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The Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival has unveiled the projects selected for its new Kviff Central Stage showcase. Fourteen projects from eight countries in Central Europe are seeking co-production partners, financing, sales, distribution or festival premieres. The projects come from established filmmakers with extensive festival pedigrees, including Andreas Horvath, Nader Saeivar and László Csuja.

The projects, which are in various stages of development, production or postproduction, will be showcased through conversations about the filmmakers’ career paths and co-production possibilities across the participating countries.

The projects will also have access to post-production opportunities through a partnership with studios Upp and Soundsquare, while also being eligible for the €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.

Films that meet the criteria for the Czech Audiovisual Fund’s 35% digital production incentive will secure an additional 15% direct reduction on comprehensive audio-visual post-production services from both studios.

Hugo Rosák, the head of Kviff Industry Office, said: “We introduced this...

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s Industry Office has unveiled films selected for this year’s new Kviff Central Stage showcase. The 14 projects from 8 different Central European countries, which are at various stages of development and seeking co-production and financing opportunities, include projects from established filmmakers such as Andreas Horvath, Nader Saeivar and László Csuja.

The projects will be showcased at Kviff through interactive conversations about the filmmakers’ career paths and co-production possibilities across participating countries. Additionally, the projects will gain access to exclusive post-production advantages through a partnership with studios Upp and Soundsquare, while also being eligible for the €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.

Films that meet the criteria for the Czech Audiovisual Fund’s 35% digital production incentive will secure an additional 15% direct reduction on comprehensive audio-visual post-production services from both studios

“We introduced this new format to address a notable gap in the Central European film landscape,” said Hugo Rosák,...

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s industry strand has unveiled 14 projects from Central Europe taking part its new co-production platform Central Stage.

The 14 projects include new work in development, production or post-production from filmmakers such as Andreas Horvath, Nader Saeivar and László Csuja.

Scroll down for ful list of projects

Iranian director Nader Saeivar brings the German-Turkish co-production Hijamat,which is edited by Palme d’Or winner and long-time collaborator Jafar Panahi. Saeivar won the audience award at Venice last year for Witness (2024) and best screenplay at Cannes for the Panahi-directed3 Faces. The film is now in production and seeking production and distribution partners.

Exclusive: The Potsdam-based Erich Pommer Institute (Epi) has announced the 15 female producers from 12 countries selected for the fourth edition of its female leadership program Series’ Women.

The initiative, aimed at increasing the visibility and industry exposure of female producers and female-driven projects, offers opportunities to build professional networks as well as leaderships skills.

Consisting of five modules, it will takes place from November 2024 to April 2025 online and in cities across Europe. Activities include participation at key European series markets, TV Drama Vision presented by Göteborg Film Festival, Sweden and Series Mania Forum in Lille, France.

They will also receive 1:1 pitching coaching and curated mentoring from experienced industry professionals and participate in online diversity training to guide them when hiring managers or decision makers for their companies.

The program addresses the topic of gender equality and diversity at both an individual and organizational level in the belief this will make...

Sonja Prosenc’s Family Therapy tells the story of a well-to-do Slovenian clan and the cracks that begin to emerge in their perfectly constructed world. The Kralj family lives in isolated splendor within their sleek modern abode, surrounded on all sides by towering windows that offer views of the surrounding forest yet also reflect their own self-imposed separation. This insular dynamic is disrupted by the sudden arrival of Julien, the long-lost son of patriarch Aleksander, who was invited to join this eccentric group for mysterious reasons of his father’s devising.

Prosenc’s film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, hinting at influences from satirists like Yorgos Lanthimos through her sharp-edged social commentary. She examines the facades adopted even within families and what happens when forces disrupt long-held facades. The Kraljs seem to have constructed an immaculate exterior, but upon Julien’s entrance, subtle cracks soon emerge that suggest deeper vulnerabilities beneath the surface.

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Noomi Rapace is teasing her portrayal of Mother Teresa in the upcoming film “Mother,” in which the multi-faceted Swedish talent tackles the role of the Catholic saint when she was just an ordinary woman.

Speaking at the Sarajevo Film Festival this week, where she’s part of a competition jury headed by Paul Schrader, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Prometheus” star said she was drawn to the offbeat portrait of Teresa because she wasn’t interested in doing a conventional biopic. “She was no saint,” Rapace said. “She’s a quite complex character.”

“Mother,” which marks the English-language debut of North Macedonian filmmaker Teona Strugar Mitevska, will follow seven days during a pivotal moment in the life of the revered saint, when she decides to leave the Loreto Entally convent in Calcutta and launch her own order.

“She’s waiting for permission from the Vatican to go out on her calling,...

After a world premiere in Tribeca’s international narrative competition, Slovenian director-writer Sonja Prosenc brings her third feature, the social satire “Family Therapy,” to contend in Sarajevo. The filmmaker’s latest provides an absurdist spin on the premise of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Teorema,” as the arrival of a handsome, young stranger disrupts the dynamics of an unpleasant, nouveau riche Slovenian family. While a fun watch for most of its run, Prosenc allows the narrative to spin out of control, running on past several natural endings. As with the director’s previous films “The Tree” and “History of Love,” all shot by the talented Mitja Ličen (“Small Body”), the glorious cinematography, strong acting and breath-taking production design provide some compensation for the flaws of the screenplay.

The striking opening moments, featuring a smoking car that bursts into flames along the side of a road and a family of three scrambling to safety,...

Slovenian filmmaker Sonja Prosenc is prepping her fourth feature, an untitled drama about “sisterhood and female liberation” that follows on the heels of her Tribeca premiere “Family Therapy,” a biting social satire-cum-family drama that has its European premiere in competition this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

She’s also co-developing the dark comedy-horror series “Little Yugoslavia” with North Macedonian filmmaker Teona Strugar Mitevska, which the duo will be pitching at the Bosnian fest.

Describing her next feature as “a drama with thriller elements,” Prosenc said the film is structured like a puzzle, where the narrative arranges each piece until it gradually constructs the worlds of three women. Set in Slovenia and Italy, it follows their separate lives as they move toward an inevitable convergence, their interconnected stories slowly assembling and culminating in a dramatic collision.

Prosenc said the movie will “explore themes of freedom, sisterhood and the unpredictable power...

For a richly pedigreed event that is intimately woven into the fabric of its host city, the Sarajevo Film Festival could be forgiven for resting on its laurels and choosing its 30th edition as an opportunity to look back — to reflect on its storied beginnings during the four-year siege that all but reduced the Bosnian capital to rubble in the early-1990s.

Instead, the organizers are introducing sweeping changes that will alter the look and feel of the event moving forward, with the nucleus of festival activities shifting from its historic home in the heart of Sarajevo’s old town to the modern part of the city.

Festival director Jovan Marjanović, who joined the Sarajevo fest two decades ago as a fresh-faced high-school graduate, tells Variety that while this year’s event will certainly pay homage to the past, festival leadership is “fully focused on the future,” adding: “I think...

CineLink Industry Days, the industry platform of Sarajevo Film Festival, has selected nine projects for its 2024 edition; and appointed Ishak Jalimam as its new head.

Jalimam will work with Masa Markovic, who continues as head of industry for the third year. He replaces Amra Baksic Camo, who had run CineLink since its inception in 2003, and will now focus on developing new projects under the Sarajevo Film Festival umbrella.

Scroll down for the full list of CineLink projects

A graduate of the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts, Jalimam is founder and president of Bosnian production company Realstage Productions, through which he...

The Sarajevo Film Festival will debut 19 feature films across its four competition strands during its 2024 edition, running from August 16 to 23.

A total of 54 films will compete for the festival’s Heart of Sarajevo awards. The festival’s four competition sections for feature, documentary, short, and student films will also screen nine international, three European, and 3 national premieres. This year marks Sarajevo’s 30th edition.

Announcing today’s batch of titles, Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival, said: “Presenting these 57 premieres, alongside approximately 15 more films in the In Focus and Open Air programs that are yet to be announced, makes the Sarajevo Film Festival once again the place where the broadest audience, as well as film professionals and critics, can gain the most accurate image of film art in Southeast Europe, Ukraine, and the South Caucasus today,” said Jovan Marjanović.”

The festival said today that its programming team led...

The Sarajevo Film Festival, which focuses on films from Southeast Europe, the South Caucasus and Ukraine, has selected 54 films to compete for its Heart of Sarajevo awards. Three films play out of competition. The festival’s 30th edition will run from Aug. 16 to 23.

Jovan Marjanović, director of the festival, said the awards would “amplify voices from the region and bring them closer to the global audience.”

The festival’s four competition sections – for feature, documentary, short and student film – will feature 19 world, nine international, three European, 21 regional and three national premieres.

World premieres include Vuk Ršumović’s “Dwelling Among the Gods,” which plays in the feature film competition program, and Mirjana Karanović’s “Mother Mara,” which is a Gala Screening, playing out of competition.

Marjanović said the program makes the event “once again the place where the broadest audience, as well as film professionals and critics, can gain the most...

Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its four competition sections at its 30th edition (August 16-23), including five feature world premieres.

Eight films will play in the feature film competition, including the world premiere of Vuk Rsumovic’s Dwelling Among The Gods, about a young Afghan migrant woman who comes to Belgrade and learns her brother drowned in the river, so attempts to bury him under her full name.

Scroll down for the full feature selection

The film is a co-production between Serbia’s BaBoon Production, Croatia’s Kinorama and Italy’s Nightswim.

There is one out of competition title,...

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorama was released nearly 60 years ago, but the surrealist masterpiece still continues to inspire to this day. Following last year’s Saltburn, the latest film writer-director Sonja Prosenc (who previously helmed Slovenia’s Academy Awards submissions The Tree and History of Love) is finding inspiration with the 1968 classic. Family Therapy, a drama which follows a rich family, living in a literal glass house as their balance is disrupted by a new visitor, world-premiered at the Tribeca Festival this past weekend and we’re pleased to debut the first trailer and poster.

Here’s the synopsis: “You drive by a burnt-out car on the side of the road, family beside it, a catastrophe has obviously occurred – what do you do? If you’re the family in the fancy car listening to Slavoj Zizek interviews on your ride back from the airport, you drive on by. Who are...

by Abe Friedtanzer

Movies give us a window into a particular moment in time, opening on characters at a certain point in relationships with or without added context. It’s possible to form judgments based on how they act and react in given situations without knowing much – or anything – more about them. Slovenian director Sonja Prosenc offers a bizarre but deeply inviting portrait of a family still trying to figure out how it operates in Family Therapy, an off-kilter comedy that often says much more without words than it does with them…...

Projects will be presented during festival’s Industry Days section.

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has unveiled the projects that will be showcased during its Eastern Promises industry strand, which takes place on July 3-4.

27 film projects have been selected for Eastern Promises’ Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch and First Cut+ Works in Progress strands.

The most promising projects, selected by international juries, will receive awards worth a total of €115,000. The showcase of projects to industry professionals will take place during this year’s Kviff Industry Days.

Eleven fiction and documentary features have been selected for the Works in Progress strand.

Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s Eastern Promises industry platform has unveiled 27 film projects that will be showcased during its Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch and First Cut+ Works in Progress presentations. The most promising projects, selected by international juries, will receive awards with a total value of 115,000 Eur.

The showcasing of projects to industry professionals will take place in Karlovy Vary, during this year’s Kviff Industry Days on July 3 (Works in Progress and Works in Development – Feature Launch) and July 4 (First Cut+ Works in Progress).

For Works in Progress, 11 fiction and documentary feature films in the late stage of production or post-production from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa have been selected.

The following projects will compete for prizes of a total value of 100,000 Eur:

“Distances” (Poland)

Director: Matej Bobrik

Producer: Agnieszka Skalska...

Release

Maureen Duffy‘s 1966 book “The Microcosm” has been adapted as a film featuring two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson. In 1966 London, when homosexuality was still criminalized, The Gateways club in Chelsea offered a haven for women to dance, express themselves and love who they want. In the book, based on her own experience, Duffy examined if this gay bar, and those like it, really offered the freedom its patrons crave. In the film, Jackson, along with director Joe Ingham, draw parallels between the past and the present and explore the uncomfortable paradox that exists within queer spaces.

The Cheerio production featuring an original score by Helen Noir and animation by Rebecca L. Weil, opens at museum of British LGBTQ history, Queer Britain, London, on Oct. 12.

Duffy said: “The film is awesome. I am amazed I wrote these words all those years ago. I hope they still have a resonance today.

Exclusive: The Europe-based Pop Up Film Residency mentorship program has unveiled the filmmakers and mentors who will participate in its summer 2022 edition.

The program, which is among a number of feature development initiatives spearheaded by former TorinoFilmLab artistic director Matthieu Darras, consists of three-week residences focused on one project only in different locations across Europe.

Mentors for the upcoming edition include French director Lucile Hadžihalilović, who won San Sebastian’s Special Jury Prize last year for gothic psychological horror Earwig; Paraguayan filmmaker Marcelo Martinessi, whose debut film The Heiresses broke out with a Berlinale Silver Bear victory in 2018, and Marie Amachoukeli, a Caméra d’Or winner in 2014 for first film Party Girl, who is currently completing her first solo feature.

Confirmed feature directors joining the programme include Brazil’s Caru Alves de Souza, whose joint work with Raffaella Costa, My Name Is Baghdad won best film in the Berlinale...

Expanded shortlist of 10 films to be announced on December 16.

The Academy on Monday (7) confirmed that 93 countries have submitted films for consideration in the international feature film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.

Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants with Kwabena Gyansah’s Azali, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, and Umid Khamdamov’s Hot Bread, respectively.

Earlier this year, the Academy board voted to rename the category formerly known as foreign language film, and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.

The shortlist will be announced on December 16. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars will be unveiled on January 13, 2020, and the Oscars...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the full list of countries that have submitted a pic for consideration for the new International Feature Film Oscar category.

Here are the 93 nations and their hopefuls, in alphabetical order:

Albania, The Delegation, Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, Papicha, Mounia Meddour, director;

Argentina, Heroic Losers, Sebastián Borensztein, director;

Armenia, Lengthy Night, Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;

Australia, Buoyancy, Rodd Rathjen, director;

Austria, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, director;

Bangladesh, Alpha, Nasiruddin Yousuff, director;

Belarus, Debut, Anastasiya Miroshnichenko, director;

Belgium, Our Mothers, César Díaz, director;

Bolivia, I Miss You, Rodrigo Bellott, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Son, Ines Tanovic, director;

Brazil, Invisible Life, Karim Aïnouz, director;

Bulgaria, Ága, Milko Lazarov, director;

Cambodia, In the Life of Music, Caylee So, Sok Visal, directors;

Canada, Antigone, Sophie Deraspe, director;

Chile, Spider, Andrés Wood, director;

China, Ne Zha, Yu Yang, director;

Colombia, Monos, Alejandro Landes, director;

Costa Rica, The Awakening of the Ants,...

Festival to run in Park City, Utah, from January 25-31.

The Slamdance Film Festival organisers have unveiled the narrative and documentary feature competition line-ups, as well as the new Breakouts section for the festival’s 25th edition in January.

The feature competition programme boasts 18 premieres, including 10 world, four North American, and four Us debuts from an array of global filmmakers hailing from Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Poland, South Africa, and the UK.

All competition films are feature-length directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1m, and without Us distribution. Films in both categories are eligible for the Audience Award,...

Personal stories and quests for truth dominated the Karlovy Vary film fest this year with Romanian Radu Jude taking the Crystal Globe and $25,000 for best film with his story of a director who refuses to compromise with Holocaust deniers, “’I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians.’”

The film, which also won the Europa Cinemas network prize and support, employs a meta-structure historical immersion to convey a little-known chapter of WWII in which popular general Ion Antonescu led a massacre of Jews. Jury member Mark Cousins said Jude’s film “points a finger at those people who are rewriting history.”

Producer Ada Solomon, in accepting the award with Jude, dedicated it “to every true patriot who dares to speak the truth about their country.” She cited parallels in the fight for the truth about Romania’s role in Holocaust with the honesty of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov,...

Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians has taken the top Crystal Globe award at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Czech fest’s Special Jury Prize went to Ana Katz’s Sueño Florianópolis, and Olmo Omerzu was named best director for the film Winter Flies.

See the complete list of winners below.

As previously announced, the festival, which ran from June 29 – July 7, presented a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema to actor and director Tim Robbins, and to Rain Man director Barry Levinson.

In all, the non-specialized festival, with three competitive categories, screened 236 films, with a total of 140,135 tickets sold, according to the festival. Among the films were 143 full-length and 38 short features; 55 documentary films (including 35 full-length). World premieres totaled 35 films, with eight international premieres and seven European premieres.

The fest was organized by Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary,...

Radu Jude’s latest film won the Grand Prix - Crystal Globe, whilst Robert Pattinson and Barry Levinson also collected awards.

The 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 29 - July 7) closed today with its annual awards ceremony.

Radu Jude’s latest film “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” won the Grand Prix - Crystal Globe, whilst Robert Pattinson and Barry Levinson also collected awards.

Scroll down for full list of winners

“Barbarians” was selected by grand jury comprising Mark Cousins, Zrinka Cvitešić, Marta Donzelli, Zdeněk Holý and Nanouk Leopold. The Crystal Globe comes with $25,000 prize money.

Radu Jude’s “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” won the Grand Prix Crystal Globe, the top jury prize at the 2018 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

The international competition winner tells of an artist who reenacts a real-life ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Romanian army in 1941, this time as an artistic installation.

The movie is a coproduction of six countries, led by Romania. In 2015, Jude won Berlin’s Silver Bear for best director for his film “Aferim!”

Also Read: Belarus to Enter Oscar Race After 22 Years With Indie Gem 'Crystal Swan'

The festival at Karlovy Vary, nestled in a spa town outside Prague, Czech Republic, also awarded a special jury prize to Ana Katz’s “Sueño Florianópolis,” and awarded a best director prize to Olmo Omerzu for “Winter Flies.” Mercedes Morán (“Sueño Florianópolis”) and Moshe Folkenflik (“Redemption”) won best actress and best actor, respectively.

Vitaly Mansky’s “Putin’s Witnesses,...

Ten world premieres are among the 12 films competing for the Crystal Globe at Central and Eastern Europe’s premier film festival, Karlovy Vary, which runs June 29-July 7. The competition titles include leading Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians,” an exploration of nationality and national trauma; Argentine Ana Katz’s family drama “Sueno Florianopolis”; and Canadian filmmaker Sebastien Pilote’s “The Fireflies Are Gone,” the story of a rebellious teen relationship.

A standout performance by Caleb Landry Jones dominates Peter Brunner’s dark Austro-American drama “To the Night,” while two filmmakers returning to Karlovy Vary present “noticeably more poetic new films”: Russia’s Ivan Tverdovsky (“Zoology”) will screen “Jumpman,” while Israeli director Joseph Madmony brings his third premiere to West Bohemia, the drama “Redemption,” co-directed by cinematographer Boaz Y. Yakov.

Czech Republic-based filmmaker Olmo Omerzu will screen a road movie centered on boyhood friendship,...

Dating back to 1948, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals in the world and has become one of Eastern and Central Europe’s most prominent events for cinema. The festival, which takes place in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic every July, has now announced the program of films for its Official Selection, East of the West, and Documentary competitions.

The Official Selection is composed of 12 films – ten world premieres and two international premieres – and is led by renowned Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s latest film I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians, which plays as an investigation on the large idea of nationality, and esteemed Argentinian director Ana Katz’s film Sueño Florianópolis, a family drama structured with elements of both trite and humorous storytelling. Among them, the line-up includes the complex romance The Fireflies Are Gone (by Canada’s...

Sonja Prosenc’s History Of Love scooped three prizes at the co-production forum.

Slovenia was the big winner at this year’s edition of the When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum with Sonja Prosenc’s second feature History Of Love picking up three awards.

The film’s producer Rok Secen, one of the co-founders of Ljubljana-based Monoo, was presented with the Eave Scholarship Award to participate in the European producers’ training programme.

In addition, Film London’s Helena Mackenzie and Rome New Cinema Network’s Alexia di Vito chose Prosenc’s contemporary psychological drama to receive their prize of a guaranteed place at the London Production Finance Market and Rome’s New Cinema Network next October.

Moreover, History of Love, which is currently structured as a Slovenian-Icelandic-Croatian co-production, was one of six projects to receive support from Re-act Co-Development Funding Scheme launched by the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund with the Slovenian Film Centre and th Croatian...

Films from 81 countries have been subitted for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

The Us Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed that 81 countries have submitted films for consideration for this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Paraguay is the only first-time entrant.

The figure is down on last year, when a record 83 countries submitted features and the eventual winner was Polish feature Ida, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski.

Nine finalists will be shortlisted, which will be whittled down to five nominees that will be announced on Jan 14, 2016.

The 88th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb 28, 2016, televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

The 2015 submissions are:

Afghanistan Utopia, Hassan Nazer

Albania Bota, Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci

Algeria Twilight of Shadows, Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina

Argentina The Clan, Pablo Trapero

Australia Arrows of the Thunder, Dragon Greg Sneddon

Austria Goodnight Mommy, Veronika Franz, [link...

Films from 81 countries have been subitted for this year’s Foreign Language Film Oscar, among them Felix and Meira, Under Milk Wood, Labyrinth of Lies and Sunstroke (click through for full list).

The Us Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed that 81 countries have submitted films for consideration for this year’s Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Paraguay is the only first-time entrant.

The 2015 submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Utopia,” Hassan Nazer, director.

Albania, “Bota,” Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci, directors.

Algeria, “Twilight of Shadows,” Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina, director.

Argentina: “The Clan,” Pablo Trapero, director.

Australia: “Arrows of the Thunder Dragon,” Greg Sneddon, director.

Austria, “Goodnight Mommy,” Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala, directors;

Bangladesh, “Jalal’s Story,” Abu Shahed Emon, director;

Belgium, “The Brand New Testament,” Jaco Van Dormael, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Our Everyday Story,” Ines Tanović, director;

Brazil, “The Second Mother,” Anna Muylaert, director;

Bulgaria, “The Judgment,” Stephan Komandarev, director;

Cambodia, “The Last Reel,” Sotho...

Films from 81 countries have been subitted for this year’s Foreign Language Film Oscar, among them Felix and Meira, Under Milk Wood, Labyrinth of Lies and Sunstroke (click through for full list).

The Us Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed that 81 countries have submitted films for consideration for this year’s Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Paraguay is the only first-time entrant.

The 2015 submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Utopia,” Hassan Nazer, director.

Albania, “Bota,” Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci, directors.

Algeria, “Twilight of Shadows,” Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina, director.

Argentina: “The Clan,” Pablo Trapero, director.

Australia: “Arrows of the Thunder Dragon,” Greg Sneddon, director.

Austria, “Goodnight Mommy,” Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala, directors;

Bangladesh, “Jalal’s Story,” Abu Shahed Emon, director;

Belgium, “The Brand New Testament,” Jaco Van Dormael, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Our Everyday Story,” Ines Tanović, director;

Brazil, “The Second Mother,” Anna Muylaert, director;

Bulgaria, “The Judgment,” Stephan Komandarev, director;

Cambodia, “The Last Reel,” Sotho...

Writer-director-producer Greg Sneddon.s Bhutan-set drama Arrows of the Thunder Dragon is Australia.s entry for the best foreign language film Oscar.

Set in the 1970s, the story follows brother and sister Kuenphen and Jamyang who live in a remote Bhutanese village where they learn traditional archery from their old warrior grandfather.

Their mother's sudden sickness gives Kuenphen the opportunity to explore the world outside the village while Jamyang must stay home to weave, cook and get married- a fate she is not willing to accept without a fight.

The self-financed film was shot on location in the Himalayan mountains with a cast of local highland village people and a Bhutanese crew including DoP Leki Dorji, none of whom had worked on a feature. Jill Bilock is the editor.

"I'm thrilled to bits," Sneddon tell If. A former Buddhist monk, he got the idea for the film while on a pilgrimage to the country.

Son Of Saul

The Academy has announced that eighty-one countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 88th Oscars.

The Holocaust drama, Son Of Saul, won the Grand Prix at Cannes in May.

Paraguay is a first-time entrant.

The 2015 submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Utopia,” Hassan Nazer, director;

Albania, “Bota,” Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci, directors;

Algeria, “Twilight of Shadows,” Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina, director;

Argentina, “The Clan,” Pablo Trapero, director;

Australia, “Arrows of the Thunder Dragon,” Greg Sneddon, director;

Austria, “Goodnight Mommy,” Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala, directors;

Bangladesh, “Jalal’s Story,” Abu Shahed Emon, director;

Belgium, “The Brand New Testament,” Jaco Van Dormael, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Our Everyday Story,” Ines Tanović, director;

Brazil, “The Second Mother,” Anna Muylaert, director;

Bulgaria, “The Judgment,” Stephan Komandarev, director;

Cambodia, “The Last Reel,” Sotho Kulikar, director;

Canada, “Félix and Meira,” Maxime Giroux, director;

Chile, “The Club,” Pablo Larraín, director;

China,...

Entries for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.

Submissions for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards are coming in and will continue until October, when the full list of eligible submissions will be revealed.

Last year, a record 83 countries submitted features and the eventual winner was Polish feature Ida, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski.

This year’s nominations must be submitted by Oct 1.

Nine finalists will be shortlisted, which will be whittled down to five nominees that will be announced on Jan 14, 2016.

The 88th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb 28, 2016.

Afghanistan: Utopia, Hassan Nazer

Albania: Bota, Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci

Austria: Goodnight Mommy, Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz

Bangladesh: Jalal’s Story, Abu Shahed Emon

Belgium: The Brand New Testament, Jaco Van Dormael

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Our Everyday Life, Ines Tanović

Brazil: The Second Mother, Anna Muylaert

Bulgaria: The Judgement, Stephan Komandarev

Cambodia:...

Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2016: 'Viva' with Héctor Medina. Multicultural Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2016 submissions Nearly ten years ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed a key rule regarding entries for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar;* since then, things have gotten quite colorful. Just yesterday, Sept. 16, '15, Ireland submitted Paddy Breathnach's Viva – a Cuban-set drama spoken in Spanish. And why not? To name a couple more “multicultural and multinational” entries this year alone: China's submission, with dialogue in Mandarin and Mongolian, is Wolf Totem, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud – a Frenchman. And Germany's entry, Labyrinth of Lies, was directed by Giulio Ricciarelli, who happens to be a German-based, Italian-born stage and TV actor. 'Viva': Sexual identity in 21st-century Cuba Executive produced by Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Viva tells the story of an 18-year-old Havana drag-club worker,...

Copenhagen’s Cph Pix (April 9-22) will be bookended by films from two Danish directors shooting in the UK – Jeppe Ronde’s Welsh teen suicide drama Bridgend [pictured] and Thomas Vinterberg’s Thomas Hardy adaptation, Far From The Madding Crowd.

The audience-focused Cph Pix will show 130 feature films during 420 screenings and events.

Festival director Jacob Neiiendam said: “Artistically it’s a strong year for Danish cinema.”

Indeed, three Danish debut features will screen at Pix. “The first features from Thomas Daneskov [The Elite], Anna Sofie Hartmann [Limbo] and Jeppe Rønde showcase a diversity and nerve we have been missing in our fiction films, and they are just the tip of the iceberg,” added Neiiendam.

“We always wanted the festival to be a platform for local films which wouldn’t play well with regular releases, and this year we’ve been flooded with films produced outside the standard support system - and they are good films.”

Opening night will also...

The Mumbai Film Festival (Oct 14-21), recently saved by public donations following a funding crunch, unveiled its line-up today including the India Gold Competition and International Competition for first features.

The festival also announced that Catherine Deneuve will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, while master classes will be held by DoP Christopher Doyle and director Mahamat Saleh Haroun.

The International Competition includes Benjamin Naishtat’s History Of Fear, Sudabeh Mortezai’s Macondo and Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court, fresh from its Venice success. The India Gold competition includes Bikas Mishra’s Chauranga, Avinash Arun’s The Fort (Killa) and Ms Prakash Babu’s Fig Fruit And The Wasps (see full list below).

Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic will head the India Gold jury, while the Dimensions Mumbai short film competition jury comprises directors Gauri Shinde and Homi Adajania, actors Satish Kaushik and Huma Qureshi and critic Rajeev Masand.

Key films outside the competition sections include Xavier Dolan’s [link...

The 16th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival announced its line-up in a press conference today.

Here is the complete list of films which will be screened at the festival:-

International Competition

Difret

Dir.: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari (Ethiopia / 2014 / Col / 99)

History of Fear (Historia del miedo)

Dir.: Benjamin Naishtat (Argentina-France-Germany-Qatar-Uruguay / 2014 / Col / 79)

With Others (Ba Digaran)

Dir.: Nasser Zamiri (Iran / 2014 / Col / 85)

The Tree (Drevo)

Dir.: Sonja Prosenc (Slovenia / 2014 / Col / 90)

Next to Her (At li layla)

Dir.: Asaf Korman (Israel / 2014 / Col / 90)

Schimbare

Dir.: Alex Sampayo (Spain / 2014 / Col / 87)

Fever

Dir.: Raphaël Neal (France / 2014 / Col / 81)

Court

Dir.: Chaitanya Tamhane (India (Marathi-Gujarati-English-Hindi) / 2014 / Col / 116)

Macondo

Dir.: Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria / 2014 / Col / 98)

India Gold Competition 2014

The Fort (Killa)

Dir.: Avinash Arun (India (Marathi) / 2014 / Col / 107)

Unto the Dusk

Dir.: Sajin Baabu (India (Malayalam) / 2014 / Col / 118)

Names Unknown (Perariyathavar)

Dir.: Dr. Biju (India (Malayalam) / 2014 / Col / 110)

Buddha In a Traffic Jam

Dir.