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Following her award-winning short “The Chicken,” Bosnian director Una Gunjak is back in the director’s seat with her debut feature, “Excursion.”

The film centers on Iman, a teenager who is seeking validation and who reveals she had sex for the first time during a game of “truth or dare” among middle schoolers. What ensues is a web of lies – including one involving her own pregnancy – that ends in an out-of-control controversy. The film plays in Competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival after having nabbed a Special Mention in Locarno.

The idea for “Excursion” came to Gunjak after reading an article in the local press. A few years ago, a scandal shook Bosnia after seven out of 13 school girls came home pregnant after an end of year school trip.

“The reason why it caught my attention is that it was everywhere,” she says. “What really struck me straightaway was that...

Constantin Film has been named Germany’s most successful producer and distributor of German films for 2015.

The Munich-based company was presented with the “Ffa Industry Tiger” by the German Federal Film Board (Ffa) at an awards ceremony in Berlin last night.

The award came with $3.8m (€3.4m) “reference” funding for the company to invest in future film projects and theatrical campaigns.

Constantin attracted more than $2.9m (€2.6m) in production “reference” funding for five in-house productions, including the year’s leading film at the box office Fack Ju Göhte 2 and the comedy Er Ist Wieder Da, and distribution “reference” support of $968,000 (€851,000) based on the performance of nine releases.

“2015 was a superb year for us,” Constantin’s CEO Martin Moszkowicz said as he accepted the Industry Tiger Award. “[Fack Ju Gothe 2] was the best film in the company’s history.”

He added that Constantin is set to produce or co-produce 14 feature films in 2016 and said that the €2.6m in production “reference...

The San Francisco Film Society announced the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival winners at the Golden Gate Awards party on Wednesday evening.

Laura Bispuri was awarded the New Directors Prize of $10,000 for her film Sworn Virgin (pictured) and was praised for the way she addressed “the contemporary female struggle.”

Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross received $10,000 for their film Western, which earned top honours in the documentary category.

Leah Wolchok took home the Bay Area Documentary Award for Very Semi-Serious, which explores the journeys of those trying to make it in the world of comedy.

Winners in the short film category included Una Gunjak’s The Chicken, Rosie Reed Hillman’s Cailleach and animated short A Single Life from Marieke Blaauw, Joris Oprins and Job Roggeveen.

The Sfiff also awarded the festival’s top honour in the Youth Works category to high school student Joshua Ovalle for his short film Two And A Quarter Minutes.

This...

Update: Pawlikowski is only third Polish director to win Efa’s top prize; Steve McQueen pays tribute to Jean Vigo; Ukrainian diector Oleg Sentsov gets an empty seat at the awards in Riga.

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida was the big winner at this year’s European Film Awards in Riga, picking up five awards, including the top honour of European Film 2014 as well as the People’s Choice Award

“It’s been a fantastic night for us and a great night for Poland,” Pawlikowski said as he went up onto the stage of Latvia’s National Opera House for the fourth time on Saturday evening (December 13).

Earlier, when receiving the European Director 2014 trophy, the UK-based director explained that two of the film-makers competing for this honour — Turkey’s Nure Bilge Ceylan and Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev — are his favourite directors working today. “Thank you for being losers — this time,” he quipped...

Update, 12:55 Pm Pt: Pawel Pawlikowski’s Polish drama Ida took the Best European Film prize at the European Film Awards tonight in Riga, Latvia. The movie also won for Best Director, Cinematographer and Screenwriter, as well as being the People’s Choice honoree; missing out only in the Best Actress category. The European Film Awards have become something of a harbinger for what’s to come later in the season. The last two years’ winners — The Great Beauty and Amour — went on to scoop the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It’s undeniable that Ida has a lot of heat on it, but tonight’s wins don’t make Academy glory a foregone conclusion — there are also a lot of other contenders from outside Europe.

Pawlikowski’s black-and-white shot Ida follows a young woman who is about to take her holy orders to become a nun when she...

Top brass have announced 60 films culled from 8,061 submissions across four categories – Us and international narrative, documentary and animation.

“This year’s short film-makers have broken through their limited timeframe with a high level of artistry and story that will resonate with audiences long after each film has ended,” said senior programmer Mike Plante.

The Short Film programme is presented by YouTube.

Sundance 2015 is set to run in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah, from January 22 to February 1.

All synopses provided by the festival.

Us Narrative Short Films

Actresses

Jeremy Hersh

The film follows the relationship between a young, aspiring actress and an established off-Broadway star.

A.D. 1363, The End Of Chivalry (USA-New Zealand)

Jake Mahaffy

A little-known historical catastrophe leads to the definitive end of the era of chivalry and questing.

Color Neutral

Jennifer Reeves

A color explosion sparkles, bubbles, and fractures in this handcrafted 16mm film. Jennifer Reeves utilises...

The festival’s 25th edition will feature a contribution from Ai Weiwei and competition titles including Whiplash, Nightcrawler and Foxcatcher.

The Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 5-16) is to present its Achievement Award to Us actress Uma Thurman.

The Kill Bill star will will visit Stockholm to receive the prestigious Bronze Horse and meet the audience during an exclusive “Face2Face”.

Thurman will also take part in the inauguration ceremony, which will include the unveiling of an ice sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Weiwei was a Stockholm jury member last year but since he wasn’t allowed to leave China, he sent an empty chair named ”The Chair for Non-attendance” as symbol of his absence.

He is still not allowed to leave China so will send a design that will be portrayed in the form of a large ice sculpture symbolising this years’ Spotlight theme - Hope.

Brazil

The festival will focus this year on Brazil...

Winning films will now be put forward for selection for the BAFTAs and Oscars.

The 20th Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival (Sept 16-21) has announced its award winners with Argentinian director Santiago ‘Bou’ Grasso winning the Animated Grand Prix for Padre (Father) and Us filmmaker Jennifer Reeder winning the Brief Grand Prix for A Million Miles Away.

The awards showcased both established and emerging talent, with the jury watching 219 short films in three days to determine the winning selection in 13 categories.

The jury presented the Animation Grand Prix to Padre and commented: “A powerful and poignant film which channels the spirit of Argentina’s missing to the world’s consciousness through subtle and haunting performance.”

Reeder was praised for her “imaginative and multi-layered approach to the film form, achieving depth and authenticity in both script and performance”.

The animation jury also gave a special mention to Chris Landreth for his short film Subconscious Password, which it said...

Debut film of Turkey’s Erol Mintas wins best film, best actor. Special Jury Award and best actress go to Brides

The 20th Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 15-23) wrapped on Saturday night with Turkish writer-director Erol Mintaş ‘s first film Song of My Mother winning the main award Heart of Sarajevo for the best feature film and €16,000 provided by the Council of Europe.

In addition, the film’s lead Feyyaz Duman won best actor and €2,500.

The co-production between Turkey’s Mintasfilm, France’s Arizona Production and Germany’s mîtosfilm world-premiered at Sarajevo.

A mother-son relationship film set among Kurds in Istanbul, it was finished in June thanks to the 1000 Volt Post-Production Award the project won at the Istanbul Film Festival’s Meetings on the Bridge in April.

The Berlinale Panorama title Brides by Tinatin Kajrishvili won the Special Jury Prize and €10,000 from Agnes B., and first-timer Mari Kitia won the Heart of Sarajevo for best actress and €2,500.

The...

The Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 20th edition which runs August 15-23.

The 20th Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 15-23) has announced its official selection. Among nine films in the feature competition, there are three world premieres, including the new film by Kosovo veteran Isa Qosja, Three Windows And A Hanging. Qosja won the Special Jury Award at Sff with Kukumi in 2005.

Two other world premieres in competition are first feature films: Georgian director Lasha Tskvitinidze’s I Am Beso, and Song Of My Mother by Turkey’s Erol Mintas.

The list of debuts in the competition is completed with Berlinale titles Brides by Georgia’s Tinatin Kajrishvili, Land Of Storms by Hungary’s Ádám Császi, and Macondo by Sudabeh Mortezai from Austria.

Cure - The Life Of Another, the new film by Andrea Staka who won Heart of Sarajevo for best film in 2006 with Das Fräulein, will have its...

Yatao Li’s Chinese entry Carry On won the Best Of Festival Award, while Aneta Kopacz’s Joanna from Poland prevailed in the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau Grand Jury Award.

Timothy Yeung’s 90 Days took the Panavision Best North American Short honours.

The festival ran from June 17-23 and screened 330 films from more than 3,000 submissions. Organisers handed out more than $115,000 in prizes, including $21,000 in cash awards, in 21 categories.

“The 2014 Palm Springs ShortFest far surpassed all of our expectations,” said festival director Kathleen McInnis (pictured at the Australian reception). “Our audience, filmmaker and industry attendance all soared, as did the striking talent we were able to showcase during our 20th anniversary year.

“Well over 800 filmmaker and industry guests made our Filmmaker Forums one of the most dynamic we have ever had, and most of the screenings had all filmmakers in attendance — a great bonus for our audience who love their Q&A sessions. Filmmakers brought...

It’s almost astonishing that we’ve managed to guess two (we also had Nadav Lapid pegged for the Main Comp) of the eleven titles unveiled by the Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar earlier today. On our radar we had Djinn Carrénard’s sophomore film (Faire L’Amour has been selected as the opening film) and Jonas Alexander Arnby’s debut (When Animals Dream is one among the seven comp titles) as strong possibilities and we’re excited that an American indie personality we’ve featured on this site before in David Robert Mitchell will be showcasing his sophomore film, It Follows (starring Maika Monroe and Keir Gilchrist) in a section that showcased The Myth Of The American Sleepover back in 2010. Mélanie Laurent’s Respire (which could catapult the careers of thesps Lou de Laâge and Joséphine Japy) receives the Special Screening status alongside Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher. Also on...

Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival is one of those institutions that generally looks impressive only in retrospect. In advance, it's hard to tell which of the films selected for the sidebar will really land, but look back at the archives, and it's remarkable how many significant films -- from Ken Loach's "Kes" to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu's "Amores Perros" -- have quietly premiered there. In other words, while I don't have much to say right now about this year's Critics' Week selection, announced earlier today, it could yet give us plenty to talk about. As it stands, the most famous name in the lineup isn't one best known for her work behind the camera: French actress Mélanie Laurent, whose second directorial effort, "Respire," will play as a Special Screening in the section. Laurent starred in her 2011 debut, "The Adopted," a middling family melodrama that received a quiet release in France and the UK,...

Djinn Carrenard’s second feature to open selection; genre pictures When Animals Dream [pictured] and It Follows to compete in Cannes Critics’ Week.

Djinn Carrénard’s Faire L’Amour (Fla)], revolving around the relationship between a musician and woman on parole, will open the 53rd edition of Cannes Critics’ Week, running May 15-23

The respected parallel selection, focusing on first and second works, unveiled its 2014 line-up on Monday (April 20). In total, the selection committee screened 1,200 feature-length films and 1,770 shorts.

Haitian, France-based Carrénard won France’s prestigious Louis Delluc prize for best first film in 2011 for his buzzy, micro-budget Donoma, which premiered in Cannes in 2010 in the indie-focused Acid selection.

“The director of Donoma instils in his second feature all the energy of the previous one with a sense of drama and character development that really packs a punch,” commented Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson, adding it revolved around, “how to construct love and how to really make love...

Djinn Carrenard’s second feature to open selection; genre pictures When Animals Dream [pictured] and It Follows to compete in Cannes Critics’ Week.

Djinn Carrénard’s Faire L’Amour (Fla)], revolving around the relationship between a musician and woman on parole, will open the 53rd edition of Cannes Critics’ Week, running May 15-23

The respected parallel selection, focusing on first and second works, unveiled its 2014 line-up on Monday (April 20). In total, the selection committee screened 1,200 feature-length films and 1,770 shorts.

Haitian, France-based Carrénard won France’s prestigious Louis Delluc prize for best first film in 2011 for his buzzy, micro-budget Donoma, which premiered in Cannes in 2010 in the indie-focused Acid selection.

“The director of Donoma instils in his second feature all the energy of the previous one with a sense of drama and character development that really packs a punch,” commented Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson, adding it revolved around, “how to construct love and how to really make love...