Costa Gavras Set for Locarno Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Honor

Angelique Jackson The American Black Film Festival has announced this year’s Best of ABFF award winners, with “Our Father, the Devil” and “Feel Like Ghosts” among the top honorees.After two years of virtual programing, ABFF returned to Miami Beach for its 26th edition, with live events held June 15-19. The 2022 winners were announced by Emmy nominee Dondré Whitfield, who hosted the ceremony on the final day of ABFF’s in-person program, with a virtual presentation of the event now available to view on its custom-designed online platform, ABFF PLAY, where the festival continues until June 30.The Best of ABFF Awards includes winners in the official film selection categories — narrative and documentary features, web series and the 25th HBO Short Film Award Showcase, decided by a jury led by Michael Quigley, Warner Bros.

Christopher Vourlias Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s “Utama,” which won the grand jury prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance this year, took home top honors at the closing ceremony of the Transilvania Film Festival on Saturday night.Grisi’s feature debut tells the story of an elderly couple in the Bolivian highlands who refuse to relocate to the city despite the constant threat of drought. In a glowing review, Variety’s Peter Debruge described the film as a “sublime, quietly elegiac” character study that “looks quite unlike anything else.”“By relying on the simplicity, purity and poetry of his cinematic approach, the director takes the audience on a universal journey, talking about the essence of life, death and everything in between,” said the Transilvania jury, praising a film that “gives the audience a deep, multilayered feeling of how fragile our future is.” “Utama” was also feted with the festival’s Audience Award.

Ben Croll After two years of hybrid and online-only editions, the Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival will fête its 21st year with a return to a fully on-site event, hosting four world premieres, and more than twice as many international premieres. Running July 1-9, the Swiss event will world premiere the absurdist “Jaws”-in-France riff “The Year of the Shark,” the Thai creature feature “Leio,” and the Japanese Yakuza thriller “Bad City.” Titles like the Toho-produced Kaiju flick “Shin Ultraman,” “Something in the Dirt” from U.S.

.A 20th Anniversary screening of Todd Haynes’ “Far from Heaven” will take place, with Haynes, Julianne Moore, and producer Christine Vachon in person.“I’m incredibly proud of the work our programming team has done to craft a lineup that celebrates the history of the LGBTQIA+ community and the art we create, and that also spotlights innovative new work that will pave the way for 40 more years of spectacular, groundbreaking queer cinema,” said Outfest’s Director of Festival Programming, Mike Dougherty. The 11-day festival will host the Los Angeles premiere of Sundance Audience Award winner “Girl Picture,” as well as Sundance favorites “Sirens,” about a female thrash metal band from Lebanon; “Mars One,” a family drama from Brazil that centers a love story between two women; and Chae Joynt’s “Framing Agnes,” starring Zackary Drucker, Angelica Ross, Silas Howard.World premieres include “Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story,” a doc from Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films and Pulse Films that tells the story of competitive skating icon Leo Baker, who in 2020 resigned from the U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Locarno Film Festival will be honoring Matt Dillon with a lifetime achievement award, a mini-retro of his films, and an onstage chat.Dillon’s career as an actor and director will be celebrated by the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema during a ceremony on Aug. 4  in the 8,000-seat Piazza Grande outdoor screening venue, followed by an onstage conversation the next day.Tribute screenings will comprise  Gus Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989) featuring Dillon’s powerful performance as a “dope fiend,” as he calls himself, who steals pharmaceuticals in Portland drugstores, and “City of Ghosts” (2003) which Dillon co-wrote, directed, and starred in alongside James Caan, Gerard Depardieu, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Crystal Globe Competition“America,” Ofir Raul Graizer (Israel, Germany, Czech Republic)“Chemi otakhi” (“A Room Of My Own”), Ioseb “Soso” Bliadze (Georgia, Germany)“Edna provintsialna bolnitsa” (“A Provincial Hospital”), Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva (Bulgaria, Germany)“F—ing Bornholm,” Anna Kazejak (Poland)“Hranice lásky” (“Borders of Love”), Tomasz Wiński (Czech Republic, Poland)“Isihia 6-9” (“Silence 6-9”), Christos Passalis (Greece)“The Ordinaries,”  Sophie Linnenbaum (Germany)“Slovo” (“The Word”), Beata Parkanová (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland)“Tabestan Ba Omid” (“Summer with Hope”), Sadaf Foroughi (Canada)“Tenéis que venir a verla” (“You Have to Come and See It”), Jonás Trueba (Spain)“Tooi tokoro” (“A Far Shore”), Masaaki Kudo (Japan)“Vesper,” Kristina Buožytė, Bruno Samper (Lithuania, France, Belgium)Proxima Competition“A pak přišla láska…” (“And Then There Was Love…”),  Šimon Holý (Czech Republic)“Los Agitadores” (“Horseplay”), Marco Berger (Argentina)“Au grand jour” (“In Broad Daylight”), Emmanuel Tardif (Canada)“Balaye aseman zire ab” (“Like a Fish on the Moon”), Dornaz Hajiha (Iran)“Głupcy” (“Fools”), Tomasz Wasilewski (Poland, Romania, Germany)“Još jedno proleće” (“Another Spring”), Mladen Kovačević (Serbia, Qatar)“La pietà” (“Piety”), Eduardo Casanova (Spain, Argentina)“Ramona,” Andrea Bagney (Spain)“Stric” (“The Uncle”), David Kapac, Andrija Mardešić (Croatia, Serbia)“Tinnitus,”Gregorio Graziosi (Brazil)“Zkouška umění” (“ART talent show”), Tomáš Bojar, Adéla Komrzý (Czech Republic)“Zoo Lock Down,” Andreas Horvath (Austria)Special Screenings“BANGER.” Adam Sedlák (Czech Republic)“June Zero,” Jake Paltrow (USA, Israel)“The Killing of a Journalist,” Matt Sarnecki (Denmark, USA, Czech

Christopher Vourlias For the first edition of the Evia Film Project, a new initiative launched by the organizers of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the festival’s industry arm, Agora, hosted a series of events looking to bring both environmentally focused films and sustainable film production to the fore. The program was designed to help revitalize Greece’s second-largest island, which was hit by a devastating series of wildfires last summer.Speaking to Variety ahead of the festival, Agora head Yianna Sarri stressed the importance of getting the global film community to rethink its ways of doing business in order to make the industry more environmentally friendly.

Directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre take home the top prize for their animated film Little Nicholas–Happy as Can Be at the annual Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. 

Christopher Vourlias When Dumitrana Lupu took over as the head of the Transilvania Film Festival’s industry program earlier this year, she was tasked with a two-fold mission of continuing to discover and boost emerging talents from the host country, as well as ensuring that the Romanian festival remains a vital meeting place for filmmakers from Southeastern Europe and the surrounding region.To do so, she and the organizing team revamped some of TIFF’s industry sections while ensuring that long-running programs provide continuity for a festival that unspools its 21st edition from June 17 – 26.With a focus on the Black Sea region and its neighboring countries, the Transilvania Pitch Stop has emerged as one of the leading co-production and co-financing platforms for the region’s filmmakers. Among the films supported by the TPS since its inception in 2014 include “Apples,” by Greece’s Christos Nikou, which opened the Horizons sidebar of the Venice Film Festival; “The Man Who Surprised Everyone,” a Horizons prize winner from Russia’s Alexey Chupov; and “La Civil,” by Teodora Ana Mihai, which won the Prize of Courage in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar last year.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentRevolutionary U.S. producer Jason Blum, known for shepherding hit horror franchises such as “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge,” and more recently the films “Whiplash,” “Get Out,” and Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival with its Raimondo Rezzonico Prize for a producer who epitomizes the indie ethos.The prominent Swiss fest dedicated to international indie cinema will be celebrating Blum on its Piazza Grande square, which is Europe’s largest outdoor screening venue, on the evening of Aug.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorKarlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s industry section, Eastern Promises, has unveiled its lineup of 35 film projects, which will be showcased during the Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch, First Cut+ Works in Progress and Odesa International Film Festival Works in Progress presentations.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe freshly restored 50th anniversary edition of “The Godfather,” with director Francis Ford Coppola in tow, is set to open Italy’s Taormina Film Festival on June 26.Paramount’s latest restoration of what is arguably one of the greatest films of all time, conducted under Coppola’s watchful eye, will be kicking off the eastern Sicilian fest in its spectacular 8,000-seat ancient Greek theater in the shadow of the island’s active Mount Etna volcano.The 50th edition of “The Godfather” was released in U.S. theaters in February to robust box office results and subsequently played in the Cannes Cinema de la Plage section, though Coppola wasn’t in attendance.“Having the master Francis Ford Coppola inaugurate our 68th edition fills us with pride and joy,” reads a statement from Taormina’s trio of artistic directors, Francesco Alò, Alessandra De Luca and Federico Pontiggia.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Venice Film Festival is honoring French screen icon Catherine Deneuve with its Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.Through her career, Deneuve has worked with some of Europe’s greatest directors, such as Luis Buñuel, Francois Truffaut, Manoel De Oliveira, Roman Polanski, and Lars von Trier, to name a few.Deneuve’s long rapport with the Lido harks back to 1967 when Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” in which she played a bourgeoise Paris housewife who seeks erotic liberation through part-time work in a brothel, won the Golden Lion. Deneuve then won the Venice Volpi Cup for best actress for her role in Nicole Garcia’s “Place Vendôme” in 1998, and presided over the fest’s jury in 2006.

Iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve will be presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 79th Venice Film Festival which runs August 31–September 10 on the Lido.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrut, the digital media startup which became Cannes’ media partner this year, covered the festival with 1,200 video content that were watched by 220 million people around the world.The company hosted the Cannes Creators Connection, an initiative which brought a flurry of content creators and social media stars to the festival for the first time with the aim of building bridges with the film community. On top of the 220 million people who watched Cannes-related content on Brut’s different platforms, an estimated 150,000 people watched the videos of content creators attending the festival with Brut, for instance Adam Waheed and Liza Koshy from the U.S., Casey Neistat from the U.K., Ashish Chanchlani from India, as well as Lena Situation and Squeezie from France.

Anne Hathaway blew everyone away with her red carpet style at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival this year and now her stylist is speaking out about how they planned those looks.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentIn its first year as an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival, Campari is celebrating the arts and creativity at the world’s most glamorous film festival.Campari has had quite a presence in the South of France fest with an exclusive Campari lounge in the Palais des Festivals and an evening beach club party that was open to the public, drawing one of the biggest crowds at Cannes.“At the heart of Campari, there’s a passion for creativity. We really believe in the power of unlocking creativity fueled by passion,” said Julka Villa, the CMO of Campari, in conversation with Variety at the Variety Studio presented by Campari at the Cannes Film Festival.“Cinema definitely the pinnacle of creativity,” Villa added.