The 2019 AFI Latin American Film Festival will take place September 12–October 2 at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. Celebrating its 30th edition this year, the festival honors Ibero-American cultural connections during National Hispanic Heritage Month. This year’s festival will showcase 53 films, nearly 40% of the films are directed by women.
The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) announced the 2019 Golden Space Needle Audience and Juried Competition Awards and the top prizes – Golden Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film went to Tel Aviv on Fire, directed by Sameh Zoabi, and We Are the Radical Monarchs won the Golden Space Needle for Best Documentary.
The Seattle International Film Festival announced today the complete lineup and as part of this year’s celebration of women in comedy, the Festival will celebrate the work of Regina Hall by presenting her with the Seattle International Film Festival Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema. In addition to the award presentation, the acclaimed actor is slated for an on-stage interview on Sunday, June 2 at 2:00 PM at SIFF Cinema Egyptian. Following Ms. Hall’s tribute, she will introduce Support the Girls, Andrew Bujalski’s film which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.
The 11th edition of Hola Mexico Film Festival will open with the Los Angeles premiere of The Good Girls ( Las niñas bien) on Friday, May 31, 2019 at the Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood. The film, directed by Alejandra Márquez Abella, is a satirical critique of Mexico’s bourgeoisie class. Inspired by María Guadalupe Loaeza’s book by the same name, the film stars Ilse Salas, Flavio Medina, Cassandra Ciangherotti, and Paulina Gaitan and is produced by Gabriela Maire and Rodrigo S. González.
This Changes Everything, a pivotal documentary examining historic and contemporary gender inequity in the American film and television industries, will open the 36th edition of Miami Dade College’s acclaimed Miami Film Festival, on Friday, March 1st at the historic Olympia Theater. Appearing on camera are leading Hollywood women Meryl Streep, Geena Davis, Sandra Oh, Rosario Dawson, Zoe Saldana, Jessica Chastain, Taraji P. Henson, Cate Blanchett, Amandla Stenberg, Natalie Portman, Reese Witherspoon, Shonda Rhimes, Jill Soloway and many more advocating for meaningful change.
11 films competed for nine awards in the Competition section as well as six film in the “New Chinese Cinema” for the Best New Chinese-language Film of the Year at the 3rd International Film Festival & Awards Macao (“IFFAM” or the “Film Festival”). The Film Festival screened 54 spectacular films this year and winners were revealed at the Awards Ceremony on Friday night.
The Competition section once again spotlighted first and second-time feature film directors this year, pitting 11 films against each other for nine accolades attributed by the jury and the Macao Audience Choice Award, of which the winner was voted by local audiences. The 11 films include “School’s Out”, “The Guilty”, “Clean up”, “The Good Girls”, “Ága”, “Scarborough”, “Suburban Birds”, “White Blood”, “All Good”, “Jesus” and “The Man Who Feels No Pain” with Best Film awarded to “Clean up.”
The new competition section “New Chinese Cinema” pitted six films against each other including “Dear Ex”, “Baby”, “Xiao Mei”, “Up the Mountain”, “Fly by Night” and “The Pluto Moment”. “Up the Mountain” took home the Best New Chinese-language Film of the Year.
Besides the above awards, an array of other accolades was presented at the Awards Ceremony to commend outstanding films and filmmakers for their achievements. Internationally-acclaimed film director and Jury President of the 3rd IFFAM, Chen Kaige, directed his first film “Yellow Earth” in 1984, which garnered a number of awards and ushered in the new era for Chinese cinema. Recognized as one of the Chinese film classics, his acclaimed masterpiece “Farewell My Concubine” (1993) won the Palme d’Or at the 46th Cannes Film Festival in the same year, making Chen the only Chinese director who has received this top accolade to this day. At the Awards Ceremony, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR Government, Alexis Tam, presented the “Spirit of Cinema” Achievement Award to film director Chen Kaige.
In addition, the NETPAC Award went to “Suburban Birds” (presented by Mimi Plauché, Sunny Joseph and Marco Martins, jury members from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC)). The Asian Blockbuster Film 2018 went to the film “Crazy Rich Asians”, whereas the Variety Asian Star: Up Next Award went to five actors and actresses as follows: Anne Curtis, Iqbaal Ramadhan, Zaira Wasim, Xana Tang and Ryan Zheng Kai.
At Eternity’s Gate[/caption]
From November 30 to December 8, 2018, festival-goers and cinema-lovers alike will discover no fewer than 80 films coming from 29 different countries at the 17th Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM). The Festival with open with At Eternity’s Gate directed by Julian Schnabel, the remarkable biopic that depicts the most celebrated period of the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh will open the Festival.
The line-up is divided into several sections, the main ones including the Official Competition; Gala Screenings; Special Screenings; The 11th Continent; Moroccan Panorama; Jamaa El-Fna Square Screenings; Audio-described Cinema; and a Tribute section. International Film Festival.
Fourteen (14) films, six directed by women, are in the running to win the Marrakech Etoile d’Or (or, the Gold Star), in the Official Competition. Tributes will be made to four great names in cinema, namely: Robert De Niro, Jillali Ferhati, Agnès Varda, and Robin Wright.
Her Smell by Alex Ross Perry[/caption]
Ranging from period pieces to police dramas, and even incorporating elements of sci-fi, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled today the 12 feature films that comprise the 2018 Platform lineup. The program’s lineup includes four features (30%) directed or co-directed by women, and seven titles that feature strong women in leading roles. Hailing from the Americas, Europe, and Asia, all but two of the titles will be making their World Premiere at the Festival. Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel’s Jessica Forever is the standout feature directorial debut in the program.
Now in its fourth year, Platform is the Toronto International Film Festival’s juried program that champions risk-taking, with a lineup of up to 12 works with high artistic merit and a bold directorial vision. A three-person jury selects the winner of the Toronto Platform Prize, an award of $25,000 CAD made possible by Air France, which will be presented to the best film in the lineup at the Awards Ceremony on the last day of the Festival.
Previous titles that have screened as part of the program include Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin (2017), Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country (2017), Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016), Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2016), and Eva Husson’s Bang Gang (2015).
