News

Slovak director Robert Kirchhoff is in postproduction with his documentary “All Men Become Brothers,” which follows the life of Czechoslovak politician Alexander Dubček (1921-1992), Film New Europe reports.

Dubček was leader of Czechoslovakia from January 1968 to April 1969. He attempted to reform the communist government during the Prague Spring, but was forced to resign following the Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968.

The film is produced by Kirchhoff’s Atelier.doc and coproduced by Radio and Television Slovakia, Czech Republic’s Endorfilm and Czech Television.

Kirchhoff’s past titles include “Normalization,” which received a Special Mention from the Between the Seas jury at Jihlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival.

Production took place from 2018 to 2021 on locations in Kyrgyzstan, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey and Slovakia. Well-known figures from Czechoslovak and international politics and culture, such as Italian politician Romano Prodi, Italian novelist Umberto Eco, Czech novelist and playwright Pavel Kohout, and Czech director...

Industry event to showcase four completed films, eight works in progress and 10 pitches.

New feature projects by Piotr Domalewski, Jan Holoubek and Daria Woszek are among 22 films being presented at the 10th edition of industry event Polish Days, which will run from July 24 – 26.

Polish Days takes place during the New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław, presenting new projects to festival programmers, sales agents, producers and distributors.

This year’s event will feature closed screenings of four completed films, the pitching of 10 projects in development and eight works in progress.

The closed screenings section will offer sneak previews of Łukasz Machowski...

Jury includes ‘Amores Perros’ screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga.

Transilvania International Film Festival has revealed the 12 films that will screen in its official competition and its international jury.

Each title competing for the Transilvania Trophy will receive its Romanian premiere at the 20th edition of the festival, which is set to take place in-person in the city of Cluj-Napoca.

They include What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?, by Georgian filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze, which played in competition at the Berlinale, and Lili Horvát’s Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time, which was Hungary’s Oscar submission.

Ben Wheatley’s ‘In The Earth’ is playing in the main competition of the Swiss festival.

UK director Ben Wheatley’s in The Earth is among the competition contenders in this year’s 20th Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival which will take place as a hybrid edition from July 2-10 in Switzerland.

It is taking place under the interim directorship of Loïc Valceschini before a new head, Pierre-Yves Walder, takes up the reins in July.

The event includes 55 films, eight short films, eight immersive installations and two TV productions. Among the special guests will be legendary VFX artist Volker Engel,...

This year’s gathering, which was held purely online, has handed out its most high-profile awards to the Spanish production directed by Fon Cortizo and to Daria Woszek’s Polish effort. As announced in a previous article (see the news), for its 2020 edition, the Gijón International Film Festival was held on the Ficx.TV, festhome and filmin platforms, and in addition, it split its official selection into three strands, dubbed Retueyos, Albar and Tierres en Trance. In Retueyos, the Best Film Award was split between 9 fugas by Galician helmer Fon Cortizo and Marygoround, the colouristic feature debut by Poland’s Daria Woszek, in accordance with the verdict of the jury, consisting of Pilar Monsell, Michael Zam and Mihai Chirilov. Furthermore, the Best Actor gong was conferred upon the lead in Poppy Field, Romanian thesp Conrad Mericoffer, while the Distribution Award...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Telepool finds its new CEO in Jan Frouman, Edinburgh TV Festival recognizes freelance advocate Adeel Amini, Fantasia announces its winners, Spain’s Weird Market goes hybrid and Noah Media Group provides a first look at its upcoming documentary “Finding Jack Charlton.”

Hiring

German licensing, distribution and production company Telepool has appointed Jan Frouman as the company’s new CEO and managing director effective immediately, replacing André Druskeit, who stepped down to pursue other opportunities.

Working out of the company’s Munich offices, Frouman will head development, financing and production activities for the company, as well as overseeing Telepool’s subsidiary companies including Global Screen, video game publisher Wild River Games, EuroVideo Medien and Netleih.

In 2018, Telepool was acquired by Will Smith and Swiss investor Elysian Fields. In 2019, Smith, his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and partners Miguel Melendez and Ko Yada launched Westbrook Studios, where Frouman...

Marygoround Photo: Courtesy of Fantasia

Described by the jury as a "visually arresting aria of a uniquely female experience," Marygoround has won Best Film at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival with its director, Daria Woszek, receiving the Best Director award, it was announced today. Star Grazyna Misiorowska won Best Actress for her "tour de force performance...a masterclass in spellbinding stunning nuance, heart-stopping vulnerability, emotional authenticity and true comic genius." Misiorowska also received a special mention from the New Flesh jury, which focuses on début films: "This dynamic lead performance took a protagonist from virginal innocence to wild, untamed experience, requiring great skill and deft to transform a character from scene to scene and often within a single scene."

Speaking to Eye For Film, Woszek described herself as "overwhelmed and happy and shocked" and praised Fantasia for the experience they had managed to create online, giving her the chance to interact with viewers.

John Carpenter recevied Cheval Noir Lifetime Achievement Award.

Daria Woszek’s Polish comedy Marygoround was a big winner at the 24th Fantasia International Film festival on Wednesday night (September 2), earning the Cheval Noir Award for best film, director and actress.

Grazyna Misiorowska stars in the story about a virgin approaching the menopause who undergoes hormone therapy and experiences an awakening when her free-spirited niece shows up.

’Marygoround’: review

Brea Grant’s US entry 12 Hour Shift won best screenplay, and Jacky Heung was awarded the best actor prize for Hong Kong’s Chasing Dream.

The festival reported more than...

Early on in Daria Woszek's daring dark comedy, we see heroine Maria (Grazyna Misiorowska) visiting her doctor. It's her 50th birthday and she's struggling with hot flushes brought on by menopause. Deeply uninterested in her experience, he asks if there has been any change in her condition - if she is, in fact, still a virgin. it's a medically irrelevant question but represents the sort of intrusiveness that many female viewers will be accustomed to, and it reflects attitudes to Maria more widely. She's a freak, a tragic figure, or just someone whom there is no point in paying heed to at all. There is an implication that her personhood is defined by her sexual status, and that that, in turn, is determined by what she does with her body.

From Maria's perspective, things look very different.

Superficially, this is a story about awakening and change, but the clue is in the.

There aren't very many films made about women over a certain age (especially in America). That's because financiers tend to be overwhelmingly male, and they want to see movies made about and for them, by people who also look like them. Marygoround is not one of those movies. Playing virtually via the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival, Marygoround is directed by Daria Woszek. The film centers on Mary, an older woman and grocery store clerk with a fabulous red dye job that belies the fact that she's a deeply religious woman, as well as a virgin who collects statues of the Virgin Mary (a representation of herself) obsessively. comes to visit often and becomes more or...

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

Marygoround Photo: Courtesy of Fantasia

This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival is notable for including a number of films about the life experiences and sexual identities of women in their fifties and up, a subject that has long been neglected by mainstream cinema. Among the standouts is Daria Woszek’s Marygoround (known as Maryjki in its native Poland) which tells the story of Maria (Grazyna Misiorowska), a grocery store clerk who experiences an intense sexual awakening when she is prescribed hormone treatment for menopause, causing her to question a great many things about her life. Although English is not her first language and no translator was available, Daria bravely agreed to discuss the film, including the complex ways that it uses symbolic imagery and its protagonist’s fantasies to explore issues around femininity and how older women are shaping their lives within and, sometimes, in opposition to today’s world.

The Canadian virtual festival will include more than 100 features and 200 shorts.

Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival has announced a third and final wave of feature films, as well as details of its panels, talks, tributes and special events.

This year’s virtual edition of the Montreal-based festival, running from August 20 to September 2, will include more than 100 features and more than 200 shorts.

Among the latest titles added to the line-up are Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, getting its world premiere, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, getting its international premiere, and Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A, which will be the closing night film.

In the social distancing era of Covid-19, Fantasia International Film Festival is coming online with a virtual edition taking place August 20th–September 2nd, and their final wave of programming includes a massive wave of films, a plethora of panels, and a masterclass and lifetime achievement award for the Master of Horror himself, John Carpenter.

To learn more, visit Fantasia's website and check out the full final wave announcement below:

6 August 2020 // Montreal, Quebec – The Fantasia Film Festival announces today a massive new assortment of feature films for its 24th edition, along with details on scheduled panels, talks, tributes, and special events.

Fantasia 2020 To Present A Lifetime Achievement Award To Filmmaker John Carpenter, Close With Kiwi Action Comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A

Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, Daria Woszek’s Marygoround, and Tran Thanh Huy’s Rom are among...

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs August 20-September 2 and is being held digitally this year due to the pandemic, has unveiled its final lineup.

The fest has also announced that revered genre filmmaker John Carpenter will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and will host an online masterclass as part of its virtual events.

New pics selected include Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’a, which closes the fest, the world premiere of Persepolis co-director Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, and Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut short Night Shifts.

Further events will include talks with Mike Flanagan and Mick Garris, Simon Barrett, and Dennison Ramalho with José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe.

As reported previously, this year’s fest will open with Neil Marshall’s horror The Reckoning. The online screenings, which will run via Festival Scope and Shift72’s virtual screening platform,...

Less Is More, the program launched by Le Group Ouest to help young helmers such as Maimouna Doucouré (“Cuties”), has unveiled the trailer of Daria Woszek’s “Marygoround” which will have its world premiere at South By Southwest.

The film, which was developed within the framework of Less Is More, revolves around Mary, a lonely grocery store worker who lives a rather dull life in a small town. On the eve of her 50th birthday, Mary’s life soon begins to take on a totally unexpected turn when she overdoses on the hormone patches prescribed by her doctor and receives the visit of a free-spirited niece. Mary’s senses and imagination suddenly come alive.

“The film is a quirky, darkly comic tale starring a stunning screen newcomer Grażyna Misiorowska, (and it tells the) story of a woman reclaiming her own body,” said South By Southwest in its presentation of “Marygoround...

‘I’m A Killer’ director Maciej Pieprzyca returns with jazz musician biopic ‘Ikar’.

New projects from I’m A Killer director Maciej Pieprzyca and Tower. A Bright Day. filmmaker Jagoda Szelc are among the 23 titles selected for Polish Days, the industry event for Polish cinema running during New Horizons International Film Festival (July 25-August 4).

The event will take place on July 30 – August 1, with over 200 industry guests expected to attend.

The line-up includes five completed features, eight projects in a works-in-progress presentation and 10 titles in development.

Pieprzyca is attending with works-in-progress title Ikar, a biographical film about the blind 20th century Polish jazz musician Mieczysław Kosz.

Projects selected by Annecy, Haf, Los Cabos, New Horizons, Thessaloniki and Malaga festivals will pitch to industry.

The Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) has announced the festivals and projects that will take part in its Goes to Cannes showcase (May 18-20).

Five international film festivals have been invited to programme work-in-progress projects actively seeking a sales agent, distributors or a festival selection.

The festivals taking part in the event this year are: Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), Los Cabos International Film Festival, New Horizons International Film Festival,...

A total fo 16 film teams have been selected for this year’s lab.

Less Is More, the European development lab backed by Creative Europe’s Media Programme, has named the 16 film projects and 12 ‘development angels’, the mentors who will nurture the projects, taking part this year.

This year’s selected projects are: Raed Andoni, Exiled From Paradise (Palestine); Harry Ayiotis, Salt On Wound (Cyprus); Michal Bielawski, Accidents (Poland); Andreea Bortun, Blue Banks (Romania); Tudor Botezatu, The Mind Patrol (Romania); Kim Hiorthoy, U.P. 2019

(Norway); Nelicia Low, God Sister (Singapore); Jasna Nanut, Birdie(Croatia); Mark Noonan, When They All Vanish (Ireland), C.

Ten projects selected for Creative Europe-backed scheme.

Ten projects have been selected for the second Less Is More (Lim) development programme backed by Creative Europe.

The scheme is open to teams producing their first, second or third features, and also encourages submissions from theatre, documentary and the wider visual arts world.

Brittany-based Le Groupe Ouest, a partner of the TorinoFilmLab and co-founder of the Cross Channel Film Lab, runs the initiative.

All 16 projects are at script stage and heralding from countries such as the UK, Romania, Greece and Poland.

Each project team will be paired with a story editor who will help them integrate creative ideas within the budget.

The programme includes three one-week residential workshops, the first of which will take place in Brittany (March 7-14), the second in Romania (initially at Cluj-Napoca from May 30–June 3, where the projects will be presented to an audience of film professionals, and then in Transilvania...