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Directors and producers are putting trust instead in independent organisation The Georgian Film Institute

Leading Georgian filmmakers and industry professionals are banding together to protest about government interference, censorship and intimidation - and will be at the Berlinale in February to state their case.

They have turned their back on state body, The Georgian National Film Centre (Gnfc), and are putting their trust instead in independent organisation, The Georgian Film Institute (Gfi), which will have its first major introduction to the global film industry at the European Film Market in Berlin.

The Institute was set up in 2019 in reaction to...

Some 400 film professionals have signed an open letter in support of the organisation’s former director.

Gaga Chkeidze, who was dismissed as director of the Georgian National Film Centre (Gnfc) last month, has spoken out about his removal, claiming it is part of a wider campaign of cultural censorship in the country.

Chkeidze was suddenly dismissed from his position in mid-March by Thea Tsulukiani, the country’s minister of culture and deputy prime minister, shortly before his three-year term was to expire. The ministry cited alleged financial irregularities following an internal audit of the Gnfc as the reason behind the removal.

When Netflix recommendation listed this work under ‘Hidden gems for you’, I took notice as I have been fortunate with this segment in the past. Though the title sounded cheesy, I was hoping that it was a play on words before revealing what is behind the curtain and I was not disappointed.

Manana is a daughter/wife/mother/teacher in her fifties who lives with the rest of her family in an apartment in a Georgian town. The quarters are just big enough for its seven inhabitants to call it home, but not large enough for peaceful coexistence. It is her birthday and friends and family gather to celebrate and wish her well, even when that is not Manana wants. The next day she informs her family that he has found another apartment in a different district and will be moving for good, as they are all capable of taking care of themselves.

When Ketie Danelia was approached a few years ago with the script for “And Then We Danced,” Levan Akin’s gay romantic drama about a young man’s sexual awakening in the masculine world of Georgian dance, the producer knew the risks. “Everyone was telling me not to take this project, because it’s very dangerous. Which turned out to be true,” she tells Variety.

In a conservative, patriarchal country where the powerful Orthodox Church holds tremendous sway, filming was a challenge. Locations would balk at the last minute, concerned about the potential backlash; far-right groups threatened the cast and crew. When the movie finally premiered in Tbilisi in 2019, after bowing in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight to rave reviews, police units had to escort moviegoers into the cinema. Yet through it all, Danelia remained undaunted. “I knew why I was doing it,” she says.

“And Then We Danced” is among a...

There must be something really frightening in a 50-year-old woman deciding to give up her role as diligent housewife and mother, especially when it is the only one she can aspire to in a strictly patriarchal society. Manana (Nata Murvanidze), the heroine of Ana Urushadze’s strikingly daring and assured debut feature, is scary that way. Best First Feature at Locarno, winner of the Sarajevo Film Festival, and later selected as Georgia’s entry for Best Foreign Feature at the Oscars, Urushadze’s Scary Mother joins another 2017 Georgian female-centered festival darling, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’s poignant My Happy Family, to deliver an entrancing portrait of a woman who embarks on a mid-age quest to escape from a stultifying male-dominated world.

For Manana, the quest starts with a book. An aspiring writer who sacrificed her literary ambitions for a quiet homely life with a condescending husband and three kids,...

A mother throws her family into disarray in Netflix’s wonderful Georgian drama, while Twin Peaks is everyone’s best nightmare

If you’re still getting your head around the idea of Netflix as a viable distributor of first-run films, 2018 isn’t going to ease you into it. The streaming behemoth has a massive 80 original movies – either developed in-house or acquired at festivals – slated for release next year, nearly doubling this year’s amount. One hopes their worthy but lower-profile offerings don’t get entirely lost in the crush. As it is, I didn’t notice that the Sundance-acclaimed Georgian drama My Happy Family had recently premiered on Netflix until Village Voice critic Bilge Ebiri named it his film of the year, its absence from cinemas notwithstanding.

I’m glad he did – it’s a stunner. Personal and professional partners Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross previously directed the quietly stirring coming-of-age drama In Bloom.

If December is a relatively quiet month for Netflix, perhaps that’s because they want you to spend the holidays scaling the seemingly infinite mountain of content they’ve released this year. Good luck with that. But the streaming giant’s latest batch of new releases, however scarce, offer a wild variety of things to see. From an under-the-radar family drama that some critics believe is the best movie the year, to a demented Michael Shannon Christmas movie that some critics don’t even believe is a real thing, these are the seven best films coming to Netflix this December.

Read More:7 New Netflix Shows to Binge in December, and The Best Episodes of Each 7. “Pottersville” (2017)

Okay, so “Pottersville” is a very, very bad movie. It still wouldn’t really be one of the seven best movies coming to Netflix this month if there were only six movies coming to Netflix this month.

King of the Belgians, directed by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, was awarded the Grand Prix of Odessa International Film Festival at the closing ceremony held in the Ukrainian port city July 22.

Spanish director Carla Simon's Summer 1993 collected the international competition's best film award.

Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross picked up the best director award for the Georgia/Germany/France co-production My Happy Family. The movie's stars Ia Shugliashvili and Tsisia Qumsashvili also collected the best performance award.

Free and Easy by Chinese director Jun Geng received the jury's special mention.

The Leading Role by Ukraine's Sergey Bukovsky was awarded the best...

Golden Bear winner Semih Kaplanoglu to present new feature.

The 23rd Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 11-18) has unveiled its competition line-up.

Three world premieres and four regional premieres will compete for the festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo.

Golden Bear-winning director Semih Kaplanoğlu will compete with his latest feature Grain, which has its world premiere in Sarajevo. The film is his first feature since 2010 drama Honey, which won Berlin Film Festival’s top prize and was nominated for three prizes at the European Film Awards.

His new film is a dystopian story set in a world where a genetic crisis leads to massive crop failure. The Match Factory is handling sales.

Also having world premieres in Sarajevo are two debut features: Emanuel Pârvu’s Romanian feature Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things and Gentian Koçi’s Albanian-Greek feature Daybreak.

Among the regional premieres are Rezo Gigineishvili’s Hostages, which premiered...

Frederic Boyer (Tribeca), Mirsad Purivatra (Sarajevo), Anna Hoffmann (Berlinale Forum) discuss challenges on panel.

Click here to read Screen’s full Think Fest coverage from Jerusalem

The inaugural edition of Think Fest kicked off with a debate about the rapid emergence of streaming platforms, and what impact they have had on the film festival ecosystem. Pointed reference was made to the activities of Netflix, particularly in 2017, and the company’s disruptive approach to the traditional theatrical model.

At Cannes, Netflix had two films selected to play In Competition – Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories – but the streaming platform’s disinterest in adhering to theatrical windows prompted grumblings from French cinema owners loud enough to force the festival to announce a new policy.

From next year, distributors will have to show theatrical intention to receive Competition slots. While Cannes’ situation may be unique – with France’s requirement for a 36-month window between theatrical...

Festival selects 12 titles for second edition of competitive strand.

Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time, and François Ozon’s Amant Double (The Double Lover) all of which played in competition at Cannes, have been selected for this year’s international competition at the Jerusalem Film Festival (July 13-17).

Returning for a second time after launching in 2016, the festival’s international competition has picked a total of 12 titles and will again award a prize of $20,000 to the winning film.

Joining the aforementioned are: Hong Sang-soo’s On The Beach At Night Alone, Cãlin Peter Netzer’s Ana, Mon Amour, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß’s My Happy Family, Ferenc Török’s 1945, Valeska Grisebach’s Western, Fellipe Barbosa’s Gabriel And The Mountain, Mohammad Rasoulof’s A Man Of Integrity, Stéphane Brizé’s A Woman’s Life, and Lav Diaz’s The Woman Who Left.

As previously announced, the festival...

Big World Pictures

Founded in 2013 and run almost single-handedly by Jonathan Howell, Big World Pictures is a non-profit distribution outfit dedicated to bringing the best in world cinema to film enthusiasts across the United States.

“As an expansion of the mission of our critically-acclaimed short film distribution wing, The World According to Shorts, Big World Pictures is dedicated to bringing the best in world cinema to film enthusiasts across the United States. We acquire only three to four feature films annually for theatrical release, in addition to several short films (to be released through The World According to Shorts), and ten to twelve feature films annually for video/VOD/TV release.”

Opening at Laemmle’s Royal in L.A. day and date with New York’s Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on June 23, Luc Bondy’s modern-day adaptation of the classic Marivaux play, “False Confessions”, starring Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel and Bulle Ogier...

The line-up includes films by Coppola, Kaurismäki and Haneke.

Michael Haneke’s Happy End, Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope, and Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled are among the 12 films in contention for the AUD60,000 Sydney Film Prize, the top honour of the Sydney Film Festival.

The films will screen at the 64th Sydney Film Festival in June, direct from their world premieres at Cannes, and will compete against new films by Australian directors Warwick Thornton (socio-political documentary We Don’t Need a Map), and Benedict Andrews (Una), Berlin prizewinning filmmakers Ildiko Enyedi (On Body and Soul) and Alain Gomes (Félicité), and Oscar nominee Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro).

Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley announced the full program at a launch on Wednesday. Moodley identified a number of emerging themes across this year’s lineup, such as stories of dislocation set against the worsening refugee crisis, and several...

Istanbul Film Festival unveils line-up and Meetings On The Bridge details.

The İstanbul Film Festival (April 5-15) has unveiled the programme for its 36th edition.

Scroll down for lineups

Despite intensive political campaigning ahead of the Turkish constitutional referendum on April 16 and an ongoing state of emergency in the country following last year’s July putsch, festival director Kerem Ayan revealed the line-up at a relatively relaxed press conference in Istanbul.

The festival will host a total of 203 films in 21 categories from 61 countries in nine venues on both sides of the Bosphorous. Among those are 13 Turkish features getting their world premieres.

Among films to compete in the international competition are Toronto hit Lady Macbeth and French immigration drama This is Our Land.

While the number of international guests set to attend the festival is expected to be down on previous years due to a series of terror attacks in the city, notable guests...

Istanbul Film Festival unveils line-up and Meetings On The Bridge details.

The İstanbul Film Festival (April 5-15) has unveiled the programme for its 36th edition.

Scroll down for lineups

Despite intensive political campaigning ahead of the Turkish constitutional referendum on April 16 and an ongoing state of emergency in the country following last year’s July putsch, festival director Kerem Ayan revealed the line-up at a relatively relaxed press conference in Istanbul.

The festival will host a total of 203 films in 21 categories from 61 countries in nine venues on both sides of the Bosphorous. Among those are 13 Turkish features getting their world premieres.

Among films to compete in the international competition are Toronto hit Lady Macbeth and French immigration drama This is Our Land.

While the number of international guests set to attend the festival is expected to be down on previous years due to a series of terror attacks in the city, notable guests...

Why Sundance Goers, and Audiences at Every Festival, Should Embrace World Cinema Over Popular Main-Slate Titles“God’s Own Country”

Eager to brave the extreme amounts of snow piling on every sidewalk and road in Park City, scores of freezing, malnourished, and often overworked film journalists and industry professionals line up hours in advance in order to secure a satisfying seat to that star-studded, Oscar-friendly, English-language stunner people have been raving about at every party or bus top around town. It’s understandable, they are desperate to become conquerors and be the first to plant their flag on the year’s big discovery. Trendsetting is a currency that in film criticism, like in many other occupations, is vital to acquire a certain level of recognition and validation.

However, even though being able to predict the future and to see the merits of a film before the crowd has sunk their...

Nature abhors a vacuum, and so too does human curiosity. Anyone seeking to throw the world around them into chaos should do something unexpected and dramatic, and then refuse to answer for their reasoning. Into the silence where an explanation ought to exist, people will begin to pour their own inferences, composed either of wild theories, projections of their own insecurities, or secrets they assume are now common knowledge. In the end, thanks to the means by which humanity seeks to make sense of the unexplained, a single change for an unspoken reason is often just the beginning of a near cataclysm of life-altering changes for anyone in the immediate area.

In My Happy Family, the stirring and gorgeously naturalistic drama by directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß, a woman discovers just how much chaos a single decision can cause. Manana (Ia Shugliashvili) is a school teacher who lives with her husband,...

One of the best festivals during the first half of the year is The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films, which kicks off its 46th year this March, running from the 15th to the 26th. With last year’s line-up including some of the year’s best films, including Cameraperson, The Fits, Kaili Blues, Neon Bull, Weiner, and more, we can expect many more discoveries this year.

Opening with Patti Cake$ and closing with Person to Person, in between will be one of our favorite films from Sundance as the centerpiece, Beach Rats. Also among the line-up is a handful of other festival favorites, including The Dreamed Path, The Giant, Menashe, and Lady Macbeth.

“Authenticity is an elusive thing these days, and without it we risk ruin. This is particularly true in cinema,” says Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief...

The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center has today announces their complete lineup for the 46th annual New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf), running March 15 – 26. Dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent, this year’s festival will screen 29 features and nine short films. This year’s lineup boasts nine North American premieres, seven U.S. premieres, and two world premieres, with features and shorts from 32 countries across five continents.

The opening, centerpiece, and closing night selections showcase three exciting new voices in American independent cinema that all recently debuted at Sundance: Geremy Jasper’s “Patti Cake$” is the opening night pick, while Eliza Hittman’s “Beach Rats” is the centerpiece selection and Dustin Guy Defa will close the festival with “Person to Person.” Other standouts include “Menashe,” “My Happy Family,” “Quest” and “The Wound.”

Read More: The Sundance Rebel:...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

-Sony Pictures is acquiring the worldwide rights to “Greyhound,” the World War II drama written by Tom Hanks, Deadline reports. Hanks will also star in the film, which will be directed by Aaron Schneider (“Get Low”), and produce with his Playtone partner Gary Goetzman.

In the film, Hanks plays George Krause, the commander of a Navy destroyer called the Greyhound. Sony acquired the rights to the film at the Berlin International Film Festival’s European Film Market.

Read More: Shia Labeouf, Rooney Mara and More: 10 Hot Projects at Berlin’s European Film Market

-Lionsgate has acquired U.S. rights to action film “Rally Car,” starring Keanu Reeves. The film will be directed by Olivier Megaton (“Taken 2,...

A Ghost StoryBelow you will find our favorite films of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Awardstop Picksjosh Cabritai.Call Me By Your NameII.A Ghost StoryIII.Beatriz at Dinner, Dayveon, Dina, Golden Exits, Kuro, Person to PersonLAWRENCE N Garciai.Call Me By Your NameII.Golden Exits, My Happy FamilyIII.Beatriz at Dinner, Dina, The Big Sick, Landline, Long Strange TripCORRESPONDENCESBy Josh Cabrita and Lawrence N Garcia#1 Josh Cabrita on William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth, Dustin Guy Defa's Person to Person | Read#2 Lawrence N Garcia on Travis Wilkerson's Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, Gillian Robespierre's Landline, Damien Power's Killing Ground, Taylor Sheridan's Wind River | Read#3 Josh Cabrita on Bryan Fogel's Icarus, Dee Rees' Mudbound, David Lowery's A Ghost Story | Read#4 Lawrence N Garcia on Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, Matthew Heineman's City of Ghosts,...

Generally speaking, this year’s Sundance Film Festival was a very healthy marketplace that guaranteed many of its highlights will make it to audiences beyond the festival circuit soon. From heavy hitters like “The Big Sick” and “Mudbound” to discoveries like “Thoroughbred,” there was plenty of buyer interest spread throughout the lineup. As usual, though, plenty of worthy titles ended the festival with uncertain futures.

Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival

Here are a few memorable ones that deserve distribution.

“Bitch”

There are plenty of stories about domestic housewives who grow tired of their oppressive routines, but none quite like Marianna Palka’s vicious feminist satire “Bitch,” in which the writer-director-star plays a woman who assumes the identity of a wild dog. It’s a blunt metaphor, but Palka transforms the absurd premise into a chilling look at the destruction...

My Happy FamilyDear Josh,With a festival like Sundance, where critics and distributors alike are clamoring to find the next big thing, certain types of films are bound to get lost in the shuffle. Such is the case with Ramona Diaz’s fine, unassuming documentary Motherland. Centering on the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Metro Manila, one of the busiest maternity wards in the Philippines, the film has a wealth of fascinating material. A nurse tallies the number of women and children in the ward; a young mother learns of “Kangaroo Mother Care” (widely used because of a lack of incubators); a nurse attempts to convince various mothers to use an Iud; the ward doctor drones over the Pa system in a strict, motherly tone (the way one would speak to a summer camp group). There’s a great documentary to be made here, so it's somewhat frustrating that Motherland is merely quite good.

The famous George Burns quote that “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city” is literally put into practice by the heroine of Georgian directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’ perceptive and endearing second feature, about a 52-year-old mother who changes her life by moving out of the house. It’s a simple, somewhat mundane scenario that, in the hands of a terrific cast and two talented filmmakers, is transformed into a minor Greek comic-tragedy, with one fearless woman trying to stave off loved ones who smother her with guilt and affection.

Premiering in Sundance’s World Dramatic...

It doesn’t take long to realize that the title of the Georgian drama “My Happy Family” is ironic. Directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Grob plunge into the restless lifestyle of 52-year-old Manana (Ia Shuvliashvili), the matriarch of a cramped and multigenerational household that includes her husband, grown children, parents and various in-laws who pull her from every angle. And it doesn’t take long for Mañana to realize that to escape the mayhem, much to the shock of everyone around her, she can simply move out.

The ease with which she embarks on this new stage, even as it baffles her entire community, speaks to the remarkable blend of comedy and sadness that characterizes this sophomore effort from the directors of “In Bloom.” It’s at once a celebration of individuality and its potential to unnerve those who resist it.

Manana’s life is defined by routine. She’s a pinball in her apartment,...

The World Dramatic section at the Sundance Film Festival features films from around the globe by filmmakers with fresh, dynamic perspectives, such as the new Georgian film “My Happy Family.” The film follows Manana (Ia Shugliashvili) who announces to her family and family on the eve of her 52nd birthday that she plans to leave home. A wife of 25 years to a good husband, Manana has lived under one roof and co-existed with three generations of family, but suddenly she decides to break from tradition and live on her own in a new apartment. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.

Read More: Lucy Walker’s Buena Vista Social Club Documentary Pulled From Sundance

The film was directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross. They previously directed the film “In Bloom,” about two friends living in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in 1992 who wand to escape society and their families,...

Exclusive: Paris-based company reteams with In Bloom directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross.

Memento Films International (Mfi) has taken on world sales of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’s second feature My Happy Family ahead of its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

The Paris-based sales company previously handled the directorial duo’s critically-acclaimed and award-winning work In Bloom.

Set against the backdrop of Ekvtimishvili’s native Georgia, the film stars big screen debutant La Shugliashvili as a literature teacher in her 50s who decides to move out of her chaotic, crowded flat in Tbilisi inhabited by several generations of her family.

The move sparks a questioning of the balance between personal freedom and family relationships.

“This is an amazing portrait of a woman looking for her place in society and the correct distance to speak out about things, which were hidden for too long,” commented Mfi managing director Emilie Georges.

“It’s super...

Les Arcs unveils 16 projects due to be presented in the work-in-progress selection.

Upcoming films by the UK’s Rungano Nyoni, the Czech Republic’s Olmo Omerzu and Sweden’s Johannes Nyholm are among 16 works-in-progress projects due to be presented at the eighth edition of the Les Arcs Coproduction village (Dec 10-13).

Footage from the films, which are all in post-production, will be shown on Dec 11. The festival’s artistic director Frédéric Boyer made the selection.

British-Zambian director Rungano Nyoni will show first footage from her debut satire I Am Not A Witch [pictured top] about a nine-year-old girl who is a victim of a witch-hunt, which is shot by Embrace Of The Serpent’s DoP David Gallego.

Nyholm will present his second feature Koko-di Koko-da - after The Giant which premiered at Tiff this year - revolving around a couple whose camping trip takes a strange turn when a circus troupe turns up.

Two awards...

★★★★☆ If there was an award for best newcomer in world cinema then Georgia would be a great outside bet. In recent years, films like Rusudan Chkonia's Keep Smiling, Levan Koguashvili's Blind Dates and Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross' In Bloom have emerged from the Caucus region to resounding acclaim. Rusudan Glurdjidze's haunting drama House of Others looks set to continue this momentum; an assured debut by a director clearly attuned to the indiscernible frequencies of the human soul.

Read More: Berlin Review: You've Never Seen a Period Movie Quite Like 'Aferim!' When it made its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival, "Aferim!" (which translates to "Bravo!") won director Radu Jude a Silver Bear for directing and widespread critical acclaim. After being officially selected as Romania's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, the film has now been picked up for U.S. distribution by Big World Pictures, whose releases include Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross' "In Bloom" and Roberto Minervini's "Stop the Pounding Heart." The official synopsis reads: "Eastern Europe, 1835. Two riders cross a barren landscape in the middle of Wallachia. They are the gendarme Costandin and his son. Together they are searching for a gypsy slave who has run away from his nobleman master and is suspected of having an affair with the noble's wife. While the unflappable Costandin comments on.

Tagged a "crime" and "murder" film, In Bloom, has a gun handed over as a gift within its first half hour. But fear not the spoiler: directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß are well aware of Chekhovian principle, and use our expectations to subvert our expectations with In Bloom. The gun’s presence hangs over the narrative like a ticking time bomb. Every time it changes ownership, the tension ratchets further. Multiple situations arise where it would be perfectly justified, even a relief, to pull the trigger.>> - Laya Maheshwari...

Tagged a "crime" and "murder" film, In Bloom, has a gun handed over as a gift within its first half hour. But fear not the spoiler: directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß are well aware of Chekhovian principle, and use our expectations to subvert our expectations with In Bloom. The gun’s presence hangs over the narrative like a ticking time bomb. Every time it changes ownership, the tension ratchets further. Multiple situations arise where it would be perfectly justified, even a relief, to pull the trigger.>> - Laya Maheshwari...

Cinema Guild has closed a deal to serve as exclusive VOD distributor for Big World Pictures, kicking off with an HD restoration of Eric Rohmer’s A Summer’s Tale.

Upcoming titles include an HD restoration of Rohmer’s A Tale Of Winter, also in a new HD restoration, Roberto Minervini’s Stop The Pounding Heart, Denis Côté’s Curling, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’ In Bloom and Martin Lund’s The Almost Man.

Ryan Krivoshey of Cinema Guild brokered the deal with Jonathan Howell of Big World Pictures.

Denzel Washington.s films have raked in more than $4 billion at cinemas worldwide but the superstar.s latest movie was beaten in Australia last weekend by a bunch of barely known youngsters.

The Equalizer, a violent big-screen version of the 1985 TV series, which re-teamed Washington with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, rang up $2.3 million from Thursday through Sunday.

Pro-rata that was well below the Us weekend debut of $US35.1 million, which ranks as the biggest September launch for an R-rated film, eclipsing Jackass: Number Two, which pulled in $29 million in 2006.

In Oz the action movie, which casts Washington as a former member of the special forces who comes out of retirement after Russian gangsters ensare a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), trailed the second outing of sci-fi action/adventure The Maze Runner.

A clear favourite with vacationing teenagers, The Maze Runner, which features Dylan O.Brien, Aml Ameen, Will Poulter and Kaya Scodelario,...

Directors include Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho.Scroll down for full list

Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up including films from directors Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho and July Jung.

Winner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or, Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forbidden Land) will present Sri Lankan project Hair Of The Dog That Bit You.

The drama is about a female tourist guide’s loss of memory and identity, and her struggle to come to terms with what is left of her life and an unknown future.

Cannes 2009 Best Director winner Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay) has Philippines-France-Germany co-production Fowl in the Apm line-up.

The story follows Ramon, a Filipino contract worker working at Singapore Post. When his wife Jenny suddenly dies, he has to travel back to the Philippines with her as if she were one of the many parcels he is so used to handling.

Korean directors...

Directors include Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho.

Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up including directors Brillante Mendoza, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Yeon Sang-ho and July Jung.

Winner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or, Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forbidden Land) will present Sri Lankan project Hair Of The Dog That Bit You.

The drama is about a female tourist guide’s loss of memory and identity, and her struggle to come to terms with what is left of her life and an unknown future.

Cannes 2009 Best Director winner Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay) has Philippines-France-Germany co-production Fowl in the Apm line-up.

The story follows Ramon, a Filipino contract worker working at Singapore Post. When his wife Jenny suddenly dies, he has to travel back to the Philippines with her as if she were one of the many parcels he is so used to handling.

Korean directors include July Jung, the [link=nm...

Screen previews the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry events, which includes a UK focus, the annual Regional Forum and highlights of the Work in Progress and CineLink projects.

Over the last ten years, Southeast Europe’s most important film event Sarajevo Film Festival has also become its main industry hub.

What started in 2003 with CineLink, a co-production market initially modeled after Rotterdam’s CineMart, has developed into an increasingly wide array of industry events, simultaneously expanding from the region towards Caucasus countries, and in recent years aiming to spread its activities and networking overseas, in partnerships with the Doha Film Institute, the Arab Fund for Arts & Culture, and from this year, Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (Imcine).

While the Industry Days peak in the final part of the festival, from August 20-23, its activities started on Sunday [17], with the presentation of the newly established Sarajevo City of Film Fund.

In addition to CineLink, the heart of...

The flourishing festival runs of the coming of age drama In Bloom, directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß, and Levan Koguashvili´s comedy drama Blind Dates hint at a brighter future for Georgian cinema. The recently premiered second feature by George Ovashvili, Corn Island, can now be added to this list.With a difficult production process (the film is co-produced by seven countries) and a diverse production staff (people from 13 nations collaborated), Corn Island looks like a little miracle.  That however does not in any sense possible damage the inherent qualities of Ovashvili´s artistic vision, which is perfectly transposed onto the screen. The title refers to an anomalous phenomena of temporary island-like formations created by forces of the nature. An interesting fact and potent metaphor...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

★★★★☆Based on her own experiences growing up in Georgia, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross' In Bloom (2013) uses adolescence as the conduit in which to explore the confused identity of a country in transition. Perceptive and deftly handled, In Bloom transcends the usual coming of age clichés to depict a captivating portrait of urban dissonance and burgeoning fractions of nationalism against the heartening tale of two teenage girls growing up in post-Soviet Union Georgia. Fourteen-year-old Eka (Lika Babluani) lives with her mother and sister in a large, well-appointed flat in Tbilisi. Her father is in prison for murder, but Eka still clings to the old Soviet cigarettes and passport he's left behind.

New projects from Kutlug Ataman, Bogdan Mustata, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross among the 14 titles.

The Turkish film industry, buoyed by the Palme d’Or win for Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep, dominates Sarajevo Film Festival’s upcoming co-production market, CineLink (Aug 20-23).

The selection committee has shortlisted a total of 14 projects from over 200 submissions from 18 countries across South-Eastern Europe. These have been split between the CineLink and CineLink Plus sections.

Turkey has four projects across the two strands included Hilal, Feza And Other Planets by Kutlug Ataman (The Lamb) and producer Emre Yeksan’s directing debut The Gulf.

Romania has three projects including In Between by Bogdan Mustata (last year in Sff competition with Wolf) and Lemonade, produced by Cristian Mungiu and directed by Ioana Uricaru (Tales From The Golden Age).

Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, who directed 2012 festival hit In Bloom,will present their new project My Happy Family.

Additional titles...

Mark Kermode enjoys a classy film set in 90s Georgia in which two teenagers search for independence

Thrillingly intuitive and lively performances from teenagers Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria lend hefty heart and soul to this coming-of-age drama set in post-Soviet Georgia; a world in which a gun can be a token of affection, a marriage proposal looks more like a kidnapping, and love and death are never far apart. Drawing upon writer/co-director Nana Ekvtimishvili's memories of growing up in the 90s, this terrifically engaging work raises important questions about universal experience and cultural context in this case, the search for independent female identity in a society all but suffocated by the threat of violence.

The subject matter may seem heavy but the film has an extraordinary lightness of touch, with moments of astutely observed comedy giving way to defiant displays of dance beneath the overarching shadow of looming unrest.

When it comes to world cinema, one of the great perks is being given an insight into a society we generally know little about, consigned to brief news bulletins to gain an understanding of the hardships taking place. This proves to be one of the key selling points to Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß’s poignant drama In Bloom, as we’re offered a candid look into what is a largely unbeknown Georgian culture, and we leave feeling educated, enlightened, and in this case, completely intrigued.

Set in the early 1990s, with a civil war ongoing, we delve into the life of teenager girls Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria), both finding solace in one another’s company, especially given their turbulent lives at home with their dysfunctional families. School brings little more joy, as they argue with their classmates, and refuse to obey their draconian teachers. Their lives...

The effects of Georgia's conflict with Russia find turbulent expression in girls trying to grow up in a dangerous world

The business of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross's very assured drama is insecurity: it charts some stormy teenage rites of passage amid the chaos of the Georgian civil war. While dutiful Eka (Lika Babluani) struggles to process her alcoholic father's absence, her coltish companion Natia (Mariam Bokeria) toys with a handgun gifted by a passing beau as a means of fending off bullies aggression simply being the done thing in these parts. Read whatever symbolism you like into that weapon, but it's merely the centrepiece of a consistently fractious universe, as the directors make a point of keeping the wider conflict off-screen: both in class and out on the breadlines, other, more localised skirmishes are never too far away. The film finds the subtle tells that suggest these free-roaming...

★★★★☆The opening film of this year's Bird's Eye View Festival, Georgian director Nana Ekvtimishvili combines with German counterpart Simon Groß for In Bloom (2013), a brilliant coming-of-ager set in the suburbs of Tblisi, circa 1992. Featuring two outstanding lead performances from bright young talents Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria, Ekvtimishvili and Groß immerse their audience in the detritus of a country in tatters, whilst at the same time delicately nurturing two intertwining female maturation tales - with all that entails. Melancholic without ever overstepping into out and out miserablism, In Bloom finds sanctuary in the friendship between two affable teenage girls as battle lines are drawn around them.

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida received the Skoda Film Prize for Best Film at Wiesbaden’s goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, which ended with the awards ceremony on Tuesday evening (April 15).

Ida, which had taken the prize for Best Narrative Film a day before at the Sarasota Film Festival in the Us, was released by Arsenal Film on 26 prints in German cinemas last Thursday (April 10) after opening goEast the previous evening.

The International Jury, headed by German-born producer Jan Harlan and including Russian actor Ivan Shvedoff, Ukrainian producer Dmytro Tiazhlov and Georgian film-maker Nana Ekvtimishvili and Hungarian film critic Ivan Forgacs, praised “a precise screenplay and the outstanding direction” of Pawlikowski’s Polish-language debut.

On announcing the winner, Harlan said that the whole jury was ¨agreed¨ and ¨elated¨ about giving the top honour to Pawlikowski’s film which includes a cash prize of € 10,000 for the producers.

Opus Film’s Ewa Puszczynska, the film’s...

London’s Birds Eye View Film Festival will include 10 UK premieres and titles from Girls star Lena Dunham and Kelly Reichardt.

The Birds Eye View Film Festival (April 8-13), celebrating women’s work in film, has revealed details of its 2014 programme including works by British director Destiny Ekaragha and Laura Checkoway to films by Lena Dunham and Kelly Reichardt.

The festival will also celebrate inspiring female filmmakers and actors of recent times including the late pioneering animator Joy Batchelor, Broadway legend Elaine Stritch and award-winning British filmmaker Gurinder Chadha.

The festival will comprise 19 features including 10 UK premieres such as German director Katrin Gebbe’s debut Nothing Bad Can Happen and the London premiere of Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky’s Watermark, the follow-up to their 2006 documentary hit Manufactured Landscapes.

The programme also includes an American Indie strand featuring Kelly Reichardt’s thriller Night Moves starring Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning; Chiemi Karasawa’s documentary Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me; and the...

Festival dedicated to showcasing work by women film-makers to screen films from Georgia and the Us

• Women successful yet sidelined in film writing and directing

The Birds Eye Film Festival has announced its opening and closing night films, along with details of its International Women's Day gala.

Celebrated as a major discovery at the 2013 Berlinale, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross's In Bloom will kick off proceedings on April 8 with its UK premiere. A drama about two young girls growing up in newly-independent Georgia in 1992, it sets the girls' life trajectory against that of the country, which is in the midst of a civil war. Eka and Natia are best friends who like to talk about music and boys, but are forced to grow up quickly as insecurity invades their everyday lives.

The six-day festival will close with another UK premiere, a screening of Swim Little Fish Swim, which debuted at SXSW last year.

Nana Ekvtimishvili’s and Simon Groß’s award-winning feature to receive its UK premiere, as will Lola Bessis and Ruben Amar’s Swim Little Fish Swim as this year’s closing film.

In Bloom will receive its UK premiere as the opening film of the tenth Birds Eye View Film Festival.

Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Groß’s award-winning Georgian feature will open the festival on April 8, while Lola Bessis & Ruben Amar’s family drama Swim Little Fish Swim will also receive its UK premiere as the festival’s closing film on April 13.

With the full programme to be announced in February, this year’s edition will also feature a 20th anniversary screening of Gurinder Chadha’s Bhaji on the Beach on April 12, with Chadha in attendance.

The festival has also revealed that Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s Wonder Women!, a film which traces the birth, evolution and legacy of the Wonder Woman figure, will be its...

An Early Frost: Ekvtimishvili & Grob’s Debut a Memoir in Neorealism

The Georgian entry for 2014’s Best Foreign Language Film, In Bloom is the directorial debut of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Grob, and is based on the former’s memories of childhood while growing up in 1992 war-torn Georgia. Previously, they made the 2007 film Fata Morgana together (yes, which shares the same name with the famed Herzog documentary), directed by Grob and written by Ekvtimishvili. Whilst set in a notably violent period in the country after its separation from the Soviet Union, leading to an unrest that sparked a three year civil war, it seems the bubble of the adolescent realm seems to supersede all even in the worst of times. But for young girls on the cusp of developing into well-adjusted young women amidst such tumultuous times seems next to impossible, female agency dashed upon the rocks of a...

In Bloom is the kind of film that would once have been deemed “Neorealist,” then “kitchen sink,” and most recently “miserabilist,” though rarely accurately. Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’s coming-of-age film, Georgia’s entry for this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar, is less an indulgence in despair than it is a calculated accumulation of horrors designed to show violence percolating through a society. That makes it sound kind of wan and unpleasant, but it’s also electrifyingly well made. The film opens on a radio announcer in the background telling us that the people of Georgia are “warriors by nature” and that they should all be armed. It then puts that observation to the test. Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria) are two young teenage girls living in Tbilisi in the early nineties. Best friends, they do everything together: Wait in crushing bread lines; walk to and...