Festival completes its 2023 programme.
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has unveiled the juries for its 27th edition, with jurors including Danish star Trine Dyrholm, and John Altman, who has worked on the music for Titanic, Life Of Brian and No Time To Die.
Jury head Dyrholm and English composer Altman are on the official selection competition jury, alongside filmmakers Xie Fei from China, Hilmar Oddson from Iceland, and Inna Sahakyan from Armenia.
The first feature competition jury consists of Mexican producer Nicolas Celis of Pimienta Films, who heads that jury, alongside Diana Ilijine, former Filmfest Munchen director; Chinese filmmaker Ran Huang...
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has unveiled the juries for its 27th edition, with jurors including Danish star Trine Dyrholm, and John Altman, who has worked on the music for Titanic, Life Of Brian and No Time To Die.
Jury head Dyrholm and English composer Altman are on the official selection competition jury, alongside filmmakers Xie Fei from China, Hilmar Oddson from Iceland, and Inna Sahakyan from Armenia.
The first feature competition jury consists of Mexican producer Nicolas Celis of Pimienta Films, who heads that jury, alongside Diana Ilijine, former Filmfest Munchen director; Chinese filmmaker Ran Huang...
- 10/27/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Trine Dryholm Photo: Courtesy of Poff Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has announced the juries for this year's edition as well as the rest of its line-up. Danish star Trine Dyrholm (Margrete - Queen Of The North) will head the official jury alongside composer John Altman (Life Of Brian) and directors, Xie Fei (The Women From The Lake of Scented Souls), Hilmar Oddson (Driving Mum) and Inna Sahakyan (Aurora's Sunrise).
In total, 185 feature films from 73 countries will be screened. Youth and Children sub-festival Just Film will show 51 feature films, 37 shorts and six animated films. PÖFF Shorts sub-festival will present 240 short films. Among them will be 51 world premieres and 24 international premieres.
There are five competition sections in total, with the First Feature jury headed by Nicolás Celis, the founder of the Mexico City based Pimienta Films, while the Critics' Picks competition will be headed by Dina...
In total, 185 feature films from 73 countries will be screened. Youth and Children sub-festival Just Film will show 51 feature films, 37 shorts and six animated films. PÖFF Shorts sub-festival will present 240 short films. Among them will be 51 world premieres and 24 international premieres.
There are five competition sections in total, with the First Feature jury headed by Nicolás Celis, the founder of the Mexico City based Pimienta Films, while the Critics' Picks competition will be headed by Dina...
- 10/27/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Nonprofit media company Shine Global celebrated its second annual Children’s Resilience in Film Awards at Paramount Studios on Tuesday night. Recognizing films and filmmakers around the world that highlight the resilience and strength of children in the face of adversities such as poverty, violence, illness and discrimination, the awards honored documentary Name Me Lawand with the event’s grand prize of $15,000.
Directed by Edward Lovelace, Name Me Lawand follows a deaf Kurdish boy’s emotional journey toward discovering how to express himself using British Sign Language, depicting the power of communication and community.
“This award is for Lawand — for his bravery, his determination in getting his message out to the world. His message is a beautiful one, which guided the entire filmmaking process,” said Lovelace in a written acceptance speech read by cinematographer Lol Crawley. “We as filmmakers have learned so much just by watching and listening to these...
Directed by Edward Lovelace, Name Me Lawand follows a deaf Kurdish boy’s emotional journey toward discovering how to express himself using British Sign Language, depicting the power of communication and community.
“This award is for Lawand — for his bravery, his determination in getting his message out to the world. His message is a beautiful one, which guided the entire filmmaking process,” said Lovelace in a written acceptance speech read by cinematographer Lol Crawley. “We as filmmakers have learned so much just by watching and listening to these...
- 10/4/2023
- by Sydney Odman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 31st edition of London’s Raindance Film Festival will open with the U.K. premiere of British actor Jack Huston’s directorial debut “Day of the Fight.”
The film comes to Raindance fresh off its Venice debut, where Huston was honored by Variety as a breakthrough director.
The story of a once-renowned boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since he left prison stars Michael Pitt alongside a cast including Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci, and a cameo from Steve Buscemi.
The U.K. premiere of Isabel Coixet’s “Un Amor” will close the festival after it bows at San Sebastian. Based on Sara Mesa’s bestselling novel, Laia Costa plays a young woman who escapes her stressful life in the city and relocates to rural Spain. When she accepts a disturbing sexual proposal, it gives rise to an all-consuming and obsessive passion.
The film comes to Raindance fresh off its Venice debut, where Huston was honored by Variety as a breakthrough director.
The story of a once-renowned boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since he left prison stars Michael Pitt alongside a cast including Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci, and a cameo from Steve Buscemi.
The U.K. premiere of Isabel Coixet’s “Un Amor” will close the festival after it bows at San Sebastian. Based on Sara Mesa’s bestselling novel, Laia Costa plays a young woman who escapes her stressful life in the city and relocates to rural Spain. When she accepts a disturbing sexual proposal, it gives rise to an all-consuming and obsessive passion.
- 9/13/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Location, Location, Location
Entertainment, sports and brand licensing firms WildBrain Cplg and WildBrain Ltd. have brokered location-based entertainment (Lbe) deals on behalf of Peanuts Worldwide for “Peanuts,” “Teletubbies” and “In the Night Garden” with China’s Max-Matching Entertainments. These are expected to lead to the opening of family entertainment centers and IP-themed hotel rooms for each brand in Beijing, in Zhongshan City, Guangdong and a third city yet to be announced. These will roll out over the next five years.
The moves come at a time when WildBrain Cplg is expanding its Asia-focused teams. These include the Los Angeles-based veteran licensing executive, Kevin Suh who is former president of themed entertainment & consumer products at Paramount Pictures. Suh was also a senior executive at the Motion Picture Association of America and a lawyer in California. Shanghai-based Evi Sari joins as VP of Lbe in Apac and the Gcc. She was previously...
Entertainment, sports and brand licensing firms WildBrain Cplg and WildBrain Ltd. have brokered location-based entertainment (Lbe) deals on behalf of Peanuts Worldwide for “Peanuts,” “Teletubbies” and “In the Night Garden” with China’s Max-Matching Entertainments. These are expected to lead to the opening of family entertainment centers and IP-themed hotel rooms for each brand in Beijing, in Zhongshan City, Guangdong and a third city yet to be announced. These will roll out over the next five years.
The moves come at a time when WildBrain Cplg is expanding its Asia-focused teams. These include the Los Angeles-based veteran licensing executive, Kevin Suh who is former president of themed entertainment & consumer products at Paramount Pictures. Suh was also a senior executive at the Motion Picture Association of America and a lawyer in California. Shanghai-based Evi Sari joins as VP of Lbe in Apac and the Gcc. She was previously...
- 9/7/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Stephen Fry-led doc ‘Willem & Frieda’ to world premiere at BFI Flare; full festival line-up unveiled
The Lgbtqia+ festival takes place March 15-26.
The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 37th edition which takes place March 15 – 26.
The programme features 58 features, six of which are world premieres, spread across three thematic strands – Hearts, Bodies and Minds.
Scroll down for full line-up
World premiering at the festival is John Hay’s documentary Willem & Frieda which is presented by Stephen Fry and explores how a gay man and a lesbian woman led the anti-Nazi resistance in Holland.
The other world premieres are Timothy Harris’ documentary Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn about the...
The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 37th edition which takes place March 15 – 26.
The programme features 58 features, six of which are world premieres, spread across three thematic strands – Hearts, Bodies and Minds.
Scroll down for full line-up
World premiering at the festival is John Hay’s documentary Willem & Frieda which is presented by Stephen Fry and explores how a gay man and a lesbian woman led the anti-Nazi resistance in Holland.
The other world premieres are Timothy Harris’ documentary Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn about the...
- 2/15/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Armenia’s submission to the Oscars, animated feature “Aurora’s Sunrise,” took home the top Jury Award for best documentary at the MiradasDoc Festival, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival, which wrapped its 16th edition on Feb 4.
The festival closed on a strong note, reaffirming its relevance where interest in and demand for documentaries have only grown in strength, thanks largely to wider exposure and distribution on streamers.
Directed by Inna Sahakyan, the Armenian-German-Lithuanian co-production tells the true harrowing tale of Aurora, a survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide who lost her family, fled slavery and later endured the grinding publicity machine of Hollywood. Doc had its world premiere at Annecy 2022.
Announcing their choice, the jury made up of Hicham Falah, Jane Mote and Ricardo Acosta, described “Aurora’s Sunrise” as “a convincing story elegantly told, through archives, animation and fiction, about a little-known genocide that sheds light and awareness on today’s political tensions and challenges.
The festival closed on a strong note, reaffirming its relevance where interest in and demand for documentaries have only grown in strength, thanks largely to wider exposure and distribution on streamers.
Directed by Inna Sahakyan, the Armenian-German-Lithuanian co-production tells the true harrowing tale of Aurora, a survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide who lost her family, fled slavery and later endured the grinding publicity machine of Hollywood. Doc had its world premiere at Annecy 2022.
Announcing their choice, the jury made up of Hicham Falah, Jane Mote and Ricardo Acosta, described “Aurora’s Sunrise” as “a convincing story elegantly told, through archives, animation and fiction, about a little-known genocide that sheds light and awareness on today’s political tensions and challenges.
- 2/5/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Event took place in Trieste from January 22-25
Projects from Spain, Ukraine and Belgium shared the top prizes at this year’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum, which was held in Trieste from January 22-25.
Spanish filmmaker Enrique Buleo’s Still Life With Ghosts won the €5,000 Center Serbia Award. Produced by Spain’s Quatre Films and France’s Ikki Films, the film tells the story of ghosts and humans who seek to resolve their everyday problems in a small village in rural Spain. Buleo’s short Hell and Such received a Special Jury Mention at the 2019 Clermont-Ferrand festival.
Projects from Spain, Ukraine and Belgium shared the top prizes at this year’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum, which was held in Trieste from January 22-25.
Spanish filmmaker Enrique Buleo’s Still Life With Ghosts won the €5,000 Center Serbia Award. Produced by Spain’s Quatre Films and France’s Ikki Films, the film tells the story of ghosts and humans who seek to resolve their everyday problems in a small village in rural Spain. Buleo’s short Hell and Such received a Special Jury Mention at the 2019 Clermont-Ferrand festival.
- 1/26/2023
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
Armenia’s ’s Oscar© 2023 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Aurora’s Sunrise’ directed by Inna SahakyanBased on the true story of Aurora Mardiganian‘Aurora’s Sunrise’ is a surprising film on many levels. It is an historical artifact on its own. A story within a story, both of which are highly relevent today, the film ought to make it to the Oscar shortlist if not all the way to the nomination, where competition is very strong this year.
Most remarkable are the closing words of the protagonist, Aurora Mardiganian who was in her 90s when the interview with her was recorded. She was 14 at the time of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Aurora passed away in 1994. The Genocide seems so long ago and yet is vividly alive as a festering wound today.
Aurora Mardiganian states with utter conviction that if the world had stood up to the Turks and acted to condemn and end the Armenian Genocide, then Hitler (who himself said, « who will ever remember the Armenians ? » would not have been so bold as to perpetuate the genocide against the Jews. Some might say, as they do about stories of the Holocaust, « enough already » but as we see the same story repeated around the world today, in Russian aggression against Ukraine, Chinese against Uighers, Hindus of India against Muslims, Israel against Palestine, Darfur : there cannot be enough reminding the world of atrocities which need to be addressed and taken responsibility for if anyone truly wants to redeem humankind’s humanity. Without admitting and facing the past misdeeds, we cannot progress and are doomed to repetition until we bring on our own end.
Aurora Mardiganian and the original poster
If we do not say no to Russia or to China or ; if we do not acknowledge our own nation’s indigenous genocide and massive kidnapping of Africans, we are endangering our own selves to future genocides and we will never get out of the mess we are finding ourselves in today which includes mass shootings and fentanyl poisoning which is killing our young adult population.
In 1915, as WWI raged, the Ottoman Empire singled out its entire Armenian population for extermination. Only 14 years old at the time, Aurora lost everything during the horror and was forced onto a death march towards the Syrian desert. She lost her entire family before being sold into sexual slavery, from which she escaped. Two years later, through luck and extraordinary courage, she reached New York, where her story became a media sensation.
View the trailer Here
With little regard for the toll it would take on the traumatized teenager, one of the founding fathers of Hollywood, producer William Selig convinced Aurora that by bringing her story to the silver screen she would be able to help other survivors of the genocide.
And so Aurora relived the unbearable, and became the most improbable starlet of the silent era in Auction of Souls, a runaway success, breaking box office and fundraising campaign records. After the film’s release, one out of every three American families reportedly contributed to the campaign to help the victims of the genocide. With the help of the film, a campaign by the aid group Near East Relief raised $116 million and saved the lives of over 132,000 orphaned survivors. The number of their descendants are in the millions.
During his time as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau witnessed first-hand the atrocities committed against Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians at the hands of the Ottoman government. However, expanding Turkish lobbying in Congress thwarted President Wilson’s aim to aid Armenia. Congress’s action caused any mention of the Genocide to cease. All copies of Auction of Souls throughout the world were believed to be lost. The diappearance of all the prints may be in part because they were fragile, made of nitrate, but there is also conjecture that their disappearnce could be due to a concerted effort initiated by the Turkish government to destroy them. However, in 1994, several months after Aurora’s death, 18 minutes, fragments of Auction of Souls were rediscovered.
The story of this feature film compelled me to interview the film’s director Inna Sahakyan.
Director Inna Sahakyan
To begin, I am curious to know if you are living in Armenia today ?
Currently, for the Award campaign, I am deviding my time between Armenia and Los Angeles.
Was this filmed here or there?
It was filmed in Armenia. I am part of a small production company and we create the material we work on. We internationally co-produced several award winning feature documentaries in the past, and when I found the idea for this film while researching the Genocide, it became a much larger story.
The Armenian genocide is the enduring pain of my nation. It is my family’s pain, and it is my own pain. Though I always wanted to, I was wary of making a film about it. I was afraid to be overly sentimental, overly emotional. I was afraid of telling stories that only confirmed Armenians as a nation of victims with no historical agency and nothing but tragedy running through our veins.
That is, until I stumbled upon an interview with Aurora Mardiganian while going through archival interviews with Armenian Genocide survivors at the Zoryan Institute. I was mesmerized the first time I watched it. While painful to hear, the elderly woman appeared to grow more and more youthful as she spoke. Through her words and expressions, an incredible but ordinary heroism shone: this woman survived a genocide but refused to be a victim. She refused to be reduced to an object of history. This is the character I wanted to build in Aurora’s Sunrise, resilient, powerful and heartwarming all at once.
The archival video interviews with Aurora, filmed by the Zoryan Institute with two additional interviews from the Armenian Film Foundation, comprise a major medium of Aurora’s Sunrise. The majority of the film’s narration was built from the stories she told in these interviews.
My mission was to create a film taking audiences beyond the cold facts of the genocide, so I decided on a dynamic combination of mediums: animation, archival interviews with Aurora Mardiganian, and digitally-restored footage from Aurora’s 1919 film Auction of Souls.
What have you done before this ?
I have directed and produced feature-length documentaries, documentary series, and shorts, for over fifteen years. Following my feature-length debut co-directing the award-winning Armenia’s Last Tightrope Dancer in 2010, I directed Mel and Aurora’s Sunrise, and completed both international co-productions in 2022.
For this larger film I have to credit the great team I worked with the editor and live action scenes director Ruben Ghazaryan, art director Tigran Arakelyan among others.
Aurora’s Sunrise is the first-ever animated feature created by Bars Media, and the first-ever animated documentary film made in Armenia — and making the film was no simple task.
I had never worked with a fiction script or animation so there was a lot new for me.
On the writing too I needed help because I did not want it to be overly emotional or overly subjective. I needed a critical eye and for that I am so grarteful to my cowriter Kerstin Meyer-Beetz who is part of the German team who coproduced it, the Beetz Brothers, and to the cowriter Peter Liakhov.
How did it develop into an Armenian-German-Lithuanian coproduction ?
It is very difficult for Armenia, a very small country with a very small national support system, to raise money for production. But it was very important that we have the support of National Cinema Center of Armenia to legitimize our efforts to raise co-production funds. Each country brings its own money and funds and its own artistic structure. Gebruder Beetz in Germany had not worked with us previously, but we are from the same documentary « tribe », and the film’s producer knew them from Documentary Campus Masterschool so they decided to work together. Zdf came on board. I mentioned the imporance of cowriting with Kerstin Meyer-Beetz.
The music component with original music by the celebrated Christine Aufderhaar (also from Germany) with additional Armenian music from Andranik Berberyan and Garegin Arakelyan, was the sinew that connected the film into a moving and elegant whole.
Lithuania came in later with producers Justė Michailinaitė and Kestutis Drazdauskas and animation producer Meinardas Valkevicius, the key animator Sarunas Vystartas, Gediminas Skyrius the lead illustrator and storyboard designer, Rimas Valeikis the lead character designer and we had great team of Lithuanian illustrators working with them. The international partnership with Lithuania was crucial. With the Armenian team taking a lead in art direction, cooperation with the Lithuanian team helped create something both new but also deeply Armenian.The artistic style of animation came out of the Lithuanian and Armenian artists working together on linear solutions, color, etc trying to find a unique art style which eveolved.
Eurimages came in as well and it was the first time that Armenia was the majority producer with this pan-European funding body. And important to note that this was by a unanimous support of all its voting members.
Every character had documentary material behnd them. The archival research came from fundraising and small grants, awards and lots of ptiching workhshops. Each producing country has its own distribution there set up, Gegruder Beetz will distribute in Germany. International sales are by Cat and Docs. In Armenia, it was first released in the Golden Apricot Film Festival, the baiggest festival in the area where it won the Silver apricot, the second prize in the Internatioal Compeititon and it was released in cinemas from November 3. It was supposed to be for two weeks, but it is so popular than its run has been extending and it is stilll playing in one of the theaters.
Did Waltz with Bashir influence your use of animation ?
Absolutely. It was the first animated documentary I saw, but then I followed all of them.
The majority of the film’s runtime is animation. Animation is a very powerful medium for portraying something as difficult as trauma. It explicitly portrays the representation of an event and not the event itself, bridges this distance, and allows for the viewer to be deeply engaged with the narrative and thematic core of the story. At the same time, animation is medium that can communicate not only the colors of the story, but even its smells, tastes, and textures. It becomes the soul of the film, and lets Aurora’s now forgotten story become vivid again. It goes further than reproducing the events: it interprets them, like our brain does with memories, and allows symbols and motifs to speak loudly instead of drowning them in the utter realism of hundreds of details.
Of course, the danger of animation is that it may produce a sense of unreality — and this is why it is so crucial that the film also features archival footage of the real Aurora and that of her film: to let the woman and her work speak for itself and to remind the audience that all this really did happen.
How long did it take you to make this film ?
The overall production was about seven years out of which about three yearswere spent in the development/script stage.
Five years into the making of Aurora’s Sunrise production of the film hit a major obstacle. In September 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was in full swing — which had already put production, especially animation into a precarious position — a new conflict erupted over the landlocked region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the collapse of the Ussr.
For Armenia, over forty-four days of fighting, it was nothing less than a state of total war. By the time a ceasefire was signed on 10 November 2020, Armenia, a tiny country of only 3 million, had lost more soldiers per capita than the United States did in WWII.
During the fighting, all of the men on Bars Media’s staff were on the front lines, some under direct fire. The strain of the war put the entire project in jeopardy, and the studio itself nearly shut down. But thanks to the perseverance of the German and Lithuanian co-producers the project kept moving forward.
Are you happy with the result ?
I am very content. I would still make changes. One could always do more but one must decide at some point to stop, Overall I am satisfield — we did tremendous work.
With a blend of vivid animation, interviews with Aurora herself, and 18 minutes of surviving footage from the lost silent epic, Aurora’s Sunrise revives a forgotten story of survival.
Above all, I believe this film is important because in Aurora Mardiganian’s story we see a brave young Armenian woman who, despite enduring genocide, hunger, slavery, and exploitation, refused to be a victim. She refused to be swept away by the tides of history. It’s a timeless story of the resilience of the human spirit, the power of hope, and the importance of never giving up. In our evermore uncertain world, this kind of story should be told.
Screenplay by Inna Sahakyan, Kerstin Meyer-Beetz, Peter Liakhov
Produced by Vardan Hovhannisyan, Christian Beetz, Justė Michailinaitė, Kęstutis Drazdauskas, Eric Esrailian (Bars Media, Artbox Laisvalaikio Klubas, Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion)
The Zoryan Institute, non-profit and charity provided a crucial level of research and financial support in the making of this production and this film is based on its Oral History Archive.
Featuring Aurora (Arshaluys) Mardiganian as herself (archival documentary footage), Anzhelika Hakobyan as Aurora, Arpi Petrossian as the voice of Aurora (animation)
Art Director: Tigran Arakelyan
Editor & Live Action Director: Ruben Ghazaryan
Original Music: Christine Aufderhaar, Additional Music: Andranik Berberyan, Garegin Arakelyan
Lead Illustrator: Gediminas Skyrius
Armenian with English subtitles
Run Time: 96 minutes
* Best Baltic co-production film at Tallinn’s Black Nights Flim Festival 2022
*Asia Pacific Screen Award Winner — Best Animated Film 2022
*Animation is Film- Audience Award Winner 2022
*World Premiere, Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2022, in competition
*Winner Silver Apricot- Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival 2022
* Official Selection- Fantoche International Animation Film Festival 2022,
*Official Selection- Doclisboa 2022, From the Earth to the Moon section
*Official Selection- Film Fest Hamburg 2022, Kaleidoskop section, in competition
*North American Premiere, Animation is Film Festival 2022, in competition
*Official Selection- Asian World Film 2022, in competition
*Official Selection- IDFA 2022, Best of Fests
*Official Selection — Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2022, in Baltic competition...
Most remarkable are the closing words of the protagonist, Aurora Mardiganian who was in her 90s when the interview with her was recorded. She was 14 at the time of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Aurora passed away in 1994. The Genocide seems so long ago and yet is vividly alive as a festering wound today.
Aurora Mardiganian states with utter conviction that if the world had stood up to the Turks and acted to condemn and end the Armenian Genocide, then Hitler (who himself said, « who will ever remember the Armenians ? » would not have been so bold as to perpetuate the genocide against the Jews. Some might say, as they do about stories of the Holocaust, « enough already » but as we see the same story repeated around the world today, in Russian aggression against Ukraine, Chinese against Uighers, Hindus of India against Muslims, Israel against Palestine, Darfur : there cannot be enough reminding the world of atrocities which need to be addressed and taken responsibility for if anyone truly wants to redeem humankind’s humanity. Without admitting and facing the past misdeeds, we cannot progress and are doomed to repetition until we bring on our own end.
Aurora Mardiganian and the original poster
If we do not say no to Russia or to China or ; if we do not acknowledge our own nation’s indigenous genocide and massive kidnapping of Africans, we are endangering our own selves to future genocides and we will never get out of the mess we are finding ourselves in today which includes mass shootings and fentanyl poisoning which is killing our young adult population.
In 1915, as WWI raged, the Ottoman Empire singled out its entire Armenian population for extermination. Only 14 years old at the time, Aurora lost everything during the horror and was forced onto a death march towards the Syrian desert. She lost her entire family before being sold into sexual slavery, from which she escaped. Two years later, through luck and extraordinary courage, she reached New York, where her story became a media sensation.
View the trailer Here
With little regard for the toll it would take on the traumatized teenager, one of the founding fathers of Hollywood, producer William Selig convinced Aurora that by bringing her story to the silver screen she would be able to help other survivors of the genocide.
And so Aurora relived the unbearable, and became the most improbable starlet of the silent era in Auction of Souls, a runaway success, breaking box office and fundraising campaign records. After the film’s release, one out of every three American families reportedly contributed to the campaign to help the victims of the genocide. With the help of the film, a campaign by the aid group Near East Relief raised $116 million and saved the lives of over 132,000 orphaned survivors. The number of their descendants are in the millions.
During his time as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau witnessed first-hand the atrocities committed against Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians at the hands of the Ottoman government. However, expanding Turkish lobbying in Congress thwarted President Wilson’s aim to aid Armenia. Congress’s action caused any mention of the Genocide to cease. All copies of Auction of Souls throughout the world were believed to be lost. The diappearance of all the prints may be in part because they were fragile, made of nitrate, but there is also conjecture that their disappearnce could be due to a concerted effort initiated by the Turkish government to destroy them. However, in 1994, several months after Aurora’s death, 18 minutes, fragments of Auction of Souls were rediscovered.
The story of this feature film compelled me to interview the film’s director Inna Sahakyan.
Director Inna Sahakyan
To begin, I am curious to know if you are living in Armenia today ?
Currently, for the Award campaign, I am deviding my time between Armenia and Los Angeles.
Was this filmed here or there?
It was filmed in Armenia. I am part of a small production company and we create the material we work on. We internationally co-produced several award winning feature documentaries in the past, and when I found the idea for this film while researching the Genocide, it became a much larger story.
The Armenian genocide is the enduring pain of my nation. It is my family’s pain, and it is my own pain. Though I always wanted to, I was wary of making a film about it. I was afraid to be overly sentimental, overly emotional. I was afraid of telling stories that only confirmed Armenians as a nation of victims with no historical agency and nothing but tragedy running through our veins.
That is, until I stumbled upon an interview with Aurora Mardiganian while going through archival interviews with Armenian Genocide survivors at the Zoryan Institute. I was mesmerized the first time I watched it. While painful to hear, the elderly woman appeared to grow more and more youthful as she spoke. Through her words and expressions, an incredible but ordinary heroism shone: this woman survived a genocide but refused to be a victim. She refused to be reduced to an object of history. This is the character I wanted to build in Aurora’s Sunrise, resilient, powerful and heartwarming all at once.
The archival video interviews with Aurora, filmed by the Zoryan Institute with two additional interviews from the Armenian Film Foundation, comprise a major medium of Aurora’s Sunrise. The majority of the film’s narration was built from the stories she told in these interviews.
My mission was to create a film taking audiences beyond the cold facts of the genocide, so I decided on a dynamic combination of mediums: animation, archival interviews with Aurora Mardiganian, and digitally-restored footage from Aurora’s 1919 film Auction of Souls.
What have you done before this ?
I have directed and produced feature-length documentaries, documentary series, and shorts, for over fifteen years. Following my feature-length debut co-directing the award-winning Armenia’s Last Tightrope Dancer in 2010, I directed Mel and Aurora’s Sunrise, and completed both international co-productions in 2022.
For this larger film I have to credit the great team I worked with the editor and live action scenes director Ruben Ghazaryan, art director Tigran Arakelyan among others.
Aurora’s Sunrise is the first-ever animated feature created by Bars Media, and the first-ever animated documentary film made in Armenia — and making the film was no simple task.
I had never worked with a fiction script or animation so there was a lot new for me.
On the writing too I needed help because I did not want it to be overly emotional or overly subjective. I needed a critical eye and for that I am so grarteful to my cowriter Kerstin Meyer-Beetz who is part of the German team who coproduced it, the Beetz Brothers, and to the cowriter Peter Liakhov.
How did it develop into an Armenian-German-Lithuanian coproduction ?
It is very difficult for Armenia, a very small country with a very small national support system, to raise money for production. But it was very important that we have the support of National Cinema Center of Armenia to legitimize our efforts to raise co-production funds. Each country brings its own money and funds and its own artistic structure. Gebruder Beetz in Germany had not worked with us previously, but we are from the same documentary « tribe », and the film’s producer knew them from Documentary Campus Masterschool so they decided to work together. Zdf came on board. I mentioned the imporance of cowriting with Kerstin Meyer-Beetz.
The music component with original music by the celebrated Christine Aufderhaar (also from Germany) with additional Armenian music from Andranik Berberyan and Garegin Arakelyan, was the sinew that connected the film into a moving and elegant whole.
Lithuania came in later with producers Justė Michailinaitė and Kestutis Drazdauskas and animation producer Meinardas Valkevicius, the key animator Sarunas Vystartas, Gediminas Skyrius the lead illustrator and storyboard designer, Rimas Valeikis the lead character designer and we had great team of Lithuanian illustrators working with them. The international partnership with Lithuania was crucial. With the Armenian team taking a lead in art direction, cooperation with the Lithuanian team helped create something both new but also deeply Armenian.The artistic style of animation came out of the Lithuanian and Armenian artists working together on linear solutions, color, etc trying to find a unique art style which eveolved.
Eurimages came in as well and it was the first time that Armenia was the majority producer with this pan-European funding body. And important to note that this was by a unanimous support of all its voting members.
Every character had documentary material behnd them. The archival research came from fundraising and small grants, awards and lots of ptiching workhshops. Each producing country has its own distribution there set up, Gegruder Beetz will distribute in Germany. International sales are by Cat and Docs. In Armenia, it was first released in the Golden Apricot Film Festival, the baiggest festival in the area where it won the Silver apricot, the second prize in the Internatioal Compeititon and it was released in cinemas from November 3. It was supposed to be for two weeks, but it is so popular than its run has been extending and it is stilll playing in one of the theaters.
Did Waltz with Bashir influence your use of animation ?
Absolutely. It was the first animated documentary I saw, but then I followed all of them.
The majority of the film’s runtime is animation. Animation is a very powerful medium for portraying something as difficult as trauma. It explicitly portrays the representation of an event and not the event itself, bridges this distance, and allows for the viewer to be deeply engaged with the narrative and thematic core of the story. At the same time, animation is medium that can communicate not only the colors of the story, but even its smells, tastes, and textures. It becomes the soul of the film, and lets Aurora’s now forgotten story become vivid again. It goes further than reproducing the events: it interprets them, like our brain does with memories, and allows symbols and motifs to speak loudly instead of drowning them in the utter realism of hundreds of details.
Of course, the danger of animation is that it may produce a sense of unreality — and this is why it is so crucial that the film also features archival footage of the real Aurora and that of her film: to let the woman and her work speak for itself and to remind the audience that all this really did happen.
How long did it take you to make this film ?
The overall production was about seven years out of which about three yearswere spent in the development/script stage.
Five years into the making of Aurora’s Sunrise production of the film hit a major obstacle. In September 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was in full swing — which had already put production, especially animation into a precarious position — a new conflict erupted over the landlocked region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the collapse of the Ussr.
For Armenia, over forty-four days of fighting, it was nothing less than a state of total war. By the time a ceasefire was signed on 10 November 2020, Armenia, a tiny country of only 3 million, had lost more soldiers per capita than the United States did in WWII.
During the fighting, all of the men on Bars Media’s staff were on the front lines, some under direct fire. The strain of the war put the entire project in jeopardy, and the studio itself nearly shut down. But thanks to the perseverance of the German and Lithuanian co-producers the project kept moving forward.
Are you happy with the result ?
I am very content. I would still make changes. One could always do more but one must decide at some point to stop, Overall I am satisfield — we did tremendous work.
With a blend of vivid animation, interviews with Aurora herself, and 18 minutes of surviving footage from the lost silent epic, Aurora’s Sunrise revives a forgotten story of survival.
Above all, I believe this film is important because in Aurora Mardiganian’s story we see a brave young Armenian woman who, despite enduring genocide, hunger, slavery, and exploitation, refused to be a victim. She refused to be swept away by the tides of history. It’s a timeless story of the resilience of the human spirit, the power of hope, and the importance of never giving up. In our evermore uncertain world, this kind of story should be told.
Screenplay by Inna Sahakyan, Kerstin Meyer-Beetz, Peter Liakhov
Produced by Vardan Hovhannisyan, Christian Beetz, Justė Michailinaitė, Kęstutis Drazdauskas, Eric Esrailian (Bars Media, Artbox Laisvalaikio Klubas, Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion)
The Zoryan Institute, non-profit and charity provided a crucial level of research and financial support in the making of this production and this film is based on its Oral History Archive.
Featuring Aurora (Arshaluys) Mardiganian as herself (archival documentary footage), Anzhelika Hakobyan as Aurora, Arpi Petrossian as the voice of Aurora (animation)
Art Director: Tigran Arakelyan
Editor & Live Action Director: Ruben Ghazaryan
Original Music: Christine Aufderhaar, Additional Music: Andranik Berberyan, Garegin Arakelyan
Lead Illustrator: Gediminas Skyrius
Armenian with English subtitles
Run Time: 96 minutes
* Best Baltic co-production film at Tallinn’s Black Nights Flim Festival 2022
*Asia Pacific Screen Award Winner — Best Animated Film 2022
*Animation is Film- Audience Award Winner 2022
*World Premiere, Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2022, in competition
*Winner Silver Apricot- Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival 2022
* Official Selection- Fantoche International Animation Film Festival 2022,
*Official Selection- Doclisboa 2022, From the Earth to the Moon section
*Official Selection- Film Fest Hamburg 2022, Kaleidoskop section, in competition
*North American Premiere, Animation is Film Festival 2022, in competition
*Official Selection- Asian World Film 2022, in competition
*Official Selection- IDFA 2022, Best of Fests
*Official Selection — Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2022, in Baltic competition...
- 12/18/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
12 features and 10 docs will be pitched Trieste co-pro forum next month.
New features from Ukraine’s Maryna Stepanska, Brazil’s Marcelo Gomes and Italy’s Letizia Lamartire are among the 22 projects selected for Trieste’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum which takes place January 22-25.
The Wemw line-up comprises 12 features and 10 documentaries from 19 countries, having received a record 410 submissions.
The titles, set to be pitched to attending producers, include Stepanska’s documentary It’s Not A Full Picture. Stepanska achieved international success with her 2017 love story Falling, about two young adults trying to find their path in the...
New features from Ukraine’s Maryna Stepanska, Brazil’s Marcelo Gomes and Italy’s Letizia Lamartire are among the 22 projects selected for Trieste’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum which takes place January 22-25.
The Wemw line-up comprises 12 features and 10 documentaries from 19 countries, having received a record 410 submissions.
The titles, set to be pitched to attending producers, include Stepanska’s documentary It’s Not A Full Picture. Stepanska achieved international success with her 2017 love story Falling, about two young adults trying to find their path in the...
- 12/16/2022
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
.
Documentarian Inna Sahakyan had no previous experience working in animation prior to “Aurora’s Sunrise.” But the medium opened a world of possibilities when Sahakyan realized that there wasn’t enough existing archival footage to tell the tumultuous and inspiring story of Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian genocide survivor whose harrowing ordeal became the subject of the silent era film “Auction of Souls.”
“Auction of Souls” was long considered lost, but the film — starring Mardiganian and based on “Ravished Armenia,” her personal account of the atrocities carried out by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century — resurfaced incomplete in the early 2000s. Fragments of “Auction of Souls” appear in “Aurora’s Sunrise,” as a reminder that a century ago Hollywood, and the American government, were invested enough in the Armenian plight as it was still unfolding to put on a major filmic endeavor. Sahakyan further built her interpretation of her...
Documentarian Inna Sahakyan had no previous experience working in animation prior to “Aurora’s Sunrise.” But the medium opened a world of possibilities when Sahakyan realized that there wasn’t enough existing archival footage to tell the tumultuous and inspiring story of Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian genocide survivor whose harrowing ordeal became the subject of the silent era film “Auction of Souls.”
“Auction of Souls” was long considered lost, but the film — starring Mardiganian and based on “Ravished Armenia,” her personal account of the atrocities carried out by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century — resurfaced incomplete in the early 2000s. Fragments of “Auction of Souls” appear in “Aurora’s Sunrise,” as a reminder that a century ago Hollywood, and the American government, were invested enough in the Armenian plight as it was still unfolding to put on a major filmic endeavor. Sahakyan further built her interpretation of her...
- 12/13/2022
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
Swiss-Kosovar feature ‘The Land Within’ takes best first feature film.
Hilmar Oddsson’s Icelandic dark comedy Driving Mum won the Grand Prix for best film in Competition at the award ceremony of the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), held on Saturday, November 26.
The Official Selection jury, headed by Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi, said Driving Mum “charmed us all with its transparent, simple but bold film language, with its graceful sense of humour, with its unpretentious way of speaking about burning questions of personal life. A film which tells us that it is never too late.”
Scroll down for...
Hilmar Oddsson’s Icelandic dark comedy Driving Mum won the Grand Prix for best film in Competition at the award ceremony of the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), held on Saturday, November 26.
The Official Selection jury, headed by Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi, said Driving Mum “charmed us all with its transparent, simple but bold film language, with its graceful sense of humour, with its unpretentious way of speaking about burning questions of personal life. A film which tells us that it is never too late.”
Scroll down for...
- 11/27/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Los Angeles, Nov. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The eighth annual Asian World Film Festival (Awff) announced its competition winners at a star-studded event November 18 at Beverly Hill’s Saban Theater. The Last Film Show (India), directed by Pan Nalin, won the Snow Leopard Award for Best Film; Mohsen Tanabandeh garnered the Snow Leopard for Best Actor for World War III (Iran), and Hui Fang Hong was honored with the Snow Leopard for Best Actress for Ajoomma (Singapore).
Asian World Film Festival (Awff)
The Snow Leopard Special Jury Award went to World War III, directed by Houman Seyedi, and the Snow Leopard Audience Award to Aurora’s Sunrise (Armenia), directed by Inna Sahakyan. Kerr (Turkey) director of photography, Andreas Sinanos, received the Panavision Best Cinematography Award along with a 60,000 Panavision Camera Grant of cutting-edge filmmaking equipment.
Short films and the talent behind them were also recognized at the standing-room-only event. The Hollywood Foreign Press...
Asian World Film Festival (Awff)
The Snow Leopard Special Jury Award went to World War III, directed by Houman Seyedi, and the Snow Leopard Audience Award to Aurora’s Sunrise (Armenia), directed by Inna Sahakyan. Kerr (Turkey) director of photography, Andreas Sinanos, received the Panavision Best Cinematography Award along with a 60,000 Panavision Camera Grant of cutting-edge filmmaking equipment.
Short films and the talent behind them were also recognized at the standing-room-only event. The Hollywood Foreign Press...
- 11/21/2022
- by Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
“Last Film Show” (aka “Chhello Show”), India’s Oscar contender, was this weekend named winner of the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Writer-director Pan Nalin and producer Dheer Momaya were presented with the Snow Leopard trophy at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.
“The best movie encompasses everything we want to see in a great film: good storytelling, moving performances, technically appealing, visually intoxicating and heartfelt connectivity to audiences. We received a line of very good movies this year and it was a tough decision. But this film reminded us of why we loved cinema. It reminded us of cinema’s ability to both enchant and inspire. It is a love letter to cinema to light and to life itself,” said festival jurors Janet Nepales and Pitof Jean-Christophe.
The film has been on the festival circuit for over a year, since debuting in in June 2021 at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Writer-director Pan Nalin and producer Dheer Momaya were presented with the Snow Leopard trophy at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.
“The best movie encompasses everything we want to see in a great film: good storytelling, moving performances, technically appealing, visually intoxicating and heartfelt connectivity to audiences. We received a line of very good movies this year and it was a tough decision. But this film reminded us of why we loved cinema. It reminded us of cinema’s ability to both enchant and inspire. It is a love letter to cinema to light and to life itself,” said festival jurors Janet Nepales and Pitof Jean-Christophe.
The film has been on the festival circuit for over a year, since debuting in in June 2021 at the Tribeca Film Festival.
- 11/21/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Aurora's Sunrise. Christine Aufderhaar: 'I was just fascinated by the story... I think it's a very important project' Photo: Bars Media Inna Sahakyan blends animation, interview footage and the rediscovered remains of a silent movie in order to piece together the moving story of Aurora Mardiganian in Aurora’s Sunrise. It’s a remarkable tale of survival that takes the teenager - then known as Arshaluys - from the horrors of the Armenian Genocide and the murder of most of her family to the US, where she would go on to star in a silent film based on her own life and find herself reliving the trauma night after night thanks to a Hollywood machine that treated her more like a commodity than a person.
The film screens as part of the Baltic Competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) this week and has also recently been at documentary festival IDFA.
The film screens as part of the Baltic Competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) this week and has also recently been at documentary festival IDFA.
- 11/20/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Other winners included ‘Return To Seoul’, ‘Farha’ and ‘All That Breathes’
Kamila Andini’s Before, Now And Then (Nana) won the best film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) which took place on the Gold Coast, Australia today (November 11).
It is the first film directed by a woman to win the award and the first Indonesian film to do so.
Set against Indonesia’s turbulent post-independence years in the 1960s, Happy Salma stars as a woman still reeling from the past as she tries to move on with her life. The film premiered in competition at the Berlinale...
Kamila Andini’s Before, Now And Then (Nana) won the best film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) which took place on the Gold Coast, Australia today (November 11).
It is the first film directed by a woman to win the award and the first Indonesian film to do so.
Set against Indonesia’s turbulent post-independence years in the 1960s, Happy Salma stars as a woman still reeling from the past as she tries to move on with her life. The film premiered in competition at the Berlinale...
- 11/11/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Documentary about the state of news in India to receive its European premiere at IDFA.
Paris-based documentary specialist Cat&Docs has acquired international rights to Vinay Shukla’s While We Watched, which is receiving its European premiere at International Documentary Festival Amstedam (IDFA), after winning prizes at Toronto and Busan.
Cat&Docs will represent the film in all territories excluding the UK, US, India and Qatar, which are handled by the filmmakers.
The documentary goes inside the newsroom of India’s Ndtv — one of the country’s most trusted news channels — and follows veteran journalist Ravish Kumar, who is known for...
Paris-based documentary specialist Cat&Docs has acquired international rights to Vinay Shukla’s While We Watched, which is receiving its European premiere at International Documentary Festival Amstedam (IDFA), after winning prizes at Toronto and Busan.
Cat&Docs will represent the film in all territories excluding the UK, US, India and Qatar, which are handled by the filmmakers.
The documentary goes inside the newsroom of India’s Ndtv — one of the country’s most trusted news channels — and follows veteran journalist Ravish Kumar, who is known for...
- 11/10/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Sometimes a film can strike you because it brings an untold story to life - and, in this, Aurora's Sunrise is doubly surprising in that this remarkable tale of survival from the Armenian Genocide was previously passed through the Hollywood machine to great fanfare but then subsequently forgotten.
Aurora Mardiganian was only 14 when she saw most of her family slaughtered. That is just the beginning of a story involving capture, slavery and escape that would, eventually, lead to a new life in the United States. There her story was turned into 1919 film Auction Of Souls - a film in which, incredibly, she played herself. Despite raising vital funds for survivors at the time, the film was thought lost until 18 minutes of it resurfaced in the Nineties. Director Inna Sahakyan blends this surviving footage with first person interviews with Aurora in old age and animation - Armenia's first...
Aurora Mardiganian was only 14 when she saw most of her family slaughtered. That is just the beginning of a story involving capture, slavery and escape that would, eventually, lead to a new life in the United States. There her story was turned into 1919 film Auction Of Souls - a film in which, incredibly, she played herself. Despite raising vital funds for survivors at the time, the film was thought lost until 18 minutes of it resurfaced in the Nineties. Director Inna Sahakyan blends this surviving footage with first person interviews with Aurora in old age and animation - Armenia's first...
- 11/8/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The deadline to submit films in the international feature Oscar category was Oct. 3, but the Academy has not yet announced the full list of accepted titles, so it is a provisional report. AMPAS will release a shortlist of 15 movies on Dec. 21 and the nominations will be announced Jan. 24. The Oscar ceremony will take place March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Albania
A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On
Director: Gentian Koçi
Logline: Deaf-mute twins in Tirana discover they have a genetical disease that will take away their sight slowly. They have a decision to make.
International Sales: M-Appeal
Algeria
Our Brothers
Director. Rachid Bouchareb
Logline: Mixing documentary and fiction, pic explores police violence and the deaths of student Malik Oussekine and bar patron Abdel Benyahia.
Intl. Sales: Wild Bunch
Argentina
Argentina , 1985
Director: Santiago Mitre
Logline: Lawyers battle Argentina’s military junta in the 1980s.
U.S. Distributor: Amazon...
Albania
A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On
Director: Gentian Koçi
Logline: Deaf-mute twins in Tirana discover they have a genetical disease that will take away their sight slowly. They have a decision to make.
International Sales: M-Appeal
Algeria
Our Brothers
Director. Rachid Bouchareb
Logline: Mixing documentary and fiction, pic explores police violence and the deaths of student Malik Oussekine and bar patron Abdel Benyahia.
Intl. Sales: Wild Bunch
Argentina
Argentina , 1985
Director: Santiago Mitre
Logline: Lawyers battle Argentina’s military junta in the 1980s.
U.S. Distributor: Amazon...
- 11/2/2022
- by Shalini Dore
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Guillermo del Toro received an enthusiastic standing ovation following the screening of his upcoming stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio on Saturday at the close of the Animation is Film Festival.
In a packed Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, del Toro was on hand for a conversation about the moviemaking with Oscar-winning VFX veteran Phil Tippett (Jurassic Park) following the screening. “It’s just a whole different way of creatively thinking, doing something like this,” said Tippett. “You get totally lost in the world-building.”
Of his approach to Pinocchio, del Toro said he viewed the animators as actors. “I promised, you are going to be the actors, this is what we want. But if the puppet tells you something different, do it. There is no other form of animation where the bond [between animator and character] is so close.”
He added that his hope that was “maybe 30 minutes into the movie,...
Guillermo del Toro received an enthusiastic standing ovation following the screening of his upcoming stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio on Saturday at the close of the Animation is Film Festival.
In a packed Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, del Toro was on hand for a conversation about the moviemaking with Oscar-winning VFX veteran Phil Tippett (Jurassic Park) following the screening. “It’s just a whole different way of creatively thinking, doing something like this,” said Tippett. “You get totally lost in the world-building.”
Of his approach to Pinocchio, del Toro said he viewed the animators as actors. “I promised, you are going to be the actors, this is what we want. But if the puppet tells you something different, do it. There is no other form of animation where the bond [between animator and character] is so close.”
He added that his hope that was “maybe 30 minutes into the movie,...
- 10/30/2022
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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“Little Nicolas,” the nostalgic, hand-drawn ode to the popular French children’s book series and its creators — René Goscinny (“Asterix”) and the late illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé — won the Grand Prize at the fifth annual Animation Is Film Festival (Aif), held last weekend at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theaters in Hollywood. This should help the France-Luxembourg release from directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre secure U.S. distribution.
“My Father’s Dragon” (Cartoon Saloon/Netflix), the 2D adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s classic children’s book, from Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey (“The Breadwinner”), took home the Special Jury prize. This provides some heat as Cartoon Saloon chases its fifth Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination.
The Audience Award went to “Aurora’s Sunrise,” the animated documentary from director Inna Sahakyan, which tells the remarkable story of Aurora Mardiganian, who survived the Armenian genocide as a teenager, and came to America, where she...
“Little Nicolas,” the nostalgic, hand-drawn ode to the popular French children’s book series and its creators — René Goscinny (“Asterix”) and the late illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé — won the Grand Prize at the fifth annual Animation Is Film Festival (Aif), held last weekend at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theaters in Hollywood. This should help the France-Luxembourg release from directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre secure U.S. distribution.
“My Father’s Dragon” (Cartoon Saloon/Netflix), the 2D adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s classic children’s book, from Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey (“The Breadwinner”), took home the Special Jury prize. This provides some heat as Cartoon Saloon chases its fifth Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination.
The Audience Award went to “Aurora’s Sunrise,” the animated documentary from director Inna Sahakyan, which tells the remarkable story of Aurora Mardiganian, who survived the Armenian genocide as a teenager, and came to America, where she...
- 10/27/2022
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Programme reconfigured to include non-Baltic directors heading Baltic co-productions.
The world premiere of Lithuanian feature The Poet will open the Baltic Competition at this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which will screen 15 features from the region.
Directed by Giedrius Tamosevicius and Vytautas V. Landsbergis, The Poet is the one world premiere in the selection, alongside four international premieres.
Scroll down for the full list of Baltic Competition titles
It is a historical drama in which the titular writer becomes an intermediary between Soviet authorities and rebels, and must choose his allies and words carefully in order to survive.
The world premiere of Lithuanian feature The Poet will open the Baltic Competition at this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which will screen 15 features from the region.
Directed by Giedrius Tamosevicius and Vytautas V. Landsbergis, The Poet is the one world premiere in the selection, alongside four international premieres.
Scroll down for the full list of Baltic Competition titles
It is a historical drama in which the titular writer becomes an intermediary between Soviet authorities and rebels, and must choose his allies and words carefully in order to survive.
- 10/25/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
This weekend, silent film star Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian will return to LA – though this time, in animated form. “Aurora’s Sunrise,” the first Armenian animated documentary to date, will make its North American premiere at the Gkids-sponsored Animation Is Film Festival. This is only the latest of the production’s many laurels. Earlier, it competed at Annecy, the world’s oldest festival dedicated to animated image. In its home country, “Aurora’s Sunrise” reaped the coveted Silver Apricot at Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival. Now, it will compete for Armenia on an international scale as the national official submission to the 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film.
In content and in form, “Aurora’s Sunrise” feels like a natural ambassador for the Armenian state. From the get-go, the intro reveals that Mardiganian had seen herself responsible to spread the word of Armenian Genocide in the US.
In content and in form, “Aurora’s Sunrise” feels like a natural ambassador for the Armenian state. From the get-go, the intro reveals that Mardiganian had seen herself responsible to spread the word of Armenian Genocide in the US.
- 10/21/2022
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
The Animation Is Film Festival, in its fifth in-person edition, once again champions the jewels of the hand-drawn, CGI and stop-motion world.
This year’s festival kicks off Oct. 21 at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood with the U.S. premiere of Henry Selick’s stop-motion “Wendell & Wild.” Selick will also be there to conduct a Q&a after the screening. The festival will close with Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” with a Q&a with del Toro after the screening.
“To repurpose a line from Tolstoy, every special festival is special in its own way. Most obviously, when a bona fide master of the craft comes out with his first film in over a decade — as is the case with Henry Selick’s ‘Wendell & Wild’ — that’s special. When an Oscar-winning ‘live-action’ director comes out with his first animated feature, a passion project many years in the...
This year’s festival kicks off Oct. 21 at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood with the U.S. premiere of Henry Selick’s stop-motion “Wendell & Wild.” Selick will also be there to conduct a Q&a after the screening. The festival will close with Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” with a Q&a with del Toro after the screening.
“To repurpose a line from Tolstoy, every special festival is special in its own way. Most obviously, when a bona fide master of the craft comes out with his first film in over a decade — as is the case with Henry Selick’s ‘Wendell & Wild’ — that’s special. When an Oscar-winning ‘live-action’ director comes out with his first animated feature, a passion project many years in the...
- 10/20/2022
- by Carole Horst
- Variety Film + TV
Submissions for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category closed on Monday, Oct. 3, and at this point more than 80 countries have announced their submissions for this year’s Oscars.
The highest-profile entry comes from Mexico, which submitted “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” from “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Inarritu. The film received a mixed reaction after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, but Inarritu has trimmed more than 22 minutes from that version, and Netflix is releasing “Bardo” in U.S. theaters.
Other top contenders include another Netflix release, director Edward Berger’s German-language adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” as well as South Korea’s “Decision to Leave” from Park Chan-wook and Belgium’s “Close” from Lukas Dhont.
And in a year with relatively few clear favorites, other films with a good chance of making the 15-film shortlist include Austria’s “Corsage,...
The highest-profile entry comes from Mexico, which submitted “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” from “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Inarritu. The film received a mixed reaction after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, but Inarritu has trimmed more than 22 minutes from that version, and Netflix is releasing “Bardo” in U.S. theaters.
Other top contenders include another Netflix release, director Edward Berger’s German-language adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” as well as South Korea’s “Decision to Leave” from Park Chan-wook and Belgium’s “Close” from Lukas Dhont.
And in a year with relatively few clear favorites, other films with a good chance of making the 15-film shortlist include Austria’s “Corsage,...
- 10/6/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion to focus on mafia activities in 1990s Germany.
The Italian mafia operations in 1990s Germany will be the focus of Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion’s next true crime docuseries, a sequel to Reeperbahn Special Unit 65 which is making its world premiere at the Filmfest Hamburg this week.
The series is set within Hamburg’s Reeperbahn red-light district during the 1980s. The new series - with the working title of Polizeikommando - will cast its net wider to include police operations against organised crime in other German cities such as Munich, Düsseldorf, and Stuttgart as well as the new...
The Italian mafia operations in 1990s Germany will be the focus of Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion’s next true crime docuseries, a sequel to Reeperbahn Special Unit 65 which is making its world premiere at the Filmfest Hamburg this week.
The series is set within Hamburg’s Reeperbahn red-light district during the 1980s. The new series - with the working title of Polizeikommando - will cast its net wider to include police operations against organised crime in other German cities such as Munich, Düsseldorf, and Stuttgart as well as the new...
- 10/3/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Oscars 2023: Croatia submits Locarno and Sarajevo winner ‘Safe Place’; Armenia, Guatemala enter race
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 9/14/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 9/13/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 9/13/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 9/13/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Twenty titles have been selected for its main feature competitions.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled its main feature competition line-up for the upcoming 2022 edition (June 13-18).
Ten titles have been selected for official competition, including Eric Warin and Tahir Rana’s Charlotte which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021. Based on the true story of the young Judeo-German artist Charlotte Salomon, the voice cast includes Kiera Knightley, Marion Cotillard, Sam Claflin and Helen McCrory.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Other titles include Japanese filmmaker Shinya Kawastura’s The House Of The Lost...
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled its main feature competition line-up for the upcoming 2022 edition (June 13-18).
Ten titles have been selected for official competition, including Eric Warin and Tahir Rana’s Charlotte which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021. Based on the true story of the young Judeo-German artist Charlotte Salomon, the voice cast includes Kiera Knightley, Marion Cotillard, Sam Claflin and Helen McCrory.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Other titles include Japanese filmmaker Shinya Kawastura’s The House Of The Lost...
- 5/3/2022
- by Melissa Kasule
- ScreenDaily
The buzzy documentary previously received the directing award at Sundance.
Danish filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made Of Splinters won the Golden Alexander prize of the international competition of the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which closed on Sunday, March 20.
With its European premiere at Thessaloniki, Wilmont’s film is gaining attention on the festival circuit, having won the directing award in the World Cinema Documentary section on debut at the online Sundance in January; and also received the Fipresci prize in Thessaloniki.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Shot in Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion...
Danish filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made Of Splinters won the Golden Alexander prize of the international competition of the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which closed on Sunday, March 20.
With its European premiere at Thessaloniki, Wilmont’s film is gaining attention on the festival circuit, having won the directing award in the World Cinema Documentary section on debut at the online Sundance in January; and also received the Fipresci prize in Thessaloniki.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Shot in Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion...
- 3/21/2022
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
The buzzy documentary previously received the directing award at Sundance.
Danish filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made Of Splinters won the Golden Alexander main prize in the international competition of the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which closed on Sunday, March 20.
With its European premiere at Thessaloniki, Wilmont’s film is gaining attention on the festival circuit, having won the directing award in the World Cinema Documentary section on debut at the online Sundance in January; and also received the Fipresci prize in Thessaloniki.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Shot in Ukraine prior to the Russian...
Danish filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made Of Splinters won the Golden Alexander main prize in the international competition of the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which closed on Sunday, March 20.
With its European premiere at Thessaloniki, Wilmont’s film is gaining attention on the festival circuit, having won the directing award in the World Cinema Documentary section on debut at the online Sundance in January; and also received the Fipresci prize in Thessaloniki.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Shot in Ukraine prior to the Russian...
- 3/21/2022
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival is launching a new industry event focusing on Africa. The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy, hosted in collaboration with the Realness Institute of Africa, will take place online from 26 September to 2 October 2021 and will welcome 10-12 participants from all over the African continent. The project offers a tailored program featuring masterclasses and meetings with internationally established professionals. The aim is to enhance participants’ understanding of the challenges facing the film industry, while allowing them to expand their personal network of contacts and develop their professional skill set. “The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy will allow us to introduce our program for young professionals in this region. Participants will be able to connect with Industry Academy alumni in Latin America, the Middle East, the USA and Europe, joining an international network of future industry players,” said Markus Duffner, the new head of Locarno Pro.
Exclusive: Paris-based Reel Suspects...
Exclusive: Paris-based Reel Suspects...
- 4/20/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Titles are split between Coming Soon and Industry Screenings.
Meeting Point - Vilnius, the industry strand of Vilnius International Film Festival, has expanded its selection for its 2021 online event, confirming 32 projects today.
The projects are selected across two strands: 24 are in the Coming Soon pitching selection, consisting of 12 fiction features and 12 documentaries; with a further four of each in the Industry Screenings.
Some 23 countries are represented among the titles, including Maysoon Pachachi’s fiction feature Our River… Our Sky, a co-production between the UK, France, Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, in the main Coming Soon strand.
Further sections of...
Meeting Point - Vilnius, the industry strand of Vilnius International Film Festival, has expanded its selection for its 2021 online event, confirming 32 projects today.
The projects are selected across two strands: 24 are in the Coming Soon pitching selection, consisting of 12 fiction features and 12 documentaries; with a further four of each in the Industry Screenings.
Some 23 countries are represented among the titles, including Maysoon Pachachi’s fiction feature Our River… Our Sky, a co-production between the UK, France, Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, in the main Coming Soon strand.
Further sections of...
- 3/24/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
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