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This episode reflects on how Brazilian and Portuguese cinemas serve as a bridge between Latin America and Europe.Rui Poças is an acclaimed Portuguese cinematographer best known for his long-standing collaborations with two key figures of contemporary Portuguese cinema: Miguel Gomes and João Pedro Rodrigues. Since working on their respective debuts—The Face You Deserve (2004) and O Fantasma (2000)—Poças has lensed such acclaimed films as Our Beloved Month of August (2008), Tabu (2012), The Ornithologist (2016), Will-o’-the-Wisp (2022), and most recently Grand Tour (2024), which won Best Director at Cannes Film Festival.His distinctive visual style has also shaped important works by leading voices in Latin America, Europe, and the US, including Zama (2017) by Lucrecia Martel, Good Manners (2017) by Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra, Frankie (2019) by Ira Sachs, and The Rye Horn (2023) by Jaione Camborda.Rachel Daisy Ellis is a producer originally from England who relocated to Brazil in 2004. For over a decade, she has...

Depending on who you ask, the state of Mexico’s film industry is either waxing or waning.

The twin labor strikes of 2023 saw fewer U.S. film and TV productions that year and the following year. However, the first trimester of 2025 has reported a 16% spike in overall audiovisual activity, said Guillermo Saldaña, Mexico City’s Film Commissioner.

“I’d like to think that we have a symbiotic relationship with the U.S. and Colombia because we share talent, industry and information. We always work closely with the MPA, the major studios, Netflix and the others,” he said, adding: “Lately, there has been a sense of uncertainty — I’d call it a sort of tariff threat — but we’re not 100% dependent on the U.S. industry, as you well know. We also have a strong local industry that produces content for both domestic audiences and the U.S. Latino community.”

“Some...

The 12th edition of the Madrid-hosted Platino Awards, honoring the highest in Ibero-American film and television, saw major wins for the Oscar-winning Brazilian film I’m Still Here, as well as director Walter Salles and star Fernanda Torres (who were not in attendance). The night also featured three accolades for Netflix’s Colombian serialized adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which took home best actor and supporting actor categories, as well as best television series overall.

Other notable winners included Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, which clinched the original score and cinematography categories.

The Platino Awards followed February’s Goya ceremony, which also saw wins for the aforementioned projects, in addition to other winners honored today, including El 47, La Infiltrada and Segundo Premio.

A standout from the evening was also Eva Longoria’s acceptance of the Platinum of Honor Award as an example of Latin excellence in Hollywood,...

I’m Still Here, the first Brazilian film to win the international feature film Oscar, added the Platino Award for best Ibero-American film to its trophy cabinet at the Platino Awards in Madrid on Sunday night.

Brazilian master Walter Salles earned best director and Oscar-nominated Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres was named best actress as the film took top prizes at Ifema Municipal Palace.

The Brazilian and French (MacT Productions) co-production follows a mother’s struggle to support her family after her husband disappears during the Brazilian dictatorship in the 1970s. Goodfellas represents sales and Sony Pictures Classics distributed in the US,...

Walter Salles’ political drama “I’m Still Here” swept top honors at the 12th edition of the Premios Platino, Ibero-America’s most prominent awards event.

The Brazilian drama, winner of the Best International Feature Film Oscar this year, took home prizes for Best Iberoamerican Feature, Director for Salles and Actress for its Oscar-nominated lead, Fernanda Torres, at the glittering event held in Madrid.

On the television side, Netflix’s ambitious Colombian series “100 Years of Solitude” beat out another equally large-scale Netflix series, Brazil’s “Senna,” as well as O2 Filmes’ “City of God: The Fight Rages On” and Endemol Shine Boomdog-hbo Max’s lush “Like Water for Chocolate.”

“100 Years of Solitude” director Alex Garcia Lopez thanked Netflix VP of Content Paco Ramos and the company “for having the vision, the guts, the crazy idea of buying the rights to this book and giving all of us the opportunity to...

Walter Salles‘ I’m Still Here was the big winner at Madrid’s Platino Awards on Sunday night, honoring the best of Ibero-American film and television.

The Brazilian filmmaker took home the best director and best Ibero-American fiction film awards, while the Oscar-nominated Fernanda Torres won best actress for her performance.

Elsewhere, Daniel Fanego won the best supporting actor performance for Luis Ortega’s Kill the Jockey, and Clara Segura of El 47 won in the equivalent category for women. Eduard Fernández took home the best actor prize for his role in Marco.

There were also two wins for Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, The Room Next Door, as Edu Grau and Alberto Iglesias won the best cinematography and best original score awards, respectively.

Eva Longoria, star of Desperate Housewives and Only Murders in the Building, picked up the prestigious Platino honorary award — past recipients of which include Benicio Del Toro,...

“The Blue Trail,” one of the big highlights of the Berlin Film Festival that’s competing for a Golden Bear, has been acquired by a raft of international distributors.

Paris-based sales banner Lucky Number launched the politically minded movie at the EFM, which runs alongside the festival and sold it to major territories, including Germany (Alamode), France (Paname), Benelux (Imagine), Spain (Karma), Switzerland (Xenix), Portugal (Nitrato), Sweden (Triart), Denmark (Camera), Norway (Arthaus), Baltics (A-One), Poland (Aurora), Czech Republic & Slovakia (Film Europe), Former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Bulgaria (Beta), Hungary (Mozinet), Israel (Lev) , Australia and New Zealand (Palace), Indonesia (Falcon).

Lucky Number is currently in discussions to close the U.S., U.K. and Italy and offers in the Middle East, Turkey, Greece and Asia. Vitrine in Brazil and Pimienta, whose deals were made directly by the producers, will distribute the movie in in Brazil and in Mexico, respectively.

“The Blue Trail...

Berlinale Pro director Tanja Meissner says she is hopeful for “significant business” being done at the European Film Market, which kicks off tomorrow.

Speaking at a Berlinale Pro press event this afternoon, Meissner said she had been encouraged by the large number of new projects that have been announced by sales agents on the eve of the EFM.

Until recently, many buyers had expressed fears that the Los Angeles fires would disrupt the ability of US sales agents in particular to finalise film packages to be sold at EFM.

However, the past 10 days have seen a slew of EFM packages...

“The Blue Trail,” Gabriel Mascaro’s dystopian Brazilian movie which is slated to compete at the Berlin Film Festival, has landed on the inaugural slate of newly-launched Paris-based sales banner Lucky Number.

The selection marks Brazil’s return to the Berlinale Competition following “All the Dead Ones” by Caetano Godardo in 2020. Mascaro previously attended the Berlin Film Festival with “Divine Love” which opened at Sundance and went on to play in the Panorama section in Berlin in 2019. Lucky Number has unveiled a first still of the film and will kick off sales at the EFM in Berlin next month.

The politically minded film unfolds on the banks of the Amazon, and is set in a near future, in a society in which the elderly are invited to exile themselves once their expiration date has passed. The story revolves around Tereza, 77, who has lived her whole life in a small, industrialized town in the Amazon,...

The Producers Guild of America has extended the voting window and pushed back its nominations announcement to January 12 in light of the ongoing LA wildfires.

On Thursday the Guild said it had extended the voting window for the PGA Awards by two days until January 11 to allow members more time to cast ballots.

The PGA Awards are scheduled to take place on February 8 in Los Angeles. Last year’s best feature winner Oppenheimer went on to claim the best picture Oscar. American Symphony and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse won animation and documentary honours, respectively.

On Wednesday the Academy made a similar move,...

New features from Tatiana Huezo, Kirsten Tan and Stephan Komandarev are among the 35 projects selected for the 2025Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The 35 projects hail from 27 countries, and will participate in the market to find financing and production partners. The Berlinale has also programmed its Forum Special and Forum Expanded strands.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Salvadoran-Mexican filmmaker Huezo will participate with her new project Galerna, produced by Mexico’s Pimienta Films. Huezo’s first fiction feature Prayers For The Stolenwon a special mention in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2021, and was Mexico’s entry for the international feature Oscar.

The Berlinale’s Co-Production Market has selected 35 feature projects for its 2025 edition, including new works from Tatiana Huezo, Kirsten Tan and Stephan Komandarev.

The 35 projects hail from 27 countries, and will participate in the market to find financing and production partners. The Berlinale has also programmed its Forum Special and Forum Expanded strands.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Salvadoran-Mexican filmmaker Huezo will participate with her new project Galerna, produced by Mexico’s Pimienta Films. Huezo’s first fiction feature Prayers For The Stolenwon a special mention in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2021, and was Mexico’s entry for the international feature Oscar.

Budapest International Film Festival (Biff) is building a film funding initiative independent of the Hungarian state, as the festival’s first edition gets underway today.

The fund will launch during the festival, which runs from October 29 to November 3 at the Corvin Cinema Budapest.

The fund will be run in collaboration with the Sandor Simo Foundation, and will support at least one Hungarian feature film and a short film, from script development through to theatrical release.It will aim to raise between€500,000 to€1m in its first year, which organisers say is the current average budget of an independent Hungarian feature film.

Tatiana Huezo’s documentary The Echo takes us to a remote corner of central Mexico, offering an intimate look at the rhythms of daily life in the small community of El Eco. Shot over the course of 18 months, the film follows several families as they work the land through changing seasons, observing the intergenerational bonds that hold the village together.

Huezo spent significant time with her subjects, gaining candid glimpses of their world, usually reserved for relatives, not outsiders. Her observational approach using natural light and handheld footage brings us directly into the community without barriers.

We come to know hardworking mother Luz María and her devoted daughter Montse, who finds herself torn between tradition and new dreams as she comes of age. Other families open their lives as well, showcasing the mix of hardship and humanity that defines this rural existence.

The film premiered to acclaim in 2023, praising Huezo’s subtle yet rich storytelling.

This piece was originally posted in 2022. We have updated the “Where to Watch” section for each film.

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Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. To celebrate, we got to thinking about some of our favorite Indies from the Hispanic world. These stories are narrative and documentary, drama and comedy, and are both harrowing and heartfelt. A little of everything, and plenty to add to your watchlist.

Prayers For The Stolen (2021)

Writer/Director: Tatiana Huezo

Producers: Nicolás Celis, Jim Stark

Starring: Guillermo Villegas, Mayra Batalla, Eileen Yañez, Alejandra Camacho

Synopsis: In a solitary town nestled in the Mexican mountains, the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground. Ana and her two best friends take over the houses of those who have fled,...

Mexico has picked Sundance Film Festival winner Sujo to represent the country at the 2025 Oscars in the Best International Feature category. The drama from Identifying Features directors Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez premiered at Sundance this year, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema. It is currently doing the festival tour and will screen in San Sebastian and the London Film Festival this fall.

The coming-of-age story focuses on the titular Sujo, the son of a small-town cartel sicario who is orphaned when his father is murdered as a traitor. Under constant threat of death — the cartels traditionally kill male heirs of assassinated members lest they grow up to avenge their fathers — Sujo goes into hiding in the mountains, living in isolation with only his aunts and two young cousins for company. But as a young man, Sujo, played by Identifying Features actor Juan Jesús Varela, drifts...

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (July 26-28)Total gross to dateWeek 1. Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney) £12.6m £17.3m 1 2. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) £3.1m £25.3m 3 3. Twisters (Warner Bros) £1.5m £7.9m 2 4. Inside Out 2 (Disney) £1.1m £50.1m 7 5. Longlegs (Black Bear) £723,000 £5.7m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.28

Deadpool & Wolverine roared into life at the UK-Ireland box office with a £12.6m opening – the biggest of the year, and biggest for a Marvel Cinematic Universe title for over two years.

Playing in over 700 cinemas, the film took a location average around £18,000 for Disney, with final figures still to come. Deadpool & Wolverine has £17.3m in total having opened on Thursday,...

Disney’s latest blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine headlines this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, aiming to revive the recent fortunes of the once-mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

A sequel to Deadpool and Deadpool 2 as well as a follow-up to Logan, the film sees Deadpool pulled from his quiet life by the Time Variance Authority and set on a mission to save his universe – during which he collides with Wolverine from another universe. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman reprise their roles as the titular superheroes, with Matthew Macfadyen, Morena Baccarin and Screen Stars of Tomorrow Emma Corrin and Dafne Keen also among the cast.

The Echo

Salvadoran Mexican filmmaker Tatiana Huezo's The Echo (El Eco), a documentary that leans into the language of fiction, centres on three rural families. As in her previous film, Prayers For The Stolen (Noche De Fuego), the focus is on children. However, the image of young people caught up in the violence of the Mexican cartels contrasts with The Echo's gentle and rhythmic tapestry of emotions and day-to-day experiences in the Mexican countryside.

The Echo represents a departure for Huezo, from the dark subjects that have defined her feature documentaries. Alongside Prayers For The Stolen, she has documented the victimisation of women in Tempestad and the impact of a civil war on a small town in El Lugar Más Pequeño.

In conversation with Eye For Film, Huezo discussed her fascination with childhood, bringing the urban playground to the countryside and playing the role of provocateur.

The Echo...

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” maintained its lead at the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second consecutive week, earning £4.9 million ($6.3 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The animated sequel has now accumulated £17.4 million in total.

Warner Bros.’ “Twisters” made a notable entrance, blowing into the second position with a £4.1 million opening. Disney’s “Inside Out 2” continued to perform well in its sixth week, adding £1.5 million to reach a cumulative total of £47.2 million after six weekends.

Black Bear’s “Longlegs” held onto fourth place in its second week with £1.3 million, bringing its total to £3.9 million. Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” rounded out the top five, earning £447,907 in its fourth week for a total of £9 million.

Further down the chart, Bollywood film “Bad Newz” from Moviegoers and Altitude’s “Blur: To The End” debuted at seventh and eighth places respectively, with openings of £165,464 and £147,981. The National Theatre Live...

Tatiana Huezo’s film about a teenage runaway has the look of a drama, and yet it’s a documentary – one that showcases her distinctive, immersive style

Salvadoran-Mexican director Tatiana Huezo is a documentary film-maker who received great acclaim for her non-fiction work before pivoting triumphantly to drama in 2021 with Prayers for the Stolen – a heart-wrenching film, with something docu-realist in its gentleness and urgency, about children caught up in Mexican cartel violence. Now Huezo has returned to documentary with a film set in the remote village of El Eco in the central Mexican highlands. While Prayers for the Stolen was fiction with the texture of documentary, this – fascinatingly – is documentary with the look of fiction.

After a shooting period of a year and a half, Huezo and co-editor Lucrecia Gutierrez have shaped a family story so that it looks like exactly like realist drama, perhaps even drama adapted from a novel.

Located within the Mexican municipality of Chignahuapan in the state of Puebla, the rural village of El Eco acts as a microcosm for various stages of life and the oft-small moments that herald them in filmmaker Tatiana Huezo’s documentary of the same name. The Salvadoran-Mexican filmmaker weaves together intimate scenes among three local families, exploring themes of gender, labor and generational shifts in attitude amid a sprawling and bucolic—yet unpredictably volatile—stretch of Mexico’s highlands. The Echo is Huezo’s fifth feature, marking her return to nonfiction storytelling after helming her 2021 debut narrative film Prayers for the Stolen. With this transition, […]

The post “I Don’t Feel Comfortable Making Cinema That Gazes From Afar”: Tatiana Huezo on The Echo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Located within the Mexican municipality of Chignahuapan in the state of Puebla, the rural village of El Eco acts as a microcosm for various stages of life and the oft-small moments that herald them in filmmaker Tatiana Huezo’s documentary of the same name. The Salvadoran-Mexican filmmaker weaves together intimate scenes among three local families, exploring themes of gender, labor and generational shifts in attitude amid a sprawling and bucolic—yet unpredictably volatile—stretch of Mexico’s highlands. The Echo is Huezo’s fifth feature, marking her return to nonfiction storytelling after helming her 2021 debut narrative film Prayers for the Stolen. With this transition, […]

The post “I Don’t Feel Comfortable Making Cinema That Gazes From Afar”: Tatiana Huezo on The Echo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to announce the complete lineup for the 13th edition of First Look, the Museum's festival of new and innovative international cinema, which will take place in person March 13–17, 2024. Each year, First Look offers a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, gallery installations, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking. This year's festival introduces New York audiences to more than three dozen works from around the world. The guiding ethos of First Look is openness, curiosity, and discovery, aiming to expose audiences to new art, artists to new audiences, and everyone to different methods, perspectives, interrogations, and encounters. For five consecutive days the festival takes over MoMI's two theaters, as well as other rooms and galleries throughout the Museum—with in-person appearances and dialogue integral to the experience. Each night concludes with one of five...

A yearly highlight of New York (or American) programming, the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look will return on March 13 with an opening-night screening of Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s Sujo, close on March 17 with Bill and Turner Ross’ Gasoline Rainbow, and in the intervening days combine programming of recent cutting-edge highlights with in-person talks and seminars.

First Look’s fixture “Working on It” will run between March 13 and 15, offering “a laboratory for works in progress and dialogues about process, bringing together festival guests, filmmakers, students, writers, and the general public.” Meanwhile, writers and editors from Reverse Shot “will continue discussions begun in last year’s Emerging Critics Workshop throughout the festival.”

So says MoMI’s Curator of Film Eric Hynes:

“Now in its 13th year, First Look has carved out a unique, and we think essential, place in New York’s film and cultural landscape.

Although it might seem like male directors stand at the forefront of Mexican cinema right now — look at recent Oscar winners such as Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, and Alejandro González Iñárritu — it’s a new wave of female filmmakers who are actually the ones to watch.

Tatiana Huezo (“The Echo”), Fernanda Valadez (“Identifying Features”), and Issa López all shine bright, yet Lila Avilés (“The Chambermaid”) might be the first to come close to Oscar success of her own with “Tótem,” which was shortlisted at this year’s Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. While Avilés’ acclaimed debut followed a maid working to bring structure and order to empty, uninhabited spaces, her follow-up feature is teeming with life, even if the subject matter might not lend itself to that at first glance.

“Tótem” begins with seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) and her mother, Lucia (Lazua Larios), laughing together in a public bathroom.

No strangers to Sundance, filmmaker/cinematographer Gregory Kershaw and filmmaker/visual artist Michael Dweck are back for this 40th edition with their latest unsurprisingly cinematic, nonfiction study “Gaucho Gaucho.” While the acclaimed duo’s previous docs were set at a Long Island racetrack and in the Italian countryside, respectively, “Gaucho Gaucho” is an “Argentinean Western” (according to the Sundance synopsis) that takes place in the remote plains of that faraway, South American land. And therein lies the rub.

On the upside, “Gaucho Gaucho” is exquisitely crafted, with sumptuous black-and-white cinematography, camera angles framed askew, and eye-catching slo-mo sequences. (Cowboys atop galloping horses makes for one heart-pounding mix.) Not to mention an operatic — at times literally — score. (And Los Gatos’s “La Balsa” is an ear worm for sure.) And yet this heavily stylized, and often overly staged, approach actually ends up overwhelming the story the North American filmmakers have supposedly...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Something you often hear cinephiles proclaim is that “Every year is a good year in film.” Well, that’s obviously true––if one pays attention and knows where to look––but then there are also years that are simply better. To me, 2023 has turned out to be one of those.

It’s a year where the top festivals like Cannes, Berlin, and Venice all overperformed with stellar lineups. Geographically speaking, American/UK cinema can be proud of its output while productions from the rest of the world, especially France, Japan, Latin America, didn’t disappoint either. It’s also a year where not only indie/arthouse films delivered, but (some) blockbusters dared to get smart too. Even the presumed Oscar contenders this season include legitimate masterpieces in the mix.

Rotterdam Film Festival Sets ‘Head South’ As Opening Film

Jonathan Ogilvie’s post-punk, coming-of-age comedy Head South has been announced as the opening picture of the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), running from January 25 to February 4. The festival has also teased a handful of early selections. They include Indian filmmaker Ishan Shukla’s dystopian, sci-fi animation Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust and U.S. director Billy Woodberry’s biodoc Mário, about African independence activist Mário de Andrade, which will both world premiere. Further confirmations include European premieres for Amanda Kramer’s So Unreal and Ann Hui’s Elegies as well as Omar Hilal’s Voy! Voy! Voy!, which is Egypt’s Oscar entry this year. The festival will unveil its full line-up on December 18.

Paul Schrader To Be Feted At Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Avellino Festival

U.S. director and screenwriter Paul Schrader will be honored with a Lifetime...

Yorgos Lanthimos drama ‘Poor Things’ won two prizes.

Warwick Thornton was awarded the Golden Frog at Poland’s Camerimage International Film Festival on Saturday (November 18) for drama The New Boy.

The Australian Indigenous filmmaker received the festival’s top prize at a ceremony in the Polish town of Torun, where the director was recognised for his role as cinematographer on the film. Accepting the award, Thornton paid tribute to his fellow filmmakers and said: “I’ve had tears in my eyes the whole week and it’s not because of the alcohol or the cold weather. It’s the love of cinematography,...

Mstyslav Chernov’s unflinching account of the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine wins the public vote at the documentary festival

Mstyslav Chernov’s unflinching account of the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 20 Days In Mariupol, has won the Npo IDFA Audience Award at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

The €5,000 prize was awarded at the Royal Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam on Saturday night, (November 18) followed by a special screening of the film. The award is based on votes by festival visitors who rate the films directly following their screenings via a Qr code.

Cinematographer and director Warwick Thornton scored top honors Saturday at the Camerimage cinematography film festival for his magical tale of an aboriginal youth, “The New Boy,” which film jurors called a distinctive “portrait of an extinguished spirituality.”

Thornton, in accepting the Golden Frog, said he had been so moved by the cinematography work onscreen at the fest, a top global event for directors of photography, he’d been “tearing for a week.”

Ed Lachman, director of photography for Pablo Larrain’s horror fantasy “El Conde,” inspired by the life of Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet, won the Silver Frog for what the jury called “cinematic high poetry,” while the Bronze Frog and Audience Award went to cinematographer Robbie Ryan for his Gothic dream-like imagery in Emma Stone-starrer “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Actor Peter Dinklage, honored with a festival director’s prize, expressed his gratitude for the Frog statuette,...

For the second year in a row, a film starring Cate Blanchett has taken the lead prize at Poland’s EnergaCamerimage Festival, celebrating the work of the world’s best cinematographers. This year, the Aboriginal drama “The New Boy” won the Golden Frog for its cinematographer Warwick Thornton, who also happens to be the picture’s director.

The film follows a 9-year-old Aboriginal orphan taken in by a rural monastery. It premiered to kind notices at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. However, the film still does not have a U.S. release date at this time. In 2022, Todd Field’s “Tár” won the Golden Frog for Oscar-nominated cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister and also starred Blanchett.

The Silver Frog went to Pablo Larrain’s moody vampire picture “El Conde,” for whom its legendary cinematographer Ed Lachman was honored. Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” continued its awards streak by winning the Bronze Frog for lenser Robbie Ryan,...

This year’s winners at Camerimage Film Festival in Toruń, Poland were unveiled Saturday, with The New Boy, Warwick Thornton’s drama about an indigenous boy taken in at a mysterious remote monastery, taking the top prize.

Poor Things, Searchlight’s Yorgos Lanthimos drama starring Emma Stone, won the Audience Award at the festival, which focuses on the art of cinematography.

Camerimage’s Golden Frog is widely considered an Oscar precursor, with three of the past five Golden Frog winners going on to earn Oscar nominations in cinematography. Those titles include Lion (2016), Joker (2019) and Nomadland (2020).

Below is the complete list of this year’s winners.

Main Competition

Golden Frog: The New Boy

cin. Warwick Thornton

dir. Warwick Thornton

Silver Frog: El Conde

cin. Ed Lachman

dir. Pablo Larraín

Bronze Frog: Poor Things

cin. Robbie Ryan

dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

Fipresci Award

The International Federation of Film Critics Award for Best Film: The Zone of Interest

cin.

The New Boy — the story of a young Aboriginal Australian orphan boy that was written, directed and lensed by Warwick Thornton — collected the Golden Frog in the main competition of the 31st EnergaCamerimage international cinematography film festival, which closed Saturday night in Torún, Poland.

Cinematographer Ed Lachman received the Silver Frog for Pablo Larraín’s El Conde, which positions Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a vampire. Robbie Ryan’s lensing of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, the story of a young woman (Emma Stone) brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, claimed the Bronze Frog as well as the Audience Award. (Ryan collected the Golden Frog two years ago, for Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon, and Lachman won the Golden Frog in 2015, for Todd Haynes’ Carol.).

The Fipresci Prize was awarded to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a chilling look at the life of Auschwitz concentration camp commander Rudolf Höss and his family,...

The Cinema Heritage festival announces the 9 films in the International Competition after more than 500 films were viewed. Costa Gavras and Cristian Mungiu will be the guests of honour on the closing night.

Eva Peydro, Barbara Lorey de Lacharrière and Philip Cheah, who make up the Selection Committee for the first edition of the Cinema Heritage festival, have viewed 500 films from 56 different countries and are presenting the finalists.

The International Competition comprises 9 films:

– The Winter Within by Aamir Bashir India, France, Qatar / 2022 / Paris Premiere

– The Echo by Tatiana Huezo Mexico, Germany / 2023 / French premiere

– Muyeres by Marta Lallana Spain / 2023 / Paris Premiere

– Behind The Haystacks by Asimina Proedrou Greece, Germany, Macedonia / 2022 / French premiere

– The Promised Land by Nikolaj Arcel Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany / 2023 / French premiere

– Lubo by Giorgio Diritti Italy, Switzerland / 2023 /French premiere

– The Land Where Winds Stood Still by Ardak Amirkulov Kazakhstan / 2023 / French premiere

– Esimde (This Is What I Remember) by Aktan Arym Kubat...

When asked how she felt about this year’s opening film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) having been supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund (Ibf), the fund’s executive director and IDFA deputy director Isabel Arrate Fernandez beamed with pride, stating it is “amazing, most of all because it’s a beautiful film.”

The film in question is Olga Chernyk’s “A Picture to Remember,” which has its world premiere at IDFA, running between Nov. 8-19. “The film team was involved with IDFA in several ways, not only through financing via the fund but also because Olga and Kasia [Boniecka], the film’s editor, attended the IDFA Project Space earlier this year. From the fund’s perspective, you never know where the films will end up, and when they start their career this way it’s incredible.”

Speaking to Variety, Fernandez recalls how “A Picture to Remember” was...

For the second year in a row, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) launches against the backdrop of a major war. Last year, the festival took place at the height of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, this year it runs as the Israel-Hamas War rages. Asked about the significance of IDFA being an openly political festival, artistic director Orwa Nyrabia says it is “very important to our filmmaking community, to our audiences and to our festival team and staff.”

Speaking to Variety just before the opening of the festival’s 36th edition, which runs Nov. 8-19, Nyrabia highlights how people are currently trying “not to take sides in a cheap way, to understand more and to discuss better.” The artistic director opened the festival’s press conference by acknowledging the fighting in Israel and Gaza, and emphasizing how he believed “this would have been much better” if we “all...

Mexico’s official entry to the Best International Feature Oscar race, Lila Aviles’ “Totem,” and Tatiana Huezo’s documentary “The Echo” (“El Eco”) snagged three prizes apiece at the Morelia International Film Festival (Ficm), which wrapped Sunday, Oct. 29.

The awards doled out Saturday capped a busy 21st edition that saw a constellation of luminaries in town, including Jodie Foster, Jessica Chastain, Peter Saarsgard, Viggo Mortensen, Danny Huston, James Ivory, Irène Jacob and producing partners Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.

Mexico’s multi-Oscar nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who received the festival’s Premio Cuervo lifetime achievement award, served as a juror in the official selection which gave best Mexican feature and best director awards to “Totem,” described by Variety as an“intimate, emotionally rich” film. “Totem” also took home the Audience Award, a good indication of its box office potential.

The best screenplay award went to Elisa Miller and Daniela Gómez for their gripping drama,...

Chicago – The 59th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) announced its competitive award winners on October 20th 2023, and the recipient of The Gold Hugo in the International Feature Film Competition – the festival’s top honor – is ‘Explanation for Everything” (directed by Gábor Reisz), a coming-of age story.

Picking up the Festival’s Silver Hugo in the International Feature Film competition is “The Delinquents” (directed by Rodrigo Moreno). In the New Directors Competition, Amr Gamal’s “The Burdened” takes the Gold Hugo and Ena Sendijarevic’s “Sweet Dreams” takes the Silver Hugo. The complete list of honorees is below.

“This year’s winning selections truly reflect a global perspective, giving audiences a glimpse into lives and lived experiences they might not have had the opportunity to explore before,” said Chicago International Film Festival Artistic Director Mimi Plauché. “Hailing from every region on the planet from Hungary to Mexico, Argentina to Yemen, Sudan to the U.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam has revealed its lineups for the competitions for short documentary and youth documentary, as well as the rosters for its Best of Fests section and its newly minted Signed section. In total, 100 films have been included in the IDFA program to date.

In addition, IDFA Forum, the festival’s co-production and co-financing market, has expanded to a total of 64 projects, including seven by Ukrainian filmmakers.

The 36th edition of IDFA runs from Nov. 8 to 19 in Amsterdam.

The competition for short documentary showcases a healthy boom for the short film form. A mosaic of styles and themes defines this selection of 15 films, exploring everything a short documentary can be. An international jury of three jurors will award the best film.

Pegah Ahangarani returns to IDFA with a personal telling of family history and their experience of the Iranian revolution in “My Father,” and Nastia Korkia...

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam is beginning to fill out its lineup leading up to IDFA’s 36th edition next month. The largest all-documentary festival in the world today announced selections for the Competition for Short Documentary and the IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary, along with the films selected for the Best of Fests section and the “Signed” section, a new addition to the IDFA program.

One hundred films so far have now announced as part of the 2023 festival, which runs from Nov. 8-19 in the Dutch capital. “In addition, IDFA Forum, the festival’s iconic co-production and co-financing market has expanded to a total of 64 projects, including seven by Ukrainian filmmakers,” the festival announced. Full details on all the announced films are below.

The newly created “Signed” section is described as inviting audiences “to discover the new cinematic adventures of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers. The first selection...

Prior selections Close, Drive My Car, The Worst Person In The World all garnered international feature film Oscar submissions.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes jury prize winner Fallen Leaves and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses starring Cannes best actress winner Merve Dizdar – both Oscar submissions this year – are among the international line-up at the upcoming 59th Chicago International Film Festival (October 11–22).

Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures Of Ghosts are two other Cannes selections to feature in the roster, while Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist and Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias both launched in Venice.

After a one-year hiatus, the much-missed El Gouna Film Festival (Oct. 13 – 20) is back and poised to make an increased impact. Joining beloved festival director Intishal Al-Timimi this time around is esteemed Egyptian producer-director Marianne Khoury in the artistic director position.

Khoury’s long-time championship of female filmmakers and themes finds an echo in the impressive first wave of programming just announced. Of the 19 features, 10 boast a distaff helmer or co-director.

The kudo-laden titles include “Anatomy of a Fall” from Justine Triet, “On the Adamant” from Nicolas Philibert, “Scrapper” by Charlotte Regan, “Stepne” from Maryna Vroda and “The Strange Path” from Guto Parente, which claimed every prize in Tribeca’s international competition.

Among the other buzzed-about auteur titles are Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Wang Bing’s epic documentary “Youth.” Emerging talents Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó offer dystopian hybrid-animation “White Plastic Sky,” while a robust documentary selection includes Tatiana Huezo...

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) has unveiled a first wave of international titles due to play at its upcoming comeback sixth edition, unfolding from October 13 to 20 after a one-year hiatus.

The selection features a number of high-profile festival titles including Justine Triet’s Cannes 2023 Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall, Berlinale 2023 Golden Bear winning documentary On the Adamant by Nicolas Philibert and Guto Parente’s Tribeca Film Festival break-out The Strange Path.

The line-up also showcases a host of buzzy first and second films including UK director Charlotte Regan’s Sundance 2023 Grand Jury Prize winner Scrapper and French filmmaker Delphine Deloget’s Cannes Un Certain Regard social drama All To Play For, starring Virginie Efira.

Respected Egyptian distributor and producer Marianne Khoury is overseeing the selection for the first time, following her appointment as artistic director earlier this year, working alongside long-time festival director Intishal Al Timimi.

Argentine director Paula Hernández’s “The Ravaging Wind,” toplined by Latin American star Alfredo Castro, will be the opening night film of Horizontes Latinos sidebar at the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, which runs Sept. 22-30.

Carolina Markowicz’s “Toll,” whose producers include Brazilian giant Globo Filmes, will close the section, one of the biggest examples of San Sebastian’s long-term commitment to Latin American cinema.

In total, Horizontes will present this year 12 stories, set in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Brazil.

Traditionally, the sidebar showcases feature films not yet released in Spain, either totally or partially produced in Latin America directed by Latino filmmakers or which are set against the backdrop or subject of Latino communities in the rest of the world.

The contenders list of the 2023 edition takes in two films who walked off with prizes at San Sebastian’s Latin American Work In Progress initiative...

A dozen film titles with items dating back to this year’s Sundance (David Zonana‘s Heroic), Berlinale (Lila Aviles‘ Totem and Tatiana Huezo‘s The Echo) and the Cannes Film Festival (Felipe Galvez‘s The Settlers) will mix it up in the Horizontes Latinos Section of the San Sebastian International Film Festival. They will go up against the world premieres to The Sleepwalkers‘ Argentinean filmmaker Paula Hernandez‘s latest El Viento Que Arrasa (which will open the section) and Charcoal Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz‘s Toll which will close the section.…...

Twelve stories set in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Brazil make up Horizontes Latinos, a selection of the year’s feature films, not yet released in Spain, from among all those totally or partially produced in Latin America, directed by moviemakers of Latino origin, or which are set against the backdrop or subject of Latino communities in the rest of the world. In the selection of titles competing for the Horizontes Award at San Sebastian’s 71st edition are two films to have carried off awards at the last Wip Latam –El castillo / The Castle and Estranho caminho / A Strange Path– and at the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum –Alemania–.

Having shown one of her previous movies in Horizontes Latinos, Los sonámbulos / The Sleepwalkers (2019), Paula Hernández returns to the section she will open with El viento que arrasa / A Ravaging Wind, a cinematic adaptation of Selva Almada’s homonymous novel. Alfredo Castro,...

The 12 Latin American titles compete for a €35,000 prize

Lila Aviles’ Totem and Felipe Galvez’s The Settlers are among the films selected for the Horizontes Latinos strand of the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival.

The 12 Latin American titles are competing for the Horizontes Award of €35,000 which is split between the director and the Spanish distributor.

Totem first premiered at Berlinale earlier this year, picking up the Ecumenical jury prize before collecting further awards at Hong Kong and Jerusalem. The Mexican drama is told from the perspective of a seven-year-old girl as her family descends into crisis around her.

Winner...

The San Sebastian Film Festival is shining the light on female filmmakers from across Latin America with the lineup for its Horizontes Latinos sidebar section. Eight of the 12 features in this year’s program, which San Sebastian unveiled on Thursday, are from female directors, including A Ravaging Wind from Argentine filmmaker Paula Hernández, which will open the section. All 12 films come from directors of Latino origin and were entirely or partially produced in Latin America but have not yet been released in Spain.

A Ravaging Wind is Hernández’s adaptation of Selva Almada’s novel of the same name and follows the story of a preacher and his daughter whose car breaks down during their latest mission to spread the gospel. Hernández’s 2019 feature The Sleepwalkers also screened in San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos sidebar.

Also returning to Horizontes Latinos are Tatiana Huezo (2021’s Prayers for the Stolen), who will...