
49 films have been named by the European Film Academy for this year’s EFA Feature Film Selection,

49 films have been named by the European Film Academy for this year’s EFA Feature Film Selection,
Boy Erased[/caption]
The Chicago International Film Festival announced the first 25 films that will be shown at the 54th edition running October 10 to 21, 2018. The Festival will feature more than 150 films from across the globe and bring legendary actors, master filmmakers, and exciting, emerging talents from around the world to Chicago.
Initial lineup includes highly anticipated titles including Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased starring Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe; Elizabeth Chomko’s Chicago set feature debut What They Had starring Michael Shannon and Hilary Swank; Mike Leigh’s epic drama Peterloo and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters.
“We are very excited to be showcasing new films from some of the most impressive directors in the world, whether returning veterans, such as past Gold Hugo-winners Mike Leigh and Hirokazu Kore-eda, or up-and-coming filmmakers with distinctive visions,” said Plauché. “For the last several years, the Festival has been proud to present Best Picture winners The Shape of Water (2017), Moonlight (2016), and Spotlight (2015), and we look forward to sharing this year’s incredible slate of movies with our audiences.”
Birds of Passage
Pájaros de verano
Directors: Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra
Colombia, Mexico, Denmark
A Colombian Mean Streets, this gripping drama chronicles the rise of the drug trade and its cataclysmic impact on the local indigenous community. The Wayuu people had long held tight onto their traditions, living in close-knit tribes. When two friends begin selling marijuana to visiting Americans, however, their actions set in motion a series of events that pit factions against each other, inciting a cycle of avarice-inspired vengeance. Wayuunaiki, Spanish, and English with subtitles.
Border
Gräns
Director: Ali Abbasi
Sweden
Fantastic in every sense of the word, this idiosyncratic thriller centers on a Swedish customs officer with a special talent for detecting contraband who must ultimately choose between good and evil. This exciting, intelligent mix of romance, Nordic noir, social realism, and supernatural horror defies and subverts genre conventions and is destined to be a cult classic. Winner, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival. Swedish with subtitles.
Boy Erased
Director: Joel Edgerton
U.S.
Boy Erased tells the story of Jared (Lucas Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a conversion therapy program—or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. Boy Erased is the true story of one young man’s struggle to find himself while being forced to question every aspect of his identity.
Cold War
Zimna wojna
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Poland
A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other. Set against the background of the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, the film depicts an impossible love story in impossible times. Polish with subtitles.
Dogman
Director: Matteo Garrone
Italy
In a run-down Italian coastal town, Marcello, a gentle dog groomer, sees his life turned upside down when Simone, a brutish former boxer and ex-con, bullies him into becoming his criminal accomplice. But for how long can the “dogman” be subservient to his master before he bites back? From the acclaimed director of Gomorrah comes another unflinching urban western treading the fine line between civility and savagery. Italian with subtitles.
Friedkin Uncut
Director: Francesco Zippel
Italy
Oscar®-winning, Chicago-born director William Friedkin achieved fame with his 1973 horror blockbuster The Exorcist. But this illuminating documentary shows the director’s unwavering commitment to rawness and realism across his entire career, from The French Connection (1972) to Killer Joe (2011). Featuring interviews with Ellen Burstyn, Willem Dafoe, and Quentin Tarantino, among others, Friedkin Uncut reveals a savvy craftsman who is unapologetic about his no-nonsense approach to moviemaking.
Jumpman
Podbrosy
Director: Ivan I. Tverdovskiy
Russia, Ireland, Lithuania, France
An abandoned infant grows into a likeable lad with a rare disorder—he can feel no physical pain. When he becomes a teen, his feckless mother returns to his life to exploit his condition by enlisting him in an insurance fraud scam. A taut thriller, Jumpman puts an outsider at the center of a harsh indictment of corruption and hypocrisy in contemporary Russia. Russian with subtitles.
Mr. Soul!
Director: Melissa Haizlip
U.S.
The brainchild of pioneering producer Ellis Haizlip, SOUL! was the first ever national TV series made by and for African-Americans. The groundbreaking program aired from 1968 to 1973 and featured a dazzling array of guests from Stevie Wonder to Maya Angelou. Mr. Soul! takes viewers behind the scenes of the show, chronicling its inception and its struggles to stay on the air. It turns out the revolution really was televised.
Olympia
Director: Gregory Dixon
U.S.
Chicago writer-actor McKenzie Chinn stars as a struggling artist, navigating work and romance in the Windy City. When her boyfriend asks her to drop everything and move cross-country, she soon discovers that she might be the biggest obstacle to her own happiness. Featuring quirky animation and a revelatory central performance, Olympia is a sensitive and humorous look at the challenges of embracing adulthood.
The Other Story
Director: Avi Nesher
Israel
Family disputes and conspiracies take center stage in this lively drama, which even-handedly explores the divide between Israel’s secular Jews and the ultra-Orthodox from director Avi Nesher (The Matchmaker). Sasson Gabai (The Band’s Visit) plays a renowned psychologist and rationalist who falls out with his strong-willed granddaughter when she enters a Haredi community and plans to marry a musician previously known for his wild ways. Hebrew with subtitles.
Peterloo
Director: Mike Leigh
U.K.
An epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, which saw British forces charge into a crowd of over 60,000 that had gathered to protest rising levels of poverty and demand reform. Many were killed and hundreds more injured, sparking a nationwide outcry but also further government suppression. A defining moment in British democracy, the massacre also played a significant role in the founding of The Guardian newspaper.
Piercing
Director: Nicolas Pesce
U.S.
Pesce’s gleefully wicked S&M black comedy centers on Reed (Christopher Abbot), a new fatherlooking to channel his homicidal impulses away from his infant daughter. He heads to a hotel, hires an escort (Mia Wasikowska), then begins to rehearse her murder. But once she arrives, the balance of power shifts. Based on the novel by Ryu Murukami, Piercing’s incredibly dark premise constantly surprises—it might just be taken for a wildly subversive love story.
A Private War
Director: Matthew Heineman
U.S.
In a world where journalism is under attack, Marie Colvin (Academy Award®-nominee Rosamund Pike) is one of the most celebrated war correspondents of our time. Her mission to show the true cost of conflict leads her—along with renowned photographer Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan)—to embark on the most dangerous assignment of their lives in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.
Rafiki
Director: Wanuri Kahiu
Kenya
A tender tale of forbidden first love told in an electric, colorful Afropop style, Rafiki tells the story of the tender but illegal and taboo romance between Kena, a skateboarding tomboy blessed with great grades and soccer skills, and Ziki, the charismatic daughter of a conservative local politician. When rumors begin to swirl about the nature of their relationship, the young lovers find themselves in great jeopardy. Swahili, English with subtitles.
Ruben Brandt, Collector
Ruben Brandt, a gyüjtö
Director: Milorad Krstic
Hungary
“Possess your problems to conquer them,” is the credo that psychotherapist Ruben Brandt preaches to his criminally-inclined clients in this stylish, animated thriller for adults. But when Brandt’s patients help him to apply his own advice, he becomes “Ruben Brandt, Collector,” ringleader of a gang responsible for the theft of 13 of the world’s most famous paintings. This entertaining romp literally puts the “art” into “arthouse.”
Shoplifters
Manbiki kazoku
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Japan
The winner of Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, centers on an eccentric troupe of miscreants who take in a neglected five-year-old. Despite their strained circumstances, the tight-knit unit of petty thieves and social outcasts comes together to raise the girl. But how long can this unconventional family survive against the normalizing forces around them? From the Japanese master of humanism comes another affecting and astute film about people living on the margins. Japanese with subtitles.
Sorry Angel
Plaire, aimer et courir vite
Director: Christophe Honoré
France
It’s 1993. Jacques is a successful, novelist from Paris living with what was still a terminal diagnosis of HIV positive. Arthur is an open-minded student ready to embrace life. They meet in Rennes and fall in love, but navigating an intergenerational romance has its challenges. Honoré (Love Songs) chronicles their lives, together and apart, with nuance and subtlety, allowing their love story to unfold in patient, novelistic fashion. French with subtitles.
Transit
Director: Christian Petzold
Germany
In this Kafkaesque cinematic puzzle, a man is trapped in limbo as he tries to flee fascistoccupied France. Hoping to escape to Mexico, Georg poses as a dead author but becomes stuck in Marseilles. There, he encounters a woman searching for her missing husband—the
man whose identity he has assumed. Petzold’s surreal film merges past, present and future in its trenchant exploration of the plight of refugees. German with subtitles.
United Skates
Directors: Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown
U.S.
A rousing chronicle of roller-skating’s pivotal role in African-American communities, United Skates careens around the country, offering an intimate look at a lively subculture that’s under threat. Facing discriminatory policies and building closures, committed skaters from around the country—including Chicago’s own Buddy Love—fight to preserve a space for people to come together and express themselves in sliding, bouncing, snapping glory.
What They Had
Director: Elizabeth Chomko
U.S.
From first-time writer/director Elizabeth Chomko, What They Had centers on a family in crisis. Bridget (Hilary Swank) returns home to Chicago at her brother’s (Michael Shannon) urging to deal with her ailing mother (Blythe Danner) and her father’s (Robert Forster) reluctance to let go of their life together.
Colette[/caption]
Fourteen more films, including Keira Knightley in COLETTE, Salma Hayek in THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT, and Hilary Swank in WHAT THEY HAD, have added to this year’s Calgary International Film Festival.
The Festival also announced Alberta Music Seen for this year’s Showcase Alberta, a celebration of the power of the music video as an art form featuring 10 music videos produced in Alberta, screening at Studio Bell, Home of the National Music Centre on September 26, followed by more music at the King Eddy. Showcase Alberta is a three-year tradition at the festival. Past screening events have included HEARTLAND and WYNONNA EARP.
3 FACES directed by Jafar Panahi
A popular Iranian actress Behnaz Jafari (playing herself) is upset when she sees a video made by a provincial girl asking for her help. In the video, the young girl claims her family is not letting her pursue an acting dream. She’s distraught that Jafari has ignored her previous pleas. Jafari asks director Jafar Panahi (playing himself as well) to accompany her to the girl’s village. The two take a road journey to a northwestern part of Iran and encounter some surprises along the way.
ALL THESE CREATURES directed by Charles Williams
An adolescent boy attempts to untangle his memories of a mysterious infestation, the unravelling of his father, and the little creatures inside us all. A short from Australia.
ASH IS THE PUREST WHITE directed by Jia Zhang-Ke
Qiao (an outstanding Zhao Tao) and her gangster boyfriend Bin (Liao Fan) are a formidable duo who oversee the local criminal network in Datong. When a fight with a rival gang places Bin in danger, Qiao fires a gun to protect him resulting in five years of prison time. After she is released, Qiao goes to look for Bin hoping to continue their relationship. A perceptive depiction of the Chinese landscape, both social and economical, over the course of two decades.
CLIMAX directed by Gaspar Noé
A troupe of young dancers gathers in a remote and empty school building to rehearse. Shot by Noé himself, the troupe begins an all-night celebration that turns nightmarish as the dancers discover they’ve been pounding cups of sangria laced with potent LSD. Tracking their journey from jubilation to chaos and full-fledged anarchy, Noé observes crushes, rivalries, and violence amid a collective psychedelic meltdown. Starring Sofia Boutella (ATOMIC BLONDE) and a cast of professional dancers, CLIMAX is Noé’s most brazen and visionary statement yet.
COLLETTE directed by Wash Westmoreland
Based on the real life story about the famous French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, the film depicts her bold attempt to get her voice heard. Colette (Keira Knightley) is transported from the French countryside to Paris after she marries Willy (Dominic West), a successful Parisian writer. Colette quickly finds her footing while Willy is losing his. When Willy is struggling to pay his bills, he convinces Colette to ghostwrite a novel for him. Her novel about a country girl named Claudine becomes an instant hit, resulting in multiple subsequent Claudine novels. Willy gets all the acclaim yet the real author Colette remains in the shadows, forcing her to fight for creative ownership of her works.
THE DRIVER IS RED directed by Randall Christopher
Set in Argentina 1960, this true crime documentary follows the story of secret agent Zvi Aharoni as he hunted down one of the highest-ranking Nazi war criminals on the run. This will be the Canadian Premiere for this American short film.
THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT directed by Kim Nguyen
In this epic tale of humanity versus corporate greed, director of Academy Award nominated WAR WITCH, Kim Nguyen exposes the ruthless edge of our increasingly digital world. Cousins from New York, Vincent (Jesse Eisenberg) and Anton (Alexander Skarsgård) are players in the high- stakes game of High Frequency Trading, where winning is measured in milliseconds. Their dream? To build a bre-optic cable in a straight line between Kansas and New Jersey, making them millions. But nothing is straightforward for this awed pair, and together they push each other and everyone around them to the breaking point on their quixotic adventure.
SHARKWATER: EXTINCTION directed by Rob Stewart
Director Rob Stewart was dedicated to sharing his love and admiration for a misunderstood animal, and died in a scuba incident while filming. Criss-crossing the oceans, his third and final film is a thrilling expose of a multi-billion dollar industry tied to black markets and criminal activity. This inspiring posthumous follow-up to the award-winning SHARKWATER is a passionate plea about the dire need to address our relationship with nature and change our consumer habits before it’s too late.
SHOPLIFTERS directed by Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Winner of this year’s prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes. During one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a young girl Yuri freezing in the cold. Although Osamu’s wife Nobuyo is reluctant to add another member to a struggling household, she agrees after learning of Yuri’s hardships. When Yuri’s family report her as missing, Osamu and his family’s bonds are tested.
THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE directed by Don McKellar
The disappearance of a young Cree woman named Suzanne Bird triggers events in two worlds: the remote Northern Ontario town she fled years ago, and the big city where she became a successful model. Up north, her uncle Will clashes with a local drug dealer who’s looking for Suzanne, and believes Will knows her whereabouts. Meanwhile, her fiercely independent twin sister Annie travels to Toronto to retrace her sibling’s footsteps… and finds herself drawn into the seductively glamorous life Suzanne left behind. Starring Tantoo Cardinal, Brandon Oakes, Graham Greene and Tanaya Beatty, THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE is the story of a family fractured by tragedy, and held together by love.
TRANSIT directed by Christian Petzold
Georg, a German refugee, evades the German troops in Paris and escapes to Marseille. At the port city, he awaits to secure a life saving spot on a ship to North America. Georg doesn’t have a visa, but through a case of mistaken identity he can leave for Mexico by using papers belonging to a writer named Weidel. Things get complicated when Weidel’s mysterious wife Marie shows up. Georg falls for Marie and is forced to make a tough decision.
UNDER THE SILVER LAKE directed by David Robert Mitchell
Sam (Andrew Garfield) finds a mysterious woman swimming in his apartment’s pool one night. The next morning, she disappears. Sam sets off across LA to find her, and along the way he uncovers a conspiracy far more bizarre. A dream cast populates this dream-like thriller, including Andrew Garfield (THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, THE SOCIAL NETWORK), Topher Grace (BLACKKKLANSMAN, “That 70’s Show”), Sydney Sweeney (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Sharp Objects”), Jimmi Simpson (“Westworld,” “Black Mirror”) and Riley Keough (LOGAN LUCKY, IT COMES AT NIGHT).
WHAT THEY HAD directed by Elizabeth Chomko
When her Alzheimer’s-suffering mother, Ruth, wanders into a blizzard on Christmas Eve, Bridget Ertz travels back to her hometown to help her brother convince their father to put Ruth in a nursing home and face the end of their life-long love affair. Starring Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster, Blythe Danner, Taissa Farmiga and Josh Lucas.
THE WILD PEAR TREE directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
After completing university, Sinan needs to write an additional exam to become a teacher like his father Idris, but Sinan’s dream is to publish his novel. It doesn’t take long for him to have some run-ins with locals who want their debts paid, a by-product of his father’s gambling habits that almost sank the family. The irony is that Sinan may have to take on a debt himself in order to get his novel published.
Peterloo[/caption]
The Toronto International Film Festival today unveiled the lineup for the 2018 Masters program, comprised of 11 daring new films by acclaimed, established auteurs with remarkable bodies of work. Included in the 2018 Masters lineup are new works by three acclaimed European directors that unwaveringly address contemporary adversities: the debut of the single-installment version of Italian maestro Paolo Sorrentino’s corrosive comedy, Loro, which stars Toni Servillo as infamous politician Silvio Berlusconi; legendary French—Swiss auteur Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book, winner of the inaugural 2018 Special Palme d’Or at Cannes; and German director Christian Petzold’s daring Transit, an adaptation of Anna Seghers’ World War II novel set in an era resembling the present day, which offers subtle and timely reflections on rootlessness and exile.
Among the auteurs in the lineup are: Algerian visionary Merzak Allouache, who explores religious radicalization with Divine Wind, the latest in a remarkable filmography that spans over four decades; acclaimed Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who is known for his distinct cinematic use of landscape and who returns to the Festival with The Wild Pear Tree; Mexican master Carlos Reygadas, who delivers an existential meditation on a couple’s open relationship in Our Time; South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, who returns to the program with Hotel by the River, a black-and white-drama set in an isolated hotel during a cold winter; British director Mike Leigh, who explores the history of British parliamentary reform in Peterloo; and Iranian maverick Jafar Panahi, who presents 3 Faces, a thoughtful examination of traditional gender roles and artistic independence.
Chinese pioneer Jia Zhang-ke will introduce his largest production to date, Ash Is Purest White, a look at the rapid evolution of Chinese capitalist society explored through the romance between two mismatched people, while veteran Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto will present Killing, an ambitious samurai genre film set in mid-19th century Japan.
The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2018.
If Beale Street Could Talk[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center today announced the 30 films for the Main Slate of the 56th New York Film Festival taking place September 28 to October 14, 2018.
This year’s Main Slate showcases films from 22 different countries, including new titles from celebrated auteurs, extraordinary work from directors making their first NYFF bows, and captivating features that wowed audiences at international festivals. Five films in the festival were honored at Cannes, including Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or–winner Shoplifters; Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book, awarded a Special Palme d’Or; Cold War, which took home the Best Director prize for Paweł Pawlikowski; and Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro and Jafar Panahi’s 3 Faces, which shared the Best Screenplay award. Returning to the festival for the third consecutive year is Hong Sangsoo with two new films, joined by his fellow NYFF54 filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Barry Jenkins. Frederick Wiseman makes his 10th appearance at the festival, while other returning filmmakers include Joel & Ethan Coen, Alex Ross Perry, Claire Denis, Ulrich Köhler, Lee Chang-dong, Jia Zhangke, and Christian Petzold. Making both their directorial and NYFF debuts are Paul Dano and Richard Billingham, and Louis Garrel makes his first NYFF showing as a director. Other filmmakers new to the festival include Dominga Sotomayor, Christophe Honoré, Tamara Jenkins, Mariano Llinás, and Ying Liang, as well as Bi Gan and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, both alumni of New Directors/New Films 2016.
The NYFF56 Opening Night is Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA is Centerpiece, and Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate will close the festival.
NYFF Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said, “Francis Ford Coppola said that the cinema would become a real art form only when the tools of moviemaking became as inexpensive as paints, brushes, and canvases. That has come to pass, but at the same time it’s become increasingly tough to do serious work that is beholden to nothing but the filmmaker’s need to express these emotions in this form in moving images and sound. So if I were pressed to choose one word to describe the films in this year’s Main Slate, it would be: bravery. These films were made all over the globe, by young filmmakers like Dominga Sotomayor and masters like Fred Wiseman, by artists of vastly different sensibilities from Claire Denis to the Coen Brothers, Jafar Panahi to Jean-Luc Godard. And the unifying thread is their bravery, the bravery needed to fight past the urge to commercialized smoothness and mediocrity that is always assuming new forms. That’s what makes every single title in this year’s Main Slate so precious, and so vital.”
The 56th New York Film Festival Main Slate
Opening Night
The Favourite
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK/USA, 2018, 121m
In Yorgos Lanthimos’s wildly intricate and very darkly funny new film, Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), and her servant Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) engage in a sexually charged fight to the death for the body and soul of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) at the height of the War of the Spanish Succession. This trio of truly brilliant performances is the dynamo that powers Lanthimos’s top-to-bottom reimagining of the costume epic, in which the visual pageantry of court life in 18th-century England becomes not just a lushly appointed backdrop but an ironically heightened counterpoint to the primal conflict unreeling behind closed doors. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
Centerpiece
ROMA
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico/USA, 2018, 135m
In Alfonso Cuarón’s autobiographically inspired film, set in Mexico City in the early ’70s, we are placed within the physical and emotional terrain of a middle-class family whose center is quietly and unassumingly held by its beloved live-in nanny and housekeeper (Yalitza Aparicio). The cast is uniformly magnificent, but the real star of ROMA is the world itself, fully present and vibrantly alive, from sudden life-changing events to the slightest shifts in mood and atmosphere. Cuarón tells us an epic story of everyday life while also gently sweeping us into a vast cinematic experience, in which time and space breathe and majestically unfold. Shot in breathtaking black and white and featuring a sound design that represents something new in the medium, ROMA is a truly visionary work. A Netflix release.
Closing Night
At Eternity’s Gate
Dir. Julian Schnabel, USA/France, 2018, 106m
North American Premiere
Julian Schnabel’s ravishingly tactile and luminous new film takes a fresh look at the last days of Vincent van Gogh, and in the process revivifies our sense of the artist as a living, feeling human being. Schnabel; his co-writers Jean-Claude Carrière and Louise Kugelberg, also the film’s editor; and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme strip everything down to essentials, fusing the sensual, the emotional, and the spiritual. And the pulsing heart of At Eternity’s Gate is Willem Dafoe’s shattering performance: his Vincent is at once lucid, mad, brilliant, helpless, defeated, and, finally, triumphant. With Oscar Isaac as Gauguin, Rupert Friend as Theo, Mathieu Amalric as Dr. Gachet, Emmanuelle Seigner as Madame Ginoux, and Mads Mikkelsen as The Priest. A CBS Films release.
3 Faces
Dir. Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2018, 100m
U.S. Premiere
Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s fourth completed feature since he was officially banned from filmmaking is one of his very best. Panahi begins with a smartphone video shot by a young woman (Marziyeh Rezaei) who announces to the camera that her parents have forbidden her from realizing her dream of acting and then, by all appearances, takes her own life. The recipient of the video, Behnaz Jafari, as herself, asks Panahi, as himself, to drive her to the woman’s tiny home village near the Turkish border to investigate. From there, 3 Faces builds in narrative, thematic, and visual intricacy to put forth a grand expression of community and solidarity under the eye of oppression.
Asako I & II
Dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan/France, 2018, 119m
U.S. Premiere
A truly original Vertigo riff, based on a novel by Tomoka Shibasaki, Asako I & II is an enchanting, unnerving paean to the notion of love as a trance state. Asako (Erika Karata) and Baku (Masahiro Higashide) share an intense, all-consuming romance—but one day the moody Baku ups and vanishes. Two years later, having moved from Osaka to Tokyo, Asako meets Baku’s exact double. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, who gained plenty of attention for 2015’s five-hour-plus Happy Hour, has returned with a beguiling and mysterious film that traces the trajectory of a love—or, to be accurate, two loves—found, lost, displaced, and regained. A Grasshopper Film release.
Ash Is Purest White
Dir. Jia Zhangke, China, 2018, 142m
U.S. Premiere
Jia Zhangke’s extraordinary body of work has doubled as a record of 21st-century China and its warp-speed transformations. A tragicomedy in the fullest sense, Ash Is Purest White is at once his funniest and saddest film, portraying the passage of time through narrative ellipses and, like his Mountains May Depart (NYFF53), a three-part structure. Despite its jianghu—criminal underworld—setting, Ash is less a gangster movie than a melodrama, beginning by following Qiao and her mobster boyfriend Bin as they stake out their turf against rivals and upstarts in 2001 postindustrial Datong before expanding out into an epic narrative of how abstract forces shape individual lives. As the formidable, quick-witted Qiao, a never better Zhao Tao has fashioned a heroine for the ages. A Cohen Media Group release.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Dir. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, USA, 2018, 128m
North American Premiere
Here’s something new from the Coen Brothers—an anthology of short films based on a fictional book of “western tales,” featuring Tim Blake Nelson as a murderous, white-hatted singing cowboy; James Franco as a bad luck bank-robber; Liam Neeson as the impresario of a traveling medicine show with increasingly diminishing returns; Tom Waits as a die-hard gold prospector; Zoe Kazan and Bill Heck as two shy people who almost come together on the wagon trail; and Tyne Daly, Saul Rubinek, Brendan Gleeson, Chelcie Ross, and Jonjo O’Neill as a motley crew on a stagecoach to nowhere. Each story is distinct, but unified by the thematic thread of mortality. As a whole movie experience, Buster Scruggs is wildly entertaining, and, like all Coen films, endlessly surprising. An Annapurna Production and Netflix release.
Burning
Dir. Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, 2018, 148m
Expanded from Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning,” the sixth feature from Korean master Lee Chang-dong, known best in the U.S. for such searing, emotional dramas as Secret Sunshine (NYFF45) and Poetry (NYFF48), begins by tracing a romantic triangle of sorts: Jongsu (Yoo Ah-in), an aspiring writer, becomes involved with a woman he knew from childhood, Haemi (Jun Jong-seo), who is about to embark on a trip to Africa. She returns some weeks later with a fellow Korean, the Gatsby-esque Ben (Steven Yeun), who has a mysterious source of income and a very unusual hobby. A tense, haunting multiple-character study, the film accumulates a series of unanswered questions and unspoken motivations to conjure a totalizing mood of uncertainty and quietly bends the contours of the thriller genre to brilliant effect. A Well Go USA release.
Cold War
Dir. Paweł Pawlikowski, Poland, 2018, 90m
Academy Award–winner Paweł Pawlikowski follows up his box-office sensation Ida with this bittersweet, exquisitely crafted tale of an impossible love. Set between the late 1940s and early 1960s, Cold War is, as the title implies, a Soviet-era drama, but it stringently and inventively avoids the clichés of many a classical-minded World War II art film, tracking the tempestuous love between pianist (Tomasz Kot) and singer (Joanna Kulig) as they navigate the realities of living in both Poland and Paris, in and outside of the Iron Curtain. Shot in crisp black-and-white and set to a bewitching jazzy score, Pawlikowski’s evocative film consummately depicts an uncompromising passion caught up in the gears of history. An Amazon Studios release.
A Faithful Man / L’Homme fidèle
Dir. Louis Garrel, France, 2018, 75m
U.S. Premiere
Nine years after she left him for his best friend, journalist Abel (Louis Garrel) gets back together with his recently widowed old flame Marianne (Laetitia Casta). It seems to be a beautiful new beginning, but soon the hapless Abel finds himself embroiled in all sorts of dramas: the come-ons of a wily jeune femme (Lily-Rose Depp), the machinations of Marianne’s morbid young son, and some unsavory questions about what exactly happened to his girlfriend’s first husband. Shifting points of view as nimbly as its players switch partners, the sophomore feature from actor/director Louis Garrel—co-written with the legendary Jean-Claude Carrière—is at once a beguiling bedroom farce and a slippery inquiry into truth, subjectivity, and the elusive nature of romantic attraction.
A Family Tour
Dir. Ying Liang, Taiwan/Hong Kong/Singapore/Malaysia, 2018, 107m
U.S. Premiere
Since his 2012 feature When Night Falls, a stinging critique of state power that the Chinese authorities attempted to suppress, the director Ying Liang has been forced to live in exile in Hong Kong. His return to feature filmmaking is a characteristically precise and powerful work, and, as inspired by his own precarious situation and based on a reunion with his in-laws, an autobiographical one. The film follows a Hong Kong–exiled director (Gong Zhe) as she travels to a film festival in Taiwan with her husband and toddler, while her ailing mother (Nai An) vacations there separately with a tour group. To avoid attracting attention, the family shadows the tour’s sightseeing itinerary, visiting each other during photo stops and mealtimes. An empathetic snapshot of a mother-daughter relationship, this brave, poised film is also a deeply moving testament to the inseparability of the personal and the political.
La Flor
Dir. Mariano Llinás, Argentina, 2018, 807m
North American Premiere
A decade in the making, Mariano Llinás’s follow-up to his 2008 cult classic Extraordinary Stories is an unrepeatable labor of love and madness that redefines the concept of binge viewing. The director himself appears at the start to preview the six disparate episodes that await, each starring the same four remarkable actresses: Elisa Carricajo, Valeria Correa, Pilar Gamboa, and Laura Paredes. Overflowing with nested subplots and whiplash digressions, La Flor shape-shifts from a B-movie to a musical to a spy thriller to a category-defying metafiction—all of them without endings—to a remake of a very well-known French classic and, finally, to an enigmatic period piece that lacks a beginning (granted, all notions of beginnings and endings become fuzzy after 14 hours). An adventure in scale and duration, La Flor is a marvelously entertaining exploration of the possibilities of fiction that lands somewhere close to its outer limits.
Grass
Dir. Hong Sangsoo, South Korea, 2018, 66m
U.S. Premiere
Sitting in a café, typing on a laptop, Areum (Kim Min-hee) eavesdrops on three dramatic situations unfolding in her general vicinity: a young woman bound for Europe and a male friend who erupt in vitriolic accusations, a washed-up actor trying to sweet-talk his way into staying with an old friend, and a narcissistic actor-director (Jung Jin-young) trying to rope a young writer into his next project. Playing out largely in long-take two-shots, these conversations create a kind of never-ending theatrical performance, with Areum as the anchor. With its raw emotions and seeming formal simplicity masking a complex episodic approach, Grass finds Korean master Hong Sangsoo setting up a fascinating narrative problem for himself and solving it as only he can. A Cinema Guild release.
Happy as Lazzaro / Lazzaro felice
Dir. Alice Rohrwacher, Italy, 2018, 128m
North American Premiere
In the transfiguring and transfixing third feature from Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, NYFF52), we find ourselves amid a throng of tobacco farmers living in a state of extreme deprivation on an estate known as Inviolata, with wide-eyed teenager Lazzaro (nonprofessional discovery Adriano Tardiolo) emerging as a focal point. Although this all seems to be taking place in the past (as implied by the warm grain of Hélène Louvart’s 16mm cinematography), a stunning mid-movie leap vaults the narrative squarely into the present day and into the realm of parable. In a fable touching on perennial class struggle with Christian overtones, Rohrwacher summons the spirit of Pasolini, while also nodding to Ermanno Olmi and Visconti. A Netflix release.
Her Smell
Dir. Alex Ross Perry, USA, 2018, 134m
U.S. Premiere
The latest from Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip, NYFF52) traces the psychology of an unforgettable woman under the influence. Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss, in a powerhouse performance), the influential lead singer of a popular ’90s alt-rock outfit, struggles with her demons as friends, family, and bandmates alike behold her unraveling through a prism of horror, empathy, and resentment. Perry tracks Becky’s self-destruction—and potential creative redemption—through snaking long takes (arguably some of DP Sean Price Williams’s finest work) in claustrophobic backstage hallways, garishly lit dressing rooms, and recording studios, and the film’s ensemble cast (including Cara Delevingne, Ashley Benson, Amber Heard, Virginia Madsen, Dan Stevens, and Eric Stoltz) is impeccable in support of Moss’s rattling trip to the brink.
High Life
Dir. Claire Denis, Germany/France/USA/UK/Poland, 2018, 110m
U.S. Premiere
Claire Denis’s latest film is set aboard a spacecraft piloted by death row prisoners on a decades-long suicide mission to enter and harness the power of a black hole. But as is always the case with this filmmaker, the actual structure seems to evolve organically through moods and uncanny spells, and the closest juxtapositions of violence and intimacy. High Life features some of the most unsettling passages Denis has ever filmed, as well as moments of the greatest delicacy and tenderness. With Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin, and Mia Goth.
Hotel by the River
Dir. Hong Sangsoo, South Korea, 2018, 96m
U.S. Premiere
Two tales intersect at a riverside hotel: an elderly poet (Ki Joo-bong), invited to stay there for free by the owner, summons his two estranged sons, sensing his life drawing to a close; and a young woman (Kim Min-hee) nursing a recently broken heart is visited by a friend who tries to console her. At times these threads overlap, at others they run tantalizingly close to each other. Using a stark black-and-white palette and handheld cinematography (with frequent DP Kim Hyung-ku), Hong crafts an affecting examination of family, mortality, and the ways in which we attempt to heal wounds old and fresh.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Dir. Barry Jenkins, USA, 2018
U.S. Premiere
Barry Jenkins’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Moonlight is a carefully wrought adaptation of James Baldwin’s penultimate novel, set in Harlem in the early 1970s. Fonny (Stephan James) and Tish (KiKi Layne) are childhood friends who fall in love as young adults. Tish becomes pregnant, and Fonny suffers a fate tragically common to young African-American men: he is arrested and convicted for a crime he didn’t commit. Jenkins’s deeply soulful film stays focused on the emotional currents between parents and children, couples and friends, all of whom spend their lives repairing and reinforcing the precious but fraying bonds of family and community in an unforgiving racist world. With Regina King, Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris, Aunjanue Ellis, and Michael Beach. An Annapurna Pictures release.
The Image Book / Le Livre d’image
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland, 2018, 90m
U.S. Premiere
Jean-Luc Godard’s “late period” probably began with 2001’s In Praise of Love, and since then he has been formulating and enacting a path toward an ending: the ending of individual films, the ending of engagement with cinema, and, now that he’s 87, the possible ending of his own existence. With The Image Book all barriers between the artist, his art, and his audience have dissolved. The film is structured in chapters and predominantly comprised of pre-existing images, many of which will be familiar from Godard’s previous work. The relationship between image and sound is, as always, intensely physical and sometimes jaw-dropping. And…isn’t it enough to say, simply, that this is the work of a master? And that you have to see it? A Kino Lorber release.
In My Room
Dir. Ulrich Köhler, Germany, 2018, 119m
U.S. Premiere
The fourth feature from German director Ulrich Köhler (Sleeping Sickness, NYFF49) takes a disarmingly realistic and restrained approach to a fantastical premise: the eternally popular fantasy of the last man on earth. Sad-sack, 40ish TV cameraman Armin (Hans Löw) has been summoned home by his father to help tend to his terminally ill grandmother, but awakens one morning to find the world around him entirely depopulated. Eventually, the film introduces a fellow survivor, an Eve (Elena Radonicich) to complicate the apparent contentment of its Adam. In My Room is a film of meticulous details and sly, subtle ironies, crafted by the skills, temperament, and philosophical inquiry of an emerging master. A Grasshopper Film release.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Dir. Bi Gan, China/France, 2018, 133m
U.S. Premiere
As proven by his knockout debut, Kaili Blues, Bi Gan is preoccupied with film’s potential to both materialize mental space and convey physical sensation. His cinematic ambitions are further crystallized, to say the least, in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, a noir-tinged film about a solitary man (Huang Jue) haunted by loss and regret, told in two parts: the first an achronological mosaic, the second a nocturnal dream. Again centering around his native province of Guizhou in southwest China, the director has created a film like nothing you’ve seen before, especially in the second half’s hour-long, gravity-defying 3D sequence shot, which plunges its protagonist—and us—through a labyrinthine cityscape.
Monrovia, Indiana
Dir. Frederick Wiseman, USA, 2018, 143m
U.S. Premiere
Every new film from Frederick Wiseman, now 88 years old, seems more vigorous and acute than the last. His subject here is Monrovia, Indiana; population 1063, as of 2017; located deep in the American heartland. Wiseman alights on key activities: talk among friends over coffee at the diner, packaging meat at the supermarket, trucks loading with corn, expansion debates at town planning commission meetings, and, most intriguingly, a funeral. Monrovia, Indiana is a tough, piercing look at the rhythm and texture of life as it is lived in a wide swathe of this country. A Zipporah Films release.
Non-Fiction / Doubles vies
Dir. Olivier Assayas, France, 2018, 106m
Set within the world of publishing, Olivier Assayas’s new film finds two hopelessly intertwined couples—Guillaume Canet’s troubled book executive and Juliette Binoche’s weary actress; Vincent Macaigne’s boorish novelist and Nora Hamzawi’s straight-and-balanced political operative—obsessed with the state of things, and how (or when) it will (or might) change. Is print dying? Has blogging replaced writing? Is fiction over? But the divide between what these characters—and their friends, and their enemies, and everyone in between—talk about and what is actually happening between them, moment by moment, is what gives Non-Fiction its very particular charm, humor, and lifelike stabs of emotion. A Sundance Selects release.
Private Life
Dir. Tamara Jenkins, USA, 2017, 123m
In Tamara Jenkins’s first film in ten years, Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti are achingly real as Rachel and Richard, a middle-aged New York couple caught in the desperation, frustration, and exhaustion of trying to have a child, whether by fertility treatments or adoption or surrogate motherhood. They find a willing partner in Sadie (the formidable Kayli Carter), Richard’s niece by marriage, who happily agrees to donate her eggs, and the three of them build their own little outcast family in the process. Private Life is a wonder, by turns hilarious and harrowing (sometimes at once), and a very carefully observed portrait of middle-class Bohemian Manhattanites. With John Carroll Lynch and Molly Shannon. A Netflix release.
RAY & LIZ
Dir. Richard Billingham, UK, 2018, 107m
U.S. Premiere
English photographer and visual artist Richard Billingham’s first feature is grounded in the visual and emotional textures of his family portraits, particularly those of his deeply dysfunctional parents, whose names give the film its title. Billingham builds astonishing and unflinching scenes with his principal actors—Ella Smith as Liz, Justin Salinger as Ray, Patrick Romer as the older Ray, Tony Way and Sam Gittins as neighbors, and Joshua Millard-Lloyd as the youngest child—that play out second by second as if by some new form of direct transmission from the artist’s memory bank. There is not a single second of this electrifying debut that doesn’t feel 100% rooted in personal experience.
Shoplifters
Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 2018, 121m
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner is a heartrending glimpse into an often invisible segment of Japanese society: those struggling to stay afloat in the face of crushing poverty. On the the margins of Tokyo, a most unusual “family”—a collection of societal castoffs united by their shared outsiderhood and fierce loyalty to one another—survives by petty stealing and grifting. When they welcome into their fold a young girl who’s been abused by her parents, they risk exposing themselves to the authorities and upending their tenuous, below-the-radar existence. The director’s latest masterful, richly observed human drama makes the quietly radical case that it is love—not blood—that defines a family. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Sorry Angel
Dir. Christophe Honoré, France, 2018, 132m
North American Premiere
The ever-unpredictable Christophe Honoré (Love Songs) returns with perhaps his most personal, emotionally rich work yet. At once an intimate chronicle of a romance and a sprawling portrait of gay life in early 1990s France, Sorry Angel follows the intertwining journeys of Jacques (Pierre Deladonchamps), a worldly, HIV-positive Parisian writer confronting his own mortality, and Arthur (Vincent Lacoste), a curious, carefree university student just beginning to live. Brought together by chance, the men find themselves navigating a casual fling that gradually deepens into a tender, transformative bond. Graced with vivid, complex characters and inspired flights of cinematic imagination, this is a vibrant, life-affirming celebration of love, friendship, and human connection. Released by Strand Releasing.
Too Late to Die Young
Dir. Dominga Sotomayor, Chile/Brazil/Argentina/
Omotenashi[/caption]
The upcoming 42nd edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival announced their lineup. The festival will run for 18 days from March 19th until April 5th, 2018. The opening night on March 19th will feature two gorgeous films from two promising Taiwanese directors – Omotenashi, directed by Jay Chern and Xiao Mei, directed by Maren Hwang. Closing film will be the World Premiere of What a Wonderful family! 3: My Wife, My Life, the latest work from the acclaimed comedy series by the Japanese master Yamada Yoji.
Omotenashi is a co-production of Japan and Taiwan with up-and-coming Taiwanese director Jay Chern, which offers a heartwarming portrayal of the younger generation learning to appreciate the cultural differences and traditional values through love and respect; whereas Maren Hwang’s Xiao Mei brilliantly juggles elements of film noir and suspense in exploring the riddle of identity and truth through the mystic tale of a vanished girl. Directors and casts of both opening films will join HKIFF42 Grand Opening on 19 March. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his success inWhat a Wonderful Family! 3: My Wife, My Life, the third installment of his amusing series that playfully exposes the changing values and behavior within contemporary Japanese society. The world premiere of this much anticipated film will bring a delightful conclusion to this year’s Festival.
The “Filmmaker in Focus” this year is Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, one of the most distinguished actresses in Chinese language cinema. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of her career since her screen debut, HKIFF42 will showcase 14 of her films including the new restoration of her first film Outside the Window. Lin will share her insights on film and life in the “Face to Face” seminar.
Werner Herzog, one of cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, will attend HKIFF42 and conduct a Master Class. His first visit to the Festival will be honored by a retrospective of his films, giving local audiences a rare opportunity to watch his classics, including four of his greatest cinematic achievements and his latest documentary Into the Inferno, which reflect his frantic imagination and poetic stylization.
HKIFF will also present the Hong Kong premiere of HTC’s first virtual reality (VR) Chinese language film, The Deserted. This groundbreaking work is directed by Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-Liang, with the support of HTC VIVE, ZOTAC Computer, and the Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Film. TSAI and Golden Horse Award winner Lee Kang-Sheng will lead the Hong Kong audience through an unparalleled eye-opening VR experience, and share their visions of this cinematic innovation in a Master Class.
In addition to the two masters, the Japanese documentarian Hara Kazuo, known for his highly original and controversial films, will bring his latest work Sennan Asbestos Disaster and meet the audience in a Master Class. Several world-renowned directors will also visit Hong Kong for screenings of their films. Acclaimed American independent filmmaker Sean Baker, with his celebrated new film The Florida Project, will share his filmmaking experience. Kagawa Kyoko, the legendary Japanese actress of the Mizoguchi Kenji masterpiece A Story from Chikamatsu, and Ozu Yasujiro’s classic Tokyo Story will share her collaborations with the giants of Japanese cinema following the screening of the newly restored classic. The late Filipino master, Ishmael Bernal, will be featured in the Restored Classics section, and his longtime screenwriter, Ricky Lee, will also meet the audience to share his insights.
Cinephiles can enjoy a number of internationally award-winning films firsthand at the HKIFF. These include In the Fade, winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and Cannes Best Actress Award for Diane Kruger’s powerhouse performance; Joaquin Phoenix took home the Cannes Best Actor Award with You Were Never Really Here, which won the Cannes Best Screenplay Award alongside The Killing of a Sacred Deer; as well as Cannes Jury Prize winner and Oscar-nominated Loveless. Award winners from the Venice Film Festival include Grand Jury Prize winner Foxtrot, Special Jury Prize winner Sweet Country, Best Director award winner Custody, Best Actress Award for Charlotte Rampling in Hannah, and Best Actor Award for Kamel El Basha in The Insult. The Berlinale award winners include Grand Jury Prize for Mug, Outstanding Artistic Contribution Award for Dovlatov, winners of FIPRESCI Jury Prizes for River’s Edge andAn Elephant Sitting Still, the latter also won Special Mention for Best First Feature Award.
Multifaceted Argentine and Danish films open up new frontiers in the international scene. HKIFF42 will celebrate the achievement of Lucrecia Martel, a major auteur and forceful leading light of New Argentine Cinema, by showcasing four of her acclaimed works, including Zama, her latest and multiple award-winning film. In the New Danish Cinema section, six outstanding films will be showcased, including Thelma, a chilling psychological thriller from director Joachim Trier, the topical Borg/McEnroe, and Winter Brothers, winner of four major awards at the Locarno International Film Festival.
The Awards Gala Night will feature the international premiere of Transit, directed by acclaimed German auteur Christian Petzold. The French Night will feature Custody, helmed by the Venice Best Director winner Xavier Legrand, who will come to Hong Kong to greet the audience. HKIFF will also present the Canadian film Ava, a feature debut about women’s fight for independence by Sadaf Foroyghi, who will meet the audience at the screenings.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Polish independence, HKIFF42 will present a prelude program “70 years of Polish Animation: Live Animation x Music”. The program will feature celebrated Polish filmmaker-animator Mariusz Wilczyński with live hand-drawn animation while the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will present fabulous music under the baton of Polish conductor Sebastian Periowski.
In response to what the festival describes as “overwhelming response” HKIFF has decided to continue with the “Audience Choice Award”, which was first launched last year.
Ed Sheeran in “Songwriter”[/caption]
The addition of two new films Utøya 22. juli (U – July 22) by Erik Poppe, and Songwriter by Murray Cummings complete the lineups of the Competition and Berlinale Special programs of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.
The Norwegian film Utøya 22. juli (U – July 22) by Erik Poppe completes the Competition program, which features 24 films, 19 of which will be competing for the Golden Bear and the Silver Bears. The documentary Songwriter by Murray Cummings completes the Berlinale Special program. The film follows British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran as he creates his latest album and provides an intimate look at the musician’s work.
Museum[/caption]
Another five films, including Steven Soderberg’s Unsane, and Gael García Bernal in Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museum, have been added to the Competition lineup of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival; and a further six films have been invited to participate in the Berlinale Special Program.
The 68th Berlin International Film Festival will take place from February 15 to 25, 2018. The complete program will be presented on February 6, 2018.
Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson in Damsel.[/caption]
Another ten films including Damsel starring Robert Pattinson, have been added to the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Three more have also been selected for the program of the Berlinale Special.
Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong – China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.
Further films of the Competition and Berlinale Special programme will be revealed soon.