Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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Letter from Locarno, Festival Wrap Up
The 66th edition of the Locarno Film Festival came to a close Saturday with the handing out of the Palmarès during an evening ceremony in the Piazza Grande, and thankfully this year’s awards were congruent with critical consensus. Lav Diaz, the Filopino master whose films regularly clock in at five and six hours, presided over this year’s jury, which, perhaps coincidentally, bestowed top prizes to the two competition films with the longest running times. The big winners of the Concorso Internazionale (International Competiton) were Catalan auteur Albert Serra, whose challenging but ultimately rewarding historical drama Historia de la meva mort […]
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Letter from Locarno, Week Two
The Locarno Film Festival is characterized by its relaxed atmosphere and by its expansive programming. One can meander easily from a George Cukor classic on 35mm (he’s receiving a complete retrospective here), to the latest Ben Rivers and Ben Russell experimental narrative (part of the “Signs of Life” series, named after the Herzog film), to Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin screening in the 8,000 seat Piazza Grande. And in between, you can take a dip in the lake. It’s the kind of festival where you never have to wait in line for a press screening. This exceptional experience is in part […]
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A Five-Second Guide to This Year’s “25 New Faces”
I’m flying to Tacoma, Wa. tomorrow for the annual 25 New Faces event at the Grand Cinema, but before I depart I’m posting here a quick, video-driven guide to the talented people I’ll be hanging out with over the coming days. (Thanks to Nathan Jones and Dante Pilkington for helping to put this post together.) There’s a lot to dig into below, so enjoy. Anahita Ghazvinizadeh Below is the trailer for Ghazvinizadeh’s most recent Cannes-winning short, Needle, and you can watch her 2011 short When the Kid was a Kid here. Rodrigo Reyes Here’s the trailer for Purgatorio; you can […]
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Letter from Locarno, Week One
The Locarno Film Festival opened Wednesday with a bang — or two, to be exact. There was the bombastic Opening Night selection in the Piazza Grande, which was the Mark Wahlberg/Denzel Washington vehicle 2 Guns — what one fellow critic called Lethal Weapon for 2013 (and seemingly a bizarre choice incongruous with the rest of the programming) — and there was the massive summer storm that stole the film’s thunder and literally dampened the affair. The Piazza, one of the largest outdoor screening venues in Europe, is where Locarno the town and Locarno the international festival literally come together — and […]
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Tangerine Entertainment Announces “Juice Fund” to Support Women Directors
Tangerine Entertainment, Anne Hubbell and Amy Hobby’s start-up production company focusing on women directors, has announced the Juice Fund, “a donation-based initiative focused on changing the landscape for women filmmakers.” The Juice Fund’s financing will be crowdsourced. Those interested in Tangerine’s goal of supporting women directors and increasing their presence in the film industry can make tax-deductible donations via New York Women in Film and Television. From the press release: The initial $25,000 raise for the Juice Fund will be used to instigate concrete change in three ways: Rewarding – Ten participating U.S. festivals will present cash Juice Awards to […]
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Spike Jonze’s Her to Close 2013 New York Film Festival
The day after the first trailer for Spike Jonze’s much anticipated, futuristic romance Her was released, the New York Film Festival has announced that the film will close their 2013 edition on October 13. In a press release, Kent Jones, the NYFF’s Director of Programming and Selection Committee Chair, said, “Like many people I’ve come to expect great and surprising things from Spike Jonze, but Her is something altogether new in cinema. To discuss even a little bit of the plot – let’s just say that it’s about lonely people and artificial intelligence – is to deprive first-time viewers of the opportunity […]
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Gotham Awards to Honor Commisioner Katherine Oliver
IFP announced today that the Gotham Awards will honor this December the Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Katherine Oliver. Every year, the Gothams honors four individuals who have made a considerable contribution, in one capacity or another, to the world of independent film; in 2012, the honorees were actors Matt Damon and Marion Cotillard, writer/director David O. Russell and Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll. IFP’s Executive Director Joana Vicente said of the announcement, “We are honored to dedicate our 2013 Gotham Industry Tribute to Katherine Oliver, who has made an indelible impact in the […]
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2013 Gotham Awards to Add Best Actor and Actress Categories
IFP, Filmmaker’s publisher, announced this morning details of this year’s edition of its annual awards show, the Gotham Awards. The 2013 event will take place at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on December 2, and will feature a number of changes. The most significant change is the addition of Best Actor and Actress categories, which are now in addition to awards for Breakthrough Actor and Best Ensemble. (The latter award, according to the press release, will now “be presented on occasion as a special award.”) Additionally, the Breakthrough Director award has this year be renamed in honor of Bingham […]
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TIFF Announces Docs, Midnight and Vanguard Slates
It’s the time for fall festival announcements, and in the last 24 hours TIFF has now unveiled its second wave of programming, including the documentary section, Midnight Madness and Vanguard. A lot of these films have (or will have) played elsewhere, but there are still a number of notable world premieres. Among the doc strand, Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story, a film about the head of the Penthouse empire, seems certain to be entertaining, and Jehane Noujaim’s excellent doc on the Egyptian uprising, The Square, will have its first official screening after playing in rough-cut form at Sundance. (I […]
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Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips to Open 2013 New York Film Festival
One of the most anticipated awards films of the year, Paul Greengrass’ Somali pirate movie Captain Phillips, was missing from both the Venice and Toronto lineups announced last week, and the reason why is that, as it was just announced today, it is on September 27 to open the 51st New York Film Festival, where it will have its world premiere. Telling the gripping real-life story of the 2009 hijacking of the American vessel Maersk Alabama, Greengrass’ film centers on the actions of container ship’s captain, played by Tom Hanks. (Captain Phillips will be released theatrically by Sony Pictures on […]
