In April 2019, the Academy made a major change to the category formerly known as best foreign-language film. The following March, at the 92nd Academy Awards, Parasite made Oscar history when it became the first non-English film to take best picture — and the first movie to win the Oscar for the newly designated category of best international film.
The decision to rename the category was born out of the Academy’s efforts to diversify its membership and embrace the global filmmaking community. “We believe that ‘international feature film’ better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience,” Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, then co-chairs of the international film committee (Weyermann died in 2021), said in a statement.
The Academy has embraced more foreign-language films in its competition — since Parasite’s win in 2020, the best picture category has seen international (or largely non-English) nominees Minari,...
The decision to rename the category was born out of the Academy’s efforts to diversify its membership and embrace the global filmmaking community. “We believe that ‘international feature film’ better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience,” Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, then co-chairs of the international film committee (Weyermann died in 2021), said in a statement.
The Academy has embraced more foreign-language films in its competition — since Parasite’s win in 2020, the best picture category has seen international (or largely non-English) nominees Minari,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Dark Star Pictures has acquired US distribution rights to Esben Tonnesen and Julie R. Olgaard’s crime thriller The Angel Maker.
Plans are underway for a late summer 2024 theatrical release.
A debut directorial feature for Danish actress Olgaard and a second feature for Tonnesen, The Angel Maker follows a detective suffering from postpartum depression who becomes involved in a case with her partner.
The film is written by Yusuf Othman and Olgaard based on Olgaard’s original idea.
It is produced by Olgaard for Denmark’s HitHero Productions. The Angel Maker was number one on Netflix in Denmark for two...
Plans are underway for a late summer 2024 theatrical release.
A debut directorial feature for Danish actress Olgaard and a second feature for Tonnesen, The Angel Maker follows a detective suffering from postpartum depression who becomes involved in a case with her partner.
The film is written by Yusuf Othman and Olgaard based on Olgaard’s original idea.
It is produced by Olgaard for Denmark’s HitHero Productions. The Angel Maker was number one on Netflix in Denmark for two...
- 2/19/2024
- ScreenDaily
With final voting complete, the 96th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 10 and air live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. Et/ 5:00 p.m. Pt. We update predictions through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.
The State of the Race
With a fragile theatrical market for non-fiction features and a dwindling number of active documentary buyers, many Sundance 2023 films did not get picked up for distribution. As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies as many as four out of the final five Oscar nominees each year.
And usually, by late summer, Oscar promotion is well underway. Last year, three Sundance grads — eventual Oscar nominees “Fire of Love” (Neon), “All that Breathes” (HBO), and the winner, “Navalny” (CNN) — were actively campaigning.
One Sundance World Cinema entry that built a following during the year was Pulitzer Prize winner Mstyslav Chernov...
The State of the Race
With a fragile theatrical market for non-fiction features and a dwindling number of active documentary buyers, many Sundance 2023 films did not get picked up for distribution. As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies as many as four out of the final five Oscar nominees each year.
And usually, by late summer, Oscar promotion is well underway. Last year, three Sundance grads — eventual Oscar nominees “Fire of Love” (Neon), “All that Breathes” (HBO), and the winner, “Navalny” (CNN) — were actively campaigning.
One Sundance World Cinema entry that built a following during the year was Pulitzer Prize winner Mstyslav Chernov...
- 1/23/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Andrew McCarthy is getting back together with his fellow Brat Pack alums Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jon Cryer, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and more for the feature documentary Brats, a revealing look at the cultural phenomenon they became in the 1980s and how that has impacted their lives ever since.
Brats, from ABC News Studios, Neon, and Network Entertainment, is set to premiere on Hulu later this year. McCarthy, author of the 2021 memoir Brat: An ‘80s Story, writes and directs the documentary, which is now in post-production. He co-starred with fellow Brat Packers in some of the biggest hits of the mid- ‘80s including St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), and Less Than Zero (1987).
From left: ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’s Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Mare Winningham, Judd Nelson,
Ally Sheedy and Andrew McCarthy
“McCarthy crisscrosses the country to meet up with some of the stars of those beloved films,...
Brats, from ABC News Studios, Neon, and Network Entertainment, is set to premiere on Hulu later this year. McCarthy, author of the 2021 memoir Brat: An ‘80s Story, writes and directs the documentary, which is now in post-production. He co-starred with fellow Brat Packers in some of the biggest hits of the mid- ‘80s including St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), and Less Than Zero (1987).
From left: ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’s Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Mare Winningham, Judd Nelson,
Ally Sheedy and Andrew McCarthy
“McCarthy crisscrosses the country to meet up with some of the stars of those beloved films,...
- 1/18/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Oscar documentary branch voters can’t be accused of parochialism. They ventured far and wide to select their shortlist of feature documentaries for 2023, tapping films from countries as varied as a U.N. roll call: Ukraine, Uganda, Poland, Denmark, Tunisia, Canada and the United States.
To Kill a Tiger, one of the 15 finalists, unfolds in a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Nisha Pahuja, who was born in India and raised in Canada, directed the film about a humble couple who fight for justice after their 13-year-old daughter is sexually assaulted by three men. Before the shortlist was announced, Pahuja wondered whether doc branch members would embrace her documentary. “It’s a Canadian film, but it’s an Indian story,” she said, “and it’s subtitled.”
Pahuja needn’t have worried. Neither subtitles nor remote settings deter today’s documentary branch, whose membership is far less insular than it used to be.
To Kill a Tiger, one of the 15 finalists, unfolds in a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Nisha Pahuja, who was born in India and raised in Canada, directed the film about a humble couple who fight for justice after their 13-year-old daughter is sexually assaulted by three men. Before the shortlist was announced, Pahuja wondered whether doc branch members would embrace her documentary. “It’s a Canadian film, but it’s an Indian story,” she said, “and it’s subtitled.”
Pahuja needn’t have worried. Neither subtitles nor remote settings deter today’s documentary branch, whose membership is far less insular than it used to be.
- 1/14/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The Gotham Awards brought the usual array of surprises this year, and it wasn’t only about who walked away with the trophies.
Aside from the uproar over Robert De Niro’s speech (which is unlikely to have much bearing on the awards campaign for “Killers of the Flower Moon”), some of the other top contenders gained significant traction leading up to a crucial week ahead. New York Film Critics Circle’s announcement of the year’s best films and performances unfurls Thursday, while Golden Globes voting in the film categories started Tuesday.
At the forefront of Gothams buzz-boosters is breakout sensation Charles Melton, earning the best supporting performance award for his role in Netflix’s “May December.” In Todd Haynes’ black comedy, Melton portrays Joe Yoo, a young man navigating his marriage to an older woman, a role that stands out alongside Oscar winners Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) and...
Aside from the uproar over Robert De Niro’s speech (which is unlikely to have much bearing on the awards campaign for “Killers of the Flower Moon”), some of the other top contenders gained significant traction leading up to a crucial week ahead. New York Film Critics Circle’s announcement of the year’s best films and performances unfurls Thursday, while Golden Globes voting in the film categories started Tuesday.
At the forefront of Gothams buzz-boosters is breakout sensation Charles Melton, earning the best supporting performance award for his role in Netflix’s “May December.” In Todd Haynes’ black comedy, Melton portrays Joe Yoo, a young man navigating his marriage to an older woman, a role that stands out alongside Oscar winners Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) and...
- 11/29/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Deckert Distribution CEO Liselot Verbrugge is to launch a new company as the German sales agency prepares to wind down its operations in 2024, with founder Heino Deckert moving fully to production. Verbrugge is attending IDFA documentary festival this week, where the Sundance awarded film “Against the Tide,” one of the agency’s bestsellers this year, is playing in the Best of Fest section.
Amsterdam-based Verbrugge joined Deckert at the start of 2019 as head of sales and acquisition, starting with the roll out of double Academy Award nominated “Honeyland.” She took over the reins of the company as CEO two years ago.
Verbrugge commented: “I am very happy with what we managed to build over the last few years here. But with the company officially residing in Leipzig, there were certain practical elements that became obstacles. Both in the legal sense of running a company from another country, as in sharing...
Amsterdam-based Verbrugge joined Deckert at the start of 2019 as head of sales and acquisition, starting with the roll out of double Academy Award nominated “Honeyland.” She took over the reins of the company as CEO two years ago.
Verbrugge commented: “I am very happy with what we managed to build over the last few years here. But with the company officially residing in Leipzig, there were certain practical elements that became obstacles. Both in the legal sense of running a company from another country, as in sharing...
- 11/9/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
It’s a welcome sight for any longtime visitors returning to Sarajevo, the white-jacketed waiters circling the terrace of the majestic, Austro-Hungarian-built Hotel Europe as film and TV industry professionals parse scripts and close deals amid the espresso-fueled chatter. Around them a haze of cigarette smoke hovers like the mist that settles each morning over the green hills that ring this scenic Bosnian city.
Each summer hundreds of industry guests from around the globe descend on the historic, 140-year-old Hotel Europe, which survived two World Wars and the shelling that razed Sarajevo in the 1990s and serves as the de facto hub of industry events during the Sarajevo Film Festival. Twenty years after its launch in a city still emerging from the rubble of a brutal, four-year siege, CineLink Industry Days has grown into the leading film and TV industry event in the Balkan region — a success story as improbable...
Each summer hundreds of industry guests from around the globe descend on the historic, 140-year-old Hotel Europe, which survived two World Wars and the shelling that razed Sarajevo in the 1990s and serves as the de facto hub of industry events during the Sarajevo Film Festival. Twenty years after its launch in a city still emerging from the rubble of a brutal, four-year siege, CineLink Industry Days has grown into the leading film and TV industry event in the Balkan region — a success story as improbable...
- 8/12/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Once considered a showcase committed to hybrid documentaries, the Cph:forum in Copenhagen has steadily transformed into a four-day event that presents a variety of topics, genres and artistic approaches from a diverse group of filmmakers. While the carefully curated market isn’t fazed by experimental approaches to the form, the industry event also champions traditional docu projects and provides a prominent platform for veteran, mid-career and newbie directors and producers.
This year, the financing and co-production event, taking place in the middle of the 20th edition of the Cph:dox documentary film festival, will feature 34 international projects selected from a record number 478 submissions. According to artistic director of Cph:dox Niklas Engstrom, the films selected to participate in the Forum didn’t need to meet a specific criteria, but each project is “important artistically, socially, politically, and culturally.”
Tereza Simikova, head of industry and training at Cph:dox, adds: “We don’t have...
This year, the financing and co-production event, taking place in the middle of the 20th edition of the Cph:dox documentary film festival, will feature 34 international projects selected from a record number 478 submissions. According to artistic director of Cph:dox Niklas Engstrom, the films selected to participate in the Forum didn’t need to meet a specific criteria, but each project is “important artistically, socially, politically, and culturally.”
Tereza Simikova, head of industry and training at Cph:dox, adds: “We don’t have...
- 3/14/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Neon has acquired the North American rights to Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning director, Raoul Peck’s (I Am Not Your Negro) documentary Orwell, the definitive feature-length documentary on visionary author George Orwell, with the exclusive cooperation of the Orwell Estate.
Producers include Alex Gibney for Jigsaw Productions, Raoul Peck for Velvet Films, and Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content. Stacey Offman and Richard Perello will executive produce for Jigsaw. Zhang Xin, Joey Marra, and William Horberg will executive produce for Closer Media, alongside Jessica Grimshaw, Dawn Olmstead, and David Levine of Anonymous, and Jeff Skoll and Courtney Sexton of Participant. Johnny Fewings of Universal Pictures Content Group will serve as executive producer on the film, which is currently in production.
“’Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past…,’ wrote Orwell in his novel, 1984. Today, the “newspeak” of authoritarian rule is alive and well and in unexpected places,...
Producers include Alex Gibney for Jigsaw Productions, Raoul Peck for Velvet Films, and Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content. Stacey Offman and Richard Perello will executive produce for Jigsaw. Zhang Xin, Joey Marra, and William Horberg will executive produce for Closer Media, alongside Jessica Grimshaw, Dawn Olmstead, and David Levine of Anonymous, and Jeff Skoll and Courtney Sexton of Participant. Johnny Fewings of Universal Pictures Content Group will serve as executive producer on the film, which is currently in production.
“’Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past…,’ wrote Orwell in his novel, 1984. Today, the “newspeak” of authoritarian rule is alive and well and in unexpected places,...
- 3/8/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Cph:forum, the financing and co-production event held during Cph:dox documentary film festival in Copenhagen, will introduce new projects by filmmakers such as Ljubomir Stefanov (“Honeyland”), Jessica Kingdon (“Ascension”), Finlay Pretsell (“Time Trial”), Ousmane Samassekou (“The Last Shelter”), Mila Turajlić (“The Other Side of Everything”), Tonislav Hristov (“The Good Postman”), Iryna Tsilyk (“The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”) and Brett Story (“The Hottest August”), among others.
Stefanov, who was nominated for an Oscar for “Honeyland,” will be pitching “House of Earth.” He teams with producer Maya E. Rudolph, who produced Emmy-nominated “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” and Sarah D’hanens. The film centers on transgender sex worker Pinky, who returns to her Roma community after 30 years, and finds two families in need of a matriarch. Torn between her biological kin and chosen queer family, Pinky attempts to build a future that feels like home.
Kingdon, who was Oscar nominated for “Ascension,” arrives with “Untitled Animal Project,...
Stefanov, who was nominated for an Oscar for “Honeyland,” will be pitching “House of Earth.” He teams with producer Maya E. Rudolph, who produced Emmy-nominated “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” and Sarah D’hanens. The film centers on transgender sex worker Pinky, who returns to her Roma community after 30 years, and finds two families in need of a matriarch. Torn between her biological kin and chosen queer family, Pinky attempts to build a future that feels like home.
Kingdon, who was Oscar nominated for “Ascension,” arrives with “Untitled Animal Project,...
- 2/10/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Cph:dox also sets work-in-progress, Change co-production selections.
New feature documentaries from Honeyland director Ljubomir Stefanov and Ascension filmmaker Jessica Kingdon are among the 33 projects selected for Cph:Forum, the financing and co-production market of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
Macedonian filmmaker Stefanov is presenting House of Earth, about a transgender sex worker who returns to her Roma community after 30 years on the run, only to be torn between her biological kin and her chosen queer family. The Macedonian-us co-production is produced by Maya E. Rudolph and Sarah D’hanens, and is looking for €405,000 funding to supplement its €45,000 in place from Louverture Films and private equity.
New feature documentaries from Honeyland director Ljubomir Stefanov and Ascension filmmaker Jessica Kingdon are among the 33 projects selected for Cph:Forum, the financing and co-production market of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
Macedonian filmmaker Stefanov is presenting House of Earth, about a transgender sex worker who returns to her Roma community after 30 years on the run, only to be torn between her biological kin and her chosen queer family. The Macedonian-us co-production is produced by Maya E. Rudolph and Sarah D’hanens, and is looking for €405,000 funding to supplement its €45,000 in place from Louverture Films and private equity.
- 2/10/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
February ushers in a new slate of movies and TV shows making their way to HBO and HBO Max, from a slew of James Bond movies to the recently released Olivia Colman-led “Empire of Light” to, yes, the Puppy Bowl.
“The Terminator,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Footloose,” “Taxi Driver” and “The Silence of the Lambs” all mark notable library offerings this month, in addition to “Superbad,” “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” and “Eighth Grade.”
Despite HBO Max pulling a number of originals from its roster over the past several months, HBO Max originals premiering on the platform this month include a Dionne Warwick documentary, an adult European animated series titled “Poor Devil” and “Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special” based on the popular animated series.
HBO Max is also beefing up its sports offerings by streaming soccer matches featuring the U.S. national teams,...
“The Terminator,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Footloose,” “Taxi Driver” and “The Silence of the Lambs” all mark notable library offerings this month, in addition to “Superbad,” “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” and “Eighth Grade.”
Despite HBO Max pulling a number of originals from its roster over the past several months, HBO Max originals premiering on the platform this month include a Dionne Warwick documentary, an adult European animated series titled “Poor Devil” and “Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special” based on the popular animated series.
HBO Max is also beefing up its sports offerings by streaming soccer matches featuring the U.S. national teams,...
- 2/1/2023
- by Loree Seitz
- The Wrap
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and HBO Max got the memo. With its list of new releases for February 2023, the HBO streamer is bringing a very special Valentine’s Day episode into the fold.
Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special premieres on Feb. 9 and finds Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy celebrating their first Valentine’s Day together. Consider this a fun little aperitif for the fast approaching Harley Quinn season 3 – which will feature none other than freshly-installed DC czar James Gunn. Other HBO Max original series this month include another C.B. Strike special on Feb. 6 and Spanish-language animated comedy Poor Devil a.k.a. Pobre Diablo on Feb. 17.
February also looks to be a jam-packed month for movies on HBO Max. February 1 sees the arrival of many appealing library titles like Birdman, Casino Royale, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Terminator. Later on HBO Max...
Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special premieres on Feb. 9 and finds Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy celebrating their first Valentine’s Day together. Consider this a fun little aperitif for the fast approaching Harley Quinn season 3 – which will feature none other than freshly-installed DC czar James Gunn. Other HBO Max original series this month include another C.B. Strike special on Feb. 6 and Spanish-language animated comedy Poor Devil a.k.a. Pobre Diablo on Feb. 17.
February also looks to be a jam-packed month for movies on HBO Max. February 1 sees the arrival of many appealing library titles like Birdman, Casino Royale, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Terminator. Later on HBO Max...
- 2/1/2023
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
This year, women directors – and their women-centric subjects – swept the awards at Sundance Film Festival. Three women directors – Madeleine Gavin, Maryam Keshavarz, and Noora Niasari – won Audience Awards for their films on North Korea (“Beyond Utopia”), intergenerational motherhood (“The Persian Version”), and custody in diaspora (“Shayda”). Portraits of masculinity were also celebrated as well. First-time feature filmmaker Sing J. Lee won the Directing Award for his touching portrait of masculinity and fatherhood in “The Accidental Getaway Driver,” while Sauvnik Kaur’s intimate documentary on brotherhood “Against The Tide” took home a Special Jury Award. After two years of isolation and virtual festival-ing, it seems that stories of tenderness appealed over aggressive storytelling at Park City this year.
“This year’s Festival has been an extraordinary experience,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “The artists that comprise the 2023 Sundance Film Festival have demonstrated a sense of urgency and dedication to excellence in independent film.
“This year’s Festival has been an extraordinary experience,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “The artists that comprise the 2023 Sundance Film Festival have demonstrated a sense of urgency and dedication to excellence in independent film.
- 2/1/2023
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
The Sundance Film Festival has often been called one of the world’s most important documentary marketplaces, with 39 of the past 65 Best Documentary Feature contenders (60) either beginning or continuing their road to the Oscars in Park City. Examples include “Summer of Soul,” “Flee,” “Writing With Fire,” “Honeyland,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “American Factory,” “Time,” “The Mole Agent,” “Crip Camp,” “Rbg,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Minding the Gap,” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”
See 2023 Sundance Film Festival concludes: Highlights and studio acquisitions include ‘Past Lives,’ ‘A Little Prayer,’ ‘Flora and Son’
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s honorees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and...
See 2023 Sundance Film Festival concludes: Highlights and studio acquisitions include ‘Past Lives,’ ‘A Little Prayer,’ ‘Flora and Son’
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s honorees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and...
- 1/31/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
The Sundance Film Festival has often been called one of the world’s most important documentary marketplaces, with 39 of the past 65 Best Documentary Feature contenders (60) either beginning or continuing their road to the Oscars in Park City, Utah. Examples include “Summer of Soul,” “Flee,” “Writing With Fire,” “Honeyland,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “American Factory,” “Time,” “The Mole Agent,” “Crip Camp,” “Rbg,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Minding the Gap,” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s nominees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and manned flight to Mars are only a few of the subjects addressed by this year’s eclectic non-fiction slate.
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s nominees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and manned flight to Mars are only a few of the subjects addressed by this year’s eclectic non-fiction slate.
- 1/31/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Sundance 2023: ‘Against the Tide’ an Interview with director Sarvnik Kaur
Two Bombay fishermen navigate the effects of modernization on their friendship and livelihoods.
‘Against the Tide’ directed by Sarvnik Kaur, World Premiering at 2023 Sundance Film Festival in World Cinema Documentary Competition, is a masterful vérité doc from India.
Koli fisherman Rakesh (r.) checking his catch. Courtesy of Snooker Club Films.
The film is a moving portrait of a friendship tested by the strains of the modern world. Its power is in the same deeply emotional thrust delivered in Honeyland (for those who saw it in 2019), and surprisingly, it was edited by the same team behind Honeyland.
Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has strayed away from them, embracing technology. The film tells a tale of deep friendship and rising conflict between the two men against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is increasingly turning hostile because of climate change.
Rakesh and Ganesh are so close, they consider themselves brothers. Both are fishermen of Bombay’s Indigenous Koli community, but they’ve taken contrasting paths. Rakesh uses his inheritance — his father’s boat and the knowledge passed down by generations of Koli fisherman — to fish in the traditional ways, while Ganesh — who was educated abroad — has instead embraced modern, technology-driven, and environmentally destructive methods of deep-sea fishing, causing increasing friction between the friends. But with declining fish populations caused by pollution and invasive species, neither man is finding much success, adding to the burdens facing their young families, and testing the bonds of their brotherhood.
Ganesh relaxes with his best friend Rakesh. Courtesy of Snooker Club Films.
Beyond the story itself, I was faced with the conundrum of more frequently occuring question of why do we work ourselves up being moved by films of people we learn to love, when we know the way of our materialistic world will destroy their way of life. “These people”, the Kolis, are inheritors of the ancient and great Koli knowledge system — a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Does it make us better people to watch docs like this or Honeyland? How can we reconcile the intimate view of these two men and their families and communities with knowing that their way of life is doomed (in this case by technology and climate change)? What is the point of watchng these docs showing us all the injustice of the world? I know I am not going to become more active in fighting climate change. I am too busy living. So then what? What action can we take to rectify the way we know all too well the world is going? There are too many issues needing to be addressed; social action is way beyond my own time and energy.
After I praised the film for its beauty, its honesty, its intimacy and the love it revealed sustaining the traditional but poor Koli community living in Bombay and barely getting by in their heritage as fishermen, basically, that was my first question to the director Sarvnik Kaur.
What’s the point of it all?
Director Sarvnik Kaur’s response surprised me.
Director Sarvnik Kaur
Sk: Making this film is a way for me to channel these things, to make sense of the world which is not following society’s mandates. I was given an opportunity to learn how to live life. I never thought about what the Kolis were going to do. The Kolis will take care of themselves. Life as it is lived on the outside, our modern obsession with possessions and growth of wealth does not encompass their lifestyle. They face hardships including finding food for their families while caring for newborn children as a community. With love, they create the joy of life and existence.
Kaur‘s deeply humanistic and intimate approach to these two men at a crossroads in both their friendship and profession immerses the viewer in their experiences, where neither man is hero or villain in the choices they make to survive in an imperiled world. She presents a microcosmic, sea level view of the fragility of our relationship with the changing environment while affirming what it is to be alive and human.
Sk: Perhaps no one would put their problems on the table unless I did, but I did it for myself, to be honest and to learn about life from one of its sources. I learned so much from Rakesh, Ganesh and the community.
How did you begin your journey?
For the past ten years, I have lived next to a Koli village. This has allowed me to get closer to them, to witness their daily concerns. In 2016, when the regional authorities decided to transform their market into a commercial complex without consulting them, the “Collective of Women Fish Sellers” immediately put up resistance. I became actively involved with them and made some short films that they used to conduct their campaign.
This is how my journey with the Kolis began, in trying to be as helpful as I could be. I have spent the last five years with the Koli community and have come to understand their lives — the conflicts and the joys — as a filmmaker, as an ethnologist, and now as a friend. With time and patience, we have established a relationship of trust.
I began conceiving the idea in 2015 at the end of my film about Kashmir. That film ‘A Ballad of Maladies’ which explores the tradition of political resistance in Kashmir through the work of those poets, musicians and artists who have turned their art into weapons of resistance during periods of heightened state repression and violence in the region. The film was banned from broadcast on the national network but it won India’s 64th National Film Award for Best First Non-Feature Film in 2017, Best Film at the 11th biennial Film South Asia and Best Documentary at the 10th Idsff Kerala.
Winning the award felt like a sort of co-option by the state, but the co-director certainly deserved an award.
I watched the Koli being pushed out and thought it was the same problem, though it was being labelled differently. My own honesty was at stake in telling their story as well, rather than being co-opted by the state who bestowed a prize on a film that was banned from ever being viewed. As an artist, I have only my own honesty. That the state took my story for its own purposes was unbearable. This new film gave me the chance to empty myself of their poisonous lying.
I wanted the film to be life affirming.
When did you begin shooting?
As I watched two friends, both indigenous Koli fishermen in Bombay, being driven to desperation by a dying sea and their friendship beginning to fracture as they take very different paths to provide for their struggling families.
Ganesh and Rakesh
Meeting Rakesh was like finding a treasure trove. He is not stupid. Generations before him have understood the moon and the movement of the stars and the fish. He took a marker and on my whiteboard drew a bird’s eye view from the moon and stars shining light upon his boat and how the moon’s refracted light attracted the fish and lit the way for the fisherman.
I realized the film was about one people (the Koli) becoming divided in itself. Watching these two men conversing in 2019, I knew that was how I would build the film. I saw there were two factions in the community and one faction was “othering” the “other”. Like two monkeys fighting while the cat comes and takes the cream, each side blames the other for the lack of fish which in truth is being depleted by offshore oil drilling and climate change.
Rakesh and Ganesh fight to survive in this implacable reality they have no control over. Their strategies for getting by diverge, sometimes clash, but what they have in common is that they are fueled by the same determination to exist in a changing and merciless world where respect for nature and tradition weighs very little in the face of the economic and internationalized interests of some.
Ganesh chooses a different route of bringing in LED lighting on a large scale to attract fish but which leads him into forbidden watersd as well as into compeitition with the Chinese and big business. Both struggle to survive. Rakesh’s solution is the most radical.
And in the end, the two are reconciled by the birth of a new child. Rakesh has solved the problem by selling his boat and downsizing to a smaller boat but catching only high-value fish like lobster which bring in higher prices sufficient to feed his family while keeping overhead low. He has dignity and no debt, lives more slowly and celebrates life.
What attracts you to your subjects? Your previous and first film, Soz — A Ballad of Maladies, explored the tradition of political resistance through music and poetry in Kashmir.
Sk: The subjects reflect my own family’s history. My grandparents were born in Pakistan when the country was part of British India. In 1947, India and Pakistan were divided and the two countries entered into a mortal conflict, which continues today. My grandfather’s family, Sikhs, fled Pakistan to a refugee camp in New Delhi, where my father was born. In 1984, my grandparents managed to leave the camp and build a modest house, but it was completely destroyed during an anti-Sikh riot. I was one year old. My family had to move again.
I grew up with the trauma of these successive uprootings and a constant fear. This personal story brings me back to the Koli community, whose territory and tradition are also threatened. Bombay is a suffocated city where space is scarce and expensive. The Kolis’ lands are now the last available space in the city center and their owners, whose income depends on increasingly meager fisheries, are often forced to sell them to rich entrepreneurs or politicians who will build luxury residences with a view. The Kolis who still live there will be driven out in ten years by land pressure and rising waters. Even the most resistant, like Rakesh, will inexorably abandon their house and, with it, their way of life, a part of their history and their traditions. Like my father and his family, they will one day be displaced and become refugees.
Koli concerns are the concerns of all of Bombay. They’re the guardians of the city’s coast, the sea and even the mangroves. The Koli community of Bombay will be sacrificed for lucrative real estate deals and generalized inaction regarding climate change. It will soon disappear, and I am Zilming its last stirrings.India is one of the places where the effects of climate change are the most dramatic. Every year, the monsoon and the meteorological hazards become more violent and unpredictable. Since 2000, some of Mumbai’s shores have retreated by more than 20 meters and tomorrow, the city’s climate displaced will number, at the very least, in the hundreds of thousands. If nothing is done to curb climate change, many experts agree that Bombay will be largely submerged by 2050, with the Kolis’ land being the first to be flooded.
Rakesh is in a way the ancestral conscience of Ganesh. But by sticking to the age-old traditions of his people at all costs, he risks putting his family in danger. I didn’t want to make a film about who is good or bad; I wanted simply to witness and record as sincerely as possible the stakes that these two intelligent, honest and hard-working young men face, and the consequences that their decisions entail. By following the life of one and then the other, I hoped to make the viewer question his own convictions and the choices he would have made himself if he had been in their place.”
How did you begin and find support for this film?
SK: In December 2019 I shot a pilot for the film because I had the clarity of vision that it was about one community and the two “brothers” facing the crisis of the sea with its polution, lack of fish and that everything that was happening in the sea was showing itself in the financial crises, social crises and familial crises.
That’s how I started to get the workshops and funds. Once you begin, you are led, as if by your own nose. Then you find champions all over the world. If you care, you find others care about the story and the struggle.
It was life affirming. I felt lost, persecuted, alone. It was eye-opening that someone in Amsterdam or the US or France cared about my story and my struggles, to be recognized. The everyday lies are not the real world. The read world is in being true to oneself and then others lead you into life. That is the real world.
She is a recipient of multiple grants from Sundance Film Fund, Catapult Film Fund, IDFA Bertha, San Francisco Film Fund, AlterCine Foundation, HotDocs Crosscurrents International. She has also been a fellow at Hot Docs Accelerator Lab, IDFA Academy, Sffilm and the Chicken & Egg Eggcelerator Labs.
Further support came from Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in collaboration with the Cnc, Procirep Angoa.
Do you have advise for other doc filmmakers?
Sk: Lower your ambitions and strenthen your resolve. I do not want the moon.
I understand how radical it is and how documentary filmmakers (and journalists) themselves manage to make meaning out of their lives just as the Koli fishing people do, by living in a community, covering costs and needs basic in order to live a life of joy, love and sharing. That is radical and that is the lesson so many people come away with when they delve into the deeper meaning of life.
Do like Rakesh, downsize to support your life and that which is most meaningful in it. Thank you very much Sarvnik! You have restored my own resolve!
For my readers who have gotten this far, here is more informatin about the key crew:
Producer Koval Bhatia
Producer. Koval Bhatia is a filmmaker and producer based in India. She has been heading A Little Anarky Films for 12 years, during which time she has directed and produced commercials, impact films and TV shows. She began her journey as an international producer with Against The Tide, which she has pitched at multiple markets and forums across the world. She is currently a Getting Real Fellow at the International Documentary Association (IDA). Koval is a graduate from Eurodoc and a recipient of the Emerging Producer’s Bursary from the World Congress for Science and Factual Producers, and her feature documentaries as a producer have been awarded grants by Sundance Documentary Fund, Hot Docs, Catapult Film Fund, Docs By The Sea, Sffilm, Al Jazeera, and Dok Leipzig. She is a member of Ewa and Bgdm.
Co-producer. Quentin Laurent founded Les Films de l’Oœil Sauvage with Frédéric Féraud in 2015. Based in Paris and Marseille, the company mainly produces art-house documentaries and Quentin is particularly interested in non-Western narratives and viewpoints, in approaches that reveal spaces that have remained invisible or try to reconsider the perception of familiar places. He has recently produced or co-produced, Kinshasa Makamboby Dieudo Hamadi (Berlinale 2018), Overseas by Soa Yoon (Locarno 2019),Aswang by Alyx Arumpac (IDFA awarded 2019), Downstream to Kinshasa(Cannes 2020), Dreaming Wallsby Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier (Berlinale 2022), Things I Could Never Tell My Motherby Humaira Bilkis (Visions du Réel 2022), and Kristos the Last Childby Giulia Amati (Venice 20223)
Cinematography. Ashok Meena is an independent cinematographer from Rajasthan, India. He did his post-graduate degree in cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India, working towards building an independent visual language at work. Known for his experimental films and videos, his independent work has been traveling to festivals and art galleries across the world. Ashok has shot several documentary films including Kamal Swaroop’s Pushkar Puran,which had its European premiere at the 60th Dok Leipzig.
Editing. Atanas Georgiev is one of the owners of Trice Films and Film Trick from Macedonia, subsidiaries of FX3X. His directorial and producing debut, Cash & Marry, won many international awards and recognition. It was followed by Avec l’Amour, a festival favorite in 2017 premiering at Hot Docs, and soon after with Honeyland in 2019, a triple winner at Sundance Film Festival and nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Documentary and Best International Feature for 2020.
Editing. Blagoja Nedelkovskiis a film editor and musician based in Skopje, Macedonia. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Film & TV editing in Skopje in 2000. For almost two decades he has actively working on feature films, documentaries, TV series and music videos in Macedonia and the Balkans. He has also spent some time in Vienna, Austria, where he freelanced as an editor and an artist so that he could pay for his music studies at the Music Konzervatorium Franz Shubert. Some of the more notable projects as an editor are the films Punk’s Not Dead, State of Shock, To the Hilt,The Year of the Monkey, and Honeyland.
Sound Design. Moinak Bose is a sound designer based out of Bombay, India. He is a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, with a specialization in sound recording and sound design. Moinak’s work includes the internationally acclaimed films A Night of Knowing Nothing in 2021 (sound design) and All That Breathes in 2022 (sound recording), both of which won L’Œil d’Or (The Golden Eye) for best documentary at Cannes. The films have been screened at many festivals and won top prizes at TIFF and Sundance Film Festival respectively. Against The Tide is his latest work as a sound designer
International sales agent is Deckert
North American Distribution: Submarine Entertainment.
Genre: Documentary
Country: India/France
Language: Koli, Marathi, Hindi
Year: 2023
Duration: 97 min.
Two Bombay fishermen navigate the effects of modernization on their friendship and livelihoods.
‘Against the Tide’ directed by Sarvnik Kaur, World Premiering at 2023 Sundance Film Festival in World Cinema Documentary Competition, is a masterful vérité doc from India.
Koli fisherman Rakesh (r.) checking his catch. Courtesy of Snooker Club Films.
The film is a moving portrait of a friendship tested by the strains of the modern world. Its power is in the same deeply emotional thrust delivered in Honeyland (for those who saw it in 2019), and surprisingly, it was edited by the same team behind Honeyland.
Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has strayed away from them, embracing technology. The film tells a tale of deep friendship and rising conflict between the two men against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is increasingly turning hostile because of climate change.
Rakesh and Ganesh are so close, they consider themselves brothers. Both are fishermen of Bombay’s Indigenous Koli community, but they’ve taken contrasting paths. Rakesh uses his inheritance — his father’s boat and the knowledge passed down by generations of Koli fisherman — to fish in the traditional ways, while Ganesh — who was educated abroad — has instead embraced modern, technology-driven, and environmentally destructive methods of deep-sea fishing, causing increasing friction between the friends. But with declining fish populations caused by pollution and invasive species, neither man is finding much success, adding to the burdens facing their young families, and testing the bonds of their brotherhood.
Ganesh relaxes with his best friend Rakesh. Courtesy of Snooker Club Films.
Beyond the story itself, I was faced with the conundrum of more frequently occuring question of why do we work ourselves up being moved by films of people we learn to love, when we know the way of our materialistic world will destroy their way of life. “These people”, the Kolis, are inheritors of the ancient and great Koli knowledge system — a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Does it make us better people to watch docs like this or Honeyland? How can we reconcile the intimate view of these two men and their families and communities with knowing that their way of life is doomed (in this case by technology and climate change)? What is the point of watchng these docs showing us all the injustice of the world? I know I am not going to become more active in fighting climate change. I am too busy living. So then what? What action can we take to rectify the way we know all too well the world is going? There are too many issues needing to be addressed; social action is way beyond my own time and energy.
After I praised the film for its beauty, its honesty, its intimacy and the love it revealed sustaining the traditional but poor Koli community living in Bombay and barely getting by in their heritage as fishermen, basically, that was my first question to the director Sarvnik Kaur.
What’s the point of it all?
Director Sarvnik Kaur’s response surprised me.
Director Sarvnik Kaur
Sk: Making this film is a way for me to channel these things, to make sense of the world which is not following society’s mandates. I was given an opportunity to learn how to live life. I never thought about what the Kolis were going to do. The Kolis will take care of themselves. Life as it is lived on the outside, our modern obsession with possessions and growth of wealth does not encompass their lifestyle. They face hardships including finding food for their families while caring for newborn children as a community. With love, they create the joy of life and existence.
Kaur‘s deeply humanistic and intimate approach to these two men at a crossroads in both their friendship and profession immerses the viewer in their experiences, where neither man is hero or villain in the choices they make to survive in an imperiled world. She presents a microcosmic, sea level view of the fragility of our relationship with the changing environment while affirming what it is to be alive and human.
Sk: Perhaps no one would put their problems on the table unless I did, but I did it for myself, to be honest and to learn about life from one of its sources. I learned so much from Rakesh, Ganesh and the community.
How did you begin your journey?
For the past ten years, I have lived next to a Koli village. This has allowed me to get closer to them, to witness their daily concerns. In 2016, when the regional authorities decided to transform their market into a commercial complex without consulting them, the “Collective of Women Fish Sellers” immediately put up resistance. I became actively involved with them and made some short films that they used to conduct their campaign.
This is how my journey with the Kolis began, in trying to be as helpful as I could be. I have spent the last five years with the Koli community and have come to understand their lives — the conflicts and the joys — as a filmmaker, as an ethnologist, and now as a friend. With time and patience, we have established a relationship of trust.
I began conceiving the idea in 2015 at the end of my film about Kashmir. That film ‘A Ballad of Maladies’ which explores the tradition of political resistance in Kashmir through the work of those poets, musicians and artists who have turned their art into weapons of resistance during periods of heightened state repression and violence in the region. The film was banned from broadcast on the national network but it won India’s 64th National Film Award for Best First Non-Feature Film in 2017, Best Film at the 11th biennial Film South Asia and Best Documentary at the 10th Idsff Kerala.
Winning the award felt like a sort of co-option by the state, but the co-director certainly deserved an award.
I watched the Koli being pushed out and thought it was the same problem, though it was being labelled differently. My own honesty was at stake in telling their story as well, rather than being co-opted by the state who bestowed a prize on a film that was banned from ever being viewed. As an artist, I have only my own honesty. That the state took my story for its own purposes was unbearable. This new film gave me the chance to empty myself of their poisonous lying.
I wanted the film to be life affirming.
When did you begin shooting?
As I watched two friends, both indigenous Koli fishermen in Bombay, being driven to desperation by a dying sea and their friendship beginning to fracture as they take very different paths to provide for their struggling families.
Ganesh and Rakesh
Meeting Rakesh was like finding a treasure trove. He is not stupid. Generations before him have understood the moon and the movement of the stars and the fish. He took a marker and on my whiteboard drew a bird’s eye view from the moon and stars shining light upon his boat and how the moon’s refracted light attracted the fish and lit the way for the fisherman.
I realized the film was about one people (the Koli) becoming divided in itself. Watching these two men conversing in 2019, I knew that was how I would build the film. I saw there were two factions in the community and one faction was “othering” the “other”. Like two monkeys fighting while the cat comes and takes the cream, each side blames the other for the lack of fish which in truth is being depleted by offshore oil drilling and climate change.
Rakesh and Ganesh fight to survive in this implacable reality they have no control over. Their strategies for getting by diverge, sometimes clash, but what they have in common is that they are fueled by the same determination to exist in a changing and merciless world where respect for nature and tradition weighs very little in the face of the economic and internationalized interests of some.
Ganesh chooses a different route of bringing in LED lighting on a large scale to attract fish but which leads him into forbidden watersd as well as into compeitition with the Chinese and big business. Both struggle to survive. Rakesh’s solution is the most radical.
And in the end, the two are reconciled by the birth of a new child. Rakesh has solved the problem by selling his boat and downsizing to a smaller boat but catching only high-value fish like lobster which bring in higher prices sufficient to feed his family while keeping overhead low. He has dignity and no debt, lives more slowly and celebrates life.
What attracts you to your subjects? Your previous and first film, Soz — A Ballad of Maladies, explored the tradition of political resistance through music and poetry in Kashmir.
Sk: The subjects reflect my own family’s history. My grandparents were born in Pakistan when the country was part of British India. In 1947, India and Pakistan were divided and the two countries entered into a mortal conflict, which continues today. My grandfather’s family, Sikhs, fled Pakistan to a refugee camp in New Delhi, where my father was born. In 1984, my grandparents managed to leave the camp and build a modest house, but it was completely destroyed during an anti-Sikh riot. I was one year old. My family had to move again.
I grew up with the trauma of these successive uprootings and a constant fear. This personal story brings me back to the Koli community, whose territory and tradition are also threatened. Bombay is a suffocated city where space is scarce and expensive. The Kolis’ lands are now the last available space in the city center and their owners, whose income depends on increasingly meager fisheries, are often forced to sell them to rich entrepreneurs or politicians who will build luxury residences with a view. The Kolis who still live there will be driven out in ten years by land pressure and rising waters. Even the most resistant, like Rakesh, will inexorably abandon their house and, with it, their way of life, a part of their history and their traditions. Like my father and his family, they will one day be displaced and become refugees.
Koli concerns are the concerns of all of Bombay. They’re the guardians of the city’s coast, the sea and even the mangroves. The Koli community of Bombay will be sacrificed for lucrative real estate deals and generalized inaction regarding climate change. It will soon disappear, and I am Zilming its last stirrings.India is one of the places where the effects of climate change are the most dramatic. Every year, the monsoon and the meteorological hazards become more violent and unpredictable. Since 2000, some of Mumbai’s shores have retreated by more than 20 meters and tomorrow, the city’s climate displaced will number, at the very least, in the hundreds of thousands. If nothing is done to curb climate change, many experts agree that Bombay will be largely submerged by 2050, with the Kolis’ land being the first to be flooded.
Rakesh is in a way the ancestral conscience of Ganesh. But by sticking to the age-old traditions of his people at all costs, he risks putting his family in danger. I didn’t want to make a film about who is good or bad; I wanted simply to witness and record as sincerely as possible the stakes that these two intelligent, honest and hard-working young men face, and the consequences that their decisions entail. By following the life of one and then the other, I hoped to make the viewer question his own convictions and the choices he would have made himself if he had been in their place.”
How did you begin and find support for this film?
SK: In December 2019 I shot a pilot for the film because I had the clarity of vision that it was about one community and the two “brothers” facing the crisis of the sea with its polution, lack of fish and that everything that was happening in the sea was showing itself in the financial crises, social crises and familial crises.
That’s how I started to get the workshops and funds. Once you begin, you are led, as if by your own nose. Then you find champions all over the world. If you care, you find others care about the story and the struggle.
It was life affirming. I felt lost, persecuted, alone. It was eye-opening that someone in Amsterdam or the US or France cared about my story and my struggles, to be recognized. The everyday lies are not the real world. The read world is in being true to oneself and then others lead you into life. That is the real world.
She is a recipient of multiple grants from Sundance Film Fund, Catapult Film Fund, IDFA Bertha, San Francisco Film Fund, AlterCine Foundation, HotDocs Crosscurrents International. She has also been a fellow at Hot Docs Accelerator Lab, IDFA Academy, Sffilm and the Chicken & Egg Eggcelerator Labs.
Further support came from Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in collaboration with the Cnc, Procirep Angoa.
Do you have advise for other doc filmmakers?
Sk: Lower your ambitions and strenthen your resolve. I do not want the moon.
I understand how radical it is and how documentary filmmakers (and journalists) themselves manage to make meaning out of their lives just as the Koli fishing people do, by living in a community, covering costs and needs basic in order to live a life of joy, love and sharing. That is radical and that is the lesson so many people come away with when they delve into the deeper meaning of life.
Do like Rakesh, downsize to support your life and that which is most meaningful in it. Thank you very much Sarvnik! You have restored my own resolve!
For my readers who have gotten this far, here is more informatin about the key crew:
Producer Koval Bhatia
Producer. Koval Bhatia is a filmmaker and producer based in India. She has been heading A Little Anarky Films for 12 years, during which time she has directed and produced commercials, impact films and TV shows. She began her journey as an international producer with Against The Tide, which she has pitched at multiple markets and forums across the world. She is currently a Getting Real Fellow at the International Documentary Association (IDA). Koval is a graduate from Eurodoc and a recipient of the Emerging Producer’s Bursary from the World Congress for Science and Factual Producers, and her feature documentaries as a producer have been awarded grants by Sundance Documentary Fund, Hot Docs, Catapult Film Fund, Docs By The Sea, Sffilm, Al Jazeera, and Dok Leipzig. She is a member of Ewa and Bgdm.
Co-producer. Quentin Laurent founded Les Films de l’Oœil Sauvage with Frédéric Féraud in 2015. Based in Paris and Marseille, the company mainly produces art-house documentaries and Quentin is particularly interested in non-Western narratives and viewpoints, in approaches that reveal spaces that have remained invisible or try to reconsider the perception of familiar places. He has recently produced or co-produced, Kinshasa Makamboby Dieudo Hamadi (Berlinale 2018), Overseas by Soa Yoon (Locarno 2019),Aswang by Alyx Arumpac (IDFA awarded 2019), Downstream to Kinshasa(Cannes 2020), Dreaming Wallsby Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier (Berlinale 2022), Things I Could Never Tell My Motherby Humaira Bilkis (Visions du Réel 2022), and Kristos the Last Childby Giulia Amati (Venice 20223)
Cinematography. Ashok Meena is an independent cinematographer from Rajasthan, India. He did his post-graduate degree in cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India, working towards building an independent visual language at work. Known for his experimental films and videos, his independent work has been traveling to festivals and art galleries across the world. Ashok has shot several documentary films including Kamal Swaroop’s Pushkar Puran,which had its European premiere at the 60th Dok Leipzig.
Editing. Atanas Georgiev is one of the owners of Trice Films and Film Trick from Macedonia, subsidiaries of FX3X. His directorial and producing debut, Cash & Marry, won many international awards and recognition. It was followed by Avec l’Amour, a festival favorite in 2017 premiering at Hot Docs, and soon after with Honeyland in 2019, a triple winner at Sundance Film Festival and nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Documentary and Best International Feature for 2020.
Editing. Blagoja Nedelkovskiis a film editor and musician based in Skopje, Macedonia. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Film & TV editing in Skopje in 2000. For almost two decades he has actively working on feature films, documentaries, TV series and music videos in Macedonia and the Balkans. He has also spent some time in Vienna, Austria, where he freelanced as an editor and an artist so that he could pay for his music studies at the Music Konzervatorium Franz Shubert. Some of the more notable projects as an editor are the films Punk’s Not Dead, State of Shock, To the Hilt,The Year of the Monkey, and Honeyland.
Sound Design. Moinak Bose is a sound designer based out of Bombay, India. He is a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, with a specialization in sound recording and sound design. Moinak’s work includes the internationally acclaimed films A Night of Knowing Nothing in 2021 (sound design) and All That Breathes in 2022 (sound recording), both of which won L’Œil d’Or (The Golden Eye) for best documentary at Cannes. The films have been screened at many festivals and won top prizes at TIFF and Sundance Film Festival respectively. Against The Tide is his latest work as a sound designer
International sales agent is Deckert
North American Distribution: Submarine Entertainment.
Genre: Documentary
Country: India/France
Language: Koli, Marathi, Hindi
Year: 2023
Duration: 97 min.
- 1/24/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Neon’s boutique label Super has secured U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s acclaimed drama Saint Omer, following its world premiere earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where the film won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature.
Inspired by a true story, Saint Omer is billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth. The film follows the novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
One of just four films selected to competition this year at the Venice,...
Inspired by a true story, Saint Omer is billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth. The film follows the novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
One of just four films selected to competition this year at the Venice,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Super, the boutique distribution label from Neon, has acquired U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” after it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize in Venice along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award.
“Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the New York Film Festival and play the BFI London Festival. Neon plans a theatrical release.
“Saint Omer” is Diop’s debut fiction feature, which she co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, and it stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit. Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral of Srab Films produced alongside Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo Hauts-de-France.
Inspired by a true story, “Saint Omer” revolves around Rama, a young novelist who attends the trial of a women who is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach.
“Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the New York Film Festival and play the BFI London Festival. Neon plans a theatrical release.
“Saint Omer” is Diop’s debut fiction feature, which she co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, and it stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit. Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral of Srab Films produced alongside Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo Hauts-de-France.
Inspired by a true story, “Saint Omer” revolves around Rama, a young novelist who attends the trial of a women who is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach.
- 9/16/2022
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, who directed the Oscar winners “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” U.S. producer Christine Vachon, whose credits includes Oscar winner “Boys Don’t Cry,” and Oscar nominees “Far from Heaven” and “Carol,” and Romania’s Alexander Nanau, the director of the Oscar nominated “Collective,” are among the jury members at the 18th edition of the Zurich Film Festival, which takes place from Sept. 22 to Oct. 2.
Farhadi will head the jury for the International Feature Film Competition. He is joined by the U.K.’s Clio Barnard, who directed the BAFTA nominated “The Arbor,” “The Selfish Giant” and “Ali & Ava”; L.A.-based Brazilian Daniel Dreifuss, a producer on the Oscar nominated “No” and “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Germany’s Oscar entry; Swiss/Italian screenwriter and director Petra Volpe, whose credits include Tribeca prizewinner “The Divine Order”; and Sweden’s Peter “Piodor” Gustafsson, the producer of Ali Abbassi’s “Border,...
Farhadi will head the jury for the International Feature Film Competition. He is joined by the U.K.’s Clio Barnard, who directed the BAFTA nominated “The Arbor,” “The Selfish Giant” and “Ali & Ava”; L.A.-based Brazilian Daniel Dreifuss, a producer on the Oscar nominated “No” and “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Germany’s Oscar entry; Swiss/Italian screenwriter and director Petra Volpe, whose credits include Tribeca prizewinner “The Divine Order”; and Sweden’s Peter “Piodor” Gustafsson, the producer of Ali Abbassi’s “Border,...
- 9/14/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Neon, Double Agent and Film4 are partnering to co-finance and exec produce 2073, a new documentary from Academy Award and BAFTA-winning director Asif Kapadia (Amy).
2073 is billed as a genre-bending thriller set in a dystopian future, which will tackle some of the biggest challenges imperiling our future. The project is inspired by Chris Marker’s iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée — about a time traveler who risks his life to change the course of history and save the future of humanity — which previously served as the basis for Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi pic 12 Monkeys, with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.
Kapadia and George Chignell are producing. Davis Guggenheim, Nicole Stott and Jonathan Silberberg will exec produce on behalf of Concordia Studio, alongside Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films.
Said Kapadia: “I want to make an epic about the state of the world, using elements of science fiction as a lens through which...
2073 is billed as a genre-bending thriller set in a dystopian future, which will tackle some of the biggest challenges imperiling our future. The project is inspired by Chris Marker’s iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée — about a time traveler who risks his life to change the course of history and save the future of humanity — which previously served as the basis for Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi pic 12 Monkeys, with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.
Kapadia and George Chignell are producing. Davis Guggenheim, Nicole Stott and Jonathan Silberberg will exec produce on behalf of Concordia Studio, alongside Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films.
Said Kapadia: “I want to make an epic about the state of the world, using elements of science fiction as a lens through which...
- 9/12/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Super has taken North American rights to Colm Bairéad’s award-winning drama The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin), which was recently announced as Ireland’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards and selected for the 2022 European Film Awards.
The film is based on the story “Foster” by Irish author Claire Keegan, who has just been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It’s set in rural Ireland in 1981 and follows the quiet, neglected girl, Cáit (Catherine Clinch), who is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with her mother’s relatives for the summer. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.
The Quiet Girl premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for Best Film. It then...
The film is based on the story “Foster” by Irish author Claire Keegan, who has just been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It’s set in rural Ireland in 1981 and follows the quiet, neglected girl, Cáit (Catherine Clinch), who is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with her mother’s relatives for the summer. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.
The Quiet Girl premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for Best Film. It then...
- 9/8/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
When the Sarajevo Film Festival was launched, back in 1995, it was in defiance. Founded during the siege of the city during the Bosnian War, the festival stood as a symbol of the power and resilience of cinema even in the face of violence and war.
In 2002, when the fest launched its CineLink program, it was amidst a mood of hope, a hope for a better future for the film industry in the former Yugoslavia and or the entire region of Southeastern Europe.
What started as a modest co-production market to encourage production with and between filmmakers in the region has now, two decades on, expanded to include a rich and diverse program of conferences, panels, talks and masterclasses. The heart of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry program, CineLink now plays an essential role in scouting for new talents from the region, mentoring...
When the Sarajevo Film Festival was launched, back in 1995, it was in defiance. Founded during the siege of the city during the Bosnian War, the festival stood as a symbol of the power and resilience of cinema even in the face of violence and war.
In 2002, when the fest launched its CineLink program, it was amidst a mood of hope, a hope for a better future for the film industry in the former Yugoslavia and or the entire region of Southeastern Europe.
What started as a modest co-production market to encourage production with and between filmmakers in the region has now, two decades on, expanded to include a rich and diverse program of conferences, panels, talks and masterclasses. The heart of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry program, CineLink now plays an essential role in scouting for new talents from the region, mentoring...
- 8/16/2022
- by Stjepan Hundic
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
New films from Tribeca prize winner Elina Psykou, Sarajevo winner Nikola Ležaić and the producers behind the upcoming Venice Horizons premiere “The Happiest Man in the World” are among the projects selected for the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Co-Production Market, the leading financing forum in Southeast Europe.
This year marks the 20th edition of the influential co-production market, which has launched films such as László Nemes’ Academy Award winner “Son of Saul,” Adina Pintilie’s Golden Bear winner “Touch Me Not” and Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s Oscar nominee “Honeyland.” Nine new feature film projects from the region currently in development will be presented to industry guests, along with seven new dramatic series in the event’s Drama strand.
The carefully curated selection is among the smallest for a major regional market. That allows the organizers to begin working with the chosen filmmakers months in advance, employing script...
This year marks the 20th edition of the influential co-production market, which has launched films such as László Nemes’ Academy Award winner “Son of Saul,” Adina Pintilie’s Golden Bear winner “Touch Me Not” and Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s Oscar nominee “Honeyland.” Nine new feature film projects from the region currently in development will be presented to industry guests, along with seven new dramatic series in the event’s Drama strand.
The carefully curated selection is among the smallest for a major regional market. That allows the organizers to begin working with the chosen filmmakers months in advance, employing script...
- 8/14/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
“Amazing Grace” arrived in theaters in 2019, some 47 years after the Aretha Franklin concert film was shot in a South L.A. church. The path to the screen was strewn with litigation — including an aborted premiere at the Telluride Film Festival that was halted by an injunction.
The film won raves from critics and was one of the year’s top grossing documentaries. But three years after its release, the litigation goes on.
On Wednesday, producer Alan Elliott filed suit in New York, accusing indie distributor Neon of botching the film’s release and awards campaign.
Elliott alleges that Neon prematurely announced it had acquired the film, scaring off potential rivals, and then failed to live up to its obligations once the deal was done. The suit alleges that Neon failed to properly market the film, particularly in African American communities.
“Neon kept the Picture out of theaters and away from...
The film won raves from critics and was one of the year’s top grossing documentaries. But three years after its release, the litigation goes on.
On Wednesday, producer Alan Elliott filed suit in New York, accusing indie distributor Neon of botching the film’s release and awards campaign.
Elliott alleges that Neon prematurely announced it had acquired the film, scaring off potential rivals, and then failed to live up to its obligations once the deal was done. The suit alleges that Neon failed to properly market the film, particularly in African American communities.
“Neon kept the Picture out of theaters and away from...
- 8/12/2022
- by Gene Maddaus
- Variety Film + TV
Neon’s head of distribution discusses trends in theatrical at Locarno Pro.
Neon head of distribution Elissa Federoff was one of the high-profile guests at the Locarno Film Festival’s industry programme Locarno Pro, delivering a keynote at the StepIn think tank and speaking “in conversation” about original language film distribution in the US.
Launched in 2017, independent distributor Neon has famously acquired three movies — 2019’s Parasite, 2021’s Titane and 2022’s Triangle of Sadness — that have gone on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Parasite was the first non-English language feature to win best film at the Academy Awards.
Neon head of distribution Elissa Federoff was one of the high-profile guests at the Locarno Film Festival’s industry programme Locarno Pro, delivering a keynote at the StepIn think tank and speaking “in conversation” about original language film distribution in the US.
Launched in 2017, independent distributor Neon has famously acquired three movies — 2019’s Parasite, 2021’s Titane and 2022’s Triangle of Sadness — that have gone on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Parasite was the first non-English language feature to win best film at the Academy Awards.
- 8/8/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
HBO Documentary Films has bought worldwide television rights for Cannes Special Screenings title “All That Breathes.”
The film is the only Sundance movie to screen as part of Cannes’ Official Selection this year — a feat all the more impressive given Cannes is not known for its documentary programming. In Park City, the film picked up the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Directed by Shaunak Sen (“Cities of Sleep”), “All That Breathes” follows two brothers who run a bird hospital dedicated to rescuing injured black kites, which are a staple in the skies of New Delhi, India.
In one of the world’s most populated cities, where cows, rats, monkeys, frogs and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people, the “kite brothers” care for thousands of these creatures, which fall daily from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between the family...
The film is the only Sundance movie to screen as part of Cannes’ Official Selection this year — a feat all the more impressive given Cannes is not known for its documentary programming. In Park City, the film picked up the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Directed by Shaunak Sen (“Cities of Sleep”), “All That Breathes” follows two brothers who run a bird hospital dedicated to rescuing injured black kites, which are a staple in the skies of New Delhi, India.
In one of the world’s most populated cities, where cows, rats, monkeys, frogs and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people, the “kite brothers” care for thousands of these creatures, which fall daily from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between the family...
- 5/20/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Festival
The second edition of the Ponta Lopud Festival (June 22-27) on the island of Lopud, near Dubrovnik, Croatia, will feature masterclasses from Oscar winners Frances McDormand and Joel Coen. “At this point in our professional lives, we can’t think of a better way to spend the warm days of summer than in conversation about the process of filmmaking and the love of film watching with a group of other filmmakers on an island in the Adriatic Sea,” said McDormand and Coen.
Participants at this year’s edition include filmmakers Tamara Kotevska (“Honeyland”), Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (“Murina), Una Gunjak (“Chicken”), and actor Gordan Bogdan (“Fargo”). There will also be lectures by director Juho Kuosmanen, producer Peter Spears and talent agent Brian Swardstrom and conversations between masters and participants moderated by special guests, directors Pawel Pawlikowski, Michel Franco, Lili Horvat, Danis Tanovic and Ognjen Glavonic.
The founders of the Ponta Lopud Festival are Miro Purivatra,...
The second edition of the Ponta Lopud Festival (June 22-27) on the island of Lopud, near Dubrovnik, Croatia, will feature masterclasses from Oscar winners Frances McDormand and Joel Coen. “At this point in our professional lives, we can’t think of a better way to spend the warm days of summer than in conversation about the process of filmmaking and the love of film watching with a group of other filmmakers on an island in the Adriatic Sea,” said McDormand and Coen.
Participants at this year’s edition include filmmakers Tamara Kotevska (“Honeyland”), Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (“Murina), Una Gunjak (“Chicken”), and actor Gordan Bogdan (“Fargo”). There will also be lectures by director Juho Kuosmanen, producer Peter Spears and talent agent Brian Swardstrom and conversations between masters and participants moderated by special guests, directors Pawel Pawlikowski, Michel Franco, Lili Horvat, Danis Tanovic and Ognjen Glavonic.
The founders of the Ponta Lopud Festival are Miro Purivatra,...
- 5/13/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Frances McDormand and Joel Coen are set to headline as ‘masters’ at the second edition of the Ponta Lopud Festival next month.
The U.S. duo will offer up a series of acting and directing masterclasses for the invite-only event which takes place on the Croatian island of Lopud.
The new festival, which was started last year by Sarajevo Film Festival former director and founder Miro Purivatra and Lopud’s Tilda Grossel Bogdanovic, is specifically tailored for directors, actors and cinematographers from southeast Europe.
This year, the festival will also host special lectures by director Juho Kuosmanen, producer Peter Spears and talent agent Brian Swardstrom. It will also host conversations between participants and special guests such as Pawel Pawlikowski, Michel Franco, Lili Horvat, Danis Tanovic and Ognjen Glavonic and Antonio Sanchez.
Among selected participants for the second edition of Ponta Lopud are: Honeyland director Tamara Kotevska; Murina helmer Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic,...
The U.S. duo will offer up a series of acting and directing masterclasses for the invite-only event which takes place on the Croatian island of Lopud.
The new festival, which was started last year by Sarajevo Film Festival former director and founder Miro Purivatra and Lopud’s Tilda Grossel Bogdanovic, is specifically tailored for directors, actors and cinematographers from southeast Europe.
This year, the festival will also host special lectures by director Juho Kuosmanen, producer Peter Spears and talent agent Brian Swardstrom. It will also host conversations between participants and special guests such as Pawel Pawlikowski, Michel Franco, Lili Horvat, Danis Tanovic and Ognjen Glavonic and Antonio Sanchez.
Among selected participants for the second edition of Ponta Lopud are: Honeyland director Tamara Kotevska; Murina helmer Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic,...
- 5/13/2022
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
Lecturers include Finland’s Juho Kuosmanen, US producer Peter Spears.
US duo Frances McDormand and Joel Coen will be ‘masters’ for the second edition of Ponta Lopud Film Festival, on the island of Lopud near Dubrovnik, Croatia.
McDormand and Coen will give invite-only masterclasses to directors, actors and cinematographers from Southeast Europe, in the festival from June 22 to 27.
Ponta Lopud was started last year by Miro Purivatra, founder and long-time director of Sarajevo Film Festival; and Tilda Grossel Bogdanovic.
The festival will also host lectures from Juho Kuosmanen, Finnish director of Compartment No. 6; Peter Spears, US producer of titles including...
US duo Frances McDormand and Joel Coen will be ‘masters’ for the second edition of Ponta Lopud Film Festival, on the island of Lopud near Dubrovnik, Croatia.
McDormand and Coen will give invite-only masterclasses to directors, actors and cinematographers from Southeast Europe, in the festival from June 22 to 27.
Ponta Lopud was started last year by Miro Purivatra, founder and long-time director of Sarajevo Film Festival; and Tilda Grossel Bogdanovic.
The festival will also host lectures from Juho Kuosmanen, Finnish director of Compartment No. 6; Peter Spears, US producer of titles including...
- 5/13/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Sphere, the Montreal-based production and distribution outfit, has acquired fellow Canadian company MK2 Mile End.
Leading film distributor MK2 Mile End, which was launched in 2017 by Charles Tremblay with French outfit MK2, will be absorbed into Sphere, with Tremblay appointed as president of the division. French company MK2 will no longer have a stake in the Canadian company.
Sphere continues to operate in the international film distribution space via Sphere Films (formerly WaZabi Films), with Anick Poirier and Lorne Price selling features to the international market.
MK2 Mile End has distributed titles in Canada including Palme d’Or winner Parasite, Celine Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, the double-Oscar-nominated Honeyland, and the Quebec films And the Birds Rained Down by Louise Archambault and Maria Chapdelaine by Sébastien Pilote. It recently released The Wolf and the Lion, which has Canadian box-office earnings of 850,000 to date. The company launched its...
Leading film distributor MK2 Mile End, which was launched in 2017 by Charles Tremblay with French outfit MK2, will be absorbed into Sphere, with Tremblay appointed as president of the division. French company MK2 will no longer have a stake in the Canadian company.
Sphere continues to operate in the international film distribution space via Sphere Films (formerly WaZabi Films), with Anick Poirier and Lorne Price selling features to the international market.
MK2 Mile End has distributed titles in Canada including Palme d’Or winner Parasite, Celine Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, the double-Oscar-nominated Honeyland, and the Quebec films And the Birds Rained Down by Louise Archambault and Maria Chapdelaine by Sébastien Pilote. It recently released The Wolf and the Lion, which has Canadian box-office earnings of 850,000 to date. The company launched its...
- 4/13/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Broadcast
The BBC has acquired U.K. free-to-air rights of high profile crime drama “Tokyo Vice” (8 x 60’), which has a pilot episode directed by Michael Mann, from Endeavor Content. The BBC has second window rights for the U.K. and will air it later this year. The series will stream in the U.K. on Starzplay from May 15. Endeavor has sold the series, currently streaming on HBO Max in the U.S., wide.
Co-produced by HBO Max, Endeavor and Japanese broadcaster Wowow, the series is based on American journalist Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. The series, filmed on location in Tokyo, captures Adelstein’s (Ansel Elgort) daily descent into the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo, where nothing and no one is truly what or who they seem. “Tokyo Vice” was created and written by Tony-winning playwright J.T. Rogers, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer.
The BBC has acquired U.K. free-to-air rights of high profile crime drama “Tokyo Vice” (8 x 60’), which has a pilot episode directed by Michael Mann, from Endeavor Content. The BBC has second window rights for the U.K. and will air it later this year. The series will stream in the U.K. on Starzplay from May 15. Endeavor has sold the series, currently streaming on HBO Max in the U.S., wide.
Co-produced by HBO Max, Endeavor and Japanese broadcaster Wowow, the series is based on American journalist Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. The series, filmed on location in Tokyo, captures Adelstein’s (Ansel Elgort) daily descent into the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo, where nothing and no one is truly what or who they seem. “Tokyo Vice” was created and written by Tony-winning playwright J.T. Rogers, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer.
- 4/13/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
A panel composed of representatives from A-list festivals got together on Sunday for an online talk staged by documentary film festival Visions du Réel to discuss the place of documentary films at their events.
The speakers were Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, U.S. programmer and selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival, Cristina Nord, head of the Berlinale Forum, Eva Sangiorgi, director of the Viennale, and Frédéric Boyer, artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival.
Asked to outline their selection criteria, most panelists agreed theirs was a director-driven approach based on individual submissions.
“It’s first and foremost about inviting films that are truly inspiring and ground-breaking: it’s always interesting when you discover something that you haven’t seen before,” said Nord, adding that documentaries hold a significant place in the Berlinale’s independently curated, experimental Forum section, where they represent roughly half of the films selected.
“Our objective...
The speakers were Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, U.S. programmer and selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival, Cristina Nord, head of the Berlinale Forum, Eva Sangiorgi, director of the Viennale, and Frédéric Boyer, artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival.
Asked to outline their selection criteria, most panelists agreed theirs was a director-driven approach based on individual submissions.
“It’s first and foremost about inviting films that are truly inspiring and ground-breaking: it’s always interesting when you discover something that you haven’t seen before,” said Nord, adding that documentaries hold a significant place in the Berlinale’s independently curated, experimental Forum section, where they represent roughly half of the films selected.
“Our objective...
- 4/12/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
A version of this story about “Flee” first appeared in the Down to the Wire of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
In terms of making history at this year’s Oscars, no film matches the three-peat achieved by Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee.”
The Danish documentary about the life of an Afghan refugee named Amin is not simply the first animated film nominated for Best Documentary Feature, which would be remarkable enough – but it was also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film. The movies “Honeyland” (2019) and “Collective” (2020) were the first to be nominated in the documentary and international categories. “Flee” matched that record and beat it.
“It’s just crazy and amazing,” said Danish director Rasmussen. “This film started just as a conversation between two friends. In the beginning, I brought up the idea of maybe making it as a short documentary, and back then, nearly 10 years ago,...
In terms of making history at this year’s Oscars, no film matches the three-peat achieved by Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee.”
The Danish documentary about the life of an Afghan refugee named Amin is not simply the first animated film nominated for Best Documentary Feature, which would be remarkable enough – but it was also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film. The movies “Honeyland” (2019) and “Collective” (2020) were the first to be nominated in the documentary and international categories. “Flee” matched that record and beat it.
“It’s just crazy and amazing,” said Danish director Rasmussen. “This film started just as a conversation between two friends. In the beginning, I brought up the idea of maybe making it as a short documentary, and back then, nearly 10 years ago,...
- 3/16/2022
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
In the streaming age, documentary filmmakers, once the long-suffering artists working in obscurity to finish self-funded passion projects, have become rock stars. Deep-pocketed platforms such as Netflix and Hulu have dished out for costly archival clearances and biopic rights, and the strategy has invariably led to awards glory.
But just as the medium has become more elevated, so too has it grown increasingly global in scope, with a vast network of documentary gatekeepers venturing outside the traditional nonfiction markets of the U.S. and Western Europe for the next big project that can go the distance to become an awards contender.
“We’re growing closer together in a good way,” says Rick Perez, the newly installed president of the Los Angeles-based Intl. Documentary Assn. The former Sundance documentary executive recognizes the influence of the streamers, but says the nonfiction boom is mainly the result of the decades-long work of independents...
But just as the medium has become more elevated, so too has it grown increasingly global in scope, with a vast network of documentary gatekeepers venturing outside the traditional nonfiction markets of the U.S. and Western Europe for the next big project that can go the distance to become an awards contender.
“We’re growing closer together in a good way,” says Rick Perez, the newly installed president of the Los Angeles-based Intl. Documentary Assn. The former Sundance documentary executive recognizes the influence of the streamers, but says the nonfiction boom is mainly the result of the decades-long work of independents...
- 2/28/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
The Academy’s International Feature Film Award Committee has nothing to do with selecting the foreign-language submissions from more than 90 countries around the world. It’s up to the individual country to figure out which film has the best chance to build a following among some 1,000 global Academy participants (mostly in Los Angeles) who watch a dozen films at festivals, screenings, theaters, or on the Academy online portal, and rate them to come up with a shortlist of 15 films for the overall Academy to watch. Those who see the entire shortlist can pick the final five nominees.
While many in Hollywood decry this method of selecting the international Oscar contenders, the scale and logistics of the submitting and voting process have staved off any meaningful reform. More countries are participating every year: this year 92 submissions were eligible. Some members would like to see 10 nominees, given the high volume of quality films on display.
While many in Hollywood decry this method of selecting the international Oscar contenders, the scale and logistics of the submitting and voting process have staved off any meaningful reform. More countries are participating every year: this year 92 submissions were eligible. Some members would like to see 10 nominees, given the high volume of quality films on display.
- 2/10/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The Academy’s International Feature Film Award Committee has nothing to do with selecting the foreign-language submissions from more than 90 countries around the world. It’s up to the individual country to figure out which film has the best chance to build a following among some 1,000 global Academy participants (mostly in Los Angeles) who watch a dozen films at festivals, screenings, theaters, or on the Academy online portal, and rate them to come up with a shortlist of 15 films for the overall Academy to watch. Those who see the entire shortlist can pick the final five nominees.
While many in Hollywood decry this method of selecting the international Oscar contenders, the scale and logistics of the submitting and voting process have staved off any meaningful reform. More countries are participating every year: this year 92 submissions were eligible. Some members would like to see 10 nominees, given the high volume of quality films on display.
While many in Hollywood decry this method of selecting the international Oscar contenders, the scale and logistics of the submitting and voting process have staved off any meaningful reform. More countries are participating every year: this year 92 submissions were eligible. Some members would like to see 10 nominees, given the high volume of quality films on display.
- 2/10/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 2022 Oscar nominations were good for “Flee,” which was nominated three times: Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature, and Best Animated Feature. Though a couple of films in recent years had been nominated in two of those categories, no film had ever swept all three until now. Check out the complete list of Oscar nominations here.
“Flee” follows Amin Nawabi, who fled Afghanistan as a refugee and settled in Denmark. It premiered at Sundance in 2021 more than a year ago before hitting the fall festival circuit and then opening to audiences on December 3. Before the Oscar nominations the film had already received myriad awards and/or nominations from the European Film Awards, the Gotham Awards, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Producers Guild, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Annie Awards.
Receiving nominations across those categories never happened for most of Oscar history.
“Flee” follows Amin Nawabi, who fled Afghanistan as a refugee and settled in Denmark. It premiered at Sundance in 2021 more than a year ago before hitting the fall festival circuit and then opening to audiences on December 3. Before the Oscar nominations the film had already received myriad awards and/or nominations from the European Film Awards, the Gotham Awards, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Producers Guild, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Annie Awards.
Receiving nominations across those categories never happened for most of Oscar history.
- 2/8/2022
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Every Academy Awards season provides a little slice of history, but more Oscar records could fall with Tuesday’s announcement of the nominations. Here are some of the landmarks that could conceivably be reached:
• If Kenneth Branagh is nominated for both Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for “Belfast,” he’ll break the record for nominations in the largest number of different categories. Branagh has previously been nominated in five different categories: Best Actor (“Henry V”), Best Supporting Actor (“My Week With Marilyn”), Best Director (“Henry V”), Best Adapted Screenplay (“Hamlet”) and Best Live Action Short (“Swan Song”). George Clooney, Alfonso Cuarón and Walt Disney have all been nominated in six different categories.
• If Jane Campion is nominated for Best Director for “The Power of the Dog,” she’ll become the first woman ever nominated twice in the category. (She was previously nominated for 1993’s “The Piano.”)
• If “The Power of the Dog,...
• If Kenneth Branagh is nominated for both Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for “Belfast,” he’ll break the record for nominations in the largest number of different categories. Branagh has previously been nominated in five different categories: Best Actor (“Henry V”), Best Supporting Actor (“My Week With Marilyn”), Best Director (“Henry V”), Best Adapted Screenplay (“Hamlet”) and Best Live Action Short (“Swan Song”). George Clooney, Alfonso Cuarón and Walt Disney have all been nominated in six different categories.
• If Jane Campion is nominated for Best Director for “The Power of the Dog,” she’ll become the first woman ever nominated twice in the category. (She was previously nominated for 1993’s “The Piano.”)
• If “The Power of the Dog,...
- 2/7/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
In the streaming age, documentary filmmakers, once the long-suffering artists working in obscurity to finish self-funded passion projects, have become rock stars. Deep-pocketed platforms like Netflix and Hulu have dished out for costly archival clearances and biopic rights, and the strategy has invariably led to awards glory.
But just as the medium has become more elevated, so too has it grown increasingly global in scope, with a vast network of documentary gatekeepers venturing outside the traditional nonfiction markets of the U.S. and Western Europe for the next big project that can go the distance to become an awards contender.
“We’re growing closer together in a good way,” says Rick Perez, the newly installed president of the Los Angeles-based International Documentary Assn. The former Sundance documentary executive recognizes the influence of the streamers, but says the nonfiction boom is mainly the result of the decades-long work of independents like...
But just as the medium has become more elevated, so too has it grown increasingly global in scope, with a vast network of documentary gatekeepers venturing outside the traditional nonfiction markets of the U.S. and Western Europe for the next big project that can go the distance to become an awards contender.
“We’re growing closer together in a good way,” says Rick Perez, the newly installed president of the Los Angeles-based International Documentary Assn. The former Sundance documentary executive recognizes the influence of the streamers, but says the nonfiction boom is mainly the result of the decades-long work of independents like...
- 1/27/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
The Sffilm Documentary Film Fund (Dff) officially has deemed the 2021 winners.
Now in its 10th year, Dff awarded a total of $60,000 in grant funding to four documentary projects, in $15,000 increments each. The funding will support feature-length documentaries in post-production.
Per the official Sffilm announcement, the Dff supports “non-fiction films that are distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an innovative visual approach.” The 2021 winners include “Against the Tide,” “Driver,” “Hummingbirds,” and “Weed Dreams.”
“In an incredibly competitive slate of submissions, we are thrilled with the winning selections,” Masashi Niwano, Sffilm Director of Artist Development, said. “All of these films explore the human experience in new and powerful ways that truly moved our jury to tears.”
Since its founding in 2011, the Sffilm Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly $1 million to filmmakers across the nation. The 2021 Dff is made possible by support from Jennifer Hymes Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation.
The 2021 panelists...
Now in its 10th year, Dff awarded a total of $60,000 in grant funding to four documentary projects, in $15,000 increments each. The funding will support feature-length documentaries in post-production.
Per the official Sffilm announcement, the Dff supports “non-fiction films that are distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an innovative visual approach.” The 2021 winners include “Against the Tide,” “Driver,” “Hummingbirds,” and “Weed Dreams.”
“In an incredibly competitive slate of submissions, we are thrilled with the winning selections,” Masashi Niwano, Sffilm Director of Artist Development, said. “All of these films explore the human experience in new and powerful ways that truly moved our jury to tears.”
Since its founding in 2011, the Sffilm Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly $1 million to filmmakers across the nation. The 2021 Dff is made possible by support from Jennifer Hymes Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation.
The 2021 panelists...
- 1/27/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
With 92 features to watch, the Academy’s International Feature Film Committee, drawn from various branch members willing to watch an assigned slate of 12 films, selected a shortlist of 15. Any voter who watches all 15 can pick the final five.
What will they be? We hazard an educated guess based on festival awards, critics’ groups, and other anecdotal gleanings of Academy favorites. These films are among the year’s best. Check them out in all their glory in theaters if you can; some won’t be available at home for a few more weeks. (Read: How to Watch the 2022 Oscar Contenders at Home.)
Festival heavyweights include major Cannes standouts like Austria’s “Great Freedom,” Mexico’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary “Flee,” and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s three-hour meditation on Chekhov, “Drive My Car,” which is gaining so much acclaim that people are...
What will they be? We hazard an educated guess based on festival awards, critics’ groups, and other anecdotal gleanings of Academy favorites. These films are among the year’s best. Check them out in all their glory in theaters if you can; some won’t be available at home for a few more weeks. (Read: How to Watch the 2022 Oscar Contenders at Home.)
Festival heavyweights include major Cannes standouts like Austria’s “Great Freedom,” Mexico’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary “Flee,” and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s three-hour meditation on Chekhov, “Drive My Car,” which is gaining so much acclaim that people are...
- 1/25/2022
- by Anne Thompson, Eric Kohn and David Ehrlich
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 2022 Oscar shortlists were good for “Flee,” which was cited twice: Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature, in addition to the film also being eligible for Best Animated Feature. Though a couple of films in recent years have been nominated in two of those categories, no film has ever swept all three. And judging from our early odds in those races, this will be the film to do it.
“Flee” tells the true story of Amin Nawabi, who fled Afghanistan and settled in Denmark as a refugee. It premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival almost a year ago before hitting the Toronto and New York fests in the fall and opening in theaters on December 3. Thus far, the film has already received a wide range of awards and nominations, including the European Film Award for Best European Documentary, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Animation,...
“Flee” tells the true story of Amin Nawabi, who fled Afghanistan and settled in Denmark as a refugee. It premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival almost a year ago before hitting the Toronto and New York fests in the fall and opening in theaters on December 3. Thus far, the film has already received a wide range of awards and nominations, including the European Film Award for Best European Documentary, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Animation,...
- 1/2/2022
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
The two Oscar frontrunners for Best Documentary Feature are safely through to the next round of voting.
Summer of Soul and Flee earned spots on the Oscar doc feature shortlist announced today, as Documentary Branch voters whittled the list of contending films from 138 qualifiers to 15 [see full lists below].
Flee, the Neon release directed by Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen, not only made the doc feature shortlist, but the shortlist for Best International Film as well, representing Denmark. That rare shortlist double was accomplished last Oscar season by the Romanian documentary Collective, and a year earlier by the North Macedonian film Honeyland (both Collective and Honeyland went on to score Oscar nominations in both categories). Flee remains in the running in a third Oscar category, Animated Feature.
Flee and Summer of Soul,...
Summer of Soul and Flee earned spots on the Oscar doc feature shortlist announced today, as Documentary Branch voters whittled the list of contending films from 138 qualifiers to 15 [see full lists below].
Flee, the Neon release directed by Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen, not only made the doc feature shortlist, but the shortlist for Best International Film as well, representing Denmark. That rare shortlist double was accomplished last Oscar season by the Romanian documentary Collective, and a year earlier by the North Macedonian film Honeyland (both Collective and Honeyland went on to score Oscar nominations in both categories). Flee remains in the running in a third Oscar category, Animated Feature.
Flee and Summer of Soul,...
- 12/21/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
After four consecutive years of losing out to other continents, European cinema reclaimed the international feature Oscar earlier this year with Thomas Vinterberg’s Danish entry “Another Round.” It was a return to form for the region that has traditionally dominated the race, and annually boasts the lion’s share of contenders at the submissions stage. More than 40% of the 93 submissions in this year’s race are European, and with many of the season’s buzziest titles among them, the continent has a strong collective chance of holding onto the gold.
Not that buzz always translates to gold in this category, in which no year passes without at least one hotly hyped contender failing to make even the pre-nomination shortlist.
The biggest wild card in this year’s race comes from the country that holds the record for the most nominations in the category’s history: having pushed 39 films into the final five before,...
Not that buzz always translates to gold in this category, in which no year passes without at least one hotly hyped contender failing to make even the pre-nomination shortlist.
The biggest wild card in this year’s race comes from the country that holds the record for the most nominations in the category’s history: having pushed 39 films into the final five before,...
- 12/9/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Documentaries are often among the best movies of the year, but in 93 years of Oscar ceremonies, no documentary has ever been nominated for Best Picture. Many documentaries campaign heavily for Best Original Song, and six documentaries have been nominated in the category over the past decade. “Honeyland” and “Collective” received nominations for Best International Feature Film, but campaigns for “Hoop Dreams” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” came up short.
The oversight raises major questions about the way the Academy Awards tend to prioritize conventional narratives over non-fiction, and whether that distinction has any merit in the first place. “What the fuck is a picture in a Best Picture race? I don’t know even know what that means,” said veteran documentary executive Sheila Nevins, a no-nonsense advocate for the form who produced over 1,000 documentaries at HBO prior to joining MTV Studios. “A best picture of what? There is no rule that says anything about reality versus reenactment.
The oversight raises major questions about the way the Academy Awards tend to prioritize conventional narratives over non-fiction, and whether that distinction has any merit in the first place. “What the fuck is a picture in a Best Picture race? I don’t know even know what that means,” said veteran documentary executive Sheila Nevins, a no-nonsense advocate for the form who produced over 1,000 documentaries at HBO prior to joining MTV Studios. “A best picture of what? There is no rule that says anything about reality versus reenactment.
- 11/30/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Germany-based documentary sales outfit Deckert Distribution has named Liselot Verbrugge as its new CEO.
The former Autlook Sales executive takes the reins of the company as founder Heino Deckert shifts gears to focus fully on production. Deckert has also further expanded with the hire of sales and acquisitions executive Patrizia Mancini.
Verbrugge, who previously oversaw TV and VOD sales for Autlook, joined Deckert in early 2019 as head of sales and acquisitions. In her career, she has been responsible for the roll-out of double Academy Award-nominated “Honeyland” and for acquiring Francesco Montagner’s “Brotherhood” and Ahmet Necdet Cupur’s “Les Enfants Terribles.” She started in film production and worked for festivals such as IDFA and Cinekid before switching to international film sales in 2014.
Deckert, who founded the sales agent in 2003, will remain a shareholder in the outfit, and also serve as an advisor. He said that after several years of managing various companies,...
The former Autlook Sales executive takes the reins of the company as founder Heino Deckert shifts gears to focus fully on production. Deckert has also further expanded with the hire of sales and acquisitions executive Patrizia Mancini.
Verbrugge, who previously oversaw TV and VOD sales for Autlook, joined Deckert in early 2019 as head of sales and acquisitions. In her career, she has been responsible for the roll-out of double Academy Award-nominated “Honeyland” and for acquiring Francesco Montagner’s “Brotherhood” and Ahmet Necdet Cupur’s “Les Enfants Terribles.” She started in film production and worked for festivals such as IDFA and Cinekid before switching to international film sales in 2014.
Deckert, who founded the sales agent in 2003, will remain a shareholder in the outfit, and also serve as an advisor. He said that after several years of managing various companies,...
- 11/18/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
When people talk about diversifying the entertainment industry, it almost always centers on race, gender or sexuality. But one of the most radical shifts in Hollywood has gone largely unnoticed: The Oscars’ documentary branch more than doubled its membership over the past five years, and around half of its new voters are based outside the U.S.
The move hasn’t just turned more foreign docs into Oscar finalists and nominees. It’s now influencing which films get funded and distributed, and determining winners in categories as big as international feature and best picture.
“We have an effect on what wins in other categories, so when you see a [South Korean] film like ‘Parasite’ win best picture, our branch probably played a big role in that,” says Roger Ross Williams, a documentary branch governor.
“We have a huge block of 26% international members, and they’re not necessarily voting for the same U.
The move hasn’t just turned more foreign docs into Oscar finalists and nominees. It’s now influencing which films get funded and distributed, and determining winners in categories as big as international feature and best picture.
“We have an effect on what wins in other categories, so when you see a [South Korean] film like ‘Parasite’ win best picture, our branch probably played a big role in that,” says Roger Ross Williams, a documentary branch governor.
“We have a huge block of 26% international members, and they’re not necessarily voting for the same U.
- 11/11/2021
- by Gregg Goldstein
- Variety Film + TV
Super Ltd has acquired North American rights to Bianca Stigter’s Three Minutes — A Lengthening, a Holocaust documentary co-produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown). The doc will be released in theaters next year.
Stigter’s first feature-length doc centers on a three-minute home movie shot by David Kurtz on a European holiday in 1938, in a Jewish town in Poland. The amateur footage— discovered by Kurtz’s grandson, writer Glenn Kurtz, in his parents’ Florida home—captures the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk just one year before the Nazis invaded. Most were eventually killed in the Treblinka extermination camp.
Family Affairs Films’ Floor Onrust produced Stigter’s meditation on history and memory with Lammas Park, with the support of The Netherlands Film Fund and Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
The film made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival...
Stigter’s first feature-length doc centers on a three-minute home movie shot by David Kurtz on a European holiday in 1938, in a Jewish town in Poland. The amateur footage— discovered by Kurtz’s grandson, writer Glenn Kurtz, in his parents’ Florida home—captures the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk just one year before the Nazis invaded. Most were eventually killed in the Treblinka extermination camp.
Family Affairs Films’ Floor Onrust produced Stigter’s meditation on history and memory with Lammas Park, with the support of The Netherlands Film Fund and Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
The film made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival...
- 10/19/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline 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.