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Marianne Faithfull, the iconic English singer and songwriter who first appeared in the mid-1960s, then returned after years of personal problems, including heroin addiction and homelessness, with her masterful 1979 album “Broken English,” died surrounded by her family at her London home on January 30. Though known mainly for her music, in the late 1960s she embarked on a career as a film actress (best known for “The Girl on a Motorcycle”) that was cut short by turmoil in her life. She was 78.

Best known initially for “As Tears Go By” in 1964 when she was only 17 (the song was co-written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) her father was a career military man and intelligence officer and Italian literature professor, her mother from Austrian-Hungarian nobility. She was initially discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager.

She quickly fell in with the Stones (eventually becoming Jagger’s lover and sometime...

Jim Jarmusch's best movies prove he has always been a risk-taker of a director, even if those risks are necessarily pronounced or brash compared to other filmmakers. Over more than 30 years in the business, Jarmusch has dominated the indie scene as a director concerned with the quotidian, the existential, the unusual, the confrontational, the bland, and everything in between. A typical Jarmusch plot presents as a logical, mild-mannered affair no matter how extraordinary the circumstances, choosing to focus on how the characters populating the film operate within the established rules of the world.

As such, Jarmusch has emerged as a director who has been able to go from genre to genre, be it a crime thriller, comedy, or supernatural drama, infusing it with his unique sensibilities. With 13 feature films and two documentaries to his name (not to mention the large handful of short films), Jarmusch has crafted an astounding...

The Dead Don't Die is a zombie movie with a subtle, philosophical perspective that's fascinating to examine. Directed by iconic indie director Jim Jarmusch, the comedy touches upon timely social issues by exploring small-town drama during a zombie apocalypse, as police officers Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) investigate the murder of two people at a Centerville diner. The initial diner murders are committed by two zombies - undead characters who are less interested in flesh and more interested in coffee, demonstrating that it's not the typical zombie film.

The Dead Don’t Die overtly foreshadows the impending apocalypse. From act to act, Driver’s Ronnie Peterson emphatically states that “it’s all going to end badly.” Murray’s Robertson tries to figure out why the end is coming, even though the writing is figuratively on the wall. Ultimately, they’re consumed by concepts that they can’t fully understand,...

Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which ran from October 31-November 10.

The family drama centring on an Arab-speaking Israeli family premiered earlier this year in Venice’s Horizons strand, winning best screenplay. Copti had previously won the best film and screenplay prizes at Thessaloniki in 2009 for his Academy Award nominated Ajami.

The Silver Alexander for best director went to Belgian Leonardo van Dijl for his debut feature Julie Keeps Quiet, winner of the Sacd award in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar.

The jury of the international competition,...

Iconic actor Tony Todd has died at the age of 69, it has been confirmed. As reported by THR, the Candyman, Platoon, and Star Trek: The Next Generation star, who amassed in excess of 250 professional credits over the course of an astonishing, five decade spanning career, passed away on 6 November at his home in Los Angeles after a long battle with illness.

Anthony Tiran Todd was born in Washington D.C. on 4 December, 1954 to Evetta Lyons Gaither. At the age of just three a young Tony Todd moved to Hartford, Connecticut where his auntie, Clara Elliston, took custody of him and nurtured his adolescent curiosity with the arts. Having enrolled Todd in summer acting courses as a boy, Elliston supported her nephew — artistically, financially, and emotionally — as his interest in theatre led to spells at both Eugene O’Neill National Actors Theatre Institute in Connecticut and Trinity Repertory Company in Rhode Island.

Happy Holidays, the latest feature from Palestinian Filmmaker Scandar Copti, has taken the top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

Copti’s film won the Best Feature Film Award, which comes with a 10,000-euro cash prize. Awarding the prize, the jury, headed by Sara Driver, praised the film for “intricately weaving different narratives and perspectives that fully expose the complexity of national, gender and class dynamics that can divide societies and for seeing the future in the face of a young woman the Golden Alexander goes to Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti.”

Happy Holidays debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The story open after a minor accident sets off a chain of events, unraveling lies and unspoken truths that sow division within a multifaceted patriarchal society.

The festival’s Best Director Award, which comes with a 5,000-euro cash prize, was picked up Leonardo Van Dijl for Julie Keeps Quiet.

Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti’s Israel-set family drama “Happy Holidays” won the top prize Sunday at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander for best feature film.

Copti’s sophomore feature, his first film since his Oscar-nominated 2009 debut “Ajami,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, winning the best screenplay prize. Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha described it as “a piercing, realistic family drama, the inflection points of which reveal deep cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and ethnicity.”

“Happy Holidays” follows four interconnected characters who share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations and cultures. The ensemble cast — comprised of Arab and Jewish characters alike — creates a multifaceted portrait of life in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.

The Thessaloniki jury, which included filmmaker and producer Sara Driver (“Boom for Real”), filmmaker Denis Côté (“Vic + Flo Saw a Bear”) and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis (“How to Have Sex...

Thessaloniki Film Festival has revealed its International Competition section, which showcases 12 films by up-and-coming directors from around the world. The selection includes “Julie Keeps Quiet,” which is Belgium’s entry in the Oscars, and “Under the Volcano,” which is Poland’s entry.

Also selected are “Arcadia,” which won best director at Sarajevo for Yorgos Zois; “Happy Holidays,” which won best screenplay in Venice Horizons for Scandar Copti; “On Falling,” which won best director at San Sebastian for Laura Carreira; and “Pierce,” which won best director at Karlovy Vary for Nelicia Low.

The jury is composed of filmmaker and producer Sara Driver, filmmaker Denis Côté and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis.

The top prize is the Golden Alexander for best feature film, accompanied by a 10,000 euro cash prize. There is also the Silver Alexander for best direction, accompanied by a 5,000 euro cash prize; the best actor and actress awards; and the best screenplay and best artistic achievement award.

If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.

Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...

Robby Müller: Living The Light director Claire Pijman will do a Q&a with Andrea Müller-Schirmer following the 2:30pm screening at Metrograph on Sunday, October 1 Photo: Claire Pijman

Claire Pijman’s resourceful and enlightening documentary, Robby Müller: Living The Light (with a score by Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan’s Sqùrl), is a big part of the series, Robby Müller: Remain in Light, at Metrograph that celebrates the legendary cinematographer, who died in 2018. Films by Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Sara Driver’s When Pigs Fly, Andrzej Wajda’s Korczak, Alex Cox’s Repo Man, Peter Bogdanovich’s Saint Jack, William Friedkin’s To Live And Die In LA, and Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People will all be shown.

Claire Pijman with Anne-Katrin Titze on Robby Müller and Wim Wenders’ Buena Vista Social Club: “That’s how I got to know him, and since then we stayed...

Jeremy Thomas (who Tilda Swinton compares to a pirate and William Blake) on Jim Jarmusch: “There’s no more American independent hero than him. He and Sara Driver have been my friends for years, decades.”

In the second instalment with the free-thinking producer and pirate of the high seas (Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki), Jeremy Thomas, we discuss the filming of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, his “favourite actor” John Hurt, his “very good buddy” Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and “the great” Mia Wasikowska, and Anton Yelchin “who was such a sweetie”. We also touch upon the opening night of Jeremy Thomas Presents at the Quad Cinema with Jeremy and the Stealing Beauty author Susan Minot, doing a Q&a following the screening of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers.

Jim Jarmusch with Tilda Swinton, whom Jeremy Thomas calls “an incredible woman.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Jim...

The list of directors who put their trust in Robby Müller could constitute a nice history of post-war cinema. A retrospective of films on which he served as Dp reflects accordingly––so’s the case with Metrograph’s “Robby Müller: Remain in Light,” which starts on Friday, September 29, and for which we’re glad to debut the trailer.

Contained therein are bits and pieces of what Metrograph attendees can anticipate. The series will offer a chance to see (among others) 24 Hour Party People, Alice in the Cities, The American Friend, Barfly, Breaking the Waves, Dead Man, Down by Law, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, Kings of the Road, Korczak, Living the Light – Robby Müller, Mystery Train, Repo Man, Saint Jack, To Live and Die in L.A., When Pigs Fly, The Wrong Move, and Paris, Texas. The opening night will be anchored by “a panel on Müller’s continued influence on filmmaking,...

Jean-Michel Basquiat in Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat

In the first instalment with author, critic and artist Lucy Sante we touch on transitioning and two of the documentaries she has been interviewed for - Andrew Rossi’s The Andy Warhol Diaries and Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat. William Burroughs and crime novels, Whit Stillman and Steiff animals, writing lyrics for The Del-Byzanteens led us to music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman.

Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman: “99 Records was the most perfect single-model representation of the zeitgeist in my youth.”

From there we go back in time to Ed producing and mastering Bush Tetras’ iconic Two Many Creeps (99-02), Lucy’s memories of 99 and her friendships with Pat Place and Cynthia Sley (Bush Tetras), Richard McGuire, and the late inventive photographer...

Zombie Town is a comedy zombie film directed by Peter Lepeniotis, he also worked on the screenplay with Michael Samonek and Michael Schwartz. The comedy horror film follows the story of Amy (Madi Monroe) and Mike (Marlon Kazadi) as they unleash a centuries-old curse turning everybody in their town into zombies. To undo this they must find a infamous filmmaker who might have a solution. Zombie Town also stars Chevy Chase, Henry Czerny, and Dan Aykroyd in supporting roles. So, if you loved Zombie Town here are some similar movies you could watch next.

The World’s End (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Focus Features

Synopsis: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reteam with director Edgar Wright in this wildly entertaining thrill ride that critics call “funny as hell” and “sheer comic perfection”. Twenty years after their first epic pub crawl attempt, the “five musketeers” reunite in their home town to complete the ultimate challenge – one night,...

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is a Japanese zombie film with a bit of a twist. The Netflix film follows a young man who feels empty and has become a corporate drone but when a zombie apocalypse breaks loose he’s able to live freely and he takes full advantage of this to do everything he always wanted to do. So, if you loved Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead here are some similar movies that you should watch next.

Zombieland (Netflix) Credit – Sony Pictures

Synopsis: Nerdy college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has survived the plague that has turned mankind into flesh-devouring zombies because he’s scared of just about everything. Gun-toting, Twinkie-loving Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) has no fears. Together, they are about to stare down their most horrifying challenge yet: each other’s company. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin co-star in this double-hitting, head-smashing comedy.

Jean-Michel Basquiat at Sotheby’s: “I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the second installment with Sara Driver and Alexis Adler on Jean-Michel Basquiat, we discuss a panel at The New School with Al Diaz, Michael Holman and Annina Nosei that Alexis attended, Kevin Young’s book To Repel Ghosts, Afrika Bambaataa at the Ritz, Public Enemy (Chuck D and Flavor Flav) at The World, Spring/Break, and the Bishop Gallery connection to her recent Hbcu (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Our Friend, Jean tour.

Also: Sara on prophet artists, Beck Underwood’s fantastic Super 8 clothesline animation for the Michael Holman Gray story, screening Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat at Miami Basel, and teaching kids at NYU to “make your mistakes.”

Sara Driver with Alexis Adler and Anne-Katrin Titze on New York in the late Seventies,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Japan Society

A series celebrating Seijun Suzuki’s centennial begins with imported 35mm prints.

Roxy Cinema

35mm showings of Happiness continue; a Sara Driver series brings Stranger Than Paradise and Sleepwalk on 35mm, as well as Boom for Real.

Museum of Modern Art

A series on Claudia Cardinale begins, including Rocco and His Brothers this Saturday.

Film Forum

Dino Risi’s Una Vita Difficile has begun playing in a 4K restoration, while Howl’s Moving Castle screens on Sunday.

Museum of the Moving Image

A series on awards-snubbed films continues with Sirk, Cukor, and The Night of the Hunter.

IFC Center

28 Days Later, The Big Lebowski, Eraserhead, The Witches, and Psycho play.

The post NYC Weekend Watch: Seijun Suzuki, Sara Driver, Claudia Cardinale & More first appeared on The Film Stage.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy)

Everything you need to know about Alice’s (Anna Kendrick) state of mind concerning the abuse inflicted by her boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick) are the words “it’s not like he hurts me.” We feel Sophie’s (Wunmi Mosaku) wince in our bones—”hurt” doesn’t only become noteworthy when wrought by a physical altercation. Alice is glued to her phone to ensure she doesn’t miss a call or text. She wakes up super early to apply make-up and style her hair to Simon’s preference. Parrots all the soundbites he uses to police her eating habits about the toxicity of sugar. And literally pulls her hair out of her head whenever she has a spare second...

Sara Driver retrospective at the Roxy Cinema in New York

The Roxy Cinema in New York this week will be screening with discussions Sara Driver’s You Are Not I with Claire Denis’ Keep It For Yourself, Sleepwalk, When Pigs Fly, Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Sara will introduce with Lewie Kloster and Noah Kloster their short Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver and Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise. Alexis Adler and Al Diaz will join Sara following Boom For Real. George Franju’s Judex has been picked by Sara to screen tonight to complement her retrospective On the Bowery: Lost and Found Films of Sara Driver.

Sara Driver with Anne-Katrin Titze: “Sleepwalk is very influenced by Jacques Rivette …”

In the second instalment of my conversation with Sara Driver on Zoom before the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/New Films in 2021, we discussed...

Jean-Michel Basquiat in Gray with Michael Holman and Shannon Dawson (Konk), seen in Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat Photo: Nick Taylor (Gray), courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Anthony McCarten’s The Collaboration (currently on Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club) with Jeremy Pope as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah takes liberties with time while Sara Driver’s inspiring Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2018) captures the artist and the scene around him through on-camera interviews with Jim Jarmusch, Carlo McCormick, Fred Brathwaite (aka Fab 5 Freddy), Sur Rodney (Sur), Glenn O’Brien, Kenny Scharf, Lee Quiñones, Patricia Field, Jamie Nares, Lucy Sante, Al Diaz, Michael Holman, Jennifer Jazz, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Mary-Ann Monforton, Bud Kliment, Felice Rosser, and Alexis Adler, who says “If we don't tell the history, then others will, who weren't there and don't know the truth.

No two ways about it: April’s a great month for the Criterion Channel, which (among other things; more in a second) adds two recent favorites. We’re thrilled at the SVOD premiere of Hamaguchi’s entrancing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, our #3 of 2021, and Bruno Dumont’s lacerating France, featuring Léa Seydoux’s finest performance yet.

Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.

See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

—

3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926

Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...

With nearly every feature film at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival reviewed, it’s time to wrap up the first major cinema event of the year. We already got the official jury and audience winners here, and now it’s time to highlight our favorites.

Our Sundance contributors have shared their top picks from the festival, also including a handful of shorts (with a more substantial shorts overview coming soon). Check out everything below and stay tuned to our site, and specifically Twitter, for acquisition and release date news on the below films in the coming months.

Mitchell Beaupre

1. Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford)

2. After Yang (kogonada)

3. Speak No Evil (Christian Tafdrup)

4. God’s Country (Julian Higgins)

5. A Love Song (Max Walker-Silverman)

6. Resurrection (Andrew Semans)

7. Nanny (Nikyatu Jusu)

8. Happening (Audrey Diwan)

9. Emergency (Carey Williams)

10. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Sophie Hyde)

John Fink

1. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier...

This year’s Sundance Film Festival featured 84 feature films, 59 short films, and 26 jury-awarded prizes — with at least 7 of them distributed to Asian productions. Unsurprisingly, most of the Asian award winners revolved around tales of precarity. Shaunak Sen’s Delhi-based ecology-conscious film “All That Breathes” won a Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary category. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s on-the-ground documentary about Rohingya discrimination in the Rakhine State, “Midwives” won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence in Verite Filmmaking. Maryna Er Gorbach’s Ukraine-Turkey co-production about a family living along the precarious Ukraine-Russian border, “Klondike”, took home the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic.

Several dramatic films took their pickings, too. Philippines-based Martika Ramirez Escobar’s love letter to cinema, “Leonor Will Never Die,” also was selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit. Shorts “Night Bus” (Joe Hsieh) and “Warsha” (Dania Bdeir) likewise swept the shorts fiction awards,...

Chicago – The 2022 Sundance Film Festival announced their Grand Jury Prizes on January 28th, and the top films were “Nanny” (U.S. Dramatic), “The Exiles” (U.S. Documentary), “Utama” (World Cinema Dramatic) and “All That Breathes” (World Cinema Documentary).

After nine days, 84 feature films and 59 Short Films, honors were also given for Audience Awards, Festival Favorite Award, Jury Awards for Directing, Screenwriting & Editing and Special Jury Awards.

The list of all award winners are below.

Grand Jury Prize

‘Nanny’

Photo credit: Sundance Film Festival

U.S. Dramatic: “Nanny” directed by Nikyatu Jusu

U.S. Documentary: “The Exiles,” directed by Ben Klein & Violet Columbus

World Cinema Dramatic:: “Utama” (Bolivia/Uraguay/France) directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi

World Cinema Documentary: “All That Breathes” (India/UK) directed by Shaunak Sen

Audience Awards

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Photo credit: Sundance Film Festival

U.S. Dramatic: “Cha Cha Real Smooth” directed by Cooper Raif

U.S.

NannyU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeNanny (Nikyatu Jusu)Directing PrizeJamie Dack (Palm Trees and Power Lines)Audience Award Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff)Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Visionblood (Bradley Rust Gray)Special Jury Award: Ensemble CastJohn Boyega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, and Selenis Leyva (892)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardKD Dávila (Emergency)Descendant U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize The Exiles (Ben Klein, Violet Columbus)Directing Prize Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) Audience Award Navalny (Daniel Roher)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardErin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput (Fire Of Love)Special Jury Award: Creative VisionDescendant (Margaret Brown)Special Jury Award: Impact for ChangeAftershock (Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee)Utama World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Utama (Alejandro Loayza Grisi)Directing Prize Maryna Er Gorbach (Klondike)Audience AwardGirl Picture (Alli Haapasalo)Special Jury Award for ActingTeresa Sánchez (Dos Estaciones)Special Jury Award for Innovative SpiritLeonor Will Never Die (Martika Ramirez Escobar...

With lottery ticket winning odds of having your short film selected, the Sundance Film Festival have unveiled the lucky 59 films selected for their 2022 edition from what was an all-time-high in terms of submissions with over 10,374 films. Among the eyebrow-raiser selections we find Nash Edgerton closing out his short film trilogy with Shark – a 2021 TIFF selection that follows Spider (Sundance selection) and Bear (Cannes selection). And speaking of Cannes, we find Romanian filmmaker Carina Gabriela Dașoveanu and the Cinefondation winning Love Stories on the Move. And staying on the Croisette, the one and only Sara Driver as the subject of Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver by Lewie Kloster and Noah Kloster – an animated film about moving a copy of Stranger Than Paradise across the Atlantic Ocean in big stakes heist style.…...

Suzanne Fletcher and Ann Magnuson in Sara Driver’s Sleepwalk Photo: Nan Goldin

Sara Driver’s spellbinding Sleepwalk, co-written with Kathleen Brennan and Lorenzo Mans, shot by Jim Jarmusch and Frank Prinzi, with a score by Phil Kline, and starring Suzanne Fletcher with Ann Magnuson, Steve Buscemi (coming to the Tribeca Film Festival to present Ethan Coen and Joel Coen’s Fargo), Linda Yablonski, Sally Venue (aka Sally Berg), Richard Boes, Ako, Stephen Chen, Tony Todd, Dexter Lee, Harvey Perr, Barbara Klar, Cheryl Dyer, Rebecca Wright, and William Rice (aka Bill Rice) was a New Directors/New Films at 50: A Retrospective pick. Sara also participated in an HBO sponsored live virtual Free Talk, moderated by Wendy Keys. Ed Bahlman (99 Records founder and producer) and I sent in greetings to Sara. The exchange is below our conversation.

Sara Driver on New York City in the Eighties: “When I was making Sleepwalk,...

Sônia Braga with her Aquarius director Kleber Mendonça Filho Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of New Directors/New Films, hosted by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, Kleber Mendonça Filho spoke with Richard Peña, Ramin Bahrani chatted with Larry Kardish, and Sara Driver will speak with Wendy Keys in the HBO sponsored live virtual Free Talks. Sleepwalk was screened virtually for free in the New Directors/New Films at 50: A Retrospective programme.

Jesmark Scicluna in Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu screens on Sunday, May 9 at 6:00pm

Ramin Bahrani joined Larry Kardish virtually last night for a wonderful in-depth conversation on his career. I sent in the following comment and question which...

Wim Wenders’ adaptation of Peter Handke’s The Goalie's Anxiety At The Penalty Kick in the New Directors/New Films at 50: A Retrospective Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art’s 50th New Directors/New Films to include a retrospective with free virtual screenings of Chantal Akerman’s Les Rendez-vous d’Anna; Sara Driver’s Sleepwalk; Christopher Nolan’s Following; Eduardo Coutinho’s Twenty Years Later; Horace Ové’s Playing Away; Charles Burnett’s My Brother’s Wedding; Gregg Araki’s The Living End; Humberto Solás’s Lucía; Mani Kaul’s Duvidha; Lee Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy, and Wim Wenders’ adaptation of Peter Handke’s The Goalie's Anxiety At The Penalty Kick.

Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art’s 50th New Directors/New Films

Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta (Spain) will open the festival and Theo Anthony’s All Light,...

The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have today announced the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf), this year available in both virtual and in-theater settings, marking it as the first New York City festival to return to live screenings since the pandemic began. This year’s festival will introduce 27 features and 11 shorts to audiences nationwide in the MoMA and Flc virtual cinemas, and to New Yorkers at Film at Lincoln Center. The festival will open with Amalia Ulman’s “El Planeta” and close with Theo Anthony’s “All Light, Everywhere,” both of which premiered at Sundance in January.

This year’s edition will mark the second time the festival has offered a virtual arm: the festival’s original March 2020 dates were postponed when pandemic shutdowns took hold, with the series eventually opting to go virtual for its 49th edition, rolling out last December.

The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/ New Films.

The annual program will be held virtually on April 28 through May 8, with in-person screening extending through May 14 at Film at Lincoln Center.

This year’s festival is introducing 27 features and 11 short films. Unique to the 2021 edition, there will be a free virtual retrospective to celebrate the past 50 years of New Directors/ New Films running from April 16 through April 28.

“From intimate, personal tales to political, metaphysical, and spiritual inquiries, the films in the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films embody an inexhaustible curiosity and a fearless desire for adventure,” said La Frances Hui, curator of Film at The Museum of Modern Art and 2021 New Directors/New Films co-chair. “They prove that cinema will continue to illuminate and inspire the way we live, and make art.”

Writer and director Amalia Ulman...

Portugal’s cash rebate scheme, introduced in 2018, is attracting major international productions and new production outfits and facilities, and providing significant leverage for domestic film and TV productions.

Shoots slowed during the pandemic, with several projects lensed in bubbles, but production is expected to surge in the second half of 2021.

The current cash rebate is tabbed at 25/30% of eligible production spend and may be upwardly revised in the near future.

€22.5 million ($27.5 million) in total cash rebate has been disbursed since 2018, roughly equally split between international shoots and 100% Portuguese productions and co-productions.

High-profile projects include Ira Sachs’ “Frankie,” with Isabelle Huppert, Richard Stanley’s “The Color Out of Space,” starring Nicolas Cage, Marco Pontecorvo’s “Fatima,” with Harvey Keitel, and three Bollywood pics. These projects have accessed cash rebate per pic varying between €631,000 and €1.9 million ($2.4 million) Portugal is also shaking up its production eco-system. Pubcaster Rtp has shifted from telenovelas to...

Amos Poe had already directed one homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (his 1976 debut feature Unmade Beds) when he began production on the 1984 thriller Alphabet City, but the latter film is the one that really earns the comparisons it invites to Godard and the French New Wave as a whole. A member of the East Village “No Wave” movement of the late ’70s and early ’80s that also included Abel Ferrara, Bette Gordon, Jim Jarmusch and Sara Driver, Poe began his career with the seminal punk rock documentary The Blank Generation, and Alphabet City is a singular mash-up of […]

The post Alphabet City, I Start Counting! and Captain Newman, M.D.: Jim Hemphill's Home Video Recommendations first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Amos Poe had already directed one homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (his 1976 debut feature Unmade Beds) when he began production on the 1984 thriller Alphabet City, but the latter film is the one that really earns the comparisons it invites to Godard and the French New Wave as a whole. A member of the East Village “No Wave” movement of the late ’70s and early ’80s that also included Abel Ferrara, Bette Gordon, Jim Jarmusch and Sara Driver, Poe began his career with the seminal punk rock documentary The Blank Generation, and Alphabet City is a singular mash-up of […]

The post Alphabet City, I Start Counting! and Captain Newman, M.D.: Jim Hemphill's Home Video Recommendations first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

As much as we adore and revere the theatrical experience, as theater chains prep to reopen amidst a virus that is spreading rapidly in certain areas of the country, one is far better off staying at home and enjoying films from around the world. There’s no better place to do that than The Criterion Channel, and now they’ve unveiled their July lineup.

Coming to the channel next month are retrospectives dedicated to the stellar early films of Atom Egoyan, works by Miranda July, films featuring Ryuichi Sakamoto scores, Olympic films (including their recent release Tokyo Olympiad), plus Kelly Reichardt’s masterful Certain Women, Med Hondo’s Soleil Ô (coming soon to disc with Scorsese’s next World Cinema Project release), Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, and much more.

See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.

Frank Beauvais's Just Don't Think I'll Scream is exclusively playing on Mubi in most countries from June 25 - July 25, 2020 in Mubi's Undiscovered series.Top: Asparagus. Above: Man Is in PainThe idea of the film appeared while France was plunged into a state of emergency, following the November 2015 terrorist attacks. The police and army were everywhere, and politicians and state ideologues were, as usual in such a context, taking advantage of the situation to legitimize stronger surveillance of the population, justify questionable identity controls or searches, and distill and infuse fear amongst citizens. At that time, I was living all by myself, in a small village in Alsace not far from the German border. I had broken up a few months before and was expecting a vacancy in a friend’s flat to move back to Paris. I kept fighting with a fiction script I felt less and less inclined to develop,...

Above: Midnight in ParisThere’s a certain warmth to Indie Memphis. Perhaps it’s odd to ascribe that to a film festival, but it’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of the four days I spent in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, surrounded by audiences, filmmakers, programmers, and writers like myself who have an enduring love for independent cinema. As soon as I arrived the temperature dropped to the low 40s and eventually the 30s, but I hardly noticed. I’d been wanting to go to Indie Memphis since critic and programmer Miriam Bale took was named Artistic Director of the event last year. The centerpiece of her first year was a celebration of Hong Sang-soo, bringing his films to Memphis for the first time.This year, the centerpiece of the festival was the Sara Driver retrospective, which included both her films and personal selections. Driver, a New York City director,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGJonathan Glazer's The FallA surprise new short from Jonathan Glazer, entitled The Fall, dropped on BBC Two with little introduction on Sunday night, exposing viewers to 7 minutes of mob violence. “The day I saw a picture of the Trump sons grinning with a dead leopard,” Glazer says, was the inspiration for the harrowing visual centerpiece of the film. The official U.S. trailer for Ken Loach's drama Sorry We Missed You, about a man who decides to be his own boss, only to fall into a harsh and unrelenting gig economy. Diao Yinan returns with The Wild Goose Lake, which follows a gangster and a call-girl on the run from the police. Read our review of the film here. Recommended READINGDennis Hopper, "Peter Fonda (With Tripod)" (1966)On The Guardian, an exclusive look...

Sara Driver's Sleepwalk (1986) and When Pigs Fly (1993) is showing October and November on Mubi in the United States.SleepwalkIn Sara Driver’s too small yet varied filmography, her two fiction features, both poetic fantasies—Sleepwalk (1986) and When Pigs Fly (1993)—are bracketed by two other longer films, the 48-minute You Are Not I and the 78-minute documentary Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017). Sleepwalk stars Suzanne Fletcher, who also played the schizophrenic sister in You Are Not I; Boom For Real portrays both a highly interactive community and an eclectic artist inside it, which might also describe When Pigs Fly, a comedy inspired by Topper about a jazz pianist (Alfred Molina) living in an east coast port town populated by barflies and ghosts. Moreover, the community in Boom is basically Lower East Side Manhattan and more specifically the Bowery, the setting of Sleepwalk, as well as...

Slate deal includes ‘The Perfect Candidate’ and ‘Happy as Lazzaro’.

The UK’s Modern Films has struck a slate deal with Amazon Prime Video, comprising 10 female-led features and documentaries.

The films, which include Haifaa Al Mansour’s Venice Competition title The Perfect Candidate and Alice Rohrwacher’s Cannes best screenplay winner Happy As Lazzaro, will be made available on the streaming platform following their theatrical release.

The Perfect Candidate, about a young Saudi doctor who becomes the first woman to run for office in her local city elections, is set for release in the UK and Ireland in spring 2020 and...

Exclusive: UK-based production and distribution outfit Modern Films has struck a slate deal with Amazon Prime Video for the latter to stream ten of its female-led features.

The films include Haifaa Al Mansour’s 2019 Venice Competition title The Perfect Candidate, which was recently submitted by Saudi Arabia to the 2020 International Oscar race, Sacha Polak’s gritty British drama Dirty God, which was a festival hit this year, and Kim Longinotto’s Sundance documentary Shooting The Mafia.

Amazon has licensed UK and Ireland steaming rights from Modern on the slate and will launch each title following its theatrical release in the territory. Some of the films included from the Modern Films library which have already been in UK cinemas are available on the platform this week.

The license on each title ranges from 12-24 months, with the deal set to run its course by October 1, 2021.

Also included are: Alice Rohrwacher’s...

Sara Driver on her friend Robert Frank: "His straight forward photos often speak volumes." Photo: Lisa Rinzler

Sara Driver, director of Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sleepwalk, and You Are Not I, and recently seen in Jim Jarmusch's 2019 Cannes Film Festival opener The Dead Don't Die, sent the following personal remembrance in honour of her and Jim's friend Robert Frank, who died on September 9, in Inverness, Nova Scotia, at the age of 94, and his wife June Leaf, who survived him.

Sara Driver: “Wim Wenders sent a picture from Butte Montana that was taken a week before Robert’s death. It is out of the same window in the same hotel where Robert photographed Butte for The Americans in 1950.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

"Weirdly enough a week before Robert Frank died. I checked the news. I had a feeling. I realise after contacting many of his friends and admirers.

This week’s horror and sci-fi home media releases feature a stellar array of new and old. Scream Factory is showing some love to a trio of classic titles—Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, Circus of Horrors and Scars of Dracula—and for those who may have missed it in theaters a few months back, Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die is shambling its way home on various formats. We’re also getting several modern classics released in 4K this Tuesday—Daybreakers and Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy, and for all you Supernatural fans out there, season 14 arrives on both Blu-ray & DVD, just in time for the final season.

Other Blu-ray & DVD releases for September 10th include Nekrotronic, John Wick: Chapter 3, Paranormal Activity 6-Movie Collection, and Hex.

Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb

A British expedition in Egypt discovers the ancient sealed tomb of the evil Queen Tera.

Stars: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat, Rosie Perez, Eszter Balint, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver, RZA, Carol Kane, Larry Fessenden, Tom Waits | Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch

The Dead Don’t Die is the latest feature from director Jim Jarmusch and stars a gigantic cast list of Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Selena Gomez, Tilda Swinton and RZA, to name just a few. The film follows three police officers of Chief Cliff Robertson (Murray), Officer Ronnie Peterson (Driver) and Officer Mindy Morrison (Chloë Sevigny) in the peaceful middle American town of Centerville, of which finds itself and the characters battling an onslaught of a Zombie invasion.

Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die, on a very surface level approach, is equivalent to that of Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead. A sweeping comedic venture into the genre of horror.

Universal City, California, July 25, 2019 – A quiet town finds itself under attack from the undead with the greatest zombie cast ever disassembled in the comedy, The Dead Don’T Die, arriving on Digital on September 3, 2019 and on Blu-rayTM, DVD and On Demand on September 10, 2019 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Showcasing exclusive bonus features not seen in theaters including insight from the cast and filmmakers, as well as a closer look at the making of the film that takes fans deeper into this “giddy apocalypse with no way out”. Starring Academy Award®† winner Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny, The Dead Don’T Die is a “hilariously fun” and irreverent film unlike any you’ve seen before.

Directed by indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, The Dead Don’T Die features a powerhouse of an ensemble cast including Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver (Stranger than Paradise), RZA,...

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announces the home media release of The Dead Don't Die, hitting digital services on September 3rd, with a Blu-ray an DVD release to follow on September 10th. Here's the official announcement and cover art:

Universal City, California, July 25, 2019 – A quiet town finds itself under attack from the undead with the greatest zombie cast ever disassembled in the comedy, The Dead Don’T Die, arriving on Digital on September 3, 2019 and on Blu-rayTM, DVD and On Demand on September 10, 2019 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Showcasing exclusive bonus features not seen in theaters including insight from the cast and filmmakers, as well as a closer look at the making of the film that takes fans deeper into this “giddy apocalypse with no way out”. Starring Academy Award®† winner Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny, Thedead Don’T Die is a “hilariously fun” and irreverent film unlike any you’ve seen before.

Stars: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat, Rosie Perez, Eszter Balint, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver, RZA, Carol Kane, Larry Fessenden, Tom Waits | Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Jim Jarmusch brings his signature deadpan style to this ensemble horror comedy, which attempts to do for zombies what the idiosyncratic writer-director did for vampires in 2013′s Only Lovers Left Alive. Unfortunately, despite a promising first act, The Dead Don’t Die quickly runs out of ideas and the end result is disappointing.

Jarmusch regulars Bill Murray and Adam Driver play Cliff and Ronnie, two laid-back cops in smalltown Centreville who suddenly have to deal with the dead rising from the grave and eating the locals, thanks to a zombie apocalypse that may or may not have anything to do with the fact that “polar fracking” has knocked the planet off its axis.

One of the more amusing moments in Jim Jarmusch’s new zombie satire finds Iggy Pop lurching into a diner as one of two walking corpses moaning “coffeeeee,” making his way from human victims to the fresh brew on the counter. The other “Coffee Zombie,” as she’s credited, is Jarmusch’s longtime partner. But Sara Driver is a lot more than that.

As a director, Driver’s playful blend of shadowy fantasy and grimy New York living was a revelation in 1986’s “Sleepwalk,” a surreal and often haunting look at a woman adrift in supernatural circumstances. Jarmusch served as one of the cinematographers on the project, two years after Driver produced Jarmusch’s surprise breakout “Stranger Than Paradise.” However, while he continued honing his trademark deadpan filmmaking across the decades, Driver’s own directing career advanced in fits and starts.

Her sophomore effort, “When Pigs Fly,” landed in 1993, and...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSJohnnie To on the set of Chihuo Quan Wang.Amidst a flurry of rumors that Hong Kong auteur Johnnie To had retired, news (and images!) has now emerged that he's in post-production on what looks to be a romance set in the world of mixed martial arts. Thanks goes to @dirtylaundri for spotting the fresh IMDb page. if this is real: something to look forward to https://t.co/9zHRWELg0q— nachtisch (@dirtylaundri) June 9, 2019 Recommended VIEWINGClaire Denis' Keep It For Yourself.Online streaming platform Le Cinéma Club has relaunched its website and a new season of selections, starting with Claire Denis's newly restored Keep It For Yourself (starring Vincent Gallo and Sara Driver!), which follows a French woman's excursion to New York City. As the Brooklyn Rail notes, Le Cinéma Club's restoration "is...

After taking a unique storytelling angle on vampires with Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch turns his attention to zombies in The Dead Don't Die, and with the horror comedy now in theaters, Focus Features is giving one lucky person the chance to have a coffee and a conversation with writer/director Jim Jarmusch.

To enter for a chance to win a coffee and conversation with Jim Jarmusch (including roundtrip airfare and hotel accommodations for two nights), fill out the form at the link below before 3:00pm Pst on June 21st:

https://www.focusfeatures.com/sweeps/the-dead-dont-die_jim-jarmusch-coffee_sweeps

The coffee and conversation is expected to take place in New York, New York, although the city is subject to change. For the full list of rules for this sweepstakes, visit:

https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/sweepstakes-rules_the-dead-dont-die

Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, and produced by Joshua Astrachan and Carter Logan,...