Machines

  • 2017 IDA Documentary Awards – DINA Wins Best Feature

    [caption id="attachment_19891" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Dina Dina[/caption] Dina, directed by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, about a love story between two people who have autism spectrum disorder, won Best Feature at the 33rd International Documentary Association awards ceremony on Saturday in Hollywood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BSWA7pWuc Other winners at the IDA Documentary Awards include Edith+Eddie directed by Laura Checkoway snagging the prize for Best Short. The short film tells the story of America’s oldest interracial newlyweds.

    2017 IDA Documentary Award winners:

    Best Feature Dina Directors/Producers: Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles The Orchard Best Short Edith+Eddie Director: Laura Checkoway Producer: Thomas Lee Wright Kartemquin Films Best Cinematography Machines Cinematography by: Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva Kino Lorber Best Editing Dawson City: Frozen Time Edited by: Bill Morrison Kino Lorber Best Music Brimstone & Glory Original Score by: Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin Oscilloscope Laboratories Best Writing Donkeyote Written by: Chico Pereira, Manuel Pereira and Gabriel Molera Scottish Documentary Institute Pare Lorentz Award THE PARE LORENTZ AWARD RECOGNIZES FILMS THAT DEMONSTRATE EXEMPLARY FILMMAKING WHILE FOCUSING ON THE APPROPRIATE USE OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, JUSTICE FOR ALL AND THE ILLUMINATION OF PRESSING SOCIAL PROBLEMS. Watani: My Homeland (Recipient) Director: Marcel Mettelsiefen Intent to Destroy (Special Mention) Director: Joe Berlinger ABC News VideoSource Award THIS AWARD IS GIVEN EACH YEAR FOR THE BEST USE OF NEWS FOOTAGE AS AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT IN A DOCUMENTARY. LA 92 Directors: Dan Lindsay & TJ Martin National Geographic Best Curated Series Award Independent Lens Executive Producers: Lois Vossen and Sally Jo Fifer PBS Best Limited Series The Defiant Ones Executive Producers: Allen Hughes, Doug Pray, Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Laura Lancaster, Jerry Longarzo, Michael Lombardo, and Gene Kirkwood HBO Best Episodic Series Award Planet Earth II Executive Producer: Michael Gunton BBC AMERICA/BBC Worldwide Best Short Form Series Award The New York Times Op-Docs Executive Producer: Kathleen Lingo The New York Times David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN NON-FICTION FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL AND BRINGS GREATER PUBLIC AND INDUSTRY AWARENESS TO THE WORK OF STUDENTS IN THE DOCUMENTARY FIELD. Man on Fire Director: Joel Fendelman Producer: James Chase Sanchez University of Texas, Austin Career Achievement Award Lourdes Portillo Amicus Award Abigail Disney Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award Yance Ford Courage Under Fire Award The filmmaking teams and subjects of: City of Ghosts Cries from Syria Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS Last Men in Aleppo

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  • BRIMSTONE AND GLORY , CITY OF GHOSTS and STRONG ISLAND Lead Cinema Eye Honors Nominations

    [caption id="attachment_24386" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Brimstone and Glory Brimstone & Glory[/caption] Three films – Viktor Jakovleski’s Brimstone & Glory, Matthew Heineman’s City of Ghosts and Yance Ford’s Strong Island – lead the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors nominations with 4 apiece. Five films received three nominations: Yuri Ancarani’s The Challenge, Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral, Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places, Brett Morgen’s Jane and Jonathan Olshefski’s Quest. City of Ghosts, Faces Places, Quest and Strong Island are joined in the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category by Frederick Weisman’s Ex Libris: The New York Public Library and Feras Fayyad’s Last Men in Aleppo. Kitty Green (Casting Jon Benet) joins the aforementioned Yuri Ancarani, Yance Ford, Matthew Heineman, Agnés Varda and JR, and Frederick Wiseman as a nominee in the Outstanding Achievement in Direction category. With his nomination, Frederick Wiseman becomes the first filmmaker in Cinema Eye history to be nominated three times for Outstanding Direction, having been previously nominated for La Danse – The Paris Opera Ballet and In Jackson Heights. He also received Cinema Eye’s 2012 Legacy Award for his 1967 classic Titicut Follies. Agnès Varda won the Outstanding Direction Award in 2010 for The Beaches of Agnés. Outstanding Direction nominees Kitty Green and Yuri Ancarani were both previously nominated for Outstanding Nonfiction Short, Green in 2016 for The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul and Ancarani was nominated twice for Il Capo (2012) and Da Vinci (2014). Chasing Coral received three nominations, including a nod for Outstanding Cinematography for director Jeff Orlowski, an Honor he won in 2013 for Chasing Ice. Stefan Nadelman, nominated for his Graphic Design work on the Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip, won the same award in 2016 for Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. Ten films were nominated for the annual Audience Choice Prize, which includes many of the year’s most popular and talked about nonfiction films, notably Brett Morgen’s Jane, Ceyda Torun’s Kedi, Amanda Lipitz’ Step, Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’ Whose Streets? and Gethin Aldous and Jairus McLeary’s The Work. The winner in this category is voted on by the general public. This year’s Broadcast Nonfiction Filmmaking category includes a number of notable filmmakers, among them a previous Cinema Eye winner and a nominee. Fisher Stevens, a winner for Outstanding Production and Feature for The Cove (2010), is nominated this year with his co-director Alexis Bloom for Bright Lights: Starring Carrie FIsher and Debbie Reynolds (HBO). Ryan White, who was nominated for Production in 2015 for The Case Against 8, is up this year for his Netflix series The Keepers. Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay received her first Cinema Eye nomination for her Netflix film 13th, while veteran filmmaker Kristi Jacobson gets her first nod for the HBO feature doc  Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison. This year’s winners will be announced at the 2018 Honors Awards Ceremony on Thursday, January 11, 2018 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. The ceremony will be hosted, for the third consecutive year, by award-winning nonfiction filmmaker Steve James (The Interrupters, Life Itself, Hoop Dreams), who is a Cinema Eye nominee this year for his latest film, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.

    2018 Cinema Eye Honors Award Nominations

    Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking

    City of Ghosts  Directed and Produced by Matthew Heineman Ex Libris: The New York Public Library  Directed and Produced by Frederick Wiseman Faces Places Directed by Agnès Varda and JR (Director) | Produced by Rosalie Varda Last Men in Aleppo  Directed by Feras Fayyad | Produced by Kareem Abeed, Stefan Kloos and Søren Steen Jespersen Quest  Directed by Jonathan Olshefski | Produced by Sabrina Schmidt Gordon Strong Island  Directed by Yance Ford | Produced by Joslyn Barnes and Yance Ford

    Outstanding Achievement in Direction

    Kitty Green | Casting JonBenet Matthew Heineman | City of Ghosts Yuri Ancarani | The Challenge Frederick Wiseman | Ex Libris: The New York Public Library Agnès Varda and JR | Faces Places Yance Ford | Strong Island

    Outstanding Achievement in Editing

    Bill Morrison | Dawson City: Frozen Time Joe Beshenkovsky | Jane TJ Martin | LA92 Keith Fraase and John Walter | Long Strange Trip Lindsay Utz | Quest Francisco Bello, Daniel Garber and David Barker | The Reagan Show

    Outstanding Achievement in Production

    Nominees to be Determined | Brimstone and Glory Matthew Heineman | City of Ghosts Heino Deckert, Ai Weiwei and Chin-Chin Yap | Human Flow Kareem Abeed, Stefan Kloos and Søren Steen Jespersen | Last Men in Aleppo Brenda Coughlin, Yoni Golijov and Laura Poitras | Risk

    Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

    Tobias von dem Borne | Brimstone and Glory Yuri Ancarani, Luca Nervegna and Jonathan Ricquebourg | The Challenge Andrew Ackerman and Jeff Orlowski | Chasing Coral TBD | Human Flow Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva | Machines

    Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score

    Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin | Brimstone and Glory Francesco Fantini and Lorenzo Senni | The Challenge Alex Somers | Dawson City: Frozen Time Philip Glass | Jane Dan Deacon | Rat Film Hildur Gudnadóttir and Craig Sutherland | Strong Island

    Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation

    Chad Herschberger | 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene Matt Schultz and Shawna Schultz | Chasing Coral Grant Nellessen | Citizen Jane: Battle for the City Daniel Gies and Emily Paige | Let There Be Light Stefan Nadelman | Long Strange Trip

    Audience Choice Prize

    Abacus: Small Enough to Jail |Directed by Steve James City of Ghosts | Directed by Matthew Heineman Chasing Coral | Directed by Jeff Orlowski Faces Places | Directed by Agnès Varda and JR Jane | Directed by Brett Morgen Kedi | Directed by Ceyda Torun Quest | Directed by Jonathan Olshefski Step | Directed by Amanda Lipitz Whose Streets? | Directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis The Work | Directed by Gethin Aldous and Jairus McLeary

    Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film

    Viktor Jakovleski | Brimstone and Glory Anna Zamecka | Communion Rahul Jain | Machines Theo Anthony | Rat Film Yance Ford | Strong Island

    Outstanding Achievement in Broadcast Nonfiction Filmmaking

    13th  Directed by Ava DuVernay | Produced by Ava DuVernay & Howard Barish | For Netflix: Executive Producers Ben Cotner, Adam Del Deo and Lisa Nishimura Abortion: Stories Women Tell Directed and Produced by Tracy Droz Tragos | For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins, Senior Producer Sara Bernstein Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds  Directed by Alexis Bloom & Fisher Stevens | Produced by Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens, Julie Nives & Todd Fisher | For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins, Senior Producer Nancy Abraham Five Came Back  Directed by Laurent Bouzereau | Produced by John Battsek & Laurent Bouzereau | For Netflix: Executive Producers Ben Cotner, Adam Del Deo and Lisa Nishimura The Keepers  Directed by Ryan White | For Netflix: Executive Producers Ben Cotner, Jason Springarn-Koff and Lisa Nishimura Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison  Directed and Produced by Kristi Jacobson | Produced by Katie Mitchell and Julie Goldman | For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins, Senior Producer Nancy Abraham

    Spotlight Award

    Donkeyote | Directed by Chico Pereira An Insignificant Man | Directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle | Directed by Gustavo Salmerón Plastic China | Directed by Jiuliang Wang Stranger in Paradise | Directed by Guido Hendrikx Taste of Cement | Directed by Ziad Kalthoum

    Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking

    Edith+Eddie | Directed by Laura Checkoway Heroin(e) | Directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon Little Potato | Directed by Wes Hurley and Nathan M. Miller Polonaise | Directed by Agnieszka Elbanowska The Rabbit Hunt | Directed by Patrick Bresnan Ten Meter Tower | Directed by Maximilien Van Aertryck & Axel Danielson

    The Unforgettables | Non-competitive Honor

    Chanterelle Sung, Hwei Lin Sung, Jill Sung, Thomas Sung & Vera Sung |Abacus: Small Enough to Jail Bobbi Jene Smith | Bobbi Jene Abdalaziz Alhamza, Hamoud Almousa and Mohamad Almusari | For City of Ghosts Ola Kaczanowska | Communion Dolores Huerta | Dolores Dina Buno and Scott Levin | Dina Agnès Varda | Faces Places Daje Shelton | For Ahkeem Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov | Icarus Dr. Jane Goodall | Jane Jim Carrey | Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond Christine’a Rainey, Christopher “Quest” Rainey, PJ Rainey and William Withers | Quest Yance Ford | Strong Island Jennifer Brea | Unrest Brian, Charles, Chris, Dark Cloud, Kiki and Vegas | The Work

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  • 170 Documentary Feature Films Submitted for 90th Academy Awards

    [caption id="attachment_25315" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Gaga: Five Foot Two Gaga: Five Foot Two[/caption] One hundred seventy features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 90th Academy Awards. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December. Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories. Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018. The 90th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide. The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are: Abacus: Small Enough to Jail Aida’s Secrets Al Di Qua All the Rage All These Sleepless Nights AlphaGo The American Media and the Second Assassination of President John F. Kennedy And the Winner Isn’t Angels Within Architects of Denial Arthur Miller: Writer Atomic Homefront The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography Bang! The Bert Berns Story Bending the Arc Big Sonia Bill Nye: Science Guy Birthright: A War Story Bobbi Jene Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story Born in China Born to Lead: The Sal Aunese Story Boston Brimstone & Glory Bronx Gothic Burden California Typewriter Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story Casting JonBenet Chasing Coral Chasing Trane Chavela Citizen Jane: Battle for the City City of Ghosts Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives Cries from Syria Cruel & Unusual Cuba and the Cameraman Dawson City: Frozen Time Dealt The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson Destination Unknown Dina Dolores Dream Big: Engineering Our World A Dying King: The Shah of Iran Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends) Earth: One Amazing Day 11/8/16 Elian Embargo Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars Escapes Everybody Knows… Elizabeth Murray Ex Libris – The New York Public Library Extraordinary Ordinary People Faces Places The Farthest The Final Year Finding Oscar 500 Years Food Evolution For Ahkeem The Force The Freedom to Marry From the Ashes Gaga: Five Foot Two A German Life Get Me Roger Stone Gilbert God Knows Where I Am Good Fortune A Gray State Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Hearing Is Believing Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS Human Flow I Am Another You I Am Evidence I Am Jane Doe I Called Him Morgan Icarus If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast The Incomparable Rose Hartman An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power Intent to Destroy Jane Jeremiah Tower The Last Magnificent Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower Karl Marx City Kedi Keep Quiet Kiki LA 92 The Last Dalai Lama? The Last Laugh Last Men in Aleppo Legion of Brothers Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982 – 1992 Let’s Play Two Letters from Baghdad Long Strange Trip Look & See Machines Man in Red Bandana Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance Motherland Mully My Scientology Movie Naples ’44 Neary’s – The Dream at the End of the Rainbow Night School No Greater Love No Stone Unturned Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press Nowhere to Hide Obit Oklahoma City One of Us The Paris Opera The Pathological Optimist Prosperity The Pulitzer at 100 Quest Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman The Rape of Recy Taylor The Reagan Show Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan Risk A River Below Rocky Ros Muc Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World Santoalla School Life Score: A Film Music Documentary Served Like a Girl The Settlers 78/52 Shadowman Shot! The Psycho Spiritual Mantra of Rock Sidemen: Long Road to Glory The Skyjacker’s Tale Sled Dogs Soufra Spettacolo Step Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex-Trafficking Strong Island Surviving Peace Swim Team Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton Take My Nose… Please! They Call Us Monsters 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous Tickling Giants Trophy Twenty Two Unrest Vince Giordano – There’s a Future in the Past Voyeur Wait for Your Laugh Wasted! The Story of Food Waste Water & Power: A California Heist Whitney. Can I Be Me Whose Streets? The Work

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  • 13th Zurich Film Festival Awards – POP AYE, MACHINES and BLUE MY MIND Win Golden Eyes

    [caption id="attachment_19942" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Machines MACHINES by Rahul Jainmac[/caption] The 13th Zurich Film Festival has awarded their Golden Eyes to POP AYE by Kirsten Tan from Singapore for International Feature Film; MACHINES by Rahul Jain from India, Germany and Finland for International Documentary Film; and BLUE MY MIND by Lisa Brühlmann from Switzerland for Focus: Switzerland, Germany, Austria. The Emerging Swiss Talent Award for a Swiss film went to AVANT LA FIN DE L’ÉTÉ / BEFORE SUMMER ENDS by Maryam Goormaghtigh (Switzerland, France) and the Critics’ Choice Award goes to BLUE MY MIND by Lisa Brühlmann (Switzerland). The Audience Award went to A RIVER BELOW by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA).

    2017 Zurich Film Festival Awards

    International Feature Film Competition

    The 13th Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye for Best Film in the International Feature Film Competition category goes to: POP AYE by Kirsten Tan (Singapore) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ku1ZPsWqM0 A Special Mention goes to: JUSQU’À LA GARDE / CUSTODY by Xavier Legrand (France) UNDER THE TREE / UNDIR TRÉNU by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson (Iceland, Denmark, Poland, Germany)

    International Documentary Film Competition

    The 13th Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye for Best Film in the International Documentary Film Competition category goes to: MACHINES by Rahul Jain (India, Germany, Finland) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm0gxjao36E A Special Mention goes to: DIE GENTRIFIZIERUNG BIN ICH. BEICHTE EINES FINSTERLINGS / I AM GENTRIFICATION. CONFESSIONS OF A SCOUNDREL by Thomas Haemmerli (Switzerland) AL OTRO LADO DEL MURO / THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL by Pau Ortiz (Spain, Mexico)

    Focus: Switzerland, Germany, Austria

    The 13th Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye for Best Film in the Focus: Switzerland, Germany, Austria Competition category goes to: BLUE MY MIND by Lisa Brühlmann (Switzerland) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBijdXcd5hk

    Emerging Swiss Talent Award

    The Emerging Swiss Talent Award for Best Swiss Film in the Festival Programme goes to: AVANT LA FIN DE L’ÉTÉ / BEFORE SUMMER ENDS by Maryam Goormaghtigh (Switzerland) A Special Mention goes to: TIERE / ANIMALS by Greg Zglinski (Switzerland, Austria, Poland) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIoHmGiSFvA

    Critics’ Choice Award

    The Swiss Association of Film Journalists (SVFJ) award their prize for Best Debut Feature Film in the Competition Section to: BLUE MY MIND by Lisa Brühlmann (Switzerland)

    Audience Award

    Given to the best film from the three competition categories as chosen by viewers, the Audience Award goes to: A RIVER BELOW by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dm-P9Pi7gI

    Kids Jury Award for Best Children’s Film

    The Kids Jury gives their award to: UP IN THE SKY / UPP I DET BLÅ by Peter Lennstrand (Sweden)

    Audience Award for Best Children’s Film

    The Audience Award for best film in the ZFF for Kids section as chosen by our young viewers goes to: DIE HÄSCHENSCHULE – JAGD NACH DEM GOLDENEN EI / RABBIT SCHOOL – GUARDIANS OF THE GOLDEN EGG by Ute von Münchow-Pohl (Germany)

    Treatment Competition Award

    The Award for Best Treatment goes to: Seraina Nyikos for the Project SECONDO (Switzerland)

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  • MACHINES, Rahul Jain Sundance Award Winning Debut Film, Sets U.S. Release Date | Trailer

    Machines Machines, the debut documentary film from director Rahul Jain, and winner of the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival will be released in the U.S. beginning Wednesday, August 9, at New York’s Film Forum. The film is set to expand nationwide in September, 2017. MACHINES Movie Poster Rahul Jain Returning to his childhood home of Sachin in India’s Gujarat state, Rahul Jain documents a striking visual paradox: intensely sensual images of colorful fabrics produced in a Dickensian factory in which men and children work tirelessly for a pittance, some barefoot. They are some of the 45 million workers that support the $40 billion Indian textile and garment industries. Punctuating stunning Steadicam shots, where Mr. Jain’s camera takes viewers into dark, damp and sometimes fiery working spaces, are sparse and sharp testimonials from the workers describing their own experiences – as well as their failed efforts at improving working conditions. One man asks rhetorically: “But what is poverty anyway? Poverty is harassment, Sir.” Uniquely combining ravishing visuals with social advocacy, Machines weaves a moving portrait of people toiling amid pulsating machines, bubbling vats of dye, and colorful, billowing cascades of textiles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkV-eeXrlUg

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  • 2017 Sun Valley Film Festival Announces Film Lineup – BLOOD ROAD, BITCH, BIG SONIA and More

    Big Sonia directed by  Leah Warshawski, Todd Soliday
    Big Sonia directed by Leah Warshawski, Todd Soliday

    The 2017 Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF) film line-up of 30 feature films includes 16 documentaries and 14 narrative features.  

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  • Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Announces 2017 Lineup, Opens with LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA

    [caption id="attachment_18913" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Lipstick Under My Burkha Lipstick Under My Burkha[/caption] The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) will take place April 5 to 9, 2017 at Regal L.A. LIVE: A Barco Innovation Center in Los Angeles, California. The Festival will open with LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and starring an impressive ensemble cast of Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak, Aahana Kumraand Plabita Borthakur in a dramatic, but irreverent and vibrant film about women and faith. The film premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival 2016 and has been lighting up the festival circuit, including just winning the Audience Award at the Glasgow Film Festival. Festival will close with the Los Angeles premiere of HOTEL SALVATION, the debut feature of Shubhashish Bhutiani, whose 2013 short film KUSH was shortlisted for the Live Action Short Film Oscar and won IFFLA’s 2014 Audience Award. HOTEL SALVATION premiered in the College Cinema section of the 2016 Venice Film Festival. This year the festival will feature two World premieres, five North American premieres, five U.S. premieres, and eleven LA premieres. More films from first-time directors will be presented this year than ever before, including the directorial debut of beloved actress Konkona Sen Sharma with her film A DEATH IN THE GUNJ featuring an all-star cast of Gulshan Devaiah, Kalki Koechlin, Om Puri and Vikrant Massey in this dramatic thriller. Additionally first-time filmmaker Ananya Kasaravalli brings THE CHRONICLES OF HARI, a beautiful film about a renowned theater actor’s struggle with gender identity which she co-wrote with writer Gopalakrisna Pai and her father, acclaimed Kannada language director Girish Kasaravalli. Also first-time filmmaker Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy with BILLION COLOUR STORY, which was included in Best of Fest in Palm Springs and recently played Busan and BFI London. Also attending the festival this year to present their films will be a host of celebrated filmmakers, including Adoor Gopalakrishnan making the U.S. premiere of his twisted thriller ONCE AGAIN in Malayalam, and Suman Mukhopadhyay with the North American premiere of his gorgeous Bengali film INCOMPLETE. IFFLA’s program features an impressive slate of award-winning and topical documentary films including MACHINES winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Excellence in Cinematography at Sundance, and THE CINEMA TRAVELERS directed by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya which wonL’Œil d’or Special Mention: Le Prix du documentaire at the Cannes Film Festival. The U.S. Premiere of the highly anticipated documentary AN INSIGNIFICANT MAN, directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, will also take place at IFFLA. The film centers on the polarizing political figure Arvind Kejriwal (sometimes referred to as the Bernie Sanders of India) and gives a stirring behind-the-scenes look at his creation of the progressive Aam Aadmi Party and their historic campaign in the 2013 Delhi state elections. IFFLA alum Rajshri Deshpande stars in the controversial SEXY DURGA directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, which recently won the coveted Hivor Tiger Award, the top prize at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival. Competing in the shorts program are 10 films, representing 9 different languages. Shorts program highlights include: the world premieres of CITY OF LOVE, a Bengali film directed by Indranil Roychowdhury; and DEVI directed by Karishma Dube and starring a remarkable cast including Priyanka Bose (most recently seen in the Oscar-nominated LION) and Tanvi Azmi. Making its U.S. premiere is the short film INFILTRATOR, directed by Gurvinder Singh whose first feature THE FOURTH DIRECTION premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, and Sonejuhi Sinha’s newest film MILES OF SAND, starring Tannishta Chatterjee. Other highlights of the short film program include the U.S. premieres of DISCO OBU, by Anand Kishore, which recently won a Special Jury Mention at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and GUDH (NEST) by Saurav Rai, which had its world premiere at Cannes’ Cinefondation.

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