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This hellhole that we call Earth has been plagued by countless forms of fascism and war since the dawn of time. Among the earliest records of human history are so-called great men boasting of their conquests, be it the Narmer Palette in Egypt or the Stele of the Vultures in ancient Sumeria. Then there is Germany’s reign of terror over all of Europe. As if that wasn’t enough, Russia is waging war on Ukraine, and Israel is erasing Palestine from existence while you’re reading this sentence. Now, when movies (and TV shows) depict these horrifying conflicts, they usually focus on the kinds of oppression and violence that were inflicted by the oppressors on the oppressed, you know, to remind people that it shouldn’t happen again. Yet, it happens again and again. So, I guess, filmmakers are approaching this topic a little differently now by showing how...

Far from the bright lights of Bollywood, the indomitable Indian documentary filmmaking industry has been making waves globally.

The recent past has several examples of India’s international success. In 2021, Payal Kapadia’s “A Night of Knowing Nothing” won the Cannes documentary award, while Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s “Writing With Fire” won Sundance and was Oscar nominated. In 2022, Kartiki Gonsalves’ “The Elephant Whisperers” won the documentary short Oscar; Shaunak Sen’s “All That Breathes” won both the Sundance and Cannes documentary awards and scored an Oscar nomination, in addition to a plethora of other wins; and Vinay Shukla’s “While We Watched” won awards at Toronto and Busan.

In 2023, Sarvnik Kaur’s “Against the Tide” won a special jury award at Sundance and in 2024, Park City continued to be a happy hunting ground for India with a win for Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan’s “Nocturnes.” 2024 has continued to bring cheer for India,...

Bobi Wine: The People’s President won the top prize of best feature documentary at the 2023 International Documentary Awards on Tuesday night.

The film follows music star, activist and opposition leader Bobi Wine amid Uganda’s 2021 presidential election.

Accepting the award during the International Documentary Association’s virtual awards show, co-director Moses Bwayo said, “The awareness this film has brought to world audiences has arguably kept Bobi Wine alive and out of prison for now.”

Asmae El Moudir won best director for The Mother of All Lies, in which El Moudir creates a replica of the Casablanca neighborhood where she grew up, allowing her to reconnect with her past.

The Mother of All Lies was nominated for three awards, along with Milisuthando, while Apolonia, Apolonia had a leading four nominations.

Incident, which reconstructs a Chicago police shooting in 2018 from numerous viewpoints, won best short documentary award. Pov and Pov Shorts...

Apolonia, Apolonia leads the 2023 International Documentary Awards nominations with four nods.

Other top nominees include The Mother of All Lies and Milisuthando, which earned three nominations apiece.

All three films are up for the top prize of best feature documentary, along with two-time nominees Against the Tide, ANHELL69, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Q.

All of this year’s best director nominees represent films nominated for best feature.

Other two-time nominees, not up for best feature or director, include Anselm (best cinematography and original music score), To Kill a Tiger (best original music score and best writing) and Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (best editing and cinematography).

Winners will be announced at the IDA’s virtual awards show, set for Dec. 12, which will take place at 8 p.m. Pt and stream on documentary.org and the IDA’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels.

“In the wake of devastating events...

The International Documentary Association has announced nominations in 18 categories for its 39th awards, which will be awarded in a streaming ceremony on Dec. 12.

The nominees for best feature documentary are “Against the Tide,” “ANHELL69,” “Apolonia, Apolonia,” “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” “In the Rearview,” “Milisuthando,” Q,” “The Mother of All Lies” and “While We Watched.”

The awards will unspool at 8 p.m. Pt on documentary.org and on IDA’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels.

“In the wake of devastating events unfolding in the world and the grief our staff, board, community, and humanity at large are experiencing, we have decided to forego an in-person party. We know that stories have the power to encourage compassion, understanding, and peace. We are committed to preserving space for stories to be shared. Our wish is to recognize and celebrate the nominees and winners together, as a global documentary community,...

The 2023 IDA Documentary Awards has officially unveiled its list of nominees.

The 39th annual awards ceremony for the International Documentary Association will take place virtually on December 12, streaming on documentary.org, as well as the IDA YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram channels. The awards recognize the top films and projects in the documentary genre.

Nominees include “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” about how a Ugandan pop star disrupted the national political landscape; “Pianoforte,” following the prestigious international piano competition; and HBO documentary “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.” The shortlist for the nominees was announced earlier this year

The decision to hold the 2023 IDA Documentary Awards virtually was in part due to the current geopolitical landscape, according to IDA Interim Executive Director Ken Ikeda.

“In the wake of devastating events unfolding in the world and the grief our staff, board, community, and humanity at large are experiencing, we have decided to forego an in-person party,...

Lea Glob’s documentary Apolonia, Apolonia earned a leading four nominations today as the IDA Documentary Awards revealed its nominees for the 39th edition of the prestigious event.

Following closely with three nominations apiece were The Mother of All Lies, directed by Asmae El Moudir, and Milisuthando, directed by Milisuthando Bongela.

Apolonia, Apolonia, a personal exploration into the life and work of French artist Apolonia Sokol filmed over the course of 13 years, will compete for Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Editing. Glob’s film won the top prize at IDFA, where it debuted last November, going on to win awards at Cph:dox in Copenhagen, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and the Sofia International Film Festival, among others. Despite its many laurels, the film has yet to land a U.S. distributor.

‘The Mother of All Lies’

The Mother of All Lies earned nominations as Best Documentary Feature,...

The International Documentary Association announced the 17 feature-length and 25 short documentaries included on the shortlists for the 39th IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held during the week of Dec. 11in Los Angeles.

The nominees will be announced on Nov. 21, and IDA members will vote for Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary until Dec. 5.

“The 39th IDA Documentary Awards continues the tradition of celebrating the best of international nonfiction media of the year,” said Ken Ikeda, IDA’s Interim Executive Director. “This year’s Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary shortlists reflect important work from twenty-one countries. We are excited to celebrate the work of our community and present winners this December in Los Angeles.”

The 2023 shortlists and nominees are selected by independent committees of 280 documentary makers, curators, critics and industry experts from 40 countries. IDA received 669 total submissions in all categories from 48 countries.

Best Feature Documentary Shortlist

Against the Tide...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) on Tuesday announced its best feature and short shortlists for the 2023 IDA Documentary Awards.

The ceremony will be held during the week of Dec. 11 in Los Angeles — venue information is set to follow. Starting Nov. 7, IDA members will be able to view each of the shortlisted films on IDA Virtual Cinema, and up to 10 nominees from each category will be selected. The nominees will be announced on Nov. 21.

“The 39th IDA Documentary Awards continues the tradition of celebrating the best of international nonfiction media of the year,” said Ken Ikeda, IDA’s interim executive director. “This year’s best feature documentary and best short documentary shortlists reflect important work from twenty-one countries. We are excited to celebrate the work of our community and present winners this December in Los Angeles.”

280 documentary filmmakers, curators, critics and industry experts from 40 countries selected the shortlists. IDA received 669 total submissions from 48 countries.

The 39th International Documentary Awards have announced their shortlists for the best nonfiction entries of the year, with a ceremony to take place during the week of Dec. 11 in Los Angeles in a venue to be named. The films were selected by independent committees comprised of 280 documentary makers, curators, critics, and industry experts from 40 countries. IDA received 669 total submissions in all categories from 48 countries.

New York Times Op-Docs dominated the Documentary Short category with seven mentions, including entries from the Netherlands (“Neighbour Abdi”), Mexico (“Victoria”) and Hungary (“Away”) among the shortlisted selections. The Documentary Feature category appeared to favor less-buzzy international titles this season.

What is surprising about the IDA shortlist is how many of the year’s presumed top contenders are not included. Of the 21 nonfiction films that have been nominated by the Critics Choice Documentary Awards or placed on the Doc NYC shortlist of likely awards titles, only...

The International Documentary Association has unveiled their shortlist for their 39th annual award ceremony, celebrating the best in documentary filmmaking.

17 feature-length documentaries — including “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” and “Anonymous Sister” — were selected for the shortlist, as were 25 short films. The films hail from over 20 countries, including Canada, India, Cambodia, Denmark, Uganda, France, and South Africa.

From the shortlist, up to 10 nominees in both the Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary categories will be selected by IDA members. In addition, awards will be given to additional films in the following categories: Best Curated Series, Best Episodic Series, Best Multi-Part Documentary, Best TV Feature Documentary or Mini-Series, Best Short Form Series, Best Stand-Alone Audio Documentary, Best Multi-Part Audio Documentary or Series, David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award, Best Music Documentary, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Writing, Best Music Score, ABC News VideoSource Award,...

Budget cap for the retitled award has risen to £1m.

Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men and Edward Lovelace’s Name Me Lawand are among the 11 films longlisted for the renamed Bifa Maverick award, which has an increased budget cap this year.

Formerly the Raindance Discovery award, the Maverick prize is now open to independent UK features made for up to £1m – up from the previous cap of £500,000.

Scroll down for the full longlist

There is no limit on UK theatrical distribution for the award.

Nine of the 11 films are documentaries, including Screen Star of Tomorrow Ella Glendining’s Is There Anybody Out There?.

Final five nominations to be announced on November 2.

Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall and Todd Haynes’ May December are among the titles on the latest British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) longlists, for Best Feature Documentary and Best International Independent Film.

15 films are on the documentary longlist, with five of them by first-time directors; with 17 films on the international list.

Scroll down for the longlists

Alongside McQueen’s film combining analysis of Amsterdam during the Second World War with the present day, documentary titles include Kevin MacDonald’s High & Low: John Galliano about the...

A new wave of Indian documentary makers have risen on the international scene in the last decade, exemplified by the Oscar-nominated titles “All That Breathes” and “Writing with Fire.” An important guiding light for this generation is the trailblazing filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and his rigorous socio-political films such as “Reason,” “Jai Bhim Comrade” and “War and Peace.”

Now, at age 73, Patwardhan is premiering his most personal film “The World Is Family,” profiling his own parents, at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. In celebration of this latest film and his rich career so far, we asked six filmmakers to describe what Patwardhan means to them.

Shaunak Sen (“All That Breathes”)

To hail Anand Patwardhan as a mainstay in the non-fiction constellation of Indian cinema has been something of an oft-trotted cliche, for at least three decades now. Yet there is a reason cliches are what they are: they represent a consensus...

Updated with the addition of The Holly and American Symphony to the FallDocs lineup.

The Holly, Julian Rubinstein’s documentary about conflict over a gentrifying neighborhood near Denver, and Matthew Heineman’s film American Symphony, about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, have been added to the IDA’s FallDocs screening series.

American Symphony will hold an in-person screening on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles, followed by a live Q&a with Heineman.

The Holly will hold an in-person screening on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at the Culver Theater, followed by a live Q&a with Rubinstein, main participant Terrance Roberts, and Aqeela Sherrills, anti-violence activist and co-founder of Community Based Public Safety Collective.

Earlier: Exclusive: The International Documentary Association announced the lineup for its prestigious FallDocs 2023 program, featuring a slew of Oscar contending nonfiction films as well as more than two dozen films that haven’t yet nailed down distribution.

Culture wars are a global phenomenon, increasingly contaminating the world of news. There have always been news outlets that lean left or right but now channels in search of ratings push “values” rather than “facts”, champion commentary over information gathering and instead of debating those who disagree with them, label them with nebulous terms like “woke” or “unpatriotic”. While people considering division along cultural lines might immediately think of the US, the problem has also become acute in Narendra Modi’s India as Vinay Shukla’s timely documentary shows.

In it, he follows the day-to-day life of award-winning journalist Ravish Kumar who, at the time, was working for Ndtv (he now hosts his own YouTube channel). Kumar is shown to be a thoughtful journalist, who isn’t scared to ask questions about unemployment or the conditions many in rural India are living in. Thanks to sharp juxtaposing from editor Abhinav Tyagi.

Annecy animation ‘The Tunnel To Summer…’ has 100+ location release.

Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One heads into its first weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, as the first of several summer blockbusters that will compete for audiences in the coming weeks.

Having started previews on Monday, July 10, Dead Reckoning Part One already has almost £4.1m in the bank. It will play in 717 locations this weekend – Paramount’s second-widest UK-Ireland release of all time, after the 741 of 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, also starring Tom Cruise. 52 of those sites will be Imax, with Paramount looking to make the most...

News anchor Kumar stays quietly courageous amid nationalist hysteria in Vinay Shukla’s tense documentary – but its final note of hope has been undermined by recent events

Events have overtaken this sombre documentary, which, though interesting and relevant, doesn’t encompass important recent developments. It is about the sinister pro-Modi nationalist hysteria in India that infected the country’s quasi-Fox TV channels, and one moderate journalist who politely stood against it: Ndtv’s news anchor Ravish Kumar. This was especially true in the unbearably tense period before the 2019 election in which Modi was victorious, when the Indian government launched an airstrike on Balakot in Pakistan in retaliation for a terrorist attack on an Indian police convoy in Pulwama in Kashmir.

Indian TV’s shrill pundits denounced traitors everywhere, and this documentary by Vinay Shukla details Kumar’s quiet courage in just carrying on with his reports on the...

‘Opponent’ debuted in Panorama at Berlinale.

MetFilm Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Milad Alami’s Opponent, which plays in the main Crystal Globe competition this week at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff).

The second feature from Iranian director Alami, Opponent follows a man who breaks a promise to his wife and joins a local wrestling club, after the family have fled Iran for northern Sweden.

The film debuted in Panorama at the 2023 Berlinale, going on to win a special jury prize in competition at Seattle International Film Festival in May.

A Separation star Payman Maadi plays the lead role,...

A 17% increase in the number of delegates compared to 2022.

Maciek Hamela’s Ukrainian documentary In The Rearview won the main grand jury award in the international competition at Sheffield DocFest, which recorded a 17% increase in its delegate attendance for 2023.

In The Rearview, a Poland-France-Ukraine co-production, follows Ukrainian people fleeing their country in the days following last year’s invasion by Russia.

Scroll down for the feature film winners

A debut feature film for Polish director Hamela, it debuted at Poland’s Docs Against Gravity Film Festival in May, before screening in the Cannes Acid sidebar. Israel-based sales company Cinephil handles world sales.

Earlier this year, Indian news network Ndtv — one of the only remaining mainstream media channels in the country that raised questions against its government — was acquired by the country's top oligarch, the Adani Group. An open supporter and old friend of the country's prime minister, Gautam Adani's acquisition further raised doubts about the state's crackdown on freedom of speech and expression, manifested by disqualification of opposition MPs and wide crackdown on dissenters as well as dissidents. Following the acquisition, one of the country's most talked about senior journalists resigned from the news channel. Vinay Shukla's poignant new documentary tells the story of that one journalist.

“While We Watched” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase

The 92-minute documentary starts with Ravish Kumar walking into an abandoned floor with its walls and ceilings being taken apart. Holding a flashlight in his hand, he walks across the room,...

All That Breathes.When Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh decided to mount an Oscar campaign in October 2021 for their film Writing with Fire, they were attempting a historic first. Until then, no Indian documentary feature had ever been on the radar for the Academy Awards. The general assumption has always been that India had only one category to gun for: Best International Feature Film. Every year since 1957, the Film Federation of India (Ffi), an apex body comprising Indian film producers, exhibitors, distributors, and studio owners, has appointed a committee to select the country’s official submission from the year’s releases. These selections have often proved to be arbitrary decisions, rarely standing a chance at even making the shortlist, primarily due to a vague selection process that lacks credibility. In the last six decades, only three Indian submissions—Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988), and Lagaan (2001)—actually ended up with a nomination.

The Sydney Film Festival, which this year will celebrate its 70th edition, has unveiled its first dozen selections. Seven are feature films, five are documentaries.

“The 2023 program will expand on this legacy, promising to ignite stimulating dialogues and present powerful ideas that will broaden audience perspectives,” said festival director Nashen Moodley. He noted that over the previous 69 editions the Sydney festival has showcased more than 10,000 films.

Highlights among the documentaries are two Australian titles. “Rachel’s Farm” follows actor-director Rachel Ward as she revitalizes her beef farm using sustainable farming practices. In “The Last Daughter” Wiradjuri woman Brenda Matthews documents her search to uncover the truth about her government-ordered abduction as a child and to find her white foster family. Both Matthews and Ward will attend the festival in person.

“Red, White and Brass” – presented as a feature, rather than a documentary – is a fact-based tale of a group of...

MetFilm Distribution has acquired the U.K. and Ireland rights to Vinay Shukla’s multi-award-winning documentary ‘While We Watched’, reports ‘Variety’.

Produced by the UK’s Lono Studio and BritDoc Films, the documentary is a newsroom drama chronicling the working days of former popular Ndtv journalist Ravish Kumar as he navigates a spiralling world of truth and disinformation, ‘Variety’ adds.

A Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, Kumar resigned after controversial billionaire Gautam Adani took over the company.

‘While We Watched’ debuted at Toronto in 2022 where it won the Amplify Voices award, followed by Busan, where it picked up the Cinephile award, according to ‘Variety’. Most recently, the film won the international competition at Helsinki’s DocPoint Festival.

Shukla had previously co-directed the 2016 political documentary ‘An Insignificant Man’ on the rise of Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party. ‘While We Watched’, Shukla told ‘Variety’, is “my love letter to journalism”.

He...

MetFilm Distribution has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to Vinay Shukla’s documentary “While We Watched.”

Produced by the U.K.’s Lono Studio and BritDoc Films, the documentary is a newsroom drama intimately chronicling the working days of Indian broadcast journalist Ravish Kumar as he navigates a spiralling world of truth and disinformation. Kumar, a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, was a senior journalist at Indian news platform Ndtv, who resigned after billionaire Gautam Adani took over the company.

“While We Watched” debuted at Toronto in 2022 where it won the Amplify Voices award, followed by Busan, where it won the Cinephile award. Most recently, the film won the international competition at Helsinki’s DocPoint Festival.

Shukla previously co-directed controversial Indian political documentary “An Insignificant Man.”

Shukla said: “ ‘While We Watched’ is my love letter to journalism. It’s an urgent newsroom horror film — there is a story of hope...

Several months after making a hostile takeover bid for New Delhi Television (Ndtv), one of India’s most trusted news sources, the Adani Group will control nearly 65 of the company.

The Adani Group is chaired by billionaire Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia and the third richest man in the world.

In August, Adani’s Amg Media Networks Limited (Amnl) acquired some 29 of Ndtv indirectly, by buying out loans to the company and after an open offer to acquire more of the company, owned a 37 stake in the company, becoming the single largest shareholder in the process.

Ndtv had said in a statement at the time that the loan buyout “was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the Ndtv founders.”

On Friday, Ndtv founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy decided to sell 27.26 of their 32.26 share in the company to Amnl, it was disclosed in Ndtv regulatory filings.

Award-winning Indian journalist Ravish Kumar has stepped down from his role at broadcaster Ndtv, which is in the process of a hostile takeover by Indian billionaire Guatam Adani.

His resignation came one day after Ndtv co-founders Prannoy and Radhika Roy resigned as directors of Rrpr Holding, one of the backers of Ndtv. On November 22, the Adani Group started the process of acquiring an additional 26 stake in the broadcaster, which following the acquisition of a 29.18 stake announced in August, gives it a controlling 55 share.

Ndtv put out a statement in August saying that Adani’s move to acquire the shareholdings had been undertaken without first consulting the co-founders, who hold a 32.26 stake.

Founded by Prannoy and Radhika Roy in 1984, Ndtv is regarded as one of the last media platforms in India prepared to criticize the Indian government and ruling Bjp party’s policies. Adani is a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Documentary about the state of news in India to receive its European premiere at IDFA.

Paris-based documentary specialist Cat&Docs has acquired international rights to Vinay Shukla’s While We Watched, which is receiving its European premiere at International Documentary Festival Amstedam (IDFA), after winning prizes at Toronto and Busan.

Cat&Docs will represent the film in all territories excluding the UK, US, India and Qatar, which are handled by the filmmakers.

The documentary goes inside the newsroom of India’s Ndtv — one of the country’s most trusted news channels — and follows veteran journalist Ravish Kumar, who is known for...

Korean filmmaker Lee Jeong-hong’s A Wild Roomer and Shivamma, from India’s Jaishankar Aryar, were the winners of the New Currents Awards at the close of an encouragingly busy Busan International Film Festival.

A Wild Roomer, about a 30-something drifter, picked up multiple honors at the festival, also taking the Netpac Award, Critic b Award and Kbs Independent Film Award. Set in an Indian village, Shivamma is about an illiterate woman who falls for a pyramid selling scheme.

The Kim Jiseok Awards went to Scent Of Wind, from Iranian filmmaker Hadi Mohaghegh, which also played as Biff’s opening film, and Alteration from Uzbekistan’s Yalkin Tuychiev.

Other winners included Aamir Bashir’s The Winter Within, which took the Kb New Currents Audience Award, and Vinay Shukla’s documentary While We Watched, which was presented with the Busan Cinephile Award (see full list of winners below...

81 more titles have been added to the festival programme.

Bella Ciao, a documentary about the anthem that symbolized the Italian partisans’ fight against facism in the Second World War, is one of 81 new titles added to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) programme.

Directed by Giulia Giapponesi, Bella Ciao will have its international premiere at IDFA, having first played at Italy’s Bari International Film Festival in March.

Scroll down for the Luminous, Frontlight feature additions

Adapted from Italian folk tune ‘Mondine’, the song ‘Bella Ciao’ has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent weeks, partly as a show of...

After 11 days and over 200 films, Toronto International Film Festival finally came to a close on Sunday. On the ground, much of the buzz seemed geared towards upcoming fall releases, like “Glass Onion: Knives Out”, “The Fabelmans”, “The Woman King”, and “Pearl.” TIFF juries seemed to think otherwise, however. Independent productions have taken home most of the awards, with a good half of them being Asian identifying filmmakers took home near half of the awards. Of these, at least 25 percent identify as Asian Canadian, and at least three do not identify as cisgender male. The range has also been notable. With productions ranging from Mongolia (“Snow in September”) to Palestine (“A Gaza Weekend”), from sleepy towns in Canada (“Riceboy Sleeps”) to film sets in the Philippines (“Leonor Will Never Die”), the list of movies reveals the sheer diversity in the continent of Asia – and all the diasporas accompanying it.

But without further ado,...

TIFF 2022Independent Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja’s ‘To Kill a Tiger’ and Indian filmmaker Vinay Shukla’s ‘While We Watched’ (or ‘Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar’) both won Amplify Voice Awards at TIFF.Suresh NellikodeA scene from To Kill a Tiger | Image courtesy: TIFFAs the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) came to a close on Sunday, September 18, two India-based movies bagged top honours for their directors for bravely taking up challenging subjects. Independent Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger and Indian filmmaker Vinay Shukla’s While We Watched (or Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar) both won Amplify Voice Awards. To Kill a Tiger is a documentary, made with the help of the National Film Board of Canada, that took 8 years to shoot. The film tells the story of a 13-year-old girl from a poor family in a village in Jharkhand who is brutally gang-raped. The...

Canada’s Riceboy Sleeps wins Platform Prize.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans has bolstered its awards season prospects by winning the TIFF People’s Choice Award on Sunday (September 18).

The award is a highly reliable bellwether of Academy voter attention. In the last ten years every TIFF audience award winner has earned a best picture Oscar nomination and three have gone on to win awards season’s top prize: Nomadland in 2021, Green Book in 2019, and 12 Years A Slave in 2014.

The Fabelmans earned a rapturous reception at its world premiere on September 10 and immediately announced itself in the awards race,...

After two weeks and dozens of movies, the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close. At Sunday’s Awards Breakfast, all eyes were on the People’s Choice Award, which is frequently a bellwether for the Oscar race. For the past decade, every winner of the coveted award has gone onto receive a nomination for Best Picture. Competition for the People’s Choice Award was stiff, with critical darlings such as “Women Talking” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” vying for the top prize. But ultimately, Steven Spielberg’s crowd pleasing, semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans” was named the winner.

“Above all, I am glad I brought this film to Toronto,” Spielberg said in a statement. “This is the most personal film I have made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF intimate and personal for me and my entire ‘Fabelmans’ family.”

“2022 brought...

Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical coming-of-age story “The Fabelmans” took home the Toronto International Film Festival’s people’s choice award, providing a major boost to its awards season chances.

TIFF’s people’s choice award is one of the most reliable predictors of eventual Oscar success. In past years, winners such as “Green Book” and “Nomadland” went on to capture the best picture prize at the Academy Awards. Other recent recipients, including “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “La La Land” and “Jojo Rabbit,” were best picture nominees and major forces during awards season.

Since the people’s choice category was created in 1978, seven recipients went on to win best picture at the Oscars — five of which were in the past 20 years.

“As I said on stage the other night, ‘Above all, I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto!’ This is the most personal film I’ve ever made,...

Click here to read the full article.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans picked up the top People’s Choice honor Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival, which wrapped up its 47th edition.

Spielberg’s latest film grabbed TIFF’s top audience award, which is often a barometer of future Academy Award nominations. “This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family,” the director said in a statement following the announcement of his win.

The Fabelmans, co-written with Tony Kushner, marks the first time the Oscar winner debuted a movie at the Toronto Film Festival. The childhood memoir will be released Nov. 11 via Universal. Another autobiographical family film about a director’s childhood, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, was named the top audience prize winner in...

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” has won the 2022 TIFF People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards breakfast on Sunday in Toronto.

Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” took the first runner-up slot, while Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” was the second runner-up.

The People’s Choice Documentary award went to Hubert Davis’ hockey doc “Black Ice,” while the Midnight Madness award was won by Eric Appel’s entirely fake rock biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

Also Read:

‘The Fabelmans’ Film Review: Steven Spielberg’s Sweet Memory Piece Picks Up Steam as It Goes

In a year with an abundance of high-profile, crowd-pleasing movies in the TIFF lineup, other films in competition for the award included Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King,...

The Toronto International Film Festival returns in September 2022 for its 47th edition — 11 days of international and Canadian cinema, special events featuring some of the biggest names in film, and TIFF’s Industry Conference, offering diverse and innovative perspectives on the art and business of film. The full programme can be found Here.

Here is a selection of Asian titles:

Features A Gaza Weekend

A Gaza Weekend

Basil Khalil ­- Palestine, United Kingdom, 2022

A Long Break

Davit Pirtskhalava – Georgia, 2022

A Man of Reason

Jung Woo-sung – South Korea, 2022

Alam

Firas Khoury – France, Tunisia, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, 2022

Autobiography

Makbul Mubarak – Indonesia, France, Singapore, Poland, Philippines, Germany, Qatar, 2022

Beyond the Wall

Beyond the Wall

Shab, Dkheli, Divar – Iran, 2022

Broker

Hirokazu Kore-eda – South Korea, 2022

Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook – South Korea, 2022

Hunt

Lee Jung-jae – South Korea, 2022

In Her Hands

Tamana Ayazi, Marcel Mettelsiefen – United States of America, Afghanistan, 2022

Joyland

Joyland

Saim Sadiq – Pakistan, 2022

Kacchey Limbu

Shubham Yogi – India,...

I met with documentary filmmaker Vinay Shukla, on Saturday, June 17, 2017, at AFI Docs 2017, to discuss his feature debut, An Insignificant Man (which I also reviewed), co-directed by Khushboo Ranka (she did not attend the festival). The movie tells the story of Arvind Kejriwal, a populist politician in New Delhi, India, who rose […]...

The Indian political documentary “An Insignificant Man” has played at more than 30 film festivals all over the world since premiering at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. But in India — the one country where the documentary is bound to have its strongest impact — censors are doing their best to prevent the film from being seen.

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India’s Central Board of Film Certification (Cbfc), the country’s national censor board, has refused to grant co-directors Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla an exhibition certificate, a crucial document needed for every theatrical release in India, until the filmmakers get written permission from the politicians featured in the documentary — including the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Last week, Ranka and Shukla’s lawyer informed them that the censor board hasn’t set a hearing date for their appeal of the decision.

A populist outsider with a drain-the-swamp agenda mounts a bold challenge to entrenched political elites in An Insignificant Man, making some powerful enemies in the process. The maverick Indian politician Arvind Kejriwal may have cosmetic parallels with Donald Trump, but his principles are much more at the Bernie Sanders end of the spectrum. Indeed, the debutant directing duo behind this imperfect but sporadically gripping documentary portrait, Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, are keen to portray Kejriwal as an Indian version of Sanders.

A solid festival presence in recent months, An Insignificant Man is currently generating headlines at home after India’s...

It’s over but it opened L.A.’s newest spring season of unlimited international film screenings all over the city throughout the month of April and into Cannes.

The 15th annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (Iffla) opened with “Lipstick Under My Burkha” and its impressive ensemble cast of Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur in a dramatic, but irreverent and vibrant film about women and faith. The film premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival 2016 and has been lighting up the festival circuit, including just winning the Audience Award at the Glasgow Film Festival. Director Alankrita Shrivastava is confirmed to attend and additional talent to be confirmed.

“Lipstick Under My Burkha”

Iffla concluded on April 9 with a red carpet and gala that featured the Los Angeles premiere of Shubhashish Bhutiani’s “Hotel Salvation” starring Adil Hussain who was in attendance, as well as the...

A Billion Colour Story wins audience award for best narrative.

The 15th annual Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles (Iffla) wrapped on Sunday with a screening of Shubhashish Bhutiani’s Hotel Salvation and the presentation of the awards.

Bobby Sarma Baruah’s The Golden Wing (pictured) won the grand jury prize for best feature, while Karishma Dube’s Devi earned the best short prize.

In the audience awards, Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s A Billion Colour Story won best feature (narrative) and An Insignificant Man by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla took the best feature (documentary) prize.

Amar Kaushik’s Aaba was named best short.

The 15th annual Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles took place from April 5-9 at Regal L.A. Live.

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The 15th edition of the Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles (Iffla) features two world premieres, five North American premieres.

The Los Angeles premiere of Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burka and Shubhashish Bhutiani’s debut feature Hotel Salvation bookend the festival, set to run from April 5-9.

Iffla top brass announced a line-up of narrative and documentary features on Tuesday that includes two world premieres, five North American premieres and five Us premieres.

The festival includes several directing debuts. Actress Konkona Sen Sharma will screen A Death In The Gunj, while Ananya Kasaravalli brings The Chronicles Of Hari and Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy will present Billion Colour Story.

Highlights are expected to include the Us premiere of Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla’s documentary An Insignificant Man, about polarising political figure Arvind Kejriwal and his progressive Aam Aadmi Party at the 2013 Delhi state elections.

“As India’s diverse array of talented filmmakers continues to be recognised around...

Current head of film at Britdoc appointed to executive role.

Luke W Moody, currently head of film at Britdoc, has been confirmed as the new director of film programming at Sheffield Doc/Fest.

He will join Doc/Fest on 14 November, and will attend Idfa with festival director Liz McIntyre and the Doc/Fest team as he sets about building and shaping the film programme at Doc/Fest (whose next edition takes place 9-14 June 2017.)

Moody, who was born and grew up in the Sheffield area, arrives at Doc/Fest with a wealth of experience in the documentary arena.

At Britdoc, he has managed the organisation’s international documentary funding schemes including The Bertha Britdoc Journalism Fund and the Pulse Britdoc Genesis Fund, as well as the impact distribution releases for Britdoc Films.

Moody co-founded the Frames of Representation festival at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and Something Real digital documentary viewing service. He also recently...

The Toronto International Film Festival has nearly completed its slate announcement this year — expect a few stragglers to be announced in the coming days, but this is about the size of it — rounding out its lineup with today’s announcement of its Docs, Midnight Madness, Vanguard and Tiff Cinematheque picks. And what a group this is, including plenty of returning favorites and some very exciting new names.

Tiff’s Docs section features a collection of works from award-winning directors including Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog. Leonardo DiCaprio even pops up for a “rousing call to action on climate change” in “The Turning Point,” made in collaboration with Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens and already picked up by National Geographic.

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The beloved Midnight Madness section offers...