LEVIATHAN
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s LEVIATHAN, which tells the tragic tale of conflict between an individual and a corrupt system in a small Russian town, is the winner of the Best Film Award at the 58th BFI London Film Festival. The jury also commended Celine Sciamma’s GIRLHOOD about a young woman’s search for identity in the underprivileged suburbs of Paris.
THE HOMESMAN
THE HOMESMAN, directed by and starring Academy Award® winner Tommy Lee Jones, will have its World Premiere as the Centerpiece Gala of 2014 AFI FEST on Tuesday, November 11. In addition to THE HOMESMAN, AFI FEST’s Special Screenings are CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (DIR Olivier Assayas); MERCHANTS OF DOUBT (DIR Robert Kenner); MOMMY (DIR Xavier Dolan); MR. TURNER (DIR Mike Leigh); SAINT LAURENT (DIR Bertrand Bonello); STILL ALICE (DIR Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland); TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER (DIR Nick Broomfield) and TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (DEUX JOURS, UNE NUIT) (DIR Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne).
Actor Mo Dunford, Director Terry McMahon and Producer Tim Palmer of Patrick’s Day at 2014 Woodstock Film Festival 15th Annual Maverick Awards Ceremony (photo by Silvia Forni) (Photo by Silvia Forni)
The 15th annual Woodstock Film Festival which began Wednesday, Oct. 15, closed on Sunday, Oct. 19. The Maverick Award for Best Feature Narrative at the festival was presented to Patrick’s Day, directed by Terry McMahon, and The Maverick Award for Best Feature Documentary went to Red Lines, directed by Andrea Kalin and Oliver Lukacs. Oscar-nominated director and writer Darren Aronofsky was among this year’s winner as recipient of the Honorary Maverick Award. Critically acclaimed for his work in films like Black Swan, The Wrestler, and The Fountain, Aronofsky was presented this award by Academy Award Winners Natalie Portman (Black Swan) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), who he directed in his most recent films, Noah and previously in Requiem for a Dream.
The President
Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Mahkmalbaf’s “The President” received the Gold Hugo for Best Film, the Festival’s highest honor, in the 50th Chicago International Film Festival Competitions. In this dark satire of power, dispossession and revenge from Iranian New Wave master Mohsen Makmalbaf (Kandahar), a dictator comes face to face with the people he previously subjugated. When a coup d’état overthrows a leader’s brutal rule and the rest of his family flees the country by plane, The President becomes a fugitive, along with his young grandson, and confronts, first-hand, the hardships and anger experienced by his own people. The Silver Hugo, Special Jury Prize went to “Refugiado” directed by Diego Lerman.
SHE’S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE’S ANGRY
SHE’S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE’S ANGRY, directed by Mary Dore, an award-winning documentary producer who brings an activist perspective to her films, will open at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in NYC on December 5, and at the Landmark Nuart Theatre in LA on December 12. A national release will follow.
Walter Salles, award-winning Brazilian director, screenwriter, and producer; Berlinale Golden Bear and Golden Globe-winner for Central do Brasil (1998) will be honored with the Marc’Aurelio Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 9th Rome Film Festival taking place October 16 to 25, 2014. Director of one of the most beloved films in recent years, The Motorcycle Diaries, awarded in Cannes and Oscar®-winner for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Walter Salles will present the world premiere screening of his new film Jia Zhangke, un gars de Fenyang. Salles considers Jia Zhangke “the most important contemporary filmmaker”. Marie-Pierre Duhamel and Marco Müller will moderate the on stage conversation with Walter Salles and Jia Zhangke.
Director Vivien Lesnik Weisman’s THE HACKER WARS opens Friday, October 17, 2014 at the Village East Cinema in New York. Ripped from international headlines, The Hacker Wars takes you to the front lines of the high-stakes battle over the fate of the Internet, freedom and privacy. Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Vivien Lesnik Weisman melds her distinctive, subversively bent style with the real-life stories of the cyberpunk vanguards who blur the line between hacking and activism. Locked in a murky conflict against world governments, these so-called hacktivists are waging a life-or-death struggle for the freedom of public information and the defense of privacy under siege.
THE INVISIBLE FRONT, a documentary directed by Vincas Sruoginis and Jonas Ohman, and winner of the Audience Award at the international film festival “Kino Pavasaris” in Vilnius 2014, will open at the Cinema Village in New York on November 7, at the Music Box in Chicago on November 14, and at the Music Hall in Los Angeles on November 21. A national release will follow.
We Are The Best!
The 2014 Vermont International Film Festival, taking place for 10 days, October 24 to November 2 in downtown Burlington starts with a bang, Friday, October 24th with a screening of the Swedish film We Are The Best! Director Lukas Moodysson creates an invigorating portrait of teenage punk—that boisterous, rambunctious energy that’s re-fueled anew by each generation’s sense of righteous passion, impatient desire for independence and uneasy brew of angst, anger and ambition. We Are the Best! is a delightfully vivacious experience, brimming with infectious humanism, which perfectly captures the irrepressible spirit of youthful rebellion.
Two Men in Town
The 15th Annual “fiercely independent” Woodstock Film Festival runs Wednesday, October 15, through Sunday, October 19, with more than 150 films, panels, performances and special events. Screenings and events take place in the historic arts colony of Woodstock, NY, and the neighboring towns of Rhinebeck, Rosendale, Saugerties and Kingston, just two hours from New York City in the Hudson Valley Catskills. The festival was founded by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto.
Maps to the Stars
The Canberra International Film Festival opens on October 23 and goes until November 9, featuring 21 Australian Premieres and 20 documentaries. Opening Night film is Maps to the Stars starring Julianne Moore, and Closing Night’s Love is Strange is an ensemble romantic comedy about the fall out after a same sex marriage reveals society’s continued prejudices.
The Fourth Annual Gary International Black Film Festival (GIBFF) taking place this weekend, October 17, 18 and 19, 2014, at Indiana University Northwest Bergland Auditorium, Savannah Hall, in Gary, Indiana, will offer what the festival calls “a powerful lineup of drama, documentary and short films.” The festival opens tonight with THEY DIE BY DAWN, a star-studded film based on the true life African American Cowboys of the old west.