The 50th Annual Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) wrapped up on Sunday and announced the winners of the 2024 Golden Space Needle Audience and Juried Competition Awards.
The festival began on May 9 and screened 261 films representing 84 countries with “62% of the feature films were created by first or second-time filmmakers; 43% were created by women or nonbinary filmmakers; 35% of filmmakers identify as a Bipoc director; and nearly 60% are currently without U.S. distribution and may not screen commercially in the United States,” according to Siff.
Siff holds two categories of competition: juried and audience based. Juried competitions include five feature subcategories including the Official Competition, New American Cinema Competition, New Directors Competition, Ibero-American Competition and Documentary Competition. Short film categories include live action, animation and documentary.
In addition, over 32,000 ballots were submitted for the Golden Space Needle Awards (Gsna). Films judged through the GSNAs are selected by audience members through post-screening ballots. The categories include best film,...
The festival began on May 9 and screened 261 films representing 84 countries with “62% of the feature films were created by first or second-time filmmakers; 43% were created by women or nonbinary filmmakers; 35% of filmmakers identify as a Bipoc director; and nearly 60% are currently without U.S. distribution and may not screen commercially in the United States,” according to Siff.
Siff holds two categories of competition: juried and audience based. Juried competitions include five feature subcategories including the Official Competition, New American Cinema Competition, New Directors Competition, Ibero-American Competition and Documentary Competition. Short film categories include live action, animation and documentary.
In addition, over 32,000 ballots were submitted for the Golden Space Needle Awards (Gsna). Films judged through the GSNAs are selected by audience members through post-screening ballots. The categories include best film,...
- 5/19/2024
- by Lexi Carson
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Paris-based Nour Films has acquired French rights to Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.
The film will make history as the first ever Saudi feature to play in Cannes’ Official Selection just six years after Saudi Arabia announced the end of its 35-year cinema ban.
“Norah is an elegant film that combines age-old traditions with a desire for emancipation. This emancipation is achieved through art, learning and a desire greater than oneself. Tawfik Akzaidi has beautifully crafted a film that is both powerful and delicate,” said Nour Films’s co-founding director Patrick Sibourd.
The deal was brokered by Sebastien Chesneau under his Cercamon banner which clinched the international sales mandate for the film last week.
Cercamon and Nour previously collaborated on Vietnamese drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight...
The film will make history as the first ever Saudi feature to play in Cannes’ Official Selection just six years after Saudi Arabia announced the end of its 35-year cinema ban.
“Norah is an elegant film that combines age-old traditions with a desire for emancipation. This emancipation is achieved through art, learning and a desire greater than oneself. Tawfik Akzaidi has beautifully crafted a film that is both powerful and delicate,” said Nour Films’s co-founding director Patrick Sibourd.
The deal was brokered by Sebastien Chesneau under his Cercamon banner which clinched the international sales mandate for the film last week.
Cercamon and Nour previously collaborated on Vietnamese drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight...
- 5/13/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
To note that Gloria!, the directing debut of Italian actor-singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario, is vapid, pseudo-feminist, sentimental piffle would be entirely accurate. And yet, one must also admit that it is at least mildly entertaining piffle, absorbing in the same way that pop videos with lots of dancing and catchy tunes playing in the corner of a quiet bar or a nail salon on a weekday morning are entertaining. If you’re waiting for the polish to dry and can’t use your hands to use your phone, then staring blankly at Gloria! would suffice as a distraction. Alternatively, this is exactly the kind of film you might chance on while channel surfing in a European hotel and find yourself absorbed by, even though there are no subtitles. Indeed, subtitles are barely necessary here given the plot is much like a puppet show or the kind of fable children make up while playing with dolls.
- 2/24/2024
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlin International Film Festival kicks off Saturday night, where this year’s jury, headed by 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o, will hand out the coveted Gold and Silver Bears.
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...
- 2/23/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has scored an average of 3.1 from critics on Screen’s Berlin jury grid, meaning it is now the joint leader alongside My Favourite Cake.
The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received two four stars (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita) and Paolo Bertolin cinematografo.it while five critics gave it three (good). Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) was less in favour of the film, following a newly married woman in 1750 who commits a shocking act of violence, awarding it just one star (poor).
Click on the...
The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received two four stars (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita) and Paolo Bertolin cinematografo.it while five critics gave it three (good). Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) was less in favour of the film, following a newly married woman in 1750 who commits a shocking act of violence, awarding it just one star (poor).
Click on the...
- 2/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has snapped up second place on Screen’s Berlin jury grid after scoring an average of 3.0 from the critics.
The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.
The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.
- 2/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has snapped up second place on Screen’s Berlin jury grid after scoring an average of 3.0 from the critics.
The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.
The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.
- 2/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Italian singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario’s directorial debut “Gloria!” has scored a slew international sales ahead of its world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival competition.
Rai Cinema International Distribution has sealed deals to nine territories on Vicario’s vibrant musical comedy set in a late 18th century Venetian female orphanage where a young rebel named Teresa leads a group of performers to challenge classical canons and invent a precursor to pop music.
“Gloria!” has been snapped up for France (Nour Films); Germany and Austria (Neue Vision); Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands (Arti Film); Greece (StraDa Films); Korea (Green Narea Media) and Bulgaria (Beta Films) with several other distribution deals in advanced negotiations.
French-Italian actor Galatéa Bellugi stars as young underprivileged woman with visionary talent who works with a quartet of fellow female musicians challenging preconceptions and defying abuses perpetrated against them by the evil priest who runs the institution.
“In my work as a singer-songwriter,...
Rai Cinema International Distribution has sealed deals to nine territories on Vicario’s vibrant musical comedy set in a late 18th century Venetian female orphanage where a young rebel named Teresa leads a group of performers to challenge classical canons and invent a precursor to pop music.
“Gloria!” has been snapped up for France (Nour Films); Germany and Austria (Neue Vision); Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands (Arti Film); Greece (StraDa Films); Korea (Green Narea Media) and Bulgaria (Beta Films) with several other distribution deals in advanced negotiations.
French-Italian actor Galatéa Bellugi stars as young underprivileged woman with visionary talent who works with a quartet of fellow female musicians challenging preconceptions and defying abuses perpetrated against them by the evil priest who runs the institution.
“In my work as a singer-songwriter,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italy — which is the Country of Focus at this year’s European Film Market in Berlin — is flourishing in terms of production activity just as its box office grosses start to pick up. Yet there’s room for improvement in terms of the number of titles that are able to break out internationally.
The Cinema Italiano output currently stands at over 350 movies a year, including co-productions, which is up compared with pre-pandemic levels. Still, while exports are growing, Italy only has a handful of directors — such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher — whose movies consistently manage to travel around the world.
That said, a new generation of Italian auteurs is emerging. Case in point are the country’s two titles in the Berlin Film Festival competition: star-studded sci-fi film “Another End,” and musical comedy “Gloria!”
“Another End” is the sophomore work by Piero Messina, whose first film,...
The Cinema Italiano output currently stands at over 350 movies a year, including co-productions, which is up compared with pre-pandemic levels. Still, while exports are growing, Italy only has a handful of directors — such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher — whose movies consistently manage to travel around the world.
That said, a new generation of Italian auteurs is emerging. Case in point are the country’s two titles in the Berlin Film Festival competition: star-studded sci-fi film “Another End,” and musical comedy “Gloria!”
“Another End” is the sophomore work by Piero Messina, whose first film,...
- 2/17/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Rai Cinema head Paolo del Brocco has sought to play down fears that its new film sales operation will take away business from Italian sales agents.
Speaking to Screen, del Brocco stressed that the organisation’s dedicated international sales division, Rai Cinema International Distribution, will offer a “very clear and simple” line-up of Italian films.
Rai Cinema International Distribution, which makes its market debut at the EFM today, launches with a slate of ten Italian films. All of them are backed by Rai Cinema, the film production division of state broadcaster Rai. They include Margherita Vicario’s Berlinale competition film Gloria!,...
Speaking to Screen, del Brocco stressed that the organisation’s dedicated international sales division, Rai Cinema International Distribution, will offer a “very clear and simple” line-up of Italian films.
Rai Cinema International Distribution, which makes its market debut at the EFM today, launches with a slate of ten Italian films. All of them are backed by Rai Cinema, the film production division of state broadcaster Rai. They include Margherita Vicario’s Berlinale competition film Gloria!,...
- 2/15/2024
- ScreenDaily
Rai Cinema Launches Standalone Film Sales Unit at EFM With Lineup Toplined by Berlin Title ‘Gloria!’
Italian state broadcaster Rai’s Rai Cinema film arm is launching a new standalone film sales unit at the European Film Market.
The nascent sales company — which is called Rai Cinema International Distribution — aims to fill a gap within Rai’s content sales force given that Rai’s existing Rai Com sales unit is “mostly dedicated to TV product,” said Rai Cinema CEO Paolo Del Brocco.
It will also provide a new international distribution outlet to Italian cinema often sold by French outfits such as Newen Connect, which is the international distributor for Berlinale competition title “Another End” by Italy’s Piero Messina and starring Gael Garcia Bernal.
Rai Cinema, which invests up to €80 million ($85 million) a year in production, is the main driver of Italian indie cinema, with a hand in roughly 60 feature films a year. But Del Brocco underlined that they have no intention of imposing themselves as...
The nascent sales company — which is called Rai Cinema International Distribution — aims to fill a gap within Rai’s content sales force given that Rai’s existing Rai Com sales unit is “mostly dedicated to TV product,” said Rai Cinema CEO Paolo Del Brocco.
It will also provide a new international distribution outlet to Italian cinema often sold by French outfits such as Newen Connect, which is the international distributor for Berlinale competition title “Another End” by Italy’s Piero Messina and starring Gael Garcia Bernal.
Rai Cinema, which invests up to €80 million ($85 million) a year in production, is the main driver of Italian indie cinema, with a hand in roughly 60 feature films a year. But Del Brocco underlined that they have no intention of imposing themselves as...
- 2/14/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.