Earlier this month, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) announced MIFF 68 1⁄2 – a reimagined celebration of film online, following the cancellation of MIFF 2020. The fully-curated program will showcase over 100 films including 12 world premieres, Australian premieres, shorts, Q&As, special events, and more. MIFF 68 1⁄2 will be available to stream in Australia August 6-23.
SFFILM has announced the complete lineup for the 2020 San Francisco International Film Festival (originally scheduled for April 8–21), though the event itself was canceled due to growing safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
32 projects from 21 countries at the dynamic crossroads of film, art and technology will be showcased in the New Frontier program for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. This curated collection of cutting-edge independent and experimental media works are by creators who are pushing artistic innovation across mediums that include rocket travel, biotech, facial recognition, mixed reality (MR), smartphone AR, underwater VR, game engines, big data, AI, the human archive, and innovative uses of SMS text & iPhone video capture.
Sight & Sound, the BFI’s international film magazine, named Joanna Hogg’s THE SOUVENIR (2019) as the Best Film of the Year. In second place is PARASITE, Bong Joon-ho’s darkly comic thriller, followed by THE IRISHMAN, the latest film from Martin Scorsese.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) revealed the first confirmed films of the 2020 edition, including the world premiere of Artem Aisagaliev’s Babai, the international premiere of Oda Kaori’s Cenote, and the European premiere of Nigina Sayfullaeva’s Fidelity.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France) by director Céline Sciamma, hailed by the jury as a portrayal of the all-consuming nature of love and the beauty of women’s solidarity, took home the top prize in the International Feature Film Competition at the 55th Chicago International Film Festival.
The 72nd edition of the Locarno Film Festival closed with the award ceremony, and VITALINA VARELA by Pedro Costa was awarded the top prize, the Pardo d’oro (Golden Leopard), Grand Prize of the City of Locarno. The film follows Vitalina Varela, a 55-year-old woman from Cape Verde, who arrives in Lisbon three days after her husband’s funeral. She’s been waiting for her plane ticket for more than 25 years. For her performance Vitalina Varela was awarded the Leopard for Best Actress.
The Wavelengths program of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival consists of 37 films, comprised of four programs of experimental short films, two curated pairings, and 10 features, each contributing to a dynamic survey of some of today’s most exciting moving-image work.
This year’s Main Slate of the 57th New York Film Festival, September 27 – October 13, showcases 29 films from 17 different countries. Nine films in the festival were honored at Cannes, including Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or–winner Parasite; Grand Prix–winner Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story, directed by Mati Diop, an alum of annual FLC series Art of the Real and winner of the 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist award; Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, NYFF’s Film Comment Presents selection and winner of both the Queer Palm and the Best Screenplay prize; Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, awarded Best Actor for Antonio Banderas; Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Jury Prize–winner Bacurau; Young Ahmed, which brought home the Best Director prize for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne; and three Un Certain Regard winners, including Oliver Laxe’s Jury Prize–winner Fire Will Come, Albert Serra’s Special Jury Prize–winner Liberté, and Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole, which collected the Best Director prize. Top prize winners from the Berlinale will also appear in the Main Slate: Nadav Lapid’s Golden Bear–winner Synonyms and Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, But…, which won the Silver Bear for Best Director.
The official program of the 72nd edition of the Locarno Film Festival was announced this week, along with tributes – the Leopard Club Award for Hilary Swank, the Vision Award Ticinomoda for Claire Atherton, the Premio Utopia for Enrico Ghezzi and the Premio Cinema Ticino for Fulvio Bernasconi.