Artistic films

Written and directed by Nida Manzoor, Polite Society stars Priya Kansara ( Bridgerton ), Ritu Arya ( Umbrella Academy ) and Nimra Bucha ( Disney+ Ms. Marvel ). The Focus Features movie had its world premiere Friday in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival. The movie begins with Ria (Kansara), a Pakistani teenager in a karate class. She’s a purple belt who is serious about honing her skills to become a stunt woman. She records YouTube videos of her home training and recites the line “I am the fury.” Her older sister Lena (Ayra) is an art school dropout who mopes around her parents’ house and often helps Ria record her videos. Ria is obsessed with professional stunt woman Eunice Huthart, who she frequently emails but never receives a response. Ria and her two friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) attend a private all-girls school where they are constantly picked on by a girl name Kovacs (Shona Babayemi). The bullying reaches … [Read more...] about ‘Polite Society’ Sundance Film Festival Review: A Cultural Action Adventure Film Complete With Martial Arts And Wirefu

The Sundance Institute Science-in-Film initiative with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation named Sophie Barthes’ The Pod Generation as this year’s Feature Film Prize winner. In addition three artists grants went to recipients for three projects in development. The prizes were handed out at a reception following the Appetite for Construction panel at Filmmaker Lodge. The four filmmakers received a total of $70,000 in funding through the Prize and three artist grants for projects: Benjy Steinberg for The Professor and the Spy received the Sloan Episodic Fellowship, Cynthia Lowen for Light Mass Energy received the Sloan Development Fellowship, and John Lopez for Incompleteness received the Sloan Commissioning Grant. “We are in a global moment where arts institutions must recognize in actionable ways the importance of science in media and entertainment, and Sundance Institute is deeply appreciative that the Sloan Foundation has partnered with us over two decades to … [Read more...] about Alfred P. Sloan Foundation & Sundance Institute Name ‘Pod Generation’ Best Feature Film

MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide rights to Sundance world-premiering love story The Eternal Memory , director Maite Alberdi ’s follow-up to Oscar nominated doc The Mole Agent. The price is said to be approaching $3 million in a competitive situation with a number of bidders. The film, which screened in the Sundance Film Festival World Documentary Competition section,  will have its international premiere at the Berlinale next month in the Panorama Section and the company is planning a theatrical release and robust awards campaign later this year. The Eternal Memory was produced by Maite Alberdi, Juan De Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín and Rocío Jadue. Executive producers are Marcela Santibañez, Daniela Sandoval, Nicholas Hooper, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Chandra Jessee and Rebecca Lichtenfeld. RELATED: Sundance Film Festival: Deadline’s Complete Coverage In the film, Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. … [Read more...] about MTV Documentary Films Acquires Worldwide Rights To Maite Alberdi’s ‘The Eternal Memory’ Out Of Sundance

Angela Bassett will be honored by the Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild (MUAHS) with the 2023 Distinguished Artisan Award. The actor, director and executive producer is set to receive the accolade on Saturday, February 11, 2023, at The Beverly Hilton. “Local 706 wishes to show its appreciation to Angela Bassett, who has portrayed amazingly iconic women we can all relate to. She boldly collaborates with her 706 make-up and hair teams to extend their imaginations and develop magical but always relatable characters you will remember forever – from the beloved Queen Ramonda to feisty Tina Turner to Bernadine in Waiting to Exhale. We couldn’t think of a better person to help us celebrate our 10th anniversary,” saud Julie Socash, President of IATSE Local 706. The Distinguished Artisan Award celebrates Bassett’s versatile career on screen and television, who recently received a Golden Globe Award and a SAG Award nomination for her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever … [Read more...] about Angela Bassett Set To Be Honored By The Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild With The Distinguished Artisan Award

The BFI has hired independent producer Ama Ampadu as the new senior production and development executive for the BFI Film Fund . Ampadu replaces Kristin Irving, who joined BBC Film late last year. Reporting to Natascha Wharton, the film fund’s Head of Editorial, Ampadu will work alongside Louise Ortega, who joined the organization last year as a Senior Production and Development Executive, as well as Editor-at-Large Lizzie Francke. Ampadu’s brief will have a central focus on filmmaking debuts, as well as working closely with BFI NETWORK to ensure there is a practical crossover for new and emerging talent. Alongside Ortega and the rest of the team, Ampadu will also oversee the fund’s slate, which has projects at various stages of production, supporting filmmakers at each stage of the filmmaking process and beyond, as well as developing outreach strategies to engage filmmakers with the BFI. The BFI said that while working on both development and production funds, … [Read more...] about BFI Film Fund Hires New Senior Production & Development Executive

The full competition lineup for the 73rd Berlin Film Festival will be unveiled this morning via a live stream that begins at 11 CET/2 am PST. Berlin Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian will reveal the lineup as well as the festival’s sidebar Encounters competitive section. As previously announced, Berlin opens on February 16, 2023, with the world premiere of She Came to Me , by Rebecca Miller. The romantic comedy stars Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei, Joanna Kulig, Brian d’Arcy James, and Anne Hathaway. The film screens out of competition as a Berlinale Special Gala at the Berlinale Palast. Other standout titles already announced include Golda , starring Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin, and Liev Schreiber. Directed by Guy Nattiv from a screenplay by Nicholas Martin, the pic follows the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, former Israeli prime minister, faced during the 1973 Yom Kippur … [Read more...] about Berlin Film Festival: Watch Competition Lineup Revealed Live

The Berlin Film Festival today announced that Sean Penn will debut the documentary he shot in Ukraine with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Berlin next month. The doc is titled Superpower and documents Ukraine and President Zelenskyy at the start of Russia’s invasion. Penn shares a co-director credit with Aaron Kaufman. Introducing the doc, Berlin Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian said: “This is a documentary film done under very difficult circumstances, but it is also a film that tells the role of art and artists in difficult times.” Chatrian added that the film features footage of Penn in Ukraine in November 2021, filming with Zelenskyy, as well as footage of the actor/filmmaker in the country’s capital Kyiv when Russia’s invasion began. The festival also shared an image from the doc, which features Penn and Zelenskyy in discussion. Reports about Penn’s activities in Ukraine made headlines late last year when the two-time Oscar winner was pictured at a press briefing … [Read more...] about Sean Penn Documentary On Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy To Debut At Berlin Film Festival

Olivia Cooke ( House of the Dragon ) and Isla Johnston ( The Queen’s Gambit ) are set to lead the new Nicolas Pesce -directed horror film Visitation . Alfie Allen ( Game of Thrones ), Penelope Wilton ( Downton Abbey ), Stephen Rea ( Interview with the Vampire ), and Olivia Williams ( The Crown ) will also star. Entertainment One, Rumble Films, and Blinder Films will produce the project written by Helen Gaughran. Principal photography begins in Ireland on January 9. Visitation follows 14-year-old Maria who is sent away to live with Catholic nuns when her mother is sick and dying. But Maria’s arrival slowly turns sinister as one of her caretakers becomes enamored with her for all the wrong reasons. Cooke will play a nun who is central to the story. The remaining character descriptions are being kept under wraps. David Lancaster and Stephanie Wilcox of Rumble Films will serve as producers alongside Katie Holly of Blinder Films. Jillian Share, … [Read more...] about Nicolas Pesce To Direct eOne Horror Film ‘Visitation’; Olivia Cooke & Isla Johnston To Lead

The longest-acting movie awards voting committee got it done in about 3½ hours this year, with the New York Film Critics Circle finally naming Focus Features’ Tár as Best film of 2022. The movie, which reps filmmaker Todd Fields return to the camera in 16 years also saw its star Cate Blanchett win Best Actress. The NYFCC is known for bestowing wins to indie movies and the org can take as long as five hours to deliberate on the day they announce wins. Whatever film the group names as Best Picture doesn’t always translate to an Oscar Best Picture win; the last title to do so was 2011’s The Artist. That’s not to say their winners aren’t in the Oscar mix. Last year , the NYFCC named Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car its Best Film, with the pic going on to win Best International Feature Film at the Oscars . Jane Campion last year received Best Director for The Power of the Dog , and went on to win Best Director at the Oscars . Among the NYCC’s previous Best Pics … [Read more...] about New York Film Critics Circle Names ‘Tár’ As Best Film; Cate Blanchett & Colin Farrell Take Lead Acting Prize: Winners List

Stubborn and iconoclastic as always, Jean-Luc Godard has passed to another realm –and by his own choice–at age 91. Ever impudent and exasperating, forever pushing boundaries but remaining elusive, and an artist in every fiber of his being, Godard always did exactly what he wanted to do; for a few years many followed him ardently, and for lots of us in the 1960s he led the way into a vastly exciting and personal form of cinema. Thereafter he went entirely his own way, losing most of his audience but remaining at the forefront of exploring what cinema is, could be, and, sometimes, what it absolutely shouldn’t be. The official obituaries and tributes will certainly convey Godard’s importance and influence through the 1960s, the way he helped liberate cinema from its literary and orderly appearance to something far more energized, unexpected, jarring and often exhilarating. Although Godard consumed and brilliantly wrote about the existing cinema as a young critic, he … [Read more...] about Godard Is Gone: A Remembrance Of The Stubborn & Iconoclastic Film Director