
A new competitive section Encounters will be introduced in the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival with the goal to support new voices in cinema and to give more room to diverse narrative and documentary forms in the official program.
Ice Mother[/caption]
Ice Mother (Czech Republic) directed by Bohdan Sláma and Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster’s Science Fair (United States) snagged the top audience accolades at the 41st Portland International Film Festival. Ice Mother won the award for Best Narrative Feature and Science Fair took the Best Documentary Feature award.
Director Ryôta Nakano is the winner of this year’s Best New Director award for his debut feature, Her Love Boils Bathwater (Japan). Tehran Taboo (Austria/Germany) director Ali Soozandeh takes home the Audience Award for Best Animated Feature. This year’s Best International Short Film Award goes to director Britt Raes for her film Catherine (Belgium). Portland-based director Dawn Jones Redstone’s film We Have Our Ways is the recipient of the Best Oregon Short Film Award.
The Portland International Film Festival (PIFF 41) has revealed the lineup for this year’s 41st edition of the Festival, which begins on Thursday, February 15th and runs through Thursday, March 1st. The Opening Night selection is the new comedy The Death of Stalin from writer/director Armando Iannucci (Veep, In the Loop). The film, adapted from the graphic novel by Fabien Nury, stars Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko, Jason Isaacs, and Michael Palin.
In addition to the Opening Night film, the Festival will host the Portland premiere of a handful of Oscar-nominated films, including Ildikó Enyedi’s On Body and Soul (Hungary), nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, Laura Checkoway’s Edith & Eddie (United States), which is in competition for the Best Documentary (Short Subject) Oscar, and Reed Van Dyk’s Dekalb Elementary (United States), nominated for the Best Short Film (Live Action) Academy Award.
Also present in the lineup are multiple Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award submissions, including Tatiana Huezo’s Tempestad (Mexico), Jonas Carpignano’s A Ciambra (Italy), Deepak Rauniyar’s White Sun (Nepal), Ryôta Nakano’s Her Love Boils Bathwater (Japan), Lucrecia Martel’s Zama (Argentina), Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson’s Under the Tree (Iceland), and many others. Submissions for the Best Animated Feature Film Academy Award in the festival include Kenji Kamayama’s Napping Princess (Japan), Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero’s Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (Spain), and Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert’s The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales (France).
As in past years, the Festival features an abundance of short films. This year’s lineup boasts eight discrete short film programs, including two blocks devoted entirely to films made in Oregon, an animated shorts program, a collection exploring innovative experimental short form works, and a program of short films by Charlie Chaplin featuring live musical accompaniment by silent film composer and pianist Robert Israel. Israel has performed solo, and with orchestras, worldwide, in addition to past performances at the festival.
Other highlights of PIFF 41 include screenings of Andrew Haigh’s (45 Years) Lean on Pete, Morgan Neville’s (20 Feet from Stardom) Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Valeska Grisebach’s (Longing) Western, Portland-based director Sky Fitzgerald’s (50 Feet from Syria) 101 Seconds, the late Abbas Kiarostami’s (A Taste of Cherry) final film 24 Frames, Thomas Riedelsheimer’s (Rivers and Tides) Leaning Into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy, Joseph Kahn’s (Detention) Bodied, Xuan Liang and Chun Zhan’s animated debut Big Fish & Begonia, Sergei Loznitsa’s (My Joy) A Gentle Creature, former Portlander Aaron Katz’ (Cold Weather) Gemini, a trio of features (Claire’s Camera, The Day After, and On the Beach At Night Alone) from South Korean director Hong Sang-Soo (The Day He Arrives), Christina Costantini and Darren Foster’s documentary debut Science Fair, Michael Matthew’s debut feature Five Fingers for Marseilles, Joshua Bonnetta and J.P. Sniadecki’s (People’s Park) El Mar La Mar, Rungaro Nyoni’s debut feature I Am Not a Witch, Ben Russell’s (A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness) Good Luck, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s (Spring) The Endless, Neïl Beloufa’s (Tonight and the People) Occidental, Samuel Maoz’ (Lebanon) Foxtrot, Warwick Thornton’s (Samson & Delilah) Sweet Country, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s (Amer) Let the Corpses Tan, Milad Alami’s (Nordic Factory) The Charmer, Cory Finley’s feature debut Thoroughbreds, and many others.
Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
Actress-comedian Tiffany Haddish and actor-director Andy Serkis, joined by Academy President John Bailey, announced the 90th Academy Awards nominations today, with “The Shape of Water” leading with 13 nominations, followed by “Dunkirk,” with got eight nominations, and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” received seven nominations.
The 90th Oscars, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, 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 at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
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.”
Loveless[/caption]
Nine foreign language feature films have been selected to advance to the next round in the Foreign Language Film category for the 90th Academy Awards. Ninety-two films had originally been considered in the category.
Four of the nine films premiered at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival: the winner of the Golden Bear, On Body and Soul by Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary); the Competition entries Félicité by Alain Gomis (Senegal), which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, and A Fantastic Woman by Sebastián Lelio (Chile), which took home the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay; as well as the opening film of the Panorama, The Wound by John Trengove (South Africa).
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 at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
Chile, “A Fantastic Woman,” Sebastián Lelio, director;
Germany, “In the Fade,” Fatih Akin, director;
Hungary, “On Body and Soul,” Ildikó Enyedi, director;
Israel, “Foxtrot,” Samuel Maoz, director;
Lebanon, “The Insult,” Ziad Doueiri, director;
Russia, “Loveless,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Senegal, “Félicité,” Alain Gomis, director;
South Africa, “The Wound,” John Trengove, director;
Sweden, “The Square,” Ruben Östlund, director.
The Square[/caption]
The Square written and directed by Ruben Östlund is the big winner at this year’s 2017 European Film Awards held today in Berlin, winning 6 major awards including Best Film, Best Comedy, Best Director and Best Director for Ruben Östlund; and Best Actor for Claes Bang.
ON BODY AND SOUL[/caption]
Ildikó Enyedi’s ON BODY AND SOUL and Ruben Östlund’s social satire THE SQUARE, lead the nominations for the 30th European Film Awards with four nominations each, including Best European Film, Best European Director and Best European Screenwriter, as well actress Alexandra Borbély in ON BODY AND SOUL and actor Claes Bang in THE SQUARE.
Two films have garnered three nominations each: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s LOVELESS, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ family drama THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER. LOVELESS is nominated for European Film, as well as Zvyagintsev for directing and together with Oleg Negin as screenwriter. Yorgos Lanthimos is nominated for director and, shared with co-author Efthimis Filippou, as screenwriter. Colin Farrell is nominated as actor in the film.
Aki Kaurismäki’s refugee melodrama THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE is nominated for European Film and directing. The remaining film nominated for European Film is Robin Campillo’s AIDS drama BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE), actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart received a nomination as well.
Nominees for Best Documentary include AUSTERLITZ by Sergei Loznitsa (Germany); COMMUNION (Komunia) by Anna Zamecka (Poland); LA CHANA by Lucija Stojevic (Spain, Iceland, USA); STRANGER IN PARADISE by Guido Hendrikx (the Netherlands) and THE GOOD POSTMAN by Tonislav Hristov (Finland, Bulgaria).
The winners will be presented during the awards ceremony on December 9 in Berlin.
APRIL’S DAUGHTER (LAS HIJAS DE ABRIL)[/caption]
The American Film Institute announced today the films that will be featured in the World Cinema, Midnight and Youth and Family sections at AFI FEST 2017 presented by Audi.
The World Cinema section showcases the most celebrated international films of the year and features 30 films from 39 countries. The section includes 13 official Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® entries: A CIAMBRA (DIR Jonas Carpignano), A FANTASTIC WOMAN (UNA MUJER FANTASTICA) (DIR Sebastián Lelio), FOXTROT (DIR Samuel Maoz), HAPPY END (DIR Michael Haneke), HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS (DIR François Girard), IN THE FADE (AUS DEM NICHTS) (DIR Fatih Akin), THE INSULT (L’INSULTE) (DIR Ziad Doueiri), LOVELESS (NELYUBOV) (DIR Andrey Zvyagintsev), NEWTON (DIR Amit V Masurkar), ON BODY AND SOUL (TESTRŐL ÉS LÉLEKRŐL) (DIR Ildikó Enyedi), SPOOR (POKOT) (DIR Agnieszka Holland), THELMA (DIR Joachim Trier) and WAJIB (DIR Annemarie Jacir).
The festival’s Midnight section will enthrall and petrify audiences with three international, genre-bending films: GOOD MANNERS (DIR Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra), LET THE CORPSES TAN (DIR Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani) and V.I.P. (DIR Park Hoon-Jung).
AFI FEST will offer Youth and Family Programming for the next generation of storytellers and moviegoers, with the films THE BREADWINNER (DIR Nora Twomey) and MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER (DIR Hiromasa Yonebayashi). At these screenings, AFI FEST will host students from several public middle and high schools across Los Angeles County for educational experiences. MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER will also screen for the festival’s public audience.
The Other Side of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen) directed by Aki Kaurismäki has been named best film of 2017 by the members of the International Federation of Film Critics, FIPRESCI.
The other two finalists are Barry Jenkins’ Oscar®-winning Moonlight and Ildikó Enyedi’s winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin, Teströl és lélekröl / On Body and Soul.
Aki Kaurismäki will receive the FIPRESCI Grand Prix at the Opening Gala of the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The Other Side of Hope is set in Helsinki, where Khaled, a young Syrian immigrant, arrives as a stowaway on a coal ship from Poland. Meanwhile, a nondescript salesman going by the name of Wikström decides to end his marriage, change his occupation and open a restaurant with only a very few customers. When their paths cross, Wikström offers Khaled a roof, food and a job. But the boy dreams of finding his sister, who also fled Syria.
Director Aki Kaurismäki (Orimattila, Finland, 1957) is considered to be one of the most important European directors of today’s cinema. Key titles in his filmography, such as Ariel (1988), Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö / The Match Factory Girl (1990), Kauas pilvet karkaavat / Drifting Clouds (1996), Mies vailla menneisyyttä / The Man Without a Past (2002, Grand Prix at Cannes), and Le Havre (2011, FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes) are now modern classics. Kaurismäki won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the last Berlin Festival with Toivon tuolla puolen / The Other Side of Hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtiFG6utst8
On Body and Soul (Testről és lélekről) directed by Ildiko Enyedi has been selected by the Hungarian Oscar Selection Committee to represent the country in the best foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film premiered at the 2017 Berlinale earlier this year, where the int’l jury headed by Paul Verhoeven awarded it the prestigious Golden Bear. On Body and Soul won the FIPRESCI Prize, the Ecumenical Jury Prize, the Berliner Morgenpost’s Reader Jury Prize in Berlin as well, and the Sydney Film Festival competition in June. Ildikó Enyedi became the first woman director to win in the 10-year history of the Sydney Film Festival competition for “courageous, audacious and cutting-edge” cinema.
Endre (Géza Morcsányi) and Maria (Alexandra Borbély) work at a slaughterhouse. He is the financial director, she the new quality inspector. By day, their urban workplace houses scenes of animals being slaughtered — and Enyedi does not shy away from the carnage. By night, they dream of the same pastoral scene in which deer rub against each other in the snow. Endre is mild-mannered, while the OCD-afflicted Maria is nervous and introverted. In everyday life, these two can’t quite connect, then a company psychiatrist realizes that they see identical images during sleep. Should these subconsciously kindred coworkers commingle in their waking hours? Or are they better off resigning themselves to being lovers only in dreams?
On Body and Soul will have its North American premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6mv_rN6bU