Directed by Christos Nikou in his feature directorial debut, Apples, Greece’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards opens in US theaters in June. The film, an exploration of memory and identity, was an Official Selection of the Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival and Mill Valley Film Festival.
40 feature films, 15 documentary films have been selected for this year’s European Film Awards Feature and Documentary Film Selection. With more films to be announced for the Feature Film Selection (part 2) in September, 2021 seems to be a record year with high-quality films from all over Europe.
The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center announced the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/New Films (ND/NF), available April 28 – May 8 via virtual cinema, with in-person screenings extending through May 13 at FLC. This year’s festival will introduce 27 features and 11 shorts to audiences nationwide in the MoMA and FLC virtual cinemas, and to New Yorkers at Film at Lincoln Center.
This year’s 2020 AFI European Union Film Showcase will take place as a virtual event from December 2–20 featuring 48 films representing 25 EU member states. Now in its 33rd year, the Showcase, one of the largest and long-running showcases of European cinema in the United States, has typically taken place at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD.
The Polish film Sweat directed by Magnus von Horn won the Gold Hugo for Best International Feature Film at the 56th Chicago International Film Festival. The film also won the Silver Hugo for Best Art Direction for Jagna Dobesz. The insightful drama about loneliness and insecurity in the digital age chronicles three days in the candy-colored life of social media celebrity Sylwia Zajac played by stage actress Magdalena Kolésnik.
The 43rd Denver Film Festival (DFF43) kicks off tonight, Opening Night, October 22 with Searchlight’s NOMADLAND. The film will also receive DFF43’s Rare Pearl Award which will be accepted by director, Chloé Zhao, in a video presentation before the film screening. The Rare Pearl Award highlights a film whose beauty and uniqueness stand out as finest of the year. Recent Rare Pearl Award winners include Portrait of a Lady on Fire (DFF42) and Roma (DFF41).
