Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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Cannes 2014: 5 Questions for Welcome to New York Director Abel Ferrara
It’s been the most talked about film of Cannes this year, one of the most well-reviewed yet, and it’s not even part of the competition line-up. That’s just Abel Ferrara’s style: he’s still one of the few directors who consistently manages to make films his own way, outside the typical studio system. His latest is a masterstroke of filmmaking. It’s a story that puts the fun back into cinema, a film that breathes wit, heart and imagination. The New York native returns to the Croisette with Welcome to New York, a damning film inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal. The film […]
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Cannes 2014: 5 Questions for Le Meraviglie Director Alice Rohrwacher
Following up on her 2011 debut Corpo Celeste, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section, Alice Rohrwacher returns to Cannes with Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), this time as part of the main slate competition. It’s an intimate fairytale full of surreal characters and scenery, marvelously shot in Italy’s central-northern landscapes. Eldest daughter Gelsomina is the head of the family. While taking care of her three sisters, she struggles to keep the bee farm running with her stubborn German father, who opposes anything modern. The family has run out of money when the government imposes new regulations that could shut the […]
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Cannes 2014: Girlhood, It Follows, Red Army, Foxcatcher and Stray Duds
If it weren’t for the inflexible, charmingly antiquated press hierarchies of the Cannes Film Festival, where journalists queue up and get let into screenings by priority of their rainbow badge color (yellow, blue, pink, pink with a yellow dot, and the all-powerful white), it would only be a matter of time before influential Twitter users were accredited. The social media juggernaut of mass brevity — like college, marriage, or colonic irrigation — is not for everyone, but during Cannes, it’s the handiest tool for aggregating kneejerk reactions to what typically shakes down as half of the year’s Most Important Films. […]
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Cannes News, Weekend Round-Up: Controversy Over Kisses and Dominique Strauss-Kahn
While we took the weekend off from keeping tabs on news in and around Cannes, here are some highlights we missed: • Over at the Montreal Gazette, Liz Ferguson rounds up photos of red carpet activism, ranging from nearly the entire cast of The Expendables 3 holding papers reading “Bring our girls back” (after riding down the streets in two tanks) to Jauja director Lisandro Alonso, star Viggo Mortensen, screenwriter Fabian Casas and other cast members bearing a sign reading “We want the trophy” in Spanish — a message of support for Buenos Aires’ Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, […]
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Cannes Day Three: Expendables Tanks and Political Turmoil
The outside world’s political problems are intruding more than usual on the Cannes Film Festival. Some relevant items: • A few days ago, Turkish culture minister Omer Celik was excited about coming to Cannes and bullish about the development of his country’s film industry. In an interview with Variety, Celik managed to more or less duck questions about Turkey’s attempted recent bans on YouTube and Twitter (“Turkey is a country with rule of law. Access to certain social-media sites such as Twitter and YouTube has been limited on legal grounds”). But Tuesday’s deadly coal mine collapse in the city of […]
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Welcome to the Terrordome: Sundance London (April 25-27, 2014)
Over one long weekend at the end of April, the third annual edition of Sundance London — a slimmed-down, satellite companion to its 30-year-old US forebear — took place. The first thing to note about the festival is the sheer oddness of its location. The films screen at a characterless (though decently-appointed) Cineworld multiplex inside the O2 Arena, a corporate enormo-dome that hosts everything from musical concerts to live comedy to darts tournaments. The O2 is situated at the Greenwich peninsula on the south bank of the River Thames, roughly six miles to the east of central London, where most […]
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Cannes Day Two: Travel Chaos, Russian-Ukrainian Cooperation and Surveillance
It’s day two of Cannes and initial reviews are starting to come in. Some items of related interest: • Thanks to an ongoing nationwide government worker strike over a four-year proposed pay freeze, travel to and from the festival is tricky, what with extensive flight delays and cancellations. Among those caught in the turmoil: the band Spandau Ballet, the subjects of a documentary set to premiere tomorrow. • At the Russian Pavilion, events kicked off with a showcase for Ukrainian-Russian co-productions. A tricky proposition given the current political climate, but producers Natalya Mokritskaya and Mila Rozanova were there to show […]
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Cannes Opening Day News: Steak ‘N Shake, French Cinephilia and Chinese Wolves
Filmmaker Magazine‘s coverage of the Cannes Film Festival will begin soon. Today is day one; here are some contextual items of interest while waiting for the first reviews and interviews to roll in. • Fandor‘s David Hudson rounded up the largely scathing reviews for opening night selection Grace of Monaco, as well advance writing on the festival, including interviews with festival heads Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux, on the defensive against charges that (among other things) Cannes recognizes the same safely-established world cinema directors year after year. • The main jury convened for a press conference, where head juror Jane […]
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Help Support Rooftop Films 2014 Season!
Temperature rise can mean crumbling Antarctica glaciers, but, in New York at least, it also means the arrival of Rooftop Films. Now, this essential screening series is crowdsourcing a membership drive on Indiegogo that will support what is a killer 2014 line-up. Join by Wednesday at midnight and receive, in addition to tickets and season passes, bonus gifts including mugs, posters, DVDs and admission to VIP events. Check out this year’s lineup (which includes, this Saturday, our current cover film, Obvious Child) at the Rooftop site and consider joining — in the next day! — at the Indiegogo page.
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IFP Announces Documentary Line-Up For its Annual Filmmaker Labs
IFP ANNOUNCES DOCUMENTARY LINE-UP FOR ITS ANNUAL INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER LABS 2014 Marks the 10th Anniversary of Yearlong Mentorship Program Brooklyn, NY (May 12, 2014) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced today the ten documentaries selected for the 2014 Independent Filmmaker Labs, IFP’s annual yearlong fellowship for first-time feature directors. The creative teams of the selected films, chosen from a national pool of 200+ submissions, are currently attending the first week’s sessions – The Time Warner Foundation Completion Labs – taking place May 12-16 in New York City. The Narrative Lab selections will be announced in June. The Independent Filmmaker Labs are […]
