News

“Red Island,” the latest film by “120 Bpm” director Robin Campillo, has been acquired by New York-based company Film Movement for North American distribution following its run in the festival circuit.

“Red Island,” which is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani, the Oscar-nominated producer of “Anatomy of a Fall,” world premiered at San Sebastian Film Festival. Film Movement will open the film theatrically on Aug. 16 at Film at Lincoln Center, followed by a wider release and a rollout on digital and home entertainment platforms.

Set at the beginning of the ’70s in Madagascar, “Red Island” follows the lives of a few armed forces and their families living in one of the last French military bases abroad, a relic of the fading French colonial empire. Influenced by his reading of the comic book heroine Fantômette, Thomas, a 10-year-old boy, explores his surroundings and gradually opens another reality.

“Red Island” marks Campillo’s follow up to “120 Bpm,...

Following the bracing sexual and political candor of “Bpm,” writer-director Robin Campillo’s much-laureled film about HIV/AIDS activism in 1990s Paris, “Red Island” initially appears to be a retreat into cozier nostalgia — a child’s-eye view of life on a French military base in 1970s Madagascar, flooded with sunlight, awash with the thrill of youthful exploration. That might seem an obtuse way to portray a time and place rife with fractious post-colonial tensions, only a couple of years before the African territory freed itself from the French Community to become a fully-fledged republic. But “Red Island” is a cannier work than that, slowly deromanticizing its purposely naive view of European family life, before sharply jackknifing into a different perspective, even a different film, altogether.

That switch is both arresting and jarring — a structural pivot that makes for a film easier to admire than it is to embrace. Yet its autobiographical elements are keenly felt,...

The cult director grew up on the luscious island of Madagascar just as it was casting off French rule. It was a deliriously happy time for him – but now he realises what was really going on

Robin Campillo’s new movie, Red Island, is an amazing, moving evocation of his own childhood in Madagascar as what the Anglo-Saxons call an “army brat”. His soldier dad was posted there with the family in the early days of the island’s independence from French imperial control – and the 10-year-old roamed free in this lush and gorgeous place, but all the time aware of sexual licence among the grownups, their wan melancholy at their imminent expulsion from this paradise and the increasingly pointed anti-colonial rumblings among the Indigenous people. The boy is almost like young Jim in Jg Ballard’s Empire of the Sun (played by Christian Bale in Spielberg’s film version...

In today’s Global Bulletin, U.K.’s National Theatre filmed plays to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the U.K. and Ireland; Mubi boards U.K., Ireland rights for Paul Verhoeven’s Cannes title “Benedetta”; Anton Corbijn directs Sergei Polunin ballet documentary “Dancer II”; Banff sets indigenous screen industry summit; Bild Studios and Lux Machina form Virtual Production partnership; and the third season of International Emmy-winning series “Bluey” will premiere globally on Disney.

Four stage productions filmed by the U.K.’s National Theatre will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in the U.K. and Ireland from June 11.

The productions include “Frankenstein,” directed by Danny Boyle and written by Nick Dear, in which joint Olivier Award winners Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate the roles of the creature and Victor Frankenstein; “Fleabag,” written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge; and “Hamlet” with Benedict Cumberbatch, directed by Lyndsey Turner.

This year, the motion picture academy achieved its five-year goal of doubling the number of women among its membership. In all, 819 film professionals were invited to become part of the organization that hands out the Oscars. Compare this intake to the totals of the previous five years: 842 in 2019; a record 928 in 2018; 774 in 2017; 683 in 2016; 322 in 2015; and 271 in 2014.

While Academy Awards nominees are automatically eligible for consideration, the rest of the candidates must go through a fairly cumbersome process. A candidate must meet certain branch specific requirements before even being eligible.

For example, actors must “have a minimum of three theatrical feature film credits, in all of which the roles played were scripted roles, one of which was released in the past five years, and all of which are of a caliber that reflect the high standards of the Academy.” For writers, directors and producers they need have just two of these credits.

The French institution will also throw its weight behind films coming courtesy of Léonor Serraille, Sylvie Verheyde, Mathias Gokalp and Sylvain Desclous. Five projects were selected during the 1st 2020 session of the Cnc’s second advance on receipts committee. Standing tall amongst them is École de l’air, which will be Robin Campillo’s fourth feature film after They Came Back (discovered in Venice 2004 in the Orizzonti line-up), Eastern Boys and Bpm. Written by the director and Gilles Marchand, the story of this new opus takes us to Madagascar during the late 60s-early 1970s, where soldiers are living out the final carefree years of colonialism on a French army air base....

Arthur Rambo

Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet unites with some new collaborators for his eighth feature, Arthur Rambo, produced by Marie-Ange Luciani (of Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys; Bpm) and lensed by Pierre Milon and The Workshop). Cantet recruits Bpm actor Antoine Reinartz, Raw, Nocturama and The Class actor Rabah Nait Oufella and Sofian Khammes (Chouf; The World is Yours) for his leads. Cantet won the Palme d’Or in 2008 for The Class and returned to Cannes in Un Certain Regard as part of the omnibus 7 Days in Havana in 2012 and again to the sidebar in 2017 with his last feature, The Workshop.…...

In this year’s foreign-language race, a number of Lgbt-oriented titles are vying for attention. France’s Bpm (Beats Per Minute), directed by Robin Campillo, could be the favorite: a rich, sensual, impassioned study of early AIDS activism and gay awakening in Paris, it took the Grand Prix at Cannes and has been winning hearts on the festival circuit and kudos from critics.

After Cannes, Bpm (Beats Per Minute) played Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival among others, winning many awards along the way.

“Impassioned and deeply absorbing. Notable for both its hot-blooded sensuality and its intricate, bittersweet play with memory.”

- Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

“Broadly enlightening and piercingly intimate. A vital contribution to queer and political cinema. Campillo has given his movie the breath of true life. It grieves and triumphs and haunts with abounding grace and understanding, its heartbeat thumping with genuine, undeniable resonance.

Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!

You don’t hear the United States branch of Act Up’s (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) famous slogan in Robin Campillo’s Bpm (Beats Per Minute), but its ethos courses through the film’s powerful love story.

Campillo spent his late twenties debating, organizing, and protesting as a member of Act Up Paris. A quarter of a century later he’s telling a fictionalized account of their story. Bpm won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival in May and swept through the New York Film Festival earlier this month, receiving standing ovations at both screenings.

The film, which is France’s Oscar entry, excels at rooting history in a relatable love story between Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), a firebrand Act Up activist living with the virus and Nathan (Arnaud Valois), a latecomer to the movement who ignored the plague throughout the 1980s.

A wrenching love story, set in Paris in the early 1990s, told against the background of HIV/AIDS activists battling against government and pharmaceutical indifference as they fight for their lives. The group is Act Up-Paris and the movie is Bpm (Beats Per Minute), an impassioned and incendiary cry from the heart. Director and co-writer Ron Campillo, himself an Act Up alum, uses a documentary approach to set the scene of youthful armies openly challenging a system that yawns as their casualties mount. Campillo moves his camera (Jeanne Lapoirie did the dazzling,...

Ever since making his feature debut with the darkly comical Sitcom, French writer/director François Ozon has been making the world feeling horny and shocked with his films, often at the same time. With a body of work that also includes Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Under the Sand, In the House and the glorious one-two punch of 8 Women and Swimming Pool, you’d think the prolific provocateur might soon be running out of tricks.

Think again. His latest erotic thriller, L’amant double, which premiered in competition at Cannes this year, proved to be the film scandaleux of the festival. Starring Marine Vacth as Chloé, a young woman who one day discovers her psychiatrist partner Paul (Jérémie Renier) might have an evil twin brother and gradually loses herself in a web of deceit and kinks, it’s the kind of dangerously sexy farce at which Ozon excels.

We had...

It’s beginning to look a lot like fall festival season. On the heels of announcements from Tiff and Venice, the 55th edition of the New York Film Festival has unveiled its Main Slate, including a number of returning faces, emerging talents, and some of the most anticipated films from the festival circuit this year.

This year’s Main Slate showcases a number of films honored at Cannes including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner “The Square,” Robin Campillo’s “Bpm,” and Agnès Varda & Jr’s “Faces Places.” Other Cannes standouts, including “The Rider” and “The Florida Project,” will also screen at Nyff.

Read MoreTIFF Reveals First Slate of 2017 Titles, Including ‘The Shape of Water,’ ‘Downsizing,’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’

Elsewhere, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner “The Other Side of Hope” and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner “Spoor” come to Nyff after Berlin bows.

As we await the Cannes closing ceremony with all its awards glamour, let's take a look back at a previous Palme winner which has connections to a competition entry this year. Here's John Guerin...

The Class, Laurent Cantent’s 2008 Palme d’Or winner, left me both exhausted and inspired. An autobiographical chronicle of François Bégaudeau’s first year of teaching French language and literature at an inner-city high school in Paris, The Class is an entirely self-contained glimpse into the daily challenges, joys, dead-ends, nuisances, amusements, and tensions in one especially spirited classroom. Although The Class is spatially confined to the school building, the currents of the outside world frequently wash ashore and brush up against Bégaudeau’s attempts to lead a discussion of the imperfect tense or find meaning in The Diary of Anne Frank or do just about anything constructive.

Cantent and Bégaudeau, with the assistance of co-writer...

Making his first appearance in competition as a director (after having previously written Laurent Cantet's Palme d’Or-winning The Class), Robin Campillo already has a triumph on his hands with 120 Beats Per Minute, which centers on the efforts of the activist group Act Up in Paris, patterned after the New York group of the same name formed in 1989. Enriched by Campillo's own experiences with AIDS activism in the 1990s, the film—which runs close to two-and-a-half hours, one of the longer titles in competition—has a canvas both intimate and expansive, brimming with both specificity and bracing sincerity. It's the rare film that documents both a personal story and a larger movement with verve and grace, creating a compelling, often moving experience.The opening alone, which sees four new members integrated into Act Up’s weekly meetings, is impressive, laying out not just the group’s organization and rules (e.

Sometimes a movie doesn’t need much character development to make an impact. The ensemble cast that comprise Robin Campillo’s AIDS activists in 120 Beats Per Minute all work together to be the same voice. Through this group, the director captures a force that resonates more in message than in any of the conventional, dramatic sparks you might find in a Hollywood version of this story. This is one of the most politically-minded movies to come around in quite some time as Campillo stages heated strategy sessions between the activists of Act Up like a Godard cinematic political essay post-La Chinoise. Through effective direction, the activism on display here is inspiring enough to rile one up to set aside preoccupations and try to make a difference in the world.

Campillo hasn’t really made a splash as a director over the years, unless you count 2013’s vastly underseen (at least stateside) Eastern Boys.

Exclusive: Acquisitions take UK distributor’s Competition haul to five for this year’s Cannes.

The UK’s Curzon Artificial Eye has acquired François Ozon’s erotic thriller Amant Double and Paris-set AIDS activist love story Bpm (Beats Per Minute).

The acquisitions take the UK distributor’s Cannes Competition haul to five competition titles alongside Happy End, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Square.

Marine Vacth co-stars in Ozon’s Amant Double as a fragile young woman who falls in love with a psychoanalyst with a secret double life played by Jérémie Renier.

Set against the backdrop of the French AIDs activism movement Act Up in 1990s Paris, Bpm revolves around Nathan, a newcomer to the protest group who has his world shaken-up by Sean, one of its most radical members.

“It is a pleasure to be working with Francois Ozon again, especially given the success of our recent partnership on Frantz. We’re not...

It takes close to an hour before any backstories emerge for the ensemble cast of AIDS activists in “120 Beats Per Minute.” Before then, Robin Campillo’s engrossing drama lingers in heated strategy sessions and hectic activism, as the members of France’s early ‘90s Act Up movement toss fake blood at their targets in between arguments about the effectiveness of their tactics. Rather than attempting any big twists, Campillo lingers in this passionate world, sketching out the nature of their cause before filling in the details. The only real character arc is that sick people keep getting sicker.

This isn’t a characteristic project for Campillo, best known to English-language audiences for “They Live,” the film that inspired the “Twin Peaks”-like TV series “The Returned,” and “Eastern Boys,” a taut gay thriller in which Russian men posing as prostitutes rob an older man. “120 Beats Per Minute” contains no such far-reaching hooks,...

Screen’s chief critic and reviews editor Fionnuala Halligan dissects this year’s Competition films.

Welcome to the “huge party” of Cannes 70. If the Official Selection this year is a “lab”, the formula isn’t quite complete - Thierry Fremaux announced 18 films which will compete for the Palme D’Or today, implying that three have yet to arrive (he also hinted that a glaring absence, that of a film from China for the second consecutive year, may yet be rectified; nothing was said however about the absence of a major Hollywood studio thus far).

Read more:

Cannes 2017: Official Selection in full

A total of 1,930 films viewed, the selection process running through to 3am: Cannes 70 will be a “meeting, a vision of the world, and a promise of a better life together”. No small ambition, but the line-up has been warmly greeted by cineastes. Clearly, it isn’t a same-old-names Cannes habitues Competition, although [link=nm...

Williams gives a curiously opaque performance in this story of a married 60-year-old confronting his long-closeted homosexuality

This was the last feature film role for the late Robin Williams, so his performance tends to draw our focus. Williams plays Nolan, a married 60-year-old forced to confront his long-closeted homosexuality when he strikes up a naive platonic friendship with a young hustler called Leo (Roberto Aguire). But it’s a curiously opaque performance – all we learn about Nolan is revealed in a chunk of convenient exposition at the end of the second act. There’s no emotional eloquence. This is highlighted in the scenes Williams shares with Kathy Baker, who plays Joy, his wife. Every prickle of doubt, every subtle dig of jealousy plays out in her eyes. It’s fair to say she comprehensively out-acts her co-star in every scene. The film takes a familiar premise – both Eastern Boys and...

We promised a grand total of 15 "Best of "2015" Lists (apart from the awards -- yeah, we're overplanning crazy) so here's the second to last. Diversity is the hot topic of the week and regardless of any one particularity (like an Oscar nominee list) thing are getting better on television (obviously) and at the movies, too, though you have to look a little bit harder. Still, if you go to a lot of movies and attempt to draw up lists like this you'll find you're spoilt for choice. There are so many more films these days directed by women, for gay audiences, for people of the color and the like. You just have to look beyond Big Hollywood and keep your eyes open for intriguing surprises if you do regularly hit the all wide releases multiplex.

Since 15 is a finite number (damn you math) not every film with an Lgbt character can make the list.

Planetarium

Director: Rebecca Zlotowski

Writers: Rebecca Zlotowski, Robin Campillo

We’re expecting French director Rebecca Zlotowski‘s third feature, Planetarium to enhance the burgeoning auteur’s status on international radar. Her first two films, both starring Lea Seydoux, include the 2010 debut Belle Epine (which won the Louis Delluc Award for Best Debut at Critics’ Week) and the beautiful sophomore feature Grand Central (programmed in 2013’s Un Certain Regard – read review) and are still in need of Us distribution. Since her next is headlined by names like Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Melody Depp (daughter of you-know-who), there’s already enhanced interest. We’re more curious about the narrative, concerning two spiritualist sisters touring Europe in the 1930s, co-written by the talented Robin Campillo (who penned screenplays for several of Laurent Cantet’s best films including Heading South and The Class, and whose sophomore feature Eastern Boys was another underrated 2013 title).

Cast: Natalie Portman,...

At the finale of Robin Campillo's masterful Eastern Boys, bourgeois, middle-aged Frenchman Daniel (Oliver Rabourdin) has overhauled his relationship with the Ukrainian hustler Marek (Kirill Emelyanov) into something totally unexpected. The journey to that climax is a rollercoaster of flirtation, betrayal, larceny, lust, love, dauntless deeds, comeuppance, and finally a benevolent acceptance of the pair's interconnectedness in a manner that neither of these devoted halves could foretell.

The film begins documentary-like, and you won't be able to guess who the lead characters are for the first ten minutes or so as the camera goes sightseeing amongst a bevy of young males meandering to and fro at a train station among self-absorbed travelers. Are the lads thieves or hustlers or just out for a lark? Some men eye them warily with a slight lust unsure of whether to approach or not. One station guard's suspicions are raised due the actions...

While some critics and cinemagoers may rate the sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as less witty and entertaining than the original, others would disagree.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel raked in $4 million last weekend, well ahead of the first edition.s $3.4 million in 2012.

The key question now is whether the second iteration of the adventures of hotelier Sonny (Dev Patel) and senior citizens played by Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy,. Ronald Pickup et al will have the staying power of the predecessor, which wound up with $21.4 million.

Achieving a multiple of more than six times the opening weekend may be a tall order for the Fox Searchlight film directed by John Madden.

Elsewhere, there wasn.t much of a post- Oscars bounce for the key winners as nationwide receipts eased by 5% to $12.1 million, according to Rentrak.s estimates.

Fifty Shades of Grey continues to drop like a stone,...

It was a battle of Yves Saint Laurent biopics at the Césars (the French Oscars, if you will) this year as both the French foreign language Oscar submission "Saint Laurent" (leader of the pack with 10 nods) and "Yves Saint Laurent" picked up a ton of mentions. Oscar players that popped up include "Two Days, One Night" star Marion Cotillard and animated feature "Song of the Sea." Foreign film Oscar nominee "Timbuktu" also had a major showing. And of course, in the Césars' foreign category, films like "Boyhood," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "12 Years a Slave" are duking it out. Check out the full list of nominees below, and remember to keep track of it all at The Circuit. Best Film "Les Combattants" "Eastern Boys" "La Famille Bélier" "Saint Laurent" "Hippocrate" "Sils Maria" "Timbuktu" Best Director Céline Sciamma, "Bande De Filles" Thomas Cailley, "Les Combattants" Robin Campillo, "Eastern Boys" Thomas Lilti,...

Best Film Love at First Fight Eastern Boys The Belier Family Hippocrates Saint Laurent Sils Maria Timbuktu Best Director Celine Sciamma for Girlhood Thomas Cailley for Love at First Fight...

Designer biopic leads the pack with 10 nominations; Kristen Stewart, Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche in the running for actress awards.Scroll down for full list of nominees

Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent and Olivier Assays’ Sils Maria are the hot favourites in France’s 40th annual Cesar awards.

France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations for this year’s César Awards at its traditional news conference at Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs Elysées on Friday morning.

Biopic Saint Laurent - exploring fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent’s life from 1967 to 1976 - led the pack with 10 nominations including best film, best director for Bonello, best actor for Gaspard Ulliel and best supporting actor for Louis Garrel.

Jalil Lespert’s rival biopic, Yves Saint Laurent, secured seven nominations. While it missed out in the best film and director categories, it scored nods with Pierre Niney for best actor, Charlotte Le Bon for best...

Update, 2:25 Am Pt: Last year’s dueling Yves Saint Laurent biopics each picked up several nominations this morning for France’s César Awards. Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, the country’s entry for the Foreign Language Oscar, leads the pack with 10 mentions, followed by Thomas Cailley’s Directors’ Fortnight title Les Combattants with nine, and Oscar nominee Timbuktu with eight. Yves Saint Laurent, from helmer Jalil Lespert, took seven nods. Otherwise, there are a number of usual suspects in the batch including Best Actress Oscar nominee Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night, as well as Juliette Binoche for Olivier Assayas’ Sils Maria. In something of a departure — and a first — for the French Académie, they nominated American actress Kristen Stewart for her supporting turn in that Cannes competition entry. (Adrien Brody won the Best Actor prize in 2003 for The Pianist.) There are also six nominations for late 2014 release La Famille Bélier.

It’s been a great year for film music. I say that as someone who had to endure the laughably dated qualities of Alberto Iglesias’ Exodus: Gods and Kings and had to swallow the pill that is Howard Shore‘s latter days Middle-earth music.

But it has been a great year. Clint Mansell gave us haunting, complex soundscapes in Noah, the Alexandre Desplat Hive Mind unleashed another five feature-length scores on the planet, and we even got a peak at John Williams‘ forthcoming music in that Star Wars trailer.

So what was the best of the bunch? For simplicity’s sake, I’ve limited this list to movies with U.S. theatrical runs in 2014. When possible, I’ve also linked to our reviews and select cues on Spotify, although you’ll note the occasional YouTube or SoundCloud embed as well. Let’s do this:

20. Horns — Robin Coudert

Every few years,...

★★★★☆Writer and director Robin Campillo (The Returned 2004) surely has a taste for exploring intricate social themes and his latest effort, Eastern Boys (2013), demonstrates that no topic is too large. A whirling vortex of information and emotion, Campillo's subjects are strangely unknowable yet unbelievably intriguing. The film's opening scene takes us to the famous Gare du Nord in Paris where we're introduced to a group of young men and a lone figure tailing them - a mysterious French man who is clearly interested in one of their number. However, this interest is far from innocent and has wide-ranging consequences for the whole group.

Repugnant drama about the tender relationship between a man who pays for sex and the boy he hires. At least Pretty Woman pretended to be a fairy tale. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing (at least before the film started and I realized what it was about)

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

I have no sympathy for men who pay for sex. I have even less sympathy for men who delude themselves into thinking that the people they are paying for sex actually enjoy it and want to be letting the man paying do what he’s doing. (We can test that! Let’s level the playing field and ensure that everyone can make a decent living without having to accept money from strangers in exchange for access to their bodies. And then we’ll see just how many women...

The shortlist for France’s Louis Delluc Prize, one of the country’s highest film honors, has been released with 14 films making the cut across two categories: Best Film and Best Debut Feature. Among the eight main movies, six hail from this year’s Cannes crop. Saint Laurent – which is France’s entry for the Foreign Language Oscar – by Bertrand Bonello; Olivier Assayas’ Juliette Binoche/Kristen Stewart-starrer Clouds Of Sils Maria; veteran Jean-Luc Godard’s 3D Goodbye To Language; Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu; Pascale Ferran’s Bird People, starring Josh Charles; and Claus Drexel’s Au Bord Du Monde will vie alongside Venice pics Trois Coeurs, by Benoît Jacquot, and Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys. Godard, Ferran and Jacquot are all former Delluc laureates. The Debut Feature shortlist is made up of Thomas Cailley’s well-received Fortnight film Love At First Fight; Camera d’Or winner Party Girl; Virgil Vernier...

Fifth edition of annual showcase of contemporary French cinema to take place in key cities across the UK from April 23-28.

Marion Vernoux’s Bright Days Ahead (Les Beaux Jours) will open this year’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

Vernoux and lead actress Fanny Ardant will be in attendance at the Curzon Soho in London for a post-screening Q&A.

Run by UniFrance Films and the Institut français in London, the fifth edition of the annual showcase of contemporary French cinema will take place in key cities across the UK. As well as at the Curzon Soho and Ciné Lumière, films will screen in Bristol, Cambridge, Canterbury, Nottingham, Oxford and at the Duke of York’s in Brighton.

Speaking to Screen, Isabelle Giordano, executive director of UniFrance Films, says the focus of this year’s showcase is to highlight burgeoning talent in France.

“What I would like to do for this edition is to focus on the...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave to open festival; director Peter Greenaway to receive Visionary Award.Scroll down for full line-up

Steve McQueen’s historic drama 12 Years a Slave is to open the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17) and is nominated in the Stockholm Xxiv Competition.

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the drama about free black man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the 1850s debuted at Telluride and has received positive reactions throughout its festival tour of Toronto, New York and London among others.

It will be released in Sweden on Dec 20 by Ab Svensk Filmindustri.

Screenwriter John Ridley, who will be present during the festival, is nominated for the Aluminum Horse in the category Best Script.

McQueen’s Hunger won Best Directorial Debut at Stockholm in 2008.

Line-up

The 24th Siff includes more than 180 films from more than 50 countries.

As previously announced, the spotlight of this year’s festival is freedom but Chinese artist...

My stay here in London has so far been comprised of long stretches of business, punctuated by curious moments of inactivity. This morning was one of the latter. Three films today,...

While I struggle to keep up at Tiff (good lord what a learning curve) the Venice Film Festival wrapped up and announced its awards. We didn't share them in a timely fashion. My apologies. The winners were...

Stray Dogs

 

Golden Lion: Sacro Gra (Gianfranco Rosi)

This surprise winner is a documentary about a famous highway in Rome. Sometimes non-sexy subject matter translates into great films.

Grand Jury Prize: Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)

From the sounds of twitter this was the sensation of the festival though it doesn't screen at Tiff until after I leave town. *snifffle*

Silver Lion (Best Director): Alexandros Avranas, Miss Violence

Best Actor: Themis Panou, Miss Violence

I have a terrible habit of skipping films which then become winners at festivals. This is also playing Toronto but descriptions make it sound like a Greek version of The Virgin Suicides and I didn't bite. In hindsight and...

In Competition

Golden Lion – Sacro Gra, directed by Gianfranco Rosi

Silver Lion (Best Director) – Alexandros Avranas, Miss Violence

Grand Jury Prize – Stray Dogs, directed by Tsai Ming-liang

Special Jury Prize – The Police Officer's Wife, directed by Philip Gröning

Volpi Cup for Best Actor – Themis Panou, Miss Violence

Volpi Cup for Best Actress – Elena Cotta, A Street in Palermo

Best Screenplay – Philomena, written by Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress – Tye Sheridan, Joe

Horizons (Orizzonti)

Orizzonti Award for Best Film – Eastern Boys, directed by Robin Campillo

Orizzonti Award for Best Director – Uberto Pasolini, Still Life

Special Orizzonti Jury Prize – Ruin, directed by Michael Cody & Amiel Courtin-Wilson

Special Orizzonti Prize for Innovative Content – Fish & Cat, directed by Shahram Mokri

Lion of the Future Award

Best Debut Film – White Shadow, directed by Noaz Deshe

Fipresci

Competition Fipresci Prize – Tom at the Farm, directed by Xavier Dolan...

A still from Kush

Shubhashish Bhutiani’s short film Kush, the lone Indian entry at the Venice Film Festival, has won the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film.

Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival showcases new trends in world cinema. The Orizzonti Jury was chaired by Paul Schrader and composed of Catherine Corsini, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Golshifteh Farahani, Frédéric Fonteyne, Kseniya Rappoport and Amr Waked.

Kush featuring Sonika Chopra, Shayaan Sameer and Anil Sharma is inspired by a true story : In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, causing anti-Sikh riots to erupt throughout the country. A teacher travelling back from a field trip with her class of 10-year-old students struggles to protect Kush, the only Sikh student in the class, from the growing violence around him.

Bhutiani recently graduated from School of Visual Arts (Sva) in New York.

List Of Awards:

Golden...

The Venice Golden Lion returned to the host country after fifteen years this evening with Gianfranco Rosi's biography of a Rome ring road, Sacro Gra, picking up the festival's top prize. Renowned director Bernardo Bertolucci and his jury plumped for high arthouse cinema over the more crowd-pleasing fare of Stephen Frears' British offering Philomena, which had to make do with the award for Best Screenplay. Best Actor and Best Director went respectively to Themis Panou and Alexandros Avranas for Greek family abuse drama Miss Violence. Although the film (for this reviewer at least) is an exploitative, nasty piece of work, it's undeniably well-directed, and Panou is utterly brilliant as the chilling pater familias.

The Grand Jury Prize was reserved for Tsai Ming-liang's dark horse Stray Dogs which, with its ten-minute long takes of people staring at walls and eating cabbages, could well be a test case for cinephile seriousness.

Once again the European Film Promotion’s (Efp) Film Sales Support (Fss) initiative will come to Toronto to link sales companies from all over Europe to a great array of buyers from across the globe. Supported by the Media Programme of the European Union, Fss has now been aiding the European film industry fro the last 10 years.

"Toronto has and is an important informal market and an important festival for European films, the distributors see the films in a different mood, more quietly, the public screenings are working well. It is a key place to launch a film or to complete previous sales on films that were in Cannes, Venice, Locarno...” (Loïc Magneron, Wide)

“Tiff is a major pillar of the annual festival calendar. Aside from a proliferation of North American buyers, it also attracts top tier international distributors so a favorable reception at Tiff can significantly increase a film's commercial prospects”. (Andrew Orr, Independent)

Due to the limited amount of resources, only 52 out of the 60 films submitted to the Efp will receive financial support to be marketed during the Tiff, which runs from September 5 to 15. This year alone, 372 films total, over 150 from Europe, will screen at the festival many of which will see their world or international premiers there.

Supported films and companies at Tiff 2013

Alpha Violet (France), rep. Virginie Devesa The Summer of Flying Fish (El Verano de los Peces Voladores) by Marcela Said, France, Chile, 2013

Arri Worldsales (Germany), rep. Moritz Hemminger Exit Marrakech by Caroline Link, Germany, 2013 Home from Home (Die Andere Heimat) by Edgar Reitz, Germany, France, 2013

Athens Filmmakers' Co-Operative (Greece), rep. Venia Vergou Wild Duck by Yannis Sakaridis, Greece, 2013

Bac Films Distribution (France), rep. Clémentine Hugot The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (L'Entrange Couleur Ded Larmes De Ton Corps) by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, 2013

Beta Cinema (Germany), rep. Tassilo Hallbauer Le Grand-Cahier by János Szász, Germany, Hungary, Austria, France, 2013

Blonde S. A. (Greece), rep. Fenia Cossovitsa Standing Aside, Watching (Na Kathese Kai Na Kitas) by Yorgos Servetas, Greece, 2013

Capricci Films (France), rep. Julien Rejl Story of My Death (Historia De La Meva Mort) by Albert Serra, Spain, France, 2013 The Battle of Tabato (A Batalha De Tabato) by João Viana, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, 2013

Celluloid Dreams (France), rep. Hengameh Panahi Those Happy Years (Anni Felici) by Daniele Luchetti, Italy, 2013

Cité Films (France), rep. Raphaël Berdugo Faith Connections (Faith Connections) by Pan Nalin, France, India, 2013

Doc & Film International (France), rep. Daniela Elstner, Alice Damiani Violette by Martin Provost, France, Belgium, 2013 South is Nothing (Il Sud E'Niente by Fabio Mollo, Italy, France, 2013

Dogwoof (United Kingdom), rep. Ana Vincente Inreallife by Beeban Kidron, UK, 2013

Ealing Metro International (United Kingdom), rep. Natalie Brenner, Will Machin Half of a Yellow Sun by Biyi Bandele, UK, 2013 The Stag by John Butler, Ireland, 2013

Embankment Films (United Kingdom), rep. Tim Haslam Le Week-End by Roger Michell, UK, 2013

Eyeworks Film & TV Drama (The Netherlands), rep. Maarten Swart The Dinner (Het Diner) by Menno Meyjes, The Netherlands, 2013

Fantasia Ltd (Greece), rep. Nicoletta Romeo The Daughter (I Kori) by Thanos Anastopoulos, Greece, Italy, 2013

Film Factory Entertainment (Spain), rep. Vicente Canales Cannibal (Canibal) by Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain, 2013 Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang (Zipi & Zape y el Club de la Canica) by Oskar Santos, Spain, 2013

Films Boutique (Germany), rep. Jean-Christophe Simon Walesa. Man of Hope (Walesa) by Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 2013

Films Distribution (France), rep. Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, François Yon Eastern Boys by Robin Campillo, France, 2013 Under the Starry Sky (Des Etoiles) by Dyana Gaye, France, Senegal, 2013

Heretic (Greece), rep. Giorgos Karnavas The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas (I Aionia Epistrofi Tou Antoni Paraskeva) by Elina Psykou, Greece, 2013

Independent Film Sales (United Kingdom), rep. Karina Gechtman, Abigail Walsh The Sea by Stephen Brown, UK, Ireland, 2013 Starred Up by David Mackenzie, UK, 2013

Latido Films (Spain), rep. Miren Zamora Honeymoon (Libanky) by Jan Hrebejk, Czech Republic/Slovak Republic, 2013

LevelK (Denmark), rep. Tine Klint Sex, Drugs & Taxation (Spies Og Glistrup) by Christoffer Boe, Denmark, 2013

Linel Films (United Kingdom), rep. Aran Hughes To The Wolf (Sto Lyko) by Aran Hughes & Christina Koutsospyrou, Greece, UK, France, 2013

Minds Meet (Belgium), rep. Tomas Leyers I'm The Same I'm An Other by Caroline Strubbe, Belgium, The Netherlands, 2013

MK2 (France), rep. Victoire Thevenin Hotel (Hotell) by Lisa Langseth, Sweden, Denmark, 2012

Mpm Film (France), rep. Pierre Menahem For Those Who Can Tell No Tales by Jasmila Žbanić, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, 2013

Negativ s.r.o. (Czech Republic), rep. Zuzana Bielikova Miracle (Zazrak) by Juraj Lehotský, Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2013

Pathé Distribution (France), rep. Muriel Sauzay The Finishers by Nils Tavernier, France, 2013 Quai d'Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier, France, 2013

Pausilypon Films (Greece), rep. Menelaos Karamaghiolis J.A.C.E. - Just Another Confused Elephant by Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Greece, Portugal, Macedonia, Turkey, 2012

Picture Tree International (Germany), rep. Andreas Rothbauer Mary Queen of Scots by Thomas Imbach, Switzerland, 2013 Metalhead (Malmhaus) by Ragnar Bragason, Iceland, Norway, 2013

PPProductions (Greece), rep. Thanassis Karathanos Septmeber by Penny Panayotopoulou, Greece, Germany, 2013

Pyramide International (France), rep. Agathe Mauruc Giraffada by Rani Massalha, France, Germany, Italy, 2013

Rezo (France), rep. Laurent Danielou, Sebastien Chesneau The Station (Blutgletscher) by Marvin Kren, Austria, 2013 Abuse of Weakness (Abus De Faibless) by Catherine Breillat, France, Belgium, Germany, 2013

The Match Factory (Germany), rep. Michael Weber, Thania Dimitrakopoulou The Police Officer's Wife (Die Frau Des Polizisten) by Philip Gröning, Germany, 2013 Qissa (Quissa) by Anup Singh, Germany, India, The Netherlands, France, 2013

The Yellow Affair (Sweden), rep. Miira Paasilinna Heart of a Lion (Leijonasydan) by Dome Karukoski, Finland, 2013

TrustNordisk (Denmark), rep. Susan Wendt, Nicolai Korsgaard Pioneer (Pioner) by Erik Skjoldbjaerg, Norway, 2013 We Are The Best (Vi Ar Bast!) by Lukas Moodysson, Sweden, 2013

Wide (France), rep. Loic Magneron Bobo by Ines Oliveira, Portugal, 2013

Wide House (France), rep. Garreau Geoffrey Ain't Misbehavin, A Marcel Ophuls Journey (Un Voyageur) by Marcel Ophuls, France, 2013

Wild Bunch (France), rep. Vicent Maraval, Gary Farkas Going Away (Un Beau Dimanche) by Nicole Garcia, France, 2013 A Promise (Une Promesse) by Patrice Leconte, France, Belgium, 2013...

Surprise choice for Golden Lion is Italian documentary. Silver Lion for best director goes to Alexandros Avranas for Miss Violence.

The surprise winner of the Venice Golden Lion is Gianfranco Rosi’s Italian documentary Sacro Gra, about life on the highway that surrounds Rome.

It marks the first time a documentary has ever won the Golden Lion.

Greek film Miss Violence had a strong showing winning both best director for Alexandros Avranas and best actor for Themis Panou.

Review: Sacro Grareview: Miss Violence

The Venezia 70 Jury, chaired by Bernardo Bertolucci and comprised of Andrea Arnold, Renato Berta, Carrie Fisher, Martina Gedeck, Jiang Wen, Pablo Larraín, Virginie Ledoyen, Ryuichi Sakamoto has awarded the following prizes:

Main Competition Awards

Golden Lion for Best Film

Sacro Gra, Gianfranco Rosi (Italy, France)

Silver Lion for Best Director

Alexandros Avranas, Miss Violence (Greece)

Grand Jury Prize

Jiaoyou, Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese Taipei, France)Best Actor: Themis Panou, Miss ViolenceBest...

Surprise choice for Golden Lion is Italian documentary. Silver Lion for best director goes to Alexandros Avranas for Miss Violence.

The surprise winner of the Venice Golden Lion is Gianfranco Rosi’s Italian documentary Sacro Gra, about life on the highway that surrounds Rome.

Greek film Miss Violence had a strong showing winning both best director for Alexandros Avranas and best actor for Themis Panou.

The Venezia 70 Jury, chaired by Bernardo Bertolucci and comprised of Andrea Arnold, Renato Berta, Carrie Fisher, Martina Gedeck, Jiang Wen, Pablo Larraín, Virginie Ledoyen, Ryuichi Sakamoto has awarded the following prizes

Main Competition Awards

Golden Lion for Best Film

Sacro Gra by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy, France)

Silver Lion for Best Director

Alexandros Avranas for Miss Violence (Greece)

Grand Jury Prize

Jiaoyou by Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese Taipei, France)

Coppa Volpi for Best Actor

Themis Panou in Miss Violence

Coppa Volpi for Best Actress

Elena Cotta inVIA Castellana Bandiera by Emma Dante (Italy, Switzerland...

The 70th Venice Film Festival wrapped this weekend with the top prize of the Golden Lion going to Gianfranco Rosi's documentary "Sacro Gra".

The Venice fest awards are unique in that, only in exceptional cases, can a film win more than one prize. On top of that, whoever wins the Golden Lion can only win that award.

An exceptional case was seen with "Miss Violence" which took the Best Director (Alexandros Avranas) and Best Actor (Themis Panou) honors. Elena Cotta won Best Actress for "Via Castellana Bandiera".

Tsai Ming-liang's "Stray Dogs" took the newly added Grand Jury Prize, while Philip Groning's "The Police Officer’s Wife" won a Special Jury Prize.

Rising young "Mud" star Tye Sheridan took Best New Young Actor/Actress for "Joe," and comedian Steve Coogan along with Jeff Pope took best screenplay for "Philomena".

Earlier, the critics week "Lion of the Future" award for debut...

"Sacro Gra" – a little known Italian documentary about the ring road around Rome – pulled off a shocking upset to snag the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. Underdogs also prevailed in many other top races: Golden Lion: "Sacro Gra," Gianfranco Rosi Grand Jury Prize: "Stray Dogs," Tsai Ming-liang Silver Lion (Best Director): "Miss Violence," Alexandros Avranas Best Actor: Themis Panou, "Miss Violence" Best Actress: Elena Cotta, "A Street in Palermo" Marcello Mastroianni Award (Best Young Actor): Tye Sheridan, "Joe" -Break- Best Screenplay: Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, "Philomena" Special Jury Prize: "The Police Officer's Wife," Phillip Groning Luigi de Laurentiis Award (Best Debut Feature): "White Shadow," Noaz Deshe Horizons Awards Best Film: "Eastern Boys," Robin Campillo Best Director:...

I’ve yet to find myself on the Lido (at the top of my bucket list choices for film festivals I’ve yet to visit) but thanks to some forward-thinking folks such as the Festival Scope folks, the Venice Film Festival is coming directly to our living rooms, laptops and whatnot Live.

An experiment that began last year and in its sophomore edition has blossomed into a well-oiled virtual event, each film (see list) below will hold a maximum “seating capacity” of 500 virtual places/seat holders for world cinephiles (read the full description of the service). Among the dozen or so films from the Orizzonti section and a selected trio films from the new Biennale College are the make-up of Web Theatre programme and to help promote the event, we’re holding a contest – five lucky readers will get to watch Pavilion‘s Tim Sutton’s (an Ioncinephile of the...

With the rise of the encroaching Toronto, the domestic competition offered by Rome and a hugely successful Cannes this year, the 70th Venice Film Festival - which begins on 28 August - is facing some pretty stiff competition. The lineup, however, is on the face of it relatively low-key, though there are some very interesting possibilities and potential surprises. Regular attendee George Clooney opens proceedings with Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, whilst in the main competition lie a mix of old hands - Errol Morris with his Donald Rumsfeld documentary, Hayao Miyazaki's last fable - along with fresh talents such as Kelly Reichardt (Night Moves) and Jonathan Glazer (with his Birth follow-up, Under the Skin).

Terry Gilliam also returns after an elongated absence, his The Zero Theorem starring Christoph Waltz as a hacker searching for the meaning of existence. The film hopefully marks a return to form for a filmmaker who...

Digital tickets have gone on sale for Venice Film Festival titles that will stream online concurrently with official screenings.

A total of 12 films from the Orizzonti section and three films from the new Biennale College – Cinema will make up the programme of the Web Theatre, introduced last year as an experiment.

The films will be available for viewing around the world, streaming concurrently with the official screenings on the Lido (Aug 28 - Sept 7).

There will be a maximum “seating capacity” for each showing of 500 seats. There will be one screening only for each of the films and it will be located on a secure site managed by Festival Scope on behalf of the Venice Film Festival.

Starting this year, Mymovies.it will also collaborate in the promotion.

In order to view the film of choice, users must first register on the Biennale website, pay for the ticket (€4), after which they will receive a personal link that will...

Final batch of Tiff titles were announced today and among the international hodgepodge of items trickling we find Berlin (Golden Bear winner Child’s Pose), Cannes (The Selfish Giant – Europa Cinemas Label winner and Stranger by the Lake by Alain Guiraudie), Karlovy Vary (Crystal Globe winner Le Grand Cahier ) and Locarno (Corneliu Porumboiu’s When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism) Film Fest items added to the Toronto Int. Film Festival’s Contemporary World Cinema lineup. Alongside those that have already premiered elsewhere, the titles that have got our attention are world premiere offerings from the likes of award-winning Icelandic helmer Ragnar Bragason (Metalhead), Revanche‘s Götz Spielmann (October November – see pic above) and Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke’s Club Sandwich. Here’s the added titles to the section which already includes: Catherine Martin’s A Journey (Une Jeune Fille), Ingrid Veninger’s The Animal Project, Terry Miles’ Cinemanovels, Bruce Sweeney...

The titles just keep coming as we are now just over three weeks away from the start of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and they have gone and added 90 new feature length titles to the program and it's not as if they are titles you haven't heard of. New to the Galas selection is Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties which premiered at Cannes earlier this year (read my review here) and Words and Pictures starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche. In the Special Presentations selection you find the bulk of the more noted titles including Alex Gibney's new documentary The Armstrong Lie about cyclist Lance Armstrong, Johnnie To's Blind Detective which also premiered at Cannes, James Franco's Child of God based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, John Turturro's Fading Gigolo which features Woody Allen in one of the roles, Kevin Macdonald's How I Live Now...

World premieres of Kevin Macdonald’s How I Live Now, Fred Schepisi’s Words And Pictures and John Turturro’s Fading Gigolo are among the Tiff line-up of galas and special presentations.

The Contemporary World Cinema strand includes first views of Jan Hrebejk’s Honeymoon, Donovan Marsh’s iNumber Number and Fernando Coimbra’s A Wolf At The Door.

The Toronto International Film Festival is scheduled to run from Sept 5-15.

Wp = World premiere

IP = International premiere

Np = North American premiere

Cp = Canadian premiere

Tp = Toronto premiere

GALASBlood Ties Guillaume Canet (France-us) NAPBright Days Ahead (Les Beaux Jours) Marion Vernoux (France) NAPWords & Pictures Fred Schepisi (Us) Wpspecial Presentationsa Promise (Une Promesse) Patrice Leconte (Belgium-France) NAPThe Armstrong Lie Alex Gibney (Us) NAPBlind Detective Johnnie To (Hong Kong) NAPChild Of God James Franco (Us) NAPThe Face Of Love Arie Posin (Us) WPFading Gigolo John Turturro (Us) WPThe Finishers Nils Tavernier (Belgium-France) WPHow I Live Now Kevin Macdonald (UK) WPThe...

World premieres of Kevin Macdonald’s How I Live Now, Fred Schepisi’s Words And Pictures and John Turturro’s Fading Gigolo are among the TIFF line-up of galas and special presentations announced on Tuesday [13].

The Contemporary World Cinema strand includes first views of Jan Hrebejk’s Honeymoon, Donovan Marsh’s iNumber Number and Fernando Coimbra’s A Wolf At The Door.

The Toronto International Film Festival is scheduled to run from Sept 5-15.

Wp = World premiere

IP = International premiere

Np = North American premiere

Cp = Canadian premiere

Tp = Toronto premiere

GALASBlood Ties Guillaume Canet (France-us) NAPBright Days Ahead (Les Beaux Jours) Marion Vernoux (France) NAPWords & Pictures Fred Schepisi (Us) Wpspecial Presentationsa Promise (Une Promesse) Patrice Leconte (Belgium-France) NAPThe Armstrong Lie Alex Gibney (Us) NAPBlind Detective Johnnie To (Hong Kong) NAPChild Of God James Franco (Us) NAPThe Face Of Love Arie Posin (Us) WPFading Gigolo John Turturro (Us) WPThe Finishers Nils Tavernier (Belgium-France) WPHow I Live Now [link...