Noticias

Cinema Eye Honors, an influential bellwether in the race for documentary awards, kicked off its 15th year with non-fiction award-winners announced at its annual Los Angeles lunch attended by many top filmmakers. Steve James’ five-part Chicago series “City So Real,” and Spike Lee’s filmed portrait of David Byrne’s Broadway show “American Utopia” lead the Cinema Eye Honors broadcast nominations list with three nods apiece. “David Byrne’s American Utopia” is one of five films up for Outstanding Broadcast Film, while “City So Real” joins five other series in the Nonfiction Series category. Both projects were nominated for Outstanding Broadcast Editing and Cinematography.

“It is notable that both of this year’s most nominated Broadcast entries are part of the creative legacy of Diane Weyermann,” said Cinema Eye Founding Director Aj Schnack. The beloved documentary veteran, who died last week, was an Executive Producer on both “City So Real” and “American Utopia.

Mat Kesting.

In planning this year’s Adelaide Film Festival, creative director and CEO Mat Kesting and his team put together not just one event, but five.

Covid-related contingency plans – each with its own financial framework – included an entirely virtual festival, a hybrid event, a festival in mini-theatres to keep numbers down and minimise infection risk, and even a festival at the drive-in.

Yet Kesting is both relieved and thrilled they’re able to go ahead with “plan A” – that is, a physical festival in cinemas.

Of course, this will look still different than previous iterations, with chequerboard seating and social distancing in place. Venue partners have been flexible enough to loop in multiple screens and other cinemas in order to maximise audience attendance for sessions. Gala events will also see people “partying like it’s 2020”.

But despite this, a physical event means that people can come together, which for...

‘I Am Woman’.

This year’s Gold Coast Film Festival will be bookended by two Aussie features, opening with Unjoo Moon’s Helen Reddy biopic I Am Woman, and closing with the locally shot comedic thriller Bloody Hell, directed by Alister Grierson.

The April festival dropped its full program today, announcing more than 100 films, including four world premieres: Kriv Stenders’ documentary on Silm Dusty’s wife Joy McKean, Slim & I; Hayley MacFarlane’s Swimming for Gold; Josh Hale’s House of Inequity and Serhat Caradee’s A Lion Returns.

Other local films to screen include Never Too Late, Smoke Between Trees, Disclosure, Hearts and Bones, Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks, Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road, Dark Whispers Vol 1, The Show Must Go On, Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt), Morgana, and Love Opera.

Ahead of its premiere on the ABC April 19, the festival will also screen...