Documentary fans have a lot to be excited about this month on HBO and Max. April begins with the premiere of The Synanon Fix, a docuseries that follows the rise and fall of the cult-like drug rehabilitation program Synanon. The documentary Brandy Hellville and the Cult of Fast Fashion takes a deep-dive into the controversial “one size fits most” clothing brand Brandy Mellville and the impact of fast fashion on the planet.
An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th looks at the surge of political violence and anti-government sentiment that led to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, and the effects still felt nearly 30 years later. HBO is also returning with a second part to their popular docuseries The Jinx, with filmmakers continuing their investigation of Robert Durst.
But if documentaries aren’t your thing, there’s still plenty of popular films hitting Max in April, like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,...
An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th looks at the surge of political violence and anti-government sentiment that led to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, and the effects still felt nearly 30 years later. HBO is also returning with a second part to their popular docuseries The Jinx, with filmmakers continuing their investigation of Robert Durst.
But if documentaries aren’t your thing, there’s still plenty of popular films hitting Max in April, like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,...
- 4/1/2024
- by Brynnaarens
- Den of Geek
Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki continues his investigation of convicted murderer Robert Durst in The Jinx – Part Two, a six-episode documentary series premiering on Max on April 21, 2024. The streaming service’s April lineup also includes the seven-episode limited series The Sympathizer, based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and starring Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr in multiple roles.
Comedian Alex Edelman hosts a brand new comedy special, and Conan O’Brien visits favorite fans from his podcast series in the four-episode unscripted series Conan O’Brien Must Go. The documentary series The Synanon Fix exploring the drug rehabilitation program joins Max’s lineup on April 1st. And the streaming service has set April premiere dates for the documentaries Brandy Hellville & The Cult Of Fast Fashion and An American Bombing: The Road To April 19th.
Series & Films Arriving On Max In April 2024
April 1
American Renegades (2018)
Basquiat (1996)
Black Swan (2010)
Body of Lies (2008)
Bridget Jones’s Diary...
Comedian Alex Edelman hosts a brand new comedy special, and Conan O’Brien visits favorite fans from his podcast series in the four-episode unscripted series Conan O’Brien Must Go. The documentary series The Synanon Fix exploring the drug rehabilitation program joins Max’s lineup on April 1st. And the streaming service has set April premiere dates for the documentaries Brandy Hellville & The Cult Of Fast Fashion and An American Bombing: The Road To April 19th.
Series & Films Arriving On Max In April 2024
April 1
American Renegades (2018)
Basquiat (1996)
Black Swan (2010)
Body of Lies (2008)
Bridget Jones’s Diary...
- 3/29/2024
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Memento International is set to represent global rights to “Omen,” the feature debut of Belgian-Congolese artist-turned filmmaker Baloji which is slated to world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
Baloji previously directed several short films including “Zombies” which played at the BFI London film festival. Blurring the lines between reality and the realm of dreams, “Omen” follows Kofi, who return to his birthplace after being ostracized by his family. The movie explores the weight of beliefs on one’s destiny through four characters accused of being witches and sorcerers, all of them intertwined and guiding each other into the phantasmagoria of Africa.
The film stars Marc Zinga Lucie Debay (“Our Men”) and Eliane Umuhire (“Birds Are Singing in Kigali”).
“I like to describe ‘Omen’ as a chimerical film, an ode to the imaginary and the visceral, evoking the spirits of the departed as much as the boundless energy of childhood,...
Baloji previously directed several short films including “Zombies” which played at the BFI London film festival. Blurring the lines between reality and the realm of dreams, “Omen” follows Kofi, who return to his birthplace after being ostracized by his family. The movie explores the weight of beliefs on one’s destiny through four characters accused of being witches and sorcerers, all of them intertwined and guiding each other into the phantasmagoria of Africa.
The film stars Marc Zinga Lucie Debay (“Our Men”) and Eliane Umuhire (“Birds Are Singing in Kigali”).
“I like to describe ‘Omen’ as a chimerical film, an ode to the imaginary and the visceral, evoking the spirits of the departed as much as the boundless energy of childhood,...
- 4/21/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Venice Film Festival, Netflix and The Gotham Film & Media Institute are teaming up on a program of movies at iconic New York venue, the Paris Theater. Scroll down for program lineup in full.
Titled Venice Film Festival Presents: Next Generation, the four day event (April 20-23) will showcase films from the first ten years of La Biennale di Venezia’s Biennale College Cinema.
Screenings will be accompanied by in-depth discussions pairing new filmmakers with established directors, producers, and writers. The opening night will feature a screening of mystery-thriller Our Father, The Devil with remarks from Venice Director Alberto Barbera and Head of Programme Savina Neirotti. Indie Spirit winner Nikyatu Jusu, whose Sundance film Nanny was picked up by Amazon and Blumhouse, will serve as moderator for the opening night discussion with director Ellie Foumbi.
Biennale College Cinema is an incubator program for low-budget films by emerging filmmakers. Among...
Titled Venice Film Festival Presents: Next Generation, the four day event (April 20-23) will showcase films from the first ten years of La Biennale di Venezia’s Biennale College Cinema.
Screenings will be accompanied by in-depth discussions pairing new filmmakers with established directors, producers, and writers. The opening night will feature a screening of mystery-thriller Our Father, The Devil with remarks from Venice Director Alberto Barbera and Head of Programme Savina Neirotti. Indie Spirit winner Nikyatu Jusu, whose Sundance film Nanny was picked up by Amazon and Blumhouse, will serve as moderator for the opening night discussion with director Ellie Foumbi.
Biennale College Cinema is an incubator program for low-budget films by emerging filmmakers. Among...
- 3/30/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Glenn Close, who was due to serve as the jury president at the San Sebastian Film Festival, has canceled her trip due to a family emergency.
“I deeply regret that I will not be able to take part in the festival as there has been a family emergency for which I must stay home,” Close said in a statement. “I apologize to the festival, the jury, the filmmakers, the Donostia honorees and the festival audience, that I will not be there to celebrate with you all.”
Just last week, the star of “Fatal Attraction” and “Dangerous Liaisons” posted a video on her social media in which she expressed her enthusiasm about chairing the festival jury, describing it as “a new adventure I’ve never done before.” “I love San Sebastian, people are fantastic, I’m really looking forward to seeing some wonderful films and I’m very excited about meeting my fellow jury members,...
“I deeply regret that I will not be able to take part in the festival as there has been a family emergency for which I must stay home,” Close said in a statement. “I apologize to the festival, the jury, the filmmakers, the Donostia honorees and the festival audience, that I will not be there to celebrate with you all.”
Just last week, the star of “Fatal Attraction” and “Dangerous Liaisons” posted a video on her social media in which she expressed her enthusiasm about chairing the festival jury, describing it as “a new adventure I’ve never done before.” “I love San Sebastian, people are fantastic, I’m really looking forward to seeing some wonderful films and I’m very excited about meeting my fellow jury members,...
- 9/13/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
A perfect movie for the moment — though it debuted in late 2020, winning the Grand Prize at Tallin Black Nights — “Fear” offers both seriocomic balm and finger-wagging just as another major refugee crisis roils the world. Bulgarian theater and film veteran Ivaylo Hristov’s latest feature brings to mind not just current Ukraine-related events, but wider European and global trends, as it depicts a border backwater rattled when a lonely local widow takes in an African man fleeing war. Selected as last year’s Bulgarian Oscar submission, this warmly ingratiating piece in cool widescreen monochrome is a keeper, reminiscent of bittersweet fish-out-of-water arthouse hits like “The Band’s Visit,” as well as select gems from Soviet-bloc nations’ 1960s new wave.
Flinty middle-aged widow Svetla (Svetlana Yancheva) is introduced closing up the classroom she’ll no longer be teaching in, as the entire school is being closed for lack of students. Indeed, everything...
Flinty middle-aged widow Svetla (Svetlana Yancheva) is introduced closing up the classroom she’ll no longer be teaching in, as the entire school is being closed for lack of students. Indeed, everything...
- 3/10/2022
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
For our most comprehensive year-end feature we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2021. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions—a selection of those personal lists will be shared in coming days—and from tallied votes has a top 50 been assembled.
So: without further ado, check out our rundown of 2021 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2022.
50. This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese)
Framed as an epic fable and shot like a myth, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is another beautiful, tragic diary entry on the history and people of his home country Lesotho. His focus shifts from the metaphorical relationship of Mother, I am Suffocating, This...
So: without further ado, check out our rundown of 2021 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2022.
50. This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese)
Framed as an epic fable and shot like a myth, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is another beautiful, tragic diary entry on the history and people of his home country Lesotho. His focus shifts from the metaphorical relationship of Mother, I am Suffocating, This...
- 12/29/2021
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Last year, the small Southern African nation of Lesotho entered the Academy Awards race for the first time with Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” one of 28 features spawned over the past decade by Biennale College — Cinema, the workshop created by Alberto Barbera for emerging filmmakers to develop and produce micro-budget feature-length films.
The College was conceived by Barbera in tandem with Torino Film Lab topper Savina Neirotti, who also heads the unique
Venice initiative.
Instead of backing just one aspect of the filmmaking process, this lab shepherds movies through their entire production cycle, working closely with director-producer teams on their projects from initial stages, offering experts and on-site workshop sessions in a former monastery on the island of San Servolo in the Venetian lagoon.
Other standout Biennale College titles include U.S. director Tim Sutton’s experimental “Memphis,” released theatrically stateside by Kino Lorber; and “Mary Is Happy,...
The College was conceived by Barbera in tandem with Torino Film Lab topper Savina Neirotti, who also heads the unique
Venice initiative.
Instead of backing just one aspect of the filmmaking process, this lab shepherds movies through their entire production cycle, working closely with director-producer teams on their projects from initial stages, offering experts and on-site workshop sessions in a former monastery on the island of San Servolo in the Venetian lagoon.
Other standout Biennale College titles include U.S. director Tim Sutton’s experimental “Memphis,” released theatrically stateside by Kino Lorber; and “Mary Is Happy,...
- 8/30/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Dekanalog, a new theatrical and digital distribution company, has acquired all U.S. rights to Chloé Mazlo’s feature debut “Skies of Lebanon” with Alba Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazarro”).
Rpresented in international markets by Charades, “Skies of Lebanon” received Cannes’ Critics’ Week label in 2020, and is being released in French theaters on Wednesday (June 30) by Ad Vitam. Moby Dick Films produced the movie.
Set in the 1950’s, the film follows Alice, a young woman who leaves her native Swiss mountains for the sunny, vibrant shores of Beirut. She falls madly in love with Joseph, a quirky astrophysicist on a mission to send the first Lebanese national into space. Alice quickly fits in among Joseph’s relatives, but the civil war threatens their bliss.
Rohrwacher stars in the film opposite writer-turned-actor Wajdi Mouawad (“Incendies”). Mazlo previously directed the Cesar-winning short film “Les petits cailloux” in 2015.
“As a first generation immigrant, I...
Rpresented in international markets by Charades, “Skies of Lebanon” received Cannes’ Critics’ Week label in 2020, and is being released in French theaters on Wednesday (June 30) by Ad Vitam. Moby Dick Films produced the movie.
Set in the 1950’s, the film follows Alice, a young woman who leaves her native Swiss mountains for the sunny, vibrant shores of Beirut. She falls madly in love with Joseph, a quirky astrophysicist on a mission to send the first Lebanese national into space. Alice quickly fits in among Joseph’s relatives, but the civil war threatens their bliss.
Rohrwacher stars in the film opposite writer-turned-actor Wajdi Mouawad (“Incendies”). Mazlo previously directed the Cesar-winning short film “Les petits cailloux” in 2015.
“As a first generation immigrant, I...
- 6/30/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Title revealed of the upcoming feature from the director of ‘This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection’.
The next feature from Lesotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese is among 10 upcoming projects to receive support from the Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf), administered by the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The writer and director of Sundance award-winner This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection has received a grant of €10,000 for script and project development on his fourth feature, titled The Chattering Of Teeth.
Earlier this year, the filmmaker said he was developing a new feature around the theme of siege and fear...
The next feature from Lesotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese is among 10 upcoming projects to receive support from the Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf), administered by the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The writer and director of Sundance award-winner This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection has received a grant of €10,000 for script and project development on his fourth feature, titled The Chattering Of Teeth.
Earlier this year, the filmmaker said he was developing a new feature around the theme of siege and fear...
- 5/27/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The Locarno Film Festival’s Industry Academy workshop is extending its global reach to Africa.
The prominent Swiss festival’s formative initiative dedicated to training young professionals working in sales, traditional or online distribution, theatrical exhibition and programming for festivals – which is an intergral part of Locarno’s Locarno Pro industry side – has forged a new partnership with the Realness Institute, the South Africa-based non-profit that promotes cultural understanding, open exchange and intellectual and artistic development of filmmakers on the African continent.
The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy will offer a tailored program featuring masterclasses and meetings with internationally established professionals. The aim is to enhance participants’ understanding of the challenges facing the film industry, at the same time allowing them to expand their personal network of contacts and develop their professional skill set, Locarno said in a statement.
The program’s first edition will run online from September 26 to October...
The prominent Swiss festival’s formative initiative dedicated to training young professionals working in sales, traditional or online distribution, theatrical exhibition and programming for festivals – which is an intergral part of Locarno’s Locarno Pro industry side – has forged a new partnership with the Realness Institute, the South Africa-based non-profit that promotes cultural understanding, open exchange and intellectual and artistic development of filmmakers on the African continent.
The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy will offer a tailored program featuring masterclasses and meetings with internationally established professionals. The aim is to enhance participants’ understanding of the challenges facing the film industry, at the same time allowing them to expand their personal network of contacts and develop their professional skill set, Locarno said in a statement.
The program’s first edition will run online from September 26 to October...
- 4/20/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF45) today announces a glittering line-up of jury members for its four Firebird Awards competition sections, including three past winners.
Renowned for identifying and recognising new talents in young cinema, documentary, and short film, four independent jury panels will select 12 winners from 43 films for this year’s Firebird Awards competition. HKIFF45 will announce the results online on 11 April, the penultimate day of the festival.
The Young Cinema Competition for Chinese language films has heightened the profiles of some of Asia’s emerging talents since its introduction two years ago. Adjudicating this year’s selection are Yu Lik-wai, director, award-winning cinematographer, and a long term collaborator of Jia Zhangke; acclaimed Hong Kong art director, costume designer and film editor William Chang; and La Frances Hui, film curator with New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Three distinguished industry professionals from three continents will make...
Renowned for identifying and recognising new talents in young cinema, documentary, and short film, four independent jury panels will select 12 winners from 43 films for this year’s Firebird Awards competition. HKIFF45 will announce the results online on 11 April, the penultimate day of the festival.
The Young Cinema Competition for Chinese language films has heightened the profiles of some of Asia’s emerging talents since its introduction two years ago. Adjudicating this year’s selection are Yu Lik-wai, director, award-winning cinematographer, and a long term collaborator of Jia Zhangke; acclaimed Hong Kong art director, costume designer and film editor William Chang; and La Frances Hui, film curator with New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Three distinguished industry professionals from three continents will make...
- 3/26/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The motion picture academy has announced the animated, documentary and international features eligible for Oscar consideration. Some of the animated and documentary contenders have not yet had their required qualifying release. Each of them must fulfill the requirement to advance in the voting process.
In the documentary feature realm, a record 238 docs are among the contenders, crushing the record of 170 submissions from 2017. Among the pics is Amazon Studios’ “Time,” which won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle awards for best documentary. It’s the first film since Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell” (2012) to win the big three critics’ prizes. However, Polley’s movie failed to get an Academy Awards nomination. This also begs the question raised in our most recent round of documentary feature predictions. Is it time for the branch to expand its nominations from five to 10, as...
In the documentary feature realm, a record 238 docs are among the contenders, crushing the record of 170 submissions from 2017. Among the pics is Amazon Studios’ “Time,” which won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle awards for best documentary. It’s the first film since Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell” (2012) to win the big three critics’ prizes. However, Polley’s movie failed to get an Academy Awards nomination. This also begs the question raised in our most recent round of documentary feature predictions. Is it time for the branch to expand its nominations from five to 10, as...
- 1/28/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
From its 2018 launch in Johannesburg as an industry event rooted in the local community, the Africa Rising Intl. Film Festival (Ariff) has sought to promote diversity and inclusion in the South African biz, where Black, female, and LGBTQ filmmakers too often struggle to gain a foothold, and white and male executives still hold a disproportionate amount of power.
“From an access point of view, we don’t have access in terms of the full value chain of the industry,” says Ariff co-chair and president Lala Tuku. “Women and young people, queer members of our society, they are still being marginalized.”
Giving emerging voices a platform is one of the festival’s foundational pillars, and something that Tuku says “is very close to home.” As a young, Black woman looking to break into the industry two decades ago, Tuku says she found few mentors from a similar background who were able to guide her career path.
“From an access point of view, we don’t have access in terms of the full value chain of the industry,” says Ariff co-chair and president Lala Tuku. “Women and young people, queer members of our society, they are still being marginalized.”
Giving emerging voices a platform is one of the festival’s foundational pillars, and something that Tuku says “is very close to home.” As a young, Black woman looking to break into the industry two decades ago, Tuku says she found few mentors from a similar background who were able to guide her career path.
- 12/1/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
With less than two weeks to go until the Academy’s Dec. 1 deadline for submissions, the Oscars race in the Best International Feature Film category doesn’t appear to be suffering any slowdown because of the coronavirus.
As of Thursday, more than 60 different countries had announced their Oscar submissions in the category. That’s more than the 58 that had announced last year at the same point in the Oscar calendar.
Last year’s field was initially announced as a record 93 submissions, though two subsequent disqualifications lowered the final total to 91.
While this year’s race does not have any prohibitive favorites like last year’s “Parasite” or 2018’s “Roma,” a number of the most recent submissions appear to be serious contenders. Denmark’s “Another Round,” for instance, stars Mads Mikkelsen and is directed by Thomas Vinterberg, whose 2013 film “The Hunt” was a nominee in this category. Mexico’s “I’m No Longer Here,...
As of Thursday, more than 60 different countries had announced their Oscar submissions in the category. That’s more than the 58 that had announced last year at the same point in the Oscar calendar.
Last year’s field was initially announced as a record 93 submissions, though two subsequent disqualifications lowered the final total to 91.
While this year’s race does not have any prohibitive favorites like last year’s “Parasite” or 2018’s “Roma,” a number of the most recent submissions appear to be serious contenders. Denmark’s “Another Round,” for instance, stars Mads Mikkelsen and is directed by Thomas Vinterberg, whose 2013 film “The Hunt” was a nominee in this category. Mexico’s “I’m No Longer Here,...
- 11/19/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Lesotho has entered the Academy Awards race for the first time with the selection of Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection” for best international feature film at the 2021 Oscars, Variety has learned.
Set in the small Southern African nation, “This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home — and the cemetery where her family members are buried — sparks a resistance movement in her community, while exposing the fault lines in a country torn between an agrarian past and a relentless push for development.
“This Is Not a Burial” premiered last year in Venice’s Biennale College strand before winning a special jury prize for “visionary filmmaking” in Sundance’s international competition. In a glowing review, Variety...
Set in the small Southern African nation, “This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home — and the cemetery where her family members are buried — sparks a resistance movement in her community, while exposing the fault lines in a country torn between an agrarian past and a relentless push for development.
“This Is Not a Burial” premiered last year in Venice’s Biennale College strand before winning a special jury prize for “visionary filmmaking” in Sundance’s international competition. In a glowing review, Variety...
- 11/10/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “There Is No Evil” have won the top feature awards at the ninth annual Montclair Film Festival.
The awards were announced Monday following the festival’s 10-day run, which launched with Nomadland.” The film is set after the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, with Frances McDormand’s character Fern exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 11 and won the Golden Lion.
“Nomadland” won the audience award for fiction feature. Frank Oz’s “Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself” won the Audience Award for non-fiction feature. “Two of Us,” directed by Filippo Meneghetti, won the audience for world cinema. Mackenzie Robertson’s “Life Without Parole: The Sammy Gladden Story,” won the short film category.
“There Is No Evil” won the jury award for nonfiction feature. The...
The awards were announced Monday following the festival’s 10-day run, which launched with Nomadland.” The film is set after the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, with Frances McDormand’s character Fern exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 11 and won the Golden Lion.
“Nomadland” won the audience award for fiction feature. Frank Oz’s “Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself” won the Audience Award for non-fiction feature. “Two of Us,” directed by Filippo Meneghetti, won the audience for world cinema. Mackenzie Robertson’s “Life Without Parole: The Sammy Gladden Story,” won the short film category.
“There Is No Evil” won the jury award for nonfiction feature. The...
- 10/26/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
During this strangest of award seasons, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Every year, a drumbeat of local awards builds to Oscar night, which in 2021 will unfold two months late, on April 25, 2021. The beauty of these virtual festivals, depending on their access, is all you have to do to watch some of these events is buy a ticket. Ubiquitous award-winner Aaron Sorkin, for example, is my idea of a good time.
From San Francisco’s Sffilm Awards night to recent awards in Mill Valley and the Hamptons, it’s clear who many of the Oscar players are this year. Sffilm announced Tuesday that two lauded auteurs, Sorkin (Netflix pickup “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Chloé Zhao (Searchlight’s “Nomadland”) will accept (virtual) awards on December 9.
Sffilm always mounts a glittery dinner gala to raise funds for the year-round film organization’s support of emerging film artists,...
From San Francisco’s Sffilm Awards night to recent awards in Mill Valley and the Hamptons, it’s clear who many of the Oscar players are this year. Sffilm announced Tuesday that two lauded auteurs, Sorkin (Netflix pickup “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Chloé Zhao (Searchlight’s “Nomadland”) will accept (virtual) awards on December 9.
Sffilm always mounts a glittery dinner gala to raise funds for the year-round film organization’s support of emerging film artists,...
- 10/20/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
During this strangest of award seasons, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Every year, a drumbeat of local awards builds to Oscar night, which in 2021 will unfold two months late, on April 25, 2021. The beauty of these virtual festivals, depending on their access, is all you have to do to watch some of these events is buy a ticket. Ubiquitous award-winner Aaron Sorkin, for example, is my idea of a good time.
From San Francisco’s Sffilm Awards night to recent awards in Mill Valley and the Hamptons, it’s clear who many of the Oscar players are this year. Sffilm announced Tuesday that two lauded auteurs, Sorkin (Netflix pickup “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Chloé Zhao (Searchlight’s “Nomadland”) will accept (virtual) awards on December 9.
Sffilm always mounts a glittery dinner gala to raise funds for the year-round film organization’s support of emerging film artists,...
From San Francisco’s Sffilm Awards night to recent awards in Mill Valley and the Hamptons, it’s clear who many of the Oscar players are this year. Sffilm announced Tuesday that two lauded auteurs, Sorkin (Netflix pickup “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Chloé Zhao (Searchlight’s “Nomadland”) will accept (virtual) awards on December 9.
Sffilm always mounts a glittery dinner gala to raise funds for the year-round film organization’s support of emerging film artists,...
- 10/20/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) today announces a series of special in-theatre screenings to mark the reopening of cinemas in Hong Kong.
The CineFest series will feature films from the previously cancelled 44th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF44) and Cine Fan programmes, including this year’s Firebird Award winners.
Supported by Create Hong Kong and the Film Development Fund, all screenings will take place daily for five weeks from 30 September at K11 Art House in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Hkiffs Executive Director Albert Lee said Hkiffs would announce weekly line-ups and screening schedules starting today.
“Despite this year’s cancellations and disruptions, we have not stopped anticipating ways to re-engage Hong Kong’s film-lovers and to share our choices and discoveries with them once the situation returns to normal,” Mr Lee said.
To ensure public safety, Hkiffs will continue to comply with every in-theatre health measure mandated...
The CineFest series will feature films from the previously cancelled 44th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF44) and Cine Fan programmes, including this year’s Firebird Award winners.
Supported by Create Hong Kong and the Film Development Fund, all screenings will take place daily for five weeks from 30 September at K11 Art House in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Hkiffs Executive Director Albert Lee said Hkiffs would announce weekly line-ups and screening schedules starting today.
“Despite this year’s cancellations and disruptions, we have not stopped anticipating ways to re-engage Hong Kong’s film-lovers and to share our choices and discoveries with them once the situation returns to normal,” Mr Lee said.
To ensure public safety, Hkiffs will continue to comply with every in-theatre health measure mandated...
- 9/27/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Even before coronavirus arrived in South Africa, which ranks among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, Durban FilmMart head Toni Monty had already begun to envision how sub-Saharan Africa’s leading industry confab would have to adapt to an unprecedented global crisis.
“Not one of us on the team have actually seen each other physically since Berlin,” she said. “It’s like you’re organizing a wedding in the middle of a global crisis.” Still, Monty never had any doubt that the Dfm would take place in some form this year, calling it “the right thing to do.” “We have to keep the conversations going. We have to keep the networking going.”
Already this promised to be a transitional period for the Dfm, which takes places Sept. 4-13. After a decade-long partnership with the Durban Intl. Film Festival, the market this year was spun off into an independent event.
“Not one of us on the team have actually seen each other physically since Berlin,” she said. “It’s like you’re organizing a wedding in the middle of a global crisis.” Still, Monty never had any doubt that the Dfm would take place in some form this year, calling it “the right thing to do.” “We have to keep the conversations going. We have to keep the networking going.”
Already this promised to be a transitional period for the Dfm, which takes places Sept. 4-13. After a decade-long partnership with the Durban Intl. Film Festival, the market this year was spun off into an independent event.
- 9/4/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The Hong Kong International Film Festival named Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s “The Cloud in Her Room” and “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection” by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese as winners of its Firebird Young Cinema competitions, despite the event having been canceled due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The festival was initially postponed from its usual spring slot to summer due to the coronavirus, and was eventually canceled. But organizers revealed the names of the films they selected and then saw the competition sections judged by a virtual jury. They handed out 13 awards
“The Cloud in Her Room” was the winner in the Chinese-language category, with its lead star Jin Jing also bagging the best actress award. The jury headed by auteur Stanley Kwan, director and cinematographer O Sing-pui and May Fung, independent art and cultural worker, called the drama, Zheng’s debut, “witty” and “a delicate portrait of the new generation’s state of mind.
The festival was initially postponed from its usual spring slot to summer due to the coronavirus, and was eventually canceled. But organizers revealed the names of the films they selected and then saw the competition sections judged by a virtual jury. They handed out 13 awards
“The Cloud in Her Room” was the winner in the Chinese-language category, with its lead star Jin Jing also bagging the best actress award. The jury headed by auteur Stanley Kwan, director and cinematographer O Sing-pui and May Fung, independent art and cultural worker, called the drama, Zheng’s debut, “witty” and “a delicate portrait of the new generation’s state of mind.
- 8/20/2020
- by Vivienne Chow
- Variety Film + TV
The Cloud In Her Room and This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films.
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), which was cancelled due to Covid-19, but went ahead with online judging for its competition sections.
Both films also won best actress in their respective sections – Jin Jing for The Cloud In Her Room in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), and Mary...
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), which was cancelled due to Covid-19, but went ahead with online judging for its competition sections.
Both films also won best actress in their respective sections – Jin Jing for The Cloud In Her Room in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), and Mary...
- 8/20/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Orange Studio has boarded “Tanzanite,” a female-centric thriller from Swiss-Rwandan filmmaker Kantarama Gahigiri, Variety has learned exclusively.
“Tanzanite” takes place in the year 2045 in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, a lawless city where temperatures have become dangerously high and the government has imposed a curfew to tame brewing unrest. One day, a bright and feisty 11-year-old girl working in an illegal mine discovers a precious tanzanite gemstone, which is believed to hold the soul of the region and give hope and protection to its bearer.
But the gemstone’s discovery sets off a scramble to possess it and harness its powers, pitting a psychopathic cult leader and his private army against an all-female militia and a jaded detective on the downward slope of her career.
“Tanzanite” is co-produced by Urucu Media and Close Up Films, with development funding from Orange Studio and Switzerland’s Migros. The film is co-written by Gahigiri...
“Tanzanite” takes place in the year 2045 in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, a lawless city where temperatures have become dangerously high and the government has imposed a curfew to tame brewing unrest. One day, a bright and feisty 11-year-old girl working in an illegal mine discovers a precious tanzanite gemstone, which is believed to hold the soul of the region and give hope and protection to its bearer.
But the gemstone’s discovery sets off a scramble to possess it and harness its powers, pitting a psychopathic cult leader and his private army against an all-female militia and a jaded detective on the downward slope of her career.
“Tanzanite” is co-produced by Urucu Media and Close Up Films, with development funding from Orange Studio and Switzerland’s Migros. The film is co-written by Gahigiri...
- 7/22/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Sundance, Iffr and Eave are partners on the Realness Institute initiative.
A new initiative to develop and empower African producers has selected its first intake of talent.
Seventeen producers have been selected for the inaugural Creative Producer Indaba scheme, which has been developed by Realness Institute in partnership with Sundance Institute, International Film Festival Rotterdam and European training outfit Eave.
The year-long training programme will include masterclasses and one-on-one meetings with assigned mentors to address topics such as project development, financing, marketing and advocacy. The first workshop will run online for two weeks from August 28.
The scheme has also selected...
A new initiative to develop and empower African producers has selected its first intake of talent.
Seventeen producers have been selected for the inaugural Creative Producer Indaba scheme, which has been developed by Realness Institute in partnership with Sundance Institute, International Film Festival Rotterdam and European training outfit Eave.
The year-long training programme will include masterclasses and one-on-one meetings with assigned mentors to address topics such as project development, financing, marketing and advocacy. The first workshop will run online for two weeks from August 28.
The scheme has also selected...
- 7/20/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
The Taipei Film Festival will go ahead in June, making it one of the first significant festivals to do so in the post-coronavirus era. While its film selection is international, audiences will be entirely local.
Organizers announced Monday that the festival will open on June 25 with the world premiere of Taiwan-made “Silent Forest.” It will close on July 11, with a screening of “Days,” by Tsai Ming-liang, which appeared in competition in Berlin and earned a special mention in the Teddy section for gay film.
Based on real events, “Silent Forest describes a cruel game in which deaf teenagers discover the last row of the school bus, and how the joy of integrating into a new life instantly becomes fear. Festival organizers called it “one of the most stunning and shocking movies of 2020.”
Berlin, in late February, was one of the last major film festivals to take place before the Covid-...
Organizers announced Monday that the festival will open on June 25 with the world premiere of Taiwan-made “Silent Forest.” It will close on July 11, with a screening of “Days,” by Tsai Ming-liang, which appeared in competition in Berlin and earned a special mention in the Teddy section for gay film.
Based on real events, “Silent Forest describes a cruel game in which deaf teenagers discover the last row of the school bus, and how the joy of integrating into a new life instantly becomes fear. Festival organizers called it “one of the most stunning and shocking movies of 2020.”
Berlin, in late February, was one of the last major film festivals to take place before the Covid-...
- 5/25/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Landlocked by South Africa on all sides, the kingdom of Lesotho is a place of high skies, wide landscapes and narrow prospects for its two million inhabitants: a set of dimensions somehow captured in every exquisitely constructed, square-cut frame of “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection.” A haunted, unsentimental paean to land and its physical containment of community and ancestry — all endangered by nominally progressive infrastructure — this arresting third feature from Lesotho-born writer-director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese is as classical in theme as it is adventurous in presentation. Toggling between earthy naturalism and suspended dream atmospherics as fluently as its life-weary 80-year-old protagonist (the superb Mary Twala Mhlongo) skims the real and spiritual realms, it’s the kind of myth-rooted, avant-garde Southern African storytelling that rarely cracks the international festival circuit.
An appearance in Sundance’s international competition — where it netted a special jury prize for “visionary filmmaking...
An appearance in Sundance’s international competition — where it netted a special jury prize for “visionary filmmaking...
- 2/7/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
World Cinema Dramatic entries Surge, Cuties among winners.
Mexican missing persons drama Identifying Features has won the World Cinema Dramatic audience award and the section’s juried screenplay prize for director Fernanda Valadez and co-writer Astrid Rondero at the Sundance awards ceremony.
Saturday’s (February 1) event in Park City, Utah, also honoured the UK’s Ben Whishaw with the World Cinema Dramatic special jury award for acting for Aneil Karia’s Surge, which Protagonist Pictures sells internationally, while Cuties on the Netflix slate from director Maïmouna Doucouré won the World Cinema Dramatic directing award.
Kino Lorber acquired North American rights...
Mexican missing persons drama Identifying Features has won the World Cinema Dramatic audience award and the section’s juried screenplay prize for director Fernanda Valadez and co-writer Astrid Rondero at the Sundance awards ceremony.
Saturday’s (February 1) event in Park City, Utah, also honoured the UK’s Ben Whishaw with the World Cinema Dramatic special jury award for acting for Aneil Karia’s Surge, which Protagonist Pictures sells internationally, while Cuties on the Netflix slate from director Maïmouna Doucouré won the World Cinema Dramatic directing award.
Kino Lorber acquired North American rights...
- 2/2/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The narrative feature “Minari” and the documentary “Boys State” have won the top prizes from the U.S. jury at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, which announced its winners at an awards ceremony on Saturday night. “Minari,” director Lee Isaac Chung’s coming-of-age story about a Korean-American boy, also won the festival’s audience award.
The only other films to win more than one award were “Identifying Features” (“Sin Senas Particulares”), Fernanda Valadez’s drama about a Mexican woman searching for a son who disappeared while attempting to cross the border; and “I Carry You With Me,” in which documentary director Heidi Ewing makes her narrative feature debut about an aspiring Mexican chef whose life changes when his sexuality becomes public. “Identifying Features” won the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic section and a jury award for its screenplay, while “I Carry You With Me” won the audience award in...
The only other films to win more than one award were “Identifying Features” (“Sin Senas Particulares”), Fernanda Valadez’s drama about a Mexican woman searching for a son who disappeared while attempting to cross the border; and “I Carry You With Me,” in which documentary director Heidi Ewing makes her narrative feature debut about an aspiring Mexican chef whose life changes when his sexuality becomes public. “Identifying Features” won the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic section and a jury award for its screenplay, while “I Carry You With Me” won the audience award in...
- 2/2/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Sundance Film Festival had its share of big deals this year, from the record-setting $17,500,000.69 that Neon and Hulu paid for Palm Springs to a pair of $12 million deals for The Night House (Searchlight) and Uncle Frank (Amazon).
With the powder still settling, the 2020 fest handed out its annual awards Saturday night in a ceremony at Basin Fieldhouse in Park City, where it also revealed that Tabitha Jackson has been named the new Director, succeeding the retiring John Cooper.
Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari was the big winner tonight, taking both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Based on Chung’s real life, the drama follows a Korean-American family that moves from L.A. to Arkansas to chase the American Dream.
Other films that have managed to take the top two awards at the fest recently include Birth of a Nation in...
With the powder still settling, the 2020 fest handed out its annual awards Saturday night in a ceremony at Basin Fieldhouse in Park City, where it also revealed that Tabitha Jackson has been named the new Director, succeeding the retiring John Cooper.
Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari was the big winner tonight, taking both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Based on Chung’s real life, the drama follows a Korean-American family that moves from L.A. to Arkansas to chase the American Dream.
Other films that have managed to take the top two awards at the fest recently include Birth of a Nation in...
- 2/2/2020
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
The 2020 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close in Park City, and that means that this year’s award winners have been announced. The awards spotlight standout films across the festival’s various categories, including U.S. films spanning fiction and documentary, as well as foreign-made films, and Next and Midnight selections.
This year’s fest brought a bounty of riches that are continuing to attract buyers, including high-profile pickups from Neon and Hulu (“Palm Springs”), Sony Pictures Classics, Searchlight Pictures (“The Night House”), and more. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival broke a number of records, from diversity in its programming to sales. Culled from 15,000 submissions, the 2020 edition offered up a range of timely, boundary-pushing documentary and narrative storytelling, promising new voices and satisfying new heights from established filmmakers. (Check out IndieWire’s roundup of the best 15 films out of Sundance here.)
Netflix, which owned this year’s Academy Awards nominations,...
This year’s fest brought a bounty of riches that are continuing to attract buyers, including high-profile pickups from Neon and Hulu (“Palm Springs”), Sony Pictures Classics, Searchlight Pictures (“The Night House”), and more. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival broke a number of records, from diversity in its programming to sales. Culled from 15,000 submissions, the 2020 edition offered up a range of timely, boundary-pushing documentary and narrative storytelling, promising new voices and satisfying new heights from established filmmakers. (Check out IndieWire’s roundup of the best 15 films out of Sundance here.)
Netflix, which owned this year’s Academy Awards nominations,...
- 2/2/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Sundance Film Festival concluded with the announcement of its grand jury awards, honoring Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” a semi-autobiographical glimpse into the Korean American director’s Arkansas upbringing, and “Boys State,” an immersive vérité look at an impassioned class of politically inclined Texas teens who participate in an annual mock-government competition.
Ethan Hawke and his fellow U.S. dramatic competition jurors Wash Westmoreland and Rodrigo Garcia gave the directing prize to Radha Blank for her “The 40-Year-Old Version.”
Caught off-guard by the award, Blank riffed, “Anybody who feels there’s an expiration on a passion, f— that shit. If it’s in you to be a rapper, a parent, a director in your 40s, do that sh–.” Many of the night’s speeches reflected similar attitudes, as directors who’d confronted discrimination in order to make their films shared their experiences from the podium.
The U.S. dramatic...
Ethan Hawke and his fellow U.S. dramatic competition jurors Wash Westmoreland and Rodrigo Garcia gave the directing prize to Radha Blank for her “The 40-Year-Old Version.”
Caught off-guard by the award, Blank riffed, “Anybody who feels there’s an expiration on a passion, f— that shit. If it’s in you to be a rapper, a parent, a director in your 40s, do that sh–.” Many of the night’s speeches reflected similar attitudes, as directors who’d confronted discrimination in order to make their films shared their experiences from the podium.
The U.S. dramatic...
- 2/2/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
After jolting audiences with a striking opening shot playing with light exposure — the blurry image of a horse writhing against a villager jabbing at the animal with a javelin — ‘This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection’ cuts to a slow 360-degree pan, the camera revolving around a lesiba player: a South African musical bow instrument with a throaty hum that squeaks and bellows with the harmonious murmur of a dying bird.
Continue reading ‘This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection’: A Textile Folk Ballad That Will Shake You To The Very Core [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection’: A Textile Folk Ballad That Will Shake You To The Very Core [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.
- 1/24/2020
- by Andrew Bundy
- The Playlist
Starting next week, the 2020 Sundance Film Festival gives us a first glimpse at the year in cinema, but even if you won’t be at Park City, we’re rounding up an initial glimpse at the premieres.
Ahead of our coverage, bookmark this page for a continually-updated round-up of trailers and clips, kicking off with Sergio, Charm City Kings, Impetigore, Wendy, Downhill, Promising Young Woman, and more.
Check out the trailers (and clips) below thus far in alphabetical order and we’ll be posting reviews from Park City soon, so follow along here.
And Then We Danced (Levan Akin)
The Assistant (Kitty Green)
Charm City Kings (Angel Manuel Soto)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino)
Downhill (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash)
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (Iryna Tsilyk)
Ema (Pablo Larraín)
Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
Horse Girl (Jeff Baena)
Impetigore (Joko Anwar)
La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante)
Lost Girls (Liz Garbus)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always...
Ahead of our coverage, bookmark this page for a continually-updated round-up of trailers and clips, kicking off with Sergio, Charm City Kings, Impetigore, Wendy, Downhill, Promising Young Woman, and more.
Check out the trailers (and clips) below thus far in alphabetical order and we’ll be posting reviews from Park City soon, so follow along here.
And Then We Danced (Levan Akin)
The Assistant (Kitty Green)
Charm City Kings (Angel Manuel Soto)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino)
Downhill (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash)
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (Iryna Tsilyk)
Ema (Pablo Larraín)
Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
Horse Girl (Jeff Baena)
Impetigore (Joko Anwar)
La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante)
Lost Girls (Liz Garbus)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always...
- 1/16/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Memento Films Intl. has picked up world sales rights for “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s fiction feature debut, which will have its international premiere in Sundance next month. Memento acquired the film through Artscope, its world cinema arthouse label.
“This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home, and the cemetery where her family members are buried, sparks a resistance movement in her community. Mosese described the film, which will screen in Sundance’s world dramatic competition, as “a story about the resilience of the human spirit.”
Mosese drew on real-life events for the film, which is set in his native land, the small southern African country of Lesotho. “This Is Not a...
“This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home, and the cemetery where her family members are buried, sparks a resistance movement in her community. Mosese described the film, which will screen in Sundance’s world dramatic competition, as “a story about the resilience of the human spirit.”
Mosese drew on real-life events for the film, which is set in his native land, the small southern African country of Lesotho. “This Is Not a...
- 12/5/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
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