Exclusive: Mike Goodridge has been on a rare journey. Not many in the industry can boast a CV that includes running a trade publication, an international sales company, a film festival and being the producer of multiple Cannes Film Festival movies.
Goodridge, the former editor of Screen International, CEO of Protagonist, and artistic director of the Macao Film Festival, is on the Croisette this year with Un Certain Regard thriller Santosh. In the UK-Germany-France co-production by filmmaker Sandhya Suri, a government scheme sees newly widowed Santosh (Shahana Goswami) inherit her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a low-caste girl is found raped and murdered, she is pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
Filming begins this summer in Asia on Good Chaos/Nine Hours production for Netflix The Ballad Of A Small Player, Ed Berger’s...
Goodridge, the former editor of Screen International, CEO of Protagonist, and artistic director of the Macao Film Festival, is on the Croisette this year with Un Certain Regard thriller Santosh. In the UK-Germany-France co-production by filmmaker Sandhya Suri, a government scheme sees newly widowed Santosh (Shahana Goswami) inherit her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a low-caste girl is found raped and murdered, she is pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
Filming begins this summer in Asia on Good Chaos/Nine Hours production for Netflix The Ballad Of A Small Player, Ed Berger’s...
- 5/16/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Eric Roberts Joins ‘Lolita’
Exclusive: Oscar nominee Eric Roberts (Runaway Train) has joined Johnny Ortiz (Peppermint) and Alexis Vazquez in feature drama Lolita from director Jorge Xolalpa. Filming is currently underway on the Mighty Aphrodite Pictures movie. The plot centers on Jesus (Vazquez), a man who after being released from jail tries to get custody of his daughter. Roberts will portray jaded police officer Jones who grows to care for Jesus’ wellbeing. Pic is being produced by Xolalpa at Mighty Aphrodite Pictures and Alfredo Widman. Roberts, whose recent credits include Damien Chazelle’s Babylon for Paramount Pictures, is repped by Sovereign Talent Group and Scott Carlson Entertainment.
Banijay Benelux Bolsters Nl Film Management Team
Banijay Benelux has promoted Dennis Cornelisse to the role of Managing Director and appointed Wynand Chocolaad as Head of Productions at Nl Film with immediate effect. Cornelisse, who previously served as producer at Nl Film, is replacing Alex Doff,...
Exclusive: Oscar nominee Eric Roberts (Runaway Train) has joined Johnny Ortiz (Peppermint) and Alexis Vazquez in feature drama Lolita from director Jorge Xolalpa. Filming is currently underway on the Mighty Aphrodite Pictures movie. The plot centers on Jesus (Vazquez), a man who after being released from jail tries to get custody of his daughter. Roberts will portray jaded police officer Jones who grows to care for Jesus’ wellbeing. Pic is being produced by Xolalpa at Mighty Aphrodite Pictures and Alfredo Widman. Roberts, whose recent credits include Damien Chazelle’s Babylon for Paramount Pictures, is repped by Sovereign Talent Group and Scott Carlson Entertainment.
Banijay Benelux Bolsters Nl Film Management Team
Banijay Benelux has promoted Dennis Cornelisse to the role of Managing Director and appointed Wynand Chocolaad as Head of Productions at Nl Film with immediate effect. Cornelisse, who previously served as producer at Nl Film, is replacing Alex Doff,...
- 1/31/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow and Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Barbara Rupik’s “Cherub” was awarded the Eurimages New Lab Awards for Innovation at CineMart, the co-production market arm of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, with Lilian Hess’ “Duchampiana” taking home the Eurimart New Lab Award for Outreach.
Rupik’s project follows the titular creatures, shape-shifting angelic beings with human heads and birdlike wings, as they descend to a forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl. The director’s statement says that “Cherub” will blend “elements that are grotesque, musical, dramatic and horror in the genre, woven out of folklore and rural traditions.” Rubik, the author of the puppet animation in Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s “Silent Twins,” and whose shorts have been awarded at Cannes and Dok Leipzig, also took home the Wouter Barendrecht Award worth €5,000.
“Duchampiana” is an artistic VR experience focused on body politics and inspired by Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase.” The installation will...
Rupik’s project follows the titular creatures, shape-shifting angelic beings with human heads and birdlike wings, as they descend to a forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl. The director’s statement says that “Cherub” will blend “elements that are grotesque, musical, dramatic and horror in the genre, woven out of folklore and rural traditions.” Rubik, the author of the puppet animation in Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s “Silent Twins,” and whose shorts have been awarded at Cannes and Dok Leipzig, also took home the Wouter Barendrecht Award worth €5,000.
“Duchampiana” is an artistic VR experience focused on body politics and inspired by Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase.” The installation will...
- 1/30/2024
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
Polish animation project Cherub won two of the seven prizes of the CineMart co-production market of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
The CineMart jury hailed...
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
The CineMart jury hailed...
- 1/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
Polish animation project Cherub won two of the seven prizes handed out tonight (January 30) at CineMart, the co-production market of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
- 1/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Berlinale has revealed the lineup of its Co-Production Market and we’ve got some projects we’ll be keeping a close eye on. At the top of our interest list, we find Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro, Stonewalling tandem Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka and Andreas Fontana who gave us Azor will benefit from the special Rotterdam-Berlinale Express backing for his next project: The Diplomats. 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching. Here they are:
Official Selection:
“Antonivka” (director: Kateryna Gornostai), Moon Man, Ukraine & Just a Moment, Lithuania
“Burnings” (director: Jerry Carlsson), Verket Produktion, Sweden
“Divorce During the War” (director: Andrius Blaževičius), M-Films, Lithuania
“Folk Play” (director: Mirjana Karanović), This and That Productions, Serbia
“Fragments of This Beauty” (director: Burak Çevik), Vayka Film, Turkey & Fol Films, Turkey
“The Girl With the Leica” (director: Alina Marazzi), Vivo Film, Italy
“Ich bin Marika” (director: Hajni Kis), Proton Cinema, Hungary
“Idda’s Breath” (director: Irene Dionisio), Kino Produzioni,...
Official Selection:
“Antonivka” (director: Kateryna Gornostai), Moon Man, Ukraine & Just a Moment, Lithuania
“Burnings” (director: Jerry Carlsson), Verket Produktion, Sweden
“Divorce During the War” (director: Andrius Blaževičius), M-Films, Lithuania
“Folk Play” (director: Mirjana Karanović), This and That Productions, Serbia
“Fragments of This Beauty” (director: Burak Çevik), Vayka Film, Turkey & Fol Films, Turkey
“The Girl With the Leica” (director: Alina Marazzi), Vivo Film, Italy
“Ich bin Marika” (director: Hajni Kis), Proton Cinema, Hungary
“Idda’s Breath” (director: Irene Dionisio), Kino Produzioni,...
- 1/9/2024
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
The Berlin Film Festival, which runs Feb. 15-25, has revealed the lineup of its Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Producers of 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching to potential financing and co-production partners at the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs Feb. 17-21. Seventeen projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions, a slight increase from last year.
Eighteen of the projects are already partly financed with budgets ranging between Euros 600,000 and Euros 5 million ($5.47 million). Among the directors whose new works are likely to spark interest are Ukrainian filmmakers Kateryna Gornostai, who won a Crystal Bear for “Stop-Zemlia” in 2021, and Antonio Lukich, the director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” which played in Venice in 2022, Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro, Serbian director and actor Mirjana Karanović, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.
The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects by directors who have had films at the Berlinale in the past: “Alma” from Sally Potter,...
Producers of 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching to potential financing and co-production partners at the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs Feb. 17-21. Seventeen projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions, a slight increase from last year.
Eighteen of the projects are already partly financed with budgets ranging between Euros 600,000 and Euros 5 million ($5.47 million). Among the directors whose new works are likely to spark interest are Ukrainian filmmakers Kateryna Gornostai, who won a Crystal Bear for “Stop-Zemlia” in 2021, and Antonio Lukich, the director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” which played in Venice in 2022, Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro, Serbian director and actor Mirjana Karanović, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.
The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects by directors who have had films at the Berlinale in the past: “Alma” from Sally Potter,...
- 1/9/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Co-Production Market will support 34 feature film projects from around the world.
The 2024 Berlinale has selected 34 feature film projects for its Co-Production Market, including Sally Potter’s Alma.
The festival has also chosen 202 Berlinale Talents, and 14 titles for its Forum Special strand.
Scroll down for the full list of Co-Production Market projects
The 34 feature projects in the Co-Production Market hail from 27 countries, and were selected from 318 submissions – a slight increase on 2023.
Potter’s Alma follows a family battling survivor guilt and sibling rivalries while on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist. It will be produced by Christopher Sheppard...
The 2024 Berlinale has selected 34 feature film projects for its Co-Production Market, including Sally Potter’s Alma.
The festival has also chosen 202 Berlinale Talents, and 14 titles for its Forum Special strand.
Scroll down for the full list of Co-Production Market projects
The 34 feature projects in the Co-Production Market hail from 27 countries, and were selected from 318 submissions – a slight increase on 2023.
Potter’s Alma follows a family battling survivor guilt and sibling rivalries while on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist. It will be produced by Christopher Sheppard...
- 1/9/2024
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the 34 projects, hailing from 27 countries and selected from 318 submissions, that will be showcased at its Berlinale Co-Production Market, running from February 17 to 21. (scroll down for full list)
The 18 projects in the official selection include upcoming works from Ukrainian directors Kateryna Gornostai (Stop-Zemila) and Antonio Lukich as well as Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro (Monica), Turkey’s Burak Çevik (Hesitation Wound), Serb director and actor Mirjana Karanović (A Good Wife) and Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka (Stonewalling).
The Official Selection projects are already partly financed and have budgets between 600,000 and five million euros.
The Berlinale Directors section showcasing new projects from festival habitués in the early funding stages includes Sally Potter’s upcoming production Alma about a family on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist.
Two projects by Andreas Fontana and Fradique have also been selected as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative,...
The 18 projects in the official selection include upcoming works from Ukrainian directors Kateryna Gornostai (Stop-Zemila) and Antonio Lukich as well as Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro (Monica), Turkey’s Burak Çevik (Hesitation Wound), Serb director and actor Mirjana Karanović (A Good Wife) and Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka (Stonewalling).
The Official Selection projects are already partly financed and have budgets between 600,000 and five million euros.
The Berlinale Directors section showcasing new projects from festival habitués in the early funding stages includes Sally Potter’s upcoming production Alma about a family on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist.
Two projects by Andreas Fontana and Fradique have also been selected as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative,...
- 1/9/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed its selection of 16 feature film projects for the 41st edition of CineMart, running Jan. 28-31.
In Another Journey Without Women six chain-smoking know-it-alls embark on a tragi-comedic polar expedition in Greenland in 1918. The film is directed by Illum Jacobi, whose The Trouble With Nature appeared at IFFR in 2020. The film features Greenlandic actor Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen in the lead role, alongside David Dencik and Claes Bang as the famed explorer Knud Rasmussen.
“Lucia,” directed by Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh, concerns the talented but troubled daughter of author James Joyce. The director’s “Maudie” (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, world premiered in Telluride.
In “Les Diplomates,” two diplomatic counterparts from Austria and Switzerland secretly negotiate the contours of history as the Eastern Bloc disintegrates – fueled by a petty personal grudge. The project is directed by Swiss filmmaker Andreas Fontana, whose eerie thriller “Azor” (2021) picked...
In Another Journey Without Women six chain-smoking know-it-alls embark on a tragi-comedic polar expedition in Greenland in 1918. The film is directed by Illum Jacobi, whose The Trouble With Nature appeared at IFFR in 2020. The film features Greenlandic actor Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen in the lead role, alongside David Dencik and Claes Bang as the famed explorer Knud Rasmussen.
“Lucia,” directed by Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh, concerns the talented but troubled daughter of author James Joyce. The director’s “Maudie” (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, world premiered in Telluride.
In “Les Diplomates,” two diplomatic counterparts from Austria and Switzerland secretly negotiate the contours of history as the Eastern Bloc disintegrates – fueled by a petty personal grudge. The project is directed by Swiss filmmaker Andreas Fontana, whose eerie thriller “Azor” (2021) picked...
- 12/14/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Selection includes new projects by Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson
Projects by directors including Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson are among the 2024 line-up for CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
CineMart has revealed 16 feature film projects and four immersive projects for its upcoming 41st edition, which runs from January 28-31. Cinemart is also presenting six works-in-progress, of which four are features and two immersive, as part of its Darkroom strand.
The project selection includes Lucia from Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh whose Maudie (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke,...
Projects by directors including Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson are among the 2024 line-up for CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
CineMart has revealed 16 feature film projects and four immersive projects for its upcoming 41st edition, which runs from January 28-31. Cinemart is also presenting six works-in-progress, of which four are features and two immersive, as part of its Darkroom strand.
The project selection includes Lucia from Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh whose Maudie (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke,...
- 12/13/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Martin Scorsese, Radu Jude, Joanna Hogg, Claire Denis, Bertrand Bonello, M. Night Shyamalan, Kristen Stewart, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Margarethe von Trotta are among the international filmmakers and talents who have signed an open letter in support of Carlo Chatrian whose mandate as artistic director of the Berlinale will come to an end next year. The number of signatories has now exceeded 400 names and keeps growing.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
- 9/6/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSBetty White in Golden Girls. The iconic Betty White, best known for her comedic prowess on television shows like Golden Girls and the Mary Tyler Moore Show, died on New Year's Eve at the age of 99. The first woman to produce a sitcom, White also starred in films from a small part in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent to Toy Story 4 (as a teething ring named Bitey White), and as Nell Minow writes in her obituary, "she was just as deliriously funny as herself."Steven Soderbergh has published his annual list of everything he's seen and read in 2021, ranging from the 2020 Olympic Games to "Magic Mike Live" and multiple viewings of The Maltese Falcon. Recommended VIEWINGYann Gonzalez (Knife + Heart) has directed a new short film, Fou de Bassan, which is available to view online.
- 1/5/2022
- MUBI
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
Two years into the pandemic, we’re still living through a collective nightmare, a cycle of crisis/reprieve/next-wave that can be so demoralizing. All the more reason, then, to be thankful for the filmmakers who soldiered on, telling stories that helped to make things feel less bad.
What a joy it was to travel through Siberia with the protagonists of Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment Number 6 and be reminded of the sparks of chemistry we share with random passers-by in our lives. How healing it felt to see a deep, life-changing bond develop between two strangers in Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s poetic Murakami adaptation Drive My Car. And bless Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier for the bittersweet ride that is The Worst Person in the World,...
Two years into the pandemic, we’re still living through a collective nightmare, a cycle of crisis/reprieve/next-wave that can be so demoralizing. All the more reason, then, to be thankful for the filmmakers who soldiered on, telling stories that helped to make things feel less bad.
What a joy it was to travel through Siberia with the protagonists of Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment Number 6 and be reminded of the sparks of chemistry we share with random passers-by in our lives. How healing it felt to see a deep, life-changing bond develop between two strangers in Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s poetic Murakami adaptation Drive My Car. And bless Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier for the bittersweet ride that is The Worst Person in the World,...
- 1/5/2022
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
Ivan de Wiel, private banker from Geneva, Switzerland, arrives in Buenos Aires with his wife Inès. A military coup has plunged the country into turmoil. De Wiel is in Argentina to take over the business left behind by his banking partner René Keys (Alain Gegenschatz), who had disappeared without a trace in Andreas Fontana’s haunting Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas.
1977 in A Book of Common Prayer Joan Didion writes: “The day Luis was shot Elena flew to exile in Geneva, a theatrical gesture but unnecessary, since even before her plane left the runway the coup was over and Little Victor had assumed temporary control of the government.” The characters inhabiting Didion’s invented Central American nation Boca Grande could...
1977 in A Book of Common Prayer Joan Didion writes: “The day Luis was shot Elena flew to exile in Geneva, a theatrical gesture but unnecessary, since even before her plane left the runway the coup was over and Little Victor had assumed temporary control of the government.” The characters inhabiting Didion’s invented Central American nation Boca Grande could...
- 12/30/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Andreas Fontana’s haunting Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau: “The cinematography was done by Gabriel Sandru and we were talking a lot about that.”
Andreas Fontana’s Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, shot by Gabriel Sandru with costumes by Simona Martínez, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau.
Andreas Fontana with Anne-Katrin Titze on Jorge Luis Borges: “Borges of course in terms of literary inspiration is very important.”
In my discussion with the director we touch on the influence of Howard Hawks and Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Didion’s codes and games, casting director Alexandre Nazarian, the cinematography, costumes, and filming in Argentina with non-professional actors, “men who are very impressive”.
Boredom is seen as “divine punishment,” old money...
Andreas Fontana’s Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, shot by Gabriel Sandru with costumes by Simona Martínez, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau.
Andreas Fontana with Anne-Katrin Titze on Jorge Luis Borges: “Borges of course in terms of literary inspiration is very important.”
In my discussion with the director we touch on the influence of Howard Hawks and Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Didion’s codes and games, casting director Alexandre Nazarian, the cinematography, costumes, and filming in Argentina with non-professional actors, “men who are very impressive”.
Boredom is seen as “divine punishment,” old money...
- 12/29/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...
- 12/27/2021
- MUBI
Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Andreas Fontana's Azor is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting December 3, 2021 in the series Debuts.Inspiration #1I need to do research to write. During this research I take a lot of pictures. It's my way of finding something. For Azor, I have dozens and dozens of photos that served as references and that I had stuck in a large notebook that I carried with me on the set. Unfortunately this notebook is now stored in a cellar. This photo was taken during a horse race at the San Isidro Hippodrome, Buenos Aires, in 2017.Inspiration #2This book was given to me by Mariano Llinás during one of our meetings to work on the Azor script. It is a biography of one of the darkest, most troubled and ambiguous...
- 12/23/2021
- MUBI
In a year marked by a recovering box office and distributors experimenting with a wide variety of types of releases, what does an overlooked film constitute? While there are fewer means than in years past to quantify such a metric, there are still plenty of films that didn’t get their due throughout 2021 and deserve more attention in the weeks, months, years to come.
Sadly, many documentaries would qualify for this list, but we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. Check out the list below, as presented in alphabetical order. A great deal of the below titles are also available to stream, so check out our feature here to catch up.
Anne at 13,000 Ft (Kazik Radwanski)
There’s a neat metaphor established at the outset of Anne at 13,000 ft, with its protagonist’s professional and personal life mirroring the freefall...
Sadly, many documentaries would qualify for this list, but we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. Check out the list below, as presented in alphabetical order. A great deal of the below titles are also available to stream, so check out our feature here to catch up.
Anne at 13,000 Ft (Kazik Radwanski)
There’s a neat metaphor established at the outset of Anne at 13,000 ft, with its protagonist’s professional and personal life mirroring the freefall...
- 12/20/2021
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
From Petite Maman to The Father to The Lost Daughter, our critic lists his top films of 2021 – and surveys the year in cinema. Have your say in the comments
This was the year that the cinema emerged, blinking, from its enforced hibernation, and the new James Bond film, which was beginning to feel like some sort of commercial or cultural myth, actually came out to tumultuous box office business. International film festivals were once again happening in reality. And some old debates and quarrels have been revived. Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux, who has decided against scheduling any films that did not have a big-screen cinema release, pointedly asked his audience at the opening press conference if Netflix has ever nurtured any directors from the beginning of their career.
Answer came there none – although Twitter was lively on the subject afterwards. But maybe 2021 was the time to put this argument to bed.
This was the year that the cinema emerged, blinking, from its enforced hibernation, and the new James Bond film, which was beginning to feel like some sort of commercial or cultural myth, actually came out to tumultuous box office business. International film festivals were once again happening in reality. And some old debates and quarrels have been revived. Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux, who has decided against scheduling any films that did not have a big-screen cinema release, pointedly asked his audience at the opening press conference if Netflix has ever nurtured any directors from the beginning of their career.
Answer came there none – although Twitter was lively on the subject afterwards. But maybe 2021 was the time to put this argument to bed.
- 12/16/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Though we aim to discuss a wide breadth of films each year, few things give us more pleasure than the arrival of bold, new voices. It’s why we venture to festivals and pore over a variety of different features that might bring to light some emerging talent. This year was an especially notable time for new directors making their stamp, and we’re highlighting the handful of 2021 debuts that most impressed us.
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
Azor (Andreas Fontana)
An almost suffocating air of secrecy permeates Azor, a Swiss-Argentinean coproduction concerning the mutual suspicion and damnable complicity of patrician North Atlantic capitalism and repressive regimes in the postcolonial Global South. The year is 1980, and a private banker from Geneva circulates among the Buenos Aires elite.
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
Azor (Andreas Fontana)
An almost suffocating air of secrecy permeates Azor, a Swiss-Argentinean coproduction concerning the mutual suspicion and damnable complicity of patrician North Atlantic capitalism and repressive regimes in the postcolonial Global South. The year is 1980, and a private banker from Geneva circulates among the Buenos Aires elite.
- 12/13/2021
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
An eerie, unsettling conspiracy drama about the ultra-wealthy from director Andreas Fontana, in which a Swiss banker navigates Argentina’s dirty war
50 best films of 2021 in the UKMore on the best culture of 2021
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; it is a conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s codeword in conversation for “be silent”. It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents. Azor gives a queasy new perspective on the horror of those times, and there is even a nauseous echo of the Swiss banks’ attitude to their German neighbours in the second world war.
Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) is a private banker from Geneva – elegant, discreet, an excellent speaker of Spanish,...
50 best films of 2021 in the UKMore on the best culture of 2021
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; it is a conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s codeword in conversation for “be silent”. It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents. Azor gives a queasy new perspective on the horror of those times, and there is even a nauseous echo of the Swiss banks’ attitude to their German neighbours in the second world war.
Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) is a private banker from Geneva – elegant, discreet, an excellent speaker of Spanish,...
- 12/8/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Andreas Fontana's Azor is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting December 3, 2021 in the series Debuts.In Carol Reed's The Third Man, Harry Lime—for so much of the film a semi-mythic spectre—reaches about for a metaphor for worthy, peaceable dullness to contrast with the culturally fertile ferment of Renaissance-era Italy. He comes up with Switzerland. "In Switzerland," he drawls, in that infuriatingly amused, contemptuous baritone of his, "They had brotherly love, and they had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." Swiss director Andreas Fontana's Azor, an impossibly accomplished feature debut in which the character of René Keys becomes a structuring absence to rival Lime's, challenges that assertion. And not just because, as we've all been made aware by the tsk-ing of a thousand pedants since, the cuckoo clock actually originates in Bavaria.
- 12/3/2021
- MUBI
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
See our comprehensive guide to where to stream the best films of 2021.
Adrienne (Andy Ostroy)
I hadn’t seen any of Adrienne Shelly’s work at the time of her death, but you couldn’t follow the film world in 2006 without hearing about what happened. News sites first latched onto the assumption of suicide only to discover what happened was murder—the culprit found, arrested, and confessed shortly afterwards. And amidst that tragic whirlwind during the final two months of that year, Shelly’s latest film as writer-director-star, Waitress, was in submission at Sundance. It would eventually bow at the festival, find distribution, become an overnight indie darling, and spawn a Broadway musical adaptation with songs by Sara Bareilles. She unfortunately never...
See our comprehensive guide to where to stream the best films of 2021.
Adrienne (Andy Ostroy)
I hadn’t seen any of Adrienne Shelly’s work at the time of her death, but you couldn’t follow the film world in 2006 without hearing about what happened. News sites first latched onto the assumption of suicide only to discover what happened was murder—the culprit found, arrested, and confessed shortly afterwards. And amidst that tragic whirlwind during the final two months of that year, Shelly’s latest film as writer-director-star, Waitress, was in submission at Sundance. It would eventually bow at the festival, find distribution, become an overnight indie darling, and spawn a Broadway musical adaptation with songs by Sara Bareilles. She unfortunately never...
- 12/3/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Our site is based in Toronto, Canada, though some of us live and work in The Lower 48, myself included, and so I know that the following films will be opening in the U.S. this week; some (most?) of them are also opening in Canada, and some in other regions of the world. Scroll down to watch the trailers. (All quoted material is from the official verbiage for the films and thus subject to possible excess hyperbole.) Azor: From Swiss director Andreas Fontana comes an invitation into a "moneyed world where political violence simmers just under the surface." Money? Violence? International intrigue? You have my attention. [Mubi.] Last Shoot Out: Bruce Dern is my main attraction here. He co-stars with Cam Gigandet in a "gritty,...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 11/30/2021
- Screen Anarchy
Mubi is closing the year out on a high note with their December lineup, featuring some of 2021’s most acclaimed U.S. releases.
Highlights include Tsai Ming-liang’s Days (along with his previous feature Afternoon), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, Andreas Fontana’s Azor, Anders Edströ & C.W. Winter’s eight-hour epic The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin), Frank Beauvais’ Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream, and Michael M. Bilandic’s soon-to-premiere Project Space 13.
Also among the lineup is Arnaud Desplechin’s Esther Kahn, a quartet of Godard classics, Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s short The Bones, produced by Ari Aster, and much more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
December 1 | Pierrot le fou | Jean-Luc Godard | The Cinema of Marx and Coca-Cola: Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s
December 2 | Le bel indifferent | Jacques Demy | Scenes from a Small Town:...
Highlights include Tsai Ming-liang’s Days (along with his previous feature Afternoon), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, Andreas Fontana’s Azor, Anders Edströ & C.W. Winter’s eight-hour epic The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin), Frank Beauvais’ Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream, and Michael M. Bilandic’s soon-to-premiere Project Space 13.
Also among the lineup is Arnaud Desplechin’s Esther Kahn, a quartet of Godard classics, Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s short The Bones, produced by Ari Aster, and much more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
December 1 | Pierrot le fou | Jean-Luc Godard | The Cinema of Marx and Coca-Cola: Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s
December 2 | Le bel indifferent | Jacques Demy | Scenes from a Small Town:...
- 11/23/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Anonymous Content has signed Gotham Award-nominated filmmaker Andreas Fontana, whose feature debut Azor has played to acclaim at festivals including Berlin, San Sebastian and London.
The Swiss writer-director was recently nominated for a Gotham Award for Best International Feature for Azor, which played in the Berlinale’s Encounters section and was then picked up by arthouse distributor Mubi for a raft of territories.
The film uses French, Spanish and English dialogue to tell the trans-Atlantic story of Yvan De Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione), a private banker from Geneva. Yvan visits Argentina during the Junta dictatorship to replace his partner, who mysteriously disappeared one night leaving few clues behind. As he manoeuvres among Argentina’s elite, the banker plays a dangerous political game of modern capitalist colonization.
The movie recently won the Emerging Swiss Talent Award at the Zurich Film Festival and garnered ten nominations at the different festivals it played this year.
The Swiss writer-director was recently nominated for a Gotham Award for Best International Feature for Azor, which played in the Berlinale’s Encounters section and was then picked up by arthouse distributor Mubi for a raft of territories.
The film uses French, Spanish and English dialogue to tell the trans-Atlantic story of Yvan De Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione), a private banker from Geneva. Yvan visits Argentina during the Junta dictatorship to replace his partner, who mysteriously disappeared one night leaving few clues behind. As he manoeuvres among Argentina’s elite, the banker plays a dangerous political game of modern capitalist colonization.
The movie recently won the Emerging Swiss Talent Award at the Zurich Film Festival and garnered ten nominations at the different festivals it played this year.
- 11/4/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Indie titles include ‘Azor’, ‘The Football Monologues’.
Edgar Wright’s London-set psychological horror Last Night In Soho leads the openers at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, broaching new ground for the director as his first 18-rated title.
Released by Universal, the film is playing in 519 locations – the third-widest opener of Wright’s career, after Baby Driver with 544 and The World’s End with 531.
Wright’s highest-grossing opening weekend is still Hot Fuzz, which took £4.4m from 427 sites – an outstanding figure for a 2007 release.
That title is also his highest-grossing total, with £21.2m; other highlights include Baby Driver (£13.1m), The World’s End...
Edgar Wright’s London-set psychological horror Last Night In Soho leads the openers at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, broaching new ground for the director as his first 18-rated title.
Released by Universal, the film is playing in 519 locations – the third-widest opener of Wright’s career, after Baby Driver with 544 and The World’s End with 531.
Wright’s highest-grossing opening weekend is still Hot Fuzz, which took £4.4m from 427 sites – an outstanding figure for a 2007 release.
That title is also his highest-grossing total, with £21.2m; other highlights include Baby Driver (£13.1m), The World’s End...
- 10/29/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Ahead of a ceremony on November 29, this year’s Gotham Awards nominations have been unveiled, featuring some of the year’s finest cinema. Among the nominations are some personal favorites here at The Film Stage, including Drive My Car, Faya Dayi, The Worst Person in the World (a film that still doesn’t have an actual 2021 U.S. release date), Test Pattern, and El Planeta.
This year, the Gothams made a switch to have all performance categories be gender neutral, with those categories have been restructured into Outstanding Leading and Supporting Performance categories for feature films, joining the already existing Breakthrough Performer category.
Check out the film nominations for the Gotham Awards below.
Best Feature
The Green Knight
David Lowery, director; Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, David Lowery, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page, producers (A24)
The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal, director; Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Charles Dorfman,...
This year, the Gothams made a switch to have all performance categories be gender neutral, with those categories have been restructured into Outstanding Leading and Supporting Performance categories for feature films, joining the already existing Breakthrough Performer category.
Check out the film nominations for the Gotham Awards below.
Best Feature
The Green Knight
David Lowery, director; Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, David Lowery, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page, producers (A24)
The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal, director; Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Charles Dorfman,...
- 10/21/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
“The Green Knight,” “The Lost Daughter,” “Passing,” “Pig” and “Test Pattern” will compete for best feature film at the 31st annual Gotham Awards. The event is key stop in the awards season marathon, particularly for lower-budgeted indie fare that is looking to elbow into the Oscars race.
At the Gothams, “Passing,” a black-and-white drama that examines racism and colorist, and “The Lost Daughter,” a searing look at motherhood, led the pack with five nominations apiece. Close behind was “Coda,” a tender look at a teenager who is the only hearing member of a deaf family, earned three nominations including one of breakthrough performer for its star Emilia Jones. “Red Rocket,” the story of a washed-up porn star who returns to his hometown, also nabbed three nominations.
Nominees for the best documentary prize include “Ascension,” “Faya Dayi,” “Flee,” “President,” and “Summer Of Soul.” Best international feature is a race between “Azor,...
At the Gothams, “Passing,” a black-and-white drama that examines racism and colorist, and “The Lost Daughter,” a searing look at motherhood, led the pack with five nominations apiece. Close behind was “Coda,” a tender look at a teenager who is the only hearing member of a deaf family, earned three nominations including one of breakthrough performer for its star Emilia Jones. “Red Rocket,” the story of a washed-up porn star who returns to his hometown, also nabbed three nominations.
Nominees for the best documentary prize include “Ascension,” “Faya Dayi,” “Flee,” “President,” and “Summer Of Soul.” Best international feature is a race between “Azor,...
- 10/21/2021
- by Brent Lang and Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi is launching a U.S. in-theater offering this month letting members see one film a week that it selects at participating cinemas starting in New York City. It said Mubi Go will roll out nationwide in selected markets with LA next in early 2022.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
- 10/19/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Andreas Fontana’s debut feature is an unnervingly subtle drama about a Swiss private banker visiting clients in Argentina during the period of the military junta and ‘disappearances’
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; an eerie oppression in the air. Andreas Fontana is a Swiss director making his feature debut with this conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s code-word in conversation for “Be silent”.
It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents, and you could set it alongside recent movies including Benjamín Naishtat’s Rojo (2018) and Francisco Márquez’s A Common Crime (2020), which intuited the almost supernatural fear among those left behind when people they knew had vanished and joined los desaparecidos,...
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; an eerie oppression in the air. Andreas Fontana is a Swiss director making his feature debut with this conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s code-word in conversation for “Be silent”.
It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents, and you could set it alongside recent movies including Benjamín Naishtat’s Rojo (2018) and Francisco Márquez’s A Common Crime (2020), which intuited the almost supernatural fear among those left behind when people they knew had vanished and joined los desaparecidos,...
- 10/13/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The 17th Zurich Film Festival concluded Saturday with wins for Jonas Carpignano‘s “A Chiara” and Fred Baillif’s “La Mif,” with Renato Borrayo Serrano’s “Life of Ivanna” named best documentary.
The jury, led by Daniel Brühl, and featuring director Stéphanie Chuat, former Berlinale chief Dieter Kosslick and producer Andrea Cornwell, decided to award “A Chiara” with the prize for the best film of the Feature Film Competition. The Italian-French-Swedish-Danish co-production sees a teenage girl in a Calabrian town discovering her father’s criminal involvement.
“We were swept away by the modern take on the Italian neorealist tradition, the exceptional use of music and sound design and the outstanding performances by Swami Rotolo and her family, all making their film debuts. This film is nothing less than a cinematic masterpiece,” argued the jury, calling the decision “unanimous.”
Clint Bentley’s “Jockey” – praised for “an incredible performance” by Clifton Collins Jr.,...
The jury, led by Daniel Brühl, and featuring director Stéphanie Chuat, former Berlinale chief Dieter Kosslick and producer Andrea Cornwell, decided to award “A Chiara” with the prize for the best film of the Feature Film Competition. The Italian-French-Swedish-Danish co-production sees a teenage girl in a Calabrian town discovering her father’s criminal involvement.
“We were swept away by the modern take on the Italian neorealist tradition, the exceptional use of music and sound design and the outstanding performances by Swami Rotolo and her family, all making their film debuts. This film is nothing less than a cinematic masterpiece,” argued the jury, calling the decision “unanimous.”
Clint Bentley’s “Jockey” – praised for “an incredible performance” by Clifton Collins Jr.,...
- 10/2/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Audrey Diwan's Happening. The Venice Film Festival has come to a close. Check out all of the award winners, which include Audrey Diwan's Happening, Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God, and Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog, here.Comedian Norm Macdonald, best known as a former cast member of Saturday Night Live and for his performances in films like Dirty Work, has died at 61. In a tweet dedicated to Macdonald, Adam Sandler described Macdonald as the "most fearless funny original guy we knew." Once titled Soggy Bottom, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest feature has a new title: Licorice Pizza, a reference to the record store chain from the 1970s. Surprise 35mm trailers for Licorice Pizza, described as having similarities to Anderson's Boogie Nights, have been seen playing before films like American Graffiti and Repo Men.
- 9/15/2021
- MUBI
Andreas Fontana’s exquisite, quietly dazzling feature Azor answers a question we didn’t know we had: how to make a mystery—a thriller, even—set in the world of private banking. Partly: it’s about the arrival of a Swiss banker, Yvan De Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione), in early 1980s Buenos Aires, when Argentina is still in the grip of dictatorship. De Wiel is there to take on the wealthy (and suspicious) clients of a colleague, Keys, who has disappeared, leaving a flamboyant reputation. Often accompanied by his wife, Inès (Stéphanie Cléau), he’s left to navigate the already murky areas of hush-hush finance under the […]
The post “In Switzerland, We All Benefit From the Bank”: Andreas Fontana on Azor first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “In Switzerland, We All Benefit From the Bank”: Andreas Fontana on Azor first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 9/10/2021
- by Nicolas Rapold
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
“Show, don’t tell,” says conventional wisdom. “Conceal, conceal, conceal” responds director Andreas Fontana, whose debut feature “Azor” paints a portrait of fear using palpable gaps in conversation. As a Swiss banker, Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) follows in the footsteps of his missing colleague, and Fontana’s self-assured filmmaking captures a chilling atmosphere against the backdrop of Argentina’s Dirty War. The film seldom wavers from its singular idea and feeling; tonally, it’s a stroll across a plateau by design, but it teeters constantly over that plateau’s edge.
A false tropical backdrop and washed-out footage of a well-dressed man with a forced smile yank us into the story and its permeating sense of artifice. Perhaps this man is Yvan’s missing business partner, or perhaps he is the idea of an influential outsider under the thumb of vastly more influential local forces. This is the world Yvan enters with...
A false tropical backdrop and washed-out footage of a well-dressed man with a forced smile yank us into the story and its permeating sense of artifice. Perhaps this man is Yvan’s missing business partner, or perhaps he is the idea of an influential outsider under the thumb of vastly more influential local forces. This is the world Yvan enters with...
- 9/8/2021
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Indiewire
Movistar Plus, the pay TV/VOD operator of Spanish telco Telefonica, and the San Sebastian Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world, are bowing a multi-year alliance to simulcast select titles bowing at the festival in a Movistar Plus virtual screening room.
Imitating the limited access of a festival, the films will only be available for viewing on the days that they screen in San Sebastian.Movistar Plus subscribers will be able to purchase tickets on a VOD basis at a San Sebastian Festival Virtual Screening Room on the platform. Titles will include not only movies to which Movistar Plus has purchased pay TV rights for Spain, but also third-party titles, Cristina Burzako, Movistar Plus CEO, said Wednesday at a presentation of novel exhibition system in Madrid.
Films to which clients will be able to purchase virtual fest tickets include some of the strongest toitles screening at San Sebastian this year,...
Imitating the limited access of a festival, the films will only be available for viewing on the days that they screen in San Sebastian.Movistar Plus subscribers will be able to purchase tickets on a VOD basis at a San Sebastian Festival Virtual Screening Room on the platform. Titles will include not only movies to which Movistar Plus has purchased pay TV rights for Spain, but also third-party titles, Cristina Burzako, Movistar Plus CEO, said Wednesday at a presentation of novel exhibition system in Madrid.
Films to which clients will be able to purchase virtual fest tickets include some of the strongest toitles screening at San Sebastian this year,...
- 9/8/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The 65th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express has announced the full 2021 programme line-up that will be presented both in cinemas and virtually.
Opening and closing films have previously been announced with Netflix’s ‘The Harder They Fall opening the festival. Directed by Londoner Jeymes Samuel, the film will receive its World Premiere at Lff gala venue the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, with Samuel expected to attend along with the key cast. The Festival closes with Joel Coen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play, ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ from Apple Original Films and A24. The film will receive its European Premiere at the Lff, with Joel Coen expected to attend. Both films will be available at Lff partner cinemas across the UK, with ‘The Harder They Fall also going to a wider network of cinemas.
This year’s headline galas will include the dark...
Opening and closing films have previously been announced with Netflix’s ‘The Harder They Fall opening the festival. Directed by Londoner Jeymes Samuel, the film will receive its World Premiere at Lff gala venue the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, with Samuel expected to attend along with the key cast. The Festival closes with Joel Coen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play, ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ from Apple Original Films and A24. The film will receive its European Premiere at the Lff, with Joel Coen expected to attend. Both films will be available at Lff partner cinemas across the UK, with ‘The Harder They Fall also going to a wider network of cinemas.
This year’s headline galas will include the dark...
- 9/7/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The 65 British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival has unveiled its full program and the headline galas include several films that have been gaining fame recently.
Among the galas are Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart; Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” with Benedict Cumberbatch; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard,” with Will Smith; and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” featuring a host of stars including Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton and Léa Seydoux.
The galas also include Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Eva Husson’s “Mothering Sunday,” Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” and Sarah Smith and Jean Philippe-Vine’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong.”
Special presentations include Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria,” Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District,...
Among the galas are Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart; Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” with Benedict Cumberbatch; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard,” with Will Smith; and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” featuring a host of stars including Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton and Léa Seydoux.
The galas also include Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Eva Husson’s “Mothering Sunday,” Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” and Sarah Smith and Jean Philippe-Vine’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong.”
Special presentations include Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria,” Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District,...
- 9/7/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
While the theatrical calendar is still very much up in the air, distributors are dating films as long as cinemas remain in business—thus we have a fairly comprehensive fall preview. As we do each year, after highlighting the best films offered thus far, we’ve set out to provide of an overview of the titles that should be on your radar this upcoming season––and while some dates will certainly shift, it’s quite a promising lineup of films.
Featuring 50 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews.
Faya Dayi (Jessica Beshir; Sept. 3 in theaters)
“Look how far God has brought us. We can only...
Featuring 50 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews.
Faya Dayi (Jessica Beshir; Sept. 3 in theaters)
“Look how far God has brought us. We can only...
- 8/26/2021
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: The Souvenir Part II. (Courtesy of A24)NYFF has announced its full main slate, which includes Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta, Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir Part II, Julia Ducournau's Titane, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, and more. A long-gestating epistolary documentary that consists of a dialogue between Jean-Luc Godard and Iranian filmmaker and intellectual Ebrahim Golestan is set to premiere on the international festival circuit. The project consisted of Golestan sending emails with text and no visuals to Godard, who would respond with visuals and aphorisms. Mel Brooks' memoir, My Remarkable Life in Show Business, will be released November 30. The book is said to follow the "peaks and valleys" of Brooks' storied life beginning with his childhood, retold with his signature irreverent humor. Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Andreas Fontana's riveting political thriller Azor,...
- 8/11/2021
- MUBI
"Act as simple as you can, my dear." Mubi has released an official trailer for an intriguing film titled Azor, which first premiered at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. It's described as a "political thriller" but it's unlike any other political thriller. Yvan De Wiel, a private banker from Geneva, goes to Argentina in the midst of a dictatorship to replace his partner, the object of the most worrying rumours, who disappeared overnight. It's set during a tumultuous time in Argentina in the 1970s, all about the power play of money. "In his remarkably assured debut, Swiss director Andreas Fontana invites us into this seductive, moneyed world where political violence simmers just under the surface." It's co-written by Argentinian filmmaker Mariano Llinás (La Flor), and is "a riveting look at international intrigue worthy of John le Carré or Graham Greene." Starring Fabrizio Rongione, Stéphanie Cléau, Elli Medeiros, and Alexandre Trocki.
- 7/28/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The festival seasons have been so crowded—blame a world-ending pandemic that pushes premiere after premiere into the same ten-day spans—that something as uniformly admired as Azor needs a second to breathe. Andreas Fontana’s political thriller, co-written by the brilliant Mariano Llinás (La Flor), immerses us in ’70s Argentina and the backroom dealings of a banker replacing his mysteriously (murderously?) vanished predecessor. As Mark Asch said out of Nd/Nf, “a film of almost Le Carréan subtlety, of oblique plotting, crouching dialogue, and guarded performances masking sinister realpolitik.”
An excellent first trailer has arrived from Mubi, who will release Azor stateside on September 10. On full display is what Asch called its “handsome, in tasteful wood-varnish browns and billiards-felt greens” aesthetic, more than a few shots that merit a rewind and pause, and promise of—dare we say?—dealings deeper than meet the eye.
See our exclusive premiere of...
An excellent first trailer has arrived from Mubi, who will release Azor stateside on September 10. On full display is what Asch called its “handsome, in tasteful wood-varnish browns and billiards-felt greens” aesthetic, more than a few shots that merit a rewind and pause, and promise of—dare we say?—dealings deeper than meet the eye.
See our exclusive premiere of...
- 7/28/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The story of a Swiss banker traveling Argentina during the junta, “Azor” takes place in the cloistered world of private banking. A world one is often born into, with special codes of conduct and dialect, private bankers prefer to operate out of public view – that’s why the banks endure and build fortunes over centuries while their criminal clients may rise and fall. Azor itself is a code word meaning “to not say too much” or “to keep one’s cards close,” a trait that the film and its protagonist so excel at, viewers will be kept guessing until the last moment.
Read More: ‘Liborio’: Nino Martínez Sosa’s Debut Is A Moving Drama About Belief [Nd/Nf Review]
Yvan de Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione) is a third-generation Swiss banker traveling to Argentina for the first time after the disappearance of his partner, Rene Keys.
Continue reading ‘Azor’: Andreas Fontana’s Debut...
Read More: ‘Liborio’: Nino Martínez Sosa’s Debut Is A Moving Drama About Belief [Nd/Nf Review]
Yvan de Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione) is a third-generation Swiss banker traveling to Argentina for the first time after the disappearance of his partner, Rene Keys.
Continue reading ‘Azor’: Andreas Fontana’s Debut...
- 5/14/2021
- by Joe Blessing
- The Playlist
An almost suffocating air of secrecy permeates Azor, a Swiss-Argentinean coproduction concerning the mutual suspicion and damnable complicity of patrician North Atlantic capitalism and repressive regimes in the postcolonial Global South. The year is 1980, and a private banker from Geneva circulates among the Buenos Aires elite. This is at the height of the Dirty War, though so absolute is the Swiss banker’s discretion—so clean his hands—that the military junta’s crimes against its people feel as suggestively peripheral to the film’s narrative as the word “disappeared” implies. Filmmaker Andreas Fontana’s debut feature is a film of almost Le Carréan subtlety, of oblique plotting, crouching dialogue, and guarded performances masking sinister realpolitik.
Yvan De Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione), the third-generation scion of a Swiss private banking family—as Fontana himself is—arrives in Argentina with his wife Ines (Stéphanie Cléau), to meet with clients and colleagues: landowners,...
Yvan De Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione), the third-generation scion of a Swiss private banking family—as Fontana himself is—arrives in Argentina with his wife Ines (Stéphanie Cléau), to meet with clients and colleagues: landowners,...
- 5/2/2021
- by Mark Asch
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Arthouse streamer and theatrical distributor Mubi has acquired all rights to Sundance documentary Faya Dayi in the UK and Ireland, Latin America, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey and India.
Jessica Beshir’s feature directorial debut goes on a journey into the highlands of Harar, Ethiopia, to observe the rituals of khat, a powerful plant that Sufi Muslims chewed for religious meditations – and which is Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. Through the prism of the khat trade, the film charts the stories of people caught between violent government repression, khat-induced fantasies and dangerous journeys beyond borders.
Faya Dayi will also screen at Visions du Réel, Hot Docs Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival this month. Brooklyn-based Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker Beshir also produces the feature.
Cinetic Media is handling sales for international rights, and the deal was negotiated by Cinetic Media on behalf of the filmmakers.
Beshir is a...
Jessica Beshir’s feature directorial debut goes on a journey into the highlands of Harar, Ethiopia, to observe the rituals of khat, a powerful plant that Sufi Muslims chewed for religious meditations – and which is Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. Through the prism of the khat trade, the film charts the stories of people caught between violent government repression, khat-induced fantasies and dangerous journeys beyond borders.
Faya Dayi will also screen at Visions du Réel, Hot Docs Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival this month. Brooklyn-based Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker Beshir also produces the feature.
Cinetic Media is handling sales for international rights, and the deal was negotiated by Cinetic Media on behalf of the filmmakers.
Beshir is a...
- 4/9/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSFilmmaker Bertrand Mandico has illustrated the 70th anniversary cover of Cahier du Cinéma, entitled "Gloria, angel of the history of the cinema." The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the lineup for the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films. Screenings will take place from April 28-May 8 through the MoMA and Flc virtual cinemas, and in-person screenings at Flc through May 13. The lineup of 27 features and 11 shorts includes Theo Anthony's All Light, Everywhere, Andreas Fontana's Azor, Alice Diop's We (Nous), and Jane Schoenbrun's We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Recommended VIEWINGAnother Gaze's free streaming project, Another Screen, has announced two new programmes: Hands Tied, about hands, and Eating the Other, about gendered notions of eating. The first official trailer for Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, which...
- 4/6/2021
- MUBI
The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center Thursday announces the complete lineup for the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/New Films rolling out April 28 – May 8. The films will screen both virtually and at the Flc theater through May 13, making it the first NYC fest to return to the big screen.
Opening night will feature Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta, a portrait of a mother and daughter barely scraping by in Spain’s northwestern seaside town of Gijón. The event will close with All Light, Everywhere, director Theo Anthony’s winner of a Sundance Jury Prize for Experimentation in Nonfiction. Anthony’s follow-up to Rat Film, All Light, Everywhere uses U.S. law enforcement bodycam footage as a treatise on perception, power, and policing.
The fest will showcase 27 films and 11 shorts.
A free virtual retrospective celebrating 50 years of Nd/Nf will be available from April 16-28.
“From intimate,...
Opening night will feature Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta, a portrait of a mother and daughter barely scraping by in Spain’s northwestern seaside town of Gijón. The event will close with All Light, Everywhere, director Theo Anthony’s winner of a Sundance Jury Prize for Experimentation in Nonfiction. Anthony’s follow-up to Rat Film, All Light, Everywhere uses U.S. law enforcement bodycam footage as a treatise on perception, power, and policing.
The fest will showcase 27 films and 11 shorts.
A free virtual retrospective celebrating 50 years of Nd/Nf will be available from April 16-28.
“From intimate,...
- 4/1/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have today announced the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf), this year available in both virtual and in-theater settings, marking it as the first New York City festival to return to live screenings since the pandemic began. This year’s festival will introduce 27 features and 11 shorts to audiences nationwide in the MoMA and Flc virtual cinemas, and to New Yorkers at Film at Lincoln Center. The festival will open with Amalia Ulman’s “El Planeta” and close with Theo Anthony’s “All Light, Everywhere,” both of which premiered at Sundance in January.
This year’s edition will mark the second time the festival has offered a virtual arm: the festival’s original March 2020 dates were postponed when pandemic shutdowns took hold, with the series eventually opting to go virtual for its 49th edition, rolling out last December.
This year’s edition will mark the second time the festival has offered a virtual arm: the festival’s original March 2020 dates were postponed when pandemic shutdowns took hold, with the series eventually opting to go virtual for its 49th edition, rolling out last December.
- 4/1/2021
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/ New Films.
The annual program will be held virtually on April 28 through May 8, with in-person screening extending through May 14 at Film at Lincoln Center.
This year’s festival is introducing 27 features and 11 short films. Unique to the 2021 edition, there will be a free virtual retrospective to celebrate the past 50 years of New Directors/ New Films running from April 16 through April 28.
“From intimate, personal tales to political, metaphysical, and spiritual inquiries, the films in the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films embody an inexhaustible curiosity and a fearless desire for adventure,” said La Frances Hui, curator of Film at The Museum of Modern Art and 2021 New Directors/New Films co-chair. “They prove that cinema will continue to illuminate and inspire the way we live, and make art.”
Writer and director Amalia Ulman...
The annual program will be held virtually on April 28 through May 8, with in-person screening extending through May 14 at Film at Lincoln Center.
This year’s festival is introducing 27 features and 11 short films. Unique to the 2021 edition, there will be a free virtual retrospective to celebrate the past 50 years of New Directors/ New Films running from April 16 through April 28.
“From intimate, personal tales to political, metaphysical, and spiritual inquiries, the films in the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films embody an inexhaustible curiosity and a fearless desire for adventure,” said La Frances Hui, curator of Film at The Museum of Modern Art and 2021 New Directors/New Films co-chair. “They prove that cinema will continue to illuminate and inspire the way we live, and make art.”
Writer and director Amalia Ulman...
- 4/1/2021
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
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