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While far from light viewing, this period drama written by Christos Tsiolkas and director Aaron Wilson is a pleasure

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Films are often praised for being visually interesting, but rarely for being verbally interesting – in fact vococentrism is often discouraged, particularly through the famous screenwriting dictum “show, don’t tell”. Director Aaron Wilson’s absorbing period drama Little Tornadoes, however, manages a very compelling and unusual blend of pictures and an almost novelistic screenplay – the kind one might expect from Australian author Christos Tsiolkas, who co-wrote it with Wilson.

Assisted by the timeless qualities of rural locations, Wilson and the talented cinematographer Stefan Duscio illustrate an early 1970s Aussie setting with an eye for lived-in period details. In tone and setting, Little Tornadoes couldn’t be further from an ostentatious historical piece, bunkering down as it does into the...

The Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) may have been unable to return to city cinemas this year, but the conditions proved ideal for other elements of the event.

The inaugural Miff Xr program will come to a close on Sunday, having been available for free globally since August 7.

Encompassing augmented reality and virtual reality, the films offered a mix of emergent 360° and interactive filmmaking that required no headset or special tech to be viewed.

There was also an accompanying public online Xr space, where audiences could meet, gather, mingle and discuss their experiences.

The lineup included Iopu Auva’a and Aaron Wilson’s Iopu, which follows a queer Samoan-Australian performer who is about to take the stage at a resplendent theatre.

Moment and memory blend to offer insights into a Samoan rite of passage, as well as themes of alienation, acceptance, and finding kinship.

Wilson told If Miff Xr provided the ideal escape for audiences.

Director and producer Nadia Tass will chair the jury for this year’s CinefestOZ, which had its full line-up announced in Perth yesterday.

The filmmaker will helm voting on the $100,000 CinefestOZ prize, adjudicating in-competition finalists Here Out West, Nitram, River, and The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson.

Tass is among the directors to have their work showcased at the event, with her documentary, Oleg: The Oleg Vidov Story, announced among the Australian premieres in the line-up.

Speaking to If, she said the festival had always been “invigorating”.

“The event is so elegant, but at the same time it is not empty,” she said.

“There is so much about films that is discussed, both in terms of the creative process and films as pieces of entertainment or communication with an audience.

“They have really thought about how they are going to excite people to come to the event.”

Tass...

Co-written with Christos Tsiolkas, Aaron Wilson’s 1970s-set Little Tornadoes depicts a newly-single father’s efforts to weather the turbulence of change – in his life and in the world around him.

Introverted Leo (Mark Leonard Winter) is a steelworker at his small town’s local plant. After his wife abandons him without explanation, leaving him to care for their two young children, he is bereft–barely able to cook a decent meal or keep the household running. So when a recently-arrived Italian colleague suggests that his sister, Maria (Silvia Colloca), act as surrogate homemaker, Leo reluctantly accepts. But can one woman’s warm, nurturing presence fill the void left by another, and can Leo yield to the winds of change?

Producers include Ian Anderson, Katrina Fleming, Christian Pazzaglia, Susan Schmidt and Wilson. Stefan Duscio is the cinematographer, composer Robert Mackenzie, editor Cindy Clarkson and production designer Tim Burgin.

Little Tornadoes...

Jen Peedom’s River and Ben Lawrence’s Ithaka add to the already strong contingent of local films bound for August’s Melbourne International Film Festival, which unveiled its full program today.

Miff 2021 will include a hefty 283 titles, including 199 features, 84 shorts and 10 Xr experiences. Among them are 40 world premieres; the most in the festival’s 69 year history.

Some 62 of those films will be available nationally via Miff Play, the festival’s online screening platform, with the festival reimagined this year as a hybrid event.

“This year, Miff continues to evolve — to meet the moment, and to meet audiences where they are,” said artistic director Al Cossar.

“What will not change is the extraordinary lineup of cinematic adventures, from home and afar, waiting for them. These are anticipated festival blockbusters, experimentations, breakthrough discoveries, and a huge lineup of incredible Australian talent. We will again share a world of cinema, reignited, to...

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) promises the Australian premieres of highly anticipated local features such as Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson and Justin Kurzel’s Nitram.

Miff unveiled the first slate of projects for its 69th iteration today, which sees it return to cinemas, with the full line-up to be announced July 13.

Purcell’s debut feature, which premiered at SXSW, will form the Opening Night Gala – marking the first time a film from an Indigenous female director has opened the event in its history.

“Leah Purcell’s monumental feature The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson will not just open Miff this year – it will kick the doors in,” said Miff artistic director Al Cossar.

“This is a film made for Miff’s return to cinema – an outback western of grand vision; a resonant, revisionist force of filmmaking that...

EOne will test the potential for a limited theatrical launch followed quickly by home entertainment release with Kriv Stenders. Kill Me Three Times.

The comedic thriller, which stars Simon Pegg, Alice Braga, Luke Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Callan Mulvey and Sullivan Stapleton, will have Q&A screenings in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth next month and will be available on digital platforms and on DVD and Blu-ray on September 9.

Separately the distributor has confirmed Tony Ayres. Cut Snake will have a conventional cinema release starting on September 24. EOne MD Troy Lum described the Kill Me Three Times strategy as direct-to-consumer, observing. .This style of release reflects eOne's desire to drive unique ways to connect films with audiences in a shifting landscape, while allowing the film to be presented to the widest possible audience across the country.. Stenders (who recently wrapped Blue Dog) and producer Tania Chambers will support the release via a...

Aaron Wilson.s WW2 drama Canopy won the jury grand prize and Craig Monahan.s Healing took the audience award at the 16th annual St Tropez Antipodes Film Festival. Rhys Graham.s Galore collected the prize for best female talent for Ashleigh Cummings and Lily Sullivan. Brett Stewart was named best male talent for Everything We Loved, the debut feature from Kiwi writer-director Max Currie. The drama revolves around a magician and his wife who look for a replacement child after their young son dies suddenly. There was a special mention for Galore.s Toby Wallace. The jury headed by Fred Schepisi awarded the best short prize to Miranda Edmonds and Khrob Edmonds. Tango Underpants. Stephen Lance.s My Mistress and Zak Hilditch.s These Final Hours also screened in competition. Wilson has been hosting Q&A screenings of Canopy in Us cinemas. The film is released on home entertainment in Australia this week.

After platforming at four cinemas in New York and Los Angeles John Curran.s Tracks expanded to 28 screens in the Us last weekend.

The 3-day gross was $US70,951 for a per-screen average of $2,534, bringing the 10-day cume to $103,098.

That.s not a great result for the Weinstein Co., which originally intended to launch the Outback adventure starring Mia Wasikowska as .camel girl. Robyn Davidson in May.

Tracks underlines how tough it can be for Australian films to crack the mainstream Us market, while deals for a limited theatrical release or straight to DVD and VOD are becoming more common.

John V. Soto.s The Reckoning is taking the latter path with a simultaneous VOD and DVD launch in the Us and Canada on October 28 via Anchor Bay Entertainment.

.A theatrical release in North America would require a substantial P&A commitment that is better spent pushing the VOD release,. said Soto,...

Seven Australian films have been released in Us cinemas this year, of which only The Railway Man is likely to have recouped the Pa& and turned a profit.

Stuart Beattie.s I, Frankenstein tops the list with $US19 million but that.s a poor result considering the reported $65 million budget and the money Lionsgate shelled out to support the launch on 2,753 screens.

Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man platformed on four screens in Los Angeles and New York and gradually expanded to 164 theatres via The Weinstein Co, raking in $US4.4 million. That brings its worldwide B.O. total to $US22.3 million led by the UK.s $8.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

A24 launched David Michôd.s The Rover on 608 screens but the thriller was D.O.A., finishing with $1.1 million, which mirrors its results in Australia and the UK.

Greg Mclean.s Wolf Creek 2, Kim Mordaunt.s The Rocket...

Writer-director Aaron Wilson heads to the Us next week to host Q&A screenings of his debut feature Canopy in New York, Los Angeles and several other cities. North American distributor Monterey Media has booked the Singapore-shot WW2 drama in more than 10 cities. Wilson will attend the August 29 premiere at the Lincoln Centre in New York and screenings at Laemmle.s Music Hall in Beverly Hills on September 10 and 12, with other dates to be confirmed.

Monterey has also booked cinemas in St Louis Missouri, Wilmington Delaware, Lake Park Florida, Amherst New York,. Seattle and Vancouver in. September, with other cities to follow. .Monterey is giving the film an opportunity to grow and reach a wide audience,. Wilson told If. .They are being very supportive.. Co-produced by Katrina Fleming.s Finer Films and Singapore.s Chuan Pictures, the film is set during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1942. The plot follows...

Writer-director Aaron Wilson is taking the fast track to the Us after his debut feature Canopy played at numerous international festivals and sold to major markets.

Wilson will direct Mercy Road, a character-driven action thriller inspired by real events, which will shoot in the Us and Malaysia next year.

Scripted by Roy Freirich, the plot follows a small town sheriff who loses his daughter to cancer, then discovers she was given counterfeit medication, according to Deadline.com.

Freirich, who wrote Australian director Rowan Woods. 2008 Los Angeles-set drama Winged Creatures, will produce with Cheyenne Enterprises. Arnold Rivkin and Jay Judah. The co-producer is Leon Tan.s Malaysian-based DragonSlate Media. The project was among those pitched to the director via his Us reps Paradigm after Canopy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

Produced by Finer Films. Katrina Fleming, Canopy is an almost dialogue-free thriller set during the Japanese invasion...

Horns

The first poster is out for Alexandre Aja's upcoming thriller "Horns" which opens at Halloween. Daniel Radcliffe plays a young man who is the prime suspect in the violent rape and murder of his girlfriend, though he's innocent.

Soon, horns starting to grow from his own head - horns with the ability to make people confess their darkest sins and unspeakable impulses. He uses them on his quest to find the killer and learn the truth.

Brownie Wise

Oscar winner Sandra Bullock will star in Tate Taylor's new film "Brownie Wise" for Sony Pictures. Bullock will play the home marketing pioneer and businesswoman who created the Tupperware home party strategy.

Taylor will write, produce and direct the film based on Bob Kealing’s non-fiction book "Tupperware Unsealed". David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Tom Shelly will also produce. [Source: Screen]

The Devil In The Kitchen

Ridley Scott, Giannina Facio and...

Directors are among the high-profile international guests at this year’s festival.

Directors Spike Jonze, Park Chan-wook, Ulrich Seidl, Chantal Akerman and actress Martina Gedeck are among the high-profile international guests due to attend the Jerusalem Film Festival.

The festival said in statement: “Despite the security situation, more than 100 distinguished international guests are on their way to Jerusalem…The Festival’s international guests have expressed their support of the non-cancellation of the Festival and are due to arrive in Jerusalem in the coming days.”

Jonze, who recently won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for his sci-fi romance Her, will give a masterclass following a screening of his Oscar-nominated fantasy comedy Being John Malkovich — which marks its 15th anniversary this year.

It is the first time Jonze, whose father was descended from a German Jewish family, has visited Israel.

Korea’s Park will also give a masterclass and participate in a panel on his country’s cinema...

Aaron Wilson's survival drama, "Canopy," made its debut as part of the Discovery program at last year's Toronto International Film Festival. The film takes place in 1942 during the Battle of Singapore. Jim, an Australian fighter pilot played by Khan Chittenden, ends up stranded in the Singaporean jungle after his plane is shot down by invading Japanese forces. While traveling across the jungle in search of safety, Jim encounters Seng, a member of the Chinese resistance, also stranded in the jungle. With few provisions and Japanese soldiers lurking in almost every dark corner, Jim and Seng must join forces in order to survive. "Canopy" marks Wilson's feature directorial debut and is slated to open in the U.S. later this summer on August 29.

At least 17 Australian films look set to be released theatrically in the Us this year following the latest batch of deals announced in Cannes. If that's how it pans out, that will be an all-time record, or the highest in the last few decades. The previous high point was 1997 when 15 features were distributed in the Us, according to Screen Australia, whose records go back to 1985.

The preponderance of VOD-targeted deals with limited theatrical play-off partly explains the upswing this year. Only five Australian features got theatrical exposure in the Us in 2012 and seven in 2011, according to Screen Australia's research.

Main Street Films bought Tim Winton.s The Turning, A24 picked up Julius Avery.s crime thriller Son of a Gun and XLrator Media collared Tony Mahony and Angus Sampson.s dark comedy The Mule. Murali Thuralli.s post-Apocalyptic drama One will also be released in the Us by Main...

At least 17 Australian films will be released theatrically in the Us this year following the latest batch of deals announced in Cannes. If that isn.t a record, it must be close, albeit that some of those deals are VOD-driven, with a limited theatrical release. Main Street Films bought Tim Winton.s The Turning, A24 picked up Julius Avery.s crime thriller Son of a Gun and XLrator Media collared Tony Mahony and Angus Sampson.s dark comedy The Mule. Murali Thuralli.s post-Apocalyptic drama One will also be released in the Us by Main Street Films but that won.t be until next year (see separate story). .The number of Us deals secured for the latest crop of Australian films demonstrates the strength and international audience appeal of Australian storytelling,. Kathleen Drumm, head of marketing at Screen Australia, tells If from Cannes. .Expanding platforms offer new ways into the...

Responding to criticism about the cost of submitting films for the Aacta Awards, the AFI has cut the entry fee for shorts - but the fees for features are unchanged.

In another initiative to widen the eligibility of titles that can compete in the features categories, films that did not have a conventional cinema release can be submitted for pre-selection.

The AFI believes this concession could apply to as many as 10 films that have had or are planning a less traditional release strategy, including Sarah Spillane.s Around the Block, Mark Grentell.s Backyard Ashes, Aaron Wilson.s Canopy and David Field and George Basha.s Convict.

Features that have been released on VOD platforms and on DVD and had at least one festival or event screening in at least three Sates can be submitted for pre-selection.

However in a change from previous years, entries will only be accepted from Aacta members.

The list of Australian films released in Us cinemas so far this year is short and, on the surface, unimpressive.

Stuart Beattie.s I, Frankenstein tops the list with $US19 million but that.s a poor result for a film that cost a reported $65 million and was launched on 2,753 screens by Lionsgate.

Apart from The Railway Man, the other films had a limited theatrical release, primarily as a platform for Video-on-Demand and DVD sales.

Kim Mordaunt.s The Rocket screened in seven cinemas. The producer, Red Lamp Films. Sylvia Wilczynski, tells If, .It.s doing very well on iTunes internationally; it launched on iTunes on April 22."

Rechristened Patrick: Evil Awakens, Mark Hartley.s re-imagining of Richard Franklin.s 1978 cult horror film Patrick, opened simultaneously on VoD and in cinemas in Los Angeles, New York and Columbus, Ohio; no figures are available yet.

Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man platformed on...

The Taipei Film Festival has unveiled the 12 films that have been selected for its International New Talent Competition, including the world premiere of local production Partners In Crime.

Directed by Chang Jung-chi (Touch Of The Light), Partners In Crime tells the story of three high school boys investigating the death of a classmate.

The competition line-up also include Taiwanese drama Exit, directed by Chienn Hsiang, along with first and second films from elsewhere in Asia, such as Lee Chatametikool’s Concrete Clouds, and titles from Europe and Latin America.

Over the past nine years, the New Talent competition has helped launch the careers of several notable local directors, including Doze Niu (Monga), Yang Ya-che (Bf*Gf) and Wei Te-sheng (Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale).

Entrants compete for the Grand Prize, with a cash award of $20,000, and Special Jury Prize ($10,000), both selected by an international jury, along with an audience award.

The Taipei...

Australian cinemagoers preferred watching a chick flick about vengeful females to the latest adventures of Spider-Man in a surprising result last weekend.

Less surprising was the mediocre opening of Johnny Depp.s sci-fi thriller Transcendence, which was only marginally better than its dud debut in the Us the previous weekend.

Box-office takings stayed strong with a haul of $18.6 million, off just 10% on the Easter weekend, according to Rentrak.s estimates.

The curiosity of the frame was 3D Naked Ambition, a raunchy Hong Kong comedy about a frustrated sex writer whose popularity is waning in the era of free internet porn, which scored a lusty $121,000 on 15 screens.

The top title was The Other Woman, the only wide release targeted at females. The Nick Cassavetes-directed comedy which follows three women (Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton) as they plot revenge against a philandering husband/lover (Nikolai Coster-Waldau), grabbed $4.3 million in its second weekend,...

Australian films have raked in $14 million at the national box-office this year, a much stronger start than the first three months of 2013.

Jonathan Teplitzky.s The Railway Man has exceeded the industry.s expectations, making $5.5 million this calendar year and $7.2 million since its Boxing Day launch.

Greg Mclean.s Wolf Creek 2 has pocketed nearly $4.7 million, a solid number, although the sequel won.t match the original.s $6.1 million haul in 2005.

John Curran.s Tracks has taken nearly $2.1 million, a modest result given the mostly laudatory reviews, the extensive ad-pub campaign and Mia Wasikowska.s knock-out performance as the .camel girl. Robyn Davidson.

One school of thought is that the film was impacted by competition from Oscar-winner 12 Years a Slave and The Monuments Men.

Another theory holds that many people were familiar with the tale of the young woman.s 2,700 km trek across the Outback and wrongly expected the film...

Aaron Wilson’s survival drama [pictured] sells to the UK and Canada.

Odin’s Eye Entertainment has closed several deals for Aaron Wilson’s survival drama Canopy.

Kaleidoscope Entertainment has acquired UK rights and Kinosmith has secured Canadian rights. Odin’s Eye will release the the film theatrically in Australia in the second quarter of 2014.

Previously, Monterey Media acquired the film for the Us.

Spencer Pollard of Kaleidoscope said: “Canopy is a film that we have been tracking since its excellent reviews in Toronto. We believe it is a smart film that we can build a strong audience with in the UK later this year.

“It’s great to do more business with Odin’s Eye and we look forward to a successful release later this year”

The film is set in 1942 Singapore when an Australian fighter pilot is shot down by the Japanese; he navigates his way through the jungle and meets a Chinese resistance fighter.

Finer...

Writer-director Aaron Wilson.s debut feature Canopy, a thriller set during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in WW2, keeps racking up sales to key international territories,. Kaleidoscope Entertainment has bought the UK rights and Kinosmith secured the Canadian rights, and a theatrical release is guaranteed in both markets.

That follows last week.s deal with Us distributor Monterey Media. The deals were negotiated in Berlin by Odin.s Eye Entertainment, which plans to release the film in Australian cinemas in Q2 2014. Canopy had its world premiere in official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and has played at festival in Busan; Abu Dhabi, Stockholm and Rotterdam.

Kaleidoscope founder Spencer Pollard said, "Canopy is a film that we have been tracking since its excellent reviews in Toronto. We believe it is a smart film that we can build a strong audience with in the UK later this year. . The plot...

Writer-director Aaron Wilson.s debut feature Canopy, a thriller set during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in WWII, has been sold to the Us.

Monterey Media will release the film in Us cinemas in the second quarter of 2014, folllowed by VOD and DVD.

The plot. follows an Australian fighter pilot (Khan Chittenden) who is shot down in combat and is forced to navigate through enemy territory in search of sanctuary. Taiwanese actor Mo Tzu-Yi plays a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter who joins him in the struggle to survive.

Virtually dialogue-free, the film produced by Finer Films. Katrina Fleming got mostly rave reviews after its world premiere at last year.s Toronto International Film Festival.

Fleming tells If, "We chose Monterey because they have an impeccable reputation for managing art house films and working with filmmakers."

"In this time of turmoil in the world it is imperative that people can glimpse the...

This is the second of two dispatches from Michael Pattison on International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014.

The spectre of barbarism isn’t just haunting European Cinema. False radicalisms and tentative engagements with the world today are prevalent all over the seventh art. And while all-out bunk is as infrequent as what others might call ‘great cinema’, it’s the ever-widening middle ground—the one that pervades and defines many a film festival—that seems especially disappointing.

Just as the cinematic landscape as a whole is peppered too sporadically with outstanding works, so on a micro level, unremarkable films frustrate precisely because otherwise fine technical rendering is undone by an apparent unwillingness to confront prevailing political currents. Even if chewable nuggets intermittently emerge over the course of a single film, we are on the whole limited to thanking the Lord for small mercies.

Of course, it’s difficult enough to make a film to begin with.

Below you will find our total coverage of the 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam by our two attending critics, including reports on films by Tiger competitors, Aleksei German, Takashi Miike, the best of the festival's experimental short films, and retrospectives on German director Heinz Emigholz and Danish director Nils Malmros.

By Daniel Kasman

Festival Hold 'Em

On Charlotte Pryce's A Study in Natural Magic, Shiloh Cinquemani's Blue, Esther Urlus's Konrad & Kurfurst, Tomonari Nishikawa's 45 7 Broadway, Takashi Miike's The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji

Projectile Bombardment

On Aleksei German's Hard to Be a God, Heinz Emigholz's D'Annunzio's Cave (2005), Richard Touhy's Dot Matrix, Esther Urlus's Chrome, Makino Takashi and Telcosystems' Deorbit, Tine Frank's Colterrain, Jodie Back's Let Your Light Shine

Deep Breaths

On the retrospective on German documentarian Heinz Emigholz, including films Sullivan's Banks (2000), Maillart's Bridges (2001), Goff in the Desert (2003), Parabeton - Pier Luigi Nervi and Roman Concrete (2012), Two Museums,...

Programme includes David Mackenzie’s Starred Up and Ti West’s The Sacrament.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Jan 22 - Feb 2) has added a programme of films focusing on “contemporary survival” to its thematic Signals section.

How to Survive… will feature 12 independent films from around the world range from Spanish survival horror La cueva (In Darkness We Fall) by Alfredo Montero to Jang Cheol-soo’s Korean spy thriller Secretly Greatly, and from Canadian internet found footage documentary Hoax_canular by Dominic Gagnon to Iranian apocalyptic visions in From Tehran to Heaven by Abolfazl Saffary.

It will also feature David Mackenzie’s British prison drama Starred Up, Us director Ti West’s found footage horror The Sacrament, and White Bear, an episode from Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series that aired in the UK.

In the How to Survive… Clinics, experts will teach visitors forgotten survival skills. In a workshop by Rotterdam-based Wild Vleesch, visitors can learn...

The crowd funding of creative projects in Australia is growing rapidly although the average per-person contribution is relatively small.

The Australian crowd funding platform Pozible is facilitating investment of $1.2 million per month into creative projects, according to co-founder Alan Crabbe.

.We.re seeing phenomenal growth,. Crabbe told the panel Show Me the Money- The Art of Film Financing, at the Australian Directors Guild conference. He said film is the No. 1 category and he estimated the platform has triggered $3 million for features since it launched in 2010. The average sum invested is $6,000.

Asked why Pozible insists that funding targets are reached for each project before the money flows to the producers, Crabbe said, .Supporters don.t tend to like the flexible model. The all-or-nothing model is much more credible and successful..

Director Aaron Wilson raised $24,000 via Pozible to finish his first feature Canopy, a WW2 drama set in Singapore, which premiered...

Actor prizes go to Dame Judi Dench and Jesse Eisenberg; Enough Said, starring the late James Gandolfini, wins audience award.Scroll down for full list of winners

The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.

The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.

The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.

The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave to open festival; director Peter Greenaway to receive Visionary Award.Scroll down for full line-up

Steve McQueen’s historic drama 12 Years a Slave is to open the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17) and is nominated in the Stockholm Xxiv Competition.

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the drama about free black man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the 1850s debuted at Telluride and has received positive reactions throughout its festival tour of Toronto, New York and London among others.

It will be released in Sweden on Dec 20 by Ab Svensk Filmindustri.

Screenwriter John Ridley, who will be present during the festival, is nominated for the Aluminum Horse in the category Best Script.

McQueen’s Hunger won Best Directorial Debut at Stockholm in 2008.

Line-up

The 24th Siff includes more than 180 films from more than 50 countries.

As previously announced, the spotlight of this year’s festival is freedom but Chinese artist...

The full line up has been unveiled for the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Daniel Schechter’s Life Of Crime will open the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which runs Oct 24- Nov 2.

13 Arab feature films (seven of which are world premieres) will compete across different sections of the festival, including Rani Massalha’s Giraffada and Nejib Belkhadi’s Bastardo in the New Horizons Competition, Ahmed Abdallah’s Rags And Tatters and Hicham Ayouch’s Fevers in the Narrative Feature Competition, and Sherief Elkatsha’s Cairo Drive and Mohammad Soueid’s The Boy From Aleppo in the Documentary Feature Competition.

Tobe Hooper’s UAE horror Djin will screen in the festival’s Showcase section.

Films competing in the Narrative Feature Competition include Jun Robles Lana’s Barber’s Tales, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Danis Tanovic’s An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker, Jasmila Zbanic’s [link...

The full line up has been unveiled for the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Daniel Schechter’s Life Of Crime will open the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which runs Oct 24- Nov 2.

13 Arab feature films (seven of which are world premieres) will compete across different sections of the festival, including Rani Massalha’s Giraffada and Nejib Belkhadi’s Bastardo in the New Horizons Competition, Ahmed Abdallah’s Rags And Tatters and Hicham Ayouch’s Fevers in the Narrative Feature Competition, and Sherief Elkatsha’s Cairo Drive and Mohammad Soueid’s The Boy From Aleppo in the Documentary Feature Competition.

Tobe Hooper’s UAE horror Djin will screen in the festival’s Showcase section.

Films competing in the Narrative Feature Competition include Jun Robles Lana’s Barber’s Tales, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Danis Tanovic’s An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker, Jasmila Zbanic’s [link...

Australian writer-director Aaron Wilson is shooting a follow-up to his debut feature Canopy, which focuses on one of the lead characters 30 years after the end of World War II.

In Canopy, Khan Chittenden plays Jim, an Australian fighter pilot who is shot down in combat during the Japanese invasion of Singapore.

Jim is forced to navigate through enemy territory in search of sanctuary. Taiwanese actor Mo Tzu-Yi plays Seng, a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter who joins him in the struggle to survive.

The companion film, as yet untitled, follows Robert Menzies as Jim as he copes with civilian life in the 1970s. The producer, Finer Films. Katrina Fleming, tells If that Wilson is yet to shoot a coda which is set in the present day. It will be completed in time for next year.s festival season, she says.

Wilson has just signed with the Paradigm, the Us talent agency which...

This may turn out to be a premature and fanciful call but 2014 is shaping as potentially one of the strongest years for Australian films, commercially and critically, in recent memory.

There are numerous grounds for optimism, starting with the overwhelmingly positive responses and, in some cases, deals for Tracks, The Railway Man, Wolf Creek 2, Felony and Canopy after their world premieres at either the Toronto or Venice film festivals.

Given the talent attached, the slate of films now shooting or in post-production looks highly promising, including Kill Me Three Times, The Rover, Son of a Gun, I, Frankenstein, Predestination, Charlie.s Country, Fell and Now Add Honey.

Added to that are several films from experienced filmmakers that are due to roll soon: Cut Snake, The Dressmaker and Paper Planes.

Industry figures whom If consulted are bullish about the prospects for the year ahead. There is a .very good reason for such optimism,...

Writer-director Aaron Wilson.s debut feature Canopy has been lavishly praised by reviewers after its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Set during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in WW11, the thriller follows an Australian fighter pilot (Khan Chittenden) who is shot down in combat and is forced to navigate through enemy territory in search of sanctuary. Taiwanese actor Mo Tzu-Yi plays a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter who joins him in the struggle to survive.

Virtually dialogue-free, the film produced by Katrina Fleming won plaudits for the high level of suspense, the two lead.s performances, Stefan Duscio.s photography and sound design by Rodney Lowe and Nic Buchanan.

The international sales rep, Odin.s Eye Entertainment.s Michael Favelle, told If from Toronto, .We.ve had lots of interest and are fielding offers. We had to turn away people at the first press and industry screening as we were way over capacity.

Writer-director Aaron Wilson.s debut feature Canopy has been lavishly praised by reviewers after its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Set during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in WW11, the thriller follows an Australian fighter pilot (Khan Chittenden) who is shot down in combat and is forced to navigate through enemy territory in search of sanctuary. Taiwanese actor Mo Tzu-Yi plays a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter who joins him in the struggle to survive.

Virtually dialogue-free, the film produced by Katrina Fleming won plaudits for the high level of suspense, the two lead.s performances, Stefan Duscio.s photography and sound design by Rodney Lowe and Nic Buchanan.

The international sales rep, Odin.s Eye Entertainment.s Michael Favelle, told If from Toronto, .We.ve had lots of interest and are fielding offers. We had to turn away people at the first press and industry screening as we were way over capacity.

Amidst big premieres and anticipated features from notable directors and actors, many film festivals have feature-length debuts from filmmakers, and the Toronto International Film Festival is no different. One such film at the 2013 incarnation of the festival is Canopy, the first full length feature from writer-director Aaron Wilson. Wilson is a 10-year veteran of the industry, having written and directed numerous short films before beginning work on an original screenplay set in Singapore during World War 2. The lead role is played by Khan Chittenden, who is joined onscreen by Robert Menzies, Edwina Wren, and Tzu-yi Mo. The first trailer for the film has now been released, and can be seen below.

(Source: Indiewire)

The post Tiff 2013: ‘Canopy’, the debut film from Aaron Wilson, releases a teaser appeared first on Sound On Sight.

Australian filmmaking is firing on all cylinders at the moment, with the country showing four films in Venice and six in Toronto. Most of them are high profile indies, but one of the unknown wild cards screening at Tiff is Canopy, the debut feature from Aaron Wilson. Singapore, February 9, 1942. The Japanese invasion is underway. Jim (Khan Chittenden), an Australian airman, wakes up dangling from a tree by his parachute strings, somewhere in the middle of a vast wilderness overrun by hostile forces. Jim must fend for himself -- until he literally runs into a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter, Seng (Mo Tzu-Yi), who has also been injured and is also lost. The men realize that their only hope of surviving lies with each other.The poster art and...

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In the last wave of Tiff announcements, it’s the Discovery section that we’re most curious about as it normally is loaded up with the rookies, many first-time and second time filmmakers breaking into world film festival circuit programming with genuine gems. Among the 25 plus selected films that make up the programme, we’ve got a handful of U.S. independent films in the likes of Mark Phinney’s Fat, a pair of Us in Progress Paris projects in Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly’s Beneath The Harvest Sky and Tommy Oliver’s 1982, while a newbie filmmaker part of the clan in Gia Coppola makes the trip from Venice Film Festival’s Horizon section to Toronto with the book to film adapation of James Franco Palo Alto (see pic above). Also from Venice, we have the Venice Days included Bethlehem, from Israeli helmer Yuval Adler and an item that...

Care Aware: supports 2.6m Australian carers

Actor and author William McInnes is the face of a new campaign to acknowledge the contribution carers make to society.

The first phase of a campaign for Care Aware by McCann centres on the website Careaware.com.au, which provides resources to help carers, information on how to become a ‘Care Aware Workplace’, and encourages social interaction to help spread the Care Aware message.

The site also features a number of videos that showcase Care Aware’s work.

McInnes said: “Many Australians don’t realize it, but at some stage in our lives we are statistically likely to become a carer for a family member, or require caring ourselves. This is why it is so important that we as a nation understand what caring is and what it involves.”

Another key part of the campaign is a continuous 24-hour symphonic concert in October at Melbourne’s prestigious Hamer Hall.

Breaking the mould of cinematic formula is no easy task, particularly when the traditional and worn methods in most genres seem to work so easily. While this familiarity can be a good thing, it's always refreshing to see filmmakers pushing the boundaries of their genres. The greatly attempted ‘drama/war film' generally focuses on a specific period in time, mostly covering the love affairs of the lead and epic physical violence. It's all about the moment. But what happens after the war? Ten, twenty years later? Writer/director Aaron Wilson (known for his award-winning short films which include Rendezvous, Ten Feet Tall and Leap Year) attempts to explore this question in his not-so-typical feature, Triple Happiness.