Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
-
Locarno 2023: Circles of Reference
Festivals have a baked-in tension between the works they’re meant to showcase—marginal relative to the marketplace, hence the (sometimes pejorative) descriptor “festival film”—and the sponsorships necessary for them to operate, the larger and more corporate the better. Cracks will inevitably emerge; thus, attending Locarno with his latest, The Old Oak, socialist Ken Loach spent part of his press conference dutifully denouncing sponsors UBS Bank, prompting two Swiss journalists sitting next to an attending friend to draw their breath sharply in protest: “UBS is an ethical bank.” Another tension is between the ideal of a “festival film”—work at the boundaries of what’s […]
-
Film at Lincoln Center Reveals Currents Lineup for 2023 New York Film Festival
Film at Lincoln Center announces today the Currents lineup for the 61st New York Film Festival, which will take place at FLC and select theaters across NYC from September 29 through October 15. Comprised of 11 features and 36 shorts, the 2023 Currents lineup—which serves to highlight “filmmakers and artists working at the vanguard of the medium”—will feature films from 23 countries and compliment the NYFF Main Slate. “The filmmakers in this year’s Currents lineup range from well-known veterans to prodigious newcomers, and the films encompass narrative, documentary, and experimental modes, sometimes recombined and redefined,” said Dennis Lim, Artistic Director, […]
-
Sundance Institute Announces 2023 Documentary Fund Grantees
The Sundance Institute announces today 23 projects that have been selected for the 2023 Documentary Fund, which provides unrestricted grant funding totaling just over $1,000,000 for filmmakers from around the globe. Among this year’s recipients, six projects are in development, 14 are in production and three are in post-production. Grants are made possible by the Open Society Foundations, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Gucci and the Kendeda Fund. Highlights among 2023 grantees are Looking at Ourselves directed by Oscar and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, Adam’s Apple directed by artist and filmmaker Amy Jenkins, Untitled Uvalde Documentary by Anayansi […]
-
“What ‘Motherhood’ Really Means”: Laura Moss on birth/rebirth
The following interview was originally published during our Sundance 2023 coverage and is being republished today ahead of birth/rebirth hitting theaters via IFC Films and Shudder this weekend. — Editor The narrative kernel of birth/rebirth, Laura Moss’s debut feature, was originally planted in the writer-director’s mind 20 years ago. The filmmaker (and former EMT) was creatively stirred after reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and feeling that its interest in unnatural procreation could translate well to an all-female retelling. As the decades passed, Moss began negotiating integral facets of their identity—namely coming out as non-binary and becoming increasingly convinced they would never have […]
-
Film at Lincoln Center Reveals Spotlight Selections for the 61st New York Film Festival
Film at Lincoln Center announces today the Spotlight lineup for the 61st New York Film Festival, taking place from September 29 through October 15. The full spotlight slate arrives shortly after FLC announced that the North American premiere of Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro will be presented at a Spotlight Gala event at David Geffen Hall on October 2. Highlights include world premieres of Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s co-directed episodic effort The Curse and Garth Davis’s adaptation of Iain Reid’s novel Foe, starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. Other notable selections are Harmony Korine’s infrared-shot AGGRO DR1FT, which will […]
-
NYC’s Paris Theater To Reopen in September With Dolby Atmos System and 70mm Screenings
After a brief closure this summer, New York City’s Paris Theater reopens in September with a newly-installed Dolby Atmos sound system (making the 500-seat Paris Theater the largest Dolby cinema in Manhattan) and, for the first time in 15 years, a series of 70mm screenings. Highlights include the first U.S. 70mm screening of Jacques Tati’s Playtime in 10 years; the first NYC 70mm screening of Ron Fricke’s Baraka in 10 years; the U.S. premiere of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria in Dolby Atmos; a screening of William Friedkin’s excellent Sorcerer as a tribute to the recently deceased director; and the first NYC […]
-
Gotham Awards Eliminates Budget Ceiling, Opens up Categories to International Filmmakers
The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today significant changes to its Gotham Awards eligibility criteria, removing entirely the previous $35 million budget cap for submitted films. That means studio films like Barbie and Oppenheimer could potentially compete against smaller-scale independents, films like 2022 nominees Best Feature nominees The Cathedral and Dos Estacionnes. Additionally in the lead-up to an awards season already impacted by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, The Gotham announced that international films will be eligible to compete alongside U.S. titles in the following categories: Outstanding Lead Performance, Outstanding Supporting Performance, Best Screenplay, and Bingham Ray […]
-
“Rules Stop Me from Daring”: Radu Jude on Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
“Have you ever seen Romanian TikToks?” It’s a torrid afternoon in Locarno and Radu Jude and I are sitting in a container repurposed as an interview booth, a couple of days after the premiere of his latest, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. Social media play a prominent role in the film, an electrifying snapshot of life in the 21st century designed to both immortalize our back-to-front digital zeitgeist and dissect its textures. A collage straddling black comedy and road movie, Do Not Expect centers on Angela (Ilinca Manolache), an overworked production assistant whose company […]
-
TIFF 2023 Centerpiece Program Features Films by Víctor Erice, Aki Kaurismäki, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and More
Formerly known as the Contemporary World Cinema program, TIFF announces today the lineup for its 2023 Centerpiece slate, which includes films from Víctor Erice, Aki Kaurismäki, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Wim Wenders and many more. Additionally, TIFF reveals further selections for its gala and special presentation as well as documentary lineups. So far, the festival has also announced programming for its Platform, Midnight Madness and Discovery categories. “We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece programme, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer, in a press release. “The […]
-
New York Film Festival Reveals Main Slate for 61st Edition
Today, Film at Lincoln Center unveils the Main Slate lineup for the 61st New York Film Festival, taking place from September 29 through October 15. This comes after previous announcements concerning the festival’s 2023 gala titles, with Todd Haynes’s May December opening this year’s NYFF, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla as the centerpiece selection and closing with Michael Mann’s Ferrari. “The unsettled state of the industry is an unavoidable talking point these days, but my hope is that our festival, as it has done through its 61-year history, will serve as a reminder that the art of cinema is in robust health,” […]
