“The Kitchen” co-director and co-writer Daniel Kaluuya and “Polite Society” writer-director Nida Manzoor are among the emerging talents recognized at the British Independent Film Awards’ (BIFA) New Talent categories.
Both have been longlisted twice, in the debut director and debut screenwriter categories. In all, 20 fiction and 15 documentary features have been longlisted in the four debut filmmaking categories. Nineteen first-time fiction feature directors, 17 first-time feature documentary directors, 17 first-time writers and 24 breakthrough producers have been recognized by BIFA voters this year.
BIFA Springboard, an annual program supporting second-time feature filmmakers will launch in early 2024. BIFA will reveal the Netflix-sponsored 2023 breakthrough performance longlist, which highlights British acting talent in their first significant role in a British feature film, on Oct. 24. The final five nominations in each category will be unveiled on Nov. 2. Winners will be revealed at the 26th BIFA ceremony on Dec. 3.
The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) Sponsored By...
Both have been longlisted twice, in the debut director and debut screenwriter categories. In all, 20 fiction and 15 documentary features have been longlisted in the four debut filmmaking categories. Nineteen first-time fiction feature directors, 17 first-time feature documentary directors, 17 first-time writers and 24 breakthrough producers have been recognized by BIFA voters this year.
BIFA Springboard, an annual program supporting second-time feature filmmakers will launch in early 2024. BIFA will reveal the Netflix-sponsored 2023 breakthrough performance longlist, which highlights British acting talent in their first significant role in a British feature film, on Oct. 24. The final five nominations in each category will be unveiled on Nov. 2. Winners will be revealed at the 26th BIFA ceremony on Dec. 3.
The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) Sponsored By...
- 10/18/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Eight films listed in three of the four categories.
Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane and Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex are among the 35 features on the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) Filmmaker New Talent longlists for 2023.
The ceremony has released longlists for four awards: the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director), Best Debut Screenwriter, Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary (a new award for this year) and Breakthrough Producer.
Scroll down for the full New Talent longlists
Eight films have been longlisted in three of the four categories: Earth Mama, Femme, In Camera, Pretty Red Dress,...
Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane and Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex are among the 35 features on the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) Filmmaker New Talent longlists for 2023.
The ceremony has released longlists for four awards: the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director), Best Debut Screenwriter, Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary (a new award for this year) and Breakthrough Producer.
Scroll down for the full New Talent longlists
Eight films have been longlisted in three of the four categories: Earth Mama, Femme, In Camera, Pretty Red Dress,...
- 10/18/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Merkel Photo: Netflix
Merkel, Netflix
The former German chancellor’s life and career is brought to life with skill and speed in this documentary from Eva Weber. Angela Merkel spent three decades in politics - a large proportion of that at the top, no mean feat given that she was born behind the Berlin Wall in East Germany and worked as a physicist before her switch of career. Weber captures via archive interview and observations from the likes of Condoleeza Rice and Tony Blair, how Merkel’s studious nature was put to good advantage as she shaped herself for power. What also comes across strongly is her surprisingly pixieish sense of humour. Pacy and enjoyable.
Parasite, 12.35am, Film4, Tuesday, March 7
Jennie Kermode writes: Following the exploits of the scheming Kim family as they inveigle themselves into the lives of the wealthy Parks through various acts of deception, Bong Joon-ho's...
Merkel, Netflix
The former German chancellor’s life and career is brought to life with skill and speed in this documentary from Eva Weber. Angela Merkel spent three decades in politics - a large proportion of that at the top, no mean feat given that she was born behind the Berlin Wall in East Germany and worked as a physicist before her switch of career. Weber captures via archive interview and observations from the likes of Condoleeza Rice and Tony Blair, how Merkel’s studious nature was put to good advantage as she shaped herself for power. What also comes across strongly is her surprisingly pixieish sense of humour. Pacy and enjoyable.
Parasite, 12.35am, Film4, Tuesday, March 7
Jennie Kermode writes: Following the exploits of the scheming Kim family as they inveigle themselves into the lives of the wealthy Parks through various acts of deception, Bong Joon-ho's...
- 3/6/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
81 more titles have been added to the festival programme.
Bella Ciao, a documentary about the anthem that symbolized the Italian partisans’ fight against facism in the Second World War, is one of 81 new titles added to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) programme.
Directed by Giulia Giapponesi, Bella Ciao will have its international premiere at IDFA, having first played at Italy’s Bari International Film Festival in March.
Scroll down for the Luminous, Frontlight feature additions
Adapted from Italian folk tune ‘Mondine’, the song ‘Bella Ciao’ has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent weeks, partly as a show of...
Bella Ciao, a documentary about the anthem that symbolized the Italian partisans’ fight against facism in the Second World War, is one of 81 new titles added to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) programme.
Directed by Giulia Giapponesi, Bella Ciao will have its international premiere at IDFA, having first played at Italy’s Bari International Film Festival in March.
Scroll down for the Luminous, Frontlight feature additions
Adapted from Italian folk tune ‘Mondine’, the song ‘Bella Ciao’ has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent weeks, partly as a show of...
- 10/11/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Click here to read the full article.
Since Angela Merkel left office last year after a remarkable 16-year reign as German Chancellor, the timing is perfect to examine her history and her legacy. German-born filmmaker Eva Weber has seized the challenge and created a thoughtful portrait of Merkel. An impressive group of witnesses — including Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Tony Blair, journalist Christiane Amanpour and even award-winning filmmaker Volker Schlondorff (a longtime friend of Merkel’s) — help to put her achievements and even some of her failings into sharp focus.
Merkel’s background was as remarkable as her rise to the central corridors of power. She grew up in East Germany under the repressive Communist regime but achieved unusual success when she earned a doctorate in physics. So she was a pioneer in several areas — as a scientist and a woman before she ever entered politics. Her life spans much of...
Since Angela Merkel left office last year after a remarkable 16-year reign as German Chancellor, the timing is perfect to examine her history and her legacy. German-born filmmaker Eva Weber has seized the challenge and created a thoughtful portrait of Merkel. An impressive group of witnesses — including Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Tony Blair, journalist Christiane Amanpour and even award-winning filmmaker Volker Schlondorff (a longtime friend of Merkel’s) — help to put her achievements and even some of her failings into sharp focus.
Merkel’s background was as remarkable as her rise to the central corridors of power. She grew up in East Germany under the repressive Communist regime but achieved unusual success when she earned a doctorate in physics. So she was a pioneer in several areas — as a scientist and a woman before she ever entered politics. Her life spans much of...
- 9/4/2022
- by Stephen Farber
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Premiering at Telluride, “Merkel,” Eva Weber’s documentary on former Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, seems like a star-studded fête featuring many world leaders and dignitaries, such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Notably missing, though, is the guest of honor, Merkel herself, who appears only via archival footage. What we have is a montage of interviews and speeches punctuated by punditry, and most commentators aren’t even from Merkel’s inner circle and thus can’t impart any intimate knowledge.
The film opens with Merkel’s 2019 Harvard commencement speech, which is a choice in and of itself, and juxtaposes that with former President Donald Trump disparaging her at a rally. The contrast is clear: She implored students to tear down walls, while he promised voters he’d build the wall. Weber will eventually circle back to drive this point home, but...
Notably missing, though, is the guest of honor, Merkel herself, who appears only via archival footage. What we have is a montage of interviews and speeches punctuated by punditry, and most commentators aren’t even from Merkel’s inner circle and thus can’t impart any intimate knowledge.
The film opens with Merkel’s 2019 Harvard commencement speech, which is a choice in and of itself, and juxtaposes that with former President Donald Trump disparaging her at a rally. The contrast is clear: She implored students to tear down walls, while he promised voters he’d build the wall. Weber will eventually circle back to drive this point home, but...
- 9/4/2022
- by Martin Tsai
- The Wrap
If Germans are notoriously stoic, then Angela Merkel is extremely German. The notoriously unflappable former German chancellor served for a nearly record sixteen years, only outlasted by Otto Von Bismarck and Helmut Kohl, her predecessor and mentor who appointed her to her first government position in 1991. Throughout her tenure, she steered Europe through the 2008 financial crisis, oversaw healthcare reform, developed renewable energy resources, opened German borders to a record number of migrants, and navigated the Covid-19 pandemic. During her time in office, she was often refereed to as the de facto head of the European Union and the most powerful woman in the world. And yet, unlike her friend Barack Obama, very little is known about her personally.
The new film “Merkel” valiantly attempts to paint a portrait of Angela Merkel, from her childhood in the former Ddr (East Germany) to the most momentous days of her political career. Though...
The new film “Merkel” valiantly attempts to paint a portrait of Angela Merkel, from her childhood in the former Ddr (East Germany) to the most momentous days of her political career. Though...
- 9/3/2022
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Click here to read the full article.
Thanks for checking out the first installment of The Hollywood Reporter’s Weekend Awards Brief! This Friday week-in-review newsletter will be prepared by THR’s awards team and will feature a rundown of (a) key pieces we’ve written; (b) memorable things we’ve attended; (c) interesting rumblings we’ve heard; (d) things we encourage you to check out; and (e) things we’d like to know.
The authors of each item are identified by the following initials: awards editor Tyler Coates [Tc], executive editor of awards Scott Feinberg [Sf], film writer Mia Galuppo [Mg], senior staff writer Chris Gardner [CGa], tech editor Carolyn Giardina [CGi], senior editor of film Rebecca Keegan [Rk] and deputy awards editor Beatrice Verhoeven [Bv].
* * *
What we’re producing…
A rundown of key pieces we’ve written
TV Academy encouraging nominees to pre-submit thank-you names to appear on-screen —Sf Hollywood Critics Association in turmoil as numerous members resign,...
Thanks for checking out the first installment of The Hollywood Reporter’s Weekend Awards Brief! This Friday week-in-review newsletter will be prepared by THR’s awards team and will feature a rundown of (a) key pieces we’ve written; (b) memorable things we’ve attended; (c) interesting rumblings we’ve heard; (d) things we encourage you to check out; and (e) things we’d like to know.
The authors of each item are identified by the following initials: awards editor Tyler Coates [Tc], executive editor of awards Scott Feinberg [Sf], film writer Mia Galuppo [Mg], senior staff writer Chris Gardner [CGa], tech editor Carolyn Giardina [CGi], senior editor of film Rebecca Keegan [Rk] and deputy awards editor Beatrice Verhoeven [Bv].
* * *
What we’re producing…
A rundown of key pieces we’ve written
TV Academy encouraging nominees to pre-submit thank-you names to appear on-screen —Sf Hollywood Critics Association in turmoil as numerous members resign,...
- 9/3/2022
- by THR Awards Team
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The US festival runs from September 2-5,
Telluride Film Festival (Tff) has unveiled the programme for its 49th edition, with the US festival running from tomorrow (September 2) to September 5.
Ahead of its play at Toronto and BFI London Film Festival, Sam Mendes’ Empire Of Light will world premiere. Set in an English seaside town during the 1980s, the film follows a love story and an old cinema. Olivia Colman and Colin Firth star, alongside Screen Star of Tomorrow 2020 Micheal Ward, Toby Jones, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke and Crystal Clarke. It is produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris’ Neal Street Productions in association with Searchlight.
Telluride Film Festival (Tff) has unveiled the programme for its 49th edition, with the US festival running from tomorrow (September 2) to September 5.
Ahead of its play at Toronto and BFI London Film Festival, Sam Mendes’ Empire Of Light will world premiere. Set in an English seaside town during the 1980s, the film follows a love story and an old cinema. Olivia Colman and Colin Firth star, alongside Screen Star of Tomorrow 2020 Micheal Ward, Toby Jones, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke and Crystal Clarke. It is produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris’ Neal Street Productions in association with Searchlight.
- 9/1/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The 49th annual Telluride Film Festival will host the world premiere screenings of Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” and Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wonder” – as well as North American premieres of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Bardo,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” Todd Field’s “Tar,” James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Broker” among other top fall titles.
In keeping with the Telluride Film Festival’s famously late-breaking announcement process, the 2022 lineup was revealed on Thursday morning, just one day before the prestigious festival kicks off.
Due to the nuances of how the Toronto International Film Festival positioned some of its debuts as well as the roster of features debuting at the Venice Film Festival this week, industry observers had long expected many of the 2022 titles to screen in the Colorado town. But that doesn’t make the Telluride list any less impressive in its variety.
In keeping with the Telluride Film Festival’s famously late-breaking announcement process, the 2022 lineup was revealed on Thursday morning, just one day before the prestigious festival kicks off.
Due to the nuances of how the Toronto International Film Festival positioned some of its debuts as well as the roster of features debuting at the Venice Film Festival this week, industry observers had long expected many of the 2022 titles to screen in the Colorado town. But that doesn’t make the Telluride list any less impressive in its variety.
- 9/1/2022
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
As customary, Telluride Film Festival has unveiled its lineup on the eve of its kickoff. For its 49th edition, taking place from September 2-5, the festival features new work by James Gray, Luca Guadagnino, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Hlynur Pálmason, Todd Field, the Dardennes, Sarah Polley, Mia Hansen-Løve, Werner Herzog, and more, as well as a robust section of classics and filmmaker-related docs.
The 49th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program, the Show:
• Armageddon Time (d. James Gray, U.S., 2022) In person: James Gray, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway
• Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (d. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico-u.S., 2022) In person: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Íker Sánchez Solano
• Bobi Wine, Ghetto President (d. Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo, Uganda-u.K., 2022) In person: Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo, Bobi Wine, Barbie Kyagulanyi
• Bones And All (d.
The 49th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program, the Show:
• Armageddon Time (d. James Gray, U.S., 2022) In person: James Gray, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway
• Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (d. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico-u.S., 2022) In person: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Íker Sánchez Solano
• Bobi Wine, Ghetto President (d. Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo, Uganda-u.K., 2022) In person: Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo, Bobi Wine, Barbie Kyagulanyi
• Bones And All (d.
- 9/1/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The world premieres of Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” and Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wonder” will take place at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival, which announced its lineup on Thursday, one day before the festival begins.
Other notable films in the Telluride lineup include Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “Bardo,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” Todd Field’s “TÁR” and James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” which are making their North American debuts after premiering at European festivals.
Among the documentaries heading to Telluride, premieres are Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy,” Anton Corbijn’s “Squaring the Circle,” Ryan White’s “Good Night Oppy,” Mary McCartney’s “If These Walls Could Sing” and Eva Webber’s “Merkel.”
Also Read:
TIFF 2022 Lineup: Films From Tyler Perry, Peter Farrelly, Sam Mendes and Catherine Hardwicke to Premiere
Documentary director and film historian Mark Cousins will have two films at the festival,...
Other notable films in the Telluride lineup include Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “Bardo,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” Todd Field’s “TÁR” and James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” which are making their North American debuts after premiering at European festivals.
Among the documentaries heading to Telluride, premieres are Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy,” Anton Corbijn’s “Squaring the Circle,” Ryan White’s “Good Night Oppy,” Mary McCartney’s “If These Walls Could Sing” and Eva Webber’s “Merkel.”
Also Read:
TIFF 2022 Lineup: Films From Tyler Perry, Peter Farrelly, Sam Mendes and Catherine Hardwicke to Premiere
Documentary director and film historian Mark Cousins will have two films at the festival,...
- 9/1/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Click here to read the full article.
A tribute to Cate Blanchett, a Sam Mendes romance set in a cinema house and a bumper crop of documentaries are on the agenda at the 49th edition of the Telluride Film Festival, which kicks off Friday in the Rockies and runs through Monday.
The intimate Colorado event serves as the unofficial stateside kickoff of awards season, but Telluride may be most notable this year for the arguments its movies start, says festival executive director Julie Huntsinger.
“There’s so many more divisive films,” says Huntsinger, who programs Telluride together with the festival’s sr. consultant, Tom Luddy. “There’s so much more angst. There’s just tumult and upheaval in the world, and it’s reflected in the films. People will fight about movies this year more than they ever have.”
Among the movies screening at Telluride that may spark furious debates...
A tribute to Cate Blanchett, a Sam Mendes romance set in a cinema house and a bumper crop of documentaries are on the agenda at the 49th edition of the Telluride Film Festival, which kicks off Friday in the Rockies and runs through Monday.
The intimate Colorado event serves as the unofficial stateside kickoff of awards season, but Telluride may be most notable this year for the arguments its movies start, says festival executive director Julie Huntsinger.
“There’s so many more divisive films,” says Huntsinger, who programs Telluride together with the festival’s sr. consultant, Tom Luddy. “There’s so much more angst. There’s just tumult and upheaval in the world, and it’s reflected in the films. People will fight about movies this year more than they ever have.”
Among the movies screening at Telluride that may spark furious debates...
- 9/1/2022
- by Rebecca Keegan
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Inaugural conference heard from UK and German co-producers.
The first edition of Filmfest München’s Cine CoPro Conference opened this week with a focus on the opportunities for co-production between the UK and Germany.
The conference first presented a guide to funding opportunities offered by the UK’s BFI, the German Federal Film Board (Ffa) and its Dfff cash rebate scheme as well as the Bavarian regional Fff Bayern fund.
Then the conference heard from UK and German producers who have worked on co-productions between the two countries.
Zoranna Piggott, UK producer of Thomas Clay’s 2019 film Fanny Lye Deliver’d,...
The first edition of Filmfest München’s Cine CoPro Conference opened this week with a focus on the opportunities for co-production between the UK and Germany.
The conference first presented a guide to funding opportunities offered by the UK’s BFI, the German Federal Film Board (Ffa) and its Dfff cash rebate scheme as well as the Bavarian regional Fff Bayern fund.
Then the conference heard from UK and German producers who have worked on co-productions between the two countries.
Zoranna Piggott, UK producer of Thomas Clay’s 2019 film Fanny Lye Deliver’d,...
- 6/30/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The conference will form the centrepiece of the festival’s industry programme.
The FIlmfest München is traditionally the last opportunity for the German filmmaking community to meet up before the summer break, and this year’s edition has an industry programmed with a pronounced international dimension.
One of this year’s highlights is the two-day Cine CoPro Conference (June 29-30 ), hosted by the Filmfest and the Bavarian regional film fund Fff Bayern, in which around 40 German and UK producers, directors and screenwriters will come together to discuss opportunities for co-production between the two countries.
“he first thing that needs to...
The FIlmfest München is traditionally the last opportunity for the German filmmaking community to meet up before the summer break, and this year’s edition has an industry programmed with a pronounced international dimension.
One of this year’s highlights is the two-day Cine CoPro Conference (June 29-30 ), hosted by the Filmfest and the Bavarian regional film fund Fff Bayern, in which around 40 German and UK producers, directors and screenwriters will come together to discuss opportunities for co-production between the two countries.
“he first thing that needs to...
- 6/23/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Denitsa Yordanova and Adrian Wootton will be chairing panels.
Cannes’ UK Pavilion draws to a close with panels focused on the Global Screen Fund on Monday, and collaborating across borders on Tuesday.
‘Co-producing with the UK – meet the UK Global Screen Fund’ (11:00-12:00) will be moderated by Denitsa Yordanova, head of the UK Global Screen Fund, BFI, and will feature Sigrid Dyekjaer, Red Lava; Lizzie Gillett, Passion Pictures; Sonja Henrici, Sonja Henrici Creates; Shantelle Rochester, Ida Rose; Eva Weber, Mountainfilm; and Jackie Motsepe, CEO KwaZulu-Natal Film.
Yordanova said: “The UK Global Screen Fund, launched last year, provides targeted...
Cannes’ UK Pavilion draws to a close with panels focused on the Global Screen Fund on Monday, and collaborating across borders on Tuesday.
‘Co-producing with the UK – meet the UK Global Screen Fund’ (11:00-12:00) will be moderated by Denitsa Yordanova, head of the UK Global Screen Fund, BFI, and will feature Sigrid Dyekjaer, Red Lava; Lizzie Gillett, Passion Pictures; Sonja Henrici, Sonja Henrici Creates; Shantelle Rochester, Ida Rose; Eva Weber, Mountainfilm; and Jackie Motsepe, CEO KwaZulu-Natal Film.
Yordanova said: “The UK Global Screen Fund, launched last year, provides targeted...
- 5/22/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Denitsa Yordanova and Adrian Wootton will be chairing panels.
Cannes’ UK Pavilion draws to a close with panels focused on the Global Screen Fund on Monday, and collaborating across borders on Tuesday.
‘Co-producing with the UK – meet the UK Global Screen Fund’ (11:00-12:00) will be moderated by Denitsa Yordanova, head of the UK Global Screen Fund, BFI, and will feature Sigrid Dyekjaer, Red Lava; Lizzie Gillett, Passion Pictures; Sonja Henrici, Sonja Henrici Creates; Shantelle Rochester, Ida Rose; Eva Weber, Mountainfilm; and Jackie Motsepe, CEO KwaZulu-Natal Film.
Yordanova said: “The UK Global Screen Fund, launched last year, provides targeted...
Cannes’ UK Pavilion draws to a close with panels focused on the Global Screen Fund on Monday, and collaborating across borders on Tuesday.
‘Co-producing with the UK – meet the UK Global Screen Fund’ (11:00-12:00) will be moderated by Denitsa Yordanova, head of the UK Global Screen Fund, BFI, and will feature Sigrid Dyekjaer, Red Lava; Lizzie Gillett, Passion Pictures; Sonja Henrici, Sonja Henrici Creates; Shantelle Rochester, Ida Rose; Eva Weber, Mountainfilm; and Jackie Motsepe, CEO KwaZulu-Natal Film.
Yordanova said: “The UK Global Screen Fund, launched last year, provides targeted...
- 5/22/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
After a successful pilot scheme that supported more than 65 productions, including Cannes title “Enys Men,” the U.K. Global Screen Fund has been extended through the 2024/25 financial year.
The fund will disburse £21 million (25.7 million) over three years to develop new talent, create jobs and target new audiences around the world for U.K. independent films, TV and video games.
It was created in 2021 with £7 million by the U.K’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms) and the British Film Institute (BFI) as an alternative to grants disbursed from Creative Europe’s Media program that stopped after Brexit.
Films supported also include “Living,” “The Miracle Club” and “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.”
The fund is split into three strands. The international distribution fund will provide support for the sale and distribution of U.K. feature films in selected countries around the world and help with promotional activity...
The fund will disburse £21 million (25.7 million) over three years to develop new talent, create jobs and target new audiences around the world for U.K. independent films, TV and video games.
It was created in 2021 with £7 million by the U.K’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms) and the British Film Institute (BFI) as an alternative to grants disbursed from Creative Europe’s Media program that stopped after Brexit.
Films supported also include “Living,” “The Miracle Club” and “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.”
The fund is split into three strands. The international distribution fund will provide support for the sale and distribution of U.K. feature films in selected countries around the world and help with promotional activity...
- 5/16/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Danish documentary production company’s slate include Sundance-selected ‘The Territory’ and Eva Weber’s ‘Merkel’.
European production group Newen Studios and Oscar-nominated Danish producer Sigrid Dyekjaer have launched a new Denmark-based documentary production company, Real Lava.
Real Lava is owned by France-based Newen Studios (part of the TF1 group) and Dyekjaer, and will work on both documentary films and series for an international audience, “with a cinematic execution and high artistic value”.
The company’s first production, The Territory, has been confirmed for the world cinema documentary competition at Sundance. Alex Pritz’s film explores the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau community as...
European production group Newen Studios and Oscar-nominated Danish producer Sigrid Dyekjaer have launched a new Denmark-based documentary production company, Real Lava.
Real Lava is owned by France-based Newen Studios (part of the TF1 group) and Dyekjaer, and will work on both documentary films and series for an international audience, “with a cinematic execution and high artistic value”.
The company’s first production, The Territory, has been confirmed for the world cinema documentary competition at Sundance. Alex Pritz’s film explores the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau community as...
- 12/10/2021
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
European production group Newen Studios is teaming with Oscar-nominated Danish producer Sigrid Dyekjaer to launch production company Real Lava.
Based in Denmark, Real Lava will aim to produce cinematic documentary films and series for international audiences. Kicking off Real Lava’s documentary slate is Alex Pritz’s “The Territory” which will be premiering at Sundance. “The Territory” follows the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau community as they defend their land against a network of Brazilian farmers who are colonizing their protected territory.
A leading figure in the film industry, Dyekjaer has produced some 30 documentary features in the past 23 years. She most recently produced Feras Fayyad’s Oscar-nominated documentary “The Cave” which won Emmy and Peabody and Cinema Eye awards.
The Paris-headquartered Newen Studios has scaled up its international presence in recent years, investing in production companies in the U.K., Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark. The group is already well established in the documentary field.
Based in Denmark, Real Lava will aim to produce cinematic documentary films and series for international audiences. Kicking off Real Lava’s documentary slate is Alex Pritz’s “The Territory” which will be premiering at Sundance. “The Territory” follows the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau community as they defend their land against a network of Brazilian farmers who are colonizing their protected territory.
A leading figure in the film industry, Dyekjaer has produced some 30 documentary features in the past 23 years. She most recently produced Feras Fayyad’s Oscar-nominated documentary “The Cave” which won Emmy and Peabody and Cinema Eye awards.
The Paris-headquartered Newen Studios has scaled up its international presence in recent years, investing in production companies in the U.K., Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark. The group is already well established in the documentary field.
- 12/10/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Countries the UK will co-produce with include China, South Africa and Chile.
A further nine UK-international co-productions are set to receive a share of £1.32m from the £7m UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf), administered by the British Film Institute (BFI).
The £7m fund was launched in April by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), initially as a one-year pilot initiative to boost international development and distribution opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
The BFI confirmed the scheme’s renewal at the end of November, with a further three years expected.
A further nine UK-international co-productions are set to receive a share of £1.32m from the £7m UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf), administered by the British Film Institute (BFI).
The £7m fund was launched in April by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), initially as a one-year pilot initiative to boost international development and distribution opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
The BFI confirmed the scheme’s renewal at the end of November, with a further three years expected.
- 12/9/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The UK’s Global Screen Fund, which was created to fill the void left by the absence of funding from Creative Europe’s Media program post-Brexit, has awarded a further £1.32M ($1.75M) in grants spread across nine film and TV projects.
The £7M ($9.25M) fund, which is administered by the British Film Institute on behalf of the government department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), is being overseen by former All3Media and Endemol Shine exec Denitsa Yordanova.
The nine projects, all of which are international co-productions, are as follows: UK-Ireland co-pro The Miracle Club; UK-Germany co-pro The Tutor; UK-Ireland TV animation Ghastly Ghoul; UK-France co-pro Drift; UK-Chile-Argentina-France-Denmark co-pro The Settlers; UK-Germany-Denmark co-pro Merkel; UK-Canada Elephant Mother; UK-South Africa co-pro Stolen; UK-Belgium-Ireland co-pro Bring Them Down.
Full details of each title are at the bottom of this article.
The grants follow previously backed projects My Happy Ending (UK-Israel) and The...
The £7M ($9.25M) fund, which is administered by the British Film Institute on behalf of the government department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), is being overseen by former All3Media and Endemol Shine exec Denitsa Yordanova.
The nine projects, all of which are international co-productions, are as follows: UK-Ireland co-pro The Miracle Club; UK-Germany co-pro The Tutor; UK-Ireland TV animation Ghastly Ghoul; UK-France co-pro Drift; UK-Chile-Argentina-France-Denmark co-pro The Settlers; UK-Germany-Denmark co-pro Merkel; UK-Canada Elephant Mother; UK-South Africa co-pro Stolen; UK-Belgium-Ireland co-pro Bring Them Down.
Full details of each title are at the bottom of this article.
The grants follow previously backed projects My Happy Ending (UK-Israel) and The...
- 12/9/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Eva Weber will direct ‘Merkel’, made of archive material and interviews.
Merkel, a feature documentary abouot German chancellor Angela Merkel, is in the works from UK companies Passion Pictures and Odd Girl Out Productions, with backing from the Curzon Cm Development Fund.
The film will use archive material and interviews with those who know her to tell the story of how Merkel overcame the triple challenges of being a woman, a scientist, and an East German.
The film is in development and will be the feature documentary debut of German filmmaker Eva Weber, who works in London through her company Odd Girl Out Productions.
Merkel, a feature documentary abouot German chancellor Angela Merkel, is in the works from UK companies Passion Pictures and Odd Girl Out Productions, with backing from the Curzon Cm Development Fund.
The film will use archive material and interviews with those who know her to tell the story of how Merkel overcame the triple challenges of being a woman, a scientist, and an East German.
The film is in development and will be the feature documentary debut of German filmmaker Eva Weber, who works in London through her company Odd Girl Out Productions.
- 7/14/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Breaking Through The Lens, an initiative launched three years ago to promote emerging female directors, has unveiled the shortlist of projects vying to participate in the 3rd edition of its pitching platform set to take place during the Cannes Film Festival.
The selected projects, which will be pitched to over 100 financiers and key industry people during Cannes, were announced during the European Film Market on Feb. 25.
Spanning 13 countries, this year’s shortlist of 20 titles includes Tamika Guishard’s African dance-driven feature “Rhythm in Blues;” Daresha Kyi’s U.S. documentary “Mama Bears” which follows conservative Christian mothers whose lives are transformed as they accept their Lgbtq children; Ahd Kamel’s Saudi Arabian feature “My Driver and I” set in 80s and 90s and centering on an unlikely friendship between a privileged Saudi girl and her Nubian driver; and Laura Moss’ feature debut “Birth/Rebirth,” a female-driven Frankenstein adaptation.
Set to be announced in early April,...
The selected projects, which will be pitched to over 100 financiers and key industry people during Cannes, were announced during the European Film Market on Feb. 25.
Spanning 13 countries, this year’s shortlist of 20 titles includes Tamika Guishard’s African dance-driven feature “Rhythm in Blues;” Daresha Kyi’s U.S. documentary “Mama Bears” which follows conservative Christian mothers whose lives are transformed as they accept their Lgbtq children; Ahd Kamel’s Saudi Arabian feature “My Driver and I” set in 80s and 90s and centering on an unlikely friendship between a privileged Saudi girl and her Nubian driver; and Laura Moss’ feature debut “Birth/Rebirth,” a female-driven Frankenstein adaptation.
Set to be announced in early April,...
- 2/25/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Announced at the recent annual Berlinale film festival was the launch of a new fantastic competition from coffee makers Nespresso. The luxury coffee brand who for the first time this year became official supporters of the event in Berlin, released details of a short film competition starting on 7th March in the run up this year’s prestigious and world renowned Cannes Film Festival – a festival which will this year see Nespresso named as official partner for the 9th consecutive year. It will also mark the 6th anniversary of their much coveted ‘Grand Prix Nespresso‘ award, which is given to the winner of La Semaine de la Critique; a week to showcase and give a springboard to young debut film makers.
The competition entitled Nespresso Talents 2016 invites young filmmakers to submit their own short films, designed to “Explore your Extraordinary” and capture the beauty and splendour of everyday, seemingly mundane events.
The competition entitled Nespresso Talents 2016 invites young filmmakers to submit their own short films, designed to “Explore your Extraordinary” and capture the beauty and splendour of everyday, seemingly mundane events.
- 3/15/2016
- by Dan Powell
- Obsessed with Film
The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
- 10/22/2015
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It’s been a surprisingly interesting month of moving and shaking in terms of doc development. Just a month after making his first public funding pitch at Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum, legendary doc filmmaker Frederick Wiseman took to Kickstarter to help cover the remaining expenses for his 40th feature film In Jackson Heights (see the film’s first trailer below). Unrelentingly rigorous in his determination to capture the American institutional landscape on film, his latest continues down this thematic rabbit hole, taking on the immensely diverse New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights as his latest subject. According to the Kickstarter page, Wiseman is currently editing the 120 hours of rushes he shot with hopes of having the film ready for a fall festival premiere (my guess would be Tiff, where both National Gallery and At Berkeley made their North American debut), though he’s currently quite a ways away from his $75,000 goal.
- 7/6/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Well folks, after a rather long and brutal winter (at least for me here in Buffalo), we are finally heading into the wonderful warmth of summer, but with that blast of sunshine and steamy humidity comes the mid-year drought of major film fests. After the Sheffield Doc/Fest concludes on June 10th and AFI Docs wraps on June 21st, we likely won’t see any major influx in our charts until Locarno, Venice, Telluride and Tiff announce their line-ups in rapid succession. In the meantime, we can look forward to the intriguing onslaught of films making their debut in Sheffield, including Brian Hill’s intriguing examination of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, The Confessions of Thomas Quick, and Sean McAllister’s film for which he himself was jailed in the process of making, A Syrian Love Story, the only two films world premiering in the festival’s main competition.
- 6/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It should come as no surprise that Cannes Film Festival will play host to Kent Jones’s doc on the touchstone of filmmaking interview tomes, Hitchcock/Truffaut (see photo above). The film has been floating near the top of this list since it was announced last year as in development, while Jones himself has a history with the festival, having co-written both Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. and Martin Scorsese’s My Voyage To Italy, both of which premiered in Cannes. The film is scheduled to screen as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar alongside the likes of Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words, which will play as part of the festival’s tribute to the late starlet, and Gabriel Clarke and John McKenna’s Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (see trailer below). As someone who grew up watching road races with my dad in Watkins Glen,...
- 5/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Shorts starring Sally Hawkins and Maxine Peake among those in the line-up.
Sini Anderson’s feature documentary The Punk Singer, about Bikini Kill and Le Tigre frontwoman Kathleen Hanna, is to open the 11th London Short Film Festival (Jan 10-19). The opening night is presented in associated with Birds Eye View.
There will be a record 32 programmes of new short films in this year’s Lsff selected from open submission entries.
They include the opening night selection Funny Sh*t which will feature work ranging from Benjamin Bee’s one-minute Orange Charlie to Rémy Bazerque’s 15-minute Have You Seen Napoleon?.
Regular programmes include Femmes Fantastique featuring Mat Kirby’s The Phone Call starring Sally Hawkins, and Douglas King’s Let’s Go Swimming, starring Josie Long.
Lo-Budget Mayhem will see 29 inventive works in the running for the Lomography Award, and Global Stories will present British filmmakers illuminating the world in works that will include Karen Martinez...
Sini Anderson’s feature documentary The Punk Singer, about Bikini Kill and Le Tigre frontwoman Kathleen Hanna, is to open the 11th London Short Film Festival (Jan 10-19). The opening night is presented in associated with Birds Eye View.
There will be a record 32 programmes of new short films in this year’s Lsff selected from open submission entries.
They include the opening night selection Funny Sh*t which will feature work ranging from Benjamin Bee’s one-minute Orange Charlie to Rémy Bazerque’s 15-minute Have You Seen Napoleon?.
Regular programmes include Femmes Fantastique featuring Mat Kirby’s The Phone Call starring Sally Hawkins, and Douglas King’s Let’s Go Swimming, starring Josie Long.
Lo-Budget Mayhem will see 29 inventive works in the running for the Lomography Award, and Global Stories will present British filmmakers illuminating the world in works that will include Karen Martinez...
- 12/17/2013
- by tuttlouise@gmail.com (Louise Tutt)
- ScreenDaily
Programming an evening of shorts on the one Saturday evening of your film festival might be a bold choice, but Melanie Iredale’s decision this year speaks volumes on how far Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival (Bfmaf) has developed under her leadership. To be sure, the inaugural shorts competition, sponsored by slow holiday company Inntravel, encapsulated the themes and concerns running through the ninth edition of Bfmaf: cultural contradictions, intergenerational disconnects, familial dysfunction and the not unproblematic nature in which Berwick relates to the Nordic regions.
The eight finalists of the shorts competition – judged by critic Nick James, curator/artist Anna Linder and filmmaker Eva Weber – screened to an extremely receptive Saturday night audience. A mixed bunch from my personal vantage point, the octet nevertheless boasted consistently high production values and demonstrated the diverse range of expressions the short form offers.
Two of the films unfolded like lengthy music promos.
The eight finalists of the shorts competition – judged by critic Nick James, curator/artist Anna Linder and filmmaker Eva Weber – screened to an extremely receptive Saturday night audience. A mixed bunch from my personal vantage point, the octet nevertheless boasted consistently high production values and demonstrated the diverse range of expressions the short form offers.
Two of the films unfolded like lengthy music promos.
- 9/29/2013
- by Michael Pattison
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Nonfiction filmmaking organization Cinema Eye has just unveiled the fifteen finalists for the 2014 Cinema Eye Honor for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking. The announcement was made on the first day of the 9th Annual Camden International Film Festival, which marks the fifth year that they have partnered with Cinema Eye to give out this award, which will be presented at the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors in New York City this January. This year's finalists include a few filmmakers who are not new to Cinema Eye Honors: Laura Poitras, nominated this year for her NY Times Op-Ed "Death of a Prisoner," was named Outstanding Feature Director in 2011 for "The Oath," Yuri Ancanari was on the Shorts list in 2012 for "The Oath," as was Sergio Oksman in 2011 for "Notes on the Other." In addition, director Eva Weber has become the first filmmaker ever to have two films named as finalists in the same year.
- 9/27/2013
- by Clint Holloway
- Indiewire
Fifteen documentary short films are on the ‘Shorts List’.
Cinema Eye has unveiled the fifteen documentary short films named as finalists for the 2014 award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking.
The announcement was made on the opening day of the ninth Camden International Film Festival, a key festival partner of Cinema Eye, who will also host the nominees reception in New York City in January.
This year’s finalists include a previous Cinema Eye winner (Laura Poitras) and two filmmakers previously nominated (Yuri Ancarani and Sergio Oksman). Eva Weber becomes the first filmmaker ever to have two films named as finalists with Black Out and Reindeer.
The nominees in the short film category will be announced along with this year’s feature film nominees in November.
Full list of finalists is as follows:
Black Out (UK) Directed by Eva WeberBradley Manning Had Secrets (UK) Directed by Adam ButcherCoffee Time (Elvakaffe) (Sweden) Directed by Maria FredrikssonDa Vinci (Italy...
Cinema Eye has unveiled the fifteen documentary short films named as finalists for the 2014 award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking.
The announcement was made on the opening day of the ninth Camden International Film Festival, a key festival partner of Cinema Eye, who will also host the nominees reception in New York City in January.
This year’s finalists include a previous Cinema Eye winner (Laura Poitras) and two filmmakers previously nominated (Yuri Ancarani and Sergio Oksman). Eva Weber becomes the first filmmaker ever to have two films named as finalists with Black Out and Reindeer.
The nominees in the short film category will be announced along with this year’s feature film nominees in November.
Full list of finalists is as follows:
Black Out (UK) Directed by Eva WeberBradley Manning Had Secrets (UK) Directed by Adam ButcherCoffee Time (Elvakaffe) (Sweden) Directed by Maria FredrikssonDa Vinci (Italy...
- 9/26/2013
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
Sundance is always on the move. Skywalker and George Lucas himself are refocusing on the indies and choosing sound design as their point of entry.
Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound recently announced that the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound will take place at Skywalker Ranch in 2013 and 2014 and also listed the artists that will participate in the 2013 Labs. This is the first time the two organizations will collaborate to support independent filmmakers and film composers and marks a significant expansion of the Institute’s existing Composers Labs to include sound design.
The Institute has hosted its Composers Labs at Sundance Resort for fiction feature films since 1999 and documentaries since 2005, allowing composers and independent filmmakers to collaboratively explore the process of writing music for film. Fellows also participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals acting as Creative Advisors.
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Hosting the Composers Labs at Skywalker Ranch allows an expansion of the program to include sound design, giving further insight into the powerful ways that sound and music can impact independent films. We are deeply grateful to the Skywalker team for working with us to provide our Fellows with the tremendous benefit of accessing this legendary facility”
Josh Lowden, General Manager of Skywalker Sound, said, “We’re very excited to formalize this relationship. Sundance Institute is virtually synonymous with independent film, and Keri and her team have done an amazing job to honor the Institute’s legacy. Twenty-five years ago Skywalker was founded by a filmmaker for filmmakers, and we have never forgotten our roots. We continue to believe in independent filmmaking, and are thrilled to deepen our relationship with the Institute by hosting these Labs at Skywalker.”
The Composers Lab for fiction feature films is a joint initiative of the Institute’s Film Music Program and Feature Film Program, and the Composers Lab for documentaries is hosted by the Film Music Program and Documentary Film Program and Fund.
Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program, said, “Skywalker Sound is a leader in the field of post-production and sound design, and their world-class facilities offer the ideal environment for our Composers Labs. Lab fellows will have access to Skywalker’s sound designers and mixers for ongoing collaboration, as well as the state-of-the-art facility during their stay.”
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Documentary (June 3-10) are:
Filmmakers
Director: Kirsten Johnson
A Blind Eye (U.S.) — The voice of an American camerawoman explores the nature of cinematography and what she has failed to see while filming in Afghanistan through her encounters with two Afghan teenagers. Najeeb, a one-eyed boy, struggles to hide what really haunts him, while a bold teenage girl must decide how much she will risk to be visible. A U.S. Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.
Director: Judith Ehrlich
Open (U.S.) — The fight for free speech in the 21st century is being fought in cyberspace, and its most dramatic story may be unfolding in Iceland. Open follows trailblazing Internet revolutionary Birgitta Jónsdóttir and three generations of digital “hacktivists” as their stories converge in the tiny island nation now poised to become the world’s first haven for freedom of information and transparency online and off.
Director: Thomas Allen Harris
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (U.S.) — A 90-minute documentary film with an innovative companion transmedia project that explores the ways black communities have used the medium of photography to construct political, aesthetic and cultural representations of themselves and their world. This will be the first film to vividly bring to life the individual photographers, photographic collectives, and anonymous and celebrated subjects, whose work has transformed the lives of African Americans through the magic and power of the camera lens.
Director: Mark Grieco
Marmato (Canada/Colombia) — A peaceful gold-mining town in rural Colombia confronts destruction by a Canadian multinational mining company.
Composers
Kathryn Bostic
Kathryn Bostic is a prolific composer, pianist and singer-songwriter. She is a recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, Bmi Conducting Fellowship and the Ascap Musical Theatre Workshop. She has written for both off-Broadway and Broadway productions. Currently her score can be heard in the Mark Taper production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
Omar Fadel
Los Angeles-based composer Omar Fadel has carved out a niche fusing an eclectic palette of musical instruments and styles. He has scored numerous features films, documentaries and television shows, including Walt Disney Studios’ first ever Arabic language feature film, The United.
Miles Jay
Miles Jay is a composer, contrabassist, and multi-instrumentalist with many traditional and cross over artists around the world. Supporting himself as a musician around the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa for much of the last decade, Miles has re-imagined the contrabass, adapting a wide range of melodic ornamentation to his own technique, as well as having invented and hand-built a new type of contrabass utilizing rawhide for a soundboard. Miles has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, Ted, and the United Nations.
Todd Reynolds
Todd Reynolds is a long-time New York violinist for Bang on a Can, Steve Reich, Broadway, and founder of the string quartet known as Ethel. His double CD set, Outerborough, rose to "best in classical" on the Amazon classical charts of 2011. A classical violinist 'gone horribly wrong', his genre-defying and technologically savvy music and performances have been called "a charming, multi-mood extravaganza, playful like Milhaud, but hard-edged like Hendrix."
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Feature Film (July 10-25) are:
Filmmakers
Writer/director: Miguel Calderón
Zeus (Mexico) — Sporadically employed and still living with his mother, Joel finds his only joy in falconry in the flatlands outside Mexico City, until an encounter with a down-to-earth secretary forces him to face reality.
Writer/director: Meredith Danluck
State Like Sleep (U.S.A.) — Under the surreal cloud cover of northern Europe, a young American widow reluctantly revisits her past when her mother is hospitalized in Brussels. While coping with the bleak reality of parental loss, Katherine explores her deceased husband's secret life of underground sex clubs and finds comfort in a relationship with a stranger as equally broken as she is.
Co-writer/co-director: Ian Hendrie
Co-writer/co-director: Jyson McLean
Mercy Road (U.S.A.) — Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the spiritual odyssey of a small town housewife and mother, as she becomes willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.
Writer/director: K’naan
Maanokoobiyo (Somalia/U.S.A.) — In war-torn Somalia, an artistic orphan named Maano joins the mercenary killing squad of a notorious warlord, only to discover his adoptive father and gang leader is responsible for wiping out his family.
Writer/director: Pamela Romanowsky
The Adderall Diaries (U.S.A.) — Writer Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his work. Adrift in the precarious grey area of memory, Stephen has to navigate the unstable terrain of truth and identity, led by two sources of inspiration: a new romance, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir by Stephen Elliott.
Co-writer/director: Eva Weber
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (UK/Germany/U.S.A.) — Twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa discovers on the day of her father's funeral that everything she believed about her life was a lie. She flees San Francisco and travels to the Arctic Circle to uncover the secrets of her mother, who mysteriously vanished when Clarissa was fourteen. Based on the novel by Vendela Vida.
Composers
Jongnic Bontemps
Jongnic Bontemps has had the pleasure to score numerous films, including award-winning Daughter of Fortune, A Different Tree, Soaring on Invisible Wings and Saudade. Jongnic's scores incorporate ethnic instruments with organic and synthetic textures to create a unique musical world for a film. This skill has been honed through his music education at Yale University, Berklee School of Music and the University of Southern California and his collaborations with some of the top film composers. Jongnic's scores have been heard at film festivals around the world including Cannes, The Pan African Film Festival, American Black Film Festival and Run & Shoot Martha's Vineyard
Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings is a Grammy-nominated pianist, organist, composer, and arranger, whose talents have been sought-after by an impressive range of artists including James Taylor, Norah Jones, John Mayer, Sia Furler, Madeleine Peyroux, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, and John Scofield.
Lucas Lechowski
Based in Los Angeles, Polish born Lucas Lechowski is a violinist/guitarist who creates music, experiments with sounds, improvises and performs. His recent film scoring credits include a 2013 Student Academy Award winner “Un mundo para Raúl” (dir. Mauro Mueller). Currently he is composing music for a two-hour NBC News television special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of President Kennedy, entitled "Where Were You?"
Heather McIntosh
Heather McIntosh is a cellist, bassist and composer who got her musical start playing with the Elephant 6 collective in Athens, Georgia and continued on to perform with artists such as Gnarls Barkley and Lil Wayne. Recently relocated to Los Angeles, her film credits include Compliance by Craig Zobel and The Rambler by Calvin Lee Reeder.
Vladimir Podgoretsky
Vladimir Podgoretsky started his professional career as a musical theater composer. His 2007 ballet Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) was a huge success and continues to be regularly performed in theaters throughout Moscow. Vladimir moved to the Us to become a film composer and after graduating from the UCLA film scoring program has been working with leading composers on films such as Rise of the Guardians, A Single Shot, The Eagle, Season Of the Witch and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. He has also worked on the acclaimed video game World of Warcraft and the ABC TV series Revenge.
Mac Quayle
A resident of Topanga Canyon, California, Mac Quayle has written music for over 20 films and television shows and accumulated a long list of credits as a music producer, dance remixer and multi-instrumentalist, including a Grammy nomination for producing Donna Summer. His music is heard in films such as the Indian documentary Beyond Grace and the Irish drama A Belfast Story and some of his collaborations as an additional composer appear in Drive, Spring Breakers and Only God Forgives.
The Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound are made possible by Bmi, Time Warner Foundation, and the Film Music Foundation.
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to supporting intercultural dialogue between artists and audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Sound, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd, is one of the largest, most versatile full-service audio post-production companies in the industry. Skywalker Sound offers comprehensive post-production services and utilizes the talents of Academy Award®-winning sound professionals working on sound design, editorial, Foley and re-recording mixes as a team. This provides filmmakers the most efficient model available for the audio post-production process. More information is available at www.skysound.com.
Lucasfilm Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Skywalker Sound, the Skywalker Sound logo, Star Wars and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2013 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound recently announced that the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound will take place at Skywalker Ranch in 2013 and 2014 and also listed the artists that will participate in the 2013 Labs. This is the first time the two organizations will collaborate to support independent filmmakers and film composers and marks a significant expansion of the Institute’s existing Composers Labs to include sound design.
The Institute has hosted its Composers Labs at Sundance Resort for fiction feature films since 1999 and documentaries since 2005, allowing composers and independent filmmakers to collaboratively explore the process of writing music for film. Fellows also participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals acting as Creative Advisors.
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Hosting the Composers Labs at Skywalker Ranch allows an expansion of the program to include sound design, giving further insight into the powerful ways that sound and music can impact independent films. We are deeply grateful to the Skywalker team for working with us to provide our Fellows with the tremendous benefit of accessing this legendary facility”
Josh Lowden, General Manager of Skywalker Sound, said, “We’re very excited to formalize this relationship. Sundance Institute is virtually synonymous with independent film, and Keri and her team have done an amazing job to honor the Institute’s legacy. Twenty-five years ago Skywalker was founded by a filmmaker for filmmakers, and we have never forgotten our roots. We continue to believe in independent filmmaking, and are thrilled to deepen our relationship with the Institute by hosting these Labs at Skywalker.”
The Composers Lab for fiction feature films is a joint initiative of the Institute’s Film Music Program and Feature Film Program, and the Composers Lab for documentaries is hosted by the Film Music Program and Documentary Film Program and Fund.
Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program, said, “Skywalker Sound is a leader in the field of post-production and sound design, and their world-class facilities offer the ideal environment for our Composers Labs. Lab fellows will have access to Skywalker’s sound designers and mixers for ongoing collaboration, as well as the state-of-the-art facility during their stay.”
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Documentary (June 3-10) are:
Filmmakers
Director: Kirsten Johnson
A Blind Eye (U.S.) — The voice of an American camerawoman explores the nature of cinematography and what she has failed to see while filming in Afghanistan through her encounters with two Afghan teenagers. Najeeb, a one-eyed boy, struggles to hide what really haunts him, while a bold teenage girl must decide how much she will risk to be visible. A U.S. Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.
Director: Judith Ehrlich
Open (U.S.) — The fight for free speech in the 21st century is being fought in cyberspace, and its most dramatic story may be unfolding in Iceland. Open follows trailblazing Internet revolutionary Birgitta Jónsdóttir and three generations of digital “hacktivists” as their stories converge in the tiny island nation now poised to become the world’s first haven for freedom of information and transparency online and off.
Director: Thomas Allen Harris
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (U.S.) — A 90-minute documentary film with an innovative companion transmedia project that explores the ways black communities have used the medium of photography to construct political, aesthetic and cultural representations of themselves and their world. This will be the first film to vividly bring to life the individual photographers, photographic collectives, and anonymous and celebrated subjects, whose work has transformed the lives of African Americans through the magic and power of the camera lens.
Director: Mark Grieco
Marmato (Canada/Colombia) — A peaceful gold-mining town in rural Colombia confronts destruction by a Canadian multinational mining company.
Composers
Kathryn Bostic
Kathryn Bostic is a prolific composer, pianist and singer-songwriter. She is a recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, Bmi Conducting Fellowship and the Ascap Musical Theatre Workshop. She has written for both off-Broadway and Broadway productions. Currently her score can be heard in the Mark Taper production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
Omar Fadel
Los Angeles-based composer Omar Fadel has carved out a niche fusing an eclectic palette of musical instruments and styles. He has scored numerous features films, documentaries and television shows, including Walt Disney Studios’ first ever Arabic language feature film, The United.
Miles Jay
Miles Jay is a composer, contrabassist, and multi-instrumentalist with many traditional and cross over artists around the world. Supporting himself as a musician around the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa for much of the last decade, Miles has re-imagined the contrabass, adapting a wide range of melodic ornamentation to his own technique, as well as having invented and hand-built a new type of contrabass utilizing rawhide for a soundboard. Miles has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, Ted, and the United Nations.
Todd Reynolds
Todd Reynolds is a long-time New York violinist for Bang on a Can, Steve Reich, Broadway, and founder of the string quartet known as Ethel. His double CD set, Outerborough, rose to "best in classical" on the Amazon classical charts of 2011. A classical violinist 'gone horribly wrong', his genre-defying and technologically savvy music and performances have been called "a charming, multi-mood extravaganza, playful like Milhaud, but hard-edged like Hendrix."
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Feature Film (July 10-25) are:
Filmmakers
Writer/director: Miguel Calderón
Zeus (Mexico) — Sporadically employed and still living with his mother, Joel finds his only joy in falconry in the flatlands outside Mexico City, until an encounter with a down-to-earth secretary forces him to face reality.
Writer/director: Meredith Danluck
State Like Sleep (U.S.A.) — Under the surreal cloud cover of northern Europe, a young American widow reluctantly revisits her past when her mother is hospitalized in Brussels. While coping with the bleak reality of parental loss, Katherine explores her deceased husband's secret life of underground sex clubs and finds comfort in a relationship with a stranger as equally broken as she is.
Co-writer/co-director: Ian Hendrie
Co-writer/co-director: Jyson McLean
Mercy Road (U.S.A.) — Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the spiritual odyssey of a small town housewife and mother, as she becomes willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.
Writer/director: K’naan
Maanokoobiyo (Somalia/U.S.A.) — In war-torn Somalia, an artistic orphan named Maano joins the mercenary killing squad of a notorious warlord, only to discover his adoptive father and gang leader is responsible for wiping out his family.
Writer/director: Pamela Romanowsky
The Adderall Diaries (U.S.A.) — Writer Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his work. Adrift in the precarious grey area of memory, Stephen has to navigate the unstable terrain of truth and identity, led by two sources of inspiration: a new romance, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir by Stephen Elliott.
Co-writer/director: Eva Weber
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (UK/Germany/U.S.A.) — Twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa discovers on the day of her father's funeral that everything she believed about her life was a lie. She flees San Francisco and travels to the Arctic Circle to uncover the secrets of her mother, who mysteriously vanished when Clarissa was fourteen. Based on the novel by Vendela Vida.
Composers
Jongnic Bontemps
Jongnic Bontemps has had the pleasure to score numerous films, including award-winning Daughter of Fortune, A Different Tree, Soaring on Invisible Wings and Saudade. Jongnic's scores incorporate ethnic instruments with organic and synthetic textures to create a unique musical world for a film. This skill has been honed through his music education at Yale University, Berklee School of Music and the University of Southern California and his collaborations with some of the top film composers. Jongnic's scores have been heard at film festivals around the world including Cannes, The Pan African Film Festival, American Black Film Festival and Run & Shoot Martha's Vineyard
Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings is a Grammy-nominated pianist, organist, composer, and arranger, whose talents have been sought-after by an impressive range of artists including James Taylor, Norah Jones, John Mayer, Sia Furler, Madeleine Peyroux, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, and John Scofield.
Lucas Lechowski
Based in Los Angeles, Polish born Lucas Lechowski is a violinist/guitarist who creates music, experiments with sounds, improvises and performs. His recent film scoring credits include a 2013 Student Academy Award winner “Un mundo para Raúl” (dir. Mauro Mueller). Currently he is composing music for a two-hour NBC News television special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of President Kennedy, entitled "Where Were You?"
Heather McIntosh
Heather McIntosh is a cellist, bassist and composer who got her musical start playing with the Elephant 6 collective in Athens, Georgia and continued on to perform with artists such as Gnarls Barkley and Lil Wayne. Recently relocated to Los Angeles, her film credits include Compliance by Craig Zobel and The Rambler by Calvin Lee Reeder.
Vladimir Podgoretsky
Vladimir Podgoretsky started his professional career as a musical theater composer. His 2007 ballet Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) was a huge success and continues to be regularly performed in theaters throughout Moscow. Vladimir moved to the Us to become a film composer and after graduating from the UCLA film scoring program has been working with leading composers on films such as Rise of the Guardians, A Single Shot, The Eagle, Season Of the Witch and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. He has also worked on the acclaimed video game World of Warcraft and the ABC TV series Revenge.
Mac Quayle
A resident of Topanga Canyon, California, Mac Quayle has written music for over 20 films and television shows and accumulated a long list of credits as a music producer, dance remixer and multi-instrumentalist, including a Grammy nomination for producing Donna Summer. His music is heard in films such as the Indian documentary Beyond Grace and the Irish drama A Belfast Story and some of his collaborations as an additional composer appear in Drive, Spring Breakers and Only God Forgives.
The Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound are made possible by Bmi, Time Warner Foundation, and the Film Music Foundation.
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to supporting intercultural dialogue between artists and audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Sound, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd, is one of the largest, most versatile full-service audio post-production companies in the industry. Skywalker Sound offers comprehensive post-production services and utilizes the talents of Academy Award®-winning sound professionals working on sound design, editorial, Foley and re-recording mixes as a team. This provides filmmakers the most efficient model available for the audio post-production process. More information is available at www.skysound.com.
Lucasfilm Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Skywalker Sound, the Skywalker Sound logo, Star Wars and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2013 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.
- 6/6/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Described as a literal and metaphorical journey towards enlightenment, director Eva Weber's award-winning documentary Black Out, will have its West Coast Premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in the International Showcase in mid-June. Synopsis reads: Every day during exam season, as the sun sets over Conakry, Guinea, hundreds of school children begin a nightly pilgrimage to the airport, petrol stations and wealthier parts of the city, searching for light. This evocative documentary tells how children reconcile their lives in one of the world’s poorest countries with their desire to learn, in the face of the country’s own struggle for change. Only about a fifth...
- 5/31/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Here is a complete listing of the films that were shown/covered by the Ioncinema.com team comprised of Nicholas Bell (Nb), Jordan M. Smith (Js) and Eric Lavallee (El). We’ll be populating this page up until March.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Afternoon Delight – Jill Soloway: Nb (★★ 1/2): Review
Ain’T Them Bodies Saints – David Lowery: El (★★★ 1/2), Nb (★★★ 1/2): Review // Interview
Austenland- Jerusha Hess: Nb (★): Review
C.O.G.- Kyle Patrick Alvarez: Js (★★ 1/2), Nb (★★ 1/2): Review
Concussion – Stacie Passon: El (★★★), Js (★★★ 1/2), Nb (★★★): Review // Interview
Emanuel And The Truth About Fishes – Francesca Gregorini: Js (★★★), Nb (★★★ 1/2): Review
Fruitvale – Ryan Coogler: El (★★★), Js (★★★★★), Nb (★★★★): Review // Interview // Video
In A World… – Lake Bell: El (★★★): Review
Kill Your Darlings – John Krokidas: El (★★★), Nb (★★★): Review
The Lifeguard – Liz W. Garcia: El (★★ 1/2): Review
May In The Summer...
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Afternoon Delight – Jill Soloway: Nb (★★ 1/2): Review
Ain’T Them Bodies Saints – David Lowery: El (★★★ 1/2), Nb (★★★ 1/2): Review // Interview
Austenland- Jerusha Hess: Nb (★): Review
C.O.G.- Kyle Patrick Alvarez: Js (★★ 1/2), Nb (★★ 1/2): Review
Concussion – Stacie Passon: El (★★★), Js (★★★ 1/2), Nb (★★★): Review // Interview
Emanuel And The Truth About Fishes – Francesca Gregorini: Js (★★★), Nb (★★★ 1/2): Review
Fruitvale – Ryan Coogler: El (★★★), Js (★★★★★), Nb (★★★★): Review // Interview // Video
In A World… – Lake Bell: El (★★★): Review
Kill Your Darlings – John Krokidas: El (★★★), Nb (★★★): Review
The Lifeguard – Liz W. Garcia: El (★★ 1/2): Review
May In The Summer...
- 1/29/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Fruitvale became the first Sundance film to win the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic film since Precious in 2009. First-time director Ryan Coogler was inspired to write the film after 22-year-old Oscar Grant was shot in the back and killed by Oakland transit police on New Year’s Day morning 2009. Fruitvale tells the story of Grant’s last 24 hours alive, as he attempts to become a better father, a better boyfriend, and a better son and friend. “It’s about human beings and how we treat each other,” said Coogler, “how we treat people that...
- 1/27/2013
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
The problem with the top festivals is that no matter what you are doing, you feel you should be doing something else. Whether to stay home and write or be out seeing films or partying/ networking, sometimes you feel like you're missing out of the really important things. And I lost my hat! If any readers find my white Russian fox hat that I bought in a Berlin flea market, please return it to me! Yesterday I missed the inauguration brunch Acme PR hosted in conjunction with the film Citizen Koch about Mayor Koch because I was trying to send out photos from my camera to my new MacBook Pro to my blog! I also missed Occupy Wall Street. But the truth of that is I am no longer in the mood for issue docs. Inequality For All satisfied my need for understanding that issue, God Loves Uganda repelled me, though one of the volunteers I was talking to was so incensed at the film's message of homophobia that I realized its value. I am going to write more on the docs in the coming days, but now just for fun, I'm going to do a survey of how many deal with personal subjects and how many with social issues. I did find a great parking lot for $5, but it was so far away that I was unable to see the films Big Sur (sold out) and C.O.G., but I did catch the buzz film Fruitvale about the New Years Eve shooting of Oscar, a 22 year old Bay Area resident. Starring the superb Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer and Melonie Diaz and directed by Ryan Coogler, it captured the family life so beautifully, Oscar was so sympathetic, so human, so young that at its end, I was totally depressed by the gun violence done in this film and in so many incidents over this past year. Another film about guns, Valentine Road by Sasha Alpert is getting very good buzz as well. Seeing Fruitvale because it was a buzz film and was so easy to enter with my press pass meant missing out of Gideon's Army which I really wanted to see but did not realize a ticket had been reserved for me and so I missed out on seeing it. Gideon's Army follows three young public defenders who are part of a small group of idealistic lawyers in the Deep South challenging the assumptions that drive a criminal justice system strained to the breaking point. I wanted to share it with my Pd friends in L.A. And the issue of justice and idealism would have taken me out of the depression over Fruitvale where the security guard who shot Oscar twice got off after serving 18 months in prison. Since this doc is an HBO doc, I might not get another chance to see it. At 4:00pm in Sundance (and Berlin, Cannes and Afm), the cocktail hour begins and we put aside watching films and switch to networking, catching up with news, meeting new people, etc. and so I went off to parties: The Louisiana Film Festival , Ifp, Film Independent and Indiewire, Kofic (the Korean film organization) and "The Party" of Sundance hosted by John Sloss and Cinetic were all on the calendar. Starting at the Riverhorse on Main, the Film Independent / Indiewire party was so exciting that I missed the Ifp party up the street. At the Find/ Indiewire party, I got to catch up with so many people including Bob and Jeannie Berney who will be opening their new company Picturehouse (2) with a Metallica film in 3D which sounds like a perfect Bob Berney film. I met Adam Donaghey, a partner of Aviation Cinemas who had been at the Arthouse Convergence. His theater is where they arrested up Lee Harvey Oswald and was originally the flag ship theater created by Howard Hughes as part of the Rko Theaters chain. They also have started the Oak Cliff Film Festival which is a festival of festivals, much like Toronto was in its early days before becoming the showcase and discovery festival it is today. We spoke of a new sort of festival scam that filmmakers need to heed, called Awards Festivals. You can buy an award so you can show your film to be a winner of a festival where it never even needs to screen! Withoutabox even lists these festivals without warning. Adam wishes Withoutabox would curate chosen festivals a bit more. I agree because uneducated filmmakers often tend to think that quantity not quality of film festivals their films show at makes the look better than it might be. For uneducated audiences who might then watch the film, disappointment may result. For the trade, it gives the film a tawdry look.
Michele Satter, Founding Director, Feature Film Program of the Sundance Institute and Paul Federbush, International Director of the Feature Film Program invited me to tomorrow's Mahinda Global Filmmaking Awards Reception which awards $10,000 to 4 filmmakers with projects which give voice to issues needing to be heard. Again I have to miss something if I go there…Narco Cultura plays at 6:30pm, the Awards ceremony starts at 6pm, And I have been invited to my host's dinner party. I hope I can catch Narco Cultura (Isa: K5) on Cinando! The winners are Sarthak Dasgupta,The Music Teacher from India; Jonas Carpignano, A Chjana from Italy-us; Aly Muritiba, The Man Who Killed My Dead Beloved from Brazil; and Vendela Vida & Eva Weber, Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name UK-Germany-us. See more here
Rick Allen, Founder and CEO of Snagfilms (the owner of Indiewire) and I spoke of their ever-growing developments and I was startled and very happy to hear him praise my blog. Stefanie Sharis, COO and Andrew Mer, VP Content Partnerships of Snagfilms and I spoke of our plans in Berlin and Cannes.
Louisiana International Film Festival and Mentorship Program party where, for the second time during this festival, I caught a fantastic musical performance. The first was at the New York Film Lounge. This one was a "love riot" performance by jazz pianist extraordinaire, actor and educator Jonathan Batiste . Both the groups are represented by N.Y. Attorney Stephen Beers . I was with Ula again, and Indiewire's James Israel, doing the party circuit. I hope Ula will bring this fine New Orleans jazz pianist Jon Batiste to The American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. He had the room rocking with a sax, drums and -- was that a tuba? -- backing him up. I have filmed both groups and hope I can upload them for your enjoyment! The Louisiana Film Festival will be held in April and includes a mentorship program. It is being organized by our friends Jeff Dowd and Dan Ireland. Dan is now working on his next feature which sounds great with a cast of great actors. I want to go to this new festival to celebrate my birthday especially since my parents met in New Orleans as university students there, married and moved to L.A. where I was born, so it means a lot to me. Coincidently, when I mentioned this to the Executive Director and filmmaker Chesley Heymsfield, telling her my father was in med school at Lsu, she told me her father was Chancellor of the Lsu Medical School. In addition I am thinking that perhaps we can join forces with their Mentorship Program with The Literacy Project, which I began 4 years ago at El Centro del Pueblo in Echo Park. Their Mentorship Program, from what I understood, is headed by a Nobel Prize Winning Scientist. I may have heard wrong however, because the noise at this party was horrendous and the speech given was too long for sustained silence. Ula, James and I proceeded to the Korean party was a different group of folks gathering of the trade. While there I could do some matchmaking, one of my favorite pastimes, introducing Ula to Kiril of the Moscow Film Festival, seeing Clay Epstein, party organizers Henry Eshelmann and Mark Rabinowitz, being introduced by Ula and Kiral to the Busan International Film Festival/ Asian Film Market's Steering Committee Deputy Director (who is responsible for international marketing of the market, Chanil Jeon, who then introduced me to the programmer for North American films, Dosin Pak whose email is "Program [At] biff.kr" for all you North American filmmakers looking to break into Asia. I have written about Busan several times because I think South Korea's development and support of filmmaking, film education and film financing through its pre-sales market is a model other countries would be wise to follow. I would personally love to create an educational initiative there about cross-cultural competence. During one Cannes Festival, I spoke to their education director about that. So perhaps, with a little more time, I will be able to speak of how to actualize this idea. From the Korean party we went (Early) to John Sloss's Cinetic party, The Hot Ticket party for me. I know I'll see old friends there and meet new and not only interesting but important people in the business, and sure 'nuff, I did. I also know that if you come late to this party you are liable to spend a long time shivering in the cold waiting to be admitted. There was Anne Thompson holding court, Christine Vachon holding court and I am sure many others. I got some good face time with Cotty Chubb who has 3 films nearing completion, and Carol (whose last name I have forgotten regrettably without her card to jolt my memory) whom I last saw in Paris many years ago and has now returned to filmmaking. She in turn introduced me to the L.A. Based Rio Film Commissioner who works with the Rio-based Steve Solet. We gathered with old friends Tom Davia (of Shoreline) and Rodrigo Bellot whose film he wrote, We Are What We Are (Isa: Memento), just sold to eOne for U.S. for a low 6 figures. Eone already has Canada and U.K. That's enough for now. See you tomorrow!!
Michele Satter, Founding Director, Feature Film Program of the Sundance Institute and Paul Federbush, International Director of the Feature Film Program invited me to tomorrow's Mahinda Global Filmmaking Awards Reception which awards $10,000 to 4 filmmakers with projects which give voice to issues needing to be heard. Again I have to miss something if I go there…Narco Cultura plays at 6:30pm, the Awards ceremony starts at 6pm, And I have been invited to my host's dinner party. I hope I can catch Narco Cultura (Isa: K5) on Cinando! The winners are Sarthak Dasgupta,The Music Teacher from India; Jonas Carpignano, A Chjana from Italy-us; Aly Muritiba, The Man Who Killed My Dead Beloved from Brazil; and Vendela Vida & Eva Weber, Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name UK-Germany-us. See more here
Rick Allen, Founder and CEO of Snagfilms (the owner of Indiewire) and I spoke of their ever-growing developments and I was startled and very happy to hear him praise my blog. Stefanie Sharis, COO and Andrew Mer, VP Content Partnerships of Snagfilms and I spoke of our plans in Berlin and Cannes.
Louisiana International Film Festival and Mentorship Program party where, for the second time during this festival, I caught a fantastic musical performance. The first was at the New York Film Lounge. This one was a "love riot" performance by jazz pianist extraordinaire, actor and educator Jonathan Batiste . Both the groups are represented by N.Y. Attorney Stephen Beers . I was with Ula again, and Indiewire's James Israel, doing the party circuit. I hope Ula will bring this fine New Orleans jazz pianist Jon Batiste to The American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. He had the room rocking with a sax, drums and -- was that a tuba? -- backing him up. I have filmed both groups and hope I can upload them for your enjoyment! The Louisiana Film Festival will be held in April and includes a mentorship program. It is being organized by our friends Jeff Dowd and Dan Ireland. Dan is now working on his next feature which sounds great with a cast of great actors. I want to go to this new festival to celebrate my birthday especially since my parents met in New Orleans as university students there, married and moved to L.A. where I was born, so it means a lot to me. Coincidently, when I mentioned this to the Executive Director and filmmaker Chesley Heymsfield, telling her my father was in med school at Lsu, she told me her father was Chancellor of the Lsu Medical School. In addition I am thinking that perhaps we can join forces with their Mentorship Program with The Literacy Project, which I began 4 years ago at El Centro del Pueblo in Echo Park. Their Mentorship Program, from what I understood, is headed by a Nobel Prize Winning Scientist. I may have heard wrong however, because the noise at this party was horrendous and the speech given was too long for sustained silence. Ula, James and I proceeded to the Korean party was a different group of folks gathering of the trade. While there I could do some matchmaking, one of my favorite pastimes, introducing Ula to Kiril of the Moscow Film Festival, seeing Clay Epstein, party organizers Henry Eshelmann and Mark Rabinowitz, being introduced by Ula and Kiral to the Busan International Film Festival/ Asian Film Market's Steering Committee Deputy Director (who is responsible for international marketing of the market, Chanil Jeon, who then introduced me to the programmer for North American films, Dosin Pak whose email is "Program [At] biff.kr" for all you North American filmmakers looking to break into Asia. I have written about Busan several times because I think South Korea's development and support of filmmaking, film education and film financing through its pre-sales market is a model other countries would be wise to follow. I would personally love to create an educational initiative there about cross-cultural competence. During one Cannes Festival, I spoke to their education director about that. So perhaps, with a little more time, I will be able to speak of how to actualize this idea. From the Korean party we went (Early) to John Sloss's Cinetic party, The Hot Ticket party for me. I know I'll see old friends there and meet new and not only interesting but important people in the business, and sure 'nuff, I did. I also know that if you come late to this party you are liable to spend a long time shivering in the cold waiting to be admitted. There was Anne Thompson holding court, Christine Vachon holding court and I am sure many others. I got some good face time with Cotty Chubb who has 3 films nearing completion, and Carol (whose last name I have forgotten regrettably without her card to jolt my memory) whom I last saw in Paris many years ago and has now returned to filmmaking. She in turn introduced me to the L.A. Based Rio Film Commissioner who works with the Rio-based Steve Solet. We gathered with old friends Tom Davia (of Shoreline) and Rodrigo Bellot whose film he wrote, We Are What We Are (Isa: Memento), just sold to eOne for U.S. for a low 6 figures. Eone already has Canada and U.K. That's enough for now. See you tomorrow!!
- 1/24/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Sundance Institute and India’s Mahindra Group today announced the four winners of the 2013 Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards, in recognition and support of emerging independent filmmakers from around the world. The winning directors and projects are: Sarthak Dasgupta, The Music Teacher from India; Jonas Carpignano, A Chjana from Italy-us; Aly Muritiba, The Man Who Killed My Beloved Dead from Brazil; and Vendela Vida & Eva Weber, Read More...
- 1/23/2013
- Bollywood Trade
Sundance Institute and India’s Mahindra Group announced the four winners of the 2013 Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards, in recognition and support of emerging independent filmmakers from around the world. The winning directors and projects are: Sarthak Dasgupta, The Music Teacher from India; Jonas Carpignano, A Chjana from Italy-us; Aly Muritiba, The Man Who Killed My Beloved Dead from Brazil;and Vendela Vida & Eva Weber, Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name from UK-Germany-us.
The awards were presented at a private ceremony at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A., by Rohit Khattar, Chairman, Mumbai Mantra, Michelle Satter, Founding Director, Feature Film Program, Sundance Institute, and Paul Federbush, International Director, Feature Film Program, Sundance Institute.
Each of the four winning filmmakers will receive a cash award of $10,000, attendance at the Sundance Film Festival for targeted industry and creative meetings, year-round mentoring from Institute staff and creative advisors,...
The awards were presented at a private ceremony at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A., by Rohit Khattar, Chairman, Mumbai Mantra, Michelle Satter, Founding Director, Feature Film Program, Sundance Institute, and Paul Federbush, International Director, Feature Film Program, Sundance Institute.
Each of the four winning filmmakers will receive a cash award of $10,000, attendance at the Sundance Film Festival for targeted industry and creative meetings, year-round mentoring from Institute staff and creative advisors,...
- 1/23/2013
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Every year, precisely the week before we toast to a new edition of the Sundance Film Festival, there is a lucky set of a dozen or more scribes who head of to the Sundance resort as part of the January Screenwriters Lab. For the 2013 edition, this year’s dozen includes some familiar names and fairly diverse international mix and at the top of the list we find Andrew Renzi who’ll be at the fest the week later with his short Karaoke! and will be workshopping his feature film Franny. Russell Harbaugh who brought his queasy The Celebration-esque short Rolling on the Floor Laughing to the fest the year before, will also be receiving support on his debut entitled, Love After Love. Jan Kwiecinski whose most recent short was part of The Fourth Dimension project will tackle The Incident, and K’naan, an artist who is already had practice at...
- 12/17/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
AFI Fest 2012 presented by Audi, a program of the American Film Institute, today announced the remaining sections and films that will screen in the festival.s World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight and Shorts programs. AFI Fest, which annually presents the best of world cinema in the movie capital of the world, will take place November 1 through 8 at the historic Grauman.s Chinese Theatre, the Chinese 6 Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
World Cinema showcases the most anticipated and prize-winning international films of the year, Breakthrough highlights work discovered only through the submission process and Midnight.s selections are always haunting. Both World Cinema and Breakthrough feature a number of films making their North American or U.S. Premieres, including The Angels. Share, Greatest Hits, Laurence Anyways, Nairobi Half Life, Pieta, White Elephant and Zaytoun.
Two of the shorts in competition are from AFI Conservatory.s recent class of...
World Cinema showcases the most anticipated and prize-winning international films of the year, Breakthrough highlights work discovered only through the submission process and Midnight.s selections are always haunting. Both World Cinema and Breakthrough feature a number of films making their North American or U.S. Premieres, including The Angels. Share, Greatest Hits, Laurence Anyways, Nairobi Half Life, Pieta, White Elephant and Zaytoun.
Two of the shorts in competition are from AFI Conservatory.s recent class of...
- 10/16/2012
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Today, AFI 2012 announced its complete lineup, after previously debuting its New Auteurs, Young Americans, Galas and Special Screenings we finally get a look at the Midnight, Breakthrough, Shorts, and deliriously good World Cinema Selections.
The Shorts section, with almost too many to count, features new work from Nacho Vigalando, Nicolas Provost, and even Shia Labeouf (Cannes selected), among many others. The four Midnight titles all played in Tiff 2012’s Midnight Madness selection, and here we see John Dies at the End making a stop here after originally premiering at Sundance. They’ve nabbed three North American premieres in their Breakthrough section, including Kid from Fien Troch, Nairobi Half Life from David Tosh Gitonga, and Oh Boy from Jan Ole Gerster. But AFI has managed to really impress with it’s World Cinema selections. Just as they nabbed Cannes premiere Holy Motors for their Special Screenings, they’ve nabbed several high...
The Shorts section, with almost too many to count, features new work from Nacho Vigalando, Nicolas Provost, and even Shia Labeouf (Cannes selected), among many others. The four Midnight titles all played in Tiff 2012’s Midnight Madness selection, and here we see John Dies at the End making a stop here after originally premiering at Sundance. They’ve nabbed three North American premieres in their Breakthrough section, including Kid from Fien Troch, Nairobi Half Life from David Tosh Gitonga, and Oh Boy from Jan Ole Gerster. But AFI has managed to really impress with it’s World Cinema selections. Just as they nabbed Cannes premiere Holy Motors for their Special Screenings, they’ve nabbed several high...
- 10/16/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Indian actress Jaya Bachchan will be presented with a “Lifetime Achievement Award “for her outstanding contribution to cinema spanning over three decades in Tongues on Fire (Tof) London Asian Film festival. Tof, a festival dedicated to Asian cinema will be held from the 5th-14th of March in London. Abhishek Bachchan will launch the 12th edition of the festival.
Director Jayabrato Chatterjee and actress Jaya Bachchan will come together in a conversation about their latest film Lovesongs: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow which will have its UK premiere. A retrospective of Jaya Bachchan will be held which will screen films like Kora Kagaz, Guddi, Uphaar and Abhimaan.
Tof will screen films made by Asian filmmakers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lank and USA. “An Act of Terror”, the first film made by the South Asian Diaspora in Scotland-that also got a BAFTA nomination, will be screen at the festival. Seema Kapoor’s...
Director Jayabrato Chatterjee and actress Jaya Bachchan will come together in a conversation about their latest film Lovesongs: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow which will have its UK premiere. A retrospective of Jaya Bachchan will be held which will screen films like Kora Kagaz, Guddi, Uphaar and Abhimaan.
Tof will screen films made by Asian filmmakers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lank and USA. “An Act of Terror”, the first film made by the South Asian Diaspora in Scotland-that also got a BAFTA nomination, will be screen at the festival. Seema Kapoor’s...
- 3/1/2010
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
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