Variety has been given access to the teaser (below) for “Murals,” an immersive 3D documentary that has its world premiere on May 18 at Cannes Next, a sidebar to the Marché du Film in Cannes.
The experience, which is created in Unreal Engine and displayed on LED screens, features murals by Banksy, created following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The project was initiated by Artem Ivanenko, a 3D artist from Irpin, Ukraine, which was one of the first towns to be hit during the Russian invasion. Later, when the Russians withdrew, Ivanenko returned to Irpin to record the devastating destruction using 3D scanning.
The directors are Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro of the New York-based production company Aggressive, alongside Ivanenko. Spain’s Tigrelab handled art direction and CG/Unreal animation.
In a statement, the filmmakers said: “An audacious war of conquest is being waged in the heart of Europe, a criminal,...
The experience, which is created in Unreal Engine and displayed on LED screens, features murals by Banksy, created following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The project was initiated by Artem Ivanenko, a 3D artist from Irpin, Ukraine, which was one of the first towns to be hit during the Russian invasion. Later, when the Russians withdrew, Ivanenko returned to Irpin to record the devastating destruction using 3D scanning.
The directors are Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro of the New York-based production company Aggressive, alongside Ivanenko. Spain’s Tigrelab handled art direction and CG/Unreal animation.
In a statement, the filmmakers said: “An audacious war of conquest is being waged in the heart of Europe, a criminal,...
- 5/2/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Chukotka, where Indigenous teenager Lyoshka lives a hardscrabble life in a remote whaling village, is the easternmost part of Russia. Beautiful in a forbidding, raw-boned way, with about half its territory above the Arctic Circle, it is separated from the westernmost Alaskan reaches of America by just 86 kilometers. But the cultural distance is immeasurably more vast, and only increased when Lyoshka’s village gets the internet, and, in an amusing tableau worthy of Aki Kaurismäki, burly men in weathered oilskins cluster round a glitchy screen on which blond camgirls pout in pink bedrooms for pay-per-minute customers.
The clash between the bleak traditional lifestyle of the villagers, who still use hand-tossed harpoons to secure their catch, reddening the sea, and the futurist fantasy of a Detroit-based online sex work enterprise is explored in uneven yet stirring ways in Philipp Yuryev’s feature debut, “The Whaler Boy.” , which perhaps convince most when they do not cohere.
The clash between the bleak traditional lifestyle of the villagers, who still use hand-tossed harpoons to secure their catch, reddening the sea, and the futurist fantasy of a Detroit-based online sex work enterprise is explored in uneven yet stirring ways in Philipp Yuryev’s feature debut, “The Whaler Boy.” , which perhaps convince most when they do not cohere.
- 1/15/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Yuri Bykov’s 2014 Russian-language film “The Fool” has been acquired by MGM’s Orion Television to be adapted into an English-language series.
The film follows Dima Nikitin (Artyom Bystrov), an ordinary honest plumber who suddenly decides to face the corrupt system of local politics in order to save the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dormitory, which is about to collapse.
“The Fool” had a stellar festival run and won multiple awards at the Locarno International Film Festival and Les Arcs European Film Festival, besides many other accolades worldwide and at home in Russia. It was produced by Rock Films, Alexey Uchitel and Kira Saksaganskaya.
Bykov’s 2013 Cannes title “The Major,” also produced by Rock Films, was previously adapted by Netflix into the Emmy winning series “Seven Seconds,” winning Regina King the Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie and a Golden Globe nomination in the same category.
The film follows Dima Nikitin (Artyom Bystrov), an ordinary honest plumber who suddenly decides to face the corrupt system of local politics in order to save the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dormitory, which is about to collapse.
“The Fool” had a stellar festival run and won multiple awards at the Locarno International Film Festival and Les Arcs European Film Festival, besides many other accolades worldwide and at home in Russia. It was produced by Rock Films, Alexey Uchitel and Kira Saksaganskaya.
Bykov’s 2013 Cannes title “The Major,” also produced by Rock Films, was previously adapted by Netflix into the Emmy winning series “Seven Seconds,” winning Regina King the Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie and a Golden Globe nomination in the same category.
- 1/14/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
"Take me home." Film Movement has unveiled the official US trailer for an indie coming-of-age film from Russia titled The Whaler Boy, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Philipp Yuryev. This first premiered in the Venice Days sidebar at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, and won the Director's Award there. It also played at numerous other festivals around the world through the last year. The film follows a young hunter, living in a male-dominated whaling community, who sets off an a journey to find a webcam girl he saw on his computer after the internet arrives in their town. Featuring stunning photography of the dramatic landscape, and punctuated by some off-kilter humor, "there’s an almost fable-like simplicity to this atmospheric coming of age story" about the division between two worlds. The small cast includes Vladimir Onokhov, Kristina Asmus, and Arieh Worthalter. This looks quite compelling, I need to check it out.
- 12/20/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The winner of the Venice Days Director’s Award at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, writer-director Philipp Yuryev’s immersive coming-of-age drama The Whaler Boy finds a unique location to tell the coming-of-age story. Set in an isolated village on the Bering Strait, the film follows a 15-year-old boy who is a whale hunter that starts to dream of the outside world when the internet comes to his village and he discovers a webcam model. Ahead of a January 14 release in theaters and Virtual Cinema via Film Movement, we’re pleased to debut the exclusive trailer.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “To skin a quote from The Social Network, it’s probably better to be accused of necrophilia these days than to be accused of whaling. Less so in the world of The Whaler Boy—a new Russian film tantalizingly set in that vast nation’s furthest reaches—wherein a...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “To skin a quote from The Social Network, it’s probably better to be accused of necrophilia these days than to be accused of whaling. Less so in the world of The Whaler Boy—a new Russian film tantalizingly set in that vast nation’s furthest reaches—wherein a...
- 12/20/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Austria Selects Great Freedom For Oscars
Austria has selected Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom as its official submission for Best International Feature Film for the 94th Academy Awards. Set in post-war Germany, the movie tells the story of Hans who is imprisoned time and time again for being homosexual. Due to Paragraph 175, which prohibited homosexual acts in Germany, his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long-time cellmate, Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer. The film stars Franz Rogowski (Victoria) and Berlinale Silver Bear awardee Georg Friedrich (The Piano Teacher) in leading roles, with a screenplay by Thomas Reider and Meise. Producers are Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann, and Benny Drechsel. The 2021 Cannes entry and Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner will be released by Mubi theatrically in the U.S. and UK on March 4, 2022. Meanwhile, per the Japanese Filmmakers Federation, Japan has...
Austria has selected Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom as its official submission for Best International Feature Film for the 94th Academy Awards. Set in post-war Germany, the movie tells the story of Hans who is imprisoned time and time again for being homosexual. Due to Paragraph 175, which prohibited homosexual acts in Germany, his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long-time cellmate, Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer. The film stars Franz Rogowski (Victoria) and Berlinale Silver Bear awardee Georg Friedrich (The Piano Teacher) in leading roles, with a screenplay by Thomas Reider and Meise. Producers are Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann, and Benny Drechsel. The 2021 Cannes entry and Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner will be released by Mubi theatrically in the U.S. and UK on March 4, 2022. Meanwhile, per the Japanese Filmmakers Federation, Japan has...
- 10/12/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman and Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
The award goes to a director for a first full-length feature film.
Lamb, Promising Young Woman and Pleasure are among the six films nominated for the Discovery 2021 – Prix Fipresci award, which will be presented to a director for a first full-length feature film on December 11 as part of the European Film Awards.
Vladimir Johannsson’s debut Lamb premiered at Cannes and follows a childless couple that discover a strange newborn on their farm and adopt the baby as their own. It has just set a record in the US, where it grossed more than $1m in its opening weekend, an...
Lamb, Promising Young Woman and Pleasure are among the six films nominated for the Discovery 2021 – Prix Fipresci award, which will be presented to a director for a first full-length feature film on December 11 as part of the European Film Awards.
Vladimir Johannsson’s debut Lamb premiered at Cannes and follows a childless couple that discover a strange newborn on their farm and adopt the baby as their own. It has just set a record in the US, where it grossed more than $1m in its opening weekend, an...
- 10/12/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
A selection of Russian films will screen in-person during the Beijing International Film Festival (Bjiff) through a collaboration with the new Russian Film Festival, part of an effort by both governments to promote Russian cinema in China and cultural exchange.
The Chinese festival is set to run from Sept. 17 to Sept. 30 as an in-person event after being pushed back from its typical April release date due to the pandemic. Given its close ties to Chinese film authorities, it is often a platform to showcase works from countries with which China hopes to strengthen political ties.
The Russian Film Festival is a program targeting international audiences via a series of online screenings organized by state-run Roskino and backed by Russia’s ministry of culture, in response to the global shutdown of cinemas amid the pandemic. Last year, the festival was held online in Australia, Mexico, Spain and Brazil. This year, it has gone up in Argentina,...
The Chinese festival is set to run from Sept. 17 to Sept. 30 as an in-person event after being pushed back from its typical April release date due to the pandemic. Given its close ties to Chinese film authorities, it is often a platform to showcase works from countries with which China hopes to strengthen political ties.
The Russian Film Festival is a program targeting international audiences via a series of online screenings organized by state-run Roskino and backed by Russia’s ministry of culture, in response to the global shutdown of cinemas amid the pandemic. Last year, the festival was held online in Australia, Mexico, Spain and Brazil. This year, it has gone up in Argentina,...
- 9/15/2021
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Films include Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’ and Blerta Basholli’s ‘Hive’.
More films than ever before are eligible for this year’s European Film Awards’ feature film and documentary film selection, with 40 feature films and 15 documentary films, and further feature film titles to be revealed in September.
Titles in the feature film selection include Blerta Basholli’s Sundance hit Hive and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. The latter is eligible despite being listed as a film of US origin. The European Film Academy (Efa) told Screen this was because the film reaches the number of points in...
More films than ever before are eligible for this year’s European Film Awards’ feature film and documentary film selection, with 40 feature films and 15 documentary films, and further feature film titles to be revealed in September.
Titles in the feature film selection include Blerta Basholli’s Sundance hit Hive and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. The latter is eligible despite being listed as a film of US origin. The European Film Academy (Efa) told Screen this was because the film reaches the number of points in...
- 8/24/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Other winners included P.S. Vinothraj’s ‘Pebbles’ and Martín de los Santos’s ’That Was Life’.
Russian director Philipp Yuryev was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania’s Cluj-Napoca, clinching the €10,000 Transilvania Trophy for his debut feature The Whaler Boy.
Distributed internationally by Laurent Danielou’s Paris-based Loco Films, the Russian-Polish-Belgian co-production also won the Director’s Award on its premiere at last year’s Venice Days.
It is the second Russian film in TIFF’s 20-year history to be presented with the top award: Ilya Krzhanovsky’s 4 shared the trophy with Juan Pablo Rebella...
Russian director Philipp Yuryev was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania’s Cluj-Napoca, clinching the €10,000 Transilvania Trophy for his debut feature The Whaler Boy.
Distributed internationally by Laurent Danielou’s Paris-based Loco Films, the Russian-Polish-Belgian co-production also won the Director’s Award on its premiere at last year’s Venice Days.
It is the second Russian film in TIFF’s 20-year history to be presented with the top award: Ilya Krzhanovsky’s 4 shared the trophy with Juan Pablo Rebella...
- 8/2/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Philipp Yuryev’s “The Whaler Boy,” which took home the Venice Days award at last year’s Venice Film Festival, won the top prize at the Transilvania Film Festival on Saturday.
The jury praised the Russian director’s feature debut, an offbeat story of a teenage whale hunter on the Bering Strait who sets out to meet a webcam model, for being “beautiful and meticulous in its sense of time and place” while also being “really resonant and contemporary at the same time as being classic.”
Yuryev, who had not attended the festival, was hastily flown to Cluj from Moscow on Saturday morning, telling the audience: “It is really something surprising to be here, and to have a chance to visit this place and to see you all.” He dedicated the award to the remote whale-hunting community in Chukotka where the movie was filmed, as well as to its young...
The jury praised the Russian director’s feature debut, an offbeat story of a teenage whale hunter on the Bering Strait who sets out to meet a webcam model, for being “beautiful and meticulous in its sense of time and place” while also being “really resonant and contemporary at the same time as being classic.”
Yuryev, who had not attended the festival, was hastily flown to Cluj from Moscow on Saturday morning, telling the audience: “It is really something surprising to be here, and to have a chance to visit this place and to see you all.” He dedicated the award to the remote whale-hunting community in Chukotka where the movie was filmed, as well as to its young...
- 8/1/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Of all the international film festivals to roll out the red carpet this summer in what feels like a global industry reboot, few can fall back on past experience when it comes to the logistics of an in-person pandemic edition. But amid the wave of cancellations that all but wiped out the calendar year in 2020, the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival managed to pull off what few others could, relying on a host of open-air venues to successfully welcome moviegoers to the medieval city of Cluj.
One year later, for what in a different era might have been a splashy 20th anniversary edition, TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu admits, “I thought this year would be easier.” Just days after confusion over Pcr tests and vaccine certificates reigned on the Croisette, however, Giurgiu and the TIFF organizing team have realized that as the coronavirus’ deadly Delta variant sweeps across the globe, a return...
One year later, for what in a different era might have been a splashy 20th anniversary edition, TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu admits, “I thought this year would be easier.” Just days after confusion over Pcr tests and vaccine certificates reigned on the Croisette, however, Giurgiu and the TIFF organizing team have realized that as the coronavirus’ deadly Delta variant sweeps across the globe, a return...
- 7/22/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Jury includes ‘Amores Perros’ screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga.
Transilvania International Film Festival has revealed the 12 films that will screen in its official competition and its international jury.
Each title competing for the Transilvania Trophy will receive its Romanian premiere at the 20th edition of the festival, which is set to take place in-person in the city of Cluj-Napoca.
They include What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?, by Georgian filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze, which played in competition at the Berlinale, and Lili Horvát’s Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time, which was Hungary’s Oscar submission.
Transilvania International Film Festival has revealed the 12 films that will screen in its official competition and its international jury.
Each title competing for the Transilvania Trophy will receive its Romanian premiere at the 20th edition of the festival, which is set to take place in-person in the city of Cluj-Napoca.
They include What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?, by Georgian filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze, which played in competition at the Berlinale, and Lili Horvát’s Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time, which was Hungary’s Oscar submission.
- 7/2/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Seventeen Russian projects and nine international projects from eight countries have been selected to take part in Wemw Goes to Russia, a new international co-production forum organized by Russian state film promotion body Roskino and When East Meets West, the Trieste Film Festival’s co-production platform.
The projects will be presented to potential co-production partners during the Key Buyers Event, which will take place online from June 8-10, with three additional days of screenings and matchmaking.
The Key Buyers Event was conceived in 2019 as a showcase for new Russian content, primarily geared toward foreign buyers. But the addition of a co-production market—expanded this year through the collaboration with When East Meets West—highlights what Roskino topper Evgenia Markova saw as growing demand to create a platform for Russian producers and their foreign counterparts to come together.
“It was the right choice,” Markova told Variety last month. “We saw it from the [Russian] market.
The projects will be presented to potential co-production partners during the Key Buyers Event, which will take place online from June 8-10, with three additional days of screenings and matchmaking.
The Key Buyers Event was conceived in 2019 as a showcase for new Russian content, primarily geared toward foreign buyers. But the addition of a co-production market—expanded this year through the collaboration with When East Meets West—highlights what Roskino topper Evgenia Markova saw as growing demand to create a platform for Russian producers and their foreign counterparts to come together.
“It was the right choice,” Markova told Variety last month. “We saw it from the [Russian] market.
- 6/7/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg, Loco Films head of sales Arnaud Godard announce acquisitions.
Film Movement has acquired US rights to Philipp Yuryev’s Venice Giornate degli Autori Director’s Award winner The Whaler Boy and Ivan Ostrochovsky’s Berlinale selection Servants (exclusive).
Both films are in the pipeline for 2021 theatrical releases followed by roll-out on home entertainment and digital platforms.
The Whaler Boy stars Vladimir Onokhov as Leshka, a 15-year-old whale hunter in the north eastern region of Russia who contemplates a perilous voyage across the on the Bering Strait to meet a girl he encounters on a webcam site.
Film Movement has acquired US rights to Philipp Yuryev’s Venice Giornate degli Autori Director’s Award winner The Whaler Boy and Ivan Ostrochovsky’s Berlinale selection Servants (exclusive).
Both films are in the pipeline for 2021 theatrical releases followed by roll-out on home entertainment and digital platforms.
The Whaler Boy stars Vladimir Onokhov as Leshka, a 15-year-old whale hunter in the north eastern region of Russia who contemplates a perilous voyage across the on the Bering Strait to meet a girl he encounters on a webcam site.
- 1/19/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The distance between the most easterly point of Russia and Alaska in the US is simultaneously about 53 miles and an entire world away so far as teenager Leshka (Vladimir Onokhov) is concerned. A window between Leshka's Chukchi island community, where he lives with grandfather (Nikolai Tatato), is opened by an erotic website, where girls gyrate for the camera - a clever piece of opening camerawork and editing which travels from the back street set-up in America via a computer screen to Leshka's village helping us to feel both the yawning gap and the connection between the two.
The poor internet connection may mean "Hollysweet999" is a pixelated dream girl, but that doesn't stop the 15-year-old from falling for her charms. Debut director Philipp Yuryev treads a careful tragicomic line as Leshka becomes increasingly obsessed with this candy-lipsticked girl who offers the promise of something completely different from the whaling life.
The poor internet connection may mean "Hollysweet999" is a pixelated dream girl, but that doesn't stop the 15-year-old from falling for her charms. Debut director Philipp Yuryev treads a careful tragicomic line as Leshka becomes increasingly obsessed with this candy-lipsticked girl who offers the promise of something completely different from the whaling life.
- 1/3/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
To skin a quote from The Social Network, it’s probably better to be accused of necrophilia these days than to be accused of whaling. Less so in the world of The Whaler Boy—a new Russian film tantalizingly set in that vast nation’s furthest reaches—wherein a young lad contends with the hormones and boredoms of rural life while casting longing looks to the West. The subject of his longings is an American Camgirl with the handle HollySweet999. Oh, to be young and feel love’s keen sting.
The Whaler Boy is the first feature of Philipp Yuryev, a 30-year-old filmmaker from Moscow, which lies some 4000 miles West of this film’s alien landscape. The location is a real doozy, especially for anyone who, in some quiet moment, glanced to that spot on the dateline where Alaska and Russia almost touch and wondered how many souls had attempted the hop over.
The Whaler Boy is the first feature of Philipp Yuryev, a 30-year-old filmmaker from Moscow, which lies some 4000 miles West of this film’s alien landscape. The location is a real doozy, especially for anyone who, in some quiet moment, glanced to that spot on the dateline where Alaska and Russia almost touch and wondered how many souls had attempted the hop over.
- 11/12/2020
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Cash prizes for best film in the Roberto Rossellini and Fei Mu awards are split between the director and the winners’ Chinese distributor.
Russian director Philipp Yuryev’s The Whaler Boy was awarded best film in the Roberto Rossellini Awards at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival, while Chinese filmmaker Li Dongmei’s Mama took best film in the Fei Mu Awards.
The Roberto Rossellini Awards are presented to films in the festival’s Crouching Tigers section (international directorial debuts or second features), while the Fei Mu Awards are for debut and second Chinese-language features in both the Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons sections.
Russian director Philipp Yuryev’s The Whaler Boy was awarded best film in the Roberto Rossellini Awards at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival, while Chinese filmmaker Li Dongmei’s Mama took best film in the Fei Mu Awards.
The Roberto Rossellini Awards are presented to films in the festival’s Crouching Tigers section (international directorial debuts or second features), while the Fei Mu Awards are for debut and second Chinese-language features in both the Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons sections.
- 10/19/2020
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
The competition section of China’s Pingyao Intl. Film Festival on Friday awarded top prizes to Russia’s Philipp Yuryev, Serbia’s Ivan Ilkic, and Chinese directors Li Dongmei and Wang Jing. The films of the first three helmers debuted at the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section in September, where Yuryev’s “The Whaler Boy” won the top prize.
Screenings are still ongoing at the Chinese festival in the central Chinese province of Shanxi, co-founded by Chinese helmer Jia Zhangke and former Venice head Marco Muller, whose full line-up of 63 films runs from Oct. 10 to 19. Few international guests attended, as China continues to limit travel into the country and requires a 14-day quarantine period for new arrivals.
The Robert Rossellini Awards are a set of prizes given to the dozen international directorial debuts or second features in the “Crouching Tigers” section.
“The Whaler Boy” from Philipp...
Screenings are still ongoing at the Chinese festival in the central Chinese province of Shanxi, co-founded by Chinese helmer Jia Zhangke and former Venice head Marco Muller, whose full line-up of 63 films runs from Oct. 10 to 19. Few international guests attended, as China continues to limit travel into the country and requires a 14-day quarantine period for new arrivals.
The Robert Rossellini Awards are a set of prizes given to the dozen international directorial debuts or second features in the “Crouching Tigers” section.
“The Whaler Boy” from Philipp...
- 10/17/2020
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
The Pingyao International Film Festival, founded by Chinese helmer Jia Zhangke and former Venice head Marco Muller, has released its full lineup of global and local films. The selections in the two main sections focus on first or second features.
The festival is set to take place from Oct. 10-19 in the ancient city of Pingyao in central Shanxi province, not far from Jia’s own hometown. Few foreigners will be present, as China continues to maintain travel and quarantine restrictions for those entering the country, despite lifting some measures.
A dozen films are set to compete in the international “Crouching Tigers” section. They include a number of titles that first bowed at Venice: “Residue,” from American director Merawi Gerima, which debuted to a special mention earlier this month in the independent Venice Days section before being picked up by Ava DuVernay’s film company and released on Netflix; “The Book of Vision,...
The festival is set to take place from Oct. 10-19 in the ancient city of Pingyao in central Shanxi province, not far from Jia’s own hometown. Few foreigners will be present, as China continues to maintain travel and quarantine restrictions for those entering the country, despite lifting some measures.
A dozen films are set to compete in the international “Crouching Tigers” section. They include a number of titles that first bowed at Venice: “Residue,” from American director Merawi Gerima, which debuted to a special mention earlier this month in the independent Venice Days section before being picked up by Ava DuVernay’s film company and released on Netflix; “The Book of Vision,...
- 10/6/2020
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
The festival will open with Sun Hong’s This Is Life, while Zhang Yang’s So Far So Close will screen as the Special Presentation.
Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff) has unveiled the full line-up for its fourth edition (October 10-19), which like many Asian festivals during the Covid-19 pandemic is taking place as a physical event without international guests.
The festival’s opening film and Special Presentation are both world premieres of Chinese productions – Sun Hong’s This Is Life will open the festival, while Zhang Yang’s So Far So Close will screen as the Special Presentation title...
Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff) has unveiled the full line-up for its fourth edition (October 10-19), which like many Asian festivals during the Covid-19 pandemic is taking place as a physical event without international guests.
The festival’s opening film and Special Presentation are both world premieres of Chinese productions – Sun Hong’s This Is Life will open the festival, while Zhang Yang’s So Far So Close will screen as the Special Presentation title...
- 10/1/2020
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
“Nomadland” has received the Golden Lion Award as the best film of the 2020 Venice International Film Festival, a jury headed by Cate Blanchett announced on Saturday.
The Searchlight drama, a simultaneous premiere by the Venice, Telluride and Toronto festivals, was directed by Chloe Zhao and stars Frances McDormand as a woman who travels through the American West in a van after losing her job and her home. Apart from McDormand and David Strathairn, almost all of the actors in the film are actual “nomads” that Zhao cast on her own travels through the area.
“Nuevo Orden” (“New Order”) by Mexican director Michel Franco won the Silver Lion, the festival’s second-place award, while acting prizes went to Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman” and Pierfrancesco Favino for “Padrenostro.”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was named the festival’s best director for “Wife of a Spy.”
Ahmad Bahrami’s “The Wasteland” won the...
The Searchlight drama, a simultaneous premiere by the Venice, Telluride and Toronto festivals, was directed by Chloe Zhao and stars Frances McDormand as a woman who travels through the American West in a van after losing her job and her home. Apart from McDormand and David Strathairn, almost all of the actors in the film are actual “nomads” that Zhao cast on her own travels through the area.
“Nuevo Orden” (“New Order”) by Mexican director Michel Franco won the Silver Lion, the festival’s second-place award, while acting prizes went to Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman” and Pierfrancesco Favino for “Padrenostro.”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was named the festival’s best director for “Wife of a Spy.”
Ahmad Bahrami’s “The Wasteland” won the...
- 9/12/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Venice 2020: Philipp Yuryev’s film has been crowned the champion of the jury composed of 27 European viewers, while 200 Meters bagged the Audience Award and Oasis scooped the Europa Cinemas Label. It’s Russian filmmaker Philipp Yuryev’s first work, The Whaler Boy, which has walked away with this year’s GdA Director’s Award at the 17th edition of Venice’s Giornate degli Autori. The story of the young whale hunter on the Bering Strait who falls in love with a webcam girl and dreams of escaping to America triumphed over the two other finalist films, Residue by Merawi Gerima and Conference by Ivan I. Tverdovskiy, which were selected from among the ten works competing in the Giornate section this year. “The jury felt that The Whaler Boy by Yuryev was the best cinematic effort, bringing together both the dramatic and the comic genres while maintaining a strong aesthetic vision”, reads the explanatory.
Before this year’s Venice Film Festival comes to a close with Saturday’s announcement of the official selection awards, the fest’s autonomous sections got the ball rolling Friday with their own prizes.
Coming out on top in the Venice Days program was Russian director Philipp Yuryev’s debut feature “The Whaler Boy,” an offbeat story of a teenage whale hunter on the Bering Strait, who sets out to meet the webcam model with whom he’s become obsessed.
The film received the Director’s Award — which carries a cash prize of €20,000 for Yuryev and Paris-based sales agent Loco Films — from a jury headed by Nadav Lapid, the Israeli auteur who won last year’s Berlinale Golden Bear for “Synonyms.” Unusually, the jury’s extended deliberations were live-streamed to the public. In a statement, Lapid praised Yuryev’s film for “[depicting] a world that has not yet been explored with...
Coming out on top in the Venice Days program was Russian director Philipp Yuryev’s debut feature “The Whaler Boy,” an offbeat story of a teenage whale hunter on the Bering Strait, who sets out to meet the webcam model with whom he’s become obsessed.
The film received the Director’s Award — which carries a cash prize of €20,000 for Yuryev and Paris-based sales agent Loco Films — from a jury headed by Nadav Lapid, the Israeli auteur who won last year’s Berlinale Golden Bear for “Synonyms.” Unusually, the jury’s extended deliberations were live-streamed to the public. In a statement, Lapid praised Yuryev’s film for “[depicting] a world that has not yet been explored with...
- 9/11/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The €20,000 Director’s Award was decided by jury of 27 young film enthusiasts presided over by Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid.
Russian director Philipp Yuryev’s drama The Whaler Boy has won Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori’s top prize, the Director’s Award.
Shot entirely on location in the remote Bering Strait region of Chukotka in north-eastern Russia, the film revolves around a young whale hunter who becomes obsessed with a girl he encounters on a webcam site.
The film was produced by Russia filmmaker and producer Alexey Uchitel’s Rock Films as well as late filmmaker and producer Marion...
Russian director Philipp Yuryev’s drama The Whaler Boy has won Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori’s top prize, the Director’s Award.
Shot entirely on location in the remote Bering Strait region of Chukotka in north-eastern Russia, the film revolves around a young whale hunter who becomes obsessed with a girl he encounters on a webcam site.
The film was produced by Russia filmmaker and producer Alexey Uchitel’s Rock Films as well as late filmmaker and producer Marion...
- 9/11/2020
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The debut feature by Russian filmmaker Philipp Yuryev is world-premiering in competition in Venice's 17th Giornate degli Autori. Leshka lives in an isolated village on the Bering Strait, which is located between Chukotka and Alaska and divides Russia from America. He is a teenager, and like most men in his village, he is a whale hunter who leads a very uneventful life out at the far edge of the world. But the recent arrival of the internet in Leshka's village means the predominantly male population now gathers in a shed every evening to watch gorgeous girls thousands of kilometres away dance on the screen of a constantly buffering erotic webcam chat site. For most of the guys, it's just a bit of fun, but Leshka takes it seriously. He encounters a beautiful girl on the chat site and falls in love with her. Leshka's first love transforms him beyond recognition:.
12 features and four shorts selected for the international line-up.
Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) has signalled that it is pushing on with plans for a physical event this autumn amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and announced the line-up of 12 international features due to play at its fourth edition running October 23 to 31.
A number of the selections will physically world premiere at the Autumn festivals, including Thomas Vinterberg’s Cannes 2020 label title Another Round (Toronto), and Venice Giornate Degli Autori titles Oasis and The Whaler Boy.
A number of Berlinale 2020 titles are in the mix including Special Silver Bear winner Delete History,...
Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) has signalled that it is pushing on with plans for a physical event this autumn amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and announced the line-up of 12 international features due to play at its fourth edition running October 23 to 31.
A number of the selections will physically world premiere at the Autumn festivals, including Thomas Vinterberg’s Cannes 2020 label title Another Round (Toronto), and Venice Giornate Degli Autori titles Oasis and The Whaler Boy.
A number of Berlinale 2020 titles are in the mix including Special Silver Bear winner Delete History,...
- 8/11/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦69¦
- ScreenDaily
Wife of a SpyThe programme for the 2020 edition of the Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Gia Coppola, Lav Diaz, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Alice Rohrwacher, Gianfranco Rosi, Frederick Wiseman, Chloé Zhao, and more.COMPETITIONIn Between Dying (Hilal Baydarov)Le sorelle Macluso (Emma Dante)The World to Come (Mona Fastvold)Nuevo Orden (Michel Franco)Lovers (Nicole Garcia)Laila in Haifa (Amos Gitai)Dear Comrades (Andrei Konchalovsky)Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)Sun Children (Majid Majidi)Pieces of a Woman (Kornél Mundruczó)Miss Marx (Susanna Nicchiarelli)Padrenostro (Claudio Noce)Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)Never Gonna Snow AgainThe Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)And Tomorrow The Entire World (Julia Von Heinz)Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic)Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesThe Ties (Daniele Luchetti)Lasciami Andare (Stefano Mordini)Mandibules (Quentin Dupieux)Love After Love (Ann Hui)Assandria (Salvatore Mereu)The Duke (Roger Michell)Night in Paradise (Park Hoon-jung)Mosquito...
- 8/3/2020
- MUBI
While the coronavirus pandemic has canceled major festivals such as Cannes and Telluride, the 2020 Venice Film Festival is moving ahead as planned and will be the world’s first major film festival since Sundance and Berlin at the start of the year. Venice 2020’s main selection will be split into three sections: Venezia 77 (aka the main competition), Out of Competition, and Horizons. The titles selected for the main competition will compete for the Golden Lion, which was awarded last year to Todd Phillips’ “Joker.”
As previously announced, Daniele Luchetti’s drama “Lacci” will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 2. The movie is the first Italian title to open Venice in 11 years. The last Italian opener was Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa” at the 2009 festival. “Lacci” is included in this year’s Out of Competition section. Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” follow-up “Nomadland” was also confirmed for a world premiere...
As previously announced, Daniele Luchetti’s drama “Lacci” will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 2. The movie is the first Italian title to open Venice in 11 years. The last Italian opener was Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa” at the 2009 festival. “Lacci” is included in this year’s Out of Competition section. Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” follow-up “Nomadland” was also confirmed for a world premiere...
- 7/28/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Venice Days (Giornate Degli Autori), the independent Venice Film Festival sidebar that is under the new leadership of artistic director Gaia Furrer this year, has announced its line-up of titles, including a feature directed by artist Bruce Labruce and new shorts from Atlantics filmmaker Mati Diop and Mug director Malgorzata Skumowksa.
From more a thousand submissions, the programming team have whittled it down to just 28 titles. The event’s competition is comprised of 10 features and will open with the premiere of Kamir Aïnouz’s Honey Cigar. Also screening is Saint-Narcisse, the first feature film from Canadian artist Bruce Labruce, which plays out of competition.
Miu Miu Women’s Tales, a strand focused on “female creativity”, will feature two new short films from Mati Diop (In My Room) and Malgorzata Skumowksa (Nightwalk).
“In an objectively challenging year that will go down as unique in the annals of the Venice Film Festival,...
From more a thousand submissions, the programming team have whittled it down to just 28 titles. The event’s competition is comprised of 10 features and will open with the premiere of Kamir Aïnouz’s Honey Cigar. Also screening is Saint-Narcisse, the first feature film from Canadian artist Bruce Labruce, which plays out of competition.
Miu Miu Women’s Tales, a strand focused on “female creativity”, will feature two new short films from Mati Diop (In My Room) and Malgorzata Skumowksa (Nightwalk).
“In an objectively challenging year that will go down as unique in the annals of the Venice Film Festival,...
- 7/23/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
The Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section has unveiled its lineup of 10 competition entries, nine of which are world premieres.
The lineup also includes a mix of buzz titles from known and emerging talent, characterized this year by an accent on Eastern Europe, as well as the section’s customary strong representation of female directors.
Hotly anticipated queer comedy fantasy “Saint-Narcisse” by Canadian artist-turned-filmmaker Bruce Labruce and queer romance drama “My Tender Matador,” directed by Chile’s Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa — and set during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship — are among the standouts, as are shorts by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (“Atlantics”) and Poland’s Malgorzata Szumowska (“Body”), which will unspool as part of the Prada-commissioned Miu Miu Women’s Tales, a series of short films directed by women.
The opener will be French/Algerian director Kamir Aïnouz’s promising feature debut “Honey Cigar,” which was developed with...
The lineup also includes a mix of buzz titles from known and emerging talent, characterized this year by an accent on Eastern Europe, as well as the section’s customary strong representation of female directors.
Hotly anticipated queer comedy fantasy “Saint-Narcisse” by Canadian artist-turned-filmmaker Bruce Labruce and queer romance drama “My Tender Matador,” directed by Chile’s Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa — and set during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship — are among the standouts, as are shorts by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (“Atlantics”) and Poland’s Malgorzata Szumowska (“Body”), which will unspool as part of the Prada-commissioned Miu Miu Women’s Tales, a series of short films directed by women.
The opener will be French/Algerian director Kamir Aïnouz’s promising feature debut “Honey Cigar,” which was developed with...
- 7/23/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Bruce Labruce’s Saint-Narcisse to play out of competition.
Venice’s Giornate Degli Autori, now under the stewardship of Gaia Furrer, has announced its official selection under the title The Days Of Courage in a nod to the power and creativity of filmmaking amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The selection of the 17th edition, which like the concurrent Venice Film Festival will run as a physical event, includes Bruce Labruce’s out of competition closing film Saint-Narcisse and a short film from Atlantics director Mati Diop.
Kamir Aïnouz’s Honey Cigar (pictured) will open the competition, a 10-strong field that includes...
Venice’s Giornate Degli Autori, now under the stewardship of Gaia Furrer, has announced its official selection under the title The Days Of Courage in a nod to the power and creativity of filmmaking amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The selection of the 17th edition, which like the concurrent Venice Film Festival will run as a physical event, includes Bruce Labruce’s out of competition closing film Saint-Narcisse and a short film from Atlantics director Mati Diop.
Kamir Aïnouz’s Honey Cigar (pictured) will open the competition, a 10-strong field that includes...
- 7/23/2020
- by 14¦Screen staff¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Industry professionals get first look at new work.
Works in progress from Brazil, Poland, Mexico, Greece and Russia have won awards for the best pitches at the second edition of European Work in Progress during Film Festival Cologne.
The five winners were chosen on Tuesday (15) by an international jury consisting of Locarno Film Festival’s new artistic director Lili Hinstin, Zdf Enterprises’ director of acquisitions for feature films Margrit Stärk, Albanian producer Sabina Kodra, whose Erafilm was behind Robert Budina’s A Shelter Among The Clouds), and Yohann Comte, co-founder of French sales company Charades.
The awards were presented at...
Works in progress from Brazil, Poland, Mexico, Greece and Russia have won awards for the best pitches at the second edition of European Work in Progress during Film Festival Cologne.
The five winners were chosen on Tuesday (15) by an international jury consisting of Locarno Film Festival’s new artistic director Lili Hinstin, Zdf Enterprises’ director of acquisitions for feature films Margrit Stärk, Albanian producer Sabina Kodra, whose Erafilm was behind Robert Budina’s A Shelter Among The Clouds), and Yohann Comte, co-founder of French sales company Charades.
The awards were presented at...
- 10/16/2019
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
Titles include Molly from British director Sally Potter (Ginger & Rosa) [pictured].Scroll down for full line-up
The 12 projects that will make up this year’s Holland Film Meeting Co-Production Platform (Sept 22-25) have been revealed and include titles from the UK, France and Germany among others.
Filmmakers this year include British filmmaker Sally Potter who will present her latest project, Molly.
Potter’s films include Oscar-nominated Orlando (1992), starring Tilda Swinton; Rage, which competed for Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2009; and her most recent feature, Ginger & Rosa (2012), which screened at Toronto and Iffr among other festivals.
Bulgaria’s Maya Vitkova is back at Hfm with upcoming project Love, following the success of her previous film Viktoria, which played in competition at Sundance and Iffr.
Serbian director Nikola Ležaić will present The Religion of Night Walks, his second feature length work after Tilva Ros, which was selected for Locarno and won the top prize at Sarajevo in 2010.
From Sweden, [link...
The 12 projects that will make up this year’s Holland Film Meeting Co-Production Platform (Sept 22-25) have been revealed and include titles from the UK, France and Germany among others.
Filmmakers this year include British filmmaker Sally Potter who will present her latest project, Molly.
Potter’s films include Oscar-nominated Orlando (1992), starring Tilda Swinton; Rage, which competed for Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2009; and her most recent feature, Ginger & Rosa (2012), which screened at Toronto and Iffr among other festivals.
Bulgaria’s Maya Vitkova is back at Hfm with upcoming project Love, following the success of her previous film Viktoria, which played in competition at Sundance and Iffr.
Serbian director Nikola Ležaić will present The Religion of Night Walks, his second feature length work after Tilva Ros, which was selected for Locarno and won the top prize at Sarajevo in 2010.
From Sweden, [link...
- 8/29/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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