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Chosen by Variety as one of 10 Euro Directors to Watch at 2013’s Karlovy Vary’ with her debut “Eat Sleep Die,” a Venice Critics Week winner, Sweden’s Gabriela Pichler confirmed her unique voice with her sophomore pic “Amateurs”, voted best Nordic film at the 2018 Göteborg Film Festival. At this year’s 47th festival, she makes her comeback with “Painkiller,” her first foray into long-form scripted format, co-written with her life partner Johan Lundborg, who also serves as Dp and editor.

The six-part series is a feisty socially-anchored comedy, which delves into complex mother-daughter dynamics and gentrification in Göteborg, driving class divides.

As explained by the writing duo, the starting point for the story was Pichler’s personal experience of juggling between her work as a celebrated rising Swedish filmmaker, and the reality of her own mother’s struggle with chronic pain.

In “Painkiller,” the adult daughter Andrea is a celebrated avant-garde artist,...

Amateurs, the second feature film from Swedish director Gabriela Pichler (Eat Sleep Die), has won the Dragon Award for best Nordic film at this year's Goteborg Film Festival.

The prize comes with a cash bursary of 1 million Swedish krona, around $125,000, making the Dragon Award one of the world's most lucrative film honors.

Amateurs is the story of a small Swedish community that, in an effort to attract a big German discount supermarket to bring in jobs, asks local youths to produce films praising their community. But the films do not turn out as planned. The Goteborg jury praised...

A trio of lively lead performances can't quite compensate for more fundamental shortcomings in Gabriela Pichler's blandly titled Amateurs (Amatorer), the Swedish writer-director's slightly belated follow-up to her widely screened debut Eat Sleep Die (2012). A good-natured satire on small-town provincialism set in the country's rural west, it opened the Gothenburg Film Festival and went on to win the lucrative prize for best Nordic film, worth a cool $126,000. In between, it bowed internationally at Rotterdam, where reactions were generally more measured. Further festival play is likely, but theatrical exposure looks to be decidedly limited beyond Scandinavian territories.

...

Film will open Goteborg and also screen in Rotterdam.

Denmark-based LevelK has boarded sales on Gabriela Pichler’s Amateurs ahead of its world premiere as opening night at the Goteborg Film Festival.

Source: LevelK

Amateurs

In Goteborg, the film is in the festival’s Nordic Competition, and it will also screen at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as one of the Iffr Live selections.

LevelK will be selling the film at Berlin’s European Film Market, where it will host a closed screening for buyers.

Pichler previously directed 2012 festival hit Eat Sleep Die.

Amateurs is set in the Swedish provincial town of Lafors, where the economy is on the decline. When the local council tries to attract a big German supermarket to give the town a fresh start, young people are asked to make promotional videos about Lafors, with unexpected results.

Pichler explains, ”If just one video clip would define your whole town, which clip would it...

Film will open Goteborg and also screen in Rotterdam.

Denmark-based LevelK has boarded sales on Gabriela Pichler’s The Amateurs ahead of its world premiere as opening night at the Goteborg Film Festival.

Source: LevelK

The Amateurs

In Goteborg, the film is in the festival’s Nordic Competition, and it will also screen at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as one of the Iffr Live selections.

LevelK will be selling the film at Berlin’s European Film Market, where it will host a closed screening for buyers.

Pichler previously directed 2012 festival hit Eat Sleep Die.

The Amateurs is set in the Swedish provincial town of Lafors, where the economy is on the decline. When the local council tries to attract a big German supermarket to give the town a fresh start, young people are asked to make promotional videos about Lafors, with unexpected results.

Pichler explains, ”If just one video clip would define your whole town, which...

Former UK and Ireland production executive talks growing international ties and incoming projects at Swedish funding body.

Veteran UK and Ireland production executive Simon Perry has been settled in Goteborg for eight months as head of production at Film Vast (formerly Film i Vast), the regional film fund of Western Sweden.

Perry, who worked at British Screen and the Irish Film Board before heading Ace in Paris, replaced Swedish producer Jessica Ask, who joined production outfit Anagram Film & TV.

Film Vast has an annual budget of $11.5m (Sek 93m) and is the largest public funder in the country after the Swedish Film Institute (Sfi).

“My being here helps the balance between Swedish projects and international projects,” Perry told Screen.

“I have more reach into the international market than my predecessor. The international side of the work has been going well.”

Several notable projects from the UK are headed to work in the region.

“A very interesting...

The 3rd Dharamshala International Film Festival (Diff) will open on October 30 with Rajat Kapoor’s critically acclaimed film, Ankhon Dekhi. The four-day festival will showcase feature films, documentaries, short films and animation films. Besides, Diff will also host Masterclasses, panel discussions and Harun Farocki Retrospective.

Feature films to be screened at the festival include Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court, Hansal Mehta’s Citylights, Geetu Mohandas’ Liar’s Dice, Avinash Arun’s Killa, Khyentse Norbu’s Vara: A Blessing, Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi’s Zinda Bhaag, Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar, Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die, Byamba Sakhya’s Remote Control, Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze’s Papusza and Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive.

The animation section will screen films by Shilpa Ranade, Gitanjali Rao and Nina Sabnani, among others.

Q’s Nabarun, a documentary about famous Bengali writer Nabarun Bhattacharya who passed away in July, will have its...

Anna Odell’s drama wins best film at the Guldbagge Awards; Per Fly’sWaltz for Monica (Monica Z) wins four.

Anna Odell’s feature debut The Reunion (Återträffen) received two top prizes at the 50th Guldbagge Awards in Sweden last night. The depiction of a class reunion after 20 years won Best Film and Best Screenplay.

Odell, who wrote the screenplay, said on stage: “I usually say things how they are, but I’m really bewildered. Long live art, life and liberty! And culture and everything.”

It marks the third consecutive year that a debut female filmmaker collected the Best Film statuette after Lisa Aschan’s She Monkeys (Apflickorna) and Gabriela Pichler’s East Sleep Die (Äta sova dö).

Produced by Mathilde Dedye, for French Quarter Film, The Reunion previously picked up the Fipresci prize for Best First Feature in Venice last August and is set to screen at the Rotterdam Film Festival (Jan 22 - Feb 2).

The night’s...

Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2014 submissions (photo: Ziyi Zhang in ‘The Grandmaster’) (See previous post: Best Foreign Language Film Oscar: ‘The Past,’ ‘Wadjda,’ Andrzej Wajda Among Omissions) In case you missed it, here’s the full list of submissions (in alphabetical order, per country) for the 2014 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The list of contenders was originally announced on October 7, 2013. Of note: Saudi Arabia and Moldova were first-timers; Montenegro was a first-timer as an independent country. Afghanistan, Wajma — An Afghan Love Story, Barmak Akram, director; Albania, Agon, Robert Budina, director; Argentina, The German Doctor, Lucía Puenzo, director; Australia, The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt, director; Austria, The Wall, Julian Pölsler, director; Azerbaijan, Steppe Man, Shamil Aliyev, director; Bangladesh, Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director; Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, director; Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic, director; Brazil, Neighboring Sounds, Kleber Mendonça Filho,...

Eat Sleep Die, Sweden's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. :None Yet. International Sales Agent: The Yellow Affair

Forgotten once the promising hopefulness of youth fades away, an individual’s aspirations can mutate into broken dreams if not pursued. Regrettably, as years go by the chances of achieving those goals decreases, but the need to feel productive remains because we fear to be deemed obsolete. Caught up in the monotonous rhythm of working just to afford the imperative necessities, life runs the risk of becoming a passionless task. Thus, a meaningful purpose might be the only key to a fulfilling existence. Nevertheless, this convoluted preoccupation is perhaps more daunting today considering the current state of the world. With humor and in a modest fashion Gabriela Pichler’s debut Eat Sleep Die aims to demystify the meaning of life, and reveal it a something more profound that the sequence of the eponymous physical processes.

Tomboyish and impulsive Raša (Nermina Lukac) is a young woman living in a small town in Sweden with her ill father (played by Milan Dragisic). Originally from Montenegro, they moved to Scandinavia when she was just a baby. But despite being fully acculturated and not knowing any other home but this tight-knit community, occasionally she still feels like a foreigner. She is hardworking and a bit rough around the edges, yet utterly friendly. Employed at a vegetable packaging company, she works alongside many other immigrants from around the globe and a few locals. Raša adores these people. They have become her extended family and she always feels welcomed wherever she goes. Being so comfortable and accepted here, she can’t see beyond her manual labor job. She finds no reason to think about the future until her situation is not as certain.

Unexpectedly, her perfectly arranged microcosm is disrupted when the company announces there will be layoffs. At home, her father, whose aching back doesn’t allow him to work, is tired of being supported by his daughter. Disregarding his frail condition he decides to travel to Norway to work for a few months. Ultimately, and despite her efforts, Raša loses her job.

Feeling unproductive, and with her father gone, she roams the town unsuccessfully looking for work. The rest of her time is spent alongside her recently unemployed friends at a center where they get advice on how to reenter the workforce. Unskilled and with no education, Raša will need to consider if there is something else out there for her in the city or if she wants to live the rest of her days going aimlessly from one dead-end job to another.

Having no concrete goals and content with her routine, Raša believes this town is the only place where she can be somebody. She is afraid of finding out whether or not she can be something greater. She is afraid of discovering if life can be more than a succession of ordinary days. Such fear comes partially from her insecurity of being considered an outsider. She wants to fit in and makes it clear that regardless of her Muslim background, she belongs there. Furthermore, she doesn’t have a role model that can inspire her to defy conventions. Her father, although he loves her, is similarly adrift barely managing to get by. Therefore, unemployment turns out to be a blessing in disguise for the young lady. It drags her out of her comfort zone, and gives her a chance to grow and discover herself. Played with unpretentious charisma, Nermina Lukac's performance as Raša carries the film with relatable naturalism.

Like the best realist works Pichler’s film is never preachy not does it try to find a simple answer to its character’s dilemma. Infusing this small town story with greater global concerns, her film explores the struggle between necessity and satisfaction. Although the romanticized idea of happiness can never be fully attained, she believes everyone, including her characters, deserves a chance to exploit their potential. Still, under the yoke of responsibility their existence is reduced to a repetitive pattern of mundane activities, which ensure survival but ignore fulfillment. Unable to perceive themselves as something other than laborers, they can’t seem to accept doing anything out of sheer pleasure. Their concept of what life should be does not factor in the possibility for improvement.

Certainly a movie of its time, this is a phenomenal character study elevated by its personable protagonist. Incorporating insightful social commentary the filmmaker examines what modern society values and considers rewarding. Eat Sleep Die is a humble, but astoundingly introspective work, which in a wonderfully smart manner urges the audience to start really living before dying.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

Dok Leipzig’s Golden Dove for Best International Documentary went to the Us, while Norway scored a hat-trick at the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck.

The top award in Leipzig’s International Documentary Competition went to Italian-born, Us-based film-maker Roberto Minervini’s Stop The Pounding Heart whose portrayal of a strict religious family was described by the jury as ¨refreshing and unsettling at the same time.¨

The Us-Belgian-Italian co-production is handled internationally by Doc & Film.

The Golden Dove in the German Documentary Competition was awarded to Carlo Zoratti for his feature-length debut The Special Need, while the newly-created Golden Dove for the animation-documentary hybrid form was presented to French director Daniela De Felice’s Casa.

A total of 18 prizes with cash awards totalling almost €70,000 ($95,000) included the Fipresci Prize for Gang Zhao’s A Folk Troupe; the Mdr Film Prize for Vitaly Mansky’s Pipeline; and the Youth Jury Prize to Joanna by Aneta Kopacz, a graduate...

Thomas Vinterberg is the first filmmaker to win the prize twice.

Morten Kaufmann, Tobias Lindholm, Sisse Graum Jorgensen

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has become the first filmmaker to win the Nordic Council’s Film Prize twice after The Hunt (Jagten) collected the $64,000 (Dkk 350,000) award at a gala ceremony in Oslo’s Opera House.

Vinterberg, who also took the prize for Submarino in 2010, will share it with scriptwriter Tobias Lindholm and producers Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Morten Kaufmann of Zentropa Entertainments.

The jury commented: “Through the allegory of The Hunt, Vinterberg’s film explores how the individual can be persecuted even in a well-meaning and well-functioning society, when it suddenly turns on one of its own.

“This remarkable story is carried by Mads Mikkelsen’s powerful performance, the striking score and haunting and beautiful imagery.”

Competition included Finnish director Simo Halinen’s Open Up to Me (Kerron sinulle kaiken), Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakúr’s The Deep (Djúpid), Norwegian...

European Film Promotion (Efp) to spotlight 14 European films submitted for the Oscars in La.

This year will again see Efp attempt to generate the greatest attention possible for several European films during the forthcoming awards season.

From Nov 6-14, Efp will screen 14 European films submitted for consideration as Best Foreign Language Film at the 2014 Academy Awards.

The line-up includes Drasko Durovic’s Ace of Spades - Bad Destiny from Montenegro, which is submitting a film for the first time as an independent country.

Efp’s film programme will be targeting Academy members, selected press, international buyers attending the American Film Market, and industry based in La.

Financial support comes from the Media Programme of the European Union, Efp member organisations, and some of the participating production companies.

The countries and films listed below will be participating in the La screenings:

Belgium: The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van GroeningenBulgaria: Color of the Chameleon by Emil HristowCroatia: Halima...

The European Film Academy has announced the five nominees for the European Discovery 2013 - Prix Fipresci.

The award recognises an up and coming director for their debut feature film.

The nominees are:

Eat Sleep Die (Ata Sova Do)

Sweden, 104 min

Written & Directed By: Gabriela Pichler

Produced By: China Åhlander

Call Girl

Sweden/Norway/Ireland/Finland, 133 min

Directed By: Mikael Marcimain

Written By: Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten

Produced By: Mimmi Spång

Miele

Italy/France, 90 min

Directed By: Valeria Golino

Written By: Francesca Marciano, Valia Santella & Valeria Golino

Produced By: Riccardo Scamarcio, Viola Prestieri, Anne-Dominique Toussaint & Raphaël Berdugo

Oh Boy

Germany, 83 min

Written & Directed By: Jan Ole Gerster

Produced By: Marcos Kantis & Alexander Wadouh

The Plague (La Plaga)

Spain, 85 min

Written & Directed By: Neus Ballús

Produced By: Pau Subirós

This year’s nominations committee was comprised of Efa Board Members Helena Danielsson (Sweden) and László Kantor (Hungary), Efa Members Pierre-Henri Deleau (France) and Jacob Neiiendam (Denmark), as well...

The European Film Academy has announced the five nominees for the European Discovery 2013 - Prix Fipresci.

The award recognises an up and coming director for their debut feature film.

The nominees are:

Eat Sleep Die (Ata Sova Do)

Sweden, 104 min

Written & Directed By: Gabriela Pichler

Produced By: China Åhlander

Call Girl

Sweden/Norway/Ireland/Finland, 133 min

Directed By: Mikael Marcimain

Written By: Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten

Produced By: Mimmi Spång

Miele

Italy/France, 90 min

Directed By: Valeria Golino

Written By: Francesca Marciano, Valia Santella & Valeria Golino

Produced By: Riccardo Scamarcio, Viola Prestieri, Anne-Dominique Toussaint & Raphaël Berdugo

Oh Boy

Germany, 83 min

Written & Directed By: Jan Ole Gerster

Produced By: Marcos Kantis & Alexander Wadouh

The Plague (La Plaga)

Spain, 85 min

Written & Directed By: Neus Ballús

Produced By: Pau Subirós

This year’s nominations committee was comprised of Efa Board Members Helena Danielsson

(Sweden) and László Kantor (Hungary), Efa Members Pierre-Henri Deleau (France) and Jacob Neiiendam

(Denmark), as well...

Cologne, Germany – A lackadaisical black-and-white dramedy from Berlin, two Swedish dramas -- one about prostitutes in the 1970s, the other about modern-day immigrants -- a Spanish story about life on outskirts of Barcelona, and an Italian tale about a real-life guardian angel. These are this year's nominees for the European Discovery Award, the European Film Awards' honor for best first feature. The nominees are Oh Boy from German director Jan Ole Gerster; Swedish period drama Call Girl from director Mikael Marcimain; Eat Sleep Die, directed by Sweden's Gabriela Pichler; The Plague from Spanish director Neus Ballus; and

read more...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its shortlist for the 2014 Foreign Language Film Oscar — totaling a not-so-short 76 submitted films.

The number, up from 71 films last year, sets a new record for the category and includes frontrunners such as Asghar Farhadi’s The Past from Iran, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt from Denmark, and Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster from Hong Kong. Abdellatif Kechiche’s festival favorite lesbian drama Blue Is the Warmest Color from France, however, failed to make the cut-off date for eligibility, while India controversially submitted Gyan Correa’s The Good Road over Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox.

The Academy officially announced today that a record 76 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 2014 Oscars. Among those submitting, Moldova and Saudi Arabia are first-time entrants and this is the first time Montenegro has submitted a film as an independent country. Based solely on name recognition alone I'd say Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt (Denmark) and Asghar Farhadi's The Past (Iran) will be looked at as front-runners. However, I haven't only seen a few of the titles on this list, another of which is Mexico's entry, Heli from Amat Escalante. I have heard good things about Borgman (Netherlands) and it will be interesting to see how Haifaa al-Mansour's Wadjda is treated as it is a story unto itself, not to mention it seems to be receiving high marks from those that have seen it. I'm personally hoping to catch it soon...

A record 76 countries have submitted films for consideration in the foreign language film category for the 86th Academy Awards.

Moldova and Saudi Arabia are first-time entrants while Montenegro is submitting for the first time as an independent country.

Earlier this year the Academy changed its rule allowing all voting members to vote on the shortlist.

The nominations will be announced on January 16 2014 and the Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on March 2 2014 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The 2013 submissions are:

Afghanistan, Wajma: An Afghan Love Story, Barmak Akram

Albania, Agon, Robert Budina

Argentina, Wakolda, Lucía Puenzo

Australia, The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt

Austria, The Wall, Julian Pölsler

Azerbaijan, Steppe Man, Shamil Aliyev

Bangladesh, Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen

Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanović

Brazil, Neighbouring Sounds, Kleber Mendonça Filho

Bulgaria, The Colour of the Chameleon, Emil Hristov

Cambodia...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has released the list of the 76 countries and their submissions officially competing for the 2014 Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Amongst the high profile entries this year are Australia's "The Rocket," Denmark's "The Hunt," France's "Renoir," Wong Kar-wai's "The Grandmaster," Iran's "The Past," and Saudi Arabia's "Wadjda".

The nominations will be announced on January 16th 2014 ahead of the ceremony on March 2nd. Here is the complete list:

Afghanistan, "Wajma – An Afghan Love Story," Barmak Akram

Albania, "Agon," Robert Budina

Argentina, "The German Doctor," Lucía Puenzo

Australia, "The Rocket," Kim Mordaunt

Austria, "The Wall," Julian Pölsler

Azerbaijan, "Steppe Man," Shamil Aliyev

Bangladesh, "Television," Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

Belgium, "The Broken Circle Breakdown," Felix van Groeningen

Bosnia and Herzegovina, "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker," Danis Tanovic

Brazil, "Neighboring Sounds," Kleber Mendonça Filho

Bulgaria, "The Color of the Chameleon," Emil Hristov

Cambodia, "The Missing Picture,...

A record 76 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 86th Academy Awards®.

Moldova and Saudi Arabia are first-time entrants; Montenegro is submitting for the first time as an independent country.

The 2013 submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Wajma – An Afghan Love Story,” Barmak Akram, director;

Albania, “Agon,” Robert Budina, director;

Argentina, “The German Doctor,” Lucía Puenzo, director;

Australia, “The Rocket,” Kim Mordaunt, director;

Austria, “The Wall,” Julian Pölsler, director;

Azerbaijan, “Steppe Man,” Shamil Aliyev, director;

Bangladesh, “Television,” Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;

Belgium, “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” Felix van Groeningen, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker,” Danis Tanovic, director;

Brazil, “Neighboring Sounds,” Kleber Mendonça Filho, director;

Bulgaria, “The Color of the Chameleon,” Emil Hristov, director;

Cambodia, “The Missing Picture,” Rithy Panh, director;

Canada, “Gabrielle,” Louise Archambault, director;

Chad, “GriGris,” Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, director;

Chile, “Gloria,” Sebastián Lelio, director;

China, “Back to 1942,” Feng Xiaogang,...

All entries for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the Academy Awards 2014.

Submissions for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards are coming in and will continue until October, when the full list of eligible submissions will be revealed.

Last year, a record 71 countries submitted features and the eventual winner was Austrian entry Amour, directed by Michael Haneke.

An initial nine finalists will be shortlisted, which will be whittled down to five nominees that will be announced on Jan 16, 2014.

Submissions

Afghanistan, Wajma: An Afghan Love Story, Barmak Akram

Albania, Agon, Robert Budina

Argentina, Wakolda, Lucía Puenzo

Australia, The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt

Austria, The Wall, Julian Pölsler

Azerbaijan, Steppe Man, Shamil Aliyev

Bangladesh, Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen

Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanović

Brazil, Neighbouring Sounds, Kleber Mendonça Filho

Bulgaria, The Colour of the Chameleon, Emil Hristov

Cambodia...

In line with SydneysBuzz’s focus on the international film business we have put together the most complete list on the 67 national submissions to compete for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This list showcases films that have been the centerpieces of the most renowned festivals and that represent the best in the cinematic landscape from across the globe. Last year, at this point in the race the clear favorite was Palm d'Or winner Amour, which went on to win the award with no significant competition and scoring 4 other nominations including Best Picture, an outstanding feat for a foreign film about love at the end of life, by Michael Haneke.

This time around the story could have repeated almost identically with the most recent winner of Cannes’ biggest prize Blue is the Warmest Color. However, the film became one more victim of the Academy's rules, which rendered it unqualified to compete because of the late release date in France. With Blue out of the race the award is fair game for virtually anyone on the list, although there are certainly some favorites.

Saudi Arabia's first ever submission, the charming Wadjda might turn into beginners luck and score the Kingdom, in which movie theaters are banned, a nomination or even a win. Iran's audacious decision to submit the French-language The Past caused uproar among conservatives, but might certainly score the nation another nomination after their win in 2012 with the masterful A Separation. Other strong contenders are Denmark's The Hunt starring Mads Mikkelsen, and which would continue the countries streak of 3 consecutive nominations winning in 2011 with In A Better World, as well as Canada's Gabrielle about the romantic relationship of a handicapped couple, and Hong Kong’s The Grandmaster by famous director Wong Kar-wai.

Italy’s The Great Beauty, Australia’s The Rocket, Romania’s Child’s Pose, and Chile’s Gloria are among other titles that might score a nomination given their success and prominence during their festivals rounds. Some countries decided to take a chance and send audacious choices as their representation to the Academy, so is the case Mexico, a country that chose the more violent and artistically daring Cannes winner Heli, over the hit comedy Instructions Not Included, or Greece’s Boy Eating The Bird’s Food, which includes grotesque imagery that might not sit well with academy members.

The African continent is minimally represented with only 3 entries, South Africa’s Four Corners, and the Arabic-language works God’s Horses from Morocco, and Winter of Discontent from Egypt. Algeria, which has submitted regularly and even scored several nominations, is absent in this occasion. Another big omission is China who did not submit an entry but whose language is represented by Taiwan and the above-mentioned Hong Kong; equally strange is France’s decision to enter Renoir over tons of other films that could have substituted Abdellatif Kechiche.

Less surprising is Russia’s decision to submit a blockbuster-style production with a very nationalistic message in lieu of a more intimate film. On the other hand, Cambodia, Lithuania, and Switzerland decided to go with a documentary, a choice that has never been very fruitful in this category. Lastly, Israel and Palestine both entered strong candidate with Bethlehem and Omar respectively, adding with that to the great year the region has seen in the cinematic realm.

The rest of the films are a mixture of obscure titles with not much exposure outside their homelands, and a others with great premise but equally unknown quality. Thankfully for SydneysBuzz readers, the list below compiles all 67 Foreign Submissions and includes links to more information and a link to the trailer of every single one of them. For the most part the clips are subtitled; the ones that are not will at least give the reader a sense of what the film is about. As the Awards Season develops, we will have updates on predicted nominees and other developments in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film.

Argentina

The German Doctor (Wakolda)

Dir: Lucia Puenzo

Language: Spanish, German, Hebrew

U.S Release: Acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films

Festivals: Cannes 2013 Un Certain Regard

Trailer

Australia

The Rocket

Dir: Kim Mordaunt

Language: Lao

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlin 2013: Best First Feature Film ,Tribeca 2013: World Narrative Competition

Trailer

Austria

The Wall

Dir: Julian Polsler

Language: German

U.S Release: Released by Music Box Films on May 31st, 2013

Festivals: Sitges Ff 2012 Oficial Fantastic, Mumbai Ff 2012 Int'l Competition

Trailer

Bangladesh

Television

Dir: Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

Language: Bengali

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Dubai Diff 2012 (Muhr AsiaAfrica Feature Special Mention)

Trailer

Belgium

The Broken Circle Breakdown

Dir: Felix van Groeningen

Language: Flemish

U.S Release: Tribeca Film Will Release the Film on November 1st, 2013

Festivals: Berlinale - Efm 2013 - Panorama

Trailer

Bosnia And Herzegovina

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker

Dir: Danis Tanović

Language: Bosnian, Romani

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlinale - Efm 2013 Competition, Tiff 2013 Contemporary World Cinema

Trailer

Brazil

Neighboring Sounds

Dir: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Language: Portuguese, Mandarin

U.S Release: Released by Cinema Guild, Now Available on Netflix streaming

Festivals:Mar Del Plata Ff 2012 Competencia Int'l, Bafici (Buenos Aires) 2013 Panorama

Trailer

Bulgaria

The Color of the Chameleon

Dir: Emil Hristov

Language: Bulgarian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2012 Discovery, Thessaloniki Iff 2012 Int'l Competition

Trailer

Cambodia

The Missing Picture

Dir: Rithy Panh

Language: French

U.S Release: Acquired by Strand Releasing for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Cannes 2013 - Un Certain Regard Prix, San Sebastian 2013 Pearls

Trailer

Canada

Gabrielle

Dir: Louise Archambault

Language: French

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013, Toronto- Tiff 2013, Locarno International Film Festival 2013

Trailer

Chile

Gloria

Dir: Sebastian Lelio

Language: Spanish

U.S Release: Acquired by Roadside Attractions for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Berlin Efm 2013, Cannes 2013, Toronto - Tiff 2013

Trailer

Colombia

La Playa DC

Dir: Juan Andrés Arango

Language: Spanish

U.S Release: Released by Artmattan Productions on July 19th, 2013

Festivals:Official Selection Cannes 2012 Un Certain Regard, Chicago Iff 2012 New Directors Competition

Trailer

Croatia

Halima's Path

Dir: Arsen Anton Ostojić

Language: Bosnian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlin Efm 2013, Tallinn Black Nights Iff 2012 - EurAsia (Special Jury Prize)

Trailer

Czech Republic

Burning Bush

Dir: Agnieszka Holland

Language: Czech

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2013

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Denmark

The Hunt

Dir: Thomas Vinterberg

Language: Danish

U.S Release: Released by Magnolia Pictures on July 12th

Festivals: Cannes 2012 Competition, Toronto - Tiff 2012, AFI Fest

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Dominican Republic

Who's the Boss?

Dir: Ronni Castillo

Language: Spanish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: N/A

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Egypt

Winter of Discontent

Dir: Ibrahim el-Batout

Language: Arabic

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013

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Estonia

Free Range

Dir: Veiko Õunpuu

Language: Estonian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlin Efm 2012

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Finland

The Disciple

Dir: Ulrika Bengts

Language: Finnish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals:Helsinki International Film Festival, Montréal World Film Festival

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France

Renoir

Dir: Gilles Bourdos

Language: French

U.S Release: Released by Samuel Goldwyn Films on March 29th, 2013

Festivals: Cannes 2012 Un Certain Regard

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Georgia

In Bloom

Dir: Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß

Language: Georgian

U.S Release: Acquired by Big World Pictures for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Cannes 2013, Cicae award Berlinale Forum 2013

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Germany

Two Lives

Dir: Georg Maas

Language: German

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlin Efm 2013, Cannes 2013, Toronto-tiff 2013, Busan 2013

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Greece

Boy Eating The Bird's Food

Dir: Ektoras Lygizos

Language: Greek

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2012 Discovery

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Hong Kong

The Grandmaster

Dir: Wong Kar-wai

Language: Cantonese, Mandarin

U.S Release: Released by The Weinstein Company on August 23rd, 2013

Festivals: Berlinale - Efm 2013, Cannes 2013

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Hungary

The Notebook

Dir: Janosz Szasz

Language: Hungarian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2013 Contemporary World Cinema

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Iceland

Of Horses and Men

Dir: Benedikt Erlingsson

Language: Icelandic

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlin Efm 2013, Sundance 2013

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India

The Good Road

Dir: Gyan Correa

Language: Gujarati

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: London Indian Film Festival in 2013

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Iran

The Past

Dir: Asghar Farhadi

Language: French, Persian

U.S Release: Sony Pictures Classics will release the film on December 20th, 2013

Festivals:Cannes 2013 Competition-Won Best Actress, Toronto - Tiff 2013

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Israel

Bethlehem

Dir: Yuval Adler

Language: Hebrew

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2013 Discovery, Cannes 2013 , Berlin Efm 2013

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Italy

The Great Beauty

Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

Language: Italian

U.S Release: Acquired by Janus Films for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Cannes 2013 Competition, Berlin Efm 2013,

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Japan

The Great Passage

Dir: Yuya Ishii

Language: Japanese

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Fantasia Ff 2013 Official Selection, Cannes 2013

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Kazakhstan

The Old Man

Dir: Ermek Tursunov

Language: Russian, Kazakh

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: N/A

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Latvia

Mother, I Love You

Dir: Janis Nords

Language: Latvian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013, Los Angeles Film Festival 2013

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Lebanon

Ghadi

Dir: Amin Dora

Language: Arabic

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: N/A

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Lithuania

Conversations on Serious Topics

Dir: Giedrė Beinoriūtė

Language: Lithuanian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlin Efm 2013

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Luxembourg

Blind Spot

Dir: Christophe Wagner

Language: Luxembourgish, French

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2012

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Mexico

Heli

Dir: Amat Escalante

Language: Spanish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013 Competition-Won Best Director, San Sebastian 2013 Horizontes Latinos,

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Montenegro

Bad Destiny

Dir: Draško Đurović

Language: Serbo-Croatian

U.S Release: Acquired by Princ Films for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Toronto- Tiff 2013, Busan 2013

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Morocco

God's Horses

Dir: Nabil Ayouch

Language: Arabic

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2012, Bif London Film Festival 2012

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Nepal

Soongava: Dance of the Orchids

Dir: Subarna Thapa

Language: Nepalese

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2012, Berlin Efm 2013

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The Netherlands

Borgman

Dir: Alex van Warmerdam

Language: Dutch

U.S Release: Acquired by Drafthouse Films for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Cannes 2013 Competition, Busan 2013, Toronto-tiff 2013

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New Zealand

White Lies

Dir: Dana Rotberg

Language: Maori

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: N/A

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Norway

I Am Yours

Dir: Iram Haq

Language: Norwegian, Urdu

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto-tiff 2013

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Pakistan

Zinda Bhaag

Dir: Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi

Language: Udu, Punjabi

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: N/A

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Palestine

Omar

Dir: Hany Abu-Assad

Language: Arabic

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013 Un Certain Regard, Toronto-tiff 2013

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Peru

The Cleaner

Dir: Adrian Saba

Language: Spanish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Palm Springs Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival

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Philippines

Transit

Dir: Hannah Espia

Language: Filipino, Tagalog, Hebrew

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cinemalaya Film Festival 2013

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Poland

Walesa

Dir: Andrzej Wajda

Language: Polish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2013, Venice- Biennale 2013

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Portugal

Lines of Wellington

Dir: Valeria Sarmiento

Language: Portuguese, English, French

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Venice - Biennale 2012 Competition, Toronto - Tiff 2012

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Romania

Child's Pose

Dir: Calin Peter Netzer

Language: Romanian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlinale - Efm 2013 - Competition (Golden Bear for the Best Film), Toronto - Tiff 2013 Contemporary World Cinema

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Russia

Stalingrad

Dir: Fedor Bondarchuk

Language: Russian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: N/A

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Saudi Arabia

Wadjda

Dir: Haifaa al-Mansour

Language: Arabic

U.S Release: Released by Sony Pictures Classics on September 13th, 2013

Festivals: Cannes 2012, Venice International Film Festival 2012, Los Angeles Film Festival, Toronto-tiff 2013

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Serbia

Circles

Dir: Srdan Golubovic

Language: Serbian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Sundance 2013 World Dramatic, Berlinale - Efm 2013 Forum, Cannes 2013

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Singapore

Ilo Ilo

Dir: Anthony Chen

Language: Mandarin, Hokkien, English, Tagalog

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013 Directors Fortnight, Toronto - Tiff 2013 Discovery

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Slovakia

My Dog Killer

Dir: Mira Fornay

Language: Slovak

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Berlin Efm 2013, Cannes 2013, Busan 2013

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Slovenia

Class Enemy

Dir: Rok Biček

Language: Slovene

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013, Toronto-tiff 2013

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Spain

15 Years and One Day

Dir: Gracia Querejeta

Language: Spanish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: San Sebastian 2013 Made in Spain, Berlin Efm 2013

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South Africa

Four Corners

Dir: Ian Gabriel

Language: Afrikaans, Tsotsitaal

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals:N/A

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South Korea

Juvenile Offender

Dir: Kang Yi-kwan

Language: Korean

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2012 Contemporary World Cinema,

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Sweden

Eat Sleep Die

Dir: Gabriela Pichler

Language: Swedish, Croatian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Venice International Film Festival 2012, Toronto - Tiff 2012

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Switzerland

More Than Honey

Dir: Markus Imhoof

Language: German, Mandarin

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto - Tiff 2012 Tiff Docs, Cannes 2013, Berlin Efm 2013

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Taiwan

Soul

Dir: Mong-Hong Chung

Language: Mandarin

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Cannes 2013, Toronto - Tiff 2013 Vanguard

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Thailand

Countdown

Dir: Nattawut Poonpiriya

Language: Thai

U.S Release: Acquired by Birch Tree Entertainment for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Cannes 2013, Far East Film Festival 2013

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Turkey

The Butterfly's Dream

Dir: Yılmaz Erdoğan

Language: Turkish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Istanbul Film Festival, Los Angeles Turkish Film Festival

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Ukraine

Paradjanov

Dir: Serge Avedikian and Olena Fetisova

Language: Russian

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Toronto 2013

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United Kingdom

Metro Manila

Dir: Sean Elllis

Language: Filipino, Tagalog

U.S Release: Acquired by Paladin/108 Media for U.S Distribution

Festivals: Sundance 2013 World Dramatic, Berlin Efm 2012, Cannes 2012, Afm 2012, Berlin Efm 2013

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Venezuela

Breach in the Silence

Dir: Luis and Andrés Rodríguez

Language: Spanish

U.S Release: Tba

Festivals: Ventana Sur 2012, Festival de Mar del Plata "Panorama Latinomaericano"

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New entries from Argentina, Denmark, Lebanon, Lithuania and Peru.

Submissions for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards are coming in and will continue until October, when the full list of eligible submissions will be revealed.

Last year, a record 71 countries submitted features and the eventual winner was Austrian entry Amour, directed by Michael Haneke.

An initial nine finalists will be shortlisted, which will be whittled down to five nominees that will be announced on Jan 16, 2014.

Submissions

* = new additions

* Argentina, Wakolda, Lucía Puenzo

Australia, The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt

Austria, The Wall, Julian Pölsler

Bangladesh, Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen

Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanović

Brazil, Neighbouring Sounds, Kleber Mendonça Filho

Bulgaria, The Colour of the Chameleon, Emil Hristov

Canada, Gabrielle, Louise Archambault

Chile, Gloria, Sebastián Lelio

Colombia, La Playa DC, Juan Andrés Arango

Croatia, Halima’s Path...

European Film Academy reveals titles of the films on this year’s selection list.Scroll down for full list

The European Film Academy and Efa Productions have announced the titles of the 46 films on this year’s selection list - the list of films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2013.

A total of 32 European countries are represented. In the 20 countries with the most Efa Members, these members have voted one national film directly into the selection list. To complete the list, a selection committee consisting of Efa Board Members and invited experts have included further films.

In the coming weeks, the 2,900 Efa members will vote for the nominations in the categories European Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenwriter. The nominations will then be announced on Nov 9 at the Seville European Film Festival in Spain.

A seven-member jury will decide on the awards recipients in the categories European Cinematographer, Editor, Production...

Berlin – Gabriela Pichler’s critically-acclaimed immigrant drama Eat Sleep Die will represent Sweden in the 2014 Academy Awards nomination race in the best foreign language film category. The drama, which premiered in Venice’s Critics' Week last year, winning the audience award, swept Sweden’s film academy honors, the Guldbagge Awards. It won the awards for best feature, best director, best screenplay and best actress for lead Nermina Lukac as the 20-year-old immigrant Rasa. Eat Sleep Die has also been nominated for one of Scandinavia’s top film honors, the Nordic Council Film Prize. Produced by China Ahlander for Sweden’s Anagram

read more...

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg is among the contenders for the 2013 Nordic Council Film Prize, complete with $62,000 (Dkk 350,000).

Vinterberg, who last won the prize in 2010 with Submarino, will be among five nominated directors.

The line-up includes:

The Deep (Djúpid), Baltasar Kormakúr (Iceland)Eat Sleep Die (Äta sova dö), Gabriela Pichler (Sweden)The Hunt (Jagten), Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)I Belong (Som du ser meg), Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)Open Up to Me (Kerron sinulle kaiken), Simo Halinen (Finland)

“’The human face’, the individual facing the group or society, and respect and dignity are common themes that run like a thread through all these films,” said managing director Hanne Palmquist, of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, which administers the prize.

“A Nordic reality sets the framework where daily life and its dilemmas are portrayed by eminent actors with empathy, humour and credibility. The nominated films are of high international quality, have a personal voice and something genuine at heart,” she added...

Sarajevo Film Festival’s documentary competition will include seven world premieres. Non-competitive sidebar Kinoscope will feature 17 films.Scroll down for full lists

The documentary competition at the the 19th Sarajevo Film Festival is to include 20 shorts and features, with seven world premieres and four international debuts.

World premieres include Escape by Serbian director Srdjan Keča, whose previous film Mirage won the Best Central and East European Documentary Award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and Best Short Documentary award at London Short Film Festival; and A Slave by Bosnia’s Pjer Žalica, best known for fiction films Fuse and Days And Hours.

International premieres include Marta Popivoda’s Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body, which screened in Berlinale’s Forum Expanded section; and Here… I Mean There by Laura Capatana-Juller, winner of the Romanian Days Award For Feature Film at the Transylvania International Film Festival.

Among regional premieres, there are three...

A cartooned Robin Wright is how I started Day 3 with the early morning screening of The Congress, Ari Folman ambitious Directors’ Fortnight opening film that features Jon Hamm, Paul Giamatti, Harvey Keitel and Danny Huston in either live performance or animated rotoscope/kaleidoscope fantasy incarnations. Touching upon themes of ageism and futurism, this is a meaty sci-fi dessert is tonally awkward, but ambitious in scope.

My first taste of Variety’s 2013′s Ten Euro Directors to Watch technically commenced at last year’s Tiff with Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die, but today I got to view one more film that made waves in Toronto last September and continues to play well for auds in Michiel ten Horn’s The Deflowering of Eva van End. Picked up stateside by the Film Movement folks, this aesthetically, stylistically, and tonally pleasing comedy about an exchange student who unknowingly stirs a family of five to near disaster,...

Selfish Giant on prize short list

Selection reveals diversity of European films

By Richard Mowe

The ten films selected for the Lux Prize 2013 Official Selection were unveiled at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival at a reception last night (30 June)

The films including the UK's The Selfish Giant, are said to reflect "the richness, diversity and excellence of European cinema."

The titles are:

• Äta sova dö (Eat Sleep Die), by Gabriela Pichler - Sweden

• Grzeli nateli dgeebi (In Bloom), by Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß - Georgia, Germany, France

• Krugovi (Circles), by Srdan Golubovic - Serbia, Germany, France, Slovenia, Croatia

• La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), by Paolo Sorrentino - Italy, France

• La Plaga (The Plague), by Neus Ballús - Spain

• Miele (Honey), by Valeria Golino - Italy, France

• Oh Boy, by Jan Ole Gerster - Germany

• Pevnost (Fortress), by Lukáš Kokeš, Klára Tasovská - Czech Republic

• The Broken Circle.

The 2013 AFI Fest will present films from new and experienced filmmakers in five locations in Hollywood between Nov. 7 and Nov. 14, the American Film Institute announced on Tuesday. Sponsored by Audi, the public will have free access to narrative, documentary, animated, experimental and short films at the Tcl Chinese Theatre (formerly Grauman's Chinese Theatre), the Chinese 6 Theatres at the Hollywood & Highland Center, the Egyptian Theatre of the American Cinematheque and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Also read: 'Eat Sleep Die' Wins AFI Fest's New Auteurs Grand Jury Prize "AFI Fest is where the...

Realism trumped film noir at this year's Guldbagge Awards, with politically motivated dramas Eat Sleep Die and Call Girl dominating Sweden's equivalent of the Oscars, taking four trophies each. Gabriela Pichler's Eat Sleep Die, the story of a young Balkan immigrant in Sweden who gets laid off from her factory job, won the best picture award, with Pilcher taking both the best director and best screenplay honors. Star Nermina Lukac won the best actress prize. Call Girl, a political drama inspired by a real-life sex scandal among Sweden's top politicians, scooped up the bulk of the technical awards, including

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As we reach the end of an inspiring year for cinema, here are ten titles that stood out for me in 2012, and an explanation of why I chose each of them. Although I saw many of these at film festivals, so they may not make it to your local art house cinema, in the coming year you may be able to catch them at small festivals of different national/regional cinemas in your city, or at least on DVD.

From Thursday to Sunday (De Jueves a domingo)(dir. Dominga Sotomayor)

On a family road trip through rural Chile, a young girl witnesses her parents’ marriage fall apart.

-For its tender portrayal of childhood, complete with extroverted playfulness and introverted worry. For its subtle but consistent exploration of foreground versus background space, which reflects two separations: between children and adults, and between husband and wife.

Neighbouring Sounds (O som ao redor) (dir.

Cologne, Germany – The leads in Oscar contenders A Royal Affair and Lore – Mikkel Boe Folsgaard and Saskia Rosendahl – made the cut for the 2013 Shooting Stars – the showcase of the top 10 best young actors from Europe. Gallery: 28 of Berlin Film Festival's Most Outrageous Movie Posters The new Shooting Stars selection – announced Wednesday – includes French actress Christia Theret (La Brindille),Slovenia's Jure Henigman (A Trip) and Sweden's Nermina Lukac, who made her acting debut this year with Gabriela Pichler's drama Eat Sleep Die. Completing the list are Arta Dobroshi of Kosovo, who appeared

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AFI Fest 2012, which concluded yesterday, has unveiled the recipients of this year's Audience and Jury Awards. Winners include Nicolaj Arcel's Danish Oscar entry "A Royal Affair," starring Mads Mikkelsen, and David Tosh Gitonga's Kenyan Oscar entry "Nairobi Half Life." Full list below. Select award-winning films were given encore screenings on November 8. The Academy recognizes AFI Fest Grand Jury winners in the live-action and animated shorts section as Oscar-qualifying. Grand Jury Awards, Live Action And Animated Short Live Action Short: Introducing: Bobby. by Roger Hayn “for crafting an honest vision of America by making an insightful portrayal of a single man.” Animated Short: Oh Willy... by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels “for melding a dynamic narrative with innovative animation style that leads the viewer to pure wonderment.” Grand Jury Award, New Auteurs Eat Sleep Die for director Gabriela...

The AFI Fest closed last night with the "world premiere" (even if the Nyff let the cat out of the bag weeks ago) of "Lincoln," but not before handing out some awards. And the big winner was... well, Scandinavia. Swedish immigrant drama "Eat Sleep Die" took the Grand Jury Prize, and the superb Danish thriller "A Hijacking" (see my Variety review) took the Audience Award in the New Auteurs section, but the big winner from an Oscar perspective was Denmark's foreign-language submission "A Royal Affair," which underlined its serious contender status by taking the World Cinema Audience Award. Not many were...

The American Film Institute on Thursday named the winners of its festival's Audience and Jury awards, including the Swedish movie "Eat Sleep Die" as its New Auteurs grand jury prize. Three films won grand jury prizes -- in the categories New Auteurs, and live-action and animated shorts. Four others took home audience awards -- worth a $5,000 cash prize -- for the Young Americans, World Cinema, New Auteurs and Breakthrough brackets. "It has been an incredible year in film and we're grateful for having had the opportunity to showcase so many wonderful...

Between A Royal Affair, The Hunt, Eat Sleep Die, and now A Hijacking, it might be wise to start thinking of 2012 as something of a banner year for Scandinavian film—Denmark in particular. (Let’s call Klown the exception that proves the rule and leave it at that.) An impressively restrained thriller about a cargo ship commandeered by Somali pirates, Tobias Lindholm’s second feature has the kind of ripped-from-headlines premise one would expect Hollywood to have capitalized on by now. In an early sign of his rather un-Hollywood approach, however, the frequent Thomas Vinterberg collaborator shows us extremely little of the eponymous event. Lindholm displays the utmost restraint throughout, a technique that most often makes A Hijacking more engaging rather than less. The narrative remove that results from this can at times feel too cold, but it also underscores the extent to which such matters as these are necessarily logistical,...

The American Film Market (Afm®) and AFI Fest presented by Audi join forces and introduce a new AFI Fest screening program at this year’s market. Three AFI Fest films seeking international sales representation will be screened today, starting at 9:00 am. The program was jointly announced by Jonathan Wolf, Afm Managing Director and Jacqueline Lyanga, Director, AFI Fest.

The three festival titles that have been selected by AFI Fest to screen at Afm are: Here And There (AquÍ Y AllÁ) from writer/director Antonio Méndez Esparza (9:00 a.m. screening); Nairobi Half Life from director David Tosh Gitonga (11:30 a.m. screening); and Starlet from co-writer/director Sean Baker (2:30 p.m. screening).

“This was a natural progression in our long partnership with AFI Fest and provides these filmmakers an invaluable opportunity to screen for the world’s top sales agents,” said Wolf.

"The new screening program at the Afm has so much potential. It is going to give our AFI Fest filmmakers a chance to bring their films to the market to find representation; it's going to get their films directly in front of sales agents and buyers, and we hope that it will ultimately help these films get distributed internationally,” said Lyanga.

Afm and AFI Fest provide the only concurrent festival-market event in North America, connecting both art and commerce. The alliance affords films that are represented and/or screening at the market and festival unmatched marketing exposure. The partnership also provides AFI Fest filmmakers who visit Afm access to key decision makers from more than 400 of the world’s leading production and distribution companies.

A total of 27 films screening at AFI Fest will also be represented at this year’s Afm.

11 AFI Fest films will screen at Afm, including ABCs Of Death (Magnolia Pictures); Antiviral (IFC Films/TF1 International); Come Out And Play (Cananá Films); Ginger And Rosa (The Match Factory); John Dies At The End (Magnolia Pictures); Kon-tiki (Media Plan PR/HanWay Films); Quartet(HanWay Films); Simon Killer (IFC Films/ Fortissimo Films); and Zaytoun (Pathé International).

16 additional festival selections will be represented at Afm including: A Royal Affair (Magnolia Pictures); Berberian Sound Studio (IFC Films/The Match Factory); Beyond The Hills (IFC Films); Caesar Must Die (Adopt Films, LLC/Rai Trade); Eat Sleep Die (The Yellow Affair); Here Comes The Devil (Mpi Media Group); Holy Motors (Indomina); In Another Country (Kino Lorber); In The Fog (Strand Releasing/The Match Factory); Kid (Media Luna New Films); Pieta (Finecut); Tabu (Adopt Films, LLC); The Hunt (Magnolia Pictures); The Impossible (Summit Entertainment); The Most Fun I’Ve Ever Had With My Pants On (Continental Media); and War Witch (Tribeca Enterprises/Films Distribution).

About the Afm

The business of independent motion picture production and distribution reaches its peak every year at the American Film Market, Oct. 31 – Nov. 7, 2012. The global film industry converges in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making on films in every stage of development and production, as well as screenings, conferences, networking and parties.

With 8,000 industry leaders from more than 70 countries, 700 screenings and the industry’s largest Conference Series, Afm is the pivotal destination for independent filmmakers, directors, distributors, financiers, industry executives, producers, talent, writers, the international media and all those who provide services to the worldwide motion picture industry.

The Afm is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance®, the global trade association of the independent motion picture and television industry and the voice and advocate for the Independents worldwide. Visit www.AmericanFilmMarket.com and www.Ifta-online.org for more information.

About AFI Fest presented by Audi

The American Film Institute’s annual celebration of artistic excellence, AFI Fest presented by Audi brings the audience and the entertainment community together to explore the year in global cinema through the new works of film masters, moving image icons and breakthrough talents, and it is the only film festival of its stature that is free to the public. AFI Fest mixes nightly red carpet galas of Hollywood films with new auteur works from around the world, ensuring that an extraordinary array of foreign filmmaker voices is heard. Launching awards season each year, AFI Fest offers a crucial avenue of exposure to the entertainment community, while providing audiences with the very best of global cinema, right in the center of the movie-making capital of the world.

Celebrating its 26th year as a program of the American Film Institute, the festival has paid tribute to numerous influential filmmakers and artists over the years, including Pedro Almodóvar and David Lynch as Guest Artistic Directors, and has screened scores of films that have produced Oscar® nominations and wins including, most recently, The Artist and A Separation.

AFI Fest 2012 presented by Audi will take place November 1 through 8 in the heart of Hollywood. AFI Fest is the only Fiapf-accredited film festival in the United States, and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI Fest as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category for the annual Academy Awards®.

Additional information about AFI Fest is available at AFI.com/Afifest. Connect with AFI Fest at facebook.com/Afifest,twitter.com/Afifest and youtube.com/Afifest.

Swedish director Gabriela Pichler describes the protagonist of her film as a "no shit 21-year-old tomboy Muslim immigrant who spends her time looking after her worn-out father, and hanging out with her fellow workers from the vegetable packing plant." Raša Abdulahović, who can pack 12 bags of lettuce in less than five seconds, finds her tough, small-town existence radically changed, Pichler says, when she loses her job and "is forced into a world where bureaucracy rules and ‘confidence coaching’ is deemed necessary." Did you draw on personal experience in making this film? "[I was] brought up in a working class home, worked at the local cookie factory. Got in to Gothenburg film school, and 'Eat Sleep Die' is my first feature film. Mother from Bosnia and father from Austria, born in Sweden." What did you find most challenging about this production? "Making a non sentimental and honest film about working class.

“Village at the End of the World,” a documentary set in Greenland, presents some interesting similarities with “Eat Sleep Die,” the last film I reviewed. Both revolve around unemployment, and the threat it poses to community. Admittedly, the village of Niaqornat in the north of Greenland makes the southern Swedish village of “Eat Sleep Die” look like a bustling metropolis. Still, both films are set in Nordic countries, and feature food processing plants that don’t make enough profit. While “Eat Sleep Die” was a documentary-style movie made by a first-time director, “Village at the End of the World” is a documentary sensu stricto, made by Sarah Gavron, an experienced director best known for her 2007 fiction feature “Brick Lane.” But “Village at the End of the World” is Gavron’s first documentary, and is happily inflected by her work as a fiction filmmaker: this results in a strong focus on individuals and their personal experiences,...

As the 56th London Film Festival neared its close, the awards ceremony kicked off with our man London Film Fanatiq in the house for Blogomatic3000. The red carpet saw many representatives of this year’s nominees greet the crowds and discuss their work with the press. Several jury members, including Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman also came out to pay tribute to the talent behind some of the festival’s finest features.

Check out all the red carpet pictures from the event and a full list of winners below:

Best Film Award

Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard, France/Belgium After Lucia, Michel Franco, Mexico End of Watch, David Ayer, USA Everyday, Michael Winterbottom, UK Fill The Void, Rama Burshtein, Israel Ginger and Rosa, Sally Potter, UK In the House, François Ozon, France It Was The Son, Daniele Ciprì, Italy/France Lore, Cate Shortland, Germany/Australia/UK Midnight’s Children, Deepa Mehta,...

“Eat Sleep Die” (“Äta sova dö,” dir. Gabriela Pichler), treats a topic of central concern in this time of financial crisis: unemployment. Set in a village in Sweden, the film revolves around 20-year-old Raša, a sturdy, virile but tender-hearted only child who lives with her father. At the local salad processing plant, Raša has perfected her technique as the fastest packer, but this doesn’t stop her from losing her job when the management makes cutbacks. Though she is keen to work, and dutifully attends the local job centre’s re-deployment courses, there just aren’t any jobs in her town. As her father goes to Norway in search of temporary work, and the job centre suggests that she move to the city, it looks inevitable that the search for employment will tear Raša away from her family and community, the main source of joy in her life.

“Eat Sleep Die” has a documentary quality,...

The capital has been the home of some of the biggest names and films in the industry over the past ten days, and with the festival finally coming to a close tomorrow, the results are in for the official competition categories.

Sir David Hare, Tom Hiddleston, David Yates, Sebastian Faulks, Olivia Colman, Kazuo Ishiguru, and many more prominent names presided over the various Juries, and with so much talent this year, I don’t envy what must have been very difficult decisions.

Also being honoured this year are Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter, both of whom have been presented with the BFI Fellowship, the highest honour from the film institute. The former brought his latest feature, Frankenweenie, to the festival for its opening night, whilst the latter stars in Mike Newell’s Great Expectations, bookending the festival nicely as the Closing Night Film.

With the festival now coming to an end tomorrow,...

Official Competition titles: After Lucia Everyday End of Watch Fill the Void Ginger and Rosa It Was the Son In the House Lore Midnight’s Children Rust and Bone (winner...

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Gabriela Pichler’s debut feature has a discordant dance track book-ending its narrative which, while a refreshing slap in the face, feels oddly placed in what is a gritty, serious slice of Scandinavian social realism. Raša Abdulahovic (Nermina Lukac) is a 21-year-old Balkan immigrant and long-serving employee of the local salad-packing plant. It’s hardly the most stimulating work environment, but amounts to an honest day’s living, while at home, she enjoys playing the extrovert tomboy, eating like a slovenly caveman, and loudly chatting with her ill father. When Raša discovers that she is to be laid off, her world is turned upside down.

Eat Sleep Die is a very sad, sombre film indeed; Raša needs a job, and this grounded treatment feels diametrically opposed to the view of a working life that Jason Reitman’s nevertheless excellent Up in the Air had, where the...

The BFI London Film Festival officially opened last night with the UK premiere of Tim Burton’s latest feature, Frankenweenie, a black and white stop-motion film destined to become something of a cult classic.

With the festival now underway, the juries for the separate categories in competition have been announced, with Sir David Hare, Tom Hiddleston, David Yates, and Olivia Colman leading an impressive line-up to judge the contenders.

Also celebrated at this year’s festival will be Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter, both of whom are being presented with the BFI’s highest honour, the BFI Fellowship.

You can read the full list of jurors in the official announcement below, but here’s a run-down of the main categories and the films in competition.

Sir David Hare leads the jury for the Best Film Award, for which the following are competing:

After Lucia, Michel Franco, Mexico End of Watch,...

The AFI Film Fest (11.01-11.08) have announced the line-ups for our favorite sections at the fest in the Young American selections and New Auteurs section and they’ve managed to stack up on titles that are amongst the year’s best and which in the case of two films were mysteriously passed over by the likes of Telluride, Tiff and Nyff. Michel Franco’s After Lucia (see pic above) and Antonio Campos’ Simon Killer will be making the Los Angeles premieres accompanied by the best title to come out of the Main Comp at this year’s Cannes edition in Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog. This trio will be joined by a trio of gems that recently premiered at Tiff in: Maja Miloš’ Clip, Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die and Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking. In the Young American Selections we find some filmmakers (Sean Baker and Amy...

The American Film Institute on Wednesday announced the lineup for the Young Americans and New Auteurs sections at AFI Fest 2012, which will include Joe Swanberg's "All the Light in the Sky" and "Pearblossom Highway" from Mike Ott. "All the Light in the Sky" and "Pearblossom Highway" will be making their North American premieres in their Young Americans screenings. Gabriela Pichler's debut feature "Eat Sleep Die" (above), which won Critics Week audience award at the Venice Film Festival, is among the New Auteurs entries. The Young Americans section features works by emerging...

This year’s Toronto was competing in my psyche with the recent loss of my mother. My focus was less on finding the greatest of films this year. I hear from others that the festival offered a good mix, if not the most outstanding, selection of films. Personally, I am discovering that a new community has opened its arms to me and the films that are standing out most for me are by women and about women. My community, those women who have lost their mothers, is sharing a unique and profound rite of passage whose meaning continuously unfolds.

In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.

18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.

Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.

Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.

Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."

Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.

Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.

Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:

Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.

Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.

Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?

Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%

Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic

Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)

Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)

Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.

Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs

Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide

Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%

Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk

Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???

City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???

Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)

90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.

Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.