GIMME SHELTER, the indie film starring Vanessa Hudgens will be released in theaters in the U.S. on January 24, 2014. In obviously an effort to distance herself from her Disney roots, Vanessa with shorter hair, tom boy clothes and multiple piercings including a lip ring, plays a pregnant teenager who flees her abusing mother. GIMME SHELTER is written, directed and produced by Ron Krauss, and also stars Brendan Fraser, Rosario Dawson and James Earl Jones.
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced the Documentary Motion Picture nominees for the 25th Annual Producers Guild Awards. The nominated films, are: A PLACE AT THE TABLE, FAR OUT ISN’T FAR ENOUGH: THE TOMI UNGERER STORY, LIFE ACCORDING TO SAM, WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS, and WHICH WAY IS THE FRONT LINE FROM HERE? THE LIFE AND TIME OF TIM HETHERINGTON. The 2014 Producers Guild Award winners will be announced on January 19, 2014 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
12 YEARS A SLAVE
12 YEARS A SLAVE lead the nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards with 7 nods including Best Feature; other nominees for Best Feature include ALL IS LOST, FRANCES HA, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and NEBRASKA. MUD was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 1, 2014.
Oprah Winfrey recently held a private LA screening of a documentary she’s executive producing called RUNNING FROM CRAZY, directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, American Dream). The film, which goes behind the long history of mental illness and suicide in the famed Hemingway family, is currently in theaters in select cities and will air on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in 2014.
Toussaint Louverture
Cuba, Granada, Haiti, Jamaica, Curaçao, Surinam and French Guiana are some of the countries featured among the 35 countries featured in the 73 films included in 21st African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF-2013) Caribbean Experience showcase. Haiti and Jamaica are at the center with Spotlight on Haiti Jamaicanity; The Resonance of Jamaica, and two programs that present a selection of films that reveal many things about both countries.
Eliza Hittman’s debut feature, IT FELT LIKE LOVE, has set an early 2014 U.S. theatrical release date via Variance Films. IT FELT LIKE LOVE was written and directed by Eliza Hittman, and stars Gina Piersanti, Giovanna Salimeni, and Ronen Rubinstein. Debuting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, the film has gone on to a festival run including stops at Rotterdam, BAMcinemaFEST, London BFI, Maryland, Viennale, Melbourne and more. The film was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival, and Gina Piersanti won the prize for Best Actress at the Nashville Film Festival.
Five films – Andrew Bujalski’s COMPUTER CHESS, Randy Moore’s ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW, James Franco and Travis Matthews’ INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR., Kleber Mendonça Filho’s NEIGHBORING SOUNDS and Carlos Reygadas’ POST TENEBRAS LUX – have been nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking 2014 Heterodox Award. The Cinema Eye Heterodox Award honors a narrative film that imaginatively incorporates nonfiction strategies, content and/or modes of production. The 2014 Heterodox Award will be presented at the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking on January 8, 2014, at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, New York.
The 2014 edition of the Sundance London film and music festival will take place from April 25 to 27, 2014, at The O2. In addition to the return of the Sundance London Short Film Competition, the festival will feature an expanded filmmaker development program and a Shorts Workshop.
CUT TO BLACK, the latest film from Brooklyn-based writer/director/star Dan Eberle, is an Audience Award-winning film from this year’s Brooklyn Film Festival that is one of those films that shouldn’t be unnoticed by larger audiences because of its nearly hypnotic, somewhat dream-like imagery and narrative.
The trailer and official posters released for Lars Von Trier’s NYMPHOMANIAC starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Willem Dafoe.
THE PAST (LE PASSÉ), Iran’s official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film – 86th Academy Awards, directed by Oscar winning director Asghar Farhadi of A Separation (A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award) has released its trailer. THE PAST opens in theaters on December 20th, 2013.
HANK AND ASHA directed by James E. Duff won the Best Narrative Feature Film Award
HANK AND ASHA directed by James E. Duff won the Best Narrative Feature Film Award, and ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH directed by Pratibha Parmar won the Best Feature Documentary Film Award at the third annual Napa Valley Film Festival. In the romantic comedy Hank And Asha, winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival, an Indian woman studying in Prague and a lonely New Yorker begin an unconventional correspondence through video letters – two strangers searching for human connection in a hyper-connected world. When their relationship deepens, they must decide whether or not to meet face to face. Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth is a feature documentary film which tells the compelling story of an extraordinary woman’s journey from her birth in a paper-thin shack in cotton fields of Putnam County, Georgia to her recognition as a key writer of the 20th Century.