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Violet Du Feng

Sheffield Doc/Fest Announces Full Lineup, Including Mstyslav Chernov’s Frontline Doc ‘2000 Meters To Andriivka’
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Oscar-winner Mstyslav Chernov’s “2000 Meters To Andriivka” will compete for the Tim Hetherington Award at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest.

The six-day British doc festival begins on June 18 and includes a program of 116 films (82 features and 34 shorts) selected from over 2753 entries. The lineup features 51 world premieres, 16 international premieres, eight European premieres, and 39 UK premieres from 68 countries.

About a group of soldiers fighting their way through two kilometers of war-torn terrain to liberate a devastated Ukrainian village, Chernov’s “2000 Meters To Andriivka” debuted at Sundance 2025. It is one of several feature films about Ukraine heading to the 32nd Sheffield Doc/Fest, which announced its full lineup Wednesday.

Two Ukraine-based docs – Yegor Troyanovsky’s “Cuba & Alaska” and Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz’s “Shards of Light” are vying for the Grand Jury prize in the Sheffield’s International Competition category. In “Cuba & Alaska,” phone and body-cam footage tell the...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 5/7/2025
  • by Addie Morfoot
  • Variety Film + TV
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Hot Docs Fest to Open With ‘Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance’
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The Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Festival will open with the world premiere of Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance from Canadian director Noam Gonick and the National Film Board of Canada on April 24.

The feature doc explores the trajectory and milestones in Canada’s 2Slgbtq+ movement, including pride and protest footage and first person accounts. “This is such a wonderful and meaningful acknowledgement,” Parade producer Justine Pimlott told a Hot Docs press conference on Tuesday. “There is still much work to be done. My hope is that our film serves as an inspiration and a call to action, not only for the queer community, but also for our allies,” she added.

News of the festival opener came as Hot Docs, North America’s biggest documentary showcase, released its full film lineup for its 32nd edition set for April 24 to May 4 in Toronto.

The Special Presentations program is programmed with mostly...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 3/25/2025
  • by Etan Vlessing
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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Hot Docs to open with ‘Parade: Queer Acts Of Love & Resistance’, unveils line-up
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Toronto-based Hot Docs has announced its 2025 line-up of 113 films from 47 countries and will open on April 24 with the world premiere of Parade: Queer Acts Of Love & Resistance.

Canadian filmmaker Noam Gonick directed and Justine Pimlott produced for the National Film Board of Canada and the film explores the pivotal moments that sparked Canada’s 2Slgbtq+ movement.

A roster of 35 world, 14 international, and 26 North American premieres includes Special Presentations selection The Nest, which gets its first public outing and centres on a personal reflection of memory, identity, and intergenerational storytelling by co-directors Chase Joynt and Julietta Singh.

International Spectrum Competition brings world premieres of Heritage,...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 3/25/2025
  • ScreenDaily
‘The Dating Game’ Rolls To Thessaloniki After Raucous Screenings At True/False: “People Were Laughing From Beginning To End”
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The new documentary The Dating Game is lining up dates at film festivals around the world. Director Violet Du Feng’s film — about men in China struggling ardently to find spouses — heads to the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece for its international premiere this Saturday.

From there it’s on to the Human International Documentary Film Festival in Oslo, Norway. “After that we’re going to Cph:Dox [in Copenhagen],” followed by several U.S. festivals, the filmmaker tells Deadline. “Some of these festivals haven’t been announced yet, but it’s going to be a tour, busy time.”

It may be hard to top her experience at True/False in Columbia, Mo, where The Dating Game screened several times, including on the documentary festival’s opening night on Thursday.

“There are 1,200 seats,” Feng said. “I’m like, ‘That’s big responsibility.’ So, I was really nervous.” But she needn’t have been.
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 3/4/2025
  • by Matthew Carey
  • Deadline Film + TV
AI in Non-Fiction, Immersive Storytelling, Investigative Journalism and Climate Justice to Be Debated at Cph:dox
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The conference program of Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, a.k.a. Cph:Dox, will explore topics such as AI in non-fiction, immersive storytelling, investigative journalism and climate justice.

Speakers attending the program, running March 24-28 and held in partnership with Documentary Campus, include Christo Grozev, James Jones, Alexis Bloom, Kate Townsend, Sam Soko, Mstyslav Chernov and Nathan Grossman.

The conference this year is curated by Mandy Chang, former head of BBC Storyville, and global documentaries at Fremantle.

Mara Gourd-Mercado, head of industry and training at Cph:dox, said the conference “creates space to explore how documentary filmmaking shapes the world around us.” She added: “Through hands-on discussions and insights from industry leaders, the conference promises to spark fresh ideas and equip filmmakers with new tools for telling impactful stories.”

Donata von Perfall, managing director of Documentary Campus, added: “The documentary filmmaking community has an immense sense of shared responsibility and values.
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 2/19/2025
  • by Leo Barraclough
  • Variety Film + TV
‘The Dating Game’ Review: Love Is a Numbers Game in Sundance Doc
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In The Dating Game, director Violet Du Feng takes a seemingly straightforward premise — a week-long dating camp in China — and slowly unspools it into something far more unsettling: a deeply ingrained cultural crisis masquerading as a matchmaking experiment. What begins as an observational documentary about three bachelors looking for love soon reveals itself as an indictment of a broken system, where romance is less about genuine connection and more about navigating the impossible expectations placed upon both men and women.

A Crisis of Numbers & Connections

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The Dating GameDocumentary3/5Release DateJanuary 23, 2025Runtime92 minutesDirectorViolet Du FengProducersChandra Jessee, Joanna Natasegara, Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas, Ken Pelletier, James Costa, Shizuka Asakawa

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ExpandCollapsePros & ConsHighlights the societal pressures placed on Chinese men and women, exposing the systemic flaws behind modern dating expectations.The upbeat energy and...
See full article at MovieWeb
  • 2/6/2025
  • by Kai Swanson
  • MovieWeb
True/False Film Fest Unveils 2025 Lineup Including Eight Sundance Docus (Exclusive)
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The 22nd edition of the True/False Film Fest, kicking off Feb. 27, will feature a lineup of 30 feature documentaries and 24 short docs. The Columbia, Missouri-based four-day doc film festival will showcase eight Sundance 2025 films, including U.S. documentary prize winner “Seeds,” “Predators,” and “The Dating Game.”

The fest’s lineup includes seven world premieres, one international premiere, and three North American premieres. Fourteen of the True/False feature docus were made by first-time feature directors.

“This year’s films run the gamut when it comes to form, tone, and perspective, but the thing that unites them is their unwavering commitments to their artistic visions,” said True/False artistic director Chloé Trayner. “The lineup is a kaleidoscope of reflections on our modern world, embracing past, present, and future in beautiful, devastating, and hopeful ways. We can’t wait to share these films with our audience soon.”

Since launching in 2004, True/False...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 2/5/2025
  • by Addie Morfoot
  • Variety Film + TV
Sundance Filmmaker Cristina Costantini Blasts Off With Sally Ride Movie, And Director Violet Du Feng Explores China’s ‘Dating Game’ – Doc Talk Podcast
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Filmmaker Cristina Costantini is leaving the Sundance Film Festival with an award and with distribution already secured for her documentary Sally, about the late astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

Costantini won the 2025 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, an award selected by a jury of film and science professionals and “presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character.”

Sally Ride, who earned a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford before joining NASA’s space shuttle program in the late 1970s, more than qualifies according to the Sloan Prize criteria. But the documentary constitutes much more than a recitation of Ride’s credentials. It’s also the story of her long relationship with romantic partner Tam O’Shaughnessy, a loving bond Ride kept secret until her death.

Costantini joins the latest...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 2/4/2025
  • by Matthew Carey
  • Deadline Film + TV
Sundance Doc ‘The Dating Game’ Tackles China’s Gender Divide and Romance in the Digital Age: ‘This Generation of Young Men Are Being Punished Again and Again’
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In China’s rapidly modernizing metropolis of Chongqing, where traditional matchmaking parks coexist with towering skyscrapers, dating coach Hao is on a mission to help the country’s surplus of single men find love. His story anchors “The Dating Game,” a timely documentary from Emmy-winning filmmaker Violet Du Feng that has been drawing overflow crowds at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The film follows three bachelors attending Hao’s dating camp, where his methods aim to transform their romantic prospects. Hao, who rose from working-class origins to become one of China’s most sought-after dating coaches, brings credibility through his own success story – having won the heart of his wife Wen, a sophisticated urbanite who now runs her own matchmaking business.

“What draws me to Hao is that he himself is one of those lower class, working class men, and it’s really hard to break through and then become successful,...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 1/29/2025
  • by Naman Ramachandran
  • Variety Film + TV
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Sundance documentaries tackle gender-affirming care, cancer treatment, and warmongering
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Aside from the starry, flashy documentaries usually floating around the festival scene, the 2025 Sundance Film Festival also offers a large selection of nonfiction films from around the world. These range from movies smuggled out of Russia to cinema centered on a musical movement born right here in Chicago, but the...
See full article at avclub.com
  • 1/27/2025
  • by Jacob Oller
  • avclub.com
‘The Dating Game’ Review: Violet Du Feng’s Scattered Look at China’s Loneliness Epidemic
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“This whole generation grew up without love,” remarks Hao, the slick dating coach at the center of Violet Du Feng’s documentary The Dating Game. Hao is what the kids might call a “sigma.” For him, finding a partner in China, a country where men outnumber women by 30 million, is all about gaming the system and crafting a façade of success. That means, say, posting pictures of yourself wearing trendy clothes and posing in front of fancy vehicles. It worked for Hao, who appears happily married to his wife, Wen, and now runs a service to help other men, particularly from China’s countryside, find wives.

What begins as a goofy sojourn inside Hao’s seven-day boot camp turns into a reckoning with reality for three bachelors, who bond over shared issues of self-confidence, shyness, and loneliness. Right out of the gate, Feng lucidly frames the men’s predicament in...
See full article at Slant Magazine
  • 1/26/2025
  • by Anzhe Zhang
  • Slant Magazine
‘The Dating Game’ Review: Three Chronically Single Men Look for Love in a Flashy Documentary About China’s Loneliness Epidemic
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China’s One-child policy may have ended in 2015, but the impact of its legacy is still being felt by the millions (upon millions) of people who were born while it was being enforced. Due to a variety of factors that include food scarcity, sex-selective abortions, and gendered physical violence, the disproportionate majority of those people are boys.

China now has 30 million more men than women, which means that legions of eager twentysomethings are chronically single with no end in sight — subject to a cruel game of musical chairs that feels especially stacked against working-class kids whose rural hometowns were abandoned during the country’s push towards urbanization at the end of the 20th century. In the words of Hao, a Chongqing-based dating coach who’s mentored some 3,000 young men on the modern art of seduction: “This whole generation grew up without love.”

That phenomenon is at the heart of...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 1/24/2025
  • by David Ehrlich
  • Indiewire
“All of Us Cracked Up Hysterically” | Violet Du Feng, The Dating Game
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Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? To me, making films has been driven by the desire to express myself. But for filmmakers like me from more oppressive societies, for our films to reach audiences, we often learn to express ourselves indirectly, through metaphors, creating evocative atmospheres, or embedding subversion into narrative structures. In The Dating Game I was determined to express myself freely without […]

The post “All of Us Cracked Up Hysterically” | Violet Du Feng, The Dating Game first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
  • 1/23/2025
  • by Filmmaker Staff
  • Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
“All of Us Cracked Up Hysterically” | Violet Du Feng, The Dating Game
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Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? To me, making films has been driven by the desire to express myself. But for filmmakers like me from more oppressive societies, for our films to reach audiences, we often learn to express ourselves indirectly, through metaphors, creating evocative atmospheres, or embedding subversion into narrative structures. In The Dating Game I was determined to express myself freely without […]

The post “All of Us Cracked Up Hysterically” | Violet Du Feng, The Dating Game first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
  • 1/23/2025
  • by Filmmaker Staff
  • Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Watch a Viral Chinese Romance Coach Detail How to Woo Women in a New Clip from Sundance Doc ‘The Dating Game’
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If you thought dating was bad stateside, take comfort in knowing the odds could be so much worse.

Director Violet Du Feng decided to capture the staggering disillusionment of straight men in China, where “eligible” male suitors outnumber women by 30 million. Du Feng’s documentary “The Dating Game” centers on one dating coach who is enlisted by a trio of bachelors to teach them how to find wives. All it takes, apparently, is an intensive seven-day dating camp.

The official synopsis reads: “Zhou, Li, and Wu are the three bachelors who embark on a seven-day dating camp, led by Hao, one of China’s most sought-after dating coaches. In their last-ditch effort to find love, the bachelors chuckle and bond as Hao makes them over, altering how they look and act online—and in real life. It’s all part of Hao’s signature ‘strategic deception,’ a series of techniques designed to,...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 1/23/2025
  • by Samantha Bergeson
  • Indiewire
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Peabody Awards: Nominees Announced in Documentary, News, Public Service and Radio/Podcast Categories
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The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors today announced the 41 nominees for the Documentary, News, Public Service and Radio/Podcast categories selected to represent the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and streaming media during 2023. The nominees were chosen by a unanimous vote of 32 jurors from more than 1,100 entries from television, podcasts/radio and the web in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and multimedia programming.

Among the Documentary nominees is the 2024 Oscar winner 20 Days in Mariupol, which followed director Mstyslav Chernov as he led a team of AP journalists caught in the Ukrainian city in 2022 after the Russian invasion. Five other Oscar-nominated documentaries also received Peabody noms, including the 2023 nominees All That Breathes and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and 2024 nominees Bobi Wine: The People’s President, The Eternal Memory and To Kill a Tiger. The Emmy-winning bio-doc Still: A Michael J. Fox Story also received a nomination.
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 4/23/2024
  • by Tyler Coates
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Est N8 acquires world sales on Japanese thriller ‘Afterglows’; talks to continue in Tokyo, AFM (exclusive)
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Fast-rising Taichi Kimura’s feature explores grief.

Est N8 has acquired worldwide sales rights to Japanese thriller Afterglows and will continue autumn festival and market talks with buyers at Tokyo International Film Festival (October 23-November 1) and American Film Market (October 31-November 5).

Fast-rising Taichi Kimura’s explores grief and takes place in Tokyo as a taxi driver is haunted by hallucinations after the suicide of his wife, a famous singer.

The film stars Kentez Asaka, Megumi, Akira Koieyama and Keiko Takeshita (The Boy And The Heron) and was produced byTakuma Hiramatsu and Yutaro Tagawa.

Afterglows opened released in Japan earlier...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 10/23/2023
  • by Jeremy Kay
  • ScreenDaily
Est N8 Sales Venture Appoints Tata Chen, Poised to Expand Busan Slate (Exclusive)
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Est N8, a recently-established finance, production and film sales company, has appointed Chen ‘Tata’ Xinrui as its sales and distribution manager. Chen will serve under Tenten Wei, head of studios for Est N8 and will be based in Los Angeles.

Est N8 is a partnership between Est Studios and Bangkok-based N8 Studios that was officially launched at Cannes this year and operates under the combined moniker. The two parent companies still operate as separate entities.

Est Studios was founded in 2022 by Jaeson Ma and Eric Tu, and represents all genres of Asian content in the international marketplace. It is looking at an annual slate of 15 projects that it will be financing, producing, and representing for sales.

N8 was founded by Kris Eiamsakulrat and Rachel Wu with a focus on the untold stories of 4.5 billion Asian voices around the world. N8 formed a partnership with leading Thai studio GDH559, to co-produce...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 10/2/2023
  • by Patrick Frater
  • Variety Film + TV
Est Studios Partners With Thailand’s N8 To Bring Asian Movies To Global Markets; Thai Horror ‘Home For Rent’ Kicks Off Slate
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Exclusive: Est Studios has entered into a partnership with New York and Bangkok-based N8 Studios to represent a slate of Asian films at global markets including the Marche du Film at Cannes.

The two companies will focus on international sales of Thai, Korean, Chinese and Indonesian titles. “The goal is to bring Asia to the World, forge new partnerships with filmmakers from the East and introduce new premium Asian film and television IP to global audiences,” the partners said in a statement.

The first title in the partnership is Thai hit thriller horror Home For Rent, co-produced by N8 Studios and Thailand’s Gdh. The film has been widely released theatrically in Asia by Gdh and will soon be rolled out across Latin America. Est N8 will represent the film in North America.

The partnership was negotiated by Tenten Wei for Est Studios and N8 Studios’ co-founder Kris Eiamsakulrat

“We...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 5/22/2023
  • by Liz Shackleton
  • Deadline Film + TV
Est Studios kicks off Cannes sales on doc ‘Surf Nation’ (exclusive)
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Jessica Q. Chen, Jeremiah M. Bogert Jr. co-directed completed film.

Los Angeles-based finance, production and sales company Est Studios has added the documentary Surf Nation about aspiring Chinese surfers to its Cannes sales slate.

The feature follows two promising young surfers over two years as they leave their families to join hundreds of other athletes from the southern province of Hainan and get paid to become Olympic hopefuls.

Jessica Q. Chen (Women Of Apollo), an Emmy-winning Chinese American filmmaker and video producer at the Los Angeles Times, and Jeremiah M. Bogert Jr. (Chasing The Swell) co-directed Surf Nation and Oscar-nominated...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 5/17/2023
  • by Jeremy Kay
  • ScreenDaily
Sands International Film Festival Sets Stanley Tucci For Live Q&a Plus Screening Of His 1996 Culinary Comedy ‘Big Night’
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The Sands International Film Festival of St Andrews has set Stanley Tucci as a special guest for this year’s edition, where he will present a screening of his 1996 culinary comedy Big Night.

The film will screen at the festival on April 15 at the Byre Theatre. The screening will be followed by an on-stage conversation between Tucci and writer-director Joe Russo (Avengers Endgame). Russo’s Agbo label is among the backers of Sands.

Set in 1950s New Jersey, the pic follows two brothers who run an Italian restaurant. Business is not going well as a rival Italian restaurant is out-competing them. In a final effort to save the restaurant, the brothers plan to put on an evening of incredible food.

Tucci co-wrote the screenplay for Big Night with his cousin Joseph Tropiano and co-directed with fellow actor Campbell Scott (Jurassic World: Dominion). He also stars in the pic, which debuted at Sundance.
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 3/31/2023
  • by Zac Ntim
  • Deadline Film + TV
Scotland’s Sands International Film Festival Of St Andrews Sets Second Edition Including Joe Russo Talk & Mystery Agbo Debut
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Exclusive: The Sands: International Film Festival of St Andrews, held in northern Scotland, has set the lineup for its second edition, running April 14 – 16.

Over the course of three days, the festival will host a series of official screenings and industry talks from filmmakers and artists such as director Joe Russo, who returns to St Andrews after supporting the inaugural edition in 2022.

Russo will be bringing with him what the festival has described as an “early sneak peek of a hotly anticipated project” that he has executive produced under his Agbo production outfit. The title of the pic will not be unveiled until the screening begins.

The festival has also set Russo as the host of a public discussion on gaming and contemporary storytelling with Epic Games Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard, who has worked as a creator and director on titles such as Fortnite.

Russo...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 3/17/2023
  • by Zac Ntim
  • Deadline Film + TV
‘Aftersun’ director Charlotte Wells, Michelle Garza among 2023 Sundance Institute Momentum Fellows
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Eight Fellows to receive year-round support.

Aftersun director Charlotte Wells and Huesera director Michelle Garza are among the eight participants selected for the Sundance Institute’s fifth annual Momentum Fellowship.

The initiative supports and provides coaching to mid-career artists from historically marginalised communities and is aimed at talent who have recently achieved a noteworthy accomplishment like an acclaimed feature or series.

The 2023 Momentum Fellows are: Francisca Alegria (whose debut feature The Cow Who Sang A Song Into the Future premiered at Sundance 2022); Rita Baghdadi (Sirens premiered at Sundance 2022 and and won the Outfest grand jury prize); Mexico’s Michelle Garza...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 3/2/2023
  • by Jeremy Kay
  • ScreenDaily
Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal in Aftersun (2022)
‘Aftersun’ Director Charlotte Wells, ‘Nanny’ Filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu Tapped for Sundance Career Development Program
Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal in Aftersun (2022)
Sundance Institute announced the eight participating filmmakers selected for the fifth annual Momentum Fellowship, a program “designed to support and provided coaching to midcareer artists with a focus on career development during a pivotal moment in their creative practice.”

The program was designed to support storytellers from historically marginalized communities and filmmakers that have “recently achieved a noteworthy accomplishment” (like a TV show or movie). The Momentum Fellowship provides each artist with a ”full-year program of deep, customized support around the goals they have identified for themselves to level up in their craft and career.” The Momentum Fellowship is a program of Women at Sundance with support from Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.

Among the Momentum Fellows are “Aftersun” director Charlotte Wells and “Nanny” filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu.

“The most ingenious part of Momentum is its timing at this precarious point in our careers as we all consider our futures beyond the first film.
See full article at The Wrap
  • 3/2/2023
  • by Drew Taylor
  • The Wrap
Documentary Review: Hidden Letters (2022) by Violet Du Feng
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Nüshu is considered to be the world’s only writing system that is created and used exclusively by women. Originating in China’s Jiangyong county in the nineteenth century, it gave rise, over time, to a traditional female culture, which is endangered today. The country’s local and national authorities are working to revive it. (source: Unesco). Violet Du Feng directs a documentary that takes this language as its base, by presenting the lives of two of its practitioners today: divorced museum guide, Xin Hu, and a soon-to-be-married musician, Simu Wu, focusing, though, more on the place of women in Chinese society than the actual Nushu.

“Hidden Letters” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative

Xin Hu works as a tour guide and is also a certified Nushu inheritor, frequently being awarded for her contributions in the legacy of the language, including teaching it to young girls, while...
See full article at AsianMoviePulse
  • 1/21/2023
  • by Panos Kotzathanasis
  • AsianMoviePulse
Documentary Feature Focus: Oscars Lays Out The Welcome Mat To A Wide Range Of International Films
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In theory, international films can earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture in any given year. But in reality, only a handful have ever attained that distinction, and a single one — Parasite — has claimed the prize.

For a truly global competition — international and American films contending in the same category — turn to the Best Documentary Feature race. This year alone, shortlisted documentaries vying for a nomination originate from China, Vietnam, India, Ukraine, Canada and the U.S.

Vietnamese director Ha Le Diem shot her shortlisted film Children of the Mist in a Hmong community in Northern Vietnam, where teenage girls are routinely kidnapped by male suitors and coerced into marriages. Di, the 14-year-old heroine of the documentary, flirts with a boy who soon abducts her and with help from his family tries to force her to accept him as her husband.

“New Year is the season of bride kidnapping, and it is allowed,...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 1/12/2023
  • by Matthew Carey
  • Deadline Film + TV
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Oscars: Tales of Artistry, Environmental Activism and Political Struggle Lead the Documentary Feature Race
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On Dec. 21, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its shortlists for the 2023 Oscars in 10 categories, which included advancing 15 documentary features to the next round. A total of 144 documentary features this year were eligible, and those that moved on include All That Breathes, Fire of Love and Moonage Daydream.

Among the more surprising omissions was Mars Rover doc Good Night Oppy. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees for documentary feature as well as documentary short (15 films were shortlisted from 98 qualified shorts).

A list of the 15 documentaries on this year’s Oscars shortlist follows.

All That Breathes

Winner of the Cannes Golden Eye and Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Documentary), All That Breathes follows two brothers in New Delhi racing to save a bird falling from the sky. Shaunak Sen directs the HBO documentary. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival,...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 1/5/2023
  • by Beatrice Verhoeven
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘Hidden Letters’ Review: Speaking Out When Speech Is Forbidden
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In Violet Du Feng’s “Hidden Letters,” an elder says women “were only slaves to men” before the concept of gender equality was introduced by Mao’s Great Push Forward — and that was only 60 years ago. This graceful feature, which just made the Oscar documentary shortlist, provides an angle on which to consider how far women’s roles have — and haven’t — evolved in Chinese society since.

That angle is the “secret script” of Nushu, a written form invented by and used for communication between women otherwise forbidden to read or write. Feng’s engaging film offers a gently questioning perspective on whether the issues this now-quaint private language addressed retain currency in today’s China, where economically driven progressive attitudes may as yet only superficially impact deep-seated cultural ones. “Letters” commenced a limited U.S. theatrical release on Dec. 9, launches on VOD Dec. 23 and has a PBS playdate slotted...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 12/30/2022
  • by Dennis Harvey
  • Variety Film + TV
‘All That Breathes’ Breathes Easier After Making Oscar Doc Shortlist, But Some Major Titles Don’t Make The Cut
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Updated from original 12:39 p.m. story with details on Neon’s trifecta: Best Documentary Feature front-runners All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, and The Territory are safely through to the next round after the Academy’s Documentary Branch whittled the list of remaining contenders to a shortlist of 15 films.

Fellow favorite Navalny from CNN Films— Daniel Roher’s documentary about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was almost killed in a Kremlin-devised poisoning plot–also made the cut (see full list below). The biggest surprise today came with the snub for Good Night Oppy, the documentary directed by Ryan White that follows NASA’s stirring 2003 mission that dispatched two rovers to the surface of Mars. The film backed by Amblin Entertainment won Best Documentary Feature at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards last month, a ceremony that saw White earn Best Director honors.

Related...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 12/21/2022
  • by Matthew Carey
  • Deadline Film + TV
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Independent Lens Unveils Winter Slate with Titles About Reparations, Fentanyl Crisis
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Click here to read the full article.

Independent Lens — PBS’ long-running, Emmy-winning documentary anthology series — has announced its programming lineup for its winter season.

FBI informant Ernest Withers, the U.S. reparations debate and a secret female-only language invented 400 years ago in China are among the subjects of the feature docs, all presented by Itvs. Children of Las Brisas from Marianela Maldonado will kick off the slate on Jan. 2; it follows three children from the impoverished Las Brisas neighborhood in Venezuela in their quest to become professional musicians.

“The films debuting this winter on Independent Lens take us to small towns across the U.S. and around the world to China and Venezuela,” said executive producer Lois Vossen. “We learn the history of a secret language, the overlooked history of queer comics, trace the ongoing movement for reparations to African Americans and meet exceptional community builders whose stories are being...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 12/13/2022
  • by Mia Galuppo
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘All The Beauty And The Bloodshed’, ‘The Territory’, ‘Young Plato’ on IDA doc feature shortlist
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Nominations to be announced on November 11.

Laura Poitras’s Venice Golden Lion winner All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, Alex Pritz’s The Territory and Young Plato from Neasa Ní Chianáin and Declan McGrath are named on the documentary feature shortlist for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards.

The International Documentary Association (IDA) published a list of 25 features and 24 shorts in the run-up to the awards ceremony on December 10 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

Up to 10 nominees in each of the feature and short documentary categories will be selected from the shortlist and announced on November 11. IDA members will get...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 10/26/2022
  • by Jeremy Kay
  • ScreenDaily
‘Hidden Letters,’ About China’s Women-Only Secret Language, Acquired by Cargo Film & Releasing, Trailer Unveiled (Exclusive)
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Cargo Film & Releasing has acquired domestic and international rights to director Violet Du Feng’s feature documentary “Hidden Letters.”

The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and its European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. It won Best Documentary and the Audience Award at the Austin Asian American Film Festival.

Cargo will premiere the film theatrically starting in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 9. It will also receive an awards campaign this year.

“Hidden Letters” follows two millennial Chinese women connected by their passion for Nushu, a secret female-only language that for centuries has allowed women to communicate privately without men understanding their correspondence.

While practices like foot-binding are long past, the film shines a light on contemporary millennial women’s ongoing struggle to forge their own paths in the patriarchal climate in China today, and the value of a sisterhood that can support along the way.
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 10/14/2022
  • by Manori Ravindran
  • Variety Film + TV
Adelaide Film Festival reveals competition titles for first annual edition
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Indonesian thriller ‘Autobiography’ and Mexican documentary ‘Sanson And Me’ among line-up.

Australia’s Adelaide Film Festival (Oct 19-30) has unveiled its first line-up since shifting from a biennial to an annual event, including 12 titles in competition.

This year’s event comprises 129 films, of which 22 world premieres, from more than 40 countries.

The competition features include Indonesian thriller Autobiography, which scooped a Fipresci prize at the weekend after playing in the Horizons strand of the Venice Film Festival. The debut feature of film critic-turned-director Makbul Mubarak is about a young man who keeps house for a retired general, finding himself torn between...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 9/12/2022
  • by Sandy George
  • ScreenDaily
BFI London Film Festival 2022 Has Unveiled the Programme. Check out all the Asian Titles
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The curators of the 2022 edition of the BFI London Film Festival have programmed a total of 164 feature films, including 23 world premieres, 6 international premieres and 15 European premieres, with a special programme of over 20 features and 15 short films available digitally across the whole of the UK on BFI Player until October 23.

The films are grouped in thematic strands: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Treasures, and will also include TV series.

Over 60 countries are represented, with 41 of the programme from female and non-binary directors and creators or co-directors and co-creators, while ethnically diverse directors and creators make up 34 of the line-up.

Explore the full Programme Here and find all the information about tickets and booking Here

And now browse the selection of Asian Titles of the BFI London Film Festival:

Official Competition Nezouh

Nezouh

Soudade Kaadan – UK-Syria-France 2022. 104min

Soudade Kaadan turns to her Syrian roots for this wry,...
See full article at AsianMoviePulse
  • 9/5/2022
  • by Adriana Rosati
  • AsianMoviePulse
Netflix’s ‘Descendant’ to Open IDA Documentary Screening Series
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The International Documentary Association (IDA) has announced the full program for its annual screening series, including the 10 films that have been chosen for its Awards Campaign Access Initiative (Acai).

The program will open with Netflix’s “Descendant,” a film produced by the Obamas’ company Higher Ground Productions. The documentary sees director Margaret Brown return to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama to document the search for The Clotilda, the last known ship to arrive in the United States, illegally carrying enslaved Africans, and the ramifications its discovery has on the community.

What will follow is a showcase of 43 feature-length documentary films that are eligible for consideration for the upcoming Academy Awards; 20 films will be screened both in-person and online, and 35 will be available for virtual viewing only.

The films selected for the Acai, a program meant to support independent filmmakers from historically excluded communities currently pursuing a film awards campaign, are:

Beba | Dir.
See full article at Indiewire
  • 8/30/2022
  • by Marcus Jones
  • Indiewire
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Sundance Institute Reveals Producers Lab, Producers Summit Participants
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Click here to read the full article.

The Sundance Institute has unveiled the producers and the projects selected for this summer’s Producers Lab and Producers Summit. Taking place July 25-28 and July 29-31, respectively, the events are being held in person at Utah’s Sundance Mountain Resort. The Producers Lab will feature six fiction films’ and five nonfiction films’ producers and their projects while the summit will host 40 industry insiders and 26 indie filmmakers.

Advisors for the feature film program include David Hinojosa (Zola, Bodies Bodies Bodies), Amy Lo (Nancy, Sugar), Riva Marker (The Guilty, Relic), Josh Penn (Beasts of the Southern Wild) and Jason Michael Berman (Nine Days, Uncorked) while the documentary film program features Daffodil Altan (PBS’ Frontline), Violet Feng (Hidden Letters, Tigre Gente), Andrea Meditch (Ernie & Joe, Fathom), Bob Moore (Midwives, Softie) and Amanda Spain (MSNBC Films).

Industry participants in this year’s summit include Maria Altamirano...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 7/25/2022
  • by Chris Gardner
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Institute Selects 2022 Producers Lab, Summit Participants
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Sundance Institute, the nonprofit organization that puts on the yearly film festival in Park City, has announced the entrants for its Producers Lab and Producers Summit.

Both events, the former taking place from July 25 to 28 and the latter from July 29 to 31, will be held in person at Utah’s Sundance Mountain Resort. The Institute picked six fiction film and five non-fiction film producers and their projects. Producers Lab and Producers Summit, which counts more than 40 industry leaders and 26 independent filmmakers among its participants, supports up-and-coming producers through year-round mentorship, granting, educational resources, strategic introductions, and networking opportunities with the industry.

“It has been three years since we have been able to gather in person, and over this time, the landscape for independent storytelling has shifted dramatically. It’s never been more critical to work to create a sustainable future for independent producers, a key priority for the Lab and Summit,...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 7/25/2022
  • by Rebecca Rubin
  • Variety Film + TV
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Sundance Institute Sets Participants For 2022 Producers Lab And Summit
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The Sundance Institute has named the participants for its 2022 Producers Lab and Summit, both of which are set to take place in person this year at Utah’s Sundance Mountain Resort.

The Fellows and projects selected for the Lab’s Feature Film Program are Apoorva Guru Charan (The Rotting Of Casey Culpepper), Leah Chen Baker (The President’s Cake), Eli Raskin (Starfuckers), Chloe Sabin (Sales Per Hour), and the duo of Helena Sardinha and Doménica Castro (Huella). Those set for the Lab’s Documentary Film Program are Lindsey Dryden (Untitled Dwarfism Project), Yoni Golijov (Untitled Sura Mallouh Project), Dawne Langford (Untitled Baltimore Project), Neyda Martinez (Bartolo) and Igor Myakotin (Queendom).

Jade Jackson (Losa), Lauren Lopez de Victoria (Forward), Fox Maxy (Water Tight), Albert Tholen and Aiko Masubuchi (Earthquake), and Séverine Tibi (Birthday) will participate in the Producers Summit on the Fiction Features side, with Nonfiction Feature participants to include Jude Chehab...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 7/25/2022
  • by Matt Grobar
  • Deadline Film + TV
Film Review: Hidden Letters: A Remarkable Story of a Secret Language [Tribeca 2022]
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Hidden Letters Review — Hidden Letters (2022) Film Review from the 21st Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie directed by Violet Du Feng and Qing Zhao, written by Violet Du Feng and John Farbrother and starring Xin Hu, Simu Wu and He Yanxin. Filmmaker Violet Du Feng’s new picture, Hidden Letters, tells audiences a remarkable [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Hidden Letters: A Remarkable Story of a Secret Language [Tribeca 2022]...
See full article at Film-Book
  • 6/15/2022
  • by Thomas Duffy
  • Film-Book
Tribeca Review: Violet Du Feng’s ‘Hidden Letters’
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The past, present and future of women in China’s oppressively patriarchal society is a big topic to address in under 90 minutes, but Violet Du Feng’s unassuming but very moving documentary Hidden Letters covers a lot of ground.

Visually, it has the immediate, low-key digital-video look that’s increasingly typical of festival docs, and which may restrict its audience to the specialist circuit. But there’s a lot going on under the surface in a film that looks at the subject of Nushu, an ancient secret language used by Chinese women to talk to each other without their husbands, fathers, and even their sons knowing.

“Nushu is mostly about misery,” notes Hu Xin, a tour guide at the Nushu Museum in Jiangyong County. Hu Xin is our port of entry into this secret world, depicting a time still in living memory when women were subordinate to men, foot-binding was...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 6/11/2022
  • by Damon Wise
  • Deadline Film + TV
Sundance Institute Sets 20 Projects As Documentary Film Program Grantees
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Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program has set its latest cohort of 20 films receiving Documentary Fund Grants, doling out a total of $600,000 in unrestricted support to projects in varying stages of production and distribution, including eight in development, eight in production, three in post-production, and one in post-production and impact.

Grantees currently at the development stage include Aída Bueno Sarduy’s Anna Borges do Sacramento, Ricardo Ruales’ The Broken R, Damon Davis’ Chain of Rocks, Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig’s Colors of White Rock, Gerardo del Valle’s The Past is Waiting Up Ahead, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo’s unseen, and Farid Ahmad’s Waiting For Winter.

Recipients at the production stage include Pascale Appora-Gnekindy and Ningyi Sun’s Eat Bitter, Chan Hau Chun and Chui Chi Yin’s Heatroom, Basel Al Adarra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Balal, and Rachel Shor’s No Other Land, Kit Vincent’s Red Herring (working title), Weichao Xu...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 10/27/2021
  • by Matt Grobar
  • Deadline Film + TV
Hot Docs Forum Fetes 20 Years of Groundbreaking Stories
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in Toronto this week, the Hot Docs Forum will once again showcase some of the most anticipated films slated to hit the documentary world. Over the course of the two-day event, 20 pre-selected projects will be presented to a round table of industry insiders from around the globe, including leading commissioning editors, film fund representatives, public financiers, private investors, festival programmers, sales agents and distributors.

“Pitching in a forum such as Hot Docs is as much a promotional and market validation and marketing exercise as it is a financing one—to be able to establish an auteur, a visionary, a filmmaker, and have them in a really quick, seven-minute way present their work to the entire international documentary community in one place,” said Hot Docs industry program director Elizabeth Radshaw. “It’s as much about cultivating that individual project as it is about cultivating the production companies and the artists themselves.
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 4/27/2019
  • by Christopher Vourlias
  • Variety Film + TV
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