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Wander To Wonder

The proud winner of this year’s Best Short Film BIFA and now shortlisted for an Oscar, stop-motion curiosity Wander To Wonder, which was written by Daan Bakker, Stienette Bosklopper and Simon Cartwright, and directed by Nina Gantz, has had an incredible ride for a decidedly strange piece of animation. Based around a fictional Seventies or early Eighties kids’ TV show, it features three loveable but quite disturbing-looking furry creatures who are, in turn, played by three tiny humans, and follows their struggle to determine a way forward after the death of their creator.

Wander To Wonder

I met Nina at the same animation showcase where I had been talking to A Bear Named Wojtek director Iain Gardner, who was present as she spoke about the Covid pandemic and her related interest in exploring ideas around grief.

“That was such a seismic event that I feel like it probably was important.

The British Independent Film Awards (Bifas)winners are being unveiled from a ceremony at London’s Roundhouse.

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Screen isupdating this page live from the ceremony as the winners are announced - refresh this page for the latest winners. Scroll down for the full nominations and craft winners.

Sophie Okonedo is receiving theRichard Harris award. The actor is best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in 2004’sHotel Rwanda while her other film credits includeThe Secret Lie Of Bees,Christopher Robin,Wild Rose,Death On The Nile andCatherine Called Birdy.

Bifa winners 2024

Winners in bold, latest award top

Best...

The South by Southwest Film & TV Festival has announced the 2024 Jury and Special Award winners.

This year’s narrative feature competition winner was “Bob Trevino Likes It,” which was directed and written by Tracie Laymon and stars Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo. Meanwhile, “Grand Theft Hamlet” topped the documentary feature competition.

“What an extraordinary week of film and TV premieres we’ve had here at SXSW, and there is more to come through Saturday,” said Claudette Godfrey, VP, Film & TV. “Our theaters have been bursting with incredible and vocal audiences celebrating the exceptional and diverse work in our lineup, and we’re so excited to celebrate this year’s jury and special award winners!”

The Audience Award voting will conclude on Saturday, March 16, and winners will be announced that week.

See the complete list of winners below.

Feature Film Grand Jury Awards

Narrative Feature Competition

Winner: “Bob Trevino Likes It”

Director/Screenwriter: Tracie Laymon,...

Stars: Sallie Harmsen, Noor van der Velden, Fred Goessens, Anneke Blok, Alexandre Willaume | Written by Nico van den Brink, Daan Bakker | Directed by Nico van den Brink

Moloch opens in 1991 as a young girl feeding a mouse is frightened by the sounds of what sounds like an extremely violent attack in the room above her. Soon blood is raining from between the floorboards and pouring down the walls onto the terrified girl.

Thirty years later, Betriek is now grown up and has a daughter of her own, Hanna (Noor van der Velden). It was Betriek’s grandmother that we heard being killed in the prologue. Her father Roelof was traumatized by her death and still drunkenly waits for the killer to return. Her mother suffers from an unknown illness that subjects her to what seems to be seizures. Add in the death by heart attack of Hanna’s father and...

Shudder Acquires Official Fantasia Festival Selection Moloch: "Shudder, AMC Network’s premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, has acquired rights to Dutch director Nico van den Brink’s directorial debut Moloch. The film, an official selection of the Fantasia International Film Festival, will be available exclusively on Shudder in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, July 21.

“Moloch is a bold and thrilling new folk horror that is sure to chill Shudder members this summer,” said Shudder general manager Craig Engler.

Added Nico van den Brink, ”I’m extremely excited to be working with Shudder in bringing Moloch to horror-lovers worldwide. The film will have a wonderful home there. I know we have some very creepy stories to tell in the Netherlands and I'm really looking forward to inviting Shudder's diverse and international audience into the unique world of local Dutch folklore.

First look at Nico van den Brink’s horror-thriller Moloch: "Production is underway in the Netherlands on director Nico van den Brink’s horror-thriller Moloch. With a screenplay by van den Brink and Daan Bakker, from a story by Nico van den Brink with additional support from Jaap Peter Enderle, Moloch is produced by Sabine Brian and Ronald Versteeg for Nl Film (Amsterdam). Todd Brown and Maxime Cottray are executive producing for XYZ Films. Moloch will be released theatrically throughout the Benelux by Splendid Film with XYZ Films representing worldwide sales outside of Benelux.

In the film, 38-year-old Betriek lives at the edge of a peat bog in the North of the Netherlands. When she and her family are attacked by a random stranger one night, Betriek sets out to find an explanation. The more she digs, the more she becomes convinced that she is being hunted by something ancient.

Exclusive: Production is underway in the Netherlands on director Nico van den Brink’s debut feature Moloch, which has been boarded for world sales by XYZ Films. Splendid Film has taken distribution rights in Benelux.

In the horror-thriller, 38-year-old Betriek lives at the edge of a peat bog in the North of the Netherlands. When she and her family are attacked by a random stranger one night, Betriek sets out to find an explanation. The more she digs, the more she becomes convinced that she is being hunted by something ancient. Today, we can reveal a first look image from the movie.

The Dutch-language pic is being produced by Sabine Brian and Ronald Versteeg for Nl Film in Amsterdam. Todd Brown and Maxime Cottray are executive-producing for XYZ. Cast is being kept under wraps.

Van den Brink has previously garnered attention for his shorts. One of those, The Burden, also produced by Nl Film,...

Rotterdam ’17: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) One of the World’s Largest Film FestivalsThe festival screened 484 films this year, of which 105 world premières, and attracted more than 314,000 visits. Iffr welcomed 316 filmmakers and 1,910 film professionals from all over the world. A record number of 63 feature films were rated at an average of 4 (out of 5) or higher in the audience award. January 25 — February 5, 2017Iffr Tiger Logo 2017

The festival opened on 25 January with the international première of “Lemon”, in the presence of filmmaker Janicza Bravo, actors Brett Gelman and Judy Greer. On Friday, 27 January, Iffr welcomed King Willem-Alexander onto the red carpet for the world première of “Double Play” by filmmaker Ernest Dickerson. Many of the international cast and crew were also present.

On Monday 30 January Rotterdam received dignitaries from all over Europe, who together with Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Jet Bussemaker, put their signatures to the revised Council...

Sexy Durga, Rey and Moonlight win top prizes.

The winners at the 46th International Film Festival Rotterdam (25 Jan-5 Feb) have been announced.

Sexy Durga (pictured) by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan won the Hivos Tiger competition, which comes with a $40,000 cash prize.

The jury report said of the film: “The particular use of camera and acting give a sense of immediacy and momentum, while providing an insight into multi-layered power dynamics of gender, class and authority.”

Rey director Niles Atallah won this year’s $10,000 special jury award for exceptional artistic achievement in the competition.

The jury was; Michael Almereyda, Diana Bustamante Escobar, Amir Muhammad, Fien Troch, Newsha Tavakolian.

The Oscar-nominated Moonlight won the Warsteiner audience award. The $10,000 prize is voted for buy Iffr visitors.

The Vpro big screen award went to Pop Aye by Kirsten Tan. The competition is judged by a five-person audience jury and awards a cash prize to one of the eight films having their international...

Here's the thing about the International Film Festival Rotterdam and why it's one of our favorites. While skewing very definitely towards the arthouse end of the spectrum (which is not at all a bad thing) they also have a very embracing attitude towards weird arthouse. Those peculiar sorts of films that mess with genre conventions in ways that tend to confuse arthouse audiences the way that arthouse films tend to confuse genre audeinces? Yeah, those are typically Rotterdam films. And director Daan Bakker appears to have cooked up a strange one in Quality Time. A film about life in general and troubled men in particular Koen attends a family reunion and nearly overdoses on ham and milk. Amateur photographer Stefaan takes an awkward trip down...

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

Exclusive: M-Appeal snaps up Rotterdam-bound comedy-drama and Ventana Sur hit.

Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has snapped up international rights to new Dutch movie Quality Time, directed by Daan Bakker, and Brazilian drama Body Electric.

Quality Time, which receives its world premiere in Rotterdam’s Tiger competition, consists of a series of five stories about men in their 30s who are still struggling to adjust to the realities and responsibilities of adult life.

Pim Hermeling’s September Films will handle the Dutch distribution on the feature, which is produced by Iris Otten of Amsterdam-based Pupkin.

The film was produced under the Netherlands Film Fund’s Oversteek system, a collaboration between broadcasters, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Dutch Cultural Media Fund aimed at supporting new talent.

Quality Time includes animation and black and white footage. In one episode, Koen attends a family reunion and nearly overdoses on ham and milk. In another, amateur photographer...

Rotterdam reveals 2017 Tiger lineup and jury ahead of 46th edition.

The 46th International Film Festival Rotterdam (25 Jan – 5 Feb) has revealed the full lineup for the Hivos Tiger Competition 2017.

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This year’s selection includes world premieres of new feature films by up and coming directors Niles Atallah, Pedro Aguilera and Hagar Ben Ashar, as well as debut features by India’s Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, American-Korean filmmaker Kogonada and Dutch director Daan Bakker.

This year’s jury will comprise of Newsha Tavakolia, Diana Bustamante Escobar, Fien Troch, Michael Almereyda and Amir Mohammed.

Festival director Bero Beyer commented: “This years line-up of the Hivos Tiger Competition features bold and daring filmmakers that don’t shun the use of other media, alternative narrative structures and provocative and relevant themes. The nominees and their works deserve international recognition for their artistry. We are proud to present each of these eight films with a special spotlight on their own day...

The winner of the Eurimages Lab Project Award from Haugesund’s Works In Progress presentations was Katrín Ólafsdóttirs The Wind Blew On from Iceland.

The new prize, worth $56,000 (€50,000) was given to “the most promising cutting-edge film presented as a work in progress”.

The jury was comprised of Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer, Dorien van de Pas of the Netherlands Filmfund, and Heidi Zwicker of Sundance.

Head of New Nordic Films Gyda Velvin Myklebust noted that the award was aimed at a film that was “experimental in form or content”.

Of the 20 films presented, industry buzz was highest for pitches including Izer Aliu’s energetic and funny teenage story 12 Dares; Norwegian debut The Tree Feller; Fenar Ahmad’s Danish criminal underworld drama/thriller Darkland, Danish debut Winter Brothers; family animation Richard The Stork (already a hot seller for Global Screen); absurdist Norwegian comedy Lake Over Fire; and Danish drama Mesteren, starring Soren Malling and Jakob Oftebro and directed by [link...

First projects announced for initiative aimed at boosting Dutch features and international co-productions.

Six international and five Dutch projects in development, as well as three works-in-progress, have been selected for the first BoostNL programme that kicks off at the Netherlands Film Festival’s Holland Film Meeting in Utrecht (Sept 22-25) and continues through to International Film Festival Rotterdam’s CineMart 2017 (Jan 29-Feb 1).

The initiative, first reported in May, is designed to strengthen market assistance for international projects that have already received support from the Hubert Bals Fund or have previously been presented at CineMart, as well as Dutch projects in development.

Throughout BoostNL, project participants will benefit from ongoing guidance, whether in terms of business planning or creative decision-making, and participants will be encouraged to incorporate inspired feedback into their project.

One-on-one sessions with key international mentors will deliver bespoke festival, sales and marketing strategies that will support the project through all stages of development, from advanced...

As short film programmer for Toronto After Dark, the Worldwide Short Film Festival is like Christmas. The sheer number of short films they exhibit is enormous, their programs are always intelligently crafted under a bevy of amusing themes and categories and they throw some great parties (check out their Scene Not Herd Music Video bash tonight!). That being said I was a bit underwhelmed by their selection for the Opening Night Gala Award Winners program. All in all, the crop of shorts were what I expected from award winners: largely inoffensive, heavy on whimsy or pretension, but light on legitimate sophistication. But these 'winners' in particular left me more dissatisfied then usual - maybe it was something I ate.Onwards!  Bukowski (Daan Bakker) was a cute slice of the...

Set in France and Belgium, Copacabana unveils the tale of a holdover bohemian trying to impress her grown daughter. The film stars real-life mother-daughter duo Isabelle Huppert and Lolita Chammah as the flighty Babou and her more conventionally prone daughter, Esméralda.

At the start, the pair live together in Northern France. While Esméralda works as a waitress and dates a rather bland young man, her mother flits from job to job, griping about the bourgeoisie and fixating on Brazilian music. But Babou calls her life into question when Esméralda reveals she is engaged but doesn’t want her at the ceremony. Rightly rattled, Babou pursues a job opportunity selling timeshares in Belgium, hoping to prove to her daughter that she can settle down and be the mother she wants. Yet even in this new setting Babou falls into old habits, bedding down with a gruff but lovable dock worker, befriending...