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“Dom (Home in Russian),” “Quir” and “Iceman” look like potential standouts at Swiss Films Previews, the only spread of national movies at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel, the country’s leading doc festival.
Presented via excerpts at a two-hour showcase on Wednesday, three further titles – “Kalari – the Martial Art of Female Power,” “The Boy from the River Drina” and “Spheres” – underscored the strength in depth of documentary filmmaking in Switzerland and at least in this year’s Previews, a leitmotif. In an era of adverse circumstance, the doc features highlight figures who rebel, whether against Russia’s war on the Ukraine (“Dom”), climate change (“Iceman”), homophobia in Palermo, gender violence (“Kalari”), the Srebrenica massacre (“Boy”) or, in the case of Daniel Zimmermann, director of “Spheres,” stock narrative.
The films’ protagonists rebel, moreover, with courage, good humor, imagination, and above all resilience. “Quir,” for example, captures footage of gay couple Massimo Milani...
Presented via excerpts at a two-hour showcase on Wednesday, three further titles – “Kalari – the Martial Art of Female Power,” “The Boy from the River Drina” and “Spheres” – underscored the strength in depth of documentary filmmaking in Switzerland and at least in this year’s Previews, a leitmotif. In an era of adverse circumstance, the doc features highlight figures who rebel, whether against Russia’s war on the Ukraine (“Dom”), climate change (“Iceman”), homophobia in Palermo, gender violence (“Kalari”), the Srebrenica massacre (“Boy”) or, in the case of Daniel Zimmermann, director of “Spheres,” stock narrative.
The films’ protagonists rebel, moreover, with courage, good humor, imagination, and above all resilience. “Quir,” for example, captures footage of gay couple Massimo Milani...
- 4/17/2024
- by John Hopewell and Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
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60 projects selected for the 30th edition of the industry meet.
IDFA Forum, the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, has selected 60 projects for its 2022 edition, including The Eternal Memory, a new feature from The Mole Agent director Maite Alberdi.
Produced by Alberdi’s Chilean company Micromundo Producciones and Pablo Larrain’s Chilean firm Fabula, the film is described by IDFA as “an intimate meditation on love and memory that observes a couple dealing with Alzheimer’s over a four-year period”.
Scroll down for the full list of IDFA projects
It is one of 22 projects in the market’s flagship Forum Pitch category,...
IDFA Forum, the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, has selected 60 projects for its 2022 edition, including The Eternal Memory, a new feature from The Mole Agent director Maite Alberdi.
Produced by Alberdi’s Chilean company Micromundo Producciones and Pablo Larrain’s Chilean firm Fabula, the film is described by IDFA as “an intimate meditation on love and memory that observes a couple dealing with Alzheimer’s over a four-year period”.
Scroll down for the full list of IDFA projects
It is one of 22 projects in the market’s flagship Forum Pitch category,...
- 10/6/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
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“Becoming an Astronaut,” an ambitious documentary that will focus on four new astronauts who will be announced by the European Space Agency (Esa) this November, has won the Focal Audience & Market Strategies pitching event at the Zurich Film Festival.
Organized by Focal, the Lausanne-based foundation for film and audiovisual media training, Audience & Market Strategies is a three-part training program that helps producers promote their projects at an early stage. This year’s event showcased eight Swiss projects in various states of development.
The program culminated with the pitching event, in which the producers presented their projects to sales company representatives, industry experts and an international jury comprising Stephen Kelliher of Bankside Films, Netflix’s Lars Wiebe, Olivier Tournaud of Cinephil, Sven Wälti, head of film at Swiss pubcaster Srg Ssr, and Deadline’s Diana Lodderhose.
Produced by Franziska Sonder of Ensemble Film and set to be directed by Roman Hodel,...
Organized by Focal, the Lausanne-based foundation for film and audiovisual media training, Audience & Market Strategies is a three-part training program that helps producers promote their projects at an early stage. This year’s event showcased eight Swiss projects in various states of development.
The program culminated with the pitching event, in which the producers presented their projects to sales company representatives, industry experts and an international jury comprising Stephen Kelliher of Bankside Films, Netflix’s Lars Wiebe, Olivier Tournaud of Cinephil, Sven Wälti, head of film at Swiss pubcaster Srg Ssr, and Deadline’s Diana Lodderhose.
Produced by Franziska Sonder of Ensemble Film and set to be directed by Roman Hodel,...
- 9/24/2022
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
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Titles include Sundance Jury prize winner ‘Utama’
Transilvania International Film Festival has unveiled the 12 films that will screen in its official competition.
Each title competing for the Transilvania Trophy will receive its Romanian premiere at the 21st edition of the festival, which is set to take place in the city of Cluj-Napoca.
The line-up features Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama, a Bolivian drama about an indigenous couple trying to survive a drought, which took home the Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival early this year.
Other titles include the directorial debut by French filmmaker Vincent Maël Cardona - Magentic Beats.
Transilvania International Film Festival has unveiled the 12 films that will screen in its official competition.
Each title competing for the Transilvania Trophy will receive its Romanian premiere at the 21st edition of the festival, which is set to take place in the city of Cluj-Napoca.
The line-up features Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama, a Bolivian drama about an indigenous couple trying to survive a drought, which took home the Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival early this year.
Other titles include the directorial debut by French filmmaker Vincent Maël Cardona - Magentic Beats.
- 5/19/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
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In other prizes Mounia Akl’s Costa Brava, Lebanon clinches Fipresci prize and inaugural Green Award.
Finnish director Teemu Nikki’s dark comedy-drama The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic scooped the El Gouna Film Festival’s $50,000 Golden Star award for best narrative film over the weekend.
Its star Petri Poikolainen also won best actor for his performance as a blind man who ventures out of his small apartment and onto the streets to travel by train to spend time with his long-distance girlfriend.
The film world premiered in Venice’s new Horizon Extras where it won the audience award.
Finnish director Teemu Nikki’s dark comedy-drama The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic scooped the El Gouna Film Festival’s $50,000 Golden Star award for best narrative film over the weekend.
Its star Petri Poikolainen also won best actor for his performance as a blind man who ventures out of his small apartment and onto the streets to travel by train to spend time with his long-distance girlfriend.
The film world premiered in Venice’s new Horizon Extras where it won the audience award.
- 10/25/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
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Teemu Nikki’s Venice and Antalya winner “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic” won the Golden star for best film at the 5th El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, which wrapped Friday. The award carries a cash prize of $50,000.
The film’s lead Petri Poikolainen won best actor, while Maya Vanderbeque, the young star of “Playground,” won best actress.
Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy’s Cannes winner “Feathers,” which also won the Variety award at El Gouna earlier, won best Arab narrative film.
Directors Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova’s “Captain Volkonogov Escaped” won the Netpac award and bronze in the narrative category.
Michel Franco’s “Sundown” won silver in the narrative competition, while Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta” scored a special mention from Netpac.
Mounia Akl’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon” won the Fipresci award and the Green Star award for tackling environmental issues.
The film’s lead Petri Poikolainen won best actor, while Maya Vanderbeque, the young star of “Playground,” won best actress.
Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy’s Cannes winner “Feathers,” which also won the Variety award at El Gouna earlier, won best Arab narrative film.
Directors Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova’s “Captain Volkonogov Escaped” won the Netpac award and bronze in the narrative category.
Michel Franco’s “Sundown” won silver in the narrative competition, while Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta” scored a special mention from Netpac.
Mounia Akl’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon” won the Fipresci award and the Green Star award for tackling environmental issues.
- 10/22/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
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Exclusive: The documentary community, a loose assemblage of independent creatives under the best of circumstances, has labored under the absence of in-person gatherings during the pandemic. For well over a year, most all-documentary festivals have been forced to go virtual, hardly a respite for filmmakers inured to hermitry.
The Camden International Film Festival in coastal Maine took a big step toward reinvigorating the doc community over the last several days, convening what it called “the largest documentary-focused industry gathering since the start of the global pandemic.” Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmakers, emerging talents and industry insiders joined documentary fans for screenings of new work, discussions and other events beginning on Thursday.
“There’s just nothing more valuable than human interaction,” Ben Fowlie, Ciff’s founder and the executive and creative director of the Points North Institute, told Deadline. “It’s just a reminder over the past four days of one of...
The Camden International Film Festival in coastal Maine took a big step toward reinvigorating the doc community over the last several days, convening what it called “the largest documentary-focused industry gathering since the start of the global pandemic.” Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmakers, emerging talents and industry insiders joined documentary fans for screenings of new work, discussions and other events beginning on Thursday.
“There’s just nothing more valuable than human interaction,” Ben Fowlie, Ciff’s founder and the executive and creative director of the Points North Institute, told Deadline. “It’s just a reminder over the past four days of one of...
- 9/21/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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In one of the biggest deals on titles at this year’s Visions du Réel, Switzerland’s premier documentary festival, Radio Télévision Suisse (Rts), the public broadcasting organization for the French-speaking part of the country, has acquired eleven titles from Visions du Réel’s 2021 selection.
The deal is part of a longstanding partnership between the Swiss doc festival and Rts, which selects around a dozen VdR titles every year.
Some are co-productions under the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s pact with the audiovisual industry to increase subsidies for independent Swiss production, including “Radiograph of a Family” by Iranian director Firouzeh Khosrovani.
An IDFA best feature winner, it tells the story of Tayi, who, on her wedding day, marries the photo of Hossein. Joining him in Switzerland, the distance that separates them persists from one country to the other, deepening over the years, and invades the smallest corners of their home.
“The...
The deal is part of a longstanding partnership between the Swiss doc festival and Rts, which selects around a dozen VdR titles every year.
Some are co-productions under the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s pact with the audiovisual industry to increase subsidies for independent Swiss production, including “Radiograph of a Family” by Iranian director Firouzeh Khosrovani.
An IDFA best feature winner, it tells the story of Tayi, who, on her wedding day, marries the photo of Hossein. Joining him in Switzerland, the distance that separates them persists from one country to the other, deepening over the years, and invades the smallest corners of their home.
“The...
- 6/14/2021
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
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Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning Of Empathy among Rogers Audience Award winners.
Hot Docs 2021 top brass on Monday (May 10) announced audience and competition winners as well as prize recipients in Hot Docs Forum, where Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson were among those selected for their UK project Mother Vera.
In the Rogers Audience Award, five Canadian filmmakers each received a cash prize of $10,000 Cad. They are: Fanny: The Right To Rock (dir. Bobbi Jo Hart ); Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning Of Empathy; Someone Like Me: Still Max (dir. Katherine Knight); and Hell Or Clean Water (dir. Cody Westman).
In the first look pitch prizes at Hot Docs Forum,...
Hot Docs 2021 top brass on Monday (May 10) announced audience and competition winners as well as prize recipients in Hot Docs Forum, where Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson were among those selected for their UK project Mother Vera.
In the Rogers Audience Award, five Canadian filmmakers each received a cash prize of $10,000 Cad. They are: Fanny: The Right To Rock (dir. Bobbi Jo Hart ); Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning Of Empathy; Someone Like Me: Still Max (dir. Katherine Knight); and Hell Or Clean Water (dir. Cody Westman).
In the first look pitch prizes at Hot Docs Forum,...
- 5/10/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
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Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop’s “Ostrov — Lost Island” and Emanuel Licha’s “Zo Reken” took the top Hot Docs jury awards at a special online ceremony webcast from Toronto Friday night.
Eleven awards and $67,000 Cad in cash and prizes were presented to emerging and established Canadian and international filmmakers.
Best International Feature Documentary Award-winner “Ostrov — Lost Island” chronicles a fishing community in the Caspian Sea, where elders cling to tradition and youth look to a new kind of future. The award comes with a $10,000 Cad cash prize courtesy of the Panicaro Foundation.
In its statement, the international feature jury — MTV Networks executive producer Sheila Nevins, filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda, and producer Toni Kama — called the film “a truly powerful cinematic experience which shows the everyday reality of people in Russia.”
With this award, “Ostrov” now qualifies for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category of the Academy Awards without the standard theatrical run,...
Eleven awards and $67,000 Cad in cash and prizes were presented to emerging and established Canadian and international filmmakers.
Best International Feature Documentary Award-winner “Ostrov — Lost Island” chronicles a fishing community in the Caspian Sea, where elders cling to tradition and youth look to a new kind of future. The award comes with a $10,000 Cad cash prize courtesy of the Panicaro Foundation.
In its statement, the international feature jury — MTV Networks executive producer Sheila Nevins, filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda, and producer Toni Kama — called the film “a truly powerful cinematic experience which shows the everyday reality of people in Russia.”
With this award, “Ostrov” now qualifies for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category of the Academy Awards without the standard theatrical run,...
- 5/7/2021
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
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Set on a forgotten Russian island in the Caspian Sea and playing out like a window to another world, doc feature “Ostrov – Lost Island” has been acquired for world sales by London-based Taskovski Films.
Premiering at Swiss doc fest Visions du Reél in its main International Feature Film Competition, the documentary chronicles a community forced to fish illegally to feed their families, and the traditions which endure.
In “Ostrov” directors Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop are expertly invisible. Ivan, a quiet fisherman, and his wife Anna are given enough screen time to live and, spaced out among the creaking boats and sagging wallpaper, the island comes to life.
“‘Ostrov – Lost Island’ is a visually stunning, lyrical film made with a clear passion for its characters and the vast landscape they inhabit. With an exquisite sense for detail the film takes the viewer on a journey to create a wider picture...
Premiering at Swiss doc fest Visions du Reél in its main International Feature Film Competition, the documentary chronicles a community forced to fish illegally to feed their families, and the traditions which endure.
In “Ostrov” directors Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop are expertly invisible. Ivan, a quiet fisherman, and his wife Anna are given enough screen time to live and, spaced out among the creaking boats and sagging wallpaper, the island comes to life.
“‘Ostrov – Lost Island’ is a visually stunning, lyrical film made with a clear passion for its characters and the vast landscape they inhabit. With an exquisite sense for detail the film takes the viewer on a journey to create a wider picture...
- 4/23/2021
- by JD Linville
- Variety Film + TV
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Documentary festival aims to host physical as well as online events.
Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel (VdR) has revealed the line-up of competition titles for its 2021 edition, which it aims to host as a hybrid event from April 15-25.
A total of 142 films from 58 countries have been selected, including 82 world premieres.
Scroll down for competition titles
The 13-strong international feature film competition includes the world premiere of Tomasz Wolski’s documentary 1970, which uses stop motion animation and archive footage to recount what happened when striking workers in communist Poland demonstrated against price increases. Poland’s Wolski won the jury...
Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel (VdR) has revealed the line-up of competition titles for its 2021 edition, which it aims to host as a hybrid event from April 15-25.
A total of 142 films from 58 countries have been selected, including 82 world premieres.
Scroll down for competition titles
The 13-strong international feature film competition includes the world premiere of Tomasz Wolski’s documentary 1970, which uses stop motion animation and archive footage to recount what happened when striking workers in communist Poland demonstrated against price increases. Poland’s Wolski won the jury...
- 3/25/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
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Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel (VdR) has revealed the full lineup for its 52nd edition, which, for the second year running, will screen as a online event, this round round over April 15-25.
The program, which comprises of 142 films originating from 58 countries, was revealed live in a Zoom press conference this morning, broadcast from the Cinéma Capitole in the festival’s host town of Nyon, Switzerland.
Among the 13 titles competing in VdR’s main, a doc feature exploring a health system in the throes of change. The zeigeisty debut feature of Swiss filmmaker Marie-Eve Hildbrand will also open the festival on 15 April.
The festival also announced 37 medium-to-short films from first-time directors. In a statement Emilie Bujès, artistic director of Visions du Réel praised this year’s “powerful and eclectic” selection.
“It will once again enable us to take into account the independence and the emancipation of contemporary documentary filmmaking,...
The program, which comprises of 142 films originating from 58 countries, was revealed live in a Zoom press conference this morning, broadcast from the Cinéma Capitole in the festival’s host town of Nyon, Switzerland.
Among the 13 titles competing in VdR’s main, a doc feature exploring a health system in the throes of change. The zeigeisty debut feature of Swiss filmmaker Marie-Eve Hildbrand will also open the festival on 15 April.
The festival also announced 37 medium-to-short films from first-time directors. In a statement Emilie Bujès, artistic director of Visions du Réel praised this year’s “powerful and eclectic” selection.
“It will once again enable us to take into account the independence and the emancipation of contemporary documentary filmmaking,...
- 3/25/2021
- by Ann-Marie Corvin
- Variety Film + TV
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