The awards were presented at a gala ceremony last night during the Gdynia Film Festival (Sept 14-29).Lodz-based Opus Film and the ACME PR agency won the prize for ¨International Promotion of Polish Cinema¨ for its Oscar campaign for Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, which won Best Foreign-Language Film at the Academy Awards.Next Film was recognised for its distribution of Jan Komasa’s Warsaw Uprising and Lukasz Palkowski’s Gods, the big winner at last year’s Gdynia Film Festival with admissions topping 2.2 million in Polish cinemas.Against Gravity received the award for ¨Distribution of a Non-Commercial Foreign Film in Poland¨ for its release of Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Oscar-nominated Leviathan.In addition, the 41st Film Summer in Insk beat off competition from the 5th American Film Festival in Wroclaw and the 21st Nationwide Festival of the Film Art ¨Prowincjonalia¨ to be named the Polish Film Event of 2014.ORKA Studio … [Read more...] about ‘Ida’ wins at Polish Film Institute Awards
American film institute awards
TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE ANNOUNCE PROJECTS FOR ALL ACCESS
Tribeca Film Institute today announced the selected projects for Tribeca All Access (TAA). TAA is designed to help foster and nurture relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Celebrating its sixth year, Tribeca All Access will present 27 new projects during the six-day event taking place April 20 – 25 during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, held from April 22 – May 3.This year’s TAA jury is comprised of respected industry professionals – actors, writers, producers and directors – who will review script excerpts and work samples prior to the Festival, and deliberate over the most promising projects. The 2009 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award Narrative jurors are Viola Davis, Sanaa Lathan, Anne Carey, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Luis Guzman, Darnell Martin, Lance Reddick and Amy Robinson; the 2009 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award Documentary jurors are Ellen Kuras, Fenton … [Read more...] about TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE ANNOUNCE PROJECTS FOR ALL ACCESS
IN ROTTERDAM, AMERICAN FILMS THAT COULDN’T EXIST ANYWHERE ELSE
After the rush of sales in Park City this year, it seems the entire American cine-punditry is racing to declare this the beginning of a new golden age in American Independent Film. I sure hope they’re right. One wonders if March’s SXSW Film Festival in Austin will continue the trend and finally push that festival into true market status. Nearly 40 films were acquired in Park City and many more that premiered there will surely be acquired in the weeks and months to come. Yet for some of the most daring new American films, the sales rat race at Sundance isn’t an aspiration. After returning from Rotterdam, where the 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam is still unspooling through this weekend, I can say that the health of our non-commercial cinema, that from the children of our incredibly rich American Avant-Garde tradition and one that has long been supported by Rotterdam’s challenging and heady programming, is as strong as it’s been in some time, … [Read more...] about IN ROTTERDAM, AMERICAN FILMS THAT COULDN’T EXIST ANYWHERE ELSE
Wroc and Roll: 5th American Film Festival, Poland
Recently announced as a European Capital of Culture for 2016, the picturesque western Polish city of Wroclaw (actually pronounced Vrotz-wav, thus rendering the title pun sadly unworkable) welcomed an extremely distinguished guest for its fifth annual American Film Festival: none other than flying POTUS Barack Obama. Well, it seemed so for a moment, but appearances can be deceptive. A closer look revealed the man to be Louis Ortiz, top Barack-alike and star of Ryan Murdock’s enjoyable Bronx Obama, which screened as part of the festival’s documentary slate. The personable Ortiz’s social ubiquity made for a pleasingly incongruous addition to a festival which, to many, might sound precisely that. “Why is there an American Film Festival in Poland?” I was asked by more than one friend upon telling them of my travels.It’s a valid question, and one I’ll answer briefly, since I covered the same event for this publication last year. It’s the … [Read more...] about Wroc and Roll: 5th American Film Festival, Poland
Fifteen Projects Selected for Tribeca Film Institute All Access Grants
Fifteen works — scripted, documentary and interactive — were selected today for the Tribeca Film Institute‘s All Access program, which offers grant monies and other non-monetary support to projects by creators from statistically underrepresented communities. The projects were chosen from a submission pool of 710 entries. In addition to the 15 projects, two filmmakers from the LGBT community were chosen to take part in TFI Network Market, a one-on-one industry meeting forum, with their feature films. They are Ingrid Jungermann, a 25 New Face appearing with her project Women Who Kill, and Hernando Bansuelo, with Martinez, CA.The complete list of selected projects, from the press release, is below.Five grants will be awarded to interactive projects in various stages:· Declare Home: Produced by Judith Helfand, Daniel Latorre and Fenell Doremus. Inspired by the feature documentary-in-progress, Cooked, about extreme weather and the politics of disaster, Declare Home is … [Read more...] about Fifteen Projects Selected for Tribeca Film Institute All Access Grants