Noticias

The Sun Valley Film Festival announced their 2023 award winners, with National Geographic’s Documentary “Wild Life” taking home the audience award, “Fancy Dance” winning best narrative and “Nascondino” earning the documentary feature film prize. The annual Idaho Awards Bash took place from March 29 to April 2 at Whiskey Jacques.

In addition to the film awards, the festival hosted a performance by Blair Gun and Variety honored this year’s 10 Producers to Watch. Other highlights include Josh Brolin receiving the Vision award, Emilio Estevez receiving the Pioneer award, Sophie Thatcher receiving the Rising Star award and Nina Yang Bongiovi receiving the Creative Impact Honoree in Producing.

Since 2012, each spring has brought another Svff celebration of groundbreaking new films and television premieres, with opportunities for filmmakers to connect with one another and find mentorship through industry panels, coffee talks and screenwriting workshops. Svff also works year-round to bring special projects to Sun Valley.

Everything Everywhere All at Once won big at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards, taking home seven awards out of eight nominations. The only award it didn’t win was, interestingly enough, one it did win, as Ke Huy Quan beat Jamie Lee Curtis in the Best Supporting Performance category.

Here are the winners of winners of the 38th Independent Spirit Awards:

Movies:

Best Feature:

Bones and All

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Our Father, The Devil

Tár

Women Talking

Best Director:

Todd Field, Tár

Kogonada, After Yang

Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Sarah Polley, Women Talking

Halina Reijn, Bodies Bodies Bodies

Best First Feature:

Aftersun

Emily the Criminal

The Inspection

Murina

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Best Lead Performance:

Cate Blanchett, Tár

Dale Dickey, A Love Song

Mia Goth, Pearl

Regina Hall, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Paul Mescal, Aftersun

Aubrey Plaza, Emily the Criminal

Jeremy Pope,...

‘Aftersun’ wins Best First Feature, ‘Joyland’ Best International Film.

A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once has dominated the 2023 Spirit Awards, claiming seven of the eight awards it was nominated for including film, director for the Daniels, and lead and supporting performance for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, respectively.

As awards season nears its climax, the madcap multiverse adventure heads into next weekend’s Oscars as the clear frontrunner for major honours after a triumphant Saturday evening under the traditional Film Independent tent on the beach in Santa Monica.

This follows major wins at three of the four US...

The blue carpet has been rolled up, and now we know who are the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards winners. The list of nominees recognized the best among films made for under $30 million in 2023 — that’s an increase from the previous budget cap, in recognition of ever-increasing production costs.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” earned pretty much a clean sweep: winning all seven of the categories in which it was nominated, including Best Feature, and seven of its eight nominees winning overall — Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis were competing against each other in one category, Supporting Performance, with the former winning.

Yes, the 38th edition of the awards put on by Film Independent have made a change previously adopted by the Gotham Awards: to have gender-neutral performance categories. That means Cate Blanchett was not just competing against Michelle Yeoh for Best Lead Performance (who ultimately won), but also Paul Mescal...

Everything Everywhere All at Once cleaned up at the 38th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, winning seven awards, including best feature.

Stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan each collected another award to add to their hauls, taking home best lead performance and best supporting performance, respectively, while Stephanie Hsu won best breakthrough performance. The film’s writer-directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, won the Spirit Award for best director and best screenplay, and Paul Rogers won for his editing work.

Heading into the show, Everything Everywhere All at Once led the film nominations with eight nods, winning every category in which it was nominated. Jamie Lee Curtis also was nominated but lost to her Eeao co-star Quan for best supporting performance.

On the TV side, The Bear was named best new scripted series, with Ayo Edebiri taking home the award for best supporting performance in a new scripted series.

Celebrating its 38th edition, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have unveiled their 2023 nominations, with the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once leading the pack with eight nominations while Todd Field’s TÁR secured seven. Along with those two, rounding out the Best Feature nominations were Bones and All, Our Father, the Devil, and Women Talking. Elsewhere, some of our favorites of the year––including Aftersun, Murina, The African Desperate, The Cathedral, After Yang, All That Breathes, Saint Omer, and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed––were recognized.

Check out the nominations below ahead of the March 4 ceremony.

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

Bones and All

Producers: Timothée Chalamet, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Luca Guadagnino, David Kajganich, Lorenzo Mieli, Marco Morabito, Gabriele Moratti, Theresa Park, Peter Spears

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Producers: Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang

Our Father, the Devil

Producers: Ellie Foumbi,...

This year's Film Independent Spirit Awards – the 38th — announced their nominations. And it's shaping up to potentially be a very good ceremony for Everything Everywhere All At Once, TÁR, Women Talking and more.

The awards will be handed out on 4 March, though other details are in flux: broadcast for the last few years on us cable channel IFC, the ceremony's organisers are currently looking for a new TV home. Still, the celebration of indie movies will go ahead as planned.

And while the Indie Spirits don't tend to be a huge Oscar indicator, we'd expect at least a few of the nominees to also show up on the Academy Awards nominations list, to be announced on 24 January.

Check out the full Indie Spirit nomination list below…

Best Feature

Bones And All

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Our Father, The Devil

TÁR

Women Talking

Best First Feature

Aftersun

Emily The Criminal...

The film has eight nominations, followed by Todd Field’s ’Tár’ with seven

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All At Once leads the 38th Independent Spirit Awards nominations with eight nods, followed closely by Todd Field’s Tár which has seven nominations.

Both films are up for best feature alongside Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All, Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, The Devil, and Sarah Polley’s Women Talking.

Everything Everywhere’s nominations include best director and screenplay. The film’s star Michelle Yeoh is also nominated for best lead performance in the awards’ first year using gender-neutral acting categories.

The 2023 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations were unveiled on Tuesday, November 22, crowning the past year’s top achievements in indie film. The awards ceremony is over three months away — it takes place March 4 in Santa Monica — but these films now gain traction in the months ahead on the road to the Oscars and other awards. This year’s crop of nominees were revealed by presenters Taylour Paige and Raúl Castillo (a nominee for Best Supporting Male for 2018’s “We the Animals”). This year’s television nominees will be revealed later on December 13.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” leads the nominees with nods in eight categories, with “TÁR” close behind with seven nominations, including Best Feature, Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, Best Screenplay, and Best Director.

In a first for Film Independent, this year’s awards shifted to gender-neutral acting categories in lead and supporting across film and television. Other...

Click here to read the full article.

The 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations in film categories were revealed Tuesday morning.

Taylour Paige and Raúl Castillo announced this year’s movie nominees in a livestream on Film Independent’s YouTube channel.

A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the nominations with eight nods including best feature, directing and screenplay (for filmmaking duo Daniels). Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu were also honored for their performances. Other leading Oscar contenders landing Spirit Awards nods include Focus Features’ Tàr (which earned seven nominations, among them for Todd Field’s direction and writing, as well as performances from Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss), United Artists’ Bones and All (recognized with three nods including for its performances from Taylor Russell and Mark Rylance) and A24’s The Inspection (earning nods for actors Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union, in addition...

“Bones and All,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Our Father, the Devil,” “Tár” and “Women Talking” have have been nominated as the best independent films of 2022 at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which announced its nominations on Tuesday morning by Taylour Paige and Raúl Castillo.

Acting nominees in the gender-neutral categories include Brian Tyree Henry for “Causeway,” Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss for “Tár,” Regina King for “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul” and Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Those three acting nominations for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” along with a Breakthrough Performance nom for Stephanie Hsu, pushed that film to eight nominations, the most of any film. “Tár” finished second with seven nominations, followed by “Aftersun” with five and “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” “Women Talking” and “Emily the Criminal” with four each.

Also Read:

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once...

When audiences return for the 63rd edition of the Thessaloniki Intl. Film Festival, which runs Nov. 3-13, many hoping to discover the new wave of up-and-coming local talent might be searching for the next “Magnetic Fields,” the feature debut of graphic artist-turned-director Yorgos Goussis. After riding the success of its 2021 Thessaloniki premiere to sweep the country’s local Academy Awards, the film is representing Greece in the international feature film Oscar race.

Since its modest origins as Greek Cinema Week among movie-lovers in this handsome seaside city, the Thessaloniki event has offered a launching pad for emerging Greek talents ranging from Goussis to Theo Angelopoulos, the towering figure of 20th-century Greek cinema, who premiered his first feature, “Reconstruction,” at the fest in 1970.

Half a century later, Greece is enjoying its brightest big-screen moment since the likes of Academy Award nominee Yorgos Lanthimos ushered in the Greek Weird Wave in the late ’00s.

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month and amongst the highlights is a tribute to Tilda Swinton, featuring I Am Love and a trio of early films: Cycling Frame, The Box, and Egomania: Island Without Hope. There’s also a handful of notable festival favorites and new releases from the past year or so, including Maureen Fazendeiro and Miguel Gomes’ The Tsugua Diaries, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Jane by Charlotte, Ted Fendt’s Outside Noise, Émilie Aussel’s Our Eternal Summer, and Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah’s Public Toilet Africa.

Also including films by Takashi Miike, Fatih Akin, Zhang Yimou, Albert Maysles, Andrew Dominik, Rick Alverson, and more check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

August 1 – Ichi the Killer, directed by Takashi Miike | Takashi Miike: A Double Bill

August 2 – Nest, directed by Hlynur Palmason | Brief Encounters

August 3 – Our Eternal Summer, directed by Émilie Aussel | Festival Focus:...

The debut film by Yorgos Gousis won prizes for best film first-time director, screenplay and actress.

Newcomer Yorgos Gousis’s Magnetic Fields and Grigoris Karantinakis’ second film Smyrna have dominated the 2022 Iris film awards of the Hellenic Film Academy.

Magnetic Fields won for best film, first- time director, screenplay and best actress prizes, while Smyrna was awarded the trophies for best cinematography, production design and costume design.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Magnetic Fields is a road movie about a man and a woman who have met by chance on a boat and decide to stick together...

On the heels of a successful in-person event that welcomed such stars as Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler, Liev Schreiber and “Dopesick” creator Danny Strong, the 2022 Sun Valley Film Festival, which ran from March 30 to April 3, announced its juried film award winners.

Best narrative feature film went to “Linoleum,” directed by Colin West. “Holy Emy,” helmed by Araceli Lemos, received a special mention. Ron Howard’s “We Feed People” netted the fest’s audience award.

The winners were announced during the Idaho fest’s annual awards bash, which took place at Whiskey Jacques on Ketchum’s main drag of town, and was hosted by filmmaker Bobby Farrelly and comedian Hayes MacArthur, with a musical performance by the Nude Party.

Voting jury members at the fest included Jo Addy (global film and entertainment director of Soho House), Eric Bress, Trevor Groth (film financier at 30West) and producer Heather Rae.

Other awards went to “Mama Bears,...

Araceli Lemos is a director, writer, and editor born in Athens, Greece, currently based in Los Angeles. Her debut feature, “Holy Emy” premiered at Locarno Iff 2021, where it won the Special Mention of the competition section “Filmmakers of the Present.”

Abigael Loma is an actress who made her debut in Holy Emy.

Joel Garber is a consulting producer in Holy Emy, and also a script writer, director, editor and actor. Other works of his include Connie (2017) and Scenes from a Real Marriage (2018).

On the occasion of “Holy Emy” screening in Thessaloniki International Film Festival, we speak with them a

Can you tell me a bit about how you ended up shooting a film about two Filipino sisters in Greece?

Araceli Lemos: In the beginning, the script was a theoretical idea about two sisters, which actually came from a short story from Japanese writer Yoko Ogawa, who was writing about her...

It is not everyday we get to watch a Greek production about Filipinos in Greece, and even more, one that looks as a Filipino film at least as much as a Greek. Araceli Lemos, however, has managed to do just that, in a movie that is as weird as it is intriguing, and captivating on occasion.

“Holy Emy” is screening at the 62nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival

With their mother having returned to the Philippines after some mysterious incidents in the house she used to work as a domestic help, sisters Emy and Teresa are left to fend for themselves for the most part, with the help of an aunt, Linda, and the Filipino Catholic community in Athens. Teresa works at a fish seller’s and she tries to convince the owner to hire her sister also, but Emy has an unusual condition that causes her to shed tears of blood,...

Athens-based Endorphin Film Sales has acquired the rights to “Kick and Scream,” the directorial debut of Croatian actress Nina Violić, the company announced this week at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The film follows the final half-hour of a marriage that is falling apart, shown from the perspectives of the wife, husband, and their 6-year-old child. As reality intertwines with puppet play, the characters’ own truths are revealed, challenging the viewer’s initial judgments.

“Kick and Scream” is produced by Vanja Sremac and Zdenka Gold for Spiritus Movens, in co-production with Terminal 3, MP Filmska Produkcija, Zagreb Film, Propeler Film and Antitalent.

Endorphin’s Christina Pelekani said the company was looking for an almost completed film to add to its slate when they found “Kick and Scream” in the First Cut+ section of When East Meets West, the Trieste Film Festival’s co-production forum.

“We knew from the first moment that this could be the one,...

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay CashINTERNATIONAL Competition(Jury: Eliza Hittman, Kevin Jerome Everson, Philippe Lacôte, Leonor Silveira, Isabelle Ferrari)Golden Leopard: Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Edwin) | Read our reviewSpecial Jury Prize: A New Old Play (Jiongjiong Qiu) | Read our reviewBest Direction: Abel Ferrara (Zeros and Ones) | Read our reviewBest Actress: Anastasiya Krasovskaya (Gerda)Best Actor: Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar (The Odd-Job Men)Special Mention: Soul of a Beast (Lorenz Merz) and The Sacred Spirit (Chema García Ibarra) | Read our reviewFILMMAKERS Of The Present( Jury: Agathe Bonitzer, Mattie Do, Vanja Kaludjercic)Golden Leopard: Brotherhood (Francesco Montagner)Special Jury Prize: L'Été l'éternité (Émilie Aussel)Prize for Best Emerging Director: Hleb Papou (The Legionnaire) Best Actress: Saskia Rosendahl (No One's with the Calves) | Read our reviewBest Actor: Gia Agumava (Wet Sand)First Feature(Jury: Amjad Abu Alala, Karina Ressler, Katharina Wyss)Best First Feature: She Will (Charlotte Colbert...

Given that, after its shuttered 2020 edition, the 74th Locarno Film Festival’s ident features a prowling, growling, resurgent leopard and the distinctly tumescent tagline “Cinema is Back” it’s somewhat ironic that the festival’s top prize should go to a film about erectile dysfunction.

In other ways, however, Indonesian director Edwin’s fabulously if nonsensically titled “Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash” is perhaps the ideal Golden Leopard winner, in what is a strange year for the world, and a strange year for the Swiss festival, which is finding its footing under the new artistic direction of Giona A. Nazzaro.

As an admixture of several distinctly populist genres that still, as Variety critic Jay Weissberg noted, uses impotence as a metaphor “to make a broader critique of a toxic culture that puts so much emphasis on virility,” the film is among the best exemplars of Nazzaro’s avowed...

After Blue (Paradis sale)The lineup for the 2021 festival has been revealed, including new films by Bertrand Mandico, Axelle Ropert, Abel Ferrara and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEBeckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino)Free Guy (Shawn Levy)Heat (Michael Mann)Hinterland (Stefan Ruzowitzky)Ida Red (John Swab)Monte Verità (Stefan Jäger)National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)Respect (Liesl Tommy)Rose (Aurélie Saada)Sinkhole (Kim Ji-hoon)The Alleys (Bassel Ghandour)The Terminator (James Cameron)Vortex (Gaspar Noé)Yaya e Lennie — The Walking Liberty (Alessandro Rak)Tomorrow My Love (Gitanjali Rao)Lynx (Laurent Geslin)Zeros and OnesCONCORSO INTERNAZIONALEAfter Blue (Paradis sale) (Bertrand Mandico)Al Naher (The River) (Ghassan Salhab)Espíritu sagrado (The Sacred Spirit) (Chema García Ibarra)Gerda (Natalya Kudryashova)I giganti (The Giants) (Bonifacio Angius)Jiao ma teng hui (A New Old Play) (Jiongjiong Qiu)Juju StoriesLa Place d'une autre (Secret Name) (Aurélia Georges)Leynilögga (Cop Secret...

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller ’Zeros And Ones’ stars Ethan Hawke.

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller Zeros And Ones and Srdjan Dragojević’s dark comedy Heavens Above are among 17 films from 12 countries having their world premiere in the international competition at the 74th Locarno Film Festival (August 4-14) under the new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

Scroll down for full line-up

In his first collaboration with Ferrara, Zeros And Ones sees Ethan Hawke plays an American soldier stationed in Rome who pursues an unknown enemy threatening the entire world after the Vatican gets blown up.

Ahead of shooting in Italy...

Kazakh writer-director-producer Zhannat Alshanova studied at the London Film School.

Kazakh writer-director-producer Zhannat Alshanova was the big winner at Trieste’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum for her feature debut project A Winner Is Seen At The Start which won there prizes including the main Film Center Serbia development award with a cash prize of €5,000. The forum ran online from January 24-28.

Alshanova, a graduate of the London Film School also received the Pop Up Film Residency award and the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (Ewa) best woman director award for the project.

A Winner Is Seen At...

Kazakh writer-director-producer Zhannat Alshanova studied at the London Film School.

Kazakh writer-director-producer Zhannat Alshanova was the big winner at Trieste’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum for her feature debut project A Winner Is Seen At The Start which won there prizes including the main Film Center Serbia development award with a cash prize of €5,000. The forum ran online from January 24-28.

Alshanova, a graduate of the London Film School also received the Pop Up Film Residency award and the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (Ewa) best woman director award for the project.

A Winner Is Seen At...

Organised during Wemw for the second consecutive year, the programme has awarded prizes to the upcoming film projects by Araceli Lemos and Peter Kerekes. The first session of First Cut+’s second edition, the programme that aims to boost the competitiveness and marketability of feature films that have previously been hosted at First Cut Lab, has announced its award winners. Running for five days (22-26 January) during the digital 11th edition of When East Meets West, First Cut+ invited eight films along to participate (see the news), which are all currently in post-production. Holy Emy, directed by first-time Greek writer-director Araceli Lemos, received the First Cut+ Award, offered by L'Avventura Studio (covering digital marketing expertise for an international festival launch), Tiramisù (offering consultancy on the trailer and poster) and Wolf Consultants (providing consultations on positioning the finished film). The supernatural story follows two sisters, both members of the Catholic Charismatic Filipino.

The Greek writer-director is getting stuck into the shoot for her first feature, which follows a young woman suffering from a strange, supernatural condition. Splitting her time between Athens and Los Angeles, Greek writer-director and editor Araceli Lemos had her latest short film, Miguel Alvarez Wears a Wig, screened at several festivals, including Tampere and Leeds, among others. Lemos is currently shooting her debut feature-length film, Holy Emy, which won the North Macedonian Film Agency Award at Sarajevo CineLink in 2017, and which participated in the 2018 Eave and Ties That Bind programmes. The screenplay, written by the director and Giulia Caruso, follows Emy (Abigael Loma) and her sister, Teresa (Hasmine Kilip), who are both members of the Catholic Filipino community of Piraeus. For unknown reasons, Emy experiences some unexpected bleeding episodes. Teresa decides to hide her from the outside world and protects Emy by keeping her isolated, as she’s...

The documentary “Olympia,” a revealing look at the life and career of Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis, will join the other films screening at the 13th annual Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, which will take place at UCLA and at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre on June 3-9.

The event will kick off June 3 at the UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center with the U.S. premiere of “The Right Pocket of the Robe,” the feature directorial debut of Yiannis Lapatas, a portrait of loss and loneliness that premiered the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Opening night will take place on June 5 at the Egyptian with the North American premiere of “Meltem,” a film by another first-time feature helmer, Basile Doganis, who has previously screened several shorts at Lagff. It stars Daphne Patakia as a woman whose life takes a new turn when she returns to her late mother’s home on Lesbos.

Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things takes best director and best actor.Scroll down to see the full list of winners.

Ana Urushadze’s Gerogia-Estonia drama Scary Mother has won the top prize at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, which concludes today (Aug 18).

The film took the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film, which comes with a financial award of €16,000. It stars Nata Murvanidze as a 50-year-old housewife who experiences family struggles as she tries to complete her first novel.

The main competition saw Romanian director Emanuel Pârvu take the Heart of Sarajevo for best director for his film Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things, which comes with €10,000.

Best actress went to Ornela Kapetani for Daybreak and best actor went to Şerban Pavlu for Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things.

The jury, led by Michel Franco and featuring Mark Adams, Gordan Bogdan...

Seven films in early development have been selected for the co-pro market.Scroll down for full details of the projects

CineLink, the industry section of Sarajevo Film Festival (August 11-18), has revealed the first seven projects that will travel to this year’s co-production market.

The films are all in early stages of development and will participate in a preparatory workshop with the CineLink team ahead of being involved in the festival’s Industry Days, which run August 12-17 this year.

All seven of the projects come from the south-eastern European region and will form part of a 35-strong CineLink selection come August.

The initial crop include new films from the directors of Sundance 2014 premiere Viktoria, Locarno 2016 premiere All The Cities Of The North, and the first feature from the star of Dogtooth.

Jovan Marjanovic, head of industry at Sarajevo Film Festival commented: “Come August we will have discovered over 35 projects of different film forms and in...

As critics and audiences rave about acclaimed Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos English-language debut "The Lobster," Los Angeles gets ready to received some of the best Greek films of the past year including an unprecedented programming move that will have the 2014 and 2015 winners of the Hellenic Film Academy Best Film Award bookend the ninth annual Los Angeles Greek Film Festival.

The almost decade-old festival opens Wednesday, June 3, with Pantelis Voulgaris’ award-winning period drama “Little England.” Panos H.Koutras’ wry and emotional road trip and this year’s Hellenic Film Academy Award winner “Xenia” will conclude the Festival’s five days of screenings, red carpet events, receptions and industry panels at the Closing Night Gala on Sunday June 7, at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

This year’s Lagff welcomes a record 35 features, documentaries and short films to the program, including three World premieres, 14 U.S premieres and 10 Los Angeles premieres. Alongside Greece, countries represented in this year’s festival include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, France, Israel, Germany, Qatar, United Kingdom and the United States.

“Our program, more than ever before, is an exciting amalgamation of social, satirical and political statements from a rejuvenated Greek film industry”, states Festival topper Aristotle Katopodis. “While the economic and social crisis in Greece, and Southern European region, continues to hold Greece and the world markets in limbo, the Greek filmmakers are responding with what one could call “Through The Lens Darkly” to paraphrase the title of Philip K. Dick's novel. Neo- noir and classic noir films are taking hold as a favorite genre, we have at least four such offerings in this festival. The hope is there, but you need to work through layers of reflection, self-evaluation and breath-taking images. Remembering, contemplating, and creating take center stage.”

Winner of 2014 Hellenic Film Academy’s awards - Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Scenography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound and Best Make-up, Pantelis Voulgaris’ drama “Little England ” is a turbulent tale of a secret love shared between two sisters and one man, set in the seafaring community of Andros, Greece, during the 1930's. Suppressed feelings are later rekindled and cruel games of fate reveal secrets, leading to devastation.

Red Carpet Opening Night Gala on Wednesday, June 3. The Opening Night event also includes an exquisite Greek wine tasting, a dinner reception, dj music and dancing outside under the stars.

Earth Friendly Products and G.P. Kolovos and Associates will co-present the Opening Night gala with West Coast Investors presenting the Opening Night after-party.

Hot off winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Costume Design at the 2015 Hellenic Film Academy Awards, Panos H. Koutras’ poignant drama “Xenia” will cap the Closing Night Gala on Sunday, June 7. “Xenia” takes up the story of two brothers after the death of their mother and follows their odyssey from Athens to Thessaloniki in search of the father they never met.

The Closing Night Gala includes the festival Orpheus Awards with special honors, as well as Jury and Audience Awards and dinner reception. Hostess Brands will present the Closing Night gala.

Lagff 2015 will offer more Premieres than ever before. Films making their American debuts include Athanasios Karanikolas melodramatic feature “At Home” (Sto Spiti), winner of the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Forum. “Home” follows the decline of a domestic servant’s status within the family she works for as the economic crisis takes center stage in all their lives; Yorgos Avgeropoulos’ documentary “Agora," which contrasts the center of the city’s transformation from heart of democracy to modern day commercialism; Australian filmmakers Carol Gordon & Natalie Cunningham’s documentary “Following Shira’s Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey, “the untold story of the Greek Holocaust. History records an 87% loss of Greece’s Jewish population as a result of the Nazi atrocities of the Second World War, and yet the experiences of these once dynamic communities are not widely known; “Medea:Louder Than My Thoughts” (Medea: Kreisson Ton Emon Vouleumaton) - Nikos Grammatikos’ documentary exploring the mystical meaning within the pages of the Euripides play; Yannis Vamvakas documentary “Panayiotis Tetsis: Playing With Colors” explores the life and work of a patrician artist, Panagiotis Tetsis, who marked contemporary Greek painting of the 20th Century.

Alexis Alexiou‘s explosive neo-noir film, “Wednesday 04:45“ (Tetarti 04:45), is this year’s evening Centerpiece Premiere selection and will screen on Saturday, June 6. “Wednesday” follows 32 hours in the life of Stelios Dimitrakopoulos, a small time night-club owner in Athens, who struggles to salvage his bankrupt business from loan-sharks, while the city and the whole country go up in flames. The screening marks the film’s West Coast premiere.Alexiou and the film’s producer Thanassis Karathanos will be on hand after the screening for a Q&A.

Other Premieres include Canadian Filmmaker George Tsioutsioulas’ documentary "A Night in Athens.” starring world renowned funnyman Angelo Tsarouchas. Shot in Athens Greece before a sold-out audience “Athens” takes you on a hilarious ride as Tsarouchas shares many of the challenges he faced growing up Greek in the diaspora; U.S. writer/directors Andreas Ignatiou, Josh Maddox’s “Narcissa”, a short film offering a modern take on the Greek myth of Narcissus set in the fashion industry; and U.S. director Jon L. Milano’s drama “Straw Dolls” takes a look at the Armenian genocide through the lens of a father desperately trying to protect his daughter from the deportation being forced upon them by Turkish soldiers.

As the third annual International Project Discovery Forum (Ipdf) continues to strengthen its relationships with established institutions in the Us and Greece, such as the Sundance Institute and the Mfi Script2Film Workshop, it is pleased to announce its newest outreach collaborators in the Balkan Region – Sofia Meetings, Thessaloniki Iff’s Crossroads, Torino Script&Pitch.

“Ipdf received a record number of submissions this year from 7 different Balkan countries and the Us. The quality of the projects that we receive increases every year, making our selection process really difficult and really exciting! We can't wait to share their stories and introduce you to our bold, inspiring filmmakers. This year, Ipdf will also present a series of industry events that will be open to the public where seasoned professionals will share their insights on independent filmmaking, new platforms and international distribution. ”Ipdf’s director Araceli Lemos adds.

For a complete list of films, screening times and more about the Ipdf visit http://lagff.org

The Box Office for Lagff is now open for Gold Pass Membership purchases online at http://www.itsmyseat.com/Lagff.html through June 4.