SydneysBuzz

What is Culture? Yogurt? Sour Dough Bread? Yeast? Movies and Music Today

2024-07-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

As we move into a new world emerging from our post-pandemic digital daze, it becomes clear that culture, arising from the grass roots of our existence must lead the way and that war, arising out of old male hierarchies, must give way.

Technology democratizes and now is the time that its artificial intelligence join with authentic emotion to create new expanded cultural boundaries to cut across artificial borders.

Music and Cinema, primal arts with the deepest roots, are about to be conjoined. Cinema’s link to music is developing along with the re-establishment of our commonly rooted world culture.

During the Berlinale this year, I wrote about Nordic Film Music Daysentering the international film market. More will be written as Prudence Kolong’s AfroCannes announced the emergence of Afro Film Music Days to be held during AfroBerlin in February 2025.

AfroCannes, in its second year, took place all day May 16 and 17 at the Grey d’Albion Hotel in Cannes.

Film festivals — Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Venice and Sundance — are taking a new lead in cultivating grassroots growth of [one of] the most popular of the arts, cinema. TIFF’s recent government infusion of $23 million to help bolster the market aspect of the festival, a market that sees $70 million in sales during the festival is a beacon to all. The festivals’ markets follow those leads. A market without a festival, e.g., American Film Market at the same time is moving from the movie capital of the world to Las Vegas, perhaps the convention capital of the world…what is a market without a festival? It’s a trade show. Its classification devolves from culture to a commodity.

However, Cinema, the Seventh Art is not the only lead actor in arts and culture. The seven arts, inspired by The Muses are Music, Sculpture, Painting, Literature, Architecture, Performing, and Film.

The Muses, a group of sister goddesses at the roots of Western Civilization, Greco-Roman religion and mythology, were a group of sisters born at the foot of Mount Olympus. Homer cited nine. The 8th-century-BCE poet Hesiodnamed them and their names are significant: Clio the “Proclaimer”, Euterpe the “Well Pleasing”, Thalia the “Blooming” or “Luxuriant”, Melpomene the “Songstress”, Erato the “Lovely”, Polymnia (Polyhymnia) “She of the Many Hymns”, Urania the “Heavenly”, Terpsichore “Delighting in the Dance” and Calliope “She of the Beautiful Voice”, who was their chief. Their father was Zeus the Master of all the Gods, and their mother was Mnemosyne “Memory”, the very thing that allows us to return to our roots through the arts.

The Muses are often spoken of as unmarried, and they are repeatedly referred to as the mothers of famous sons, such as Orpheus, Rhesus, Eumolpus, and others connected to the arts, led by music and poetry.

Back to Our Roots

Cinema of course did not exist during the Greek times, but moving pictures have existed from the times of the earliest cave paintings. Men, returning to the caves described by Plato, told stories of their heroic hunts, chasing animals which, on the good days when (if) they returned, served as meals to their wives and children, thus staving off starvation.

Walter Benjamin — or was is Simone Weil — said that when we are confused, we should return to our beginnings when all things are possible. Are we confused enough yet? As we return to the roots of our existence, the new ways must clear away the debris of war by telling stories beginning in Africa and Asia of migrations reaching all the way up to the Nordic territories. These are the forces making themselves known today, and they are not new. They are as old as humanity.

Thus music and movies create real new ways of combining cultures. And with women leading the way, we can pave a way toward peace through Creator Economics.

Pay attention to AfroCannes and watch for AfroBerlin under the guidance of the brilliant Prudence Kolong. You will be hearing more about her soon.

Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg 2024 is 30 Years Old

2024-07-25T04:33:00.000-07:00

The Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg (JFFB) took place for the 30th time this June 18–23.

Founded in 1995 by Nicola Galliner, who at the end of 2020 stepped down after 25 years of standing up for the films at her festival with all her impressive personality, the Festival was acquired by FilmFestival Cottbus which had become known as The Place to see films from Eastern Europe when it began in 1991, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In that context of Eastern Europe and Jewry, the two in the past jointly presented the documentary Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon about the Jewish-Bulgarian film author and novelist Angel Wagenstein and other films during a partnership of a couple of years. Vishniac, the famed Eastern European photographer, produced by Nancy Spielberg and directed by Laura Bialis is one of several Eastern European/ Jewish subjects.

The largest section called Break or Continuity? ‘Anti-Zionism’ and Anti-Semitism in Socialism and After shows films Poland’s Gdansk Railway Station(2007), and films from USSR (The Commissar, 1967), the DDR (Die Sturmer, 1967) and Israel 74 from 1974, the DDR — Soviet Union 1971 copro Goya about the famous painter living a comfortable life as a court painter simultanously as the Inquisition goes on, the Czech 2020 film He Who Digs a Pit: Rudolf Slansky about the Soviet show trial against Slansky. In fact,there were four films on the famous Stalin show trials in the 1950s, centering around Rudolf Slansky. Also showing was Pawel Pawlikowski’s powerful Ida of 2013, and some other films from DDR, Poland, Czech Republic or Czechoslovkia.

Both festivals want to show good films and give them access to the market. In addition, they both aim to strengthen talents, to arouse curiosity about world Jewry as well as Eastern Europe, to question common clichés and to promote dialogue. Therefore, almost every film is followed by an exciting film discussion (Q&A).

Clichés abide and are still the topic of discussions including a public debate about Anti-Semitism and panels focusing on right wing violence and terrorism, politics of the images of terror, anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism, filming with and about trauma. Quite a Tzimmes broke out over more than one subject.

Three notable films from France were Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, A Nice Jewish Boy by Noe Debre who says his French distributor asked him to change the French title Le Dernier Juif (The Last Jew) because of its sinister connotations. It is a comedy by the way. S

Someone remarked how easy it seems for the French to include Jewish characters and even to make a comedy about French Jews (except for the post-October 7 anxiety about the title mentioned above), whereas in Germany, no one laughs about the Jews and most films are about Nazis and Jews.

The French-German coproduction directed by Julia von Heinz, Treasure Treasure was about a man wanting to return to Poland where his family had been wiped out.

The feature film competition and documentary competition films were all from USA, France and Israel, with one from Australia (Revenge: Our Dad the Nazi Killer), one from Canada (Less Than Kosher), a short from UK (The Soldier on Smithdown Road).

Only one film in compeititon was from Germany — Salty Water Sudsee in Feature Competition and one German-Israeli coproduction by Assaaff Lapid, The Return from The Other Planet in the Doc Competition.

There was a section called Facing the Fear — Cinematic Reflections on Terror, Trauma and Resistance which addressed forms of terrorist violance in various attacks: Iciar Ballain’s Maixable from Spain about terrorism and the assassination of a Basque politician and One Year, One Night from France and Spain about the Bataclan night club attack in France, Maalbeck a short about the Maalbeek metro bombing in Brussels and a Scandinavian film Recontructing Utoya about the terrorist attack of July 22, 2011 and Utoya July 22 about the same terrorist attac on a holiday camp in Norway, and a Kenyan-German short Watu Wote/ All of Us, about a bus hijacking by Islamist Al-Shabaab terrorists. In the discussion it was noted that several films are now in the works about October 7, including one being produced by Nancy Spielberg who was in town for her documentary Vishniac.

As you see from these topic, the JFBB is a serious affair.

In addition, the first edition of JBFF-Pro explored aspects of the film industry beginning with how post October 7 some mainstream festivals are cutting off alliances with Jewish Film Festivals because their backers are requesting it, and the Jewish references to films are being excised from published film descriptions.

American producer of Vishniac Nancy Spielberg and Marcia Jamel, a producer, jury member and the Director of the Jewish Film Institute in San Francisco noted that since October 7, some Jewish films have been dropped by exhibitors or by festivals because they were too Jewish and they feared trouble.

No one was sure if this was a trend or would soon end. It made for some powerful discussions.

A Market for Jewish films?
A panel of international producers, curators and film distributors addressed the question of what expectations exist for films with Jewish themes and what prospects and market opportunities these productions have. The panel also discussed the important role of Jewish film festivals in this context.

Other panelists aside from Jamel and Spielberg included Christian Sommer (Motion Picture Association) and Dana Schlanger (Bucharest Jewish Film Festival).

Another panel discussions of great interest was How to Write Jewish Characters, an international conversation between experienced screenwriters attempting to answer this question against the backdrop of differing national production conditions, various perspectives on the portrayal Jewish characters between stereotyping, authenticity and subjectivity. Participants were Noé Debré (Screenwriter and Director), Dani Levy (Screenwriter, Director, Actor), David Hadda (Screenwriter and Producer) and Natalia Sinelnikova (Screenwriter and Director)
In cooperation with the association Deutscher Drehbuchverband e. V.

When Nicole Gallina retired at the end of 2020 she handed over the reins to Doreen Goethe and Andreas Stein, who organize, among other things, the FilmFestival Cottbus, and the program directors Bernd Buder (FilmFestival Cottbus, Cinedays Skopje) and the film scholar Lea Wohl von Haselberg who are responsible for the film selection, together with a board of trustees consisting of the producer Naomi Levari, the filmmaker Amos Geva, and the director Arkadij Khaet.

credit jfbb

The FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC) is one of the leading international festivals of Eastern European film. It will take place from November 5 to 10, 2024.

The two managing directors of the JFBB Doreen Goethe and Andreas Stein.

Further information: www.jffb.de

Double head of program management: Bernd Buder and Lea Wohl von Haselberg

BERND BUDER
(*1964 in Berlin) is program director of the JFBB. He studied political science at the FU Berlin. Since then, he has been on the road as a curator, film journalist and lecturer in the international film landscape. Since 2015, he has been program director of the FilmFestival Cottbus. In addition, he worked for the Berlin Filmkunsthaus Babylon, the Turkish Film Week Berlin and the co-production market Connecting Cottbus. He advises the European film festival Cinedays in Skopje and the Berlinale Forum.

-> Mail to Bernd Buder: b.buder [at] jfbb.info

LEA WOHL VON HASELBERG
(*1984) is a film and media scientist and received her doctorate in Hamburg and Haifa with a thesis on Jewish feature film characters in West German film and television. She researches and teaches at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. The focus of work is on the representation of Jewish topics in Federal Republic discourses, Jewish film history and (audiovisual) cultures of remembrance. She is also co-editor of the Yalta magazine. Positions on the Jewish present.

— > Mail to Lea Wohl von Haselberg: l.wohlvhaselberg [at] jfbb.info

The Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg has, as one of its prospective goals, not only the establishment as the largest Jewish audience festival in Europe, but also to become the first point of contact for Jewish filmmakers and worldwide representatives of the film industry in Europe.

JFFB Pro events are all held in English.
Participation is free of charge, but requires registration. email Merlin Webers pro [at] jfbb.info to participate.

Cooperation partners are the Berlin artist program of the DAAD, the Motion Pictures Association and the German Screenplay Association.

One Two Does It Again!

2024-07-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

Since my last blog on this Berlin-based production company, ‘The Girl From Köln’ has progressed from pre-production to post-production. The press is onto it as it will be 50 years in January that Keith Jarrett first played The Köln Concert, released in 1975 to become the best-selling piano recording in history. Requests for news are coming in daily. And so much has happened since then, including One Two’s creating a slate of seven unique film projects.

We will get to The Girl From Köln later, but now let’s talk with Sol Bondy’s partner Fred Burle at One Two Films.

In Cannes this year One Two celebrated Armand, the Camera d’Or winner of Un Certain Regard and the feature debut of Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Liv Ullman and Ingmar Bergmann. When I congratulated Sol on the film at the Brandenberg Reception in Cannes, he told me to talk with Fred because Armand was a result of a step he decided to take for choosing films to make.

SydneysBuzz: Before we begin to talk about your strategy, tell me about yourself.

Fred Burle

Fred: Oh, my strategy about people to work with…well I was always a big cinephile. I was raised in the small town of Pirapora in Brazil in a big state — Minas Gerais, which alone is bigger than Germany — that borders on Rio and Sao Paulo. It had no cinema. We knew no one in cinema, no one knew how to get into cinema but I always knew I wanted to go to university and study cinema though no one knew how. I went to university in Brasilia in Archival Sciences and I tried to get that to lead to conservation of film. It was my only option. I was working full time and went to school nights. The audio visual department had only daytime courses. I extended my schooling by two years so I could do more in the audio visual department. I was working full time at a notary and negotiated with them to use my holiday time so I could get few hours a week to come in later from my AV course. The AV teachers were also filmmakers and we became friends and then I worked with them to produce their films and they paid — not much as it was for docs for the Brazilian market, so it really was not much. I always wanted to do international coproductions and so before putting down roots in Brazil, I left. I quit, sold everything I had and went to Germany which I felt was one of the best countries to study film, even though German films were not my favorite films as art. But you could study for free there. The first six months I studied German. When I was done, there was only one school where the deadline for applications had not passed. I had eight days to apply to the dffb here in Berlin. I had been a well-read critic in Brazil, my blog got 1,500 readers a day and newpapers also published my critiques. In fact , the first Berlinale I attended was as a journalist. One thing led to the next. I knew it was hard to build a network. I became used to working in the background but was waiting for the moment when I had a good business card. I started at One Two as an assistant and then Sol and his then-partner wanted me permanently so I changed my visa from a student visa, but I needed my diploma to get a work visa and I was not finished with school, but they anticipated my diploma, since I had basically finished classes earlier…Lots of people helped a lot! And with Holy Spider, I then had a really good business card.

S: Sol told me in Cannes to talk to you because the backstory of how you brought in Armand was very interesting in how you choose the people you want to work with. He has often spoken of you so highly that I wanted to speak with you and find out who you are.

Fred: It’s funny, because many people tell me that, but he rarely says it to me directly. The compliments are reciprocal.

S: Speaking of Armand, which I loved and am so glad it won the Camera d’or in Un Certain Regard, it is endemic and worldwide apparently that school personnel has no idea how to deal with school problems today…I have spoken to teachers here in Germany and in U.S. who confirm this. I am interested in education because I was a teacher myself. You see how clueless personnel is in Kore Eda’s Monster, in The Teachers’ Lounge, Armand…

F: and Radical too…

S: Sol said that when Holy Spider was having its great success in Cannes last year, you said to him that while One Two was riding on its success you were going to go talk to those producers and directors you wanted particularly to work with.

F: Yes, I told Sol that while he was handling the talent and the press conferences and talking about the Holy Spider, I wanted to go to filmmakers I really admire and would like to be future collaborators and so I did, but actually it did not work that way with Armand’s producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar. We didn’t meet in Cannes. Because she was so busy with Un Certain Regard’s screening of Sick of Myself and Kristoffer Borgli who went on to write and direct A24’s Dream Scenario. It was only after we became good friends that I was brought into Armand. We stayed in touch and would zoom every two months with very long talks about what they were doing. Armand already had coproducers in Netherlands and Sweden and there was no room for another coproducer. Nothing was open, although they still had a gap. But Andrea gave me the script and I would comment and I gave Andrea the TheGirl from Cologne to read. I loved the script and wanted to be a part of it. We couldn’t get German TV on this first film but I found a German distributor for all rights — that is very rare — and it was a top distributor. Pandora is the best company, so we both got on board and that closing the financing, plus they could spend freely with no requirements and it gave me a co-producer credit. We did exchange further on script and editing phases.

S: So your strategy was not the underlying cause of getting Armand, but it was the impetus. What about your other upcoming projects?

F: I am traveling a lot looking for new projects as Sol is spending more time with his new family and his wife, who is also a filmmaker, is working on more projects. While he has a more established network and friends who’d send him projects, I’m building that for myself as well. The results of my travels to labs, conferences, etc. are just beginning to come to fruition. Next year we will have up to seven new projects — many of them also coming from the friendships I’ve made. It splits the weight of carrying the company in a better way for us both now.

Persian Lessons was a minority coproduction for us. For Holy Spider, we were originally the second co-production country, but COVID changed everything and became the the main producers. What I want to say is my vision does not always tell a German story. I’d say we are majority producer for a quarter of our projects. The rest are minority but we try to finance a bigger share, something like 20–30% of the financing. We are involved in the early stages, from script development, packaging…

S: What is your ideal project?

F: What moves me is very unpredictable. I like light topics but that is not my soft spot. I want a message for the world — mostly political but not in a cliche way or in your face. Holy Spider is a good example. It’s relevant and yet is a genre thriller, we took a lot of poetic license with the story it was based upon.

I don’t like repeating stories. I like continuity with our talent but no similaries in the stories.

We are now attached to projects in preproduction from Malta, Yemen, Palestine, Morocco and Brazil.

I don’t go to street protests. I like my art to contribute to the world, to touch people in another way…this is my balance for social action…for me, the best way to make dialogue possible again is through art.

S: So tell me about your upcoming projects.

F: Girl from Cologne, now called Koln 75 is almost finished. We shot in October and November 2023 in Germany and Poland and now it’s in post. It was a challenging shoot but we are very happy with the results. The 50 year anniversary of Keith Jarrett’s Cologne Concert is in January and we are getting press requests daily.

Mala Emde plays Vera Brandes, the girl from Cologne

S: What is the music for it?

F: The soundtrack is eclectic because Vera Brandes, who, in 1975 at the age of 18, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, heard many types of music, jazz was only one kind.

F: Also we finished shooting April in New York on Ira Sach’s new, very special, very dear to me project. It is shot in one location. Ira optioned rights to shoot a very short book by a journalist called Linda Rosenkranz about the NY photographer Peter Hujar who has lots of friends in the art scene of the time and used to photograph people like Mapplethorpe, Sonntag, Ginsberg… She approached him and spent an entire day with him, with celebrities, etc. Ira wrote the script. Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall will star. It’s now in post. It’s very different from Ira’s other works, it’s a portrait film.

We’re also on board of a Moroccan project directed by Maryam Touzani who had two previous films in Cannes, Adam and The Blue Caftan which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. This is her first Spanish speaking film. She grew up in northern Morocco where they also speak Spanish. Calle Malaga is a great story and it’s set to shoot in November 2024.

Maryam Touzani

We’re minority producer on a film from Yemen to go in October or November. The director is Sara Ishaq who has made docs so far; her doc short Karama Has No Walls was nominated for an Oscar in 2013. Al Mahatta(or The Station) will be her first fiction feature and is a unique story to shoot in Jordan with the same local team that did Holy Spider with us.

Sara Ishaq

We are also making a rom-com at the end of summer, Any Other Night to be directed by Michiel ten Horn and to shoot in Berlin. It is a Dutch-Canadian-German coproduction in English.

And our first Brazilian co-production which I can’t wait to be able to talk about… I can only tell you off the record on that for now.

S: Thank you for all this! I hope my readers will track down these films and help them find success!

2024-07-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy, mingling, overwhelming, exciting, unforgettable five days. We have so many people to thank and so many memorable moments to remember. The huge success of our festival this year proves nothing more and nothing less than that the cinema is strong and alive! We have reached 3000 admissions this year, a record for our festival! The dark cinema hall and the togetherness of watching films is powerful, unique and irreplaceable. That is why we chose, choose, and always will choose the bloody BIG screen, as our moto declares this year!

AWARDS

The winner of the Emerging Greeks Award, which is accompanied by the amount of 1,000 euros and sponsored by the Greek Film Centre, was the film Animal by Sofia Exarchou under the following justification: “The film combines an artistic cinematographic proposition with a political narrative diving in the underbelly of capitalism; a fiction rooted in reality, which does not let you look away”.

The award was received by Flomaria Papadaki, one of the protagonists of the film.

A Special Mention was awarded to the film Medium by Christina Ioakeimidi under the following justification: “The Jury has decided to give a special mention to a promising voice coming out of Greek cinema, a film that shines through its mise-en-scène, a gentle and respectful portrayal of intimacy”.

The Special Mention was received by Christina Ioakeimidi, director of the film.

The winner of the Documentary Award, which is accompanied by the amount of 500 euros and sponsored by Musou Music Group, was the documentary film Grief - Those Who Remain by Myrto Patsalidou and Maria Louka under the following justification: “Fascism must be stopped. Addressing this most pressing sociopolitical issue of our times through the fates of three young people, the filmmakers show the absurdity of hate and give a voice to the parents who don’t accept grieving in silence”.

The award was received by Myrto Patsalidou, co-director of the film.

The Emerging Greeks & Documentary Award Jury consisted of Marie-Pierre Macia (producer, film expert), Malik Berkati (FIPRESCI critic, political scientist) and Christopher Zitterbart (producer).

Marie Pierre, Malik and Chris, you are amazing! Thank you!

The directors of the winning films of the Emerging Greeks Competition and Documentary were awarded by Crew United Greece with a 3-year free Premium membership subscription on Crew United, the global networking platform connecting cinema professionals.

The winner of the Short Film Award, which is accompanied by the amount of 500 euros and sponsored by Illuseum Berlin, was the short film Buffer Zone by Savvas Stavrouunder the following justification: “The characters of the film are champions of unity in a world overshadowed by conflict. Their unwavering commitment to peace inspires us to dream of a borderless world filled with love and understanding, navigating with unwavering love. The award goes to a film, which is unfortunately always timely, but filled with hope for the future”.

The award was received by a representative of the Illuseum Berlin on behalf of Savvas Stavrou.

2024-02-06T06:10:00.000-08:00

Simone Baumann to remain Managing Director of German Films for Another Five years

It is fitting that 2024 when German Films is celebrating its 70th anniversary should also see another good piece of news: the contract with Managing Director Simone Baumann has been extended by another five years. This is also a relief in light of the fact that the five year contracts of the co-heads of the Berlin Film Feestival and the head of its European Film Market did not have their five year contracts renewed and will be leaving after this year’s festival.

“Simone Baumann has successfully managed the fortunes of German Films since 2019, including during the pandemic, with wisdom, foresight and great commitment. Under her leadership, the German Films team has launched and overseen new initiatives, organised successful Oscar campaigns and bolstered the international networking activities. The focus has always been on the films, their makers and, in particular, on young talent“, says Philipp Kreuzer, chair of the supervisory board responsible for the position. “We would like to express our sincere thanks to her for all of this. We are delighted that Simone Baumann will be accompanying German Films for another five years to successfully master the upcoming challenges for German cinema abroad.“

Simone Baumann studied Philosophy in Rostov/Don and worked as a research assistant at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Her career in documentaries began in the early 1990s at MDR in Dresden. In 1997, she became a managing partner for LE Vision Film- und Fernsehproduktion. As a producer, Simone Baumann was responsible for all of LE Vision’s documentary productions, ranging from news reports and TV documentaries through docu-soaps to docu-dramas. LE Vision’s films also received such prestigious awards as the Bavarian Television Award, the CIVIS Media Prize, the Hans Klein Media Prize and a Grimme Prize nomination.

In 2003, Simone Baumann was appointed a member on the boards of AG DOK and MFFV (Mitteldeutscher Film- und Fernsehproduzentenverband) and became German Films’ representative for Eastern Europe in 2005. She had been responsible as Executive Producer Documentary for the documentary projects at Saxonia Entertainment GmbH since 2011.

Simone Baumann: “I’m really looking forward to another five years at the helm of German Films and would like to thank the supervisory board for the trust they have placed in me. Together with my team, I will continue to work to ensure that German cinema and German filmmakers are visible and successful abroad. These are turbulent times, but German cinema need not fear comparison. Apart from internationally renowned filmmakers, we have many new talents who will be making a name for themselves in the coming years. Accompanying them on their journey to the world stage is a big challenge and an interesting task.“

As the successor organisation to the Export Union (founded in 1954), German Films is responsible for the promotion of German films worldwide. The activities of the Service und Marketing GmbH include close cooperation with major international festivals, the staging of Festivals of German Films in selected international territories, the promotion of young talent, distribution support and the organisation of the selection procedure for the German entry for the Oscar® for Best International Feature Film.

Simone Baumann has been Managing Director of German Films since 2019. Her contract has now been extended by a further five years as of 1 February, 2024.

2024-02-01T04:50:00.000-08:00

2024 Winter Film Fests and Awards are Underway: Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin

The big three winter film festivals — Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin — are now showing the world what lies in store in top notch moviemaking, new moviemaking and some duds masquerading as art. And the Academy Award nominees are gearing up for their final sprint before Oscars on March 10 live on ABC 7e/4p. Noteworthy is the number of non-English language films nominated for Best Picture. This points to the Berlinale as a source of the next batch of Oscar noms in all categories.

Keep in touch with Sundance through Indiewire, with Rotterdam through Cineuropa and Berlin through me for now. During the festival and market the daily trades are supplied thanks to Penske Media Corp. who, btw, is now owner of SXSW (50%), American Pavilion in Cannes, Variety, Indiewire, Deadline Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Rolling Stone, et al., and often shares the auto racetracks through his IndyCar Series racing team Dragon Racing, with Saudi Arabia’s NEOM.

Carllo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek

As the last year of their five year terms ends for Administrative Director Mariëtte Rissenbeek, Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian and European Film Market Director Dennis Ruh, they have their hands full. In my informal talk over coffee this week in Berlin with Dennis Ruh, some of the current events needing to be reined in this edition include incendiary protests for and against Democracy, Hamas, Ukraine and how such a high cultural event as the Berlinale seeks to contain free and civil discussion. Funding for a special place in the Berlinale to keep awareness of the Ukraine-Russia war is supplied by USAid. On the Israel/ Palestine front, a special “little house” will stand in Potsdamer Platz where an Arab-Palestinian woman and a Jewish-Israeli woman will be available to anyone to discuss their concerns. The pair is often seen in Germany’s many public schools fostering dialogue.

Dennis Ruh, outgoing EFM Director

Next year 2025 will be filled with firsts and the reins for it all will be held by American-British Tricia Tuttle. Tricia Tuttle, the newly appointed Director of the Berlin International Film Festival, is currently Head of Directing Fiction at the UK’s prestigious National Film and TV School, but starting in April 2024 will be dealing with the German bureaucracy, the German language, raising money as the German government subsidies subside, an relocating as many of the usual festival cinemas will be closing including the Arsenal which will be moving to Moabit as the DffB (German film school) moves to Wedding; the Kinotek and Film Museum will also moving as their shared building in Potsdamer Platz undergoes renovation. The Martin Gropius Bau (MGB where the film market takes place) is also undergoing a renovation in 2025.

Tricia Tuttle, incoming Director of the Berlin International Film Festival

Officially, Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian post on the Berlinale.desite:

Film festivals provide a space for artistic expression and enable peaceful dialogue. They are places of encounter and exchange and contribute to international understanding. We believe that through the power of films and open discussions, we can help foster empathy, awareness, understanding — even and especially in painful times like these.
Our sympathy goes out to all the victims of the humanitarian crises in the Middle East and elsewhere. We want everyone’s suffering to be recognised and for our programme to be open to discussing different perspectives on the complexity of the world. We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world. As a cultural institution, we take a firm stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to intercultural understanding.

Meanwhile, Kristen Stewart, Adam Sandler, Lena Dunham, Sebastian Stan, Amanda Seyfried and Rooney Mara are among the talent heading to Berlin where many have films in competition, including Mara, whose La Cocina(ISA: Hanway) — where life in the kitchen of a NYC restaurant where cultures from all over the world blend during the lunchtime rush is depicted — is one of 20 competing alongside of Mati Diop’s Dahomey (ISA: Les Films du Losange) — charting the journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin, voicing a new generation’s demands — and Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs(ISA: Finecut) starring Isabelle Huppert. Look for Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson in Small Things Like These (ISA: Filmnation); Gael García Bernal and Bérénice Bejo in Another End (ISA: Newen, A TF1 Group Company), Fabrice Luchini in L’Empire (ISA: Memento) of Bruno Dumont.

See full list of films A-Z or those in Competition (Wettbewerb in German) and Encounters, thus far. The entire program — including seasons and locations — will be on the 6th of February, published here.

See you in Berlin! February 15–25, 2024 at Potsdamer Platz.

2024 Winter Film Fests and Awards are Underway: Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin

2024-02-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

The big three winter film festivals — Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin — are now showing the world what lies in store in top notch moviemaking, new moviemaking and some duds masquerading as art. And the Academy Award nominees are gearing up for their final sprint before Oscars on March 10 live on ABC 7e/4p. Noteworthy is the number of non-English language films nominated for Best Picture. This points to the Berlinale as a source of the next batch of Oscar noms in all categories.

Carllo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek

Dennis Ruh, outgoing EFM Director

Tricia Tuttle, incoming Director of the Berlin International Film Festival

Officially, Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian post on the Berlinale.desite:

Film festivals provide a space for artistic expression and enable peaceful dialogue. They are places of encounter and exchange and contribute to international understanding. We believe that through the power of films and open discussions, we can help foster empathy, awareness, understanding — even and especially in painful times like these.
Our sympathy goes out to all the victims of the humanitarian crises in the Middle East and elsewhere. We want everyone’s suffering to be recognised and for our programme to be open to discussing different perspectives on the complexity of the world. We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world. As a cultural institution, we take a firm stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to intercultural understanding.

See you in Berlin! February 15–25, 2024 at Potsdamer Platz.

A Conversation with Actor-Director Julie Carmen about Her Short Film and Her Career

2024-02-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

“Because the world is too troubled for any of us to rest, “ says Julie Carmen recently who has now directed her third short film, ‘The Unnecessary Salvation of Mary McDaniel’, written by Herman Johansen with music composed by Maria Newman and Scott Hosfeld.

The Unnecessary Salvation of Mary McDaniel, in 22 minutes deals with women who are in prison for murder. Their ideas of salvation are very strong and very deep. The roots of their acts, you can imagine, are not shallow.

Julie Carmen

Julie Carmen: “We did not submit to many festivals because we felt the story was meant to be a springboard for dialogue and an opportunity to listen to the unheard so we shared it publicly but I was especially jazzed that it screened in Turkey at the Anatolia Film Festival since Istanbul is where #ChallengeAccepted started due to the high number of femicides there.

Our film is about four women in prison for retaliating against their abusers. Interestingly, when we went to Anatolia for our honeymoon, I was told that Anatolia’s name itself means, “place of women”.

Sydney: I think Julie’s giving voice to the women in such circumstances in the film highlights that bearing witness to one another’s traumas has its own curative effects.

Watch the short here and then come back here for our far ranging conversation about Julie’s purpose in making the film as well as her life as an actress and licensed psychotherapist. We talk as friends about everything from our feelings, the intersection of immersive empathy in psychoanalysis and in acting… and why acting is her mainstay.

Julie: I never felt intimidated by the profession, walloped, yes, but challenged in a profoundly centering way. My neurosis is that I am addicted to riding a carousel 🎠 and reaching for a ring but barely missing it round after round that makes grabbing it all the sweeter.

Psychoanalysis saved me. Without it I might have continued wandering among the selves in the scripts that came fast and fantastically at a developmental age.

Sydney: Julie’s memories are so vivid — how acting work finds her and “drops from the sky”, how working with John Cassavetes trained her to be an experiential actor vs. a presentational one. She played the female lead in two European films for the new wave Berlin cooperative Filmverlag der Autoren, Der Mann auf der Mauer (Man on the Wall) and Comeback. As the only American working with German crews it taught her that the essence of German filmmaking contrasts greatly from Hollywood mindsets. So many other subjects are covered which, if you care to, you can follow on the video conversation here.

Sydney: Where do we begin? How did you begin to become a storyteller through acting and directing the three shorts you have made?

Julie: Gosh, maybe it all began when, listening to my mom reading us fairy tales and telling us our great great grandfather Jonas Hoffa was the house doctor of the Brothers Grimm. Maybe that was the moment when I believed storytelling is an essential part of being human.

Sydney: You have quite a few fascinating ancestors. Aren’t you currently producing a documentary about your great grandfather, Afro Cuban child piano prodigy, José Manuel “Lico” Jiménez Berroa? I read that he was born in Trinidad de Cuba in 1851 and died in Hamburg in 1917, co-director of the Hamburg Conservatory of Music and Professor of Composition.

Julie: Yes, that’s my passion project. But working on a documentary with layers of relevance is consuming. It’s so important for me to complete this film that I felt the urgency to totally retire after 20 years from my private practice as a psychotherapist and from my teaching and clinic. As I got older, I couldn’t keep three careers in the air. I didn’t want to spread myself too thin. All of a sudden life feels short.

Sydney: Tell me about Lico. It’s a documentary? How far along are you?

Julie: We already filmed in France, Spain, Cuba, the USA and currently are filming in Hamburg, Leipzig, Bayreuth and Nuremberg. The documentary is called “Lico Jiménez the Ebony Liszt”. But the hardest part is raising money for an independent documentary. The 23 living descendants want to protect the authenticity of the narrative. Therefore, I’ve been “hat in hand” collecting donations through a fiscal sponsor.

Sydney: In Europe we don’t use fiscal sponsors in the same way as in the USA. Tell me about that.

Julie: When philanthropists, friends and family who believe in your film want to donate, a reputable 501 ©3 fiscal sponsor provides a letter the donor can use to reduce their federal taxes. The sponsor takes a small percentage and the rest of the donation can be used to pay camera crew, editors, etc.

Sydney: You created an IMPACT CAMPAIGN. What is that about?

Julie: Since we are relaunching the extraordinary music of Lico Jiménez, nicknamed, “The Father of Cuban Lieder”, we are selling the recently rescued and republished symphony, piano concertos and songs in classroom packs. People and orchestras who buy classroom packs not only receive the music and biography, they help underwrite the costs of making the documentary. Our director, Isidro Betancourt Benítez, re-mastered all the music. The heart and soul of our impact campaign are “Afro Cuban German Lieder Incubators and Salons” that we are launching wherever musicians master and perform Lico’s compositions.

Julie Carmen & Sam Neill in In The Mouth of Madness 1994

Sydney: On IMDb it says you have co-starred in films for John Cassavetes, Michael Mann, Robert Redford, John Carpenter, Nicolas Roeg, William A. Graham, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Franc Reyes, Tommy Lee Wallace, Carl Schultz, Dan Petrie, Jr., Michael Olmos, Tom Dolby, Tom Williams, Reinhard Hauff, Christel Buschmann, Alfonso Ungria and on television for Karen Arthur, Betty Thomas, David Milch, Paris Barclay, Debbie Allen, Deborah Kampmeier and Quentin Tarantino. Any stories you want to share?

Julie: Actually, I’d prefer people see the films themselves. I’ve always hoped there would be retrospectives for Cassavetes’ Gloria or Tommy Lee Wallace’s cult classic Fright Night Part Two or “Films about Walls”, where Reinhard Hauff’s Man on the Wall could finally find a wider audience or a retrospective about Latino Noir where Marcus De Leon’s Kiss Me a Killer would screen. They were all cutting edge films that contributed significantly to their genres. I always prefer people see the films rather than talk about them.

Consideration of the Oscars© 2024 for Best International Feature

2023-12-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on the place of art in our world today convince me that we are doomed when art is censored and proscribed. Art is subversive by nature, anti-establishment because it creates new visions. It also creates purpose and it redeems us from the materialistic and chaotic that so frequently envelops us. Through art, we can transcend into the idea[l], the spiritual, the immaterial realms of being. Real art creates new universes.

Fifteen films shortlisted for the International Feature Film category will advance to the next round of voting for the 96th Academy Awards. Films from 88 countries and regions were eligible in the category and 15 were chosen. Out of that, five will be nominated and of course, only one will win, though all are winners in their lands and in coming to the Academy Awards, getting a glimpse of our world here in LaLaLand.

In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.

The films are listed here in my own favored order by country — but I have to see the rest still. And I apologize to my friends and countries I love but may not have put into a Number One position. I call it as I see it, no malice intended.

United Kingdom, The Zone of Interest directed by Jonathan Glazer. Cannes Competition 2023 winner of Grand Prix. This will win if the Academy goes for the most intellectually stirring and gut-wrenching account of fascist life as lived by good fascists.

U.S. release February 2 by A24. ISA A24 has licensed it to Argentina and Brazil — Diamond Film; Australia and New Zealand — Madman; Germany-Leonine; Greece-Spentzos; Japan-Happinet; Poland-Gutek; Portugal-Alambique; Romania-Bad Unicorn, U.K.-Film Four; U.S.-A24 (of course — and I assume they also have Canada).

Watch the trailer here.

France, The Taste of Things directed by Anh Hung Tran. Cannes Competition 2023 winner of Best Director to Anh Hung Tran (The Scent of Green Papaya). This will win if the Academy goes for the most luxurious, taste-good, mood altering classic French cuisine movie.

U.S. release February 9 by Sapan and IFC. ISA Gaumont has licensed it to Australia and New Zealand-Rialto; Austria-Polyfilm; Benelux-Cherry Pickers; Brazil-Diamond; Canada-Mongrel; France-Gaumont (of course); Germany-Weltkino; Greece-Rosebud; Hong Kong (China)-First Distributors; Israel-Lev/ Shani; Italy-Lucky Red; Japan-Gaga; Latin America-Sun; Portugal-Sun; Spain-A Contracorriente; Switzerland-Frenetic; Taiwan-Swallow Wings; Thailand-Hal, U.K. and Ireland-Picturehouse. U.S.-Sapan and IFC.

Watch the trailer here.

Denmark, The Promised Land directed Nikolaj Arcel. Premier Venice Film Festival and winner of three European Awards for Best Actor, Cinematographer and Costume Designer. This will win if the Academy wants a grand, sweeping and satisfying saga of the triumph of the underdog, played by one of the world’s greatest actors today.

U.S. release February 2 by Magnolia. ISA TrustNordisk has licensed to over 50 territories including Benelux, Surinam, Dutch Antilles-September; Canada-Mongrel; Czech Republic (now called Czechia), Slovakia-Film Europe; Denmark-Nordisk; Finland-Atlantic; France-The Jokers; Germany-Koch (now Plaion); Greece-Weird Wave; Hungary-Vertigo; Italy-Movies Inspired; MENA (Middle East and North Africa)-Front Row; Poland-Best; Portugal-Alambique; Russia-Arna and Atmsfera Kino; Spain-Divisa Red and Team; U.S.-Magnolia

Mexico, Totem directed by Lila Avilés. Premiere Berlinale Competition 2023, winner of Ecumenical Jury Prize; Telluride 2023. This film especially touches my heart. I can personally vouch for its authenticity for I, like the protagonist, was also seven years old when my father died. Sol is lucky that they got to say goodbye to one another. We did not. But the sweet sadness of Sol resonates with me completely. The relationship between a father and his daughter at seven is so delicate; its fragility is like a budding flower.

U.S. release by Sideshow and Janus (Criterion) January 26th. ISA Alpha Violet licensed the film to Australia and New Zealand-Hi Gloss; Austria-Polyfilm; Benelux-Vedette, Cassette; Canada-Films We Like; Denmark-Camera; Ex-Yugo and Albania-MCF Megacom; France-Rezo; Germany-Piffl; Greece-Cinobo; Italy-Officine UBU; Japan-Bitters End; Mexico-Canibal; Poland-New Horizons; Spain-Adso; Switzerland-trigon; Taiwan-Hooray; U.K.-New Wave; U.S.-Sideshow, Janus, Criterion

Italy, Io Capitano directed by Matteo Garrone. Premiere Venice Film Festival 2023 with a 13-minute standing ovation and winner of the Silver Lion for Garrone and Best Emerging Actor for Seydou Sarr.

U.S. theatrical release by Cohen Media early 2024. ISA Pathe has licensed rights to Benelux-Paradiso; France-Pathe (of course); India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar (SAARC)-Alliance; Italy-01; Poland-Aurora; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Russia-Exponenta; YouPlanet-Spain; Switzerland-Pathe; U.K.-Altitude; U.S.-Cohen Media.

Personally, I really wanted the “African space” to be occupied by an African filmmaker, not a European giving us the pity the poor immigrant picture where the underdog wins…for now. What happens to our hero when he lands on the shores of Sicily or Lampedusa with the newly passed European Immigration Law?

“This new system will make sure we have prison camps at our borders and should have never been accepted,” said German EU lawmaker Damian Boeselager, a member of the European Greens. “The negotiators agreed to undermine the right to seek asylum.”

Several aid agencies that work with migrants, such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Caritas and Save the Children, have also slammed the reform, saying it will create a “cruel system” that is also unworkable.

“Not one single life will be saved by today’s decision. This agreement is a historic failure and a bow to the right-wing parties of Europe,” said the Sea-Watch rescue charity in a statement it said was backed by more than a dozen NGOs.

The EU migration reform agreement comes as the French parliament has just approved a divisive immigration bill that also contains stricter rules enabling the faster deportation of certain foreigners and that has drawn considerable criticism from leftist lawmakers and migration advocacy groups. (DW World, tj/fb (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

Bhutan, The Monk and The Gun by Pawo Choyning Dorji. His films don’t even play the top Five Fests. This played other fests and always won top prize at Illuminate (Danette Wolpert’s festival, now in Santa Barbara), Mumbai (probably the top film festival in India and coming up into the international landscape more and more) and Rome (always in with those who get to go). My guess is, that as Kaouther Ben Hania who has become the Academy Darling of North Africa and the Middle East (nominated two years ago for The Man Who Sold His Skin; this year shortlisted for both documentary and feature categories with Four Daughters), so Pawo Choyning Dorji will become the Academy Darling of South Asia. A self-taught filmmaker, though totally international in outlook (son of a diplomat, raised abroad and studied poli sci in the U.S.), his ease and humor looking at the world reflects so positively on Bhutan, the happiest of nations, that it is pure pleasure to watch his films about education (A Yak in the Classroom was nominated last year but lost out to All Quiet on the Western Front) and democracy (his current film). His films give us a chance to enjoy the ideals we have set for ourselves.

U.S. release February 2024 by Roadside Attractions. Top notch ISA, Films Boutique has licensed the film to Rialto for Australia, N.Z.; MFA+ for Austria and Germany; September for Benelux, Pyramide for France; EDKO for Hong Kong and Macao; India to Impact; Israel to Lev, Italy to Officine UBU; Japan-Maxam I; No. America — Roadside Attractions; Poland — Aurora; Portugal-Alambique; Spain-A Contracorriente, Sweden-Future Films; Switzerland-trigon.

Finland, Fallen Leaves directed by Aki Kaurismäki. Premiere Mumbai 2023 and Cannes 2023. One one hand Kaurismäki deserves an Award as he has been in the top international feature level since 1981. His most acclaimed film, The Man Without a Past, won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. However, Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar ceremony, asserting that he did not feel like partying in a country that was in a state of war. Kaurismäki’s next film Lights in the Dusk was also chosen to be Finland’s nominee for best foreign-language film, but Kaurismäki again boycotted the awards and refused the nomination, as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush’s foreign policy. So nu? Where does this leave him? Have we improved or has he mellowed? We’ll see.

U.S. theatrical release by MUBI was November 17, 2023. It is available on MUBI now. The innovative ISA The Match Factory (owner of MUBI) has licensed the film to Argentina-Maco; Australia, New Zealand — Palace; Baltics-A-One; Benelux-September; Brazil-02Play; Canada-Films We Like; China-Road Pictures; Colombia-Cineplex; Central America-Pacifica Gray; Denmark-Camera; Finland-B Plan; France-Diaphana; Germany and Austria-Pandora (owned by The Match Factory); Greece-Cinobo; Hungary-Cirko; Iceland-Heimili Kvikmyndanna — Bio Paradis; Israel-Lev/ Shani; Italy-Bim; Japan-Eurospace; MENA-Moving Turtle; Norway-Arthaus; Poland-Aurora; Portugal-Midas; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Spain-Avalon; Sweden-Folkets Bio; Switzerland-Filmcoopi; U.S., U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Latin America, Turkey, India, World-MUBI

Armenia, Amerikatsi directed by Michael A. Goorjian— have not yet seen. Premiered at Woodstock, went on to Hamburg, played Beloit International Film Festival in U.S., Cinequest, Glasgow, Fargo, and River Run from September 2022 to April 2023. That is a very eclectic and unusual festival trail.

It was released September 8, 2023 in a limited engagement. I did see it on the Laemmle theater marquis in Glendale where the big Armenian community lives when I went to my hairdresser Ani Gafafyan.

We all wait for a definitive film which will finally move the needle on recognizing the Armenian Genocide the way Franz Werfel’s 40 Days of Musa Dagh woke people when it came out in the early 30s. Its publication in Germany preceded the Holocaust by only about seven years. It was almost made into a film starring Clark Gable, but the Turkish government lobbied against it heavily, so it was never made. Perhaps this is the film that will move the needle.

Michael Goorjian must be an American independent (like so many indies) pushing at the boundaries and still remaining marginal until now. This acclaim, from what my Armenian friends tell me, is well-deserved.

Amerikatsi is about a man who escaped the Armenian genocide as a boy by fleeing to the United States, but returns as an adult and is arrested. From his prison cell he can watch an Armenian couple and so finally learns about his homeland. ISA Amadeus has licensed U.S. rights to Variance who released it in September 2023.

Iceland, Godland directed by Hlynur Pálmason— have not yet seen. Premiered at Telluride and TIFF in 2022. Janus/ Criterion picked it up just prior to the festivals. Also screened in Cannes Un Certain Regard 2022. U.S. release February 2023; it is available on Criterion.

ISA New Europe Film Sales has licensed it to Australia, New Zealand-Palace; Baltics-Scanorama; Benelux-Imagine; Estonia-Estinfilm; Finland-Cinemanse; France-Jour2Fete; Greece, Cyprus-One From The Heart; Hungary-Vertigo; Poland-New Horizonss; So. Korea-M&M; Sweden-Folkets; Taiwan-Hooray; U.K. Curzon, U.S. Janus/ Criterion.

Japan, Perfect Days directed by Wim Wenders — have not yet seen. Premiere Cannes 2023, Winner Best Actor to Kôji Yakusho, Ecumenical Jury Prize to Wim Wenders.

U.S. theatrical release by Neon early 2024. ISA The Match Factory has licensed it to Australia, New Zealand-Madmen; Austria-Polyfilm; Baltics — A-One; Benelux-Paradiso; Bulgaria-Art Fest; China-DDDream; Czech Republic and Slovakia-Aerofilms; Denmark- Camera; France-Haut et Court; Germany, Switzerland-DCM; Greece-Feel Good; Hong Kong-EDKO; Hungary-Cirko; Iceland- Heimili Kvikmyndanna — Bio Paradis; Israel-Lev/ Shani; Italy-Lucky Red; Japan-Bitters End; MENA-Moving Turtle; Norway-Arthaus; Poland-Gutek; Portugal-Alambique; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Russia--A-One; Singapore-Anticipate; Spain-A Contracorriente; Sweden-Triart; Taiwan-Applause, U.K., Ireland, Turkey-MUBI; U.S.-Neon

Germany, The Teachers’ Lounge directed by Ilker Çatak. Premiered at the Berlinale Panorama where it won Label Europa Cinemas and the C.I.C.A.E. prize. Having been a teacher for five years, I am always interested in the subject. I would like to compare and contrast The Teachers’ Lounge with Kore-Eda’s Monster, Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s About Dry Grasses, and contrast it to Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, and Radical by Christopher Zalla in which a teacher in a Mexican border town full of neglect, corruption, and violence, tries a radical new method to unlock students’ curiosity, potential — and maybe even their genius. Today we know that if a student objects to something about the teacher or something the teacher says in class, the teacher immediately bears a heavy burden to prove that the words or actions were a propos. But this teacher makes some poor decisions which put her into a quagmire. I blame her but I still feel for her.

Germany is the third most-nominated country behind France and Italy. It has received 21 Oscar© nominations, with four wins (1979 The Tin Drum, 2002 Nowhere in Africa, 2006 The Lives of Others, 2022 All Quiet on the Western Front). This is counting the five East German submissions that sometimes competed against West Germany. The great director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was submitted once, in 1981, for Lili Marleen. He died the following year at age 37.

Sony Pictures Classics will release The Teachers’ Lounge on Christmas Day.

ISA Be for Films has licensed The Teachers’ Lounge to Australia and New Zealand to Madman; Austria-Panda Lixhtspiele; Benelux-Cineart; France-Tandem; Germany and Austria-Alamode; Greece-Cinobo; Hungary-Mozinert; Italy-Lucky Red; Japan-King Records; Portugal-Alambique; Singapore-Lighthouse; So. Korea-Studio DHL; MENA (Middle East & North Africa)-Moving Turtle; Nordics (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Baltic)-Nonstop; Spain-A Contracorriente; Switzerland-Filmcoopi; Taiwan-Light Year Images; Turkey-Bir; U.K. and Ireland-Curzon; U.S. and Canada-Sony Pictures Classics.

Spain, Society of the Snow directed by Juan Antonio Bayona — have not yet seen. People in the Academy liked it alot. Premiere Venice. However the Cineuropa review kills it for me:
“VENICE 2023: Juan Antonio Bayona brings not much new to the recreation of the incredible plane crash in the Andes in 1973, which has already been seen in previous films such as Alive!”

Netflix has the world and it has sold to Argentina-Maco; Brazil-02Play & Netflix; Mexico-Pimienta; Portugal-NOS; Spain-Netflix; U.S.-Netflix

Ukraine, 20 Days in Mariupol directed by Mstyslav Chernov — have not yet seen. Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2023 World Cinema Documentary Audience Award for Best Doc. As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war’s atrocities. Completed in 2022. ISA Dogwoof thus far has licensed it to Australia, New Zealand-Madman; Finland-Finnkino and YLE (Yleisradio); France-Originals Factory ; Spain-Filmin, Ukraine-Arthouse Traffic

Morocco, The Mother of All Lies directed by Asmae El Moudir. This documentary premiered in Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard where it won for Best Director. ISA Autlook licensed to Benelux-Vedette; France-Arizona

Tunisia, Four Daughters by Kaouther ben Hania. This documentary premiered in Cannes Competition 2023. U.S. theatrical release by Kino Lorber was October 27th, 2023. ISA The Party Film Sales has licensed it to Austria-Polyfilm; English Canada-Mongrel; French Canada-Metropole; Denmark-Camera; Ex Yugo-Discovery +; Finland-Cinemanse; France-Jour2Fete; Germany-Rapid Eye Movies; Greece-Ama; Hungary-Vertigo; Iceland-Heimili Kvikmyndanna- Bio Paradis; Italy-I Wonder; Norway-Arthaus; Poland-New Horizons; Portugal-Nitrato; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Spain-Caramel; Sweden-TriArt; Switzerland-trigon; Tunisia-Hakka; Turkey-Bir; U.S.-Kino Lorber

I do not think documentaries should qualify for both the Doc Category and the International Feature Category. The two categories are both very small (boxoffice wise) and the field is very crowded. To take two places in the crowded categories seems unfair somehow. Perhaps there could be a Best International Doc category added to make the doc field less crowded, like Sundance does.

Tune in March 10, 2024!

Asian Oscar© 2024 Submissions at the Asian World Film Festival in L.A.

2023-12-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

The Asian World Film Festival, going on its 10th year, opens a window to the public to watch the films from the Asian world, the East and the MIddle East which have been chosen by their countries for Oscar and Golden Globe consideration in the U.S.

Asel Sherniyazova, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Asian World Film Festival

One of the tiniest (and happiest) countries Bhutan, next to Nepal on the map of South Asia, has submitted The Monk and the Gun, a film I guess will be shortlisted. (Read my blog on it here.) It premiered in Toronto before coming to AWFF. Pawo Choyning Dorj’s previous film, A Yak in the Classroom was nominated for the Oscar last year. Roadside Attractions will release The Monk and the Gun in the U.S. in February 2024 so the public can see it before the awards are announced. ISA: Films Boutique*

Other films I caught there were Georgia’s Citizen Saint (Read my blog and interview), Turkey’s About Dry Grasses (read my blog), India’s 2018: Everyone is a Hero (read my blog), Taiwan’s Marry My Dead Body (read my blog), So. Korea’s Concrete Utopia intriguing but a little over done, Bangladesh’s No Ground Beneath the Feet (blog) too raw of a treatment about a most troubled land, Iran’s The Night Guardian, a sweetly innocent and surprisingly happy film, Kyrgyzstan’s This is What I Remember which was very good and unfortunately was disqualified. In a tiny provincial settlement somewhere in Kyrgizstan, a man gone 20 years as a guest worker in Russia but long considered dead, returns home. His son has two kids, his wife has remarried and he cannot relate to any of it because he has lost his memory. Fortunately I have the card of one of the screenwriters, Dalmira Tilepbergenova, who has also just directed her first feature.

Films I missed there and which I have not seen playing anywhere else are Hong Kong’s entry, A Light Never Goes Out, Armenia’s Amerikatsi, Indonesia’s Autobiography, Vietnam’s Glorious Ashes, Nepal’s Halkara, Iraq’s Hanging Gardens, Mongolia’s City of Wind which played in Venice and Toronto, Singapore’s The Breaking Ice, Yemen’ The Burdened, and Pakistan’s In Flames.

Others I missed but which seem to have publicists attached and are therefore screened around town are Japan’s Perfect Days by Wim Wenders whose great documentary Anselm is in the Documentary category, Jordan’s Inshallah a Boy, Malaysia’s Tiger Stripes, and Israel’s Seven Blessings,

Next year will require greater stamina so as not to miss the great films which represent their countries in Asia, the East and even the Middle East. Put Asian World Film Festival on your calendar, held just after the AFI Fest in L.A.

A surprise in how quickly it disappeared, the film About Dry Grasses by the renowned Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan which debuted in Cannes Competition and went on to play Toronto and other top fests commands attention. At 197 minutes, it caters to the most cinephilic among us. Centering on a handful of teachers in a snow-covered village in Anatolia, a teacher who longs to escape the system and go to Istanbul has his career endangered by a sexual abuse accusation from his student. The film goes to the heart of the complexity of its characters. It is notable as one of several films dealing with school systems and their inability to serve the needs of special students or of its teachers or of the parents. Japan’s non-Oscar entry, Kore-Eda’s Monster (Read my blog here.) and Germany’s The Teachers’ Lounge (Read my blog here.) deal with the same issue, as does The Holdovers to some extent. All are good, though I had problems agreeing with the choices of the new teacher in The Teachers Lounge, still the dramatization of the precarious position of teachers today in all films hits the bulleye. A co-production of Turkey, France, Germany and Sweden, its ISA is Playtime whose sales are good.**

— — — — — — — — — -

*Films Boutique has licensed The Monk and the Gun to Rialto for Australia, N.Z.; MFA+ for Austria and Germany; September for Benelux, Pyramide for France; EDKO for Hong Kong and Macao; India to Impact; Israel to Lev, Italy to Officine UBU; Japan-Maxam I; No. America — Roadside Attractions; Poland — Aurora; Portugal-Alambique; Spain-A Contracorriente, Sweden-Future Films; Switzerland-trigon.

**Playtime licensed About Dry Grasses to Austria-Filmladen; Baltics — A-One Films; Benelux, Surinam, Dutch Antilles-September; Canada-Sphere; France-Memento; Italy-Movies Inspired; Norway-Arthaus; Switzerland-trigon; Taiwan-Swallow Wings; U.K. and Ireland-Picturehouse

Germany’s Oscar© Entry 2024 for Best International Feature: ‘The Teacher’s Lounge’ by Ilker Catak

2023-12-19T18:05:00.000-08:00

Joining a recent group of films about teachers and the communities they serve, ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ brings up difficult questions about the parent-teacher and student-teacher relationships as well as parent-children relationships. ‘The Teacher’s Lounge’, Kore-Eda’s ‘Monster’, Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers’, Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s ‘About Dry Grasses’ and ‘Radical’ all share the dilemma of what to do about any aberration from society’s rigid system of education today.

Today we know that if a student objects to something about the teacher or something the teacher says in class, the teacher immediately bears a heavy burden to prove that the words or actions were a propos … I would like to compare and contrast The Teachers’ Lounge with Kore-Eda’s Monster, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s About Dry Grasses, and Radical by Christopher Zalla in which a teacher in a Mexican border town full of neglect, corruption, and violence, tries a radical new method to unlock students' curiosity, potential - and maybe even their genius. It stars Eugene Derbez who also played a teacher in the same director’s Oscar winning Coda.

Our schools in the U.S. are undergoing great pressure. In the name of the children and their comfort zones, curriculums are deleting subjects that the right wing deems unacceptable (that is, that might “make the child uncomfortable”)— like race and sex education. The local parent associations also want to add a liberal dose of so-called Christian values to the curriculum. Teachers are quitting in the midst of allegations against them, they are hesitant to sign up to teach and they are very underpaid. These are not specifically the issues of the films above and yet they all are dealing with great pressures to do the right thing originating from their society’s antiquated systems.

We usually want inspirational teaching films like Black Board Jungle, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Stand and Deliver, and Dead Poets Society. In this vein, Radical and The Holdovers are very satisfying. They bring us the teachers who inspire even us, the viewers, to want to excel because we have learned to love learning.

Read my blog on this here.

These others deal with problems the children face and how mismanaged the actions of the school are when dealing with anything out of line with their standard procedures.

In The Teachers’ Lounge, Leonie Benesch plays Carla, a new high school teacher. There’s a thief on the loose in school and when Carla thinks she’s caught the person on her computer camera, it changes everything regarding how she is treated by faculty, her students and the accused. The fascistic methods used by the administration coercing kids to name names and other methods of dealing with what they see as aberrations grates on her and us. When the school newspaper publishes an article hostile to her, she tries desperately to hold her world, the classroom, together…and fails miserably. The film succeeds in producing great anxiety, to say the least as we watch her dig herself into a hole she cannot dig herself out of.

Leonie Benesch plays Carla, a new high school teacher

Premiered at Berlinale 2023 and went on to play Toronto and other festivals.

Germany is the third most nominated country behind France and Italy. It has received 21 Oscar© nominations, with four wins (1979 The Tin Drum, 2002 Nowhere in Africa, 2006 The Lives of Others, 2022 All Quiet on the Western Front). This counts the five East German submissions that sometimes competed against West Germany.

Enigmatic director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was submitted once, in 1981, for Lili Marleen. He died the following year at age 37.

This is Germany’s 64th submission.

Sony Pictures Classics will release The Teachers’ Lounge on Christmas Day.

ISA: Be for Films has licensed The Teachers’ Lounge to Australia and New Zealand to Madman; Austria-Panda Lixhtspiele; Benelux-Cineart; France-Tandem; Germany and Austria-Alamode; Greece-Cinobo; Hungary-Mozinert; Italy-Lucky Red; Japan-King Records; Portugal-Alambique; Singapore-Lihthouse; So. Korea-Studio DHL; MENA (Middle East & North Africa)-Moving Turtle; Nordics (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Baltic)-Nonstop; Spain-A Contracorriente; Switzerland-Filmcoopi; Taiwan-Light Year Images; Turkey-Bir; U.K. and Ireland-Curzon; U.S. and Canada-Sony Pictures Classics

Leonard Stettnisch

Denmark’s Oscar© Entry for Best International Feature: ‘The Promised Land’ by Nikolaj Arcel

2023-12-19T16:02:00.000-08:00

Classic epic of a renegade settler in 18th century Denmark who makes the land grow in spite of everyone’s lack of faith in him. The masterful sweep of the pioneer Danish on the heath, the interactions of the stoic outsider and his aristocratic neighbors and how he creates a family against all odds, classic in style and subject: It delivers 100%.

Promised Land is an epic Nordic saga which creates a seamless archetypical story of struggle and triumph. And in classic western style, the hero rides off into the sunset; only this time, he is not alone.

Its original language title is The Bastard, and the outsiders of the society are those born out of wedlock from masters raping their servants who are essentially slaves. Mads Mikelson embodies a Danish John Wayne archetype in this western saga about the bastard son of a noble who has served heroically in the Seven Years War and returns to claim his due.

Ludvig Kahlen arrives in 1755 on the barren Jutland heath with a single goal: to follow the king’s call to cultivate the land and thereby achieve wealth and honor himself. He quickly makes an enemy with the merciless landowner, Frederik De Schinkel, who is sole ruler of the area and believes that the heath belongs to him and not the king. When De Schinkel’s serf runs away with Ann Barbara played by Amanda Collin (Remember her name!) his wife and a housemaid who had been raped and exploited by Schinkel and seeks refuge with Kahlen, Schinkel does everything to drive Kahlen away and at the same time exact a cruel revenge. Kahlen does not bow, but stubbornly takes up the unequal battle and risks his life and the bond with the small, troubled family that has arisen around him on the heath.

Kahlen becomes the champion of the same stock of people who later emigrated and worked the farmlands of the plains and prairies in America (Pure Edna Farber material, although in her prize-winning novel and movie So Big, the immigrant farmers were Dutch), but here the people are working the heath, long considered unsustainable as an agricultural endeavor, but remaining a wish of the King to cultivate.

I love Nordic sagas, like War Sailor last year, like Kristen Lavransdotter which I read as a girl. I also love the composer Leroy Anderssen and the early TV series, I Remember Mama that ran from 1949 to 1957, and all the stories by Hans Christian Anderson. I loved the little Danish community of Solvang in California when I was a girl and the blue and white tableware I bought when I first moved into my own apartment in college. I loved my first visit to Europe and visiting Denmark and Tivoli Gardens where I lost my sweater and someone turned it in; the people looked like angels and were honest.

The only issue I have is with the title of this and of another film called The Settlers, both of which were playing in Toronto where I caught them. Together, they sound like two films about Israel, but neither has the least connection to that land, so don’t get confused when you see their titles in your theaters and streaming platforms. Think Denmark and Chile!

Director Nikolaj Arcel and Leading Man Mads Mikelson

The Zentropa-produced drama premiered in Competition at the Biennale di Venezia 2023, one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious festivals before going to Toronto International Film Festival.

This is Denmark’s 61st submission. Denmark has been nominated 14 times with 4 wins (Pelle the Conquerer in 1987, Babette’s Feast in 1988, In a Better World in 2010 and Another Round, which also starred Mikkelsen, in 2020).

Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair (which also starred Mikkelsen) was nominated in 2012. This is the first time since A Royal Affair that the critically acclaimed director is directing a Danish feature and reuniting with the talented Mads Mikkelsen.

Written by Arcel and Danish screenwriter and director Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders of Justice, 2020), based on the 2020 Danish bestseller ‘Kaptajnen og Ann Barbara’ (translated ‘The Captain and Ann Barbara’), it is produced by Louise Vesth (The Kingdom Exodus, 2022; A Royal Affair, 2012 and Melancholia, 2011) for Zentropa Entertainments.

Estimated to be one of Zentropa’s biggest feature films in years, with a budget of EUR 8M, the feature has already received massive attention in Denmark, within the industry and has already sold more than 50 territories, including: U.S. (Magnolia Pictures), Canada (Mongrel Media), Germany (Plaion), France (The Jokers Films), Poland (Best Film), Spain (Divisa Red) and many more, underlining the immense attention that the film has received worldwide.

A Danish-Swedish-German Coproduction

Produced by Zentropa Entertainments ApS in co-production with Zentropa Berlin GmbH, Zentropa Sweden AB in cooperation with TV2 Denmark, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, SVT, PLAION PICTURES in co-production with Film i Väst with support from Danish Film Institute Markedsordningen, Eurimages, Den Vestdanske Filmpulje, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Czech Film Fund and Swedish Film Institute. Developed by the Creative Europe Media Programme — Media of the European Union. Domestics distribution through Nordisk Film. International sales handled by TrustNordisk.

The Promised Land was released widely in Denmark on 5 October 2023.

Magnolia Pictures will release The Promised Land in U.S. theaters on February 2, 2024.

African Oscar© Submissions for 2024

2023-12-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

In the Best International Feature Category of the Oscar race, 88 submissions are competing for 5 Best International Feature Nominations.

Out of the 88, officially there are 11 from Africa, the highest yet, up from 8 last year. I would add two more, Congo’s Omen and Senegal’s Io Capitano. Both of these were submitted by European countries (Belgium and Italy respectively). Omen is the feature debut of the Congo-Belgium director named Balogi and Io Capitano is by the renowned Italian director Matteo Garrone. However, in the eyes of the viewer, they will both be perceived as African because their subjects and stories are African. Judging from the few other African films I have seen and heard this year (Sira, Goodbye Julia andBanel & Adama), most of the films from Africa are very good. The stories are authentic and original, and production values are high. They are freer of European influence and embody more original concepts than the previous pre-pandemic decade that relied solely on European funding and workshops. While Europe and MENA continue to lend support to African filmmaking, or maybe because the Middle East is now giving more support than previously, the post-pandemic cinema out of Africa is innovative with a youthful energy bursting out on many, many levels.

The voting for the shortlist requires dividing the 88 submitted international features into groups of 12 or 13 to be seen by subcommittees of the International Film Selection Committee. Culled from these committees’ decisions, a shortlist of 15 finalists will be announced on December 21 to be voted on by the entire committee to arrive at the final five nominees to be announced on January 24, 2024 and then voted on by the entire Academy membership.

Because of their limited budgets, many of the smaller countries’ films are without publicists and so are not seen by media or cinephiles. They are only available on the Academy’s streaming platform. That is, of course, only available to Academy members. Therefore,when there is no publicist setting up screenings and inviting press, cinephiles and influencers along with Academy members, there is no word-of-mouth discussion or even knowledge of the films’ existence unless one is lucky enough to have seen them in Venice, Cannes, Toronto, Sundance or Berlin.

With little or no publicity budget, the African films are practically invisible.

Only one feature so far has a representative here in L.A. I was lucky enough to meet, see his film and speak with: Balogi, the writer and director of the Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Winner of the New Voice Award. His debut film Omen is a coproduction of Belgium and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Belgian-Congolese filmmaker is lucky to have Belgium as his submitting country because Congo and Central Africa in general have no film infrastructure. Congo has no film laws and no official standing with the Academy.

In addition, Omen also has Memento, a top international sales agent, footing his publicity.* And still more, Balogi has a U.S. distribution deal in place with Utopia (a new small U.S. distributor). And al final, he has the honor of having a live in-person screening for the Academy sponsored by no less than Mahershala Ali, the star of Moonlight, Greenback and the upcoming Blade and Spiderman: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Balogi is on the top of my list. (Read our Interview here!)

The Italian submission Io Capitano about two young men leaving Senegal to sail to Italy may be the best film (after Gemorrah) of the accomplished director, Matteo Garrone. Cohen Media is releasing in U.S. ISA: Pathe has also licensed the film widely.**

The 11 official submissions from Africa are East African Sudan’s Goodbye Julia, West African Senegal’s Banel & Adama, Burkina Faso’s Sira, Nigeria’s Mami Wata, and Kenya’s Mvera, South Africa’s Music Is My Life and Namibia’s Under the Hanging Tree from Southern Africa, and Central African Cameroon’s Half Heaven. From North Africa come Tunisia’s Four Daughters by Kaouther Ben Hania (whose film The Man Who Sold His Skin was nominated last year), Morocco’s The Mother of All Lies and Egypt’s Voy! Voy! Voy! by Omar Hilal.

Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard where it won the Freedom Award. It is from the Sudan, a Central African country rarely seen in the movies. Taking place just before the secession of South Sudan it is about an upper middle class Indian Muslim family as the wife, a former singer, does her best to make amends for harm she has caused a working class Black Christian family. This well told and well produced movie opens a new and surprising window on the issue of the privileged and the not-so-privileged in their own country. Premiere Cannes Film Festival 2023 Un Certain Regard, Winner of Freedom Prize, BFI London FF. ISA: Mad Solutions***

Senegal’s Banel & Adama directed by Toulaye Sy Pular is about a couple who has loved each other since childhood who go outside their society’s mores. This is one of the more nuanced and original stories except for Omen. Premiere Cannes Film Festival 2023 Competition, Toronto Centerpiece. ISA: Best Friend Forever ****

Burkina Faso’s Sira directed by Apolline Traoré is about a beautiful nomad woman on the way to marry a man from another village and religion whom she loves. Terrorists attack, kill the men and kidnap the women, but Sira refuses to surrender to her fate without a fight and instead takes a stand against Islamist terror. Winner of Berlinale Panorama Audience Award, African Academy Award Winner for Best Director, FESPACO Winner Gold Medal. Read my blog for more information. ISA: Wide has done little to sell the rights. TV5Monde has French rights and K Amerique has French Canada. This should have sold far more widely!

Nigeria’s Mami Wata by C.J. Obasi is about two sisters who must fight to save their people and restore the glory of a mermaid goddess to the land to restore the harmony in a village when it is threatened by outside elements. Premiere Sundance 2023 winner for Best Cinematography. ISA: Alief*****

South Africa’s Music Is My Life- Joseph Shabalala and Ladysmith Black Mambazoby Mpumi Mbele is a 2023 look at Ladysmith Black Mambazo and its founder who powered the sound of Paul Simon’s Graceland. From apartheid roots to five Grammys, the story offers insights into their Graceland sessions and how their Zulu music changed the world. ISA: FilmOption seems not to have sold it anywhere (per IMDb and Cinando listing)

Namibia’s Under the Hanging Tree by Perivi Katjavivi is about a troubled police officer who battles to keep her small town in the stark Kalahari desert from being ripped apart by a horrific murder and the ghosts from a colonial past. ISA: Antidote

Cameroon’s Half Heaven by Enah Johnscott is about an evangelist and a sex worker having a revelatory encounter. ISA: Film One

Kenya’s Mvera directed by Daudi Anguka. Kenya’s seventh submission. No nominations yet. About a woman who uncovers an organ trafficking ring in her local community, loosely inspired by Kenyan activist Mekatilili Wa Menza. No ISA

From North Africa come

Tunisia’s Four Daughters by Kaouther Ben Hania (whose film The Man Who Sold His Skin was nominated last year). A documentary of a mother and her four daughters, two of whom have disappeared. The director invites two actresses in to recreate their lives. Premiere Cannes Competition 2023, Toronto 2023. ISA: The Party Film Sales******

Morocco’s The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir. A documentary on a handmade set recreating her Casablanca neighborhood, a young Moroccan filmmaker enlists family and friends to help unearth the troubling lies built into her childhood. Premiere Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard winner for Best Director. ISA: Autlook licensed to Benelux-Vedette and France-Arizona.

Egypt’s Voy! Voy! Voy! by Omar Hilal is a popular comedy based on an incredible true story about a man who fakes blindness to join a team of blind footballers bound for Poland with the idea of fulfilling his dream of leaving his home country Egypt and living in Europe. He discoves that every player on the team is doing the same thing. ISA: AGC has sold to Pakistan-HKC Entertainment.

***********************

*Memento has licensed Omen to Utopia for U.S., Stadtkinofilmverleigh for Austria; Pan for France; Grandfilm for Germany, Imagine for Netherlands, HHG for Russia, Filmin for Spain, AYA for U.K.

**Pathe has licensed Io Capitano to France-Pathe; India and SAARC countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanma) to Alliance; Netherands-Paradiso; Poland-Aurora; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Spain-Youplanet; Switzerand-Pathe; U.K. & Ireland-Altitude

***Mad Solutions has licensed Goodbye Julia to Australia/ N.Z.-Potential; Benelux, Surinam, Dutch Antilles-September, France-ARP Selection; Germany, Austria, Italy-Satine; MENA-MAD; Sudan-Station; Sweden-Folkets; Switzerland-trigon; Taiwan-Swallow Wings. CAA is representing U.S.

****Best Friend Forever licensed Banel & Adama to Australia, New Zealand-AHI; Benelux-Cherry Pickers; France-Tandem; Greece-Filmin; Italy-Movies Inspired; Norway-Njuta; Poland-Cinobo; Portugal-Alambique; Serbia-Trigon Films; So. Korea-Green Narae; Spain-Filmin; Switzerland-trigon; U.K., Ireland-We Are Parable; U.S. Kino Lorber

***** Alief licensed Mami Wata to Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, Togo, Rwanda-Canal Olympia; Germany-Cinemalovers; Nigeria-Flm One; No. America-Dekanalog; Switzerland-trigon; U.K., Ireland-Aya

****** Party Film Sales licensed Four Daughters to Austria-Polyfilm; Canada-Mongrel, Metropole; Denmark-Camera; Ex-Yugo-Discovery +; Finland-Cinemanse; France-Jour2Fete; Germany Rapid Eye Movies; Greece-Ama;Hungary-Vertigo; Iceland-Heimili Kvikmyndanna-Bio Paradis; Italy-Mongrel; Norway-Arthaus; Poland-New Horizons; Portugal-Nitrato; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Spain-Caramel; Sweden-TriArt; Switzerland-trigon; Tunisa-Hakka, U.S.-Kino Lorber

Belgium’s Oscar© Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Omen’: An Interview with Balogi

2023-12-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

The director Baloji is currently in L.A. showing his film and speaking to the Academy members and press about his Cannes Award winning debut feature ‘Omen’ (aka ‘Auguri’). He himself is outgoing, beautifully mannered and dressed, a treat to speak with as he so gracefully articulates his creative sources. While he is Belgian, he was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and this film speaks to us of Congo as much as it credits Belgium today, a multicultural democracy.

After spending 18 years in Belgium, a young Congolese man named Koffi returns with his pregnant Belgian wife to his birthplace of Kinshasa to introduce her to his family and give them the honors due as a first son. However their glacial welcome reminds him that homeland culture with its family secrets and sorcery has frozen his status as a Zabolo, one who wears the mark of the devil. The intricacies of identity, culture, and belief systems is captured within the context of magical realism in a deeply rich, original and visually captivating style.

Watch the trailer here.

Marc Zinga and Lucie Debay as Koffi and Alice

The story takes hold of the audience as it is unfolds through intertwined stories of four Congolese characters acting ensemble who are labeled witches or sorcerers.

What is your connection to these stories of sorcery and witchcraft?

It is personal and extremely dear to me, having been considered a sorcerer myself.

In Swahili, my name, Baloji, semantically means “man of science”. With the Christian colonizers arriving in Africa, it became “man of black science” (healer) and then “man of black magic” (witch doctor). In the last few years, it has become a synonym for sorcerer, and is basically the same as being called “devil” or “demon” in Africa itself. It’s not an easy name to live with. It’s an awful name, really, being named “Demon” in Belgium. Because people used to label me as a sorcerer, I’ve always been fascinated by witchcraft and by people who are seen as “different”.

That’s why Koffi, the main character, has a port-wine stain on his face: I wanted to visualize the weight of that label.

Why did your parents name you this?

For personal reasons I prefer not to discuss except to say my father was ill at the time I was born.

I understand. When loved ones are ill, the family will do anything they can to help heal their beloved.

So as a kid, you were called a sorcerer. Does making this movie help you?

Yes, I’ve finally accepted that maybe my name is also what I am. In Congo, when I learned that originally my name meant “man of science,” it became something positive. It wasn’t until European Christian colonialism came into the picture that the word “baloji” turned into something negative.

(Editor parenthesis: How coincidental that those with a so-called “christian”, but dumb-downed, mentality today in the U.S., the ones so against immigration of formerly colonized people are the same people who are against acknowledging scientific sources and cures for global warming, famine, COVID, critical racism, sex education, et al.)

So now I can deal with it. And when I started making movies, I decided to put some magical realism into them. It’s part of me, so it must be part of my cinema language.

Baloji

What statement did you intend to make with the story?
The more I reflected on witchcraft and sorcery and on all the ways that society finds to define and fight against those who are “different”, the more I wanted to focus on the effects of that.

I wanted to show how society is structured for men, and how they try to control women’s bodies. What happens when a young girl doesn’t want to have kids. Being a 35-year-old woman and not having children is considered “not right” in Europe as well as in Africa. A woman gets completely discarded when she grows old. I’ve been studying feminism and I think it’s my obligation — because as a man and therefore part of the problem — that I be a part of the solution as well.

In the same way that racism is a white people’s issue: it can’t be solved unless white people start talking about it.

The topic of family is one of the most important in the film.
I think the family is the laboratory of society. Everything you can find in a family is a reflection of society. So it means you have to fight and accept the same things in your own family as you do in society on a bigger scale.

I wanted to show different forms of assignation, in order to approach the subject in a larger way. For a woman like Tshala, Koffi’s sister who lives a life of polyamory, being labeled a witch is a bigger burden than for a man.

For an older woman like Mujila, Koffi’s mother, it’s even worse. Really the one I think is the true protagonist is the mother…and then the sister.

Paco, one of the main characters, is a young boy who is also considered a sorcerer. Paco is a young shégué (street urchin) on the other side of town who’s haunted by his little sister’s death and mired in a gang war that prevents him from grieving. Koffi and he are both witch children, cursed sons who need to be exorcised. In Paco’s case, when parents have money issues, it’s sometimes believed to be the fault of their youngest children who have supposedly cursed the family. The parents often send these kids away, and they end up on the streets. This is what happened to Paco. But he deals with his assignation in a way very different from the protagonist Koffi, who is ashamed and thinks it’s the worst thing that ever happened to him. Paco has learned to use it to his advantage: he does magic tricks and scares people. He takes a certain pride in his assignation.

In fact, throughout the movie Paco and Koffi appear in adjacent scenes as mirrors of each other. Both have epileptic attacks, often taken as a sign of possession by the devil. When Paco suffers such an attack, the next scene shows Koffi awakening. You will notice throughout the movie that they are always scenically joined together.

You’ve done many different things in your life: you were part of successful Belgian hip-hop group Starflam; you’ve acted. How did you become a film director?

From 1998 to 2006, I lived above a music and video store in Brussels. Every day, I would go pick up my mail downstairs and start talking about movies with the guys who hung around in the store. They made me discover films like Gus Van Sant’s Gerry, that had a very different rhythm to them. That was my film school. For years, I would watch a movie every day. And since I was already very interested in music, fashion and art direction, film felt like the perfect fit for me, because it combined all of my passions into one art form.

As a musician, not a director, how did you secure funding for this first feature?

Because I’m a musician, for a long time I wasn’t taken seriously as a director. I wasn’t part of the “film family.” So a lot of people in the industry and the press were very surprised when my film got selected for
Cannes. And now for the Oscars too!

It was very difficult to convince those in the film industry that I was able to be a filmmaker, but I made commercials and music videos. Germany and the Berlinale World Film Fund funded it based on my short film Zombies which won many prizes in Germany. You can see it here on YouTube.

It was also diffficult write a filmic synopsis for this film which I needed to finance it. I pitched it as the story of Koffie and his return to Congo. Koffie is apparently the main protagonist, but he isn’t, in reality. His storyline ends after 20 minutes.

I got more and more interested in the voices of the other characters, who do not have the luxury of being able to come and go in the same way he does. The real victims in this world are the ones who can’t leave. That’s why the movie ends with the character of Koffie’s sister.

I want to return to where you mentioned the port-wine birthmark on the face of Koffi. Your use of colors throughout the film is very striking.

I have synesthesia. To me, everything is connected to color. Sounds, moods — they all have colors in my head. And so all the characters in the movie also have their own color: for Koffi, it’s dark red — like his port-wine stain. Paco is associated with pink, etc. You can see it in the typeface I used to present their names on screen, but also in the color filters we used.

And in the music, too. I only used chords that I felt were connected to certain colors. For instance, I like the music of Eric Satie who often writes in C minor. To me that is blue, a color of melancholia, or the blue at the base of a candle flame, very dynamic and determined.

How did you create the music for Omen?
Very early on in the process, I realized the recording artist music I usually make wouldn’t fit the film. As a recording artist, I always use vocals, but in this film they would just be too much. There is already a lot of information in the image. So I kept the music in the film quite subtle. But then I also
recorded four albums with songs that wouldn’t appear in the film.

Each album is written from a different character’s point of view. It was a great opportunity to create backstories for the characters, which could help the actors. But mostly, it was an exercise in empathy for me. It made me love and understand each one of my characters.

The first is Koffi (Marc Zinga, seen in Cannes two years ago in Tori and Lokita), a Congolese Belgian returning to his birthplace for the first time in almost two decades after being banished to Europe because he was born with a birthmark.

The second is about Koffi’s sister Tshala played by Eliane Umuhire (Neptune Frost in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2021), Tshala’s album is all about female sexuality. As a man, it took a lot of reading and studying to be really able to understand the dynamics at play.

The third introduces Paco (the first role of Marcel Otete Kabeya) a teen antibiotic dealer who is the leader of a group of outcasts who all dress in pink drag to honor his dead sister.

The fourth is Mama Mujila’s (steely-eyed Yves-Marina Gnahoua, a theatre actress who starred in the hard-hitting documentary That Which Does Not Kill) story of patriarchal trauma and the real reason she was forced to send him away.

In the film, sometimes the kitchen is green and sometimes gray, depending upon what is happening. I feel moods and hear music in colors. My color associations are very personal to me. Others with synethesia associate other colors to their senses.

Sometimes synesthesia feels like a disease, but I try to have fun with it.

(Editor: Baloji is in good company. Nikola Tesla had it. Beyoncé is said to have Chromesthesia or sound-to-color synesthesia. Duke Ellington, Billie Ellish and Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, Pharrell Williams, Billy Joel, Franz Lizst and Hans Zimmer all have or had various forms of the condition. Marilyn Monroe had it with taste-to-color and Proust has another sort of taste-to- emotion.)

The pinks of Paco

The pinks of Paco were outstanding…as were the bright colored dresses of the three women when Koffi and Alice first come to meet the family… Can you talk more about the costumes?

Together with Elke Hoste, I also designed the costumes for the film. They blend elements from different cultures. For instance the mother, Mujila, always wears lace. Lace is very Belgian. The techniques were introduced to Congo by the Belgians but they used raffia to create the designs, not the fine threads used in Belgium The mother is always dressed with lace and a the sober brown of raffia.

I created a cultural triangle. There are obviously lots of elements from Central Africa, but there’s also an influence from American heritage: the costumes in the parade are inspired by Mardi Gras — we actually went
to New Orleans to create the masks. What I discovered there was that the origin of their own customs including music began in the place they named “Congo Square”!

So this depiction completes a full circle as well as a triangle within the circle.

We also took inspiration from the “Gilles,” the famous folklore characters
who appear in the carnival parade of Binche in Belgium. I also used Belgian surrealist painters like Magritte as an influence, for example in the opening and closing scenes.

The carnival calendar in Wallonia begins with a bang in Binche. Every Shrove Tuesday, this walled city hosts a festival so ancient it has been listed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”. Indeed, Binche has been a byword for indulgence for so long that it actually gave the English language the term “binge”. (Photo and caption courtesy of VisitWallonia.com)

What does it mean for you to be able to come to L.A. with your first feature film (after winning New Voice Prize at Cannes)?

It is interesting and challenging to talk about my next movie with the people I meet here when the first one has not yet completed its final phase of release. It’s schizophrenic in a way.

It is very important for all of Central Africa to have a film from Congo represented at the Oscars. It is extremely big! I am from a country where there is no film culture….not in all of Central Africa. Congo has no Academy [AMPAS] standing at all, so it is good that Belgium submitted this film.

You are, as far as I know, the only representative of a film from Africa here and some really good films from Africa are hoping to get shortlisted.

It is also very impressive that your Academy Screening and post-screening Q&A is being sponsored by Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Greenbook). Maybe we will see him in your next movie. You have an advantage by being here in L.A.

Thank you! If I return to L.A., I will bring you a box of the best Belgian truffles!

*****************

Rapper turned filmmaker Baloji is Belgian-Congolese. He was born in 1978 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and lives in Belgium. He is an award-winning musician, filmmaker, polymath, art director, and costume designer. He transforms his own Belgian-Congolese heritage to original forms and we hope to new heights as well for a long future of success.

Omen follows several well-received short films that have been distributed worldwide, including Zombies (2019).

As a musician, Baloji has released two critically acclaimed albums and two EPs. The latest, Avenue Kaniama, was released on Bella Union Records (Father John Mistry, Fleet Foxes).

**********

International sales agent Memento has licensed the film to Utopia for U.S. to release theatrically early 2024, Stadtkinoverleih for Austria, Imagine for Benelux, Pan Distribution for France, Grandfilm for Germany, I Wonder Pictures for Italy, HHG for Russia, Filmin for Spain, Outside the Box for Switzerland, AYA Films for U.K.

Omen is produced by Wrong Men (Belgium), in co-production with New Amsterdam Film Company(the Netherlands), Tosala Films (D.R. Congo), Special Touch Studios (France), Radical Media(Germany), Serendipity(Belgium) and Big World Cinema (South Africa).

Further support has come from BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance (co-production), Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF) (co-production), Proximus (co-production), VOO (co-production), BE TV (co-production), VRT / Canvas (co-production), Canal+ (co-production), Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel et des Télédistributeurs Wallons (support), Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge (support), Nederlands Filmfonds (support), Netherlands Film Production Incentive (support), The Berlinale World Cinema Fund (support), Région de Bruxelles-Capital (support), Fonds de Promotion Culturelle (FPC) (support), Fonds Images de la Francophonie(support), Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) (support), TV5MONDE (participation), Institut Français (support), Red Sea Film Fund(support)

*************

This is Belgium’s 48th Oscar submission. Belgium’s submissions have received eight nominations but no wins. Lukas Dhont’s Close was nominated last year.

Baloji and me

Burkino Faso’s Oscar © Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Sira’ by Apolline Traoré

2023-12-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

The power of art can dispel the bleakest of moods. Great art revives our spirit and for that reason alone, I do not ever want to lose my love for great motion pictures and music.

The story of a young nomad named Sira who refuses to surrender to her fate without a fight and instead takes a stand against Islamist terror. This is a great film to pick up and is still available for U.S.!

This is a story of a real female warrior set today in Sahel, the region that stretches across the north of sub-Saharan Africa. Boku Haram kidnaps and rapes a 17 year old on a caravan going with her nomadic Fulani family to her wedding with the son of a farming family. We see Boku Haram’s other young women kidnapped from schools to use as sex slaves, breeders and servants hopelessly trapped, but she survives and in the end, carries the day.

Music by Cyril Morin is, as is all his music, unique and perfectly fitted to the film. This coproduction of Burkina Faso, France, Germany and Senegal runs a bit long at 122 minutes but its heart is pure as it traces the fight to survive by this Fulani woman.

Tom Twkvers and Marie Steinmann-Tykwer’s company, Some Fine Day Pix, in Kenya was founded in 2008, to give young African filmmakers the opportunity to create their own films.

This film is Kenya’s submission for Academy Award nomination. The problem will then be finding strong enough publicity on their shoestring budget to get it seen widely enough to be shortlisted, which it clearly deserves. Perhaps the below-the-radar Academy campaign of To Leslie to getAndrea Riseborough the nomination for Best Actress can offer some lessons — IF a U.S. distributor picks up the film and makes a decent campaign for it.

The film went on to Burkino Faso where it played in FESPACO, Africa’s top film festival and its oldest, founded in 1969. Since the bi-annual festival was last held in 2021 the West African nation has had to deal with the political fallout from two coups within eight months and spiraling violence driven by groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

In Berlin Apolline Traoré spoke so eloquently to the audience afterward that they did not want to let her go but were forced to leave the theater so the next film could play. She began this film eight years ago. Five countries are still being terrorized by Boku Haram: Nigeria, Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. Only Mauritania has rid itself of them. She hopes that this tale of resistance brings hope to the people of the region. She spoke of the Fulani people, who the star represents. They are divided by color and don’t mix with each other, nor do Muslims usually marry Christians so this story is complicated in ways Westerners may not wholly understand. The topic, very near and dear to Apolline, may also not find a home with Burkino audiences. And there is something else close to her heart: portraying women as strong characters.

Watch the Berlinale Meets interview with Apolline Traoré, director of Sira.

“I simply have to give them a voice. Most of the time, they are portrayed as victims: People show women in refugee camps who have lost their fathers or husbands. But it’s these same women who protect their children. Who have used dangerous escape routes to save them.” Women, in fact, who have demonstrated how to survive. According to Traore, it is precisely these women who play a major role in the fight against the jihadists in Africa.

Watch the discussion of women filmmakers in Africa here.

Director and writer Apolline Traoré was born in 1976 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Her father’s profession, a diplomat, led to her travelling the world. At the age of 17, her family moved to the United States and she began her studies at Emerson College in Boston, a well known institution in the field of art and communication. This is her fourth feature film.

She clearly deserves recognition; Berlin, Fespaco, Toronto have all welcomed this film. It’s clear that the ISA (International Sales Agent) is not doing anything to promote or sell this film!

India's Oscar© Entry 2024 for Best International Feature: '2018: Everyone is a Hero' by Jude Anthany Joseph

2023-12-19T15:35:00.000-08:00

A disaster film as it really happened set during the 2018 Kerala Floods where people from all walks of life were taken by surprise and forced to face the catastrophic consequences of climate change. Their collective efforts to survive the calamity take the audience by storm and rivet them to their seats.

The director Jude Anthany Joseph actually lived through the floods. What he told us was that he was at home with his parents when they heard the water rising. They said they would stay but he went to his sister’s. When he returned home, it was flooded. His car was washed away, the streets were a stream. The roads were blocked and he stayed at a hotel and spent the whole night thinking life was over. Luckily during the seven days it lasted, his wife and children were away at a wedding. They all survived and he is here to share this story with the world.

Watch the trailer here.

As I was reading the newspapers and watching the news videos, I saw a great story in the success of Keralites standing together to fight this disaster. It was a great story of humanity saving each other. The army and the police were powerless, but the fishermen took to their boats and rescued as many of those stranded in their homes as possible.

It was after the L.A. screening by JJ PR that he told me how it was all shot on a set. He built a tank and filled it with water from the river. He built 16 houses with facades which he put into the tank. A house of three floors is depicted as getting flooded floor by floor. He did this by putting each floor in the water, so that when the scene with the couple in the attic up to their noses in water by the time they were rescued (or not), only the top floor was placed in the tank.

2018: Everyone Is A Hero is so masterfully handled that you would think it took many millions to make. But it is a truly independent film. All this was done on a budget of US$3 million!

The film’s great production quality can compete with any other film in this category. In fact it can almost compete with the renowned Roland Emmerich disaster movies whose budgets are in the hundreds of millions.

Most of the 129 actors were professionals and, like the producer as well, were all victims of the flood. The lead character in the film actually did die.

“The idea was pure and sincere. Maybe that is the reason it came out well. And it is the people of Kerala who made the film a huge success, I could see the claps and tears in the cinema halls when the film was released,” Joseph said. With a box office take of $25 million, 2018: Everyone Is A Hero is the highest grossing Malayalam-language film of all time.

“It is a global topic. People from different parts of the world are suffering from disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes etc. and the people will relate to the characters,” Joseph said. “People must act together across the globe by seeing themselves as a part of nature (and its disasters). Humans and nature are one.”

The film was released May 5 in India and U.S. It will be re-released in the U.S. Sony (India) saw it before it was finished when they picked up all rights and partnered with his team on the production. Sony has worldwide rights.

India has been submitting to this international film category since 1957 and has been nominated three times: for Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay(1988); and Lagaan (2001). Its 2022 entry Last Film Show was shortlisted, but did not score a nomination. India is yet to win the category. However RRRwas the 2023 Oscar Winner in the category of Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) by M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose for the song “Naatu Naatu” and the winner of 2023 Winner Critics Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

2023-12-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

Bangladesh, the sound of sobbing. A desperate people in need of aid.

Submerging, dying, rotten. Its people must go abroad to work on lousy construction sites, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai from which they fall from 22 floors and rot before their families are even notified. This world is depicted in all its misery while the people deal with their daily bread and shelter and the love or non-love lives they find themselves living.

Our protagonist rubs beetlenut juice on his gums to keep from croaking. Set in the backdrop of the scathing consequences of climate change, an impoverished ambulance driver Saiful staggers between two wives while he sets out on a bone-tired journey of moral decay, murder, deception, and social bashing.

Everyone cries about floods, phones that get stolen or run out of batteries.

We watch as the flood overtake even the highest in the country, both its people and its land, the sound of a real baby crying is almost unbearable, just too real and horrible to watch.

For all their human degradation, how well the women dress and maintain their dignity. But this is not about that; it is merely incidental. Through it all, the women maintain a dignity, innate within them along with an ability to manage others. And yet, the people are all so rude and unpleasant with each other, enslaved at the lowest rangs of society.

This schlump, played by Rocky Chowdury, has more than one wife and can barely take care of himself. His wives are constantly demanding payments while his boss cuts his salary. It’s enough to make you want to commit suicide and just end it all.

Only the promise of heaven when all the good things that will come keeps him going in misery that gets worse and worse. For all the misery I feel no empathy. I think of the country and I am appalled.

It also stars Deepanwita Martin as the second wife. She was also in the praiseworthy film, Made in Bangladesh (See my blog) and as the first wife, Priyam Archi, a Bangladeshi Actor who has brought many challenging characters to life throughout her acting career and whose life epitomizes success in Bangladesh, from a humble beginning of life as the youngest child from her parents. By being the restless daredevil with an indomitable spirit, playing in the wild backyard, swimming in the ponds and staging games with nature, her natural intelligence, beauty and wit brought her far.

Priyam Archi

The film has played well on the international festival circuit starting in South Korea at the 2021 Busan International Film Festival and going to The International Film Festival of India, Japan’s Osaka Asian Film Festival, and the Asian Film Festival Barcelona before its U.S. premiere at the Asian World Film Festival 2023

2023-12-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

This very mixed genre film combines comedy, policier and gay romance in a fun-to-watch unexpected submission for the Oscar from a country where some of the world’s great cinema has been created.

Taiwan cinema has always been committed to stories told from a Taiwanese perspective since its inception in 1901 to the 1950s and 1960s, genre films of the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwan New Cinema of the 1980s, and the Second New Wave of the 1990s whose films are slightly less serious and more popular with the people. Internationally known representative directors include King Hu, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang, Chang Tso Chi, Chung Mong-Hong, and Midi Zhao. Ang Lee is perhaps the most well-known of the Second New Wave directors. His early films Pushing Hands (1991), The Wedding Banquet (1993), and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) focus on the generational and cultural conflicts confronting many modern families. He has had three films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and one of these films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is the only Taiwanese film to have won the award.

His revived the wuxia genre successfully. Although not in the tradition of New Wave or Second New Wave, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was a commercial success, revived the wuxia genre and placed Asian films firmly in the international domain. The later films Eternal Summer (2006), Prince of Tears (2009) and Winds of September (2009) have pushed the boundaries of Taiwanese film-making and broken the island’s long-standing taboos about the depiction of controversial subject matter.

Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalize same sex marriage in 2019. The way LGBTQ themes are depicted here is heartwarming and original. Who says you cannot mix genres? Mixed in with a police story teaming a woman and a man vying for credit in solving crimes, it often convolutes into hilariously incongruous shenanigans. as they try to solve the mystery of the death of the foil of our protagonist.

Staying with the tradition of Taiwanese perspectives, this caper deals with a tradition called “ghost marriage” where a family tries to find their deceased daughter a groom because without a husband, she has no place on the traditional family altar honoring the family ancestors. They find a husband by placing her photo and a lock of her hair in a red envelope and laying it on the ground. If a man picks it up, expecting money, he will find he has just married the person. He is still free to marry a real-life woman but the deceased then has a place to rest upon the traditional family altar of the husband. Otherwise, she has no place and wanders the earth as a ghost.

In this story, the man finds the envelope, but the family is trying to marry off their son, Mao, who has recently passed away. And the ghost remains fully active until he convinces the man to go through with the marriage. The man is the homophobic policeman, Wu, who heavy-handled a homosexual suspect and was chided by his boss for his prejudice. His partner, the beautiful Tzu-Shing also berates Wu for his staunch homophobia. Wu spots Mao’s father, who tells his ‘son-in-law’ that he’s trying to look for clues about the car that ran over Mao. The video footage had been removed, according to the police, and Wu decided to look into the matter.

Thus the cop and ghost team up to search for clues, which leads to multiple hilarious situations, including Wu having to approach a suspect at a gay bar and being laid flat on his back. Coincidentally, this suspect, who’d witnessed the hit-and-run of Mao, was an underling of a drug lord, who was being investigated by Wu’s old precinct. Thus the “romance” and the policier go hand in glove

It is the filmmaker Wei-Hao Cheng’s fifth feature. Most of his films are crime, suspense or horror stories. In 2015, his short film, The Death of A Security Guard, won Best Short Film at 52th Golden Horse Awards. In 2016, his debut feature film The Tag-Along garnered four award nominations including Best Director. It also smashed box office records of horror movies in Taiwan for over ten years. In 2017, feature films Who Killed Cock Robin and The Tag-Along 2 were released and nominated for eight awards in 54th Golden Horse Award. In 2021, his film The Soul was nominated for 11 Golden Horse Awards including Best Director. His first series The Pond was selected in the 26th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. In 2023, this latest film Marry My Dead Body was released and ranked among the top ten highest-grossing films in Taiwan’s cinematic history. It won the Best Screenplay at the 25th Taipei Film Awards, and was nominated for the Best Narrative Feature, the Best Director and six other awards at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.

The film is currently available on Netflix.

2024 Oscar Consideration for Best Documentary: ‘The Disappearance of Shere Hite’ directed by Nicole Newnham

2023-12-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

Premiere Sundance 2023

The Hite Report, a groundbreaking study of female sexuality, remains one of the bestselling books of all time since its publication in 1976. The Hite Report brought the female orgasm out of unspoken shadows into the light of day by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Shere Hite’s findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender and sex.

Drawn from anonymous survey responses, the book challenged restrictive conceptions of sex and opened a dialogue in popular culture around women’s pleasure. Its charismatic author, Shere Hite, a feminist sex researcher and former model, became the public messenger of women’s secret confessions. With each subsequent bestseller, she engaged television titans in unforgettably explicit debates about sexuality while suffering the backlash her controversial findings provoked. But who remembers Shere Hite today? What led to her erasure?

The takeaway of The Hite Report was that female expression of sexuality should not be defined by patriarchal power. This idea deeply offended the male establishment and consequently, the media made as much of their wounded ideas of themselves as of the book itself whose authentic and anonymous findings were treated with intense controversy.

The astonishing beauty of Shere Hite herself lies outside of the cliche perameters of the “scholarly” (i.e., “homely) woman. And so her methodical research was called “unscientific” and was called into question (and answered smartly by her). Her background as a working-class, bisexual, former nude model with photographs appearing in Playboy did not sit well with the offended and offensive men who interviewed her on top TV shows after the book became a runaway success. All of her many identities are displayed in the movie.

Digging into exclusive archives, as well as Hite’s personal journals and the original survey responses, filmmaker Nicole Newnham transports viewers back to the 70s, a time of great societal transformation around sexuality (See Fairyland, about queer life in San Francisco, also playing here in Sundance,for another take on the 70s and Food and Country about the coming of age of California cuisine in the 70s under the guiding hands of Ruth Reichl and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse). Newnham’s revelatory portrait brings us to reconsider a pioneer who broke the ground for our current conversations about gender, sexuality, and autonomy. Her story also is a timely, cautionary tale of what too often happens to women who dare speak out.

Nicole Newnham is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning documentary director and producer and four-time Sundance alum. She co-directed Crip Camp (2020) with Jim LeBrecht. Crip Camp was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Sundance U.S. Documentary Audience Award. Newnham’s other documentary directing credits include the Emmy-nominated films The Revolutionary Optimists, Sentenced Home, and The Rape of Europa.

U.S. IFC

Sales: Josh Braun, Submarine Entertainment

Directed and Produced By: Nicole Newnham (Crip Camp)
Produced By: Molly O’Brien, R.J. Cutler, Elise Pearlstein, Kimberley Ferdinando, Trevor Smith
Co-Produced By: Erica Fink, Eleanor West
Executive Produced By: Elizabeth Fischer, Liz Cole, Noah Oppenheim, Andy Berg, Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman

116 minutes

Movies

2023-12-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

Born in Macon, Georgia in 1937, Richard Wayne Penniman stood up loud and clear for who he was and what he deserved. The history of the Black queer origins of rock ’n’ roll, beginning with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, clearly the Mother of Rock ’n’ Roll, who gave Little Richard his first break when he was 14, would have been obliterated had not Little Richard objected so vociferously to such an event.

But before acknowledging Little Richard’s vast contribution to rock ’n’ roll, we should also give credit to the Indigenous Americans as depicted in the 2017 documentary by Catherine Bainbridge called Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World. Without acknowledging their contribution we would be guilty of doing what this documentary stives to correct, that is the obliteration of the black queer origins of the genre. The genre’s musicological roots lie as much in the beat of the Native American drums as in Little Richard’s brazenly displayed performances which electrified White audiences and got them onto their feet.

Little Richard, courtesy of Sundance Institute

Little Richard: I Am Everything takes us on a ride through the complex evolution of a man of many qualities, from generosity to bragadoccio, from flamboyantly queer and hyper-sexualized to extremely and conservatively religious. He was true to all these facets of himself.

Testimonials from legendary musicians and cultural figures, Black and queer scholars, Little Richard’s family and friends, and interviews with the artist himself are insightful and interesting. The treasure trove of rarely seen archival footage of his Penniman family and of Black southern life lift this documentary beyond his performances and talking heads. Among the gems are scenes with his Black and queer predecessors and his own mother and other women, depictions of household and field chores and churches. Cortés exuberantly reclaims a history that has been appropriated by white artists and institutions.

As the audience watches his life and its changes, the audience itself is changed from pure love and enthusiasm for his music to an understanding of the complexity of a showbiz figure in his mental development and changes. He is transformed from an icon to a human being.

Lisa Cortés, courtesy of Sundance Institute

Kudos are due to director Lisa Cortés who is also the producer of Invisible Beauty which also premiered at Sundance 2023. She also has a first-look development agreement with the Museum of the City of New York to create documentaries based on the museum’s exhibitions. She plans for projects on food, social justice, music, and more. The first being made under the deal is a docuseries based on Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off, an exhibition inviting bakers from every borough to design New York City-inspired gingerbread creations.

An Interview with the Director and Producer of Georgia’s Oscar© 2024 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Citizen Saint’

2023-12-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

After watching the ‘Citizen Saint’ at the Asian World Film Festival this past month, I spoke with the producer Lasha Khalvashi and director Tinatin Kajrishvili.

Director Tinatin Kajrishvili and producer Lasha Khalvashi, a partnership in real life and in cinema.

While I already knew that Georgian food was exceptional and its method of winemaking was 5,000 years old, fermented in unique clay amphora buried in the earth, I did not know that its language is the most ancient non-Indo-European of Europe. Nor did I know that it shares a 556 mile border with Russia who has five permanent military bases in South Ossetia manned by approximately 5,000 army troops, border guards and FSB personnel another 5,000 based in Abkhazia. Nor did I know that the most famous Georgian of all is the Dictatort Joseph Stalin whose life will be the subject of a US$10 million film Lasha is about to produce. Don’t we need to know as much as we can about Stalin? A former priest-in-training turned gangster, Stalin knew how to appeal to the masses until he walked them to their grave. A populist if ever there was one, on par with Hitler himself, the devil incarnate.

Georgia’s 3 million people are still free — perhaps for the first time in their millennia-old world which throughout history has been constantly invaded either by the East or the West. Constantly.

Citizen Saint takes us to a time seemingly under Stalin’s Soviet Rule but it is actually today, as the mining town has changed very little except it is now independent of USSR. The story, essentially an absurdist reenactment of The Passion Play, is reminiscent of the 1957 film by Jules Dassin (Never on Sunday), He Who Must Die written by Kazanzackis (The Last Temptation of Christ). However, neither Lasha nor Tinatin had ever heard of Jules Dassin or his film.

This satirical black-and-white parable about a saint who descends the cross to live among mortals explores the complexities of faith and human nature, when the patron saint of the harsh mining community comes to life.

Known for her Berlinale titles, the Panorama Audience Award winning Brides and Horizon, Tinatin Kajrishvili’s third feature should extend her reputation beyond Europe (where she is well known) to the U.S.

How did you come to make this film?

I read a short story called Bye Amigo by a Georgian woman writer about a saint who comes alive and wanders among the people. It took a lot of time to figure out how write the script and when I found the town to set it in, I began. The town, Chiatura, is mine complex. No one lives there. It’s just mines. The workers live in the hills around it and come in on a cable car that was last renovated by Stalin. They come to work and then they leave. It is a town where anything can happen.You do not know what happens in their homes and in their private lives, but going into the mines is dangerous. It is very difficult to astonish these people. They are very kind but face fear and obstacles all the time. Mining is the only job they can have.

Don’t the young people leave? Yes only about 40% remain to become miners.

I read that the Christianity in Georgia began through the ministry of a woman named Saint Nino during the 4th century, and it is one of the oldest church communities in the world. Are the people religious today?

It is very difficult to touch on religious themes in Georgia. The religion is Georgian Orthodox. The people censure themselves and ask the priest if they should undertake something different, or if they have doubts about things.

Is it believable that they would take to a living saint as they did in your movie?

I often get this question from people. In my own neighborhood in Tbilisi, there is a living saint with many followers who wait outside of his place to see him at the window. He throws his garbage out the window and the people run to collect it. His followers post videos on Facebook. For example, a childless couple say they conceived after eating the tomatoes he threw out his window. His name is King Nariman and he is on Facebook. If you challenge the followers, they become very aggressive. So yes, I find the story is believable, although it is an imaginary town, even though it was shot in a real town where I previously shot two other films. And the people do have a protector image on the hill, their patron saint, though it was not the one in the film. The place is a microcosm to show how people come to work and leave from work without our knowing where they live. They are always going to or coming from work…as so many of us do today.

What about the characters? They are odd to say the least…

It was very deliberate that I show people as if they were dressed in uniforms. I did not go deep into their characters. It was my decision to shoot in darkness with wide shots to lose the characters and then get close to them after seeing how they behave publicly. Then I would do a close shot with them alone with the saint and their most private thoughts. But that would only be a short sentence reveal.

Mari and the Saint before he comes alive

For instance, Mari who when she is alone with the saint says that he never answered her prayers; she had prayed to him to kill her husband and now she is glad he never listened to her prayers. Except for that, you always see her in a uniform, very uptight, a suit jacket and skirt and high heels, even when she is walking on gravel.

And, credit the great sound designer, Thomas Jaeger, worked with Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, you hear her high heels everywhere. The sound was very important…it was all recreated as were the film’s settings. Only about 20% of it was from real life…I did not make anything near a documentary.

Even the paintings?

Yes the set designer painted the murals that looked so much like social realism of the 30s, but were not. You can actually see some of the characters in the film in the artwork. And the statue of the miner on the cross was his work; he was a sculptor.

How about the music? It was very minimalistic but so deeply moving.

The music took one or two years. I usually do not use music at all in my movies but here I was working with inner sound, like inhaling and exhaling. I used a Georgian folk instrument like a flute. Then an instrument that sounded like an alarm. And a trumpet.

The composer, Tako Jordania, is a therapist for children who undergo ear surgery and need to adapt to hearing voices and sounds and to start talking and pronouncing words for the first time. She also works with children on the autistic spectrum.

How about the actors, how did you find your lead actors?

I knew Mari and Vano and the old couple from my other films and I knew I could trust them to handle any sort of difficulty and still act well. They had to act in very difficult settings, like the mine and I had to trust them to be able to do it. Mari was the lead in Brides. Vano was the lead in Horizon and the old couple was in both Brides and Horizon.

Berdo was the most difficult to find. That is his real name and I changed the character’s name to Berdo. He is really quite young and he transformed himself to look old. He is quite well known as a stage actor.

For the saint I was looking for someone who was a stranger yet local. George Babluani lived half his life in France. Audience may remember him from the film Thirteen. He has a naïve look, he is calm, kind and positive. He lives mostly in Georgia now but goes back and forth to France.

The whole crew played a major part in the film, not just in recreating but in acting as well. Half of the crew is acting in the film. It is crew members that take down the cross and statue. We were all dressed as miners and were in the tunnels as miners. The set designer and we all knew exactly where to point our flashlights and where to aim our head lights on our helmets.

It was very difficult for the DP Krum Rodriguez to shoot these scenes, using our lights for his with a light always at the end of the tunnel. He had to shoot these huge old soviet cars, tracks, the minors.

I shot with non-linear horizons; I used the hills, the giant metallurgical factory in the background, half-lit underground. Even the sound had to come from underground.

You shot during extreme times, the time of COVID.

Yes there was a real threat of death; it was a depressing time and the future unknown. It was during lockdown. We needed special permits to go to work which was allowed between 7am and 9pm.

We did great work, we went to great extremes to make it work. The production designer worked two years on it; he recreated the main square.

The Bulgarian DP was very brave because travel was very restricted and yet he shot with his crew.

You seem to thrive on filming in difficult places. Can you say more about that?

We shot Brides in a prison, it was very claustrophobic and Horizon was shot on a very isolated small island with only one house on it.

How did you find your crew?

The DP had seen my films and we met online until the point of shooting when we met personally on location.

How did you find your partners in production and your cast?

Lasha and I knew established producers in Bulgaria and in France.

Did they finance the film as well?

Yes CNC from France, the Bulgarian Film Center and the Georgian Film Center financed it plus some in-kind from the studios.

And how is the film now playing?

We had a very strong premiere in Karlovy Vary where it won the Ecumenical Award. Its local premier was at the Batumi Film Festival here in Georgia where it won for Best Director and the Audience Award and it went into the cinemas in September. It just finished its theatrical run after playing one month.

INTERNATIONAL TRAILER

https://vimeo.com/artizm/cstrailer?share=copy

Produced by Georgia’s Lasha Khalvashi at Studio Artizm and Tinatin Kajrishvili for Germini. It is a coproduction with France’s Mandra Films and Bulgaria’s Chouchkov Brothers. Sales are being handled by Studio Artizm.

Title — CITIZEN SAINT
Country — Georgia
Director — Tinatin Kajrishvili
Screenwriter — Tinatin Kajrishvili, Basa Janikashvili

Cinematography — Krum Rodriguez
Editor — David Apkhaidze
Production design — George Gordzamashvili

Music: Tako Zhordania
Producer — Tinatin Kajrishvili, Lasha Khalvashi, Studio Artizm

Starring — George Babluani, Levan Berikashvili, Mari Kitia, Gia Burdjanadze, Temiko Tchitchinadze, George Bochorishvili and Lia Abuladze

Director, Scriptwriter, Producer — TINATIN KAJRISHVILI

Tinatin Kajrishvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1978. In 2001 she graduated from the State Theatre and Film University of Georgia with the qualification of Film Director. In 2014 she directed and wrote the screenplay to her first feature film Brides. In 2018 she directed and wrote the screenplay to her second feature Film Horizon.Both films premiered at Berlin International Film Festival. Brides won the Audience Award for Best Picture in the Berlinale Panorama. She is a member of Georgian Filmmakers Union.

2023-12-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

Into a deeply religious mining community, an angel comes. Well, not an angel exactly, more of a saint. And the saint is more of a Christ figure. Even a townsman confuse their only saint with Jesus Christ.

In this stark and beautiful film, the statue of the saint upon a cross has disappeared. Shortly after a mute man appears who seems able to perform miracles and is accepted as the saint come-to-life. This leads to conflicts not to peace. Filmed in the still-operating oppressive Chiatura mine complex in central-western Georgia, Citizen Saint explores the harsh lives of the locals as they cope with the questions of faith.

The miners and Christian hypocrisy do not go together. The struggle between right and wrong as the ruling powers in a small mining town in Georgia connive brings with it the conundrum of faith. A parable for today, this story rings as true as it was when it first occurred.

In regard to the complex themes explored in the film, director Tinatin Kajrishvili says, “Observing how far people can go in search of hope and miracles made me write the script. Unrealized expectations and fear of loss lead people to make extraordinary decisions. It’s an endless circle.”

Reminiscent of Jules Dassin’s 1957 movie, He Who Must Die, although the political backstories differ, both re-enact the passion of the Christ saga in their particular milieu. In He Who Must Die, the back political story is the politics of resistance of the Greeks against the Turks. In this, it is the workers against the capitalist ruling class. While we all know it, the truth as illuminated in both movies still often eludes us. This film reminds us of the struggles we all share.

The stark black and white opening of the film — from the inside of the mine where Berdo (played by Levan Berikashvili) the protagonist lives to be near his son who died in the mine’s collapse, to the outside of hard unforgiving stone cliffs contrasting against a huge sky where Berdo takes the saint (aka foreigner) to view the town from above, to the town where Berdo takes the saint to report in and they enter the sheet shrouded room where the monument’s cross, sans disappeared saint is laid out — the cinematography plays an important part in shaping our response as the story unfolds. The town’s mayor and VIPs measure the saint to be sure he fits the cross, and he leaves it with stigmata on his hands; these sharply contrasted and enigmatic scenes lead the viewer into a mystical and particular Georgian story of a saint who is lost, found and lost again.

Georgia’s Christian roots go deep and this film captures faith as the people adopted it 300 years after Christ, the same time that the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity leading to the Christianization of the Roman Empire. However, this is not a “faith-based” film. Its plot goes in crazy places, into the townspeople’s lives who have been praying with no salvation for years until the saint comes to life. Again, in contrast to He Who Must Die, written by Nikos Kazantzakis, who also wrote The Last Temptation of Christ one of the most controversial books of all time and often on “banned book” lists, Citizen Saint does not leave you with the compassion and catharsis of the Passion. It leaves you with the supposition that faith does not really matter in truth, only in fiction, as a sop for the masses, and yet there remains the elusive wish for righteousness.

The exploitation and sacrifice, even martyrdom, of the miners is exemplified by the saint himself, said to have been a miner who died and whose body miraculously did not decay but calcified and became the statue of the only saint worshipped in this village.

The magnificent monochrome cinematography by Krum Rodriguez, (which won Best Cinematography at the Asian World Film Festival, its U.S. premiere) focuses on the mines, rusting mining equipment, ladders to the saint, sheets covering the surroundings where the saint on the cross lies waiting for restoration, outside in an unforgiving wild landscape, and in reconstructed artwork. All bring to mind the industrial photography of Lewis Hines or the cinematography of Tarkofsky, Bela Tarr and Angelopolous. It transports the viewer from the mundane to the sublime.

The music also transcends. The score of Tako Jordania punctuates and carries the mysticism of the story. A single long-held trumpet note; a motif going from two notes to four, repeated with a sustained interval and then repeated again; at the sound of the train going into the mountain a religious longhorn is followed by a chorale combining with an almost rabbinic song. The lone horn again — the mine will collapse again.

Tako Jordania, the composer, began not only composing but by working with children with hearing problems and with children who were on the autistic spectrum. She helped them begin to speak with the help of music. Says Kajrishvili: “Her attitude to the world of sound was very interesting for me, as I have the main character, who doesn’t talk and we don’t know what he hears (he hears thoughts).” Jordania also has scored eight shorts between 2010 and 2017 and one feature in 2017. Where has she been an what has she been doing between 2017 and 2023?

Also admirable is the beautiful faded socialist art on walls and on building facades. It was surprising to learn they had been painted specifically for this film. Giorgi Gordzamashvili gets credit as the production designer. I would buy this artist’s work in an instant. Gordzamashvili was also the production designer on Tinatin Kajrishvili’s 2018 film Horizon.

Known in Germany and throughout Europe for her Berlinale titles Brides(winner of Panorama Audience Award) and Horizon, Tinatin Kajrishvili directed and cowrote (with Basa Janikashvili) Citizen Saint, her third feature. She is not known in the U.S., but this film should put her on the map.

Watch the international trailer here. https://vimeo.com/artizm/cstrailer?share=copy

Citizen Saint premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2023 and was recently nominated for Best Film at the 16th Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It won for Best Cinematography at the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles, its North American premiere.

In Georgian with English subtitles, the film is produced by Georgia’s Lasha Khalvashi at Studio Artizm and Tinatin Kajrishvili for Germini. It is a coproduction with France’s Mandra Films and Bulgaria’s Chouchkov Brothers. International sales are by Studio Artizm. U.S. is available.

2023-12-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

Classic epic of a renegade settler in 18th century Denmark who makes the land grow in spite of everyone’s lack of faith in him. The masterful sweep of the pioneer Danish on the heath, the interactions of the stoic outsider and his aristocratic neighbors and how he creates a family against all odds, classic in style and subject: It delivers 100%.

Promised Land is an epic Nordic saga which creates a seamless archetypical story of struggle and triumph. And in classic western style the hero rides off into the sunset, only this time, he is not alone.

Ludvig Kahlen arrives in 1755 on the barren Jutland heath with a single goal: to follow the king’s call to cultivate the land and thereby achieve wealth and honor himself. But Kahlen quickly makes an enemy. The merciless landowner, Frederik De Schinkel, who is sole ruler of the area and believes that the heath belongs to him and not the king. When De Schinkel’s serf runs away with Ann Barbara played by Amanda Collin, his wife and a housemaid who had been raped and exploited by Schinkel, and seeks refuge with Kahlen, Schinkel does everything to drive Kahlen away and at the same time exact a cruel revenge. Kahlen does not bow, but stubbornly takes up the unequal battle and now risks his life, and the bond with the small, troubled family that has arisen around him on the heath.

Kahlen becomes the champion of the same people who later emigrated and worked the farmlands of the plains and prairies in America (Pure Edna Farber material, although in her prize-winning novel and movie So Big, the immigrant farmers were Dutch), but here the people are working the heath, long considered unsustainable as an agricultural endeavor, but remaining a wish of the King to cultivate.

I love Nordic sagas, like War Sailor last year, like Kristen Lavransdotter which I read as a girl. I also love the composer Leroy Anderssen and the early TV series, I Remember Mama that ran from 1949 to 1957, and all the stories by Hans Christian Anderson. I loved the little Danish community of Solvang in California and blue and white tableware. I loved my first visit to Europe and visiting Denmark and Tivoli Gardens where I lost my sweater and someone turned it in; the people looked like angels and were honest.

Director Nikolaj Arcel and Leading Man Mads Mikelson

The Zentropa-produced drama premiered in Competition at the Biennale di Venezia, one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious festivals before going to Toronto International Film Festival.

The critically acclaimed director, Nikolaj Arcel, is back directing a Danish film, for the first time since the Academy Award-nominated A Royal Affair (2012) and reuniting with the talented Mads Mikkelsen.

Written by Arcel and Danish screenwriter and director Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders of Justice, 2020), it is based on the Danish bestseller ‘Kaptajnen og Ann Barbara’ (translated ‘The Captain and Ann Barbara’) from 2020. Produced by Louise Vesth (The Kingdom Exodus, 2022; A Royal Affair, 2012 an Melancholia, 2011) 2011) for Zentropa Entertainments.

Estimated to be one of Zentropa’s biggest feature films in years and with a budget of EUR 8M, the feature has already received massive attention in Denmark, within the industry and has already sold more than 50 territories already sold, including: US (Magnolia Pictures), Canada (Mongrel Media), Germany (Plaion), France (The Jokers Films), Poland (Best Film), Spain (Divisa Red) and many more underlining the immense attention that the film has received worldwide.

A Danish-Swedish-German Coproduction

The Promised Land was released widely in Denmark on 5 October 2023.

Denmark has been nominated 14 times with 4 wins (Pelle the Conquerer in 1987, Babette’s Feast in 1988, In a Better World in 2010 and Another Round, which also starred Mikkelsen, in 2020)

Arcel’s A Royal Affair was nominated in 2012.

This is Denmark’s 61st submission.

Magnolia Pictures will release The Promised Land in U.S. theaters on February 2, 2024.

2023-12-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

A disaster film as it really happened set during the 2018 Kerala Floods where people from all walks of life were taken by surprise and forced to face the catastrophic consequences of climate change. Their collective efforts to survive the calamity take the audience by storm and rivet them to their seats.

Watch the trailer here.

2018: Everyone Is A Hero is so masterfully handled that you would think it took many millions to make. But it is a truly independent film. All this was done on a budget of US$3 million!

Most of the 129 actors were professionals and, like the producer as well, were all victims of the flood. The lead character in the film actually did die.

2023-12-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

This very mixed genre film combines comedy, policier and gay romance in a fun-to-watch unexpected submission for the Oscar from a country where some of the world’s great cinema has been created.

The film is currently available on Netflix.

SydneysBuzz

What is Culture? Yogurt? Sour Dough Bread? Yeast? Movies and Music Today

As we move into a new world emerging from our post-pandemic digital daze, it becomes clear that culture, arising from the grass roots of our existence must lead the way and that war, arising out of old male hierarchies, must give way.

Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg 2024 is 30 Years Old

The Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg (JFFB) took place for the 30th time this June 18–23.

One Two Does It Again!

Simone Baumann to remain Managing Director of German Films for Another Five years

2024 Winter Film Fests and Awards are Underway: Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin

2024 Winter Film Fests and Awards are Underway: Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin

A Conversation with Actor-Director Julie Carmen about Her Short Film and Her Career

“Because the world is too troubled for any of us to rest, “ says Julie Carmen recently who has now directed her third short film, ‘The Unnecessary Salvation of Mary McDaniel’, written by Herman Johansen with music composed by Maria Newman and Scott Hosfeld.

Consideration of the Oscars© 2024 for Best International Feature

Asian Oscar© 2024 Submissions at the Asian World Film Festival in L.A.

The Asian World Film Festival, going on its 10th year, opens a window to the public to watch the films from the Asian world, the East and the MIddle East which have been chosen by their countries for Oscar and Golden Globe consideration in the U.S.

Germany’s Oscar© Entry 2024 for Best International Feature: ‘The Teacher’s Lounge’ by Ilker Catak

Denmark’s Oscar© Entry for Best International Feature: ‘The Promised Land’ by Nikolaj Arcel

African Oscar© Submissions for 2024

In the Best International Feature Category of the Oscar race, 88 submissions are competing for 5 Best International Feature Nominations.

Belgium’s Oscar© Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Omen’: An Interview with Balogi

Watch the trailer here.

Burkino Faso’s Oscar © Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Sira’ by Apolline Traoré

India's Oscar© Entry 2024 for Best International Feature: '2018: Everyone is a Hero' by Jude Anthany Joseph

Bangladesh’s Oscar© 2024 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘No Ground Beneath The Feet’ by Mohammad Rabby Mridha

Bangladesh, the sound of sobbing. A desperate people in need of aid.

Taiwan’s Oscar© Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Marry My Dead Body’ by Wei-Hao Cheng

This very mixed genre film combines comedy, policier and gay romance in a fun-to-watch unexpected submission for the Oscar from a country where some of the world’s great cinema has been created.

2024 Oscar Consideration for Best Documentary: ‘The Disappearance of Shere Hite’ directed by Nicole Newnham

Premiere Sundance 2023

2024 Oscar© Consideration for Documentary ‘Little Richard: I Am Everything’ directed by Lisa Cortés

An Interview with the Director and Producer of Georgia’s Oscar© 2024 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Citizen Saint’

After watching the ‘Citizen Saint’ at the Asian World Film Festival this past month, I spoke with the producer Lasha Khalvashi and director Tinatin Kajrishvili.

Georgia’s Oscar © Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Citizen Saint’ by Tinatin Kajrishvili

Denmark’s Oscar© Entry for Best International Feature: ‘The Promised Land’ by Nikolaj Arcel

India’s Oscar © Entry for Best International Feature: ‘2018: Everyone is a Hero’ by Jude Anthany Joseph

Taiwan’s Oscar© Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Marry My Dead Body’ by Wei-Hao Cheng

This very mixed genre film combines comedy, policier and gay romance in a fun-to-watch unexpected submission for the Oscar from a country where some of the world’s great cinema has been created.