When David Sieveking left home to study filmmaking, he left behind parents who were active, intelligent and involved. Several years later, on a visit home for Christmas, he noticed that his once spirited mother, Gretal, had become somewhat hesitant, and overly forgetful. Shortly after that came the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease – a particularly aggressive case that, over the next four years left Gretal unable to remember many things, unable to care for herself, and unable to be left alone.
The Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival will be presided over by Abbas Kiarostami (Iran), and includes directors Noémie Lvovsky (France), Daniela Thomas (Brazil), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad), and Joachim Trier (Norway). They will be tasked with awarding three prizes to films submitted by students from film schools the world over, which will be presented in the Cinéfondation Selection.
The Amazing Catfish
The 57th San Francisco International Film Festival taking place April 24 to May 8, 2014, announced the films in competition for the New Directors Prize and the Golden Gate Award (GGA) contenders in the documentary feature category. SFIFF will award nearly $40,000 in total cash prizes this year. The New Directors Prize of $10,000 will be given to a narrative first feature that exhibits a unique artistic sensibility and deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. The GGA documentary feature winner will receive $10,000 and the GGA Bay Area documentary feature winner will receive $5,000. A total of 25 countries are represented in this year’s competing feature films. Independent juries will select the winners, which will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards, Wednesday, May 7.
PRESERVATION
The 13th Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), taking place from April 16th to April 27th, 2014, in New York City, announced its feature film selections in the Spotlight, Midnight, and Special Screenings sections, as well as the selections for the Storyscapes program.
The Spotlight section features 31 films, consisting of 22 narratives and 9 documentaries. Twenty films in the selection will have their world premieres at the Festival. The Midnight section will open with the feature film, PRESERVATION, and includes a lineup of seven genre-bending titles from fresh voices around the world that run the gamut from tongue-in-cheek comedy to chilling horror films. The Special Screenings include a work-in-progress documentary from Louie Psihoyos (The Cove), a film entitled 6, on a team of activists who risk their lives to shed light on species extinction.
112 WEDDINGS
The 17th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival taking place April 3 to 6, 2014, in Durham, N.C., announced its “Invited Program” and “NEW DOCS” lineup of new feature and short films. Filmmaker Doug Block’s film “112 WEDDINGS” will have its World Premiere as the Full Frame Opening Night Film on Thursday, April 3rd.
“112 WEDDINGS,” an HBO Documentary Film, is a heartwarming examination of the struggles and joys that come with lifelong partnership. After two decades filming weddings part-time, acclaimed director Doug Block (“51 Birch Street,” “The Kids Grow Up”) revisits couples years after the big day in order to see how love and life have unfolded after vows.
THE HOUSE OF MAGIC
The TIFF Kids International Film Festival, returns for its 17th year at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto from April 8 to 21, 2014, with a slate full of premieres of some of the best films from around the world for children aged 3 to 13. The TIFF Kids Festival kicks off on Opening Night with the Canadian premiere of RIO 2, the all-star sequel to the smash-hit 2011 animated adventure, reuniting audiences with Blu and Jewel, voiced by Oscar® nominee Jesse Eisenberg and Oscar® winner Anne Hathaway, and wraps with the Closing Night Film THE HOUSE OF MAGIC, a gorgeously animated 3D feature from Belgium about a young abandoned cat who finds a new home in an enchanted mansion.
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
The 37th Portland International Film Festival announced this year’s Alaska Airlines Audience Award winners voted on by the 38,000+ attendees on each of the 104 features and 24 shorts screened at the festival. Earning top audience accolades for Best Narrative Feature is TWO LIVES (Germany) directed by George Maas and Judith Kaufmann. FINDING VIVIAN MAIER (United States) directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel was selected as the Best Documentary Feature. Maloof and Siskel also took home the audience award for Best New Director Award. The PIFF 37 audience chose ERNEST AND CELESTINE (France) as this year’s Best Animated Feature. This year’s Short Film Awards go to directors Asa Blanck and Johan Palmgren for their film GRANDPA AND ME AND A HELICOPTER TO HEAVEN (Sweden) and Irene Taylor Brodsky’s ONE LAST HUG AND A FEW SMOOCHES: THREE DAYS AT GRIEF CAMP was the recipient of the Oregon Short Film Award.
LA ÚLTIMA PELÍCULA
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City announced the full schedule and details for Art of the Real, the new documentary-as-art series that will take place April 11-26, 2014. Corneliu Porumboiu’s THE SECOND GAME will have its North American premiere on Opening Night, with the director in attendance, following the screening of Raya Martin and Mark Peranson’s LA ÚLTIMA PELÍCULA.
The documentary, TANZANIA: A JOURNEY WITHIN, directed by Sylvia Caminer, which follows the journey of two unlikely friends, Kristen Kenney, a privileged young American woman, and Venance Ndibalema, a Tanzanian scientist/philosopher, as they travel across Tanzania, opens in NYC April 25 in conjunction with World Malaria Day, and in LA on May 2, before expanding nationwide.
SCINEMA Festival of Science Film is canceled for 2014. The Australian festival announced that because they were not successful in their funding bid, the festival will take a hiatus and return in 2015. SCINEMA Festival of Science Film is a traveling science film and multimedia festival based in Canberra, Australia.
Robert Greene’s THE ACTRESS
The 13th San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (SF DocFest) taking place June 5 to 19, 2014, will open on June 5th with Robert Greene’s new film THE ACTRESS, which follows Brandy Burre, an actress who gave up her role in HBO’s “The Wire” to start a family in upstate New York. After playing the role of wife and mother, Burre decided to re-enter the acting business. The film will play as part of a retrospective of Robert Greene’s earlier work.
A WILL FOR THE WOODS directed by Amy Browne, Jeremy Kaplan, Tony Hale and Brian Wilson
After 2 weeks of films, the 16th SF IndieFest came to a close; and the festival announced the 2014 Award winning films and filmmakers. The audience voted LETS RUIN IT WITH BABIES directed by Kestrin Pantera as the Best Narrative Feature, and A WILL FOR THE WOODS directed by Amy Browne, Jeremy Kaplan, Tony Hale and Brian Wilson as Best Documentary Feature. The Jury also selected A WILL FOR THE WOODS as Best Documentary Feature, but went with DOOMSDAYS for Best Narrative Feature.