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Foster took part in the Reykjavik festival’s panel discussion about women’s progress in the film industry.

Iceland’s ninth Stockfish Film Festival got a high-profile boost with Jodie Foster participating in the Reykjavik festival’s panel discussion about women’s progress in the film industry.

Foster, the US actress, producer and director, is in Iceland shooting the fourth season of True Detective, and she joined producer Marianne Slot and actress Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir in the discussion, led by the new artistic director of Stockfish, Lamb producer Hrönn Kristinsdóttir. Kristinsdóttir started the panel started by stating, “In year 2000 a study...

To mark the release of Woman at War on 16th September, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray along with a signed poster for each winner.

This funny, smart and engaging film from acclaimed director Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men) is by turns heartwarming and hilarious featuring a stand-out performance by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir in the role of feisty female protagonist Halla.

To her friends, Halla leads a quiet and routine existence. But her happy and upbeat exterior hides a secret double life as a committed environmental activist. Known to others only by her alias ‘The Woman of the Mountain’, she secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry to protect the stunning highland landscape that is under threat. Just as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that will change everything. She will be forced to choose between...

Haugesund, Norway — Iceland’s “A White, White Day,” Denmark’s “Queen of Hearts” and Norway’s “Blind Spot” are among the five films that will compete for this year’s Nordic Council Film Prize, a prestigious film award aimed at promoting Nordic co-operation and environmental initiatives.

Sweden’s “Reconstructing Utøya” and Finland’s “Aurora” help round out the list, which was announced on Tuesday evening, during the opening of the New Nordic Films market at the Haugesund Film Festival.

Given on a permanent basis since 2005, the award includes a cash prize of Dkk 350,000 and will be attributed on October 29 as part of the Nordic Council Autumn Session in Stockholm. Previous winners include Joachim Trier’s “Louder than Bombs,” Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Of Horses and Men,” Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Hunt,” Dagur Kari’s “Virgin Mountain,” Pernilla August’s “Beyond” and Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist,” among others.

In order to qualify,...

In his new film Woman At War, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men) offers a funny, smart and thoroughly engaging story revolving around a woman’s solitary fight against the establishment in this politically charged drama comedy. Starring Halldóra Geirharõsdóttir (Sense8) and with a screenplay from Ólafur Egilsson and Benedikt Erlingsson, the film uses dry humour and a quirky style to tell an urgent tale about the importance of preserving Iceland’s natural beauty from the dangers of industrialism.

From the outside Halla (Geirharõsdóttir) leads a quiet and normal life as a respected choir conductor. In her spare time however, our heroine is a highly motivated and fierce eco-warrior who has been waging a singular war against a local aluminium factory by causing power cuts on regular sabotage missions. Known to others only by her alias ‘The Woman of the Mountain’, Halla soon has to choose between continuing her noble mission,...

Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir is brilliant in this jet-black comedy about a woman fighting to save the planet and adopt a child at the same time

To describe Benedikt Erlingsson’s sense of humour as “dry” is a bit like saying that things can get “chilly” as we get up towards the Arctic circle. Having conquered the theatre stages and TV screens of Iceland as a writer, director and performer, Erlingsson turned to feature films in 2013, where his brand of deadpan tragicomic humour once again struck a national nerve. His directorial feature debut, Of Horses and Men, earned several Icelandic academy Edda awards as it veered from quirky observation to bleak contemplation via a string of arrestingly surreal vignettes including an accidental human/equine three-way, and the sight of someone being pulled out of the body of a frozen horse.

Like its dramatic predecessor, Erlingsson’s latest offering was Iceland’s official...

An artful fable that examines what it really means to save the world, Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Woman at War” is the rarest of things: A crowd-pleaser about climate change. Combining Paul Schrader’s dire urgency with Roy Andersson’s droll brand of despair — to cite two other filmmakers whose work has wrestled with the maddening, quixotic idea of a single person trying to redeem an entire planet — Erlingsson has created a winsome knickknack of a movie that manages to reframe the 21st century’s signature crisis in a way that makes room for real heroism.

Halla (Halldora Geirharosdottir) is a 50-year-old choir director with a song in her heart, a smile on her face, and a second life as Reykjavik’s peskiest eco-terrorist. The film’s playful and surprising prologue introduces us to Halla as she uses her bow-and-arrow to topple some of the power lines that stretch across the...

Exclusive: Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster will direct, co-produce and star in an English-language remake of Woman at War, the spirited and eccentric eco-thriller that Iceland has officially submitted for the Foreign Language competition at the upcoming 91st Academy Awards.

Foster will reinterpret the role of Halla (played in the original film by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), a genial middle-aged music teacher hiding a secret life as an outlaw environmental activist with a grudge against the local aluminum industry that is despoiling the pristine Highlands of Iceland. Halla is escalating her one-woman campaign of sabotage when an unexpected letter arrives with news: her adoption application has been approved and a baby girl is awaiting her in the Ukraine.

It’s nature vs. nurture, so to speak, as the unlikely eco-avenger finds herself questioning her political convictions and destiny even as government agents hunt for her and an orphaned child awaits to fulfill Halla’s dream of motherhood.

Benedikt Erlingsson’s Icelandic title gathers momentum on award-winning run.

Icelandic filmmaker Benedikt Erlingsson’s eco-warrior tale Woman At War, which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week earlier this year, continued its prize-winning run at the Lübeck Nordic Film Days in northern Germany over the weekend, clinching four awards worth a total €25,000.

Its Colombian-born supporting cast member Juan Camilo Roman Estrada attended the awards ceremony in Lübeck’s historical theatre to accept the Ndr Film Prize, the Baltic Film Prize for a Nordic fiction film, the Interfilm Church Prize and the audience award.

It was the first time in the 60-year...

Director Benedikt Erlingsson’s second feature scoops $53,000 prize.

Tonight at a ceremony in Oslo, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson became the first director to win the Nordic Council Film Prize for both his first and second feature films.

This year’s winner was Woman At War, with Erlingsson sharing the $53,000 cash prize with co-writer Ólafur Egill Egilsson and his fellow producers Marianne Slot and Carine Leblanc from France’s Slot Machine.

Woman At War, which premiered at Cannes Critics Week and is Iceland’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar race, is about a middle-aged woman who becomes an eco terrorist to...

Madrid — Making good on the largely overlooked achievement of debut feature “The Demons,” Québécois Philippe Lesage’s “Genesis” swept the 63rd Valladolid Intl. Film Festival, winning its top Golden Spike, director and actor on Saturday.

One of Spain’s top three or four festivals, and a bastion of auteur cinema, Valladolid closed its official section Friday with an out-of-competition sneak peek screening of a preliminary version of Til Schweiger’s “Honey in the Head,” still to totally finalize post-production, starring Nick Nolte as a grandfather suffering Alzheimer who is taken off by his 10-year-old daughter to Venice where he lived the love of his life with his wife. Initial local press reactions speak of a “brilliant” performance from Nolte. Matt Dillon, who plays Nolte’s son was in Valladolid to accept an Honorary Spike for his career.

Valladolid’s main competition Audience Award, the prize many distributors are most interested in,...

Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.

Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.

Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.

Submitted films must be released theatrically...

Iceland has selected Woman at War (Kona fer i strid), directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, for consideration in the best foreign-language film category for the Oscars.

The pic is focused on an ecological activist who sabotages her country's electricity grid in a bid to preserve its breathtaking landscapes.

"An impressive follow-up to his strikingly eccentric debut, Of Horses and Men, Icelandic auteur Benedikt Erlingsson's second feature-length fiction, Woman at War, is another skillfully crafted, surreally told tale of man and nature — or in this case, woman and autre — but one with more emotional depth and sharper political undertones,"...

Iceland has selected Woman at War (Kona fer i strid), directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, for consideration in the best foreign-language film category for the Oscars.

The pic is focused on an ecological activist who sabotages her country's electricity grid in a bid to preserve its breathtaking landscapes.

"An impressive follow-up to his strikingly eccentric debut, Of Horses and Men, Icelandic auteur Benedikt Erlingsson's second feature-length fiction, Woman at War, is another skillfully crafted, surreally told tale of man and nature — or in this case, woman and autre — but one with more emotional depth and sharper political undertones,"...

by Nathaniel R

Why does anyone make movies about men? No, really. Female characters are inherently more fascinating. That's not only because they're allowed a wider range of feeling onscreen due to repressive gender norms which discourage men from embracing a full range of emotion, but because women's stories are more infrequently told and, thus, fresher. Herewith four recommended movies about women on the verge of either nervous breakdowns, or major crimes. 

Wildlife and Widows

Chris has already reviewed these intense dramas about abandoned wives here and here. We'll have plentiful opportunities to discuss them during Oscar season but I just want to second his surprise rave of Wildlife  because it's spot-on. I'll admit, though, that I'm ever so slightly cooler on Widows than I initially thought. I attended the very starry premiere (seriously that cast!) and the screening and movie were both so electric that I was like 'favorite of the fest.

From the start, “Woman at War” lets you know that you’re in for a ride that will be as arresting visually as it is offbeat conceptually.

The Icelandic film, which premiered on Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival, opens with gorgeous shots of the rugged Icelandic countryside, where a woman short-circuits a string of power lines with only a bow and arrow.

The middle-aged ecoterrorist then flees across the gentle hills, as music from a small combo plays in the background — literally in the background, because when she stops to catch her breath, we see the three musicians who are playing the score standing on the heath behind her.

Also Read: 'If Beale Street Could Talk' Review: Barry Jenkins Delivers Stunning Romance With Aftertaste of Injustice

That’s a wry touch that continues through the film: When Halla, played by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, gets some news on the phone that makes her emotional,...

A group of 165 European directors and screenwriters has signed a declaration at the Venice Film Festival calling on the European Parliament to pass new legislation that will overhaul copyright law for the online world.

Veteran filmmakers, including Mike Leigh, Paolo Sorrentino, Agnieszka Holland, Pawel Pawlikowski and Margarethe von Trotta, and newcomers such as Laszlo Nemes (Son of Saul, Sunset) and Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men, Women at War) signed the so-called Venice Declaration, calling on the European Parliament to adopt the legislation that “puts authors at the heart of copyright and of the European cultural and creative industries, including ...

A group of 165 European directors and screenwriters has signed a declaration at the Venice Film Festival calling on the European Parliament to pass new legislation that will overhaul copyright law for the online world.

Veteran filmmakers, including Mike Leigh, Paolo Sorrentino, Agnieszka Holland, Pawel Pawlikowski and Margarethe von Trotta, and newcomers such as Laszlo Nemes (Son of Saul, Sunset) and Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men, Women at War) signed the so-called Venice Declaration, calling on the European Parliament to adopt the legislation that “puts authors at the heart of copyright and of the European cultural and creative industries, including ...

Beta Cinema’s war effort has paid off with a raft of global deals for Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Woman at War.” The Cannes Critics’ Week entry has been acquired by Pandora for Germany and Austria, Teodora for Italy, Avalon for Spain, Scanbox for Sweden, Norway, and Finland, and Imagine for Benelux.

Further afield, Beta has sealed a China deal with Huanxi. In Australasia it has been acquired by Hi Gloss Entertainment/Limelight Distribution. The Icelandic picture had already been taken by Magnolia for North America and Picturehouse for the U.K., meaning that Beta Cinema has sold one of its key Cannes titles to most major territories.

“Woman at War” is Erlingsson’s second film after the critically acclaimed “Of Horses and Men.” It tells the story of a middle-aged woman, Halla, played by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, and her mission to protect the highlands of Iceland. Her environmental quest and efforts...

We now know what Cate Blanchett’s jury thought of the films that screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival: “a very strong year,” she said at the jury’s festival-ending press conference. And we know what buyers thought of the festival lineup: not bad, judging by the deals.

But what will Oscar voters think?

That’s always a tricky question, because the connection between the world’s most prestigious film festival and the world’s most celebrated film award can fluctuate wildly. In 2011, for example, three of the films that screened at the festival — “The Artist,” “The Tree of Life” and “Midnight in Paris” — landed Best Picture nominations, with “The Artist” winning.

But the success rate hasn’t approached that since then, although 2016 had an impressive across-the-board showing: One Best Picture nominee (“Hell of High Water”), the Best Foreign Language Film winner (“The Salesman”), six other nominees in the Best Actress,...

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Icelandic comedy-drama “Woman at War” after it premiered at Cannes Critic Week.

The film, Benedikt Erlingsson’s follow-up to “Of Horses and Men,” is a modern-day fable about an Icelandic activist taking on big industry. It won the Sacd prize, which recognizes a screenplay from the French writers guild, and also won the Critics’ Week Grand Rail d’Or.

Variety’s Jay Weissberg said in his review, “Is there anything rarer than an intelligent feel-good film that knows how to tackle urgent global issues with humor as well as a satisfying sense of justice?”

Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir stars as woman who single-handedly declares war on the local aluminum industry. She is prepared to risk everything to protect the pristine Icelandic Highlands she loves…until an orphan unexpectedly enters her life.

“‘Woman at War’ is a blast,” said Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles. “Director Benedikt...

Exclusive: One day after the acquisition of Nadine Labaki’s Cannes Competition entry Capernaum, UK buyer Picturehouse Entertainment has scored another of the festival’s best-reviewed movies in the shape of Critics’ Week hit Woman At War.

Picturehouse’s Clare Binns and Paul Ridd negotiated the deal with Thorsten Ritter of Beta Cinema. Benedikt Erlingsson’s (Of Horses And Men) Icelandic feature received raves last week and its German sales outfit has received plenty of interest.

The generically diverse movie, part comedy, part social-commentary, part action-thriller, revolves around a woman who goes on an environmental mission to protect the highlands of Iceland. Halldóra Geirhađsdóttir (Of Horses And Men) takes the lead role with cast also including Icelandic musicians Davíð Þór Jónsson, Magnús Tryggvason Eliasen and Ómar Guðjónsson, who play a Greek choir that represents the protagonist’s inner demons. Erlingsson co-wrote the script with Ólafur Egill Egilsson (Trapped).

A Woman...

Is there anything rarer than an intelligent feel-good film that knows how to tackle urgent global issues with humor as well as a satisfying sense of justice? Look no further than “Woman at War,” , one electric pylon at a time. Commentators will be tumbling over themselves trying to define what kind of movie this is: comedy, musical, social drama, politically correct issue film. It’s all those except the last; political correctness implies one-dimensional preaching that narrowly cuts off conversations, whereas, whereas “Woman at War” deftly centralizes a profound humanity from which vital issues are comfortably suspended. Bound to be one of the hot sellers at this year’s Cannes, the film is likely to do bang-up business worldwide.

“Of Horses and Men” deliciously played with narrative conventions even as it astonished with pictorial surprises that continue to induce smiles five years later. Erlingsson’s sophomore feature tells a more...

Benedikt Erlingsson’s follow-up to Of Horses and Men is a well-performed and stylish oddity, even if it relies too heavily on self-conscious comic effects

The Icelandic actor-turned-director Benedikt Erlingsson achieved cult status with his tremendous 2013 film Of Horses and Men, in which horses were the facilitators and objects of passionate human love. Now he comes to the Critics Week sidebar of Cannes with this well-turned, well-tuned oddity, that brings Erlingsson’s career as a feature director to its Difficult Second Album moment. It is confidently and rather stylishly made, with the same eccentric poise that distinguished his equine success, and the same sweeping sense of landscape. There is a very good performance from Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir as Halla, a fortysomething choir conductor. Erlingsson shows a great flair for ideas, scenes, tableaux. But is it all encumbered with quirkiness? Is the quirk-imperative something that weighs it down?...

An impressive follow-up to his strikingly eccentric debut, Of Horses and Men, Icelandic auteur Benedikt Erlingsson’s second feature-length fiction, Woman at War (Kona fer i strid), is another skillfully crafted, surreally told tale of man and nature — or in this case, woman and autre —but one with more emotional depth and sharper political undertones.

Starring Halldora Geirharosdottir as an ecological “terrorist” who sabotages her country’s power grid in order to preserve its breathtaking landscapes, the film starts off on rather playful footing but gradually builds into something more thrilling, and moving, as our heroine goes on the run from...

Icelandic filmmaker Benedikt Erlingsson, whose sophomore outing “Woman at War” is world premiering at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, is set to reteam with French producers Marianne Slot and Carine Leblanc on an untitled timely feature driven by women.

The film will take place during three different time periods, the antiquity, the ’70s and 2077, and follow women involved in battles over gender equality in show business. Slot and Leblanc are producing via Paris based Slot Machine.

Erlingsson said it will be his most ambitious and expensive project to date. Slot, who is part of We Do it Together, said, “gender equality has always been an issue in show business, even during the antiquity.”

Erlingsson’s latest film, “Woman at War,” is one of the most feminist movies hitting Cannes this year. The movie is a female-powered action comedy about Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), a middle-age woman who embarks on an environmental mission to...

The Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, the parallel section dedicated to directors’ first and second films, will open with Paul Dano’s drama “Wildlife” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan.

“Wildlife,” which world premiered at Sundance and was warmly received, was written by Dano and Zoe Kazan and is based on a novel by Richard Ford. Set in the 1960s, in the small town of Great Falls in Montana, “Wildlife” is told through the perspective of a 14-year-old boy who sees his mother taking her life in her own hands after his father takes a risky job in the nearby mountains and leaves them to fend for themselves.

Charles Tesson, the sidebar’s artistic director, described “Wildlife” as a “director-driven film in the vein of Jeff Nichols’ films.”

“‘Wildlife’ has a timeless dimension, as well as a social bent because it deals with the struggles of the white working...

17 projects selected for festival showcase.

A strong crop of works in progress projects are set to be presented at Goteborg’s Nordic Film Market, which runs Feb 1-4.

Source: Maipo Film

Queen Of Ice

The selection includes new films from Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men), Michael Noer (R), and Anne Sewitsky (Happy Happy).

Presentations of clips by the directors/producers will be made to the industry attendees in Goteborg.

Erlingsson will present his new film Woman At War, an “arthouse action film” about an Icelandic woman on an environmental mission. Noer will discuss his new Danish period drama A Better Life starring Jesper Christensen as an 1850s farmer. Sewitsky will unveil footage of her Sonja Henie biopic Queen Of Ice.

The 17 projects are:

Swoon, dir Mans Marlind and Björn Stein, prod Kristina Aberg (Swe) Bergman, dir Jane Magnusson, prods Mattias Nohrborg, Fredrik Heinig, Cecilia Nessen (Swe) Happy People, dir Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm, prod Jakob Høgel (Den...

Slovenian film Karpotrotter wins best documentary; No One’s Child gets audience awardScroll down for full list of winners

The 12th Zagreb Film Festival (Oct 19-26) ended with Georgian director Levan Koguashvili’s Blind Dates winning the main award of the festival, the Golden Pram and €4,000.

The Berlinale title, which also scooped prizes at Wiesbaden and Sofia, beat ten other first or second films by their directors.

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s Difret and Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses And Men received special mentions from the jury comprised of producer Čedomir Kolar, director Konstantin Bojanov, and cinematographer Cesar Charlone.

The same jury also awarded Romania’s Andrei Creţulescu the Golden Pram for Best Short Film and €1,000 euro for his 18-minute Kowalski.

In the documentary competition, the jury made up of film theoretician Alice Bardan, and directors Željka Suková and Petra Seliškar, gave the Golden Pram for Best Documentary and €1,000 to Slovenian film-maker Matjaž Ivanišin’s Karpotrotter, a lyrical...

This year’s European Film Awards are officially out of the gates with a not so lean 50 film submissions to select from. The 27th edition collects titles that date back to last year’s Venice and Toronto Int. Film Festivals moving into Sundance-Rotterdam-Berlin and finally Cannes of ’14. Among the 31 European countries represented, we’ve got likes of the Palme d’Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan leading the huge pack of contenders including Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida. Here’s the complete list of 50!:

Alienation

ОТЧУЖДЕНИЕ (Otchujdenie)

Bulgaria

Directed By: Milko Lazarov

Written By: Milko Lazarov, Kitodar Todorov & Georgi Tenev

Produced By: Veselka Kiryakova

Amour Fou

Austria/Luxembourg/Germany

Written & Directed By: Jessica Hausner

Produced By: Martin Gschlacht, Antonin Svoboda, Bruno Wagner, Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu & Philippe Bober

Beautiful Youth

Hermosa Juventud

Spain/France

Directed By: Jaime Rosales

Written By: Jaime Rosales & Enric Rufas

Produced By: Jaime Rosales,...

★★★★☆Iceland's official submission to this year's Academy Awards, Benedikt Erlingsson's eccentric equine comedy Of Horses and Men (2013) has finally been let off the reigns. A rural anthology of curious fables, Erlingsson uses the communion between humans and horses to depict and in turn attempt to understand Icelandic culture. By exploring the bond between man and horse, Erlingsson opens up a series of much larger questions. The film begins with what can only be described as an entirely unconventional love triangle. Solveig (Charlotte Bøving) is in love with the well-to-do Kolbeinn (Ingvar E. Sigurðsson). His true love is his Grana, an elegant colt with a graceful gait and icy white mane.

Icelandic director Bendikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses And Men won the Golden Iris Award, the top prize at the 12th Brussels Film Festival.Scroll down for full list of winners

Of Horses And Men won €10,000 ($13,600) and beat out 11 other competitors at the festival, which ran from June 6-14.

The drama about the deep relationships between members of a small Icelandic community and their horses debuted in Iceland last August and has toured the festival circuit ever since, beginning with the San Sebastian Film Festival in September. It was released in the UK last weekend.

Other notable winners included Swedish director Anna Odell’s The Reunion, which won the White Iris Award for best first film, as well as €2,500 ($3,400).

Odell’s feature about her imagined high school reunion picked up two other prizes at the festival, the Fedex Cinephile Award and the Rtbf TV Prize of Best Film.

Another film that scooped multiple awards was Farewell To The...

The recently wrapped Brussels Film Festival in Belgium has announced its jury award winners, headlined by Icelandic film "Of Horses and Men" taking home Best Film. The jury that selected the winning features was made up of industry stars with actors Hande Kodja, Anita Kravos, Olivier Rabourdin, Fabrizio Rongione and singer/songwriter Raphaël. Directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, "Of Horses and Men" tells six interwoven fables about rural life in Iceland. It was submitted for Foreign Language Oscar consideration, but was unselected.  Other awards distributed included the Best First Feature title, which went to Swede Anna Odell for "The Reunion," an imagined autobiography focusing on what could have happened if fine-artist Odell had gone to her class reunion, which she was not invited to in real life. The 13th Brussels Film Festival will take place from the 5th to the 13th of June 2015 in Flagey. Check out the full slate of awards.

Andrew Pulver and Peter Bradshaw join Xan Brooks for our weekly round-up of the big cinema releases. This week the team see race rile the Regency in Belle; watch Atom Egoyan bind himself to hokum with West Memphis Three drama Devil's Knot; set off on a sickly-sweet adventure with Ts Spivet; then gallop off into the strange and wonderful with Of Horses and Men.

Video a no-go? Listen to the audio version of this week's show Continue reading...

Peter Webber to head jury, David Puttnam to deliver lecture during fifth edition of the Ukranian festival.

Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice and the Camera D’Or recipient Party Girl [pictured] are among the 12 films selected for the International Competition at the fifth edition of the Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff), which runs July 11-19.

UK director Peter Webber will head the jury composed of Ukrainian film-maker Sergei Loznitsa, Israeli actress Jenya Dodina, Belorussian actress-director Olga Dykhovichnaya and French actor-critic Jean-Philippe Tessé.

The other films in the running for the Golden Duke award are:

Bryan Reisberg’s social and psychological drama Big Significant Things (Us)Levan Koguashvili’s feelgood film Blind Dates (Georgia)Director and painter Lech Majewski’s Field of Dogs (Poland)Alonso Ruizpalacios’ road movie debut Güeros (Mexico)Valentin Hotea’s social and psychological drama Roxanne (Romania)Anna Melikyan’s Kinotavr award-winner Star (Russia)Maximilan Erlenwein’s psychological thriller Stereo (Germany)Tribeca winner [link=nm...

Listening to Hollywood producer Michael Gruskoff talk about his experiences with some of the most legendary directors is an awe-inspiring learning experience. In a business so reluctant to taking chances that might represent financial loss, Gruskoff has placed it all on the line in order to support original voices and talent outside the norm. Although he admits that some of his projects were more successful than others, he remains certain that he always went with his gut in pursuit of talent. In that regard, he has undoubtedly overachieved.

The list of people he has worked with includes acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog , Jean-Jacques Annaud , Mel Brooks , and Stanley Donen. Gruskoff has always had an international taste and is unafraid of searching for stories abroad. Not surprisingly, he is a member of the Academy’s Foreign Language Film branch, to which he returned, invited by Mark Johnson, the head of the Foreign Language Committee, after serving there in the past. Once again he brings his expertise and eclectic global influences to support the Academy in its efforts to highlight World Cinema as a crucial element of the film industry.

Winner of a Cesar Award for the film Quest for Fire , and an outspoken defendant of the filmmaking craft over the cult of celebrity, Mr. Gruskoff is a humble creative person. Still fully in love with cinema despite the ups and downs the industry throws at anyone who attempts to make a living out of its unstable magic, it is incredible to see that passion for a great story is still Michael Gruskoff’s prime motivation. This writer had the privilege to talk to Mr. Gruskoff’s a couple weeks ago in Beverly Hills. Here is what he shared with us.

Carlos Aguilar: Could you tell us how you got started in the film industry?

Michael Gruskoff: I started in the N.Y. mailroom of the William Morris Agency and ended my agency career at Creative Management Associates. While at Cma I was representing Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda during Easy Rider, as well as Robert Redford, Natalie Wood ,Faye Dunaway, amongst others. I started getting the producing "bug" while representing Albert Ruddy and Irwin Winkler, having been instrumental in the packaging of some of their films. It was an exciting time in the industry, with the success of Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, and The Graduate, the studios were open to taking chances with new talent and ideas. Ned Tanen at Universal set up an independent division and asked me to run it but I opted to make an overall three picture production deal. I went into business with Douglas Trumbull, Michael Cimino, Sam Shepard and Steven Bochco and independently developed low budget scripts off the studio lot. It kicked off with Dennie Hopper's The Last Movie and Silent Running, a science fiction film dealing with environmental issues. I also developed a script called Conquering Horse with Cimino, which we were going to do in the Sioux language, a predecessor to Dances With Wolves, but it was tabled because of budget issues.

Aguilar: How did your interest in foreign cinema developed?

Gruskoff: Seeing Luis Buñuel , Ingmar Bergman , Vittorio De Sica, and Akira Kurosawa's films got me interested in foreign cinema. Another filmmaker that impressed me was Gillo Pontecorvo the director of The Battle of Algiers, which is one of the great anti-war movies. I was an agent at the time, and asked him if I could represent him. He said "Michael, I don't make that many movies, and you are not going to make any money with me because I'm not interested in working in the Hollywood system" I said, "It’s Ok, you can come to me if you're having trouble raising money for a project/" He said "That could work, but please do not send me any scripts." I was also Anouk Aimée's agent when she did A Man and a Woman with Claude Lelouch. She was responsible for me meeting many people in French and Italian cinema. She's a great lady.

Aguilar : What were your thoughts on the batch of films submitted this past year for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film? Were there any you consider highlights?

Gruskoff : You always look for a diamond that might be there. You have to see films from some 70 countries and many do not work, but being part of the industry I feel it's my way of supporting the Academy. You have to see four films a week, and with the addition of seeing new films. the internet, plus cable, and family etc. It's an overload of information. I did see a jewel of a film from Iceland called Of Horses and Men directed by Benedikt Erlingsson. We have been in touch and are in the process of discussing a project he is writing. He's a bold new voice.

Aguilar: How do you think this category benefits the industry and foreign filmmakers?

Gruskoff: Foreign filmmakers want us to see their films. They have stories they want to tell and we have the ability to make their dreams come through. It benefits us to see what's being made around the world because we are all part of the film community.

It's interesting talking to Bernardo Bertolucci about Italian realism and how those great Italian films and directors came together in the late 40s, 50s and 60s with Rossellini and Fellini , Visconti, etc. After Mussolini and the end of Ww 2 there was such exuberance that filmmakers ran into streets and started making movies. It was a great period in Italian Cinema.

Aguilar: Do you believe this nostalgia for those filmmakers influenced voters to choose The Great Beauty as the winner?

Gruskoff: Sorrentino is s very talented director and he carries the torch of Fellini. I liked The Great Beauty and I also loved his Il Divo

Aguilar: When watching these or any other film, as a producer do you look for something different in them from what a director or an actor might?

Gruskoff: I'm just hoping that when the lights go down I'll see a good film. I want to be entertained and have it not be a waste my time. When I saw 12 Years a Slave it blew me away. Steve McQueen is a great filmmaker because he puts all his passion on the screen and he doesn't cop out. It was real. I like movies that don't pander to the audience.

Aguilar: Would you say all of the 76 films submitted were on a level playing field, despite some of them being obscure titles and not having a festival run?

Gruskoff : I saw a real voice in Benedikt Erlingsson, Sebastian Lelio with Gloria , The Hunt , Omar , The Past , The Missing Picture , or The Broken Circle Breakdown.The directors have something to say and they know how to say it. An interesting thing is when you are seeing that many movies in an environment where the people like films, you really start getting into it. Like being at a Festival.

Aguilar: Now that you mention the Academy wants to promote foreign films, how do you perceive the role of world cinema in Hollywood today? Is it more influential?

Gruskoff: Definitely. 2/3 of the box-office comes from foreign markets. More films will be made with Asian and European talent to bolster their international box-office. Moviegoers in those countries like to see a character they can relate to as long as it's realistically part of the story.

Aguilar: On that note, can you talk about the international filmmakers you've work with throughout your career?

Gruskoff: I met Paul Verhoeven after seeing Soldier Of Orange, one of his earlier films. We developed a screenplay called Harry’s Tale. Unfortunately, it was ahead of its time and the budget was too high.

After seeing The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser by Werner Herzog , I called him. He mentioned Nosferatu the Vampyre , and said he wanted to remake it and it would be a film that "the likes of which the world has never seen before", and I told him "Please be my guest" [Laughs]. I got the financing from Fox and we made it for $900,000 starring Isabelle Adjani , Klaus Kinski and Bruno Ganz. . Werner is a tremendously innovative film director.

I briefly worked with Russian director, Andrey Konchalovskiy , we developed a story that never got to be a screenplay.

Following that, Jean-Jacques Annaud gave me the English translation of a book called “La guerre de feu”, which is Quest for Fire . The film became an international hit and it earned us 5 Cesar Awards including Best Picture. It was a great moment when Orson Welles handed me the award.

Aguilar: One of the great American directors you worked with was Mel Brooks, how did that relationship begin?

Gruskoff: I had briefly met Mel Brooks when I was working in the mail room at William Morris Agency in New York. At the time I was 22 and he was 32, and he had already achieved success in television.

Mike Medavoy worked as an agent at Cma during the early 70s and wanted me to come back and work with him. I wanted to continue producing, and he gave me the treatment for a movie called Young Frankenstein.written by Gene Wilder. I said I wanted to produce it , but Gene said that it was up to Mel Brooks to decide. Having met Mel Brooks earlier and since he actually remembered and liked me, he said "Let's do it ...get the deal." At that point in Mel's career, he made two terrific films, The Twelve Chairs and The Producers, both films did not make money and he was just starting to reignite his career with pre-production on Blazing Saddles.

I set Young Frankensteinn up at Columbia but they passed because the budget was too high and Mel, rightfully so, wanted to make it in Black & White. They were insisting that it should be in color. I gave it to my friend Alan Ladd Jr. at Fox and he said yes with an even bigger budget than we had. Seven years later Mel and I did My Favorite Year based on an idea I had. The original script was written by Norman Steinberg and Mel helped develop and executive produce it.. Peter O'Toole was a dream to work with and I learned a lot about filmmaking working with him.

Aguilar: Going back to the Foreign Language Academy Award, back when the shortlist and eventually the nominees were announced, there was much talk about several films being snubbed, including Gloria and The Past. Why do you think these weren't included?

Gruskoff: Gloria probably didn’t get nominated because it wasn’t as serious as some of the other films. We will be hearing a lot from its director Sebastian Lelio. On the other hand, it's about preferential viewing, Farhadi makes very specific movies. He is a serious filmmaker, and he is a very good storyteller. He is another director that tells it how it is. His films are like reading a book with great characters, It was one of my favorite films but it was a tough movie for some people. He is what he is, take it or leave it. He just does his thing.

Aguilar: Are there any filmmakers you would like to work with in the future? Anyone who has caught your eye?

Gruskoff: Sure, David O. Russell would be great. [Laughs]. Other great directors whom I would love to work with are Steve McQueen, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan , David Fincher, or Kathryn Bigelow ....who wouldn't!

Aguilar: Where do you think the industry is going, with all the awards campaigns and the more glamorous, less artistic, side of the business becoming so prominent?

Gruskoff: The industry has become more about celebrity. After seeing 12 Years a Slave at the Pacific Designer Center early on, I knew McQueen's work was just beginning. He was going to have to live between L.A. and N.Y.C. to attend press events and Q&As for the next six months....longer than it took to shoot the film. Fashion has also joined the fray to cross-promote films.

Just a few years ago when Sydney Pollack made a movie and the distribution people received the print, the filmmakers promotion schedule was not as arduous. Going to 2 or 3 major cities with the actors before the film opened. Now it has become so celebrity-driven with all the different outlets fighting for space, it has gotten out of hand. If you have Brad Pitt producing or Ben Affleck starring, you have an opportunity to promote your film on every talk show. It cuts your marketing costs, which are very expensive and getting even more expensive, even with the help of the internet.

Aguilar: What are your future plans? Looking back your career are there any regrets?

Gruskoff: As a producer you are always looking for a good story. I did Quest for Fire and my friends said “Don’t you have something better to do with your time? You will never get it made.” Miraculously it did get made. I’d like to do dark comedies in the vein of American Beauty or Fargo. It's about what turns you on, what gives you a rush, because it is such a difficult journey. You never know what's around the corner.

Exclusive: Benedikt Erlingsson’s San Sebastian and Tokyo winner inks multiple deals.

Guido Rud’s Buenos-Aires-based FilmSharks International has closed deals on Benedikt Erlingsson’s San Sebastian and Tokyo winner Of Horses And Men.

Fridrik Thor Fridriksson produced the ensemble country romance set in a horse-riding community, which was Iceland’s foreign language Oscar submission last season.

Deals have closed with Magic Hour for Japan, Maywin Films for Cis and Baltics, Alfaville for Mexico, Demiurg for former Yugoslavia and Film Europe for Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Rights have also gone to Little Big for Sweden, Angel for Denmark, Europa film for Norway.

FilmSharks previously licensed to Axiom for the UK, Bodega And Carlotta for France and Filmcoopi for Switzerland.

The 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24 – May 8) will feature 168 films, representing 56 countries. Among the films are 74 narrative features, 65 shorts, and 29 documentaries; including films by 45 female directors. SFIFF57 kicked off last night with the Opening Night presentation of Hossein Amini's Patricia Highsmith adaptation The Two Faces of January starring Oscar Issac, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst. The SFIFF57 Centerpiece film is Palo Alto, directed by Gia Coppola and based on the collection of short stories by James Franco (Coppola is expected to attend the screening and the Centerpiece Party that follows). The Festival will then conclude on May 8th with Chris Messina's drama Alex of Venice, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Messina and Don Johnson. Smells Like Screen Spirit has gotten a bit of a jump-start on SFIFF57 to prepare you with a preview of the films we have seen so far: Boyhood, The Double, Hellion, I Origins,...

Eskil Vogt’s debut feature Blind continues its winning spree by taking home Cph Pix’s New Talent Grand Pix.

The award, voted upon by an industry jury, comes with a €15,000 ($21,000) cash prize.

The jury said: “We could not resist the film’s originality and humour…We went this award to be a strong push to this filmmaker towards making his next film.”

Norway’s Vogt connected to the awards brunch via Skype for his acceptance speech and said: “It’s silly to compete in films, but it feels great to win.”

He thanked the festival for putting a spotlight on first-time filmmakers. “This prize says, ‘go make another film.’ It’s encouraging,” added Vogt.

Blind previously won the Europa Cinemas Label in Berlin and the World Cinema Screenwriting Award at Sundance.

The new talent jury gave unofficial special mentions to Luton and Casa Grande.

Meanwhile, the Politiken Audience Award, which comes with...

When director Benedikt Erlingsson concluded his introduction Monday night with a cheery “Bon appétit,” the audience at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater said, “Ruh roh.” The movie, after all, is called “Of Horses and Men.” Thankfully, the movie’s Icelandic, not French. Still -- to what culinary atrocities were we about to be subjected?None, it turns out, just one of the more delightful imports being showcased at the current New Directors/New Films (presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center), and a film that represents something that’s been missing from theaters for some time: a real horse movie, of the “Black Stallion” variety (or, to a lesser extent, “Seabiscuit”). Although largely a portrait of human foible from a horse’s-eye view, it probes the essence of horse-ness, arriving at the conclusion that there’s much more between them and us...

"That's the model of the film - telling stories of the countryside, from the valley, our society" Nearing the end of a whirlwind tour for his film Of Horses and Men - which goes on release in the UK on June 13 - I caught up with Benedikt Erlingsson in New York during his participation in the 43rd New Directors/New Films.

We discussed his Woody Allen moment in Central Park, how where Tom Cruise went in Oblivion, the snow followed, Orson Welles, and the influence theatre should have on filmmakers. He also praised the efforts by singers Björk and Patti Smith in raising awareness for the protection of the Icelandic Highlands at the benefit screening of Darren Aronofsky's Noah in Reykjavík last week.

Anne-Katrin Titze: Let's pick up where you left off with Eye For Film. Amber Wilkinson spoke with you about the film last year (read that interview...

Sixth edition of Denmark’s largest fiction festival will feature 160 feature films and more than 400 screenings and events.

Fenar Ahmad’s Flow [pictured] will receive its world premiere as the opening film of the sixth Cph Pix.

Flow will screen at the Imperial cinema on April 2 and also competes for the New Talent Grand Pix. The festival’s main prize will award €15,000 to one of ten debutants to feature at this year’s edition, including Paul Wright’s For Those in Peril and Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook. Competing for the prize are:

Jennifer Kent, The Babadook (Australia)Eskil Vogt, Blind (Norway)Felipe Barbosa, Casa Grande or the Ballad of Poor Jean (Brazil)Paul Wright, For Those in Peril (UK)Benjamin Naishat, History of Fear (Argentina, Uruguay)Michalis Konstantantos, Luton (Greece)Gillian Robespierre, Obvious Child (USA)Allessandro Rossetto, Small Homeland (Italy)Bas Devos, Violet (Belgium, Holland)Fenar Ahmad, Flow (Ækte Vare) (Denmark) [pictured]

Overall, this year’s...

Belfast Film Festival | Bradford International Film Festival | Drive In Film Club | The Double Q+A

Belfast Film Festival

The new films at this eclectic festival encompass everything from an Icelandic human/equine romcom (Of Horses And Men to a Kristin Scott Thomas/Daniel Auteuil marriage drama (Before The Winter Chill) to a Liam Neeson-narrated doc on Northern Irish motorbike racing (Road) – not to mention a Siberian heist movie involving telekinetic dwarves (The Distance). There are cult screenings, social-outreach documentaries, films in choice venues (The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou on the Belfast Barge), Dawn Of The Dead with a live score by giallo greats Goblin, and Mark Cousins and David Holmes sneaking a short snippet of their new film I Am Belfast.

Various venues, Thu to 5 Apr

Bradford International Film Festival

You want international? How about a British film about Chinese women in Dubai? Or a French study of...

The Strange Little Cat "Formally it's so inventive and you tend to, when you talk about it initially, just talk about the form. And you miss the point of how emotionally involving and revealing it is of all the people in this kitchen" In part two of our look at this year's New Directors/New Films season in New York, I speak with longtime selection committee member MoMA Department of Film Curator Jytte Jensen on Ramon Zürcher's family drama The Strange Little Cat, Benedikt Erlingsson's saga-infused Of Horses and Men, Jenny Slate's performance in Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child, Talal Derki's Syrian documentary Return to Homs and the connection with Hubert Sauper's Sudan doc We Come as Friends and Bertrand Tavernier's African-set Coup de Torchon.

Anne-Katrin Titze: I loved The Strange Little Cat.

Jytte Jensen: Yes, it's wonderful. It's one of the first films we invited,...

Iceland's most celebrated theater director, Benedikt Erlingsson, makes a film debut with Of Horses and Men, a wry, episodic tales of love and death in a small community all reflected on the eyes of the much coveted Icelandic horses. The film garnered directing awards at San Sebastian and Tokyo Film Festival last year. Despite their short and stocky physique, Icelandic horses are much prized for their stamina and hardiness and still factor largely into the lives of the inhabitants of the island nation. It's springtime and love is in the air. The setting is a windswept rural town and it's everyone's business what others are up to: they spy on each other with binoculars and gossip, not in words as much, but their frowning, weather...

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

Opening night’s screening was the debut film of Mexican filmmaker ---- The Amazing Catfish (Los Insolitos Peces Gato) the debut feature of Claudia Sainte Luce. It is close to autobiographical as it tells of 22-year-old Claudia living alone in a big city in Mexico. One night, she ends up in the emergency room with signs of appendicitis. There she meets Martha, lying on the bed next to her. 46-year-old Martha has 4 children and endless lust for life, in spite of her illness. Moved by the lonely young woman, Martha invites Claudia to come and live with her when she leaves the hospital. At first, Claudia is bewildered by the somewhat chaotic organization of the household, but soon she finds her place in the tribe. And while Martha is getting weaker, Claudia's bond with each member of the family gets stronger day by day. The director’s honest vulnerability touched me as much as the movie.

During the Toronto Film Festival, Claudia told the interviewer at Twitch:

“The character Claudia has the obsession of cutting out funny newspaper notes. Before the filming began, I read a note about the appearance of some catfishes in an American city. The catfishes always live in family so I thought it was curious. Having cut the titular ("los insólitos peces gato"), I pasted it on the fish bowl. In the movie, Claudia begins sleeping in Armando's bedroom and pastes that sticker.

She (the mother) had eight years to think what she wanted to say to their children. For eight years her death was imminent. She had a lot of time of think what to say but maybe not what to do.

I think every member of the family is amazing and their force is staying together. That's why I called the film The Amazing Catfish.”

Claudia said more to me about the autobiographical part (the rest is fiction):

“I made this movie to thank this family that gave me a sense of belonging. The more I helped Martha in her dying process and living the additional time Death was giving her, I understood that you have to live with the Death by your side every day to value your own life. They saw me; when someone sees you, you become alive, you exist and that's what they gave me, existence.’

This film which premiered in Locarno where it won the Young Jury Award went on to Toronto 2013 where it won the Fipresci Critics’ Discovery Award. The next month it played at the Morelia Film Festival. At the Baja Film Fest it won the Mexico Primero Award. It also played at the Rotterdam and the Belgrade Film Festivals. This Mexican-French coproduction was sold by France’s premiere international sales agent Pyramide. Knowing the head of Pyramide International’s Eric Lagesse, the filmmaker can feel secure that she is in good hands and that the film will play to a broad and international range of audiences as it deals with a dysfunctional family, having both funny and sensitive parts.

It has already sold to Strand Releasing for U.S , Austria went to Polyfilm, Belgium – Imagine, France – Pyramide, Germany – Arsenal, Japan - Bitters End, Latin America - Palmera International, Mexico – Canibal, Netherlands - Imagine , Switzerland – Cineworx, Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films.

The next day we saw Eco de la montaña (Echo form the Mountain), Nicolas Echevarria’s documentary about an indigenous artist of the Wixarika people in Jalisco whose traditional mural, made of millions of small beads, was installed (incorrectly) in the Paris metro station Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre in 1977 at a grand ceremony by the French and Mexican Presidents who failed to invite him. Since then Santos de la Torre has lived forgotten and isolated in his village in the Sierra Madre Mountains. As the film follows him and his family on their yearly peyote ritual and pilgrimage to Wirikuta and other Wixarika sacred places and as he creates a fourth mural is unfolded in such a modern way that I think it should open discussions of how the artistic taps into the higher sources of creativity among the selected guests of this festival. The producer Michael Fitzgerald was here with his wife, in from Taos where they live. Michael Fitzgerald produced such films as Malcolm Loewry’s Under the Volcano and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, another film Arriagas wrote, Bruce Beresford’s Mr. Johnson. Such illustrious company!

Gary Meyer and I sat together during the outdoor screening in the plaza. Of Horses and Men (Isa: Filmsharks), a wonderfully droll film from first time filmmaker and Iceland’s submission for this year’s Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film was just covered in my blog on Indiewire. It was a perfect film for showing here with its magnificent landscapes where horses are part of the villagers’ lives as they are in many part of Mexican culture. For a review and an interview with its director, click here for the interview and here for the review on SydneysBuzz.

Seeing Iceland reminded me of Jim Stark, as did the Zellner Brothers' Kumiko, Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine), the sleeper of Sundance. This film of a young Japanese woman’s trip to Fargo, Minnesota in search of the money Steve Buscemi buried in the movie Fargo, with its large snowy landscapes and cold snow which could not be more the opposite of this lush tropical paradise reminded me of Jim Stark’s Cold Fever which was also about a Japanese fish-out-of-water in the freezing Icelandic climates, though David Zellner was not aware of that film until after his own was finished. When we went upstairs for cocktails, how surprised I was to see that Jim Stark himself is also there, as Marina’s guest, giving master classes to the young Mexican filmmakers. He is working on at least two features now with Mexican directors and has bought a house in Mexico City just as he did in Iceland when he was active there.

And yet another coincidence: the star of Kumiko is Rinko Kikuchi who played an important role in Arriaga’s Babel. And, just to throw in one more coincidence, Babel's director, Alejandro González Iñárritu will be one of the special guests at the next festival I am about to go to, Cartagena Colombia's Ficci (Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias).

Continuing the tradition of ArteCareyes showcasing emerging talent, eight young filmmakers showed their shorts after which we all had lunch and discussed their films and their plans with them. The filmmakers will be ones you will hear more about in the near future, so here are their names:

. Manuel Camacho Bustillo (Blackout, Chapter 4: Calling Neverland), a film Gary Meyer particularly liked

. Sofia Carrillo (The Sad House), a film Jarrett and I loved.

. Erik de Luna Fors (Home Appliance). Everyone liked this darkly humorous animation

. Amaury Vergara Z (Tide). We called him over to discuss this dreamy, mysterious story of a young man of the land.

. Indira Velasco (Music for the ultimate dream). This film was a marvelous study of music and life

. Lubianca Duran (Supermodern times). Wonderful tug-of-war between Kodak and Digital. Very funny old-fashioned silent take on modern times.

. Ricardo Torres Castro (Dry Land). Animation with a message. Well done 7 minutes.

. Dalia Huerta Cano (The End of the Existence of Things). How a boy fasses the loss of a great sadness. Really libertating.

I was sorry that I had to miss the closing night film ¡Que viva Mexico! Partially filmed 1931 by the master Sergei Eisenstein shortly after the Mexican Revolution but never edited and show by the great Dp Gabriel Figueroa (whose show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art was extraordinary). The 1931 uncredited version editor was Kenneth Anger. Also uncredited technical advisors for foreign locations are the great muralists Orozco, Rivera and Siquieros (who coincidently has a mural newly restored on Los Angeles' Olvera Street). Completed finally in the 1970s based on Eisenstein’s writings and his own memories, three sements were shown with live accompaniment commissioned by ArteCareyes based on a guiding score Eisenstein worked on with Sergei Prokofiev by the Ensemble Cine Mudo.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this event as a 12. It is an event matched only by the million dollar trip to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petershof and the set of Stalingrad which 25 U.S. Distributors, Anne Thompson, Peter and I were invited to by Rosskino in 2012 when our Italianate Eleonora Granata was the Russian Film Commissioner in L.A.

This work in progress shows a promise reaching beyond this event. The practical idealism and magic of the location and the timing of such an Arts & Film event, together with the other elements in this magnificent venue are thrilling. I will always be grateful to Steven, John and Filippo for including me.

Of Horses and Men, Iceland's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : None Yet. International Sales Agent: FilmSharks International

*The film has been selected for the prestigious New Directors New Films series read more Here.

It also just screened in the beautiful open air under a dome of stars at the fourth edition of the exclusive infiniti ArteCareyes Film & Art Festival on the Pacific Coast of Mexico in the state of Jalisco.

Delightfully comedic and adorned with gorgeous vistas of the Icelandic landscape, Benedikt Erlingsson's directorial debut Of Horses and Men is a compelling exploration of the animal instincts in all of us. Set in a rural community where horses are a crucial part of the social interaction, the actor turned writer/ director allows the spectator to see the world of his human characters through their equines' expressive eyes. His story combines a peculiar affinity for tragedy with lighthearted charm. The humorous director spoke with us about his personal experience with horses, the pressure of competing for an Academy Award nomination, and how much harder it is to work with humans than with animals.

Besides being Iceland's Official Oscar Submission, the film has been selected to screen as part of two competitions during the Palm Springs International Film Festival: Awards Buzz and New Voices, New Visions.

Of Horses and Men also screened at the Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. in January and just screened at the Careyes Film & Arts Festival on the Costa Careyes, Jalisco, Mexico.

Read the Review Of Horses and Men Here

What is your relationship with rural life like the one presented on the film? Did you grow up in a place like the one your characters lived in? Or are you simply fascinated by that lifestyle?

I was brought up in downtown Reykjavík, but as a teenager I worked on a horse farm in the highlands of northern Iceland. I worked there for four summers as a “harvest boy” This was a culture shock. Maybe you could say that this film has been a therapeutic healing program for me.

And yes, you could say that I am fascinated by this lifestyle and it has become my own.

I got my first horse when I was 16 year old. Her name was Roshildur and she was part of my salary from the farm. She has been my life companion for 30 years until I had to put her down this winter.

There is a darkly comedic tone in your film? Is this something that you were conscious about while writing it or did it develop organically because of your own sensibilities?

Maybe it’s part of my style as a storyteller. You could say that in my target group is only one person that I have to amuse. And that person is me.

What do you think is particular about horses in comparison to all other domesticated animals?

I think horses are the most codependent domestic animals that can you find. You really need to be in the “program” to fully understand them.

The human/horse interaction in your film seems to be driven by the animal’s gaze and their somehow human-like expression, could you talk about why this interested you?

The eye can be a mirror. Sometimes that is what happens when a human really looks into the eye of an animal

If I were better in English, I could answer this question with a poem.

How difficult was it to work with horses and actors at the same time? In a sense the horses are playing a part themselves. Did featuring these majestic creatures so prominently become a challenge?

To work with actors is my profession. Both my parents were actors, my wife is an actor, I’m an actor, I’m surrounded with actors all day in the theater and then in the evening i go to the stables and ride my horses. So this film as my first film is a very natural and safe choice. It is my base.

To work with horses was amazingly easy. And of course they are not in any union and that made the producer very happy.

The financing was in fact my biggest challenge. The homo sapiens are the problem makers .

Going back to the horses, they seem to also be spectators, they observe the madness and irrational behavior of people. Did you want to comment on the civilized state we think we live in and how many times our animalistic instincts overpower that?

Yes. Exactly. And this on going battle to harness the nature in us and around us.

The direct translation of the Icelandic title (Hross Í Oss.) is “Horse in us.”

There is definitely a distinctively Icelandic feeling to your film, both culturally and visually. What do you think your film says not only about humanity as whole, but specifically about Iceland?

I am maybe too close to the subject to provide a good answer. But I can say I believe in the basic attitude that by being local you can become global.

Lastly, since your film is representing Iceland at the Academy Awards, is there any pressure or expectations? How does this honor make you feel?

How does this honor make you feel? That’s a very private question and a good one.

The official answer is : I feel honored

But there is another answer and maybe more sincere and that is : frightened

If I were a horse I would run away.

Top brass at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (Sfiff) have announced the films in competition for the New Directors Prize and the Golden Gate Award contenders in the documentary category.

The festival will award close to $40,000 in total cash prizes this year.

The New Directors Prize of $10,000 will go to a narrative first feature that exhibits “a unique artistic sensibility and deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible.”

The Gga documentary winner will receive $10,000 and the Gga Bay Area documentary feature winner will receive $5,000.

The Sfiff is scheduled to run from April 24-May 8.

The 2014 New Directors Prize (Narrative Feature) Competition entries are:

The Amazing Catfish (pictured, Mexico), dir Claudia Sainte-Luce

The Blue Wave (Turkey-Germany-Netherlands-Greece), dir Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan

Difret (Ethiopia), dir Zeresenay Berhane Mehari

The Dune (France-Israel), dir Yossi Aviram

History Of Fear (Argentina-France-Germany-Uruguay-Qatar), dir Benjamin Naishtat

Manos Sucias (Us-Colombia), dir Josef Wladyka

Of Horses And Men (Iceland-Germany), dir Benedikt Erlingsson...

Of Horses and Men, Iceland's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : None Yet. International Sales Agent: FilmSharks International

*The film has been selected for the prestigious New Directors New Films series read more Here

The relationship of humans with domesticated animals is a strange balance between an authoritative search for practical benefits (what can the animal provide that is of use) and endearing companionship. Owner and beast share a bond that is based upon the creature’s need to be taken care of in order for it to serve its purpose. Out of all the animals which have enabled mankind to thrive, horses have been the most appreciated since ancient times as means of transportation and as accessories for war. Icelandic actor-turned-writer/director Benedikt Erlingsson knows this all too well, but decided to approach the peculiar relationship with humor in his visually luscious, utterly original tragicomedy accordingly titled Of Horses and Men.

Pompous and showy, Kolbeinn (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson), a middle-aged man, strolls down the plains of his tight-knit valley community on his beautiful white mare which is his pride and joy. One morning, as he visits his unspoken love interest Solveg (Charlotte Bøving), also a horse owner like everyone in these parts, her raging stallion can’t resist the urge to violate the honor of his beloved mare. Unable to stop this from happening, and evidently furious, Kolbeinn puts her to sleep as the only way to preserve her honor. And so the string of misfortunes begins to unfold starting with Solveg’s decision to neuter her dark horse to atone for his offense. Surrounding the quiet romance between the pair, an assortment of characters displays other idiosyncratic connections with the four-legged beauties. Thus the individual relationships and their often tragic outcomes construct a clear image of the pivotal place these animals occupy.

A stranger in a strange land, Latin American tourist Juan (Juan Camillo Roman Estrada) falls for strong-willed tough girl Johanna (Sigríður María Egilsdóttir), who shatters the idea of female weakness by excelling at horse wrangling. Following his desired conquest and inept at horseback riding, Juan gets lost in the middle of a snowstorm, an event that tests his survival skills, and which, in a dramatically poetic manner, brings him closer with the animal. Likewise, other residents meet their fates via their mishaps involving the area’s dearest critters. Said incidents include a local feud over a fence, which blocks the main road through the town, an event which evolves into a chase ending in a calamitous death and an injured fellow. Another such incident involves the gratuitous death of another rural dweller caused by his voracious thirst for foreign strong liquor.

Dryly comedic throughout, the film is also charged with evocative imagery that humanizes the horses presenting them as spectators to the barbaric behavior of men. Seen through the equines’ eyes, the animalistic qualities in people are vividly present in all aspects of life. Fighting for turf, giving in to sexual urges, and stopping at nothing to stand out as the best of the pack, all are innate features of most living things. Without uttering a single word, their penetrating gaze can be interpreted as contempt, sympathy, disbelief, or perhaps a hint of condescension as they witness the chaos people bring upon themselves. Greatly compatible with each other, the ensemble cast -- both human and equestrian -- convincingly brings to life a very unusual universe.

Debutant feature director Benedikt Erlingsson takes advantage of the mesmerizing landscapes of the Icelandic countryside in a film that is as visually rewarding as it is subtly witty. Of Horses and Men is a compacted festive triumph, which for all its calamities, is unexpectedly insightful about the human condition. In a particular scene, the entire town comes together to see the latest batch of specimens up for grabs. They mingle while walking in between dozens of horses, mixing in with them in a parade of extraordinarily similar beings. Erlingsson's film questions, in an ingenious and cleverly funny fashion, how civilized or how primitive man’s functioning society really is.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

Hisham Zaman has become the first director to be a two-time winner of Gothenburg’s Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film.

This year, Zaman’s Letter to The King won the top prize (and its lucrative €113,000 award), following on last year’s win for Before Snowfall.

Letter To The King is about a group of refugees, all with their own agendas, on an excursion to Oslo.

The jury said: “Letter to the King is a film that takes us to a subculture that is not very well-known. It tells us about people stuck in some kind of no man’s land. It is a film that is compassionate and honest in its presentation of human existence.

“To tell a story with multiple characters is a difficult task, and we appreciate the way all the pieces are put together.”

The jury comprised Chad director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Icelandic producer Agnes Johansen, Norwegian producer Kalle Løchen, Swedish director...

Hisham Zaman has become the first director to be a two-time winner of Gothenburg’s Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film.

This year, Zaman’s Letter to The King won the top prize (and its lucrative €113,000 award), following on last year’s win for Before Snowfall.

Letter To The King is about a group of refugees, all with their own agendas, on an excursion to Oslo. “Letter to the King is a film that takes us to a subculture that is not very well-known. It tells us about people stuck in some kind of no man’s land. It is a film that is compassionate and honest in its presentation of human existence. To tell a story with multiple characters is a difficult task, and we appreciate the way all the pieces are put together,” said the jury of Chad director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Icelandic producer Agnes Johansen, Norwegian producer Kalle Løchen, Swedish director...