The Favourite[/caption]
The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’s black comedy about the 18th century court of Queen Anne, leads the list of nominations for the 2018 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) with 13 noms including Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The Favourite also sweeps the technical categories, newly introduced for the 2017 awards, with nominations for seven of the nine awards, including Best Production Design, Best Cinematography supported by Blackmagic Design, Best Make-up & Hair Design and Best Costume Design.
The Best British Independent Film nominees are American Animals – with 11 nominations, Beast – with 10 nominations, Disobedience – with 5 nominations, You Were Never Really Here – with 8 nominations, and The Favourite.
The nominations list demonstrates a record year for female representation, with over 40% of the individual nominations recognizing women in the industry across directing, writing, producing, performance and craft. Female nominees make up over 50% of the talent nominated for Best British Independent Film and dominate both Most Promising Newcomer and Breakthrough Producer supported by Creativity Media, with four out of five nominations for each award. Over 140 British films were submitted for consideration and 37 different British feature films have been nominated across the BIFA categories.
Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben) by Asghar Farhadi[/caption]
Some of the most highly anticipated films and episodic series will play in the Special Screenings, Cinema’s Legacy and Midnight sections at AFI FEST 2018 presented by Audi.
Narrative features screening in the Special Screenings section are 
El Angel directed by Luis Ortega[/caption]
Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 91st Academy Awards. Malawi and Niger are first-time entrants.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
The 91st Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
The 2018 submissions are:
Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director;
Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director;
Argentina, “El Ángel,” Luis Ortega, director;
Armenia, “Spitak,” Alexander Kott, director;
Australia, “Jirga,” Benjamin Gilmour, director;
Austria, “The Waldheim Waltz,” Ruth Beckermann, director;
Bangladesh, “No Bed of Roses,” Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;
Belarus, “Crystal Swan,” Darya Zhuk, director;
Belgium, “Girl,” Lukas Dhont, director;
Bolivia, “The Goalkeeper,” Rodrigo “Gory” Patiño, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Never Leave Me,” Aida Begić, director;
Brazil, “The Great Mystical Circus,” Carlos Diegues, director;
Bulgaria, “Omnipresent,” Ilian Djevelekov, director;
Cambodia, “Graves without a Name,” Rithy Panh, director;
Canada, “Family Ties,” Sophie Dupuis, director;
Chile, “…And Suddenly the Dawn,” Silvio Caiozzi, director;
China, “Hidden Man,” Jiang Wen, director;
Colombia, “Birds of Passage,” Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra, directors;
Costa Rica, “Medea,” Alexandra Latishev, director;
Croatia, “The Eighth Commissioner,” Ivan Salaj, director;
Czech Republic, “Winter Flies,” Olmo Omerzu, director;
Denmark, “The Guilty,” Gustav Möller, director;
Dominican Republic, “Cocote,” Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias, director;
Ecuador, “A Son of Man,” Jamaicanoproblem, director;
Egypt, “Yomeddine,” A.B. Shawky, director;
Estonia, “Take It or Leave It,” Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo, director;
Finland, “Euthanizer,” Teemu Nikki, director;
France, “Memoir of War,” Emmanuel Finkiel, director;
Georgia, “Namme,” Zaza Khalvashi, director;
Germany, “Never Look Away,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director;
Greece, “Polyxeni,” Dora Masklavanou, director;
Hong Kong, “Operation Red Sea,” Dante Lam, director;
Hungary, “Sunset,” László Nemes, director;
Iceland, “Woman at War,” Benedikt Erlingsson, director;
India, “Village Rockstars,” Rima Das, director;
Indonesia, “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts,” Mouly Surya, director;
Iran, “No Date, No Signature,” Vahid Jalilvand, director;
Iraq, “The Journey,” Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji, director;
Israel, “The Cakemaker,” Ofir Raul Graizer, director;
Italy, “Dogman,” Matteo Garrone, director;
Japan, “Shoplifters,” Hirokazu Kore-eda, director;
Kazakhstan, “Ayka,” Sergey Dvortsevoy, director;
Kenya, “Supa Modo,” Likarion Wainaina, director;
Kosovo, “The Marriage,” Blerta Zeqiri, director;
Latvia, “To Be Continued,” Ivars Seleckis, director;
Lebanon, “Capernaum,” Nadine Labaki, director;
Lithuania, “Wonderful Losers: A Different World,” Arunas Matelis, director;
Luxembourg, “Gutland,” Govinda Van Maele, director;
Macedonia, “Secret Ingredient,” Gjorce Stavreski, director;
Malawi, “The Road to Sunrise,” Shemu Joyah, director;
Mexico, “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón, director;
Montenegro, “Iskra,” Gojko Berkuljan, director;
Morocco, “Burnout,” Nour-Eddine Lakhmari, director;
Nepal, “Panchayat,” Shivam Adhikari, director;
Netherlands, “The Resistance Banker,” Joram Lürsen, director;
New Zealand, “Yellow Is Forbidden,” Pietra Brettkelly, director;
Niger, “The Wedding Ring,” Rahmatou Keïta, director;
Norway, “What Will People Say,” Iram Haq, director;
Pakistan, “Cake,” Asim Abbasi, director;
Palestine, “Ghost Hunting,” Raed Andoni, director;
Panama, “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name,” Abner Benaim, director;
Paraguay, “The Heiresses,” Marcelo Martinessi, director;
Peru, “Eternity,” Oscar Catacora, director;
Philippines, “Signal Rock,” Chito S. Roño, director;
Poland, “Cold War,” Pawel Pawlikowski, director;
Portugal, “Pilgrimage,” João Botelho, director;
Romania, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians,” Radu Jude, director;
Russia, “Sobibor,” Konstantin Khabensky, director;
Serbia, “Offenders,” Dejan Zecevic, director;
Singapore, “Buffalo Boys,” Mike Wiluan, director;
Slovakia, “The Interpreter,” Martin Šulík, director;
Slovenia, “Ivan,” Janez Burger, director;
South Africa, “Sew the Winter to My Skin,” Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, director;
South Korea, “Burning,” Lee Chang-dong, director;
Spain, “Champions,” Javier Fesser, director;
Sweden, “Border,” Ali Abbasi, director;
Switzerland, “Eldorado,” Markus Imhoof, director;
Taiwan, “The Great Buddha+,” Hsin-Yao Huang, director;
Thailand, “Malila The Farewell Flower,” Anucha Boonyawatana, director;
Tunisia, “Beauty and the Dogs,” Kaouther Ben Hania, director;
Turkey, “The Wild Pear Tree,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
Ukraine, “Donbass,” Sergei Loznitsa, director;
United Kingdom, “I Am Not a Witch,” Rungano Nyoni, director;
Uruguay, “Twelve-Year Night,” Álvaro Brechner, director;
Venezuela, “The Family,” Gustavo Rondón Córdova, director;
Vietnam, “The Tailor,” Buu Loc Tran, Kay Nguyen, directors;
Yemen, “10 Days before the Wedding,” Amr Gamal, director.
The Front Runner[/caption]
The Virginia Film Festival returns to Charlottesville from November 1 to 4, with a deep and diverse program of more than 150 films and special guests including legendary actor, writer, and filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich; director and producer Allen Hughes, noted activist Martin Luther King III; and more than 100 filmmakers from around the world.
The 2018 Virginia Film Festival will open with 
L-R: Michelle Rodriguez, Viola Davis, and Elizabeth Debicki star in Twentieth Century Fox’s WIDOWS. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.[/caption]
Widows – From visionary director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) comes Widows. After their criminal husbands die in an explosion, a group of women, led by Academy Award winner Viola Davis, must pull off their spouses’ next planned heist in order to pay off the crime boss that their recently departed partners owe.
Science Fair directed by Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster[/caption]
The Festival will present a trio of heralded documentaries from National Geographic. They include: Science Fair, which follows nine high school students from disparate corners of the globe as they navigate rivalries, setbacks, and hormones on their quest to win the international science fair; Free Solo, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock, Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan, without a rope; and Into the Okavango, the directorial debut of National Geographic photographer Neil Gelinas, who accompanied researchers on this stunning expedition down the Okavango River to discover how or why the river — which is the source of Africa’s wildlife lifeline — is drying up.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes[/caption]
Divide and Conquer – Alexis Bloom delivers this tale of the long rise and sudden fall of the late, disgraced media industry giant Roger Ailes, from his days in the Nixon and Bush White Houses to his time at the helm of Fox News, and his ignominious ouster at the dawn of the Me Too movement.
Karenina and I -Norwegian actress Gørild Mauseth is challenged by the almost impossible task of playing Anna Karenina in a language she never spoke and in the author’s home country. She embarks on a journey throughout Russia to discover the real reasons why Tolstoy (Liam Neeson) wrote the novel. What Gørild does not know is that Anna Karenina will become the role of her life and change her forever.
The Last Race – The last surviving stock car track on Long Island, once home to over thirty, is the weekend retreat to many working-class stock car racers and enthusiasts. Director Michael Dweck documents the local enthusiasts as outside land developers begin to encroach.
Revolutionizing Dementia Care – Directed by Mason Williams and produced by the Community Idea Stations, this film reveals innovative approaches in memory care communities that are improving the well-being of patients and allowing them to live full and meaningful lives based on their abilities rather than their disabilities.
Run While You Can – Sam Fox attempts to run the Pacific Crest Trail, spanning from the Canadian to the Mexican border, in sixty days, beating the previous record. As the trail begins to take its toll on his mind and body, Fox begins to understand what his mother, who has Parkinson’s disease, goes through on a daily basis.
[caption id="attachment_28858" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Studio 54[/caption]
Studio 54 – Using footage from its heyday and interviews with two of the original owners, Studio 54 takes a look at the quick rise and fall of the most famous night club in the world. The club would usher in a new era of celebrity culture and glamour, while highlighting the legendary excesses of the era.
I AM NOT A WITCH[/caption]
I Am Not a Witch (United Kingdom) – In Rungano Nyoni’s directorial debut, a young girl in Zambia is sent to witch camp. Threatened that she will turn into a goat if she attempts escape, she must decide if freedom is worth the risk.
Never Look Away (Germany) – Directed by Academy Award winner, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Never Look Away tracks an artist’s career and relationships during the rise and fall of Nazi occupied Germany.
No Date, No Signature (Iran) – A forensic pathologist, Dr. Nariman, hits a motorcycle carrying a family in an accident. He urges them to take their son to a hospital, but they refuse and disappear into the night. When Dr. Nariman sees the boy has arrived deceased at his hospital and the cause of death ruled as food poisoning, he goes on a hunt for the truth.
Sunset (Hungary) – From László Nemes, the director of Son of Saul, comes this story of a woman searches for a connection to her family in 1913 Budapest and finds little help along the way.
Woman at War (Iceland) – An environmental activist plans her final demonstration after learning that she will soon become a mother.
Other films include our Centerpiece Film Roma (Mexico), and Spotlight Films,Birds of Passage (Colombia), El Angel (Argentina).
Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco[/caption]
Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex, Fashion and Disco – A native of Puerto Rico and raised in the Bronx, Antonio Lopez gained international recognition as one of the most influential fashion illustrators of his time. His artistic vision and commitment to diversity revolutionized the fashion world, and his natural charisma allowed him to help launch the careers of icons like Grace Jones, Jessica Lange, and Jerry Hall.
Coby – When a 23-year-old transgender Ohio woman transitions, his physical and spiritual transformation affects the lives of all who love him, and inspires them to change their perspectives.
El Angel (Argentina) – Based on the true story of Argentina’s most infamous serial killer, Carlos Rubedo Puch, who began his life of crime at seventeen. The extremity of his crimes is a stark contrast with his handsome, charming demeanor.
Jason and Shirley – A fictional retelling of the making of the influential documentary, Portrait of Jason, from the perspective of the film’s subject, hustler and cabaret performer, Jason Holliday.
Good Manners – A Brazilian fairytale that finds two women from different classes coming together over the impending birth of a supernatural child under a full moon.
Narcissister Organ Player – Through her unabashedly erotic and often humorous performances, Narcissister showcases her approach to explorations of race, gender, and sexuality. From growing up as a mixed-race child, to her complex relationship with her mother, she addresses how these circumstances compelled her to create her performance character.
[caption id="attachment_29915" align="aligncenter" width="1199"]
Rafiki[/caption]
Rafiki – Two women fall in love in Kenya, despite their father’s political rivalry, and Kenya’s laws against homosexuality.
Sauvage – 22-year-old Leo works in Strasbourg as a prostitute. Working mostly on a quiet road in a wooded area, he belongs to a group of men that service the motorist clientele. Leo seems to not know or desire any other kind of life, despite friends and doctors questioning his lifestyle. Leo prizes his freedom and never lets go of his ability to love and be loved.
Spider Mites of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary – Richmond, Virginia natives recount their experiences with Donnie “Dirtwoman” Corker, a drag queen and pillar of the counterculture, and their influence on the community.
Sorry Angel – Arthur, an eager 22-year-old student, meets 35-year-old Jacques, a writer living in Paris with his young son. Embracing his sexual awakening, Arthur wishes to throw himself into their relationship without reservations. Jacques is hesitant to invest himself, as he struggles to come to terms with an AIDS diagnosis. The physical reality of Jacques’ illness complicates the fate of their romance, as both men realize that Arthur’s journey is just beginning as Jacques’ starts to close.
The Kindergarten Teacher[/caption]
THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Sara Colangelo
Writer/director Sarah Colangelo (LITTLE ACCIDENTS, HIFF 2014 and Screenwriters Lab 2013) returns to the festival with her prize-winning sophomore feature. Based on Nadav Lapid’s 2014 Israeli drama, THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER follows Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a Staten Island teacher who accidentally discovers her young student’s prodigious gift for poetry. Desperately seeking her own creative recognition, Lisa’s fascination with the boy quickly unravels into an all-encompassing fixation. Anchored by Gyllenhaal’s fearless performance, THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER is a electrifyingly unpredictable morality tale about the precarious line between protection and obsession.
A PRIVATE WAR[/caption]
A PRIVATE WAR (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Matthew Heineman In an industry defined by those willing to place themselves in the midst of tremendous danger, photojournalist Marie Colvin (Academy-Award® nominee Rosamund Pike) distinguished herself as one of the world’s most celebrated war correspondents. In his feature narrative debut, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman (CARTEL LAND, CITY OF GHOSTS) pays tribute to Colvin’s extraordinary life both on and off the battlefield. Portrayed with rebellious conviction by Pike, and aided by a supporting cast including Jamie Dornan and Stanley Tucci, A PRIVATE WAR is a thrilling look at one individual’s devotion to bringing a voice to the voiceless.
BEAUTIFUL BOY (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Felix van Groeningen
Adapted from father and son David and Nic Sheff’s best-selling memoirs, HIFF alum Felix van Groeningen (THE MISFORTUNATES, HIFF 2009 and THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN, HIFF 2013) chronicles the struggle with drug addiction that threatened to tear their family apart in this emotionally charged drama. Passionately led by Academy Award®-nominees Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet (following up his breakthrough role in last year’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME), BEAUTIFUL BOY portrays their story as a heartbreaking—and ultimately inspiring—story of a family struggling to stay on top of the waves of recovery and relapse as Nic moves in and out of his father’s life.
BEN IS BACK (USA)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Peter Hedges
On Christmas Eve, the Burns family is stunned by the unexpected arrival of their son Ben (Academy Award® nominee Lucas Hedges), returning home for the first time after entering rehab for opioid addiction. His mother, Holly (Academy Award® winner Julia Roberts), is quick to eagerly welcome her son in, while the rest of the family are more skeptical of the reasons for his surprise return. As Ben is torn between proving his sobriety and falling into his old ways, Roberts perfectly portrays a mother struggling with her own warring instincts in this affecting look at one family’s struggle with a national epidemic.
CAPERNAUM (Lebanon)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Nadine Labaki
Scraping by on the chaotic streets of Beirut, 12-year-old Zain (Zain al Rafeea) is one of many children born into an uncertain future in the city’s slum. Living a deeply troubled life on the streets and branded the sole caretaker of an abandoned toddler, Zain makes the desperate move of suing his negligent parents for giving him life and trapping him in a hostile world. Utilizing a cast of non-professional actors (including two revelatory performances from its child leads), Lebanese director Nadine Labaki’s Cannes Jury Prize-winner is a stirring slice of social-realist protest cinema, driven equally by righteous anger and enduring empathy, and sure to be one of the most talked about films of the year.
EVERYBODY KNOWS (France/Spain/Italy)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Transplanting his trademark psychological drama from his native Iran to the foothills of Spain, two-time Academy Award®-winning director Asghar Farhadi (THE PAST [HIFF 2014], THE SALESMAN [HIFF 2017]) returns with a story of secrets and intrigue in Spanish wine country. Returning to her childhood home to celebrate a family wedding, Laura (Penélope Cruz) finds long-simmering tensions coming to the surface when her daughter suddenly disappears amidst a power outage, with her distanced family and ex (Javier Bardem) the most likely suspects. Beautifully realized and constantly engrossing, Farhadi has crafted another masterful thriller with a deep ensemble cast of Spanish legends, led by Bardem, Cruz, and Bárbara Lennie.
GREEN BOOK (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Peter Farrelly
It’s 1962 America, and impeccably stylish jazz musician Don Shirley (Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali) needs to hire a bodyguard to get him safely from venue to venue on his upcoming Southern tour. Enter Tony “Lip” Valelonga (Viggo Mortensen): a loud-mouthed Italian-American bouncer who’s quicker to enter a situation fists first if it means coming out on top. Together, the unlikely pair set out on a road trip through the American South, using the Negro Motorist Green Book as a guide to find welcoming lodging; along the way, they forge a surprising camaraderie in this heartwarming and comedic true story.
ROMA (Mexico)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Inspired by the early 1970’s Mexico City of his childhood, celebrated auteur Alfonso Cuarón (GRAVITY, CHILDREN OF MEN, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) returns with this semi-autobiographical look at a middle-class family making a life for itself within a time of political turbulence and patriarchal rule. Filmed on a giant canvas in 65mm and utilizing stunningly detailed black and white photography, ROMA recreates the world of his past with a cinematic grandeur and vibrancy. Acting as his own cinematographer and working with a remarkable cast of largely unknown actors, Cuarón places the viewer in the middle a world alive with the anxious energy of the period, while paying respect to the individuals that would help to shape his life.
THE HAPPY PRINCE (Germany/Belgium/Italy)
Director: Rupert Everett
In the final three years of his life (1897-1900), Oscar Wilde finds himself adrift. Coming off the heels of his trial for indecency and subsequent imprisonment, Wilde lives out his last days in exile, moving between a small group of enduring friends (Colin Firth, Edwin Thomas) under assumed names and torn between whether to go back to his ex-lover (Colin Morgan) or estranged wife (Emily Watson). Written, directed by, and starring Rupert Everett as the ailing Wilde, THE HAPPY PRINCE is at once a moving evocation of the literary genius’ final act and a stirring paean to the brilliant wit that endured to his last moments.
THE HATE U GIVE (USA)
Director: George Tillman Jr.
As a way to escape the limited options of the streets she grew up on, sixteen-year-old black teenager Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is torn between two lives: one at school amidst her predominantly rich, upper-class white classmates, and another within her working-class neighborhood. But Starr’s dual life is torn apart when a reunion with a childhood sweetheart ends in tragedy at the hands of a local police officer, forcing her to take a side amidst a swelling of protests in the local community. Adapting Angie Thomas’s award-winning novel to the big screen with the same sense of urgency that shot it to the top of the bestsellers list, THE HATE U GIVE is a stirring look at one teenager’s personal awakening.
THE PUBLIC (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Emilio Estevez
As the day’s activities wind down and library workers Stuart (Emilio Estevez) and Myra (Jena Malone) prepare to close for the day, a group of homeless patrons decide to stage an act of rebellion when they refuse to leave the building to find somewhere to sleep in the wintry night. Soon the scene outside becomes a carnival of riot gearwearing officers and local news reporters, leading to a standoff between the city’s have’s and have-not’s. Aided by a deep supporting cast, including Jeffrey Wright, Michael K. Williams, and Alec Baldwin, writer, director, and star Emilio Estevez continues to showcase his skills as a gifted multi-hyphenate force with his latest ode to the struggles of the disenfranchised.
TO DUST (USA)
Director: Shawn Snyder
Shmuel (Geza Rohrig, last seen at HIFF with 2015’s SON OF SAUL), a Hasidic cantor living in upstate New York, is unable to cope with the untimely death of his wife. Struggling to find religious solace in the face of tremendous grief and plagued by nightmares about his wife’s decaying body, Shmuel looks to Albert (Matthew Broderick), a community college biology professor, to teach him more about the decomposition process facing her. In director Shawn Snyder’s darkly comic first feature, the two form an unlikely bond via clandestine biological experiments, despite the blasphemous consequences.
WIDOWS (UK/USA)
Director: Steve Mc Queen
From Academy Award®-winning director Steve Mc Queen (12 YEARS A SLAVE) and co-writer and bestselling author Gillian Flynn (GONE GIRL) comes a blistering, modernday thriller set against the backdrop of crime, passion and corruption. WIDOWS is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Oscar® winner Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms. WIDOWS also stars Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, Lukas Haas and Brian Tyree Henry.
WILDLIFE (USA)
Director: Paul Dano
In 1960s Montana, Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds his family at yet another crossroads when he loses his job at the local golf course. With a wildfire raging in the surrounding mountains, Jerry decides to join a group of firefighters and leaves his wife Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and teenage son (Ed Oxenbould) on their own in their small town, where both begin to question the stability of the life they’ve known for so long. With this astonishingly well-realized directorial debut, Paul Dano reveals himself to be a director of considerable emotional depth in this melancholic look at the steady decline of the nuclear family, anchored by Mulligan’s towering central performance.
Monrovia, Indiana[/caption]
MONROVIA, INDIANA (USA)
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Turning his attention away from the large-scale city institutions that have defined his work for much of the past decade, legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman aims his camera towards the residents of Monrovia, Indiana: a small midwest town with a population of just over 1,000. Observing life in this middle-American community, Wiseman moves between a variety of locales, ranging from the churches and farms that have defined the region for centuries to the gun shop visits, school performances, and Freemason society meetings that showcase the town’s daily rituals. Through it all, Wiseman creates a remarkable space for contemplation of a type of community rarely depicted on screen, despite the undeniable role these towns play in contemporary American politics.
A MURDER IN MANSFIELD (USA)
Director: Barbara Kopple
Academy Award® winner Barbara Kopple’s latest documentary explores the ramifications of a horrific crime that shook the small town of Mansfield, Ohio. In 1990, 12-year-old Collier stepped onto the witness stand during the most explosive murder trial in the history of his hometown. Many locals still remember the boy’s dramatic testimony—blaming his father, a prominent doctor, for the murder of his mother Noreen. Twenty-six years later, Collier returns, seeking to heal the lingering trauma associated with the crime and confront his imprisoned father, who continues to withhold his admission of guilt in the events that changed so many lives.
THE PANAMA PAPERS (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Alex Winter
Leaked by an anonymous source to journalists in 2015, The Panama Papers were an explosive collection of 11.5 million documents, exposing the use of secretive offshore companies to enable widespread tax evasion and money laundering. Largely viewed as the largest data leak in history, the release of the Papers had wide-reaching implications, incriminating 12 current or former world leaders, 128 politicians or public officials, and various celebrities and public figures (among others). In his expansive documentary, director Alex Winter speaks to the journalists who worked to ensure the release, and examines how it reshaped our understanding of corruption amidst the highest forms of government, along with the ongoing effects on global inequality.
THE PROPOSAL (USA)
Director: Jill Magid
Hidden away in a vault in Switzerland lies the professional archive of Mexico’s most renowned architect Luis Barragán, now fiercely protected by its sole owner, who has almost completely restricted access to the public over the last 20 years. Determined to relocate the archive back to Mexico City, American conceptual artist, writer, and filmmaker Jill Magid initiates a dialogue with the owner, and in the process, begins to construct her own piece ruminating on the dangers of cutting off accessibility to an artist’s work from the outside world. With this provocative and haunting film, Magid challenges the perception of who truly controls an artist’s legacy and how the world should engage with their work.
ROLL RED ROLL (USA)
Director: Nancy Schwartzman
In 2012, the sleepy town of Steubenville, Ohio made international news when a whistleblowing blogger discovered a set of disturbing online evidence documenting the sexual assault of a teenage girl by star members of the high school football team. Examining the complicated motivations of the perpetrators, bystanders, and community leaders who actively denied and dismissed the event, documentarian Nancy Schwartzman attempts to unpack the harmful attitudes at the core of their unconscionably complicit behavior. Timely and undeniably affecting, ROLL RED ROLL goes behind the headlines to uncover the deeply entrenched, social media-fueled “boys will be boys” culture at the root of sexual assault in America.
SHIRKERS (USA)
Director: Sandi Tan
Spending her days seeking refuge in zines, bootlegs, and American independent cinema, teenager Sandi Tan found herself among the first generation of Singapore’s burgeoning counterculture movement when she began working on her DIY-labor of love film SHIRKERS in the early 90s. But Sandi and her co-conspirators’ dreams of beginning a new film movement were crushed when Georges, her mysterious American mentor, disappeared with the entirety of the footage without warning. Two decades later, Tan and her collaborators return to the footage they lost in order to grapple with the movement their optimism inspired—and the man who tore it away from them—in this singular look at one artist’s attempt to reckon with the past.
THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD (USA)
Director: Morgan Neville
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND was to be Orson Welles’s grand comeback, until years of financial, legal, and creative issues halted the completion of the CITIZEN KANE director’s final work. Now nearly 50 years later, Oscar®-winning documentary director Morgan Neville (20 FEET FROM STARDOM, WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR) looks back at the winding and nearly unbelievable story of the making of the film, created guerrilla-style by a director living in exile, and the decades of failure that came to define the project’s legacy. Aided by Peter Bogdanovich, Frank Marshall, Beatrice Welles, and other living collaborators, THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD is a lively tribute to one of cinema’s true giants.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING (USA)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Tom Donahue
One year after the Harvey Weinstein allegations ignited the #MeToo movement, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING offers a comprehensive look at the film industry’s role in reinforcing gender dynamics over the last century, and the resounding call for action pushing back. Speaking with a tremendous group of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Meryl Streep, Jessica Chastain, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Reese Witherspoon, and countless others, the film stands as a timely testament to the urgent need for change facing both the entertainment industry and society as a whole.
TIME FOR ILHAN (USA)
Director: Norah Shapiro
On November 8, 2016, Ilhan Omar—a young, hijab-wearing mother-of-three—made history as the first Somali Muslim woman to be elected to legislative office in the United States. With incredible access to Omar’s campaign, documentarian Norah Shapiro follows the candidate and her team on the trail as they attempt to unseat the 43-year incumbent in a hard-fought race to represent the country’s largest Somali community. At a time of tremendous political turmoil, TIME FOR ILHAN intimately chronicles the inspiring journey of one of the nation’s brightest rising political stars and offers a fresh perspective on the American Dream.
THE TRUTH ABOUT KILLER ROBOTS
New York Premiere
Director: Maxim Pozdorovkin
As defined by science fiction giant Isaac Asimov, the first law of robotics states, “A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” So what happens once we live in an era where the law has already been broken? Using three recent case studies of moments in which robots have caused the death of a human as a starting point, director Maxim Pozdorovkin creates an equally thought-provoking and wryly provocative survey of just how much we’ve allowed robots into our lives, and the extent to which our often unnoticed reliance on machines may have already defined our fate.
Birds of Passage[/caption]
BIRDS OF PASSAGE (Mexico, Colombia, Denmark)
New York Premiere
Director: Christina Gallego, Ciro Guerra
In the follow-up to his visually stunning foreign language Oscar®-nominated EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (HIFF 2015), director Ciro Guerra depicts a single Colombian family who find themselves increasingly forced into the violence and capitalist pull of the country’s burgeoning drug trade. Co-directed alongside his longtime collaborator Cristina Gallego, BIRDS OF PASSAGE provides a visceral and multi-faceted look at the two-decade rise of the Colombian drug trade through the eyes of the indigenous communities who both helped to shape it and were subsequently devastated by it. Sprawling in scope and filled with a sense of surreal beauty, Guerra and Gallego deliver an unparalleled crime saga. Selected as Colombia’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®.
BURNING (South Korea)
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Years after leaving his small northern hometown for Seoul, an aspiring writer (Yoo Ahin) unexpectedly runs into a childhood acquaintance (Jeon Jong-seo). Their chance encounter soon blossoms into a tentative relationship, until her return from an impromptu trip with a mysterious new companion (Steven Yeun, The Walking Dead) sets in motion an accidental love triangle that soon morphs into something much more sinister. Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, director Lee Changdong’s masterful film became one of the most celebrated titles of the last decade upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival—an exhilarating thriller that is as precise as it is undefinable.
COLD WAR (Poland)
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
In the midst of tremendous political upheaval, two folk musicians meet in post-war Poland, where one attempts to escape a troubled past while the other increasingly questions the pair’s role in the country’s propaganda machine. Soon they fall in love and find fame in the smoke-lit bars of Eastern Europe, setting in motion a relationship that will span decades and cross borders. Sumptuously shot in beautiful black and white, Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski (in the follow-up to his Foreign Language Academy Award® winner IDA) returns to his home country with an achingly seductive tale of love and loss.
DEAD PIGS (USA/China)
Director: Cathy Yan
Against the backdrop of urban development, gentrification, and thousands of discarded pigs mysteriously floating down the Yangtze River, a brassy salon owner, lonely busboy, trust-fund princess, expat architect, and bumbling farmer find their lives unexpectedly converging in Cathy Yan’s sprawling directorial debut. Yan, a participant in the 2016 HIFF Screenwriters Lab and the recipient of support from the inaugural Melissa Mathison Fund, effortlessly weaves together the individual narratives of five Shanghai residents in her biting satire. Based on true events, DEAD PIGS is a wicked and whimsical examination of contemporary China’s ongoing clash between traditionalism and modernization.
THE GUILTY (Denmark)
Director: Gustav Möller
Following a suspension, police officer Asger Holm (a hypnotic Jakob Cedergren) is reassigned as an emergency dispatcher. During one seemingly typical night he receives a unusually distressing call, and slowly realizes that the woman on the other end of the line has been kidnapped. Confined to his desk with only his direct line of communication to aid him, Holm must act without delay in order to save her. Winner of audience awards at Sundance, Rotterdam, Montclair and more, first-time director Gustav Möller experiments with the boundaries of traditional narrative to create one of the year’s most suspenseful thrillers.
HAPPY AS LAZZARO (Italy)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Within an impoverished Italian countryside estate, a group of sharecroppers spend their days harvesting tobacco for their overbearing Marchesa, while the wide-eyed, innocent local Lazzaro (first-time actor Adriano Tradiolo) is at once beloved and taken advantage of by his fellow workers. This life continues on in the town, until Lazzaro’s involvement in a kidnapping scheme at the hands of the Marchesa’s entitled son sets in motion a string of events that will push him towards a place and time far from his rustic home. Blending the lines between Italy’s history of neo-realism and bucolic fables into a transfixing parable of the country’s modern day society, director Alice Rohrwacher’s (CORPO CELESTE, HIFF 2011) third feature is a stunning achievement of contemporary European cinema.
I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (Romania/Czech Republic/France/Bulgaria/Germany)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Radu Jude In the latest provocation from Romanian director Radu Jude, local theater director Mariana Marin (Ioana Iacob) prepares to stage a public recreation of the 1941 Odessa Massacre, an often-ignored ethnic cleansing in which tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews were murdered at the hands of Romanian soldiers. As Mariana attempts to push back on both calls for censorship from a city representative looking for a more traditional display of nationalist pride and a burgeoning mutiny amongst her cast of local volunteers, Jude crafts a timely and constantly engaging examination of the ways in which barbarism is not only defined by its perpetrators, but by those insistent on pushing it to the sidelines of history as well.
LETO (Russia)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Kirill Serebrennikov
As the political repression of the USSR enters its final decade, Mike Naumenko (Roman Bilyk), frontman of the early 1980s Leningrad band Zoopark, welcomes a new singer that will soon break out far past the reach of their comparatively underground rock scene. Looking back at the music landscape of his youth, director Kirill Serebrennikov has crafted a sprawling portrait of a vibrant scene alive with the riotous, uncontrollable energy of the era. Filled with an electrifying soundtrack, LETO provides a nostalgic, yet un-romanticized look at a period that seemed to exist almost entirely outside of both what had come before and was yet to come in its native country.
NON-FICTION (France)
Director: Olivier Assayas
Internationally acclaimed French auteur Olivier Assayas (CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA, HIFF 2014) returns to the festival with this charmingly playful comedy. Facing both a rapidly changing industry and the lingering feeling that his relationship with his wife (Juliette Binoche), a professional actress, is growing stale, publishing executive Alain (Guillaume Canet) struggles to find his place while dealing with an oafish author (Vincent Macaigne) and significantly younger new recruit (Nora Hamzawi). As his perfectly cast ensemble move between dinner parties and bedrooms, Assayas crafts a deliciously mischievous look at the difficulty of adapting to today’s new-media world.
PRIVATE LIFE (USA)
Director: Tamara Jenkins
Feeling the pressure of repeated failed attempts to have a child, middle-aged New York couple Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Richard (Paul Giamatti) seem to have run out of options when their step-niece Sadie (HIFF 2018 Breakthrough Artist Kayli Carter) arrives at their doorstep looking for a place to crash. When Sadie agrees to donate her eggs and become the last piece of their fertility puzzle, the three form an unconventional bond as they set about creating a family. With her first film in 10 years, director Tamara Jenkins (THE SAVAGES) and her wonderful cast craft a knowingly tender portrait of the pressures facing one middle-class family.
[caption id="attachment_29298" align="aligncenter" width="926"]
MANBIKI KAZOKU(Shoplifters) by KORE-EDA Hirokazu[/caption]
SHOPLIFTERS (Japan)
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
The winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, prolific Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda (LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, HIFF 2013) returns to the festival with a nuanced, heartbreaking look at a family of misfits living in the margins of contemporary Tokyo. Making a life for themselves by shoplifting from local grocery stores and finding food where they can, the film’s central family find their impoverished but tranquil life threatened when they take a young girl under their wing, and her abusive parents fight back for custody. An impassioned plea for those struggling to stay afloat, this is another must-see from one of international cinema’s greatest filmmakers. Selected as Japan’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®.
STYX (Germany/Austria)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Wolfgang Fischer
Rike (Susanne Wolff), a forty-year-old woman working contentedly as a successful doctor in the city, finally fulfills a lifelong dream when she uses an annual holiday to set sail on a solo voyage from Gibraltar to Ascension, an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Following an intense storm, Rike’s holiday is interrupted by the discovery of a badly damaged and overloaded refugee boat, with over one hundred passengers’ lives threatened and her calls for help unanswered. Director Wolfgang Fischer crafts a stunning story of survival, as well as a striking allegory for the sometimes impossible task of acting to save those imperiled by an impassive system.
WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY (USA)
Director: Madeleine Olnek
Literary icon Emily Dickinson (Molly Shannon) breaks free from her public persona as a famously prudish spinster and claims her status as a vibrant lesbian hero. Balancing raucous humor with tender romance, Shannon establishes Dickinson as a spirited artist who drew inspiration from her passionate, lifelong affair with her secret lover, Susan Dickinson (Susan Ziegler). In the delightfully irreverent WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, writer/director Madeleine Olnek refreshingly upends the false narratives that have historically dominated the poet’s life and work, and examines the way we as a society choose to write and remember our powerful women.
WOMAN AT WAR (France/Iceland/Ukraine)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Fifty-year-old choir teacher Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) has, on the surface, an uneventful life in her Icelandic countryside home. By day a pillar of the local community, Halla leads a secret life as an eco-terrorist, devoting herself to a campaign against the aluminum industry by sabotaging local electric pylons and spearheading factory sieges. When the balance of her dual life is threatened by the approval of a longstanding adoption request, she is forced to decide whether to sacrifice the cause for the desire to settle down. Examining the nuanced relationship between the personal and the political with an unexpectedly offbeat, comic tone, WOMEN AT WAR is a stirring tale from emerging Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson.
BLACK MOTHER (USA)
Director: Khalik Allah
Filmmaker, photographer, and Long Island resident Khalik Allah’s second feature is, much like his debut film FIELD N*****, a mesmerizing documentary portrait. Allah casts his lens on two dissonant worlds on the island of Jamaica, showcasing the sacred and profane alike. Switching among multiple formats, from the raw texture of super 8mm film, to videotape, to HD video, Allah skillfully creates another intimate and daring portrait of kaleidoscopic beauty, revealing Jamaica—the birthplace of his mother—as a blessed place, dreamlike, full of rhythm and seduction.
THE LAST RACE (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Michael Dweck
Long Island is the birthplace of American stock car racing, but today, only one racetrack remains: Riverhead Raceway. Established in 1949 on an initially rural part of Long Island, the land has seen its value skyrocket in the subsequent years. Now worth over $10 million, the octogenarian track owners Barbara and Jim Cromarty struggle to keep the bulldozers at bay. In his debut feature, acclaimed visual artist Michael Dweck explores the issues of class divide and corporate interest that have impacted both the racing industry and region as a whole in this beautiful, visceral, mesmerizing ode to a dying American tradition. *Also screening as part of Documentary Competition Section.
ONLY THE WIND IS LISTENING (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Emily Anderson
Set against the backdrop of an unforgiving Montauk winter, the lives of a fisherman and a writer intertwine as they attempt to navigate off-season loneliness. *Also screening as part of the Shorts Playing Before Features.
STILL PLAYS WITH TRAINS (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Ross Kauffman
In the basement of his East Hampton home, John Scully reconstructs his idyllic 1950s childhood in the form of one of the world’s largest model train sets. *Also screening as part of the Shorts Playing Before Features.
Watergate[/caption]
WATERGATE (USA)
Director: Charles Ferguson
Few moments loom larger on the collective conscious of contemporary American history than the Watergate investigation, and the subsequent resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974. Now over 40 years later, filmmaker Charles Ferguson utilizes new interviews with surviving subjects from all sides of the investigation—including reporters, prosecutors, senators, congressmen, and former members of the Nixon administration—to shine a new light on the landmark case. Following up his 2008 expose on the financial crisis INSIDE JOB, which landed him an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, Ferguson’s WATERGATE is a stunning, all-encompassing look at a scandal that, until recently, stood without parallel in US politics
ROMA[/caption]
The New Orleans Film Festival (NOFF) revealed one more Centerpiece Film: 
ROMA[/caption]
The 21st SCAD Savannah Film Festival organized by Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) will screen a record total of 164 films; and will kick off on Saturday, October 27, with the Opening Night Gala Screening of 
Green Book[/caption]
The Toronto International Film Festival announced its award winners at the closing ceremony with the People’s Choice Award and $15,000 cash prize going to Peter Farrelly for VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM
LION OF THE FUTURE
“LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to:
YOM ADAATOU ZOULI (THE DAY I LOST MY SHADOW)
by Soudade Kaadan (Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanon, France, Qatar)
ORIZZONTI
ORIZZONTI
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM to:
KRABEN RAHU (MANTA RAY)
by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng (Thailand, France, China)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR to:
Emir Baigazin
for the film OZEN (THE RIVER) (Kazakhstan, Poland, Norway)
SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE to:
ANONS (THE ANNOUNCEMENT)
by Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun (Turkey, Bulgaria)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS to:
Natalya Kudryashova
in TCHELOVEK KOTORIJ UDIVIL VSEH (THE MAN WHO SURPRISED EVERYONE)
by Natasha Merkulova e Aleksey Chupov (Russia, Estonia, France)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR to:
Kais Nashif
in TEL AVIV ON FIRE by Sameh Zoabi (Luxembourg, France, Israel, Belgium)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:
Pema Tseden
for JINPA by Pema Tseden (China)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM to:
KADO
by Aditya Ahmad (Indonesia)
VENICE SHORT FILM NOMINATION FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2018 to:
GLI ANNI
by Sara Fgaier (Italy, France)
VENICE CLASSICS
VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY ON CINEMA to:
THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION
by Peter Bogdanovich (USA)
VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST RESTORED FILM to:
LA NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO
by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Italy, 1982)
VENICE VIRTUAL REALITY
BEST VR AWARD (IMMERSIVE STORY) to:
SPHERES
di Eliza McNitt (USA, France)
BEST VR EXPERIENCE AWARD (FOR INTERACTIVE CONTENT) to:
BUDDY VR
by Chuck Chae (South Korea)
BEST VR STORY AWARD (FOR LINEAR CONTENT) to:
L’ÎLE DES MORTS
by Benjamin Nuel (France)
COLLATERAL AWARDS
HFPA Award – HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) Presented to three filmmakers (director, producer) from the Orizzonti category awarded for Best Film, Best Director and Special Jury Prize
Casa Wabi – Mantarraya Award (Fundación Casa Wabi – Mantarraya Group) To the director winner of the Award for a Debut Film of the 75th Venice Film Festival
FIPRESCI Award (International Federation of Film Critics) Napszállta (Sunset) by László Nemes Best Film from Orizzonti and from the parallel sections: Lissa Ammetsajjel (Still Recording) by Saeed Al Batal and Ghiath Ayoub
SIGNIS Award (International World Catholic Association for Communication) ROMA by Alfonso Cuarón Special Mention: 22 JULY by Paul Greengrass
Leoncino d’Oro Award (Agiscuola) WERK OHNE AUTOR by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Cinema for UNICEF: What you gonna do when the world’s on fire? by Roberto Minervini Francesco Pasinetti Award (Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani) CAPRI-REVOLUTION by Mario Martone Special Pasinetti Award: SULLA MIA PELLE by Alessio Cremonini ALESSANDRO BORGHI and JASMINE TRINCA Brian Award (UAAR, Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti) SULLA MIA PELLE by Alessio CremoniniQueer Lion Award (Associazione di Promozione Sociale Queer Lion) JOSÉ by Li Cheng
ARCA Cinemagiovani Award Best Italian Film in Venice: CAPRI-REVOLUTION by Mario Martone Best Film of Venezia 75: WERK OHNE AUTOR by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
CICT – UNESCO “Enrico Fulchignoni” Award (Conseil International du Cinema et de la Télévision) EL PEPE, UNA VIDA SUPREMA by Emir Kusturica
FEDIC Award (Federazione Italiana dei Cineclub) SULLA MIA PELLE by Alessio Cremonini Special Mention FEDIC: RICORDI? by Valerio Mieli Mention FEDIC Il Giornale del Cibo: I VILLANI by Daniele De MicheleFondazione Mimmo Rotella Award JULIAN SCHNABEL and WILLEM DAFOE
Lanterna Magica Award (Associazione Nazionale C.G.S.) AMANDA by Mikhael Hers
Gillo Pontecorvo Award (Istituto Internazionale per il cinema e l’audiovisivo dei paesi latini) Best co-production for a debut film: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by Tang Gaopeng
Smithers Foundation Award (International Council of Film and Television at UNESCO and the Observatory on Cultural Communication at U.N.) A STAR IS BORN by Bradley Cooper Special Mention: THE MOUNTAIN by Rick Alverson
Interfilm Award for Promoting Interreligious Dialogue (International Interchurch Film Organisation) TEL AVIV ON FIRE by Sameh Zoabi
Green Drop Award (Green Cross Italia) AT ETERNITY’S GATE by Julian Schnabel WILLEM DAFOE
Premio Soundtrack Stars (Free Event and SNGCI) Best Soundtrack: CAPRI-REVOLUTION by Mario Martone, music by Sacha Ring and Philipp Thimm Best original song: A SUSPIRIUM by Thom Yorke for the film Suspiria by Luca Guadagnino Special Mention: JUDY HILL for the film What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire by Roberto Minervini
Sun Film Group Audience Award (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) LISSA AMMETSAJJEL (STILL RECORDING) by Saeed Al Batal and Ghiath Ayoub
Circolo del Cinema di Verona Award (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) BETES BLONDES (BLONDE ANIMALS) by Maxime Matray and Alexia Walther
Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia & International Award for the Best Technical Contribution (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) LISSA AMMETSAJJEL (STILL RECORDING) by Saeed Al Batal and Ghiath Ayoub
Award for Best Short Film SIC@SIC 2018 (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) MALO TEMPO by Tommaso Perfetti
Award for Best Director SIC@SIC 2018 (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) GAGARIN, MI MANCHERAI by Domenico De Orsi
Award for Best Technical Contribution SIC@SIC 2018 (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) QUELLE BRUTTE COSE by Loris Giuseppe Nese
Label Europa Cinemas Award (Giornate degli Autori) JOY by Sudabeh Mortezai
BNL People’s Choice Award (Giornate degli Autori) RICORDI? by Valerio MieliGdA Director’s Award (Giornate degli Autori) C’EST ÇA L’AMOUR by Claire Burge
HRNs Award (Human Rights Nights Association) A Letter to a Friend in Gaza by Amos Gitai Special Mention: PETERLOO by Mike Leigh Special Mention: 1938 DIVERSI by Giorgio Treves
Sorriso diverso Award (Ass. studentesca “L’università cerca lavoro”, UCL) Best Film: UN GIORNO ALL’IMPROVVISO by Cirio D’Emilio
NuovoImaie Award (Artists’ Rights in collaboration with SNGCI and SNCCI) Linda Caridi and Giampiero De ConcilioSfera 1932 Award (Consorzio Venezia e il suo Lido with Seguso Vetri d’Arte – Murano dal 1397) CAPRI-REVOLUTION by Mario Martone
UNIMED Award (Mediterranean Universities Union) A TRAMWAY IN JERUSALEM by Amos Gitai
La Pellicola d’Oro Award (Association “Articolo 9 Cultura & Spettacolo” and “S.A.S. Cinema”) FRANCO RAGUSA Special effects for the film Suspiria KATIA SCHWEIGGL Best tailor for the film Capri-Revolution SARTORIA ATELIER NICOLAO DI STEFANO NICOLAO Lifetime Achievement
Lizzani Award – ANAC (Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici) CAPRI-REVOLUTION by Mario Martone
Premio Vivere da Sportivi, Fair play al cinema (Vivere da sportivi: a scuola di fair play Assoc.) What you gonna do when the world’s on fire? by Roberto Minervini Special Mention: ZEN SUL GHIACCIO SOTTILE by Margherita Ferri Special Mention: Lissa ammetsajjel (Still Recording) by Saeed al Batal and Ghiath Ayoub
Edipo Re Award (Università degli Studi di Padova e ResInt Rete dell’Economia Sociale Internazionale) LISSA AMMETSAJJEL (STILL RECORDING) by Saeed Al Batal and Ghiath Ayoub
If Beale Street Could Talk[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center today announced the 30 films for the Main Slate of the 56th New York Film Festival taking place September 28 to October 14, 2018.
This year’s Main Slate showcases films from 22 different countries, including new titles from celebrated auteurs, extraordinary work from directors making their first NYFF bows, and captivating features that wowed audiences at international festivals. Five films in the festival were honored at Cannes, including Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or–winner 
Ben is Back[/caption]
The Toronto International Film Festival today unveiled the first round of films premiering in the Gala and Special Presentation programs of the upcoming 43rd edition. Of the 17 Galas and 30 Special Presentations, today’s announcement includes 13 features directed by women.
“We have an exceptional selection of films this year that will excite Festival audiences from all walks of life,” said Handling. “Today’s lineup showcases beloved auteurs alongside fresh voices in filmmaking, including numerous female powerhouses. The sweeping range in cinematic storytelling from around the world is a testament to the uniqueness of the films that are being made.”
“Every September we invite the whole film world to Toronto, one of the most diverse, movie-mad cities in the world. I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to put together a lineup of Galas and Special Presentations that reflects Toronto’s spirit of inclusive, passionate engagement with film. We can’t wait to unveil these films for our audience.”
The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2018.