28th European Film Awards - The Jury Awards

The European Film Academy announces the first winners who will be honored at this year’s 28th European Film Awards.

A special seven-member jury convened in Berlin and, based on the EFA Selection list and the additional film entries, decided on the winners in the categories cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, composer and sound design. The following are the jury members.

Anna Asp, production designer, Sweden
Daniela Ciancio, costume designer, Italy
Mathieu Cox, sound designer, Belgium
Uberto Pasolini, director/producer, UK
Adam Sikora, cinematographer, Poland
Kjartan Sveinsson, composer, Iceland
Monika Will, editor, Austria

The European Film Academy congratulates the following awards recipients:

European Cinematographer -Prix Carlo di Palma: Martin Gschlacht for Ich Seh Ich Seh (Goodnight Mommy), Austria
Jury Statement: The photography in Goodnight Mommy is extremely consistent and suggestive. Every frame is created in the atmosphere of the film and strengthens its dramaturgy. These pictures are testimony to the huge visual sensitivity of the cinematographer. They are an excellent example of the use of composition and light and offer a new, very modern understanding of the art of cinematography.

European Editor: Jacek Drosio for Ciało (Body), Poland
Jury Statement: The editing of Body is an outstanding example of playful precision. Underpinned by shining humor, the montage uses cinematography’s many-faceted imagery to create space for each character, for each character’s dignity, the deceased and the viewer. Jacek Drosio allows us to linger, steps up the beat where needed and shifts perspectives to compose a splendid narration that brings all pain and longing together in a good laugh.

European Production Designer: Sylvie Olivé for Le Tout nouveau testament (The Brand New Testament), Belgium, France and Luxembourg
Jury Statement: The design follows and supports the drama in a beautiful, funny and artistic way, mixing the real and the surreal with a lot of ironic fantasy.

European Costume Designer: Sarah Blenkinsop for The Lobster, UK, Ireland, Greece, France and the Netherlands
Jury Statement: Using color and shape in a wonderful way to paint each frame of the film, the costume design helps to realize the director’s vision. Every single item the actors wear has its own recognizable story.

European Composer: Cat's Eyes for The Duke of Burgundy, UK and Hungary
Jury Statement: For a very brave and daring approach to film scoring, with all the right elements of musical craftsmanship and visual understanding.

European Sound Designer: Vasco Pimentel and Miguel Martins for As Mil e uma Noites - Vol. I-III (Arabian Nights-Vol. I-III), Portugal, Germany, France and Switzerland
Jury Statement: The Sound Design for ARABIAN NIGHTS possesses a strong identity, combining documentary and fiction styles. Each sound sequence develops an original point of view closely matching the narration. The result is brilliant poetry, full of life and boldness.

To check the official announcement go here. The nominations in the categories European Film, Comedy, Director, Screenwriter, Actress and Actor will be announced on 7 November at the Seville European Film Festival.

The members of the European Film Academy, more than 3,000 European film professionals, will then vote for the winners and all awards recipients will receive their EFA Statuette during the 28th European Film Awards Ceremony. Taking place at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin on Saturday, 12 December, the event will be streamed live on www.europeanfilmawards.eu

88th Academy Awards Documentary Short Films Shortlist

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for #Oscars2016 has been narrowed to ten (10) films, of which three to five will earn a nomination.

Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s seventy-four (74) eligible entries and selected the following ten.

Body Team 12, David Darg, Liberia, 13'
Chau, Beyond the Lines, Courtney Marsh, USA and Vietnam, 23'
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, Adam Benzine, Canada, USA and UK, 40'
50 Feet from Syria, Skye Fitzgerald, Turkey, USA and Syria, 39'
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Pakistan, 40'
Last Day of Freedom, Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman, USA, 32'
Minerita, Raúl de la Fuente, Spain and Bolivia, 28'
My Enemy, My Brother, Ann Shin, Canada, 18'
Punkt wyjscia (Starting Point), Michał Szcześniak, Poland, 27'
The Testinomy, Vanessa Block, USA,

To read the press release go here.  The nominations will be announced live on Thursday, Jan. 14 at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The 88th Oscars will be held on Feb. 28 at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by ABC.

Check synopsis, trailers, excerpts, interviews or other video material for the ten doc short films shortlisted by the Academy.

Body Team 12
Synopsis: Body Team 12 is tasked with collecting the dead at the height of the Ebola outbreak. These body collectors have arguably the most dangerous and gruesome job in the world. Yet despite the strain they emerge as heroes while the film explores their philosophy and strength.



Chau, Beyond the Lines
Synopsis: Chau, a 16-year-old boy living in a Vietnamese peace camp for kids disabled by Agent Orange, battles with the reality of his dream to one day become a professional clothing designer.



Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
Synopsis: The first major documentary examining the life and work of maverick French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann.



50 Feet From Syria
Synopsis: '50 feet from Syria' follows Syrian-American surgeon Hisham Bismar as he travels to the Turkish/Syrian border to volunteer operating on victims from the Syrian civil war.



A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Synopsis: More than a 1000 women are killed in the name of 'honor' in Pakistan every year. A Girl in the River: The price of forgiveness follows the story of a rare survivor who falls in love and lives to tell the tale.

Last Day of Freedom
Synopsis: When Bill Babbitt realizes his brother Manny has committed a crime he agonizes over his decision to call the police. Living Condition: Bill's Story is an animated account of his decision to support and help his brother in the face of war, crime and capital execution.



Minerita
Synopsis: Cerro Rico in Potosí (Bolivia) is a lawless territory, characterized by brutal violence. The miners risk their lives every day, digging for silver and zinc in crumbling galleries. The ones that survive think they’re entitled to anything and everything. And that’s when they go on the hunt… for women. Minerita is the story of three women—Lucía (40), Ivone (16) and Abigail (17)—who work as night watchwomen or inside the mine, struggling to survive in an inhuman inferno. Their only weapon is their courage… and dynamite.



My Enemy, My Brother
Synopsis: The real life story about two former enemies who become blood brothers for life: Zahed Haftlang was an Iranian boy who ran away from home to join the army. Najah Aboud was a 19-year old Iraqi who had been conscripted to fight in the war, leaving behind his wife and son. Both men fought in the Iran-Iraq war where Zahed finds Najah injured in a bunker and decides to risk his own life to save him. Zahed kept Najah alive for days, after which Najah was finally taken as a prisoner of war. Their lives diverge and they don't see nor hear of one another for 20 years until one day they meet by sheer coincidence in Vancouver.



Punkt wyjscia (Starting Point)
Synopsis: Aneta 'rebelled to the max' at the age of nineteen and wound up in prison for murder. Nine years later, her daily routine takes her from behind the walls of the prison to a care home for the elderly.



The Testimony
Synopsis:  An unprecedented glimpse into the unshakable resilience of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through the lens of the largest rape tribunal ever in the country's history.

#Oscars2016 Foreign-Language Submissions Facts

Current edition missed by 2 films the submission record established last year of 83 submissions; still, 81 submissions is a huge amount of cinema to be considered and distilled into a short list of 9 films. AMPAS foreign-language committee members have once again the annual hard and uphill task of watching films from many places in the world, some with high quality and others with not so-much-so quality.

From the 81 countries that submitted a film, only one, Paraguay, is a newcomer with it's first submission ever; all other 80 countries have submitted before. Most interesting is to consider that this year there are some submissions in languages that usually are not represented in the Oscars like, for example, Welsh in UK's submission, Warao in Venezuela's submission, Basque in Spain's submission, and Kaqchikel in Guatemala's submission.

As every year do not dare to predict the movies that could be honored as there are too-many that I haven't seen yet and film buzz depends on the language is written; so, as usual, will comment on what I wish or consider more than what I could predict.

We can't forget that the average age of Academy members is 63-years-old and seems that foreign language committee average age has been even higher, so we can estimate that their taste in cinema has to be more "conventional" than anything else and their first choices will be nothing short of conventional.

For those that do not recall the selection process, which started as soon as the official list of accepted films was published, here are the highlights:

-The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members, screen the original submissions in the category between mid-October and mid-December. The group's top six choices is augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy's Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, all constitute the shortlist of nine (9).

-The shortlist will be winnowed down to the five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles. They will spend three days between the announcements (shortlist and nominations) viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots.

By now some films have been seen but surely most have still to be seen, so let's review some interesting facts about the list that you can find here.

Oscar and Film Festivals

From the 81 countries that submitted a film to the foreign-language category fifty-eight (58) came from a world's film festival, which represents a huge 71.6%; then a bit more than half, thirty (30) came from one of the three major film festivals, which represents 37% of the 81 and 51.7% of the 58 submitted films. As happens every year, this Oscar edition is no exception when the three major festivals provide most of the country's submissions.

Cannes leads the pack with 11 submissions but it's closely followed by the Berlinale with 10 and the Biennale with 9. Then we have Czech Republic's Karlovy Vary with 8, Spain's San Sebastian and Canada's Toronto with 4 each, and Japan's Tokyo with 2. There are ten (10) more films that came from other film festivals like Locarno, Moscow, Telluride, etc. Have to mention that Toronto fest has more films in the submissions list but most where premiered at other festivals, the four in Toronto's list had no previous festival screening; the same applies to film festivals in the others section of the appendix.

Cannes 2015

Cannes leads the pack but when we only consider 2015 films, tally goes down to 9 films as two came from 2014 Cannes. Unlike what happened in 2014 this year the Palme d'Or winner was not submitted perhaps due to the fact that a French movie won, which is what also happened in 2013 when another French film won the Cannes top award. Seems that a Palm d'Or winner will most likely have more chances to be submitted when is NOT a French production, sigh.

Nevertheless, this year the Grand Prix, Best Director, Un Certain Regard Prize, and Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winners were submitted by Hungary, Taiwan, Iceland and Croatia. From the parallel sections Colombia submitted the CICAE Arte Cinema Prize and France the Label Europa Cinema Prize, both came from the Director's Fortnight section. Seems we could have a "new" tradition as this year the Palm Dog winner was also submitted -in 2014 was submitted-, yes Portugal submission won the infamous award.

Of course I regret that Jacques Audiard's Dheepan was not submitted by France as he is one of my very favorite directors in the world but have to say that there is no other Cannes film that I wished was submitted to Oscars, as other interesting award winning films were not eligible as they are in English.

Not often Cannes honored films and Oscar collide, still the last time was with Cannes Palme d'Or winner Amour sent by Austria; this year some are predicting that two or three Cannes films could make the shortlist of 9 films and perhaps even grab a spot in the 5 nominations. Believe that Hungary and France submissions could make it but not clear if any other film has a chance. As a matter of fact the Oscar foreign-language buzz favorite come from Cannes as many -if not most- believe that Hungary's submission could win the award; me, I'm not as sure as I was last year with Poland's Ida, but yes believe that Son of Saul has the right story and credentials to make it to the shortlist of 9, get a nomination and most likely win an Oscar.

At the post bottom there is an appendix that lists the eleven films that came from Cannes, as well as from the other festivals in the world.

Berlin 2015

Germany's Berlinale has become a major supplier to Oscar submission, second only to Cannes and this year there are 10 films that came from this festival. As a matter of fact if we discount films with 2014 participation, Berlin fest comes as #1 as all 10 films are from the 2015 edition, while Cannes has only nine.

Among the ten films there are three Silver Bear winners (Chile, Guatemala and Romania) as well as the first feature award winner (Mexico); there are no more top award winners as for obvious reasons there was no possibility to have the Golden Bear winner as a submission from Iran and other films were in English or were ineligible for having too-much English, like Silver Bear winner Germany's Victoria that seems was the submission of choice but AMPAS declined to do an exception.

Not sure if films from this festival will make it to the shortlist of 9 or grab a nomination but hope Guatemala's Ixcanul makes it as has the right story and production values plus add quite large American press buzz and big American prestigious film festivals presence. The only thing this film doesn't have is TWC (lol!) American distribution, which as we know could assure a nomination. If we take into consideration American press reactions, then other films that have good possibilities are Chile's The Club and Brazil's The Second Mother.

Biennale 2015

Venice Film Festival is another supplier of films to Oscar foreign-language category and this year there are nine (9) films that come from Venezia72 and Venezia71 editions. The reason why fest has many last year edition films is because the date of the festival as from the three major fests this is the one closer to AMPAS category submission deadline of October 1st, which leaves not much time to local country release.

Unlike Cannes and Berlinale, Biennale's top award, the Golden Lion, 2014 Venezia71 winner (Sweden) was submitted as well as the Special Jury Prize (Turkey), Orizzonti Best Film winner (India) and Orizzonti Best Director winner (Jordan). But most surprisingly due to to their fast release is the presence of 2015 Venezia72 Best Director award winner (Argentina) and perhaps the film with more collateral awards wins (Italy).

I highly enjoy Roy Andersson films but know that they are not for all audiences, so expect his Golden Lion film will not make it to the shortlist as film is as strange as are his wonderful previous two installments of the "Living" trilogy. Not sure about the other films but somehow imagine that Argentina's The Clan could have possibilities as well as perhaps Austria's Goodnight Mommy which strongly recalls the unsettling style of another Austrian director, great Michael Haneke.

Karlovy Vary 2015

Will not deny that is a surprise to find that the fourth film festival with more submissions is this Czech festival (8) instead of other more "famous" like San Sebastian (4) or Locarno (1); perhaps I should write more often about this fest but I always had the impression that its coverage was more about Eastern Europe than anything else; still this year there is one notorious exception when Paraguay's submission come from this fest.

Among the films in this fest we find the 2015 Best Director Award winner (Kosovo) and the Best Actress award winner (Czech Republic) that also won the Europa Cinema Label Award. Unless there is a huge unexpected surprise, believe that none of this fest films will make it to the shortlist of nine.

Other Film Festivals

Most of the films in Cannes, Berlinale and Biennale go after to many other world film festivals either in or out of competition and/or most likely becoming their showcase films; this is one of the reasons why I read about those festivals but do not go into depth coverage as usually "new" films in the festivals tend to be of the not-so-interesting kind.

Other film festivals send twenty (20) films, excluding Karlovy Vary, and most interesting is the fact that none -but one (Palestine)- has win a major award at the festival were was screened.  One has a special mention (Latvia) while other have audience award (Serbia) but the rest have no honor besides being screened at the festival.

Somehow my gut feeling tells me that unless there is a major surprise, none of the films will make it to the shortlist of nine.

Other Interesting Facts

French Co Productions. There is no other country with more co productions than France as there is a list with thirteen productions or co productions (Belgium, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Kosovo, Lithuania, Malaysia, Peru, Portugal, Romania and Sweden) but I counted two more with French money (Albania and Taiwan). All co productions are minority with the exception of one very obvious France submission, which is a majority production (otherwise would have been ineligible to be France submission). Yes, odds are high for a French co production in the shortlist of nine and getting a nomination; not that sure if will make it to win the award.  Most notorious news came from a French co production that was early announced by the director and producers as China submission, afterwards China's news dispatches confirmed; but when the official list was released China submission was another film and unfortunately was not Jia Zhang-ke's most honored film, sigh.

LGBT Interest Films. There are five (5) films with some LGBT interest and as always, most have gay interest (Thailand, Ireland and Greece) while only two (Lithuania and Dominican Republic) have lesbian interest. No, do not foresee any of the five films making it to the shortlist of 9, even when I wish Lithuania could grab a spot -sigh. Believe that when we learn nominations for other Oscar categories, the 88th edition could be the most LGBT interest ever, but we have to wait and see if great films make it or not.

Appendix

Cannes (11)
Belgium: The Brand New Testament by Jaco van Dormael - Quinzaine
Colombia: Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra - CICAE Arte Cinema Prize winner
Croatia: The High Sun by Dalibor Matanic - Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner
Ethiopia: Lamb by Yared Zeleke - Un Certain Regard
France: Mustang by Deniz Gamze Erguven - Quinzaine Label Europa Cinemas Prize winner
Greece: Xenia by Panos H Koutras - 2014 Un Certain Regard
Hungary: Son of Saul by Laszlo Nemes - Grand Prix winner
Iceland: Rams by Grimur Hakonarson - Un Certain Regard Prize winner
Ivory Coast: Run by Philippe Lacote - 2014 Un Certain Regard
Portugal: Arabian Nights: Volume 2 The Desolate by Miguel Gomes - Directors Fortnight Palm Dog winner
Taiwan: The Assassin by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - Best Director Award winner

Berlinale (10)
Brazil: The Second Mother by Anna Muylaert - CICAE Panorama and Panorama Audience Award first place winner
Chile: The Club by Pablo Larrain - Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner
Guatemala: Ixcanul by Jayro Bustamante - Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Award winner
Lithuania: The Summer of Sangaile by Alante Kavaite - Panorama
Mexico: 600 Miles by Gabriel Ripstein - Best First Feature Award winner
Romania: Aferim! by Radu Jude - Silver Bear for Best Director winner
Slovakia: Goat by Ivan Ostrochovsky - Forum
Switzerland: Iraqi Odyssey by Samir - Panorama Documentary Audience Award Third Place winner
Thailand: How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) by Josh Kim - Panorama
Venezuela: Gone with the River - NATIVe

Biennale (9)
Argentina: El Clan by Pablo Trapero- Venezia72 Silver Lion Best Director winner
Austria: Goodnight Mommy by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz - Venezia71 Orizzonti
Denmark: A War by Tobias Lindholm, Venezia72 Orizzonti
India: Court by Chaitanya Tamhane - Venezia71 Orizzonti Best Film winner
Italy: Don't Be Bad by Claudio Caligari - Multiple Collateral Awards winner
Jordan: Wolf by Naji Abu Nowar - Venezia71 Orizzonti Best Director Award winner
Poland: 11 Minutes by Jerzy Skolimowski - Venezia72
Sweden: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence by Roy Andersson - Venezia71 Golden Lion winner
Turkey: Sivas by Kaan Mujdeci - Venezia71 Special Jury Prize winner

Other Festivals (28)

Karlovy Vary (8)
Albania: Bota by Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci - 2014 Karlovy Vary FEDEORA Best Film Award winner
Czech Republic: Home Care by Slavek Horak - Karlovy Vary Best Actress Award winner Europa Cinema Label Award winner
Iraq: Memories on Stone by Sewket Emin Korki - Karlovy Vary
Kosovo: Father by Visar Morina - Karlovy Vary Best Director Award winner
Kyrgyzstan: Heavenly Nomadic by Miriam Abdykalykov - Karlovy Vary FEDEORA Best Film award winner
Montenegro: You Carry Me by Ivona Juka - Karlovy Vary
Paraguay: Cloudy Times by Arami Ullon - Karlovy Vary
Slovenia: The Tree by Sonja Prosenc - 2014 Karlovy Vary

San Sebastian (4)
Canada: Felix and Meira by Maxime Giroux - 2014 San Sebastian
Georgia: Moira by Levan Tutberidze - San Sebastian
Latvia: Modris by Juris Kursietis - 2014 San Sebastian Kusta-New Directors Special Mention
Uruguay: A Moonless NIght by German Tejeira - 2014 San Sebastian

Toronto (4)
Dominican Republic: Sand Dollars by Israel Cardenas and Laura Amelia Guzman - Toronto IFF
Germany: Labyrinth of Lies by Giulio Ricciarelli - Toronto IFF
Israel: Father John by Yuval Delshad - Toronto IFF
Netherlands: Paradise Suite by Joost van Ginkel - Toronto IFF

Tokyo (2)
Cambodia: The Last Reel by Kulikar Sotho - 2014 Tokyo IFF
Japan: 100 Yen Love by Masaharu Take - 2014 Tokyo IFF

Other (10)
Palestine: The Wanted 18 by Paul Cowan and Amer Shomali - Abu Dhabi IFF Documentary Award winner
Malaysia: Men Who Save the World by Seng Tat Liew - 2014 Locarno
Iran: Muhammad the Messenger of God by Majid Majidi - Montreal IFF
Serbia: Enclave by Goran Radovanovic - Moscow IFF Audience Award winner
Peru: NN by Hector Galvez - Palm Springs
Bangladesh: Jalal's Story by Abu Shahed Emon - 2014 Pusan IFF
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Our Everyday Life by Ines Tanovic - Sarajevo IFF
Russia: Sunstroke by Nikita Mikhalkov - Shanghai IFF
Luxemburg: Baby (A)lone by Donato Rotunno - Stockholm IFF
Ireland: Viva by Paddy Breathnach - Telluride
Bulgaria: The Judgement by Stephan Komandarev - 2014 Warsaw IFF

9th Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominations

APSA Chairman Michael Hawkins today announced the nominations for the 9th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the region’s highest accolade in film, in the Best Feature Film category and five craft award achievements.

Leading the nominations is Taiwan's The Assassin nominated for Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing for Hou Hsiao-hsien and Achievement in Cinematography for APSA Academy member Mark Lee Ping-Bing. Competing alongside The Assassin for Best Feature Film are Thailand’s Cemetery of Splendour, Japanese drama Journey to the Shore and the Korean features End of Winter and Alive.

Most interesting is to notice that nominations this year are spread among many movies from several countries, which undoubtedly makes competition a bit more worth-following.  With the nominations announced today the post has become final and now we will learn winners on Thursday, November 26.

Best Feature Film
철원기행 Cheol-won-gi-haeng (End of Winter), Dae-hwan Kim, South Korea
岸辺の旅 Kishibe no Tabi (Journey to the Shore), Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan and France
刺客聂隐娘 Nie Yin niang (The Assassin), Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Taiwan
รักที่ขอนแก่น Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cementery of Splendour), Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, Malaysia, France, Germany and UK
산다 Sanda (Alive), Jung-bum Park, South Korea

Best Youth Feature Film
거인 Geoin (Set Me Free), Tae-yong Kim, South Korea
ང་པོ། Gtsngbo (River), Sonthar Gyal, China
Mina Walking, Yosef Baraki, Afghanistan and Canada
Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Turkey, Qatar, France and Germany
通往天國的路 Tiantang jiaoluo (A Corner of Heaven), Miaoyan Zhang, China and France

Best Animated Feature Film
Blinky Bill, Deane Taylor, Noel Cleary, Alexs Stadermann, Alex Weight, Australia and USA
메밀꽃, 운수 좋은 날, 그리고 봄봄 Memilggot, Woonsoo Joheunnal, Geurigo Bombom (The Road Called Life),Ahn Jae-Hoon and Han Hye-Jin, South Korea
思い出のマーニー Omoide no Mānī (When Marmie Was There), Japan
百日紅 Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai (Miss Hokusai), Keiichi Hara, Japan
Snezhnaya koroleva 2. Snezhnyy korol (Snow Queen 2: The Snow King), Aleksey Tsitslin, Russia

Best Documentary film
A Flag Without a Country, Bahman Ghobadi, Iraq
Among the Believers, Mohammed Naqvi and Hemal Trivedi, Pakistan and USA
Another Country, Molly Reynolds, Australia
Datong (The Chinese Mayor), Hao Zhou, China
The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Indonesia, UK, Denmark, Finland, and Norway

Achievement in Directing
Alexey German Jr. for Под электрическими облаками Pod elektricheskimi oblakami (Under Electric Clouds), Russia, Ukraine and Poland
Apichatpong Weerasethakul for รักที่ขอนแก่น Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cementery of Splendour), Thailand, Malaysia, France, Germany and UK
Hou Hsiao-hsien for 刺客聂隐娘 Nie Yin niang (The Assassin), Taiwan
Park Jung-bum for 산다 Sanda (Alive), South Korea
Yermek Tursunov for Жат Zhat (Stranger), Kazakhstan

Achievement in Cinematography
Jean-Marc Ferrière for Arunoday (Sunrise), Partho Sen-Gupta, India
Lu Songye for Tharlo, Pema Tseden, China
Mark Lee Ping-Bing for 刺客聂隐娘 Nie Yin niang (The Assassin), Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Taiwan
Miaoyan Zhang for 通往天國的路 Tiantang jiaoluo (A Corner in Heaven), China and France
Murat Aliyev for Жат Zhat (Stranger), Yermek Turnsunov, Kazakhstan

Best Screenplay
Emin Alper for Abluka (Frenzy), Emin Alper, Turkey, Qatar and France
Kenzhebek Shaikakov for Kurko (Tent), Kenzhebek Shaikakov, Kazakhstan
Senem Tüzen for Ana Yurdu (Motherland), Turkey and Greece
Vimukthi Jayasundara for Sulanga Gini Aran (Dark in the White Light), Sri Lanka and France
Xin Yukun and Feng Yanliang for 殡棺 Xin Migong (The Coffin in the Mountain), Xin Yukun, China

Best Performance by an Actress
Evgeniya Mandshieva in Chaiky (The Gulls), Ella Manzheeva, Russia
Fatemeh Motamed Arya in Bahman (Avalanche), Morteza Farshbaf, Iran
Kirin Kiki in An, Naomi Kawase, Japan, France and Germany
Lee Yeong-Ian in 철원기행 Cheol-won-gi-haeng (End of Winter), Dae-hwan Kim, South Korea
Shamaine Buencamino in Lorna, Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, Philippines

Best Performance by an Actor
Alexey Gusykov in Nakhodka (The Find), Viktor Dement, Russia and Finland
Jung Jaeyoung in Jigeumeun Matgo Geuttaeneun Teullida (Right Now, Wrong Then), Sang-soo Hong, South Korea
Misha Gomiashvili in The President, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Georgia, UK, France and Germany
Reef Ireland in Downriver, Australia
Shide Nyima in Tharlo, Pema Tseden, China

APSA UNESCO Award
Director Ella Manzheeva for Chaiky (The Gulls), Russia
Director Hany Abu-Assad for Ya Tayr El Tayer (The Idol), Palestine, Qatar, UAE, UK and Netherlands
Director Miaoyan Zhang for 通往天國的路 Tiantang jiaoluo (A Corner of Heaven), China and France
Director Senem Tüzen for Ana Yurdu (Motherland), Turkey and Greece
Director Stephen Page for Spear, Australia

International Jury
President: Kim Dong-Ho, Busan IFF founder and Honorary director, South Korea
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, writer and director, Bangladesh
Zhang Xianmin, director, writer and curator, China
U-Wei Bin Hajisaari, writer and director, Malaysia
Alexei Popogrebsky, writer and director, Russia
Negar Javaherian, actress, Iran

Youth, Animation and Documentary International Jury
President: Shawkat Amin Korki, writer, director and producer, Iraqi Kurdistan
Yuka Sakano, Japan
Sam Ho, Hong Kong

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10/7/15

A record number of films are in contention for the 9th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the region’s highest accolade in film, with over 290 films from 41 Asia Pacific countries and areas In Competition. APSA was created to recognize, promote and award films that demonstrate cinematic excellence and films that best reflect their cultural origins of the vast Asia Pacific, a region that boasts dynamic and world-class talent.

For the first time in 2015, the APSA International Nominations Council will determine nominees in the prestigious APSA UNESCO Award achievement. The UNESCO Award is presented to a film practitioner and film from the region for the outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of the cultural diversity through the medium of film

The nominations in the categories of Best Feature Film and five achievements will be announced on October 21 from the Museum of Brisbane but organizers have already announced nominees in some categories.

This post will be in progress until October 21 when all nominees will be completed and post will become final.

Know that most important categories will be unveiled next October 21 but from the above the best discovery is a Tibetian film that skipped my radar in 2015 Berlinale but today definitively caught my total attention: River by Sonthar Gyal has become must be seen for me. Great.

To read about the up-to-date nominees, jury members and more go to the award official site here.

#Oscars2016 Foreign-Language Submissions - Female Directors

From the 81 countries that submitted a film to the foreign-language category thirteen (13) have a movie directed or co-directed by a female director, which roughly gives a 18.5% female representation and continues to under-represent women in cinema industry events.

The figure is slightly modified when we consider films directed by only one director and exclude the anthologies or omnibus films, as there are eight (8) films directed by one person and the person is a woman. Then there are three (3) films directed by two directors and one of them is a woman. Which leaves two films that are a collection of short films and have to admit my surprise when found that out the seven (7) director that directed a short in Lebanon's entry, three (3) are female; Singapore's entry has the more usual relationship when only one (1) out of seven (7) shorts was directed by a woman.

So, actually there are fifteen (15) female directors in this year's Oscars foreign-language submissions which I believe is kind of a record, but still is quite low when we see the percentage.  Out of the fifteen female directors, seven (7) are European (for this purpose I consider Turkey as Europe), five (5) come from Asian countries and three (3) from Latin American countries.

When AMPAS published the list with the 81 movies that were accepted, one country was missing:  Panama.  Was not able to find the reason why film was not in final list but suspect has something to do with too-much English; still, it is a shame as Caja 25 (Box 25) was directed by two female directors which definitively would have increase the number of women representation in this year's edition.

Enough with the always not-so-positive numbers and let's do something different with this info. Let's meet the fifteen female directors. We will keep the alphabetical order from original post and will include the name of the male director(s) when applicable.

These are the films directed or co-directed by women and if you wish to check the 81 submission you can always go to the original post here.

Albania: Bota by Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci

Iris Elezi
Albanian born Iris Elezi studied film theory and criticism, anthropology and women's studies before completing her film production studies at New York University in 2001. Her editing and directing skills on the award-winning six-part documentary series Under Construction (2007) resulted in the Amnesty International's Films That Matter selection for the episode Disposable Heroes.
Her feature debut, Bota (2014), premiered at the Karlovy Vary film festival and won the Fedeora critics award. Bota also triumphed in the Reykjavik IFF, winning both the Fipresci and the Audience Award. Iris Elezi lives and works in Albania's capital, Tirana. where she teaches film history and analysis.
Together with archivist Regina Longo and partner, Thomas Logoreci, they co-founded The Albanian Cinema Project, an initiative that aims at restoring and raising awareness about the endangered Albanian National Film Archive. She also conducted a 90 minute masterclass with Francis Ford Coppola during Durres International Summerfest 2011 and weekly masterclasses during Dokufest 2011 with Mohsen Makhmalbaf and James Longley among others.

Austria: Ich seh, ich seh (Goodnight Mommy) by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz

Veronika Franz
Was born in Vienna in 1965. A screenwriter-director, she also writes about films. Former film journalist, former assistant director, former casting director, former philosophy student, former saleswoman.

She has been co-scriptwriter and artistic collaborator on all of Ulrich Seidl's films since "The Bosom Friend" (Der Busenfreund, 1997). Ulrich Seidl is her husband. Has done a couple of films with Severin Fiala, 2012 documentary Kern and 2013 short film Dreh & Trink.

Goodnight Mommy is her feature film directorial debut that was screened at 2014 Venice Orizzonti.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Naša svakodnevna priča (Our Everyday Life) by Ines Tanović

Ines Tanović
Born in Sarajevo. Graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, department of dramaturgy. Member of the Association of film workers of B&H since 1988. Has written scripts and directed mainly short films; she has collected multiple honors during her career and here are some examples.
Was at 2006 Berlinale Talent Campus and her project Decision was selected in Berlin Today Award 2011. Directed the Bosnian part of the long feature omnibus Some Other Stories. The Film has been invited on more than 40 world festivals and won six international prizes. In 2004, she was given a Hubert Ball Fund award for the script Entanglement. For her project Our Everyday Life which was part of CineLink market at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2010, she was awarded the International Relations Arte Prize.

Brazil: Que Horas Ela Volta? (The Second Mother) by Anna Muylaert

Anna Muylaert
Born in Sao Paulo on April 21, 1964. She is a screenwriter plus television and film director. Studied filmmaking at the School of Communications and Arts at University of São Paulo (USP) from 1980 to 1984. She became a film critic for IstoÉ and O Estado de S. Paulo and in 1988 she joined the staff of Rede Gazeta's program TV Mix. In 1999, she worked as an editor and reporter on TV Cultura's Matéria-Prima. She also wrote scripts on another Cultura programs, Mundo da Lua (1991–92) and Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum (1994–97).
Muylaert directed several short films— the most notable being A Origem dos Bebês Segundo Kiki Cavalcanti (1995) which won awards at Rio Cine e Cine Ceará. Her first feature film, Durval Discos (2002)  won seven awards out of fourteen nominations at Festival de Gramado, including Best Director and Best Film. Seven years later she released her second film, É Proibido Fumar, which won eight awards at Festival de Brasília, including Best Screenplay and Best Film.  Afterwards she directed some TV episodes and one movie; but her fourth film, The Second Mother, gave her international recognition when was at 2015 Sundance and Berlinale Panorama  in which the film got the Audience Award.
Worth mentioning is that in the 30 years that Brazil has send a movie to the Oscars, this is the very first time that sends a movie by a female director.

Cambodia: ដុំហ្វីលចុងក្រោយ The Last Reel, Kulikar Sotho

Kulikar Sotho
Born in 1973, Kulikar grew up during the Khmer Rouge regime, and the subsequent turmoil and civil war. She is a Producer on the award-winning ‘Ruin’, which won the special Orizzonti prize at the Bienniale Venice Film Festival.

Also is one of the most experienced Line Producers in Cambodia and worked on feature films ‘Tomb Raider’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’. Worked on countless television documentaries for BBC, Discovery and other leading channels, plus several globally important commercials..

The Last Reel is her feature film directorial debut .

Dominican Republic: Dólares de Arena (Sand Dollars), Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán

Laura Amelia Guzmán
Scriptwriter, producer and director Laura Amelia Guzmán was born on May 7th, 1980 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Graduated from Altos de Chavón School of Design where she studied fien arts and photography. After several photography shows she attended the International Film School in Cuba, specializing in cinematography. She lives and works between Mexico and Dominican Republic. Together with her husband Israel Cárdenas she directs the film production company Aurora Dominicana.

They share script, photography, production and direction credits on their first and second feature films Cochochi and Jean Gentil, both of which premiered at Venice Film Festival and have won multiple awards. Their other works are Carmita (2013) and Sand Dollars (2014).

France: Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Can't help but to start by saying that I was hoping this film to be Turkey's entry and yes, was a big pleasant surprise when film became France's submission. Great.

Born in Ankara, Turkey in 1978. The daughter of a Turkish diplomat grows between Paris and Ankara; now lives in Istambul. She studied Filmmaking at La Fémis in Paris, and Literature and African History in Johannesburg.

Her graduation film, 'Bir Damla Su’, was selected for numerous festivals, including the Festival de Cannes Cinéfondation, and won an award at Locarno. She has developed two feature films: ‘Mustang’, co-written with Alice Winocour, and Kings, winner of Emergence in 2011, and which participated in the Cinéfondation Workshop in 2011 and the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab in 2012. Her acting credits include the role of Denise in great Augustine by Alice Winocour.

Mustang was screened at 2015 Cannes Director's Fortnight where won the Europa Cinemas Label as best European Film in the parallel section; during his voyage into the festival circuit already has collected the Heart of Sarajevo given to the Best Film in the 2015 Sarajevo fest. Also film is one of the three finalists for prestigious Lux Award and don't doubt that will get honors at 2016 César Awards.

Lebanon: وينن Waynon (Void), Tarek Korkomaz, Zeina Makki, Jad Beyrouthy, Christelle Ighniades, Salim Habr, Maria Abdel Karim, and Naji Bechara.

Zeina Makki
Zeina Makki is a Lebanese filmmaker and actress born and raised in Kuwait. In 2008, she moved to Lebanon and pursued a bachelor degree in Mass Communication Arts/Radio and Television at Notre Dame University specializing in directing and script writing. In May 2012, her short documentary "Bent not Broken" won the Best Short Documentary Award in the Monaco film festival.

After participating in numerous student films as an actress, Zeina went on to concentrate on her acting career. Her breakthrough role came in September of 2013 where she played the titular role in Lebanese feature film "Habbet Loulou" and then shortly after followed up with "Neswen" in February 2014.

Christelle Ighniades
Born 1990 in Lebanon. Received her bachelor’s degree from the Notre Dame University–Louaize in communication arts with a specialization in radio, TV and film. In 2011, her documentary film “و غنية لعبة ” (A game and a Song) was screened at the NDU film festival, where it was awarded for its humane essence. She has also volunteered in several graduating short films as an Art Director. This helped her getting into the professional field, thus, granting her the opportunity to be the Art Director/Lead Scenic Artist in a high-budget animated teaser trailer for a European Feature Film. In 2012, she presented her first graduating narrative short film called “Tu Sens Ce Vent” which would represent NDU in festivals to come, till now it has participated in the NDUFF, FICMEC (5eme Festival du court métrage des écoles du cinema “IESAV”), MCFF (Monaco Charity film festival) and had the chance to participate in the Grand Cinemas and won a certificate of distinction at the 6th NDU film festival. Her current goal is to pursue a Master's degree in Art Direction.

Maria Abdel Karim
Born on February 23, 1990 in the South of Lebanon. Got her school degree from Notre Dame De Louaize, and her University degree BA In Communication Arts Radio/TV in 2012 from Notre Dame University-Louaize. Graduated with High Distinction. Finished working on her first short film of a musical genre A Tempo: The 3rd Act in July 2012. She choose her first film to be a musical because it is very risky and hard to produce and direct, and a big part of her love taking risks, because it’s the only way to learn and progress and develop experience. Her short film got accepted and selected in many international film festivals; Dubai International film festival, The European Independent film festival , won an award “The Ahmad Khoder Award of Excellency in Arab Filmmaking”, and finally the MashRome Film Festival In Rome. It got screened in various film festivals in Lebanon.  Now a freelance filmmaker in Lebanon working on other short films and independent projects in the market, and writing as well her first feature film, which will also be produced in the future coming years.

Lithuania: Sangailės vasara (The Summer of Sangaile), Alantė Kavaitė

Alantė Kavaitė
Born on April 9, 1973 in Vilnius, Lithuania. She first worked as an actor and played the leading role in 1992 Jazz by Raimundas Banionis. She subsequently emigrated to France and studied at the École Supérieure d’Arts in Avignon and later, specializing in photography and video, the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

She made her directing debut in 2006 with Ecoute le Temps (Fissures), for which she also wrote the screenplay. She currently lives and works in France.

The Summer of Sangaile was premiered at 2015 Sundance Film Festival where won the Best Director Award.  In February 2015 the film was screened at Berlinale Panorama and went to collect more honors in the festival circuit.

Montenegro: Ti mene nosiš (You Carry Me), Ivona Juka

Ivona Juka
Born in 1976. She earned a degree in film directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and is a Croatian creator of the acclaimed short movies Garbage (Smeće, 2003) and Editing (2006 – selected for the official competitions of several US festivals). She was one of the five European students chosen to make a short film to be presented at the EFA awards ceremony in Berlin; she also took part in the “Cinema Tomorrow” conference in Warsaw organized by the EFA. Her short film View from a Well (Pogled iz bunara, 2010) took Best Film and Best Director at the American International Film Festival. The feature-length, writer-director documentary Facing the Day (Što sa sobom preko dana, 2006) became Croatia’s most awarded documentary; it received awards at the goEast festival in Wiesbaden, at Sarajevo, and at many other fests. Beyond its festival successes, it proved a winner in domestic distribution as well.

You Carry Me is Juka's debut feature film which premiered at 2015 Karlovy Vary and collected many honors while traveling the festival circuit.

Paraguay: El Tiempo Nublado (Cloudy Times), Arami Ullón

Arami Ullón
Born in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1978, during the long and harsh dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. As a director she has done two independent short films: Ausencia de un nombre propio (Paraguay, 1998), and Beckon (Paraguay, 2000). She also directed theatre A bizarre matter of love (Paraguay, 2000). As an author, Arami published About abuse and other relatives, a book containing short stories which main theme is gender abuse.
She was awarded a scholarship to the Boston Film and Video Foundation, where she studied hands-on filmmaking (US, 2000/2001). Her experience in production includes: music videos, TV programs and commercials for Latin American and European production companies. She was part of the production team for international feature films such as El toque del Oboe (Paraguay – Brazil, 1997), Miami Vice (US, 2006). Ullón is the producer of 18 cigarrillos y medio (Paraguay – Mexico – Spain, 2011).
After producing for Palma Pictures (Spain) she just finished her directing debut feature documentary, El Tiempo Nublado (Switzerland – Paraguay).  Currently lives and works between Basel, Switzerland and Asucion, Paraguay.

Is the first time ever that Paraguay sends a movie to the Oscars and most remarkable is that is a documentary and a film directed by a woman filmmaker.

Singapore: 7 Letters, Royston Tan, Kelvin Tong, Eric Khoo, Jack Neo, Tan Pin Pin, Boo Junfeng, and K. Rajagopal

Tan Pin Pin
Born in 1969 in Singapore. Educated at Raffles Girls' Secondary School and Victoria Junior College, Tan was a Loke Cheng Kim scholar. She received her first degree in law from Oxford University, graduating with an M.A. in England, UK. In her first year at Oxford, she came across photography books, including Robert Frank’s The Americans (1958) and August Sander’s Citizens of the Twentieth Century (1986), and started taking photographs. After graduation in 1991, she traveled to China with her camera.
Started working as an assistant director in TV dramas and sitcoms before she won an S. Rajaratnam scholarship to study film production at Northwestern University where she got a MFA . While at Northwestern she won the Kodak Eastman Scholarship for Cinematography. Pin Pin is a co-founding member of filmcommunitysg, a community of independent filmmakers.  Her filmography includes 12 credits as a director of mainly short films and documentaries, most notable is 2013 documentary To Singapore, with Love that was banned in Singapore.

Her short film Pineapple Town is one of the seven shorts in the 7 Letters anthology.

Slovenia: Drevo (The Tree), Sonja Prosenc

Sonja Prosenc
She has a diploma in Journalism and Cultural Science at University in Ljubljana with a thesis “Dionysian Postmodern Culture” and a film as a case study. She continued her Master’s studies in Communications at the same university. As a student she worked as editor of a student magazine and published culture articles in major Slovenian newspapers and magazines.

After a music video that she directed was selected as the best video at a national television program and her short film was screened at international festivals, she attended the Berlinale and Sarajevo Talent Campuses, co-founded the Monoo production house and was selected to participate in the prestigious 9-month Torino Film Lab.

After a short film Morning and a documentary Man with a Raven she has made her directorial debut with full feature film The Tree that premiered in East of the West section of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

28th European Film Awards - Animated Feature Film Nominations

The European Film Academy proudly announces the three (3) nominations in the category European Animated Feature Film 2015.  Worth mentioning is that all three films are French productions or French co productions, which in my opinion, loudly speaks about the state of French animation.  Great!

Based on a list of films provided by CARTOON, the European Association of Animation Film, as well as on individual film submissions, a committee decided on these nominations.

The committee consisted of EFA Board Member Antonio Saura, producer (Spain), animation experts Marcel Jean (Annecy FF, Canada) and Anja Šošić (Human Ark, Poland), as well as Petteri Pasanen (Anima Vitae, Finland), Iain Harvey (The Illuminated Film Company, UK) and Jacques-Rémy Girerd (director, France), the latter three representing CARTOON.

The following films are nominated:

Adama, Simon Rouby, France
Shaun the Sheep The Movie, Richard Starazk and Mark Burton, UK and France
Song of the Sea, Tomm Moore, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, France and Luxembourg

The nominated films will soon be submitted to the over 3,000 EFA Members to elect the winner. The European Animated Feature Film 2015 will then be presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony in Berlin on Saturday, 12 December.

Check the following info and trailers for each nominee.

Adama by Simon Rouby
Synopsis: 12 year-­old Adama lives in a remote village in West Africa, sheltered by the Cliffs. Out, beyond, lies "the land of breaths", the kingdom of wicked spirits hungry for war. When Samba, his elder brother, suddenly vanishes from the village, Adama decides to set off in search of him. Accompanied first by Abdou, a tragically lucid griot, then by Maximin, a street urchin who is his own negative twin, he crosses a Europe in the grip of war. We're in 1914. Borne by the energy of desperation and the poetry of childhood, Adama travels to the hell of the frontline in order to free his brother. Ultimately, Adama's love for his brother will open an unexpected way to his initiatory journey.



Shaun the Sheep The Movie by Richard Starazk and Mark Burton
Synopsis: Shaun the sheep is tired of doing the same work at the farm every day. He decides to take a day off. In order to do that, he needs to make sure the farmer doesn't know. When more happens than they can handle, the sheep find their way in the big city. Now they need to get back to the farm.



Song of the Sea by Tomm Moore
Synopsis: Saoirse is a child who is the last of the selkies, women in Irish and Scottish legends who transform from seals into people. She escapes from her grandmother's home to journey to the sea and free fairy creatures trapped in the modern world.

2016 César Awards - Short Films Selection

Today the French Academy (Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma) continue with the announcements in the road to #César2016, this time with the twelve (12) short films that made it to the selection.

These are the films in the selection

La contre-allée (Back Alley), Cécile Ducrocq, 30'
Le Dernier des Céfrans (The Last of the Frenchmen), Pierre-Emmanuel Urcun, 30'
Essaie de Mourir Jeune (Try to Die Young), Morgan Simon, 20'
Guy Moquet, Demis Herenger, 29'
Mon Héros, Sylvain Desclous, 30'
Mur (The Wall), Andra Tévy, 18'
Notre Dame des Hormones, Bertrand Mandico, 30'
Ses Souffles (Breathe), Just Philippot,24'
Stella Maris, Giacomo Abbruzzese, 27'
La Terre Penche (Turning Tides), Christelle Lheureux, 53'
Territoire, Vincent Paronnaud, 23'
Totems, Sarah Arnold, 29'

Besides the online screening and a special cinema screening on December 12, 2015, the twelve films will also be available to Academy voters on a "Coffret DVD César 2016". The first voting stage will take place from January 4 to 26, 2016 and the five nominees will be selected. All César Awards nominations will be announced via a press conference on Wednesday, January 27, 2016.

Check available info, film still and/or trailer for short films in the selection.

La Contre-allée (Back Alley) by Cecile Ducrocq
Synopsis: Suzanne has been a prostitute for 15 years. She has her turf, her regular johns, her freedom. One day, young African prostitutes settle nearby. Suzanne is threatened.



Le Dernier des Céfrans (The Last of the Frenchmen) by Pierre-Emmanuel Urcun
Synopsis: Remi is struggling to get by and has had enough. That's it: he's going to enlist. The problem is that he hasn't the courage to tell his four best friends.



Essaie de Mourir Jeune (Try to Die Young), Morgan Simon
Synopsis: It's birthday time. Drifting through the dark night, Vincent and Hervé are looking for something to do. You only turn 25 once.



Guy Moquet by Demis Herenger
Synopsis: Guy Moquet or Guimo or Guim’s promissed Ticky to kiss her at dusk in front of everybody, right in the middle of the neighborhood. Maybe not that crazy… but surely not that simple.



Mon Héros (My Hero) by Sylvain Desclous
Synopsis: Rémi escorts hypothetical Chinese investors. Yan distributes leaflets disguised as chicken. It is, thus, logical that they meet. But for them, it is so unexpected.

Full short at TV5MondePlus here.



Mur (The Wall) by Andra Tévy
Synopsis: One winter evening, on a snowy weather, a woman is going to her job. The surroundings are hostile, the labour backbreaking. And a window doesn’t close anymore: it snows inside the work space. The chore place becomes a land of adventures.



Notre Dame des Hormones, by Bertrand Mandico
Synopsis: Two actresses are rehearsing a play over a weekend in a country house. While walking in the woods, one unearths a strange thing, a creature without cavity, nor members, the size of a seal. The creatures becomes an object of desire for both women, desperate to own the thing. But what they don't know is that they just found 'Our lady of hormones'.



Ses Souffles (Breathe) by Just Philippot
Synopsis: Lizon has just attended her friend Marie's birthday. The friends around the birthday cake, the candles to be blown, the wish to be made amazed her. For her ninth birthday, Lizon wants to have the same thing. A birthday with a cake, candles and her friends, at her home: in the car.



Stella Maris by Giacomo Abbruzzese
Synopsis: A lost Italian village around the Mediterranean Sea. The annual fair. All the locals gather on the beach waiting for the arrival by sea of a traditional illuminated statue, the Stella Maris. The story of a craftsman and his daughter, a blind mayor, fireworks fusing like weapons and street-art as a revolution.



La Terre Penche (Turning Tides) by Christelle Lheureux
Synopsis: A seaside resort, off-season. Thomas comes back, after a long absence. Adèle is a real estate agent, she often falls asleep. The earth then tilts towards the beach and the dunes, to meet jellyfish, sheep and ghosts. The earth tilts, like Thomas and Adèle towards each other.



Territoire by Vincent Paronnaud
Synopsis: 1957, Ossau Valley, Pyrenees, France. Pierre reaches the summer pasture with his dog and his flock of ewes. He is afraid of the wolf but he isn't aware of a fainter and more savage threat: a paratroopers' squad on whom the army is carrying out secret tests.



Totems by Sarah Arnold
Synopsis: After completing her PHD thesis on The Unknown Soldier, Adele returns to her rural hometown to look after her grandfather. Like a modern-day Antigone, her grandfather is a rebellious writer who has secretly kept the remains of a soldier from World War I buried at the bottom of their garden.

88th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film Submissions

Today October 9 finally was able to finish the post and all other related media (trailers, poster, map, etc) so this post becomes FINAL. Post was moved so most links in other places will not work, just hope visitors will notice links in second column and above, sigh.

There are eighty-one (81) countries that submitted a film to #Oscars2016 which is two (2) films short of the record established last year when there were eighty-three (83) films. From all the announcements done by countries and/or film producers, there were two (2) that did not came in AMPAS list, China came with a different movie and Panama is out of the list. We already know about China's drama that captured the attention of industry media and social media and believe best lesson is to in future editions wait until an official source confirms submission and/or AMPAS list is published to include China's submission.

Panama absence is a puzzle as was checking Academia de Artes y Ciencias Cinematograficas de Panama site BUT no news there and local press claims that Panama is in list, odd. Imagine that perhaps film had too much English, but wonder if we ever going to learn why film was taken out of the list.

Besides China change and Panama out, list had six (6) new submissions from Algeria, Australia, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Singapore and UK. Most notable absence is Ukraine, obviously with all the mess they had were not able to submit a film and hopefully will fix their Oscar committee situation for next year.

There are some extraordinary films in this list and even when have seen some, there are many that will enlarge my must-be-seen queue.

This year only listed films that came from Berlin, Cannes and Venice fests as makes post a bit cleaner. But have the info for all films (each MOC film post has it) so it's very accessible. Next week will do the post about this year's submissions and will share more about festivals and films, but my spontaneous impression is that most films come from festivals. It's very easy to see that there is not much blue below, so will also comment about the lack of women filmmakers this year, sigh.

So that's it, post is FINAL.

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6/11/2015

Today, June 11th, we have the first announcement of a submission to Oscars 2016 and even do film and country are no surprises, the big surprise is how early we will start the post that will be final by the end of September 2015.

The list begins with the first country to do their announcement and as in previous years in parenthesis will include the festival where film was screened plus the director's name will be in BLUE when director is female.

AMPAS official list has eighty-one (81) submissions, which are 2 less than the record established last year.

Afghanistan: آرمان شهر Utopia, Hassan Nazer
Albania: Bota, Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci
Algeria: غروب الظلال Ghouroub Edhilal (Twilight of Shadows), Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina
Argentina: El Clan (The Clan), Pablo Trapero (Venezia72 Silver Lion Best Director winner)
Australia: Arrows of the Thunder Dragon, Greg Sneddon
Austria: Ich seh, ich seh (Goodnight Mommy), Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz (2014 Venice Orizzonti)

Bangladesh: জালালের গল্প Jalal’er Golpo (Jalal's Story), Abu Shahed Emon
Belgium: Le Tout Nouveau Testament (The Brand New Testament), Jaco Van Dormael (Cannes Quinzaine)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Naša svakodnevna priča (Our Everyday Life), Ines Tanović
Brazil: Que Horas Ela Volta? (The Second Mother), Anna Muylaert (Berlinale CICAE Panorama and Panorama Audience Award First Place winner)
Bulgaria: СЪДИЛИЩЕТО Sadilishteto (The Judgement), Stephan Komandarev

Cambodia: ដុំហ្វីលចុងក្រោយ The Last Reel, Kulikar Sotho
Canada: Félix et Meira (Felix and Meira), Maxime Giroux
Chile: El Club (The Club), Pablo Larraín (Berlinale Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner)
China: 滚蛋吧！肿瘤君 Gun dan ba! Zhong liu jun (Go Away Mr. Tumor), Han Yan
Colombia: El Abrazo de la Serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent), Ciro Guerra (Cannes CICAE Arte Cinema Prize winner)
Costa Rica: Presos (Imprisoned), Esteban Ramírez
Croatia: Zvizdan (The High Sun), Dalibor Matanić (Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner)
Czech Republic: Domácí péče (Home Care), Slávek Horák

Denmark: Krigen (A War), Tobias Lindholm (Venice Orizzonti)
Dominican Republic: Dólares de Arena (Sand Dollars), Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán

Estonia: 1944, Elmo Nüganen
Ethiopia: Lamb, Yared Zeleke (Cannes Un Certain Regard)

Finland: Miekkailija (The Fencer), Klaus Härö
France: Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Cannes Quinzaine Label Europa Cinemas Prize winner)

Georgia: მოირას Moira, Levan Tutberidze
Germany: Im Labyrinth des Schweigens (Labyrinth of Lies) by Giulio Ricciarelli
Greece: Xenia, Panos H. Koutras (2014 Cannes Un Certain Regard)
Guatemala: Ixcanul, Jayro Bustamante (Berlinale Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Award winner)

Hong Kong: 破風 To The Fore, Dante Lam
Hungary: Saul Fia (Son of Saul), László Nemes, Hungary (Cannes Grand Prix winner)

Iceland: Hrútar (Rams), Grímur Hákonarson (Cannes Un Certain Regard Prize winner)
India: कोर्ट Court, Chaitanya Tamhane (2014 Venice Orizzonti Best Film Award winner)
Iran: محمد رسول‌الله Muhammad (Muhammad the Messenger of God), Majid Majidi
Iraq: Bîreweriyên ser kevir (Memories on Stone), Şewket Emîn Korkî
Ireland: Viva, Paddy Breathnach
Israel: באבא ג'ון Baba Joon (Father John), Yuval Delshad
Italy: Non Essere Cattivo (Don't Be Bad), Claudio Caligari (Venice multiple Colllateral Awards winner)
Ivory Coast: Run, Philippe Lacôte (2014 Cannes Un Certain Regard)

Japan: 百円の恋 Hyakuen no koi (100 Yen Love), Masaharu Take
Jordan: ذيب‎ Theeb (Wolf), Naji Abu Nowar (2014 Venice Orizzonti Best Director Award winner)

Kazakhstan: Жат Zhat (Stranger), Yermek Tursunov
Kosovo: Babai (Father), Visar Morina
Kyrgyzstan: Сутак Sutak (Heavenly Nomadic), Mirlan Abdykalykov

Latvia: Modris, Juris Kursietis
Lebanon: وينن Waynon (Void), Tarek Korkomaz, Zeina Makki, Jad Beyrouthy, Christelle Ighniades, Salim Habr, Maria Abdel Karim, and Naji Bechara
Lithuania: Sangailės vasara (The Summer of Sangaile), Alantė Kavaitė (Berlinale Panorama)
Luxembourg: Baby(A)lone, Donato Rotunno

Macedonia: Медена ноќ Medena Nok (Honey Night), Ivo Trajkov
Malaysia: Lelaki Harapan Dunia ( Men Who Save the World), Seng Tat Liew
Mexico: 600 Millas (600 Miles), Gabriel Ripstein (Berlinale Best First Feature Award winner)
Montenegro: Ti mene nosiš (You Carry Me), Ivona Juka
Morocco: عايدة Aïda, Driss Mrini

Nepal: टलकजंग भर्सेस टुल्के Talakjung vs Tulke, Nichal Basnet
Netherlands: The Paradise Suite, Joost van Ginkel
Norway: Bølgen (The Wave), Roar Uthaug

Pakistan: ماں Moor (Mother), Jami
Palestine: The Wanted 18, Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan (animated documentary)
Paraguay: El Tiempo Nublado (Cloudy Times), Arami Ullón (documentary)
Peru: NN, Héctor Gálvez
Philippines: Heneral Luna, Jerrold Tarog
Poland:  11 Minut (11 Minutes), Jerzy  Skolimowski (Venezia72 Competition)
Portugal: As Mil e Uma Noites, Volume 2: O Desolado (Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate), Miguel Gomes (Cannes Directors Fortnight)

Romania: Aferim!, Radu Jude (Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Director winner)
Russia: Солнечный удар Solnechnyy udar (Sunstroke), Nikita Mikhalkov

Serbia: Enklava (Enclave), Goran Radovanović
Singapore: 7 Letters, Royston Tan, Kelvin Tong, Eric Khoo, Jack Neo, Tan Pin Pin, Boo Junfeng, and K. Rajagopal
Slovakia: Koza (Goat), Ivan Ostrochovský (Berlinale Forum)
Slovenia: Drevo (The Tree), Sonja Prosenc
South Africa: Thina Sobabili (The Two of Us), Ernest Nkosi
South Korea: 사도 Sado (The Throne), Lee Joon-ik
Spain: Loreak (Flowers), Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga
Sweden: En duva satt på en gren och funderade över tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence), Roy Andersson (2014 Venice Golden Lion Winner)
Switzerland: Iraqi Odyssey, Samir (Berlinale 3rd Place Documentary Panorama Audience Award - documentary)

Taiwan: 刺客聂隐娘 Nie Yin niang (The Assassin), Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Cannes Best Director award winner)
Thailand: พี่ชาย My Hero (How to Win At Checkers (Every Time)), Josh Kim (Berlinale Panorama)
Turkey: Sivas, Kaan Müjdeci (2014 Biennale Special Jury Prize winner)

United Kingdom: Dan Y Wenallt (Under Milk Wood), Kevin Allen
Uruguay: Una Noche Sin Luna (A Moonless Night), Germán Tejeira

Venezuela: Dauna. Lo Que Lleva el Río (Gone with the River), Mario Crespo (Berlinale NATIVe section)
Vietnam: Trúng số (Jackpot), Dustin Nguyễn

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016 at 5:30 am PT BUT a week before, AMPAS announces the short list with 9 films.

Check film posters at 88th Academy Awards Foreign-Language category tumblr here.
Check available trailers @MOC.
Check category country info -most in original language- at pinterest here.



Post Comments:
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9/30/15
Today, September 30, another update without moving the post to keep links working, sigh. Tomorrow October 1st at 5:00pm PT is the deadline for submissions to the foreign-language film category and even do up-to-this-minute there are 76 submissions, I'm starting to wonder if last year record (83) will be possible this year.

We already know that Cuba and Nigeria will not send a film this year but there are several other countries that could appear in the final list and we will not know it until the Academy publishes their official list with accepted submissions, which usually happens within 10-15 days after October 1st.

Know that there is some buzz about an Indonesian submission but haven't been able to find a reliable source. Then we have one site that published an Ukrainian submission BUT I haven't been able to find a reliable source and let me share that I have been having a blast reading since late August all the trials and tribulations Ukraine film industry is having after last year's scandal when most Oscar Committee resign when they send a movie that was not favorite The Tribe. As a matter of fact, early September news were that there were 2 new Oscar committees and that both sent requests for acceptance to AMPAS; that's probably the reason why AMPAS didn't approve one, or maybe they did but news diluted when the "new" scandal surfaced: both Russia and Ukraine wanted to send the same movie! The last scandal went quiet when Russia announced their official submission. Since then another movie appeared in the news but according to dear Google translation, film producers "regret" not being the Oscar entry as there will be no submission this year. Believe me or not, this is a brief summary of what I have been reading for the past month. Sigh. Nevertheless we will learn if movie made it or not, when the Academy publishes their list.

There are quite a few countries that haven't announce a movie or declare that they will not submit this year, like for example, Australia, Egypt, Indonesia, Moldova, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and UK. Just noticed that listed 7 countries, which is exactly the number of countries needed to reach last year's record of 83, so maybe this year will reach the same number of submissions.

Have to comment on the lack of fact editing from the industry major magazines/publications as there was a news dispatch from Madrid that went allover the world and was telling something that was not accurate. Talking about Variety, which as of that moment became another unreliable source for me and make things harder as was the only industry magazine that I still believed to be accurate. To make things worst, they never apologized for the mistake, nor correct it, nor acknowledged people leaving messages that info was not correct. Sigh.

As in previous years, my comments will come after AMPAS publishes their list and below list is adjusted accordingly, if necessary. Let's hope more countries participate with films as to be honest, most movies didn't tickle my desire to watch them. Of course there are a few extraordinary films that I have to watch but most of the "good" ones I have seen them already! YAY!!!

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9/17/15
Today, September 17, is a good time to remind all that for now, this list is about the submissions that each country announces.

After AMPAS deadline on October 1st -usually within 10 days- the Academy publishes the list of accepted submissions, meaning the country submissions that comply with all the category rules and qualify to be in the run for a nomination. It is then that list becomes final and 100% accurate.

Will not update post as link will be broke (strongly dislike blogger for this), so post will not be updated until after October 1st.

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9/1/15
Post goes up and previous links will not work, sigh, as now blogger changes the post address when post is re-published. But links are updated in the left column and above.

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Latest News - October 8 afternoon: AMPAS published the final list. Will comment after updating list plus all the other places.

China has a different movie, Panama is NOT in list.

October 8 morning: From different sources have info for Ethiopia and Singapore, but as the deadline was one week ago, will wait for the Academy list to include them IF films made it before the deadline. Nevertheless, so I will not forget, these are the films: Lamb for Ethiopia and 7 Letters for Singapore.

2016 César Awards - Animation Short Films Selection

Today the French Academy (Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma) announced that the road to #César2016 starts today with the presentation of the twelve (12) animation short films that make the selection for this edition of the French awards.

Still believe that French animation is one of the best in the world (if not, THE best) and in this selection we find some outstanding examples of how developed animation is in that country.

These are the films in the selection

Le C.O.D et le Coquelicot, Jeanne Paturle and Cécile Rousset, 24'
Carapace, Flora Molinié, 16'
La Chair de ma Chère, Calvin Antoine Blandin, 13'
Chez Moi (My Home), Phuong Mai Nguyen, 13'
Chulyen, Histoire de Corbeau, Cerise Lopez and Agnès Patron, 20'
Dans les Eaux Profondes (In Deep Wateres), Sarah Van Den Boom, 12'
Leftover, Tibor Bànòczki and Sarolta Szabó, 14'
La nuit américaine d'Angélique, Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet and Joris Clerté, 7'
Les Repas Dominical (Sunday Lunch), Céline Devaux, 14'
Smart Monkey, Vincent Paronnaud and Nicolas Pawlowski, 18'
Sous Tes Doigts, Marie-Christine Courtès, 13'
Tigres à la Queue Leu Leu, Benoît Chieux, 8'

Besides the online screening and a special cinema screening on December 12, 2015, the twelve films will also be available to Academy voters on a "Coffret DVD César 2016". The first voting stage will take place from January 4 to 26, 2016 and the five nominees will be selected. All César Awards nominations will be announced via a press conference on January 27, 2016.

Check available info, film still and/or trailer for short films in the selection.

Le C.O.D et le Coquelicot by Jeanne Paturle and Cécile Rousset
Synopsis: Dans une école primaire d’un quartier périphérique de Paris réputé difficile, où les équipes d’enseignants s’épuisent et se succèdent d’année en année, cinq jeunes maîtres sans expérience ont fait le pari de rester.Cinq ans après, ils nous parlent de leur quotidien dans ce lieu où ils tentent de construire, dans une alternance de découragement et de projets, une école comme les autres.



Carapace by Flora Molinié
Synopsis: Lili is in love, but can't make love. She has no idea why. Leo is full of empathy, but Lili is frustrated, desperate, and above all scared that their relationship can't last like this. So begins her quest to take charge of her body, her destiny.



La Chair de ma Chère by Calvin Antoine Blandin
Synopsis: After a tragic event, a child takes refuge in an alternative reality, where his mother is still present.



Chez Moi (My Home) by Phuong Mai Nguyen
Synopsis: Hugo's mother is back home. The day after, when Hugo wakes up, he finds black feathers all over his house.



Chulyen, Histoire de Corbeau by Cerise Lopez and Agnès Patron
Synopsis: Up there, so close to the pole, Chulyen is bored. Half man, half crow, with his pitiless eyes he cuts the world into pieces. When Chulyen covets a giant's kayak, he comes down from the air to charm and deceive him. When Chulyen is starving, he devours alive a plump, pudgy, delicious young seal. But the wind rises, and the spirits of the forest are at his heels. This time, Chulyen won't get out of it unscathed. Unless...



Dans les Eaux Profondes (In Deep Waters) by Sarah Van Den Boom
Synopsis: Three characters have in common a secret and intimate experience which seems to have a strong impact on their life...



Leftover by Tibor Bànòczki and Sarolta Szabó
Synopsis: What does it mean eating alone in human society? Showing moments of six different lives, this animated anthology film seeks answer for this question. Remains of food, remains of human relationships.



La nuit américaine d'Angélique by Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet and Joris Clerté
Synopsis: When she saw Francois Truffaut's Day For Night, Angelique discovered that it was possible to dream up her life.



Les Repas Dominical (Sunday Lunch), Céline Devaux
Synopsis: It’s Sunday. At lunch, James observes his family. They ask him questions, but don't listen to his answers; they give him advice but don't follow them themselves. They caress him, they smack him, but it's normal, it is lunch on Sunday.



Smart Monkey by Vincent Paronnaud and Nicolas Pawlowski
Synopsis: The struggle of the weak to survive the brutes is ancestral. In the Paleolithic jungle, a mischievous little monkey faces dangerous predators. An epilogue, taking place centuries later, reminds us that civilization was not founded on good feelings.



Sous Tes Doigts by Marie-Christine Courtès
Synopsis: The day of the cremation of her grand mother, Emilie, a young mixed-race Asian girl, buries herself into her grandmother memories. She discovers the Indochina of Hoa, her romantic encounter with Jacques (a French colon), the birth of Linh (Emilie's mother) and her tragic departure to France in 1956. She relives with Linh the arrival into the camp of Sainte-Livrade, the exploitation of the Indochinese women by the market gardeners of Lot-et-Garonne. Between memories, dance, anger and traditional rituals, Emilie learns to accept this heritage…



Tigres à la Queue Leu Leu by Benoît Chieux
Synopsis: An extremely lazy young boy is harassed by his mother who cannot bear to see him eat and sleep all day after day. He eventually decides to get to work and shows unexpected imagination, creativity and tenacity.