10-13-year-old audiences in Amsterdam, Belgrade, Copenhagen, Erfurt, Norrköping and Turin have elected KAUWBOY by Boudewijn Koole as the winner of the first European Film Academy Young Audience Award. The German jury speakers Marie-Louis und Carl (both 12 years old) presented the award to co-author Jolein Laarman who thanked the children for their votes and stated, “it’s so important that the European Film Academy gives all the children a voice!” The European Film Academy Young Audience Award […]
Tribeca Film to Release Berlin Film Fest and Tribeca Film Fest Prize Winner War Witch
Tribeca Film acquired U.S. rights to Kim Nguyen’s award winning War Witch (Rebelle), described as “a powerfully poignant film shot in the Congo with an exceptional lead performance by Rachel Mwanza, a newcomer who was discovered on the streets of Kinshasa.” In her very first acting role, Mwanza has already garnered critical acclaim for her astounding performance winning the Silver Bear- Best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere in competition, as well as the Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film took home the “Founders Award” for best narrative feature at Tribeca, where it made its North American premiere.
The film, with a screenplay by Nguyen, stars Mwanza, Alain Bastien, Serge Kanyianda, Ralph Prosper and Mizinga Mwinga. The film was produced by Pierre Even and Marie-Claude Poulin of Montreal-based ITEM 7. Tribeca Film plans a release across multiple platforms in the first quarter of 2013.
San Francisco Film Society Announces 11 Finalists for 2012 SFFS Documentary Film Fund
The San Francisco Film Society announced the 11 finalists for the $100,000 2012 SFFS Documentary Film Fund, which supports feature-length documentaries in postproduction. The SFFS Documentary Film Fund was created to support singular nonfiction film work that is distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and an innovative visual approach.
From 2011 to 2013, a total of $300,000 will be disbursed to further new work by documentary filmmakers nationwide. Expected to grow in the coming years as further underwriting is secured, the Documentary Fund was inaugurated thanks to a generous gift from valued Film Society patrons Sharon and Larry Malcolmson.
Dear Mandela Leads The Winners of 2012 Brooklyn Film Festival
The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF) announced the winners for its annual festival, themed DECOY. The competitive event ran from June 1 through June 10 at indieScreen in Williamsburg and Brooklyn Heights Cinema.
Winners were chosen from 104 film premieres that were selected from over 2,000 submissions coming from 111 countries. This year, BFF featured more than 30 New York City based film directors with over a dozen projects shot in Brooklyn.
Through the resources of industry-related sponsors, the Brooklyn Film Festival awarded the 2012 winners with a total of $57,000 in prizes and film services.
See Girl Run and Beauty Is Embarrassing Among 2012 deadCENTER Film Festival Winners
deadCENTER Film Festival announced its 2012 award recipients on Saturday evening, June 9, 2012. The awards ceremony was held immediately before the free, outdoor screening of “Under African Skies”, on the Great Lawn at the Myriad Gardens.
“This year, deadCENTER Film Festival’s submissions were judged by 25 individuals from across the country, ranging from film critics and distributors, to academics and filmmakers,” said Festival Director Kim Haywood. “Our winners truly represent independent film voices from around the world.”
The 2012 winners are as follows:
Thirteen students Are Winners of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 39th Annual Student Academy Awards
Thirteen students from colleges and universities around the world were honored tonight (June 9) as winners at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 39th Annual Student Academy Awards. The medal placements were announced at the awards ceremony, which featured as presenters actors Laura Dern, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Greg Kinnear and Mena Suvari alongside Academy President Tom Sherak at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
The winners are:
VICE’s Eddy Moretti and directors Alexey Fedorchenko and Jan Kwiecinski talk “The Fourth Dimension”
The Fourth Dimension is a compilation of three short films, produced in association with VICE and Groslch Film Works. Francesca sat down with VICE’s Eddy Moretti, Russian director Alexey Fedorchenko (Silent Souls) Moretti and newbie Polish filmmaker Jan Kwiecinski. Moretti gave the directors a creative “brief,” the first tenant being the film must focus upon the concept of, you guessed it, the “Fourth Dimension.” Harmony Korine, the first director to get onboard, was sadly and […]
Review of “The Fourth Dimension” at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival
by Francesca McCaffery A production of VICE and Grolsch Film Works, The Fourth Dimension is a compilation of three different short films (thirty minutes each) directed by Harmony Korine, Alexey Fedorchenko and newcomer Jan Kwiecinski, respectively. VICE’s Eddy Moretti, who really wanted to work with Korine, developed a ‘creative brief’ and began emailing him back and fourth with ideas. Grolsch Film Works held an international contest, and Fedorchenko and Kwiecinski were chosen. No director knew […]
Val Kilmer Talks about His Amazing New Role in the film “The Fourth Dimension”
Francesca McCaffery sat down with the legendary actor Val Kilmer to talk about his new project premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival this year.
The Fourth Dimension is a triptych of short films, and is the brainchild of VICE and Groslch Film Works, as well as VICE’s Renaissance Madman Eddy Moretti, who gave the directors a creative “brief,” the first tenant being the film must focus upon the concept of, you guessed it,the “Fourth Dimension.”
Cinematic wunderkind Harmony Korine directed the first short of the three segments, “The Lotus Community Workshop,” which he wrote expressly for Val Kilmer, and it is features agenuine, hilarious and endearing performance by Kilmer.Here, Kilmer talks about his love for working with Harmony and his excitingnew one-man theatrical show about Mark Twain.
DARK HORSE Starring Selma Blair and Christopher Walken to Close 2012 Maryland Film Festival
DARK HORSE, described as the latest “sad comedy” by filmmaker Todd Solondz,has been selected as the Closing Night film of the 2012 Maryland Film Festival scheduled to run May 3-6 in downtown Baltimore. The film, starring Jordan Gelber and co-starring Selma Blair, Justin Bartha, Mia Farrow, and Christopher Walken,will be screened on the evening of Sunday, May 6th in the historic Charles Theater, with Solondz and members of his cast presenting.
Abe (Jordan Gelber), is an overgrown and selfish man-child who, firmly on the far side of 30, still lives at home, working for his father and collecting toys. Deeply lonely yet full of blustery delusions of grandeur, Abe aggressively pursues troubled beauty Miranda (Selma Blair). In a moment of weakness, she goes along with his advances, built around his grandiose vision of a life together in his room full of collectibles. This stroke of good fortune surprises no one more than Abe’s long-suffering parents (a note-perfect pairing of Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken)—until, that is, things begin to unravel. [via MFF]
The Opening Night program, which each year since 2004 the festival has dedicated to a program of short films, will take place the evening of Thursday, May 3rd in the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Brown Center, with each film presented by its director.
Tribeca Film Institute Announces 2012 Award Winners For TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund And First-Ever Heineken Voces Grants
City of the Caesars (Chile), Cuando los Muertos Estan Mas Secos/When the Dead Are Drier (Bolivia), Elena (Brazil), The Shark’s Eye (Argentina), were announced as the award winners for the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Media Arts Fund; and Las Marthas and Feriado (Holiday) the winners of the first-ever Heineken VOCES grant at a celebration over the weekend for Latin American filmmakers during the Tribeca Film Festival. The funds, totaling $60,000, support innovative Latin American […]
Elena and Big Boys Gone Bananas Among Wiinners of 2012 Sarasota Film Festival
Elena directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev took home this year’s Narrative Feature Jury prize, and Big Boys Gone Bananas!* by director Fredrik Gertten was the Documentary Jury Prize winner at the 2012 Sarasota Film Festival. Two special jury prizes were awarded; in the Narrative category Alps directed by Giorgos Lanthimos took home a Special Jury Prize and for documentary Feature Competition special jury prize for Radio Unnameable directed by Paul Lovelace.
FAITH, LOVE & WHISKEY and TCHOUPITOULAS Win Top Film Awards at 2012 Dallas Film Festival
Kristina Nikolova’s Bulgarian film FAITH, LOVE & WHISKEY won the narrative category and Bill and Turner Ross’s TCHOUPITOULAS for documentary at the 2012 Dallas International Film Festival.
The Narrative competition jury also gave a Special Mention for Breakout Performance to Michael Rainey Jr. for LUV and a Special Mention for Acting for Kim Kold in TEDDY BEAR.
San Francisco International Film Festival to honor Director Benh Zeitlin
Benh Zeitlin, director of “the highly imaginative and much acclaimed independent narrative feature” Beasts of the Southern Wild, will be the recipient of the inaugural Graham Leggat Award at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19 – May 3). Zeitlin is a director, animator, composer and a founding member of Court 13. He lives in New Orleans where dogs, cats, ducks, chickens and a 350-pound swine run wild in his home. Director of […]
Award Winning French director Claude Miller Passed Away at 70
French director, Claude Miller, whose films won many awards, including the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the French version of the Oscar, the César, died on April 4 in Paris. He was 70. Miller wrote and directed, “The Little Thief” about a troubled family and its offspring, other films include “Class Trip,” “A Secret,” “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” and “Alias Betty.” His last film, “Thérèse Desqueyroux,” which was just selected […]
Award Winning French Director Dies at 70
French director, Claude Miller, whose films won many awards, including the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the French version of the Oscar, the César, died on April 4 in Paris. He was 70. Miller wrote and directed, “The Little Thief” about a troubled family and its offspring, other films include “Class Trip,” “A Secret,” “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” and “Alias Betty.” His last film, “Thérèse Desqueyroux,” which was just selected […]
Oscilloscope to Release The Apple Pushers Documentary Narrated by Ed Norton
Oscilloscope Laboratories has picked up Mary Mazzio’s documentary The Apple Pushers for distribution in the US. Narrated by Academy Award® nominee Edward Norton, The Apple Pushers follows immigrant street vendors who are rolling fresh fruits and vegetables into poor neighborhoods of New York City, where finding a fresh red ripe apple can be a serious challenge. These pushcart vendors, who have immigrated from all parts of the world and have sacrificed so much to come […]
Mia Hansen-Love’s Gorgeous “Goodbye, First Love”
by Francesca McCaffery Goodbye, First Love, the beautiful, new film by Mia Hansen-Love (Father of My Children) tells the tale of two young lovers, Camille (Lola Creton) and Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky), and their hard serious and young, first romance. Sullivan is a charismatic, sweet and sensual free spirit, darting in and out of Camille’s life, although he appears to completely adore her when they are together. Camille is very earnest and quite dramatic about her […]
Tribeca Film Festival 2012 Spotlight on Tribeca Film Festival’s “Caroline and Jackie”and the filmmaker Adam Christian Clark
Filmmaker Adam Christian Clark with Caroline and Jackie actresses Bitsie Tulloch (left) and Marguerite Moreau (right)
by Francesca McCaffery
One of the best narrative films I’ve seen screening at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival so far is the extraordinary debut feature written and directed by Adam Christian Clark- Carloline and Jackie.
The film centers around two sisters with an unexplained but hinted to have been very tough shared childhood. As Caroline (the wonderful Marguerite Moreau) flies in to see her younger sister Jackie (an amazing Bitsie Tulloch), we see her glancing at an “Anorexics Anonymous” brochure.Jackie has cooked a huge, thoughtful meal, (“Nana’s pot roast!”)and she and her new boyfriend Ryan (David Giuntoli- nicely understated) show Caroline their beautifully appointed, new craftsman home. Jackie is a designer, and it’s clear she has worked quite hard to achieve this still modest, but still, quite lovely lifestyle.
“Elles” Review
by Francesca McCaffery Juliette Binoche stars in Elles, a film that is strangely more sensual than sexual, considering one of its serious subject matters: Student prostitution in Paris. In Elles, (directed by Małgorzata Szumowska) Binoche plays an extraordinarily well-heeled journalist (one of her subjects even asks if her gorgeous shoes are “expensive”) for Elle Magazine. She is interviewing young female college students who become escorts to pay for their tuition and rent. Binoche’s character Anne […]
Eleven Great Films to See at the Tribeca Film Festival-2012
by Francesca McCaffery
The Tribeca Film Festival has some wonderful, new films this year- check out all listings and times here. Vimooz has a few great picks for you to check out. The Tribeca Film Festival runs through April 29th, 2012.
Rooftop Films Announce Film Lineup for 16th Annual Summer Series
Rooftop Films announce the feature film lineup for the 16th Annual Summer Series presented by AT&T, featuring over 45 outdoor screenings with huge crowds, live music, spectacular venues and the best in new, independent, and foreign films. This year’s edition kicks off with some of the greatest new short films from all around the world on Friday, May 11th at Open Road Rooftop at New Design High School in the Lower East Side, and a special preview screening of Think of Me, starring Lauren Ambrose, on Saturday, May 12th also at Open Road Rooftop.
Rooftop Films has continued to experience remarkable growth since their initial single screening on the roof of founder Mark Elijah Rosenberg’s tenement building in 1997 and the focus remains on leveraging their grassroots popularity to bring out big crowds and shine a spotlight on new independent films that might otherwise never get the attention they deserve.
Acting as innovators and leading an event-based film marketing revolution, Rooftop Films has helped enable the success of many alumni, including Wasteland, Trouble the Water, Holy Rollers, Winnebago Man, and numerous others. In addition, through their Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund, they help more powerful, understated films not only be seen, but made; films such as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Patron Saints, Nancy, Please, and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom have received production or post-production support via the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund and gone on to have tremendous success at festivals and reaching wide, appreciative audiences.
However, the popularity and longevity of Rooftop Films comes primarily from the fact that their events take audiences beyond the average multi-plex movie going experience. This year is no different.
“Our aim at Rooftop Films,” says Founder and Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg, “is to immerse our audiences in new worlds, to bring them places they wouldn’t otherwise go, to provide intimate looks into unique lives. I’m excited about our feature film programming in 2012 because it includes daring and personal films on a wide range of subjects, from a diverse collection of filmmakers, and with every film we’ll be providing a unique cinematic experience.”
During the weekend of June 6-8, Rooftop Films will be presenting three films from the SXSW Film Festival to New York City: Caveh Zahedi’s (I am a Sex Addict) political documentary The Sheik and I, Matthew Lillard’s (Scream, SLC Punk) comic feature debut Fat Kid Rules the World, and Amy Seimetz’s dramatic thriller Sun Don’t Shine, about a road-trip gone bad.
Please find below the full line-up for the 2012 Summer Series listing of feature films. All shows include live-music before the screenings and most include filmmaker Q&As and after parties with complementary open bars. The Summer Series will also include over 20 programs of short films. The full schedule including locations and dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
Rooftop Films 16th Annual Summer Series Opening Weekend
Friday, May 11, 2012
This is What We Mean by Short Films
Opening Night of Rooftop Films 16th Annual Summer Series will feature grand stories in little packages, with some of the greatest new short films from all around the world.
Venue: Open Road Rooftop (350 Grand Street, LES)
Tickets, films and more info at: www.rooftopfilms.com
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Think of Me (Bryan Wizemann)
http://www.thinkofmemovie.com/
“Trembling with vulnerability, Lauren Ambrose is positively devastating” (The New York Observer) as a young single mother doing her best not to fall apart.
Venue: Open Road Rooftop (350 Grand Street, LES)
Tickets, films and more info at: www.rooftopfilms.com
Additional 2012 Feature Selections will include: (in alphabetical order)
Claude Miller’s Thérèse Desqueyroux to Close 2012 Cannes Film Festival
Thérèse Desqueyroux directed by Claude Miller who died earlier this month, and starring Audrey Tautou, Gilles Lellouche and Anaïs Demoustier, will close the 65th Cannes Film Festival on 27 May. Claude Miller’s final film is described by the festival as an adaptation of François Mauriac’s novel “Thérèse Desqueyroux”. On the 4th of April of this year, Miller passed away, and this film is the final piece in his immense body of work, to which the […]
Chasing Ice, John Dies at the End and Lola Versus Added to 2012 San Francisco International Film Festival Film Lineup
Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Ice (USA 2012), Don Coscarelli’s John Dies at the End (USA 2012) and Daryl Wein’s Lola Versus (USA 2012) have been added to the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19 – May 3) schedule. Featuring breathtaking displays of remote and beautiful landscapes that may never be seen again by human — or any — eyes, Chasing Ice chronicles the quest of photographer James Balog to create his project the Extreme […]