Exclusive: Beta, Celluloid Dreams, Protagonist, The Match Factory, Feltrinelli join indie distribution schemes.
European distribution schemes The Tide Experiment and Walk This Way have seen 2016 EU funding injections of €500,000 ($545,000) and €650,000 ($710,000), respectively.
Walk This Way aggregates and promotes films for straight-to-vod distribution in the EU.
In 2015, the network - co-ordinated by industry consortium Under The Milky Way, Europa International and The Film Agency - supported 280 multi-territory releases of independent films.
Sales agents to join the scheme for 2016 include Beta Cinema, Celluloid Dreams, New Europe Film Sales, Protagonist Pictures and The Match Factory. Existing partners include Autlook Film Sales, Gaumont, Pathé, Films Boutique, Films Distribution, Memento Film International and The Yellow Affair.
For its second edition, Walk This Way will help distribute 50 titles in more than 15 territories, which will require the creation of 400 subtitles. According to organisers, each film will be available in an average of eight territories on global and local platforms.
Key titles...
European distribution schemes The Tide Experiment and Walk This Way have seen 2016 EU funding injections of €500,000 ($545,000) and €650,000 ($710,000), respectively.
Walk This Way aggregates and promotes films for straight-to-vod distribution in the EU.
In 2015, the network - co-ordinated by industry consortium Under The Milky Way, Europa International and The Film Agency - supported 280 multi-territory releases of independent films.
Sales agents to join the scheme for 2016 include Beta Cinema, Celluloid Dreams, New Europe Film Sales, Protagonist Pictures and The Match Factory. Existing partners include Autlook Film Sales, Gaumont, Pathé, Films Boutique, Films Distribution, Memento Film International and The Yellow Affair.
For its second edition, Walk This Way will help distribute 50 titles in more than 15 territories, which will require the creation of 400 subtitles. According to organisers, each film will be available in an average of eight territories on global and local platforms.
Key titles...
- 1/4/2016
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
"Concerning Violence" is now streaming on Netflix. Below is Zeba Blay's review first published on this blog when the film opened in limited theatrical release earlier this year, after a Sundance Film Festival premiere. *** In recent times there have been uncomfortable but absolutely necessary conversations about race in this country, sparked by incidents of police violence against unarmed black boys and men. There have been many voices - some calling for America and its apparent false promises of freedom and equality to be burned to the ground, others insisting that peace, nonviolence, and earnest attempts at compromise and reconciliation are they only way to move forward. And...
- 12/15/2015
- by Zeba Blay
- ShadowAndAct
Kino Lorber has announced the DVD release of "Concerning Violence," the critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary by Göran Hugo Olsson ("The Black Power Mixtape") and narrated by Lauryn Hill, which examines the Pan-African struggle against colonialism by juxtaposing archival footage depicting key African liberation movements with text from Frantz Fanon's book, "The Wretched of the Earth." On May 5, 2015, "Concerning Violence" will become available on DVD, with bonus features including the full preface by Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (11 minutes) and the trailer. In recent times there have been...
- 4/15/2015
- by Zeba Blay
- ShadowAndAct
Goran Olsson’s “Concerning Violence” screens at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, which kicked off on February 5, and will run through February 16th. In recent times there have been uncomfortable but absolutely necessary conversations about race in this country, sparked by incidents of police violence against unarmed black boys and men. There have been many voices - some calling for America and its apparent false promises of freedom and equality to be burned to the ground, others insisting that peace, nonviolence, and earnest attempts at compromise and reconciliation are they only way to move forward. And so it somehow doesn’t feel coincidental that now, Goran...
- 2/11/2015
- by Zeba Blay
- ShadowAndAct
Ruben Östlund’s family drama leads the pack with six Guldbagge Awards.
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (Turist) may have missed out on the shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award but it cleaned up at last night’s Swedish Oscars - the Guldbagge Awards.
The ceremony, held by the Swedish Film Institute at Cirkus in Stockholm, saw Östlund’s family drama pick up six Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) prizes including best film, director, supporting actor, screenplay, cinematography and editing.
The Sweden-France-Norway co-production debuted at Cannes 2014 and centres on a family who come under strain after staring down an avalanche in the French Alps.
Guldbagge Awards 2015
Best Film
Force majeure / Turist
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson and Philippe Bober
Best Director
Ruben Östlund
for Force majeure / Turist
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Saga Becker
for her role as Sebastian/ Ellie in Something Must Break / Nånting måste gå sönder
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Sverrir Gudnason
for...
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (Turist) may have missed out on the shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award but it cleaned up at last night’s Swedish Oscars - the Guldbagge Awards.
The ceremony, held by the Swedish Film Institute at Cirkus in Stockholm, saw Östlund’s family drama pick up six Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) prizes including best film, director, supporting actor, screenplay, cinematography and editing.
The Sweden-France-Norway co-production debuted at Cannes 2014 and centres on a family who come under strain after staring down an avalanche in the French Alps.
Guldbagge Awards 2015
Best Film
Force majeure / Turist
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson and Philippe Bober
Best Director
Ruben Östlund
for Force majeure / Turist
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Saga Becker
for her role as Sebastian/ Ellie in Something Must Break / Nånting måste gå sönder
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Sverrir Gudnason
for...
- 1/27/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Mikael Marcimain drama leads pack; Ruben Ostlund, Roy Andersson films follow.
With 13 nominations, Gentlemen, Mikael Marcimain’s adaption of the novel by Klas Östergren, has become one of the most nominated films in the history of Sweden’s national film awards, the Guldbagges.
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (Turist) follows with ten nominations, while there are seven nominations for Venice Golden Lion winner A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron) by Roy Andersson.
A jury of 45 members voted in a secret ballot for the nominations in the main categories.
The Guldbagge Awards ceremony will be held on 26 January, 2015, in Stockholm.
Guldbagge nominees 2015Best Film
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence / En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron
Producer: Pernilla Sandström
Force Majeure / Turist
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson, Philippe Bober
Gentlemen
Producers: Fredrik Heinig, Mattias Nohrborg, [link...
With 13 nominations, Gentlemen, Mikael Marcimain’s adaption of the novel by Klas Östergren, has become one of the most nominated films in the history of Sweden’s national film awards, the Guldbagges.
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (Turist) follows with ten nominations, while there are seven nominations for Venice Golden Lion winner A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron) by Roy Andersson.
A jury of 45 members voted in a secret ballot for the nominations in the main categories.
The Guldbagge Awards ceremony will be held on 26 January, 2015, in Stockholm.
Guldbagge nominees 2015Best Film
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence / En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron
Producer: Pernilla Sandström
Force Majeure / Turist
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson, Philippe Bober
Gentlemen
Producers: Fredrik Heinig, Mattias Nohrborg, [link...
- 1/8/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Critics in the UK obviously aren't immune to the charms of "Boyhood," as the film did well with the London Film Critics Circle. Now the Dublin Film Critics Circle has named it the year's best across the channel. The group also revealed its long lists throughout the categories, giving you some insight into which films were in the running. (Personal shout-out to my friends who made the documentary "Showrunners," which got a little love on the documentary list.) Check out the full list of winners below and watch it all unfold at The Circuit. Top 10 Films 1. "Boyhood" 2. "Under the Skin" 3. "Ida" 4. "The Lego Movie" 5. "12 Years a Slave" 6. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" 7. "Two Days, One Night" 8. (Tie) "Her,""Leviathan" 9. "The Wolf of Wall Street" 10. (Tie) "Blue Ruin" and "The Lunch Box" Best Director 1. Richard Linklater, "Boyhood" 2. Jonathan Glazer, "Under the Skin" 3. Pawel Pawlikowski, "Ida" 4. Spike Jonze, "Her" 5. Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" 6. Andrey Zvyagintsev,...
- 12/17/2014
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
As is usually the case, 2014 held a rich vein of great nonfiction cinema … that went mostly untapped by any wide audiences. But just because documentaries are perpetually under-served by popular (and even critical) attention doesn’t mean that we should neglect these films. This is a celebration of all the best docs to come out this year.
But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here are all the notable docs of 2014 that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet:
1989, 20,000 Days on Earth, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Big Joy, Big Men, Code Black, Evolution of a Criminal, The Great Flood, The Great Invisible, The Kill Team, National Gallery, The Missing Picture, Maidentrip, Manakamana, The Naked Opera, Virunga, Watchers of the Sky, What Now? Remind Me, Whitey
Next,we have some honorable mentions — other docs of 2014 that are well worth seeking out:
A Will for the Woods, Art and Craft,...
But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here are all the notable docs of 2014 that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet:
1989, 20,000 Days on Earth, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Big Joy, Big Men, Code Black, Evolution of a Criminal, The Great Flood, The Great Invisible, The Kill Team, National Gallery, The Missing Picture, Maidentrip, Manakamana, The Naked Opera, Virunga, Watchers of the Sky, What Now? Remind Me, Whitey
Next,we have some honorable mentions — other docs of 2014 that are well worth seeking out:
A Will for the Woods, Art and Craft,...
- 12/11/2014
- by Dan Schindel
- SoundOnSight
Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon in the film adaptation of Cheryl Strayed‘s memoir of a life-changing hike, blazed a trail into solid box office territory, opening in 21 theaters over the weekend with a $630K gross. The feature, which Witherspoon also produced under her Pacific Standard label, was easily the weekend’s biggest newcomer with a $30K per-theater average. Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, meanwhile, once again took the weekend’s highest PTA numbers as it added locations in its second week.
The Searchlight title opened in New York and L.A. Wednesday, expanding for the weekend to 21 theaters in 7 markets. Director Jean-Marc Vallée‘s previous film, Dallas Buyers Club, opened in November 2013 with a nearly $29K PTA, and went on to cume nearly $27.3M and three Oscars, including Best Actor for Matthew McConaughey. Searchlight said it plans to keep Wild hiking through theaters for a lengthy period to come.
The Searchlight title opened in New York and L.A. Wednesday, expanding for the weekend to 21 theaters in 7 markets. Director Jean-Marc Vallée‘s previous film, Dallas Buyers Club, opened in November 2013 with a nearly $29K PTA, and went on to cume nearly $27.3M and three Oscars, including Best Actor for Matthew McConaughey. Searchlight said it plans to keep Wild hiking through theaters for a lengthy period to come.
- 12/7/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
In recent days there have been uncomfortable but absolutely necessary conversations about race in this country, sparked by incidents of police violence against unarmed black boys and men. There have been many voices - some calling for America and its apparent false promises of freedom and equality to be burned to the ground, others insisting that peace, nonviolence, and earnest attempts at compromise and reconciliation are they only way to move forward. And so it somehow doesn’t feel coincidental that today, Goran Olsson’s “Concerning Violence” is out. It’s a documentary film that doesn’t speak directly to the events in Ferguson, New York, Mexico City, or Hong Kong, but still presents...
- 12/6/2014
- by Zeba Blay
- ShadowAndAct
Sundance ’15: Chuck Norris, Kim Longinotto & Louise Osmond Among 12 in World Documentary Competition
Supplying a wealth of treasures in just a dozen offerings, last year’s World Documentary Competition saw Talal Derki’s The Return to Homs claim the Grand Jury Prize over the likes of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days On Earth, Göran Hugo Olsson’s Concerning Violence, Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince and Hubert Sauper’s We Come as Friends. Among the docus we recall from previous oeuvres, we have Sisters in Law‘s Kim Longinotto & Deep Water‘s Louise Osmond. Here is the group of twelve.
The Amina Profile / Canada (Director: Sophie Deraspe) — During the Arab revolution, a love story between two women — a Canadian and a Syrian American — turns into an international sociopolitical thriller spotlighting media excesses and the thin line between truth and falsehood on the Internet. World Premiere
Censored Voices / Israel, Germany (Director: Mor Loushy) — One week after the 1967 Six-Day War, renowned author Amos Oz...
The Amina Profile / Canada (Director: Sophie Deraspe) — During the Arab revolution, a love story between two women — a Canadian and a Syrian American — turns into an international sociopolitical thriller spotlighting media excesses and the thin line between truth and falsehood on the Internet. World Premiere
Censored Voices / Israel, Germany (Director: Mor Loushy) — One week after the 1967 Six-Day War, renowned author Amos Oz...
- 12/3/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Whew, where do I begin.... Concerning Violence, a new stock footage documentary from Goran Hugo Olsson (Black Power Mixtape) is an extremely sharp indictment on the colonization and its aftermath of the African continent. The matter of fact headiness of Olsson's style may turn off some viewers in its college thesis paper dryness, but one can not deny its power of arresting images and portent words.Borrowing the text of Frantz Fanon, a Martinique born controversial Afro-French thinker and revolutionary, from his book The Wretched of Earth and powerfully narrated by musician Lauryn Hill as the large white texts appear on screen, the film explains how Europe's five hundred years of exploitation and violent oppression led dehumanization of the whole continent.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, a Columbia professor,...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 12/3/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Göran Hugo Olsson's profound essay doc aspires to upset in the truest sense. As its vintage footage of the cruelties of colonial life shocks and disgusts, its narration — excerpts from Frantz Fanon's thundering 1961 text The Wretched of the Earth — demands that Western viewers fundamentally upset their conceptions of everything. A commanding indictment of the exploitative nature of geopolitics, and of Europe's and the U.S.'s abuse of native peoples around the world, Concerning Violence pairs up hard truths from Fanon — Lauryn Hill reads his words, each blunt and burning like a cigarette she's putting out in your ear — with damnable scenes shot in colonized countries in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s: In Rhodesia, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, we meet loca...
- 12/3/2014
- Village Voice
Watch First USA Release Trailer for 'Concerning Violence' - Next from 'Black Power Mixtape' Director
After attempting to contextualize the Black Power Movement, in a format more accessible to a new generation - what we call a "mixtape" hence the title, "The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" - Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson continues on that same path, in a similar style, with his next film, which made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Titled "Concerning Violence," and produced by Annika Rogell and Tobias Janson for Story Ab, the project incorporates the words from Frantz Fanon’s "The Wretched of the Earth," using newly-discovered archive...
- 12/2/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Peter Bradshaw and Andrew Pulver join Xan Brooks to debate the week's new film releases, including Paddington, an adaptation of Michael Bond's children's book, Concerning Violence, a Lauryn Hill-narrated documentary on freeing Africa from its colonial past, Horrible Bosses 2, featuring the return of Jennifer Aniston's man-eating manager, and a chance to see sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen Continue reading...
- 11/28/2014
- by Xan Brooks, Peter Bradshaw, Andrew Pulver, Richard Sprenger, Mona Mahmood and Joan Portillo
- The Guardian - Film News
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2014 has been nothing but a string of acclaim for the documentary "Concerning Violence." Picking up the Cinema Fairbindet Prize in Berlin, and screening at festivals around the world, the powerful film is now headed to cinemas, and today we have the exclusive trailer. Directed by Göran Hugo Olsson, ("The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975") and narrated by Ms. Lauryn Hill, the film is based on Frantz Fanon’s seminal anticolonial text "The Wretched of the Earth," and is an exploration of the forces of repression and colonialism in Africa. As we wrote in our review, the documentary provides "a searing look at Europe's painful involvement in participating, encouraging and backing regimes of oppression." It's light fare, but a necessary, and important film. "Concerning Violence" opens on December 5th at the IFC Center, with Olsson on hand for a Q&A following...
- 11/26/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
After attempting to contextualize the Black Power Movement, in a format more accessible to a new generation - what we call a "mixtape" hence the title, "The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" - Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson continues on that same path, in a similar style, with his next film, which made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Titled "Concerning Violence," and produced by Annika Rogell and Tobias Janson for Story Ab, the project incorporates the words from Frantz Fanon’s "The Wretched of the Earth," using newly-discovered archive...
- 11/26/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
★★★★☆In answer to what he would do to follow 2011's multi-layered collage The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, Göran Hugo Olsson has settled on the fight against Colonists in Africa by its indigenous people by again raiding the archives of Swedish Television for Concerning Violence (2014). This time he is using as the contextual device the words of Frantz Fanon spoken by Lauryn Hill, from Fanon’s book The Wretched Of The Earth. With a filmed introduction by postcolonial theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, the film is split into nine chapters that delve into different perspectives on the African uprising that sprung up all over the continent from 1975 onwards.
- 11/26/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
There is nothing new in the subject matters covered in Yance Ford’s debut. Gun violence. Authorities taking a blind eye approach. A family and community torn. Pretty much sight unseen (although a peak at the trailer helps), I’d be surprised if I’ll personally be able to withstand the emotionally walloping that Strong Island promises to deliver. Forget about dry eyes. We’ve been anticipating this docu since we first heard of the person (Filmmaker Mag’s Scott Macaulay Top 25 Faces profile), and ever since then, it’s been collecting massive support from the Sundance Institute, Cinereach, Idfa Forum and just last month, a major helping hand from the MacArthur Foundation Documentary Grant. We’re wishful that this lands at the top of ’15.
Gist: Tracing the impacts of the 1992 shooting death of William Ford, Jr., an unarmed African American, and the devastation of the Ford family when his killer goes unpunished.
Gist: Tracing the impacts of the 1992 shooting death of William Ford, Jr., an unarmed African American, and the devastation of the Ford family when his killer goes unpunished.
- 11/14/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
After attempting to contextualize the Black Power Movement, in a format more accessible to a new generation - what we call a "mixtape" hence the title, "The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" - Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson continues on that same path, in a similar style, with his next film, which made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Titled "Concerning Violence," and produced by Annika Rogell and Tobias Janson for Story Ab, the project incorporates the words from Frantz Fanon’s "The Wretched of the Earth," using newly-discovered archive...
- 11/5/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Narrated by former Fugee Lauryn Hill, this documentary explores the liberation struggles across Africa in the 1960s and 70s, as colonial masters were overthrown. Directed by Black Power Mixtape's Göran Olsson, and drawing on the Frantz Fanon essay of the same title (from The Wretched of the Earth), Concerning Violence is released in the UK on 28 November and in the Us on 5 December.
• Concerning Violence director Göran Olsson: 'Why can't a writer advocate violence?' Continue reading...
• Concerning Violence director Göran Olsson: 'Why can't a writer advocate violence?' Continue reading...
- 11/4/2014
- by Guardian Staff
- The Guardian - Film News
Whoopsy. I forgot to share this list... Herewith the films that could be up for Best Documentary Feature this year. We'll get a finalist of 15 at some point next month followed by 5 nominees in January "until we crown A Winnah!" If we've reviewed the titles, you'll notice their pretty color which you can then click on to read about them. The magic of the internet. You can also see the animated and documentary Oscar charts here.
The 134 Semi-Finalists
A-c
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Algorithms, Alive Inside, All You Need Is Love, Altina, America: Imagine the World without Her, American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, Anita, Antarctica: A Year on Ice, Art and Craft, Awake: The Life of Yogananda, The Barefoot Artist, The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Before You Know It, Bitter Honey, Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, Botso The Teacher from Tbilisi,...
The 134 Semi-Finalists
A-c
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Algorithms, Alive Inside, All You Need Is Love, Altina, America: Imagine the World without Her, American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, Anita, Antarctica: A Year on Ice, Art and Craft, Awake: The Life of Yogananda, The Barefoot Artist, The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Before You Know It, Bitter Honey, Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, Botso The Teacher from Tbilisi,...
- 11/3/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Klara Grunning and Antonio Russo Merenda appointed documentary film commissioners.
Klara Grunning and Antonio Russo Merenda have been appointed documentary film commissioners at the Swedish Film Institute, taking over from Cecilia Lidin.
It means the production funding section for documentaries will double, with two commissioners dealing with applications for funding.
Swedish documentaries to gain international recognition in recent years include Oscar-winner Searching For Sugar Man and Concerning Violence.
Hjalmar Palmgren, head of the Production Funding unit, said Grunning will join early next autumn, and Lidin has agreed to stay on in her current post until then.
Grunning has been a film commissioner at the Danish Film Institute since 2010, arranging funding for documentaries, many of which have been Danish-Swedish projects.
Prior to that she worked Itvs in the Us during her 18 year stay there, and at Kudos Family Distribution in Norway as a VP distribution, and as producer and cinematographer for documentaries and also as a production consultant...
Klara Grunning and Antonio Russo Merenda have been appointed documentary film commissioners at the Swedish Film Institute, taking over from Cecilia Lidin.
It means the production funding section for documentaries will double, with two commissioners dealing with applications for funding.
Swedish documentaries to gain international recognition in recent years include Oscar-winner Searching For Sugar Man and Concerning Violence.
Hjalmar Palmgren, head of the Production Funding unit, said Grunning will join early next autumn, and Lidin has agreed to stay on in her current post until then.
Grunning has been a film commissioner at the Danish Film Institute since 2010, arranging funding for documentaries, many of which have been Danish-Swedish projects.
Prior to that she worked Itvs in the Us during her 18 year stay there, and at Kudos Family Distribution in Norway as a VP distribution, and as producer and cinematographer for documentaries and also as a production consultant...
- 11/3/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
One hundred thirty-four features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 87th Academy Awards. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq”
“Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case”
“Algorithms”
“Alive Inside”
“All You Need Is Love”
“Altina”
“America: Imagine the World without Her”
“American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs”
“Anita”
“Antarctica: A Year on Ice”
“Art and Craft”
“Awake: The Life of Yogananda”
“The Barefoot Artist”
“The Battered Bastards of Baseball”
“Before You Know It”
“Bitter Honey”
“Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity”
“Botso The Teacher from Tbilisi”
“Captivated The Trials of Pamela Smart”
“The Case against 8”
“Cesar’s Last Fast”
“Citizen Koch”
“CitizenFour”
“Code Black”
“Concerning Violence”
“The Culture High”
“Cyber-Seniors”
“DamNation”
“Dancing in Jaffa”
“Death Metal Angola”
“The Decent One”
“Dinosaur 13”
“Do You Know What My Name Is?...
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq”
“Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case”
“Algorithms”
“Alive Inside”
“All You Need Is Love”
“Altina”
“America: Imagine the World without Her”
“American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs”
“Anita”
“Antarctica: A Year on Ice”
“Art and Craft”
“Awake: The Life of Yogananda”
“The Barefoot Artist”
“The Battered Bastards of Baseball”
“Before You Know It”
“Bitter Honey”
“Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity”
“Botso The Teacher from Tbilisi”
“Captivated The Trials of Pamela Smart”
“The Case against 8”
“Cesar’s Last Fast”
“Citizen Koch”
“CitizenFour”
“Code Black”
“Concerning Violence”
“The Culture High”
“Cyber-Seniors”
“DamNation”
“Dancing in Jaffa”
“Death Metal Angola”
“The Decent One”
“Dinosaur 13”
“Do You Know What My Name Is?...
- 11/2/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Citizenfour, Life Itself, Red Army, Warsaw Uprising among long-list contenters for the 87th Academy Awards.
The Salt Of The Earth, Happy Valley, Jodorowsky’s Dune, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, Food Chains and Point And Shoot are also named.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
20,000 Days On Earth
Afternoon Of A Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Algorithms
Alive Inside
All You Need Is Love
Altina
America: Imagine The World Without Her
American Revolutionary: The Evolution Of Grace Lee Boggs
Anita
Antarctica: A Year On Ice
Art And Craft
Awake: The Life Of Yogananda
The Barefoot Artist
The Battered Bastards Of Baseball
Before You Know It
Bitter Honey
Born To Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity
Botso The Teacher From Tbilisi
Captivated The Trials Of Pamela Smart
The Case Against 8
Cesar’s Last Fast
Citizen Koch
Citizenfour
Code Black
Concerning Violence
The Culture High
Cyber-Seniors
Damnation
Dancing In Jaffa
Death Metal Angola
The...
The Salt Of The Earth, Happy Valley, Jodorowsky’s Dune, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, Food Chains and Point And Shoot are also named.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
20,000 Days On Earth
Afternoon Of A Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Algorithms
Alive Inside
All You Need Is Love
Altina
America: Imagine The World Without Her
American Revolutionary: The Evolution Of Grace Lee Boggs
Anita
Antarctica: A Year On Ice
Art And Craft
Awake: The Life Of Yogananda
The Barefoot Artist
The Battered Bastards Of Baseball
Before You Know It
Bitter Honey
Born To Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity
Botso The Teacher From Tbilisi
Captivated The Trials Of Pamela Smart
The Case Against 8
Cesar’s Last Fast
Citizen Koch
Citizenfour
Code Black
Concerning Violence
The Culture High
Cyber-Seniors
Damnation
Dancing In Jaffa
Death Metal Angola
The...
- 10/31/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its list of 134 film vying for the Best Feature Documentary Oscar at the 87th Annual Academy Awards in February. A number of the nonfic hopefuls have yet to get their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Those that don’t will be cut from the contention. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December. Oscar noms will be revealed January 15, and ABC will broadcast Hollywood’s Big Night live on February 22 from the Dolby Theatre.
Here are the docu feature submissions:
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Algorithms
Alive Inside
All You Need Is Love
Altina
America: Imagine the World without Her
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
Anita
Antarctica: A Year on Ice
Art and Craft
Awake: The Life of Yogananda
The Barefoot Artist
The Battered Bastards of Baseball...
Here are the docu feature submissions:
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Algorithms
Alive Inside
All You Need Is Love
Altina
America: Imagine the World without Her
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
Anita
Antarctica: A Year on Ice
Art and Craft
Awake: The Life of Yogananda
The Barefoot Artist
The Battered Bastards of Baseball...
- 10/31/2014
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
One hundred thirty-four features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 87th Academy Awards®. Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category's other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December. Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories. The 87th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 15, 2015, at 5:30 a.m. Pt in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar...
- 10/31/2014
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Wednesday morning, the International Documentary Association announced its nominees and select winners for the 2014 Ida Awards, an annual tribute to the best-of-the-best of non-fiction film and television. Pertinent to award season are the Best Feature contenders, including Lara Poitras’ recent hit “Citizenfour” “Point and Shoot,” an American filmmaker’s look inside Libyan prisons, “Finding Vivian Maier,” a portrait of the posthumously legendary photographer, Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado's artist profile “The Salt of the Earth,” and Nick Broomfield’s verite serial killer investigation, “Tales of the Grim Sleeper.” Unlike years past, all five films look like viable Best Documentary candidates come Oscar time, making the Ida Awards even more influential. Past winners include “The Square” (2013), “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012), “Nostalgia for Light” (2011), and “Waste Land” (2010). For his work founding the Sundance Institute and producing documentaries through Sundance Productions, the Ida Awards will honor Robert Redford with its career achievement award.
- 10/29/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced nominations for the 2014 Ida Documentary Awards today, with awards being bestowed December 5th at the Paramount Theatre on the studio lot. The top films nominated in the best feature category include the critically-acclaimed Citizenfour from filmmaker Laura Poitras about Edward Snowden and the state of surveillance of civilians post 9/11 which has been enjoying a theatrical run and Nick Broomfield’s Tales Of The Grim Sleeper about the serial killer who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over 25 years. In the limited series category is Playtone’s CNN doc The Sixties, among others. Best episodic include Oprah Winfrey’s Master Class and HBO’s Vice exec produced by Bill Maher (and others). In addition, Robert Redford will receive the Career Achievement award from the Ida.
Winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories are selected by Ida’s international membership. Screening committees of industry professionals based in New York City,...
Winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories are selected by Ida’s international membership. Screening committees of industry professionals based in New York City,...
- 10/29/2014
- by Anita Busch
- Deadline
Chen-Zer Doze Niu’s Paradise In Service and Lee Bo-Cheung’s Gangster Pay Day to bookend 19th edition.
The 19th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) (Oct 2-11) today announced its line-up with the international premiere of Chen-Zer Doze Niu’s Taiwanese film Paradise In Service as the opening film.
Niu and cast members will be on hand at the opening ceremony on Oct 2, to be emceed by Moon So-ri and Ken Watanabe.
Lee Bo-Cheung’s Hong Kong-China film Gangster Pay Day will receive its world premiere as the closing film on Oct 11. The director as well as stars Anthony Wong and Charlene Choi will be on hand to present the film.
Biff will screen 314 films from 79 countries with 98 world premieres and 36 international premieres.
All the 12 New Currents competition films are world or international premieres, including Amin Dora’s Ghadi, the first Lebanese film to screen in this section, and Jalal’s Story, directed by Abu...
The 19th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) (Oct 2-11) today announced its line-up with the international premiere of Chen-Zer Doze Niu’s Taiwanese film Paradise In Service as the opening film.
Niu and cast members will be on hand at the opening ceremony on Oct 2, to be emceed by Moon So-ri and Ken Watanabe.
Lee Bo-Cheung’s Hong Kong-China film Gangster Pay Day will receive its world premiere as the closing film on Oct 11. The director as well as stars Anthony Wong and Charlene Choi will be on hand to present the film.
Biff will screen 314 films from 79 countries with 98 world premieres and 36 international premieres.
All the 12 New Currents competition films are world or international premieres, including Amin Dora’s Ghadi, the first Lebanese film to screen in this section, and Jalal’s Story, directed by Abu...
- 9/2/2014
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Locarno director talks highlights and UK presence at the festival and looks to 2015.
Locarno festival director Carlo Chatrian has outlined some of his highlights and regrets from this year’s festival, and ambitions for next year, in an exclusive interview with ScreenDaily ahead of the event’s closing weekend.
“Experiencing cinema as a community”, is high up on the list of this year’s treats, he said.
The world premiere of Swiss film-maker Peter Luisi’s Unlikely Heroes on Wednesday (Aug 13) was “one of those nights on the Piazza where you really felt that the audience is with the film.
“There was a lot of applause and people came up to me afterwards with great enthusiasm. I think Unlikely Heroes is the kind of film which works very well because it’s strongly experiencing cinema as a community,” he continued.
He added that he had also been “very happy“ with the night on the Piazza Grande when Agnes Varda...
Locarno festival director Carlo Chatrian has outlined some of his highlights and regrets from this year’s festival, and ambitions for next year, in an exclusive interview with ScreenDaily ahead of the event’s closing weekend.
“Experiencing cinema as a community”, is high up on the list of this year’s treats, he said.
The world premiere of Swiss film-maker Peter Luisi’s Unlikely Heroes on Wednesday (Aug 13) was “one of those nights on the Piazza where you really felt that the audience is with the film.
“There was a lot of applause and people came up to me afterwards with great enthusiasm. I think Unlikely Heroes is the kind of film which works very well because it’s strongly experiencing cinema as a community,” he continued.
He added that he had also been “very happy“ with the night on the Piazza Grande when Agnes Varda...
- 8/15/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Locarno director talks highlights and UK presence at the festival and looks to 2016.
Locarno festival director Carlo Chatrian has outlined some of his highlights and regrets from this year’s festival, and ambitions for next year, in an exclusive interview with Screen Daily ahead of the event’s closing weekend.
“Experiencing cinema as a community”, is high up on the list of this year’s treats, he said.
The world premiere of Swiss film-maker Peter Luisi’s Unlikely Heroes on Wednesday (Aug 13) was “one of those nights on the Piazza where you really felt that the audience is with the film.
“There was a lot of applause and people came up to me afterwards with great enthusiasm. I think Unlikely Heroes is the kind of film which works very well because it’s strongly experiencing cinema as a community,” he continued.
He added that he had also been “very happy“ with the night on the Piazza Grande...
Locarno festival director Carlo Chatrian has outlined some of his highlights and regrets from this year’s festival, and ambitions for next year, in an exclusive interview with Screen Daily ahead of the event’s closing weekend.
“Experiencing cinema as a community”, is high up on the list of this year’s treats, he said.
The world premiere of Swiss film-maker Peter Luisi’s Unlikely Heroes on Wednesday (Aug 13) was “one of those nights on the Piazza where you really felt that the audience is with the film.
“There was a lot of applause and people came up to me afterwards with great enthusiasm. I think Unlikely Heroes is the kind of film which works very well because it’s strongly experiencing cinema as a community,” he continued.
He added that he had also been “very happy“ with the night on the Piazza Grande...
- 8/15/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
This year’s festival saw 45% of its lineup coming from female directors, including Alone Together from Liza Minou Morberg [pictured].
Women took centre stage at Way Out West’s Film Festival, with head of film programming Svante Tidholm giving credit to 45% of its line-up deriving from female directors.
Headlining the film side of the joint music and film event was Alexandra Dahlström’s All We Have is Now that documents all-girl Swedish punk rock band Vulkano, and Liza Minou Morberg’s coming-of-age drama Alone Together detailing the friendship of three young women on their way to Way Out West.
Both films served as feature length directorial debuts.
“It was our privilege (and luck) to have two world premieres that were both directed by women, and also about strong women. We work closely with Sweden’s film industry, and one aim is to balance equality and gender. And from watching their films – you can immediately tell they are very...
Women took centre stage at Way Out West’s Film Festival, with head of film programming Svante Tidholm giving credit to 45% of its line-up deriving from female directors.
Headlining the film side of the joint music and film event was Alexandra Dahlström’s All We Have is Now that documents all-girl Swedish punk rock band Vulkano, and Liza Minou Morberg’s coming-of-age drama Alone Together detailing the friendship of three young women on their way to Way Out West.
Both films served as feature length directorial debuts.
“It was our privilege (and luck) to have two world premieres that were both directed by women, and also about strong women. We work closely with Sweden’s film industry, and one aim is to balance equality and gender. And from watching their films – you can immediately tell they are very...
- 8/13/2014
- ScreenDaily
Ruben Ostlund presents Cannes hit Force Majeure [pictured] as a gala screening; Jens Lien previews TV series Viva Hate.
Gothenburg’s Way Out West wrapped its fourth film edition on Saturday with a record-breaking 27,000 in attendance and 42 films, including a gala premiere of local Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure and Nordic premieres of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Alex Gibney’s Finding Fela.
Running alongside the Way Out West music festival, now in its ninth year, additional film programming catered to the music fanbase by screening world premieres of Swedish actress Alexandra Dahlström’s All We Have is Now, documenting Stockholm-based rock band Vulkano; and Liza Minou Morberg’s Alone Together that follows three women on a journey to Way Out West.
Other music-oriented films included Eric Green’s guitar documentary Beautiful Noise, Nick Cave doc 20,000 Days on Earth, Tom Berninger’s depiction of his brother on tour with The National in Mistaken for Strangers, and [link=tt...
Gothenburg’s Way Out West wrapped its fourth film edition on Saturday with a record-breaking 27,000 in attendance and 42 films, including a gala premiere of local Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure and Nordic premieres of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Alex Gibney’s Finding Fela.
Running alongside the Way Out West music festival, now in its ninth year, additional film programming catered to the music fanbase by screening world premieres of Swedish actress Alexandra Dahlström’s All We Have is Now, documenting Stockholm-based rock band Vulkano; and Liza Minou Morberg’s Alone Together that follows three women on a journey to Way Out West.
Other music-oriented films included Eric Green’s guitar documentary Beautiful Noise, Nick Cave doc 20,000 Days on Earth, Tom Berninger’s depiction of his brother on tour with The National in Mistaken for Strangers, and [link=tt...
- 8/11/2014
- ScreenDaily
Ruben Ostlund presents Cannes hit Force Majeure [pictured] as a gala screening; Jens Lien previews TV series Viva Hate.
Gothenburg’s Way Out West wrapped its fourth film edition on Saturday with a record-breaking 27,000 in attendance,42 films, including a gala premiere of local Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure and Nordic premieres of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Alex Gibney’s Finding Fela.
Running alongside the Way Out West music festival, now in its ninth year, additional film programming catered to the music fanbase by screening world premieres of Swedish actress Alexandra Dahlström’s All We Have is Now, documenting Stockholm-based rock band Vulkano; and Liza Minou Morberg’s Alone Together that follows three women on a journey to Way Out West.
Other music-oriented films included Eric Green’s guitar documentary Beautiful Noise, Nick Cave doc 20,000 Days on Earth, Tom Berninger’s depiction of his brother on tour with The National in Mistaken for Strangers, and [link=tt...
Gothenburg’s Way Out West wrapped its fourth film edition on Saturday with a record-breaking 27,000 in attendance,42 films, including a gala premiere of local Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure and Nordic premieres of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Alex Gibney’s Finding Fela.
Running alongside the Way Out West music festival, now in its ninth year, additional film programming catered to the music fanbase by screening world premieres of Swedish actress Alexandra Dahlström’s All We Have is Now, documenting Stockholm-based rock band Vulkano; and Liza Minou Morberg’s Alone Together that follows three women on a journey to Way Out West.
Other music-oriented films included Eric Green’s guitar documentary Beautiful Noise, Nick Cave doc 20,000 Days on Earth, Tom Berninger’s depiction of his brother on tour with The National in Mistaken for Strangers, and [link=tt...
- 8/11/2014
- ScreenDaily
Other films in programme include Boyhood, Force Majeure, plus world premiere of Jens Lien’s new TV series.
Way Out West, the music and film event in Gothenberg, Sweden that runs Aug 7-9, will host the world premiere of Alexandra Dahlstrom’s All We Have Is Now [pictured], about the band Vulkano. Dahlstrom is a Swedish actress who makes her feature directorial debut.
Other world premieres at Way Out West will be Liza Morberg’s coming of age story Alone Together, about a group of friends on their way to the music festival; Klas Sivertson’s 7 Stripes; and Mia Thermænius’ The Group And The Gentlemen!.
The festival will also offer a gala screening of Ruben Ostlund’s Cannes hit Force Majeure (aka Turist) [a Nordic premiere], plus the Nordic premiere of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. Other titles include Goran Hugo Olsson’s Concerning Violence.
IIn addition to the musical offerings of Motörhead, Outkast, Robyn & Röyksopp, Queens of the Stone Age, Janelle...
Way Out West, the music and film event in Gothenberg, Sweden that runs Aug 7-9, will host the world premiere of Alexandra Dahlstrom’s All We Have Is Now [pictured], about the band Vulkano. Dahlstrom is a Swedish actress who makes her feature directorial debut.
Other world premieres at Way Out West will be Liza Morberg’s coming of age story Alone Together, about a group of friends on their way to the music festival; Klas Sivertson’s 7 Stripes; and Mia Thermænius’ The Group And The Gentlemen!.
The festival will also offer a gala screening of Ruben Ostlund’s Cannes hit Force Majeure (aka Turist) [a Nordic premiere], plus the Nordic premiere of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. Other titles include Goran Hugo Olsson’s Concerning Violence.
IIn addition to the musical offerings of Motörhead, Outkast, Robyn & Röyksopp, Queens of the Stone Age, Janelle...
- 7/23/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Helsinki-Filmi has come on board Abhay Kumar’s documentary Placebo as a minority co-producer.
The Finnish Film Foundation will finance the sound-post of the documentary to be completed in Finland. An international film is eligible for production financing by the Finnish Film Foundation provided there is a Finnish production company on board. Furthermore, to be eligible for funding, there needs to be local distribution for the film in Finland and also a Finnish artist on board.
Sound designer Micke Nyström, who has worked on award winning films like Pixadores, Bekas and Concerning Violence will work on Placebo and the Finnish Broadcasting company will distribute the film in Finland.
“Miia Haavisto, the producer at Helsinki-filmi watched a rough cut of the film and found it to be engaging enough to have wide international appeal and offered us to help in our post production stage,” said Abhay Kumar.
Placebo will be the...
The Finnish Film Foundation will finance the sound-post of the documentary to be completed in Finland. An international film is eligible for production financing by the Finnish Film Foundation provided there is a Finnish production company on board. Furthermore, to be eligible for funding, there needs to be local distribution for the film in Finland and also a Finnish artist on board.
Sound designer Micke Nyström, who has worked on award winning films like Pixadores, Bekas and Concerning Violence will work on Placebo and the Finnish Broadcasting company will distribute the film in Finland.
“Miia Haavisto, the producer at Helsinki-filmi watched a rough cut of the film and found it to be engaging enough to have wide international appeal and offered us to help in our post production stage,” said Abhay Kumar.
Placebo will be the...
- 6/23/2014
- by Nandita Dutta
- DearCinema.com
Based on Martinique-born philosopher Frantz Fanon's book about decolonisation, The Wretched of the Earth, and narrated by ex-Fugee Lauryn Hill, Concerning Violence explores Fanon's view that breaking free of colonial rule inevitably involves violent upheaval. Director Göran Hugo Olsson explains why he was unsure he was the right person to make the film and how he hopes the documentary will provide audiences with tools for combating oppression, rather than merely displaying suffering Continue reading...
- 6/11/2014
- by Henry Barnes and Leah Green
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★★Illustrating the provocative and combative concepts of Martinique-born Afro-French psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon's anti-colonial text The Wretched of the Earth, Göran Hugo Olsson's Concerning Violence (2014) aims to explore Africa's subjugated past in hope of understanding the continent's current geopolitical condition. An abrasively worded thinkpiece, Olsson's follow-up to 2011's The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 - screening at this year's Sheffield Doc/Fest after stints at Sundance and Berlin - is a damning indictment of European imperialism and an eloquent tirade of inflammatory imagery that explores the human, social and cultural consequences of decolonisation.
- 6/9/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Swedish director Göran Hugo Olsson, who many will know from his archival triumph The Black Power Mixtape, returns from Sundance and Berlin at a rather opportune moment to present his new film, Concerning Violence. Many incendiary debates have escalated over Boko Harām and the ‘BringBackOurGirls’ campaign: one side arguing that awareness and education are the primary steps to success, while others brush off such digital profile-raising as a form of clicktivism (and at worst further Western interference into African affairs).
There was one period in African history when this meddling was irrefutable: Apartheid. To excavate it, Olsson once again mines the Swedish archives to magic up some gorgeous 16mm footage from all across Africa, predominantly shot between the 1960s and ‘70s. With an introduction by postcolonial theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and utilising extracts from Frantz Fanon’s newly-revived (at least in the mainstream) text The Wretched of the Earth, this...
There was one period in African history when this meddling was irrefutable: Apartheid. To excavate it, Olsson once again mines the Swedish archives to magic up some gorgeous 16mm footage from all across Africa, predominantly shot between the 1960s and ‘70s. With an introduction by postcolonial theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and utilising extracts from Frantz Fanon’s newly-revived (at least in the mainstream) text The Wretched of the Earth, this...
- 6/9/2014
- by Andrew Latimer
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Company also acquires UK rights to Concerning Violence.
Dogwoof will handle international sales, outside of North America, for Dior and I [pictured].
Frédéric Tcheng’s documentary premiered at this year’s Tribeca and is a behind-the-scenes look at the historic French fashion house.
The deal was brokered by Anna Godas, CEO of Dogwoof, with David Koh and Josh Braun of Submarine. It will also see Dogwoof distribute the film across all platforms in the UK.
Koh and Braun commented: “We are excited to work with our dear friends at Dogwoof on another exemplary film and on another successful collaboration. The film-makers are in great hands and we are excited to share this special film around the world.”
Dior and I is making its market premiere at this year’s Cannes.
Meanwhile, Dogwoof has acquired UK rights to Concerning Violence in an all-rights deal.
Göran Hugo Olsson’s study of the African liberation struggles of the 1960s and 1970s...
Dogwoof will handle international sales, outside of North America, for Dior and I [pictured].
Frédéric Tcheng’s documentary premiered at this year’s Tribeca and is a behind-the-scenes look at the historic French fashion house.
The deal was brokered by Anna Godas, CEO of Dogwoof, with David Koh and Josh Braun of Submarine. It will also see Dogwoof distribute the film across all platforms in the UK.
Koh and Braun commented: “We are excited to work with our dear friends at Dogwoof on another exemplary film and on another successful collaboration. The film-makers are in great hands and we are excited to share this special film around the world.”
Dior and I is making its market premiere at this year’s Cannes.
Meanwhile, Dogwoof has acquired UK rights to Concerning Violence in an all-rights deal.
Göran Hugo Olsson’s study of the African liberation struggles of the 1960s and 1970s...
- 5/15/2014
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Comedies dominate Films Boutique’s line-up of market premieres at next week’s Marché du Film in Cannes.
The Berlin-based sales outfit will be presenting three comedies among its latest pickups.
These include Serbian writer-director Darko Lungulov’s Monument To Michael Jackson. It follows his award-winning feature Here And There and was pitched at various co-production events, including Sofia Meetings and Moscow Business Square; the film was co-produced by Macedonia’s Producer on the Move, Ognen Antov of Dream Factory Macedonia;T
The other two titles are Belgian film-maker Geoffrey Enthoven’s Halfway and Pascal Rabaté’s Patchwork Family, to be released in France on July 9 by Ad Vitam Distribution, as buyers-only screenings.
Halfway is the second film by Enthoven to be handled internationally by Films Boutique after the sales company had sold Come As You Are, a drama about three disabled youngsters going to Spain to get laid, to 42 territories...
The Berlin-based sales outfit will be presenting three comedies among its latest pickups.
These include Serbian writer-director Darko Lungulov’s Monument To Michael Jackson. It follows his award-winning feature Here And There and was pitched at various co-production events, including Sofia Meetings and Moscow Business Square; the film was co-produced by Macedonia’s Producer on the Move, Ognen Antov of Dream Factory Macedonia;T
The other two titles are Belgian film-maker Geoffrey Enthoven’s Halfway and Pascal Rabaté’s Patchwork Family, to be released in France on July 9 by Ad Vitam Distribution, as buyers-only screenings.
Halfway is the second film by Enthoven to be handled internationally by Films Boutique after the sales company had sold Come As You Are, a drama about three disabled youngsters going to Spain to get laid, to 42 territories...
- 5/8/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
After attempting to contextualize the Black Power Movement, in a format more accessible to a new generation - what we call a "mixtape" hence the title, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 - Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson will continue on that same path, in a similar style, with his next film, which made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Titled Concerning Violence, and produced by Annika Rogell and Tobias Janson for Story Ab, the project incorporates the words from Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, using newly-discovered archive footage (as was the case with Mixtape),...
- 3/19/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Though the market seemed slow on the surface, the usual sales got made: the larger companies selling almost out, the smaller ones busily speaking with others, selling here and there, worrying if this would get better, worse, or stay the same.
Meanwhile fascinating and energizing conversations were carried on with friends, newcomers, keepers of funds, representatives of countries and their needs to internationalize, to join forces with one another to create new models, internationalize, form cross cultural competent and cooperative ways of working together. We know the past model is failing to keep up with the technology and its fast spawning product. Some would say the old model is old and frail, sucking its old teeth as it pretends to carry on, but in reality, it is carrying its own corpse upon its shoulders. I would never go so far as to say this; the model will be changed, refined and redesigned, but it will survive because some people enjoy theatrical settings and that helps further other sales
FBI Casting Director Beatrice Kruger (now working on Fatih Akin¹s The Cut) spoke to us over dinner at Einsteins about her experience on Woody Allen¹s To Rome With Love, how he got involved in the real life politics of Italy as he attempted to cast real newscasters in the roles they play in real life. He didn't want the right wingers. He didn't like them, but he was told he had to hire them if he wanted to access the government monies, ...besides, how could he cast a left wing newscaster into the role off a right wing commentator? The experience of Italian politics did not make him happy.
Frank Cox, the founder of the Australian arthouse distributor Hopscotch which has been sold to eOne Entertainment, was in the Scandinavian Pavilion and told me he is still carrying on though on a smaller scale with his original company, New Vision Distribution. He recently acquired We¹re The Best by Lucas Moodyson, a darling film that showed in Cannes and Toronto and totally endeared me to its 13 year old girls as they searched for ways to get into trouble. (Magnolia has U.S.)
Robbie Little and Elie Mechoulam, Director of Sales and Marketing of The Little Film Company tallying up that $30,000,000 at the box office at $11 per ticket is only 3 million admissions, or 300,000 tickets sold...TV would be failure if it had such numbers. TV makes $46 million in ad sales on one episode of a great series...
Andrea Kaul, the EFM¹s new Co-Director who comes from Rtl TV and ad sales was not at that conversation, but when we spoke after the market was finished, such a topic as episodic content and online ad sales was also on her mind. The Berlinale screening of Netflix¹s second installment of Houses of Cards was a great success in the last days of the Berlinale, which was in itself food for thought. Even Dieter Kosslick, in his interview with Indiewire¹s Eric Kohn (Read Here) said, "We showed, for the first time in history, House of Cards. We have never done such a thing before. Heads were turning last night. Last year, we had [Jane Campion¹s TV series] Top of the Lake (in its entirety),so we are starting this new whole world."
Ted Hope of Fandor pointed out, "Research company Markets and Markets predicts global video-on-demand (VOD) revenue will grow from $21 billion last year to $45 billion in 2018. They define this as the combined revenues of all VOD outlets, worldwide ‹ essentially digital (online) VOD plus cable & satellite VOD. Huge numbers, but actually not a particularly high compound annual growth rate (16%) to get to the $45b number in years. Figure roughly half of this revenue flows to content owners and half to the VOD outlets."
To see the excitement of young people just beginning...everything to gain and little to lose, learning to like what they are doing to further their aims at telling stories their way. When I spoke with Wafa Tajdin, a founding partner and lead producer at Seven Thirty Films, an Africa based indie production company she runs with her sister, artist and film maker Amirah Tajdin. This Arab Indian pair of sisters is working to tell their stories of growing up in Kenya and living in Dubai...I asked which parent was what and was told that each parent was also half Arab, half Indian, the same sexes too...I should have told them about Peter, whose Italian Jewish parents also lived in such a ghetto of mixed marriages in east Harlem in the 1910s and 1920s. These are the stories which are forming in world cinema today. You can see her work Here
True cross-culture creation is taking place in the Talents section of the Efm. Eleven films of former Talent Campus participants are showing in the festival this year
One talent, Sompot Chidgasornpongse has formed a new international sales agency (and distribution company) called Mosquito. Thailand¹s leading independent filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), Pimpaka Towira (One Night Husband), Aditya Assarat (Hi-So), Soros Sukhum (Wonderful Town), Anocha Suwichakornpong (Mundane History), and Lee Chatametikool have joined hands to open Mosquito Films Distribution. The new company will handle international sales and festival distribution for the partners¹ films as well as upcoming titles from the new generation of Southeast Asian filmmakers. - See more Here
Ben Gibson of London Film School,Ira Deutchman of Colombia Film School, German film school dffb, Frances La Femis, Fescac the Romanian Film and Theater University are continuing their initiative Making Waves, bringing in students to work collaboratively to develop creative campaigns, edit trailers, design posters and plan roll-out packages for actual independent movies in the Efm.
Also exciting was the search for new models, not only in the film world of funding by government organizations, but of society as discussed in such films as Göran Hugo Olsson¹s (Black Mix Tapes) Concerning Violence and Hubert Sauper¹s We Come as Friends , and of women in society. 50% of public funds should be made available for women who not only constitute 50% of the public as moviegoers and should represent 50% of the cinephiles (those working in the film business) but 50% of all societies and therefore should have 50% of the voice of public policy.
In its second year, the Dortmund Women's Film Festival drew even more women to hear and discuss the status of women in the film business and gender parity. Speakers such as Heike Meyer-Döring of the Creative Europe Desk of Film and Medienstiftung Nrw, Bosnian filmmaker and Golden Bear Winner in 2006 Jasmila Zbanic, So-in Hong of the Seoul International Womens Film Festival speaking on aims and projects of the Asian Women Film Network, Melissa Silverstein of the Athena Film Festival and blogger on Women and Hollywood updating on the status of women filmmakers in the U.S., Mariel Macia of Mica/ Cima, Spain speaking of the proposal for the EU Commission regarding gender equality on state aid for film - all these and more, like Claudia Landsberger head of Eye International, Film Institute Netherlands hosting a panel of Susana de la Sierra, General Director of Icaa, Spanish Film Institute noting that 7% of the leading roles were women and the 2007 Law for Gender Equality, Cornelia Hammelmann, Project Director of the German Federal Fund, Sanja Ravlic, President of the Gender Equality Study Group of Eurimages, Croatia -- all spoke of what seems as obvious as the noses on our faces, but which has made little impact on the reality of policies yet... We had so many more conversations, I wish I could put them all here.
With all the ideas circulating, one could hardly say that the Berlinale and the European Film Market were not busy.
Meanwhile fascinating and energizing conversations were carried on with friends, newcomers, keepers of funds, representatives of countries and their needs to internationalize, to join forces with one another to create new models, internationalize, form cross cultural competent and cooperative ways of working together. We know the past model is failing to keep up with the technology and its fast spawning product. Some would say the old model is old and frail, sucking its old teeth as it pretends to carry on, but in reality, it is carrying its own corpse upon its shoulders. I would never go so far as to say this; the model will be changed, refined and redesigned, but it will survive because some people enjoy theatrical settings and that helps further other sales
FBI Casting Director Beatrice Kruger (now working on Fatih Akin¹s The Cut) spoke to us over dinner at Einsteins about her experience on Woody Allen¹s To Rome With Love, how he got involved in the real life politics of Italy as he attempted to cast real newscasters in the roles they play in real life. He didn't want the right wingers. He didn't like them, but he was told he had to hire them if he wanted to access the government monies, ...besides, how could he cast a left wing newscaster into the role off a right wing commentator? The experience of Italian politics did not make him happy.
Frank Cox, the founder of the Australian arthouse distributor Hopscotch which has been sold to eOne Entertainment, was in the Scandinavian Pavilion and told me he is still carrying on though on a smaller scale with his original company, New Vision Distribution. He recently acquired We¹re The Best by Lucas Moodyson, a darling film that showed in Cannes and Toronto and totally endeared me to its 13 year old girls as they searched for ways to get into trouble. (Magnolia has U.S.)
Robbie Little and Elie Mechoulam, Director of Sales and Marketing of The Little Film Company tallying up that $30,000,000 at the box office at $11 per ticket is only 3 million admissions, or 300,000 tickets sold...TV would be failure if it had such numbers. TV makes $46 million in ad sales on one episode of a great series...
Andrea Kaul, the EFM¹s new Co-Director who comes from Rtl TV and ad sales was not at that conversation, but when we spoke after the market was finished, such a topic as episodic content and online ad sales was also on her mind. The Berlinale screening of Netflix¹s second installment of Houses of Cards was a great success in the last days of the Berlinale, which was in itself food for thought. Even Dieter Kosslick, in his interview with Indiewire¹s Eric Kohn (Read Here) said, "We showed, for the first time in history, House of Cards. We have never done such a thing before. Heads were turning last night. Last year, we had [Jane Campion¹s TV series] Top of the Lake (in its entirety),so we are starting this new whole world."
Ted Hope of Fandor pointed out, "Research company Markets and Markets predicts global video-on-demand (VOD) revenue will grow from $21 billion last year to $45 billion in 2018. They define this as the combined revenues of all VOD outlets, worldwide ‹ essentially digital (online) VOD plus cable & satellite VOD. Huge numbers, but actually not a particularly high compound annual growth rate (16%) to get to the $45b number in years. Figure roughly half of this revenue flows to content owners and half to the VOD outlets."
To see the excitement of young people just beginning...everything to gain and little to lose, learning to like what they are doing to further their aims at telling stories their way. When I spoke with Wafa Tajdin, a founding partner and lead producer at Seven Thirty Films, an Africa based indie production company she runs with her sister, artist and film maker Amirah Tajdin. This Arab Indian pair of sisters is working to tell their stories of growing up in Kenya and living in Dubai...I asked which parent was what and was told that each parent was also half Arab, half Indian, the same sexes too...I should have told them about Peter, whose Italian Jewish parents also lived in such a ghetto of mixed marriages in east Harlem in the 1910s and 1920s. These are the stories which are forming in world cinema today. You can see her work Here
True cross-culture creation is taking place in the Talents section of the Efm. Eleven films of former Talent Campus participants are showing in the festival this year
One talent, Sompot Chidgasornpongse has formed a new international sales agency (and distribution company) called Mosquito. Thailand¹s leading independent filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), Pimpaka Towira (One Night Husband), Aditya Assarat (Hi-So), Soros Sukhum (Wonderful Town), Anocha Suwichakornpong (Mundane History), and Lee Chatametikool have joined hands to open Mosquito Films Distribution. The new company will handle international sales and festival distribution for the partners¹ films as well as upcoming titles from the new generation of Southeast Asian filmmakers. - See more Here
Ben Gibson of London Film School,Ira Deutchman of Colombia Film School, German film school dffb, Frances La Femis, Fescac the Romanian Film and Theater University are continuing their initiative Making Waves, bringing in students to work collaboratively to develop creative campaigns, edit trailers, design posters and plan roll-out packages for actual independent movies in the Efm.
Also exciting was the search for new models, not only in the film world of funding by government organizations, but of society as discussed in such films as Göran Hugo Olsson¹s (Black Mix Tapes) Concerning Violence and Hubert Sauper¹s We Come as Friends , and of women in society. 50% of public funds should be made available for women who not only constitute 50% of the public as moviegoers and should represent 50% of the cinephiles (those working in the film business) but 50% of all societies and therefore should have 50% of the voice of public policy.
In its second year, the Dortmund Women's Film Festival drew even more women to hear and discuss the status of women in the film business and gender parity. Speakers such as Heike Meyer-Döring of the Creative Europe Desk of Film and Medienstiftung Nrw, Bosnian filmmaker and Golden Bear Winner in 2006 Jasmila Zbanic, So-in Hong of the Seoul International Womens Film Festival speaking on aims and projects of the Asian Women Film Network, Melissa Silverstein of the Athena Film Festival and blogger on Women and Hollywood updating on the status of women filmmakers in the U.S., Mariel Macia of Mica/ Cima, Spain speaking of the proposal for the EU Commission regarding gender equality on state aid for film - all these and more, like Claudia Landsberger head of Eye International, Film Institute Netherlands hosting a panel of Susana de la Sierra, General Director of Icaa, Spanish Film Institute noting that 7% of the leading roles were women and the 2007 Law for Gender Equality, Cornelia Hammelmann, Project Director of the German Federal Fund, Sanja Ravlic, President of the Gender Equality Study Group of Eurimages, Croatia -- all spoke of what seems as obvious as the noses on our faces, but which has made little impact on the reality of policies yet... We had so many more conversations, I wish I could put them all here.
With all the ideas circulating, one could hardly say that the Berlinale and the European Film Market were not busy.
- 2/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
You hear it all the time: Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News. But Americans were buying all the same, and to quote Screen International: “The current market is focused on smart money and smart deals, not volume of product”. Business at Afm was also solid though unspectacular. Moreover, the pre-buying of projects may be below the radar of this $3 billion business of international film buying and selling. TrustNordisk’s CEO Rikke Ennis says that 70% of their films are pre-sold. As you look at the upcoming Winter Rights Roundup due out in two weeks from SydneysBuzz.com/Reports, you will notice many of the films have been pre-buys this market and many films screening were already pre-sold during Afm in November.
And for all the complaints about Berlin, many sales agents set up private screenings before the market kicked off. What is that about?
Beki Probst, who has run the Efm since 1988, responded to the many media reports of a quieter market in an interview with ScreenDaily which sounds almost the same as the one she gave in 2009.
Quoting her current statement which I take the liberty of quoting here as it appears in Screen:
“I think that there was a good movement of business this year,” she said. In the opinion of Probst, there had been a muddying of the distinction between the Efm and the more general term of the ‘market’.
“Daphné Kapfer of Europa International representing 35 sales agents said that it was a very good Berlin, and Glen Basner of FilmNation commented that it was ‘the best Berlin’.
“Even Harvey Weinstein came just for 24 hours to sign a $7m check, and Aloft was bought by Sony Pictures Classics.
“It’s the players, and not the market, that is important. The players come here if they have the right line-up. All we can do is provide the best infrastructure, but what happens after that is up to them.”
"Sales agents were not sitting idle at their stands if one takes the example of one company in the Martin Gropius Bau: the CEO met with 90 buyers and the members of staff responsible for marketing had no less than 180 meetings in addition to ad-hoc discussions at events in the evenings."
Coproductions are the engine driving the business these days.
This year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market ended after two-and-a-half days with awards handed out to projects from Kazakhstan and Belgium.
The €6,000 Arte International Prize went to Kazakh film-maker Emir Baigazin’s planned second feature The Wounded Angel, the second part of a trilogy after his Silver Bear-winning Harmony Lessons. The €1.2m Almaty-based Kazakhfilm Jsc production has already attracted France’s Capricci Production as a co-producer and has backing in place from the Doha Film Institute and the Hubert Bals Fund.
The €10,000 Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Award was presented to Belgian director Bavo Defurne for his romantic dramedy Souvenir. The €2m co-production by Oostende-based Indeed Films with Belgium’s Frakas Productions and Germany’s Karibufilm already has backing from Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Cinefinance and public broadcaster Vrt/ Een.
India-Norway’s $55 million film to be directed by Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance)’s The Indian Bride is an exciting example of an unusual pairing of countries.
Bavaria and Senator’s joint venture Bavaria Pictures’ The Postcard Killers to be directed by Mexican director Everardo Gout shows the international expansion of talent.
The Hungary-Austria-Germany co-production of Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, or U.K.-Lithuania action comedy Redirected being sold by Content brings unusual European partners together.
U.S. born Damian John Harper’s coproduction with the German producers, brothers Jakob and Jonas Weydemann, on Los Angeles will be followed by In the Middle of the River now being developed with Zdf’s Das Kleine Fernsehspiel unit.
Shoreline’s The Infinite Man produced with Australia’s Hedone Productions in association with Bonsai Films with investment from South Australia Film Corporation through its Filmlab funding initiative, development assistance from Screen Australia is also a new sort of pairing.
Film and Music Entertainment (F&Me), Bac Films, 20 Steps Productions and Bruemmer & Herzog’s The President is shooting in Tbilisi, Georgia and is being directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Sights of Death starring Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen is directed by Allessandro Capone in Rome.
The Spain-u.K. co-production Second Origin is based on the best selling Catalan novel Mecanoscrit Del Segon Orgen.
The Golden Bear Winner Black Coal, Thin Ice is a Boneyard Entertainment (New York & Hong Kong) co-production with Boneyard Entertainment China (Bec), Omnijoi Media (Jiangsu, China), China Film co-production.
A sign of the times is the Swedish Film in Berlin advertisement which lists all Swedish co-productions:
In Competition: In Order of DisappearanceOut of Competition: NymphomaniacBerlinale Special: Someone You Love Generation Kplus: A Christmoose StoryPerspektive Deutsches Kino: Lamento
All are with European co-producers as is Antboy a Danish-German co-production.
One of my favorites is Gallows Hill, being sold by Im Global and already picked up by IFC for U.S. Starring Twilight actor Peter Facinelli, U.K. actress Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, it was entirely financed from within Colombia by television network Rcn’s affiliate Five 7 Media which produced with Peter Block's A Bigger Boat, David Higgins and Angelique Higgins' Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung. The screenplay was written by Rich D’Ovidio ( The Call, Thir13en Ghosts) about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
Another interesting combo is the Australian-Singapore co-production Canopy being sold by Odin’s Eye which was acquired by Kaleidoscope for U.K., by Kinosmith for Canada and Odin’s Eye itself for Australia. After its Tiff 2013 premiere, Monterrey acquired U.S. rights.
Cathedrals of Culture, was produced by Wim Wenders’ production company: Neue Road Movies in Germany and co-produced by Final Cut For Real (Denmark), Lotus Film (Austria), Mer Film (Norway), Les Films d'Ici 2 (France), Sundance Productions / RadicalMedia (U.S.), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg In collaboration with Arte (Germany and France) and Wowow (Japan).
Grand Budapest Hotel is a co-production of Scott Rudin in U.S. and Studio Babelsburg in Germany.
Wouldn't you say there had to be an awful lot of business going on? If only the media knew where to look for it. Instead, they moan the same old tired tune, "Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News". Oh well...
Efm Coproduction Market
Asian producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, who was pitching the Hong Kong comedy Grooms by writer-director Arvin Chen at the Berlin Coproduction Market, announced that Germany’s augenschein filmproduktion will be a coproducer on Singaporean director Boo Junfeng’s second feature Apprentice. The film has already received backing from France’s World Cinema Support, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw of Germany and Germany's second network, Zdf’s Das kleine fernsehspiel unit. It also has Cinema Defacto as its French co-producer. Junfeng’s first film, Sandcastle, was screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2010.
Cologne-based augenschein, who produced Maximilian Leo’s My Brother’s Keeper, the opening film of this year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino and is handled internationally by Media Luna, is currently in post-production on Romanian filmmaker Florin Serban’s Box, his second feature after the 2010 Berlinale Competition film If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle.
Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre whose debut The Student established him as one of the brightest and most courted young directors in Latin America was in the Co-production Market with his untitled second feature which France’s Full House connected to along with Argentina’s Union de los Rio, Argentine broadcast network Telefe, Ignacio Viale and the ubiquitous Lita Stantic.
Full House was also at the Coproduction Market with Peter Webber’s Fresh about a young thief learning the art of pickpocketing in Bogota, Colombia. It will be co-produced with Rcn affiliate Five 7 Media and 4Direcciones in Colombia and by Webber himself.
Raymond van der Kaaij, the producer of Tamar van den Dop’s Panorama title Supernova, is now financing Sundance winner Ernesto Contreras’ next feature I Dream In Another Language. The Spanish-English language project will be produced with Mexico-based Agencia Sha, and it is now casting the American lead according to producer van der Kaaij of Revolver Amsterdam. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the winner of the Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, I Dream has already received support from Imcine in Mexico. Shooting is scheduled in Mexico for the end of 2014.
Revolver is now editing Bodkin Ras, the debut film of Iranian-Dutch director Kaweh Modiri, an English-language documentary-thriller set in North Scotland. The Dutch-Belgian-u.K. coproduction is set for release at the end of 2014.
Finnish film-maker Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa’s is editing his latest feature They Have Escaped, which Revolver coproduced with Helsinki Film.
Trend of smart art genres
Another continuing trend, which began with Xyz and Celluloid Nightmares and continued with Memento, is the character-driven art genre films with tight budgets, like the Danish coming-of-age-werewolf-romance, When Animals Dream, directed by first timer Jonas Arnby, sold by Gaumont to Radius-twc for No. Americ. The Scandinavians, formerly making a mark with "Nordic Noir" are now making what they call "Nordic Twilight".
Trend of remake rights
Another trend is that of remake rights. Film Sharks reports it makes more from selling remake rights than from licensing distribution rights.
The Intouchables is selling remake rights to more countries than only India as is the sale of Other Angle’s Babysitting remake rights. Negotiations are underway with Russia, Italy and Germany.
Fruit Chan is considering an English language remake of his 2004 cult horror film Dumplings.
The market is bit too calm?…Then let us look at Cannes…
Usually by Afm you can begin the Tipped for Cannes List (which Gilles Jacob detested), but even that is a little on the quiet side. I begin to question whether all media fueled news is accurate: the slow sales being reported, the lack of pre-Cannes buzz… Is the media really investigating deeply?
Of all the trades, while Screen has the most international news and deepest analyses, Variety reports things no other trade is covering. But…still the non-news of a quiet market persists as if it were headline news. We always hear this and we are still in an economic slump, so what we wish for is not apparent, but this is not news.
Tipped for Cannes
Tipped for Cannes are Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home staring Gong Li and to be sold by Wild Bunch, Stealth’s First Law starring Mads Mikkelsen (Cannes 2012 Best Actor Award for The Hunt); Self Made (Boreg) by Shira Geffen and to be sold by Westend, shot in Hebrew and Arabic by the production and sales team behind Oscar nominated 2011 drama Footnote, the second film after Geffen’s 2007 debut Jellyfish which won the Cannes Camera d’Or. MK2’s Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, Chloe Grace Moretz and Kristen Stewart, and Naomi Kawase’s Still the Water will be delivered in time for Cannes. Pyramide International is plannng for Leviathan, a modern retelling of the biblical story which deals with some of Russia’s most important social issues to be ready for Cannes. It is directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and produced by Alexander Rodnyansky (Stalingrad) as their followup to Elena. Gaumont-cj co-production, The Target, the Korean remake of Fred Cavaye’s action thriller Point Blank will be ready in time for Cannes.
Rumors and truths about people changing positions
Rumors about Dieter Kosslick replacing Berlin’s Culture Secretary who resigned after a tax evasion scandal in which he admitted to stashing $575,000 in a Swiss bank account…Charlotte Mickie has left eOne and knowing her, she is bound to find something good elsewhere as she's too good to lose...StudioCanals Harold van Lier now leads eOne’s newly ramped international sales team and Montreal based Anick Poirier leads its subsidiary label, Seville International. Jeff Nuyts is leaving Intramovies. Nigel Sinclair and Guy East seem to be leaving Exclusive Media the company they founded as discussions with partners from Dasym Investment Strategies Bv move forward. Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures has joined International Film Trust as their director of international sales...and of course, Nadine de Barros has founded her own company, Fortitude, and was holding court at the Ritz Carlton the buzziest spot outside of the Martin Gropius Bau.
What I Saw and What I Thought
For what it's worth, here is my limited list of screenings of films seen only in the last 3 days of the festival when I was no longer "working". I am including some I actually saw at Sundance.
First and foremost -- and to be written about further in a "thought piece" as I term the articles I think long about before writing and to include my interview with the director Goran Hugo Olsson's (The Black Power Mixtapes winner of Sundance 2011 World Cinema Documentary Film Editing Award) -- Concerning Violence (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S.: Cinetic), based on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and seen at Sundance this year next to Stanley Nelson's outstanding Freedom Summer (PBS) and Greg Barker's We Are The Giant (Submarine), is a call to action for new societal models ringing out loud and clear.
Golden Bear Winner, Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan, a Chinese noir, lacked the momentum and substance I would have expected in a winning film, though it was a fascinating way to see today's urban China. Had I been on the jury, I would have chosen the Best Director Award winning Boyhood (Isa: IFC) by Richard Linklater. But perhaps because James Schamus, an American who loves Chinese films, was President of the Jury, there might have arisen a question of disinterested objectivity. I would have to hear what jurists Barbara Broccoli, Trine Dyrhom, Chistoph Waltz, Tony Leung, Greta Gerwig, Mitra Farahani and Michel Gondry would have to say about the deliberations.
Speaking of jury prizes, it was a surprise the much acclaimed '71 (Isa: Protagonist, now headed by our dear Mike Goodridge) won nothing, and good Alain Renais' Life of Riley (Isa: Le Pacte) received recognition. I found Christophe Gans' La belle et la bete (Beauty and the Beast) (Isa: Pathe) an overproduced unwieldy special effects-ridden mess, even though it was exec-produced by Jérôme Seydoux who also produced the masterpiece La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), and starred his granddaughter Lea Seydoux. I'll stand by Cocteau's versoin. I heard Claudia Llosa (Milk of Sorrow)'s Aloft was also not widely admired.
About the best actress winning film The Little House (Isa: Shochiku could have marketed it more widely), I heard nothing at all, though it sounds really good. Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross) (Isa: Beta) by brother and sister team Anna and Dietrich Brueggemann (any relation to our own Tom Brueggeman?) had a satisfying denouement and was quite engrossing with moments of humor lightening the heavy weight of the cross carried by 14 year old Maria played by Lea van Acken, a picture face out of a George de la Tour painting (Magdeline with a Smoking Flame or A Piece of Art). Macondo (Isa: Films Boutique - again! ) by Sudabeh Mortezai of Austria was a window on a world never seen before and very engrossing although the coming of age story was one we have seen before.
Not sorry to say I missed The Monuments Men and Nymphomaniac Volume I, but sorry that I missed Beloved Sisters (Isa: Global Screen) of Dominik Graf, The Grand Budapest Hotel (will see it in U.S.), Argentinian Benjamin Naishat's History of Fear (Isa: Visit) -- I'll catch it in Carthegena, Guadalajara or San Sebastian I'm sure, Jack, In Order of Disappearance which sounds like the sleeper hit of the festival, Argentinan (again!) La tercera orilla (The Third Side of the River), Lou Ye's Tui Na (Blind Massage) and Rachid Bouchareb's Two Men in Town (Isa: Pathe - again!), which I heard was rather flat which is not surprising, for when non-Americans try to make an American genre, it usually misses a certain verve, but still is such an interesting subject for him to tackle, Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds) (Isa: The Match Factory) from Germany, another "American" subject, but here about a German soldier in Afghanistan, not an American one.
Among the Berlinale Specials, I wish I had seen Nancy Buirski's Afternoon of a Faun which everyone said was good (Isa: Cactus Three the doc production company of Krysanne Katsoolis and Caroline Stevens) and Volker Schloendorff's 1969 Brecht piece Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta. I did see his Diplomacy (Isa: Gaumont) which was a great treat, erudite, intimate and reminiscent of the novels of Sandor Marai (Embers and Casanova in Bolzano). Wish I could have seen Wim Wenders' Cathedrals of Culture (Isa: Cinephil), Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez (Isa: Mundial) and In the Courtyard aka Dans la cours (Isa: Wild Bunch) starring Catherine Deneuve and The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq (Isa: Le Pacte - again!!). I will see The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Isa: The Film Sales Company) by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, produced by Jonathan Dana, Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller and Celeste Schaefer Snyder (Ballets Russes), back home. The Turning (Isa: Level K), an experimental omnibus produced by my favorite Australian producer, Robert Connelly who also directed in part and Maggie Myles, is also a must-see as is Errol Morris' companion piece to The Fog of War, The Unknown Known (Isa: HanWay) and Houssein Amini's Two Faces of January (Isa: StudioCanal) starring my favorites Viggo Mortenson and Kirsten Dunst. We Come as Friends (Isa: Le Pacte), by Hubert Sauper whose earlier film Darwin's Destiny astounded me, was worth watching although so often his films plunge one into a hopeless helplessness. Fresh from Sundance, it was raising controversy and the story of the Sudan is worth knowing. His particular and peculiar Pov is valuable. Watermark (Isa: Entertainment One), another social issue worth knowing about will have to wait for a more propitious time. Personally I'm hoping Israel's current venture into desalination of water will lead the world into peace and that I will rejoice watching the doc about that.
Difret (Isa: Films Boutique - again!), fresh from Sundance where I saw it was really good and it sold well. I got to hang out with the team at the Panorama party. Gueros (Isa: Mundial - again!), was a disappointment -- too like The Year of the Nail (though different) in tone. But what a great company Canana is!
Panorama's Finding Vivian Maier (Isa: HanWay - again!) is brilliantly interesting. It is about to be released in U.S. by IFC. I highly recommend seeing this documentary about an eccentric, unknown photographer. It premiered at Tiff 2013. Fresh from Sundance where it won a Special Jury Prize, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine) was a treasure; Velvet Terrorists was about the oddest piece I have ever seen. About three former opponents of the Czechoslovakian Soviet Regime, each has continued to enjoy blowing up things. One is still training the next generation in urban guerilla warfare. They are otherwise unremarkable, sweet even, but twisted. What an odd documentary.
A quick look at the Market Films I have seen: of the 400+ premieres: Zero -- no I did see German Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Two Lives (Isa: Beta), and I will soon be home to celebrate its nomination at the famous Villa Aurora, the former home of German expatriate writer Leon Feuchtwanger. So many more films look sooooo attractive! A pity I may never get to see them. I would need all the time in the world, and I have so little. I have so much and yet I want more!
And for all the complaints about Berlin, many sales agents set up private screenings before the market kicked off. What is that about?
Beki Probst, who has run the Efm since 1988, responded to the many media reports of a quieter market in an interview with ScreenDaily which sounds almost the same as the one she gave in 2009.
Quoting her current statement which I take the liberty of quoting here as it appears in Screen:
“I think that there was a good movement of business this year,” she said. In the opinion of Probst, there had been a muddying of the distinction between the Efm and the more general term of the ‘market’.
“Daphné Kapfer of Europa International representing 35 sales agents said that it was a very good Berlin, and Glen Basner of FilmNation commented that it was ‘the best Berlin’.
“Even Harvey Weinstein came just for 24 hours to sign a $7m check, and Aloft was bought by Sony Pictures Classics.
“It’s the players, and not the market, that is important. The players come here if they have the right line-up. All we can do is provide the best infrastructure, but what happens after that is up to them.”
"Sales agents were not sitting idle at their stands if one takes the example of one company in the Martin Gropius Bau: the CEO met with 90 buyers and the members of staff responsible for marketing had no less than 180 meetings in addition to ad-hoc discussions at events in the evenings."
Coproductions are the engine driving the business these days.
This year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market ended after two-and-a-half days with awards handed out to projects from Kazakhstan and Belgium.
The €6,000 Arte International Prize went to Kazakh film-maker Emir Baigazin’s planned second feature The Wounded Angel, the second part of a trilogy after his Silver Bear-winning Harmony Lessons. The €1.2m Almaty-based Kazakhfilm Jsc production has already attracted France’s Capricci Production as a co-producer and has backing in place from the Doha Film Institute and the Hubert Bals Fund.
The €10,000 Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Award was presented to Belgian director Bavo Defurne for his romantic dramedy Souvenir. The €2m co-production by Oostende-based Indeed Films with Belgium’s Frakas Productions and Germany’s Karibufilm already has backing from Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Cinefinance and public broadcaster Vrt/ Een.
India-Norway’s $55 million film to be directed by Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance)’s The Indian Bride is an exciting example of an unusual pairing of countries.
Bavaria and Senator’s joint venture Bavaria Pictures’ The Postcard Killers to be directed by Mexican director Everardo Gout shows the international expansion of talent.
The Hungary-Austria-Germany co-production of Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, or U.K.-Lithuania action comedy Redirected being sold by Content brings unusual European partners together.
U.S. born Damian John Harper’s coproduction with the German producers, brothers Jakob and Jonas Weydemann, on Los Angeles will be followed by In the Middle of the River now being developed with Zdf’s Das Kleine Fernsehspiel unit.
Shoreline’s The Infinite Man produced with Australia’s Hedone Productions in association with Bonsai Films with investment from South Australia Film Corporation through its Filmlab funding initiative, development assistance from Screen Australia is also a new sort of pairing.
Film and Music Entertainment (F&Me), Bac Films, 20 Steps Productions and Bruemmer & Herzog’s The President is shooting in Tbilisi, Georgia and is being directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Sights of Death starring Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen is directed by Allessandro Capone in Rome.
The Spain-u.K. co-production Second Origin is based on the best selling Catalan novel Mecanoscrit Del Segon Orgen.
The Golden Bear Winner Black Coal, Thin Ice is a Boneyard Entertainment (New York & Hong Kong) co-production with Boneyard Entertainment China (Bec), Omnijoi Media (Jiangsu, China), China Film co-production.
A sign of the times is the Swedish Film in Berlin advertisement which lists all Swedish co-productions:
In Competition: In Order of DisappearanceOut of Competition: NymphomaniacBerlinale Special: Someone You Love Generation Kplus: A Christmoose StoryPerspektive Deutsches Kino: Lamento
All are with European co-producers as is Antboy a Danish-German co-production.
One of my favorites is Gallows Hill, being sold by Im Global and already picked up by IFC for U.S. Starring Twilight actor Peter Facinelli, U.K. actress Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, it was entirely financed from within Colombia by television network Rcn’s affiliate Five 7 Media which produced with Peter Block's A Bigger Boat, David Higgins and Angelique Higgins' Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung. The screenplay was written by Rich D’Ovidio ( The Call, Thir13en Ghosts) about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
Another interesting combo is the Australian-Singapore co-production Canopy being sold by Odin’s Eye which was acquired by Kaleidoscope for U.K., by Kinosmith for Canada and Odin’s Eye itself for Australia. After its Tiff 2013 premiere, Monterrey acquired U.S. rights.
Cathedrals of Culture, was produced by Wim Wenders’ production company: Neue Road Movies in Germany and co-produced by Final Cut For Real (Denmark), Lotus Film (Austria), Mer Film (Norway), Les Films d'Ici 2 (France), Sundance Productions / RadicalMedia (U.S.), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg In collaboration with Arte (Germany and France) and Wowow (Japan).
Grand Budapest Hotel is a co-production of Scott Rudin in U.S. and Studio Babelsburg in Germany.
Wouldn't you say there had to be an awful lot of business going on? If only the media knew where to look for it. Instead, they moan the same old tired tune, "Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News". Oh well...
Efm Coproduction Market
Asian producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, who was pitching the Hong Kong comedy Grooms by writer-director Arvin Chen at the Berlin Coproduction Market, announced that Germany’s augenschein filmproduktion will be a coproducer on Singaporean director Boo Junfeng’s second feature Apprentice. The film has already received backing from France’s World Cinema Support, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw of Germany and Germany's second network, Zdf’s Das kleine fernsehspiel unit. It also has Cinema Defacto as its French co-producer. Junfeng’s first film, Sandcastle, was screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2010.
Cologne-based augenschein, who produced Maximilian Leo’s My Brother’s Keeper, the opening film of this year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino and is handled internationally by Media Luna, is currently in post-production on Romanian filmmaker Florin Serban’s Box, his second feature after the 2010 Berlinale Competition film If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle.
Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre whose debut The Student established him as one of the brightest and most courted young directors in Latin America was in the Co-production Market with his untitled second feature which France’s Full House connected to along with Argentina’s Union de los Rio, Argentine broadcast network Telefe, Ignacio Viale and the ubiquitous Lita Stantic.
Full House was also at the Coproduction Market with Peter Webber’s Fresh about a young thief learning the art of pickpocketing in Bogota, Colombia. It will be co-produced with Rcn affiliate Five 7 Media and 4Direcciones in Colombia and by Webber himself.
Raymond van der Kaaij, the producer of Tamar van den Dop’s Panorama title Supernova, is now financing Sundance winner Ernesto Contreras’ next feature I Dream In Another Language. The Spanish-English language project will be produced with Mexico-based Agencia Sha, and it is now casting the American lead according to producer van der Kaaij of Revolver Amsterdam. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the winner of the Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, I Dream has already received support from Imcine in Mexico. Shooting is scheduled in Mexico for the end of 2014.
Revolver is now editing Bodkin Ras, the debut film of Iranian-Dutch director Kaweh Modiri, an English-language documentary-thriller set in North Scotland. The Dutch-Belgian-u.K. coproduction is set for release at the end of 2014.
Finnish film-maker Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa’s is editing his latest feature They Have Escaped, which Revolver coproduced with Helsinki Film.
Trend of smart art genres
Another continuing trend, which began with Xyz and Celluloid Nightmares and continued with Memento, is the character-driven art genre films with tight budgets, like the Danish coming-of-age-werewolf-romance, When Animals Dream, directed by first timer Jonas Arnby, sold by Gaumont to Radius-twc for No. Americ. The Scandinavians, formerly making a mark with "Nordic Noir" are now making what they call "Nordic Twilight".
Trend of remake rights
Another trend is that of remake rights. Film Sharks reports it makes more from selling remake rights than from licensing distribution rights.
The Intouchables is selling remake rights to more countries than only India as is the sale of Other Angle’s Babysitting remake rights. Negotiations are underway with Russia, Italy and Germany.
Fruit Chan is considering an English language remake of his 2004 cult horror film Dumplings.
The market is bit too calm?…Then let us look at Cannes…
Usually by Afm you can begin the Tipped for Cannes List (which Gilles Jacob detested), but even that is a little on the quiet side. I begin to question whether all media fueled news is accurate: the slow sales being reported, the lack of pre-Cannes buzz… Is the media really investigating deeply?
Of all the trades, while Screen has the most international news and deepest analyses, Variety reports things no other trade is covering. But…still the non-news of a quiet market persists as if it were headline news. We always hear this and we are still in an economic slump, so what we wish for is not apparent, but this is not news.
Tipped for Cannes
Tipped for Cannes are Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home staring Gong Li and to be sold by Wild Bunch, Stealth’s First Law starring Mads Mikkelsen (Cannes 2012 Best Actor Award for The Hunt); Self Made (Boreg) by Shira Geffen and to be sold by Westend, shot in Hebrew and Arabic by the production and sales team behind Oscar nominated 2011 drama Footnote, the second film after Geffen’s 2007 debut Jellyfish which won the Cannes Camera d’Or. MK2’s Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, Chloe Grace Moretz and Kristen Stewart, and Naomi Kawase’s Still the Water will be delivered in time for Cannes. Pyramide International is plannng for Leviathan, a modern retelling of the biblical story which deals with some of Russia’s most important social issues to be ready for Cannes. It is directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and produced by Alexander Rodnyansky (Stalingrad) as their followup to Elena. Gaumont-cj co-production, The Target, the Korean remake of Fred Cavaye’s action thriller Point Blank will be ready in time for Cannes.
Rumors and truths about people changing positions
Rumors about Dieter Kosslick replacing Berlin’s Culture Secretary who resigned after a tax evasion scandal in which he admitted to stashing $575,000 in a Swiss bank account…Charlotte Mickie has left eOne and knowing her, she is bound to find something good elsewhere as she's too good to lose...StudioCanals Harold van Lier now leads eOne’s newly ramped international sales team and Montreal based Anick Poirier leads its subsidiary label, Seville International. Jeff Nuyts is leaving Intramovies. Nigel Sinclair and Guy East seem to be leaving Exclusive Media the company they founded as discussions with partners from Dasym Investment Strategies Bv move forward. Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures has joined International Film Trust as their director of international sales...and of course, Nadine de Barros has founded her own company, Fortitude, and was holding court at the Ritz Carlton the buzziest spot outside of the Martin Gropius Bau.
What I Saw and What I Thought
For what it's worth, here is my limited list of screenings of films seen only in the last 3 days of the festival when I was no longer "working". I am including some I actually saw at Sundance.
First and foremost -- and to be written about further in a "thought piece" as I term the articles I think long about before writing and to include my interview with the director Goran Hugo Olsson's (The Black Power Mixtapes winner of Sundance 2011 World Cinema Documentary Film Editing Award) -- Concerning Violence (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S.: Cinetic), based on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and seen at Sundance this year next to Stanley Nelson's outstanding Freedom Summer (PBS) and Greg Barker's We Are The Giant (Submarine), is a call to action for new societal models ringing out loud and clear.
Golden Bear Winner, Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan, a Chinese noir, lacked the momentum and substance I would have expected in a winning film, though it was a fascinating way to see today's urban China. Had I been on the jury, I would have chosen the Best Director Award winning Boyhood (Isa: IFC) by Richard Linklater. But perhaps because James Schamus, an American who loves Chinese films, was President of the Jury, there might have arisen a question of disinterested objectivity. I would have to hear what jurists Barbara Broccoli, Trine Dyrhom, Chistoph Waltz, Tony Leung, Greta Gerwig, Mitra Farahani and Michel Gondry would have to say about the deliberations.
Speaking of jury prizes, it was a surprise the much acclaimed '71 (Isa: Protagonist, now headed by our dear Mike Goodridge) won nothing, and good Alain Renais' Life of Riley (Isa: Le Pacte) received recognition. I found Christophe Gans' La belle et la bete (Beauty and the Beast) (Isa: Pathe) an overproduced unwieldy special effects-ridden mess, even though it was exec-produced by Jérôme Seydoux who also produced the masterpiece La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), and starred his granddaughter Lea Seydoux. I'll stand by Cocteau's versoin. I heard Claudia Llosa (Milk of Sorrow)'s Aloft was also not widely admired.
About the best actress winning film The Little House (Isa: Shochiku could have marketed it more widely), I heard nothing at all, though it sounds really good. Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross) (Isa: Beta) by brother and sister team Anna and Dietrich Brueggemann (any relation to our own Tom Brueggeman?) had a satisfying denouement and was quite engrossing with moments of humor lightening the heavy weight of the cross carried by 14 year old Maria played by Lea van Acken, a picture face out of a George de la Tour painting (Magdeline with a Smoking Flame or A Piece of Art). Macondo (Isa: Films Boutique - again! ) by Sudabeh Mortezai of Austria was a window on a world never seen before and very engrossing although the coming of age story was one we have seen before.
Not sorry to say I missed The Monuments Men and Nymphomaniac Volume I, but sorry that I missed Beloved Sisters (Isa: Global Screen) of Dominik Graf, The Grand Budapest Hotel (will see it in U.S.), Argentinian Benjamin Naishat's History of Fear (Isa: Visit) -- I'll catch it in Carthegena, Guadalajara or San Sebastian I'm sure, Jack, In Order of Disappearance which sounds like the sleeper hit of the festival, Argentinan (again!) La tercera orilla (The Third Side of the River), Lou Ye's Tui Na (Blind Massage) and Rachid Bouchareb's Two Men in Town (Isa: Pathe - again!), which I heard was rather flat which is not surprising, for when non-Americans try to make an American genre, it usually misses a certain verve, but still is such an interesting subject for him to tackle, Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds) (Isa: The Match Factory) from Germany, another "American" subject, but here about a German soldier in Afghanistan, not an American one.
Among the Berlinale Specials, I wish I had seen Nancy Buirski's Afternoon of a Faun which everyone said was good (Isa: Cactus Three the doc production company of Krysanne Katsoolis and Caroline Stevens) and Volker Schloendorff's 1969 Brecht piece Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta. I did see his Diplomacy (Isa: Gaumont) which was a great treat, erudite, intimate and reminiscent of the novels of Sandor Marai (Embers and Casanova in Bolzano). Wish I could have seen Wim Wenders' Cathedrals of Culture (Isa: Cinephil), Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez (Isa: Mundial) and In the Courtyard aka Dans la cours (Isa: Wild Bunch) starring Catherine Deneuve and The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq (Isa: Le Pacte - again!!). I will see The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Isa: The Film Sales Company) by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, produced by Jonathan Dana, Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller and Celeste Schaefer Snyder (Ballets Russes), back home. The Turning (Isa: Level K), an experimental omnibus produced by my favorite Australian producer, Robert Connelly who also directed in part and Maggie Myles, is also a must-see as is Errol Morris' companion piece to The Fog of War, The Unknown Known (Isa: HanWay) and Houssein Amini's Two Faces of January (Isa: StudioCanal) starring my favorites Viggo Mortenson and Kirsten Dunst. We Come as Friends (Isa: Le Pacte), by Hubert Sauper whose earlier film Darwin's Destiny astounded me, was worth watching although so often his films plunge one into a hopeless helplessness. Fresh from Sundance, it was raising controversy and the story of the Sudan is worth knowing. His particular and peculiar Pov is valuable. Watermark (Isa: Entertainment One), another social issue worth knowing about will have to wait for a more propitious time. Personally I'm hoping Israel's current venture into desalination of water will lead the world into peace and that I will rejoice watching the doc about that.
Difret (Isa: Films Boutique - again!), fresh from Sundance where I saw it was really good and it sold well. I got to hang out with the team at the Panorama party. Gueros (Isa: Mundial - again!), was a disappointment -- too like The Year of the Nail (though different) in tone. But what a great company Canana is!
Panorama's Finding Vivian Maier (Isa: HanWay - again!) is brilliantly interesting. It is about to be released in U.S. by IFC. I highly recommend seeing this documentary about an eccentric, unknown photographer. It premiered at Tiff 2013. Fresh from Sundance where it won a Special Jury Prize, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine) was a treasure; Velvet Terrorists was about the oddest piece I have ever seen. About three former opponents of the Czechoslovakian Soviet Regime, each has continued to enjoy blowing up things. One is still training the next generation in urban guerilla warfare. They are otherwise unremarkable, sweet even, but twisted. What an odd documentary.
A quick look at the Market Films I have seen: of the 400+ premieres: Zero -- no I did see German Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Two Lives (Isa: Beta), and I will soon be home to celebrate its nomination at the famous Villa Aurora, the former home of German expatriate writer Leon Feuchtwanger. So many more films look sooooo attractive! A pity I may never get to see them. I would need all the time in the world, and I have so little. I have so much and yet I want more!
- 2/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
After years as a multihyphenate creator of a raft of documentaries (one of which is titled, wonderfully, Fuck You, Fuck You Very Much [1998]), Sweden’s Göran Hugo Olsson has recently come to greater prominence. His documentary on soul singer Billy Paul, Am I Black Enough For You, secured international distribution in 2009, while 2011’s vibrant archive collage The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 took him to another level. Olsson’s new film, like its predecessor, screens in the Panorama Documentary strand of the Berlinale. Concerning Violence is based on Frantz Fanon’s famous 1961 book, The Wretched of the Earth, and focuses, in nine discrete chapters, […]...
- 2/11/2014
- by Ashley Clark
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
After years as a multihyphenate creator of a raft of documentaries (one of which is titled, wonderfully, Fuck You, Fuck You Very Much [1998]), Sweden’s Göran Hugo Olsson has recently come to greater prominence. His documentary on soul singer Billy Paul, Am I Black Enough For You, secured international distribution in 2009, while 2011’s vibrant archive collage The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 took him to another level. Olsson’s new film, like its predecessor, screens in the Panorama Documentary strand of the Berlinale. Concerning Violence is based on Frantz Fanon’s famous 1961 book, The Wretched of the Earth, and focuses, in nine discrete chapters, […]...
- 2/11/2014
- by Ashley Clark
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth (Les Damnés de la Terre, 1961) functions as the inspiration and spine for Göran Hugo Olsson's Concerning Violence. Featuring excerpts of Fanon's text read by Lauryn Hill, Olsson presents us with his own visual text on the dehumanizing effects of colonization and the importance of promoting social movements that strive for decolonization. Focusing on the unfathomable psychological damage caused by colonization, Olsson channels Fanon in advocating that the colonized people resort to violence in order to liberate themselves from colonizing forces. For a pacifist, this might be a bitter pill to swallow, but Olsson's unmatched finesse in assembling archival footage might just be enough to convert some naysayers over to the legitimacy of violence.
- 2/4/2014
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
Richard Lormand has been a friend on the circuit of ours for may years.
He has an exciting new lineup of women directed films at Berlin.
Wow!!
Can't wait to see them all!
Following is his press release on them. Now you now what to watch (and buy!!) at Berlin!!
from Richard -
Hola Film Lovers!
I've been prepping my Berlinale films in sunny, sumptuous Buenos Aires, but I'm still excited to get back to the European winter. After recent debates about the sparse presence of female directors in competition at major film festivals, I'm pleased to announce that I'm handling three Berlinale Competition films directed by women! Here's my bottom line on all four of my Berlinale 2014 films (in order of appearance):
Goran Hugo Olsson's Concerning Violence: Swedish filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson is a true talent at turning archival footage into thought-provoking pertinent films, as in the 2011 Sundance hit The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975. His new film Concerning Violence was just shown at Sundance and will be presented in the Berlinale's Panorama Doc section. Based on radical political writer Frantz Fanon's post-colonial studies work, the film shows how the price of freedom in Africa has usually been paid with violence. Ms. Lauryn Hill's distinctive and asssertive voice bring extra force to the texts. Unique style and editing add to the powerful experience this important film offers.
Feo Aladag's Inbetween Worlds (Zwischen Welten): I admire directors for the persistence, focus and stamina the best of them demonstrate in sticking to the long and multifaceted process of making a film. Berlin-based director Feo Aladag is a fine example of a writer-director-producer's unshakeable commitment to a project. Feo puts the same passionate talent for cross-cultural interconnection into Inbetween Worlds as she did in the Tribeca winner When We Leave (Die Fremde). Ronald Zehrfeld (Christian Petzold's Barbara) as the troubled German soldier and the mostly non-professional Afghani cast are all terrific in this smart and compassionate human drama.
Celina Murga's The Third Side Of The River (La Tercera Orilla): Argentinian director Celina Murga gives us a tight exercise in teenage tension in her new film La Tercera Orilla (lit. The Third Bank). This rigorously-constructed film boasts a smoldering performance by first-timer Alian Devetec as the broody Nicolas. Celina keeps us guessing about her main character's path as his overbearing father begins to dictate Nicolas' future. Celina previously showed her knack for films about youth in her acclaimed features A Week Alone and Ana And The Others. Her former Rolex Arts Initiative mentor Martin Scorsese executive produced.
Sudabeh Mortezai's MacOndo: It's always a surprise when a first film makes it into Competition at a major festival. It's the prestigious festival way of saying "You must check out this amazing new filmmaker!" I definitely agree that's the case for Vienna-based Iranian Sudabeh Mortezai. She has successfully captured the heart and soul of the refugee condition in her touching first fiction feature. In the leading role, 11-year-old Ramasan Minkailov is phenomenal - sensitive, strong, charismatic.
Richard Lormand - Film|Press|Plus
www.FilmPressPlus.com...
He has an exciting new lineup of women directed films at Berlin.
Wow!!
Can't wait to see them all!
Following is his press release on them. Now you now what to watch (and buy!!) at Berlin!!
from Richard -
Hola Film Lovers!
I've been prepping my Berlinale films in sunny, sumptuous Buenos Aires, but I'm still excited to get back to the European winter. After recent debates about the sparse presence of female directors in competition at major film festivals, I'm pleased to announce that I'm handling three Berlinale Competition films directed by women! Here's my bottom line on all four of my Berlinale 2014 films (in order of appearance):
Goran Hugo Olsson's Concerning Violence: Swedish filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson is a true talent at turning archival footage into thought-provoking pertinent films, as in the 2011 Sundance hit The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975. His new film Concerning Violence was just shown at Sundance and will be presented in the Berlinale's Panorama Doc section. Based on radical political writer Frantz Fanon's post-colonial studies work, the film shows how the price of freedom in Africa has usually been paid with violence. Ms. Lauryn Hill's distinctive and asssertive voice bring extra force to the texts. Unique style and editing add to the powerful experience this important film offers.
Feo Aladag's Inbetween Worlds (Zwischen Welten): I admire directors for the persistence, focus and stamina the best of them demonstrate in sticking to the long and multifaceted process of making a film. Berlin-based director Feo Aladag is a fine example of a writer-director-producer's unshakeable commitment to a project. Feo puts the same passionate talent for cross-cultural interconnection into Inbetween Worlds as she did in the Tribeca winner When We Leave (Die Fremde). Ronald Zehrfeld (Christian Petzold's Barbara) as the troubled German soldier and the mostly non-professional Afghani cast are all terrific in this smart and compassionate human drama.
Celina Murga's The Third Side Of The River (La Tercera Orilla): Argentinian director Celina Murga gives us a tight exercise in teenage tension in her new film La Tercera Orilla (lit. The Third Bank). This rigorously-constructed film boasts a smoldering performance by first-timer Alian Devetec as the broody Nicolas. Celina keeps us guessing about her main character's path as his overbearing father begins to dictate Nicolas' future. Celina previously showed her knack for films about youth in her acclaimed features A Week Alone and Ana And The Others. Her former Rolex Arts Initiative mentor Martin Scorsese executive produced.
Sudabeh Mortezai's MacOndo: It's always a surprise when a first film makes it into Competition at a major festival. It's the prestigious festival way of saying "You must check out this amazing new filmmaker!" I definitely agree that's the case for Vienna-based Iranian Sudabeh Mortezai. She has successfully captured the heart and soul of the refugee condition in her touching first fiction feature. In the leading role, 11-year-old Ramasan Minkailov is phenomenal - sensitive, strong, charismatic.
Richard Lormand - Film|Press|Plus
www.FilmPressPlus.com...
- 1/31/2014
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
Filmmakers pitching include Iram Haq [pictured], who just completed I Am Yours and is now working on The Way Back; and Concerning Violence producer Annika Rogell with My Skinny Sister.
Gothenburg’s Nordic Film Market hosted 10 pitches this morning from the participants of the year-long Nordic Film Lab. The culmination of a year in the Lab leads to the presentations today. The Lab has existed since 2008 and intends to support talented filmmakers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden who are “at the starting point of their careers.”
Today’s projects presented are:
Bobbi Jene Smith – Is It An Avalanche Or A Parade? (Denmark)
Julie Leerskov, producer
Elvira Lind, director
Documentary about a 30-year-old dancer In Tel Aviv embarking on a new phase in her career. Lind says the film celebrates “female strength.”
Contact: Julie@springkids.org
Lake Over Fire (Norway)
Joern Utkilen, director
A film, with actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves, about Norwegian...
Gothenburg’s Nordic Film Market hosted 10 pitches this morning from the participants of the year-long Nordic Film Lab. The culmination of a year in the Lab leads to the presentations today. The Lab has existed since 2008 and intends to support talented filmmakers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden who are “at the starting point of their careers.”
Today’s projects presented are:
Bobbi Jene Smith – Is It An Avalanche Or A Parade? (Denmark)
Julie Leerskov, producer
Elvira Lind, director
Documentary about a 30-year-old dancer In Tel Aviv embarking on a new phase in her career. Lind says the film celebrates “female strength.”
Contact: Julie@springkids.org
Lake Over Fire (Norway)
Joern Utkilen, director
A film, with actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves, about Norwegian...
- 1/31/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
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