The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced the 60 nominees that represent the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media during 2018. Thirty winners selected from amongst these nominees will be announced beginning next week.
Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
The Shape of Water along with Hitman’s Bodyguard lead the nominations for the 19th annual Golden Trailer Awards competition that has emerged as the most recognized event devoted to the artistry of film marketers and companies that create movie trailers, commercials and posters worldwide.
GTA 19 will take place on Thursday, May 31st at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles hosted by comedienne and actress Michelle Buteau (“The Tick,” “Broad City,” “Key & Peele”).
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri[/caption]
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the big winner at 2018 EE British Academy Film Awards, winning five BAFTAs including Best Film and Outstanding British Film, with Martin McDonagh winning Original Screenplay, Sam Rockwell taking Supporting Actor, and Frances McDormand receiving the BAFTA for Leading Actress.
The Shape of Water won three awards: Guillermo del Toro won for Director and composer Alexandre Desplat collected the Original Music award, his third BAFTA win; the film also won Production Design.
Gary Oldman won Leading Actor for Darkest Hour, and Supporting Actress went to Allison Janney for her role as Tonya Harding’s mother in I, Tonya.
Raoul Peck won the Documentary award for I Am Not Your Negro. Film Not in the English Language was won by South Korean drama The Handmaiden and Coco took the BAFTA for Animated Film.
Writer/director Rungano Nyoni and producer Emily Morgan received the award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for I Am Not a Witch.
James Ivory won for Adapted Screenplay for Call Me by Your Name and Dunkirk for Sound. Cowboy Dave won the British Short Film award.
The Special Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema was presented to the National Film and Television School (NFTS). The school has trained generations of BAFTA-nominated film talent; this year’s British Short Animation award was won by Poles Apart, which is the 13th NFTS graduation film to win a BAFTA.
The Fellowship, the highest honor the Academy can bestow was presented to director and producer Sir Ridley Scott by HRH The Duke of Cambridge, President of BAFTA, and Sir Kenneth Branagh.
The EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public, went to Daniel Kaluuya.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri[/caption]
The UK’s leading film critics handed out their annual prizes on Sunday night at the 38th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards and Martin McDonagh’s drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was named Film of the Year, while McDonagh also collected Screenwriter of the Year and star Frances McDormand won Actress of the Year.
Several winners were on-hand to collect their awards: Timothée Chalamet was named Actor of the Year for Call Me By Your Name, Hugh Grant won supporting actor for Paddington 2, Lesley Manville won supporting actress for Phantom Thread, Harris Dickinson won the young performer prize for his work in Beach Rats, and God’s Own Country writer-director Francis Lee took the Philip French Award for Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker.
The evening’s high point was the presentation of the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film to Kate Winslet, introduced by her friend and costar Jude Law. The critics voted for Paul Verhoeven’s Elle as Foreign-Language Film of the Year, Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro as Documentary of the Year and Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk as recipient of the Attenborough Award as British/Irish Film of the Year.
Sally Hawkins and Daniel Kaluuya were named British/Irish actress and actor, respectively; Sean Baker won best director for The Florida Project; Dennis Gassner won the Technical Achievement Award for his production design on Blade Runner 2049, and We Love Moses was named British/Irish Short Film of the Year.
Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
The Shape of Water leads the nominations for 2017 BAFTA Awards (EE British Academy Film Awards) announced this morning by The British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
The Shape of Water is nominated in 12 categories, followed by Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receive nine nominations.
The Shape of Water is nominated for Best Film, Original Music, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound, Editing and Special Visual Effects. Guillermo del Toro is nominated for both Director and Original Screenplay, Sally Hawkins for Leading Actress and Octavia Spencer for Supporting Actress.
Darkest Hour receives nominations for Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Original Music, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, and Make Up & Hair, as well as Leading Actor for Gary Oldman and Supporting Actress for Kristin Scott Thomas for their roles as Winston and Clementine Churchill.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is nominated in Leading Actress for Frances McDormand. Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson are both nominated for Supporting Actor for their roles. The film is also nominated for Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Cinematography and Editing. Martin McDonagh is nominated for both Director and Original Screenplay.
The nominations for Film Not in the English Language are Elle, First They Killed My Father, The Handmaiden, Loveless and The Salesman. The nominations in the Documentary category are City of Ghosts, I Am Not Your Negro, Icarus, An Inconvenient Sequel, and Jane.
The British Short Animation nominees are Have Heart, Mamoon and Poles Apart. The five nominations for British Short Film are Aamir, Cowboy Dave, A Drowning Man, Work and Wren Boys.
The EE British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday February18th at the Royal Albert Hall, London, hosted by Joanna Lumley.
In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, to be called Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends — Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. But at the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of his manuscript.
Now, in his incendiary documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words, spoken by Samuel L. Jackson, and a flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.
The box office hit and nominee for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro premieres on Independent Lens on Monday, January 15, 2018, 10:00-11:30 PM ET on PBS.
“For a project like this one, a lot of patience, time and risks are involved,” said Peck. “And at the early stage it’s almost impossible to convince anyone about the film to come. And then after a lot of research, writing and editing, in that order, there comes a time when what you really, really need above all is: trust. In this case, it was ITVS and executive producer of Independent Lens Lois Vossen who came at the right time, with courage and conviction. This is rare today among funders.”
“Working with Raoul for four years on I Am Not Your Negro has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” said Vossen. “Baldwin’s writing has been a touchstone in my own life and I couldn’t imagine a filmmaker more perfectly suited to make a film on Baldwin than Raoul. Funding this project was a no-brainer. His masterpiece captures Baldwin’s extraordinary clarion voice in a film that will continue to illuminate for generations.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNUYdgIyaPM Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri[/caption]
Martin McDonagh’s drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri lead the nominations for the 38th annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards with seven nominations, including Film, Director, Screenwriter, Actress for Frances McDormand, and Supporting Actor for both Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. In addition, as a British production the film is nominated for British/Irish Film of the Year.
Following close behind with six nominations each are William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. Four films earned five nominations each: Luca Guagadino’s Call Me By Your Name, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Paul King’s Paddington 2, and Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country.
The 10 films contending for Film of the Year are Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk, The Florida Project, Get Out, God’s Own Country, Lady Bird, Loveless, Phantom Thread, The Shape of Water, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony on Sunday, January 28th at The May Fair Hotel, at which Kate Winslet will receive the critics’ highest honor, The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film.
Full List of Nominations:
FILM OF THE YEAR
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
The Florida Project
Get Out
God’s Own Country
Lady Bird
Loveless
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Aquarius
Elle
The Handmaiden
Loveless
Raw
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
78/52
Human Flow
I Am Not Your Negro
Jane
The Work
BRITISH/IRISH FILM OF THE YEAR: The Attenborough Award
Dunkirk
God’s Own Country
Lady Macbeth
Paddington 2
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Sean Baker – The Florida Project
Guillermo Del Toro – The Shape of Water
Luca Guadagnino – Call Me By Your Name
Martin McDonagh – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan – Dunkirk
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Paul Thomas Anderson – Phantom Thread
Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird
James Ivory – Call Me By Your Name
Martin McDonagh – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Jordan Peele – Get Out
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Annette Bening – Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water
Isabelle Huppert – Elle
Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Florence Pugh – Lady Macbeth
ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Timothée Chalamet – Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread
James Franco – The Disaster Artist
Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out
Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Lily Gladstone – Certain Women
Holly Hunter – The Big Sick
Allison Janney – I, Tonya
Lesley Manville – Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Willem Dafoe – The Florida Project
Hugh Grant – Paddington 2
Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Michael Stuhlbarg – Call Me By Your Name
BRITISH/IRISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Emily Beecham – Daphne
Judi Dench – Victoria & Abdul/Murder on the Orient Express
Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water/Maudie/Paddington 2
Florence Pugh – Lady Macbeth
Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird/Loving Vincent
BRITISH/IRISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread
Colin Farrell – The Killing of a Sacred Deer/The Beguiled
Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out
Josh O’Connor – God’s Own Country
Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour/The Space Between Us
YOUNG BRITISH/IRISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Harris Dickinson – Beach Rats
Tom Holland – The Lost City of Z/Spider-Man: Homecoming
Noah Jupe – Suburbicon/Wonder/The Man With the Iron Heart
Dafne Keen – Logan
Fionn Whitehead – Dunkirk
BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH/IRISH FILMMAKER: The Philip French Award
Alice Birch – Lady Macbeth
Simon Farnaby – Paddington 2/Mindhorn
Francis Lee – God’s Own Country
Rungano Nyoni – I Am Not a Witch
William Oldroyd – Lady Macbeth
BRITISH/IRISH SHORT FILM OF THE YEAR
The Cloud of Unknowing – Mike Hannon
The Dog and the Elephant – Mike Sharpe
Tuesday – Charlotte Wells
We Love Moses – Dionne Edwards
Your Mother and I – Anna Maguire
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Baby Driver – Darrin Prescott, stunts
Blade Runner 2049 – Dennis Gassner, production design
Dunkirk – Hans Zimmer, music
God’s Own Country – Joshua James Richards, cinematography
Lady Macbeth – Holly Waddington, costumes
The Lost City of Z – Darius Khondji, cinematography
The Love Witch – Emma Willis, hair & makeup
Paddington 2 – Pablo Grillo, visual effects
Phantom Thread – Mark Bridges, costumes
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Ben Morris, visual effects
EXCELLENCE IN FILM: The Dilys Powell Award
Kate Winslet
Lady Macbeth[/caption]
Lady Macbeth topped the list of nominations for the 2017 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) with 15 nominations including Best British Independent Film. The Death of Stalin, I Am Not a Witch follow with 13 nominations each; and God’s Own Country and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri each nominated 11 times. Overall, debut features dominate the nominations list, with the first-time writers, producers and directors of Lady Macbeth, I Am Not a Witch and God’s Own Country all recognized in the three newcomer categories – Debut Screenwriter, Breakthrough Producer and The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director – as well as Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best British Independent Film.
Past BIFA winners Armando Iannucci and Martin McDonagh are the writer-directors of this year’s other two Best British Independent Film nominees, The Death of Stalin and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Both films have two nominees in the Best Supporting Actor category, with The Death of Stalin’s Simon Russell Beale and Steve Buscemi taking on Three Billboards’ Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell. Frances McDormand is nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Three Billboards and Andrea Riseborough for Supporting Actress for The Death of Stalin. Both films also have nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay.
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool has four nominations including two for past BIFA winners Jamie Bell and Julie Walters, nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
Gary Oldman will receive The Variety Award at the ceremony.The Variety Award recognizes a director, actor, writer or producer who has made a global impact and helped to focus the international spotlight on the UK. Past winners include Kate Winslet, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Greengrass, Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson, Sir Michael Caine, Naomie Harris, Daniel Craig, Helen Mirren and Richard Curtis.
Winners will be announced by host Mark Gatiss at the British Independent Film Awards Ceremony on Sunday December 10 at Old Billingsgate.
The Divine Order[/caption]
The 2017 Traverse City Film Festival (TCFF), founded by Michael Moore in 2005, wrapped after screening 115 feature films and 66 shorts in its 13th year. For the first time in TCFF history, Moore was unable to attend the festival due to a conflict with his Broadway show “The Terms of My Surrender,” which opened Friday, July 28.
Audience Awards went to “The Divine Order” for Best Fiction Film and “I Am Evidence” for Best Documentary. The Founders Grand Prize went to filmmaker Raoul Peck for his two TCFF selections, “I Am Not Your Negro” and “The Young Karl Marx.”
The 14th Annual Traverse City Film Festival will take place July 31 to August 5, 2018.
Patti Cake$[/caption]
For its 66th edition, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has revealed its First Glance selection of 30 films that will screen at this year’s festival from August 3 to 20, 2017, including the Australian premiere of Jane Campion’s much anticipated new television series Top of the Lake: China Girl.
Artistic Director Michelle Carey says, “We’re hoping that this sneak peek of the 2017 program gives you a taste of what’s to come. The calibre of films on offer this year is very impressive, from Australian stalwart Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake: China Girl to breakout hit Patti Cake$, MIFF brings you the story of the world through curated and unforgettable screen experiences.”
Straight from a standing ovation in Cannes, this special Australian premiere of the entire second season, directed by Jane Campion and MIFF Accelerator alumnus Ariel Kleiman from a script by Campion and Gerard Lee (My Mistress, MIFF 14), will show all six episodes in three concurrent two-hour sessions – a unique opportunity to see the series before its television premiere on BBC First on Foxtel. Top of the Lake: China Girl (Australia) is a crime mystery story that finds Detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) recently returned to Sydney and trying to rebuild her life. When the body of an Asian girl washes up on Bondi Beach, there appears little hope of finding the killer, until Robin discovers ‘China Girl’ didn’t die alone. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Ewen Leslie (The Daughter) and Accelerator alumnus Alice Englert (The Boyfriend Game, MIFF 16).
Also hotting up the screen will be Australian premieres Golden Exits (USA), the latest film from Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Phillip MIFF 14; Queen of Earth, MIFF 15), an unnerving ensemble drama shot on 16mm that boasts a star-studded cast led by Emily Browning, Chloë Sevigny, Jason Schwartzman with Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz and a moody score by Keegan De Witt; and The Lost City of Z (USA), James Gray’s (The Immigrant MIFF 14) sumptuous and poignant Amazon adventure based on real life explorer Percy Fawcett’s quest to find the fabled city of El Dorado, starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson and featuring lush 35mm cinematography by Darius Khondji.
Leading Australian director Kriv Stenders (The Principal, MIFF 15; Red Dog MIFF 11) returns to MIFF with two productions: The Go-Betweens – Right Here (Australia), a documentary charting the four-decade long story of beloved indie rock band The Go-Betweens, in their own words and with never-before-seen archival footage; and Australia Day (Australia), an excoriating, illuminating take on our country’s most fraught debate, set over a pulse-racing 12 hours on 26 January with a powerhouse ensemble cast including Bryan Brown, Matthew Le Nevez, Sean Keenan, Shari Sebbens and Jenny Wu (who also features in Top of the Lake: China Girl).
Local comedies include Ali’s Wedding, based on the real-life experience of lead actor Osamah Sami’s ill-fated arranged marriage the absurd and poignant tale about family in multicultural Australia stars Don Hany with direction by Jeffrey Walker (Jack Irish: Bad Debts, MIFF 12), and That’s Not Me (Australia). Ali’s Wedding is a fast-paced comedy of very Muslim manners that shines with wit, humanity and crowd-pleasing charisma; while That’s Not Me is Gregory Erdstein’s (Two Devils, MIFF 14) charming feature debut about a young woman and aspiring actor who takes advantage of her identical twin sister’s success and fame, featuring an impressive performance by writer/star Alice Foulcher in dual roles.
In Mountain (Australia), Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa, MIFF 15) returns to the mountains that so captivate her in a unique cinematic and musical collaboration. Working with high-altitude cinematographer Renan Ozturk, bestselling author Robert Macfarlane (Mountains of the Mind) and the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Richard Tognetti, Peedom has created a breathtaking cine-sonic journey through awe-inspiring vistas narrated by Willem Dafoe.
One of Australia’s most innovative filmmakers and MIFF regular Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Hail MIFF 11; Ruin, MIFF 13) captures two legends – free jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor and modern dance artist Min Tanaka – in an intimate performance piece like no other in The Silent Eye (Australia). Shot over three days in 2016 at Taylor’s New York home, the film captures these two masters riffing, offering the audience a glimpse of the creative process at its most sublime.
Master international filmmakers bring their works to the big screen at MIFF with Terrence Malick’s Song to Song (USA), a beautifully lensed love story set against the backdrop of the Austin music scene, with a luminous cast including Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett; and Sally Potter’s (Ginger and Rosa, MIFF 12) caustic comic satire of a broken, post-Brexit England, The Party (UK), offering a masterclass of acting from a stellar ensemble headed by Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson and Timothy Spall, and filmed entirely in stunning black and white.
The director of A Bigger Splash, Luca Guadagnino, presents his most accomplished film yet: a passionate Italian summer romance headed by Armie Hammer and star on the rise Timothée Chalamet. Adapted from André Acimen’s novel with a script co-written by James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name (Italy) is a sensuous story of first love and the end of adolescence.
Turning galvanizing portraits of marginalized women into his own niche, Sebastián Lelio (Gloria, MIFF 13) returns with another beguiling character study, delivering a nuanced and moving account of a vital fight for love, acceptance, and respect that won both Best Screenplay and Best LGBT Film at Berlin. But A Fantastic Woman (Chile) belongs to its determined, defiant titular character and the stunning performance by transgender actress Daniela Vega, making one of the most memorable and formidable movie debuts in recent history.
Peter Mackie Burns’ nuanced debut feature Daphne (UK) is a character study about a dissatisfied young woman in present-day London – featuring a superb performance from Emily Beecham in title role – that balances complex comedy and disarming drama and offers a refreshing portrait of contemporary womanhood.
Music video director Geremy Jasper’s fabulous feature debut Patti Cake$ (USA), about an aspiring rapper, is a triumphant tale of how music can give a nobody a voice, which wowed critics and audiences alike at Sundance and Cannes. But the film belongs to Australian acting discovery Danielle McDonald, who was dubbed the breakout star of Sundance for her sensational performance as the New Jersey battler and hailed as the “Next Big Thing” by The Hollywood Reporter.
[caption id="attachment_19636" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Pop Aye – Kirsten Tan[/caption]
Another acclaimed feature debut is Kirsten Tan’s Pop Aye (Thailand), the warm and ever-so-strange tale of a Bangkok architect, his elephant and 300 miles of mid-life crisis, which won the Special Jury Award for Screenwriting at Sundance and the Big Screen Award at Rotterdam.
God’s Own Country (UK) was also a favorite at Berlin (Teddy Jury Award winner) and Sundance, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Best Director Award and comparisons to Brokeback Mountain. Francis Lee’s emotionally rich feature debut captures the quiet yearning of forbidden romance with heated sex scenes and a documentary-like depiction of British rural life that subverts the familiar path taken by queer love stories.
The makers of Spring (MIFF 15) return with The Endless (USA), an engrossing high-concept horror centred on two brothers following their escape from a cult. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead write, direct and star in a film of creeping dead that is part horror, part science fiction, which skirts the supernatural and keeps the audience guessing until the very end.
With over 62,000 oil paintings and a cast including Chris O’Dowd and Saoirse Ronan, Oscar-winning filmmaker Hugh Welchman (Peter and the Wolf) and Polish painter Dorota Kobiela bring the story of Vincent Van Gogh’s last days to the screen in the world’s first feature-length painted animation, Loving Vincent (UK). Inspired by Van Gogh’s own words – “we cannot speak other than by our paintings” – and using an army of painters from across Europe, every single frame of the film is an oil painting (12 per second) and the result is a truly astonishing visual feast that demands to be seen on the biggest of screens.
[caption id="attachment_19944" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
A still from STEP by Amanda Lipitz,.[/caption]
Winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize for Inspirational Filmmaking, STEP (USA) charts the senior year of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women step-dance team as they chase dual dreams – to be state champions and to be the first in their families to go to college – against the backdrop of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Fun and empowering, the film optimistically explores community, sisterhood and the realities of being black and female in contemporary America.
Another timely examination of race relations in America is Haitian auteur Raoul Peck’s (Fatal Assistance, MIFF 13) Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro (USA): a stirring portrait of the writer, civil rights activist and queer icon James Baldwin and his lifelong fight against racial and sexual injustice, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.
Award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heinemann’s (Cartel Land, MIFF 15) new film focuses on the anonymous activists of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently in the heartland of ISIS’s self-declared caliphate. City of Ghosts (USA) is an urgent, deeply personal real-world thriller about the world’s most crucial fight against misinformation.
In 2012, Iraq veteran David Crowley posted a YouTube trailer for his planned libertarian opus, Gray State, warning of America’s looming Second Civil War. Three years on, the rising alt-right filmmaker, his Muslim wife and their daughter were found slaughtered, “Allahu Akbar” smeared on the walls in blood. A conspiracy or something even more horrific? Executive produced by Werner Herzog, Erik Nelson’s A Gray State (USA) is a riveting murder mystery, a political thriller and an unparalleled psychological profile of a mind descending into paranoia.
Jumping over to New Zealand, the program will feature Pecking Order (New Zealand), which follows the members of the 148-year-old Christchurch Poultry, Bantam and Pigeon Club as they prepare for the National Show. Their president has brought them championship glory over the years, but is now facing off against the next generation of poultry fanciers who seem determined to knock down this award-winning cock of the walk. This entertaining flockumentary uncovers a cutthroat world of passion, obsession, power struggles, and competition. It’s like a Kiwi Best in Show, only real … and with chooks!
Also from NZ, MIFF regular and Accelerator alumnus Florian Habicht (Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets MIFF 14; Love Story MIFF 12) welcomes you to Spookers (NZ), a former psychiatric hospital outside Auckland, where visitors gather to be petrified by killer clowns and zombies at the Southern Hemisphere’s largest ‘scream park’. Habicht reveals the personalities beneath the costumes, wigs and greasepaint with characteristic affection and humor in this funny, compelling documentary.
And the MIFF shorts program will deliver a string of highlights and award winners from the festival circuit including A Gentle Night (China), the Short Film Palme d’Or winner from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival by MIFF Accelerator alumnus Qiu Yang (The World, MIFF 14; Under the Sun, MIFF 2015); Small Town (Portugal), the dark, mysterious and beautiful coming-of-age story that took out the Golden Bear for Best Short at the 2017 Berlinale; DeKalb Elementary (USA), a tense drama, by filmmaker Reed Van Dyk (Nasty HardcoreXXX Amateur Couple, MIFF 14) based on the real 911-call during an incident at a school in Atlanta, Georgia that was the winner of the International Competition Grand Prix prize at the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival; and The Hedonists (Hong Kong), the new comedy from 2013 festival guest Jia Zhang-ke (A Touch of Sin, MIFF 13) about a trio of unemployed laborers who find work in the most unlikely of places – a bizarre theme park.
Dolores Huerta[/caption]
The 17th Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival (MVFF) will be taking place March 16 to 19, 2017.
