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64th San Sebastian International Film Festival Award Winners

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With a straight forward to reading/giving awards the festival has closed an edition that will be recall for giving top awards to Asian Cinema and YES, to female filmmakers!

Will not deny that is a great surprise that precisely this festival is the one that honors that many female directors, but the most unexpected situations come from the least likely players.   Yes, also believe is the first non-LGBT film festival that gives so many awards to lesbian-interest films! Great!

Usually the only thing that stays on-top-of-mind from this festival are the Horizontes Latinos winners but this year believe there will be more films as, of course, I'm curious about the two Asian Cinema films as well as that film with the actor that won the Best Actor award and the Argentinean film winner of the Best Cinematography.

Already mentioned in another post but will repeat, Rara by Pepa San Martin is Must-Be-Seen for me and now I'm very curious about the film about three women that suspect will not be easy-to-watch but now know that will have to watch as won too-many awards, congratulations to Maysaloun Hamoud for the multiple honors her film collected in San Sebastian.

So, this is it.  See you next year. Adiós #64SSIFF.

Official Selection

Golden Shell for Best Film:  我不是潘金莲 Wo Bu Shi Pan Jinlian (I Am Not Madame Bovary), Xiaogang Feng, China

Silver Shell for Best Director: Hong Sang-soo for 당신 자신과 당신의 것 Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot (Yourself and Yours), South Korea

Silver Shell for Best Actress: Bingbing Fan in 我不是潘金莲 Wo Bu Shi Pan Jinlian (I Am Not Madame Bovary), Xiaogang Feng, China
Silver Shell for Best Actor: Eduard Fernandez for El Hombre de las Mil Caras, Alberto Rodriguez, Spain

Jury Prize for Best Screenplay: Isabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen for Que Dios Nos Perdone, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain
Jury Prize for Best Cinematography: Ramiro Civita for El Invierno (The Winter), Emiliano Torres, Argentina and France

Jury Special Award (tie)
El Invierno (The Winter), Emiliano Torres, Argentina and France
Jätten (The Giant), Johannes Nyholm, Sweden and Denmark

Kuxta-New Directors Award: Park, Sofia Exarchou, Greece and Poland
Special Mention: Compte tes blessures (A Taste of Ink), Morgan Simon, France

Horizontes Latinos
Best Film: Rara, Pepa San Martín, Chile and Argentina
Special Mention:Alba, Ana Cristina Barragán, Ecuador, Mexico and Greece

Zabaltegi Award 
Best Film: Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Word, Thorsten Schütte, France and Germany
Special Mention: La disco resplandece, Chema García Ibarra, Turkey

Other Awards

FIPRESCI Award: Lady Macbeth, William Oldroyd, Uk

Signis Award: Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello, France, Germany and Belgium
Special Mention: A Monster Calls, J. A. Bayona, Spain

Eroski Youth Award: Bar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France

5th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum EGEDA
Best Project Award: 7:35 AM, Javier van de Couter, Argentina
Special Mention: Hogar, Marua Delpero, Italy and Argentina
EFADs-CACI Europe-Latin America Co-Production Grant: Los Días Según Ellos (Malambo King), Juan Pablo Félix, Argentina, Spain and France
Arte International Prize: Hogar, Marua Delpero, Italy and Argentina

Feroz Zinemaldia Award: El Hombre de Las Mil Caras, Alberto Rodríguez, Spain

Films in Progress 30 Industry Award: La Educación del Rey (Rey's Education), Santiago Esteves, Argentina
CACI/Ibermedia TV Films in Progress AwardLa Educación del Rey (Rey's Education), Santiago Esteves, Argentina

Greepeace Award:L'odyssée (The Odyssey), Jérôme Salle, France

Irizar Basque Film Award: Pedaló, Juan Palacios, Spain
Basque Best Screenplay: New York. Quinta Planta, Mikel Rueda, Spain

Spanish Cooperation Award: Oscuro Animal, Felipe Guerrero, Colombia, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany and Greece
Special Mentions
Era o Hotel Cambridge, Eliane Caffé, Brazil, France and Spain
Viejo Calavera (Dark Skull), Kiro Russo, Bolivia and Qatar

Sebastiane AwardBar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France
Sebastiane Latino Award: Rara, Pepa San Martín, Chile and Argentina

Solidarity Award: La Fille de Brest (150 Milligrams), Emmanuele Bercot, France

TVE Another Look AwardBar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France
Tokyo Goham Award: Theater of Life, Peter Svatek, Canada

Audience Award: I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK, France and Belgium
European Film Audience Award: Ma Vie de Courgette (My Life as a Courgette), Claude Barras, Switzerland and France

15th International Film Student Meetings Awards - Short Films
Panavision Award: Étage X (Floor X),Francy Fabritz, DFFB–Berlin Film Conservatory, Germany
Special Mention: Umpire, Leonardo van Dilj, LUCA School of Arts, Belgium
Orona Award: 24º 51’ Latitud Norte, Carlos Lenin Treviño, Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos CUEC-UNAM, Mexico
Special Mention: A quien corresponda, Valeria Fernández, Universidad del Cine, Argentina

Donostia Award: Sigourney Weaver and Ethan Hawke
Jaeger-LeCoultre Latin Cinema Award: Gael García Bernal
Zinemira Award: Ramón Barea

To check winners at official site go here.

2016 European Film Awards - Short Film Nominations

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The European Film Academy and EFA Productions are proud to present this year's short film nominations.

At each of the 15 participating film festivals, an independent jury presented one European short film in competition with a nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards.

These are the fifteen (15) short film nominees.

9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo, Issa Touma, Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen, Netherlands, 12' (documentary) Bristol Short Film Nominee
90 Grad Nord (90 Degrees North), Detsky Graffam, Germany, 21' Cork Short Film Nominee
A Man Returned, Mahdi Fleifel, UK, Denmark, Netherlands, 30' Berlin Short Film Nominee
Amalimbo, Juan Pablo Libossart, Sweden and Estonia, 15' (animation) Venice Short Film Nominee
Edmond, Nina Gantz, UK, 10' (animation) Upsala Short Film Nominee
El Adiós (The Goodbye), Clara Roquet, Spain, 15' Valladolid Short Film Nominee
Home, Daniel Mulloy, Kosovo and UK, 20' Vila do Conde Short Film Nominee
In the Distance, Florian Grolig, Germany, 7' (animation) Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Nominee
Le Mur (The Wall), Samuel Lampaert, Belgium, 7' Ghent Short Film Nominee
Limbo, Konstantina kotzamani, France and Greece, 30' Sarjevo Short Film Nominee
L'Immense Retour Romance (The Fullness of Time Romance), Manon Coubia, Belgium and France, 14' Locarno Short Film Nominee
Падаща звезда Padashta Zvezda (Shooting Star), Lyubo Yonchev, Bulgaria and Italy, 28' Drama Short Film Nominee
Small Talk, Even Hafnor and Lisa Brooke Hansen, Norway, 21' Tampere Short Film Nominee
Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer (We All Love the Sea Shore), Keina Espiñeira, Spain, 18' Rotterdam Short Film Nominee
Yo No Soy de Aquí (I'm Not From Here), Maite Alberdi and Giedrė Žickytė, Denmark, Chile and Lithuania 26' (documentary), Krakow Short Film Nominee



The nominated films will soon be submitted to the more than 3,000 EFA Members to elect the winner. The European Short Film 2016 will then be presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 10 December, in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016. Streamed live here.

9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo by Issa Touma, Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen
Synopsis: One morning in August 2012, renowned Syrian photographer Issa Touma saw young men lugging sandbags into his street. It turned out to be the start of the Syrian uprising in the city of Aleppo. Touma grabbed his camera and spent nine days holed up in his apartment, recording what was happening outside. The result? An unprecedented glimpse into a war that has been raging for three years now.



90 Grad Nord (90 Degrees North) by Detsky Graffam
Synopsis: Germans wait at red traffic lights. But what happens when the green man simply won't appear? In the black comedy "90 Degrees North", Karl, businessman and young father, unwittingly stumbles upon a malicious traffic island in the middle of a forest and into an absurd urban fairytale that will turn his life upside down. "90 Degrees North" is a tale not only Germans can relate to, but everyone who has ever felt well and truly stuck in life.



A Man Returned by Mahdi Fleifel
Synopsis: “Are you busy?”, Reda asks his future wife on the phone. “I spend a lot of time thinking about our new life”, he says. “I mean, it might get really tough, our new life, and neither of us has tried it before. We’ll just have to make the impossible possible. With our love, our trust and our mutual understanding”. Reda is 26 years old. For the past three years he’s been living in Athens, hand-to-mouth and on petty crimes. He wanted to be recognised as a refugee in Europe. It didn’t work. Now he’s back at the place he originally fled from, Ain El-Helweh, the largest refugee camp in Lebanon. He is intent on creating a better life himself. The dream wedding will happen. The reality of the camp is the soil upon which the dreams are to sprout from. With drugs, or with drugs. With a war in Syria that can also be felt at the refugee camp. With confidence. For years now, director Mahdi Fleifel has been accompanying the men of his youth with a video camera in the style of Direct Cinema, thereby creating a proximity to his protagonists and their personal circumstances that could hardly be more immediate.



Amalimbo by Juan Pablo Libossart
Synopsis: the story of Tipuana, a five year-old girl who experiences the limbo when she tries to pass to ”the other side” in her desperate urge to meet again with her recently dead father. It is a short story that happens in an undefined place in an also undefined future.



Edmond by Nina Gantz
Synopsis: tells the story of an oddball character whose desire to be close to those around him reaches cannibalistic extreme.



El Adiós (The Goodbye) by Clara Roquet
Synopsis: A Bolivian maid attempts to honor the last wishes of her late mistress.



Home by Daniel Mulloy
Synopsis: As thousands of men, women and children attempt to get into Europe, a comfortable English family experience a life-changing journey of their own.



In the Distance by Florian Grolig
Synopsis: It's calm and peaceful above the clouds. But chaos lurks in the distance and each night, it draws closer.



Le Mur (The Wall) by Samuel Lampaert
Synopsis: Hong-Kong. A multitude of high-rise concrete buildings without personality. Inside, close studios where people live withdrawn into themselves. Until the day where Chung; a bachelor, decides to hang a picture on the wall.



Limbo by Konstantina kotzamani
Synopsis: The leopard shall lie down with the goat. The wolves shall live with the lambs. And the young boy will lead them. 12+1 kids and the carcass of a whale washed ashore…



L'Immense Retour (Romance) (The Fullness of Time Romance) by Manon Coubia
Synopsis: Sitting on the edge of the yawning rift, she has waited too long, far too long, for the mountain to give her back her lover, trapped in the ice.

Падаща звезда Padashta Zvezda (Shooting Star) by Lyubo Yonchev
Synopsis: Lilly is a divorced mother of two. Martin, who has recently come of age, and the little 5 years old Alexandra. One cold winter evening Martin takes Alexandra from kindergarten. In the dark streets of the neighborhood they become a part of a tragic accident that hardly can be forgotten or erased.



Small Talk by Even Hafnor and Lisa Brooke Hansen
Synopsis: Welcome to the Dvergsnes family! In this short film we follow the Dvergsnes family from Kristiansand, Norway, through three events that took place during the fall and winter of 2014.

Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer (We All Love the Sea Shore) by Keina Espiñeira
Synopsis: A group of men are waiting at the fringes of a coastal woodland for the journey to Europe, in limbo between time and place. A film is shot there with the men playing themselves. Fiction and documentary constantly intertwine. Myths from the colonial past collide with dreams of a better future in the former oppressor’s country.



Yo No Soy de Aquí (I'm Not From Here) by Maite Alberdi and Giedrė Žickytė
Synopsis: A Basque Country native among Chileans, Josebe struggles to share her memories and mother tongue with disinterested, somnolent men. As an eighty-eight year-old with a fading short-term memory and equally elderly company, time dissolves.



To check announcement at official site go here.

2016 European University Film Award Nominations

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At the Filmfest Hamburg, the five nominated films for the first European University Film Award (EUFA)have been announced. The aim of this new initiative by the European Film Academy (EFA)and Filmfest Hamburg is to involve a younger audience, to spread the “European idea” and to transport the spirit of European cinema to an audience of university students. It shall also support film dissemination, film education and the culture of debating.

Based on the lists of 50 feature films and 15 documentaries from the EFA Selections 2016 a committee consisting of of Feo Aladag (director, Germany), Dagmar Brunow (academic, Linnaeus University, Sweden), Luis Martinez Lopez (journalist, El Mundo, Spain) and Patrick Sobelman (producer, France) has decided on the following nominations.

Bacalaureat (Graduation), Cristian Mungiu, Romania, France and Belgium
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi,Italy and France
Hymyilevä mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki), Juho Kuosmanen, Finland, Germany and Sweden
I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK and France
Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany and Austria



The nominated films will be viewed and discussed in 13 universities in 13 countries and each institution will select its favourite film. In early December, one student representative from each university will attend a two-day deliberation meeting to decide on the overall winner. The announcement of the winning film will then take place in the week of the European Film Awards on 10 December in Wroclaw/Poland, European Capital of Culture 2016.

26th Annual IFP Gotham Awards

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The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s premier member organization of independent storytellers, announced today the nominees for the 26th Annual IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards.

For 2016, ten competitive awards will be presented to independent features and series. In addition to the competitive awards, Gotham Award Tributes will be given to actors Amy Adams and Ethan Hawke, director Oliver Stone, and Industry Tribute recipient, producer Arnon Milchan.

The Gotham Awards is one of the leading awards for independent film and signals the kick-off to the film awards season. As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention.

“We wish to offer our hearty congratulations to the 2016 Gotham Awards nominees, all of whose unique and exciting artistic achievements represent the very best in independent storytelling,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center.

Thirty-two films and series received nominations this year. In addition, the nominating committees for the Best Actor and Best Actress categories and the Breakthrough Actor category jointly voted to award a Special Jury Award to the ensemble cast of Moonlight in which actors at all levels of experience give outstanding performances that speak eloquently to one another both within and across each chapter of the story.” The awards will go to actors Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, and Ashton Sanders.

Will not deny that I'm pleased with the nominations even when I'm surprised La La Land got snubbed. The category I like the most is the one that lists five actresses in what everyone have been saying are great performances; perhaps the most surprising for me is Kate Beckinsale nod probably because skipped the film but now seems will give it a try. As expected Isabelle Huppert got a nomination so now the question is if west coast industry awards will honor her too.

Manchester by the Sea leads with four (4) nominations followed by Moonlight and Paterson with three (3) each. Then there are six films with two (2) nominations each including Loving and I-Know-Is-Not-For-All-Audiences outstanding Certain Women.

Feature Films

Best Feature
Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt
Everybody Wants Some!!, Richard Linklater
Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Moonlight, Barry Jenkins
Paterson, Jim Jarmusch

Best Documentary
Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson
I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck
O.J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman
Tower, Keith Maitland
Weiner, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg,

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Robert Eggers for The Witch
Anna Rose Holmer for The Fits
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Swiss Army Man
Trey Edward Shults for Krisha
Richard Tanne for Southside with You

Best Screenplay
Taylor Sheridan for Hell or High Water, David Mackenzie
Whit Stillman for Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman
Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Tarell Alvin McCraney and Barry Jenkins for Moonlight, Barry Jenkins
Jim Jarmusch for Paterson, Jim Jarmusch

Best Actress
Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman
Annette Bening in 20th Century Women, Mike MIlls
Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Paul Verhoeven
Ruth Negga in Loving, Jeff Nichols
Natalie Portman in Jackie, Pablo Larraín

Best Actor
Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water, David Mackenzie
Adam Driver in Paterson, Jim Jarmusch
Joel Edgerton in Loving, Jeff Nichols
Craig Robinson in Morris from America, Chad Hartigan

Breakthrough Actor
Lily Gladstone in Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt
Lucas Hedges in Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Royalty Hightower in The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer
Sasha Lane in American Honey, Andrea Arnold
Anya Taylor-Joy in The Witch, Robert Eggers

Special Gotham Jury Award for Ensemble Performance to Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, and Ashton Sanders in Moonlight

Series (TV and Online)

Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
The Girlfriend Experience
Horace and Pete
Marvel’s Jessica Jones
Master of None

Breakthrough Series – Short Form
The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo
Her Story
The Movement
Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People
Surviving

The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 28th at Cipriani Wall Street.

The Gotham Audience Award nominees are comprised of the 15 films nominated for Best Feature, Best Documentary, and the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. The winner will be selected by online voting of IFP members. Voting for that award begins November 16th at 12:01 AM EST.

Nominees are selected by committees of film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films will determine the final Gotham Award recipients. Twenty-nine writers, critics and programmers participated in the nomination process. The Nominating Committees for the 2016 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards were:

Nominating Committee for Best Feature, Best Screenplay, and Breakthrough Director
Justin Chang, Film Critic, Los Angeles Times
Ann Hornaday, Chief Film Critic, The Washington Post
Eric Kohn, Deputy Editor & Chief Film Critic, Indiewire
Dana Stevens, Movie Critic, Slate
Stephanie Zacharek, Film Critic, TIME

Nominating Committee for Best Documentary:
Joanne Feinberg, Producer, Consultant, and Curator, FeinFilm
Ben Fowlie, Executive Director of the Points North Institute; Founder of the Camden International Film Festival
Cynthia Fuchs, Film-TV Editor, PopMatters; Director of Film & Media Studies, George Mason University
Tom Hall, Executive Director, The Montclair Film Festival
Sky Sitney, Professor, Film and Media Studies, Georgetown University; Co-Director, Double Exposure Festival

Nominating Committee for Best Actor and Best Actress:
A.A. Dowd, Film Editor, The A.V. Club
Mark Harris, Columnist, Vulture
Jessica Kiang, Features Editor & Festival Critic, The Playlist; Film Critic, Variety
David Rooney, Chief Theater Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Alison Willmore, Critic, BuzzFeed

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Actor:
Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic, Village Voice
David Ehrlich, Senior Film Critic, Indiewire
Tim Grierson, Senior U.S. Critic, Screen International; Chief Film Critic, Paste
Sheila O’Malley, Writer/Film Critic, RogerEbert.com, The Sheila Variations
Katie Walsh, Film Critic, Tribune Content Agency, Los Angeles Times

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series – Long Form:
Matthew Gilbert, TV Critic, The Boston Globe
Liz Shannon Miller, TV Editor, Indiewire
Sonia Saraiya, TV Critic, Variety
David Sims, Senior Associate Editor, The Atlantic
Tim Goodman, Chief Television Critic, The Hollywood Reporter

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series – Short Form:
Rich Goldstein, Producer, The Daily Beast
Randi Kleiner, Founder & CEO, SeriesFest
Paula Mejia, Reporter & Culture Writer, Newsweek
Aymar Jean Christian, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern University

deep euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ Grant

For the sixth consecutive year, euphoria Calvin Klein is proud to present the Spotlight on Women FilmmakersLive the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumna of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs or IFP’s Screen Forward Lab. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film or episodic series. The nominees are:

Shaz Bennett, director, Alaska is a Drag
Katie Orr, director, Poor Jane
Roxy Toporowych, director, Julia Blue

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award

IFP members will determine the Gotham Independent Film Audience Award with nominees comprised of the 15 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories. All IFP current, active members at the Individual Level and above will be eligible to vote.

Voting will take place online from November 16th at 12:01 AM EST and conclude on November 23rd at 5:00 PM EST. In addition, IFP will be scheduling screenings of the nominated films for IFP members in the theater at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP in Brooklyn. These screenings will take place from November 9-15. The winner of the Audience Award will be announced at the Gotham Awards Ceremony on November 28, 2016.

Appendix
2016 IFP Gotham Awards – Alphabetical List of Nominated Films & Series

4 Nominations
Manchester by the Sea
Best Feature
Best Screenplay
Best Actor
Breakthrough Actor

3 Nominations

Moonlight
Best Feature
Best Screenplay
Special Jury Award – Ensemble Performance

Paterson
Best Feature
Best Screenplay
Best Actor

2 Nominations

Certain Women
Best Feature
Breakthrough Actor

The Fits
Breakthrough Director
Breakthrough Actor

Hell or High Water
Best Screenplay
Best Actor

Love & Friendship
Best Screenplay
Best Actress

Loving
Best Actor
Best Actress

The Witch
Breakthrough Director
Breakthrough Actor

1 Nomination

20th Century Women -Best Actress
American Honey - Breakthrough Actor
Cameraperson - Best Documentary
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Elle - Best Actress
Everybody Wants Some!! - Best Feature
The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
The Girlfriend Experience - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Her Story - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Horace and Pete - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
I Am Not Your Negro - Best Documentary
Jackie - Best Actress
Krisha - Breakthrough Director
Marvel’s Jessica Jones - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Master of None - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Morris from America - Best Actor
The Movement - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
O.J.: Made in America - Best Documentary
Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Southside with You - Breakthrough Director
Surviving - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Swiss Army Man - Breakthrough Director
Tower - Best Documentary
Weiner - Best Documentary

2016 European Animated Feature Film and Comedy Nominations

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The European Film Academy proudly announces the nominations in the categories European Animated Feature Film and European Comedy.

Based on a list of films provided by Cartoon, the European Association of Animation Film, as well as on individual film submissions, a committee decided on the nominations in the category European Animated Feature Film. The committee consisted of EFA Board Member Antonio Saura, producer (Spain), director Tomm Moore (Ireland) and producer Anja Šošić (Poland), as well as Cartoon representatives Karsten Kiilerich (Denmark), Marc Du Pontavice (France), and Vincent Tavier (Belgium).

The Nominations for European Comedy were decided by a committee consisting of EFA Board Member Ada Solomon, producer (Romania), Nacho Carballo from Gijón IFF, distributor Kim Foss (Denmark), Nik Powell from NFTS (UK), and Marten Rabarts representing EYE Film Institute (Netherlands).

European Animated Feature Film

Ma vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini), claude Barras, Switzerland and France
Psiconautas, los Niños Olvidados (Psiconautas, The Forgotten Children), Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero, Spain
La Tortue Rouge (The Red Turtle), Michael Dudok De Wit, France and Belgium

European Comedy

En Man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), Hannes Holm, Sweden and Norway
Er ist wieder da (Look Who's Back), David Wnendt, Germany
La Vache (One Man and his Cow), Mohamed Hamidi, France



The nominated films will now be submitted to the over 3,000 EFA Members to elect the winner. The European Animated Feature Film 2016 and European Comedy 2016 will then be presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony in Wroclaw, Poland (European Capital of Culture 2016) on Saturday, 10 December, streamed live at EFA official site.

10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominations

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For the last few weeks APSA has been announcing nominees in several categories but was not until recently that announced the nominees for narrative feature films and by now, the full list of nominees have been announced so here is the post.

Let's recall that these awards are the region's newest and by now, the highest accolade in film which recognizes and promotes cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the world’s fastest growing film region: comprising 70 countries and areas, 4.5 billion people, one third of the earth and responsible for half of the world’s film output today. From a production pool that stretches from Egypt in the West to the Cook Islands in the East, and from Russia in the North to New Zealand in the South, in 2016, 39 films from 19 Asia Pacific countries and areas are nominated.

Most remarkable is to realize that 2016 saw a record number of films to be considered: 303 films from 43 countries an areas of Asia Pacific. Chair of the APSA International Nominations Council, Professor Hong-Joon Kim said “The 10th APSA Competition has been a unique year in terms of the level of diversity among the films. In watching the 135 films in the feature narrative competition we saw diversity of everything – commercial vs arthouse films, big industry vs small independent films, different nations and countries representing the major film producing nations, and the developing screen culture from countries with young film industries. The achievement honoring directors was a particularly difficult decision this year due to the number of films by first or second filmmakers who have remarkable cinematic voices. I am already really excited for future editions of APSA as we see the work of these first time directors reach full maturity as we saw many major auteurs in the making.”

Four films lead the pack with three nominations each, Cold of Kalandar, Ember, Daughter and Psycho Raman. But what really blows my mind is the absence of films by outstanding directors with great films this year, The Salesman by Asghar Farhadi, Ma' Rosa by Brillante Mendoza, The Woman Who Left by Lav Diaz, and The Handmaiden by Chan-wook Park.  Perhaps Diaz film will appear next year but the other three have been already released and as a matter of fact represent their production country at 2017 Oscar foreign-language category.

Among the nominees there are great films from the three major film festivals or films that represent their countries at 2017 Oscar foreign-language category but from those I was not aware of, not many called my attention. Sigh.  Still nominations made me recall how much I want to see City of Jade by Midi Z and Exile by Rithy Panh.   My general impression is while 2016 edition is honoring a few great movies from Iran, Turkey and Russia, it left out some important films from the region and was appalled bythe lack of films from China and Japan. Sigh.

Best Feature Film
دختر‎‎ Dokhtar (Daughter), Reza Mirkarimi, Iran
Kalandar Soğuğu (Cold of Kalandar), Mustafa Kara, Turkey and Hungary
Kor (Ember), Zeki Demirkubuz, Turkey and Germany
محمد رسول‌الله Muhammad Rasoulallah (Muhammad the Messenger of God), Majid Majidi, Iran
Ученик Uchenik (The Student), Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia

Best Youth Feature
Nafas (Breath), Narges Abyar, Iran
Ottaal (The Trap), Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair, India
Ringan (The Quest), Makarand Mane, India
Wolf and Sheep, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Afghanistan, Denmark, France and Sweden
우리들 Woo-ri-deul (The World of Us), Yoon Ga-eun

Best Animated Feature Film
Bilal, Ayman Jamal, UAE
Manang Biring, Carl Joseph Papa, Philippines
Savva (A Warrior's Tail), Maksim Fadeev, Russia
Seoul-yeok (Seoul Station), Yeon Sang-ho, South Korea
Volki I Ovtsy (Sheep and Wolves), Max Volkov, Russia

Best Documentary
Exil (Exile), Rithy Panh, Cambodia and France
Fei Cui Zhi Cheng (City of Jade), Midi Z, Myanmar and Taiwan
Royahaye Dame Sobh (Starless Dreams), Mehrdad Oskouei, Iran
Snow Monkey, George Gittoes, Australia and Norway
V Luchakh Solnca (Under The Sun), Vitaly Mansky, Russia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Germany and Latvia

Achievement in Directing
Anurag Kashyap for Raman Raghav 2.0 (Psycho Raman), India
Bi Gan for Lu Bian Ye Can (Kaili Blues), China
Feng Xiaogang for Wo Bu Shi Pan Jinlian (I Am Not Madame Bovary), China
Lee Joon-ik for 사도 Sado (The Throne), South Korea
Zeki Demirkubuz for Kor (Ember), Turkey and Germany

Achievement in Cinematography
Cevahir Şahin and Kürşat Üresin for Kalandar Soğuğu (Cold of Kalandar), Mustafa Kara, Turkey and Hungary
Wang Tianxing for Lu Bian Ye Can (Kaili Blues), Feng Xiaogang, China
Vittorio Storaro for محمد رسول‌الله Muhammad Rasoulallah (Muhammad the Messenger of God), Majid Majidi, Iran
Jay Oza for Raman Raghav 2.0 (Psycho Raman), Anurag Kashyap, India
Gorka Gómez Andreu for Skhvisi Sakhli (House of Others), Rusudan Glurjidze, Georgia, Russia, Spain and Croatia

Best Screenplay
Yang Chao for Chang Jiang Tu (Crosscurrent), Yang Chao, China
Gurvinder Singh and Waryam Singh Sandhu for Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction), Gurvinder Sing, India and France
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Tadashi Nohara and Tomoyuki Takahashi for 映画『ハッピーアワー Happî awâ (Happy Hour), Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan
Mehran Kashani for دختر‎‎ Dokhtar (Daughter), Reza Mirkarimi, Iran
Leena Yadav, Supratik Sen for Parched, Leena Yadav India, USA and UK

Best Performance by an Actress
Aslihan Gürbüz in Kor (Ember), Zeki Demirkubuz, Turkey and Germany
Hasmine Killip in Pamilya Ordinaryo (Ordinary People, Eduardo W. Roy Jr., Philippines
Natalia Pavlenkova in Зооло́гия Zoologiya (Zoology), Ivan I. Tverdovsky, Russia, France and Germany
Agrippina Steklova in Инсайт Insayt (Insight), Aleksandr Kott, Russia
Youn Yuh-jung in 죽여주는 여자 Jookyeojooneun Yeoja (The Bacchus Lady), E J-Yong, South Korea

Best Performance by an Actor
Farhad Aslani in دختر‎‎ Dokhtar (Daughter), Reza Mirkarimi, Iran
Manoj Bajpayee in Aligarh, Hansal Mehta, India
Song Kang-ho in 사도 Sado (The Throne), Lee Joon-ik, South Korea
Dev Patel in Lion, Garth Davis, Australia
Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Raman Raghav 2.0 (Psycho Raman), Anurag Kashyap, India

UNESCO Cultural Diversity Award
Akher Ayam el Madina (In The Last Days of the City), Tamer el Said, Egypt, Germany, UAE and UK
Kalandar Soğuğu (Cold of Kalandar), Mustafa Kara, Turkey and Hungary
Трейлер Костер на ветру Kostior na vetru (The Bonfire), Dmitrii Davydov, Russia
Qingshui li de daozi (Knife in the Clear Water), Wang Xuebo, China
Reşeba (The Dark Wind), Hussein Hassan, Iraq, Germany and Qatar

If you wish to read about each nominated film, watch trailer and learn basic info go to official site here.

The 2016 APSA International Jury President is acclaimed Academy-Award® winner Lord David Puttnam (United Kingdom, APSA 2010 Jury President). Puttnam will be joined by APSA Patron and co-founder and current Chairman of the Busan International Film Festival Kim Dong-Ho, prolific and multi-award winning producer from Hong Kong (PRC) Nansun Shi (APSA 2011), Palme d’Or and Academy Award®-winning Australian producer Jan Chapman (APSA 2012), and celebrated Indian master filmmaker Shyam Benegal (APSA 2013).



In celebration of the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards milestone, a new, important and relevant award achievement has been introduced – the APSA Young Cinema Award presented by NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) and Griffith Film School (GFS). This important Award addition recognizes the abundant emerging talent of Asia Pacific which increases in prevalence in the APSA competition each year. The award is eligible to directors of debut or sophomore feature narrative films, with the recipient chosen from the APSA feature narrative film competition.

Nominees are inducted into the Asia Pacific Screen Academy making them eligible to apply for the 2016 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund. The Fund was created to support, at script stage, new feature film projects originated by APSA Academy members and their colleagues across Asia Pacific. The fund awards four development grants of US$25,000 annually, and is wholly supported by the MPA (Motion Picture Association).

The winner of the 10th APSA FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film in the Asia Pacific region, esteemed Iranian producer Manoochehr Mohammadi, was announced from Cannes earlier this year by APSA and the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

Winners in the 10th anniversary edition of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards will be announced on Thursday 24 November from the 10th APSA Ceremony in Brisbane, Australia, and via a live webcast to the globe.

#Oscars2017 Documentary Short Subject Shortlist

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 89th Academy Awards has been narrowed to ten (10) films, of which five will earn a nominations

Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s sixty-one (61) eligible entries and selected the following ten.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title.

4.1 Miles, Daphne Matziaraki, USA, 22'
Brillo Box (3¢ Off), Lisanne Skyler, USA, 40'
Extremis, Dan Krauss, USA, 24'
Frame 394, Rich Williamson, Canada and USA, 30'
Joe's Violin, Kahane Cooperman, USA, 24'
The Mute's House, Tamar Kay, Israel, 32'
The Other Side of Home, Nare Mkrtchyan, USA, 40'
Watani: My Homeland, Marcel Mettelsiefen, UK, 40'
The White Helmets, Orlando von Einsiedel, UK, 41
Więzi (Close Ties), Zofia Kowalewska, Poland, 18'

To read the press release go here. The nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2017. The 89th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network.

4.1 Miles by Daphne Matziaraki
Synopsis: In 2001, 20 Afghan refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos. It was that year’s biggest news event, recalls Kyriakos, the coast guard captain. Back then, his job mostly entailed carrying out routine checks in the 4.1-mile-wide strait separating the island from the Turkish mainland. Those tranquil days are long gone. Kyriakos and his 10 colleagues are now called out hourly to save hundreds of people risking the crossing. Greek journalist Daphne Matziaraki joined the heroic captain for a single day: October 28, 2015. You can’t get any closer to this living nightmare. Matziaraki crawls with her camera among the drenched and drowning castaways searching for a safe haven on a flimsy boat. Some of them don’t make it. There are shocking images – who can ever get used to seeing men, women and children drowning? The scenes shot back on dry land form an effective counterpoint: from a static position, the camera films a sun-drenched table laden with food, while a coast guard boat speeds past and an approaching ambulance wails in the distance.



Brillo Box (3¢ Off) by Lisanne Skyler
Synopsis: In 1969, my parents bought an Andy Warhol Brillo Box for $1,000. An exact replica of the popular Brillo soap pad product package, Warhol’s Brillo Boxes were at first dismissed by the art world. But forty years later, in 2010, the same sculpture sold for $3,000,000 at a record-breaking Christie’s auction. This is the story of what happened in between. Brillo Box (3¢ off) follows this single sculpture as it makes its way from my family’s living room to the global art market, exploring the ephemeral nature of art and value.



Extremis by Dan Krauss
Synopsis: A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.



Frame 394 by Rich Williamson
Synopsis: In the glimmer of a shiny object, Daniel finds himself entangled in one of America’s most high-profile police shootings.



Joe's Violin by Kahane Cooperman
Synopsis: A 91-year-old Holocaust survivor donates his violin of 70 years to a local instrument drive, changing the life of a 12-year-old schoolgirl from the nation’s poorest congressional district, and unexpectedly, his own.



The Mute's House by Tamar Kay
Synopsis: Eight-year-old Yousef and his deaf mother Sahar are the last Palestinian residents of an otherwise deserted building in the Israeli part of the city of Hebron. Their island within the Jewish quarter is called “The Mute’s House” by Israeli soldiers, even though Sahar isn’t mute at all. Travel agencies have included the property in their tours. Yousef makes good use of his privilege to cross the border when he goes to school. Through the tour guides’ explanations, we learn the story of Yousef and Sahar, who bravely withstand all the threats and bullying. None of Yousef’s Palestinian classmates can come to his house, and filmmaker Tamar Kay isn’t allowed to cross the border to film the Palestinian quarter with Yousef. Despite his disability – Yousef was born with one arm – he amuses himself with the chickens, goats and rabbits that forage among the ruined neighboring houses, and he plays the guitar and video games. The remarkable situation elegantly illustrates the absurdity of the endless conflict.



The Other Side of Home by Nare Mkrtchyan
Synopsis: In 1915, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks, in what historians call the first genocide of the 20th century. In 2015, a Turkish woman named Maya discovers that her great grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. As Maya wrestles with this new reality, she comes to embody the conflict that remains unresolved between the two people. She has two conflicting identities: one that suffers and the other that denies the suffering and its causes. The Other Side of Home is a documentary that follows Maya as she goes to Armenia to take part in the 100th commemoration of the Genocide and to explore her new-found roots. This film is a universal story of identity, denial, and how the experience of genocide creates a ripple effect for future generations on both sides.



Watani: My Homeland by Marcel Mettelsiefen
Synopsis: Four Syrian children are forced to flee their homeland and make a new life in Germany after their father is kidnapped by ISIS.



The White Helmets by Orlando von Einsiedel
Synopsis: A small group of volunteer heroes, the White Helmets defy death, dodging bombs and sniper fire, to rescue Syrians from the bombs that fall incessantly on their towns and cities. However, after three years and with no end in sight, even the heroes may need to be saved.



Więzi (Close Ties) by Zofia Kowalewska
Synopsis: Forty five years of marriage is an impressive anniversary. Barbara and Zdzisław could be proud of themselves if not for the fact that the husband left the wife for his lover eight years ago. But now they are together again, although Barbara claims that if it were not for his infirm legs, Zdzisław would still be chasing skirts around Kraków. Despite the past resentment, everyday problems with paying bills, an occupied bathroom and rearranging furniture, they have a hard to define bond.


2016 British Independent Film Awards Nominations

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Cannes 2016 Palm d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach unsurprisingly leads the nominations with 7 nods; but more surprising is that film is closely followed by American Honey, Adult Life Skills, Notes On Blindness, and to my big surprise, Under the Shadow with 6 nods each.

Yes, Under the Shadow belongs to horror genre -which I dislike-, it's UK's official submission to Oscars 2017 and well, I'm curious as film has too-many accolades to be "just" regular horror, so there must be something else en film and yes, will give film a try. Sigh.

Over 130 British films were submitted for consideration and 32 different British feature films have been nominated across the awards according to the nominations announced earlier today. As previously announced, Naomie Harris will receive The Variety Award, which recognizes a director, actor, writer or producer who has made a global impact and helped to focus the international spotlight on the UK.

The Richard Harris Award is to be announced in November. The award, introduced in 2002 in honor of Richard Harris, recognizes outstanding contribution to British film by an actor.  The winners will be announced at a ceremony at London's Old Billingsgate on Sunday, December 4th.

Best British Independent Film
American Honey, Andrea Arnold
Couple in a Hole, Tom Greens
I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Nothes on Blidness, Pete Middleton and James Spinney
Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari

Best Documentary
The Confession: Living the War on Terror, Ashish Ghadiali
Dancer, Steven Cantor
The Hard Stop, George Amponsah
Notes on Blindness, Pete Middleton and James Spinney
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach, Louise Osmond

Best Director
Babak Anvari for Under the Shadow
Andrea Arnold for American Honey
Ken Loach for I, Daniel Blake
Pete Middleton and James Spinney for Notes on Blindness
Ben Wheatley for Free Fire

The Douglas Hickox Award for Debut Director
Babak Anvari for Under the Shadow
Alice Lowe for Prevenge
Pete Middleton and James Spinney for Notes on Blindness
Adam Smith for Trespass Against Us
Rachel Tunnard for Adult Life Skills

Best Screenplay
Babak Anvari for Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari
Andrea Arnold for American Honey, Andrea Arnold
Christopher Hyde and Billy O'Brien for I Am Not a Serial Killer, Billy O'Brien
Paul Laverty for I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Rachel Tunnard for Adult Life Skills, Rachel Tunnard

Debut Screenwriter
Rachel Tunnard for Adult Life Skills, Rachel Tunnard
Hope Dickson Leach for The Levelling, Hope Dickson Leach
Simon Farnaby and Julian Barratt for Mindhorn, Sean Foley
John Cairns and Michael McCartney for A Patch of Fog, Michael Lennox
Ed Talfan for Yr Ymadawiad (The Passing), Gareth Bryn

Best Actress
Kate Dickie in Couple in a Hole, Tom Greens
Sasha Lane in American Honey, Andrea Arnold
Narges Rashidi in Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari
Hayley Squires in I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Jodie Whittaker in Adult Life Skills, Rachel Tunnard

Best Supporting Actress
Gemma Arterton in the Girl With All the Gifts, Colm McCarthy
Naomi Harris in Our Kind of Traitor, Susanna White
Avin Manshadi in Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari
Terry Pheto in A United Kingdom, Amma Asante
Shana Swash in My Feral Heart, Jane Gull

Best Actor
Steve Brandon in My Feral Heart, Jane Gull
Shia LaBeouf in American Honey, Andrea Arnold
Michael Fassbender in Trespass Agaist Us, Adam Smith
Dave Johns in I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Max Records in I Am Not a Serial Killer, Billy O'Brien

Best Supporting Actor
Jamie Dornan in Anthropoid, Sean Ellis
Brett Goldstein in Adult Life Skills, Rachel Tunnard
Sean Harris in Trespass Against Us, Adam Smith
Arinzé Kene in The Pass, Ben A. Williams
Christopher Lloyd in I Am Not a Serial Killer, Billy O'Brien

Most Promising Newcomer
Steve Brandon in My Feral Heart, Jane Gull
Dave Johns in I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Sennia Nanua in the Girl With All the Gifts, Colm McCarthy
Hayley Squires in I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Letitia Wright in Urban Hymn, Michael Caton-Jones

Outstanding Achievement in Craft
Shaheen Baig, casting, Free Fire, Ben Wheatley
Seb Barker, assistant director, The Girl With All the Gifts, Colm McCarthy
Paul Monaghan, editor, and Mat Whitecross, director, Supersonic, Mat Whitecross
Robbie Ryan, cinematographer, American Honey, Andrea Arnold
Joakim Sundström, sound designer, Notes on Blindness, Pete Middleton and James Spinney

The Discovery Award
Black Mountain Poets, Jamie Adams
The Darkest Universe, Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe
The Ghoul, Gareth Tunley
Gozo, Miranda Bowen
The Greasy Strangler, Jim Hosking

Best International Independent Film
Hunt for Wilderpeople, Taika Waititi, New Zealand
Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan, USA
Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, USA
Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, France, Germany, Turkey and Qatar
Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany and Austria

Breakthrough Producer
Michael Berliner for Adult Life Skills, Rachel Tunnard
Camille Gatin for The Girl With All the Gifts, Colm McCarthy
Dionne Walker for The Hard Stop, George Amponsah
Mike Brett, Jo Jo Ellison and Steve Jamison for Notes on Blindness, Pete Middleton and James Spinney
Paul Fegan for Where You're Meant To Be, Paul Fegan

Best British Short
Jacked, Rene Pannevis
Mother, Leo Leigh
Over, Jörn Threlfall
Rate Me, Fyzal Boulifa
The Wrong End of the Stick, Terri Matthews

To check  nominations plus info, trailers and more go to official site here.

29th European Film Awards Nominations

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At the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announced the nominations for the 2016 European Film Awards.

Leading the field is Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade’s hilarious father-daughter dramedy, with five (5) nominations, including film, directing and screenplay, as well as acting nominations for Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek. It is followed by I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach with four (4) plus Julieta by Pedro Almodovar and Elle by Paul Verhoeven with three (3) nominations each.

It's impossible not to notice that all four films with most nominations come from one film festival, Cannes 2016; but more interesting is that from the five top award nominees, four films have strong female characters as the lead, which is most unusual as definitively does not happen very often that a major annual awards recognizes so many female lead films.

The more than 3,000 EFA Members will now vote for the winners who will be presented during the awards ceremony on 10 December in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016.

European Film
Elle, Paul Verhoeven, France and Germany
I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK and France
Julieta, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Room, Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland and Canada
Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany and Austria



European Comedy
En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), Hannes Holm, Sweden and Norway
Er ist wieder da (Look Who's Back), David Wnendt, Germany
La Vache (One Man and His Cow), Mohamed Hamidi, France

European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI
Câini (Dogs), Bogdan Mirică, France, Romania, Bulgaria and Qatar
Hymyilevä mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki), Juho Kuosmanen, Finland, Germany and Sweden
Jajda (Thirst), Svetla Tsotsorkova, Bullgaria
Liebmann, Jules Herrmann, Germany
סופת חול Sufat Chol (Sand Storm), Elite Zexer, Israel and France

European Documentary
21 x Nowy Jork (21 x New York), Piotr Stasik, Poland
A Family Affair, Tom Fassaert, Netherlands and Belgium
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi, Italy and France
Mr. Gaga, Tomer Heymann, Israel, Sweden, Germany, and Netherlands
The Land of the Enlightened, Pieter-Jan de Pue, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Ireland
Trent'anni dietro al volante per Stanley Kubrick (S is for Stanley), Alex Infascelli, Italy

European Animated Feature Film
Ma Vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini), Claude Barras, Switzerland and France
Psiconautas, Los Niños Olvidados (Psiconautas, The Forgotten Children), Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero, Spain
La Tortue Rouge (The Red Turtle), Michael Dudok De Wit, France and Belgium

European Director
Maren Ade for Toni Erdmann
Pedro Almodóvar for Julieta
Cristian Mungiu for Bacalaureat (Graduation)
Ken Loach for I, Daniel Blake
Paul Verhoeven for Elle

European Actress
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy), Paolo Virzi
Trine Dyrholm in Kollektivet (The Commune), Thomas Vinterberg
Sandra Hüller in Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade
Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Paul Verhoeven
Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte in Julieta by Pedro Almodóvar

European Actor
Javier Cámara in Truman, Cesc Gay
Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins, Stephen Freas
Dave Johns in I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Burghart Klaußner in Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer (The People vs. Fritz Bauer), Lars Kraume
Rolf Lassgård in En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), Hannes Holm
Peter Simonischek in Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade

European Screenwriter
Maren Ade for Toni Erdman, Maren Ade
Emma Donoghue for Room, Lenny Abrahamson
Paul Laverty for I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
Cristian Mungiu for Bacalaureat (Graduation), Cristian Mungiu
Tomas Wasilewski for Zjednoczone stany miłości (United States of Love), Tomasz Wasilewski

European Short Film
9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo, Issa Touma, Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen, Netherlands, 12' (documentary) Bristol Short Film Nominee
90 Grad Nord (90 Degrees North), Detsky Graffam, Germany, 21' Cork Short Film Nominee
A Man Returned, Mahdi Fleifel, UK, Denmark, Netherlands, 30' Berlin Short Film Nominee
Amalimbo, Juan Pablo Libossart, Sweden and Estonia, 15' (animation) Venice Short Film Nominee
Edmond, Nina Gantz, UK, 10' (animation) Upsala Short Film Nominee
El Adiós (The Goodbye), Clara Roquet, Spain, 15' Valladolid Short Film Nominee
Home, Daniel Mulloy, Kosovo and UK, 20' Vila do Conde Short Film Nominee
In the Distance, Florian Grolig, Germany, 7' (animation) Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Nominee
Le Mur (The Wall), Samuel Lampaert, Belgium, 7' Ghent Short Film Nominee
Limbo, Konstantina kotzamani, France and Greece, 30' Sarjevo Short Film Nominee
L'Immense Retour Romance (The Fullness of Time Romance), Manon Coubia, Belgium and France, 14' Locarno Short Film Nominee
Падаща звезда Padashta Zvezda (Shooting Star), Lyubo Yonchev, Bulgaria and Italy, 28' Drama Short Film Nominee
Small Talk, Even Hafnor and Lisa Brooke Hansen, Norway, 21' Tampere Short Film Nominee
Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer (We All Love the Sea Shore), Keina Espiñeira, Spain, 18' Rotterdam Short Film Nominee
Yo No Soy de Aquí (I'm Not From Here), Maite Alberdi and Giedrė Žickytė, Denmark, Chile and Lithuania 26' (documentary), Krakow Short Film Nominee

European University Film Award Nominations
Bacalaureat (Graduation), Cristian Mungiu, Romania, France and Belgium
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi,Italy and France
Hymyilevä mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki), Juho Kuosmanen, Finland, Germany and Sweden
I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK and France
Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany and Austria

People's Choice Award voted by European Audiences
Aferim!, Radu Jude, Romania, Bulgaria and Czech Republic
Ciało (Body), Małgorzata Szumowska, Poland
En Man Som Heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), Hannes Holm, Sweden and Norway
Fucoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi, Italy and France
Julieta, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Krigen (A War), Tobias Lindholm, Denmark
Le Tout Nouveau Testament (The Brand New Testament), Jaco van Dormael, Belgium, France and Luxembourg
Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, France, Germany and Turkey
Spectre, Sam Mendes, UK
The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper, UK
The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos, UK, Ireland, Greece, France and Netherlands
Zvizdan (The High Sun), Dalibor Matanić, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia

To check nominations at official site go here. Please note that last two categories were announced previously but decided to include them here to have all in one post.

2017 Golden Globes News

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Yesterday the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced this edition Miss Golden Globe and this time they surprised us with a trio, three Sylvester Stallone daughters, Sistine, Sophia and Scarlet.

“For the first time in Golden Globe history, we have proudly selected not one but three Miss Golden Globe representatives. The Stallone sisters will continue our time honored tradition of handing out the statuettes at the awards ceremony,” said Soria. “Each of the lovely young women in the triad have had success whether it be in academics, sports or pursuing a modeling career. With being raised by such role models Sylvester and Jennifer, we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for these ladies.”

A while back was announced that eight-time Golden Globe-winner, Meryl Streep will be the recipient of the 2017 Cecil B. deMille Award and Jimmy Fallon will host the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

“It’s no surprise that the HFPA has chosen Meryl Streep as the recipient of the 2017 Cecil B. DeMille Award. Meryl’s enthralling body of work across a diverse set of genres has made her a role model over the past 40 years, and she will continue to do so for generations to come. She has always taken roles with strong female leads, creating art by showing vulnerability and portraying truth on the big screen. Simply put, she is a trailblazer, having paved the way for women in television, film and stage. For shattering gender and age barriers, all with finesse and grace, the HFPA is humbled to bestow this honor upon her.”



This year over 90 foreign language films were submitted for consideration in the Foreign Film category but unfortunately, there is no list available. Still here is a small sample gathered from their official site that shows films that also are submissions to Oscars and films that should have been submission to Oscars but were not.

Argentina: The Distinguished Citizen
Belgium: The Ardennes
Brazil: Little Secret
Brazil: Aquarius
China: I Am Not Madame Bovary
Colombia: Alias Maria
Israel: Sand Storm
Netherlands: Tonio
Palestine: 3000 Nights
Poland: Afterimage
Spain: Julieta
Spain: Ma Ma
Venezuela: From Afar

Will update post if more complete list becomes available before the nominations are announced on December 12. Check info about each of above films at official site here. The 74th Annual Golden Globe® Awards will air LIVE coast-to-coast on NBC Sunday, January 8, 2017 from 5-8PM PT/8-11PM ET from the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

#Oscars2017 Live Action Short Films shortlist

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that ten (10) live action short films will advance in the voting process for the 89th Academy Awards.

Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting.  One hundred thirty-seven (137) short films had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 films are listed below.

Bon Voyage, Marc Raymond Wilkins, Switzerland, Greece and Turkey, 21'
Ennemis Intérieurs (Enemies Within), Sélim Azzazi, France, 27'
Graffiti, Lluís Quílez, Spain and Ukraine, 30'
La Femme et le TGV, Timo von Gunten, Switzerland, 30'
Les Frémissements du Thé (The Way of Tea), Marc Fouchard, France, 21'
Mindenki (Sing), Kristóf Deák, Hungary, 25'
Nocturne in Black, Jimmy Keyrouz, Lebanon, 23'
The Rifle, the Jackal, the Wolf and the Boy, Oualid Mouaness, Lebanon, 18'
Silent Nights, Aske Bang, Denmark
Timecode, Juanjo Giménez Peña, Spain, 15'

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco in December. Nominations for the 89th Oscars® will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2017. The 89th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre.

Bon Voyage by Marc Raymond Wilkins
Synopsis: A couple‘s compassion is put to the test when they come across a sinking ship of refugees while on a pleasure trip across the Mediterranean.

 

Ennemis Intérieurs (Enemies Within) by Sélim Azzazi
Synopsis: During the 90s, Algerian terrorism reaches France. Two men. Two identities. One battle.



Graffiti by Lluís Quílez
Synopsis:An apocalyptic world. A devastated city. One last survivor. Edgar has learned to survive on his own avoiding contaminated areas by the “incident” which destroyed life as we knew it. But Edgar’s routine is suddenly disrupted by the discovery of a wall with graffitis by his bed. Just one word reveals the presence of another survivor: “Anna”.



La Femme et le TGV by Timo von Gunten
Synopsis: Elise Lafontaine has a secret routine -- every morning and evening for many years, she has been waving at the express train that passes her house. One (faithful) day, she finds a letter from the train conductor in her garden and her lonely life is turned upside down. She engages in a promising correspondence through poetic and thoughtful letters where the two anonymous writers share their worlds with each other. But Elise’s fairytale is cut short when the train line permanently detours for a shorter route to Paris. Not willing to do without her daily delight, Elise prompts a daring escape from her comfort zone and sets out to find the train conductor.



Les Frémissements du Thé (The Way of Tea) by Marc Fouchard
Synopsis: A small town in northern France, Alex, a young skinhead, enters Malik's grocery store.



Mindenki (Sing) by Kristóf Deák
Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, it follows an award winning school choir, their charming teacher and the new girl in class whose arrival starts a series of events that might expose the dark truth behind their fame.



Nocturne in Black by Jimmy Keyrouz
Synopsis: In a war-ravaged Middle Eastern neighborhood, a musician struggles to rebuild his piano after it is destroyed by Jihadists.



The Rifle, the Jackal, the Wolf and the Boy by Oualid Mouaness
Synopsis: Thinking they're doing the right thing by taking matters into their own hands, two brothers cross the line when they take a household rifle without their father's consent. Set in contemporary middle class rural Lebanon, a country with a porous border constantly threatened by hostile infiltration, this coming-of-age story examines fraternal trust and brings into focus the ethics of seemingly innocuous violence and its consequences.



Silent Nights by Aske Bang
Synopsis:


Timecode by Juanjo Giménez Peña
Synopsis: Luna and Diego are the parking lot security guards. Diego does the night shift, and Luna works by day.

#Oscars2017 Animated Short Films Shortlist

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that ten (10) animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 89th Academy Awards.

Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting. Sixty-nine (69) short films had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 shorts are listed below.

Blind Vaysha, Theodore Ushev, Canada, 8'
Borrowed Time, Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj, USA, 7'
Happy End, Jan Saska, Czech Republic, 6'
The Head Vanishes, Franck Dion, Canada and France, 10'
Inner Workings, Leo Matsuda, USA, 7'
Once upon a Line, Alicja Jasina, USA, 8'
Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Robert Valley, Canada and UK, 35'
Pearl, Patrick Osborne, USA, 6'
Piper, Alan Barillaro, USA, 6'
Sous Tes Doigts (Under Your Fingers), Marie-Christine Courtès, France, 13'

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist.  Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco in December.  Nominations for the 89th Oscars® will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2017.

Blind Vaysha by Theodore Ushev
Synopsis:  From the moment she was born, Vaysha was a very special girl. With her left eye she can only see into the past, and with her right she can only see the future. The past is familiar and safe, the future is sinister and threatening. The present is a blind spot. In captivating parabolic imagery, the award-winning animation artist Theodore Ushev illustrates the world through Vaysha’s eyes.



Borrowed Time by Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
Synopsis: A weathered Sheriff returns to the remains of an accident he has spent a lifetime trying to forget. With each step forward, the memories come flooding back. Faced with his mistake once again, he must find the strength to carry on.



Happy End by Jan Saska
Synopsis: A black comedy about death with a happy ending. A splendid chain of unlikely encounters. Hunters, a tractor driver, a disco boy, and a corpse.



The Head Vanishes, Franck Dion
Synopsis: Jacqueline has lost her mind but who cares for his trip to the seaside she decided to take the train alone, as great!



Inner Workings by Leo Matsuda
Synopsis: the story of the internal struggle between a man’s pragmatic, logical side and his free-spirited, adventurous half.



Once upon a Line by Alicja Jasina
Synopsis: A man leads a boring life until he falls in love. Things get out of control, but at the end the protagonist discovers that there are other ways of living and that the world is full of color and hope.



Pear Cider and Cigarettes by Robert Valley
Synopsis: Drink and smoke...that's what Techno really like to do...and fight. He was in no condition to fight. He was sick, really sick. His disease had whittled him down to a shadow of his former self. He was crippled from a car accident when he was 17 but that’s not how he lost his big toe. He lost that in a motorbike accident, yeah he was broken alright… what the hell was he fighting for anyway and what was he still doing in China? His father had given me two clear instructions: 1. Get Techno to stop drinking long enough to receive the liver transplant and 2. Get him back home to Vancouver. This wasn't going to be easy.



Pearl by Patrick Osborne
Synopsis: Set inside their home, a beloved hatchback, Pearl follows a girl and her dad as they crisscross the country chasing their dreams. It’s a story about the gifts we hand down and their power to carry love. And finding grace in the unlikeliest of places.



Piper by Alan Barillaro
Synopsis: A hungry sandpiper hatchling discovers that finding food without mom’s help isn’t so easy.



Sous Tes Doigts (Under Your Fingers) by Marie-Christine Courtès
Synopsis: When her grand-mother dies, a young Eurasian woman performs dance and rituals to revive the peculiar story of the women in her family, from colonial Indochina to the transit camp where they were isolated. With her memories, anger and traditional rituals Emilie learns how to accept such a heritage. The scars of history felt by an eastern woman in the West.

2016 Lux Film Prize Award Winner

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Recently the European Parliament announced the winner of the 2016 Lux Prize and as many expected, Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade was honored with the award.



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7/26/16
The 2016 LUX Film Prize has selected the three films in its Official Competition.

The 10th-anniversary edition of the award will have Leyla Bouzid’s As I Open My Eyes (France/Tunisia/Belgium/United Arab Emirates), Claude Barras’ My Life as a Courgette (Switzerland/France) and Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann (Germany/Austria/Romania) as the final contenders.

Chairwoman of the Committee on Culture and Education Silvia Costa and Vice-President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani announced the titles in contention for the award today, at the Venice Days press conference.

The three films were picked from the previously announced Official Selection, ten beautiful and socially engaged films focusing on current global issues, including some slightly more humorous, yet equally challenging titles.

Leyla Bouzid’s feature-film debut takes viewers across the Mediterranean, showing a young generation trapped between the hope and love they feel for their own country, and despair.

Claude Barras’ first feature is a bittersweet, poetic stop-motion animation film — the first ever to appear in the LUX Film Prize Competition — a portrait of the harsh reality of an orphanage with delicate and gawky humour that was tenderly adapted from Gilles Paris’ novel by Céline Sciamma (Girlhood, a 2014 LUX Film Prize finalist).

Finally, in her third feature film, Maren Ade turns her gaze towards the contemporary corporate culture in an eminently political tragicomedy. The film, a real political statement, examines how the corporate ethos can destroy family ties, people’s lives and happiness.



The Giornate Degli Autori -Venice Days, in collaboration with the Venice Film Market, will introduce the new edition by hosting the screening of the films in the Official Competition. Once again this year, the 28 Times Cinema initiative, in collaboration with Europa Cinemas and Cineuropa, will bring 28 young cinephiles to act as the jury for the Venice Days Award and take part in the LUX Film Prize experience, kicking off their role as LUX Ambassadors, in order to present the LUX Film Days in their respective countries.

From October to December, As I Open My Eyes, My Life as a Courgette and Toni Erdmann will become the core of the 2016 LUX Film Days, and will be screened across 28 EU countries. Subtitled into the 24 official EU languages, Europeans will not only be able to discover them, but also to discuss the issues that they raise. Thus, by creating the framework for a European public space, the LUX Film Prize is again a tool that shows the complexity of a European identity, as it interprets and presents the realities of European successes and challenges.

This year’s LUX Film Days will also mark the beginning of cooperation between the European Parliament Information Offices and the Creative Europe MEDIA Desks, to strengthen visibility and broaden the audience. Moreover, to mark the 10th anniversary of the award, important European film professionals will join the Members of the European Parliament at a series of events in Brussels on 10 October. During the LUX Film Days, all 751 Members of the European Parliament will be invited to vote for one of the three films in competition.

On 23 November, 2016 the award winner will be announced at the European Parliament in Strasbourg in the presence of the directors.

The following is basic info plus short smart review, the first two written by Fabien Lemercier and third written by Vittoria Scarpa (could have spoilers) for each film in the Official Selection.

Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade (Premier at 2016 Cannes Film Festival In Competition)

For her first appearance in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, German director Maren Ade, who made quite the splash with her previous opus, Everyone Else , has audaciously confirmed her status as a rising star, thanks to her third feature, Toni Erdmann . Patiently weaving its web around the traditional subject matter of a father desperately hoping to become closer to his daughter at any cost, while the latter is living in a different country, working in the cutthroat world of international consulting, the movie constantly circumvents its carefully constructed hyper-realism through disruptive comic impulses, intrinsically linked to the personality traits of one of the two main characters – a father who will even stretch to pretending to become someone else in order to successfully break through his daughter's armor. This one enormous joke, sometimes bordering on the grotesque, transforms into a sort of power struggle in which humor and love attempt to thaw an icy coldness and overcome distance. It is a feature walking a fine line – occasionally verging on losing its balance – which owes a great deal to the huge talent of its two lead performers: fascinating German actress Sandra Hüller and Austria's Peter Simonischek.

"I've hired a substitute daughter to replace mine. She's a better cook and she cuts my nails." This is the kind of joke that Winfried loves to crack out of the blue in the presence of Ines, the key character in the story – and in the most inappropriate circumstances, to boot (for instance, in the middle of the business dealings being undertaken by his daughter, who is an expat living in Bucharest, where she is a consultant at a big international firm). And the sixty-something has plenty of other banter-filled tricks up his sleeve, all of which is enough to make Ines particularly uneasy when her dad, who is divorced from her mother, and whom she sees very rarely or only via Skype, turns up without warning to pay her a visit in the Romanian capital. Because this young woman has other fish to fry at work (where she is busy preparing a restructuring scenario for a large company) and also wants to focus on her career, where her ambition reigns supreme. However, a few blunders later, Winfried really hits a nerve when he asks Ines whether she is happy or not, which she responds to curtly by sending him packing, off to the airport. But much to her surprise, she sees him reappear some time later, completely out of the blue, in disguise, introducing himself (to anyone who cares to listen) as Toni Erdmann and behaving in just as zany a way as his previous incarnation, Winfried. Interfering with the professional and private life of his exasperated daughter ("You're completely insane!”), Toni Winfried will nevertheless manage to succeed in his assault, to the point where Ines takes up the gauntlet and decides to join in with her father's game. This role-play gets totally out of control, turning into a match between their different takes on life, where each action stirs highly personal emotions that are buried deep down.

Unfolding on a knife-edge, and focusing on a subject that can easily, by its very nature, lend itself to a lot of slip-ups, Maren Aden nonetheless stays the course very effectively, indulging in a thrilling finale that rewards the audience's patience. Its mis-en-scène really takes the time to infuse the silences with meaning in order to render the internal solitude of the two main characters more clearly. Intertwining "larger than life" mockery, a humanistic tenderness and a portrait of the tyranny of high-performing, modern-day big business, Toni Erdmann (sold by The Match Factory) proves to be a cinematic prototype that is genuinely special, a daring oddity that stands as a testament to the ingeniously original hallmark of this director, who is not one to back down from a challenge.

 

Ma Vie de Courgette (My Life as a Courgette aka My Life as a Zucchini) by Claude Barras

“We are all alike; there’s no one left to love us.” The Les Fontaines orphanage is home to seven ten-year-old children: the endearing protagonists in Swiss filmmaker Claude Barras’ stunning My Life as a Courgette, an animated feature debut, outstanding thanks to both its subject matter and its approach to it, which was unveiled in the Directors’ Fortnight at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

The quiet Courgette, whose real name is Icarus, has never met his father and sets off for Les Fontaines, his kite under his arm, following his alcoholic mother’s accidental death. In the orphanage, which is sequestered away from the city, he meets and learns about each of his partners in misfortune. Simon’s parents are constantly on drugs, Ahmed’s father is in prison after holding up a service station, Jujube’s mother has reached a very advanced stage of chronic-depressive delirium, while Bea’s mum has been deported to Africa, and Alice still has nightmares about the “disgusting things” her father did. As for the pretty Camille, under whose charm Courgette instantly falls, she was present as her father killed her mother, before taking his own life, and “her eyes show that she saw it all”.

As such, the short lives of these seven children are summed up by their precocious encounter with the world’s cruelty, meaning that it would have been easy for them to be created as part of the darkest vein of cinematic social realism. However, it’s a much different path, both softer and brighter, along which director Barras chose to walk with Céline Sciamma (proving the aptness of her writing following the trio of films about adolescence she worked on as a director: Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood), as they adapted Gilles Paris’ novel Autobiography of a Courgette.

Contrary to the popular paradigm of portraying orphanages as places of aggravated abuse, as in Oliver Twist, Les Fontaines is a haven of peace, conducive to reconstruction, tolerance and friendship. This positive approach to the darkness of the past definitely does not make light of those events, as the wounds, which rocked these children to their core, are still present and bubble up to the surface without taking centre stage, mainly being expressed through silences and glances. As such, the film has avoided falling into the trap of over-dramatization, skilfully dealing with topics with hard-hitting consequences (emotional emptiness, foster families, custodial rights, adoption, etc) and even more tactfully showing the simplicity of its poetic stance, which is fed by tender empathy and benevolent humor.

My Life as a Courgette is a calm representation with strong emotional potential thanks to its astounding mastery of stop-motion animation and the fact it toys marvelously with the contrast between these highly stylized “character-marionettes” and the naturalism of the dialogues and voices. Broken up into sequence shots, the film explores intimate topics far removed from those that have reigned supreme in contemporary animated films, which are based on speed and the spectacular. In the big, round eyes of Courgette and his friends, you can see their awareness of all the bitter violence in the world mingle with the regenerative virtues of friendship as well as the image of a better future, like a mirror for the viewers, who were all children at one stage of their lives.

Produced by Swiss outfit Rita Productions and France’s Blue Spirit Production, Gebeka Films and KNM, My Life as a Courgette is sold internationally by Indie Sales.



À peine j'ouvre les yeux (As I Open My Eyes) by Leila Bouzid (Premiered at 2015 Venice Days)

Farah is a curly-haired 18-year-old who longs to be free. She stays out late at night and drinks beer, she's a rebel, she's daring and explosive. It's the summer of 2010 in Tunisia, a few months before the beginning of the Arab Spring, but As I Open My Eyes by Leyla Bouzid is not about the revolution. The film by the up-and-coming Tunisian director, in competition in Venice Days at the 72nd Venice Film Festival, is the story of the months that immediately preceded it, following the path of a young singer who bravely and a little recklessly challenges government censorship, by bringing her voice and her lyrical allegations to bars and nightclubs frequented by Tunisian young people, and onto the streets.

We appear to really enter those clubs, the atmosphere, gestures and faces that are present within are so real. In the film by Bouzid, Tunisian nightlife is exhilarating: people toast, they sing, dance, then there's a race to the metro and everyone goes home. When Farah (newcomer Baya Medhaffer) returns home, however, she is met by reproaches from her mother Hayet (famous Tunisian singer Ghalia Benali). Farah sings in a local rock band and the police have started to keep an eye on her. The lyrics in her songs deal with the country's problems, lethargy and stolen dreams. Her mother, who was just as much a rebel when young, is well aware of the risks that she runs. But there's no stopping Farah: they take away her microphone and she continues singing, they cancel a concert and she improvises one on the street, her mother grounds her and, after locking her into her room, she goes out all the same. It's easy to imagine Farah, a few months later, protesting in the square against the Ben Ali regime. But the film takes a different course, and we don't know if the young, curly-haired rebel will succeed in pulling out her voice again.

As I Open My Eyes narrates with expressive and political power everyday life at a particular moment in time in the country. “Farah represents the strength of Tunisian young people and of all Arab artists who have to struggle to survive,” states Leyla Bouzid. “The film seeks to go further into about what has been told superficially by the media. Using a personal story, I sought to give an idea of the climate in which the revolution was born.” Would Farah be free to sing today? “There is greater awareness of the importance of freedom of speech today in Tunisia, but they still arrest bloggers and rappers,” explains the director. “You can sing, but you might have problems,” confirms the lead actress. “It's a constant battle, trying to raise the limits ever further. But it can only get better; I'm optimistic." Meanwhile, the film received financing from the Tunisian Ministry for Culture, and that's a good sign.

As I Open My Eyes is a Blue Monday Productions (France), Propaganda Production (Tunisia) and Hélicotronc (Belgium) production. International sales are entrusted to Parisian outfit Doc & Film International.

21st Annual International Press Academy Satellite Awards Nominations

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The International Press Academy (IPA) announces its nominations for the 21st Annual Satellite Awards and for the first time the IPA is awarding a separate independent film and major studio film as Best Picture. Each year, the IPA celebrates nominees from domestic and international submissions for 37 categories: 19 in Motion Pictures, 12 in Television, 2 in Blu-ray DVDs and 4 in Video Games.
Film critics and entertainment writers from throughout the world are members of the IPA, and its decisions are derived from domestic and international film festivals, guild screenings and press screenings.

This year’s nominees include diverse films such as Fences,La La Land,Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea and Hell and High Water. On the TV side, major nominees include The People v. O.J. Simpson and Game of Thrones.

The special achievement awards include; The Mary Pickford Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the Entertainment Industry goes this year to Edward James Olmos, TheNikola Tesla Award for visionary achievements in filmmaking technology goes to John Toll, The Auteur Award for creative vision and unique artistry made on audiences and fellow artists alike goes to Tom Ford and the Humanitarian Award will be presented to actor/activist Sir Patrick Stewart. The Best First Feature Award goes to Russudan Glurjidze for House of Others.

The Best Ensemble for Motion Pictures goes toHidden Figuresand the Best Ensemble for Television goes toOutlander.

The following are the Special Achievement Award Recipients
Mary Pickford Award: Edward James Olmos
Tesla Award: John Toll
Auteur Award: Tom Ford
Humanitarian Award: Patrick Stewart
Best First Feature: Russudan Glurjidze for House of Others
Best Ensemble Motion Picture: Hidden Figures
Best Ensemble Television: Outlander

Unfortunately the award continues to have too-many nominees per category which does not speak well about the group nor the awards, they should change rules to have fewer nominees in every category except perhaps Motion Picture. Nevertheless here are the nominees for a few categories.

Motion Pictures Categories

Motion Picture
Captain Fantastic
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
Jackie
La La Land
Lion
Loving
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Nocturnal Animals

Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media
Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings
Mis Hokusai
Moana
My Life As a Zucchini
The Jungle Book
The Red Turtle
Trolls
Your Name
Zootopia

Motion Picture, Documentary
13th
Fire at Sea
Gleason
Life Animated
O.J.: Made in America
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week
The Eagle Huntress
The Ivory Game
Tower
Zero Days

Motion Picture, International Film
A Man Called Ove, Sweden
Elle, France
Julieta, Spain
Ma' Rosa, Philippines
Paradise, Russia
The Ardennes, Belgium
The Handmaiden, South Korea
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki, Finland
The Salesman, Iran
Toni Erdmann, Germany

Director
Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Tom Ford for Nocturnal Animals
Mel Gibson for Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Pablo Larrain for Jackie
Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea
Denzel Washington for Fences

Actress
Amy Adams in Nocturnal Animals
Annette Bening in 20th Century Woman
Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures
Isabelle Huppert in Elle
Ruth Nega in Loving
Natalie Portman in Jackie
Emma Stone in La La Land
Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins

Actress in a Supporting Role
Viola Davis in Fences
Naomi Harris in Moonlight
Nicole Kidman in Lion
Helen Mirren in Eye in the Sky
Octavia Spencer in Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea

Actor
Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Joel Edgerton in Loving
Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Snowden
Ryan Gosling in La La Land
Tom Hanks in Sully
Viggo Mortensen in Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington in Fences

Actor in a Supporting Role
Mahershala Ali in Moonlight
Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water
Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins
Lucas Hedges in Manchester by the Sea
Eddie Murphy in Mr. Church
Dev Patel in Lion

To check nominees in other Motion Pictures categories as well as in TV categories go to official site here.  The Awards ceremony will be on February 19th, 2917 at InterContinental Hotel, Century City.

2016 Film Critics Awards

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As really enjoy when I guess right almost all Oscar winners and knowing that guessing is done best by following awards buzz and not considering how good movies are, then this year have to do again the critics' post and today is a good day to start post that will be a work in progress until the last group announces their winner which will happen in early February 2017.

Most critics' groups are American but you will also find groups from Canada, Ireland and UK. This year will include for again the FIPRESCI Grand Prix, an award that is voted by 553 film critics from all over the world. As in previous years' posts will publish link to read all winners and will list winners in the following categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Documentary. Before the list, and to have ALL critics in one post, is the summary for the major film critics' groups (each has an individual post in blog).
This year decide to include estimate dates for each group announcement in the 2016/2017 Key Dates Calendar. Most dates come from official site announcements while some are tentative from industry sources.

Major Critics' Groups

FIPRESCI
2016 Grand Prix: Toni Erdmann

Cahiers du Cinéma (CdC)
Top Ten List: Official Site
Top Film: Toni Erdmann

Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA)
Official Site
Winners: Official SitePost
Best Film: Moonlight
Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert in Elle and The Things to Come
Best Actor: Adam Driver in Paterson
Best Documentary:  I Am Not Your Negro

Critics' Choice Movie Awards (BFCA)
Official Site
Nominations: Official Site Post
Winners: Official SitePost Documentary 
Best Film: La La Land
Best Director: Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Best Actress: Natalie Portman in Jackie
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America

Golden Globe Awards (HFPA)
Official Site
NominationsOfficial SitePost

International Press Academy (Satellite Awards) (IPA)
Official Site
Nominations: Post

National Board of Review (NBR)
Official Site
WinnersOfficial Site
Best Film: Manchester by the Sea
Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best Actress: Amy Adams in Arrival
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America

New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC)
Official Site
Winners: Official SitePost
Best Film: La La Land
Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert in Elle and The Things To Come
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America

The List

African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA)
Official Site
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: Moonlight
Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best Actress: Ruth Nega in Loving
Best Actor: Denzel Washington in Fences
Best Documentary: 13th

Alliance of Women Film Journalists (EDA Awards) (AWFJ)
Official Site

Atlanta Film Critics Society (AFCS)
Official Site
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: La La Land
Best Director: Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Best Actress: Annette Bening in 20th Century Women
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sesa
Best Documentary: 13th

Austin Film Critics Association (AFCA)
Official Site

Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC)
Official Site

Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC)
Official Site
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: La La Land
Best Director: Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert in Elle and L'Avenir
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: O. J.: Made in America

Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA)
Official Site
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: Moonlight
Best Director: Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert in Elle
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: Cameraperson

Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA)
Official Site

Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA)
Official Site
Nominations: Official Site

Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association (DFWFCA)
Official Site
WinnersOfficial Site
Best Film: Moonlight
Best Director:  Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best Actress: Natalie Portman in Jackie
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: Tower

Denver Film Critics Society (DFCS1)
Official Site

Detroit Film Critics Society (DFCS2)
Official Site

Dublin Film Critics Circle (DFCC)

Filmcomment Film Society of Lincoln Center (FFSLC)
Best films of 2016: Official Site 
Number 1 Film: Toni Erdmann

Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC)
Official Site

Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (Dorian Awards) (GALECA)
Official Site

Georgia Film Critics Association (GFCA)
Official Site

The Guardian UK Top 10 films (TG)
Official SiteArticle

The Houston Film Critics Society (HFCS)
Official Site
Nominations: Article

Indiana Film Journalist Association (IFJA)
Official Site

Indiewire Annual Critics Survey (IW)
Official Site

Iowa Film Critics Association (IFCA)

Kansas City Film Critics Circle (KCFCC)
Official Site
Nominations: Official Site

Las Vegas Film Critics Society (LVFCS)
Official Site

London Film Critics Circle (LFCC)
Official Site

National Society of Film Critics (NSFC)
Official Site

Nevada Film Critics Society (NFCS)
Official Site

New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO)
Official Site
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: Moonlight
Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert in Elle
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Machester by the Sea
Best Documentary: 13th

North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA)
Official Site

North Texas Film Critics Association (NTFCA)
Official Site

Oklahoma Film Critics Circle (OFCC)
Facebook

Online Film Critics Society (OFCS)
Official Site

Phoenix Critics Circle (PCC)
Official Site

Phoenix Film Critics Society (PFCS)
Official Site
NominationsOfficial Site

RollingStone Magazine (RS)
Article in Magazine: Official Site
Number 1 Film: La La Land

St. Louis Film Critics Association (SLFCA)
Official Site
Nominations: Official Site

San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS)
Official Site
Nominations: Official Site
WinnersOfficial Site
Best Film: Hell or High Water
Best Director: David Mackenzie for Hell or High Water
Best Actress: Sonia Braga in Aquarius
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: Weiner

San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC)
Official Site
Nominations: Official Site
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: Moonlight
Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert in Elle
Best Actor: Denzel Washington in Fences
Best Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro

ScreenDaily UK Magazine (SD)
Article in Magazine:  Official Site
Number 1 Film: Toni Erdmann

Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS)
Official Site

Sight&Sound Film Magazine (163 International Critics) (S&S)
Article in Magazine: Official Site
Number 1 Film: Toni Erdmann 

Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA)
Awards Site

Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA)
Official Site
Winners: Official Twitter
Best Film: Moonlight
Best Director: Maren Ade for Toni Erdmann
Best Actress: Sandra Hüller in Toni Erdmann
Best Actor:  Adam Driver in Paterson
Best Documentary: Cameraperson

Utah Film Critics Association (UFCA)

Vancouver Film Critics Circle (VFCC)
Official Site

Variety Film Critics Poll (VFCP)
Official Site

The Village Voice Critics Poll (TVVC)
Official Site

The Washington DC Area Film Critics (WAFCA)
Official Site
WinnersOficial Site
Best Film:  La La Land
Best Director: Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Best Actress: Natalie Portman in Jackie
Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Documentary: 13th

Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC)
Official Site
Nominations: Article

Tally

The following is a summary with winners in the five main categories. Tally will be update when each group makes their announcement.

Best Film
7 - Moonlight (LAFCA, BOFCA, NYFCO, SFFCC, TFCA, AAFCA, DFWFCA)
6 - La La Land (NYFCC, AFCS, WAFCA, BSFC, BFCA, RS)
5 - Toni Erdmann (FIPRESCI, CdC, S&S, SD, FFSLC)
1 - Manchester by the Sea (NBR)
1 - Hell or High Water (SDFCS)

Best Director
7 - Barry Jenkins for Moonlight (NBR, NYFCC, LAFCA, NYFCO, SFFCC, AAFCA, DFWFCA)
5 - Damien Chazelle for La La Land (AFCS, WAFCA, BOFCA, BSFC,  BFCA)
1 - Maren Ade for Toni Erdmann (TFCA)
1 - David Mackenzie for Hell or High Water (SDFCS)

Best Actress
6 - Isabelle Huppert in Elle and/or The Things to Come (NYFCC, LAFCA, BOFCA, NYFCO, SFFCC, BSFC)
3 - Natalie Portman in Jackie (WAFCA, BFCA, DFWFCA)
1 - Amy Adams in Arrival (NBR)
1 - Annette Bening in 20th Century Woman (AFCS)
1 - Sandra Hüller in Toni Erdmann (TFCA)
1 - Ruth Nega in Loving (AAFCA)
1 - Sonia Braga in Aquarius (SDFCS)

Best Actor
10 - Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea (NBR, NYFCC, AFCS, WAFCA, BOFCA, NYFCO, BSFC, BFCA, SDFCS, DFWFCA)
2 - Adam Driver in Paterson (LAFCA, TFCA)
2 - Denzel Washington in Fences (SFFCC, AAFCA)

Best Documentary
4 - O.J.: Made in America (NBR, BFCA, NYFCC, BSFC)
4 - 13th (AFCS, WAFCA, NYFCO, AAFCA)
2 - I Am Not Your Negro (LAFCA, SFFCC)
2 - Cameraperson (BOFCA, TFCA)
1 - Weiner ( SDFCS)
1 - Tower (DFWFCA)

2016 New York Film Critics Circle Award Winners

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Since nine this morning the group started to vote and a few minutes ago finally reached the last category to after too-many hours of voting unveil the winners of this group that many call "harbingers of the Oscar nominations" but unfortunately last year was far very-far away from what happened, as Carol was barely honored by the Academy.

These are the award winners listed at the group official site.

Best Feature Film: La La Land

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary): O.J.: Made in America
Best Animated FilmZootopia
Best Foreign Language Film: Toni Erdmann

Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Best First Film:  Kelly Fremon Craig for The Edge of Seventeen and Trey Edward Shults for Krisha

Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert in Elle and L'Avenir (The Things to Come)
Best Supporting Actress: Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea and Certain Women

Best Actor:  Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali in Moonlight

Best Cinematographer: James Laxton for Moonlight
Best Screenplay: Keneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea

Special Award
Thelma Schoonmaker and Julie Dash for Daughters of the Dust (25th Anniversary Restoration)

To check the list at the official site go here.

Seems clear that East Coast industry groups -Gotham and NYFCC- have honored Isabelle Huppert with the Best Actress awards, now we have to wait to see what happens in the West Coast but the wait will not be long as next Sunday, December 4 Los Angeles major film critics group will vote their awards.  If LAFCA also honors Huppert then her chances for an Oscar nomination will highly improve as well as perhaps even get the award.  But we have to remember that film critics and Academy members are not the same and many years have shown to be very different in what they honor.

This year I'm not really interested in many categories, with the exception of Best Actress that hope could be interesting, less conventional and yes, honor Isabelle Huppert!!! (LOL!).

2016 British Independent Film Awards winners

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Yesterday BIFA had their awards ceremony and surprise-surprise there was NO live streaming!  They decided to do the red-black-carpet, some winners interviews and perhaps more that I was not interested in watching.  Nevertheless was able to follow winners in twiter feeds from official site plus more that announced live.

The most pleasant news for me is the recognition of Andrea Arnold that won Best Director and her film American Honey got the Best British Independent Film award plus Sasha Lane won Best Actress and Robbie Ryan won Outstanding Achievement in Craft. American Honey was the top award winner and lead with four (4) awards. Most interesting is to have UK's submission to Oscar in the foreign language category, Under the Shadow, following with three (3) awards. Surprisingly, Cannes Palm d'Or winner, I, Daniel Blake collected two (2) awards.

The Special Jury Prize was presented to Clare Binns by Edith Bowman and Mark Herbert. The jury praised her unstinting efforts in bringing independent film to new audiences.

As previously announced Naomie Harris was presented The Variety Award by Danny Boyle in recognition of the global impact she has made in 2016, helping to focus the international film spotlight on the UK. The Richard Harris Award was presented to Alison Steadman by Richard Harris’ granddaughter Ella Harris and Alison’s co-star from Life Is Sweet, Claire Skinner. The award recognizes outstanding contribution to British film by an actor.

Best British Independent Film: American Honey, Andrea Arnold
Best DocumentaryNotes on Blindness, Pete Middleton and James Spinney

Best Director: Andrea Arnold for American Honey
The Douglas Hickox Award for Debut Director:  Babak Anvari for Under the Shadow

Best Screenplay:  Babak Anvari for Under the Shadow
Debut Screenwriter:  Rachel Tunnard for Adult Life Skills

Best Actress: Sasha Lane in American Honey
Best Supporting Actress:  Avin Manshadi in Under the Shadow
Best Actor: Dave Johns in I, Daniel Blake
Best Supporting Actor:  Brett Goldstein in Adult Life Skills
Most Promising  Newcomer: Hayley Squires in I, Daniel Blake

Outstanding Achievement in Craft: Robbie Ryan, cinematographer, American Honey

The Discovery AwardThe Greasy Strangler, Jim Hosking
Best International Independent FilmMoonlight, Barry Jenkins, USA

Breakthrough Producer: Camille Gatin for The Girl With All the Gifts

Best British ShortJacked, Rene Pannevis

To check winners at ther official site go here.

2016 Los Angeles Film Critics Association

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Since early morning the film critics group started to deliberate, vote and announce their winners.  The process went long after the infamous lunch break until the last announcement was made for a special citation.  In between the most pleasant news came when they announced Best Actress winner as with a not-so-usual agreement, East coast and West coast cinema pundits agree on a non-American actress, Isabelle Huppert!

Of course I simply LOVE the news as most of blog loyal readers know, she's one of my most favorite actress, one that makes me watch every single movie she's in (at least try as she is a very-hard-working actress with too-many films per year) and one that deserves ALL the top cinema honors in the world, including infamous Oscar.  As been saying aloud, there is a strong marketing campaign for her Oscar nomination and obviously is working as top critics and east-coast award already succumbed to her.  Now let's hope she gets an Oscar nomination and we can dream she winning the award but let's recall that 2016 films have too-many extraordinary performances by outstanding actresses.

Most impressed with the group honoring one of the most outstanding films from 2016, The Handmaiden, as not only has a terrific story but visuals, production design and cinematography are almost perfection, sigh! Film is a true feast to the eyes but comes with a very-explicit-violent drama surely not for all audiences; but for me, the drama kept me at edge of my seat and made me forgot that already knew the story, which was great!

Many have already started to speculate that this award season race will be between La La Land,Moonlight and Machester by the Sea.  Unless something happens before Oscar nominations announcement in January 2017, I agree but still have hope that another movie becomes a contender, like for example Pablo Larrain's Jackie.

These are the award winners listed at the group official site and also the runner-up for each category.

Best Picture: Moonlight
Runner-up: La La Land

Best Director: Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
Runner-up: Damien Chazelle for La La Land

Best Actress: Isabelle Hupert in Elle and L'Avenir (Things to Come)
Runner-up: Rebecca Hall in Christine

Best Supporting Actress: Lily Gladstone in Certain Women
Runner-up: Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea

Best Actor: Adam Driver in Paterson
Runner-up: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali in Moonlight
Runner-up: Issey Ogata in Silence

Best Screenplay: Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos for The Lobster
Runner-up: Keneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea

Best Production Design: Ryu Seong-Hee for The Handmaiden
Runner-up: David Wasco for La La Land

Best Editing: Bret Granato, Maya Mumma and Ben Sozanski for OJ: Made in America
Runner-up: Tom Cross for La La Land

Best Cinematography: James Laxton for Moonlight
Runner-up: Linus Sandgren for La La Land

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: I Am Not Your Negro
Runner-up: OJ: Made in America

Best AnimationKimi no na wa (Your Name)
Runner-up:  La Tortue Rouge (The Red Turtle)

New Generation: Trey Edward Shults and Krisha Fairchild for Krisha
Douglas Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video: Deborah Stratman for The Illinois Parables
Special Citation:  Turner Classic Movies for Preserving Historic Cinema via Filmstruck

Career Achievement:  Shirley Maclaine

To check winners at official site go here.

#Oscars2017 Documentary Features Shortlist

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A few weeks ago The Academy announced One hundred forty-five (145) documentary films were submitted for consideration, now announces the shortlist with a surprising fifteen docs -instead of the usual ten- in the shortlist from where five (5) will be honored with a nomination.

As expected Golden Bear winner Fire at Sea made the short list but also the three docs that up-to-today have won film critics awards, OJ: Made in America, 13th and I Am Not Your Negro.  Then also made the shortlist Weiner, which I tried to watch but really was annoying watching the excess of delusional situations, so stopped watching.

These are the fifteen films that will be considered by the Academy's Documentary Branch to select the five nominations that will be announced on Tuesday, January 27, 2017.

Cameraperson, Kristen Johnson, USA
Command and Control, Robert Kenner, USA
The Eagle Huntress, Otto Bell, UK, Mongolia and USA
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi, Italy and France
Gleason, Clay Tweel, USA
I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck, USA. Belgium, Switzerland and France
The Ivory Game, Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani, Austria
Life, Animated, Roger Ross Williams, USA
O.J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman, USA
13th, Ava DuVernay, USA
Tower, Keith Maitland, USA
Weiner, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg,  USA
The Witness, James D. Solomon, USA
Ye Haiyan (Hooligan Sparrow), Nanfu Wang, China and USA
Zero Days, Alex Gibney, USA

Cameraperson by Kristen Johnson
Synopsis: A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage captured over the twenty-five-year career of documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Through a series of episodic juxtapositions, Johnson explores the relationships between image makers and their subjects, the tension between the objectivity and intervention of the camera, and the complex interaction of unfiltered reality and crafted narrative. A work that combines documentary, autobiography, and ethical inquiry, Cameraperson is both a moving glimpse into one filmmaker’s personal journey and a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world.



Command and Control by Robert Kenner
Synopsis: The message of Robert Kenner's documentary Command and Control is crisp and scary. Atomic weapons are man-made machines. Man-made machines sooner or later break. A very serious accident, or even atomic apocalypse is only a matter of time. Actually a very serious accident did happen in 1980 at a nuclear missile in Arkansas, when the area around, the continent and maybe the whole world was close to a disaster maybe similar in proportions to the one that happened in Chernobyl in Ukraine (than part of the Soviet Union) a few years later. I liked the low-key documentary style of this production. The authors restrained from commenting too much (although there are a few punch lines) and let the facts speak. It is amazing how much filmed material was available if we are taking into account the classified nature of the events that took place. We can also draw some conclusions, this being mostly left to us, viewers. At the end of the day the safety systems in place worked, but the wrong decisions of the human factors did not lack either. What was different from the incident in the Soviet Union besides the very existence and quality of the safety equipment was also the fact that the decisions were made at a relative low level, and eventually the right decisions prevailed. Heroism was there, at least one precious life was lost, and several people remained with physical and psychological traumas, not to speak about the imposed silence about the events. For these people the film is an act of recovery and rehabilitation which seems to be well deserved. One more thought could not escape me when seeing this film - how young the heroes of this story were. The safety of the nuclear devices was put in the hands of very young people in uniform, who were only a few years before just kids. Many of the members of the emergency teams were also very young. Maybe one day a film needs to be made about those kids, or men and women who have been so recently kids to whom we trust not only the manipulation of deadly weapons, but the very existence of the planet and of life on it.



The Eagle Huntress by Otto Bell
Synopsis: Follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old nomadic Mongolian girl who is fighting to become the first female eagle hunter in twelve generations of her Kazakh family.



Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) by Gianfranco Rosi
Synopsis: The documentary captures life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis. Situated some 200km off Italy’s southern coast, Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants hoping to make a new life in Europe. Rosi spent months living on the Mediterranean island, capturing its history, culture and the current everyday reality of its 6,000-strong local population as hundreds of migrants land on its shores on a weekly basis. The resulting documentary focuses on 12-year-old Samuele, a local boy who loves to hunt with his slingshot and spend time on land even though he hails from a culture steeped in the sea.



Gleason by Clay Tweel
Synopsis: At the age of 34, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS. Doctors gave the former NFL defensive back and New Orleans hero two to five years to live. So that is what Steve chose to do - LIVE: with purpose, for his newborn son, for his wife, and to help others with his disease.



I Am Not Your Negro by Raoul Peck
Synopsis: In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of this manuscript. Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.



The Ivory Game by Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani
Synopsis: The Ivory Game is an undercover feature-documentary, set to expose the dark world of ivory trafficking. The African elephant faces extinction as poachers wreak slaughter in pursuit of the ‘white gold’ of ivory, considered a symbol of luxury and power amongst the new rising Chinese middle-class.



Life, Animated by Roger Ross Williams
Synopsis:  the inspirational story of Owen Suskind, a young man who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films.



O.J.: Made in America by Ezra Edelman
Synopsis: It is the defining cultural tale of modern America - a saga of race, celebrity, media, violence, and the criminal justice system. And two decades after its unforgettable climax, it continues to fascinate, polarize, and even, yes, develop new chapters. Now, the producers of ESPN's award-winning "30 for 30" have made it the subject of their first documentary-event and most ambitious project yet. From Peabody and Emmy-award winning director Ezra Edelman, it's "O.J.: Made in America," a 10-hour multi-part production coming summer of 2016. To most observers, it's a story that began the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were brutally murdered outside her Brentwood apartment. But as "O.J." lays bare, to truly grasp the significance of what happened not just that night, but the epic chronicle to follow, one has to travel back to a much different, much earlier origin point, at not the end, but the beginning of the 20th century, when African-Americans began migrating to California ...



13th by Ava DuVernay
Synopsis: Extraordinary and galvanizing documentary 13th refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly ncarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.



Tower by Keith Maitland
Synopsis: August 1, 1966, was the day our innocence was shattered. A sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the iconic University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes in what was a previously unimaginable event. TOWER combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation of the dramatic day, based entirely on first person testimonies from witnesses, heroes and survivors, in a seamless and suspenseful retelling of the unfolding tragedy. The film highlights the fear, confusion, and visceral realities that changed the lives of those present, and the rest of us, forever - a day when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.



Weiner by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg
Synopsis: Serving seven consecutive terms, Anthony Weiner, good friends with and political allies to the Clintons, was once a highly respected member of Congress from New York City, he seen as a man sticking up for the every day person. That all changed in June, 2011 when he was forced to resign in disgrace after admitting that he did tweet lewd "headless" photos of himself from his public Twitter account to women he met online, and that it was not the work of a hacker or that the photos were of someone else. At the time, his wife Huma Abedin, herself a key aide to Hillary Clinton, was pregnant with their first child, she who decided to stand by her man. Two years later with Abedin still by his side, Weiner tries to resurrect his political career in a run for New York City mayor. He realizes that he has an uphill battle not only because of the known previously tweeted photos, but that there are other lewd photos from that era that may also come to light during the campaign



The Witness by James D. Solomon
Synopsis: Bill Genovese's decade-long journey to unravel the truth about the mythic death and little-known life of his sister, Kitty, who was reportedly stabbed in front of 38 witnesses and became the face of urban apathy. THE WITNESS begins in 2004 when The Times questions its original story: the number of witnesses, what they observed, the number of attacks. None was more affected by the story than Bill. He vowed not to be like the 38, volunteered for Vietnam, and lost both legs. What if Kitty's mythic story is an urban myth? Breaking his family's half-century of silence, Bill seeks to find the truth confronting the witnesses, the killer, their families and his own. THE WITNESS is about bearing witness, loss and forgiveness, and what we owe each other.



Ye Haiyan (Hooligan Sparrow) by Nanfu Wang
Synopsis: The danger is palpable as intrepid young filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows maverick activist Ye Haiyan (a.k.a Hooligan Sparrow) and her band of colleagues to Hainan Province in southern China to protest the case of six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal. Marked as enemies of the state, the activists are under constant government surveillance and face interrogation, harassment, and imprisonment. Sparrow, who gained notoriety with her advocacy work for sex workers’ rights, continues to champion girls’ and women’s rights and arms herself with the power and reach of social media.



Zero Days by Alex Gibney
Synopsis: A black ops cyber-attack launched by the U.S. and Israel on an Iranian nuclear facility unleashed malware with unforeseen consequences. The Stuxnet virus infiltrated its pre-determined target only to spread its infection outward, ultimately exposing systemic vulnerabilities that threatened the very safety of the planet. Delve deep into the burgeoning world of digital warfare in this documentary thriller from Academy Award® winning filmmaker Alex Gibney.



29th European Film Awards Winners

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Very long and highly tiring awards ceremony but finally is over. Sigh. To be fair there were some very funny moments but speeches were too-long/too-much.

I'm not surprised Toni Erdmann swept the awards but in all fairness was wondering if European Academia will follow Cannes or film critics and seems went with film critics. Sigh.  Not that I mind as win is a milestone, is the first film by a female director to win the top award.  Bravo!

By the way is quite interesting to notice that is the second year in a row that a Swedish comedy wins Best Comedy and is kind of motivating me to check the films to see if they're my kind of comedy or not (I like mostly very black, dry, dead-pan comedy).

To check award winners at official site go here.

European FilmToni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany and Austria

European Comedy: En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), Hannes Holm, Sweden and Norway
European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI: Hymyilevä mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki), Juho Kuosmanen, Finland, Germany and Sweden
European Animated FilmMa Vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini), Claude Barras, Switzerland and France
European Documentary: Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi, Italy and France

European Director:  Maren Ade for Toni Erdmann

European Actress: Sandra Hüller in Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade
European Actor: Peter Simonischek in Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade

European Screenwriter: Maren Ade for Toni Erdman, Maren Ade

European Short Film: 9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo, Issa Touma, Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen, Netherlands, 12' (documentary) Bristol Short Film Nominee

A few days back the European Film Academy announced the first seven (7) award winners who will be honored tonight.  A special seven-member jury convened in Berlin to decide the winners in mainly tech categories:  cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, hair & make-up, composer and sound design.

The members of the jury were:
Benoît Barouh, production designer, France
Paco Delgado, costume designer, Spain
Martin Gschlacht, cinematographer, Austria
Dean Humphreys, sound designer, UK
Era Lapid, editor, Israel
Waldemar Pokromski, make-up artist, Poland
Giuliano Taviani, composer, Italy

European Cinematographer - Prix Carlo di Palma: Camilla Hjelm Knudsen for Under Sandet (Land of Mine), Martin Zandvliet, Denmark and Germany
European Editor: Anne Østerud and Janus Billeskov Jansen for Kollektivet (The Commune), Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark, Sweden and Netherlands
European Production Designer: Alice Nomington for Suffragette, Sarah Gavron, UK
European Costume Designer: Stefanie Bieker for Under Sandet (Land of Mine), Martin Zandvliet, Denmark and Germany
European Hair & Make-up Artist: Barbara Kreuzer for Under Sandet (Land of Mine), Martin Zandvliet, Denmark and Germany
European Composer: Ilya Demutsky for (M)uchenik (The Student), Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia
European Sound Designer: Radoslaw Ochnio for 11 Minut (11 Minutes), Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland and Ireland

European University Film Award:  I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK and France

People's Choice Award for Best European FilmCiało (Body), Małgorzata Szumowska, Poland Young Audience Award: Jamais Contente (Miss Impossible), Emilie Deleuze, France

European Co-Production Award - Prix Eurimages: Leontine Petit, producer, Netherlands
European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award: Jean-Claude Carrière
European Achievement in World Cinema: Pierce Brosnan, actor, Ireland
Honorary Award of the EFA President and Board: Andrzej Wajda, director, Poland R.I.P.

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