Rarely does a short generate interest like The Daughters of Fire, an ink-to-runtime ratio that could best be explained by its status as Pedro Costa’s first project since 2019’s Vitalina Varela. But it merits that bandwidth. Speaking by phone earlier this month, Costa described Fire with clarity, conviction, and care that wouldn’t suggest his film runs, sans credits, just seven minutes and primarily consists of three shots spread across a single wide frame. Nothing less should be afforded a work that yields so much each time through: new textures in its seemingly rigid design, new resonances in musical arrangement, and perpetual surprise when it cuts, in the final moments, to archival images shot by Portuguese historian Orlando Ribeiro.
Our interview started with Fire before expanding to a cosmology of Costa: the joy of Stevie Wonder, the pain of film festivals, and memories of Jacques Rivette. The Daughters of Fire...
Our interview started with Fire before expanding to a cosmology of Costa: the joy of Stevie Wonder, the pain of film festivals, and memories of Jacques Rivette. The Daughters of Fire...
- 11/29/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Ask any short-film director and they’ll tell you the same thing: finding distribution for short films absolutely sucks. Ask any distributor and they’ll tell you the same thing: we want to release more short films but properly distributing them absolutely sucks.
Due credit to Cinema Guild for engineering a neat workaround: they’ve acquired Pedro Costa’s nine-minute short The Daughters of Fire off its Cannes premiere and will pair it with Hong Sangsoo’s 61-minute In Water––naturally branding the experience Fire+Water, at last giving Barbenheimer its reckoning. As Cinema Guild’s Peter Kelly noted, “There are too few opportunities for short films to play theatrically, but no recent short is more demanding of a theatrical experience than Pedro Costa’s monumental new work.” Apologies to everyone hoping they might watch the latest from one of our great imagemakers on their 13-inch MacBook Air. [Deadline]
The Daughters of Fire,...
Due credit to Cinema Guild for engineering a neat workaround: they’ve acquired Pedro Costa’s nine-minute short The Daughters of Fire off its Cannes premiere and will pair it with Hong Sangsoo’s 61-minute In Water––naturally branding the experience Fire+Water, at last giving Barbenheimer its reckoning. As Cinema Guild’s Peter Kelly noted, “There are too few opportunities for short films to play theatrically, but no recent short is more demanding of a theatrical experience than Pedro Costa’s monumental new work.” Apologies to everyone hoping they might watch the latest from one of our great imagemakers on their 13-inch MacBook Air. [Deadline]
The Daughters of Fire,...
- 7/25/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
This article was originally published in French by Charlie Hebdo on January 26, 2022. Translation by Craig Keller. Special thanks to Antoine Thirion.My friends, before it leaves the big screen, rush to see Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela: this is very important. We can all agree: the cinema in its near totality has turned to shit, is soulless, has sold out to that hysterical movie-trailer factory which only produces images of our tolerance for junk. But a few filmmakers find unscathed images: images that, through their political dignity, through their poetic rectitude, cut themselves off from tawdry hell; among these filmmakers, there is Pedro Costa.Vitalina Varela deboards a plane barefoot. A chorus of cleaning-women inform her that she’s arriving too late; her husband has been buried three days prior. “Go back home,” the chorus intones. But Vitalina Varela was waiting for more than twenty years in Cape Verde for her husband,...
- 3/10/2022
- MUBI
The U.S. lineup at Mubi next month has been unveiled, featuring films by Claude Chabrol, Paulo Rocha, Ulrich Köhler, and more. Notable new releases include Pedro Costa’s striking Locarno winner Vitalina Varela as well as the Julia Fox-led Pvt Chat (check out our extensive interview with director Ben Hozie here.).
As part of their series Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors, the Martin Scorsese favorite Wake in Fright joins Mubi, along with Fabrice Du Welz’s Alleluia, Nicolas Winding Refn’s underseen Fear X, and Ben Wheatley’s trippy A Field in England.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
October 1 | Alléluia | Fabrice Du Welz | Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors
October 2 | Styx | Wolfgang Fischer
October 3 | The Green Years | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha
October 4 | Change of Life | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha
October 5 | Your Day Is My Night | Lynne Sachs
October 6 | Hey, You!
As part of their series Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors, the Martin Scorsese favorite Wake in Fright joins Mubi, along with Fabrice Du Welz’s Alleluia, Nicolas Winding Refn’s underseen Fear X, and Ben Wheatley’s trippy A Field in England.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
October 1 | Alléluia | Fabrice Du Welz | Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors
October 2 | Styx | Wolfgang Fischer
October 3 | The Green Years | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha
October 4 | Change of Life | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha
October 5 | Your Day Is My Night | Lynne Sachs
October 6 | Hey, You!
- 9/21/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Cinemateca Brasileira. (WikiCommons)A devastating fire hit the Cinemateca Brasileira on July 29 and has left significant damage to the longest-running cinema institution in Brazil. In response, the workers of Cinemateca Brasileira have shared a statement regarding the continual mistreatment of facilities and staff by the government: "Without workers archives can not be preserved!" After facing unexpected budget cuts, microcinema No Evil Eye Cinema has announced a fundraising call for action and is seeking grants, foundational support, and other funding opportunities to sustain their programming and educational programs. On the Score podcast last week, composer Carter Burwell stated that "[Ethan Coen] just didn’t want to make movies anymore," in response to a question about Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth. This may mean the Coens are done working as a directing duo,...
- 8/4/2021
- MUBI
Lê Bảo’s Taste is set in Saigon, but for the best part of its 97 minutes, all action is confined to a bunker-like abode where five people meet and hide. The place is dark, unfurnished, and dank; so spectral in its emptiness you’d wonder if the quiet tenants are alive or ghosts. In the stunning chiaroscuro of their unlikely home all motion slows into choreography, characters freeze in a state of protracted wait, and there seems to be only a very blurred distinction between the dreaming and the dead.
Premiering in the Berlinale Encounters sidebar, Taste marks Lê’s feature debut. It is a film yanked out of a dream, and it behaves as one. Strictly speaking, it isn’t a story that’s being told here, but a mosaic of oneiric images, conjured and arranged around a tale of longing. The plot, thin and evanescent as it is,...
Premiering in the Berlinale Encounters sidebar, Taste marks Lê’s feature debut. It is a film yanked out of a dream, and it behaves as one. Strictly speaking, it isn’t a story that’s being told here, but a mosaic of oneiric images, conjured and arranged around a tale of longing. The plot, thin and evanescent as it is,...
- 3/5/2021
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Pedro Costa is not the most obvious Oscar contender. The director of “Vitalina Varela,” a slow-burn atmospheric character study about an immigrant woman confronting her past, has never been keen on self-promotion. But now that “Vitalina Varela” is the Portuguese submission for Best International Feature Film, he has no choice.
“This is the part where I’m supposed to put a smile on,” the 62-year-old director said in a recent interview. He attempted a dry laugh that did not come naturally to him. “I would love for a different type of people to see this film. If they’ll watch it because of this Oscar thing, great.”
And they should. Costa has been making rich, ambitious documentary-fiction hybrids since the ‘90s, but they rarely get noticed much beyond the festival circuit. Nearly all of his films take place in the same rundown immigrant community of Fontainhas and surrounding areas, in Lisbon,...
“This is the part where I’m supposed to put a smile on,” the 62-year-old director said in a recent interview. He attempted a dry laugh that did not come naturally to him. “I would love for a different type of people to see this film. If they’ll watch it because of this Oscar thing, great.”
And they should. Costa has been making rich, ambitious documentary-fiction hybrids since the ‘90s, but they rarely get noticed much beyond the festival circuit. Nearly all of his films take place in the same rundown immigrant community of Fontainhas and surrounding areas, in Lisbon,...
- 1/19/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Another precursor chimed in yesterday, with the National Society of Film Critics awarding their annual citations. This time around, they went for Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland in Best Picture, also giving Zhao the Best Director prize, while star Frances McDormand took home the Best Actress award. Nomadland did well, while the love was spread around otherwise, continuing a trend that’s been season long. Until the Guilds eventually chime in, that’s just how things are going to be, so sit tight for how things progress. Undoubtedly, this was a good precursor for Nomadland, but the movie certainly has a long way to go still… Here now are the winners from the National Society of Film Critics: Best Picture Winner: Nomadland 2nd place: First Cow 3rd place: Never Rarely Sometimes Always Best Director Winner: Chloé Zao, Nomadland 2nd place: Steve McQueen, Small Axe 3rd place: Kelly Reichardt, First Cow Best Actress Winner: Frances McDormand,...
- 1/11/2021
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Acting wins for Frances McDormand, Delroy Lindo.
Nomadland was voted best picture by The National Society Of Film Critics winners on Saturday (January 9) and won four prizes overall, including director for Chloé Zhao, whose The Rider was named best picture three years ago.
The film about the existence of a modern-day nomad drifting through the margins of American society earned 52 points in the group’s weighted ballot system, two ahead of Kelly Reichardt’s period tale First Cow, and 11 ahead of Eliza Hittman’s abortion drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
Nomadland also earned the actress award for Frances McDormand, and...
Nomadland was voted best picture by The National Society Of Film Critics winners on Saturday (January 9) and won four prizes overall, including director for Chloé Zhao, whose The Rider was named best picture three years ago.
The film about the existence of a modern-day nomad drifting through the margins of American society earned 52 points in the group’s weighted ballot system, two ahead of Kelly Reichardt’s period tale First Cow, and 11 ahead of Eliza Hittman’s abortion drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
Nomadland also earned the actress award for Frances McDormand, and...
- 1/9/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
For almost half a century, the National Society of Film Critics (Nsfc) , which was founded in 1966, rarely previewed the Oscar winner for Best Picture, doing so only five times in 49 years. But it has done just that three times in the last five years: “Spotlight” (2016), “Moonlight” (2017) and “Parasite” (2020). That stat bodes well for “Nomadland,” which dominated this year’s awards with wins on January 9 for Best Picture, Director (Chloé Zhao) and Actress (Frances McDormand).
Zhao also helmed this group’s pick for best pic two years ago, “The Rider.” She has already been feted by both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association this awards season. As with those two groups, the Nsfc also considered only films released in the 2020 rather than extending eligibility as has the Oscars to titles out by February 28.
So Nsfc didn’t look at the likes of “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,...
Zhao also helmed this group’s pick for best pic two years ago, “The Rider.” She has already been feted by both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association this awards season. As with those two groups, the Nsfc also considered only films released in the 2020 rather than extending eligibility as has the Oscars to titles out by February 28.
So Nsfc didn’t look at the likes of “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,...
- 1/9/2021
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
The National Society of Film Critics named Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand, the best picture of 2020.
Runners-up for the best picture category were First Cow and Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Nomadland won big during Saturday’s annual voting ceremony as Zhao walked away with the best director win and McDormand won the best actress category.
Additional honorees were Da 5 Bloods‘ Delroy Lindo and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm breakout Maria Bakalova, who won the ceremony’s best actor and supporting actress prizes, respectively.
The Nsfc’s 55th annual voting meeting selected winners and runners-up in 11 categories via a weighted ballot system.
Any film that opened in the US on a screen or streaming platform during the year is eligible for consideration. Last year, the group handed Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite its top prize, Best Picture, a feat the film duplicated at the Oscars.
The 60-members Nsfc include critics from...
Runners-up for the best picture category were First Cow and Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Nomadland won big during Saturday’s annual voting ceremony as Zhao walked away with the best director win and McDormand won the best actress category.
Additional honorees were Da 5 Bloods‘ Delroy Lindo and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm breakout Maria Bakalova, who won the ceremony’s best actor and supporting actress prizes, respectively.
The Nsfc’s 55th annual voting meeting selected winners and runners-up in 11 categories via a weighted ballot system.
Any film that opened in the US on a screen or streaming platform during the year is eligible for consideration. Last year, the group handed Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite its top prize, Best Picture, a feat the film duplicated at the Oscars.
The 60-members Nsfc include critics from...
- 1/9/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” has been named the best film of 2020 by the National Society of Film Critics, which conducted its annual voting in a virtual meeting on Saturday.
The film starring Frances McDormand as a woman who takes the road after falling on hard economic times won a narrow victory over Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow,” scoring 52 points to 50 for the runner-up. Zhao also won the Best Director award in a wide margin over Steve McQueen (“Small Axe”) and Reichardt, while McDormand won the best-actress award and cinematographer Joshua James Richards won in his category as well.
The best-actor award went to Delroy Lindo for “Da 5 Bloods” in a narrow victory over Chadwick Boseman for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” McDormand’s runner-up was Viola Davis, also from “Ma Rainey.”
In the supporting categories, the Nsfc went with more unexpected winners in Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and...
The film starring Frances McDormand as a woman who takes the road after falling on hard economic times won a narrow victory over Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow,” scoring 52 points to 50 for the runner-up. Zhao also won the Best Director award in a wide margin over Steve McQueen (“Small Axe”) and Reichardt, while McDormand won the best-actress award and cinematographer Joshua James Richards won in his category as well.
The best-actor award went to Delroy Lindo for “Da 5 Bloods” in a narrow victory over Chadwick Boseman for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” McDormand’s runner-up was Viola Davis, also from “Ma Rainey.”
In the supporting categories, the Nsfc went with more unexpected winners in Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and...
- 1/9/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Academy on Friday unveiled to its voters a record 93 films will compete in the Best International Feature Film category — which will no doubt leading to a busy four weeks of viewing before first-round voting begins on Feb. 1.
Helped by Covid-inspired rules that relaxed the usual entry requirements, the films topped the record of 92 entries set in 2017, as TheWrap suggested they likely would in December. The films include a record 34 female directors, seven more than the previous high of 27 set last year.
This is not the official list of qualifying films, which is expected to be released by the Academy later in January. But these 93 films are all in the members-only online screening room devoted to the category, and each of them has been put on a “required viewing” list for one-fourth of the voters. It is unlikely that any of the films will be disqualified at this point, although...
Helped by Covid-inspired rules that relaxed the usual entry requirements, the films topped the record of 92 entries set in 2017, as TheWrap suggested they likely would in December. The films include a record 34 female directors, seven more than the previous high of 27 set last year.
This is not the official list of qualifying films, which is expected to be released by the Academy later in January. But these 93 films are all in the members-only online screening room devoted to the category, and each of them has been put on a “required viewing” list for one-fourth of the voters. It is unlikely that any of the films will be disqualified at this point, although...
- 1/8/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Without going into the specifics of the obstacles that were overcome by the heroic efforts of film distributors, 2020 was a stronger year for films released in the United States than could have been reasonably expected, though it only sparingly reached the heights of last year. Note the specific term “released”: all of the films on my list premiered before 2020 even began, which only further heightens the importance of both the festival circuit and the people dedicated to giving films their proper due, whether it be in repertory theaters or in virtual cinemas. One special mention: my favorite film released this year from the previous decade is Hong Sang-soo’s Yourself and Yours, which premiered in 2016 but only just received a release; my personal eligibility rules limit the films on this list to a two-year window, but otherwise it would be at the very top of this list.
Honorable Mentions: Lovers Rock,...
Honorable Mentions: Lovers Rock,...
- 1/2/2021
- by Ryan Swen
- The Film Stage
Following our top 50 films of 2020 and more year-end coverage, we’re pleased to share personal top 10s of 2020 from our contributors.
Oh, where to begin? There’s usually so much to complain about. Yes, 2020 was rough. It was like if the second half of mother! was directed by three minions in a trench coat posing as McGruff the Crime Dog and then came to life. Even the film world was odd. Stuff got pushed to VOD. Studios delayed tent poles a year back in some cases. In what has to be the longest record since I was three years old, I haven’t been to a theater since March 12. I’m all but sure it’ll be more than a few months before it’s safe (or even possible) to see something again on the big screen, but getting this handful of movies is more than a nice consolation prize.
Oh, where to begin? There’s usually so much to complain about. Yes, 2020 was rough. It was like if the second half of mother! was directed by three minions in a trench coat posing as McGruff the Crime Dog and then came to life. Even the film world was odd. Stuff got pushed to VOD. Studios delayed tent poles a year back in some cases. In what has to be the longest record since I was three years old, I haven’t been to a theater since March 12. I’m all but sure it’ll be more than a few months before it’s safe (or even possible) to see something again on the big screen, but getting this handful of movies is more than a nice consolation prize.
- 12/31/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” has earned seven nominations for 2020 honors from the Chicago Film Critics Association, followed by six each for Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” and Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
David Fincher’s “Mank” and Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” took five nominations each. With 28 nominations, Netflix is the most recognized studio, followed by Amazon with 16 and and A24 with 15. Zhao and Fennell each earned three nominations.
The Best Director category is comprised entirely of women and people of color with Fennell, Lee, Steve McQueen, Reichardt and Zhao. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross achieved a double nomination in the same category, earning Best Original Score nominations for their work in both “Soul” and “Mank.” The late Chadwick Boseman earned nominations for Best Actor in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and Best Supporting Actor in “Da 5 Bloods.”
The...
David Fincher’s “Mank” and Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” took five nominations each. With 28 nominations, Netflix is the most recognized studio, followed by Amazon with 16 and and A24 with 15. Zhao and Fennell each earned three nominations.
The Best Director category is comprised entirely of women and people of color with Fennell, Lee, Steve McQueen, Reichardt and Zhao. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross achieved a double nomination in the same category, earning Best Original Score nominations for their work in both “Soul” and “Mank.” The late Chadwick Boseman earned nominations for Best Actor in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and Best Supporting Actor in “Da 5 Bloods.”
The...
- 12/18/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
by Cláudio Alves
Just this weekend, I was singing the praises of Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela. Lo and behold, the shadowy chamber drama is one of four finalists for Portugal's Oscar submission. A jury of the Portuguese Film Academy, made up of directors Gonçalo Galvão Teles, Lauro António and Monique Rutler, actors Isabel Abreu and Welket Bungué, and cinematographer Miguel Sales Lopes, has selected their finalists from a list of 33 eligible features. The quartet of lucky films are…...
Just this weekend, I was singing the praises of Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela. Lo and behold, the shadowy chamber drama is one of four finalists for Portugal's Oscar submission. A jury of the Portuguese Film Academy, made up of directors Gonçalo Galvão Teles, Lauro António and Monique Rutler, actors Isabel Abreu and Welket Bungué, and cinematographer Miguel Sales Lopes, has selected their finalists from a list of 33 eligible features. The quartet of lucky films are…...
- 11/3/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Sebastian Lifshitz’s transgender-themed documentary won the best film award.
Sébastien Lifshitz’s Little Girl has been awarded the Grand Prix for best film in the 47th Film Fest Ghent’s official competition, which also featured Nomadland, Vitalina Varela and First Cow.
The 2020 Georges Delerue Award for best music and sound design goes to Ivan Ostrochovský’s Servants. Both awards were picked by the international jury, while Gagarine – a Cannes 2020 Label title and the feature debut of Fanny Liatard and Jeremy Trouilh – won the main prize of the youth jury.
Little Girl is the first documentary to win the festival’s top prize in 35 years.
Sébastien Lifshitz’s Little Girl has been awarded the Grand Prix for best film in the 47th Film Fest Ghent’s official competition, which also featured Nomadland, Vitalina Varela and First Cow.
The 2020 Georges Delerue Award for best music and sound design goes to Ivan Ostrochovský’s Servants. Both awards were picked by the international jury, while Gagarine – a Cannes 2020 Label title and the feature debut of Fanny Liatard and Jeremy Trouilh – won the main prize of the youth jury.
Little Girl is the first documentary to win the festival’s top prize in 35 years.
- 10/23/2020
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
A group of Portuguese filmmakers took to the streets on Tuesday to protest new local film and TV legislation being voted on in parliament, which they claim will give foreign streaming giants an unfair advantage within the country’s film landscape.
Portugal is among the first countries in Europe to implement the European Union’s recently approved Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Avms), which obligates foreign streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to invest a portion of their revenue into local productions. Now that Brussels has approved the Avms, parliaments across Europe must transpose it into law by 2021.
A crowd of people comprising Portuguese producers, directors, actors and film students staged the protest after writing an open letter to the government. In the document, they complained that under the proposed new rules, foreign streaming giants won’t be paying a tax on their subscription revenues and also won...
Portugal is among the first countries in Europe to implement the European Union’s recently approved Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Avms), which obligates foreign streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to invest a portion of their revenue into local productions. Now that Brussels has approved the Avms, parliaments across Europe must transpose it into law by 2021.
A crowd of people comprising Portuguese producers, directors, actors and film students staged the protest after writing an open letter to the government. In the document, they complained that under the proposed new rules, foreign streaming giants won’t be paying a tax on their subscription revenues and also won...
- 10/20/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The Lumière Festival’s Classic Film Market (Mifc) in Lyon, France, is spotlighting efforts in Portugal to digitize and preserve the nation’s film heritage as part of this year’s country focus.
Portugal is a good representation of what is happening in Europe, according to Mifc program coordinator Gérald Duchaussoy.
The Cinemateca Portuguesa has agreements with rights holders and distributors, organizes events, promotes Portuguese cinema at festivals, digitizes and restores films and also offers a digital platform with more than 900 titles from the first half of the 20th century.
Cinemateca Portuguesa’s José Manuel Costa is presenting three restored works during the market: Perdigão Queiroga’s musical romance “Fado, História d’uma Cantadeira” (1947), Paulo Rocha’s “Change of Life” (1966) and Leitão de Barros’ “Lisboa” (1930).
While the cinematheque’s work focuses mainly on digitization and preservations of Portuguese films at its in-house lab, it also carries out restoration work on specific films when needed,...
Portugal is a good representation of what is happening in Europe, according to Mifc program coordinator Gérald Duchaussoy.
The Cinemateca Portuguesa has agreements with rights holders and distributors, organizes events, promotes Portuguese cinema at festivals, digitizes and restores films and also offers a digital platform with more than 900 titles from the first half of the 20th century.
Cinemateca Portuguesa’s José Manuel Costa is presenting three restored works during the market: Perdigão Queiroga’s musical romance “Fado, História d’uma Cantadeira” (1947), Paulo Rocha’s “Change of Life” (1966) and Leitão de Barros’ “Lisboa” (1930).
While the cinematheque’s work focuses mainly on digitization and preservations of Portuguese films at its in-house lab, it also carries out restoration work on specific films when needed,...
- 10/15/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The pandemic, although disastrous for most parts of the economy, had one minor upside: a boost in online viewing. The number of subscribers of Portugal’s VOD platform Filmin, for example, has tripled compared with last year, due in part to the lockdown. “We grew as much in three months as we forecast for two years,” Filmin Portugal manager Anette Dujisin told Variety. Classic films have played a major part in driving that growth.
Despite challenges with local classics, Filmin is seeing growing success with heritage films and catalog titles as well as new releases. Filmin has received constant requests from subscribers – even loud demands from some – for more classic films since the service went online in 2016, Dujisin said.
The feedback affirms “that a VOD platform dedicated to independent cinema is not complete without a certain body of classical films,” Dujisin said. “So since the beginning we have been making...
Despite challenges with local classics, Filmin is seeing growing success with heritage films and catalog titles as well as new releases. Filmin has received constant requests from subscribers – even loud demands from some – for more classic films since the service went online in 2016, Dujisin said.
The feedback affirms “that a VOD platform dedicated to independent cinema is not complete without a certain body of classical films,” Dujisin said. “So since the beginning we have been making...
- 10/12/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Grasshopper Film has picked up North American distribution rights to Paul Felten and Joe DeNardo’s “Slow Machine,” ahead of the film’s premiere at the 58th annual New York Film Festival this week.
Set to release theatrically next year, the film is billed as a “miniature epic” of paranoia, espionage, subterfuge, music and performance on 16mm. It first bowed at January’s International Film Festival Rotterdam, one of the few physical film fests to take place ahead of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Slow Machine” follows Stephanie, a restless and vibrant actor, who meets a troubled counter-terrorism specialist who’s also an aficionado of experimental theater. Their relationship ends disastrously, and forces Stephanie to the ramshackle home of musician Eleanor Friedberger, where she’s haunted by violent memories of her past life.
“As moviegoers, we’ve seen the ‘Grasshopper Film’ logo in front of some of our favorite new and restored...
Set to release theatrically next year, the film is billed as a “miniature epic” of paranoia, espionage, subterfuge, music and performance on 16mm. It first bowed at January’s International Film Festival Rotterdam, one of the few physical film fests to take place ahead of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Slow Machine” follows Stephanie, a restless and vibrant actor, who meets a troubled counter-terrorism specialist who’s also an aficionado of experimental theater. Their relationship ends disastrously, and forces Stephanie to the ramshackle home of musician Eleanor Friedberger, where she’s haunted by violent memories of her past life.
“As moviegoers, we’ve seen the ‘Grasshopper Film’ logo in front of some of our favorite new and restored...
- 10/8/2020
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
The Criterion Channel’s stellar offerings are continuing next month with a selection of new releases, retrospective, series, and more. Leading the pack is, of course, a horror lineup perfectly timed for Halloween, featuring ’70s classics and underseen gems, including Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer (pictured above), Tobe Hopper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, early films by David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, and Brian De Palma, Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess, and more.
Also of note is a New Korean Cinema retrospective, featuring a new introduction by critic Grady Hendrix and a conversation between directors Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook, whose Barking Dogs Never Bite, The Host, Mother, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance are part of the lineup, as well as Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide, and more titles to be announced. Bong’s short Influenza will also arrive, paired with Michael Haneke’s Caché.
Also of note is a New Korean Cinema retrospective, featuring a new introduction by critic Grady Hendrix and a conversation between directors Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook, whose Barking Dogs Never Bite, The Host, Mother, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance are part of the lineup, as well as Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide, and more titles to be announced. Bong’s short Influenza will also arrive, paired with Michael Haneke’s Caché.
- 9/29/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Netflix have been on a real hot streak lately when it comes to original movies, with action flicks Extraction and The Old Guard, thrilling superhero story Project Power, the awards worthy Da 5 Bloods and more. The latter months of the year, meanwhile, will see titles like Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 and David Fincher’s Mank land on the service.
But this weekend, the streaming giant has brought us something a bit different from all of those with The Babysitter: Killer Queen, a sequel to the successful horror comedy from McG. Despite poor reviews, it’s been going down well with subscribers so far and is making waves online, with everyone buzzing about it.
Killer Queen is hardly the only new streaming/VOD release this weekend, though, with a whopping 10 new titles now available for you to watch from home. And after the break, we’ll run through them all.
But this weekend, the streaming giant has brought us something a bit different from all of those with The Babysitter: Killer Queen, a sequel to the successful horror comedy from McG. Despite poor reviews, it’s been going down well with subscribers so far and is making waves online, with everyone buzzing about it.
Killer Queen is hardly the only new streaming/VOD release this weekend, though, with a whopping 10 new titles now available for you to watch from home. And after the break, we’ll run through them all.
- 9/12/2020
- by Matt Joseph
- We Got This Covered
This year’s selection will be announced over two waves to account for pandemic conditions.
The first 32 features up for the 2020 European Films Awards has been announced with a second wave of “pandemic year” titles due to be revealed in September.
Scroll down for first selection of films
The titles include Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History Of David Copperfield and Viggo Mortensen’s Falling as well as Berlinale award-winners Undine, by Christian Petzold; Hidden Away, by Giorgio Diritti; Bad Tales, by the D’Innocenzo Brothers; Dau. Natasha, by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel; and Delete History, by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern.
The first 32 features up for the 2020 European Films Awards has been announced with a second wave of “pandemic year” titles due to be revealed in September.
Scroll down for first selection of films
The titles include Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History Of David Copperfield and Viggo Mortensen’s Falling as well as Berlinale award-winners Undine, by Christian Petzold; Hidden Away, by Giorgio Diritti; Bad Tales, by the D’Innocenzo Brothers; Dau. Natasha, by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel; and Delete History, by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern.
- 8/18/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
An American Pickle (Brandon Trost)
Seth Rogen plays dual roles in his latest comedy, American Pickle follows Seth Rogen both as Herschel Greenbaum, an immigrant who falls in a vat of pickled is brined for 100 years, and his great-grandson Ben Greenbaum, who is a computer coder and lives a very different life, to say the least. While there are certainly humorous sequences (a Brooklyn hipster couple’s first impressions of Greenbaum’s pickle stand comes foremost to mind), Rogen is far more interested in the definitions of family and loyalty, themes that are not explored with a great deal of emotional impact, but do add some heart to what...
An American Pickle (Brandon Trost)
Seth Rogen plays dual roles in his latest comedy, American Pickle follows Seth Rogen both as Herschel Greenbaum, an immigrant who falls in a vat of pickled is brined for 100 years, and his great-grandson Ben Greenbaum, who is a computer coder and lives a very different life, to say the least. While there are certainly humorous sequences (a Brooklyn hipster couple’s first impressions of Greenbaum’s pickle stand comes foremost to mind), Rogen is far more interested in the definitions of family and loyalty, themes that are not explored with a great deal of emotional impact, but do add some heart to what...
- 8/7/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get ready for a Hong summer. On the heels of the announcement that Hong Sangsoo’s Yourself and Yours will finally get a U.S. release this summer, two more favorites from the prolific South Korean director are now arriving. We’re pleased to exclusively reveal that Grasshopper Film have acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Hong’s Hill of Freedom and a new digital restoration of Woman on the Beach. Both films will receive virtual cinema releases this summer, in advance of digital and home-video releases later this year.
A world premiere at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, Hill of Freedom (2014) is one of Hong’s most structurally ambitious works, chronicling a dislocated man’s misadventures in Japan through jumbled chronology. Woman on the Beach (2006) is the story of a film director becoming entangled in romantic affairs, and has often been compared to both Godard’s Contempt...
A world premiere at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, Hill of Freedom (2014) is one of Hong’s most structurally ambitious works, chronicling a dislocated man’s misadventures in Japan through jumbled chronology. Woman on the Beach (2006) is the story of a film director becoming entangled in romantic affairs, and has often been compared to both Godard’s Contempt...
- 5/1/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Film at Lincoln Center has revealed a slate of April and May “openings” in its upcoming Flc Virtual Cinema.
The streaming rentals, a mix of festival titles, commercial releases and catalog fare, range from $10 to $12, some with member discounts. Half of all proceeds will benefit the storied New York film organization.
During the lockdown of Covid-19, with the disease disproportionately affecting New York City, film and the rest of Lincoln Center’s artistic and cultural offerings have taken a significant hit. The Metropolitan Opera, for example, is now reported to be tens of millions of dollars in the hole after canceling its season.
The streaming rentals, a mix of festival titles, commercial releases and catalog fare, range from $10 to $12, some with member discounts. Half of all proceeds will benefit the storied New York film organization.
During the lockdown of Covid-19, with the disease disproportionately affecting New York City, film and the rest of Lincoln Center’s artistic and cultural offerings have taken a significant hit. The Metropolitan Opera, for example, is now reported to be tens of millions of dollars in the hole after canceling its season.
- 4/21/2020
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
A funeral procession emerges from the pitch-black center of a walled cemetery outside of Lisbon. Mourners move past the camera, but no one speaks of the deceased or of anything else. For the first 10 minutes of Pedro Costa’s latest, “Vitalina Varela,” wordless sound design and an immersive darkness settle in, the storytelling restricted to the aftermath of sickness and an unknown man’s last days.
Costa’s films often star first-time or other nonprofessional actors playing versions of themselves, with storylines reflecting their real lives, elements of fiction and documentary forming a seamless whole; as such Vitalina Varela plays “herself.” And as the film opens, and Vitalina arrives, she’s three days too late. The funeral was for Joaquim, the husband who abandoned Vitalina years earlier, and this three-day passage amounts to an anti-resurrection. Here, the dead stay dead.
Vitalina positions herself in the shadowy, crumbling hovel where Joaquim lived and died,...
Costa’s films often star first-time or other nonprofessional actors playing versions of themselves, with storylines reflecting their real lives, elements of fiction and documentary forming a seamless whole; as such Vitalina Varela plays “herself.” And as the film opens, and Vitalina arrives, she’s three days too late. The funeral was for Joaquim, the husband who abandoned Vitalina years earlier, and this three-day passage amounts to an anti-resurrection. Here, the dead stay dead.
Vitalina positions herself in the shadowy, crumbling hovel where Joaquim lived and died,...
- 3/26/2020
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe Cannes Film Festival in 2019, by Jean-Paul PelissierThe Cannes Film Festival has officially announced its indefinite postponement, with one potential option being to hold the festival during the end of June through the beginning of July. In an interview with Variety, Spike Lee says, "This is no joke. It’s not some movie. People are dying.”Recommended Viewinga breathtaking trailer for Mondo Macabro's Blu-ray debut of Shinya Tsukamoto's Gemini (1999), a haunting, timely horror film about a Meiji-era doctor who treats plague victims who encounters a mysterious doppelgänger. Recommended Reading A Horse is Not a Hammer by Barbara Hammer (2008)"Barbara Hammer’s cinema is a talking cinema in its most disarming sense: talking about cinema, talking with cinema, learning how to talk." An obituary for the late Barbara Hammer by Gabriella Beckhurst of Another Gaze.
- 3/25/2020
- MUBI
Pedro Costa’s Vitaline Varela (2019) screens at Webster University ‘s Moor Auditorium (470 E Lockwood Ave) Thursday March 12th and Sunday March 15th. The film begins each evening at at 7:30pm. A Facebook event can be found Here
Portuguese director Pedro Costa has been making great films for decades now, and among them, Vitalina Varela is pointed toward being his most acclaimed. The plot concerns the 55-year-old titular character who arrives to Lisbon from Cape Verde three days after her husband’s funeral, but much of the discussion surrounding the film is in regard to Leonardo Simões’ stunning cinematography, which is uncommonly dark and peerlessly exquisite.
In Portuguese with English subtitles.
The post Pedro Costa’s Vitaline Varela Screens at Webster University March 12th and 15th appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.
Portuguese director Pedro Costa has been making great films for decades now, and among them, Vitalina Varela is pointed toward being his most acclaimed. The plot concerns the 55-year-old titular character who arrives to Lisbon from Cape Verde three days after her husband’s funeral, but much of the discussion surrounding the film is in regard to Leonardo Simões’ stunning cinematography, which is uncommonly dark and peerlessly exquisite.
In Portuguese with English subtitles.
The post Pedro Costa’s Vitaline Varela Screens at Webster University March 12th and 15th appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.
- 3/9/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Vitalina Varela stars as herself in Pedro Costa’s bleak but beautiful film about a woman discovering the hidden life of her late husband
If there is a cinema of the dispossessed, then its hero has to be the Portuguese film-maker Pedro Costa. His static, austere and often dreamlike movies – unfolding in a mysterious, forbidding semi-darkness – are about marginalised souls, often those in the impoverished (and now demolished) Fontaínhas shantytown in Lisbon. His new film once again reminded me of the pure Beckettian bleakness and starkness in his work: its characters are lonely unsmiling people living below the poverty line who have endured much. Their material wretchedness is not endowed with a condescending nobility but with a serenely laconic self-reliance. Costa and cinematographer Leonardo Simões have composed strangely compelling images of crumbling walls and shadowy, tatty interiors, picked out with fierce key lights to give them an almost modernist look,...
If there is a cinema of the dispossessed, then its hero has to be the Portuguese film-maker Pedro Costa. His static, austere and often dreamlike movies – unfolding in a mysterious, forbidding semi-darkness – are about marginalised souls, often those in the impoverished (and now demolished) Fontaínhas shantytown in Lisbon. His new film once again reminded me of the pure Beckettian bleakness and starkness in his work: its characters are lonely unsmiling people living below the poverty line who have endured much. Their material wretchedness is not endowed with a condescending nobility but with a serenely laconic self-reliance. Costa and cinematographer Leonardo Simões have composed strangely compelling images of crumbling walls and shadowy, tatty interiors, picked out with fierce key lights to give them an almost modernist look,...
- 3/5/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela is Mubi Go's Film of the Week of March 6th, 2020.Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Pedro Costa: A Woman’s Story.Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theater? Why is it your favorite?Costa: Cinema Império, Lisbon, today a Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.Notebook: What is the most memorable movie screening of your life? Why is it memorable?Costa: All the screenings of the programs Cinema Americano dos anos 30, 40, 50, organised by João Bénard da Costa at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, between 1977 and 1980. Because I was watching those unforgettable films for the first time.Notebook: If you could choose one classic film to watch on the big screen, what would it be and why?Costa: Enchanted...
- 3/3/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSMartin Scorsese and Paul Schrader in 1973.Martin Scorsese will be executive producing Paul Schrader's upcoming The Card Counter, a casino-set thriller starring Tiffany Haddish, Oscar Isaac, and Willem Dafoe, marking the pair's fifth collaboration. Though we're a little late, we're thrilled by news that the Safdie Brothers have teamed up with comedian Nathan Fielder to pen a half-hour pilot for Showtime. The story reportedly stars Fielder and Benny Safdie in the tale of a curse that threatens the marriage of a couple on a Hgtv show. Recommended VIEWINGMetrograph's official trailer for the 4K restoration of Fruit Chan's Made in Hong Kong, a portrait of nihilistic youth in the city. Abel Ferrara's surreal Siberia stars Willem Dafoe as an isolated man who ventures into "dreams, memory and imagination in an attempt to find his true nature.
- 2/26/2020
- MUBI
Compared to almost all contemporary cinema Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela stands out as a film that takes more risk, runs the most difficult course of existence, and is devoted with every ounce of its being to the compassionate transmission of another’s experience. It premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival last August, where it deservedly won the top prize, the Golden Leopard, and Varela, its heroine, won best actress. The Portuguese filmmaker’s last feature, Horse Money, won the Best Director award in Locarno in 2014, and while this new film doesn’t have the imaginative range of that masterpiece—which was rendered in a remarkable pulses of memories, dreams, nightmares, and history—and while it feels somewhat uneven in its editing despite its compellingly singular subject, Vitalina Varela is nevertheless a film of fierce determination and paramount resonance.Those familiar with Horse Money will undoubtably remember an...
- 2/22/2020
- MUBI
Surrounded by all sides by corroded concrete, encased in stifling darkness, stone-faced men shuffle down an alleyway carved into the lifeless fabric of a Cape Verdean slum. Crucifixes, entrenched in the surface above them, loom over their heads. Death permeates the air. No further introduction is offered, and no further introduction is needed. And so begins Pedro Costa’s endlessly contemplative, transcendental drama “Vitalina Varela.”
Adopting its title from the leading actress’s actual name, Costa’s newest feature, watered down to a simplistic description, depicts a woman who immigrates to Portugal as she seeks to come to terms with the death of her recently departed husband, a plight that ropes in a priest combating a spiritual crisis.
Continue reading ‘Vitalina Varela’: Pedro Costa Delivers A Beautiful Meditation On Legacy, Loss, And Love [Review] at The Playlist.
Adopting its title from the leading actress’s actual name, Costa’s newest feature, watered down to a simplistic description, depicts a woman who immigrates to Portugal as she seeks to come to terms with the death of her recently departed husband, a plight that ropes in a priest combating a spiritual crisis.
Continue reading ‘Vitalina Varela’: Pedro Costa Delivers A Beautiful Meditation On Legacy, Loss, And Love [Review] at The Playlist.
- 2/21/2020
- by Jonathan Christian
- The Playlist
It would be a huge disservice to filmmaker Pedro Costa and his new project “Vitalina Varela” to just explain the plot of his new film in simple words. The filmmaker has never been one to make simple films. And to watch his films is more about the experience than just waiting for the next plot point. This is just part of what makes Costa’s work so special.
With “Vitalina Varela” arriving in theaters this weekend, we’re excited to give our readers an exclusive clip from the film and poster, which just gives a taste at the atmosphere and beauty you’ll experience watching Costa’s latest work.
Continue reading ‘Vitalina Varela’ Exclusive Clip: Pedro Costa Returns With Another Award-Winning Drama at The Playlist.
With “Vitalina Varela” arriving in theaters this weekend, we’re excited to give our readers an exclusive clip from the film and poster, which just gives a taste at the atmosphere and beauty you’ll experience watching Costa’s latest work.
Continue reading ‘Vitalina Varela’ Exclusive Clip: Pedro Costa Returns With Another Award-Winning Drama at The Playlist.
- 2/20/2020
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Rushes: Kore-eda & Bong In Conversation, Movie Piracy in 1903, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Memoria"
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.News Khadja Nin, Ava DuVernay and, Cate Blanchett protesting Cannes's lack of female filmmakers in 2018 (Andreas Rentz)After signing a pledge to gender equality in 2018, the Cannes Film Festival has announced its 2020 selection committee, which includes five women and five men. We're saddened to hear that production of Wong Kar-wai's Tong Wars, an Amazon series that would follow the lives of immigrants in San Francisco's Chinatown, has been cancelled. However, the restoration project of Wong's films continues, with a 4K restoration of In the Mood for Love premiering at this year's Cannes ahead of Janus Film's summer retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Recommended Viewingmubi's trailer for the ongoing retrospective, Yûzô Kawashima's Post-War Japan, which runs January - April, 2020. Il Cinema Ritrovato will also be staging a retrospective on the director,...
- 2/19/2020
- MUBI
The International Cinephile Society is known for going its own way with its annual awards, and its latest edition is no exception. Leading the field for its 17th awards was Pedro Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical “Pain and Glory,” which won best picture, and best actor for Antonio Banderas.
The Ics is made up of more than 100 accredited journalists, film scholars, historians and other industry professionals. Led by Ics president Cédric Succivalli, each year the Ics honors the finest in American and international cinema.
Best director went to Céline Sciamma for her 18th-century story of obsession “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” while the film’s Adèle Haenel earned the supporting actress prize.
Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” – which is up for six Oscars this weekend – was another hot Ics favorite, winning original screenplay, ensemble and production design awards.
Vitalina Varela won the lead actress prize for her role as a Cape...
The Ics is made up of more than 100 accredited journalists, film scholars, historians and other industry professionals. Led by Ics president Cédric Succivalli, each year the Ics honors the finest in American and international cinema.
Best director went to Céline Sciamma for her 18th-century story of obsession “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” while the film’s Adèle Haenel earned the supporting actress prize.
Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” – which is up for six Oscars this weekend – was another hot Ics favorite, winning original screenplay, ensemble and production design awards.
Vitalina Varela won the lead actress prize for her role as a Cape...
- 2/7/2020
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection, a fiction debut that screened at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, is a tale of a rural people displaced. In this case, by Lesotho’s provincial officials, who want to re-appropriate the land to construct a dam. Contemporary cinema has featured a similar plot a number of times, perhaps most famously in Jia Zhangke’s Still Life (2006). But in Mosese’s ambitious, mournful film, the uprooting runs deeper. The central character, Mantoa (Mary Twala Mhlongo), is an eighty-year-old widow who learns that her son, who’s been working in the South African mines, has died. The worn-out Mantoa wakes up each day yearning for her own demise. But when her community is ordered to move, she realizes that her remains will not rest among her ancestors, in the village cemetery. Mantoa then...
- 1/29/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbel Ferrara's SiberiaThe Berlin Film Festival Competition lineup has finally been unveiled, revealing a roster of heavy hitters that includes Ilya Khrzhanovsky's controversial installation project Dau, Abel Ferrara's long-delayed Siberia, Hong Sang-soo's latest The Woman Who Ran, and the anticipated return of Christian Petzold, Rithy Panh, Tsai Ming-liang, Sally Potter, and Philippe Garrel. Actor, writer, and director Terry Jones, best known for his involvement in the Monty Python comedy group and for directing the 1983 Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, has died. Recommended VIEWINGGrasshopper Films has released a trailer for Pedro Costa's bold Vitalina Varela, about a woman who arrives in Lisbon from Cape Verde to attend her estranged husband's funeral. Upon its premiere at 2019's Locarno Film Festival, editor Daniel Kasman described it as "a film of fierce determination and paramount resonance.
- 1/29/2020
- MUBI
Masterclasses from Pedro Costa, and Sarah Gavron and Anu Henriques, offered differing perspectives.
UK filmmakers Sarah Gavron and Anu Henriques, and Portuguese director Pedro Costa offered distinct interpretations of the international film industry in their respective masterclass sessions at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) this weekend.
Gavron, whose latest feature Rocks is playing at the festival, discussed a collaborative approach to filmmaking that, while acknowledging it would be unpopular with some, she felt has brought results. She co-created the film with Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson.
“I honestly think there’s a way of doing creative decisions where you don...
UK filmmakers Sarah Gavron and Anu Henriques, and Portuguese director Pedro Costa offered distinct interpretations of the international film industry in their respective masterclass sessions at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) this weekend.
Gavron, whose latest feature Rocks is playing at the festival, discussed a collaborative approach to filmmaking that, while acknowledging it would be unpopular with some, she felt has brought results. She co-created the film with Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson.
“I honestly think there’s a way of doing creative decisions where you don...
- 1/27/2020
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦
- ScreenDaily
From Horse Money to Colossal Youth and beyond, Pedro Costa has consistently impressed with his enigmatic and austere works, turning his camera to the disenfranchised and marginalized with his signature docufiction style. Working in Lisbon throughout his career, his masterful newest film Vitalina Varela is a part of the tradition. The winner of the Golden Leopard and Best Actress at the Locarno Film Festival and an official selection at Nyff and Tiff, Grasshopper Film has unveiled the first trailer for the film in anticipation for Sundance debut, and with a release to follow starting February 21 at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center.
Continuing the informal trilogy he began in Colossal Youth, Costa turns his focus to an older woman Vitalina Varela, (playing herself) who travels to Lisbon to find the husband who left her twenty-five years ago, only to discover that he’s been dead for three days. The film...
Continuing the informal trilogy he began in Colossal Youth, Costa turns his focus to an older woman Vitalina Varela, (playing herself) who travels to Lisbon to find the husband who left her twenty-five years ago, only to discover that he’s been dead for three days. The film...
- 1/23/2020
- by Margaret Rasberry
- The Film Stage
Like a moth to the light, Portuguese auteur Pedro Costa (“Colossal Youth“) always finds himself returning to the Fontainhas neighborhood that he holds so near and dear— a shantytown on the outskirts of Lisbon that’s home to predominantly immigrant communities. Almost always using non-actors and blurring reality and fiction by drawing from their real lives, in “Vitalina Varela” the Portuguese filmmaker refracts and expands an episode from his previous feature “Horse Money,” wherein a Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the death of her husband.
Continue reading ‘Vitalina Varela’ Trailer: Pedro Costa Tackles Grief & Ghosts Of The Past at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Vitalina Varela’ Trailer: Pedro Costa Tackles Grief & Ghosts Of The Past at The Playlist.
- 1/23/2020
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
The IndieWire Sundance 2020 Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival
Lineup and Pre-Festival Announcements and News
Sundance 2020 Announces Features Lineup: Films From Rees, Zeitlin, Plus Surprise Taylor Swift Doc
An Inconvenient Truth’ Director Davis Guggenheim Launches Concordia, a Documentary and Nonfiction Studio
Sundance 2020 Reveals New Frontier Slate, Including Films and Vr Experiences
Sundance 2020 Sets TV and Shorts Lineups with Sarah Polley, Steve James, and Lin-Manuel Miranda
Sundance Film Festival Announces Travel Stipend for Minority Journalists
Sundance 2020 Juries Include Ethan Hawke, Dee Rees, Nanfu Wang, Isabella Rossellini, and More
Pre-Festival Analysis
Sundance 2020: 20 Must-See Films and Series At This Year’s Festival, From ‘Zola’ to ‘Kajillionaire’
Sundance 2020: The Lgbtq Films We Can’t Wait to See in Park City
Sundance Wish List: 60 Films We Hope Will Head to Park City in 2020
Sundance 2020: 23 Films Poised to Break Out, With a Few Hidden Gems
Sundance 2020 Oscar Preview: Keep Your Eye on the Documentaries
Film and Television Reviews Interviews
Sundance 2020: How...
Sundance 2020 Announces Features Lineup: Films From Rees, Zeitlin, Plus Surprise Taylor Swift Doc
An Inconvenient Truth’ Director Davis Guggenheim Launches Concordia, a Documentary and Nonfiction Studio
Sundance 2020 Reveals New Frontier Slate, Including Films and Vr Experiences
Sundance 2020 Sets TV and Shorts Lineups with Sarah Polley, Steve James, and Lin-Manuel Miranda
Sundance Film Festival Announces Travel Stipend for Minority Journalists
Sundance 2020 Juries Include Ethan Hawke, Dee Rees, Nanfu Wang, Isabella Rossellini, and More
Pre-Festival Analysis
Sundance 2020: 20 Must-See Films and Series At This Year’s Festival, From ‘Zola’ to ‘Kajillionaire’
Sundance 2020: The Lgbtq Films We Can’t Wait to See in Park City
Sundance Wish List: 60 Films We Hope Will Head to Park City in 2020
Sundance 2020: 23 Films Poised to Break Out, With a Few Hidden Gems
Sundance 2020 Oscar Preview: Keep Your Eye on the Documentaries
Film and Television Reviews Interviews
Sundance 2020: How...
- 1/23/2020
- by IndieWire Staff
- Indiewire
Starting next week, the 2020 Sundance Film Festival gives us a first glimpse at the year in cinema, but even if you won’t be at Park City, we’re rounding up an initial glimpse at the premieres.
Ahead of our coverage, bookmark this page for a continually-updated round-up of trailers and clips, kicking off with Sergio, Charm City Kings, Impetigore, Wendy, Downhill, Promising Young Woman, and more.
Check out the trailers (and clips) below thus far in alphabetical order and we’ll be posting reviews from Park City soon, so follow along here.
And Then We Danced (Levan Akin)
The Assistant (Kitty Green)
Charm City Kings (Angel Manuel Soto)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino)
Downhill (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash)
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (Iryna Tsilyk)
Ema (Pablo Larraín)
Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
Horse Girl (Jeff Baena)
Impetigore (Joko Anwar)
La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante)
Lost Girls (Liz Garbus)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always...
Ahead of our coverage, bookmark this page for a continually-updated round-up of trailers and clips, kicking off with Sergio, Charm City Kings, Impetigore, Wendy, Downhill, Promising Young Woman, and more.
Check out the trailers (and clips) below thus far in alphabetical order and we’ll be posting reviews from Park City soon, so follow along here.
And Then We Danced (Levan Akin)
The Assistant (Kitty Green)
Charm City Kings (Angel Manuel Soto)
The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino)
Downhill (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash)
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (Iryna Tsilyk)
Ema (Pablo Larraín)
Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
Horse Girl (Jeff Baena)
Impetigore (Joko Anwar)
La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante)
Lost Girls (Liz Garbus)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always...
- 1/16/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Following our top 50 films of 2019, we’re sharing personal top 10 lists from our contributors. Check out the latest below and see our complete year-end coverage here.
If this past decade’s trajectory of film consumption continues, the future of film culture seems extremely promising. Despite the continued homogenization of certain studio slates dominating the mainstream box office, a rejuvenated political consciousness and the proliferation of streaming services has breathed a second life into those kinds of previously unavailable (unmarketable) films, now accessible to a broader public. Arthouse films are contended in wider circles; mid-budget filmmaking is reappearing from distinguished directors that could never quite draw the theater audiences they expected. Ticket sales may have steadily decreased, but the surge in options has integrated films more readily with the general social experience!
It is with this comfort in eventual exposure that I list some of my favorite films that premiered this...
If this past decade’s trajectory of film consumption continues, the future of film culture seems extremely promising. Despite the continued homogenization of certain studio slates dominating the mainstream box office, a rejuvenated political consciousness and the proliferation of streaming services has breathed a second life into those kinds of previously unavailable (unmarketable) films, now accessible to a broader public. Arthouse films are contended in wider circles; mid-budget filmmaking is reappearing from distinguished directors that could never quite draw the theater audiences they expected. Ticket sales may have steadily decreased, but the surge in options has integrated films more readily with the general social experience!
It is with this comfort in eventual exposure that I list some of my favorite films that premiered this...
- 1/6/2020
- by Jason Ooi
- The Film Stage
Following our top 50 films of 2019, we’re sharing personal top 10 lists from our contributors. Check out the latest below and see our complete year-end coverage here.
Arguably the defining film discourse this year was ignited when Martin Scorsese compared Marvel movies to theme parks. Fans got defensive, which is understandable given the passionate, apparently inexhaustible love for Iron Man & Co. But when you take a look at the box office receipts of 2019, you realize it’s the moviegoers of this world who seem to have decided (with their wallets) that everything else they find at the cinemas are not movies.
This is not to suggest that no non-Marvel films did well financially. But that is becoming more and more the exception and the general consumer preference has gotten so lopsided it’s hard not to read it as a categorical rejection of anything original, unfamiliar, not based on pre-existing IP.
Arguably the defining film discourse this year was ignited when Martin Scorsese compared Marvel movies to theme parks. Fans got defensive, which is understandable given the passionate, apparently inexhaustible love for Iron Man & Co. But when you take a look at the box office receipts of 2019, you realize it’s the moviegoers of this world who seem to have decided (with their wallets) that everything else they find at the cinemas are not movies.
This is not to suggest that no non-Marvel films did well financially. But that is becoming more and more the exception and the general consumer preference has gotten so lopsided it’s hard not to read it as a categorical rejection of anything original, unfamiliar, not based on pre-existing IP.
- 1/1/2020
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
As we wave au revoir to a year in cinema that gave us the Berlinale Golden Bear winner Synonyms, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Parasite, the Locarno Golden Leopard winner Vitalina Varela, the Venice Golden Lion winner Joker and Tiff’s Platform section honored Martin Eden, Nicholas Bell and I forge ahead into the world cinema offerings of 2020 with our extensive Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020 countdown.
Beginning next week, we’ll be unveiling what we are most enthused by with Nicholas providing background information on the filmmaker, the film project and guesstimate to which film festival the given title is likely to premiere at.…...
Beginning next week, we’ll be unveiling what we are most enthused by with Nicholas providing background information on the filmmaker, the film project and guesstimate to which film festival the given title is likely to premiere at.…...
- 12/27/2019
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
The Sundance Institute has added 32 projects to its Frontier lineup for its 2020 Sundance Film Festival, including “Chomsky vs. Chomsky.”
The Frontier selection is a curation of cutting-edge independent and experimental media works by innovators and creators across mediums that include biotech, facial recognition, AI, Ar, Vr and big data.
The 2020 edition will return to two dedicated venue spaces at the festival, which are New Frontier at The Ray and New Frontier Central. They will host a variety of media installations. The festival takes place in Park City, Utah, and will run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2. New Frontier alums include Doug Aitken, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chris Milk, Nonny de la Peña, Pipilotti Rist and Jennifer Steinkamp.
Also Read: Taylor Swift, Viggo Mortensen and Tessa Thompson Lead Diverse 2020 Sundance Lineup
“Technology infuses most aspects of modern life — and is evolving at a historic pace,” President and Founder of Sundance Institute Robert Redford said.
The Frontier selection is a curation of cutting-edge independent and experimental media works by innovators and creators across mediums that include biotech, facial recognition, AI, Ar, Vr and big data.
The 2020 edition will return to two dedicated venue spaces at the festival, which are New Frontier at The Ray and New Frontier Central. They will host a variety of media installations. The festival takes place in Park City, Utah, and will run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2. New Frontier alums include Doug Aitken, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chris Milk, Nonny de la Peña, Pipilotti Rist and Jennifer Steinkamp.
Also Read: Taylor Swift, Viggo Mortensen and Tessa Thompson Lead Diverse 2020 Sundance Lineup
“Technology infuses most aspects of modern life — and is evolving at a historic pace,” President and Founder of Sundance Institute Robert Redford said.
- 12/12/2019
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
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