Film critic and arts journalist, Peter Machen, has been appointed the Durban International Film Festival Manager. The 34th Durban International Film Festival, South Africa’s largest and longest running film festival hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (CCA), will take place from July 18 to 28, 2013.
Six films have been selected by the Museum of Modern Art for their 35th annual exhibition, Kino!, MoMA’s long-running survey of young German filmmakers.
The films include the award winning tragicomedy OH BOY by Jan Ole Gerster, which had its US-premiere at AFI Fest in November and was shown at Miami International Film Festival in March. OH BOY is nominated in eight categories for the German Film Prize, whose winners are announced on April 26.
The documentary FORGET ME NOT (VERGISS MEIN NICHT by David Sieveking won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize following its world premiere in Locarno, one of Europe’s leading film festivals. FORGET ME NOT is currently nominated for the German Film Prize for Best Feature-length Documentary.
The 2013 Florida Film Festival announced the Jury and Audience Awards, and the film THIS IS MARTIN BONNER, directed by Chad Hartigan took the top prize, the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature. The film about fifty-something Martin Bonner (Paul Eenhoorn), a divorced father of two grown kids who’s just declared bankruptcy, and starting a new chapter in his life in Reno, Nevada, was the winner of the audience award for Best of NEXT at 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®, the Grand Jury Award for Best Live Action and Animated Short films automatically qualifies the winners for entry into the Live Action and Animated Short Film categories of the Academy Awards®.
The complete list of jury and audience award winners of the 2013 Florida Film Festival in the American Independent and International Feature Film, Documentary, and Short Film categories are as follows:
by Morgan Davies
Flex is Kings, a feature documentary by Deirdre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichols, is a charmer of a movie: slick, funny, compelling and awe-inspiring, it’s that rare documentary that manages to be interesting and thought-provoking without leaving its audience depressed.
The German biopic film HANNAH ARENDT, directed by Margarethe von Trotta will open at Film Forum in NYC on May 29 and at The Royal in West LA, Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and Town Center in Encino on June 7, with a national release to follow.
The documentary RELEASED will have its world premiere on Friday, May 10th, 2013 at New York’s QUAD Cinema. Directed by Philip Messina, RELEASED introduces three men and one woman, Vilma Ortiz Donovan, Kenneth Harrigan, Casimiro Torres and Angel Ramos, each a convicted felon, who, attempt to overcome a past and defy the grim statistic that two out of every three prisoners released in the United States today will be back in prison within three years.
The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) announced the award winners for the TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund, Heineken VOCES and TFI/WorldView Partnership grants at a celebration for Latin American filmmakers during the Tribeca Film Festival. The funds, totaling $130,000, support innovative Latin American film and video artists to help them explore stories reflecting diverse cultures and gain exposure in the film industry.
Last night Ava DuVernay was announced the winner of the inaugural Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) inaugural Heineken Affinity Award as the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival continues in downtown Manhattan, New York City. DuVernay was chosen as the winner by public vote on a website dedicated to the Heineken Affinity Award. The award is given to an African-American filmmaker (age 21 and over) to empower and encourage them to continue to craft stories through film. In addition to a $20,000 cash prize awarded at the event, DuVernay will receive year round support and professional development from TFI for her future projects.
Eight films being produced in the San Francisco Bay Area will receive a total of $340,000 in funding to help with their next stage of production from San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation (KRF). SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to filmmakers for narrative feature films that will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community.
The winners include Jonas Carpignano, writer/director – A Chjana; Grainger David, writer/director – Nocturne; Ian Hendrie and Jyson McLean, co-writers/directors/producers – Mercy Road; Maryam Keshavarz and Paolo Marinou-Blanco, cowriters – The Last Harem; Richard Levien, writer/director and Chad Burris, producer – La Migra; Tommy Oliver, writer/director/producer – 1982; Vendela Vida, cowriter and Eva Weber, cowriter/director – Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name; and Josef Wladyka, cowriter/director – Manos Sucias.
by Christopher McKittrick
Though there are hundreds of terrible diseases, perhaps there is none as cruel as Alzheimer’s disease, which not only slowly robs the sufferer of their mind, but tremendously impacts the sufferer’s loved ones terribly as the sufferer gradually no longer recognizes them as they slip further and further into dementia. German documentarian David Sieveking explores the impact that Alzheimer’s disease has not only on his mother, but his entire family in Vergiss mein nicht (Forget Me Not).
by Kelsey Straight
Laura Mahlberg’s illustration of an old man who starts walking towards California from his caravan entire countries away (in Russia!) is a new take on the classic road movie, except here our protagonist is fifty years past coming-of-age and still in pursuit of better prospects in the west. One could say that the film has come a few decades after its genre’s peak, and the main character coincides with that reality. Visually stunning cinematography offers an array of sensations to the film, and despite a slow-going pace and essentially meek protagonist, audiences will revel in the look and the stories in the eyes of this character, a man full from his years and still searching for more.
by Christopher McKittrick
During a routine, 47 year-old Silvia (Lina Wendel) is told by her husband that he is moving out. Silvia knew their passionless marriage was essentially over anyway, but it still comes as a shock. With little to call her own and never being with anyone besides her husband, Silvia begins her search for love, because, as she tells someone else, “Actually, everyone wants someone to hold…someone who loves and comforts you. If that’s not happening… something inside withers away. You become a lone warrior.”