Held from January 21 – 24 the 24th edition of the Outsider Art Fair featured 60 exhibitors with a growing number of New York based contemporary art dealers and two curated and memorial exhibitions, ”Babel” an installation of 3d-printed imaginary towers and a memorial exhibition on Ionel Talpazan. The comprehensive fair showed in its new home the Metropolitan Pavilion a plethora of styles, media, materials, and approaches difficult to catalogue.  Everything imaginable seemed to be represented from crude instant works to sophisticated, carefully executed, complex works of art. The creative impulse ruled, though originality was not necessarily a premium.  Numerous early sales during the first day, and a large engaged audience which made the fair difficult to navigate, indicate that the fair was a success.

Given the 13.4 billion dollar sales Christie’s and Sotheby's generated  in 2015, the  low cost outsider work appears as a relief. Prices were running from several hundred to up to $50,000, reflecting a booming art market on the lower end. Works at the equally interesting and well attended Affordable Art Fair were limited to a maximum of $10.000. Outsider art may be going mainstream as Christie’s has arranged an auction of well-known outsider artists. 

Going back to the meaning of the outsider term  by Jean Dubuffet and Roger Cardinal, it encompasses  works of art that originate outside the confines of official art as it is primarily certified by  galleries, auction houses and museums.  And the range is considerable. Dubuffet had children and mental patients in mind whose work was art brut for him.  It was created in isolation with the work unblemished by training in the arts. But the category expanded to include many other orientations which were not adulterated by official culture such as raw, marginal, naïve, chance, primitive, street, and folk art.

The outsider art fair featured work in any possible material like fabric, paper, wood, iron, steel, stone, wires, ropes. books  and plastics and a multitude of forms such as  ,  3D printing, photo imagery, ready mades, collages, assemblages, dolls, cut outs,  paintings,  found objects, art by unknowns and mixed media to name but a few.  The reaction of the spectators ran the gamut from surprise and puzzlement to intrigue and acquisition. I certainly enjoyed the maelstrom of surprises and variety of work created by the outsiders.

Yet some work stood out. There were superbly executed ready mades by the French artist and civil servant Gerard Cambon at the American Primitive Gallery incorporating tiny groups of individuals in each work. Looking down one discovered the amazing juxtaposition of people and the bas-reliefs they were embedded in representing everyday life and problems. Apparently most of his work was sold during the first day. Jana Paleckova at the Fred Giampietro Gallery was present with a series of found photographs which she modified by adding surrealistic components to the images, an approach also shared by some other artists in the show.  The memorial exhibition was devoted to Ionel Talpazan who passed in 2015 and focused his work on unidentified flying objects, UFOs, and space.  His detailed colorful drawings of the exterior and interior of flying saucers and their descriptions offer an appealing imagery of the objects.  The Cuban Felipe Jesus Consavoles from the Fleisher Ollman gallery, a former worker in the tobacco industry, offered in “You Can’t Forget”   a stunning and complicated collage. Produced during his decades long stay in Miami it incorporates mementos from his life, liquor labels, cut outs, and illustrations.  The Brazilian Chico Tabibuia, an illiterate grandson of slaves, presented by Mariposa Unusual Art sculptured walnut wood continuing Central and West African woodcarving traditions.  His figures include erotic imagery but are meant to neutralize and imprison evil spirits.  Gods and spirits inspired his work which was recognized in Brazil before he passed in 2007.

Overall the Outsider Art Show was a learning and joyful experience because it conveyed unexpected new ways of looking at art work.  Not being shaped by formal art instruction and working in relative isolation certainly prompts creativity.   

Claus Mueller,  filmexchange@gmail.com

Storytelling Reimagined Conclave, First Three-screen Feature, Maverick Spirit Winners James Franco and Rita Moreno, plus Superlative Premieres Highlight

Cinequest Film Festival (CQFF), March 1-13, 2016 will unite 700 world leading artists and innovators with audiences (expected to top 100,000) in the Silicon Valley to experience the fusion of creativity and innovation—and to celebrate and reimagine storytelling via film and new technologies.

• Cinequest’s Future Of Film Showcase reimagines storytelling and audience experiences of filmed media. Cinequest has always stood at the forefront of film’s future possibilities, discovering technology and talent and enabling them to connect, both collaboratively and with audiences. Here’s this year’s take on what’s hot today and driving the future:
  • The First Barco Escape Three-Screen Feature Film: Technology has always facilitated the film arts, and Barco Escape tech¬nologies new three-screen format brings a thrilling new cinematic experience to audiences and a dramatic opportunity to film artists. Cinequest presents the first fully realized (end-to-end) three-screen feature film, Mr. Invincible. Starring Alyson Stoner (Cheaper By The Dozen, Step Up), Bill Engvall (Blue Collar Comedy Group), and written by Cinequest Screenplay Competition Winner Stacie Shellner, Mr. Invincible , a comedy about a man who cannot kill himself, plays as a work-in-progress. Cinequest has also commissioned members of its illustrious filmmaker community to create diverse short film experiences in three-screen format. These short films and more will play in the future of film Barco Escape series.
  • Storytelling Reimagined Conclave: Global Leaders (representing diverse media, art, and technology fields) join Cinequest’s Leadership Council for an electrifying event around story-telling opportunities in new and exciting media. It used to be that story-telling was relegated to “the creatives.” Now filmed story-telling is a normal part of people’s lives from social media to executive communications. Further, new technologies, such as virtual reality, open new ways for audiences to experience stories and for artists to tell them. Conclave event will include a moderated conversation with a thrilling roundtable of leaders, video presentations, and a Maverick Spirit Award presentation to a futuristic and dynamic story-teller, James Franco. The Conclave will give leaders a chance to cross-pollinate and grow their ideas with a stunning group of thought influencers from different walks of life, forging inspiration, collaborations and opportunity for our future.
  • Virtual Reality Experience: CQFF will unveil a ground-breaking Virtual Reality experience. Venturing into the “Virtual Reality Lounge,” Cinequest attendees will once again be on the cutting edge of a new, viable technology that reimagines the story-telling tradition.
• Opening Night Screening and Celebration: March 1, 7:15 pm, California Theatre: Academy Award-winning director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) will present his captivating new thriller Eye in the Sky, starring Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen, Trumbo), Alan Rickman (Harry Potter, Die Hard), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey),Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad ). Is the life of one innocent worth the lives of thousands? Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren) is in charge of a top-secret mission: to capture, not kill, a terrorist. Pre-screening includes special presentations and Jerry Nagano filling the lavish California Theatre with the glorious sounds of the Wurlitzer organ. Post-screening festivities and fun will take place at The Farmers Union.

"Cinequest is definitely the first time I've ever come to a festival where my immediate reaction is, 'What do I have to do to be invited back?' It's a perfect film festival in a glorious place." - Neil Gaiman, Maverick Spirit Award Winner

• Maverick Spirit Award Events: Cinequest’s most prestigious accolade, the Maverick Spirit Award recognizes bold, visionary, and creative forces—the finest in the worlds of Silicon Valley innovation and the film arts. Previous guest recipients include: J.J. Abrams, Kevin Spacey, Rosario Dawson, Harrison Ford, William H. Macy, Gus Van Sant, Spike Lee, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sir Ian McKellen, Neil Gaiman, Alec Baldwin, and Sir Ben Kingsley. Please watch the Cinequest Maverick Spirit Award video to see past recipients in action. This year’s recipients are:
  • Actor-writer-educator, James Franco. Mr. Franco has amassed well over 100 acting credits, including 127 Hours, (Best Actor Academy Award nomination), Milk, Spider-Man Trilogy, Pineapple Express, Oz the Great and Powerful, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Eat, Pray, Love. He is also an accomplished writer and committed to giving back as an educator of emerging youth. (Special Pre-festival event, Feb. 28, in conjunction with Cinequest’s Storytelling Reimagined Conclave. Event details TBA.)
  • Screen and American Icon, Rita Moreno. Star of the Robert Wise masterwork, West Side Story, Ms. Moreno has received America’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, as well as a stunning Kennedy Center Tribute. (A conversation with Ms. Moreno and Award Presentation occur after the world premiere of her new comedic gem, Remember Me Saturday, March 5, 7 pm, California Theatre.)
  • Champion-advocate, Robert Hawk. For over thirty years, Hawk has discovered new cinematic voices, nurtured those voices, and has been the unsung champion of some of the most influential independent cinema. Kevin Smith (Clerks), Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen),Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk), and Barbara Hammer (Nitrate Kisses ) have had a major impact on the world of cinema. Each and many others started their careers with a champion who never sought praise or a spotlight. His only wish was to see these artists reach the world with their work. That champion is Robert Hawk. (A conversation with Mr. Hawk and Award Presentation occur after a screening of the movie Film Hawk, Friday, March 4, 7:30 pm, Camera 12 Cinemas.)
• Media Legacy Award Event: Cinequest’s Media Legacy Award recognizes the preeminent role journalists play in discovering artists and connecting audiences with their art.
  • This year, Cinequest is honored to present its Media Legacy Award to beloved journalist Owen Gleiberman (bbc.com, Entertainment Weekly) after a screening of his favorite film, Manhunter, occurring Saturday, March 12, 7:00pm, Hammer Theatre Center, during CQFF2016. The event will include a dynamic conversation with Mr. Glerberman on his work and the world of cinema.
  • Previous media Legacy Award recipients include Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson of Indiewire, Harry Knowles, founder of Ain’t It Cool News, Richard von Busack of Metro Newspapers, and Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times. Please watch Cinequest’s Media Legacy video.
• Notable Premieres and Star Performances: Cinequest presents a superlative lineup of 128 World and U.S. premieres of which 64 have women directors. Please see the Cinequest Premieres Press Release for full line-up with includes:
  • Helen Mirren (The Queen, Trumbo), Alan Rickman (Harry Potter, Die Hard), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) in Eye in the Sky (Opening Night)
  • Geoffrey Rush (Shine), Ewen Leslie (Sleeping Beauty), Paul Schneider (Lars and the Real Girl), Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings), Anna Torv (Fringe), Odessa Young (Wonderland), and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) in The Daughter (Closing Night)
  • Alyson Stoner (Step Up), Bill Engvall (The Bill Engvall Show) in Mr. Invincible
  • Kevin Smith (Clerks), Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen), Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange), and Rob Epstein (Howl) in Film Hawk
  • Rita Moreno (West Side Story) in Remember Me
  • Gordon Getty (Composer and Subject) in Gordon Getty: There Will Be Music
  • Clea Duvall (Argo, American Horror Story) in Heaven’s Floor
  • Emma Watson (Harry Potter, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower) and Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds, Rush) in Colonia
  • Jason Ritter (Parenthood) in Embers
  • Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men), Emma Roberts (American Horror Story), and Lucy Boynton (Miss Potter) in February
  • Annette O’Toole (Smallville) and John Glover (The Good Wife) in We Go On
  • Comedians Dana Carvey, Bob Saget, Paula Poundstone, Ellen DeGeneres, Bobcat Goldthwait, Bill Maher, and Robin Williams in The Comedy Club
  • Sally Field (Forrest Gump), Max Greenfield (New Girl) and Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer) in Hello, My Name Is Doris
  • Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs), Joely Fisher (Ellen), Michelle Hurd (90210), Natasha Gregson Wagner (Two Girls and a Guy), Nick Court (The Last Ship), Barry Watson (7th Heaven), Jonathan Slavin (Better Off Ted), Devon Graye (Dexter), and singing legend Connie Stevens in Search Engines
  • Grant Rosenmeyer (The Royal Tenenbaums) and Lindsey Shaw (Pretty Little Liars) in Temps
  • Aly Michalka (iZombie), AJ Michalka (The Goldbergs), and Mimi Rogers (Austin Powers) in Weepah Way for Now
  • James Franco (127 Hours), Ed Harris (Pollack), Amber Heard (The Danish Girl), Jim Parrack (True Blood), Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City), and Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) in The Adderall Diaries
  • Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Fluke) producer on The Brainwashing of My Dad
  • Penelope Cruz (Volver) in Ma Ma
  • Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, Hairspray) and Amber Heard (The Danish Girl, Hidden Palms) in One More Time
  • Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea, The House of Mirth) director of Sunset Song
  • Briana Evigan (Step Up 2: The Streets), Tyler Blackburn (Pretty Little Liars), Emily Osment (Cyberbully), Kyla Kennedy (The Walking Dead), Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Elisabeth Röhm (The Client List), and Jeremy Sisto (Suburgatory) in Love Is All You Need?
  • Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Marion Cotillard (Inception), James Franco (127 Hours), Ricky Gervais (The Office), Paul Giamatti (Straight Outta Compton), Bud Cort (Pollack), Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Albert Brooks (Finding Nemo) in The Little Prince
  • Briana Evigan (Step Up 2: The Streets) and Kerry Norton (Battlestar Galactica) in ToY
• Closing Night Screening and Celebration: March 13, 6:00 pm, California Theatre: CQFF2016 culminates with the United States Premiere of Simon Stone’s beautiful and haunting The Daughter, which boasts an incredible ensemble cast including Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush (Shine), Ewen Leslie (Sleeping Beauty), Paul Schneider (Lars and the Real Girl), Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings), Anna Torv (Fringe), Odessa Young (Wonderland), and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park).

For more on Cinequest’s story, please watch This Is Cinequest video.

Cinequest Film Festival 2016 occurs March 1 – 13, 2016 in San Jose/Silicon Valley.

CQFF Partners: Applied Materials (NYSE: AMAT), City of San Jose, Barco (EBR:BAR), Kaiser Permanente, Harmonic (NYSE: HLIT), Synaptics (NYSE: SYNA), Canon (NYSE: CAJ), Panasonic (OTCMKTS:PCRFY), Cisco (NYSE: CSCO), Dolby (NYSE: DLB), Stella Artois (NYSE: AHBIF), Tito’s Handmade Vodka, , Google (NYSE: GOOG), SIMEON Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG), Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESS), Atomos, Macy’s (NYSE: M), Hint Water, PayPal (NYSE: PYPL), Sonic.net, Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA), Seagate (NYSE: STX), VTA, Agile Ticketing Solutions, NBC Bay Area, Metro, 94.5 KBAY, Mix 106.5, Fairmont San Jose (NYSE: FHR), Hyatt Place San Jose (NYSE: H), Hilton San Jose (NYSE: HLT), Marriott San Jose (NYSE: MAR), Hotel De Anza, Camera 12 Cinemas, and San Jose State University.

Picture The Possibilities Partners: Kaiser Permanente, The Hearst Foundations, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Morrison & Foerster Foundation, Capital Group, Hewlett Packard Workstations (NYSE: HPQ), Brett Company, AT&T (T) Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), Google (NYSE: GOOG), Liquid Agency, Seagate (NYSE: STX), Litepanels, Cisco (NYSC: CSCO), AudioTechnica, Media Center, Adobe (NYSE: ADBE), Eddie Lira, GlideCam, Atomos, CreaTV, Rhino Camera Gear, Manfrotto, Red Giant (NYSE: REDG) 

Wishing you all much success on the festival circuit!

Exodus to Shangai - Market Premiere Feb12 - Meet the team in Berlin

Montreal Int Animation Film Fest August 18-21. Animaze Seeks Animation at Berlinale 2016 - Let's Meet!

Please note Animaze 2016 edition Montreal will be taking place August 18-21, 2016. Animaze is happy to attend Berlinale 2016 seeking feature length animation film, shorts, as well as interactive projects for our festival in August 18-21 in Montreal Quebec Canada. Films with more than 35% VFX (excluding credits) are also welcome to submit. Please contact us via email to set up a meeting: programming@animazefestival.com Submit your film here:  FILMFREEWAY  

 

 

> SUNDANCE DAILIES  January 21 - 31, 2016  

SONITA wins two World Documentary Awards at 2016 Sundance Film Festival

SONITA directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, was the big documentary winner at Sundance, winning both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in ...

 

 

Watch Sundance 2016 closing Ceremony

Sundance Institute tonight announced the prizes in feature filmmaking at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, with top awards going to Between Sea and Land, The Birth of a Nation, First Girl I Loved, Jim: The James Foley Story, Sand Storm, Sonita and Weiner. The Birth of a Nation and Sonita won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for their respective sections, marking the third time in Festival history two films have done this in the same year, and continuing a four-year streak of at le...

 

Sundance 2016 Cinema Café: Anomalisa co-directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson

Join "Anomalisa" co-directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, cinematographer Joe Passarelli, and producer Rosa Tran live at Sundance Film Festival's Cinema Café. ...

 

Sundance 16 Video -Power of Story: The Art of Film with Christopher Nolan, Colin Trevorrow, and Rachel Morrison

Meet (on video) Christopher Nolan, Colin Trevorrow, Rachel Morrison, and moderator Alex Ross Perry for a discussion on the aesthetics of film, its intrinsic qualities, and its appeal to filmmakers who have made the artistic choice to use film as a shooting format. ...

 

Meet Will Allen director of documentary Holly Hell at Sundance 16

Will Allen (former member of The Cult) tells us about his film "Holy Hell," which premieres in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. ...

 

The Birth of a Nation and Sonita Win Both Grand Jury Prize and Audience Awards in Sundance

The Birth of a Nation Top Prizes Go to Between Sea and Land, The Birth of a Nation, First Girl I Loved, Jim: The James Foley Story, Sand Storm, Sonita and Weiner   Short Film Awards, Global Filmmaking Awards, Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Awards also Honored    (L-R) The Birth of a Nation, Credit: Elliot Davis; Sonita, Credit: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami; Between Sea and Land, Credit: Sundance...

 

Lee Daniels to direct the documentary feature film THE APOLLO THEATER FILM PROJECT - New York's famed Theater

Oscar nominated director Lee Daniels (LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER, PRECIOUS and creator and producer of the Fox hit series EMPIRE) will direct the documentary feature film THE APOLLO THEATER FILM PROJECT – the authorized history of New York’s famed Apollo Theater, it was announced today by White Horse Pictures’ Nigel Sinclair and Jeanne Elfant Festa.   In the spirit of the Apollo Theater’s tradition of active audience participation and in support of this docume...

 

Sundance Channel Global Lines Up Exclusive Film Premieres from Park City

 Sundance Channel Global has acquired five films from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, among them Mammal. Mammal has been acquired for Central and Eastern Europe, Iberia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. Meanwhile, The Fits and Jacqueline (Argentine) have been licensed for Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Dutch Benelux, Iberia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. Spa Night was picked up for Dutch Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe, Iberia ...

 

Tim Sutton's Haunting Prelude to an American Massacre Dark Night screens @ Sundance

DARK NIGHT     Tim Sutton's Haunting Prelude to an American Massacre      Set amidst a seemingly limitless expanse of sprawl that could be anywhere in the United States, Dark Night is a portrait of 21st-century Americans under deep emotional and financial duress. A veteran. An outcast. A social-media addict. An immigrant.  All living lives of quiet desperation, but all about to intersect in that supremely popular venue of American escapism: ...

> Rotterdam 27 January – 7 February 2016

Tiger Awards for Short Films announced

The jury for the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films has completed its deliberation and announced Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD by Mark Leckey, Faux depart/False Start by Yto Barrada and Engram of Returning by Daïchi Saïto as the winners of the Canon Tiger Awards for Short Films 2016. The three winning filmmakers each receive a 3,000 Euro prize plus a gift voucher from Canon. The Jury also selected Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer/We All Love the Seashore by Keina Es...

 

SUNTAN, by director Argyris Papadimitropoulos, to receive its world premiere in Rotterdam

Papadimitropoulos returns after opening 2011 festival with Wasted Youth   SUNTAN, the third feature film by noted director Argyris Papadimitropoulos, is to receive its world premiere at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival, competing for the prestigious VPRO Big Screen Award four years after his previous film Wasted Youth opened the 2011 edition of the festival.   Called a ‘Coming of middle age film’ by Papadimitropoulos, SUNTAN stars Greek actor Ma...

 

IFFR welcomes 61 emerging producers to Rotterdam Lab

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will welcome 61 promising emerging film producers from 26 countries to the 16th edition of Rotterdam Lab. Rotterdam Lab is organised by IFFR’s co-production market CineMart in close collaboration with various partner organisations involved in the training of beginning producers, as well as funding bodies. Rotterdam Lab is a five-day training workshop for emerging producers designed to provide the means to create and expand their internati...

 

Tiger Pro Panels and Debates

During the first week of IFFR, the Filmmakers Hub organizes and hosts a series of panels and debates. Top industry professionals and experts attending the festival and CineMart will share their experiences with other professionals and dispense important advice to up-and-coming filmmakers.  The panels are informal, yet highly instructive, and are a great forum for filmmakers to get their questions answered and for Industry pros to meet new talent. The Tiger Pro Panels and Debates ...

 

IFFR 2016 revamps awards and Awards Ceremony

45th International Film Festival Rotterdam 27 January – 7 February 2016   From the 45th edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam onwards, all the awards that can be won at the festival will be presented at the revamped Awards Ceremony. The ceremony will be hosted by journalist and documentary maker Fidan Ekiz. Some awards remain the same, other prizes have been renewed, and the Bright Future Award will be awarded for the first time this year.   ...

> Berlinale Previews and Dailies February 11 - 20, 2016

Exodus to Shangai by Anthony Hickox to celebrate the Market World Premiere at EFM February 12

Exodus to Shangai will receive its Market Premiere at EFM February 12th The world Premiere is set for Fantasporto March 3rd part of the Fantasporto for Peace Action.  The Crew and Cast will be attending the screening in the Market Feb 12th at 7:00 pm Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie, Potsdamer Strasse 2, 10785 Berlin www.micheladam.tv/shanghai/story/  I  Press Kit on filmfestivals.com I Ask for a screener I Take a meeting in Berlin I Book Exodus to Shangai fo...

 

Child abduction thriller ‘Never Let Go’ grabs buyers and National Film Awards!

Since the trailer for Howard J Ford’s (Director/Co-Writer of the US number 1 genre hit ‘The Dead’)  ‘Never Let Go’  www.neverletgomovie.com was unveiled at last year’s Berlinale, it achieved substantial buyer interest leading up to the completed film’s Cannes preview where it was hailed by one critic as ‘the most gripping film of the festival’ and has since sold in 18 countries with TV dub’s underway in 7 languages. &n...

Documentaries in all sections of Berlinale - Full line up

In Focus: Diverse Documentary Forms and Events   The Berlin International Film Festival has long been committed to documentaries in their diverse forms. This is reflected in the programmes of the Berlinale’s different sections and initiatives, as well as in the European Film Market (EFM) and Berlinale Talents. In 2016, a total of 77 documentaries will be screening in a variety of forms. In addition, discussion of a wide range of different aspects related to documentaries will be ...

 

Cleverman The thrilling new high-stakes genre drama series to screen at Drama Series Days

The thrilling new high-stakes genre drama for ABC TV Australia and SundanceTV US.   Set in the near future, a species from ancient mythology must live amongst humans and battle for survival in a world that wants to silence, exploit and destroy them.   At the heart of the story are two estranged brothers, Koen and Waruu West, who are forced together to fight against terrifying enemies - both human and not of this world. But can Koen, a man bestowed with a powerful g...

 

Recreation Media Sales @ EFM

All Mistakes Buried 2016 | USA | 90 MIN Genre Thriller Status Completed Director TIM MCCANN Writers TIM MCCANN, SHAUN S. SANGHANI Producers SHAUN S. SANHANI Cast VANESSA FERLITO, SAM TRAMMELL U.S. Distributor BREAKING GLASS PICTURES A lone, struggling addict takes on a dangerous underground criminal ring in his small Southern town to retrieve a stolen pe...

 

 

House of Film brings to EFM Children's series that went viral

Niloya Trailer             
 

The Yellow Affair new Titles @ EFM

NEW RELEASES THE YARD (Berlinale Forum) A single father and peripheral poet loses his job as a literary critic when he reviews his own book. With no formal education, he ends up at a car trans-shipment hub. He becomes an outcast, a nameless stranger with a five-digit number. Personal morals are pitted against the demands of fatherhood in an escalating conflict that is ultimately resolved by a lie.     ...

 

The Solution Entertainment Group will represent international rights to Frank Hudec’s THE SLEEPING SHEPHERD

The Solution Entertainment Group will represent international rights to Frank Hudec’s THE SLEEPING SHEPHERD, who wrote and will direct the feature film. The film stars Michael Pitt (FUNNY GAMES, HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’), Imogen Poots (upcoming KNIGHT OF CUPS, GREEN ROOM, FRANK AND LOLA), Isabelle Huppert (THE PIANO TEACHER, AMOUR) and Willem Dafoe (upcoming THE GREAT WALL, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS) it was announced today by The Solution Entertai...

 

BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH World Premiere Film / Forum Section

BARAKAH YOQABIL BARAKAH (BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH)   A Film by Mahmoud Sabbagh Starring: Hisham Fageeh and Fatima Al Banawi     Media Opportunities Mahmoud Sabbagh, Hisham Fageeh, and Fatima Al Banawi Friday, 12 February  - Monday, 15 February   Festival Screenings *World Premiere* - Friday, 12 February at 21:30 - Delphi Saturday, 13 February at 22:00 - CineStar 8 *P&I* Sunday, 14 February at 14:00 - CinemaxX 6 Monday, 15 February at 19:30 - Zoo-Palast ...

 

 

Hotel Dallas at the International Film Festival Berlin 2016

Hotel Dallas (Romania/USA, 2016), the film debut of Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang, will screen in the Panorama Documents section of this year’s Berlinale. The film will celebrate its world premiere on February 15th at 5:30 pm in Cinestar 7.   Directors: Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang Cast: Patrick Duffy, Livia Ungur, Sherng-Lee Huang, and others Romania / USA, 2016, 75 min SCREENING DATES WORLD PREMIERE / press screening: Monday, February 15th at 5:30 pm, Cinestar ...

 

Fashiontv introduces its new VOD Platform Fashion Docu at the EFM

  ...

 

World Premiere at Berlinale: Aslı Özge's ALL OF A SUDDEN in Panorama Special

A film by Aslı Özge produced by EEE Productions (DE), Topkapi Films (NL), Haut et Court (FR) world sales Memento Films International year of production: 2016, 112 minutes   The feature film ALL OF A SUDDEN by director Aslı Özge will celebrate its world premiere in the Panorama Special section of the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival. Born and raised in Istanbul, and since 2000 also Berlin-based, director Aslı Özge has crafted her first Ger...

 

Cargo Film at Berlin 66/ WW II HBO Film Screening

UNDERFIRE The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro An HBO Film. Trailer.   Executive Produced by Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones, Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire)   In 1943, Tony Vaccaro, a WWII Italian-American infantryman, smuggled his $47 portable camera into combat, and, in thousands of images, created the most comprehensive and intimate record of war. Shooting with gun and camera at great risk, Tony developed photos in combat helmets at night and hung negatives from tree ...

 

Berlinale Goes Kiez - Neighbourhood Cinemas Get the Red Carpet Treatment

For the seventh year running, the special series Berlinale Goes Kiez will roll through a variety of Berlin’s independent cinemas on seven festival evenings and roll out the red carpet on neighbourhood sidewalks, not only to welcome local and international guests but also to honour the cinemas themselves along with their faithful audience.   From February 13 to 19 2016, one independent neighbourhood cinema per evening will be featured as an additional festival venue and present sel...

 

Berlinale Camera 2016 to Honour Ben Barenholtz, Tim Robbins and Marlies Kirchner

  Since 1986 the Berlin International Film Festival has presented the Berlinale Camera to film personalities or institutions to which it feels particularly indebted and wishes to express its thanks.   At the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, three personalities will be awarded the Berlinale Camera: producer, cinema operator and film distributor Ben Barenholtz (USA); actor, director, writer and producer Tim Robbins (USA); and cinema operator Marlies Kirchner (Germany)...

 

Berlinale to pay tribute to David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Ettore Scola

  The Berlin International Film Festival will commemorate these outstanding artists by presenting three special screenings in their honour.   British music legend and artist David Bowie was one of most extraordinary all-round talents of recent decades. His close ties to Berlin go back to the time he spent in the German capital from 1976 to 1978. At the Berlinale he appeared in the documentaries Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (D: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Panorama 1998), Scott Wal...

 

Jury for the Best First Feature Award

Since 2006, when it introduced the Best First Feature Award, the Berlinale has been even more committed to supporting the next generation of film makers. The award is endowed with 50,000 Euros, donated by the GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrecht), a society dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights. The prize money is to be split between the producer and the director of the winning film. Additionally, the director will be awarded with a high-quality viewf...

 

We have a jury for Berlinale 2016, headed by Merryl Streep

With actress Meryl Streep serving as Jury President  the International Jury will decide who will receive the Golden Bear and Silver Bears of the 2016 Berlinale Competition. The other members of the International Jury will be actor Lars Eidinger (Germany), film critic Nick James (United Kingdom), photographer Brigitte Lacombe (France), actor Clive Owen (United Kingdom), actress Alba Rohrwacher (Italy) and director Małgorzata Szumowska (Poland). Meryl Streep, Jury President, USA &nbs...

His Holiness Pope Francis To Appear In Family Feature Film "Beyond The Sun" From AMBI Pictures

  A “first” in both cinema and Catholic Church history will be made as the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Francis will play himself in the family film “Beyond the Sun” from AMBI Pictures.   In his feature film debut (and film debut for any Pope in the history of the Church), His Holiness Pope Francis portrays himself in the inspirational story based on the Gospels, told in several tales with Jesus’s message, so children c... 

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Short Film Connection
 

Golden Trailer Awards May 4

Early Bird Deadline: Friday February 5th, 2016

The Wiper Film Festival 
April 6 – 8, 2016

Early Bird January 31, 2016

NYC Indie Film Fest 
April 27 to May 1, 2016!

Regular Deadline January 31, 2016

Hollyshorts Film Festival
August 11 – 20, 2016

Early Bird deadline February 5, 2016

WoFF: World of Film International Festival 
September 29 – October 2, 2016

Regular Deadline March 31, 2016

In 2016, WoFF returns for its third edition with great energy and ideas, generated from a wonderful 2015 festival.

New York Festival's World's Best Television & Films April 16, 2016

Deadline extended

Animaze 2016 Montreal International Animation Film Festival  August 18th - 21st, 2016.

Submit by April 30, 2016

Montreal  International Animation Film Festival FESTIVAL DATES June 2-5 2016 Montreal Canada Le MIAFF! is a people's film festival and industry conference dedicated to the art of animation for film and technology.  All genres and forms are welcome. Awards & Prizes Software and other award prizes. Visibility in our travelling shows in Berlin, Cannes, Annecy, Glasgow and more. Check 2015 fantastic programming on the website.

The 49th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film & Video Festival  April 8 to 17, 2016

In partnership with filmfestivals.com

Enter the Festival that discovered Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Ang Lee, the Coen Brothers, David Lynch, and John Lee Hancock with their first awards!

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

Exodus to Shangai

Paranoid Girls For Oscar Consideration

Paranoid Girls Comedy by Pedro del Santo is qualified for Oscar selection running for best film, best original song...

Revolution by Rob Stewart (Sharkwater) 

over 40 festival wins so far

Eco Documentary feature film by Rob Stewart (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.

Get Happy by Manoj Annadurai 

Feature Feel Good Movie  - World premiered in Montreal World Film Festival Winner best romantic comedy in Manhattan Fest

Charlie Kane can’t catch a break. He grew into a man who expects the worse out of life and gets it. But that changes when, by chance, he meets a bright, sunny sprite of a woman named Holly who turns him from a dour drip into someone finally allowing himself to be happy.Then a bus flattens her before Charlie eyes. Charlie opts for suicide but can’t even successfully give up on life. Left with no other choice, he adopts Holly’s ethos of positivity and just decides to be happy... by ignoring all the bad things in life. But his cynical best friend isn’t buying Charlie’s new-found happiness and sets out to save Charlie by making him miserable again. 

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Exodus to Shangai has Festival World Premiere at Fantasporto following the Market Premiere at EFM

Fantasporto one of the leading Genre Festivals in the World will have a special screening of Exodus to Shangai on March 3rd at 9 pm in an hommage to Peace and Understanding Between Humans Called Fantasporto for Peace!   Anthony Hickox the director was thrilled and told Mario how much he loved his festival. "Dear Mario  I've always wanted to go to your fest! I've won Avoriaz and Brussels Fantastic etc. never yours!!! Hahaha  I will be really happy to come and ... 

Animation Day In Cannes set for May 18 for its second edition

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Cinequest Film Festival 2016 (CQFF2016) Festival Highlights

Storytelling Reimagined Conclave, First Three-screen Feature, Maverick Spirit Winners James Franco and Rita Moreno, plus Superlative Premieres Highlight Cinequest Film Festival (CQFF), March 1-13, 2016 will unite 700 world leading artists and innovators with audiences (expected to top 100,000) in the Silicon Valley to experience the fusion of creativity and innovation—and to celebrate and reimagine storytelling via film and new technologies. Cinequest’s Future Of Film ...

 

New York: Outsider Art Fair 2016

Held from January 21 – 24 the 24th edition of the Outsider Art Fair featured 60 exhibitors with a growing number of New York based contemporary art dealers and two curated and memorial exhibitions, ”Babel” an installation of 3d-printed imaginary towers and a memorial exhibition on Ionel Talpazan. The comprehensive fair showed in its new home the Metropolitan Pavilion a plethora of styles, media, materials, and approaches difficult to catalogue.  Everything imag...

 

Sedona International Film Festival Announces Lineup: 165 Films

The range of films selected for the 22nd annual Sedona International Film Festival is as diverse as the audiences who will fill the theaters and the filmmakers whose creative talents will be on display from Feb. 20-28.             Among the 165 films to be screened are dozens directed by women, including 14-year-old Bailey Weber (The Student Body); Oscar-nominated short film Stutterer, French-produced drama, Mustang, and Theeb from Jordan...

 

The San Sebastian Festival calls its online poster competition

The image of the 64th edition will be chosen from among all participants   Yet another year the San Sebastian Festival calls an online poster competition for selection of the images to represent 5 of its major sections at the coming edition: New Directors, Horizonte...

 

01.02.2016 | SanSebastian's blog | 26 reads

First preview of the upcoming Udine Festival FAR EAST FILM 18 In Udine

Nakamura Yoshihiro returns to the FEFF screen with a beautiful ghost story, “The Inerasable”     UDINE – The beautiful ghost story The Inerasable opens a new chapter in the glorious J-Horror genre which brings back one of the most visionary and prolific directors (or auteurs) of Japanese cinema to the screens of the Far East Film Festival in Udine: Nakamura Yoshihiro! Of course, it is still too early to reveal the eighteenth line-up of the FEFF (from the 22nd to ...

 

Fantasporto 2016 Trailer

...

 

Pre Fantas screenings

PRÉ-FANTAS and PRESS SCREENINGS   Segunda, 22  de Fevereiro Grande Auditório   21.45h - Dust - Milcho Manchevski- 120’- 2001- Uk/Alem/Italia/Macedónia - RETROSPECTIVA MILCHO MANCHEVSKI v.o. leg ingl.  Duas histórias paralelas de redenção. Um ladrão é obrigado a sentar-se e a ouvir uma história.  Na volta do século XX, dois irmãos lutam por uma mulher. Com Joseph Fiennes (Shakesp...

 

The 36th edition of Fantasporto will be held between 26th February and 5th March

The 36th edition of Fantasporto is held at the Teatro Municipal Rivoli, and as usual, with the Pre-Fantas as an appetizer. Shorts are particularly in focus in the Official Fantasy competition, after a long selection process. And for the first time, they will be repeated in two independent screenings. Unreleased, recent films are also present in the Portuguese Best Film competition. Eight schools and universities from all over the country participate in a one of a kind competition. Inn...

 

Göteborg Film Festival reveals Nordic Film Market titles

More than 40 Nordic films and works in progress will be presented at the Nordic Film Market in Göteborg, taking place Wednesday 2 - Saturday 7 February. The 2016 lineup consists of 17 finished feature films and 20 works in progress, plus 8 titles presented at the Nordic Film Lab Discovery sessions. This year's films include world premieres Shelley by Ali Abbasi, The Model by Mads Matthiesen, Welcome to Norway! by Rune Denstad Langlo and The Yard by Måns Månsson, ...

 

How to Win Enemies (Como Ganar Enemigos): NYJFF Review

By Maria Esteves – January 27, 2016 HOW TO WIN ENEMIES (COMO GANAR ENEMIGOS), is a heartfelt redemptive family comedy, crime mystery set in present day Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lucas Abadi (Martin Slipak) an aspiring crime novelist and attorney who works at his family law firm becomes a victim of a crime, is compelled to solve the mystery. The film begins with a beautiful Jewish wedding ceremony scene, then the story cleverly unfolds returning back to the wedding reception scene and s...

 

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Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong

The Asian Film Awards Academy announced the nominations for the 10th Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong today, with 18 nominations for Japanese films (including co-production film for the Best Film Award) and talents in 15 categories, including a nomination fo...

 

Goyas 2016 are coming

   The 30th Goya Awards ceremony will be held in Madrid this coming Saturday. As usual nominees gathered together for the Nominees Gala Night. For the first time a drone was used to take the group snap. 'La Novia' is leading the nominations with 12 followed by the drama 'Truman'. La Novia´s main cast is nominated in different categories. Inma Cuesta won as best actress in the past Feroz Awards considered as the Spanish Golden Globes. Mariano Ozores will recei...

 

The Screen Actors Guild Awards® recipients announced

The Screen Actors Guild Awards® presented its coveted Actor® statuettes for the outstanding motion picture and primetime television performances of 2015 at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® held Saturday, Jan. 30 at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center. In a ceremony attended by film and television’s leading actors, the 22nd Annual SAG Awards® was simulcast live coast-to-coast by TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. (ET) / 5 p.m. (PT). A primetime encore presentation immed...

 

''La novia (The Bride)'' and ''Truman'' presented at the last edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, win the Feroz Awards

The Spanish Association of Cinematographic Informers (AICE) presented its Feroz Awards to the best Spanish films of 2015. The two films that gathered the most awards were presented at the 63rd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival. La novia (The Bride) , the film by Paula Ortiz that had its world première at the Zabaltegi section, has been the big winner with six awards: best film (drama), b...

 

The National Film Academy has announced the nominations for the 2nd annual National Film Awards 2016.

The National Film Awards is an annual awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of established and independent film makers , actors , actresses, casting directors , production companies and crew who make up the motion picture industry. The National Film Awards holds 4 events annually in the United Kingdom, USA, South America, Africa and Australia. All nominations and voting for the NFA are submitted and voted for by movie fans. The NFA is produced by the National Film & TV Academy who a...

 

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The 69th Festival de Cannes will be presided by the Australian director, screenwriter and producer, George Miller

Exodus to Shangai - The Director Anthony Hickox

Anthony "Tony" Hickox was born in 1959 and comes from a family of filmmakers. He is the eldest son of the director Douglas Hickox and Academy Award-winning editor Anne V. Coates (Lawrence of Arabia...) and elder brother of editor Emma E. Hickox and James D.R. Hickox. He is also the great nephew of Lord J. Arthur Rank who controlled the British film industry for many years. After starting as a club promoter in London he came to LA ...

 

Krakow Film Festival Dragon of Dragons for Marcel Lozinski

THE DRAGON OF DRAGONS, MARCEL ŁOZIŃSKI   Marcel Łoziński, one of the most renowned Polish filmmakers, frequently awarded at international festivals, winner of countless film festivals and many prestigious awards, will be honoured by Krakow Film Festival with the title "Dragon of Dragons" for lifetime achievement.   "Programme Council decided to award this year's Dragon of Dragons to Marcel Łoziński for his absolute fidelity to documentary film, and, withi...

 

BERGAMO Film Meeting 2016 to Honor Anna Karina.

By Alex Deleon  The 34th edition of the Bergamo film festival in Northern Italy (officially known as The BERGAMO FILM MEETING) running this year from March 5 - 13, will be featuring one of the most interesting personal actor tributes of the as yet early 2016 festival season.  The hommage and retro in question is to the iconic goddess of the early French Nouvelle Vague, Danish-French actress (and vocalist) Anna...

 

 

The Cartagena International Film Festival (FICCI) 56 Pays Tribute to Susan Sarandon

The Cartagena International Film Festival (FICCI) is pleased to welcome one of the most outstanding actresses of our times as its guest of honor this year. Susan Sarandon, the New Yorker who has appeared in everything from dramas and cult films to comedy and animated movies in a career spanning over 40 years, joins the party with a retrospective featuring six films in which she gives some of her most acclaimed performances. Little did Sarandon imagine she would become one of Hollywood’s...

 

Naresh Bedi and his wildlife world

(Veteran wildlife filmmaker Naresh Bedi was honoured with the V Shantaram Life Time Achievement Award at the opening ceremony of the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Animation and Short Films, MIFF 2016 on Thursday evening.  Later, Bedi shared his wildlife film making experiences with media persons at the MIFF Media Centre).  Love of nature and wild-life was inculcated in Naresh Bedi by his father, Dr. Ramesh Bedi, an international expert in plant medicine and a c...

 

Interview with Irene Jacob, Iconic French Actress, Acting with Robot, on Asian Tour.

IRENE JACOB   Exclusive interview with legendary French Star, in Bangkok   “ This Asian Tour has been an amazing experience!"   She is one of the ‘greats’ of French cinema, who has acted in films across the globe, with  the legendary Directors of our time.   But her recent Asian tour saw the great actress Irene Jacob not on the screen, but on the stage. It was a riveting play, directed by, not a Western, but a Japane...

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Partner Film Festivals Calling. Fast-Approaching Deadlines
 

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TOUTES LES NEWS EN FRANCAIS

Toute la mémoire du monde, 4ème édition - Du 3 au 7 février 2016

Le festival Toute la mémoire du monde propose durant cinq jours de partager un moment privilégié de réflexion et d'échanges des connaissances et savoir-faire autour de la question des archives cinématographiques et de (re)découvrir chefs-d'oeuvre et raretés récemment restaurées. Pour cette édition, La Cinémathèque française s'est associée à plusieurs sal...

 

320 000 entrées pour Le Festival cinéma Télérama

Le Festival cinéma Télérama s’est déroulé du 20 au 26 janvier 2016, dans 300 cinémas Art et essai, et proposait de voir ou revoir les 16 meilleurs films de l’année 2015 pour 3,50 euros la place seulement, en partenariat avec l’Association Française des Cinémas d’Art et d’Essai (AFCAE), BNP Paribas et le soutien de Canal+. Il a une nouvelle fois connu un franc succès auprès du public...

 

Jacques Rivette ou l’amour fou

  Nous venons d’apprendre avec beaucoup de tristesse la disparition de Jacques Rivette. Né à Rouen en 1928, il était l’une des figures marquantes de la Nouvelle Vague, ancien critique aux Cahiers du cinéma comme ses amis François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer et Claude Chabrol. Il fut le premier à passer à la réalisation, avec son court-métrage Le Coup du Berger en 1956. Son premier long métrage, P...

 

PRIX HENRI LANGLOIS 2016 " le cinéma en héritage "

Rencontres Internationales du Cinéma de Patrimoine & Prix Henri Langlois /  30 mars- 4 avril 2016 Les prochaines Rencontres Internationales du Cinéma de Patrimoine & Prix Henri Langlois désormais  parisiens, se tiendront du 30 mars au 4 avril dans le 16e arrondissement de Paris, épicentre de l’édition 2016 Après la célébration du 10ème anniversaire des Prix Henri Langlois 2015  en m&e...

 

21èmes Lumières de la presse étrangère, Hommage à Isabelle Huppert

L'Académie des Lumières rendra un hommage spécial à la grande comédienne Isabelle Huppert, invitée d'honneur de la 21ème édition des Lumières de la presse étrangère, qui aura lieu lundi 8 février 2016 à l'Espace Pierre Cardin.   La carrière d'Isabelle Huppert, qui comprend aujourd'hui plus de cent vingt titres, a dépassé les frontières depuis s...

 

Du 6 au 10 février 2016 : 4ème Caméflex - AFC / Mahmoud Kalari

4ème édition de Caméflex-AFC au cinéma Le Grand Action - Paris, 5è Du 6 au 10 février 2016 www.afcinema.com www.legrandaction.com Mahmoud Kalari : la passion de filmer Après Ricardo Aronovic...

 

 

MIFF 2016: Open Forum, I--Balancing Act

Open Forum, a platform for discussing and debating ideas related to several aspects of documentary, short and animation films, is a permanent feature of Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). It is organised by the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA). The first of these forums was held on 29th January 2016, in the open space outside J.B. Hall, Films Division Complex, the main venue of the festival.

‘Ethical and moral dilemmas that documentary film-makers face while working—what to include and what not to—how to present the truth with dignity, in challenging environments,’ was the topic for the inaugural session. Speakers included Biju Toppo, Nakul Singh Sawhney and Nitesh Anjaan, with Priya Krishnaswamy being the moderator.

Editor-director Krishnaswamy, who is known for her work both in the documentary (What About the Children?) and feature (Gangoobai) film arenas, started by defining the role of documentary makers as ‘representers’, part of a communication process. On the other hand, mainstream media, like major television channels and big newspapers, were more inclined towards feeding pre-conceived ideas, being ideologically driven and tilting towards the powerful. Such media vehicles came in for a fair bit of tongue-lashing at the Open Forum.

Sawhney, maker of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai, lamented that mainstream media, in the name of fairness, gave vent to the perpetrators of atrocities.

National award-winning documentary-maker (Loha Garam Hai) and culture and communication activist, Biju Toppo, who works in the Jharkhand state of India, confessed that he made films for the adivasis (aboriginals), focussing on their lot and their problems. If, in the process, they appear one-sided, “...so be it. Our fight is for jan (people)-jangal (jungles)-jameen (zameen/land), and we represent the exploited. How can we give the other side of the story when the administration is so hostile and even breaks our cameras?”

Anjaan, a young documentary-maker from Denmark, whose 71-min film Far From Home was screened just before the forum and went on to win the prize for the best debut film, shared his dilemma of making a film about his father, who had migrated from India and wanted to go back in his old age. Should he film the personal details, including moments like his father smoking? Should he go ahead with the film at all? He was persuaded to go ahead by his younger brother. Happily for him, the film, when shown on Danish TV in shortly before MIFF, was appreciated by many, including his father.

Another moral dilemma was addressed by Nakul Sawhney. Should a docu-maker keep the camera on, even after the subject has requested it to be switched off? Such a request might be made for many reasons, but one of them is the subject’s unwillingness to reveal facts/details on camera, but willingness to talk off camera/off the record. There are many examples of the camera capturing off the record stuff in a number of documentaries. Sawhney was of the opinion that in the case of a powerful subject, he might leave the camera on, while if the subject was weak and exploited, he might switch it off. “It has to be dealt with on a case to case basis.”

“Documentary film-makers are like Caesar’s wife,” concluded Priya, “they have to be above suspicion. And this applies in spite of the fact that cinema is a plastic medium.”

(Special thanks to Rahul Jain, IDPA)

Last night, the 31st annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival opened with the much awaited, THE LITTLE PRINCE!

I love this festival not just because it's set in a paradise-like beach community, or just because my friend and fellow Reno native Mike Albright does a damn good job programming it. I like to think because of Santa Barbara's proximity to Los Angeles it has a lot of filmmakers, film professionals, and film fanatics who are either a bit more chill than their more southern counterparts, or have decided to take a load off and move north, their passion for movies intact and their sanity preserved by the mountains & the beach. The festival has great movies, amazing attendance, a community feel, and takes place in theatres up and down State street in Santa Barbara, some of which are historic and beautiful.

When I posted on facebook that I'd be seeing THE LITTLE PRINCE yesterday, my friend Amanda said "WHATTTTTT THE FUCKK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?!??!?!?!?! " My enthusiasm for this movie matches Amanda's. The story holds a special place in my heart. We lost my oldest brother Matt when he was 18, and after he died many people sent us a version of this quote from the beloved 1942 fairytale.

“In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night...You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.”

I understood the potential in animation for such a whimsical story as its framework, especially with a smart director attached...Which after seeing the trailer was pretty clear.

I started my night on the red carpet where I met Mike, who has the same A7S as me though his is awesomely rigged up. Mike taught me a few camera tricks I didn't know. Thanks Mike! 

Once I had a few good pics of The Dude and his beautiful wife, and the lovely Mackenzie Foy who plays the little girl opposite Bridges, I headed into the packed theatre. Knowing it was going to be an emotional journey I carefully selected my seat, and ended up between a Santa Barbara citycouncilman and an architect. Besides that I like to make new friends wherever I go, I know this information because upon introducing the film, Festival Director Roger Durling asked us to turn to a stranger next to us and ask them what makes them special. "Don't let the mundane things in life take over," Durling said the book had taught him when he first read it in french class in high school. Get back to that childlike state where "everything is amazing." 

Props to Osborne for creating a film that that pays respect to the magic of the book and for tastefully weaving that together with a contemporary story of his own. It is utterly breathtaking stop motion (think paper, felt, cloth, tissue) animation along with an epic score (oh, Hans Zimmer) that honor the book. The movie puts the viewer in the shoes of a little girl and her mother, who are a bit caught up in the rat race. "You're going to make a wonderful adult," the little girl's mother says as she has planned out her entire life of accomplishments.

I can't wait for America to see this film and I can't think of a movie I'd rather watch 100 times with any kid I'm babysitting or having (eventually). I'll be curious to see if kids get itthe way adults do. I cried during it when I realized that it is encouragement and love and belief that are important in moving forward in life. I leave you with this quote, "You run the risk of weeping a little, if you let yourself get too deep." In life we shouldn't be afraid to go there. Sadness is as normal as happiness.  And when we don't always know what is going to happen, doubt is unnecessary. Belief is the only option. "It would comfort me to know for sure, but instead I choose to believe," Bridges character tells the little girl. 

To see red carpet footage and Osborne introduce the film, click here

The Cartagena International Film Festival (FICCI) has announced the films that will be competing in the official sections of this year's festival, which will take place on March 2-7. Eight fictional feature films, ten documentaries, ten Colombian productions and 20 short films will be battling it out for an India Catalina statue and over US$100,000 in prizes.

This edition of FICCI—the most prestigious film festival in Colombia and the longest-running one in Latin America—celebrates the creative boom Colombian cinema is currently experiencing and recalls the long road it has traveled to garner the international acclaim it now enjoys. FICCI Artistic Director Diana Bustamante made a heartfelt appeal to those present at the press conference.“Out of the love and respect we all have for cinema, I invite you to see all the films on our program, for more than a number, these are seconds, minutes and hours of experiences, of world visions and rewritings of history that open new doors in terms of narrative and format.” 
 
A diverse bunch of films will be competing in the various categories of FICCI 56, reflecting the number of original, quality productions the last year has gestated. “Each of our selections, from short films, films by new creators and Colombian and Ibero-American feature films to international fiction films and documentaries, plus a fine selection of retrospectives, promises to make this year’s edition of FICCI a moving, sensual one full of nostalgia; one that will be remembered and that will consolidate ours as a festival in constant evolution,” added Bustamante.

Competing in the Official Fiction category will be Aquí no ha pasado nada by Alejandro Fernández (Chile), recently selected for the Sundance Festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition; Oscuro animal by Felipe Guerrero (Colombia, Argentina, Holland, Germany, Greece), which was an official selection of the Rotterdam Film Festival; and Historias de dos que soñaron by Andrea Bussmann and Nicolás Pereda (Mexico, Canada), which will be making its world premiere in the Forum section of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. These three productions will be celebrating their Ibero-American premiere at FICCI. Accompanying them will be Boi neon by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil), which will be screened for the first time in Colombia after winning the Critics’ Prize at the Hamburg Film Festival; El movimiento by Benjamín Naishtat (Argentina, South Korea), selected for the Filmmakers of the Present category of the Locarno Film Festival; Te prometo anarquía by Julio Hernández Cordón (Mexico), winner of the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Latin American Film at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival; and Mate-me por favor by Anita Rocha Da Silveira (Brazil), nominated for Best Picture in the Orizzonte section of the Venice Film Festival. La academia de las musas by José Luis Guerín (Spain), winner of Best Picture at the Seville Festival of European Cinema, will be making its Latin American premiere. For this Competition, two more films are going to be announced next week.

The Official Documentary Competition will feature Aracati by Aline Portugal and Julia De Simone (Brazil); El mundo de Carolina by Mariana Viñoles (Uruguay); El viento sabe que vuelvo a casa by José Luis Torres Leiva (Chile), which recently premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival; Paciente by Jorge Caballero Ramos (Colombia), which participated in IDFA 2015; and Tempestad by Tatiana Huezo (Mexico), which has been selected for the Forum section of the 2016 Berlin Film Festival. All these productions will be making their Ibero-American premiere at FICCI 56, while La balada del Oppenheimer Park by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda (Mexico, France), which participated in RivieraLab, will be making its world premiere. Last but by no means least, Casa Blanca by Aleksandra Maciuszek (Cuba, Mexico, Poland), winner of the Coral Prize for Best Documentary at Havana; El rastreador de estatuas by Jerónimo Rodríguez (Chile); O futebol by Sergio Oksman (Spain, Brazil), which made its world premiere at Locarno; and Todo comenzó por el fin, Colombian director Luis Ospina’s latest film, will all be screened for the first time in Colombia.

Making its international premiere in the Colombian Cinema section will be Juan Sebastián Quebrada’sDías extraños, which was selected for the 2015 BAFICI international competition, while Los Nadie byJuan Sebastián Mesa, Sin mover los labios by Carlos Osuna and the documentary Home–el país de la ilusión by Josephine Landertinger Forero will all be celebrating their world premieres. Audiences can also see the Ibero-American premieres of Jacques Toulemonde’s Anna, which participated in the Latin Visionssection of the Stockholm Film Festival; Felipe Guerrero’s Oscuro animal; Jorge Caballero’sPaciente and Siembra, a first film by Santiago Lozano and Ángela Osorio, winners of the Boccalino independent critics’ prize at Locarno. Rounding off this section is Luis Ospina’s Todo comenzó por el fin, which will be making its national premiere, and Nicolás Rincón Guillé’s Noche herida, which received an Honorable Mention in the SCAM section of the Cinéma du Réel documentary film festival.

The Official Short Film Competition includes Quintal by André Novais Oliveira (Brazil), Entre la tierra by Sofía Quirós (Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile), La impresión de una guerra by Camilo Restrepo (Colombia, France), Locas perdidas by Ignacio Juricic (Chile), Marea de tierra by Manuela Martelli (Chile, France),Noite sem distância by Lois Patiño (Portugal), O teto sobre nós by Bruno Carboni (Brazil), Tarântula by Aly Muritiba and Marja Calafange (Brazil), Un cuento de amor, locura y muerte by Mijael Bustos Gutiérrez (Chile) and Víctor XX by Ian Garrido (Spain), which will all be shown for the first time in Colombia. Bunker by Sandro Aguilar (Portugal), El Edén by Andrés Ramírez Pulido (Colombia), Iceberg by Juliana Gómez (Cuba), L’homme de ma vie by Melanie Deloye (France, Colombia), El buzo by Esteban Arrangoiz (Mexico) and Tisure by Adrian Geyer (Venezuela) will be celebrating their Ibero-American premieres, while the selection continues with the world premieres of De barrio by Sebastián Galvis Forero (Colombia), No hay bestias by Agustina San Martín (Argentina) and Santiamén by William Vega (Colombia), and the international premiere of 24º51º latitud norte by Carlos Lenin Triviño (Mexico).

Click HERE for the full list of these and films in other sections announced at the press conference.

In the United States there are now more than 80 Jewish film festivals with The New York and San Francisco Jewish film festivals considered the best. Given its venue at the Lincoln Center, the large Jewish population of the New York metropolitan area and the upscale educated audience it attracts the NY Jewish film festival plays a special role. A large program with a balanced mix of features, documentaries, shorts as well as panels and master classes as offered this year by Amis Gitai and the international provenance of production selected enhances the importance of the fest. The partnership between the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum results in the collaboration of many film experts broadening the reach of the fest. Held from January 13-26 the 25th edition of the fest the program’s lineup offered 38 features and shorts from 12 countries with many world and U.S premieres. It included a retrospective, a panel and other special events.

The festival opened with the Oscar nominated foreign language film LAMB by Yarek Zeleke (2015, France Ethiopia, Germany, Norway) a superbly executed ethnographic study of Ephraim, an Ethiopian boy and his passage from the father, who has to leave to find work, to his distant uncle’s family which ekes out a living in subsistence farming, barely making enough food to survive. Ephraim brings his beloved sheep along trying to save it by all means when his uncle wants to sacrifice it for the upcoming religious Easter fest. Set in the context of a poor Coptic family the film introduces the tensions of a setting shaped by traditional customs and loyalties. His uncle’s daughter a literate student fails to enhance her father’s farming skills given his opposition to modern methods. Ephraim knows nothing about farming and prefers to use his excellent cooking talent, skills firmly rejected by the uncle since as he argues women cook and man farm, though Ephraim earns money selling samosas in the market. This semi-biographic coming of age story of the nine-year old boy shows displacement into hard labor farm life; fight for survival of his friend the lamb, loving maternal figures immured in tradition, and contradictions with the encroaching modern life. Ephraim eventually leaves his sheep in the care of a girl tending animals and tells the uncle that it has been stolen. Without providing commentaries the film introduces us to the impoverished family and its life style, a setting totally alien to the Western way of living. It also offers great images of the extraordinary Ethiopian landscapes.

It is a credit to the fest that Andrzej Wajda‘s Holy Week (Poland, 1995) was selected for this year, a rarely shown dramatic film though it is a superb artistic work. Staged during the first three days of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in October 1943  the film depicts Irena’s fate who is harbored by an old friend Jan in his house whose brother Jurik is part of the Polish resistance. She can see the Ghetto burning from her room and grows close to Ana Jan’s wife who has empathy with the suffering of the Jews while Jan remains somehow detached. With some exceptions the resentment of Jews is openly shared by some people in the film. A woman living in the basement claims that “we suffer from the captivity only to die for the Jews” and in Jan’s office an apparent functionary declares “... we may be grateful to Hitler. He did a whole lot of unpleasant hard work for us... otherwise we’ll have to liquidate the Jews after the war. Poland must be free of Jews”. Only one fellow worker opposes the view which is shared privately by Jan with his boss. When  Irena is spotted and reported to the landlord that as a  Jew who is endangering the community which is under constant guard by the Germans, he states that human life should be respected but forces Jan to find a new place for Irena. When he does learn that the people he looked for had been arrested by the Germans he is trapped and shot. Irena is blamed for the accident of a little girl, cursed and decides to leave for the ghetto. Wajda shows through persuasive exchanges and imagery the fractured positions Poles had about Jews during the war and the implication those convictions had several decades later. The film is also rather convincing because of excellent acting and staging.

In a neo-realistic  approach Efrat Coren presents in BEN ZAKEN (Israel, 2014) an unblemished portrait of Ben Zaken who lives with his family in a deteriorating housing project in a small city. This is a view of the Israeli underclass rarely shown in features in the United States. There is no humor or other relief in Ben Zaken’s struggle taking care of his 11-year old daughter Runi. He is underemployed sometimes resentfully working for his older brother and endures a conflictual relation with a mother who calls her granddaughter a little bitch. She has constant fights with Runi and wants to get rid of her. His brother Leon suffers from a possessive love relations which he can’t break and is troubled by uncertainty about his religious orientation. There are few traces of emotional support and attachment in this film which is dominated by a fractured dysfunctional family life. Efran Cohen conveys effectively the family breakdown and the socio-economic background carrying it.

The feature THE LAW provides a an eye opening  investigation of the struggle the French health minister Simone Veil  had overcoming in the fall of 1974 the opposition to her proposed law to legalize abortions. Including her presentation in parliament and court appearance she had to fight sections of her governing party, the Catholic Church and the opposition. For Veil, a survivor of the concentration camps, legalizing abortion was a public health rather than a feminist issue and she had to face personal and slanderous attacks. She was called a Nazi and a swastika was painted on the walls of her building.  At that time an estimated 300 000 women had an abortion each year performed underground with 2500 women dying, primarily victims from the poor sections of the population. Those objecting to the law considered abortion as a death industry, a license to kill and even played the heartbeat of a fetus during the parliamentary debates sometimes arguing that the measure was a threat to population growth. The photojournalist Diane secured persuasive images from a hospital where secretly abortions were carried out. By working out compromises such as deleting state funding for abortions and mandatory obligations for medical doctors Veil overcame most opposition and her bill was adopted on January 17 1975. Funding for abortion was established in 1982. Based on fact and real people THE LAW is a superlative example of a fact based docudrama teaching history, parliamentary procedures and party politics as well as the power of an individual who persists in her endeavor. The audience can follow the reenactment and arguments of the principle protagonists, Jacques Chirac, Michel Debre, Edgar Faure and Michel Poniatowski, to name but a few.

One of the highlights of the festival was RABIN, THE LAST DAY by Amos Gitai (Israel/France 2015) a compelling reconstruction of the context and causes of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 after a political peace rally in Tel Aviv. The features effectively combines reenacting of the Shamgar commission’s inquiry into the assassination, archival footage and interviews and illustrates the  violent subculture leading to his murder and the link to  current policy makers who indirectly provided support for the rise of violence. In rightwing religious services Rabin was cursed before the assassination and radicalized settlers openly demanded that Rabin be killed. Obscure interpretations of the Talmud justified violence against Palestinians and the rejection of the Oslo accords. Mass demonstrations were held with leaders from the Likud part to oppose the government because Rabin’s policy was a threat to the expansion of the settlements in occupied areas and maintenance of the hold over all of Jerusalem.  A right wing clinical Psychologist went so far to label Rabin as suffering from a schizoid pathology and a Rabbi imposed the Kabbalistic death curse "Pulsa Dinura” on Rabin. In right wing demonstrations preaching upheaval of the government Rabin was shown wearing a Nazi uniform. There is no question that Likud and its leaders including Netanyahu were responsible for creating the socio-cultural basis for the violence.  The writing for Rabin’s murder was clearly on the wall with no action taken by the authorities. For Rabin’s widow Leah interviewed in the film, Likud’s leaders shared responsibility for the growth of violence and hate speech, a condition which is characteristic for much that happens currently in Israel.

Claus Mueller, filmexchange@gmail.com

The third edition of this relatively new and unknown festival will be held from  March 14-20  in Manhattan’s Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea. In the first two years 108 films from 33 countries  were shown in smaller venues  drawing an audience of more than 200. Established by filmmaker Nora Armani as a non-profit film festival SRFF occupies a unique niche with its focus on socially relevant films reelecting universal human interests contributing to positive change but foregoing any inclusion of violence.  The first edition was financed by the founder and director Nora Armani. Given the positive response to the premiere of this unique festival grant funding as well as individual and service contributions made the second edition possible. As with other new film festivals funding remains a challenge though the prospects are encouraging. As in past years the program is restricted to productions which premiere at the fest, excelling in production quality and superb story telling.  They are selected in four competition categories feature length narratives, documentaries, short films and screenplays and are chosen by panels of film professionals bestowing numerous awards. The documentary grand prize includes a distribution deal by Indiepix covering also winning shorts. Cinema Libre grants to the best documentary postproduction services.

The 2016 edition party is held on March 14 at McSorley’s Old Ale House, the oldest Irish pub in New York, with festival screenings through March 19 at Bow Tie Cinemas. It concludes on March 20 with an awards ceremony at the Center for Remembering and Sharing.  In the morning of March 19 a panel on Distribution and Shaping the Documentary is scheduled at the School of Visual Arts.

The program includes more than 40 productions featuring six narrative films and eight documentaries and numerous shorts, drawn from more than 400 submissions obtained through film festival distribution platforms such as Withoutabox and Filmfreeway. The selection this year is rather impressive since it provides a rather comprehensive relevant thematic range. Features and documentaries focus on human trafficking,  immigration & refugees, self discovery, urban life, gentrification, disabilities,  gender issues, genocide, and human exploitation to name but a few.

Unless noted otherwise the productions premiering are from 2015.  The narrative section includes Caged No More, USA/Greece, 2016; I Am Not From Barcelona, Belgium/Spain; Before the Spring, Egypt; Escapes, Spain, 2013; Dance Iranian Style, Netherlands; and The Cursed Ones, UK/Ghana. Selected documentary features are All Meshed Up, Netherlands, 2014;  Who Killed The Armenians, Egypt; Aile Contre Aile (Supersonic Women), France;  Tamashi (Soul), USA/Japan;  The neighborhood That Disappeared, USA, 2014; The Sex Temple, Sweden; Beneath The Olive Tree, USA/Greece; and Sense  The Wind, USA.  The intriguing program is   certainly promising.  Though this year’s venue is larger, the small audience drawn to the festival has the advantage of permitting more discussions. All narrative films have a Q&A period as do five of the eight documentaries, another aspect setting the SRFF apart from most other film festivals. For more information check wwwratedsrfilms.org

Claus Mueller  filmexchange@gmail.com

NEWSLETTER 1 February 9, 2016  -----------------------FOLLOW US ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKS:                                                                                                                                                  

Dear Festival Organizers attending Berlin You are cordially invited to our wine tasting party celebrating Exodus to Shangai premiere in Berlin

Exodus to Shangai by Anthony Hickox to celebrate the Market World Premiere at EFM February 12

Exodus to Shangai will receive its Market Premiere at EFM February 12th The world Premiere is set for Fantasporto March 3rd part of the Fantasporto for Peace Action.  The Crew and Cast will be attending the screening in the Market Feb 12th at 7:00 pm Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie, Potsdamer Strasse 2, 10785 Berlin www.micheladam.tv/shanghai/story/  I  Press Kit on filmfestivals.com I Ask for a screener I Take a meeting in Berlin I Book Exodus to Shangai fo...

 

Exodus to Shanghai, 2015 review

Produced by Michel Adam a fashion TV founder and directed by Anthony Hickox (Waxwork, Hellraiser3...) this upbeat feature film provides a superb symbiosis of action thriller, comedy, romance, adventure, music and high production value. Using most attractive fashion models and seasoned actors the Exodus story is largely based on the true story of Dr. Feng Shan Ho the Chinese Consul of Vienna issuing 10, 000 exit visas in 1938 to Austrian Jews to leave the Third Reich for Shanghai, an initiative...

 

 

BREAKING NEWS FROM EFM: LINE UP AND FILM PREMIERING 

 

Dutch Features Global Entertainment secures top grossing Dutch comedy of 2015: Bon Bini Holland

Dutch Features Global Entertainment (DFGE) has joined forces with production powerhouse Kaap Holland Film, and returns to Berlinale’s European Film market 2016 with the outrageous comedy BON BINI HOLLAND, the highest grossing Dutch comedy in 2015. The film recently received a prestigious Platinum Film for its exceptional box office performance.   Bon Bini Holland - Trailer 1 from Dutch Features on Vimeo. Bon Bini Holland tells the story of Robertico Florentina (Jandino...

 

EYE TO EYE @ EFM 2016

    CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EYE TO EYE BROCHURE   Eye to Eye is a pan-European initiative dedicated to young audiences aiming at facilitating the circulation of European independent films on various distribution platforms. The project is based on a strong network of partners, including European film festivals, cinemas, distributors and VoD platforms, gat...

 

'Who's Gonna Love Me Now?' World Premiere at Berlinale by Tomer Heymann & Barak Heymann

  SYNOPSIS Saar is an HIV positive gay man living in London, where he found refuge from the religious kibbutz where he grew up in Israel. Ever since he was diagnosed with HIV, Saar has craved his family's love, while they struggle with fears and prejudices. Saar and the rest of the London Gay Men's Chorus provide a glorious soundtrack for this documentary about the power of forgiveness and the power that home has, no matter how far we go.   Credits Written...

 

Jochen Hick's new documentary THE GDR COMPLEX, which will have its world premiere in the Panorama section

Jochen Hick's new documentary THE GDR COMPLEX, which will have its world premiere at the 66th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / Panorama section (pls. find screening dates below).   THE GDR COMPLEX presents Mario Roellig, born 1967.Being gay, young and conservative, Mario Roellig is one of the most in-demand witnesses to the atrocities committed by the GDR. He guides groups through today’s memorial site in the former Stasi prison where he was once incarcerated.Roellig speak...

 

Fortissimo Films announced today a multi-picture representation of Chinese writer, producer, director Zhang Wei

Fortissimo Films announced today a multi-picture representation of Chinese multi-hyphenate, Zhang Wei, to include his first two films, FACTORY BOSS and DESTINY.  The representation will commence in Berlin, where FACTORY BOSS, which won the Best Actor award at the Montreal Film Festival, will also feature in the upcoming Berlin Chinese Film Festival.   Zhang Wei transitioned to filmmaking after becoming a successful business man/ entrepreneur. He is a graduate of the acclaimed Bei...

 

Sundance winner "Sand Storm" and more @ Berlinale 2016

5 new Israeli films, supported by Gesher Multicultural Film Fund, will be screened at the Berlinale. Sand Storm, winner of the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, is one of them.    "Defining ourselves through the definition of the Other has become a formative part of our communication with the world around us and our perception and relationship with it. It contributes to the widening of gaps, and d...

 

Mark Lewis film INVENTION @ Berlin International Film Festival

Screening at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival INVENTION A film by Mark Lewis Shot in Paris, São Paulo and Toronto, Invention is the first feature-length film by Mark Lewis. Lewis captures the ever-changing textures of these cities through moving images of glass, light, shadows and reflections, offering an homage to the City Symphony films of the 1920s, while also juxtaposing modernist architecture with the compositional structures of old master painting...

 

EL REY DEL ONCE - The highly anticipated new film by Silver Bear - winner Daniel Burman - Panorama Special Opening Film

EL REY DEL ONCE   The highly anticipated new film by Silver Bear-winner Daniel Burman  (Jury Grand Prix 2004 for "El abrazo partido")    Panorama Special Opening film (World Premiere)   Argentina 2015, 80 mins         with Alan Sabbagh, Julieta Zylberberg, Usher, Elvira Onetto Produced by BD Cine, Pasto in association with Alegoria, Telefe, Fox +   Press Screening: Friday, Feb. 12, 11:40, CINESTAR 3 ...

 

THE BACHELORS adds Julie Delpy for Fortitude International

Golden Globe and Oscar nominee Julie Delpy (BEFORE SUNRISE, BEFORE SUNSET), is joining Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (WHIPLASH, TERMINATOR GENISYS, JUNO) in the ensemble comedic drama THE BACHELORS. Windowseat Entertainment is fully financing the project set to begin principal photography in Los Angeles this March.   Written and to be directed by Kurt Voelker (SWEET NOVEMBER, PARK), the feature film is produced by Matthew Baer (UNBROKEN, MAGGIE, CITY BY THE SEA), George Parra (JOY, THE DESC...

 

Portugal Film is at Berlinale with three films.

Berlinale Shorts just anounced its oficial selection where there are two films represented by Portugal Film - Portuguese Film Agency: Batrachian's Ballad, by Leonor Teles, and Freud und Friends, by Gabriel Abrantes. Batrachian's Ballad is Leonor Tele's first film after graduating from Film School. It is an 11 minute documentary, produced by Uma Pedra no Sapato, which according to its director "occurred when I learnt a surprising fact  – the Portuguese tradi...

 

Offer Egozy’s first feature FANTASTIC is selected at the 2016 Berlinale Forum.

    Synopsis : An absurdist, pastel noir that documents events after an artist flees New York and winds up dead in a small town.  A local sheriff, an old lover, and a distant friend try to sort out what’s happened and, in the process, confront the ways that their own needs and desires have created the mysteries that surround them.   Offer Egozy (director) and Alexandra Anthony (lead actress) will be available for interviews in Berlin February 11 till 19. If ...

 

The Miracle of Tekir @ EFM Berlinale

 Market screening of  The Miracle of Tekir, which will take place on February 17th at 11.30 a.m , CinemaxX Studio 14.     In the heart of the Danube Delta, earth and water, superstition and religion mix together to make up the mysterious and miraculous Tekir’s mud. Accused of witchery and chased away from her village, Mara finds herself employed at the Tekir Hotel, specifically in charge of the rich and eccen...

 

A Night in Tokoriki Official Selection - Generation 14plus

In an improvised night club called "Tokoriki" the whole village celebrates Geanina’s 18th birthday. Her boyfriend and Alin will give her a most surprising gift, one that nobody will ever forget. A short film by Roxana Stroe. Production: UNATC World Sales: Ultraviolet Media Screening schedule: 15.02.2016, at 17:00- CinemaxX 1 17.02.2016, at&nbs...

 

 

ECHOES OF TIME A Portrait of Our Times in Images

 ECHOES OF TIME A Portrait of Our Times in Images   Worthy of comparison to the work of great masters, Robert Wilson, Tarkovsky and Matthew Barney, ECHOES OF TIME creates a stunning visual portrait of the most challenging issues we are facing today: endless wars, migration, lost values, the isolation of the ruling from the ruled and the surreal nature of our reality. Just like in Alain Resnais' "Last Year at Marienbad", the...

 

City of Jade by Midi Z at the 2016 Berlinale

Seashore Image Productions is pleased to inform you that Midi Z (Jade Miners, Ice Poison, Poor Folk) is going to present his latest documentary, City of Jade, at the 2016 Berlinale Forum. Following his observational Jade Miners (2015 Rotterdam) on the predicament of the Burmese jade miners, Midi tells a very personal account of his family story set in the same location, the treacherous Jade City, which is the heart of the jade rush in Myanmar.    Currently, Myanmar is undergoing s...

 

Foresight Unlimited Takes International Sales Rights on Michael Mailer's BLIND

Mark Damon’s Foresight Unlimited announced today that they will be handling international sales on Michael Mailer’s (The Ledge, Seduced and Abandoned) drama Blind, starring Alec Baldwin (The Departed, Concussion), Demi Moore (Ghost, A Few Good Men), and Dylan McDermott (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Olympus Has Fallen) at the upcoming EFM. Mailer directed and produced alongside Diane Fisher, Jennifer Gelfer, Pamela Thur, and Martin Tuchman. Foresight’s Mark Damon and Tamar...

 

Academy Award Nominee Ethan Hawke to star in Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures' 24 HOURS TO LIVE’

Leading Chinese production and distribution outfit Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures announced today that Academy Award® Nominee Ethan Hawke (Boyhood, Training Day) will star in their upcoming thriller 24 Hours to Live, with acclaimed Second Unit Director Brian Smrz tapped to direct. Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road, Fundamental Films Chairman Mark Gao and International President Gregory Ouanhon are producing the film, with Fundamental fully financing. Fundamental Films’ Gary G...

 

Hicham Lasri's STARVE YOUR DOG ats Berlinale Panorama section.

If Arab cinema had a punk movement, then Hicham Lasri would be its Johnny Rotten. Rasha Salti (TIFF 2015) A has-been filmmaker sets out to engrave a painful chapter in her country’s history by interviewing a notorious political strongman about the part he played in a brutal former regime. The filmmaker’s glory days are quite as faded as the political power her subject once enjoyed. And her old crew is no longer cohesive or motivated. They all go round and round, circling the...

 

Guests and speakers/panelists for all seven nights of this years BERLIN CRITICS’ WEEK confirmed their participation.

        The focus of the 2nd BERLIN CRITICS’ WEEK will again lie on negotiating cultural, political and aesthetic questions of filmmaking, inspired by a diverse film programme. Besides filmmakers and critics, philosophers and visual artists accepted the invitation to our panels.   Besides others, we will welcome the filmmakers Jennifer Reeder, Tatjana Turanskyj, Marita Neher, Denis Côté, Philippe Grandrieux and Lewis...

 

Aslı Özge's ALL OF A SUDDEN in Panorama Special

Screenings at Berlin International Film Festival: Friday 12.02.2016 / 12:30 / Cinemaxx 7 / First Official Screening (Press Priority) Saturday 13.02.2016 / 14:00 / Cubix 9 Thursday 18.02.2016 / 21:30 / Zoo Palast 1 / Gala Screening Friday 19.02.2016 / 12:30 / Cinemaxx 7                 A film by Aslı Özge produced by EEE Productions (DE), Topkapi Films (NL), Haut...

 

Martin Hawie “TORO” will screen at the Berlinale “Perspektive Deutsches Kino” programme.

TORO has already received a “special mention of the jury”  at the 49th Hof International Film Festival 2015.   SHORT SYNOPSIS / LOGLINE: TORO it is a young Polish man (Paul Wollin), who came to Germany ten years earlier in search of a future. Toro, whose name is actually Piotr, hopes to realize his dream of opening a boxing school in Poland and to do so earns his living as an escort for middle-class women.  TORO - Official Trailer from SUMMERSIDE INTERNATIO...

 

New music programs from Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company at Avant Première 2016.

We welcome You to the screening of the chef d’œuvre of Finnish music, KULLERVO,  a symphonic poem by Jean Sibelius at Scandic Potsdamer Platz Screening Hall on Wednesday 17th February at 19.30hrs.  Also present will be the choreographer Tero Saarinen. Tero Saarinen - Jean Sibelius: Kullervo Dance and Opera - 2015    90 min, HD Co-production: Finnish National Opera, Yle and...

 

 

WHO IS ODA JAUNE? (World Premiere - Perspektive Deutsches Kino) documentary portrait of German-Bulgarian painter

WHO IS ODA JAUNE? (World Premiere - Perspektive Deutsches Kino) is a complicated, surprising documentary portrait of German-Bulgarian painter Oda Jaune - whose contemporary paintings defy categorization to explore a vast range of moving and often disturbing imagery: pregnant men, faceless naked bodies, perverse figures, joyful creatures and flying people all exist side by side.   And like her paintings, Jaune herself is cloaked in mystery, refusing to easily ascribe meaning to h...

 

Czech director Petr Vaclav premieres his latest drama WE ARE NEVER ALONE (Forum - World Premiere) at the Berlinale

  Critically acclaimed Czech director Petr Vaclav premieres his latest drama WE ARE NEVER ALONE (Forum - World Premiere) at the Berlinale.   This ensemble allegory follows the surprisingly interconnected lives of a group of very different people struggling to survive, each in their own way, in a small town in the Czech provinces: a paranoid prison guard, his hypochondriac neighbor and his wife who holds a shocking secret, their hardened children, a lovesi...

 

YOU'LL NEVER BE ALONE (World Premiere - Panorama) directorial film debut of internationally known Chilean musician Alex Anwandt

YOU'LL NEVER BE ALONE (World Premiere - Panorama) marks the striking directorial film debut of internationally known Chilean musician Alex Anwandter. Inspired by the 2012 real life hate murder of a gay teen in Chile that galvanized the nation, Anwandter has written and directed a powerful film about a homophobic assault that elegantly traces the aftermath's effect on a family, and an estranged father's moving attempts to reconcile and help his son.   Trailer: ht...

 

NAKOM (World Premiere - Panorama) the first film from Ghana to ever play the Berlinale

NAKOM (World Premiere - Panorama) is a historic film - the first film from Ghana to ever play the Berlinale, and the first feature film made in the Kusaal language.  Inspired by the pull of Western modern life in a remote African farming village, NAKOM is a tremendous achievement.   After his father's sudden death, Iddrisu, a talented medical student, returns to Nakom, his home village in northern Ghana, to repay a debt that threatens to destroy his fam...

 

EFM 16: The Exchange brings Tiger Mickey Rourke starring

TIGER stars Mickey Rourke (IRON MAN 2, THE WRESTLER), Janel Parrish (PRETTY LITTLE LIARS), Prem Singh (BREAKAWAY). It tells the inspirational true story of Pardeep Singh Nagra, a Sikh man who was banned from the sport of boxing for refusing to back down from his beliefs. Nagra was a contender for the Olympic Games, but was denied the opportunity to fight because he refused to shave his beard, which would have violated Sikh religious law. With immense support from his head coach and mentor, Par...

 

Summer Hill Films/TomCat Films to present: HAVANA HEAT at EFM

  "...a buddy adventure movie in a city as fascinating as Havana" - The Arts Guild A lot can happen in three days. Jacky Petty, played by Gil Bellows, is an Insurance excutive attending a convention in Cuba. Brushing off a fortune teller's warning of impending danger, he befriends Harry Smith, played by Greg Wise, who is a fun loving travel writer with a taste for cigars, rum and trouble. Harry takes Jack under his wing and out for a day and night of adventure....

 

13 Films to sell WORLDS APART at the upcoming European Film Market

This will be the market debut for this title. Starring Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons, WORLDS APART is made up of three separate narratives, each following a love story between a foreigner and a local. Each story represents a different generation falling in love during a time of socioeconomic turmoil that dominates Southern Europe as a whole, only to connect as a single story in the end.   13 Films will handle international rights outside of Greece to the romantic drama WORLDS...

 

ANTS ON A SHRIMP will be World Premiering in the Culinary Cinema section.

Director, Maurice Dekkers, will be attending to present the film    ANTS ON A SHRIMP is a fascinating feature documentary following the story of globally renowned chef, René Redzepi, as he relocates his restaurant, NOMA, long-recognized as one of the best in the world, from Copenhagen to Japan.  René faces one of the biggest challenges of his career as he applies his philosophy of “time and place on a plate” to create a brand new, innovative 14 course...

 

 

P.S. Jerusalem will celebrate its European premiere in the Forum section

  P.S. Jerusalem (Canada 2015), a documentary feature by Danae Elon, will screen in the Forum section of this year’s Berlinale. Documentarian Danae Elon, daughter of acclaimed author Amos Elon, decides to return to her hometown Jerusalem with her young family after several years abroad. Through her camera’s lens, she narrates her children’s and her husband’s experiences, bravely exposing all the complexities of life in Jerusalem. P.S. Jerusalem is a film about nav...

 

World Cinema Fund: Expanded Subsidy Programme, WCF goes EFM and WCF Africa Day

  In 2015, the WCF significantly expanded and strengthened its palette of support programmes. That would not have been possible without funds provided by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, which thus guarantee the existence of the WCF until at least 2018. Thanks to enhanced cooperation with the German Foreign Office, which substantially raised its level of support, the WCF also now enjoys additional discretion in its actions.   Additional financing from the European Commissio...

 

Cine Argentino @ Berlinale 2016

PANORAMA SPECIAL El rey del Once | Aka The Tenth Man Daniel Burman Ari, who has built a successful career in New York, thinks he has left his past behind. But his distant father Usher who runs a Jewish aid foundation in El Once, the close-knit old Jewish neighborhood of Buenos Aires, summons him back to his native city. What ensues is a comedy of errors, of missed and found people and connections, and a rumination on the extent to which we can ever really leave our past behind. ...

 

Monty Python Terry Jones' BOOM BUST BOOM opens in US

  Bill and Ben Productions and Brainstorm Media announced today Terry Jones’ new feature documentary BOOM BUST BOOM, which shows the link between our unstable economy and how economics is taught. A mix of live action, animation, puppetry and song, BOOM BUST BOOM charts the ancient cycle of boom and bust and offers the world a solution. BOOM BUST BOOM opens theatrically in US on March 11 at The Village East Cinema in New York, followed...

 

Scott Mann's action-packed thriller Final Score on the market at EFM

Scott Mann   Highland Film Group (HFG) announced today that they will sell the international rights to Final Score, with Scott Mann (Heist, The Tournament) attached to direct. The action-packed thriller, which is penned by The Brothers Lynch, will be filmed at West Ham United’s world renowned Upton Park Stadium in London. Signature’s Marc Goldberg will produce with The Fyzz Facility’s Wayne Marc Godfrey (The Foreigner, Bone Tomahawk) and Robert Jones (The Usual Suspe...

 

SUMMERSIDE INTERNATIONAL will debut at EUROPEAN FILM MARKET 2016.

SUMMERSIDE INTERNATIONAL will be located at Martin Gropious Bau, stand nr. 13 SUMMERSIDE INTERNATIONAL is a vivid and dynamic entertainment reality, specialized in production, financing and worldwide distribution of feature films and television programming, co-founded by Francesca Manno and Nicola Tassoni. Participating in top markets and festivals around the world, SUMMERSIDE INTERNATIONAL will launch at European Film Market 2016 and will offer filmmakers and producers its distribution and ...

 

Eras of Music History - Market Screening Avant Première 2016

MARKET SCREENING  ERAS OF MUSIC HISTORY MODERN TIMES Presented by Signed Media, C Major Entertainment & ZDF/Arte Thursday 18 Feb. 2016 13:45 - 14:45 Scandic H...

 

Flanders films in Berlin

Discover some of the most exciting features and TV drama made in Flanders and Brussels, Belgium shown at this year's European Film Market in Berlin!         Check screening schedule     ...

 

Languages & The Media Conference in Berlin this November

The new mediascape is cross-platform, on-demand and multilingual Across all sectors, personalised, on-demand service is no longer a luxury, but an expectation. When consuming media, users are looking for accessible, quality content across all platforms, at all times, in all languages. For the audiovisual translation sector this presents a huge challenge, but also a great opportunity. Never before has there been such high demand for professional media translation services, but these new time...

 

Go2Films at EFM

CAFE NAGLER - BERLINALE Culinary Cinema       Documentary | Israel, Germany | 59 min | 2015 Director: Mor Kaplansky Co-director: Yariv Barel Producer: Liran Atzmor Involved broadcasters: Keshet...

 

No Future without a Past Feb18: A discussion on feminism, diversity and film archives on the occasion of the 66th Berlinale

          NO FUTURE WITHOUT A PAST – Save Your Place in Film History! A discussion on feminism, diversity and film archives on the occasion of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival 18 February 2016 - Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth / Berlin Who decides today what we will remember tomorrow? What are the ways and means to secure the place of women film-makers in the history of film? How t...

 

Archstone Distribution presents THE HARVESTING

The Solstice is Coming   To escape their marital problems, a young family travels to the city to spend the summer in Amish country where a malevolent...

 

 

SciFi projects Taking Earth and Teleios bound to Berlin with Empress Road

Empress Road Pictures President, Galen Christy, and CEO, Faisal Toor, announced today a deal to sell World Wide distribution rights for the sci-fi features TAKING EARTH and TELEIOS at Berlinale. Empress Road will be selling the films at EFM'16 from February 11 to the 19th.   TAKING EARTH is a science-fiction/action epic filmed on location in South Africa. It was directed by up-and-comer Grant Humphreys and stars Ronan Quarmby.   TAKING EARTH follows the human race being thrown ...

 

Brian O'Shea, CEO of The Exchange, has announced a deal to sell worldwide rights to OFFICE UPRISING.

  Brenton Thwaites (MALEFICENT, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES, THE GIVER) has been cast in the picture which the Exchange will be selling at Berlinale and EFM'16, February 11 - 19, 2016.   OFFICE UPRISING tells the story inside one of the worlds leading arms manufacturers where a substance is slipped into the employees' drinks by the board of directors that supposedly makes them work more efficiently. Due to a slacker within the company though, they are fe...

 

Vision Films holds EFM special screening of the new Henrik Isben classic Hedda Gabler

 

 

Fundamental Films and Company Films Tap Harald Zwart to Direct 'RALLY CAR' Starring Keanu Reeves

Leading Chinese production and distribution outfit Fundamental Films and Company Films announced that Harald Zwart (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, The Karate Kid) will direct their upcoming action film, Rally Car, (working title) starring Keanu Reeves (John Wick, The Matrix Trilogy). Jeremy Lott (Spy Kids) has penned the script which is based on a treatment by Stephen Hamel. Reeves and Hamel will produce under their Company Films banner along with Fundamental Films Chairman Mark Gao an...

 

More from DeAPlaneta International at EFM

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Documentaries in all sections of Berlinale - Full line up

In Focus: Diverse Documentary Forms and Events   The Berlin International Film Festival has long been committed to documentaries in their diverse forms. This is reflected in the programmes of the Berlinale’s different sections and initiatives, as well as in the European Film Market (EFM) and Berlinale Talents. In 2016, a total of 77 documentaries will be screening in a variety of forms. In addition, discussion of a wide range of different aspects related to documentaries will be ...

 

Cleverman The thrilling new high-stakes genre drama series to screen at Drama Series Days

The thrilling new high-stakes genre drama for ABC TV Australia and SundanceTV US.   Set in the near future, a species from ancient mythology must live amongst humans and battle for survival in a world that wants to silence, exploit and destroy them.   At the heart of the story are two estranged brothers, Koen and Waruu West, who are forced together to fight against terrifying enemies - both human and not of this world. But can Koen, a man bestowed with a powerful g...

 

Recreation Media Sales @ EFM

 All Mistakes Buried 2016 | USA | 90 MIN Genre Thriller Status Completed Director TIM MCCANN Writers TIM MCCANN, SHAUN S. SANGHANI Producers SHAUN S. SANHANI Cast VANESSA FERLITO, SAM TRAMMELL U.S. Distributor BREAKING GLASS PICTURES A lone, struggling addict takes on a dangerous underground criminal ring in his small Southern town to retrieve a stolen pe...

 

House of Film brings to EFM Children's series that went viral

Niloya Trailer             ...

 

 

EFM'16: K-SHop for UK

K-SHOPthe Sweeney Todd inspired kebab shop elevated horror is set to be released in July by Bulldog Film Distributors and sold worldwide by EMPRESS ROAD PICTURES.   A debut for writer and director DAN PRINGLE the controversial film sees binge drinking culture clash with a vigilante kebab shop owner played by ZIAD ABAZA.   Produced by White Lantern Film and shot entirely in UK, the Sweeney Todd inspired horror/thriller follows the story of a kebab shop owner's son who turns vigi...

 

The Yellow Affair new Titles @ EFM

NEW RELEASES THE YARD (Berlinale Forum) A single father and peripheral poet loses his job as a literary critic when he reviews his own book. With no formal education, he ends up at a car trans-shipment hub. He becomes an outcast, a nameless stranger with a five-digit number. Personal morals are pitted against the demands of fatherhood in an escalating conflict that is ultimately resolved by a lie.     ...

 

The Solution Entertainment Group will represent international rights to Frank Hudec’s THE SLEEPING SHEPHERD

The Solution Entertainment Group will represent international rights to Frank Hudec’s THE SLEEPING SHEPHERD, who wrote and will direct the feature film. The film stars Michael Pitt (FUNNY GAMES, HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’), Imogen Poots (upcoming KNIGHT OF CUPS, GREEN ROOM, FRANK AND LOLA), Isabelle Huppert (THE PIANO TEACHER, AMOUR) and Willem Dafoe (upcoming THE GREAT WALL, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS) it was announced today by The Solution Entertai...

 

BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH World Premiere Film / Forum Section

BARAKAH YOQABIL BARAKAH (BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH)   A Film by Mahmoud Sabbagh Starring: Hisham Fageeh and Fatima Al Banawi     Media Opportunities Mahmoud Sabbagh, Hisham Fageeh, and Fatima Al Banawi Friday, 12 February  - Monday, 15 February   Festival Screenings *World Premiere* - Friday, 12 February at 21:30 - Delphi Saturday, 13 February at 22:00 - CineStar 8 *P&I* Sunday, 14 February at 14:00 - CinemaxX 6 Monday, 15 February at 19:30 - Zoo-Palast ...

 

FILMS BOUTIQUE at the BERLINALE - line-up & screening schedule

Click here to download Pdf version ...

 

Hotel Dallas at the International Film Festival Berlin 2016

Hotel Dallas (Romania/USA, 2016), the film debut of Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang, will screen in the Panorama Documents section of this year’s Berlinale. The film will celebrate its world premiere on February 15th at 5:30 pm in Cinestar 7.   Directors: Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang Cast: Patrick Duffy, Livia Ungur, Sherng-Lee Huang, and others Romania / USA, 2016, 75 min SCREENING DATES WORLD PREMIERE / press screening: Monday, February 15th at 5:30 pm, Cinestar ...

 

Fashiontv introduces its new VOD Platform Fashion Docu at the EFM

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Palatin Media at EFM

  Film showing at EFM DECOMPRESSION - A psychological thriller based on the best-selling novel by Juli Zeh. MARTIN WALKER´S BRUNO, CHEF DE POLICE - We are very ha...

 

World Premiere at Berlinale: Aslı Özge's ALL OF A SUDDEN in Panorama Special

A film by Aslı Özge produced by EEE Productions (DE), Topkapi Films (NL), Haut et Court (FR) world sales Memento Films International year of production: 2016, 112 minutes   The feature film ALL OF A SUDDEN by director Aslı Özge will celebrate its world premiere in the Panorama Special section of the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival. Born and raised in Istanbul, and since 2000 also Berlin-based, director Aslı Özge has crafted her first Ger...

 

Cargo Film at Berlin 66/ WW II HBO Film Screening

  UNDERFIRE The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro An HBO Film. Trailer.   Executive Produced by Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones, Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire)   In 1943, Tony Vaccaro, a WWII Italian-American infantryman, smuggled his $47 portable camera into combat, and, in thousands of images, created the most comprehensive and intimate record of war. Shooting with gun and camera at great risk, Tony developed photos in combat helmets at night and hung negatives from tree ...

 

Berlinale Goes Kiez - Neighbourhood Cinemas Get the Red Carpet Treatment

For the seventh year running, the special series Berlinale Goes Kiez will roll through a variety of Berlin’s independent cinemas on seven festival evenings and roll out the red carpet on neighbourhood sidewalks, not only to welcome local and international guests but also to honour the cinemas themselves along with their faithful audience.   From February 13 to 19 2016, one independent neighbourhood cinema per evening will be featured as an additional festival venue and present sel...

 

Berlinale Camera 2016 to Honour Ben Barenholtz, Tim Robbins and Marlies Kirchner

  Since 1986 the Berlin International Film Festival has presented the Berlinale Camera to film personalities or institutions to which it feels particularly indebted and wishes to express its thanks.   At the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, three personalities will be awarded the Berlinale Camera: producer, cinema operator and film distributor Ben Barenholtz (USA); actor, director, writer and producer Tim Robbins (USA); and cinema operator Marlies Kirchner (Germany). &nbs...

 

Berlinale to pay tribute to David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Ettore Scola

  The Berlin International Film Festival will commemorate these outstanding artists by presenting three special screenings in their honour.   British music legend and artist David Bowie was one of most extraordinary all-round talents of recent decades. His close ties to Berlin go back to the time he spent in the German capital from 1976 to 1978. At the Berlinale he appeared in the documentaries Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (D: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Panorama 1998), Scott Wal...

 

Jury for the Best First Feature Award

Since 2006, when it introduced the Best First Feature Award, the Berlinale has been even more committed to supporting the next generation of film makers. The award is endowed with 50,000 Euros, donated by the GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrecht), a society dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights. The prize money is to be split between the producer and the director of the winning film. Additionally, the director will be awarded with a high-quality viewf...

 

10th Culinary Make (good) Food Not War

  The chefs 2016 (clockwise): Sonja Frühsammer (© Frühsammer), Michael Kempf, Alexander Dressel (© Jeunes Restaurateurs), Andoni Luis Aduriz (© Alex Iturralde), Sven Elverfeld (© Götz Wrage) “Make Food Not War” is the motto of the 10th Culinary Cinema, which will be held from February 14 to 19, 2016. “War is not an appropriate means for solving problems such as racism, poverty or climate change. The ...

 

We have a jury for Berlinale 2016, headed by Merryl Streep

With actress Meryl Streep serving as Jury President  the International Jury will decide who will receive the Golden Bear and Silver Bears of the 2016 Berlinale Competition. The other members of the International Jury will be actor Lars Eidinger (Germany), film critic Nick James (United Kingdom), photographer Brigitte Lacombe (France), actor Clive Owen (United Kingdom), actress Alba Rohrwacher (Italy) and director Małgorzata Szumowska (Poland). Meryl Streep, Jury President, USA &nbs...

 

Child abduction thriller ‘Never Let Go’ grabs buyers and National Film Awards!

Since the trailer for Howard J Ford’s (Director/Co-Writer of the US number 1 genre hit ‘The Dead’)  ‘Never Let Go’  www.neverletgomovie.com was unveiled at last year’s Berlinale, it achieved substantial buyer interest leading up to the completed film’s Cannes preview where it was hailed by one critic as ‘the most gripping film of the festival’ and has since sold in 18 countries with TV dub’s underway in 7 languages. No...

 

 

Acort International proudly presents "AUSTRALIENS", a Sci-Fi/Comedy feature length film. Worldwide Rights are now available - for more information and an online screener, please contact Rebecca Dornburg: rebeccad@acortinternational.com   ...

 

His Holiness Pope Francis To Appear In Family Feature Film "Beyond The Sun" From AMBI Pictures

  A “first” in both cinema and Catholic Church history will be made as the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Francis will play himself in the family film “Beyond the Sun” from AMBI Pictures.   In his feature film debut (and film debut for any Pope in the history of the Church), His Holiness Pope Francis portrays himself in the inspirational story based on the Gospels, told in several tales with Jesus’s message, so children c...

 

World Premiere at Berlinale: Jules Herrmann's LIEBMANN in Perspektive Deutsches Kino

The feature film LIEBMANN by female director Jules Herrmann will celebrate its world premiere in the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino of the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival. The Berlin-based director Jules Herrmann has realized her feature debut LIEBMANN in French language as a creative adventure and has found a truly unique way of visual storytelling. To leave the ghosts of the past behind, Antek Liebmann travels to the light-flooded northern part of France, where he eventually mu...

 

Music of Strangers: Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble

          THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: YO-YO MA AND THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE   Berlinale Special “The intersection of cultures is where new things emerge.”    Yo-Yo Ma, cellist and founder of the Silk Road Ensemble directed by Morgan Neville Produced by Tremolo Productions in association with Participant Media and The Silk Road Project, USA 2015, 96 min   From the director of the Oscar®-winning documentary 20 Feet from...

 

RIVERSTONE PICTURES has closed financing on Stanley Tucci’s FINAL PORTRAIT

RIVERSTONE PICTURES has closed financing on Stanley Tucci’s FINAL PORTRAIT, with principal photography due to start this month. Starring Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer, the film focuses on a period towards the end of the life of artist Giacometti and is a Potboiler production. Gail Egan produces for Potboiler alongside Nik Bower for Riverstone Pictures and Ilann Girard.  Deepak Nayar serves as Executive Producer and the film is produced in association with Olive Productions, Lowsun Pr...

 

Two New Titles for Berlin from Premiere Entertainment

  BEYOND REDEMPTION  GENRE:  Action   DIRECTOR:  Bruce Fontaine   PRODUCERS:  Bruce Fontaine   CAST:  Brian Ho (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Peter Chao (Grave Encounters 2), Eddie Ko (The Martian)   SYNOPSIS:  A weary undercover cop must maintain his cover whi...

 

 

NEW MORNING FILMS @ EFM 2016

RETURNING HOME by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken   NORWAY, 2015 // COMING OF AGE DRAMA // 73min // COMPLETED // MARKET DEBUT   Nordic Film Days Lübeck: NDR Prize (Main Award)   With: Åsmund HØEG (Sons of Norway, All That Matters Is Past), Fredrik GRØNDAHL (Troubled Water, Into the Dark), Ingar Helge GIMLE (Cross My Heart And Hope To Die), Lia BOYSEN (The Last Sentence, Search).   Two young brothers are forced to track down t...

 

 

Coen Brothers at Film Forum "You betcha!"

Film Forum hosts a retrospective of the Coen Brothers' complete filmography this week, culminating with a sneak preview of their latest Hail, Caesar! ahead of its Berlinale 2016 opening-night premiere. From 1984's Blood Simple to 2013's Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel and Ethan Coen have achieved...

 

Berlinale WORLD PREMIERE: The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger

  The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger Ways of Listening | Spring | A Song for Politics | Harvest Runtime: 90mins WORLD PREMIERE at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday 13th February 2016, at 3pm at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, followed by Q&A session with all the main collaborators. THE SEASONS IN QUINCY is the result o...

 

DeAPlaneta New Titles at European Film Market 2016

 

 

Ride the Blue Bicycle to Berlinale

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Wide @ EFM

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DeAPlaneta at European Film Market 2016

  Copyright © 2016 DeAPlaneta International, All rights reserved.     ...

 

THE CARER will have its offical market premiere at EFM

The final edit of 'THE CARER' will have its offical market premiere at EFM in February (screening times below). The film, which stars Brian Cox, Emilia Fox, Anna Chancellor, Coco König (and special appearance by Roger Moore) had a successful festival opening at this years Palm Springs IFF, where it was chosen as one of the 10 best of fest. CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER  EFM MARKET SCREENINGS Thursday, Feb 11, 12.15 at CinemaxX 12 Sunday, Feb 14, 9.30AM at CinemaxX 14 Syn...

 

Berlin Critics´ Week 2016 - First Films in Programme

The film programme of the 2nd Berlin Critics’ Week is completed. As an additional world premiere we present the new production of directors Marita Neher und Tatjana Turanskyj. The latest works of Andrzej Żuławski, Pablo Agüero and Isiah Medina complement the previously announced films. Denis Côté, Zahra Vargas and Apichatpong Weerasethakul are included with short films. The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb) supports us...

 

Berlinale Talents 2016 brings a roster of brilliant experts

Berlinale Talents 2016: Michael Ballhaus, Denis Côté, Jonathan Glazer, Alex McDowell, Tomm Moore, Molly M. Stensgaard, Jim Rakete, Meryl Streep and Thomas Vinterberg among the experts For the First Time More than 100 Talents Alumni with Films at the Berlinale Under the theme “The Nature of Relations”, the 14th edition focuses on the inner and outer relations in the interconnected cinematic world and examines the tools for sharing knowledge and experience amongs...

 

30. TEDDY AWARD – The International Jury

The jury of the 30th TEDDY AWARD, which will take place on February 19th in the STATION-Berlin. Nine renowned film makers and festival organisers will choose the laureates from the queer films of the Berlinale in the categories best film, best documentary/essay film and best short. Furthermore, they will award the TEDDY Jury Award. Augustas Cicelis comes from Vilnius, Lithuania, and is the Director and Programmer of Vilnius LGBT* Festival “Kreives”. He has been involved in LGBT* a...

 

New Documentaries @ EFM2016 by DevilWorks

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Dutch Features secures rights to acclaimed European feature debut You Carry Me

  Dutch Features Global Entertainment (DFGE) has secured the rights to festival favorite You Carry Me, the official Montenegrin entry for the 88th Academy Awards®, and returns to Berlinale’s European Film market 2016 to commence world wide sales for this critically acclaimed film. The award-winning film with female-driven story, received international rave reviews and was nicknamed the European cousin of Paul Haggis’ Crash. Filmmaker Ivona Juka’s feature film debut...

 

Superheroes (Antboy 1,2 and 3) come in all sizes at EFM 2016

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New films from ITN at EFM 2016

  NATURAL SELECTION 110 min. HD. 2016. Complete.  Cast:  Katherine McNamara (IMDB #12, Star of ABC Family's and NetFlix's Shadowhunters, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials), Anthony Michael Hall  (Netflix's War Machine with Brad Pitt, The Dark Knight, Foxcatcher),  Catherine Missal (Vacation), Amy Carlson (CBS' Blue Bloods, Law & Order), Mason Dye (Lifetime's Flowers in ...

 

EFM Industry Debates 2016

EFM Industry Debates 2016: Producers as Entrepreneurs, the Boom in High-end TV Series in Europe, and Korea’s Growing Influence on South East Asian Cinema   Now in its tenth year, the EFM Industry Debates is again focussing - in three panel discussions with top experts - on current issues in the film and media industry. The debates are being presented for the fifth time by the IFA, the leading global trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, and official partner of t...

 

International Forum of New Cinema gives Inertia International Premiere

Claudia Landsberger, Baseworx For Film and Timothy O'Brien, Oration Films are proud to be partnering to represent Idan Haguel's first feature Inertia in the Berlinale Forum. Taking place by the shores of the Mediterranean, Inertia is a deadpan surrealist and blackly comic examination of a woman's identity crisis - utterly modern yet timeless in it's exploration of the impact of dreams and desires.    Synopsis: Mira is a woman trapped in a dull life - alienated ...

 

Arclight Films – EFM 2016 Screening Schedule

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SOY NERO by Rafi Pitts in Competition at Berlinale

    Rafi Pitts' new feature film SOY NERO will celebrate its world premiere in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. SOY NERO marks Rafi Pitts' third time in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2006 his film IT'S WINTER was selected for Official Competition and in 2010 he attended the Berlin International Film Festival with THE HUNTER in Competition again.   Synopsis: Nero is running in the desert. He is trying to es...

 

K5 line-up @ EFM

New Title     Paterson   A wry comedy which chronicles the challenges of work and love and observes the quiet triumphs and defeats of daily life, and the poetry evident in its smallest details. Genre Comedy Director/Writer Jim Jarmusch Cast Adam Driver Golshifteh Farahani ...

 

The Yellow Affair @ EFM

Miira Paasilinna and Chris Howard of The Yellow Affair will be attending EFM this year   NEW RELEASES THE YARD (Berlinale Forum) A single father and peripheral poet loses his job as a literary critic when he reviews his own book. With no formal education, he ends up at a car trans-shipment hub. He becomes an outcast, a nameless stranger with a five-digit number. Personal morals are pitted against the demands of fatherhood in an escalating conflict that is ultima...

 

Watch out for our reviews of Berlinale Classics by Alex Deleon

The Road Back von / by James Whale. Quelle / Source: NBC Universal Archives & Collections © Universal Pictures  The Berlinale Classics series of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival will present premieres of six films, two German and four international productions, five of them world premieres. Heiner Carow’s semi-autobiographical film Die Russen kommen (The Russians are Coming, GDR, 1968) is set in the waning days of World War II. For 16-y...

 

‘THE MINE’ to feature @ EFM

THE MINE, a pacey probing story with heavy topical relevance, is set for its market premiere at this year’s EFM. The film has a stellar Finnish cast and is beautifully shot in the exotic north of Finland. THE MINE is also selected for the Dragon Awards Competition in Gothenburg.           CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER THE MINE, an env...

 

"Attack of the Lederhosenzombies" @ EFM 2016!

check out  "Attack of the Lederhosenzombies”! Our long-awaited Alpine zombie flick will be screened at the EFM: Tuesday Feb. 16th at 12:45, CinemaxX Studio 19 Don’t hesitate to contact a meeting with our Sales Manager, Yannick Rudynski: yannick@eastwest-distribution.com   For Festivals contact our Festival Manager, Octavia Peyrou: festivals@eastwest-distribution.com EastWest Filmdistribution will be attending the EFM at booth ...

 

European Film Market 2016 – new edition of the successful “EFM Startups” platform showcases European innovation

  The latest edition of “EFM Startups” will be held on February 15 and 16, as part of the European Film Market (Feb 11–19, 2016). The joint initiative of the EFM, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Startup Germany e.V. was launched to great success in 2015.   The call for participation went out Europe-wide for the first time in 2016. Ten selected startups from Berlin, Norway, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium will i...

 

Premiere Ent. @ EFM

  CURRENT TITLES     FALL GUY   GENRE:  Action   DIRECTOR:  Kevin Carraway   PRODUCERS:  Angelica Montesano   CAST:  Sean Bean (Game of Thrones), Paz Vega (Grace of Monaco)   SYNOPSIS:  A cab driver with a gambling debt accepts a job to transport a valuable briefcase, and gets in over his head whe...

 

FANTASTIC FILMS INTERNATIONAL @ EFM 2016

FANTASTIC FILMS INTERNATIONAL invites you to email us for a EFM 2016 meeting. Let us know your preferred date and time (from Feb. 10th- 16th), so we can introduce you to our Fantastic NEW titles: THE BROKEN KEY (with additional name cast and new trailer); DEX HAMILTON AND THE DOOMSDAY SWARM; LUGGY; AROUND THE WORLD ON A FLYING WINDMILL; THE CUSHION; BIGI AND FRIENDS (TV series).  We will also introduce a number of other new titles at the market. A...

 

‘THE YARD’ to feature at Berlinale

THE YARD, a compelling Swedish drama about a fallen poet lost in the mundane world of unskilled work, is to feature at this year’s Berlinale in the Forum Section (see screenings below). This follows its selection as opening film in Gothenburg (selected in the Dragon Awards Competition).    The Yellow Affair     A single father and peripheral poet loses his job as a literary critic when he revi...

 

Doc drama Putin Forever @ EFM

PUTIN FOREVER? ORIGINAL TITLE: PUTIN NAVSEGDA? 2016, DCP, 93 min., Russian CATEGORY: Documentary  COUNTRY: Russia  PRODUCTION : Independent documentary project BUDGET : $2 000 CREW Director : Kirill Nenashev Screenplay : Kirill Nenashev Cinematographer : Kirill Nenashev Producers : Maria MuskevichThe day before Vladimir Putin’s inauguration, a march takes place on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square – a protest...

 

Attraction @ Berlinale/EFM

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Screen Media @ EFM - 2016

Screen Media @ EFM - 2016 THE ASIAN CONNECTION  (Complete) 2015 - Action/Thriller Director: Daniel Zirilli Cast: Steven Seagal, Michael Jai White   Two American expatriates, Jack and Sam, unwittingly steal a drug lord's money when they rob a series of banks in Southeast Asia and become the target of the gang'...

 

Generation 2016: Opening Films, Juries and Special Screening The Diary of Anne Frank

Opening Films: Dreamy Girls and Women Power The competition Generation 14plus will celebrate its opening with the international premiere of the Australian production Girl Asleep, from Rosemary Myers. The director will present her film on February 12 at 7.30 pm at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), together with the film’s female lead. Bethany Whitmore plays the role of Greta in the film, a young woman who takes a deep dive into a bizarre and dangerous dream world full of odd creature...

 

Berlinale Special Series 2016

Anders Hove, Esben Dalgaard, Stine Schrøder Jensen, Katrine Greis-Rosenthal, Peter Plaugborg, Hanne Uldal und Maria Rossing in Splitting Up Together Brand-new series from Denmark, Britain, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and the US will round off the Berlinale Special programme at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. This year’s selection once again provides a good look at the creativity and variety of forms evident in series production.       &nbs...

 

Communal Experiences – Initiatives for Refugees during the Berlinale

When the Berlin International Film Festival was launched 66 years ago, there were millions of German refugees and traumatised displaced persons in Europe. The festival made a point of fostering understanding, tolerance and acceptance. Since then, it has always been responsive to current events in society – not only with the film programme, but also with many complementary activities.   Last year 79,034 people sought refuge in the German capital (source: Berlin Senate department of...

 

Forum 2016: Special Screenings

    I Am Sion Sono!! von Sion Sono, Japan 1984 The Forum now completes its programme with a series of Special Screenings that run the gamut between a monumental travelogue, newly unearthed film historical gems and works that grapple with both cinema and its history.    Artist Ulrike Ottinger embarked on a journey from Alaska via Chukchi to Kamchatka on the trail of Adelbert von Chamisso, James Cook and other early world explorers. Like her predecessors, s...

 

“Books at Berlinale”: Eleven New Novels in Search of Film Producers

  At “Books at Berlinale” on February 16, film producers will be able to discover eleven new literary works with outstanding potential for adaptation to the big screen. The selected novels will be presented in a pitching session at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. At the get-together following the pitch, invited producers will have the opportunity to get to know the rights holders – respected, internationally active representatives of publishing houses and literary age...

 

Berlinale: Panorama 2016 Complete:

Indignation / Panorama 2016 USA 2015 DIRECTOR: James Schamus Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon © Winesburg Productions, LLC.     Opening Films of Main Programme and Panorama Dokumente, Strong Showing from Latin America, and Films from Korea and China   The selection for this year’s Panorama is now complete: 51 films from 33 countries have been picked, of which 17 w...

 

Forum Expanded Berlinale 2016 – The Programme is Complete

Muito Romântico / Forum Expanded 2016 DEU/BRA 2016 DIRECTOR: Melissa Dullius, Gustavo Jahn © Distruktur   The Forum Expanded team has now finished the selection process for this year’s programme. 49 artistic works have been invited, including 32 films of different lengths, 15 installations, one lecture performance and a reading. The exhibition at the Akademie der Künste on Hanseatenweg will open on February 10 already, one day before the Be...

 

Chi Raq by Spike Lee joins the Berlinale 2016 Competition

Chi Raq by Spike Lee joins the competition The Competition of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival is now complete. 18 of the 23 films in the Competition programme will be vying for the Golden and Silver Bears (see also press releases from December 4 and 11, 2015, and January 11, 2016). 19 films are world premieres.   The following countries are participating in the entire programme: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Mexico, the Neth...

 

“CoPro Series”: Seven international series projects to pitch at the Berlinale Co-Production Market

On February 16, the Berlinale Co-Production Market is hosting the second edition of its exclusive “CoPro Series” event: seven selected series projects will be looking for co-production and financing partners. Among the selection are The Illegal from Canada, a dystopian story by author and director Clement Virgo (The Book Of Negroes) and the Danish miniseries Lucky Per, which will be directed by Academy Award winner Bille August (Night Train To Lisbon). These are joined by the German ...

 

NATIVe – A Journey into Indigenous Cinema: out of the Amazon onto the Perennial Ice

With mixed feelings this year’s NATIVe is saying goodbye to last year’s focus on Latin American and welcoming in the Arctic as next year’s geographical focus. In the 2016 NATIVe programme, which will bridge the gap between the two editions, one film will represent each of these regions. They will provide the impetus to carry on the journey into the far north. “Indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge of nature and their observations of dramatic changes in the ...

 

Forum 2016: Making Experience Tangible

Akher ayam el madina | In the Last Days of the City Forum 2016 EGY/DEU/GBR/ARE 2016 / DIRECTOR: Tamer El Said Khalid Abdalla © Zero Production The 46th Berlinale Forum will show a total of 44 films in its main programme, of which 34 are world premieres and nine international premieres. This year’s Special Screenings will be announced in an additional press release.   One regional focus of this year’s programme is the Arab region. Films sho...

 

Berlinale Special 2016

Berlinale Special is part of the official programme and presents recent works by contemporary filmmakers, biopics of renowned personalities as well as extraordinary formats.   Gala screenings will be held at the Friedrichstadt-Palast with many prominent guests expected to attend.   The presentations at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele will again include moderated discussions with the filmmakers after the screenings.    This year eight films have been invited to partic...

 

Teddy is 30! Berlinale' OFFICIAL Queer Award celebrates shorts, docs & features

    30 years of Teddy The only official LGBTIQ (in short, queer) film prize at an A-festival in the world is celebrating its 30th anniversary: the Teddy Award. An offshoot of the Panorama, the prize has been awarded since 1987 in the categories Short Film, Documentary and Feature to works relevant to queer culture. Eligible every year are films from all of the Berlinale sections. Meanwhile, the award has achieved international signific...

 

Berlinale Generation 14Kplus MELLOW MUD by Renārs Vimba

 110 min, Latvia, color, 2016, Latvian with English subtitles, world premiere Director Renārs Vimba and actress Elīna Vaska (above) are available for interviews In his strong debut feature MELLOW MUD, Latvian director Renārs Vimba carefully handles the delicate theme of coming-of-age of a teenage girl. Living in the muddy fields of the Latvian countryside with her grandmother and her younger brother Robis, Raya (17) faces the bittersweet pleasure of fir...

 

HELLO, MY NAME IS FRANK Coming Soon!

 "HELLO, MY NAME IS FRANK" STARRING "JEM AND THE HOLOGRAM'S'" HAYLEY KIYOKO     Garrett M. Brown (Kick-Ass, Uncle...

 

 

MK2 Acquires Isabelle Huppert, Gerard Depardieu’s ‘Mrs. Hyde’

Mrs. Hyde a film by Serge Bozon Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu, Romain Duris Black comedy – France – French Mrs. Géquil is an eccentric teacher despised by her colleagues and students. On a stormy night, she is struck by lightning and faints. When she wakes up, she feels decidedly different... Now will M...

 

Asian entertainment company Huanxi will invest $50 million in MUBI

Curated streaming video on demand service MUBI forms Joint Venture (“MUBI China”) with Asian film producer Dong Ping’s Huanxi Media Group Limited (“Huanxi”), to launch the popular video streaming model in China this year.   The prominent Asian entertainment company Huanxi will invest $50 million in MUBI, with a view to launching the curated video on demand service across China in 2016.   Following a highly successful 2015 for MUBI, with global partners...

 

Premiere Entertainment line up at EFM 2016

Premiere Entertainment will be attending Berlinale next month and would like to meet with you.  Our initial lineup is below. CURRENT TITLES   FALL GUY   GENRE:  Action   DIRECTOR:  Kevin Carraway   PRODUCERS:  Angelica Montesano   CAST:  Sean Bean (Game of Thrones), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend's Wedding)   SYNOPSIS:  A cab driver with a gambling debt accepts a job to transport a valuable briefc...

 

Cardinal XD line up @ EFM

SEE YOU IN VALHALLA   Starring:  Sarah Hyland, Steve Howay, Odeya Rush, Bret Harrison   After the bizarre death of her brother, Johana Burwood must return home after four years to face her quirky family, including her estranged dad, her two competitive brothers and various significant others. The family is uncomfortable with each other at first, and their inner turmoil manifests itself in quarrels and outright fights. Johana is forced to face some secrets from h...

 

 

Hotel Dallas will celebrate its world premiere at the 66th International Film Festival Berlin 2016

Hotel Dallas (Romania/USA, 2016), the film debut of Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang, will screen in the Panorama Documents section of this year’s Berlinale. Playfully mixing fiction and documentary, the filmmakers explore the influence of a TV show on a society in upheaval. The film takes Patrick Duffy, star of the American TV series Dallas, on a magical mystery tour of Romania, from the communist 80s into the present.    Directors: Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang Cast: Pa...

 

EastWest new films @ EFM 2016!

    EastWest Filmdistribution is getting ready for Berlin! Check out latest acquisitions that will be screened at the EFM '16          Attack of the Lederhosenzombies by Dominik Hartl   2015, Austria; Zombie, Comedy; 77 minutes Original Language: English Cast & Credits     Headline for synopsis   The snowboarders Steve, Branka and Joschi are left be...

 

The German SHOOTING STAR Jella Haase

Photo Jella Haase: © Debora Brune This morning, the European Film Promotion (EFP) announced the names of the 10 young European acting talents who are to be honored as EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS 2016 at the Berlinale. The German actress Jella Haase was selected as one of Europe's best talents. The EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS 2016 were chosen in Hamburg by an international expert jury which included the German film critic Tobias Kniebe among its m...

 

Perspektive Deutsches Kino - Coming of Age and the Fear of the Future

Oktay Inanç Özdemir und / and Hussein Eliraqui in Meteorstraße / Meteor Street von / by Aline Fischer © Maurice Wilkerling Leuchtstoff Project Meteorstraße to Open the Programme   With twelve films, including eight full-length films as well as four medium-long fiction and documentary films, the Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2016 is now complete (see press release from Dec 21, 2015). The programme will open with the fiction film Meteorstraße (Meteor...

 

Berlinale 2016 10th Culinary Cinema: Make Food Not War

“Make Food Not War” is the motto of the 10th Culinary Cinema, which will be held from February 14 to 19, 2016.   “War is not an appropriate means for solving problems such as racism, poverty or climate change. The cuisines of the world are better suited to this task. Food connects people and hospitality contributes to international understanding,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick about the slogan.   The programme of the 10th Culinary Cinema will presen...

 

Berlinale Classics: Presenting six newly-restored films from Germany, Japan, Taiwan and the USA

The Road Back von / by James Whale. Quelle / Source: NBC Universal Archives & Collections © Universal Pictures  The Berlinale Classics series of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival will present premieres of six films, two German and four international productions, five of them world premieres. Heiner Carow’s semi-autobiographical film Die Russen kommen (The Russians are Coming, GDR, 1968) is set in the waning days of World War II. For 16-year-old Günter Wal...

 

Generation 2016: Never Underestimate the Creative Power of Youth

Shea Glover in Crystal Lake von / by Jennifer Reeder  © Jennifer Reeder      “Young people world-wide are constantly confronted by dystopic realities not of their own making,” says Maryanne Redpath, Head of Generation. “In the diverse films of this year’s programme we see them taking matters into their own hands.”   The selected films shed light on and challenge the nature of contradictions such as being child-like and being an adu...

 

14.01.2016 | Berlin's blog | 353 reads

Berlinale Shorts 2016 – a cinematic essay

Dang Tuan Anh, Vu Do Quang Minh, Khong Viet Bach, Hoang Ha, Nguyen Bui Khanh Trung, Vu Duc Hanh in Another City von Pham Ngoc Lan 25 films from 21 countries compete for the Golden and the Silver Bear, the Nominee for the European Film Awards and, for the second consecutive year, the Audi Short Film Award worth € 20,000. Los murmullos, from 1976, will be shown out of competition. The short film jury is comprised of the curator and director of the Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emi...

 

Berlinale Co-Production Market Matches 36 New Feature Film Projects with International Co-Production Partners

At the 13th edition of the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 14 to 16, 2016), a select group of 36 new feature film projects from 29 different countries will be able to forge international co-production and financing partnerships. In addition, five renowned companies will be presented in the scope of the market’s exclusive company matching programme.   During the three-day event, producers have the chance to meet, in pre-arranged one-on-one meetings, interested potential part...

 

Panorama Special Opening Films, Christine Vachon to Receive Special Teddy Award and Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Alan Sabbagh in El rey del once / The Tenth Man von / by Daniel Burman © Alejandra Lopez With 30 films confirmed to date, of which 24 are fictional and six will run in Panorama Dokumente, two-thirds of this year’s Panorama has now been announced. An extra seventeen works will screen in the Teddy30 anniversary programme (see press release from 17.12.2015). The entire programme will be finalised in the coming days.   The Panorama Special will open on Friday, February 12, at...

 

14.01.2016 | Berlin's blog | 456 reads

Berlinale Talents: The Best in Their Fields - 300 Talents Invited

For the 14th edition, Berlinale Talents welcomes 300 emerging film and drama series professionals from 79 countries. The Talents take part in a six-day programme featuring over 100 events, with many open to the public. Berlinale Jury President Meryl Streep has confirmed her attendance. The three-time Academy Award winner will be one of around 150 internationally renowned experts holding masterclasses and workshops. Berlinale Talents takes place at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, February 13 - 18, 2016...

 

9 films have been added to Berlinale competition...total of 15 to be continued

Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! / A Dragon Arrives! von / by Mani Haghighi © Abbas Kosari   15 films have now been selected for the Competition of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. Besides the six titles already announced, another nine films have been invited to the Competition. To date, the selection includes productions from the following countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland,...

 

Traversing the Phantasm – The 11th Forum Expanded @ Berlinale 2016

  Al Marhala Al Rabiaa / The Fourth Stage © Ahmad Ghossein  The selection process for the 11th Forum Expanded programme is nearly complete. Film and video works of different lengths will once again be screened at the Akademie der Künste on Hanseatenweg and the Arsenal cinema at Potsdamer Platz. The group exhibition of additional film works will take place again in the three halls of the Akademie der Künste. The Marshall McLuhan Salon of the Embass...

 

World Cinema Fund upcoming deadines

WORLD CINEMA FUND   Deadlines    Production funding: February 25, 2016 and mid-July, 2016 Applications for distribution funding support can be submitted continually.     A selection of funded projects Together with the Federal Foundation for Culture and in cooperation with the Goethe Institute, the Foreign Ministry and German producers, the World C...

 

TRAVERSING THE PHANTASM – THE 11TH FORUM EXPANDED

Al Marhala Al Rabiaa (The Fourth Stage) by Ahmad Ghossein The selection process for the 11th Forum Expanded programme is nearly complete. Film and video works of different lengths will once again be screened at the Akademie der Künste on Hanseatenweg and the Arsenal cinema at Potsdamer Platz. The group exhibition of additional film works will take place again in the three halls of the Akademie der Künste. The Marshall McLuhan Salon of the Embassy of Canada and silent green Kult...

 

Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2016 Against Clear Causality: Making the Invisible Visible

The first six films have now been invited to Perspektive Deutsches Kino’s small anniversary in 2016. “Fifteen years ago, when Festival Director Dieter Kosslick took office, the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section was launched for films by German newcomers,” head Linda Söffker says on the occasion of presenting this year’s selection. “Here is where they can get first recognition for what has often been a difficult quest for a unique narrative style. This is...

 

Berlinale Bear Poster 2016 Revealed

The 66th Berlin International Film Festival will take place from February 11 to 21, 2016, but starting in January the Berlinale posters will be displayed at Potsdamer Platz and across the city to set the mood for the festival. Together with the artists of the international film world, the bear is conquering the Berlin cityscape. The six poster designs feature the fleeting encounters of individual night owls with the bear in the city, captured photographically - fixed between reality and ficti...

 

Generation 2016: First Films Announced

13 feature films produced or co-produced in 13 different countries (Australia, Chile, Germany, India, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China) have already been selected to participate in competition in Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus. The full programme for Generation will be announced in mid January. The films selected thus far feature young individuals whose inner li...

 

Berlinale 2016: Panorama Celebrates Teddy Award’s 30th Anniversary and Announces First Titles in Programme

    With one quarter of the Panorama decided, a zeitgeisty picture emerges that has all the elements needed for a great programme: star entertainment combined with relevant themes, insights, and deliberations on the ethical and moral aspects of contemporary issues. Also included are explorations into the history of the Middle East, and excursions to Africa, Europe and the USA. In the viewings that are still underway in Berlin, further topics are reflected that confirm the present foc...

 

European Film Market (EFM) 2016 already sold out / New EFM offerings

As the first film market of the year, the European Film Market (EFM), part of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, will open its doors on February 11, 2016. The exhibition spaces at Martin-Gropius-Bau and the Marriott Hotel at Potsdamer Platz are already fully booked. In 2016, more than 8,000 producers, exhibitors, world sales, buyers and financiers are expected. The EFM is one of the most significant platforms for trade in international film rights and audiovis...

 

Berlinale Street Food returns

Dieter Kosslick visiting the Berlinale Street Food Market  Once more the 66th Berlinale wants to whet your appetite: also for good food. For the third year the Berlinale Street Food Market will provide festival visitors with a selection of slow food treats from around the world. The food trucks will again be set up on Joseph-von-Eichendorff-Gasse at the corner of Alte Potsdamer Straße - so to speak, at the heart of the festival.   “With ‘food on wheels’ in ...

 

Berlinale Shorts – International Short Film Jury 2016

The members of the Berlinale Shorts International Jury are three filmmakers and artists whose works are committed to the short film format. The Jury will award the Golden and the Silver Bear, as well as the Audi Short Film Award. It will also nominate a short film for the European Film Awards in the category Best Short Film. The prize winners of 2016 will be chosen by Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi (curator, director of the Sharjah Art Foundation), Katerina Gregos (curator, art historian) and Avi M...

 

The Chinese artist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei will be the jury president of the 15th Cinema for Peace Award

    ...

 

Hail, Caesar! directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, to open the 66th Berlinale

  On 11 February 2016, Hail, Caesar! by Academy Award winning director duo Joel and Ethan Coen will open the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.   Hail, Caesar! takes place during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, during the studio system’s heyday, and features an all-star cast including Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Channing Tatum. The comedy follows a s...

 

Berlinale Classics 2016: Fritz Lang’s Der müde Tod (Destiny) - world premiere of the digital version

On February 12, 2016, a special silent film and music highlight awaits festival audiences: The first digitally restored version of Fritz Lang’s Der müde Tod (Destiny) will be presented at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival as part of the Berlinale Classics programme. The restoration of the 1921 film classic to a new, high-resolution digital form (2015/2016) by the Friedrich Wi...

 

 

Honorary Golden Bear and Homage to Michael Ballhaus

The 66th Berlin International Film Festival will award an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement to German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, to whom the festival is also dedicating this year’s Homage. Ballhaus is one of the world’s most important cinematographers. Before spending 25 years working primarily in the USA, he established his reputation in Germany where he worked with, among others, auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder, helping “Young German Cinema” achiev...

 

Berlinale 2016: Audiences can again look forward to the Berlinale Special Series at Haus der Berliner Festspiele

The series format was introduced into the official Berlinale programme in 2015. The opportunity to experience brand new series premieres from all over the world was enthusiastically received by Berlinale audiences.   The narrative in serial form will once again be part of the Berlinale Special programme at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. The selection process is already underway and the festival is keeping an eye out for interesting titles that fit the Berlinale Special...

 

This Year’s Jury Announced: Berlinale and Glashütte Original to Award “Made in Germany – Perspektive Fellowship” for Fifth Time

The jury members Martin Heisler and Sandra Hüller with Festival Director Dieter Kosslick, section head Linda Söffker and jury member Ingo Haeb. © Ali Ghandtschi   Established by the Perspektive Deutsches Kino and Berlinale’s co-partner Glashütte Original, the “Made in Germany – Perspektive Fellowship” is celebrating a small anniversary. At the Berlinale in 2016, the fellowship will be awarded for the fifth time. It was conceived to support em...

 

Berlinale World Cinema Fund: New Funding Recommendations

    At the 23rd jury session of the World Cinema Fund (WCF), the jury recommended contributing to the funding of ten film projects.   Four film projects – from Myanmar, Turkey, Chad and Senegal - were suggested for production funding. In addition, distribution funding was recommended for the German cinema release of a film from Venezuela. Within the framework of the WCF Europe programme, production funding was proposed for projects from Brazil, Argentina and Chile. ...

 

Avant Première Music + Media Market Berlin welcomes international experts for business and networking from 16 – 19 February 2016

Adding culture to Television: Avant Première Music + Media Market Berlin, the largest trade fair for the cultural TV industry again welcomes international experts for business and networking from 16 – 19 February 2016 in Berlin Vienna, 24 September 2015 It is the market place and B2B event for international experts and young talents in music and film: Avant Première Music + Media Market Berlin, the annual trade fair for music and dance films and the cultural TV ...

 

 

Berlinale Spotlight: Short Film Presentations in India, Malaysia and the Philippines

For years the Berlinale has had a global presence with specially curated programmes at film festivals or other cultural events around the world. These activities take place under the name Berlinale Spotlight. In November and December, the Berlinale Spotlight will be presenting short film programmes in Asia.   With the support of the Goethe-Institutes in Hanoi, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur and the Philippines, as well other local partners, a total of 27 films from the Berlinale Sh...

 

Berlinale Retrospective 2016: “Germany 1966 – Redefining Cinema”

  The Retrospective of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival is dedicated to the year 1966, a turning point in German cinema dating back fifty years. An atmosphere of change prevails: in the West, auteur filmmakers challenge the contradictions of the economic miracle, in the East, young directors question everyday life under socialism. The New German Cinema manages to make an international breakthrough, whereas in East Germany, as a result of the 11th plenum of the Central Committe...

 

Berlinale Talents 2016 explores “The Nature of Relations”

Under the title “The Nature of Relations”, Berlinale Talents focuses in its 14th edition on the power, force and energy of interconnected thinking and creating. 300 outstanding Talents will be invited to a programme with international experts, again held at the three venues of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, from February 13 to February 18, 2016. Berlinale Talents will host around 100 talks, workshops and networking events providing Talents and festival guests with a vibrant testing field for...

 

Berlinale 2016: First Films for Competition and Berlinale Special

The first nine films for the 66th Berlin International Film Festival Competition and Berlinale Special programme have been selected. Joining opening film Hail, Caesar! by Joel and Ethan Coen, which will be presented out of competition (see press release from December 4, 2015 for details), five productions and co-productions from Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the US are the newest additions to the Competition programme.   As part of the official programme, Berlinale Special...

FMX 2016 has coined its main theme for this year's edition: "Blending Realities." Following this headline, FMX creates a space to analyze, discuss and try out the realities of others in Art, Technology and Business. What are the mindsets and conceptualization methods of my own and neighboring industries, which pipelines and distribution models are available? In thinking outside the box, FMX brings together people from across different sectors so they may discover the opportunities of assimilation, cooperation or convergence that arise from their similarities and differences. FMX 2016 is set to take place from April 26 to 29 in the Haus der Wirtschaft, Stuttgart.

Blending Realities from VFX to Augmented Reality

Great emphasis is placed on VFX and Virtual Reality, on Augmented Reality and other fields that are currently being explored for their new potential to blend realities. These realities turn into the center of attention of numerous presentations, workshops, and new, collaborative formats in the Forum. FMX 2016 furthermore looks at the following topics: Realtime Storytelling, Disruptive Technologies, Sound Design, Hack Art, Directing for VR, Business Leaders, Investors meet Technology Start-ups, Stop-Motion, Layout and Set, Tools of Tomorrow as well as Cameras & Pipelines. In addition, popular favorites such as Visual Communication, Concept Art, Virtual Humans Forum, VFX for TV and for Commercials return to FMX. The Lighting & Rendering track, a firm installment on the FMX program, shifts its focus to cinematographers and directors of photography this year, bringing people from Live-Action and VFX closer together for a new take on the subject. Moreover, the program features an introduction to the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg - which hosts FMX every year - in celebration of its 25th birthday.

The Little Prince, Chris Robinson and Axis Animation

Though the opening of FMX is still weeks away, important industry heads and companies have already announced their coming. Just to name a few: Director Mark Osborne and stop motion Creative Director James Caliri talk about their successful blend of 3D computer animation and stop motion in The Little Prince, while Chris Robinson (Festival Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival) illuminates his artistic evolution as part of the "Animation Wild & Strange" track. What's more, Game Cinematics move into the spotlight. Amongst others, Creative Director Stuart Aiken from Axis Animation provides insights into the epic introduction sequence of Halo 5 as well as into the collaboration between Axis, 343 Industries and Microsoft Games for the game's cinematics. This year's tech talks include Tomasz Bednarz' series of presentations on "Hack Art" and Jon Peddie's track "Graphics à la Cloud."

More confirmations and detailed information on what "blending realities" signifies for the different fields of digital entertainment will be revealed during the next press releases.

The participants from 58 countries have presented 270 works to take part at VIII International Children's Television Festival “Dytiatko”. The most popular are categories of the best short film and animated film for children. Nearly every fifth contest work is a directorial debut.

Every tenth participant of the festival which takes place this year has already participated in the previous festivals, thereby, three film directors are members of at least two previous festivals.

Michael Ammer Events invites you to:

Michel Adam Films FashionTV After Party for the exclusive screening of F.Films Exodus to Shanghai

The FashionTV After Party will take place at THE PEARL Berlin
Meet the director and the cast with special performances of the beautiful songs from the film sung by actress Jahni Raz

Watch Exodus To Shanghai here: http://www.micheladam.tv/shanghai/


See you there! ♥ FashionTV

Watch out for our coverage of the event.

Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media Prof. Monika Grütters, the Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller, Jury President Meryl Streep and Festival Director Dieter Kosslick will open the 66th Berlin International Film Festival at the Berlinale Palast at 7.30 pm on February 11. During the Opening Gala, the International Jury will be introduced. In addition to Meryl Streep (actress, USA), its members are Lars Eidinger (actor, Germany), Nick James (film critic, author, programmer, United Kingdom), Brigitte Lacombe (photographer, France), Clive Owen (actor, United Kingdom), Alba Rohrwacher (actress, Italy) and Małgorzata Szumowska (director, Poland). Anke Engelke will host the evening. The event will be broadcasted live on television by ZDF/3sat and via www.berlinale.de.

Following the Opening Gala, Hail, Caesar! by Joel and Ethan Coen will have its international premiere. The directors have brought together an array of stars in the ensemble of their new film, and many of them have announced their arrival: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Tilda Swinton und Channing Tatum.

The members of the International Jury and the Best First Feature Award Jury, actor Enrico Lo Verso, Italy, part Swiss part French director Ursula Meier and director and producer Michel Franco, Mexico, are all expected on the Red Carpet. A number of prominent German politicians and ambassadors have also announced their attendance.

Other international and national guests are also anticipated: Maren Ade, Feo Aladag, Karim Aïnouz, Michael Ballhaus, Ben Barenholtz, Marie Bäumer, Meret Becker, Iris Berben, Edward Berger, Senta Berger, Christian Berkel, Tim Bevan, Sebastian Blomberg, Prof. Hark Bohm, Jürgen Böttcher, Matthias Brandt, Dietrich Brüggemann, Daniel Brühl, Daniel Burman, Cecilia Cheung, Anton Corbijn, Denis Côté, August Diehl, Doris Dörrie, Christopher Doyle, Andreas Dresen, Katja Eichinger, Olafur Eliasson, Eric Fellner, Florian David Fitz, Maria Furtwängler, Benno Fürmann, Florian Gallenberger, Toni Garrn, Martina Gedeck, Herbert Grönemeyer, Jella Haase, Karoline Herfurth, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Sherry Hormann, Nina Hoss, Sandra Hüller, Julia Jentsch, Sibel Kekilli, Burghardt Klaußner, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Thomas Kretschmann, David Kross, Frederick Lau, Jan Josef Liefers, Heike Makatsch, Elyas M’Barek, Prof. Jeanine Meerapfel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Anna Maria Mühe, Jannis Niewöhner, Christiane Paul, Christian Petzold, Rosa von Praunheim, Katja Riemann, Max Riemelt, Oskar Roehler, Andrea Sawatzki, James Schamus, Clemens Schick, Tom Schilling, Sebastian Schipper, Volker Schlöndorff, Hans-Christian Schmid, Jessica Schwarz, Alexander Skarsgård, Hans Steinbichler, Jasmin Tabatabai, Yan Tang, Tom Tykwer, Andres Veiel, Ai Weiwei, Wim Wenders, Natalia Wörner, Ronald Zehrfeld, as well as many others.

2016 will see Denmarks two biggest film festivals in their respective fields combine forces and dates while retaining their distinct, successful brands and target audiences.

By Martin I. Petrov 

The 66th Berlinale is opening tonight at the Berlinale Palast with Coen bros' "Hail, Caesar" premiere gathering an all star cast, along with the international jury of this year's festival. Meryl Streep, head of the jury will attend along with fellow jurors actor Clive Owen, actress Alba Rohrwacher, actor Lars Eidinger, film critic Nick James, director Malgorzata Szumowska and photographer Brigitte Lacombe. 

The press conference for the international jury opened this year's festival events this morning at the Grand Hyatt Press Centre with all jurors declaring equally honoured to be part of the festival and ready to be surprised by the diverse films competing this year for the Golden Bear. 

Meryl Streep humorously replied to a question on how she's going to judge the films about to see in the next ten days: "I don't think I watch only the acting. I think I'm susceptible. The programme is so varied and I am introduced to a new world, new culture with every film. I am eager to accept the challenge. We don't get to see most of these films in the US, so it is great to go home after and discuss films no one knows about. It's also a bit selfish, in a way." 

Continuing, she pointed out that she enjoys beeing head of the jury and has requested from all her fellows to ignore external influence, including reading any information for the films they are about to see. "It is almost impossible to be introduced to something fresh today so I have requested from my jury to be with me in this and let themselves free to a brand new and unusual experience." 

Considering that there is so much out there, Streep joked about watching a very limited amount of films. "...most of them are my friends' films and I need to see them in case I bump into them somewhere.", she said laughing. 

Among the rest of the juror's acclaimed British film writer and critic Nick James underlined that it is quite rare to see film critics in juries today, so it was quite a nice surprise for him to be invited by the Berlin festival. 

Last year's winner of Sliver Bear for her second feature "Body", Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska spoke about her prize as "horizon opening and career changing. It gave me a lot of new opportunities and changed the way I see things." 

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 $10K for the short script. Up to $25K 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!

February 29th Deadline. www.writersandfilmmakers.com