildfire raging in the surrounding mountains, Jerry decides to join a group of firefighters and leaves his wife Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and teenage son (Ed Oxenbould) on their own in their small town, where both begin to question the stability of the life they’ve known for so long. With this astonishingly well-realized directorial debut, Paul Dano reveals himself to be a director of considerable emotional depth in this melancholic look at the steady decline of the nuclear family, anchored by Mulligan’s towering central performance.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes[/caption]
DIVIDE AND CONQUER: THE STORY OF ROGER AILES (USA)
Director: Alexis Bloom
At the time of his death in May 2017, a mere four months after the inauguration of Donald Trump, Former Fox News head Roger Ailes left behind undoubtedly one of the largest legacies of any individual on the American political landscape. Looking at the legacy of the man who was both the leading strategist behind the election of numerous Republican presidents and one of the first larger-than-life figures to be taken out of power by accusations of sexual misconduct, filmmaker Alexis Bloom sheds light on the multitude of ways in which the story of Ailes’s rise to power reflects the story of the modern Republican party, as well as the disquieting history of abuse that followed it.
GHOST FLEET (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Shannon Service, Jeffrey Waldron
Amidst the unsustainable expansion of Thailand’s fishing market, the global fishing industry has engaged in the illegal practice of holding workers against their will for years at sea, with little hope of returning to their families. Defying threats of torture and imprisonment to those who attempt to escape, many workers have jumped ship and found themselves taking refuge in local jungles. Following Thai human-rights activist Patima Tungpuchayakul and her team as they set off on a mission to rescue the prisoners who have successfully escaped to the southern islands of Indonesia, GHOST FLEET is an eye-opening expose of the ways in which slavery continues to exist in the modern world, and an inspiring look at those devoting their lives to ending it.
THE LAST RACE (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Michael Dweck
Long Island is the birthplace of American stock car racing, but today, only one racetrack remains: Riverhead Raceway. Established in 1949 on an initially rural part of Long Island, the land has seen its value skyrocket in the subsequent years. With the track now worth over $10 million, the octogenarian owners Barbara and Jim Cromarty struggle to keep the bulldozers at bay. In his debut feature, acclaimed visual artist Michael Dweck explores the issues of class divide and corporate interest that have impacted both the racing industry and region as a whole in this beautiful, visceral, mesmerizing ode to a dying American tradition. *Also screening as part of View From Long Island section.
WALDEN (Switzerland/Austria)
New York Premiere
Director: Daniel Zimmermann
On a gentle day, deep in an Austrian forest, we hear the sudden sound of a chainsaw sending a fir tree to the ground, and thus begins Daniel Zimmerman’s formally fascinating and uncompromising experimental documentary. Entirely comprised of thirteen 360° panning shots, WALDEN follows the tree’s lumber from its harvest in the Austrian wilderness around the globe, as it slowly makes its way across towns, ports, and continents. Equal parts challenging and hypnotizing, Zimmerman’s film is a rhythmic rumination on the role nature plays in all of our lives, both as individuals and as those living in a world defined by globalization.
Monrovia, Indiana[/caption]
MONROVIA, INDIANA (USA)
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Turning his attention away from the large-scale city institutions that have defined his work for much of the past decade, legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman aims his camera towards the residents of Monrovia, Indiana: a small midwest town with a population of just over 1,000. Observing life in this middle-American community, Wiseman moves between a variety of locales, ranging from the churches and farms that have defined the region for centuries to the gun shop visits, school performances, and Freemason society meetings that showcase the town’s daily rituals. Through it all, Wiseman creates a remarkable space for contemplation of a type of community rarely depicted on screen, despite the undeniable role these towns play in contemporary American politics.
A MURDER IN MANSFIELD (USA)
Director: Barbara Kopple
Academy Award® winner Barbara Kopple’s latest documentary explores the ramifications of a horrific crime that shook the small town of Mansfield, Ohio. In 1990, 12-year-old Collier stepped onto the witness stand during the most explosive murder trial in the history of his hometown. Many locals still remember the boy’s dramatic testimony—blaming his father, a prominent doctor, for the murder of his mother Noreen. Twenty-six years later, Collier returns, seeking to heal the lingering trauma associated with the crime and confront his imprisoned father, who continues to withhold his admission of guilt in the events that changed so many lives.
THE PANAMA PAPERS (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Alex Winter
Leaked by an anonymous source to journalists in 2015, The Panama Papers were an explosive collection of 11.5 million documents, exposing the use of secretive offshore companies to enable widespread tax evasion and money laundering. Largely viewed as the largest data leak in history, the release of the Papers had wide-reaching implications, incriminating 12 current or former world leaders, 128 politicians or public officials, and various celebrities and public figures (among others). In his expansive documentary, director Alex Winter speaks to the journalists who worked to ensure the release, and examines how it reshaped our understanding of corruption amidst the highest forms of government, along with the ongoing effects on global inequality.
THE PROPOSAL (USA)
Director: Jill Magid
Hidden away in a vault in Switzerland lies the professional archive of Mexico’s most renowned architect Luis Barragán, now fiercely protected by its sole owner, who has almost completely restricted access to the public over the last 20 years. Determined to relocate the archive back to Mexico City, American conceptual artist, writer, and filmmaker Jill Magid initiates a dialogue with the owner, and in the process, begins to construct her own piece ruminating on the dangers of cutting off accessibility to an artist’s work from the outside world. With this provocative and haunting film, Magid challenges the perception of who truly controls an artist’s legacy and how the world should engage with their work.
ROLL RED ROLL (USA)
Director: Nancy Schwartzman
In 2012, the sleepy town of Steubenville, Ohio made international news when a whistleblowing blogger discovered a set of disturbing online evidence documenting the sexual assault of a teenage girl by star members of the high school football team. Examining the complicated motivations of the perpetrators, bystanders, and community leaders who actively denied and dismissed the event, documentarian Nancy Schwartzman attempts to unpack the harmful attitudes at the core of their unconscionably complicit behavior. Timely and undeniably affecting, ROLL RED ROLL goes behind the headlines to uncover the deeply entrenched, social media-fueled “boys will be boys” culture at the root of sexual assault in America.
SHIRKERS (USA)
Director: Sandi Tan
Spending her days seeking refuge in zines, bootlegs, and American independent cinema, teenager Sandi Tan found herself among the first generation of Singapore’s burgeoning counterculture movement when she began working on her DIY-labor of love film SHIRKERS in the early 90s. But Sandi and her co-conspirators’ dreams of beginning a new film movement were crushed when Georges, her mysterious American mentor, disappeared with the entirety of the footage without warning. Two decades later, Tan and her collaborators return to the footage they lost in order to grapple with the movement their optimism inspired—and the man who tore it away from them—in this singular look at one artist’s attempt to reckon with the past.
THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD (USA)
Director: Morgan Neville
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND was to be Orson Welles’s grand comeback, until years of financial, legal, and creative issues halted the completion of the CITIZEN KANE director’s final work. Now nearly 50 years later, Oscar®-winning documentary director Morgan Neville (20 FEET FROM STARDOM, WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR) looks back at the winding and nearly unbelievable story of the making of the film, created guerrilla-style by a director living in exile, and the decades of failure that came to define the project’s legacy. Aided by Peter Bogdanovich, Frank Marshall, Beatrice Welles, and other living collaborators, THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD is a lively tribute to one of cinema’s true giants.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING (USA)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Tom Donahue
One year after the Harvey Weinstein allegations ignited the #MeToo movement, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING offers a comprehensive look at the film industry’s role in reinforcing gender dynamics over the last century, and the resounding call for action pushing back. Speaking with a tremendous group of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Meryl Streep, Jessica Chastain, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Reese Witherspoon, and countless others, the film stands as a timely testament to the urgent need for change facing both the entertainment industry and society as a whole.
TIME FOR ILHAN (USA)
Director: Norah Shapiro
On November 8, 2016, Ilhan Omar—a young, hijab-wearing mother-of-three—made history as the first Somali Muslim woman to be elected to legislative office in the United States. With incredible access to Omar’s campaign, documentarian Norah Shapiro follows the candidate and her team on the trail as they attempt to unseat the 43-year incumbent in a hard-fought race to represent the country’s largest Somali community. At a time of tremendous political turmoil, TIME FOR ILHAN intimately chronicles the inspiring journey of one of the nation’s brightest rising political stars and offers a fresh perspective on the American Dream.
THE TRUTH ABOUT KILLER ROBOTS
New York Premiere
Director: Maxim Pozdorovkin
As defined by science fiction giant Isaac Asimov, the first law of robotics states, “A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” So what happens once we live in an era where the law has already been broken? Using three recent case studies of moments in which robots have caused the death of a human as a starting point, director Maxim Pozdorovkin creates an equally thought-provoking and wryly provocative survey of just how much we’ve allowed robots into our lives, and the extent to which our often unnoticed reliance on machines may have already defined our fate.
Birds of Passage[/caption]
BIRDS OF PASSAGE (Mexico, Colombia, Denmark)
New York Premiere
Director: Christina Gallego, Ciro Guerra
In the follow-up to his visually stunning foreign language Oscar®-nominated EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (HIFF 2015), director Ciro Guerra depicts a single Colombian family who find themselves increasingly forced into the violence and capitalist pull of the country’s burgeoning drug trade. Co-directed alongside his longtime collaborator Cristina Gallego, BIRDS OF PASSAGE provides a visceral and multi-faceted look at the two-decade rise of the Colombian drug trade through the eyes of the indigenous communities who both helped to shape it and were subsequently devastated by it. Sprawling in scope and filled with a sense of surreal beauty, Guerra and Gallego deliver an unparalleled crime saga. Selected as Colombia’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®.
BURNING (South Korea)
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Years after leaving his small northern hometown for Seoul, an aspiring writer (Yoo Ahin) unexpectedly runs into a childhood acquaintance (Jeon Jong-seo). Their chance encounter soon blossoms into a tentative relationship, until her return from an impromptu trip with a mysterious new companion (Steven Yeun, The Walking Dead) sets in motion an accidental love triangle that soon morphs into something much more sinister. Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, director Lee Changdong’s masterful film became one of the most celebrated titles of the last decade upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival—an exhilarating thriller that is as precise as it is undefinable.
COLD WAR (Poland)
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
In the midst of tremendous political upheaval, two folk musicians meet in post-war Poland, where one attempts to escape a troubled past while the other increasingly questions the pair’s role in the country’s propaganda machine. Soon they fall in love and find fame in the smoke-lit bars of Eastern Europe, setting in motion a relationship that will span decades and cross borders. Sumptuously shot in beautiful black and white, Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski (in the follow-up to his Foreign Language Academy Award® winner IDA) returns to his home country with an achingly seductive tale of love and loss.
DEAD PIGS (USA/China)
Director: Cathy Yan
Against the backdrop of urban development, gentrification, and thousands of discarded pigs mysteriously floating down the Yangtze River, a brassy salon owner, lonely busboy, trust-fund princess, expat architect, and bumbling farmer find their lives unexpectedly converging in Cathy Yan’s sprawling directorial debut. Yan, a participant in the 2016 HIFF Screenwriters Lab and the recipient of support from the inaugural Melissa Mathison Fund, effortlessly weaves together the individual narratives of five Shanghai residents in her biting satire. Based on true events, DEAD PIGS is a wicked and whimsical examination of contemporary China’s ongoing clash between traditionalism and modernization.
THE GUILTY (Denmark)
Director: Gustav Möller
Following a suspension, police officer Asger Holm (a hypnotic Jakob Cedergren) is reassigned as an emergency dispatcher. During one seemingly typical night he receives a unusually distressing call, and slowly realizes that the woman on the other end of the line has been kidnapped. Confined to his desk with only his direct line of communication to aid him, Holm must act without delay in order to save her. Winner of audience awards at Sundance, Rotterdam, Montclair and more, first-time director Gustav Möller experiments with the boundaries of traditional narrative to create one of the year’s most suspenseful thrillers.
HAPPY AS LAZZARO (Italy)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Within an impoverished Italian countryside estate, a group of sharecroppers spend their days harvesting tobacco for their overbearing Marchesa, while the wide-eyed, innocent local Lazzaro (first-time actor Adriano Tradiolo) is at once beloved and taken advantage of by his fellow workers. This life continues on in the town, until Lazzaro’s involvement in a kidnapping scheme at the hands of the Marchesa’s entitled son sets in motion a string of events that will push him towards a place and time far from his rustic home. Blending the lines between Italy’s history of neo-realism and bucolic fables into a transfixing parable of the country’s modern day society, director Alice Rohrwacher’s (CORPO CELESTE, HIFF 2011) third feature is a stunning achievement of contemporary European cinema.
I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (Romania/Czech Republic/France/Bulgaria/Germany)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Radu Jude In the latest provocation from Romanian director Radu Jude, local theater director Mariana Marin (Ioana Iacob) prepares to stage a public recreation of the 1941 Odessa Massacre, an often-ignored ethnic cleansing in which tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews were murdered at the hands of Romanian soldiers. As Mariana attempts to push back on both calls for censorship from a city representative looking for a more traditional display of nationalist pride and a burgeoning mutiny amongst her cast of local volunteers, Jude crafts a timely and constantly engaging examination of the ways in which barbarism is not only defined by its perpetrators, but by those insistent on pushing it to the sidelines of history as well.
LETO (Russia)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Kirill Serebrennikov
As the political repression of the USSR enters its final decade, Mike Naumenko (Roman Bilyk), frontman of the early 1980s Leningrad band Zoopark, welcomes a new singer that will soon break out far past the reach of their comparatively underground rock scene. Looking back at the music landscape of his youth, director Kirill Serebrennikov has crafted a sprawling portrait of a vibrant scene alive with the riotous, uncontrollable energy of the era. Filled with an electrifying soundtrack, LETO provides a nostalgic, yet un-romanticized look at a period that seemed to exist almost entirely outside of both what had come before and was yet to come in its native country.
NON-FICTION (France)
Director: Olivier Assayas
Internationally acclaimed French auteur Olivier Assayas (CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA, HIFF 2014) returns to the festival with this charmingly playful comedy. Facing both a rapidly changing industry and the lingering feeling that his relationship with his wife (Juliette Binoche), a professional actress, is growing stale, publishing executive Alain (Guillaume Canet) struggles to find his place while dealing with an oafish author (Vincent Macaigne) and significantly younger new recruit (Nora Hamzawi). As his perfectly cast ensemble move between dinner parties and bedrooms, Assayas crafts a deliciously mischievous look at the difficulty of adapting to today’s new-media world.
PRIVATE LIFE (USA)
Director: Tamara Jenkins
Feeling the pressure of repeated failed attempts to have a child, middle-aged New York couple Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Richard (Paul Giamatti) seem to have run out of options when their step-niece Sadie (HIFF 2018 Breakthrough Artist Kayli Carter) arrives at their doorstep looking for a place to crash. When Sadie agrees to donate her eggs and become the last piece of their fertility puzzle, the three form an unconventional bond as they set about creating a family. With her first film in 10 years, director Tamara Jenkins (THE SAVAGES) and her wonderful cast craft a knowingly tender portrait of the pressures facing one middle-class family.
[caption id="attachment_29298" align="aligncenter" width="926"]
MANBIKI KAZOKU(Shoplifters) by KORE-EDA Hirokazu[/caption]
SHOPLIFTERS (Japan)
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
The winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, prolific Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda (LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, HIFF 2013) returns to the festival with a nuanced, heartbreaking look at a family of misfits living in the margins of contemporary Tokyo. Making a life for themselves by shoplifting from local grocery stores and finding food where they can, the film’s central family find their impoverished but tranquil life threatened when they take a young girl under their wing, and her abusive parents fight back for custody. An impassioned plea for those struggling to stay afloat, this is another must-see from one of international cinema’s greatest filmmakers. Selected as Japan’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®.
STYX (Germany/Austria)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Wolfgang Fischer
Rike (Susanne Wolff), a forty-year-old woman working contentedly as a successful doctor in the city, finally fulfills a lifelong dream when she uses an annual holiday to set sail on a solo voyage from Gibraltar to Ascension, an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Following an intense storm, Rike’s holiday is interrupted by the discovery of a badly damaged and overloaded refugee boat, with over one hundred passengers’ lives threatened and her calls for help unanswered. Director Wolfgang Fischer crafts a stunning story of survival, as well as a striking allegory for the sometimes impossible task of acting to save those imperiled by an impassive system.
WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY (USA)
Director: Madeleine Olnek
Literary icon Emily Dickinson (Molly Shannon) breaks free from her public persona as a famously prudish spinster and claims her status as a vibrant lesbian hero. Balancing raucous humor with tender romance, Shannon establishes Dickinson as a spirited artist who drew inspiration from her passionate, lifelong affair with her secret lover, Susan Dickinson (Susan Ziegler). In the delightfully irreverent WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, writer/director Madeleine Olnek refreshingly upends the false narratives that have historically dominated the poet’s life and work, and examines the way we as a society choose to write and remember our powerful women.
WOMAN AT WAR (France/Iceland/Ukraine)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Fifty-year-old choir teacher Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) has, on the surface, an uneventful life in her Icelandic countryside home. By day a pillar of the local community, Halla leads a secret life as an eco-terrorist, devoting herself to a campaign against the aluminum industry by sabotaging local electric pylons and spearheading factory sieges. When the balance of her dual life is threatened by the approval of a longstanding adoption request, she is forced to decide whether to sacrifice the cause for the desire to settle down. Examining the nuanced relationship between the personal and the political with an unexpectedly offbeat, comic tone, WOMEN AT WAR is a stirring tale from emerging Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson.
BLACK MOTHER (USA)
Director: Khalik Allah
Filmmaker, photographer, and Long Island resident Khalik Allah’s second feature is, much like his debut film FIELD N*****, a mesmerizing documentary portrait. Allah casts his lens on two dissonant worlds on the island of Jamaica, showcasing the sacred and profane alike. Switching among multiple formats, from the raw texture of super 8mm film, to videotape, to HD video, Allah skillfully creates another intimate and daring portrait of kaleidoscopic beauty, revealing Jamaica—the birthplace of his mother—as a blessed place, dreamlike, full of rhythm and seduction.
THE LAST RACE (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Michael Dweck
Long Island is the birthplace of American stock car racing, but today, only one racetrack remains: Riverhead Raceway. Established in 1949 on an initially rural part of Long Island, the land has seen its value skyrocket in the subsequent years. Now worth over $10 million, the octogenarian track owners Barbara and Jim Cromarty struggle to keep the bulldozers at bay. In his debut feature, acclaimed visual artist Michael Dweck explores the issues of class divide and corporate interest that have impacted both the racing industry and region as a whole in this beautiful, visceral, mesmerizing ode to a dying American tradition. *Also screening as part of Documentary Competition Section.
ONLY THE WIND IS LISTENING (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Emily Anderson
Set against the backdrop of an unforgiving Montauk winter, the lives of a fisherman and a writer intertwine as they attempt to navigate off-season loneliness. *Also screening as part of the Shorts Playing Before Features.
STILL PLAYS WITH TRAINS (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Ross Kauffman
In the basement of his East Hampton home, John Scully reconstructs his idyllic 1950s childhood in the form of one of the world’s largest model train sets. *Also screening as part of the Shorts Playing Before Features.
Watergate[/caption]
WATERGATE (USA)
Director: Charles Ferguson
Few moments loom larger on the collective conscious of contemporary American history than the Watergate investigation, and the subsequent resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974. Now over 40 years later, filmmaker Charles Ferguson utilizes new interviews with surviving subjects from all sides of the investigation—including reporters, prosecutors, senators, congressmen, and former members of the Nixon administration—to shine a new light on the landmark case. Following up his 2008 expose on the financial crisis INSIDE JOB, which landed him an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, Ferguson’s WATERGATE is a stunning, all-encompassing look at a scandal that, until recently, stood without parallel in US politics
The Hamptons International Film Festival this week unveiled the first wave of films for the upcoming 26th edition of the Festival. The festival lineup will include films from two female alumni of the annual HIFF Screenwriters Lab – Ísold Uggadóttir’s AND BREATHE NORMALLY (2015 Lab), about the blossoming relationship of two women in Iceland—one an airport worker, the other a detained refugee—will have its New York Premiere in the Conflict & Resolution section. Cathy Yan’s DEAD PIGS (2016 Lab), about the interwoven lives of five individuals in Shanghai, will screen in World Cinema Narrative. Yan was also the first recipient of support from the Melissa Mathison Fund, established in 2016, which strives to foster the continued development of female writers in the industry.
Additional films announced include the U.S. Premiere of Eva Trobisch’s ALL GOOD, starring Aenne Schwarz, a nuanced and powerful look at the destructive instinct to refuse to define yourself as the victim, in the Narrative Competition section. Rupert Everett’s THE HAPPY PRINCE, starring Everett, Colin Firth and Emily Watson. This biopic about the final years of renowned author Oscar Wilde’s life will screen in the Spotlight section, and Everett is also set to attend the festival.
In the World Cinema Narrative section, the festival will screen the U.S. Premiere of CAPERNAUM, a jury prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival directed by Nadine Labaki, about a 12-year-old boy in Beirut who launches a lawsuit against his negligent parents. Ali Abbasi’s BORDER, starring Eva Melander and Eero Milonoff, about a person’s struggle to realize her place in the world, will play in the Narrative Competition section.
The Views from Long Island section will feature the East Coast Premiere of Michael Dweck’s documentary THE LAST RACE, about a Long Island stock car race track trying to maintain the tradition and history of the sport. The Air, Land and Sea section will feature the U.S. Premiere of Sasha Friedlander and Cynthia Wade’s (HIFF 2012 Alumni) documentary GRIT, chronicling the work of a young social and environmental activist in Indonesia after her village was buried by a toxic mudflow as a result of oil drilling.
ALL GOOD (ALLES IST GUT)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Eva Trobisch
When an encounter with her new boss’ brother-in-law ends in an un-consented sexual encounter, Janne’s (Aenne Schwarz) immediate response is to portray the night’s events with the same rationale she has lived much of her adult life by: “If you don’t see any problems, you don’t have any.” But Janne’s silence soon creates a deafening rift between her partner, family, and co-workers that threatens to destroy the personal and professional relationships she’s worked so hard to maintain. Mesmerizingly led by Schwarz’s lead performance, debut filmmaker Eva Trobisch has crafted a nuanced and powerful look at the destructive instinct to refuse to define yourself as the victim.
AND BREATHE NORMALLY
New York Premiere
Director: Ísold Uggadóttir
The disparate paths of a struggling Icelandic single mother and an asylum-seeking Guinea-Bissauan woman interweave in Ísold Uggadóttir’s (Screenwriters Lab 2015) award-winning first feature. Though they are initially divided by political and cultural discord, the two women gradually form an unlikely bond outside of the pre-ordained paths expected from their sociopolitical realities. Akin to the social-realist work of Ken Loach and the Dardennes Brothers, AND BREATHE NORMALLY is a sharply observed and unsentimental exploration of the migration crisis, and confirms Uggadóttir’s status as a rising star of Icelandic cinema.
BORDER (GRÄNS)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Ali Abbasi
Tina (Eva Melander), a reclusive customs officer whose enlarged face and pronounced overbite make her immediately stand out, has a unique skill: her sense of smell allows her to identify contraband coming through the border. One day, a mysterious man sets off her senses and places her on a strange path that will lead her to discover the origin of her gifts. Based on Let the Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novella, director Ali Abbasi has crafted a consistently surprising genre hybrid. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, BORDER straddles the line between romance, fantasy, and horror in its examination of one person’s struggle to realize her place in the world.
CAPERNAUM
U.S. Premiere
Director: Nadine Labaki
Scraping by on the chaotic streets of Beirut, 12-year-old Zain (Zain al Rafeea) is one of many children born into an uncertain future in the city’s slum. Living a deeply troubled life on the streets and branded the sole caretaker of an abandoned toddler, Zain makes the desperate move of suing his negligent parents for giving him life and trapping him in a hostile world. Utilizing a cast of non-professional actors (including two revelatory performances from its child leads), Lebanese director Nadine Labaki’s Cannes Jury Prize-winner is a stirring slice of social-realist protest cinema, driven equally by righteous anger and enduring empathy, and sure to be one of the most talked about films of the year.
DEAD PIGS
Director: Cathy Yan
Against the backdrop of urban development, gentrification—and thousands of discarded pigs mysteriously floating down the Yangtze river—a brassy salon owner, lonely busboy, trust-fund princess, expat architect, and bumbling farmer find their lives unexpectedly converging in Cathy Yan’s sprawling directorial debut. Yan, a participant in the 2016 HIFF Screenwriters Lab and the recipient of the inaugural Melissa Mathison Fund, effortlessly weaves together the individual narratives of five Shanghai residents in her biting satire. Based on true events, DEAD PIGS is a wicked and whimsical examination of contemporary China’s ongoing clash between traditionalism and modernization.
GRIT
U.S. Premiere
Directors: Sasha Friedlander, Cynthia Wade
In 2006, international drilling company Lapindo carelessly unleashed an unstoppable toxic mudflow into East Java—burying dozens of nearby villages and displacing tens of thousands of Indonesians in the process. Documentarians Sasha Friedlander and Cynthia Wade (2008 Academy Award® winner for FREEHELD) focus the tragedy around 16-year-old survivor Dian, a survivor who is routinely ignored by her government despite the unforgiving sludge continuing to engulf her home for over a decade. Chronicling the teenager’s transformation from a young girl into an outspoken advocate for her community, GRIT is a stirring and timely showcase of the urgent need for political activism, the duty to hold those in power accountable, and the perseverance of the human spirit amidst social and environmental strife.
THE HAPPY PRINCE
Director: Rupert Everett
In the final three years of his life (1897-1900), Oscar Wilde finds himself adrift. Coming off the heels of his trial for indecency and subsequent imprisonment, Wilde lives out his last days in exile, moving among a small group of enduring friends (Colin Firth, Edwin Thomas) under assumed names, and torn between whether to go back to his ex-lover (Colin Morgan) or estranged wife (Emily Watson). Written, directed by, and starring Rupert Everett as the ailing Wilde, THE HAPPY PRINCE is at once a moving evocation of the literary genius’ final act and a stirring paean to the brilliant wit that endured to his last moments.
THE LAST RACE
East Coast Premiere
Director: Michael Dweck
Long Island is the birthplace of American stock car racing, but today, only one racetrack remains: Riverhead Raceway. Established in 1949 on an initially rural part of Long Island, the land has seen its value skyrocket in the subsequent years. Now worth over $10 million, the octogenarian track owners Barbara and Jim Cromarty struggle to keep the bulldozers at bay. In his debut feature, acclaimed visual artist Michael Dweck explores the issues of class divide and corporate interest that have impacted both the racing industry and region as a whole in this beautiful, visceral, mesmerizing ode to a dying American tradition.
A Land Imagined by Yeo Siew Hua[/caption]
The 2018 edition of the Locarno Festival ended with A Land Imagined by director Yeo Siew Hua being crowned the winner of the Golden Lepoard for Best Film. In A Land Imagined, Wang, a lonely construction worker from China, goes missing at a Singapore land reclamation site after forming a virtual friendship with a mysterious gamer. Lok, a police investigator, has to uncover the truth in order to find him.
Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director commented “Held in extremely high temperatures, Locarno71 was a rich and diversified edition, just as it is in the tradition of a festival which is not afraid to approach extremes and to combine a smile with reflection. The guests who brought their experience and congeniality, were joined by new ideas that were well received, I think about the critical success of the film La Flor or the wonderful response of the audience to the night screening of the television series by Bruno Dumont, for example. In the aesthetic search for a form suited to a rapidly changing actuality, where images seem omnipresent, the award-winning films tell of a world where man is still the measure of all things. With 12 award-winning women – among two Swiss directors – out of 25 awards, the 71st edition confirmed that Locarno is a festival where one plans the future”.
The 72nd Locarno Festival will be held from August 7 to 17, 2019.
I FEEL GOOD by Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern[/caption]
The official program of the 71st edition of the Locarno Festival was announced at a press conference today, Wednesday July 11, 2018. The line-up for the official juries was also announced as were tributes to Wolf-Eckart Bühler, Pierre Rissient, Francis Reusser and Claude Lanzmann. The 71st Locarno Festival will take place from August 1 to 11, 2018.
In the program introduction, Carlo Chatrian, Artistic director, notes “This year’s program also includes films that, instead of portraying the conflicts raging around the world, concentrate on private stories, while allowing the present to resonate like the echoes of a thunderstorm. Examples are Yara by Abbas Fahdel, who following his epic Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) has left the war zone to plunge into the Lebanese countryside; or the portrait which Ethan Hawke – Excellence Award 2018 – dedicates in the eponymous film to the musician BLAZE, conflicted but charming hero, a rebel against the system and a profoundly free spirit, fated for a tragic end. These are just two films that create a bond between the self and the world, between the details of an individual life and the universal truths revealed by their story. Another of their common traits is also found in many other titles: the courage shown by their protagonists when faced with an insurmountable obstacle. Perhaps that’s why these and so many other films this year simply take a name for their title (Diane, Alice T., M., Menocchio, Sibel, Ray & Liz, Siyabonga). It may well be a sign of renewed trust in film as an art form capable of telling the stories of men and women without filtering them through symbolism, proof that the human face may be back as the be-all and end-all of a film. If so, I should like to present this year’s program as a single, magnificent and very long portrait gallery of unique faces, disarming even when well aware of the artfulness of their fiction. From Stan Laurel to the young Israeli Menahem and his disturbing statements in M.; from Mae West’s opulence to the sublime beauty of Julio Bressane’s muse in Sedução da Carne; from the discreet charm of Ingrid Bergman to the appeal of Noée Abita in Genèse; from the madcap elegance of Irene Dunne to the disenchanted appeal of Mary Kay Place in Diane.”
Shoplifters[/caption]
The 36th Munich International Film festival drew to a close today Saturday, July 7, 2018 with the award ceremony and “Shoplifters” by Hirokazu Kore-eda won the ARRI/Osram Award for best international film.The Audience Award went to the film “Wackersdorf – Be Alert, Courageous and Solidaric” by Oliver Haffner.
Mackie Messer – Brechts Dreigroschenfilm[/caption]
16 German film productions are celebrating their world premiere in the New German Cinema section of the Filmfest München – Munich International Film Festival. Starting things off is Joachim A. Lang’s “Mackie Messer – Brechts Dreigroschenfilm“, the opening film of the 36th Filmfest München, whose message is Brecht’s aphorism “In the contradiction lies the hope.”
Against the backdrop of historical circumstances, Oliver Haffner’s feature film “Wackersdorf – Be Alert, Courageous and Solidaric” raises a sensitive question about political activism: as personal as it is suspenseful, the film depicts opposition to the construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant in 1980s Bavaria.
“Safari – Match Me If You Can” by Munich director Rudi Gaul is about love in the digital age. A new dating app, Safari, makes the Bavarian capital a vehicle for self-promotion. Arthur Schnitzler’s stage play “La Ronde” is catapulted into the present day, with hilarious consequences.
Robert Bohrer and Emma Rose have submitted a most unusual “Love Movie”. An apathetic thirtysomething falls in love with a war photographer, and together they experience all the highs and lows of a relationship.
Jakob Lass, whose “Love Steaks” earned the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino in four categories in 2013, is back in Munich. In his latest film, “Right Here Right Now”, we live through the last night of a Hamburg club and everything that a good farewell party entails. Partying is also a theme in Henning Gronkowski’s “Yung”. The film portrays Berlin teenagers on their (often wrong) way through the city and through life. Naturally this includes hedonism, sexuality, and drugs.
Several of the films in this year’s New German Cinema section broach the issue of relations between the sexes. Linus de Paoli’s thriller “A Young Man with High Potential” is the shocking story of a highly intelligent but prudish student of computer science who turns to chemical substances when rejected by the object of his affection. By contrast, in Leonel Dietsche’s “The New End”, only the men survive in a post-apocalyptic world in which might makes right.
Philipp Eichholtz’s comedy “Everything Always All the Time” is a bit more playful and lighthearted. In, Kim would like to be a man. That isn’t such an easy thing when others must first get used to this kind of new identity.
In Eva Trobisch’s drama, the protagonist tells herself things will be “All Good”. Since being raped, she does everything she can to keep up appearances — in order not to lose her job. Ann-Kristin Reyels’ “We Were Just Playing” is another film in which a character has a dark secret. Miro and Jona come from different worlds and want to be friends nonetheless.
Damian John Harper’s “In the Middle of the River” is about a traumatic incident: a young man returns to his home town to kill his grandfather. At the moment of truth, his plan is thwarted and the two men are forced to spend the rest of the day with each other. Family situations with a potential for conflict are also at the root of Michael Klier’s chamber play “Family Idiots”, about a mentally disabled girl whose family must decide whether to send her to an institution. It’s a moral question that threatens to pit the family members against each other. Katinka Narjes’ film “Sirens” is also about family ties: the bond between two sisters is indestructible, yet they must learn to let go.
Two documentaries are part of the New German Cinema section in 2018. In “The Brasch Family”, Annekatrin Hendel tells the story of three generations of a German family full of history, conflicts, and twists. In the meantime, Lola Randl, a previous guest at Filmfest München, offers a subjective and personal exercise in self-experimentation with “The Bees and the Birds”, moving to the countryside and exploring alternative ways of living both in front of and behind the camera.
As usual, the best achievements by new directors in the New German Cinema section will be awarded the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino. The FIPRESCI Award will also be given for the fourth time to the best film in the section.
All the films in the New German Cinema section:
“A Young Man with High Potential”
by Linus de Paoli, Germany 2018
starring Adam Ild Rohweder, Amanda Plummer, Paulina Galazka, Vanja Bajdarova, Pit Bukowski Schattenkante, Hahn Film
“Alles ist gut” (“All Good”)
by Eva Trobisch, Germany 2018
starring Aenne Schwarz, Andreas Döhler, Hans Löw, Tilo Nest, Lina Wendel
TRIMAFILM GmbH, Starhaus Filmproduktion, BR
“Ende Neu” (“The New End”)
by Leonel Dietsche, Germany 2018
starring Sylvester Groth, Georg Friedrich, Milena Tscharntke, Samuel Schneider, Mick Morris Mehnert
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, SWR, Paxfilm
“Familie Brasch” (“The Brasch Family”)
by Annekatrin Hendel, Germany 2018
starring Marion Brasch, Katharina Thalbach, Christoph Hein, Bettina Wegner, Florian Havemann
IT WORKS! Medien GmbH, von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion, RBB, SWR, MDR
“Idioten der Familie” (“Family Idiots”)
by Michel Klier, Germany 2018
starring Lilith Stangenberg, Jördis Triebel, Hanno Koffler, Florian Stetter, Kai Scheve
Michael Klier-Film, almost famous UG, RBB, Arte
“In the Middle of the River”
by Damian John Harper, Germany/USA 2018
starring Eric Hunter, Max Thayer, Nikki Lowe, Matthew T. Metzler, Ava Del Cielo
Weydemann Bros., ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel, Arte
“Kim hat einen Penis” (“Everything Always All the Time”)
by Philipp Eichholtz, Germany 2018
starring Martina Schöne-Radunski, Christian Ehrich, Stella Hilb, Matthias Lier, Lana Cooper
Von Oma gefördert
“Liebesfilm” (“Love Movie”)
by Robert Bohrer, Emma Rosa Simon, Germany 2018
starring Eric Klotzsch, Lana Cooper, Hartmut Becker, Sabine Vitua, Gerdy Zint
BASIS BERLIN Filmproduktion, Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB), ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel
“Mackie Messer – Brechts Dreigroschenfilm”
by Joachim A. Lang, Germany 2018 starring Lars Eidinger, Tobias Moretti, Hannah Herzsprung, Joachim Król, Claudia Michelsen
Zeitsprung Pictures GmbH, SWR, Arte, Velvet Films
“Nixen” (“Sirens”)
by Katinka Narjes, Germany 2018
starring Odine Johne, Lucy Wirth, Emelie Harbrecht, Roland Bonjour
Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)
“Safari – Match Me If You Can”
by Rudi Gaul, Germany 2018
starring Justus von Dohnányi, Sunnyi Melles, Elisa Schlott, Juliane Köhler, Max Mauff
Rat Pack Filmproduktion GmbH, Tele München GmbH, Martin Richter Filmproduktion
“So was von da” (“Right Here Right Now”)
by Jakob Lass, Germany 2018
starring Niklas Bruhn, Tinka Fürst, David Schütter, Mathias Bloech, Bela B. Felsenheimer
C-Films Deutschland GmbH, DCM Pictures GmbH, Tatami Films GmbH
“Von Bienen und Blumen” (“The Bees and the Birds”)
by Lola Randl, Germany 2018
starring Lola Randl
DETAiLFILM GmbH, Tohuwabohu GmbH
“Wackersdorf” (“Wackersdorf – Be Alert, Courageous and Solidaric”)
by Oliver Haffner, Germany 2018
starring Johannes Zeiler, Anna Maria Sturm, Peter Jordan, Fabian Hinrichs, Sigi Zimmerschied
if… Productions, BR, Arte
“Wir haben nur gespielt” (“We Were Just Playing”)
by Ann-Kristin Reyels, Germany 2018
starring Finn-Henry Reyels, Roman Bkhavnani, Silke Bodenbender, Godehard Giese
kurhaus production Film & Medien GmbH, ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel
“Yung”
by Henning Gronkowski, Germany 2018
starring Janaina Liesenfeld, Emily Lau, Joy Grant, Abbie Dutton
G.G. Production GmbH, deutschfilm GmbH