Sarajevo Film Festival Shifts Online as COVID Surges

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: The 12th annual edition of the largest Mexican film festival outside of Mexico, Hola México Film Festival (September 11-20), will take place virtually and exclusively on Lionsgate and Hemisphere’s Spanish-language streaming platform Pantaya.The festival will feature 20 movies, kicking off with Chicuarotes, directed and produced by Gael Garcia Bernal.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentLondon-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has come on board Cathy Brady’s debut feature “Wildfire,” which world premieres in the Discovery section at next month’s Toronto Film Festival.The film centers on sisters Lauren and Kelly, an inseparable pair brought up in a small town by the Irish border. Their lives fell apart with the mysterious death of their mother.

Ellise Shafer editorDanish actor Mads Mikkelsen — best known for his skillful and distinctly human portrayal of dark characters in films like “The Hunt,” and “Casino Royale” as well as the television series “Hannibal” — trained as a dancer before enrolling in acting classes.“I loved every second of it.

As we start to look past the nightmare that has been 2020 and look forward to a (slightly) more hopeful 2021, we’ll start hearing of the winter film festivals’ plans soon. First, it was Sundance announcing plans for a shorter edition of the festival, still taking place in person.

The Venice Film Festival, the first major in-person cinema showcase of the COVID-19 era, is requiring participants to wear face masks during screenings and take a coronavirus test if they are arriving from outside Europe. According to guidelines published Thursday, fans and the general public will be kept away from the red carpet during the Sept.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterAfter being forced to pivot entirely online last-minute due to a COVID spike, Bosnia’s Sarajevo Film Festival is coming to a close and has unveiled its prize winners for this year’s edition.A jury chaired by Michel Hazanavicius and featuring Berlinale director Carlo Chatrian, actress Jadranka Đokić, director Srdan Golubović and the Morelia Film Festival’s Andrea Stavenhagen, awarded the festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo, to Visar Morina’s Exile.

Alexandra Del Rosario Associate Editor/Nights & WeekendsThe IFP Gotham Awards on Thursday opened submissions for its 30th annual awards show, which last month shifted to January 2021 because of the pandemic. Organizers also said today that they are introducing a new category, Best International Feature, a director and producers award in which the key roles of director, producer and screenwriter should be based outside the U.S.

Christopher Vourlias Visar Morina’s “Exile,” a tense psychodrama about a Kosovan pharmacologist in Germany who becomes increasingly paranoid over a series of menacing events, won the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival, earning the Kosovo-born German director the Heart of Sarajevo.The award ceremony took place online Thursday night, with Morina winning top honors from a jury led by Academy Award-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) and comprised of Carlo Chatrian, artistic

Janet W.

Christopher Vourlias Bosnian director Pjer Žalica recently found himself standing before Sarajevo’s National Theater, which in less troubled times would have hosted the world premiere of his comic drama “Focus, Grandma”—the opening film of the 26th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival. “In front of the theater, there is this red carpet and nothing else,” Žalica told Variety.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorThe Venice Film Festival has revealed the array of coronavirus protocols it will enforce at this year’s event, which is due to get underway in just over two weeks. Scroll down for the measures in full.Venice is set to be the first major festival to stage a physical edition since early March.

David Cronenberg is still sour about how his 1996 classic “Crash” was received upon release.

was forced to scrub this year’s edition due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Tribeca Film Festival has announced it will return in 2021.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorAfter having to scrub its annual spring edition this year as New York City endured the onslaught of COVID-19, the Tribeca Film Festival has confirmed it 2021 edition, which will mark its 20th anniversary.Shifting from the festival’s usual late-April/early-May timing, organizers said the 2021 event will be held June 9-20.

Christopher Vourlias For an event that was launched a quarter of a century ago, in the midst of a four-year siege that devastated the city during the Bosnian war, it was perhaps to be expected that this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival would try to forge ahead, even in light of a coronavirus pandemic that has turned the world of red carpets and gala premieres upside-down.But plans for a slimmed-down version of the physical fest were finally scrapped on Aug.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterOrganizers of the Sarajevo Film Fesitval, which was set to be one of the first international film festivals to take place in a meaningful physical form this summer, have made a late decision to shift the event entirely to online after a spike of infections in Bosnia.The fest had been due to take place August 14 – 21 in the Bosnian capital and the team have been bullish for months that it would be able to stage events in person despite widespread

Tom Grater International Film ReporterEXCLUSIVE: Hans Fraikin was the founding commissioner of the Quebec Film and TV Council, where during his tenure the region saw $1.5BN in inward investment, staging shoots for titles including 300 and X-Men: Apocalypse, as well as becoming a world leader in animation.Now, he has set up shop in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, the Middle East city which is attempting to establish itself as a global hub for film and TV shoots.

Ever since its announcement as part of this year’s Cannes Film Festival Official Selections, Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology series from Amazon has been positioned as one of the 2020 fall festival darlings. And it appears that is playing out at this year’s New York Film Festival, which will not only debut a feature-length episode of the anthology as its Opening Night film but will also showcase two additional episodes as part of the main slate.

Also Read: Toronto Film Festival Lineup to Include Films Directed by Regina King, Halle BerryNYFF this year will host outdoor and virtual screenings with some indoor screenings as possible as directed by state and health officials.