Elena Avdija’s revelatory and nuanced documentary shines a light on the incredibly brave performers who face physical and emotional battles on and off screen
Travelling to film sets in France and the US, Elena Avdija’s revelatory documentary follows Virginie, Petra and Estelle, female stunt professionals who are at different stages of their career: fearless in their commitment to their craft, they brave countless battles both on and off screen. There’s a feel of the spaghetti western to how their names are introduced in big, splattery red letters while a guitar riff reverberates through the frame. They are, indeed, fierce riders in an industry still dominated by men.
The physical demands of stunt work, which includes everything from being pushed down a staircase to jumping off a building, are colossal. Still attending training courses, Estelle has to practise getting hit by a car or being held in chokehold.
Travelling to film sets in France and the US, Elena Avdija’s revelatory documentary follows Virginie, Petra and Estelle, female stunt professionals who are at different stages of their career: fearless in their commitment to their craft, they brave countless battles both on and off screen. There’s a feel of the spaghetti western to how their names are introduced in big, splattery red letters while a guitar riff reverberates through the frame. They are, indeed, fierce riders in an industry still dominated by men.
The physical demands of stunt work, which includes everything from being pushed down a staircase to jumping off a building, are colossal. Still attending training courses, Estelle has to practise getting hit by a car or being held in chokehold.
- 3/4/2024
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
The relationship drama premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale.
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
- 3/28/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
81 more titles have been added to the festival programme.
Bella Ciao, a documentary about the anthem that symbolized the Italian partisans’ fight against facism in the Second World War, is one of 81 new titles added to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) programme.
Directed by Giulia Giapponesi, Bella Ciao will have its international premiere at IDFA, having first played at Italy’s Bari International Film Festival in March.
Scroll down for the Luminous, Frontlight feature additions
Adapted from Italian folk tune ‘Mondine’, the song ‘Bella Ciao’ has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent weeks, partly as a show of...
Bella Ciao, a documentary about the anthem that symbolized the Italian partisans’ fight against facism in the Second World War, is one of 81 new titles added to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) programme.
Directed by Giulia Giapponesi, Bella Ciao will have its international premiere at IDFA, having first played at Italy’s Bari International Film Festival in March.
Scroll down for the Luminous, Frontlight feature additions
Adapted from Italian folk tune ‘Mondine’, the song ‘Bella Ciao’ has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent weeks, partly as a show of...
- 10/11/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Colombian director Laura Mora’s drama The Kings Of The World has clinched the Golden Eye for best feature film at the Zurich Film Festival.
The award follows hot on the heels of the film’s triumph at the San Sebastian Film Festival exactly a week ago, where it world premiered and then won the Golden Shell for best film.
The drama follows five street kids from Medellin who set off on a dangerous trip into the Colombian hinterland, after one of them is granted the right to a piece of land taken from his family by paramilitaries, during the country’s 52-year conflict which displaced more than five million people.
The Kings Of The World was produced by producer and director Cristina Gallego, whose credits include Birds Of Passage and the Oscar-nominated The Embrace Of The Serpent.
The film also previously screened to professionals as part of the TIFF...
The award follows hot on the heels of the film’s triumph at the San Sebastian Film Festival exactly a week ago, where it world premiered and then won the Golden Shell for best film.
The drama follows five street kids from Medellin who set off on a dangerous trip into the Colombian hinterland, after one of them is granted the right to a piece of land taken from his family by paramilitaries, during the country’s 52-year conflict which displaced more than five million people.
The Kings Of The World was produced by producer and director Cristina Gallego, whose credits include Birds Of Passage and the Oscar-nominated The Embrace Of The Serpent.
The film also previously screened to professionals as part of the TIFF...
- 10/1/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Laura Mora’s “The Kings of the World” was named Best Film at the Zurich Film Festival Saturday.
The jury, led by Asghar Farhadi and featuring Clio Barnard, Daniel Dreifuss, Petra Volpe and Piodor Gustafsson, was taken with the coming-of-age drama about young friends living on the streets of Medellín, one that has triumphed at San Sebastian as well. Film Factory Entertainment handles sales.
“I am so happy the jury voted for it. I am convinced this film will stand the test of time,” artistic director Christian Jungen told Variety.
“It shows that film can be an art form, but it also provides social criticism on the situation in Colombia. Where poor, regular people can’t easily access their rights.”
Mora got the idea for the story while casting her feature debut “Killing Jesus,” she told Variety back in August.
“More than 90 boys we interviewed all shared a terrible feeling of exclusion,...
The jury, led by Asghar Farhadi and featuring Clio Barnard, Daniel Dreifuss, Petra Volpe and Piodor Gustafsson, was taken with the coming-of-age drama about young friends living on the streets of Medellín, one that has triumphed at San Sebastian as well. Film Factory Entertainment handles sales.
“I am so happy the jury voted for it. I am convinced this film will stand the test of time,” artistic director Christian Jungen told Variety.
“It shows that film can be an art form, but it also provides social criticism on the situation in Colombia. Where poor, regular people can’t easily access their rights.”
Mora got the idea for the story while casting her feature debut “Killing Jesus,” she told Variety back in August.
“More than 90 boys we interviewed all shared a terrible feeling of exclusion,...
- 10/1/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
In Elena Avdija’s documentary “Stuntwomen,” which is world premiering at Zurich Film Festival, you don’t just become a stuntwoman: you have to work for it. Virginie Arnaud, Petra Sprecher and Estelle Piget certainly do, but they don’t always get to showcase their skills.
“Cinema has a fascination with sexist violence. We like to see women suffer, getting kidnapped or raped,” Avdija tells Variety. These are the scenes her protagonists are usually asked to portray.
“What we see on the screen influences our society and our way of thinking. Seeing sexist violence normalizes it in our minds. We need to find new ways of talking about it and Michaela Coel’s ‘I May Destroy You’ is a great inspiration.”
Petra Sprecher, who is also an actor, was recently spotted in “Westworld” and “Lovecraft Country.” Arnaud worked as a stunt coordinator on Séries Mania-selected series “Syndrome E” and “Hors Saison,...
“Cinema has a fascination with sexist violence. We like to see women suffer, getting kidnapped or raped,” Avdija tells Variety. These are the scenes her protagonists are usually asked to portray.
“What we see on the screen influences our society and our way of thinking. Seeing sexist violence normalizes it in our minds. We need to find new ways of talking about it and Michaela Coel’s ‘I May Destroy You’ is a great inspiration.”
Petra Sprecher, who is also an actor, was recently spotted in “Westworld” and “Lovecraft Country.” Arnaud worked as a stunt coordinator on Séries Mania-selected series “Syndrome E” and “Hors Saison,...
- 10/1/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
A miner in Germany’s last coal mine undergoing a gender change, a prima ballerina fighting to keep her status after becoming a mother, a repentant hooligan turned kickboxing champion, a father who fled the former Uruguayan dictatorship, rejected refugees awaiting deportation, and stuntwomen taking hit after hit for the film industry: to say that the 5th Swiss Films Previews at doc film fest Visions du Réel introduced us to strong characters is an understatement.
Six promising films soon to be launched on the festival circuit and the international market were selected for the event and pitched at VdR-Industry. Five of them were directed (co-directed for “Red”) by women. Four of them are first features. By the quality of the excerpts and the originality of the themes that fit the times, all of them demand to be seen as finished film.
Here’s an overview of what’s coming up...
Six promising films soon to be launched on the festival circuit and the international market were selected for the event and pitched at VdR-Industry. Five of them were directed (co-directed for “Red”) by women. Four of them are first features. By the quality of the excerpts and the originality of the themes that fit the times, all of them demand to be seen as finished film.
Here’s an overview of what’s coming up...
- 4/16/2022
- by Trinidad Barleycorn
- Variety Film + TV
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