The 2020 Milwaukee Film Festival runs all-virtual from October 15 – 29, featuring 197 film titles. Opening the festival is “I Used to Go Here” directed by Kris Rey, featuring Gillian Jacobs and Jemaine Clement, a heartfelt crowd-pleaser about a 30-something writer who should be celebrating her success, but with all of her friends getting married and having kids, she feels like she’s missing out.
The 2020 Bentonville Film Festival co-founded by Academy Award®-winning actor Geena Davis, set to run August 10-16, announced their spotlight and competition program of independent feature films, shorts, and episodic titles. The 6th annual film festival will be presented as a hybrid structure, pairing digital screenings, panels and events alongside select on-the-ground premieres and conversations.
rePRO by mama.film, a new five-day virtual film festival dedicated to exploring women’s reproductive healthcare, awareness, advocacy, and bodily integrity in America, has announced its line-up for the inaugural festival will take place online from August 12-16, 2020. The line-up of films and conversations, which will be open to anyone in the US, includes documentaries and narratives dealing with women’s rights, endometriosis, illegal sterilization, access to abortion, and reproductive justice for women of color, among other topics. The program was announced today by the festival’s founders, Lela Meadow-Conner, Mallory Martin, and Debby Samples.
The 2020 Athena Film Festival (AFF) will open on Thursday, February 27, with the New York premiere of “I Am Woman.” The film, directed by Unjoo Moon and written by Emma Jensen, stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey as singer-songwriter Helen Reddy, whose song “I Am Woman” became the anthem for the women’s movement in the 1970s.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced the lineup of over 200 movies including 47 world premieres and 71 U.S. premieres, for its 35th edition, which will take place from January 15 to 25, 2020. Kicking off the festival is opening night film – the U.S. premiere of Shelly Love’s A Bump Along the Way, a female-led, feel-good comedy drama set in Derry, Northern Ireland, about a middle-aged woman whose unexpected pregnancy after a one-night stand acts as the catalyst for her to finally take control of her life.
Should the government have the power to override a woman’s constitutional rights during pregnancy? That question is examined in PERSONHOOD, Jo Ardinger’s feature documentary directorial debut. This urgent and timely film explores the criminalization and targeting of pregnant women as seen through the eyes of a young mother swept up in dangerous new laws.
DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, announced the full lineup for its expanded tenth anniversary edition, running November 6-15 at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village and Chelsea’s SVA Theatre and Cinépolis Chelsea. The 2019 festival includes 136 feature-length documentaries among over 300 films and events overall, making this landmark year DOC NYC’s biggest edition yet.
CAT SHOW[/caption]
The 4th annual edition of The American Documentary Film Festival (AMDocs) called it a wrap on Monday, March 30, 2015, with its signature Closing Night Mystery Screening and Film Festival Awards Presentation. Director Peter Bogdanovich was the recipient of the 2015 Filmmaker Who Makes a Difference Award, Dr. Ronni Sanlo (the subject of the film, LETTER TO ANITA) was the recipient of the 2015 Rozene Supple Humanitarian Award, and the film,SPARTANS, was the recipient of the 2015 Robert Drew Verite Award.
Three film projects were awarded American Documentary Film Fund Grants this year, including POW WOW, PERSONHOOD, and THE TROUBLE WITH RAY. Each year, The American Documentary Film Fund provides up to $50,000 in grants to independent American filmmakers. Applicants must provide detailed story outlines and budgets for their works in progress or new projects. Filmmakers screen a five (5) minute preview of their film projects before an industry panel of judges and take part in a ten minute Q&A about their projects.
This year’s Film Awards were also announced as follows: 2015 Best Foreign Feature Documentary: CAT SHOW (U.K./Australia), 2015 Best Foreign Short Documentary: HONEY ON WOUNDS (Romania),2015 Best Animated Short(s): DEATH & THE MAIDEN (Israel/Germany) and THE LOST MARINER(Netherlands/Canada), 2015 Best American Feature Documentary: AMERICA RECYCLED, and 2015 Best American Short Documentary: SEEING THE FULL SOUNDING.