The 2019 Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla Int’l Film Festival taking place from March 19th – 24th in Tampa Bay, Florida, announced the 31 films on the Feature Film Competition Lineup. The festival will kick-off its 13th year with The Hummingbird Project starring Alexander Skarsgård, Jesse Eisenberg, Salma Hayek; and close with Family starring Taylor Schilling, Bryn Vale, Brian Tyree Henry.
EIGHTH GRADE[/caption]
The 2018 Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) announced its full line-up, including its Centerpiece, Spotlight, Narrative Feature Competition, Independent Visions Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative, Documentary, and Short Films. The Festival also announced its five SFF Focus Panels – Sports in Cinema, Environment, Science, and Sustainability, Women’s Comedic Voices, Redefining Manhood, and Musings on Musicians.
“In honor of our 20th anniversary, we have programmed a lineup that celebrates the past, present, and future of the Sarasota Film Festival that is sure to delight our dedicated and passionate audiences,” said Mark Famiglio, Chairman and President of the Sarasota Film Festival. “The selection includes a diverse group of narratives and voices that will create engaging conversations about today’s most important topics.”
In the Festival’s Centerpiece section is 1985, about a closeted gay man, unable to come out to his friends and family during the beginning of the AIDS crisis, staring Academy Award®-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, who will be attendance at the Festival. Also a Centerpiece selection is Bo Burnham’s feature film directorial debut, EIGHTH GRADE, a portrait of young teenagers discovering their identities online and in reality. Bo will be in attendance for a Q&A following the film’s screening during the Festival.
The Spotlight section will include narrative films Brett Haley’s HEARTS BEAT LOUD, Silas Howard’s A KID LIKE JAKE, Andrew Haigh’s LEAN ON PETE, Hannah Fidell’s THE LONG DUMB ROAD, Dominic Cooke’s ON CHESIL BEACH, Chloé Zhao’s THE RIDER, and Madeline Olnek’s WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, and documentary films Eugene Jarecki’s THE KING, Ali Weinstein’s MERMAIDS, Barbara Kopple’s A MURDER IN MANSFIELD, and Morgan Neville’s WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
Each year the Sarasota Film Festival focuses on social issues to highlight throughout its program. The Sports in Cinema Focus returns this year, welcoming Ben and Orson Cummings and their film KILLER BEES, produced by Shaquille O’Neill. Other films in this focus include the Closing Day Film, Jason Kohn’s LOVE MEANS ZERO and Dana Adam Shapiro’s DAUGHTERS OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE DALLAS COWBOY CHEERLEADERS.
In consideration of sustainability of communities and the planet, films in the SFF Environment, Science, and Sustainability Focus include Susan Kucera’s LIVING IN THE FUTURE’S PAST, Chad Freidrichs’ EXPERIMENTAL CITY, Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler, and Jeff Springer’s RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE, and Rory Kennedy’s ABOVE AND BEYOND: NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW.
In a groundbreaking year for women, the festival presents SFF Focus: Women’s Comedic Voices, a lineup featuring all female directors. Films in the category include Wendy McColm’s BIRDS WITHOUT FEATHERS, Bridey Elliott’s CLARA’S GHOST, Caroline Golum’s A FEAST OF MAN as well as LONG DUMB ROAD and WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY.
The films in the SFF Focus: Redefining Manhood, provide a glimpse at the questions regarding masculine identities, include Bing Liu’s MINDING THE GAP, as well as 1985, THE RIDER, and WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
The final SFF Focus: Musings on Musicians, presents an array of films exploring the relationships between music and film. Films in the category include Laura Parnes’ TOUR WITHOUT END, T.G. Herrington and Danny Clinch’s A TUBA TO CUBA, Derek Ahonen’s THE TRANSCENDENTS, Sophie Fiennes’ GRACE JONES: BLOODLIGHT AND BAMI, Jake Meginsky and Neil Young’s MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS, Scott Smith’s CHASING THE BLUES, Stephen Loveridge’s MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A, as well as THE KING and HEARTS BEAT LOUD.
The Narrative Feature Competition will showcase DON’T LEAVE HOME directed by Michael Tully, I AM NOT A WITCH, directed by Rungano Nyoni, MADELINE’S MADELINE, directed by Josephine Decker, THE QUEEN OF FEAR directed by Valeria Bertuccelli and Fabiana Tiscornia, THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN directed by Kamila Andini, SUPPORT THE GIRLS directed by Andrew Bujalski as well as CLARA’S GHOST.
The Documentary Feature Competition will include GENERATION WEALTH directed by Lauren Greenfield, GENESIS 2.0 directed by Christian Frei and Maxim Arbugaev, HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING directed by RaMell Ross, OF FATHERS AND SONS directed by Talal Derki, THE SENTENCE directed by Rudy Valdez, as well as DAUGHTERS OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE DALLAS COWBOY CHEERLEADERS and MINDING THE GAP.
The Independent Visions Competition will feature BLACK MOTHER directed by Khalik Allah, LIFE AND NOTHING MORE directed by Antonio Méndez Esparza, MAISON DU BONHEUR directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz, NOTES ON APPEARANCE directed by Ricky D’Ambrose, as well as BIRDS WITHOUT FEATHERS, A FEAST OF MAN, MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS, and TOUR WITHOUT END.
The jury for the competition films will consist of the following individuals: producer Autumn Bailey-Ford, Emmy®-nominated writer and producer Mark Bailey, documentary filmmaker Orson Cummings, New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein, Factory 25 film distributor Matt Grady, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Director – New York Programs and Membership Patrick Harrison, film professor Del Jacobs, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Penny Lane, actress Penelope Ann Miller, The Hollywood Reporter film writer Tatiana Siegel, founder and publisher of Women and Hollywood Melissa Silverstein, and Sarasota County Circuit court judge and filmmaker Charles Williams.
Narrative films include: ALL YOU CAN EAT BUDDHA directed by Ian Lagarde, AMERICAN ANIMALS directed by Bart Layton, AUGUST IN BERLIN directed by Becky Smith, BIKINI MOON directed by Milcho Manchevski, BLACK KITE directed by Tarique Qayumi, CAN HITLER HAPPEN HERE? directed by Saskia Rifkin, COLD SKIN directed by Xavier Gens, COME SUNDAY directed by Joshua Marston, DELENDA directed by Ralph Moffettone, DIMINUENDO directed by Adrian Stewart, EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA directed by Jim McKay, FIRST REFORMED directed by Paul Schrader, A FRENCHMAN IN FLORIDA directed by Dante Rhev, HOLIDAY directed by Isabella Eklof, LET THE SUNSHINE IN directed by Claire Denis, MAKTUB directed by Oded Raz, SANTA INOCENCIA directed by Maritxell Campos Olivé, SHELTER directed by Eran Riklis, TATTERDEMALION directed by Ramaa Mosley, TINKER directed by Sonny Mahrler, VIRGINIA, MINNESOTA directed by Daniel Stine, VIRUS TROPICAL directed by Santiago Caicedo, WE THE ANIMALS directed by Jeremiah Zagar, WHITE RABBIT directed by Daryl Wein, ZAMA directed by Lucrecia Martel, as well as CHASING THE BLUES and THE TRANSCENDENTS.
Documentary films include: 306 HOLLYWOOD directed by Elan Bogarin and Jonathan Bogarin, ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970: SEX FASHION & DISCO directed by James Crump, ASK THE SEXPERT directed by Vaishali Sinha, BISBEE ’17 directed by Robert Greene, CHEF FLYNN directed by Cameron Yates, CRACKING ACES: A WOMAN’S PLACE AT THE TABLE directed by H. James Gilmore, CRIME + PUNISHMENT directed by Stephen Maing, DISTANT CONSTELLATION directed by Shevaun Mizrahi, FATHER’S KINGDOM directed by Lenny Feinberg, FREEDOM FOR THE WOLF directed by Rupert Russell, THE GREAT FLIP-OFF directed by Dafna Yachin, HALF THE PICTURE directed by Amy Adrion, LA FLOR DE LA VIDA directed by Adriana Leoff and Claudia Abend, LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE directed by Gustavo Salmerón, MAYNARD directed by Sam Pollard, OLD DOG directed by Sally Rowe, ON HER SHOULDERS directed by Alexandria Bombach, THE PAIN OF OTHERS directed by Penny Lane, RBG directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, SISTERS directed by Justyna Tafel, THAT SUMMER directed by Göran Hugo Olsson, THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS directed by Tim Wardle as well as THE EXPERIMENTAL CITY, GRACE JONES: BLOODLIGHT AND BAMI, KILLER BEES, LIVING IN THE FUTURE’S PAST, MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A., RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE, and A TUBA TO CUBA.
As previously announced Golden Globe®-nominated and Independent Spirit Award®-nominated Eric Stoltz’s coming-of-age comedy CLASS RANK will be the Festival’s Opening Night film and Academy Award®-nominated and Emmy®-winning Rory Kennedy’s ABOVE AND BEYOND: NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW will serve as Closing Night film. The Festival will also be honoring renowned actor Steve Guttenberg and Academy Award®-nominated actress Virginia Madsen with Career Achievement Awards during the closing weekend.
SANTA MONICA, CA – MARCH 03: Actor Frances McDormand accepts Best Female Lead for ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ onstage during the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 3, 2018 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)[/caption]
Call Me by Your Name, Get Out, I, Tonya, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Big Sick, Ingrid Goes West and Lady Bird, all snagged awards at this afternoon’s 33rd Film Independent Spirit Awards. Life and Nothing More, Faces Places and A Fantastic Woman also received awards at the ceremony, which was held on the beach in Santa Monica.
This year’s major winners were Get Out, which won Best Feature and Best Director; Call Me by Your Name, which won Best Male Lead and Best Cinematography; I, Tonya, which won Best Supporting Female and Best Editing; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which won Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Male; Lady Bird, which won Best Screenplay; Ingrid Goes West, which won Best First Feature; The Big Sick, which won Best First Screenplay; Life and Nothing More, which won the John Cassavetes Award; Faces Places which won Best Documentary and A Fantastic Woman, which won Best International Film.
The 11th annual Robert Altman Award was given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Mudbound director Dee Rees received this award, along with casting directors Billy Hopkins and Ashley Ingram as well as cast members Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan and Carey Mulligan.
The 2018 Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation Fellowship annually selects an outstanding filmmaker and participant in Project Involve, Film Independent’s longest running diversity and mentorship program, now in its 25th year. The fellowship includes an unrestricted cash grant of $10,000 and was awarded to writer/director Faren Humes, a distinct and bold new voice.
Life and Nothing More[/caption]
The Film Comment magazine’s annual cinematic showcase series, Film Comment Selects, returns for the 18th edition, February 23 to 27, 2018, featuring films curated by the magazine’s editors.
The festival opens with the New York premiere of Antonio Mendez Esparza’s Life and Nothing More, an intimate chronicle of an African American family living on the margins in Florida, starring an astonishing non-professional cast. Other new works in the lineup are Ildikó Enyedi’s Berlinale Golden Bear-winner On Body and Soul; Mrs. Fang, Wang Bing’s unflinching document of an elderly woman in her final days, which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno; the North American premiere of Katharina Wyss’s powerful debut feature Sarah Plays a Werewolf, about a woman who channels her fears into theater; Govinda Van Maele’s fiction feature debut Gutland, featuring Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps; the U.S. premiere of Slovenian director Rok Biček‘s The Family, a compassionate portrait of a young man’s life over the course of 10 years; and experimental artist Bertrand Mandico’s exhilarating, gender-bending Wild Boys.
In addition to these anticipated new works, the 2018 slate features a retrospective of radical filmmaker Nico Papatakis, who had a “body of work that blends anarchic fury with visceral and transcendent poetry” (Yonca Talu, Film Comment). All five features directed by Papatakis, who subversively and provocatively explored themes of race, class, gender, and politics and produced films by Cassavetes and Genet, will be screened, including the meta terrorist drama Gloria Mundi, Cannes selection Les Abysses, and Walking a Tightrope, which stars Michel Piccoli as writer Jean Genet (a personal friend of the filmmaker). Film Comment Selects will also present a 25th anniversary screening of Tom Joslin & Peter Friedman’s extraordinarily powerful documentary Silverlake Life: The View from Here, which follows Joslin and his partner Mark Massi as they struggle to live with AIDS.
“It’s a rare chance to see the lively mix of films that our critics have raved about but that haven’t hit New York theaters yet,” said Nicolas Rapold, Editor-in-Chief of Film Comment. “This year’s edition is made especially exciting by a rare retrospective of the inimitable Nico Papatakis, whose work will be exciting for many to discover.”
Milla[/caption]
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) revealed the first series of titles in its 2018 Bright Future Main Program, the festival’s home for up-and-coming filmmakers with a unique style and vision. The 2018 selection boasts new films by striking talents who have emerged this year. IFFR also announces the first titles eligible for the Bright Future Award, for world and international premieres by first-time filmmakers.
Among these are the world premieres of The Return by Malene Choi Jensen, a story of two Danish-Korean adoptees who visit their country of birth, partly based on the filmmaker’s own experiences; Windspiel by German filmmaker Peyman Ghalambor, about a 13-year-old kid who makes his escape from a children’s home in Brandenburg; and My Friend the Polish Girl by Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek, a cinematic culture clash between an American filmmaker starting out in London and a Polish actress.
From Belgium, IFFR has selected two completely different, but very promising first features: as previously announced Ruben Desiere’s La fleurière/The Flower Shop, as well as the international premiere of Christina Vandekerckhove’s documentary Rabot, the story of a social housing block on the brink of demolition, and winner of the audience award at Film Fest Gent.
The winner of the Bright Future Award is chosen by a jury consisting of three film professionals and receives €10,000 to be spent on the development of a new film project.
Bright Future Main Programme also contains exciting sophomore feature-length films, marking a first venture into fiction. This is the case for the astute Ordinary Time by Susana Nobre, for example, which scrutinises the calm rhythm of daily life of young parents by zooming in on many moments that are, well, completely ordinary. The world premiere of Azougue Nazaré/Azougue Nazareth by Tiago Melo dives deep into the mysterious and colourful sugarcane universe of rural Brazil.
Selections also include celebrated films such as The Nothing Factory by Pedro Pinho, Soldiers. Story from Ferentari by Ivana Mladenovic, Drift by Helena Wittmann and Cocote by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias.
Good Time[/caption]
Josh and Benny Safdie’s Good Time took the top spot among films released in 2017 on Film Comment magazine’s annual end-of-year list. Other top ranking films include Terence Davies’s A Quiet Passion, and Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper.
Of the films that screened at festivals worldwide but have not announced stateside distribution, Pedro Pinho’s The Nothing Factory, Sergei Loznitsa’s A Gentle Creature, and Heinz Emigholz’s Streetscapes [Dialogue] received the top rankings.
Published since 1962, Film Comment magazine features in-depth reviews, critical analysis, and feature coverage of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world.
Call Me by Your Name leads the nominations for the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards with eight nods including Best Director and Best Feature.
Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
150 films from 60 different countries have been selected to be screened at the 28th Stockholm International Film Festival that takes place from the November 8th to the 19th.
A third of the films in this year’s festival program are directed by first-time filmmakers, the festival is also joined by legends such as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave.
After a long and successful Hollywood-career 80 year old Vanessa Redgrave makes her debut as a director with the documentary Sea Sorrow. The film focuses on the global refugee crisis and is a part of this years Spotlight – Change.
This years Visionary Award recipient is the director Pablo Larraín. Larraín is the director behind the Academy Award-nominated Jackie (2016); he is now attending the Stockholm Film festival with his latest film Neruda.
The premiere movie of this year’s film festival is the critically acclaimed film The Shape Of Water by the director behind the Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro also won the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year.
A selection of other films that will be screened are: Thelma by Joachim Trier, Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino, The Party by Sally Porter, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh and last but not least Downsizing by Alexander Payne.
I AM NOT A WITCH[/caption]
The American Film Institute announced today the films that will be featured in the New Auteurs and American Independents sections at AFI FEST 2017 presented by Audi.
Highlighting first- and second-time feature film directors, 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 11 films, nine of which come from female directors.
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 11 films from both fresh new voices and filmmakers returning to AFI FEST.
“The New Auteurs and American Independents programming speaks to a singular mandate of AFI FEST: ensuring that emerging filmmakers from around the globe have a world-class venue to present their stories to an eager audience,” said Lane Kneedler, AFI FEST Director of Programming. “These films embody the promise of women and men who strive to lift our spirits through comedy, documentary, drama, science fiction and even a great American western.”
Hostiles[/caption]
The 12th Rome Film Fest has unveiled its Official Selection Lineup, which includes some of the most buzzed about films. The festival will open with Hostiles directed by Scott Cooper and starring Christian Bale; and close with The Place directed by Paolo Genovese.
Set in 1892, Hostiles tells the story of a legendary army captain (Christian Bale) who reluctantly accepts escorting a Cheyenne warlord leader (Wes Studi) and his family to their lands. During the trip they will meet a young widow (Rosamund Pike) whose dear ones have been assassinated in those plains, and together they will have to survive that ruthless landscape and hostile Comanche tribes.
In The Place, a mysterious man always sits at the same table as a restaurant, ready to meet the greatest wishes of eight visitors in exchange for tasks to be performed. How will they be willing to push the protagonists to achieve their desires?
The Disaster Artist[/caption]
James Franco’s The Disaster Artist is the winner of the top award – Golden Shell for Best Film at the 65th San Sebastian Film Festival. The film also won the Zinemaldia FEROZ Award.
The Disaster Artist is the true story of the making of the film The Room, which has been called “the Citizen Kane of bad movies”. Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic has been screening to sold-out audiences nationwide for more than a decade. The Disaster Artist is a buddy comedy about two outsiders chasing a dream. When the world rejects them, they decide to make their own movie – and it’s a movie so wonderfully awful due to its unintentional hilarious moments, meandering plots and terrible acting.
THE FLORIDA PROJECT[/caption]
Miami Film Festival unveiled the full line-up of their acclaimed 2017 Miami GEMS Festival, and among the many highlights will be the Miami premiere of Sean Baker’s The Florida Project and the US premiere of Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Florida film Life and Nothing More.
Miami GEMS 2017 Festival, now in its third year, will take place October 12 to 15 at MDC’s Tower Theater Miami. It’s a fall extension of the annual, internationally-renowned Miami Film Festival that will celebrate its 35th edition on March 9 to 18, 2018.
The Florida premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name is the Opening Night Film of Miami GEMS 2017. Another major highlight is Ruben Östlund’s The Square, winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, from a jury presided over by Pedro Almodóvar.
A special presentation of Miami GEMS 2017 Festival will be a seminar conversation entitled Don’t Take Yes For An Answer, featuring Miami-Haitian filmmakers Edson Jean and Joshua Jean-Baptiste speaking about their recently-wrapped, eight-episode web series “Vakabon”, 100% filmed in Miami and due for release in 2018. The $2.5 million series was born out of a winning pitch that the Miami duo made to the Project Greenlight Digital Studio’s first “Get The Greenlight Digital Series” contest in early 2016.
For the first time, Miami Film Festival will introduce a Virtual Reality (VR) sidebar throughout the Miami GEMS 2017 weekend, VR Escape, in partnership with MDC’s Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex (MAGIC). Festivalgoers will experience four 360° videos by Angel Manuel Soto, an L.A. based Puerto Rican artist and filmmaker and Miami Film Festival alumni (Soto’s feature The Farm (La granja) played in competition at the Festival’s 2015 edition).