Locarno Film Festival & Artistic Director Lili Hinstin Part Ways Over “Diverging Strategic Views”

Michael B. Jordan and Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi have unveiled the line-up for their virtual Social Justice Now Film Festival (SJNFF).The new initiative is set to launch with the Black Panther star and the activist as co-ambassadors and on Monday (October 12, 2020), organizers for the event announced the socially conscious productions they plan to screen.The documentaries 40 Years a Prisoner and Freedia Got a Gun will be featured while original films Us Kids, Reefa, and SNCC,

Angelique Jackson Michael B. Jordan’s award-winning films “Just Mercy,” and “Fruitvale Station” will serve as opening night screenings for the inaugural Social Justice Now Film Festival (SJNFF).Both films will play on Wednesday, Oct.

Sundance title in the mix, too.)For the 2021 Oscars, however, the enthusiasm is muted — COVID, election — and that 7/9 proportion will likely skew lower. After Sundance, the last carefree, business-as-usual festival, big titles a la “Joker” and “1917” have been in relatively short supply because studios want traditional theatrical releases after premieres.

Steve McQueen helped raise the curtain on the 2020 BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday night, with his feature Mangrove — one of his five films in the BBC/Amazon Small Axe anthology — getting its European premiere in London and simultaneously across select cinemas around the U.K.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentDavid Bowie origin story “Stardust,” starring Johnny Flynn as the musician, has secured distribution in Italy with a deal inked with I Wonder Pictures ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Rome Film Festival this month.Flynn and director Gabriel Range will be in Rome for the red carpet event on Oct.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Locarno Film Festival has appointed Nadia Dresti as interim artistic director following the recent resignation of Lili Hinstin.Dresti, who has been with the prominent Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema intermittently for roughly 30 years, is taking the reins after the abrupt departure of Hinstin late last month after two years due to differences with the event’s top management.Dresti started out in the fest’s press office, and in 2000 was

Jake Kanter International TV EditorThe Berlin Film Festival has published research showing that its founding director Alfred Bauer contributed to the “functioning, stabilisation and legitimation” of the Nazi regime in Germany.Bauer’s name was stripped from the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize in February after German newspaper Die Zeit published a story alleging that he held a previously unknown “high-ranking position in the Nazi film bureaucracy.”Berlinale commissioned the Leibniz Institute for

SAN SEBASTIÁN, Spain -- Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s first feature film “Beginning” triumphed at Spain’s San Sebastian International Film Festival, scooping up four of its top prizes including best film and best director.The story about a community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a isolated village in Georgia amid the aftermath of an extremist attack also won best screenplay and best actress for Ia Sukhitashvili in the awards ceremony Saturday night.“Beginning,” a Franco-Georgian

American audiences might not be very familiar with Ester Exposito, but she’s a huge international star thanks to her hit Netflix series Elite!

American audiences might not be very familiar with Ester Exposito, but she’s a huge international star thanks to her hit Netflix series Elite!

Joe Alwyn gets caught in the middle of a wind and rain storm while walking the red carpet at the closing ceremony of the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival on Saturday (September 26) in San Sebastian, Spain.

Angelique Jackson The Sundance Institute announced today that Gina Duncan will join the Sundance Film Festival team as producing director. In the newly-created role, she will report to festival director Tabitha Jackson and work closely with programming director Kim Yutani.Duncan most recently served as V.P.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorSundance Institute has hired former Brooklyn Academy of Music executive Gina Duncan for the newly created Producing Director position at the Sundance Film Festival.Duncan will start Sept.

In a shock move, Lili Hinstin has resigned as artistic director of the Locarno International Festival after less than two years at the job. Hinstin and the festival made the announcement Thursday, saying they had decided "by mutual agreement to end their working relationship." Few details were given, except that Hinstin and festival management had "diverging strategic views" of the future of the event.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorThe San Sebastian Film Festival has withdrawn the accreditation of U.S.-born French filmmaker Eugène Green for refusing to wear a mask.According to the Spanish festival, Green refused five requests for him to don a mask at last night’s premiere of his film Atarrabi Et Mikelats and he was ultimately asked to leave the auditorium.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentLili Hinstin has stepped down as artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival after two years due to differences with the event’s top management.The Paris-based Hinstin had been appointed in August 2018 becoming the prominent Swiss event’s second female chief since its founding in 1946 and one of the few women to head an A-list fest around the world.“The Locarno Film Festival, under the Presidency of Marco Solari, and the Artistic Director Lili

Matt Dillon holds hand with Roberta Mastromichele while attending The Great Fellove premiere during the 2020 San Sebastian International Film Festival held at the Victoria Eugenia Theater on Tuesday evening (September 22) in Spain.

Johnny Depp is looking handsome at the 2020 San Sebastian International Film Festival!

Johnny Depp is posing for pictures!