One hundred fifty-nine features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 92nd Academy Awards®. Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.
Traverse City Film Festival released the 2019 program marking the 15th Anniversary Year with a “Cinema Saves The World” theme, and featuring over 200 films and events. The Festival opens with BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON; AFTER THE WEDDING as Centerpiece; and closes with BLINDED BY THE LIGHT.
More than 40 films will compete in the three feature film juried competitions at the 43rd Cleveland International Film Festival for $30,000 in cash prizes. The competitions include George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern European Competition; Nesnadny + Schwartz Portrait Documentary Competition and New Direction Competition.
Sissy Spacek and Robert Redford in The Old Man and the Gun.[/caption]
The 63rd Cork Film Festival, running from November 9 to 18, 2018, will showcase Irish and international films with a focus on current global issues.
The 2018 program for Ireland’s first and largest film festival, launched today features films with themes centered on LGBT, mental health, child poverty, gender equality, and human rights. Over 250 Irish and international features and shorts will be screened across the Festival, with 90% being Irish premieres.
Speaking on today’s program launch, Festival Producer and CEO Fiona Clark said: “Our mission is to bring people together through an outstanding program of films and events and to create an unforgettable festival experience over 10 days in Cork.
“As a destination for great storytelling on film, this year’s program includes numerous award-winners from the 2018 international festival circuit, alongside fresh new voices, together showcasing the latest and best independent cinema. For many films presented, this is the only opportunity to see them on the big screen in Cork and Ireland.”
Special presentations include a cine concert of the 1920s silent horror Nosferatu (November 13) at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, with a new score by Cork composers Irene and Linda Buckley. This year’s collaboration with the National Sculpture Factory is Alan Butler’s On Exactitude in Science (November 12 – 14) a work comprising Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1983) in synchronicity with Butler’s 2017 remake.
Speaking on the representation of Irish film in the Festival, program Director Michael Hayden stated: “It is fantastic that we can open the Festival with a film with such distinct Cork connections. Carmel Winters’ highly anticipated and award-winning second feature Float like a Butterfly is a special film that fiercely challenges patriarchy and stereotypes. Carmel, and many of the cast and crew, will be in attendance for this European premiere on 9 November.
“Selecting Float like a Butterfly as the Opening Gala is indicative of the Festival’s commitment to celebrating Irish film, and we have secured some of the most celebrated films of the year. These include the Irish premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos’ feminist comedy The Favourite on 10 November, produced by Element Pictures and starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz; and The Dig, directed by Ryan and Andrew Tohill, starring Moe Dunford, which was awarded Best Irish Feature at Galway Film Fleadh earlier this year.”
The Closing Night Gala will also feature the work of an outstanding female director, with the Irish premiere of Nadine Labaki’s multi-award-winning Capernaum (November 18). This urgent and important film is on child poverty and the denial of an individual’s human rights. Other Irish premieres of international features include The Old Man and the Gun, starring Robert Redford as a septuagenarian bank robber; Peter Strickland’s sumptuous and spooky tale, In Fabric; and Wash Westmoreland’s period biopic, Colette, starring Keira Knightley.
The program features 40 documentaries, with highlights to include veteran auteur Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana, and Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev, cementing Cork Film Festival as the destination festival for documentary in Ireland.
Illuminate, the Festival’s unique series of film and discussion events exploring mental health and wellbeing, is presented in association with Arts+Minds, the HSE Cork Mental Health Service and Irish Rail Iarnród Éireann. Screenings include Trauma is a Time Machine, For the Birds, and Ordinary People.
The fun-packed family strand will be screened throughout the Festival at The Gate Cinema. The program includes the highly-anticipated family friendly animations, The Grinch (November 10) and The Overcoat (November 17), which features the voice of Cork actor Cillian Murphy.
In total, 117 world-class shorts will be presented across the 10 days and will be considered for either the Grand Prix Irish Short or the Grand Prix International Short Awards. The winners of both, announced at the Awards Ceremony on November 18 at the Triskel, will be automatically longlisted for the Oscars®.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9[/caption]
The World Premiere of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 , a radical and humorous look at the United States under Donald Trump, will open the Toronto International Film Festival 2018 documentary program. The Festival will screen 27 feature-length non-fiction films, representing 19 countries in the 2018 documentary program.
Other World Premieres include Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks’ Quincy, profiling musical icon Quincy Jones; Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble’s The Elephant Queen, narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, tracing the epic journey of an elephant herd; Billy Corben’s Screwball, a true-crime comedy on doping in Major League Baseball; and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s The Truth About Killer Robots, investigating the lethal consequences of automation.
One-third of this year’s doc features are directed or co-directed by female filmmakers including TIFF Docs closing film, Margarethe von Trotta’s Searching for Ingmar Bergman, which offers a multi-faceted look at the Swedish auteur’s life 100 years after his birth. Women creators, trailblazers, and the #MeToo movement are also examined within the lineup: Naziha Arebi’s Freedom Fields, about a Libyan women’s football team; Alex Holmes’ Maiden recounts the story of the first all-women sailing crew in the Whitbread Round the World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race), skippered by Tracy Edwards; and Tom Volf’s Maria by Callas, narrated by Joyce DiDonato, profiles one of the major icons of the 20th century. More highlights include Alexis Bloom’s Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, covering the Fox News creator who was ousted for allegations of sexual harassment; and Tom Donahue’s This Changes Everything, an examination of gender dynamics in Hollywood, executive produced by Geena Davis. Mark Cousins’ Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema , narrated by Tilda Swinton, explores international cinema through the lens of women directors.
Global politics and leaders of modern society are put under the microscope with films such as Werner Herzog and André Singer’s Meeting Gorbachev, on the former Soviet leader; Vitaly Mansky’s Putin’s Witnesses, focusing on Russia’s president; and Errol Morris’ American Dharma , looking at controversial Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Grand adventures are at the heart of several docs in the selection. E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Free Solo captures Alex Honnold’s unprecedented climb of El Capitan without safety ropes; Andrey Paounov’s Walking on Water documents the artist Christo’s project The Floating Piers; John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm chronicles an eight-year struggle to run a family farm; and Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron’s Ghost Fleet captures a nail-biting rescue of fishermen enslaved at sea.
After directing last year’s Festival opener Borg vs McEnroe, Janus Metz teams with Sine Plambech for the World Premiere of Heartbound, a longitudinal study 10 years in the making about the trend of Thai women marrying Danish men. And several documentaries represent eclectic perspectives told from around the world, including: Rithy Panh’s Graves Without a Name, on the legacy of Cambodia’s genocide; Jawad Rhalib’s When Arabs Danced, on Muslim performers pushing boundaries; James Longley’s Angels Are Made Of Light, about a group of Afghan children and their teachers; and Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana , about a small town in America’s Midwest.
The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2018.