We'll get to see him on screen for the very first time when Netflix releases "Beasts of No Nation" on Friday, October 16, 2015 worldwide on Netflix, and on the same day in select USA theaters. And as was the case for recent child stars making their acting debuts in rather high profile projects (or at least, projects that went on to become high profile), like Quvenzhané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild" (coincidentally, another film with the word "Beasts" in its title, starring a black child actor), and Rachel Mwanza in "War Witch," I wonder what Abraham Attah's future as an actor, after "Beasts of No Nation," will...
- 9/8/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
As usual... These aren't necessarily recommendations. Consider the list more of an Fyi - films we've talked about on this site, at one time or another, that are now streaming on Netflix, that you might want to check out for yourselves. Without further ado, here's this week's list of 5: 1 - The harrowing, yet beautiful tale of courage and resiliency, otherwise known as War Witch, which was an S&A favorite last year, and which was Canada's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (the filmmaker is Canadian, even though the film is set in the Congo). Directed by Kim Nguyen, the Congo-set tale saw its star, newcomer Rachel Mwanza, win the prestigious...
- 9/25/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Exclusive: Montreal–based producers Pierre Even and Marie-Claude Poulin are back in business with Kim Nguyen after their collaboration on this year’s Canadian Oscar nominee War Witch.
The Item 7 principals are putting together Origin Of The World as an international co-production and are out to casting with an eye on a first quarter 2014 start.
French-Canadian Nguyen will direct from his screenplay, which is conceived as a triptych and centres on the plight of women in India, the Middle East and North America.
Congo-set War Witch (Rebelle) earned a best foreign language Oscar nomination earlier this year and won 10 Canadian Genie awards including best film, director and screenplay as well as actress for Rachel Mwanza.
Films Distribution handled international sales and Mongrel Media distributed in Canada.
The Item 7 principals are putting together Origin Of The World as an international co-production and are out to casting with an eye on a first quarter 2014 start.
French-Canadian Nguyen will direct from his screenplay, which is conceived as a triptych and centres on the plight of women in India, the Middle East and North America.
Congo-set War Witch (Rebelle) earned a best foreign language Oscar nomination earlier this year and won 10 Canadian Genie awards including best film, director and screenplay as well as actress for Rachel Mwanza.
Films Distribution handled international sales and Mongrel Media distributed in Canada.
- 9/3/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011, the movie War Witch spins the tale of Komona (new actress Rachel Mwanza, who won a few awards for this role), a young girl abducted at the age of 12 by rebels during an attack on her village. The film is narrated by Komona, telling the story of her past two years to her unborn child.
After she is forced by the rebels to commit atrocious acts, Komona comes to be valued and esteemed for her intuition and preternatural ability. The "milk" the fighters drink causes her to see visions, ghosts of the dead. Still, amid Komona's horrific situation, we see small glimmers of hope in her budding relationship with a fellow child soldier, a search for a white rooster, and her ingenuity.
Writer/director Kim Nguyen's film is made up of memorable, haunting imagery and subtle, powerful performances (especially from Mwanza) that keep it grounded.
After she is forced by the rebels to commit atrocious acts, Komona comes to be valued and esteemed for her intuition and preternatural ability. The "milk" the fighters drink causes her to see visions, ghosts of the dead. Still, amid Komona's horrific situation, we see small glimmers of hope in her budding relationship with a fellow child soldier, a search for a white rooster, and her ingenuity.
Writer/director Kim Nguyen's film is made up of memorable, haunting imagery and subtle, powerful performances (especially from Mwanza) that keep it grounded.
- 3/28/2013
- by Elizabeth Stoddard
- Slackerwood
War Witch
Directed by Kim Nguyen
Written by Kim Nguyen
Canada, 2012
The new film War Witch, Canada’s submission into the Best Foreign Language Film category in this past year’s Oscars (and one of the eventual nominees, though it lost to Amour), sidesteps a number of the pitfalls that crop up when any filmmaker tackles a difficult social issue. Over the last decade, the Western world has become more aware of the epidemic in Third World countries of child soldiers, the backdrop of War Witch, otherwise known as Rebelle in its native Quebec. What writer/director Kim Nguyen is able to achieve is a simple, effective, powerful, yet never preachy tale of what it’s like to be one of those soldiers. This film is unflinching, unwilling to look away from the day-to-day atrocities taking place in Africa.
Rachel Mwanza plays Komona, a 12-year old girl who, one day,...
Directed by Kim Nguyen
Written by Kim Nguyen
Canada, 2012
The new film War Witch, Canada’s submission into the Best Foreign Language Film category in this past year’s Oscars (and one of the eventual nominees, though it lost to Amour), sidesteps a number of the pitfalls that crop up when any filmmaker tackles a difficult social issue. Over the last decade, the Western world has become more aware of the epidemic in Third World countries of child soldiers, the backdrop of War Witch, otherwise known as Rebelle in its native Quebec. What writer/director Kim Nguyen is able to achieve is a simple, effective, powerful, yet never preachy tale of what it’s like to be one of those soldiers. This film is unflinching, unwilling to look away from the day-to-day atrocities taking place in Africa.
Rachel Mwanza plays Komona, a 12-year old girl who, one day,...
- 3/22/2013
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – If last year’s group of Best Picture nominees are any indication, American filmmakers seem convinced that in order for their work to be taken seriously, it has to be super-long. I understand why a picture like “Lincoln” would have an epic scope, but did disposable novelties like “Django Unchained” and “The Hobbit: Vol. 1” really have to clock in around three hours?
Rating: 5.0/5.0
With a running time of exactly 90 minutes (including credits), Kim Nguyen’s “War Witch” has triple the impact of films twice its length. It was one of four nominees in the Best Foreign Film category doomed to be overshadowed by “Amour,” the only film most moviegoers actually had the chance to see in 2012. Now that Nguyen’s film has finally opened in the U.S., it will easily rank alongside the very best films of 2013. It’s a masterpiece.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of...
Rating: 5.0/5.0
With a running time of exactly 90 minutes (including credits), Kim Nguyen’s “War Witch” has triple the impact of films twice its length. It was one of four nominees in the Best Foreign Film category doomed to be overshadowed by “Amour,” the only film most moviegoers actually had the chance to see in 2012. Now that Nguyen’s film has finally opened in the U.S., it will easily rank alongside the very best films of 2013. It’s a masterpiece.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of...
- 3/21/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
This Berlin flew by! A good overview is that of Screen Daily and if we're lucky, you can read it here without subscribing. My own activities flowed from two sources:
1) Education: I taught and led tours of the market for Berlinale's Talent Campus Meet the Experts, for Deutsche Welle Akademie Film Festival Workshop, and for Ina Sup, a TV, film and new media school based in France and linked to the French National Audiovisual Institute (Ina). This is the most rewarding work, seeing what talent is coming up in our world, seeing ideas take hold as the students learn about the market.
2) Our Consulting: Another pillar of our company, aside from blogging and professional education, is strategic planning with filmmakers. This Berlinale was very intense and very energizing for my partner Peter Belsito and me, with Beyond the Moonwalk having found a berth for international sales representation with Steve Arroyave's Arrow Entertainment and a U.S. distribution commitment, and more actively involving, with Donna Deitch's The Catcher, where a series of meetings with top German and Canadian producers and sales agents gave the project the momentum of a race horse bound for first place!
What follows are my impressions of various other Berlin events as they passed by -- ever so quickly -- but still with enough eye-catching power to capture my attention in the first place.
I was happy to see Jeff Lipsky and Adopt Films' co-managing executive Tim Grady cleaning up with 3 acquisitions; no time to waste anymore as the third Bingham Ray memorial pointed out to those who have the mind to realize the message. Sister (L'enfant d'en haut) by Ursula Maier (Isa: Memento, Swiss rights with FilmCoopi), I hear is A+, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire) (Isa: Rai Trade) won the Golden Bear, and Chris Petzold's Barbara, all in Competition.
American indie works-in-progress have been granted a second chance to screen for European indie distributors (EuropaDistribution) at the upcoming Paris Film Festival in June. I have been invited to be on the jury of "U.S. in Progress" and am thrilled at the prospect. I was honored to have been invited to be on the jury in Wroclaw at the American Film Festival in November as well, for the first edition of this chance for U.S. filmmakers to win post-production and cash prizes. This is where the film Now, Forager was picked up by fledgling international sales agent, the only international sales agent in Poland, New Europe Sales founded by Jan Naszewski [jnaszewski At gmail.com] and Anja Sosic [anja At NewEuropeFilmSales.com]. The film went on to screen at Rotterdam Film Festival. Even hotter news will be forthcoming from Moma and The New York Film Society's New Directors/ New Films about one of the films at the Aff's "U.S. in Progress". If you missed it in Poland you will be able to see it in New York this April!
I was lucky to see two films during the market and after the market closed, this last Saturday and Sunday, when I caught some more films I was unable to see earlier due to my "real" work. Of the films I saw here in Berlin, here are my unique :) comments for what they're worth.
Children of Srikandi (Panorama) is a very personal account by a female filmmaker collective in Indonesia on what it means to be a lesbian in their society. The sweet intimacy of the film overrides its non-professional veneer (the "filmmakers" were all non-professionals). In fact, this could serve as a template for other non-professionals who want to tell their stories. Schools come to mind as possible candidates for this sort of filmmaking, as does my own pet project, The Literacy Project. The Indonesian contingent here in Berlin was interesting and sociable as they met their audience and fans. They were hosted by Berlin based producers Laura Coppens who is a doctorate student in ethnological studies in Zurich and Angelika Levi, doc filmmaker (My Life, Part 2 about growing up Jewish in Berlin).
Bergman & Magnani: The War of the Volcanos. This invitation-only work in progress with Wide House uses a unique way to show the emotion filled and the biggest jet-set love scandal of all times, the story of Roberto Rossellini, Anna Magnani and Ingrid Bergman as Rosellini and the volcanic Anna Magnani ended their relationship after making Volcano (1950) and the married Ingrid Bergman and Rossellini began theirs with the filming of Stromboli (1950), the name of the second volcano on this Aeolian Island which has been in almost continuous eruption for 2,000 years. The visuals of their stories are illustrated entirely with the scenes from movies starring them as they enact the real life emotions and the commentary of the doc. I am most interested to see how well this technique succeeds.
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Caesar Must Die (Isa: Rai Trade) is a moving illustration of the transformative power of art as hardened criminals in an Italian prison rehearse and perform Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The the 80 + year old Brothers Taviani deserve recognition for their artistic excellence. I can't argue with Mike Leigh and the jury's judgement except that on my emotional meter, Rebelle (War Witch) was the real winner.
Rebelle (War Witch) by Kim Nguyen (Isa: Films Distribution) should have won the Golden Bear. The Silver Bear for Best Actress was awarded to Rachel Mwanza, but this film is so deeply moving on the most primal levels, maintaining its African roots while touching our most sensitive emotions of parents, love, rape, pregnancy and infants as they are experienced by a female child soldier from ages 12 to 14. It should also win Best Foreign Language Film in next year's Academy Awards. Produced by the industry vets Marie-Claude Poulin and Pierre Even, it is yet another feather in the cap of the the Canadian film industry.
Dieter Kosslick observed that with 15 Competition titles confirmed at the time Screen International interviewed him, “both thematically and geographically, we have many films coming this year from Asia, and particularly China and Indonesia. There is also an interesting focus on France this year, beginning with the opening film Farewell My Queen (Les adieux a la reine) (Isa: Elle Driver) and going through all of the festival’s sections. Moreover, we have two French jury members [Francois Ozon and Charlotte Gainsbourg] in the International Jury.“ Eight titles selected to date have German majority or minority participation, so German filmmakers and (co-)producers will again enjoy a record presence in the Competition on a par with 2011’s tally of eight films involving German directors or German production partners." He also notes Competition films' trending toward "times of upheaval and new departures... with many films coming from Africa and Arab countries". My observation of the 23 Competition films finally selected is that the nostalgic look back at European aristocracy and top social tiers (A Royal Affair, Bel Ami, Farewell My Queen) and its mores stands in stark contrast to today's upheavals of families and children (Childish Games, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Postcards from the Zoo, Just the Wind, Mercy, Shadow Dancer, Sister, Rebelle, Home for the Weekend, Jayne Mansfield's Car, Coming Home). Seven other films continue the theme of social upheavals: Tey - which deal with childhood memories of Senegal experienced by an American, Captive about Phillipine hostages, Barbara an Eastern German looking to move to the West, Caesar Must Die about prisoners finding art in their sequestered lives, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate about upheavel during the Ming Dynasty, White Deer Plain about upheavel towards the end of Imperial China, The Flowers of War about the upheavel of China by the Japanese in World War II. The exceptions, Tabu and Meteora, deal with love, the Saving Grace.
Two major disappointments were Steven Soderberg's Haywire (Isa: Mandate) and Stephen Elliott's Cherry. Both about women, they left me puzzled with what the plot was about. Pretty, well done and negligible.
This Berlin Diary Part 2 will continue after I work on my new and soon-to-be launched website! I have spent an entire day on this blog and I still have much more to write!
1) Education: I taught and led tours of the market for Berlinale's Talent Campus Meet the Experts, for Deutsche Welle Akademie Film Festival Workshop, and for Ina Sup, a TV, film and new media school based in France and linked to the French National Audiovisual Institute (Ina). This is the most rewarding work, seeing what talent is coming up in our world, seeing ideas take hold as the students learn about the market.
2) Our Consulting: Another pillar of our company, aside from blogging and professional education, is strategic planning with filmmakers. This Berlinale was very intense and very energizing for my partner Peter Belsito and me, with Beyond the Moonwalk having found a berth for international sales representation with Steve Arroyave's Arrow Entertainment and a U.S. distribution commitment, and more actively involving, with Donna Deitch's The Catcher, where a series of meetings with top German and Canadian producers and sales agents gave the project the momentum of a race horse bound for first place!
What follows are my impressions of various other Berlin events as they passed by -- ever so quickly -- but still with enough eye-catching power to capture my attention in the first place.
I was happy to see Jeff Lipsky and Adopt Films' co-managing executive Tim Grady cleaning up with 3 acquisitions; no time to waste anymore as the third Bingham Ray memorial pointed out to those who have the mind to realize the message. Sister (L'enfant d'en haut) by Ursula Maier (Isa: Memento, Swiss rights with FilmCoopi), I hear is A+, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire) (Isa: Rai Trade) won the Golden Bear, and Chris Petzold's Barbara, all in Competition.
American indie works-in-progress have been granted a second chance to screen for European indie distributors (EuropaDistribution) at the upcoming Paris Film Festival in June. I have been invited to be on the jury of "U.S. in Progress" and am thrilled at the prospect. I was honored to have been invited to be on the jury in Wroclaw at the American Film Festival in November as well, for the first edition of this chance for U.S. filmmakers to win post-production and cash prizes. This is where the film Now, Forager was picked up by fledgling international sales agent, the only international sales agent in Poland, New Europe Sales founded by Jan Naszewski [jnaszewski At gmail.com] and Anja Sosic [anja At NewEuropeFilmSales.com]. The film went on to screen at Rotterdam Film Festival. Even hotter news will be forthcoming from Moma and The New York Film Society's New Directors/ New Films about one of the films at the Aff's "U.S. in Progress". If you missed it in Poland you will be able to see it in New York this April!
I was lucky to see two films during the market and after the market closed, this last Saturday and Sunday, when I caught some more films I was unable to see earlier due to my "real" work. Of the films I saw here in Berlin, here are my unique :) comments for what they're worth.
Children of Srikandi (Panorama) is a very personal account by a female filmmaker collective in Indonesia on what it means to be a lesbian in their society. The sweet intimacy of the film overrides its non-professional veneer (the "filmmakers" were all non-professionals). In fact, this could serve as a template for other non-professionals who want to tell their stories. Schools come to mind as possible candidates for this sort of filmmaking, as does my own pet project, The Literacy Project. The Indonesian contingent here in Berlin was interesting and sociable as they met their audience and fans. They were hosted by Berlin based producers Laura Coppens who is a doctorate student in ethnological studies in Zurich and Angelika Levi, doc filmmaker (My Life, Part 2 about growing up Jewish in Berlin).
Bergman & Magnani: The War of the Volcanos. This invitation-only work in progress with Wide House uses a unique way to show the emotion filled and the biggest jet-set love scandal of all times, the story of Roberto Rossellini, Anna Magnani and Ingrid Bergman as Rosellini and the volcanic Anna Magnani ended their relationship after making Volcano (1950) and the married Ingrid Bergman and Rossellini began theirs with the filming of Stromboli (1950), the name of the second volcano on this Aeolian Island which has been in almost continuous eruption for 2,000 years. The visuals of their stories are illustrated entirely with the scenes from movies starring them as they enact the real life emotions and the commentary of the doc. I am most interested to see how well this technique succeeds.
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Caesar Must Die (Isa: Rai Trade) is a moving illustration of the transformative power of art as hardened criminals in an Italian prison rehearse and perform Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The the 80 + year old Brothers Taviani deserve recognition for their artistic excellence. I can't argue with Mike Leigh and the jury's judgement except that on my emotional meter, Rebelle (War Witch) was the real winner.
Rebelle (War Witch) by Kim Nguyen (Isa: Films Distribution) should have won the Golden Bear. The Silver Bear for Best Actress was awarded to Rachel Mwanza, but this film is so deeply moving on the most primal levels, maintaining its African roots while touching our most sensitive emotions of parents, love, rape, pregnancy and infants as they are experienced by a female child soldier from ages 12 to 14. It should also win Best Foreign Language Film in next year's Academy Awards. Produced by the industry vets Marie-Claude Poulin and Pierre Even, it is yet another feather in the cap of the the Canadian film industry.
Dieter Kosslick observed that with 15 Competition titles confirmed at the time Screen International interviewed him, “both thematically and geographically, we have many films coming this year from Asia, and particularly China and Indonesia. There is also an interesting focus on France this year, beginning with the opening film Farewell My Queen (Les adieux a la reine) (Isa: Elle Driver) and going through all of the festival’s sections. Moreover, we have two French jury members [Francois Ozon and Charlotte Gainsbourg] in the International Jury.“ Eight titles selected to date have German majority or minority participation, so German filmmakers and (co-)producers will again enjoy a record presence in the Competition on a par with 2011’s tally of eight films involving German directors or German production partners." He also notes Competition films' trending toward "times of upheaval and new departures... with many films coming from Africa and Arab countries". My observation of the 23 Competition films finally selected is that the nostalgic look back at European aristocracy and top social tiers (A Royal Affair, Bel Ami, Farewell My Queen) and its mores stands in stark contrast to today's upheavals of families and children (Childish Games, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Postcards from the Zoo, Just the Wind, Mercy, Shadow Dancer, Sister, Rebelle, Home for the Weekend, Jayne Mansfield's Car, Coming Home). Seven other films continue the theme of social upheavals: Tey - which deal with childhood memories of Senegal experienced by an American, Captive about Phillipine hostages, Barbara an Eastern German looking to move to the West, Caesar Must Die about prisoners finding art in their sequestered lives, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate about upheavel during the Ming Dynasty, White Deer Plain about upheavel towards the end of Imperial China, The Flowers of War about the upheavel of China by the Japanese in World War II. The exceptions, Tabu and Meteora, deal with love, the Saving Grace.
Two major disappointments were Steven Soderberg's Haywire (Isa: Mandate) and Stephen Elliott's Cherry. Both about women, they left me puzzled with what the plot was about. Pretty, well done and negligible.
This Berlin Diary Part 2 will continue after I work on my new and soon-to-be launched website! I have spent an entire day on this blog and I still have much more to write!
- 3/10/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Fresh from last week's Oscar ceremony, War Witch, the harrowing film about the struggles of a girl forced to become a child soldier, received multiple honors at the first annual Canadian Screen Awards, hosted by Martin Short. Shot on location in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, War Witch is a remarkable film that has been well respected on the awards circuit, both domestically and internationally. Playing at such renowned festivals as the Toronto International Film Festival, The AFI Festival, and our own Tribeca Film Festival, War Witch garnered its first important prize at the Berlin International Film Festival where Rachel Mwanza received the coveted Silver Bear for Best Actress. Given that War Witch was nominated both for Best International Film at the Independent Spirit Awards and Best Foreign Language Feature at the Academy Awards, its cast and crew (including Mwanza, who secured a travel visa at the last minute...
- 3/4/2013
- TribecaFilm.com
Congratulations to director Kim Nguyen, star Rachel Mwanza, and the rest of the crew and cast that made War Witch (Rebelle) possible! The film picked up 10 trophies at the The Canadian Screen Awards (Les prix Écrans Canadiens) this evening - awards given annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television recognizing excellence in Canadian film, TV, and digital media productions. What's even more impressive is that the War Witch (which lost the Best Foreign Language Oscar to Austria’s Amour last week) was nominated in 12 categories. So while it wasn't quite a clean sweep, 10 out of 12 certainly isn't anything to sneeze at! The 10 wins include nods in major categories like best...
- 3/4/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Toronto -- Quebec director Kim Nguyen's Congo child-soldier drama War Witch swept the inaugural Canadian Screen Awards on Sunday night. The Oscar contender, which came into the Canadian film and TV awards with a field-leading 12 nominations, took top prizes for best film, director, best actress for Rachel Mwanza and best supporting actor for Serge Kayinda. The Canadian Screen Awards, which aired on the CBC network, were hosted by Martin Short, who kept the show lively with jokes like this: "I flew in on Air Canada, or as Ben Affleck calls it, American Airlines. (That, of course, refers to
read more...
read more...
- 3/4/2013
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Though at this year’s Academy Awards foreign language favourite (and ultimate winner) Amour overshadowed many of the other contenders, the slate proved to be both accessible and ultimately strong, not to mention thoroughly distinctive. Canada’s official entry, War Witch, (interestingly from a Vietnamese/Quebecois director named Kim Nguyen and set in Africa) like the others, never had much of a chance to take home the prize, but still proves to be a unique if sometimes ideologically flawed film.
Ultimately it’s the whimsical and ethereal elements of Nguyen’s effort that stand as the distinguishing features (which set it aside from other movies chronicling war torn Africa) but also as the problematic aspects, which threaten to offensively dim the grim nature of these horrific, still-raging conflicts.
Beginning at an unimposing, poverty-stricken African village, a 12 year old girl named Komona (newcomer Rachel Mwanza) is soon to learn the realities of her country.
Ultimately it’s the whimsical and ethereal elements of Nguyen’s effort that stand as the distinguishing features (which set it aside from other movies chronicling war torn Africa) but also as the problematic aspects, which threaten to offensively dim the grim nature of these horrific, still-raging conflicts.
Beginning at an unimposing, poverty-stricken African village, a 12 year old girl named Komona (newcomer Rachel Mwanza) is soon to learn the realities of her country.
- 3/2/2013
- by Simon Brookfield
- We Got This Covered
We've got official theatrical playdates for Kim Nguyen's Oscar-nominated (Best Foreign Language Film) Congo-set drama War Witch or Rebelle, an S&A 2012 Highlight selection, which stars Rachel Mwanza. The film is about a young Congolese girl and child soldier named Komona (played by Mwanza, who won a Best Actress Award at Berlin for her performance), her fight for survival and struggle to find some normalcy and peace in her life. The multi-award-winning film is now finally get a theatrical release through Tribeca Film, starting, today, March 1, in New York, and expanding to other markets through June. It's a film...
- 3/1/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
French-Canadian director Kim Nguyen's coming-of-age drama "War Witch" was one of the five nominees for the 2013 Foreign-Language Oscar. The film tells the harrowing yet poignant story of a young African girl abducted into a rebel army, and her brave journey to free herself from the army's clutches. (Here's the iTunes trailer.) Nguyen's fourth feature, the film first appeared at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and 15-year-old lead actress Rachel Mwanza won the Silver Bear for her performance. It has since been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and won a National Board of Review prize as one of 2012's Top Five Foreign-Language Films. Beth Hanna: This is the second narrative film ever to be shot in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. What about the area appealed to you? Kim Nguyen: We went to Cameroon, and we went to Kenya.
- 2/28/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
“War Witch,” Canada’s Oscar-nominated Foreign-Language entry, centers on a young African girl’s abduction into a rebel army, her escape, and the slow, painful process of liberating herself from the army’s traumatic, devastating reach. It is directed by French-Canadian Kim Nguyen, and is the second feature film in history to be shot in Kinshasa of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rachel Mwanza won the Berlin Silver Bear for her role as Komona. When we first meet her, she is 12 years old. Komona narrates in voiceover to her unborn baby, telling how she was forced to kill her parents, and was then unceremoniously kidnapped into training to be a child soldier for the Drc’s rebel army. Upon her first fighting mission in the jungle, she sees the ghosts of her dead parents (brilliantly, simply costumed with white body paint and frosted contacts), who warn her of enemy soldiers ahead.
- 2/28/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Best Foreign Language Film nominee War Witch (aka Rebelle) is the story of a young girl kidnapped by a rebel army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and forced into becoming a child soldier. Yet, despite the moral simplicity we often expect from the Oscars, it is not a film designed to make you weep and rally around a cause. I would argue that that film doesn’t exist, hasn’t existed, but that’s a conversation for another day. War Witch is not the long form cinematic equivalent of “Kony 2012” either. It is, rather, a beautifully wrought tale of humanity that is much more focused on its own characters than it is on your tears. If anything, Kim Nguyen’s Oscar-nominated feature has more in common with an adventure novel than any human rights campaign video. War Witch is three years in the life of a young girl, whose...
- 2/28/2013
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
We'll wrap up the Oscar coverage this afternoon with the final podcast in a bit, but for now, please to enjoy some more beautiful dresses that I'll remember forever... (aka until the next awards show several months from now).
Nicki, Halle, Zeéeeee, Czj, & Charlize
poll by twiigs.com
Did you notice the gold, silver, black & white theme this year. A huge batch of former Oscar winning goddesses and the new Best Actress looked like they'd coordinated their outfits.
Bond GIrl, Cannes Fashion Plate, Captain Kirk, Marcia Gay, Jane
Yikes with that slit Naomie Harris. Carefully of your stride. Who invited Fan Bingbing? (No offense but she is at every high fashion movie event and isn't it hard to get tickets to the Oscars?). Is it too much to ask that Marcia Gay Harden and Jane Fonda get another Oscar caliber role soon? It feels like forever since...
Olivia Munn, Jgl,...
Nicki, Halle, Zeéeeee, Czj, & Charlize
poll by twiigs.com
Did you notice the gold, silver, black & white theme this year. A huge batch of former Oscar winning goddesses and the new Best Actress looked like they'd coordinated their outfits.
Bond GIrl, Cannes Fashion Plate, Captain Kirk, Marcia Gay, Jane
Yikes with that slit Naomie Harris. Carefully of your stride. Who invited Fan Bingbing? (No offense but she is at every high fashion movie event and isn't it hard to get tickets to the Oscars?). Is it too much to ask that Marcia Gay Harden and Jane Fonda get another Oscar caliber role soon? It feels like forever since...
Olivia Munn, Jgl,...
- 2/28/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Kim Nguyen's Oscar-nominated (Best Foreign Language Film) Congo-set drama War Witch or Rebelle, an S&A 2012 Highlight selection, which stars Rachel Mwanza, will see a theatrical release through Tribeca Film, starting in New York this Friday, March 1 2013, and expanding to other markets through June. The film is about a young Congolese girl and child soldier named Komona (played by Mwanza, who won a Best Actress Award at Berlin for her performance), her fight for survival and struggle to find some normalcy and peace in her life. As director Nguyen describes it, the film is essentially a love story set in a time of war. ...
- 2/28/2013
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
Before any political or societal context enters the brutal cinematic depictions seen in “Come and See” and “City of God,” each effort can first speak clearly enough from the image of a child holding a firearm. Gawky, nervous, and with an expression of terrified power, the isolated sight holds many questions to a decayed rationality and natural order, but as Canadian director Kim Nguyen shows within his searing look at African child soldiers, “War Witch," those two aspects are the first to be excised in warfare. Blending a surrealist perspective of battle-tinged faith with the harrowing tale of one girl's resilience, the film is a laser-focused fable threatened occasionally by its drifts into character shorthand, but equaled by a wrenching lead performance by Rachel Mwanza that results in one of the finest of the year. As clear and evocative a picture of Sub-Saharan Africa that Nguyen paints, the film (only...
- 2/27/2013
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
Hannah Arendt coined "banality of evil" while watching Nazis on trial, and Canadian writer/director Kim Nguyen's War Witch inspires a similar phrase: the abruptness of atrocity. In War Witch a kid playing with a wooden beam one moment might be forced to kill her parents the next. For Komona (Rachel Mwanza), the film's resourceful adolescent heroine, horror comes and goes as it pleases. Forced to become a child soldier in a war against the government of her unspecified African country, Komona receives a ghostly vision enabling her to survive an ambush—which suggests to the rebels that she is a "war witch." That's only the beginning of her arduous journey toward adulthood, which will crucially turn on a romance with another child soldier (Serge Kanyinda). Refreshingly...
- 2/27/2013
- Village Voice
The 85th Annual Academy Awards landed in Los Angeles on Sunday, with "Amour" taking the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Michael Haneke's "Amour" was the slight favorite in pre-awards speculation. The movie, which tells the emotionally fraught tale of an elderly couple coping with stroke and paralysis, was nominated in foru additional categories: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Emanuelle Riva) and Best Director for Haneke. Joining "Amour" (Austria) as nominees for Best Foreign Film were "Kon-Tiki" (Norway), "No" (Chile), "A Royal Affair" (Denmark) and "War Witch" (Canada).
Sixteen-year-old Congolese "War Witch" star Rachel Mwanza was granted a last-minute visa to attend the Oscars.
Last year's award in this category went to Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation," Iran's first-ever Oscar.
Seth MacFarlane hosted this year's Academy Awards from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. The jam-packed broadcast included a tribute to James Bond and performances from "Les Miserables,...
Michael Haneke's "Amour" was the slight favorite in pre-awards speculation. The movie, which tells the emotionally fraught tale of an elderly couple coping with stroke and paralysis, was nominated in foru additional categories: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Emanuelle Riva) and Best Director for Haneke. Joining "Amour" (Austria) as nominees for Best Foreign Film were "Kon-Tiki" (Norway), "No" (Chile), "A Royal Affair" (Denmark) and "War Witch" (Canada).
Sixteen-year-old Congolese "War Witch" star Rachel Mwanza was granted a last-minute visa to attend the Oscars.
Last year's award in this category went to Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation," Iran's first-ever Oscar.
Seth MacFarlane hosted this year's Academy Awards from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. The jam-packed broadcast included a tribute to James Bond and performances from "Les Miserables,...
- 2/25/2013
- by Kia Makarechi
- Huffington Post
Sure, Jennifer Lawrence, Steven Spielberg and George Clooney will be attending the Oscars on Sunday. But how about this for an inspirational trio: Somali refugees Harun and Ali Mohamed from "Asad" and Congolese actress Rachel Mwanza from "War Witch." Mwanza, the 16-year-old star of Kim Nguyen's Foreign Language Oscar nominee "War Witch," has just been granted a visa to travel from the Congo to attend awards shows in North America. The film is a nominee at both the Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards this weekend and is nominated for...
- 2/23/2013
- by Lucas Shaw
- The Wrap
War Witch
Directed by Kim Nguyen
Written by Kim Nguyen
Canada/2012
War Witch is a rightfully involving, if slightly familiar African dispatch from Canadian filmmaker Kim Nguyen. It has already earned itself a best foreign language film nomination at this year’s Academy Awards and represents a bold new Canadian voice in director Kim Nguyen. The film follows 14-year-old Komona (Rachel Mwanza), who as the story begins tells her unborn child inside of her the story of her life since she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12. As endless wars in Africa wage on, War Witch succeeds in presenting an apt and lyrical depiction of feminine strength and survival. The narrative often sidesteps melodrama in favor of a flickering search for hope in a country ravaged by its own homegrown savagery.
While captured, Komona and her fellow captors (all around the same age) are told to...
Directed by Kim Nguyen
Written by Kim Nguyen
Canada/2012
War Witch is a rightfully involving, if slightly familiar African dispatch from Canadian filmmaker Kim Nguyen. It has already earned itself a best foreign language film nomination at this year’s Academy Awards and represents a bold new Canadian voice in director Kim Nguyen. The film follows 14-year-old Komona (Rachel Mwanza), who as the story begins tells her unborn child inside of her the story of her life since she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12. As endless wars in Africa wage on, War Witch succeeds in presenting an apt and lyrical depiction of feminine strength and survival. The narrative often sidesteps melodrama in favor of a flickering search for hope in a country ravaged by its own homegrown savagery.
While captured, Komona and her fellow captors (all around the same age) are told to...
- 2/22/2013
- by Ty Landis
- SoundOnSight
On the heels of this week's announcement that Rachel Mwanza, star of Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, War Witch (Rebelle), was granted a visa to come to the USA and attend the Oscars event, comes this piece of news for another Oscar-nominated film centered around a story about black Africans... by the way, the film, Asad is currently available on iTunes if you'd like to see it: 22 February 2013: After narrowly winning a race against time to get extended refugee status, passports and visas, brothers Harun and Ali Mohammed are flying from Cape Town to Hollywood today for Sunday’s Academy Awards, where their film Asad will compete in the Best Short Film...
- 2/22/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Congolese actress Rachel Mwanza has been granted a Us visa to attend this year's Academy Awards.
The 16-year-old is the main star of War Witch, a film about child soldiers in Africa, which is the Canadian submission in the foreign language film category.
She was cast by Montreal director Kim Nguyen despite no previous acting experience.
Mwanza was later named 'Best Actress' at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals for her role of Komona in the film, also known under its French title Rebelle.
"Abandoned by her family and living on the streets as a child, her life has been transformed by the making of the film," Nguyen said in a statement.
"To have her journey end on the red carpet is beyond anything she could have dreamed of."
The producers of War Witch are also attempting to arrange a meeting between Mwanza and her idol Beyoncé, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The 16-year-old is the main star of War Witch, a film about child soldiers in Africa, which is the Canadian submission in the foreign language film category.
She was cast by Montreal director Kim Nguyen despite no previous acting experience.
Mwanza was later named 'Best Actress' at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals for her role of Komona in the film, also known under its French title Rebelle.
"Abandoned by her family and living on the streets as a child, her life has been transformed by the making of the film," Nguyen said in a statement.
"To have her journey end on the red carpet is beyond anything she could have dreamed of."
The producers of War Witch are also attempting to arrange a meeting between Mwanza and her idol Beyoncé, according to the Los Angeles Times.
- 2/21/2013
- Digital Spy
‘War Witch’ Actress Granted Visa For Oscars Rachel Mwanza, who won best actress prizes in Berlin and Tribeca last year for her lead performance in War Witch, has been granted a visa to travel from Congo to North America in order to attend the Oscars on Sunday and other awards shows. War Witch is nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Mwanza was a non-pro when she was discovered living on the streets of Kinshasa and was cast in the movie about a 12-year-old girl who is kidnapped by African rebels, forced to kill her parents at gunpoint and then fight as a child soldier against the government. According to Tribeca Film, which acquired War Witch for North America, the filmmakers continue to provide her with a caregiver and oversee her education. The film is directed by Kim Nguyen is also nominated as Best International Film at Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards,...
- 2/21/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Following up on Tambays January post on the efforts by theproducers of the Academy Award nominated (for Best Foreign Language Film) Congolese drama Rebelle (War Witch), to bring the star of the acclaimed film, Rachel Mwanza, to Hollywood for Academy Awards night, since the film is nominated. As Tambay noted in his post, there were some issues with getting Mwanza a USA visa, because American authorities were concerned that she'd remain in the USA illegally, and not return to the Drc, to summarize the entire piece. The Canadia Press (who first reported on the story about Mwanza's visa matters last month) are reporting today that Mwanza will indeed...
- 2/20/2013
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
The Oscars often lure folks across the seas from faraway worlds to the red carpet celebration, from Palestinian Emad Burnat ("5 Broken Cameras"), who was detained at Lax on his way to the Academy Awards show, to 16-year-old Rachel Mwanza, who gives a beautiful, devastating performance in Oscar-nominated foreign entry "War Witch." She has been granted a visa to travel from the Congo to the Us in order to attend both the Oscars and the Independent Spirit Awards. "War Witch" centers on pre-teen Komona (Mwanza) who is abducted by the local rebel army. When the army leaders realize that Komona can see ghosts of fallen soldiers, warning her of when and where the enemy will strike, she is exalted to War Witch status within the ranks. The film is a tale of escape and survival, but also a relatable story of adolescent first love. Congolese Mwanza was discovered on the streets...
- 2/20/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Kim Nguyen's Oscar-nominated (Best Foreign Language Film) Congo-set drama War Witch or Rebelle, an S&A 2012 Highlight selection, which stars Rachel Mwanza, will see a theatrical release through Tribeca Film, starting in New York on March 1 2013, and expanding to other markets through June. The film is about a young Congolese girl and child soldier named Komona (played by Mwanza, who won a Best Actress Award at Berlin for her performance), her fight for survival and struggle to find some normalcy and peace in her life. As director Nguyen describes it, the film is essentially a love story set in a time of war. The...
- 2/15/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
We've got official theatrical playdates, hot off the presses, for Kim Nguyen's Oscar-nominated (Best Foreign Language Film) Congo-set drama War Witch or Rebelle, an S&A 2012 Highlight selection, which stars Rachel Mwanza. The film is about a young Congolese girl and child soldier named Komona (played by Mwanza, who won a Best Actress Award at Berlin for her performance), her fight for survival and struggle to find some normalcy and peace in her life. The multi-award-winning film has already won some film awards this year, and will now finally get a theatrical release through Tribeca Film, starting in New York...
- 2/12/2013
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
You might recall my piece on director Kim Nguyen's struggles in getting financing and distribution for his dream-like, now Academy Award nominated (for Best Foreign Language Film) Congolese drama Rebelle (War Witch), because it stars an urecognizable black lead in young Rachel Mwanza, who gives a wonderfully naturalistic performance (she's a non-professional actor, and was practically living in the streets before she got the part) as 12 year old Komona. And further, with the film enjoying success internationally throughout last year, some wondered whether Mwanza, who returned to the Drc, was seeing any of the rewards that her work in the...
- 1/30/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Today we have the trailer for the upcoming "War Witch" movie, which is nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar (Canada). The new movie premiered at the Berlin and Tribeca film festivals and will now be available on VOD on February 26th. A theatrical release will follow on March 1st. Check out the trailer below. Plot: Komona (Rachel Mwanza) is only 12 years old when she is kidnapped by rebel soldiers and enslaved to a life of guerrilla warfare in the African jungle. Forced to commit unspeakable acts of brutality, she finds hope for survival in protective, ghost-like visions (inspiring a rebel chief to anoint her "War Witch"), and in a tender relationship with a fellow soldier named Magician (Serge Kanyinda). Together, they manage to escape the rebels' clutches, and a normal life finally seems within reach. But after their freedom proves short-lived, Komona realizes she must find a way to...
- 1/30/2013
- WorstPreviews.com
"We are rebels. Respect your guns." One of the Best Foreign Film nominees in this year's Oscars is War Witch, a film about Komona (played by Rachel Mwanza), an African taken and turned into a rebel soldier at age 12. I had seen this on the list of nominees, but wasn't really sure what it was about until watching this trailer, and now I understand why it's on there. This looks incredibly good. Such a great trailer as well, that sets up the tone while showing us just a bit of the story. I love the music and the brief amounts of dialogue, I'm more than intrigued to see this. The Academy Award nomination is just icing on the cake. Take a look! Watch the official Us trailer for Kim Nguyen's War Witch, in high defition from Apple: Komona (Rachel Mwanza) is only 12 years old when she is kidnapped by...
- 1/30/2013
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
While Beasts of the Southern Wild and its pint-sized star Quvenzhané Wallis have been drawing notice Stateside, there's another daring feature about a young impoverished girl left to her own devices that has won praise here and abroad. War Witch premiered at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival last February. There, its young ingénue Rachel Mwanza won the Silver Berlin Bear, and the drama went on to draw acclaim as it toured the festival circuit through the fall. Then came the Academy Award nominations, where the drama won a coveted spot in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Written and directed by Kim Nguyen, War Witch centers on the story of Komona (Mwanza), a 12-year-old native of Sub-Saharan Africa. One day, her peaceful life is disrupted when rebels invade her village, slaughtering many residents and kidnapping others. Abducted and forced to join their troups, Komona builds a mystique by ...
- 1/29/2013
- cinemablend.com
Geneviève Bujold is back: Canadian Screen Awards 2013 [See previous post: "Canadian Screen Awards: Oscar-Nominated War Witch Tops."] In addition to War Witch‘s Rachel Mwanza, the Canadian Screen Awards 2013 Best Actress nominees are Evelyne Brochu for Inch’allah, Marilyn Castonguay for L’Affaire Dumont, Suzanne Clément for Laurence Anyways, and Geneviève Bujold for Still Mine. In the Michael McGowan-directed drama based on real-life events, the veteran Bujold plays farmer James Cromwell tough-but-ailing wife whose physical frailty sets in motion the film’s plot: Cromwell’s desire to build a better, more comfortable house for Bujold pits him against government inspector Jonathan Potts. (Photo: Geneviève Bujold, James Cromwell Still Mine.) The Montreal-born Geneviève Bujold is best known for her Hollywood movies: Charles Jarrott’s Best Picture Academy Award nominee Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), which earned Bujold a Best Actress Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Anne Boleyn; Mark Robson’s Earthquake, playing Charlton Heston...
- 1/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Canadian Screen Awards 2013 nominations: War Witch rules The Genie Awards are dead, long live the Canadian Screen Awards! Well, in truth, the Genie Awards aren’t exactly dead; they’ve just been transmogrified, along with Canadian television’s Gemini Awards, into the aforementioned Canadian Screen Awards, organized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. But Genie or Canadian Screen, once again a Québécois production dominates the nominations roster. (Photo: Rachel Mwanza in Kim Nguyen’s War Witch.) Kim Nguyen’s Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominee Rebelle / War Witch, the story of a (very) young African rebel fighter, received a total of 12 Canadian Screen Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Berlin Film Festival’s Best Actress Rachel Mwanza), Best Supporting Actor (Serge Kanyinda), and Best Original Screenplay (Nguyen). War Witch follows in the heels of recent Quebec-made Genie Award powerhouses and eventual Best Picture winners such...
- 1/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The power and influence of foreign film has never been more apparent in recent memory when it comes to the Oscars than this year, with Michael Haneke’s beautifully frank French-language look at aging, Amour, being nominated for both best picture and best foreign language film, best director, best actress, and best original screenplay.
Other nominated movies announced Thursday morning in the best foreign language film category for the 85th annual Academy Awards, airing live on ABC Feb. 24, range from Norway’s watery expedition adventure Kon-Tiki to fellow Scandinavian country Denmark’s A Royal Affair, an 18th century set royals drama,...
Other nominated movies announced Thursday morning in the best foreign language film category for the 85th annual Academy Awards, airing live on ABC Feb. 24, range from Norway’s watery expedition adventure Kon-Tiki to fellow Scandinavian country Denmark’s A Royal Affair, an 18th century set royals drama,...
- 1/11/2013
- by Solvej Schou
- EW - Inside Movies
London — "Amour," a searing portrait of old age from Austria's Michael Haneke, was lauded by Hollywood's movie elite Thursday, receiving five Academy Award nominations including best foreign film and – unexpectedly – best picture.
The film stars octogenarian French acting greats Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a loving Parisian couple whose world is devastated by the wife's serious illness.
Unflinching and in French, it was a surprise best-picture nominee, and also received nominations for Haneke's direction, for original screenplay and for the performance of 85-year-old Riva.
Austria also scored an acting nomination, with Christoph Waltz up for best supporting actor for Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained." Waltz won the supporting actor prize for his turn as a loquacious Nazi in Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."
The other foreign-language nominees are 18th-century court saga "A Royal Affair" by Denmark's Nikolaj Arcel; child soldier drama "War Witch" by Canada's Kim Nguyen; seafaring adventure "Kon-Tiki" by...
The film stars octogenarian French acting greats Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a loving Parisian couple whose world is devastated by the wife's serious illness.
Unflinching and in French, it was a surprise best-picture nominee, and also received nominations for Haneke's direction, for original screenplay and for the performance of 85-year-old Riva.
Austria also scored an acting nomination, with Christoph Waltz up for best supporting actor for Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained." Waltz won the supporting actor prize for his turn as a loquacious Nazi in Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."
The other foreign-language nominees are 18th-century court saga "A Royal Affair" by Denmark's Nikolaj Arcel; child soldier drama "War Witch" by Canada's Kim Nguyen; seafaring adventure "Kon-Tiki" by...
- 1/10/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Ok, let's see. First, a huge congrats to Quvenzhané Wallis who, as the title of this post states, has made history, becoming the youngest actress ever to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category. She's just 9 years old. The previous record holder in that category was Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was nominated for Whale Rider in 2003. She was 14. Congrats are also in order for Rebelle (aka War Witch), which is nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category - a film that was on our best of 2012 list. Hat-tip to director Kim Nguyen, and star Rachel Mwanza, whom I would have loved to see get a Best Actress nomination. As...
- 1/10/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Today is a proud day for all of us in Tribeca. War Witch, which won the Best Narrative Feature Award at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, is one of the five films nominated in the Best Foreign Language Category at the 85th Academy Awards. Acquired by Tribeca Film shortly after the Festival, War Witch is the first Oscar nominated film for Tribeca's distribution company, a sign of many good things to come! Skillfully written and directed by Kim Nguyen, this poignant and harrowing film follows the life of Komona, an unwilling child soldier (masterfully played by Rachel Mwanza, Best Actress at Tff 2012) who longs for a peaceful life but cannot seem to escape the horrors of her past. Forced by African rebels to kill her parents or be killed herself, Komona is ultimately kidnapped and made to become a child solider. Eventually, she becomes a valuable asset ...
- 1/10/2013
- TribecaFilm.com
What makes the Oscar foreign language film category so special, though unfortunately less publicized than big ticket acting, directing, and best picture categories, is its gloriously wide range and inclusion of stories American moviegoers don’t usually get to see.
Whittled down from 71 films that qualified as official entries from countries all over the globe, the Oscar foreign film shortlist of nine movies announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday showcases different cultures, approaches and people, albeit with a general focus on Europeans.
Ranging from an already award-winning drama about an aging couple (Amour) to...
Whittled down from 71 films that qualified as official entries from countries all over the globe, the Oscar foreign film shortlist of nine movies announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday showcases different cultures, approaches and people, albeit with a general focus on Europeans.
Ranging from an already award-winning drama about an aging couple (Amour) to...
- 12/22/2012
- by Solvej Schou
- EW - Inside Movies
We're so glad to see a film that was one of our twenty-six 2012 black film highlights (read that post Here if you missed it yesterday), make the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar shortlist of nine. I'm referring to Kim Nguyen's harrowing yet hypnotic Congo-set drama War Witch or Rebelle. Several of us loved it, and its star, Rachel Mwanza, captivates. A film that didn't quite make our highlight short list, but gets an honorable mention, The Intouchables, also made the Oscar short list. Kudos to Omar Sy, who is also in the running for the Best Actor Oscar, according to some *experts* anyway. But the fight is not over; these 9 films advance to the next...
- 12/21/2012
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
Someone once said that we may spin tales, but we don't create stories -- they create us. That is true for Kim Nguyen's War Witch, in which Komona's (Rachel Mwanza) identity is shaped by the war-story she unveils. The fourteen-year old heroine casts her mind back towards the past, recalling herself and someone she does not know anymore. Komona wants her unborn child to understand why, in a moment of weakness, she may hate rather than love him. War Witch is a surreal road movie and coming-of-age story about the bitter end of childhood. If we analyze its layers and look at it from different points of view, Nguyen's film may turn into a peculiar hybrid combining Beasts of the Southern Wild's surreal poetics and the brutal naturalism of Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire's Johnny Mad Dog (2008).
- 12/20/2012
- by Anna Bielak
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
We've been following this powerful, harrowing film, titled War Witch, regularly on S & A, and it's one that I've been especially dying to see after Tambay's rave review last spring (Here). Kim Nguyen's film is about a young Congolese girl and child soldier named Komona (played by Rachel Mwanza who won a Best Actress Award at Berlin for her performance), her fight for survival. and struggle to find some normalcy and peace in her life. The film has already won some film awards this year, and will now finally get a theatrical release through Tribeca Film, starting in New York on March 1, and then a week later in Los Angeles on March 8th. ...
- 12/17/2012
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Toronto – On December 4th, Tiff saluted the best of Canadian Cinema at the 12th Annual Canada’s Top Ten industry event, hosted by Sarah Gadon (Cosmopolis, A Dangerous Method) and Don McKellar (Blindness, Trigger). A panel of industry professionals selected the top 10 Canadian feature and short films. Tiff Senior Programmer Steve Gravestock said that this year’s lineup “champions the work of familiar faces as well as emerging talent – all of whose stellar filmmaking achievements shape the Canadian film community”.
To celebrate the best Canadian films of 2012, Tiff will be hosting a 10-day festival of the winners. Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Festival, says that the festival “offers homegrown talent a dedicated platform to showcase their success, and we couldn’t be more impressed by the calibre of films the industry has produced this year.”
The selected top ten are as follows, in no particular order:
Short Films
Bydlo dir.
To celebrate the best Canadian films of 2012, Tiff will be hosting a 10-day festival of the winners. Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Festival, says that the festival “offers homegrown talent a dedicated platform to showcase their success, and we couldn’t be more impressed by the calibre of films the industry has produced this year.”
The selected top ten are as follows, in no particular order:
Short Films
Bydlo dir.
- 12/13/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
Don't you just love Award season? Nominees for the 28th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced today in Los Angeles, and we are proud to report that films from all three of Tribeca's branches - Tribeca Film, Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Institute - were recognized! War Witch, the Best Narrative Feature at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and a Tribeca Film title, received one of the coveted nominations for Best International Film. Skillfully written and directed by Kim Nguyen, this poignant and harrowing film - Canada's entry into Oscar Best Foreign Language Film race - follows the life of an unwilling child soldier (masterfully played by Rachel Mwanza) who longs for a peaceful life but can't seem to escape the ghosts of her past. Coming to theaters and VOD nationwide in early 2013, this haunting motion picture is a must-see. Two other films that played at Tff 2012 also received nominations.
- 11/27/2012
- TribecaFilm.com
The Stella Artois poured freely (because it was free) at the Contemporary Art Museum in downtown St. Louis last night. It was the closing-night party for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival where the slate of audience-choice and juried-competition winners were announced to an attentive crowd.
Audience Choice Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .The Sapphires,. directed by Wayne Blair
Best International Narrative Feature: .Quartet,. directed by Dustin Hoffman Leon Award for Best Documentary Feature: .The Entertainers,. directed by Michael Zimmer Juried Competition Awards New Filmmakers Forum Emerging Filmmaker Award (The Bobbie) Winner ($500 cash prize): .Faith, Love and Whiskey,. directed by Kristina Nikolova Special Jury Citation: .Sun Don.t Shine,. directed by Amy Seimetz St. Louis Film Critics. Joe Pollack Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .Barbara,. directed by Christian Petzold Special Jury Citation for Acting in Narrative Feature: Rachel Mwanza, lead actress of .War Witch. Best Documentary Feature: .Uprising,...
Audience Choice Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .The Sapphires,. directed by Wayne Blair
Best International Narrative Feature: .Quartet,. directed by Dustin Hoffman Leon Award for Best Documentary Feature: .The Entertainers,. directed by Michael Zimmer Juried Competition Awards New Filmmakers Forum Emerging Filmmaker Award (The Bobbie) Winner ($500 cash prize): .Faith, Love and Whiskey,. directed by Kristina Nikolova Special Jury Citation: .Sun Don.t Shine,. directed by Amy Seimetz St. Louis Film Critics. Joe Pollack Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .Barbara,. directed by Christian Petzold Special Jury Citation for Acting in Narrative Feature: Rachel Mwanza, lead actress of .War Witch. Best Documentary Feature: .Uprising,...
- 11/19/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Day six of the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival is upon us!
Sliff’s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il
The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.
http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012
Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Tuesday, November 13th
Band Of Sisters
Band Of Sisters plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre
nspired by Vatican II (a 1962-65 council of Catholic bishops) and the great social movements of the 1960s and .70s, U.S. nuns left their convents, found their mission with the poor, and grew in their spirituality . often to the chagrin of the Vatican hierarchy. Against this backdrop, .Band...
Sliff’s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il
The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.
http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012
Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Tuesday, November 13th
Band Of Sisters
Band Of Sisters plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre
nspired by Vatican II (a 1962-65 council of Catholic bishops) and the great social movements of the 1960s and .70s, U.S. nuns left their convents, found their mission with the poor, and grew in their spirituality . often to the chagrin of the Vatican hierarchy. Against this backdrop, .Band...
- 11/13/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Before any political or societal context enters the brutal cinematic depictions seen in “Come and See” and “City of God,” each effort can first speak clearly enough from the image of a child holding a firearm. Gawky, nervous, and with an expression of terrified power, the isolated sight holds many questions to a decayed rationality and natural order, but as Canadian director Kim Nguyen's shows within his searing look at African child soldiers, “War Witch," those two aspects are the first to be excised in warfare. Blending a surrealist perspective of battle-tinged faith with the harrowing tale of one girl's resilience, the film is a laser-focused fable threatened occasionally by its drifts into character shorthand, but equaled by a wrenching lead performance by Rachel Mwanza that results in one of the finest of the year. As clear and evocative a picture of Sub-Saharan Africa that Nguyen paints, the film...
- 11/11/2012
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
Komona (Rachel Mwanza) is only 14 years old when she is forced by rebel soldiers to kill her own parents. The guerillas abduct her from her native village, enlist her in their brutal campaign, march her through dense jungles, and beat her when she is too tired to go on. When Komona emerges as the sole survivor of a fierce firefight, the rebel leader Great Tiger pronounces her a "War Witch." Her new position as spiritual advisor means that she is expected to work miracles on a regular basis, or feel the wrath of Great Tiger. Komona's only chance of salvation appears to be Magicien (Serge Kanyinda), a headstrong albino boy who falls in love with her and proves that he is willing to do anything for her love in return. Komona and Magicien flee the rebels and roam the lawless wastelands, seeking a new life. There is a flicker of hope,...
- 10/15/2012
- QuietEarth.us
Oscar 2013: War Witch is Canada’s Best Foreign Language Film Entry Kim Nguyen’s French-language Rebelle / War Witch is Canada’s entry for the 2013 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Set in an undetermined nation in sub-Saharan Africa, the Tribeca Film Festival winner War Witch depicts the life and times of a child soldier, played by Tribeca and Berlin Film Festival Best Actress winner Rachel Mwanza. (Photo: Rachel Mwanza War Witch.) War Witch‘s Oscar chances are iffy — child warriors aren’t exactly the sort of subject matter the Academy’s staid, feel-good, conservative Best Foreign Language Film voters usually go for. But in all likelihood [...]...
- 9/19/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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