Our entire photo coverage is hosted here on Facebook "filmfestivals.com in Cannes" Hoping you like it.
Our entire photo coverage is hosted here on Facebook "filmfestivals.com in Cannes" Hoping you like it.
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The Line Up information for the 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival hs been revealed.
This year's festival highlights women fighting back against personal and institutional abuse, and 12 of the 15 films are directed by women. This year's festival also probes government and corporate regulation of information with films like The Cleaners on data gatekeepers.
The opening night film On Her Shoulders about Yezidi Human Rights advocate and ISIS survivor Nadia Murad opens the festival on June 14, and the closing night film The Unafraid explores the experience of DACA students struggling to fight for their own education as they face a very uncertain future.
The Tribeca Film Festival has a well established reputation for presenting outstanding documentaries in its program and excelled again in this year’s edition. 43 feature length documentaries were shown in four sections, the Documentary Competition, Spotlight Documentary, Viewpoints, and Special Screening. Close to half of the documentaries were produced by women film makers and first-time directors, a proportion that also held for narrative, international and U.S. films. The continued focus of Tribeca’s programmers on the quality of the documentaries makes the festival a must for those interested in docs. It is probably no accident that the godmother of US documentaries, Sheila Nevins, former President of HBO Documentary Films, was honored this year by the festival with the Disruptive Innovation Award for her decisive impact on shifting documentary films to critical and enlightening issues while enhancing technical and story telling quality.
Her criteria of excellence were certainty met by numerous Tribeca 2018 documentaries. Among the well received productions were those with superb cinematography, innovative storytelling, and use of elements crossing the border of linear narration. The context of story was personalized, enhancing our access to the themes and adopting a bottom up rather than top down story telling approach. It is noteworthy that several of these documentaries received well deserved awards.
Phantom Cowboys, Daniel Patrick Carbone, USA, 2018 Covering eight years in the life of three teenage boys and their transition to adulthood in three seemingly lost in time locations in the deserts of California, West Virginia valleys and sugarcane fields of Florida, Carbone moves back and forth investigating what happens to these boys. The story is told by them and the viewer encounters their perspectives, broken hopes, uncertain aspirations for their future, and their urge to make it in spite of obstacles faced. They share a rather realistic view of the limitations confining their lives and introduce a new world strange to most of us.
When Lambs Become Lions, Jon Kasbe, USA, 2018 Introducing the audience to the rarely shown private lives and the problems faced by poachers and game keepers a new dimension is introduced in the problem of the ivory trade and threat to Kenya’s East African elephant populations. Kasbe does not take a position when he introduces us to the game keeper Asan and the poacher “X” but poses the moral dilemma of whether the life of elephants has more value than that of the poachers killing them or of game keepers protecting them. Both must make a living supporting their families and face survival problems if they cannot sell to the ivory dealer or do not receive their ranger’s salaries. Bother are connected through family ties and the poaching background of relatives. Kasbe has been filming his protagonists over three years and provides unbiased access to their motivation and life perspective but also to the strategies employed by poachers and rangers fighting them. As in other African countries with similar wildlife problems pervasive poverty undermines the efforts of preservation unless the government is strongly committed to fighting poaching, as it is happening in Chad. Kasbe’s film is very persuasive given his cinema verite and story telling approach. He does not moralize the problems depicted.
Tanzania Transit, Jeroen Van Velzen, Netherlands, 2018 Van Velzen portrays in a non-directive manner like an anthropologist passengers on a train undertaking a long journey through Tanzania. He takes a record through the lens of the camera and the windows of the train and does not miss the divisions created by class, ethnicity, gender, and age of the passengers. We are faced with a microcosm of tradition and modernity on this rambling train which frequently breaks down passing settlements and train wrecks. Among the passengers there are individuals who want to start a new life, a teacher hustling for the faithful whom he can sell advice and an elder Maasai who wants to return to his village a prospect alien to his city bound grandson who is accompanying him.
Island of the Hungry Ghosts, Gabrielle Brady, Germany, UK, Australia, 2018 Brady’s documentary is her first feature film and the most striking production I have come across among the documentaries I have seen thus far this year. She crosses all boundaries with her narrative approach which is far away from traditional linear story telling. Millions of migratory crabs travel from the jungle of Christmas Island to the ocean and provide a startling visual spectacle with the car traffic blocked to protect their passage. In some segments of the documentary an elderly Chinese couple is looking in the overgrown jungle for tombstones of workers who were brought to the island many decades ago but were not allowed to leave. There are ceremonies with offerings for those who passed away without a proper burial. Magnificent large root formations reinforce the somber setting of the film. Poh Lin Lee, a trauma specialist who lives with her family on this island, is our guide through this microcosm of a seemingly hostile and wild environment. She works for an Australian agency which runs a closed detention center for asylum seekers on Christmas Island. Creating small scenes in a little sandbox while they speak with Poh Lin Lee some asylum seekers share their devastating experiences of their flight and captivity. Separated from their families and often displaced to other asylum centers they cannot benefit from Lee’s therapy. The failure to help them forces her to quit her job. Brady leaves it up to the viewer to discern the meaning of what is presented, the misery of detention on Christmas Island.
Claus Mueller, filmexchange@gmail.com
The 71st edition of the festival seemed to have echoes of the Beatles classic "Yesterday" a key line of which was "there's a shadow hanging over me.." Hovering over all this year's festival is the long dark shadow of disgraced Hollywood producer and sexual predator Harvey Weinstein. Ever since 1994 when the Weinstein production Pulp Fiction walked off with the Golden Palm grand prix both director Quentin Tarantino and Mr. Weinstein have been a regular presence on the Croisette. More important the festival could always count on Weinstein to bring a large contingent of top Hollywood
stars with him and, as Everybody knows, Hollywood star powered glamour has always been the name of the game on the Côte d'Azur.
With Weinstein out of the picture the Hollywood star turnout was reduced to a mere trickle throwing a pall over the total picture in that respect at least.
The biggest stars were in fact here in jury capacity with glamorous Cate Blanchett presiding over the international competition jury and a hard to recognize Benicio Del Toro heading up the Un Certain Regard jury smartly clean cut and tuxedo clad. The only other strictly from Hollywood star was slightly over the hill John Travolta, 64, presenting a minor film about a crime boss "Gotti" in which he plays the title role. Variety gave the film a considerably less than rave review -- more like a rabid condemnation.
Excerpt:
"Shame on Cannes. In what appears to be a deal with the devil, or one made with a gun to the back of his head, Cannes director Thierry Frémaux inexplicably agreed to give “ <http://variety.com/t/gotti/> Gotti” — the myth-building, record-cleansing story of notorious Gotham mob boss John <http://variety.com/2018/film/global/john-travolta-variety-cinema-icon-award -cannes-1202812144/> Gotti — a spot on the festival agenda -- but, thanks to this lapse in programming judgement this sleazy mobster biopic can lay claim to having premiered at the world's most prestigious film festival".
Travolta was also present at an evening free beach screening of his biggest hit "Grease" of 1978. In any case this is far from the Travolta who starred in Quentin Tarantino's Palme d'Or triumph Pulp Fiction 24 years ago.
Travolta in trim beard with wife Kelley Preston and daughter Ella Bleu, both of whom played similar roles in "Gotti". At left festival director Thierry Frémaux.
Head jurist Cate Blanchett was on the covers of festival magazines nearly every day with long feature articles and interviews inside, underlining the fact that he was the festival's main glamour catch of the year.
Another cause for general discomfiture was the ever tightening anti-terrorist security measures. This year not only were all accesses to the festival grounds surrounding the Grand Palais guarded like airport security but even red carpet gapers outside the building had to pass through a security check, all items of shoulder bags carefully scrutinized. The unpleasant fact is that France is home to large numbers of potential terrorists from former colonies and the festival itself would be a prime "soft target" if the entire area were not under high security with machine gun toting groups of soldiers patrolling all the streets.
Add to this a far from sizzling lineup of films in international competition and there is room for gloom if not downright depression. Long polic barriers along the Croisette made it necessary at times to walk fifteen minutes just to get across the street. There was a definite lack of joy in the air. More
like, let's try to get it done.
In an effort to ring a new bell the opening film, a turnabout from the usual french or American prestige films of yore, this year was a Spanish language whodunnit, directed by Iranian director of note, Asghar Farhadi, title, "Everybody Knows". A Spanish thriller with top stars directed by a Persian
who had a Best Film here a couple of years is not something to sneeze at.
Top liners are well known international stars Penelope Cruz and husband Javier Bardem. Details on that and other films to follow.
While much of the international film world was cavorting across the Croisette, confused and often rain-swept, and desperately seeking empowerment for female cineastes on and off the screens of the largest festival in the world, where who knows how few of les femmes have received the Palme d'Or (apart from the Down Under champion Jane Campion?), once more with feeling the Israeli Film Festival known as Seret was again unreeling in apparently sunnier Albion, as the lively,loving work of not one but three female festival directors-- Odelia Haroush,Anat Koren and Patty Hochmann, with screenings,panels,and a few parties, across London, Brighton, and first-footing into Edinburgh, between 6th and 17th May 2018. They retained loyal sponsors and some new supporters and some 20 new features, documentaries and fiction from Israel, and even some laughter in these grim times, ably ladelled out by some episodes from the hit TV series Vicky and I, with a host of visiting directors, producers and a genuine star in the making in the bubbly yet shrewd and immensely personable stage and TV actress Magi Azarzar. A fine collection of celluloid to commemorate coincidentally the 70th anniverary of the State itself and sold-out screenings everywhere.
A hearty L'chaim! (whatever that may mean).
Phillip Bergson www.seret-international.org
The 21st CinemAmbiente Environmental Film Festival will be held in Torino, Italy from May 31st up to June 5th, 2018.
Since its debut in Turin in 1998, CinemAmbiente – Environmental Film Festival has presented outstanding environmental films in a year-round program of initiatives that promote cinema and green awareness.
The CinemAmbiente program features over 100 selected films screened in the International Documentary, One Hour Documentary, Italian Documentary Competitions, as well as in the special categories Short Films Competition, Panorama and CinemAmbiente Junior. Besides film presentations, the program includes debates, meetings with the authors, exhibitions, book presentations, theater and concerts, and events in and around Turin.
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Best Short Film Competition - EVER!
Writers judge filmmakers and filmmakers judge writers. It’s that simple! We fund you to collaborate. We let the community decide.
Up to $10,000 for the short script. Up to $25,000 for the filmmaker to shoot it.
Writers can't judge writers. Filmmakers can't judge filmmakers. Everyone receives a massive amount of feedback.
The filmmaker owns 100% of the film. Writersandfilmmakers.com owns 0%.
Visit www.writersandfilmmakers.com to enter your work now.
Why do we say “up to”? Because you only pay when the competition starts, we recognize that some people will sign up but not commit. So we have to go on without them!
We put the d in fun!
June 1st Deadline. www.writersandfilmmakers.com
Experience World Premiere of Big Air VR with 5 time X Game Medalist winner Elliot Sloan, 3D and 360 from Taiwan, UK, US and Germany at 9th Annual New Media Film Festival
New Media Film Festival a festival notable for “making the cutting edge accessible” by Huffington Post, this year’s programming features 110 new media films and content from 40 countries with 36 world-7 US and 24 LA Premieres is about to be live again.
The 9th annual New Media Film Festival’s is at the state of the art James Bridges theatre, Los Angeles.
Come ready and artistically inclined starting Saturday the 16TH of June 2018 through Sunday evening 17th June 2018.
Full schedule here: https://newmediafilmfestival.com/schedule.php
The Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality and 360 immersive schedule for Sunday June 17th Noon – 8PM
Schedule VR Experience here https://calendly.com/newmediaff
Big Air VR with Elliot Sloan
World Premiere!
Description:
Extreme sports VR experience. Be prepared to get some Big Air.
AI Nightmare VR
L.A. Premiere!
Description:
Abducted by futuristic AI robots, you race against the clock to solve a cryptic message and prevent Earth's coming destruction - only to question if what you experienced was actually just a nightmare.
The Train Hamasen VR
US Premiere!
Description:
People from different cultures and ages wait for a train to start a journey through time and space.
Live VR Corridor-Mixed Reality after Bruce Nauman
Description:
A mixed reality installation that pays homage to the early days of video art by immersing visitors in a space that is part physical and part virtual, inverting the senses of sight and touch, and activating the pleasures of looking, seeing and being seen.
Hoodoo VR LA Premiere!
Description:
We follow the adventures of Claw a simple cat exploring a mysterious fragment of a forgotten world. With the help of the audience, will Claw get through his journey in one piece?
In a partnership with NVidia, 3D can be viewed online anytime at this link www.3dvisionlive.com/category/channel/new-media-film-festival
3D Deadline the Magician - watch online
Description:
The great magician Enero is on the search for his beloved assistant who mysteriously disappeared during a magic show many years ago.
A fantastic story about hope, lost time and what really counts in life.
3D Crooked Billet - watch online
US Premiere!
Description:
Think Da Vinci code with a splash of Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail, but in this case it's the staff Moses used to part the red sea, secretly brought to England at the time of Julius Caesar.
About:
The New Media Film Festival seemed like an outlier when it started in 2009, with their strange categories, web series, 3D storytelling, digital comics, now all of a sudden these phrases are the new normal. The NMFF is always looking to the future, challenging creators, the market and the audience to discover new storytelling. There are not many festivals pushing the limits - go NMFF! – Oscar Winner Nick Reed
Contact: crystal@newmediafilmfestival.com
310-288-1100
www.NewMediaFilmFestival.com
The Top Shorts, Scripts, and New Media content is being celebrated at 9th Annual New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles
The New Media Film Festival will celebrate its 9th Annual New Medial Fil Festival. The grand festival will be held at James Bridge Theater, Los Angeles on 16th and 17th June 2018. New media films and content from 40 different countries including, USA and LA will be showcased in the festival. 110 new media films, content from 40 countries 36 world, 7 US and 24 Los Angeles premieres will participate in the film festival.
For classic media, Shorts are a popular form of cinematic enjoyment. The short movies programmed are Finn’s Whistle directed by Kelsey Selby, Bruce directed by Irhad Mutic, Knights Templar Secret Found directed by Martin Brightly, oRaNgE dReAmS directed by Jessica Liu, Shinrin-Yoku Forest Bathing directed by Mark Knight, Tear directed by Naonori Fukuzawa, The Art of Human Salvage directed by Dempsey Tillman and Two Strangers who Meet Five Times directed by Marcus Markou.
Under new media categories, people will get to see The Invisible Walls of Occupation directed by Osnat Skoblinski, If Were You – Si Fueras Tu, directed by Joaquin Liamas, No Name to Flourish directed by Stav Eitan, Upper Austria – An Incredible Journey directed by Geoff Tompkinson, and Rhythm of the Mountains – Rosa Khutor directed by Valeria Travkina.
The pilot category includes Other People’s Children directed by Anna Hozian& Brad Riddell, That Was NY directed by Bek Markas, Kristal Clear directed by Joshua Demers, and The Bear Whisperer which is directed by Peter Houlihan.
Under the scripts category, stories have been accepted from teens to seasoned writing veterans. Scripts from 3 pages to feature length, even one based off a best-selling book. Listed script names are Gumboots written by Laura Hesse, Midnight written by Shaunya Boddie, Making Peace written by Judah Ray, Run! Run! Run! – The Lives of Abbie Hoffman written by Michael J. Shapiro, Jillian’s Peak written by Charzette Torrence and Danielle Johnson, Mania written by Greg Mania, Rust written by Justin Moran, Red Light written by Dempsey Tillman & Ted Dewberry, The Heart of a Tiger written by Srey Ram Kuy and Shaky Hands written by Sophie Hood.
Each of the nominees above is in consideration for Best of Category Award and Grand Prize Award, $45,000.00 in Awards. Judges are from HBO, Marvel, Emmys, and other industry leaders.
About the New Media Film Festival:
When the NMFF began nearly ten years ago, non-traditional media like virtual reality and mobile content were almost considered to be science-fiction in the Industry. Few people had experienced the power of these innovative technologies, let alone how they would revolutionize the way we consume media today. The NMFF doesn’t just show great films. It champions new forms of storytelling in the 21st Century. – David Kleiler, PhD and board member.
Tickets on sale now. For full schedule visit https://newmediafilmfestival.com/schedule.php
Contact: Crystal Z
crystal@newmediafilmfestival.com
310-288-1100
58KFF Opening Ceremony photo Agnieszka Fiejka
58th edition of Krakow Film Festival, one of the oldest and the most recognizable events dedicated to documentary, animated and short films has started tonight. Sergei Loznitsa, Talal Derki, and Etgar Keret are among the guests.
During the 8 festival days, the audience has a chance to see about 250 films from the whole world, presented in 4 competitions and 12 non-competing sections. The screenings are complemented with Q&As, workshops, exhibitions, concerts and KFF Industry events for the professionals, including presentations of the new Polish documentary and animated projects.
The festival has opened with the world premiere of a music documentary “Concerto for Two” by Tomasz Drozdowicz – the colourful story of an outstanding conductor, pianist and composer Jerzy Maksymiuk, as well as an intimate description of a special relationship he has with his wife Ewa. The film takes part in the international music documentary films competition DocFilmMusic and in the national competition.
This edition’s special guest is Estonian cinema. In the “Focus on Estonia” section the latest productions from this Baltic country will be presented: documentaries, shorts, a special programme for kids and teenagers and a selection of student films. The film professionals from Estonia and Poland will meet at the industry conference to discover the opportunities for collaboration. The section will be inaugurated with a daring documentary “Rodeo. Taming a Wild Country” showing the process of breaking free from the Soviet regime.
This year’s Dragon of Dragons award for lifetime achievement will go to Sergei Loznitsa („Donbass”, „A Gentle Creature”, „Blockade”), an outstanding documentary filmmaker, a multiple Krakow Film Festival winner. The programme includes the retrospective of Loznitsa’s films and his master class devoted to using of archival footage and one’s own life experiences in filmmaking.
Another highlight of the festival is a visit of Etgar Keret, one of the most famous and popular Israeli writers, a master of short fiction, screenwriter and lecturer. The documentary “Etgar Keret: Based on a True Story” will be shown as a part of “World Stories” section, and director Stephane Kaas, writer Rutger Lemm, and the protagonist are expected at the festival and will take part in meeting with an audience.
One of the more distinctive and very popular section of the festival is Docs+Science, a cycle dedicated to science films accompanied by the meetings with the experts and organized for the fifth time, in cooperation with the Foundation for AGH. One of the films presented in a section is a documentary “Jane” focusing on the story of an exceptional researcher Jane Goodall, who spent most of her life among chimpanzees. The film is directed by Brett Morgen, known for “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” awarded in Krakow in 2015.
As a matter of fact, this edition seems to be marked with returns. Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki, a Silver Horn 2014 laureate for “Return to Homs”, comes with “Of Fathers and Sons”, a close up on a life of jihadists, awarded already at Sundance. Till Schauder, the last year’s winner of the DocFilmMusic competition brings to Krakow “The Reggae Boyz” about Jamaican football team. Kaleo La Belle, the winner of the KFF documentary competition in 2010 in “Fell in Love with a Girl” tells the story of his own attempts to create a perfectly functioning patchwork family. Last but not least, Zosya Rodkevich, the Golden Horn 2016 winner for “My Friend Boris Nemtsov”, comes back with “White Mama”, a documentary about a woman who, having six black-skinned children born out of her relationship with an Ethiopian man, decides to adopt a white boy with mental health problems.
Among Polish filmmakers attending 58.KFF there will be: Marta Prus, the author of the widely known documentary “Over the Limit”, that secured her a place on the prestigious Variety magazine list; Marta Pajek, last year’s winner for her animation “Impossible Figures and Other Stories II”, whose latest film “III” was selected to the competition in Cannes and Grzegorz Zariczny, the director of awarded at Sundance “The Whistle”, who comes back to the festival with “The Last Lesson” about high school graduates from the Krakow.
Traditionally in the programme there are the screenings of music films in the open air cinema at the foot of Wawel Castle (Sound of Music), films awarded in the befriended festivals (Festival Award Winners), showcase of the latest Polish productions (Polish Panorama), cinema for the young (Kids&Youth), last year’s most widely discussed documentaries from different parts of the world (World Stories) and films made in European countries (Somewhere in Europe).
58th Krakow Film Festival will last until Sunday, 3rd June, the award ceremony will take place on Saturday, 2nd June.
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Of the twelve films in documentary competition at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, eight are being shown as world premieres. The latest work by previous Karlovy Vary winner Vitaly Mansky, Putin's Witnesses takes a fascinating look at the presidential career of Vladimir Putin. Also in selection are Bridges of Time, the contemplative documentary essay by Kristīne Briede and famous Lithuanian director Audrius Stonys (which is also a part of the retrospective section Reflections of Time: Baltic Poetic Documentary), Marouan Omara and Johanna Domke’s look at the depopulated Egyptian resort Sharm El Sheikh Dream Away, and Cyril Aris’s sad and lyrical The Swing.
Attention! Our website has been updated! Visit the link to see our list of jurors: nyc2paris.com
Reminder: the late deadline to submit your film is June 4th! Visit Filmfreeway for more information.
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