• Argentine Actor Ricardo Darín to Receive Donostia Award at San Sebastian Film Festival

    The Summit (La cordillera) Ricardo Darin Argentine actor Ricardo Darín will receive a Donostia Award on September 26 at the 65th edition of the San Sebastian Festival, at the screening of his film The Summit (La cordillera). The Festival’s most important honorary award acknowledges the career of the Argentine actor, who has worked with filmmakers including Adolfo Aristarain, Juan José Campanella, Fabián Bielinsky, Fernando Trueba, Pablo Trapero, Cesc Gay and Santiago Mitre. The Summit (La cordillera) is written and directed by Santiago Mitre; and stars Dolores Fonzi, Érica Rivas, Elena Anaya, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Alfredo Castro, Paulina García and Christian Slater. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and will be screened on Tuesday 26 at the Kursaal Auditorium. Warner Bros Pictures will release the film in Spanish cinemas on September 29. The Summit (La cordillera) is set at a Summit for Latin American presidents in Chile, where the region’s geopolitical strategies and alliances are in discussion, Argentine president Hernán Blanco endures a political and family drama that will force him to face his own demons. He will have to come to two decisions that could change the course of his public and private life forever: one regarding a complicated emotional situation with his daughter, and the other, the most important political decision of his career. Ricardo Darín is known for El hijo de la novia (Son of the Bride, 2001, nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award), Luna de Avellaneda (Moon of Avellaneda,2004) and El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes, 2009, Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award), all three directed by Juan José Campanella. In 2007 he made his directorial debut with the film La señal alongside Martín Hodara, with whom he repeated the experience this year on Nieve negra (Black Snow). His filmography also includes the role of a professor of Criminal Law in Tesis sobre un homicidio (Thesis on a Homicide, Hernán Goldfrid, 2012), a desperate father in Séptimo (7th Floor, Patxi Amezcua, 2013), an explosives expert in Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifron, 2014), which competed in Cannes and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, and his part as the President of Argentina in La cordillera (The Summit). He is also a member of the cast on the latest film by the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, as yet untitled, on which he will share the credits with Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The Donostia Award culminates a list of more than 20 national and international wards including five Silver Condors, two Konex, two Sur by the Argentine Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences Awards, a Goya, a José María Forqué, a Gaudí, a CEC (Cinema Writers Circle) award, a Feroz, a Platino Audience Award, a Sant Jordi, awards at the Valladolid, Havana and Biarritz festivals, the aforementioned Silver Shell in San Sebastian, the Honorary Platino received last year and the Gold Medal for Merits in the Fine Arts he will receive this year. All recognize the extraordinary career of an actor who has worked indistinctly in television, cinema and theatre (with the award-winning Algo en común, Art and Escenas de la vida conyugal).

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  • New York Film Festival Unveiled 2017 Official Poster Designed by Richard Serra

    New York Film Festival 2017 Official Poster Designed by Richard Serra The Film Society of Lincoln Center unveiled today the poster for the 55th New York Film Festival taking place September 28 to October 15, 2017, designed by sculptor, filmmaker, and video artist Richard Serra. NYFF posters are a yearly artistic signature of the film festival, and Serra joins a stellar lineup of artists whose work has been commissioned for the festival, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, and last year’s artist, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. can be found below. “Richard Serra’s work has never stopped growing in my mind and memory,” said New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones. “During every one of my many visits to MoMA’s 2007 retrospective and to the permanent installations in Dia:Beacon, alone or with loved ones, I could feel everyone’s sense of the possible opening a couple of clicks wider. I was excited that he agreed to design this year’s NYFF poster, but when I saw the design I was taken aback—so wondrously elemental, and in such absolute harmony with the art of cinema.” Serra says his design for this year’s poster effectively reflects and references the camera eye, explaining, “The image I selected for the poster is the interior of an 80’ tower sculpture in Qatar which functions as an aperture and seemed to me to make sense.” One of the preeminent artists of the 20th century, Richard Serra has long been acclaimed for his challenging and innovative work, which emphasizes materiality and a unique engagement with the viewer. His most well-known works are large-scale steel sculptures, placed creatively in space to invite a dynamic, interactive experience. Serra has been a consistent participant in documenta, the Venice Biennale, and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual and Biennial over the last 30+ years. He has had solo exhibitions across the globe, in cities including Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Doha, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Madrid, and Naples. In 2005, eight large-scale works by Serra were installed permanently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and in 2007 The Museum of Modern Art, New York presented a major retrospective of the artist’s work. Serra has been awarded numerous prizes and awards, including a Fulbright Grant; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; The Carnegie Prize; Praemium Imperiale, Japan Arts Association; Leone d’Oro; Premios Principas de Asturias and Chevelier of the French Legion of Honor; among others. An overview of the artist’s work in film and video will be on view at the Kunstmuseum Basel from May to October 2017; and the artist’s recent drawings will be featured in a solo exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam from June to September 2017. The complete list of NYFF poster artists: Larry Rivers, 1963 Saul Bass, 1964 Bruce Conner, 1965 Roy Lichtenstein, 1966 Andy Warhol, 1967 Henry Pearson, 1968 Marisol (Escobar), 1969 James Rosenquist, 1970 Frank Stella, 1971 Josef Albers, 1972 Niki de Saint Phalle, 1973 Jean Tinguely, 1974 Carol Summers, 1975 Allan D’Arcangelo, 1976 Jim Dine, 1977 Richard Avedon, 1978 Michelangelo Pistoletto, 1979 Les Levine, 1980 David Hockney, 1981 Robert Rauschenberg, 1982 Jack Youngerman, 1983 Robert Breer, 1984 Tom Wesselmann, 1985 Elinor Bunin, 1986 Sol Lewitt, 1987 Milton Glaser, 1988 Jennifer Bartlett, 1989 Eric Fischl, 1990 Philip Pearlstein, 1991 William Wegman, 1992 Sheila Metzner, 1993 William Copley, 1994 Diane Arbus, 1995 Juan Gatti, 1996 Larry Rivers, 1997 Martin Scorsese, 1998 Ivan Chermayeff, 1999 Tamar Hirschl, 2000 Manny Farber, 2001 Julian Schnabel, 2002 Junichi Taki, 2003 Jeff Bridges, 2004 Maurice Pialat, 2005 Mary Ellen Mark, 2006 agnès b., 2007 Robert Cottingham, 2008 Gregory Crewdson, 2009 John Baldessari, 2010 Lorna Simpson, 2011 Cindy Sherman, 2012 Tacita Dean, 2013 Laurie Simmons, 2014 Laurie Anderson, 2015 Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2016

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  • BECKS, LIYANA, SKID ROW MARATHON Among Winners of 2017 LA Film Festival Awards

    [caption id="attachment_22794" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Becks Becks[/caption] Today the LA Film Festival announced the winners of the 2017 Festival at the Awards Reception, with the U.S. Fiction Award going to Elizabeth Rohrbaugh and Daniel Powell for Becks, which made its World Premiere at the Festival. The World Fiction Award went to Diego Ros for The Night Guard (El Vigilante), which made its North American Premiere at the Festival. The Documentary Award went to Amanda Kopp and Aaron Kopp for Liyana, which made its World Premiere at the Festival. The LA Muse Awards were given to two films, one fiction and one documentary. The LA Muse Documentary Award went to Mark Hayes for Skid Row Marathon, which made its World Premiere at the Festival. The LA Muse Fiction Award went to Savannah Bloch for And Then There Was Eve, which made its World Premiere at the Festival.   The Audience Award for Documentary Feature Film was given to Skid Row Marathon, directed by Mark Hayes; and the Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film went to The Keeping Hours, directed by Karen Moncrieff. Announced earlier were the winners of The Danny Elfman Project: Rabbit and Rogue competition: 13, Justine Quinones The Bridge, Matt Eckholm Dandelion, Catherine Fauteux A Day for Manuel, JB Minerva Gamelan, Cornelia Nicolăeasa A Glory Sewn, Travis Dixon Lakesong, Douglas Gibbens & Konstantina Mantelos Natural Promotion, Sean Oliver Urge, Pieter Coudyzer Awards were given out in the following categories: U.S. Fiction Award Winner: Becks, directed by Elizabeth Rohrbaugh and Daniel Powell Screenwriter: Elizabeth Rohrbaugh, Daniel Powell, Rebecca Drysdale Producer: Alex Bach, Elizabeth Rohrbaugh, Daniel Powell Cast: Lena Hall, Mena Suvari, Christine Lahti, Dan Fogler, Rebecca Drysdale, Hayley Kiyoko, Michael Zegen Film Description: After a crushing breakup, an aimless singer-songwriter moves in with her ultra-Catholic mother and strikes up an unexpected friendship with the wife of an old nemesis. World Premiere U.S. Fiction Cinematography Award presented by Aputure Winner: Everything Beautiful is Far Away, cinematography by Christian Sorensen Hansen and Pete Ohs Directors: Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson Country: USA Screenwriter: Pete Ohs Producer: Saul Germaine, Andrea Sisson, Pete Ohs Cast: Julia Garner, Joseph Cross, C.S. Lee Film Description: This arthouse science fiction fable is set on an isolated desert planet, where a man who is looking for parts to repair his robotic companion teams up with a young woman who is searching for an imaginary lake. World Premiere The U.S. Fiction Jury awarded the following special mentions: Special Mention for Breakout Performance: Auden Thornton of Beauty Mark Country: USA Director: Harris Doran Screenwriter: Harris Doran Producer: Harris Doran, Penny Edmiston, Gill Holland, Kiley Lane Parker, Bridget Berger, Corey Moosa Cast: Auden Thornton, Catherine Curtin, Laura Bell Bundy, Jeff Kober, Madison Iseman, Deirdre Lovejoy Film Description: Inspired by true events, when a poverty-stricken young mother and her three-year-old son are evicted, she turns to the only person she knows with any money – the man who abused her as a child. World Premiere Special Mention for Directing: Bruce Thierry Cheung of Don’t Come Back from the Moon Country: USA Screenwriter: Bruce Thierry Cheung, Dean Bakopoulos Producer: Jay Davis, Lauren Hoekstra Cast: Jeffrey Wahlberg, Zackary Arthur, Alyssa Elle Steinacker, Cheyenne Haynes, James Franco, Rashida Jones Film Description: The men of a small town on the edge of nowhere mysteriously disappear, one by one, leaving women and children behind to fend for themselves in a desolate and dreamlike world. World Premiere World Fiction Award Winner: The Night Guard (El Vigilante), directed by Diego Ros Country: Mexico Screenwriter: Diego Ros Producer: Diego Ros Cast: Leonardo Alonso, Ari Gallegos, Lilia Mendoza, Héctor Holten Film Description: A security guard at a construction site learns about a crime that took place the night before and becomes entangled in a series of mysterious events that unravel over the course of a single night. North American Premiere The World Fiction Jury awarded the following special mention: Special Mention for Excellence in Storytelling: On the Beach at Night Alone (Bamui Hae-Byun-Eoseo Honja), directed by Hong Sangsoo Country: South Korea Screenwriter: Hong Sangsoo Producer: Hong Sangsoo Cast: Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Kwon Haehyo, Jung Jaeyoung, Song Seonmi, Moon Sungkeun, Ahn Jaehong, Park Yeaju, Karl Feder, Mark Peranson, Bettina Steinbrügge Film Description: Younghee is an actress who is stressed by a relationship with a married man in Korea. On the beach she wonders: Is he missing me, like I miss him? North American Premiere Documentary Award Winner: Liyana, directed by Amanda Kopp and Aaron Kopp Country: Swaziland / USA / Qatar Producer: Amanda Kopp, Aaron Kopp, Sakheni Dlamini, Daniel Junge, Davis Coombe Featuring: Gcina Mhlophe Film Description: The epic tale of a young Swazi girl on a dangerous quest to save her twin brothers is brought to life with captivating animation from the imaginations of five talented orphan children in Swaziland. World Premiere LA Muse Fiction Award Winner: And Then There Was Eve, directed by Savannah Bloch Screenwriter: Savannah Bloch, Colette Freedman Producer: Jen Prince, Jhennifer Webberley Cast: Tania Nolan, Rachel Crowl, Mary Holland, Karan Soni, Anne Gee Byrd, John Kassir Film Description: After the sudden disappearance of her husband, a woman enlists the help of his coworker to fill in the missing pieces. World Premiere [caption id="attachment_22793" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Skid Row Marathon Skid Row Marathon[/caption] LA Muse Documentary Award Winner: Skid Row Marathon, directed by Mark Hayes Screenwriter: Mark Hayes Producer: Gabriele Hayes, Doug Blush Cast: Judge Craig Mitchell, Ben Shirley, Rafael Cabrera, Rebecca Hayes, David Askew Film Description: On LA’s Skid Row, a criminal court judge organizes a running club comprised of homeless, recovering and paroled men and women who seek to rediscover their sense of self-worth and dignity. World Premiere The LA Muse Jury awarded the following special mentions: Special Mention for Acting: John Carroll Lynch of Anything Country: USA Director: Timothy McNeil Screenwriter: Timothy McNeil Producer: Louise Runge, Ofrit Peres, Micah Hauptman Cast: John Carroll Lynch, Matt Bomer, Maura Tierney, Margot Bingham, Micah Hauptman Film Description: After the death of his wife, a man moves from Mississippi to a run-down Hollywood apartment, where he meets someone new. World Premiere Special Mention for Excellence in Storytelling: The Classic, directed by Billy McMillin Country: USA Screenwriter: Billy McMillin Producer: Christopher Leggett, Rafael Marmor, Timm Oberwelland, Billy McMillin Cast: Mario Ramirez, Joseph Silva, Sammy Hernandez, Stevie Williams, Javier Cid, Lorenzo Hernandez, Alfred Robledo Film Description: Two predominantly Latino high schools square off annually in one of the oldest and most heated football rivalries in the country: the East LA Classic. It doesn’t get more American than this. World Premiere Nightfall Award Winner: Serpent, directed by Amanda Evans Screenwriter: Amanda Evans Producer: Greig Buckle Cast: Sarah Dumont, Tom Ainsley Film Description: When a young couple take a getaway aimed at reviving their romance, they find themselves trapped in a tent with a venomous snake and a backlog of secrets, and realize that only one of them can make it out alive. World Premiere The Nightfall Jury awarded the following special mention: Special Mention for Acting: Kate Nhung of The Housemaid Country: USA/Vietnam Director: Derek Nguyen Screenwriter: Derek Nguyen Producer: Timothy Linh Bui Cast: Nhung Kate, Jean-Michel Richaud, Kim Xuan, Rosie Fellner, Phi Phung, Kien An Film Description: After an orphaned Vietnamese girl is hired to be a housemaid at a haunted rubber plantation in 1953 French Indochina, she unexpectedly falls in love with the French landowner and awakens the vengeful ghost of his dead wife. North American Premiere Award for Short Film Winner: A Funeral for Lightning, directed by Emily Kai Bock. USA/Canada. Film Description: Seven months pregnant and stuck in a sleepy corner of Tennessee, a young woman begins to question the promises made by her charismatic husband. The Shorts Jury awarded the following special mentions: Special Mention for Excellence in Storytelling: Balloonfest, directed by Nathan Truesdell. USA Film Description: Cleveland attempts to overcome its nickname, “The Mistake by the Lake,” by launching a bunch of balloons. Award for Documentary Short Winner: Black America Again, directed by Bradford Young. USA Film Description: Inspired by Common’s Black America Again, this portrait is a celebration of the beauty, strength, perseverance and spirit of the black community in these troubling times. Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film Winner: The Keeping Hours, directed by Karen Moncrieff Producers: Jason Blum, John Miranda Cast: Lee Pace, Carrie Coon, Sander Thomas, Amy Smart, Ana Ortiz, Ray Baker Film Description: Years after the death of their son and their subsequent estrangement, a couple reunites under supernatural circumstances. World Premiere. Audience Award for Documentary Feature Film Winner: Skid Row Marathon, directed by Mark Hayes Producers: Gabriele Hayes, Doug Blush Featuring: Judge Craig Mitchell, Ben Shirley, Rafael Cabrera, Rebecca Hayes, David Askew Film Description: On LA’s Skid Row, a criminal court judge organizes a running club comprised of homeless, recovering and paroled men and women who seek to rediscover their sense of self-worth and dignity. World Premiere Audience Award for Short Film Winner: Swim, directed by Mari Walker Country: USA Film Description: As summer draws to a close, a young trans girl finds freedom in a secret midnight swim. Audience Award for Web-series Winner: High & Mighty, directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada Country: USA Description: Perpetually stoned, drunk, and unemployed, Chelo Chavez is an unlikely superhero.

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  • Locarno Festival to Honor French Filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub with Pardo d’onore Manor Award

    Jean-Marie Straub French filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub will receive the Pardo d’onore Manor award at the 70th Locarno Festival on Friday, August 11.  The 70th Locarno Festival will be held from August 2 to 12, 2017. Born in France in 1933 and now resident in Switzerland after living in Germany and Italy, Jean-Marie Straub has been (re)writing cinema – in three of Switzerland’s four national languages – throughout a career that stretches back over sixty years. Much of this lifetime in film was spent with his partner in art and life, Danièle Huillet (1936 – 2006). Having learned his trade as an assistant on set to Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson, Straub joined Huillet in plowing a distinct furrow across the field of 20th century cinema, centered on the real, together with the expressive tools to show and convey it: radical, rigorous filmmaking, in which the superfluous gives way to the essential. Often featuring a non-professional cast, the ideal palette for a direct rapport with words, the work of Straub and Huillet is anti-spectacular and profoundly political, but never slips into propaganda. Following a 1963 debut with the antimilitarist short Machorka-Muff, Straub and Huillet’s first full-length film, Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (1967), clearly set a course for their future output, in which film would be, literally, the seventh art. Often “at the service” of literature, theater, music and painting, their films are powerful re-elaborations of landmark figures such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Kafka, Mallarmé, Pavese, Brecht, Engels, Cézanne, D. W. Griffith and many others, all firmly bound by a strict ethic of the gaze. In 1970 their film Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer, ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour marked a definitive peak of alienation in the acting in their filmmaking, with even fiction requiring and achieving maximum adherence to the real, rejecting interpretation and with it any possible equivocation. Straub has always had close ties with Locarno, entrusting many of his premieres to the Festival audience. The many important titles presented here over his long career include his full-length debut, Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach, featured in the main program in 1968, Antigone, shown in Piazza Grande in 1992, and Kommunisten screened Fuori Concorso in 2014. Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director of the Locarno Festival: “It is a special honor to be able to recognize the personality and achievement of Jean-Marie Straub during the 70th Festival. Not just because of the close ties between Straub and Huillet and the Locarno Festival, but above all because their films hold a unique and special place in the history of modern film and are still an undeniable influence on various directors. ‘Rigorous’ is a term that has often been used to describe their practice; watching their films again one also feels how much freedom pulses through every frame – something that is absolutely necessary to ‘digital’ filmmaking. The films of Straub and Huillet have so much to say to us: perhaps that’s why the recent retrospectives dedicated to their work, in 2016 at MoMA in New York, the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, were so well received. I am especially proud that Jean-Marie Straub should be in attendance at Locarno, and I am quite sure that our audience will give him the reception that great directors of his caliber deserve.” Recipients of the Pardo d’onore award at past Festivals include Samuel Fuller, Jean-Luc Godard, Ken Loach, Sydney Pollack, William Friedkin, Jia Zhangke, Alain Tanner, Werner Herzog, Agnès Varda, Michael Cimino, Marco Bellocchio and, in 2016, Alejandro Jodorowsky. From this year the Pardo d’onore is supported by Manor. Image: Jean-Marie Straub (Printemps 2010). © Diane Arques via olivierpere

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  • THE BIG SICK to Open, ARRIVAL to Close Karlovy Vary International Film Festival | Trailers

    [caption id="attachment_20114" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]The Big Sick The Big Sick[/caption] This year’s 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will open with director Michael Showalter’s unconventional romantic comedy The Big Sick, and close with director Denis Villeneuve’s mysterious sci-fi Arrival, in which one of the main roles was played by Jeremy Renner, one of the festival’s guests this year and a recipient of the President’s Award. The Big Sick Like many other comedians, Kumail wants to escape the small stages of out-of-the-way clubs and perform before a large audience. Yet he fails to impress the man capable of arranging an appealing engagement for him, and, what’s more, his new show on his Pakistani origins slips into a boring monologue. Kumail also struggles with his parents, who would rather see their son as a lawyer married to one of the Pakistani girls they keep trying to fix him up with. Things get even more complicated when he meets Emily and falls for her quirkiness and sense of humour. The question of whether to tell his parents about his girlfriend, who meets none of their basic criteria, seriously complicates Kumail’s life. The film’s husband-and-wife co-writers, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, based their film on their own life story, thus reinforcing its authenticity. Add to this the sense of lightness and immediacy typifying the film’s direction, and we get a fun and candid comedy that avoids the usual rom-com clichés. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX3Regj6nAg Arrival When several giant ships of unknown origin appear at over a dozen locations on Earth, top teams of scientists set out to study them. The American team is headed by physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who join forces in order to show that the extraterrestrial visitors are a threat to mankind only if we fail to communicate with them. One of the most original science fiction movies of recent years, Arrival cemented director Denis Villeneuve’s position as one the most closely watched directors working today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLO4X6UI8OY

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  • Uma Thurman and Jeremy Renner to Receive Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s President’s Award

    Uma Thurman
    Uma Thurman (Asatur, dp)

    Actor Jeremy Renner, and actress Uma Thurman will be presented with the President’s Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

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  • Milwaukee Film Announces Expansion, Leases Oriental Theatre for 31 Years

    Oriental Theatre Milwaukee Film has signed a 31-year lease to operate the Oriental Theatre beginning July 1, 2018, signaling tremendous future growth for the organization and ensuring that the Milwaukee Film Festival will be a part of the community for years to come. “The Oriental Theatre is a treasure. I have visited hundreds of cinemas worldwide and the Oriental Theatre is my favorite. It is magical to see 1,000 of our members fill the main house at our monthly screenings,” says Jonathan Jackson, Artistic & Executive Director of the nonprofit Milwaukee Film. “Our nine-year-old organization securing long-term control of this cinema is a momentous occasion. We have cemented our permanence in Milwaukee and intend to greatly expand our cultural, economic, and educational impact on our community.” Opened in 1927 as a “movie palace,” the Oriental Theatre is not only a beloved local landmark, but has also been recognized nationally as a top ten movie theater by Entertainment Weekly and USA Today. Milwaukee Film seeks to revitalize the space through investments in the infrastructure and upgrades to the projection and sound, creating a superior customer experience and making the Oriental Theatre a state of the art historic cinema. While designs have yet to be completed, the organization is committed to maintaining the existing aesthetics and character of this iconic Milwaukee building. In order to support the growth of the organization and successfully meet the demands of running a world class film institution, a fundraising initiative has already begun. A total of $3 million of a $10 million goal has been raised so far, with Chris Abele, Milwaukee County Executive and Milwaukee Film Co-Founder and past Board Chair, making a personal contribution of $2 million. “From day one, every person involved in Milwaukee Film – from staff, to volunteers, to the Board, to our dedicated 3,600 members – has been driven by the goal of not simply creating a film festival, but creating one of the best and biggest film festivals in the world,” states Chris Abele. “This announcement brings us closer to that goal. It isn’t the culmination or an end point, it’s the start of the next chapter.” In addition to Abele, Milwaukee Film Co-Founders, the Herzfeld Foundation, led by Herzfeld Foundation President and past Milwaukee Film Board Chair Bill Haberman and Herzfeld Foundation Vice President and Milwaukee Film Board Member Carmen Haberman, has committed $1 million to the initiative. Milwaukee Film deeply appreciates its sustained nine-year relationship with Landmark Theatres, noting that the organization’s remarkable growth could not have happened without renting the Oriental Theatre for its monthly member screenings and the annual film festival. Beginning with Jackson’s vision of the enormous opportunity that would be provided by Milwaukee Film operating the Oriental Theatre, over the last five years Milwaukee Film’s Board of Directors and staff thoroughly vetted the idea and financials of operating a year-round, non-profit cinema, developing a business plan one year ago that was unanimously approved by its now 32-person Board of Directors. In 2004, Boris Gohkman, father of Tim Gohkman, Director of New Land Enterprises, purchased the Oriental Theatre building after a several year pursuit. The trust and faith of Tim Gohkman in Milwaukee Film’s vision has been unparalleled. “We are excited to partner with Milwaukee Film because it presents a truly unique opportunity to fuel Milwaukee’s cultural renaissance,” states Tim Gohkman. “As a key Milwaukee institution, Milwaukee Film is uniquely positioned to energize North Ave., Farwell Ave., and the entire city with year-round programming. For years, I have considered the Milwaukee Film Festival my favorite annual event in Milwaukee, I just can’t wait to see what they do next.” At the Oriental Theatre, Milwaukee Film intends to program the best of international and American independent fiction and documentary films, including traditional weekly releases mixed with repertory selections, event cinema engagements, programming for families, and various themed film festivals and series throughout the year as well as the annual flagship Milwaukee Film Festival.

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  • Galway Film Fleadh Announces Short Film Highlights of 2017 Program

    [caption id="attachment_22771" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]An Béal Bocht An Béal Bocht[/caption] This year the Galway Film Fleadh in Galway, Ireland, will present a total of fourteen short film programs in the festival’s ever growing and increasingly diverse line-up, featuring a rise in short film co-productions from around the globe including the United Kingdom, Mexico, Norway, Lebanon and the United States. The competitive short film program showcases an exciting mix of drama, documentary and animation, with the winners of the Tiernan MacBride Award for Best Short Drama and the James Horgan Award for Best Short Animation gaining eligibility for Oscar consideration. This year’s short animation program features an abundance of styles from old school stop-motion to dark comedy. Highlights include an adaptation of the classic Irish Novel An Béal Bocht by Tom Collins and the Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders produced Sorry I Drowned, inspired by a letter found on the drowned body of a refugee fleeing from war. The short documentaries explore a variety of subjects from the therapeutic power of tattoos to Olympic dreams, from urban cowboys to vintage motorcycles, the latter being the focus of Charlie Endean’s directorial debut, Open Road. All of these and more including the return of Oscar winner Benjamin Cleary co-directing his new film WAVE;, the Irish premiere of A Drowning Man, hot after competing in Cannes; the directing debuts of The Gate Theatre Director Selina Cartmell, for her Filmbase/RTE funded film The Date and the renowned MTV VMA nominated Music-Video director Brendan Canty with his film For You; and Ireland’s own top model Laragh McCann goes behind the camera for her first time for her debut film Day. In addition to the curated program of over seventy short films in a mix of Irish, English and foreign languages, the festival will premiere two programs of films funded by the Irish Film Board: Short Stories and Frameworks Animations. As well as screenings, the short film forum will return to the festival after last year’s bumper turnout. This panel discussion is dedicated to emerging and established short filmmakers in all genres, with a focus on strategies and advice from international film festivals and short film programmers. Following the panel there will be an opportunity for discussion, debate and networking. The Galway Film Fleadh shorts program runs every day from Wednesday July 12th to Sunday July 16th.

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  • Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer will be Guest Director of Telluride Film Festival

    [caption id="attachment_22768" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Joshua Oppenheimer Joshua Oppenheimer[/caption] Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer will be the 2017 Guest Director of the upcoming Telluride Film Festival.  The award-winning documentarian is set to select a series of films to present at the 44th Telluride Film Festival running over Labor Day Weekend, September 1-4, 2017. Festival organizers annually select one of the world’s great film enthusiasts to join them in the creation of the Festival’s program lineup. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to Telluride. In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Oppenheimer’s film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup, will be kept secret until Opening Day. “The Guest Director program is one of the most essential and wonderful parts of our festival,” said Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger. “Joshua has been a part of the SHOW with several of the incredible films he has made in the past, and now as our Guest Director. His rare combination of intelligence and down-to-earth understanding of humanity will make for a remarkable presentation of films our audience will not want to miss. Further gilding the lily, FilmStruck has joined us as the sponsor of this selection. We are beyond fortunate with this terrific combination of cinematic genius.” Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer was born in the US in 1974 and studied filmmaking at Harvard University. Oppenheimer is best known for The Act of Killing (Telluride 2012) and The Look of Silence (Telluride 2014). The Act of Killing (2014 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary) was named Film of the Year in 2013 by the Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll. It won 72 international awards, including a BAFTA, a European Film Award and an Asia-Pacific Screen Award. The Look of Silence (2016 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary) premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI award, and went on to receive another 70 prizes, including an Independent Spirit Award, the IDA Award for Best Documentary Feature, a Gotham Award, and three Cinema Eye Honors. His early shorts have recently been re-released online and on DVD, including The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase, which premiered at Telluride in 1997. Joshua Oppenheimer was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2014. Oppenheimer is a partner at Final Cut for Real in Copenhagen, and Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster in London. “You stumble from a cinema into Telluride’s thin air, touched in ways you never imagined possible,” commented Oppenheimer. “You turn to a total stranger to share a thought unthinkable only two hours before. What happened? In the mirror of a great film, you confronted truths from which you normally avert your eyes. You recognized yourself in those delicate, mysterious moments that defy words yet make us human. Telluride’s movies are empathy machines, inviting us to find ourselves in people we’d never otherwise know. Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy’s annual selection is driven by such curiosity and humanity that you cannot leave Telluride without feeling the responsibility and pain and love that comes with compassion. We emerge connected, reminded that self-absorption ultimately leaves us isolated and fearful. There is no greater privilege than joining Tom and Julie as this year’s guest director, sharing with Telluride’s audience the films that give me the greatest courage, and teach me to practice the widest empathy.” Past Guest Directors include Volker Schlöndorff , Rachel Kushner, Guy Maddin, Caetano Veloso, Michael Ondaatje, Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, G. Cabrera Infante, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and Slavoj Žižek.

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  • ON BODY AND SOUL Wins Sydney Film Prize at Sydney Film Festival

    [caption id="attachment_20704" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Testről és lélekről On Body and Soul by Ildikó Enyedi On Body and Soul (Testről és lélekről) by Ildikó Enyedi[/caption] On Body and Soul, directed by Ildikó Enyedi, beat 12 other films to win the prestigious 10th anniversary Sydney Film Prize at the 64th Sydney Film Festival.  Winner of the Berlinale Golden Bear, On Body and Soul is Enyedi’s visually ravishing return to filmmaking after an 18-year break. The film is about the unconventional romance between two coworkers who discover that each night they have exactly the same dreams. Accepting the award, Enyedi said, “It was such an amazingly strong competition. It’s marvelous that such a film can move so many people, it gives me so much hope in cinema and in human communication.” Sydney filmmakers Sascha Ettinger Epstein and Claire Haywood were awarded the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary’s $10,000 cash prize for The Pink House, about the last brothel in old mining town Kalgoorlie. The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films saw the $7000 cash prize for the Dendy Live Action Short Award going to Adele, directed by Mirene Igwabi. Sunday Emerson Gullifer was Highly Commended for her short film Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. And Daniel Agdag’s animation Lost Property Office took out both the $7000 Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director and the $5000 Yoram Gross Animation Award. The Event Cinemas Australian Short Screenplay Award, a $5,000 prize for the best short screenwriting, was awarded to Michael Cusack, the writer and director of stop motion animation After All. And the writers of Screenability short film The Milky Pop Kid, Johanna Garvin and Emily Dash, were Highly Commended. The $10,000 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award, bestowed by Create NSW to a trail-blazing NSW based screen practitioner, went to Indigenous Australian actor, director and writer Leah Purcell.

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  • Watch Trailer for Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine HBO Docu Series THE DEFIANT ONES

    THE DEFIANT ONES Documentary on Music Legends Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine Here is the official trailer for The Defiant Ones, the four-part documentary series that tells the stories of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, their improbable partnership and their leading roles in a series of transformative events in contemporary culture. The series debut July 9 on HBO. Set amid many of the defining events of the past four decades, this four-part documentary event tells the stories of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, their improbable partnership and their leading roles in a series of transformative events in contemporary culture. Directed by Allen Hughes, who conducted extensive interviews with both men, the show also includes interviews with such music icons as Bono, David Geffen, Eminem, Nas, Stevie Nicks, Ice Cube, Gwen Stefani, Jon Landau, Tom Petty, Trent Reznor, Snoop Dogg, Bruce Springsteen, Diddy and will.i.am. THE DEFIANT ONES also features never-before-seen footage from a multitude of recording and writing sessions with Eazy-E, JJ Fad, Stevie Nicks, N.W.A., Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and U2, among others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT5FeylUWO0

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  • STEP and FISH STORY Win AFI DOCS 2017 Audience Awards

    [caption id="attachment_19944" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Step A still from STEP by Amanda Lipitz.[/caption] The AFI DOCS 2017 Audience Award for Best Feature went to STEP, directed by Amanda Lipitz, and the Audience Award for Best Short went to Fish Story, directed by Charlie Lyne. With 112 films from 28 countries, this year’s AFI DOCS presented films and discussions on topics ranging from the environment and sports to politics and art, along with profiles of extraordinary individuals. Among the attendees were filmmakers and notables including Trish Adlesic and Mariska Hargitay (I Am Evidence), Matthew Heineman (City Of Ghosts), Michael Pack (The Fall Of Newt Gingrich), Laura Poitras (AFI DOCS Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree), Samuel Pollard (Acorn And The Firestorm), Morgan Spurlock (No Man’s Land, Tough Guys), as well as scientist Bill Nye (Bill Nye: Science Guy) and Owner and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment Ted Leonsis. In STEP, meet the “Lethal Ladies,” the amazing step dance team from the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women. Amanda Lipitz’s inspiring portrait will have you cheering as the Ladies attempt to finish first in the city’s dance competition and to become the first women in their families to go to college. FISH STORY investigates a mysterious gathering rumored to have taken place in 1980s Wales, at which an unlikely group of people with one thing in common came together.

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