The Women Texas Film Festival announces Award winners for 1st edition of the film festival

The Women Texas Film Festival announced the award winners for the 1st edition of the film festival during the final day of the WTxFF at the historic Texas Theatre (231 W. Jefferson Blvd). Christina Kallas’s 42 SECONDS OF HAPPINESS took home the award for Best Feature Film, Amanda Milius’s THE LOTUS GUN was given the nod as Best Short Film, and Lizette Barrera, the director of the short film, MOSCA (FLY), was honored as the Filmmaker to Watch. Awardees were determined by the WTxFF, the first full-fledged film festival in the state of Texas to celebrate and promote the work of women behind the camera (producers, directors, screenwriter, editors, composers, and cinematographers).

WTxFF Founder and Artistic Director Justina Walford said, “One of the proudest accomplishments in the first year of the Women Texas Film Festival was the high level of achievement among the filmmakers at WTxFF. Of course, that made it all the more difficult to choose a few from that group to honor. This trio of talented women didn’t just deliver works that were complex, compelling and defied expectation, they also exemplified the artistic accomplishment and promise we hope to celebrate and promote within this film festival.”    
 
Walford and WTxFF’s John Wildman made the award presentations from a stairwell balcony at the Texas Theatre during a ceremony presented by the Dallas Film Commission. Filmmakers and film fans filled the lobby of the iconic theater for the announcement and to celebrate the winners prior to attending the final screening of the fest of Sharie Vance’s documentary, MIZ MARKLEY & ME, followed by a musical performance of the film’s subject, Lisa Markley. Barrera and Milius were on hand to accept their awards (Kallas received her award earlier in the day).
 
Kallas and Milius both received one month of office space in Nex, a premium technology center and innovation space designed to be a catalyst for North Texas enterprises, located in Deep Ellum.
 
The first Women Texas Film Festival debuted on Friday, August 19 with a red carpet-laden flourish featuring the Opening Night screening of Rosemary Myers’s award-winning film, GIRL ASLEEP, and a “Disco and Donuts”-themed after party produced by Red ID, at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center. Enthusiastic audiences populated screenings throughout the three-day festival, as well as panels focusing on the efforts and challenges of women producing films and female filmmakers navigating the hurdles put before them that are not placed before their male counterparts, among other topics.
 
WTxFF also provided special presentations of virtual reality (VR) projects by female VR artists, including Tracy Rector’s EAGLE BONE, Michaella Vu’s NEURAL PATH, and Kelly Snowden’s LOOK AROUND, LOOK AROUND, WHAT DO YOU SEE? - AN INTRO TO VR, made possible by Bottle Rocket. Also on display were female-created games, including Anna Anthropy’s LESBIAN SPIDER-QUEENS OF MARS, TRIAD and OHMYGOD ARE YOU ALRIGHT, and Thais Weiller’s RAINY DAY, sponsored by Tiny Thumbs Arcade.
 
In its first year, the Women Texas Film Festival was described as a “game changer” (Steve Kopian at Unseen Films), “kind of a big deal” (Jamie Laughlin at The Dallas Observer), and Alex Macon at D Magazine said, "the Women Texas Film Festival arrives at an opportune time, when filmmakers and audiences — that’s us — can push for gender equality at the movies."
 
 For more information on the Women Texas Film festival, visit:

www.WomenTxFF.org

Amanda Milius, Justina Walford, Lizette Barrera
(Photo by John Strange)

Catherine Cobb Ryan, Christina Kallas,
Lauren Sowa (Photo by Robert Stevens)

John Wildman and Justina Walford with a victorious
Lizette Barrera (Photo by Steve Duffy)

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES MAIN SLATE SELECTIONS FOR THE 54th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

25 features include new films from Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Olivier Assayas, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Alain Guiraudie, Eugène Green, Mia Hansen-Løve, Hong Sangsoo, Jim Jarmusch, Barry Jenkins, Pablo Larraín, Ken Loach, Kenneth Lonergan, Alison Maclean, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Cristian Mungiu, Matías Piñeiro, Cristi Puiu, Kelly Reichardt, Gianfranco Rosi, Dash Shaw, and Paul Verhoeven

The 54th New York Film Festival will take place September 30 - October 16 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Tickets go on sale September 11. http://www.filmlinc.org/nyff Video by Jump Cut. More info: http://filmlinc.org/ Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=filmlincdotcom Like: http://facebook.com/filmlinc Follow: http://twitter.com/filmlinc

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the 25 films for the Main Slate of the 54th New York Film Festival, September 30 – October 16.

NYFF Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said, “The cinema is so many things at once. And when I look at the films in this year’s selection, I’m aware of the fact that it is a form of response. The Dardenne Brothers, Ken Loach, Cristian Mungiu, Gianfranco Rosi, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Ava DuVernay are sounding alarms, while Jim Jarmusch, Kenneth Lonergan, Barry Jenkins, Maren Ade, Olivier Assayas, James Gray, and Mike Mills are fixed on internal landscapes, proclaiming the urgency of self-realization. I also see in this year’s lineup a bounty of vital work from artists from all around the world who will not stop until they see their visions all the way to the end.”

This year’s Main Slate showcases award-winning films that wowed viewers at international festivals, presented to New York audiences for the first time. Selections from Cannes include Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or-winning I, Daniel Blake; Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper and Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, which tied for Best Director; and Maren Ade’s highly acclaimed Toni Erdmann, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize. From Berlin, Gianfranco Rosi’s Golden Bear winner,Fire at Sea, will mark the director’s NYFF debut, and Mia Hansen-Løve returns to the festival with Things to Come, which won her Berlin’s Best Director award.

Other festival veterans returning to NYFF include Pedro Almodóvar, Kelly Reichardt, Hong Sangsoo, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Matías Piñeiro, Paul Verhoeven, Alain Guiraudie, Cristi Puiu, and Eugène Green. A number of celebrated filmmakers will make their NYFF debuts, such as Kenneth Lonergan with his third feature Manchester by the Sea; Kleber Mendonça Filho, presenting Aquarius, his anticipated follow-up to Neighboring Sounds; Alison Maclean with her coming-of-age story The Rehearsal; Dash Shaw, whose animated My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea is his first feature; and Barry Jenkins, with his three-part portrait of a young gay African-American man, Moonlight.

Strong female performances are a prominent focus this year, with standout turns from Isabelle Huppert in Verhoeven’sElle and Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come; Brazilian legend Sônia Braga in Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius; Piñeiro favorite Agustina Muñoz in Hermia and Helena; and Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, and Laura Dern in Reichardt’s triptychCertain Women, among others. The Main Slate also features two films that bring poetry to the screen: Pablo Larraín’sNeruda, a portrait of the beloved Chilean poet, and Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, which carries the spirit of William Carlos Williams through the story of a city bus driver (Adam Driver) who also writes poetry.

As previously announced, the festival also boasts three World Premieres in the gala slots: Ava DuVernay’s The 13th(Opening Night), Mike Mills’s 20th Century Women (Centerpiece), and James Gray’s The Lost City of Z (Closing Night).
 

The 54th New York Film Festival Main Slate

Opening Night
The 13th
Directed by Ava DuVernay

Centerpiece
20th Century Women
Directed by Mike Mills

Closing Night
The Lost City of Z
Directed by James Gray

Aquarius
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho

Certain Women
Directed by Kelly Reichardt

Elle
Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Fire at Sea / Fuocoammare
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi

Graduation / Bacalaureat
Directed by Cristian Mungiu

Hermia and Helena
Directed by Matías Piñeiro

I, Daniel Blake
Directed by Ken Loach

Julieta
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Manchester by the Sea
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

Moonlight
Directed by Barry Jenkins

My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
Directed by Dash Shaw

Neruda
Directed by Pablo Larraín

Paterson
Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Personal Shopper
Directed by Olivier Assayas

The Rehearsal
Directed by Alison Maclean

Sieranevada
Directed by Cristi Puiu

Son of Joseph / Le fils de Joseph
Directed by Eugène Green

Staying Vertical / Rester vertical
Directed by Alain Guiraudie

Things to Come / L’Avenir
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve

Toni Erdmann
Directed by Maren Ade

The Unknown Girl
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Yourself and Yours
Directed by Hong Sangsoo

NYFF Special Events, Spotlight on Documentary, Retrospective, Convergence, and Projections sections, as well as filmmaker conversations and panels, will be announced in the coming weeks.

The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Jones, also includes Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Programming; Florence Almozini, FSLC Associate Director of Programming; Amy Taubin, Contributing Editor, Artforumand Film Comment; and Gavin Smith, who serves as a consultant.

Tickets for the 54th New York Film Festival will go on sale September 11. Becoming a Film Society Member at the Film Buff Level or above provides early ticket access to festival screenings and events ahead of the general public, along with the exclusive member ticket discount. Learn more at filmlinc.org/membership.

For even more access, VIP passes and subscription packages offer the earliest opportunities to purchase tickets and secure seats at some of the festival's biggest events including Opening and Closing Nights, and Centerpiece. VIP passes also provide access to many exciting events, including the invitation-only Opening Night party, “An Evening With…” dinner, Filmmaker Brunch, and VIP Lounge. Benefits vary based on the pass or package type purchased. VIP passes and subscription packages are on sale now. Learn more at filmlinc.org/NYFF.
 

54th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
Films & Descriptions

Opening Night
The 13th
Directed by Ava DuVernay
USA, 2016
World Premiere
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis. A Netflix original documentary.

Centerpiece
20th Century Women
Directed by Mike Mills
USA, 2016
World Premiere
Mike Mills’s texturally and behaviorally rich new comedy seems to keep redefining itself as it goes along, creating a moving group portrait of particular people in a particular place (Santa Barbara) at a particular moment in the 20th century (1979), one lovingly attended detail at a time. The great Annette Bening, in one of her very best performances, is Dorothea, a single mother raising her teenage son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), in a sprawling bohemian house, which is shared by an itinerant carpenter (Billy Crudup) and a punk artist with a Bowie haircut (Greta Gerwig) and frequented by Jamie’s rebellious friend Julie (Elle Fanning). 20th Century Women is warm, funny, and a work of passionate artistry. An A24 Release.

Closing Night
The Lost City of Z
Directed by James Gray
USA, 2016
World Premiere
James Gray’s emotionally and visually resplendent epic tells the story of Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett (a remarkable Charlie Hunnam), the British military-man-turned-explorer whose search for a lost city deep in the Amazon grows into an increasingly feverish, decades-long magnificent obsession that takes a toll on his reputation, his home life with his wife (Sienna Miller) and children, and his very existence. Gray and cinematographer Darius Khondji cast quite a spell, exquisitely pitched between rapture and dizzying terror. Also starring Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, The Lost City of Z represents a form of epic storytelling that has all but vanished from the landscape of modern cinema, and a rare level of artistry.

Aquarius
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Brazil/France, 2016, 142m
Portuguese with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
A highlight of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s follow-up to his acclaimed Neighboring Soundsrevolves around the leisurely days of a 65-year-old widow, transcendently played by the great Brazilian actress Sônia Braga. Clara is a retired music critic and the only remaining resident of the titular apartment building in Recife. Trouble starts when an ambitious real estate promoter who has bought up all of Aquarius’s other units comes knocking on Clara’s door. She has no intention of leaving, and a protracted struggle ensues. Braga’s transfixing, multilayered performance and the film’s deliberate pacing and stylistic flourishes yield a sophisticated, political, and humane work.

Certain Women
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
USA, 2016, 107m
The seventh feature by Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff), a lean triptych of subtly intersecting lives in Montana, is a work of no-nonsense eloquence. Adapting short stories by Maile Meloy, Certain Women follows a lawyer (Laura Dern) navigating an increasingly volatile relationship with a disgruntled client; a couple (Michelle Williams and James Le Gros) in a marriage laden with micro-aggression and doubt, trying to persuade an old man (Rene Auberjonois) to sell his unused sandstone; and a young ranch hand (Lily Gladstone) fixated on a new-in-town night school teacher (Kristen Stewart). Shooting on 16mm, Reichardt creates understated, uncannily intimate dramas nestled within a clear-eyed depiction of the modern American West. An IFC Films release.

Elle
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
France/Germany/Belgium, 2016, 131m
French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Paul Verhoeven’s first feature in a decade—and his first in French—ranks among his most incendiary, improbable concoctions: a wry, almost-screwball comedy of manners about a woman who responds to a rape by refusing the mantle of victimhood. As the film opens, Parisian heroine Michèle (a brilliant Isabelle Huppert) is brutally violated in her kitchen by a hooded intruder. Rather than report the crime, Michèle, the CEO of a video game company and daughter of a notorious mass murderer, calmly sweeps up the mess and proceeds to engage her assailant in a dangerous game of domination and submission in which her motivations remain a constant source of mystery, humor, and tension. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

Fire at Sea / Fuocoammare
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi
Italy/France, 2016, 108m
English and Italian with English subtitles
Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary observes Europe’s migrant crisis from the vantage point of a Mediterranean island where hundreds of thousands of refugees, fleeing war and poverty, have landed in recent decades. Rosi shows the harrowing work of rescue operations but devotes most of the film to the daily rhythms of Lampedusa, seen through the eyes of a doctor who treats casualties and performs autopsies, and a feisty but anxious pre-teen from a family of fishermen for whom it is simply a peripheral fact of life. With its emphasis on the quotidian, the film reclaims an ongoing tragedy from the abstract sensationalism of media headlines. A Kino Lorber release.

Graduation / Bacalaureat
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, 2016, 127m
Romanian with English subtitles
Cristian Mungiu’s expertly constructed drama concerns a doctor desperate for his daughter to escape corruption-plagued Romania by accepting a scholarship offer from a British university (after-the-fact layer of irony courtesy of Brexit), contingent on her high school final exams. But after she’s assaulted, perhaps for past sins of her father, the doctor must decide whether he will take advantage of his position to ensure that she receives high marks, despite her trauma. Parents anxious about their children’s education will appreciate the moral dilemma the film poses. Like Mungiu’s superb4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (NYFF ’07), Graduation resonates beyond national boundaries. A Sundance Selects release.

Hermia and Helena
Directed by Matías Piñeiro
Argentina/USA, 2016, 87m
English and Spanish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Shooting outside his native Argentina for the first time, New York–based Matías Piñeiro fashions a bittersweet comedy of coupling and uncoupling that doubles as a love letter to his adopted city. Working on a Spanish translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on an artist residency, Camila (Agustina Muñoz) finds herself within a constellation of shifting relationships (an old flame, a new one, a long-lost relative). Mingling actors from the director’s Buenos Aires repertory with stalwarts of New York’s independent film scene (Keith Poulson, Dustin Guy Defa, Dan Sallitt), Hermia and Helenaoffers the precise gestures, mercurial moods, and youthful energies of all Piñeiro’s cinema, with an emotional depth and directness that make this his most mature work yet.

I, Daniel Blake
Directed by Ken Loach
UK, 2016, 100m
U.S. Premiere
Unable to work after suffering a heart attack, Daniel (Dave Johns) must apply to the government for benefits. But with the seemingly endless documentation he has to provide, his lack of familiarity with computers, and the condescending attitudes of the functionaries to whom he must repeat the same information in one soul-killing encounter after another, he is all but defeated from the beginning, as is his new comrade in misery, Katie (Hayley Squires). English director Ken Loach’s thoroughly shattering film, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will strike a chord with anyone who has ever tried to negotiate their way through the labyrinth of bureaucracy. A Sundance Selects release.

Julieta
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Spain, 2016, 99m
Spanish with English subtitles
Pedro Almodóvar explores his favorite themes of love, sexuality, guilt, and destiny through the poignant story of Julieta, played to perfection by Emma Suárez (younger) and Adriana Ugarte (middle-aged), over the course of a 30-year timespan. Just as she is about to leave Madrid forever, the seemingly content Julieta has a chance encounter that stirs up sorrowful memories of the daughter who brutally abandoned her when she turned eighteen. Drawing on numerous film historical references, from Hitchcock to the director’s own earlier Movida era work, Almodóvar’s twentieth feature, adapted from three short stories by Alice Munro (“Chance,” “Soon,” and “Silence”), is a haunting drama that oscillates between disenchanted darkness and visual opulence. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

Manchester by the Sea
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan
USA, 2016, 137m
Casey Affleck is formidable as the volatile, deeply troubled Lee Chandler, a Boston-based handyman called back to his hometown on the Massachusetts North Shore after the sudden death of his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), who has left behind a teenage son (Lucas Hedges). This loss and the return to his old stomping grounds summon Lee’s memories of an earlier, even more devastating tragedy. In his third film as a director, following You Can Count on Me (2000) andMargaret (2011), Kenneth Lonergan, with the help of a remarkable cast, unflinchingly explores grief, hope, and love, giving us a film that is funny, sharply observed, intimately detailed yet grand in emotional scale. An Amazon Studios Release.

Moonlight
Directed by Barry Jenkins
USA, 2016, 110m
Barry Jenkins more than fulfills the promise of his 2008 romantic two-hander Medicine for Melancholy in this three-part narrative spanning the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of a gay African-American man who survives Miami’s drug-plagued inner city, finding love in unexpected places and the possibility of change within himself. Moonlight offers a powerful sense of place and a wealth of unpredictable characters, featuring a fantastic ensemble cast including André Holland, Trevante Rhodes, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali—delivering performances filled with inner conflict and aching desires that cut straight to the heart. An A24 release.

My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
Directed by Dash Shaw
USA, 2016, 75m
U.S. Premiere
No matter your age, part of you never outgrows high school, for better or worse. Dash Shaw, known for such celebrated graphic novels as Bottomless Belly Button and New School, brings his subjective, dreamlike sense of narrative; his empathy for outsiders and their desire to connect; and his rich, expressive drawing style to his first animated feature. Packed with action but seen from the inside out, My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea is about friends overcoming their differences and having each other’s backs in times of crisis, and its marvelously complex characters are voiced by Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, and John Cameron Mitchell.

Neruda
Directed by Pablo Larraín
Chile/Argentina/France/Spain, 2016, 107m
Spanish and French with English subtitles
Pablo Larraín’s exciting, surprising, and colorful new film is not a biopic but, as the director himself puts it, a “Nerudean” portrait of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s years of flight and exile after his 1948 denunciation of his government’s leadership. Larraín’s heady blend of fact and fancy (the latter embodied in an invented character, straight out of detective fiction, played by Gael García Bernal) is many things at once: a loving, kaleidoscopic recreation of a particular historical moment; a comical cat-and-mouse game; and a pocket epic. Featuring Luis Gnecco, a dead ringer for the poet and a formidable actor, alongside a terrific cast. A release of The Orchard.

Paterson
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
USA, 2016, 118m
U.S. Premiere
Paterson (Adam Driver) is a bus driver who writes poetry drawn from the world around him. Paterson is also the name of the New Jersey city where he works and lives with his effervescent and energetic girlfriend (Golshifteh Farahani). AndPaterson is the title of the great epic poem by William Carlos Williams, whose spirit animates Jim Jarmusch’s exquisite new film. This is a rare movie experience, set to the rhythm of an individual consciousness absorbing the beauties and mysteries and paradoxes and joys and surprises of everyday life, at home and at work, and making them into art. An Amazon Studios release.

Personal Shopper
Directed by Olivier Assayas
France, 2016, 105m
French and English with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Kristen Stewart is the medium, in more ways than one, for this sophisticated genre exploration from director Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria). As a fashion assistant whose twin brother has died, leaving her bereft and longing for messages from the other side, Stewart is fragile and enigmatic—and nearly always on-screen. From an opening sequence in a haunted house with an intricately constructed soundtrack to a high-tension, cat-and-mouse game on a trip from Paris to London and back set entirely to text messaging, Personal Shopper brings the psychological and supernatural thriller into the digital age.  An IFC Films release.

The Rehearsal
Directed by Alison Maclean
New Zealand, 2016, 75m
U.S. Premiere
Alison Maclean (Jesus’ Son) returns to her New Zealand filmmaking roots with a multilayered coming-of-age story about a young actor (James Rolleston) searching for the truth of a character he’s playing onstage and the resulting moral dilemma in his personal life. Set largely in a drama school, featuring Kerry Fox as a diva-like teacher who tries to shape her student’s raw talent, The Rehearsal, adapted from the novel by Eleanor Catton, demystifies actors and acting in order to reveal the moments where craft becomes art. The same happens with Maclean’s understated but penetrating filmmaking. Her concentration on the quotidian yields a finale that borders on the sublime.    

Sieranevada
Directed by Cristi Puiu
Romania, 2016, 173m
Romanian with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
A decade after jumpstarting the Romanian New Wave with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Cristi Puiu returns with a virtuosic chamber drama set largely within a labyrinthine Bucharest apartment where a cantankerous extended family has gathered forty days after its patriarch’s death (and three days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris). Rituals and meals are anticipated and delayed, doors open and close, and the camera hovers at thresholds and in corridors. As claustrophobia mounts, heated, humorous exchanges—about the old Communist days and the present age of terror—coalesce into a brilliantly staged and observed portrait of personal and social disquiet.

Son of Joseph / Le fils de Joseph
Directed by Eugène Green
France/Belgium, 2016, 113m
French with English Subtitles
U.S. Premiere
The American-born expatriate filmmaker Eugène Green exists in his own special artistic orbit. All Green’s films share a formal rigor and an increasingly refined modulation between the playfully comic, the urgently human, and the transcendent, and they are each as exquisitely balanced as the baroque music and architecture that he cherishes. His latest movie, Son of Joseph, is perhaps his most buoyant. A nativity story reboot that gently skewers French cultural pretensions, it features newcomer Victor Ezenfis as a discontented Parisian teenager in search of a father, Mathieu Amalric and Fabrizio Rongione as his, respectively, callous and gentle alternative paternal options, and Natacha Régnier as his single mother. A Kino Lorber Films release.

Staying Vertical / Rester vertical
Directed by Alain Guiraudie
France, 2016, 100m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Léo (Damien Bonnard), a blocked filmmaker seeking inspiration in the French countryside for an overdue script, begins an affair with a shepherdess (India Hair), with whom he almost immediately has a child. Combining the formal control of his 2013 breakthrough Stranger by the Lake with the shapeshifting fabulism of his earlier work, Alain Guiraudie’s new film is a sidelong look at the human cycle of birth, procreation, and death, as well as his boldest riff yet on his signature subjects of freedom and desire. The title has the ring of both a rallying cry and a dirty joke—fitting for a film that is, above all else, a rumination on what it means to be a human being, a vertical animal. A Strand Releasing release.

Things to Come / L’Avenir
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
France/Germany, 2016, 100m
French with English subtitles
In the new film from Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden), Isabelle Huppert is Nathalie, a Parisian professor of philosophy who comes to realize that the tectonic plates of her existence are slowly but inexorably shifting: her husband (André Marcon) leaves her, her mother (Edith Scob) comes apart, her favorite former student decides to live off the grid, and her first grandchild is born. Hansen-Løve carefully builds Things to Come around her extraordinary star: her verve and energy, her beauty, her perpetual motion. Huppert’s remarkable performance is counterpointed by the quietly accumulating force of the action, and the result is an exquisite expression of time’s passing. A Sundance Selects release.

Toni Erdmann
Directed by Maren Ade
Germany, 2016, 162m
German with English subtitles
An audacious twist on the screwball comedy—here, the twosome is an aging-hippie prankster father and his corporate-ladder-climbing daughter—Toni Erdmann delivers art and entertainment in equal measure and charmed just about everyone who saw it at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Maren Ade's dazzling script has just enough of a classical comedic structure to support 162 minutes of surprises big and small. Meanwhile, her direction is designed to liberate the actors as much as possible while the camera rolls, resulting in sublime performances by Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek, who leave the audience suspended between laughter and tears. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

The Unknown Girl
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Belgium, 2016, 106m
It’s a few minutes after closing time in a medical clinic in Seraing, Belgium. The buzzer rings. Doctor Jenny (Adèle Haenel) tells her assistant (Olivier Bonnaud) to ignore it. She is later informed that the girl she turned away was soon found dead on the riverside. From that moment, Jenny becomes a different kind of doctor, diagnosing not just her dispossessed patients’ illnesses but also the greater malady afflicting her community. And this is a different kind of movie for Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, in which the urgency pulses beneath the seemingly placid surface, and it is all keyed to Haenel’s extraordinary performance. A Sundance Selects release.

Yourself and Yours
Directed by Hong Sangsoo
South Korea, 2016, 86m
Korean with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Prolific NYFF favorite Hong Sangsoo boldly and wittily continues his ongoing exploration of the painful caprices of modern romance. Painter Youngsoo (Kim Joo-hyuk) hears secondhand that his girlfriend, Minjung (Lee Yoo-young), has recently had (many) drinks with an unknown man. This leads to a quarrel that seems to end their relationship. The next day, Youngsoo sets out in search of her, at the same time that Minjung—or a woman who looks exactly like her and may or may not be her twin—has a series of encounters with strange men, some of whom claim to have met her before . . . Yourself and Yours is a break-up/make-up comedy unlike any other, suffused with sophisticated modernist mystery.

For more information about the New York Film Festival, visit filmlinc.org/NYFF. For the latest news, subscribe to the festival’s newsletter, follow the festival on Facebook and Twitter, and use the hashtag: #NYFF.

2016 PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES LINE-UP

 
The 2016 PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL will screen 54 narrative and documentary feature films and 89 short films selected from over 3,800+ submissions.
 
The fourth annual Portland Film Festival will take place August 29 - September 5, 2016, at Portland's iconic Laurelhurst Theater, and will include over 20 educational panels & forums, 12 archival presentations, and many parties, events, and industry networking opportunities throughout the week.

The festival will present two opening and closing night films (a documentary and a narrative film on each night) and feature films in the following sections: Narrative Competition Feature, Documentary Competition Feature, Narrative Spotlight, Stranger Than Fiction, Tribute: Visionaries, and Milestones.

"This year's screenings, panels, and programs are an exciting cross-section of icons of classic cinema, engaging new filmmakers, and the best of modern indie film.  We're truly proud to bring this year's eclectic program to local audiences.  We're also thrilled that, for the first time, all of our films will screen at Portland's historic Laurelhurst Theatre. This year's festival will be a not-to-be-missed event," said Josh Leake, Portland Film Festival Founder and Executive Director.
 
Established in 2013, the Portland Film Festival is one of Oregon's largest film festivals, and was named "one of the coolest film festivals in the world," by MovieMaker Magazine. This year, the festival has programmed a near equal balance of films from men and women, furthering the festival's commitment to supporting diverse voices and visions.  New this year, the festival has created a section to screen classic films from the 70's and 80's, and will also be honoring two iconic writers, Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke) and William F. Nolan (Logan's Run).
 
Complete festival lineup and passes available:
www.portlandfilmfestival.com
*Individual website ticket sales will start Monday, 8/15.

This year's festival highlights include:
     
Tribute: Visionaries Section. Engaging screenings and Q&A's with iconic filmmakers. This year's focus is on master screenwriters Chuck Palahniuk, with a screening of Choke, and William F. Nolan, with a screening of his classic sci-fi film Logan's Run.
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Milestones Section. Celebrating classic films from the 70's and 80's.  This inaugural year includes screenings of Aliens, Blue Velvet, Stand By Me, Short Circuit, The Man Who Fell To Earth, and more.
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One of the largest educational platforms for a film festival anywhere. Lead by award-winning professionals in their fields, this year's festival will offer over 50 educational workshops, classes, panels and networking events for actors, screenwriters, and filmmakers. Panelists will include screenwriter Leslie Dixon (Hairspray, Mrs. Doubtfire) and James Shapiro (Alamo DraftHouse Films).
Screenplay Competition. One screenplay winner will be announced, and will win a production grant, cash, and services worth over $20K.

OPENING NIGHT FILM (Documentary)
Wizard Mode / U.S. (Directors: Nathan Drillot & Jeff Lee Petry)
In the game of pinball, there is no bigger accomplishment than flipping your machine into 'wizard mode'. And of all the pinball players in the world, there's nobody more dedicated to unlocking 'wizard mode' than Robert Emilio Gagno, who also happens to be an autistic savant whose parents just want him to get a job.
U.S. PREMIERE
 
OPENING NIGHT FILM (Narrative)
Middle Man / U.S. (Director: Ned Crowley)
A straight-laced, old-school accountant has a dream: to become a famous stand-up comedian. The problem is, he's just not very funny. Cast: Jim O'Heir (Parks & Rec), Andrew J. West (The Walking Dead). PORTLAND PREMIERE
 
CLOSING NIGHT FILM (Documentary)
Ovarian Psycos / U.S. (Directors: Joanna Sokolowski & Kate Trumbull-LaValle)
The Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade, an East Los Angeles collective of bike-powered activists, supports young women of color by integrating feminist ideals with indigena understanding and an urban/hood mentality.PORTLAND PREMIERE
 
CLOSING NIGHT FILM (Narrative)
Girl Flu/ U.S. (Director: Dorie Barton)
A sweet, funny story that follows a 12-year-old girl as she navigates her transition to womanhood via her first period. Cast: Jade Pettyjohn, Katee Sackhoff, Heather Matarazzo, Jeremy Sisto. PORTLAND PREMIERE

OFFICIAL COMPETITION TITLES
A jury comprised of industry professionals and acclaimed filmmakers will present awards to films in both the Documentary Feature and Narrative Feature competition categories. There will also be an Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, Best Narrative Feature, and Best Short Film.

NARRATIVE COMPETITION FEATURES
9 films showcasing fresh voices telling new stories with imagination and style.

Dark Harvest / U.S. (Director: James Hutson)
Two friends run a successful marijuana grow operation, until a murder investigation and a shady narcotics officer threaten to derail their plans. Cast: James Hutson, Cheech Marin, A.C. Peterson. WORLD PREMIERE
 
Gozo / United Kingdom (Director: Miranda Bowen)
Hoping to put their troubled past behind them, a young couple emigrates to an idyllic Mediterranean island where the living is easy, until one of them begins to hear strange noises. Cast: Joseph Kennedy, Ophelia Lovibond, Daniel Lapaine. WORLD PREMIERE
 
June Falling Down / U.S. (Director: Rebecca Weaver)
After wandering aimlessly for a year following her father's death, a young woman returns to her small Wisconsin hometown for the wedding of her best friend. Cast: Rebecca Weaver, Nick Hoover, Claire Morkin, Joanna Becker. WEST COAST PREMIERE
 
Panopticon / U.S. (Director: Aaron Keene)
With a sun allergy that keeps him inside all day, a lonely man begins hacking into webcams as a way to take part in the lives of others. Cast: Guilherme Scarabelot, Sylvia Sakellaridis. WORLD PREMIERE
 
The Remnant / U.S. (Director: Karmia Chan Olutade)
A 16-year-old girl and her little brother seek shelter in an orphanage run by a cold-hearted man in this politically-conscious indie musical. Cast: Kayla Cao, Tenzin Low, Ankhnyam Ragchaa, Sylvia Niu. WORLD PREMIERE
 
River House Inheritance / U.S. (Director: Sandra Lee)
A young woman spends her days caring for her bedridden mother, which gets complicated by the arrival of her just-paroled sister. Cast: Emily Seely, Beth Puorro, Willy McGee, Eva Jackson. WORLD PREMIERE  
 
She Sings to the Stars / U.S. (Director: Jennifer Corcoran)
A Native American grandmother spends her days tending her drought-ravaged corn in the desert Southwest until her estranged grandson arrives and anything becomes possible. Cast: Fanny Loretto, Jesus Mayorga, Larry Cedar. PORTLAND PREMIERE
 
Some Freaks / U.S. (Director: Ian MacAllister McDonald)
A high school student with one eye thinks his life could not be more different than the other kids at his school, until he meets Jill. Cast: Thomas Mann, Lily Mae Harrington, Ely Henry, Marin Ireland. WEST COAST PREMIERE
 
Those Left Behind / U.S. (Director: Maria Finitzo)
25 years after her brother's suicide, a woman returns to her childhood home with her 16-year-old son to help her mother recover from surgery, opening up old wounds. Cast: Daphne Zuniga, Jack Griffo, Debra Mooney, Jack Hogan) WORLD PREMIERE
 
 
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION FEATURES
9 new films from around the world that tackle real life stories with bold vision and energy.

Boone / U.S. (Director: Christopher LaMarca)
An unsentimental look at the gritty reality of three young Oregon goat farmers. PORTLAND PREMIERE
 
Check It / U.S. (Directors:  Dana Oppenheimer & Toby Flor) An intimate portrait of four African-American childhood friends as they work to pull themselves out of gang life and poverty via street fashion. PORTLAND PREMIERE
 
Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model / United Kingdom (Director: Rebecca Brand) Follow along as award-winning performance artist Bryony Kimmings and her 10-year-old niece create their very own alternative pop star role model for girls 7-12 years old. U.S. PREMIERE
 
Free CeCe! / U.S. (Director: Jacqueline Gares)
On her way to the store with a group of friends, Chrishaun Reed "CeCe" McDonald, a trans African American woman, was the victim of a transphobic, racially motivated attack. This is her story. Executive produced by Laverne Cox (
Orange Is the New Black). OREGON PREMIERE
 
The Good Mind / U.S. (Director: Gwendolen Cates)
An intimate portrait of the Onondaga Nation in central New York State, an indigenous sovereign nation that still maintains a traditional government led by clanmothers and chiefs. WEST COAST PREMIERE
 
Indivisible / U.S. (Director: Hilary Linder)
Renata, Evelyn, and Antonio were young children when their parents brought them to the U.S. in search of a better life; they were teenagers when their families were deported. Now, they must fight for their citizenship and the chance to be reunited with their loved ones. OREGON PREMIERE
 
Jackson / U.S. (Director: Maisie Crow)
Set against the backdrop of the fight over the last abortion clinic in Mississippi,
Jackson takes an intimate, first-of-its-kind look inside the issues surrounding abortion from the perspectives of three women. PORTLAND PREMIERE
 
Unseen / U.S. (Director: Laura Paglin)
In 2009, in Cleveland, Ohio, police discovered the bodies of eleven women near the home of known sex offender Anthony Sowell.With unprecedented access to the surviving victims,
Unseen tells a chilling story about the invisibility of women on the margins of society. OREGON PREMIERE
 
Yesterday Was Everything / U.S. (Director: Matthew Mixon)
A raw and unflinching look at the attempts of Misery Signals, a Wisconsin metalcore band, to reconcile for a ten-show reunion tour in the wake of a tenuous split and a fatal accident that happened a decade earlier. WORLD PREMIERE
 

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Unique films, marquee names, and highlights of the best of modern film.
 
6 Love Stories / U.S. (Director: Michael Dunaway)
Six locations. Six couples. Six conversations. This ensemble drama explores the many facets of love from six unique perspectives, sometimes finding laughter, sometimes finding tears, but always finding truth. Cast: Ashley Williams, Ross Patridge, Carrie Preston, Matthew Lillard, Stephen Tobolowsky. WORLD PREMIERE
 
All the Birds Have Flown South / U.S. (Directors: Joshua & Miles Miller)
Unsettling psycho-thriller that follows a disturbed man grieving for his mother who begins obsessing over a down-on-her-luck waitress. Cast: Paul Sparks, Joey Lauren Adams, Dallas Roberts. OREGON PREMIERE
 
Hunter Gatherer / U.S. (Director: Joshua Locy)
A forty-something African-American ex-con, fresh out of prison, attempts to put the pieces of his old life back together, but finds that starting over is never simple. Cast: Andre Royo, George Sample III, Kellee Stewart, Ashley Wilkerson. OREGON PREMIERE
 
Neil Stryker & the Tyrant of Time / U.S. (Director: Rob Taylor)
In a madcap future era, the world's greatest secret agent must race through time to rescue his son from the clutches of his infamous former mentor. Cast: David Ogden Stiers, Rob Taylor, Nic Costa.
 
On the Farm / U.S. (Director: Rachel Talalay)
A powerful, dramatic exploration of a wily psychopath who murdered nearly 50 marginalized women in and around Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and the flawed systems that allowed him to do it. Cast: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Sarah Strange. U.S. PREMIERE
 
Orphans of Eldorado / Brazil (Director: Guilherme Coelho)
A story of love, obsession, and a man who goes insane in the Amazon. Based on the novel by Brazilian author Milton Hatoum. Cast: Milton Aires, Adriano Barroso, Henrique da Paz. OREGON PREMIERE
 
Spaghettiman / U.S. (Director: Mark Potts)
After an incident with an old bowl of spaghetti and a malfunctioning microwave, an average man becomes a superhero who can fight crime with the power of spaghetti. Cast: Ben Crutcher, Winston Carter, Brand Rackley. OREGON PREMIERE
 
Tierra Caliente / U.S. (Director: Laura Plancarte)
The story of a family from the state of Guerrero, Mexico, caught in the crossfire between the
narco and the military. Based on a true story. Cast: Anais Alvarado, Dimitri Andreas, Claudia Coulter. OREGON PREMIERE
 

STRANGER THAN FICTION
Celebrating the best in contemporary documentary filmmaking.
 
The Farmer and I / Germany, Bhutan (Director: Irja von Bernstorff)
Cultural barriers and tensions arise between German filmmaker Irja and Bhutanese farmer Sangay when they team up to create a TV series. WORLD PREMIERE
 
Gold Balls / U.S. (Director: Kate Keckler Dandel)
Competitive athletes barnstorm the US in pursuit of a National Championship title in tennis. The twist? They're all over age 80. OREGON PREMIERE
 
The Incomparable Rose Hartman / U.S. (Director: Otis Mass)
With a career spanning decades, photographer Rose Hartman is known for her iconic photos from Studio 54 and the fashion world, her boisterous personality and her uncanny ability of capturing the New York social scene, warts and all.  OREGON PREMIERE
 
The Legend of Swee' Pea / U.S. (Director: Benjamin May)
A film about the quixotic life of Lloyd 'Swee' Pea' Daniels, a basketball prodigy who, felled by drugs and bullets, embarks on an improbable comeback to cements his reputation as the greatest playground legend of all time. OREGON PREMIERE
 
My Millennial Life / Canada (Director: Maureen Judge)
A provocative and humorous observational documentary about the big dreams, crushing disappointments, loves, and aspirations of "Millennials." U.S. PREMIERE
 
Searchdog / U.S. (Director: Mary Healey Jamiel)
Humans and canines work together to accomplish heroic acts in this doggie documentary, which follows an internationally renowned K9 Search and Rescue Specialist as he turns the "unadoptable" into the next generation of search dogs. OREGON PREMIERE
 
 
TRIBUTE: VISIONARIES
Screenings and discussions with icons of cinema, celebrating visionary filmmakers and their work. This year we celebrate two iconic screenwriters and two of their most accomplished works.
 
Choke / U.S. (Director: Clark Gregg), 2008
Includes screening of Fight Club 2 graphic novel trailer.
A sex-addicted con man pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him from choking to death.
Q&A with screenwriter / novelist Chuck Palahniuk.
 
Logan's Run / U.S. (Director: Michael Anderson), 1976
An idyllic sci-fi future has one major drawback: life must end at the age of 30.
Q&A with screenwriter William F. Nolan

MILESTONES
A curated selection of classic films and crowd pleasers (many with Oregon connections.)
 
Aliens / U.S. (Director: James Cameron), 1979
The planet from Alien has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?
 
Blue Velvet / U.S. (Director: David Lynch), 1896
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
 
The Fly / U.S. (Director: David Cronenberg), 1986
A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
 
The Man Who Fell To Earth / United Kingdom (Director: Nicolas Roeg), 1976
An alien arrives on Earth and quickly sets about creating enough wealth to allow him to return to his own world.
 
My Own Private Idaho / U.S. (Director: Gus Van Sant), 1991, Shot in Oregon!
Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self-discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.
 
Stand By Me / U.S. (Director: Rob Reiner), 1986, Shot in Oregon!
After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy.
 
Short Circuit / U.S. (Director: John Badham), 1986, Shot in Oregon!
Number 5 of a group of experimental robots in a lab is electrocuted, suddenly becomes intelligent, and escapes.

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES REVIVALS LINEUP FOR THE 54th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL #NYFF

New restorations of Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, Marlon Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks, Edward Yang’s Taipei Story, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Memories of Underdevelopment, anniversary revivals of The Battle of Algiers and Harlan County USA, long-lost shorts by late master Jacques Rivette, and more

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the lineup for Revivals, taking place during the 54th New York Film Festival (NYFF), September 30 – October 16. The Revivals section showcases masterpieces from renowned filmmakers whose diverse and eclectic works have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners.

Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, the NYFF Opening Night selection in 1967, returns to the festival for its 50th anniversary in a new 4K restoration. Boasting a score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone and black-and-white cinematography with the dizzying effect of newsreel footage, this potent retelling of the Algerian uprising still makes an impact. Also returning are Robert Bresson’s astonishing final film, L’argent (NYFF 1983), and Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning document of a Kentucky miners’ strike, Harlan County USA, which debuted at the festival 40 years ago.

Revivals also pays tribute to late French New Wave titan Jacques Rivette with a program of his long-unseen first three short films. Discovered by his widow earlier this year, these works offer a fascinating glimpse into Rivette’s early process and experimentation, from a journey through Paris to a chamber drama featuring a young Jean-Luc Godard. Rounding out the lineup are Edward Yang’s Taipei Story, co-written by and starring Hou Hsiao-hsien; Kenji Mizoguchi’s haunting masterpiece Ugetsu; Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s portrait of the Cuban revolution through the eyes of a disenchanted writer, Memories of Underdevelopment; Marlon Brando’s sole directorial effort, One-Eyed Jacks; Albert Lewin’s wild curio The Living Idol; and cinema poet Julien Duvivier’s Panique.

The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Jones, also includes Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Programming; Florence Almozini, FSLC Associate Director of Programming; Amy Taubin, Contributing Editor, Artforum and Film Comment; and Gavin Smith, who serves as a consultant.

NYFF previously announced Ava DuVernay’s documentary The 13th as the Opening Night selection, Mike Mills’s 20th Century Women as Centerpiece, and James Gray’s The Lost City of Z as Closing Night.

Tickets for the 54th New York Film Festival will go on sale September 11. Becoming a Film Society Member at the Film Buff Level or above provides early ticket access to festival screenings and events ahead of the general public, along with the exclusive member ticket discount. Learn more at filmlinc.org/membership.

For even more access, VIP passes and subscription packages offer the earliest opportunities to purchase tickets and secure seats at some of the festival's biggest events including Opening and Closing Nights, and Centerpiece. VIP passes also provide access to many exciting events, including the invitation-only Opening Night party, “An Evening With…” dinner, Filmmaker Brunch, and VIP Lounge. Benefits vary based on the pass or package type purchased. VIP passes and subscription packages are on sale now. Learn more at filmlinc.org/NYFF.

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS

L’argent
Directed by Robert Bresson
1983, France, 83m
Robert Bresson’s final film, an adaptation of Tolstoy’s story The Forged Coupon, is simultaneously bleak and luminous, and sharp enough to cut diamonds. The story of a counterfeit bill’s passage from hand to hand and the resulting tragic consequences is rendered with a clean force that would be startling from a filmmaker of any age; coming from one in his early 80s, it was, and still is, astonishing. L’argent burns white hot—not with anger but with a perfect clarity of purpose: to direct us to see that habitual human callousness is what keeps us out of paradise. Restored in 2K, scanned in 4K from the original negative. A Janus Films release.

Restored by MK2, in 2K from a 4K scan of the original negative.

The Battle of Algiers
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
1966, Italy/Algeria, 120m
Gillo Pontecorvo’s account of the popular uprising that led to Algerian independence from the French took “documentary realism” to a new level, electrifying and polarizing audiences throughout the world. Pontecorvo created a de-centralized structure in which the events themselves took center stage, cast the film almost entirely with non-actors, and filmed in grainy black-and-white to create a heightened “you are there” immediacy. Banned in France, embraced by the Black Panthers, and studied by the Pentagon following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, The Battle of Algiers, based on the book Souvenirs de la bataille d’Alger by Saadi Yacef (who also plays a character based on himself), returns in a new 4K restoration. A Rialto Pictures release.

Restored by Cineteca di Bologna and Istituto Luce – Cinecittà at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in collaboration with Surf Film, Casbah Entertainment Inc. and CultFilms.

Harlan County USA
Directed by Barbara Kopple
1976, USA, 103m
The mighty Barbara Kopple’s 1976 film, an impassioned documentary record of the year-long Brookside, Kentucky, miners’ strike that came to be known as “Bloody Harlan,” celebrates its 40th anniversary with a return to the festival where it had its premiere—before going on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary. Kopple and her crew spent a year and half in Harlan County, often under volatile conditions—she would later learn that there had been a price on her head. “It was an astounding experience,” she has said. “I learned what life-and-death was all about.” She also made a great film. A Cabin Creek Films release.

The restoration of Harlan County USA was funded by New York Women in Film & Television in 2004 through a Women's Film Preservation Fund Legacy Grant and underwritten by the Academy Film Archive.

Jacques Rivette shorts

Aux quatre coins
Jacques Rivette, France, 1949, 20m
French intertitles with English subtitles

Le quadrille
Jacques Rivette, France, 1950, 40m
French intertitles with English subtitles

Le divertissement
Jacques Rivette, France, 1952, 45m
French intertitles with English subtitles
Rediscovered by Véronique Rivette this year and digitally restored by the Cinémathèque française, these three shorts offer a fascinating glimpse of the earliest stages of Jacques Rivette’s artistic development. In these “practice films,” the late New Wave master searches for the themes and approach to mise-en-scène that would later define his inexhaustibly rich oeuvre. Aux quatre coins is pure visual experimentation, while Le quadrille—co-written by and co-starring a baby-faced Jean-Luc Godard—is a chamber drama with two men and two women in a room, their relations expressed as a game of suggestive glances and the lighting and stubbing-out of cigarettes. Le divertissement presages Rivette’s gift for rendering Paris as a labyrinth of intrigues. Together, these films provide a crucial perspective on Rivette’s creativity before Cahiers du Cinéma and his incomparable filmmaking career.

The films have been restored by Les Films du Veilleur and the Cinémathèque française, in partnership with the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, le laboratoire Hiventy, Festival Côté Court, and the Forum des Images—Mairie de Paris, with the support of CNC. Special thanks to Véronique Rivette, and Samantha Leroy and Emilie Cauquy (Cinémathèque française).

The Living Idol
Directed by Albert Lewin
1957, USA, 100m
Albert Lewin began as a critic, went to work for Samuel Goldwyn in the 1920s, became Irving Thalberg’s right-hand man in the 1930s, and produced a handful of excellent films before becoming a director at age 48. Each of his six movies is rarefied, proudly literary, mythic, meticulously art-directed, and delicately haunting. His last—and strangest—is The Living Idol, based on his own novel about an archeologist who comes to believe that a jaguar in captivity is the physical manifestation of a Mayan god. This is not a great film, but it is a very unusual and a uniquely compelling one: it feels like an emanation from an alternate world of moviemaking. A Cohen Media Group release.

Memories of Underdevelopment
Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
1968, Cuba, 97m
When Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s 1968 film was finally released here in 1973, it startled film critics and casual moviegoers alike. No one was expecting such a film out of Castro’s Cuba: a sharp, funny, pro-revolutionary period piece (the action is set in 1961, right after the Bay of Pigs) with a disaffected intellectual hero (Sergio Corrieri) who, as Vincent Canby wrote, “moves through Havana as if he were a scuba diver exploring the ruins of a civilization he abhorred but cannot bear to leave.” The English critic Derek Malcolm wrote that Memories of Underdevelopment is “one of the best films ever made about the skeptical individual's place in the march of history.” A World Cinema Project release.

A presentation by the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), Les Films du Camélia, and the Cineteca di Bologna. Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and financed by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project.

One-Eyed Jacks
Directed by Marlon Brando
1961, USA, 141m
The only film directed by Marlon Brando, an adaptation of Charles Neider’s novel (inspired by the life of Billy the Kid), is an unorthodox western that’s as fresh, unpredictable, and physical as Brando’s lead performance. This visually stunning production—the last Paramount film shot in VistaVision—could for many years be seen only in substandard public domain prints and discs. It has now been beautifully restored by Universal, with the support of The Film Foundation, and under the supervision of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. The formidable cast includes Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Slim Pickens, Ben Johnson, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and the wonderful Mexican actress Pina Pellicer.

Restored by Universal Studios in collaboration with The Film Foundation. Special thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg for their consultation on this restoration.

Panique
Directed by Julien Duvivier
1947, France, 91m
“If I were an architect and I had to build a monument to the cinema,” wrote Jean Renoir, “I would place a statue of Julien Duvivier above the entrance.” Duvivier made 70 films between 1919 and 1967, many of them landmarks of French cinema. His first postwar project, a High Noir adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Mr. Hire’s Engagement (later adapted by Patrice Leconte as Monsieur Hire) stars Michel Simon as a reviled voyeur framed for a murder by the girl he adores. Widely considered the finest Simenon adaptation but criticized at the time for its bleakness, the long-unseen Panique has finally been given the vivid restoration it deserves. A Rialto Pictures release.

Restored from a nitrate interpositive by TF1 Droits Audiovisuels at Digimage.

Taipei Story
Directed by Edward Yang
1985, Taiwan, 110m
Edward Yang’s second feature stars Hou Hsiao-hsien (who cowrote the script and mortgaged his house to fund the production) as a former baseball player who has come home to manage the family textile business, and Tsai Chin as his property-developer girlfriend. “The two main characters represent the past and the future of Taipei,” said Yang. “I tried to bring enough controversial questions onto the screen, so that viewers would ask themselves about their own lives.” Taipei Story is early evidence of Olivier Assayas’s assessment of Yang, who died far too young, as “the great Chinese filmmaker of modernity.”  A World Cinema Project release.

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at Cineteca di Bologna/L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique and Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Ugetsu Monogatari
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
1953, Japan, 94m
Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 adaptation of two 18th-century Japanese ghost stories (tempered with elements from Guy de Maupassant) is a peak in the history of cinema, a work of multiple mysteries, terrors, wonders, and ecstatic flights that takes audiences where few films do: to the realm of the unnameable. Ugetsu’s power can be felt in even the most degraded prints, but this restoration, made from a master positive print and a dupe negative, allows us to really see and appreciate the exquisite visual beauty achieved by the director and his cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.

Restored by The Film Foundation and KADOKAWA Corporation at Cineric Laboratories. Special thanks to Masahiro Miyajima and Martin Scorsese for their consultation on this restoration. Restoration funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in association with the Film Foundation and KADOKAWA Corporation.

Support for the New York Film Festival is also generously provided by Jaeger-LeCoultre, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

For more information about the New York Film Festival, visit filmlinc.org/NYFF

LA FILMFESTIVAL by FilmIndependent ~ Celebrates Diversity & Inclusion | ANNOUNCES WINNERS AND GRANT RECIPIENTS

The 2016 LA Film Festival, produced by Film Independent announced the winners of the 2016 Festival at the Awards Cocktail Reception. The Reception was hosted by Roya Rastegar, Director of Programming and Jennifer Cochis, Creative Director.

This festival has been one of the most diverse, inclusive and supportive festival to passionate filmmakers of all color, nationality, gender, genre, taste and flavor. Film Independent and it's president Josh Wells, has been pushing the organization in that direction since he took helm of few years ago. Under the direction of the festival president Stephanie Allain, who has been pushing Hollywood towards true inclusion and breaking barriers for diversity since beginning of her career. Her team and lieutenants like Roya Rastegar, Jennifer Cochis and the entire programming and festival team has truly made it a mission to support wonderful independent cinema in Hollywood and worldwide, along with promoting diversity and inclusion.

“With all the talk about diversifying Hollywood, the LA Film Festival provides proof that talented filmmakers with new voices are out there, they just need a platform and that’s what we’re providing,” said Stephanie Allain, Festival Director. "One of the more satisfying aspects of this job is watching new directors blossom in the spotlight. I'm grateful to our esteemed jurors for their service and congratulate the winners."

The LA Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday, June 1 with the World Premiere of Ricardo de Montreuil’s Lowriders and will close today June 9 with Jonás Cuarón’s Desierto.  Special Screenings included the World Premiere of Zedd True Colors and The Conjuring 2. The 2016 LA Film Festival Guest Director was Ryan Coogler; the recipient of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award was Maryse Alberti, this year’s Spirit of Independence Award was bestowed upon Ava DuVernay and Array Releasing. The LA Film Festival is a qualifying festival in all categories for the Film Independent Spirit Awards and for the Narrative and Animated Short Film categories at the Academy Awards.

The Festival hosts juried awards including the U.S. Fiction Award, World Fiction Award, Documentary Award, LA Muse Award and Nightfall Award, as well as the Short Fiction Award and the Short Documentary Award. Audience awards are presented for Fiction Feature Film, Documentary Feature Film, Short Film and Web Series.

The U.S. Fiction Award went to Remy Auberjonois for Blood Stripe, which made its World Premiere at the Festival.

The World Fiction Award went to Anaïs Volpé for HEIS (chronicles), which made its World Premiere at the Festival.

The Documentary Award went to Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares forPolitical Animals, which made its World Premiere at the Festival.

The LA Muse Award was given to Heidi Saman for Namour, which made its World Premiere at the Festival.

The Nightfall Award went to Jackson Stewart for Beyond The Gates,which made its World Premiere at the Festival.

The Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film went to GREEN / is / GOLD, directed by Ryon Baxter which made its World Premiere at the Festival.

The Audience Award for Documentary Feature Film was given to Political Animals, directed by Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares.

The Award for Short Fiction went to The Beast (Zvjerka), directed byDaina Oniunas Pusić. The Award for Short Documentary went to The Gatekeeper, directed by Yung Chang. The Audience Award for Short Filmwent to Into Darkness directed by Rachida El Garani.  The Audience Award for Web Series went to Instababy, directed by Rosie Haber.

The U.S. Fiction jury consisted of writer and director Alex Rivera (Sleep Dealer), public broadcasting anchor and reporter Shirley Jahad (KPCC, WBEZ, WTTW), costume designer Sophie De Rakoff (Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, In Her Shoes, McFarland, USA).

The World Fiction jury was comprised of producer Gail Mutrux (The Danish Girl, Kinsey, Donnie Brasco), award-winning composer, producer and former President of Fox Music Robert Kraft, and The Hollywood Reporter film critic and Reviews Editor Jon Frosch.

The Documentary jury consisted of producer Ron Najor (Short Term 12, I Am Not a Hipster), Access Hollywood film critic Scott Mantz and Wendy Guerrero, President of the Bentonville Film Festival. 

The LA Muse jury included Rachel Polan Director of Development, Television at Lionsgate, actress and director Jennifer Prediger (Apartment Troubles, Red Flag, Uncle Kent) and Jonathan Wells, curator of the Flux Screening Series at the Hammer Museum.

The Nightfall jury consisted of acquisitions executive Jeff Deutchman, Mia Chang producer and partner Brio Entertainment (It Follows, Struck By Lightning, Boulevard) and actor and producer Reza Sixo Safai (A Girl Walks Home At Night, The Loner).

The Shorts jury consisted of actor Drew Droege (Cocktails and Classics, Drunk History), Danielle Hinde, producer and owner of Doomsday Entertainment (Nine Types of Light, Chet Faker: Gold, Childish Gambino: Sober) and Slamdance Film Festival, Festival Manager Clementine Leger.

Grants were also awarded to David Saveliev, winner of the Ed Elias Future Filmmaker Award for Narrative Film for Wonderful World and an Ed Elias Future Filmmaker Honorable Mention to Lucky Numbers directed byChester Milton. Josh Jaffe is the winner of the Ed Elias Future Filmmaker Award for Documentary Film for In Twenty Years: Central District and anEd Elias Future Filmmaker Honorable Mention was given to The Skin I’m In directed by Rajaiah Jones. Liam O’Connor-Savaria is the winner of theEd Elias Future Filmmaker Award for Animated or Experimental Film forWorryWart and an Ed Elias Future Filmmaker Honorable Mention was attributed to A Little Love Goes a Long Clay directed by Juliet Buckholdt.

Also announced during the Festival at the Film Independent Fast Track finance market were two Alfred P. Sloan Grants given to films that engage with science and technology themes and characters. The Alfred P. Sloan Fast Track Grant was awarded to Mark Levinson for his project The Gold Bug Variations.

Awards were given out in the following categories:

 --

U.S. Fiction Award
Winner: Blood Stripe, directed by Remy Auberjonois

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Kate Nowlin, Remy Auberjonois

Producer: Schuyler Weiss, Julie Christeas, Remy Auberjonois, Kate Nowlin

Cast: Kate Nowlin, Tom Lipinski, Chris Sullivan, Rusty Schwimmer, Rene Auberjonois

Film Description: After a third tour of duty in Afghanistan, a Marine sergeant returns home to find herself hemorrhaging anxiety and paranoia from unseen wounds. World Premiere

--

The U.S. Fiction Jury awarded the following special mentions:

Special Mention for Comedy: Chee and T, directed by Tanuj Chopra

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Tanuj Chopra, Chee Malabar

Producer: Sohini Sengupta

Cast: Dominic Rains, Sunkrish Bala, Asif Ali, Noureen DeWulf, Rebecca Hazlewood, Bernard White, Karan Soni, Himanshu Suri, Scott Rogers

Film Description: A delirious ride with two hot henchmen, who are tasked with getting their South Asian boss’s out-of-control nephew presentable for his engagement party by day’s end. World Premiere

Special Mention for Visual Accomplishment: Paint it Black, directed by Amber Tamblyn

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Amber Tamblyn, Ed Dougherty

Producer: Wren Arthur, Amy Hobby, Anne Hubbell, Amber Tamblyn

Cast: Janet McTeer, Alia Shawkat, Alfred Molina, Emily Rios, Rhys Wakefield

Film Description: Barely able to process the death of her true love, Josie is drawn into a twisted relationship with the deceased’s mother as irrational grief explodes in beautiful and terrifying ways. World Premiere

****

World Fiction Award
Winner: HEIS (chronicles), directed by Anaïs Volpé

Country:  France

Screenwriter: Anaïs Volpé

Producers: Anaïs Volpé

Cast: Alexandre Desane, Matthieu Longatte, Emilia Derou-Bernal, Akéla Sari, Anaïs Volpé

Film Description: A millennial artist returns to her mother’s home in Paris, only to have her personal ambitions confronted by her family’s expectations in this energetic and visually distinct debut film. World Premiere

 --

The World Fiction Jury awarded a special mention to:

Special Mention: Lupe Under the Sun, directed by Rodrigo Reyes

Country: Mexico/USA

Screenwriter: Rodrigo Reyes

Producers: Su Kim

Cast: Daniel Muratalla, Ana Muratalla

Film Description: After a lifetime working in the California fields, Lupe learns that he is about to die and desperately struggles to return home to his family in Mexico to make amends—before it is too late. World Premiere

****

Documentary Award

Winner: Political Animals, directed by Jonah Markowitz, Tracy Wares

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Jonah Markowitz

Producers: Anne Clements

Cast: Carole Migden, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg, Christine Kehoe

Film Description: The first openly gay California State Representatives, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg, Christine Kehoe, and Carole Migden, had to utilize cunning, strategy and endurance when authoring and introducing the legislation that fundamentally changed the landscape of LGBT rights. World Premiere

****

LA Muse Award
Winner: Namour, directed by Heidi Saman

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Heidi Saman

Producers: Matthew Keene Smith

Cast: Karim Saleh, Waleed Zuaiter, Mona Hala, Nicole Haddad

Film Description: Set in the City of Angels during the economic recession of the late 2000’s, a twenty-something Egyptian American valet driver must come to grips with his dead-end job, disintegrating family and disappearing relationships in this stylish homage to Los Angeles. World Premiere

--

The LA Muse Jury awarded a special mention to:

Special Mention: No Light and No Land Anywhere, directed by Amber Sealey

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Amber Sealey

Executive Producer: Miranda July

Producers: Drea Clark, Alysa Nahmias, Amber Sealey

Cast: Gemma Brockis, Jennifer LaFleur, David Sullivan, Kent Osborne, Deborah Dopp, Jade Sealey

Film Description: Grieving over her mother's death, Lexi abruptly leaves her life and husband in London to come to Los Angeles in pursuit of the father who abandoned her when she was three. World Premiere

****

Nightfall Award
Winner: Beyond The Gates, directed by Jackson Stewart

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Jackson Stewart, Stephen Scarlata

Producers: Barbara Crampton, Amanda Mortimer

Cast: Graham Skipper, Chase Williamson, Brea Grant, Sara Malakul Lane, Barbara Crampton

Film Description: Two estranged brothers dig through their missing father’s video store, discovering a VCR board game that holds a connection to their father's disappearance and deadly consequences for anyone who plays it.World Premiere

****

Award for Short Film

Winner: The Beast (Zvjerka), directed by Daina Oniunas Pusić. Croatia.

Film Description: A complicated relationship between an elderly mother and daughter is forever altered when a bat flies into their lives. 

--

The Shorts jury awarded special mentions to:

Special Mention for Breakthrough Performance: Thunder Road, directed by Jim Cummings. USA.

Film Description: Officer Arnaud loved his mom.

--

Special Mention for Excellence in Animation: The Lingerie Show, directed by Laura Harrison. USA.

Film Description: A drug addict throws a lingerie show to seduce her boyfriend away from his sugar daddy, which devolves into mayhem. 

****

Award for Documentary Short

Winner: The Gatekeeper, directed by Yung Chang. Japan.

Film Description: A retired police detective patrols Tojinbo Cliffs, a notorious destination for suicides in Japan.

****

Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film

Winner: GREEN / is / GOLD, directed by Ryon Baxter

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Ryon Baxter
Producers: Anthony Burns, Ryon Baxter

Cast: Jimmy Baxter, Ryon Baxter, David Fine, Liz Clare, Shelley Mitchell

Film Description: After his father goes to prison, a wayward tween has nowhere to live except with his high school dropout brother, who is building—at all costs—a marijuana business. World Premiere

This award is given to the fiction feature audiences liked most as voted by a tabulated rating system. World Premiere fiction feature-length films screening in the following sections were eligible for the Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature: U.S. Fiction, World Fiction, Limelight, LA Muse, and Nightfall.

****

Audience Award for Documentary Feature Film
Winner: Political Animals, directed by Jonah Markowitz, Tracy Wares

Country: USA

Screenwriter: Jonah Markowitz

Producers: Anne Clements

Cast: Carole Migden, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg, Christine Kehoe

Film Description: The first openly gay California State Representatives, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg, Christine Kehoe, and Carole Migden, had to utilize cunning, strategy and endurance when authoring and introducing the legislation that fundamentally changed the landscape of LGBT rights. World Premiere 

This award is given to the documentary feature audiences liked most as voted by a tabulated rating system. World Premiere documentary feature-length films screening in the following sections were eligible for the Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Documentary and LA Muse.

****

Audience Award for Short Film 
Winner: Into Darkness, directed by Rachida El Garani 
Film Description: This documentary gives insight into a deeply religious Moroccan family as they struggle with blindness and extreme poverty.

This award is given to the short film audiences liked most as voted by a tabulated rating system. Short films screening in the Shorts Programs or before feature films in the Festival were eligible for the Audience Award for Short Film.

****

Audience Award for Web-series 
Winner: Instababy, directed by Rosie Haber

Description: Gay adoption is illegal in Mississippi, so Toni and Keeta look for a baby on Instagram.

This award is given to the web-series audiences liked most as voted by a tabulated rating system.

--------------

ABOUT THE LA FILM FESTIVAL

The LA Film Festival is a key part of the exhibition arm of Film Independent, showcasing new American and international cinema that embraces diversity, innovation and unique perspectives. The Festival produces one-of-a-kind events featuring critically acclaimed filmmakers, industry professionals and award-winning talent from Los Angeles and around the world. The Festival’s signature programs include the Filmmaker Retreat, Celebrating Women Filmmakers, Master Classes, Spirit of Independence Award, Coffee Talks, LA Muse and more. The Festival also screens short films created by high school students. Presenting Media Sponsor is the Los Angeles Times. Premier Sponsor is Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Principal Sponsor is Jaeger-LeCoultre. Platinum Sponsors are American Airlines, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., EFILM | Company 3 and HBO. The University Sponsor is Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television. WireImage is the Official Photography Agency. More information can be found at lafilmfestival.com.

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT
Film Independent is the non-profit arts organization that champions creative independence in visual storytelling and supports a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision. Film Independent helps filmmakers make their movies, builds an audience for their projects and works to diversify the film industry. Film Independent’s Board of Directors, filmmakers, staff and constituents, is comprised of an inclusive community of individuals across ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race and sexual orientation. Anyone passionate about film can become a member, whether you are a filmmaker, industry professional or a film lover.

Film Independent produces the Spirit Awards, the annual celebration honoring artist-driven films and recognizing the finest achievements of American independent filmmakers. Film Independent also produces the LA Film Festival, showcasing the best of American and international cinema and the Film Independent at LACMA Film Series, a year-round, weekly program that offers unique cinematic experiences for the Los Angeles creative community and the general public.

With over 250 annual screenings and events, Film Independent provides access to a network of like-minded artists who are driving creativity in the film industry. Film Independent’s Artist Development program offers free Labs for selected writers, directors, producers and documentary filmmakers and presents year-round networking opportunities. Project Involve is Film Independent’s signature program dedicated to fostering the careers of talented filmmakers from communities traditionally underrepresented in the film industry. For more information or to become a member, visitfilmindependent.org.

Online & Social Media:

www.lafilmfest.com Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/LAFilmFest and Twitter @LAFilmFest. Official event hashtag: #LAFilmFest.

A wonderful weekend with Films & Coffee Talks, at LA Film Festival. only 4 days left!

Los Angeles Film Festival 2016 is the best film event in the town. If you're a film lover, you're in LA (or can make it to LA), and you're not here, you're really missing on some serious fun, wonderful talks, amazing films and lot more. Culver City is hosting this awesome event, brought to us by Film Independent, and it's amazing!

This weekend was a clear example of all that this festival brings to you. There were some amazing films screening at the Arclight Cinema in Culver City. The historic Culver Hotel (owned by likes of Charlie Chaplin and John Wayne, in the past) has been hosting some fun parties, events and great talks like COFFE TALKS yesterday.

Coffee Talks: Directors - The Culver Hotel – 9400 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 – with introduction by Paul Cowlin with Tim Miler (Deadpool) and Patricia Riggen (The 33)

Coffee Talks: Actors – The Culver Hotel – 9400 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 – with talent John Cho, Tony Hale, Paul Scheer and Michaela Watkins

Coffee Talks: Documentarians – The Culver Hotel – 9400 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 – with introduction by Paul Cowling and talent Lucy Walker (The Crash Reel), Kirby Dick, Ondi Timoner

Coffee Talks: Screenwriters – The Culver Hotel – 9400 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 – with introduction by Paul Cowling with Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe), Phil Johnston (Zootopia), Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

These artists shared an impressive insight into their art form over a casual chat amongst there peers, along with free coffee for everyone there.  John Cho talked about being Asian in the industry and some great advice to actors of color, "say yes, make up for the lack of opportunities, avoid negative stereotype, love your family & your work, and keep pushing forward". Phyllis Nagy shared how her stories take form and advised inspiring screenwriters to watch as much as possible, and learn from others. And follow your instinct too.

Some hilarious stories were shared too where Paul Scheer talked about his most embarrassing TV show about cats, for cats, by cats. John laying under a naked man, for an indie student film. Faded talked about finishing his writing at most uncomfortable places in his house, in most uncomfortable positions. It was a joyful event filled with inspiring information for all.

The weekend also saw some wonderful movies and talks with the team from the films:

Don't Hang Up – with French Directors Damien Mace, Alexis Wajsbort, London Producer Laurie Cook, LA writer Joe Johnson and LA stars Gregg Sulking and Garrett Clayton

Sensitivity Training – with introduction and Q&A with Jenn Wilson with Producer Megha Kohli, Writer/Director Melissa Finell, Executive Producer/Actor Charles Haid, Actress Anna Lise Phillips, Actress Jill Alexander, Actress Quinn Marcus, Actress Amy Madigan, Associate Producer/Actress Amy Varpahl, Actor Andy Gala, Actor Michael Laskin, Actress Courtney Fansler, Actress Challen Cates, Actor Finnegan Haid, Actress Tessa Goss, Director of Photography Paul Cannon

Dr Feelgood – with Director Eve Marson, Producer Sara Goldblatt, Exectutive Producer Alison Block, Executive Producer Tim Poore, writer David Boodell, writer Mark Monroe, and talent William Hurwitz

A Moving Image - ArcLight Culver City Theater 8 – 9500 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 – with introduction by Roya Rastegar and Q&A by Stephanie Owens, with Writer/Director Shola Amoo, Producer Rienkje Attoh, Actress Tanya Fear, Actor Aki Omoshaybi, Actress Yrsa Daley Ward and Composer Segun Akinola.

My First Kiss and the People Involved  – with introduction by Drea Clark with Director Luigi Campi, Executive Producer Gerry Kim, Producer Andy Nguyen, Producer Ko-Rely Pi, Producer Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Co-Producer Rob Cristiano, Co-Producer Andrew Hauser, Cast India Menuez, Cast Robert Beitzel, Production Designer Charlotte Royer and Composer Bonnie McAlvin.

HEIS – with introduction and Q&A by Stephanie Ownes with Director Anais Volpe, actor Alexandre Desane, actor Matthieu Longatte and Actress Emilia Derou-Bernal.

Episodes: Indie Series From the Web – with introduction and Q&A by Cooper Hopkins with Brothers: Writer/Director Emmett Lundberg, Producer Sheyam Ghieth and cast Will Krisanda; Caring: Director Maggie Kiley, Writer/Creator Erin Wagoner, Producer Ellie Wen, Producer Winnie Kemp, Producer Lena Bubenechik, actor Lynn Chen, actor Diana DeLaCruz;Fridays: Director Anna Kerrigan, Writer/Creator/star Shoshannah Stern, Writer/Creator/star Josh Feldman, Producer Ellie Wen and Producer Winnie Kemp

11:55 – with introduction and Q&A by Roya Rastegar with Writer/Director Ari issler, Writer/Director Ben Snyder, Writer/actor Victor Almanzar, Producer Danny Mendoza, Producer Joshua Blum, Producer Matthew Thurm, actress Shirley Rumierk and talent Mike Carlsen

Lupe Under the Sun – with introduction and Q&A by Ray Price with Director Rodrigo Reyes, Producer Su Kim, actor Daniel Muratalla, Producer and Director of Photography Justin Chin and Associate Producer Pablo Mondragon

Denial - with introduction and Q&A by Jenn Wilson with talent Anoosh Tertzakian, Aaron Woolf, Derek Hallquist, Christine Hallquist, Christopher St. John, Shirel Kozak, Kyle Wilson, Dan DiMauro, Savannah Woods and Phil Schewe

The festival is more than half over, with only 4 days left. For more details, check there website below:

http://www.filmindependent.org/la-film-festival/

Schedule & Tickets
https://tickets.lafilmfestival.com/Online/
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lafilmfestival2016/2016_LAFF_ScheduleGrid.pdf

http://www.filmindependent.org/la-film-festival/ticket-info/

@LAFilmFestival 2016, June 1-9 | Celebrating Independent Cinema, promoting DIVERSITY & INCLUSION #LAFilmFestival

It's that time again, when the best of independent, national and international cinema comes all together in Los Angeles. It's celebration of the best in films, where you get to see not only established filmmakers celebrate their work, but also many up & coming, and to-be stars. Los Angeles Film Festival is known for that. If you're a film lover, you cannot and should not afford to miss LAFF2016, that starts tomorrow.

The 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, begins with the opening night film “Lowriders” directed by Ricardo de Montreuil starring Eva Longoria and closes with the visceral suspense-thriller “Desierto” directed by Jonás Cuarón and producer Alfonso Caurón, starring Gael Garcia Bernal.

Keeping the issue of inclusion and diversity firmly in the headlines director Ryan Coogler (“Creed”) has been added as Guest Director and will attend the 15th annual Filmmaker Retreat, a signature program which brings together all the feature directors [in this year’s Festival] along with seasoned filmmakers and Film Independent Board Members who attend as honored artists.

On June 2nd Nate Parker will share what it took to bring the story of Nat Turner, an African-American preacher to the big screen in Labor of Love: The Birth of a Nation Conversation and will be joined by cast members Aja Naomi King (How to Get Away with Murder) and Gabrielle Union (Being Mary Jane).

This years’ Spirit of Independence Award which honors those who advance the cause of independent film and champion creative freedom will be awarded to Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) and her distribution company Array Releasing, on June 4th.

Exploring inclusion on a global scale the Global Media Makers Presents: Storytelling From The Inside Out, a U.S. Department of State and Film Independent international mentoring initiative that connects visual storytellers from around the world with leading U.S. entertainment professionals through specially tailored mentorships, workshops and master classes.

Highlighting the continued conversation on diversity, the Diversity Speaks Panels brings together content creators of underrepresented communities who embody innovation to discuss how they manage to combine their passions for storytelling, entrepreneurship and their cultural identities into success stories. One of the many highlights include Issa Rae (Awkward Black Girl) will join Film Independent Curator Elvis Mitchell in conversation for an intimate off-the-record talk.

Festival Director Stephanie Allain weighed in on this years’ selection. “We are thrilled to open with ‘Lowriders,’ a culturally vibrant film that explores familial relationships within a second-generation Mexican family in East LA. Made by filmmakers of color, ‘Lowriders’ embodies our mission of shining the light on unique voices. Spirit Award winner Ryan Coogler honors us as Guest Director – we had Fruitvale Station at the Festival in 2013 and are so happy to have him back this year as our Guest Director.”

Film Independent President Josh Welsh shared his enthusiasm on awarding Ava DuVernay the Spirit of Independence Award.

“We can’t imagine a more fitting recipient of the Spirit of Independence Award than Ava DuVernay and her distribution company Array Releasing,” said Welsh. “In addition to being a brilliant filmmaker, Ava is a passionate, forward-thinking distributor, helping unique and diverse voices find their audiences. Array bought Takeshi Fukunaga’s Out of My Hand at last year’s Festival, a film that we celebrated at this year’s Film Independent Spirit Awards.”

AFRICAN/AFRICAN AMERICAN films at LAFF include:

72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story?

Director Raafi Rivero

June 2

A charismatic teen is thrown into a crisis of life and love when he must decide whether to leave his rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn community to pursue a prestigious academic scholarship.

Like Cotton Twines

DIRECTOR/WRITER Leila Djansi

June 2

An African-American volunteer accepts a teaching job in a remote Ghanaian village and is ensnared in a battle between tradition and freedom when he is compelled to save one of his students from becoming a slave to the gods.

The House on Coco Road

June 2

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER Damani Baker

An activist and teacher abandons the racial violence permeating Oakland in the 1960’s in pursuit of the utopic possibilities of Grenada’s revolution—only to put her family in harm’s way during a brutal invasion by the U.S. military.

Manchild: The Schea Cotton Story

DIRECTOR Eric "Ptah" Herbert

June 2

One of the biggest mysteries in basketball’s history is why Los Angeles legend Schea Cotton, one of the most highly touted high school athletes of a pre-social media era, never made it to the NBA.

Dreamstates

DIRECTOR/ WRITER Anisia Uzeyman

June 3

Created in collaboration with Saul Williams, this non-linear tale is about two wayward souls discovering their love for one another, as reality and fiction blur on a tour across the United States with pivotal figures of the Afro-Punk movement.

Woven

DIRECTORS Salome Mulugeta, Nagwa Ibrahim

June 4

When a mysterious crime takes the life of her only brother, an Ethiopian-American woman searches for the truth behind his death; while struggling to reconcile cultural expectations with her own pursuit of self-identity and love.

Dying Laughing

DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS Lloyd Stanton, Paul Toogood

June 4

Riveting interviews lend insight into the creative craft of comedy and the psychology behind some of the world’s greatest stand-ups, including Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld and Jamie Foxx.

A Moving Image

DIRECTOR/WRITER Shola Amoo

June 5

In South London reality and fiction merge in this personal reflection on gentrification in Brixton, told from the perspective of a sincere, yet stifled, young artist who struggles with her own complicity as she confronts the changing landscape of her neighborhood.

Olympic Pride, American Prejudice

DIRECTOR/ WRITER Deborah Riley Draper

June 6

Follow the historic story of 18 African-American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, undermining the fallacy of Aryan supremacy and exposing the hypocrisy of life under Jim Crow laws in the U.S.

Jackson

DIRECTOR Maisie Crow

June 6

This doc explores a single mother, an abortion clinic director and fervent pro-lifer as they lay bare their stakes in the fight of one of the last remaining abortion clinics to stay open against the pro-life movement’s efforts to make abortions illegal in the Deep South.

Destined

DIRECTOR/WRITER Qasim Basir

June 7

A man navigates parallel realities: one as a hardened criminal who has spent years building his drug empire; the other as an ambitious architect who has been working his way up the corporate ladder. Ensemble includes Hill Harper and Lala Anthony.

Jean of the Jonses

DIRECTOR/WRITER Stella Meghi

June 7

When the estranged patriarch of the Jones family abruptly drops dead on their doorstep, sharp-witted Jean Jones stirs up familial dysfunctions to distract herself from an unraveling love life and a stalled writing career.

Company Town

DIRECTORS Natalie Kottke, Erica Sardarian

June 7

In this doc almost every resident of Crossett, Arkansas, has worked for (or is currently employed by) Georgia-Pacific, a company privately-owned by the Koch brothers. Now, one by one, former employees are getting sick and dying of cancer.

Kicks

DIRECTOR Justin Tipping

June 8

After getting his dream pair of Air Jordans snatched, Brandon and his friends go on a dangerously epic mission through Oakland to get them back in this vibrant coming-of-age story bursting with magical realism. CJ Wallace makes his film debut.

SHORT PROGRAM and WEB SERIES

And Nothing Happened

DIRECTOR Naima Ramos-Chapman

This combination documentary, personal essay and magical realism format film, captures a young woman's struggle with self, family and love in the aftermath of sexual assault.

Dirt

DIRECTOR Darius Clark Monroe

Some things must die to live.

Into Darkness

DIRECTOR Rachida El Garani

This documentary gives insight into a deeply religious Moroccan family as they struggle with blindness and extreme poverty.

Jungle

DIRECTOR Asantewaa Prempeh

Two Senegalese immigrants try to make a living selling fake designer purses on the bustling streets of New York City’s Chinatown.

Like

DIRECTOR Garrett Bradley

A behind-the-scenes examination of Bangladeshi “click-farms,” an industry that grows social media followings for celebrities and brands alike.

Little Hero

DIRECTORS Marcus A. McDougald, Jennifer Medvin

A six-year-old explains her unique relationship with her twin brother, who was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Noni & Elizabeth

DIRECTOR Nanna Blondell

Ten-year-old Noni lives with her mother during the week and her father on weekends. With her stepsister during one weekend, Noni sees the world for what it is—upside down.

Reluctantly Queer

DIRECTOR Akosua Adoma Owusu

A story that both disrobes and questions what it means to be a queer man in this time and space.

The Black Belt

DIRECTOR Margaret Brown

In 2015 Alabama closed 31 DMVs, which largely impacted the Black Belt, and created a mobile unit that travels across the state to issue ID cards.

The Send-Off

DIRECTORS Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan

Prom day serves as the backdrop to this immersion into the rural industrial sugar town of Pahokee, Florida.

Univitellin

DIRECTOR Terence Nance

A love story about how we are conditioned to live out love stories in ways deriving from folklore.

Use of Force

DIRECTOR Rita Baghdadi

 An examination of the LAPD's efforts to reconcile a series of officer-involved shootings.

Women in Deep

DIRECTOR Janicza Bravo

 A woman calls a suicide prevention hotline and is put on hold.

WEB SERIES

Her Story

DIRECTOR Sydney Freeland

The new web series follows Violet and Paige are two transgender women in Los Angeles who have given up on love—until chance encounters give them renewed hope.

Instababy

DIRECTOR Rosie Haber

Gay adoption is illegal in Mississippi, so Toni and Keeta look for a baby on Instagram.

The Ghost and the Negro

DIRECTOR Sylvester K. Folks

Framed for murder, a bookstore keeper turns to a supernatural entity to clear his name.

Free CeCe!

Date TBD

DIRECTOR Jacqueline Gares /WRITERS & Producer Laverne Cox

CeCe McDonald survived a brutal attack, only to be incarcerated for defending her life. After an international movement to free her, CeCe emerges as a leader who interrogates the prison industrial complex and inspires women to fight back when attacked.

ASSETTS

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/filmindependent

SOCIAL MEDIA INFO

Facebook: /LAFilmFestival

Twitter: @LAFilmFestival

Hashtag: #LAFilmFestival

Instagram: @FilmIndependent

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER UNVEILS THE 54th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL POSTER, DESIGNED BY FILMMAKER APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

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The Film Society of Lincoln Center unveiled today the poster for the 54th New York Film Festival (September 30 – October 16), designed by acclaimed filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. NYFF posters are looked upon as a yearly artistic “signature” for the film festival, and Weerasethakul joins a stellar lineup of artists whose work has been commissioned for the festival, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, and last year’s artist, Laurie Anderson. A link to download the new poster design, alongside the complete list of NYFF poster artists to date, can be found below.

“Apichatpong Weerasethakul is more than just a ‘logical’ choice to do our poster—he’s one of the world’s greatest filmmakers and he works in the visual arts,” said New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones. “I knew that he would send us something extraordinary: a beautifully wrought, self-contained little world. The more you concentrate on the image, the more detail you see, and the further your dream extends. The NYFF has had many great posters designed by a long list of great artists, but this is one of the very best.”

The renowned Thai filmmaker and artist, whose works deal with memory and subtly address personal politics and social issues, has had a fruitful relationship with the New York Film Festival for over a decade. Four of his films have been selected for the official NYFF lineup: Tropical Malady (2004), Syndromes and a Century (2006), the Palme d’Or–winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), and Cemetery of Splendor (2015). In 2002, Apichatpong’s debut narrative feature Blissfully Yours won the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Along with his features, Apichatpong is known for his short films and art installations. His work has been featured in exhibitions across the globe, including solo shows at the New Museum in New York, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Munich Film Museum, and many more. His art prizes include the Sharjah Biennial Prize (2013), the prestigious Yanghyun Prize (2014) in South Korea, and the Thai Ministry of Culture’s Silpatorn Award (2005).

The poster will be available for purchase at all venues during the New York Film Festival, September 30 – October 16.

The complete list of NYFF poster artists:
Larry Rivers, 1963
Saul Bass, 1964
Bruce Conner, 1965
Roy Lichtenstein, 1966
Andy Warhol, 1967
Henry Pearson, 1968
Marisol (Escobar), 1969
James Rosenquist, 1970
Frank Stella, 1971
Josef Albers, 1972
Niki de Saint Phalle, 1973
Jean Tinguely, 1974
Carol Summers, 1975
Allan D’Arcangelo, 1976
Jim Dine, 1977
Richard Avedon, 1978
Michelangelo Pistoletto, 1979
Les Levine, 1980
David Hockney, 1981
Robert Rauschenberg, 1982   
Jack Youngerman, 1983
Robert Breer, 1984
Tom Wesselmann, 1985
Elinor Bunin, 1986
Sol Lewitt, 1987
Milton Glaser, 1988
Jennifer Bartlett, 1989
Eric Fischl, 1990
Philip Pearlstein, 1991
William Wegman, 1992
Sheila Metzner, 1993
William Copley, 1994
Diane Arbus, 1995
Juan Gatti, 1996
Larry Rivers, 1997
Martin Scorsese, 1998
Ivan Chermayeff, 1999
Tamar Hirschl, 2000
Manny Farber, 2001
Julian Schnabel, 2002
Junichi Taki, 2003
Jeff Bridges, 2004
Maurice Pialat, 2005
Mary Ellen Mark, 2006
agnès b., 2007
Robert Cottingham, 2008
Gregory Crewdson, 2009
John Baldessari, 2010
Lorna Simpson, 2011
Cindy Sherman, 2012
Tacita Dean, 2013
Laurie Simmons, 2014
Laurie Anderson, 2015
 
For more information, visit www.filmlinc.org and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.

Rooftop Films Announces Short Films and Programs for the 20th Annual Summer Series

When Rooftop Films began 20 summers ago on the roof of a tenement building in the Lower East Side it was a single evening of short films. 19 years later the organization has grown tremendously— hosting over 50 extraordinary events every summer, with live music and after-parties all across NYC— but they still strive to champion emerging in the short film community, and still believe that the medium is ripe for experimentation and opportunity. This season, Rooftop Films will present over 130 short films in over 13 programs, each curated with complementary and riveting themes. 

Rooftop Films kicks off its summer on Friday, May 20th at The Bushwick Generator, in Brooklyn with “This Is What We Mean By Short Films,” a selection of dynamic shorts that encapsulates the adventurous spirit of the organization, and the untapped potential of the summer. The program will showcase some of the best, most innovative short films by independent filmmakers from around the world, including four parts of Black Eye Symphony, a comedic suite by Steve Collins, who has been screening films at Rooftop since their very first show 20 summers ago.

“Climbing to a rooftop to watch movies is always a daring escapade, and the most daring films are often shorts,” says Mark Elijah Rosenberg, founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films. “This year’s lineup of shorts exhibits some of the most intrepid and astonishing cinema from around the world, with radical documentaries, captivating fiction, stunning animation, and bold new forms that will incite and inspire for years to come.”

Throughout the summer, Rooftop Films will present a number of carefully curated programs, each with a specific focus or theme. Highlights of the 20th Summer Series include three nights of documentaries (including Rooftop’s signature New York Non-Fiction program), a selection of shorts about unlikely romances, selected highlights from the Sundance Film Festival and the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), two programs of animated short films, and a program of meditative and experimental short installations at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York.

Tickets for short film programs and feature films are on sale at www.rooftopfilms.com.

Rooftop Films Short Film Programs
* Rooftop Alumni

Daniel Moshel's METUBE 2 - AUGUST SINGS CARMINA BURANA

Friday, May 20, 2016
THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN BY SHORT FILMS
Celebrate our 20th festival with dark, oddball comedies & exhilarating documentary experiences.
THE FILMS: Stations, Roddy Hyduk | The Position (Black Eye Symphony pt. 1), Steve Collins* | METUBE 2 - AUGUST SINGS CARMINA BURANA, Daniel Moshel | Avant Garde (Black Eye Symphony pt. 3), Steve Collins* | Temporary Color, John Wilson* | Thunder P. (Black Eye Symphony pt. 4), Steve Collins* | The Hanging, Geoffrey Feinberg | Mining Poems or Odes, Callum Rice | An Ecstatic Experience, Ja’Tovia Gary |Bad at Dancing, Joanna Arnow* | Dr. Meertz (Black Eye Symphony pt. 5), Steve Collins* | Thunder Road, Jim Cummings*. 
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/this-is-what-we-mean-by-short-films-7/

Friday, June 3, 2016
IS THIS LOVE? ROMANTIC SHORT FILMS
Strangely-funny, loving, sexy, romantic short films that are sure to turn you on (to something).
FILMS: The Darkest Truth About Love, Hannah Jacobs* | PARTNERS, Joey Ally | Audition, Lovisa Sirén* |Girls & Boys, Ninja Thyberg* | LOVE, Réka Bucsi* | Dolphin Lover, Kareem Tabsch | A Reasonable Request, Andrew Laurich | Gwilliam, Brian Lonano.
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/is-this-love-romantic-short-films/

Thursday, June 9, 2016
TRAPPED: UNCANNY SHORT FILMS 
Shorts about glitches in reality, monsters under the bed and things lost in the edits of life.
FILMS: Dirt, Darius Monroe* | Discontinuity, Lori Felker | The Wraith (Maran), Asa Ersmark | The House is Innocent, Nick Coles | Love, Gina, Nicole Emanuele | Ham Heads, Efren Hernandez* | Blood Below the Skin,Jennifer Reeder*.
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/trapped-uncanny-short-films/

Friday, June 10, 2016
SUNDANCE SHORT FILMS
Highlights from Sundance 2016 include these wild, weird and wonderful short films.
FILMS: Thunder Road, Jim Cummings* | Maman(s), Maïmouna Doucouré | Her Friend Adam, Ben Petrie |Bacon & God’s Wrath, Sol Friedman* | Peacock, Ondřej Hudeček | The Procedure, Calvin Reeder* | Edmond, Nina Gantz.
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/sundance-short-films

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Wednesday, June 15, 2016
TIES THAT BIND: SHORT FILMS ABOUT FAMILIES
Family, for better and for worse.
FILMS: A Conversation With My Black Son, Geeta Gandbhir and Perri Peltz* | Small Talk, Hilary Campbell |Mother Knows Best, Mikael Bundsen | These C*cksucking Tears, Dan Taberski | Pink Boy, Eric Rockey |Flower of a Thousand Colours, Karen Vazquez-Guadarrama.
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/ties-that-bind-short-films-about-families

Friday, June 24, 2016
DANGEROUS DOCS
Thrilling and unsettling and frighteningly true.
FILMS: TBA
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/dangerous-docs-1     

Thursday, July 7, 2016
DARK TOONS
These bold animations explore uncomfortable corners, dark spaces, and places we fear.
FILMS: Stems, Ainslie Henderson | Manoman, Simon Cartwright | Choban, Matija Pisacic | Sunday Lunch, Celine Devaux | Lazy Daze, Brian Smee* | Sport in the Land of Plenty, Matt Reynolds* | Forgotten Reasons, Peter Larsson* | Dokument, Marcin Podolec | Shining Star of Losers Everywhere, Mickey Duzyj | On Melancholy, Hannah Jacobs*.
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/dark-toons-3

Friday, July 8, 2016
NEW YORK NON-FICTION
It's your city. Take a look.
FILMS: We Live This, James Burns*| Tiger Hood, Christopher Marks | Rothman, Nader Sadre | IDAC Casimir Nozkowski* | Dangerous Curves, Merete Mueller | The Tricks List, Brian Bolster* | How to Act on Reality TV, John Wilson*.
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/new-york-nonfiction-4

Thursday, July 21, 2016
DUTCH SHORT FILMS FROM IDFA
Ground-breaking & creative shorts highlight films from IDFA, the world’s largest doc fest.
FILMS: Ninnoc, Nikki Padiddar | Calling Ukraine, Jean Cournet | My Silicone Love, Sophie Dros | Dereviled, Davis Haines | The Sniper of Kobani, Reber Dosky.
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/dutch-short-films-from-idfa

Friday, July 29, 2016
ANIMATION BLOCK PARTY
Experience some of the year’s best animated shorts at the incomparable Animation Block Party!
FILMS AND INFO TBA

Saturday, August 13, 2016
SHORT FILMS AT STORM KING ART CENTER

A special night of short films amidst the sculptures and meadows of the Storm King Art Center.
FILMS AND INFO TBA

Saturday, August 20, 2016
ROOFTOP SHOTS: CLOSING NIGHT
CLOSING NIGHT! Short films-sweet, somber, melancholic and funny-about things we leave behind.
FILMS: Glove, Alexa Hass and Bernardo Britto* | And Nothing Happened, Naima Ramos-Chapman | 93, Laura Stewart | Home, Daniel Mulloy* | The Great Theatre, Slawomir Batyra | Dead Ringer, Dana O’Keefe* |Hopptornet (Ten Meter Tower), Maximilien Van Aertryck & Axel Danielson. 
INFO: http://rooftopfilms.com/2016/schedule/rooftop-shots-closing-night-1/

Short Films in Programs to be Announced

A DAY AT SCHOOL (Victor Ghizaru | Burkina Faso/Canada | 7’)
Winding around the dusty, mirage-soaked roads of Burkina Faso on their donkey carts, two young brothers transport soil.

THE BLOOP (Cara Cusumano | USA | 7’)
An impressionistic docu-mystery exploring the origins of an unidentified deep-sea sound.

GOOD WHITE PEOPLE (Jarrod Welling-Cann & Erick Stoll | USA | 6’)
In a gentrifying neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, white amusement threatens black livelihood.

JUNGLE (Asantewaa Prempeh | USA | 13’)
The lines between trust, betrayal, and forgiveness are intertwined for two Senegalese vendors as they try to make a living on the streets of New York City.

MOBILIZE (Caroline Monnet | Canada | 4’)
An exhilarating journey from the far north to the urban south, capturing the perpetual negotiation between the traditional and the modern by a people moving ever forward.

MY ALEPPO (Melissa Langer | USA | 18’)
After fleeing the Syrian civil war, a family communicates with the home front via Skype, watching Aleppo disintegrate and their loved ones change.

NOTHING HUMAN (Tom Rosenberg* | USA | 17’)
Private investigator Louie Akin relates his experience reconstructing the 2009 mass shootings at Fort Hood and reflects on the nature of violence.

PICKLE (Amy Nicholson | USA | 16’)
Pickle is an ode to man’s capacity to care for all creatures throughout their sometimes greatly protracted existence until their occasionally sudden and unfortunate deaths.

RED FOLDER (Ben Kallam | USA | 10’)
High school student Joseph sets out to find his teacher’s red folder, only to discover the unsettling implications of his task.

RIOT (Nathan Silver | USA | 4’)
Inspired by the Los Angeles riots, a power hungry nine-year-old tries his hand at filmmaking.

SPEAKING IS DIFFICULT (AJ Schnack | USA | 14’)
Speaking is Difficult tells a cumulative history that is both unbearable and inevitable.

SUBURBAN KING/TOP-GIRL (Aakash Bhatia | India | 7’)
Fear has a form, fame has a form.

TERRITORY (Eleanor Mortimer | UK | 17’)
In Gibraltar, tensions flare when unruly monkeys intrude upon the domesticated lifestyle that humans have built up around them.

UZU (Gaspard Kuentz* | Japan | 28’)
The Dogo Autumn Festival is one of the most violent religious festivals celebrated in Japan. A thrilling ride into its violence and a penetrating glance on its meaning.

NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ITS AWARDS #NYIFF2016

Photo Caption: Salman Rushdie presenting the award for Best Film accepted by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni for HIGHWAY who also won Best Director for the film. (Photo credit: Mo Pitz)

HIGHWAY WINS TOP AWARDS IN FESTIVAL

The New York Indian Film Festival 2016 (NYIFF) announced the winners of its competition categories, on the evening of May 14th, at a ceremony at The Skirball Center, in the final event for the successful festival, which ran May 7 – May 14.

 “I am delighted to honor these brilliant filmmakers for the diversity of their plots, themes and characters!” said Aroon Shivdasani, IAAC Executive & Artistic Director.

“Our jury had a tough job since this year's nominations were very strong,” commented NYIFF’s film festival director Aseem Chhabra. “I congratulate all the winners, the nominees and also other filmmakers who shared their films with our audiences."

Below is the full list of winners:

Best Film: Highway
Best Director: Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni for Highway
Best Screenplay: Ruchika Oberoi, Island City
Best Actor: Rajit Kapoor, Threshold
Best Actress: Neena Gupta, Threshold
Best Child Actor: Vedashree Mahajan, The Silence
Best Documentary: Cities of Sleep
Best Short: 

Checkout more pics from the closing night:  http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016/gallery.htm

Montclair Film Festival 2017 awards - "Under The Shadow", "Weiner", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" amongst winners!

On Saturday, May 7, at the Wellmont Theater, the Montclair Film Festival had screening of "Miss Sharon Jones!", the closing night film. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with Oscar winner Barbara Koppola and Miss Jones herself. The beautiful documentary film journals the story of Miss Jones battle with cancer, but also talk about her career, her success and her struggles. The inspiring film is a moving portrayal of a music icon.

Before the screening, they announced jury prizes and special jury prizes. Here it goes:

* In the Narrative Feature category, "Under the Shadow," by Babak Anvari, won the Jury prize. Montclair's Sophia Takal received a Special Jury Prize for Direction.

* In the Documentary Feature category, "Cameraperson," directed by Kirsten Johnson, received the Bruce Sinofsky Prize. "Tower," by Keith Maitland, won a Special Jury Prize for Narrative Innovation.

* In the Future/Now category, which honors emerging, low-budget American independent filmmaking, Anna Rose Holmer was awarded with the Future/Now prize for "The Fits." Kris Avedisian received a Special Jury prize for his performance in "Donald Cried."

* For the New Jersey Films category, which honors a selected group of films made by New Jersey artists, Josie Swantek Heitz and Dave Adams won the award for "The Wrong Light." Jason Cohen's "Silicon Cowboys" was awarded a Special Jury Prize for Archival Storytelling. [Note: arts editor Gwen Orel was on this three-person jury.]

* Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's "Weiner" took home the David Carr Award for Truth in Non-Fiction Filmmaking, which honors a film, selected by the festival, that utilizes journalistic techniques to explore important contemporary subjects.

* The MFF's Junior Jury prize, given by a 13-member jury comprised of area high school students, went to Clay Tweel's "Gleason." A Special Jury Prize for Social Justice was awarded to "Sonita," directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami.

The screening and the panel discussion was followed by a wonderful filmmakers party at Cinema 505. It's a wonderful location with 2 levels of beautiful space. It was an opportunity for filmmakers and storytellers to mingle and connect. The party was attended by Evelyn Colbert herself, the president of the festival, along with several renowned and established filmmakers. The great music and delicious food, made out a perfect way to celebrate the last night of this wonderful event.

On Sunday, May 8, MFF announced the winners of the 2016 audience awards.

* Audience Award Winner Narrative Feature: "Hunt for the Wilderpeople," directed by Taika Waititi.

* Audience Award Winner Documentary Feature: "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You," directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady.

* Audience Award Winner World Cinema: "Sonita," directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

* Audience Award Winner Short Film: "Joe's Violin," directed by Kahane Cooperman.

16th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL FULL LINEUP ANNOUNCED

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The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the full lineup last night for their 16th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent (May 7 - May 14). Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 40 screenings (35 narrative, 5 documentary) - all seen for the first time in New York City. In addition, the festival will also feature five programs of short films.

The festival highlights various cinemas of India's different regions. All the films are subtitled in English and some of the languages this year include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu, Assamese, Haryanavi and Urdu. This year’s festival will feature a couple of sidebars --NFDC restored first films of filmmakers and a three-generations sidebar, films of Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya and Aditya Bhattacharya. 

The festival’s film lineup includes 2016 National Award winners A FAR AFTERNOON, BIRDS WITH LARGE WINGS and THE RIVER OF FABLES (KOTHANODI). THE RIVER OF FABLES is an Assamese language feature film written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika and stars Seema Biswas and Adil Hussain. The story of the film is based on folktales from Assam, India.
   
“We are thrilled to be able to share these films with the New York audience,” states Aseem Chhabra, NYIFF festival director. “Three of the feature films are National Award winners. And out of the nearly 40 shorts we are showing this year, there are two National Award winners: FAMOUS IN AHMEDABAD and DAARVATHA.”

Straight from the Sundance Film Festival, BRAHMAN NAMAN is a true Indian teenage comedy. It is funny, touching and will be universal in its appeal. It is about the exhilaration and confusion of being 17 - the pleasure of being in a gang, breaking the rules, acting big, falling in love - coming of age.

From the Tamil films, CRIME IN PUNISHMENT is the latest film from NYIFF alum and 2015 NYIFF award winner M. Manikandan. FOR THE LOVE OF A MAN is a documentary film that explores the popularity of the Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth. 

GOOD OL’ BOY is the feel-good, coming-of-age story of Smith, a 10-year-old boy from India growing up in Small Town, America in 1979. This Diaspora film features actors Samrat Chakrabarti (Midnight’s Children, The Waiting City) and Poorna Jagannathan (Delhi Belly, Nirbhaya).

Bengali master, Soumitra Chatterjee starrer PEACE HAVEN is the story of three septuagenarian friends who embark on a journey to build their very own mortuary. 
  
Multiple award winner and fresh from the international film festival circuit PARCHED is a story about women set in the heart of parched rural landscape of Gujarat, India. It traces the bittersweet tale of four ordinary women Rani, Lajjo, Bijli and Janaki. We see them unapologetically talk about men, sex and life as they struggle with their individual boundaries to face their demons and stage their own personal wars.

WORLD PREMIERE of KAGAZ KI KASHTI (PAPERBOAT)

In an era when Bollywood music ruled the Indian households and when Ghazal as a genre was limited to only the connoisseurs, Jagjit Singh made Ghazals a necessity of every music lover's collection. KAAGAZ KI KASHTI traces the life journey of a down-to-earth, small-town boy, who made it big by breaking through the norms and the Ghazal scenario, by texturing traditional Ghazal singing with western instrumentation and making it simple and hummable, enticing new listeners into becoming Ghazal fans.
  
“The 2016 festival features a wide array of films from all over the South Asian diaspora,” states IAAC founder Aroon Shivdasani. This year our films reflect the reality of India, dealing both with LGBT issues that have surfaced in the supreme court and on the streets, as well as strong feminist films dealing with female infanticide, child marriage, domestic abuse, trafficking and several other key issues that affect women in a world that still leans towards chauvinism.”

Festival Passes and Individual Tickets can be purchased at the festival's website:

Full line up Schedule with films synopsis:

URL: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016/schedule.htm

The 16th Annual NYIFF’s features selections include:

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Saturday May 7, 2016 at 6 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC

16th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL - Opening Night Film: Let's Dance to The Rhythm

Let's Dance to The Rhythm
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2014/2 hr 36 min Directed by Bardroy Baretto Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob

CENTERPIECE
Tuesday May 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave & 12th Street, NYC
Highway
US PREMIERE
India/2015/ 2 hr 17 min Directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni Cast: Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Tisca Chopra

CLOSING NIGHT
Saturday May 14, 2016 at 5 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Aligarh
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2015/114 min Directed by Hansal Mehta Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Rajkummar Rao

A Far Afternoon- A painted saga by Krishen Khanna
Sruti Harihara Subramaniam
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 11 min 9 sec
English

Krishen Khanna, Ashvin Rajagopalan, Gayatri Sinha, A.Ramachandran, Ranjit Hoskote, Akbar Padamsee

Anubhav

Basu Bhattacharya
Feature Narrative
1971/India/2 hr 19 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Sanjeev Kumar, Tanuja Samarth, Dinesh Thakur, A. K. Hangal

Arshinagar

Aparna Sen
2015/India/2 hr 14 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Dev, Rittika Sen, Jisshu Sengupta, Waheeda Rehman, Kaushik Sen, Jaya Seal Ghosh, Roopa Ganguly, Swagata Mukherjee

Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan

Saeed Mirza
Feature Narrative
1978/India
Hindi with English subtitles
Dilip Dhawan, Anjali Paigankar, Shreeram Lagoo, Om Puri, Sulabha Deshpande, Rohini Hattangadi, Satish Shah

Birds with Large Wings

Dr. Biju Damodaran
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 56 min
Malayalam with English subtitles
Kunchacko Boban, Nedumudi Venu, Suraj venjaramoodu, Salim Kumar, Prakash Bare, James Bradford, Thampy Antony, Sajeev Pillai, Anumol

Brahman Naman

Qaushiq Mukherjee
Feature Narrative
2016/USA/1 hr 35 min, English
Shashank Arora, Tanmay Dhanania, Chaitanya Varad, Vaishwath Shankar, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, Subholina Sen

Cinemawala

Kaushik Ganguly
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 35 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Paran Bandopadhay, Parambrata Chatterjee,Arun Guha Thakurta, Sohini Sarkar, Lama Halder

Cities of Sleep

Aman Mann
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 14 min
Hindi with English subtitles

City of Dark

Spandan Banerjee
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 15 min
Bengali with English subtitles

Crime in Punishment

M. Manikandan
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1hr 37 min 22 sec
Tamil with English subtitles

Dubai Return

Aditya Bhattacharya
Feature Narrative
2005/India/1 hr 36 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Irrfan Khan, Divya Dutta, Razak Khan, Vijay Maurya, Mukesh Bhatt, Anupam Shyam, Ritu Shivpuri, Shaukat Baig as Casper

For the Love of a Man

Rinku Kalsy
Feature Narrative
2015/India, Netherlands/1 hr 22 min
Tamil with English subtitles
G. Mani, Suganthi Mani, N. Ravi, N. Murugan, Kamal Anand, Quadir Hoseyn, Ravi Anna, K. Hariharan, Uma Vangal

G - A wanton heart

Feature Narrative
2015/India/1hr 43 min 13 sec
Haryanavi with English subtitles

Gaman

Rajah Muzaffar Ali
Feature Narrative
1978/India/2 hr 15 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Farooq Shaikh, Smita Patil, Jalal Agha, Nana Patekar, Gita Siddharth

Good Ol' Boy

Frank Lotito
Feature Narrative
2015/USA/1hr 43 min
English
Jason Lee, Anjul Nigam, Brighton Sharbino, Hilarie Burton, Roni Akurati

Island City

2015/India/1hr 51 min
Feature Narrative
Hindi with English subtitles
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Vinay Pathak, Ashwin Mushran, Amruta Subhash

Ka Bodyscapes

Jayan K Cherian
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1 hr 38 min 44 sec
Malayalam with English subtitles
Naseera, Jason Chacko, Rajesh Kannan

Kadambari

Suman Ghosh
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 30 min
Konkona SenSharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Kousik Sen, Titas Bhowmick, Srikanto Acharya, Sanjoy Nag, Senjuti Mukhopadhyay, Sreelekha Mitra

Kagaz Ki Kashti (Paperboat)

Brahmanand S Singh
Documentary
2016/India/
Hindi/ Urdu with English subtitles
Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh, Gulzar, Mahesh Bhatt, Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota

Khoya

Sami Khan
Feature Narrative
2015/Canada/1 hr 22 min
English
Rupak Ginn, Ravi Khanvikar, Rachel Wilson

Life in Metaphors: A Portrait of Girish Kasaravalli

OP Srivastava
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 24 min
English
Girish Kasaravalli

Luka Chuppi (Hide and Seek)

Bash Mohammed
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 49 min
Malayalam with English subtitles
Murali Gopy, Jayasurya, Joju George

Moh Maya Money (In greed we trust)

Munish Bhardwaj
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1 hr 48 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Ranvir Shorey, Neha Dhupia, Devendra Chauhan, Vidushi Mehra, Ashwath Bhatt

Nila

Selvamani Selvaraj
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 36 mins
Sruthi Hariharan, Vicky, Sarvesh Sridhar, Rajan Sekri, Srikanth, Pooja

Parched

Leena Yadav
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 58 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Surveen Chawla, Radhika Apte, Lehar Khan

Peace Haven

Suman Ghosh
Feature Narrative
2015/India, USA/1 hr 17 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Soumitra Chatterjee, Arun Mukhopadhyay, Poran Bandopadhay

Rajkahini

Srijit Mukherji
Feature Narrative
2015/India/2 hr 40 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Rituparna Sengupta, Lily Chakraborty, Parno Mitra, Jaya Ahsan, Sudiptaa Chakraborty, Priyanka Sarkar, Sohini Sarkar

Sahib Bibi Aur Goolam (The Drifters)

Pratim Dasgupta
Feature Narrative
2016/India/2 hr
Bengali with English subtitles
Anjan Dutt, Swastika Mukherjee, Ritwick Chakraborty

Sujata

Bimal Roy
Feature Narrative
1959/India/2 hr 41 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Nutan, Sunil Dutt, Shashikala, Lalita Pawar, Tarun Bose, Sulochana Latkar, Asit Kumar Sen

The River of Fables

Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 58 min
Assamese with English subtitles
Adil Hussain, Seema Biswas

The Silence

Gajjendra Ahire
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 31 min
Marathi with English subtitles
Raghuvir Yadav, Nagraj Manjule, Anjali Patil

The Threshold

Pushan Kripalani
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 27 min
Hindi, Punjabi, and English
Rajit Kapoor, Neena Gupta

Tiladaanam (The Rite, a passion)

K.N.T. Sastry
Feature Narrative
2002/India/1 hr 29 min
Telugu with English subtitles
H. G. Dattatraya, Jaya Seal, Brahmaji, Thanikella Bhavani, Attili

U Turn

Pawan Kumar
Feature Narrative
2016/India/2 hr
Kannada with English subtitles
Roger Narayan, Shraddha Srinath, Dileep Raj

Waiting

Anu Menon
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 30 min
Hindi/English
Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin

White Nights

Razi Muhammed
Feature Narrative
2015/India/2 hr 10 min 28 sec
Malayalam with English subtitles

About the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC):

The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian Sub-Continental and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from the Indian Sub-Continent to exhibit, perform and produce their works here.

About the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF):

The New York Indian Film Festival is the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States. It is dedicated to showcasing, promoting and building an awareness of Independent, art house and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent. Our mission is to encourage filmmakers to tell their stories, to educate North America about them and their talent and to facilitate the making and distribution of these films. NYIFF boasts eight days of premiere screenings of feature, documentary & short films, industry panels, special events, retrospectives, red carpet galas, an award ceremony, packed audiences and amazing media coverage.

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THE 16th ANNUAL NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES OPENING NIGHT GALA FILM
Festival also reveals centerpiece and closing films  

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the Opening Night Gala film: Bardroy Baretto's Nachom-ia Kumpasar (Let's Dance to the Rhythm). LET'S DANCE TO THE RHYTHM is a Konkani feature film- a tribute to Goan music and her musicians. Narrated through the emotional rollercoaster of a love story destined to tragedy, it celebrates Goan music through the eyes of its eclectic's generation of musicians in the 1960s and 70s.

"Lets Dance to the Rhythm is a beautiful representation of another era, where jazz music flourished outside of the realms of the popular Hindi cinema of Bombay. The film is a joyful celebration of the music, the energy and the musicians and it is a story that not many people know about, states Film Festival Director Aseem Chhabra. "It is truly a happy film and a perfect way for us to launch the 16th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival." 

The festival is widely recognized as the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States, showcasing some of the greatest talents working in the diaspora. Celebrating its 16th year, NYIFF will run May 7 to 14 at a variety of prestigious New York City venues, including the Skirball Center for Performing Arts, where the opening and closing films are set to take place.

In addition, the centerpiece and closing films were announced. Renowned filmmaker Hansal Mehta will be closing the festival with his latest work, ALIGARH. Director Mehta provides a look into the real life incident of Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was suspended from his job because of his sexual orientation. Siras was the professor of Marathi at the Aligarh Muslim University. After successfully appealing his suspension, he died under suspicious circumstances. 

HIGHWAY will be featured as the centerpiece film. Umesh Kulkarni's HIGHWAY is a Marathi film set on the Bombay-Pune Highway and it examines diversity and soul searching.

Aroon Shivdansani, Executive Director and Artistic Director of IAAC states "The excitement is growing as our festival approaches! Our flagship event, NYIFF 2016 is proving to be even more exciting than last year!" She adds "The recently announced Indian National Awards included both our 2015 Opening & Closing Night films as well as five films from our current schedule. This year our festival has grown in the number of days, the number of films screened, as well as the depth and variety of themes and languages. Three theatres will screen films simultaneously all day for 8 days with films from all over India and the subcontinent representing myriad regional languages (with English subtitles) while the fourth theatre will entice audiences with fascinating panels on LGBT, Regional Language Cinema, Directors' First Films, Animation, Industry Panels on Shooting in NYCity & NYState as well as Special Events such as the presentation of films from three generations of filmmakers in the Bimal Roy/Basu Bhattacharya family. Guests to our Opening & Closing Night Galas will be welcomed by amazing local dancers, while filmmakers & celebrities walk off the red carpets to glamorous cocktail parties prior to the reality screenings."

The full line-up of screenings and events will be announced April 10, 2016. 

For IAAC Membership and NYIFF Tickets: 
Celebrating its 16th year, NYIFF will run May 7 to May 14. Memberships may be purchased at:http://www.iaac.us/Contribution.htm

Festival Passes and Individual Tickets are on sale at the film festival website: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016

About the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC):
The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian Sub-Continental and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from the Indian Sub-Continent to exhibit, perform and produce their works here. 

About the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF):
The New York Indian Film Festival is the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States. It is dedicated to showcasing, promoting and building an awareness of Independent, art house and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent. Our mission is to encourage filmmakers to tell their stories, to educate North America about them and their talent and to facilitate the making and distribution of these films. NYIFF boasts eight days of premiere screenings of feature, documentary & short films, industry panels, special events, retrospectives, red carpet galas, an award ceremony, packed audiences and amazing media coverage.

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Saturday May 7, 2016 at 6 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Let's Dance to The Rhythm
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2014/2 hr 36 min
Directed by Bardroy Baretto
Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob

CENTERPIECE
Tuesday May 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave & 12th Street, NYC
Highway
US PREMIERE
India/2015/ 2 hr 17 min
Directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni
Cast: Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Tisca Chopra

CLOSING NIGHT
Saturday May 14, 2016 at 5 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Aligarh
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2015/114 min
Directed by Hansal Mehta
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Rajkummar Rao

Montclair Film Festival 2016 with Colbert, along with Richard Curtis, Rob Reiner, Norman Reedus & more! #MFF2016

Right after Tribeca Film Festival 2016, today is the start of Montclair Film Festival, and goes till May 8th. As the name suggests, this festival is based in Montclair, NJ and it’s in its 5th year already. Now if you ask why you should care for a festival based all the way in Montclair, New Jersey? Well, we have couple of good reasons:

• Let me present the most interesting fact first ~ this is “Colbert’s film festival”. No, not exactly Stephen Colbert’s. This would be Evelyn Colbert. Yes, she’s related to Stephen Colbert, who’s her husband. Evelyn is president of board of Trustees for the festival. And Stephen is on the Festival’s advisory board.
• That means Stephen Colbert is quite involved in the festival. He conducts multiple talks for this festival. This could be your opportunity to see him close & personal. This year, Stephen would be hosting talks with filmmakers Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s diary etc.) on April 30 at 4:30 pm, and Robert Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, Princess Bride, Few Good Men etc.) on May 1st at 5 pm.
• There would also be several other talks with likes of Norman Reedus (Walking Dead), Margo Martindale (The Americans, Justified), Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty musical, Watchmen, Insidious). You can find all the details here.
• There’s also a special event on April 30th, honoring Richard Curtis, which will include his live commentary on his superhit film LOVE ACTUALLY, and celebrating RED NOSE day, contributing to a good cause.
• The following films will be among those featured at the festival:

o   "Life, Animated" — a documentary about Owen Suskind, an autistic boy who couldn't speak for years but subsequently memorized dozens of Disney movies — will be the 7:30 p.m. April 29 opening night film, and director Roger Ross Williams, Suskind and members of Suskind's family will appear at a post-show discussion moderated by Colbert.

o   Ido Haar's "Presenting Princess Shaw," about New Orleans singer Samantha Montgomery (known as Princess Shaw), will be the documentary centerpiece, May 6 at 8 p.m, with Princess Shaw participating in a Q&A session.

o   "Indignation," adapted from the Philip Roth Novel, will be the narrative centerpiece on May 7 at 4:30 p.m., and director James Schamus will participate in a Q&A session.

o   The closing night film, May 7 at 7:30 p.m., will be Barbara Kopple's "Miss Sharon Jones!," a documentary about soul singer Sharon Jones. Kopple and members of Jones' band The Dap Kings will appear in a Q&A session.

• Several other selected features, shorts, documentaries etc will be screened through out the festival. List, details and schedule can be found here.
• Besides films, there’s also fun events, parties etc. Checkout here.

These should be enough reasons to give this wonderful event a shot, and enjoy some amazing film programming, wonderful talks, nice events & parties, and have lots of fun!

For more details about this festival, check the link below:

http://montclairfilmfest.org/

LA FILM FESTIVAL UNVEILS 2016 COMPETITION LINEUP #LAFilmFestival

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42 World Premieres chosen for U.S. Fiction, Documentary, World Fiction, LA Muse, and Nightfall Competitions

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The LA Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, unveiled the official U.S. Fiction, Documentary, World Fiction, Nightfall and LA Muse sections. The 2016 LA Film Festival will screen a diverse slate of feature films, shorts and web series, along with programs such as the Filmmaker Retreat, Coffee Talks and Master Classes. The Festival runs June 1-9, 2016 at the ArcLight Cinemas.

“Our Programming team, led by Roya Rastegar and Jennifer Cochis, killed it,” said Festival Director, Stephanie Allain. “The competition lineup of 42 world premieres echoes Film Independent’s mission to celebrate diversity and showcases a multitude of innovative, fresh voices. We can’t wait to share these films with audiences and industry alike, and, following years which saw films like Meet the Patels, Code Black, Nightingale, The Drew, Out of My Hand and French Dirty acquired out of the Festival, are confident that 2016 will mark our best Festival yet.”

“Discovering storytellers is our raison d’être,” said Roya Rastegar, Director of Programming. “We invest a great deal to learn about filmmaking communities across the globe. We look for films with conviction in perspective, style and voice.”

“Curating films for LA audiences is so special because Angelenos have a uniquely homegrown love of cinema,” added Creative Director, Jennifer Cochis. “It’s with true film lovers in mind that we program: from political theater to musical theater, we’re highlighting storytelling in all its forms.”

The 2016 LA Film Festival, which will have its headquarters at the ArcLight Culver City, announces a diverse slate of 56 feature films, 58 short films and 13 short episodic works representing 28 countries. Previously announced, the Opening Night Film is the World Premiere of Ricardo De Montreuil’s Lowriders, sponsored by Jaeger-LeCoultre. This year’s Guest Director is Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) and Ava DuVernay (Selma, Middle of Nowhere) and Array Releasing will receive the Spirit of Independence Award. More special screenings and programs will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Festival’s five competitions feature 42 World Premieres. Across the five feature competition categories, 43% of the films are directed by women and 38% of the films are directed by people of color.

This year, LA Film Festival Director Stephanie Allain is joined by Creative Director Jennifer Cochis, Director of Programming Roya Rastegar and Managing Director Ralph Rivera. Film Independent Curator Elvis Mitchell continues to oversee signature programs and LACMA events.

Passes are currently on sale to Film Independent Members and the general public. In addition to access to screenings and events (even after they sell out), Festival passes provide access to networking receptions and the Festival Lounge, where pass holders interact with Festival filmmakers and professionals in the film community. General admission tickets to individual films go on sale to Film Independent Members beginning Thursday, May 5 and to the general public beginning Tuesday, May 10. Contact the Ticket Office for passes, tickets and event information by calling 866.FILM.FEST (866.345.6337) or visit www.filmindependent.org/la-film-festival. 

US Fiction Competition (12)

Original voices with distinct visions from emerging and established American independent filmmakers. 

11:55, dir. Ari Issler, Ben Snyder, USA, World Premiere

72 Hours, dir. Raafi Rivero, USA, World Premiere

Blood Stripe, dir. Remy Auberjonois, USA, World Premiere

Chee and T, dir. Tanuj Chopra, USA, World Premiere

Destined, dir. Qasim Basir, USA, World Premiere

Dreamstates, dir. Anisia Uzeyman, USA, World Premiere

GREEN / is / GOLD, dir. Ryon Baxter, USA, World Premiere

My First Kiss and the People Involved, dir. Luigi Campi, USA, World Premiere

Paint it Black, dir. Amber Tamblyn, USA, World Premiere

Tracktown, dir. Jeremy Teicher, Alexi Pappas, USA, World Premiere

The View from Tall, dir. Erica Weiss, Caitlin Parrish, USA, World Premiere

Woven, dir. Salome Mulugeta, Nagwa Ibrahim, USA, World Premiere

Documentary Competition (12) Sponsored by Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television

Compelling, character-driven non-fiction films from the U.S. and around the world. 

Company Town, dir. Natalie Kottke-Masocco, Erica Sardarian, USA, World Premiere

Denial, dir. Derek Hallquist, USA, World Premiere

Dr. Feelgood, dir. Eve Marson, USA, World Premiere

Dying Laughing, dir. Lloyd Stanton, Paul Toogood, USA/UK, World Premiere

The House on Coco Road, dir. Damani Baker, Grenada/USA, World Premiere

Jackson, dir. Maisie Crow, USA, World Premiere

The Last Gold, dir. Brian T. Brown, Germany/USA, World Premiere

Looking at the Stars, dir. Alexandre Peralta, Brazil/Nicaragua/USA, World Premiere

Olympic Pride, American Prejudice, dir. Deborah Riley Draper, USA, World Premiere

Out of Iraq, dir. Eva Orner, Chris McKim, Canada/Iraq/Lebanon/USA, World Premiere

Political Animals, dir. Jonah Markowitz, Tracy Wares, USA, World Premiere

They Call Us Monsters, dir. Ben Lear, USA, World Premiere

World Fiction Competition (6)

Unique fiction films from around the world from emerging and established filmmakers, especially curated for LA audiences.

HEIS (chronicles), dir. Anaïs Volpé, France, World Premiere

Like Cotton Twines, dir. Leila Djansi, Ghana/USA, World Premiere

London Town, dir. Derrick Borte, UK, World Premiere

Lupe Under the Sun, dir. Rodrigo Reyes, Mexico/USA, World Premiere

A Moving Image, dir. Shola Amoo, UK, World Premiere

Play the Devil, dir. Maria Govan, Trinidad/Bahamas/USA, World Premiere

LA Muse (6)

Fiction and documentary films that capture the spirit of LA.

Actors of Sound, dir. Lalo Molina, Argentina/Finland/Germany/India/Ireland/USA, World Premiere

Girl Flu., dir. Dorie Barton, USA, World Premiere

Manchild: The Schea Cotton Story, dir. Eric “Ptah” Herbert, USA, World Premiere

Namour, dir. Heidi Saman, USA, World Premiere

No Light and No Land Anywhere, dir. Amber Sealey, USA, World Premiere

Sensitivity Training, dir. Melissa Finell, USA, World Premiere

Nightfall (6)

From the bizarre to the horrifying, these are films to watch after dark.

Abattoir, dir. Darren Lynn Bousman, USA, World Premiere

Beyond the Gates, dir. Jackson Stewart, USA, World Premiere

Don’t Hang Up, dir. Alexis Wajsbrot, Damien Macé, UK, World Premiere

Mercy, dir. Chris Sparling, USA, World Premiere

Officer Downe, dir. M. Shawn Crahan, USA, World Premiere

Villisca, dir. Tony Valenzuela, USA, World Premiere

Short Films (58): From over 2,500 submissions, the short films selected represent 15 countries and 64% are directed by women. Short films are shown before features and as part of seven short film programs. Shorts will compete for juried prizes for fiction and documentary shorts, as well as an Audience Award for Best Short Film.

Future Filmmakers Showcase: High School Shorts (33): The LA Film Festival’s Future Filmmaker Showcase brings to the big screen the best films made by budding young filmmakers from across the country and the globe. In this diverse slate of films, incredibly accomplished high school students will present wild comedies, moving dramas, mesmerizing animation, introspective experimental films and everything in between. Program sponsored by Loyola Marymount UniversitySchool of Film and Television and Time Warner Foundation.

Episodes: Indie Series from the Web (13)

A showcase of independently crafted web series, celebrating rising creators whose work and subjects are innovative and unfiltered.

20 Seconds to Live, dir. Ben Rock, USA

Brothers, dir. Emmett Jack Lundberg, USA

Caring, dir. Maggie Kiley, USA

Fridays, dir. Anna Kerrigan, USA

The Ghost and The Negro, dir. Sylvester Folks, USA

Her Story, dir. Sydney Freeland, USA

Instababy, dir. Rosie Haber, USA

Literally So Busy, dir. Jerad Sloan, USA

Little Things, dir. Lex Halaby, Mila Shah, USA

Outside Comedy: Beth Stelling, dir. Thomas Wood, USA

Quirky Female Protagonist, dir. Yulin Kuang, USA

Shangri-L.A., dir. Drew Rosas, USA

Time Out with Yes Please!, dir. Kholi Hicks, USA.

For more information, please visit:

filmindependent.org

lafilmfestival.com

www.filmindependent.org/la-film-festival/

www.arclightcinemas.com.

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER AND ISTITUTO LUCE CINECITTÀ ANNOUNCE COMPLETE LINEUP FOR THE 16TH EDITION OF OPEN ROADS: NEW ITALIAN CINEMA, JUNE 2-8

• The 16-film festival features nine North American premieres and a 40th-anniversary screening of Ettore Scola’s Cannes Best Director–winning Ugly, Dirty and Bad in a new restoration

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà announce the complete lineup for Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, June 2-8. For 16 years, Open Roads has proudly offered North American audiences the most diverse and extensive lineup of contemporary Italian film available. As always, the series includes both commercial and independent fare, ranging from a vérité documentary to a superhero movie, outrageous comedies to gripping dramas, with nine North American Premieres and in-person appearances by many of the filmmakers.

The 2016 edition strikes a satisfying balance between emerging talents and esteemed veterans, including two feature debuts—the lyrical coming-of-age tale Arianna by Carlo Lavagna and Adriano Valerio’s poetic Banat, starring I Am Love’s Edoardo Gabbriellini—plus the latest from Gianni Zanasi (The Complexity of Happiness) and Vincenzo Marra (First Light), and the final work from late cult director Claudio Caligari, Don’t Be Bad, Italy’s submission for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Oscar.

This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Ettore Scola’s brilliant satirical tragedy Ugly, Dirty and Bad, for which he won the Best Director award at Cannes in 1976. Starring the great Nino Manfredi as a patriarch who refuses to share the payout of an insurance policy with his outrageous family, the film will screen in a beautiful new digital restoration at a special anniversary screening.

Other notable North American premieres include Gabriele Mainetti’s gritty superhero anti-blockbuster They Call Me Jeeg, winner of seven David di Donatello Awards (Italy’s top film honors); the witty relationship comedy Solo by writer-director-star Laura Morante; Claudio Cupellini’s torrid love saga The Beginners; the Dardenne Brothers–produced Long Live the Bride by Ascanio Celestini; Maria Sole Tognazzi’s lesbian romantic comedy Me, Myself and Her; Gianluca De Serio & Massimiliano De Serio’s River Memories, a vérité portrait of a Turin shantytown; and revered documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Pannone’s The Smallest Army in the World, paired with the premiere of the short documentary Viva Ingrid!, about Ingrid Bergman’s years in Italy, directed by Alessandro (grandson of Roberto) Rossellini.

Open Roads: New Italian Cinema is co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà. Organized by Dennis Lim and Dan Sullivan.

Tickets will go on sale Thursday, May 12. A pre-sale to Film Society members will begin Tuesday, May 10. Single tickets are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for Film Society members. See more and save with the $99 All Access Pass or the 3+ film discount package.

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS

All screenings take place at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street) unless otherwise noted.

40th Anniversary Screening
Ugly, Dirty and Bad / Brutti, sporchi e cattivi
Ettore Scola, Italy, 1976, 115m
Italian with English subtitles
A master of the commedia all’italiana, Ettore Scola won Best Director 40 years ago at the Cannes Film Festival for this outrageous “satirical tragedy” about a sub-proletariat household in Rome. The sprawling extended Mazzatella family lives shoulder to shoulder in a shack that overlooks a busy highway. In an extraordinary comic performance, the great Nino Manfredi stars as Giacinto, the grizzled old patriarch who has received a one-million-lire insurance payout for the loss of his left eye—money he refuses to share with any of the two-dozen children, grandchildren, and assorted other relatives who share his cramped abode. Soon enough, the family members are plotting their revenge, only to discover that Giacinto has no plans of going gently into that good night. Returning to the screen in a beautiful new digital restoration, Scola’s film contains a pitch-perfect blend of hilarity and brutality, which amounts to a brilliant portrait of squalor and cynicism unlike any other. A Film Movement release. New digital restoration!
Saturday, June 4, 1:00pm
Tuesday, June 7, 8:00pm*
*Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 West 65th Street

Arianna
Carlo Lavagna, Italy, 2015, 84m
Italian with English subtitles
“I was born twice. Actually, three times.” So begins director Carlo Lavagna’s feature debut, a beguiling and lyrical coming-of-age story centered on timely and timeless questions about gender, adulthood, family, and self-knowledge. Unfolding on an idyllic lakeshore in the Italian countryside, the film features first-time actress Ondina Quadri as the young woman of the title who, years after leaving, returns with her parents to her early-childhood home for a summer retreat. While there, she embarks on a profoundly personal emotional journey, spurred on by enigmatic memories and present-day desires, and gradually sheds light on secrets from her past that will transform her relationships and understanding of herself. An Uncork’d Entertainment release.
Sunday, June 5, 3:30pm
Wednesday, June 8, 4:30pm

Banat (Il Viaggio)
Adriano Valerio, Italy/Romania/Bulgaria/Republic of Macedonia, 2015, 85m
English, Italian, and Romanian with English subtitles
In the Italian city of Bari, Ivo (I Am Love’s Edoardo Gabbriellini), an unemployed agronomist, is moving out of his apartment and preparing to take a job in Romania, just as Clara (Elena Radonicich), a newly single shipbuilder, is moving in. Though the two cross paths for only a day, it’s the beginning of a surprising journey—both geographic and emotional—for them both as she eventually follows him to Romania, where they set about trying to start a new life together on a hardscrabble farm. Beautifully blending realism with moments of quiet poetry, the promising feature debut from Adriano Valerio is a sensitively observed study of cross-cultural exchange and souls in transition.
Friday, June 3, 1:00pm (Q&A with Adriano Valerio)
Wednesday, June 8, 6:30pm

The Beginners / Alaska
Claudio Cupellini, Italy/France, 2015, 125m
Italian and French with English subtitles
This torrid saga of money, sex, and violence is a wild, careening joyride. When Fausto (Elio Germano), an Italian man living in France, meets Nadine (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), an aspiring model, it ignites an obsessive, years-long case of l’amour fou that takes the couple from the highest highs to the lowest lows, from prison to power and fortune, and from love to hate and everything in between. Driven by the explosive chemistry between Germano and Bergès-Frisbey and backed by a soundtrack that skips from indie rock to Motown to opera, The Beginners is a breathless, one-of-a-kind love story that keeps the shocking surprises and hairpin turns coming. North American Premiere
Friday, June 3, 8:45pm (Q&A with Claudio Cupellini)
Wednesday, June 8, 2:00pm

Call Me Francesco – The Pope / Chiamatemi Francesco – Il Papa della gente
Daniele Luchetti, Italy, 2015, 98m
Spanish with English subtitles
This unsentimental biopic forgoes hagiography to delve into the darkest chapter of the life of the man the world now knows as Pope Francis. Before he was the leader of the Catholic Church, he was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a young priest living in Buenos Aires. As he rises through the ranks of the church, Bergoglio (played by The Motorcycle Diaries star Rodrigo de la Serna) finds himself frequently at odds with the brutal military dictatorship that ruled Argentina in the 1970s, a potentially perilous situation that forces him to make some tough moral choices. Told with the verve of a political thriller, Call Me Francesco – The Pope is a humanizing look at the experiences that shaped one of the world’s most influential men.
Sunday, June 5, 6:00pm (Q&A with Daniele Luchetti)

The Complexity of Happiness / La felicità è un sistema complesso
Gianni Zanasi, Italy, 2015, 114m
English and Italian with English subtitles
In Gianni Zanasi’s latest feature, Valerio Mastandrea stars as Enrico Giusti, a comfortably unattached businessman whose empathy and compassion are put to the test when, returning home one night from a business trip, he finds a lonely Israeli exchange student (Hadas Yaron) waiting in his apartment, abandoned there by his commitment-averse younger brother. Just as he’s beginning to navigate this unexpected turn in his personal life, Enrico’s professional life will take on its own unforeseen complications when he is named co-director of a family-run corporation, along with the two recently orphaned, adolescent children of the company’s founders. Anchored by Mastandrea’s warm, subtly generous lead performance, this film quietly asks what it means to make a positive difference in the lives of others, and suggests that kindness and simple human decency can go a long way in improving the lives of everyone they touch.
Saturday, June 4, 3:30pm (Q&A with Gianni Zanasi)

Don’t Be Bad / Non essere cattivo
Claudio Caligari, Italy, 2015, 102m
Italian with English subtitles
The final film from the late cult director Claudio Caligari (Toxic Love) is a gritty, hard-hitting crime saga set in Ostia (the outskirts of Rome immortalized by Pasolini) in the 1990s. Best friends Cesare (Luca Marinelli) and Vittorio (Alessandro Borghi) are petty drug dealers whose favorite pastimes are getting high and drinking themselves into oblivion. But when Vittorio endeavors to turn his life around, the self-destructive Cesare spirals further downward. Submitted as Italy’s candidate for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Oscar, Don’t Be Bad evocatively captures the cocaine-fueled, neon-nightclub highs and the grim, morning-after lows of life in the fast lane.
Thursday, June 2, 8:30pm
Monday, June 6, 4:15pm

First Light / La prima luce
Vincenzo Marra, Italy, 2015, 104m
Spanish and Italian with English subtitles
This gripping human drama tackles a complex issue—an international custody battle—with emotion and suspense. One of Italy’s best-known stars, Riccardo Scamarcio, plays Marco, a lawyer with a short fuse but an undeniable love for the son he has with his long-term partner Martina (Daniela Ramirez). Alienated in Italy and desperately unhappy in her relationship, Martina longs to return home to South America. One day, while Marco is away, she does the unthinkable: books a one-way plane ticket and absconds with her son back to Chile. What begins as an absorbing relationship drama develops into a low-key thriller as the desperate Marco travels halfway across the world to find his child. Director and erstwhile documentarian Vincenzo Marra lends a vivid realism to this compelling look at the lengths a parent will go for his child. Winner of a Francesco Pasinetti Award at the Venice Film Festival. North American Premiere.
Friday, June 3, 3:30pm (Q&A with Vincenzo Marra)
Wednesday, June 8, 8:30pm

God Willing / Se Dio vuole
Edoardo Maria Falcone, Italy, 2015, 84m
Italian with English subtitles
The great “faith vs. reason” debate gets a comedic workout in this by turns goofy and heartfelt satire. Tommaso (Marco Giallini), a famed surgeon, is thrown for a loop when his son Andrea (Enrico Oetiker) informs him that he wants to ditch his medical studies and become a priest. A strict atheist who believes the boy is squandering his potential, Tommaso embarks on a harebrained campaign to discredit the charismatic, motorcycle-riding evangelist (Alessandro, son of Vittorio, Gassman) influencing Andrea—but finds his own values being transformed in the process. Far from preachy, God Willing gently lampoons bourgeois vapidity, while offering a fresh perspective on the role of spirituality in the modern world.
Saturday, June 4, 6:30pm (Q&A with Edoardo Falcone and Laura Morante)

Long Live the Bride / Viva la sposa
Ascanio Celestini, Italy/France/Belgium, 2015, 87m
Italian with English subtitles
The Dardenne Brothers co-produced this engagingly offbeat character study, which, like the acclaimed auteurs’ own work, is set on the lowest rungs and in the outermost margins of society. The film’s sinister humor and subtle surrealism, however, belong entirely to writer-director-star Ascanio Celestini. He plays Nicola, an aimless alcoholic who (barely) supports himself doing (wildly inappropriate) children’s theater, but primarily spends his time wandering the outskirts of Rome in his big red van and consorting with various other misfits: a fellow barfly (Alba Rohrwacher), a prostitute (Veronica Cruciani), and a con man (Salvatore Striano) who teaches Nicola the tricks of his trade. Their intersecting lives form a picaresque, ultimately poignant portrait of people on the edge. North American Premiere
Tuesday, June 7, 6:00pm*
*Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 West 65th Street

Me, Myself and Her / Io e lei
Maria Sole Tognazzi, Italy, 2015, 102m
Italian with English subtitles
On the surface, Federica (Margherita Buy) and Marina (Sabrina Ferilli) appear to have the perfect relationship, sharing a posh apartment in Rome, working dream jobs (architect and restaurateur, respectively) by day, and cozying up on the couch to watch episodes of Top of the Lake by night. But when retired actress Marina suddenly decides to get back into the movies and Federica—still questioning her sexuality—pursues a fling with a man, their commitment to each other is put to the test. Blending light-as-a-soufflé comedy, postcard-perfect views of Italy, and witty observations on the challenges that all couples face, this irresistible romance is as refreshing as a Mediterranean vacation. A Wolfe Releasing release. North American Premiere
Thursday, June 2, 6:00pm (Q&A with Maria Sole Tognazzi)
Tuesday, June 7, 1:30pm

River Memories / I ricordi del fiume
Gianluca De Serio & Massimiliano De Serio, Italy, 2015, 96m
Romanian and Italian with English subtitles
Along a river in Turin, over 1,000 people live in a sprawling makeshift shantytown, a vibrant multiethnic melting pot slated to be razed by the government. As some residents are relocated to public housing and others are left dispossessed, this vérité documentary captures everyday moments from the last days of life in the community—children playing amid the rubble, a family praying fervently at home, revelry at a late-night fireside gathering. A haunting, strikingly shot work of anthropological preservation, River Memories is an elegiac record of a vanishing way of life. North American Premiere
Sunday, June 5, 1:00pm (Q&A with Gianluca De Serio & Massimiliano De Serio)

The Smallest Army in the World / L’esercito più piccolo del mondo
Gianfranco Pannone, Italy, 2015, 80m
Italian, German, and French with English subtitles
The renowned documentarian Gianfranco Pannone turns his camera on “the smallest army in the world”: the Pontifical Swiss Guard, a centuries-old military unit comprised of young Swiss soldiers who are stationed at the Vatican and tasked with guarding the Pope. The film follows Leo and René as they bid farewell to their families in Switzerland and embark on the first months of their assignment in Rome. Under Pannone’s inquisitive and sensitive gaze, the young men are fitted for customary striped uniforms, train in the drills and procedures of the Guard, practice their Italian-language skills, and contemplate the cultural and personal significance of participating in a religious and military tradition that has been sustained over hundreds of years in the Church’s history. Leo, René, and their fellow guardsmen are compelling and endearing subjects, and the documentary doubles as a joyous love letter to the sights and sounds of the ancient city. North American Premiere

Screening with:

Viva Ingrid!
Alessandro Rossellini, Italy, 2015, 20m
English, Italian, and French with English subtitles
This charming ode to the late Ingrid Bergman tells the story of her time spent in Italy, beginning with the production of her first film with Roberto Rossellini (the director’s grandfather), and ending with the couple’s separation eight years later—narrated via a collage of home movies, interviews, newsreel footage, and scenes from her films. North American Premiere
Sunday, June 5, 8:30pm (Q&A with Gianfranco Pannone)

Solo / Assolo
Laura Morante, Italy, 2016, 97m
Italian with English subtitles
The multitalented Laura Morante wrote, directed, and stars in this snappy relationship comedy, which plays like a Woody Allen sex farce told from the female point of view. Morante is Flavia, a neurotic middle-aged woman and human doormat, who clings to her two remarried ex-husbands while letting her female friends walk all over her. With the help of her no-nonsense therapist (Piera Degli Esposti), the timid Flavia confronts her fear of being alone and sets out to reclaim her life. Boasting a delightfully deadpan lead performance and bursting with playful stylistic touches—including surreal fantasy sequences and fourth-wall-breaking direct addresses—Solo is a witty, wise, and empowering portrait of a late bloomer coming into her own. North American Premiere.
Friday, June 3, 6:15pm (Q&A with Laura Morante)
Monday, June 6, 2:00pm

They Call Me Jeeg / Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot
Gabriele Mainetti, Italy, 2015, 112m
Italian with English subtitles
After a plunge into Rome’s toxic Tiber River, Enzo (Claudio Santamaria), a porn-addicted petty criminal, finds himself transformed into an indestructible, superhuman strongman. Against his own instincts, he becomes something of an avenging angel: the protector of an emotionally fragile, anime-obsessed young woman (who believes he is the robot hero of the 1970s manga series Steel Jeeg) and the nemesis of a sadistic, germophobic gangster (Luca Marinelli). This gritty, grimy take on the superhero film is the antidote to Hollywood-slick blockbusters. It’s bloody, bruising, bone-crunching, and a total blast. Winner of seven David di Donatello Awards. An Uncork’d Entertainment release.  North American Premiere
Saturday, June 4, 8:45pm (Q&A with Gabriele Mainetti)
Tuesday, June 7, 3:30pm

 For more information, visit www.filmlinc.org.

Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards 2016 #TDIA2016

Disruptive Innovation Awards 2016 winners Nate Parker, Anthony Romero (with Edward Snowden), Hilde (9) and Isabel (12) Lysiak - on the TDIA2016 stage. Nate Parker also spoke to Art Shrian from myNewYorkeye, about being a storyteller.

Craig Hatkoff is an activist, philanthropist, mentor and true Disruptive Innovator. He took upon himself, along with his wonderful film-producer wife Jane Rosenthal and none-other-than Robert DeNiro, to do his best to recover city from the post 9/11 trauma. In 2002, they together started the Tribeca Film Festival, which has become one of the best showcase of entertainment, film, TV and new-media, not only in NYC but in entire country. And in 2010 they introduced the Disruptive Innovation Awards. Spearheaded by Craig Hatkoff in collaboration with renowned Harvard Business School Professor Clay Christensen and the Disruptor Foundation, the Tribeca Disruptive Innovations Awards aim to share insights into innovation to help solve some of the world’s most challenging problems. The awards celebrate innovators who have broken the mold to significantly impact industries and business models, creating significant change in humanitarian efforts, global conservation, social justice, education, media and community engagement.

The 6th annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards took place Friday as part of the 15th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival. This year's awards honored innovators from around the world who are making significant contributions to social justice, community engagement and environmental science - just in time for Earth day.

Honorees included Lin-Manual Miranda for his work bringing American History into the spotlight and encouraging access to theater for all income levels. Miranda accepted his award via video message.

Humanitarian and BIRTH OF A NATION filmmaker Nate Parker received the Theodore Parker Prize for social justice. In his emotional acceptance speech, Parker admitted that "being a disruptor is a lonely place," going on to explain that the role is not always an easy one.

The event also included special guest presenter Edward Snowden via robot from a top secret location, who presented Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU with his award. While Snowden remained mum on the 2016 presidential election, the duo encouraged more innovators to step forward and discussed the adversity they faced when no one believed them.

Lifetime achievement winner Dr. Richard Leakey announced to a standing ovation that next week, he will burn 120 tons of ivory, over $100 million US dollars, effectively removing the illegal commodity from the market.

The two intrepid sisters from Pennsylvania, Hilde (9) and Isabel (12) Lysiak, were recognized for their homegrown newspaper and bravery in the face of doubts because of their ages and gender. Hilde, in a video montage of their reporting, read the negative reactions posted to their social media and closed their acceptance speech with a plee for adults never to doubt them or tell them they are too young to accomplish their dreams.

The entire list of winners and details can be found at the links below:

• http://www.mynewyorkeye.com/awards-and-festivals-news/2016-tribeca-film-festival-and-disruptor-foundation-announce-honorees-for-seventh-annual-disruptive-innovation-awards
• http://www.tribecadisruptiveinnovationawards.com/

A Conversation with Matthew Manson & Chaize Macklin | WANNABE #Tribeca2016

Conversation with WANNABE Team #Tribeca2016 Matthew Manson is a writer and director who has created over 900 commercials, branded webseries, and short films. He's won several advertising and narrative awards, including an audience award for Best Short at the Tribeca Film Festival. His newest short Wannabe is based on his feature film shooting this summer in NYC.

Matthew Manson is a writer and director who has created over 900 commercials, branded web series, and short films. He's won several advertising and narrative awards, including an audience award for Best Short at the Tribeca Film Festival. His newest short Wannabe is based on his feature film shooting this summer in NYC.

Inspired by the director's childhood, Wannabe is about neurotic Jewish boy who must win over his crush by impressing her skeptical Jamaican family. Set in 1990s New York City - a time of intense social and political strife - the film stars Malcolm Jamal-Warner (The Cosby Show, American Crime Story: People v. O.J. Simpson), David Bloom (Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp), Chaize Macklin, and Donis Leonard Jr. (House of Lies). It is based on a feature script of the same name.

The feature recently went through the Film Independent Producers Lab. It was a finalist for the Sundance Writers Lab, a semi-finalist for the Nicholls Fellowship, and won the Richard Vague / Christopher Columbus grant, which awarded a cash prize towards production.

The film is currently being packaged at CAA and is scheduled to shoot this summer.

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES JURIED AWARD WINNERS

• DEAN, JUNCTION 48, and DO NOT RESIST take home top awards in U.S. and International Narrative and World Documentary Competitions
• NOTES ON BLINDNESS: INTO DARKNESS wins Storyscapes Award; Rachel Tunnard for ADULT LIFE SKILLS wins fourth annual Nora Ephron Prize; and HEARING COLORS for Samsung wins the inaugural Tribeca X Award
• FESTIVAL AWARDS $155,000 IN CASH PRIZES

The 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival, co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, and presented by AT&T, announced the winners of its competition categories at the awards ceremony at 42 W NY. Top awards went to Dean, Junction 48, and Do Not Resist. The Festival runs through April 24, 2016.

For the first time in the Festival’s history there were separate US and International narrative competition categories. In total winners were awarded in the following feature film competition categories: US Narrative, International Narrative, World Documentary, New Narrative Director, The Albert Maysles New Documentary Director, and the Nora Ephron Prize.  Awards were also given in the short film categories: Narrative, Documentary, and Student Visionary.

In addition, the Festival announced the recipients of the Storyscapes Award, for immersive storytelling, and the inaugural Tribeca X Award, a new juried award for branded storytelling recognizing the intersection of advertising and entertainment.

This year’s Festival included 102 features, 74 short films, and 38 immersive storytelling projects from 42 countries.

“We are proud to celebrate the winning filmmakers, artists, and creators from our 15th edition,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder, Tribeca Film Festival. “Their stories have entertained, inspired, and challenged us to think about the world and we are grateful to them for sharing their work with us.”

Screenings of the award–winning films will take place throughout the final day of the Festival: Sunday, April 24, at various venues. Specific times and ticketing information are available at www.tribecafilm.com/festival

The winners of the Audience Awards, powered by Infor, which are determined by audience votes throughout the Festival, will be announced on April 23.

In addition to cash awards and in-kind services provided by sponsors including AKA Hotel Residences, AT&T, Bira 91, Coach, Company 3, Freixenet Cava, HBO, Infor, and Netflix, the Festival presented the winners with original pieces of art created by 10 contemporary artists: Keith Edmier, Marc Hundley, Zak Kitnick, John Miller, Virginia Overton, Laura Owens, Josh Tonsfeldt Sara VanDerBeek, Stephen Hannock and Clifford Ross. 

The winners, awards, and comments from the jury who selected the recipients are as follows:

 U.S. NARRATIVEFEATURE COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

The jurors for the 2016 U.S. Narrative Competition, sponsored by AKA Hotel Residences, were Anne Carey, James Le Gros, Chris Nashawaty, Mya Taylor and Jennifer Westfeldt.

• The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – Dean, written and directed by Demteri Martin. Winner receives $20,000, sponsored by AT&T, and the art award “Waking Up in the Painted World” by Stephen Hannock. The award was given by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal joined by Fiona Carter, SVP of Brand Marketing, Advertising, and Sponsorships, AT&T, and Jennifer Westfeldt.

Jury Comment: “We have had the great privilege of seeing ten accomplished and ambitious films over the last seven days here at Tribeca. But we all fell in love with this next film. It manages the near impossible task of breathing new life into a well-worn genre, balancing humor and pathos with an incredibly deft touch, and offering a unique perspective on the way we process loss.”

• Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film –Dominic Rains in The Fixer. The award was given by Chris Nashawaty.

                Jury Comment: “For his deeply emotional and empathic portrayal of a man who’s a stranger in a strange land.”

• Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Mackenzie Davis in Always Shine. The award was given by Mya Taylor.

Jury Comment: “For the unapologetic, fierce, brave, compelling, and vulnerable portrayal.”

• Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Cinematography by Michael Ragen for Kicks. Winner receives $50,000 in post-production services donated by Company 3. The award was given by Anne Carey along with David Feldman, Company 3 Director of Feature Services.

Jury Comment: “At times lyrical and other times visceral, the seductive cinematography of this film lured us into the violent world of busted childhood.”

• Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Women Who Kill written by Ingrid Jungermann. Winner receives $2,500 sponsored by Freixenet Cava. The award was given by James Le Gros along with Tom Burnet, President, Freixenet America.

Jury Comment: “As Miles Davis said, ‘The hardest thing is to be original.’ This unique and deftly hilarious tale told in Brooklyn is from a fresh voice and a true original.”

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVEFEATURE COMPETITION CATEGORIES: 

The jurors for the 2016 International Narrative Competition were Hany Abu-Assad, Jean Reno, Lydia Dean Pilcher, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Danny Glover.

• The Best International Narrative Feature – Junction 48, written and directed by Udi Aloni. Winner receives $20,000, sponsored by Netflix, and the art award “Temple of the Moon” by Sara VanDerBeek. The award was given by Danny Glover.

                Jury Comment: “This award goes to a phenomenal, stand-out, powerful, thoughtful movie. It offers a new perspective and insightful approach to a story about how to be different and live together.”

• Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature Film –Alan Sabbagh in The Tenth Man. The award was given by Jean Reno.

                Jury Comment: “A performance of natural subtlety that reflected a community that is unknown to most of us. An intriguing journey for connection in search for identity.”

• Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film – Radhika Apte in Clean Shaven, a part of Madly. The award was given by Jean Reno.

Jury Comment: “This award goes to an actress who has conveyed bravery and emotional depth in different relationships around her.  A contemporary story that breaks through established culture.” 

• Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film – Cinematography by Kjell Vassdal for El Clasico . Winner receives $50,000 in post-production services donated by Company 3. The award was given by Sam Taylor-Johnson along with David Feldman, Company 3 Director of Feature Services.

Jury Comment: “This award goes to an expansive, naturalistic photography in serving the narrative and the emotional journey of the characters.”

• Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature Film – Perfect Strangers written by Filippo Bologna, Paolo Costella, Paolo Genovese, Paola Mammini, and Rolando Ravello. Winners receive $2,500 sponsored by Freixenet Cava. The award was given by Hany Abu-Assad along with Tom Burnet, President, Freixenet America.

Jury Comment: “This award goes to a well-crafted, entertaining scenario, with deep character development. It’s an original story about private lives and hidden secrets.”

WORLD DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

The jurors for the 2016 World Documentary Competition, sponsored by Bira 91, were Laura Poitras, Douglas Tirola and Roger Ross Williams.

• Best Documentary Feature – Do Not Resist, directed by Craig Atkinson (USA). Winner receives $20,000, sponsored by Netflix, and the art award “Untitled” by Virginia Overton. The award was given by Roger Ross Williams.

Jury Comments: “This film that uses documentary to go deep into a world with a cinematic experience.  We were excited by the directorial debut of a cinematographer who already has created a great body of work.  Do Not Resist shines a light on the frightening story of the militarization of the police.  In an impactful way the director uses his amazing access to look at power and force from the inside.”

• Best Documentary Cinematography – Cinematography by Jarred Alterman for Contemporary Color (USA).  Winner receives $2,500, sponsored by Bira 91. The award was given by Doug Tirola and Ankur Jain, CEO, Bira 91.
• Best Documentary Editing – Editing by Bill Ross for Contemporary Color (USA). Winner receives $2,500, sponsored by Bira 91.  The award was given by Doug Tirola and Ankur Jain, CEO, Bira 91.

Jury Comments: “One film above all others demonstrated filmmakers completely in control of their craft.  Through both the editing and cinematography this film takes the audience deep into a unique world and its characters with nuance, emotion and beauty while also showcasing performances in a spectacular and grand cinematic way."

BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR COMPETITION: 

The jurors for the 2016 Best New Narrative Director Competition were Hill Harper, Col Needham and Ry Russo-Young.

• Best New Narrative Director – Priscilla Anany, director of Children of the Mountain (USA, Ghana). Winner receives $10,000 sponsored by HBO, and the art award “The Transit of Venus (Melanie)” by Keith Edmier. The award was given by the jury.

Jury Comments: "So many of the films we had the pleasure of viewing were expertly directed and worthy of recognition. The winning director presents a fearless and heart wrenching tale of an embattled mother's high stakes journey to heal her sick child and ultimately herself. The film delicately and powerfully directs us through an emotionally resonant story that is dark for truthful reasons and simultaneously hopeful.  The best new narrative director award goes to Priscilla Anany for Children of the Mountain." 

BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR COMPETITION:

The jurors for the 2016 Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award were Jason Biggs, Karen Cooper and Sebastian Silva.

• Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award – David Feige for Untouchable (USA). Winner receives $10,000 sponsored by Netflix, and the art award “Lenox Hill” by Josh Tonsfeldt. The award was given by Sebastian Silva.

Jury Comment: “The film opens our eyes to the suffering of people on both sides of a controversial fence.  Made with compassion for all of its subjects, the film is a fascinating look into how laws are created with the best of intentions, but enforced in problematic and sometimes destructive ways.”

SHORT FILM COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

The 2016 Best Narrative Short Competition jurors were Mike Birbiglia, Chloe Grace Moretz and Sheila Nevins.

• Best Narrative Short – Hold On (Houvast), directed by Charlotte Scott-Wilson (Netherlands).Winner receives $5,000 sponsored by Netflix, and the art award “It's You and Me Kid” by Marc Hundley. The award was given by Mike Birbiglia.

Jury Comments: “The jury was moved by one particular film because it is simultaneously about the price of performance, and the entirely unique idea that the protagonist’s musical performance itself succeeds on the back of her own self-doubt, torture, and anxiety. We were also blown away by the remarkable performance of the lead actress in both her emotional depth combined with her musical proficiency.”

The 2016 Best Documentary Short and Student Visionary Award jurors were Maria Cuomo Cole, Mark Conseulos, Jessica Yu, Parker Posey and Alan Yang.

• Best Documentary Short – Extremis directed by Dan Krauss (USA). Winner receives $5,000 sponsored by AKA Hotel Residences, and the art award “Untitled (11/30/96)” by John Miller. The award was given by Maria Cuomo Cole along with Larry Korman, President, AKA Hotel Residences. 

Jury Comments: “This film's cinematography is intimate yet unobtrusive; its point of view is empathetic and non-judgemental. And ultimately, it respects the conflicting perspectives at a morally wrenching crossroads.” 

• Student Visionary Award – Ping Pong Coach (乒乓), directed by Yi Liu. (Taiwan R.O.C., USA). Winner receives $5,000 sponsored by HBO. The award was given by Sharon Badal, Tribeca’s Vice President Shorts Programming and Filmmaker Relations along with Larry Korman, President, AKA Hotel Residences. 

Jury Comments: “For its naturalistic tone and compelling performances, this film impacted us in a real way.”

STORYSCAPES AWARD

The 2016 Storyscapes Award, presented by AT&T, which recognizes groundbreaking approaches in storytelling and technology, jurors were Jessica Brillhart, Jigar Mehta and Saschka Unseld.

● Storyscapes Award: Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness created by Arnaud Colinart, Amaury La Burthe, Peter Middleton, and James Spinney. Winner receives $10,000, presented by AT&T. The award was given by Jessica Brillhart, Saschka Unseld, and Olga Serna, Senior Marketing Manager, AT&T.

Jury Comments: “The most powerful stories allow us to see the world and its vast array of experiences through someone else's eyes.  One project took us on that journey in a most unexpected way. Through its creative use of a medium and its meticulous and elegantly crafted audio landscape. Through its dedication to nuance and aesthetic. Through its care and compassion not only for the protagonist, but for those who take the journey with him. Because as the piece so eloquently ends: ‘After all, being human is not seeing, it’s loving.” 

THE NORA EPHRON PRIZE

The 2016 Nora Ephron Prize, sponsored by Coach, jurors were Rachael Leigh Cook, Judy Greer and Mary Stuart Masterson.

• The Nora Ephron Prize: Rachel Tunnard, director, writer and editor of Adult Life Skills (UK). Winner receives $25,000, sponsored by Coach, and the art award “Untitled” by Laura Owens. The award was given by the jury along with Margaret Coady, Executive Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Coach Foundation at Coach, Inc.

Jury Comments: “We selected someone whose originality of voice, deft handling of tone, assured visual and editorial style, and moving poetic screenplay combined to make us feel from the opening sequence that we were in good hands. She made a tiny—even miniaturized—world, seem vast. She handled grief in a wholly unique way. Using wit and emotional restraint to pull the audience in. And make us root for our protagonist to blow up the shed!”

TRIBECA X AWARD

The Tribeca X award, sponsored by GE, jurors were Laurie Anderson, Scott Carlson, Judy McGrath, Liev Schreiber and Hank Willis Thomas.

●   Tribeca X award: Hearing Colors created by Greg Brunkalla for Samsung. The award was given by Scott Carlson and Hank Willis Thomas along with Andy Goldberg, Chief Creative Officer, GE.

Jury Comments: “We were drawn in by the story and the inventive way it was told, we loved what it taught us about ways to see the world. The piece communicated Samsung's brand values effortlessly without ever overtly talking about the brand itself. So we appreciated the approach and we appreciated that Samsung supported this film and all the creativity that made it possible. When the world is given entertaining stories and novel ways of telling these stories, there is no doubt they will be shared.”

FULL LIST OF ELIGIBLE 2016 TFF FILMS IN EACH CATEGORY OF COMPETITION:

U.S. Narrative Feature Competition:

• Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature:10 films
• Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature: 9 actresses
• Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature: 9 actors
• Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature: 10 films
• Best Screenplay for a U.S. Narrative Feature: 10 films
• Best Editing in a U.S. Narrative Feature: 10 films

International Narrative Feature Competition:

• Best International Narrative Feature: 8 films
• Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature:  9 actresse
• Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature: 10 actors
• Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature:  8 films
• Best Screenplay for an International Narrative Feature:  8 films
• Best Editing in an International Narrative Feature: 8 films

World Documentary Feature Competition: 

• Best Documentary Feature: 12 films
• Best Editing in a Documentary Film:  12 filmmakers
• Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film: 12 filmmakers

 Best New Narrative Director Competition:

• Best New Narrative Director: directors selected from 13 films

Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Competition:

• Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award: directors selected from 12 films

Short Film Competition:

•  Best Narrative Short: 29 films
•  Best Documentary Short: 16 films
•  Student Visionary Award: 8 films

Storyscapes Competition:

•  Storyscapes Award: 10 projects

Nora Ephron Prize:

•  Awarded to a female director or screenwriter. Selected from 13 eligible films, with 6 female writer-directors, 10 female writers, and 4 female directors

Tribeca X Award

• Selected from more than 100 submissions of scripted and documentary work for film, TV, digital, social, and VR/AR, in both feature or short length, funded with support from a brand in collaboration with artists or filmmakers.

**For more information on all of the films in the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, please visit tribecafilm.com/festival.

A Conversation with Joel Fendelman, director of Game Night #Tribeca2016

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Game Night is a movie about a lonely taxi driver, who when happens upon a football field, he falls into a memory of his past. Here’s excerpts from conversation with the director of Game Night, Joel Fendelman.

Art Shrian: What inspires you to be a storyteller? And as a storyteller, what kind of story you want to tell?

Joel Fendelman: Storytelling to me is a vehicle to look within and outward at the same time. It is the method as to investigate and heal blocks with in myself and then through that I can connect with other people, many times people I would otherwise never connect with otherwise which what makes it so special. These are the stories I am interested in telling, the ones that show the universality between all of us showing how alike we are.

A: What inspired you to make this particular film?

J: For this film I was looking at the idea that when we are younger we have certain ambitions of what we make accomplish in the future. It is usually very rosy fantasies and since it can be 10, 15, 20 years or more in the future it all seems possible. But one day we wake up and those years have passed and the future is now the present so we must confront the unfulfilled ambitions. For me this film spawned from this concept. I think we all in some way or another can resonate with that feeling.

A: What was the most best & worst part of making this film?

J: The best part about making this film was filming. We could only shoot 2hrs a day for three nights because the field closed at 10pm. It was fast paced and exciting. The biggest challenge was the rain. I literally had to post-pone three times because of the rained out field. Sometimes minutes before call time. With that said, it was the best thing to happen because the days we did end up filming were much better in many ways.

A: How do you feel about being at Tribeca Film Festival, and NYC?

J: Screening at the Tribeca film festival has been a dream come true. It has been a pleasure feels really good to be validated in such a way. I lived here for ten years and feel tingling sensations every time I come back. New York city is the best city in the world!

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Joel Fendelman has worked ten years in the film industry in New York City producing content for companies such as A&E, PBS, American Express, Ovation TV, Allure, and MTV. His films have shown around the world at prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Chicago, Miami. He has lectured about Independent filmmaking at various film festivals and is currently pursuing an MFA in Film at the University of Texas.

Further details and Tribeca 2016 schedule here:

https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/game-night-2016

2016 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL AND DISRUPTOR FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE HONOREES FOR SEVENTH ANNUAL DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION AWARDS

Award Collaboration with Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen Recognizes Leading Innovators and Creators Impacting Social Transformation

Alec Ross’ “The Industries of the Future” to receive 2016 Book of the Year.

The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by AT&T, today announced the honorees for its seventh annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, held in collaboration with Harvard professor Clay Christensen and the Disruptor Foundation. Co-sponsored by Accenture, AT&T and media sponsor The Guardian, the awards will be moderated by Perri Peltz at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center BMCC on Friday April 22 at 11:00am. Festival co-founder, Craig Hatkoff, is the Chief Curator of the awards. The 15th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 13 to 24.

The goal of the awards is to share insights into innovation to help solve the some of the world’s most intractable problems. Inspired by Christensen’s ground-breaking theory of disruptive innovation, the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards celebrate innovators who have broken the mold to significantly impact industries and business models in traditional and non-traditional domains, including media, healthcare, social justice, education, politics, sports and philanthropy.

Over the past seven years honorees have included Jack Dorsey (Twitter/Square); Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia); Shane Smith (Vice); Jared Cohen, Eric Schmidt (Google); Twyla Tharp, Kickstarter, Warby Parker, David Lynch, Rick Rubin, Kanye West, Uber, DARPA (Big Dog, Cheetah and Hummingbird robots), Airbnb; Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun; Dr. Francis Collins (National Institutes of Health), MITx , City of Manchester, Keith Richards and Stanford Office of Technology and Licensing.

The 2016 Lifetime Achievement Awards will be given to Thomas Heatherwick for his dedication to bringing design, architecture and urban planning together in a single workspace at his own Heatherwick Studio, and Kenya Wildlife Service Chair Dr. Richard Leakey, one of the world’s leading paleoanthropologists and conservationists, for his leadership and past and current efforts in shutting down the ivory trade in Africa.The 2016 honorees include:

The 2016 honorees include:

Actor, director, producer, writer, and humanitarian Nate Parker will receive the Theodore Parker Prize (presented by Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation); Scott Harrison, Founder and CEO of Charity Water; Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation’s premier defender of liberty and individual freedom; Louie Psihoyos, Academy Award-winning filmmaker (“the Cove” and “Racing Extinction”); Professor Jennifer Jacquet, Ph.D., author of “IS SHAME NECESSARY?” (Pantheon, 2015) and an environmental social scientist who studies large-scale cooperation dilemmas, such as overfishing, climate change, and the wildlife trade; Fabio Zaffagnini, the creator of Rockin’1000, whose crowdsourced 1000-musician performance of the Foo Fighters’ Learn To Fly has reached 30 million views on YouTube; Brent Stapelkamp, a researcher who tracked and photographed Cecil the Lion for nine years; Alan Eustace, world-record holder for Highest Freefall Jump (135,889 feet) earned in the process of piloting the system built by the StratEx team; Max Kenner, founder and executive director of Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) which enrolls incarcerated individuals in academic programs culminating in Bard College degrees; Emily Callahan and Amber Jackson, co-founders of Blue Latitudes, whose mission is to globally scale the conversion of oil rigs into coral reefs; Renaud Laplanche, founder and CEO of Lending Club, the world’s largest online marketplace connecting borrowers and investors; The Suskind Family (Ron, Cornelia, Walter and Owen Suskind) for unleashing ability and creativity in those with autism; Jenna Arnold and Greg Segal, co-founders of ORGANIZE, which is looking to put itself out of business by solving the organ donation crisis; juvenile justice reformer Adam Foss, who by shifting his focus from incarceration to transforming lives is reinventing the role of the criminal prosecutor; and Hilde Kate and Isabel Rose Lysiak, who run the monthly community newspaper Orange Street News, based out of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

The 2016 Book of the Year is New York Times bestseller “The Industries of the Future” (Simon & Schuster, 2016) by leading innovation expert Alec Ross who explains what’s next for the world: the advances and stumbling blocks that will emerge in the next ten years, and how we can navigate them.

“This year’s honorees are a diverse group whose achievements lead by example uniting communities that are offering new solutions to some of society’s most challenging issues,” said Craig Hatkoff, TFF co-founder and chief curator for TDIA. “We are thrilled to celebrate Professor Christensen’s original theory and the new frontiers of innovation theory and application. Disruptors represent a new kind of billionaire – innovators who have the potential to help a billion people”

“Technology alone cannot solve the world’s most intractable problems. We must learn to crawl up inside and shine a light on what makes people tick,” said Christensen, “Each year’s crop of honorees help me refine and advance my thinking about disruptive innovation theory”

Honorees receive the iconic red hammer as the official Disruptor Award, symbolic for both building new business models and smashing broken ones.

The 2016 Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award honorees are as follows:

Thomas Heatherwick: Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree

Founder and Design Director, Heatherwick Studio

Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer whose prolific and varied work is characterized by its ingenuity, inventiveness and originality. He founded Heatherwick Studio in 1994 to bring design, architecture and urban planning together in a single workspace. Known for projects like the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 Expo, the cauldron for the 2012 London Olympics, and the Learning Hub at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Heatherwick Studio is currently working in four continents on projects valued at over £2 billion. Thomas is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a Royal Academician and in 2004 became the youngest Royal Designer for Industry.

Richard Leakey: Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree

Chair, Kenya Wildlife Service and Founder & Chair, Turkana Basin Institute

Dr. Richard Leakey is currently a Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, New York where he also serves as the Founder and Chair of the Turkana Basin Institute, a Kenya-based research facility that studies the history of life, past climate change and origins of humans. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Kenya Wildlife Service. Formerly Director of Kenya’s National Museums, Director of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department, founding Director and Chairman of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Member of Parliament in Kenya and Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Richard is now focused on funding the research institute at Turkana and working as Chair of the Kenya chapter of Transparency International and Founder of Wildlife Direct. Richard has played a key role in efforts to combat elephant and rhino poaching since the early 1990s, has actively campaigned for the protection of the Great Apes and he has become increasingly vocal about the threats to biodiversity arising from global climate change and the human population growth.

Nate Parker

Activist, Filmmaker

Actor, director, producer, writer, and humanitarian Nate Parker recently won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for The Birth of a Nation, a 7-year labor of love for Parker which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in, to rousing acclaim and fanfare at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Following its debut, the film received an enthusiastic standing ovation and was quickly acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures, who will release the film October 7, 2016. 

Scott Harrison

Founder and CEO, Charity Water

Scott Harrison is the founder and CEO of Charity Water, a nonprofit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. In nine years, with the help of more than 500,000 donors worldwide, Charity Water has raised over $207 million and funded over 19,000 water projects in 24 countries. When completed, those projects will provide over 6.18 million people with clean, safe drinking water.

Anthony D. Romero

Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation’s premier defender of liberty and individual freedom. He took the helm of the organization just seven days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Shortly afterward, the ACLU launched its national Keep America Safe and Free campaign to protect basic freedoms during a time of crisis. They achieved court victories on the Patriot Act, uncovering thousands of pages of documents detailing the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, and filing the first successful legal challenge to the Bush administration’s illegal NSA spying program.

Louie Psihoyos

Executive Director, Oceanic Preservation Society and Director, “Racing Extinction” & “The Cove”

Louie Psihoyos is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and Executive Director of the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS). He is recognized as one of the top still photographers in the world, having created iconic images for National Geographic for 18 years, and hundreds of covers for other magazines. His ability to bring humanity and wit to complicated science stories carries over to his filmmaking. Psihoyos’s first film, “The Cove”, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Film of 2009 and over 75 other awards around the world. His second film, “Racing Extinction”, aired in 220 countries and territories and sparked the #StartWith1Thing movement.

Jennifer Jacquet

Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Studies at NYU

Jennifer Jacquet is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU. She is an environmental social scientist who studies large-scale cooperation dilemmas, such as overfishing, climate change, and the wildlife trade. She is the author of “Is Shame Necessary?” (Pantheon, 2015) about the evolution, function and future of the use of social disapproval in solving the tragedy of the commons.

Brent Stapelkamp

Conservationist and Photographer

Lion-obsessed Brent Stapelkamp has studied nature’s majestic apex predator in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe for Oxford University’s Wildlife and Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU). Brent’s work is primarily about promoting ways to mitigate the conflict between lions and livestock owners with a healthy dose of wildlife photography to get his “lion fix.” He lives off-grid with his wife, Laurie Simpson and their seven year-old-son Oliver. For nine years Stapelkamp tracked and photographed Cecil the Lion who rose to fame after being hunted down under questionable circumstances. Cecil has become the global icon for conservation andBrent’s extensive collection of photos of Cecil and other wildlife in Africa is a true treasure trove.

Fabio Zaffagnini

Creator, Rockin’1000

Fabio Zaffagnini is the creator of Rockin’1000, a crowd-funded project that culminated in a performance where 1000-musicians gathered on a field in Italy to play one song: Learn to Fly by the Foo Fighters. The YouTube video chronicling this event went viral and has to date attracted 30 million views. The event served as an invitation for the Foo Fighters to come perform in Cesena, Italy which they accepted. Furthermore, Fabio is a co-founder of Trail Me Up, a startup that creates augmented virtual reality experiences of hike trails. In 2015 he entered the European Commission’s Expert list for his product design skills. Previously, he dealt with Technology Transfer and Industrial Research for private and public research centers. Earlier in his career, Fabio was a marine geologist at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Italian National Research Center and the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change. Fabio is an expert in social innovation, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and product design and loves travelling, rock music and beach volleyball. 

Alan Eustace

Engineer/Stratospheric Explorer

World–record free faller Alan Eustace retired as Senior Vice President of Knowledge in April 2015 after 13 years with Google. His lifelong interest in flying, skydiving, and engineering lead him to work with the world-class StratEx team to design, build, and fly, scuba-like system for the exploration of the Stratosphere. In the final test of this system, Alan and the StratEX team set three new skydiving world records, including the highest exit altitude (135,899 feet, 41,422 meters). Alan served as executive producer of the film “14 Minutes from Earth”.

Emily Callahan and Amber Jackson

Co-Founders, Blue Latitudes

Emily Callahan and Amber Jackson founded Blue Latitudes to unite science, policy and economics to create innovative solutions for the complex ecological challenges associated with offshore structures. Ms. Callahan is a marine conservation biologist, oil and gas consultant and explorer. She has a B.A. in Environmental Science and an M.A.S degree in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She has worked in the field of environmental consulting for over four years and conducted both international and domestic environmental impact assessments for governmental agencies and private sector clients, her key industry of expertise is in offshore oil and gas development and decommissioning. She worked as a field technician on the BP 252 Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This is where she witnessed firsthand the destruction and devastation wrought by an oil spill. However, it is also where she learned of a unique silver lining to the reality of offshore oil and gas development, the Rigs to Reefs program – a program that worked to preserve the ecosystems thriving beneath the surface.

Ms. Jackson is an oceanographer, environmental scientist and entrepreneur. She has a B.A. in Marine Science from UC Berkeley and a M.A.S in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her expertise is unique, using technology to facilitate the intersection of science and communication. A former Ocean Curator at Google in partnership with the Sylvia Earle Alliance, she engineered and launched intelligent map layers in Google Maps that distill and relate complex concepts in ocean science for a variety of audiences. Ms. Jackson also has an established foundation as a scientist. A former National Science Foundation Researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, she developed a curiosity for using artificial habitats to mitigate anthropogenic losses and degradation of natural habitats. In California, the Rigs to Reefs program is an active example of this.

Lending Club

Accepting on behalf is Founder & CEO, Renaud Laplanche

Lending Club is the world’s largest online credit marketplace, facilitating personal loans, business loans, and financing for elective medical procedures. The company’s mission is to transform the banking system to make credit more affordable and investing more rewarding. Lending Club operates at a lower cost than traditional bank lending programs and passes the savings on to borrowers in the form of lower rates and to investors in the form of solid returns.

As Founder and CEO, Renaud is responsible for overseeing the overall strategic direction and operation of Lending Club, which he grew from a disruptive idea in 2006 to the world’s largest online credit marketplace today. He also serves as Chairman of Lending Club’s Board of Directors. Before founding Lending Club, Renaud was the Founder & CEO of TripleHop Technologies, an enterprise software company acquired by Oracle Corporation in June 2005. Prior to that, Renaud was a Senior Associate at New York law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Renaud was recognized on Bloomberg Markets’ 2015 Most Influential List, an annual list that acknowledges 50 of the top leaders across technology, finance and politics around the globe. In 2014 he won the Economist Innovation Award in the consumer products category. He was ranked one of the top SMB CEOs by the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards in 2015 and was named the “best start-up CEO to work for” by Business Insider in 2014. Renaud holds two world speed sailing records, including the Transpacific record. Renaud has an MBA from HEC and London Business School and a JD from Montpellier University. He is a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.

Max Kenner

Founder and Executive Director, Bard Prison Initiative

Max Kenner is the Founder and Executive Director of Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), which enrolls incarcerated individuals in academic programs culminating in Bard College degrees. He co-founded the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, supporting similar programs in 10 states. Kenner is Vice President for Institutional Initiatives and Advisor to the President on Public Policy & College Affairs at Bard College. He was a 2013-14 fellow-in-residence in American History at Harvard University and serves on Governor Cuomo’s NY State Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration, Re-Entry Subcommittee. Recent awards include The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 40 Under 40, Richard Cornuelle Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Education.

The Suskind Family

Ron, Cornelia, Walter and Owen Suskind

Owen Suskind, a boy silenced by autism, methodically memorized dozens of Disney movies. When his family realized this, they began to speak to him in Disney dialogue and turned their world into a stage, playing animated characters. Over years, Owen regained speech, learned to read by reading credits and eventually invented an original language — using scripts and lyrics — to express love, loss, kinship, and brotherhood. In turning his passion into a pathway, the Suskind family developed an approach, called “affinity therapy,” that is driving research and showing broad success in addressing the core social communication deficits of autism. Owen’s father, the author Ron Suskind, is now leading an effort to develop technology that allows multiple neurodiverse populations to harness their strong interests to drive social, emotion, and practical learning. Owen’s story can soon be seen in the new documentary Life, Animated from Academy Award® winning director Roger Ross Williams, an official selection of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

Jenna Arnold and Greg Segal

Co-Founders, ORGANIZE

ORGANIZE is a nonprofit organization based in New York that leverages health data to end the organ donor shortage by applying smarter technologies, building more creative partnerships, and advocating for data-driven policies. Founded by Greg Segal and Jenna Arnold after Greg’s father waited five years for a heart transplant, ORGANIZE’s goal is to flip supply-and-demand for organ transplants in the US by building the country’s first central organ donor registry and creating more culturally relevant ways for people to share their donor wishes. Fast Company called ORGANIZE “the [one] to end the organ shortage.”

Adam Foss

Juvenile Justice Reformer

As Assistant District Attorney in the Juvenile Division of Suffolk County, Adam Foss has become one of Boston’s leading voices for compassion in criminal justice. Recognizing that prosecutors have a unique opportunity to intervene in offender’s lives, Foss co-founded the Roxbury CHOICE Program, a collaborative effort between defendants, the court, the probation department, and the D.A. to recast probation as a transformative experience rather than a punitive process. In addition to his work with the DA’s office, Foss is the founder of the SCDAO Reading Program, a project designed to bridge the achievement gap of area elementary school students.

Hilde Kate and Isabel Rose Lysiak

Orange Street News

Hilde Kate and Isabel Rose Lysiak run the monthly community newspaper Orange Street News, based out of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. The OSN recently received widespread acclaim for its reporting on community news and its response to critics who questioned its publishers ability to cover serious news because of their young age and gender. The Publisher of the OSN, Hilde Kate Lysiak, 9, is in charge of all content, reporting, writing, and taking all pictures while her older sister Isabel, 12, runs its multimedia operations where she produces, edits, and directs all video content for www.orangestreetnews.com

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