Produced by France, Burkina Faso and Belgium, the documentary and first feature film by Joël Akafou walks away with the Grand Prize, continuing a wonderful festival career which kicked off in Berlin. Forced to cancel on account of the health crisis, the 35th Belfort Entrevues Film Festival (initially scheduled for 15 – 22 November), which shines a light on 1st, 2nd or 3rd films by young, independent and innovative directors, has nevertheless announced the winners of its international competition, with the jury (including filmmakers Sarah Leonor and Frank Beauvais) awarding its 2020 Grand Prize to Joël Akafou’s After the Crossing.Unveiled in the 2020 Berlinale Forum, before notably gracing the showcase of the Visions du Réel Festival, the documentary follows a young man hailing from the Ivory Coast: Touré Inza Junior, whose friends all call him Bourgeois. He has been living in Italy since his highly perilous journey to Europe, but...
- 11/23/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Sarah Leonor Discovers a Great Man
By Terry Keefe
Writer/director Sarah Leonor is one of France's most exciting new cinematic exports. Her latest film, The Great Man (Le Grand Homme), is an extraordinary drama depicting the traumas of war and immigration, and how they ricochet, opens on Friday, August 14 in New York at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Theater, then platforms wider on September 4. Starring Jérémie Rénier (The Dardenne Brothers' Palme D’or Winner L’Enfant), The Great Man is a powerful story about friendship and solidarity and takes a closer look at how men try to piece their lives back together when they’ve been shattered by war.
Hamilton (Jérémie Rénier) and Markov (Surho Sugaipov) are about to finish five years of service in the Foreign Legion. During their six-month posting in Afghanistan, they wind up amidst a crossfire while out on an impromptu and unauthorized leopard hunt.
By Terry Keefe
Writer/director Sarah Leonor is one of France's most exciting new cinematic exports. Her latest film, The Great Man (Le Grand Homme), is an extraordinary drama depicting the traumas of war and immigration, and how they ricochet, opens on Friday, August 14 in New York at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Theater, then platforms wider on September 4. Starring Jérémie Rénier (The Dardenne Brothers' Palme D’or Winner L’Enfant), The Great Man is a powerful story about friendship and solidarity and takes a closer look at how men try to piece their lives back together when they’ve been shattered by war.
Hamilton (Jérémie Rénier) and Markov (Surho Sugaipov) are about to finish five years of service in the Foreign Legion. During their six-month posting in Afghanistan, they wind up amidst a crossfire while out on an impromptu and unauthorized leopard hunt.
- 8/14/2015
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Sarah Leonor’s The Great Man is hardly an overt political statement. Instead, like so much of the best French cinema, it avoids writ-large issues for a seemingly casual, non-melodramatic flow of events that stay on the microcosmic level of interlocking individual lives. And like many such films, its understatement has a stealth effect that in the end feels at least as powerful and memorable as anything a more conventionally case-pleading drama might have achieved.>> - Dennis Harvey...
- 8/14/2015
- Keyframe
Sarah Leonor’s The Great Man is hardly an overt political statement. Instead, like so much of the best French cinema, it avoids writ-large issues for a seemingly casual, non-melodramatic flow of events that stay on the microcosmic level of interlocking individual lives. And like many such films, its understatement has a stealth effect that in the end feels at least as powerful and memorable as anything a more conventionally case-pleading drama might have achieved.>> - Dennis Harvey...
- 8/14/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Alexander Skarsgård and Kristen Wiig in Marielle Heller's The Diary Of A Teenage Girl
Stevan Riley's Listen To Me Marlon, Simone Rapisarda Casanova's The Creation Of Meaning (La Creazione Di Significato), Lukas Valenta Rinner's Parabellum, and Goodnight Mommy directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz are films to look out for.
Bas Devos (Violet); Stéphane Lafleur (Tu Dors Nicole); Shim Sung-bo (Haemoo); Kornél Mundruczó (White God); Britni West (Tired Moonlight); Darhad Erdenibulag (K); Naji Abu Nowar (Theeb); Bill Ross and Turner Ross (Western); Yohei Suzuki (Ow); Nadav Lapid (The Kindergarten Teacher); Benjamin Crotty (Fort Buchanan); Laura Citarella and Verónica Llinás (Dog Lady); Salomé Alexi (Line Of Credit); Chaitanya Tamhane (Court); Sarah Leonor (The Great Man); Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again); Oscar Ruiz Navia (Los Hongos) are filmmakers scheduled to participate in post-screening Q&As.
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 44th...
Stevan Riley's Listen To Me Marlon, Simone Rapisarda Casanova's The Creation Of Meaning (La Creazione Di Significato), Lukas Valenta Rinner's Parabellum, and Goodnight Mommy directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz are films to look out for.
Bas Devos (Violet); Stéphane Lafleur (Tu Dors Nicole); Shim Sung-bo (Haemoo); Kornél Mundruczó (White God); Britni West (Tired Moonlight); Darhad Erdenibulag (K); Naji Abu Nowar (Theeb); Bill Ross and Turner Ross (Western); Yohei Suzuki (Ow); Nadav Lapid (The Kindergarten Teacher); Benjamin Crotty (Fort Buchanan); Laura Citarella and Verónica Llinás (Dog Lady); Salomé Alexi (Line Of Credit); Chaitanya Tamhane (Court); Sarah Leonor (The Great Man); Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again); Oscar Ruiz Navia (Los Hongos) are filmmakers scheduled to participate in post-screening Q&As.
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 44th...
- 3/15/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Museum Of Modern Art and the Film Society Of Lincoln Center have announced their initial selections ahead of the festival, set to run in New York from March 18-29.
The list includes Charles Poekel’s Christmas, Again (Us); Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court (India); Rick Alverson’s Entertainment (Us); Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy (Austria); and Sarah Leonor’s The Great Man (France).
Rounding out the first nine are: Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher (Israel-France); Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb (Jordan-Qatar-uae-uk); Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s The Tribe (Ukraine); and Kornél Mundruczó’s White God (Hungary, pictured).
New Directors/New Films is designed to unearth emerging artists. The selection committee comprises Jytte Jensen, Rajendra Roy, and Joshua Siegel from the The Museum Of Modern Art and Dennis Lim, Marian Masone and Gavin Smith from the Film Society Of Lincoln Center.
The list includes Charles Poekel’s Christmas, Again (Us); Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court (India); Rick Alverson’s Entertainment (Us); Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy (Austria); and Sarah Leonor’s The Great Man (France).
Rounding out the first nine are: Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher (Israel-France); Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb (Jordan-Qatar-uae-uk); Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s The Tribe (Ukraine); and Kornél Mundruczó’s White God (Hungary, pictured).
New Directors/New Films is designed to unearth emerging artists. The selection committee comprises Jytte Jensen, Rajendra Roy, and Joshua Siegel from the The Museum Of Modern Art and Dennis Lim, Marian Masone and Gavin Smith from the Film Society Of Lincoln Center.
- 1/21/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Museum Of Modern Art and the Film Society Of Lincoln Center announced the first nine films in the long-lived showcase for new work. They include Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s winner of the Critics’ Week grand prize at Cannes, which is set in a Ukrainian school for deaf and mute coeds and is told entirely in sign language, with no subtitles. The Tribe is one of four films that will make their way to Manhattan from Park City, Utah, where they’re also on the Sundance roster: Charles Poekel’s Christmas, Again, about a heartbroken Christmas-tree salesman; Rick Alverson’s Entertainment, a follow-up to The Comedy, about a broken-down comedian doing stand-up across the Mojave Desert and Kornél Mundruczó’s White God, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes about a dog’s journey back to its owner after being abandoned in the city.
Representing 11 countries from around the world,...
Representing 11 countries from around the world,...
- 1/21/2015
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
A More Accurate Title Might Have Been The “Good” or “Serviceable” Man
Much like Kathryn Bigelow does with many of her works or like Jasmine Yuen Currucan did with the underrated Australian thriller, Cactus, French helmer Sarah Leonor has focused the attention of her sophomore feature, The Great Man, entirely on men. It’s a decision that creates subtext in itself, raising questions about motivation and perspective on the subject and the characters. Is it, as the title suggests, a fantasy projection about an idealized performance of masculinity or could it be more facetious in nature?
In short, it doesn’t appear to be either; at least not directly. Divided into chapters, each titled with a different name, shifting character focus and reiterating the fluidity of identity consistent throughout, this socio-politically conscious drama starts amidst a trajectory defining situation. Legion soldiers Markov (Surho Sugaipov) and Hamilton (Jeremie Renier) wind up...
Much like Kathryn Bigelow does with many of her works or like Jasmine Yuen Currucan did with the underrated Australian thriller, Cactus, French helmer Sarah Leonor has focused the attention of her sophomore feature, The Great Man, entirely on men. It’s a decision that creates subtext in itself, raising questions about motivation and perspective on the subject and the characters. Is it, as the title suggests, a fantasy projection about an idealized performance of masculinity or could it be more facetious in nature?
In short, it doesn’t appear to be either; at least not directly. Divided into chapters, each titled with a different name, shifting character focus and reiterating the fluidity of identity consistent throughout, this socio-politically conscious drama starts amidst a trajectory defining situation. Legion soldiers Markov (Surho Sugaipov) and Hamilton (Jeremie Renier) wind up...
- 9/5/2014
- by Robert Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Nearly 30 sales companies receive financial backing to market their films in Toronto.
A total of 28 sales companies from eight European countries are to receive financial backing from to market their films at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) from European Film Promotion’s Film Sales Support scheme.
More than €150,000 ($200,000) in total is being reserved by Efp for Europe’s attending sales companies.
European films eligible for Fss support have to run in the festival and need to be available for Canada. Of the 39 supported films, 27 are receiving their world premiere in Toronto.
Amongst them are François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend, Bent Hamer’s 1001 Grams and Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance.
Michael Winterbottom The Face Of An Angel sees German actor and former European Shooting Star Daniel Brühl in a lead role.
Foreign Body by Krzysztof Zanussi, a co-production between Poland, Italy and Russia with one-time European Shooting Star Agata Buzek in a main role...
A total of 28 sales companies from eight European countries are to receive financial backing from to market their films at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) from European Film Promotion’s Film Sales Support scheme.
More than €150,000 ($200,000) in total is being reserved by Efp for Europe’s attending sales companies.
European films eligible for Fss support have to run in the festival and need to be available for Canada. Of the 39 supported films, 27 are receiving their world premiere in Toronto.
Amongst them are François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend, Bent Hamer’s 1001 Grams and Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance.
Michael Winterbottom The Face Of An Angel sees German actor and former European Shooting Star Daniel Brühl in a lead role.
Foreign Body by Krzysztof Zanussi, a co-production between Poland, Italy and Russia with one-time European Shooting Star Agata Buzek in a main role...
- 8/29/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The lineups for the Mavericks, Discovery, and Tiff Kids parts of the Toronto Film Festival were announced, wrapping up a series of lineup announcements for the Toronto International Film Festival.
With the added films, the festival’s entire slate is now a whopping 393 movies. Two hundred eighty-five of those movies are feature films, of which 143 are world premieres.
The Mavericks portion of the festival includes onstage discussions following the screening of each film. Do I Sound Gay? will be followed by a talk between director David Thorpe and sex-advice guru Dan Savage. Also premiering in that space is The 50 Year Argument,...
With the added films, the festival’s entire slate is now a whopping 393 movies. Two hundred eighty-five of those movies are feature films, of which 143 are world premieres.
The Mavericks portion of the festival includes onstage discussions following the screening of each film. Do I Sound Gay? will be followed by a talk between director David Thorpe and sex-advice guru Dan Savage. Also premiering in that space is The 50 Year Argument,...
- 8/19/2014
- by Jacob Shamsian
- EW - Inside Movies
Bill Murray is coming to Toronto folks. Actually, the film he stars in (Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent) is having its official World Premiere launch at the jaw-dropping 285 feature film 2014 Tiff line-up. In the final batch of items we finally get the confirmation that 2014′s Palme d’Or Winner Winter Sleep (which gets added along with a trio of others to the Masters Programme) will show, and Tomm Moore’s highly anticipated Song of the Sea (among the four item line-up for Tiff Kids) also lands. Worth mentioning are the sprinkling of add-ons to the various other sections (Marjane Satrapi’s Sundance preemed The Voices, Matt Shakman’s Cut Bank and the world preem of Danis Tanovic’s Tigers) with a Studio Ghibli docu item being fitted into the Tiff Docs, but it is the Discovery Programme that finally takes shape.
The “up-and-comers” include Berlin Film Fest (and future Nyff...
The “up-and-comers” include Berlin Film Fest (and future Nyff...
- 8/19/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The 2014 Toronto Film Festival lineup got a lot stronger this morning by adding several new titles to the Special Presentations, Masters, Documentaries, Vanguard and Contemporary World Cinema selection as well as announcing the Mavericks and Discovery Programme picks. Most notable selections begin with Special Presentations additions of The Weinstein's St. Vincent starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarty and James Franco's The Sound and the Fury. The St. Vincent screening will be a world premiere and suggest Murray will be walking the Tiff red carpet... now that's a get for the fest I'm sure brings a smile to their face. In the Masters selection we have Studio Ghibli's The Tale of Princess Kaguya as well as the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep. The Vanguard selection has added The Voice, the lastest film from Persepolis helmer Marjane Satrapi and in the Mavericks selection...
- 8/19/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Bill Murray starrer St. Vincent will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of this week’s wave of programming that includes Discovery.
The Discovery section includes the upcoming world premiere of Stories Of Our Lives, a portmanteau of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex testimonies by anonymous filmmakers from Kenya.
Selections include first-looks of Ross Katz’s Us comedy Adult Beginners, Sarah Leonor’s French Legion drama The Great Man, Isidora Marras’ Chile-Argentinian psychothriller I Am Not Lorena and UK drama X + Y.
“Christopher Nolan, Steve McQueen, Lynne Ramsay and David Gordon Green all presented their first features in our Discovery section,” said Tiff artistic director Cameron Bailey. “It’s a great place to spot new talent first.”
Besides St. Vincent, Festival Additions includes concert film cum road movie Roger Waters The Wall, while the world premiere of Krzysztof Zanussi’s Foreign Body takes its place among the Masters strand.
Tiff Docs arrivals...
The Discovery section includes the upcoming world premiere of Stories Of Our Lives, a portmanteau of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex testimonies by anonymous filmmakers from Kenya.
Selections include first-looks of Ross Katz’s Us comedy Adult Beginners, Sarah Leonor’s French Legion drama The Great Man, Isidora Marras’ Chile-Argentinian psychothriller I Am Not Lorena and UK drama X + Y.
“Christopher Nolan, Steve McQueen, Lynne Ramsay and David Gordon Green all presented their first features in our Discovery section,” said Tiff artistic director Cameron Bailey. “It’s a great place to spot new talent first.”
Besides St. Vincent, Festival Additions includes concert film cum road movie Roger Waters The Wall, while the world premiere of Krzysztof Zanussi’s Foreign Body takes its place among the Masters strand.
Tiff Docs arrivals...
- 8/19/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Two highly-anticipated second feature films from U.S. underground filmmakers will be making their World Premieres all the way over at the 64th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will run for twelve days on June 16-27. The films are Rona Mark’s The Crab and Zach Clark’s Vacation!.
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
- 6/4/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Opening the fest is the North American premiere of Emmanuel Mouret's French sex comedy Please Please Me! (which I think should logically be picked up for the U.S. market - see trailer here) and the ten day fest will be closing with the North American premiere of Radu Mihaileanu's The Concert - a Weinstein Co. title starring Melanie Laurent that will most likely open sometime early in 2010. - Now in its 15th year, Montreal's Cinemania Film Festival, one of North America's better French language fests has unveiled its 30-title roster with its usual mix of films from the big four (Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Toronto) and select tiles from the Rotterdams, Locarnos, Karlovy Varys and Sundances. Opening the fest is the North American premiere of Emmanuel Mouret's French sex comedy Please Please Me! (which I think should logically be picked up for the U.
- 12/13/2009
- by Ioncinema.com Staff
- IONCINEMA.com
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