Exclusive: Germany’s second biggest broadcasting network Ard has said it pulled Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s 2017 feature Wajib from its schedule this weekend due to concerns over its “narrative perspective” amid the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict.
Ard – which is a joint channel involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – has been accused of censorship by the filmmakers.
“In the context of the drastic social and (global) political events, we checked, as per our standard procedure, as to whether our planned program offerings were in line with the current situation,” Ard said in a statement sent to Deadline.
“We had already included the film Wajib you mentioned in our programming a few months ago. However, given the recent events in the Middle East, we currently believe it is not correctly placed in the program as it could be misunderstood due to its narrative perspective.”
Quizzed by Deadline on what aspects of the film...
Ard – which is a joint channel involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – has been accused of censorship by the filmmakers.
“In the context of the drastic social and (global) political events, we checked, as per our standard procedure, as to whether our planned program offerings were in line with the current situation,” Ard said in a statement sent to Deadline.
“We had already included the film Wajib you mentioned in our programming a few months ago. However, given the recent events in the Middle East, we currently believe it is not correctly placed in the program as it could be misunderstood due to its narrative perspective.”
Quizzed by Deadline on what aspects of the film...
- 11/17/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Some European crew evacuated in wake of Israel-Hamas conflict.
Filming on Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis’ upcoming feature All That’s Left Of You in Jaffa, the mixed city just south of Tel Aviv in Israel, has been disrupted by the ongoing conflict in the region.
Dabis was on a tech recce in Jaffa for her third feature, a historical drama chronicling one Palestinian family over three generations, when the October 7 Hamas attacks took place, sparking Israeli retaliation in Gaza.
“We had to evacuate all of our foreign crew,” Dabis told Screen. “We were hearing bombs and fighter jets overhead. The...
Filming on Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis’ upcoming feature All That’s Left Of You in Jaffa, the mixed city just south of Tel Aviv in Israel, has been disrupted by the ongoing conflict in the region.
Dabis was on a tech recce in Jaffa for her third feature, a historical drama chronicling one Palestinian family over three generations, when the October 7 Hamas attacks took place, sparking Israeli retaliation in Gaza.
“We had to evacuate all of our foreign crew,” Dabis told Screen. “We were hearing bombs and fighter jets overhead. The...
- 10/16/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Some European crew evacuated in wake of Israel-Hamas conflict.
Filming on Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis’ upcoming feature All That’s Left Of You has been disrupted by the ongoing conflict in the region.
Dabis was on a tech recce in Jaffa for her third feature, a historical drama chronicling one Palestinian family over three generations, when the October 7 Hamas attacks took place, sparking Israeli retaliation in Gaza.
“We had to evacuate all of our foreign crew,” Dabis told Screen. “We were hearing bombs and fighter jets overhead. The tensions were really high for the first days we stayed there before evacuating.
Filming on Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis’ upcoming feature All That’s Left Of You has been disrupted by the ongoing conflict in the region.
Dabis was on a tech recce in Jaffa for her third feature, a historical drama chronicling one Palestinian family over three generations, when the October 7 Hamas attacks took place, sparking Israeli retaliation in Gaza.
“We had to evacuate all of our foreign crew,” Dabis told Screen. “We were hearing bombs and fighter jets overhead. The tensions were really high for the first days we stayed there before evacuating.
- 10/16/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Dutch sales outfit also agrees South Korean and German deals.
Dutch outfit Dfw International has agreed a North American sale on Thomas Nauw and Dennis Bots’ war drama Betrayal with Epic Pictures.
The film has its market premiere at the European Film Market this week.
It tells the dark story of a German-Dutch Nazi officer who, after his wife and daughter are killed in a bombing, makes a drastic decision. Transferred to the Netherlands, he helps a Dutch farming family take people into hiding.
The cast is headed by Dirk Gunther Mohr Dennis van Ooyen and Berit van de Wouw.
Dutch outfit Dfw International has agreed a North American sale on Thomas Nauw and Dennis Bots’ war drama Betrayal with Epic Pictures.
The film has its market premiere at the European Film Market this week.
It tells the dark story of a German-Dutch Nazi officer who, after his wife and daughter are killed in a bombing, makes a drastic decision. Transferred to the Netherlands, he helps a Dutch farming family take people into hiding.
The cast is headed by Dirk Gunther Mohr Dennis van Ooyen and Berit van de Wouw.
- 2/15/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Feature film competition five world premieres and four regional premieres, including multi award-winner In Bloom.
The Sarajevo Film Festival (Sff), running August 16-24, has announced the Feature, Short and Documentary Competition titles comprising 50 films.
Selectors and the Sff team viewed 750 films from the region, including 200 feature films, 150 documentaries and 400 short and animated films.
Across the three Competition sections are 15 world, seven international and 18 regional premieres.
The main competition will feature five world premieres including Carmen, the first feature by Romanian director Doru Nitescu.
It is a family drama co-written by Tudor Voican, known for Periferic and Medal of Honour. The Filmex Romania production stars Doru Ana from Principles of Life, Adrian Titieni from Child’s Pose and Maia Morgenstern.
Greek director Dimitris Bavellas’ debut feature Runaway Day is a black-and-white film exploring how young Greeks feel lost in modern day Athens, a city under financial occupation. It starts Maria Skoula from Wasted Youth.
Austrian [link=nm...
The Sarajevo Film Festival (Sff), running August 16-24, has announced the Feature, Short and Documentary Competition titles comprising 50 films.
Selectors and the Sff team viewed 750 films from the region, including 200 feature films, 150 documentaries and 400 short and animated films.
Across the three Competition sections are 15 world, seven international and 18 regional premieres.
The main competition will feature five world premieres including Carmen, the first feature by Romanian director Doru Nitescu.
It is a family drama co-written by Tudor Voican, known for Periferic and Medal of Honour. The Filmex Romania production stars Doru Ana from Principles of Life, Adrian Titieni from Child’s Pose and Maia Morgenstern.
Greek director Dimitris Bavellas’ debut feature Runaway Day is a black-and-white film exploring how young Greeks feel lost in modern day Athens, a city under financial occupation. It starts Maria Skoula from Wasted Youth.
Austrian [link=nm...
- 7/18/2013
- by vladan.petkovic@gmail.com (Vladan Petkovic)
- ScreenDaily
When I saw When I Saw You (Isa: The Match Factory) in Toronto, I wrote about its director Annemarie Jacir ♀, as a Woman to Watch. Jacir is part of a new wave of Arab filmmakers who have made a name on the international scene. She earned her Mfa in film at Columbia University in New York City. She lives in Jordan after being exiled from Israel, which opposed the politics in her films. Jacir was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema and Variety's Rab Pack: The Arab New Wave.
The child (Mahmoud Asfa) who runs away from the refugee camp where he and his mother are placed in order to return home to find his (presumed dead) father was remarkable and carried much of the film. I am happy to hear he's exploring beyond the Middle Eastern lands. This is the first time a Jordanian actor has been nominated for the Young Artists Award in California. Mahmoud Asfa, from Irbid, is one of only five nominees, selected for his role in the award-winning Jordanian-Palestinian co-production When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak) written and directed by Annemarie Jacir.
The Award Envelopes will be opened on Sunday, May 5, 2013 in the Empire Ballroom of the Sportsmen's Lodge Hotel, Studio City, California. Congratulations Mahmoud Asfa and best of luck at the 34th Annual Awards!
Best Performance In An International Feature Film
Young Actor Nominees
Mahmoud Asfa Teo Gutierrez Romero Rick Lens Émilien Néron Antoine Olivier Pilon
"When I Saw You" ( لما شفتك ) "Infancia Clandestina" (Clandestine Childhood) "Kauwboy" (Jackdaw Boy) "Monsieur Lazhar" (Mister Lazhar) "Les Pee-Wee 3D"
Jordan Argentina Netherlands Canada Canada
The Young Artist Foundation together with The Social Relations of Knowledge Institute, Inc. congratulates all Nominees.
For a full list of nominees: Young Artist Awards
For more news follow When I Saw You Facebook Page...
The child (Mahmoud Asfa) who runs away from the refugee camp where he and his mother are placed in order to return home to find his (presumed dead) father was remarkable and carried much of the film. I am happy to hear he's exploring beyond the Middle Eastern lands. This is the first time a Jordanian actor has been nominated for the Young Artists Award in California. Mahmoud Asfa, from Irbid, is one of only five nominees, selected for his role in the award-winning Jordanian-Palestinian co-production When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak) written and directed by Annemarie Jacir.
The Award Envelopes will be opened on Sunday, May 5, 2013 in the Empire Ballroom of the Sportsmen's Lodge Hotel, Studio City, California. Congratulations Mahmoud Asfa and best of luck at the 34th Annual Awards!
Best Performance In An International Feature Film
Young Actor Nominees
Mahmoud Asfa Teo Gutierrez Romero Rick Lens Émilien Néron Antoine Olivier Pilon
"When I Saw You" ( لما شفتك ) "Infancia Clandestina" (Clandestine Childhood) "Kauwboy" (Jackdaw Boy) "Monsieur Lazhar" (Mister Lazhar) "Les Pee-Wee 3D"
Jordan Argentina Netherlands Canada Canada
The Young Artist Foundation together with The Social Relations of Knowledge Institute, Inc. congratulates all Nominees.
For a full list of nominees: Young Artist Awards
For more news follow When I Saw You Facebook Page...
- 4/18/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The 63rd Berlinale is coming to a close, and the awards have been announced!
In Competition
Golden Bear - Child's Pose, directed by Călin Peter Netzer
Jury Grand Prix - An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, directed by Danis Tanović
Silver Bear for Best Director - Prince Avalanche, directed by David Gordon Green
Best Actor - Nazif Mujić, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker
Best Actress - Paulina Garcia, Gloria
Best Screenplay - Closed Curtain, written by Jafar Panahi
Alfred Bauer Prize - Vic+Flo Saw a Bear, directed by Denis Côté
Outstanding Artistic Contribution - Cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev, for Harmony Lessons
Special Mentions - Promised Land, directed by Gus Van Sant & Layla Fourie, directed by Pia Marais
Best First Feature Award
Best First Feature - The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt
Special Mention - The Battle of Tabatô, directed by João Viana
Teddy...
In Competition
Golden Bear - Child's Pose, directed by Călin Peter Netzer
Jury Grand Prix - An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, directed by Danis Tanović
Silver Bear for Best Director - Prince Avalanche, directed by David Gordon Green
Best Actor - Nazif Mujić, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker
Best Actress - Paulina Garcia, Gloria
Best Screenplay - Closed Curtain, written by Jafar Panahi
Alfred Bauer Prize - Vic+Flo Saw a Bear, directed by Denis Côté
Outstanding Artistic Contribution - Cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev, for Harmony Lessons
Special Mentions - Promised Land, directed by Gus Van Sant & Layla Fourie, directed by Pia Marais
Best First Feature Award
Best First Feature - The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt
Special Mention - The Battle of Tabatô, directed by João Viana
Teddy...
- 2/17/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2013: 71 submissions A record 71 countries, including first-timer Kenya, have submitted movies for the 2013 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. (See below.) Entries range from France’s international blockbuster The Intouchables to Cambodia’s first submission in 18 years and the Southeast Asian country’s second submission ever: Lost Loves. (Photo: The Palestinian territories’ Oscar 2013 entry, Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You, with Mahmoud Asfa.) Also in the running are Christian Petzold’s Barbara (Germany), winner of the Best Director Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival; Kim ki-duk’s Pietà, winner of the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice [...]...
- 10/9/2012
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
For the first time in Academy Award history, 71 countries are vying for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The submissions for 2012 include director Michael Haneke’s Amour, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival; France’s global box office sensation The Intouchables; and Nairobi Half Life, the first film ever submitted by Kenya. Check out the full list below:
Afghanistan: The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi, director
Albania: Pharmakon, Joni Shanaj, director
Algeria: Zabana!, Said Ould Khelifa, director
Argentina: Clandestine Childhood, Benjamín Ávila, director
Armenia: If Only Everyone, Natalia Belyauskene, director
Australia: Lore, Cate Shortland, director
Austria: Amour,...
Afghanistan: The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi, director
Albania: Pharmakon, Joni Shanaj, director
Algeria: Zabana!, Said Ould Khelifa, director
Argentina: Clandestine Childhood, Benjamín Ávila, director
Armenia: If Only Everyone, Natalia Belyauskene, director
Australia: Lore, Cate Shortland, director
Austria: Amour,...
- 10/8/2012
- by Adam B. Vary
- EW - Inside Movies
The Oscar season is almost upon us, and the submissions list is in for the Best Foreign Language Film category, featuring a record 71 entries, including the first submission from Kenya.
Last year, Iran’s Asghar Farhadi came away with the top prize for his acclaimed film, A Separation, and the year before, it was Denmark’s Susanne Bier with her In a Better World.
This year, there are already a handful of strong contenders amongst the pack, most notably Michael Haneke’s Amour, for Austria, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; Olivier Nakache’s and Éric Toledano’s The Intouchables, for France, which has been breaking records at the global box office; Pablo Larráin’s No, for Chile, which also came away from Cannes with an award in hand; Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta, for South Korea, which took four awards at Venice, including (controversially) the Golden Lion; and...
Last year, Iran’s Asghar Farhadi came away with the top prize for his acclaimed film, A Separation, and the year before, it was Denmark’s Susanne Bier with her In a Better World.
This year, there are already a handful of strong contenders amongst the pack, most notably Michael Haneke’s Amour, for Austria, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; Olivier Nakache’s and Éric Toledano’s The Intouchables, for France, which has been breaking records at the global box office; Pablo Larráin’s No, for Chile, which also came away from Cannes with an award in hand; Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta, for South Korea, which took four awards at Venice, including (controversially) the Golden Lion; and...
- 10/8/2012
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Intouchables
A record 71 countries, including first-time entrant Kenya, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 85th Academy Awards®. In May, Michael Haneke.s Amour (Love) won the Palme d.Or at the 65th Cannes Film Festival and was shown this past weekend at the 50th New York Film Festival. However the film I was happiest to see make the list below is from France – The Intouchables from directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. Check out our review Here.
In the Academy’s rules, only one picture will be accepted from each country. Plus the Academy Statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the motion picture and accepted by the director on behalf of the picture.s creative talents. Ultimately five foreign language motion pictures are nominated for this award.
Director/writer Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation from Iran won the Oscar for the Best...
A record 71 countries, including first-time entrant Kenya, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 85th Academy Awards®. In May, Michael Haneke.s Amour (Love) won the Palme d.Or at the 65th Cannes Film Festival and was shown this past weekend at the 50th New York Film Festival. However the film I was happiest to see make the list below is from France – The Intouchables from directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. Check out our review Here.
In the Academy’s rules, only one picture will be accepted from each country. Plus the Academy Statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the motion picture and accepted by the director on behalf of the picture.s creative talents. Ultimately five foreign language motion pictures are nominated for this award.
Director/writer Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation from Iran won the Oscar for the Best...
- 10/8/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Update: The official list has been revealed and the total is a record 71 movies. I have updated the list directly below or you can check it out here. The original article follows. I have been tracking the Oscar Foreign Language submissions again this year, as I have for the past several years, and it looks like we finally have a full field as I expect we will be seeing an official press release from the Academy some time this week. This year we have five more submissions already over last year as the total has now reached 68 submissions compared to last year's 63. This, despite, Iran boycotting the Oscars this year due to the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims, which has sparked so much controversy as of late. To reach the total of 68 films I have just finished adding 16 more titles to the list from the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina,...
- 10/7/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
I have been tracking the Oscar Foreign Language submissions again this year, as I have for the past several years, and it looks like we finally have a full field as I expect we will be seeing an official press release from the Academy some time this week. This year we have five more submissions already over last year as the total has now reached 68 submissions compared to last year's 63. This, despite, Iran boycotting the Oscars this year due to the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims, which has sparked so much controversy as of late. To reach the total of 68 films I have just finished adding 16 more titles to the list from the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, China, Georgia, Greenland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey and Uruguay. To siphon out front-runners is never easy in this category, though there are a few that stick out immediately.
- 10/7/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Indian Oscar entry Anurag Basu’s “Barfi” will have to compete with 64 films from around the world. Barfi’s chance will be sealed on January 24th 2013 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the five nominees.
The deadline for submission of entries for the foreign language category got over yesterday on October 1st.
63 countries had sent their entries for the category last year.
Iran, the winner of last year (A separation) decided not to send an entry this year in protest of a youtube film that ridiculed the prophet.
The final list of submissions is yet to be announced by the academy.
Also Read: Who Selected “Barfi” for Oscars? and Where does “Barfi” stand in the Oscar race?
Here is the complete list of announced submissions:-
Afghanistan – The Patience Stone, directed by Atiq Rahimi (Persian) Albania – Pharmakon, directed by Joni Shanaj (Albania) Algeria – Zabana!, directed by Saïd Ould Khelifa (Arabic,...
The deadline for submission of entries for the foreign language category got over yesterday on October 1st.
63 countries had sent their entries for the category last year.
Iran, the winner of last year (A separation) decided not to send an entry this year in protest of a youtube film that ridiculed the prophet.
The final list of submissions is yet to be announced by the academy.
Also Read: Who Selected “Barfi” for Oscars? and Where does “Barfi” stand in the Oscar race?
Here is the complete list of announced submissions:-
Afghanistan – The Patience Stone, directed by Atiq Rahimi (Persian) Albania – Pharmakon, directed by Joni Shanaj (Albania) Algeria – Zabana!, directed by Saïd Ould Khelifa (Arabic,...
- 10/2/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
You think it’s too early for this? Trust me, it’s not and that’s exactly why we’re here today to start our little chat about the official foreign language submissions for Oscar.
Nothing to be surprised about, after all – these titles are already familiar to you, mostly because of their success in some Film Festivals. Check out the rest of this report to see the list of announced submissions.
As you’re about to see, quite interesting list of movies from all over the world. Unfortunately we don’t have trailers and official synopsis part for every single film, but I’m sure we’ll soon have more material to share with you.
In the mean time, we will inform you that Kim Ki-duk‘s movie, Pieta, which won Golden Lion statue for best movie at the Venice Film Festival this year, has been submitted by South...
Nothing to be surprised about, after all – these titles are already familiar to you, mostly because of their success in some Film Festivals. Check out the rest of this report to see the list of announced submissions.
As you’re about to see, quite interesting list of movies from all over the world. Unfortunately we don’t have trailers and official synopsis part for every single film, but I’m sure we’ll soon have more material to share with you.
In the mean time, we will inform you that Kim Ki-duk‘s movie, Pieta, which won Golden Lion statue for best movie at the Venice Film Festival this year, has been submitted by South...
- 10/1/2012
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Anurag Basu’s Barfi to compete with Michael Haneke’s “Amour” and Kim Ki-duk’s “Pieta”
Anurag Basu’s “Barfi” might have lured the selectors at home but it’s unlikely to have an easy ride ahead. Basu will have to compete against the veterans like Michael Haneke who took home a second Palme d’Or at Cannes this year for his “Amour” (Official Austrian Entry). Closer home in Asia, Korean Master Kim Ki-duk will also pose an equal threat to the Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra starrer Barfi. Kim Ki-duk’s “Pieta” clinched the Golden Lion at Venice this year.
“Barfi” was declared official Oscar entry from India on Saturday night by the Film Federation of India. Other Indian films which were in race included Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani, Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur Parts I and II,...
Anurag Basu’s “Barfi” might have lured the selectors at home but it’s unlikely to have an easy ride ahead. Basu will have to compete against the veterans like Michael Haneke who took home a second Palme d’Or at Cannes this year for his “Amour” (Official Austrian Entry). Closer home in Asia, Korean Master Kim Ki-duk will also pose an equal threat to the Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra starrer Barfi. Kim Ki-duk’s “Pieta” clinched the Golden Lion at Venice this year.
“Barfi” was declared official Oscar entry from India on Saturday night by the Film Federation of India. Other Indian films which were in race included Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani, Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur Parts I and II,...
- 9/22/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
This year’s Toronto was competing in my psyche with the recent loss of my mother. My focus was less on finding the greatest of films this year. I hear from others that the festival offered a good mix, if not the most outstanding, selection of films. Personally, I am discovering that a new community has opened its arms to me and the films that are standing out most for me are by women and about women. My community, those women who have lost their mothers, is sharing a unique and profound rite of passage whose meaning continuously unfolds.
In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.
18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.
Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.
Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.
Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."
Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.
Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.
Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:
Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.
Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.
Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?
Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%
Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic
Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)
Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)
Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.
Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs
Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide
Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%
Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk
Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???
City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???
Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)
90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.
Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.
In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.
18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.
Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.
Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.
Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."
Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.
Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.
Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:
Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.
Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.
Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?
Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%
Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic
Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)
Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)
Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.
Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs
Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide
Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%
Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk
Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???
City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???
Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)
90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.
Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.
- 9/21/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Last year, 63 countries submitted their films for consideration for the annual Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language category. This year, 28 countries have made their presence known, and one of them is my homeland, the Philippines, submitting "Bwakaw" (pictured above) for consideration.
The Academy will provide a full list of eligible submissions by October, and out of the list, nine finalists will be chosen then shortlisted with the final five nominees to be announced on January 24, 2013.
Here's the list for the announced submissions, so far...
Australia - Lore, directed by Cate Shortland (German)
Austria - Amore, directed by Michael Haneke (French)
Azerbaijan - Buta, directed by Ilgar Najaf (Azeri)
Belgium - Our Children, directed by Joachim Lafosse (French)
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Children of Sarajevo, directed by Aida Begic (Bosnian)
Bulgaria - Sneakers, directed by Valeri Yordanov (Bulgarian)
Cambodia - Lost Loves, directed by Chhay Bora (Khmer)
Canada - War Witch, directed...
The Academy will provide a full list of eligible submissions by October, and out of the list, nine finalists will be chosen then shortlisted with the final five nominees to be announced on January 24, 2013.
Here's the list for the announced submissions, so far...
Australia - Lore, directed by Cate Shortland (German)
Austria - Amore, directed by Michael Haneke (French)
Azerbaijan - Buta, directed by Ilgar Najaf (Azeri)
Belgium - Our Children, directed by Joachim Lafosse (French)
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Children of Sarajevo, directed by Aida Begic (Bosnian)
Bulgaria - Sneakers, directed by Valeri Yordanov (Bulgarian)
Cambodia - Lost Loves, directed by Chhay Bora (Khmer)
Canada - War Witch, directed...
- 9/18/2012
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Five brave films have made Tiff stand out in a very particular way for me this year. Usually I, among hordes of others, am busiest chasing down the next Academy Award contenders, the high priced U.S. acquisitions or the major sleeper of the festival. Those films are repeatedly covered by the trades, and my Rights Roundup will keep a running talley on all announced pickups worldwide of all the films.
These other brave films are the films which motivate our best filmmakers to create works of art in the first place of filmmaking on my charts.
I already covered Annemarie Jacir's newest film, When I Saw You (Isa: The Match Factory), about a young Palestinian boy in 1967 who, when placed in a Jordanian camp with his mother, insists on returning to his home to find his father. Annemarie is a beautifully determined Jordanian filmmaker who will make films which reflect our world's diversity, speaking out for women and children who would otherwise have no voice. Although there are several films dealing with these refugee camps of Palestinians which were supposed to be temporary but have remained in countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. for three generations, further marginalizing the dispossessed, this one stands out for me because it shows the woman and child in their own private spheres, marginalizing the male politics of the situation. The child's refusal to accept artificial barriers and borders triumphs in the end. That is the only hope for world unity.
Its opposite is realized in Costa Gavras' new film Capital, where money and corporate interests know no borders, and the socialist dream is turned on its head. This film was supported by the French; When I Saw You was supported by Abu Dhabi film funds. Both are important views of life in two vastly different segments of the world today. Will either see wide distribution? The Match Factory who has the most films in Toronto of any sales agent is selling the former and Elle Driver is selling the latter. We'll watch the sales on these two issue oriented dramas' sales.
Another film The Match Factory is handling is Hannah Arendt, directed by Margarethe von Trotta, another filmmaker who is fearless in facing deeply philosophical and important issue. Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest political analysts of the Xx° century, who coined the phrase, "the banality of evil" when she covered the Jerusalem trial of Adolph Eichmann in 1961, and, in so doing, lost many of her best friends, is here portrayed by Barbara Sukowa, who revives the 60s in the New York German Jewish intellectual milieu, reminding us of the days when the New School was tackling tough issues and New Yorker magazine was articulating issues of great importance which today are just as urgent as they were then. The nature of totalitarianism includes victims and oppressors in a cycle of silence which in turn, creates evil because no one speaks up to protest. It took Von Trotta 10 years to make this film in spite of her winning the Venice Fest's Golden Lion for Marianne and Juliane in 1981, a story sharing the theme that von Trotta uses throughout her works, that “the personal is political", or Barbara Sukowa's winning Best Actress for in Venice for the same movie and Best Actress at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival for her work in von Trotta's film Rosa Luxemburg. The New York of this story ("Paradise" as the most wonderful Barbara Sukowa named it in Hannah Arendt) is so well captured because Barbara Sukowa is not only the consummate German as seen in her roles in Fassbinder's films but is also a longtime New Yorker, married to the artist Robert Longo. In addition to those credentials, the scriptwriter is Pamela Katz who wrote Von Trotta's Rosenstrasse is also a New Yorker married to the German Dp Florian Ballhaus (The Devil Wears Prada), the son of the legendary Michael Ballhaus. They all live in the same New York that they inherited from the very people they recreate in the film!
And yet another brave film about a brave woman is The Patience Stone (Isa: Le Pacte) by Atik Rahimi which was just picked up for U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics which will ignite a lot more sales for Le Pacte and which puts it into the Best Foreign Language Academy Award company for 2012. So far, Brazil is the only buyer registered on Cinando. Watch the film on Cinando! It is pure poetry. Piers Handling himself recommended it and it was the buzz film of the festival. It is a movie which Muslim fundamentalists would never allow to be made; and they will hate it.
The issue of religious fundamentalism was also treated with great delicacy in Mira Nair's story of cross cultural belief systems at odds. The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Isa: K5 International who also sold the great sleeper, The Visitors) stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland. Riz Ahmed who also starred in Trishna is someone who you will want to see again, and I hope we see him soon! He graduated Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and later enrolled into London's Central School of Speech and Drama. He's quoted in IMDb as saying, "[Oxford University] is socially unrepresentative about the real world. The first person I met, I asked to borrow a phone charger. She looked at me, laughed in my face, and told me with no irony or malice that I looked just like Ali G." Ironically, he reminds me of Gordon Warnicke who played Omar in My Beautiful Laundrette and who is British born of South American and German ancestry (and who is probably Jewish). IFC snapped up North American rights to this outstanding film in which Pakistan and Wall Street unite and divide as a smart young Pakistani enters the Hallowed Halls of the Ivy League, Big Business on Wall Street and High Society via Romance until September 11, 2001 shatters the illusions of peace and prosperity we all had been harboring.
There are many more brave and wonderful films which screened this year at Tiff, but for me, these were the ones I was honored to catch. I hope my readers get the chance to see these!
These other brave films are the films which motivate our best filmmakers to create works of art in the first place of filmmaking on my charts.
I already covered Annemarie Jacir's newest film, When I Saw You (Isa: The Match Factory), about a young Palestinian boy in 1967 who, when placed in a Jordanian camp with his mother, insists on returning to his home to find his father. Annemarie is a beautifully determined Jordanian filmmaker who will make films which reflect our world's diversity, speaking out for women and children who would otherwise have no voice. Although there are several films dealing with these refugee camps of Palestinians which were supposed to be temporary but have remained in countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. for three generations, further marginalizing the dispossessed, this one stands out for me because it shows the woman and child in their own private spheres, marginalizing the male politics of the situation. The child's refusal to accept artificial barriers and borders triumphs in the end. That is the only hope for world unity.
Its opposite is realized in Costa Gavras' new film Capital, where money and corporate interests know no borders, and the socialist dream is turned on its head. This film was supported by the French; When I Saw You was supported by Abu Dhabi film funds. Both are important views of life in two vastly different segments of the world today. Will either see wide distribution? The Match Factory who has the most films in Toronto of any sales agent is selling the former and Elle Driver is selling the latter. We'll watch the sales on these two issue oriented dramas' sales.
Another film The Match Factory is handling is Hannah Arendt, directed by Margarethe von Trotta, another filmmaker who is fearless in facing deeply philosophical and important issue. Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest political analysts of the Xx° century, who coined the phrase, "the banality of evil" when she covered the Jerusalem trial of Adolph Eichmann in 1961, and, in so doing, lost many of her best friends, is here portrayed by Barbara Sukowa, who revives the 60s in the New York German Jewish intellectual milieu, reminding us of the days when the New School was tackling tough issues and New Yorker magazine was articulating issues of great importance which today are just as urgent as they were then. The nature of totalitarianism includes victims and oppressors in a cycle of silence which in turn, creates evil because no one speaks up to protest. It took Von Trotta 10 years to make this film in spite of her winning the Venice Fest's Golden Lion for Marianne and Juliane in 1981, a story sharing the theme that von Trotta uses throughout her works, that “the personal is political", or Barbara Sukowa's winning Best Actress for in Venice for the same movie and Best Actress at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival for her work in von Trotta's film Rosa Luxemburg. The New York of this story ("Paradise" as the most wonderful Barbara Sukowa named it in Hannah Arendt) is so well captured because Barbara Sukowa is not only the consummate German as seen in her roles in Fassbinder's films but is also a longtime New Yorker, married to the artist Robert Longo. In addition to those credentials, the scriptwriter is Pamela Katz who wrote Von Trotta's Rosenstrasse is also a New Yorker married to the German Dp Florian Ballhaus (The Devil Wears Prada), the son of the legendary Michael Ballhaus. They all live in the same New York that they inherited from the very people they recreate in the film!
And yet another brave film about a brave woman is The Patience Stone (Isa: Le Pacte) by Atik Rahimi which was just picked up for U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics which will ignite a lot more sales for Le Pacte and which puts it into the Best Foreign Language Academy Award company for 2012. So far, Brazil is the only buyer registered on Cinando. Watch the film on Cinando! It is pure poetry. Piers Handling himself recommended it and it was the buzz film of the festival. It is a movie which Muslim fundamentalists would never allow to be made; and they will hate it.
The issue of religious fundamentalism was also treated with great delicacy in Mira Nair's story of cross cultural belief systems at odds. The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Isa: K5 International who also sold the great sleeper, The Visitors) stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland. Riz Ahmed who also starred in Trishna is someone who you will want to see again, and I hope we see him soon! He graduated Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and later enrolled into London's Central School of Speech and Drama. He's quoted in IMDb as saying, "[Oxford University] is socially unrepresentative about the real world. The first person I met, I asked to borrow a phone charger. She looked at me, laughed in my face, and told me with no irony or malice that I looked just like Ali G." Ironically, he reminds me of Gordon Warnicke who played Omar in My Beautiful Laundrette and who is British born of South American and German ancestry (and who is probably Jewish). IFC snapped up North American rights to this outstanding film in which Pakistan and Wall Street unite and divide as a smart young Pakistani enters the Hallowed Halls of the Ivy League, Big Business on Wall Street and High Society via Romance until September 11, 2001 shatters the illusions of peace and prosperity we all had been harboring.
There are many more brave and wonderful films which screened this year at Tiff, but for me, these were the ones I was honored to catch. I hope my readers get the chance to see these!
- 9/17/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s latest film When I Saw You. had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9 and has been selected as the Palestinian Oscar entry for Best Foreign Film. Jacir is part of a new wave of Arab filmmakers who have made a name on the international scene. She earned her Mfa in film at Columbia University in New York City. She lives in Jordan after being exiled from Israel, which opposed the politics in her films. Jacir was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema and Variety's Rab Pack: The Arab New Wave.
Her first feature film “Salt of This Sea” premiered in Cannes in 2008 and was also the Palestine’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film.
"When I Saw You" is set in 1967 Jordan and tells the story of Tarek, an 11-year-old wild child, who runs away from a Palestinian refugee camp in search of freedom. Jacir lived in Jordan after being exiled from Israel, which opposed the politics in her films.
“When I Saw You” was produced by Philistine Films and producer Ossama Bawardi. It received prize money from Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Its Tiff screenings were sold out with a 40 minute Q&A after its second public screening. It is being sold by The Match Factory...
Her first feature film “Salt of This Sea” premiered in Cannes in 2008 and was also the Palestine’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film.
"When I Saw You" is set in 1967 Jordan and tells the story of Tarek, an 11-year-old wild child, who runs away from a Palestinian refugee camp in search of freedom. Jacir lived in Jordan after being exiled from Israel, which opposed the politics in her films.
“When I Saw You” was produced by Philistine Films and producer Ossama Bawardi. It received prize money from Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Its Tiff screenings were sold out with a 40 minute Q&A after its second public screening. It is being sold by The Match Factory...
- 9/13/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Seeing is Believing: Jacir Revisits Historical Period of Palestinian Refugees in Sophomore Feature
Director Annemarie Jacir’s much celebrated 2008 film, Salt of This Sea, was a hypothetical drama about a Brooklyn born Palestinian woman who travels back to the land of her origins to retrieve her recently deceased grandfather’s money. What she encounters is a ruthless history of repossession and she quickly discovers that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is alive and well, and, American or not, she falls on the side of a repressed minority. And for those who criticized Jacir’s film for her protagonist’s histrionic naïveté and markedly American reactions to her dramatic situation, her new follow-up film, When I See You provides us with a similarly constructed main character, albeit one whose immaturity is more forgivable as it’s a young male child. However, this period piece leaves behind much of the colorful flourishes of Jacir’s first feature,...
Director Annemarie Jacir’s much celebrated 2008 film, Salt of This Sea, was a hypothetical drama about a Brooklyn born Palestinian woman who travels back to the land of her origins to retrieve her recently deceased grandfather’s money. What she encounters is a ruthless history of repossession and she quickly discovers that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is alive and well, and, American or not, she falls on the side of a repressed minority. And for those who criticized Jacir’s film for her protagonist’s histrionic naïveté and markedly American reactions to her dramatic situation, her new follow-up film, When I See You provides us with a similarly constructed main character, albeit one whose immaturity is more forgivable as it’s a young male child. However, this period piece leaves behind much of the colorful flourishes of Jacir’s first feature,...
- 9/9/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A Bethlehem-born, Saudi Arabia-raised writer/director who earned her Mfa in film at Columbia University in New York City, Annemarie Jacir was named as one of Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” in 2004 on the strength of her short film Like Twenty Impossibles. Her first feature, the romantic drama Salt of This Sea, premiered at Cannes in 2008, where it won the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize, and was later selected as Palestine’s official submission to the Academy Awards. Following her mentorship by the Chinese directing great Zhang Yimou in the Rolex Arts Initiative, Jacir completed her second film, When I Saw You (which plays at Toronto on Sunday September 9, Tuesday September 11 and Saturday September 15), about Tarek an 11-year-old boy and his mother who, in 1967, are forced to flee their home in the West Bank and end up in a refugee camp in Jordan. Filmmaker: Though When I Saw You is set in...
- 9/9/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Leave it to writer/director Annemarie Jacir to make an American more or less indoctrinated to side with the Israelis in the war for the Holy Land see her people’s freedom fighters (fadayee) in a sympathetic light. The first ever female Palestinian director—her debut feature Salt of the Sea was the region’s 2008 Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film—Jacir introduces us to the Harir Refugee Camp of 1967 Jordan through the eyes of an innocent. Young Tarek (Mahmoud Asfa) knows nothing about the fight raging or the deaths mounting, to him his displacement was a choice he’d like to overturn. Wanting to simply return home, find his father, and go on living with his own bathroom and kinder teacher, he will do whatever it takes to put his family back together.
لما شفتك [When I Saw You] isn’t solely about his journey home, however, as both his mother Ghaydaa...
لما شفتك [When I Saw You] isn’t solely about his journey home, however, as both his mother Ghaydaa...
- 9/7/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Annemarie Jacir's Palestinian Oscar entry "When I Saw You" goes to The Match Factory for worldwide rights, prior to its debut at Toronto September 9. Jacir's first film "Salt of This Sea," which debuted at Cannes in 2008, was also Palestine's Oscar entry. "When I Saw You," set in Jordan 1967, follows an eccentric eleven year old boy, Tarek, as he runs away from his Palestinian refugee camp in search of his freedom. Watch the trailer below:...
- 9/6/2012
- by Sophia Savage
- Thompson on Hollywood
Screening in the Toronto's International Film Festival's Contemporary World Cinema program, Annemarie Jacir's "When I Saw You" is her follow-up to her award-winning debut "Salt of This Sea." Set in 1967 Jordan, the film follows an eleven-year old boy and his mother who are displaced to a refugee camp after the occupation of their West Bank village. Indiewire has an exclusive trailer for the film below. But first check out its synopsis as provided by Tiff: In 1967, Arab states waged a second war against Israel with the objective of liberating Palestine. They were defeated, and the Israeli army deployed into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in these territories fled the military occupation to refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries, joining the thousands of refugees that had settled in camps more than two decades earlier in 1948. Free-spirited eleven-year-old Tarek (Mahmoud Asfa) and his...
- 8/28/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
Above: Ernie Gehr's Auto-Collider Xv.
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
- 8/22/2012
- MUBI
The globe-trotting section of this year’s Contemporary World Cinema programme has your Sundance (in a pair of excellent titles in Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and James Ponsoldt’s Smashed) and has select items from several sections from this year’s Cannes ranging from Pablo Stoll Ward’s 3, Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle, Aida Begic’s Children of Sarajevo, Catherine Corsini’s Three Worlds, Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Love, and they must see In The Fog a masterwork from Sergei Loznitsa and will be padded by world premiere items such as Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You, Lenny Abrahamson’s What Richard Did and Sion Sono’s The Land of Hope (see pic above). Here’s the entire list of items that make up this year’s section:
3 Pablo Stoll Ward, Uruguay/Germany/Argentina North American Premiere For Rodolfo (Humberto de Vargas), life at home feels empty and cold,...
3 Pablo Stoll Ward, Uruguay/Germany/Argentina North American Premiere For Rodolfo (Humberto de Vargas), life at home feels empty and cold,...
- 8/14/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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