16^th Third Eye Asian Film Festival: IX

Biler Diary, Cyanide and Jana Aranya. A Bengali film about a boarding school based on Hindu religious values, an Iranian political thriller about the period immediately preceding the Islamic revolution and a raved work of the master, Satyajit Ray—these were the last feature films I saw at the 16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival, Mumbai.

The festival was organised in December 2017 by the Asian Film Foundation and P.L. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy, and co-organised by Prabhat Chitra Mandal and Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal. An annual event, it is supported by Department of Culture, Government of Maharashtra. Screenings were held at Ravindra Natya Mandir Mini Auditorium, Mumbai, which has been the venue for the last few years.

Biler (Biley’s) Diary, 2017

School-based stories are usually the same, across time and geography. Some slow-learners, some smarties, some terrorising teachers and some kind souls, some bullies and some protectors, some ‘ghosts’ and some pranksters. So, what is different about Biler Diary? It is set in a real religious school, the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur, and is narrated through the eyes of a graduate, who reminisces about his time there.

Biler Diary begins with a 'retreat', in which alumni from different batches of a residential school have travelled to their alma mater, for a reunion. Anabil, one of the alumni, is presently working with UNICEF India as a "child protection specialist". First, they play a kind of singing game, each song being chosen from Hindu religious texts. Then, Anabil narrates the story of his childhood days.

When he was admitted to the residential school by his parents, Anabil was a shy student, with below average abilities. For such a child, time table specific, demanding, hostel life was not easy. A mischievous senior student named Bishey and his gang added to Anabil’s woes. Due to similarity in names, Anabil was nicknamed 'Beelay' (the pet name of Swami Vivekananda) by his seniors. With the passage of time, when it was almost certain that Anabil would fail to adapt, a new monk arrived as the hostel-warden, replacing the tyrannical Kalu Mahaaraaj. The new monk, Kanu Mahaaraaj, by virtue of his gentle qualities, immense knowledge of Hindu scriptures and great command over music and singing, became Anabil's inspiration. At about this time, Anabil found a magical diary that completely changed his life.

According to the makers, Biler Diary “is an attempt to bring in front of the world the treasure trove that is stored in the ‘Narendrapur Ashrama’, built around the ideologies of Sri Ramakrishna, Maa Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda.” In that, they have largely succeeded. Shot entirely within the picturesque campus premises of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Narendrapur, with students, teachers and non-teaching staff playing characters in the film, adds a touch of authenticity.

Conceptualised by a few alumni from a traditional Indian Ashrama School, run by Ramakrishna Mission, an Indian spiritual and educational organisation, the idea was turned into a screenplay by and directed by alumni Biswarup Biswas (Nabab, Dhat Teri Ki, Boss 2), who also directed the film. Naturally, it was not too difficult to recreate the old days and the ambience.

Besides a few universal truths, the film has a large dose of teachings of Swani Vivekananada. Except for the mention of two names of children that did not appear Hindu, there is nothing to suggest that the school propagates anything but essential Hindu philosophy and rituals. The film is a very thinly veiled attempt to glorify the school and its ideals. Somebody with a deep grounding in theology might evaluate the content the content better than me. The director keeps a few surprises up his sleeve, and the climax is one such trump. Technique-wise, it has a well-integrated sound-track, even if it is too loud at places. Some co-incidences are very conveniently woven in. Most of the cast have put in real hard work and the decision to use real-life characters has paid off.

Samadarshi Dutta,  Sanjoy Biswas,  Sanjib Sarkar,  Barun Chakraborty,  Partha Sarathi Deb, and many child actors from 24 schools around Kolkata play their parts, mostly themselves. Biler Diary is shot in and around the picturesque campus of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, and runs for 112 minutes, including many religious songs and chants.

Biler Diary is a propaganda film, a promotional effort, a docu-feature for a cause. It will work well on that level. Whether such a film be shown at and international film festival is an idea that can be debated.

Rating: ** ½

Cyanide, 2016

Cyanide? An Iranian political thriller? Somebody must have got it wrong. Let’s google it. So, it is an Iranian film, and it is a political thriller. No, they would not let a political film be made in 2016. Iran does not even allow many social themes, finding socio-political under-currents in them. But they would not deny this one, since it is the tale of dissidents v\s Reza Shah Pahelvi’s regime, that fell in 1978, and the Shah, who had to seek asylum in the USA.

Cyanide is not about the deadly poison, rather it is about militant opposition members who would rather commit suicide by swallowing cyanide than fall into the hands of sadist torturers. Mainly, it is about Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO, MeK – also known as People’s Mujahedin of Iran, PMOI), an Iranian political–militant organisation in exile, that carried out many terrorist operations during the late 1970s, to overthrow the Iranian government.

Starring Hamed Komeili and Hanieh Tavassoli, Cyanide tells the story of Vahid Afrakhteh, a devout Muslim member of the MKO military unit during the reign of Iran’s last monarch, Mohammad-Reza Shah. He is gradually changed into an obedient Marxist, under the influence of his fellow member, Taqi Shahram. Vahid is arrested by Iranian intelligence agents after assassinating a U.S. military envoy in Iran. He voluntarily co-operates with SAVAK (the Iranian Intelligence Agency) to help arrest his band-mates, all of whom are executed. 

A website called Iran Probe challenges the account of history as interpreted by Cyanide’s director Behrooz Shoeibi. It insists that, “This movie, funded by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), delivers a defaced story about a portion of the history of the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) before the 1979 revolution in Iran, that a percentage of its members became Marxists, going on to defect and establishing another organization by the name of “Peykar.” In October (2016) alone, the Iranian regime’s media outlets reported the production of three different anti-MEK movies, by the names of “Midday Adventures,” “The Last Days of Winter” and “Eagerness and Separation.” Prior to that, two other movies, by the names of “Mina’s Facility” and “Cyanide”, were also produced. I cannot comment on either version of history, sitting here in Mumbai..

All those who have been raised on minimalistic, melancholy, personal and off-beat stories in Iranian films will be taken completely by surprise as the political witch-hunt unfolds, with an occasional smattering of bullets, no less. Dissidents, including lovers, hitherto united in their cause—the overthrow of the king--get into in-fighting. Is it Allah they look-up to, as their guiding force, or does Karl Marx give them hope is this unequal battle? Will peaceful protests help them win, or will they need guns to battle their formidable foe?

There are few dull moments in the 109 min. length of the film, which is slickly edited. But with so many characters, you get confused who is who. The director makes it a point never to cut to the obvious, and plays with your instincts.

Cyanide is not as lethal as the poison whose name it borrows, but it does pack a punch.

Rating: ***

Jana Aranya (Middleman), 1976

You do not find this title in most Best of Ray lists, of top 10/12/15/18 selections. I too agree it is not Ray as his best. In the year of its release, Ray was awarded and Lifetime Achievement Oscar. He was on his death-bed and spoke through  video-link. Having missed Jana Aranya so far, and getting an opportunity to watch it 40 years after it was made/25 years after Ray’s passing away,  was an opportunity worth grabbing.

Calcutta, where he lived and worked, is the focus of a trilogy that ends with Jana Aranya (Pratidwandi/The Adversary, 1970, and Seemabaddha/Company Limited, 1971, were its predecessors). In Ray’s own estimation, Jana Aranya was the bleakest film he ever made. The characters either had no morals or ideals or were willing to bend them in the face of adversity.

The film begins with blatant cheating in the examination hall. Somnath (Pradip Mukherjee), an honest student, finds himself doing badly in the exams due to an overworked examiner, without his glasses, who is unable to read his small handwriting, and gives him low marks. As he is in no position to marry, his girlfriend gets married, to someone else due to pressure from her family. Bright and idealistic young man, Somnath begins search of a job along with his more realistic friend Sukumar (Gautam Chakravarti). With the job market flooded with thousands of hopefuls, Somnath fids answering ridiculous questions at employment interviews. He gives up his search after an interview in which he asked, 'what is the weight of the moon?'

Later, he encounters an older man, the street-smart businessman, Bishuda (Utpal Dutta). On Bisuda's advice, Somnath becomes a ‘middleman’, a business order supplier, paid on commission. His father, an upright middle-class man, considers this business to be disgraceful to the family reputation. Somnath soon, finds himself earning through petty deals, but he is ambitious, and wants to grow his enterprise. His friend Sukumar, however, has not had much luck and now works as a taxi driver. There is chance of Somnath landing up with a big order, but the client seems to be in no hurry to sign the deal. An acquaintance, Mr. Mitter, advises him to supply the client with a prostitute to clinch the deal. After much hesitation, he agrees. This prostitute is going emerge as the strongest-willed character in the story, which says alt about the rest of the players.

Like the Apu trilogy, Jana Aranya is a very good adaptation of the printed word. Dialogue is largely functional, with some exceptions: one outside the football ground, when after a match has been played, Somnath and Sukumar ask the exiting pubic the match score, and another when Bishuda uses the road as an allegory to explain to Somnath the ups and downs he will face after embarking on the path he has chosen; the plain-faced ease with which Mrs. Ganguli talks about her two daughters, who have been led into this profession by she herself. As director, you will remember the scene where Kauna is changing her clothes, an event that is akin to strip-tease for the neighbourhood voyeurs.

Performances are uniformly convincing. Lily Chakravarty, Rabi Ghosh and Utpal Dutt went on to work in mainstream Hindi commercial films, where Dutt found some unforgettable roles. Besides the thoroughly convincing protagonist Pradip Mukherjee, mention must be made of Satya Bandyopadhyay, Arati Bhattacharya and Sudeshna Das.

Here’s the cast:

Pradip Mukherjee - Somnath

Kalyan Sen - Mr. Bakshi

Satya Bandyopadhyay - Somnath's Father

Deepankar De - Bhombol

Arati Bhattacharya - Mrs. Ganguli

Gautam Chakraborty - Sukumar

Lily Chakravarty - Kamala

Bimal Chatterjee - Adok

Kalyan Chatterjee - Somnath's friend

Bimal Deb - Jagabandhu

Santosh Dutta - Hiralal

Utpal Dutt - Bishuda

Rabi Ghosh - Natabar Mittir

Soven Lahiri - Goenka

Padmadevi - Mrs. Biswas

Aparna Sen - Somnath's ex-girlfriend

Sudeshna Das - Kauna / Juthika

Rating: *** 1/2

Jana Aranya was screened to mark twenty-five years of the passing away of Satyajit Ray. It was the closing film at TEAFF. I feel the choice to keep Jana Aranya as the finale was not an appropriate one. A closing film has to be recent film, not a 40 year-ild one, in black and white. There is no denying that Ray os one of the world's all-time great directors, but Jana Aranya is not his best film either. Co-inciding it with 25 years after Ray's passing is a very tenuos link.

Next: The winners at TEAFF.

16^th Third Eye Asian Film Festival: X

Besides features and docu-features, the 16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival (TEAFF) had a competitive section for shorts. As many as 25 films competed. Countries represented included India, Iran, Myanmar, Turkey, Tajikistan and South Korea. They were packaged into two screening slots, one of which I managed to attend.

Audience Award, Short Film: Taghdir (Fate)/Iran/13 min/Azar Faramarzi

Actress, producer and director Azar Faramarzi graduated in Film and TV direction from Symbiosis International University in India (in 2012) and has also been acting in television and films for ten years. Since 2010, Azar has completed four short films; two documentaries and two fictional films. Moreover, she has twice served on the Jury of TEAFF. Destiny is about a fish-breeding worker who loses his wife and son-they drown in the river. “It made the local news and actually that river in the north of Iran has killed so many people because it is very wide and cold. Even people who were good at swimming ended up getting killed there. I also wanted to say that nature can be a very dangerous thing and that people should be careful even if there is a beauty they still have to be careful.”

She has said about this film, “Destiny I really like because it was a total real story, and I went to the exact location and I wanted to shoot that story.” Incidentally, Destiny, was entered and accepted at the last Berlin International Film Festival, where it was ‘vetoed’ by Iran, after the authorities there withdrew all the films entered for the Berlinale, because of the issue of the ‘illegal videos’. A suitcase, containing 60 videos of films, from emerging Iranian directors, and carried by Anke Leweke, the Iranian programmer for the Berlinale, was intercepted at Tehran airport, then confiscated. As a result, Iran had no films represented at this year’s Berlinale.

Jury Special Award: Aaba/India/21 min/Amar Kaushik

Amar Kaushik ventures deep into the mysterious north-east of India, the state of Arunachal Pradesh, where the Apatani, or Tanw, also known by Apa and Apa Tani, are a tribal group of people living in the Ziro valley in the Lower Subansiri district. Their language, Apatani, is hardly known outside their habitat.

Aaba was the only Indian film in competition at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Director Kaushik spent months with the Apatanis, till he almost became a part of them

Aaba is Amar Kaushik’s directorial debut, but he was the associate director of No One Killed Jessica. For his first film, he went back to the region where he had spent his childhood. Aaba was a story his mother had narrated to him as a child, and it stayed with him till now. And guess who came on board as a producer? The writer-director of No One Killed Jessica, his mentor, Rajkumar Gupta. Soon he had Onir, Mitul Dikshit and Alison Welly backing him too.

As Berlin, Aaba bagged a prestigious award: the Special Prize of the Generation K Plus International Jury for the Best Short Film of the Year! The story revolves around an orphan girl who comes across the news of her grandfather reaching the terminal stage of lung cancer. As the grandfather (Aaba) starts counting his days, the family’s life takes some unexpected turns. The cast comprises state locals.

Best Short Film Award: Birthday Night/Iran/23 min/Omid Shams

Ahmad and Ali are friends and job partners. They face dramatic situation on their birthday night. On their birthday night, they are on their way from a job outside the city to Ahmad's house where their wives are waiting for them. But on the road, an incident causes them to learn more about each other.

Omid is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Portsmouth, school of law, through a bursary scheme led by Business School in cooperation with Amnesty International. His current project is on the indirect mechanisms of censorship in Iran. He holds a master in American Studies from the University of Turin.

He has been working as a writer and human rights activist since 2002. In 2014, after experiencing threats and persecutions from the authorities in Iran as a result of his writings and engagement in the human rights activism, he fled his home country for Denmark under the ICORN’s protection program for writers at risk. He is an honorary member of Danish PEN. Shams’s last film was The Passer, 2016. Birthday Night received the best screenplay award, with 70mn rial (170 USD), at the 34th Tehran International Short Film Festival for his fiction film, Birthday Night.

Audience Award (Feature Film): Nawara/Egypt/106 min/Hala Khalil (pictured above)

Hala Khalil’s mirroring of the realities of modern-day Egyptian life and the turbulence of 2011 that would affect a lower-middle class maid’s simple life and craw her into a net of political cat and mouse games. I had reviewed the film two weeks ago. Here is the brief review again.

“Woman film-maker Hala Khalil strikes all the right chords with a riveting screenplay in Nawara (2015), placed in the post Tahrir Square 2011 revolution in Egypt, during the last days of the Hosni Mubaarak regime. Add to that the fact that it is Khalil’s feature debut, and you know what any capable woman can achieve in cinema. Helping Khalil spin her narrative web is a creditable cast, led by a powerhouse called Menna Shalabi. Khalil was inspired by the slogan of the revolution, ‘Bread, Freedom, Social Justice’, but was also disappointed that the slogan largely remained just that.

Nawara works as a domestic helper at a villa whose owners are closely linked to the Mubarak regime. She is married, but the couple do not have a place of their own, so they are forced to live separately. As the revolution unfolds, Nawara’s employers escape, asking her to look after the house in their absence. Her Madam leaves her a large sum of money, to help her move into a house with her husband, and to pay for the medical expenses of her critically ill father-in-law. When a travel ban and property seizure orders are issued against the family, the police arrive at the villa, and confiscate Nawara's money, believing it to be part of her employers’ ill-gotten wealth. Sensitive stuff that holds interest all through the 122 minutes it lasts.”

Rating: *** ½

Deserving honourable mention:

Save Me/Iran/10 minutes/Mohsen Nabavi

Brilliant interpretation of ecological disasters, with ‘wow’ ending, and

Safar/India/15 min/Sreejoni Nag

Watch late Tom Alter, after his thumb removal, and a short while before skin cancer got him, pair-up with fellow alumnus Reeta Bhaduri as husband and wife, exchange loving banter. That itself suffices to moisten your eyes, and then, at the end, there is a large lump in my throat. Perhaps I felt more moved because Tom was dear to me, and I know Reeta well too.

Undeserving of any mention: Manto Ki Shaadi/India/14 min

The Laboratory of Visual Culture (SUPSI) and Visions du Réel International Film Festival / Doc Outlook-International Market (DOCM) are pleased to announce the sixth edition of its residential interactive documentary workshop, a project development programme for expanded documentaries, to be held in Nyon (Switzerland) from the 14th to the 18th of April 2018.

The interactive documentary workshop aims to enabling European professionals to seize the opportunities and challenges of the currently unfolding audiovisual trends by equipping its participants with precise, comprehensive and practical skills and knowledge in developing, producing, financing and distributing interactive documentaries and transmedia nonfiction projects.

Through lectures, case-study presentations and panels with established authors, producers and notable interaction design experts, the participants will become familiar with the new challenges and opportunities that digital storytelling is promoting into the film and audiovisual creative industry (virtual reality, augmented reality, videogames etc.). The workshop is project-oriented: over the five-day workshop participants enrolling with a project will apply the skills and methods while they are learning them in the practical development of a working-concept for a nonfiction project developing a non-linear storytelling and intending to integrate extensively, at different stages of the project, the new potential of digital technologies, an active user participation, and/or a transmedia approach across multiple media, in particular through the web, tablets, smartphones, live events etc.

Through a Development Lab – featuring project-led group work, personalized coaching and a final pitch session – the key elements of the participants’ projects will be discussed with the trainers, experts, and European decision makers, getting the best advantage in terms of content development, planning of the audience experience, interaction design, funding strategy and professional networking. Participants will thus be accompanied in the definition and refining of a first proof of concept which will be able to be professionally put into further development or pre-production.

Encouraging networking and fostering the broader international mobility of our participants and their projects are key elements of the programme. We are therefore very proud to confirm our partnership with Cross Video Days (www.crossvideodays.com), European Social Documentary (www.esodoc.eu) and East Doc Platform (www.dokweb.net). Cross Video Days will award 1 project with an official invitation to attend the highly competitive CVD Content Market (Autumn 2018), the European Social Documentary will award 1 project with an official invitation to join the 3rd session of their international programme (Autumn 2018) and the East Doc Platform will award 1 project with an official invitation to attend East Doc Interactive, the round table pitch at the prestigious East Doc Forum (Winter 2019). 

The workshop is open to 20 participants (15 with projects - also in team -, and max. 5 observers) and targets scriptwriters, filmmakers, directors, producers, new media content creators, advertising executives and interaction designers.

The interactive documentary workshop runs parallel to the DOCM at Visions du Réel which takes place from the 13th to the 21st of April 2018 in Nyon, Switzerland. The interactive documentary workshop will take place as part of the DOCM activities and all the case-studies presentations will be open to the public (www.visionsdureel.ch).

Applications are to be submitted by Thursday, 1 March 2018. 


For more information please contact us at
www.idw.supsi.ch
idw@supsi.ch
+41 (0)58 666 62 81

Wishing you all much success on the festival circuit!

Sundance Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Utah  

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Global Content Bazar January 19 - 20 Mumbai

Global Content Bazar 2018 returns this january

The global Content industry is a formidable force that now powers everything you see and hear across multiple media platforms. Whether it’s Film or Television or New Media or Online, content is the undisputed king and currently the most celebrated industry around the world. 

As the creators of the 25-year-old, highly successful Broadcast India Show, Saicom Trade Fairs & Exhibitons Pvt. Ltd invites you to take the plunge into the 2nd edition of their latest venture - Global Content Bazar 2018. 

Coming January 2018, the island city of Mumbai will welcome a brand-new content marketplace positioned at the very heart of India's multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. The 2nd edition Global Content Bazaar signals the arrival of a new platform for content innovators to pitch and showcase their work to potential buyers, sellers and distributors and also participate in a collaboration between different yet innately related aspects of entertainment technology that are pivotal in the creation of content for films, television, new media, mobile, gaming, radio and lots more. 

 

Do not miss The Global Content Bazar coming this coming week

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> PARTNERS FESTIVAL NEWS    

Future Femme Festival May 10 – 13, 2018 

 

January 25, 2018 Regular Deadline 
March 31, 2018 Late Deadline I May 1, 2018 Extended Deadline

Anyone who identifies as a Future Femme may enter.

Does your movie: elevate future femme perspectives, support the advancement of future femme talent, and empower future femmes through cinema?

Enter now: FutureFemmeFest via Film Freeway. Take 50% your entry with this code filmfestivalscomff

Future Femme Fest is a celebration of cinema. We bring the film festival experience to you via live competitions and our streaming partners.

The Future Femme Short Film Fest begins its UK tour in May 2018.

Finalists & winners will have the chance to find an audience at 8 live events throughout the UK.

Website I Facebook I Twitter I Westone 114 Wellington Street Leeds LS1 1BA United Kingdom I contact I Profile on filmfestivals.com I SUBMIT

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The Julien Dubuque International Film Festival (April 26 – 29, 2018) is calling for your film

Regular Deadline I January 8, 2018  

Voted one of the top 50 Film Festivals worth the Submission Fee in 2016 AND 2017 by MovieMaker Magazine, the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival acknowledges emerging filmmakers from around the world, with a strong emphasis on discovering and encouraging new talent. In recognition of the time and talent of the independent filmmaker, awarding over $40,000 in cash and benefits, including a $10,000 Best of the Fest award.
Over $40,000 in cash and benefits to be awarded**

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NYC Independent Film Festival 2018

May 7 - May 13, 2018

January 31, 2018 Extended Deadline I

NYC Independent Film Festival is a celebration of the true independent filmmaker, documentaries, short and feature-length films, music videos, and animation. Whether a submission is comedic, dramatic, or something in between, The NYC Indie film Fest is eager to embrace fresh ideas and storytelling.

The festival aims to discover the Artist Filmmaker, showcasing them to the entertainment industry and the NYC public. All NYC Indie screenings take place in the historic center of NYC, Time Square which is the perfect home for an event geared toward creating incredible opportunities for independent voices.

NYC Indie Film Festival honors the Best in Category which includes Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary, Best Short Documentary, Best Short Narrative, Best Super Short, Best Music Video, as well as Best Director and Best Screenplay.

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Sonoma International FilmFestival 

March 21 – 25, 2018

2018 WORLDFEST-HOUSTON April 20 - 29, 2018 calling for entries

 New Media Film Festival

June 12 -14, 2018

Announcing - JEFF BRIDGES Legendary Actor & Producer of upcoming documentary "Living in Futures Past" 2018 Recipient of the Socially Responsible Conservationist Award at the New Media Film Festival Opening Night, June 16, 2018*

Celebrate - Collaborate - Creative Technology & Story

NEW VIBE

New Venue James Bridges Theater - Los Angeles CA

New Website - www.NewMediaFilmFestival.com

NEW DATES

Saturday & Sunday June 16-17 2018

12:30pm - 10:30pm

New Media Film Festival intersects the interactivity of new technologies & formats for Media & Cinema which exemplify the power of the cinematic arts to inspire and transform. A festival where we Honor Stories Worth Telling that are created by people of All Ages-All Cultures-All Media.
Each entry is considered for Screening in a state of the art theatre, The Landmark, owned by Mark Cuban and/or Competition and/or Distribution $45,000.00 in Awards will be given out. Each programmed content is in consideration for a Best of Category, Audience & Grand Prize Award.

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SCIFI WORLD

Filmfestivals com has an eye for SciFi: check our fantastic selection

CHIMERA by Maurice Haeems, SciFi Thriller October 2017 80 minutes Chimera features Emmy-nominee Henry Ian Cusick (Lost) and Oscar-nominee Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13) in the two leading roles. This is Maurice Heems' first feature film. A brilliant but disturbed scientist decides to freeze his children alive, while he races against time to cure their deadly genetic disease by unlocking the secret of immortality encoded within the DNA of the Turritopsis jellyfish. &.. 

 

 

ECO CALLING

Filmfestivals com has an eye for Eco, Transition, Green and Conservationism cinema: check our fantastic selection

 

"Ones to Watch for fests' by filmfestivals.com"    LIVING IN THE FUTURES PAST by Susan Kucera, an eco responsible documentary presented by Jeff Bridges. USA October 2017 - 83 minutes Website I Sneak peek 5 minutes edit I Request a screener I Sales by Vision Films I Jeff Bridges Academy Award Winner, Jeff Bridges presents this beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking on who we are and the...

 

 

ANIMATION CALLING

 

 

MIAFF 5th edition wants your hot new animation films for 2018 

MIAFF is bursting into its 5th edition and will be a spectacular 5th year birthday party! Call for entries are now open so take advantage of early bird rates until October 14 For festival strategy and consultation contact Animation Calling today! With hundreds of submissions from all over the world MIAFF 5 will be screening your film alongside  an ANIMAZING party to boot!     
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HORROR CALLING

Filmfestivals com has an eye for Horror and SciFi: check our fantastic selection

Films we curate for festivals Check our selection of 'Best for Fests' in th eHorror SciFi genre!   "Ones to Watch for fests' by filmfestivals.com"      CHIMERA by Maurice Haeems, SciFi Thriller October 2017 80 minutes Chimera features Emmy-nominee Henry Ian Cusick (Lost) and Oscar-nominee Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13) in the two leading roles. A brilliant but disturbed scientist decides to freeze his children alive,... 

 

DOC FESTS CALLING

> FILMS FOCUS   

Moonlight Screening of the documentary TAKE EVERY WAVE: The Life of Laird Hamilton

Rory Kennedy’s exhilarating Sundance documentary will have its Australian premiere at Moonlight Cinemas on January 6, 2018!   Push your limits. Change the game.     Filmmaker Rory Kennedy tracks the remarkable life and legendary career of big wave surfer Laird Hamilton. Much admired by the public, though often disdained or ignored by the surf industry itself, Laird is a unique sports icon—an athlete who has refused to compete professionally yet has do...

 

Hearts Beat Loud Closing Sundance film

HEARTS BEAT LOUD   World Premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival- Closing Night Film     Starring:  Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Ted Danson, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, Blythe Danner   Written & Directed by: Brett Haley ...

 

new Year's news from Bombay: Big star Bollywood film to be shot in Israel

Alex C. Deleon, Bombay Bollywood A-list star Ranbir Kapoor, co-star Alia Bhatt and director Ayan Mukerji spent new years eve partying in Tel Aviv where they are getting ready to shoot the first Bollywood film ever to be made on location in Israel. Set in modern day India "Brahmasta" the first part of a planned trilogy revolves around wisdom and powers drawn from ancient Indian culture and will be shot in the old city of Jaffa, in Jerusalem, and parts of neighboring J...

 

 

New Year's in Bombay Day three, my button works

by Alex Deleon 13:43 (Il y a 23 heures)             Resting at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club next to the fabulous Taj Mahal Hotel -- the...

 

Yearend News from Bombay

The year 2018 in Bollywood has seen a dearth of box-office blockbuster and the industry has been counting on Salma Khan's latest, "Tiger Zinda Hai" (The tiger is still alive) a giant actioner co-starring his former girl friend Katrina Kaif.  This is the follow up to his megahit "Tiger Hai" of 2012 also costarring zoftic curvy Katrina who,  although only half Indian is the  leading sex symbol of the Bollywood.   The story this tim...

 

Baron Noir French series presented in 8 parts

The rapid addition of video streaming platforms has considerably expanded program viewing choices accessible to the internet audience. Netflix and Amazon have made a large number of foreign feature films, documentaries and television productions available and foreign series have increasingly become more prominent in their programs which are a mix of acquisitions and sometimes co-productions. Another new feature in the differentiated internet programming scene is subscription video on demand se...

> "FILMFESTIVALS.COM ONES TO WATCH ON THE CIRCUIT" FOR FESTIVAL CONSIDERATION

CHIMERA by Maurice Haeems USA India Thriller Science Fiction 79 minutes

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A brilliant but disturbed scientist decides to freeze his children alive, while he races against time to cure their deadly genetic disease by unlocking the secret of immortality encoded within the DNA of the Turritopsis jellyfish.

LIVING AMONG US by Brian Metcalf  - Vampire Found Footage Thriller Ocober 2017 80 minutes

A family of Vampires hire some filmmakers to bring their story to the world with devastating results.  STARRING: John Heard (Home Alone), Esmé Bianco (Game of Thrones), Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie), William Sadler (Iron Man 3), Andrew Keegan (10 Things I Hate About You).

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LIVING IN THE FUTURES PAST by Susan Kucera, A documentary presented by Jeff Bridges.
USA October 2017 - 83 minutes

Academy Award Winner, Jeff Bridges presents this beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking on who we are and the environmental challenges we face. Jeff, alongside prominent scientists and authors, weave evolution, emergence, entropy, dark ecology, and what some are calling the end of nature, into a story that helps us understand our place among the species of Earth’s household. The film upends our way of thinking and provides original insights into our subconscious motivations, the unintended consequences, what to do about our fossil slaves, and how our fundamental animal nature influences our future as Humankind. 

...more details Blog on filmfestivals.com

DEAD ON ARRIVAL D.O.A. by Stephen Sepher - Thriller  - USA  - June  2017 -  96 minutes

Emmy nominated Billy Flynn stars in an ensemble cast as Sam Collins, a pharmaceutical sales rep who visits a small town in Louisiana to close the business deal of a lifetime. He finds himself in a dark world of sex, corruption and murder as he is poisoned with no antidote to save his life. Desperate for answers, with less than 24 hours to live, Sam turns to a local girl Jesse. Their path leads to a voodoo priestess who only confirms Sam's doomed fate. On the run, caught in a deadly vertigo with no one to trust, Sam and Jesse find themselves running from police detectives, the Mob and a dirty sheriff who wants him dead.

Inspired by the 1950 classic noir thriller D.O.A. 

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Winner in Houston WorldFest and Fantasporto

The Unwilling by Oscar nominee Jonathan Heap

 

Evil is inside

6 family members gather for the reading of a will. It comes with a mysterious box. Who will leave alive?

Starring David Lipper, Dina Meyer, Levy Tran, Austin Highsmith, Jake Thomas, Robert Rusler, Bree Williamson and  Lance Henrickson.  

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Revolution by Rob Stewart  

over 40 festival wins so far

Eco Documentary feature film by Rob Stewart April 2015, 82 minutes (Sharkwater)
Revolution is a film about changing the world. The true-life adventure of Rob Stewart, this follow-up to his acclaimed SHARKWATER (36 festival wins) documentary continues his remarkable journey; one that will take him through 15 countries over four years, and where he'll discover that it's not only sharks that are in grave danger -- it's humanity itself.

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> THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT    

The Annapolis Film Festival announces this year’s festival theme Voices Strong. Minds Open.

The Annapolis Film Festival announces this year’s festival theme Voices Strong. Minds Open. The first film to be announced on the slate: “Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me,” which will screen at the fest’s African American Experience Showcase on March 23 at Asbury United Methodist Church. The film features 60 years of footage spotlighting the iconic singer, dancer, actor and comic’s life. Remarkable talent was seen at his first onstage performance at just t...

 

Preview of SXSW to be held March 9-18, 2018 in Austin, Texas

Yesterday the festival announced Melinda Gates as...

 

 

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced its dates and the festival’s affiliated

  TIFF will be held for 10 days from October 25 (Thu.) to November 3 (Sat.) at Roppongi Hills, EX Theater and other venues in Tokyo, while TIFFCOM will be held for 3 days from October 23 (Tue.) to 25 (Thu.) in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.  TIFF was launched in 1985 as Japan’s first major film festival and in the ensuing years, shined a 　 spotlight on exceptional films and filmmakers from around the world. Celebrating its 30th anniversary last year with an expanded program, ...

 

5 Reasons to Attend the Chandler International Film Festival next week

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Here’s the Program for the 2018 Göteborg Film Festival!

  A press conference held at 1 p.m. today marked the release of the program for the 41st Göteborg Film Festival, the largest film festival in the Nordic countries. The festival will show 399 films from 78 countries during 11 intense days, January 26–February 5. In addition there will be seminars, discussions, parties and live music. The tickets will be released to festival members on January 11 and to the general publi...

 

Children's Film Festival Seattle -- "Dream The Future" -- Opening Jan. 25

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10th Jaipur International Film Festival-JIFF 2018 opens

  Much awaited JIFF 2018 finally opened in a magnificent manner; for all the Film enthusiasts; Cinema lovers and fans. For next four days; many National – International Films would be screened at Golcha Cinema and Manipal University. The Film Festival has been started, with lighting the lamp at Golcha Cinema. Surendra Bohra, Rajeev Arora, Sandeep Sancheti [President Manipal University], Mark Plain and JIFF Found...

 

> PEOPLE ON OUR RADAR   

Jane Alexander to Receive 2018 Sedona International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award

Four-time Academy Award nominee and multiple Emmy Award-winner Jane Alexander will receive the Sedona International Film Festival’s 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award during the upcoming 24th annual festival, Feb. 24-March 4.             The Festival will feature 150 films from narrative features to documentaries to shorts at three venues: The Mary D. Fisher Theatre, the Sedona Performing Arts Center (SPAC) and Sedona Harkins 6.  ...

 

Protagonist Pictures has appointed Isabelle Stewart as Head of Acquisitions

Protagonist Pictures has appointed Isabelle Stewart as Head of Acquisitions with immediate effect, it was announced today by CEO Dave Bishop. The appointment comes ahead of a busy year for the international finance, production and sales company as it seeks to expand its critically acclaimed sales slate for the upcoming markets.   Reporting to Bishop, Stewart will oversee the procurement of the kinds of prestige titles that have become synonymous with the Protagonist brand. She will atte...

 

We are very happy to welcome Viennale new artistic director: Eva Sangiorgi

After having been chosen by the Viennale board to succeed Hans Hurch as Viennale Director and having been appointed by the City Counselor Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, the 39 year old Italian was introduced to the press this morning. "The Viennale festival is an iconic event that rounds off the year’s calendar of film events and has been important to me fo...

 

From IFP Executive Director Joana Vicente

    Dear Friends of IFP,   Stories have the power to transform us and our world. 2017 revealed this truth to us again and again in remarkable and unexpected ways.   As we begin the new year, we reaffirm our convicti...

 

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Partner Film Festivals Calling. Fast-Approaching Deadlines

Need more and better film submissions for your festival? don't miss the one month booster

Filmfestivals.com was established 1995 as world reference in this niche, we are proud of our track record in helping festivals attract more legitimacy, visibility and film submissions from our large base of international film professionals (370 000 unique filmmaker visitors each month), 159 500 subscribers to the newsletter. ONE TIME OFFER We suggest this quick one month booster program for your call for entry including  with 4 newsletter ads, your call for entry promoted one month lon...  

The Bulletin Board I Pro Services's blog |  Advertise your festival in the next eBlast to our filmmakers.   

Major Buzz Factory : Expérience de Bruno Chatelin du marketing Digital pour les films

Fort d'une expérience acquise dans la distribution de films pour deux Majors (Sony et Fox mariée sous a direction avec UGC) Bruno Chatelin propose une expérience pointue au service de votre stratégie digitale à Travers sa structure de Conseil MAJOR BUZZ FACTORY Le fondateur Bruno Chatelin : un Professionnel de la communication entouré de spécialistes, son expérience est ancrée sur trois univers La publicité, Le marketing et le digital.

TOUTES LES NEWS EN FRANCAIS.  

Les nominations aux Prix Lumière de la presse étrangère à Paris

LE FESTIVAL D'HUMOUR DE PARIS fête les 40 ans du film Les Bronzés le 17 janvier au Grand Rex

 

Dans le cadre du festival, Jean-Marc Dumontet et uGo&Play présentent le mercredi 17 janvier 2018: Les Bronzés, la grande soirée des 40 ans. Au programme, la projection des films Les Bronzés et Les Bronzés font du ski, des surprises et des happenings en bonus. PRÉSENTÉ PAR ANNE-SOPHIE GIRARD ET CARTMAN EN PRÉSENCE DE : PATRICE LECONTE •  MARIE-ANNE CHAZEL... ...

 

L’équipe du FID nous fait part du décès de Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, son Président

C’est prise par une violente tristesse que l’équipe du FID vous fait part du décès de Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, son Président, survenu accidentellement le mardi 2 janvier. Nous souhaitons nous associer à tous ceux, nombreux, qui en grand deuil, vont se trouver orphelins de lui. Emmelene, sa compagne, à qui nous adressons toute notre affection. Ses collaborateurs aux éditions P.O.L., ses auteurs, ses amis et aussi tous...

 

Top 10 des entrées hebdo France Du 27/12/2017 au 02/01/2018

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Australian actress Cate Blanchett is to be President of the Jury of the Festival de Cannes

MIFF 2018, IV

Besides the competitive section, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2018 will screen national and international films in the Prism category. A list of twenty films has been released in the Intrnational category under Prism. They are divided into three categories: Animation, short fiction up to 45 minutes in length, and documentaries of any duration. National selection will follow in the next update.

MIFF is organised by the Films Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

T2: Trainspotting and 28 Weeks Later producer Andrew Macdonald and Hollywood casting director Kerry Barden to deliver Industry Spotlight talks

BAFTA panel to discuss gender imbalance and Women in Film & Television UK will look at the urgent issue of harassment in the industry

Industry Focus 2018 runs from 28 February to 2 March and is open to people at all stages of their career

The full programme has been announced for Glasgow Film Festival 2018 Industry Focus strand.

Bringing together some of the film and television industry's biggest names and most promising new talents, the three day event is open to anyone working in the industry, from established professionals to students.

Top producer Andrew Macdonald (T2: Trainspotting; Shallow Grave; 28 Weeks Later) and Hollywood casting director Kerry Barden (who has worked on recent Oscar winners Spotlight and The Help plus the box office smash-hitPitch Perfect franchise) will deliver Industry Spotlight talks, offering a rare chance to get insight and advice from professionals at the top of their game.

The 2018 event will address the recent revelations surrounding the industry and its working practices. BAFTA Scotland will look at the urgency of redressing the gender imbalance in film and TV and examine practical solutions to improve access, career development and representation, whilst Women in Film & Television (UK) explore the crucial issue of sexual harassment in the UK industry in a panel chaired by Kate Kinninmont MBE, Chief Executive of WFTV with guests including cinematographer Nicola Daley and casting director Simone Pereira Hind.

Other highlights across the three day event include:

• The unique opportunity to book one-to-one surgery sessions with leading industry figures, including Kevin Dolan, Talent Development Manager at Film London; Alison Goring, newly appointed Head of the National Film and Television School Scotland; Emma Dutton, film financier at Sharp House and talent agent Rob Kraitt from Casarotto Ramsay.
• Market Place Live (MPL), Film London's innovative 'live' panel experience developed in partnership with Film Export UK and in partnership with Glasgow Film Office which showcases the Film Value Chain through a hypothetical film project which is developed, produced, sold and distributed all within 90 minutes.
• A practical, hands-on workshop on the development of character and story with screenwriter and regular Shane Meadows collaborator Paul Fraser (Once Upon a Time in the Midlands; Dead Man's Shoes).
• Alex Stolz, of the trailblazing podcast about new film entrepreneurs Film Disruptors, hosts Distribution 2.0, a look at 2018's tools, strategies and techniques which cut through the noise and help independent film find its audience plus a session on cutting-edge new film financing (from crowd funding and branded content to the emergence of powerful digital platforms).
• As part of GFF 2018's Pure Baltic strand, funders and producers from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania discuss the co-production and the burgeoning new funding opportunities available in the region.

• Informal and fun networking Industry Happy Hour sessions, hosted by FOCUS (a two-year pilot project that provides expert sector specific business support to screen production companies working in Scotland); Women in Film & TV (UK), the leading membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK; Directors UK, the professional association of directors working in the moving image within the UK; Young Films Foundation, an exciting new not-for-profit company to develop new Scottish writing, directing and production talent; the new National Film and Television School Scotland and Hit The Ground Running, offering roadshows and workshops on the varied careers offered behind the scenes in film and TV drama.

Three-day event passes cost £75 full price / £30 for students and are on sale now via glasgowfilm.org/industry.

Comment

Allan Hunter, Glasgow Film Festival Co-Director said:

“The Industry Focus at Glasgow Film Festival is renowned for its accessibility and relevance to the needs and aspirations of the filmmaking community. The 2018 programme stretches from nuts-and-bolts advice and timely debates to how to best confront ethical dilemmas and commercial challenges. It is a particular pleasure to welcome Andrew Macdonald back to his home town and nobody should miss the chance to hear this inspirational, award-winning Scottish producer. The Glasgow Film Festival is a fantastic place to see films but the Industry Focus means that Glasgow is also a great place to learn more about how to make films.” 

Selected from considerably more than 2,000 submissions, this year a total of 65 full-length and short films from 39 production and co-production countries have been invited to compete in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions. Highly contemporary, the selection reflects on both cinematic developments as well as current socio-political situations. The diversity in content and format relentlessly reflects a complex and frequently inconsistent world while at the same time leaving room for interpretation. In the zone between reality and imagination, the filmmakers open doors for alternative options - not only for the young protagonists - and simultaneously reframe a young generations’ yearning for commitment.

“Every single selection is an invitation to the audience to experience life from the perspective of youth. They are films with young people, as opposed to about them. An impressive characteristic throughout the programme is not only the deep respect with which the filmmakers paint portraits of their protagonists, but also the immediacy and intimacy with which they approach these very individual world views,” says section head Maryanne Redpath about this year’s programme.

Short films in Generation

In 2018, the Generation short film competitions present productions from a total of 25 countries. The three Kplus short film programmes and two 14plus programmes focus on big and small people and on other creatures; on love and longing for security, and on the banal tragedies of daily life. In addition, they give an insight in the stunning wealth of possibilities and eerie depths of the digital world.

Opening films

The Generation 14plus competition will open at Haus der Kulturen der Welt with the road movie 303, with director Hans Weingartner (White Noise and The Edukators, among others) and cast attending. The Generation Kplus competition will open with an adventurous journey of an altogether different nature: the fast-paced Danish animation Den utrolige historie om den kæmpestore pære (The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear) by Philip Einstein Lipski, Amalie Næsby Fick and Jørgen Lerdam.

In addition to the previously announced films, the following productions have now also been invited:

Generation14plus

Adam

Germany / Iceland / USA

by Maria Solrun

World premiere

After her debut film Jargo (Generation 14plus 2004), Icelandic director Maria Solrun presents a feature film for the second time in Generation. The aurally handicapped young protagonist Adam and his mother, a techno musician, have always lived in different worlds. At the same time, they are symbiotically connected: he feels her music directly with his body. When his mother is diagnosed with irreversible brain damage caused by alcohol, Adam suddenly has to look after himself. He faces his mother’s eager death wish in his very own laconic way, and the director gives him his voice, as well as plenty of space to develop.

Dressage

Iran

by Pooya Badkoobeh

World premiere

Motivated primarily by boredom rather than greed, Golsa and her friends rob a corner shop. But while evaluating the booty, they are dismayed to realise that they forgot to take the security camera footage. One of them must return to the crime scene and retrieve it. The vote falls on Golsa, who bravely completes the mission. Her friends’ behaviour makes her think, and she hides the hard drive somewhere secret. But her accomplices and their well-to-do families put more and more pressure on Golsa, worried about their social standing. Director Pooya Badkoobeh radically staged story about control, blackmail and the power of money holds an uncompromising mirror up to Iranian society.

Fortuna

Switzerland / Belgium

by Germinal Roaux

World premiere

Amidst the snow-covered mountains of the Swiss Simplon Pass, 14-year-old Fortuna clasps her hands in prayer. She hasn’t seen her parents since their traumatic crossing of the Mediterranean. Like many other refugees, the young girl from the Ethiopia/Eritrea border area has found refuge in an Augustinian monastery. The feelings of loneliness and yearning for love that tear at Fortuna are weighed against a secret that she can’t even tell the head friar - insightfully played by Bruno Ganz. Director Germinal Roaux fathoms the depths of Christian charity in expressive black-and-white imagery.

Hendi & Hormoz

Iran / Czech Republic

by Abbas Amini

World premiere

After Valderama (Generation 2016), Iranian director Abbas Amini presents his second feature film in Generation 14plus. Hendi & Hormoz takes place on Iran’s Hormuz Island in the Persian Gulf, where hematite deposits in the soil turn the ocean waves blood-red. 16-year-old Hormoz is married to Hendi, three years his junior, after he promises that he can work as a miner. But the young man, stirringly played by Hamed Alipour (Valderama), finds closed doors instead of a job. When Hendi becomes pregnant unexpectedly, Hormoz is forced to make an ill-advised pact with a smuggler. Director Amini portrays the existential struggle of two young people who must abandon their carefree youth in a harsh world.

High Fantasy

South Africa

by Jenna Bass

European premiere

After The Tunnel (Berlinale Shorts 2010), Berlinale Talents alumna and London native Jenna Bass now presents a film in Generation 14plus. Filmed by the four protagonists exclusively on smartphones in the wide expanses of the South African veldt, Bass’s second feature film High Fantasy brings a common vision to life: being inside the body of another person. When Lexi and her friends experience exactly that during a camping trip, a suspense-laden dynamic ensues between the three women and Thami, the only man with them, but also between Lexi, who is white and Xoli, who is black. A smart and biting essay on the unrelenting politics of the human body - and still highly relevant even decades after the alleged end of Apartheid.

Kissing Candice

Ireland / United Kingdom

by Aoife McArdle

European premiere

Candice, 17, has a vivid imagination. In the glaring and graphic realms she experiences during her epileptic seizures, a man appears with whom she falls in love. Soon after, she meets him in the real world. But that’s just one bit of trouble in the Irish town where the young people see a pony as a status symbol on par with a car. One boy is missing and a violent clique of youths is terrorising the village inhabitants. Candice’s father, a police officer who longs for the “good old days” of “the Troubles”, is on the case. In her debut film, director Aoife McArdle stages highly aesthetic chaos against the harsh backdrop of a coastal Irish village. The director’s ample experience making music videos is clearly visible throughout.

Retablo

Peru / Germany / Norway

by Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio L.

European premiere

14-year-old Segundo lives with his parents in a village high in the magnificent mountains of Peru. His father Noé is a respected artist and Segundo’s role model. Noé hand-crafts altarpieces, decorated shrines for church and home, and is teaching Segundo the necessary skills to carry on in his footsteps. But cracks have developed in their close relationship because Noé is keeping a dark secret. With brutal honesty and saturated colours, the film peeks behind the facade of a seemingly intact village community where homophobic attidtudes enforced by patriarchal laws are carried out with remorseless violence. It sketches a visually powerful panorama of a world in which a young artist is searching for his niche.

What Walaa Wants

Canada / Denmark

by Christy Garland

World premiere

The Palestinian girl Walaa - whose mother was incarcerated in an Israeli prison for eight years for allegedly aiding an assassination - shows little interest in school. She’d rather join the Palestinian National Authority - the provisional governmental body that governs the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza - as soon as possible, were it not for her distrust of any kind of authority. Director Christy Garland’s documentary follows the obstreperous young woman over the course of five years, from age 15 to 20. Always maintaining a level playing field with her young protagonist, Christy Garland gives an intimate look at the rebellious girl fighting at times uncontrollably but tenaciously for her dream.

The following films were announced in the previous press release (December 19, 2017):

303, Germany, Hans Weingartner — WP

Cobain, Netherlands / Belgium / Germany, Nanouk Leopold — WP

Danmark (Denmark), Denmark, Kaspar Rune Larsen — IP

Güvercin (The Pigeon), Turkey, Banu Sıvacı — WP

Les faux tatouages (Fake Tattoos), Canada, Pascal Plante — EP

Para Aduma (Red Cow), Israel, Tsivia Barkai Jacov — WP

Unicórnio (Unicorn), Brazil, Eduardo Nunes — IP

Virus Tropical, Colombia, Santiago Caicedo — EP

Short films in Generation 14plus

Fry-Up, United Kingdom, Charlotte Regan — EP

Follower, Germany, Jonathan B. Behr — WP

Je fais où tu me dis (Dressed for Pleasure), Switzerland, Marie de Maricourt — IP

Juck, Sweden, Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira — IP

Kiem Holijanda, Netherlands, Sarah Veltmeyer — IP

Na zdrowie! (Bless You!), Poland, Paulina Ziólkowska — WP

Neputovanja (Untravel), Serbia / Slovakian Republic, Ana Nedeljković, Nikola Majdak Jr. — WP

Nuuca, USA / Canada, Michelle Latimer — EP

Playa (Beach), Mexico, Francisco Borrajo — EP

Pop Rox, USA, Nate Trinrud — EP

Premier amour (First Love), Switzerland, Jules Carrin — IP

Sinfonía de un mar triste (Symphony of a Sad Sea), Mexico, Carlos Morales — EP

Tangles and Knots, Australia, Renée Marie Petropoulos — EP

Three Centimetres, United Kingdom, Lara Zeidan — WP

Vermine (Vermin), Denmark, Jeremie Becquer — WP

Voltage, Austria, Samira Ghahremani — IP

Generation Kplus

Blue Wind Blows

Japan

by Tetsuya Tomina

World premiere

In his poetic full-length film debut, director Tetsuya Tomina follows shy Ao, who lives with his mother and younger sister Kii on the Japanese island of Sado. Their father recently disappeared without a trace, but nobody talks much about that. Ao and Kii wander around the island and vent their incomprehension to the expanses of the sea. Then Ao finds a soulmate in the secretive Sayoko. These two daydreamers need only a few words and feel immediately connected to one another. Against the impressive backdrop of an industrial coastal village, Tomina (who also wrote the screenplay) tells a touching story about hope, loss and letting go.

Ceres

Belgium / Netherlands

by Janet van den Brand

World premiere

In her full-length documentary debut, Dutch director Janet van den Brand accompanies her four young protagonists as they go about their daily agricultural business. Piglets are born, as well as calves, lambs and chicks. Sowing, planting and harvesting. Butchering. No matter what, the camera is close by, along with Koen, Daan, Sven and Jeanine. They help with the farm work from a young age, learning to take responsibility, and to say farewell. Will they run their parents’ farms one day? Using documental imagery, Van den Brand presents a realistic picture of life and work in agriculture - one without idealism, and yet full of poetry.

Cirkeline, Coco og det vilde næsehorn (Circleen, Coco and the Wild Rhinoceros)

Denmark        

by Jannik Hastrup

World premiere

The works of Danish director Jannik Hastrup, seasoned master of animation film, have competed in the Generation programmes since 1985. This year he presents the fourth screen adventure of the matchbook-sized elf Cirkeline. Travel is once again on the agenda, this time with Princess Coco and a moody baby rhinoceros, who both want to return to their home in Africa. Cirkeline and her mouse friends spontaneously decide to go along. A musical story told in episodes and lively, colorful images, Hastrup’s film once again illustrates how travel can open our eyes, and that not everything is the way it seems at first glance.

Los Bando

Norway / Sweden

by Christian Lo

International premiere

Best friends Axel and Grim finally want to perform at this year’s Norwegian rock championship with their band, Los Bando Immortale. Nine-year-old runaway and cellist Thilda, and underage rally driver Martin complete the troupe, and the quartet sets off on a turbulent road trip to the wild north. With the police and crazy relatives on their tail, and confronted with harsh truths in life and love, the four friends continue toward their dream, unperturbed. After Bestevenner (2010), Norwegian director Christian Lo presents his second feature film in Generation Kplus.

Mochila de plomo (Packing Heavy)

Argentina

by Darío Mascambroni

World premiere

12-year-old Tomás tolerated it for far too long - being put off by the grownups, who built a labyrinth of silence, excuses and contradictions all around him. But today is the day of truth. Today, the man who killed his father will be released from prison. And Tomás is ready. In his rucksack is a loaded gun. Restless and determined to liberate himself from the half-truths of the adults, Tomás takes a trip through his hometown. Following his debut Primero enero (Generation Kplus 2017), director Darío Mascambroni once again demonstrates his talent for the attentively observed father-son narrative, told in atmospheric images and in close proximity to his protagonists.

Wang Zha de yuxue (Wangdrak's Rain Boots)

People’s Republic of China
by Lhapal Gyal
World premiere

After heavy rains, puddles and mud cover the streets of the Tibetan mountain village. It’s good for the crops, but bad for young Wangdrak, the only boy in the village without rubber boots. While his father is busy with other worries, Wangdrak’s mother fulfills her son’s wish. But new shoes bring new problems. For Wangdrak, a battle against the blue sky and for the rain begins, fought alongside his loyal friend Lhamo. Nestled in the inimitable mountain landscape, director Lhapal Gyal uses vivid imagery to show us a culture steeped in ancient traditions, paying special attention to the young protagonist’s dreams.

The following films were announced in the previous press release (December 19, 2017):

Allons enfants (Cléo & Paul), France, Stéphane Demoustier — WP

Den utrolige historie om den kæmpestore pære (The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear), Denmark, Philip Einstein Lipski, Amalie Næsby Fick, Jørgen Lerdam — IP

Dikkertje Dap (My Giraffe), Netherlands / Belgium / Germany, Barbara Bredero — IP

El día que resistía (The Endless Day), Argentina / France, by Alessia Chiesa — WP

Gordon och Paddy (Gordon and Paddy), Sweden, Linda Hambäck — IP

Les rois mongols (Cross My Heart), Canada, Luc Picard — EP

Sekala Niskala (The Seen and Unseen), Indonesia / Netherlands / Australia / Qatar, Kamila Andini — EP          

Supa Modo, Germany / Kenya, Likarion Wainaina— WP

Short films in Generation Kplus

A Field Guide to Being a 12-Year-Old Girl, Australia, Tilda Cobham-Hervey — IP

L’après-midi de Clémence (The Afternoon of Clémence), France, Lénaïg Le Moigne — WP

Vdol´ i poperyok (Between the Lines), Russian Federation, Maria Koneva — WP

Brottas (Tweener), Sweden, Julia Thelin — IP

Cena d’aragoste (Lobster Dinner), USA / Italy, Gregorio Franchetti — IP

De Natura, Romania, Lucile Hadžihalilović — IP

Fisketur (Out Fishing), Sweden, Uzi Geffenblad — IP

Fire in Cardboard City, New Zealand, Phil Brough — EP

Hvalagapet, Norway, Liss-Anett Steinskog — IP

Jaalgedi (A Curious Girl), Nepal, Rajesh Prasad Khatri — EP

Lost & Found, Australia, Bradley Slabe — WP

Neko no Hi (Cat Days), Germany, Jon Frickey — WP

Paper Crane, Australia, Takumi Kawakami — WP

Pinguin (Penguin), Germany, Julia Ocker — WP

Snijeg za Vodu (Snow for Water), Bosnia and Herzegovina / United Kingdom, Christopher Villiers — IP

Toda mi alegría (All My Joy), Argentina, Micaela Gonzalo — IP

Tråder (Threads), Norway / Canada, Torill Kove — EP

Trois rêves de ma jeunesse (Three Dreams of My Childhood), Romania, Valérie Mréjen, Bertrand Schefer — IP

Yover, Colombia, Edison Sánchez — WP

The selection for the 13th Forum Expanded programme, which opens at the Akademie der Künste on Hanseatenweg on February 14 under the title “A Mechanism Capable of Changing Itself”, is now complete.

34 film and video works of all lengths and genres together with 15 installations have been invited from a total of 27 countries.

This year’s programme once again includes a variety of works that use documentary techniques to examine and explore the potential for both cinema and music to question, illustrate, analyse and bring about change in such a way that they are capable of intervening in social and political events on the global stage. In so doing, they also expand the very concept of the documentary.

System-immanent Transformation

The title of Margaret Honda’s work6144 X 1024 recalls James Benning’s 11 x 14 from 1977. 6144 X 1024 separates out the entire colour spectrum of a digital projector in a computer-generated screening. This process lasts 36 hours in total and will be shown for a few hours each day over the course of the festival in the smaller of the two Arsenal cinema auditoria.

Like Benning’s work, Honda’s piece turns form into content and seems almost paradigmatic for the demands to which contemporary cinema is once again subject. While for Benning the primary focus was on finding a new cinematic language, today the emphasis has shifted to altered spatial, temporal and power relations, as well as the new systems of reference within reality that dictate structure.

The resulting need for alternative histories is apparent in many of the works in the programme: Kudzanai Chiurai’s film We Live in Silence: Chapters 1-7 takes Med Hondo’s classic Soleil Ô as a point of departure for staging historical narratives and visions of the future that reject the assumption that African migrants are supposed to think, speak and understand language in the way their colonisers do. Alternative history is also what structures High Dam, a slide installation by Ala Younis which focusses on two films made by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine about the Aswan Dam in the 1960s and 1970s. High Dam shines a light on the politics of the era and Chahine’s efforts to evade censorship.

The installation Café Togo by Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper examines the campaign to rename streets with colonial connotations in the so-called African Quarter of Berlin-Wedding. It also explores Black activist Abdel Amine Mohammed’s vision of a multidimensional politics of memory. Laura Horelli’s installation Namibia Todayis also set in Berlin. In an underground station in former East Berlin, seven people talk about the history of the magazine “Namibia Today“, which was published in the GDR between 1980 and 1985.

Zach Blas’s Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033 is inspired by Derek Jarman’s queer punk film Jubilee (1978). Blas shows philosopher Ayn Rand and economist Alan Greenspan on a drug trip in 1955, during which they  witness the end of the Internet in 2033. In Watching the Detectives, Chris Kennedy takes a critical look at the internet as we know it today by retracing the efforts of amateur detectives to reconstruct the events of the Boston Marathon bombing.

In the Marshall McLuhan Salon at the Embassy of Canada, Forum Expanded presents an installation by artist-duo Bambitchell in which surveillance is investigated as an aesthetic practice. The exhibition opens on February 15. Its title, Special Works School, refers to the code name used by the British War Office between 1917 and 1919 for a group of artists employed to design camouflage patterns and technologies.

SAVVY Contemporary will present an exhibition by artist and filmmaker Jasmina Metwaly from February 13 onwards. We Are Not Worried in the Leastconfronts viewers with footage from the film archive that she put together in Egypt between 2001 and 2016. Egypt’s turbulent social and political landscape during this period form the historical backdrop to these images.

Music, Avant-garde and Underground

A series of works bring together film and music as interrelated elements of social and artistic movements which each carry the same importance.

The Third Part of the Third Measure is an audio-visual composition by The Otolith Group that can be seen and heard in the group exhibition. It stages an encounter with the militant minimalism of avant-garde composer Julius Eastman, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the ecstatic aesthetics of black radicalism, which Eastman himself once described as “full of honour, integrity and boundless courage”.

Andreas Reihse, who is well-known as a member of the band Kreidler, collaborated with artist and author Mohamed A. Gawad and filmmaker and author Dalia Neis (aka Dice Miller) in composing two audio essays. Entitled Celluloid Corridors, these two works will be presented as a cinematic event.

Morgan Fisher, one of the most famous representatives of structural cinema, will present his response to Bruce Conner’s classic found-footage film A Movie (1958), which he has dubbed Another Movie. By making reference to Ottorino Respighi’s composition “Pini di Roma”, Fisher generates visual associations to Conner’s film almost automatically.

Three more representatives of the North American avant-garde and underground scene that emerged in the 1970s will be showing their new works at Forum Expanded: James Benning, whose installation L. Cohenwill be in the group exhibition, as well as Barbara Hammer and Ken Jacobs. And both Heinz Emigholz and Ben Russell once again return to the programme, the latter with Ben Rivers.

At silent green Kulturquartier Forum Expanded will be presenting a concert by The Invisible Hands, an Egyptian band co-founded in Cairo in 2011 by Alan Bishop (aka Alvarius B., best-known as a member of Sun City Girls). The band is also the subject of Marina Gioti’s and Georges Salameh’s documentary of the same name, which was shown for the first time at the documenta 14 in Athens.

Another two documentaries are dedicated to underground icons: In Eu sou o Rio, Gabraz Sanna and Anne Santos create both a portrait of Brazilian artist and musician Tantão and of the city of Rio. In Escape From Rented Island: The Lost Paradise of Jack Smith, Jerry Tartaglia combines glamorous pictures of the performer and filmmaker, who died in 1989, with music from his own eccentric record collection.

Archival Constellations

“Think Film No. 6 – Archival Constellations”, an international symposium on themes relating to film archives and alternative archive projects, will take place on February 22 at silent green Kulturquartier in Berlin-Wedding. Film archives and projects from Nigeria, Egypt, Palestine, Mexico, Japan and India have all been invited to take part.

During the festival, Prinzessinnengärten will be responsible for designing the foyer of the Arsenal cinema, with b_books once again offering a selection of literature.

Films

'abl ma 'ansa by Mariam Mekiwi (Egypt / Germany, 27´)

6144 X 1024 by Margaret Honda (USA, 360´)

A Movie by Bruce Conner (USA, 12´)

Aala Kad Al Shawk - Le Voyage Immobile by Ghassan Salhab and Mohamed Soueid (Lebanon / France, 23´)

Another Movie by Morgan Fisher (USA, 22´)

Araf by Didem Pekün (Turkey / Greece / Bosnia and Herzegovina, 47´)

Ard al mahshar by Milad Amin (Lebanon / Syria, 19´)

Bayna Hayakel Studio Baalbeck by SISKA (Lebanon / Germany, 48´)

Celluloid Corridors: Sermon by Mohamed A. Gawad, Dalia Neis and Andreas Reihse (Germany, 11´)

Celluloid Corridors: Timehelix by Mohamed A. Gawad, Dalia Neis and Andreas Reihse (Germany, 9´)

Cinema Olanda Film by Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Netherlands, 17´)

Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033 by Zach Blas (USA / United Kingdom, 29´)

The Disappeared by Adam Kaplan and Gilad Baram (Germany / Israel, 46´)

DUG by Jan Peter Hammer (Germany / Norway, 27´)

Escape From Rented Island: The Lost Paradise of Jack Smith by Jerry Tartaglia (USA, 88´)

Eu sou o Rio by Gabraz Sanna and Anne Santos (Brazil, 78´)

Evidence of the Evidence by Alexander Johnston (USA, 22´)

Evidentiary Bodies by Barbara Hammer (USA, 10´)

The Invisible Hands by Marina Gioti and Georges Salameh (Greece / Egypt, 97´)

It by Anouk De Clercq and Tom Callemin (Belgium, 13´)

Manila Scream Expanded by Roxlee (Philippines, 66´)

Onward Lossless Follows by Michael Robinson (USA, 17´)

Optimism by Deborah Stratman (USA / Canada, 15´)

The Rare Event by Ben Rivers and Ben Russell (Switzerland / France / United Kingdom, 48´)

RIOT: 3 Movements by Rania Stephan (Lebanon / United Arab Emirates, 17´)

Die Schläferin by Alex Gerbaulet (Germany, 16´)

Shelley Duval is Olive Oyl by Ken Jacobs (USA, 21´)

Song for Europe by John Smith (United Kingdom, 4´)

Today Is 11th June 1993 by Clarissa Thieme (Germany / Bosnia and Herzegovina, 15´)

TWO BASILICAS by Heinz Emigholz (Denmark / Germany, 36´)

An Untimely Film For Every One and No One by Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri (USA / Palestine / Armenia, 90´)

wa akhiran musiba by Maya Shurbaji (Syria,15´)

Watching the Detectives by Chris Kennedy (Canada, 36´)

We Live in Silence: Chapters 1-7 by Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe, 36´)

Group exhibition at Akademie der Künste am Hanseatenweg

Article 9303 by Ash Moniz (Egypt, 7´)

Bläue by Kerstin Schroedinger (Germany / United Kingdom, 48´)

Café Togo by Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper (Germany / Taiwan, 27´)

Cold Body Shining by Marta Hryniuk (Poland, 33´)

Come Back Alive Baby by Song Sanghee (Republic of Korea, 17´)

Extended Sea by Nesrine Khodr (Lebanon / United Arab Emirates, 705´)

High Dam by Ala Younis (Jordan, 7´)

L. Cohen by James Benning (USA, 45´)

Namibia Today by Laura Horelli (Germany / Finland, 21´)

Pink Slime Caesar Shift by Jen Liu (USA, 24´)

Strange Meetings by Jane Jin Kaisen (Republic of Korea, 11´)

The Third Part of the Third Measure by The Otolith Group (United Kingdom / United Arab Emirates / USA, 50´)

Ultima Ratio Δ Mountain of the Sun by Bahar Noorizadeh (Lebanon / Canada, 13´)

Exhibition at Marshall McLuhan Salon of the Canadian Embassy in Berlin

Special Works School by Bambitchell (Sharlene Bamboat and Alexis Mitchell) (Canada / Germany, 28´)

Exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary

We Are Not Worried in the Least by Jasmina Metwaly (Egypt)

Concert at silent green Kulturquartier

The Invisible Hands (Egypt) 

For the 32nd time, the TEDDY AWARD will be awarded during the International Film Festival Berlin (Feb.15-25, 2017). The festive award ceremony for the world’s most important queer film prize will take place on February 23, 2018 in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

Several events and receptions will take place in the lead-up to the award ceremony:

Monday, 12.02.2018, 10 pm, Kino International

Introduction to the TEDDY 2018 Programme with Wieland Speck
MonGay, Kino International, Karl-Marx-Allee 33, 10178 Berlin 

Friday, 16.02.2018, 10 pm, Südblock/Kottbusser Tor 

Welcome reception for the international TEDDY-Jury 2018
Admiralstraße 1-2, 10999 Berlin (Free entrance)

Wednesday, 21.02.2018, 4:30 pm, Martin-Gropius-Bau

4:30 pm - 6:30 pm QUEER ACADEMY Programmer’s Meeting
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Kino, Niederkirchnerstr. 7, 10963 Berlin

7 pm QUEER CONNECTION Reception
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Lichthof, Niederkirchnerstr. 7, 10963 Berlin

Thursday, 22.02.2018, 4 pm, Botschaft von Kanada

Diversity Talk about Gender Equality
Botschaft von Kanada in Berlin, Leipziger Platz 17, 10117 Berlin

Friday, 23.02.2018, 8:30 pm, HAUS DER BERLINER FESTSPIELE

Within the framework of the Berlin International Film Festival
32nd TEDDY AWARD Ceremony
HAUS DER BERLINER FESTSPIELE, Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin

7 pm: Doors open

8:30 pm: The 32nd TEDDY AWARD Ceremony
Host: Jack Woodhead
With: Sookee, Irmgard Knef and others

11:30 pm: TEDDY 32 Backstage PARTY und After Show Lounge

Monday, 26.02.2018, 10 pm, Kino International

Screening of the TEDDY winner(s) 2018
MonGay, Kino International, Karl-Marx-Allee 33, 10178 Berlin

For the past 32 years, the TEDDY AWARD has honoured films and filmmakers who, with queer themes and cinematic engagement, contribute to greater tolerance, equality, acceptance and diversity in our society. The TEDDY AWARD is conferred in the categories Best Feature Film, Best Documentary/Essay Film, Best Short Film, TEDDY Jury Award and SPECIAL TEDDY AWARD. More than 1500 guests from the areas of culture, art, business, politics and society are anticipated to attend the event.

Tickets for the TEDDY AWARD Ceremony in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele on February 23, 2018 are now available at https://papagena-shop.comfortticket.de/de/tickets/32-teddy-award or via the Ticket Hotline 030-4799 74 74. Tickets free of booking fee are available at the Prinz Eisenherz bookshop, Motzstrasse 23, 10777 Berlin.

Competition and Berlinale Special: Christian Petzold, Emily Atef, Lance Daly, Marcelo Martinessi, Cédric Kahn, Adina Pintilie, Markus Imhoof, Mani Haghighi, Måns Månsson and Axel Petersén, David and Nathan Zellner in the Competition programme / Raman Hui, Fernando Solanas, Paul Williams in the Berlinale Special

Another ten films have now been invited to the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Three more have also been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.

Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles (see press releases from December 4, 2017 and December 18, 2017) are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong - China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.

Further films of the Competition and Berlinale Special programme will be revealed soon.

Competition

The following films will be celebrating world or international premieres in the Competition of the Berlinale 2018.

3 Tage in Quiberon (3 Days in Quiberon)

Germany / Austria / France

By Emily Atef (Molly’s Way, The Stranger In Me)

With Marie Bäumer, Birgit Minichmayr, Charly Hübner, Robert Gwisdek, Denis Lavant
World premiere

Black 47

Ireland / Luxembourg

By Lance Daly (Kisses, The Good Doctor)

With Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene, Jim Broadbent

World premiere – Out of competition

Damsel

USA

By David Zellner, Nathan Zellner (Kid-Thing, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter)

With Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Robert Forster, Joe Billingiere

International premiere

Eldorado - Documentary

Switzerland / Germany

By Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full, More Than Honey)

World premiere – Out of competition

Las herederas (The Heiresses)

Paraguay / Germany / Uruguay / Norway / Brazil / France

By Marcelo Martinessi

With Ana Brun, Margarita Irún, Ana Ivanova

World premiere - First Feature

Khook (Pig)

Iran

By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, A Dragon Arrives!)

With Hasan Majuni, Leila Hatami, Leili Rashidi, Parinaz Izadyar, Ali Bagheri

World premiere

La prière (The Prayer)

France

By Cédric Kahn (Red Lights, Wild Life)

With Anthony Bajon, Damien Chapelle, Alex Brendemühl, Louise Grinberg, Hanna Schygulla

World premiere

Toppen av ingenting (The Real Estate)

Sweden / United Kingdom

By Måns Månsson (The Yard, Mr Governor), Axel Petersén (Avalon)

With Léonore Ekstrand, Christer Levin, Christian Saldert, Olof Rhodin, Carl Johan Merner, Don Bennechi

World premiere

Touch Me Not

Romania / Germany / Czech Republic / Bulgaria / France

By Adina Pintilie (Don’t Get Me Wrong)

With Laura Benson, Tómas Lemarquis, Christian Bayerlein, Grit Uhlemann, Hanna Hofmann, Seani Love, Irmena Chichikova

World premiere - First Feature

Transit

Germany / France

By Christian Petzold (Yella, Barbara, Phoenix)

With Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Sebastian Hülk, Emilie de Preissac, Antoine Oppenheim

World premiere

Berlinale Special Gala at the Friedrichstadt-Palast

Monster Hunt 2

People’s Republic of China / Hong Kong, China

By Raman Hui (Monster Hunt)

With Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Baihe Bai, Boran Jing

European premiere

Berlinale Special at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Gurrumul - Documentary

Australia

By Paul Williams

International premiere – Debut film

In Cooperation with NATIVe

Viaje a los Pueblos Fumigados - Documentary

Argentina

By Fernando Solanas (The Hour Of The Furnaces, Tangos, The Exile Of Gardel, Memoria del saqueo - A Social Genocide)

World premiere

Wishing you all much success on the festival circuit!

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FOCUS ON INDIA

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  by Alex Deleon <filmfestivals.com> The 22nd International Film Festival of Kerala, IFFK, held in the southmost Indian city of India, Trivandarum, from December 8th to 15th with its highly eclectic and discerning programming was   a treasure c...

 

 

The Year Ahead in Bollywood Titans to Face Off in January, Shah Rukh will become a dwarf and Akshay will be on the rag

by Alex Deleon   Local newspapers are loaded with reports on upcoming events in Bollywood as the year 2018 wheels into it...

 

Kerala 22 Review, HEART OF A DOG

  22nd KERALA IFF reviews, Trivandarum Dec. 2017  by Alex Deleon, <filmfestivals.com>     Nayinte Hrudayam" (Heart of a Dog) 120',  -- a Malayalam language film not to be confused with the 2015 American film of the same name by Laurie Anderson -- cunningly directed by Sreekrishnan, is based on a surrealistic 1926 Russian novel by Mikhail Bulgakov that fits the category "impossible to film". ...

 

Global Content Bazar MUMBAI January 19 - 20  

By Bruno Chatelin

Global Content Video Promo

The content world today is in many ways more open, transparent, and importantly, with the consumer in control."  Global Content Bazar is an international market for the content industry and it will be organised in India every year in the month of January, making it the calendar year’s very first important content market.  It is the ideal platform to meet genuine marketers to strike a deal with. India's first ever content marke...

 

THE MIGHT OF CHINA China Pavilion has its second show in India

    Opening on Jan 19th, “2018 Global Content Bazar” is India’s very first content market for buying and selling of films and content. As the only international pavilion and the largest exhibiting organization, China Pavilion has attracted great attention. Chinese film and TV content has become a hot topic among the participants. China Pavilion is organized by The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, the State Administration o...

 

2 nd edition of Global Content Bazar opens tomorrow in Mumbai - Free entrance Max networking

  ...

Global Content Bazar 2018 returns this january

The global Content industry is a formidable force that now powers everything you see and hear across multiple media platforms. Whether it’s Film or Television or New Media or Online, content is the undisputed king and currently the most celebrated industry around the world. 

As the creators of the 25-year-old, highly successful Broadcast India Show, Saicom Trade Fairs & Exhibitons Pvt. Ltd invites you to take the plunge into the 2nd edition of their latest venture - Global Content Bazar 2018. 

Coming January 2018, the island city of Mumbai will welcome a brand-new content marketplace positioned at the very heart of India's multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. The 2nd edition Global Content Bazaar signals the arrival of a new platform for content innovators to pitch and showcase their work to potential buyers, sellers and distributors and also participate in a collaboration between different yet innately related aspects of entertainment technology that are pivotal in the creation of content for films, television, new media, mobile, gaming, radio and lots more. 

 

Do not miss The Global Content Bazar coming this coming week

...

 

Pre Register for The Global Content Market

  ...

 

Book your space for Globat Content Bazar in Mumbai

  ...

 

Global Content Bazar 2018 will be inaugurated by Minister of Culture and Sports, Government of Maharashtra

India’s very first content market for buying and selling of films and content, now in its 2nd year, will be inaugurated by Shri Vinod Tawde, Minister of Culture and Sports, Government of Maharashtra on 19th January 2018 at 10:00 AM at the World Trade Centre, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai. This 2-day event is a market for buying, selling, distributing and syndicating of all sorts of content including films, television serials, web series, short films, documentaries, et al. The market als...

 

 

Global Content Bazar is an international market for the content industry in India

"The content world today is in many ways more open, transparent, and importantly, with the consumer in control."  Global Content Bazar is an international market for the content industry and it will be organised in India every year in the month of January, making it the calendar year’s very first important content market.  It is the ideal platform to meet genuine marketers to strike a deal with. India's first ever conte...

 

 

 

Sundance Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Utah  

Robert Redford's Quips from Sundance '18's Day One Press Conference

 

Robert Redford, the legendary film director, actor, producer, and Sundance Film Fest founder, took part in an open press conference with two of his colleagues in Park City, UT to kick off the proceedings.   ROLE OF JOURNALISM WITHIN SOCIETY I’m a huge fan of journalism, which I think is borne out of the projects I’ve done. Journalism is a big deal for me. It always appears to be under threat periodically. Something comes up and then it dies down; it comes up ... 

 

 

Sundance Film Festival: Juries, Awards Night Host Announced

chaz Ebert and 24 Jurors to Award NUMBER Prizes, Including New NEXT Innovator’s Award Jason Mantzoukas (The Long Dumb Road) to Host Livestreamed Awards Show; Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons (Hearts Beat Loud) to Perform   Sundance Institute will convene 24 experts in film, art, culture and science to award feature-length work shown at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival with 28 ...

 

American Animals will have its world premiere at Sundance

Written and Directed by Bart Layton   WORLD PREMIERE U.S. Dramatic Competition (Acquisition Title/UTA)   Starring Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd, Udo Kier       Synopsis: Lexington, Kentucky, 2004: Spencer and Warren dream of remarkable lives beyond their middle-class suburban existence. They head off to colleges in the same town, haunted by the fear they may never be special in any way. Spencer is given a tour of ...

 

Canon Creative Studio at Sundance Film Festival

Canon Creative Studio located at 592 Main Street in Part City, Utah to check out some of the activities Canon will be hosting at the space. Visitors to the Canon Creative Studio will have the opportunity to explore how Canon supports all aspects of filmmaking, from pre-production to production through post. A hub for filmmakers, the Canon Creative Studio is a place of hands-on experimentation with Canon equipment and thought-provoking conversations with industry experts in the way of panel di...

 

Seventeen IFP-supported projects hit Park City as the 2018 Sundance Film Festival begins next week

IFP Alumni at Sundance       The Sundance line-up includes Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín's 306 Hollywood, Michael Pearce's Beast, Tolga Karaçelik's Butterflies, Stephen Maing's Crime + Punishment, Kimberly Reed's Dark Money, Cathy Yan's Dead Pigs, Amy Scott's Hal, RaMell Ross' Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Michael Dweck's The Last Race, Reinaldo Marcus Green's Monsters and Men, Christina Choe'...

 

> BERLINALE AND EFM PREVIEWS

2018 Berlinale Festival Posters: The Bears are back, of course, which one do you prefer?

The Berlinale Belongs to the Bears, and vice versa isnt it?   When the 68th Berlin International Film Festival takes place from February 15 – 25, 2018, Berlin will once again belong to the bears.   “It’s that time of year again: The bears are out and about! On this year’s posters they’ll be popping up at well-known Berlin landmarks to get us in the mood for terrific festival days,” comments Festival Director Dieter Kosslick.   ...

 

EFM! New line-up and new titles from Summer Hill Entertainment

www.summerhillfilms.com I Contact I Marriott Hotel Stand #119I  Facebook I Twitter: @WatchCoolMovies

Our mission is twofold.  First, we are a home to independent filmmakers who have done the impossible, created a quality film ready for distribution.  Through our 25 years of experience, our contacts, our customer service and our accessibility & transparency, we will take your film to the next level and beyond.  We are not just a distributor, but a strategic partner who will work with you to achieve your goals.

Second, we are a reliable source of high quality films for our international buyers.  With our worldwide relationships and successful track record in the international licensing business, our team supplies our buyers with great films for their channels and labels meeting their volume, timeframe and financial requirements.  Additionally, we know how to deliver the goods.  Today’s international deliverable requirements are more complicated than ever.  Our knowledge and experience in the delivery process ensures successful and complete product delivery meeting each of our clients’ unique specifications

 

 

Forum 2018: In the Realm of Perfection and Elsewhere

Generation 2018 - Reflecting Reality

Competition and Berlinale Special updates

International Partner Matching for 36 Film Projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market

Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2018: “Whatever Happens Next”

New Food Trucks at the Berlinale Street Food Market

Berlinale Shorts 2018: International Competition and the Special Programme “1968 – Red Flags for Everyone”

250 Participants @ Berlinale Talents 2018

Berlinale Shorts Introduces the 2018 International Short Film Jury: Diogo Costa Amarante, Jyoti Mistry and Mark Toscano

2018 Perspektive Deutsches Kino to Open With Rückenwind von vorn by Philipp Eichholtz

> AWARDS WATCH   

Nominations Announced for the 12th Asian Film Awards

The Asian Film Awards Academy announced the nominations for the 12th Asian Film Awards (AFA) in Hong Kong today. For this edition, AFA received submissions from 26 countries and regions. Eighty-nine nominations were made for 17 awards, including the newly added Best New Director and Best Action Film. The nominations represent 32 films from 10 countries and regions. Japanese films and talents were nominated in 14 categories*, including a Best Film Award nomination for The Third Murder&...

 

Waimea Ocean Film Festival Awards 2018

Waimea Ocean Film Festival is by invitation. Only 10-15% of films screened are selected, making “Official Selection” an award in itself and setting the bar high for the individual film awards. With the exception of the Audience Choice and the Director’s Choice awards, films are eligible to receive one individual film award. In a few cases and when films within a given category are substantially different in nature, the award will be shared between two films. C...

 

Waimea Ocean Fest Rob Stewart Award for best film Ocean Conservation goes to...

 

2018 Rob Stewart Award for Best Film – Ocean Conservation: Tales by Light – Misunderstood Predators and Eric Cheng In honor of Rob Stewart’s commitment and work, the festival will present annually The Rob Stewart Award for Best Film – Ocean Conservation. Special attention will be given to films and individuals that strive to change people’s perception and understanding of sharks, and also films that look at climate change issue...

 

> PARTNERS FESTIVAL NEWS    

GTA 2018 Golden Trailer Awards

Early deadline: February 2nd

Your trailers need recognition...

Movie trailers play an increasingly important role in entertaining us and helping us determine where to spend our leisure time. The best trailers are works of art in their own right, expertly blending elements of cinema and advertising.

Early Deadline for Entry is FRIDAY February 2nd, 2018 (11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time)

GTA19 APPLICATION NOW ONLINE ENTER HERE!

GTA19 Categories List

GTA19 Entry Fees

GTA19 Rules for Entry

Profile on filmfestivals.com I Website I Facebook I Twitter I  SUBMIT I Contact  Evelyn Watters

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Future Femme Festival May 10 – 13, 2018 

 

January 25, 2018 Regular Deadline 
March 31, 2018 Late Deadline I May 1, 2018 Extended Deadline

Anyone who identifies as a Future Femme may enter.

Does your movie: elevate future femme perspectives, support the advancement of future femme talent, and empower future femmes through cinema?

Enter now: FutureFemmeFest via Film Freeway. Take 50% your entry with this code filmfestivalscomff

Future Femme Fest is a celebration of cinema. We bring the film festival experience to you via live competitions and our streaming partners.

The Future Femme Short Film Fest begins its UK tour in May 2018.

Finalists & winners will have the chance to find an audience at 8 live events throughout the UK.

Website I Facebook I Twitter I Westone 114 Wellington Street Leeds LS1 1BA United Kingdom I contact I Profile on filmfestivals.com I SUBMIT

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The Julien Dubuque International Film Festival (April 26 – 29, 2018) is calling for your film

January 25, 2018 Extended Deadline 

Voted one of the top 50 Film Festivals worth the Submission Fee in 2016 AND 2017 by MovieMaker Magazine, the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival acknowledges emerging filmmakers from around the world, with a strong emphasis on discovering and encouraging new talent. In recognition of the time and talent of the independent filmmaker, awarding over $40,000 in cash and benefits, including a $10,000 Best of the Fest award.
Over $40,000 in cash and benefits to be awarded**

Email I  467 Bluff Street Dubuque, IA 52001 United States I Website I Profile on filmfestivals.com I Facebook I Twitter I SUBMIT

 

NYC Independent Film Festival 2018

May 7 - May 13, 2018

January 31, 2018 Extended Deadline I

NYC Independent Film Festival is a celebration of the true independent filmmaker, documentaries, short and feature-length films, music videos, and animation. Whether a submission is comedic, dramatic, or something in between, The NYC Indie film Fest is eager to embrace fresh ideas and storytelling.

The festival aims to discover the Artist Filmmaker, showcasing them to the entertainment industry and the NYC public. All NYC Indie screenings take place in the historic center of NYC, Time Square which is the perfect home for an event geared toward creating incredible opportunities for independent voices.

NYC Indie Film Festival honors the Best in Category which includes Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary, Best Short Documentary, Best Short Narrative, Best Super Short, Best Music Video, as well as Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Profile on filmfestivals.com I Website I Facebook I Twitter I  SUBMIT I Contact Dennis Cieri

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Sonoma International FilmFestival 

March 21 – 25, 2018

2018 WORLDFEST-HOUSTON April 20 - 29, 2018 calling for entries

 New Media Film Festival

June 12 -14, 2018

Announcing - JEFF BRIDGES Legendary Actor & Producer of upcoming documentary "Living in Futures Past" 2018 Recipient of the Socially Responsible Conservationist Award at the New Media Film Festival Opening Night, June 16, 2018*

Celebrate - Collaborate - Creative Technology & Story

NEW VIBE

New Venue James Bridges Theater - Los Angeles CA

New Website - www.NewMediaFilmFestival.com

NEW DATES

Saturday & Sunday June 16-17 2018

12:30pm - 10:30pm

New Media Film Festival intersects the interactivity of new technologies & formats for Media & Cinema which exemplify the power of the cinematic arts to inspire and transform. A festival where we Honor Stories Worth Telling that are created by people of All Ages-All Cultures-All Media.
Each entry is considered for Screening in a state of the art theatre, The Landmark, owned by Mark Cuban and/or Competition and/or Distribution $45,000.00 in Awards will be given out. Each programmed content is in consideration for a Best of Category, Audience & Grand Prize Award.

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SCIFI WORLD

Filmfestivals com has an eye for SciFi: check our fantastic selection

CHIMERA by Maurice Haeems, SciFi Thriller October 2017 80 minutes Chimera features Emmy-nominee Henry Ian Cusick (Lost) and Oscar-nominee Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13) in the two leading roles. This is Maurice Heems' first feature film. A brilliant but disturbed scientist decides to freeze his children alive, while he races against time to cure their deadly genetic disease by unlocking the secret of immortality encoded within the DNA of the Turritopsis jellyfish. &.. 

 

 

ECO CALLING

Filmfestivals com has an eye for Eco, Transition, Green and Conservationism cinema: check our fantastic selection

 

"Ones to Watch for fests' by filmfestivals.com"    LIVING IN THE FUTURES PAST by Susan Kucera, an eco responsible documentary presented by Jeff Bridges. USA October 2017 - 83 minutes Website I Sneak peek 5 minutes edit I Request a screener I Sales by Vision Films I Jeff Bridges Academy Award Winner, Jeff Bridges presents this beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking on who we are and the...

 

 

ANIMATION CALLING

 

 

MIAFF 5th edition wants your hot new animation films for 2018 

MIAFF is bursting into its 5th edition and will be a spectacular 5th year birthday party! Call for entries are now open so take advantage of early bird rates until October 14 For festival strategy and consultation contact Animation Calling today! With hundreds of submissions from all over the world MIAFF 5 will be screening your film alongside  an ANIMAZING party to boot!     
SUBMIT  ... Contact : Email I +1-514-260-0848 I 4122 Coloniale Montreal, Quebec H2W2C1 Canada I Website I Facebook I Twitter I Instagram

 

HORROR CALLING

Filmfestivals com has an eye for Horror and SciFi: check our fantastic selection

Films we curate for festivals Check our selection of 'Best for Fests' in th eHorror SciFi genre!   "Ones to Watch for fests' by filmfestivals.com"      CHIMERA by Maurice Haeems, SciFi Thriller October 2017 80 minutes Chimera features Emmy-nominee Henry Ian Cusick (Lost) and Oscar-nominee Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13) in the two leading roles. A brilliant but disturbed scientist decides to freeze his children alive,... 

 

DOC FESTS CALLING

Thessaloniki 20th Doc Fest gives a Carte Blanche to Sara Driver

> FILMS FOCUS   

P&A of For Ever and Ever, horror title from Russia

Revolution will play with an homage to Rob Stewart a Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation films

Mumbai International Film Festival Documentary | Short | Animation (28 JAN – 03 FEB 2018) The festivalwill pay tribute to renowned filmmaker Rob Stewart by screening a few of his  films ( approximately 5 - 6 hr ) in the Homage Section of  MIFF -2018.  The oldest and largest film festival for non-feature films in South Asia, which began in 1990 is organized by the Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. The...

 

The Unwilling selected at Chandler Film Festival January 12 – 15, 2018

Six family members arrive for the reading of the will of a wealthy patriarch. All are shocked when an antique wooden box arrives instead. The instructions are simple: one by one the six in attendance must prick their fingers on steel pins which appear from the box to open it and receive their rewards. Once their blood is drawn however events take a turn for the worse as they release a sinister evil no one may leave alive.   ...

> "FILMFESTIVALS.COM ONES TO WATCH ON THE CIRCUIT" FOR FESTIVAL CONSIDERATION

CHIMERA by Maurice Haeems USA India Thriller Science Fiction 79 minutes

Trailer I Website I Blog on filmfestivals.com I Contact I Festival Screeners

A brilliant but disturbed scientist decides to freeze his children alive, while he races against time to cure their deadly genetic disease by unlocking the secret of immortality encoded within the DNA of the Turritopsis jellyfish.

LIVING AMONG US by Brian Metcalf  - Vampire Found Footage Thriller Ocober 2017 80 minutes

A family of Vampires hire some filmmakers to bring their story to the world with devastating results.  STARRING: John Heard (Home Alone), Esmé Bianco (Game of Thrones), Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie), William Sadler (Iron Man 3), Andrew Keegan (10 Things I Hate About You).

Website I  Blog on filmfestivals.com I Teaser trailer I Screener I Youtube I Facebook I Twitter I Sales by Vision Films

LIVING IN THE FUTURES PAST by Susan Kucera, A documentary presented by Jeff Bridges.
USA October 2017 - 83 minutes

WORLD PREMIERING AT SANTA BARBARA FESTIVAL - THE HOME OF JEFF BRIDGES

Academy Award Winner, Jeff Bridges presents this beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking on who we are and the environmental challenges we face. Jeff, alongside prominent scientists and authors, weave evolution, emergence, entropy, dark ecology, and what some are calling the end of nature, into a story that helps us understand our place among the species of Earth’s household. The film upends our way of thinking and provides original insights into our subconscious motivations, the unintended consequences, what to do about our fossil slaves, and how our fundamental animal nature influences our future as Humankind. 

...more details Blog on filmfestivals.com

DEAD ON ARRIVAL D.O.A. by Stephen Sepher - Thriller  - USA  - June  2017 -  96 minutes

Emmy nominated Billy Flynn stars in an ensemble cast as Sam Collins, a pharmaceutical sales rep who visits a small town in Louisiana to close the business deal of a lifetime. He finds himself in a dark world of sex, corruption and murder as he is poisoned with no antidote to save his life. Desperate for answers, with less than 24 hours to live, Sam turns to a local girl Jesse. Their path leads to a voodoo priestess who only confirms Sam's doomed fate. On the run, caught in a deadly vertigo with no one to trust, Sam and Jesse find themselves running from police detectives, the Mob and a dirty sheriff who wants him dead.

Inspired by the 1950 classic noir thriller D.O.A. 

http://www.doafilm.com I Twitter I Facebook I Request a screener and Festival bookings

Winner in Houston WorldFest and Fantasporto

The Unwilling by Oscar nominee Jonathan Heap

 

Evil is inside

6 family members gather for the reading of a will. It comes with a mysterious box. Who will leave alive?

Starring David Lipper, Dina Meyer, Levy Tran, Austin Highsmith, Jake Thomas, Robert Rusler, Bree Williamson and  Lance Henrickson.  

USA 82 minutes I Supernatural Horror Thriller  I Sales by Vision Films I Festivals contact I Trailer I Website I Facebook I Twitter I Youtube I

Revolution by Rob Stewart  

over 40 festival wins so far

Eco Documentary feature film by Rob Stewart April 2015, 82 minutes (Sharkwater)
Revolution is a film about changing the world. The true-life adventure of Rob Stewart, this follow-up to his acclaimed SHARKWATER (36 festival wins) documentary continues his remarkable journey; one that will take him through 15 countries over four years, and where he'll discover that it's not only sharks that are in grave danger -- it's humanity itself.

Website I Epk on filmfestivals.com I Trailer I Email us for a screener

> THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT    

The San Sebastian Festival will change its image in 2018 & There will be no poster contest this year

    The San Sebastian Festival has opened a process of reflection to modernise its image and give it a renewed corporate identity in keeping with the new times of the audiovisual world and of the Festival itself. The posters of this edition will be created as part of this new image strategy, meaning that the contest started in 2011 will not take place this year. The image will be presented at the beginning of May.    ...

 

Tokyo International Film Festival 2018 Dates set Oct. 25 - Nov. 3, 2018

Dates Set for TIFF and TIFFCOM 31st TIFF: Oct. 25 - Nov. 3, 2018 TIFFCOM2018: Oct. 23 - 25, 2018   The Tokyo International Fi...

 

Tropfest Australia announces Susan Sarandon as head of Jury

Tropfest Australia, supported by foundation partner CGU Insurance, is today announcing two exciting developments to this year’s event - Academy Award winner and five-time Emmy nominated actress, Susan Sarandon, will head the Tropfest Australia 2018 Jury. For the first time, the ABC will be the exclusive broadcast partner. Susan Sarandon, fresh off a Golden Globe nomination for Feud (2017), is known for critically acclaimed performances in classic films Bull Durham (1988), Thelma & L...

 

Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) is in full gear

Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) was started in 2002 with the idea of building and promoting a healthy film culture in Pune. Our objective is to give film lovers in the city access to global cinema and spark a cultural exchange. With discussions, lectures and master classes on varied topics related to the craft, we try to instil an academic flavour in the festival. Every edition of PIFF has a unique contemporary theme. Through categories like World Competition, Marathi Competition, Globa...

 

The 16th Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum announces new projects

Three new countries to be represented for the first time this year                                                                        &nbs...

 

Full Programme Announced For Glasgow Film Festival 2018 Industry Focus Strand

T2: Trainspotting and 28 Weeks Later producer Andrew Macdonald and Hollywood casting director Kerry Barden to deliver Industry Spotlight talks BAFTA panel to discuss gender imbalance and Women in Film & Television UK will look at the urgent issue of harassment in the industry Industry Focus 2018 runs from 28 February to 2 March and is open to people at all stages of their career   The full programme has been announced for Glasgow Film Festival 2018 Industry Focus strand. Bringing...

> PEOPLE ON OUR RADAR   

Wendy Mitchell and Roberto Cueto, new San Sebastian Festival delegates in the Nordic countries and South Korea respectively

  Wendy Mitchell, Film Programme Manager at the British Council, is the new San Sebastian delegate for the Nordics. Mitchell, Nordic correspondent for Screen International, editor of the European Film Academy’s Close-Up magazine and collaborator with the Göteborg and Zurich festivals, replaces producer Marianne Slot as the Festival representative in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland.  Slot, who has produced directors such as Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and...

 

Monica Bellucci and Gina Lollobrigida to be Awarded by Filming on Italy in Los Angeles,

Filming on Italy in Los Angeles, a three day cultural event, is honoring on Jan 31 and February 1st 2018, Monica Bellucci and Gina Lollobrigida with the Filming on Italy and IIC (Italian Institute of Culture) Los Angeles Creativity awards as a recognition for their excellency in the world. . Filming on Italy will be screening the movie “MALÈNA” by Giuseppe Tornatore, who made Monica Bellucci an international star, and the US premiere of the movie “ON THE MILKY ROAD&r...

 

> STRICTLY BUSINESS AND SPECIAL OFFERS EXCLUSIVE FOR OUR READERS

Partner Film Festivals Calling. Fast-Approaching Deadlines

Need more and better film submissions for your festival? don't miss the one month booster

Filmfestivals.com was established 1995 as world reference in this niche, we are proud of our track record in helping festivals attract more legitimacy, visibility and film submissions from our large base of international film professionals (370 000 unique filmmaker visitors each month), 159 500 subscribers to the newsletter. ONE TIME OFFER We suggest this quick one month booster program for your call for entry including  with 4 newsletter ads, your call for entry promoted one month lon...  

The Bulletin Board I Pro Services's blog |  Advertise your festival in the next eBlast to our filmmakers.   

Major Buzz Factory : Expérience de Bruno Chatelin du marketing Digital pour les films

Fort d'une expérience acquise dans la distribution de films pour deux Majors (Sony et Fox mariée sous a direction avec UGC) Bruno Chatelin propose une expérience pointue au service de votre stratégie digitale à Travers sa structure de Conseil MAJOR BUZZ FACTORY Le fondateur Bruno Chatelin : un Professionnel de la communication entouré de spécialistes, son expérience est ancrée sur trois univers La publicité, Le marketing et le digital.

TOUTES LES NEWS EN FRANCAIS.  

Monica Bellucci et Jean-Paul Belmondo, invités d’honneur des 23e Lumières de la presse internationale

  L'Académie des Lumières rendra un hommage spécial à deux comédiens hors pair qui illuminent particulièrement le cinéma français, Monica Bellucci et Jean-Paul Belmondo, invités d'honneur de la 23e cérémonie des Lumières de la presse internationale, qui aura lieu lundi 5 février 2018 à l'Institut du monde arabe.   D’abord mannequin, Monica Bellucci, consid&...

 

 

Festival Hors Pistes 13e édition

FESTIVAL HORS PISTES - 13e EDITION   LA NATION ET SES FICTIONS 19 janvier - 4 février   Patrick Boucheron –Tristan Garcia – Adrien Genoudet – Judith Cahen - Emmanuele Coccia...       Hors Pistes, le festival pl...

Los Angeles, CA - The 2018 Universe Multicultural Film Festival (UMFF) will take place from April 6-8 at the beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula (south bay area of Los Angeles). On behalf of the UMFF committee, we cordially invite you to submit your films or screenplays to the 2018 Universe Multicultural Film Festival. The 2018 UMFF official selection (both films and screenplays) will have complementary display area at the film market booth.

The event, organized by Maeya Culture Exchange Group LLC, will present a wide variety of films, including original shorts, features, documentaries and animations created by those selected filmmakers from all over the world. Per the strong requests, from now on, the UMFF will add a competition category in music/songwriting, which is a very important element of a film.

Beside the film screenings and screenplay showcases, the UMFF will have its own film market, industry panels and cultural events. Also, the committee will host high-quality events for the participants and collaborators, including film receptions, galas, red carpet award ceremony, and specific seminars with directors and filmmakers looking for new potential projects.

Please download the submission form through our official websitehttp://umfilms.org. The deadline for film submissions to the 2018 Universe Multicultural Film Festival is Feb. 10, 2018. Filmmakers can submit films early and often. The complete film festival guidelines, rules, application information and the film submission form can be found athttp://umfilms.org/Submit.html

Also, filmmakers are welcome to submit films to our preferred online submission platforms. Here are out three online submission platforms:

   Withoutabox: http://www.withoutabox.com/login/12205

   Festhome: https://festhome.com/f/197

   Film Freeway: https://filmfreeway.com/festival/UniverseMulticulturalFilmFestival

   ClickForFestivals: http://www.clickforfestivals.com/universe-multicultural-film-festival

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call 310-266-8559 or e-mail to info@umfilms.org

MIFF 2018, VI

The oldest and largest film festival for non-feature films in South Asia, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Short  and Animation films (28 Jan – 03 Feb 2018),

which began in 1990, is organised by the Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. The Organising Committee of MIFF is headed by the Secretary, I&B, and consists of eminent film personalities, documentary makers and film critics.

This year, the grand inaugural will be held on 28 January, 2018 at the National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai. According to the hosts, the response to the 15th edition of MIFF has been overwhelming, signifying a vibrant documentary culture in India and the world. The festival directorate has received a record 790 entries, with 194 entries from 32 countries in the International competition, and 596 entries in the National competition.

Giving a major boost to the documentary movement, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has approved doubling of prize money for the Golden Conch Award winning Best Documentary Film in the International Competition to Rs. 1 million (Rs 10 lakhs) from the earlier Rs. 500,000 (Rs 5 lakhs). Golden Conch, Silver Conch and trophies with handsome cash awards are part of the competition in categories like Best Documentary, Best Short Fiction and Best Animation film. Besides, technical awards will be given for Best Cinematography, Editing and Sound Design.

Other highlights are the Pramod Pati Special Jury award, Best Student Film and Best Debut film award, all of which carry trophy and cash awards. Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) and the Government of Maharashtra, through Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari, join hands with Films Division in instituting awards.

Apart from films in various competition categories, best documentary short and animation films produced in India and abroad will be screened under special packages, including Jury retrospectives and best of festivals. Special packages like Russian and Turkish animation films, French short films, NFAI Archival packages and films from South East Asia are being organised.

On the sidelines, cinematography and pitching workshops will be held during the festival providing a rich and wholesome experience for film makers and cineastes. A business platform for documentary film makers is being planned by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) during the current edition of MIFF, to help film makers find funding and screening avenues in India and abroad.

The coveted V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award, dedicated to memory of the late producer-director, for promotion of documentary movement in India will be conferred upon an eminent documentary film maker chosen by an independent jury. The Award money for the Lifetime Achievement award has also been doubled from Rs. 500,000 (Rs. 5 lakh) to Rs. 1 million (Rs. 10 lakhs). All together, cash awards of Rs. 5.8 million (Rs. 58 lakh) will be given away during MIFF 2018.

In a bid to make MIFF a people’s festival, the delegate fee has been kept at a modest Rs. 300, while there will be no fee for student delegates. The screenings will be held in the theatres in Films Division complex, 24-Pedder Road, Mumbai, and nearby Russian Culture Centre, from January 29, 2017.

MIFF is a biennial event, organised by Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Established in 1948, Films Division has pioneered the documentary movement in India. It has documented the transformation of India as an independent nation through a series of news reels and Indian News Review, which today form part of rich archival footage. Over the years, Films Division has produced over 9,000 titles, out of which nearly 2,000 titles hold lasting value. Besides undertaking documentary production in house, Films Division supports the Independent Documentary makers through its Outside Production plan scheme. Recently, it has also joined hands with Civil Society Organisations (NGOs) engaged in documentary and short film production by routing film production endowments.

For more information and for registration, log on to www.miff.in