EXCLUSIVE: The UK Jewish Film Festival (November 9 – 22) has revealed its lineup of 2023 gala screenings and premieres, including special presentations of the Anthony Hopkins pic One Life and Mario Bellochi’s Cannes competition title Kidnapped.
04.09.2023 - 09:41 / variety.com
Naman Ramachandran The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations for Lux – The European Audience Film Award. The nominated films are: “20,000 Species of Bees” by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain); “The Teacher’s Lounge” by İlker Çatak (Germany); “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland, Germany); “On the Adamant” by Nicolas Philibert (France, Japan); and “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” by Anna Hints (Estonia, France, Iceland).
The five nominated films will now be subtitled in all 24 EU languages. The award is presented by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas.
The winner will be determined by the general public and the members of the European Parliament (each holding 50% of the vote) and announced during an awards ceremony in March 2024. European Film Academy chair and president of the Lux jury Mike Downey said: “We know that cinema not only enhances the imagination but also shows our entire world in multiple perspectives and has the power to broaden our vision and thinking.
We just have to look at the five candidates for this year’s award – great works of art which are diverse, entertaining, and socially engaged in the world in which we live.” Streamer SkyShowtime has unveiled the trailer for its new original series “Codename: Annika,” a twist on the Nordic noir genre. The first episode will be available to stream on the premiere day, with new episodes dropping weekly.
The six-part thriller series, created by Mia Ylönen and Aleksi Bardy, goes behind the curtain of the hidden world of high-class art-fraud and explores the reality of navigating a double identity. The cast is led by Sannah Nedergård (“Yellow Sulphur Sky”) as Finnish art
.EXCLUSIVE: The UK Jewish Film Festival (November 9 – 22) has revealed its lineup of 2023 gala screenings and premieres, including special presentations of the Anthony Hopkins pic One Life and Mario Bellochi’s Cannes competition title Kidnapped.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Director Clara Law (“The Goddess of 1967”) has been set as president of the jury which will discern this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards. She will be joined by Malaysia’s Yeo Yann Yann (“Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season,” American Born Chinese”), German producer Anna Katchko (“Stepne,” “Happiness”), and Faisal Baltyuor, producer and CEO of Muvi Studios in Saudi Arabia. A separate jury for documentaries and animation will be headed by Taiwan-based Myanmar director Midi Z, India’s Rima Das and Japanese documentary maker Toda Hikaru. The APSAs will be presented at a ceremony in Gold Coast, Queensland on Nov.
Dissident Iranian film professionals are calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts (AMPAS) to consider an alternative film to represent Iran in the Best International Feature Film category from that submitted as the country’s official entry.
Vanessa Redgrave To Be Feted At European Film Awards
Naman Ramachandran British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards. Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations.
EXCLUSIVE: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival announced the lineup for the 32nd edition of North America’s longest-running all doc festival, a slate that includes several world premieres and a slew of Academy Award-contending films. In addition, Hot Springs announced Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, an Arkansas native, will serve as honorary chair of the event in the resort town located in the scenic Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas.
Naman Ramachandran India’s Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), which enjoys the support of cinema greats Martin Scorsese and Amitabh Bachchan, is conducting the third edition of the Biennial Audio-Visual Archival Summer School in partnership with the International Federation of Film Archives. The global film preservation training workshop is coming to India for the first time and will be held at the India International Centre in Delhi Oct.
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen will be honored with the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye Award for career achievement at the fest’s upcoming 19th edition.
Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor The 24th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) has unveiled its lineup for this year’s festival, taking place Oct. 12-19. It includes 91 films from 19 countries, including 14 world premieres.
Disney’s Korean superhero thriller Moving heads the nominations for this year’s Asia Content Awards at Busan International Film Festival with nods in six categories, followed by Tencent Video’s The Long Season with five nods.
Ellise Shafer MIA, the international market held annually in Rome, has announced the first confirmed speakers for its ninth edition. This year, speakers at the industry event — which focuses on co-production, financing strategies and sales and distribution — include Nicole Clemens, president of Paramount of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ original scripted series; Sara Bernstein, president of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries; Marge Dean, head of Skybound Entertainment’s animation studio and president of Women in Animation; “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman; Nicholas Weinstock, founder and president of Invention Studios and “Severance” producer; and James Townley, chief content officer of development at Banijay.
The 2023 CMA Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning, will air live on Wednesday, Nov. 8 on ABC.
Lainey Wilson is leading the pack with her CMA Awards 2023 nominations.
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The CrimeCon Clue Awards will return for a second year with a new streaming partner — Law&Crime’s YouTube, Facebook and TikTok accounts — on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. ET.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Renowned Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai ditched his quiet, brooding persona on Saturday in Venice, where he is to receive a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award. Instead, at a press conference in his honor, Leung positively gushed about his upcoming first European movie role and about the strengths of the “golden era” acting training he received in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Leung has made a speciality of saying little in many of his films.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong-based, Mainland China-born auteur Yonfan has scandalized and enthralled Chinese-speaking parts of Asia in a career that has spanned fine-art photography, filmmaking and journalism. Further afield, he has become a regular on the Lido. His 1995 feature “Bugis Street,” which has been restored and is screening in the Venice Classics section, achieved notoriety at the time of its debut. It is set in the red-light area of Singapore, at a time shortly after the country had achieved independence and before it earned its buttoned-up, conservative reputation. Loosely structured, the film follows a 16-year-old woman (played by Hiep Thi Le), who’s an employee at the appropriately named Sin Sin Hotel.
Thania Garcia The Latin Recording Academy will be honoring Róndine Alcalá, Mon Laferte, Simone Torres and Ana Villacorta López as this year’s Leading Ladies of Entertainment in a ceremony taking place in Sevilla (Andalucía), Spain, during Latin Grammys week. Leading Ladies is an initiative created seven years ago to “honor and recognize professional and socially-conscious women within the arts and Latin entertainment fields who have made significant contributions and inspired the next generation of female leaders,” per the press release.
Naman Ramachandran The sheer popularity of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is leading to its expansion this year, while sister event Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest content market, will have a focus on new technology, one of the country’s top film officials has revealed. The Indian government-backed events run in parallel in Goa in November each year in close geographic proximity. In 2022, demand for tickets at the public-facing IFFI was so strong that reservations had to be paused on the second day of the festival.
The producers of The Blind Side are finally speaking out.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is once again tidying up its finances with a bond offering.