As August draws to a close, we are excited to present you a sneak peek into the IDFA 2023 program. This newsletter also offers sustainable travel routes with Choo-Choo, an open call for Young Producers, and last call for Docs for Sale submissions. We also are proud to announce Marina Burić as our new Senior Producer Industry. Get all the news below!   IDFA celebrates filmmakers Wang Bing and Peter Greenaway We proudly p...

Posted by Robin Menken "In February 1974, Brazilian musical stars Elis Regina and Tom Jobim met in Los Angeles, to record an album that would become a reference work in the history of Brazilian popular music.” Digitally remastered from 16 millimeter footage, the film drops us into this historic, troubled and ultimately victorious meeting between two creative giants. The filmed session is a intimate look at a Who’s Who of Brazilian musicians : guitarist-compo...

Kaala, Trailer launch: Reverse osmosis – turning white money into black There has been an ongoing illegal operation conducted in India over many a decade: it is called the generation and circulation of ‘black money’. ‘Black money’ is uned wealth, on which no tax has been paid. Most black money transactions have been conducted in cash, to avoid leaving any trace. There is no record of the amount of money that has been floating in the market, as black money....

Goldfish, Review:  Without your memory, you are like a goldfish out of water Probably used as a metaphor for the memory lapses of its central character, who is suffering from dementia, the goldfish, believed to have a memory span of three seconds, has, in fact, a rather long memory. On the website Live Science, the short-memory theory has been debunked, “In reality, goldfish (Carassius auratus) have much longer memories — spanning weeks, months and even years. And the science...

The film stars Piersco Favino, and had its world premiere on Wednesday 30 August in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema.   COMANDANTE Comandante, directed by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Piersco Favino, is the new opening film, a world premiere in Competition, of the 80th Venice International Film Festiv...

After a one-year pause, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will return to Durham in 2024.   The four-day festival, which routinely draws huge crowds for films and discussions, will be presented again at the Carolina Theatre and Durham Convention Center April 4-7.   “Full Frame is an extraordinary cultural event for Duke, Durham and the broader documentary film community,” said Ed Balleisen, Duke’s vice provost for interdisciplinary studies. “Re...

  With 14 powerful feature-length documentary films the European Film Academy is presenting a strong Documentary Film Selection for the European Film Awards 2023. The Academy has revealed the titles today. A committee consisting of a diverse range of invited European experts has chosen these 14 productions that have been recommended for nomination for the European Film Awards 2023. The European Film Awards, honouring the greatest achievements in European cinema, will be presented on 9 Dece...

  10 - 21 October 2023, 50th edition Film Fest Gent The final film by Japanese anime grandmaster Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away) - The Boy and the Heron - is the closing film of the 50th edition of Film Fest Gent. Studio Ghibli’s long-anticipated new title is co-founder Miyazaki’s first in a decade (after announcing his retirement) and has been received in Japan as a mature, complex masterpiece. For the first time, Film Fest Gent’s awards cer...

Love All, Review: Goodbye bton, Hello bton No, it’s not about love as is depicted in Hindustani films. And it certainly does not propagate the noble axiom, Love All. The ‘love’ here is derived from the French, l’oeuf, which means an egg, but is pronounced very nearly like love. Since the score 0 (zero) in games like tennis and bton is the starting point for the players, these games begin with Love All. After a dozen films on cricket, footfall, hockey, sp...

  Aly Yeganeh IN new York holding his trophy for  Best Narrative Feature Film The 2023 Festival of Cinema came to a close on Sunday, August 13 with awards given out in 18 categories. Enthusiastic and emotional filmmakers and attendees celebrated at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center as it concluded the 7th edition of the Forest Hills-based film festival. Aly Yeganeh’s Sibel’s Silence won Best Narrative Feature Film, and Pierre Guillet’s Th...

Maya will have its US premiere in LA at La Femme International film festival (Oct 19-22, 2023). We are back on-the-ground with events, mixers, awards ceremony, screenings and more with additional virtual elements online for our worldwide audiences. We will have films, seminars, awards show, special films and much more Our festival is in OCTOBER annually in Los Angeles, we will be hosting our standing room only s and screenings as well as offering a potential online...

ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING CRIMINAL INDUSTRIES IN THE WORLD IS THE BUYING AND SELLING OF PEOPLE. These are the facts… Child sex trafficking is reported in all 50 states and 30% of trafficking victims globally are children. (Source: 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report, UN) A big misconception is that Trafficking is a crime that just happens overseas and mainly in 3rd world countries, but the reality is, it’s a domestic problem happening right on our doorsteps that...

Help us make the world a better place through film. Artists For Change — Artists4Change.org Our films are raising awareness   150,000 American children are lured and forced into sex slavery every year.   Films is a significant medium in raising awareness and educating communities on what trafficking looks like and the techniques traffickers use to recruit vic...

  From August 28th to 31st, the Documentary Industry Days of OIFF will take place in Gdynia, Poland. The event is organized by the 14th Odesa International Film Festival and B2B Doc in cooperation with the Gdynia Film Center. The programme includes the presentation of Film Scouting projects. The list of participants includes: Alex Rodins’ Art Message (dir. Helen Yasinskaya) – Belarus Echoes of Avey (dir. Atanur Nabiyeva) – Azerbaijan ...

AURORA’S SUNRISE   From Director Inna Shakyan   Thanks to my dear friend Louisa Sharamatyan (https://www.instagram.com/louisasharamatyan/?hl=en ) I found out about Amenia’s official selection for the 95th Oscar: ‘Aurora’s Sunrise’. Such a mesmerizing movie that Cher, the iconic singer, showed up at one Los Angeles screening to congratulate fellow Armenian sister, director Inna Shakyan. This inspiring movie is based on the true life of Aurora Mardiga...

Generation Iron, the premier New York City-based global digital media company focused on health, fitness, bodybuilding and strength sports and its distribution/production partner The Vladar Company have acquired worldwide distribution rights for the award-winning, feature documentary Driven: The Tony Pearson Story. Winner of the Grand Prize, Best Documentary Feature at the 2023 Golden State Film Festival, the documentary is set to premiere on major streaming plat...

  The European Premiere of A24’s DREAM SCENARIO set to open the 19th Zurich Film Festival. Kristoffer Borgli’s dark comedy highlighting the everyday madness of celebrity culture, which stars Hollywood cult actor Nicolas Cage marks the first time in the history of the ZFF that a film from the New York-based entertainment company A24 will kick things off.  The film will be presented at the Zurich Co...

Israeli-American filmmaker Matthew Mishory’s latest feature FIORETTA has its International Premiere at the Zurich Film Festival on Thursday, October 5 at TBD CEST, followed by a Q&A and live string sextet performance of composer Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) by the ad hoc “Maverick Sextet.”   FIORETTA is the cinematic new documentary directed by Matthew Mishory, whose previous film (including WHO ARE THE MARCUSES?, NO PLACE ...

The helmer of ‘The Theory of Everything’ directs Gabriel Byrne and Sandrine Bonnaire in this movie about all the lives of writer Samuel Beckett   Dance First, the film from the British moviemaker James Marsh on the subject of Samuel Beckett, will close the 71st San Sebastian Festival. The film winding up the Official Selection out of competition stars Gabriel Byrne and Sandrine Bonnaire. Marsh (Truro, UK. 1963) won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for M...

‘Chinas’, by Arantxa Echevarría, will have its preview on 27 September at the Kursaal 2 The Gala of ‘La Ternura’, by Vicente Villanueva, will take place on the 28th at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre RTVE will come to the Festival with three films in the Official Selection plus another three titles, including ‘Cerrar los ojos / Close Your Eyes’, by the Donostia Award-winner, Víctor Erice RTVE will hold two film Galas at the 71st San Seb...

Revisionist Western Feature by Filmmaker Viduran Roopan to Begin Festival Run in Early 2024 En Trance Films has released the official poster for the feature, The Company of Thieves, the announcement was made today by company founder Viduran Roopan.   Filmmaker Roopan's first feature film, the 'revisionist Western'* will premiere on the festival circuit early next year. The film stars Tony Noto (1923, Pam & Tommy, Flight 704), and Hunter C. Smith (Luc...

Lil Nas X and TIFF 2023 announce World Premiere of Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero with Sony Music Entertainment Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment    Lil Nas X and TIFF are excited to announce the World Premiere of the groundbreaking, GRAMMY–winning rapper, singer, and songwriter’s documentary, Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, which was shot during the course of his first ever global tour. A new addition to the Gala programme, the film was produced by Radic...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HASBRO! 100 YEARS AND ROCKING THE MARKETPLACE. This year the legendary bands maker, HASBRO, has turned 100! 100 years to rock the marketplace and create iconic game such as Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk or Battleship! Hasbro has also expanded his “movie star” status by creating some insane lines of toys such as with ‘Transformers’, ‘G.I Joe’, ‘Dungesons & Dragons’ and lately adding premier collaborations brands with Star Wars, I...

IT’S A FUNKO WILD WILD WORLD!!!     This summer it seems like FUNKO is everywhere on the planet, and especially in the USA with a mega appearance at the worldwide legendary Comic Convention of San Diego. We went to the convention with our three boys who are mega fan of FUNKO. What a surprise when we discovered the ‘FUNKOVILLE’ built by the hard-working team of FUNKO. This year, they doubled the footprint of their booths and it felt like a complete immersive expe...

LEGOLAND CALIFORNIA: AN AWESOME ENDLESS SUMMER!   This summer, again, my boys and I decided to head down to Carlsbad, California for an extravaganza full of fun adventures at Legoland California ( www.Legoland.com/california ). I had prebooked a theme room at the iconic Legoland hotel (https://www.legoland.com/california/places-to-stay/legoland-hotel/ ) and I highly recommend to make a reservation at least 1 month before heading to the park as, both the Legoland Hotel and the Castle Hot...