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Oscar® Watch: Even the Rain (From Spain): Revised January 19th: I'm Rooting For This Underdog
See the trailer here. Today January 19, as the Shortlist for Best Foreign Language Submissions for Nomination is announced, I find myself rooting for Tambien la Lluvia for its brave subject matter and ambitious storytelling. But I must admit that the reason I am not rooting for for Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Biutiful", Susanne Bier’s Golden Globe winner “In a Better World, and Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Dogtooth,” is because I have not seen them! I've heard great things about them though. Nor have I seen Algeria's “Hors la Loi” (“Outside the Law”), Rachid Bouchareb, director; Japan's “Confessions,” Tetsuya Nakas...
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Palm Springs Film Festival Awards
The 22nd Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, January 6-17, 2011, screened 205 films from 69 countries, including 41 of the 65 foreign language entries for this year’s Academy Awards®.It has now announced its awards:The Whistleblower ♀ Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature (U.S. Goldwyn, ISA: Voltage) Also won at the Whistler Film Festival.The Whistleblower directed by Larysa Kondracki ♀ Louder Than a Bomb Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. Also won Best Doc at Austin Film Festival.Of Gods and Men Receives FIPRESCI Award (U.S.: SPC ISA: Wild Bunch). Tipped for Oscar Nomination Best Foreign Languag...
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Oscar Watch: Belgium - Illegal by Olivier Masset-Depasse
LUX Prize Nomination 2010 - Oliver Masset-Depasse, directorUploaded by Cineuropa. - Interview with Olivier Masset-Depasse, Director and Writer of Illégal (Illegal)
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Sundance By Numbers #1
Photo by IndieWIREOver the last few days, I've had a lot of conversations with people preparing for Sundance. Since I cover the buying and selling of rights, I noted the players' activities and have found the following numbers at play.Of the Festival's 118 feature-length films, representing 29 countries by 40 first-time filmmakers, including 25 in competition which were selected from 3,812 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,943 U.S. and 1,869 international: 26 are directed by women ♀ 22% (up from last year). + 11 are repped by UTA + 11 have appeared first at IFP+ 9 filmmakers have retained attorneys Donaldson & Callif + 8 are r...
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Africa in Film: White Wedding
There are not many films released in the U.S. from Africa and White Wedding is a delicious romp around South Africa, a road trip from Johannesburg to Durban, a mix and match of races and nationalities. Jann Turner ♀, a white female director whose anti-apartheid father was killed in front of her, makes movies with her black partners that capture the humor and pain of today's South Africa.The Little Film Company, who brought the world the 2005 Academy Award winning Best Foreign Language film Tsotsi, is going to release the DVD/ VoD version on January 25 through Image Entertainment. Robbie Little and I have had long discussions about digital m...
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Oscar Watch: Peru - Undertow (Contracorriente), directed by Javier Fuentes-León
Then there is Contracorriente from Peru. After its great success at San Sebastian, Sundance, and LALIFF, this great film is receiving good solid distribution from Wolfe Releasing and The Film Collaborative and good solid international representation from Shoreline. This is one of the most beautifu...
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Oscar Watch: Hungary - Biblioteque Pascal, directed by Szabolcs Hajdu
Biblioteque Pascal is one of the strangest, most surreally erotic submission for an Academy Award Nomination I have ever seen, unless Walerian Borowczyk's Immoral Tales was submitted in the 70s, which I strongly doubt. The story of sex trafficking from Eastern Europe to the haute monde denizens of an English brothel has been told in various forms, the most engaging being The Whistleblower. But this tale of phantasy haunts me and repulses me at the same time. I'll never forget certain scenes and the understanding that the crimes are so great that the victim must live in a phantasy world to survive hits psychological nerves.This one surely w...
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Oscar Watch: Austria's La Pivellina by Tizza Cavi and Rainer Frimmel
La Pivellina is almost the sort of film which could win at least one of the five nominations for the Academy Award Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It's about a child and a family living in the exotic though poor circumstances of circus performers. A beautifully authentic and touching film, it is clearly a favorite of festivals where it premiered in Cannes' Directors Fortnight in 2009 and thoroughly covered the festival circuit including Karlovy Vary, Toronto Vancouver, Palm Springs, Berlin, New Directors and has won the requisite awards. Represented internationally by Films Distribution, and by First Run in U.S., it has sold widely t...
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Oscar Watch: Hermano by Marcel Rasquin, Venezuela
Venezuela’s submission for Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film Oscar, Hermano, (official site: www.hermano.com.ve) just showed at the Havana Film Festival in Cuba, where it won the Special Jury Prize for Opera Prima (First Film), and played in 800 and 1,200 seat theaters filled with enthu...
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UPDATE: Iraq's First Academy Award Nomination?
Son of Babylon film, has simultaneous global screenings to recognize 10th December, International Human Rights Day - including special UK solidarity screening at Leeds University Occupation. Leeds, UK 9th December, 2010 - Son of Babylon, Iraq’s official entry for the Golden Globes and Oscars 2011 will simultaneously screen internationally, giving new audiences the opportunity to see the extraordinary film by director Mohamed Al-Daradji. The film was made with the intent to raise awareness of the 1,000,000 + people who are currently missing in Iraq, as well as inspiring activism that will help find answers for their families. Human Film have ...
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