Source: Isabelle Huppert to be Honored at AFI FEST 2016
AFI FEST 2016 Announces Special Screenings
‘The Young Offenders’ Secures Second International Distribution Deal
Posted by Larry Gleeson
By Nathan Griffin
Carnaby International is the latest distributor to acquire the Irish box office hit The Young Offenders.
The Irish cocaine comedy, The Young Offenders, has already successfully grossed over €1m
domestically and is now set to be distributed in a number of countries internationally, following Vertigo Releasing’s acquirement of the film late last month.
The UK Film and Distribution Company obtained the sales rights for Canada, US, UK and Australian/New Zealand in October after the movie’s hugely successful opening weekend.
The film took in €202k on its opening weekend and ranks as the most successful Irish film of the year. It has also become the fastest grossing Irish-made film to reach the coveted €1m milestone, placing it alongside Irish classics such as The Guard and Man about Dog.
In the film, Writer-Director Peter Foott showcases Irish acting debutantes and leads, Alex Murphy and Chris Walley who are supported by Hilary Rose (The Republic of Telly) and Comedian PJ Gallagher (Naked Camera).
Inspired by the true story of Ireland’s biggest cocaine seizure in 2007, The Young Offenders is a comedy road movie about two inner-city teenagers who look to cash in when a drug-trafficking boat capsizes off the coast of West Cork spilling 61 bales of cocaine.
Carnaby International Sales and Distribution is a UK film company specialising in worldwide sales based out of Soho London and are recognised by all major motion picture and television festivals and markets worldwide.
The deal was brokered by Carnaby International’s Head of Acquisitions, Lorianne Hall, together with Peter Foott of Vico Films.
(Source: http://www.iftn.ie)
How AFI Fest honors trailblazing women along with its gala premieres
Posted by Larry Gleeson
The 30th AFI Fest hits Hollywood Boulevard Thursday with, appropriately enough, a strong emphasis on movie history.
Of course, the American Film Institute’s L.A. film festival will also bring its usual program of glitzy award season premieres, fantastic foreign and independent productions, new discoveries and live talent from all over the world to the Chinese Theatre complex and other venues along the boulevard by the time it concludes on Nov. 17.
But from its opening night gala premiere — Warren Beatty’s ode to Howard Hughes’ Hollywood of the 1950s Rules Don’t Apply — to the local bow of acclaimed contemporary musical La La Land and even a 75th anniversary restoration of the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane, AFI Fest 2016 will be honoring the past while looking toward the future.
“Showing Rules Don’t Apply and La La Land together is almost like fish in a barrel,” notes the fest’s director of programming, Lane Kneedler. “They’re about our town.”
And then there’s the event’s most beloved tradition: Once again this year, AFI Fest will be free to the public.
“There’ll be a few other things that are special,” festival director Jacqueline Lyanga understates about the 30th anniversary edition. “We’re featuring three trailblazing women from cinema history; Ida Lupino, Anna May Wong and Dorothy Dandridge; we’ll be showing their films in our Cinema’s Legacy section.”
Asked if the honoring of pioneering actress-turned-director Lupino and early Asian- and African-American stars Wong (an L.A. native, by the way) and Dandridge indicated an emphasized diversity theme this year, Lyanga provided perspective.
“For us, it really represents the scope and the range that is showcased at AFI Fest,” she explains. “Across the program, we have a remarkable amount of diversity in terms of women (33 of the nearly 120 features and shorts were female-directed) and in terms of filmmakers and artists and actors of color. It’s not something that’s special, actually, for this year, it’s something that we’ve seen in the programming year after year. We just look for great work; we don’t look for specific quotas.”
Among the splashier stuff they’ve come up with, AFI Fest’s programming team has added
the Natalie Portman-starring Kennedy biopic Jackie, a tribute to Annette Bening with a screening of her upcoming 20th Century Women, another tribute to French national treasure Isabelle Huppert with her Paul Verhoeven-directed Elle and, for closing night, Mark Wahlberg’s Boston Marathon bombing docudrama Patriots Day to its Galas list.
The festival’s Special Screenings section offers the first local glimpses of other upcoming hot properties such as the Robert De Niro-starring The Comedian, Jessica Chastain’s showcase as a high-powered D.C. lobbyist Miss Sloane, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest creepfest Split, acclaimed German comedy and Oscar entry Toni Erdmann and the premiere of Disney’s animated Polynesian spectacular Moana.
“ Moana is going to be a fantastic evening,” Kneedler promises. “We’re going to have all of Hollywood Boulevard Moana’d-out that night.”
Anticipated international auteur films making their L.A. debuts at AFI include Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation from Romania, Brit Ken Loach’s Cannes Film Festival prize-winner I, Daniel Blake, Spanish bad boy Pedro Almodovar’s latest Julieta, Pablo Larrain’s Chilean biopic Neruda, Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman, South Koreans Kim Ki-duk’s The Net and Hong Sang-soo’s Yourself and Yours and the Philippines’ Lav Diaz’s Venice Film Fest winner The Woman Who Left.
And many, many more. Plus a lot of stuff even the most devoted followers of the international movie scene probably haven’t heard about. There are films from 46 countries at AFI this year.
“One of the goals of the festival is to contextualize the year in cinema as best we can, in a place where people who are in the industry, the filmmakers, the general public, the cinephiles, the movie fans, everyone can come together and talk about movies,” Lyanga explains. “And, also, to not only think about the films that have won awards and are known about and lauded at Sundance, Berlin, Cannes or Telluride, but to bring to light films that we think are incredible that may have been off the radar. That’s part of what you’ll see in our New Auteurs, American Independents and World Cinema sections.”
Some titles Kneedler and Lyanga advise checking out include the American indies Always Shine by Sophia Takal, Buster’s Mal Heart by Sarah Adina Smith and starring Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek, and the Kris Avedisian-directed and -starring Donald Cried. They also suggest sampling Brazil’s Kill Me Please, Kenya’s Kati Kati, the French/Qatari co-production Divines and the Austrian/Italian Mister Universo amid the bounty of imported offerings.
The festival also will host a technology showcase, panels with the year’s outstanding indie and documentary talents, family- and student-oriented programs and, in case you need more classic movie connections, documentaries on film’s ultimate samurai Toshiro Mifune and mother/daughter icons Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.
For the full schedule, to reserve tickets and all other stuff, go to afifest.afi.com.
(Source: http://www.presstelegram.com)
The AFI FEST Interview: DIVINES Director Houda Benyamina
Disenchanted and unimpressed by the parameters of life in the slums of Paris, a fearless and ferocious teenager named Dounia unabashedly dreams of prosperity, not only for herself but also for her charismatic best friend and alcoholic mother. In her audacious pursuit of money, power and respect, she aligns herself with a ruthless gangster who uses her as a pawn to exact revenge on a rival drug lord. When their plan goes off the rails and escalates into violent territory, Dounia is forced to reconcile the allure of quietly escaping to the life of her dreams with the reality of the ramifications of her actions. Shot in a style that is at once melodic and discordant, DIVINES is a cinematic haiku of empowerment, youthful angst, racial inequality and the consequences of poverty.
Winner of the Camera d’Or prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, DIVINES is the feature film debut of director Houda Benyamina.
AFI: Oulaya Amamra gives an intense performance as the raw and uninhibited protagonist Dounia. How did you develop that character?
Houda Benyamina: One year of physical training was necessary. Dounia is a fighter who
develops an incredible lust for life and you had to feel it through Oulaya’s body. Her body had to embody this strength and this lust for surpassing herself; that is why Oulaya took boxing and parkour lessons. Apart from that, the character had to be in peak physical condition to keep up with the pace of the rehearsals and of the shooting. This was long and intense, and needed stamina.
Dounia has a cat-like side, she slides in and out of underpasses, passageways; she is at the same time deep down and high up. So Oulaya’s task was to watch documentaries on felines to grasp their way of being and moving. She also viewed a lot of gangster films and films in which the hero is transforming. We were looking for an organic transformation and this required an important identifying process. Oulaya suggested lots of ideas of clothing. During a whole year she wore Dounia’s clothes, she ate, slept and lived like Dounia. She even went sleeping in a gypsy camp because she had to understand her character’s rage due to a feeling of injustice, and to be able to find in herself Dounia’s anger for being ostracized.
AFI: What was your rehearsal process?
HB: During the shooting I developed a sort of safety line around the actors to protect them from any lapse in concentration. The camera, for instance, was on all the time so that the crew did not have to care about it and could keep focused on the actors. To me the film set is like a sanctuary, a holy place. I ask everybody to be extremely concentrated, full of solemnity toward the actors acting. And it is very important to me.
AFI: Questions of race and class inequality come up in the script. How did those themes shape the characters and plot?
HB: DIVINES is a film on spirituality and holiness. What was important to me was the apocalyptic ending. How does one rise from the ashes? How does one learn [that] there are so many things which shape us: family, social class, education, politics — but through these primary determinisms, I wanted to raise the question of free will and how it appeared in these characters looking for appreciation and dignity. Injustice is my driving force to creation. I feel close to my characters, who oscillate between darkness and light; I like exploring the two sides of human beings. Social inequality and the hunger to overcome are present for sure, but they are elements of the characters and not their essence. The essence centers on them and their inner lives.
Most important was to arouse emotion, because it makes us think and allows us to understand and question society. I intended to make a universal film with universal issues of love, friendship, the quest for recognition and dignity, and ambition.
AFI: You’re a celebrated short filmmaker. What made you want to make the transition to feature film?
HB: It was important to find someone who understands me and has the same artistic and human values, and I found him: my producer, Marc-Benoît Créancier. Once we had made my medium-length film SUR LA ROUTE DU PARADIS together, it was obvious to me to make a feature film. As a film director and a great believer I have lots of doubts and I ask myself lots of questions. My producer helps me overcome them; he encourages and guides me and he trusts me so much that making a feature film with him was a foregone conclusion.
AFI: In one sentence, what statement or question would like to linger with the audience following the screening?
HB: What do I really need to succeed?
DIVINES screens at AFI FEST 2016 on Saturday, November 12, and Monday, November 14, as part of the New Auteurs section of the festival.
(Source: afi.blog.com)
FILM REVIEW: The Wind Rises (Miyazaki, 2013): Japan
Reviewed by Larry Gleeson. Viewed during AFI Filmfest 2013.
The Wind Rises, is a new animated, full-length, feature film from legendary Japanese animation director, Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki announced at this year’s Venice Film Festival this will be his last film. In 1997 his Princess Mononoke, was the highest revenue grossing film in the history of Japan at the time of its release and it also received the Japanese equivalent of an Academy Award for Best Film. Miyazaki is also well known for the films Spirited Away, (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle, (2004) In 2003 Miyazaki received an Oscar for Best Animated Feature for the film Spirited Away.
His films have garnered international acclaim from critics and have provided Miyazaki public recognition within Japan. His films are known for compelling characters, engaging plots and eye-catching animation. Remarkable by today’s standards his films allow no more than 10% of the footage to come from computer animation.
In The Wind Rises, Miyazaki tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi, a real-life aeronautical engineer who designed fighter aircraft in Japan during WWII. The film opens with the young Jiro fantasizing of his plane flying above his hometown. As I watched the scene unfold, a rather powerful ominous feeling surfaced as I was reminded of Leni Riefenstahl’s opening scene from the Nazi propaganda documentary, Triumph of the Will. Nevertheless the early moments of the film are very heartwarming as Miyazaki chooses to highlight Jiro’s youth as an older brother to a delightfully spirited younger sister in a single parented household run by their kind and caring mother.
Jiro’s passion throughout the film is making good airplanes. Jiro’s daydreaming, which he does a few times during the story’s arc. Admittedly, several of my favorite moments are Jiro’s imaginings with Count Caproni, a larger-than-life mustachioed Italian airplane designer who mentors Jiro with playful and good-natured ribbing, that provide insight into Jiro’s creative passion. Jiro finds his inspiration through such moments and Miyazaki makes space for them throughout the film.
The story is partially based on Tatsuo Hori’s 1938 novelette, “The Wind Has Risen.” Miyazaki’s animation provides beautiful plush scenery with Monet-like backdrops and landscapes providing striking visuals while creating a powerful nostalgia for a simpler time lightly brushing over the complications of war and economic depression. With such a breathtaking mise-en-scene it’s no wonder a young Jiro falls in love with the young woman he saved during a traumatic, historic earthquake a few years before (the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake).
In direct juxtaposition to this frantic and rather manic scenario in the aftermath of the earthquake, young Jiro finds himself vacationing in a rural setting enjoying the greenery and the soft “rising” winds complete with majestic and billowing, flowery clouds when he coincidentally crosses paths with the beautiful girl he saved from the earthquake as she paints poetically on a hillside overlooking the spectacular countryside.
The Wind Rises, is a very light-hearted, entertaining film. The film focuses pretty much exclusively on the protagonist, Jiro, as an idealistic engineer whose primary purpose in life is to make planes. Granted, he falls in love and rubs elbows with German plane builders during WWII. Yet, WWII and the social unrest after the Great Kanto Earthquake are left virtually untouched. Tellingly, Jiro’s concern at the end of the war was over the planes that didn’t come back. Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly recommend the film for children and for adults with a penchant for Monet-esque visuals.
SBIFF The Showcase – Tampopo
NEW RESTORATION OF THE 1985 JAPANESE COMEDY MASTERPIECE!
Screening:
Sunday November 6 @ 2:00pm
Monday November 7 @ 7:30pm
Tuesday November 8 @ 5:00pm
Wednesday November 9 @ 7:30pm
at the Riviera Theatre
2044 Alameda Padre Serra
Juzo Itami’s rapturous “ramen western” returns to U.S. screens for the first time in decades, in a new 4K restoration. The tale of an enigmatic band of ramen ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, Tampopo serves up a savory broth of culinary adventure seasoned with offbeat comedy sketches and the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster. Sweet, sexy, surreal, and mouthwatering, Tampopo remains one of the most delectable examples of food on film.
TAMPOPO
Written & Directed by Jûzô Itami
Starring Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Koji Yakusho, Ken Watanabe, Rikiya Yasuoka
Country of Origin: Japan
Running Time: 115 min
Subtitled
“Tampopo is right up there with Ratatouille and Big Night when it comes to peerless movies about food.”
Joe Morgenstern – Wall Street Journal
“It’s a funny story beautifully told.”
Gene Siskel – Chicago Tribune
“Charming and touching, with lots of sumptuous meals to inspire you to get cooking.”
David Parkinson – Empire
“The movie, which Itami calls a ‘Noodle Western,’ is a rambunctious mixture of the bawdy and the sublime.”
Hal Hinson – Washington Post
(Source: sbiff.org/tampopo/)
Chattanooga-produced film ‘Hunter Gatherer’ lands national distribution deal
Posted by Larry Gleeson
By Sean Phipps
A film produced in Chattanooga will receive a national theatrical release following a distribution deal.
Hunter Gatherer starring Andre Royo (The Wire, Empire) debuted at the 2016 South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival to rave reviews. The film was written and directed by Josh Locy—a Bryan College grad—and Chattanooga’s Mama Bear Studios served as the executive producer, along with Unbundled Underground in association with Rough House Pictures.
National distributors The Orchard acquired digital rights for the film. Rough House Pictures will release the film in New York City and Los Angeles beginning Nov. 18, with a theatrical rollout to follow.
Hunter Gatherer follows Royo in his portrayal of Ashley Douglas, a man recently released from prison who finds out that everyone and everything has moved on without him. He attempts to win back his girlfriend, enlisting the aid of a fellow loner (George Sample III) as a business partner.
Royo garnered the Jury Award at SXSW for Best Actor.
Read a previous Nooga.com story on Hunter Gatherer here.
Isaiah Smallman, a producer of the film and co-founder of Chattanooga’s Mama Bear Studios, said a screening of the film in Chattanooga will take place near the beginning of 2017. In the meantime, he said the deal with The Orchard will open the door to new possibilities for the company.
“Since winning the award at SXSW, we’ve been playing lots of different festivals around the country, but we still didn’t know exactly what the next step was for distribution,” he said. “We had several small offers, but none of them were really all that enticing because you often end up sacrificing a huge percentage of the upside without much upfront money or hustle from the distributor to justify it.”
Smallman said he and the other producers—April Lamb, Sara Murphy, Michael Covino and Locy—thought about self-distributing the film, but that would take an enormous amount of time and relationship building to pull off.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled about landing distribution with an awesome company like The Orchard,” Smallman said. “They have all the right relationships with places like Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, cable VOD and all the other buyers that we will be targeting. And they know a lot about getting great small films like ours to the audiences who will love them.”
The film will be released on digital platforms in January. Hunter Gatherer is the first film produced by Mama Bear Studios from start to finish. Smallman said he hopes to continue championing Chattanooga as a film town.
“Cine-Rama and the Chattanooga Film Festival are doing an amazing job of creating a place for independent films to be screened, but we’re hoping in the next few years to make Chattanooga a destination for super-successful writers, directors and producers as well,” he said. “We’re constantly repping Chattanooga to people … and encouraging them to make their home base here, even if they might still have to produce their films elsewhere from time to time.”
Mama Bear Studios currently has 15 projects in various stages of completion, according to Smallman. Projects include two small indie drama films, a comedy TV pilot, two thriller features, two romantic comedies and more.
The studio previously released Low and Behold, a partnership with the Sundance Institute’s #ArtistServices program. The film follows the story of a young insurance claims adjuster in post-Katrina New Orleans who risks his job to help a local man find his dog.
Mama Bear Studios was founded by Smallman and his business partner, Drew Belz.
(Source: http://www.nooga.com)
National Geographic’s ‘Before The Flood’s Numbers Are Rising
National Geographic’s Before The Flood has reached over 30 million unique viewers world wide in its streaming, digital. linear and social platforms making it the most watched documentary since An Inconvenient Truth.
With an unprecedented distribution rollout, the film premiered in Los Angeles, New York and London before hitting the National Geographic channel airways in over 170 countries, and in 45 languages on October 30th. In keeping with its commitment to cover climate change, National Geographic has made the film available for free until November 6th on various streaming and digital platforms including NatGeoTv.com, YouTube, Google Play, Amazon and Vudu as well as NatGeo Tv apps for iPhones, Androids, XBox One and 360 .
Courteney Monroe, CEO, National Geographic Global Networks proudly asserts,
“At National Geographic, we believe in the power of storytelling to change the world, and with our unparalleled reach and history-making distribution of BEFORE THE FLOOD, we have already accomplished 100 percent of what we set out to do — to get this important and exceptional film in front of the widest audience possible, delivering it to viewers in every way they consume media. I am beyond proud that we have been able to bring the issue of climate change to the forefront of the global conversation — especially in the U.S. ahead of the elections — and hopefully inspire viewers to take action in their own way.”
Before the Flood, presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes occurring now around the world due to climate change as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society need to take to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet. Serving as a warning ahead of the U.S. elections this fall to vote for leaders who prioritize climate change policies, the film also explains real, practical solutions to help save the planet. As a United Nations Messenger of Peace, actor Leonardo DiCaprio interviews individuals from every facet of society in both developing and developed nations who provide unique, impassioned and pragmatic views on what must be done today and in the future to transition our economic and political systems into environmentally friendly institutions.
Interviews in the film include President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Kerry, U.N. Secretary-General Ki-Moon and Pope Francis as well as top NASA researchers, forest conservationists, revered scientists, community leaders and fervent activists working to save the world.
(Excerpt from BusinessWire.com)
AFI FEST 2016 Presented By Audi Announces Conversation and Presentations Lineup
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, LOS ANGELES, CA, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 — The American Film
Institute (AFI) today announced the Conversations and Presentations lineup for AFI FEST
2016 presented by Audi.
Highlights include an AFI Master Class on CITIZEN KANE with Peter Bogdanovich following a 75th anniversary screening of the film; Academy Award® nominee David O. Russell discussing the 20th anniversary of his sophomore feature FLIRTING WITH DISASTER; a panel on THE LOST CITY OF CECIL B. DEMILLE; director Barry Jenkins discussing his groundbreaking MOONLIGHT with cast members of the film; a roundtable of documentary filmmakers including Werner Herzog and Barbara Kopple, presented by the Los Angeles Times; The Hollywood Reporter Indie Contenders Roundtable with nine standout artists; and more. Click here to see the entire lineup release: afi-fest-2016-conversations-and-presentations-final
Free Tickets Available at AFI.com