Monthly Archives: September 2016

#SBIFF, Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Warren Beatty to Receive SBIFF’s Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film

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Academy Award® winner Warren Beatty will be honored with the eleventh annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film. Known for his iconic roles in BONNIE AND CLYDE, REDS, and DICK TRACY, Beatty will next be seen as Howard Hughes in 20th Century Fox’s RULES DON’T APPLY, which he also wrote and directed. The award will be presented at Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara on December 1, 2016 with all funds raised supporting SBIFF’s free year round educational programs.

Since 2006, the annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, which this year coincides with Douglas’s 100th birthday, has been awarded to a lifelong contributor to cinema through their work in front of the camera, behind, or both. Past honorees include Jane Fonda, Jessica Lange, Forest Whitaker, Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Quentin Tarantino, Ed Harris, and John Travolta.

“Warren Beatty upholds the highest artistic standards of the film industry,” says Kirk Douglas, original award recipient. “His choice of material has entertained us as well as made us think more deeply about the world we live in. I’m delighted he is accepting this recognition of his extraordinary talent.”

The event starts off with an outdoor cocktail reception where attendees mingle with each other and watch the honoree and other special guests walk the red carpet. Following the reception, attendees are seated for an extravagant dinner and tribute in an intimate setting. Following the three-course meal, special guests will take the stage to recognize the honoree’s complete body of work with various montages and clips. The evening culminates with the honoree being presented with the award and addressing the attendees. These events are truly a once in a lifetime experience and will be remembered by its attendees for many years to come.

Tickets are available here.

The 32nd Santa Barbara International Film Festival s scheduled to run February 1-11, 2017.

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(Source: http://www.sbiff.org)

 

Feature Film

THE LOVE WITCH: A film by Anna Biller

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the-love-witchTHE LOVE WITCH, a film written, produced, and directed by Anna Biller starring Samantha Robinson, Laura Waddell, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Gian Keys, Jared Sanford, Robert Seeley and Jennifer Ingrum is “an astonishingly lush, entrancing marvel that debuted at the Rotterdam Film Festival.”

Oscilloscope Laboratories is scheduled to release THE LOVE WITCH in 35mm in Los Angeles at the Nuart on November 11th and in New York on November 18th, with additional screenings at select theaters across the country.

Biller is known for her use of classic and outdated film genres to talk about female roles within culture, coding feminist ideas within cinematic aesthetics and visual pleasure. She creates all of her own costumes and set designs, making many or the props and paintings as well as composing and scoring for her films. THE LOVE WITCH, was made using only traditional film processes.

Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she makes spells and potions, and then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, leaving her with a string of hapless victims. When she finally meets the man of her dreams, her desperation to be loved will drive her to the brink of insanity and murder.

With a visual style that pays tribute to Technicolor thrillers of the ‘60s, THE LOVE WITCH explores female fantasy and the repercussions of pathological narcissism.

 

Here’s what leading critics are saying about THE LOVE WITCH:

“Extravagantly fulfills the filmmaker’s intention to create ‘visual pleasure for women.”

Steve Dollar, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

“Biller shot it, ravishingly, on 35mm and furnished every frame with uncanny precision; the result really could pass as a relic of the era. That it’s quite funny and charming seems almost beside the point.”

Calum Marsh, THE VILLAGE VOICE

 

“Sex, death, Satanic rituals, God-level costume design, and cinema’s greatest tampon joke ensue, as Biller spins an arch but hyper-sincere story about the true price of patriarchy. A spellbinding homage to old pulp paperbacks and the Technicolor melodramas of the 1960s, Anna Biller’s THE LOVE WITCH is a throwback that’s told with the kind of perverse conviction and studied expertise that would make Quentin Tarantino blush.”

David Ehrlich, INDIEWIRE

 

“A metaphysical astonishment. The costumes and furnishings, Biller’s own handmade versions of the era’s candy-coated extravagances, are as exquisitely arch and theatrical as the performances and the action, which—for all their comic exaggeration—echo with an uncanny symbolic power.”

Richard Brody, THE NEW YORKER

Check back for a full review coming soon…

See you at the movies!

(Excerpt from The Love Witch press materials courtesy of Marina Bailey PR)

Venice International Film Festival

Venice Golden Lion winner “The Woman Who Left” finds distributor

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(Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema/Hazel Orencio)

PanARMENIAN.Net – Despite skepticism that it would ever make it into cinemas, Filipino auteur Lav Diaz’s nearly four-hour-long opus “The Woman Who Left”, which won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is set for theatrical release in Italy by local niche distributor Microcinema, Variety said.

Microcinema has acquired Italian rights to the revenge drama from Berlin-based Films Boutique and plans to distribute it theatrically in coming months, in spite of comments in the press and on social media that the movie’s 228-minute running time made it too hard a sell.

Sam Mendes, who presided over this year’s Venice jury, said during the awards ceremony that one of the jury’s jobs is “to encourage people to come to the cinema and see original films,” while also noting that the jurors in discussions “talked about all movies the same way.”

“Mendes and the jury chose to give the Golden Lion to a film that thinks outside the box,” said Microcinema managing director Roberto Bassano. “And we are also planning to think a bit different.”

Bassano acknowledged that releasing “The Woman Who Left,” which stars Charo Santos-Cancio as a wrongly convicted schoolteacher facing the outside world after 30 years behind bars, would be “a business challenge” both in terms of finding ticket buyers and exhibitors unfazed by the “double screen time” taken up by the movie.

But he said that several art-house exhibitors, and also some Italian multiplexes in metropolitan areas, have already expressed interest. “It’s a slow burner, the kind of film you open small and expect to have legs on a few screens,” Bassano said.

An Italian release of “The Woman Who Left” would mark the first time a movie directed by Diaz made it into Italian cinemas, and also a rare release of one of his films in Europe.

Upcoming Italian releases by Microcinema, which uses a satellite transmission system to beam movies into movie theaters, include Argentinian romcom “No Kids,” directed by Ariel Winograd.

“The Woman Who Left,” shot in black-and-white with long fixed-camera takes, is considered one of Diaz’s more accessible works, with a “restrained run-time by the Filipino director’s standards,” as Variety critic Guy Lodge put it.

Earlier this year, the prolific Diaz won the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear for his eight-hour historical epic, “A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery.” That film was released theatrically in the Philippines by Star Cinema and elsewhere only screened in festivals.

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Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left) director/filmmaker, Lav Diz. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema/Hazel Orencio)

(Source: http://www.panarmenian.net)

Flickerfest

Flickerfest International Short Film Festival is calling for entries

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FLiCKERFEST 2017 ENTRIES – Now Open

FLiCKERFEST, Australia’s premier international short film festival, will be held at the Bondi Pavilion on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach in January 2017. The Festival in 2017 will celebrate 26 years of screening the best short films from Australia and around the world in competitions and special showcases. Following the Festival in Sydney, a selection of films will go on tour to 50 capital cities and regional centers around Australia.

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Entries close: 30 September 2016

click here: HOW TO ENTER

 

 

The 2017 Festival will include the following competitions and awards:

COMPETITIONS:

The 2017 Festival will include the following competitions:

International: Open to films from anywhere in the world (outside of Australia) under 35mins. *Academy ®Qualifying and BAFTA recognised.

Australian: Open to films made in Australia or by Australian residents under 35mins. *Academy ®Qualifying.

Documentary: Open to Australian & International short documentaries under 35mins. *Academy ®Qualifying.

GreenFlicks: Open to Australian & International films that focus on or have environmental themes under 35mins

Windows On Europe – Competition for Best EU Film.

FlickerUp: Australian Youth & Schools Competition – open to films from students enrolled in primary or secondary schools in Australia, or individuals under 18. (This competition will be divided into 2 sections: one for primary age and one for secondary age students) films under 35mins.

Flickerfest will also screen special showcases out of competition including Comedy, Love Bites Relationship shorts, Flickerkids shorts for shorties and more..

INTERNATIONAL AWARDS:

Award for Best Short Film – (Academy® Accredited)

Special Jury Award

Award for Best Animation – (Academy® Accredited)

Award for Best Documentary (Academy® Accredited)

Award for Best Environmental Short Film

Award for Best Use of Digital Technology in a Short Film

AUSTRALIAN AWARDS:

Award for Best Australian Short Film (Academy® accredited)

Award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film

Award for Best Cinematography in an Australian Short Film

Award for Best Editing in an Australian Short Film

*Industry and cash prizes will be awarded in the above categories of over $40,000 AUD in value.

Flickerfest is an Academy® Accredited and BAFTA-recognized festival.

 

All eligible films must be under 35 minutes and produced in the last 2 years.

(Sources: flickerfest.com, filmfestivallife.com)

 

 

 

Venice International Film Festival

Statistics of the first Venice Production Bridge

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screen-shot-2016-09-19-at-2-03-24-pmThe first Venice Production Bridge – the Festival film market’s evolution into a specialized meeting point for completing projects – was held from September 1-5, 2016 at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. The VPB re-proposed and expanded on the Venice Gap-Financing Market and Final Cut in Venice programs, making the most of the experience of the Biennale College – Cinema.
This first edition of the Venice Production Bridge registered 1,767 accreditations, including 758 Industry Gold accreditations (a 35% increase in this latter figure, compared to 2015).
Here are the final figures of the 2016 VENICE PRODUCTION BRIDGE:
 
·  GAP FINANCING MARKET (2-4 September): 448 pre-organized meetings were held for the 25 Fiction and Documentary projects, and 158 meetings for the 15 Virtual Reality/TV series/Web series. Fifty meetings were added directly on-site for all 40 projects.  Thus, a total of 606 encounters were re-organized, for a grand total of 656 meetings for the 40 projects over the two and a half days.
·  BOOK ADAPTATION RIGHTS AREA (2-3 September): over 250 meetings were organized over the two days for the 15 editors.
·  FINAL CUT IN VENICE (3-5 September): of the 6 projects presented in the selection, 4 films won the Final Cut prizes (***)
 
·  EUROPEAN FILM FORUM OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The European Film Forum was held on September 3-4, with the participation of the European Commissioner for the Digital Single Market, Günther Oettinger, and the Director-General of DG Connect, Roberto Viola. The European Film Forum organized two workshops, on access to financing for the creative industries and on the future of cinemas.
 
· 6 STANDS OPERATED IN THE VPB EXHIBIT AREAS:  
INCAA
EURIMAGES
REGIONE UMBRIA
REGIONE FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA
CHINA FILM PROMOTION
SHANGAI FIL FESTIVAL
 
· PANELS AND EVENTS ORGANIZED AT THE MEETING SPACE  
A total of 22, including 17 international panels and events
 
· VPB MARKET SCREENINGS ORGANIZED
A total of 35, including 13 Private Screenings
· DIGITAL VIDEO LIBRARY:
51 films were available for viewing at the Digital Video Library, including:
6 films from Out of Competition, 18 from Orizzonti, 7 from Venice Classics, 4 from Biennale College Cinema, 2 from Cinema nel Giardino, 5 from SIC, 6 from Venice Days, 1 from Final Cut
 
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(***) FINAL CUT Awards:
 
FELICITY / FÉLICITÉ  by Alain Gomis (France/Senegal/Belgium) Producer: Arnaud Dommerc received the following prizes:
–  Sub-Ti Ltd. (London) will offer up to € 7,000 to make a DCP master and Italian or English subtitles;
–  Sub-Ti Access Srl (Turin) will offer up to € 7,000 for a version accessible to people with sensorial disabilities;
–  Rai Cinema will offer € 5,000 to purchase the broadcasting rights for two years;
–  Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) will offer € 5,000 to reimburse costs incurred during post-production.
 
THE WOUND / ISIKO by John Trengove (South Africa/Germany/France/Holland) Producer: Elias Ribeiro received the following prizes:
–  Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris) will offer up to € 15,000 to make the sound mix;
–  Titra Film (Paris) will offer up to € 10,000 for digital color correction, and to make a DCP master and French or English subtitles.
GHOST HUNTING / ISTIYAD ASHBA by Raed Andoni (Palestine/France/Switzerland) Producer: Palmyre Badinie received the following prizes:
–  Laser Film (Rome) will offer € 15,000 for the color correction of a feature film, totaling up to 50 work hours (including technician);
–  The Festival International du Film d’Amiens will participate in the cost of making a DCP.
OBSCURE / OTMAH by Soudade Kaadan (Syria/Lebanon) Producer: Salma Kaf received the following prizes:
–  MAD Solutions will offer marketing, advertising and distribution in the Arab world;
–  The Festival International de Films de Fribourg will participate in the cost of making a DCP.
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(Source:www.labiennale.org)
Toronto International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

IFC Films to release in theaters Toronto fave ‘The Bleeder’

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Karen Butler

TORONTO, Sept. 17 (UPI) — IFC Films says it has acquired The Bleeder, a boxing drama that screened at the Venice and Toronto film festivals.

Directed by Philippe Falardeau, and written by Jeff Feurzeig and Jerry Stahl, the Chuck Wepner biopic stars Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss and Naomi Watts.  It will get a North American theatrical release in the spring.

“The Bleeder‘s journey could not have found a better conclusion. I’m thrilled that IFC Films acquired our film. I love the group’s philosophy and during the past days, their passion for The Bleeder was certainly contagious. I look forward to working with them in the near future,” Falardeau said in a statement.

“I am truly thrilled our film has found a home at IFC Films and Showtime. The team at IFC Films is pretty much leading the way in terms of effective and substantive theatrical releases right now,” added Schreiber. “As for Showtime, they’ve become family in the past five years, so to have them be a part of this movie just feels right. Such a great outcome.”

Showtime will be the pay television home for the movie after its theatrical release. The network is also where Schreiber’s series Ray Donovan airs.

(Source: http://www.upi.com)

Venice International Film Festival

La La Land at front of Oscar pack after win at Toronto

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Don’t get too upset. The six-month-long Oscar season will go to sleep for a spell after the Toronto International Film Festival tidies away the bunting. But the loudest of the opening trumpets is s…

Source: La La Land at front of Oscar pack after win at Toronto

Venice International Film Festival

The Stars of the Venice Film Festival visit the Biennale Architettura 2016

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Opening and Closing Master of Ceremonies Sonia Bergamasco (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/La_Biennale di Venezia Cinema)

Film stars and celebrities, who are currently in the Venice Lido for the Venice International Film Festival, have been visiting the Biennale Architettura 2016 (open until November 27th at the Giardini and Arsenale) and expressed great admiration for the display.

Deborah and John Landis have said: “While attending the wonderful Venice Film Festival, we had the good fortune to spend a day at the Biennale Architettura – exciting, inspiring and unmissable.”
Amongst today’s visitors of the Biennale Architettura 2016, one could find Pablo Larraín, director of Jackie, one of the films in competition at Venezia 73. Actress Natalie Portman, who plays the title role in Larraín’s latest work, also visited the Exhibition yesterday morning before speaking at the film’s press conference. On the same day, the Festival’s host Sonia Bergamasco also toured the Exhibition in the Giardini and at the Arsenale.
The Biennale Architettura 2016 also welcomed several jury members, such as the president of Venezia 73, British director Sam Mendes, as well as others: the director and artist Laurie Anderson, actors Gemma Arterton, Nina Hoss, Chiara Mastroianni and Zhao Wei, writer Giancarlo De Cataldo, directors Joshua Oppenheimer, and the winner of the Golden Lion at Venezia 72, Lorenzo Vigas. From the Orizzonti jury, actor Moon So-ri and critic Jim Hoberman also toured the Exhibition.
#TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival

La La Land at front of Oscar pack after win at Toronto

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Donald Clarke

 

 

Don’t get too upset. The six-month-long Oscar season will go to sleep for a spell after the Toronto International Film Festival tidies away the bunting. But the loudest of the opening trumpets is sounded with the People’s Choice Award at that festival. There was a time when the gong had little bearing on the Oscars, but, over the last decade, it has pointed to certain success at the awards that matter. Twelve months ago, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room began its march to glory — one big win for Brie Larson and nominations in best picture and director — with a triumph by Lake Ontario. Since 2008, only one film has won (Nadine Labaki’s Where do We Go Now) without receiving a nomination for best picture. Three of the Toronto winners in that time have converted into the Oscar itself.

It thus seemed likely that, rather than some leisurely outhouse puzzler, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land — a musical that has been Oscar favourite ever since opening Venice — would be the honoured picture. So, it has proved. The runners up were crowd-pleasers that, if nothing else, will figure in the conversation until nomination day in January: Mira Nair’s Queen of Katwe and Garth Davis’s Lion. (The Academy will be delighted that, after the #oscarssowhite embarrassment and the Birth of a Nation fiasco, both films focus on people of colour.) The many Ben Wheatley fans who were a bit disappointed by High Rise will be happy to hear that his thriller Free Fire won the People’s Choice for Midnight Madness.

There were no triumphs for the Irish at this year’s Toronto. But there have been decent reviews for Gerard Barrett’s Brain on Fire and Lorcan Finnegan’s Without Name. The best notices among the domestic premieres seem to have been for John Butler’s Handsome Devil. We now move on towards the Guild Awards in the winter with Awards appetite whetted (if that’s what you like).

If you’re interested, I have a tenner on Lion to win best picture at 25/1. No, I haven’t seen the picture, but it’s already come in to 20/1. So, I feel like a genius.

AWARDS AT THE 2016 TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

People’s Choice Award: “La La Land,” Damien Chazelle

People’s Choice Award For Documentary: “I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck

People’s Choice Award For Midnight Madness: “Free Fire,” Ben Wheatley

Platform Prize: “Jackie,” Pablo Larrian

Platform Prize, Special Mention: “Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait,” Khyentse Norbu

Best Canadian Feature Film: “Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves,” Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie

Best Canadian First Feature Film: “Old Stone,” Johnny Ma

Prizes of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Special Presentations Section: “I Am Not Madame Bovary,” Feng Xiaogang

Prizes of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Discovery Section: “Kati Kati,” Mbithi Masya

Dropbox Discovery Programme Filmmakers Award: “Jeffrey,” Yanillys Perez

NETPAC Award For World or International Asian Film Premiere: “In Between,” Maysaloun Hamoud

Best Short Film: “Imago,” Ribay Gutierrez

Best Canadian Short Film: “Mutants,” Alexandre Dostie

(Source: http://www.irishtimes.com)

#TIFF, World Premiere

TIFF 2016: Woody Harrelson in One More Biopic of LBJ—This Time a Good One

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By George Prentice

Beneath a mound of makeup and fake proboscis, Woody Harrelson performs the hell out of Lyndon Baines Johnson in LBJ, yet another dramatization of the 36th president of the United States.

The subject of President Johnson has been well trod. There have been four magnificent books written on LBJ by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Caro; the Tony Award-winning 2012 Broadway play All the Way by Robert Schennkan; and the 2016 HBO adaptation of the play, which will most certainly win its star, Bryan Cranston, another Emmy Award this Sunday.

Now comes director Rob Reiner’s LBJ, which has yet to set a release date in North America but made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“You got your show horses and you got your workhorses,” LBJ says to an aide early in the film, referring to then-President John F. Kennedy’s popularity versus his vice president’s respectability. “And when the field needs plowin’, you need the right one leavin’ the barn.”

LBJ chronicles Johnson’s reluctance to accept the vice presidency from JFK, followed by his taking of the reins in the shadow of the latter’s assassination. Harrelson plays the irascible yet sly Texan as a tough SOB who still obsessed over not being liked.

“I could walk on the Potomac River and the next day’s headlines would say, ‘Johnson can’t swim,'” he complains.

Expectations were low for the film. Reiner has had his share of hits (When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men), but he’s had more misses of late (Being Charlie, Rumor Has it, The Story of Us). Considering Reiner also directed the widely-popular 1995 film The American President, this is territory he’s comfortable with—and it shows.

Harrelson, whose dramatic turns increase with every project (one recent highlight being HBO’s True Detective), mines his own Texas roots to uncover subtleties in LBJ than many other actors haven’t been able to deliver. For that reason alone, LBJ is worth seeing and goes a long way to making it Reiner’s best film since The American President.

(Source: http://www.boiseweekly.com)