The way the world works is strange. In the fall of 2019, I interviewed writer/director Scott Z. Burns about this excellent Amazon political drama “The Report” starring Adam Driver (a movie that was sadly overlooked that season), a type of whistleblower piece about a Senate staffer investigating the CIA’s use of enhanced and illegal torture techniques following the September 11 attacks.
The Report’: Adam Driver & Director Scott Z.
Continue reading Scott Z. Burns Talks Writing On ‘No Time To Die,’ “Pressurized” Blockbuster Writing & Other Projects In The Works [Interview] at The Playlist.
The Report’: Adam Driver & Director Scott Z.
Continue reading Scott Z. Burns Talks Writing On ‘No Time To Die,’ “Pressurized” Blockbuster Writing & Other Projects In The Works [Interview] at The Playlist.
- 9/30/2021
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
It sometimes feel as if the Holocaust and Nazi Germany are subjects that have been exhausted on screen, but filmmakers continue to return to those dark times: The past few months have already seen the festival premieres of two striking animated films, “Where Is Anne Frank” and “Charlotte,” and the recent Toronto Film Festival also brought Barry Levinson’s “The Survivor,” with Ben Foster as an Auschwitz inmate haunted by what he did to make it through the war.
Slovakian director Peter Bebjak’s “The Auschwitz Report” had a slight head start on those other films, premiering in its home country in January and being chosen as the Slovak Oscar entry in last year’s race. Now receiving a U.S. release, the film is dark and grueling; it finds a new lens on the Holocaust and tells an unfamiliar story in a way that brings home both the unfathomable...
Slovakian director Peter Bebjak’s “The Auschwitz Report” had a slight head start on those other films, premiering in its home country in January and being chosen as the Slovak Oscar entry in last year’s race. Now receiving a U.S. release, the film is dark and grueling; it finds a new lens on the Holocaust and tells an unfamiliar story in a way that brings home both the unfathomable...
- 9/24/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The trouble with unimaginable horror is precisely that: It cannot be imagined. For Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, two Slovakian Jews who escaped from Auschwitz in 1944 to bring evidence of the systematic genocide within the camp, the hardest part of issuing The Vrba-Wetzler Report was simply being believed. Director Peter Bebjak’s “The Auschwitz Report,” Slovakia’s official entry to the international feature category in last year’s Academy Awards, measures the immense gulf between the authors’ harrowing experiences and a reception that was far more muted and perplexed than they anticipated. The unrelenting brutality of the film’s scenes at Auschwitz are a reminder that people sometimes need to be shaken from their complacent assumptions and realize the atrocities that human beings are capable of committing against other human beings.
Bebjak wants to ensure that viewers never forget what happened either, and so his monochromatic images, drained of color and hope,...
Bebjak wants to ensure that viewers never forget what happened either, and so his monochromatic images, drained of color and hope,...
- 9/22/2021
- by Scott Tobias
- Variety Film + TV
"You can look away, or you can risk your life and expose it to the whole world." Signature Entertainment in the UK has released the official UK trailer for this Slovak WWII thriller The Auschwitz Escape, also known as The Auschwitz Report, inspired by the novel "What Dante Did Not See" by Alfred Wetzler. This is the true story of Freddy and Walter - two young Slovak Jews, who were deported to Auschwitz in 1942. On 10 April 1944, after meticulous planning and with the help and the resilience of their inmates, they manage to escape. They managed to return to Slovakia, but the report they wrote seemed too unbelievable to be true, despite providing direct evidence of what they had experienced. Noel Czuczor & Peter Ondrejicka star as Freddy & Walter, and the extensive cast includes John Hannah, Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Jacek Beler, Michal Rezný, Kamil Nozynski, Aleksander Mincer, and Christoph Bach. This looks better...
- 5/16/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The small-screen adaptation of the socio-psychological novel by Jozef Cíger-Hronský, revolving around an everyman yielding to fate, will be ready by Christmas. Prolific Slovak producer-filmmaker Peter Bebjak has been forging a sparkling career on the big and small screen alike. He started shooting the crime-thriller Shadowplay last December (see the news), his Holocaust drama The Auschwitz Report is still awaiting its domestic premiere owing to the Covid-19-related theatre shutdowns and will be released in the USA, the UK, France, Spain and Japan, he has just won a Czech Lion for the television miniseries Actor (see the news), while an ambitious (and the most expensive) Slovak epic TV series The Slavs (see the news), of which he directed several episodes, aired in early March. Plus, he is already working on another project: Bebjak is currently shooting a film adaptation of a Slovak literary classic, the socio-psychological novel Jozef Mak (1933) by.
From Oscar winners such as “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” and “Son of Saul” to this year’s international feature entries “The Auschwitz Report” and “Dara From Jasenovac,” the horrors of the Holocaust have been repeatedly explored by international filmmakers, but genocide and mass deaths in other countries are not given so much attention.
“The Promise” (2016), starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, centered on the Armenian genocide, but it was a rarity. However, this year there are several films that deal with global atrocities, including four on Oscar’s international film shortlist: Bosnia and Hezegovina’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” Guatemala’s “La Llarona,” Romania’s “Collective” and Russia’s “Dear Comrades!”
Beyond the shortlist are Kazakhistan’s “The Crying Steppe” (directed by Marina Kunarova and Canada’s “Funny Boy” (Deepa Mehta), which was disqualified after being submitted for the international film category. The films respectively center on genocide in Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka.
“The Promise” (2016), starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, centered on the Armenian genocide, but it was a rarity. However, this year there are several films that deal with global atrocities, including four on Oscar’s international film shortlist: Bosnia and Hezegovina’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” Guatemala’s “La Llarona,” Romania’s “Collective” and Russia’s “Dear Comrades!”
Beyond the shortlist are Kazakhistan’s “The Crying Steppe” (directed by Marina Kunarova and Canada’s “Funny Boy” (Deepa Mehta), which was disqualified after being submitted for the international film category. The films respectively center on genocide in Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka.
- 3/2/2021
- by Shalini Dore
- Variety Film + TV
Monday is the start of five days of voting to determine shortlists in the nine Oscar categories that narrow down the field before the start of nomination balloting. In the Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film categories, 238 and 93 films, respectively, will be reduced to 15 semifinalists.
In each of those categories, voters must see a minimum number of entries, drawn from a “required viewing” list sent to each member, in order to vote. Documentary voters must see more than 30 films, international voters must see 12. Shortlists in all categories will be announced on Feb. 9.
Here are our thoughts on these contests; on Tuesday, we’ll look at the below-the-line categories that also use shortlists.
‘Time’ / Amazon Studios
Best Documentary Feature
Ever since the Documentary Branch rules were changed to do away with the small committees that previously viewed films in the preliminary round of voting, the documentary shortlists have invariably...
In each of those categories, voters must see a minimum number of entries, drawn from a “required viewing” list sent to each member, in order to vote. Documentary voters must see more than 30 films, international voters must see 12. Shortlists in all categories will be announced on Feb. 9.
Here are our thoughts on these contests; on Tuesday, we’ll look at the below-the-line categories that also use shortlists.
‘Time’ / Amazon Studios
Best Documentary Feature
Ever since the Documentary Branch rules were changed to do away with the small committees that previously viewed films in the preliminary round of voting, the documentary shortlists have invariably...
- 2/1/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Shortlists to be announced on February 9.
The Academy on Thursday (January 28) published a list of 93 films eligible for international feature film Oscar category.
Algeria’s Heliopolis, about the brutal suppression by French colonial authorities of an uprising in 1945, is omitted from the list. Screen understands the national selection committee withdrew the submission.
There were also a record number of documentary submissions – 238 compared to the previous high of 170 – in light of amended eligibility rules this season due to the pandemic, and a reduced field of 27 animation contenders.
The shortlists will be announced on February 9. The 93rd annual Academy Awards are scheduled...
The Academy on Thursday (January 28) published a list of 93 films eligible for international feature film Oscar category.
Algeria’s Heliopolis, about the brutal suppression by French colonial authorities of an uprising in 1945, is omitted from the list. Screen understands the national selection committee withdrew the submission.
There were also a record number of documentary submissions – 238 compared to the previous high of 170 – in light of amended eligibility rules this season due to the pandemic, and a reduced field of 27 animation contenders.
The shortlists will be announced on February 9. The 93rd annual Academy Awards are scheduled...
- 1/28/2021
- ScreenDaily
To find a novel approach to the Holocaust is definitely a challenge, and yet director Peter Bebjak has told an unfamiliar but revealing story in The Auschwitz Report, Slovakia’s submission for best international film of 2020. Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the movie in the U.S., and although it can’t be described as an entertaining watch, it does retrieve a part of history worth honoring.
Viewers today may not realize that one of the things preventing global outrage over the Nazis’ genocidal program was that the extent of the atrocities was not widely known while the war was raging. It could ...
Viewers today may not realize that one of the things preventing global outrage over the Nazis’ genocidal program was that the extent of the atrocities was not widely known while the war was raging. It could ...
- 1/19/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
To find a novel approach to the Holocaust is definitely a challenge, and yet director Peter Bebjak has told an unfamiliar but revealing story in The Auschwitz Report, Slovakia’s submission for best international film of 2020. Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the movie in the U.S., and although it can’t be described as an entertaining watch, it does retrieve a part of history worth honoring.
Viewers today may not realize that one of the things preventing global outrage over the Nazis’ genocidal program was that the extent of the atrocities was not widely known while the war was raging. It could ...
Viewers today may not realize that one of the things preventing global outrage over the Nazis’ genocidal program was that the extent of the atrocities was not widely known while the war was raging. It could ...
- 1/19/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Listen up Oscar fans and international cinema aficioniados. We'd been holding off on this three part deep dive into the list of titles vying for Best International Feature Film until the Academy's announcement. Sadly we hear through the grapevine that they're not actually making this list "official" until very late in January. In other words, less than two weeks after they announce the 90 plus titles, they'll be cutting most of them when the finalist list of ten is announced on February 9th. This is no way to treat the movies, giving them such a tiny window of "official" attention. So we're sharing the list of 93 titles (a record) now and doing our deep dive now... with the caveat that one or two titles might change in late January when the Academy makes this official. If things do change we'll republish the list and the articles then. If they don't, we can just link back.
- 1/11/2021
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
The Auschwitz Report, Slovakia’s contender for the International Feature Oscar, tells the true story of two Slovakian Jews who escape Auschwitz in a bid to tell the world about the Nazi atrocities taking place in the concentration camp.
Based on the book Escape From Hell by one of the runaways, Alfréd Wetzler, the film has been realized in uncompromising detail by director Peter Bebjak. It pictures the brutal reality of everyday life in the early days of Auschwitz, the sacrifices made to alert allies to the horrors, and the crushing realization that the world was not quite ready to hear about what was taking place behind the barbed wire.
Bebjak tells Deadline during the film’s Contenders International panel that he wanted to tell Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba’s story to remind the world that past mistakes should not be repeated at a time when populism is on the march.
Based on the book Escape From Hell by one of the runaways, Alfréd Wetzler, the film has been realized in uncompromising detail by director Peter Bebjak. It pictures the brutal reality of everyday life in the early days of Auschwitz, the sacrifices made to alert allies to the horrors, and the crushing realization that the world was not quite ready to hear about what was taking place behind the barbed wire.
Bebjak tells Deadline during the film’s Contenders International panel that he wanted to tell Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba’s story to remind the world that past mistakes should not be repeated at a time when populism is on the march.
- 1/9/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline kicks off the New Year and movie awards season with our first edition of Contenders International, which gets underway this morning at 8 a.m. Pt. The event showcases 22 titles from 15 studios, streamers and distributors with presentations including clips and filmmaker/talent Q&As. In all, 19 of the films are official submissions to the Best International Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Due to the pandemic Contenders International will be presented virtually, so click here to register and join the livestream. You can additionally follow along for the day on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram via @Deadline and #DeadlineContenders. See the full schedule of panels below.
While international markets have been a profit center for the studios for many years, local films have begun to take on greater importance outside festivals and indeed their home countries. That was particularly the case in 2019 with South Korea’s Parasite, which went on...
Due to the pandemic Contenders International will be presented virtually, so click here to register and join the livestream. You can additionally follow along for the day on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram via @Deadline and #DeadlineContenders. See the full schedule of panels below.
While international markets have been a profit center for the studios for many years, local films have begun to take on greater importance outside festivals and indeed their home countries. That was particularly the case in 2019 with South Korea’s Parasite, which went on...
- 1/9/2021
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
4 things that happened on this day, December 31st, in showbiz history
1992 Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved and the Czech Republic and Slovakia both emerge from the split. Which means, for our purposes here at Tfe that they started all new Oscar submission histories ;) Czechoslovakia had had six Oscar nominations and two wins from 23 submissions the bulk of which were in Czech. Interestingly enough just after the split in 1993 only Slovakia submitted to the Oscars while the Czech Republic took a year off. The Czech Repubic has since won one Oscar (Kolya) and had two additional nominations (Divided We Fall and Zelary) and a finalist (The Painted Bird last season). The Czech submission this year is Charlatan. Slovakia has yet to be nominated though they have a Holocaust drama this year, The Auschwitz Report... ...
1992 Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved and the Czech Republic and Slovakia both emerge from the split. Which means, for our purposes here at Tfe that they started all new Oscar submission histories ;) Czechoslovakia had had six Oscar nominations and two wins from 23 submissions the bulk of which were in Czech. Interestingly enough just after the split in 1993 only Slovakia submitted to the Oscars while the Czech Republic took a year off. The Czech Repubic has since won one Oscar (Kolya) and had two additional nominations (Divided We Fall and Zelary) and a finalist (The Painted Bird last season). The Czech submission this year is Charlatan. Slovakia has yet to be nominated though they have a Holocaust drama this year, The Auschwitz Report... ...
- 12/31/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
The Slovak short film has qualified for the 2021 Oscar nominations and was picked as one of 12 animated short films nominated for the César Award. After Peter Bebjak’s period drama The Auschwitz Report, the animated short film by emerging directors Michaela Mihályiová and David Štumpf, SH_T Happens, has qualified for the 2021 Oscar nominations in the Best Short Film category. The short film, combining colourful drawing techniques with Risomat, was first presented in the Orrizonti section at the 2019 Venice Film Festival and became the first animated Slovak film to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. SH_T Happens, a 13-minute fable and a cross between Noah’s Ark and Titanic, has netted 14 awards and played at 100 film festivals. “I am glad that Slovak animation is becoming more and more prestigious in the international field and that our films are more and more successful not...
- 12/31/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Samuel Goldwyn Films has obtained U.S. rights to Peter Bebjak’s historical drama The Auschwitz Report, which was selected as Slovakia’s contender for Best International Feature Film for the 93rd Oscars. The company is planning a release for sometime next year.
The pic, which is Bebjak’s second film chosen as Slovakia’s official entry, is a true story of two imprisoned Slovak Jewish men, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler. Risking certain death, the two orchestrate a meticulous report of Nazi operations before escaping from Auschwitz to reveal the long-denied truth to the world. What Wetzler and Vrba come home to, however, is the agonizing realization that even the truth may not be enough.
Noel Czuczor, Peter Onderjička and John Hannah star. Bebjak co-wrote the screenplay with Jozef Paštéka and Tomáš Bombík. Producers are Natália Rau Guzinkiewiczová, Rasťo Šesták and Bebjak.
The deal was handled by Dirk Schürhoff,...
The pic, which is Bebjak’s second film chosen as Slovakia’s official entry, is a true story of two imprisoned Slovak Jewish men, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler. Risking certain death, the two orchestrate a meticulous report of Nazi operations before escaping from Auschwitz to reveal the long-denied truth to the world. What Wetzler and Vrba come home to, however, is the agonizing realization that even the truth may not be enough.
Noel Czuczor, Peter Onderjička and John Hannah star. Bebjak co-wrote the screenplay with Jozef Paštéka and Tomáš Bombík. Producers are Natália Rau Guzinkiewiczová, Rasťo Šesták and Bebjak.
The deal was handled by Dirk Schürhoff,...
- 12/18/2020
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the U.S. distribution rights for “The Auschwitz Report,” Slovakia’s entry for international film to the Academy Awards.
The movie, directed by Peter Bebjak and based on Alfréd Wetzler’s novel “What Dante Did Not See,” tells the true story of two imprisoned Slovak Jewish men, Rudolf Vrba and Wetzler, who escape Auschwitz and risk their lives to meticulously report the horrific reality of Nazi operations to the world.
“The film is both heartbreaking and inspiring,” said Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films. “Peter Bebjak crafted this film with great care both towards historical accuracy and the subjective experience of its central characters. The result is a gripping, visually inventive experience. We are honored to be part of the story of this important film.”
Goldwyn, which also is distributing Danish entry “Another Round,” plans to release the film in the U.S. in 2021.
“I...
The movie, directed by Peter Bebjak and based on Alfréd Wetzler’s novel “What Dante Did Not See,” tells the true story of two imprisoned Slovak Jewish men, Rudolf Vrba and Wetzler, who escape Auschwitz and risk their lives to meticulously report the horrific reality of Nazi operations to the world.
“The film is both heartbreaking and inspiring,” said Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films. “Peter Bebjak crafted this film with great care both towards historical accuracy and the subjective experience of its central characters. The result is a gripping, visually inventive experience. We are honored to be part of the story of this important film.”
Goldwyn, which also is distributing Danish entry “Another Round,” plans to release the film in the U.S. in 2021.
“I...
- 12/18/2020
- by Natalie Oganesyan
- Variety Film + TV
Since the last round up three more countries have announced Oscar submissions bringing the total of competing films to 37.
Guatemala's La Llorona, from the director of Ixcanul
Bulgaria - The Father Guatemala - La Llorona Slovakia - The Auschwitz Report
A few trivia notes regarding these latest submissions. First, Maria Bakalova who is currently enjoying an instant critical/populist splash as the co-star of Borat Subsequent MovieFilm is in the ensemble of Bulgaria's dramedic submission The Father. That film is not to be confused with the English-language Anthony Hopkins Oscar hopeful The Father or the Serbian film Father (which we loved at Ciff this fall). Too many movies named Father!
Meanwhile, Guatemala has submitted the newish filmmaker Jayro Bustamante again, who made a festival splash with his debut Ixcanul (2015). His new film is La Llorona (2020)... yes, another film with a title that could easily get it confused with other contemporary...
Guatemala's La Llorona, from the director of Ixcanul
Bulgaria - The Father Guatemala - La Llorona Slovakia - The Auschwitz Report
A few trivia notes regarding these latest submissions. First, Maria Bakalova who is currently enjoying an instant critical/populist splash as the co-star of Borat Subsequent MovieFilm is in the ensemble of Bulgaria's dramedic submission The Father. That film is not to be confused with the English-language Anthony Hopkins Oscar hopeful The Father or the Serbian film Father (which we loved at Ciff this fall). Too many movies named Father!
Meanwhile, Guatemala has submitted the newish filmmaker Jayro Bustamante again, who made a festival splash with his debut Ixcanul (2015). His new film is La Llorona (2020)... yes, another film with a title that could easily get it confused with other contemporary...
- 11/7/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
“The Bike Thief,” “Hello Again – a Wedding a Day” and “Karnawal” are among the hottest titles on Beta Cinema’s sales slate for the virtual version of the American Film Market, which starts Monday.
The Munich-based sales company will give Matt Chambers’ “The Bike Thief” its market premiere at AFM, following its world premiere this week in competition at the Tokyo Film Festival. Beta recently showed the film to select British buyers in a private screening in London and is now negotiating the U.K./Ireland deal.
The movie, starring Alec Secareanu (“God’s Own Country”) and Anamaria Marinca, explores the question of how far a father would go in present-day London to support his family when his only means to provide, his bike, is stolen.
“Hello Again – a Wedding a Day,” another completed title, is attracting strong interest too, Beta Cinema tells Variety. Hot on the heels of its appearance at Rome’s Mia market,...
The Munich-based sales company will give Matt Chambers’ “The Bike Thief” its market premiere at AFM, following its world premiere this week in competition at the Tokyo Film Festival. Beta recently showed the film to select British buyers in a private screening in London and is now negotiating the U.K./Ireland deal.
The movie, starring Alec Secareanu (“God’s Own Country”) and Anamaria Marinca, explores the question of how far a father would go in present-day London to support his family when his only means to provide, his bike, is stolen.
“Hello Again – a Wedding a Day,” another completed title, is attracting strong interest too, Beta Cinema tells Variety. Hot on the heels of its appearance at Rome’s Mia market,...
- 11/6/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
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