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Announcing AFI FEST’s Inaugural Masters in Conversation Section

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AFI FEST presented by Audi has a new section this year. The inaugural year of Masters in Conversation features three longtime international filmmakers who continually turn out provocative, challenging works that push the limits of what is possible in cinema. Films screening in this section are I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, followed by a discussion with director Raoul Peck, and THE WOMAN WHO LEFT, followed by a discussion with director Lav Diaz. Documentarian Gianfranco Rosi also joins this section for a conversation about his lauded documentary on the migrant crisis, FIRE AT SEA.

MASTERS IN CONVERSATION

Lav Diaz works as a director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer, poet, composer,screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-9-23-59-am production designer and actor. Known for the daring length of his films, some of which run up to 11 hours, Diaz made his feature debut with THE CRIMINAL OF BARRIO CONCEPCION in 1998. His subsequent features include EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (2004); CENTURY OF BIRTHING (2011); NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (2013); FROM WHAT IS BEFORE (AFI FEST 2014), winner of the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival; and A LULLABY TO THE SORROWFUL MYSTERY (2016). His film THE WOMAN WHO LEFT will screen at AFI FEST.

 

Raoul Peck’s complex body of work includes THE MAN BY THE SHORE (1993), whichscreen-shot-2016-10-20-at-9-23-00-am competed at the Cannes Film Festival; LUMUMBA (2000), SOMETIMES IN APRIL (2005), MOLOCH TROPICAL (2009) and MURDER IN PACOT (2014), all of which premiered at top international festivals. His documentaries include LUMUMBA: DEATH OF A PROPHET (1990), DESOUNEN: DIALOGUE WITH DEATH (1994) and FATAL ASSISTANCE (2013). He served on the Cannes Jury in 2012, and is presently chairman of the French lm school La Fémis. In 2001, the Human Rights Watch Organization awarded him the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award. His film I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO will screen at AFI FEST.

 

Gianfranco Rosi is the director of the documentary BELOW SEA LEVEL (2008), which wonscreen-shot-2016-10-20-at-9-21-31-am the Orizzonti Award at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the European Film Awards; EL SICARIO, ROOM 164 (2010), which won the FIPRESCI Award at Venice; and SACRO GRA (2013), which won the Golden Lion at Venice. Living for a year on Lampedusa resulted in FIRE AT SEA, the Golden Bear and Ecumenical Prize winner at the Berlinale.

 

Tickets to Masters in Conversations will be available on AFI.com beginning November 1

*Featured photo from THE WOMAN WHO LEFT

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(Source: http://www.blog.afi.com)

 

Berlin Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

Japanese films fail to make mark at ‘Big 3’ festivals

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Misuzu Sato

Japanese films failed to make the Golden Lion shortlist at the 73rd Venice Film Festival that wrapped up in September. A question was posed at the Venice Film Festival Press Conference on why Japan is missing out on challenging in the top competition for the second consecutive year.

Also in Cannes and Berlin this year, no Japanese films were shown in competition, meaning they were not in the running for the top prizes at the “Big Three” film festivals.

While experts say Asian films have been losing their foothold in the increasingly competitive film festival circuit, they urge Japanese filmmakers to pursue their ingenuity and attempt a more international perspective.

The Venice festival has given the Golden Lion prize to Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Takeshi Kitano’s Hana-bi, and also showcased films by Kitano, Hayao Miyazaki, Shinya Tsukamoto and other Japanese filmmakers in competition for 13 consecutive years until 2014. Although three of the 21 films showcased in competition in 2008 were from Japan, no Japanese movies have made it to the main competition for the past two years.

“With the number of films produced having increased, the margin for not only Japanese films but also for other Asian movies to be featured at international film festivals has shrunk in recent years,” said Tokyo International Film Festival programming director Yoshihiko Yatabe. “As it stands, it is less of the quality of the works than the fact that organizers can’t get around to reviewing Asian films as South American and North European films are also doing great.”

However, Filipino director Lav Diaz won the Golden Lion for Best Film for his The Woman Who Left at Venice this year.

A forum focusing on the rapidly growing Chinese market was also held on the sidelines.

But Venice festival director Alberto Barbera said the festival had picked up a powerful and beautiful Japanese work in the Orizzonti section for cutting-edge films: Kei Ishikawa’s first feature film Gukoroku–Traces of Sin.

While Ishikawa was presented in Orizzonti, Yasushi Kawamura’s full-CG film Gantz: O–also his first full-length feature–was screened out of the competition at Venice.

At Cannes, Koji Fukada’s Harmonium received the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section.

“In Japan, it is difficult for filmmakers to make auteuristic art films, but it shouldn’t be impossible if they are determined,” said film journalist Atsuko Tatsuta, as to how Japanese films could break into the competition lineup. “They need to gain a more international perspective by collaborating with other countries and making other efforts.”

Jean-Michel Frodon, former editorial director of film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, said that although Japanese filmmakers are making good films, they have yet to earn recognition abroad. He also stressed the importance of showing their presence at other film festivals and promoting their works to overseas audiences.

*Featured photo: The red carpet at the Venice Film Festival in Lido Island, Italy, where all the films want to be competing (The Asahi Shimbun)

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

Cannes, Toronto International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

Filipino films garnering wider international attention

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Filipino films have been garnering international recognition in recent years. “The Woman Who Left” by director Lav Diaz won the prestigious Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival last month.

In May, the Philippines’ Jaclyn Jose won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.

CCTV’s Barnaby Lo reports this could be a new golden era in Philippine cinema.

It was a red carpet event, and rightly so. After its success in the international film festival circuit, “Ang Babaeng Humayo” or “The Woman Who Left” opened in the Philippines last week. The almost four-hour film about a woman seeking revenge for getting incarcerated for a crime she didn’t commit had won the prestigious Lion Award last month, the highest honor at the Venice Film Festival. But for its Filipino cast and filmmakers, it was both an exciting and nervous moment.

Today’s Filipino films have little to prove abroad, especially with the win of Lav Diaz’s latest epic at the Venice Film Festival. The real battle now is at home, where romantic comedies and commercial dramas still dominate the local movie industry.

While awards do not guarantee box office success, surely, they are a measure of where Filipino films are right now on the world stage.

(Source: http://www.cctv-america.com)

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)

Venice International Film Festival

Wrap Up: 73rd Venice International Film Festival Continues to Mesmerize

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I attended my first Venice International Film Festival at the Cinema del Palazzo complex in Lido this year from the Pre-Opening Night event August 30th through Closing Night September 10th, 2016 as an accredited media entity.

 

The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world with a history dating to 1932. This year was the 73rd edition showing little signs of its age. Steeped in glamor and tradition, the festival remains a testament to the cinematic arts with its viewing venues and its programming.

 

Italian Actress Monica Bellucci takes a moment to sgn an autograph on the Red Carpet at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema)
Amy Adams walks the Red Carpet in a shoulder baring black dress at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema)
Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts walk hand-in-hand on the Red Carpet at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema)

 

Set in Lido with a plethora of screens each only a score or two steps away, these hallowed cinema grounds created a magical setting  adorned with cafes, raised walkways, and abundance of shade trees.

 

The Al Leone D’Oro sidewalk cafe on the Lido grounds at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo credit: Larry Gleeson/HollywoodGlee)
Cinema patrons makeing their way between venues during the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo credit: Larry Gleeson/HollywoodGlee)

 

 

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Last night and final view of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo credit: Larry Gleeson/HollywoodGlee)

 

The real magic, however, took place inside the cinema!

Leading the way were the spell-binding performances of Lily-Rose Depp and Natalie Portman in Planetarium from Director Rebecca Zlotowski.

 

Rebecca Zlotowski
Planetarium Director, Rebecca Zlotowski. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema)

 

Award-winning, Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, took home the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize  for Best Film.  Nocturnal Animals captured my eye and imagination with it’s captivating story lines, exceptionally rich, mise-en-scene and wildly, powerful acting. Damien Chazelle and crew mesmerized audiences with their dazzling La La Land.  The lovely Emma Stone received the Best Actress Silver Lion Volpi Cup for her heartful, soul-revealing performance as Mia.

 

Director Tom Ford receives this year’s Silver Lion for Best Film from the Grand Jury. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema))
Ms. Emma Stone at the La La Land Press Conference on Augsut 31st, 2016, at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema))

 

 

 

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Director Lav Diaz, left, with Ang Babaeng Humayo film delegation at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema)

 

This year’s Golden Lion for Best Film went to Lav Diaz for his painstaking drama, Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left), an epic story with a runtime of 226 minutes. The film follows one woman rediscovering her homeland after a 30 year stay in a correctional facility.

For a complete list of winners click here.

 

Other noteworthy films, not already mentioned, included: Paradise, a Russian Federation film, set amidst the Nazi WWII reign of terror (Director Andrei Konchalovsky garnered Silver Lion for Best Director for his Paradise efforts); Terrence Malick’s Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey, winner of the 5th Green Drop Award awarded by Green Cross Italy to films that bring attention to the values of ecology and sustainable development; Jackie, Pablo Larrain’s portrait of the iconic First Lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Noah Oppenheim won Best Screenplay for Jackie); and Orecchie, a Biennale College – Cinema Production, directed by Alessandro Aronadio and produced by Costanza Coldagelli.

 

 

A special note of thanks to this year’s ushers for their efforts in ensuring my safety and well-being at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. Until next year, Ciao’!

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Ushers at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo credit: Larry Gleeson/HollywoodGlee)

 

 

*Featured photo courtesy of Larry Gleeson/HollywoodGlee