Sundance Film Festival Opens The Door To Leaving Park City In 2027

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Vietnamese French director and screenwriter Tran Anh Hung has been named as president of the jury for the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival. The festival, which runs June 14 to 23, said that his works “blend the expressions of Eastern and Western cultures, with sensitivity, delicacy, and a romantic style.” His films include: 1992’s “Scent of the Green Papaya”; 1995’s “Cyclo,” starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai; 2009 English-language thriller “I Come With the Rain,” starring Josh Hartnett; and “The Taste of Things,” which earned him the best director prize at Cannes last year. The jury president role marks a return and a promotion for the director. He was previously on the Shanghai festival’s jury in 2011, when he also screened his “Norwegian Wood.” SM Cinema, the largest exhibitor in the Philippines, is to open giant screen Imax cinemas in three new venues.

EXCLUSIVE: LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, and Joel Embiid have signed on to lead the selection committee for this year’s Uninterrupted Film Festival, an LA-based film event focused on the intersection of sports culture and filmmaking backed by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Enterprises.

Ellise Shafer Mike Leigh, the veteran director of “Vera Drake,” “Another Year” and “Happy-Go-Lucky,” will be honored at Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival with its Career Achievement Golden Bee Award. Leigh will also host a masterclass at the festival, the second edition of which is taking place June 22 to 30 in Malta’s capital city of Valletta.

Greta Gerwig has her jury. This evening, the Cannes Film Festival revealed the rest of the nine-member jury filled with festival veterans and Academy members.

Angelique Jackson The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) has set its lineup of narrative and documentary features for its 28th edition, including Jussie Smollett’s return to acting in “The Lost Holliday,” filmmaker Christine Swanson’s latest drama “Albany Road” and the acclaimed Luther Vandross doc “Never Too Much.” This year’s festival takes place June 12-16 in Miami Beach, Fla., followed by a virtual segment June 17-24 on ABFF PLAY. Winners of film festival competition will be announced on June 15, during the “Best of ABFF Awards” hosted by Emmy-nominee Dondré Whitfield.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line,” a documentary feature about the veteran Australian rock band Midnight Oil, has been set as the opening gala title at the Sydney Film Festival. It will have its world premiere at the State Theatre on June 5, kicking off the festival that runs until June 16. The film is written and directed by Paul Clarke and produced by Carolina Sorensen. It was executive produced by Mikael Borglund, Paul Clarke and Martin Fabinyi. It is a Blink TV and Beyond Entertainment feature documentary with principal production funding from Screen Australia and Australian Broadcasting Corporation in association with Screen NSW.

The Sundance Institute has released the lineup for the 11th edition of Sundance Film Festival: London. 

After wrapping its inaugural edition, the Ho Chi Minh Film Festival (HIFF) has set its sights on becoming the largest film festival in Southeast Asia.

Iconic actor Danny Trejo is set to receive one of the biggest honors of his career.

Ania Trzebiatowska has compiled an eclectic selection of fiction and non-fiction titles for the third annual Sands International Film Festival, which kicked off Friday evening in St Andrews, Scotland. 

Tom Holland and his brother Harry Holland were pictured arriving at the opening night of the Sands: International Film Festival of St Andrews. The Scottish film festival is set to take place over three days.

Pulp Fiction stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and Harvey Keitel reunited Thursday to celebrate the movie’s 30th Anniversary as part of this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival.

Like a macabre pilgrimage, the Overlook Film Festival summons genre film obsessives from around the country and beyond to the party-friendly streets of New Orleans, Louisiana—a city whose one-of-a-kind history with the otherworldly befits the event’s atmosphere. Dedicated to the late Doug Jones, a longtime festival programmer and esteemed member of the Los Angeles film community, the 2024 edition featured repertory presentations from his personal wish list.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The Sundance Film Festival may kick the snow off its boots once and for all. The annual celebration of independent film announced on Wednesday that it is open for pitches from cities across the United States on becoming the new permanent home of the festival starting in 2027. Sundance has taken place in the luxury mountain haven of Park City, Utah since 1981 (except for two virtual years during the pandemic).

After nearly 40 years in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival may be pulling up stakes.

Seattle International Film Festival has revealed its lineup for the 50th edition, which takes place May 9–19 at venues across Seattle and followed by a week of select virtual screenings on the SIFF Channel May 20–27. The program includes 261 films representing 84 countries and regions, including 92 features, 47 documentaries, five archival features, two special tributes, two secret screenings and 115 short films. The festival will open with Josh Margolin’s action comedy “Thelma” from Magnolia Pictures, which will screen at the Paramount Theatre during SIFF’s opening night on May 9.

The Gospel Of The Beast, directed by the Philippines’ Sheron Dayoc, picked up the Golden Star Award for Best Southeast Asian Film at the first edition of the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival (HIFF) in Vietnam. 

On the heels of its premiere to critical acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the documentary Kneecap on the Irish rap trio of the same name has been slated for release by Sony Pictures Classics in theaters nationwide on August 2, when it will open against Columbia Pictures’ family film Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Former Venice Film Festival head Marco Müller has been named Artistic Director of Italy’s Taormina Film Fest. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Marco Mueller has been appointed artistic director of Italy’s Taormina Film Festival, which will have a top notch selection committee comprising British film curator and former London fest chief Sandra Hebron and former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight boss Edouard Waintrop. As anticipated by Variety, Mueller, who over the past decades has headed both the Venice and Rome fests — among several other events — is taking the reins of the storied Sicilian event that has had its ups and downs over the years. Held since the mid-1950s in the Sicilian resort known to U.S.