Having trouble predicting what will win Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards? Let’s consult Gold Derby’s Oscar Experts! These savvy prognosticators from major media outlets have chimed in with their first round of predictions, and they say the trophy will go to “20 Days in Mariupol.” The other four Academy Award nominees are “Four Daughters,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” and “To Kill a Tiger.”
As of this writing, a leading 19 out of our 23 Oscar Experts are predicting a victory for “20 Days in Mariupol”: Christopher Rosen (Gold Derby), Clayton Davis (Variety), Eric Deggans (NPR), Erik Davis (Fandango), Jazz Tangcay (Variety), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Matt Neglia (Next Best Picture), Michael Musto (Queerty), Peter Travers (ABC), Ray Richmond (Gold Derby), Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Shawn Edwards (Wdaf-tv Fox), Susan King (Gold Derby), Susan Wloszczyna (Gold Derby), Tariq Khan (Gold Derby...
As of this writing, a leading 19 out of our 23 Oscar Experts are predicting a victory for “20 Days in Mariupol”: Christopher Rosen (Gold Derby), Clayton Davis (Variety), Eric Deggans (NPR), Erik Davis (Fandango), Jazz Tangcay (Variety), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Matt Neglia (Next Best Picture), Michael Musto (Queerty), Peter Travers (ABC), Ray Richmond (Gold Derby), Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Shawn Edwards (Wdaf-tv Fox), Susan King (Gold Derby), Susan Wloszczyna (Gold Derby), Tariq Khan (Gold Derby...
- 2/22/2024
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
In April 2019, the Academy made a major change to the category formerly known as best foreign-language film. The following March, at the 92nd Academy Awards, Parasite made Oscar history when it became the first non-English film to take best picture — and the first movie to win the Oscar for the newly designated category of best international film.
The decision to rename the category was born out of the Academy’s efforts to diversify its membership and embrace the global filmmaking community. “We believe that ‘international feature film’ better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience,” Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, then co-chairs of the international film committee (Weyermann died in 2021), said in a statement.
The Academy has embraced more foreign-language films in its competition — since Parasite’s win in 2020, the best picture category has seen international (or largely non-English) nominees Minari,...
The decision to rename the category was born out of the Academy’s efforts to diversify its membership and embrace the global filmmaking community. “We believe that ‘international feature film’ better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience,” Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, then co-chairs of the international film committee (Weyermann died in 2021), said in a statement.
The Academy has embraced more foreign-language films in its competition — since Parasite’s win in 2020, the best picture category has seen international (or largely non-English) nominees Minari,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“We screamed a lot!” says “The Eternal Memory” director Maite Alberdi when discussing her 2024 Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. It’s the filmmaker’s second nomination in this category after being nominated in 2021 for “The Mole Agent.” “When you’re a Latin-American filmmaker, you never dream of an Oscar nomination. It’s not in your possibilities. It’s exceptional that I represent a lot of directors from Latin America and it’s very important that the academy is more open to film in another language.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
The movie from MTV Documentary Films tells the story of journalist Augusto Góngora and actress Paulina Urrutia, a Chilean couple who have been together for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Both fear the day he no longer recognizes her.
See 2024 Oscar nominations: Full list of contenders in all 23 categories
“They are both very important figures in Chile,...
The movie from MTV Documentary Films tells the story of journalist Augusto Góngora and actress Paulina Urrutia, a Chilean couple who have been together for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Both fear the day he no longer recognizes her.
See 2024 Oscar nominations: Full list of contenders in all 23 categories
“They are both very important figures in Chile,...
- 2/16/2024
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
It’s been a busy week for Oscar-nominated documentary filmmakers Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. On Monday, Alberdi, director of The Eternal Memory, and Ben Hania, director of Four Daughters, joined fellow nominees at the glittering Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton. Today, they sit down with Deadline for the latest edition of our Doc Talk podcast.
In her film, Alberdi documents the relationship between two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and journalism – Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora – a love story that endured even as Augusto coped with advancing Alzheimer’s disease. The director explains why she sees The Eternal Memory as “an answer” to her previous film The Mole Agent, which earned Alberdi the first Oscar nomination of her career..
In Four Daughters, Ben Hania explores a story from her native Tunisia — the case of a woman named Olfa who raised four girls, only to see the two eldest fall under the sway of radical Islamist ideology and join Isis. The director tells us why she made the decision to incorporate actors into her film to play Olfa and her two oldest daughters in re-creations. She also talks about why Hind Sabri, a star of Arab cinema who took on the role of Olfa, felt afraid of the woman she was portraying. And Ben Hania explains why a male actor she hired walked off the set during one particularly intense scene.
This marks a return trip to the Academy Awards for Ben Hania as well as Alberdi. They were both nominated in 2021 – Alberdi for Documentary Feature and Ben Hania in International Feature for her narrative feature The Man Who Sold His Skin.
In the new episode of Doc Talk, we also revisit our interview from last fall with Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President. And the titular Bobi Wine – the Ugandan pop star turned politician — joins us too – explaining what he wishes the filmmakers had left out of the documentary.
That’s on Doc Talk, the podcast co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios, presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.
In her film, Alberdi documents the relationship between two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and journalism – Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora – a love story that endured even as Augusto coped with advancing Alzheimer’s disease. The director explains why she sees The Eternal Memory as “an answer” to her previous film The Mole Agent, which earned Alberdi the first Oscar nomination of her career..
In Four Daughters, Ben Hania explores a story from her native Tunisia — the case of a woman named Olfa who raised four girls, only to see the two eldest fall under the sway of radical Islamist ideology and join Isis. The director tells us why she made the decision to incorporate actors into her film to play Olfa and her two oldest daughters in re-creations. She also talks about why Hind Sabri, a star of Arab cinema who took on the role of Olfa, felt afraid of the woman she was portraying. And Ben Hania explains why a male actor she hired walked off the set during one particularly intense scene.
This marks a return trip to the Academy Awards for Ben Hania as well as Alberdi. They were both nominated in 2021 – Alberdi for Documentary Feature and Ben Hania in International Feature for her narrative feature The Man Who Sold His Skin.
In the new episode of Doc Talk, we also revisit our interview from last fall with Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President. And the titular Bobi Wine – the Ugandan pop star turned politician — joins us too – explaining what he wishes the filmmakers had left out of the documentary.
That’s on Doc Talk, the podcast co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios, presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.
- 2/13/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Two of the top contenders for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards have something to celebrate ahead of their upcoming Oscar showdown.
On Saturday night, The Eternal Memory, directed by Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi, was named Best IberoAmerican Film at the Goya Awards in Valladolid, Spain. Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol won Best Documentary at the DGA Awards held at the Beverly Hilton.
As she accepted the Goya – Spain’s equivalent of the Oscar – Alberdi was joined on stage by Paulina Urrutia, one of the two protagonists of the film. The Eternal Memory, or La Memoria Infinita as it is called in Spanish, tells the love story between Urrutia and Augusto Góngora, a bond that only deepened after Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 62.
Director Maite Alberdi gestures toward Paulina Urrutia as she accepts the Goya Award.
On Saturday night, The Eternal Memory, directed by Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi, was named Best IberoAmerican Film at the Goya Awards in Valladolid, Spain. Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol won Best Documentary at the DGA Awards held at the Beverly Hilton.
As she accepted the Goya – Spain’s equivalent of the Oscar – Alberdi was joined on stage by Paulina Urrutia, one of the two protagonists of the film. The Eternal Memory, or La Memoria Infinita as it is called in Spanish, tells the love story between Urrutia and Augusto Góngora, a bond that only deepened after Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 62.
Director Maite Alberdi gestures toward Paulina Urrutia as she accepts the Goya Award.
- 2/11/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: MTV Documentary Films has announced a return theatrical engagement for its Oscar-nominated documentary The Eternal Memory, beginning today and extending throughout the month of February.
Maite Alberdi’s film, a love story that Deadline has compared to the narrative features Amour and Doctor Zhivago, will play exclusively at IFC Center in New York and in the Los Angeles area at two locations: Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica and Laemmle Glendale. In addition, MTV Documentary Films has set what it describes as “a very special Valentine’s Day Drive-In event on the evening of February 14 in the San Francisco Bay Area at the West Wind Drive-In theater, where couples can celebrate the love story of Paulina and Augusto that Alberdi so wonderfully captured in the film.”
‘The Eternal Memory’
A description of the film notes, “Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for more than two decades.
Maite Alberdi’s film, a love story that Deadline has compared to the narrative features Amour and Doctor Zhivago, will play exclusively at IFC Center in New York and in the Los Angeles area at two locations: Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica and Laemmle Glendale. In addition, MTV Documentary Films has set what it describes as “a very special Valentine’s Day Drive-In event on the evening of February 14 in the San Francisco Bay Area at the West Wind Drive-In theater, where couples can celebrate the love story of Paulina and Augusto that Alberdi so wonderfully captured in the film.”
‘The Eternal Memory’
A description of the film notes, “Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for more than two decades.
- 2/3/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Updated with reaction from documentary nominees. In an Oscar stunner, two films considered a lock for nominations failed to be recognized Tuesday morning in the Best Documentary Feature category: American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
Instead, a group of five internationally focused documentaries earned nominations: National Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President, The Eternal Memory, Four Daughters, To Kill a Tiger, and 20 Days in Mariupol.
Kaouther Ben Hania, the Tunisian director of Four Daughters told Deadline this morning, “We live in a world where everything is linked so people are interested what happened in Tunisia and Uganda [where Bobi Wine takes place]. It’s just amazing. It proves that we live in a world where people are more curious, more international, more open.”
Related: Cillian Murphy On Best Actor ‘Oppenheimer’ Oscar Nomination: “I Feel Really Privileged And Lucky To Be In A Film That’s Connected With People”
Documentary branch voters,...
Instead, a group of five internationally focused documentaries earned nominations: National Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President, The Eternal Memory, Four Daughters, To Kill a Tiger, and 20 Days in Mariupol.
Kaouther Ben Hania, the Tunisian director of Four Daughters told Deadline this morning, “We live in a world where everything is linked so people are interested what happened in Tunisia and Uganda [where Bobi Wine takes place]. It’s just amazing. It proves that we live in a world where people are more curious, more international, more open.”
Related: Cillian Murphy On Best Actor ‘Oppenheimer’ Oscar Nomination: “I Feel Really Privileged And Lucky To Be In A Film That’s Connected With People”
Documentary branch voters,...
- 1/23/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Fabula, the production company of internationally renowned brother filmmakers Pablo Larraín and Juan de Dios Larraín, has appointed Yira Vilaro as Vice President Of Film And Television, Deadline has learned.
Vilaro joins from Anonymous Content, where she worked as VP Film & TV for a year and a half. Previously, she held roles as a development executive at Amazon Studios, and as Director of Development at Macro, prior to that working at companies like Imagine Entertainment, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and WME, among others.
In her new role, Vilaro will focus on Fabula’s growing slate of English-language features and series. She reports to Andrew Hevia, Head of Fabula North America, and will work out of the company’s Los Angeles office. News of her hiring comes on the heels of an ASC Award nomination for Ed Lachman, cinematographer of Fabula’s El Conde, as well as the naming of the...
Vilaro joins from Anonymous Content, where she worked as VP Film & TV for a year and a half. Previously, she held roles as a development executive at Amazon Studios, and as Director of Development at Macro, prior to that working at companies like Imagine Entertainment, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and WME, among others.
In her new role, Vilaro will focus on Fabula’s growing slate of English-language features and series. She reports to Andrew Hevia, Head of Fabula North America, and will work out of the company’s Los Angeles office. News of her hiring comes on the heels of an ASC Award nomination for Ed Lachman, cinematographer of Fabula’s El Conde, as well as the naming of the...
- 1/20/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Oscar documentary branch voters can’t be accused of parochialism. They ventured far and wide to select their shortlist of feature documentaries for 2023, tapping films from countries as varied as a U.N. roll call: Ukraine, Uganda, Poland, Denmark, Tunisia, Canada and the United States.
To Kill a Tiger, one of the 15 finalists, unfolds in a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Nisha Pahuja, who was born in India and raised in Canada, directed the film about a humble couple who fight for justice after their 13-year-old daughter is sexually assaulted by three men. Before the shortlist was announced, Pahuja wondered whether doc branch members would embrace her documentary. “It’s a Canadian film, but it’s an Indian story,” she said, “and it’s subtitled.”
Pahuja needn’t have worried. Neither subtitles nor remote settings deter today’s documentary branch, whose membership is far less insular than it used to be.
To Kill a Tiger, one of the 15 finalists, unfolds in a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Nisha Pahuja, who was born in India and raised in Canada, directed the film about a humble couple who fight for justice after their 13-year-old daughter is sexually assaulted by three men. Before the shortlist was announced, Pahuja wondered whether doc branch members would embrace her documentary. “It’s a Canadian film, but it’s an Indian story,” she said, “and it’s subtitled.”
Pahuja needn’t have worried. Neither subtitles nor remote settings deter today’s documentary branch, whose membership is far less insular than it used to be.
- 1/14/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
32 Sounds, the innovative documentary that explores the power of sonic experience, pulled off a shocker at the Cinema Eye Honors Friday night, winning Outstanding Nonfiction Feature over Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and other prominent nominees.
The film directed by Sam Green won two other awards: Outstanding Sound Design, recognizing the work of Mark Mangini, and Outstanding Original Score, which went to composer J.D. Samson.
32 Sounds is one of 15 documentaries shortlisted for the Academy Awards, along with Still, Four Daughters, The Eternal Memory, and 20 Days in Mariupol, all of which took home prizes at the Cinema Eye Honors.
‘Four Daughters’
Outstanding Direction resulted in a tie between two filmmakers, Kaouther Ben Hania of Four Daughters, and Maite Alberdi, director of The Eternal Memory. Alberdi’s film explores the love story of two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and media, Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora,...
The film directed by Sam Green won two other awards: Outstanding Sound Design, recognizing the work of Mark Mangini, and Outstanding Original Score, which went to composer J.D. Samson.
32 Sounds is one of 15 documentaries shortlisted for the Academy Awards, along with Still, Four Daughters, The Eternal Memory, and 20 Days in Mariupol, all of which took home prizes at the Cinema Eye Honors.
‘Four Daughters’
Outstanding Direction resulted in a tie between two filmmakers, Kaouther Ben Hania of Four Daughters, and Maite Alberdi, director of The Eternal Memory. Alberdi’s film explores the love story of two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and media, Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora,...
- 1/13/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The Cinema Eye Honors announced the winners for its documentary films and series competition Friday in Manhattan, with “32 Sounds” taking the honor for outstanding nonfiction feature. Maite Alberdi won outstanding direction for “The Eternal Memory” together with Kaouther Ben Hania for “Four Daughters,” while “Paul T. Goldman” won outstanding nonfiction series.
See all the winners below:
—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature
32 Sounds
Directed by Sam Green
Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann
—Outstanding Direction
Maite Alberdi
The Eternal Memory
Kaouther Ben Hania
Four Daughters
—Outstanding Editing
Michael Harte
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
—Outstanding Production
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko
20 Days in Mariupol
—Outstanding Cinematography
Ants Tammik
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
—Outstanding Original Score
Jd Samson
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Sound Design
Mark Mangini
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Visual Design
Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
—Outstanding Debut
Kokomo...
See all the winners below:
—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature
32 Sounds
Directed by Sam Green
Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann
—Outstanding Direction
Maite Alberdi
The Eternal Memory
Kaouther Ben Hania
Four Daughters
—Outstanding Editing
Michael Harte
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
—Outstanding Production
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko
20 Days in Mariupol
—Outstanding Cinematography
Ants Tammik
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
—Outstanding Original Score
Jd Samson
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Sound Design
Mark Mangini
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Visual Design
Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
—Outstanding Debut
Kokomo...
- 1/13/2024
- by Jazz Tangcay, Caroline Brew, Jaden Thompson and Diego Ramos Bechara
- Variety Film + TV
The critically-acclaimed documentary feature “The Eternal Memory” is returning to theaters, Variety has learned exclusively.
The doc, which hails from MTV Documentary Films, will be back on theater screens in New York and Los Angeles starting today. The film will screen daily at The IFC Center in New York on Jan. 5-7 and 12-15. It will screen at the Laemmle Glendale and Monica Film Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 6- 8 and 13- 15.
The film originally premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize World Cinema – Documentary. It went on to win several more accolades on the festival circuit and was named to the to the shortlist in the Best Documentary Feature Film category for the 96th Academy Awards.
“The Eternal Memory” previously ran in theaters nationwide and debuted on Paramount+ in the U.S. in November.
The film tells the story of Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia,...
The doc, which hails from MTV Documentary Films, will be back on theater screens in New York and Los Angeles starting today. The film will screen daily at The IFC Center in New York on Jan. 5-7 and 12-15. It will screen at the Laemmle Glendale and Monica Film Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 6- 8 and 13- 15.
The film originally premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize World Cinema – Documentary. It went on to win several more accolades on the festival circuit and was named to the to the shortlist in the Best Documentary Feature Film category for the 96th Academy Awards.
“The Eternal Memory” previously ran in theaters nationwide and debuted on Paramount+ in the U.S. in November.
The film tells the story of Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia,...
- 1/5/2024
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
The Eternal Memory chronicled the final years in the life of Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora. He died in June, five months after the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Director Maite Alberdi felt she not only captured his final years with wife Paulina Urrutia, but also the Chilean history that dictators like Augusto Pinochet tried to erase.
“During the dictatorship, there was that very small group of people that made clandestine newscasts to report on everything that was happening in the country,” Alberdi said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event. “It’s the only archive that we have of dictatorship, the important one, the people that were in the street with the camera and they took that risk. Then [Góngora] wrote a book about how to preserve that historical memory with a speech about political memory.”
Alberdi said it was a paradox that the leader of Chilean national memory...
“During the dictatorship, there was that very small group of people that made clandestine newscasts to report on everything that was happening in the country,” Alberdi said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event. “It’s the only archive that we have of dictatorship, the important one, the people that were in the street with the camera and they took that risk. Then [Góngora] wrote a book about how to preserve that historical memory with a speech about political memory.”
Alberdi said it was a paradox that the leader of Chilean national memory...
- 12/10/2023
- by Fred Topel
- Deadline Film + TV
By the time December rolls around, a frontrunner has typically emerged in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature. Not this year. The contest remains wide open, more so than in any year in recent memory.
For that reason alone, it’s essential to hear from the leading filmmakers in the mix. And that’s where Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event comes in. Out essential guide featuring an awards-worthy slate of outstanding nonfiction films kicks off Saturday at 9 a.m. Pt featuring panels from nine of the year’s most buzzy titles.
Click here to sign up for and launch the livestream.
Among the all-star talent on hand is Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, director of Apple Original Films’ Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, about the beloved Hollywood icon. Guggenheim’s film recently won five prizes at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, including Best Feature and Best Director.
Also...
For that reason alone, it’s essential to hear from the leading filmmakers in the mix. And that’s where Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event comes in. Out essential guide featuring an awards-worthy slate of outstanding nonfiction films kicks off Saturday at 9 a.m. Pt featuring panels from nine of the year’s most buzzy titles.
Click here to sign up for and launch the livestream.
Among the all-star talent on hand is Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, director of Apple Original Films’ Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, about the beloved Hollywood icon. Guggenheim’s film recently won five prizes at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, including Best Feature and Best Director.
Also...
- 12/10/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
IndieWire’s longtime commitment to highlighting boundary-pushing documentary filmmaking reached new heights this fall during the inaugural Art of the Doc screening series. Presented in partnership with National Geographic, Art of the Doc showcased six of the best nonfiction films of 2023 at the Landmark Westwood in Los Angeles. Each screening featured in-person conversations with filmmakers and documentary subjects moderated by IndieWire editors.
“Our editors gave careful consideration in selecting these films for our inaugural screening series, Art of the Doc,” IndieWire senior VP and editor in chief Dana Harris-Bridson said in a statement announcing the series. “We’re excited to have the in-person opportunity to share IndieWire’s perspective with the work of great filmmakers.”
“We’re thrilled to be launching our first documentary screening series with our partner National Geographic,” said IndieWire senior VP and publisher James Israel. “Nat Geo’s support of the art of current documentary filmmaking...
“Our editors gave careful consideration in selecting these films for our inaugural screening series, Art of the Doc,” IndieWire senior VP and editor in chief Dana Harris-Bridson said in a statement announcing the series. “We’re excited to have the in-person opportunity to share IndieWire’s perspective with the work of great filmmakers.”
“We’re thrilled to be launching our first documentary screening series with our partner National Geographic,” said IndieWire senior VP and publisher James Israel. “Nat Geo’s support of the art of current documentary filmmaking...
- 11/27/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Updated with details about the next and final screening, which is “Stamped from the Beginning” on November 20. Learn more here.
This Monday, November 20, the next and concluding screening in our Art of the Doc series will be of Roger Ross Williams’ acclaimed “Stamped from the Beginning” at the Landmark Westwood. Doors open at 6:30pm with a pre-reception featuring beer, wine, and conversations with other documentary fans. Then at 7:30, the screening will begin, after which there will be a Q&a moderated by IndieWire’s Marcus Jones with director Roger Ross Williams himself. The film, based on the book by Ibram X. Kendi about how racist tropes permeate American culture, debuted to extraordinary acclaim at TIFF in September, and IndieWire’s Anne Thompson considers it a frontrunner in the Best Documentary Feature race at the Oscars.
New to our Art of the Doc series? Well, IndieWire has celebrated the...
This Monday, November 20, the next and concluding screening in our Art of the Doc series will be of Roger Ross Williams’ acclaimed “Stamped from the Beginning” at the Landmark Westwood. Doors open at 6:30pm with a pre-reception featuring beer, wine, and conversations with other documentary fans. Then at 7:30, the screening will begin, after which there will be a Q&a moderated by IndieWire’s Marcus Jones with director Roger Ross Williams himself. The film, based on the book by Ibram X. Kendi about how racist tropes permeate American culture, debuted to extraordinary acclaim at TIFF in September, and IndieWire’s Anne Thompson considers it a frontrunner in the Best Documentary Feature race at the Oscars.
New to our Art of the Doc series? Well, IndieWire has celebrated the...
- 11/17/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
In a profoundly intimate film, director Maite Alberdi follows an influential Chilean journalist and his partner as they navigate life after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis
At the start of the Chilean documentary The Eternal Memory, a woman asks her husband, who has Alzheimer’s, if he likes his life. He beams back at her. “I love life.” The couple will be instantly recognisable to audiences in Chile. He is Augusto Góngora, a journalist who was part of an underground television news service during the Pinochet dictatorship. Out on the streets he filmed the reality of life under military rule – at huge personal risk. The group’s bulletins, recorded on VHS tapes, were passed from house to house across the country. When Chile returned to democracy, Góngora became an influential figure on public television. His partner of 25 years, Paulina Urrutia, is a famous stage and screen actor. In 2014, aged 62, Góngora was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
At the start of the Chilean documentary The Eternal Memory, a woman asks her husband, who has Alzheimer’s, if he likes his life. He beams back at her. “I love life.” The couple will be instantly recognisable to audiences in Chile. He is Augusto Góngora, a journalist who was part of an underground television news service during the Pinochet dictatorship. Out on the streets he filmed the reality of life under military rule – at huge personal risk. The group’s bulletins, recorded on VHS tapes, were passed from house to house across the country. When Chile returned to democracy, Góngora became an influential figure on public television. His partner of 25 years, Paulina Urrutia, is a famous stage and screen actor. In 2014, aged 62, Góngora was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
- 11/9/2023
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
MTV Documentary Films’ “The Eternal Memory,” directed by Maite Alberdi, will exclusively debut on Paramount+ in the U.S. on Nov. 7.
“The Eternal Memory” tells the story of Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia, a Chilean couple whose lives are irrevocably impacted by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The film’s description reads, “As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose own pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband.”
The summary concludes, “Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains, remarkably, fully intact.”
Alberdi’s...
“The Eternal Memory” tells the story of Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia, a Chilean couple whose lives are irrevocably impacted by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The film’s description reads, “As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose own pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband.”
The summary concludes, “Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains, remarkably, fully intact.”
Alberdi’s...
- 11/8/2023
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-nominated Maite Alberdi’s empathic documentary witnesses a love surviving the devastation of worsening dementia
Chilean director Maite Alberdi really gets elderly people and those with mental health problems. One of her previous works, The Grown-Ups, focused on adults with Down’s syndrome struggling with independence, while her international breakthrough The Mole Agent featured residents of a care home, some with dementia. This latest painfully potent film, The Eternal Memory, carves a snug room for itself in the director’s thematic wheelhouse with its portrait of a Chilean couple, utterly devoted to each other, but challenged by the husband’s progressively worsening Alzheimer’s disease.
At the same time, the film also engages with recent Chilean history, another topic Alberdi has explored previously. How could it do otherwise given that the husband, Augusto Góngora, was a broadcaster and journalist who made underground documentaries about the conditions in Chile under Pinochet...
Chilean director Maite Alberdi really gets elderly people and those with mental health problems. One of her previous works, The Grown-Ups, focused on adults with Down’s syndrome struggling with independence, while her international breakthrough The Mole Agent featured residents of a care home, some with dementia. This latest painfully potent film, The Eternal Memory, carves a snug room for itself in the director’s thematic wheelhouse with its portrait of a Chilean couple, utterly devoted to each other, but challenged by the husband’s progressively worsening Alzheimer’s disease.
At the same time, the film also engages with recent Chilean history, another topic Alberdi has explored previously. How could it do otherwise given that the husband, Augusto Góngora, was a broadcaster and journalist who made underground documentaries about the conditions in Chile under Pinochet...
- 11/8/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
For the 10th year in a row, the Scad Savannah Film Festival, the 26th edition of which ran from Oct. 21 through Oct. 28, was the place to be for documentary filmmakers and documentary lovers — specifically on Oct. 25, when The Hollywood Reporter presented and your humble correspondent hosted the fest’s Docs to Watch panel that brings together the directors of up to 10 of the year’s finest documentary features.
Over the past nine years, 45 films were nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar, 19 of which were first highlighted as Docs to Watch. And in seven of those nine years, one of the Docs to Watch went on to win the best documentary feature Oscar: 2015’s Amy, 2016’s O.J.: Made in America, 2017’s Icarus, 2018’s Free Solo, 2019’s American Factory, 2021’s Summer of Soul and 2022’s Navalny. (The other two eventual winners — 2014’s Citizenfour and 2020’s My Octopus Teacher — were not screened...
Over the past nine years, 45 films were nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar, 19 of which were first highlighted as Docs to Watch. And in seven of those nine years, one of the Docs to Watch went on to win the best documentary feature Oscar: 2015’s Amy, 2016’s O.J.: Made in America, 2017’s Icarus, 2018’s Free Solo, 2019’s American Factory, 2021’s Summer of Soul and 2022’s Navalny. (The other two eventual winners — 2014’s Citizenfour and 2020’s My Octopus Teacher — were not screened...
- 11/4/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As fall TV starts to feel a little more fall-like, Paramount+ is heading into November as the host of several new series this month, including its own “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” starring David Oyelowo; the genre-bending Showtime series “The Curse”; and the United States debut of the hit Australian comedy “Colin From Accounts,” among plenty of other new titles and library additions.
On the movie side, ’90s kids will get a heap of nostalgia with the premiere of the highly anticipated sequel to “Good Burger,” which will be served up exclusively on the platform on Nov. 22. Paramount+ will add dozens of titles to its film library starting on Nov. 1, including “Ferris Bueller's Day Off,” “Gladiator,” and a large collection of Audrey Hepburn classics like “My Fair Lady,” “Roman Holiday,” and more.
Check out The Streamable’s top picks for what’s new this month on Paramount+, and check out the full list of films,...
On the movie side, ’90s kids will get a heap of nostalgia with the premiere of the highly anticipated sequel to “Good Burger,” which will be served up exclusively on the platform on Nov. 22. Paramount+ will add dozens of titles to its film library starting on Nov. 1, including “Ferris Bueller's Day Off,” “Gladiator,” and a large collection of Audrey Hepburn classics like “My Fair Lady,” “Roman Holiday,” and more.
Check out The Streamable’s top picks for what’s new this month on Paramount+, and check out the full list of films,...
- 10/27/2023
- by Ashley Steves
- The Streamable
The 2023 Cinema Eye Honors have unveiled the 20 titles for its Audience Choice Prize Long List, with voting now open.
The 17th annual awards ceremony also recognized the best nonfiction and documentary films and series across five Broadcast categories and a Shorts List with 10 of the year’s top documentary short films, as well as the 20 films in the running for the Audience Choice Prize Long List.
This year’s list includes films from Cinema Eye Honors alumni including “The Eternal Memory,” “American Symphony,” “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” “Stamped from the Beginning,” “32 Sounds,” “A Compassionate Spy,” “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” “The Mission,” “The Pigeon Tunnel,” and “Stephen Curry: Underrated.”
Hulu series “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead the Broadcast Film and Series nominations with three nods each. The “1619 Project,” adapted from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s work with The New...
The 17th annual awards ceremony also recognized the best nonfiction and documentary films and series across five Broadcast categories and a Shorts List with 10 of the year’s top documentary short films, as well as the 20 films in the running for the Audience Choice Prize Long List.
This year’s list includes films from Cinema Eye Honors alumni including “The Eternal Memory,” “American Symphony,” “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” “Stamped from the Beginning,” “32 Sounds,” “A Compassionate Spy,” “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” “The Mission,” “The Pigeon Tunnel,” and “Stephen Curry: Underrated.”
Hulu series “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead the Broadcast Film and Series nominations with three nods each. The “1619 Project,” adapted from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s work with The New...
- 10/19/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
“The Eternal Memory,” Chilean documentarian Maite Alberdi’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent,” is smashing box office records in Chile.
Bowing Thursday Aug. 24 in 70 theaters and shooting straight to No. 1, “The Eternal Memory’s” first week 80,157 ticket sales gave the film the biggest bow of any doc feature in history in Chile and the best opening of any Chilean film of any kind since 2018.
As the film sold out at screenings, its screen count was hiked to a 105 screen count from Aug. 28, doubling theaters in some regions and adding ones in parts of Chile which doesn’t normally screen national films.
“The Eternal Memory’s” first 10-day 102,696 admissions converted it into the high-grossing doc feature in Chilean history.
Tracking at near to 200,000 admissions, “The Eternal Memory” has now begun to challenge live action features, such as “Papa al Rescate,” Chile’s big early year comedy.
“What’s most...
Bowing Thursday Aug. 24 in 70 theaters and shooting straight to No. 1, “The Eternal Memory’s” first week 80,157 ticket sales gave the film the biggest bow of any doc feature in history in Chile and the best opening of any Chilean film of any kind since 2018.
As the film sold out at screenings, its screen count was hiked to a 105 screen count from Aug. 28, doubling theaters in some regions and adding ones in parts of Chile which doesn’t normally screen national films.
“The Eternal Memory’s” first 10-day 102,696 admissions converted it into the high-grossing doc feature in Chilean history.
Tracking at near to 200,000 admissions, “The Eternal Memory” has now begun to challenge live action features, such as “Papa al Rescate,” Chile’s big early year comedy.
“What’s most...
- 9/11/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
By Glenn Charlie Dunks
After garnering a (somewhat surprising?) Oscar nomination for The Mole Agent in 2020, Chilean director Maite Alberdi’s next feature was always going to be on people’s radar. With The Eternal Memory she has yet again returned to stories of the elderly in society. Unlike Mole, which had a comedic touch (I’m surprised Diane Keaton hasn’t optioned the film rights), The Eternal Memory is strictly dramatic in its telling of the ravages of Alzheimer’s Disease to one of her home country’s most celebrated journalists and authors, Augusto Góngora.
As you might expect, this isn’t an easy watch. Anybody who has seen what dementia does to a person will recognise many of its subject’s hardest moments. It’s probably a hardened soul who wouldn’t shed a tear by its end.
After garnering a (somewhat surprising?) Oscar nomination for The Mole Agent in 2020, Chilean director Maite Alberdi’s next feature was always going to be on people’s radar. With The Eternal Memory she has yet again returned to stories of the elderly in society. Unlike Mole, which had a comedic touch (I’m surprised Diane Keaton hasn’t optioned the film rights), The Eternal Memory is strictly dramatic in its telling of the ravages of Alzheimer’s Disease to one of her home country’s most celebrated journalists and authors, Augusto Góngora.
As you might expect, this isn’t an easy watch. Anybody who has seen what dementia does to a person will recognise many of its subject’s hardest moments. It’s probably a hardened soul who wouldn’t shed a tear by its end.
- 8/26/2023
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Nearly 150 documentaries set to screen at festival in South Korea.
South Korea’s Dmz International Documentary Film Festival (Dmz Docs) has overhauled its programme structure ahead of its 15th edition, which will open with Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory.
A total of 147 documentaries, comprising 83 features and 64 shorts, from 54 countries will be screened at the festival from September 14-21 at cinemas in and around Goyang city, near the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, in Gyeonggi Province.
The programme, which previously included the Global Vision and Dmz Open Cinema sections, have been reorganised into three competition strands: International, Frontier and Korean.
South Korea’s Dmz International Documentary Film Festival (Dmz Docs) has overhauled its programme structure ahead of its 15th edition, which will open with Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory.
A total of 147 documentaries, comprising 83 features and 64 shorts, from 54 countries will be screened at the festival from September 14-21 at cinemas in and around Goyang city, near the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, in Gyeonggi Province.
The programme, which previously included the Global Vision and Dmz Open Cinema sections, have been reorganised into three competition strands: International, Frontier and Korean.
- 8/24/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Paulina Urrutia with Augusto Góngora in Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory: “Raul Ruiz and Augusto are alive in the film. So the film is resurrecting them, too. Cinema as a way of resurrection.”
The first time I spoke with Maite Alberdi was in 2021 on Zoom from Santiago, Chile for a conversation on The Mole Agent, so I was happy to meet her in person last week at the Crosby Street Hotel invited screening of her latest film, The Eternal Memory, as Nancy Buirski’s plus-one. Following the Q&a, moderated with great flair by Kirsten Johnson, Maite and I had the chance to reconnect at the reception.
Maite Alberdi with Anne-Katrin Titze on the No poster: “It’s the same graphics that Pablo Larrain used for his film.”
Augusto Góngora, famous for his television culture program and during the Pinochet regime, his clandestine work to archive what was really going on in Chile,...
The first time I spoke with Maite Alberdi was in 2021 on Zoom from Santiago, Chile for a conversation on The Mole Agent, so I was happy to meet her in person last week at the Crosby Street Hotel invited screening of her latest film, The Eternal Memory, as Nancy Buirski’s plus-one. Following the Q&a, moderated with great flair by Kirsten Johnson, Maite and I had the chance to reconnect at the reception.
Maite Alberdi with Anne-Katrin Titze on the No poster: “It’s the same graphics that Pablo Larrain used for his film.”
Augusto Góngora, famous for his television culture program and during the Pinochet regime, his clandestine work to archive what was really going on in Chile,...
- 8/20/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
It had been a while since I’d seen a film as sweepingly romantic as Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory, a documentary that focuses on the lives of Augusto Góngora, an exemplary journalist who sought justice in a post-military coup Chile, and Paulina Urrutia, a stage and screen actor who served as Minister of Culture and the Arts under Michelle Bachelet. But if we didn’t know them before going into the film, we only learn about their impressive careers once we’ve fallen in love with them as human beings.
As the film begins we learn Augusto has been living with Alzheimer’s, his memory slowly fading away as he fearfully grasps at the remains of what he can still make sense of. It’s Paulina who often brings him back to the light, becoming the ultimate life companion in every way possible. In addition to the love story between Augusto and Paulina,...
As the film begins we learn Augusto has been living with Alzheimer’s, his memory slowly fading away as he fearfully grasps at the remains of what he can still make sense of. It’s Paulina who often brings him back to the light, becoming the ultimate life companion in every way possible. In addition to the love story between Augusto and Paulina,...
- 8/16/2023
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
“It’s very important for us to reconstruct memory,” Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora observed in 1990, “not to be anchored in the past, because we think reconstructing memory is always an act that has a sense of future.” He was addressing a crowd about his book The Forbidden Memory, a history of his countrymen during the first decade of Augusto Pinochett’s regime. Yet he also seemed to be anticipating the events of his own life as captured by Maite Alberdi in her documentary The Eternal Memory.
When Alberdi catches up with Augusto’s story, he’s starting to experience the effects of Alzheimer’s more acutely. But her film quickly moves beyond the surface-level tragic irony of a man devoted to preserving a national memory having to endure losing his personal memory. The Eternal Memory blossoms into a tender-hearted love story as its patient observations reveal the durability of the...
When Alberdi catches up with Augusto’s story, he’s starting to experience the effects of Alzheimer’s more acutely. But her film quickly moves beyond the surface-level tragic irony of a man devoted to preserving a national memory having to endure losing his personal memory. The Eternal Memory blossoms into a tender-hearted love story as its patient observations reveal the durability of the...
- 8/11/2023
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
MTV Documentary Films has released a first look teaser for “The Eternal Memory,” a look at love and Alzheimer’s disease that won the grand jury prize for world documentary at this year’s Sundance.
A U.S. theatrical release kicks off on Aug. 11 in New York. It will be followed by engagements in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Aug. 18, with a limited national roll out to follow. Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi directed the movie, which could be a contender for the documentary Oscar. Alberdi is the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker behind “The Mole Agent.”
To that end, “The Eternal Memory” played at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was the runner up for the audience award. A robust international festival campaign is already in the works, including stops at Cph:Dox, Hot Docs, and DocAviv, Hamptons Summer Docs and DC Dox.
“The Eternal Memory” centers around Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia,...
A U.S. theatrical release kicks off on Aug. 11 in New York. It will be followed by engagements in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Aug. 18, with a limited national roll out to follow. Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi directed the movie, which could be a contender for the documentary Oscar. Alberdi is the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker behind “The Mole Agent.”
To that end, “The Eternal Memory” played at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was the runner up for the audience award. A robust international festival campaign is already in the works, including stops at Cph:Dox, Hot Docs, and DocAviv, Hamptons Summer Docs and DC Dox.
“The Eternal Memory” centers around Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia,...
- 6/28/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Augusto Góngora, the journalist, author and television host documented in the Sundance winning film The Eternal Memory, is being mourned in his native Chile after his death at 71.
The film’s Oscar-nominated director, Maite Alberdi, confirmed to Deadline that Góngora succumbed to complications of Alzhemier’s on May 19. The Eternal Memory, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at Sundance, chronicles the love story between the journalist and his wife, actress and academic Paulina Urrutia. “La Pauli,” as Góngora referred to his partner, took care of him after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 62.
Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora in ‘The Eternal Memory’
“It was unexpectedly painful” to learn of Góngora’s death, Alberdi told Deadline. “People tell you that Alzheimer’s is a slow death. So you think that you are prepared because you have been living for many years with the disappearance of that person.
The film’s Oscar-nominated director, Maite Alberdi, confirmed to Deadline that Góngora succumbed to complications of Alzhemier’s on May 19. The Eternal Memory, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at Sundance, chronicles the love story between the journalist and his wife, actress and academic Paulina Urrutia. “La Pauli,” as Góngora referred to his partner, took care of him after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 62.
Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora in ‘The Eternal Memory’
“It was unexpectedly painful” to learn of Góngora’s death, Alberdi told Deadline. “People tell you that Alzheimer’s is a slow death. So you think that you are prepared because you have been living for many years with the disappearance of that person.
- 6/6/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Docaviv, the prestigious all-documentary film festival in Tel Aviv, today announced the International Competition lineup for the 25th anniversary of the event, which takes place May 11-20.
In competition are some of the early favorites for Oscar recognition, including Apolonia, Apolonia, winner of Best Feature at IDFA; 20 Days in Mariupol, the harrowing examination of the siege of the Ukrainian port city in the early days of the Russian invasion; Kokomo City, winner of two awards at Sundance, and The Eternal Memory, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance [scroll for the full International Competition lineup].
Docaviv is an Oscar-qualifying festival, with winners in the International, Israeli, and Shorts competitions automatically becoming eligible for Academy Awards consideration. It is the only all-documentary festival in Israel and widely considered one of the world’s foremost nonfiction film events.
Some of the expected international guests include Emmy-winning documentary producer John Battsek, who will hold...
In competition are some of the early favorites for Oscar recognition, including Apolonia, Apolonia, winner of Best Feature at IDFA; 20 Days in Mariupol, the harrowing examination of the siege of the Ukrainian port city in the early days of the Russian invasion; Kokomo City, winner of two awards at Sundance, and The Eternal Memory, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance [scroll for the full International Competition lineup].
Docaviv is an Oscar-qualifying festival, with winners in the International, Israeli, and Shorts competitions automatically becoming eligible for Academy Awards consideration. It is the only all-documentary festival in Israel and widely considered one of the world’s foremost nonfiction film events.
Some of the expected international guests include Emmy-winning documentary producer John Battsek, who will hold...
- 4/20/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi’s documentary about love, memory and Alzheimer’s disease “The Eternal Memory” has scored a slew of international sales after making a splash at Sundance and Berlin.
Dogwoof, the British sales company specialized in high-profile docs, has announced multiple deals on “Eternal Memory,” which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary in January and was a recent standout at the Berlinale where it had its European bow. The hot doc is screening later this week at the Cph:dox documentary film festival in Copenhagen.
Dogwoof partnered with MTV Documentary Films to represent “The Eternal Memory” for international sales soon after its Sundance premiere. They have now scored sales on the doc to: Edge Entertainment (Nordics); Madman (Australia and New Zealand); Sherry Media (Canada); I Wonder Pictures (Italy); BTeam Pictures (Spain); Periscoop (Benelux); Atnine Film (South Korea); Synca (Japan); Lev (Israel), and Restart (Former Yugoslavia).
“The Eternal Memory...
Dogwoof, the British sales company specialized in high-profile docs, has announced multiple deals on “Eternal Memory,” which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary in January and was a recent standout at the Berlinale where it had its European bow. The hot doc is screening later this week at the Cph:dox documentary film festival in Copenhagen.
Dogwoof partnered with MTV Documentary Films to represent “The Eternal Memory” for international sales soon after its Sundance premiere. They have now scored sales on the doc to: Edge Entertainment (Nordics); Madman (Australia and New Zealand); Sherry Media (Canada); I Wonder Pictures (Italy); BTeam Pictures (Spain); Periscoop (Benelux); Atnine Film (South Korea); Synca (Japan); Lev (Israel), and Restart (Former Yugoslavia).
“The Eternal Memory...
- 3/15/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Doctor Zhivago, Casablanca, Amour. Over the decades, cinema has produced some fictional love stories of enduring beauty and resonance. But for sheer emotional force, even those classics may not rival the true love story told in The Eternal Memory.
Maite Alberdi’s documentary, which made its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, centers on the remarkable bond between a Chilean couple, the esteemed writer and journalist Augusto Góngora and his wife — an actress, academic, and Chile’s former Minister of Culture, Paulina Urrutia Fernández. They spent many joyous years together before Augusto was diagnosed, in 2014, with Alzheimer’s.
The film begins with a scene shot in the couple’s bedroom in the middle of the night, after Augusto apparently has awoken. Smiling, he introduces himself to his wife. “I’m Augusto Góngora,” he says. “And who are you?” Patiently, lovingly, she replies her name is Pauli. And she explains,...
Maite Alberdi’s documentary, which made its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, centers on the remarkable bond between a Chilean couple, the esteemed writer and journalist Augusto Góngora and his wife — an actress, academic, and Chile’s former Minister of Culture, Paulina Urrutia Fernández. They spent many joyous years together before Augusto was diagnosed, in 2014, with Alzheimer’s.
The film begins with a scene shot in the couple’s bedroom in the middle of the night, after Augusto apparently has awoken. Smiling, he introduces himself to his wife. “I’m Augusto Góngora,” he says. “And who are you?” Patiently, lovingly, she replies her name is Pauli. And she explains,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Through films as varied as “The Father,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead” and “Relic,” dementia and neurodegenerative disease have been extensively portrayed on screen in recent years — a subgenre that carries a trigger warning for anyone with off-screen experience of the subject. For those who think they cannot stomach one more, Maite Alberdi’s “The Eternal Memory” treats inexorably sad material with a lighter, more lyrical approach than most — focusing less on the day-to-day ravages of living with Alzheimer’s than on the slippery, transient concept of memory itself, as formed, held and lost both in the individual mind and a wider collective consciousness. Key to the film’s thesis is that its subject is Augusto Góngora, a veteran Chilean political journalist who labored through the 1970s and 1980s to bring the iniquities of the Pinochet regime to public attention — and later dedicated himself to conserving that national memory for future generations.
- 2/14/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The tragedy of memory loss meets the romantic joy of enduring love, while the togetherness of a couple in the present is contrasted by the turmoil of a nation’s past in the latest documentary from Maite Alberdi.
The Eternal Memory - which won the World Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize at Sundance - is a deeply moving consideration of the life of TV journalist Augusto Gongora and his actress wife Paulina Urrutia, who was once also Chilean minister of culture. Together for more than 20 years, Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014 and Alberdi’s film unfolds over the four years to 2022 as his condition worsens, including capturing the couple’s marriage in 2016.
There have been strong documentaries on the subject before, including Bicycle, Apple, Spoon and Dick Johnson Is Dead, but Alberdi’s is striking in its intimacy - it’s hard to believe there is anyone in.
The Eternal Memory - which won the World Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize at Sundance - is a deeply moving consideration of the life of TV journalist Augusto Gongora and his actress wife Paulina Urrutia, who was once also Chilean minister of culture. Together for more than 20 years, Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014 and Alberdi’s film unfolds over the four years to 2022 as his condition worsens, including capturing the couple’s marriage in 2016.
There have been strong documentaries on the subject before, including Bicycle, Apple, Spoon and Dick Johnson Is Dead, but Alberdi’s is striking in its intimacy - it’s hard to believe there is anyone in.
- 2/7/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Filmmaker Maite Alberdi seems keen to remind us non-fiction cinema can belong to different genres rather than reinforce some notion that they are a genre unto themselves. In the delightful The Mole Agent she delivered a thriller of the absurd; a bittersweet detective movie in which an elderly man infiltrates a nursing home where there are suspicions of elderly abuse. With The Eternal Memory, she tackles romance and tells one of the most moving love stories in ages.
Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia have been together for a quarter-century. They met and became inseparable, eventually marrying and building a home, literally and metaphorically. They were both prominent professionals in their field; Góngora as a journalist who came of age while covering the last days of Pinochet’s dictatorship and Urrutia as a stage actor who went on to become Minister of Culture during Michelle Bachelet’s first government.
When we meet them,...
Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia have been together for a quarter-century. They met and became inseparable, eventually marrying and building a home, literally and metaphorically. They were both prominent professionals in their field; Góngora as a journalist who came of age while covering the last days of Pinochet’s dictatorship and Urrutia as a stage actor who went on to become Minister of Culture during Michelle Bachelet’s first government.
When we meet them,...
- 2/6/2023
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
Providing a masterclass in empathy, Chilean documentarian Maite Alberdi lends a certain whimsy to her works that forage hope amidst roving sadness. She manages to extract each ounce of charm from her subjects and, as in her study of aging and isolation in Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent,” she continues to showcase a zest for life in the protagonists in her latest feature.
“The Eternal Memory,” her follow-up to “The Mole Agent,” was the subject of double news on Friday, walking off with the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – the section’s top plaudit – just hours after MTV Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to the doc feature.
follows former Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora and his wife, actress Paulina Urrutia, in their rigorous fight against Augusto’s memory-zapping diagnosis.
Tender and sentimental, scenes oscillate between the torture of a fast-fading history and divine moments of immense love as they navigate the...
“The Eternal Memory,” her follow-up to “The Mole Agent,” was the subject of double news on Friday, walking off with the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – the section’s top plaudit – just hours after MTV Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to the doc feature.
follows former Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora and his wife, actress Paulina Urrutia, in their rigorous fight against Augusto’s memory-zapping diagnosis.
Tender and sentimental, scenes oscillate between the torture of a fast-fading history and divine moments of immense love as they navigate the...
- 1/27/2023
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
MTV Documentary Films has acquired The Eternal Memory, which screened in the world documentary competition section of the Sundance Film Festival. MTV is planning a theatrical release and robust awards campaign later this year.
Maite Alberdi, who directed the Oscar-nominated doc The Mole Agent, is behind the movie that follows veteran Chilean TV journalist and political commentator Augusto Góngora and actress turned arts and culture minister Paulina Urrutia who have been together and in love for 25 years and now must contend with Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The synopsis for the feature reads: “Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and his wife has since become his caretaker. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory, having been responsible for that herculean task following the Pinochet dictatorship and its systematic erasure of collective consciousness.
Maite Alberdi, who directed the Oscar-nominated doc The Mole Agent, is behind the movie that follows veteran Chilean TV journalist and political commentator Augusto Góngora and actress turned arts and culture minister Paulina Urrutia who have been together and in love for 25 years and now must contend with Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The synopsis for the feature reads: “Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and his wife has since become his caretaker. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory, having been responsible for that herculean task following the Pinochet dictatorship and its systematic erasure of collective consciousness.
- 1/27/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar nominee and Sundance alum Maite Alberdi returned to Park City this year with a much different follow-up. While The Eternal Memory likewise deals with both the joys and indignities of aging, Alberdi trains her lens this time on a dynamic duo who’ve been together for a quarter century, much of it in the media spotlight. Paulina Urrutia was (and still is) an actor and former State Minister, while Augusto Góngora was one of Chile’s most […]
The post “What Remains in the Body”: Maite Alberdi on The Eternal Memory first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “What Remains in the Body”: Maite Alberdi on The Eternal Memory first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/25/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Oscar nominee and Sundance alum Maite Alberdi returned to Park City this year with a much different follow-up. While The Eternal Memory likewise deals with both the joys and indignities of aging, Alberdi trains her lens this time on a dynamic duo who’ve been together for a quarter century, much of it in the media spotlight. Paulina Urrutia was (and still is) an actor and former State Minister, while Augusto Góngora was one of Chile’s most […]
The post “What Remains in the Body”: Maite Alberdi on The Eternal Memory first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “What Remains in the Body”: Maite Alberdi on The Eternal Memory first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/25/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The heavily trafficked subgenre of the neurodegenerative disease drama can be so punishingly bleak it often feels like a thankless dive into misery. But every now and then a film comes along that illuminates such irreversible conditions with fresh perspectives. Mia Hansen-Løve did that last year in narrative form with One Fine Morning, bringing emotional complexity and empathy to a young widow’s struggle to navigate the challenges of her life, among them the slide into dementia of her intellectual father. Chilean documentary maker Maite Alberdi brings similar qualities to the achingly tender nonfiction slice-of-life study, The Eternal Memory.
An Oscar nominee in 2021 for The Mole Agent, Alberdi makes her directorial hand virtually invisible, observing her subjects from a discreet distance that allows them to be narrators of their own story while never speaking directly to the camera.
That makes the film — from Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s...
An Oscar nominee in 2021 for The Mole Agent, Alberdi makes her directorial hand virtually invisible, observing her subjects from a discreet distance that allows them to be narrators of their own story while never speaking directly to the camera.
That makes the film — from Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s...
- 1/22/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi decided to document the impact of Alzheimer’s on married couple Augusto Góngora and Paula Urrutia, she expected to take her time. “I expected to make a film for 10 or 20 years,” the director said ahead of its Sundance premiere. “My producers always wanted to know what the deadline was. I really wanted to be with them until the end.”
As it turns out, the Oscar-nominated director of “The Mole Agent” reached that point much faster than expected. The isolation of the pandemic meant that Góngora, a revered journalist known for his reporting on the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship and its aftermath, lost touch with reality at an accelerated pace. “We didn’t expect him to deteriorate so fast,” Alberdi said. “The 12 months of a year was like 12 years given how he lost his vocabulary and mobility.” At one point, Góngora said he felt as though he were no longer present.
As it turns out, the Oscar-nominated director of “The Mole Agent” reached that point much faster than expected. The isolation of the pandemic meant that Góngora, a revered journalist known for his reporting on the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship and its aftermath, lost touch with reality at an accelerated pace. “We didn’t expect him to deteriorate so fast,” Alberdi said. “The 12 months of a year was like 12 years given how he lost his vocabulary and mobility.” At one point, Góngora said he felt as though he were no longer present.
- 1/21/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Sepideh Farsi’s “La Sirène” (“The Siren”) is opening the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand.
The program, which comprises 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts, includes new films by Patric Chiha, İlker Çatak, Frauke Finsterwalder, Maite Alberdi, Milad Alami and Apolline Traoré. They feature a galaxy of well-known protagonists and actors such as Joan Baez, Jafar Panahi, Payman Maadi, George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Fan Bingbing, Sandra Hüller and Susanne Wolff.
Panorama Selections
“After”
by Anthony Lapia | with Louise Chevillotte, Majd Mastoura, Natalia Wiszniewska
France
World premiere | Debut film
“All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White”
by Babatunde Apalowo | with Tope Tedela, Riyo David, Martha Ehinome Orhiere, Uchechika Elumelu, Floyd Anekwe
Nigeria
World premiere | Debut film
“And, Towards Happy Alleys”
by Sreemoyee Singh | with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Soutodeh, Jinous Nazokkar, Farhad Kheradmand, Aida Mohammadkhani
India
World premiere | Debut film | Documentary
“La Bête dans la...
The program, which comprises 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts, includes new films by Patric Chiha, İlker Çatak, Frauke Finsterwalder, Maite Alberdi, Milad Alami and Apolline Traoré. They feature a galaxy of well-known protagonists and actors such as Joan Baez, Jafar Panahi, Payman Maadi, George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Fan Bingbing, Sandra Hüller and Susanne Wolff.
Panorama Selections
“After”
by Anthony Lapia | with Louise Chevillotte, Majd Mastoura, Natalia Wiszniewska
France
World premiere | Debut film
“All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White”
by Babatunde Apalowo | with Tope Tedela, Riyo David, Martha Ehinome Orhiere, Uchechika Elumelu, Floyd Anekwe
Nigeria
World premiere | Debut film
“And, Towards Happy Alleys”
by Sreemoyee Singh | with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Soutodeh, Jinous Nazokkar, Farhad Kheradmand, Aida Mohammadkhani
India
World premiere | Debut film | Documentary
“La Bête dans la...
- 1/18/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Returning to an in-person edition, along with the continuation of virtual offerings, the Sundance Film Festival kicks off this Thursday and lasts through January 29, offering a first glimpse at the year in cinema. While the annual festival has its fair share of returning filmmakers, it is certainly most renowned as a beacon of discovery, and we look forward to providing extensive coverage that one can follow here or on Twitter. Before reviews arrive, we’re highlighting the premieres that should be on your radar––a few we’ve already had the opportunity to see. If you’re interested in experiencing Sundance in person or from afar, one can see available tickets here.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
Considering the last directorial debut he backed ended up being our favorite film of the last year, expectations are high for the Barry Jenkins-produced All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
Considering the last directorial debut he backed ended up being our favorite film of the last year, expectations are high for the Barry Jenkins-produced All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.
- 1/16/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.