News

Titles for the Limelight, Harbour, Cinema Regained and Focus strands have been added to the line-up.

Marco Müller, who headed International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) from 1989-1991, is returning as part of the 2024 Tiger international competition jury.

He is being joined by Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker Ena Sendijarević,producer, industry expert and founder of Easy Rider Films, Nadia Turincev; Hong Kong filmmaker Herman Yau; and LA Rebellion film movement figure and filmmaker Billy Woodberry, whose title Mário will have its world premiere in the Harbour strand.

They will choose the winners of the Tiger award, worth €40,000, and the special jury awards, worth...

Boutique German sales agent Patra Spanou Film has pounced on “Destello Bravío,” acquiring international sales rights to the feature debut of Spain’s Ainhoa Rodríguez’s film, which screened this week in main competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

“Destello Bravío” is produced by Rodríguez’s Tentación Cabiria, based out of Extremadura in southwest Spain, in co-production with Eddie Saeta, the Barcelona-based company of Luis Miñarro, one of Spain’s most internationally renowned arthouse producer-directors whose credits include 2011 Rotterdam Tiger Award winner “Finisterrae,” directed by Sergio Caballero, and the Miñarro-directed “Stella Cadente,” which world premiered at Rotterdam in 2014.

“Destello Bravío” depicts a group of mainly female characters in a small country town in southwest Spain. The feature captures the sentiments of these women, as the town is drained of its population, and their intense desire for liberating experiences.

“I was impressed by the skills of the director; in every single...

4X4

(Television Abierta, Mediapro)

A Cannes Market screener, the solo feature debut from Mariano Cohn concerns a thief who breaks into a high-end 4×4, not realizing it’s a trap. Big fest potential. Sales: Latido Films

Courage

(Magoproducción, Apapacho Films)

Pitching at Los Cabos Goes to Cannes, this Mexico-Catalonia co-production directed by Rubén Rojo Aura is about an aged actress coping with the return of her alcoholic son.

Duo

(Polar Star Films, Manufactura de Películas, Paraíso Pensilvania)

The sophomore feature from Meritxell Colell is co-produced by Chile, France, Argentina and Spain. Pitching at Málaga Goes to Cannes, the film tracks a cross-border van trip of a contemporary dance couple between Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.

The Girls

(Inicia Films, BTeam Prods)

From the producers of Carla Simón’s “Summer 1993,” Pilar Palomero’s debut tells the story of a 12-year-old girl educated in a small-town convent who questions its established values. Sales: Film...

Following the first batches of Cannes Film Festival lineup announcements, the slate has now been unveiled for the sidebar Directors’ Fortnight. Once again a stellar-looking lineup, it includes Robert Eggers’ The Witch follow-up The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, Bertrand Bonello’s Zombi Child, plus new films from Takashi Miike, Lav Diaz, Bas Devo, and Rebecca Zlotowski (pictured above).

There’s also two Sundance films we’ve already reviewed: Wounds and Give Me Liberty. Premiering as a Special Screening is Luca Guadagnino’s new short The Staggering Girl starring Julianne Moore, Mia Goth, KiKi Layne, Alba Rohrwacher, Marthe Keller, and Kyle MacLachlan. See the lineup below, along with the Acid slate.

Directors’ Fortnight Lineup

Feature Films

Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux) – Opening Film

Yves (Benoît Forgeard) – Closing

Alice and the Mayor (Nicolas Pariser)

And Then We Danced (Levan Akin)

The Halt (Lav Diaz)

Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää...

The 2019 Driectors’ Fortnight lineup has been revealed, bringing with it new works from “The Witch” director Robert Eggers, Bertrand Bonello, Rebecca Zlotowski, and Takashi Miike. Fortnight is closely associated with the Cannes Film Festival although it is technically its own event that runs parallel to Cannes. Fortnight is celebrating its 51st year in 2019. The festival sidebar has been a launching pad for directors such as Spike Lee, Jim Jarmsuch, and more over the years.

One of the biggest titles set to world premiere is “The Lighthouse,” writer-director Eggers’ first feature since his Sundance horror breakout “The Witch.” For his latest directorial effort, Eggers has cast Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe for a fantasy horror based on old seafarer myths. The movie was shot in black and white and is backed by A24, who picked up last year’s Directors’ Fortnight favorite “Climax.” Another high profile premiere is “The Staggering Girl,...

It’s become a great breaking in the new year traditional here at Ioncinema.com. We begin our countdown to the our most anticipated foreign films (anything outside the U.S.) with our own Nicholas Bell curating the best bets for 2016. Here are the titles and filmmakers that didn’t make our final Top 100 cut, but are nonetheless “radar” worthy.

101. El Rey del Once – Daniel Burman

102. The Dancer – Stephanie Di Giusto

103. Le Cancre – Paul Vecchiali

104. While the Women are Sleeping – Wayne Wang

105. Tomorrow – Martha Pinson

106. Spring Again – Gael Morel

107. Crowhurst – Simon Rumley

108. Le Garcon – Philippe Lioret *

109. Marie and the Misfits – Sebastien Betbeder

110. Le Caravage – Alain Chevalier

111. Night Song – Raphael Nadjari

112. Réparer les vivants – Katell Quillevere *

113. Project Lazarus – Mateo Gil

114. Afterimages – Andrzej Wajda

115. Don’t Knock Twice – Caradog James

116. Detour – Christopher Smith

117. The Bride of Rip Van Winkle – Shunji Iwai

118. Three on the Road – Johnnie To

119. Le Vin et le Vent...

Festival will also see director Rowan Joffe and novelist Sj Watson present Before I Go To Sleep, starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong.

The 34th edition of the Cambridge Film Festival (Aug 28 - Sept 7) is to open with The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq, Guillaume Nicloux’s comedy-drama based in part on true events.

It recounts the disapperance of reclusive French novelist Michel Houellebecq during a book tour in 2011. The rumours of his whereabouts led to endless speculation, including a kidnapping. The film, which stars the novelist as himself, will be presented at the festival by Nicloux.

Special guests at this year’s festival include writer-director Rowan Joffe and novelist Sj Watson who will present Before I Go To Sleep, an amnesiac thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong.

Skip Kite will present his timely tribute to late politican Tony Benn: Will and Testament, while Andrew Sinclair, director of 1972’s...

With Issue 71, Senses of Cinema revamps its site to offer, as administrator Stuart Richards puts it, "an enhanced navigational experience and a responsive design." And it's looking good. New book reviews editor Daniel Fairfax is all over this new issue. He interviews Sergio Caballero (Finisterrae, La Distancia), writes about Jean-Pierre Léaud's performance in Jacques Rivette's Out 1 (1971), files a report on Cannes 2014, and reviews Michael Witt's new book, Jean-Luc Godard: Cinema Historian, a study of Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998). Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum on the working class in American cinema, Michael Pattison on Oscar Micheaux, Peter Bogdanovich on Orson Welles and more. » - David Hudson...

With Issue 71, Senses of Cinema revamps its site to offer, as administrator Stuart Richards puts it, "an enhanced navigational experience and a responsive design." And it's looking good. New book reviews editor Daniel Fairfax is all over this new issue. He interviews Sergio Caballero (Finisterrae, La Distancia), writes about Jean-Pierre Léaud's performance in Jacques Rivette's Out 1 (1971), files a report on Cannes 2014, and reviews Michael Witt's new book, Jean-Luc Godard: Cinema Historian, a study of Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998). Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum on the working class in American cinema, Michael Pattison on Oscar Micheaux, Peter Bogdanovich on Orson Welles and more. » - David Hudson...

World premiere of Dermaphoria, starring The Vampire Diaries’ Joseph Morgan and Ron Perlman, to open 13th edition of the London festival.

The line-up for the East End Film Festival (June 13-25) has been revealed.

The 13th edition of the festival - which runs for 13 days - will open on Friday 13th June with the world premiere of Dermaphoria. The Us film is the second feature from Ross Clarke, the east London-based filmmaker and DJ who directed homeless documentary Skid Row in 2007 and co-founded music festival Lovebox.

Based on a novel by Craid Clevenger, Dermaphoria follows an experimental chemist who wakes up in a New Orleans jail with amnesia, accused of arson and links to a drug-manufacturing ring. The cast includes Joseph Morgan (The Vampire Diaries), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Walton Goggins (The Shield), Anwan Glover (The Wire) and Kate Walsh (Grey’s Anatomy).

Football focus

The festival, which coincides with the World Cup in Brazil, will welcome...

The East End Film Festival returns to the city of London this summer celebrating its thirteenth year, and running in the height of the World Cup, Director Alison Poltock says she’s determined to make it the festival’s best year ever.

Opening on Friday, 13th June, the festival will run in East London for thirteen days, playing host to over 100 feature narrative and documentary films, and close to 100 shorts, the majority of which will be either World, UK, or London premieres.

Ross Clarke’s sophomore feature, Dermaphormia, will kick events off as the Opening Night Gala selection. Clarke has lined up an impressive cast for his first narrative film, following his award-winning documentary Skid Row, led by Joseph Morgan (The Vampire Diaries), Nicole Badaan, Walton Goggins (Django Unchained), Lucius Falick, Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Anwan Glover (The Wire), and Kate Walsh (Grey’s Anatomy). The crime-thriller centres on an experimental...

Closing instalment of zombie horror series to open 47th edition of genre film festival.

Jaume Balagueró’s [Rec]4 Apocalypse will open this year’s Sitges Film Festival which runs Oct 3-12.

The final instalment of the zombie horror franchise, which sees Manuela Velasco reprise her role as reporter Ángela Vidal, is currently in post-production and screens at the festival ahead of its Spanish release on Oct 31.

It was filmed in Barcelona, Terrassa, Gijón and the Canary Islands over seven weeks and was produced by Julio Fernández for Filmax, with the participation of Tve, Canal+ and in collaboration with TV3.

The 47th edition of Sitges will also screen another anticipated Catalan production in its Official Selection in the form Sergio Caballero’s second feature La Distancia.

Centring on an introverted peasant from Crimea who goes to work in the Siberian coal mines where he becomes the owner of a power station, the film was produced by Advanced Music, Sònar...

Director Jaume Balagueró was on hand today at the Sitges Film Festival press conference, to present the first trailer for the last film in the [Rec] franchise. [Rec]4: Apocalypse is set to open the festival, which will run October 3rd - 12th. Other film announcements are The Distance, the second feature from Catalan director Sergio Caballero, which will be in the official selection; and Lee Sujin's Han Gong-ju will open the New Visions category.An exciting addition to the festival this year is Blood Window, created in alliance with the Ventura Sur market. It's a new category dedicated to emerging Latin American fantastic cinema, and it will include a new award for Best Latin American Fantastic Genre Production. Excerpts from the press release about the announced films, the new...

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

Sixth edition of Denmark’s largest fiction festival will feature 160 feature films and more than 400 screenings and events.

Fenar Ahmad’s Flow [pictured] will receive its world premiere as the opening film of the sixth Cph Pix.

Flow will screen at the Imperial cinema on April 2 and also competes for the New Talent Grand Pix. The festival’s main prize will award €15,000 to one of ten debutants to feature at this year’s edition, including Paul Wright’s For Those in Peril and Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook. Competing for the prize are:

Jennifer Kent, The Babadook (Australia)Eskil Vogt, Blind (Norway)Felipe Barbosa, Casa Grande or the Ballad of Poor Jean (Brazil)Paul Wright, For Those in Peril (UK)Benjamin Naishat, History of Fear (Argentina, Uruguay)Michalis Konstantantos, Luton (Greece)Gillian Robespierre, Obvious Child (USA)Allessandro Rossetto, Small Homeland (Italy)Bas Devos, Violet (Belgium, Holland)Fenar Ahmad, Flow (Ækte Vare) (Denmark) [pictured]

Overall, this year’s...

I'd never heard of Sergio Caballero but the trailer for the Spaniard's new movie titled The Distance (La Distancia) certainly got my attention. Not surprising considering that a short search unearthed news that Caballero is a celebrated artist having taken home the Golden Lion at Rotterdam in 2011. His second full length feature sounds just as odd as his debut Finisterrae, but a little more accessible. Maybe.

Here's how the festival programmers describe it:

A performance artist is being held in a deserted Siberian power station following the unexpected death of his oligarch patron. Dryly comic surrealism (with an attractive soundtrack and three telepathic dwarves).

[Continued ...]...

Scott Weinberg has tallied the votes from 20 Movies.com contributors and come up with a top 20. #1: Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive.

"Refn's pulp fantasia — with the iconic Ryan Gosling sporting a cheesy scorpion jacket, a toothpick and a lack of dialogue unrivaled since Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns — reminded me just how much I love movies," writes Sean Burns. "Refn's boldly artificial flourishes, graphic violence and swoony romanticism conjured an alternate universe I adored basking in, over and over. Throw in Albert Brooks as the villain, and I don't want to admit how many times I went back to see it again."

Also in the Philadelphia Weekly, Matt Prigge, whose #2 is Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret, on his #1, House of Tolerance: "Like Margaret, Bertrand Bonello's dreamy look at a tony, turn-of-the-century Parisian brothel was initially hated, with some at Cannes calling it the fest's worst. It fared better at Toronto,...

The Rio International Film Festival - one of the largest and most influential in South America - has long had a strong genre film presence through their Midnight Movies sidebar but they're jumping into the genre pool in a big, big way by adding two additional Midnight programs to boost coverage significantly. What will audiences in Rio be seeing? Here's the complete list! Normal 0 false false false En-ca X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Midnight Movies: Attack the Block (dir. Joe Cornish, UK, 2011) Finisterrae (dir. Sergio Caballero, Spain, 2010) Guilty of...

“Finisterrae” the film debut of the director of the electronic music festival “Sónar”, Sergio Caballero, was awarded with the top prize at the International Rotterdam Film Festival. The film, produced by the prolific and off-beat Luis Miñarro whose name is attached to award-winning films such as “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” and “La Mosquitera”. Interpreted by the unknown actors Pau Nubiola, Pavel Lukiyanoy, Santi Serra and Yuri Mykhaylychenko, this tells the story of two ghosts that fed up with travelling througt the shadowlands decide to make the “way of Santiago” till the end of the world called “Finisterrae” to once there begin a short life of earthly existence between the living. The experimental film was approached by filming and obtaining images first, and then creating the script afterwards, before finally adding the dialogues which remind us to another Spanish produced film by Luis Miñarro, “Aita” by José Maria de Orbe,...