The Berlin International Film Festival’s European Film Market (EFM) has confirmed details for how its online incarnation will work March 1-5.
As Deadline revealed, Dennis Ruh took the reins at the EFM in September 2020 and faces an unconventional first edition.
“International sales agents have filled their lineups for the start of the year and have an attractive variety of films on offer. Many films are also currently in production and ready for pre-sales. We want the digital EFM in 2021 to be an impulse for a new beginning in the international film industry,” said Ruh today. “Since the EFM is an integral part of an international convention calendar, and therefore part of an economic system that includes events such as the Marché du Film in Cannes and the American Film Market in Los Angeles, a later date is not an option.”
The Efm will condense the industry sessions from its...
As Deadline revealed, Dennis Ruh took the reins at the EFM in September 2020 and faces an unconventional first edition.
“International sales agents have filled their lineups for the start of the year and have an attractive variety of films on offer. Many films are also currently in production and ready for pre-sales. We want the digital EFM in 2021 to be an impulse for a new beginning in the international film industry,” said Ruh today. “Since the EFM is an integral part of an international convention calendar, and therefore part of an economic system that includes events such as the Marché du Film in Cannes and the American Film Market in Los Angeles, a later date is not an option.”
The Efm will condense the industry sessions from its...
- 1/15/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
History, memory, and female-driven stories mark some of the main themes in the six Serbian films selected for Locarno’s First Look, a pix-in-post strand that represents one of the high points of the mid-summer festival on the shores of Lake Maggiore.
The competitive showcase this year highlights an industry that has become increasingly prolific in the past decade. Thanks in large part to an uptick in government funding, which has opened the door for more international collaborations, it’s also grown in scope and ambition. “The industry itself, in terms of production power, it’s growing,” said First Look project manager Markus Duffner. More importantly, he added, young Serbian producers are “rapidly growing in terms of international industry experience.”
As part of its partnership with Locarno, Film Center Serbia selected six projects – including five documentary features – with all but one in post-production. Four of the six films are helmed by female directors.
The competitive showcase this year highlights an industry that has become increasingly prolific in the past decade. Thanks in large part to an uptick in government funding, which has opened the door for more international collaborations, it’s also grown in scope and ambition. “The industry itself, in terms of production power, it’s growing,” said First Look project manager Markus Duffner. More importantly, he added, young Serbian producers are “rapidly growing in terms of international industry experience.”
As part of its partnership with Locarno, Film Center Serbia selected six projects – including five documentary features – with all but one in post-production. Four of the six films are helmed by female directors.
- 8/9/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Best Israeli documentary went to ‘Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life’.
Jerusalem Film Festival presented its awards on Thursday August 2, with Yona Rozenkier’s The Dive and Tsivia Barkai-Yacov’s Red Cow sharing the best Israeli feature film prize and best debut film.
The Israeli competitions jury split the prizes between the two films ”for their profound qualities and unique cinematic modes of expression, each in its own special way.” The former award comes with a prize of 50,000 Ils.
The Dive is about three brothers who reunite for a weekend to bury their father, before they head to war. The deserted...
Jerusalem Film Festival presented its awards on Thursday August 2, with Yona Rozenkier’s The Dive and Tsivia Barkai-Yacov’s Red Cow sharing the best Israeli feature film prize and best debut film.
The Israeli competitions jury split the prizes between the two films ”for their profound qualities and unique cinematic modes of expression, each in its own special way.” The former award comes with a prize of 50,000 Ils.
The Dive is about three brothers who reunite for a weekend to bury their father, before they head to war. The deserted...
- 8/3/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Yona Rozenkier’s “The Dive” and Tsivia Barkai-Yacov’s “Red Cow” have scooped The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature Film and the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Debut Film at the 35th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival.
“The Dive” and “Red Cow” shared the award Thursday for best debut film. Produced by Efrat Cohen and Koby Mizrahi ,”The Dive” follows three brothers who reunite for one weekend to bury their father in their native kibbutz on the border with Lebanon before going to war. The movie, which also played at Locarno, is being sold by Stray Dogs.
“Red Cow” is set in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and follows the sexual awakening of a teenage girl living with her widowed father, who is an Orthodox Jew. The movie world premiered at Berlin in the Generation section.
The Israeli competition jury, which comprised Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer,...
“The Dive” and “Red Cow” shared the award Thursday for best debut film. Produced by Efrat Cohen and Koby Mizrahi ,”The Dive” follows three brothers who reunite for one weekend to bury their father in their native kibbutz on the border with Lebanon before going to war. The movie, which also played at Locarno, is being sold by Stray Dogs.
“Red Cow” is set in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and follows the sexual awakening of a teenage girl living with her widowed father, who is an Orthodox Jew. The movie world premiered at Berlin in the Generation section.
The Israeli competition jury, which comprised Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer,...
- 8/3/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Nikohl Boosheri, Sam Abbas Star In ‘The Wedding’; Lance Lim, Elizabeth Sung Topline ‘Crossing’ Indie
Nikohl Boosheri, who currently appears in Freeform’s new series The Bold Type, will star in The Wedding, along with Sam Abbas, who wrote and is directing the film, in his feature debut. The indie follows Rami (Abbas), an individual who goes against the taboos within Muslim culture to explore his own sexuality. James Penfold (North of South, West of East), Harry Aspinwall (Turn: Washington’s Spies), and Ruba Blal (Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm) round out the cast. Casey…...
- 8/25/2017
- Deadline
Dea Kulumbegashvili, Maya Dreifuss also scoop awards from Jerusalem lab.
Israeli actor-filmmaker Pini Tavger’s debut feature Pinhas has won the top $50,000 prize at the final pitching event of the 6th edition of the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab.
The tale of a young Russian immigrant coming to terms with life with his single mother in a small Israeli town is produced by Haim Mecklberg of 2-Team Productions, whose recent credits include Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm, which won the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in 2016.
“The presentation of Pinhas provided the jury with a powerful experience: a fascinating, sensitive and conflictual script based on semi-autobiographic hardships beautifully presented through a scene for the upcoming film,” said Hengameh Panahi, Celluloid Dreams founding chief and Sam Spiegel jury chair.
It is Tavger’s first feature after two short films: 10 Weitzman Street and Pinhas, which sowed the seeds for the feature. He also directed...
Israeli actor-filmmaker Pini Tavger’s debut feature Pinhas has won the top $50,000 prize at the final pitching event of the 6th edition of the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab.
The tale of a young Russian immigrant coming to terms with life with his single mother in a small Israeli town is produced by Haim Mecklberg of 2-Team Productions, whose recent credits include Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm, which won the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in 2016.
“The presentation of Pinhas provided the jury with a powerful experience: a fascinating, sensitive and conflictual script based on semi-autobiographic hardships beautifully presented through a scene for the upcoming film,” said Hengameh Panahi, Celluloid Dreams founding chief and Sam Spiegel jury chair.
It is Tavger’s first feature after two short films: 10 Weitzman Street and Pinhas, which sowed the seeds for the feature. He also directed...
- 7/15/2017
- ScreenDaily
Frederic Boyer (Tribeca), Mirsad Purivatra (Sarajevo), Anna Hoffmann (Berlinale Forum) discuss challenges on panel.
Click here to read Screen’s full Think Fest coverage from Jerusalem
The inaugural edition of Think Fest kicked off with a debate about the rapid emergence of streaming platforms, and what impact they have had on the film festival ecosystem. Pointed reference was made to the activities of Netflix, particularly in 2017, and the company’s disruptive approach to the traditional theatrical model.
At Cannes, Netflix had two films selected to play In Competition – Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories – but the streaming platform’s disinterest in adhering to theatrical windows prompted grumblings from French cinema owners loud enough to force the festival to announce a new policy.
From next year, distributors will have to show theatrical intention to receive Competition slots. While Cannes’ situation may be unique – with France’s requirement for a 36-month window between theatrical...
Click here to read Screen’s full Think Fest coverage from Jerusalem
The inaugural edition of Think Fest kicked off with a debate about the rapid emergence of streaming platforms, and what impact they have had on the film festival ecosystem. Pointed reference was made to the activities of Netflix, particularly in 2017, and the company’s disruptive approach to the traditional theatrical model.
At Cannes, Netflix had two films selected to play In Competition – Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories – but the streaming platform’s disinterest in adhering to theatrical windows prompted grumblings from French cinema owners loud enough to force the festival to announce a new policy.
From next year, distributors will have to show theatrical intention to receive Competition slots. While Cannes’ situation may be unique – with France’s requirement for a 36-month window between theatrical...
- 7/15/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
“Sand Storm” is the first feature film from Israeli director Elite Zexer. After an impressive performance in major film festivals this year, it was chosen as the Israeli submission for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, and now it’s coming right into your living room.
Read More: Israeli Drama ‘Sand Storm’ Is An Insightful Directorial Debut for Elite Zexer [Tiff Review]
A family drama set in a Bedouin village in Southern Israel, the “Sand Storm” trailer opens by showing the marriage of Jalila’s (Ruba Blal) husband to a second wife.
Continue reading A Mother And Daughter Reject Tradition In New Trailer For ‘Sand Storm’ at The Playlist.
Read More: Israeli Drama ‘Sand Storm’ Is An Insightful Directorial Debut for Elite Zexer [Tiff Review]
A family drama set in a Bedouin village in Southern Israel, the “Sand Storm” trailer opens by showing the marriage of Jalila’s (Ruba Blal) husband to a second wife.
Continue reading A Mother And Daughter Reject Tradition In New Trailer For ‘Sand Storm’ at The Playlist.
- 12/9/2016
- by Stephanie Ashe
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Netflix has dropped its trailer for Sand Storm, the drama written and directed by Elite Zexer that is serving as Israel’s submission this year in the Oscar Foreign Language race (that shortlist is due out next week). The pic won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize this year at Sundance where it world premiered. It just picked six Ophir Awards (the Israeli Oscars) including Best Film and Best Director. Kino Lorber acquired the pic and released it in theaters in…...
- 12/8/2016
- Deadline
Making an an accomplished debut at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the world cinema category, Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm was named Best Film at the Ophir Awards—Israel’s version of the Academy Awards—while picking up a number of other accolades on the festival circuit. Subsequently, the drama was submitted as Israel’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2017 Oscars, entering a pool of 85 contenders competing for five coveted…...
- 12/1/2016
- Deadline
Other winners include Sand Storm, American Honey, Old Stone, Hooligan Sparrow.
The jury of the 27th Stockholm International Film Festival has given the top award, the Bronze Horse, to Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova for Godless.
The film previously won the Golden Leopard in Locarno as well as the New Talent Grant Pix in Copenhagen last week. It tells the story of a young physiotherapist struggling to survive in an economically depressed mountain town in post-Communist Bulgaria, who forms an unlikely bond with one of her elderly patients.
The jury — comprised of producer Annika Rogell, directors Roland Vranik, Wayne Roberts and Frida Kempff, and actress Julia Ragnarsson – said the film was “an astonishing masterpiece. This is filmmaking of the highest order and marks the arrival of a new great within cinema. A film that will forever live in the hearts and minds of viewers. It is a true work of art and, simply put, is...
The jury of the 27th Stockholm International Film Festival has given the top award, the Bronze Horse, to Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova for Godless.
The film previously won the Golden Leopard in Locarno as well as the New Talent Grant Pix in Copenhagen last week. It tells the story of a young physiotherapist struggling to survive in an economically depressed mountain town in post-Communist Bulgaria, who forms an unlikely bond with one of her elderly patients.
The jury — comprised of producer Annika Rogell, directors Roland Vranik, Wayne Roberts and Frida Kempff, and actress Julia Ragnarsson – said the film was “an astonishing masterpiece. This is filmmaking of the highest order and marks the arrival of a new great within cinema. A film that will forever live in the hearts and minds of viewers. It is a true work of art and, simply put, is...
- 11/20/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Festival moves to new autumn dates; audience award goes to Heartstone, and Girls Lost wins best children’s film.
Cph Pix’s New Talent Grand Pix has been awarded to Bulgarian filmmaker Ralitza Petrova for her film Godless.
The film, which is co-produced by new Danish production company Snowglobe, previously won the Golden Leopard in Locarno. It tells the story of a young physiotherapist struggling to survive in an economically depressed mountain town in post-Communist Bulgaria, who forms an unlikely bond with one of her elderly patients.
The New Talent Grand Pix – awarded for a debut feature — comes with $11,000 (€10,000); the jury was comprised of director Philippe Grandrieux (France), producer Erika Wasserman (Sweden) and DoP Manuel Alberto Claro (Denmark) [pictured with director Petrova].
In a statement, the jury said, “We were looking for a film-maker and talent who is not afraid to grab the world with the possibilities of cinema itself and use all its means to invite us inside this process...
Cph Pix’s New Talent Grand Pix has been awarded to Bulgarian filmmaker Ralitza Petrova for her film Godless.
The film, which is co-produced by new Danish production company Snowglobe, previously won the Golden Leopard in Locarno. It tells the story of a young physiotherapist struggling to survive in an economically depressed mountain town in post-Communist Bulgaria, who forms an unlikely bond with one of her elderly patients.
The New Talent Grand Pix – awarded for a debut feature — comes with $11,000 (€10,000); the jury was comprised of director Philippe Grandrieux (France), producer Erika Wasserman (Sweden) and DoP Manuel Alberto Claro (Denmark) [pictured with director Petrova].
In a statement, the jury said, “We were looking for a film-maker and talent who is not afraid to grab the world with the possibilities of cinema itself and use all its means to invite us inside this process...
- 11/7/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
The nominations for the 29th European Film Awards were announced this Saturday in Seville. Four films which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival are included in the race for Best European Film, including the Palme d’Or winner “I, Daniel Blake” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle.”
Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann” leads the pack with six nominations including Best Film and Best Director. Among the Best Actress and Actor nominees this year are Isabelle Huppert for her critically acclaimed role in “Elle” and Hugh Grant for his charming performance in “Florence Foster Jenkins.”
Read More: British Independent Film Award Nominations: ‘I, Daniel Blake’ Leads with 7
The Efa, in collaboration with the European Film Academy and Efa Productions, honor the greatest achievements in European cinema.
The 2016 European Film Awards will take place on December 10 in Wroclaw, Poland.
Read More: 2016 Ida Documentary Awards Nominations Include ‘13th,’ ‘The White Helmets’ and ‘Fire At...
Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann” leads the pack with six nominations including Best Film and Best Director. Among the Best Actress and Actor nominees this year are Isabelle Huppert for her critically acclaimed role in “Elle” and Hugh Grant for his charming performance in “Florence Foster Jenkins.”
Read More: British Independent Film Award Nominations: ‘I, Daniel Blake’ Leads with 7
The Efa, in collaboration with the European Film Academy and Efa Productions, honor the greatest achievements in European cinema.
The 2016 European Film Awards will take place on December 10 in Wroclaw, Poland.
Read More: 2016 Ida Documentary Awards Nominations Include ‘13th,’ ‘The White Helmets’ and ‘Fire At...
- 11/5/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
The 27th edition of the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 9 - 20) will present 200 films from 70 countries.
The Stockholm International Film Festival will kick-off with Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake, followed by a mid-festival ‘middle film’ screening in the shape of Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation, and will close with Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
Directors attending the festival include Francis Ford Coppola (who will receive the lifetime achievement award, present a public talk, and screen Apocalypse Now), Ken Loach, Francois Ozon (who receives the festival’s Visionary Award), Ira Sachs, Alice Lowe, Mark Cousins, Anne Fontaine, Gabe Klinger, and many more.
The festival’s main competition line-up is:
A Decent Woman by Lukas Valenta Rinner (Arg, S Kor, Aus)A Taste Of Ink by Morgan Simon (Fr)Albüm by Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Tur, Fr, Rom)Are We Not Cats by Xander Robin (Us)Birth Of A Nation by [link...
The Stockholm International Film Festival will kick-off with Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake, followed by a mid-festival ‘middle film’ screening in the shape of Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation, and will close with Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
Directors attending the festival include Francis Ford Coppola (who will receive the lifetime achievement award, present a public talk, and screen Apocalypse Now), Ken Loach, Francois Ozon (who receives the festival’s Visionary Award), Ira Sachs, Alice Lowe, Mark Cousins, Anne Fontaine, Gabe Klinger, and many more.
The festival’s main competition line-up is:
A Decent Woman by Lukas Valenta Rinner (Arg, S Kor, Aus)A Taste Of Ink by Morgan Simon (Fr)Albüm by Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Tur, Fr, Rom)Are We Not Cats by Xander Robin (Us)Birth Of A Nation by [link...
- 10/18/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Eighty-five countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 89th Academy Awards. Yemen is a first-time entrant.
The 2016 submissions are:
Albania, “Chromium,” Bujar Alimani, director;
Algeria, “The Well,” Lotfi Bouchouchi, director;
Argentina, “The Distinguished Citizen,” Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat, directors;
Australia, “Tanna,” Bentley Dean, Martin Butler, directors;
Austria, “Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe,” Maria Schrader, director;
Bangladesh, “link=tt5510934 auto]The Unnamed[/link],” Tauquir Ahmed, director;
Belgium, “The Ardennes,” Robin Pront, director;
Bolivia, “Sealed Cargo,” Julia Vargas Weise, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Death in Sarajevo,” Danis Tanovic, director;
Brazil, “Little Secret,” David Schurmann, director;
Bulgaria, “Losers,” Ivaylo Hristov, director;
Cambodia, “Before the Fall,” Ian White, director;
Canada, “It’s Only the End of the World,” Xavier Dolan, director;
Chile, “Neruda,” Pablo Larraín, director;
China, “Xuan Zang,” Huo Jianqi, director;
Colombia, “Alias Maria,” José Luis Rugeles, director;
Costa Rica, “About Us,” Hernán Jiménez, director;
Croatia, “On the Other Side,...
The 2016 submissions are:
Albania, “Chromium,” Bujar Alimani, director;
Algeria, “The Well,” Lotfi Bouchouchi, director;
Argentina, “The Distinguished Citizen,” Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat, directors;
Australia, “Tanna,” Bentley Dean, Martin Butler, directors;
Austria, “Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe,” Maria Schrader, director;
Bangladesh, “link=tt5510934 auto]The Unnamed[/link],” Tauquir Ahmed, director;
Belgium, “The Ardennes,” Robin Pront, director;
Bolivia, “Sealed Cargo,” Julia Vargas Weise, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Death in Sarajevo,” Danis Tanovic, director;
Brazil, “Little Secret,” David Schurmann, director;
Bulgaria, “Losers,” Ivaylo Hristov, director;
Cambodia, “Before the Fall,” Ian White, director;
Canada, “It’s Only the End of the World,” Xavier Dolan, director;
Chile, “Neruda,” Pablo Larraín, director;
China, “Xuan Zang,” Huo Jianqi, director;
Colombia, “Alias Maria,” José Luis Rugeles, director;
Costa Rica, “About Us,” Hernán Jiménez, director;
Croatia, “On the Other Side,...
- 10/12/2016
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The official submissions for the foreign language Oscar are in from around the world, and the Academy has deemed a record 85 eligible to compete. Last year, 81 submissions were released theatrically in their home countries between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015. (This year’s deadline for submissions was October 3, 2016.)
Several Academy foreign committees comprised of members from all the branches will whittle down the films to a shortlist of nine and finally, five Oscar nominees. (Last year’s winner was Cannes prize-winner “Son of Saul,” directed by Hungarian Lazlo Nemes.) Many countries pick films that do well on the festival circuit as their strongest Oscar contender; others do not.
Politics often intervene: Brazil’s submission was expected to be Cannes competition film “Aquarius,” starring Sonia Braga, but it was embroiled in controversy over filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s support of outgoing impeached president Dilma Rousseff. Bruno Barreto’s Brazil selection committee went...
Several Academy foreign committees comprised of members from all the branches will whittle down the films to a shortlist of nine and finally, five Oscar nominees. (Last year’s winner was Cannes prize-winner “Son of Saul,” directed by Hungarian Lazlo Nemes.) Many countries pick films that do well on the festival circuit as their strongest Oscar contender; others do not.
Politics often intervene: Brazil’s submission was expected to be Cannes competition film “Aquarius,” starring Sonia Braga, but it was embroiled in controversy over filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s support of outgoing impeached president Dilma Rousseff. Bruno Barreto’s Brazil selection committee went...
- 10/12/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The official submissions for the foreign language Oscar are in from around the world, and the Academy has deemed a record 85 eligible to compete. Last year, 81 submissions were released theatrically in their home countries between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015. (This year’s deadline for submissions was October 3, 2016.)
Several Academy foreign committees comprised of members from all the branches will whittle down the films to a shortlist of nine and finally, five Oscar nominees. (Last year’s winner was Cannes prize-winner “Son of Saul,” directed by Hungarian Lazlo Nemes.) Many countries pick films that do well on the festival circuit as their strongest Oscar contender; others do not.
Politics often intervene: Brazil’s submission was expected to be Cannes competition film “Aquarius,” starring Sonia Braga, but it was embroiled in controversy over filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s support of outgoing impeached president Dilma Rousseff. Bruno Barreto’s Brazil selection committee went...
Several Academy foreign committees comprised of members from all the branches will whittle down the films to a shortlist of nine and finally, five Oscar nominees. (Last year’s winner was Cannes prize-winner “Son of Saul,” directed by Hungarian Lazlo Nemes.) Many countries pick films that do well on the festival circuit as their strongest Oscar contender; others do not.
Politics often intervene: Brazil’s submission was expected to be Cannes competition film “Aquarius,” starring Sonia Braga, but it was embroiled in controversy over filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s support of outgoing impeached president Dilma Rousseff. Bruno Barreto’s Brazil selection committee went...
- 10/12/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Eighty-five countries have submitted a film for consideration in the 60th anniversary year of the foreign language film category.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science said on Tuesday that this season also marks the first time Yemen has submitted a film, Khadija Al-Salami’s I Am Nojoom, Age 10 And Divorced.
The 89th Oscars will take place on February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. László Nemes’ Hungarian entry Son Of Saul won the award last February.
Foreign-language Academy Award Submissions
(Country, Title, director)
Albania, Chromium, dir Bujar Alimani;
Algeria, The Well, Lotfi Bouchouchi;
Argentina, The Distinguished Citizen, Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat;
Australia, Tanna, Bentley Dean, Martin Butler;
Austria, Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe, Maria Schrader;
Bangladesh, The Unnamed, Tauquir Ahmed;
Belgium, The Ardennes, Robin Pront;
Bolivia, Sealed Cargo, Julia Vargas Weise;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Death In Sarajevo, Danis Tanovic;
Brazil, Little Secret, David Schurmann.
Bulgaria, Losers, [link...
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science said on Tuesday that this season also marks the first time Yemen has submitted a film, Khadija Al-Salami’s I Am Nojoom, Age 10 And Divorced.
The 89th Oscars will take place on February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. László Nemes’ Hungarian entry Son Of Saul won the award last February.
Foreign-language Academy Award Submissions
(Country, Title, director)
Albania, Chromium, dir Bujar Alimani;
Algeria, The Well, Lotfi Bouchouchi;
Argentina, The Distinguished Citizen, Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat;
Australia, Tanna, Bentley Dean, Martin Butler;
Austria, Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe, Maria Schrader;
Bangladesh, The Unnamed, Tauquir Ahmed;
Belgium, The Ardennes, Robin Pront;
Bolivia, Sealed Cargo, Julia Vargas Weise;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Death In Sarajevo, Danis Tanovic;
Brazil, Little Secret, David Schurmann.
Bulgaria, Losers, [link...
- 10/11/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The race for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film set a new record on Tuesday, with 85 countries appearing on the list announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The previous record was 83 entries, set in 2014. High-profile entries in this year’s race include Canada’s “It’s Only the End of the World,” directed by Xavier Dolan; Chile’s “Neruda,” by Pablo Larrain; Egypt’s “Clash,” by Mohamed Diab; France’s “Elle,” by Paul Verhoeven; Germany’s “Toni Erdmann,” by Maren Ade; Iran’s “The Salesman,” by Asghar Farhadi; Israel’s “Sand Storm,” by Elite Zexer; Italy’s “Fire at Sea,...
- 10/11/2016
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Copenhagen’s festival, in new autumn dates, will show a record 226 features kicking off with Doctor Strange.
Copenhagen’s Cph Pix festival, now in its new autumn dates, has revealed a record 226 feature films in its lineup.
The 14-day festival (Oct 27 - Nov 9), which now also includes kids and family festival Buster, will show 46 features for young people in its daytime programmes and 180 films for teenagers and adults in the evenings.
As previously reported, the eighth edition of festival will open with a gala premiere of Marvel’s Doctor Strange (Mads Mikkelsen will attend).
There will be four main awards at Pix: the New Talent Grand Pix for a debut feature (with $11,200 (€10,000)); the Politiken Audience Award that comes with Danish distribution support, and the Nordisk Film Fond prizes for best children’s feature and best children’s short.
Terence Davies [pictured] will be given a full retrospective as well as showing his latest film A Quiet Passion and participating...
Copenhagen’s Cph Pix festival, now in its new autumn dates, has revealed a record 226 feature films in its lineup.
The 14-day festival (Oct 27 - Nov 9), which now also includes kids and family festival Buster, will show 46 features for young people in its daytime programmes and 180 films for teenagers and adults in the evenings.
As previously reported, the eighth edition of festival will open with a gala premiere of Marvel’s Doctor Strange (Mads Mikkelsen will attend).
There will be four main awards at Pix: the New Talent Grand Pix for a debut feature (with $11,200 (€10,000)); the Politiken Audience Award that comes with Danish distribution support, and the Nordisk Film Fond prizes for best children’s feature and best children’s short.
Terence Davies [pictured] will be given a full retrospective as well as showing his latest film A Quiet Passion and participating...
- 10/3/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Sand Storm (Sufat Chol) Kino Lorber Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Elite Zexer Written by: Elite Zexer Cast: Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal, Hitham Omari, Khadija Al Akel Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/25/16 Opens: September 28, 2016 If you hate traffic jams, you might envy the Bedouin people who live in Israel’s Negev desert. But after you see Elite Zexer’s “Sand Storm,” you will realize that aside from never worrying about a parking space, your life will be otherwise not so good. In fact if you’re of the female persuasion, you’ll wonder why all the well-off women in the West continue pushing for their rights while the [ Read More ]
The post Sand Storm Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Sand Storm Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 10/2/2016
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Academy Awards may be the world’s most prestigious award given to a piece of cinema, but various countries across the globe hold their own version of these awards, with nominations coming just as hard fought. So to see a film garner 12 nominations ranging from Best Director to Best Script should put it near the top of anyone’s “must watch” list when it rolls into one’s respective town.
That’s the case for the debut film from writer/director Elite Zexer. Entitled Sand Storm, the film garnered much attention not only after earning the cavalcade of nominations in the Israeli Ophir Awards but also a run at this year’s Sundance and Toronto International Film Festivals. The film introduces us to two women stuck in the middle of a tiny Bedouin village’s backward social traditions and unbreakable patriarchy. The mother and daughter duo of Jalila (Ruba...
That’s the case for the debut film from writer/director Elite Zexer. Entitled Sand Storm, the film garnered much attention not only after earning the cavalcade of nominations in the Israeli Ophir Awards but also a run at this year’s Sundance and Toronto International Film Festivals. The film introduces us to two women stuck in the middle of a tiny Bedouin village’s backward social traditions and unbreakable patriarchy. The mother and daughter duo of Jalila (Ruba...
- 9/30/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Miguel Gomes [pictured] and Reha Erdem to head international competition and India Gold juries, respectively; fest also unveils line-up and Jia Zhangke award.
Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes (Arabian Nights) is heading the jury for the international competition at this year’s Mumbai Film Festival, while Turkish director Reha Erdem will preside over the jury for the India Gold section.
Gomes will be joined by filmmakers Tala Hadid and Anurag Kashyap, producer Christine Vachon and Hot Docs president Chris McDonald. Titles selected for the International Competition for first-time filmmakers include Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm and Diamond Island, from French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou (see full line-up below).
Erdem recently won the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at Venice for Big Big World. He will be joined on the India Gold jury by composer Mychael Danna (Life Of Pi), Hong Kong director Yonfan (Peony Pavilion), Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski (United States Of Love) and critic Stephanie Zacharek.
The festival...
Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes (Arabian Nights) is heading the jury for the international competition at this year’s Mumbai Film Festival, while Turkish director Reha Erdem will preside over the jury for the India Gold section.
Gomes will be joined by filmmakers Tala Hadid and Anurag Kashyap, producer Christine Vachon and Hot Docs president Chris McDonald. Titles selected for the International Competition for first-time filmmakers include Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm and Diamond Island, from French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou (see full line-up below).
Erdem recently won the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at Venice for Big Big World. He will be joined on the India Gold jury by composer Mychael Danna (Life Of Pi), Hong Kong director Yonfan (Peony Pavilion), Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski (United States Of Love) and critic Stephanie Zacharek.
The festival...
- 9/30/2016
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
“Sand Storm” director Elite Zexer and actress Lamis Ammar spoke with me about the Lives of Bedouin Women in Israel this year in Sundance.Sand Storm’s Lamis Ammar
Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner, “Sand Storm” was written and directed by Elite Zexer. She and Lamis Ammar, the actress playing the oldest daughter in a family of girls who is an independent college educated woman, and I spoke at Sundance about the experience of making their first film together.
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university — a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family.
Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner, “Sand Storm” was written and directed by Elite Zexer. She and Lamis Ammar, the actress playing the oldest daughter in a family of girls who is an independent college educated woman, and I spoke at Sundance about the experience of making their first film together.
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university — a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family.
- 9/28/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Jose here. Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm takes place in a Bedouin village where men have all the power, even if it’s evident it’s women who should be running things. Within this community we meet the young Layla (Lamis Ammar), a free spirited young woman who is secretly dating a local boy, aware that her parents might want to marry her to someone else. Even though the premise might seem familiar, what’s remarkable is how Zexer crafts a study about the structure of this village, making the film feel more like an anthropological study than a traditional drama. After successful showings at Sundance and Toronto, the film went on to win the top Ophir Award making it Israel’s official submission for the Oscars. I spoke to Zexer about the origins of the story, her curious background, and whether she thinks her film is a political work.
- 9/28/2016
- by Jose
- FilmExperience
Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.
This Past Weekend:
While the new movies reigned at the box office this past weekend, both Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven (Sony) and the animated Storks (Warner Bros.) didn’t fare nearly as well as our projections, both falling short by about $10 million. The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, fared decently with $34.7million, which is about the average for Washington’s films, but the fourth highest opening for a Western after last year’s The Revenant, the animated Rango, and Cowboys and Aliens. Storks’ $21.3 million opening wasn’t great compared to other animated September releases with Sony still holding the September opening record with Hotel Transylvania 2, but it should continue to do well with no other animated movies opening for another month.
This Past Weekend:
While the new movies reigned at the box office this past weekend, both Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven (Sony) and the animated Storks (Warner Bros.) didn’t fare nearly as well as our projections, both falling short by about $10 million. The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, fared decently with $34.7million, which is about the average for Washington’s films, but the fourth highest opening for a Western after last year’s The Revenant, the animated Rango, and Cowboys and Aliens. Storks’ $21.3 million opening wasn’t great compared to other animated September releases with Sony still holding the September opening record with Hotel Transylvania 2, but it should continue to do well with no other animated movies opening for another month.
- 9/28/2016
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
The drama marks the country’s first submission to be filmed entirely in Arabic.
Elite Zexer’s Arabic-language drama Sand Storm will represent Israel in this year’s race to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
The film triumphed at the country’s Ophir Awards ceremony last week – Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars – taking the Best Film prize, which automatically enters it for the 2017 Academy Awards.
It marks the first time that an entirely Arabic-language film has picked up the award.
Sand Storm premiered at Sundance in January. It follows two women from the nomadic Bedouin ethnic group.
No Israeli film has ever won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, despite five nominations.
At last week’s Ophir Awards, controversial culture minister Miri Regev caused a stir by leaving the ceremony when Arab-Israeli actor Tamer Nafar appeared on stage with Jewish performer Yossi Tzaberi to perform a poem written by a Palestinian poet, as...
Elite Zexer’s Arabic-language drama Sand Storm will represent Israel in this year’s race to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
The film triumphed at the country’s Ophir Awards ceremony last week – Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars – taking the Best Film prize, which automatically enters it for the 2017 Academy Awards.
It marks the first time that an entirely Arabic-language film has picked up the award.
Sand Storm premiered at Sundance in January. It follows two women from the nomadic Bedouin ethnic group.
No Israeli film has ever won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, despite five nominations.
At last week’s Ophir Awards, controversial culture minister Miri Regev caused a stir by leaving the ceremony when Arab-Israeli actor Tamer Nafar appeared on stage with Jewish performer Yossi Tzaberi to perform a poem written by a Palestinian poet, as...
- 9/26/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
The drama marks the country’s first submission to be filmed entirely in Arabic.
Elite Zexer’s Arabic-language drama Sand Storm will represent Israel in this year’s race to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
The film triumphed at the country’s Ophir Awards ceremony last week – Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars – taking the Best Film prize, which automatically enters it for the 2017 Academy Awards.
It marks the first time that an entirely Arabic-language film has picked up the award.
Sand Storm premiered at Sundance in January. It follows two women from the nomadic Bedouin ethnic group.
No Israeli film has ever won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, despite five nominations.
At last week’s Ophir Awards, controversial culture minister Miri Regev caused a stir by leaving the ceremony when Arab-Israeli actor Tamer Nafar appeared on stage with Jewish performer Yossi Tzaberi to perform a poem written by a Palestinian poet, as...
Elite Zexer’s Arabic-language drama Sand Storm will represent Israel in this year’s race to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
The film triumphed at the country’s Ophir Awards ceremony last week – Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars – taking the Best Film prize, which automatically enters it for the 2017 Academy Awards.
It marks the first time that an entirely Arabic-language film has picked up the award.
Sand Storm premiered at Sundance in January. It follows two women from the nomadic Bedouin ethnic group.
No Israeli film has ever won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, despite five nominations.
At last week’s Ophir Awards, controversial culture minister Miri Regev caused a stir by leaving the ceremony when Arab-Israeli actor Tamer Nafar appeared on stage with Jewish performer Yossi Tzaberi to perform a poem written by a Palestinian poet, as...
- 9/26/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Yesterday at an unusually tense and controversial Ophir Awards ceremony, Sand Storm won the Israeli Oscar and will thus be Israel's Oscar submission. The debut female director Elite Zexer, giving the last acceptance speech of the evening, spoke about how she employed Jews, Muslims, and Christians on the picture.
Though I already think Israel should have won the Oscar in this category (for Late Marriage which was submitted but not nominated in the year of Amelie and No Man's Land) and they've had high quality films in the mix before, I'm a little cool on this particular picture. Ah well, you can't love everything!
The UK's submission is a horror thriller set in IranAs more and more titles are announced for the Foreign Oscar Race, the variety of genres keeps growing, too. We have animated films, horror thrillers, docu-fiction hybrids, political dramas, romantic comedies, crime films, as well as submissions...
Though I already think Israel should have won the Oscar in this category (for Late Marriage which was submitted but not nominated in the year of Amelie and No Man's Land) and they've had high quality films in the mix before, I'm a little cool on this particular picture. Ah well, you can't love everything!
The UK's submission is a horror thriller set in IranAs more and more titles are announced for the Foreign Oscar Race, the variety of genres keeps growing, too. We have animated films, horror thrillers, docu-fiction hybrids, political dramas, romantic comedies, crime films, as well as submissions...
- 9/24/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
“Sand Storm,” a drama by Elite Zexer set in a Bedouin village in southern Israel, has won the Ophir Award as the best Israeli film of 2016. It will represent the country in the foreign language race at the Academy Awards. The film, which went into the Ophirs with more nominations than any other film, was competing against “One Week and a Day,” “Our Father,” “Beyond the Mountains and Hills” and “Through the Wall.” “Sand Storm,” from a female director working with both Jewish and Arab crew members, explores women struggling in a patriarchal society. Its lead characters include a woman.
- 9/22/2016
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Finnish boxing drama will compete at the European Film Awards later this year.
Cannes Un Certain Regard prize-winner The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, is one of five titles set to compete for this year’s European Discovery prize at the European Film Awards (Dec 10).
Juho Kuosmanen’s black-and-white boxing drama tells the true story of the titular famus Finnish boxer who had a shot at the World Featherweight title in 1962. Screen sat down with director Kuosmanen in Cannes. The film is Finland’s submission for best foreign-language drama at this year’s Oscars.
The other four nominees are: Bogdan Mirica’s Romania-France-Bulgaria-Qatar co-pro drama Dogs (Caini), which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard, Jules Herrmann’s German drama Liebmann, which premiered in Berlin, Elite Zexer’s Israel-France Sundance premiere Sand Storm (Sufat Chol), and Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Bulgarian drama Thirst, which debuted at Sundance 2015.
The nominations were selected by the following Efa Board...
Cannes Un Certain Regard prize-winner The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, is one of five titles set to compete for this year’s European Discovery prize at the European Film Awards (Dec 10).
Juho Kuosmanen’s black-and-white boxing drama tells the true story of the titular famus Finnish boxer who had a shot at the World Featherweight title in 1962. Screen sat down with director Kuosmanen in Cannes. The film is Finland’s submission for best foreign-language drama at this year’s Oscars.
The other four nominees are: Bogdan Mirica’s Romania-France-Bulgaria-Qatar co-pro drama Dogs (Caini), which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard, Jules Herrmann’s German drama Liebmann, which premiered in Berlin, Elite Zexer’s Israel-France Sundance premiere Sand Storm (Sufat Chol), and Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Bulgarian drama Thirst, which debuted at Sundance 2015.
The nominations were selected by the following Efa Board...
- 9/19/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
In its early scenes, “Sand Storm” appears to be a film where its mother and daughter protagonists will find success in struggling against the patriarchal bonds holding them in their Bedouin village in Israel. But Elite Zexer’s directorial debut doesn’t offer easy answers or rote characterizations; despite its simple plot, it’s a complex drama with […]
The post Israeli Drama ‘Sand Storm’ Is an Insightful Directorial Debut for Elite Zexer [Tiff Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Israeli Drama ‘Sand Storm’ Is an Insightful Directorial Debut for Elite Zexer [Tiff Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
- 9/11/2016
- by Kimber Myers
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Acquisitions ahead of the festival include Mijke de Jong’s Layla M, which premieres in Tiff’s Platform strand.
Germany-based international sales agent Beta Cinema has added four titles to its slate ahead of this month’s Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 8-18).
The company has picked up Mijke de Jong’s drama Layla M [pictured], which is set to premiere in the Platform competition section. The film follows an 18-year-old Dutch girl with Moroccan roots who joins a group of radical Muslims.
Director de Jong won a Crystal Bear at Berlin Film Festival in 2004 for his music drama Bluebird. Layla M was produced by Topkapi Films, Menuet, Chromosom Film, Schiwago Film, and Ntr and will receive its European Premiere in competition at the BFI London Film Festival in October.
Beta has also moved for Mahmoud al Massad’s dark comedy Blessed Benefit, which follows a Jordanian contractor who is imprisoned on an unfair fraud charge. Once inside...
Germany-based international sales agent Beta Cinema has added four titles to its slate ahead of this month’s Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 8-18).
The company has picked up Mijke de Jong’s drama Layla M [pictured], which is set to premiere in the Platform competition section. The film follows an 18-year-old Dutch girl with Moroccan roots who joins a group of radical Muslims.
Director de Jong won a Crystal Bear at Berlin Film Festival in 2004 for his music drama Bluebird. Layla M was produced by Topkapi Films, Menuet, Chromosom Film, Schiwago Film, and Ntr and will receive its European Premiere in competition at the BFI London Film Festival in October.
Beta has also moved for Mahmoud al Massad’s dark comedy Blessed Benefit, which follows a Jordanian contractor who is imprisoned on an unfair fraud charge. Once inside...
- 9/6/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
"Did you ever look at your daughter?" Kino Lorber has debuted the official Us trailer for the indie drama Sand Storm, and Israeli film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It's a drama set in Bedouin village in Southern Israel about a mother and daughter struggling to find their own way and break the rules of the society they live in. The film stars Ruba Blal-Asfour as Jalila, along with Lamis Ammar, Haitham Omari, and Khadija Al Akel. This won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance this year. Our friend Tomris Laffly said the film knocked her socks off, adding that it's "a slow-burning and suspenseful emotional drama." This trailer hints at an outstanding film. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Elite Zexer's Sand Storm, direct from YouTube: As Jalila (Ruba Blal), a 42-year-old Bedouin woman, finds...
- 8/24/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
- 8/23/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
- 8/23/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Next month’s Toronto International Film Festival has nearly completed its lineup announcements, and each one is more impressive than the last. Today’s Tiff picks feature a number of slate additions for sections as varied as the forward-focused Discovery, their burgeoning Pop Vr section and even a handful of last minute additions to the Tiff Docs list. New titles of note that have just been announced include the Cannes hit “The Red Turtle,” Wayne Roberts’ “Katie Says Goodbye” and the well-regarded “Sand Storm,” all of which will screen as part of Discovery.
Read More: Tiff Lineup: 5 Reasons to Get Excited About the 2016 Program
Both the Next Wave and Tiff Kids section pull titles from other, previously announced sections to create an appealing lineup for the next generation of cinephiles. Standout titles include “Moonlight,” “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” and “The Eagle Huntress.”
Additionally, the festival has...
Read More: Tiff Lineup: 5 Reasons to Get Excited About the 2016 Program
Both the Next Wave and Tiff Kids section pull titles from other, previously announced sections to create an appealing lineup for the next generation of cinephiles. Standout titles include “Moonlight,” “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” and “The Eagle Huntress.”
Additionally, the festival has...
- 8/23/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
All this week, IndieWire will be rolling out our annual Fall Preview, including offerings that span genres, a close examination of some of the year’s biggest breakouts, all the awards contenders you need to know about now and special attention to all the new movies you need to get through a jam-packed fall movie-going season. Check back every day for a new look at the best the season has to offer, and clear your schedule, because we’re going to fill it right up.
“White Girl,” September 2
Writer-director Elizabeth Wood exploded onto the filmmaking scene when her controversial debut “White Girl” shocked audiences at the Sundance Film Festival. A fearless portrait of young female sexuality, the film stars “Homeland’s” Morgan Saylor as Leah, a college student who becomes involved with a young drug dealer during the last two weeks of summer in New York City. When the cops...
“White Girl,” September 2
Writer-director Elizabeth Wood exploded onto the filmmaking scene when her controversial debut “White Girl” shocked audiences at the Sundance Film Festival. A fearless portrait of young female sexuality, the film stars “Homeland’s” Morgan Saylor as Leah, a college student who becomes involved with a young drug dealer during the last two weeks of summer in New York City. When the cops...
- 8/17/2016
- by Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich, Graham Winfrey, Steve Greene, Chris O'Falt and Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– Kino Lorber has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Keith Maitland’s animated documentary, “Tower.” The film explores the tragic story of America’s first mass school shooting, where a lone gunman climbed a clock tower at the University of Texas in 1966, shooting 49 people and killing 17. The film had its world premiere at SXSW 2016, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for best documentary feature.
The film has also picked up awards at numerous other festivals, including Dallas International, Montclair, RiverRun, and DeadCenter Film Festival. Kino Lorber will release “Tower” theatrically on October 12 at New York’s Film Forum, to be followed by a national rollout, marking the 50th anniversary of the shooting.
– Kino Lorber has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Keith Maitland’s animated documentary, “Tower.” The film explores the tragic story of America’s first mass school shooting, where a lone gunman climbed a clock tower at the University of Texas in 1966, shooting 49 people and killing 17. The film had its world premiere at SXSW 2016, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for best documentary feature.
The film has also picked up awards at numerous other festivals, including Dallas International, Montclair, RiverRun, and DeadCenter Film Festival. Kino Lorber will release “Tower” theatrically on October 12 at New York’s Film Forum, to be followed by a national rollout, marking the 50th anniversary of the shooting.
- 6/24/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Kino Lorber has snagged North American rights to Sand Storm, the Israeli drama that won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize – Dramatic prize at Sundance in January. First-time feature writer-director Elite Zexer’s film will open September 28 at New York's Film Forum and expand during the fall. The story centers on Jalila (Ruba Blal), a 42-year-old Bedouin woman pretending to be happy as she hosts her husband’s second marriage to a bride who is 20 years his junior…...
- 6/23/2016
- Deadline
The distributor has picked up North American rights from Beta Cinema to Israeli film-maker Elite Zexer’s directorial debut and Sundance selection.
Sand Storm tells of a fiercely independent Bedouin girl whose headstrong nature forces her to confront life-changing decisions within her intimate community. Lammis Ammar and Ruba Blal star.
The film earned top awards at the work-in-progress sections at the Jerusalem and Locarno film festivals and received its North American premiere earlier this year in Park City where it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic award.
It also played in the Berlinale’s Panorama section and recently won the New Directors competition at the Seattle International Film Festival.
Sand Storm will play at New York’s Film Forum on September 28 prior to expanding into key markets this autumn.
Haim Mecklberg and Estee Yacov-Mecklberg produced, while Rami Yehoshua, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery and Yigal Mograbi served as executive producers.
Kino Lorber’s CEO Richard Lorber...
Sand Storm tells of a fiercely independent Bedouin girl whose headstrong nature forces her to confront life-changing decisions within her intimate community. Lammis Ammar and Ruba Blal star.
The film earned top awards at the work-in-progress sections at the Jerusalem and Locarno film festivals and received its North American premiere earlier this year in Park City where it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic award.
It also played in the Berlinale’s Panorama section and recently won the New Directors competition at the Seattle International Film Festival.
Sand Storm will play at New York’s Film Forum on September 28 prior to expanding into key markets this autumn.
Haim Mecklberg and Estee Yacov-Mecklberg produced, while Rami Yehoshua, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery and Yigal Mograbi served as executive producers.
Kino Lorber’s CEO Richard Lorber...
- 6/23/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Seattle International Film Festival presented its award winners on June 12 as the 25-day event drew to a close after screening featured 421 films representing 85 countries.
Rosemary Myers’s Girl Asleep (Australia 2016) earned the grand jury prize as SIFF 2016 official competition winner, while Matt Ross’ Captain Fantastic (pictured) was named best film in the Golden Space Needle audience awards.
In other juried awards, Alex Anwandter’s You’ll Never Be Alone (Chile 2016) prevailed in the Ibero-American Competition, while Sand Storm (Israel 2016) by Elite Zexer won the New Directors Competition.
Ned Crowley’s Middle Man (USA 2016) took top honours in the New...
Rosemary Myers’s Girl Asleep (Australia 2016) earned the grand jury prize as SIFF 2016 official competition winner, while Matt Ross’ Captain Fantastic (pictured) was named best film in the Golden Space Needle audience awards.
In other juried awards, Alex Anwandter’s You’ll Never Be Alone (Chile 2016) prevailed in the Ibero-American Competition, while Sand Storm (Israel 2016) by Elite Zexer won the New Directors Competition.
Ned Crowley’s Middle Man (USA 2016) took top honours in the New...
- 6/12/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Highlights include the UK premiere of Finding Dory and the world premiere of the 4K restoration of Highlander [pictured].Scroll down for competition titles
The line-up for the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been unveiled this morning by artistic director Mark Adams.
This year’s Eiff (June 15-26) will comprise a total 161 features from 46 countries including: 22 world premieres, five international premieres, 17 European premieres and 85 UK premieres.
Highlights include the UK premiere of Disney-Pixar animation Finding Dory, in-person events that include Us indie filmmaker Kevin Smith and Sex & The City actress Kim Cattrall, and the opening and closing gala world premieres of the previously announced Tommy’s Honour and Whisky Galore!.
Old classics will be re-imagined with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performing the score to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial live at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and the world premiere of the newly-restored 4K version of Highlander, celebrating its 30th anniversary with star Clancy Brown in attendance.
The...
The line-up for the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been unveiled this morning by artistic director Mark Adams.
This year’s Eiff (June 15-26) will comprise a total 161 features from 46 countries including: 22 world premieres, five international premieres, 17 European premieres and 85 UK premieres.
Highlights include the UK premiere of Disney-Pixar animation Finding Dory, in-person events that include Us indie filmmaker Kevin Smith and Sex & The City actress Kim Cattrall, and the opening and closing gala world premieres of the previously announced Tommy’s Honour and Whisky Galore!.
Old classics will be re-imagined with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performing the score to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial live at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and the world premiere of the newly-restored 4K version of Highlander, celebrating its 30th anniversary with star Clancy Brown in attendance.
The...
- 5/25/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The 17th Jeonju International Film Festival (Jiff) saw its Grand Prize in the International Competition go to Elite Zexer’s Israeli film Sand Storm today (May 5).Scroll down for full list of winners
Set in a Bedouin village, the film deals with the conflict between tradition and modern values in the family as the mother prepares her husband’s wedding to a second wife and the daughter has a forbidden relationship with a boy from the next village. The award comes with a prize of KW20m ($17,140).
International Competition jury member Jean-Francois Rauger said: “We wish to see more directors putting their efforts observing phases of society.”
Best Picture Prize ($10,000) for International Competition went to Ted Fendt’s Short Stay, which follows an everyday man who moves to Philadelphia to run his friend’s walking tour company.
The Special Jury Prize, which comes with KW7m ($6,000), went to Emir Baigazin’s The Wounded Angel, which follows...
Set in a Bedouin village, the film deals with the conflict between tradition and modern values in the family as the mother prepares her husband’s wedding to a second wife and the daughter has a forbidden relationship with a boy from the next village. The award comes with a prize of KW20m ($17,140).
International Competition jury member Jean-Francois Rauger said: “We wish to see more directors putting their efforts observing phases of society.”
Best Picture Prize ($10,000) for International Competition went to Ted Fendt’s Short Stay, which follows an everyday man who moves to Philadelphia to run his friend’s walking tour company.
The Special Jury Prize, which comes with KW7m ($6,000), went to Emir Baigazin’s The Wounded Angel, which follows...
- 5/5/2016
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
This year we are seeing many films from Mena, that is an acronym for the Middle East and North Africa. More commonly called “Arab” cinema, (though the term is inaccurate because several countries in the region are not actually “Arab”) the films of this region are winning many awards and garnering much interest worldwide.
More than 10 Arab films participated in the Berlinale’s Forum and Forum Expanded programs this year, in addition to the ones which participated in the Official Competition (“Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” from Tunisia and “A Dragon Arrives!” by Mani Haghighi from Iran). This makes an especially remarkable year for Arab cinema’s presence in Berlin.
The Forum focus on Arab cinema, represented with films from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia highlights mostly young directors whose works explore both the past and present of their homelands.
The films included: “A Magical Substance Flows into Me” by artist Jumana Manna (Palestine), “Akher ayam el madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” (Egypt) by Tamer El Said (international sales by Still Moving), documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each” (Lebanon) by Maher Abi Samra (Isa: Docs & Film), “Barakah yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah” (Saudi Arabia) by Mahmoud Sabbagh and Manazil (Isa: Mpm), “Bela abwab”/ “Houses without Doors” by Syrian-Armenian director Avo Kaprealian. Of course the 46th Berlinale Forum also screens films from European, Latin American and Asian directors.
The Tunisian film in Competition “Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” by Mohamed Ben Attia, won the Best First Feature Award and its leading man, Majd Mastoura, received the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actor for his role as Hedi. Attia’s debut feature film is a thoughtful love story about identity and independence in Tunisian society. It is being sold internationally by Luxbox.
Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel won the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film for “ A Man Returned”, a 30-minute portrayal of a young refugee struggling to make a life for himself in Lebanon’s Ain El-Helweh camp, being sold internationally by 3.14 Collectif. He previously made an award-winning documentary about his own experience as a refugee. The short film was also selected as the Berlin Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards.
The Ecumenical Jury awarded the Forum Prize to Saudi filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh for his well-received romantic comedy “Barakah Yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah”, a social commentary on the lives of young people in Saudi Arabia. It shared the prize with Danish production “Les Sauteurs”/ “Those Who Jump” – a film that also highlights the plight of Europe-bound refugees.
Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El-Said’s feature film “Akher Ayam El-Madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” won the Caligari Film Prize. The film looks at a young filmmaker’s struggle to complete a film about Cairo. It was the only Egyptian film to participate in the 2016 Berlinale Forum.
Lebanese filmmaker Maher Abi Samra’s documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each”, a look at the legal system that controls the lives of Lebanon’s foreign domestic workers, won the Peace Film Prize.
“Zinzana”/ “Rattle the Cage” director, Majid al Ansari, from the Arab Emirates, was honored with Variety’s Mid-East Filmmaker of the Year Award at the Berlinale. The film is the first genre movie of its kind produced in the UAE. It was financed and produced by Abu Dhabi’s ImageNation. It is repped for Us by Cinetic and international sales are by Im Global.
Projects “Mawlana”, based on Ibrahim Issa’s best-selling novel and shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize and director’s Mohamed Yassein’s “Wedding Song” based on Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature were being promoted at the Arab Cinema Center at the Market. Reflecting a decadent Egypt from the 1970s, “Wedding Song” is one of the largest TV productions in the Arab World in 2016.
“Theeb”, a Jordanian Epic about Bedouins, is the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It played in Venice. International sales agent Fortissimo has licensed it to Film Movement for U.S., ABC for Benelux, New Wave for U.K., As Fidalgo for Norway, Jiff for Australia, trigon-film for Switzerland. Mad Solutions is handling the Middle East. “Ave Maria” a 14-minute Palestine satirical short is the Academy Award nomination for Best Short Fiction and is being sold internationally by Ouat Media. “ The Idol” (Palestine) played Tiff 2015 and other top fests and has sold widely throughout the world through Canada-based international sales agent Seville. Not since Elia Suleiman won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for “Divine Intervention” has a Palestinian film director made as much of an impact as “The Idol” director Hany Abu-Assad whose “Paradise Now” and “Omar” both went to the Academy Awards.
Kudos for much of the success of Arab cinema go to Mad Solutions, the Cairo, Abu Dhabi and New York based marketing and distribution company for its marketing and social media strategies as well as its release of “Theeb”, “Zinzana” and “Ave Maria”. It also helped create the Arab Cinema Center which was launched last year at the Berlinale and Efm.
In all, 20 Mena films played in the Festival and Market this year.
And what of that other small country in the region called Israel (and/ or Palestine) which is not included in the term Mena? While Israeli films that showed in Berlin received international praise, they will never show in any of the Arab countries and are sometimes boycotted by international film festivals who succumb to censorship tactics.
Most of the larger Israeli features go to Cannes, Venice and Toronto; “Afterthought” went to Cannes, “Mountain” to Venice, “Barash” to San Sebastian”, “Wedding Doll” to London and “A.K.A. Nadia” to Talinn Black Nights Film Festival. In Berlin many are screened as German Premieres.
What Israeli films have won acclaim lately? Is it possible that our hero, Katriel Schory, head of the Israel Film Fund, whose stand for true art has earned him Israeli government censure at home (A prophet is never honored in his own land) and fame abroad with new countries striving to create national cinema, is being eclipsed by the growth of “Arab” cinema?
“Sandstorm” directed by Elite Zexer (international sales by Beta) made its way to Panorama from its world premiere in Sundance where it won the Best Actress Award for Palestinian actress Lamis Ammar’s portrayal of a young Bedouin woman forced to choose between modern freedom or traditional societal strictures within an arranged marriage.
Panorama also screened “Junction 48” (international sales by The Match Factory) which received international praise and audience acclaim. The Israeli-Palestinian hip-hop movie by Israeli-American filmmaker, Udi Aloni, was supported by the Israel-based Rabinovich Foundation. The story is about Kareem who lives in a mixed Jewish-Arab crime-ridden ghetto outside Tel Aviv. He deals drugs and lives dangerously until he discovers hip-hop and decides to express his life as a Palestinian youth along with young singer Manar. Palestinian and Israeli musicians drive this music movie and for Aloni, just seeing the film made, and then shown at the Berlin Film Festival proves its success.
“Suddenly a group of people just choose to make a film and the film is extremely professional. It’s very important that this bi-national energy can create high quality stuff, the high quality is almost the symbol of the resistance. We should not even have to tell the story about the issue. The fact that we could create it is amazing,” Aloni told Euronews.
Thirty-seven-year-old Arab-Israeli rapper Tamer Nafar plays the lead role, and has known the 56-year-old Aloni for some time. “We have been on the same demonstrations, in the parties since 2000, so we live in each other’s world. He has been to my concerts many times, he directed a video clip, I was in his movies as a producer a few times. It’s not about an old generation and new generation, it’s just about creating the right generation,” he said. “He has that gift of being a good story teller and director but he gives us the stage, no, he doesn’t give us a stage, we are building a stage together… he has his own perspective but we are all on the same level,” said actress Samar Qupty. The struggle for equal rights for Palestinians or Arab Israelis inside Israel is at its crux.
Panorama Documents screened “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” directed by Tomer Haymann and Barak Heymann co-directed by Alexander Bodin Saphir and being sold by Austria’s Autlook. Forum showed “ Inertia” by Idan Haguel being sold by Oration Films’ Timothy O’Brian of the U.S., and “Between Fences” by Avi Mograbi, being sold by Docs & Film’s Daniela Elstner of France. Culinary Cinema showed “Café Nagler” by Mor Kaplansky and Yariv Barel is being sold internationally by Go2Films.
Teddy 30 (the retrospective of Teddy Award winners over the past 30 years) honored Dan Wolman’s 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim”. Berlinale Shorts screened Rotem Murat’s “Winds Junction” from Sapir College which also holds international rights; Generation 14 Plus screened “Mushkie” by Aleeza Chanowitz from the Jerusalem San Spiegel Film School, being sold by Cinephil. Seven other films were sold in the market by various sales agents.
One of the very special events I attended at the Berlinale this year was the Shabbat Dinner, held the first Friday in the Festival and hosted by Nicola Galliner, Founder and Force of the Berlin Jewish Film Festival. There was a table full of Jews: the new Director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, Noa Regev, PhD; Jay Rosenblatt, Program Director of San Francisco’sJewish Film Institute and its former Director, Peter Stein, now the Senior Programmer of Frameline, San Francisco’s Lgbtq Film Festival; Judy Ironside, the Founder and President of UK Jewish Film and of the sixth edition of the Geneva and Zurich Jewish Film Festivals, the new young director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, Ariana Cohen-Halberstam who recently moved from the New York Jcc to Boston, the prolific Israeli director, filmmaker Dan Wolman whose new film will soon be out and whose 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim” was part of the Teddy 30th Anniversary Retrospective held by the Berlinale Panorama.
Talk was about films, about politics including gender politics, about our concerns, (we Jews are better worriers than warriors) and just plain gossip.
Now if my readers will excuse my interjecting myself into this article:
It is my opinion that the region of the world called the Middle East, and the three major monotheistic religions of the world whose origin is there had better learn to do more than merely co-exist peacefully if we are to see peaceful and fruitful consequences which will set the world back upon its proper axis.
Art breaks down borders; it is subversive rather than observant of the exigencies of ever changing governments. It creates new perspectives and breaks down old ways of seeing. What I call “Cinema” is Art. Other movies may simply entertain and not aspire to more or they may propagate dogmas, but Art serves no master; it is not tethered; it is freedom of expression which should be honored with freedom to travel.
More than 10 Arab films participated in the Berlinale’s Forum and Forum Expanded programs this year, in addition to the ones which participated in the Official Competition (“Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” from Tunisia and “A Dragon Arrives!” by Mani Haghighi from Iran). This makes an especially remarkable year for Arab cinema’s presence in Berlin.
The Forum focus on Arab cinema, represented with films from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia highlights mostly young directors whose works explore both the past and present of their homelands.
The films included: “A Magical Substance Flows into Me” by artist Jumana Manna (Palestine), “Akher ayam el madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” (Egypt) by Tamer El Said (international sales by Still Moving), documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each” (Lebanon) by Maher Abi Samra (Isa: Docs & Film), “Barakah yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah” (Saudi Arabia) by Mahmoud Sabbagh and Manazil (Isa: Mpm), “Bela abwab”/ “Houses without Doors” by Syrian-Armenian director Avo Kaprealian. Of course the 46th Berlinale Forum also screens films from European, Latin American and Asian directors.
The Tunisian film in Competition “Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” by Mohamed Ben Attia, won the Best First Feature Award and its leading man, Majd Mastoura, received the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actor for his role as Hedi. Attia’s debut feature film is a thoughtful love story about identity and independence in Tunisian society. It is being sold internationally by Luxbox.
Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel won the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film for “ A Man Returned”, a 30-minute portrayal of a young refugee struggling to make a life for himself in Lebanon’s Ain El-Helweh camp, being sold internationally by 3.14 Collectif. He previously made an award-winning documentary about his own experience as a refugee. The short film was also selected as the Berlin Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards.
The Ecumenical Jury awarded the Forum Prize to Saudi filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh for his well-received romantic comedy “Barakah Yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah”, a social commentary on the lives of young people in Saudi Arabia. It shared the prize with Danish production “Les Sauteurs”/ “Those Who Jump” – a film that also highlights the plight of Europe-bound refugees.
Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El-Said’s feature film “Akher Ayam El-Madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” won the Caligari Film Prize. The film looks at a young filmmaker’s struggle to complete a film about Cairo. It was the only Egyptian film to participate in the 2016 Berlinale Forum.
Lebanese filmmaker Maher Abi Samra’s documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each”, a look at the legal system that controls the lives of Lebanon’s foreign domestic workers, won the Peace Film Prize.
“Zinzana”/ “Rattle the Cage” director, Majid al Ansari, from the Arab Emirates, was honored with Variety’s Mid-East Filmmaker of the Year Award at the Berlinale. The film is the first genre movie of its kind produced in the UAE. It was financed and produced by Abu Dhabi’s ImageNation. It is repped for Us by Cinetic and international sales are by Im Global.
Projects “Mawlana”, based on Ibrahim Issa’s best-selling novel and shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize and director’s Mohamed Yassein’s “Wedding Song” based on Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature were being promoted at the Arab Cinema Center at the Market. Reflecting a decadent Egypt from the 1970s, “Wedding Song” is one of the largest TV productions in the Arab World in 2016.
“Theeb”, a Jordanian Epic about Bedouins, is the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It played in Venice. International sales agent Fortissimo has licensed it to Film Movement for U.S., ABC for Benelux, New Wave for U.K., As Fidalgo for Norway, Jiff for Australia, trigon-film for Switzerland. Mad Solutions is handling the Middle East. “Ave Maria” a 14-minute Palestine satirical short is the Academy Award nomination for Best Short Fiction and is being sold internationally by Ouat Media. “ The Idol” (Palestine) played Tiff 2015 and other top fests and has sold widely throughout the world through Canada-based international sales agent Seville. Not since Elia Suleiman won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for “Divine Intervention” has a Palestinian film director made as much of an impact as “The Idol” director Hany Abu-Assad whose “Paradise Now” and “Omar” both went to the Academy Awards.
Kudos for much of the success of Arab cinema go to Mad Solutions, the Cairo, Abu Dhabi and New York based marketing and distribution company for its marketing and social media strategies as well as its release of “Theeb”, “Zinzana” and “Ave Maria”. It also helped create the Arab Cinema Center which was launched last year at the Berlinale and Efm.
In all, 20 Mena films played in the Festival and Market this year.
And what of that other small country in the region called Israel (and/ or Palestine) which is not included in the term Mena? While Israeli films that showed in Berlin received international praise, they will never show in any of the Arab countries and are sometimes boycotted by international film festivals who succumb to censorship tactics.
Most of the larger Israeli features go to Cannes, Venice and Toronto; “Afterthought” went to Cannes, “Mountain” to Venice, “Barash” to San Sebastian”, “Wedding Doll” to London and “A.K.A. Nadia” to Talinn Black Nights Film Festival. In Berlin many are screened as German Premieres.
What Israeli films have won acclaim lately? Is it possible that our hero, Katriel Schory, head of the Israel Film Fund, whose stand for true art has earned him Israeli government censure at home (A prophet is never honored in his own land) and fame abroad with new countries striving to create national cinema, is being eclipsed by the growth of “Arab” cinema?
“Sandstorm” directed by Elite Zexer (international sales by Beta) made its way to Panorama from its world premiere in Sundance where it won the Best Actress Award for Palestinian actress Lamis Ammar’s portrayal of a young Bedouin woman forced to choose between modern freedom or traditional societal strictures within an arranged marriage.
Panorama also screened “Junction 48” (international sales by The Match Factory) which received international praise and audience acclaim. The Israeli-Palestinian hip-hop movie by Israeli-American filmmaker, Udi Aloni, was supported by the Israel-based Rabinovich Foundation. The story is about Kareem who lives in a mixed Jewish-Arab crime-ridden ghetto outside Tel Aviv. He deals drugs and lives dangerously until he discovers hip-hop and decides to express his life as a Palestinian youth along with young singer Manar. Palestinian and Israeli musicians drive this music movie and for Aloni, just seeing the film made, and then shown at the Berlin Film Festival proves its success.
“Suddenly a group of people just choose to make a film and the film is extremely professional. It’s very important that this bi-national energy can create high quality stuff, the high quality is almost the symbol of the resistance. We should not even have to tell the story about the issue. The fact that we could create it is amazing,” Aloni told Euronews.
Thirty-seven-year-old Arab-Israeli rapper Tamer Nafar plays the lead role, and has known the 56-year-old Aloni for some time. “We have been on the same demonstrations, in the parties since 2000, so we live in each other’s world. He has been to my concerts many times, he directed a video clip, I was in his movies as a producer a few times. It’s not about an old generation and new generation, it’s just about creating the right generation,” he said. “He has that gift of being a good story teller and director but he gives us the stage, no, he doesn’t give us a stage, we are building a stage together… he has his own perspective but we are all on the same level,” said actress Samar Qupty. The struggle for equal rights for Palestinians or Arab Israelis inside Israel is at its crux.
Panorama Documents screened “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” directed by Tomer Haymann and Barak Heymann co-directed by Alexander Bodin Saphir and being sold by Austria’s Autlook. Forum showed “ Inertia” by Idan Haguel being sold by Oration Films’ Timothy O’Brian of the U.S., and “Between Fences” by Avi Mograbi, being sold by Docs & Film’s Daniela Elstner of France. Culinary Cinema showed “Café Nagler” by Mor Kaplansky and Yariv Barel is being sold internationally by Go2Films.
Teddy 30 (the retrospective of Teddy Award winners over the past 30 years) honored Dan Wolman’s 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim”. Berlinale Shorts screened Rotem Murat’s “Winds Junction” from Sapir College which also holds international rights; Generation 14 Plus screened “Mushkie” by Aleeza Chanowitz from the Jerusalem San Spiegel Film School, being sold by Cinephil. Seven other films were sold in the market by various sales agents.
One of the very special events I attended at the Berlinale this year was the Shabbat Dinner, held the first Friday in the Festival and hosted by Nicola Galliner, Founder and Force of the Berlin Jewish Film Festival. There was a table full of Jews: the new Director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, Noa Regev, PhD; Jay Rosenblatt, Program Director of San Francisco’sJewish Film Institute and its former Director, Peter Stein, now the Senior Programmer of Frameline, San Francisco’s Lgbtq Film Festival; Judy Ironside, the Founder and President of UK Jewish Film and of the sixth edition of the Geneva and Zurich Jewish Film Festivals, the new young director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, Ariana Cohen-Halberstam who recently moved from the New York Jcc to Boston, the prolific Israeli director, filmmaker Dan Wolman whose new film will soon be out and whose 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim” was part of the Teddy 30th Anniversary Retrospective held by the Berlinale Panorama.
Talk was about films, about politics including gender politics, about our concerns, (we Jews are better worriers than warriors) and just plain gossip.
Now if my readers will excuse my interjecting myself into this article:
It is my opinion that the region of the world called the Middle East, and the three major monotheistic religions of the world whose origin is there had better learn to do more than merely co-exist peacefully if we are to see peaceful and fruitful consequences which will set the world back upon its proper axis.
Art breaks down borders; it is subversive rather than observant of the exigencies of ever changing governments. It creates new perspectives and breaks down old ways of seeing. What I call “Cinema” is Art. Other movies may simply entertain and not aspire to more or they may propagate dogmas, but Art serves no master; it is not tethered; it is freedom of expression which should be honored with freedom to travel.
- 3/6/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner, “Sand Storm” was written and directed by Elite Zexer. She and Lamis Ammar, the actress playing the oldest daughter in a family of girls who is an independent college educated woman, and I spoke at Sundance about the experience of making their first film together.
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university—a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. As she tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her, her daughter, possessed of a boundless spirit, sees a different life for herself thereby causing chaos and strife within the family.
Sydney Levine: How did you come up with this story?
Elite Zexer: My mother is a photographer and shot Bedouin villages for several years and brought me along with her. We also became very good friends with some of the Bedouins, visiting each other at our homes. About eight years ago, I escorted an 18-year-old to her arranged marriage ceremony to a man she had never met and she told me had a boyfriend in college. She said, “For my daughter, it will be different.”
When I made a short about a different culture (Bedouin) I liked the process and the Bedouins asked me when I would make another film.
What film background do you have?
Elite Zexer: I have two degrees in film. I graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bfa in film and an Mfa in film directing. I made a short “Take Note” which won the Best Fiction Film Award at the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, and “Tasnin” which went to over 120 film festivals around the world and won several international awards. I also directed the documentary “Fire Department Bnei Brak” before I directed “Sand Storm”, my first feature.
How did you put this film together?
Elite Zexer: Four years ago I wrote a script trying to write from the Bedouin point of view as much as possible, of course knowing my own pov would also be there. I applied to the two public film funds in Israel and to two private funds. It happened so quickly that only one year ago, in January 2015 I was already in pre-production. The rough cut was done by August. We went to First Look at Locarno and we won the prize. John Nein from Sundance was a juror there, and so we have now come to Sundance.
It all felt like it was blessed from the sky. Everything fell into place all the time. It was always just right. Even when we ran out of time and had only 5 minutes to shoot the last scene, that turned out to be the best and strongest scene in the film.
We thought, “It just has to work!” and it did!
And how about you, Lamis?
Lamis Ammar: This was my first feature. I studied theater in Haifa and I like cinema. This is the most interesting and challenging role I have played. I met the woman and seeing the finished film on the screen confirmed in a real and truthful way what my heart told me when I met her.
What do you think about the film?
I just saw it yesterday for the first time and I must see it again to understand all the details.
I knew before about the Bedouin in the south, but I am a Palestinian from Haifa so while there are some similarities, there are also many differences. It was a big process just to learn the accent even though we share a language.
Every time I see the Bedouin and learn more about them, I feel I want to be a part of them and to help in any way I can. This strong young teenage university student is different from the others in her community. Her father treats her as a liberated Bedouin but, for a female, the situation is very complicated.
As the writer of this interview, I want to point out certain background issues which, though they seem to have no direct connection to the story, are key to how the politics and policies of the Israeli government have created a marginal society for the Bedouins in spite of all the past support the Bedouins have given to the state of Israel. It is easy to say “just look at the culture” as if it bore no relation to the larger societal and political realities.
In my experience speaking with people from Israel/ Palestine I find the Bedouin and Palestinian stories to be international. Even as far away as Cuba, Cubans refer to people from the east of their island as “Palestinians” because of their outsider status in Havana.
The fact that Layla is a student in the university is very unusual in the Palestinian Bedouin society. It’s not acceptable -- not because the men don’t allow it, but because the Bedouin themselves refuse to be part of the Israeli society. They often do not know Hebrew, the official language of Israel. This reminds me of U.S. Native Americans whose languages have never been recognized officially by our government. Many Navajo (I don’t know about other tribes) do not speak English and their marginalization is astounding to anyone who visits the “reservations”; it is truly visiting another nation as far removed from the U.S.A. as the Bedouin are from the U.S.A.
To attend an Israeli University, everyone must speak and study in Hebrew. The Israeli occupation of the Bedouin ancestral lands influences everyone’s social knowledge and lifestyle. The Bedouin used to live freely in their own land until they were forced to leave for other places or to the city. Some Bedouin stay put, but the act of staying makes them more conservative than previously.
Some of their villages are unrecognized by the Israeli authorities and are under permanent threat of being demolished in order to create new Israeli settlements. Bedouin teenagers have been shot by the Israel police forces and there have been no trials for the police action. This is a story that we in the U.S. have been hearing daily about our own citizens who happen to be African-American. We also hear about it in France with their North African-French youth. We call it police brutality but although the Palestinian Bedouins demonstrate daily, but no one hears them.
This film takes one by surprise. The mother’s controlled passion and impatience seethe through her. You can see it in the set of her mouth and in the way she moves. Her daughters share her passion for life and one feels the pain of their predicament. Their incredible strength sustains them and a glimmering light of hope shines through the storm.
The situation described above is the underlying and unspoken theme of the movie. It seeps through everything, one's clothing and household and in the very grittiness of one's teeth, like sand in a sand storm.
Director/Writer Elite Zexer
Cast member Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal-Asfour, Haitham Omari, Khadija Alakel, Jalal Masarwa
Producers Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yacov-Mecklberg
Director of Photography Shai Peleg
Editor Ronit Porat
Total Running Time: 87 Minutes
International Sales: Beta Cinema...
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university—a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. As she tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her, her daughter, possessed of a boundless spirit, sees a different life for herself thereby causing chaos and strife within the family.
Sydney Levine: How did you come up with this story?
Elite Zexer: My mother is a photographer and shot Bedouin villages for several years and brought me along with her. We also became very good friends with some of the Bedouins, visiting each other at our homes. About eight years ago, I escorted an 18-year-old to her arranged marriage ceremony to a man she had never met and she told me had a boyfriend in college. She said, “For my daughter, it will be different.”
When I made a short about a different culture (Bedouin) I liked the process and the Bedouins asked me when I would make another film.
What film background do you have?
Elite Zexer: I have two degrees in film. I graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bfa in film and an Mfa in film directing. I made a short “Take Note” which won the Best Fiction Film Award at the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, and “Tasnin” which went to over 120 film festivals around the world and won several international awards. I also directed the documentary “Fire Department Bnei Brak” before I directed “Sand Storm”, my first feature.
How did you put this film together?
Elite Zexer: Four years ago I wrote a script trying to write from the Bedouin point of view as much as possible, of course knowing my own pov would also be there. I applied to the two public film funds in Israel and to two private funds. It happened so quickly that only one year ago, in January 2015 I was already in pre-production. The rough cut was done by August. We went to First Look at Locarno and we won the prize. John Nein from Sundance was a juror there, and so we have now come to Sundance.
It all felt like it was blessed from the sky. Everything fell into place all the time. It was always just right. Even when we ran out of time and had only 5 minutes to shoot the last scene, that turned out to be the best and strongest scene in the film.
We thought, “It just has to work!” and it did!
And how about you, Lamis?
Lamis Ammar: This was my first feature. I studied theater in Haifa and I like cinema. This is the most interesting and challenging role I have played. I met the woman and seeing the finished film on the screen confirmed in a real and truthful way what my heart told me when I met her.
What do you think about the film?
I just saw it yesterday for the first time and I must see it again to understand all the details.
I knew before about the Bedouin in the south, but I am a Palestinian from Haifa so while there are some similarities, there are also many differences. It was a big process just to learn the accent even though we share a language.
Every time I see the Bedouin and learn more about them, I feel I want to be a part of them and to help in any way I can. This strong young teenage university student is different from the others in her community. Her father treats her as a liberated Bedouin but, for a female, the situation is very complicated.
As the writer of this interview, I want to point out certain background issues which, though they seem to have no direct connection to the story, are key to how the politics and policies of the Israeli government have created a marginal society for the Bedouins in spite of all the past support the Bedouins have given to the state of Israel. It is easy to say “just look at the culture” as if it bore no relation to the larger societal and political realities.
In my experience speaking with people from Israel/ Palestine I find the Bedouin and Palestinian stories to be international. Even as far away as Cuba, Cubans refer to people from the east of their island as “Palestinians” because of their outsider status in Havana.
The fact that Layla is a student in the university is very unusual in the Palestinian Bedouin society. It’s not acceptable -- not because the men don’t allow it, but because the Bedouin themselves refuse to be part of the Israeli society. They often do not know Hebrew, the official language of Israel. This reminds me of U.S. Native Americans whose languages have never been recognized officially by our government. Many Navajo (I don’t know about other tribes) do not speak English and their marginalization is astounding to anyone who visits the “reservations”; it is truly visiting another nation as far removed from the U.S.A. as the Bedouin are from the U.S.A.
To attend an Israeli University, everyone must speak and study in Hebrew. The Israeli occupation of the Bedouin ancestral lands influences everyone’s social knowledge and lifestyle. The Bedouin used to live freely in their own land until they were forced to leave for other places or to the city. Some Bedouin stay put, but the act of staying makes them more conservative than previously.
Some of their villages are unrecognized by the Israeli authorities and are under permanent threat of being demolished in order to create new Israeli settlements. Bedouin teenagers have been shot by the Israel police forces and there have been no trials for the police action. This is a story that we in the U.S. have been hearing daily about our own citizens who happen to be African-American. We also hear about it in France with their North African-French youth. We call it police brutality but although the Palestinian Bedouins demonstrate daily, but no one hears them.
This film takes one by surprise. The mother’s controlled passion and impatience seethe through her. You can see it in the set of her mouth and in the way she moves. Her daughters share her passion for life and one feels the pain of their predicament. Their incredible strength sustains them and a glimmering light of hope shines through the storm.
The situation described above is the underlying and unspoken theme of the movie. It seeps through everything, one's clothing and household and in the very grittiness of one's teeth, like sand in a sand storm.
Director/Writer Elite Zexer
Cast member Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal-Asfour, Haitham Omari, Khadija Alakel, Jalal Masarwa
Producers Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yacov-Mecklberg
Director of Photography Shai Peleg
Editor Ronit Porat
Total Running Time: 87 Minutes
International Sales: Beta Cinema...
- 2/2/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
U.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeThe Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker)Directing AwardSwiss Army Man (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert)Special Jury AwardAs You Are (Miles Joris-Peyrafitte)Special Jury Award – Breakthrough Performance Spa Night (Joe Seo)Special Jury Award – Individual PerformanceMorris from America (Craig Robinson)The Intervention (Melanie Lynskey)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardMorris From America (Chad Hartigan)Audience AwardThe Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker)Next Audience AwardFirst Girl I Loved (Kerem Sanga)
U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury PrizeWeiner (Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman)Directing AwardLife, Animated (Roger Ross Williams)Special Jury Award for EditingNUTS! (Penny Lane, Thom Stylinski)Special Jury Award for Social Impact FilmmakingTrapped (Dawn Porter)Special Jury Award for WritingKate Plays Christine (Robert Greene)Special Jury Award for Vérité FilmmakingThe Bad Kids (Lou Pepe, Keith Fulton)Audience AwardJim: The James Foley Story (Brian Oakes)
World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeSand Storm (Elite Zexer)Directing AwardBelgica (Felix van Groeningen)Special Jury Award...
U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury PrizeWeiner (Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman)Directing AwardLife, Animated (Roger Ross Williams)Special Jury Award for EditingNUTS! (Penny Lane, Thom Stylinski)Special Jury Award for Social Impact FilmmakingTrapped (Dawn Porter)Special Jury Award for WritingKate Plays Christine (Robert Greene)Special Jury Award for Vérité FilmmakingThe Bad Kids (Lou Pepe, Keith Fulton)Audience AwardJim: The James Foley Story (Brian Oakes)
World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeSand Storm (Elite Zexer)Directing AwardBelgica (Felix van Groeningen)Special Jury Award...
- 2/1/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
All the news, reviews and interviews coming out of Park City.News
The Birth of a Nation
What were the buzz titles of 2016?
‘The Birth Of A Nation’, ‘Sonita’ rule Sundance awards
Sundance buyers wait to see if numbers add up
Six major deals signed in Park City
Fox Searchlight in record $17.5m deal for ‘Birth Of A Nation’
The Orchard snaps up ‘Wilderpeople’
Sundance unveils shorts winners
‘Indignation’, ‘Equity’ find Us homes
Amazon strikes $10m deal for ‘Manchester By The Sea’
Sundance director lambasts Chilean film support
Partners unite on ‘Under The Shadow’
Spc takes world on Frank Zappa doc
Mongrel International boards ‘Little Men’
Brainstorm Media sparks to ‘Resilience’
Buyers circle hot ‘Manchester’
Robert Redford addresses diversity
Curzon Artificial Eye acquires Whit Stillman’s ‘Love & Friendship’
‘Embrace Of The Serpent’ wins Sloan prize
Netflix acquires ‘Audrie & Daisy’
Magnolia takes ‘Lo And Behold’
Paramount Home Media in talks for ‘The Intervention’
Sundance Channel acquires five festival...
The Birth of a Nation
What were the buzz titles of 2016?
‘The Birth Of A Nation’, ‘Sonita’ rule Sundance awards
Sundance buyers wait to see if numbers add up
Six major deals signed in Park City
Fox Searchlight in record $17.5m deal for ‘Birth Of A Nation’
The Orchard snaps up ‘Wilderpeople’
Sundance unveils shorts winners
‘Indignation’, ‘Equity’ find Us homes
Amazon strikes $10m deal for ‘Manchester By The Sea’
Sundance director lambasts Chilean film support
Partners unite on ‘Under The Shadow’
Spc takes world on Frank Zappa doc
Mongrel International boards ‘Little Men’
Brainstorm Media sparks to ‘Resilience’
Buyers circle hot ‘Manchester’
Robert Redford addresses diversity
Curzon Artificial Eye acquires Whit Stillman’s ‘Love & Friendship’
‘Embrace Of The Serpent’ wins Sloan prize
Netflix acquires ‘Audrie & Daisy’
Magnolia takes ‘Lo And Behold’
Paramount Home Media in talks for ‘The Intervention’
Sundance Channel acquires five festival...
- 2/1/2016
- ScreenDaily
Birth Of A Nation and Sonita were the big winners at the Sundance Film Festival this week.
Nate Parker's biographical drama about Nat Turner's slave rebellion - which sold to Fox Searchlight earlier this week for a record-breaking $17.5m (£12.3m) - won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the Us Dramatic Competition.
Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami's portrait of an aspiring Afghan rapper in Iran, Sonita, also scooped both the Audience and Grand Jury Prize in the World Documentary Competition.
The Us Grand Jury Prize for Documentary went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's campaign trail film Weiner - which charted the attempts of Anthony Weiner to run for New York mayor in the face of a sexting scandal. The World Cinema Dramatic prize went to Elite Zexer for her engaging family drama about a young woman who finds herself torn between tradition and love.
Morris From America was also a.
Nate Parker's biographical drama about Nat Turner's slave rebellion - which sold to Fox Searchlight earlier this week for a record-breaking $17.5m (£12.3m) - won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the Us Dramatic Competition.
Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami's portrait of an aspiring Afghan rapper in Iran, Sonita, also scooped both the Audience and Grand Jury Prize in the World Documentary Competition.
The Us Grand Jury Prize for Documentary went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's campaign trail film Weiner - which charted the attempts of Anthony Weiner to run for New York mayor in the face of a sexting scandal. The World Cinema Dramatic prize went to Elite Zexer for her engaging family drama about a young woman who finds herself torn between tradition and love.
Morris From America was also a.
- 2/1/2016
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Nate Parker’s directorial debut claimed the Us Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and corresponding audience award at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, capping off a barnstorming week for the slave revolt drama.
Last week The Birth Of A Nation sparked a bidding frenzy that resulted in the biggest on-site deal in the festival’s history as Fox Searchlight paid $17.5m for worldwide rights.
Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s film about a rapping Afghan teenager opposed to arranged marriage, earned similar double honours as it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and audience awards.
The Us Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s Weiner, while the audience voted for Brian Oakes’ Jim: The James Foley Story.
The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic went to Elite Zexer’s Sand Story and the audience choice was Carlos del Castillo’s Between Land And Sea.
In other winners:...
Last week The Birth Of A Nation sparked a bidding frenzy that resulted in the biggest on-site deal in the festival’s history as Fox Searchlight paid $17.5m for worldwide rights.
Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s film about a rapping Afghan teenager opposed to arranged marriage, earned similar double honours as it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and audience awards.
The Us Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s Weiner, while the audience voted for Brian Oakes’ Jim: The James Foley Story.
The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic went to Elite Zexer’s Sand Story and the audience choice was Carlos del Castillo’s Between Land And Sea.
In other winners:...
- 1/30/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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