CFF2024 Opening Film Announced

A film celebrating tenacious, bold female characters, AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY, is an exploration of love, legacy, and greed that flips the heist and western genre on its head by telling the story through the female gaze. Set in West Texas in 1994, the town of Valentine is a character in itself. When two men from Chicago travel to West Texas to find thief, Landon Mooney and bring back the stolen $150,000, they get more than they bargained for. They meet Eve, a young woman desperate to get out of town and find Landon Mooney. When Landon tells them the money is gone, a plan is hatched to rob the local check cashing place, where all hell breaks loose.

OPENING FILM

"Emilia Pérez" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" to Open and Close The American French Film Festival in LA

Sweeping Cinematic Tour-de-Force The Count Of Monte Cristo to Screen Closing Night of the Festival

The American French Film Festival (TAFFF) will bookend it’s 28th annual edition with two of France’s most-talked-about films this awards season: Emilia Pérez, the Opening Night film, and The Count of Monte Cristo, which will wrap up the six-day event that runs October 29 to November 3 at the Director’s Guild of America Theatre Complex. The announcement was made today by The Franco-American Cultural Fund (FACF), the originator of The American French Film Festival.

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a genre defying musical drama about love and redemption, will be celebrated at The American French Film Festival with a gala, red-carpet Opening Night screening on October 29, presented in association with Netflix. Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, the film was the toast of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, earning the four actresses - Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz - a collective “Best Actress” award. The film will be rerun on October 30 at the Festival.

The period drama The Count of Monte Cristo, France’s most-expensive film of 2024, will be the Closing Night film, November 3. Written and directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the film had its world premiere as part of the Official Selection of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Both films will compete for the 2024 TAFFF Awards, which will be awarded during a ceremony held in Paris on November 8.

Opening film, first titles and retrospectives of the 28th Ji.hlava

 

MAREK ŠULÍK’S MS. PRESIDENT WILL OPEN THE 28TH JI.HLAVA FIRST TITLES AND RETROSPECTIVES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED First titles were presented at the press conference of the 28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. The festival will be opened by the world premiere of the anticipated time-lapse portrait of Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová, Ms. President, directed by Marek Šulík. The festival programme will offer new documentaries from across the world, retrospectives, the best of experimental filmmaking, a number of non-competitive programme sections and traditionally a rich industry programme for film professionals. Audiences can also look forward to Peter Kerekes' documentary comedy about an Italian fortune teller, Wishing on a Star, or a documentary thriller War Correspondent following Martin Dorazín, correspondent in Ukraine.

The 5th Tokyo Gap-Financing Market welcomes 15 projects + 5 Italian Focus Projects for Financing and Project Development

The 5th Tokyo Gap-Financing Market

welcomes 15 projects + 5 Italian Focus Projects

for Financing and Project Development

Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2024

at TIFFCOM (Tokyo International Film Festival's Affiliated Content Market)

 

~Many previously participating films have been highly acclaimed at festivals and cinemas around the world~

TIFFCOM (an affiliated content market of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF)) will hold the 5th Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (TGFM) at TIFFCOM 2024, which will open at Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho-Kan from October 30 to November 1, 2024. TGFM serves as a platform for selected feature-length film projects in the financing stage; TIFFCOM provides one-on-one meeting opportunities with industry professionals in order to support project development and financing. TGFM features film projects which have secured at least 60% of the entire budget and contain Asian elements.

This year's TGFM will spotlight projects from Italy in celebration of the call for entries for co-productions under the Italy-Japan Film Co-Production Agreement, which opened in August, 2024. Including these 5 projects specially-selected thanks to the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Italian Ministry of Culture and Cinecittà, 20 projects (14 live-action and 6 animation) in total will participate.

Announcing the international competitions for the 60th #ChiFilmFest!

We are thrilled to announce the International Competition selections for the 60th Chicago International Film Festival — 43 remarkable feature films from around the world, including 28 World, North American, or U.S. premieres. This year's International Competition highlights a rich diversity of storytelling from Brazil to India, Japan to Argentina, Lithuania to Zambia, all competing for awards across multiple categories.

The International Feature Competition notably includes Cannes’ Grand Prix winner (All We Imagine Is Light), Best Director winner (Miguel Gomes of Grand Tour), Special Award winner (The Seed of the Sacred Fig), and the Un Certain Regard Best Director winner (Rungano Nyoni of On Becoming A Guinea Fowl). Among the filmmakers returning to the Festival are celebrated artists such as Virpi Suutari, Max Kestner, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Miguel Gomes, all vying for top honors.

Stay tuned for the full lineup & schedule of the 60th #ChiFilmFest — released on Monday, September 23. Individual tickets go on sale Friday, September 27.

Introducing The Louies: a new fund for South Florida documentaries

The Louies: New Fund for South Florida Documentaries Sponsored by the Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation


The Miami Film Festival is proud to offer a new funding source to bring local films to life: Introducing The Louies, which will provide six Miami-based filmmakers with a share of $100,000 in funding to create documentaries about South Florida.

As Miami filmmakers know, our city is rich in stories waiting to be told. The Louies will ensure that more documentaries that capture our city are created. Plus, each winning entry will be screened by the festival, ensuring a wider platform for these films.

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood: “Be ready to be afraid, very afraid!”

By Felix ITIER.

Do you love Hollywood Horror thrills?

Do you think you can handle the intense Halloween experience at Universal Studios? Where real chainsaws are being used and the most badass serial killers attempt to scare you, welcome to Halloween Horror Nights! A thrilling journey worth taking, immersed in Hollywood's scariest haunted houses and mazes that will have your head spinning.

Welcome to ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ at Universal Studios Hollywood:

https://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/hhn/en/us

Here you will experience The Weekends Nightmare Trilogy, A Quiet Place, Ghostbuster:Frozen Empire, Insidious, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Monstrous 2: The Nightmares of Latin America, Dead Exposure: Death Valley, The Terror Tram: Enter Blum House, The Purge: Dangerous Waters, Luchadores Monstrous,Skull Lodrz, Chainsaw Punkz, and Murder of Crowz! What a ride!!

Interview with Anastasiia Bortuali for her film "Temporary Shelter" at TIFF

Interview by Emmanuel Itier with director Anastasiia Bortuali : TEMPORARY SHELTER

In this “tour de force” documentary, Ukrainian filmmaker Anastasiia Bortuali will make your soul ache for the horrific fate of so many Ukrainian refugees in Iceland. Beyond the despair and the tears, Anastasiia manages to bring a strong light of hope to this world and the beauty she captures in each eye and smiles, mixed with the rawness of the volcanic islandic eruption, will wake up your inner flame for survival and make you want to send blessings to the 6 million beautiful Ukrainian souls in complete limbo around the World. ‘Temporary shelter’ is a wake-up call for our “leaders” to fix this chaos and give back their lives to all the Ukrainian refugees. We stand by you, Ukraine! We want to see you head home permanently. Freedom and Peace are coming.

We engaged into an inspiring conversation with director Anastasiia Bortuali as she was premiering ‘Temporary Shelter’ at TIFF.

Palisades Park Pictures is launching worldwide sales on the sci-fi thriller Eyes in the Trees, a reimagining of H.G. Wells’ “The Island of Doctor Moreau”

Palisades Park Pictures Launching Sales Ahead of Toronto Film Festival

Leading global entertainment company Palisades Park Pictures is launching worldwide sales ahead of Toronto on the sci-fi thriller Eyes in the Trees, a reimagining of H.G. Wells’ seminal novel “The Island of Doctor Moreau” for today’s audience, starring two-time Academy Award winner Sir Anthony Hopkins (The Father, Silence of the Lambs). The announcement came today from Tamara Birkemoe, CEO of Palisades Park Pictures. Ashland Hill (The Magic Faraway Tree, The Crow, Sneaks) is coming aboard to finance alongside BGG Capital.

The cast will be led by Golden Globe winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Michael Collins, Match Point), Ashley Greene (The Twilight Saga, Bombshell), Thomas Kretschmann (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, King Kong), and Praya Lundberg (White Lotus, Season 3). Emmy Award winner Timothy Woodward Jr. (“Studio City,” Til Death Do Us Part) will direct from a script by B. Harrison Smith (Where the Scary Things Are), Mike Manning (Son of the South), and Dominic Burns (Airborne).

New films in San Sebastian Oficial Selecction and New Directors

‘Modi - Three Days on the Wing of Madness’, directed by Johnny Depp, to participate out of competition in the Official Selection while ‘Lumière!, l'aventure continue’, by Thierry Frémaux, joins the Special Screenings

The second movie by Piet Baumgartner and the debut from Sylvia Le Fanu complete the New Directors section at the San Sebastian Festival

The Official Selection of the San Sebastian Festival’s 72nd edition will include the out-of-competition participation of Modi - Three Days on the Wing of Madness, second movie as a director from Johnny Depp, while the documentary Lumière!, l'aventure continue / Lumiere! The adventure continues by Thierry Frémaux joins the Special Screenings. In addition, Bagger Drama, second feature by Piet Baumgartner, and Min Evige Sommer / My Eternal Summer, the debut from Sylvia Le Fanu, complete the New Directors section.

Florian Frerichs' adaptation of Schnitzler's "Traumnovelle" set to open the Oldenburg International Film Festival

The 31th Oldenburg International Film Festival will run11-15. September 2024


The world premiere of Florian Frerichs' adaptation of Schnitzler's "Traumnovelle" (Dream Story) will ceremoniously open the Oldenburg International Film Festival on September 11th. 

With his adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's "Traumnovelle" (Dream Story) filmmaker Florian Frerichs boldly tackles a cinematic reinterpretation of a novel whose fame largely stems from Stanley Kubrick's 1990s film "Eyes Wide Shut." Frerichs' "Traumnovelle" (Dream Story) starring Nikolai Kinski and Laurine Price in the lead roles, will have its world premiere, opening the Oldenburg International Film Festival on September 11th.