News

Yes, we’re still in the warming glow of award season, but new movies never stop. Happily there are exciting new films to check out this February, including Cannes winners, cryptocurrency heists, cute little furry creatures, and some psychedelic horror.

Armand

When You Can Watch: February 7

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Øystein Røger

Why We’re Excited: This Norwegian psychological drama premiered at Cannes, earning a Caméra d’Or for first-time feature director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (grandson of Ingmar Bergman), pegged as one of ten European filmmakers to watch in 2015 by European Film Promotion. The story was inspired by the character of Elisabeth, Armand’s mother (Reinsve from The Worst Person in the World), who is called into school when her six-year-old threatens his classmate. The confrontation and ensuing revelations invite reflection on the way we form opinions about...

Gravitas Ventures has announced the acquisition of U.S. and Canadian rights for the science fiction feature “Roswell Delirium,” which is scheduled to release in January on both cable and digital video on demand.

“During the 1980s the US is hit by a wave of nuclear attacks, and after the fallout those who remain pretend like everything is normal even though they are all experiencing radiation poisoning. A young girl named Mayday tries to make contact on a series of ham radios with her father who is in space on a shuttle mission. Instead of making contact she receives an intergalactic distress call from space that leads her on a journey to Space Rock, the land where Area 51 once was. She is exposed to severe levels of radiation and within days all of her organs start to fail. Knowing that medical treatment won’t help her mother, Wendy brings her...

Queer film fans in Los Angeles are feeling the summer void left by the beloved Outfest, which paused its programming last year amid financial issues and staff layoffs and has yet to resume. But a new film series, called Queer Rhapsody, looks to fill that crater across five venues July 19-28 — and with curation from the UCLA Film and Television Archive and one of Outfest’s former own. Even if they aren’t looking just to replace the 40-year-long legacy of L.A.’s oldest film festival. Plus, Queer Rhapsody is decidedly a series, not a festival.

With a focus on liberating narratives and a program of more than 50 narrative and documentary features and shorts, Queer Rhapsody opens at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater with Drew Denny’s “Second Nature.” Narrated by Elliot Page, the documentary follows trans trailblazer and evolutionary biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden, who meets with...

New York-based production, sales and distribution company The Dazey Phase has picked up Sundance and Thessaloniki winner “Desire Lines,” Variety has found out exclusively. The company will be shopping it at Cannes’ Marché du Film.

The hybrid doc, directed by Jules Rosskam, examines trans masculine sexuality and the taboos that surround it. It was produced by Full Spectrum Features and MamSir Productions in association with 521 Films.

“I’m always interested in experimenting with form,” said Rosskam.

“I am the kind of filmmaker who finds a new form for each film I make because I strongly believe that form and content co-create one another. If I tried to make a film where the content was asking audiences to let go of binary ways of thinking, but the form was operating from within a binary, I don’t think it would be as effective.”

The film has already been awarded the...

For me, watching Jules Rosskam’s Desire Lines, which won this year’s Sundance Special Jury Award in the Next competition, was a cinematic breath of fresh air. The experimental feature combines no holds barred interviews with transmen (of all shapes and colors) who are attracted to men, with a fictional storyline involving a real archive. The result is a riveting look back in time, and to the present and possible future, to reveal how, in the words […]

The post “I Operate From a Trans Lens, or Frame, as Though It Is the Only Choice Available”: Jules Rosskam on Desire Lines first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

For me, watching Jules Rosskam’s Desire Lines, which won this year’s Sundance Special Jury Award in the Next competition, was a cinematic breath of fresh air. The experimental feature combines no holds barred interviews with transmen (of all shapes and colors) who are attracted to men, with a fictional storyline involving a real archive. The result is a riveting look back in time, and to the present and possible future, to reveal how, in the words […]

The post “I Operate From a Trans Lens, or Frame, as Though It Is the Only Choice Available”: Jules Rosskam on Desire Lines first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

My Stolen Planet by Farahnaz Sharifi won the €12,000 Golden Alexander prize of the international competition of the 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (Tidf), which closed on March 17.

The intimate family portrait is a Germany-Iran co-production and made its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama programme last month.

At Tidf, it also won the Fipresci award and a place in the pre-selection shortlist for the best documentary Osar. France’s Cat&Docs is handling international sales.

Lidia Duda’s Forest, won the €5,000 international competition special jury prize, the Silver Alexander. The Poland-Czech Republic co-production, also about a family, this...

Transgender representation is already rare in the media, let alone femme-to-masculine (Ftm) transgender folks – and, even more than that, gay Ftm individuals. This year at Sundance, however, Jules Rosskam and his acting leads Theo Germaine and Aden Hakimi premiered “Desire Lines,” a hybrid docu-fiction on gay Ftm individuals.

“It is kind of a taboo subject, an open secret [within the trans Ftm] community. Every year, I was waiting for someone else to make a film about it. And then every year, I'd look at the festival circuit and be like ‘nope, nope, nope,” laughed director Rosskam. “In 2019, I was finally like, ‘Okay, I guess I'm making this film.'”

Like its peers in the Next program, “Desire Lines” is not typical in structure. It weaves together interviews with Ftm individuals, re-enactments of Grindr conversations, and a narrative storyline where Ahmed (played by Hakimi), a middle-aged Iranian American trans man, peruses the archive of trans...

The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has revealed the line-up for its 38th edition which takes place March 13-24.

The programme comprises 57 features across the Hearts, Bodies and Mind strands, four of which are world premieres.

Scroll down for full line-up

World premiering is Karen Knox’s sophomore feature We Forgot To Break Up about a trans musician caught in a love triangle with his bandmates. The Canadian actress and filmmaker’s debut Adult Adoption premiered at Glasgow Film Festival in 2022.

Other world premieres are Kat Rohrer’s Austrian romantic comedy What A Feeling about two women who meet...

Unlike other film festivals around the globe, Sundance has been ahead of the curve when it comes to telling Lgbtqia+ stories whether in narrative or documentary form. That was once again evident in 2024 with the festival selecting films such as “Layla,” “Sebastian,” “My Old Ass,” “Stress Positions” and “Ponyboi.” One Next slate selection that attempted to cross the lines of both documentary and drama is Jules Rosskam’s “Desire Lines.” Sadly, like many world premieres in its genre this year, it comes up disappointingly short.

Continue reading ‘Desire Lines’ Review: A Messy Drama-Documentary Hybrid On Trans Male History at The Playlist.

The Sundance Film Festival announced its 2024 winners on January 26, two days before the festival’s end date. The Awards Ceremony took place at The Ray Theater in Park City, Utah. This year marks its 40th annual festival run taking place from January 18 to January 28.

In the Summer, a film director Alessandra Lacorazza, won the top honor, U.S. Grand Jury Prize, starring Lio Mehiel.

Last year, Mehiel told uInterview exclusively about the importance of trans representation.

“Whenever there is an uptick of queer or trans representation in the media, there is an equal and perhaps greater response from the other side … that are looking to suppress trans rights, trans agency [and] queer liberation,” Mehiel told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “While in Hollywood we are seeing trans representation and this film is able to be part of that movement, this film is more important now than ever because even just in Utah,...

Sundance announced its winners on Friday morning, with Alessandra Lacorazza’s In The Summers took the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and Brendan Bellomo’s Porcelain War the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary.

Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s A New Kind Of Wilderness won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary, while Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez earned the corresponding world cinema dramatic prize for Sujo.

The pair collaborated as writers on the 2020 World Cinema – Dramatic prize winner Identifying Features directed by Valadez.

The Festival Favorite Award went to Daughters by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, whose film also...

Sundance announced its winners on Friday morning, with Alessandra Lacorazza’s In The Summers took the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and Brendan Bellomo’s Porcelain War the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary.

Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s A New Kind Of Wilderness won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary, while Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez earned the corresponding world cinema dramatic prize for Sujo.

The pair collaborated as writers on the 2020 World Cinema – Dramatic prize winner Identifying Features directed by Valadez.

The Festival Favorite Award went to Daughters by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, whose film also...

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony revealed winners Friday honoring the best of this year’s lineup in Park City.

The U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury prize went to Alessandra Lacorazza’s In the Summers, about two sisters who navigate their loving but volatile father during their yearly summer visits to his home in Las Cruces, Nm. Lacorazza also won a special jury prize for directing.

See the full list of winners below.

Other Grand Jury winners unveiled today in the ceremony at the Ray Theatre included Porcelain War in the U.S. Documentary competition, A New Kind of Wilderness in the World Cinema Documentary competition, and Sujo in the World Cinema Dramatic competition.

Angela Patton and Natalie Rae’s documentary Daughters received the Festival Favorite Award, which Park City audiences select across all new feature films presented at the festival, as well as the Audience Award for the U.

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival awards were announced today at The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah.

See the list of 2024 winners below, and congrats to all the winners.

Festival Favorite Award

Daughters (USA) – Angela Patton and Natalie Rae

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize

In the Summers (USA) – Alessandra Lacorazza

Directing Award

In the Summers (USA) – Alessandra Lacorazza

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg

Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance

Suncoast (USA) – Nico Parker

Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble

Dìdi – Sean Wang

Audience Award

Dìdi – Sean Wang

U.S. Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize

Porcelain War – Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev

Directing Award

Sugarcane – Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie

Special Jury Award for Sound

Gaucho Gaucho (USA, Argentina) – Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw

Special Jury Award for The Art of Change

Union (USA) – Stephen Maing and Brett Story

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award

Frida...

Premiering in the Next section of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Desire Lines presents the time-traveling journey of an Iranian-American trans man, utilizing a vast archive of queer images in order to transport him between time and space. Filmmaker and queer scholar Jules Rosskam also served as the film’s co-writer, producer and editor. Below, he describes why he always opts to edit his own work, the various artists that inspire him and a reoccurring motif the film contains that revealed itself during the edit. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]

The post “I ‘Write’ My Films in the Editing Room”: Editor Jules Rosskam on Desire Lines first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Premiering in the Next section of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Desire Lines presents the time-traveling journey of an Iranian-American trans man, utilizing a vast archive of queer images in order to transport him between time and space. Filmmaker and queer scholar Jules Rosskam also served as the film’s co-writer, producer and editor. Below, he describes why he always opts to edit his own work, the various artists that inspire him and a reoccurring motif the film contains that revealed itself during the edit. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]

The post “I ‘Write’ My Films in the Editing Room”: Editor Jules Rosskam on Desire Lines first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The 40th edition of Sundance Film Festival kicks off today, and notably, queer and Himalaya-themed films take over the Asian/Asian diaspora slate of the mountain festival. In previous years, Sundance has been a frontier for Asian diaspora films. Last year alone saw a full slate of Asian diaspora films, with “Past Lives” (Celine Song), “Shortcomings” (Randall Park), “The Persian Version” (Maryam Keshavarz), and more, among others – there are considerably less Asian American films in the primary competition. This year, in the US Dramatic Competition, only one film, “Didi (弟弟)” by Sean Wang stands out amid the crowd.

Films about the Himalayas have taken center-stage in the World Cinema Competitions, however, with three titles this year: “Girls will be Girls” (Shuchi Talati), “Agent of Happiness” (Arun Bhattarai), and “Nocturnes” (Anirban Dutta). Queer Asian diaspora cinema is front and center this year as well, with “Layla” (Amrou Al-Khadi) and “Desire Lines...

Long-time editor (Never Rarely Sometimes Always) and director (Buffalo Juggalos – short) Scott Cummings and a talent to watch in Haley Elizabeth Anderson (Sundance short Pillars) are two of filmmakers grabbing the half dozen spots allocated in the Next section – which used to be in the ten film range. Here are the selections:

Desire Lines / U.S.A. — Past and present collide when an

Iranian American trans man time-travels through an LGBTQ+ archive on a dizzying and erotic quest to

unravel his own sexual desires.…...

Over the last handful of years, now going on 17 to be exact, NYC’s Museum of Modern Art has played host to an annual collection of non-fiction films that push boundaries both aesthetically and narratively. Be it groundbreaking works from groundbreaking filmmakers, or like much of the list we are about to dive into, profoundly moving efforts from names many may not be familiar with (with one major exception taking the top spot) MoMA’s annual Doc Fortnight is one of the year’s most important documentary film festivals. And here are five films making their 2018 edition one of their most essential to date.

5. The Silent Teacher

Kicking off this year’s list is one of the many Us premieres from the festival, director Maso Chen’s superb The Silent Teacher. Telling the story of a family grieving over the loss of a loved one and a group of students...