This past fall, the stage was perfectly set for the launch of Errol Morris’s latest documentary, American Dharma: An Oscar-winning director takes on Steve Bannon, perhaps the most controversial figure of the Trump Presidency; the film nabs Oscar-season festival premieres at Venice and Toronto; and it’s an acquisition title launching during one of the hottest documentary markets in a decade. On Twitter, excited fans declare, “Can’t wait!” while the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and several other major press outlets all publish interviews with Morris where he sets up the project as a portrait of Bannon’s “bullshit,” […]

‘Tis the season for top ten lists and the American Film Institute has just released their top television and film picks for the year. Decided upon by two discrete juries of academics, critics and filmmakers, these lists are meant to highlight the best US productions of 2018. The film award body elected to extend a special honor to Alfonso Cuarón’s Mexico City-shot Roma. Read on for the full list. AFI FILMS OF THE YEAR BlackKklansman Black Panther Eighth Grade The Favourite First Reformed Green Book If Beale Street Could Talk Mary Poppins Returns A Star Is Born A Quiet Place AFI TELEVISION […]

SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, has announced the seven narrative feature projects that will receive a total of $240,000 in funding as part of the biannual Rainin Grants. The funds are awarded to teams whose films will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community and/or pressing social issues. Previous recipients include Sorry to Bother You, Monsters and Men, Short Term 12, and Fruitvale Station. Applications are currently being accepted for the Spring 2019 round of SFFILM Rainin Grants; the deadline to apply is February 20. For further information visit sffilm.org/makers. FALL 2018 SFFILM RAININ GRANT […]

Alice Rohrwacher’s work is an ecstatic affirmation of life and its imaginative possibilities. Her new film left me breathless. An unconventional story told in an unconventional way, Happy as Lazzaro is also deeply grounded. When we spoke with Alice, she spoke of creating a home inside of a film; that when you invite people to the theater, you’re also inviting them into your home. Wise beyond her years, Alice and her words have stuck with me, and we are excited to share her unique wisdom and this inspiring conversation with you. — Josephine Decker Although she grew up without access […]

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their 2018 award winners this afternoon, with three of the top prizes going to Alfonso Cuarón for his autobiographical epic Roma. First Reformed scooped up Best Actor and Best Screenplay, repeating its Gotham haul, and Regina Hall became the first Black performer to win Best Actress for her excellent turn in Support the Girls. The full list of winners is below. Best Picture: 
Roma Best Director: 
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma Best Actor: 
Ethan Hawke, First Reformed Best Actress: 
Regina Hall, Support the Girls Best Screenplay: Paul Schrader, First Reformed Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever […]

On the heels of Nicolas Roeg and Ricky Jay, the movies lost another major figure today with the passing of the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. Bertolucci leaves behind something of complicated legacy, especially given Hollywood’s current sociopolitical climate. His treatment of Maria Schneider on the set of The Last Tango in Paris has led some to decry his standing, while others lament that such indiscretions are “in danger of [overshadowing]” his work. Whichever side of the aisle you may fall on, it’s hard to deny his eye for staging a scene. Above is one of the most memorable sequences from one of […]

The upcoming FilmGate Interactive Media Festival (November 30th – December 6th) will mark its sixth year of bringing the immersive arts to South Florida. A quick glance through the lineup shows it’s the most impressive edition yet. Divided into four programs — Miami @ Play, Festival Panels, Interactive Installations, and the Virtual Reality Portal (with its 35-plus interactive experiences to choose from) — not to mention the many parties (this is Miami after all), the 2018 edition may just make the folks in town that same week for Art Basel look 20th century passé. Starting with the panels (on December […]

This edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (November 14th-25th) — now in its third decade, but also marking its inaugural year under the exciting new leadership of Syrian documentarian Orwa Nyrabia — offered one of the most binge-worthy lineups I’ve experienced in all my years covering the world’s largest doc fest. Of the nearly two-dozen films I managed to catch both in Amsterdam during my stay (once again guests were put up at the lovely — and couldn’t get more convenient — Hotel NH Carlton, which doubles as the fest’s headquarters) and online, not one disappointed. Indeed, veteran […]

Among the 33 non-fiction works comprising the recently announced Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and Stories of Change Grantees is a particularly noteworthy project that’s both the debut documentary by a major international auteur as well as a first-time collaboration between the Sundance Institute and the U.K.’s Institute for Contemporary Art. Chocobar (working title), currently in development, is the first non-fiction film from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, whose Zama is bound to top many U.S. critic ten-best lists later this year. It tells the story of murdered photographer and land rights activist Javier Chocobar, slain while fighting the removal of his […]

People are “natural scriptwriters,” Claire Simon noted towards the beginning of what turned out to be a surprisingly lively discussion between the French documentarian and the US’s own Steve James about one of the hottest topics in the doc industry today: serialized storytelling. The setting was an intimate theater at De Brakke Grond (the longtime headquarters of IDFA DocLab, where this year’s Humanoid Cookbook theme whimsically allowed for browsing a menu before ordering, or rather requesting, VR experience time slots). The moderator was film programmer Sean Farnel. The two veteran directors opened by acknowledging the biggest difference between feature films […]