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Backed by executive producers Ms. Lauryn Hill and Oren Moverman, a compelling new documentary takes a look inside Newark’s legendary Baraka family. Why Is We Americans?, which is co-directed by international award-winning director Udi Aloni (Junction 48) and Ayana Morris, will premiere theatrically at IFC Center on January 14 followed by a stop at LA’s Pan African Film Festival next month along with more an expansion, and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer.

The film explores Newark’s struggle against oppression through the personal triumphs and tragedies of the Baraka family––from Amiri’s civil rights leadership and ultimate artistic marginalization, to the horrific murder of his sister, Kimako, through the homicide of daughter Shani (one of the first openly gay Black activists) to the historic election of Ras Baraka as mayor of Newark, NJ. And through it all, it is the matriarch, Amina Baraka, who emerges as...

Lauryn Hill, Oren Moverman serve as executive producers.

Corinth Films has acquired US rights to documentary Why Is We Americans? by Israeli director Udi Aloni of Berlina Panorama audience award and Tribeca international narrative feature competition winner Junction 48.

Lauryn Hill and Oren Moverman served as executive producers on the film which explores the Civil Rights activism of the Baraka family from Newark, New Jersey. Their tempestuous history stems from the Newark Rebellion of 1967 to present day and encompasses murder, activism, art and politics. Aloni and emerging director Ayana Stafford-Morris co-directed.

Why Is We Americans? will receive its festival screening at...

Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, released a passionate, timely new video for “What We Want,” the title track to his 2019 Ep.

Directed by Ayana Stafford-Morris and produced by Udi Aloni, the clip features Baraka onstage at Newark Symphony Hall, accompanied by a bongo drummer. He sends his powerful message through the microphone: “We want to praise our own God/And we want to see his reflection in our children’s eyes,” he declares. “We want to draw him blue/Like jazz/With long dreads/And thick lips.”

Dancers...

In today’s film news roundup, Lionsgate executive Corii Berg joins the USC Board of Trustees, Night Fox Entertainment unveils a trilogy and Newark-based documentary “Why Is We Americans” gets a premiere.

New Trustee

The University of Southern California Board of Trustees has elected Lionsgate executive vice president and general counsel Corii Berg as its newest member.

Berg, who was awarded two undergraduate degrees from USC in 1989, was recently president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors.

“Corii Berg is a passionate and inclusive leader whose strategic communication and management skills make him a valuable addition to our board,” USC President Carol L. Folt said. “He is also a first-generation college student and longtime USC supporter who understands the strength of education to lift up and empower people from all backgrounds.”

Berg, who grew up in Hawaii, said he plans to emphasize diversity and access throughout the university, adding,...

Rachel Israel takes home two with baby Charlotte for Keep the Change - The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature and Best New Narrative Director presented by Michael Pitt and Clea Duvall Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Best International Narrative Feature is Elina Psykou's Son Of Sofia; Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature goes to Rachel Israel's Keep The Change, and Elvira Lind's Bobbi Jene swept the Documentary Feature honours. The Tribeca Film Festival Awards ceremony was hosted by Michael Rapaport at the Bmcc Tribeca Performing Arts Center on April 27. The feature and short film winners will receive artwork through Jane Rosenthal's Artists Awards program, sponsored by Chanel.

Diane Lane, Amy Berg, Barbara Kopple, Amy Heckerling, Zachary Quinto, Willem Dafoe, Josh Lucas, Best Actor Alessandro Nivola (Liz W. Garcia's One Percent More Humid), Denis O’Hare, Udi Aloni, Alex Orlovsky, Stephanie Zacharek, David Wilson, Ryan Eggold, Clea Duvall,...

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

Lineup Announcements

– Cardiff Animation Nights will be returning to run a dedicated animation strand at Cardiff Independent Film Festival (C.I.F.F.) for a second year this May. This year’s animation strand at C.I.F.F. will comprise three programs of animated short films in competition for the Best Animation Award, as well as an Animated Family Shorts program curated by renowned Cardiff-based studio Cloth Cat Animation, networking events, and an Animation Quiz run by the team at Skwigly Animation Magazine.

The competition program features animated short films from across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Australia, including Mikey Hill’s The Orchestra, Anete Melece’s Analysis Paralysis, Chris Shepherd’s Johnno’s Dead, Ross Hogg’s Life Cycles and Alois Di Leo’s Way of Giants.

53rd Antalya International Film Festival in Turkey Announces Winners of its Golden Orange Award“Clair-Obscur” by Turkish director Yeşim Ustaoğlu wins International Competition for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. In the National Competition, it wins Best Actress while “Blue Bicycle” wins for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. “My Father’s Wings” Wins Audience Award for Best Film and National Competition Awards for Best First Feature, Best Actor and the Dr. Avni Tolunay Special Jury Award for Sound Design.

The 53rd International Antalya Film Festival, co-hosted by the Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and Festival President, Menderes Türel, and Elif Dağdeviren, the Festival’s Director, is a festival which is weathering the storms hitting Turkey. Just months after an attempted government coup, Turkey is a country increasingly involved in the long war in neighboring Syria; it has been the target of several recent terrorist attacks which scare...

The Chicago International Film Festival 2016 announced its full lineup, and it includes Julia Ducournau's Raw, the previously announced 4K restoration of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Eyes of My Mother, and The Autopsy of Jane Doe, starring Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch.

Press Release: Chicago (September 13, 2016) ­ The Chicago International Film Festival today announces Opening and Closing Night selections, as well as the full slate of films included in the Festival’s U.S. Indies, Spotlight: Musicals and After Dark categories. Chicago will play host to gala screenings of Damien Chazelle’s La La Land and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival as respective bookends to the 52nd Festival, opening on October 13th and closing on October 27th. A full list of these newly announced programs is below and at www.chicagofilmfestival.com. Tickets for these events and all film screenings go on sale September 21st for Cinema/Chicago members...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to Justin Kelly’s “King Cobra.” The film, written and directed by Kelly, stars James Franco, Christian Slater, Garrett Clayton, Keegan Allen, Alicia Silverstone and Molly Ringwald. It had its world premiere in the Midnight section of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

The film “centers on Sean Lockhart – seventeen and boyishly handsome – who dreams of fame and success even though he’s broke and without direction. When he meets the seemingly conservative Stephen, founder of Cobra Video, he starts to perform in gay porn under the moniker ‘Brent Corrigan,’ creating a slew of wildly successful videos during which he blossoms from a naïve young man into a confident sex symbol. When rival porn producers Joe,...

The Orchard has acquired all North American rights to Junction 48, director Udi Aloni's film inspired by Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar, who stars as Kareem, a rapper who leads an aimless life between odd jobs and hanging out with his buddies in a crime-ridden Arab ghetto of the mixed city of Lyd. Junction 48 won the Panorama Audience Award at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival and Best International Narrative Feature at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. The film…...

Claudia Pedraza’s debut feature scooped the $20,000 top prize at the Bogotá Audiovisual Market.

The seventh edition of the Bogotá Audiovisual Market closed on Friday (July 15) with this year’s award-winners illustrating the energy and diversity of the Colombian film industry.

La Sed (The Thirst) won the Efd (Equipment and Film Design Colombia) Prize, which comes with $20,000 (€18,000) worth of Efd shooting equipment. The film marks director Claudia Pedraza’s [pictured] debut feature after working as first assistant director on Ciro Guerra’s Embrace Of The Serpent.

La Sed, a Marejada Films production, is a drama set in a world where the lack of water has made living conditions extreme. With a budget of $490,000 (€443,000), the film will be shot next year in La Guajira desert in Colombia, the same location where Ciro Guerra is planning to shoot Pájaros De Verano, his next feature following the success of Embrace Of The Serpent, which won at Director’s Fortnight in Cannes...

We of the liberal West like our stories of foreign conflict clean and straightforward, with discernible messages that reinforce ideals. We look at the relationship between Israel and Palestine in chiaroscuro lighting, content to view the Palestinians as either a repressed and battered minority, or a cadre of terrorists and thugs. Udi Aloni’s latest film, Junction 48 puts us all to shame.

The movie, which won the Best International Narrative Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, cuts down Western notions of the good and the bad, cleaving its way through concepts of villainous Israelis, repressed Palestinians, violent Arabs, or wronged Jews. It tells a story about a multifaceted, complex culture coming out of the wastelands of violence, intolerance, and confused conflict.

Junction 48 is set in the town of Lyd (or Lod, or Lydda), a small city not far from the Tel Aviv International Airport. It...

One of the final films that I got to see last week at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival was also ironically the best of the bunch. That film was Dean, the cinematic writing and directorial debut of actor/comedian Demetri Martin. Not only was it absolutely fantastic, it was also declared an award winner at the festival, taking home the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature. That’s a big feather in this one’s cap as it begins to plan for a release in theaters, presumably later on this year. I know I can’t wait for you to see it, though I’ll have more on it later. For the moment, this will also be a piece highlighting all of the award winners, so let’s do that now! Quickly though, a bit on the film itself. As mentioned, Martin writes, directs, and stars in this dramedy about grief.

David Byrne is all smiles as Bill Ross lV and Turner Ross' Contemporary Color captures two awards Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Contemporary Color, under Dp Jarred Alterman and with the Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz, Devonté Hynes, Nelly Furtado, Nico Muhly, Ira Glass, St. Vincent, Money Mark, Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, providing some of the music to David Byrne's color guard extravaganza, has scored twice at this year's Tribeca Film Festival awards.

Us Narrative Competition winners

Dean, directed by Demteri Martin; Actor Dominic Rains in Ian Olds' The Fixer; Actress Mackenzie Davis in Sophia Takal's Always Shine; Cinematography - Michael Ragen for Justin Tipping's Kicks; Screenplay - Ingrid Jungermann for her Women Who Kill. The Nora Ephron Prize - Rachel Tunnard for Adult Life Skills; Albert Maysles Award - David Feige for Untouchable. Best New Narrative Director - Priscilla Anany for Children Of The Mountain.

Dean, Demetri Martin’s gently comic picture about a Brooklyn illustrator unable to move on with his life following the death of his mother, won the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature today at the 15th Annual Tribeca Film Festival. Udi Aloni’s Junction 48 — a drama about a Palestinian rapper in the mixed-city of Lyd that won the Audience Prize at this year’s Berlin Festival — took home the Best International Narrative Feature Award, while Craig Atkinson’s Do Not Resist, about the increasing militarization of United States’ police forces, won the Best Feature in the World Documentary Competition. About Martin’s […]...

Demteri Martin’s “Dean” claimed the Best U.S. Narrative Feature prize at the 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival. At the awards ceremony in New York City on Thursday, Udi Aloni’s “Junction 48” took the prize for Best International Narrative Feature while Craig Atkinson’s “Do Not Resist” won the award for Best Documentary Feature. For the first time in the festival’s history, there were separate U.S. and international narrative competition categories. This year’s festival included 102 features, 74 short films and 38 immersive storytelling projects from 42 countries. Also Read: 'Elvis & Nixon' Tribeca Review: Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey...

The 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival juried awards ceremony on Thursday evening rewarded a wide roster of selections as organisers honoured separate Us and international narrative competition categories for the first time.

In the Us Narrative Feature Competition, the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Dean (pictured) by Demteri Martin, who receives $20,000, sponsored by At&T, and the art award Waking Up In The Painted World by Stephen Hannock.

Best actress in a Us Narrative Feature Film went to Mackenzie Davis in Always Shine, while Dominic Rains of The Fixer earned the best actor award.

The best cinematography prize went to Michael Ragen for Kicks along with $50,000 in post-production services donated by Company 3. Screenplay honours and $2,500 sponsored by Freixenet Cava were awarded to Ingrid Jungermann for Women Who Kill.

In the International Narrative Feature Competition categories, Udi Aloni’s Junction 48 earned the best international narrative feature prize along with $20,000 sponsored by Netflix, and the...

Udi Aloni’s Tribeca Film Festival pic Junction 48 has its U.S. premiere Friday night after an industry screening the morning before for buyers and press. The Israeli pic, which won the audience award in the Panorama section at Berlin this year, has serious indie cred: it was co-written by Oren Moverman who exec produced with James Schamus. The movie stars Tamer Nafar, a Palestinian rapper who fronts the group Dam. The film is inspired by his life and he co-wrote the…...

Co-written by Arabic language hip hop star Tamer Nafar and The Messenger writer-director Oren Moverman and loosely based on Nafar's own experiences, Udi Aloni's Junction 48 blew audiences away when it premiered in Berlin - winning the audience award in the process - and with the film now about to have its Us bow in Tribeca we've tracked down the trailer for its impending Israeli theatrical release. Here's how Tribeca describes it: “My songs aren’t political, they just describe the place I come from.” Aspiring rapper Kareem (Tamer Nafar), the central character in Udi Aloni’s Junction 48, infuses his every action with music: from meeting friends and family dinners to video chats with his girlfriend Manar (Samar Qupty). After a car wreck kills his father...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

This year we are seeing many films from Mena, that is an acronym for the Middle East and North Africa. More commonly called “Arab” cinema, (though the term is inaccurate because several countries in the region are not actually “Arab”) the films of this region are winning many awards and garnering much interest worldwide.

More than 10 Arab films participated in the Berlinale’s Forum and Forum Expanded programs this year, in addition to the ones which participated in the Official Competition (“Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” from Tunisia and “A Dragon Arrives!” by Mani Haghighi from Iran). This makes an especially remarkable year for Arab cinema’s presence in Berlin.

The Forum focus on Arab cinema, represented with films from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia highlights mostly young directors whose works explore both the past and present of their homelands.

The films included: “A Magical Substance Flows into Me” by artist Jumana Manna (Palestine), “Akher ayam el madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” (Egypt) by Tamer El Said (international sales by Still Moving), documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each” (Lebanon) by Maher Abi Samra (Isa: Docs & Film), “Barakah yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah” (Saudi Arabia) by Mahmoud Sabbagh and Manazil (Isa: Mpm), “Bela abwab”/ “Houses without Doors” by Syrian-Armenian director Avo Kaprealian. Of course the 46th Berlinale Forum also screens films from European, Latin American and Asian directors.

The Tunisian film in Competition “Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” by Mohamed Ben Attia, won the Best First Feature Award and its leading man, Majd Mastoura, received the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actor for his role as Hedi. Attia’s debut feature film is a thoughtful love story about identity and independence in Tunisian society. It is being sold internationally by Luxbox.

Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel won the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film for “ A Man Returned”, a 30-minute portrayal of a young refugee struggling to make a life for himself in Lebanon’s Ain El-Helweh camp, being sold internationally by 3.14 Collectif. He previously made an award-winning documentary about his own experience as a refugee. The short film was also selected as the Berlin Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards.

The Ecumenical Jury awarded the Forum Prize to Saudi filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh for his well-received romantic comedy “Barakah Yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah”, a social commentary on the lives of young people in Saudi Arabia. It shared the prize with Danish production “Les Sauteurs”/ “Those Who Jump” – a film that also highlights the plight of Europe-bound refugees.

Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El-Said’s feature film “Akher Ayam El-Madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” won the Caligari Film Prize. The film looks at a young filmmaker’s struggle to complete a film about Cairo. It was the only Egyptian film to participate in the 2016 Berlinale Forum.

Lebanese filmmaker Maher Abi Samra’s documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each”, a look at the legal system that controls the lives of Lebanon’s foreign domestic workers, won the Peace Film Prize.

“Zinzana”/ “Rattle the Cage” director, Majid al Ansari, from the Arab Emirates, was honored with Variety’s Mid-East Filmmaker of the Year Award at the Berlinale. The film is the first genre movie of its kind produced in the UAE. It was financed and produced by Abu Dhabi’s ImageNation. It is repped for Us by Cinetic and international sales are by Im Global.

Projects “Mawlana”, based on Ibrahim Issa’s best-selling novel and shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize and director’s Mohamed Yassein’s “Wedding Song” based on Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature were being promoted at the Arab Cinema Center at the Market. Reflecting a decadent Egypt from the 1970s, “Wedding Song” is one of the largest TV productions in the Arab World in 2016.

“Theeb”, a Jordanian Epic about Bedouins, is the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It played in Venice. International sales agent Fortissimo has licensed it to Film Movement for U.S., ABC for Benelux, New Wave for U.K., As Fidalgo for Norway, Jiff for Australia, trigon-film for Switzerland. Mad Solutions is handling the Middle East. “Ave Maria” a 14-minute Palestine satirical short is the Academy Award nomination for Best Short Fiction and is being sold internationally by Ouat Media. “ The Idol” (Palestine) played Tiff 2015 and other top fests and has sold widely throughout the world through Canada-based international sales agent Seville. Not since Elia Suleiman won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for “Divine Intervention” has a Palestinian film director made as much of an impact as “The Idol” director Hany Abu-Assad whose “Paradise Now” and “Omar” both went to the Academy Awards.

Kudos for much of the success of Arab cinema go to Mad Solutions, the Cairo, Abu Dhabi and New York based marketing and distribution company for its marketing and social media strategies as well as its release of “Theeb”, “Zinzana” and “Ave Maria”. It also helped create the Arab Cinema Center which was launched last year at the Berlinale and Efm.

In all, 20 Mena films played in the Festival and Market this year.

And what of that other small country in the region called Israel (and/ or Palestine) which is not included in the term Mena? While Israeli films that showed in Berlin received international praise, they will never show in any of the Arab countries and are sometimes boycotted by international film festivals who succumb to censorship tactics.

Most of the larger Israeli features go to Cannes, Venice and Toronto; “Afterthought” went to Cannes, “Mountain” to Venice, “Barash” to San Sebastian”, “Wedding Doll” to London and “A.K.A. Nadia” to Talinn Black Nights Film Festival. In Berlin many are screened as German Premieres.

What Israeli films have won acclaim lately? Is it possible that our hero, Katriel Schory, head of the Israel Film Fund, whose stand for true art has earned him Israeli government censure at home (A prophet is never honored in his own land) and fame abroad with new countries striving to create national cinema, is being eclipsed by the growth of “Arab” cinema?

“Sandstorm” directed by Elite Zexer (international sales by Beta) made its way to Panorama from its world premiere in Sundance where it won the Best Actress Award for Palestinian actress Lamis Ammar’s portrayal of a young Bedouin woman forced to choose between modern freedom or traditional societal strictures within an arranged marriage.

Panorama also screened “Junction 48” (international sales by The Match Factory) which received international praise and audience acclaim. The Israeli-Palestinian hip-hop movie by Israeli-American filmmaker, Udi Aloni, was supported by the Israel-based Rabinovich Foundation. The story is about Kareem who lives in a mixed Jewish-Arab crime-ridden ghetto outside Tel Aviv. He deals drugs and lives dangerously until he discovers hip-hop and decides to express his life as a Palestinian youth along with young singer Manar. Palestinian and Israeli musicians drive this music movie and for Aloni, just seeing the film made, and then shown at the Berlin Film Festival proves its success.

“Suddenly a group of people just choose to make a film and the film is extremely professional. It’s very important that this bi-national energy can create high quality stuff, the high quality is almost the symbol of the resistance. We should not even have to tell the story about the issue. The fact that we could create it is amazing,” Aloni told Euronews.

Thirty-seven-year-old Arab-Israeli rapper Tamer Nafar plays the lead role, and has known the 56-year-old Aloni for some time. “We have been on the same demonstrations, in the parties since 2000, so we live in each other’s world. He has been to my concerts many times, he directed a video clip, I was in his movies as a producer a few times. It’s not about an old generation and new generation, it’s just about creating the right generation,” he said. “He has that gift of being a good story teller and director but he gives us the stage, no, he doesn’t give us a stage, we are building a stage together… he has his own perspective but we are all on the same level,” said actress Samar Qupty. The struggle for equal rights for Palestinians or Arab Israelis inside Israel is at its crux.

Panorama Documents screened “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” directed by Tomer Haymann and Barak Heymann co-directed by Alexander Bodin Saphir and being sold by Austria’s Autlook. Forum showed “ Inertia” by Idan Haguel being sold by Oration Films’ Timothy O’Brian of the U.S., and “Between Fences” by Avi Mograbi, being sold by Docs & Film’s Daniela Elstner of France. Culinary Cinema showed “Café Nagler” by Mor Kaplansky and Yariv Barel is being sold internationally by Go2Films.

Teddy 30 (the retrospective of Teddy Award winners over the past 30 years) honored Dan Wolman’s 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim”. Berlinale Shorts screened Rotem Murat’s “Winds Junction” from Sapir College which also holds international rights; Generation 14 Plus screened “Mushkie” by Aleeza Chanowitz from the Jerusalem San Spiegel Film School, being sold by Cinephil. Seven other films were sold in the market by various sales agents.

One of the very special events I attended at the Berlinale this year was the Shabbat Dinner, held the first Friday in the Festival and hosted by Nicola Galliner, Founder and Force of the Berlin Jewish Film Festival. There was a table full of Jews: the new Director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, Noa Regev, PhD; Jay Rosenblatt, Program Director of San Francisco’sJewish Film Institute and its former Director, Peter Stein, now the Senior Programmer of Frameline, San Francisco’s Lgbtq Film Festival; Judy Ironside, the Founder and President of UK Jewish Film and of the sixth edition of the Geneva and Zurich Jewish Film Festivals, the new young director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, Ariana Cohen-Halberstam who recently moved from the New York Jcc to Boston, the prolific Israeli director, filmmaker Dan Wolman whose new film will soon be out and whose 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim” was part of the Teddy 30th Anniversary Retrospective held by the Berlinale Panorama.

Talk was about films, about politics including gender politics, about our concerns, (we Jews are better worriers than warriors) and just plain gossip.

Now if my readers will excuse my interjecting myself into this article:

It is my opinion that the region of the world called the Middle East, and the three major monotheistic religions of the world whose origin is there had better learn to do more than merely co-exist peacefully if we are to see peaceful and fruitful consequences which will set the world back upon its proper axis.

Art breaks down borders; it is subversive rather than observant of the exigencies of ever changing governments. It creates new perspectives and breaks down old ways of seeing. What I call “Cinema” is Art. Other movies may simply entertain and not aspire to more or they may propagate dogmas, but Art serves no master; it is not tethered; it is freedom of expression which should be honored with freedom to travel.

Top brass at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival presented by At&T have announced selections in the Us Narrative, International Narrative and Documentary Competition strands.

The films comprise 55 out of 110 features that will play during the 15th edition of the New York festival from April 13-24. The festival will present features films in the Spotlight, Midnight, and Special Sections on March 8.

Also included in Wednesday’s announcement are the out-of-competition Viewpoints titles.

The world premiere of Bill Ross and Turner Ross’ Contemporary Color will open the World Documentary competition on April 14, while the world premiere of Kicks by Justin Tipping will open the Us Narrative competition.

The world premiere of Madly directed by Gael García Bernal, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Silva, Anurag Kashyap, Sion Sono, and Natasha Khan will open the International Narrative Competition. Viewpoints will open with the world premiere of Nerdland directed by Chris Prynoski.

One third of the festival’s feature films are directed by women...

Israeli directors win both top awards; runners-up include Steve Coogan’s Shepherds And Butchers and Madonna dancer documentary Strike A Pose.Scroll down for full list of winners

At the Berlinale, the 18th Panorama Audience Awards are to be presented to Junction 48 by Udi Aloni for best fiction film and Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? by Tomer and Barak Heymann for best documentary. Both films were made by Israeli directors.

Aloni has presented all of his films at the festival since 2003 and Junction 48 marked his sixth production to premiere in the Panorama section.

It is his first feature since Art/Violence, which premiered at the festival in 2013 and won the Cinema Fairbindet Prize.

Junction 48 follows two young hip-hop artists who use their music to battle the oppression they encounter in Israeli society. Israeli-American director Oren Moverman (Rampart, The Messenger) co-wrote the screenplay with Tamer Nafar. Sales are handled by The Match Factory.

Documentary...

Exclusive: Arthouse kingpin will sell Mani Haghighi’s A Dragon Arrives!.

The Match Factory has picked up international sales rights to Berlin competition entry A Dragon Arrives! (Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad!), the new feature from Iranian writer-director Mani Haghighi.

Based on a true story, the Farsi-language adventure-mystery follows three adventurous young men who are put in danger by their unauthorized investigation into the legend of a seismological phenomenon in an ancient graveyard on a mysterious island.

Haghighi produces under the banner of his Teheran-based production company Dark Precursor Productions in association with Crossfade Films.

The director’s previous feature was black-comedy Modest Reception, which won the Netpac Prize for best Asian film at the 2012 Berlinale.

The film is the fourth in Competition for German indie powerhouse The Match Factory, whose typically robust Berlinale slate also includes Rafi Pitt’s Soy Nero, Letters From War by Ivo M. Ferreira and Death In Sarajevo by Danis Tanović.

Panorama titles...

Exclusive: Indie sales kingpin will sell Mani Haghighi’s Competition title.

The Match Factory has picked up international sales rights to Berlin competition entry A Dragon Arrives! (Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad!), the new feature from Iranian writer-director Mani Haghighi.

Based on a true story, the Farsi-language adventure-mystery follows three adventurous young men who are put in danger by their unauthorized investigation into the legend of a seismological phenomenon in an ancient graveyard on a mysterious island.

Haghighi produces under the banner of his Teheran-based production company Dark Precursor Productions in association with Crossfade Films.

The director’s previous feature was black-comedy Modest Reception, which won the Netpac Prize for best Asian film at the 2012 Berlinale.

The film is the fourth in Competition for German indie powerhouse The Match Factory, whose typically robust Berlinale slate also includes Rafi Pitt’s Soy Nero, Letters From War by Ivo M. Ferreira and Death In Sarajevo by Danis Tanović.

Panorama titles...

Films include Shepherds and Butchers with Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il.

The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.

A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.

Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself, in a case...

Films include Shepherds and Butchers, starring Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and forced to make films.

The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.

A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.

Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself...

As if new films from the Coens and Jeff Nichols weren’t enough, the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has further expanded their line-up, adding some of our most-anticipated films of the year. Mia Hansen-Løve, following up her incredible, sadly overlooked drama Eden, will premiere the Isabelle Huppert-led Things to Come, while Thomas Vinterberg, Lav Diaz, André Téchiné, and many more will stop by with their new features. Check out the new additions below, followed by some previously announced films, notably John Michael McDonagh‘s War on Everyone.

Competition

Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)

Portugal

By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)

With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova

World premiere

Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)

Iran

By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)

With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol

International premiere

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary

Italy / France

By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...

GeniusThe films included in the lineup for the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place between February 11 - 21, are starting to be announced.Opening FILMHail, Caesar! (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, USA)COMPETITIONBoris without Béatrice (Denis Côté, Canada)Genius (Michael Grandage, UK/USA)Alone in Berlin (Vincent Perez, Germany/France/UK)Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols, USA)Zero Days (Alex Gibney, USA)Berlinale SPECIALThe Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (Morgan Neville, USA)The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger (Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth, bartek Dziadosz, Tilda Swinton, UK)Where to Invade Next (Michael Moore, USA)PANORAMAJá, Olga Hepnarová (Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda, Czech Republic/Poland/Slowak Republic/France)Junction 48 (Udi Aloni, Israel/Germany/USA)Les Premiers, les Derniers (Bouli Lanners, France/Belgium)Maggie's Plan (Rebecca Miller, USA)Nakom (Kelly Daniela Norris, Tw Pittman, Ghana/USA)Remainder (Omer Fast, United Kingdom/Germany)S one strane (Zrinko Ogresta,...

Other titles include Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan, starring Greta Gerwig, and David Farr’s The Ones Below, starring David Morrissey.Scroll down for full lists

The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has announced the first titles in Panorama – its strand that comprises new independent and arthouse films that deal with controversial subjects or unconventional aesthetic styles.

The initial features include three from the UK, with John Michael McDonagh returning to Berlin for the world premiere of War On Everyone.

The film, a satire centred on two corrupt cops in New Mexico, stars Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Peña, Theo James and Tessa Thompson.

McDonagh was previously in Panorama in 2011 with The Guard and 2013 with Calvary.

Also from the UK is David Farr’s The Ones Below, which revolves around a couple expecting their first child who discover an unnerving difference between themselves and the couple living in the flat below. Receiving its European...

Debut feature directors Yossi Atia, Maysaloun Hamoud and Roman Shumunov pick up prizes.

Debut feature directors Yossi Atia, Maysaloun Hamoud and Roman Shumunov have picked up prizes at the 10th edition of Pitch Point, aimed at connecting Israeli productions with international partners.

Performance artist and filmmaker Atia’s Born In Jerusalem And Still Alive won the $4,400 Wouter Barendrecht — Lia Van Leer award.

A dark comedy based on Atia’s per- sonal experiences, the film revolves around a man who organises terror tours along Jaffa Road in west Jeru- salem, the site of a number of deadly suicide attacks during the second Intifada.

The jury — which included Us distribution guru Ira Deutchman, Fortissimo Films’ MD Nelleke Driessen and German producer Thanassis Karathanos — praised the project for its “unique and original take on a tough and emotional subject matter.”

Shumunov clinched the $5,300 Van Leer Foundation award for No Future, about Israeli rappers and graffiti artists of Russian origin struggling...

The Jewish Film Institute's new VOD platform, Jfi On Demand, includes festival favorites from the Sfjff archives over the past three decades, including "5 Days" by Yoav Shamir, "Aliyah" by Elie Wajeman, "Out in the Dark" by Michael Mayer, "Forgiveness" by Udi Aloni, "Live and Become" by Radu Mihaileanu and more. The 35th edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival returns to the Bay Area this year from July 23 to August 9, 2015 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the CinéArts Theatre in Palo Alto, the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, The California Theatre in Berkeley, and the Lakeside Theater in Oakland. Since 1981, the festival has screened over 1500 films. Read More: Noir City and Jewish Film Festival Compete for San Francisco Cinephiles To view all 35 film titles on Jfi On Demand, visit jewishfilminstitute.org.

James Schamus — screenwriter, professor and Focus Features CEO — travelled to Ramallah last month with philosopher Slavoj Zizek to give a series of talks to young filmmakers and students, including those from the Jenin Freedom Theater. At Guernica, Schamus writes about the event, including his use of Adorno as a teaching tool and a visit to a rehearsal of the Freedom Theater’s upcoming open-air production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

Here’s Schamus’s opening for the piece, titled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation, or Adorno in Ramallah.”

A Friday afternoon in the village of Bil’in is quite an experience, especially if, like me, you’ve spent the previous couple of days hanging out in Tel Aviv talking about movies. Basically, the villagers and a hundred or two additional Israeli supporters and internationals have gathered every Friday for the past six years. They walk down to the...

Hundreds of mourners gathered on Wednesday, April 6, to bid farewell to "Miral" actor Juliano Mer-Khamis after he was shot dead by a masked gunman. The Arab-Israeli star, a peace activist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was buried next to his mother, Arna, in the Ramot Menashe cemetery in Israel. The 52-year-old was gunned down in the city of Jenin on Monday, April 4.

His funeral procession passed by the Jalameh crossing between Israel and the Northern West Bank before an emotional ceremony during which Israeli film director Udi Aloni paid tribute to Mer-Khamis in an emotional eulogy.

Fighting back tears, Aloni said, "I tried to write, but it was just a thousand words and tears all mixed together. So I'll just speak from my heart... People said you were Israeli in Palestine and a Palestinian in Israel. This is not true, you were a Palestinian in Palestine, you were a Jew...

Hundreds of mourners gathered on Wednesday to bid farewell to Miral actor Juliano Mer-khamis after he was shot dead by a masked gunman.

The Arab-Israeli star, a peace activist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was buried next to his mother, Arna, in the Ramot Menashe cemetery in Israel. The 52 year old was gunned down in the city of Jenin on Monday.

His funeral procession passed by the Jalameh crossing between Israel and the Northern West Bank before an emotional ceremony during which Israeli film director Udi Aloni paid tribute to Mer-Khamis in an emotional eulogy.

Fighting back tears, Aloni said, "I tried to write, but it was just a thousand words and tears all mixed together. So I'll just speak from my heart...

"People said you were Israeli in Palestine and a Palestinian in Israel. This is not true, you were a Palestinian in Palestine, you were a Jew in Israel and most of all you were a human in every part of the world."

A former member of the Palestinian armed group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, has reportedly been arrested in connection with the murder.

Berlin -- Richard Loncraine's "My One and Only," a '50s-era comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon, was squeezed into the competition lineup for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, barely a week before the event kicks off.

Zellweger plays a glamorous single mom on the hunt for a rich man to foot the bill for her and her sons' lifestyle. Produced by Merv Griffith Entertainment and Ray Gun Prods., "My One and Only" will have its world premiere in Berlin. Essential Entertainment is handling international sales.

Berlin also added Lone Scherfig's Sundance favorite "An Education" with Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson and Davis Guggenheim's music documentary "It Might Get Loud" for its Berlinale Special Galas, ensuring the films will get the red carpet treatment without any of the pressure of competition.

All three films should give an added boost of star power to...

A good-looking American-Israeli named David returns to Israel to join the army. While on patrol, he accidentally kills a Palestinian girl.

The trauma lands him in an Israeli mental hospital filled with Holocaust survivors and built on the site of a village where Israeli troops massacred 100 Palestinians in 1948.

With the help of an experimental drug, David's father brings him back to New York, where he falls for a Palestinian woman with a young daughter. She ditches him when she learns he was an Israeli soldier.

The story sounds straightforward enough, but the writer-

director, Udi Aloni, loses his way.

The result is...

From the opening sequences, in which crackpot mental-hospital patient Moni Moshonov holds a skull aloft and quotes extensively from Hamlet while a catatonic soldier slumps against a tree in the background, Forgiveness feels like a high-concept stage play, the kind of well-meant but pretentious project where grand themes are worked out in a claustrophobic setting among a small cast. While Israeli-born director Udi Aloni (Local Angel) opens up the settings to include location shooting in New York City and Israel, and operates with a complicated timeline, he never shakes that feeling of a small, crowded stage. Itay Tiran plays the son of Auschwitz survivor Michael Sarne, whose meek mixed guilt and pride in his heritage drives Tiran to a defiantly single-minded Zionism: He picks a fight at a Middle East peace rally, gets the star of David tattooed on his chest, moves to Israel to enlist in the army,...

By Neil Pedley

Some might be quick to dismiss this week as part of the post-summer lull, but others might see it as a week of films that have been years in the making . it's been 13 since the now re-paired Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were last on screen together, while Diane English's remake of "The Women" took 12 to make it to the big screen, and the Flaming Lips' "Christmas on Mars" spent a mere seven years in the offing. As for fans of the Coen brothers, it only seems like forever since "No Country for Old Men."

"Able Danger"

Another week, another 9/11 conspiracy film, this one actually getting released on the seventh anniversary of the tragedy. Loosely inspired by "The Maltese Falcon," this Dv noir offers something of a date movie for far-left conspiracy theorists who take issue with perceived abuse of power on the part of our government.

The audience awards at the Woodstock Film Festival, which wrapped Sunday in Woodstock, N.Y., resulted in a pair of ties. The award for best narrative feature went to Susanne Bier's After the Wedding and Udi Aloni's Forgiveness, and the award for best documentary feature went to Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing and Rachel Libert's Beyond Conviction. The audiences at the Mill Valley Film Festival, which wrapped Sunday in California, were more decisive. They voted awards to Phillip Noyce's Catch a Fire as best dramatic feature, Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil as best feature-length docu and Wolfgang Murnberger's Lapislazuli: In the Eye of the Bear as best children's film.