Tomek Popakul's film has won both the Grand Prix and the Audience Award, while the Croatian project The Family Portrait has emerged victorious in AnimatekaPRO Pitch. The 16th International Animated Film Festival Animateka in Ljubljana, which took place from 2-8 December, has wrapped with Polish filmmaker Tomek Popakul's festival hit Acid Rain winning both the €1,000 Grand Prix and the Audience Award, worth the same amount and provided by the Slovenian Animated Film Association. The jury consisted of Waltraud Grausgruber, director of the Vienna-based Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Festival, and filmmakers Edmunds Jansons (Latvia), Ana Nedeljković (Serbia), Jonas Odell (Sweden) and Marie Paccou (France). Each of them gave a Special Mention to a film in the competition, which consisted of short films from Central and Eastern Europe. For the full list, please scroll down. Nelly Michenaud's Almost There, made at the UK's National Film and Television School, won the Young Talent.
Vimeo has announced its 2018 nominees for the Best of the Year Staff Picks Awards. Vimeo has recognized the best Staff Picks of the year by calling out the winners on its blog since 2016, but the company is elevating its end-of-the-year celebration this year by revealing nominations and bringing in a distinguished jury for each category to decide the winner. Each award recipient will receive a cash prize and a physical trophy, in addition to the Best of the Year badge, and the winning films will be screened at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on January 17th.
There are three jurors for each Staff Pick category, including the 2017 winners for each respective category. Categories include: Best of Action Sports, Best of Animation, Best of Comedy, Best of Documentary, Best of Drama, Best of Eye Candy and Best of Travel. Jury members include Alan Cumming, Roger Ross Williams, Reinaldo Green, and Sarah Schneider,...
There are three jurors for each Staff Pick category, including the 2017 winners for each respective category. Categories include: Best of Action Sports, Best of Animation, Best of Comedy, Best of Documentary, Best of Drama, Best of Eye Candy and Best of Travel. Jury members include Alan Cumming, Roger Ross Williams, Reinaldo Green, and Sarah Schneider,...
- 1/7/2019
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
The Isa of the Day segment of SydneysBuzz resumes for the Cannes Film Festival 2015. ISAs, or International Sales Agents, help to bring films into global distribution by selling distribution rights to distributors worldwide. Topics include new trends in distribution and sales, inspirational success stories, film slates and more. A worthy read for any serious filmmaker looking to have a better understanding of the chain of business between producing a film and sharing it with the world.
Based in Warsaw and founded by Jan Naszewski in 2010, New Europe Film Sales sells both short and feature films to the world market and to all major platforms: theatrical, TV, VOD and various internet platforms.
New Europe Film Sales is a leader in the short film market, and works with new talents and seasoned directors alike, including Ruben Östlund, Tomek Baginski and Jonas Odell. Six of New Europe’s short films have been shortlisted for the Oscars, and awarded by prestigious festivals such as Berlinale, Locarno, Sundance, Oberhausen and Rotterdam.
Seven of New Europe’s 18 feature films have had international premieres at the Berlinale, and have opened in Cannes, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Toronto & Tribeca.
Founder Jan Naszewski shares more:
I studied and worked in the UK for a couple years after growing up in Poland. There I worked for a company that did short film distribution, but acquired so many films. That wasn’t my style. I like the small boutique approach where you can be very selective and build a brand for your film. That’s why in 2010, I set up my own company in Poland, and it’s really paid off. We work internationally, even though we are based in Warsaw.
Initially, this was just a short films sales company, but the idea from the very beginning was to focus on quality over quantity. We’re a four person operation.
We pick up 10-15 short films a year, and our aim is to work up to having five to seven feature films a year. We want to have enough time to work with all the films, meet the filmmakers and producers, and don’t want them to be lost in a big slate. That allows us to be much more focused and selective because in the end, I believe you can always sell the quality films.
The market is changing as well, so it’s really a different situation these days. Films that sold ten years ago don’t really work anymore in that sense, so this policy has really paid off for us.
We still deal with short films sales, and that’s been really successful for us because in five years, we’ve had seven Oscar short-listers. Every year, we have somebody going to the Oscars, and we’ve had nominations and presence at the other big film festivals, which has been a good learning experience for us. Through that, we have access to really good producers and talent. We’re happy to work with these people, and not for the dollar bills in sight.
My background is actually with festivals. I had been working for different festivals in different capacities, and with that network, it’s easier to enter the film sales world. We are still the only sales agents based in Poland, and I can’t think of any companies based east of Berlin, so that gives us an edge.
For us, it’s always important that we work with international content and we don’t just handle Polish films. We work with independent films from the Us, Norway, and Denmark. We’ve always been very keen on working with first-time filmmakers and directors, and giving them a leg up into the market. We like edgy films. We like working with children’s films, and animation is something we are really interested in.
We have a feature film from Iceland in the Cannes official selection this year. It’s called “Rams”, by Grímur Hákonarson, about two old men who are brothers in the middle of nowhere in Iceland. They are both sheepherders, and haven’t spoken for forty years. Some of the sheep get a disease, and all the sheep in the valley have to be killed. In order to protect the sheep, they have to reconcile in order to save what’s really important to them. It’s a touching drama.
Learn more about the New Europe Film Sales catalog here.
Based in Warsaw and founded by Jan Naszewski in 2010, New Europe Film Sales sells both short and feature films to the world market and to all major platforms: theatrical, TV, VOD and various internet platforms.
New Europe Film Sales is a leader in the short film market, and works with new talents and seasoned directors alike, including Ruben Östlund, Tomek Baginski and Jonas Odell. Six of New Europe’s short films have been shortlisted for the Oscars, and awarded by prestigious festivals such as Berlinale, Locarno, Sundance, Oberhausen and Rotterdam.
Seven of New Europe’s 18 feature films have had international premieres at the Berlinale, and have opened in Cannes, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Toronto & Tribeca.
Founder Jan Naszewski shares more:
I studied and worked in the UK for a couple years after growing up in Poland. There I worked for a company that did short film distribution, but acquired so many films. That wasn’t my style. I like the small boutique approach where you can be very selective and build a brand for your film. That’s why in 2010, I set up my own company in Poland, and it’s really paid off. We work internationally, even though we are based in Warsaw.
Initially, this was just a short films sales company, but the idea from the very beginning was to focus on quality over quantity. We’re a four person operation.
We pick up 10-15 short films a year, and our aim is to work up to having five to seven feature films a year. We want to have enough time to work with all the films, meet the filmmakers and producers, and don’t want them to be lost in a big slate. That allows us to be much more focused and selective because in the end, I believe you can always sell the quality films.
The market is changing as well, so it’s really a different situation these days. Films that sold ten years ago don’t really work anymore in that sense, so this policy has really paid off for us.
We still deal with short films sales, and that’s been really successful for us because in five years, we’ve had seven Oscar short-listers. Every year, we have somebody going to the Oscars, and we’ve had nominations and presence at the other big film festivals, which has been a good learning experience for us. Through that, we have access to really good producers and talent. We’re happy to work with these people, and not for the dollar bills in sight.
My background is actually with festivals. I had been working for different festivals in different capacities, and with that network, it’s easier to enter the film sales world. We are still the only sales agents based in Poland, and I can’t think of any companies based east of Berlin, so that gives us an edge.
For us, it’s always important that we work with international content and we don’t just handle Polish films. We work with independent films from the Us, Norway, and Denmark. We’ve always been very keen on working with first-time filmmakers and directors, and giving them a leg up into the market. We like edgy films. We like working with children’s films, and animation is something we are really interested in.
We have a feature film from Iceland in the Cannes official selection this year. It’s called “Rams”, by Grímur Hákonarson, about two old men who are brothers in the middle of nowhere in Iceland. They are both sheepherders, and haven’t spoken for forty years. Some of the sheep get a disease, and all the sheep in the valley have to be killed. In order to protect the sheep, they have to reconcile in order to save what’s really important to them. It’s a touching drama.
Learn more about the New Europe Film Sales catalog here.
- 5/17/2015
- by Erin Grover
- Sydney's Buzz
Plastic Paper is Winnipeg’s celebration of animation, illustration and puppet films, organized by the Big Smash! filmmaking collective. Their second annual event will be held on May 4-8 at the Park Theatre.
The big score for this year’s edition is a special screening of Ralph Bakshi’s 1981 feature-length musical opus American Pop with the filmmaker in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. For this groundbreaking work, Bakshi utilized the innovative technique of mixing rotoscoping, water colors, computer graphics, live action shots, and archival footage. This screening and discussion will be a real treat for animation junkies.
But that’s not to say that the rest of the festival isn’t also filled with other amazing films.
Because, speaking of groundbreaking work, the fest kicks off with Brent Green’s simply astounding film Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, the first full-length film utilizing real-life actors in amazing stop-motion animation.
The big score for this year’s edition is a special screening of Ralph Bakshi’s 1981 feature-length musical opus American Pop with the filmmaker in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. For this groundbreaking work, Bakshi utilized the innovative technique of mixing rotoscoping, water colors, computer graphics, live action shots, and archival footage. This screening and discussion will be a real treat for animation junkies.
But that’s not to say that the rest of the festival isn’t also filled with other amazing films.
Because, speaking of groundbreaking work, the fest kicks off with Brent Green’s simply astounding film Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, the first full-length film utilizing real-life actors in amazing stop-motion animation.
- 4/30/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
[Our thanks to Kier-La Janisse for the following.]
It's been over a week since Ottawa's closing night festivities, and my head is still reeling with the smorgasbord of animated treats I was privy to for the few short days I was there. Other than the features and some of the retrospectives (which I talked about in my previous Ottawa Animation Festival Wrap-Up Part One), I was able to catch the Canadian Short Film Showcase, one of the International showcases and the first of five short film competitions (sadly missing both the latest Priit Parn and Jonas Odell shorts).
The Canadian program kicked off smartly with Amy Lockhart's The Collagist, inspired by the creative process of her frequent collaborator, cartoonist/artist Marc Bell. With a single shot depicting two hands manipulating objects on a desk into a series of images - blobby potatoes, people, raindrops, mouths, eyes and text - this cut-out animation is a spirited ode to...
It's been over a week since Ottawa's closing night festivities, and my head is still reeling with the smorgasbord of animated treats I was privy to for the few short days I was there. Other than the features and some of the retrospectives (which I talked about in my previous Ottawa Animation Festival Wrap-Up Part One), I was able to catch the Canadian Short Film Showcase, one of the International showcases and the first of five short film competitions (sadly missing both the latest Priit Parn and Jonas Odell shorts).
The Canadian program kicked off smartly with Amy Lockhart's The Collagist, inspired by the creative process of her frequent collaborator, cartoonist/artist Marc Bell. With a single shot depicting two hands manipulating objects on a desk into a series of images - blobby potatoes, people, raindrops, mouths, eyes and text - this cut-out animation is a spirited ode to...
- 11/10/2010
- Screen Anarchy
The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival is set to run June 17-27 in a brand new location. Oh, it’s still in L.A, but it’s moving across town, from Westwood — where it’s been held the past few years — all the way over to Downtown.
The main “hub” for the fest will be the new L.A. Live complex, but there will also be screenings at other locations, such as the Downtown Independent and Redcat theaters. The city is really trying to build downtown up into a major arts and culture hub, so the festival moving there fits in with that agenda. Film Independent, the organization that runs Laff, also runs the annual Independent Spirit Awards, an event that also moved downtown — from Santa Monica — this year.
On Bad Lit, I tend to like to put up festival lineups that include days and times of screenings. However, since I...
The main “hub” for the fest will be the new L.A. Live complex, but there will also be screenings at other locations, such as the Downtown Independent and Redcat theaters. The city is really trying to build downtown up into a major arts and culture hub, so the festival moving there fits in with that agenda. Film Independent, the organization that runs Laff, also runs the annual Independent Spirit Awards, an event that also moved downtown — from Santa Monica — this year.
On Bad Lit, I tend to like to put up festival lineups that include days and times of screenings. However, since I...
- 5/17/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
"Push," Lee Daniels' adaptation of performance poet Sapphire's novel about an abused, illiterate teenager struggling to break free from her hellish homelife in Harlem, was the big winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, picking up both the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, with star Mo'Nique earning a Special Jury Prize for Acting. Ondi Timoner's film about dot-com golden boy Josh Harris "We Live in Public" snagged the Documentary Grand Jury Prize, while in the World category, Kim Longinotto's "Rough Aunties" and Sebastián Silva's "The Maid" were given awards. The complete list of awards follows:
The Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary was presented to "We Live in Public," directed by Ondi Timoner. The film portrays the story of the Internet's revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of maverick web pioneer, Josh Harris, and his transgressive art project that shocked New York.
The Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary was presented to "We Live in Public," directed by Ondi Timoner. The film portrays the story of the Internet's revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of maverick web pioneer, Josh Harris, and his transgressive art project that shocked New York.
- 1/25/2009
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
OTTAWA -- Michaela Pavlatova's musical erotica fantasy The Carnival of Animals, Andreas Hykade's The Runt, George Griffin's deadpan comedy It Pains Me to Say This, and Run Wrake's adult fairy tale Rabbit are among the 106 films from 20 countries competing in the Ottawa International Animation Festival that organizers unveiled Wednesday at a media conference. Swedish animator Jonas Odell's "Never Like the First Time!" and Joanna Quinn's "Dreams and Desires: Family Ties," which picked up the top prize at both the Annecy and Zagreb animation festivals earlier this year, will also unspool in the competitive section with 16 categories, ranging from features to promotional animation to Internet works. The 30th anniversary edition of North America's largest and the world's second-biggest animation festival will also feature retrospectives of the works of Russian Konstantin Bronzit, former Warner Bros. cartoon director Bob Clampett, New York experimental animator Jeff Scher, Italian Bruno Bozzetto and Canadian John Straiton.
BERLIN -- Never Like the First Time! an animated film from Swedish director Jonas Odell that features audio of people recalling their sexual initiation, has won the 2006 Berlin Golden Bear for best short film, Berlin's International Short Film Jury said Wednesday. The Silver Bear runner-up prize went to two shorts: Guillaume Martinez's Penpusher, about an unexpected encounter in the Paris Metro, and Our Man in Nirvana, an animated film about a rock guitarist who dies onstage and wakes up in paradise. For the festival's Panorama sidebar, the prize for best short film went to U.S. filmmaker Tala Hadid's Your Dark Hair Ihsan, about a man confronted by his past when he returns home to North Africa from Europe.
- 2/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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