“Origin” And “American Symphony” Win Top Awards At Virginia Film Festival

IDFA – the largest documentary film festival in the world — has just wrapped its 36th edition, and it was a memorable one by every definition. Two hundred and fifty films screened in Amsterdam, representing work from across the globe –the Middle East to Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing from sources that Origin, the new movie from Oscar nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay, is not only the highest tested movie in her career, but for Neon, the pic’s distributor too.

EXCLUSIVE: The creator and stars from the hottest show of summer 2023 are coming to the 2024 ATX TV Festival. Season 13 of the festival, which runs from May 30-June 2, 2024 in Austin, TX, has announced its first confirmed panels, and they include a Suits retrospective.

Emily Longeretta The ATX TV Festival is beginning to roll out its programming for Season 13. The event, taking place May 30-June 2 in Austin, Texas, will include both “Suits” and “Halt and Catch Fire” reunions. The creatives and cast of “Suits” will get back together, marking five years since the series finale.

Scotland's yellow alert is in place from 10am on Monday, November 13, until 10pm, covering Angus, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray.

Christopher Vourlias Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal” won the Golden Alexander at the 64th Thessaloniki Film Festival on Sunday, marking the first time in 30 years that a Greek film took home the top honors at the country’s longest-running film event. Exarchou’s sophomore feature, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, was praised by Variety’s Jessica Kiang as “a poignant portrait of life amid the sequins and the seediness of a Greek resort.” The film follows a group of entertainers at an all-inclusive island resort preparing for the busy tourist season who are forced to wrestle with the dark reality that the show must go on as the sultry Mediterranean nights turn violent.

Marta Balaga India Donaldson picked up the Polish Film Institute Award for her upcoming feature “Good One” at the American Film Festival in Wrocław, coming with a $50,000 cash prize for post-production in Poland. “It’s an affirmation of how we have been working and what we have been working towards,” Los Angeles-based Donaldson told Variety after the ceremony. “Good One” – presented during AFF’s industry event U.S.

The Hollywood News Run by film fans for film fans! The Hollywood News A new trailer has landed for American Symphony, a new documentary heading to Netflix very soon. The score focusses on musician Jon Batiste who attempts to compose a symphony as his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, undergoes cancer treatment.Official synopsis is as follows:It’s 2022 and musician Jon Batiste is at the peak of his music career while also embarking on his most ambitious challenge – composing an original symphony. In the midst of this meteoric rise, Batiste’s wife – best-selling author Suleika Jaouad – learns that her long-dormant cancer has returned. AMERICAN SYMPHONY is an intimate portrait of two artists and the healing power of love and creativity.This one comes to Netflix from November 29th and you can watch the trailer below.The Hollywood News – For Film Fans By Film Fans (c) 2023

In 2020, musician and composer Jon Batiste won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and a BAFTA Film Award for co-composing Pixar’s “Soul.” Not to rest on his laurels in 2022, he dominated the Grammy Awards entirely with 11 nominations, the most of the year. The day the nominations were announced, however, Batiste’s partner, writer Suleika Jaoaud, went through her first round of chemotherapy.

Taiwan-Japan documentary After the Snowmelt and Filipino fantasy feature Mother Maybe were presented with the TAICCA X CNC Awards at the close of the pitching forum at Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF). Both awards came with a cash prize of $30,000. 

Danica Roem (D-Manassas), who won the race for the state’s 30th Senate District in western Prince William County.With her victory, Roem became the first out transgender state senator in Virginia history, and only the second out transgender state senator in the nation, following Delaware’s Sarah McBride, who is now running for Congress. Roem won by 3 percentage points — the tightest margin of any winning Democratic Senate candidate — fighting back a barrage of last-minute money from Youngkin-aligned political action committees that flooded the district.She also faced attacks from her Republican opponent, Bill Woolf, who seized upon the issue of transgender student participation on female-designated sports teams — running transphobic ads that were temporarily pulled from airing on cable — in an attempt to cast Roem as out-of-step with Virginia voters.

Sarvnik Kaur’s documentary Against The Tide won the Golden Gateway Award at this year’s Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, while the Silver Gateway Award went to Bahadur – The Brave, directed by Diwa Shah. The Special Jury Award went to Kanu Behl’s Agra. 

Naman Ramachandran Bangladeshi filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s “Pett Kata Shaw” won best international feature at the 31st Raindance Film Festival‘s jury awards. British documentary filmmaker Kit Vincent won best U.K.

SFFilm’s 9th Annual Doc Stories festival is getting underway, featuring a distinguished lineup of Oscar-contending nonfiction films.

Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival returns this evening for its 64th edition with a screening of The Pot-au-Feu (The Taste of Things), the latest film by French-Vietnamese director Trần Anh Hùng. 

Paradise, directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage, is playing in the Icons: South Asia section of Mumbai Film Festival, fresh from its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival where it won the Jiseok Award.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks, led by CEO Guido Rud, has pounced on world sales rights to Lucia Puenzo’s “Los Impactados” on the eve of the American Film Market (AFM) where it will kick off sales. Delving into the theme of rebirth in the face of profound trauma, “Los Impactados” follows Ada, portrayed by Mariana Di Girólamo (Pablo Larraín’s “Ema” ), whose unusual journey begins when she is struck by lightning, leading her on a fascinating transformation alongside a mysterious doctor, played by Germán Palacios, the lead from “El Último Hereje.” Along the way, she forms a bond with a group of fellow survivors who find themselves increasingly captivated by the power of electricity.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Sin, forgiveness, the glamour of evil, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlon Brando, terrible preview screenings for “Goodfellas,” Robert De Niro‘s silence and, of course, “Killers of the Flower Moon” were all topics of conversation during Montclair Film Festival’s Filmmaker Tribute to Martin Scorsese on October 27 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The director, who has received 14 Oscar nominations, was in the Garden State for the festival’s annual “An Evening With Stephen Colbert” fundraiser. Colbert, a Montclair resident, has long been a booster of the event, which is currently in its 12th year.

Pulp and PJ Harvey have been announced as the first headliners of Øya Festival 2024.The 25th-anniversary edition of the event is due to take place at Tøyenparken in Oslo, Norway between August 7 and 10. Week-long tickets are on sale now – you can buy yours here.Today (October 26), organisers revealed that Pulp and Harvey will co-headline Øya ’24 on Wednesday, August 7.

Valerie Wu Intern The 2023 annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF), hosted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19, has announced its slate of awards winners.