This review originally ran September 2, 2022, in conjunction with the miniseries’ premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Lars von Trier’s “The Kingdom Exodus” warrants comparison with David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” for multiple parallels between the two: Both are peak prestige TV with indelible auteurist hallmarks, returning for their third seasons after a quarter-century hiatus. Both invoke the supernatural, concoct elaborate lore and boast captivated cult-like followings.
Though the Danish “Kingdom” is of course much lesser known, its first two seasons did make enough of a cultural impact through international theatrical runs to spawn a Stephen King–created American remake, “Kingdom Hospital.”
“Kingdom Exodus,” making its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, gets much more meta. In the cold open, Karen (Bodil Jørgensen) watches von Trier’s signoff from the previous season’s finale on TV. Frustrated by the series’ loose ends, she heads to bed and...
Lars von Trier’s “The Kingdom Exodus” warrants comparison with David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” for multiple parallels between the two: Both are peak prestige TV with indelible auteurist hallmarks, returning for their third seasons after a quarter-century hiatus. Both invoke the supernatural, concoct elaborate lore and boast captivated cult-like followings.
Though the Danish “Kingdom” is of course much lesser known, its first two seasons did make enough of a cultural impact through international theatrical runs to spawn a Stephen King–created American remake, “Kingdom Hospital.”
“Kingdom Exodus,” making its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, gets much more meta. In the cold open, Karen (Bodil Jørgensen) watches von Trier’s signoff from the previous season’s finale on TV. Frustrated by the series’ loose ends, she heads to bed and...
- 11/26/2022
- by Martin Tsai
- The Wrap
Exclusive: The Sundance Institute has set the participants and projects for its Documentary Edit and Story Lab, which this year returns to Utah’s Sundance Resort after a two-year hiatus. The list consists of filmmaking partners Jude Chehab and Fahd Ahmed (Q), Jalena Keane-Lee and Diana Diroy (Standing Above the Clouds), Alessandra Sanguinetti and Soledad Salfate (The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer) and Edwin Martinez and Inés Vogelfang (The Monster and the Storm). The Institute also today named Diroy, Stephanie Andreou, Julie Gaynin, Alma Herrera-Pazmino and Luna X. Moya as the artists selected for the second edition of its Art of Editing Fellowship.
Designed to provide time and space to go deep into the language, form and meaning of indie nonfiction features, the Lab combines director and editor teams in the later stages of post-production with experienced documentary filmmakers, for the process of reimagining or reconceiving dramatic structures, exploring character and story development,...
Designed to provide time and space to go deep into the language, form and meaning of indie nonfiction features, the Lab combines director and editor teams in the later stages of post-production with experienced documentary filmmakers, for the process of reimagining or reconceiving dramatic structures, exploring character and story development,...
- 6/16/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Icelandic director’s third feature shot in December.
Jour2Fête has taken on international sales for Rúnar Rúnarsson’s third feature Echo. He will present work-in-progress footage at Goteborg’s Nordic Film Market next week.
Screen can also exclusively unveil the first photo from the film above.
Through 59 scenes, Rúnarsson assembles a portrait of modern society, set in Iceland at Christmas time. Moments include “in the middle of the countryside, an abandoned farm is burning, in a school a children’s choir is singing Christmas carols, in a slaughterhouse, chicken are parading along a rail, in a museum, a woman is arguing on the phone,...
Jour2Fête has taken on international sales for Rúnar Rúnarsson’s third feature Echo. He will present work-in-progress footage at Goteborg’s Nordic Film Market next week.
Screen can also exclusively unveil the first photo from the film above.
Through 59 scenes, Rúnarsson assembles a portrait of modern society, set in Iceland at Christmas time. Moments include “in the middle of the countryside, an abandoned farm is burning, in a school a children’s choir is singing Christmas carols, in a slaughterhouse, chicken are parading along a rail, in a museum, a woman is arguing on the phone,...
- 1/22/2019
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Stars: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, Riley Keough, Jeremy Davies | Written and Directed by Lars von Trier
The House That Jack Built is the latest, and reportedly final, cinematic effort from the meretricious and petulant director Lars von Trier. A visionary master of bold and repellent art, with a twisted irony of benevolent nature formulated in the most offensive and auspicious manner possible, Von Trier excels in the morally artificial and frugal seduction. His most recent effort is a masterstroke of meta and self-referential testy ravenous appalling nature, possibly so significant in fact, in a darkly evocative expose of mankind, it may just be his magnum opus.
Matt Dillon stars in the titular role of Jack. A haunting portrayal of monstrous bigotry and murderous gluttony. Dillon, an often overlooked actor with tremendous ability and filmography to prove it, provokes a grand sense of audacious...
The House That Jack Built is the latest, and reportedly final, cinematic effort from the meretricious and petulant director Lars von Trier. A visionary master of bold and repellent art, with a twisted irony of benevolent nature formulated in the most offensive and auspicious manner possible, Von Trier excels in the morally artificial and frugal seduction. His most recent effort is a masterstroke of meta and self-referential testy ravenous appalling nature, possibly so significant in fact, in a darkly evocative expose of mankind, it may just be his magnum opus.
Matt Dillon stars in the titular role of Jack. A haunting portrayal of monstrous bigotry and murderous gluttony. Dillon, an often overlooked actor with tremendous ability and filmography to prove it, provokes a grand sense of audacious...
- 12/20/2018
- by Jak-Luke Sharp
- Nerdly
Kristen Stewart’s second act isn’t just in the works, it’s here. The long-time actress — at age 27, she’s already been acting professionally for more than half her life — initially dreamed of being a filmmaker, a desire she’s lately been putting into practice through short-form directorial opportunities, including a Chvrches music video and her directorial film debut, the short “Come Swim.” The film bowed earlier this year at Sundance, before going on to screen at Cannes and, most recently, a slot as part of Sundance’s traveling Short Film Tour.
Produced as part of Refinery29’s Shatterbox Anthology — a collection of short films all made by women, and of every stripe, from well-known names like Stewart to rising stars like Courtney Hoffman — the film’s short synopsis bills it as “a diptych of one man’s day; half impressionist and half realist portraits.” Part dreamy (and often unnerving) fable,...
Produced as part of Refinery29’s Shatterbox Anthology — a collection of short films all made by women, and of every stripe, from well-known names like Stewart to rising stars like Courtney Hoffman — the film’s short synopsis bills it as “a diptych of one man’s day; half impressionist and half realist portraits.” Part dreamy (and often unnerving) fable,...
- 8/31/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner)
An ecstatically original work of film-history-philosophy with a digital-cinema palette of acutely crafted compositions. Amour Fou seamlessly blends together the paintings of Vermeer, the acting of Bresson, and the psychological undercurrents of a Dostoevsky novel. It is an intensely thrilling and often slyly comic work that manages to combine a passionately dispassionate love story of the highest order with a larger socio-historical examination of a new era of freedom,...
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner)
An ecstatically original work of film-history-philosophy with a digital-cinema palette of acutely crafted compositions. Amour Fou seamlessly blends together the paintings of Vermeer, the acting of Bresson, and the psychological undercurrents of a Dostoevsky novel. It is an intensely thrilling and often slyly comic work that manages to combine a passionately dispassionate love story of the highest order with a larger socio-historical examination of a new era of freedom,...
- 11/18/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
The Boy and the Beast (Mamoru Hosoda)
Two worlds collide once young Kyuta (Shôta Sometani) and warrior Kumatetsu (Kôji Yakusho) meet in Mamoru Hosoda‘s The Boy and the Beast. The former was recently orphaned after his mother’s death (she had divorced his father years ago and her family refuses to get in touch with him), currently working his way towards becoming a solitary street...
The Boy and the Beast (Mamoru Hosoda)
Two worlds collide once young Kyuta (Shôta Sometani) and warrior Kumatetsu (Kôji Yakusho) meet in Mamoru Hosoda‘s The Boy and the Beast. The former was recently orphaned after his mother’s death (she had divorced his father years ago and her family refuses to get in touch with him), currently working his way towards becoming a solitary street...
- 6/10/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Mikkel Jersin, Katrin Pors, and Eva Jakobsen are working on films with Amat Escalante, Carlos Reygadas and Ciro Guerra.
Danish producers Mikkel Jersin (Sparrows), Katrin Pors (The Untamed) and Eva Jakobsen (Antboy) have joined forces to launch Snowglobe, a new production outfit that will back director-driven films.
Snowglobe, which will have a focus on international co-productions, is currently working with established auteurs such as Colombia’s Embrace Of The Serpent director Ciro Guerra and Mexican directors Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas.
The company is producing, alongside Guerra’s usual producer Cristina Gallego, his next film Birds Of Passage, which will start shooting in January 2017.
Pors says: “It is the story of an indigenous family from La Guajira Desert who get involved in a war to control a business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. It’s the story of the origins of drug trafficking in the 1970s in Colombia.”
The company...
Danish producers Mikkel Jersin (Sparrows), Katrin Pors (The Untamed) and Eva Jakobsen (Antboy) have joined forces to launch Snowglobe, a new production outfit that will back director-driven films.
Snowglobe, which will have a focus on international co-productions, is currently working with established auteurs such as Colombia’s Embrace Of The Serpent director Ciro Guerra and Mexican directors Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas.
The company is producing, alongside Guerra’s usual producer Cristina Gallego, his next film Birds Of Passage, which will start shooting in January 2017.
Pors says: “It is the story of an indigenous family from La Guajira Desert who get involved in a war to control a business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. It’s the story of the origins of drug trafficking in the 1970s in Colombia.”
The company...
- 5/4/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Mikkel Jersin, Katrin Pors, and Eva Jakobsen are working on films with Amat Escalante, Carlos Reygadas and Ciro Guerra.
Danish producers Mikkel Jersin (Sparrows), Katrin Pors (The Untamed) and Eva Jakobsen (Antboy) have joined forces to launch Snowglobe, a new production outfit that will back director-driven films.
Snowglobe, which will have a focus on international co-productions, is currently working with established auteurs such as Colombia’s Embrace Of The Serpent director Ciro Guerra and Mexican directors Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas.
The company is producing, alongside Guerra’s usual producer Cristina Gallego, his next film Birds Of Passage, which will start shooting in January 2017.
Pors says: “It is the story of an indigenous family from La Guajira Desert who get involved in a war to control a business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. It’s the story of the origins of drug trafficking in the 1970s in Colombia.”
The company...
Danish producers Mikkel Jersin (Sparrows), Katrin Pors (The Untamed) and Eva Jakobsen (Antboy) have joined forces to launch Snowglobe, a new production outfit that will back director-driven films.
Snowglobe, which will have a focus on international co-productions, is currently working with established auteurs such as Colombia’s Embrace Of The Serpent director Ciro Guerra and Mexican directors Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas.
The company is producing, alongside Guerra’s usual producer Cristina Gallego, his next film Birds Of Passage, which will start shooting in January 2017.
Pors says: “It is the story of an indigenous family from La Guajira Desert who get involved in a war to control a business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. It’s the story of the origins of drug trafficking in the 1970s in Colombia.”
The company...
- 5/4/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
With the 2015 awards season finally wrapped up, we can now genuinely look towards the year ahead. This month brings a handful of long-awaited festival hold-overs from last year, as well as a few promising studio titles. It should also be noted that essential restorations of Late Spring (3/4), River of Grass (3/11), A Brighter Summer Day (3/11), and Fireworks Wednesday (3/16) will be coming to select cities (and some beyond). If you’re in New York City, we’ll also be getting the grand opening of a new arthouse cinema — the Lower East Side’s Metrograph, which is dedicated to a mix of repertory and new releases.
Matinees to See: Songs My Brothers Taught Me (3/2), The Wave (3/4), Boy and the Beast (3/4), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (3/4), Creative Control (3/11), Eye in the Sky (3/11), Hello, My Name is Doris (3/11), Lolo (3/11), Marguerite (3/11), Remember (3/11), Hyena Road (3/11), The Little Prince (3/18), Too Late (3/18), The Program (3/18), and Born to be Blue (3/25).
10. Take Me to the River...
Matinees to See: Songs My Brothers Taught Me (3/2), The Wave (3/4), Boy and the Beast (3/4), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (3/4), Creative Control (3/11), Eye in the Sky (3/11), Hello, My Name is Doris (3/11), Lolo (3/11), Marguerite (3/11), Remember (3/11), Hyena Road (3/11), The Little Prince (3/18), Too Late (3/18), The Program (3/18), and Born to be Blue (3/25).
10. Take Me to the River...
- 3/2/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
To give you a sense of the usually extended process it takes from some independent features to make their way to screens, we just wrapped up 2016’s Sundance Film Festival, but today brings news of one from last year finally set to arrive. Take Me to The River marks the first feature from Matt Sobel, depicting a strange family reunion with twists and turns. Starring Logan Miller, Robin Weigert, Josh Hamilton, Ursula Parker, Richard Schiff, and Azura Skye, we also have the first trailer ahead of a release next month.
We said in our review, “A strong, quiet and confident debut feature, Take Me to the River announces the arrival of its writer-director Matt Sobel, whose first feature shows quite a command of his storytelling. Aided by the editing of Jacob Secher Schulsinger (Force Majeure), each scene builds a unique rhythm and tension and we’re not quite sure where...
We said in our review, “A strong, quiet and confident debut feature, Take Me to the River announces the arrival of its writer-director Matt Sobel, whose first feature shows quite a command of his storytelling. Aided by the editing of Jacob Secher Schulsinger (Force Majeure), each scene builds a unique rhythm and tension and we’re not quite sure where...
- 2/4/2016
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Although he made the Foreign Language Academy Award shortlist, in a shocking turn of events earlier this month, Ruben Ostlund failed to score a nomination with the lauded Force Majeure. At home, however, he earned a record six Guldbagge Awards last night. At Sweden’s equivalent to the Oscars, Ostlund’s existential comedy/drama scooped prizes for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography (Fredrik Wenzel), Supporting Actor (Kristofer Hivju), and Editing (with Jacob Secher Schulsinger). He had previously won one Guldbagge, for directing Play in 2012.
Before the Oscar shortlist was revealed in December, Ostlund told me he was relieved that Roy Andersson’s Venice Golden Lion winner A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence had not been eligible for submission to AMPAS as Sweden’s Oscar pick. “He is my idol. I was brought up in the 70s. This year is my only chance probably when I can beat him,...
Before the Oscar shortlist was revealed in December, Ostlund told me he was relieved that Roy Andersson’s Venice Golden Lion winner A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence had not been eligible for submission to AMPAS as Sweden’s Oscar pick. “He is my idol. I was brought up in the 70s. This year is my only chance probably when I can beat him,...
- 1/27/2015
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline
Ruben Östlund’s family drama leads the pack with six Guldbagge Awards.
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (Turist) may have missed out on the shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award but it cleaned up at last night’s Swedish Oscars - the Guldbagge Awards.
The ceremony, held by the Swedish Film Institute at Cirkus in Stockholm, saw Östlund’s family drama pick up six Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) prizes including best film, director, supporting actor, screenplay, cinematography and editing.
The Sweden-France-Norway co-production debuted at Cannes 2014 and centres on a family who come under strain after staring down an avalanche in the French Alps.
Guldbagge Awards 2015
Best Film
Force majeure / Turist
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson and Philippe Bober
Best Director
Ruben Östlund
for Force majeure / Turist
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Saga Becker
for her role as Sebastian/ Ellie in Something Must Break / Nånting måste gå sönder
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Sverrir Gudnason
for...
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (Turist) may have missed out on the shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award but it cleaned up at last night’s Swedish Oscars - the Guldbagge Awards.
The ceremony, held by the Swedish Film Institute at Cirkus in Stockholm, saw Östlund’s family drama pick up six Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) prizes including best film, director, supporting actor, screenplay, cinematography and editing.
The Sweden-France-Norway co-production debuted at Cannes 2014 and centres on a family who come under strain after staring down an avalanche in the French Alps.
Guldbagge Awards 2015
Best Film
Force majeure / Turist
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson and Philippe Bober
Best Director
Ruben Östlund
for Force majeure / Turist
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Saga Becker
for her role as Sebastian/ Ellie in Something Must Break / Nånting måste gå sönder
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Sverrir Gudnason
for...
- 1/27/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
I have just returned from Wroclaw, Poland where U.S. in Progress, the American Film Festival's works-in-progress event just wrapped. Held October 22-25, 2014, during the 5th American Film Festival (October 21-26), this was the best selection of filmmakers and films I have seen here to date, and I have been attending this event and its sister event in Paris every year since its inception (except for last October which I missed).
Earnest, attentive and professionally engaged, seeking answers about the best ways to complete the films in order to appeal strategically to festivals and international sales agents, the filmmakers discussed how best to further the success of their present and future films as well as their careers as international filmmakers. These six teams of filmmakers undoubtedly benefited enormously from the Polish and European film professionals who shared their knowledge as everyone watched the six chosen films, networking, sharing meals and drinking and who knows what till all hours in three fully packed days and nights.
Debuting filmmakers from the United States. in the only event of its kind in Europe (except for its sister event held in July at the Champs Elysees Film Festival in Paris) were invited (all expenses paid) to this great European city where the only multiplex for arthouse cinema of its kind is flourishing.
Roman Gutek, founder of this festival and the larger summertime Mobile New Horizons Film Festival, owner of Gutek Distribution, an entrepreneur who loves creating new events and projects, took over the giant theater in the middle of this middle-European, formerly Prussian city a few years ago and has introduced more than cinema to a well-educated (top univerisity here is one of the oldest in Europe) young populace. Other successful events include opera, ballet and monthly film events for 35,000 school children. He is now preparing the cinema component for the upcoming celebration of Wroclaw as the European Capital of Culture 2016.
One of his sons is working with the American Film Festival with its artistic director Ula Śniegowska. The other son is a chef and quite active in the gastronomic success of the city. Polish food is what our grandmothers used to make; one of the finest if not the finest cuisine in Central and Eastern Europe. This year pumpkin held center stage, with delicious dumplings and soups. Coincidentally, that other great culinary and cinema city, San Sebastian, also the inventor of the cinema "works-in-progress" industry model, has instituted a gastronomic exchange through the Polish-Basque Cultural Association Arrano Zuria. The project is promoted by the Donostia San Sebastian 2016 Foundation in charge of the European Capital of Culture 2016 in which chefs from both countries exchange and share recipes of both countries for public feasts.
But I digress...the 2014 U.S. in Progress, Wrocław participants:
Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian of "God Bless the Child" were articulate and full of anecdotes about how their book-ended story featured Robert's own five children in their own home. The first book-end shows the car being driven away by the mother early in the morning thus leaving the 13 year old daughter in charge of four brothers aged 18 months to seven or eight years. The closing book-end is for you, the viewer, to see as it caps off an almost perfect film. Between book-ends, this family, held together by the sweet and loving older sister, spends an almost real-life day together. Genre-defying, docu-like, so loving and so sad, this is not an easy-to-sell film for sales agents because it fits no preset marketing formula. However, I would venture to guess that If an audience were lucky enough to see it, word would spread about how lovingly effective and how unique it is. Rodrigo and Robert have more films in mind as well which are of the type that you want them to succeed in making. The jury unanimously awarded prizes for the completion to this worthy film. It is not "like" it, but still it put me in mind of Whit Stillman's "Boyhood" because the players are real people basically playing themselves.
"Take Me to the River" the debut feature of Matt Sobel was extraordinarily accomplished for a first-timer. A story about middle-America, a brother and sister find themselves at odds at their large family reunion at the family farm, when their two children are involved in an incident. The "big-city" (not) teenaged boy, the only child of the sister and her city-bred husband, finds his integrity tested in the events that follow. When the professional audience watching this film pointed out similarities to Thomas Vinterberg, Matt was aware and pointed out that his editor, Jacob Secher Schulsinger, was Danish and edited "Nymphomaniac" 1 and 2 as well as this year's Swedish Academy contender, "Force Majeure". On a personal note, we have known Matt for the six years it has taken to complete this film and have watched him as he attended Binger Institute as a post-grad whose college education did not include filmmaking, as he grew personally and professionally. We feel very proud of him and this film which we hope will make it to the top festivals and will be picked up by a top international sales agent to sell to top distributors. Its authenticity is a result of conscious decisions made in the creation of the drama by Matt. A strong and unique film.
"The Homefront" co-directed by Tyler Walker & Fidel Ruiz Healy is another totally unique, stand-alone feature, though it might be put into a genre category of post-apocalyptic, family drama. Only the apocalypse has not yet happened. War is still at a distance while this self-survivalist family of parents and their son and daughter wait it out in their large family house somewhere in Texas. The team of Tyler and Fidel started this when they were 19 years old. Today they are 23 and have more stories in them. It could actually be remade on a grander scale and would attract an audience, given some marketing dollars to get it into play. This is an unexpected story, acclaimed by the jury and awarded post-production prizes including sound and soundtrack composition. Additional links: https://vimeo.com/ruizhealy, http://www.theamericanstandardfilmco.com/
"Nakom" co-directed by Travis Pittman & Kelly Daniela Norris is another of the several co-directed films here attesting to a new generation of filmmakers who work in teams. This team-building is not just in U.S.; I have also seen it in Latin America and the Caribbean that young filmmakers meet in film school or at festivals and go on to create working teams which I think will continue to make films together. In this case Travis and Kelly met in film school and this is their second film together. The first, "Ombras de Azul" is just beginning to make the rounds. They shot it in Cuba. This one they shot in Ghana, in a village in the African plains where Travis spent two years in Peace Corps. It is enacted in the native language with a professionalism that belies the filmmakers' youth. It put me in mind of Tommy Oliver's "Kinyarwanda" which played in Sundance 2011 and whose second film "1982" was also in U.S. in Progress a year or two ago. Tommy has since made three more films.
"Flycatcher" changed its name to "Pangea" as a result of "Foxcatcher". Director Malcolm Murray wrote this with his wife, Liz Tran. HIs previous film, "Bad Posture", completed in 2011, has been written about in New York Times, Village Voice, Filmmaker Magazine, Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine, Local Iq, Hammer To Nail: Top Ten Films of 2011. It showed at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and he was named in Ten To Watch: Best of Iffr.
"Stinking Heaven", directed by Nathan Silver, reminded me to Lars von Trier's "The Idiots". It stars up-and-coming Keith Poulson who just played in "Listen Up Philip" and is to be seen in several other pictures.
The 2013 U.S. in Progress partners (who also provided the prizes - post-production service packages) include Platige Image, Di Factory, Alvernia and Soundflower Studio. This year, Chimney has joined the ranks, while prizes are also being offered by Producer's Network at Cannes and Ale Kino+ (TV rights acquisition offer).
In 2013, top prizes went to the producers of the film "Sun Belt Express" (dir. Evan Wolf Buxbaum) and "Lake Los Angeles" (dir. Mike Ott). Both films had their world premieres in the U.S. and screened this year in competition as part of the Spectrum section at the American Film Festival.
The best films from the last Paris (during the Champs-Elysees Film Festival) and Wrocław editions constitute the core of Aff repertoire and, after their world premieres, will compete in the Festival's Spectrum section. These include Onur Turkel's "Summer of Blood," Leah Meyerhoff's "I Believe in Unicorns" as well as "Sun Belt Express" and "Lake Los Angeles."
Importantly, reps of the top European distributors and sales agents can see unfinished projects and offer feedback and deals at the early stages of production (before screenings at Sundance or Berlinale) enabling the films to break through to the European market.
The 2014 U.S. in Progress formula is expanded to include a location scouting tour in Lower Silesia (in partnership with the Wrocław Film Commission), as well as a presentation of Polish projects looking for American co-producers. Polish filmmakers are increasingly seeking North American partners and are interested in learning more about new and alternative ways to produce and finance films outside the mainstream system.
For more information about Us in Progress visit Here...
Earnest, attentive and professionally engaged, seeking answers about the best ways to complete the films in order to appeal strategically to festivals and international sales agents, the filmmakers discussed how best to further the success of their present and future films as well as their careers as international filmmakers. These six teams of filmmakers undoubtedly benefited enormously from the Polish and European film professionals who shared their knowledge as everyone watched the six chosen films, networking, sharing meals and drinking and who knows what till all hours in three fully packed days and nights.
Debuting filmmakers from the United States. in the only event of its kind in Europe (except for its sister event held in July at the Champs Elysees Film Festival in Paris) were invited (all expenses paid) to this great European city where the only multiplex for arthouse cinema of its kind is flourishing.
Roman Gutek, founder of this festival and the larger summertime Mobile New Horizons Film Festival, owner of Gutek Distribution, an entrepreneur who loves creating new events and projects, took over the giant theater in the middle of this middle-European, formerly Prussian city a few years ago and has introduced more than cinema to a well-educated (top univerisity here is one of the oldest in Europe) young populace. Other successful events include opera, ballet and monthly film events for 35,000 school children. He is now preparing the cinema component for the upcoming celebration of Wroclaw as the European Capital of Culture 2016.
One of his sons is working with the American Film Festival with its artistic director Ula Śniegowska. The other son is a chef and quite active in the gastronomic success of the city. Polish food is what our grandmothers used to make; one of the finest if not the finest cuisine in Central and Eastern Europe. This year pumpkin held center stage, with delicious dumplings and soups. Coincidentally, that other great culinary and cinema city, San Sebastian, also the inventor of the cinema "works-in-progress" industry model, has instituted a gastronomic exchange through the Polish-Basque Cultural Association Arrano Zuria. The project is promoted by the Donostia San Sebastian 2016 Foundation in charge of the European Capital of Culture 2016 in which chefs from both countries exchange and share recipes of both countries for public feasts.
But I digress...the 2014 U.S. in Progress, Wrocław participants:
Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian of "God Bless the Child" were articulate and full of anecdotes about how their book-ended story featured Robert's own five children in their own home. The first book-end shows the car being driven away by the mother early in the morning thus leaving the 13 year old daughter in charge of four brothers aged 18 months to seven or eight years. The closing book-end is for you, the viewer, to see as it caps off an almost perfect film. Between book-ends, this family, held together by the sweet and loving older sister, spends an almost real-life day together. Genre-defying, docu-like, so loving and so sad, this is not an easy-to-sell film for sales agents because it fits no preset marketing formula. However, I would venture to guess that If an audience were lucky enough to see it, word would spread about how lovingly effective and how unique it is. Rodrigo and Robert have more films in mind as well which are of the type that you want them to succeed in making. The jury unanimously awarded prizes for the completion to this worthy film. It is not "like" it, but still it put me in mind of Whit Stillman's "Boyhood" because the players are real people basically playing themselves.
"Take Me to the River" the debut feature of Matt Sobel was extraordinarily accomplished for a first-timer. A story about middle-America, a brother and sister find themselves at odds at their large family reunion at the family farm, when their two children are involved in an incident. The "big-city" (not) teenaged boy, the only child of the sister and her city-bred husband, finds his integrity tested in the events that follow. When the professional audience watching this film pointed out similarities to Thomas Vinterberg, Matt was aware and pointed out that his editor, Jacob Secher Schulsinger, was Danish and edited "Nymphomaniac" 1 and 2 as well as this year's Swedish Academy contender, "Force Majeure". On a personal note, we have known Matt for the six years it has taken to complete this film and have watched him as he attended Binger Institute as a post-grad whose college education did not include filmmaking, as he grew personally and professionally. We feel very proud of him and this film which we hope will make it to the top festivals and will be picked up by a top international sales agent to sell to top distributors. Its authenticity is a result of conscious decisions made in the creation of the drama by Matt. A strong and unique film.
"The Homefront" co-directed by Tyler Walker & Fidel Ruiz Healy is another totally unique, stand-alone feature, though it might be put into a genre category of post-apocalyptic, family drama. Only the apocalypse has not yet happened. War is still at a distance while this self-survivalist family of parents and their son and daughter wait it out in their large family house somewhere in Texas. The team of Tyler and Fidel started this when they were 19 years old. Today they are 23 and have more stories in them. It could actually be remade on a grander scale and would attract an audience, given some marketing dollars to get it into play. This is an unexpected story, acclaimed by the jury and awarded post-production prizes including sound and soundtrack composition. Additional links: https://vimeo.com/ruizhealy, http://www.theamericanstandardfilmco.com/
"Nakom" co-directed by Travis Pittman & Kelly Daniela Norris is another of the several co-directed films here attesting to a new generation of filmmakers who work in teams. This team-building is not just in U.S.; I have also seen it in Latin America and the Caribbean that young filmmakers meet in film school or at festivals and go on to create working teams which I think will continue to make films together. In this case Travis and Kelly met in film school and this is their second film together. The first, "Ombras de Azul" is just beginning to make the rounds. They shot it in Cuba. This one they shot in Ghana, in a village in the African plains where Travis spent two years in Peace Corps. It is enacted in the native language with a professionalism that belies the filmmakers' youth. It put me in mind of Tommy Oliver's "Kinyarwanda" which played in Sundance 2011 and whose second film "1982" was also in U.S. in Progress a year or two ago. Tommy has since made three more films.
"Flycatcher" changed its name to "Pangea" as a result of "Foxcatcher". Director Malcolm Murray wrote this with his wife, Liz Tran. HIs previous film, "Bad Posture", completed in 2011, has been written about in New York Times, Village Voice, Filmmaker Magazine, Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine, Local Iq, Hammer To Nail: Top Ten Films of 2011. It showed at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and he was named in Ten To Watch: Best of Iffr.
"Stinking Heaven", directed by Nathan Silver, reminded me to Lars von Trier's "The Idiots". It stars up-and-coming Keith Poulson who just played in "Listen Up Philip" and is to be seen in several other pictures.
The 2013 U.S. in Progress partners (who also provided the prizes - post-production service packages) include Platige Image, Di Factory, Alvernia and Soundflower Studio. This year, Chimney has joined the ranks, while prizes are also being offered by Producer's Network at Cannes and Ale Kino+ (TV rights acquisition offer).
In 2013, top prizes went to the producers of the film "Sun Belt Express" (dir. Evan Wolf Buxbaum) and "Lake Los Angeles" (dir. Mike Ott). Both films had their world premieres in the U.S. and screened this year in competition as part of the Spectrum section at the American Film Festival.
The best films from the last Paris (during the Champs-Elysees Film Festival) and Wrocław editions constitute the core of Aff repertoire and, after their world premieres, will compete in the Festival's Spectrum section. These include Onur Turkel's "Summer of Blood," Leah Meyerhoff's "I Believe in Unicorns" as well as "Sun Belt Express" and "Lake Los Angeles."
Importantly, reps of the top European distributors and sales agents can see unfinished projects and offer feedback and deals at the early stages of production (before screenings at Sundance or Berlinale) enabling the films to break through to the European market.
The 2014 U.S. in Progress formula is expanded to include a location scouting tour in Lower Silesia (in partnership with the Wrocław Film Commission), as well as a presentation of Polish projects looking for American co-producers. Polish filmmakers are increasingly seeking North American partners and are interested in learning more about new and alternative ways to produce and finance films outside the mainstream system.
For more information about Us in Progress visit Here...
- 11/5/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Runar Runarsson, the director of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 selection Volcano, will start shooting his second feature in Iceland on July 14.
The new film, Sparrows, will shoot for six weeks — briefly in Reykjavik and then primarily around Flateyri, Ísafjörður and Bolungarvík in the west fjords of Iceland.
The story follows a 16-year-old Icelandic boy, Ari, who lives with his mother in Reykjavik. She has to move to Africa for a new job, sending him back to the small town of his youth. There he finds his old friend suddenly a young woman with a tricky romantic relationship; and his father is a victim of the financial crisis. “Ari becomes an adult because he has this weight on his shoulders,” says producer Mikkel Jersin of Copenhagen and Iceland based Nimbus Film. “He is being confronted to reinvent himself.”
Runarsson tells Screen, “For some reason, I have this urge to make films about myself and the people I know...
The new film, Sparrows, will shoot for six weeks — briefly in Reykjavik and then primarily around Flateyri, Ísafjörður and Bolungarvík in the west fjords of Iceland.
The story follows a 16-year-old Icelandic boy, Ari, who lives with his mother in Reykjavik. She has to move to Africa for a new job, sending him back to the small town of his youth. There he finds his old friend suddenly a young woman with a tricky romantic relationship; and his father is a victim of the financial crisis. “Ari becomes an adult because he has this weight on his shoulders,” says producer Mikkel Jersin of Copenhagen and Iceland based Nimbus Film. “He is being confronted to reinvent himself.”
Runarsson tells Screen, “For some reason, I have this urge to make films about myself and the people I know...
- 6/23/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Runar Runarsson, the director of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 selection Volcano, will start shooting his second feature in Iceland on July 14.
The new film, Sparrows, will shoot for six weeks — briefly in Reykjavik and then primarily around Flateyri, Ísafjörður and Bolungarvík in the west fjords of Iceland.
The story follows a 16-year-old Icelandic boy, Ari, who lives with his mother in Reykjavik. She has to move to Africa for a new job, sending him back to the small town of his youth. There he finds his old friend suddenly a young woman with a tricky romantic relationship; and his father is a victim of the financial crisis. “Ari becomes an adult because he has this weight on his shoulders,” says producer Mikkel Jersin of Copenhagen and Iceland based Nimbus Film. “He is being confronted to reinvent himself.”
Runarsson tells Screen, “For some reason, I have this urge to make films about myself and the people I know...
The new film, Sparrows, will shoot for six weeks — briefly in Reykjavik and then primarily around Flateyri, Ísafjörður and Bolungarvík in the west fjords of Iceland.
The story follows a 16-year-old Icelandic boy, Ari, who lives with his mother in Reykjavik. She has to move to Africa for a new job, sending him back to the small town of his youth. There he finds his old friend suddenly a young woman with a tricky romantic relationship; and his father is a victim of the financial crisis. “Ari becomes an adult because he has this weight on his shoulders,” says producer Mikkel Jersin of Copenhagen and Iceland based Nimbus Film. “He is being confronted to reinvent himself.”
Runarsson tells Screen, “For some reason, I have this urge to make films about myself and the people I know...
- 6/23/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Not all docu films that make the cut into the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Edit and Story Labs are fortunate enough to then land a coveted spot at the festival (recent examples include Roger Ross Williams’ God Loves Uganda and Tracy Draz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo’s Rich Hill) but some fresh air and supportive pounding from the Institute’s Advisors surely contributes to the realization of passion projects that are buckets filled in blood, sweat and tears. Among the press release mentions below, we’ll surely be discussing them in Park City setting in a January to too far off from now. Here are the selection of 20 Fellows representing eight documentary film projects to participate in the 2014 Documentary Edit and Story Labs, June 20-28 and July 4-12 at Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah.
Artists and projects selected for the June 20-28 Documentary Edit and Story Lab:
A Flickering...
Artists and projects selected for the June 20-28 Documentary Edit and Story Lab:
A Flickering...
- 6/19/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Below you will find our total coverage of the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival by Adam Cook.
Above: Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
Impressions
#1
On Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster and Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope
#2
On Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, Sebastián Leilo's Gloria and Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
#3
On James Benning's Stemple Pass, J.P. Sniadecki/Huang Xiang/Xu Ruotao's Yumen and Bruno Dumont's Camille Claudel, 1915
#4
On Jafar Panahi/Kamboziya Partovi's Closed Curtain, Hong Sangsoo's Nobody's Daughter Haewon and Richard Linklater's Before Midnight
#5
On Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess and Jacques Doillon's Love Battles
B-Sides
On The Weimar Touch retrospective, the Waves vs. Particles art installations by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel, and mini-capsules on Hala Lofty's Coming Forth by Day, Thomas Arslan's Gold, Pia Marais' Layla Fourie, Nicolàs Pereda & Jacob Schulsinger's Killing Strangers and Shane Carruth...
Above: Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
Impressions
#1
On Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster and Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope
#2
On Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, Sebastián Leilo's Gloria and Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
#3
On James Benning's Stemple Pass, J.P. Sniadecki/Huang Xiang/Xu Ruotao's Yumen and Bruno Dumont's Camille Claudel, 1915
#4
On Jafar Panahi/Kamboziya Partovi's Closed Curtain, Hong Sangsoo's Nobody's Daughter Haewon and Richard Linklater's Before Midnight
#5
On Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess and Jacques Doillon's Love Battles
B-Sides
On The Weimar Touch retrospective, the Waves vs. Particles art installations by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel, and mini-capsules on Hala Lofty's Coming Forth by Day, Thomas Arslan's Gold, Pia Marais' Layla Fourie, Nicolàs Pereda & Jacob Schulsinger's Killing Strangers and Shane Carruth...
- 2/24/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The Weimar Touch
One of the most conflicting parts of attending a film festival like the Berlinale, especially if you are a professional, is trying to balance seeing the new films and the retrospective screenings—the latter often acting as an unreachable mirage in the distance. The cinephile inside oneself yearns to take in these 35mm blessings but ultimately has to take risks on new work either for the sake of coverage, or, really, to "keep up." I was able to attend a small handful of screenings from the festival's retrospective The Weimar Touch, particularly focusing on the "Know Your Enemy" subsection of films that took a stand against Nazism during the war, including André de Toth's remarkable None Shall Escape, Douglas Sirk's Hitler's Madman, Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be. Watching these films in Berlin with German audiences helped intensify their significance,...
One of the most conflicting parts of attending a film festival like the Berlinale, especially if you are a professional, is trying to balance seeing the new films and the retrospective screenings—the latter often acting as an unreachable mirage in the distance. The cinephile inside oneself yearns to take in these 35mm blessings but ultimately has to take risks on new work either for the sake of coverage, or, really, to "keep up." I was able to attend a small handful of screenings from the festival's retrospective The Weimar Touch, particularly focusing on the "Know Your Enemy" subsection of films that took a stand against Nazism during the war, including André de Toth's remarkable None Shall Escape, Douglas Sirk's Hitler's Madman, Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be. Watching these films in Berlin with German audiences helped intensify their significance,...
- 2/19/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Bill Skarsgård, Simon and the Oaks Best film Apflickorna / She Monkeys Producer: Helene Lindholm Play Producer: Erik Hemmendorff Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks Producers: Christer Nilson, Per Holst Best Foreign Language Film Kynodontas / Dogtooth Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Jodaeiye Nader az Simin / A Separation Director: Asghar Farhadi Winter's Bone Director: Debra Granik Best Director Lisa Aschan for Apflickorna / She Monkeys Lisa Ohlin for Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks Ruben Östlund for Play Best actress in a leading role Ann Petrén for her role as Jonna in Happy End Magdalena Poplawska for her role as Marta in Between 2 Fires Helen Sjöholm for her role as Karin Larsson in Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks Best actor in a leading role Mikael Persbrandt for his role as Johan in Stockholm Östra / Stockholm East Sven-Bertil Taube for his role as George in En enkel till Antibes / A One-way to...
- 1/9/2012
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
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