The series Tales from the Fatherland: Films by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, including Lingui, the Sacred Bonds, is showing on Mubi in many countries starting March 8, 2022.Lingui, the Sacred BondsIn Lingui, the Sacred Bonds, the new film by Chadian filmmaking great Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, a potentially life-threatening situation is met with compassion and quiet solidarity by an affirming community. These connections are necessary, particularly so for women to survive in a world that fails to see them as priority. A teenage girl finds solace in her mother when she is kicked out of school for getting pregnant. They arrive at their decision soon enough: An abortion presents her only path out of poverty and pariah status. The problem is that abortion is illegal in Chad, not to mention frowned upon by the conservative dictates of the Muslim faith. To find a solution, both mother and daughter must rely on lingui, an altruistic philosophy...
- 3/20/2022
- MUBI
Exclusive: Independent streaming company Cinedigm has taken all North American rights on Our Father, the feature debut of director-writer-actor Bradley Grant Smith that debuted at SXSW earlier this year.
The deal marks the first Cinedigm acquisition slated to be released as an exclusive on the company’s independent streaming service Fandor.
The film finds estranged sisters Beta (Baize Buzan) and Zelda (Allison Torem) on a last-ditch effort to preserve a familial bond by a shared desire in finding their mysterious, seemingly vanished Uncle Jerry.
Director Smith previously acted in pics such as Saint Frances (2019) and The Last Shift (2020). He is also known as a musician, whose song Help Yourself was featured in the Academy Award nominated film Up in the Air (2009).
The deal was negotiated by Manager of Acquisitions Brandon Hill on behalf of Cinedigm and Bill Straus at Bridge Independent on behalf of the filmmakers, Bradley Grant Smith and Alex Thompson.
The deal marks the first Cinedigm acquisition slated to be released as an exclusive on the company’s independent streaming service Fandor.
The film finds estranged sisters Beta (Baize Buzan) and Zelda (Allison Torem) on a last-ditch effort to preserve a familial bond by a shared desire in finding their mysterious, seemingly vanished Uncle Jerry.
Director Smith previously acted in pics such as Saint Frances (2019) and The Last Shift (2020). He is also known as a musician, whose song Help Yourself was featured in the Academy Award nominated film Up in the Air (2009).
The deal was negotiated by Manager of Acquisitions Brandon Hill on behalf of Cinedigm and Bill Straus at Bridge Independent on behalf of the filmmakers, Bradley Grant Smith and Alex Thompson.
- 10/4/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
"We are looking for Jerry." Fandor has debuted an official trailer for an indie dramedy feature called Our Father, which premiered at this year's SXSW Film Festival playing in the main competition. Marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Bradley Grant Smith, the film is described as a "sardonic drama/dark comedy" about two estranged sisters attempting to bond while in search of their mysterious long-forgotten Uncle Jerry. Who may hold the key to their father's suicide and their family's unhappiness. One review says it's "an offbeat odyssey with outwardly small tangible stakes, but calamitous emotional ones..." The indie films stars Baize Buzan & Allison Torem as the two sisters, with Austin Pendleton, Tim Hopper, Guy Massey, Keith Kupferer, and Lance Baker. Not really sure if this one is worth a watch, but there's something strangely appealing about the awkward, tragic concept that got my attention. Take a look below. Here's...
- 8/27/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Selection includes 17 Russian projects and 9 international.
Russian state film body Roskino and project market When East Meets West (Wemw) have selected 26 projects for Wemw Goes To Russia, a new international co-production forum to run during the upcoming Key Buyers Event: Digital (June 8-10).
Some 17 Russian projects and nine international works from eight different countries will participate in the co-production pitching, through which they will be able to meet Russian producers and access a minority co-production support granted by the Russian Ministry of Culture, up to Rub 10m.
The inaugural edition of Wemw Goes To Russia is part of the third annual Key Buyers Event: Digital.
Russian state film body Roskino and project market When East Meets West (Wemw) have selected 26 projects for Wemw Goes To Russia, a new international co-production forum to run during the upcoming Key Buyers Event: Digital (June 8-10).
Some 17 Russian projects and nine international works from eight different countries will participate in the co-production pitching, through which they will be able to meet Russian producers and access a minority co-production support granted by the Russian Ministry of Culture, up to Rub 10m.
The inaugural edition of Wemw Goes To Russia is part of the third annual Key Buyers Event: Digital.
- 6/3/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
French multi-hyphenate Amanda Sthers (“Holy Lands”) has recruited the U.K.’s Kelly Reilly, Italy’s Pierfrancesco Favino and France’s Jean Reno for English-language romantic drama “Promises,” set in Italy and London, which started shooting in Rome on Monday.
Based on Sthers’ novel by the same title, “Promises” turns on an unfulfilled love affair between Alexander, played by Favino — who won best actor at Venice last year for his role in Italian drama “Padrenostro” — and Laura, played by Reilly.
Commenting on her casting choices, Sthers in a statement noted that she grew up watching movies from around the globe and therefore “allowed myself to choose talent over everything else, and wanted the global sentiment of the film reflected in casting.”
“Together, Favino and Reilly look like a quintessential cinematic couple bringing a sense of timelessness to our story,” Sthers added.
Rounding out the cast are Cara Theobold (“Downton Abbey...
Based on Sthers’ novel by the same title, “Promises” turns on an unfulfilled love affair between Alexander, played by Favino — who won best actor at Venice last year for his role in Italian drama “Padrenostro” — and Laura, played by Reilly.
Commenting on her casting choices, Sthers in a statement noted that she grew up watching movies from around the globe and therefore “allowed myself to choose talent over everything else, and wanted the global sentiment of the film reflected in casting.”
“Together, Favino and Reilly look like a quintessential cinematic couple bringing a sense of timelessness to our story,” Sthers added.
Rounding out the cast are Cara Theobold (“Downton Abbey...
- 3/23/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The Italian filmmaker will be on set from June, directing Pierfrancesco Favino, Nanni Moretti and Kasia Smutniak in her new movie based upon Sandro Veronesi’s novel of the same name. Pierfrancesco Favino (rewarded at the latest Venice Film Festival for his role in Padrenostro), Nanni Moretti (who is soon to unveil his new film Tre piani) and Kasia Smutniak are starring in the cast of Francesca Archibugi’s new film Il Colibrì, on which filming is scheduled to begin in June, encompassing Rome, Paris, Florence and the Tuscan coast. Auditions are currently underway for the remainder of the cast. The director (who made her name in 1988 with Mignon Has Left, scooping 5 David di Donatello trophies and the New Directors award in San Sebastian, before going on to win a Best Film David di Donatello for Towards Evening in...
The movie, an “emotional horror film” set in a version of Rome on the point of imploding, is produced by Propaganda Italia and Belgium’s GapBusters and stars Fabrizio Rongione and Cristiana Dell’Anna. Filming has begun in Rome on Piove, 28-year-old director Paolo Strippoli’s second work whose cast is led by the Dardenne brothers’ favourite actor Fabrizio Rongione, alongside Cristiana Dell’Anna (Gomorrah), whose performance we look forward to in Mario Martone’s upcoming movie. The pair are joined by the young Francesco Gheghi (recently seen in Padrenostro) and little Aurora Menenti. Produced by Marina Marzotto and Mattia Oddone on behalf of Propaganda Italia, and co-produced by Joseph Rouschop of Belgian group GapBusters, Piove applies the codes of the thriller/horror genre to a family drama, exploring an increasingly hateful modern-day society wrestling with ever greater pressures: “The Rome we see in Piove is continually on the point of imploding,...
The event featuring films from the festival's latest edition, including Padrenostro and The Macaluso Sisters, will take place from 3 to 10 February at the Cinemathèque Seoul Art Cinema. Seven Italian films from the 77th Venice International Film Festival 2020 compose the programme for the 9th edition of Venice in Seoul. The film series will run starting tomorrow 3 February through 10 February at the Cinemathèque Seoul Art Cinema, organized by La Biennale di Venezia in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture in Seoul. The line-up of the 9th edition of Venice in Seoul, from the Venezia 77 Competition, will also feature Padrenostro by Claudio Noce, for which Pierfrancesco Favino won the Coppa Volpi, and The Macaluso Sister by Emma Dante. The series will also include both the opening film of the Venice Film Festival, Ties by Daniele Luchetti, and the closing film, Lasciami andare by Stefano Mordini, both...
When the Italian selection committee meets early this week to determine which film it will submit to the Oscar race for Best International Feature Film, it might well be the most consequential decision any country in the race will have made this year — and probably the only one that has the potential to give the category a genuine frontrunner.
That possibility exists because one of the 25 (!) films that the committee has said are in contention is Edoardo Ponti’s “The Life Ahead,” a drama that contains the first screen performance in a decade from Ponti’s mother, Sophia Loren. Not only was Loren the first actor to win an Oscar for a performance not in English, which she did in 1961 for “Two Women,” she’s considered a strong contender in this year’s Best Actress category for her affecting role as a retired prostitute who cares for the children of...
That possibility exists because one of the 25 (!) films that the committee has said are in contention is Edoardo Ponti’s “The Life Ahead,” a drama that contains the first screen performance in a decade from Ponti’s mother, Sophia Loren. Not only was Loren the first actor to win an Oscar for a performance not in English, which she did in 1961 for “Two Women,” she’s considered a strong contender in this year’s Best Actress category for her affecting role as a retired prostitute who cares for the children of...
- 11/22/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Cinemas are looking to bounce back from a week of bad news.
France, opening Wednesday September 23
UFO Distribution and Potemkine Films joined forces this week for a rare general release of a medium-length film to launch Gaspar Noé’s 51-minute work Lux Æterna on 47 prints. Co-starring Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a director and actress locked in a hellish shoot, the work debuted Out of Competition in Cannes in 2019.
Noé’s cult status at home ensured plenty of press and according to France’s Cbo Box Office the picture came in fifth out of 15 new releases on its first day in cinemas,...
France, opening Wednesday September 23
UFO Distribution and Potemkine Films joined forces this week for a rare general release of a medium-length film to launch Gaspar Noé’s 51-minute work Lux Æterna on 47 prints. Co-starring Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a director and actress locked in a hellish shoot, the work debuted Out of Competition in Cannes in 2019.
Noé’s cult status at home ensured plenty of press and according to France’s Cbo Box Office the picture came in fifth out of 15 new releases on its first day in cinemas,...
- 9/25/2020
- by Ben Dalton¬Martin Blaney¬Melanie Goodfellow¬Gabriele Niola
- ScreenDaily
Running 21 – 27 September, the 38th edition of the event will take a hybrid form, unfolding in cinemas and online, with several Venetian titles shining bright within the line-up. Hidden Away by Giorgio Diritti, which bagged Elio Germano the Silver Bear for Best Actor in Berlin, is today opening the 28th Annecy Italian Film Festival (running 21 – 27 September 2020), an event which will eventually be closed by the Venetian competitor Notturno by Gianfranco Rosi. It’s an edition set to unspool in hybrid form, with films screening in cinemas but also made available free of charge, online. The competition will see eight feature films battle it out, two of which are making their way here straight from the Venice Film Festival: Padrenostro by Claudio...
Vanessa Kirby wins best actress Coppa Volpi for Pieces Of A Woman.
Chloé Zhao’s US drama Nomadland starring Frances McDormand has won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, which held its awards in a socially-distanced ceremony on Saturday evening (September 12).
The Silver Lion – Grand Jury prize went to Michel Franco’s Mexican-French feature New Order, about a high society wedding which is interrupted by protesters. Franco was present in Venice to accept the award, which was presented in front of a half-full Sala Grande, as part of the measures in place to combat the...
Chloé Zhao’s US drama Nomadland starring Frances McDormand has won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, which held its awards in a socially-distanced ceremony on Saturday evening (September 12).
The Silver Lion – Grand Jury prize went to Michel Franco’s Mexican-French feature New Order, about a high society wedding which is interrupted by protesters. Franco was present in Venice to accept the award, which was presented in front of a half-full Sala Grande, as part of the measures in place to combat the...
- 9/12/2020
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
“Nomadland” has received the Golden Lion Award as the best film of the 2020 Venice International Film Festival, a jury headed by Cate Blanchett announced on Saturday.
The Searchlight drama, a simultaneous premiere by the Venice, Telluride and Toronto festivals, was directed by Chloe Zhao and stars Frances McDormand as a woman who travels through the American West in a van after losing her job and her home. Apart from McDormand and David Strathairn, almost all of the actors in the film are actual “nomads” that Zhao cast on her own travels through the area.
“Nuevo Orden” (“New Order”) by Mexican director Michel Franco won the Silver Lion, the festival’s second-place award, while acting prizes went to Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman” and Pierfrancesco Favino for “Padrenostro.”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was named the festival’s best director for “Wife of a Spy.”
Ahmad Bahrami’s “The Wasteland” won the...
The Searchlight drama, a simultaneous premiere by the Venice, Telluride and Toronto festivals, was directed by Chloe Zhao and stars Frances McDormand as a woman who travels through the American West in a van after losing her job and her home. Apart from McDormand and David Strathairn, almost all of the actors in the film are actual “nomads” that Zhao cast on her own travels through the area.
“Nuevo Orden” (“New Order”) by Mexican director Michel Franco won the Silver Lion, the festival’s second-place award, while acting prizes went to Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman” and Pierfrancesco Favino for “Padrenostro.”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was named the festival’s best director for “Wife of a Spy.”
Ahmad Bahrami’s “The Wasteland” won the...
- 9/12/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The social turmoil in Italy from the 1960s to the 1980s is remembered for its many acts of political terrorism, and these “Years of Lead,” as they are known, are at the heart of director Claudio Noce’s third feature, Padrenostro. This very national drama is likely to feel disconcerting to those who remember the period, because it makes no attempt to confront terrorism or review the motivations and ideologies of the protagonists, or its effect on the society at large. Instead, it describes the personal trauma of a 10-year-old boy who wakes up one morning to gunfire and sees his ...
The social turmoil in Italy from the 1960s to the 1980s is remembered for its many acts of political terrorism, and these “Years of Lead,” as they are known, are at the heart of director Claudio Noce’s third feature, Padrenostro. This very national drama is likely to feel disconcerting to those who remember the period, because it makes no attempt to confront terrorism or review the motivations and ideologies of the protagonists, or its effect on the society at large. Instead, it describes the personal trauma of a 10-year-old boy who wakes up one morning to gunfire and sees his ...
Italy’s period of combatting terrorism from the late 1960s to the late ’80s, known as the “Years of Lead,” remains a richly-mined topic in cinema, more successfully processed on screen than through any of the official bodies charged with accountability. Digging into his personal trauma from that era, director Claudio Noce (“The Ice Forest”) takes some of the basic facts from the attempted assassination in 1976 of his father, a deputy police chief, and aims to process how that affected him and his family. “Padrenostro,” or “Our Father,” is , at its best when it sticks to the tense rapport within a family terrified they’ll be targeted again. The subject together with the fine ensemble cast will likely see strong interest at home, but any kind of significant travel is unlikely apart from Italian showcases.
Noce was two years old when the attack occurred, old enough for him to feel...
Noce was two years old when the attack occurred, old enough for him to feel...
- 9/4/2020
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
While the coronavirus pandemic has canceled major festivals such as Cannes and Telluride, the 2020 Venice Film Festival is moving ahead as planned and will be the world’s first major film festival since Sundance and Berlin at the start of the year. Venice 2020’s main selection will be split into three sections: Venezia 77 (aka the main competition), Out of Competition, and Horizons. The titles selected for the main competition will compete for the Golden Lion, which was awarded last year to Todd Phillips’ “Joker.”
As previously announced, Daniele Luchetti’s drama “Lacci” will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 2. The movie is the first Italian title to open Venice in 11 years. The last Italian opener was Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa” at the 2009 festival. “Lacci” is included in this year’s Out of Competition section. Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” follow-up “Nomadland” was also confirmed for a world premiere...
As previously announced, Daniele Luchetti’s drama “Lacci” will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 2. The movie is the first Italian title to open Venice in 11 years. The last Italian opener was Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa” at the 2009 festival. “Lacci” is included in this year’s Out of Competition section. Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” follow-up “Nomadland” was also confirmed for a world premiere...
- 7/28/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
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