Patton Oswalt Comedy ‘I Love My Dad’ Wins Top Film Prize at SXSW

Lise Pedersen “The Eclipse” by Nataša Urban has picked up the top Dox:Award at Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival.It was awarded at a ceremony in the Danish capital, which opened with a homage to Ukraine – where fest organizers announced they would be screening Daniel Roher’s “Navalny” in theaters across the nation immediately after the festival to show “that there is another Russia.”“The Eclipse” was competing with 11 others for the top award – half of them had their world premiere at the fest, part of no fewer than 76 world premieres during the event.Focusing on the events of Aug.

Christopher Vourlias More than four weeks into Russia’s disastrous war in Ukraine, and just one week after a court sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to nine years in a high-security prison, “Navalny” director Daniel Roher made a passionate plea on behalf of the jailed politician in Copenhagen, lashing out at the “murderous” regime of President Vladimir Putin and arguing that filmmakers must “pick a side” in an increasingly fractured and polarized world.“There’s a right side of politics. And yes, filmmakers pick a side.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAquarius Films has optioned the film development and production rights to Abdul Karim Hekmat’s acclaimed article “True Love in Nauru,” and aims to produce it as feature film “Paradise.”“Paradise” is the powerful true story of two men who meet and fall in love in an Australian offshore detention center. Their relationship becomes a life-affirming source of strength as they take on institutional indifference and overcome hopelessness, finally making their way to freedom.Hekmat’s original article was published in The Monthly, an Australain political and society magazine.

Naman Ramachandran London-based documentary specialists Dogwoof and Danish production company Elk Film have revealed a commercial partnership to develop and produce documentary projects. The deal will involve a project slate of eight to 10 feature documentaries and documentary series where Dogwoof, Elk Film and the Danish Growth Fund Vaekstfonden will co-fund development. This will be The Danish Growth Fund’s first venture into documentary film development and production.

Japan has won the award, and the first time since 2008.It beat out Italy’s “The Hand of God,” Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World,” Denmark’s “Flee” and Bhutan’s “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.”———For more of AP’s Oscar coverage visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards

Filmmaker Michael Bay has been criticized by some for his bombastic films and their reliance on special effects over plot. His latest film, Ambulance, is also being downgraded by one critic for its use of CGI. The critic? Michael Bay.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAs the U.S. streamers become a bigger part of the European industry landscape, production companies are starting to intensify collaborations across EU borders to make high-end shows, which is vital to keeping the ecosystem healthy.That was the main takeaway of a Series Mania panel on collaborating across borders that also looked at the ongoing battle between European TV producers and the streaming giants over terms of trade that is prompting more co-productions as an alternative model.Jens Richter, Fremantle’s international CEO, pointed out that the streamers coming to Europe is “a threat on the one hand” –– because they tend to impose a Hollywood studio model where they get perpetual rights in return for full-financing plus a fee, leaving no IP with the producer –– “and also it’s a huge opportunity.” On the positive side Richter cited how streamers are allowing European dramas to make major inroads into the U.S., even when they are not in English, citing Fremantle’s Danish drama “The Investigation,” which plays on HBO.

which closed in 2015, as part of their plans, with the venue set to return as a 350-capacity space.“This area of London has an amazing tradition of brilliant venues but many of them have sadly gone,” Philip O’Ferrall, CEO and President Outernet Global, said in a statement. “To open Outernet Live as part of our wider culture and music district makes us all immensely proud.

Christopher Vourlias Over the course of a celebrated 40-year career, veteran Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen has worked on critically acclaimed films including Pirjo Honkasalo’s “The 3 Rooms of Melancholia” and Joshua Oppenheimer’s Oscar-nominated “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence.”One of the key takeaways from those collaborations, which he explores in his new book “Order in Chaos: Storytelling and Editing in Documentary Film,” is the importance of the creative synergy that forms between an editor and a filmmaker.“The artistic vision is the director’s responsibility. But with the [editing] process, there I feel it’s also my responsibility that we get the best out of the two of us,” says Andersen, who gave a masterclass this week at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

Blink49 Studios To Adapt ‘Things To Do When It’s Raining’

Borgen – Power & Glory, a fresh continuation of hit Danish political drama Borgen, has been set for release on Netflix April 14 in the Nordic markets and June 2 in the rest of the world. Netflix has also dropped first-look photos (see above and below).

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticWhile putting his life back together following a suicide attempt, an unstable young man named Franklin (James Morosini) meets a girl online who starts to make him feel better. Her name is Becca, she’s way prettier than he thinks he deserves, and she seems really interested in him. How or why this person chose Franklin, out of all the incels on Facebook, doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

Like many other awards shows, the DGA Awards returned to an in-person event for 2022. This year’s event was hosted by Judd Apatow and featured a number of minor upsets.

I Love My Dad is a sort-of Cyrano for the internet age, a scabrous comedy of embarrassment and bad parenting. After his micro-budgeted 2018 directorial debut with the little seen-Threesomething, writer-director-co-star James Morosini returns with a swiftly paced second feature that provokes plenty of laughs, often at the expense of its hapless characters. But what viewers will remember most here is Patton Oswalt in a genuine starring role that’s a strong candidate for worst dad of the decade.

Roger Ebert used to say it’s not what a movie’s about but how it’s about it. I found that thought inescapable throughout the entirety of “I Love My Dad,” a comedy about a desperate father who reconnects with his estranged son by catfishing him, pretending to be a hot girl who the young man comes to believe to be his girlfriend.

LONDON -- Polish Nobel literature laureate Olga Tokarczuk and Israeli novelist David Grossman are both in the running, for a second time, for the International Booker Prize for fiction in English translation.Tokarczuk’s “The Books of Jacob” and Grossman’s “More Than I Love My Life” are among 13 books on the long list for the award, whose 50,000-pound ($66,000) prize money is split between a book’s author and its translator.Both are previous winners: Grossman in 2017 for “A Horse Walks into a Bar” and Tokarczuk for “Flights” in 2018, the same year she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.The list announced Thursday features works from 12 countries on four continents, including “Tomb of Sand” by India’s Geetanjali Shree; “Heaven” by Japan’s Mieko Kawakami; “After the Sun” by Denmark’s Jonas Eika; and “Elena Knows” by Claudia Piñeiro of Argentina.Translator Frank Wynne, who is chairing the judging panel, said the books circled the globe and ranged “from the intimate to the epic, the numinous to the profane.”Six finalists are set to be revealed on April 7 and the winner will be announced on May 26.The International Booker Prize is awarded every year to a book of fiction in any language that is translated into English and published in the U.K. or Ireland.

Jonathan Cohen On paper, the prominent use of sensitive American singer-songwriter music from the 1970s and ‘80s in a modern Norwegian romantic comedy might seem rather incongruous, if not downright anachronistic. But five decades on from some of their biggest successes, Art Garfunkel, Todd Rundgren, Harry Nilsson and Christopher Cross are back on the big screen helping soundtrack Danish/Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s acclaimed “The Worst Person in the World,” which is nominated for best original screenplay and best international feature film at the upcoming Academy Awards.Co-written by Trier and longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt, “Worst Person” has already won best foreign language film from the New York Film Critics Circle and garnered Renate Reinsve the best actress award at Cannes.