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The Dutch filmmaker best known stateside for The Vanishing and the River Phoenix Western Dark Blood died Saturday in Amsterdam. George Sluizer was 82. He won a Silver Bear at Berlin for his 1961 debut, the documentary short Hold Back The Sea, and returned to the festival four more times in the ensuing decades. Three of Sluizer’s films were nominated for the Golden Bear: The Commissioner (1998), John, The Knife And The River (1972) — both of which he also scripted — and Utz (1992). The latter won three awards at the Berlinale, including Best Actor for star Armin Mueller-Stahl. “We mourn the loss of a great filmmaker, who has been equally active in fiction and documentary film,” Berlin fest Director Dieter Kosslick said. “With his passion for filmmaking and exceptional versatility, George Sluizer will live on in our memories forever.”

Sluizer’s best known film remains The Vanishing (1988), about a man whose girlfriend goes missing...

Dutch director was best known for The Vanishing and River Phoenix’s last film, Dark Blood.

George Sluizer, the Dutch director best known for The Vanishing and Dark Blood, River Phoenix’s last film, died in Amsterdam on Saturday (Sept 20) following a long illness, according to Dutch media. He was 82.

“Sluizer had been ill for a long time. In 2007 he barely survived a ruptured artery and after that his health remained fragile,” according to Dutch public broadcaster Nos, quoting relatives.

The director, producer and screenwriter was born in Paris, where he attended the Idhec film academy.

He made his first film in 1961, Hold Back the Sea, a documentary that won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Up until the early 1980s, Sluizer produced and directed many documentaries and TV specials. He also worked as a producer on numerous films, including Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and Cancer Rising with Rutger Hauer.

As a writer...

Above: Pedro Costa's Horse Money

The Locarno Film Festival has announced their lineup for the 67th edition, taking place this August between the 6th and 16th. It speaks for itself, but, um, wow...

"Every film festival, be it small or large, claims to offer, if not an account of the state of things, then an updated map of the art form and the world it seeks to represent. This cartography should show both the major routes and the byways, along with essential places to visit and those that are more unusual. The Festival del film Locarno is no exception to the rule, and I think that looking through the program you will be able to distinguish the route map for this edition." — Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director

Above: Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France

Concorso Internazionale (Official Competition)

A Blast (Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece/Germany/Netherlands)

Alive (Jungbum Park, South Korea)

Horse Money (Pedro Costa,...