New Direction
One Direction star Niall Horan is set to cameo on rail-themed Channel 4 digital series, “Trainspotting with Francis Bourgeois.”
Produced by Untold Studios, the series sees TikTok creator Bourgeois introduce celebrities to the obscure hobby.
Horan will join Bourgeois for a “day of locomotive escapades” starting at Liverpool Street Station in London – but will a series of train cancelations and delays scupper their plans?
During the episode, which is available from June 14 on Channel 4’s YouTube, Horan reveals a very personal connection to trains, telling Bourgeois that his grandfather was a train driver. Movie buffs will also be thrilled to discover Horan’s grandfather drove the train in “The Great Train Robbery.”
Series Lab Dana Blankstein-Cohen
The second edition of the Sam Spiegel Series Lab, which was established last year by the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School, with the support of Netflix, and artistic consultancy of Hagai Levi...
One Direction star Niall Horan is set to cameo on rail-themed Channel 4 digital series, “Trainspotting with Francis Bourgeois.”
Produced by Untold Studios, the series sees TikTok creator Bourgeois introduce celebrities to the obscure hobby.
Horan will join Bourgeois for a “day of locomotive escapades” starting at Liverpool Street Station in London – but will a series of train cancelations and delays scupper their plans?
During the episode, which is available from June 14 on Channel 4’s YouTube, Horan reveals a very personal connection to trains, telling Bourgeois that his grandfather was a train driver. Movie buffs will also be thrilled to discover Horan’s grandfather drove the train in “The Great Train Robbery.”
Series Lab Dana Blankstein-Cohen
The second edition of the Sam Spiegel Series Lab, which was established last year by the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School, with the support of Netflix, and artistic consultancy of Hagai Levi...
- 6/12/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Respected Jerusalem project lab is up and running again after two-year hiatus
Israeli filmmaker Netelie Braun has won the ninth edition of the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab for Oxygen, the tale of a mother who takes drastic action when her son volunteers for active duty in Lebanon.
It will be writer and director Braun’s first fiction feature after documentary Hope I’m In The Frame, about pioneering female director Michal Bat-Adam, and a number of short films including The Hangman, about the man who hanged Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
Braun describes the feature as ”a political film,...
Israeli filmmaker Netelie Braun has won the ninth edition of the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab for Oxygen, the tale of a mother who takes drastic action when her son volunteers for active duty in Lebanon.
It will be writer and director Braun’s first fiction feature after documentary Hope I’m In The Frame, about pioneering female director Michal Bat-Adam, and a number of short films including The Hangman, about the man who hanged Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
Braun describes the feature as ”a political film,...
- 8/31/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The Eastern Promises industry strand has unveiled nine winners across its three works in progress programmes.
Karlovy Vary’s Eastern Promises industry strand has unveiled nine winners across its three works in progress programmes: Works In Progress; Works in Development – Feature Launch; and First Cut+. The event took place online this year from July 28-August 12.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Among the winners were Victim, from Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany, directed by Michal Blaško and produced by Jakub Viktorín and Pavla Janoušková Kubečková, which will follow a Ukrainian woman in a small Czech town fighting for justice...
Karlovy Vary’s Eastern Promises industry strand has unveiled nine winners across its three works in progress programmes: Works In Progress; Works in Development – Feature Launch; and First Cut+. The event took place online this year from July 28-August 12.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Among the winners were Victim, from Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany, directed by Michal Blaško and produced by Jakub Viktorín and Pavla Janoušková Kubečková, which will follow a Ukrainian woman in a small Czech town fighting for justice...
- 8/17/2021
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Seven projects from across Europe selected for Cannes showcase.
The industry platform of Tallinn Black Night Films Festival is to showcase seven projects seeking co-production partners at the Cannes market for the first time.
The Industry@Tallinn and Baltic Event Co-Production Market will spotlight the titles at the Marché’s Co-Production Day on July 9, where projects in development – looking for co-producers and financiers – are presented in one-to-one meetings.
They include Estonian project Black Hole, written and directed by Moonika Siimets, whose Stalinist drama The Little Comrade won the audience award at South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival in 2018.
Siimets...
The industry platform of Tallinn Black Night Films Festival is to showcase seven projects seeking co-production partners at the Cannes market for the first time.
The Industry@Tallinn and Baltic Event Co-Production Market will spotlight the titles at the Marché’s Co-Production Day on July 9, where projects in development – looking for co-producers and financiers – are presented in one-to-one meetings.
They include Estonian project Black Hole, written and directed by Moonika Siimets, whose Stalinist drama The Little Comrade won the audience award at South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival in 2018.
Siimets...
- 6/10/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Award-winning director Dekel Berenson and Paul Wesley’s Three Color Films to partner with four time Academy Award nominated Alexander Rodnyansky and Israeli producer, Marek Rozenbaum for debut feature Aliya.
The film tells the story of an 18 year old Ukrainian immigrant who, after discovering her Jewish heritage, moves to Israel and joins the army as a drill instructor. During a brief leave from the base, Aliya suffers a violent assault by her date, and upon returning to the base, she is forced to reevaluate her values, beliefs and role in training young men in the military.
Rodnyansky will come on board to produce the feature, together with veteran Israeli producer Rozenbaum, and producing partner Wesley. Anna Różalska will serve as producer as well.
The film will be shot in Israel. It was selected to the Sam Spiegel Film Lab, where films such as Oscar-winner Son Of Saul have been developed.
The film tells the story of an 18 year old Ukrainian immigrant who, after discovering her Jewish heritage, moves to Israel and joins the army as a drill instructor. During a brief leave from the base, Aliya suffers a violent assault by her date, and upon returning to the base, she is forced to reevaluate her values, beliefs and role in training young men in the military.
Rodnyansky will come on board to produce the feature, together with veteran Israeli producer Rozenbaum, and producing partner Wesley. Anna Różalska will serve as producer as well.
The film will be shot in Israel. It was selected to the Sam Spiegel Film Lab, where films such as Oscar-winner Son Of Saul have been developed.
- 1/14/2021
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
The festival unfolded mainly online with special socially distanced screenings for Israeli works.
Ukrainian producer and director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s drama Atlantis has won best film at the 37th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival (Jff), which is running as an online event December 10-20 due to Israel’s ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.
Set in war-torn eastern Ukraine in the near future, the film revolves around a former soldier suffering from Ptsd, who is trying to rebuild his life against the backdrop of his environmentally devastated homeland.
It is Vasyanovych’s third feature and Ukraine’s submission to the best international film category of the 2021 Oscars.
Ukrainian producer and director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s drama Atlantis has won best film at the 37th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival (Jff), which is running as an online event December 10-20 due to Israel’s ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.
Set in war-torn eastern Ukraine in the near future, the film revolves around a former soldier suffering from Ptsd, who is trying to rebuild his life against the backdrop of his environmentally devastated homeland.
It is Vasyanovych’s third feature and Ukraine’s submission to the best international film category of the 2021 Oscars.
- 12/16/2020
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Sometimes the plans we have come up with are thwarted by events in our lives out of our control and while trying to cope with the situation as well as its consequences, we may discover a much bigger narrative than we have anticipated, one which involves ourselves and how we live and our relationships to others. When director Dani Rosenberg was in pre-production for a project titled “The Night Escape”, his main cast member, his father Natan Rosenberg was diagnosed with terminal cancer and his health deteriorated quickly, making it impossible for him to even shoot one scene. Rather than abandoning the project altogether, the camera became Rosenberg’s companion, recording the conversations, at times heated arguments he had with his parents, resulting in “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too”, a blend of family drama and meta-film.
“The Death of Cinema and My Father Too” is screening at...
“The Death of Cinema and My Father Too” is screening at...
- 11/18/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Quelle surprise. The Cannes 2020 label anoints two Israeli films from male directors, both about father-son relationships and grieving. The superior by a country mile is the seamlessly accomplished “Here We Are” from veteran helmer-writer Nir Bergman. And then there is the grandiosely titled “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” an ambitious, low-budget exercise from feature debutant Dani Rosenberg that offers a sometimes artful but more often self-indulgent mashup of fiction, reality and home movies. Although definitely not for all tastes, the Cannes designation may nudge this item into further fests and niche sales.
As we learn from watching, “The Death of Cinema” is the result of a complicated evolution. Earlier, Rosenberg, a Sam Spiegel Film School graduate, received a grant from the Israel Film Fund to make “The Night Escape,” a comic drama that would exploit both national and personal paranoias. He planned to cast his businessman father Natan in the lead.
As we learn from watching, “The Death of Cinema” is the result of a complicated evolution. Earlier, Rosenberg, a Sam Spiegel Film School graduate, received a grant from the Israel Film Fund to make “The Night Escape,” a comic drama that would exploit both national and personal paranoias. He planned to cast his businessman father Natan in the lead.
- 7/1/2020
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Dani Rosenberg Offers First Look at Cannes Drama ‘The Death of Cinema and My Father Too’ (Exclusive)
Israeli multi-hyphenate Dani Rosenberg marks his feature debut with “The Death of Cinema and my Father Too,” a self-reflexive hybrid film that mixes fact, fiction and autobiography as it grapples with the big questions.
Presented under the Cannes 2020 label and sold internationally by Films Boutique, the film follows a rising director as he tracks his father’s final days, camera in hand, telling a story culled from Rosenberg’s experience and interspersed with footage from his own life.
“I prefer to call it a fiction film that crashes into the walls of reality,” says Rosenberg. “The narrative itself is fictional, and I used documentary elements from my life to create parallels with this story.”
“I started to make a film with my father once he fell ill,” he explains. “We shot a couple days, and then he felt too weak, so we canceled the shoot. Later, when I wrote and shot this film,...
Presented under the Cannes 2020 label and sold internationally by Films Boutique, the film follows a rising director as he tracks his father’s final days, camera in hand, telling a story culled from Rosenberg’s experience and interspersed with footage from his own life.
“I prefer to call it a fiction film that crashes into the walls of reality,” says Rosenberg. “The narrative itself is fictional, and I used documentary elements from my life to create parallels with this story.”
“I started to make a film with my father once he fell ill,” he explains. “We shot a couple days, and then he felt too weak, so we canceled the shoot. Later, when I wrote and shot this film,...
- 6/25/2020
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Star power is always a draw at the American Film Market, led this year by Rachel Weisz playing Elizabeth Taylor in See-Saw’s “A Special Relationship.”
It’s a roll of the dice for independently financed projects. A pair of Diane Keaton projects — “Book Club” and “Poms” — were major draws at the last two AFMs. “Book Club” went up for sale in 2017 was a major success with more than $100 million in worldwide grosses last year. “Poms,” which was unveiled a year ago, failed to get much traction with $16 million.
A select list of anticipated titles at the American Film Market:
Losing Clementine
Director: Lucia Puenzo
Producers: Sentient Films, Freckle Films
Key Cast: Jessica Chastain
Logline: The story follows world-renowned artist who, after flushing away her meds, gives herself 31 days to tie up loose ends before killing herself.
Sales: Sierra/Affinity
Geechee
Director: Dubois Ashong
Producers: Agc Studios
Key Cast: Andrea Riseborough...
It’s a roll of the dice for independently financed projects. A pair of Diane Keaton projects — “Book Club” and “Poms” — were major draws at the last two AFMs. “Book Club” went up for sale in 2017 was a major success with more than $100 million in worldwide grosses last year. “Poms,” which was unveiled a year ago, failed to get much traction with $16 million.
A select list of anticipated titles at the American Film Market:
Losing Clementine
Director: Lucia Puenzo
Producers: Sentient Films, Freckle Films
Key Cast: Jessica Chastain
Logline: The story follows world-renowned artist who, after flushing away her meds, gives herself 31 days to tie up loose ends before killing herself.
Sales: Sierra/Affinity
Geechee
Director: Dubois Ashong
Producers: Agc Studios
Key Cast: Andrea Riseborough...
- 11/7/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Edgar Ramirez, best known for “Carlos” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” will star in the drama “The War Has Ended,” from writer and director Hagar Ben-Asher’s award-winning original script about a man in search of his children. Mister Smith Entertainment will launch international sales at next month’s American Film Market.
The film is being produced by Dale Armin Johnson, Collen Camp, Jill Littman and Marek Rozenbaum, the chairman of the Israeli Academy of Cinema and Television.
Set in Poland in 1945, at the end World War II, Joseph (Ramirez) travels through battle-scarred towns with his horse, Oscar, and his enchanting puppet show to give local children a momentary escape from reality. Joseph performs the story of “Frank and Tiny,” two elephants on the hunt for Frank’s lost trunk, but his real mission is the perilous hunt for his two missing sons.
Along the way he finds an unlikely ally in Lily,...
The film is being produced by Dale Armin Johnson, Collen Camp, Jill Littman and Marek Rozenbaum, the chairman of the Israeli Academy of Cinema and Television.
Set in Poland in 1945, at the end World War II, Joseph (Ramirez) travels through battle-scarred towns with his horse, Oscar, and his enchanting puppet show to give local children a momentary escape from reality. Joseph performs the story of “Frank and Tiny,” two elephants on the hunt for Frank’s lost trunk, but his real mission is the perilous hunt for his two missing sons.
Along the way he finds an unlikely ally in Lily,...
- 10/23/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Titles include films by Sergei Loznitsa and Barbet Schroeder.Scroll Down For Full List
The European Film Academy has unveiled the 15 documentaries that have been recommended for nomination for the 2017 European Film Awards.
They include Austerlitz from Palme d’Or nominated director Sergei Loznitsa, which premiered at Venice; Sonia Kronlund’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Nothingwood; and Barbet Schroeder’s The Venerable W, which played out of competition at Cannes.
Also nominated is Ziad Kalthoum Taste Of Cement, winner of the Best Feature-Length Film in the international competition at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel, and Andreas Dalsgaard & Obaidah Zytoon’s The War Show, which won best film in the Venice Days section at last year’s Venice Film Festival.
Efa Members will now vote for five documentary nominations ahead of an awards ceremony on December 9 in Berlin, Germany.
Ten documentary festivals each put forward one film, which received its world premiere at the respective festival’s latest...
The European Film Academy has unveiled the 15 documentaries that have been recommended for nomination for the 2017 European Film Awards.
They include Austerlitz from Palme d’Or nominated director Sergei Loznitsa, which premiered at Venice; Sonia Kronlund’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Nothingwood; and Barbet Schroeder’s The Venerable W, which played out of competition at Cannes.
Also nominated is Ziad Kalthoum Taste Of Cement, winner of the Best Feature-Length Film in the international competition at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel, and Andreas Dalsgaard & Obaidah Zytoon’s The War Show, which won best film in the Venice Days section at last year’s Venice Film Festival.
Efa Members will now vote for five documentary nominations ahead of an awards ceremony on December 9 in Berlin, Germany.
Ten documentary festivals each put forward one film, which received its world premiere at the respective festival’s latest...
- 8/15/2017
- by orlando.parfitt@screendaily.com (Orlando Parfitt)
- ScreenDaily
Summer 1993 and My Happy Family also take home prizes from Ukrainian festival.
Peter Brosen and Jessica Woodworth’s fourth feature King Of The Belgians received the Golden Duke Grand Prix - based on voting by festival-goers - at the eighth Odesa International Film Festival (Oiff, July 14 - 22), which came to a close on Saturday evening.
The International Competition jury, headed up by German director Christian Petzold and including actress Sibel Kekilli and Romanian producer-director-festival organiser Tudor Giurgiu, awarded the prize for best international feature film to Catalan director Carla Simón’s autobiographical film Summer 1993.
Handled internationally by New Europe Film Sales, Simón’s film had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus sidebar where it won the international jury’s grand prix and the Gwff best first feature award.
Meanwhile, My Happy Family by the directorial duo Nana & Simon continued its successful international festival career by picking up the jury’s awards for best director...
Peter Brosen and Jessica Woodworth’s fourth feature King Of The Belgians received the Golden Duke Grand Prix - based on voting by festival-goers - at the eighth Odesa International Film Festival (Oiff, July 14 - 22), which came to a close on Saturday evening.
The International Competition jury, headed up by German director Christian Petzold and including actress Sibel Kekilli and Romanian producer-director-festival organiser Tudor Giurgiu, awarded the prize for best international feature film to Catalan director Carla Simón’s autobiographical film Summer 1993.
Handled internationally by New Europe Film Sales, Simón’s film had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus sidebar where it won the international jury’s grand prix and the Gwff best first feature award.
Meanwhile, My Happy Family by the directorial duo Nana & Simon continued its successful international festival career by picking up the jury’s awards for best director...
- 7/24/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Sofia Meetings industry winners include UK project The Tentmaster’s Daughter; The Expendables 4 heads to Bulgaria.
Ralitza Petrova’s Godless was this year’s winner of the ‘Sofia City of Film’ Grand Prix at the 21st edition of the Sofia International Film Festival (Siff).
Petrova’s feature debut, which won the Golden Leopard for best film and the best actress Silver Leopard in Locarno last year, received the award for best Bulgarian feature film.
Petrova also won Turkey’s Yapim-lab young producer award for her second feature Dust which she presented with producer Poli Angelova as a project at the Sofia Meetings.
This is the third year in a row that a local Bulgarian film has won Siff’s international competition grand prix following Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s The Lesson in 2015 and Eliza Petkova’s Zhaleika in 2016.
Local Bulgarian films also featured among the other prize winners this year: Grozeva and Valchanov’s second film Glory...
Ralitza Petrova’s Godless was this year’s winner of the ‘Sofia City of Film’ Grand Prix at the 21st edition of the Sofia International Film Festival (Siff).
Petrova’s feature debut, which won the Golden Leopard for best film and the best actress Silver Leopard in Locarno last year, received the award for best Bulgarian feature film.
Petrova also won Turkey’s Yapim-lab young producer award for her second feature Dust which she presented with producer Poli Angelova as a project at the Sofia Meetings.
This is the third year in a row that a local Bulgarian film has won Siff’s international competition grand prix following Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s The Lesson in 2015 and Eliza Petkova’s Zhaleika in 2016.
Local Bulgarian films also featured among the other prize winners this year: Grozeva and Valchanov’s second film Glory...
- 3/20/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
FilmFestival Cottbus co-pro event will feature ten projects this year.
Cottbus Connects, the east-west co-production market held at FilmFestival Cottbus in Germany, has revealed the ten projects that will be pitched at its next edition, November 10-11.
The projects participating this year include Berliner from Romanian producer Anca Puiu, producer and husband of Cristi Puiu, who produced 2016 Cannes competition title Sieranevada, which is Romania’s submission to this year’s Oscar race. The film will be directed by Marian Crisan, whose 2008 short Megatron (produced by Puiu) won a Palme d’Or for best short film.
Also being pitched this year will be The Return, from BAFTA-winning Ida producer Piotr Dzięcioł. The film will be directed by Krzysztof Rzączyński and also produced by Maciej Rzączyński.
The Best Pitch Award comes with a $1,700 (€1,500) prize and accreditation to the Cannes Producer Network in 2017. Also up for grabs is the Post Pitch Award, which comes with $28,000 (€25,000) and is designated by a jury...
Cottbus Connects, the east-west co-production market held at FilmFestival Cottbus in Germany, has revealed the ten projects that will be pitched at its next edition, November 10-11.
The projects participating this year include Berliner from Romanian producer Anca Puiu, producer and husband of Cristi Puiu, who produced 2016 Cannes competition title Sieranevada, which is Romania’s submission to this year’s Oscar race. The film will be directed by Marian Crisan, whose 2008 short Megatron (produced by Puiu) won a Palme d’Or for best short film.
Also being pitched this year will be The Return, from BAFTA-winning Ida producer Piotr Dzięcioł. The film will be directed by Krzysztof Rzączyński and also produced by Maciej Rzączyński.
The Best Pitch Award comes with a $1,700 (€1,500) prize and accreditation to the Cannes Producer Network in 2017. Also up for grabs is the Post Pitch Award, which comes with $28,000 (€25,000) and is designated by a jury...
- 9/20/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Projects participating in the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s two-day co-financing market include Eddie Marsan’s feature directorial debut.
The International Financing Forum (Iff 2016, Sept 11-12) is organised in association with the Toronto International Film Festival and will host 20 Canadian and 20 international English-language features.
The iff 2016 Canadian producers and projects include: Robert Budreau (Ontario) of Lumanity Productions with political thriller In The Flames, and Media Goes Here’s Jeff Rogers and Tim Martin (Ontario) with horror project The Sandman, which Dario Argento wrote and will direct starring Iggy Pop.
Sonia Boileau and Jason Brennan (Quebec) of Nish Media represent Vanished, while Mad Samurai Productions’ Matthew Cervi (British Columbia) attends with Zed. Mary Anne Waterhouse and Andrew Currie (Ontario) of Quadrant Motion Pictures represent The Invisibles, which Currie will direct.
Among the international participants are: Coded Pictures’ Karen Katz (UK) with the social drama Hammer ‘Til I Die, which marks Marsan’s (pictured) writing and directorial debut.
Also...
The International Financing Forum (Iff 2016, Sept 11-12) is organised in association with the Toronto International Film Festival and will host 20 Canadian and 20 international English-language features.
The iff 2016 Canadian producers and projects include: Robert Budreau (Ontario) of Lumanity Productions with political thriller In The Flames, and Media Goes Here’s Jeff Rogers and Tim Martin (Ontario) with horror project The Sandman, which Dario Argento wrote and will direct starring Iggy Pop.
Sonia Boileau and Jason Brennan (Quebec) of Nish Media represent Vanished, while Mad Samurai Productions’ Matthew Cervi (British Columbia) attends with Zed. Mary Anne Waterhouse and Andrew Currie (Ontario) of Quadrant Motion Pictures represent The Invisibles, which Currie will direct.
Among the international participants are: Coded Pictures’ Karen Katz (UK) with the social drama Hammer ‘Til I Die, which marks Marsan’s (pictured) writing and directorial debut.
Also...
- 8/30/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Projects participating in the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s two-day co-financing market include Eddie Marsan’s feature directorial debut.
The International Financing Forum (Iff 2016, Sept 11-12) is organised in association with the Toronto International Film Festival and will host 20 Canadian and 20 international English-language features.
The iff 2016 Canadian producers and projects include: Robert Budreau (Ontario) of Lumanity Productions with political thriller In The Flames, and Media Goes Here’s Jeff Rogers and Tim Martin (Ontario) with horror project The Sandman, which Dario Argento wrote and will direct starring Iggy Pop.
Sonia Boileau and Jason Brennan (Quebec) of Nish Media represent Vanished, while Mad Samurai Productions’ Matthew Cervi (British Columbia) attends with Zed. Mary Anne Whitehouse and Andrew Currie (Ontario) of Quadrant Motion Pictures represent The Invisibles, which Currie will direct.
Among the international participants are: Coded Pictures’ Karen Katz (UK) with the social drama Hammer ‘Til I Die, which marks Marsan’s (pictured) writing and directorial debut.
Also...
The International Financing Forum (Iff 2016, Sept 11-12) is organised in association with the Toronto International Film Festival and will host 20 Canadian and 20 international English-language features.
The iff 2016 Canadian producers and projects include: Robert Budreau (Ontario) of Lumanity Productions with political thriller In The Flames, and Media Goes Here’s Jeff Rogers and Tim Martin (Ontario) with horror project The Sandman, which Dario Argento wrote and will direct starring Iggy Pop.
Sonia Boileau and Jason Brennan (Quebec) of Nish Media represent Vanished, while Mad Samurai Productions’ Matthew Cervi (British Columbia) attends with Zed. Mary Anne Whitehouse and Andrew Currie (Ontario) of Quadrant Motion Pictures represent The Invisibles, which Currie will direct.
Among the international participants are: Coded Pictures’ Karen Katz (UK) with the social drama Hammer ‘Til I Die, which marks Marsan’s (pictured) writing and directorial debut.
Also...
- 8/30/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Forty producer teams and their projects including Eddie Marsan’s feature directorial debut will participate in the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s two-day co-financing market from September 11-12.
The International Financing Forum (iff 2016) is organised in association with the Toronto International Film Festival and will host 20 Canadian and 20 international English-language features.
The iff 2016 Canadian producers and projects include: Robert Budreau (Ontario) of Lumanity Productions with political thriller In The Flames, and Media Goes Here’s Jeff Rogers and Tim Martin (Ontario) with horror project The Sandman, which Dario Argento wrote and will direct starring Iggy Pop.
Sonia Boileau and Jason Brennan (Quebec) of Nish Media represent Vanished, while Mad Samurai Productions’ Matthew Cervi (British Columbia) attends with Zed. Mary Anne Whitehouse and Andrew Currie (Ontario) of Quadrant Motion Pictures represent The Invisibles, which Currie will direct.
Among the international participants are: Coded Pictures’ Karen Katz (UK) with the social drama Hammer ‘Til I Die, which marks Marsan...
The International Financing Forum (iff 2016) is organised in association with the Toronto International Film Festival and will host 20 Canadian and 20 international English-language features.
The iff 2016 Canadian producers and projects include: Robert Budreau (Ontario) of Lumanity Productions with political thriller In The Flames, and Media Goes Here’s Jeff Rogers and Tim Martin (Ontario) with horror project The Sandman, which Dario Argento wrote and will direct starring Iggy Pop.
Sonia Boileau and Jason Brennan (Quebec) of Nish Media represent Vanished, while Mad Samurai Productions’ Matthew Cervi (British Columbia) attends with Zed. Mary Anne Whitehouse and Andrew Currie (Ontario) of Quadrant Motion Pictures represent The Invisibles, which Currie will direct.
Among the international participants are: Coded Pictures’ Karen Katz (UK) with the social drama Hammer ‘Til I Die, which marks Marsan...
- 8/30/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Matan Yair’s Scaffolding [pictured] and Keren Yedaya’s Red Fields were among the winners at the 11th edition of the event.
The winners of the 11th edition of Pitch Point at Jerusalem Film Festival (July 7-17) have been revealed, with Matan Yair’s Scaffolding taking the $5,200 Van Leer Award.
The drama depicts a 17-year-old student whose life is thrown into turmoil when his literature teacher and role model commits suicide.
The jury, which included Dylan Leiner of Sony Pictures Classics, Vanessa Saal of Protagonist Pictures and Remi Burah of Arte France Cinema, commended the project for its “passion and inspiration” that will help it “cross all borders”. The film already has support from the Israeli Film Fund and the Polish Film Institute and was produced by Gal Greenspan, whose previous projects include Tom Shoval’s Youth.
Read: Pitch Point in focus
The event, aimed at connecting Israeli productions with international partners, presented the $17,000 Cinelab...
The winners of the 11th edition of Pitch Point at Jerusalem Film Festival (July 7-17) have been revealed, with Matan Yair’s Scaffolding taking the $5,200 Van Leer Award.
The drama depicts a 17-year-old student whose life is thrown into turmoil when his literature teacher and role model commits suicide.
The jury, which included Dylan Leiner of Sony Pictures Classics, Vanessa Saal of Protagonist Pictures and Remi Burah of Arte France Cinema, commended the project for its “passion and inspiration” that will help it “cross all borders”. The film already has support from the Israeli Film Fund and the Polish Film Institute and was produced by Gal Greenspan, whose previous projects include Tom Shoval’s Youth.
Read: Pitch Point in focus
The event, aimed at connecting Israeli productions with international partners, presented the $17,000 Cinelab...
- 7/11/2016
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Production to start rolling in November.
Israeli director Keren Yedaya is gearing up to shoot a big-screen version of cult 1980s Israeli anti-war rock opera Mami, which she has provisionally entitled Red Fields.
The 1986 original created political waves for its exploration of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, discrimination against residents of southern Israel and the country’s military aggression.
Yedaya is joining forces with Israeli rock star Dudu Tassa, his musical partner Nir Maimon and rising singer Neta Elkayam, best known for her fusion of traditional Moroccan-Jewish music with a modern vibe, to update the work to fit contemporary Israel.
Elkayam is set to play the titular Mami, a downtrodden young woman from southern Israel who moves to Tel Aviv with her war-damaged husband and is propelled to a position of power after an eccentric inventor rewires her brain.
The surreal story sees Mami, after she is elected to power, advocating for one...
Israeli director Keren Yedaya is gearing up to shoot a big-screen version of cult 1980s Israeli anti-war rock opera Mami, which she has provisionally entitled Red Fields.
The 1986 original created political waves for its exploration of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, discrimination against residents of southern Israel and the country’s military aggression.
Yedaya is joining forces with Israeli rock star Dudu Tassa, his musical partner Nir Maimon and rising singer Neta Elkayam, best known for her fusion of traditional Moroccan-Jewish music with a modern vibe, to update the work to fit contemporary Israel.
Elkayam is set to play the titular Mami, a downtrodden young woman from southern Israel who moves to Tel Aviv with her war-damaged husband and is propelled to a position of power after an eccentric inventor rewires her brain.
The surreal story sees Mami, after she is elected to power, advocating for one...
- 7/8/2016
- ScreenDaily
Culture Ministry funds new stand with aim to increase Israeli presence at the festival.
The tension between Israel’s Ministry of Culture and the national film industry has entered a new phase following the department’s decision to sponsor a second Israeli film stand at the Cannes Film Festival.
According to the Ministry, the new stand is designed to offer a different and expanded perspective of the country’s filmmaking profile.
Judging by the careful phrasing of industry interviewed for this report, however, the move is seemingly a sensitive one.
“This is not supposed to be another Israeli stand selling and distributing Israeli films,” said Etti Cohen, head of the Film Desk at the Ministry of Culture.
“The role of the new [stand], to be inaugurated in Cannes by Culture Minister Miri Regev, is to unveil all of the activities that could not be exposed in the existing stand, such as presenting the many cinema schools in the...
The tension between Israel’s Ministry of Culture and the national film industry has entered a new phase following the department’s decision to sponsor a second Israeli film stand at the Cannes Film Festival.
According to the Ministry, the new stand is designed to offer a different and expanded perspective of the country’s filmmaking profile.
Judging by the careful phrasing of industry interviewed for this report, however, the move is seemingly a sensitive one.
“This is not supposed to be another Israeli stand selling and distributing Israeli films,” said Etti Cohen, head of the Film Desk at the Ministry of Culture.
“The role of the new [stand], to be inaugurated in Cannes by Culture Minister Miri Regev, is to unveil all of the activities that could not be exposed in the existing stand, such as presenting the many cinema schools in the...
- 3/21/2016
- by dfainaru@netvision.net.il (Edna Fainaru)
- ScreenDaily
A total of 15 European documentaries selected for European Film Awards 2015.
The European Film Academy and Efa Productions have announced the first ever Efa Documentary Selection, a list of 15 European documentaries recommended for a nomination for this year’s European Film Awards.
The change follows a decision by the Efa Board to “acknowledge the growing importance of European documentary cinema”.
The titles include Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse documentary, Amy, which has broken box office records in the UK and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look Of Silence, a follow-up to award-winning The Act Of Killing.
A further development is the involvement of 10 documentary festivals that recommended to the committee up to three films each which have had their world premiere at the respective festival’s latest edition. Chosen in co-operation with the European Documentary Network Edn, these festivals are:
Idfa (the Netherlands)Cph:dox (Denmark)Visions du Réel (Switzerland)DokLeipzig (Germany)Docslisboa (Portugal)Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece)Jihlava...
The European Film Academy and Efa Productions have announced the first ever Efa Documentary Selection, a list of 15 European documentaries recommended for a nomination for this year’s European Film Awards.
The change follows a decision by the Efa Board to “acknowledge the growing importance of European documentary cinema”.
The titles include Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse documentary, Amy, which has broken box office records in the UK and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look Of Silence, a follow-up to award-winning The Act Of Killing.
A further development is the involvement of 10 documentary festivals that recommended to the committee up to three films each which have had their world premiere at the respective festival’s latest edition. Chosen in co-operation with the European Documentary Network Edn, these festivals are:
Idfa (the Netherlands)Cph:dox (Denmark)Visions du Réel (Switzerland)DokLeipzig (Germany)Docslisboa (Portugal)Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece)Jihlava...
- 9/16/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Six women have been elected onto the board of the European Film Academy (Efa).
Each board member is elected for a two-year term, with eight of the board up for re-election this time. Re-elected were two female members, Dagmar Jacobsen and Rebecca O’Brien. The six new board members are:
Tilde Corsi, Italy, producerIra von Gienanth, Germany, producer/distributorAngeles Gonzáles-Sinde, Spain, screenwriterVanessa Henneman, Netherlands, talent agentAgnès Jaoui, France, director/screenwriter/actressEwa Puszczynska, Poland, producer
They replace Adriana Chiesa di Palma (Italy), Stephan Hutter (Germany), Cedomir Kolar (France), Goran Paskaljevic (Serbia), Antonio Perez Perez (Spain) and Jani Thiltges (Luxembourg).
Efa Board
Chairwoman:
Agnieszka Holland, Poland, director
Deputy Chairmen:
Mike Downey, UK, producer
Antonio Saura, Spain, producer
Board Members:
Roberto Cicutto, Italy, producer
Tilde Corsi, Italy, producer
Helena Danielsson, Sweden, producer
Ira von Gienanth, Germany, producer/distributor
Ilann Girard, France, producer
Angeles Gonzáles-Sinde, Spain, screenwriter
Vanessa Henneman, Netherlands, talent agent
Dagmar Jacobsen, Germany, producer...
Each board member is elected for a two-year term, with eight of the board up for re-election this time. Re-elected were two female members, Dagmar Jacobsen and Rebecca O’Brien. The six new board members are:
Tilde Corsi, Italy, producerIra von Gienanth, Germany, producer/distributorAngeles Gonzáles-Sinde, Spain, screenwriterVanessa Henneman, Netherlands, talent agentAgnès Jaoui, France, director/screenwriter/actressEwa Puszczynska, Poland, producer
They replace Adriana Chiesa di Palma (Italy), Stephan Hutter (Germany), Cedomir Kolar (France), Goran Paskaljevic (Serbia), Antonio Perez Perez (Spain) and Jani Thiltges (Luxembourg).
Efa Board
Chairwoman:
Agnieszka Holland, Poland, director
Deputy Chairmen:
Mike Downey, UK, producer
Antonio Saura, Spain, producer
Board Members:
Roberto Cicutto, Italy, producer
Tilde Corsi, Italy, producer
Helena Danielsson, Sweden, producer
Ira von Gienanth, Germany, producer/distributor
Ilann Girard, France, producer
Angeles Gonzáles-Sinde, Spain, screenwriter
Vanessa Henneman, Netherlands, talent agent
Dagmar Jacobsen, Germany, producer...
- 1/12/2015
- ScreenDaily
Three titles in the running for the best animated feature at the European Film Awards.
The European Film Academy has announced the three nominations up for the European Animated Feature Film Award, set to be announced at the European Film Awards in Riga on Dec 13.
The titles include Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart, written and directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla; Minuscule - Valley of the Ants, written and directed by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud; and The Art of Happiness, directed and co-written by Alessandro Rak.
The latter is Italian while the other two are France-Belgium co-productions.
The nominations were decides by a committee comprising Efa Board Members Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel) and Roberto Cicutto, producer (Italy), as well as Doris Cleven (Director Anima, Belgium), Wolfgang Spindler (journalist, Euronews, France) and Caroline Cor (production analyst, feature films department, Cnc, France), all three of them representatives of Cartoon, the European...
The European Film Academy has announced the three nominations up for the European Animated Feature Film Award, set to be announced at the European Film Awards in Riga on Dec 13.
The titles include Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart, written and directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla; Minuscule - Valley of the Ants, written and directed by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud; and The Art of Happiness, directed and co-written by Alessandro Rak.
The latter is Italian while the other two are France-Belgium co-productions.
The nominations were decides by a committee comprising Efa Board Members Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel) and Roberto Cicutto, producer (Italy), as well as Doris Cleven (Director Anima, Belgium), Wolfgang Spindler (journalist, Euronews, France) and Caroline Cor (production analyst, feature films department, Cnc, France), all three of them representatives of Cartoon, the European...
- 9/22/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Three titles in the running for the best animated feature at the European Film Awards.
The European Film Academy has announced the three nominations up for the European Animated Feature Film Award, set to be announced at the European Film Awards in Riga on Dec 13.
The titles include Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart, written and directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla; Minuscule - Valley of the Ants, written and directed by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud; and The Art of Happiness, directed and co-written by Alessandro Rak.
The latter is Italian while the other two are France-Belgium co-productions.
The nominations were decides by a committee comprising Efa Board Members Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel) and Roberto Cicutto, producer (Italy), as well as Doris Cleven (Director Anima, Belgium), Wolfgang Spindler (journalist, Euronews, France) and Caroline Cor (production analyst, feature films department, Cnc, France), all three of them representatives of Cartoon, the European...
The European Film Academy has announced the three nominations up for the European Animated Feature Film Award, set to be announced at the European Film Awards in Riga on Dec 13.
The titles include Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart, written and directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla; Minuscule - Valley of the Ants, written and directed by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud; and The Art of Happiness, directed and co-written by Alessandro Rak.
The latter is Italian while the other two are France-Belgium co-productions.
The nominations were decides by a committee comprising Efa Board Members Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel) and Roberto Cicutto, producer (Italy), as well as Doris Cleven (Director Anima, Belgium), Wolfgang Spindler (journalist, Euronews, France) and Caroline Cor (production analyst, feature films department, Cnc, France), all three of them representatives of Cartoon, the European...
- 9/22/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Three titles in the running for the best animated feature at the European Film Awards.
The European Film Academy has announced the three nominations up for the European Animated Feature Film Award, set to be announced at the European Film Awards in Riga on Dec 13.
The titles include Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart, written and directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla; Minuscule - Valley of the Ants, written and directed by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud; and The Art of Happiness, directed and co-written by Alessandro Rak.
The latter is Italian while the other two are France-Belgium co-productions.
The nominations were decides by a committee comprising Efa Board Members Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel) and Roberto Cicutto, producer (Italy), as well as Doris Cleven (Director Anima, Belgium), Wolfgang Spindler (journalist, Euronews, France) and Caroline Cor (production analyst, feature films department, Cnc, France), all three of them representatives of Cartoon, the European...
The European Film Academy has announced the three nominations up for the European Animated Feature Film Award, set to be announced at the European Film Awards in Riga on Dec 13.
The titles include Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart, written and directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla; Minuscule - Valley of the Ants, written and directed by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud; and The Art of Happiness, directed and co-written by Alessandro Rak.
The latter is Italian while the other two are France-Belgium co-productions.
The nominations were decides by a committee comprising Efa Board Members Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel) and Roberto Cicutto, producer (Italy), as well as Doris Cleven (Director Anima, Belgium), Wolfgang Spindler (journalist, Euronews, France) and Caroline Cor (production analyst, feature films department, Cnc, France), all three of them representatives of Cartoon, the European...
- 9/22/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
This year’s European Film Awards are officially out of the gates with a not so lean 50 film submissions to select from. The 27th edition collects titles that date back to last year’s Venice and Toronto Int. Film Festivals moving into Sundance-Rotterdam-Berlin and finally Cannes of ’14. Among the 31 European countries represented, we’ve got likes of the Palme d’Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan leading the huge pack of contenders including Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida. Here’s the complete list of 50!:
Alienation
ОТЧУЖДЕНИЕ (Otchujdenie)
Bulgaria
Directed By: Milko Lazarov
Written By: Milko Lazarov, Kitodar Todorov & Georgi Tenev
Produced By: Veselka Kiryakova
Amour Fou
Austria/Luxembourg/Germany
Written & Directed By: Jessica Hausner
Produced By: Martin Gschlacht, Antonin Svoboda, Bruno Wagner, Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu & Philippe Bober
Beautiful Youth
Hermosa Juventud
Spain/France
Directed By: Jaime Rosales
Written By: Jaime Rosales & Enric Rufas
Produced By: Jaime Rosales,...
Alienation
ОТЧУЖДЕНИЕ (Otchujdenie)
Bulgaria
Directed By: Milko Lazarov
Written By: Milko Lazarov, Kitodar Todorov & Georgi Tenev
Produced By: Veselka Kiryakova
Amour Fou
Austria/Luxembourg/Germany
Written & Directed By: Jessica Hausner
Produced By: Martin Gschlacht, Antonin Svoboda, Bruno Wagner, Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu & Philippe Bober
Beautiful Youth
Hermosa Juventud
Spain/France
Directed By: Jaime Rosales
Written By: Jaime Rosales & Enric Rufas
Produced By: Jaime Rosales,...
- 9/16/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Short extract from the film will be shown at Jerusalem Film Festival’s Pitch Point.
Tel Aviv-based Transfax is set to unveil extracts today from Guilhad Emilio Schenker’s Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, about a women’s reading club with a secret feminist and cannibalistic agenda.
The picture is Schenker’s debut feature after his award-winning short Lavan, which toured some 70 festivals.
“I’m curious to see the response. It’s very different from what people normally expect of Israeli cinema, it’s very stylised,” said Transfax founding chief Marek Rozenbaum, adding that the décor and costumes had a period 1950s and 1960s feel although it was not set in a specific time.
A 10 to 20-minute subtitled extract will be shown in a industry work-in-progress session at Israeli feature-focused Pitch Point today at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
Adapted from Shmuel Yosef Agnon’s novella The Mistress and the Peddler, the film revolves...
Tel Aviv-based Transfax is set to unveil extracts today from Guilhad Emilio Schenker’s Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, about a women’s reading club with a secret feminist and cannibalistic agenda.
The picture is Schenker’s debut feature after his award-winning short Lavan, which toured some 70 festivals.
“I’m curious to see the response. It’s very different from what people normally expect of Israeli cinema, it’s very stylised,” said Transfax founding chief Marek Rozenbaum, adding that the décor and costumes had a period 1950s and 1960s feel although it was not set in a specific time.
A 10 to 20-minute subtitled extract will be shown in a industry work-in-progress session at Israeli feature-focused Pitch Point today at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
Adapted from Shmuel Yosef Agnon’s novella The Mistress and the Peddler, the film revolves...
- 7/15/2014
- ScreenDaily
Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.
Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.
The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.
This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.
“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...
Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.
The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.
This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.
“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...
- 11/14/2013
- ScreenDaily
Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.
Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.
The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.
This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.
“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...
Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.
The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.
This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.
“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...
- 11/14/2013
- ScreenDaily
Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.
Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.
The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.
This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.
“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...
Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.
The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.
This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.
“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...
- 11/14/2013
- ScreenDaily
The European Film Academy has announced its three nominations in the European Animated Feature Film 2013 category: Ari Folman's "The Congress," Alain Ughetto's "Jasmine," and Enzo d' Alo's "Pinocchio." The nominees have graced the competition with a distinct thematic diversity. "The Congress" tells the futuristic story of Hollywood actress Robin Wright's struggle with an elaborate technological exploitation of her craft and image. "Jasmine," on the other hand, follows cartoonist filmmaker Alain through a late 70s tale of love and revolution with a young Iranian student named Jasmine. Finally, "Pinocchio" is a retelling of the timeless moment when woodcarver Geppetto breathed life into a puppet. The European Film Academy committee consists of board members Bruno Chatelin(France), Marek Rozenbaum(Israel) and Manuel Cristobal(Spain), all three of which are producers as well as representatives of Cartoon, the European Association of Animation Film. The nominated films will...
- 9/30/2013
- by Ramzi De Coster
- Indiewire
‘The Congress,’ ‘Jasmine,’ ‘Pinocchio’: 2013 European Film Awards’ Best Animated Feature Film nominations (Robin Wright in ‘The Congress’) The European Film Academy has announced the three nominees in the 2013 European Film Awards’ Best Animated Feature Film category. They are the following: The Congress (Israel / Germany / Poland / Luxembourg / France / Belgium), written and directed by Ari Folman, from a novel by Stanislaw Lem. Animation by Yoni Goodman. Jasmine (France), directed by Alain Ughetto, from a screenplay by Ughetto — who also provided the animation — and Jacques Reboud, with the collaboration of Chloé Inguenaud. Pinocchio (Italy / Luxembourg / France / Belgium), directed by Enzo D’Alò, from a screenplay by D’Alò and Umberto Marino. Animation by Marco Zanoni. Best European Animated Feature Film nominees: ‘The Congress,’ ‘Jasmine,’ ‘Pinocchio’ Featuring Robin Wright (as herself), Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Paul Giamatti, Danny Huston, Michael Stahl-David, and Michael Landers, The Congress shows how actress Robin Wright,...
- 9/30/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The European Film Academy has announced the three nominees for European Animated Feature Film 2013.
They are:
The Congress, dir. Ari Folman (Israel/Germany/Poland/Luxembourg/France/Belgium)
Jasmine, dir. Alain Ughetto (France)
Pinocchio, dir. Enzo d’Alo (Italy/Luxembourg/France/Belgium)
The selection committee included Efa Board Members Bruno Chatelin, producer (France) and Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel), as well as producer Manuel Cristóbal (Spain) and the journalists Daniel Couvreur (Belgium) and Lisa Nesselson (France).
EFAs members will vote on the winner, which will be presented at the EFAs in Berlin on Dec 7.
They are:
The Congress, dir. Ari Folman (Israel/Germany/Poland/Luxembourg/France/Belgium)
Jasmine, dir. Alain Ughetto (France)
Pinocchio, dir. Enzo d’Alo (Italy/Luxembourg/France/Belgium)
The selection committee included Efa Board Members Bruno Chatelin, producer (France) and Marek Rozenbaum, producer (Israel), as well as producer Manuel Cristóbal (Spain) and the journalists Daniel Couvreur (Belgium) and Lisa Nesselson (France).
EFAs members will vote on the winner, which will be presented at the EFAs in Berlin on Dec 7.
- 9/30/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
The nominees for the sixth annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) have been announced with 34 films nominated from 18 countries in the region. A record number of 264 films were entered this year.
Acclaimed Australian producer Jan Chapman will head a six-member trans-national jury which will decide the winner of Best Feature Film along with winners of five major craft awards, the Screen International Jury Grand Prize and the Unesco Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity in film.
The nominees for Best Feature Film include: Khers (Bear, Islamic Republic of Iran), Tepenin Ardi (Beyond the Hill, Turkey, Greece), Orda (The Horde, Russian Federation), Bumchoiwaui Junjaeng (Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, Republic of Korea) and Wu Xia (Hong Kong (Prc)).
The winners of Best Children.s Feature Film, Best Animated Feature Film and Documentary will be decided by Apsa Academy members.
Australian film Happy Feet 2 was...
Acclaimed Australian producer Jan Chapman will head a six-member trans-national jury which will decide the winner of Best Feature Film along with winners of five major craft awards, the Screen International Jury Grand Prize and the Unesco Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity in film.
The nominees for Best Feature Film include: Khers (Bear, Islamic Republic of Iran), Tepenin Ardi (Beyond the Hill, Turkey, Greece), Orda (The Horde, Russian Federation), Bumchoiwaui Junjaeng (Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, Republic of Korea) and Wu Xia (Hong Kong (Prc)).
The winners of Best Children.s Feature Film, Best Animated Feature Film and Documentary will be decided by Apsa Academy members.
Australian film Happy Feet 2 was...
- 10/12/2012
- by Paul Sourlos
- IF.com.au
So begins my interview with Sophie Dulac, President of the Champs Élysées Film Festival, film distributor, exhibitor and producer. The first edition of the Festival, co-presided by actors Lambert Wilson and Michael Madsen reached an audience of 15,000 people in Paris, June 6 – 12, 2012.
"And I work with another real blond and her name is Isabelle” [Svanda, General Manager], she adds.
Champs Elysees Film Festival
We are sitting in the outdoor restaurant of Fouquet’s Barriere Hotel, Paris. Also with us are Astrid de Beauregard who has handled all the 50 industry-ites converging on the festival to view four well curated U.S. indie films for the second edition of U.S. in Progress. Maxine Leonard, the festival's publicist and Matthew Akers, the director and cinematographer of Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present are also present. Little did I know he was going to win the Audience Prize for a feature length film from the U.S.
The Festival ended for me with current French resident, with white hair and beard, Donald Sutherland presenting Klute by Alan J. Pakula and starring Jane Fonda, and then giving a A Hollywood Conversation in his American accented but fluent French in a good humored atmosphere. I could write an entire blog on what that film and all that he and Jane meant to me at the very beginning of my career in the film business, but I won’t do that here. He was subsequently post-film appointed Commandeur des Arts & Lettres by Frédéric Mitterrand.
My interview with Sophie is the summit of my experience so far as a "blogger". After all I am not a journalist, nor do I pal around with the glitterati or the “elite” folks in the film business. I knew I was entering a rare atmosphere strolling everyday along the Rue de Montaigne to the Champs Elysees. And now, I was going to talk to the granddaughter of one of France's most illustrious citizens. (and no slouch herself! What a truly lovely, amazing woman!!)
U.S. in Progress
The night before, we, the jury of 9, presented the winners of the 2nd edition of U.S. in Progress with their prizes of post production services. First Prize went to a film worthy of a Cannes slot in Un Certain Regard or Fortnight or Critics Week, A Teacher by Hannah Fidell ♀, whose about-to-turn-thirty protagonist is forced to acknowledge her sin of having an affair with a student. The film's affect upon us women was overwhelmingly cathartic. Receiving an Honorable Mention, I Am I, a Sundance-worthy film, well executed very interesting story, well acted by the extremely professional first-time director Joceyln Towne ♀ with additional casting by Ronnie Yeskel ♀, one of the top indie film casting agents. Julie Bergeron, one of the nine-member jury loved Desert Cathedral, a man's quest for peace after an increasing estrangement from his life. She liked its combination of documentary depiction of the desert and the fictional story about a contemporary and universal dilemma faced by too many people today. I want to see more of the three actors, Lee Tergesen is a young and handsome William Macy type and Chaske Spencer, a charismatic First Nation descendant of Lakota (Sioux) Nation, and Petra Wright. The fourth film Michael Bartlett's House Of Last Things is Bonnie Darko meets Twin Peaks, a paean to the Maestro, David Lynch. More than 50 distributors and sales agent watched these films with us.
As part of the selection, the winner of U.S. in Progress from the 1st edition in Wroclaw, Poland last November, Not Waving But Drowning directed by Devyn Waitt and produced by Nicole Emanuele was also showing and Nicole was accompanied by the star, her boyfriend Steven Farneth from Cinetic, the godmother of the movie and other "family" members. Nicole is now working with Google and YouTube in Content Partnerships, Film/ TV while contemplating her next moves in the business.
Created by Sophie Dulac, the Festival programmed some 50 films enabling Parisian audiences to discover the variety of productions available from France and the United States, in the 5 cinema theaters of the Champs Elysees, the most beautiful avenue in the world: the normally rival cinemas Le Balzac and Le Lincoln, the rivals Gaumont Champs-Elysées and Ugc George V, and the Publicis Cinéma.
This success was thanks to an inquiring public which appreciated the simplicity of organization, the fact that projections started on time, and also the quality of programming, with a special heartfelt interest for the 10 independent films from the U.S. in the official selection.
What Makes Sophie Run?
One night at an extraordinary dinner at the Renault Restaurant on the Champs Elysees, where we sat with Julie Bergeron (of Cannes Marche prominence), Pascal Diot (former Paris based sales agent and now organizer in chief of both Venice and Dubai Ff’s Markets), Adeline Monzier (founder of U.S. in Progress and Europa Distribution), and Producer Christophe Bruncher (whose latest film, If We All Lived Together stars Jane Fonda), I learned about Sophie’s grandfather, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet,who founded Publicis in 1926 and in effect, invented modern advertising in much the same way that Lucien Barriere invented the resort and the casino. Today Publicis is a French multinational advertising and communications company, headquartered in Paris, France and one of the world's three largest advertising holding companies holding among others, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett Worldwide. The company conducts its operations in over 200 cities in 104 countries and has a strategic alliance with Dentsu, Inc. He began it as a young man and the Nazis confiscated it as Jewish property. He fled and fought with The Free French...and worked in the Resistance under the name of Blanchet. When he returned to France, he got back his advertising agency and continued doing the sort of pioneering work he loved the best. He also added Blanchet onto his surname. Publicis' current president is Maurice Lévy who was just in the news for having called for higher taxes on the wealthy and now objecting to France’s new President's pledging that he would tax the rich 75% of their income. Read more about the company here.
One more boast about this family: One of Bleustein-Blanchet’s daughters was a legislator and is responsible for abolishing capital punishment in France.
Aside from being totally impressed by all I was hearing, I was beginning to see what informed the personality of the festival and of Sophie herself who was there and everywhere, meeting and mixing with us all. As Maxine said, in effect, Sophie is a mensch. She is the real thing, feet planted firmly on the ground and real. And yet she seems so idealistic in the choices she makes. To this remark of mine, she responded, that in fact, she is very pragmatic, but one must take pleasure in life.
Her grandfather and grandmother raised her and her brother and half brother after their 27 year old mother died in an automobile accident. Sophie was eight years old at the time.
Her grandfather told her that when he began Publicis as a teenager, he never thought about the money he might make. He did it for pleasure. He thought of how best to do what he loved to do the most. For her too, life is about innovation and being happy. She hopes that in ten years the festival and her film business will continue to inspire and motivate her.
Sophie has three children and she tells them to do whatever they want as she would advise everyone: Do what is inside of you, even if it is not what you end up doing. It will make you a better person. Her first son, whom she had when she was 17 and who is now 24, lived one year in Australia and another year in Canada. He is now working with her at the festival. Her 22 year old daughter whom she had when she was 19, lives in London, and the 19 year old, following in his brother’s footsteps, is spending a year in Australia, alone and exploring on his own.
If she succeeds in the movie business, it is because she was not born into films. She has been in the business of Arthouse film production, distribution and exhibition for ten years. Before that she was a practicing psycho graphologist, counseling people from 16 to 60 years old, male and female. You can know a person totally through the handwriting she says. She also did a stint in PR which she hated, before going into film. Her father was a writer and told her to read and so she can talk of many things, not only of business. At the end of the day, she closes her door and business does not exist (unless of course there is a problem at one of her theaters which she does drop in on on Sundays when she is not expected.) She has no scripts at home and does not watch movies for work at home. She has a well rounded education and is proud not to be 100% business.
Today she is also a sort of guardian of Israeli films in France as well. She even wears a small gold Jewish star.
Film Career
She began her film career in 2003 producing a documentary DÉCryptage which examined the French media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflictand concludes that the media's presentation of the Arab–Israeli conflict in France is consistently skewed against Israel and may be responsible for exacerbating anti-semitism. That documentary was very successful in France, drawing some 300,000 viewers and it caught the attention of Israeli filmmakers.
Famed Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz, ♀a friend of hers, suggested she help her produce a film she wrote and wanted to direct and she agreed to make Rendre Femme (aka To Take A Wife ♀ produced by Marek Rozenbaum. When Ronit asked her to produce The Band’S Visit, she did not know what to make of the script. But when she saw the footage, she recognized its great potential and stepped in as producer. Unfortunately it could not qualify for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film because it was filmed in Hebrew, Egyptian and English. She went on to produce My Father My Lord an implicit critique of ultra-Orthodox dogma by a filmmaker who grew up in a Hasidic community but abandoned it when he was 25 to study film.
Sophie produces other world films, including her second American film Benny And The Kids (Go Get Some Rosemary), Argentina’s Little Sky and The Camera Obscura both by Maria Victoria Menis ♀ and others including French films like the upcoming film by Jacques Douvenne.
In Cannes this year, she acquired Room 514 (Isa: Docs & Film) de Sharon Bar-Ziv ♀ which played in l'Acid in Cannes and Les Voisins De Dieu (God’S Neighbors) (Isa: Rezo) de Meni Yaesh which played in La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes as well as Directors’ Fortnight entry Le Repenti and Bence Fliegauf’s Berlin competition entry Just The Wind.
She sees festivals as a place where people can discover new films. Theaters need new ideas, directors, and distributors can take risks only if they own theaters. The triangle of festivals, distributors and exhibitors are complimentary and she finds that having all three allows her to keep selected films longer in theaters or allows for changing theaters (she owns 5 theaters including the famous St. Germain arthouse Harlequin). She recognizes that France has so many subsidies for production and distribution – 12 to 15 new films are released every week – and that gives her films more of a chance to succeed as well.
France also has, after 3 years of discussion, finally, in one year made all its theaters digital. The cost to convert is 1 million Euros. 30% of that is paid by Cnc, the government fund made up of a percentage of box office receipts. The digital norm is 2K and the Vpf (Virtual Print Fee is 5,000 Euros. All distributors must pay this first the first time showing for 4 weeks and then, there are not more VPFs.
When she asks Americans for DCPs, she is surprised to learn that they don’t have them. Even Harvey Weinstein who had a retrospective at the Festival did not have digital prints and he said that to use Blu-Ray or HD was all right with him.
Why Harvey?
Everyone loves a good Harvey story. We had heard that he did not want to travel and I was curious how she had such good luck to get him to Paris. Apparently he flew in, appeared, and flew out again.
“The opening night, with the tribute paid to American producer Harvey Weinstein who accepted, with modesty and as a film enthusiast, a trophy was presented by Sophie Dulac, in the presence of VIP guests: Virginie Ledoyen, Deborah François, Audrey Dana, Thomas Langmann, Olivier Nackache and Eric Toledan.”
What he said at this opening event was that Sophie’s brother is the godfather of his son. And when the Godfather makes a request, he cannot refuse to honor it.
So ended my interview with Sophie. As we all struck out to continue the day, Matthew Akers of Marina Abramovic said, “See you in Sarajevo”. And Sophie responded, “How chic!”...
"And I work with another real blond and her name is Isabelle” [Svanda, General Manager], she adds.
Champs Elysees Film Festival
We are sitting in the outdoor restaurant of Fouquet’s Barriere Hotel, Paris. Also with us are Astrid de Beauregard who has handled all the 50 industry-ites converging on the festival to view four well curated U.S. indie films for the second edition of U.S. in Progress. Maxine Leonard, the festival's publicist and Matthew Akers, the director and cinematographer of Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present are also present. Little did I know he was going to win the Audience Prize for a feature length film from the U.S.
The Festival ended for me with current French resident, with white hair and beard, Donald Sutherland presenting Klute by Alan J. Pakula and starring Jane Fonda, and then giving a A Hollywood Conversation in his American accented but fluent French in a good humored atmosphere. I could write an entire blog on what that film and all that he and Jane meant to me at the very beginning of my career in the film business, but I won’t do that here. He was subsequently post-film appointed Commandeur des Arts & Lettres by Frédéric Mitterrand.
My interview with Sophie is the summit of my experience so far as a "blogger". After all I am not a journalist, nor do I pal around with the glitterati or the “elite” folks in the film business. I knew I was entering a rare atmosphere strolling everyday along the Rue de Montaigne to the Champs Elysees. And now, I was going to talk to the granddaughter of one of France's most illustrious citizens. (and no slouch herself! What a truly lovely, amazing woman!!)
U.S. in Progress
The night before, we, the jury of 9, presented the winners of the 2nd edition of U.S. in Progress with their prizes of post production services. First Prize went to a film worthy of a Cannes slot in Un Certain Regard or Fortnight or Critics Week, A Teacher by Hannah Fidell ♀, whose about-to-turn-thirty protagonist is forced to acknowledge her sin of having an affair with a student. The film's affect upon us women was overwhelmingly cathartic. Receiving an Honorable Mention, I Am I, a Sundance-worthy film, well executed very interesting story, well acted by the extremely professional first-time director Joceyln Towne ♀ with additional casting by Ronnie Yeskel ♀, one of the top indie film casting agents. Julie Bergeron, one of the nine-member jury loved Desert Cathedral, a man's quest for peace after an increasing estrangement from his life. She liked its combination of documentary depiction of the desert and the fictional story about a contemporary and universal dilemma faced by too many people today. I want to see more of the three actors, Lee Tergesen is a young and handsome William Macy type and Chaske Spencer, a charismatic First Nation descendant of Lakota (Sioux) Nation, and Petra Wright. The fourth film Michael Bartlett's House Of Last Things is Bonnie Darko meets Twin Peaks, a paean to the Maestro, David Lynch. More than 50 distributors and sales agent watched these films with us.
As part of the selection, the winner of U.S. in Progress from the 1st edition in Wroclaw, Poland last November, Not Waving But Drowning directed by Devyn Waitt and produced by Nicole Emanuele was also showing and Nicole was accompanied by the star, her boyfriend Steven Farneth from Cinetic, the godmother of the movie and other "family" members. Nicole is now working with Google and YouTube in Content Partnerships, Film/ TV while contemplating her next moves in the business.
Created by Sophie Dulac, the Festival programmed some 50 films enabling Parisian audiences to discover the variety of productions available from France and the United States, in the 5 cinema theaters of the Champs Elysees, the most beautiful avenue in the world: the normally rival cinemas Le Balzac and Le Lincoln, the rivals Gaumont Champs-Elysées and Ugc George V, and the Publicis Cinéma.
This success was thanks to an inquiring public which appreciated the simplicity of organization, the fact that projections started on time, and also the quality of programming, with a special heartfelt interest for the 10 independent films from the U.S. in the official selection.
What Makes Sophie Run?
One night at an extraordinary dinner at the Renault Restaurant on the Champs Elysees, where we sat with Julie Bergeron (of Cannes Marche prominence), Pascal Diot (former Paris based sales agent and now organizer in chief of both Venice and Dubai Ff’s Markets), Adeline Monzier (founder of U.S. in Progress and Europa Distribution), and Producer Christophe Bruncher (whose latest film, If We All Lived Together stars Jane Fonda), I learned about Sophie’s grandfather, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet,who founded Publicis in 1926 and in effect, invented modern advertising in much the same way that Lucien Barriere invented the resort and the casino. Today Publicis is a French multinational advertising and communications company, headquartered in Paris, France and one of the world's three largest advertising holding companies holding among others, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett Worldwide. The company conducts its operations in over 200 cities in 104 countries and has a strategic alliance with Dentsu, Inc. He began it as a young man and the Nazis confiscated it as Jewish property. He fled and fought with The Free French...and worked in the Resistance under the name of Blanchet. When he returned to France, he got back his advertising agency and continued doing the sort of pioneering work he loved the best. He also added Blanchet onto his surname. Publicis' current president is Maurice Lévy who was just in the news for having called for higher taxes on the wealthy and now objecting to France’s new President's pledging that he would tax the rich 75% of their income. Read more about the company here.
One more boast about this family: One of Bleustein-Blanchet’s daughters was a legislator and is responsible for abolishing capital punishment in France.
Aside from being totally impressed by all I was hearing, I was beginning to see what informed the personality of the festival and of Sophie herself who was there and everywhere, meeting and mixing with us all. As Maxine said, in effect, Sophie is a mensch. She is the real thing, feet planted firmly on the ground and real. And yet she seems so idealistic in the choices she makes. To this remark of mine, she responded, that in fact, she is very pragmatic, but one must take pleasure in life.
Her grandfather and grandmother raised her and her brother and half brother after their 27 year old mother died in an automobile accident. Sophie was eight years old at the time.
Her grandfather told her that when he began Publicis as a teenager, he never thought about the money he might make. He did it for pleasure. He thought of how best to do what he loved to do the most. For her too, life is about innovation and being happy. She hopes that in ten years the festival and her film business will continue to inspire and motivate her.
Sophie has three children and she tells them to do whatever they want as she would advise everyone: Do what is inside of you, even if it is not what you end up doing. It will make you a better person. Her first son, whom she had when she was 17 and who is now 24, lived one year in Australia and another year in Canada. He is now working with her at the festival. Her 22 year old daughter whom she had when she was 19, lives in London, and the 19 year old, following in his brother’s footsteps, is spending a year in Australia, alone and exploring on his own.
If she succeeds in the movie business, it is because she was not born into films. She has been in the business of Arthouse film production, distribution and exhibition for ten years. Before that she was a practicing psycho graphologist, counseling people from 16 to 60 years old, male and female. You can know a person totally through the handwriting she says. She also did a stint in PR which she hated, before going into film. Her father was a writer and told her to read and so she can talk of many things, not only of business. At the end of the day, she closes her door and business does not exist (unless of course there is a problem at one of her theaters which she does drop in on on Sundays when she is not expected.) She has no scripts at home and does not watch movies for work at home. She has a well rounded education and is proud not to be 100% business.
Today she is also a sort of guardian of Israeli films in France as well. She even wears a small gold Jewish star.
Film Career
She began her film career in 2003 producing a documentary DÉCryptage which examined the French media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflictand concludes that the media's presentation of the Arab–Israeli conflict in France is consistently skewed against Israel and may be responsible for exacerbating anti-semitism. That documentary was very successful in France, drawing some 300,000 viewers and it caught the attention of Israeli filmmakers.
Famed Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz, ♀a friend of hers, suggested she help her produce a film she wrote and wanted to direct and she agreed to make Rendre Femme (aka To Take A Wife ♀ produced by Marek Rozenbaum. When Ronit asked her to produce The Band’S Visit, she did not know what to make of the script. But when she saw the footage, she recognized its great potential and stepped in as producer. Unfortunately it could not qualify for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film because it was filmed in Hebrew, Egyptian and English. She went on to produce My Father My Lord an implicit critique of ultra-Orthodox dogma by a filmmaker who grew up in a Hasidic community but abandoned it when he was 25 to study film.
Sophie produces other world films, including her second American film Benny And The Kids (Go Get Some Rosemary), Argentina’s Little Sky and The Camera Obscura both by Maria Victoria Menis ♀ and others including French films like the upcoming film by Jacques Douvenne.
In Cannes this year, she acquired Room 514 (Isa: Docs & Film) de Sharon Bar-Ziv ♀ which played in l'Acid in Cannes and Les Voisins De Dieu (God’S Neighbors) (Isa: Rezo) de Meni Yaesh which played in La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes as well as Directors’ Fortnight entry Le Repenti and Bence Fliegauf’s Berlin competition entry Just The Wind.
She sees festivals as a place where people can discover new films. Theaters need new ideas, directors, and distributors can take risks only if they own theaters. The triangle of festivals, distributors and exhibitors are complimentary and she finds that having all three allows her to keep selected films longer in theaters or allows for changing theaters (she owns 5 theaters including the famous St. Germain arthouse Harlequin). She recognizes that France has so many subsidies for production and distribution – 12 to 15 new films are released every week – and that gives her films more of a chance to succeed as well.
France also has, after 3 years of discussion, finally, in one year made all its theaters digital. The cost to convert is 1 million Euros. 30% of that is paid by Cnc, the government fund made up of a percentage of box office receipts. The digital norm is 2K and the Vpf (Virtual Print Fee is 5,000 Euros. All distributors must pay this first the first time showing for 4 weeks and then, there are not more VPFs.
When she asks Americans for DCPs, she is surprised to learn that they don’t have them. Even Harvey Weinstein who had a retrospective at the Festival did not have digital prints and he said that to use Blu-Ray or HD was all right with him.
Why Harvey?
Everyone loves a good Harvey story. We had heard that he did not want to travel and I was curious how she had such good luck to get him to Paris. Apparently he flew in, appeared, and flew out again.
“The opening night, with the tribute paid to American producer Harvey Weinstein who accepted, with modesty and as a film enthusiast, a trophy was presented by Sophie Dulac, in the presence of VIP guests: Virginie Ledoyen, Deborah François, Audrey Dana, Thomas Langmann, Olivier Nackache and Eric Toledan.”
What he said at this opening event was that Sophie’s brother is the godfather of his son. And when the Godfather makes a request, he cannot refuse to honor it.
So ended my interview with Sophie. As we all struck out to continue the day, Matthew Akers of Marina Abramovic said, “See you in Sarajevo”. And Sophie responded, “How chic!”...
- 6/19/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
- Fish Tank, Everyone Else, Dogtooth, Police Adjective, A Prophet and White Ribbon are just a half a dozen titles among the 48 films that have a shot at being nominated among several categories for 22nd The European Film Awards. Among those that mysteriously didn't make the list are a pair of films that played at Cannes in Romania's Tales From the Golden Age and France's The Father of My Children. The way it works is, 2000 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories which will be announced on the 7th of November with the winners announced on the 12th of December. Here is the complete list below. 33 Scenes From Life Poland / Germany, 96 min Written & directed by Ma½goÊka Szumowska Produced by Raimond Goebel & Karl Baumgartner Broken Embraces Spain, 129 min Written & directed by: Pedro Almodóvar Produced by: Agustín Almodóvar Everyone Else Germany, 119 min
- 9/7/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
Close to Home
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Close to Home".LONDON -- Sympathy isn't often strong for the men and women who wave radar scanners, poke through bags and make people empty their pockets at security checkpoints, but a thoughtful little Israeli film titled "Close to Home" makes a case for those overlooked workers.
Offering a different perspective on a type of work that plays an increasing role in everyone's life and featuring appealing performances by the two leads, the film could do well in art houses and at festivals.
Naama Shendar and Smadar Sayar play teenagers in the Israeli military patrolling a section of Jerusalem close to the city gates. Their job is to check the identity cards of people who appear to be Arabs, an occupation that involves embarrassment, humiliation and fear. The group in which they serve is run by a severe commanding officer named Dubek (Irit Suki), who reminds them constantly that while on patrol they are not to eat or smoke, speak on a cell phone or even sit down.
When they are not examining I.D. cards and filling in forms, Mirit (Shendar) and Smadar Sayar) are looking over their shoulders worrying that Dubek will catch them doing something wrong.
The film opens with the two young women having to inspect and interrogate an Arab woman who is trying to hold on to her dignity while being questioned. She is ordered to throw away the sandwich her young son is eating because there's a rule against food in the interview room. Awkward and unsettling, the scene establishes the difficulties faced by the youthful security corps who would rather chat about movies and boyfriends than nitpick at strangers.
The Palestinian conflict is not addressed in the film although a bomb going off is enough to remind the two young officers and the audience of the constant need for vigilance. Using handheld cameras, writer/directors Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hagar capture a sense of free spirits being trapped on mean streets.
Smadar is the rebel of the two, always happy to skip questioning pedestrians in order to grab a smoke or a bite. Mirit is more idealistic and dutiful but when she is knocked to the ground in an explosion and a good-looking stranger makes sure she is unhurt, her fantasies start to flower.
The two women have a falling out over their differing attitudes to responsibility and the film views their plight with compassion and no little humor. The picture certainly does not present an answer to the problems facing a place such as Israel in keeping its streets safe from harm, but in these two young women at least there's the sense that humanity is at work there.
CLOSE TO HOME (Karov La Bayit)
Transfax Film Productions
Soda Pictures (U.K.) IFC First Take (U.S.)
Credits:
Directors and screenwriters: Vardit Bilu, Dalia Hagar
Producers: Marek Rozenbaum, Itai Tamir
Cinematographer: Yaron Scharf
Art director: Avi Fahima
Editor: Joel Alexis
Composer: Jonathan Bar-Giroa
Cast:
Mirit: Naama Shendar
Smadar: Smadar Sayar
Dubek: Irit Suki
Head commander: Sharon Reginiano
Hat store woman: Sandra Schonwald
Mirit's father: Ami Weinberg
Mirit's mother: Katia Zinbris
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Offering a different perspective on a type of work that plays an increasing role in everyone's life and featuring appealing performances by the two leads, the film could do well in art houses and at festivals.
Naama Shendar and Smadar Sayar play teenagers in the Israeli military patrolling a section of Jerusalem close to the city gates. Their job is to check the identity cards of people who appear to be Arabs, an occupation that involves embarrassment, humiliation and fear. The group in which they serve is run by a severe commanding officer named Dubek (Irit Suki), who reminds them constantly that while on patrol they are not to eat or smoke, speak on a cell phone or even sit down.
When they are not examining I.D. cards and filling in forms, Mirit (Shendar) and Smadar Sayar) are looking over their shoulders worrying that Dubek will catch them doing something wrong.
The film opens with the two young women having to inspect and interrogate an Arab woman who is trying to hold on to her dignity while being questioned. She is ordered to throw away the sandwich her young son is eating because there's a rule against food in the interview room. Awkward and unsettling, the scene establishes the difficulties faced by the youthful security corps who would rather chat about movies and boyfriends than nitpick at strangers.
The Palestinian conflict is not addressed in the film although a bomb going off is enough to remind the two young officers and the audience of the constant need for vigilance. Using handheld cameras, writer/directors Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hagar capture a sense of free spirits being trapped on mean streets.
Smadar is the rebel of the two, always happy to skip questioning pedestrians in order to grab a smoke or a bite. Mirit is more idealistic and dutiful but when she is knocked to the ground in an explosion and a good-looking stranger makes sure she is unhurt, her fantasies start to flower.
The two women have a falling out over their differing attitudes to responsibility and the film views their plight with compassion and no little humor. The picture certainly does not present an answer to the problems facing a place such as Israel in keeping its streets safe from harm, but in these two young women at least there's the sense that humanity is at work there.
CLOSE TO HOME (Karov La Bayit)
Transfax Film Productions
Soda Pictures (U.K.) IFC First Take (U.S.)
Credits:
Directors and screenwriters: Vardit Bilu, Dalia Hagar
Producers: Marek Rozenbaum, Itai Tamir
Cinematographer: Yaron Scharf
Art director: Avi Fahima
Editor: Joel Alexis
Composer: Jonathan Bar-Giroa
Cast:
Mirit: Naama Shendar
Smadar: Smadar Sayar
Dubek: Irit Suki
Head commander: Sharon Reginiano
Hat store woman: Sandra Schonwald
Mirit's father: Ami Weinberg
Mirit's mother: Katia Zinbris
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 4/6/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Close to Home
LONDON -- Sympathy isn't often strong for the men and women who wave radar scanners, poke through bags and make people empty their pockets at security checkpoints, but a thoughtful little Israeli film titled "Close to Home" makes a case for those overlooked workers.
Offering a different perspective on a type of work that plays an increasing role in everyone's life and featuring appealing performances by the two leads, the film could do well in art houses and at festivals.
Naama Shendar and Smadar Sayar play teenagers in the Israeli military patrolling a section of Jerusalem close to the city gates. Their job is to check the identity cards of people who appear to be Arabs, an occupation that involves embarrassment, humiliation and fear. The group in which they serve is run by a severe commanding officer named Dubek (Irit Suki), who reminds them constantly that while on patrol they are not to eat or smoke, speak on a cell phone or even sit down.
When they are not examining I.D. cards and filling in forms, Mirit (Shendar) and Smadar Sayar) are looking over their shoulders worrying that Dubek will catch them doing something wrong.
The film opens with the two young women having to inspect and interrogate an Arab woman who is trying to hold on to her dignity while being questioned. She is ordered to throw away the sandwich her young son is eating because there's a rule against food in the interview room. Awkward and unsettling, the scene establishes the difficulties faced by the youthful security corps who would rather chat about movies and boyfriends than nitpick at strangers.
The Palestinian conflict is not addressed in the film although a bomb going off is enough to remind the two young officers and the audience of the constant need for vigilance. Using handheld cameras, writer/directors Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hagar capture a sense of free spirits being trapped on mean streets.
Smadar is the rebel of the two, always happy to skip questioning pedestrians in order to grab a smoke or a bite. Mirit is more idealistic and dutiful but when she is knocked to the ground in an explosion and a good-looking stranger makes sure she is unhurt, her fantasies start to flower.
The two women have a falling out over their differing attitudes to responsibility and the film views their plight with compassion and no little humor. The picture certainly does not present an answer to the problems facing a place such as Israel in keeping its streets safe from harm, but in these two young women at least there's the sense that humanity is at work there.
CLOSE TO HOME (Karov La Bayit)
Transfax Film Productions
Soda Pictures (U.K.) IFC First Take (U.S.)
Credits:
Directors and screenwriters: Vardit Bilu, Dalia Hagar
Producers: Marek Rozenbaum, Itai Tamir
Cinematographer: Yaron Scharf
Art director: Avi Fahima
Editor: Joel Alexis
Composer: Jonathan Bar-Giroa
Cast:
Mirit: Naama Shendar
Smadar: Smadar Sayar
Dubek: Irit Suki
Head commander: Sharon Reginiano
Hat store woman: Sandra Schonwald
Mirit's father: Ami Weinberg
Mirit's mother: Katia Zinbris
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Offering a different perspective on a type of work that plays an increasing role in everyone's life and featuring appealing performances by the two leads, the film could do well in art houses and at festivals.
Naama Shendar and Smadar Sayar play teenagers in the Israeli military patrolling a section of Jerusalem close to the city gates. Their job is to check the identity cards of people who appear to be Arabs, an occupation that involves embarrassment, humiliation and fear. The group in which they serve is run by a severe commanding officer named Dubek (Irit Suki), who reminds them constantly that while on patrol they are not to eat or smoke, speak on a cell phone or even sit down.
When they are not examining I.D. cards and filling in forms, Mirit (Shendar) and Smadar Sayar) are looking over their shoulders worrying that Dubek will catch them doing something wrong.
The film opens with the two young women having to inspect and interrogate an Arab woman who is trying to hold on to her dignity while being questioned. She is ordered to throw away the sandwich her young son is eating because there's a rule against food in the interview room. Awkward and unsettling, the scene establishes the difficulties faced by the youthful security corps who would rather chat about movies and boyfriends than nitpick at strangers.
The Palestinian conflict is not addressed in the film although a bomb going off is enough to remind the two young officers and the audience of the constant need for vigilance. Using handheld cameras, writer/directors Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hagar capture a sense of free spirits being trapped on mean streets.
Smadar is the rebel of the two, always happy to skip questioning pedestrians in order to grab a smoke or a bite. Mirit is more idealistic and dutiful but when she is knocked to the ground in an explosion and a good-looking stranger makes sure she is unhurt, her fantasies start to flower.
The two women have a falling out over their differing attitudes to responsibility and the film views their plight with compassion and no little humor. The picture certainly does not present an answer to the problems facing a place such as Israel in keeping its streets safe from harm, but in these two young women at least there's the sense that humanity is at work there.
CLOSE TO HOME (Karov La Bayit)
Transfax Film Productions
Soda Pictures (U.K.) IFC First Take (U.S.)
Credits:
Directors and screenwriters: Vardit Bilu, Dalia Hagar
Producers: Marek Rozenbaum, Itai Tamir
Cinematographer: Yaron Scharf
Art director: Avi Fahima
Editor: Joel Alexis
Composer: Jonathan Bar-Giroa
Cast:
Mirit: Naama Shendar
Smadar: Smadar Sayar
Dubek: Irit Suki
Head commander: Sharon Reginiano
Hat store woman: Sandra Schonwald
Mirit's father: Ami Weinberg
Mirit's mother: Katia Zinbris
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 4/6/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: 'Yana's Friends' Love Amid the Air Raids / 'Yana's Friends' pleases as Israeli fest opener
Winner of 10 1999 Israeli Academy Awards, including best film, director, actor and actress, "Yana's Friends" (in Hebrew and Russian with English subtitles) is a crowd-pleasing ensemble comedy set in Tel Aviv on the eve of and during the 1991 Gulf War.
The feature debut of Moscow-born director and co-writer Arik Kaplun stars his talented wife, Evelyn, who is also Russian. It is one of the most technically polished and internationally accessible Israeli films in years.
Although it didn't even get nominated as Israel's official submission to the Oscars, "Yana's Friends" premiered Wednesday in Los Angeles to an enthusiastic full house at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, with the Kapluns in attendance. The opening night film of the 16th Israel Film Festival, "Yana's Friends" and other current Israeli features, TV works and documentaries screen this week at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex.
Yana (Evelyn Kaplun in a captivatingly sweet and sensual performance) is a young Russian woman who follows her husband to Israel, where they take up residence in a crowded Tel Aviv tenement. Indeed, they share space with videotaping bohemian Eli (Nir Levi), whose latest girlfriend dumps him and chides him for his obsessive behavior. The landlady is old gal Rosa (Dalia Friedland), a relatively humble and humane hustler, who welcomes another Russian couple and their immobile, wheelchairbound grandfather (Moscu Alcalay).
When Yana's cagey husband goes away and doesn't come back, leaving her with a debt that makes it difficult to return home, she has some tough decisions to make, including what to do about her pregnancy. With Eli, usually paid to chronicle weddings and circumcisions, covertly filming her on the street, she borrows the money and gets an abortion. Soon after, when she takes a look at Eli's tapes of her, including other intimate moments, they almost part ways.
While these two work out their problems on the way to a full-blown romance, the film spends a lot of time on Alcalay's character and his nemesis, a career beggar and accordion-player (Shmil Ben-Ari). Old granddad is a veritable gold mine for small change from passersby, silent and hunched in his wheelchair, barely moving his eyes or face to show he's alive, dressed in his army uniform and covered with medals. His rival is rash and vindictive and not above potentially lethal antics to keep his turf.
When Desert Storm commences and the threat of Scud missile attacks becomes a reality, the film picks up considerably. There are inspired details like the container Yana uses to protect her small dog from biological weapons. She and Eli are forced together during air raids, including kinky clad-only-in-their-gas-masks lovemaking scenes. In a tidy and sentimental conclusion, all survive the conflict and do right by each other.
YANA'S FRIENDS
Transfax Film Prods.
Paralite Prods.
Credits: Director: Arik Kaplun; Screenwriters: Arik Kaplun, Semion Vinokur; Producers: Marek Rozenbaum, Moshe Levinson, Uri Sabag, Einat Bikel; Director of photography: Valentin Belanogov; Production designer: Ariel Roshko; Editors: Einat Glazer-Zarchin, Tali Halter-Shenkar; Music: Avi Binyamin. Cast: Yana: Evelyn Kaplun; Eli: Nir Levi; Rosa: Dalia Friedland; Accordionist: Shmil Ben-Ari; Isaac: Moscu Alcalay. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 92 minutes.
The feature debut of Moscow-born director and co-writer Arik Kaplun stars his talented wife, Evelyn, who is also Russian. It is one of the most technically polished and internationally accessible Israeli films in years.
Although it didn't even get nominated as Israel's official submission to the Oscars, "Yana's Friends" premiered Wednesday in Los Angeles to an enthusiastic full house at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, with the Kapluns in attendance. The opening night film of the 16th Israel Film Festival, "Yana's Friends" and other current Israeli features, TV works and documentaries screen this week at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex.
Yana (Evelyn Kaplun in a captivatingly sweet and sensual performance) is a young Russian woman who follows her husband to Israel, where they take up residence in a crowded Tel Aviv tenement. Indeed, they share space with videotaping bohemian Eli (Nir Levi), whose latest girlfriend dumps him and chides him for his obsessive behavior. The landlady is old gal Rosa (Dalia Friedland), a relatively humble and humane hustler, who welcomes another Russian couple and their immobile, wheelchairbound grandfather (Moscu Alcalay).
When Yana's cagey husband goes away and doesn't come back, leaving her with a debt that makes it difficult to return home, she has some tough decisions to make, including what to do about her pregnancy. With Eli, usually paid to chronicle weddings and circumcisions, covertly filming her on the street, she borrows the money and gets an abortion. Soon after, when she takes a look at Eli's tapes of her, including other intimate moments, they almost part ways.
While these two work out their problems on the way to a full-blown romance, the film spends a lot of time on Alcalay's character and his nemesis, a career beggar and accordion-player (Shmil Ben-Ari). Old granddad is a veritable gold mine for small change from passersby, silent and hunched in his wheelchair, barely moving his eyes or face to show he's alive, dressed in his army uniform and covered with medals. His rival is rash and vindictive and not above potentially lethal antics to keep his turf.
When Desert Storm commences and the threat of Scud missile attacks becomes a reality, the film picks up considerably. There are inspired details like the container Yana uses to protect her small dog from biological weapons. She and Eli are forced together during air raids, including kinky clad-only-in-their-gas-masks lovemaking scenes. In a tidy and sentimental conclusion, all survive the conflict and do right by each other.
YANA'S FRIENDS
Transfax Film Prods.
Paralite Prods.
Credits: Director: Arik Kaplun; Screenwriters: Arik Kaplun, Semion Vinokur; Producers: Marek Rozenbaum, Moshe Levinson, Uri Sabag, Einat Bikel; Director of photography: Valentin Belanogov; Production designer: Ariel Roshko; Editors: Einat Glazer-Zarchin, Tali Halter-Shenkar; Music: Avi Binyamin. Cast: Yana: Evelyn Kaplun; Eli: Nir Levi; Rosa: Dalia Friedland; Accordionist: Shmil Ben-Ari; Isaac: Moscu Alcalay. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 92 minutes.
- 4/4/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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