A larger-than-usual Competition — 24 films — for its 2021 edition was announced today by the Cannes Film Festival, along with the Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard and other titles that comprise (for now) its official selection. Delayed from its usual dates in mid-May to July 6-17, the festival opens with the long-awaited Leos Carax Sparks-scored musical Annette and contains new features by Asghar Farhadi, Mia Hansen-Løve, Jacques Audiard and Nanni Moretti. Cannes also adds this year a new section, Cannes Premieres, containing films by festival veterans such as Oliver Stone, Kornél Mundruczo and Andrea Arnold. Among the American […]

After canceling last year’s festival Full Frame is back in virtual form this June (2-6) for its 24th edition. And because the Durham-based fest is probably as famous for its Southern hospitality and intimate atmosphere (that naturally leads to a wealth of networking opportunities) as it is for its stellar cinematic selections, I had to wonder if capturing the fest’s spirit online would even be remotely (no pun intended) possible. But then I realized “intimacy” also implies exclusivity. And Full Frame has always been on a parallel mission to expand access to documentary filmmaking and its tools to all. To […]

Poignant and with astonishing visual style, No Law, No Heaven is a decades-spanning drama about love and regret set within Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City by University of California, Los Angeles graduate film student Kristi Hoi. It’s one of five winners of the 2020-21 Student Short Film Showcase, a collaborative program from The Gotham, Focus Features, Jet Blue and the Westridge Foundation, currently available for viewing via Focus Features’s YouTube channel as well as in the air, on Jet Blue’s in-flight entertainment system. Consisting of three sequences, No Law, No Heaven features the same character as he ages from being […]

Four winners of the 2020-21 Student Short Film Showcase award, a collaboration between The Gotham, Focus Features, Jet Blue and the Westridge Foundation, are now streaming on Focus Features’s digital platforms as well as in the air on JetBlue’s inflight entertainment systems. The films were chosen from the submissions of 16 film schools and represent a real diversity of subject matter and storytelling styles. In Edward Hancox’s (University of Texas, Austin) cleverly conceived and sharply acted Things That Happen in the Bathroom, a bathroom, typically a place of privacy and solitude, becomes the site of complicated relationship dynamics between a […]

The Fantasia Film Festival has just announced the first titles from its upcoming 25th anniversary edition, which will take place as a virtual event from August 5 – 21. Films will be accessible to Canadian audiences via a platform created by Festival Scope and Shift72. The festival organizers will be listening to the advice of local health authorities and may add a limited number of in-person events closer to the festival date. The titles and descriptions, from the fest’s high-spirited press release, are below. THE LAST THING MARY SAW. Brace yourself for THE LAST THING MARY SAW, a breathtaking period occult […]

Another Screen, the streaming arm of feminist film journal Another Gaze, launched today “For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women.” The films all stream for free worldwide, and donations are encouraged that will go towards “facilitating medical, legal, and infrastructure aid on the ground. Secondary donations go to as supporting filmmaking in Gaza; restoration projects of older Palestinian films; cultural centers for refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and more.” Already on the site are films by Jumana Manna, Basma Alsharif, Rosalind Nashashibi, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, and Larissa Sansour, and to be posted in the next few days […]

After moving its 2020 edition to December and shifting to online-only viewing, New Directors/New Films returned to its usual springtime slot for its 50th iteration in 2021, combining virtual screenings with in-person ones at the Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center. The fest celebrated its golden anniversary with a streamable selection of films that played at ND/NF in years past — early work by luminaries such as Chantal Akerman, Charles Burnett, Lee Chang-dong, Christopher Nolan, and Humberto Solás. However, this well-deserved victory lap was just a sidebar to the main program: 27 new feature films, along with […]

Last April, the opportunity to scope out Visions du Réel—a festival I’d never had the budget to attend in-person—came as a novel, welcome distraction. A year later, NYC’s weather is increasingly tolerable and the CDC says I’m ready to roam, but I enjoyed having the hybrid festival option once again on my way out the door; two years of browsing VdR have definitely expanded my understanding of global nonfiction norms, and I’d cheerfully make time at home for the rest in a re-opened world. Amid the films in this year’s lineup, one title, Kind Regards From the Anthropocene, pops out as […]

The Sundance Institute announced today the first 20 fellows participating in Sundance’s summer Labs. Beginning with the Native Lab (May 10 – 21) and running through the Directors Lab (June 1 – July 2) and Screenwriters Lab (July 6 – 9), the programs will offer selected filmmakers a variety of development and learning opportunities and will connect them with advisors and the larger creative community. Sundance’s online learning platform, Sundance Collab, will host some parts of the labs. From the press release: These Labs are organized under the aegis of Feature Film Program Founding Director Michelle Satter, FFP Deputy Director […]

Last year, Canadian filmmaker Sophy Romvari (who’s previously written for Filmmaker) launched the concept and a campaign for a new online short film platform. The Exquisite Shorts Program is designed to create a new model for short film exhibition. After a development period, the website and submissions are now live and ready to receive short films. Every film that screens in the program will be selected from submissions made through the website. The first short film will be selected by acclaimed Lingua Franca filmmaker, Isabel Sandoval. Here’s a refresher on how the program works: Filmmaker 1 → Picks a short […]