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No sound so definitively evokes Jewish culture in the popular imagination as that of klezmer. With perceptible roots in Eastern Europe and a purely secular function, it’s a musical form that provides a direct link to centuries-old folk traditions that have all but vanished since the Holocaust. The Klezmer Project, the debut feature of Argentinian filmmakers Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann, combines documentary footage with a metatextual narrative to explore the remnants of Yiddish culture in small villages throughout the historical region of Bessarabia—the nexus of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine, where the musical language of the Jews who lived there is kept alive by those who knew them.

In the early part of the 20th century, Hungarian composer Béla Bartók transcribed thousands of folk melodies across Eastern Europe, and in its own modest way, The Klezmer Project is guided by a similar spirit of preservation. Among other things,...

The festival runs October 21 - 29.

Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival will have world premieres of three new Ukrainian films as well as Portuguese director Andrés Marques’ The Drunk in its first complete edition with both competition and non-competition programmes since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian director-DoP-artist-exhibition curator Ivan Sautkin’s debut documentary feature A Poem For Little People about a group of volunteers at the front-line zone and two elderly female friends from a village in the Chernihiv region will premiere in the documentary competition which will also feature Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann’s...

Titles include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist; Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel; and Christos Nikou’s Fingernails.

BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the competition line-ups for best film, best first feature and best documentary.

The 11 films competing for best film include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist; Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel; Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre and Christos Nikou’s Fingernails.

Christine Molloy returns to the competition after 2019’s Rose Plays Julie. This time she has co-directed Baltimore with frequent collaborator and partner Joe Lawlor. The pair recently directed The Future Tense which...

Films Boutique, the Berlin-based company behind “Pacifiction” and “The Burdened,” has come on board three international movies slated for the Cannes Film Festival. These include a pair of films set for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, “Terrestrial Verses” and “The Buriti Flower,” as well as “Tiger Stripes” which will bow at Critics’ Week.

“Terrestrial Verses,” directed by Alireza Khatami and Ali Asgari, is the sole Iranian film premiering in the Official Selection. The movie marks the first collaboration between these two critically acclaimed directors.

Khatami previously wrote and directed “Oblivion Verses” which won best screenplay and the Fipresci prizes at Venice in 2017. Asgari, meanwhile, previously directed “Until Tomorrow” which premiered at Berlin last year, and presented two shorts at Cannes, “More Than Two Hours” in 2013 et “Il Silenzio” in 2016.

While the plot remains under wrap, the film’s title is a reference to a poet by famed Iranian Poet Forugh Farrokhzad.

Exclusive: Docaviv, the prestigious all-documentary film festival in Tel Aviv, today announced the International Competition lineup for the 25th anniversary of the event, which takes place May 11-20.

In competition are some of the early favorites for Oscar recognition, including Apolonia, Apolonia, winner of Best Feature at IDFA; 20 Days in Mariupol, the harrowing examination of the siege of the Ukrainian port city in the early days of the Russian invasion; Kokomo City, winner of two awards at Sundance, and The Eternal Memory, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance [scroll for the full International Competition lineup].

Docaviv is an Oscar-qualifying festival, with winners in the International, Israeli, and Shorts competitions automatically becoming eligible for Academy Awards consideration. It is the only all-documentary festival in Israel and widely considered one of the world’s foremost nonfiction film events.

Some of the expected international guests include Emmy-winning documentary producer John Battsek, who will hold...

Films Boutique are close to further deals in China and Italy.

Animated sci-fi film White Plastic Sky has scores sales in Europe and Asia by Films Boutique following its world premiere at last month’s Berlinale.

The Berlin-based sales agent has sold the Hungarian feature to Kmbo for France and Flash Forward Entertainment for Taiwan. Films Boutique is in talks for the feature at Hong Kong Filmart and deals in China and Italy are expected to close shortly.

Directed by Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó, the film is set in 2123 and follows one man’s risky attempts to save his...

On the Adamant.Competition(Jury: Kristen Stewart, Golshifteh Farahani, Valeska Grisebach, Radu Jude, Francine Maisler, Carla Simón, Johnnie To)Golden BearOn the Adamant (Nicolas Philibert)Silver Bear — Grand Jury PrizeAfire (Christian Petzold) (read interview)Silver Bear — Jury PrizeBad Living (João Canijo)Silver Bear for Best DirectorPhilippe Garrel (The Plough) (read more)Silver Bear for Best Leading PerformanceSofía OteroSilver Bear for Best Supporting PerformanceThea Ehre (Till the End of the Night) (read more)Silver Bear for Best ScreenplayAngela Schanelec (Music) (read more)Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic ContributionHélène Louvart (Disco Boy)HereENCOUNTERS(Jury: Dea Kulumbegashvili, Angeliki Papoulia, Paolo Moretti)Award for Best FilmHere (Bas Devos)Special Jury AwardOrlando, My Political Biography (Paul B. Preciado)Samsara (Lois Patiño)Award for Best DirectorTatiana Huezo (The Echo)Generation — Kplus(Jury: Venice Atienza, Alise Ģelze, Gudrun Sommer)Crystal BearSweet As (Jub Clerc)Special MentionSea Sparkle (Domien Huyghe)Best Short FilmQueenie (Lloyd Lee Choi)Special...

The gender-neutral acting prize was won by Spain’s Sofía Otero for ’20,000 Species of Bees’.

Nicolas Philibert’s documentary On The Adamant, about a floating care centre in Paris, was awarded Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 25).

The film, which is being handled internationally by Les Films du Losange, is the fourth documentary to take top honours at the Berlinale.

German films found particular favour with the jury, presided over by Kristen Stewart, with no less than three of the Bear statuettes going to local productions: the Silver Bear Grand Jury award for Christian Petzold’s Afire,...

The documentary “On the Adamant” has been named the best film of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin organizers announced on Saturday.

The film from director Nicolas Philibert follows life in a daycare center located on the Seine in Paris for adults with mental disorders. It is the first documentary to win the festival’s top prize since “Fire at Sea” in 2016.

German director Christian Petzold won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, essentially the runner-up award, for his drama “Afire,” while Philippe Garrel won the directing award for “The Plough.” The gender-neutral acting prizes went to Sofia Otero for “20,000 Species of Bees” in the leading performance category and Thea Ehre for “Till the End of the Night” in the supporting category.

The jury president was actress Kristen Stewart. The other jurors were actress Goldshifteh Farahani, directors Valeska Grisebach, Radu Jude and Carla Simón and Johnnie To and casting director Francine Maisler.

Winners have been announced at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, with On the Adamant by Nicolas Philibert scooping the coveted Golden Bear prize as the best film of the festival’s International Competition. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which were revealed Saturday evening at the Berlinale Palast.

The film chronicles a unique day-care center in the heart of Paris that welcomes adults suffering from mental disorders, offering the kind of care that grounds them in time and space and helps them to recover or keep up their spirits.

Introducing the film, jury head Kristen Stewart said the pic is “masterfully crafted” and acts as “cinematic proof of the vital necessity of human expression.”

Other winners in the International Competition included Philippe Garrel, who picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director for his latest pic Le grand chariot (The Plough). Garrel dedicated the award to the late filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.

On the Adamant, a documentary by French director Nicolas Philibert that gives an intimate look at the patients and caregivers in a mental health center located on the Seine River in the heart of Paris, has won the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear for best film.

For his 11th feature, the 72-year-old Philibert spent months aboard a barge anchored on the Seine in Paris, chronicling a mental health care facility that caters specifically to its patients’ creative needs. His documentary explores issues of creativity and art, of sanity and madness, but does so without applying labels or clear-cut distinctions.

“I don’t like partitions or labels,” Philibert said. “In this film on psychiatry, we were always [careful] to not always distinguish very clearly between patients and carers. I tried to reverse the image we always have of mad people [which I see] as discriminating and stigmatizing. I wanted us to be able,...

A first trailer has been unveiled for Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann’s documentary “The Klezmer Project,” which will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters strand.

The documentary follows Argentinian cameraman Leandro who makes a living from filming Jewish weddings. At one of his jobs, he falls in love with Paloma, the clarinetist of the Klezmer band. To seduce her he pretends to be shooting a documentary film about traditional Yiddish folk music. What Leandro does not know is that his “fake” film project will take him on an unscripted journey throughout Eastern Europe in search of the last remaining Klezmer melodies.

The filmmakers, who are front and center in the film, are both grandchildren of Jewish immigrants who grew up hearing stories from their grandparents that spoke of a Judaism that was nothing like the

one they knew.

“At first, it seemed to us...

Sales

Chris O’Dowd (“Puffin Rock”), Amy Huberman (“Derry Girls”), Beth McCafferty and Eva Whittaker (“Wolfwalkers”) lead the voice cast of “Puffin Rock and the New Friends,” the film based on the TV series “Puffin Rock.”

Following their collaboration on Oscar nominees “Song of the Sea” and “The Breadwinner,” WestEnd Films is teaming again with Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon and Northern Ireland’s Dog Ears on the film and is launching sales at Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM), where first footage will be shown to buyers.

“Puffin Rock and the New Friends” sees Oona, Baba, May and Mossy joined by a new characters Isabelle, Phoenix and Marvin. When the last Little Egg of the season disappears under mysterious circumstances, Oona and her new friends race against time to bring the Little Egg home before a big storm hits Puffin Rock and puts the entire island in danger.

The film...

Slate includes features in Competition, Encounters, Forum and Panorama sections

Berlin-based sales outfit Films Boutique has unveiled a six-title Berlinale slate, including Zhang Lu’s competition title The Shadowless Tower as well as features playing in the festival’s Encounters, Forum and Panorama sections.

Films Boutique is representing two films playing in Encounters: Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann’s The Klezmer Project and Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó’s White Plastic Sky.

It is also handling director Claire Simon’s Forum documentary Our Body and Amr Gamal’s Panorama film The Burdened.

Rounding out Films Boutique’s EFM slate is Jessica Woodworth’s Luka,...