The 16th annual HollyShorts Film Festival will open with the premiere of Jackson Lewis Lee’s new short film THOMPSON FARM. Jackson Lewis Lee is the son of legendary filmmaker and Oscar-Winning writer/director Spike Lee. Thompson Farm will screen as part of the HollyShorts opening night lineup on Monday, November 9th.
Netflix released the trailer for the Italian drama “The Life Ahead” (La vita davanti a sé) from director Edoardo Ponti and starring Academy Award® winner Sophia Loren, along with Ibrahima Gueye. In the film set in seaside Italy, a Holocaust survivor Madame Rosa (Loren), takes in 12-year-old street kid Momo (Gueye), who recently robbed her. The two become each other’s protectors, anchoring an unconventional family.
The 43rd Denver Film Festival (DFF43) kicks off tonight, Opening Night, October 22 with Searchlight’s NOMADLAND. The film will also receive DFF43’s Rare Pearl Award which will be accepted by director, Chloé Zhao, in a video presentation before the film screening. The Rare Pearl Award highlights a film whose beauty and uniqueness stand out as finest of the year. Recent Rare Pearl Award winners include Portrait of a Lady on Fire (DFF42) and Roma (DFF41).
Sony Pictures Classics will finally release The Climb directed by Michael Angelo Covino in select theaters nationwide on November 13, 2020.
The 43rd Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF43) and the DocLands Documentary Film Festival (which ran in tandem this year) concluded on October 18th after 11 days of virtual and drive-in screenings, panels, and special events.
Filmmakers Aaron Sorkin and Chloé Zhao will receive honors at SFFILM Awards Night, which this year has shifted from its traditional seated dinner and onstage presentation format to a dynamic live-streamed showcase, taking place December 9.
Apple acquired “The Velvet Underground,” the new feature documentary from Academy Award-nominated director Todd Haynes (“Carol,” “Far From Heaven,” “I’m Not There”).
The drama Valley of the Gods (Dolina Bogów) written and directed by Lech Majewski, starring Josh Hartnett, John Malkovich, Bérénice Marlohe, John Rhys-Davies, Jaime Ray Newman and Laura Ecas is the winner of the Best Feature Movie Award at the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) in Berlin 2020.
The documentary short Burning Ojai: Our Fire Story, featuring personal accounts of the 2017 California wildfires debuts Wednesday, October 28 (7:00 p.m. – 7:45 p.m. EST / PST), on HBO. Burning Ojai: Our Fire Story follows one family and the residents of Ventura County, CA through a journey of devastation, repair and survival after one of the largest wildfires in state history destroys their beloved community.
Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the award winning documentary film Saul & Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band on VOD and streaming platforms on November 24.
Tania Cypriano’s “Born to Be” which world-premiered at the 2019 New York Film Festival, will have its exclusive NYC premiere in Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema beginning Wednesday, November 18. Born to Be looks at pioneering surgeon Dr. Jess Ting and his patients at Mount Sinai’s Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery.
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival unveiled films selected for November’s special four-day event “KVIFF 541⁄2” including the psychological British-Canadian drama The Nest starring Jude Law from director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January.