News

The International Jury for this year’s Venice International Film Festival has been finalized after the previous confirmation of French actress Isabelle Huppert as its chair.

Now, American director and screenwriter James Gray, British director and screenwriter Andrew Haigh, Polish director, screenwriter, and producer Agnieszka Holland, and Brazilian director-screenwriter Kleber Mendonça Filho are the latest additions to the jury. They will join Mauritanian director, screenwriter and producer Abderrahmane Sissako, Italian director-screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore, German director-screenwriter Julia von Heinz and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.

The prestigious Golden Lion for best film and other awards will be revealed during the festival’s closing ceremony on Sept. 7.

Gray made his directorial debut in 1994 with Little Odessa, which received the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. His other projects include The Yards (2000), starring Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers (2008) and The Immigrant (2013). The Lost City of Z had its world premiere at the New York...

Filmmakers James Gray, Andrew Haigh and Agnieszka Holland have joined the main competition jury of the 81st Venice Film Festival (August 28-September 7).

They are joined by Brazilian director and screenwriter Kleber Mendonça Filho; Mauritanian director, screenwriter and producer Abderrahmane Sissako; Italian director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore; German director and screenwriter Julia von Heinz; and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.

As previously announced, the jury will be chaired by Isabelle Huppert, and award the Golden Lion for best film and the other official awards.

Gray’s Ad Astra screened in competition at Venice in 2019, and his directorial debut Little Odessa received the...

Agnieszka Holland’s refugee drama The Green Border has taken the top prize for best film at the Polish Film Awards. The black-and-white feature, which looks at the inhumane treatment of refugees trying to cross the natural border between Belarus and Poland, premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival last year but came under attack from Poland’s far-right government, which called the movie “Nazi propaganda” for its supposedly negative depiction of Polish police and border guards. The political attacks are thought to have influenced the Polish Oscar committee’s decision not to put Green Border forward as Poland’s best international film contender this year, instead selecting Dk and Hugh Welchman’s Hugh animated literary adaptation The Peasants (which did not get nominated).

But a lot has changed in Poland since. Parliamentary elections last October ousted the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which had ruled for 8 years,...

It’s a strange time for Agnieszka Holland. Green Border, the new film from the acclaimed Polish director — a three-time Oscar nominee — just celebrated the best opening for a Polish movie in cinemas this year with 137,000 admissions over its first weekend, according to local distributor Kino Świat. It’s particularly impressive given that the film, a black-and-white drama depicting the real-life plight of refugees stranded on the natural border between Poland and Belarus, can be a rough watch.

In late 2021, thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa were lured to the Polish border by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who cynically engineered a geopolitical crisis, promising migrants easy passage over the Polish border into the European Union. But the Polish government refused to let them in, leaving families stranded and starving in the swampy, treacherous forests between the two countries. Holland’s film intertwines the perspectives of the stranded refugees,...

Variety has been given exclusive access to first-look footage from Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland’s “Mr. Jones,” which world premieres in Official Competition at the Berlin Film Festival. The film stars James Norton, Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard.

“Mr. Jones” tells the little-known story of Gareth Jones, an ambitious young Welsh journalist who travelled to the Soviet Union in 1933, and discovered the appalling reality behind the myth of a communist “utopia.” What started out as a regular news investigation, soon turned into a life-or-death quest to uncover the truth about a government-induced famine in Ukraine. His efforts are frustrated not just by Soviet censors but other Western journalists who enjoy the patronage of Stalin’s regime, most notably Walter Duranty, the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times. Jones’ story helped inspire George Orwell’s allegorical dystopian novel “Animal Farm.”

In a statement, Holland said: “We wanted to...

New films by Agnieszka Holland, Agnes Varda and Isabel Coixet have been added to the official lineup of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival, along with special screenings of directorial debuts by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and “Narcos” star Wagner Moura of Brazil.

The Berlinale added 11 titles to its competition slate Thursday, representing countries such as China, Norway, Mongolia and Israel. Of the 18 competition titles selected so far, eight are directed by women, including festival opener “The Kindness of Strangers,” by Danish director Lone Scherfig.

Holland’s eagerly anticipated “Mr. Jones,” starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby, will have its world premiere in Potsdamer Platz. The politically charged film centers on the real-life Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (Norton), whose reporting uncovered a deadly famine in Ukraine in the 1930s.

Another famine-themed film heading to Berlin is Ejiofor’s “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” which was recently acquired by Netflix and...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– Sundance Institute and Picturehouse have announced that the 2017 Sundance Film Festival: London will open with the European premiere of “Beatriz at Dinner.”

The film world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA, and will be introduced to London audiences by director Miguel Arteta, screenwriter Mike White, and lead actress Salma Hayek on June 1 at Picturehouse Central.

– The American Pavilion has announced its 2017 lineup for the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. The impressive program features 25 short documentary and narrative films by up-and-coming filmmakers from the U.S. and around the world, all of which will screen at The American Pavilion during the Cannes Film Festival. More information about the showcase and links to view the films’ trailers are available at its official site.

‘The Salesman’ (Courtesy: Amazon Studios and Cohen Media Group)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

The one chance for the entire world to get involved with the Academy Awards has always been the best foreign language film category. Since any country can submit a film each year, though, that means the competition is intense. Let’s take a look at the countries that have snagged nominations this year and see how they’ve performed in the past in the hopes of shedding some light on what might happen come February 26.

This year the five nominees for best foreign language film are Land of Mine from Denmark, A Man Called Ove from Sweden, The Salesman from Iran, Tanna from Australia, and Toni Erdmann from Germany. The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg lists The Salesman as the frontrunner in this category — obviously due to the film’s merits and also potentially due to its director,...

When making Oscar predictions, I’ve learned to never underestimate the Holocaust movie. When in doubt with those pesky documentary short subjects, pick the one about the Holocaust. It sounds crass, and it’s an eye-rolling industry truism, but if you chose “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” in 2014, you were right. Out of seven nominated Holocaust feature documentaries, six won the Oscar.

The Holocaust is a heart-rending and complicated subject. There have been many other genocides in history, of course; Oscar-winner “The Killing Fields” addressed Cambodia, and other films have examined Armenia, Rwanda, Indonesia, and Bosnia. Still, that’s nothing compared to the hundreds of movies that have addressed how Adolf Hitler and his Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews during World War II.

This year is no exception. Well-intentioned court procedural “Denial” (Bleecker Street), starring Rachel Weisz as an American academic on trial in Britain for defaming...

When making Oscar predictions, I’ve learned to never underestimate the Holocaust movie. When in doubt with those pesky documentary short subjects, pick the one about the Holocaust. It sounds crass, and it’s an eye-rolling industry truism, but if you chose “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” in 2014, you were right. Out of seven nominated Holocaust feature documentaries, six won the Oscar.

The Holocaust is a heart-rending and complicated subject. There have been many other genocides in history, of course; Oscar-winner “The Killing Fields” addressed Cambodia, and other films have examined Armenia, Rwanda, Indonesia, and Bosnia. Still, that’s nothing compared to the hundreds of movies that have addressed how Adolf Hitler and his Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews during World War II.

This year is no exception. Well-intentioned court procedural “Denial” (Bleecker Street), starring Rachel Weisz as an American academic on trial in Britain for defaming...

A Speck in the Sea

Weinstein Books has acquired publishing rights for John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski's novel "A Speck in The Sea" which will be developed into a film at The Weinstein Company. Jeff Pope will adapt the script while Rachael Horovitz, Jason Blum and Harvey Weinstein will produce.

Aldridge is a Montauk fisherman who fell of his boat into the ocean, forty miles off Montauk in the middle of the night without a life vest. His childhood best Sosinski helped launch a multi-state rescue operation - with the film set to cover that rescue in real time. [Source: Deadline]

The Kind Worth Killing

Agnieszka Holland ("In Darkness," "Angry Harvest") is attached to direct an adaptation of the Peter Swanson thriller novel "The Kind Worth Killing" for Chockstone Pictures and Nick Wechsler Productions. Christopher Kyle penned the adapted screenplay.

The story follows a man who tells a female fellow passenger about...

Now in its 26th year, Washington Jewish Film Festival (February 24 – March 6) explores gender, migration, the supernatural, Arab citizens of Israel, artists’ lives, and Lgbtq themes. In addition to the groundbreaking lineup of films, the Festival will host talkbacks and panel discussions with over 50 domestic and international filmmaker guests. The Festival is one of the region’s preeminent showcases for international and independent cinema.

A project of the Washington D.C. Jewish Community Center (Dcjcc), the Washington Jewish Film Festival (Wjff) is the largest Jewish cultural event in the greater Washington, D.C. area. This year’s Festival includes 69 films and over 150 screenings at the AFI Silver Theatre, the Avalon Theatre, Bethesda Row Cinema, E Street Cinema, the Jcc of Greater Washington, the National Gallery of Art, West End Cinema, and the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at the Dcjcc.

“We are excited to present our most ambitious Festival yet,” said Ilya Tovbis, Director of the Washington Jewish Film Festival. “The Washington Jewish Film Festival is a highlight on our city’s cultural calendar. This has been a banner year for original cinematic visions hitting the screen. It is a genuine pleasure to share this crop of bold, independent, film voices that have been garnering praise at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and elsewhere, with DC audiences. This year’s Festival simultaneously challenges and expands on our understanding of Jewish identity.”

The lineup includes new and classic films, encompassing a wide range of Jewish perspectives from the United States, Israel, Europe, Asia, and Africa. While the Festival touches a broad set of themes, this year’s lineup offers two programmatic focuses – one on the lives of artists (“Re-framing the Artists”) and the other on Lgbtq individuals (“Rated Lgbtq”). “Reframing the Artist” features an in-depth exploration of artists’ lives, accomplishments, and inspiration. The seven-film “Rated Lgbtq” series explores sexuality, gender, and identity on screen.

The Festival will also engage attendees with off-screen programming including “Story District Presents: God Loves You? True Stories about Faith and Sexuality,” an evening of true stories presented in partnership with Story District, and the 6th Annual Community Education Day on Arab Citizens of Israel. Kicked off by a screening of "Women in Sink," this day features in-depth conversations with Reem Younis, co-founder of Nazareth-based global high-tech company Alpha Omega, and Tziona Koenig-Yair, Israel’s first Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner.

A full Festival schedule can be found at www.wjff.org . Select highlights are included below:

Opening Night: "Baba Joon"

Opening Night features Israel’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award®, "Baba Joon," a tender tale of a generational divide and the immigrant experience. Yitzhak (Navid Negahban of Showtime’s Emmy Award-winning original series “Homeland”) runs the turkey farm his father built after they emigrated from Iran to Israel.

When his son Moti turns 13, Yitzhak teaches him the trade in hopes that he will take over the family business — but Moti’s dreams lie elsewhere. The arrival of an uncle from America further ratchets up the tension and the family’s tight bonds are put to the test. Opening Night will be held at the AFI Silver Theatre on Wednesday, February 24 at 6:30 p.m. The Opening Night Party, with DirectorYuval Delshad, will be held at the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza immediately following the screening.

Closing Night : "A Tale of Love and Darkness"

Closing Night centers on Academy Award®-winning actress Natalie Portman in her debut as a director (and screenwriter) in a hauntingly beautiful adaptation of Amos Oz’s best-selling memoir, "A Tale of Love and Darkness." In this dream-like tale, Portman inhabits Fania—Oz’s mother—who brings up her son in Jerusalem during the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. Dissatisfied with her marriage, and disoriented by the foreign land surrounding her, Fania escapes into elaborate, fanciful stories of make-believe — bringing her adoring, wide-eyed son along. Closing Night will be held at the Dcjcc on Sunday, March 6 at 6:45 p.m. Followed by a Closing Night Reception and the Audience Award Ceremony.

Wjff Visionary Award Presented to Armin Mueller-Stahl

The Wjff’s Annual Visionary Award recognizes creativity and insight in presenting the full diversity of the Jewish experience through moving image. The 2016 honoree is Armin Mueller-Stahl, who will join us for a special extended Q&A and the presentation of the Wjff Visionary Award. The award will be presented alongside a screening of Barry Levinson’s 1990 film "Avalon," an evocative, nostalgic film that celebrates the virtues of family life. “Avalon” begins with Jewish immigrant Sam Krichinsky (portrayed by Armin Mueller-Stahl) arriving in America on July 4th. He settles in Baltimore with his brothers and raises a family. Director Barry Levinson traces various transitions within the Krichinsky family and conveys his appreciation for the anxieties that afflict the suburban middle-class – and multiple generations of immigrants in particular.

Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German actor, painter, writer and musician. He began acting in East Berlin in 1950, winning the Gdr State Prize for his film work. By 1977, however, he was blacklisted by the communist regime due to his persistent activism in protesting government suppression of the arts. After relocating to the West in 1980, he starred in groundbreaking independent European films, such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Lola” and “Veronika Voss” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Angry Harvest.” He gained major recognition stateside with two radically different characterizations: an aging Nazi war criminal in Costa-Gavras’ “The Music Box” and Jewish grandpa Sam Krischinsky in Barry Levinson’s “Avalon.” He went on to earn an Oscar® nomination for his role in Scott Hicks’ Shine and appeared in such varied work as “Eastern Promises,” “The Game,” “The West Wing,” “The X Files” and “Knight of Cups.”

The Wjff Visionary Award program will take place at the AFI Silver Theatre on Thursday, March 3 at 6:45 p.m.

Spotlight Evening:

Compared to What? The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank

A polarizing, revolutionary, effective and a most-singular figure in American politics, Barney Frank shaped the debate around progressive values and gay rights in the U.S. Congress for over 40 years. A fresh and contemporary political drama with unparalleled access to one of Congress’ first openly gay Representatives and easily one of the most captivating public figures in recent memory.

Born Jewish, and a longtime friend to the Jewish community and supporter of Israel, Frank is refreshingly honest, likeable and passionate – a beacon of statesmanship that politicians and citizens alike, can look to for inspiration.

Screenings will take place on Tuesday, March 1st at the Avalon Theatre at 6:15 p.m. and Wednesday, March 2 at the Dcjcc at 6:15 p.m. Both screenings followed by a discussion with Barney Frank, husband Jim Ready and filmmakers Sheila Canavan and Michael Chandler.

Spotlight Evening:

Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei: Music From Max Fleischer Cartoons

Celebrating the release of the titular album—on Silver Spring-based label Cuneiform—legendary guitarist Gary Lucas joins forces with Tony®-nominated singer and actress Sarah Stiles (Q Street,Hand to God) for a loving musical tribute to the swinging, jazzy soundtracks that adorned master animator Max Fleischer’s surreal, wacky and Yiddish-inflected "Betty Boop" and "Popeye" cartoons of the 1930’s.

Backed by the cartoons themselves, and the cream of NYC’s jazz performers (Jeff Lederer on reeds, Michael Bates on bass, Rob Garcia on drums and Mingus Big Band’s Joe Fiedler on trombone), Lucas and Stiles have a rare evening in store. Get ready for a swirling melting-pot of jungle-band jazz, Tin Pan Alley torch songs, raucous vaudeville turns, and Dixieland mixed with a pinch of Klezmer.

This event will take place at AFI Silver Theatre on Saturday, March 5 at 8:30 p.m.

Additional Films of Note

The Wjff will present the mid-Atlantic premiere of "Barash." In the film, seventeen-year-old Naama Barash enjoys drugs, alcohol and hanging out with like-minded friends. Her activities are an escape from a strained home life where her parents fight and her rebellious, army-enrolled sister wreaks havoc by dating a Palestinian before going Awol all together. As her parents fret about their older daughter’s disappearance, Naama meets a wild girl in school and discovers the intoxicating rush of first love. “Barash” will be screened three times during the festival, on February 27 at 8:45 p.m. at E Street Cinema, on March 2 at 8:45 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre and on March 3 at 6:15 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema.

"Black Jews: The Roots of the Olive Tree" will have its World Premiere at Wjff. The documentary offers a fascinating exploration of African tribes with Jewish roots – in Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon. Some claim to be descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes; others believe their ancestors were Jews who immigrated from Judea to Yemen. Far from a dry archaeological account, the film focuses on the modern-day personal and institutional practice of Judaism throughout Africa, as well as of recent African immigrants in Israel. This film will be screened on March 2 at 6:45 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and on March 3 at 6:30 p.m. at E Street Cinema.

The mid-Atlantic premiere of "Demon," from director Marcin Wrona, features a chilling, modern interpretation of the Dybbuk legend. Piotr’s joy at visiting his bride-to-be at her Polish home is quickly upended by his discovery of human bones on the property. Since his future father-in-law plans to gift the newlyweds the land, Piotr at first overlooks this ominous find. The disturbed spirit inhabiting these remains isn’t willing to let him off so easily however. Marcin Wrona’s wickedly sharp and creepy story of possession is set against a bacchanal celebration of blissful union. “Demon” will be screened on February 25th at 8:45 p.m. at E Street Cinema and on March 1 at 9:15 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre.

From Spain, the mid-Atlantic premiere of "Dirty Wolves" is a WWII thriller imbued with notes of magical realism. Director Simón Casal works in the Wolfram (aka tungsten) mines in rural Galicia. A ruthless Nazi brigade, intent on harvesting the rare metal to feed the Third Reich’s war machine, has captured the mines. When Manuela’s sister helps a Jewish prisoner cross the border to Portugal, they are unwittingly forced into a desperate test, which puts their survival squarely at odds with their sense of justice. “Dirty Wolves” will be screened on February 27 at 6:15 p.m. at West End Cinema, on March 1 at 8:45 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre and on March 2 at 6:45 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre.

In "The Hebrew Superhero," directors Saul Betser and Asaf Galay examine how Israelis long shunned comics as something on the cultural fringe – they were deemed childish, trivial and, perhaps most cuttingly, un-Israeli. Shaul Betser and Asaf Galay (“The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer”) outline the medium’s origins, tracing its evolution from quirky upstart to an indelible reflection on the various forms of Israeli heroes. Featuring gorgeous animation and interviews with Daniella London Dekel, Etgar Keret and Dudu Geva, Wjff is presenting the mid-Atlantic premiere of this documentary, which will be screened on February 25 at 7:15 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre, March 1 at 6:30 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 3 at 8:30 p.m. at E Street Cinema.

Simone Veil’s intrepid fight to legalize abortion in France is brilliantly brought to life in "The Law." In 1974, Veil was charged with decriminalizing abortion and easing access to contraceptives. Facing strong opposition from politicians, an enraged public and the Catholic Church, Veil— an Auschwitz survivor—refused to give up. Fighting for justice amidst a swirl of anti-Semitic sentiment, sexism and personal attacks, her perseverance struck at the heart of national bigotry in a rallying cry for a woman’s right to choose. Wjff will present the D.C. premiere of this French film. It will be screened on February 25 at 8:15 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema, on February 29 at 8:45 p.m. at E Street Cinema and on March 5 at 4:45 p.m. at the Dcjcc.

At 90, Miriam Beerman is a survivor. This groundbreaking artist and Potomac, Maryland resident has overcome personal tragedy to inspire friends, family, peers, patrons and students about how to remain defiant, creative and strong. Miriam has struggled with her artistic demons to create haunting images that evoke the suffering of generations of victims. "Miriam Beerman: Expressing the Chaosis" a memorable profile of an artist who has elevated her empathy for the plight of the world’s cast-offs into powerful portrayals of dignity. The Wjff is hosting the mid-Atlantic premiere of this documentary. Screenings will take place on March 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 3 at 6:15 p.m. at the Dcjcc.

Author and director David Bezmozgis brings his film "Natasha" to Wjff for its D.C. premiere. Adapting his prize-winning story collection,Natasha and Other Stories, to screen, Bezmogis delivers a tragic story of young love. Sixteen-year-old Mark Berman, the son of Latvian-Jewish immigrants, wiles away his hours reading Nietzsche, smoking pot and watching porn. His slacker lifestyle is upended when a 14-year-old hurricane, named Natasha, enters the picture. Drawn to her reckless ways and whispers of her promiscuous past, Mark enters an illicit romance with calamitous consequences. Screenings will take place on February 28 at 5:00 p.m. at West End Cinema, March 3 at 8:30 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 5 at 6:15 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre.

If you believe the fastest way to the heart is through the stomach, "In Search of Israeli Cuisine" offers a delectable, eye-popping culinary journey through Israel is your personal valentine. Weaving through bustling markets, restaurants, kitchens and farms, we meet cooks, vintners and cheese makers drawn from the wide gamut of cultures making up Israel today — Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian and Druze. With James Beard award-winning chef Michael Solomonov as your guide, get ready for a cinematic buffet that’s humorous, heady, and of course, delicious! Wjff will be showing the mid-Atlantic premiere of this new documentary. Screenings will take place on February 28 at 5:15 p.m. at E Street Cinema, March 1 at 8:15 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 4 at 12:30 p.m. at the Dcjcc.

A complete festival schedule can be found online at www.wjff.org...

Time to Burn: Holland’s Magnificent Mini-Series Event Well Worthy of Big Screen Treatment

Realized as a three part mini-series for television, Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s latest enterprise, Burning Bush, revisits a late 60’s historical moment in Czech history, when the country was occupied by Soviet forces. Holland has a broad wealth of war time period pieces under her belt, and her most championed titles generally deal specifically with the Holocaust, such as the brilliant Angry Harvest (1985), Europa Europa (1990), and even most recently, In Darkness (2011). While this latest endeavor has premiered at film festivals and will receive a limited run in New York on the big screen, Holland specifically formatted this richly observed narrative for television. Obviously, it’s an extensive format that inspired Holland, for she directed an American mini-series revamp of Rosemary’s Baby not long afterwards (and not to mention several episode credits of popular Western...

Agnieszka Holland’s first taste of Hollywood was a roller coaster ride. Literally. It was 1986 and her war drama Angry Harvest was up for an Oscar. “When you’ve been nominated for a foreign Oscar in those times,” the 65-year-old Polish-born director recalled, “one of the attractions that the American Academy gave the nominees was a free trip to Disneyland.” It was an unexpected reward after toiling on a film that she and her crew made for “no money, no money,” she explained to an appreciative audience at Toronto’s Tiff Bell Lightbox earlier this week. The shoot was so difficult that Holland […]...

Agnieszka Holland’s first taste of Hollywood was a roller coaster ride. Literally. It was 1986 and her war drama Angry Harvest was up for an Oscar. “When you’ve been nominated for a foreign Oscar in those times,” the 65-year-old Polish-born director recalled, “one of the attractions that the American Academy gave the nominees was a free trip to Disneyland.” It was an unexpected reward after toiling on a film that she and her crew made for “no money, no money,” she explained to an appreciative audience at Toronto’s Tiff Bell Lightbox earlier this week. The shoot was so difficult that Holland […]...

Indian curator Meenakshi Shedde, who is on the Grand Jury of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, writes from the festival

I t is intoxicating to return to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which I had first attended last year. Not many outside the film festival circuit have heard of this festival, which is about an hour from Prague in the Czech Republic–if the fancy Audi the festival sent for you has a cool driver purring along at 140kmph. But I’d say it’s in the top 10-15 festivals worldwide. And that’s a herculean achievement, considering every small town on the planet, including in India, has its own international film festival these days.

One of the reasons I love Karlovy Vary is I really love smaller cities and towns. They have a unique character that the big cities don’t have. And Karlovy Vary (German name...

Meenakshi Shedde

Meenakshi Shedde, an independent film curator and critic based in Mumbai, has been invited on the Grand Jury of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. She will judge films in the main Competition section of the festival that runs from June 28-July 6, 2013.

Winner of the National Award for Best Film Critic in 1998, she has been on the jury of 20 international film festivals worldwide, including the Cannes, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals. Shedde is currently India Consultant to the Berlin and Dubai film festivals.

The Grand Jury is headed by Polish screenwriter and director Agnieszka Holland who won the Fipresci Prize at Cannes for her feature debut Provincial Actors (1978) and two Oscar nominations for Angry Harvest (1984) and In Darkness (2011). The Jury comprises of Czech film distributor, Ivo Andrle; Artistic director of the Tribeca film festival, Frédéric Boyer; Israeli cinematheque director and film festival initiator, Alon...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 12, 2012

Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

A nominee for the 2012 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, In Darkness tells the true story of a Holocaust survival.

Set in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland, the movie follows Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and thief who encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them in the town’s sewers for payment. But the business arrangement turns into an unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews.

The R-rated film was directed by Agnieszka Holland, who helmed the acclaimed European movies Europa Europa and Angry Harvest as well as episodes of HBO’s TV shows The Wire and Treme.

In Darkness had a very limited release in theaters and was an official selection of the 2011 Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. The drama movie...

Hotly tipped for a foreign language Oscar for In Darkness, director Agnieszka Holland talks about making films under communist rule – and directing The Wire and The Killing

Agnieszka Holland is the dark horse of the 2012 Oscars, which seems oddly fitting. Her latest film, In Darkness, plays as a begrimed Schindler tale, with its protagonist, Leopold Socha, hiding out in the sewers of Lviv while the Holocaust rages overhead. It has brought the 63-year-old director a nomination in the foreign language category, where she is pitted against the highly fancied A Separation, and marks the latest twist in a career that has taken her from Warsaw to Prague, Paris and La.

"Where is home?" mutters Holland, sipping bottled water in a London club. "Maybe this is." Dressed for purpose with her utilitarian hairdo and resilient, thick-framed glasses, she briskly explains that she made two Holocaust dramas before In Darkness (Angry Harvest; Europa,...

Chicago – One of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards is the Polish entry, “In Darkness.” The film is directed by filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, who had the same nomination honor in 1985 (”Angry Harvest”) and for Adapted Screenplay in 1992 (”Europa, Europa”).

Hailed as one of Poland’s most prominent contributors to their cinema history, Holland has had a career of filmmaking that has been provocative, and highly political. She was born in Warsaw right after World War II, and her Jewish grandparents were killed in the ghetto during that conflict. She made her first film in 1970, “Jesus Christ’s Sins,” while a student the Film and TV School of the Performing Arts in Prague, before embarking on a notable career in the Polish Film industry.

The Light Above: Milla Bankowicz (Krystyna) and Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold) for “In Darkness’

Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Her first major...

This story first appeared in the Feb. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Holocaust dramas often have been rewarded with Academy Awards, but when David F. Shamoon first approached Agnieszka Holland about directing his spec script based on the true story of a Polish Catholic crook who hid Jews from Nazis in the sewers of Lvov, Poland, she resisted. An Oscar nominee in 1992 for her screenplay for Europa Europa and a foreign-language film nominee for 1985's Angry Harvest, Holland explains her initial refusal: "I know how painful it is and how long recovery is after this kind

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Agnieszka Holland ("The Secret Garden") is no stranger to the Holocaust: she won Oscar nominations for both 1985's "Angry Harvest" and 1990's "Europa, Europa." Eight years ago, David Shamoon's script based on Robert Marshall's "The Sewers of Lvov" lured her back to that period in Polish history; she couldn't let it go. The creative and technical challenge for this movie was how to keep an audience engaged while subjecting them to the horrors of claustrophobic, dank survival in the lightless, rat-infested sewers below Lvov, Poland. Charismatic actor Robert Wieckiewicz, playing a sewer scavenger who surprises himself by...

Agnieska Holland, director of the Academy Award-nominated (Best Foreign Language Feature) Holocaust drama "In Darkness," is no stranger to documenting that period on film (or to Academy Award nominations, for that matter), having made "Angry Harvest" and "Europa Europa," both Holocaust films nominated for Oscars. But "In Darkness" does mark a departure for Holland -- it's her first film set primarily undergound. Based on a true story, "In Darkness" centers on Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), a sewer worker in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland. After coming across a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto, Leopold agrees to hide them undergound in the town's sewer system, for a price. What soon begins as a business arrangement soon blossoms into something deeper, as Leopold's conscience gets the better of him. Holland spoke with Indiewire from Poland about her latest work. This...

Nadine Labaki, Where Do We Go Now? Today it was announced that Patty Jenkins, whose Monster earned Charlize Theron a Best Actress Oscar in early 2004, will be directing Thor 2. Officially, Perkins is the first woman director at the helm of a big-budget, Hollywood superhero movie. Below you'll find ten movies directed by female filmmakers that are among the 63 contenders for nominations for the 2012 Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film category. Seven of those hail from Europe; one is from the Americas, one from East Asia, and one from West Asia (or the Middle East). They are: the Dominican Republic's Leticia Tonos for Love Child, France's Valérie Donzelli for the semi-autobiographical Declaration of War, Greece's Athina Rachel Tsangari for Attenberg, Hong Kong's Ann Hui for A Simple Life, and Ireland's Juanita Wilson for As If I Am Not There. Also: Lebanon's Nadine Labaki for Toronto Film Festival Audience Award winner Where Do We Go Now?...

Sony Pictures Classics is giving Agnieszka Holland's Polish holocaust drama In Darkness, which played well at both Telluride and Toronto, an Oscar-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles from December 9-15. The Polish Oscar submission should be a strong contender for the foreign film Oscar. Holland has been nominated twice, for Europa, Europa and Angry Harvest. She also co-wrote mentor Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors: Blue and directed 1993's The Secret Garden as well as some of the best shows on cable: HBO's The Wire and Treme (for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing) and two episodes of The Killing. Of In Darkness Todd McCarthy writes: "This story of suffering and almost inadvertent humanitarianism is harrowing, engrossing, claustrophobic and sometimes literally hard to watch, since much of the action takes ...