The striking opening shot of Abner Benaim’s plangent drama “Plaza Catedral” induces slight vertigo. The camera rises on an elevator attached to the outside of a partially built skyscraper, looking out across Panama City’s high-rise apartment complexes, and eventually, at the bay beyond. It should be uplifting, but a chilly, murmured voiceover and the opening drone of Matthew Herbert’s rueful score, are like the rainclouds that edge the blue sky in foreboding gray. The view ascends, but it evokes a sinking feeling.
The voice belongs to Alicia, who introduces herself and speaks elliptically, in her emotionless, removed way, of a loss she has suffered in her recent past, that has put her at odds with the world around her. She is an architect by training but a salesperson for an upscale property developer by profession, hence her visit to this half-finished penthouse, with the young family who are thinking of buying it.
The voice belongs to Alicia, who introduces herself and speaks elliptically, in her emotionless, removed way, of a loss she has suffered in her recent past, that has put her at odds with the world around her. She is an architect by training but a salesperson for an upscale property developer by profession, hence her visit to this half-finished penthouse, with the young family who are thinking of buying it.
- 12/21/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Elie Samaha’s Luminosity Entertainment and Mike Karz’s Gulfstream Pictures have snagged the worldwide rights to Abner Benaim’s dramatic thriller, “Plaza Catedral.”
The deal, forged by Luminosity partner and co-president Daniel Diamond and Karz, closed just ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (Ficg) on Oct. 3. “Plaza Catedral” is in competition at Ficg’s main category, the Mezcal Awards.
“Plaza Catedral is a very powerful, moving film with superb performances and outstanding direction by Benaim. We are proud to be a part of bringing this film to worldwide audiences,” said Diamond.
This is the first non-English pickup by Luminosity, which was launched in September. “I haven’t represented many, if any, non English-language films but audiences in the U.S. and around the world are demonstrating their interest in content of all nationalities and languages, as evidenced by the success of shows like ‘Lupin,...
The deal, forged by Luminosity partner and co-president Daniel Diamond and Karz, closed just ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (Ficg) on Oct. 3. “Plaza Catedral” is in competition at Ficg’s main category, the Mezcal Awards.
“Plaza Catedral is a very powerful, moving film with superb performances and outstanding direction by Benaim. We are proud to be a part of bringing this film to worldwide audiences,” said Diamond.
This is the first non-English pickup by Luminosity, which was launched in September. “I haven’t represented many, if any, non English-language films but audiences in the U.S. and around the world are demonstrating their interest in content of all nationalities and languages, as evidenced by the success of shows like ‘Lupin,...
- 10/3/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Natalia Almada’s Users is an inquisition on technology and its inextricable nature from modern life. Juxtaposed against Californian wildfires and oceans on the rise, the film questions what progress means when we sacrifice so much in the process. Dp Bennett Cerf discusses the morbid thrill of capturing disasters on film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Cerf: Natalia has always shot her own projects except for her narrative feature, which Lorenzo Hagerman shot. I was peripherally involved in […]
The post "Wildfires Are a Complicated Tornado of Danger": Dp Bennett Cerf on Users first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "Wildfires Are a Complicated Tornado of Danger": Dp Bennett Cerf on Users first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/3/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Natalia Almada’s Users is an inquisition on technology and its inextricable nature from modern life. Juxtaposed against Californian wildfires and oceans on the rise, the film questions what progress means when we sacrifice so much in the process. Dp Bennett Cerf discusses the morbid thrill of capturing disasters on film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Cerf: Natalia has always shot her own projects except for her narrative feature, which Lorenzo Hagerman shot. I was peripherally involved in […]
The post "Wildfires Are a Complicated Tornado of Danger": Dp Bennett Cerf on Users first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "Wildfires Are a Complicated Tornado of Danger": Dp Bennett Cerf on Users first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/3/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Attempting to guess the less than a dozen titles in Sundance’s World Dramatic comp section is a true crapshoot but seeing that Panamanian filmmaker Abner Benaim‘s last picture Ruben Blades Is Not My Name had it’s world premiere at Sundance’s competing festival SXSW means they are keeping tabs on this project. Benaim signed up the very choosey cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman (Amat Escalante’s Heli and Rick Alverson’s last two features) and by enlisting the excellent Ilse Salas (featured in The Good Girls – check out our portrait of her in our TIFF studio) he assures that there’ll be interest for all Spanish speaking film territories and beyond. …...
- 11/23/2020
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Panama’s internationally best-known helmer, Abner Benaim (“Ruben Blades Is Not My Name”) has just completed the shoot for his second fiction feature film, “Plaza Catedral,” starring Mexico’s Ilse Salas (“The Good Girls”), and Manolo Cardona (“Narcos”).
Salas plays a 42-year old grief-stricken woman, Alicia, who has severed her ties with married life and society. Her life is turned upside down when a 14-year old boy, “Chief,” who looks after people’s cars, comes bleeding into her house.
The boy is played by first time actor, Fernando de Casta, who was chosen from over 250 kids who came in for open casting in the same neighborhoods in Panama´s old town where the film’s plot takes place.
“What started out as a very small production quickly turned into medium-size, and sometimes large for Latin American standards,” explained Benaim.
“We had a very demanding schedule, many locations, and Panama’s tropical weather to deal with.
Salas plays a 42-year old grief-stricken woman, Alicia, who has severed her ties with married life and society. Her life is turned upside down when a 14-year old boy, “Chief,” who looks after people’s cars, comes bleeding into her house.
The boy is played by first time actor, Fernando de Casta, who was chosen from over 250 kids who came in for open casting in the same neighborhoods in Panama´s old town where the film’s plot takes place.
“What started out as a very small production quickly turned into medium-size, and sometimes large for Latin American standards,” explained Benaim.
“We had a very demanding schedule, many locations, and Panama’s tropical weather to deal with.
- 10/17/2019
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Rick Alverson on Jeff Goldblum with Tye Sheridan in The Mountain: "He is using the boy as a refractive mechanism to validate himself, to show his worth."
In the final instalment of my in-depth conversation with Rick Alverson on The Mountain, he reveals that he is a fan of the films of Robert Bresson, Catherine Breillat, Michael Haneke, Bruno Dumont (Bernard Pruvost in Li'l Quinquin), and Claire Denis, and why Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker and John Cassavetes' A Woman Under The Influence are "huge" for him. He names Udo Kier as Frederick being the body of The Mountain, Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Fiennes the mind, and Denis Lavant the spirit, with Tye Sheridan's Andy as the son, and credits Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies as an influence for one of the numbers in the film.
Rick Alverson on The Mountain: "Essentially, the film is separated into mind, body and spirit.
In the final instalment of my in-depth conversation with Rick Alverson on The Mountain, he reveals that he is a fan of the films of Robert Bresson, Catherine Breillat, Michael Haneke, Bruno Dumont (Bernard Pruvost in Li'l Quinquin), and Claire Denis, and why Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker and John Cassavetes' A Woman Under The Influence are "huge" for him. He names Udo Kier as Frederick being the body of The Mountain, Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Fiennes the mind, and Denis Lavant the spirit, with Tye Sheridan's Andy as the son, and credits Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies as an influence for one of the numbers in the film.
Rick Alverson on The Mountain: "Essentially, the film is separated into mind, body and spirit.
- 9/6/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Mountain director Rick Alverson: "There's a lot of parallels between the lobotomy and filmmaking." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the first instalment of my in-depth conversation with Rick Alverson on The Mountain, co-written with Person To Person director Dustin Guy Defa and Colm O'Leary (The Comedy), shot by Lorenzo Hagerman (Entertainment), starring Jeff Goldblum and Tye Sheridan (Alexandre Moors's The Yellow Birds), with Hannah Gross (Michael Almereyda's Marjorie Prime), Udo Kier, and Denis Lavant (a Leos Carax and Emmanuel Bourdieu favourite), we discuss what "interrupting the trigger" means to him, "parallels between lobotomy and filmmaking", a Django Reinhardt number, and the role the threshold move plays. Rick confided to me that he is a "big Perry Como fan" and that he was "reared on all that Disney stuff" when I brought up a scene that reminded me of Snow White.
Rick Alverson on Denis Lavant: "He's more poetic than I am.
In the first instalment of my in-depth conversation with Rick Alverson on The Mountain, co-written with Person To Person director Dustin Guy Defa and Colm O'Leary (The Comedy), shot by Lorenzo Hagerman (Entertainment), starring Jeff Goldblum and Tye Sheridan (Alexandre Moors's The Yellow Birds), with Hannah Gross (Michael Almereyda's Marjorie Prime), Udo Kier, and Denis Lavant (a Leos Carax and Emmanuel Bourdieu favourite), we discuss what "interrupting the trigger" means to him, "parallels between lobotomy and filmmaking", a Django Reinhardt number, and the role the threshold move plays. Rick confided to me that he is a "big Perry Como fan" and that he was "reared on all that Disney stuff" when I brought up a scene that reminded me of Snow White.
Rick Alverson on Denis Lavant: "He's more poetic than I am.
- 7/28/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
There’s something about Tye Sheridan. Adopted early on by indie and/or iconoclastic filmmakers like Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Jeff Nichols (Mud) and David Gordon Green (Joe), he played fresh-faced innocents on the cusp of receiving wisdom or being irrevocably warped. Spielberg gave him a shot at leading-man heroics with Ready Player One; the X-Men movies gave him a chance at steady franchise superheroics by casting him as Baby Cyclops. His specialty seemed to be passivity. He didn’t look like your typical assembly-line CW hunk, though...
- 7/25/2019
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Let’s start here: the latest project from cinematic provocateur Rick Alverson is probably best suited for the sort of on-a-loop side room you’d find in a modern art museum, where it could endlessly challenge viewers but give curious wanderers a quick way out if they’ve had enough. Alverson calls “The Mountain” an “anti-Utopian film,” but doesn’t that describe most movies these days? Where his effort does stand out is in its gravely stark, often breathtaking beauty, and its urgent desire to Make a Point.
A cynic might wonder why a filmmaker who vocally disdains popular culture would hire Jeff Goldblum, one of its cultishly beloved icons. But Goldblum more than delivers as Wallace Fiennes, a doctor who travels California performing lobotomies in the mid-1950s. One of his patients is a woman who has been locked away for a long time, leaving her 20-year-old son Andy (Tye Sheridan) adrift and bereft.
A cynic might wonder why a filmmaker who vocally disdains popular culture would hire Jeff Goldblum, one of its cultishly beloved icons. But Goldblum more than delivers as Wallace Fiennes, a doctor who travels California performing lobotomies in the mid-1950s. One of his patients is a woman who has been locked away for a long time, leaving her 20-year-old son Andy (Tye Sheridan) adrift and bereft.
- 7/25/2019
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
Panama’s internationally best-known helmer, Abner Benaim (“Ruben Blades Is Not My Name”) has moved into pre-production on his second fiction feature film, “Plaza Catedral,” which is set to star Mexico’s Ilse Salas, who has just won Mexican Academy’s Ariel Award for best actress for her performance in Alejandra Marquez’s Toronto hit “The Good Girls.”
Salas has also starred in both movies to date from Alonso Ruizpalacios, with Marquéz Mexico’s fasting-rising new director, whose “Museum”proved a standout at the Berlin and Toronto Festivals last year.
“Plaza Catedral” is scheduled to begin its six-week shoot in Panama City in August. In it, Salas plays a 42 year old grief-stricken woman who has severed her ties with married life and society.
“This complex, melancholy character finds herself in the tropical paradise that Panamá pretends to be, with its primary colors and a society obsessed with economic success and having a good time,...
Salas has also starred in both movies to date from Alonso Ruizpalacios, with Marquéz Mexico’s fasting-rising new director, whose “Museum”proved a standout at the Berlin and Toronto Festivals last year.
“Plaza Catedral” is scheduled to begin its six-week shoot in Panama City in August. In it, Salas plays a 42 year old grief-stricken woman who has severed her ties with married life and society.
“This complex, melancholy character finds herself in the tropical paradise that Panamá pretends to be, with its primary colors and a society obsessed with economic success and having a good time,...
- 7/2/2019
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
A cool, tin grey palette washes over The Mountain, an “anti-utopian film” (as per writer-director Rick Alverson’s own notes) orphaned by almost inexpressible loneliness, an unsettlingly dark portrait of a rogue lobotomist and his assistant that percolates with the anxiety of a paranoid society eager to cow dissident voices into obedience. Polarizing as it may be—and certainly divisive among Venice audiences—Alverson’s fifth feature stands out as his possibly bleakest to date, but it is as surreally gorgeous as it is unflinchingly disturbing.Trapped in a boxy Academy aspect ratio gorgeously framed by cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman, 20-year-old Andy (Tye Sheridan) lives in a wintry Edward Hopper-esque Midwest. His German father (an underused Udo Kier) runs an ice rink where Andy’s mother used to skate—that is, until she was hospitalized for an unspecified mental illness, and never came back. Stymied by cold, laconic and alcoholic Kier,...
- 9/15/2018
- MUBI
There comes a telling moment near the beginning of The Mountain when Jeff Goldblum’s doctor turns to his newfound apprentice to explain the workings of a camera’s aperture. He’s a shady lobotomist (is there any other kind?) and has just hired the younger man to take photos of the women he operates on, both before and after their procedures. He explains to him that were he to set the aperture to F11 not much light would get in. You would be within your rights to say that the film itself is set to F11, just as its creator, Rick Alverson, might be too. As visually overcast as it is emotionally dead-eyed, The Mountain is probably the most intentionally–and unwarrantedly–bleak film you’re likely to see in 2018, a draining head-fuck of a movie with perhaps some stuff to say about misogyny, creativity, and mid-20th Century mental asylums.
- 9/2/2018
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
A shady scalpel-for-hire takes Tye Sheridan’s grieving son on a nightmarish voyage in this hypnotic, maddening road movie
There’s a strange, stark bleakness to this intriguing and perplexing film from director and co-writer Rick Alverson. It is like a disturbing dream – and certainly anything featuring Jeff Goldblum, Udo Kier and Denis Lavant is sure to offer a strong range of flavours at the very least. There are fascinating visual compositions: weird rectilinear tableaux made from the forbidding lines of hospital corridors and lonely motel balconies. Cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman gives us colours that are bleached out and subdued, as if approximating what people with severe depression see.
This is a film with an impressive, sometimes oppressive craft and technique – but it also feels unfinished. A sustained and rather brilliant conjuring of atmosphere, with some superb ambient music, finally succumbs to a rather banal inability to decide where to take...
There’s a strange, stark bleakness to this intriguing and perplexing film from director and co-writer Rick Alverson. It is like a disturbing dream – and certainly anything featuring Jeff Goldblum, Udo Kier and Denis Lavant is sure to offer a strong range of flavours at the very least. There are fascinating visual compositions: weird rectilinear tableaux made from the forbidding lines of hospital corridors and lonely motel balconies. Cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman gives us colours that are bleached out and subdued, as if approximating what people with severe depression see.
This is a film with an impressive, sometimes oppressive craft and technique – but it also feels unfinished. A sustained and rather brilliant conjuring of atmosphere, with some superb ambient music, finally succumbs to a rather banal inability to decide where to take...
- 8/30/2018
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The first thing we see in “Everything Else” is a look of emptiness. Doña Flor (Adriana Barraza), a middle-aged public servant who has spent 35 years engaged in an utterly boring routine, blankly stares at nothing in particular. Soon, we learn why: As a Mexico City clerk tasked with issuing government IDs, her days are spent assessing paperwork and mechanically processing new requests. Much of this quiet, slow-burn character study inhabits the dreary, remote quality of Doña’s existence, but with time, the movie pieces it together to reveal the emotional solitude lurking beneath that distant gaze.
Anyone familiar with Chantal Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman” or Lucretia Martel’s “The Headless Woman” will find familiar patterns in writer-director Natalia Almada’s first narrative feature, though it may as well be an extension of her documentary work for the way it pulls viewers into the nuances of everyday rituals and their ability to mask psychological discord.
Anyone familiar with Chantal Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman” or Lucretia Martel’s “The Headless Woman” will find familiar patterns in writer-director Natalia Almada’s first narrative feature, though it may as well be an extension of her documentary work for the way it pulls viewers into the nuances of everyday rituals and their ability to mask psychological discord.
- 4/19/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Just because events like Venice, Tiff and Nyff are over, that doesn’t mean fall film festival season is slowing down. Quite the contrary, as the renowned Morelia International Film Festival is currently in full swing in Mexico.
Founded in 2003, the festival was designed to put a greater spotlight on Mexican cinema, but it has since grown into an international event, hosting directors as diverse as Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu to Todd Haynes, Michel Gondry, Alejandro Jodorowsky and the late Abbas Kiarostami. The festival runs through October 30, and IndieWire has partnered with Festival Scope to give readers the chance to attend from the comfort of their own homes.
Now through Thursday, October 27, IndieWire readers have an exclusive opportunity to register for a chance to win an online festival pass to screen 20 features and documentaries from the Morelia Film Festival on the Festival Scope website. Click here for the...
Founded in 2003, the festival was designed to put a greater spotlight on Mexican cinema, but it has since grown into an international event, hosting directors as diverse as Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu to Todd Haynes, Michel Gondry, Alejandro Jodorowsky and the late Abbas Kiarostami. The festival runs through October 30, and IndieWire has partnered with Festival Scope to give readers the chance to attend from the comfort of their own homes.
Now through Thursday, October 27, IndieWire readers have an exclusive opportunity to register for a chance to win an online festival pass to screen 20 features and documentaries from the Morelia Film Festival on the Festival Scope website. Click here for the...
- 10/24/2016
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
For as unpleasant and uninviting as his films might sometimes feel, Rick Alverson is rather friendly and open in conversation. I wasn’t surprised, having spoken to him when The Comedy was released three years ago, but the latest endeavor, Entertainment, might be even more savage an indictment of certain mentalities and mindsets that its star has become (in)famous for. At the center is Gregg Turkington, whose character — despite only being called “The Comedian” — is his own Neil Hamburger, a rough-voiced, abrasive-beyond-reproach stand-up who’s earned a reputation through years of touring. (Click here to get a sample.)
I wasn’t interested in asking about the meaning behind specific moments or how he really feels about these characters. There’s plenty to consider, no matter how you feel about Entertainment in the long run — a week after viewing it, I’m still not certain — which meant our time together...
I wasn’t interested in asking about the meaning behind specific moments or how he really feels about these characters. There’s plenty to consider, no matter how you feel about Entertainment in the long run — a week after viewing it, I’m still not certain — which meant our time together...
- 11/13/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Ioncinema.com’s Top 3 Critics’ Picks offers a curated approach to the usual quandary: what would you recommend I see in theaters this month? This November, we’ve got a pair of films Sundance Film Festival Next section premiered films that will be found on several best of lists for 2015, and the other item was one of the most admired films to land on the Croisette.
Entertainment – Rick Alverson
November 13th – Limited Release
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Awards & Fests: Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival with a good number of U.S. film fests, some noteworthy stops included New Directors/New Films, Locarno, Sitges, London and Chicago.
What the critic’s are saying?: Simply put, Rick Alverson’s The Comedy (2012) is brilliant. Predictably his abrasive parameter-less cinema is what sets this filmmaker apart and in this case shows the shortcomings of mainstream audiences. Only four features into his filmography, there...
Entertainment – Rick Alverson
November 13th – Limited Release
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Awards & Fests: Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival with a good number of U.S. film fests, some noteworthy stops included New Directors/New Films, Locarno, Sitges, London and Chicago.
What the critic’s are saying?: Simply put, Rick Alverson’s The Comedy (2012) is brilliant. Predictably his abrasive parameter-less cinema is what sets this filmmaker apart and in this case shows the shortcomings of mainstream audiences. Only four features into his filmography, there...
- 11/3/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Park City, Utah – There are still some films to be discussed in my Sundance coverage. Here’s write-ups of “Digging for Fire,” “Entertainment,” and “Results,” which featured the return of festival-approved directors, albeit heading in different directions.
At this year’s festival, two maestros of the ol’ mumblecore days stepped into the big-time spotlight with their new films that boasted their biggest casts and fanciest films yet. The first to show was Joe Swanberg, who has gone from super low-key directing to hosting a celebrity party this side of “This is the End” in “Digging For Fire.” The other is Andrew Bujalski, whose previous films were nerd alerts like “Mutual Appreciation” and most recently “Computer Chess.”
In a reverse course is Rick Alverson’s “Entertainment,” which doesn’t start modestly but attempt to reach a wide audience, but starts with a big promise to reach a very specific audience. An explanation on that below.
At this year’s festival, two maestros of the ol’ mumblecore days stepped into the big-time spotlight with their new films that boasted their biggest casts and fanciest films yet. The first to show was Joe Swanberg, who has gone from super low-key directing to hosting a celebrity party this side of “This is the End” in “Digging For Fire.” The other is Andrew Bujalski, whose previous films were nerd alerts like “Mutual Appreciation” and most recently “Computer Chess.”
In a reverse course is Rick Alverson’s “Entertainment,” which doesn’t start modestly but attempt to reach a wide audience, but starts with a big promise to reach a very specific audience. An explanation on that below.
- 2/3/2015
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The first Fenix Iberoamerican Film Awards, highlighting and celebrating cinema made in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal as well as applauding the professionals involved was inaugurated by Cinema23 this October 30 and held its closing night party in México City's Jumex Museum, named after the Lopez family’s fruit juice empire, and commissioned by Eugenio Lopez, the dynastic scion whose intention is to leave an edifice to Mexico City that dignifies his family name. This 21st-century prince is the sole patron of the new Museo Jumex, Latin America’s largest contemporary art museum, designed by the British architect David Chipperfield and just across the street from hourglass-shaped Museo Soumaya, opened in 2011 by the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú to display his own collection. Worth a trip to Mexico alone just to view the private Jumex collection of Mexican art, to attend the spectacular closing night party topping off the new annual, independent award ceremony which took place at the iconic 1918 Teatro de la Ciudad was an experience of a lifetime.
After an exclusive dinner for the nominees around 11 Pm, the great celebration began. Inspired by Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of the most important holidays in Mexico, the party was decorated with elements inspired by this tradition such as "papel picado," and walls decorated with skulls. The vibrant orange color of hundreds of cempasúchil flowers (Marigolds) adorned the hall where more than a thousand guests, among them many film professional, singers and other important figures from across Iberoamerica, attended the celebration organized by Grupo Modelo the brewery in Mexico now owned by the Belgian-Brazilian company Anheuser-Busch InBev, which holds 63% of the Mexican beer market and exports beer to most countries of the world, whose export brands include my own favorite beers, Corona and Pacífico. I was proud to be invited to attend and to be part of the advisory council of Cinema23, founder of this annual Fenix Awards celebration of the art of cinema along with the comcomitant commercial success of Iberoamerican cinema.
Attending the awards and the post-award party were actors such as Alice Braga, Ana de la Reguera, Ana Claudia Talancón, Alfonso Herrera, Bárbara Mori, Brandon López, Camila Selser, Cecilia Suárez, Elena Anaya, Ernesto Alterio, Erick Elías, Ilse Salas, Irene Azuela, Johanna Murillo, José María Yazpik, José María and Pedro de Tavira, Juan Manuel Bernal, Karen Martínez, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Maribel Verdú, Martha Higareda, Maya Zapata and Ximena Ayala; filmmakers Fernando Eimbcke, Gary Alazraki, Jonás Cuarón, Lorenzo Hagerman, Manolo Caro, Natalia Beristáin and Rigoberto Perezcano; musicians Leo Heiblum, Kevin Johansen, León Larregui and Sergio Acosta from rock band Zoé and Leonor Watling, Jesús Navarro, vocalist of pop band Reik; socialites as Rafael Micha, Jorge Gorozpe, Memo Martínez and Max Villegas; fashion designer Oscar Madrazo and jewelry designer Mariana Villarea. They and the other attendees enjoyed a night in which cinema was the most important guest.
In the venue's lower level, Sonido Apokalitzin's beats enhanced the experience with cumbias, salsas and iconic songs from several Iberoamerican countries. Monterrey DJ Toy Selectah also entertained the guests with his musical selection. Upstairs, Sergio and Andres from famous rock band Zoé delighted everyone with their music just before they enjoyed Julian Placencia's DJ set.
With this event the first edition of the Fenix Iberoamerican Film Awards came to an end. The event brought together hundreds of figures from the Iberoamerican film community who celebrated the well-deserved recognition to their work and dedication. At the same time the event served to strengthen relationships among the diverse industries and will continuously help forge the region's identity.
After an exclusive dinner for the nominees around 11 Pm, the great celebration began. Inspired by Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of the most important holidays in Mexico, the party was decorated with elements inspired by this tradition such as "papel picado," and walls decorated with skulls. The vibrant orange color of hundreds of cempasúchil flowers (Marigolds) adorned the hall where more than a thousand guests, among them many film professional, singers and other important figures from across Iberoamerica, attended the celebration organized by Grupo Modelo the brewery in Mexico now owned by the Belgian-Brazilian company Anheuser-Busch InBev, which holds 63% of the Mexican beer market and exports beer to most countries of the world, whose export brands include my own favorite beers, Corona and Pacífico. I was proud to be invited to attend and to be part of the advisory council of Cinema23, founder of this annual Fenix Awards celebration of the art of cinema along with the comcomitant commercial success of Iberoamerican cinema.
Attending the awards and the post-award party were actors such as Alice Braga, Ana de la Reguera, Ana Claudia Talancón, Alfonso Herrera, Bárbara Mori, Brandon López, Camila Selser, Cecilia Suárez, Elena Anaya, Ernesto Alterio, Erick Elías, Ilse Salas, Irene Azuela, Johanna Murillo, José María Yazpik, José María and Pedro de Tavira, Juan Manuel Bernal, Karen Martínez, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Maribel Verdú, Martha Higareda, Maya Zapata and Ximena Ayala; filmmakers Fernando Eimbcke, Gary Alazraki, Jonás Cuarón, Lorenzo Hagerman, Manolo Caro, Natalia Beristáin and Rigoberto Perezcano; musicians Leo Heiblum, Kevin Johansen, León Larregui and Sergio Acosta from rock band Zoé and Leonor Watling, Jesús Navarro, vocalist of pop band Reik; socialites as Rafael Micha, Jorge Gorozpe, Memo Martínez and Max Villegas; fashion designer Oscar Madrazo and jewelry designer Mariana Villarea. They and the other attendees enjoyed a night in which cinema was the most important guest.
In the venue's lower level, Sonido Apokalitzin's beats enhanced the experience with cumbias, salsas and iconic songs from several Iberoamerican countries. Monterrey DJ Toy Selectah also entertained the guests with his musical selection. Upstairs, Sergio and Andres from famous rock band Zoé delighted everyone with their music just before they enjoyed Julian Placencia's DJ set.
With this event the first edition of the Fenix Iberoamerican Film Awards came to an end. The event brought together hundreds of figures from the Iberoamerican film community who celebrated the well-deserved recognition to their work and dedication. At the same time the event served to strengthen relationships among the diverse industries and will continuously help forge the region's identity.
- 11/17/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
It may be too early to call him an American cousin akin to the quasi-dark humor of Roy Andersson and Aki Kaurismäki, but is third film showcased a unique, well-developed, wry-tinged funny-bone. When you throw in his previous dramatic pair of films in The Builder (2010) and New Jerusalem (2011), it makes for an early filmography that would surely receive an unflattering grade of next to no bags of popcorn from the On Cinema at the Cinema critic duo. This is a good thing. Filmmaker by day, musician by night, Rick Alverson’s third feature film The Comedy, was among the best items of 2012′s Sundance Film Festival, suffice it to say that his fourth film, Entertainment, which was shot midway in the year, might contain more of that DNA. Gregg Turkington who co-wrote with Alverson toplines the pic which was photographed by cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman (look for his stylistic flourishes in...
- 11/12/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
José Cohen and Lorenzo Hagerman's H2Omx is in the vein of those documentaries that have raising awareness on a current problem as main objective.Its subject might be a local issue, that affects Mexico City and other nearby places, but the doc can appeal to a wider audience for sure, as its nature allows you to see how life in Mexico's capital works for some people. H2Omx quickly establishes that Mexico City has had a lack of water problem for several decades now. That's the main theme here but soon some other subjects emerge (i.e. the constant inundations in the city), though everything has to do to water. As Cohen said when I interviewed him, "the film's protagonist is the water." Still, H2Omx is a collage...
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- 8/27/2014
- Screen Anarchy
“Tracking Shot” is a monthly featurette here on Ioncinema.com that looks at a dozen or so projects that are moments away from lensing (or in a couple of titles below have been shooting since July). This August we’ve got a good number of projects that will start surfacing as early as next year’s Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin Film Fests. With Dakota Johnson having been just announced, we’ve got Luca Guadagnino’s long awaited (remake) A Bigger Splash, getting ready for a poolside shoot. Gus Van Sant comes out of the woodworks to move into the woods for Sea of Trees. Sundance alumni Rick Alverson is wrapping up Entertainment, Reed Morano is set to make her directorial debut this mid-August with Meadowland, while Douchebag, Like Crazy, Breathe In‘s Drake Doremus is stationed in Japan for a weighty cast and futuristic tale in Equals. Here are some...
- 8/6/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control: Escalante’s Mexico Still Suffering
Amat Escalante doesn’t fall far from his own tree with Heli, graphic violence once again contours what is necessarily difficult to fathom, swallow and watch. Employing crisp, unflinching, arresting visuals and a genial temporal and spatial mapping, the more alluring portions in this fractured timeline narrative are the protagonist’s gradual transformation into machismo and rarely addressed forms of psychological pathos. Tantalized with extreme, shock-value friendly, albeit necessary violent depictions that simply underline desensitized conditioning on a much smaller scale, here the filmmaker can be faulted not for his prowess in framing or filling his composition, but for trying to package several footnotes that might have contributed to the hemorrhaging nation.
Sangre (2005), his brilliant debut film was a sardonic, nihilistic take on an already fragile nation, while Los basterdos (2008) was hell-bent on symbolically addressing the humiliation brought about...
Amat Escalante doesn’t fall far from his own tree with Heli, graphic violence once again contours what is necessarily difficult to fathom, swallow and watch. Employing crisp, unflinching, arresting visuals and a genial temporal and spatial mapping, the more alluring portions in this fractured timeline narrative are the protagonist’s gradual transformation into machismo and rarely addressed forms of psychological pathos. Tantalized with extreme, shock-value friendly, albeit necessary violent depictions that simply underline desensitized conditioning on a much smaller scale, here the filmmaker can be faulted not for his prowess in framing or filling his composition, but for trying to package several footnotes that might have contributed to the hemorrhaging nation.
Sangre (2005), his brilliant debut film was a sardonic, nihilistic take on an already fragile nation, while Los basterdos (2008) was hell-bent on symbolically addressing the humiliation brought about...
- 6/11/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Family drama, black comedy and mob-imposed cruelty clash in Amat Escalante’s queasy Cannes’ Best Director-winning crime fable, Heli. It goes without saying that the Cannes jury has been known to make mistakes, especially when a film’s politics is allowed to cloud their judgement, but with Heli they rewarded an uneasy mix of ingredients in which any political subtext is muddy, and in which the storyteller is too self-consciously awkward to deliver a flick that one could call wholly satisfying.
In modern-day Mexico, 17-year-old Heli (Armando Espitia) lives in a dilapidated homestead with his wife, infant child, father and sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), working in the nearby car plant by night and having his advances rejected by his uninterested wife by day. The hard-living status quo is challenged when Estela’s much older cadet boyfriend, Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios), steals two parcels of cocaine belonging to the local cartel,...
In modern-day Mexico, 17-year-old Heli (Armando Espitia) lives in a dilapidated homestead with his wife, infant child, father and sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), working in the nearby car plant by night and having his advances rejected by his uninterested wife by day. The hard-living status quo is challenged when Estela’s much older cadet boyfriend, Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios), steals two parcels of cocaine belonging to the local cartel,...
- 5/28/2014
- by Brogan Morris
- We Got This Covered
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, has today revealed its list of 2013 winners. Check them out below and look for many more interviews from the festival here on ComingSoon.net in the days to come. Main Competition: Golden Frog winner: Ida cin. Łukasz Żal, Ryszard Lenczewski dir. Paweł Pawlikowski Silver Frog winner: Heli cin. Lorenzo Hagerman dir. Amat Escalante Bronze Frog winner: Inside Llewyn Davis cin. Bruno Delbonnel dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Polish Films Competition: Best Polish Film: The Girl from the Wardrobe cin. Arkadiusz Tomiak dir. Bodo Kox Student Competition Laszlo Kovacs Student Award . The Golden Tadpole: Such a Landscape cin. Zuzanna Pyda dir....
- 11/25/2013
- Comingsoon.net
Other winners at the cinematography festival in Poland included Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity.Scroll down for full list of winners
Competition winners at Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, were revealed today as the 21st edition came to a close with a gala awards celebration at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The winner of the top prize - the Golden Frog - went to Polish drama Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the latest in a string of top awards for the film.
Ida cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski accepted the award.
The film stars newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska opposite Polish star Agata Kulesza in the story of a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
It marks the first Polish-language film for Warsaw-born British filmmaker Pawlikowski, best known for...
Competition winners at Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, were revealed today as the 21st edition came to a close with a gala awards celebration at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The winner of the top prize - the Golden Frog - went to Polish drama Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the latest in a string of top awards for the film.
Ida cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski accepted the award.
The film stars newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska opposite Polish star Agata Kulesza in the story of a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
It marks the first Polish-language film for Warsaw-born British filmmaker Pawlikowski, best known for...
- 11/23/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Ida cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski accepted the Golden Frog in the main feature cinematography competition at Camerimage, the international film festival of the art of cinematography, that concluded Saturday in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Ida is a film from Poland, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Runners up were Lorenzo Hagerman, who received the Silver Frog for Heli; and Bruno Delbonnel, who received the Bronze Frog for Inside Llewyn Davis. In the festival’s debut 3D competition, the jury honored Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity and director of photography Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki in the 3D feature film category. In announcing the award, jury chair Barry Sandrew of Legend3D noted the jury
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- 11/23/2013
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bronze Horse for best film goes to The Selfish Giant. More wins for Fruitvale Station, Miss Violence and Screen Star of Tomorrow George MacKay.Scroll down for full list of winners
UK film The Selfish Giant has picked up the Bronze Horse for best film at the 24th Stockholm Film Festival (Nov 6-17).
It marks the second consecutive year a film by a female director has won the top prize at Stockholm, after Cate Shortland’s Lore picked up the award last year.
The film, about two young friends who gather scrap metal for cash, was described by the jury as “a uniquely complete film. Shattering, to the point, poetic, believable, delicate, humorous. The sensitive interaction between the two main actors has resulted in the most touching portrayal of friendship we’ve seen in film. Only someone hard-hearted could fail to love this film.”
The Selfish Giant, which debuted at Cannes, is represented...
UK film The Selfish Giant has picked up the Bronze Horse for best film at the 24th Stockholm Film Festival (Nov 6-17).
It marks the second consecutive year a film by a female director has won the top prize at Stockholm, after Cate Shortland’s Lore picked up the award last year.
The film, about two young friends who gather scrap metal for cash, was described by the jury as “a uniquely complete film. Shattering, to the point, poetic, believable, delicate, humorous. The sensitive interaction between the two main actors has resulted in the most touching portrayal of friendship we’ve seen in film. Only someone hard-hearted could fail to love this film.”
The Selfish Giant, which debuted at Cannes, is represented...
- 11/17/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, is celebrating its 21st year next month and ComingSoon.net will be in attendance. Today, the festival revealed the following lineup of films selected for the festival.s main competition: . Agnieszka Holland.s Burning Bush ; Czech Republic, 2013; Cinematographer: Martin Strba . Pirjo Honkasalo.s Concrete Night ; Finland, Sweden, Denmark, 2013; Cinematographer: Peter Flinckenberg . Amat Escalante.s Heli ; Mexico, France, Germany, Netherlands, 2013; Cinematographer: Lorenzo Hagerman . Edgar Reitz.s Home from Home ( Die andere Heimat . Chronik einer Sehcsucht ); Germany, France, 2013; Cinematographer: Gernot Roll . Pawel Pawlikowski.s Ida ; Poland, Denmark, 2013; Cinematographers: Lukasz Zal, Ryszard...
- 10/29/2013
- Comingsoon.net
The lensers of Cannes Competition entries Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska and Heli will join such award season hopefuls as The Butler, 12 Years a Slave and Rush at the 21st edition of Poland's Camerimage festival, the world's leading film fest dedicated to the art of cinematography. Such acclaimed cinematographers as Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis), Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska), Lorenzo Hagerman (Heli), Andrew Dunn (The Butler), Sean Bobbitt (12 Years a Slave) and Anthony Dod Mantle (Rush) will see their work screened in this year's Camerimage competition line-up, announced Tuesday. Photos: '12 Years a Slave': Exclusive Portraits of Star-Producer Brad
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- 10/29/2013
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Films from Ron Howard, Lee Daniels, the Coens, Steve McQueen and Alexander Payne in the line-up of the cinematography festival.
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography now in its 21st edition, today revealed the line-up of films selected for the festival’s main competition.
The entries are:
Burning Bush, Agnieszka Holland (Cz Rep)
Cinematographer: Martin Strba
Concrete Night, Pirjo Honkasalo (Fin-Swe-Den)
Cinematographer: Peter Flinckenberg
Heli, Amat Escalante (Mex-Fra-Ger-Neth)
Cinematographer: Lorenzo Hagerman
Home from Home (Die andere Heimat – Chronik einer Sehcsucht), Edgar Reitz (Ger-Fra)
Cinematographer: Gernot Roll
Ida, Paweł Pawlikowski (Pol-Den)
Cinematographers: Łukasz Żal, Ryszard Lenczewski
Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (Us-Fra)
Cinematographer: Bruno Delbonnel
Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Lee Daniels (Us)
Cinematographer: Andrew Dunn
Life Feels Good (Chce sie zyc), Maciej Pieprzyca (Pol)
Cinematographer: Paweł Dyllus
Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Imbach (Swi-Fra)
Cinematographer: Rainer Klausmann
Nebraska, Alexander Payne (Us)
Cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael
Paradise for the Damned, Alejandro Montiel (Arg)
Cinematographer:...
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography now in its 21st edition, today revealed the line-up of films selected for the festival’s main competition.
The entries are:
Burning Bush, Agnieszka Holland (Cz Rep)
Cinematographer: Martin Strba
Concrete Night, Pirjo Honkasalo (Fin-Swe-Den)
Cinematographer: Peter Flinckenberg
Heli, Amat Escalante (Mex-Fra-Ger-Neth)
Cinematographer: Lorenzo Hagerman
Home from Home (Die andere Heimat – Chronik einer Sehcsucht), Edgar Reitz (Ger-Fra)
Cinematographer: Gernot Roll
Ida, Paweł Pawlikowski (Pol-Den)
Cinematographers: Łukasz Żal, Ryszard Lenczewski
Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (Us-Fra)
Cinematographer: Bruno Delbonnel
Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Lee Daniels (Us)
Cinematographer: Andrew Dunn
Life Feels Good (Chce sie zyc), Maciej Pieprzyca (Pol)
Cinematographer: Paweł Dyllus
Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Imbach (Swi-Fra)
Cinematographer: Rainer Klausmann
Nebraska, Alexander Payne (Us)
Cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael
Paradise for the Damned, Alejandro Montiel (Arg)
Cinematographer:...
- 10/29/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
I've added three more films to the list of contenders for the Best Foreign Language category at the 2014 Oscars with Poland submitting Andrzej Wajda's Walesa, the Philippines submit Hannah Espia's Transit and Mexico has entered Amat Escalante's Heli, which won the young helmer Best Director honors at this year's Cannes Film Festival. I caught the ultra-violent film in Cannes earlier this year and it is a truly striking piece of cinema. Here's how I opened my review: The first thing anyone is sure to notice in Amat Escalante's Heli is Lorenzo Hagerman's cinematography. The film opens with the sole of a boot pressed against a young man's face as he is bleeding, bound, gagged and lay flat on the bed of a moving truck. Next to him is another young man whose face we cannot see. All we hear is the creaking of the truck...
- 9/18/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
I watched Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973) for the first time last night and a couple of things stood out that I thought I would mention. The film centers on two Navy men -- Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and Mulhall (Otis Young) -- assigned to escort Meadows (Randy Quaid), a young officer sentenced to eight years in jail and a dishonorable discharge for attempting to steal $40 from a charity box. Not necessarily a punishment equal to the crime, but the length of his jail time is directly related to the fact the charity in question is the favorite of Meadows' Commanding officer's wife. Quaid, who must have been 21 or 22 when the film was shot, instantly appeals to your sense of compassion as it's quite clear he's been done wrong. Buddusky and Mulhall feel the same and given more money and longer than is necessary to transport him from Norfolk to Portsmouth Naval Prison,...
- 6/12/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
A depressing insight into a poor family in Mexico makes for uneasy if occasionally powerful viewing in Heli, Amat Escalante’s third feature following Sangre in 2005 and Los bastardos in 2008.
Heli is named after its central character, a poor young man who works at a local Japanese Automobile factory and lives with his partner, their daughter, his sister and his father in a small and rundown house. His sister Estela is only twelve but is in a relationship with the 17 year-old Beto, a police cadet who is currently going through some very gruelling training – the sole American voice in the film is an instructor ordering that he must roll over his own vomit – in order to join the Mexican drug war.
In an effort to impress Estela and to fund their running away together, Beto steals a large amount of cocaine and the effects of this choice are felt not...
Heli is named after its central character, a poor young man who works at a local Japanese Automobile factory and lives with his partner, their daughter, his sister and his father in a small and rundown house. His sister Estela is only twelve but is in a relationship with the 17 year-old Beto, a police cadet who is currently going through some very gruelling training – the sole American voice in the film is an instructor ordering that he must roll over his own vomit – in order to join the Mexican drug war.
In an effort to impress Estela and to fund their running away together, Beto steals a large amount of cocaine and the effects of this choice are felt not...
- 5/17/2013
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The first thing anyone is sure to notice in Amat Escalante's Heli is Lorenzo Hagerman's cinematography. The film opens with the sole of a boot pressed against a young man's face as he is bleeding, bound, gagged and lay flat on the bed of a moving truck. Next to him is another young man whose face we cannot see. All we hear is the creaking of the truck as it rolls down a dirt round in an unspecified Mexican town. All in one shot, the camera slowly pans up and moves into the cab of the truck as the sun beams in over the horizon. It's a beautiful shot and I couldn't help but be reminded of how film limits our knowledge of what's going on based on what we see. Only minutes earlier we were looking at a grisly scene and now, through the front window, the...
- 5/15/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Editor’s Note: This is one of several interviews, conducted via email, with directors whose films are screening at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. “Which Way Home” (Discovery section) Feature Documentary, 2009, 82 min., Mexico/U.S. Director: Rebecca Cammisa Executive Producers: Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, Russell Smith, Bristol Baughan, Jack Turner, Bette Cerf Hill, Sheila Nevins Editors: Pax Wassermann, Madeleine Gavin Directors of Photography: Lorenzo Hagerman, Eric Goethals, Rebecca Cammisa Composers: James Lavino, …...
- 4/14/2009
- indieWIRE - People
Editor’s Note: This is one of several interviews, conducted via email, with directors whose films are screening at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. “Which Way Home” (Discovery section) Feature Documentary, 2009, 82 min., Mexico/U.S. Director: Rebecca Cammisa Executive Producers: Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, Russell Smith, Bristol Baughan, Jack Turner, Bette Cerf Hill, Sheila Nevins Editors: Pax Wassermann, Madeleine Gavin Directors of Photography: Lorenzo Hagerman, Eric Goethals, Rebecca Cammisa Composers: James Lavino, …...
- 4/14/2009
- indieWIRE - People
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