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
LOS ANGELES, CA (OCTOBER 10, 2016) – The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) have announced the nominees for the inaugural Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. The winners will be presented their awards at a gala event on Thursday, November 3, 2016 at BRIC, in Brooklyn, New York.
Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalist Association’s Joey Berlin. (Photo: zimbio.com)
BFCA and BTJA President Joey Berlin said,
“It is an amazing time for documentaries, with the ever-increasing number of platforms enabling producers to reach enthusiastic and growing audiences for non-fiction storytelling. This is clearly demonstrated in the depth and quality of our inaugural nominees. We have a wealth of brilliant creators who are bringing to light some of the most entertaining and illuminating stories being told today. Indeed, documentary filmmaking is modern investigative journalism. We look forward to celebrating all these fine and important achievements at the first Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards gala on November 3rd.”
13th, 30 For 30: O.J.: Made in America and Gleason lead the nominations this year with five each. 13th has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature, Best Political Documentary, Best Documentary Feature (TV/Streaming), Ava DuVernay for Best Director (TV/Streaming) and Best Song in a Documentary.
The nominations for O.J.: Made in America include Best Documentary Feature, Ezra Edelman for Best Direction of a Documentary Feature, Best Limited Documentary Series, Best Political Documentary and Best Sports Documentary.
Gleason received nominations for Best Documentary Feature, Clay Tweel for Best Direction of a Documentary Feature, Best Song in a Documentary, Best Sports Documentary, in addition to the Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary honor for Steve Gleason.
As part of the gala awards ceremony the BFCA and BTJA will be honoring this year’s Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary. Honorees are as follows:
– Danny Fields – Danny Says (Magnolia/Outre Films)
– Iggy Pop – Gimme Danger (Magnolia/Amazon)
– Kirsten Johnson – Cameraperson (Janus Films/Fork Films/Big Mouth Productions)
– Owen Suskind – Life, Animated (A&E IndieFilms/The Orchard/Motto Pictures/Roger Ross Williams Productions)
– Sharon Jones – Miss Sharon Jones! (Cabin Creek Films/Starz Digital Media)
– Steve Gleason – Gleason (Open Road/Amazon/Exhibit A)
– Kate PlaysChristine (Grasshopper Film/4th Row Films/Faliro House Productions/Prewar Cinema Productions)
– Life, Animated (A&E IndieFilms/The Orchard/Motto Pictures/Roger Ross Williams Productions)
– Nuts (Amazon/mTuckman Media/Cartuna/Gland Power Films)
– Tower (Kino Lorber/ITVS/Meredith Vieira Productions/GTS Films/Diana DiMenna Film
– Under The Sun (Icarus Films/Vertov Studio/Saxonia Entertainment/Hypermarket Film)
Qualified members of BFCA and BTJA will choose the winners from amongst the nominees in voting October 31 – November 1.
About CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS
The Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards are presented in concert with the Critics’ Choice Awards. The Critics’ Choice Awards are bestowed annually by the BFCA and BTJA to honor the finest in cinematic and television achievement. The BFCA is the largest film critics’ organization in the United States and Canada, representing more than 300 television, radio and online critics. BFCA members are the primary source of information for today’s film-going public. BTJA is the collective voice of almost 100 journalists who regularly cover television for TV viewers, radio listeners and online audiences. Historically, the ‘Critics’ Choice Awards’ are the most accurate predictor of the Academy Award nominations.
A&E Networks will again partner with the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) as the exclusive home to the ‘22nd Annual ‘Critics’ Choice Awards’. Accolades for the finest achievements in both movies and television will be presented Sunday, December 11 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, and will again be seen live on A&E, 8pm-11pm ET. For more information, visit: www.CriticsChoice.com
About CRITICS’ CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARDS
The inaugural Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards will honor the finest achievement in documentary features and non-fiction television. The awards are determined by a committee of BFCA and BTJA members with a background and expertise in the documentary field. The debut awards ceremony will take place, November 3, 2016 in Brooklyn, New York.
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing more than 300 television, radio and online critics. The Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) is a partner organization to the BFCA and includes TV, radio and Internet journalists who cover television on a regular basis. For more information, visit: www.CriticsChoice.com
Werner Herzog’s one of the most distinctive voices in Cinema – excelling both in fiction and documentaries. His latest, “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World” explores the internet – an incredibly timely topic – and the movie’s thought provoking as well as absorbing. It plays tonight at 5pm and tomorrow at 7:30pm at the Riviera Theatre. Below find a Washington Post review.
In ‘Lo and Behold,’ Werner Herzog examines good, evil and the Internet
By Ann Hornaday – The Washington Post
Werner Herzog has explored the known world from the Amazon and Antarctica to the prehistoric cave of Chauvet. It seems only fitting that he would set his restless, perpetually questioning sights on the Internet, the ether where we spend increasingly more of our lives, at their most public and most intensely secret.
Herzog’s documentary “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World” is just what its title promises: A series of ruminations, each its own 10-to-15-minute chapter, on the origins, implications, moral ambiguities and latent possibilities of a medium we’ve absorbed readily, almost reflexively, without much consideration of the consequences.
Beginning at UCLA, where the first message was sent on what would become the Internet, and traveling the globe to interview engineers and astronomers, philosophers and hackers, robotics experts and refuseniks, Herzog creates an intriguing bookend to Alex Gibney’s “Zero Days,” which examined the looming dangers of cyberwarfare. Although Herzog touches briefly on the subject of security, he’s far more interested in how our online life has changed us and whether it’s allowed us to access the best parts of ourselves — such as when a huge community of gamers comes together to help find a cure for disease — or the worst, represented by a family who were sent horrific emails and graphic pictures following the death of their daughter in a car accident.
Is the technological ideal to be found in absolute transparency or absolute privacy? As one early pioneer observes, the founding irony of the Internet is that it was created by scientists with such idealism and mutual trust that they couldn’t comprehend the potential for anonymous cruelty and abuse that they were unleashing.
Formally, “Lo and Behold” breaks no new ground: It’s a collection of talking heads, archival footage and illustrations, punctuated by Herzog’s own queries and asides, delivered in the German accent that always conveys a tone of barely contained existential panic. Of course, that’s what makes the movie special, as when Herzog insists on bringing the conversation back to the mysteries of love and attraction, or when, during a speculative digression about video games, he intones the phrase “malevolent Druid dwarf.”
Thoughtful, searching and wonderfully moving in its wistful final moments, “Lo and Behold” may not be Herzog’s most artistically ambitious film, but it’s an intriguing, even important one nonetheless. Come for the engaging, reflective tutorial on technological progress, human nature and transformation; stay for the malevolent Druid dwarves.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – APRIL 25, 2016, WASHINGTON, DC – Today, AFI DOCS, the American Film Institute’s annual documentary celebration held June 22–26, 2016, in the nation’s capital, announced the festival’s Opening and Closing Night films. Opening AFI DOCS 2016 is the North American premiere of Magnolia Pictures’ ZERO DAYS, directed by Alex Gibney. Closing the festival is Music Box Films’ NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Both Gala screenings will be held at the Newseum, which has joined the festival this year as the Official Gala Screening Partner. Located on historic Pennsylvania Avenue, the Newseum is a champion for free expression around the world and features seven levels of interactive exhibits including 15 galleries and 15 theaters.
AFI DOCS is proud to announce the return of AT&T as Presenting Sponsor.
“With AT&T’s continued support, we are thrilled to kick off and close AFI DOCS 2016 with two remarkable films that remind us why documentaries are essential viewing for all who love film. To have this trio of filmmakers — Alex Gibney, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady — bookend the festival is a true honor,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director of AFI DOCS.
The Opening Night Gala of the North American premiere of ZERO DAYS will be held on June 22 at the Newseum and will feature a Q&A with Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney after the screening. ZERO DAYS explores Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer worm discovered in 2010 that was commissioned by the U.S. and Israeli governments to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Gibney’s work has been celebrated at AFI DOCS in the past: he was honored at the AFI DOCS Charles Guggenheim Symposium in 2014 and he presented his film STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE in 2015.
The Closing Night Gala screening of NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU will be held on June 26 at the Newseum and will feature a post-screening discussion with film subject Norman Lear and Academy Award®-nominated directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. The film chronicles the life and work of Lear, a television icon known for his keen writing and producing talents. His legendary TV shows, which include ALL IN THE FAMILY, THE JEFFERSONS and MAUDE, boldly addressed the topics of race, class and feminism in the 1970s and ’80s. Ewing and Grady previously brought their Oscar®-nominated film JESUS CAMP to AFI DOCS in 2006.
Tickets to AFI DOCS, including Opening Night and Closing Night screenings, will be available early to AFI members exclusively from May 9–17, and to the public on May 18. Passes for AFI DOCS 2016 are now on sale at AFI.com/afidocs. More information about AFI DOCS screenings and other special events will be announced in the coming weeks.
About the Newseum
The Newseum is dedicated to free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. Headquartered on historic Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., the Newseum’s compelling, dynamic and engaging exhibits, programs and education initiatives help ensure that these fundamental freedoms remain strong and protected both today and for future generations. The Newseum Institute promotes the study, exploration and education of the challenges confronting freedom through its First Amendment Center and the Religious Freedom Center. The Newseum is a 501(c)(3) public charity funded by generous individuals, corporations and foundations, including the Freedom Forum. For more information, visit newseum.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, mobile, high speed Internet and voice services. We’re the world’s largest provider of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. We offer the best global coverage of any U.S. wireless provider*. And we help businesses worldwide serve their customers better with our mobility and highly secure cloud solutions.
*Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; voice roaming; and world-capable smartphone and tablets in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.
About AFI DOCS
AFI DOCS is the American Film Institute’s annual documentary festival in the Washington, DC area. Presenting the year’s best documentaries, AFI DOCS is the only festival in the U.S. dedicated to screenings and events that connect audiences, filmmakers and policy leaders in the seat of our nation’s government. The AFI DOCS advisory board includes Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim, Chris Hegedus, Werner Herzog, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, D A Pennebaker, Agnès Varda and Frederick Wiseman. The AFI DOCS advisory board includes Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim, Chris Hegedus, Werner Herzog, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, D A Pennebaker and Frederick Wiseman. Now in its 14th year, the festival will be held June 22–26, 2016 in landmark Washington, DC venues and the historic AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. Visit AFI.com/afidocs and connect on twitter.com/afidocs, facebook.com/afidocs and youtube.com/AFI.
From June 22–26, the 14th edition of AFI DOCS showcases 94 films representing 30 countries. Screenings will take place in Washington, DC, at the Newseum and the Landmark E Street Cinema, and in Silver Spring, MD, at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.
Newly announced films from notable documentarians include COMMAND AND CONTROL (DIR Robert Kenner), the world premiere of DOC & DARRYL (DIRS Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio) and MISS SHARON JONES! (DIR Barbara Kopple) — and many more titles.
As previously announced, the Newseum will host the Opening Night Gala and North American premiere of ZERO DAYS (DIR Alex Gibney) and the Closing Night Gala screening of NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU (DIRS Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady). Also previously announced, AFI will recognize Werner Herzog at AFI DOCS as the Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree on June 24. The Symposium will include a conversation, moderated by Ramin Bahrani, followed by the East Coast premiere of Herzog’s latest film LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD.
AFI DOCS will offer additional programs for festival filmmakers as a way to connect with film industry and policy leaders. The festival will also include a Filmmaker Forum open to the documentary filmmaking community.
Tickets to AFI DOCS 2016, including Galas and Spotlight Screenings, will be available to AFI members exclusively from May 9–17, and to the public on May 18. Passes for AFI DOCS 2016 are now on sale.
Ninety-four films. 30 countries. The best of documentary cinema today. This year’s lineup includes new films from Judd Apatow, Alex Gibney, Werner Herzog, Barbara Kopple and many more. Explore all of the the films you want to see at AFI DOCS 2016 right now.
Tickets to the festival are now available for AFI members exclusively through May 17, and will open to the public on May 18. Passes for the festival are now on sale. Take advantage of the early ticketing window and discounted pass prices by becoming an AFI member today.
