Three feature projects celebrating diverse voices and stories awarded up to $50,000 each.
Filmmakers First Fund, a Los Angeles-based fund and studio space supporting full-length narrative and documentary projects in early development, has announced its first round of awards.
Fund co-founders Martin Marquet, a producer and former international publicist who produced 2020 Sundance World Cinema – Documentary grand jury prize winner Epicentro, Tony-winning Broadway producer Rebecca Gang (Hadestown), and producer/actor/artist Gale M. Harold III invited a majority women-led board to select three projects.
The awardees will each receive grants of up to $50,000, as well as 12 months of access to the Fund...
Filmmakers First Fund, a Los Angeles-based fund and studio space supporting full-length narrative and documentary projects in early development, has announced its first round of awards.
Fund co-founders Martin Marquet, a producer and former international publicist who produced 2020 Sundance World Cinema – Documentary grand jury prize winner Epicentro, Tony-winning Broadway producer Rebecca Gang (Hadestown), and producer/actor/artist Gale M. Harold III invited a majority women-led board to select three projects.
The awardees will each receive grants of up to $50,000, as well as 12 months of access to the Fund...
- 1/5/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
If you were to look at the members-only screening room where films in contention for the Academy Award for Best Picture stream for voters, you might think that documentaries are going to do very well in the Oscars top category this year.
As of Dec. 7, there were 104 films in the Academy Screening Room for the Best Picture category, 26 of which were documentaries. That’s a full 25% of the field, which seems to suggest that nonfiction filmmakers and the companies that release them are optimistic that Oscar voters will recognize docs when they vote this year. After all, it costs $12,500 to put a film in that screening room — and all 26 docs that paid the cost to be there are also in the separate screening room available to the Academy’s Documentary Branch. Spots in that screening room are free for any film that qualifies in the Best Documentary Feature category.
Common sense,...
As of Dec. 7, there were 104 films in the Academy Screening Room for the Best Picture category, 26 of which were documentaries. That’s a full 25% of the field, which seems to suggest that nonfiction filmmakers and the companies that release them are optimistic that Oscar voters will recognize docs when they vote this year. After all, it costs $12,500 to put a film in that screening room — and all 26 docs that paid the cost to be there are also in the separate screening room available to the Academy’s Documentary Branch. Spots in that screening room are free for any film that qualifies in the Best Documentary Feature category.
Common sense,...
- 12/8/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
With Catalonia’s theatres shuttered because of health-and-safety measures, the 27th Barcelona Independent Film Festival is gearing up to take place online, via various digital platforms. Today, The Year of the Discovery, which has only just won an award at the 17th Seville European Film Festival (see the news), will open the 27th L’Alternativa Barcelona Independent Film Festival – with an added master class set to be given by its director, Luis López Carrasco, to boot. Given that movie theatres in Catalonia have been closed for weeks, on this occasion, the gathering will unspool entirely via the digital platforms Filmin, YouTube and Vimeo. Epicentro (Austria/France) by Hubert Sauper, the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the most recent Sundance, will be the event’s closing title and will be shown on Sunday 29th. In its Official Section for International Features, audiences will be able to watch ten titles.
- 11/16/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Other laureates at the human rights film festival, which took place online and in cinemas in three of the biggest Serbian cities, include Digger, Acasă - My Home and Wildland. The 16th, hybrid edition of the Free Zone Film Festival took place from 5-10 November in cinemas in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš, as well as online. The human rights-themed and audience-orientated event traditionally screens around 40 fiction and documentary films, and does not discriminate between formats within individual sections. Eliza Hittman's Berlinale Silver Bear-winning title Never Rarely Sometimes Always (USA/UK) triumphed in the International Selection, beating the documentaries The Reason I Jump by Jerry Rothwell, Epicentro by Hubert Sauper, My Favorite War by Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen, Welcome to Chechnya by David France and Schlingensief: A Voice That Shook the Silence by Bettina Böhler as well as the fiction features DNA by Maïwenn and Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness by.
- 11/12/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Leading documentary festival Idfa has added 47 films to its program, which run as part of its Masters, Paradocs and Best of Fests sections.
In the Masters section, Idfa has selected 18 titles from today’s auteurs of documentary cinema. In “Irradiated,” winner of the Berlinale Documentary Award, Rithy Panh “contemplates the image of human suffering throughout history in a revolutionary film that approaches cinematic installation,” according to a statement from the festival.
In “Gunda,” Victor Kossakovsky “intimately examines our relationship with animals as he invites audiences to fall in love with the titular character, a wonderful mother pig.” “Paris Caligrammes” sees Ulrike Ottinger “curate a rich archival history of 1960s Paris,” in which the director features alongside the great artists, thinkers and revolutionaries of the day.
Dieudo Hamadi’s “Downstream to Kinshasa” pays tribute to the survivors of the Six-Day War in Hamadi’s native Congo, “finding poetry in stories of human resilience.
In the Masters section, Idfa has selected 18 titles from today’s auteurs of documentary cinema. In “Irradiated,” winner of the Berlinale Documentary Award, Rithy Panh “contemplates the image of human suffering throughout history in a revolutionary film that approaches cinematic installation,” according to a statement from the festival.
In “Gunda,” Victor Kossakovsky “intimately examines our relationship with animals as he invites audiences to fall in love with the titular character, a wonderful mother pig.” “Paris Caligrammes” sees Ulrike Ottinger “curate a rich archival history of 1960s Paris,” in which the director features alongside the great artists, thinkers and revolutionaries of the day.
Dieudo Hamadi’s “Downstream to Kinshasa” pays tribute to the survivors of the Six-Day War in Hamadi’s native Congo, “finding poetry in stories of human resilience.
- 10/6/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The closure of Polish cinemas earlier this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, dealt a temporary blow to the 17th edition of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, which was slated to take place in May. But the organizers were determined to hit the ground running as they geared up for a fall reboot, which will unspool across seven Polish cities between Sept. 4-13 with some 1,200 screenings—“more than at the Berlinale,” notes festival founder Artur Liebhart.
Liebhart has spent nearly two decades at the forefront of Poland’s documentary film community, both through Millennium Docs Against Gravity and through his distribution company, Against Gravity. “From the very beginning…our main goal, and our main effort, and all the plan was focused on developing [and] increasing the audience for documentary films in Poland,” he says.
To that end, he has eschewed the format of many large-scale international documentary festivals, where co-production markets,...
Liebhart has spent nearly two decades at the forefront of Poland’s documentary film community, both through Millennium Docs Against Gravity and through his distribution company, Against Gravity. “From the very beginning…our main goal, and our main effort, and all the plan was focused on developing [and] increasing the audience for documentary films in Poland,” he says.
To that end, he has eschewed the format of many large-scale international documentary festivals, where co-production markets,...
- 9/4/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
By Glenn Dunks
White faces invading Cuba is one of reoccurring images in Hubert Sauper’s Epicentro. And this includes the director himself. It is surely not lost on him that in examining the country’s place as “the epicentre of the three dystopian chapters of history” he at least somewhat places himself among the throngs of white, stickybeak tourists who get their ethnic cultural kicks by swarming barbershops to photograph young black boys getting haircuts before retreating to their glamorous five-star hotels.
But this is what the Austrian filmmaker does, embedding himself within a place that has become a wrestling point of contention for lands beyond its borders...
White faces invading Cuba is one of reoccurring images in Hubert Sauper’s Epicentro. And this includes the director himself. It is surely not lost on him that in examining the country’s place as “the epicentre of the three dystopian chapters of history” he at least somewhat places himself among the throngs of white, stickybeak tourists who get their ethnic cultural kicks by swarming barbershops to photograph young black boys getting haircuts before retreating to their glamorous five-star hotels.
But this is what the Austrian filmmaker does, embedding himself within a place that has become a wrestling point of contention for lands beyond its borders...
- 9/2/2020
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
After making its world premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield is ready to hit theaters. Searchlight Pictures is debuting the reimagining of the Charles Dickens’ classic starring Dev Patel in physical theaters (remember those?). To be more specific, the film will open in over 1,350 theaters across the U.S. and Canada with an expansion on September 4. David Copperfield is the first film Searchlight Pictures has released in theaters since Wendy in late February, a month before the pandemic caused box offices to shutter.
Emmy winners and Oscar nominees Iannucci and Simon Blackwell adapted the screenplay from The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery and told the story of the titular character as we see his glow...
Emmy winners and Oscar nominees Iannucci and Simon Blackwell adapted the screenplay from The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery and told the story of the titular character as we see his glow...
- 8/28/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
“What kind of future does tourism portend?” wonders a Cuban character rhetorically in Epicentro, the latest work of cinematic nonfiction from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hubert Sauper. “None! It is only devouring the future,” the Havana man declares. Indeed, it devours the “past and the culture,” rendering everything “superficial.” But then comes the real multimillion-dollar question, “How much does cinema resemble tourism?” Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at this year’s Sundance, Epicentro — an allusion to the northern Caribbean island’s place at the epicenter of the Americas, both geographically and politically — is […]...
- 8/28/2020
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
“What kind of future does tourism portend?” wonders a Cuban character rhetorically in Epicentro, the latest work of cinematic nonfiction from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hubert Sauper. “None! It is only devouring the future,” the Havana man declares. Indeed, it devours the “past and the culture,” rendering everything “superficial.” But then comes the real multimillion-dollar question, “How much does cinema resemble tourism?” Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at this year’s Sundance, Epicentro — an allusion to the northern Caribbean island’s place at the epicenter of the Americas, both geographically and politically — is […]...
- 8/28/2020
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Bad Vacations
I imagine your summer plans didn’t go as expected, but in at least a few films in a new Criterion Channel series, some characters have it worse off than having to quarantine inside. Titled Bad Vacations, the collection includes Bonjour tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958), La collectionneuse (Éric Rohmer, 1967), The Deep (Peter Yates, 1977), House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977), Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978), The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer, 1986), The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990), The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990), Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997), Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001), La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001), Unrelated (Joanna Hogg, 2007), and Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012).
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Epicentro (Hubert Sauper)
“This is utopia, bright and burning.
Bad Vacations
I imagine your summer plans didn’t go as expected, but in at least a few films in a new Criterion Channel series, some characters have it worse off than having to quarantine inside. Titled Bad Vacations, the collection includes Bonjour tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958), La collectionneuse (Éric Rohmer, 1967), The Deep (Peter Yates, 1977), House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977), Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978), The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer, 1986), The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990), The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990), Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997), Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001), La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001), Unrelated (Joanna Hogg, 2007), and Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012).
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Epicentro (Hubert Sauper)
“This is utopia, bright and burning.
- 8/28/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“This is utopia, bright and burning.” So narrates Hubert Sauper at the end of Epicentro, but the question at this point isn’t whether this utopia is real. It’s pretty well established that it isn’t—at least not entirely. It’s a matter of what’s fuelling it. Is it the brightness of the culture, or is it the burning it came from? “You are in the year 1898,” Sauper says at the beginning. The USS Maine has just fallen to an explosion in the Havana Harbor, and with that big bang comes more. The American flag is planted for the first time overseas. Yellow journalism and warfare unfold, and cinema, in its infancy, amplifies and distorts it all. The extent to which these all connect isn’t set in stone, but that’s okay.
Epicentro is too fluid for that. It comes in waves at one moment and in droplets the next.
Epicentro is too fluid for that. It comes in waves at one moment and in droplets the next.
- 8/27/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
Above: US one sheet for Epicentro. Design by Sam Smith.Recently I had the pleasure once again of working with one of my favorite movie poster designers: Sam Smith (a.k.a. Sam’s Myth). In my capacity as Design Director of Zeitgeist Films and now Kino Lorber we have worked together in the past on posters for Elena and The Mountain. Granted, Sam does all the work; as art director I just steer him in the right direction. This was especially true of our latest poster collaboration, for Kino Lorber’s new documentary Epicentro which opens in virtual cinemas today. Directed by Hubert Sauper (Darwin’s Nightmare), Epicentro is a beautiful cine-essay about post-colonial Cuba and so it was a no-brainer to play off one of the greatest design sources in the world: the screen printed movie posters of post-revolutionary Cuba produced by Icaic—the Cuban Institute of Cinemagraphic...
- 8/26/2020
- MUBI
New releases scarce in the week before ‘Tenet’ hits many markets.
UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 21
It is a quiet weekend for new releases in UK and Irish cinemas, with just two new titles on screens: Sam Quah’s Chinese crime thriller Sheep Without A Shepherd and Grégory Magne’s Perfumes.
Sheep Without A Shepherd reached number one at the Chinese box office following a December 2019 release, and was one of the last blockbuster hits in the country before Covid-19 forced the closure of venues in January. It was re-released on July 20, following the reopening of some cinemas.
Released by Trinity Film...
UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 21
It is a quiet weekend for new releases in UK and Irish cinemas, with just two new titles on screens: Sam Quah’s Chinese crime thriller Sheep Without A Shepherd and Grégory Magne’s Perfumes.
Sheep Without A Shepherd reached number one at the Chinese box office following a December 2019 release, and was one of the last blockbuster hits in the country before Covid-19 forced the closure of venues in January. It was re-released on July 20, following the reopening of some cinemas.
Released by Trinity Film...
- 8/21/2020
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦¬1101325¦Gabriele Niola¦35¦¬158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
New releases scarce in the week before ‘Tenet’ hits many markets.
UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 21
It is a quiet weekend for new releases in UK and Irish cinemas, with just two new titles on screens: Sam Quah’s Chinese crime thriller Sheep Without A Shepherd and Grégory Magne’s Perfumes.
Sheep Without A Shepherd reached number one at the Chinese box office following a December 2019 release, and was one of the last blockbuster hits in the country before Covid-19 forced the closure of venues in January. It was re-released on July 20, following the reopening of some cinemas.
Released by Trinity Film...
UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 21
It is a quiet weekend for new releases in UK and Irish cinemas, with just two new titles on screens: Sam Quah’s Chinese crime thriller Sheep Without A Shepherd and Grégory Magne’s Perfumes.
Sheep Without A Shepherd reached number one at the Chinese box office following a December 2019 release, and was one of the last blockbuster hits in the country before Covid-19 forced the closure of venues in January. It was re-released on July 20, following the reopening of some cinemas.
Released by Trinity Film...
- 8/21/2020
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦¬1101325¦Gabriele Niola¦35¦¬158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
National Geographic Documentary Films has acquired the worldwide rights to “Saudi Runaway” following its debut at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
“Saudi Runaway,” which will premiere on Tuesday at the Berlin International Film Festival, chronicles the story of a brave young Saudi woman, Muna, who reckons with her upcoming arranged marriage and takes her fate into her own hands, although it’s risky.
The documentary directed by Susanne Regina Meures features never-seen-before views into Saudi Arabia’s patriarchal culture and her claustrophobic existence.
Also Read: Kino Lorber Acquires Cuban Documentary and Sundance Winner 'Epicentro'
“Muna is one of the strongest-willed and most courageous women I know,” Meures said. “Unprecedented, as a Saudi woman, Muna dares to speak up. She shares her pain and offers us a glimpse into a hidden world. Although the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is at the centre of world affairs, very few authentic images of life there exist.
“Saudi Runaway,” which will premiere on Tuesday at the Berlin International Film Festival, chronicles the story of a brave young Saudi woman, Muna, who reckons with her upcoming arranged marriage and takes her fate into her own hands, although it’s risky.
The documentary directed by Susanne Regina Meures features never-seen-before views into Saudi Arabia’s patriarchal culture and her claustrophobic existence.
Also Read: Kino Lorber Acquires Cuban Documentary and Sundance Winner 'Epicentro'
“Muna is one of the strongest-willed and most courageous women I know,” Meures said. “Unprecedented, as a Saudi woman, Muna dares to speak up. She shares her pain and offers us a glimpse into a hidden world. Although the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is at the centre of world affairs, very few authentic images of life there exist.
- 2/25/2020
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
Kino Lorber has picked up U.S. and English-speaking Canadian distribution rights for Hubert Sauper’s award-winning documentary “Epicentro.” Described as an “immersive and metaphorical portrait of post-colonial Cuba,” the pic won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Sauper previously directed the 2006 Oscar-nominated “Darwin’s Nightmare” and 2014’s “We Come as Friends.”
Among Epicentro’s producers are Daniel and Martin Marquet, Paolo Calamita and Gabriele Kranzelbinder. Executive producers include Dan Cogan and Jenny Raskin of Impact Partners, Michael Donaldson and Vincent Maraval.
In “Epicentro,” Sauper explores a century of interventionism and myth-making and the people of Havana – particularly its children – as he examines the effects of time, imperialism and cinema itself.
“The film is an immersive and metaphorical portrait of post-colonial, ‘utopian’ Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates,” Kino Lorber states. It was a big bang that ended Spanish...
Sauper previously directed the 2006 Oscar-nominated “Darwin’s Nightmare” and 2014’s “We Come as Friends.”
Among Epicentro’s producers are Daniel and Martin Marquet, Paolo Calamita and Gabriele Kranzelbinder. Executive producers include Dan Cogan and Jenny Raskin of Impact Partners, Michael Donaldson and Vincent Maraval.
In “Epicentro,” Sauper explores a century of interventionism and myth-making and the people of Havana – particularly its children – as he examines the effects of time, imperialism and cinema itself.
“The film is an immersive and metaphorical portrait of post-colonial, ‘utopian’ Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates,” Kino Lorber states. It was a big bang that ended Spanish...
- 2/24/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Kino Lorber acquired the U.S. and anglophone Canadian distribution rights to “Epicentro,” Hubert Sauper’s documentary about post-colonial Cuba that won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize, the distributor announced Monday.
In “Epicentro,” Sauper explores a century of interventionism and myth-making together with the extraordinary people of Havana — particularly its children, whom he calls “young prophets” — to interrogate time, imperialism and cinema itself.
The film is a metaphorical portrait of post-colonial, “utopian” Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates. This Big Bang ended Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and ushered in the era of the American Empire. At the same time and place, a powerful tool of conquest was born: cinema as propaganda.
Kino Lorber will give the documentary a theatrical rollout beginning this fall, followed by a DVD release as well as a streaming release on KinoNow.com.
Also Read: Neon Acquires Norwegian Art...
In “Epicentro,” Sauper explores a century of interventionism and myth-making together with the extraordinary people of Havana — particularly its children, whom he calls “young prophets” — to interrogate time, imperialism and cinema itself.
The film is a metaphorical portrait of post-colonial, “utopian” Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates. This Big Bang ended Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and ushered in the era of the American Empire. At the same time and place, a powerful tool of conquest was born: cinema as propaganda.
Kino Lorber will give the documentary a theatrical rollout beginning this fall, followed by a DVD release as well as a streaming release on KinoNow.com.
Also Read: Neon Acquires Norwegian Art...
- 2/24/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Hubert Sauper’s latest film won the 2020 World Cinema grand jury prize in Park City last month.
Kino Lorber, a prolific distributor of Berlinale Golden Bear winners, has acquired Us rights at the Efm to Wild Bunch sales title and Sundance winner Epicentro.
Hubert Sauper’s (Darwin’s Nightmare) latest film won the 2020 World Cinema grand jury prize in Park City last month and paints of an immersive portrait of post-colonial Cuba.
Sauper explores the effect of a century of interventionism on the Caribbean island and the resilience of the people, in particular the children, whom he calls “young prophets...
Kino Lorber, a prolific distributor of Berlinale Golden Bear winners, has acquired Us rights at the Efm to Wild Bunch sales title and Sundance winner Epicentro.
Hubert Sauper’s (Darwin’s Nightmare) latest film won the 2020 World Cinema grand jury prize in Park City last month and paints of an immersive portrait of post-colonial Cuba.
Sauper explores the effect of a century of interventionism on the Caribbean island and the resilience of the people, in particular the children, whom he calls “young prophets...
- 2/23/2020
- ScreenDaily
Competition line-up includes new films by Jerzy Sladkowski, Bryan Fogel, Moara Passoni and Hubert Sauper.
Copenhagen-based documentary festival Cph:dox (March 18-29) has revealed its 2020 competition line-up, with 52% of the 65 titles directed by one or more female directors.
Notable world premieres include Ecstasy, the new project from Brazil’s Moara Passoni, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated The Edge Of Democracy. Ecstasy is an autobiographical hybrid following Passoni’s alter ego Clara as she battles anorexia
Also in the main competition is the world premiere of Bitter Love from Polish filmmaker Jerzy Sladkowski, who won the main award at Idfa with Don Juan...
Copenhagen-based documentary festival Cph:dox (March 18-29) has revealed its 2020 competition line-up, with 52% of the 65 titles directed by one or more female directors.
Notable world premieres include Ecstasy, the new project from Brazil’s Moara Passoni, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated The Edge Of Democracy. Ecstasy is an autobiographical hybrid following Passoni’s alter ego Clara as she battles anorexia
Also in the main competition is the world premiere of Bitter Love from Polish filmmaker Jerzy Sladkowski, who won the main award at Idfa with Don Juan...
- 2/21/2020
- by 1101184¦Orlando Parfitt¦38¦
- ScreenDaily
A leisurely, somewhat hazy travelogue compared to the piercing political indictments of his acclaimed prior “We Come as Friends” and Oscar-nominated “Darwin’s Nightmare,” Austrian documentarian Hubert Sauper’s new “Epicentro” looks at Cuba on the brink of colossal transition, as the old Communist system is in its apparent death throes, and free-market capitalism waits in the wings. It’s a fascinating moment for cultural stock-taking. Yet despite the filmmaker’s evident fondness for the people and nation, this impressionistic feature feels frustratingly obtuse, unfocused and unstructured. Nonetheless, it won the World Documentary jury prize at Sundance, which along with Sauper’s reputation should ensure a fair degree of future exposure.
“Epicentro” does start out very well, with Sauper’s own musing, philosophical narration informing us of Cuba’s distinction as “the place where the New World was discovered” and the American flag was first planted overseas — followed by, among other locations,...
“Epicentro” does start out very well, with Sauper’s own musing, philosophical narration informing us of Cuba’s distinction as “the place where the New World was discovered” and the American flag was first planted overseas — followed by, among other locations,...
- 2/6/2020
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
This year’s Sundance buzz was difficult to parse, with a range of movies pleasing various contingencies at the festival, but one breakout pleased critics and jurors alike. Director Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” the 1980s-set tale of a Korean-American family struggling with their new life in rural Arkansas, topped IndieWire’s annual critics poll just days after the movie won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize.
A record 187 accredited critics and journalists participated in the survey, with results showcasing many of the most acclaimed titles at the festival. Kirsten Johnson’s “Dick Johnson Is Dead” won Best Documentary with 25.8% of all participants casting a vote for it, while “Minari” dominated Best Film with 31.2%. The runner-up in the Best Film category, the Carey Mulligan drama “Promising Young Woman,” topped the Best First Feature category with 17% of the vote.
“Minari” was the consensus choice at this year’s Sundance for many audiences.
A record 187 accredited critics and journalists participated in the survey, with results showcasing many of the most acclaimed titles at the festival. Kirsten Johnson’s “Dick Johnson Is Dead” won Best Documentary with 25.8% of all participants casting a vote for it, while “Minari” dominated Best Film with 31.2%. The runner-up in the Best Film category, the Carey Mulligan drama “Promising Young Woman,” topped the Best First Feature category with 17% of the vote.
“Minari” was the consensus choice at this year’s Sundance for many audiences.
- 2/3/2020
- by Eric Kohn and Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
On a night when 28 feature-film awards were handed out, the gathering also announced the appointment of British-born Tabitha Jackson to the role of festival director. The four Grand Jury Prizes are the top gongs at the Sundance Film Festival, which has just come to a close. There are two dramatic and two documentary Grand Jury trophies, further split between Us and world cinema productions. There were many happy flights back across the Atlantic for European executives, who can now say that their films were victorious at the prestigious gathering. The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was awarded to Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness, Massoud Bakhshi’s drama about a woman sentenced to death in Iran for killing her husband. The film received support from France, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Epicentro, Hubert Sauper’s affectionate look at Cuba, its people and its history, won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary.
World Cinema Dramatic entries Surge, Cuties among winners.
Mexican missing persons drama Identifying Features has won the World Cinema Dramatic audience award and the section’s juried screenplay prize for director Fernanda Valadez and co-writer Astrid Rondero at the Sundance awards ceremony.
Saturday’s (February 1) event in Park City, Utah, also honoured the UK’s Ben Whishaw with the World Cinema Dramatic special jury award for acting for Aneil Karia’s Surge, which Protagonist Pictures sells internationally, while Cuties on the Netflix slate from director Maïmouna Doucouré won the World Cinema Dramatic directing award.
Kino Lorber acquired North American rights...
Mexican missing persons drama Identifying Features has won the World Cinema Dramatic audience award and the section’s juried screenplay prize for director Fernanda Valadez and co-writer Astrid Rondero at the Sundance awards ceremony.
Saturday’s (February 1) event in Park City, Utah, also honoured the UK’s Ben Whishaw with the World Cinema Dramatic special jury award for acting for Aneil Karia’s Surge, which Protagonist Pictures sells internationally, while Cuties on the Netflix slate from director Maïmouna Doucouré won the World Cinema Dramatic directing award.
Kino Lorber acquired North American rights...
- 2/2/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The 2020 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close in Park City, and that means that this year’s award winners have been announced. The awards spotlight standout films across the festival’s various categories, including U.S. films spanning fiction and documentary, as well as foreign-made films, and Next and Midnight selections.
This year’s fest brought a bounty of riches that are continuing to attract buyers, including high-profile pickups from Neon and Hulu (“Palm Springs”), Sony Pictures Classics, Searchlight Pictures (“The Night House”), and more. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival broke a number of records, from diversity in its programming to sales. Culled from 15,000 submissions, the 2020 edition offered up a range of timely, boundary-pushing documentary and narrative storytelling, promising new voices and satisfying new heights from established filmmakers. (Check out IndieWire’s roundup of the best 15 films out of Sundance here.)
Netflix, which owned this year’s Academy Awards nominations,...
This year’s fest brought a bounty of riches that are continuing to attract buyers, including high-profile pickups from Neon and Hulu (“Palm Springs”), Sony Pictures Classics, Searchlight Pictures (“The Night House”), and more. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival broke a number of records, from diversity in its programming to sales. Culled from 15,000 submissions, the 2020 edition offered up a range of timely, boundary-pushing documentary and narrative storytelling, promising new voices and satisfying new heights from established filmmakers. (Check out IndieWire’s roundup of the best 15 films out of Sundance here.)
Netflix, which owned this year’s Academy Awards nominations,...
- 2/2/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
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