Martin Scorsese, Radu Jude, Joanna Hogg, Claire Denis, Bertrand Bonello, M. Night Shyamalan, Kristen Stewart, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Margarethe von Trotta are among the international filmmakers and talents who have signed an open letter in support of Carlo Chatrian whose mandate as artistic director of the Berlinale will come to an end next year. The number of signatories has now exceeded 400 names and keeps growing.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
- 9/6/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival kicks off its 25th edition Thursday at a time when the nonfiction genre has arguably reached unprecedented heights.
This year’s festival, which takes place March 2 – 12 in the seaside Mediterranean city, unfolds just days after veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear in Berlin for his documentary about a Paris mental health care facility, “On the Adamant.” The award capped a fortnight in which Sean Penn’s gonzo doc about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Superpower,” also generated plenty of buzz (albeit lukewarm reviews).
Meanwhile, Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou took home Rotterdam’s Tiger Award just a few weeks earlier for “Le Spectre de Boko Haram,” a riveting view of terrorism seen through children’s eyes. And one summer ago, Laura Poitras triumphed on the Lido with “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” her docu-portrait of the photographer and activist Nan Goldin, which won the...
This year’s festival, which takes place March 2 – 12 in the seaside Mediterranean city, unfolds just days after veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear in Berlin for his documentary about a Paris mental health care facility, “On the Adamant.” The award capped a fortnight in which Sean Penn’s gonzo doc about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Superpower,” also generated plenty of buzz (albeit lukewarm reviews).
Meanwhile, Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou took home Rotterdam’s Tiger Award just a few weeks earlier for “Le Spectre de Boko Haram,” a riveting view of terrorism seen through children’s eyes. And one summer ago, Laura Poitras triumphed on the Lido with “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” her docu-portrait of the photographer and activist Nan Goldin, which won the...
- 2/28/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Since the launch of its cash rebate in 2018, which covers up to 40 of qualifying expenditures along with 30 in tax relief, Greece has become one of Europe’s hottest filming destinations. But domestic production is surging as well, and the industry reached new heights in 2022, with the rebate scheme supporting 132 international and domestic projects.
Here’s a round-up of some of the top Greek feature films currently in the pipeline:
Buzzheart
Director: Dennis Iliadis
Producers: Amanda Livanou, Dennis Iliadis
The veteran director, who helmed the 2007 remake of Wes Craven’s “The Last House on the Left,” returns with a film that asks: If you had to make sure that someone could truly love without any moral limitations, how far would you go?
Sales: N/A
My Soul Startled
Director: Syllas Tzoumerkas
Producers: Maria Drandaki, Nadia Trevisan, Julie Paratian
The acclaimed director returns with 18 interwoven love stories of gods, titans, nuns, madmen,...
Here’s a round-up of some of the top Greek feature films currently in the pipeline:
Buzzheart
Director: Dennis Iliadis
Producers: Amanda Livanou, Dennis Iliadis
The veteran director, who helmed the 2007 remake of Wes Craven’s “The Last House on the Left,” returns with a film that asks: If you had to make sure that someone could truly love without any moral limitations, how far would you go?
Sales: N/A
My Soul Startled
Director: Syllas Tzoumerkas
Producers: Maria Drandaki, Nadia Trevisan, Julie Paratian
The acclaimed director returns with 18 interwoven love stories of gods, titans, nuns, madmen,...
- 2/17/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
After breaking out with a debut role in the film that ushered in the Greek Weird Wave and becoming one of his country’s most accomplished theater actors and directors, Christos Passalis makes his feature directorial debut with “Silence 6-9,” a haunting, melancholic love story that plays in competition this week at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
Passalis’ first feature premiered in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it earned rapturous praise from Variety’s Jessica Kiang, who described Passalis’ “absorbing, surreal, retro-futurist love story” as a “beautifully crafted solo debut.”
“After a beginning unmistakably located deep within the familiarly bizarro, alien reaches of the Greek Weird Wave aesthetic, Passalis’ solo directorial debut gradually distinguishes itself by moving to a more human and humane place,” she wrote.
The film begins one night with a stranger arriving in a strange town. As he walks down a deserted...
Passalis’ first feature premiered in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it earned rapturous praise from Variety’s Jessica Kiang, who described Passalis’ “absorbing, surreal, retro-futurist love story” as a “beautifully crafted solo debut.”
“After a beginning unmistakably located deep within the familiarly bizarro, alien reaches of the Greek Weird Wave aesthetic, Passalis’ solo directorial debut gradually distinguishes itself by moving to a more human and humane place,” she wrote.
The film begins one night with a stranger arriving in a strange town. As he walks down a deserted...
- 11/7/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Christos Passalis directs and stars in the project.
Screen can reveal the first trailer for Christos Passalis’ Silence 6-9, which will have its world premiere in the main competition at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Passalis stars alongside Angeliki Papoulia as a man and woman who meet one evening in a half-abandoned town surrounded by antennas. In this strange, dreamlike world the two solitary souls gradually start to develop feelings for one another.
The project is produced by Greece’s Homemade Films and co-produced by Ert, Asterisk Post. Producer is Maria Drankaki and co-producers are Vicky Miha,...
Screen can reveal the first trailer for Christos Passalis’ Silence 6-9, which will have its world premiere in the main competition at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Passalis stars alongside Angeliki Papoulia as a man and woman who meet one evening in a half-abandoned town surrounded by antennas. In this strange, dreamlike world the two solitary souls gradually start to develop feelings for one another.
The project is produced by Greece’s Homemade Films and co-produced by Ert, Asterisk Post. Producer is Maria Drankaki and co-producers are Vicky Miha,...
- 6/23/2022
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Kicking off this week at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, the 51st edition of New Directors/New Films brings together highlights from Sundance, Berlinale, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and many more to provide an essential snapshot of new filmmaking talent. With Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winner Happening commencing the annual festival starting Wednesday, it’s one of 12 films we can recommend as we also look forward to catching up with the rest. Check out our picks below.
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
It’s a hot July day in upstate New York when Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her final art school exam, a passive-aggressive interview with an all-white faculty that leaves her with that soul-crushing question: what are you going to do next? The answer, in Martine Syms’ rollicking debut feature, is a night-long graduation party, a bacchanal that sends Syms’ friend...
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
It’s a hot July day in upstate New York when Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her final art school exam, a passive-aggressive interview with an all-white faculty that leaves her with that soul-crushing question: what are you going to do next? The answer, in Martine Syms’ rollicking debut feature, is a night-long graduation party, a bacchanal that sends Syms’ friend...
- 4/19/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art has set Audrey Diwan’s Happening and The African Desperate by Martine Syms will bookend the 51st edition of their collaboration, New Directors/New Films running April 20–May 1 in NYC.
The festival will introduce 26 features and 11 shorts and total of 39 directors — 21 of which are women.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup,” said La Frances Hui, curator of MoMa’s film department and event co-char.
Happening (L’Événement), winner of the 2021 Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is the portrait of a young woman attempting to secure an illegal abortion in 1960s provincial France. It was acquired by IFC Films and will be released May 6.
The African Desperate, a debut feature from Syms, rushes through 24 hours in the life of protagonist Palace...
The festival will introduce 26 features and 11 shorts and total of 39 directors — 21 of which are women.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup,” said La Frances Hui, curator of MoMa’s film department and event co-char.
Happening (L’Événement), winner of the 2021 Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is the portrait of a young woman attempting to secure an illegal abortion in 1960s provincial France. It was acquired by IFC Films and will be released May 6.
The African Desperate, a debut feature from Syms, rushes through 24 hours in the life of protagonist Palace...
- 3/29/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Golden Lion winner “Happening” will open the 2022 New Directors/New Films Festival, Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art announced Tuesday.
Now in its 51st year, the New Directors/New Films Festival screens the best films made by young filmmakers, many of which tend to be their debut features. The festival has served as an early showcase for many notable directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Guillermo del Toro and Luca Guadagnino. This year, the festival will screen 26 features and 11 shorts.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone for the lineup,” 2022 Nd/Nf co-chair and MoMa department of film curator La Frances Hui said in a statement. “This year’s new directors look inward and draw on events past and present...
Now in its 51st year, the New Directors/New Films Festival screens the best films made by young filmmakers, many of which tend to be their debut features. The festival has served as an early showcase for many notable directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Guillermo del Toro and Luca Guadagnino. This year, the festival will screen 26 features and 11 shorts.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone for the lineup,” 2022 Nd/Nf co-chair and MoMa department of film curator La Frances Hui said in a statement. “This year’s new directors look inward and draw on events past and present...
- 3/29/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Variety Film + TV
In “The City and the City,” which bowed in the Berlin Film Festival’s competitive Encounters strand and will have a special screening on March 15 at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Syllas Tzoumerkas and Christos Passalis train their lens on the largely untold story of the atrocities committed against Thessaloniki’s Jewish population during World War II.
Unspooling in six fragmented chapters, the film tells the story of Thessaloniki’s Jewish community from the first half of the 20th century until the present day, where contemporary life reflects a city that violently and irrevocably lost its multicultural character, almost overnight.
Natives who both left Thessaloniki in their twenties, the directors said they wanted to focus on what Tzoumerkas described as a “blind spot” in their respective upbringings, in which the suffering and near annihilation of the city’s Jewish community went virtually unmentioned. “It’s both a homecoming for us,...
Unspooling in six fragmented chapters, the film tells the story of Thessaloniki’s Jewish community from the first half of the 20th century until the present day, where contemporary life reflects a city that violently and irrevocably lost its multicultural character, almost overnight.
Natives who both left Thessaloniki in their twenties, the directors said they wanted to focus on what Tzoumerkas described as a “blind spot” in their respective upbringings, in which the suffering and near annihilation of the city’s Jewish community went virtually unmentioned. “It’s both a homecoming for us,...
- 3/9/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Directors Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas describe their film The City and the City as the untold story of Thessaloniki, Greece. It isn’t that because there’s a lack of interest, though. Rather this story is one the majority-Christian city doesn’t want told. Why? Because it damages their narrative. This is their home and that’s all anyone needs to know. To believe the start and end of a place’s history lies with those currently in power not only exposes you as a member of that power, but also one keenly aware of what that “untold” story says. The only reason you could want to suppress an undeniable truth is because you know that which is yours was built upon the bodies of those you supplanted.
It’s about indoctrination. You see it in America with southern states expunging the Civil Rights movement from their curriculum because...
It’s about indoctrination. You see it in America with southern states expunging the Civil Rights movement from their curriculum because...
- 2/15/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
With a selection of 35 projects, including the new efforts by Jan Komasa, Fien Troch, Selma Vilhunen and Syllas Tzoumerkas, the 18th edition of the co-production platform is going digital. The 18th edition of the Berlinale Co-Production Market has invited along 35 new feature-film projects hailing from 25 countries for its upcoming edition. The teams behind them will thus have a chance to meet industry professionals during more than 1,000 meetings. An integral part of the European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will run on the same dates as the EFM, from 1-5 March. For the official programme of the market, 19 projects, budgeted at between €750,000 and €4.5 million, have been selected from among the 301 submitted, with most of them being European productions. Two participating projects hail from Germany: Swiss-born Sophia Bösch is presenting her debut feature, Milk Teeth, while Berlin-based Greek filmmaker Nancy Biniadaki (The Surface...
The Berlin International Film Festival’s European Film Market (EFM) has confirmed details for how its online incarnation will work March 1-5.
As Deadline revealed, Dennis Ruh took the reins at the EFM in September 2020 and faces an unconventional first edition.
“International sales agents have filled their lineups for the start of the year and have an attractive variety of films on offer. Many films are also currently in production and ready for pre-sales. We want the digital EFM in 2021 to be an impulse for a new beginning in the international film industry,” said Ruh today. “Since the EFM is an integral part of an international convention calendar, and therefore part of an economic system that includes events such as the Marché du Film in Cannes and the American Film Market in Los Angeles, a later date is not an option.”
The Efm will condense the industry sessions from its...
As Deadline revealed, Dennis Ruh took the reins at the EFM in September 2020 and faces an unconventional first edition.
“International sales agents have filled their lineups for the start of the year and have an attractive variety of films on offer. Many films are also currently in production and ready for pre-sales. We want the digital EFM in 2021 to be an impulse for a new beginning in the international film industry,” said Ruh today. “Since the EFM is an integral part of an international convention calendar, and therefore part of an economic system that includes events such as the Marché du Film in Cannes and the American Film Market in Los Angeles, a later date is not an option.”
The Efm will condense the industry sessions from its...
- 1/15/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Efm market screenings will be available in 120-minute windows.
The Berlinale’s European Film Market (Efm) has given details of its upcoming edition that is running online from March 1-5, including how its market screenings platform will work.
The Efm will also include a presentation of the Berlinale’s film selection.
Films will be available to watch by delegates within a 120-minute time window from a designated start time. These will be determined by local time zone. For example, a film available from 10.00-12.00 in Berlin would be available from 10.00-12.00 in any other global location.
Additionally, the online Efm...
The Berlinale’s European Film Market (Efm) has given details of its upcoming edition that is running online from March 1-5, including how its market screenings platform will work.
The Efm will also include a presentation of the Berlinale’s film selection.
Films will be available to watch by delegates within a 120-minute time window from a designated start time. These will be determined by local time zone. For example, a film available from 10.00-12.00 in Berlin would be available from 10.00-12.00 in any other global location.
Additionally, the online Efm...
- 1/15/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Sounding a note of hope for the 20 titles selected for Locarno Festival’s highest-profile competition, The Films After Tomorrow, Helena Wittmann’s entry, the sensuous sea odyssey “Human Flowers of Flesh,” is scheduled to go into production on Aug. 12, with “Dogtooth” actor Angeliki Papoulia and “Holy Motors’” Denis Lavant attached to star.
The news gains particular force coming on the eve of a reimagined Locarno Festival in Switzerland, Europe’s biggest mid-summer movie event, whose Films After Tomorrow strand aims to prize and promote movies — 10 Swiss, 10 international — whose production was foreclosed or halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as was the case with Wittmann’s second feature.
The producers of “Human Flowers of Flesh,” Germany’s Fünfurfilm and France’s Tita Productions, had originally planned to location scout in Algeria’s Sidi-Bel-Abbes in March 2020 and then shoot a part of the movie in May, but all their plans were scuppered by the pandemic.
The news gains particular force coming on the eve of a reimagined Locarno Festival in Switzerland, Europe’s biggest mid-summer movie event, whose Films After Tomorrow strand aims to prize and promote movies — 10 Swiss, 10 international — whose production was foreclosed or halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as was the case with Wittmann’s second feature.
The producers of “Human Flowers of Flesh,” Germany’s Fünfurfilm and France’s Tita Productions, had originally planned to location scout in Algeria’s Sidi-Bel-Abbes in March 2020 and then shoot a part of the movie in May, but all their plans were scuppered by the pandemic.
- 8/4/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
A host of international filmmakers are now taking part in the leading Greek gathering’s Spaces #3 project. Update (14 May 2020): Spaces #3 is now available on YouTube here, featuring shorts by Yung Chang, Ildikó Enyedi, Annemarie Jacir, Nanouk Leopold, Teona Strugar Mitevska, Victor Moreno and Albert Serra. Update (22 April 2020): Spaces #2 is now available on YouTube here, featuring shorts by Tarik Aktas, Mateo Bendesky, Denis Côté, Rachel Leah Jones, Radu Jude, John C Lynch and Jia Zhang-Ke. Previously, Spaces #1 had been made available here, featuring shorts by Giorgos Georgopoulos, Rinio Dragasaki, Zacharias Mavroeidis, Minos Nikolakakis, Marianna Economou, Stavros Pamballis, Syllas Tzoumerkas and Stavros Psillakis. Update (7 April 2020): The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has extended its call for creativity via its “Species of Spaces” project. While all of the short films created by 11 Greek filmmakers and Hellenic Film Academy Award nominees have already been completed...
Biopic of celebrated Greek songwriter Eftyhia Papagianopoulou wins eight awards.
Eftyhia, a biopic of celebrated Greek songwriter Eftyhia Papagianopoulou, scooped eight awards including best film at the at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy (Helfiac) awards last night (April 14).
The ceremony was conducted online, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and broadcast by public TV network Ert.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Directed by Angelos Frantzis, Eftyhia went into the night with 13 nominations and picked up awards including best actor for Pygmalion Dadakaridis, supporting actress for Katia Goulioni and supporting actor for Thanos Tokakis.
The film, produced by Donysis Samiotis for Athens-based Tanweer Productions,...
Eftyhia, a biopic of celebrated Greek songwriter Eftyhia Papagianopoulou, scooped eight awards including best film at the at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy (Helfiac) awards last night (April 14).
The ceremony was conducted online, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and broadcast by public TV network Ert.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Directed by Angelos Frantzis, Eftyhia went into the night with 13 nominations and picked up awards including best actor for Pygmalion Dadakaridis, supporting actress for Katia Goulioni and supporting actor for Thanos Tokakis.
The film, produced by Donysis Samiotis for Athens-based Tanweer Productions,...
- 4/15/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦¬307¦Alexis Grivas¦39¦
- ScreenDaily
Syllas Tzoumerkas's The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea is showing February and March, 2020 on Mubi as part of the series Direct from the Berlinale. Above: Youla Boudali as Rita“Bitch Town, You Wrecked Me!”“Bitch town, you wrecked me!” yells failed Euro-pop singer Manolis (Christos Passalis) midway through the film, in his on-stage outburst against his audience of regulars in the small provincial nightclub he sings in night after night.Manolis and everyone else in Sargasso are all the children of this very photogenic swampland of Western Greece, the wildly poor province that surrounds a shitty little town: Missolonghi—relic of the 19th century adored by the Romantics for its inhabitants’ suicidal fight against the Ottomans, and the deathbed of a lord with the name Byron. Bred from this land, or thrown in it for a sufficient amount of time, all characters here are sunk waist-down and stuck in the dark,...
- 2/24/2020
- MUBI
As the Thessaloniki Intl. Film Festival celebrates its 60th edition, what began as a small-scale celebration called Greek Cinema Week has evolved into a vital platform for filmmakers from Greece and around the region, finding a natural home in this historical crossroads that has at various points been under Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule.
“We are in the middle of southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, so I think Thessaloniki is the key town to introduce the huge neighborhood from the south bank of the Danube to the Adriatic, from the Black Sea until the Nile,” says festival artistic director Orestis Andreadakis.
For this year’s edition, which takes place from Oct. 31-Nov. 10, the fest unspools an ambitious slate of festival darlings, provocative premieres and Greek cinema classics.
Competition section Meet the Neighbors will launch with a focus on first and second features by emerging filmmakers from the region. And...
“We are in the middle of southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, so I think Thessaloniki is the key town to introduce the huge neighborhood from the south bank of the Danube to the Adriatic, from the Black Sea until the Nile,” says festival artistic director Orestis Andreadakis.
For this year’s edition, which takes place from Oct. 31-Nov. 10, the fest unspools an ambitious slate of festival darlings, provocative premieres and Greek cinema classics.
Competition section Meet the Neighbors will launch with a focus on first and second features by emerging filmmakers from the region. And...
- 10/30/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Misho Antadze, Ladj Ly and Juris Kursietis were among the victors at this year's edition. It's a wrap for the 26th edition of European Film Festival Palić, one of the leading cinema events in the Balkan region. The Serbian festival, which took place from 20-26 July this year, presented over 130 films across 15 programmes and parallel sections, and was brought to a close by the traditional awards ceremony held in the Summer Stage open-air cinema, followed by the screening of the Dardenne brothers' Young Ahmed. The main competition saw the triumph of Ladj Ly's Les Misérables, the winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and now crowned with the Golden Tower for Best Film. The jury, composed of actor Tom Burke (president), producer Aleš Pavlin, actress Marta Bereš as well as directors Syllas Tzoumerkas and Lawrence Tooley, decided to award the film “for the successful combination...
Syllas Tzoumerkas, one of the filmmakers who formed part of the Greek New Wave, believes young filmmakers should remain defiant against norms and conformity when developing a film language unique to themselves.
Speaking during a masterclass at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival entitled “A Very Certain Defiance,” Tzoumerkas told his young audience, participants of European Film Promotion’s Future Frames program, “The word ‘defiance’ can create a path for you in surviving the film industry.”
The director, whose films include 2010 Venice Critics’ Week pic “Homeland,” 2014 Locarno competition film “A Blast,” and this year’s Berlin Panorama player “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea,” advised them: “You are going to have to create a core – an inner strength – that is non-negotiable because this is what is going to feed you; this what is going to create content.”
He added: “Be defiant against all the sea of opinion, norms, conformity… be defiant against yourself.
Speaking during a masterclass at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival entitled “A Very Certain Defiance,” Tzoumerkas told his young audience, participants of European Film Promotion’s Future Frames program, “The word ‘defiance’ can create a path for you in surviving the film industry.”
The director, whose films include 2010 Venice Critics’ Week pic “Homeland,” 2014 Locarno competition film “A Blast,” and this year’s Berlin Panorama player “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea,” advised them: “You are going to have to create a core – an inner strength – that is non-negotiable because this is what is going to feed you; this what is going to create content.”
He added: “Be defiant against all the sea of opinion, norms, conformity… be defiant against yourself.
- 7/13/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Now in its fifth year, European Film Promotion’s Future Frames is a next-generation showcase comprising short works by students and recent graduates of European film schools, curated by the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival in cooperation with the Efp.
The program has already established itself as an important platform for discovering European talent; this year’s program, which includes two student Academy Award winners, promises to be especially exciting. Participants will take part in a master class led by Greek helmer Syllas Tzoumerkas (“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea”) and meet with industry experts from various fields in order to build up their international networks.
The selected directors and their films will be introduced to the public, press and industry at the festival over June 30-July 3. The program is supported by the Creative Europe — Media Program of the European Union and the respective Efp member organizations. AMC Networks and...
The program has already established itself as an important platform for discovering European talent; this year’s program, which includes two student Academy Award winners, promises to be especially exciting. Participants will take part in a master class led by Greek helmer Syllas Tzoumerkas (“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea”) and meet with industry experts from various fields in order to build up their international networks.
The selected directors and their films will be introduced to the public, press and industry at the festival over June 30-July 3. The program is supported by the Creative Europe — Media Program of the European Union and the respective Efp member organizations. AMC Networks and...
- 6/21/2019
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Genre festival will close with Ko Myoungsung’s first narrative feature The 12th Suspect.
Edgar Nito’s debut feature The Gasoline Thieves will open this year’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, while Ko Myoungsung’s The 12th Suspect will close the event.
The Gasoline Thieves, which is a co-production between Mexico, Spain, the Us and the UK, won best new narrative director at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Set in central Mexico, it tells the story of an innocent high school student who gets mixed up with a gang of theives who steal gasoline from underground pipes.
The first narrative feature from Ko,...
Edgar Nito’s debut feature The Gasoline Thieves will open this year’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, while Ko Myoungsung’s The 12th Suspect will close the event.
The Gasoline Thieves, which is a co-production between Mexico, Spain, the Us and the UK, won best new narrative director at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Set in central Mexico, it tells the story of an innocent high school student who gets mixed up with a gang of theives who steal gasoline from underground pipes.
The first narrative feature from Ko,...
- 5/30/2019
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales has picked up world sales rights for the upcoming drama “Fools,” by Berlinale Silver Bear winner Tomasz Wasilewski (“United States of Love”), produced by Ewa Puszczynska, the producer behind Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winner “Ida” and nominee “Cold War.”
Leading Polish actors Dorota Kolak and Lukasz Simlat star in a film about the difficult relationship between a mother and son, and how their choices have dramatic consequences.
Puszczynska is producing for her company Extreme Emotions, in co-production with Ada Solomon at Romania’s Hi-Film and Jamila Wenske of Germany’s One Two Films, and in association with Nem Corp. Romanian DoP Oleg Mutu returns after his previous collaboration with Wasilewski on “United States of Love,” which New Europe sold to over 30 territories.
New Europe’s Cannes line-up includes the Critics’ Week selection “A White, White Day,” by Hlynur Palmason, which sold...
Leading Polish actors Dorota Kolak and Lukasz Simlat star in a film about the difficult relationship between a mother and son, and how their choices have dramatic consequences.
Puszczynska is producing for her company Extreme Emotions, in co-production with Ada Solomon at Romania’s Hi-Film and Jamila Wenske of Germany’s One Two Films, and in association with Nem Corp. Romanian DoP Oleg Mutu returns after his previous collaboration with Wasilewski on “United States of Love,” which New Europe sold to over 30 territories.
New Europe’s Cannes line-up includes the Critics’ Week selection “A White, White Day,” by Hlynur Palmason, which sold...
- 5/14/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Urban Distribution has bought rights for France and Palace has taken rights for Australia to Hlynur Palmason’s “A White, White Day” from New Europe Film Sales, ahead of the film’s world premiere in Cannes this week, where it competes in Critics’ Week.
The film is Palmason’s second feature after “Winter Brothers,” which won four prizes at its world premiere in Locarno, and then played more than 60 festivals and won more than 30 prizes and was released in more than 10 territories.
“A White, White Day” is the story of an off-duty police chief from a remote Icelandic town, who begins to suspect a local man of having had an affair with his late wife, who died in a tragic accident two years earlier. Gradually his obsession with finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones. The film’s team calls it “a story of grief,...
The film is Palmason’s second feature after “Winter Brothers,” which won four prizes at its world premiere in Locarno, and then played more than 60 festivals and won more than 30 prizes and was released in more than 10 territories.
“A White, White Day” is the story of an off-duty police chief from a remote Icelandic town, who begins to suspect a local man of having had an affair with his late wife, who died in a tragic accident two years earlier. Gradually his obsession with finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones. The film’s team calls it “a story of grief,...
- 5/14/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” takes place far from the eponymous body of water, and in its actual swampy locale — a glum eel-fishing community in western Greece — miracles are in distinctly short supply. But the title’s metaphorical implications of disorientation and immurement are felt in a stylish, many-stranded mystery that often casts viewers adrift in clashing tides of dark genre convention, nightmarish surrealism and fevered close-up character study. Greek writer-director Syllas Tzoumerkas’ third feature unreels and obscurely entangles the stories of two unconnected women, a dissolute female police chief and an abused eel-factory worker, in murky depths of small-town sin. The fishy stew that results maintains the antic, scratchy energy of Tzoumerkas’s striking 2014 festival favorite “A Blast,” though overplotting muddles its impact.
“Sargasso Sea” is assured further festival play following its premiere in Berlin’s Panorama strand, though it’s a challenging sales prospect: Its commercial fortunes...
“Sargasso Sea” is assured further festival play following its premiere in Berlin’s Panorama strand, though it’s a challenging sales prospect: Its commercial fortunes...
- 2/28/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
After a sudden suicide turns a small eel-farming town upside down, an investigation unearths troubling secrets about the town’s past. Those discoveries will bring together two women trapped in solitary lives, offering each a chance to find salvation.
“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the third feature by Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas. Starring frequent Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali (“In the Fade”), the film will world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.
Taking its name from the mysterious region of the North Atlantic, a swirling gyre of deep-blue water bounded by four ocean currents, “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the story of two women dreaming of escape.
Their arduous emotional journey echoes a remarkable natural phenomenon, when eels in Europe and North America reaching sexual maturity leave their habitats and swim hundreds of miles to lay their eggs in the Sargasso.
“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the third feature by Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas. Starring frequent Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali (“In the Fade”), the film will world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.
Taking its name from the mysterious region of the North Atlantic, a swirling gyre of deep-blue water bounded by four ocean currents, “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the story of two women dreaming of escape.
Their arduous emotional journey echoes a remarkable natural phenomenon, when eels in Europe and North America reaching sexual maturity leave their habitats and swim hundreds of miles to lay their eggs in the Sargasso.
- 2/22/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The first trailer to The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, the new drama from Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas (Homeland, A Blast), dropped Monday, whetting auteur appetites ahead of the film's world premiere at the Berlin film festival next month.
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
- 1/28/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The first trailer to The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, the new drama from Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas (Homeland, A Blast), dropped Monday, whetting auteur appetites ahead of the film's world premiere at the Berlin film festival next month.
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
- 1/28/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Near record levels of inward investment are boosting the local industry.
As the Dutch film industry comes together at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), there is much to be optimistic about in 2019.
The local industry is experiencing near record levels of inward investment as a location and post-production hub and Dutch co-production is blossoming. There may have been a slight - 0.8% - decline in admissions to 35.7 million cinema visitors in the Netherlands in 2018 but box office revenue has risen due to an increase in ticket prices.
Dutch market share for local films has remained broadly stable: it fell slightly from...
As the Dutch film industry comes together at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), there is much to be optimistic about in 2019.
The local industry is experiencing near record levels of inward investment as a location and post-production hub and Dutch co-production is blossoming. There may have been a slight - 0.8% - decline in admissions to 35.7 million cinema visitors in the Netherlands in 2018 but box office revenue has risen due to an increase in ticket prices.
Dutch market share for local films has remained broadly stable: it fell slightly from...
- 1/28/2019
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Kea (Mony Ros), Chakra (Sarm Heng) and Rom Ran (Thanawut Kasro) in ‘Buoyancy’ © 2019 Causeway Films, photo credit: Rafael Winer.
Writer-director Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature Buoyancy, a drama set in rural Cambodia that follows Chakra, a 14-year-old boy enslaved on a fishing trawler, will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Produced by Causeway Films’ Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh in association with Cambodia’s Anupheap Productions and Melbourne-based Definition Films, the film will screen in the Panorama section among 45 titles from 38 countries.
It is said to be the first feature film to shine a light on the crisis of trafficking and slavery in the fishing industries of South-East Asia.
As If reported, Damon Gameau’s feature doc 2040 will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Generation Kplus section.
Showcasing 29 features, 16 documentary formats and 19 directorial debuts, Panorama 2019 will present a controversial, political, and provocative program,...
Writer-director Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature Buoyancy, a drama set in rural Cambodia that follows Chakra, a 14-year-old boy enslaved on a fishing trawler, will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Produced by Causeway Films’ Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh in association with Cambodia’s Anupheap Productions and Melbourne-based Definition Films, the film will screen in the Panorama section among 45 titles from 38 countries.
It is said to be the first feature film to shine a light on the crisis of trafficking and slavery in the fishing industries of South-East Asia.
As If reported, Damon Gameau’s feature doc 2040 will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Generation Kplus section.
Showcasing 29 features, 16 documentary formats and 19 directorial debuts, Panorama 2019 will present a controversial, political, and provocative program,...
- 1/21/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Casey Affleck-directed drama Light Of My Life, starring Affleck, Elisabeth Moss and newcomer Anna Pniowsky, will get its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section. The dystopian drama, about a father and his young daughter who are trapped in the woods, is one of a raft of additions to the Panorama lineup. Scroll down for the lineup in full.
A total of 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres, will screen in the section. Panorama’s opening film will be Flatland by Jenna Bass, in which a bride and her pregnant friend make a liberating getaway across South Africa.
Among the strand’s highlights are Affleck’s first narrative feature as director, which is produced by The Imitation Game outfit Black Bear Pictures; Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul follow-up Tremblores (Tremors), about a father who tries to break free from his past after breaking the silence about...
A total of 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres, will screen in the section. Panorama’s opening film will be Flatland by Jenna Bass, in which a bride and her pregnant friend make a liberating getaway across South Africa.
Among the strand’s highlights are Affleck’s first narrative feature as director, which is produced by The Imitation Game outfit Black Bear Pictures; Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul follow-up Tremblores (Tremors), about a father who tries to break free from his past after breaking the silence about...
- 1/21/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea
Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas is finally getting ready to unveil his third feature, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea in 2019, reuniting with his A Blast actress Aggeliki Papoulia (we interviewed the Lanthimos regular back in 2012 for Alps) and co-writer Youla Boudali for this revenge thriller. The Greek-German-Swedish co-production is produced by his regular collaborator Maria Drandaki of Homemade Films and co-produced by Ellen Havenith of Prpl, Titus Kreyenberg of unafilm and Olle Wirenhed of Dragon Films. Papoulia and Boudali’s co-stars include Christos Passalis, Maria Filini, Argyris Xafis, Thanassis Dovris and Laertis Malkotsis.…...
Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas is finally getting ready to unveil his third feature, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea in 2019, reuniting with his A Blast actress Aggeliki Papoulia (we interviewed the Lanthimos regular back in 2012 for Alps) and co-writer Youla Boudali for this revenge thriller. The Greek-German-Swedish co-production is produced by his regular collaborator Maria Drandaki of Homemade Films and co-produced by Ellen Havenith of Prpl, Titus Kreyenberg of unafilm and Olle Wirenhed of Dragon Films. Papoulia and Boudali’s co-stars include Christos Passalis, Maria Filini, Argyris Xafis, Thanassis Dovris and Laertis Malkotsis.…...
- 1/3/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teasers for Syllas Tzoumerkas’ female revenge story “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” – being sold at Afm by Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.
Set in a small eel-farming town in the west of Greece it’s a story of two women, who live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. One of them is Elisabeth, a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens 10 years ago and now living a joyless, hung over life; the other is Rita, a quiet, mysterious sister of a local music star. When a sudden suicide case upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who have been ignoring each other’s existence so far begin drifting toward each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviors.
Set in a small eel-farming town in the west of Greece it’s a story of two women, who live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. One of them is Elisabeth, a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens 10 years ago and now living a joyless, hung over life; the other is Rita, a quiet, mysterious sister of a local music star. When a sudden suicide case upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who have been ignoring each other’s existence so far begin drifting toward each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviors.
- 11/1/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
David Dencik (Top of The Lake: China Girl), Jonas Karlsson (The Snowman) and Alba August (Becoming Astrid) will star in Quick.
David Dencik (Top of The Lake: China Girl), Jonas Karlsson (The Snowman) and Alba August (Becoming Astrid) will star in Quick for director Mikael Håfström (Evil), which TrustNordisk is selling.
Quick is among the new projects backed by Film i Väst, Scandinavia’s leading film fund, which is based in Trollhättan in West Sweden.
Quick, produced by Helena Danielsson for Brain Academy, is described as a “character-driven journalistic thriller and psychological drama.” Director Håfström told Screen, “Thomas Quick was Sweden’s worst serial killer,...
David Dencik (Top of The Lake: China Girl), Jonas Karlsson (The Snowman) and Alba August (Becoming Astrid) will star in Quick for director Mikael Håfström (Evil), which TrustNordisk is selling.
Quick is among the new projects backed by Film i Väst, Scandinavia’s leading film fund, which is based in Trollhättan in West Sweden.
Quick, produced by Helena Danielsson for Brain Academy, is described as a “character-driven journalistic thriller and psychological drama.” Director Håfström told Screen, “Thomas Quick was Sweden’s worst serial killer,...
- 5/12/2018
- ScreenDaily
Screen speaks to up-and-coming producers from Serbia, Greece, Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry programme is in full flow. Below, Screen highlights five emerging producers from the region who are making waves.
Nataša Damnjanović (Serbia)
Serbian producer Nataša Damnjanović (pictured, top) started out as an editor, and since she founded the production company Dart Film together with Vladimir Vidić in 2006, she is still doing the editing on most of their films as well.
Damnjanović trained at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents, Torino FilmLab and Eave, and first produced Nikola Ljuca’s short Sergeant in 2010 (which competed at Tampere), as well three shorts by Dane Komljen - A Surplus of Wind (2014), Our Body (2015), and All Still Orbit (2016), which screened at Locarno, Rotterdam, and Sarajevo.
Ljuca’s first feature Humidity world-premiered in Berlinale’s Forum in 2016 and won four national Serbian awards, including best film and best director. The same year, Komljen’s debut...
Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry programme is in full flow. Below, Screen highlights five emerging producers from the region who are making waves.
Nataša Damnjanović (Serbia)
Serbian producer Nataša Damnjanović (pictured, top) started out as an editor, and since she founded the production company Dart Film together with Vladimir Vidić in 2006, she is still doing the editing on most of their films as well.
Damnjanović trained at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents, Torino FilmLab and Eave, and first produced Nikola Ljuca’s short Sergeant in 2010 (which competed at Tampere), as well three shorts by Dane Komljen - A Surplus of Wind (2014), Our Body (2015), and All Still Orbit (2016), which screened at Locarno, Rotterdam, and Sarajevo.
Ljuca’s first feature Humidity world-premiered in Berlinale’s Forum in 2016 and won four national Serbian awards, including best film and best director. The same year, Komljen’s debut...
- 8/17/2017
- by vladan.petkovic@gmail.com (Vladan Petkovic)
- ScreenDaily
Screen speaks to up-and-coming producers from Serbia, Greece, Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry programme is in full flow. Below, Screen highlights five emerging producers from the region who are making waves.
Nataša Damnjanović (Serbia)
Serbian producer Nataša Damnjanović (pictured, top) started out as an editor, and since she founded the production company Dart Film together with Vladimir Vidić in 2006, she is still doing the editing on most of their films as well.
Damnjanović trained at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents, Torino FilmLab and Eave, and first produced Nikola Ljuca’s short Sergeant in 2010 (which competed at Tampere), as well three shorts by Dane Komljen - A Surplus of Wind (2014), Our Body (2015), and All Still Orbit (2016), which screened at Locarno, Rotterdam, and Sarajevo.
Ljuca’s first feature Humidity world-premiered in Berlinale’s Forum in 2016 and won four national Serbian awards, including best film and best director. The same year, Komljen’s debut...
Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry programme is in full flow. Below, Screen highlights five emerging producers from the region who are making waves.
Nataša Damnjanović (Serbia)
Serbian producer Nataša Damnjanović (pictured, top) started out as an editor, and since she founded the production company Dart Film together with Vladimir Vidić in 2006, she is still doing the editing on most of their films as well.
Damnjanović trained at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents, Torino FilmLab and Eave, and first produced Nikola Ljuca’s short Sergeant in 2010 (which competed at Tampere), as well three shorts by Dane Komljen - A Surplus of Wind (2014), Our Body (2015), and All Still Orbit (2016), which screened at Locarno, Rotterdam, and Sarajevo.
Ljuca’s first feature Humidity world-premiered in Berlinale’s Forum in 2016 and won four national Serbian awards, including best film and best director. The same year, Komljen’s debut...
- 8/17/2017
- by vladan.petkovic@gmail.com (Vladan Petkovic)
- ScreenDaily
Ben & Joshua Safdie's Good TimeThe lineup for the 2017 festival has been revealed, including new films by Wang Bing, Radu Jude, Raúl Ruiz and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes dedicated to Jean-Marie Straub, Jacques Tourneur and much more.Piazza GRANDEAmori che non sonno stare al mondo (Francesca Comencini, Italy)Atomic Blonde (David Leitch, USA)Chien (Samuel Benchetrit, France/Belgium)Demain et tous les autres jours (Noémie Lvovsky, France)Drei Zinnen (Jan Zabeil, Germany/Italy)Good Time (Ben & Joshua Safdie, USA)Gotthard - One Life, One Soul (Kevin Merz, Switzerland)I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, USA)Iceman (Felix Randau, Germany/Italy/Austria)Laissez bronzer les cadavres (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium/France)Lola Pater (Nadir Moknèche, France/Belgium)Sicilia! (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, Italy/France/Germany)Sparring (Samuel Jouy, France)The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, USA)The Song of Scorpions (Anup Singh, Switzerland/France/Singapore)What Happed to Monday (Tommy Wirkola,...
- 7/12/2017
- MUBI
Stormy awards sees Greek Academy blast government.
Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s (Wasted Youth) drama Suntan was the big winner at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy Awards on Tuesday evening (March 21) winning six prizes out of the 11 for which it was nominated including best film and director.
The film, which played in the Rotterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, SXSW, Odessa and Jeonju festivals, was also awarded best screenplay, best actor for Makis Padimitriou and best supporting actress for Elli Tringou.
The Faliro House, Marni and Oxymoron production is a bitter sweet drama about a middle-aged doctor on a Greek island whose life turns upside down when he gets embroiled with a group of hedonist tourists.
The film is widely tipped to be Greece’s submission in the best foreign language category at next year’s Oscars.
World sales are handled by Us outlet Visit Films. Strand Releasing is the Us distributor.
Also winning awards was Tasos Boulmetis’ coming of age story...
Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s (Wasted Youth) drama Suntan was the big winner at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy Awards on Tuesday evening (March 21) winning six prizes out of the 11 for which it was nominated including best film and director.
The film, which played in the Rotterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, SXSW, Odessa and Jeonju festivals, was also awarded best screenplay, best actor for Makis Padimitriou and best supporting actress for Elli Tringou.
The Faliro House, Marni and Oxymoron production is a bitter sweet drama about a middle-aged doctor on a Greek island whose life turns upside down when he gets embroiled with a group of hedonist tourists.
The film is widely tipped to be Greece’s submission in the best foreign language category at next year’s Oscars.
World sales are handled by Us outlet Visit Films. Strand Releasing is the Us distributor.
Also winning awards was Tasos Boulmetis’ coming of age story...
- 3/22/2017
- by alexisgrivas@yahoo.com (Alexis Grivas)
- ScreenDaily
Stormy awards sees Greek Academy blast government.
Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s (Wasted Youth) drama Suntan swept the Iris Hellenic Film Academy Awards on Tuesday evening (March 21) winning six prizes out of the 11 for which it was nominated including best film and director.
The film, which played in the Rotterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, SXSW, Odessa and Jeonju festivals, was also awarded best screenplay, best actor for Makis Padimitriou and best supporting actress for Elli Tringou.
The Faliro House, Marni and Oxymoron production is a bitter sweet drama about a middle-aged doctor on a Greek island whose life turns upside down when he gets embroiled with a group of hedonist tourists.
The film is widely tipped to be Greece’s submission in the best foreign language category at next year’s Oscars.
World sales are handled by Us outlet Visit Films. Strand Releasing is the Us distributor.
Also winning awards was Tasos Boulmetis’ coming of age story Mythopathy, which won three...
Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s (Wasted Youth) drama Suntan swept the Iris Hellenic Film Academy Awards on Tuesday evening (March 21) winning six prizes out of the 11 for which it was nominated including best film and director.
The film, which played in the Rotterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, SXSW, Odessa and Jeonju festivals, was also awarded best screenplay, best actor for Makis Padimitriou and best supporting actress for Elli Tringou.
The Faliro House, Marni and Oxymoron production is a bitter sweet drama about a middle-aged doctor on a Greek island whose life turns upside down when he gets embroiled with a group of hedonist tourists.
The film is widely tipped to be Greece’s submission in the best foreign language category at next year’s Oscars.
World sales are handled by Us outlet Visit Films. Strand Releasing is the Us distributor.
Also winning awards was Tasos Boulmetis’ coming of age story Mythopathy, which won three...
- 3/22/2017
- by alexisgrivas@yahoo.com (Alexis Grivas)
- ScreenDaily
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo - which will close the festival with Tanovic...
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo - which will close the festival with Tanovic...
- 4/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo and the regional premiere of Mirjana Karanović...
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo and the regional premiere of Mirjana Karanović...
- 4/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
Greek cinema had a successful run last year reminding us of the cinematic deluge from Hellenic peninsula we had started to refer to as the Greek New Wave. Besides the already known personalities with international credentials - Athina Rachel Tsangari and Yorgos Lanthimos - other Greek filmmakers sprung up to tease our visual receptors. Just to name a few, Kyros Papavissilliou´s Impressions of a Drowned Man a ghost-story/myth executed in the hypnotic poetics of pittura metafisica paintings, noirish Wednesday 04:45 an impressive genre take on the topic of economic crisis byAlexis Alexiou, Syllas Tzoumerkas´ frenetic drama truthful to its name, A Blast and the list keeps rolling on. Whatever situation prevails in Greece film industry, the roll-out rhythm of new films might be maintained also...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 3/29/2016
- Screen Anarchy
It’s become a great breaking in the new year traditional here at Ioncinema.com. We begin our countdown to the our most anticipated foreign films (anything outside the U.S.) with our own Nicholas Bell curating the best bets for 2016. Here are the titles and filmmakers that didn’t make our final Top 100 cut, but are nonetheless “radar” worthy.
101. El Rey del Once – Daniel Burman
102. The Dancer – Stephanie Di Giusto
103. Le Cancre – Paul Vecchiali
104. While the Women are Sleeping – Wayne Wang
105. Tomorrow – Martha Pinson
106. Spring Again – Gael Morel
107. Crowhurst – Simon Rumley
108. Le Garcon – Philippe Lioret *
109. Marie and the Misfits – Sebastien Betbeder
110. Le Caravage – Alain Chevalier
111. Night Song – Raphael Nadjari
112. Réparer les vivants – Katell Quillevere *
113. Project Lazarus – Mateo Gil
114. Afterimages – Andrzej Wajda
115. Don’t Knock Twice – Caradog James
116. Detour – Christopher Smith
117. The Bride of Rip Van Winkle – Shunji Iwai
118. Three on the Road – Johnnie To
119. Le Vin et le Vent...
101. El Rey del Once – Daniel Burman
102. The Dancer – Stephanie Di Giusto
103. Le Cancre – Paul Vecchiali
104. While the Women are Sleeping – Wayne Wang
105. Tomorrow – Martha Pinson
106. Spring Again – Gael Morel
107. Crowhurst – Simon Rumley
108. Le Garcon – Philippe Lioret *
109. Marie and the Misfits – Sebastien Betbeder
110. Le Caravage – Alain Chevalier
111. Night Song – Raphael Nadjari
112. Réparer les vivants – Katell Quillevere *
113. Project Lazarus – Mateo Gil
114. Afterimages – Andrzej Wajda
115. Don’t Knock Twice – Caradog James
116. Detour – Christopher Smith
117. The Bride of Rip Van Winkle – Shunji Iwai
118. Three on the Road – Johnnie To
119. Le Vin et le Vent...
- 1/4/2016
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
A film composed of jagged edges, told in short, staccato scenes that feel not so much edited as fed through a shredder and flung at your eyes, Syllas Tzoumerkas' "A Blast" is a hard, unforgiving and occasionally shrill watch but it explodes through those barriers with its intense energy and pinpoint topicality. It somehow feels appropriate that with the so-called Greek Weird Wave forged in the crucible of the beginning of Greece's economic collapse, now over half a decade later we have "A Blast." It is part of that movement in theme (the legacy of suffocating debt that the older generation has left for the younger, who are thus ensnared in an impossible situation not of their own making) and in allegorical strength, but not at all in style. Gone are the carefully composed frames, colored in controlled, cool palettes that we might have considered the movement's overriding aesthetic to date.
- 7/14/2015
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Greece’s Syllas Tzoumerkas and Hungary’s Adam Csaszi are among 13 international filmmakers selected to each spend three months in Berlin as part of the Nipkow Programme residency.
An international jury under French producer Christine Camdessus decided on the latest intake of Nipkow fellows from 11 countries out of 86 applicants from 30 countries ranging from Bosnia & Herzegovina and Brazil through Uganda and Ukraine to the Us.
The first batch of filmmakers will arrive in Berlin this month for a three-month period, and others will come over subsequent months.
Tzoumerkas, who presented his last feature A Blast in competition in Locarno last summer, will be in Berlin from August to work on his new project The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, while Csaszi, whose feature debut Land Of Storms premiered in the Berlinale’s Panorama Special in 2014, will be developing the screenplay for a new film High Dive for three months in the same period.
The largest...
An international jury under French producer Christine Camdessus decided on the latest intake of Nipkow fellows from 11 countries out of 86 applicants from 30 countries ranging from Bosnia & Herzegovina and Brazil through Uganda and Ukraine to the Us.
The first batch of filmmakers will arrive in Berlin this month for a three-month period, and others will come over subsequent months.
Tzoumerkas, who presented his last feature A Blast in competition in Locarno last summer, will be in Berlin from August to work on his new project The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, while Csaszi, whose feature debut Land Of Storms premiered in the Berlinale’s Panorama Special in 2014, will be developing the screenplay for a new film High Dive for three months in the same period.
The largest...
- 6/5/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
When it comes to international film festivals, there are sprinters and there are distance runners. Spanning 25 days across May and June, Seattle International Film Festival is the Pheidippides of American fests. Unlike its splashier cousins, Sundance and SXSW, Siff doesn’t pander to big movie stars or flashy hipsters. Staying true to its Northwest sensibilities, Siff quietly grinds out one terrific program after another. The 41st edition boasts a whopping 193 feature films, 164 short films, and 70 documentaries, many of which are either World or North American premieres. It’s enough to make even the most ambitious cinephile curl up in a corner with his festival guide and cry. Here, then, is a brief preview of some hotly anticipated films, as well as some obscure titles that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Familiar Faces
Strategically positioned in the middle of the calendar year, Siff has the advantage of playing favorites. More specifically, they...
Familiar Faces
Strategically positioned in the middle of the calendar year, Siff has the advantage of playing favorites. More specifically, they...
- 5/7/2015
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
Organisers at the Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) announced the complete line-up of 450 films from 92 countries on Wednesday. The festival runs from May 14-June 7.
The Overnight starring Jason Schwartzman will close the event and as previously announced Spy (pictured) with Melissa McCartney will kick off proceedings. Kevin Bacon will receive career achievement in acting award.
“This year’s festival is bigger and more international than ever, with a record 92 countries represented,” said Siff artistic director Carl Spence. “Adding to our diverse international line-up is our new programme, Culinary Cinema, which features 11 fantastic new films.
“And I’m particularly excited to welcome Kevin Bacon as this year’s Tribute Guest – Siff will now be only one-degree of separation away!”
Galas and premieres include Max Landis’ directorial debut Me Him Her, Chris Evans in Before We Go, Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segal in the Centerpiece Gala End Of The Tour . Inside Out, Mr. Holmes and [link...
The Overnight starring Jason Schwartzman will close the event and as previously announced Spy (pictured) with Melissa McCartney will kick off proceedings. Kevin Bacon will receive career achievement in acting award.
“This year’s festival is bigger and more international than ever, with a record 92 countries represented,” said Siff artistic director Carl Spence. “Adding to our diverse international line-up is our new programme, Culinary Cinema, which features 11 fantastic new films.
“And I’m particularly excited to welcome Kevin Bacon as this year’s Tribute Guest – Siff will now be only one-degree of separation away!”
Galas and premieres include Max Landis’ directorial debut Me Him Her, Chris Evans in Before We Go, Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segal in the Centerpiece Gala End Of The Tour . Inside Out, Mr. Holmes and [link...
- 4/29/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
New projects by Karabey, Aydogan, Sakaoglu among award winners at Istanbul Meetings
New film projects by Hüseyin Karabey, Zekeriya Aydoğan, and Sinem Sakaoğlu were among the award winners at the 10th edition of Meetings on the Bridge (April 15-16) during the Istanbul Film Festival.
Four awards were given to projects presented as part of this year’s Film Project Development Workshop and were decided by an international jury comprising of such leading industry figures as Meinolf Zurhorst (Zdf), Sergio Garcia De Leaniz (Eurimages), Gabrielle Dumon (Le Bureau Films), Giovanni Robbiano (Mediterranean Film Institute/Mfi) and Khalil Benkirane (Doha Film Institute).
The $ 10,000 Meetings On The Bridge Award went to German-born director Tarik Aktaş’ Dead Horse Nebula - about a sequence of incidents taking place around a small village -, while the € 10,000 Cnc Award was given to The Death of Father and Son by Zekeriya Aydoğan, a period drama set in the Kurdish society.
Aydoğan’s latest...
New film projects by Hüseyin Karabey, Zekeriya Aydoğan, and Sinem Sakaoğlu were among the award winners at the 10th edition of Meetings on the Bridge (April 15-16) during the Istanbul Film Festival.
Four awards were given to projects presented as part of this year’s Film Project Development Workshop and were decided by an international jury comprising of such leading industry figures as Meinolf Zurhorst (Zdf), Sergio Garcia De Leaniz (Eurimages), Gabrielle Dumon (Le Bureau Films), Giovanni Robbiano (Mediterranean Film Institute/Mfi) and Khalil Benkirane (Doha Film Institute).
The $ 10,000 Meetings On The Bridge Award went to German-born director Tarik Aktaş’ Dead Horse Nebula - about a sequence of incidents taking place around a small village -, while the € 10,000 Cnc Award was given to The Death of Father and Son by Zekeriya Aydoğan, a period drama set in the Kurdish society.
Aydoğan’s latest...
- 4/17/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
It’s a thrill to see two out of three of the CineMart Awards are to filmmakers we are tracking: “Luxembourg” by Myroslav Slaboshptyskly from Ukraine and Cuba’s Claudia Calvino and Carlos Lechuga's “Santa y Delfin” won the inaugural Wouter Barendrecht Award. Best unpublished screenplay prize was awarded to the team this past December at Havana’s Festival de Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano. The Ukrainian-German production to be produced by Miff’s Business Square founder Anna Katchko, “Luxembourg”, was awarded the €7,000 Arte International Prize after winning the Sundance Aj+ sponsored Global Filmmaking Award of Us $10,000.
The project has a budget of €1.5 million and is half financed by the Ukrainean State Film Agency. It received a grant from Hubert Bals Fund earlier and will be at Berlin’s Efm Coproduction Market next week. This U.K.-German-French coproduction is being sold internationally by Ultra Violet who sold writer-director Myroslav Slaboshptyskly’s first film “The Tribe” to 35 territories. Myroslav and I spoke at Sundance and he gave me a link to his short “Nuclear Waste” which is a pilot for this film, shot in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and awarded the Silver Leopard of Tomorrow at the Locarno Film Festival and showed at many festivals.
CineMart 2015 awards were announced recently, marking the close of the 32nd edition of the co-production market. Dutch/French/Belgian production “Tonic Immobility” was awarded the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of €20,000, which is given to a project presented by a European producer.
CineMart selected 24 international projects to participate in the four day event which has been one of the most successful in recent years. A panel discussion to launch Iffr’s new VoD initiative, Tiger Release, was well attended with several filmmakers now in discussion with the Iffr team on releasing their new films via this platform. Multiple conferences and panels covering topics ranging from “Making the most of a film festival” to “The Director-Producer Partnership” were held in front of packed audiences who were invited to be involved in the debates and receive advice. The "Creative Europe Day" on Tuesday, January 27th which offered advice and guidance on creating beyond the boundaries of Europe proved one of the highlights of Iffr 2015.
On making the announcement Head of Industry & CineMart, Marit van den Elshout commented “The quality of our line-up this year is something the whole team is very proud of - so many standout projects with talented teams behind them, the award winners exemplify this. We hosted multiple extremely well attended panels and conversations, experienced great success with the launch of Tiger Release and the enthusiasm with which our Creative Europe day was received all adds up to one of the strongest CineMart’s in a long time. ”
This year’s Eurimages Co-Production Development Award winner, “Tonic Immobility” by Nathalie Teirlinck, (The Netherlands, France, Belgium), is a Bart van Langendonck, Xavier Rombaut, Savage Film production. It tells the story of Alice, an escort who abandons her baby son Robin. Unexpectedly, seven years later Alice is reunited with the boy and they must find a way to co-exist while Alice is confronted with the fact that true emotions can't be controlled and that intimacy can lead to vulnerability. On the Jury’s decision Dorien van de Pas commented “ The award is being given to a project from a multitalented first time feature director who will tell a very emotional, universal story. His short films demonstrate a strong visual style in combination with a great focus on sound. ”
The Arte International Prize winner “Luxembourg”, (Ukraine, Germany) by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, and produced by Anna Katchko with Tandem Production is a film noir with touches of a western. A great project by a very talented director, stunningly set up for a strong and cinematic story. On presenting the award Annamaria Lodato commented. “This year the Arte International Prize is awarded to a talented, daring and radical director. He is preparing a film that explores a world unknown to most of us: today’s Chernobyl. Far from being a ‘disaster film’, it is a story about living in the Chernobyl zone, a world with its own rules, an almost primitive community that the director knows from the inside. ”
The Wouter Barendrecht Award winner “Santa y Delfin” (Cuba), by Carlos Lechuga is produced by Claudia Calvino and Producciones de la 5ta Avenida. Cuba, homosexuality, censorship, working class and intellectuals, a young talented director and a real story - real potential for a hit project.
On presenting the award Managing Director of Fortissimo Films, Nelleke Driessen commented “The Wouter Barendrecht Foundation (Wbf) encourages the work of talented young filmmakers, we encourage daring films, films that oppose social conventions, with a large urgency. There were 8 films eligible for this award, but in the end only one can win and 'Santa y Delfin' stood out amongst all - if Wouter were here he would be thrilled with the choice. ”
CineMart Selected Projects
"A Shining Flaw" by Erwin Olaf
Eyeworks Film & TV Drama, Netherlands
"Cobain" by Nanouk Leopold
Circe Films/Waterland Film, Netherlands
"Vita & Virginia" by Sacha Polak
Mirror Productions/Viking Film, United Kingdom/Netherlands
"Tonic Immobility" by Nathalie Teirlinck
Savage Film/Ctm Pictures, Belgium/France/Netherlands
"The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea" by Syllas Tzoumerkas
Homemade Films/Prpl, Greece/Netherlands
"Angel" by Koen Mortier
Czar Film/Tobina Films/Anonymes Films, Belgium/Senegal/France
"Ceux qui travaillent" by Antoine Russbach
Box Productions, Switzerland
"Cunningham" by Alla Kovgan
Arsam International/Chance Operations, France/USA
"La Fille de l’Estuaire" by Gaëlle Denis
Life to Live Films, United Kingdom/France
"Holiday" by Isabella Eklöf
Dharmafilm/Beofilm, Denmark
"Luxembourg" by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
Tandem Production/Garmata Film, Ukraine/Germany
"Bat, Butterfly, Moth" by Sergio Caballero
Corte y Confección de Películas/Am Films, Spain
"The Gray Beyond" by Alejandro Fernández Almendras
Jirafa Films/Wa Entertainment, Chile/Japan
"Only the Dead Have Seen the End of the War" by Khavn
Kamias Overground, Philippines
"Rojo" by Benjamin Naishtat
Pucará Cine, Argentina
"La Barracuda" by Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin
Small Drama/Hot Metal Films/Blue Suitcase Productions, USA
"Boyfriend" by Ashim Ahluwalia
Future East Film, India
"Gabriel and the Mountain" by Fellipe Barbosa
TvZero/Gamarosa Filmes, Brazil
"Los Delincuentes" by Rodrigo Moreno
Compañía Amateur/Rizoma, Argentina
"Santa y Delfín" by Carlos Lechuga
Producciones de la 5ta Avenida, Cuba
"Kodokushi" by Janus Victoria
Paperheart, Philippines/Malaysia/Japan
Art:Film projects "Cactus Flower" by Hala Elkoussy
Transit Films, Egypt
"Hurrah, Wir Leben Noch" by Agnieszka Polska
Kijora Anna Gawlita/Museum of Modern Art Poland, Poland/Germany
"Mr Sing Sing" by Phil Collins
Shady Lane Productions, Germany/USA
Audience Awards Winners
The awards, as voted for by the public audience attending the Festival, were announced this evening at the Iffr 2015 Closing Night Ceremony, hosted by Festival Director, Rutger Wolfson and Managing Director, Janneke Staarink. James Napier Robertson was awarded the Iffr Audience Award 2015 of €10,000 for his film "The Dark Horse." The award is Napier’s second of the Festival following the MovieZone Iffr Award which was presented on Friday, January 30th at the Iffr Awards Ceremony. The Hubert Bals Fund Dioraphte Award, also of €10,000, presented to the most popular film which received support from the Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) went to Oscar Ruiz Navia for "Los Hongos," an autobiographical drama centering on the youth culture of Cali, Colombia.
Read More - Toronto Review: Cliff Curtis is a Fallen Champion Turned Mentor in "The Dark Horse"
On the announcement of the Iffr Audience Award 2015 Wolfson commented “The audiences who come from all over the Netherlands and around the world to participate in the Festival and explore our diverse, thought provoking programme are integral to Iffr. It would not be the special Festival it is without them so we would like to thank all who joined us in celebrating cinema this year and of course congratulations to James who created a wonderful, personal film.”
On the announcement of the Hubert Bals Fund Dioraphte Award, Manager of the Hubert Bals Fund, Iwana Chronis commented “I am thrilled with the reception the Hbf supported films received throughout the twelve days of the Festival. Oscar Ruiz Navia is a talented filmmaker with a long and successful career ahead of him, this recognition is fully deserved, we are so pleased to have been a part of helping getting this film to the big screen .”
A highly acclaimed drama, "The Dark Horse" tells the true and moving story of Genesis Potini, who fought for the future of disadvantaged children in New Zealand until his death in 2011. In spite of his own bipolar disorder, he taught them to play chess and fight for opportunities. "The Dark Horse" is both amusing and raw, and above all intensely moving. Born in New Zealand, director James Napier Robertson made a name for himself in the world of television before switching to cinema. He appeared as an actor in the series "The Tribe" and "Shortland Street." He directed his first feature film "I’m Not Harry Jenson" in 2009.
Directed by Oscar Ruiz Navia, "Los Hongos" is an autobiographically inspired drama based around two skater friends who are at the heart of the colorful, noisy street and youth culture of Cali, Colombia. With a warm heart, Ruiz tells the story of Ras and Calvin, who are looking for their own voice, a stage and of course freedom, love and fun. Born in Colombia, Oscar Ruiz Navia’s debut film "Crab Trap" won a Fipresci Award at the Berlinale in 2010. Prior to that he was focused on the development and production of independent cinema in Colombia and founded the production company Contravia Films having previously studied Social Communications and Journalism.
Top 5 Audience Award Iffr 2015
"The Dark Horse" "The Farewell Party" "Loin des Hommes" "La Vie de Jean-Marie" "Alice Cares" Top 5 Hbf Dioraphte Award 2015
"Los Hongos" "La Mujer de los Perros" (Dog Lady) "Nn" "Court" "The Tribe" The full list can be found on the Festival's website:
www.iffr.com/professionals/iffr-2015/iffr-audience-award-2015...
The project has a budget of €1.5 million and is half financed by the Ukrainean State Film Agency. It received a grant from Hubert Bals Fund earlier and will be at Berlin’s Efm Coproduction Market next week. This U.K.-German-French coproduction is being sold internationally by Ultra Violet who sold writer-director Myroslav Slaboshptyskly’s first film “The Tribe” to 35 territories. Myroslav and I spoke at Sundance and he gave me a link to his short “Nuclear Waste” which is a pilot for this film, shot in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and awarded the Silver Leopard of Tomorrow at the Locarno Film Festival and showed at many festivals.
CineMart 2015 awards were announced recently, marking the close of the 32nd edition of the co-production market. Dutch/French/Belgian production “Tonic Immobility” was awarded the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of €20,000, which is given to a project presented by a European producer.
CineMart selected 24 international projects to participate in the four day event which has been one of the most successful in recent years. A panel discussion to launch Iffr’s new VoD initiative, Tiger Release, was well attended with several filmmakers now in discussion with the Iffr team on releasing their new films via this platform. Multiple conferences and panels covering topics ranging from “Making the most of a film festival” to “The Director-Producer Partnership” were held in front of packed audiences who were invited to be involved in the debates and receive advice. The "Creative Europe Day" on Tuesday, January 27th which offered advice and guidance on creating beyond the boundaries of Europe proved one of the highlights of Iffr 2015.
On making the announcement Head of Industry & CineMart, Marit van den Elshout commented “The quality of our line-up this year is something the whole team is very proud of - so many standout projects with talented teams behind them, the award winners exemplify this. We hosted multiple extremely well attended panels and conversations, experienced great success with the launch of Tiger Release and the enthusiasm with which our Creative Europe day was received all adds up to one of the strongest CineMart’s in a long time. ”
This year’s Eurimages Co-Production Development Award winner, “Tonic Immobility” by Nathalie Teirlinck, (The Netherlands, France, Belgium), is a Bart van Langendonck, Xavier Rombaut, Savage Film production. It tells the story of Alice, an escort who abandons her baby son Robin. Unexpectedly, seven years later Alice is reunited with the boy and they must find a way to co-exist while Alice is confronted with the fact that true emotions can't be controlled and that intimacy can lead to vulnerability. On the Jury’s decision Dorien van de Pas commented “ The award is being given to a project from a multitalented first time feature director who will tell a very emotional, universal story. His short films demonstrate a strong visual style in combination with a great focus on sound. ”
The Arte International Prize winner “Luxembourg”, (Ukraine, Germany) by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, and produced by Anna Katchko with Tandem Production is a film noir with touches of a western. A great project by a very talented director, stunningly set up for a strong and cinematic story. On presenting the award Annamaria Lodato commented. “This year the Arte International Prize is awarded to a talented, daring and radical director. He is preparing a film that explores a world unknown to most of us: today’s Chernobyl. Far from being a ‘disaster film’, it is a story about living in the Chernobyl zone, a world with its own rules, an almost primitive community that the director knows from the inside. ”
The Wouter Barendrecht Award winner “Santa y Delfin” (Cuba), by Carlos Lechuga is produced by Claudia Calvino and Producciones de la 5ta Avenida. Cuba, homosexuality, censorship, working class and intellectuals, a young talented director and a real story - real potential for a hit project.
On presenting the award Managing Director of Fortissimo Films, Nelleke Driessen commented “The Wouter Barendrecht Foundation (Wbf) encourages the work of talented young filmmakers, we encourage daring films, films that oppose social conventions, with a large urgency. There were 8 films eligible for this award, but in the end only one can win and 'Santa y Delfin' stood out amongst all - if Wouter were here he would be thrilled with the choice. ”
CineMart Selected Projects
"A Shining Flaw" by Erwin Olaf
Eyeworks Film & TV Drama, Netherlands
"Cobain" by Nanouk Leopold
Circe Films/Waterland Film, Netherlands
"Vita & Virginia" by Sacha Polak
Mirror Productions/Viking Film, United Kingdom/Netherlands
"Tonic Immobility" by Nathalie Teirlinck
Savage Film/Ctm Pictures, Belgium/France/Netherlands
"The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea" by Syllas Tzoumerkas
Homemade Films/Prpl, Greece/Netherlands
"Angel" by Koen Mortier
Czar Film/Tobina Films/Anonymes Films, Belgium/Senegal/France
"Ceux qui travaillent" by Antoine Russbach
Box Productions, Switzerland
"Cunningham" by Alla Kovgan
Arsam International/Chance Operations, France/USA
"La Fille de l’Estuaire" by Gaëlle Denis
Life to Live Films, United Kingdom/France
"Holiday" by Isabella Eklöf
Dharmafilm/Beofilm, Denmark
"Luxembourg" by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
Tandem Production/Garmata Film, Ukraine/Germany
"Bat, Butterfly, Moth" by Sergio Caballero
Corte y Confección de Películas/Am Films, Spain
"The Gray Beyond" by Alejandro Fernández Almendras
Jirafa Films/Wa Entertainment, Chile/Japan
"Only the Dead Have Seen the End of the War" by Khavn
Kamias Overground, Philippines
"Rojo" by Benjamin Naishtat
Pucará Cine, Argentina
"La Barracuda" by Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin
Small Drama/Hot Metal Films/Blue Suitcase Productions, USA
"Boyfriend" by Ashim Ahluwalia
Future East Film, India
"Gabriel and the Mountain" by Fellipe Barbosa
TvZero/Gamarosa Filmes, Brazil
"Los Delincuentes" by Rodrigo Moreno
Compañía Amateur/Rizoma, Argentina
"Santa y Delfín" by Carlos Lechuga
Producciones de la 5ta Avenida, Cuba
"Kodokushi" by Janus Victoria
Paperheart, Philippines/Malaysia/Japan
Art:Film projects "Cactus Flower" by Hala Elkoussy
Transit Films, Egypt
"Hurrah, Wir Leben Noch" by Agnieszka Polska
Kijora Anna Gawlita/Museum of Modern Art Poland, Poland/Germany
"Mr Sing Sing" by Phil Collins
Shady Lane Productions, Germany/USA
Audience Awards Winners
The awards, as voted for by the public audience attending the Festival, were announced this evening at the Iffr 2015 Closing Night Ceremony, hosted by Festival Director, Rutger Wolfson and Managing Director, Janneke Staarink. James Napier Robertson was awarded the Iffr Audience Award 2015 of €10,000 for his film "The Dark Horse." The award is Napier’s second of the Festival following the MovieZone Iffr Award which was presented on Friday, January 30th at the Iffr Awards Ceremony. The Hubert Bals Fund Dioraphte Award, also of €10,000, presented to the most popular film which received support from the Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) went to Oscar Ruiz Navia for "Los Hongos," an autobiographical drama centering on the youth culture of Cali, Colombia.
Read More - Toronto Review: Cliff Curtis is a Fallen Champion Turned Mentor in "The Dark Horse"
On the announcement of the Iffr Audience Award 2015 Wolfson commented “The audiences who come from all over the Netherlands and around the world to participate in the Festival and explore our diverse, thought provoking programme are integral to Iffr. It would not be the special Festival it is without them so we would like to thank all who joined us in celebrating cinema this year and of course congratulations to James who created a wonderful, personal film.”
On the announcement of the Hubert Bals Fund Dioraphte Award, Manager of the Hubert Bals Fund, Iwana Chronis commented “I am thrilled with the reception the Hbf supported films received throughout the twelve days of the Festival. Oscar Ruiz Navia is a talented filmmaker with a long and successful career ahead of him, this recognition is fully deserved, we are so pleased to have been a part of helping getting this film to the big screen .”
A highly acclaimed drama, "The Dark Horse" tells the true and moving story of Genesis Potini, who fought for the future of disadvantaged children in New Zealand until his death in 2011. In spite of his own bipolar disorder, he taught them to play chess and fight for opportunities. "The Dark Horse" is both amusing and raw, and above all intensely moving. Born in New Zealand, director James Napier Robertson made a name for himself in the world of television before switching to cinema. He appeared as an actor in the series "The Tribe" and "Shortland Street." He directed his first feature film "I’m Not Harry Jenson" in 2009.
Directed by Oscar Ruiz Navia, "Los Hongos" is an autobiographically inspired drama based around two skater friends who are at the heart of the colorful, noisy street and youth culture of Cali, Colombia. With a warm heart, Ruiz tells the story of Ras and Calvin, who are looking for their own voice, a stage and of course freedom, love and fun. Born in Colombia, Oscar Ruiz Navia’s debut film "Crab Trap" won a Fipresci Award at the Berlinale in 2010. Prior to that he was focused on the development and production of independent cinema in Colombia and founded the production company Contravia Films having previously studied Social Communications and Journalism.
Top 5 Audience Award Iffr 2015
"The Dark Horse" "The Farewell Party" "Loin des Hommes" "La Vie de Jean-Marie" "Alice Cares" Top 5 Hbf Dioraphte Award 2015
"Los Hongos" "La Mujer de los Perros" (Dog Lady) "Nn" "Court" "The Tribe" The full list can be found on the Festival's website:
www.iffr.com/professionals/iffr-2015/iffr-audience-award-2015...
- 2/5/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The world's longest running co-production market, Cinemart, is always one of the most interesting parts of theInternational Film Festival in Rotterdam. This year is not an exception with colourful batch of promising projects lined up including experimental filmmaker Khavn de la Cruz' new project Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War and Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas, who after premiering his second feature A Blast last year has already started working on new project The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea. One of the main conditions to be eligible for Rotterdam´s co-production market is having 25% of the finances secured and obviously the final draft of the script ready.Ukrainian filmmaker Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, the man behind wünder-film of 2014, The Tribe, was in official selection...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 1/29/2015
- Screen Anarchy
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