News

Exclusive: Copenhagen’s festival, in new autumn dates, will show a record 226 features kicking off with Doctor Strange.

Copenhagen’s Cph Pix festival, now in its new autumn dates, has revealed a record 226 feature films in its lineup.

The 14-day festival (Oct 27 - Nov 9), which now also includes kids and family festival Buster, will show 46 features for young people in its daytime programmes and 180 films for teenagers and adults in the evenings.

As previously reported, the eighth edition of festival will open with a gala premiere of Marvel’s Doctor Strange (Mads Mikkelsen will attend).

There will be four main awards at Pix: the New Talent Grand Pix for a debut feature (with $11,200 (€10,000)); the Politiken Audience Award that comes with Danish distribution support, and the Nordisk Film Fond prizes for best children’s feature and best children’s short.

Terence Davies [pictured] will be given a full retrospective as well as showing his latest film A Quiet Passion and participating...

Miguel Gomes [pictured] and Reha Erdem to head international competition and India Gold juries, respectively; fest also unveils line-up and Jia Zhangke award.

Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes (Arabian Nights) is heading the jury for the international competition at this year’s Mumbai Film Festival, while Turkish director Reha Erdem will preside over the jury for the India Gold section.

Gomes will be joined by filmmakers Tala Hadid and Anurag Kashyap, producer Christine Vachon and Hot Docs president Chris McDonald. Titles selected for the International Competition for first-time filmmakers include Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm and Diamond Island, from French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou (see full line-up below).

Erdem recently won the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at Venice for Big Big World. He will be joined on the India Gold jury by composer Mychael Danna (Life Of Pi), Hong Kong director Yonfan (Peony Pavilion), Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski (United States Of Love) and critic Stephanie Zacharek.

The festival...

The “social realism” sub-genre of drama has been awards bait in the European festival circuit lately and this year’s Locarno International Film Festival jury, led by Arturo Ripstein, bit at Ralitza Petrova’s debut film Godless. The vision of post-Communism Bulgaria is uncompromising and relentless, pessimistic and depressive, which means it fits right in with the “important” films that it shares its genre with. The overexposure of a genre that relies on the shock and brutality of everyday life detracts from the stuffy misery of Godless, which blends in with a number of Eastern European films canonized in the past decade.

Gana (Irena Ivanova) takes care of the suffering elderly and fuels her morphine addiction by stealing and selling her patient’s identification cards. Her desire to leave the poor town is heightened as her drug-fueled paranoia develops and she catches her boyfriend with other women. After meeting Yoan,...

Ralitza Petrova, an emerging filmmaker from Bulgaria, unveiled her powerful debut outing Godless recently at the Locarno Film Festival, where she ended up standing in the spotlight and holding the Golden Leopard award. She thus joined the ranks of talented newcomers initiating a curiosity of future prospect of their careers and how their body of work will eventually evolve. Two years ago, Maya Vitkova, another Bulgarian debutant, appeared on the festival circuit introducing her surprisingly ripe feature-length debut Viktoria. Vitkova touched upon a myriad of subjects related to motherhood and raising a child in a totalitarian state, recalling the not so distant past of Bulgaria. Petrova follows in Vitkova's footsteps in terms of subject matter, while displaying exceptional talent, vision and personal style. Similarly to Vitkova,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Screen reports on the 19 project pitches, including animations, family fare and a Daniel Dencik drama.

The Nordic Co-Production And Finance Market at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films event hosted its project pitches today (August 24).

They included Daniel Dencik’s drama about a disintegrating relationship 1000 R.I.P.; a children’s animation from Norway’s Aleksander Nordaas, the director of festival hit Thale; Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson’s new psychological thriller; Martin Skovbjerg’s debut feature produced by hot new Danish outfit Snowglobe (who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard with Godless); and a new family film, hand drawn 2D animated Amundsen & Nobile.

Projects from Georgia, Italy and Canada were also included in the 19-strong line-up.

Overview of pitches:

1000 R.I.P., dir Daniel Dencik, prod Michael Haslund-Christensen, Company Haslund/Dencik Entertainment (Den)

The team behind 2015’s Gold Coast reunites for this fable inspired by The Passenger about a couple who meet a half Japanese model in the desert...

Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.

Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.

A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.

Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.

Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).

Festival Street

For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.

“Festival Street brings great value...

Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.

Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.

A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.

Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.

Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).

Festival Street

For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.

“Festival Street brings great value...

Next month’s Toronto International Film Festival has nearly completed its lineup announcements, and each one is more impressive than the last. Today’s Tiff picks feature a number of slate additions for sections as varied as the forward-focused Discovery, their burgeoning Pop Vr section and even a handful of last minute additions to the Tiff Docs list. New titles of note that have just been announced include the Cannes hit “The Red Turtle,” Wayne Roberts’ “Katie Says Goodbye” and the well-regarded “Sand Storm,” all of which will screen as part of Discovery.

Read More: Tiff Lineup: 5 Reasons to Get Excited About the 2016 Program

Both the Next Wave and Tiff Kids section pull titles from other, previously announced sections to create an appealing lineup for the next generation of cinephiles. Standout titles include “Moonlight,” “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” and “The Eagle Huntress.”

Additionally, the festival has...

The OrnithologistIt’s one thing to watch a film festival unfold and take the films as they come when they come, on their own individual merits. It’s another to look back at them as part of a bigger picture, tracing connections made in invisible ink that may not be apparent at the time. That’s one way to look at the competitive selection of Locarno in 2016. As usual, yes, Locarno did take risks very few other A-list festivals would, and it still gets away with stuff other events can’t. (Let’s pause here to remember that Filipino auteur du jour Lav Diaz only went on to the main Berlin line-up after winning the Golden Leopard two years ago.) If getting away with it means tripping over itself occasionally (and in my short time of attending Locarno there have been stumbles, believe me), I’m absolutely fine with it.

Godless wins Special Jury Prize and Best Actress.Scroll down for the full list of winners

Turkish director Mehmet Can Mertoğlu’s Album has won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20).

The comedy, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes in May, follows a middle class Turkish couple who try to cover up the forgery of their family history.

The decision was made by a jury led by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman. The award comes with a prize of $18,000 (€16,000).

Album producer Yoel Meranda commented when receiving the award: “Many people here know that most of the stuff that helped this film get made happened in Sarajevo. It started in Sarajevo, and it’s amazing that we have completed this circle.”

Ralitza Petrova’s Godless was awarded two prizes: the Special Jury prize and Best Actress for lead Irena Ivanova.

The Bulgarian-French-Danish...

NEWSPhoto by Luca DieguezThe Locarno Film Festival has announced its awards, which include the Golden Leopard for Ralitza Petrova's Godless, Special Jury Prize for Radu Jude's Scarred Hearts, and Best Direction to João Pedro Rodrigues for The Ornithologist. Eduardo Williams, who we interviewed at the festival, won the top prize in the Filmmakers of the Present Section for The Human Surge, and Nele Wohlatz, who we also talked to, won the Prize for Best First Feature for her El Futuro Perfecto. See our index of Locarno coverage here.Michael Haneke has wrapped shooting on his follow-up to Amour. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Isabelle Huppert and Mathieu Kassovitz, Happy End "revolves around the life of a middle-class family in Northern France who are faced with a number of setbacks but pay little attention to the dire situation in the refugee camps just a few miles away from their house."The...

The 69th annual Locarno Film Festival finally concluded after eleven days and screenings of 279 films, and awarded its Palmarès. The Golden Leopard went to “Godless,” a first feature from Bulgaria’s Ralitza Petrova. The film portrait of the criminal underbelly of Bulgaria also took home Best Actress for Irena Ivanova.

The fest jury awarded João Pedro Rodrigues Best Director for “O Ornitólogo.” Romanian director Radu Jude won the Special Jury Prize for his film “Inimi Cicatrizate” (Scarred Hearts), which was inspired by the 1937 Max Blecher novel.

Read More: João Pedro Rodrigues’ ‘The Ornithologist’ Will Blow Your Mind — Locarno Review

The public favorite, Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake,” about a UK retiree struggling to obtain medical assistance from the state, won the Audience Award; at Cannes, Indiewire’s Eric Kohn dubbed the film “Loach’s best movie in years.”

Read More: Cannes Review: Why ‘I, Daniel Blake’ is Ken Loach...

Bulgarian drama won the Golden Leopard as well as Best Actress for star Irena Ivanova.

Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova’s debut feature Godless has won the top prize, the Golden Leopard, at the 69th Locarno Film Festival.

The drama also took the Best Actress award for Irena Ivanova’s performance as a nurse looking after elderly patients with dementia in a remote Bulgarian town.

In addition, the production by Klas Film’s Rossitsa Valkanova with Denmark’s Snowglobe and France’s Alcatraz Films and Film Factory, received the Ecumenical Jury’s Prize, which comes with a cash award of $20,500 (CHF20,000).

The screenplay for Godless - which is being handled internationally by Greek-based Heretic Outreach - had been supported by Torino FilmLab’s FrameWork, Sarajevo’s CineLink and the Women in Film Finishing Fund in Los Angeles.

“This prize was unusual among juries because it was a unanimous decision between all the members of our team,” the International...

Ralitza Petrova's Godless has won the Golden Leopard at this year's Locarno Film Festival. Further prizes awarded by the International Competition jury (President Arturo Ripstein, plus Kate Moran, Rafi Pitts, Rodrigo Teixeira and Wang Bing): Special Jury Prize: Radu Jude's Scarred Hearts. Best Direction: João Pedro Rodrigues for The Ornithologist. Best Actress: Irena Ivanova for Godless. Best Actor: Andrzej Seweryn for The Last Family. And a Special Mention goes to Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel's Mister Universo. We've got the full list of all the awards. » - David Hudson...

Ralitza Petrova's Godless has won the Golden Leopard at this year's Locarno Film Festival. Further prizes awarded by the International Competition jury (President Arturo Ripstein, plus Kate Moran, Rafi Pitts, Rodrigo Teixeira and Wang Bing): Special Jury Prize: Radu Jude's Scarred Hearts. Best Direction: João Pedro Rodrigues for The Ornithologist. Best Actress: Irena Ivanova for Godless. Best Actor: Andrzej Seweryn for The Last Family. And a Special Mention goes to Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel's Mister Universo. We've got the full list of all the awards. » - David Hudson...

For the fifth year, IndieWire is co-hosting the Locarno Critics Academy, giving a group of talented up-and-coming critics a chance to help their role in the current climate for film criticism and journalism at the Locarno International Film Festival. With assistance from Penske Media, the Swiss Alliance of Film Journalists and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, participants will engage in a series of activities and then get to work. They will spend the first half of the festival which begins today, in roundtable discussions with working critics and industry figures; beginning next week, they’ll write about films at this year’s festival, as well as topics ranging from television to digital media.

Before then, take a minute to get to know them, and find out what they’re looking forward to checking out. Keep up with their dispatches from this year’s festival here and follow them on Twitter.

Radu Jude’s Scarred Hearts among titles; In Focus strand also revealed.

Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) has unveiled its competition and in focus titles ahead of the launch of its 22nd edition next month.

The eight features in competition include two world premieres: Ivan Marinović’s debut The Black Pin; and Lukas Valenta Rinner’s A Decent Woman.

The Black Pin, from Montenegro director Marinovic, centres on a priest who finds himself at odds with the other inhabitants of his small, rural parish when he opposes a large property sale. Serbian Vladimir Vasiljević is co-producing.

Austrian filmmaker Rinner, whose Parabellum won the special jury prize at Jeonju and was up for Rotterdam’s Tiger Award in 2015, returns with A Decent Woman, the story of a housemaid working in an exclusive gated community on the outskirts of Buenos Aires who embarks on a journey of sexual liberation at a nudist swingers club.

After winning...

Exclusive: Mikkel Jersin, Katrin Pors, and Eva Jakobsen are working on films with Amat Escalante, Carlos Reygadas and Ciro Guerra.

Danish producers Mikkel Jersin (Sparrows), Katrin Pors (The Untamed) and Eva Jakobsen (Antboy) have joined forces to launch Snowglobe, a new production outfit that will back director-driven films.

Snowglobe, which will have a focus on international co-productions, is currently working with established auteurs such as Colombia’s Embrace Of The Serpent director Ciro Guerra and Mexican directors Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas.

The company is producing, alongside Guerra’s usual producer Cristina Gallego, his next film Birds Of Passage, which will start shooting in January 2017.

Pors says: “It is the story of an indigenous family from La Guajira Desert who get involved in a war to control a business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. It’s the story of the origins of drug trafficking in the 1970s in Colombia.”

The company...

Exclusive: Mikkel Jersin, Katrin Pors, and Eva Jakobsen are working on films with Amat Escalante, Carlos Reygadas and Ciro Guerra.

Danish producers Mikkel Jersin (Sparrows), Katrin Pors (The Untamed) and Eva Jakobsen (Antboy) have joined forces to launch Snowglobe, a new production outfit that will back director-driven films.

Snowglobe, which will have a focus on international co-productions, is currently working with established auteurs such as Colombia’s Embrace Of The Serpent director Ciro Guerra and Mexican directors Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas.

The company is producing, alongside Guerra’s usual producer Cristina Gallego, his next film Birds Of Passage, which will start shooting in January 2017.

Pors says: “It is the story of an indigenous family from La Guajira Desert who get involved in a war to control a business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. It’s the story of the origins of drug trafficking in the 1970s in Colombia.”

The company...