News

Exclusive: Film Movement has acquired North American rights for French filmmaker Auberi Edler’s documentary An American Pastoral, chronicling the struggles in a rural Pennsylvanian community over the future of its public schools.

The cinema vérité-style work – produced by Les Films d’Ici Méditerranée – won the Best Directing Award at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

Film Movement have slated the work for a theatrical release in 2025, to be followed by a launch on leading digital platforms and the home entertainment marketplace.

The documentary captures the battle for control of public schools in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, a picturesque town situated in the rolling farmland of Lancaster County.

On the surface, it has all the charm of small-town America but behind its bucolic veneer lies a fracture in the making as local school board meetings turn into a battleground.

After months of vitriolic debates over Covid-19 restrictions, budget priorities, and library books, four...

Film Movement has acquired North America rights to “Peaches Goes Bananas,” Marie Losier’s documentary about the trailblazing feminist queer icon, musician and producer known as Peaches.

The movie is represented internationally by Best Friend Forever and world premiered at the Venice Days sidebar which runs alongside the film festival.

Film Movement will be releasing the movie theatrically, followed by a roll-out on digital platforms and home entertainment.

The documentary portrays Peaches, whose real name is Merrill Nisker, and showcases her concerts, as well as her bond with her sister Suri and her creative process.

Losier is best known for directing critically lauded documentaries including “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye,” which won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2011; “Cassandro El Exotico!,” winner of the Cannes Acid section in 2018; and “Felix in Wonderland,” which had its world premiere in Locarno in 2019. Losier’s work has also been celebrated...

Less a portrait of a musician/creative artist/feminist icon and more a portrait of a friendship, Marie Losier’s Peaches Goes Bananas, which has been a hit across the festival circuit from Venice to Glasgow to Flare, is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. Shot over 17 years, it mingles intimate personal moments with visceral concert footage, its musical sequences knitted together with some of the best editing you’re likely to see this year.

For all the delight she takes in costume, Peaches (her given name is Merrill Nisker but she uses her stage name just as readily with friends) is not somebody who feels a need for glamour, and her willingness to be seen just as is adds an extra layer to the film. It’s rare for us to see bodies – especially female ones – in this very direct way as they change over time, and rare too to.

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has announced a first raft of deals on Jun Li’s sexy Hong Kong-set Drama “Queerpanorama” following its world premiere at this year’s Berlin Film Festival where it bowed in the Panorama section.

The black-and-white film has been sold in North America (Dark Star Pictures), France (Dulac Distribution), Germany, Austria & Switzerland (Salzgeber) and Portugal & Spain (Filmin). Best Friend Forever are also in advanced discussions to close other key territories.

“Queerpanorama” marks Li’s follow up to “Drifting” which premiered in competition at Rotterdam in 2021 and won best adapted screenplay at the Golden Horse Awards. The film was also nominated for best picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

The plot revolves around a gay man who “impersonates men he has had sex with and brings this new persona with him to his next date. Only by pretending to be someone else can he be truly himself,...

BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 19-30) has unveiled its full line-up, with 56 features across three strands, exploring subjects such as Kenya’s ballroom scene and the appeal of dating apps.

The programme has films and shorts from 41 countries, with six world premiere features. These include Kenyan filmmaker Njoroge Muthoni’s documentaryHow To Live, which explores Nairobi’s vibrant ballroom scene and celebrates queer African joy.

In Yu-jin Lee’s Manok, the owner of a South Korean lesbian bar must return to her small hometown after clashing with the city’s younger queer community.

Buenos Aires-set comedy drama Few...

“Queerpanorama,” the latest feature by Hong Kong filmmaker Jun Li, has been boarded by Brussels-based sales company Best Friend Forever (“Universal Language”) ahead of its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

Slated to bow in the Panorama section, the movie marks Li’s follow up to “Drifting” which premiered in competition at Rotterdam in 2021 and won best adapted screenplay at the Golden Horse Awards. The film was also nominated for best picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Set in Hong Kong, “Queerpanorama” revolves around a gay man who “impersonates men he has had sex with and brings this new persona with him to his next sex date. Only by pretending to be someone else can he be truly himself,” the synopsis reads.

Best Friend Forever will launch international sales on “Queerpanorama” at the Berlin Film Festival’s EFM.

Li said he wrote the movie “at a very dark...

French-speaking Belgium hit a high-water mark at the Cannes Film Festival in May, with 11 Belgian co-productions claiming accolades and acclaim across the Croisette. Alongside Critics’ Week opener “Ghost Trail” and the Cannes jury and best actress prize-winner “Emilia Pérez,” eight of those co-productions received support from Belgium’s Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, while just as many shared a proud Francophone voice.

At Venice, industry delegates built on that robust show of force, touting home-grown projects like Fabrice Du Welz’s police thriller “Maldoror” and co-productions like Aude Léa Rapin’s sci-fi drama “Planet B” and Marie Losier’s music doc “Peaches Goes Bananas,” while young producers took to the Lido to forge new partnerships beyond the traditional mold.

“We’re trying to diversify as much as possible,” says French-speaking Belgium’s Cinema and Audiovisual Center director Jeanne Brunfaut. “Though we tend to partner with [other Francophone countries], we want to encourage our producers to look further afield,...

The journey towards this year’s Venice Film Festival began nearly two decades ago for documentarian Marie Losier and pop icon Merrill Nisker – better known to the world as Peaches. Upon meeting backstage at a show, Losier instinctively turned her Bolex camera on the musician — and then didn’t stop filming for 17 years.

The result is “Peaches Goes Bananas,” an intimate and unconventional doc premiering out the Venice Days sidebar.

The project marks the second Peaches-focused project to hit this year’s festival circuit, following Philipp Fussenegger and Judy Landkammer’s “Teaches of Peaches” in Berlin, and the singer sees no overlap.

“The projects are so different,” Nisker tells Variety. “One is more of a documentary of a certain album at a certain place in time, [whereas] Marie’s film – well, I don’t even consider it documentary. It’s more of a painting, a portrait. Marie gets excited about an...

Canada’s Oscar entry “Universal Language,” a critically acclaimed movie directed by Matthew Rankin, has been acquired by distributors in most major territories ahead of its North American premieres at Toronto and New York Film Festival.

Represented worldwide by Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever, the movie world premiered at this Cannes Directors’ Fortnight where it won the inaugural People’s Choice Award. Following Toronto and New York, the movie will go on to play at Fantastic Fest and Festival du Nouveau Cinema as the festival opener. “Universal Language” also won the Bright Horizons Best Film Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

“Universal Language” has been bought for France (Météore Films), Scandinavia (Njutafilms), Germany & Austria (Rapid Eye Movies), Switzerland (Outside The Box), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nitrato Filmes), Cei (Universal Distribution), Japan (The Klockworx), China (DDDream), Taiwan (Hooray Films), Brazil (Belas Artes Grupo), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures) and India (Big Tree Entertainment). Benelux,...

Best Friend Forever has dropped the trailer for Marie Losier’s documentary feature “Peaches Goes Bananas.” The feature will have its world premiere at the Venice Days sidebar running alongside the film festival.

The documentary portrays Merrill Nisker — the trailblazing feminist queer icon, musician and producer known as Peaches — off and on stage. It showcases Peaches’ concerts, her bond with her sister Suri and her creative process.

The movie also results from the friendship bond that Losier has forged with Peaches over the years. “There was a special feeling between Marie and I from the moment we met — a comfort, a joy, a creative force, a knowing,” said Peaches in a statement. “Marie’s style is all her own and I love her for that. There are such sacred moments captured on film that I will always cherish, especially since the passing of my sister and my father,” she continued.

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has boarded international sales for Marie Losier’s documentary feature “Peaches Goes Bananas” ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Days sidebar running alongside the film festival.

For “Peaches Goes Bananas,” Losier followed Merrill Nisker — the trailblazing feminist queer icon, musician and producer known as Peaches — off and on stage. An intimate portrait, the documentary showcases Peaches’ concerts, her bond with her sister Suri and her creative process.

Losier is best known for directing critically lauded documentaries including “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye,” which won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2011; “Cassandro El Exotico!,” winner of the Cannes Acid section in 2018; and “Felix in Wonderland,” which had its world premiere in Locarno in 2019. Losier’s work has also been celebrated with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2018, where all her films were acquired for the...

UK filmmaker Joanna Hogg is to be president of Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori, running from August 28-September 7.

The jury consists of 10 former participants of the European young cinephile 27 Times Cinema programme. Jury heads in recent years have included João Pedro Rodrigues, Céline Sciamma, Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova and Nadav Lapid.

The jury decides the winner of a cash prize of €20,000, to be split equally between the filmmaker and the film’s international distributor.

Once again, the jury sessions will be coordinated by Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

The Quay Brothers’ Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass,...

Germany’s Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Names New Boss

Influential German funding body Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg is getting a new Managing Director. Sarah Duve-Scmid will succeed Kirsten Niehuus in the middle of next year. Duve-Scmid was previously a deputy board member and head of funding at the Leiterin der Förderabteilung bei der Filmförderanstalt (Federal Funding Agency). She was also Managing Director of Vision Kino. Niehuus is retiring in 2025, and a supervisory board picked her successor, who will work alongside Helge Jürgens, who is to remain Managing Director of Games and New Media until mid-2028. “With the Supervisory Board’s decision, the Medienboard is moving towards a continued successful future,” said Florian Graf, Head of the Berlin Senate Chancellery and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Medienboard. “Building on the great 20 years of work by Kirsten Niehuus, who made the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region the center of German film, Sarah Duve-Schmid stands for...

The Quay Brothers’ Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass, and Marie Losier’s biopic of feminist singer Peaches are among the line-up for this year’s Giornate degli Autori.

The independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival runs from August 28-September 7 and has 10 films in competition.

Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass is a blend of stop-motion animation and live action, inspired by the story collection of the same name by Polish writer Bruno Schulz where the search for his late father becomes a metaphysical journey.

It is the only the third feature from UK-based animators the Quay Brothers,...

The Quay Brothers’ Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass, and Marie Losier’s biopic of feminist singer Peaches are among the line-up for this year’s Giornate degli Autori.

The independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival runs from August 28-September 7 and has 10 films in competition.

Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass is a blend of stop-motion animation and live action, inspired by the story collection of the same name by Polish writer Bruno Schulz where the search for his late father becomes a metaphysical journey.

It is the only the third feature from UK-based animators the Quay Brothers,...

The Giornate Degli Autori, simply known as Venice Days, has unveiled its 2024 lineup.

The independently run event, which takes place alongside the Venice Film Festival, will this year follow a theme of creatures “poised over an abyss, walking a tightrope.” “To reach the other side, or else to escape from something behind them, or just because, seen from above — lost in time, lost in space — things look very different,” event organizers said.

The only Italian title in competition is Ciro De Caro’s Taxi Monamour, about two women who lose their way yet stubbornly persist in living life as they wish. Dutch filmmaker Jan-Willem Van Ewijk’s third feature film, Alpha., follows a troubled father-son relationship set high in the Swiss Alps.

French filmmaker Marie Losier revisits the feminist singer and performer Peaches and a 14-year-long friendship in Peaches Goes Bananas, shot over the course of 17 years, while the directorial debut of Shahab Fotouhi,...

Films directed by women dominate the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Giornate Degli Autori, which has unveiled a lineup full of first works and special events including “Peaches Goes Bananas,” French filmmaker Marie Losier’s tribute to iconic Canadian electropop provocateur Peaches.

Shot over the course of 17 years, “Peaches Goes Bananas” provides an intimate portrait of the former schoolteacher, who during the 1980s moved from Canada to Berlin and became a queer feminist icon, breaking taboos and “transforming her body into art,” as the doc’s synopsis puts it.

The competition of the Giornate – which is also known as Venice Days – comprises 10 world premieres, six of which are first works, within a selection that artistic director Gaia Furrer described in her notes as “rigorous” and “stylistically eclectic.”

Furer underlined that 16 out of the section’s 25 titles are directed by women, a fact she called significant “because many of them...

Continuing their streak of restorations seemingly nobody would even think to undertake, The Film Desk will soon premiere a program of ten shorts directed by Rhody Streeter and Tony Ganz. Titled America: Everything You’ve Ever Dreamed Of, it’ll start a week-long run at New York’s Anthology Film Archives on June 21 with the filmmakers in attendance. Ahead of this we’re pleased to exclusively debut a new trailer edited by Jake Perlin and Dee Hamid.

Here’s the synopsis: “As funny as they are unsettling, as affectionate as they are trenchant, and made with a refreshing concision that belies the depth of their cultural and social observations, the short documentaries of Rhody Streeter and Tony Ganz are ripe for rediscovery. Featured in their day on the public television series ‘The Great American Dream Machine’ and ‘The 51st State,’ and screened in the 1970s at MoMA, Film Forum and the Whitney Museum,...

Les Arcs Film Festival, the European equivalent to the Sundance Film Festival, has unveiled the list of projects which will be presented during its competitive Work-in-Progress showcase.

Curated by Tribeca and Les Arcs’ artistic director Frederic Boyer and Lison Hervé, the selection will present a broad range of movies in post-production seeking a sales agent, festival slots and international distribution.

This year’s roster includes several titles from Scandinavia, including “Acts of Love,” a Danish-language film directed by Jeppe Rønde, and “The Swedish Torpedo,” a period epic directed by Frida Kempff (“Winter Buoy”). Josefin Neldén stars in “The Swedish Torpedo” as Sally Bauer, the first Scandinavian to swim across the English Channel in 1939. The film is produced by Momento Film, with Amrion, Inland Film Company, and Velvet Films.

“Acts of Love,” meanwhile, tells the story of a young woman living in a religious community and stars Jonas Holst Schmidt (“Copenhagen Does Not Exist...

The Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the 13 upcoming features selected for its Work-in Progress showcase.

The selection includes respected French, New York-based artist and filmmaker Marie Losier’s bio-doc Peaches Goes Bananas about Canadian electronic musician Merrill Beth Nisker, aka Peaches.

Danish director Jeppe Rønde, who made waves with mass teen suicide drama Bridgend, is participating with second fiction feature Acts of Love, about a taboo sibling relationship within the confines of a religious community on Denmark’s west coast. (scroll down for full list).

Excerpts from the selected productions will be screened to industry professionals on December 17 as part of the festival’s Industry Village events, which also includes the Coproduction Village.

Both events are taking place within the framework of the festival’s 15th edition running from December 16 to 19 in the French Alps resort of Les Arcs.

The showcase received a record 181 project submissions this year, 38% of which are directed women.

Excerpts from the 13 selected films will be screened to attending industry on Sunday 17 in Les Arcs.

Ukrainian sci-fi U Are The Universe is among 13 feature projects selected for the Work in Progress strand of Les Arcs Film Festival, which runs from December 16-23.

The feature debut of Ukrainian filmmaker Pavlo Ostrikov, the film shot in 2022 and is currently in post-production, produced by Ukraine’s ForeFilms and Belgium’s Stenola, with backing from the Ukrainian State Film Agency.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Set after the explosion of Earth, the film follows a lonely Ukrainian astronaut who believes...

In today’s Global Bulletin, “The Prince of Egypt” musical plans its return to London’s West End, BBC Arts unveils a slate of TV and radio adaptations for its Lights Up festival, Festival MiX Milano rebrands as MiX International Festival of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Queer Culture, Mip Cancun announces 2021 in-person market dates and details, and Telefilm backs two new features in Canada.

Theater

Following the latest U.K. government guidance on the easing of lockdown restrictions, DreamWorks Theatricals has announced that “The Prince of Egypt” musical theater adaptation of the DreamWorks Animation classic film, will resume live performances at London’s Dominion Theater in the West End on July 1 and has extended its booking through Jan. 8, 2022.

As an extra precautionary measure, performances from July 1 through Sept. 4 will be held under Step 3 protocols, including strict social distancing restrictions. Starting Sept. 6, performances will take place under Step 4 protocols, with limits on social contact lifted.

Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.

Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.

Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.

Marie Losier’s brief documentary shines a light on the self-proclaimed ‘Liberace of lucha libre’ as he grapples with the end of his career in the ring

Film-maker Marie Losier gives us a brief, impressionistic documentary portrait of the Mexican wrestling star who describes himself as the “Liberace of lucha libre”: Saúl Armendáriz, who goes by the stage-name Cassandro – a handle with ominous associations that he does not discuss.

Cassandro is an exótico, an overtly gay wrestler whose very purpose is to tease his super-macho opponents in the ring. Approaching his 50s, with a string of hair-raising injuries (he has been hospitalised eight times for concussion), and in recovery for alcohol and drug issues, Cassandro is having to wind down the high-impact part of his career. Now he’s doing more coaching, touring, media work and public appearances. (His tour stopover in London sees him wearing an outfit inspired by his heroine: “Lady Di.

The 70th Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled its juries.

Joining president Jeremy Irons on the international jury is actress Bérénice Bejo (Argentina / France), producer Bettina Brokemper (Germany), director Annemarie Jacir (Palestine), plawright and director Kenneth Lonergan (USA), actor Luca Marinelli (Italy) and film critic and director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil).

They will award prizes including the Golden and the Silver Bears to the 18 films in this year’s Competition line up.

Berlin dropped one of its awards, the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize, which goes to a film that “opens new perspectives on cinematic art”, after Nazi collaborator accusations emerged against its namesake in German press this week. No word yet on whether the prize will be reintroduced with a new moniker.

The festival’s new competitive section Encounters will see Dominga Sotomayor (Chile), Eva Trobisch (Germany) and Shôzô Ichiyama (Japan) award three prizes: Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award.

Zia Anger in My First Film

This year's Glasgow Short Film Festival is to open with the Scottish première of Zia Anger's My First Film, it was revealed yesterday - and attendees are being asked to keep their phones switched on as the director introduces and interacts with her work. Music video guru and performance artist Anger will tell the story of an abandoned first feature and the experiences of female filmmakers through the big screen, live YouTube windows and sequences sent directly to the phones of audience members.

The festival has also announced a screening of Marie Losier's Felix In Wonderland, an experimental voyage through the work of cult electronic musician Felix Kubin, which will be followed by a rare musical performajnce from the star himself, supported by local R&b-disco-house-dreampop band Babe.

The festival will run from 18-22 March and the full programme will be announced on 13 February.

The event running 15-24 November will open with Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin by Werner Herzog and close with Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela. Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, the new documentary by Werner Herzog, is set to open the 2019 edition of the Filmmaker Festival on 15 November. Running until 24 November in Milan, the event will host 99 titles in total, including 31 out-and-out premieres, 3 European premieres and 26 Italian premieres. The closing slot is entrusted to Vitalina Varela by Portugal’s Pedro Costa, the winner of the 2019 Golden Leopard award at Locarno, where it also scooped the prize for Best Actress. The International Competition will this year consist of 9 films. French director Marie Losier is making her return to Milan armed with Felix in Wonderland, the latest chapter in her collection of eccentric artist portraits,...

Celebrating its 72nd edition this year, the Locarno Film Festival has been the birthplace for the finest in international arthouse cinema and this year’s lineup looks to continue the tradition. Ahead of the festival, running August 7-17, the full slate has been announced.

Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.

The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...

Cross-city transport unties people from different faiths, backgrounds.

Film Movement has picked up North American rights to Amos Gitai’s Venice 2018 award winner A Tramway In Jerusalem, featuring an ensemble that includes Mathieu Amalric.

The Israeli filmmaker’s latest feature is a multi-cultural drama exploring the cultural divides that separate the inhabitants of one of the world’s most iconic cities, as different religions mingle on the Light Rail Red Line of Jerusalem’s tramway that connects the city from East to West, from the Palestinian neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina to Mount Herzl, site of Israel’s national cemetery.

Dubai-based Cercamon handles worldwide sales on Bronx-set tale.

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Goldie, Sam de Jong’s coming-of-age story that premiered in Generation 14 Plus in Berlin and is being sold in Cannes by Dubai-based Cercamon.

‘Instagirl’ supermodel Slick Woods makes her acting debut as the titular character in the Bronx-set tale about a streetwise teen who discovers her true strength when her dream of becoming a dancer collides with harsh reality.

The drama, Dutch filmmaker de Jong’s follow-up to his 2015 feature debut Prince, screened at Tribeca Film Festival last month and hails from Twentieth Century Fox and Vice Films.

Distributor plans a 2019 theatrical, digital, home entertainment and Svod release.

Film Movement Classics has acquired Us and English-speaking Canadian rights to Fritz Lang Indian Epic, the two-part cliffhanger comprising The Tiger Of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb.

The distributor plans a 2019 release as a theatrical double feature followed by digital and home entertainment release, and a launch on FilmMovement’s Svod platform, Film Movement Plus.

After more than two decades of exile in Hollywood, Lang triumphantly returned to his native Germany to direct the two-part cliffhanger in 1959 from a story he co-authored nearly 40 years earlier.

Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg,...

Clément Cogitore’s “Braguino,” Meryem Benm’Barek’s (pictured) “Sofia” and Marie Losier’s “Cassandro the Exotico!” are among the 12 recent French movies which will play as part of the Young French Cinema Program organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. and UniFrance.

“Braguino” is a documentary feature about two feuding families living isolated in the middle of the Siberian taiga. Cogitore’s last feature film “Neither Heaven Nor Earth” opened at Cannes’s Critics Week in 2015.

Set in Casablanca, “Sofia” follows a young woman who has 24 hours to provide the identification papers of her child’s father before the authorities are alerted that she broke the law by having a child out of wedlock. The film world premiered at Cannes’s Un Certain Regard and won best screenplay.

“Cassandro the Exotico!” follows the leader of a group of gender-bending, cross-dressing wrestlers known...

Lumières are the Golden Globes of France.

A mixed bag of nominations for the 24th edition of France’s Lumière awards was unveiled in Paris on Monday (Dec 17).

Jacques Audiard’s Us-set, English-language The Sisters Brothers, period comedy-drama Mademoiselle de Jonquières, adoption drama Pupille and Venice-winning relationship drama Custody came out as the front-runners with four nominations each.

Following with three nominations each were Alex Lutz’s comedy-drama Guy, about a man who discovers he is the illegitimate son of a fading variety star and decides to follow him on tour; comedy The Trouble With You, sexual abuse drama Little Tickles,...

Selection includes Cannes Critics Week entry Fugue by Agnieszka Smoczyńska.

Raven Banner has picked up distribution on three films for Canada, the company announced at Afm.

Mexican-Chilean horror movie El Habitante hails from director Guillermo Amoedo, a co-writer on Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno. The story centres on three sisters that break into a corrupt Mexican senator’s home to rob him, and free his daughter from her basement captivity, unaware she is possessed. Film Sharks represented the filmmakers in the deal.

Marie Losier’s Cannes Acid documentary, Cassandro the Exotico! from Urban Distribution International follows openly gay Mexican luchador Cassandro,...

Festival doc activity included the Marche’s Doc Corner and a buzzy Doc Day that welcomed European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

The Cannes L’Œil d’or (Golden Eye) documentary award has been presented to Stefano Savona’s Samouni Road.

The $5,900 priz is presented by Lascam (the French-speaking authors’ society) and its president, Julie Bertuccelli, in collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival, with the support of Ina (French National Audiovisual Institute) and, new for this year, Audiens.

The jury – headed by director Emmanuel Finkiel – praised the Directors’ Fortnight entry for its “intelligent way of filming, the right distance in its point of view,...

Known as the “Liberace of Lucha Libre,” Saul Armendariz, aka Cassandro, is both fabulous and ferocious.

An openly gay champion of Mexican wrestling’s exotico sub-genre, where fighters dress in drag and put on an action-packed show filled with punches, pile-drivers and high camp, the 47-year-old luchador is winding down his long career with plenty of ice packs and memories of his triumphs in the ring.

In the lively documentary Cassandro the Exotico!, director Marie Losier (‘The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jay’) chronicles the wrestler’s twilight years with affection, humor and gravitas, revealing a man who built his hard-knock success...

The event brings together documentary professionals and filmmakers to debate the future of the documentary.

Exploration(s) is the theme of the third edition of Doc Day which takes place on May 15 in Cannes.

The lively event brings together documentary professionals and filmmakers to debate the future of documentary and showcase the work of various directors.

A keynote speech by astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency will open the event. It will include a presentation on the multi-format documentary project about his mission in space, which encompasses virtual reality experiences Being An Astronaut (Part 1 & Part 2).

The morning events...

Known as the “Liberace of Lucha Libre,” Saul Armendariz, aka Cassandro, is both fabulous and ferocious.

An openly gay champion of Mexican wrestling’s <em>exotico </em>subgenre, in which fighters dress in drag and put on an action-packed show filled with punches, pile-drivers and high camp, the 47-year-old <em>luchador</em> is winding down his long career with plenty of ice packs and memories of his triumphs in the ring.

In the lively documentary <em>Cassandro the Exotico!</em>, director Marie Losier (<em>The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jay</em>) chronicles the wrestler’s twilight years with affection, humor and gravitas, revealing a man who built ...

The lineup for the 2018 Cannes Acid has been announced.Feature Filmsl’amour Debout (Michaël Dacheux)Bad Bad Winter (Olga Korotko)Cassandro The Exotico! (Marie Losier)Dans La Terrible Jungle/ In The Mighty Jungle (Caroline Capelle & Ombline Ley)Il Se Passe Quelque Chose / Something Is Happening (Anne Alix)Seule A Mon Mariage / Alone At My Wedding (Marta Bergman)Thunder Road (Jim Cummings) Un Violent Désir De Bonheur/ A Violent Desire For Joy (Clément Schneider)We The Coyotes (Hanna Ladoul and Marco La Via)Special SCREENINGReprise (Hervé Le Roux)Acid Trip #2: PORTUGALVerão Danado / Damned Summer (Pedro Cabeleira)Terra Franca / Ashore (Leonor Teles)Colo (Teresa Villaverde)...

Following the first lineup announcement for the 71st Cannes Film Festival, yesterday Critics’ Week arrived, and now today we get two more sidebar reveals. First up, there’s Directors’ Fortnight, which opens with Birds of Passage, from Embrace of the Serpent director Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego. Also among the lineup is Gaspar Noé’s drug-fueled (of course) drama Climax, Mamoru Hosoda’s new animation Mirai, Romain Gavras’ Le monde est à toi, as well as Sundance favorites: Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy and Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace.

Check out the lineup below, followed by the Acid lineup, featuring Jim Cummings’ SXSW winner Thunder Road.

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Lineup

Opening Film:

Birds of Passage (Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego)

Closing Film:

Troppa grazia (Gianni Zanasi)

Feature Films

Amin (Philippe Faucon)

Climax (Gaspar Noé)

Carmen y Lola (Arantxa Echevarria)

Cómprame un revólver de (Julio Hernández Cordón)

Les Confins du monde (Guillaume Nicloux)

El motoarrebatador (Agustín Toscano)

En Liberté!

This year’s selection features eight world premieres and a Portugal focus.

France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (Acid) has unveiled the line-up for its 26th Cannes Film Festival showcase, running May 9-18.

The initiative is aimed at giving greater visibility to up and coming, independnet filmmakers and will screen nine works. All our world premieres except Jim Cummings’ Thunder Road which is an international premiere.

They are:

L’amour Debout (France) by Michaël Dacheux Bad Bad Winter (Kazakhstan) by Olga Korotko Cassandro The Exotico! (France) by Marie Losier Dans La Terrible Jungle/ In The Mighty Jungle...

Feature, documentary, Vr, TV projects set for Venice industry strand.

Venice Film Festival industry strand Venice Production Bridge has confirmed the 47 projects that will take part in this year’s edition of the Gap-Financing Market (September 1-3).

Now in its fourth year, the market will welcome 25 feature film and documentary projects, 15 virtual reality, interactive, web and TV projects, as well as seven Vr projects from previous editions of the talent development lab Biennale College, which are in various stages of development and production.

The teams behind each project will take part in one-ot-one meetings with producers, financiers, distributors, sales agents and further industry attending the Production Bridge.

Full list of projects:

Fiction features (Europe)

All The Pretty Little Horses dir. Michalis Konstantatos (Greece, Germany, Netherlands), Horsefly Productions

Bodyguard Of Lies dir. Charles Matthau (Spain, United States), Babieka Films

Brighton 4 dir. Levan Koguashvili (Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece), Kino Iberica

Cook, Fuck, Kill dir. Mira Fornay (Czech...

Tony Conrad, 1983. Photo by Joe Gibbons.Tony Conrad, who passed away on April 9 aged 76, was a vital figure in the fields of both filmmaking and music. His work in each is often characterized by its visceral power, its clear-eyed critique of Western art traditions, its interest in social questions and relations of control, its technical virtuosity and wit.Conrad was an indisputable innovator. His film works, beginning with The Flicker (1966) and continuing through, the Yellow Movies (1973), Film Feedback (1974), the ‘cooked film’ and ‘pickled film’ series, and many others, pushing the medium to its inner and outer limits: exploring the potential of long durations, stroboscopic effects, the physical properties of celluloid, the relation of filmmaker to spectator, the relation of film to other arts and to history. Conrad also created a vast number of video works, reflecting the same incisive energy. Too seldom referred to in contemporary writing about experimental film,...

Let’s start with this obvious point: few cities need another repertory outlet less than New York City, which provides enough decent-to-outstanding options every week (or day) to fully occupy any caring customer. And so when a new theater, Metrograph, was announced this past August, the largely enthusiastic response — people taking note of a good location, a dedication to celluloid presentations and new independent releases, its strong selection of programmers, and other services (e.g. a restaurant and “cinema-dedicated bookshop”) — went hand-in-hand with some people’s skepticism, or at least a certain raising of the eyebrows. The question of necessity was premature, but such is the influx of available material that it should inevitably come up.

It’s safe to say their first selections silenced those skeptics. Metrograph’s slate is strong in a way that’s uncommon; one could say it’s exactly the sort that a cinephile with...

The Berlinale presents the complete lineup of this year's Forum Expanded program: "The reference points here include genres such as science fiction (Larissa Sansour, Søren Lind, Clemens von Wedemeyer), war (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson) or horror films (Anja Kirschner), Egyptian film and media history (Heba Amin, Islam Kamal, Mayye Zayed) as well as the work of directors such as Yvonne Rainer (Kerstin Schroedinger), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Anja Kirschner), Michelangelo Antonioni (Volker Sattel), Alain Resnais, Chris Marker (Joe Namy, Clemens von Wedemeyer), Ingmar Bergman (Maged Nader) or Jack Smith (Marie Losier). Museum and exhibition culture (Assad Gruber, Hila Peleg), the history of sculptures and monuments (Heinz Emigholz, Ahmad Ghossein, Joe Namy) or art concepts such as Lettrism (Mika Taanila) equally flow into new forms of expression within which the artists then position themselves." » - David Hudson...

The Berlinale presents the complete lineup of this year's Forum Expanded program: "The reference points here include genres such as science fiction (Larissa Sansour, Søren Lind, Clemens von Wedemeyer), war (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson) or horror films (Anja Kirschner), Egyptian film and media history (Heba Amin, Islam Kamal, Mayye Zayed) as well as the work of directors such as Yvonne Rainer (Kerstin Schroedinger), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Anja Kirschner), Michelangelo Antonioni (Volker Sattel), Alain Resnais, Chris Marker (Joe Namy, Clemens von Wedemeyer), Ingmar Bergman (Maged Nader) or Jack Smith (Marie Losier). Museum and exhibition culture (Assad Gruber, Hila Peleg), the history of sculptures and monuments (Heinz Emigholz, Ahmad Ghossein, Joe Namy) or art concepts such as Lettrism (Mika Taanila) equally flow into new forms of expression within which the artists then position themselves." » - David Hudson...

The 44th edition of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema has just announced their entire lineup and it’s pretty insane! The festival which takes place in Montreal from October 7 to 18 is screening nearly 400 films and events in only 11 days. This includes 151 feature films and 203 short films from 68 countries – 49 world premieres, 38 North American premieres and 60 Canadian premieres. Give credit to the team of programmers: Claude Chamberlan, Dimitri Eipides Julien Fonfrède, Philippe Gajan, Karolewicz Daniel, Marie-Hélène Brousseau, Katayoun Dibamehr and Gabrielle Tougas-Frechette.

Below is the lineup. There’s a lot to process so take your sweet time!

Opening and closing

The whole New Testament directed by Jaco Van Dormael (Toto the Hero, Mr Nobody, The Eighth Day), will kick off this 44th edition.

After its world premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last May, the new opus unconventional Belgian director, starring Benoît Poelvoorde (Three Hearts, Ransom of Glory), Yolande Moreau (Mammuth,...

Brian L. Frye says:

Brian L. Frye (Our Nixon & obscure art films) is a filmmaker & law professor. The T.J. Hooper was a 28th birthday present from filmmaker Marie Losier. Hooper is named after the case in which Judge Learned Hand defined the standard for negligence. Her moustache echoes Justice Holmes’s.

Underground Film Journal says:

Having a background in the law, Brian L. Frye really brings a unique perspective that stands out in the underground film world. We particularly enjoy his short found footage film A Reasonable Man, which stirs up all kinds of uncomfortable connections between reality and filmed “entertainment” in a very simple, but direct way.

Our Nixon, which Frye produced and was directed by Penny Lane, was a huge hit on the festival circuit last year, then aired on CNN and is currently streaming online.

Plus, in addition to making films, for many years Frye ran...

The mighty and all-powerful Chicago Underground Film Festival has done the absolute unthinkable: Reached their 20th year of operation! How many underground festivals have accomplished that feat? None, until now! Well, “now” being March 6-10 at the fest’s new location: The Logan Theatre.

Obviously, there are a lot of people who have worked with the fest over the years to help make it last for exactly two fantastic decades, but, truly, there is one special person who has to be specially lauded for his tireless dedication to the advancement of underground film and its makers. Especially because Cuff hasn’t just been around for 20 years: It’s been fucking awesome for 20 years.

That person, of course, is Artistic Director Bryan Wendorf, who has been with the fest for the very first edition to it’s most recent, mind-blowing one. Year after year, Wendorf has guided Cuff into defining, challenging,...

The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous’s jaw-dropping tale of war crimes, guilt and moviemaking, took the top prize at Cph:dox here in Copenhagen Friday night. The film, pictured above, boasts Werner Herzog and Errol Morris as executive producers and follows a group of former death squad leaders as they make Hollywood-style movies based on their murders of communists, ethnic Chinese and intellectuals following Indonesia’s military coup in 1965. Director Edwin (Postcards from the Zoo) presented the award and read the jury’s statement: “The Jury would like to award a film for its ability to show the construction of fear in a society and for its courageous re-enactment of the madness of the past, still echoing in the present.” As an Indonesian, Edwin added a personal testament to the film’s powerful confrontation of the country’s history. Accepting the award, Oppenheimer thanked the country’s community of survivors,...