News

Nakom is the first ever feature film in the Kusaal language and the first Ghanaian narrative film to have screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Following the world premiere in Berlin, the film made its U.S. debut at the New Directors/New Films festival in New York. Last month, Nakom was nominated for the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for films budgeted less than $500,000. On the eve of their Berlin premiere, co-directors Kelly Daniela Norris and T.W. (Trav) Pittman said they were most excited to screen in Nakom, the rural village in northern Ghana where they lived for four […]...

Nakom is the first movie produced in Ghana’s Kusaal language, made by directorial duo T.W. Pittman and Kelly Daniela Norris after the former’s Peace Corps stint in the village of Nakom. Filmed in Nakom and starring non-actor villagers, the film follows Iddrisu (Jacob Ayanaba) as his father’s death forces him away from the modernized world of a med student and back to his farming village home.

Thanks to the non-actor cast and no-nonsense direction, it’s easy to be swept up in what seems like a mixture of documentary and narrative. This is how people live in the remote Ghanan villages. The subject carries such a wealth of inherent style that the camera barely has to do anything. A casually beautiful film, it takes your breath unexpectedly with great swatches of bright green crops or the midnight tracking of a moonlit bicycle ride.

By letting social tradition unfold before us,...

There aren’t enough films in this world like Nakom.

Billed as the “first feature film made in the Kusaal language,” Nakom is at once a perfect entry point into the world of African cinema and yet also something far more universal in its thematic reach. Set in the titular African farming village, Nakom first introduces us to Iddrisu as he runs to class in a much more modern city in Ghana. However, things quickly shift to the rural locale he was raised in when he discovers that his father has died, leaving him as ostensibly the leader of the very household he left, to face the traditionalism that still runs throughout the rural cultures within Africa.

Directed by T. W. Pittman and Kelly Daniela Norris, the film is playing as part of the New Directors New Film series at the Film Society Of Lincoln Center, and is a real...

Exclusive: New agreement covers Us, UK and Mexico.

The Eye On Films (EoF) network has signed a new library deal that will see its films made available to users of streaming platform Mubi in the UK, Us and Mexico.

EoF is a support support platform for the distribution of first and second feature films, launched by Wide in 2011 with the support of the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme.

The network now has more than 120 international partners including 52 festivals and 50 distributors in more than 40 countries with a catalogue of more than 70 films.

New EoF titles in the Berlinale selection includes Stephan Richter’s One Of Us; Those Who Jump by Moritz Siebert, Estephan Wagner and Abou Bakar Sidibe; Who is Oda by Kamilla Pfeffer;You’ll Never Blone by Alex Anwandter; and Nakom by Kelly Daniela Norris and Tw Pittman.

A new festival that has been added to that list is Split Film Festival, which runs for...

Read: 2016 Berlinale Completes Competition Program With Spike Lee's 'Chi-Raq' and More As the first-ever Ghanaian film to be accepted into the Berlin International Film Festival, Kelly Daniela Norris and Tw Pittman's "Nakom" surely has to be feeling the pressure. The film tells the story of Iddrisu, a talented up-and-coming medical student who is forced to come back to his native village of Nakom in northern Ghana after the sudden death of his father. Learning of the insurmountable debt that the family has accumulated since his time away at university, young Iddrisu must make a drastic choice between what his future will hold. Will he take on the burden of patriarchy and stay with his family or return back to the life that he has made for himself in the city? The film is slated to have its world premiere at the Berlinale on February 15. Watch the exclusive trailer above.

Films include Shepherds and Butchers with Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il.

The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.

A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.

Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself, in a case...

Films include Shepherds and Butchers, starring Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and forced to make films.

The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.

A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.

Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself...

As if new films from the Coens and Jeff Nichols weren’t enough, the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has further expanded their line-up, adding some of our most-anticipated films of the year. Mia Hansen-Løve, following up her incredible, sadly overlooked drama Eden, will premiere the Isabelle Huppert-led Things to Come, while Thomas Vinterberg, Lav Diaz, André Téchiné, and many more will stop by with their new features. Check out the new additions below, followed by some previously announced films, notably John Michael McDonagh‘s War on Everyone.

Competition

Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)

Portugal

By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)

With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova

World premiere

Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)

Iran

By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)

With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol

International premiere

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary

Italy / France

By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...

GeniusThe films included in the lineup for the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place between February 11 - 21, are starting to be announced.Opening FILMHail, Caesar! (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, USA)COMPETITIONBoris without Béatrice (Denis Côté, Canada)Genius (Michael Grandage, UK/USA)Alone in Berlin (Vincent Perez, Germany/France/UK)Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols, USA)Zero Days (Alex Gibney, USA)Berlinale SPECIALThe Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (Morgan Neville, USA)The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger (Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth, bartek Dziadosz, Tilda Swinton, UK)Where to Invade Next (Michael Moore, USA)PANORAMAJá, Olga Hepnarová (Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda, Czech Republic/Poland/Slowak Republic/France)Junction 48 (Udi Aloni, Israel/Germany/USA)Les Premiers, les Derniers (Bouli Lanners, France/Belgium)Maggie's Plan (Rebecca Miller, USA)Nakom (Kelly Daniela Norris, Tw Pittman, Ghana/USA)Remainder (Omer Fast, United Kingdom/Germany)S one strane (Zrinko Ogresta,...

Other titles include Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan, starring Greta Gerwig, and David Farr’s The Ones Below, starring David Morrissey.Scroll down for full lists

The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has announced the first titles in Panorama – its strand that comprises new independent and arthouse films that deal with controversial subjects or unconventional aesthetic styles.

The initial features include three from the UK, with John Michael McDonagh returning to Berlin for the world premiere of War On Everyone.

The film, a satire centred on two corrupt cops in New Mexico, stars Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Peña, Theo James and Tessa Thompson.

McDonagh was previously in Panorama in 2011 with The Guard and 2013 with Calvary.

Also from the UK is David Farr’s The Ones Below, which revolves around a couple expecting their first child who discover an unnerving difference between themselves and the couple living in the flat below. Receiving its European...

The Austin Film Society, founded in 1985 by Texas native Richard Linklater (“Boyhood,” “School of Rock”), has announced the winners of this year’s Afs grants. Awarding over $100,000 in cash and $30,000 in goods and services to artists working across the Lone Star State, the grants have rewarded a total of $1.5 million to Texan filmmakers in the past two decades. Among the winners are feature-length narrative filmmakers Kelly Daniela Norris and T. W. Pittman’s for “Nakom,” Daniel Levin for “Bagatelle,” Daniel Laabs for “Jules of Light and Dark,” and Paul Gordon for “Wolves,” which was also given the new Powered by Dell Technology Grant which includes state-of-the-art equipment from Dell. For more information on membership, other opportunities for Texas-based filmmakers, and tickets to Afs’s frequent screenings, visit austinfilm.org. Inspired by this post? Check out our Texas audition listings!