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Kyoshi Sugita's fourth feature Following The Sound about four people coming to terms with great personal losses had its world premiere in Venice Film Festival‘s Giornate Degli Autori competiton programme earlier this autumn. Like in his previous films, Sugita makes use of his great understanding of sound or absence of it to craft a compelling story that this time centers around a young woman who, still greaving her mother's passing, makes bond with people who's been living with the same pain.

The Japanese helmer came to Viennale to present his movie to the Austrian audience, and we took the opportunity to sit down with him and talk about his love for the hidden codes of human emotions, the welcoming opportunities that a static camera offers and about turning inner insecurities into one's advantage.

Could you tell us something about your trademark use of sound to create a form...

Kyoshi Sugita is a name the international festival-going audience became aware of since his debut “A Song I Remember” (2011), but the true break-through came with his much anticipated ” Haruhara-san's Recorder” (2021). In his contemplative, gentle drama “Following The Sound” about three people's different ways of dealing with grief, there is a lot of following in its most literal sense, and the sound may just be a part of it all, but it still leads the way. As a proper introduction, the film kicks off with a scene in which the main character Haru (An Ogawa) gets emotionally transported to her past by listening to the recording of burbling water, and that particular tape will remain a key to maintain her connection with the past, and making her ready ready to connect other dots.

“Following the Sound” in Venice International Film Festival

With his fourth feature that premiered in Venice Film Festival's Giornate Degli Autori competiton programme,...

Not in the Script: Sugita’s New Form of Companionship Takes on Heartaches and Heartbreaks

Rewriting the notion of what it truly means to follow someone and to follow through on an action, like its central character, Japanese filmmaker Kyoshi Sugita‘s finely-tuned and understated sonata of three individuals is unassuming. A fourth feature (in just over a decade) that could break out internationally, the idiosyncratic nature of the lead character who ultimately conceives a new way to grieve with others makes for a deeply empathetic drama. Following the Sound not only challenges conventional notions of comfort zones but also vividly illustrates the barriers that separate individuals.…...

La BêteCOMPETITIONComandante (Edoardo De Angelis)The Promised Land (Nikolaj Arcel)Dogman (Luc Besson) La Bête (Bertrand Bonello) Hors-Saison (Stéphane Brizé) Enea (Pietro Castellitto) Maestro (Bradley Cooper)Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)Finalmente L’Alba (Saverio Costanzo)Lubo (Giorgio Diritti) Origin (Ava DuVernay) The Killer (David Fincher)Memory (Michel Franco)Io capitano (Matteo Garrone)Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)The Green Border (Agnieszka Holland)The Theory of Everything (Timm Kröger)Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)El conde (Pablo Larrain)Ferrari (Michael Mann)Adagio (Stefano Sollima)Woman OfHolly (Fien Troch)Out Of COMPETITIONFictionSociety of the Snow (J.A. Bayona)Coup de Chance (Woody Allen)The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson)The Penitent (Luca Barbareschi)L’Ordine Del Tempo (Liliana Cavani)Vivants (Alix Delaporte)Welcome to Paradise (Leonardo di Constanzo)Daaaaaali! (Quentin Dupieux)The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin)Making of (Cedric Kahn)Aggro Dr1ft (Harmony Korine)Hitman (Richard Linklater)The Palace (Roman Polanski...

The Giornate Degli Autori — the independently run event that takes place alongside the Venice Film Festival and is often referred to simply as Venice Days — has unveiled the lineup for its 2023 edition (also it’s 20th).

Among the 10 titles world premiering in competition is Elise Girard’s drama Sidonie in Japan, starring Isabelle Huppert as a French writer mourning her husband’s death while on a book tour. Out of competition, Coup! — a satire set during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic and starring Peter Sarsgaard and Billy Magnussen — will bow, while special events include the world premiere of This Is How a Child Becomes a Poet, a short from Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma (who was previously president of the Venice Days jury). There will also be a special daylong event in honor of late Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée, including a screening of his 2005 drama C.R.A.Z.Y.

Venice...

Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori (GdA) has unveiled the selection for its 20th edition running from August 30 to September 9, featuring a surprise short by Céline Sciamma, a new feature by Teona Strugar Mitevska as well as a tribute to late Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée.

The line-up spans 10 films in competition, seven special events, eight titles in Venetian Nights as well as a special day-long event devoted Vallée and the cinema of Québec, featuring a screening of his 2005 coming of age drama C.R.A.Z.Y.

Highlights of the competition include Canadian filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize’s quirky vampire tale Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person; Atlas Mountains-set ensemble theatre group road movie Backstage by directorial debut Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane; Through The Night, in which Belgian director Delphine Girard expands her Oscar-nominated short A Sister, and Sidonie In Paris, starring Isabelle Huppert as a writer mourning the...

French director Élise Girard’s “Sidonie in Japan,” starring Isabelle Huppert as a French writer mourning her husband’s death while on a book tour of Japan, is among titles set to launch from the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Giornate Degli Autori.

The section, also known as Venice Days, has unveiled its lineup comprising 10 titles world premiering in competition – six of which are first works – and in other sections displaying a wide range of genres and visual styles, but tied together by “a common discourse,” said the section’s artistic director Gaia Furrer.

The selected films “with all their thematic or formal eclecticism, still dialogue with each other,” Furrer said in a statement.

Opening the section in competition is Italian director Tommaso Santambrogio’s black-and-white drama “Oceans Are the Real Continents,” set and shot in decadent contemporary Cuba (see image below). This is Santambrogio’s first feature, but...

Projects from across Europe and Asia receive post-production prizes.

Upcoming projects from Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu and Laotian director Kiyé Simon Luang have won prizes at FIDLab, the co-production incubator of French festival FIDMarseille.

The 14th edition of the showcase, known for its focus on experimental documentary and fiction features, spread its awards of post-production prizes or residency places across all 11 selected projects.

Scroll down for full list of prizes

The Micro Climat Studios prize, offering a range of post-production services, went to Mmxx, an ensemble drama from Romanian director Puiu. The film, which revolves around a therapist, her younger brother,...

Romania’s Puiu competed for the Palme d’Or in 2016 with ‘Sieranevada’.

The next feature from feted Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu is among 12 titles selected for FIDLab, the co-production incubator of French festival FIDMarseille.

The 14th edition of the showcase, known for its focus on experimental documentary and fiction features, is set to be held from July 7-8 and will return as an in-person for the first time since 2019.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The selection includes Mmxx, an ensemble drama from Romanian director Puiu that revolves around a therapist, her younger brother, husband and an organised crime investigator.

Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...

Above: Haruhara San's RecorderNow in its 32nd year, FIDMarseille found itself in a unique position in 2021. Starting just two days after the Cannes Film Festival wrapped its comeback edition—which was delayed two months due to the pandemic—Fid welcomed a number of critics, programmers, and filmmakers straight from the Croisette. While the philosophical differences between the festivals have always been pronounced, this year the calendar proximity only underscored the curatorial disparity—proving not so much Cannes’ authority as Fid’s significance in presenting a fuller picture of contemporary cinema. Freely mingling its documentary roots with au courant trends in art cinema, Fid offers a snapshot of what’s new and exciting in international filmmaking. Case in point: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, fresh off sharing the Jury Prize in Cannes for his latest film, Memoria, and recipient of this year’s Grand prix d’honneur; the Thai director’s first feature, Mysterious...

The strand features titles from Cannes, Berlin and Venice.

Features by Joanna Hogg, Radu Jude and Gaspar Noé are among those set to compete for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera award at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival (September 17-25).

The strand, for films of any kind of style or length, includes 13 features and five shorts, with two world premieres.

The selection includes several titles from this year’s Cannes film festival: Kirill Serebrennikov’s Competition title Petrov’s Flu; Kira Kovalenko’s Un Certain Regard winner Unclenching The Fists; Laura Wandel’s Playground (also Un Certain Regard); Gasper Noe’s Vortex, which...

The winner of the grand prix is directed by Japan’s Kyoshi Sugita.

Japanese director Kyoshi Sugita’s Haruhara San’s Recorder has won the main prize of France’s FIDMarseille festival, the grand prix of the international competition.

Inspired by a poem by Naoko Higashi, the film was produced by Jun Higeno of Iha Films. It is stars Chika Araki as a woman who has just moved into a new apartment.

Festival director Jean-Pierre Rehm described the film as “uncompromising” and as “a pure cinematographic poem,” one that “abandons the lazy, tired concept of plot to progress by successive...

Festival unveils competition titles for 2021 edition.

FIDMarseille has unveiled the full line-up for its 2021 edition (July 19-25), which includes a retrospective and honorary award for Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

The acclaimed writer/director, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, will attend the festival in France to accept the Grand Prix d’Honneur, introduce several screenings from throughout his career and present a masterclass.

Weerasethakul’s latest feature, Memoria starring Tilda Swinton, is set to play in Competition at Cannes Film Festival and his visit to Marseille will come after that premiere.