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The Video Essay is a joint project of Mubi and Filmadrid International Film Festival. Film analysis and criticism forged a new path with the arrival of the video essay. The limits of this discipline are constantly expanding; new essayists are finding innovative ways to study the history of cinema through moving images. This non-competitive section of the festival is designed to offer this format the platform and visibility it deserves.This selection of seven video essays was programmed by the editors of Notebook and the programmers of Filmadrid. In the coming weeks, a video essay from the program will premiere each Friday on Notebook.“The Phantoms of Malmkrog: Where Lies the Expression in Cinema?” by Kasra Karbasi and Amin KomijaniIn what way does cinema convey emotions to us? How does the connection of the elements of a scene with its aesthetic choices arouse our feelings? If—in a Bressonian way...

Romania’s Puiu competed for the Palme d’Or in 2016 with ‘Sieranevada’.

The next feature from feted Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu is among 12 titles selected for FIDLab, the co-production incubator of French festival FIDMarseille.

The 14th edition of the showcase, known for its focus on experimental documentary and fiction features, is set to be held from July 7-8 and will return as an in-person for the first time since 2019.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The selection includes Mmxx, an ensemble drama from Romanian director Puiu that revolves around a therapist, her younger brother, husband and an organised crime investigator.

For a festival that prides itself on shining a spotlight on the domestic industry, the Transilvania Film Festival can point to a record number of Romanian films unspooling at this year’s 20th-anniversary edition, with 32 feature-length and 13 short films – including 13 world premieres – set to screen in the scenic medieval city of Cluj from July 23 – Aug. 1.

But despite the historic selection, which includes three films arriving fresh off of Cannes premieres, it’s an uneasy time for the local film industry. Funding from the Romanian Film Center (Cnc) ground to a halt last year as the coronavirus pandemic leveled the Romanian economy, and an industry that for two decades has produced a string of world cinema heavyweights has been left to wonder what the future has in store.

Speaking ahead of this year’s festival, producer and TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu spoke candidly about the ostensibly prolific output, crediting “the fortunate...

"But we really must continue this discussion." Sovereign Film Distribution has debuted a new trailer for the UK release of Malmkrog arriving on VOD there starting in March. The film originally premiered at last year's Berlin Film Festival, and also stopped by the New York Film Festival and many others. Malmkrog, which translates to Manor House (the alternate release title), is the latest film from acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu and runs a full 3 hours, 20 minutes but gets into some intense discussions. The film is made up almost entirely of conversations between guests at a house. A landowner, a politician, a countess, a General and his wife, all gather in a spacious manor and discuss death, war, progress and morality. As the time passes by, the discussion becomes more serious and heated. Starring Frédéric Schulz-Richard, Agathe Bosch, Diana Sakalauskaité, Marina Palii, Ugo Broussot, and István Téglás. Critics have been raving...

Spanish producer-distributor Wanda Films is set to co-produce Antonio Méndez Esparza‘s “Madrid Is It,” a thriller with comedic touches produced by Pedro Hernández’s Aquí y Allí Films, the Madrid-based outfit that has backed all of the features directed by Esparza, one of Spain’s most laureled and lauded directors.

“Madrid Is It” focuses on Lucía, who leads a discrete life, has a peculiar sense of humor and sense of duty, and a dreamy personality. Her quiet life suddenly changes, however, when her boss embezzles funds at the company and everybody lose their jobs. She decides to reinvent her life, working as a taxi driver. When her life finally seems to regain a certain stability and ease, Lucía sees how everything takes another turn for the worst and the film, to this point a comedy, turns into a revenge thriller.

“‘Madrid Is It’ will also be a road movie across Madrid,...

Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu is known for making films of near-punishing lengths, from the 181-minute “Aurora” to the just-under-three-hours “Sieranevada.” His latest film, the philosophical historical drama “Malmkrog,” is 200 minutes — a long time to sit in a theater while wearing a face mask. (“Tenet” faces a similar challenge with its two-and-a-half-hour runtime.)

Puiu, while presenting his new film at the Transylvania International Film Festival this summer, thinks so too. Which is why, in his introduction to the movie, he said it was “inhuman” to watch his film with a mask on, and launched into a speech stating that, while the virus is real, the “tone of the authorities is unacceptable.” The speech, below, was reported by Romania Journal.

Ok, I understand, social distancing, and the obligation to wear a face mask in open air in Cluj. Ok, I am sorry for you, it is a 200-minute film. To stay with...

It’s difficult to exactly quantify the impact of Cristi Puiu’s second feature. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is a film about an ambulance worker’s attempts to get care for a dying man against the backdrop of a disinterested and bureaucratic healthcare system. It won Puiu the main award in Un Certain Regard at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival; kick-started what would become known as the Romanian New Wave; and paved the way for his compatriot Christian Mungiu to win the Palme d’Or with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days just two years after. If Mungiu’s film was Romania’s Parasite, in a sense Puiu’s was its Oldboy.

His third feature, Aurora (2010), explored some similar themes but over the last decade Puiu branched out to experimental literary adaptation and dialogue-heavy chamber piece. Those two threads come together in Malmkrog, an adaptation of three conversations by the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov,...

There’s plenty of wit to be found in the films that constitute the Romanian New Wave, but any laughs they elicit wind up sounding more like dry coughs. These movies tend to find their humor in subjects like an overburdened health-care system (“The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”), corruption in the education system (“Graduation”), family strife (“Sieranevada”) and other topics relevant to the nation dealing with the lingering aftereffects of the Ceausescu era.

So even if writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu seems more amenable to absurdist comedy — and genre conventions — than his peers in this talented community, his latest film “The Whistlers” still traffics in bleak chuckles.

It’s a wonderfully labyrinthine story of cops and robbers that might not be an official sequel to Porumboiu’s 2009 “Police, Adjective” (that year’s Romanian Oscar entry), but it does explore many of that film’s concerns, from the subtle distinctions between law and...

Cristi Puiu’s fourth film makes a virtue of high seriousness as guests at a country house discuss God, man, warfare and evil

Cristi Puiu is the film-maker who spearheaded Romanian new wave 15 years ago with his brilliant The Death of Mr Lazarescu, and then five years later with his dauntingly opaque existential drama Aurora, and after that the strange Sieranevada – the intimate study of a family gathered to honour the death of a father. These realist dramas, considered together, were intelligibly the product of one film-maker in a recognisable – if difficult – style. Ten years ago, in fact, Puiu was talking about a projected “suite” of six such tales, and these appeared to be the first three.

His new feature, however, could not be more different. It is an almost impossibly stark, austere, cerebral and verbose film, running at three hours and 20 minutes, populated by the leisured classes of a distant age.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Cristi Puiu’s “Malmkrog,” the opening film of the Berlin Film Festival’s new competitive strand, Encounters. Shellac is handling world sales.

“Malmkrog” is set at the manor house of an aristocratic landowner in Transylvania. Among the handpicked guests who have arrived to spend the Christmas holidays are a politician, a young countess, and a general with his wife. Over sumptuous meals and parlor games, the guests discuss progress and morality, death and the Antichrist. As the debate grows more heated, cultural rifts between them begin to emerge, and the climate becomes increasingly tense.

The 200-minute drama is based on a text by the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. “The problems posed by adapting a real event for the screen are to a large extent contiguous with those that arise in the case of creating a film version of a literary text,...

The films on this admittedly non-comprehensive list were not distributed by major studios, but by smaller specialty companies. They played for a couple of weeks (or less) in big cities, maybe even just one night in a museum. They weren’t on the multiplex radar at all. But to adventurous film audiences, they were a vital part of any discussion about cinema. They told complex stories ignored by major studios. The dug deeper into abstraction or discomfort. And they pushed at the edges of filmmaking practice in ways that will influence the mainstream in the future.

“Cemetery of Splendor” (2015)

A makeshift hospital on an ancient royal burial ground houses soldiers overcome with a mysterious sleeping sickness. Then they begin psychically communicating with the women who work there. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s oblique, delicate story of historical memory and collective awakening that plays out like a dream.

“Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?...

The Toronto Film Festival today unveiled The Best Of The Decade: An Alternative View, a top ten movie list from the last decade. Tiff asked film curators, historians, and archivists from Canada and around the world to choose the best films of the 2010s — any length, genre, or format. Judging by the list, it’s fair to say that superhero movies weren’t front of mind.

Coming out on top of the arthouse list was…Lucrecia Martel’s 2017 festival favourite Zama, the dreamlike tale about a Spanish officer in Seventeenth century Asunción, Paraguay, awaiting his transfer to Buenos Aires. Plenty of great movies make the cut. Check it out below.

“Many of the films in the poll’s top 10 address the perilous era we have just lived through, with such prescient works as Film Socialisme, Neighboring Sounds, and Sieranevada predicting various types of ecological, political, and social calamity,” said Tiff Senior Programmer James Quandt.

The Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday listed the best films of the last decade, led by Lucrecia Martel's Zama, a 2017 adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto's existential novel.

Naming in all 19 films that stood out during the 2010s, Tiff programmers chose Maren Ade's 2017 tragicomedy Toni Erdmann as their second-best, followed by Jean-Luc Godard's 2014 drama Goodbye to Language in third place.

Barry Jenkins' 2017 Oscar best picture winner Moonlight and Cristi Puiu's 2016 drama Sieranevada round out the top five.

The best-of-the-decade also includes Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and Jordan Peele's Get Out among ...

The Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday listed the best films of the last decade, led by Lucrecia Martel's Zama, a 2017 adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto's existential novel.

Naming in all 19 films that stood out during the 2010s, Tiff programmers chose Maren Ade's 2017 tragicomedy Toni Erdmann as their second-best, followed by Jean-Luc Godard's 2014 drama Goodbye to Language in third place.

Barry Jenkins' 2017 Oscar best picture winner Moonlight and Cristi Puiu's 2016 drama Sieranevada round out the top five.

The best-of-the-decade also includes Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and Jordan Peele's Get Out among ...

“Cinema is not about advertising or propaganda. Cinema is not about beauty or beautiful images. Cinema is about truth.”

So stated Romanian director Cristi Puiu, delivering a masterclass at the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival.

A pioneer of the “Romanian New Wave” movement, Puiu won the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes for his film “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005). His films “Aurora” (2010) and “Sieranevada” (2016) also played at Cannes.

Philosophical and contemplative, Puiu spoke out against filmmakers who “push an agenda” with “propaganda films.”

“The problem with propaganda films is that you are betraying yourself first as a human,” he cautioned. “If you are genuinely curious to find out who you are, you are going to leave this propaganda field.”

Truth, he added, is not something that filmmakers can articulate and reach – rather it is “like a destination for eternity.” He also explained that truth is difficult to achieve...

Malmkrog

As we await the production of Romanian auteur Cristi Puiu’s Hora Staccato (which was announced as a project around the same time Sieranevada went into development and looks to be something we should see in 2020), it appears the director has gone ahead and filmed another project called Malmkrog, which according to the film’s producer Anca Puiu, is filmed mostly in French. Puiu’s latest is inspired by and freely adapted from philosopher Vladimir Solovyov’s book War, Progress and the End of History: Three Conversations, Including a Short Story of the Anti-Christ.…...

Pintilie was known for films including ‘Reconstruction’ and ‘Next Stop Paradise’.

Lucian Pintilie, the Romanian director of film, television, theatre and opera, has died on May 16 in Bucharest at the age of 84, according to local news reports.

Known for films including 1968 drama Reconstruction, Pintilie had a long career in filmmaking, directing his first film Sunday At Six in 1966 and continuing to work throughout his life – he was most recently a co-producer on fellow Romanian Cristi Puiu’s 2016 Palme d’Or nominated Sieranevada.

A graduate of the I.L. Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest, Pintilie twice appeared in Competition at Cannes,...

The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany's leading international indie fest, is again this year inviting producers and directors to a one-day co-production meet to pitch their latest projects.

The so-called Matchbox co-production lounge, which will run Sept. 16, will this year include a mix of industry veterans and newcomers to the indie scene. Among the veterans are acclaimed Romanian director Cristi Puiu, whose The Death of Mr. Lazarescu won Cannes Un Certain Regard award in 2005 and who was in Cannes competition last year with Sieranevada. Together with his long-time production partner Anca Puiu, he will be coming to Oldenburg to...

Exclusive: Constantin Popescu’s drama sells to France.

Wide Management has sealed a first pre-sale on Romanian director Constantin Popescu’s missing child family drama Pororoca to Paris-based distributor New Story.

Bogdan Dumitrache, whose recent credits include Sieranevada, plays a happily married accountant who loses his young daughter during a routine trip to the park.

“For plausibility, the script was reviewed by psychologists and Bogdan prepared his role with psychologists to understand fully the state of mind of his character,” said Wide Management sales chief Diane Ferrandez.

“We’re very happy for New Story to be venturing off the beaten path by committing to the film on a yet to be finalised cut,” she added.

Other titles on Wide Management’s Cannes slate include Once Upon A Time In November, Euthanizer and Bulgarian director Petar Valchanov’s upcoming The Father, which is prompting buying interest on the back of his last film The Lesson.

A dysfunctional family converges on their family home to kill one of their own in Happy Bus Day, the second feature from young Korean helmer Lee Seung-won. Two years on from his debut, the ironically titled Communication and Lies, in which a couple tells fibs to sustain a fragile relationship, Lee’s latest is all about eight people tearing each other apart with more callous candor.

Unfolding mostly within the claustrophobic confines of a small house, Happy Bus Day plays out like a cruder version of Cristi Puiu’s family-meltdown drama Sieranevada, complete with the emotional histrionics common in Korean domestic...

A preview of this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival.The Cinema Travellers

With nationalism on the rise there is a palpable hunger for art than connects nations and peoples. No art form bridges cultural divides like film. The programmers at the San Francisco International Film Festival (rechristened “Sffilm”) have always taken on this mission with enthusiasm and a keen eye for quality. Sffilm celebrates its 60th birthday this year and is the longest running film festival in the Americas. It is precisely this year’s slate of foreign films that poignantly illustrate the capacity of cinema to speak universally.

A perfect example is the extraordinary The Cinema Travelers — Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s indescribable real-life ride-along with the travelling tent theaters of India, alive but struggling in the most remote of remote corners of that huge country for more than 70 years.

In focusing on two tent cinema operators and their milieu, on...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– Exclusive: The 12th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival announced its official selections for the 2017 event featuring films with Alec Baldwin, Dylan McDermott, John Cleese, Daphne Zuniga and more. Opening night will feature Michael Mailer’s newest film, “Blind,” a romantic-drama, starring Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore and Dylan McDermott. Closing night will wrap up the festival with “Albion: The Enchanted Stallion,” a family fantasy adventure, starring John Cleese, Debra Messing, Jennifer Morrison and Stephen Dorff.

Retrospective Screenings will include Daphne Zuniga appearance at the festival honoring the 30th anniversary of “Spaceballs.” Also in this category will be “The Greatest Show on Earth,” from 1952 directed by Cecile B. DeMille, which won the Oscar for Best Pictures and Best Writing in 1953. The screening will honor the closing of the Ringling Bros.

Cristi Puiu's Cannes film Sieranevada scooped major awards at the Gopo awards, the Romanian equivalent of the Oscars, at a ceremony held in Bucharest on Tuesday.

The film, which centers on a family gathered to mark an anniversary of its patriarch's recent death, premiered in the official selection at the Cannes international film festival last year and was later selected as Romania's entry in the best foreign-language Oscar race.

Sieranevada was awarded as the best film, and Puiu collected the best director and the best screenplay awards.

The film's stars Dana Dogaru and Ana Ciontea were named as...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) has announced the winners of its 28th edition, with “Toni Erdmann,” Isabelle Huppert and and “Neruda” among the honorees. Held between January 2 – 16, the fest boasts a lineup of 190 films from 72 countries — including a great many Oscar submissions that aren’t widely screened elsewhere, like Cristi Puiu’s “Sieranevada.”

Read More: Foreign Language Film Directors Discuss Common Ground, Rivalries at Palm Springs Contenders Panel

Best of the Fest screenings will take place today. Full list of winners below:

Read More: Isabelle Huppert Wins the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama

Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature

“When We Rise” (U.S.), directed by Gus Van Sant

Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

“Take Me Home Huey” (U.S.), directed by Alicia Brauns and Christine Steele

Fipresci Prize for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

“Toni Erdmann” (Germany), directed by...

Only in America: The O.J. Simpson saga [See previous post: Isabelle Huppert & Moonlight among Nsfc winners.] The National Society of Film Critics' Best Non-Fiction Film was Ezra Edelman's five-part Espn Films documentary O.J.: Made in America, about the trials (there were two) and tribulations of disgraced all-American football player and sometime movie actor O.J. Simpson (The Towering Inferno, The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad!). In 1994, Simpson was accused of murdering his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman in Los Angeles' Brentwood neighborhood. The ensuing trial became one of the ugliest – and most popular – all-American circuses of the second half of the 20th century. With the assistance of a high-profile defense team, Simpson was acquitted of the murders, but at a follow-up civil trial he was found liable for Brown Simpson's and Goldman's wrongful deaths. Years later, in 2008, he would be convicted of and imprisoned for several felonies unrelated to the 1994 murders.

Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” has been named the best picture of the year by the National Society of Film Critics. The coming-of-age drama that tackles sexuality and African American male identity took the lead in a voting session with 54 votes, seconded by “Manchester by the Sea” with 39 votes and “La La Land” in third place with 31. More to come. Read the full list of winners: Special Citation for a film awaiting American distribution: Sieranevada (Romania) Cristi Puiu Film Heritage Award: Kino Lorber’s 5-disc collection “Pioneers of African-American Cinema” Best Actor *1. Casey Affleck (65) – Manchester by the Sea 2. Denzel Washington...

Adding to its list of accolades, “Moonlight” has been named the Best Picture of 2016 by the National Society of Film Critics on Saturday, January 7.

Directed by Barry Jenkins (who also won the Best Director honor), the movie explores the life of a young man’s struggles, told across three defining chapters of his life, as he grapples with his sexuality and broken family. Mahershala Ali, who portrays Juan in the film, also received the award for Best Supporting Actor.

Read More: La Film Critics Association Names ‘Moonlight’ Best Film of 2016

Isabelle Huppert received the Best Actress award for her roles in “Elle” and “Things to Come,” runner-ups included Annette Bening (“20th Century Women”) and Sandra Huller (“Toni Erdmann”). The Best Actor prize went to “Manchester by the Sea” star Casey Affleck, with Denzel Washington (“Fences”) and Adam Driver (“Paterson”) as runner-ups.

Marking the 51st annual meeting of the National Society of Film Critics,...

We all experience drastically different film years. For simple logistical reasons, this Europe-based reviewer has yet been able to see Moonlight, Jackie, Silence, Fences, Lion, I Am Not Your Negro, 20th Century Women and – alas, our collective top film of year – Manchester by the Sea. Understandable, then, that my perception of 2016 at the cinemas wouldn’t quite align with that of my colleagues.

Based on the 281 films watched (yeah, this reviewer really gave 2016 its chances), it’s not been the most exciting year cinematically. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of good-great movies were released or screened at festivals these past 12 months – the final list-making proved just as difficult and arbitrary as always. But from the Spotlight-led Oscar season to an edition of Cannes that crowned I, Daniel Blake, accompanied by the overall weak turnout of Chinese-language cinema we’ve gone on about, there did seem to be a shorter supply of instant,...

The drama prevailed in Saturday’s vote, earning best picture, director for Barry Jenkins, supporting actor for Mahershala Ali and cinematography for James Laxton.

Manchester By The Sea earned three prizes for Casey Affleck in the best actor race, Michelle Williams as best supporting actress and Kenneth Lonergan for his screenplay.

Isabelle Huppert was named best actress for Elle and Things To Come, while Toni Erdmann took best foreign-language honours and O.J.: Made In America prevailed in the non-fiction contest.

The Society held its 51st annual awards vote at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Center as guests of the Film Society Of Lincoln Center in New York.

The weighted voting system produced mostly runaway winners, although there were ties for second and third place in the lead actress and foreign-language categories.

Fifty-four members were eligible to vote and to qualify, entries must have opened in the Us during 2016.

Full Winners At National Society Of Film Critics 51st Annual...

Find out what made our top 10 films of 2016 - and which films feature on Team Screen’s overall top 10.Scroll down for Screen’s overall top 10

Screen’s esteemed critics have had their turn. Now, Screen staff, contributors and correspondents reveal their favourite films seen in 2016. Festival premieres and UK/Us theatrical releases are deemed eligible.

Matt Mueller (editor)

Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins)La La Land (dir. Damien Chazelle)Aquarius (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)Mustang (dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven)Hell Or High Water (dir. David Mackenzie)Embrace Of The Serpent (dir. Ciro Guerra)Little Men (dir. Ira Sachs)Suntan (dir. Argyris Papadimitropoulos)Love & Friendship (dir. Whit Stillman)Nocturnal Animals (dir Tom Ford)Jeremy Kay (Us editor)

Manchester By The Sea (dir. Kenneth Lonergan)Neruda (dir. Pablo Larrain)Aquarius (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)Deadpool (dir Tim Miller)Fire At Sea (dir. Gianfranco Rosi)Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins)Oj: Made In America (dir. Ezra Edelman)[link=tt...

“Moonlight” has been a critical favorite for months, but this may be its biggest endorsement yet: Barry Jenkins’ decade-spanning portrait of a young black man growing up in Miami dominated IndieWire’s 2016 Critics Poll, winning five of the 10 categories in which it was eligible. See the full results here.

More than 200 critics voted in the poll, which found “Moonlight” winning Best Film, Best Director (Jenkins), Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali as the film’s paternal drug dealer), Best Cinematography (James Laxton) and Best Editing (Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon). But there’s a lot more to dig through in this year’s results, as they reflect our largest participation to date.

In a dramatic year for voting processes, it’s only appropriate that our year-end critics survey featured a particularly dramatic turnout. With hundreds of critics voting on their their favorite films and performances, IndieWire’s annual Critics Poll presents...

“From Afar”

On Monday, December 12th, the last two films from the 85 qualified submissions in the Best Foreign Language Film race were screen for voters, which means the 9-film shortlist, comprised of six popular choices and three executive votes, will soon be announced. Unlike previous years in which a clear frontrunner had been established early on in the season, this year the competition feels wide open even if there are so unquestionable favorites.

Europe’s dominance continues with films such as the acclaimed “Toni Erdmann,” which is the closest to a frontrunner there is, Almodovar’s “Julieta,” France’s “Elle,” and Denmark’s “Land of Mine.” Latin America put forward a weaker pack of films than in year’s prior while still having a couple marvels in competition. Asia, including the Middle East, and Africa, each have a handful of films that could surprise and shake the Eurocentric category for a change.

Cristi Puiu’s absorbing, intimate drama “Sieranevada” is Romania’s entry for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar after contending at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and being hailed by the Chicago International Film Festival. Most of its nearly three-hour running time takes place inside a cramped Romanian apartment as a large extended family gathers to ritually commemorate the passing of its patriarch. […]...

A Palme D’Or nominee at the Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada has been submitted as Romania’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film. A sprawling, ambitious family drama, coming in at a nearly three hour running time, the latest entry from the much-lauded filmmaker tells the story of a successful neurologist, who gathers with family on the anniversary of his father’s death. A thoughtful, melancholy reflection on family and one’s place…...

Sight & Sound, the BFI’s international film magazine, has unveiled its annual Top 20 films of the year list. Topping their annual poll is the German-Austrian comedy “Toni Erdmann” directed by Maren Ade. The film stars Sandra Hüller as a reluctant woman who must spend time with her estranged father, portrayed by Peter Simonischek, when he comes for a surprise visit.

“This makes us extremely proud, especially considering how many films you all watch in a year — and since we are all longstanding followers of the poll!” Ade stated.

Read More: New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2016: Full Winners List (Updated Live)

In second place is Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” with Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle,” starring Isabelle Huppert, in third place. This year’s top five list also boasts three incredibly talented female directors: Ade, Kelly Reichardt (“Certain Women”) and Andrea Arnold (“American Honey”), each known for their bold and original storytelling.

It may just be the start of December, but there’s already no shortage of best-of-2016 lists. While ours won’t arrive until closer to year’s end, one of the most astute organizations have delivered theirs today. The BFI magazine Sight & Sound polled over 150 UK and international film critics on their favorite films of the year and the resulting 20 selections are quite fantastic.

Led by Maren Ade‘s Toni Erdmann, its top five is rounded out by Moonlight, Elle, Certain Women, and American Honey. One of our favorite selections is Bertrand Bonello‘s Paris-set terrorism drama Nocturama, one of the most distinct and bold features I’ve seen all year, and one in desperate need of U.S. distribution. In terms of documentaries, Kirsten Johnson‘s fantastic Cameraperson made the cut as did Italy’s Oscar entry Fire at Sea.

“I am delighted that our poll recognizes the talent...

Cristi Puiu. Photo by Alexi Pelekanos, courtesy of the ViennaleSieranevada, Cristi Puiu's latest fictional feature film is not only a fictional film, it is a film about fiction. It is about the fictions and lies we escape to in order to live on. Moreover, it is about the impotence when realizing that we are living in this net of fictions and lies. When asked about his viewing habits the Romanian director loves to stress that he prefers documentary to fictional cinema. Many of those who have written about Puiu focus on the so-called documentary qualities of his cinema, meaning his kind of realism, the way his camera and editing does not interfere too much with the action. Such observations are arguable to say the least because for Puiu, who has made some documentaries inspired by Raymond Depardon like 25.12.1995, București, Gara de Nord (1996) or 13 - 19 iulie 1998, Craiova, Azilul de batrani...

Chicago – The recently completed 52nd Chicago International Film Festival offered a world perspective on cinema, and honors the films that will influence the arts culture for years to come. Their Awards Night was October 21st, 2016, and was hosted by Richard Roeper, film critic of the Chicago Sun Times. The recipient of the top prize of the fest, the Gold Hugo, was “Sieranevada” (Romania), directed by Cristi Puiu.

The 52nd Chicago International Film Festival Awards Night was Oct. 21, 2016

Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival

The awards event took place at the AMC River East Theatre. Presenters included Programming Director Mimi Plauché, programmers Anthony Kaufman and Sam Flancher, plus various jury members – which included Geraldine Chapman (actress and daughter of Charlie Chaplin), who presided over the International Feature Film Competition Jury. Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com sat on the Animation Shorts jury. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Openers, Closers and Other Additions

– The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the films that will play in the Special Screenings section of AFI Fest 2016 presented by Audi, which includes three World Premieres and four additional highly anticipated films.

The World Premiere of the CG-animated film “Moana” will play in the Special Screenings section, along with “Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds” and “Toni Erdmann.” Also bowing as Special Screenings will be the World Premieres of “Miss Sloane” and, as previously announced, “The Comedian.”

AFI Fest has also added Pablo Larrain’s lauded “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman, as a Centerpiece Gala.

– The Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced that “American Pastoral,” the directorial debut of Perthshire-born Ewan McGregor will have a special Edinburgh International Film Festival Gala at the Filmhouse,...

While it’s futile to analyze the Oscar race in general — especially many months in advance — we do give special credence to a specific section of the Academy Awards: the Best Foreign Language Film submissions. Often one of the few categories during the ceremony that will actually highlight perhaps underseen works, we’re now giving you a chance to get ahead of the game with a full overview.

As close as cinema gets to a World Cup or Olympics, each country is able to submit their choice to compete for the award, with a few guidelines. Notably, each film must have been released in its respective country from October 1st of the previous year to September 30th of this year.

With that date recently passing, The Academy has confirmed a record 85 countries that have submitted a proper selection. Notable inclusions are Maren Ade‘s Toni Erdmann, Pedro Almodóvar‘s Julieta,...

Eighty-five countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 89th Academy Awards. Yemen is a first-time entrant.

The 2016 submissions are:

Albania, “Chromium,” Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, “The Well,” Lotfi Bouchouchi, director;

Argentina, “The Distinguished Citizen,” Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat, directors;

Australia, “Tanna,” Bentley Dean, Martin Butler, directors;

Austria, “Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe,” Maria Schrader, director;

Bangladesh, “link=tt5510934 auto]The Unnamed[/link],” Tauquir Ahmed, director;

Belgium, “The Ardennes,” Robin Pront, director;

Bolivia, “Sealed Cargo,” Julia Vargas Weise, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Death in Sarajevo,” Danis Tanovic, director;

Brazil, “Little Secret,” David Schurmann, director;

Bulgaria, “Losers,” Ivaylo Hristov, director;

Cambodia, “Before the Fall,” Ian White, director;

Canada, “It’s Only the End of the World,” Xavier Dolan, director;

Chile, “Neruda,” Pablo Larraín, director;

China, “Xuan Zang,” Huo Jianqi, director;

Colombia, “Alias Maria,” José Luis Rugeles, director;

Costa Rica, “About Us,” Hernán Jiménez, director;

Croatia, “On the Other Side,...

The official submissions for the foreign language Oscar are in from around the world, and the Academy has deemed a record 85 eligible to compete. Last year, 81 submissions were released theatrically in their home countries between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015. (This year’s deadline for submissions was October 3, 2016.)

Several Academy foreign committees comprised of members from all the branches will whittle down the films to a shortlist of nine and finally, five Oscar nominees. (Last year’s winner was Cannes prize-winner “Son of Saul,” directed by Hungarian Lazlo Nemes.) Many countries pick films that do well on the festival circuit as their strongest Oscar contender; others do not.

Politics often intervene: Brazil’s submission was expected to be Cannes competition film “Aquarius,” starring Sonia Braga, but it was embroiled in controversy over filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s support of outgoing impeached president Dilma Rousseff. Bruno Barreto’s Brazil selection committee went...

The official submissions for the foreign language Oscar are in from around the world, and the Academy has deemed a record 85 eligible to compete. Last year, 81 submissions were released theatrically in their home countries between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015. (This year’s deadline for submissions was October 3, 2016.)

Several Academy foreign committees comprised of members from all the branches will whittle down the films to a shortlist of nine and finally, five Oscar nominees. (Last year’s winner was Cannes prize-winner “Son of Saul,” directed by Hungarian Lazlo Nemes.) Many countries pick films that do well on the festival circuit as their strongest Oscar contender; others do not.

Politics often intervene: Brazil’s submission was expected to be Cannes competition film “Aquarius,” starring Sonia Braga, but it was embroiled in controversy over filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s support of outgoing impeached president Dilma Rousseff. Bruno Barreto’s Brazil selection committee went...

Eighty-five countries have submitted a film for consideration in the 60th anniversary year of the foreign language film category.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science said on Tuesday that this season also marks the first time Yemen has submitted a film, Khadija Al-Salami’s I Am Nojoom, Age 10 And Divorced.

The 89th Oscars will take place on February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. László Nemes’ Hungarian entry Son Of Saul won the award last February.

Foreign-language Academy Award Submissions

(Country, Title, director)

Albania, Chromium, dir Bujar Alimani;

Algeria, The Well, Lotfi Bouchouchi;

Argentina, The Distinguished Citizen, Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat;

Australia, Tanna, Bentley Dean, Martin Butler;

Austria, Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe, Maria Schrader;

Bangladesh, The Unnamed, Tauquir Ahmed;

Belgium, The Ardennes, Robin Pront;

Bolivia, Sealed Cargo, Julia Vargas Weise;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Death In Sarajevo, Danis Tanovic;

Brazil, Little Secret, David Schurmann.

Bulgaria, Losers, [link...

Above: Us one sheet for Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, USA, 2016).The 54th New York Film Festival starts tonight, and, as I have done for the past seven years, I have collected all the posters I could find for the films in the festival’s main slate, otherwise billed as “Twenty-five of the most exciting new feature films from around the world.”I can’t attest to the films themselves yet, but the two best posters of the festival are those for Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight and Ava DuVernay’s 13th. Both posters feature striking and stylized images of African American men, which is fitting for a festival that is kicking off with—in its first documentary opening night ever—DuVernay’s urgent examination into America’s mass incarceration of black men.None of the other posters are quite as exciting, though I do have a soft spot for the blatantly Photoshopped family...

The Untamed and Toni Erdmann will screen at the 18th edition of the Brazilian event next month alongside tributes to the late David Bowie and Prince.

All in all 250 films from more than 60 countries in 15 sections will screen in 20 venues, including the new Olympic Boulevard unveiled for the recent summer Olympics.

Three new sections debut at this festival, which runs from set to run from October 6-16.

Cinema Marginal explores two critical Brazilian film movements, while Universal Monsters features seven restored Universal classics, and Wanderer Artists includes a tribute to Brazilian plastic artist Tunga.

Programmes include World Panorama, Première Brasil, Première Latina, Expectations, Generation, Midnight Movies & Docs, Frontiers, Threatened Environment and Unique Itineraries.

World Panorama selections include Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake and Mare Ade’s Toni Erdmann and Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada.

Premiere Latina includes Venice selections The Blind Christ (Chile-France) by Christopher Murray’s and Amat Escalante’s The Untamed (pictured), as well as...

FilmFestival Cottbus co-pro event will feature ten projects this year.

Cottbus Connects, the east-west co-production market held at FilmFestival Cottbus in Germany, has revealed the ten projects that will be pitched at its next edition, November 10-11.

The projects participating this year include Berliner from Romanian producer Anca Puiu, producer and husband of Cristi Puiu, who produced 2016 Cannes competition title Sieranevada, which is Romania’s submission to this year’s Oscar race. The film will be directed by Marian Crisan, whose 2008 short Megatron (produced by Puiu) won a Palme d’Or for best short film.

Also being pitched this year will be The Return, from BAFTA-winning Ida producer Piotr Dzięcioł. The film will be directed by Krzysztof Rzączyński and also produced by Maciej Rzączyński.

The Best Pitch Award comes with a $1,700 (€1,500) prize and accreditation to the Cannes Producer Network in 2017. Also up for grabs is the Post Pitch Award, which comes with $28,000 (€25,000) and is designated by a jury...

Exclusive: Fifth film from Hirokazu Koreeda protégé stars Masahiro Motoki.

Paris-based Elle Driver has snapped up international sales on Japanese director Miwa Nishikawa’s heart-warming drama The Long Excuse ahead of its world premiere in Toronto’s Special Presentations strand.

Popular Japanese actor Masahiro Matoki - best known internationally for his performance in the 2008 Oscar-winning film Departures - plays Sachio Kinugasa, a popular writer coming to terms with the death of his wife in a bus crash alongside a friend.

Sachio had long checked out of his loveless marriage and was with another woman at the moment of his wife’s death so he has to fake his grief to keep up appearances.

The true implications of his loss are brought into sharp relief, however, when Sachio meets the devastated husband of his wife’s friend and offers to look after their children so the latter - a truck-driver - can go back to work.

It is the...

A decade after jumpstarting the Romanian New Wave with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Cristi Puiu returns with a virtuosic chamber drama set largely within a labyrinthine Bucharest apartment where a cantankerous extended family has gathered forty days after its patriarch’s death (and three days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris). Rituals and meals are anticipated and delayed, doors open and close, and the camera hovers at thresholds and in corridors. As claustrophobia mounts, heated, humorous exchanges—about the old Communist days and the present age of terror—coalesce into a brilliantly staged and observed portrait of personal and social disquiet. “Sieranevada” was directed by Cristi Puiu. The New York Film [ Read More ]

The post New York Film Festival 2016: Sieranevada Gets Another New Clip appeared first on Shockya.com.

A decade after jumpstarting the Romanian New Wave with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Cristi Puiu returns with a virtuosic chamber drama set largely within a labyrinthine Bucharest apartment where a cantankerous extended family has gathered forty days after its patriarch’s death (and three days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris). Rituals and meals are anticipated and delayed, doors open and close, and the camera hovers at thresholds and in corridors. As claustrophobia mounts, heated, humorous exchanges—about the old Communist days and the present age of terror—coalesce into a brilliantly staged and observed portrait of personal and social disquiet. “Sieranevada” was directed by Cristi Puiu. The New York Film [ Read More ]

The post New York Film Festival 2016: Sieranevada Gets A New Clip appeared first on Shockya.com.