The French festival closed in Marseille on Sunday July 9.
Background, the second feature from Syrian director Khaled Abdulwahed, won the €8,000 grand prix of the international festival at the FidMarseille festival in France on July 9. The fesival showcases discoveries and innovative features and projects to a public and industry audience.
The experimental documentary explores concepts of memory and identity as Abdulwahed pursues the story of his father who studied in Germany in the 1950s along with the director’s own journey to Germany, where he is now based following Syria’s devastating civil war.
Abdulwahed previously co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea...
Background, the second feature from Syrian director Khaled Abdulwahed, won the €8,000 grand prix of the international festival at the FidMarseille festival in France on July 9. The fesival showcases discoveries and innovative features and projects to a public and industry audience.
The experimental documentary explores concepts of memory and identity as Abdulwahed pursues the story of his father who studied in Germany in the 1950s along with the director’s own journey to Germany, where he is now based following Syria’s devastating civil war.
Abdulwahed previously co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea...
- 7/10/2023
- by Stuart Kemp
- ScreenDaily
A group of prominent Algerian film directors is sounding the alarm over the de-facto cancellation of the country’s national film fund, which they say puts Algerian cinema “at risk of death.”
In an open letter to Algerian culture minister Malika Bendouda, the North African country’s filmmakers are lamenting “no future for our films” after a government support scheme, called the National Fund for the Development of the Arts and Techniques of Cinema (Fdatic), was scrapped last year by the government.
The culture ministry has given Algeria’s film community vague assurances that this fund would be replaced by another support scheme, but that hasn’t yet materialized. Nor has the minister replied to several previous, less clamorous, requests for clarification about the future of what is considered a crucial driver for local filmmaking.
The open letter’s 18 signatories include Amin Sidi-Boumédiène, whose civil war drama “Abou Leila” was in Cannes in 2021; Kamir Aïnouz,...
In an open letter to Algerian culture minister Malika Bendouda, the North African country’s filmmakers are lamenting “no future for our films” after a government support scheme, called the National Fund for the Development of the Arts and Techniques of Cinema (Fdatic), was scrapped last year by the government.
The culture ministry has given Algeria’s film community vague assurances that this fund would be replaced by another support scheme, but that hasn’t yet materialized. Nor has the minister replied to several previous, less clamorous, requests for clarification about the future of what is considered a crucial driver for local filmmaking.
The open letter’s 18 signatories include Amin Sidi-Boumédiène, whose civil war drama “Abou Leila” was in Cannes in 2021; Kamir Aïnouz,...
- 6/1/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Tizian Büchi ’s Like An Island won the 22,000 grand jury prize.
Tizian Büchi ’s Like An Island won the 22,000 grand jury prize of the international competition at Switzerland’s documentary film festival Visions du Réel on April 17. It is the first time a Swiss director has won the prize since 2013.
Chinese filmmaker Wenqian Zhang’s debut feature Long Journey Home was awarded the jury prize of the Burning Lights competition, winning a cash prize 11,000.
Additionally, Swiss-Japanese filmmaker Julie Sando secured a double win with the Zonta Prize for a film by a female filmmaker and the jury prize in the...
Tizian Büchi ’s Like An Island won the 22,000 grand jury prize of the international competition at Switzerland’s documentary film festival Visions du Réel on April 17. It is the first time a Swiss director has won the prize since 2013.
Chinese filmmaker Wenqian Zhang’s debut feature Long Journey Home was awarded the jury prize of the Burning Lights competition, winning a cash prize 11,000.
Additionally, Swiss-Japanese filmmaker Julie Sando secured a double win with the Zonta Prize for a film by a female filmmaker and the jury prize in the...
- 4/19/2022
- by Melissa Kasule
- ScreenDaily
Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel has opened in Nyon with a homage to Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who was killed while filming in Ukraine last week.
The 45 year old, best known for his conflict-zone documentary “Mariupolis,” which was screened at the 2016 edition of the fest and has been added to this year’s lineup, was a festival regular.
Ukraine will be the focus of a round table at the festival’s online Industry Talks on April 14 entitled “Filming in Resistance,” where Ukrainian filmmakers and producers will join the debate live from Ukraine to discuss the act of resistance through images.
The programming of doc films in A-list festival lineups will also be at the heart of Industry Talks on April 10 with an A-list panel, including Frédéric Boyer, artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival, Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, U.S. programmer and selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival,...
The 45 year old, best known for his conflict-zone documentary “Mariupolis,” which was screened at the 2016 edition of the fest and has been added to this year’s lineup, was a festival regular.
Ukraine will be the focus of a round table at the festival’s online Industry Talks on April 14 entitled “Filming in Resistance,” where Ukrainian filmmakers and producers will join the debate live from Ukraine to discuss the act of resistance through images.
The programming of doc films in A-list festival lineups will also be at the heart of Industry Talks on April 10 with an A-list panel, including Frédéric Boyer, artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival, Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, U.S. programmer and selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival,...
- 4/7/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, heads the programme of the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
Elizabeth comes to VdR following a world premiere at Belgium’s Ostend Film Festival earlier this month.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales...
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, heads the programme of the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
Elizabeth comes to VdR following a world premiere at Belgium’s Ostend Film Festival earlier this month.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales...
- 3/17/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, will have its world premiere at the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales and Signature distributing in the UK and Ireland.
It is one of 84 world premieres on the VdR line-up,...
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, will have its world premiere at the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales and Signature distributing in the UK and Ireland.
It is one of 84 world premieres on the VdR line-up,...
- 3/17/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel (VdR), which revealed its industry program last week, has unveiled its full lineup as it prepares to welcome participants both in person and online. A total of 160 films will be screened throughout the fest, which runs from April 7 through to April 17 in half a dozen venues in and around the city of Nyon.
While the event is back in its physical form, organizers have learned from the past two editions and decided to keep a strong online presence. “We realized it’s a way of expanding the spectrum of people taking part. It’s not about replacing the theaters, but most of the films won’t be released so I feel it’s our job to go beyond and reach the people who cannot attend physically,” the festival’s artistic director Emilie Bujès told Variety.
A selection of around 50 films will be accessible...
While the event is back in its physical form, organizers have learned from the past two editions and decided to keep a strong online presence. “We realized it’s a way of expanding the spectrum of people taking part. It’s not about replacing the theaters, but most of the films won’t be released so I feel it’s our job to go beyond and reach the people who cannot attend physically,” the festival’s artistic director Emilie Bujès told Variety.
A selection of around 50 films will be accessible...
- 3/15/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
The Inventory Will Be Drawn Up At 11a.m. In The Presence Of The Poet’s Wife wins the French competition while the US-directed feature film dominates the international selection. Composed of Rémi Bonhomme (artistic director of the Marrakech Film Festival) and filmmakers Yolande Zauberman, Hassen Ferhani, Laetitia Moreau and Juruna Mallon, the Feature Films Jury of the 43rd Cinéma du Réel Film Festival (which unspooled online) has named the first feature film of US director Ephraim Asili, The Inheritance, its victor within the international competition. The title interlaces the histories of the West Philadelphia–based Move Organization and of the Black Arts Movement with dramatizations of the filmmaker’s life when he was a member of a black activist collective. The Institut Français - Louis Marcorelles Prize for Best Film in the French selection went to The Inventory Will Be Drawn Up At 11a.m. In The Presence Of...
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Art of the Real 2020
Art of the Real, Film at Lincoln Center’s annual showcase of boundary-pushing non-fiction work, is now underway virtually nationwide. Featuring work by Joshua Bonnetta, Sky Hopinka, Hassen Ferhani, Ignacio Agüero, Lisa Marie Malloy and J.P. Sniadecki, Sérgio da Costa and Maya Kosa, Jonathan Perel, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Pacho Velez and Courtney Stephens, and more, the slate provides a comprehensive survey for finding new cinematic ways to look at the world.
Where to Stream: Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema
Coded Bias (Shalini Kantayya)
Starting with the work of Joy Buolamwini of the MIT Media Lab, Shalini Kantayya’s Coded Bias is an alarming...
Art of the Real 2020
Art of the Real, Film at Lincoln Center’s annual showcase of boundary-pushing non-fiction work, is now underway virtually nationwide. Featuring work by Joshua Bonnetta, Sky Hopinka, Hassen Ferhani, Ignacio Agüero, Lisa Marie Malloy and J.P. Sniadecki, Sérgio da Costa and Maya Kosa, Jonathan Perel, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Pacho Velez and Courtney Stephens, and more, the slate provides a comprehensive survey for finding new cinematic ways to look at the world.
Where to Stream: Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema
Coded Bias (Shalini Kantayya)
Starting with the work of Joy Buolamwini of the MIT Media Lab, Shalini Kantayya’s Coded Bias is an alarming...
- 11/13/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Following its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, Cinema Guild has acquired all North American distribution rights to Joshua Bonnetta’s The Two Sights. Set to make its U.S. premiere next month as part of Film at Lincoln Center’s Art of the Real, the film will then open in theaters in 2021.
The first solo feature from Bonnetta, The Two Sights (An Dà Shealladh) explores the disappearing tradition of second sight in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. As we listen to locals’ accounts of haunting experiences—phantom horses, ghost voices and other supernatural phenomena—Bonnetta connects their testimonies with striking 16mm images and a carefully-curated sonic montage of the physical and aural environment of these enchanted islands. The Two Sights is an ethnographic marvel of non-fiction filmmaking that thrills the eyes and ears and invites us into the extra-sensory beyond.
“We’re so excited to...
The first solo feature from Bonnetta, The Two Sights (An Dà Shealladh) explores the disappearing tradition of second sight in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. As we listen to locals’ accounts of haunting experiences—phantom horses, ghost voices and other supernatural phenomena—Bonnetta connects their testimonies with striking 16mm images and a carefully-curated sonic montage of the physical and aural environment of these enchanted islands. The Two Sights is an ethnographic marvel of non-fiction filmmaking that thrills the eyes and ears and invites us into the extra-sensory beyond.
“We’re so excited to...
- 10/28/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Votes were cast by 141 Arab and international critics from 57 territories.
Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven has scooped best film and director in the fourth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.
The comedy originally premiered in Cannes Competition in 2019, garnering a special mention, and was Palestine’s submission for the 2020 Academy Awards.
In other awards, Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabry was feted with best actress for her performance in Tunisian director Hinde Boujemaa’s Noura’s Dream as a woman trying to escape the clutches of a violent husband.
French-Tunisian actor Sami Bouajila was named best actor...
Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven has scooped best film and director in the fourth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.
The comedy originally premiered in Cannes Competition in 2019, garnering a special mention, and was Palestine’s submission for the 2020 Academy Awards.
In other awards, Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabry was feted with best actress for her performance in Tunisian director Hinde Boujemaa’s Noura’s Dream as a woman trying to escape the clutches of a violent husband.
French-Tunisian actor Sami Bouajila was named best actor...
- 6/26/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦69¦
- ScreenDaily
Fourth edition is based on votes of 142 Arab and international critics hailing from 57 countries.
Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven and Maryam Touzani’s Adam received four nominations each in the first round of voting in this year’s Critics Awards for Arab Films.
A total of 142 Arab and international film critics from 57 countries are participating in the fourth edition of the awards, organised by the Arab Cinema Centre (Acc).
Suleiman’s comedy-drama It Must Be Heaven, which premiered in Cannes Competition in 2019, has been nominated for best film, director, actor (Suleiman) and screenplay.
Moroccan filmmaker Touzani’s feature directorial debut Adam,...
Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven and Maryam Touzani’s Adam received four nominations each in the first round of voting in this year’s Critics Awards for Arab Films.
A total of 142 Arab and international film critics from 57 countries are participating in the fourth edition of the awards, organised by the Arab Cinema Centre (Acc).
Suleiman’s comedy-drama It Must Be Heaven, which premiered in Cannes Competition in 2019, has been nominated for best film, director, actor (Suleiman) and screenplay.
Moroccan filmmaker Touzani’s feature directorial debut Adam,...
- 6/17/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦69¦
- ScreenDaily
De nos frères blessés
Seven years after his lauded 2013 debut Vandal, Hélier Cisterne (an actor we caught in John Shank’s Last Winter) returns with De nos frères blesses (Of Our Injured Brothers), produced by Justin Taurand. Cisterne nabs Vicky Krieps and Vincent Lacoste in the leads, with support from Hassen Ferhani (the documentary director making his acting debut) and Meriem Medjkrane. Hichame Alaouie serves as Dp. Cisterne’s 2013 debut Vandal won the Louis-Delluc Award for Best Debut Film in 2013.
Gist: Based on a novel by Joseph Andras, the script is co-written by director Katell Quillevere, Ferand is arrested in a 1956 Algiers factory for planting a bomb while his wife refuses to abandon him.…...
Seven years after his lauded 2013 debut Vandal, Hélier Cisterne (an actor we caught in John Shank’s Last Winter) returns with De nos frères blesses (Of Our Injured Brothers), produced by Justin Taurand. Cisterne nabs Vicky Krieps and Vincent Lacoste in the leads, with support from Hassen Ferhani (the documentary director making his acting debut) and Meriem Medjkrane. Hichame Alaouie serves as Dp. Cisterne’s 2013 debut Vandal won the Louis-Delluc Award for Best Debut Film in 2013.
Gist: Based on a novel by Joseph Andras, the script is co-written by director Katell Quillevere, Ferand is arrested in a 1956 Algiers factory for planting a bomb while his wife refuses to abandon him.…...
- 12/30/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Emerging African filmmakers triumph at project development event.
Ethiopian director Hiwot Admasu Getaneh’s Addis Ababa-set tale of self-discovery Sweet Annoyance scooped the top €10,000 development prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival’s second Atlas Workshops on Friday (Dec 6).
The four-day meeting drew some 270 international cinema professionals and presented 28 projects in development and post-production from Middle Eastern, North African and African filmmakers.
The jury for the 10 projects in the running for the Atlas Development Awards was composed of Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi, Lebanese producer Georges Schoucair and Juliette Schrameck, managing director of Paris-based mk2 Films.
Set against the nightlife of the Ethiopian capital,...
Ethiopian director Hiwot Admasu Getaneh’s Addis Ababa-set tale of self-discovery Sweet Annoyance scooped the top €10,000 development prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival’s second Atlas Workshops on Friday (Dec 6).
The four-day meeting drew some 270 international cinema professionals and presented 28 projects in development and post-production from Middle Eastern, North African and African filmmakers.
The jury for the 10 projects in the running for the Atlas Development Awards was composed of Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi, Lebanese producer Georges Schoucair and Juliette Schrameck, managing director of Paris-based mk2 Films.
Set against the nightlife of the Ethiopian capital,...
- 12/7/2019
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Second edition of project platform will showcase 28 feature projects.
Upcoming feature films by Egyptian director Tamer el Said and Moroccan Bafta nominee Ismaël Ferroukhi are among the 28 projects to be showcased at the second edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, running December 3 to 6.
“We got off to a good start in the first edition,” says Remi Bonhomme, who has spearheaded the meeting.
He notes the winner of the last year’s main post-production prize– Hassen Ferhani’s documentary 143 Sahara Street – went on to enjoy a successful festival career, clinching the best emerging director prize in...
Upcoming feature films by Egyptian director Tamer el Said and Moroccan Bafta nominee Ismaël Ferroukhi are among the 28 projects to be showcased at the second edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, running December 3 to 6.
“We got off to a good start in the first edition,” says Remi Bonhomme, who has spearheaded the meeting.
He notes the winner of the last year’s main post-production prize– Hassen Ferhani’s documentary 143 Sahara Street – went on to enjoy a successful festival career, clinching the best emerging director prize in...
- 11/29/2019
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Films from Africa and the Middle East have enjoyed significant festival presence this year – such as Mati Diop’s French-Senegalese pic “Atlantics,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. “In 2019 we saw a new generation of filmmakers emerging on the scene,” says Rémi Bonhomme program manager of Critics’ Week in Cannes and the coordinator of the Atlas Workshops, which run Dec. 3-6 at the Marrakech Film Festival.
At Cannes, in addition to Diop’s prize, Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman won a Jury Special Mention award for his satire “It Must Be Heaven,” and seven African and Arab films screened in the different competitive sections. At Locarno, Senegalese writer-director Mamadou Dia’s won best first feature for “Nafi’s Father” and Algerian helmer Hassen Ferhani won best emerging director award for his documentary “143 Rue du Désert,” which won a postproduction prize at the 2018 Atlas Workshops. At Venice,...
At Cannes, in addition to Diop’s prize, Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman won a Jury Special Mention award for his satire “It Must Be Heaven,” and seven African and Arab films screened in the different competitive sections. At Locarno, Senegalese writer-director Mamadou Dia’s won best first feature for “Nafi’s Father” and Algerian helmer Hassen Ferhani won best emerging director award for his documentary “143 Rue du Désert,” which won a postproduction prize at the 2018 Atlas Workshops. At Venice,...
- 11/25/2019
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWe're saddened by the death of actor Robert Forster, whose prolific and eclectic career included an Oscar-nominated role in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown and Gus Van Sant's Psycho, which is currently showing on Mubi in the United Kingdom. Hurray! At a recent screening of the 4k restoration of Crash at Montreal's Festival du Nouveau Cinema, David Cronenberg announced that he is currently set to write and direct his body horror novel, Consumed, as a mini-series. Recommended VIEWINGThe official U.S. trailer for Russian director Kantemir Balagov's Beanpole, which follows the strained friendship between two women in the aftermath of World War II. The film is having its exclusive online premiere on Mubi in the United Kingdom, from October 11 - November 9, 2019.A trailer for So Close to My Land, Jia Zhangke's documentary about Chinese novelists.
- 10/16/2019
- MUBI
If ever confirmation was needed that directors make their second film in opposition to their first, Hassen Ferhani's 143 Sahara Street, his follow-up to the 2015 FIDMarseille prize-winner Roundabout in My Head, might serve as a case in point. Day for night, old age for youth, female for male, desert for capital city: every single parameter, it would seem, has been permutated for its opposite. Yet Ferhani is an auteur, as is already clear from those two films, and surface differences count for little in the face of the underlying gesture, of which his two first films only seem like two different moments: to document Algeria through its inhabitants, to set up shop in one small corner of a vast country from which, through generosity, patience, and openness to chance (and a bit of hidden craft too), a composite picture of its contradictions, its hopes and frustrations, its day-to-day miracles can emerge.
- 10/15/2019
- MUBI
At a certain point in the observational documentary from Algerian director Hassen Ferhani, 143 Sahara Street (143 rue du desert), a visitor describes the protagonist, Malika, as a "gatekeeper of the void." Given that her isolated roadside cafe — which has one table and only three items on the menu: tea, eggs and water — lies somewhere along the Route Nationale 1, in the desert some 10 hours south of Algiers, this description makes sense. Yet at the same time, it feels entirely inaccurate; Ferhani's 100-plus-minute film suggests that this seemingly desolate place is actually ...
- 9/16/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
At a certain point in the observational documentary from Algerian director Hassen Ferhani, 143 Sahara Street (143 rue du desert), a visitor describes the protagonist, Malika, as a "gatekeeper of the void." Given that her isolated roadside cafe — which has one table and only three items on the menu: tea, eggs and water — lies somewhere along the Route Nationale 1, in the desert some 10 hours south of Algiers, this description makes sense. Yet at the same time, it feels entirely inaccurate; Ferhani's 100-plus-minute film suggests that this seemingly desolate place is actually ...
- 9/16/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Nearly a decade after the Arab Spring swept across North Africa, the winds of change have also breathed new life into the region’s film industries, the fruits of which will be on display at this year’s Toronto Intl. Film Festival.
Contemporary World Cinema lead programmer Kiva Reardon, who also curates the festival’s selections from North Africa, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, has noticed an uptick in diverse voices and stories from the region, with women in particular more widely represented. The result, she said, is a more “varied and interesting” portrait of life in North Africa today.
One example is “143 Sahara Street,” Algerian director Hassen Ferhani’s quiet documentary about an off-the-grid café in the Sahara Desert. Offering an intimate portrait of the proprietor and her guests — while training a wider lens on contemporary Algeria — the film both gives rise to “questions of modernization and the...
Contemporary World Cinema lead programmer Kiva Reardon, who also curates the festival’s selections from North Africa, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, has noticed an uptick in diverse voices and stories from the region, with women in particular more widely represented. The result, she said, is a more “varied and interesting” portrait of life in North Africa today.
One example is “143 Sahara Street,” Algerian director Hassen Ferhani’s quiet documentary about an off-the-grid café in the Sahara Desert. Offering an intimate portrait of the proprietor and her guests — while training a wider lens on contemporary Algeria — the film both gives rise to “questions of modernization and the...
- 9/5/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
There’s a terrific moment in “143 Sahara Street” when a visitor to Malika’s isolated teahouse in the Algerian desert pretends to be a prisoner on the other side of the metal grated window, and Malika cracks up laughing from the role-play. Before then, Hassen Ferhani’s attractive observational documentary has done pretty much everything we expect it to do since the opening shot: The camera will basically stay put, the enigmatic protagonist — Malika — will win our hearts and the Sahara light will create endlessly picturesque variations on an immovable canvas. But that one unanticipated scene changes the dynamic, making Malika not just the passive rural subject of a sophisticated director but a playful co-conspirator in the act of portraiture. More focused than Ferhani’s well-received debut, “Roundabout in My Head,” his latest resulted in Locarno’s best emerging director award and should help draw more attention to this talented filmmaker.
- 8/31/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
‘Aladdin’ star Mena Massoud confirmed to attend.
The El Gouna Film Festival, taking place on the Egyptian Red Sea coast Sept 19-27, has unveiled the line-up for its third edition.
A dozen international features, mainly selected from recent A-list festivals, will compete for the El Gouna Golden Star, worth $50,000, as well as other prizes.
Nearly half the competition titles hail from the Arab world including Lebanese filmmaker Oualid Mouaness’s 1982, about a school boy determined to declare his love to a classmate as war breaks out changing both their lives forever.
Nadine Labaki has a supporting role in the film,...
The El Gouna Film Festival, taking place on the Egyptian Red Sea coast Sept 19-27, has unveiled the line-up for its third edition.
A dozen international features, mainly selected from recent A-list festivals, will compete for the El Gouna Golden Star, worth $50,000, as well as other prizes.
Nearly half the competition titles hail from the Arab world including Lebanese filmmaker Oualid Mouaness’s 1982, about a school boy determined to declare his love to a classmate as war breaks out changing both their lives forever.
Nadine Labaki has a supporting role in the film,...
- 8/27/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The Golden Leopard goes to Portugal for Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela.
Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vitalina Varela which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The international jury headed by French filmmaker and novelist Catherine Breillat also presented the Leopard for best actress to the 55-year-old Cape Verde islander Vitalina Varela for her performance in the film named after herself.
This is the second time Costa had taken home one of the main awards...
Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vitalina Varela which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The international jury headed by French filmmaker and novelist Catherine Breillat also presented the Leopard for best actress to the 55-year-old Cape Verde islander Vitalina Varela for her performance in the film named after herself.
This is the second time Costa had taken home one of the main awards...
- 8/17/2019
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Hassen Ferhani was driving along the trans-Sahara highway in Algeria with his friend and writer Chawki Amari when he found the subject for his next film, “143 rue du desert” (“143 Sahara Street”), which screened this week at the Locarno film festival and has been selected for Toronto.
“I wanted to make a road movie,” Ferhani explains. When they were about 400 km from Timimoun, he remembered a woman Amari had written about in his book “Route One.” “I asked him: Do you think we can go meet Malika?”
Immediately on walking into Malika’s shop, a 20 meter square hut in the middle of nowhere – or “everywhere” as Ferhani calls it – he knew his next film had to be about her. Amari and Ferhani sat with Malika in her house-shop, and saw drivers come and go asking her for tea, eggs and cigarettes. “I just looked at this place and thought this is more than I can imagine,...
“I wanted to make a road movie,” Ferhani explains. When they were about 400 km from Timimoun, he remembered a woman Amari had written about in his book “Route One.” “I asked him: Do you think we can go meet Malika?”
Immediately on walking into Malika’s shop, a 20 meter square hut in the middle of nowhere – or “everywhere” as Ferhani calls it – he knew his next film had to be about her. Amari and Ferhani sat with Malika in her house-shop, and saw drivers come and go asking her for tea, eggs and cigarettes. “I just looked at this place and thought this is more than I can imagine,...
- 8/15/2019
- by Sofie Cato Maas, Laura Davis and Sadia Khatri
- Variety Film + TV
Tiff Co-Heads Cameron Bailey and Joana Vicente added several more films in the Gala and Special Presentations sections of the 44th Toronto International Film Festival that runs September 5-15.
Here are the new ones:
Gala Premieres
The Tom Harper-directed Aeronauts will make its Canadian premiere, with Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne starring.
The Giuseppe Capotondi-directed Burnt Orange Heresy will make its North American premiere.
Special Presentations
The Kenny Leon-directed American Son makes its world premiere.
The Quentin Dupieux-directed Deerskin ( Le Daim ) makes its international premiere.
The Gregor Jordan-directed Dirt Music makes its world premiere.
The Geetu Mohandas-directed The Elder One makes its world premiere
Guns Akimbo, directed by Jason Lei Howden, makes its world premiere
Human Capital, directed by Marc Meyers, makes its world premiere;
Jungleland, directed by Max Winkler makes its world premiere;
Lucy in the Sky, directed by Noah Hawley, makes its world premiere;
Lyrebird, directed by Dan Friedkin,...
Here are the new ones:
Gala Premieres
The Tom Harper-directed Aeronauts will make its Canadian premiere, with Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne starring.
The Giuseppe Capotondi-directed Burnt Orange Heresy will make its North American premiere.
Special Presentations
The Kenny Leon-directed American Son makes its world premiere.
The Quentin Dupieux-directed Deerskin ( Le Daim ) makes its international premiere.
The Gregor Jordan-directed Dirt Music makes its world premiere.
The Geetu Mohandas-directed The Elder One makes its world premiere
Guns Akimbo, directed by Jason Lei Howden, makes its world premiere
Human Capital, directed by Marc Meyers, makes its world premiere;
Jungleland, directed by Max Winkler makes its world premiere;
Lucy in the Sky, directed by Noah Hawley, makes its world premiere;
Lyrebird, directed by Dan Friedkin,...
- 8/13/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Celebrating its 72nd edition this year, the Locarno Film Festival has been the birthplace for the finest in international arthouse cinema and this year’s lineup looks to continue the tradition. Ahead of the festival, running August 7-17, the full slate has been announced.
Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.
The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...
Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.
The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...
- 7/17/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Titles include Patrick Vollrath’s hijack thriller 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dutch actress Halina Reijn’s racy feature debut Instinct.
The Locarno Film Festival’s new artistic director Lili Hinstin unveiled an eclectic inaugural selection on Wednesday (July 17), including world premieres of German director Patrick Vollrath’s hijack thriller 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dutch actress Halina Reijn’s racy feature debut Instinct, co-starring Carice van Houten and Marwan Kenzari.
Scroll down for line-up
They are among 12 films due to play to an audience of 8,000 spectators on Locarno’s world-famous Piazza Grande alongside Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood,...
The Locarno Film Festival’s new artistic director Lili Hinstin unveiled an eclectic inaugural selection on Wednesday (July 17), including world premieres of German director Patrick Vollrath’s hijack thriller 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dutch actress Halina Reijn’s racy feature debut Instinct, co-starring Carice van Houten and Marwan Kenzari.
Scroll down for line-up
They are among 12 films due to play to an audience of 8,000 spectators on Locarno’s world-famous Piazza Grande alongside Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood,...
- 7/17/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Hassen Ferhani’s “Kilometers 60” won the €20,000 post-production prize Wednesday at Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, a four-day fast-track program for 14 projects from Africa.
The Atlas Workshops, one of the key innovations of this year’s festival, were sponsored by Netflix and coordinated by Remi Bonhomme (pictured), program manager of the Cannes’ Critics’ Week.
“Kilometers 60,” a documentary about an elderly lady who runs a tiny café on a highway in Algeria, is described by Ferhani as a “road movie that stays in one place.” His previous feature, “Roundabout in My Head,” was a hit on the festival circuit. The helmer said that he was delighted to receive the prize and the overall experience of attending the workshop in particular in terms of the editing advice provided.
Six projects competed for the prize, with a jury formed by Match Factory’s Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Moroccan producer Saïd Hamich and Cannes Critics Week’s artistic director Charles Tesson.
The Atlas Workshops, one of the key innovations of this year’s festival, were sponsored by Netflix and coordinated by Remi Bonhomme (pictured), program manager of the Cannes’ Critics’ Week.
“Kilometers 60,” a documentary about an elderly lady who runs a tiny café on a highway in Algeria, is described by Ferhani as a “road movie that stays in one place.” His previous feature, “Roundabout in My Head,” was a hit on the festival circuit. The helmer said that he was delighted to receive the prize and the overall experience of attending the workshop in particular in terms of the editing advice provided.
Six projects competed for the prize, with a jury formed by Match Factory’s Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Moroccan producer Saïd Hamich and Cannes Critics Week’s artistic director Charles Tesson.
- 12/5/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Qatari institution unveils 34 projects selected for its 2108 spring grants cycle.
Oscar-nominated documentarian Feras Fayyad, Palestinian actress and director Hiam Abbass and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Ely Dagher are among the new grantees of the Doha Film Institute (Dfi) in its spring 2018 funding round.
Fayyad has won backing for The Cave, the second film in a trilogy which began with his Oscar-nominated documentary Last Men in Aleppo, while Abbass has clinched funding for her second feature Girl Made of Dust, about a 10-year-old girl who escapes into her imagination to escape the ravages of war.
Dagher has won funding for...
Oscar-nominated documentarian Feras Fayyad, Palestinian actress and director Hiam Abbass and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Ely Dagher are among the new grantees of the Doha Film Institute (Dfi) in its spring 2018 funding round.
Fayyad has won backing for The Cave, the second film in a trilogy which began with his Oscar-nominated documentary Last Men in Aleppo, while Abbass has clinched funding for her second feature Girl Made of Dust, about a 10-year-old girl who escapes into her imagination to escape the ravages of war.
Dagher has won funding for...
- 5/10/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Les Soviets plus l’électricitéFrance’s central place within film culture may have its ups and downs when it comes to adventurous film-making, but its reputation as a hub of international film viewing holds strong. Yet beyond the central role of Cannes in the yearly festival rigmarole, and references to the riches of the Paris film-going scene and to vaguely understood state subsidies, little attention is actually paid to the wider infrastructures of a film-going culture which, after all, provided more ticket sales for Uncle Boonmee than the rest of the world combined. To say this is not to trumpet French exceptionalism far and wide: Olaf Möller has spoken lovingly of the key role of film programming on West German television in the 1970s, and Italian critics would no doubt be able to provide similar insight into the workings of Rai 3 or the myriad smaller festivals which continue to...
- 1/5/2016
- by Nathan Letoré
- MUBI
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