Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
150 films from 60 different countries have been selected to be screened at the 28th Stockholm International Film Festival that takes place from the November 8th to the 19th.
A third of the films in this year’s festival program are directed by first-time filmmakers, the festival is also joined by legends such as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave.
After a long and successful Hollywood-career 80 year old Vanessa Redgrave makes her debut as a director with the documentary Sea Sorrow. The film focuses on the global refugee crisis and is a part of this years Spotlight – Change.
This years Visionary Award recipient is the director Pablo Larraín. Larraín is the director behind the Academy Award-nominated Jackie (2016); he is now attending the Stockholm Film festival with his latest film Neruda.
The premiere movie of this year’s film festival is the critically acclaimed film The Shape Of Water by the director behind the Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro also won the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year.
A selection of other films that will be screened are: Thelma by Joachim Trier, Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino, The Party by Sally Porter, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh and last but not least Downsizing by Alexander Payne.
Thelma (2017)
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28th Stockholm International Film Festival Announces Lineup, THE SHAPE OF WATER, DOWNSIZING and More
[caption id="attachment_25167" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
150 films from 60 different countries have been selected to be screened at the 28th Stockholm International Film Festival that takes place from the November 8th to the 19th.
A third of the films in this year’s festival program are directed by first-time filmmakers, the festival is also joined by legends such as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave.
After a long and successful Hollywood-career 80 year old Vanessa Redgrave makes her debut as a director with the documentary Sea Sorrow. The film focuses on the global refugee crisis and is a part of this years Spotlight – Change.
This years Visionary Award recipient is the director Pablo Larraín. Larraín is the director behind the Academy Award-nominated Jackie (2016); he is now attending the Stockholm Film festival with his latest film Neruda.
The premiere movie of this year’s film festival is the critically acclaimed film The Shape Of Water by the director behind the Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro also won the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year.
A selection of other films that will be screened are: Thelma by Joachim Trier, Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino, The Party by Sally Porter, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh and last but not least Downsizing by Alexander Payne.
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More Films -THE LEARS, Trudie Styler’s FREAK SHOW, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Added to Virginia Film Festival
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The Lears[/caption]
The 2017 Virginia Film Festival has added more films and special guests including actor Anthony Michael Hall, who will come in for a screening of his film The Lears. Other highlighted guests include director Trudie Styler, who will discuss her film Freak Show; actor Noel Fisher, who will take part in a panel discussion about the acclaimed new National Geographic Channel Iraq War series The Long Road Home; and actor Nick Robinson, who joins writer/director/actor William H. Macy for a screening of Macy’s new film Krystal. The Festival’s Closing Night Film will be Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age love story Call Me by Your Name.
The Lears is a quirky black comedy that stars Bruce Dern as Davenport Lear, a world-renowned architect who summons his dysfunctional children to a weekend family retreat to test their love in a modern-day derivative of Shakespeare’s classic King Lear. Actor, producer, and director Anthony Michael Hall, who plays Davenport’s son Glenn Lear in the film, first burst on the film scene in the 1980s with a string of unforgettable turns in the John Hughes classics including Sixteen Candles, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science. His other film credits include Out of Bounds, Edward Scissorhands, and Six Degrees of Separation. Hall also played the lead role in the popular USA Network series The Dead Zone from 2002-2007.
Noted actor and producer Trudie Styler makes her directorial debut with Freak Show, based on the 2007 New York Times bestselling Young Adult novel by James St. James about a gay and eccentric teenage boy who reacts to an incident of insidious bullying by deciding to run for homecoming queen. The campaign draws wide attention to Billy’s advocacy for all teenagers letting their freak flag fly. The film, which features a stellar cast including Abigail Breslin, Alex Lawther, and Bette Midler, recently had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Trudie Styler has a long and successful track record as a producer, including Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch from director Guy Ritchie; Girl Most Likely, which stars Kristen Wiig; Filth, starring James McAvoy; Ten Thousand Saints, starring Ethan Hawke; and American Honey, which stars Shia LaBeouf and won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. Styler will be joined by the film’s producer Celine Rattray for a post-screening discussion.
Nick Robinson, known to many for his role as Zach in Jurassic World, most recently starred in the Warner Bros. and MGM drama Everything, Everything. He also just wrapped production on Strange But True, where he leads an all-star cast including Amy Ryan, Brian Cox, and Greg Kinnear. Other credits include Kings of Summer and an unforgettable guest spot on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. He will attend the Festival for a post-screening discussion for his role in William H. Macy’s Krystal.
The Virginia Film Festival also announced Call Me by Your Name as its Closing Night Film. Based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman, this transcendent story of first love, set against the backdrop of northern Italy in the summer of 1983, follows Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a highly-cultured teenager whose sophistication about music and literature is juxtaposed with his naivety about love. Upon meeting American scholar Oliver (Armie Hammer), his father’s charming intern, the two form an undeniable bond that grows vulnerably and passionately toward young, new love. The film by director Luca Guadagnino displays a raw portrait of a kind of love and sexual awakening that blossoms without fear or consequences.
’63 Boycott – The latest from famed documentarian Gordon Quinn about the 1963 boycott of Chicago schools by more than 200,000 students in protest of racial segregation.
Beetlejuice – Award-winning cinematographer Tom Ackerman will discuss his work on this groundbreaking Tim Burton film.
The Last Stop – Director Todd Nilssen’s exposé on the troubled teen reform industry.
Mood and Memory – In a series of eleven photo films, young authors, media artists, and media specialists from Austria and Germany approach a variety of stories and themes ranging from a young girl in Aleppo, a Somali farmer, and more.
My Art – Artist Laurie Simmons’ makes her feature film debut, also starring alongside daughters Lena and Grace Dunham in the story of an artist with a stable job and life, but an endless yearning for respectability in the art world. Simmons will participate in a post-screening discussion.
Roll With Me – A paraplegic former drug addict sets out to become the first person to push an ordinary wheelchair from California to New York.
Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me – The first major documentary about one of the most fascinating careers in the history of entertainment, this film follows the legendary singer, dancer, and actor’s rise to stardom, and a life lived across flashpoints of American society from the Depression through the 1980s.
The Science of Pixar – Masterclass senior scientist and lead of the Research Group at Pixar Animation Studios Tony DeRose will work in tandem with Sara Maloni (Department of Mathematics), Earl Mark (School of Architecture), and Light House Studio to offer a free masterclass for their students and the general public. The workshop will focus on physical simulation and the mathematics of surface modeling that DeRose developed at Pixar, as well as a discussion of his career path.
Short Films – More than 50 short films screened before feature screenings and in different packages based on similar themes and genres, including narrative, documentary, experimental, and animated.
Thelma (from Norway) – Rounding out the list of now ten spotlight films recently submitted by their countries for consideration in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category at the 2018 Academy Awards, Thelma is about a college student who starts to experience seizures as a result of supernatural abilities.
Tonsler Park – Internationally renowned artist and UVA cinematography professor Kevin Everson uses 16mm black-and-white film to observe the democratic process at Charlottesville voting precincts on November 8th, 2016, providing a portrait of the working-class African-American public officials who ran the polls, while enabling citizens to vote in a democracy that has systematically abused them.
Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems From the Murder Capital of the World – Rescued from the streets of Pedro Sula, Honduras, seventy girls at Our Little Roses orphanage find their voices in poetry about love, family, and betrayal as they heal from the traumas of their past, while transitioning into an uncertain future.
Wild Honey – An offbeat, romantic comedy about an unsuccessful phone-sex operator who is unhappy, aimless, and living at home with her mother until she hits it off with a mysterious caller and impulsively flies across the country to meet him.
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40th Denver Film Festival to Spotlight ‘LADY BIRD’, ‘I, TONYA’, ‘MOLLY’S GAME’
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Lady Bird[/caption]
Actress Greta Gerwig directorial debut Lady Bird starring Saoirse Ronan will kickoff the 40th Denver Film Festival which takes place November 1 to 12, 2017. I, Tonya, the Tonya Harding biopic, directed by Craig Gillespie, and starring Margot Robbie, will close out the festival on Saturday, November 11.
Other spotlight films include Submission directed by Richard Levine, starring Stanley Tucci and Kyra Sedgwick screening on Friday, November 3; and The Ballad of Lefty Brown directed by Jared Moshe, starring Bill Pullman and Peter Fonda will have a special “spotlight” screening on Wednesday, November 8.
Molly’s Game starring Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba in the directorial debut from writer Aaron Sorkin, is featured on the “Big Night” of the festival on Thursday, November 9.
And, on closing night, there will also be a red carpet matinee of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by writer/director Martin McDonagh, starring Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson on Saturday, November 11.
Special Presentations
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME – Italy/France/Brazil/USA / Director: Luca Guadagnino Based on an acclaimed novel, the screenplay for this sensual and transcendent tale of first love from Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino was penned by none other than that master of exquisite longing, James Ivory CHAPPAQUIDDICK – USA / Director: John Curran How did one of the most powerful political dynasties in US history preserve its legacy in the aftermath of a tragic scandal? Directed by John Curran, this historical drama centers on the media maelstrom surrounding Chappaquiddick, as the 1969 car accident involving US Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) and a young campaign worker (Kate Mara) came to be known. Ed Helms and Jim Gaffigan co-star. DARKEST HOUR – UK / Director: Joe Wright Gary Oldman stars in director Joe Wright’s thrilling fictionalized account of Winston Churchill’s first weeks in office during the early days of World War II. With the support of his wife of 31 years, Clemmie (Kristin Scott Thomas), the witty and brilliant Prime Minister must rally a nation to fight against incredible odds and change the course of world history forever. HUMAN FLOW – Germany / Director: Ai Weiwei In recent years, over 65 million people around the world have fled their homes to escape famine, climate change and war. This epic documentary journey through 23 countries by the internationally renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei gives powerful visual expression to both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. IN THE FADE (Aus dem nichts) – Germany/France / Director: Fatih Akin When her husband Nuri and young son Rocco are killed in a bomb attack, Katja begins a search for answers that makes the mourning process all the more painful and difficult. The trial of two neo-Nazi suspects pushes her to the edge, but there’s simply no alternative for the pursuit of justice. Diane Kruger won Best Actress at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for her role in this raw, gripping drama. ISMAEL’S GHOSTS (Les fantomes d’smael) – France / Director: Arnaud Desplechin Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Marion Cotillard star in this meta-romantic thriller from France about a filmmaker caught in a triangle between his current love and a woman from his past—who happens to have been presumed dead for 20 years. LAST FLAG FLYING – USA / Director: Richard Linklater Thirty years after they served together in Vietnam, three military vets (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne) reunite for a different type of mission: to bury Doc’s son, a young Marine killed in Iraq. In this thoughtful and moving road movie, director Richard Linklater’s characters wrestle with the impact war has had on their lives. THE LEISURE SEEKER – Italy/France / Director: Paolo Virzì From acclaimed Italian filmmaker Paolo Virzì, this new take on an old genre—the road movie—stars Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a runaway couple on an unforgettable journey to recapture their passion for life and their love for each other in the faithful old RV they call the Leisure Seeker. NOVITIATE – USA / Director: Margaret Betts Melissa Leo (The Fighter, The Big Short) leads a strong cast of rising stars in this Vatican II–era drama about a rural Tennessean girl’s first true love—which just so happens to be for God. Granted a scholarship to Catholic school, young Cathleen is quickly drawn into the mysterious romanticism—eroticism, even—of a life devoted to worship and servitude. THE PARTY – UK / Director: Sally Potter The more is anything but the merrier in this brutally funny satire on the British upper crust. Politico Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) throws an insufferable dinner party whose every guest (Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Cillian Murphy among them) is worse than the last—all the better for the audience to bask in writer-director Sally Potter’s zinger-rich dialogue. SOLLERS POINT – USA / Director: Matthew Porterfield This gritty drama follows small-time drug dealer Keith from the confines of house arrest back onto the racially tense streets of Baltimore. Although he wants to make a new start, his father (Jim Belushi), a retired steelworker, has little patience with his unemployed son—and the allure of criminal life in his depressed neighborhood may be impossible to withstand. VIGILANTE: THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF CURTIS SLIWA AND THE GUARDIAN ANGELS – USA / Director: David Wexler A forceful tribute to community self-defense, this documentary tells the remarkable story of Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who vividly narrates his initiation into a life of vigilantism in the crime-ridden New York City of the ’70s and ’80s, touching on everything from the crack epidemic to his defense of infamous subway gunman Bernard Goetz.KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM FINALISTS
THE HAPPINESS OF THE WORLD – Poland / Director: Michał Rosa This period drama from Polish filmmaker Michał Rosa is set in 1939 in a village on the German-Polish border, where the residents of a tenement house endure the rising tension of the coming war. When a Warsaw journalist embeds himself in their building in search of an anonymous author, their secrets begin to surface, intertwined with a mysterious Jewish beauty named Róża. IN THE FADE– Germany/France / Director: Fatih Akin When her husband Nuri and young son Rocco are killed in a bomb attack, Katja begins a search for answers that makes the mourning process all the more painful and difficult. The trial of two neo-Nazi suspects pushes her to the edge, but there’s simply no alternative for the pursuit of justice. Diane Kruger won Best Actress at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for her role in this raw, gripping drama. QUALITY TIME – Netherland/Norway / Director: Daan Bakker Dutch filmmaker Daan Bakker’s sly, strange tragicomedy about a quintet of 30-something misfits is told in five distinct parts—all employing their own inventive visual and narrative styles to convey a sense of the dislocation, dysfunction and absurdity dictating the lives of Koen, Stefaan, Kjell, Karel and Jef. RADIANCE – Japan/France / Director: Naomi Kawase In this heartfelt drama from Japan, Misako is a passionate translator of films for the visually impaired. At a screening, she meets Nakamori, an older photographer who is slowly losing his eyesight—but who can teach her to see what’s right in front of her, provided she’s open to the possibilities. THELMA – Norway/France/Denmark/Sweden / Director: Joachim Trier When shy, religious young Thelma goes to study at a university in Oslo, she begins to experience violent seizures that lead to an encounter with beautiful classmate Anja—while also revealing supernatural abilities. As the girls’ friendship deepens, both the terrifying implications of Thelma’s powers and tragic secrets from her past come to light in this paranormal thriller from Norway. UNDER THE TREE – Iceland / Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson When Baldwin and Inga’s next door neighbours complain that a tree in their backyard casts a shadow over their sundeck, what starts off as a typical spat between neighbours in the suburbs unexpectedly and violently spirals out of control.MAYSLES BROTHERS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FINALISTS
32 PILLS: MY SISTER’S SUICIDE – USA / Director: Hope Litoff She’s beautiful, artistic, beloved—and she can’t stand to be alive. Documentary filmmaker Hope Litoff seeks to piece together the life and death of her sister Ruth; in the process, she gives a devastating account of the toll her investigation takes on her own mental health. ALPHAGO – USA / Director: Greg Kohs The ancient Chinese game called Go is said to have more board configurations than there are atoms in the universe. This fascinating documentary takes viewers from the coding terminals of Google DeepMind in London to a tournament in Seoul, where a legendary Go master is set to compete against a computer program in an epic battle of wits: can the human brain outsmart artificial intelligence? DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN? – USA / Director: Travis Wilkerson Filmmaker Travis Wilkerson turns the camera on his own family to expose a dark secret in this unflinching personal documentary. Returning to his hometown of Dothan, Alabama, he discovers that his great-grandfather, a white supremacist, once shot and killed a black man but was never charged with the murder—and that any historical trace of his victim is gone. FACES PLACES – France / Director: JR, Agnès Varda At 89 years old, Agnès Varda, one of the leading figures of the French New Wave, teamed up with acclaimed 33-year-old French photographer JR to co-direct this enchanting documentary-meets-road movie. As they travel around France in JR’s truck producing large-scale photographic portraits of the locals they meet along the way, they reveal the humanity in their subjects—and themselves. NO MAN’S LAND– USA / Director: David Byars Director-cinematographer David Byars had remarkable access to the protesters occupying Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during their 41-day armed standoff with federal authorities in 2016. This gripping documentary reveals the inner workings of the insurrection as it examines what draws Americans to the concept of revolution. STRAD STYLE – USA / Director: Stefan Avalos Meet Danny Houck—a down-on-his-luck, Stradivarius-obsessed recluse in rural Ohio who has somehow convinced a famous European concert violinist that he can make a copy of one of the world’s rarest and most valuable violins. A hilariously poignant and suspenseful documentary about the true meaning of chutzpah.AMERICAN INDEPENDENT NARRATIVE AWARD FINALISTS
DISCREET – USA/Brazil / Director: Travis Mathews After years in hiding and struggling to control his demons, an eccentric drifter returns home and discovers that his childhood abuser, the center of his pain, is still alive. GOLDEN EXITS – USA / Director: Alex Ross Perry Writer-director Alex Ross Perry (The Color Wheel, SDFF34) explores the torment of modern domestic life, with a fabulous ensemble cast—including Mary-Louise Parker, Jason Schwartzman, Chloë Sevigny, Keith Poulson and the Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz—on hand to embrace both the dramatic and darkly comedic sides of despair. THE MISOGYNISTS – USA / Director: Onur Tukel This dark, claustrophobic satire stars Dylan Baker (Happiness) as Cameron, a lonely businessman celebrating Trump’s election in a hotel room after a bitter separation from his wife of 35 years. As the night progresses, friends, colleagues and strangers come and go, debating politics and what it means to be an American—among them a pair of prostitutes facing an existential crisis of their own. MR. ROOSEVELT – USA / Director: Noël Wells Comedian Noël Wells (Saturday Night Live, Master of None) wrote, directed and stars in this charming comedy. Like Wells, Emily has racked up millions of YouTube hits for her video sketches. But unlike Wells, she can’t quite make it in Los Angeles. When she receives news of a death in the family, she rushes back to Austin to find her ex-boyfriend—and everything else—has changed. THE STRANGE ONES – USA / Directors: Christopher Radcliff, Lauren Wolkstein A young man and a boy travel by car through a wooded American landscape. Who are they? Where are they going? Are they on the run? The boy seems disturbed, haunted by memories of nameless violence, and the mood is one of foreboding—but the more we learn, the less we understand in this artful coming-of-age mystery. THIRST STREET – France/USA / Director: Nathan Silver While on layover in Paris, a lonely American flight attendant has a rendezvous with a seedy nightclub bartender and becomes tangled in a web of misunderstandings, masochistic tendencies, & unrequited amour fou in this homage to the erotic dramas of 1970s Europe from returning fest guest Nathan Silver (Actor Martinez, DFF39).TRUE GRIT BEST COLORADO FEATURE FILM AWARD FINALISTS
COLORADO FEATURE FILMS
AMY & SOPHIA – UK/USA / Director: Adam Lipsius An unlikely friendship forms when two troubled girls, haunted by their past, forge a shared future by using art as an escape from the present in this magical-realist drama. GNAW – USA / Director: Haylar Garcia Jennifer Conrad is a small-town girl starting over in the big city. Fleeing an abusive relationship, all she wants is a chance to become whole again. But that’s hard to do when something is eating at you while you sleep—literally. This horror flick by Colorado filmmaker Haylar Garcia delves with equal gusto into paranormal and psychological phenomena. HOME TRUTH – USA / Directors: Katia Maguire, April Hayes In 1999, Colorado mother Jessica Gonzales experienced every parent’s worst nightmare when her three young daughters were killed after being abducted by their father. Determined to make sure their deaths were not in vain, Gonzales became an advocate for domestic-violence victims, taking her case to the US Supreme Court and beyond. At once troubling and inspiring, this documentary tells her story. HONDROS – USA/Iraq/Liberia/Libya / Director: Greg Campbell Pulitzer Prize-finalist photographer Chris Hondros spent a decade documenting wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Liberia and Libya, until he was killed while on assignment for Getty Images in 2011. Directed by fellow journalist and lifelong friend Greg Campbell, this eloquent documentary pays tribute to the late photojournalist’s courageous and compassionate career. JONBENET’S TRICYCLE – USA / Director: Andrew Novick Andrew Novick is a Mile High legend as (among other things) an obsessive collector. He reveals some of his strangest acquisitions—including JonBenet Ramsey’s tricycle—in this quirky autobiographical documentary, which is also an investigation of the human urge to possess what we value and of the impact pop culture and the media have on our experience of tragedy. LIYANA – Swaziland/USA/Qatar / Directors: Aaron Kopp, Amanda Kopp The lives and extraordinary imaginations of five orphans at a storytelling workshop in Swaziland are captured in this enchanting, moving and highly acclaimed documentary from Colorado filmmakers Aaron and Amanda Kopp. MOVING PARTS – Trinidad and Tobago/USA / Director: Emilie Upczak In this unique personal drama of human trafficking—written and directed by Boulder native Emilie Upczak—Zhenzhen follows her brother to Trinidad and Tobago with the help of a smuggler. When her new restaurant job proves dangerously unpleasant, a local art gallery owner helps her fight to secure her future. WALDEN: LIFE IN THE WOODS – USA / Director: Alex Harvey Shot on location in Colorado, this radical Western re-imagining of Thoreau’s eponymous classic interlaces three narratives that take place over 24 hours to consider the trappings of modern life and the unlikely heroes who dream of escape.COLORADO SHORT FILMS
CHOCOLATE SPOKES – USA / Directors: Brendan Leonard CHOWDER – USA / Director: Justin Tyrrell, Travis Lindner THE DAY BEFORE – USA / Directors: Geoff Marslett DIVING MONKEYS – USA / Director: Elizabeth Henry DREAMSPOOK – FEAR IN LOVE – USA / Directors: Joseph Kolean FED TO FIRE – USA / Director: Joseph Dasteel FINAL FOUR – USA / Directors: Dario Ortega MRS. DRAKE – USA / Director: Caitlin FitzGerald OH, OPHELIA – USA / Directors: Dakota Nanton THE OUTSIDER – USA / Director: Scott Takeda THE ROMANTIC METHOD – USA / Directors: Maggie Hart UNSEEN – USA / Director: Kaleb Kohart
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10 Best Foreign Language Submissions for 2018 Oscars to Compete at Heartland Film Festival
The 26th Heartland Film Festival will debut the inaugural “Foreign Language Best Picture Contender” sidebar featuring 10 films submitted as the respective country’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Academy Awards®. Each selection will play once during Heartland’s 11-day celebration of international independent film.
“Each year, Heartland Film Festival proudly showcases a healthy percentage of foreign language films which are much admired, roundly discussed and debated by our audiences,” said International Film Programmer Hannah Fisher. “We present this year – for the first time – a section of films submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration in the category known as ‘Best Foreign Language Film.‘
“We anticipate this program will grow and evolve in stature, in much the same way that that Heartland Film Festival continues to gain international recognition and prominence. Heartland is thrilled to be among the first North American film festivals to showcase these foreign language contenders,” concluded Fisher.
Set to award more than $100,000 in cash prizes across various categories, the 2017 Heartland Film Festival will bestow a $5,000 cash prize to one of these 10 films, as selected by the Festival’s foreign language contender jury.
Heartland Film Festival “Foreign Language Best Picture Contender” Lineup
“One Thousand Ropes” (2016) Country: New Zealand, Director: Tusi Tamales, Distributor: Transmission Films Synopsis: When a father reconnects with his estranged teenage daughter, he is given a rare chance to reshape the future of his family in unexpected ways. “Ayla: The Daughter of War” (2017) Country: Turkey, Director: Can Ulkay Synopsis: The true story or a little orphaned girl and the soldier who fell in love with her. “Saawan” (2017) Country: Pakistan, Director: Farhan Alam, Distributor: Kalaker Films Synopsis: A handicapped nine-year old boy who lives in a valley in the mountains of Balochistan is rejected by his father, intimidated by society, harassed by friends and left alone due to his disability. Strengthened by memories and dreams of the love of his mother, he begins a perilous journey back to his family in the main city. “White Sun” (2016) Country: Nepal, Director: Deepak Rauniyar, Distributor: Kimstim Films Synopsis: A former Maoist rebel struggles to reintegrate with his unwelcoming community and move beyond a painful past. “Newton” (2017) Country: India, Director: Amit Masurkar Synopsis: A government clerk on election duty in the conflict ridden jungle of Central India tries his best to conduct free and fair voting despite the apathy of security forces and the looming fear of guerrilla attacks by communist rebels. “BPM (Beats Per Minute)” (2017) Country: France, Director: Robin Campillo, Distributor: The Orchard Synopsis: In Paris in the early 1990s, a passionate group of activists goes to battle for those stricken with HIV/AIDS, taking on sluggish government agencies and major pharmaceutical companies. “Divine Order” (2017) Country: Switzerland, Director: Petra Volpe, Distributor: Kino Lorber Synopsis: A bucolic alpine village becomes a battleground for social change in 1970 Switzerland. “Reşeba: The Dark Wind” (2016) Country: Iraq, Director: Hussein Hassan Synopsis: Radical Islamist militants attack a village in Iraq where two young Yazidi prepare for marriage. From that moment onwards their lives are turned into a nightmare. “Pomegranate Orchard” (2017) Country: Azerbaijan, Director: Ilgar Najaf, Distributor: Buta Film Synopsis: Gabil returns home to the humble family farmstead, surrounded by an orchard of venerable pomegranate trees; since his sudden departure twelve years ago he was never once in contact. However, the deep emotional scars he left behind cannot be erased from one day to the next. “Thelma” (2017) Country: Norway, Director: Joachim Trier, Distributor: The Orchard Synopsis: A timid young woman leaves her rural home to study in Oslo. She does not understand her unique ability to manipulate her environment.
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92 countries in Competition for Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards
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Pop Aye – Kirsten Tan[/caption]
A record 92 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 90th Academy Awards. Haiti, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Senegal and Syria are first-time entrants.
The 2017 submissions are:
Afghanistan, “A Letter to the President,” Roya Sadat, director;
Albania, “Daybreak,” Gentian Koçi, director;
Algeria, “Road to Istanbul,” Rachid Bouchareb, director;
Argentina, “Zama,” Lucrecia Martel, director;
Armenia, “Yeva,” Anahit Abad, director;
Australia, “The Space Between,” Ruth Borgobello, director;
Austria, “Happy End,” Michael Haneke, director;
Azerbaijan, “Pomegranate Orchard,” Ilgar Najaf, director;
Bangladesh, “The Cage,” Akram Khan, director;
Belgium, “Racer and the Jailbird,” Michaël R. Roskam, director;
Bolivia, “Dark Skull,” Kiro Russo, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Men Don’t Cry,” Alen Drljević, director;
Brazil, “Bingo – The King of the Mornings,” Daniel Rezende, director;
Bulgaria, “Glory,” Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva, directors;
Cambodia, “First They Killed My Father,” Angelina Jolie, director;
Canada, “Hochelaga, Land of Souls,” François Girard, director;
Chile, “A Fantastic Woman,” Sebastián Lelio, director;
China, “Wolf Warrior 2,” Wu Jing, director;
Colombia, “Guilty Men,” Iván D. Gaona, director;
Costa Rica, “The Sound of Things,” Ariel Escalante, director;
Croatia, “Quit Staring at My Plate,” Hana Jušić, director;
Czech Republic, “Ice Mother,” Bohdan Sláma, director;
Denmark, “You Disappear,” Peter Schønau Fog, director;
Dominican Republic, “Woodpeckers,” Jose Maria Cabral, director;
Ecuador, “Alba,” Ana Cristina Barragán, director;
Egypt, “Sheikh Jackson,” Amr Salama, director;
Estonia, “November,” Rainer Sarnet, director;
Finland, “Tom of Finland,” Dome Karukoski, director;
France, “BPM (Beats Per Minute),” Robin Campillo, director;
Georgia, “Scary Mother,” Ana Urushadze, director;
Germany, “In the Fade,” Fatih Akin, director;
Greece, “Amerika Square,” Yannis Sakaridis, director;
Haiti, “Ayiti Mon Amour,” Guetty Felin, director;
Honduras, “Morazán,” Hispano Durón, director;
Hong Kong, “Mad World,” Wong Chun, director;
Hungary, “On Body and Soul,” Ildikó Enyedi, director;
Iceland, “Under the Tree,” Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, director;
India, “Newton,” Amit V Masurkar, director;
Indonesia, “Turah,” Wicaksono Wisnu Legowo, director;
Iran, “Breath,” Narges Abyar, director;
Iraq, “Reseba – The Dark Wind,” Hussein Hassan, director;
Ireland, “Song of Granite,” Pat Collins, director;
Israel, “Foxtrot,” Samuel Maoz, director;
Italy, “A Ciambra,” Jonas Carpignano, director;
Japan, “Her Love Boils Bathwater,” Ryota Nakano, director;
Kazakhstan, “The Road to Mother,” Akhan Satayev, director;
Kenya, “Kati Kati,” Mbithi Masya, director;
Kosovo, “Unwanted,” Edon Rizvanolli, director;
Kyrgyzstan, “Centaur,” Aktan Arym Kubat, director;
Lao People’s Democratic Republic, “Dearest Sister,” Mattie Do, director;
Latvia, “The Chronicles of Melanie,” Viestur Kairish, director;
Lebanon, “The Insult,” Ziad Doueiri, director;
Lithuania, “Frost,” Sharunas Bartas, director;
Luxembourg, “Barrage,” Laura Schroeder, director;
Mexico, “Tempestad,” Tatiana Huezo, director;
Mongolia, “The Children of Genghis,” Zolbayar Dorj, director;
Morocco, “Razzia,” Nabil Ayouch, director;
Mozambique, “The Train of Salt and Sugar,” Licinio Azevedo, director;
Nepal, “White Sun,” Deepak Rauniyar, director;
Netherlands, “Layla M.,” Mijke de Jong, director;
New Zealand, “One Thousand Ropes,” Tusi Tamasese, director;
Norway, “Thelma,” Joachim Trier, director;
Pakistan, “Saawan,” Farhan Alam, director;
Palestine, “Wajib,” Annemarie Jacir, director;
Panama, “Beyond Brotherhood,” Arianne Benedetti, director;
Paraguay, “Los Buscadores,” Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schembori, directors;
Peru, “Rosa Chumbe,” Jonatan Relayze, director;
Philippines, “Birdshot,” Mikhail Red, director;
Poland, “Spoor,” Agnieszka Holland, Kasia Adamik, directors;
Portugal, “Saint George,” Marco Martins, director;
Romania, “Fixeur,” Adrian Sitaru, director;
Russia, “Loveless,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Senegal, “Félicité,” Alain Gomis, director;
Serbia, “Requiem for Mrs. J.,” Bojan Vuletic, director;
Singapore, “Pop Aye,” Kirsten Tan, director;
Slovakia, “The Line,” Peter Bebjak, director;
Slovenia, “The Miner,” Hanna A. W. Slak, director;
South Africa, “The Wound,” John Trengove, director;
South Korea, “A Taxi Driver,” Jang Hoon, director;
Spain, “Summer 1993,” Carla Simón, director;
Sweden, “The Square,” Ruben Östlund, director;
Switzerland, “The Divine Order,” Petra Volpe, director;
Syria, “Little Gandhi,” Sam Kadi, director;
Taiwan, “Small Talk,” Hui-Chen Huang, director;
Thailand, “By the Time It Gets Dark,” Anocha Suwichakornpong, director;
Tunisia, “The Last of Us,” Ala Eddine Slim, director;
Turkey, “Ayla: The Daughter of War,” Can Ulkay, director;
Ukraine, “Black Level,” Valentyn Vasyanovych, director;
United Kingdom, “My Pure Land,” Sarmad Masud, director;
Uruguay, “Another Story of the World,” Guillermo Casanova, director;
Venezuela, “El Inca,” Ignacio Castillo Cottin, director;
Vietnam, “Father and Son,” Luong Dinh Dung, director.
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 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
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Supernatural Thriller THELMA is Norway’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Thelma directed by Joachim Trier has been selected as Norway’s entry for the foreign-language category at the 2018 Oscars.
The Norwegian Oscar committee chose Trier’s fourth feature, which will have its international premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (September 7 to 17) followed by New York Film Festival (September 15 to October 28), from a shortlist of candidates, which also included Norwegian directors Izer Aliu’s Hunting Flies (Fluefangeren) and Jorunn Myklebust Syversen’s The Tree Feller (Hoggeren).
The film which opened last month’s Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund and received the Norwegian Film Critics Prize, will open in the US on November 10th.
Starring Eili Harboe, Thelma portrays Thelma, a young student in Oslo. When she is drawn to another woman, she is overwhelmed by emotions she does not dare acknowledge – and frightening and inexplicable powers are forcing themselves into the open.
“Thelma confirms that Trier is a unique and style-safe film artist of a broad and international format,” explained the Norwegian Oscar committee – “based on his special and character-exploring universe, the film has become an all-embraced, ambitious and personal drama about a young woman’s awakening and detachment.
“Thelma is a film that touches the viewer on several levels, both emotionally and intellectually – it is visually striking, modern in its expression, at the same time with clear references to film classics. With this film Trier, Vogt and their regular group of assistants have delivered a story that will reach a wide audience, and which we strongly believe in as our Oscar candidate,” added chairman of the Oscar committee, managing director Sindre Guldvog, of the Norwegian Film Institute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4lHlIMNNbY
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Alexander Payne’s DOWNSIZING to Close + Final Wave of Films Announced for 2017 Fantastic Fest
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DOWNSIZING[/caption]
The 2017 Fantastic Fest announced its final wave of films, along with Alexander Payne’s miniature masterpiece DOWNSIZING as the closing night film. Rounding out a trio of Fantastic-Fest first-timers making their way to Austin is Cory Finley and his jaw dropping debut THOROUGHBRED, and fan-favorite tough guy extraordinaire Frank Grillo for the World Premiere of his nail-biting getaway drama, WHEELMAN.
In keeping with world premieres, Fantastic Fest announced a fistful of titles that will receive their big screen bows. Screen great Barbara Crampton will be in attendance with director Bradford Baruh for a ride in his chilling APPLECART, featuring over forty minutes of zero gravity footage; Russia’s SALYUT-7 is guaranteed to pop 3D eyes; HAUNTERS: THE ART OF THE SCARE walks us through the world’s most terrifying haunted houses; and TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID delivers a contemporary fairytale from within the world of the mexican cartels.
“I’m incredibly proud of the vast array of filmmaking on display in this year’s program,” said Fantastic Fest Creative Director Evrim Ersoy. “From the most highly acclaimed studio titles to the smallest independent debuts, it’s exhilarating to embrace unique creativity from the four corners of the world. Bringing filmmakers together in a program that highlights the increasing diversity of cinema is truly an honor that we can’t wait to share with our audience.”
Female filmmakers once again deliver powerful voices with three of the most dynamic films of the festival. Angel Robinson will be in attendance to share the controversially kinky true story behind the year’s biggest superhero with PROFESSOR MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN; Lisa Bruhlmann makes a stunning entrance with her fantastical coming-of-age debut BLUE MY MIND; and not to be outdone, first time feature-maker Coralie Fargeat turns the revenge genre upside down with her outrageous femme fatale fiesta, REVENGE.
A mainstay of Fantastic Fest has been showcasing world cinema’s finest exports and this year is no exception. Asia basks in the glory of master Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s return to the apocalyptic fold with BEFORE WE VANISH (Japan), while his countryman Sôichi Umezawa delivers the outlandish midnight spectacle of VAMPIRE CLAY (Japan). South Korea represents with the year’s toughest crime caper, THE MERCILESS, and serial killer shocker V.I.P., while NYAFF award-winner BAD GENIUS represents Thailand. And Taiwan shows school students no mercy with the hyper-violent MON MON MON MONSTERS. Not to be outdone, Europe comes out swinging with Hungarian auteur Kornél Mundruczó’s follow up to WHITE GOD, the stunning JUPITER’S MOON, French filmmakers Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani splash their hyper-stylized western LET THE CORPSES TAN across the screen and Norway’s Joachim Trier delivers one of the most quietly impressive films of the year, the assured THELMA.
The world premiere of Don Hertzfeldt’s WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE 2: THE BURDEN OF OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHTS highlights an animated sidebar that pushes the medium into brave new spaces. Rounding out the fantastical trio is the debut feature from Studio Ponoc, MARY AND THE WITCHES FLOWER, from ex Studio Ghibli key animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and JUNK HEAD, Takahide Hori’s claymation feature that took him over seven years to complete, entirely by himself.
American Genre Film Archive makes its triumphant return to Fantastic Fest with two movies that will rot your libido in the best way. BAT PUSSY, the world’s first X-rated parody, shares the spotlight the world premiere of a brand new 2K transfer of one of the most sought-after lost films in the history of exploitation cinema in a very special secret screening. Additional rep titles include the world premiere of the Takashi Miike-approved 4K restoration of ICHI THE KILLER, the digital remaster of the seminal Indian cult movie BAASHA, and Jean Rollin’s THE NUDE VAMPIRE, presented by Kier-la Janisse in celebration of her new book Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin.
True to form, Fantastic Fest will be re-writing reality once more with a crowded cornucopia of events that invade all corners of the fest. Gross-out grub-gorging spectacle Puke and Explode rumbles once more, notorious VHS archival warriors Everything is Terrible return with an all-new show to both delight and horrify. Comedy legend Gilbert Gottfried will be performing and screening the incredible biographical doc GILBERT, and the seminal Fantastic Debates marks its 10-year anniversary of polemic pugilism in spectacular fashion.
FINAL WAVE OF FILM:
AGFA + SOMETHING WEIRD PRESENT: BAT PUSSY and SECRET SCREENING American Genre Film Archive makes its triumphant return to Fantastic Fest with two movies that will rot your libido in the best way. BAT PUSSY, the world’s first X-rated parody, is what happens when an anonymous smut producer gets inspired by the 1960s BATMAN TV show but only has $5. It’s also what happens when your wildest dreams and most horrifying nightmares collide in an explosion of flaccid stupefaction. Next up, after years of detective work, AGFA presents the world premiere of a brand new 2K transfer of one of the most sought-after lost films in the history of exploitation cinema. LOST GIRLS Book Launch: THE NUDE VAMPIRE presented by Kier-la Janisse THE NUDE VAMPIRE France, 1970 Repertory, 88 min Director – Jean Rollin Jean Rollin’s THE NUDE VAMPIRE (1970) follows a sinister businessman who’s keeping a young vampire girl captive and experimenting on her in the hope that he finds the key to eternal life. The film will be screened in celebration of the launch of the new book from publisher Spectacular Optical, LOST GIRLS: THE PHANTASMAGORICAL CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN, the first examination of Rollin’s work to be written by all women critics, scholars and film historians, and will be introduced by the book’s publisher Kier-La Janisse. 3FT BALL & SOULS Japan, 2017 International Premiere, 93 min Director – Yoshio Kato Four strangers come together to commit suicide using explosives. But they discover that every time they blow up, they’re sent back to just before they killed themselves. APPLECART USA, 2017 World Premiere, 86 min Director – Bradford Baruh An idyllic weekend vacation to a secluded cabin turns deadly when the Pollack family discovers an unconscious woman whose sinister plans will pit the family members against each other. BAASHA India, 1995 Repertory/International Premiere, 165 min Director – Suresh Krissna Superstar Rajinikanth plays a rickshaw driver with a history of violence in this genre-defining musical gangster romance epic from the director of AALAVANDHAN. BAD GENIUS Thailand, 2017 Texas Premiere, 130 min Director – Nattawut Poonpiriya A quartet of high school students are better at cheating than anything you’ve ever done in your life in this epic nail-biter about the standardized tests that level the playing field for all kids, smart and dumb, rich and poor. BEFORE WE VANISH Japan, 2017 North American Premiere, 129 min Director – Kiyoshi Kurosawa Kurosawa’s latest film is a sci-fi thriller about an invasion in which aliens must come to understand humanity through understanding human emotion — most importantly, our collective capacity for love. BLUE MY MIND Switzerland, 2017 North American Premiere, 97 min Director – Lisa Brühlmann BLUE MY MIND follows 15-year-old Mia (Luna Wedler) as she undergoes a life-changing transformation, one that leaves her examining her body and her very existence in a new light. BRIMSTONE & GLORY Mexico, USA, 2017 Regional Premiere, 67 min Director – Viktor Jakovleski Tultepec is a small Mexican town that celebrates its love of fireworks with a yearly week-long festival. This festival is captured in a glorious documentary that is pure cinema. THE CURED Ireland, UK, France, 2017 US Premiere, 95 min Director – David Freyne A zombie virus has hit the world… but it has been cured. What’s next for the ex-zombies who have returned to normal? David Freyne’s debut feature throws lots of food for thought into the mouth of your mind. DARKLAND Denmark, 2017 US Premiere, 113 min Director – Fenar Ahmad An Iraqi doctor in Denmark seeks vigilante justice for his brother’s murder when the police come up short, biting off more than he can chew in a world of gangs, drugs and underground fight rings. FIRSTBORN Latvia, 2017 North American Premiere, 90 min Director – Aik Karapetian Provocative Latvian director Aik Karapetian returns to Fantastic Fest with a new thriller that explores how far a meek architect will go to protect his dignity in the eyes of his wife in the aftermath of an attack. FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES South Africa, 2017 US Premiere, 120 min Director – Michael Matthews A troubled young man returns to the town he fled as a youth and is forced to confront his past (and the town’s difficult future) in this gorgeous Xhosa language western. GEMINI USA, 2017 Special Screening, 93 min Director – Aaron Katz Our understandings of friendship, truth and celebrity are challenged when a heinous crime tests the complex relationship between a tenacious personal assistant (Lola Kirke) and her Hollywood starlet boss (Zoe Kravitz) in Aaron Katz’s latest. GILBERT USA, 2017 Regional Premiere, 99 min Director – Neil Berkeley GILBERT is the story of Gilbert Gottfried as never seen before, both a behind-the-scenes documentary and a poignant look at the life of a comedian who has more layers than most people can imagine. GOOD MANNERS Brazil, France, 2017 North American Premiere, 135 min Directors – Juliana Rojas & Marco Dutra When lonely nurse Clara is hired as a nanny by wealthy Ana, she hardly expects anything like the friendship she finds with the lonely, pregnant woman. However, both women have dark secrets which will engulf all that they hold dear. HAUNTERS: THE ART OF THE SCARE USA, 2017 World Premiere, 88 min Director – Jon Schnitzer Delving behind the scenes of one of America’s most beloved seasonal pastimes, HAUNTERS shows the world of the people who make the scariest houses, mazes and experiences that range from the traditional to the controversial. ICHI THE KILLER – 4K RESTORATION Japan, 2001 Repertory/World Premiere of Restoration, 129 min Director – Takashi Miike The yakuza occupy a murky universe with more twists and turns than the Shinjuku alleys they call home. The mysterious disappearance of a Tokyo mob boss triggers a hunt to find him, dead or alive. The search leads to the city’s most depraved clubs and sex dens and eventually to Ichi, the schizophrenic hitman behind the crime. Even more shocking is the discovery that the mastermind who hired Ichi is a fellow gangster out for revenge. JUNK HEAD Japan, 2017 US Premiere, 114 min Director – Takahide Hori Humanity is dying. It’s been 1200 years since our rebellious clone workforce moved underground, and the only way we can survive is by plunging into the depths to learn more about our terrifying creations. JUPITER’S MOON Hungary, Germany, 2017 North American Premiere, 123 min Director – Kornél Mundruczó The most ambitious science fiction film of the year is also perhaps the most visually stunning. Aryan is a refugee who finds himself with the power to levitate after being shot. Stern is a disgraced, corrupt doctor. The two will meet and alter the entire world. LES AFFAMES Canada, 2017 US Premiere, 100 min Director – Robin Aubert In the remote Quebec countryside, things are not well. A plague has infected the land, affecting almost all the residents of a small village. The survivors have to navigate their new existence as well as deal with the infected with an appetite for flesh. LET THE CORPSES TAN Belgium, France, 2017 US Premiere, 92 min Directors – Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani On a beautiful corner of the Mediterranean, Rhino and his men take refuge after the robbery of 250 kilograms of gold. The plan is simple: Wait and split. But some unwanted visitors are about to turn this idyllic corner into a bloodbath. LETTERKENNY Canada, 2016 US Premiere, 151 min Director – Jacob Tierney The spiritual successors to STRANGE BREW’s Bob and Doug MacKenzie, the rural residents of the fictitious town of LETTERKENNY deliver a hysterical slice of Canadiana in the comedy phenomenon chronicling the daily problems of hicks, skids, hockey players and Christians. THE LINE Slovakia, Ukraine, 2017 North American Premiere, 112 min Director – Peter Bebjak One line is literal, the border between Slovakia and Ukraine. Criminal Adam Krajnak (Tomas Mastalir) crosses it often, smuggling product and people. The other line is metaphorical, and crossing it leads to a death spiral of violence and vengeance. LOVE AND SAUCERS USA/Canada, 2017 Texas Premiere, 67 min Director – Brad Abrahams David Huggins, a 72-year-old man who claims to have lost his virginity as a young man to an extraterrestrial being, turned to art to express his interspecies romance and lifelong relationship with the otherworldly. MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER Japan, 2017 North American Premiere, 102 min Director – Hiromasa Yonebayashi Directing the first film out of Studio Ponoc, Hiromasa Yonebayashi (WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE) creates the dazzling and heartwarming story of an ordinary girl who becomes an extraordinary witch. THE MERCILESS South Korea, 2017 North American Premiere, 117 min Director – Byun Sung-hyun Cribbing liberally from the history of gangster films, Byun Sung-hyun’s hard-boiled Korean crime saga is filled with all manner of murder, deceit, double and triple crosses… and, oh yeah, slap-fighting. MOM AND DAD USA, 2017 US Premiere, 83 min Director – Brian Taylor Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage are seemingly ideal parents until an unknown force causes their town’s adults to murder their offspring. MON MON MON MONSTERS Taiwan, 2017 Regional Premiere, 112 min Director – Giddens Ko A bullied schoolboy is teamed up with his tormentors to do community social work. While on duty, they encounter a strange creature which they kidnap, and take bullying to a whole new level. THE PRINCE OF NOTHINGWOOD France, Germany, 2017 US Premiere, 85 min Director – Sonia Kronlund Meet Salim Shaheen: Afghani auteur, prolific actor and one-man moviemaking industry. Along with his trusted troupe of actors, he defies all the odds in the Middle East to fulfill his dreams of making movies. PROFESSOR MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN USA, 2017 US Premiere, 108 min Director – Angela Robinson In a superhero origin tale unlike any other, this film is the incredible true story of what inspired Harvard psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marston to create the iconic Wonder Woman character in the 1940s. RABBIT Australia, 2017 International Premiere, 99 min Director – Luke Shanahan After a full year, Maude is still stricken by visions of her sister Cleo’s kidnapping. Believing that Cleo is still alive, Maude undergoes a suspenseful journey to find her in this stunning, atmospheric feature debut from Luke Shanahan. RADIUS Canada, 2017 US Premiere, 91 min Directors – Caroline Labrèche & Steeve Léonard When a man wakes up from a car crash with no memory of what happened, his first instinct is to find help. However, as he gets closer to civilization and other people, an ugly truth will rear its head and affect all those who surround him. REVENGE France, 2017 US Premiere, 108 min Director – Coralie Fargeat Three rich male thrill-seekers discover that Jennifer isn’t the human sex doll that they assumed she was when they invited her on their isolated hunting getaway. Jennifer teaches them fundamental lessons about consent in a manner that they — and we — won’t soon forget. RIFT Iceland, 2017 Texas Premiere, 111 min Director – Erlingur Thoroddsen After a phone call from his ex wakes him late one night, Gunnar drives out to a secluded vacation cottage to save Einar from himself, but what awaits him there is mystery and confusion. SALYUT-7 Russia, 2017 World Premiere, 119 min Director – Klim Shipenko Based on a true story, SALYUT-7 is the little-known mission to dock with an unmanned space station in order to stop it from crashing into Earth, a feat never before attempted in space history. THELMA Norway, 2017 Texas Premiere, 116 min Director – Joachim Trier A conservative young woman attending college in Oslo begins to fall in love while discovering her burgeoning supernatural powers in a stunning new film from Norway. THOROUGHBRED USA, 2017 Austin Premiere, 92 min Director – Cory Finley Two teenage girls in suburban Connecticut rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of growing apart. In the process, they learn that neither is what she seems to be, and that a murder might solve both of their problems. TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID Mexico, 2017 World Premiere, 83 min Director – Issa López When her mother suddenly disappears with no one to care for her, young Estrella ends up on the street and joins a gang of children, triggering a dangerous and tragic chain of events in the third feature from Mexican filmmaker Lopez. UNDER THE TREE Iceland, Denmark, Poland, Germany, 2017 US Premiere, 89 min Director – Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson On the outskirts of Reykjavik, the shadow cast by a tree triggers a feud between two neighboring families, with tragic and darkly comic consequences. V.I.P. South Korea, 2017 International Premiere, 128 min Director – Hoon-jung Park A notorious serial killer who happens to be the son of a defecting DPRK official sends South Korea’s National Intelligence, police from both states and even international brass into a mad political scramble in this thrilling neo-noir. VAMPIRE CLAY Japan, 2017 US Premiere, 80 min Director – Soichi Umezawa A class of art school hopefuls is stalked by blood-thirsty, flesh-hungry clay in this bizarre practical effects-heavy horror assault from THE ABCs OF DEATH 2 segment director and longtime special makeup effects artist Umezawa. VIDAR THE VAMPIRE Norway, 2017 Texas Premiere, 82 min Directors – Thomas Aske Berg & Fredrik Waldeland Christian farmer Vidar has a boring life, living with his mom and tending sheep. When he wishes for more excitement he wakes up undead, hangs out with vampire Jesus and discovers that sometimes the party can go on too long. WHEELMAN USA, 2017 World Premiere, 82 min Director – Jeremy Rush Frank Grillo (KINGDOM; CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR) stars as the wheelman, a getaway driver thrust into a high stakes race to survive after a bank robbery goes terribly wrong. With a car full of money and his family on the line, the clock is ticking to figure out who double-crossed him and the only person he can trust… his 14-year-old daughter. All reasons to think fast and drive faster. WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE TWO: THE BURDEN OF OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHTS USA, 2017 World Premiere, 22 min Director – Don Hertzfeldt The highly anticipated follow-up to Don Hertzfeldt’s Oscar-nominated WORLD OF TOMORROW finds Emily Prime swept into the brain of an incomplete backup clone of her future self, who’s on a mission to reboot her broken mind. Continuing the tradition of the first film, WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE TWO was written entirely around candid audio recordings of Hertzfeldt’s five-year-old niece.
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2017 San Diego International Film Festival Unveils Lineup + Sir Patrick Stewart to Receive Award
Actor Sir Patrick Stewart will be the recipient of the Gregory Peck Award for Excellence in Cinema at the 2017 San Diego International Film Festival (SDiFF). The awards will be presented October 5th at The VARIETY Night of the Stars Tribute.
“Patrick Stewart has captivated audiences for years with spectacular performances, from Star Trek to his career defining performance in Logan earlier this year, as well as his Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated performance as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, a role which Mr. Peck made famous more than 40 years earlier. We couldn’t be more excited to honor him this year with the Gregory Peck Award,” said Tonya Mantooth, Executive and Artistic Director of the San Diego International Film Festival.
Created in honor of famed actor and San Diego area native Gregory Peck, with the support of his family, this award is given to an individual whose work has made a profound impact on the art of cinema. Launched in 2014, the first recipient of the award was Alan Arkin, with Annette Bening receiving the award last year.
The festival, now in its 16th year, will run from October 4th through October 8th in San Diego, California, and feature a lineup of 117 films total, 10 Narrative Spotlight Competition films, 18 Narrative Competition films, 12 Documentary Competition films, 5 Documentary Spotlight Competition films, and 72 Short films.
2017 San Diego International Film Festival Line-up
Narrative Spotlight Films
The Ballad of Lefty Brown, Dir. Jared Moshe, USA, West Coast Premiere Breathe, Dir. Andy Serkis, USA, West Coast Premiere Thelma, Dir. Joachim Trier, Norway, United States Premiere Dismissed, Dir. Benjamin Arfmann, USA, World Premiere Dog Years, Dir. Adam Rifkin, USA, West Coast Premiere The Divine Order, Dir. Petra Volpe, Switzerland, Southern California Premiere Juvenile, Dir. Bradley Buecker, USA, West Coast Premiere The Bachelors, Dir. Kurt Voelker, USA, San Diego Premiere Thumper, Dir. Jordan Ross, USA, California Premiere My Friend Dahmer, Dir. Marc Meyers, USA, San Diego PremiereNarrative Competition
Selling Isobel, Dir. Rudolf Buitendach, Sweden/USA, World Premiere Butterfly Caught, Dir. Manny Rodriguez Jr., USA, World Premiere The Lonely Italian, Dir. Lee Farber, USA, World Premiere Juggernaut, Dir. Daniel DiMarco, Canada, North American Premiere Otherlife, Dir. Ben C. Lucas, Australia, North American Premiere Storm Letters of Fire, Dir. Dennis Bots, Netherlands, North American Premiere Room for Rent, Dir. Matt Atkinson, Canada, United States Premiere Under the Rose, Dir. Josue Ramos, Spain, United States Premiere A Prominent Patient, Dir. Julius Sevcik, Czech Republic, Slovakia, United States Premiere Life Hack, Dir. Sloan Copeland, USA, West Coast Premiere Heart, Baby!, Dir. Angela Shelton, USA, San Diego Premiere Hard Surfaces, Dir. Zach Brown, USA, San Diego Premiere The Price, Dir. Anthony Onah, USA, West Coast Premiere Scent of Rain and Lightening, Dir. Blake Robbins, USA, California Premiere GUN, Dir. Sam Upton, USA, Southern California Premiere Entanglement, Dir. Jason James, Canada, San Diego Premiere And Then There Was Eve, Dir. Savannah Bloch, USA, San Diego Premiere 20 Weeks, Dir. Leena Pendharkar, USA, San Diego PremiereSpotlight Documentary Films
The Last Animals, Dir. Kate Brooks, UK/USA, California Premiere Apache Warrior, Dir. David Salzberg & Christian Tureaud, USA, World Premiere WASTED! Story of Food Waste, Dir. Anna Chia & Nari Kye, USA, San Diego Premiere Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall, Dir. Katherine Fairfax Wright, USA, Southern California Premiere Resistance is Life, Dir. Apo W. Bazidi, USA/Turkey, San Diego PremiereDocumentary Competition
Becoming Who I Was, Dir. Moon Chang-Yong & Jeon Jin, South Korea, California Premiere 42 Grams, Dir. Jack C. Newell, USA, California Premiere Herd, Dir. Stefan Morel, Canada, California Premiere Blind Spot; Moments Unseen, Dir. Stefan Morel, Canada, California Premiere Down the Fence, Dir. MJ Isakson, USA, Southern California Premiere Spirit of Discovery, Dir. Eliana Alvarez Martinez, USA, World Premiere RiverBlue: Can Fashion Save the Planet?, Dir. David McIlvride & Roger Williams, Canada, San Diego Premiere Poisoning Paradise, Dir. Keely Shaye Brosnan & Teresa Tico, USA, San Diego Premiere Legion of Brothers, Dir. Greg Barker, USA, California Premiere Mankiller, Dir. Valerie Red-Horse Mohl, USA, San Diego Premiere The Lavender Scare, Dir. Josh Howard, USA, Southern California Premiere Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and Rise of Isis, Dir. Sebastian Junger & Nick Quested, USA, San Diego PremiereShorts Competition
Shorts in front of feature films: Lucky Me, Dir. Thomas Morgan, USA, World Premiere The Horse Whisperer, Dir. Richard Mullane, UK, United States Premiere The Velvet Abstract, Dir. James Hughes, UK, San Diego Premiere Shorts: American Indian Stories: Waabooz, Dir. Molly Katagiri, USA, San Diego Premiere Five Dollars, Dir. Ty Coughenour, USA, San Diego Premiere In the Beginning was Water and Sky, Dir. Ryan Ward, USA, San Diego Premiere Lost Face, Dir. Sean Meehan, Australia/Canada, San Diego Premiere Neemkomok’, Dir. Douglas Cushnie, USA, San Diego Premiere The Gift, Joel Edgerton, USA/Australia, California Premiere Shorts: For Shorts & Giggles: The Bouquet, Dir. Julien Segard & Romain Carciofo, France, San Diego Premiere Ostoja Will Move Your Piano, Dir. Sandra Mitrovic, Serbia, West Coast Premiere Annie Waits, Dir. Marnie Paxton-Harris, UK, San Diego Premiere A Ghost Named George, Dir. Harrison Macks, USA, World Premiere Dollar King, Dir. Drew Pollins, USA, Southern California Premiere The Heist, Dir. Luke Harris, USA, Southern California Premiere Love me Madly, Dir. Emre Okten, USA, World Premiere Shorts: A Stranger in Stranger Land: Picture Wheel, Dir. David O’Donnell, USA/Australia, San Diego Premiere Wyrm, Dir. Christopher Winterbauer, USA, North American Premiere Albedo Absolute, Dir. Vlad Marsavin, USA, Southern California Premiere Time Flies When I am Having Fun, Dir. Johan Tappert, Sweden, West Coast Premiere Cautionary Tales, Dir.Christopher Barrett & Luke Taylor, UK, North American Premiere See You Yesterday, Dir. Stefon Bristol, USA, Southern California Premiere Fairy Tales Anonymous, Dir. Jacob Lundgaard Andersen, USA, San Diego Premier Shorts: Illusion: Gridlock, Dir. Ian Hunt Duffy, Ireland, Southern California Premiere Cul-de-sac, Dir. Damon Russell, USA, San Diego Premiere The Obituary, Dir. Jonathan Thompson, USA, Southern California Premiere Standby, Dir. Daumoun Khakpour & Travis Pulchinski, Canada, United States Premiere The Peculiar Abilities of Mr. Mahler, Dir. Paul Philipp, Germany, California Premiere Frederick, Dir. Ty Coughenour, USA, San Diego Premiere Shorts: Independent Animation: The Wall, Dir.Nick Baker & Tristan Klein, Australia, West Coast Premiere Green Light, Dir. Seongmin Kim, South Korea, Southern California Premiere Tanguito Argentino, Dir. Joaquin Braga, Argentina,Southern California Premiere Wishing Box, Dir. Wenli Zhang & Nan Li, USA, San Diego Premiere Hope, Dir. Michael Scherrer, Switzerland, Southern California Premiere First Bloom, Dir. Tingting Liu, China, San Diego Premiere Revelation: City of Haze, Dir. Mao Qichao, China, San Diego Premiere Karma, Dir. Zhaoyu Zhou, USA, World Premiere Shorts: Heart of a Soldier: Orion, Dir. Spencer Currie, USA, San Diego Premiere Corpsman, Dir. Amanda Larsh, USA, World Premiere One Halloween, Dir. Rebecca Murga, USA, World Premiere Tango on the Balcony, Dir. Minos Papas, USA/Cyprus, Southern California Premiere Wandering Soul, Dir. Josh Tanner, Australia, San Diego Premiere Shorts: Twisted Humor: The Dog with the Woman, Dir. Phoebe Arnstein & Stephen Ledger-Lomas, UK, World Premiere A Done Deal, Dir. Pierre-Marc Drouin and Simon Lamarre-Ledoux, Canada, West Coast Premiere Eat and Drink, Dir. Jaime Figueroa, Spain, North American Premiere Nicole’s Cage, Dir. Josef Brandl, Germany, Southern California Premiere Unleaved Bread, Dir. Wilfried Méance, France, Southern California Premiere Shorts: On Pins and Needles: Will Wilson, Dir. David C. Herman, USA, San Diego Premiere Morning Has Broken, Dir. Olga Chajdas, Poland, United States Premiere Icarus, Dir. Tom Teller, USA, Southern California Premiere Warm Springs, Dir. Sean Wang, USA, San Diego Premiere Game, Dir. Joy Webster, Canada, United States Premiere Standby, Dir. Daumoun Khakpour & Travis Pulchinski, Canada, United States Premiere Shorts: When Worlds Collide: Lost Dogs, Dir. Cullan Bruce, USA, San Diego Premiere The Foster Portfolio, Dir. Danielle Katvan, USA, San Diego Premiere The Transfer, Dir. Michael Grudsky, Germany/Israel, San Diego Premiere Pickle, Dir. Grant Moore, USA, San Diego Premiere Brainstorm, Dir. Christophe Clin, Belgium, San Diego Premiere Temporary, Dir. Milena Govich, USA, San Diego Premiere Shorts: Global Consciousness: Shine, Dir. Barrett Lewis, Daniel Andreani & Austin Bousley, USA, World Premiere Witnesses, Dir. David Koch, France, California Premiere All of Us, Dir. Katja Benrath, Germany/ Kenya, United States Premiere Ravage, Dir. Leon Lee, Canada, West Coast Premiere Citizen, Dir. Robert Bracker, USA, West Coast Premiere The Fare, Dir. Santiago Paladines, Equador/USA, San Diego Premiere Shorts: Student Track: I Have to Kill my Professor, Dir. Jonathan Pickett, USA, World Premiere Dated, Dir. Daniel Lachman, USA, California Premiere Uncle Tommy, Dir. Tan Shi Ying, Singapore, World Premiere Hurt People, Dir. Gabriel Gaurano, Jayden Gillespie & Navin Bose, USA, World Premiere Dibashram, Dir. Weilee Yap, Singapore, World Premiere Head Above Water, Dir. Eric Shahinian, USA, West Coast Premiere Chicken Beauty Pageant, Dir. Nurul Amirah, Singapore, World Premiere
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2017 London Film Festival Unveils Lineup of 242 Feature Films + 128 Shorts
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The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)[/caption]
The 61st BFI London Film Festival today announced its full program, featuring a diverse selection of 242 feature films including 46 documentaries, 6 animations, 14 archive restorations and 16 artists’ moving image features. The program also includes 128 short films, and 67 countries are represented across short film and features.
Alongside the Galas, Special Presentations and films in Competitions, the Festival will show a range of new cinema in sections aka strands titled Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Experimenta and Family. In 2017, the LFF debuts a new strand, Create, featuring films that celebrate artistic practice in all its channels and forms the electricity of the creative process, reflecting London’s position as one of the world’s leading creative cities.
Audiences will have the opportunity to hear some of the world’s creative leaders through the Festival’s acclaimed talks’ series LFF Connects, which features artists working at the intersection of film and other creative industries, and Screen Talks, a series of in-depth interviews with leaders in contemporary cinema. Participants this year include Julian Rosefeldt & Cate Blanchett, David Fincher, Demis Hassabis, Nitin Sawhney, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Ian McEwan and Takashi Miike.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Robin Campillo, 120 BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE) Vivian Qu, ANGELS WEAR WHITE Majid Majidi, BEYOND THE CLOUDS (World Premiere) Nora Twomey, THE BREADWINNER (European Premiere) Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra, GOOD MANNERS Xavier Beauvois, THE GUARDIANS (European Premiere) Andrew Haigh, LEAN ON PETE Andrey Zvyagintsev, LOVELESS Azazel Jacobs, THE LOVERS (European Premiere) Warwick Thornton, SWEET COUNTRY Cory Finley, THOROUGHBRED (International Premiere) Annemarie Jacir, WAJIBFIRST FEATURE COMPETITION
Daniel Kokotajlo, APOSTASY Léa Mysius, AVA Michael Pearce, BEAST (European Premiere) Ofir Raul Graizer, THE CAKEMAKER Gilles Coulier, CARGO Kogonada, COLUMBUS Rungano Nyoni, I AM NOT A WITCH Léonor Serraille, JEUNE FEMME Ana Asensio, MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND Carla Simón, SUMMER 1993 Hlynur Pálmason, WINTER BROTHERS John Trengove, THE WOUNDDOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Maryam Goormaghtigh, BEFORE SUMMER ENDS Elvira Lind, BOBBI JENE Arash Kamali Sarvestani, Behrouz Boochani, CHAUKA, PLEASE TELL US THE TIME (International Premiere) Radu Jude, THE DEAD NATION Shevaun Mizrahi, DISTANT CONSTELLATION Frederick Wiseman, EX LIBRIS – THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY Agnès Varda, JR, FACES PLACES Austin Lynch, Matthew Booth, GRAY HOUSE Brett Morgen, JANE (European Premiere) Lucy Cohen, KINGDOM OF US (World Premiere) Emmanuel Gras, MAKALA Sonia Kronlund, THE PRINCE OF NOTHINGWOODSHORT FILM AWARD
Gabriel Abrantes, THE ARTIFICIAL HUMORS Phil Collins, DELETE BEACH Billie Pleffer, FYSH (International Premiere) Anna Cazenave Cambet, GABBER LOVER Karishma Dube, GODDESS Aegina Brahim, LAWS OF THE GAME Jonathan Vinel, MARTIN CRIES Patrick Bresnan THE RABBIT HUNT Moin Hussain, REAL GODS REQUIRE BLOOD Kibwe Tavares, ROBOT & SCARECROW Kazik Radwanski, SCAFFOLD Harry Lighton, WREN BOYS (World Premiere) The Festival program is organized in strands: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Family, Treasures and Experimenta.LOVE
The Love Gala is the European Premiere of Dominic Cooke’s quietly heart-breaking film debut ON CHESIL BEACH. Saoirse Ronan and rising actor Billy Howle star as a young couple in the early 1960s struggling to physically connect on their honeymoon, impeccably adapted for the big screen by Ian McEwan from his own Man Booker-shortlisted novela. Other highlights in this section include: CLOSE-KNIT, Naoko Ogigami’s quietly subversive and emotionally rich portrait of a transwoman whose maternal feelings are stirred by the arrival of her boyfriend’s 11-year-old niece; THE GROWN-UPS, Maïte Alberdi’s tender and bittersweet documentary portrait of Chileans Anita and Andres, who have Down’s syndrome and are very much in love; the World Premiere of Carlos Marques Marcet’s ANCHOR AND HOPE, a London-set story about modern love and family featuring Oona Chaplin; John Cameron Mitchell’s cosmic ride HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES, sees aliens have landed in 1970s Croydon in a funny, energetic love story starring Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp and Nicole Kidman; the World Premiere of JOURNEYMAN, features Paddy Considine following up his acclaimed debut Tyrannosaur with the story of a boxer who must rebuild his life after a near-fatal injury; GOING WEST, a World Premiere from Norwegian newcomer Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken who delivers a sweetly delicious road movie; LET THE SUNSHINE IN, Claire Denis’ darkly witty drama starring Juliette Binoche as an artist caught up in a series of unsatisfying affairs, and David Gordon Green’s rousing yet devastating true-story drama STRONGER featuring a remarkable performance by Jake Gyllenhaal as a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing.DEBATE
This year’s Debate Gala is Samuel Maoz’s FOXTROT, a film that combines thrilling cinematography with superb performances, and highlights the absurdities of conscripted service. Debate also includes: BIRDS ARE SINGING IN KIGALI, Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze’s hard-hitting drama about the intertwined lives of two refugee survivors reeling from the impact of the Rwandan genocide and containing powerful central performances; the World Premiere of THE CLIMB, Michael Woodward’s debut documentary that charts Greenpeace’s daring all-female team that illegally ascended The Shard in protest against petroleum giant Shell’s plans to dig for oil in the Arctic; the World Premiere of THE FORGIVEN, Roland Joffé’s political drama starring Forest Whitaker as Desmond Tutu and Eric Bana as Piet Blomfeld, asking how far we can go in forgiving past crimes; the World Premiere of ISLAND, Steven Eastwood’s haunting and deeply moving documentary combining observational footage with contemplative shots of the costal landscapes of the Isle of Wight, and set among terminally ill cancer patients, and THE VENERABLE W., Barbet Schroeder’s disturbingly illuminating portrait of Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, who was known for espousing anti-Muslim hatred.LAUGH
This year’s Laugh Gala is Noah Baumbach’s THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED). A stellar cast give uniformly excellent performances, including Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Elizabeth Marvel and Emma Thompson. Through the madcap antics of a neurotic, failure-obsessed clan, Baumbach surfaces bigger questions about how to value family and the meaning of success. Laugh also includes: the World Premiere of Adrian Shergold’s FUNNY COW, which contains a formidable performance from Maxine Peake as an aspiring stand-up comic confronting her violent husband and the sexist Northern England club circuit; INGRID GOES WEST, Matt Spicer’s jet-black stalker comedy brilliantly skewers dangerous obsession and the sham of Instagrammed perfection with wicked and fearless performances from Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza; joy and grace flow out of Dustin Guy Defa’s observational comedy drama PERSON TO PERSON, starring Michael Cera as a reporter keen on quoting (his own) heavy metal lyrics; Daan Bakker’s QUALITY TIME is perfect for lovers of experimental and irreverent cinema offering a portmanteau selection of stories of male arrested development; and Henrik Ruben Genz’s WORD OF GOD is set months after the Chernobyl disaster and provides dark and dirty humour where pretty much nothing is off limits.DARE
The Dare Gala is François Ozon’s frisky new thriller, AMANT DOUBLE, a deliciously duplicitous tale of psychoanalysis and seduction that channels the spirits of Hitchcock and De Palma at their naughtiest and stars Jérémie Renier, Marine Vacth and Jacqueline Bisset. Other highlights in the strand include: Eliza Hittman’s BEACH RATS, a gripping investigation of repressed sexual desire in a hyper-masculine environment; Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi’s touching drama GIANT, set in 19th century Spain and based on the true story of Mikel Jokin Eleizegi, allegedly the tallest man of his time; Semih Kaplanoğlu’s spellbinding dystopian sci-fi, GRAIN in which climate change has caused the nearextinction of human life; Liu Jian’s adult animé HAVE A NICE DAY, a biting, bone-dry satire on contemporary Chinese social mores and featuring plenty of bloodthirsty Tarantino-esque genre thrills; the European Premiere of Bornila Chatterjee’s THE HUNGRY, which reworks Shakespeare’s bloody Titus Andronicus into a macabre modern tragedy set in Northern India; Barbara Albert’s resplendent drama MADEMOISELLE PARADIS, based on the true story of Maria Theresia ‘Resi’ von Paradis, a gifted blind musician and contemporary of Mozart, paraded through Vienna’s courts to perform; Jean Libon and Yves Hinant’s jawdropping and extraordinary documentary SO HELP ME GOD, which details the work of an unorthodox Belgian judge Anne Gruwez as she tackles gruesome crimes, domestic violence and other sordid cases; and WESTERN, director Valeska Grisebach’s contemporary western in which tensions mount between German construction workers and Bulgarian villagers in a small rural town.THRILL
This year’s Thrill Gala is Takashi Miike’s savage and inventive action thriller, BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL, based on the famous manga series by Hiroaki Samurai about a samurai cursed with immortal life and has the distinction of being Miike’s 100th feature film. Thrill also features: the European Premiere of Nattawut Poonpiriya’s Thai teen thriller BAD GENIUS, in which young brainiac Lynn uses a very special set of skills to cheat on behalf of her classmates in the high-stakes world of entrance exams for elite international universities; the European Premiere of Anurag Kashyap’s THE BRAWLER in which a young and talented Indian boxer dreams of being champion, but is knocked sideways when he falls for the niece of the man blocking his road to success; Aaron Katz’s GEMINI in which a heinous crime tests the complex relationship between a tenacious personal assistant, Jill played by Lola Kirke and her Hollywood movie star boss Heather played by Zoë Kravitz; the Safdie brothers’ latest film GOOD TIME features Robert Pattinson as a small-time New York criminal, who after a bank robbery goes seriously wrong, devises a plan to spring his injured accomplice from police custody; Jennifer Peedom’s spectacular documentary MOUNTAIN, is a mind-blowing symphony of images and sound chronicling the powerful attraction mountains hold over us; love, crime and action combine in a taut and twisty thriller-cum-romance in Michaël R. Roskam’s RACER AND THE JAILBIRD starring Adèle Exarchopoulos as Bibi, a young racing driver and Matthias Schoenaerts as Gigi the Jailbird, a dashing playboy with, it seems, time and money to burn; Ian Nelms and Eshom Nelms’ blackly comic, crime noir, SMALL TOWN CRIME (European Premiere) stars John Hawkes as alcoholic former cop Mike, channelling a drunk Columbo who embarks on his own unofficial crime investigation while Octavia Spencer plays his supportive sister Kelly who is starting to lose patience with Mike’s lying, drifting and drinking; and the International Premiere of Xin Yukun’s sophisticated arthouse thriller, WRATH OF SILENCE featuring martial arts maestro Song Yang, as a mute bruiser who returns to his home, a remote farming village, following the disappearance of his son. With tight plotting, memorable characters and an unforgettable climax, director Xin Yukun establishes himself as a new international filmmaker you need to know.CULT
The Cult Gala is Joachim Trier’s subtle shocker THELMA, a supernaturally-tinged tale of a young woman’s macabre coming of age. Other titles in the strand include: S. Craig Zahler’s genre-bending, bone-crunching exercise in slow-burn suspense, BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, starring Vince Vaughn as a former boxer-turned mechanic involved in a drug deal that goes wrong that sees him behind bars; the walking dead get a second chance at life in David Freyne’s debut THE CURED starring Ellen Page in an inventive and surprising post-zombie era drama where a cure has been found for the infected and the rehabilitated are transitioned back into society; the World Premiere of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s GHOST STORIES in which they bring their hit London stage play to the big screen, with suitably chilling results. Nyman plays Phillip Goodman, an academic and professional sceptic out to debunk claims of the supernatural , but when he stumbles across a long lost file containing three unsolved cases of the Occult, his whole belief system – not to mention his sanity – is thrown into question; LET THE CORPSES TAN is directing duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s adaptation of JeanPatrick Manchette’s influential 1971 crime novel and the result is a sun-drenched Western-tinged, crimecaper; MY FRIEND DAHMER is director Marc Meyers’ adaptation of John Backderf’s revered graphic novel and is an unnerving portrait of one of America’s most prolific murderers, Jeffrey Dahmer; and Paco Plaza’s much-anticipated new horror film, VERONICA, inspired by an actual unsolved case in Spain and a no-holds barred supernatural shocker.JOURNEY
This year’s Journey Gala is Todd Haynes’ new film WONDERSTRUCK, an enthralling adaptation of Brian Selznick’s acclaimed young adult novel. Featuring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams in supporting roles alongside a gifted young cast, Oakes Fegley and newcomer Millicent Simmonds, a deaf actress making her film debut, it is both a whimsical children’s film for adults and a refreshingly grown-up film for children. Other Journey titles include: Arshad Khan’s ABU, a compelling documentary about a young Pakistani man’s difficulties in coping with migration and the resultant cultural change, his emerging sexuality and an increasingly orthodox father; Iraqi filmmaker Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji’s THE JOURNEY, a taut, thoughtprovoking thriller that tackles what might just be the final moments of a potential suicide bomber’s life; David Batty’s stylish documentary MY GENERATION, presented and narrated by Michael Caine, playfully explores the impact of Britain’s working class cultural revolution in the 1960s and features a wealth of archive footage and a spot-on soundtrack from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who, which makes for an exhilarating journey back in time; the European Premiere of Egyptian director Amr Salama’s SHEIKH JACKSON, a bittersweet and poignant tale of an Islamist preacher experiencing a crisis of faith following the death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson; Marc J. Francis and Max Pugh’s fascinating and immersive exploration of mindfulness, WALK WITH ME, featuring narration by Benedict Cumberbatch, follows the daily rituals and routine of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and offers a rare insight into life within a monastic community; and the World Premiere of THE WHITE GIRL, where debut director Jenny Suen collaborates with legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle on an intoxicating and textually rich film.CREATE
The brand new Create strand channels the electricity of the act of creation, celebrating artistic expression in all its forms. The inaugural Create Gala is Michel Hazanavicius’ REDOUBTABLE, an audacious, multi-layered biopic of French cinema’s most notorious director, Jean-Luc Godard. Also in Create: Greg Kohs’ ALPHAGO the story of how Google’s DeepMind team took on Go world champion Lee Sedol, posing questions about whether computers can think creatively and whether there is an algorithm for intuition; the World Premiere of THE BALLAD OF SHIRLEY COLLINS, Rob Curry and Tim Plester’s portrait of one of the great British folks singers who mysteriously lost her voice in 1980; G-FUNK tells the story of how three childhood friends from East Long Beach Warren G, Snoop Dogg and the late great Nate Dogg, transformed hip-hop into a global phenomenon and changed the world; the World Premiere of William Badgely’s HERE TO BE HEARD: THE STORY OF THE SLITS is a riveting film about the game-changing and largely female feminist punk band; Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman’s LOVING VINCENT is a stunning, fully painted animated feature created in the style of Van Gogh’s paintings matching extraordinary style with richly satisfying storytelling, broadcast live from the National Gallery to cinemas nationwide; and Julian Rosefeldt’s MANIFESTO starring Cate Blanchett as thirteen different characters in this energetic tribute to artistic troublemakers.FAMILY
Showcasing films for the young, as well as the young at heart the Family Gala is THE BIG BAD FOX AND OTHER TALES, an outstanding, laugh-a-minute animation from Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert, the team behind Ernest & Celestine (LFF 2012, Family Gala) and is guaranteed to appeal to adults as much as it will to children. Other highlights include Chang-yong Moon and Jin Jeon’s beautifully made documentary BECOMING WHO I WAS about a young monk Padma Angdu, who is said to be the latest incarnation of a religious teacher, known as a Rinpoche, and his attempts to reach the home he had in a former life; Xuan Liang and Chun Zhang’s visually breath-taking Chinese animated fantasy, BIG FISH & BEGONIA is as near to the best of Studio Ghibli as you’re likely to find anywhere; Meikeminne Clinckspoor’s family adventure CLOUDBOY is about 12- year-old Niilas who is sent away against his wishes to spend the summer with his estranged mother in Swedish Lapland, among the indigenous reindeer herding Sami people; and winner of the top prize at this year’s Annecy Animation Film Festival, Masaaki Yuasa’s anime LU OVER THE WALL brings human and merfolk together with surprising outcomes. This funky, upbeat tale is full of energy, features cute ‘merdogs’, musical mermaids and a giant humanoid shark and has a really cool soundtrack. This section also includes a program of animated shorts for younger audiences which bring together eclectic, exciting and colourful films from all around the globe.TREASURES
The Treasures selection brings recently restored cinematic classics from archives around the world to the Festival in London. The Archive Gala is the World Premiere of the BFI National Archive restoration of the silent film SHIRAZ: A ROMANCE OF INDIA (1928), a ravishing, romantic tale based on the story of the 17th century Mughal ruler Shah Jahan, his queen and the building of the world’s most beautiful monument to love, the Taj Mahal. Directed by Franz Osten, based on a play by Niranjan Pal and starring and produced by Himansu Rai, the film was shot entirely in India and performed by an all-Indian cast. Other highlights include the World Premieres of the 4K restoration by Sony Pictures Entertainment of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946); the digitally remastered experimental documentary FRANTZ FANON: BLACK SKIN WHITE MASK (1996), directed by artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien, as well as the new 4K restoration, by The BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation, of Terry Gilliam’s first feature as a solo director, JABBERWOCKY (1977). The Festival will also screen the 4K restoration of Toshio Matsumoto’s FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969), a wild, kaleidoscopic vision of the underground scene in 1960s Japan and a significant influence on Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and Italian genre-master Dario Argento’s eye-popping slice of technicolour terror, SUSPIRIA (1977) with stunning 4K restoration.EXPERIMENTA
Experimenta features films and videos by artists who transform our experience of seeing moving images. Highlights include: the World Premiere of Benedict Seymour’s DEAD THE ENDS, a politically urgent retelling of Chris Marker’s La Jetée bookended by the 2011 London riots; ERASE AND FORGET, Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s film is an excavation of the influence of fiction on truth in the American imagination of warfare and gun culture; the World Premiere of LEK AND THE DOGS, Andrew Kötting’s account of the ultimate outsider uses a range of visual styles derived from avant garde and genre cinema, and Kevin Jerome Everson’s TONSLER PARK uses an unobtrusive observational style to divulge the mechanisms behind the operation of Election Day at polling stations in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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25 Films Selected for Main Slate of 55th New York Film Festival
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Faces Places[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the 25 films for the Main Slate of the 55th New York Film Festival (NYFF), taking place September 28 to October 15, 2017.
This year’s Main Slate showcases films honored at Cannes including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner The Square; Robin Campillo’s BPM, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize; and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which took home the Golden Eye. From Berlin, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner Spoor mark the returns of two New York Film Festival veterans, while Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed Call Me by Your Name will be his NYFF debut. Also returning are Arnaud Desplechin, Noah Baumbach, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Claire Denis, Philippe Garrel, Lucrecia Martel, and Hong Sang-soo, who has two features in the lineup this year, while filmmakers new to the festival include Sean Baker, Greta Gerwig, Serge Bozon, Dee Rees, Chloé Zhao, Joachim Trier, Alain Gomis, and Valeska Grisebach.
NYFF Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said, “Every year, I’m asked about the themes in our Main Slate line-up, and every year I say the same thing: we choose the best films we see, and the common themes and preoccupations arise only after the fact. As I look at this slate of beautiful work, I could just make a series of simple observations: that these films come from all over the globe; that there is a nice balance of filmmakers known and unknown to many here in New York; that the overall balance between frankness and artistry holds me in awe; that there are two gala selections with the word ‘wonder’ in their titles; and that eight of the 25 films were directed by women.”
As previously announced, the NYFF55 Opening Night is Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying, Todd Haynes’s Wonderstruck is Centerpiece, and Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel will close the festival.
55th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
Films & Descriptions Opening Night Last Flag Flying Dir. Richard Linklater, USA, 2017, 119m World Premiere In Richard Linklater’s lyrical road movie, as funny as it is heartbreaking, three aging Vietnam-era Navy vets—soft-spoken Doc (Steve Carell), unhinged and unfiltered Sal (Bryan Cranston), and quietly measured Mueller (Laurence Fishburne)—reunite to perform a sacred task: the proper burial of Doc’s only child, who has been killed in the early days of the Iraq invasion. As this trio of old friends makes its way up the Eastern seaboard, Linklater gives us a rich rendering of friendship, a grand mosaic of common life in the USA during the Bush era, and a striking meditation on the passage of time and the nature of truth. To put it simply, Last Flag Flying is a great movie from one of America’s finest filmmakers. An Amazon Studios release. Centerpiece Wonderstruck Dir. Todd Haynes, USA, 2017, 117m In 1977, following the death of his single mother, Ben (Oakes Fegley) loses his hearing in a freak accident and makes his way from Minnesota to New York, hoping to learn about the father he has never met. A half-century earlier, another deaf 12-year-old, Rose (Millicent Simmonds), flees her restrictive Hoboken home, captivated by the bustle and romance of the nearby big city. Each of these parallel adventures, unfolding largely without dialogue, is an exuberant love letter to a different bygone era of New York. The mystery of how they ultimately converge, which involves Julianne Moore in a lovely dual role, provides the film’s emotional core. Adapted from a young-adult novel by Hugo author Brian Selznick, Wonderstruck is an all-ages enchantment, entirely true to director Todd Haynes’s sensibility: an intelligent, deeply personal, and lovingly intricate tribute to the power of obsession. An Amazon Studios release. Closing Night Wonder Wheel Dir. Woody Allen, USA, 2017 World Premiere In a career spanning 50 years and almost as many features, Woody Allen has periodically refined, reinvented, and redefined the terms of his art, and that’s exactly what he does with his daring new film. We’re in Coney Island in the 1950s. A lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) tells us a story that just might be filtered through his vivid imagination: a middle-aged carousel operator (Jim Belushi) and his beleaguered wife (Kate Winslet), who eke out a living on the boardwalk, are visited by his estranged daughter (Juno Temple)—a situation from which layer upon layer of all-too-human complications develop. Allen and his cinematographer, the great Vittorio Storaro, working with a remarkable cast led by Winslet in a startlingly brave, powerhouse performance, have created a bracing and truly surprising movie experience. An Amazon Studios release. Before We Vanish Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan, 2017, 129m The latest from master of art-horror Kiyoshi Kurosawa is perhaps his most mainstream film yet, a throwback to 1980s sci-fi. An advance crew of three aliens journey to Earth in preparation for a complete takeover of the planet. They snatch not only bodies but memories, beliefs, values—everything that defines their conquests as human—leaving only hollow shells, which are all but unrecognizable to their loved ones. This disturbing parable for our present moment, replete with stunning images—including a drone attack and a bit of Clockwork Orange–style murder and mayhem—is also a profoundly mystical affirmation of love as the only form of resistance and salvation. A Neon release. BPM (Beats Per Minute)/120 battements par minute Dir. Robin Campillo, France, 2017, 144m U.S. Premiere In the early 1990s, ACT UP—in France, as in the U.S.—was on the front lines of AIDS activism. Its members, mostly gay, HIV-positive men, stormed drug company and government offices in “Silence=Death” T-shirts, facing down complacent suits with the urgency of their struggle for life. Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys) depicts their comradeship and tenacity in waking up the world to the disease that was killing them and movingly dramatizes the persistence of passionate love affairs even in dire circumstances. All the actors, many of them unknown, are splendid in this film, which not only celebrates the courage of ACT UP but also tacitly provides a model of resistance to the forces of destruction running rampant today. A release of The Orchard. Bright Sunshine In/Un beau soleil intérieur Dir. Claire Denis, France, 2017, 95m North American Premiere Juliette Binoche is both incandescent and emotionally raw in Claire Denis’s extraordinary new film as Isabelle, a middle-aged Parisian artist in search of definitive love. The film moves elliptically, as though set to some mysterious bio-rhythm, from one romantic/emotional attachment to another: from the boorish married lover (Xavier Beauvois); to the subtly histrionic actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle), also married; to the dreamboat hairdresser (Paul Blain); to the gentle man (Alex Descas) not quite ready for commitment to . . . a mysterious fortune-teller. Appropriately enough, Bright Sunshine In (very loosely inspired by Roland Barthes’s A Lover’s Discourse) feels like it’s been lit from within; it was lit from without by Denis’s longtime cinematographer Agnès Godard. It is also very funny. A Sundance Selects release. Call Me by Your Name Dir. Luca Guadagnino, Italy/France, 2017, 132m A story of summer love unlike any other, the sensual new film from the director of I Am Love, set in 1983, charts the slowly ripening romance between Elio (Timothée Chalamet), an American teen on the verge of discovering himself, and Oliver (Armie Hammer), the handsome older grad student whom his professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg) has invited to their vacation home in Northern Italy. Adapted from the wistful novel by André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name is Guadagnino’s most exquisitely rendered, visually restrained film, capturing with eloquence the confusion and longing of youth, anchored by a remarkable, star-making performance by Chalamet, always a nervy bundle of swagger and insecurity, contrasting with Hammer’s stoicism. A Sony Pictures Classics release. The Day After Dir. Hong Sang-soo, South Korea, 2017, 92m U.S. Premiere Hong continues in the openly emotional register of his On the Beach at Night Alone, also showing in this year’s Main Slate. Shot in moody black and white, The Day After opens with book publisher Bongwan (Kwon Hae-hyo) fending off his wife’s heated accusations of infidelity. At the office, it’s the first day for his new assistant, Areum (Kim Min-hee), whose predecessor was Bongwan’s lover. Mistaken identity, repetition compulsion, and déjà vu figure into the narrative as the film entangles its characters across multiple timelines through an intricate geometry of desire, suspicion, and betrayal. The end result is one of Hong’s most plaintive and philosophical works. Faces Places/Visages villages Dir. Agnès Varda & JR, France, 2016, 89m The 88-year-old Agnès Varda teamed up with the 33-year-old visual artist JR for this tour of rural France that follows in the footsteps of Varda’s groundbreaking documentary The Gleaners and I (NYFF 2000) in its celebration of artisanal production, workers’ solidarity, and the photographic arts in the face of mortality. Varda and JR wielded cameras themselves, but they were also documented in their travels by multiple image and sound recordists. Out of this often spontaneous jumble, Varda and her editor Maxime Pozzi-Garcia created an unassuming masterpiece (the winner of this year’s L’Oeil d’or at Cannes) that is vivid, lyrical, and inspiringly humanistic. A Cohen Media Group release. Félicité Dir. Alain Gomis, France/Senegal/Belgium/Germany/Lebanon, 2017, 124m U.S. Premiere The new film from Alain Gomis, a French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent, is largely set in the roughest areas of the rough city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here, a woman named Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu) scrapes together a living as a singer in a makeshift bar (her accompanists are played by members of the Kasai Allstars band). When her son is seriously injured in an accident, she goes in search of money for his medical care and embarks on a double journey: through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul. Félicité is tough, tender, lyrical, mysterious, funny, and terrifying, both responsive to the moment and fixed on its heroine’s spiritual progress. A Strand Releasing release. The Florida Project Dir. Sean Baker, USA, 2017, 105m U.S. Premiere A six-year-old girl (the remarkable Brooklynn Prince) and her two best friends run wild on the grounds of a week-by-week motel complex on the edge of Orlando’s Disney World. Meanwhile, her mother (talented novice Bria Vinaite) desperately tries to cajole the motel manager (an ever-surprising Willem Dafoe) to turn a blind eye to the way she pays the rent. A film about but not for kids, Baker’s depiction of childhood on the margins has fierce energy, tenderness, and great beauty. After the ingenuity of his iPhone-shot 2015 breakout Tangerine, Baker reasserts his commitment to 35mm film with sun-blasted images that evoke a young girl’s vision of adventure and endurance beyond heartbreak. An A24 release. Ismael’s Ghosts/Les fantômes d’Ismaël Dir. Arnaud Desplechin, France, 2017, 132m North American Premiere Phantoms swirl around Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), a filmmaker in the throes of writing a spy thriller based on the unlikely escapades of his brother, Ivan Dedalus (Louis Garrel). His only true source of stability, his relationship with Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is upended, as is the life of his Jewish documentarian mentor and father-in-law (László Szabó), when Ismael’s wife Carlotta (Marion Cotillard), who disappeared twenty years earlier, returns, and, like one of Hitchcock’s fragile, delusional femmes fatales, expects that her husband and father are still in thrall to her. A brilliant shape-shifter—part farce, part melodrama—Ismael’s Ghosts is finally about the process of creating a work of art and all the madness required. A Magnolia Pictures release. Lady Bird Dir. Greta Gerwig, USA, 2017, 93m Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut is a portrait of an artistically inclined young woman (Saoirse Ronan) trying to define herself in the shadow of her mother (Laurie Metcalf) and searching for an escape route from her hometown of Sacramento. Moods are layered upon moods at the furious pace of late adolescence in this lovely and loving film, which shifts deftly from one emotional and comic register to the next. Lady Bird is rich in invention and incident, and it is powered by Ronan, one of the finest actors in movies. With Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet as the men in Lady Bird’s life, Beanie Feldstein as her best friend, and Tracy Letts as her dad. An A24 release. Lover for a Day/L’Amant d’un jour Dir. Philippe Garrel, France, 2017, 76m North American Premiere Lover for a Day is an exquisite meditation on love and fidelity that recalls Garrel’s previous NYFF selections Jealousy (NYFF 2013) and In the Shadow of Women (NYFF 2015). After a painful breakup, heartbroken Jeanne (Esther Garrel) moves back in with her university professor father, Gilles (Eric Caravaca), to discover that he is living with optimistic, life-loving student Ariane (newcomer Louise Chevillotte), who is the same age as Jeanne. An unusual triangular relationship emerges as both girls seek the favor of Gilles, as daughter or lover, while developing their own friendship, finding common ground despite their differences. Gorgeously shot in grainy black and white by Renato Berta (Au revoir les enfants), Lover for a Day perfectly illustrates Garrel’s poetic exploration of relationships and desire. A MUBI release. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Dir. Noah Baumbach, USA, 2017, 110m North American Premiere Noah Baumbach revisits the terrain of family vanities and warring attachments that he began exploring with The Squid and the Whale in this intricately plotted story of three middle-aged siblings (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel) coping with their strong-willed father (Dustin Hoffman) and the flightiness of his wife (Emma Thompson). Baumbach’s film never stops deftly changing gears, from surges of pathos to painful comedy and back again. Needless to say, this lyrical quicksilver comedy is very much a New York experience. A Netflix release. Mrs. Hyde/Madame Hyde Dir. Serge Bozon, France, 2017, 95m North American Premiere Serge Bozon’s eccentric comedic thriller is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with many a twist. Mrs. Géquil (Isabelle Huppert), a timid and rather peculiar physics professor, teaches in a suburban technical high school. Apart from her quiet married life with her gentle stay-at-home husband, she is mocked and despised on a daily basis by pretty much everyone around her—headmaster, colleagues, students. During a dark, stormy night, she is struck by lightning and wakes up a decidedly different person, a newly powerful Mrs. Hyde with mysterious energy and uncontrollable powers. Highlighted by Bozon’s brilliant mise en scène, Isabelle Huppert hypnotizes us again, securing her place as the ultimate queen of the screen. Mudbound Dir. Dee Rees, USA, 2017, 134m Writer/director Dee Rees’s historical epic details daily life and social dynamics in the failing economy of Mississippi during the World War II era. Two families, one white (the landlords) and one black (the sharecroppers), work the same miserable piece of farmland. Out of need and empathy, the mothers of the two families bond as their younger male relatives go off to war and learn that there is a world beyond racial hatred and fear. The flawless ensemble cast includes Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks. A Netflix release. On the Beach at Night Alone Dir. Hong Sang-soo, South Korea, 2017, 101m Hong Sang-soo’s movies have always invited autobiographical readings, and his 19th feature is perhaps his most achingly personal film yet, a steel-nerved, clear-eyed response to the tabloid frenzy that erupted in South Korea over his relationship with actress Kim Min-hee. The film begins in Hamburg, where actress Young-hee (played by Kim herself, who won the Best Actress prize at Berlin for this role) is hiding out after the revelation of her affair with a married filmmaker. Back in Korea, a series of encounters shed light on Young-hee’s volatile state, as she slips in and out of melancholic reflection and dreams. Centered on Kim’s astonishingly layered performance, On the Beach at Night Alone is the work of a master mining new emotional depths. A Cinema Guild release. The Other Side of Hope/Toivon tuolla puolen Dir. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017, 98m Leave it to Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre, NYFF 2011), peerless master of humanist tragicomedy, to make the first great fiction film about the 21st century migrant crisis. Having escaped bombed-out Aleppo, Syrian refugee Khlaed (Sherwan Haji) seeks asylum in Finland, only to get lost in a maze of functionaries and bureaucracies. Meanwhile, shirt salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves his wife, wins big in a poker game, and takes over a restaurant whose deadpan staff he also inherits. These parallel stories dovetail to gently comic and enormously moving effect in Kaurismäki’s politically urgent fable, an object lesson on the value of compassion and hope that remains grounded in a tangible social reality. A Janus Films release. The Rider Dir. Chloé Zhao, USA, 2017, 104m The hardscrabble economy of America’s rodeo country, where, for some, riding and winning is the only source of pleasure and income, is depicted with exceptional compassion and truth by a filmmaker who is in no way an insider: Zhao was born in Beijing and educated at Mount Holyoke and NYU. Set on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, The Rider is a fiction film that calls on nonprofessional actors to play characters similar to themselves, incorporating their skill sets and experiences. Brady Jandreau is extraordinary as a badly injured former champion rider and horse trainer forced to give up the life he knows and loves. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Spoor/Pokot Dir. Agnieszka Holland, in cooperation with Kasia Adamik, Poland/Germany/Czech Republic, 2017, 128m U.S. Premiere Janina Duszejko (Agnieszka Mandat) is a vigorous former engineer, part-time teacher, and animal activist, living in a near wilderness on the Polish-Czech border, where hunting is the favored year-round sport of the corrupt men who rule the region. When a series of hunters die mysteriously, Janina wonders if the animals are taking revenge, which doesn’t stop the police from coming after her. A brilliant, passionate director, Agnieszka Holland—who like Janina comes from a generation that learned to fight authoritarianism by any means necessary—forges a sprawling, wildly beautiful, emotionally enveloping film that earns its vision of utopia. It’s at once a phantasmagorical murder mystery, a tender, late-blooming love story, and a resistance and rescue thriller. The Square Dir. Ruben Östlund, Sweden, 2017, 150m A precisely observed, thoroughly modern comedy of manners, Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner revolves around Christian (Claes Bang), a well-heeled contemporary art curator at a Stockholm museum. While preparing his new exhibit—a four-by-four-meter zone designated as a “sanctuary of trust and caring”—Christian falls prey to a pickpocketing scam, which triggers an overzealous response and then a crisis of conscience. Featuring several instant-classic scenes and a vivid supporting cast (Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, and noted motion-capture actor Terry Notary), The Square is the most ambitious film yet by one of contemporary cinema’s most incisive social satirists, the rare movie to have as many laughs as ideas. A Magnolia Pictures release. Thelma Dir. Joachim Trier, Norway/Sweden/France, 2017, 116m In the new film from Joachim Trier (Reprise), an adolescent country girl (Eili Harboe) has just moved to the city to begin her university studies, with the internalized religious severity of her quietly domineering mother and father (Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Henrik Rafaelsen) always in mind. When she realizes that she is developing an attraction to her new friend Anja (Okay Kaya), she begins to manifest a terrifying and uncontrollable power that her parents have long feared. To reveal more would be a crime; let’s just say that this fluid, sharply observant, and continually surprising film begins in the key of horror and ends somewhere completely different. A release of The Orchard. Western Dir. Valeska Grisebach, Germany and Bulgaria, 2017, 119m U.S. Premiere As its title suggests, German director Valeska Grisebach’s first feature in a decade is a supremely intelligent genre update that recognizes the Western as a template on which to draw out eternal human conflicts. In remote rural Bulgaria, a group of German workers are building a water facility. Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann), the reserved newbie in this all-male company, immediately draws the ire of the boorish team leader, not least for his willingness to mingle with the wary locals. Cast with utterly convincing nonprofessional actors, Western is a gripping culture-clash drama, attuned both to old codes of masculinity and new forms of colonialism. A Cinema Guild release. Zama Dir. Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Brazil/Spain, 2017, 115m U.S. Premiere The great Lucrecia Martel ventures into the realm of historical fiction and makes the genre entirely her own in this adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 classic of Argentinean literature. In the late 18th century, in a far-flung corner of what seems to be Paraguay, the title character, an officer of the Spanish crown (Daniel Giménez Cacho) born in the Americas, waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. Martel renders Zama’s world—his daily regimen of small humiliations and petty politicking—as both absurd and mysterious, and as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia, subject to a creeping disorientation. Precise yet dreamlike, and thick with atmosphere, Zama is a singular and intoxicating experience, a welcome return from one of contemporary cinema’s truly brilliant minds.
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Films by Angelina Jolie, George Clooney Among Gala + Special Presentation Films for Toronto Film Festival
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First They Killed My Father – Angelina Jolie[/caption]
The Toronto International Film Festival today unveiled the first round of titles premiering in the Gala and Special Presentations programs of the 42nd edition of the festival, taking place from September 7 to 17, 2017.
Of the 14 Galas and 33 Special Presentations, this first announcement includes 25 World Premieres, eight International Premieres, six North American Premieres and eight Canadian Premieres.
“Festival-goers from around the world can anticipate a remarkable lineup of extraordinary stories, voices and cinematic visions from emerging talent and some of our favorite masters,” said Piers Handling, CEO and Director of TIFF. “Today’s announcement offers audiences a glimpse at this year’s rich and robust selection of films, including works from Canada, USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, India, Chile, Egypt and Cambodia.”
“Every year we set the stage for film lovers of all ages and cultural backgrounds to come together and embrace the universal power of cinema,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of TIFF. “As the Festival enters its fifth decade, we’ve challenged ourselves to adapt and build on our strengths, and we look forward to championing a new selection of films that will captivate and inspire global film audiences.”
GALAS 2017
Breathe Andy Serkis, United Kingdom World Premiere The Catcher Was A Spy Ben Lewin, USA World Premiere *Closing Night Film* C’est la vie! Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano, France World Premiere Darkest Hour Joe Wright, United Kingdom Canadian Premiere Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool Paul McGuigan, United Kingdom Canadian Premiere Kings Deniz Gamze Ergüven, France/Belgium World Premiere Long Time Running Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Canada World Premiere Mary Shelley Haifaa Al Mansour, Ireland/United Kingdom/Luxembourg/USA World Premiere The Mountain Between Us Hany Abu-Assad, USA World Premiere Mudbound Dee Rees, USA International Premiere Stronger David Gordon Green, USA World Premiere Untitled Bryan Cranston/Kevin Hart Film Neil Burger, USA World Premiere The Wife Björn Runge, United Kingdom/Sweden World Premiere Woman Walks Ahead Susanna White, USA World PremiereSPECIAL PRESENTATIONS 2017
Battle of the Sexes Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, USA International Premiere BPM (Beats Per Minute) Robin Campillo, France North American Premiere The Brawler Anurag Kashyap, India World Premiere The Breadwinner Nora Twomey, Canada/Ireland/Luxembourg World Premiere Call Me By Your Name Luca Guadagnino, Italy/France Canadian Premiere Catch the Wind Gaël Morel, France International Premiere The Children Act Richard Eyre, United Kingdom World Premiere The Current War Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, USA World Premiere Disobedience Sebastián Lelio, United Kingdom World Premiere Downsizing Alexander Payne, USA Canadian Premiere A Fantastic Woman Sebastián Lelio, Chile Canadian Premiere First They Killed My Father Angelina Jolie, Cambodia Canadian Premiere The Guardians Xavier Beauvois, France World Premiere Hostiles Scott Cooper, USA International Premiere The Hungry Bornila Chatterjee, India World Premiere I, Tonya Craig Gillespie, USA World Premiere *Special Presentations Opening Film* Lady Bird Greta Gerwig, USA International Premiere mother! Darren Aronofsky, USA North American Premiere Novitiate Maggie Betts, USA International Premiere Omerta Hansal Mehta, India World Premiere Plonger Mélanie Laurent, France World Premiere The Price of Success Teddy Lussi-Modeste, France International Premiere Professor Marston & the Wonder Women Angela Robinson, USA World Premiere The Rider Chloé Zhao, USA Canadian Premiere A Season in France Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, France World Premiere The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro, USA Canadian Premiere *Special Presentations Closing Film* Sheikh Jackson Amr Salama, Egypt World Premiere The Square Ruben Östlund, Sweden North American Premiere Submergence Wim Wenders, France/Germany/Spain World Premiere Suburbicon George Clooney, USA North American Premiere Thelma Joachim Trier, Norway/Sweden/France/Denmark International Premiere Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh, USA North American Premiere Victoria and Abdul Stephen Frears, United Kingdom North American Premiere