A Letter to Momo
Monsters University (Pixar Animation Studios) and Frozen (Walt Disney Animation Studios) lead the nominations for the 41st Annual Annie Awards, each with 10 nods, including Best Animated Feature. The slate of nominations for Best Animated Features also include: A Letter to Momo (GKIDS), Despicable Me 2 (Universal Pictures), Ernest & Celestine (GKIDS), The Croods (DreamWorks Animations), The Wind Rises (Studio Ghibli and The Walt Disney Studios).
Magnolia Pictures is eyeing a U.S. theatrical release in the spring of 2014 for the British film FILTH, described as a pitch black comedy based on the novel by Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting). Golden Globe nominee James McAvoy (X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Last King of Scotland) leads a stellar ensemble cast, including Jamie Bell (Nymphomaniac, Snowpiercer), Imogen Poots (A Late Quartet), Eddie Marsan (“Ray Donovan”), Shirley Henderson (Anna Karenina, Trainspotting) and Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent (Cloud Atlas, The Iron Lady). FILTH was written and directed by Jon S. Baird.
Gia Coppola’s directorial debut PALO ALTO, starring Emma Roberts (“American Horror Story,” We’re the Millers), Jack Kilmer (in his acting debut), James Franco (Spring Breakers), Nat Wolff (“The Naked Brothers Band”), Zoe Levin (The Way, Way Back), and Val Kilmer; and based on Franco’s short story collection of the same name, will be released in Spring 2014 by Tribeca Films.
THE KINGS OF SUMMER, directed by Jordan Vogt Roberts,
The Midwest Independent Film Festival unveiled their list of nominees for 2013 Best of the Midwest Awards. The Midwest Independent Film Festival in Chicago, describes itself as the nation’s only film festival solely dedicated to the Midwest filmmaker, presenting audiences with regionally produced independent cinema every first Tuesday of the month. Films nominated for Best Film of 2013 include THE KINGS OF SUMMER, directed by Jordan Vogt Roberts, SOLE SURVIVOR, directed by Ky Dickens, BORN IN CHICAGO, directed by John Anderson, QWERTY, directed by Bill Sebastian, BE GOOD, directed by Todd Looby and SHE LOVES ME NOT, directed by Brian Jun and Jack Sanderson. The 2013 Best of the Midwest Awards Gala Presented by the Midwest Independent Film Festival will be held on Tuesday, December 3, 2013.
12 YEARS A SLAVE
12 YEARS A SLAVE continues to dominate the early Awards season garnering 10 nominations for the 18th Annual Satellite Awards, including Best Motion Picture of 2013. AMERICAN HUSTLE and GRAVITY received 8 nominations each, with both also nominated for Best Motion Picture of 2013. Although FRUITVALE STATION was effectively locked out with no nominations, director Ryan Coogler will receive the Honorary Satellite Award and leading actor Michael B. Jordan will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award. NEBRASKA will be honored with the Best Ensemble, Motion Picture. The 18th Annual Satellite Awards ceremony presented by the International Press Academy (IPA) will be held on March 9, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
SONG FROM THE FOREST by Michael Obert
SONG FROM THE FOREST by Michael Obert won the top prize, VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary at the 26th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam which took place November 29 to December 1, 2013. The film focuses on American Louis Sarno, who has lived for 25 years with a tribe of Pygmies in the jungle of Central Africa and decides to take his son to America for the first time. Other top winners include TWIN SISTERS by Mona Friis Bertheussen snagging the BankGiro Loterij IDFA Audience Award. Twin Sisters is the remarkable story of Chinese twins adopted in two completely different parts of world, but who are united by fate. The next IDFA will take place November 19 to 30, 2014.
THE ACT OF KILLING
The International Film Magazine Sight & Sound, published by the British Film Institute polled their contributors, international critics, curators and academics to come up with one of the first Top 10 Best Films of 2013 lists. The award-winning documentary, THE ACT OF KILLING directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn, snagged the number one spot on the list. THE ACT OF KILLING, revisits Indonesia’s horrific past by enlisting former unrepentant members of Indonesian paramilitary death squads, including Indonesian paramilitary leader Anwar Congo, to re-enact their past lives and killings in the style of the films they love.
GARIFUNA IN PERIL, written, produced and directed by Ali Allie and Ruben Reyes, is a film that chronicles the history of a people. It explores the culture, language, and history, surrounding an indigenous group of people called the Garifuna. Who are the Garifuna?
The Garifuna are descendants of Carib, Arawak, and West African people. The British colonizers referred to the Garifunas as Black Caribs. At first the Garifunas called the island of St.Vincent home, but disease, horrific treatment by their captors and the trip across the seas, claimed the lives of many of the Garifuna people. Today, an estimated 600,000 Garifuna populate a number of areas; Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
5 BROKEN CAMERAS, Emad Burnat
The documentary 5 BROKEN CAMERAS snagged the International Emmy for Best Documentary at the 41st International Emmy Awards held in New York. 5 BROKEN CAMERAS, co-directed by Israeli Guy Davidi and Palestinian Emad Burnat, is a personal, firsthand account of life and nonviolent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village surrounded by Israeli settlements. The film was shot by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, Gibreel. The film is structured in chapters around the destruction of each one of Burnat’s cameras, and follows the Burnat family’s evolution over five years of village upheaval.
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.