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With happy award winners and beautiful weather, the 18th edition of our festival came to a festive end yesterday evening in the open air at Karmelitermarkt. Four main prizes went to female directors—a pleasing sign of the radiance of young female filmmaking, which accounted for exactly half of the competitions. The German animation The Natural Death of a Mouse by Katharina Huber won two awards and was entered in the race for the Oscars, as was the Austrian co-production Cause of Death by South African director Jyoti Mistry and the Serbian coming-of-age film Armadila by Gorana Jovanović. On top of that, Greek filmmaker Thelyia Petraki was chosen as a candidate for the European Film Awards for her 80s drama Bella. Here now the awards in detail:

Fido Fiction & Documentary

The top prize in the international competition Fiction & Documentary went to Armadila by Gorana Jovanović, which “talks with all the...

Other winners include Transnistra, Lucky One, Season

May el-Toukhy’s Danish drama Queen Of Hearts has won Goteborg’s Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film.

The cash award of $110,000 (1m Sek) makes it the world’s most lucrative film prize. The prize is financed by Presenting partner Volvo Car Group alongsie Region Västra Götaland and the City Council of Gothenburg.

The jury included directors Adina Pintilie, Jyoti Mistry and Dominga Sotomayor, author Hanne-Vibeke Holst and Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound.

They said Queen Of Hearts “is a many-layered film that challenges our preconceptions about the moral ad sexual forces...

The festival’s 25th edition will feature a contribution from Ai Weiwei and competition titles including Whiplash, Nightcrawler and Foxcatcher.

The Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 5-16) is to present its Achievement Award to Us actress Uma Thurman.

The Kill Bill star will will visit Stockholm to receive the prestigious Bronze Horse and meet the audience during an exclusive “Face2Face”.

Thurman will also take part in the inauguration ceremony, which will include the unveiling of an ice sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Weiwei was a Stockholm jury member last year but since he wasn’t allowed to leave China, he sent an empty chair named ”The Chair for Non-attendance” as symbol of his absence.

He is still not allowed to leave China so will send a design that will be portrayed in the form of a large ice sculpture symbolising this years’ Spotlight theme - Hope.

Brazil

The festival will focus this year on Brazil...

We've been saying for quite some time now to keep an eye on South Africa, where there seems to be no end to interesting young talent bubbling beneath the surface, and Jyoti Mistry's Impunity provides another case in point.Sharing a producer with arthouse oriented thriller Sleeper's Wake which premiered in Toronto a couple years back, Impunity is also headed to Tiff with the festival pitching it like this:Investigating the gruesome murder of a cabinet minister's daughter, a special investigator and a local police detective find themselves knee-deep in political corruption and conspiracy, in this sizzling noir thriller set in post-apartheid South Africa. The trailer for this one is freshly arrived, check it out below....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

If you wanted a snapshot of worldly issues then Tiff’s Contemporary World Cinema programme would certainly serve as a whirlwind passport. Loaded in Cannes Film Festival preemed items receiving their North American Premiere debuts (Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou, Mélanie Laurent’s Breathe , Bruno Dumont’s P’tit Quinquin and Pascale Ferran’s Bird People are are just the tip of the iceberg) Tiff programmers have landed world premiere items from the likes of Cristián Jiménez, Ole Christian Madsen, Alex Holdridge & Linnea Saasen (we pic above) and Baran bo Odar. Along with the Canadian items mentioned last week, Here is the largest section’s offerings for 2014.

“Aire Libre,” Anahí Berneri, Argentina / International Premiere

“Amour Fou,” Jessica Hausner, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany / North American Premiere

“Behavior” (“Conducta”), Ernesto Daranas, Cuba / Canadian Premiere

“Bird People,” Pascale Ferran, France / North American Premiere

“Black Souls” (“Anime Nere”), Francesco Munzi, Italy / International Premiere

“Breathe” (“Respire”), Mélanie Laurent,...

This morning the Toronto Film Festival added several more films to their lineup including the world premiere of Thomas McCarthy's The Cobbler which stars Adam Sandler as a New York City cobbler who, disenchanted with the grind of daily life, stumbles upon a magical heirloom that allows him to step into the lives of his customers and see the world in a new way. The film co-stars Method Man, Ellen Barkin, Melonie Diaz, Dan Stevens, Steve Buscemi and Dustin Hoffman. Additionally, Sundance standouts Infinity Polar Bear and Laggies starring Keira Knightley and Chloe Grace Moretz were added to the Gala selection. Joining The Cobbler as new additions to the Special Presentations field include Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria starring Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche and Two Days, One Night from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne and starring Marion Cotillard. Both films made a splash at Cannes earlier this year,...

Toronto film festival organisers have programmed features from 42 countries in the Contemporary World Cinema (Cwc) programme and unveiled eight South Korean selections in the City To City.

Cwc features latest work by Jessica Hausner, Rolf de Heer, Christian Zübert and Ryuichi Hiroki, among others.

For the third year, Tiff (Sept 4-14) has partnered with the University of Toronto’s Munk School Of Global Affairs on the Contemporary World Speakers series, pairing five films in selection with expert scholars.

The Contemporary World Speakers series is programmed in conjunction with the Tiff Adult Learning department.

Contemporary World Cinema

Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.

Aire Libre (Argentina), Anahí Berneri IP

Amour Fou (Austria-Luxembourg-Germany), Jessica Hausner Nap

Behavior (Conducta) (Cuba), Ernesto Daranas Cp

Bird People (France), Pascale Ferran Nap

Black Souls (Anime Nere) (Italy), Francesco Munzi IP

Breathe (Respire) (France), Mélanie Laurent Nap

Charlie’s Country (Australia), Rolf de Heer Nap

*John Stackhouse...