Efp’s European Shooting Stars and Producers On The Move Alumni at the Cannes Film Festival 2018Euphoria with European Shooting Stars Jasmine Trinca (Italy 2007) and Riccardo Scamarcio (Italy 2006) was produced by Viola Prestieri (Producer on the Move Italy 2013).International sales agent: True Colors. ( Andrea Pirrello).
European Film Promotion (Efp) and its member organisations are pleased to announce that 28 former participants of Efp’s Producers On The Move programme and seven Shooting Stars will be presenting their films at the Cannes Film Festival.
Efp Managing Director Sonja Heinen says:
We are delighted that we can support such outstanding acting talents and producers at an early stage of their careers by shining a spotlight on and opening new doors for them. Together with our members, we would like to congratulate them on their inspiring work being presented in Cannes.
European Film Promotion (Efp) is a unique network of 38 European member organisations who...
European Film Promotion (Efp) and its member organisations are pleased to announce that 28 former participants of Efp’s Producers On The Move programme and seven Shooting Stars will be presenting their films at the Cannes Film Festival.
Efp Managing Director Sonja Heinen says:
We are delighted that we can support such outstanding acting talents and producers at an early stage of their careers by shining a spotlight on and opening new doors for them. Together with our members, we would like to congratulate them on their inspiring work being presented in Cannes.
European Film Promotion (Efp) is a unique network of 38 European member organisations who...
- 5/3/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This year’s line-up includes producers of A Woman At War and Samouni Road.
20 up-and-coming European producers have been selected for the 2018 edition of European Film Promotion’s (Efp) networking platform Producers on the Move, which takes place at Cannes Film Festival.
As in previous years, the five-day event (May 10-14) will include pitching sessions, one-to-one meetings, case studies and other meetings with the international industry gathered in Cannes.
Two producers from this year’s group will present their films in the festival. A Woman At War by Benedict Erlingsson and co-produced by Iceland’s Birgitta Björnsdóttir will screen in the Critics’ Week.
20 up-and-coming European producers have been selected for the 2018 edition of European Film Promotion’s (Efp) networking platform Producers on the Move, which takes place at Cannes Film Festival.
As in previous years, the five-day event (May 10-14) will include pitching sessions, one-to-one meetings, case studies and other meetings with the international industry gathered in Cannes.
Two producers from this year’s group will present their films in the festival. A Woman At War by Benedict Erlingsson and co-produced by Iceland’s Birgitta Björnsdóttir will screen in the Critics’ Week.
- 4/24/2018
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Humility, humour and thanking mothers
Speeches from the winners at the 87th Academy Awards.
Best Film
Sean Penn announced that the top award went to Birdman.
Speaking backstage later in the press room, director Alejandro G Iñárritu said of being Mexican: “Well, look at this room. I don’t know how many nationalities are in this room, but I don’t feel different to anybody of you here.
“You know, it can be from any continent, from any language. I don’t care. I as an artist, as a human, as a filmmaker, I cannot have these stupid borders, flags, and passports. Those are a concept that were invented by a human society.
“But, honestly, naked, in tighty whities we will be the same. And I have never felt that different. So for me to make films in the United States, or in Africa, or in Spain, or in Mexico, I’m talking...
Speeches from the winners at the 87th Academy Awards.
Best Film
Sean Penn announced that the top award went to Birdman.
Speaking backstage later in the press room, director Alejandro G Iñárritu said of being Mexican: “Well, look at this room. I don’t know how many nationalities are in this room, but I don’t feel different to anybody of you here.
“You know, it can be from any continent, from any language. I don’t care. I as an artist, as a human, as a filmmaker, I cannot have these stupid borders, flags, and passports. Those are a concept that were invented by a human society.
“But, honestly, naked, in tighty whities we will be the same. And I have never felt that different. So for me to make films in the United States, or in Africa, or in Spain, or in Mexico, I’m talking...
- 2/23/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Humility, humour and thanking mothers
The latest reactions from the winners as they take to the stage at the 87th annual Academy Awards. This will update throughout the night.
Alejandro G Iñárritu, best film, Birdman (backstage in press room) –
Asked about being Mexican and making films for the world: “Well, look at this room. I don’t know how many nationalities are in this room, but I don’t feel different to anybody of you here. You know, it can be from any continent, from any language. I don’t care. I feel very relate to any of you. So I as an artist, as a human, as a filmmaker, I cannot have these stupid borders, flags, and passports. Those are a concept that were invented by a human society. But, honestly, naked, in tighty‑whities we will be the same. And I have never felt that different. So for me to make films in United States...
The latest reactions from the winners as they take to the stage at the 87th annual Academy Awards. This will update throughout the night.
Alejandro G Iñárritu, best film, Birdman (backstage in press room) –
Asked about being Mexican and making films for the world: “Well, look at this room. I don’t know how many nationalities are in this room, but I don’t feel different to anybody of you here. You know, it can be from any continent, from any language. I don’t care. I feel very relate to any of you. So I as an artist, as a human, as a filmmaker, I cannot have these stupid borders, flags, and passports. Those are a concept that were invented by a human society. But, honestly, naked, in tighty‑whities we will be the same. And I have never felt that different. So for me to make films in United States...
- 2/23/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
From BAFTA to DGA, the Latest Winners this Awards Season
With the Oscars upon us, the awards season is almost over! But the last trek to the Academy Awards include many guild awards and of course, BAFTA! So here.s the latest congratulatory awards list of the winners from BAFTA to DGA, from Annie to Ace and everything in between!
Your full BAFTA winners (winners are highlighted):
Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory Of Everything Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Director
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Boyhood Richard Linklater
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson
The Theory Of Everything James Marsh
Whiplash Damien Chazelle
Leading Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch The Imitation Game
Eddie Redmayne The Theory of Everything...
With the Oscars upon us, the awards season is almost over! But the last trek to the Academy Awards include many guild awards and of course, BAFTA! So here.s the latest congratulatory awards list of the winners from BAFTA to DGA, from Annie to Ace and everything in between!
Your full BAFTA winners (winners are highlighted):
Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory Of Everything Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Director
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Boyhood Richard Linklater
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson
The Theory Of Everything James Marsh
Whiplash Damien Chazelle
Leading Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch The Imitation Game
Eddie Redmayne The Theory of Everything...
- 2/9/2015
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Boyhood has been named best film at this year’s BAFTA awards, with Richard Linklater also awarded as best director and Patricia Arquette winning best supporting actress. With a total of five awards, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is the evening’s most awarded film, recognised for its original screenplay, makeup/hair, both costume and production design, and for its music. The Theory of Everything won the award for outstanding British film as well as best adapted screenplay and best actor for Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of the young Stephen Hawking. Winners of outstanding British debut are Stephen Beresford (writer) and David Livingstone (producer) for Pride, which was backed by the BFI Film Fund. The winners were announced at a ceremony at London’s Royal Opera House hosted by Stephen Fry. Explore the Best of BAFTA collection on BFI Player Best film Winner: Boyhood Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu,...
- 2/8/2015
- by HollywoodNews.com
- Hollywoodnews.com
BAFTA/Marc Hoberman
Known as the British Oscars, the Ee British Academy Awards were handed out on Sunday.
Boyhood was the big winner at the BAFTAs with wins for Best Film, Best Director (Richard Linklater) and Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette).
The Theory Of Everything took Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay and Leading Actor – Eddie Redmayne. Julianne Moore won Leading Actress for Still Alice.
Three wins went to Whiplash for Supporting Actor – J.K. Simmons, Editing and Sound.
The Grand Budapest Hotel won five awards for Costume Design, Production Design, Make Up & Hair and Original Music, with Wes Anderson winning his first BAFTA for Original Screenplay.
Emmanuel Lubezki received the BAFTA for Cinematography for Birdman, having won this category twice previously, most recently in 2014. On Saturday, Inarritu took home the top prize at the Directors’ Guild of America Awards for Birdman.
The Lego Movie received the BAFTA for Animated Film, and...
Known as the British Oscars, the Ee British Academy Awards were handed out on Sunday.
Boyhood was the big winner at the BAFTAs with wins for Best Film, Best Director (Richard Linklater) and Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette).
The Theory Of Everything took Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay and Leading Actor – Eddie Redmayne. Julianne Moore won Leading Actress for Still Alice.
Three wins went to Whiplash for Supporting Actor – J.K. Simmons, Editing and Sound.
The Grand Budapest Hotel won five awards for Costume Design, Production Design, Make Up & Hair and Original Music, with Wes Anderson winning his first BAFTA for Original Screenplay.
Emmanuel Lubezki received the BAFTA for Cinematography for Birdman, having won this category twice previously, most recently in 2014. On Saturday, Inarritu took home the top prize at the Directors’ Guild of America Awards for Birdman.
The Lego Movie received the BAFTA for Animated Film, and...
- 2/8/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Hosted by Stephen Fry, the 2015 BAFTA British Film Awards have been handed out. Here's the full list of gongage beneficiaries...
Please note: don't read if you're following the ceremony on the BBC. The TV transmission is some way behind...
This evening brought with it Britain's biggest annual film award show, the annual BAFTA Film Awards (sponsored by a mobile phone company who we think is now owned by BT, but we've lost track). Presented once more by Stephen Fry, the evening proved a good one for the likes of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Boyhood, Whiplash, the mighty Pride and The Theory Of Everything. Plus, Britain got one up on the Academy, by remembering that The Lego Movie is, indeed, awesome.
Here's the full list of winners from this evening's gongathon...
Best Film Boyhood
Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
Leading Actress Julianne Moore
Still Alice
Leading Actor Eddie Redmayne
The Theory of Everything...
Please note: don't read if you're following the ceremony on the BBC. The TV transmission is some way behind...
This evening brought with it Britain's biggest annual film award show, the annual BAFTA Film Awards (sponsored by a mobile phone company who we think is now owned by BT, but we've lost track). Presented once more by Stephen Fry, the evening proved a good one for the likes of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Boyhood, Whiplash, the mighty Pride and The Theory Of Everything. Plus, Britain got one up on the Academy, by remembering that The Lego Movie is, indeed, awesome.
Here's the full list of winners from this evening's gongathon...
Best Film Boyhood
Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
Leading Actress Julianne Moore
Still Alice
Leading Actor Eddie Redmayne
The Theory of Everything...
- 2/8/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
The 2015 Ee BAFTA Awards were handed out in London Sunday night and while the broadcast aired hours later in the United States, it didn't stop us from chronicling the twists and turns of a show often seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards. It took home only three BAFTAs, but "Boyhood" was the biggest winner of the night as it won Best Film and Richard Linklater earned Director honors. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" took home five statues including Original Screenplay for Wes Anderson, Production Design, Costumes, Original Music and Make Up & Hair. "Whiplash" earned three BAFTAs including J.K. Simmons for Supporting Actor, Editing and a somewhat surprising win in Sound. Expected Oscar winners Julianne Moore took Leading Actress and Patricia Arquette took Supporting Actress. Eddie Redmayne earned a key win over rival Michael Keaton by claiming the Lead Actor BAFTA for "The Theory of Everything." The latter also won...
- 2/8/2015
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
The results are in. Find out who picked up the top prizes at the BAFTAs.
By The Numbers
5 - The Grand Budapest Hotel3 - Boyhood3 - The Theory of Everything3 - Whiplash1 - Birdman1 - Ida1 - Interstellar1 - The Lego Movie1 - PrideBEST Film
Boyhood - Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
Birdman The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game The Theory Of Everything Director
Boyhood - Richard Linklater
Birdman Alejandro G. IñárrituThe Grand Budapest Hotel Wes AndersonThe Theory Of Everything James MarshWhiplash Damien ChazelleLEADING Actor
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory Of Everything
Benedict Cumberbatch The Imitation GameJake Gyllenhaal NightcrawlerMichael Keaton BirdmanRalph Fiennes The Grand Budapest HotelSUPPORTING Actor
J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
Edward Norton BirdmanEthan Hawke BoyhoodMark Ruffalo FoxcatcherSteve Carell FoxcatcherLEADING Actress
Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Amy Adams Big EyesFelicity Jones The Theory Of EverythingReese Witherspoon WildRosamund Pike Gone GirlOUTSTANDING British Film
The Theory Of Everything
James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, [link...
By The Numbers
5 - The Grand Budapest Hotel3 - Boyhood3 - The Theory of Everything3 - Whiplash1 - Birdman1 - Ida1 - Interstellar1 - The Lego Movie1 - PrideBEST Film
Boyhood - Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
Birdman The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game The Theory Of Everything Director
Boyhood - Richard Linklater
Birdman Alejandro G. IñárrituThe Grand Budapest Hotel Wes AndersonThe Theory Of Everything James MarshWhiplash Damien ChazelleLEADING Actor
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory Of Everything
Benedict Cumberbatch The Imitation GameJake Gyllenhaal NightcrawlerMichael Keaton BirdmanRalph Fiennes The Grand Budapest HotelSUPPORTING Actor
J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
Edward Norton BirdmanEthan Hawke BoyhoodMark Ruffalo FoxcatcherSteve Carell FoxcatcherLEADING Actress
Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Amy Adams Big EyesFelicity Jones The Theory Of EverythingReese Witherspoon WildRosamund Pike Gone GirlOUTSTANDING British Film
The Theory Of Everything
James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, [link...
- 2/8/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Screen is at the awards ceremony in London, updating the winners as they are announced.
After months of voting and campaigning, the Ee British Academy Film Awards are finally here.
As the statues are handed out at London’s Royal Opera House, hosted by Stephen Fry, we will update the list below with the winners. The ceremony has begun! The most recent award will appear first… [refresh the page for the latest results]
By The Numbers
5 - The Grand Budapest Hotel3 - Whiplash2 - The Theory of Everything1 - Boyhood1 - Birdman1 - Ida1 - Interstellar1 - The Lego Movie1 - PrideCOSTUME Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Milena Canonero
The Imitation Game Sammy Sheldon DifferInto The Woods Colleen AtwoodMr. Turner Jacqueline DurranThe Theory Of Everything Steven NobleADAPTED Screenplay
The Theory Of Everything Anthony Mccarten
American Sniper Jason HallGone Girl Gillian FlynnThe Imitation Game Graham MoorePaddington Paul KingFILM Not In The English Language
Ida - Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, [link...
After months of voting and campaigning, the Ee British Academy Film Awards are finally here.
As the statues are handed out at London’s Royal Opera House, hosted by Stephen Fry, we will update the list below with the winners. The ceremony has begun! The most recent award will appear first… [refresh the page for the latest results]
By The Numbers
5 - The Grand Budapest Hotel3 - Whiplash2 - The Theory of Everything1 - Boyhood1 - Birdman1 - Ida1 - Interstellar1 - The Lego Movie1 - PrideCOSTUME Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Milena Canonero
The Imitation Game Sammy Sheldon DifferInto The Woods Colleen AtwoodMr. Turner Jacqueline DurranThe Theory Of Everything Steven NobleADAPTED Screenplay
The Theory Of Everything Anthony Mccarten
American Sniper Jason HallGone Girl Gillian FlynnThe Imitation Game Graham MoorePaddington Paul KingFILM Not In The English Language
Ida - Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, [link...
- 2/8/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Screen is at the awards ceremony in London, updating the winners as they are announced.
After months of voting and campaigning, the Ee British Academy Film Awards are finally here.
As the statues are handed out at London’s Royal Opera House, hosted by Stephen Fry, we will update the list below with the winners. The ceremony is due to begin at 6.45pm (GMT).
With 11 nods, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel has the most nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, just edging favourites The Theory of Everything and Birdman (with 10 apiece); and The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, with nine.
2014 Nominations
(presented in 2015)Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory Of Everything Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, [link...
After months of voting and campaigning, the Ee British Academy Film Awards are finally here.
As the statues are handed out at London’s Royal Opera House, hosted by Stephen Fry, we will update the list below with the winners. The ceremony is due to begin at 6.45pm (GMT).
With 11 nods, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel has the most nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, just edging favourites The Theory of Everything and Birdman (with 10 apiece); and The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, with nine.
2014 Nominations
(presented in 2015)Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory Of Everything Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, [link...
- 2/8/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The Ee British Academy Film Awards nominations, the equivalent of the Oscars, were announced on Friday morning.
Better known as the BAFTAs by those who follow the awards season, the announcement was made by show host Stephen Fry and actor Sam Claflin.
The Grand Budapest Hotel received 11 nominations, followed by Birdman and The Theory of Everything with 10. The Imitation Game received nine nominations, while Boyhood and Whiplash saw five. Mr. Turner, Nightcrawler and Interstellar received four nominations and British indie Pride collected three nods.
The BAFTAs will take place on Sunday, February 8 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. The ceremony will be televised on a tape-delay in the U.S. on BBC America.
2014 Nominations
Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky,...
Better known as the BAFTAs by those who follow the awards season, the announcement was made by show host Stephen Fry and actor Sam Claflin.
The Grand Budapest Hotel received 11 nominations, followed by Birdman and The Theory of Everything with 10. The Imitation Game received nine nominations, while Boyhood and Whiplash saw five. Mr. Turner, Nightcrawler and Interstellar received four nominations and British indie Pride collected three nods.
The BAFTAs will take place on Sunday, February 8 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. The ceremony will be televised on a tape-delay in the U.S. on BBC America.
2014 Nominations
Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky,...
- 1/9/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has just finished announcing their nominations for best achievement in film for 2014, with Wes Anderson’s quirky comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel leading the pack with 11 nominations. Not far behind are Birdman and The Theory of Everything with ten nods apiece. All three films have earned nods in many of the same top categories, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and in their respective Best Screenplay categories.
Some may find it surprising that the most lauded film of the year, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, only made a showing with five nominations, but they were all in top categories (Film, Director, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Original Screenplay). However, it is a little shocking that no nod for editing was included (and that’s with six nominees already in the category due to a tie), as this is usually considered a...
Some may find it surprising that the most lauded film of the year, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, only made a showing with five nominations, but they were all in top categories (Film, Director, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Original Screenplay). However, it is a little shocking that no nod for editing was included (and that’s with six nominees already in the category due to a tie), as this is usually considered a...
- 1/9/2015
- by Jeff Beck
- We Got This Covered
Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, a film that debuted almost exactly a year ago in Berlin, scored 11 nominations from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts this morning. That puts the Fox Searchlight film in the lead while the studio division’s own Birdman is perched in 10 categories. Also scoring 10 BAFTA nods is The Theory Of Everything, followed by The Imitation Game with nine, Boyhood and Whiplash with five, and Mr Turner, Nightcrawler and Interstellar with four. Vying for Best Film are Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game and The Theory Of Everything. The BAFTAs will be held on February 8 at London’s Royal Opera House. For the full lists of nominees, see below, and standby for a closer look at the races:
Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson,...
Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson,...
- 1/9/2015
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline
Full list of nominations for the Ee British Academy Film Awards.2014 Nominations
(presented in 2015)Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory Of Everything Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Outstanding British Film
’71 Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
The Imitation Game Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
Paddington Paul King, David Heyman
Pride Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
The Theory Of Everything James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Under The Skin Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer
Elaine Constantine (Writer/Director) Northern Soul
Gregory Burke (Writer), Yann Demange (Director) ’71
Hong Khaou (Writer/Director) Lilting
Paul Katis (Director/Producer), Andrew De LOTBINIÈRE...
(presented in 2015)Best Film
Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory Of Everything Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Outstanding British Film
’71 Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
The Imitation Game Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
Paddington Paul King, David Heyman
Pride Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
The Theory Of Everything James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Under The Skin Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer
Elaine Constantine (Writer/Director) Northern Soul
Gregory Burke (Writer), Yann Demange (Director) ’71
Hong Khaou (Writer/Director) Lilting
Paul Katis (Director/Producer), Andrew De LOTBINIÈRE...
- 1/9/2015
- ScreenDaily
“Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game” and “The Theory of Everything” are the five contenders for the best film of 2014 at the Ee British Academy Film Awards, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced on Friday morning in London.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” led all films with 11 nominations, with “Birdman” receiving 10. The two British biopics, “The Theory of Everything” and “The Imitation Game,” received 10 and nine nominations, respectively.
“Boyhood” and “Whiplash” received five nominations each.
The five top films, all considered strong Oscar Best Picture contenders, led a group of BAFTA nominees that are...
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” led all films with 11 nominations, with “Birdman” receiving 10. The two British biopics, “The Theory of Everything” and “The Imitation Game,” received 10 and nine nominations, respectively.
“Boyhood” and “Whiplash” received five nominations each.
The five top films, all considered strong Oscar Best Picture contenders, led a group of BAFTA nominees that are...
- 1/9/2015
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced the nominees for the 2015 BAFTA Awards early Friday morning. For complete analysis of this year's nominations and what they could mean for the upcoming Oscar nods click here. The complete list of this year's BAFTA Awards nominees is as follows: Best Film "Birdman," Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole "Boyhood," Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland "The Grand Budapest Hotel," Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson "The Imitation Game," Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman "The Theory of Everything," Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten Outstanding British Film "’71," Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke "The Imitation Game," Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore "Paddington," Paul King, David Heyman "Pride," Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford "The Theory of Everything," James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten "Under the Skin,...
- 1/9/2015
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
Golden Globes are considering “Ida” directed and co-written by Pawel Pawlikowski (“Last Resort", “My Summer of Love"), a moving and intimate drama about a young novitiate nun in 1960's Poland who, on the verge of taking her vows, discovers a dark family secret dating from the terrible years of the Nazi occupation. The film premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and was also featured at the 2013 Toronto and 2014 Sundance film festivals.
“Ida” won the 2014 European Film Awards for Best European Film, Best European Director, Best European Screenwriter, Best European Cinematographer and the People’s Choice Award. The film was named the Best Foreign Language Film by the New York Film Critics Circle and won the 2014 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Agata Kulesza) and Best Foreign Language Film. "Ida" is also nominated for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film. It's also the Polish Oscar® entry and has made the 9-film shortlist.
Below is my interview with director Pawel Pawlikowski published last year prior to the film theatrical release:
I happen to love Jewish films and so when I saw "Ida" was playing in Toronto, it was first on my list of “must-sees”. However, I am no longer an “acquisitions” person, nor am I a film reviewer. My work keeps me out of the screening room because we work with filmmakers looking to get their films into the hands of those who will show their films. In other words, we advise and strategize for getting new films into the film circuit’s festivals, distributors' and international sales agents’ hands.
So I missed Ida at its Tiff debut. In Cartagena, where I was invited to cover the festival for SydneysBuzz and where I was gathering information for the book I have just completed on Iberoamerican Film Financing, it showed again in the jewel-box of a theater in this jewel-box of a city. But when I saw the first shots – and fell in love with it – I also saw it was subtitled in Spanish and rather than strain over translating, I left the theater. Later on, Pawel Pawlikowski and I sat next to each other at a fabulous dinner in one of Cartagena’s many outdoor squares, and we discussed the title of my book rather than his films which was a big loss on one hand but a big gain for me on the other because we got to speak as “civilians” rather than keeping the conversation on a “professional” level.
Read More: Review 'Ida' by Carlos Aguilar
Now Music Box is opening Ida in L.A. on May 2, 2014 at the Laemmle in L.A. and in N.Y. and I made sure to take advantage of my press status, not only to see the film but to interview Pawel on himself and the film.
There were two ways to look at this film: as a conceit, as in, “what a great story – a girl about to take her vows in the convent which raised her discovers she is Jewish and returns to the society which destroyed her family” -- or as a journey of a fresh soul into the heart of humanity and finds that she is blessed by being able to decide upon her own destiny within it.
Parenthetically, this seems to me to be a companion piece to the Berlinale film "Stations of the Cross", another journey of a fresh soul into the spiritual life of religion as she struggles in the society which formed her.
And so I began my interview with Pawel:
I could look at this film in two ways, I’ve heard the audiences talk about whether the film is Anti-Polish or Anti-Semitic, but that is not my concern, I want to know if it is just a great story or does it go deeper than that?
Pawel immediately responded, I Think he said, “I am not a professional filmmaker, and I do not make a ‘certain type of film’. I make films depending on where I am in life. A film about exile, a film about first love. Films mark where I am in my life.
In the '60s, when I was a kid and first saw the world this was how I depicted it in this film…seeing the world for the first time…life is a journey and filmmaking marks where you (the audience) are in life and it marks where I am in life. Each film is different as a result.
After making "Woman on the 5th," about the hero’s (in my own head) being lost in Paris, a weird sort of production – directed by a Polish director with a British and an American actor and actress, I craved solid ground, a familiar place or a “return” to important things of the past, and I returned to a certain period in Poland which I found very much alive, for myself then and again as I made this movie and in Polish history itself.
Ida takes place 17 years after the war and shortly after after Stalin’s crimes were being made public by Krushchev. The Totalitarian State of Poland bent a bit; censorship was lifted a bit and a new culture was developing. Music was jazz and rock and roll. Poland was very alive then: the spirit of going your own way, not caring what anyone thinks, creating a style in cinema, in art, music...
I myself was a young boy in the '60s and I left Poland in '71 when I was 13 to stay with my mother in England where she had married a Brit. My father lived in the West; they were divorced and I went for a holiday and stayed.
I went to school in the U.K. but at 13, I was thrown out and I went to Germany where my father lived and matriculated there. I couldn’t go back to Poland as I had left illegally and was only allowed back in to visit in the late '70s. I returned in 1980 during Solidarity and from 1989 to the fall of the Wall, I went back often.
Ida is a film about identity, family, faith, guilt, socialism and music. I wanted to make a film about history that wouldnʼt feel like a historical film— a film that is moral, but has no lessons to offer. I wanted to tell a story in which ʻeveryone has their reasonsʼ; a story closer to poetry than plot. Most of all, I wanted to steer clear of the usual rhetoric of the Polish cinema. The Poland in "Ida" is shown by an ʻoutsiderʼ with no ax to grind, filtered through personal memory and emotion, the sounds and images of childhood…
I read you are going to make another film about Poland…
It is not about Poland but it is set in Poland. I am working on three projects, which is how I work. I keep writing and find one of them has the legs to carry me…which one is not yet known.
You mentioned in an interview with Sight and Sound your top 10 films…
Yes, which ones did you like? They ask me this every year and every year the list changes for me. There are other good ones, like Once Upon a Time in Anatolia…they are not all the old classics and they are not necessarily my favorites or what I think are “the best”. Again they depend on where I am in my own life.
The ones I like on your list were Ashes and Diamonds which I saw in New York in my freshman year in college, "La Dolce Vita" …"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Some Like It Hot."
I actually think "8 ½" is more remarkable than "La Dolce Vita." I also like "Loves of a Blonde" very much….
I found "Ashes and Diamonds" so extraordinary, I then had to see the actor in "Man of Marble" which took me to the next "Man of Steel" and Man of…whatever... until I thought I knew Wadja. What did you make of this film?
I saw it later as I was too young when it came out in the '60s. I saw it in the '70s when it was already a classic. Its impact on me was that it was well-done and about something. It is a comment about a man who decides whether to fight or to live. It could be remade in any country coming out of civil war.
To return to Ida, I noticed stylistic choices you made that I would like you to comment on.
The landscapes and interiors were very large and sparse. Interiors always had someone in the back ground moving, arranging or walking by in silence.
Yes there is always some life and the movements of people in the background are like music in the film, though it is not really music…
Yes, the music in the film is great. The magnificence of the classical music someone is playing, like the aunt…
Yes I only want to use real music at times that real music is part of the story. I didn’t want film music. I wanted it to come out of silence. It is part of the scene like the background movement of people. Each piece means something. The pop songs were key from the start. They were fatally imprinted on my childhood memory. They really color the landscape. Coltrane and stuff came from my adult self.
Incidentally, the late '50s and early '60s were great for jazz in Poland. There was a real explosion: Komeda, Namyslowski, Stanko, Wroblewski... Apart from telling Idaʼs story, I wanted to conjure up a certain image of Poland, an image that I hold dear. My country may have been grey, oppressive and enslaved in the early '60s, but in some ways it was 'cooler' and more original than the Poland of today, and somehow more universally resonant.
Iʼm sure that lots of Poles with a chip on their shoulder, and there are many, will fail to notice the beauty, the love that went into our film—and will accuse me of damaging Poland's image by focusing on the melancholy, the provincial, the grotesque… And then there's the matter of a Polish farmer killing a Jewish family… thereʼs bound to be trouble. On the other hand, thereʼs also a Stalinist state prosecutor of Jewish origins, which might land me in hot water in other quarters. Still, I hope the film is sufficiently specific and un-rhetorical enough to be understood on its own terms.
The music Ida’s aunt was playing before she…what are your thoughts about her aunt?
Neither Ida nor her aunt is typical. Wanda’s imprimatur is that she has no self-pity, no regrets, no sentimentality.
She had fought in the resistance rather than raise a family. She had been a super idealistic Marxist, became a part of the New Establishment and got drawn into the games and hypocrisy, sending people to death for “impeding progress”.
She reminds me of my father in some ways. Her acerbic sense of humor. I gave her some of my father’s lines.
Where Did The Character Of Wanda Come From?
When I was doing my post-graduate degree at Oxford in the early '80s I befriended Professor Brus, a genial economist and reformist Marxist who left Poland in ʻ68. I was particularly fond of his wife Helena, who smoked, drank, joked and told great stories. She didn't suffer fools gladly, but she struck me as a warm and generous woman. I lost touch with the Bruses when I left Oxford, but some 10 years later I heard on BBC News that the Polish government was requesting the extradition of one Helena Brus-Wolinska, resident in Oxford, on the grounds of crimes against humanity. It turned out that the charming old lady had been a Stalinist prosecutor in her late twenties. Among other things, she engineered the death in a show trial of a completely innocent man and a real hero of the Resistance, General ‘Nil’ Fieldorf. It was a bit of a shock. I couldn't square the warm, ironic woman I knew with the ruthless fanatic and Stalinist hangman. This paradox has haunted me for years. I even tried to write a film about her, but couldnʼt get my head around or into someone so contradictory. Putting her into Idaʼs story helped bring that character to life. Conversely, putting the ex-believer with blood on her hands next to Ida helped me define the character and the journey of the young nun.
By 1956, illusions about society were gone. Stalin’s crimes were revealed in 1961, there was a change of government, a new generation was coming of age. Wanda was a judge they called “Red Wanda” and had sent enemies of the state to their deaths. The older generation was left high and dry. Communism had become a shabby reality. Her despair was apparent– she had been heroic and now the system was a joke.
And then some creature from the past pops up and makes her reveal all she had swept under the carpet. She drank too much, there was no love in her life, only casual sex. But still she was straight-ahead, directed and unstoppable.
And then after the revelations of what had become of their parents and her child, her sister returns to the convent. There is nowhere for her to go. She hits a wall. She is heroic and there is no place for her in society anymore.
And Ida? Why did you choose such a person?
Ida has multiple origins, the most interesting ones probably not quite conscious. Let's say that I come from a family full of mysteries and contradictions and have lived in one sort of exile or another for most of my life. Questions of identity, family, blood, faith, belonging, and history have always been present.
I'd been playing for years with the story of a Catholic nun who discovers sheʼs Jewish. I originally set it in ʻ68, the year of student protests and the Communist Party sponsored anti-Semitic purges in Poland. The story involved a nun a bit older than Ida, as well as an embattled bishop and a state security officer, and the whole thing was more steeped in the politics of the day. The script was turning out a little too schematic, thriller-ish and plotty for my liking, so I put Ida aside for a while and went to Paris to make The Woman In The Fifth . I was in a different place at the time.
When I came back to Ida, I had a much clearer idea of what I wanted the film to be. My cowriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz and I stripped the whole thing down, made it less plotty, the characters richer and less functional. Ida became younger, more inexperienced, more of a blank slate, a young girl on the brink of life. Also we moved the story to ʻ62, a more nondescript period in Poland, but also a time of which I have most vivid memories, my own impressions as a child - unaware of what was going on in the adult world, but all the more sensitive to images and sounds. Some shots in the film couldʼve come from my family album.
In the course of the film, Ida undergoes a change. She becomes energized. When she returns to the convent you can see it in her body movements. It is the only time we used a hand-held camera to depict the new energy she has acquired. She is going into the spiritual in a different way. The old way elicited a giggle from her; she had seen the sensuality of the novice nun bathing…whether she is returning to the convent to stay is left to the viewer to decide.
The viewer is brought into a space of associations they make on their own, the film is more like poetry where the feeling of the viewer is the private one of the viewer, not one the film imposes.
Yes, each woman enters a new reality and comes out changed, and I was left thinking there was nothing better of the two life choices, the “normal” life of love and family and the “spiritual” life of simple living and silent devotion. There needs to be some balance between the two, but what is that? I still don’t know.
On a last note: I noticed in the end credits you thanked Alfonso Cuarón. Why was that?
Yes he liked the film a lot. There were many people I thanked, like Agnieszka Holland. These are friends I can show my work to. They protect me against critics and festivals. This group of friends can also be nasty, but they are honest friends.
Thank you so much Pawel for your insights. I look forward to meeting you again “on the circuit”.
To my readers, here are the nuts and bolts of the film:
Music Box Films is the proud U.S. distributor of "Ida," the award-winning film written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Ida world premiered at Telluride 2013 and Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Fipresci Award for Best Film; then played the London Film Festival where it won Best Film, and was the Grand Prix winner at the Warsaw Film Festival. It played as an Official Selection in the 2014 Sundance and New York Jewish Film Festivals.
Poland 1962. Anna (newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska) is a beautiful eighteen-year-old woman, preparing to become a nun at the convent where she has lived since orphaned as a child. She learns she has a living relative she must visit before taking her vows, her mother’s sister Wanda. Her aunt, she learns, is not only a former hard-line Communist state prosecutor notorious for sentencing priests and others to death, but also a Jew. Anna learns from her aunt that she too is Jewish - and that her real name is Ida. This revelation sets Anna, now Ida, on a journey to uncover her roots and confront the truth about her family. Together, the two women embark on a voyage of discovery of each other and their past. Ida has to choose between her birth identity and the religion that saved her from the massacres of the Nazi occupation of Poland. And Wanda must confront decisions she made during the War when she chose loyalty to the cause before family.
Following his breakthrough films "Last Resort" and BAFTA-award winning "My Summer of Love," "Ida" marks Polish-born, British writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski's first film set in his homeland. Ida stars Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza. It will open in Los Angeles on May 2 at the Laemmle's Royal. (Music Box Films, 80 minutes, unrated).
Its international producers, Eric Abraham (Portobello Pictures), Ewa Puszczynska (Opus Film), Piotr Dzieciol (Opus Film) and coproducer, Christian Falkenberg Husum of Denmark sold about 30 territories in Toronto and to date it has sold to 43 territories where the film has opened.
Argentina - Cdi Films, Australia - Curious Film, Austria - Polyfilm is still playing it and to date it has grossed Us$10,733. Benelux – Cineart where it is also still playing and has grossed Us$185,026 in Belgium and Us$131,247 in The Netherlands, Canada – Eyesteelfilm and Films We Like, Czech Republic – Aerofilms, Denmark - Camera Film, Denmark - Portobello Film Sales, France - Memento Films Distribution where in three weeks it grossed $3,192,706, Germany - Arsenal and Maxmedien where it grossed $24,010, Greece - Strada Films, Hungary - Mozinet Ltd., Israel - Lev Films (Shani Films), Italy - Parthenos where it grossed $681,460., Norway – Arthaus grossed $59,920, Poland – Soloban where it grossed $333,714, Portugal - Midas Filmes, Spain - Caramel Films is still playing it and to date it has grossed $408,085, Sweden - Folkets Bio, Switzerland - Frenetic, Taiwan - Andrews Film Co. Ltd, U.K. - Artificial Eye and Curzon, U.S. – Music Box and Film Forum.
Production
(Poland) An Opus Film, Phoenix Film production in association with Portobello Pictures in coproduction with Canal Plus Poland, Phoenix Film Poland. (International sales: Fandango Portobello, Copenhagen.) Produced by Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska. Coproducer, Christian Falkenberg Husum.
Crew
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Screenplay, Pawlikowski, Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Camera (B&W), Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski; editor, Jaroslaw Kaminski; production designers, Katarzyna Sobanska, Marcel Slawinski; costume designer, Aleksandra Staszko; Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen; supervising sound editor, Claus Lynge; re-recording mixers, Lynge, Andreas Kongsgaard; visual effects, Stage 2; line producer, Magdalena Malisz; associate producer, Sofie Wanting Hassing.
With
Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Joanna Kulig.
“Ida” won the 2014 European Film Awards for Best European Film, Best European Director, Best European Screenwriter, Best European Cinematographer and the People’s Choice Award. The film was named the Best Foreign Language Film by the New York Film Critics Circle and won the 2014 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Agata Kulesza) and Best Foreign Language Film. "Ida" is also nominated for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film. It's also the Polish Oscar® entry and has made the 9-film shortlist.
Below is my interview with director Pawel Pawlikowski published last year prior to the film theatrical release:
I happen to love Jewish films and so when I saw "Ida" was playing in Toronto, it was first on my list of “must-sees”. However, I am no longer an “acquisitions” person, nor am I a film reviewer. My work keeps me out of the screening room because we work with filmmakers looking to get their films into the hands of those who will show their films. In other words, we advise and strategize for getting new films into the film circuit’s festivals, distributors' and international sales agents’ hands.
So I missed Ida at its Tiff debut. In Cartagena, where I was invited to cover the festival for SydneysBuzz and where I was gathering information for the book I have just completed on Iberoamerican Film Financing, it showed again in the jewel-box of a theater in this jewel-box of a city. But when I saw the first shots – and fell in love with it – I also saw it was subtitled in Spanish and rather than strain over translating, I left the theater. Later on, Pawel Pawlikowski and I sat next to each other at a fabulous dinner in one of Cartagena’s many outdoor squares, and we discussed the title of my book rather than his films which was a big loss on one hand but a big gain for me on the other because we got to speak as “civilians” rather than keeping the conversation on a “professional” level.
Read More: Review 'Ida' by Carlos Aguilar
Now Music Box is opening Ida in L.A. on May 2, 2014 at the Laemmle in L.A. and in N.Y. and I made sure to take advantage of my press status, not only to see the film but to interview Pawel on himself and the film.
There were two ways to look at this film: as a conceit, as in, “what a great story – a girl about to take her vows in the convent which raised her discovers she is Jewish and returns to the society which destroyed her family” -- or as a journey of a fresh soul into the heart of humanity and finds that she is blessed by being able to decide upon her own destiny within it.
Parenthetically, this seems to me to be a companion piece to the Berlinale film "Stations of the Cross", another journey of a fresh soul into the spiritual life of religion as she struggles in the society which formed her.
And so I began my interview with Pawel:
I could look at this film in two ways, I’ve heard the audiences talk about whether the film is Anti-Polish or Anti-Semitic, but that is not my concern, I want to know if it is just a great story or does it go deeper than that?
Pawel immediately responded, I Think he said, “I am not a professional filmmaker, and I do not make a ‘certain type of film’. I make films depending on where I am in life. A film about exile, a film about first love. Films mark where I am in my life.
In the '60s, when I was a kid and first saw the world this was how I depicted it in this film…seeing the world for the first time…life is a journey and filmmaking marks where you (the audience) are in life and it marks where I am in life. Each film is different as a result.
After making "Woman on the 5th," about the hero’s (in my own head) being lost in Paris, a weird sort of production – directed by a Polish director with a British and an American actor and actress, I craved solid ground, a familiar place or a “return” to important things of the past, and I returned to a certain period in Poland which I found very much alive, for myself then and again as I made this movie and in Polish history itself.
Ida takes place 17 years after the war and shortly after after Stalin’s crimes were being made public by Krushchev. The Totalitarian State of Poland bent a bit; censorship was lifted a bit and a new culture was developing. Music was jazz and rock and roll. Poland was very alive then: the spirit of going your own way, not caring what anyone thinks, creating a style in cinema, in art, music...
I myself was a young boy in the '60s and I left Poland in '71 when I was 13 to stay with my mother in England where she had married a Brit. My father lived in the West; they were divorced and I went for a holiday and stayed.
I went to school in the U.K. but at 13, I was thrown out and I went to Germany where my father lived and matriculated there. I couldn’t go back to Poland as I had left illegally and was only allowed back in to visit in the late '70s. I returned in 1980 during Solidarity and from 1989 to the fall of the Wall, I went back often.
Ida is a film about identity, family, faith, guilt, socialism and music. I wanted to make a film about history that wouldnʼt feel like a historical film— a film that is moral, but has no lessons to offer. I wanted to tell a story in which ʻeveryone has their reasonsʼ; a story closer to poetry than plot. Most of all, I wanted to steer clear of the usual rhetoric of the Polish cinema. The Poland in "Ida" is shown by an ʻoutsiderʼ with no ax to grind, filtered through personal memory and emotion, the sounds and images of childhood…
I read you are going to make another film about Poland…
It is not about Poland but it is set in Poland. I am working on three projects, which is how I work. I keep writing and find one of them has the legs to carry me…which one is not yet known.
You mentioned in an interview with Sight and Sound your top 10 films…
Yes, which ones did you like? They ask me this every year and every year the list changes for me. There are other good ones, like Once Upon a Time in Anatolia…they are not all the old classics and they are not necessarily my favorites or what I think are “the best”. Again they depend on where I am in my own life.
The ones I like on your list were Ashes and Diamonds which I saw in New York in my freshman year in college, "La Dolce Vita" …"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Some Like It Hot."
I actually think "8 ½" is more remarkable than "La Dolce Vita." I also like "Loves of a Blonde" very much….
I found "Ashes and Diamonds" so extraordinary, I then had to see the actor in "Man of Marble" which took me to the next "Man of Steel" and Man of…whatever... until I thought I knew Wadja. What did you make of this film?
I saw it later as I was too young when it came out in the '60s. I saw it in the '70s when it was already a classic. Its impact on me was that it was well-done and about something. It is a comment about a man who decides whether to fight or to live. It could be remade in any country coming out of civil war.
To return to Ida, I noticed stylistic choices you made that I would like you to comment on.
The landscapes and interiors were very large and sparse. Interiors always had someone in the back ground moving, arranging or walking by in silence.
Yes there is always some life and the movements of people in the background are like music in the film, though it is not really music…
Yes, the music in the film is great. The magnificence of the classical music someone is playing, like the aunt…
Yes I only want to use real music at times that real music is part of the story. I didn’t want film music. I wanted it to come out of silence. It is part of the scene like the background movement of people. Each piece means something. The pop songs were key from the start. They were fatally imprinted on my childhood memory. They really color the landscape. Coltrane and stuff came from my adult self.
Incidentally, the late '50s and early '60s were great for jazz in Poland. There was a real explosion: Komeda, Namyslowski, Stanko, Wroblewski... Apart from telling Idaʼs story, I wanted to conjure up a certain image of Poland, an image that I hold dear. My country may have been grey, oppressive and enslaved in the early '60s, but in some ways it was 'cooler' and more original than the Poland of today, and somehow more universally resonant.
Iʼm sure that lots of Poles with a chip on their shoulder, and there are many, will fail to notice the beauty, the love that went into our film—and will accuse me of damaging Poland's image by focusing on the melancholy, the provincial, the grotesque… And then there's the matter of a Polish farmer killing a Jewish family… thereʼs bound to be trouble. On the other hand, thereʼs also a Stalinist state prosecutor of Jewish origins, which might land me in hot water in other quarters. Still, I hope the film is sufficiently specific and un-rhetorical enough to be understood on its own terms.
The music Ida’s aunt was playing before she…what are your thoughts about her aunt?
Neither Ida nor her aunt is typical. Wanda’s imprimatur is that she has no self-pity, no regrets, no sentimentality.
She had fought in the resistance rather than raise a family. She had been a super idealistic Marxist, became a part of the New Establishment and got drawn into the games and hypocrisy, sending people to death for “impeding progress”.
She reminds me of my father in some ways. Her acerbic sense of humor. I gave her some of my father’s lines.
Where Did The Character Of Wanda Come From?
When I was doing my post-graduate degree at Oxford in the early '80s I befriended Professor Brus, a genial economist and reformist Marxist who left Poland in ʻ68. I was particularly fond of his wife Helena, who smoked, drank, joked and told great stories. She didn't suffer fools gladly, but she struck me as a warm and generous woman. I lost touch with the Bruses when I left Oxford, but some 10 years later I heard on BBC News that the Polish government was requesting the extradition of one Helena Brus-Wolinska, resident in Oxford, on the grounds of crimes against humanity. It turned out that the charming old lady had been a Stalinist prosecutor in her late twenties. Among other things, she engineered the death in a show trial of a completely innocent man and a real hero of the Resistance, General ‘Nil’ Fieldorf. It was a bit of a shock. I couldn't square the warm, ironic woman I knew with the ruthless fanatic and Stalinist hangman. This paradox has haunted me for years. I even tried to write a film about her, but couldnʼt get my head around or into someone so contradictory. Putting her into Idaʼs story helped bring that character to life. Conversely, putting the ex-believer with blood on her hands next to Ida helped me define the character and the journey of the young nun.
By 1956, illusions about society were gone. Stalin’s crimes were revealed in 1961, there was a change of government, a new generation was coming of age. Wanda was a judge they called “Red Wanda” and had sent enemies of the state to their deaths. The older generation was left high and dry. Communism had become a shabby reality. Her despair was apparent– she had been heroic and now the system was a joke.
And then some creature from the past pops up and makes her reveal all she had swept under the carpet. She drank too much, there was no love in her life, only casual sex. But still she was straight-ahead, directed and unstoppable.
And then after the revelations of what had become of their parents and her child, her sister returns to the convent. There is nowhere for her to go. She hits a wall. She is heroic and there is no place for her in society anymore.
And Ida? Why did you choose such a person?
Ida has multiple origins, the most interesting ones probably not quite conscious. Let's say that I come from a family full of mysteries and contradictions and have lived in one sort of exile or another for most of my life. Questions of identity, family, blood, faith, belonging, and history have always been present.
I'd been playing for years with the story of a Catholic nun who discovers sheʼs Jewish. I originally set it in ʻ68, the year of student protests and the Communist Party sponsored anti-Semitic purges in Poland. The story involved a nun a bit older than Ida, as well as an embattled bishop and a state security officer, and the whole thing was more steeped in the politics of the day. The script was turning out a little too schematic, thriller-ish and plotty for my liking, so I put Ida aside for a while and went to Paris to make The Woman In The Fifth . I was in a different place at the time.
When I came back to Ida, I had a much clearer idea of what I wanted the film to be. My cowriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz and I stripped the whole thing down, made it less plotty, the characters richer and less functional. Ida became younger, more inexperienced, more of a blank slate, a young girl on the brink of life. Also we moved the story to ʻ62, a more nondescript period in Poland, but also a time of which I have most vivid memories, my own impressions as a child - unaware of what was going on in the adult world, but all the more sensitive to images and sounds. Some shots in the film couldʼve come from my family album.
In the course of the film, Ida undergoes a change. She becomes energized. When she returns to the convent you can see it in her body movements. It is the only time we used a hand-held camera to depict the new energy she has acquired. She is going into the spiritual in a different way. The old way elicited a giggle from her; she had seen the sensuality of the novice nun bathing…whether she is returning to the convent to stay is left to the viewer to decide.
The viewer is brought into a space of associations they make on their own, the film is more like poetry where the feeling of the viewer is the private one of the viewer, not one the film imposes.
Yes, each woman enters a new reality and comes out changed, and I was left thinking there was nothing better of the two life choices, the “normal” life of love and family and the “spiritual” life of simple living and silent devotion. There needs to be some balance between the two, but what is that? I still don’t know.
On a last note: I noticed in the end credits you thanked Alfonso Cuarón. Why was that?
Yes he liked the film a lot. There were many people I thanked, like Agnieszka Holland. These are friends I can show my work to. They protect me against critics and festivals. This group of friends can also be nasty, but they are honest friends.
Thank you so much Pawel for your insights. I look forward to meeting you again “on the circuit”.
To my readers, here are the nuts and bolts of the film:
Music Box Films is the proud U.S. distributor of "Ida," the award-winning film written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Ida world premiered at Telluride 2013 and Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Fipresci Award for Best Film; then played the London Film Festival where it won Best Film, and was the Grand Prix winner at the Warsaw Film Festival. It played as an Official Selection in the 2014 Sundance and New York Jewish Film Festivals.
Poland 1962. Anna (newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska) is a beautiful eighteen-year-old woman, preparing to become a nun at the convent where she has lived since orphaned as a child. She learns she has a living relative she must visit before taking her vows, her mother’s sister Wanda. Her aunt, she learns, is not only a former hard-line Communist state prosecutor notorious for sentencing priests and others to death, but also a Jew. Anna learns from her aunt that she too is Jewish - and that her real name is Ida. This revelation sets Anna, now Ida, on a journey to uncover her roots and confront the truth about her family. Together, the two women embark on a voyage of discovery of each other and their past. Ida has to choose between her birth identity and the religion that saved her from the massacres of the Nazi occupation of Poland. And Wanda must confront decisions she made during the War when she chose loyalty to the cause before family.
Following his breakthrough films "Last Resort" and BAFTA-award winning "My Summer of Love," "Ida" marks Polish-born, British writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski's first film set in his homeland. Ida stars Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza. It will open in Los Angeles on May 2 at the Laemmle's Royal. (Music Box Films, 80 minutes, unrated).
Its international producers, Eric Abraham (Portobello Pictures), Ewa Puszczynska (Opus Film), Piotr Dzieciol (Opus Film) and coproducer, Christian Falkenberg Husum of Denmark sold about 30 territories in Toronto and to date it has sold to 43 territories where the film has opened.
Argentina - Cdi Films, Australia - Curious Film, Austria - Polyfilm is still playing it and to date it has grossed Us$10,733. Benelux – Cineart where it is also still playing and has grossed Us$185,026 in Belgium and Us$131,247 in The Netherlands, Canada – Eyesteelfilm and Films We Like, Czech Republic – Aerofilms, Denmark - Camera Film, Denmark - Portobello Film Sales, France - Memento Films Distribution where in three weeks it grossed $3,192,706, Germany - Arsenal and Maxmedien where it grossed $24,010, Greece - Strada Films, Hungary - Mozinet Ltd., Israel - Lev Films (Shani Films), Italy - Parthenos where it grossed $681,460., Norway – Arthaus grossed $59,920, Poland – Soloban where it grossed $333,714, Portugal - Midas Filmes, Spain - Caramel Films is still playing it and to date it has grossed $408,085, Sweden - Folkets Bio, Switzerland - Frenetic, Taiwan - Andrews Film Co. Ltd, U.K. - Artificial Eye and Curzon, U.S. – Music Box and Film Forum.
Production
(Poland) An Opus Film, Phoenix Film production in association with Portobello Pictures in coproduction with Canal Plus Poland, Phoenix Film Poland. (International sales: Fandango Portobello, Copenhagen.) Produced by Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska. Coproducer, Christian Falkenberg Husum.
Crew
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Screenplay, Pawlikowski, Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Camera (B&W), Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski; editor, Jaroslaw Kaminski; production designers, Katarzyna Sobanska, Marcel Slawinski; costume designer, Aleksandra Staszko; Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen; supervising sound editor, Claus Lynge; re-recording mixers, Lynge, Andreas Kongsgaard; visual effects, Stage 2; line producer, Magdalena Malisz; associate producer, Sofie Wanting Hassing.
With
Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Joanna Kulig.
- 1/8/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Lukasz Palkowski’s Gods was the big winner at this year’s annual showcase of Polish cinema at the Gdynia Film Festival which ended with a gala awards ceremony at the weekend.
Gods (Bogowie), based on the life of Zbigniew Religa who performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland in the 1980s, received the Grand Prix Golden Lions for best film as well as individual awards in the categories of screenplay, make-up, production design and actor in a leading role for Tomasz Kot.
In addition, Gods received the award of the Polish Film Festivals and Reviews Abroad as well as the Journalists’ Award, Elle magazine’s Star of the Stars award for lead actor Kot and Radio Gdansk’s Golden Claquer Award for the longest applauded film at a screening in the Musical Theatre for the Main Competition.
Palkowski made his feature directorial debut in 2007 with Reserve, which won three prize at the festival in Gdynia...
Gods (Bogowie), based on the life of Zbigniew Religa who performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland in the 1980s, received the Grand Prix Golden Lions for best film as well as individual awards in the categories of screenplay, make-up, production design and actor in a leading role for Tomasz Kot.
In addition, Gods received the award of the Polish Film Festivals and Reviews Abroad as well as the Journalists’ Award, Elle magazine’s Star of the Stars award for lead actor Kot and Radio Gdansk’s Golden Claquer Award for the longest applauded film at a screening in the Musical Theatre for the Main Competition.
Palkowski made his feature directorial debut in 2007 with Reserve, which won three prize at the festival in Gdynia...
- 9/22/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
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