NOTE: I edited and partly wrote the following feature for LimitéMagazine.com.
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
Category Archives: Foreign Film
2014 Oscars: Short Film Shortlists
In the past few weeks, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed the shortlists for all short film categories for the 2013 Oscars. Official nominations will be announced on January 16, 2014. Here’s what will be vying for a nomination in all three categories:
LIVE ACTION
- “Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me),” Esteban Crespo, director (Producciones Africanauan)
- “Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything),” Xavier Legrand, director, and Alexandre Gavras, producer (KG Productions)
- “Dva (Two),” Mickey Nedimovic, director, and Henner Besuch, director of photography (Filoufilm Dani Barsch)
- “Helium,” Anders Walter, director, and Kim Magnusson, producer (M & M Productions)
- “Kush,” Shubhashish Bhutiani, director (Red Carpet Moving Pictures)
- “Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?),” Selma Vilhunen, director, and Kirsikka Saari, screenwriter (Tuffi Films)
- “Record/Play,” Jesse Atlas, director, and Thom Fennessey, executive producer (Collaboration Factory)
- “Throat Song,” Miranda de Pencier, director (Northwood Productions)
- “Tiger Boy,” Gabriele Mainetti, director (Goon Films)
- “The Voorman Problem,” Mark Gill, director, and Baldwin Li, producer (Honlodge Productions)
NYFF Live Panels Announced
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msko8dyx5Hs]
The 51st New York Film Festival is upon us, bringing some of the world’s best film’s to New York from September 27 – October 13. And with that, the lineup for its annual NYFF Live panels has just been released. These talks are FREE and open to the public.
(Full schedule and more information after the jump.)
Short Film: “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
This animated short film directed by Nicky Phelan and written and performed by Kathleen O’Rourke was nominated at the 2009 Academy Awards for Best Short Film (Animated). In my opinion, it was the best of the five nominated films and should have won for its cleverness and use of multiple animation techniques.
Q&A: Miguel Gomes
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
I recently sat down with Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes in Manhattan’s Film Forum, where his new feature Tabu will be screening as of December 26th. The film’s story begins in Lisbon where we meet Aurora, an elderly woman with a seemingly uninteresting life. Following her death, Aurora’s neighbor and maid join to find an old man with a connection to Aurora’s past. As the man begins to tell his and Aurora’s story, we are transported to a former Portuguese colony in Africa, where we witness their youthful, eccentric lives play out.
Tabu is told in two distinct parts: the first half set in Lisbon in the present day and the second set in Africa decades earlier. Both benefit from the classic mode of filmmaking that Gomes employed. His use of black-and-white imagery and a 4:3 aspect ratio hearken back to a cinema of old, honoring a long-forgotten art while emphasizing the film’s theme of lost youth.
This year, the film has screened at the New York Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Las Palmas Film Festival (Spain), and won two awards at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival.
New York Film Festival Preview: The Gatekeepers
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZepXBymtkUQ]Screening: Thursday, October 11, 9pm
Venue: Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC
Series: NYFF50: Main Slate
In The Gatekeepers, documentarian Dror Moreh does something unprecedented by interviewing six former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel’s Secret Service. Individually, the “gatekeepers” reflect on their successes and failures during the ongoing struggles between Israel and Palestine and the mission for peace. In what is surely considered a strong contender for a Best Documentary Oscar nomination, this film is among the most astonishing documentaries of the year. (Moreh sites 2004 Oscar-winning documentary The Fog of War as an inspiration.) The level of access Moreh achieves is remarkable, offering a point of view never previously heard in such a medium. The film is ripe with strong narratives as told by each of the six men, as well as varied “textures” that are achieved through sit-down interviews, revealing archival footage, well-composed graphics, and a score that underlines the visuals in a subtle-yet-impactful manner. The narrative can be a bit cumbersome to follow for those not familiar with the political and social struggles between Israel and Palestine, but even still one would be hard-pressed not to appreciate the film’s obvious achievements.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Dror Moreh
Genre: Documentary
Countries: Israel, France, Germany, Belgium
Language: Hebrew with English subtitles
Runtime: 97 min.
The 50th New York Film Festival runs from September 28 – October 14, 2012.
2012 Hamptons International Film Festival: A Personal Account
For the past two years, I’ve been a member of the Hamptons International Film Festival’s (HIFF) screening committee. I watch dozens of submitted films and write brief reviews for and rate each, helping the programmers to decide which films to accept into this prestigious festival. This year, HIFF turns 20 and I made sure to attend for the first time.
My friend Erin and I took the train from the western tip of Long Island to the eastern side, a three-hour ride. (There’s a reason it’s called “Long Island.”) This was my first trip to the Hamptons, home of New York’s well-to-do and known for some of the most pristine beaches on the East Coast.
Continue reading 2012 Hamptons International Film Festival: A Personal Account
Record 71 Countries Vie for Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film Award
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently released the official list of qualified films that will vie for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. The record 71 nations includes first-time entrant Kenya. To qualify, each country must submit one film that screened in that country before October 1. Though the film does not need to be in the country’s official language, it must be made (director, writer, producer) by a person from that nation. From this list of 71, nine films will be shortlisted and the official five nominations will be revealed on January 10. The winner will be announced at the 85th annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24. Early front-runners include Austria’s Amour and France’s The Intouchables. (Continue reading for the full list of entries.)
Continue reading Record 71 Countries Vie for Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film Award
New York Film Festival Preview: Amour
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekjfj8sLFqs]Screening: Saturday, October 6, 3pm
Venue: Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC
Series: NYFF50: Main Slate
Winner of this year’s prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, legendary filmmaker Michael Haneke’s Amour tells the story of an octogenarian couple living in France. After Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) suffers multiple strokes, her devoted husband Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) loyally stays by her side, caring for her throughout the duration of her deteriorating health. Amour tells a simple, truthful, emotional, tragic, haunting, and beautiful story—one that is likely to remain with the viewer long after the end credits roll. Both veteran French actors Riva and Trintignant offer exceptionally brave performances, only achieved by baring every bit of themselves to each other and on screen. Though the film’s pacing is slow, it reflects a feeling of quiet sadness that hangs heavily over the couple’s Parisian apartment. Amour is Austria’s official 2012 Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film and is considered an easy favorite for a nomination.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Michael Haneke
Genres: Narrative, Drama
Country: Austria
Language: French with English subtitles
Runtime: 127 min.
The 50th New York Film Festival runs from September 28 – October 14, 2012.
New York Film Festival Preview: Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
Screening: Monday, October 1, 9pm
Venue: Francesca Beale Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
Series: NYFF50: Cinema Reflected
Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy and girl get married. Girl gets pregnant. Boy and girl split up. Etc. Etc. It’s a rather simple tale, but this reviewer can guarantee you’ve never seen it done quite like this. In Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen, Hungarian filmmaker Pálfi György uses brief scenes from nearly 500 films (and some TV shows) to tell this plain story. It’s a remarkable achievement and is the greatest celebration of cinema to hit the big screen in a long time. This is the ultimate movie about movies.
Employing a hodgepodge of scenes from films ranging from The Birth of a Nation (1915) to Avatar (2009), from live-action to animation, from comedy to drama—and everything in between—Final Cutamazingly tells a cohesive narrative from start to finish—one that could have been easily ruined in the hands of a less-skilled filmmaker. The amount of visual and auditory texture in this “epic” is staggering, and yet this visual collage does not strain the eye and is not distracting. Recognizing that so much of what makes a great movie great are the little moments on screen—waking up in bed, a loving stare, an expression of joy—György embroidered a fine tapestry that highlights these singular moments, and in doing so he tells a story of love and loss, of happiness and sorrow—a simple story with great depth, as told through the voice of cinema through the ages.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Pálfi György
Genres: Experimental, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Hungary
Language: Mostly silent with some lines in English
Runtime: 85 min.
The 50th New York Film Festival runs from September 28 – October 14, 2012.
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