News

Top prize at the Panafrican Film Festival, Fespaco, has gone to Alain Gomis' Today (Tey, or Aujourd'hui), which had its European première at last year's Berlinale. The French-Senegalese co-production stars Us musician Saul Williams, who took the Best Actor award for his peformance as a man revisiting familiar places on what is to be the last day of his life. It mixes poignant observation with astute criticism and musings on the ephemeral nature of existence.

It may not be as well known within the industry as some of its European counterparts, but Fespaco certainly outdoes them in terms of audience, packing 15,000 people into the Stade du 4-Août stadium in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) for its awards ceremony. It also stands out this year for having juries all of which were led by women.

Taking second prize at the fesival was Algerian Djamila Sahraoui's Yema, which explores the subject of religiously-inspired terrorism through.

Senegalese director Alain Gomis' 3rd feature film titled Tey (previously titled Aujourd'hui, or Today in English), will make its New York premiere at the 3rd annual New Voices In Black Cinema Festival, presented by BAMcinématek and ActNow Foundation, which starts today, running from February 15 - 18, at Bam Rose Cinemas. The film, which stars Saul Williams and Aissa Maiga, follows a man named Satche (played by Williams) during the last 24 hours of his life. Wide Management picked up the film to represent and shop at the Marché du Film at Cannes, and it appears to have been sold to a...

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none From Ikiru to The Bucket List, there are already a number of movies made about people who find out they have a short time to live. However, I can safely say that none of them are quite like Today (Aujourd'hui). Set in Senegal, director Alain Gomis' meditation on the inevitability of death glides between surrealism, music, tragedy and documentary-like realism, resulting in a unique, touching and surprisingly laid-back film. Though the disparate ingredients occasionally clash and confuse the tone, Today never quite loses footing thanks to the powerful, subdued presence of the very talented slam poet/music artist (and now actor), Saul Williams. In the film, Satche (Williams) wakes up one day with the knowledge that he...

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

Senegalese director Alain Gomis' 3rd feature film titled Tey (previously titled Aujourd'hui, or Today in English), made its world premiere in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, and has continued to tour the international film festival circuit since then (February). The film, which stars Saul Williams and Aissa Maiga, follows a man named Satche (played by Williams) during the last 24 hours of his life. Wide Management picked up the film to represent and shop at the Marché du Film at Cannes, and it appears to have been sold to a few territories in Europe (but not the USA yet unfortunately),...

Leading independent film sales company, Wide Management, has picked up 2 new projects to represent and shop at the Marché du Film at Cannes: Senegalese director Alain Gomis' 3rd feature film titled Aujourd'hui (or Today in English, also known as Tey), which premiered at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February; and Patrik-Ian Polk's The Skinny - Polk being the director of Lgbt-themed indie films Noah's Arc:Jumping the Broom and Punks, as well as the creator of the Noah's Arc series for the Logo network. Polk's Skinny has already been screening in theaters around...

Revision

There'll be more notes and roundups over the next few days, but before tonight's presentation of the Bears, I thought I'd rank the films I managed to see at this year's Berlinale. Note that these are not awards predictions but rather personal preferences, for what they're worth. In order (for the moment):

Outstanding

1. Barbara (Christian Petzold), Competition (see the notes and roundup).

2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes), Competition (notes and roundup).

3. Revision (Philip Scheffner), Forum.

Very Good

4. Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Forum (notes and roundup).

Good

5. Sister (Ursula Meier), Competition.

6. Death Row (Werner Herzog), Berlinale Special.

7. War Witch (Kim Nguyen), Competition.

8. Aujourd'hui (Alain Gomis), Competition.

9. Everybody in Our Family (Radu Jude), Forum.

10. Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers), Panorama Dokumente.

11. Golden Slumbers (Davy Chou), Forum.

Just Above The Middle Line

12. Mercy (Matthias Glasner), Competition.

13. Captive (Brillante Mendoza), Competition (notes and roundup).

14. Francine (Brian M Cassidy and Melani Shatzky), Forum.

Shadow Dancer

It's been a good week for festival news junkies. Sundance has opened, Rotterdam's full schedule is now online, Cannes has named Nanni Moretti as President of the Jury for the 65th edition in May, and the Berlinale's been rolling out lineup after lineup. Today's addition: "With seven more films, the Competition program of the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival is nearing completion. To date it includes 22 films, of which 17 are vying for the Golden and Silver Bears. 18 films will celebrate their world premieres in the Competition of the Berlinale 2012."

So, the story so far:

À moi seule (Coming Home). France. By Frédéric Videau (Le fils de Jean-Claude Videau, Variéte Francaise). With Agathe Bonitzer and Reda Kateb. World premiere.

Bel Ami. Great Britain. By Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod (feature debut). With Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci. World premiere / Out of Competition.

En kongelig affære...

Andrea Riseborough in James Marsh's Shadow Dancer Robert Pattinson/Bel Ami, Michael Fassbender/Haywire: Berlin Film Festival 2012 Below is the list of the latest movie additions to the Berlin Film Festival's Official Competition line-up: À moi seule (Coming Home). France. By Frédéric Videau (Le fils de Jean-Claude Videau, Varieté Française). With Agathe Bonitzer, Reda Kateb. World premiere. Bel Ami, Great Britain. By Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod (feature debut). With Robert Pattinson (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, Breaking Dawn Part 2, Eclipse, New Moon, Twilight, Remember Me, Water for Elephants, Cosmopolis), Uma Thurman (Henry & June, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Gattaca, Playing the Field), Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, Dans la maison, Sarah's Key, Love Crime, Nowhere Boy, Tell No One, Gosford Park, The Horse Whisperer, Mission: Impossible), Christina Ricci (Speed Racer, Fear and the Loathing in Las Vegas, The Opposite of Sex,...