2021 Miami Film Festival Announces Int’l Feature Films on Slate

The 2021 Sundance Film Festival is in the rear-view mirror, so that means, next up, the SXSW Film Festival that has unleashed its line-up today. Running March 16-20, 2021, SXSW announced the full program for the 28th edition of the SXSW Film Festival.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterThe South by Southwest Film Festival has rolled out its full programming line up, with high-profile new documentaries bolstering previously announced features.For many in Hollywood, the last-minute cancellation of the Austin-based 2020 SXSW conference was a reality check about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pebbles, an Indian drama from director Vinothraj P.S., has won the top prize, the Tiger Award for best film, at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The feature, set in an arid landscape in Indian's southern Tamil Nadu region, follows an alcoholic abusive husband who, after his long-suffering wife runs off, sets out with his young son to find her and bring her back.

Swedish sports drama Tigers, the story of teenage soccer star Martin Bengtsson, was named the Dragon Award winner for Best Nordic Film at the 2021 Göteborg Film Festival, Scandinavia’s top film event. The festival was held virtually this year because of the pandemic.

When the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the city’s largest film festival, gets underway February 17, it will look a little different from previous seasons. It’s a virtual event, save for some drive-in screenings, but the LGBTQ content is still abundant.

The Miami Film Festival is set to go ahead with a hybrid 2021 edition in March with physical theater and online screenings amid the pandemic. The Festival's March 5-14 run this year will open with an in-theater world premiere of Edson Jean’s Ludi — about a hardworking and exhausted nurse chasing the American Dream in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood — and close with the debut of Jayme Gershen’s Birthright.

For the first time in recent memory, the Sundance Film Festival recruited just three members each for its competition juries. Even in the context of a virtual festival, that might have been a mistake after one film dominated the Dramatic category winning four awards.

UPDATED with latest: The Santa Barbara Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the recipients of its Virtuosos Award, given annually to a group recognizing their noteworthy performances in film. The honors will be bestowed Saturday, April 3.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorLeslie Odom, Jr. will receive the Palm Springs International Film’s spotlight award, actor for his performance in “One Night in Miami.”“Leslie Odom, Jr.

UPDATED with latest winner: The Palm Springs Film Festival continues revealing this year’s film-awards honors, on Monday saying that Leslie Odom Jr will receive the Spotlight Award, Actor for his work in Amazon’s One Night In Miami.

Also Read: 'One Night in Miami' Film Review: Regina King Goes the Distance in Impressive Feature Directorial Debut“Leslie Odom Jr. is a truly talented performer,” PSIFF Chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement.

EXCLUSIVE: In the first big deal of the 2021 virtual Sundance Film Festival, Apple has landed worldwide rights to CODA, for a number just north of $25 million. That sets a new a Sundance acquisitions record — above the $22.5 million that Palm Springs received last year from Hulu/Neon. But this time, all the premiere watching and all night auctioning was done far from the slopes of Park City. It came down to a pitched battle between Apple and Amazon.

As the Sundance Film Festival kicked off virtually amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, founder Robert Redford made a brief appearance during the opening night welcome ceremony from Park City, Utah. Redford, who skipped for the second year running the opening press conference earlier in the day, was not personally featured on screen.

Clayton Davis Riz Ahmed, one of the top contenders in the best actor race, is being honored by the Miami Film Festival with its inaugural Impact Award.“Sound of Metal,” co-written and directed by Darius Marder, tells the story of a heavy metal drummer (Ahmed) who begins to lose his hearing.

Geena Davis’s BFFoundation (BFF) has set dates for the 2021 Bentonville Film Festival and have officially opened submissions. The 7th annual fest that amplifies the voices of diverse storytellers will take place on August 3-8 in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The Cannes Film Festival has bowed to the inevitable, announcing Wednesday that it will move this year's event from May to July, due to safety concerns around the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. "As announced last autumn, the Festival de Cannes reserved the right to change its dates depending on how the global health situation developed," Cannes said in a statement.

announced Wednesday that the 2021 edition will move from its regular late-May spot to early July, when the seaside Côte d’Azur averages a balmy 86 degrees.The summery change-up comes days after the French government announced plans to vaccinate its entire population against the coronavirus by August. Cinemas there remain closed through at least the end of January.Last year’s festival was canceled outright due to the pandemic, though cases at the time had subsided in France.

What has been hinted at and speculated about for weeks now is official — the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is officially no longer a spring event, as it moves into the middle of summer over concerns about COVID-19. According to the event’s organizers, this year’s Cannes Film Festival is no longer going to happen in mid-May and will instead begin on July 6, running until July 17.

There may be slightly fewer films for this year’s virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival, but most of them are still up for the prestigious honors set to be announced on February 2. Today, Sundance announced 22 jurors who will make up seven juries judging the U.S Dramatic, U.S.

With less than two months to go before Genius: Aretha finally hits the small screen, the Oscar nominee who is portraying the Queen of Soul is hitting this year’s Sundance Film Festival as one of the shindigs’ jurors.