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.
From acclaimed auteurs to emerging directors to visual artists that push the limits of documentary film, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) announced 70 selected documentary film titles to the program sections Frontlight, Masters, Paradocs, Paradocs: Amsterdam Art Weekend at IDFA, and Best of Fests, plus a Lifetime Achievement Award for Jørgen Leth. The new selections include world premieres from Oeke Hoogendijk, Louise Detlefsen, Louise Kjeldsen, and Basir Mahmoud.
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam announced the first film selections for IDFA 2019, taking place November 20th to December 1st. The curated program sections include 54 titles from the new focus programs It Still Hurts, Re-releasing History, and The Villain, the Retrospective and Top 10 of Guest of Honor Patricio Guzmán, and a special tribute section to D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
The 2019 Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla Int’l Film Festival taking place from March 19th – 24th in Tampa Bay, Florida, announced the 31 films on the Feature Film Competition Lineup. The festival will kick-off its 13th year with The Hummingbird Project starring Alexander Skarsgård, Jesse Eisenberg, Salma Hayek; and close with Family starring Taylor Schilling, Bryn Vale, Brian Tyree Henry.
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.
The Brink is a startling new documentary directed and filmed by Alison Klayman (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Take Your Pills) that follows former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon as he takes his effort to spread extreme nationalism from the U.S. to the rest of the world. With unprecedented access, Klayman’s fly-on-the-wall historical document employs a vérité approach that aims to expose Bannon’s tactics, including his relationship with the media. The Brink received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and opens theatrically in New York at the IFC Center (and in Los Angeles) on Friday, March 29. A national expansion will follow.
Sundance Film Festival rounds out this year’s 2019 program with additions to the Documentary Premieres and Special Events sections spotlighting two controversial personalities – Steve Bannon and Michael Jackson. The Festival will take place in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 24 to February 4, 2019.