The Favourite won seven BAFTAs at the EE British Academy Film Awards including the award for Outstanding British Film, with Olivia Colman receiving the BAFTA for Leading Actress, Rachel Weisz taking Supporting Actress and Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara winning Original Screenplay. Sandy Powell won Costume Design, Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton won Production Design and Nadia Stacey won Make Up & Hair.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Mexican drama Roma was named Film of the Year, while Cuarón also won Director of the Year at the 39th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards ceremony on Sunday night.
The Favourite leads the nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) in 2019 with nominations in 12 categories, including Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Make Up & Hair, Editing and Yorgos Lanthimos for Director. Olivia Colman is nominated for Leading Actress for her role as Queen Anne, and Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are both nominated for Supporting Actress.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy The Favourite was out front with 10 nominations for the 39th annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, including Film, Director, Screenwriter, Actress for Olivia Colman and Supporting Actress for Rachel Weisz. In addition, the film is nominated for British/Irish Film of the Year.
The Favourite[/caption]
The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’s black comedy about the 18th century court of Queen Anne, leads the list of nominations for the 2018 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) with 13 noms including Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The Favourite also sweeps the technical categories, newly introduced for the 2017 awards, with nominations for seven of the nine awards, including Best Production Design, Best Cinematography supported by Blackmagic Design, Best Make-up & Hair Design and Best Costume Design.
The Best British Independent Film nominees are American Animals – with 11 nominations, Beast – with 10 nominations, Disobedience – with 5 nominations, You Were Never Really Here – with 8 nominations, and The Favourite.
The nominations list demonstrates a record year for female representation, with over 40% of the individual nominations recognizing women in the industry across directing, writing, producing, performance and craft. Female nominees make up over 50% of the talent nominated for Best British Independent Film and dominate both Most Promising Newcomer and Breakthrough Producer supported by Creativity Media, with four out of five nominations for each award. Over 140 British films were submitted for consideration and 37 different British feature films have been nominated across the BIFA categories.
Actor Dev Patel presented the 4th Filmmaker Award to director Lorenz Merz and producer Simon Hesse at the IWC Private Dinner during the 2018 Zurich Film Festival for their film BEAST. The award supports outstanding Swiss film projects that are at the production or post-production stage.
BEAST is an emotional coming-of-age film that tells the story of a teenager named Gabriel (Pablo Caprez) who devotedly brings up his two-year-old son alone. One summer’s night, Gabriel, his friend Joel (Tonatiuh Radzi) and Joel’s girlfriend Cory (Ella Rumpf) break into the zoo and release a horde of wild animals. While Gabriel and Cory become increasingly attracted to each other, a state of emergency is declared in the city.
The film is set in Zurich during the summer of 2017. It is shot in the Swiss German dialect and is currently at the postproduction stage. It is expected to hit cinemas in the Spring of 2019. BEAST is directed by Zurich-born Lorenz Merz, whose debut CHERRY PIE screened at Locarno in 2013. Merz has received the Swiss Film Award on two occasions for his work as a camera operator.
Dev Patel achieved his international breakthrough in 2008 with the modern Bollywood fairytale “Slumdog Millionaire”. For the drama “Lion”, which also screens at the ZFF, he received the 2017 BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. “It is a real honour for me to be able to present this award. The Filmmaker Award helps highly promising projects to make it to the big screen and therefore contributes to the diversity of Swiss cinema,” said Patel at the award ceremony.
“In a smaller country like Switzerland, the film industry is reliant on targeted support. I am really pleased that, with the Filmmaker Award, we are able to contribute to getting this exciting film made,” explained Franziska Gsell, Chief Marketing Officer at IWC Schaffhausen.
The Filmmaker Award, which comes with an endowment of CHF 100,000, was established by the Association for Film Funding in Switzerland. This association counts the co-founders of the ZFF, Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, Ringier CEO Marc Walder and IWC CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr among its members. The aim of the award is to provide targeted support to exciting projects from Swiss filmmakers in the often tricky production or post-production phase. This therefore closes the current gap in film funding.
Image credit: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – SEPTEMBER 29: Zurich Film Festival director Karl Spoerri, CMO IWC Schaffhausen Franziska Gsell, award winners Lorenz Merz and Simon Hesse and British actor Dev Patel pose at the IWC Private Dinner at Haute on 29 September, 2018 in Zurich, Switzerland. During the event British actor Dev Patel presented the 4th Filmmaker Award. The film “Beast” from producer Simon Hesse was declared the winner by the jury. The award, which is worth CHF 100,000, supports outstanding Swiss film projects that are in the production or post-production stage. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for IWC)
49 films have been named by the European Film Academy for this year’s EFA Feature Film Selection,
Wildlife[/caption]
The first films of the 2018 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) were revealed today along with big announcement that the 67th edition will open with the Australian premiere gala screening of Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife – starring Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal and Australia’s Ed Oxenbould. The First Glance selection of 32 films demonstrating MIFF’s expansive reach was also uncovered.
Based on the 1990 Richard Ford novel of the same name, Dano’s debut directorial outing (co-written by Zoe Kazan, seen alongside Dano at MIFF’s 2012 Ruby Sparks) tells a tender and empathetic story about a teen dealing with his family falling apart in 1960s Montana.
A hit at Sundance and Cannes, Wildlife is a bittersweet and elegant debut that represents a major coming-of-age – both off screen and on – for Oxenbould, an actor who broke out in MIFF 2014’s Paper Planes and last year’s MIFF Premiere Fund-supported The Butterfly Tree. Buoyed by exquisite cinematography from Diego Garcia (Neon Bull, MIFF 2016; Cemetery of Splendour, MIFF 2015) the film’s fine-tuned attention to period detail underscores its exceptional performances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gSi0Qvki3o
“We are thrilled to announce Wildlife for this year’s Opening Night Gala. Paul Dano’s debut as a director provides a glimpse into a successful shift in his career from on screen to off, and the cast including Australia’s very own Ed Oxenbould (a special name here at MIFF) is an impressive way to kick off proceedings,” said MIFF’s Artistic Director Michelle Carrey.
“This in addition to the sneak peek of the rest of the program is an exciting time. Finally we can start talking about the most important thing…the films!”
This year’s MIFF program will feature more than 500+ screenings, including:
Ethan Hawke features with both on and off-screen contributions: he portrays a troubled priest experiencing a ‘crisis of faith’ in cinematic legend Paul Schrader’s latest feast of brooding menace, First Reformed; in Blaze, Hawke directs a daringly unconventional biopic of an unsung country music legend, featuring newcomer Benjamin Dickey in the title role (which won him a Sundance acting award) and Alia Shawkat.
Chloë Grace Moretz turns in a career-best performance in Desiree Akhavan’s sophomore feature The Miseducation of Cameron Post, winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (US Dramatic); Cannes 2017 best actor winner Joaquin Phoenix features in Lynne Ramsay’s vengeance feature You Were Never Really Here, playing a war vet and ex-FBI agent whose new job includes rescuing children from paedophile rings; meanwhile, Bodied is the result of an unlikely pairing between Grammy-winning director Joseph Kahn and rapper turned producer Eminem who present their satirical story about an accidental battle-rap star.
In a variety of filmmaking firsts, acclaimed TV director Michael Pearce makes his feature debut in the sly, unsettling Beast – an impressive British crime drama love story wrapped in an intriguing psychosexual thriller; veteran slow-cinema auteur Tsai Ming-liang makes his debut foray into virtual reality with The Deserted, a 55-minute experience with a wordless, near-feature length tale of ghosts, grief and fish; and a little closer to home, Nash Edgerton’s TV series directorial debut Mr Inbetween brings The Magician’s charismatic killer-for-hire Ray Shoesmith back to our screens. MIFF will screen all six episodes before its television premiere on Foxtel’s Showcase channel.
The 2018 program delves deep into three iconic names spanning fashion, sport and Hollywood, starting with McQueen, a flamboyant portrait of one of the world’s most revered designers, Alexander McQueen – a man who once said “My shows are about sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. It’s for the excitement and the goosebumps. I want heart attacks. I want ambulances.” This biographical documentary by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui represents nothing less.
Julien Faraut’s John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection serves up a fascinating combination of instructional clips and exquisite 16mm footage of tennis bad boy John McEnroe at the height of his career at the 1984 French Open; and looking into the life of another legend, Tommy Avallone’s Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man follows the trail of the star’s alleged appearances musing on the interconnection of pop culture and ordinary life.
An Elephant Sitting Still takes us on a four-hour journey as Hu Bo paints a compelling, empathetic portrait of contemporary China in this FIPRESCI Prize-winning debut; and winner of SXSW’s Grand Jury Prize for documentary, People’s Republic of Desire is Hao Wu’s unsettling and fascinating look into the online world of live-streaming, social media and virtual relationships.
Turning impending loss into a poignant, poetic dreamscape, The Seen and Unseen is the second feature from Indonesia’s Kamila Andini and winner of best youth film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards; Tigers Are Not Afraid is a stunning contemporary fairytale that does for Mexico’s drug war what Guillermo del Toro did for the Spanish Civil War. Praised by Stephen King, the film saw Issa López become the first woman to win Fantastic Fest’s Best Horror Director award.
Denmark’s Gustav Möller makes his directorial debut with the Sundance and Rotterdam award-winning The Guilty, an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller told entirely in real time.
The UK’s Daniel Kokotajlo makes a devastating debut with Apostasy, a daring study of an all-female Jehovah’s Witness family riven by religious conflict starring Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey and Happy Valley); Babis Makridis proves he is coming into his own as a star with a second feature, Pity. A follow up to L (MIFF 2012), the quintessentially bleak and absurdist Greek New Wave comedy from the co-writer of The Lobster and Dogtooth was co-written with Yorgos Lanthimos’ key collaborator Efthymis Filippou (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, MIFF 2017).
Irreverent Iranian director Mani Haghighi (A Dragon Arrives! MIFF 2016) presents his latest meta-comedy magic, Pig – a riotous Iranian film industry satire about a serial killer; and Vivian Qu continues to interrogate crime, corruption and control in modern-day China in Angels Wear White, which won her the Best Director award at the Golden Horse Film Festival.
Based on Anna Seghers’ WWll novel of the same name, Transit is the slow-burn thriller from revered auteur Christian Petzold – a discomfiting fable of trans-European displacement that channels both Hitchcock and Casablanca; and one of contemporary cinema’s most esteemed directors Lucrecia Martel makes her long-awaited return with the historical fiction Zama, centred on an 18th-century Spanish magistrate marooned in a far-flung South American outpost where he’s losing touch with civilization and sanity.
Spaghetti Western, ’70s Euro-pulp and delirious psychedelia collide in Let the Corpses Tan – a glorious homage to cinema’s seedier retro fringes from genre connoisseurs Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani; audiences will step back in time to the French fashion scene with legendary fashion photographer William Klein’s award-winning black and white mockumentary that is now a groovy cult classic, Who are you, Polly Maggoo? and nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2018 Academy Awards, The Insult is the multi-award winning new work from Lebanese visionary Ziad Doueiri (The Attack, MIFF 2012).
Delving into the complex emotions of passionate pop-music appreciation, emerging local director Jessica Leski presents I Used to be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story – an empathetic documentary exploring why we hold pop music so dear to our hearts.
The NSFA-restored The Cheaters offers viewers a rare big-screen treat of a pioneering silent-era classic. A major landmark of Australian cinema, this is not just one of our earliest feature films – it’s one of the first by women filmmakers, the McDonagh sisters. The remaining fragments of the sisters’ popular first feature Those Who Love will screen alongside.
An exhilarating debut feature from Australian director Jason Raftopoulos, the Venice-premiering West of Sunshine stars Pawno’s Damian Hill alongside his real-life step-son Ty Perham and Offspring’s Kat Stewart (Sucker, MIFF 2015). Shot in Melbourne, it explores fatherhood, trauma and second chances.
Director Jeremy Sim’s (Last Cab to Darwin, Beneath Hill 60) Wayne is a must-see for moto-GP fans. Here, Sims explores a defining piece of Australian sporting history that saw Wayne Gardner conquer the world of motorcycle racing and return home a hero; while Island of the Hungry Ghosts takes audiences on a unique and moving cinematic journey through the intersection of Christmas Island’s migrating land crabs, lost souls caught in limbo and political detainees.
Sundance award-winner, Stephen Loveridge digs deep into the life of his good friend Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasm in MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A, demonstrating her pull-no-punches personality and focus on political activism, and how this caused her career to suffer; and rounding up the First Glance lineup, directors Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown dive wholeheartedly into the African-American roller rink scene, circling around racial profiling, the roots of rap and communities in crisis with Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner, United Skates.
First Reformed[/caption]
The seventh annual Montclair Film Festival took place April 26 through May 6, 2018, and on Saturday night, the festival announced the winners of the 2018 film competitions at the festival’s annual awards ceremony.
“This year’s competition program features the work of artists who directly challenge us to deepen our thinking about the world in which we live” said Montclair Film Executive Director Tom Hall. “We are honored to share these films with our audiences, and congratulate all of our filmmakers on their outstanding work.”
First Reformed, directed by Paul Schrader, was awarded the festival’s Fiction Feature Prize; with Julianne Nicholson receiving a Special Jury Prize for her performance in Matthew Newton’s Who We Are Now.
Hale County This Morning, This Evening, directed by RaMell Ross, took home the Bruce Sinofsky Award in the festival’s Documentary Feature competition. This award was established in memory of Bruce Sinofsky and was presented by Mr. Sinofsky’s daughter, Claire Sinofsky. A Special Jury Prize was awarded to Black Mother, directed by Khalik Allah.
We The Animals, directed by Jeremiah Zagar, was awarded with the Future/Now prize honoring emerging low-budget American independent filmmaking, with a Special Jury Prize given to Helena Howard for her performance in Madeline’s Madeline, directed by Josephine Decker.
Crime + Punishment, directed by Stephen Maing, took home the New Jersey Films Award, which honors a select group of films made by New Jersey artists, with Liyana receiving a Special Jury Prize for directors Aaron Kopp and Amanda Kopp.
Dark Money, directed by Kimberly Reed, took home the 4th Annual David Carr Award for Truth in Non-Fiction Filmmaking, which honors a filmmaker, selected by the festival, who utilizes journalistic techniques to explore important contemporary subjects and is presented in honor of Mr. Carr’s commitment to reporting on the media. The award was presented by Mr. Carr’s daughter, the filmmaker Erin Lee Carr.
Unfriended: Dark Web[/caption]
The Overlook Film Festival today announced its second year programming lineup of 40 films (23 features and 17 short films from 12 countries) along with exciting parties, virtual reality, interactive events, and live performances – all taking place in America’s most haunted city: New Orleans, Louisiana.
On opening night of the festival, audience members will enjoy the chiller Unfriended: Dark Web (United States, 2018), from Blumhouse Productions and Bazelevs Productions, directed by Stephen Susco, and starring Colin Woodell, Betty Gabriel, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Andrew Lees, Connor del Rio, Stephanie Nogueras, and Savira Windyani.
The Overlook Film Festival will screen A24’s highly anticipated Hereditary (United States, 2018) as its closing feature presentation, directed by Ari Aster, and starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, and Gabriel Byrne.
The Centerpiece of the 2018 edition of The Overlook Film Festival is St. Agatha, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, which will hold its world premiere in New Orleans at the festival.
The festival’s Visionary Award will be presented to modern genre favorite Leigh Whannell, best known for writing the first three films in the Saw franchise, as well as Insidious, and Insidious: Chapter 2, and directing Insidious: Chapter 3. Whannell is an Australian screenwriter, producer, director, and actor who will celebrate his latest directorial effort at the festival, Upgrade. The Visionary Award was established to honor a contemporary horror figure or company elevating the genre, while fostering the community by providing opportunities for new talent to thrive.
In addition to the films and special guests, the Overlook Film Festival will be generously packed with live presentations. The festival’s virtual reality program will feature the world premiere of noted experience creator Jon Braver’s Delusion: Lies Within, a fully immersive, 360 degree episodic narrative from Skybound Entertainment.
TULLY[/caption]
Jason Reitman latest film Tully, written by Diablo Cody and starring Charlize Theron, will premiere as the Opening Night film of the 35th edition of Miami Film Festival, on Friday, March 9th at the Olympia Theater.
“Charlize Theron’s fearless performance as a struggling suburban mother on the brink of losing mental control is made possible by another brilliant collaboration by the creators of Juno and Young Adult,” said Festival director Jaie Laplante. “Tully is both a parable and a salve for our stressed-out times – it reminds us all of who we are, and there is no more beautiful way to open our 35th edition than with this film.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRtBP07gIHY
The Festival will give its Precious Gem – Icon Award to the great French actress Isabelle Huppert, recent Oscar nominee for Elle and the most nominated actress in César Award history – a total of 16 nominations from France’s Academy – winning twice. She has also twice won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, in a career that has seen her work with some of the greatest directors of contemporary times. Huppert will be honored on Friday, March 16th at the Olympia Theater.
“Isabelle Huppert has made profound contributions to cinema over the course of her illustrious career,” Laplante said. “With her recent performances in Things to Come and Elle, as well as Souvenir and Claire’s Camera, both of which we will be screening in conjunction with her Festival appearance, Ms. Huppert reaches ever-new pinnacles that continually astonish us, and add to her iconic status.”
The Festival will give its Precious Gem – Master Award to Spain’s greatest living filmmaker, Carlos Saura, on the occasion of a new documentary about the master’s career and family life, Félix Viscarret’s Goya-lauded Saura(s), on Sunday, March 11th at the Olympia Theater.
“Carlos Saura returns to Miami after receiving the Festival’s Career Achievement Tribute Award at our 20th edition in 2003,” said Laplante. “At that time, he was 71. Now, he’s 86 and has made eight more brilliant films since his last visit to Miami – but with Saura(s), we see him in a new light, as both a filmmaker and a family-maker. He is a peerless master, and we celebrate the life that continues to nourish his art.”
In all, the Festival will present 148 feature narratives, documentaries and short films of all genres, from 50 different countries, including three countries being represented in the Festival’s Official Selection for the first time– Benin, Georgia and Swaziland. The 35th edition of the Festival runs March 9th – 18th. Thirty-eight of the films are directed or co-directed by women filmmakers. The Festival will wrap up with an Awards Night Gala screening at Olympia Theater of the International premiere of Curro Velázquez’s smash hit Spanish comedy Holy Goalie (Que baje Dios y lo vea), with star Alain Hernández in attendance. All Olympia Theater screenings are part of the Festival’s CINEDWNTWN GALA series, sponsored by Miami Downtown Development Authority. A KORBEL Awards Night Party at The Historic Alfred I. Dupont Building will follow the Awards Night ceremony and screening.
Academy Award winning filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) and revered American screenwriter and director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Affliction) will attend the Festival for Marquee presentations of their newest films. The Festival’s Marquee series features screenings accompanied by on-stage conversations with major film personalities of the moment, discussing their career and sharing an exciting new work. Hazanavicius will present Godard Mon Amour, his serio-comic look at Jean-Luc Godard’s love affair with the actress Anne Wiazemsky during the shooting of his classic films La Chinoise and Weekend. Schrader will present First Reformed, a dramatic thriller starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried and Cedric The Entertainer. They join (previously announced) Mateo Gil and Jean-Marc Barr in the Marquee section.
Ten finalists were selected for the Festival’s signature $40,000 Knight Competition, open to feature films directed by filmmakers who have presented at least one feature in a previous edition of the Festival. Three of these films will also screen as CINEDWNTWN GALAS at the Olympia Theater.
The finalists are:
Another Story of the World (Uruguay, directed by Guillermo Casanova).
April’s Daughter (Mexico, directed by Michel Franco).
In Love & In Hate (Argentina, directed by Alejandro Maci). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
The Laws of Thermodynamics (Spain, directed by Mateo Gil). *WORLD PREMIERE
My Love or My Passion (Argentina, directed by Marcos Carnevale). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Sergio and Sergei (Cuba/Spain, directed by Ernesto Daranás).
A Sort of Family (Argentina, directed by Diego Lerman).
The Summit (Argentina/Spain, directed by Santiago Mitre). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Time Share (Mexico, directed by Sebastián Hofmann).
The Warning (Spain, directed by Daniel Calparsoro).
Eleven finalists were selected for the Festival’s inaugural $10,000 Knight Made in MIA Competition, which is open to any film – short or feature, documentary or narrative – in the Festival’s Official Selection that features a qualitatively/quantitatively substantial portion of its content (story, setting and actual filming location) in South Florida, from West Palm Beach to the Florida Keys, and that most universally demonstrates a common ground of pride, emotion, and faith for the South Florida community. The new award was inspired by the international success and 2017 Best Picture Oscar win by the Miami-set Moonlight, directed by former Miami resident Barry Jenkins and co-written by Tarell McCraney. The finalists are:
“#THECONNECTEDMAN”, directed by Fabián Cárdenas.
“Ayita’s Dream”, directed by Isis Masoud, Roger Ingraham.
“Fight Like a Girl”, directed by Agustín Gonzalez, Nicole Wulf.
Gladesmen: The Last of The Sawgrass Cowboys, directed by David Abel.
Latinegras: The Journey of Self-Love Through An Afrolatina Lens, directed by Omilani Alarcón. *WORLD PREMIERE
Love in Youth, directed by Quincy Perkins. *WORLD PREMIERE
Make Love Great Again, directed by Aaron Agrasanchez.
“Noa”, directed by Angel Barrota. *WORLD PREMIERE
Operation Odessa, directed by Tiller Russell.
“Roadside Attraction”, directed by Ivette Lucas, Patrick Bresnan.
“Supermarket”, directed by Rhonda Mitrani. *WORLD PREMIERE
Two significant Soiree nights will pair a major film event with one of Miami Film Festival’s world-famous parties. An Evening with Tim Clancy, the showrunner of HBO’s acclaimed Vice series through six seasons, will present a big-screen return look at three significant Vice episodes, followed by an in-depth, on-stage conversation about Vice’s Emmy Award-winning approach, philosophies and techniques. “HBO NIGHT” continues with a party at downtown Miami’s newest hotspot, The Wharf. Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon will have its Festival premiere at the Regal Cinemas South Beach and continue with a Light Box Love Story soiree at Miami Light Project’s Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood.
The fiercely-contested, audience-voted $10,000 Knight Documentary Achievement Award, sponsored by Knight Foundation, returns with 24 finalists, including 4 world premieres, and new films from Oscar winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom), Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, In America), Goya winners Félix Viscarret and Gustavo Salmerón, Emmy winner Rene Balcer (Law & Order), Sundance 2018 prize winners Tim Wardle and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Abel and the late Oscar winner Jonathan Demme, as executive producer on The Foreigner’s Home. Subjects featured in the films include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Edwidge Danticat, Toni Morrison, Mr. Rogers, Andre Agassi, Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds in the Live Nation production Believer, Cuban-America playwright María Irene Fornés and Miami’s Rene Lecour. The finalists are:
6 Weeks To Mother’s Day (USA, directed by Marvin Blunte).
Above The Drowning Sea (Canada, directed by Rene Balcer, Nicola Zavaglia).
Amigo Skate, Cuba (USA, directed by Vanesa Wilkey-Escobar). *WORLD PREMIERE
Believer (USA, directed by Don Argott).
Cuban Food Stories (USA, directed by Asori Soto).
Dolphin Man (Greece/Canada/France/Japan, directed by Lefteris Charitos).
Foreign Land (Israel, directed by Shlomi Eldar).
The Foreigner’s Home (USA/France, directed by Rian Brown, Geoff Pingree).
Gladesmen: The Last of The Sawgrass Cowboys (USA, directed by David Abel).
In Search of Voodoo: Roots To Heaven (USA/Benin, directed by Djimon Hounsou). *WORLD PREMIERE
Liyana (USA/Qatar/Swaziland, directed by Aaron Kopp, Amanda Kopp).
Lots of Kids, A Monkey and a Castle (Spain, directed by Gustavo Salmerón).
Love Means Zero (USA, directed by Jason Kohn).
The Music of the Spheres (Cuba/USA, directed by Marcel Beltrán). *WORLD PREMIERE
Nuyorican Basquet (Puerto Rico, directed by Julio César Torres, Ricardo Olivero Lora).
The Oldies (Cuba/USA/Venezuela, directed by Rosana Matecki).
Operation Odessa (USA, directed by Tiller Russell).
Our New President (USA, directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin).
RBG (USA, directed by Betsy West, Julie Cohen).
The Rest I Make Up (USA, directed by Michelle Memran).
Saura(s) (Spain, directed by Félix Viscarret).
Three Identical Strangers (USA, directed by Tim Wardle).
When The Beat Drops (USA, directed by Jamal Sims). *WORLD PREMIERE
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (USA, directed by Morgan Neville).
HBO returns as sponsor of the Festival’s $10,000 Ibero-American Feature Film Competition, this year featuring 25 finalists, including three world premieres. Three of the films in this section star Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi, prompting Festival organizers to declare Monday, March 12th “DOLORES FONZI DAY” at Miami Film Festival. The finalists are:
Al Berto (Portugal, directed by Vicente Alves do Ó).
Another Story of the World (Uruguay, directed by Guillermo Casanova).
April’s Daughter (Mexico, directed by Michel Franco).
Ashes (Ecuador/Uruguay, directed by Juan Sebastián Jácome). *WORLD PREMIERE
Bingo: The King of the Mornings (Brazil, directed by Daniel Rezende).
Candelaria (Colombia/Cuba/Argentina/Germany/Norway, directed by Jhonny Hendrix-Hinestroza).
Cocote (Dominican Republic, directed by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias).
The Eternal Feminine (Mexico, directed by Natalia Beristáin).
The Future Ahead (Argentina, directed by Constanza Novick). *DOLORES FONZI DAY Film
Hunting Season (Argentina/USA/Germany/France, directed by Natalia Garagiola).
In Love & In Hate (Argentina, directed by Alejandro Maci). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Killing Jesus (Colombia/Argentina, directed by Laura Mora).
La Familia (Venezuela/Chile/Norway, directed by Gustavo Rondón Córdova).
The Last Suit (Argentina/Spain, directed by Pablo Solarz).
The Laws of Thermodynamics (Spain, directed by Mateo Gil). *WORLD PREMIERE
On The Seventh Day (USA, directed by Jim McKay).
The River (Bolivia/Ecuador, directed by Juan Pablo Richter). *WORLD PREMIERE
Sergio and Sergei (Cuba/Spain, directed by Ernesto Daranás).
The Skin of the Wolf (Spain, directed by Samu Fuentes).
A Sort of Family (Argentina, directed by Diego Lerman).
The Summit (Argentina/Spain, directed by Santiago Mitre). *CINEDWNTWN GALA
Tigre (Argentina, directed by Silvina Schnicer, Ulises Porra Guardiola).
Time Share (Mexico, directed by Sebastián Hofmann).
The Warning (Spain, directed by Daniel Calparsoro).
Wind Traces (Mexico, directed by Jimena Montemayor Loyo). *DOLORES FONZI DAY Film
The highly sought-after $10,000 Jordan Ressler Screenwriting Award, won in recent years by Oscar nominated Theeb, Venice Golden Lion winner From Afar and Chilean world premiere launch Little White Lie, has 20 diverse and intriguing first-produced screenplays in competition. All but two of the finalists also directed his or her screenplay. The finalists are:
Michael Pearce for Beast (UK).
Cory Bowles for Black Cop (Canada).
Taylor Allen, Andrew Logan for Chappaquiddick (USA).
Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias for Cocote (Dominican Republic).
Xavier Legrand for Custody (France).
Feifei Wang for From Where We’ve Fallen (China).
Constanza Novick for The Future Ahead (Argentina).
Sonja Maria Kröner for The Garden (Germany).
Lucien Bourjeily for Heaven Without People (Lebanon).
Natalia Garagiola for Hunting Season (Argentina).
Christian Papierniak for Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town (USA).
Blake Jenner for Juvenile (USA).
Quincy Perkins for Love in Youth (USA). *WORLD PREMIERE
Molly McGlynn for Mary Goes Round (Canada).
Ziyang Zhou for Old Beast (China).
Juan Pablo Richter for The River (Bolivia/Ecuador). *WORLD PREMIERE
Ana Urushadze for Scary Mother (Georgia).
Samu Fuentes for The Skin of the Wolf (Spain).
Silvina Schnicer for Tigre (Argentina).
Hlynur Palmason for Winter Brothers (Denmark).
Films showing out of competition include selections by Oscar-nominee Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead), Oscar-nominee and Emmy-winner Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, HBO’s Veep), and a US premiere starring retired NFL veteran and South Florida resident, actor/producer Thomas Q. Jones (A Violent Man). The films are:
Ali’s Wedding (Australia, directed by Jeffrey Walker).
Darling (Denmark, directed by Birgitte Stærmose).
The Death of Stalin (UK, directed by Armando Iannucci).
“The Driver is Red” (USA, directed by Randall Christopher).
Grace and Splendor (Panama/Dominican Republic, directed by Arturo Montenegro).
The Journey (Iran/UK/France/Qatar/The Netherlands, directed by Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji).
Kiss Me Not (Egypt, directed by Ahmed Amer).
Life is a Bitch (Brazil, directed by Julia Rezende).
Racer and the Jailbird (Belgium/France, directed by Michaël R. Roskam).
Sollers Point (USA, directed by Matthew Porterfield).
Three Peaks (Germany/Italy, directed by Jan Zabeil).
Under The Tree (Iceland/Denmark/Poland/Germany, directed by Hafsteinn Gummar).
A Violent Man (USA, directed by Matthew Berkowitz).
Wajib (Palestine/France/Germany/Colombia/Norway/Qatar, directed by Annemarie Jacir).
The Festival takes a special look at the Chinese film market this year in Cinema & China. This section features the Florida premiere of the Cannes Film Festival 2017’s Palme d’Or winner for Best Short Film, “A Gentle Night”, directed by Yang Qui, and the documentary Above the Drowning Sea, a historical look at an amazing story of European Jews being safeguarded by Shanghai and Chinese diplomats during World War II. A day-long symposium on the trends and markets will be held, in conjunction with the Festival screening of four Chinese-produced features:
From Where We’ve Fallen, directed by Feifei Wang.
Love Education, directed by Sylvia Chang.
Old Beast, directed by Ziyang Zhou. *KEYNOTE FILM
Walking Past The Future, directed by Li Ruijun.
The Festival’s exceedingly popular Reel Music section returns with five outstanding selections, including a world premiere from Panama and a feature about famed flamenco star Diego “El Cigala” as he explores the world of salsa in Cuba and beyond:
Guaco: Semblanza (Venezuela, directed by Alberto Arvelo).
I Tita, A Life of Tango (Argentina, directed by Teresa Constantini).
Indestructible: The Soul of Salsa (Spain, directed by David Pareja).
Me, My Father and the Cariocas: 70 Years of Music in Brazil (Brazil, directed by Lucia Verissimo).
A Night of Calypso (Panama, directed by Fernando Muñoz). *WORLD PREMIERE
MIFFecito, the beloved Films for Families section, returns with four new feature films for film fans of all ages. This section includes Fishtronaut The Movie (Brazil), Home Team (Uruguay/Brazil/Argentina), Lila’s Book (Colombia/Uruguay) and Zombillenium (France/Belgium). An animated short film winner from MDC’s Miami Animation and Gaming International Complex 2017 MIA Animation Conference & Festival will also be shown in this section.
South Florida’s college film students will again battle it out in Cinemaslam 2018. The nine finalists include films from Center of Cinematography, Arts & Television’s Lidia Rosa Hernandez; Miami Dade College’s Armando Stephano Rivero, Robert Requejo Ramos, Christopher Foode and Fernando Dumas; and University of Miami’s Chantal Gabriel, Jorge Martinez and Vasisth Sukul.
The Festival’s parallel industry activities include a French film market sponsored by Unifrance, and a Producing in South Florida panel moderated by Kevin Sharpley.
The Festival will co-present three special events during this year’s event. A “From The Vault” of Todd Haynes’ classic Velvet Goldmine will be held on Sunday, March 11th in partnership with Flaming Classics. On Friday, March 16th, in partnership with The Black Lounge Series, a screening of In The Morning with filmmaker Nefertiti Nguvu in person. In celebration of the Festival’s Tribute to Carlos Saura, one of Saura’s greatest classics, Cría cuervos, will screen on Sunday, March 18th at Miami Beach Cinematheque.
Michael Pearce’s Beast starring Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn and Geraldine James will make its U.S. debut in the Spotlight section of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in January.
The film which premiered to critical and audience praise at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival will be released in Spring 2018 by 30WEST and Roadside Attractions.
The psychological thriller, which is the first feature-length project from writer/director Pearce, centers around a small island community where a troubled young woman falls for a mysterious outsider who empowers her to escape from her oppressive family. When he comes under suspicion for a series of brutal murders, she defends him at all costs and learns what she is capable of.
Roadside Attractions’ Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff said: “Beast has been heralded as one of the indie success stories from the Toronto Film Festival. It is an extraordinary and deservedly acclaimed directorial debut from Michael Pearce, who delivers a taut, tense, and stirring thriller with a wonderfully complex heroine at the film’s core. Jessie Buckley gives a magnificent and memorable performance and we are thrilled to partner with the team at 30WEST as we help bring this psychosexual drama to audiences throughout the country.”