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The 80th annual Venice Film Festival launches on the Lido on August 30. This edition features a slew of Oscar hopefuls including Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” David Fincher’s “The Killer,” Yorgas Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” and Michael Mann’s “Ferrari.” They’re all vying for the top prize, the Golden Lion.

Seventy years ago, there were four now-classics in competition: William Wyler’s “Roman Holiday,” for which Audrey Hepburn would win Oscar, John Huston’s “Moulin Rouge,” Samuel Fuller’s “Pickup on South Street” and Vincente Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful,” which had recently picked up five Oscars. But the Golden Lion didn’t roar at the 14th edition of the international film festival.

The jury headed by future Nobel Prize laureate in literature Eugenio Montale just couldn’t decide on the best of the fest because according to the New York Times “the quality...

The 2023 Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the in-development projects vying for financing and production partners at this year’s co-production market, with 33 projects from 26 countries selected.

Highlights include The Blindsight, the latest from Ukraine director Ruslan Batytskyi (A Rising Fury), from 2Brave Productions; Peeled Skin from Leonie Krippendorff (Fucking Berlin), which Germany’s Kineo Filmproduktion is producing; and Tales from the Golden Age 3, a feature from Romanian director Ioana Uricaru (Lemonade) and producers Mobra Films and 42 Film.

In the coming weeks, Berlin’s co-production market team will organize individual meetings between producers and potential partners for this year’s event, which runs Feb. 18-22.

The Berlinale co-production market has a strong track record in securing financing and completion funds for indie projects. Recent success stories include the last two Berlin Golden Bear winners, Alcarràs and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, as well as Oscar winners A Fantastic Woman...

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed a raft of titles across strands and also 33 film projects vying for coin at the coproduction market.

Selections for the topical Perspektive Deutsches Kino strand from emerging German talent include “Seven Winters in Tehran” by Steffi Niederzoll, “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan, “Ararat” by Engin Kundag, “The Kidnapping of the Bride” by Sophia Mocorrea, Fabian Stumm’s “Bones and Names,” “Long Long Kiss” by Lukas Röder, Tanja Egen’s “On Mothers and Daughters,” “Ash Wednesday,” by João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos, “Nuclear Nomads” by Kilian Armando Friedrich and Tizian Stromp Zargari and “Lonely Oaks” by Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl and Jens Mühlhoff.

All the selected films in the strand will compete for the Heiner Carow Prize and the Compass-Perspektive-Award, both of which are endowed with €5,000.

A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch” will open the Berlinale Classics section, which also includes Oliver Schmitz’ “Mapantsula,...

The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the titles selected for its retrospective section chosen by a collection of international directors and actors, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Nadine Labaki, and Tilda Swinton.

This year the theme of the retrospective sidebar is “Coming of Age at the Movies,” and each invited artist was tasked with submitting their personal favorite film that either deals with “being young and growing up” or had a “decisive role in the evolution or development” of their own artistic practice. The retrospective section will also exclusively screen films that have been newly restored.

The full list of invited artists includes Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Juliette Binoche, Lav Diaz, Alice Diop, Ava DuVernay, Nora Fingscheidt, Luca Guadagnino, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Ethan Hawke, Karoline Herfurth, Niki Karimi, Nadine Labaki, Nadav Lapid, Sergei Loznitsa, Mohammad Rasoulof, Céline Sciamma, Martin Scorsese, Aparna Sen, M. Night Shyamalan, Carla Simón, Abderrahmane Sissako,...

Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.

I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...

Six String Samurai writer/director Lance Mungia discusses the movies that made an impact on him with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Six-String Samurai (1998)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Big Trouble In Little China (1986)

Seven Samurai (1954)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Frankenstein (1931)

King Kong (1933)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Little Fugitive (1953)

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)

The Searchers (1956)

She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Once Upon A Time In The West (1969)

Wrath Of Man (2021)

Yojimbo (1961)

Last Man Standing (1996)

Ikiru (1952)

Oldboy (2003)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Gremlins (1984)

Jaws (1975)

Psycho (1960)

Dances With Wolves (1990)

The Postman (1997)

Waterworld (1995)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The Day After (1983)

Fail Safe (1964)

Behind The Green Door (1972)

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

The Irishman (2019)

Other Notable Items

The Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray of Six-String Samurai

Flicker Alley

Elijah Drenner

Kristian Bernier

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Martin Scorsese

Frank Capra...

In Todd Haynes’ exquisite Carol, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara play two women in 1952 New York, who fall in love and must face prejudice and societal conventions, but most importantly must face their own notions of what they’re allowed to desire. With its overpowering beauty, both dreamlike and earthly, the film presents us with a snapshot of a time and place that make a case for Haynes being one of the greatest anthropologists in all of cinema, a filmmaker whose attention to detail is surpassed only by his humanism.

At a press conference in New York, attended by Haynes, Blanchett, Mara, screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, and co-stars Kyle Chandler, Sarah Paulson and Jake Lacy, the director commented on one of the many qualities that attracted him to tell this love story, and how it reveals “a kind of expression of intimacy that is hard to find a parallel to among gay men,...

Edinburgh exhibitor Filmhouse is to tour a season of films about childhood across the UK, curated by documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins.

The season will comprise 17 films about childhood (see below for full list).

Most of the titles in the season are featured in Cousins’ documentary A Story of Children and Film, which premiered at Cannes last year.

The April-June tour will take in London, Belfast, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, Brighton, Bristol and Sheffield among other cities.

The season is managed by Filmhouse, which has also licensed VoD rights to a number of the titles.

The project is backed by the BFI’s Programming Development Fund. Adam Dawtrey and Mary Bell, who also produced A Story of Children and Film, are producers.

The full list of titles screening in the Cinema of Childhood season are:

• “Willow and Wind” (Bid-o Baad). Iran, Japan, 1999. D. Mohammad-Ali Talebi. 77 mins. A boy breaks a school window, and must mend...

During this year’s Festival du nouveau cinéma, held in Montréal from October 9th until the 20th, the Special Presentation section is once again packed with an exceptional line-up of films, 26 new works in all, curated from some of the world’s most respected festivals.

Here is a list of the films being presented in this section of the festival:

A Touch of Sin (Tian Zhu Ding), Jia Zhang Ke (China/Japan), winner of the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes

All is Lost, J.C. Chandor (United States)

L’Amour est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime), Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu (France/Switzerland)

La Chute de la maison Usher (The Fall of the the House of Usher), Jean Epstein (France/United States/1928), set to the music of Montréal’s own Rock Forest

Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi and Kamboziya Partovi (Iran)

Le Démantelement, Sébastien Pilote (Québec/Canada)

Le Dernier...

Logo for Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride Photo: Courtesy Amy Nicholson Known to the world through the eyes of Woody Allen's characters in Annie Hall or Radio Days, Coney Island has an illustrious history. Amy Nicholson's documentary Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride effectively takes on the challenge of archiving where films like The Little Fugitive, directed by Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, and Douglas Sirk's Imitation Of Life left off. New York Post reporter Rich Calder, seen as a commentator in Nicholson's film, calls the Zipper, one of Coney Island's most famous rides, "a casualty of a game of chicken between the city and a developer over the seaside amusement district's future".

I first saw Zipper as a member of the jury at the inaugural First Time Fest, where it won for Outstanding Achievement in Editing (more on the winners here).

In the...

The Venice International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 70th edition.

Official Competition

Es-Stouh (Merzak Allouache, Algeria/France)

L'Intrepido (Gianna Amelio, Italy)

Miss Violence (Alexandros Avranas, Greece)

Via Castellana Bandiera (Emma Dante, Italy/Switzerland/France)

Tom à la ferme (Xavier Dolan, Canada/France)

Child of God (James Franco, USA)

Philomena (Stephen Frears, UK)

La Jalousie (Philippe Garrel, France)

The Zero Theorem (Terry Gilliam, UK/USA)

Ana Arabia (Amos Gitai, Israel/France)

Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, UK/USA)

Joe (David Gordon Green, USA)

The Police Officer's Wife (Philip Gröning, Germany)

Parkland (Peter Landesman, USA)

The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)

The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld (Errol Morris, USA)

Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, USA)

Sacro Gra (Gianfranco Rosi, Italy)

Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, Chinese Taipei/France)

Out Of Competition

Space Pirate Captain Harlock (Shinji Aramaki, Japan)

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, USA)

Summer '82 — When Zappa Came to Siciliy (Salvo Cuccia,...

Following the announcement that came earlier this week, launching yet another hugely impressive line-up at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the respective line-up has now been announced for what is in some ways its European counterpart, the 2013 Venice Film Festival.

The announcement shows that the two will continue to have a number of films overlapping, including Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (the Opening Night Film in Venice), Peter Landesman’s Parkland, Stephen Frears’ Philomena, and more. But it also brings with its news of where a number of films will be making their debut, including Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem; the latest film from Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises; James Franco’s Child of God; Lee Sang-il’s Yurusarezaru Mono, the Japanese remake of Unforgiven; and Steven Knight’s Locke, led by Tom Hardy, and shot in one take.

In Competition

Es-Stouh – Merzak Alloucache (Algeria, France, 94’) L’Intrepido – Gianni Amelio (Italy,...

Italian actress Claudia Cardinale to be guest host for the section at the 70th Venice International Film Festival where William Friedkin will receive a lifetime achievement honour.

Claudia Cardinale, best known for roles in Once Upon a Time in the West and Fellini’s 8 ½, is to be the guest host of Venezia Classici, the section devoted to restored films and to documentaries about cinema of the 70th Venice International Film Festival (August 28 – September 7.

The section, introduced last year, features a selection of classic film restorations completed over the past year by film libraries, cultural institutions or production companies around the world.

Cardinale will attend the screening of Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa, Luchino Visconti’s 1965 film in which she starred that won the Golden Lion at the 30th Viff and has been restored by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

It is is one of the four classics restored this year that has been conserved at the Historic Archives of the...

I support this new NYC Film Fest which a lot of our friends attended and also support. I went to their inaugural event in NYC a few weeks back and it felt good and I certainly like their Indie lineup. The following is from a recent press release:

Celebrating first-time filmmakers with a grand prize of theatrical distribution, hosted by the historic Players Club, First Time Fest also had additional participants to this year's unique event.

Harry Belafonte, Gay Talese, Michael Shannon & Ellen Burstyn have joined Christine Vachon, Fred Schneider, Sofia Coppola, Todd Solondz, Barbara Kopple, Scott Foundas, Eric Kohn, Emily Russo, Jenny Lumet, Darren Aronofsky, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hal Hartley, Peter Saraf, Nancy Savoca, Amy Ryan And Martin Scorsese participated In First Time Fest.

Belafonte & Shannon appeared onstage in the Ftf’s “Stand Alone! – Conversations With The Outstanding” series, one-on-one interview with notable cinema artists. Renowned author Gay Talese joined Christine Vachon and the B-52s Fred Schneider as another of the Ftf’s five jurors (the entire live audience at each of the 12 competition films was the 5th juror). Together, the jury and audience ultimately selected Grand Prize winner, Sal, a modern-day Western by Argentinian writer-director Diego Rougier which was offered theatrical distribution and full international sales representation from the renowned American film distributor, Cinema Libre Studio.

Acclaimed actress Ellen Burstyn, who worked with both Scorsese and Aronofsky served as the host of the Ftf Closing Night Awards program. As part of that festive evening, Martin Scorsese added his illustrious presence and belief in the art of cinema, presenting the first John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema to Darren Aronofsky. John Huston was one of the most prolific and versatile directors in the history of cinema. And with his mesmerizing debut film, Pi – made independently on black-and-white 16mm film – Darren Aronofsky was instantly recognized as a uniquely gifted new talent. His subsequent films: Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler and Black Swan, have more than fulfilled that promise.

In addition, Ftf had a special presentation of Andy Grieve and Lauren Lazin’s documentary about the band The Police, Can't Stand Losing You, featuring Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers.

On an exciting party note, and in conjunction with Ftf’s presentation of the Australian/Mongolian documentary Mongolian Bling, First Time Fest and Hip Hop Saves Lives presented “Project Haiti,” an album release party for Zing Experience at Webster Hall.

Representing a hybrid between a traditional film festival and a highly motivated audience participation event, Ftf presented a dozen Competition Films, which were judged by a panel of industry luminaries and the Ftf audience. All competition screenings were followed by “hot-seat” discussions between the jury and filmmakers, and all audience members then voted on the films. It was truly a contest of the best emerging filmmakers competing for the Ultimate Audience Award.

Competition Films – (please visit here for competition films & descriptions).

In addition to the Competition Films, Ftf presented First Exposure, a series of first films from now prominent filmmakers. Joining the line-up - and mostly attending the fest - was the exciting Opening Night presentation of Sofia Coppola with The Virgin Suicides, Todd Solondz with Welcome to the Dollhouse, Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket, Barbara Kopple with Harlan County, USA, Melvin Van Peebles with The Story of a Three-Day Pass, Pi from Darren Aronofsky, The Maltese Falcon from director John Huston, Poison from Todd Haynes, Jack Goes Boating from director Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hal Hartley’s The Unbelievable Truth, and True Love from Nancy Savoca.

First Exposure Films – (please visit here, for First Exposure descriptions)

First Exposure also includes a 60th Anniversary Tribute to Morris Engel’s The Little Fugitive, a cinema vérité classic from 1953 that was shot on Coney Island and has inspired countless filmmakers, from Jean-Luc Godard to the Coen brothers. The tribute included a panel hosted by film historian Foster Hirsch including Mary Engel, daughter of Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, and James Sanders, author of Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies. In addition there was a Special Presentation of Everardo Gout’s thrillingly over-the-top action thriller Days Of Grace (Dĺas De Gracia), which won the Mexican Academy of Film’s prestigious Ariel Award for Best First Feature and was nominated for the Camera d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

First Time Fest included a series of panels called “How They Did It,” in which a diverse group of award-winning filmmakers moderated filmmaking case studies and spotlighted some of the most successful and accomplished masters of the industry.

First Time Fest is a four-day, multi-faceted event hosted in New York City’s Gramercy Park by the celebrated Players (16 Gramercy Park South), the club founded by Edwin Booth, Mark Twain and John Singer Sargent, the oldest and most exclusive arts organization of its kind whose membership includes the greatest stars of stage and screen. Each of First Time Fest’s twelve finalists receive high-level industry mentorship and a one-year membership to The Players. The Players was the location for all Ftf panels and events as well as the Filmmaker and VIP Lounge. First Time Fest’s screenings were all held at the Loews Village VII on Third Avenue (on 11th St. & 3rd Ave).

Among the Fest’s terrific sponsors is the delicious Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte. "The forward-thinking Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte draws its inspiration from the call of ‘faraway lands.’ One of the youngest and most fashionable Champagne brands, Nicolas Feuillatte has captured the world's imagination by sharing its passion for creativity and arts in a record 37 years, becoming the #1 Champagne in France. In its role as discoverer of talent, the brand awards its prestige cuvée Palmes d'Or to First Time Fest's winners to complement the celebration in style."

Other terrific sponsors of the fest include Brooklyn Brewery, Moscot, Marquis Vodka and Technicolor Postworks.

For additional Festival Information - Visit The Festival Website at www.FirstTimeFest.com

Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward are the co-founders of First Time Fest. As an accomplished philanthropist, actor and social entrepreneur, as well as the daughter of singer Tony Bennett, Johanna Bennett has immersed herself within the entertainment and artistic community her entire life. Mandy Ward has worked in the film industry for the past decade in varied capacities, namely as a film producer of several projects. Mitch Levine, CEO of The Film Festival Group, is producing the festival. Through his company, Mitch offers consulting services and expertise to film festivals, film commissions, distribution companies and filmmakers around the world, and was formerly the CEO and Executive Director of the renowned Palm Springs International Film Festival. The Festival’s Director of Programming is David Schwartz, the Chief Curator of Museum of the Moving Image.

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases…

Promised Lands (1974)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Documentary

Director: Susan Sontag

Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles

Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...

Ever since Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin’s 1953 charmer Little Fugitive, indie filmmakers have gotten a lot of mileage out of the premise of children out on their own in a big city, confronting its wonders and dangers. Lance Daly’s Kisses lands squarely in that pre-teen runaway genre, though writer-director Daly is more preoccupied with the danger than the wonder. Kisses begins in a run-down Dublin suburb, where Kelly O’Neill lives in a house full of people who barely notice her, while next-door neighbor Shane Curry lives with a drunken father who’s already driven one son ...

By Michael Atkinson

Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako may have made the one African film everybody needs to see . at least for its disarming fugue of frank political awareness and state-of-the-quotidian African life. In most other ways, though, "Bamako" (2006) is a challenge to orthodoxy, because it's not driven by its narrative, and hardly even provides an establishing context for itself. Before we know it, we're in a sun-dappled Mali courtyard (Sissako's family home, as it turns out), in which a kind of tribunal is going on, complete with black-robed jurists, waiting witnesses, anxious journalists and stacks of documentation. This is, we slowly realize, a fantasy trial in which the African people have taken civil proceedings against the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and American-led global capitalism in general, for the crime of exploiting and loan-sharking the continent and its peoples. The testimony is not from actors, but from real African citizens,...