Leos Carax's Holy Motors
Film Festival Awards
The fall film festival season marches on even after the 50th New York Film Festival closed last Sunday. Just this past weekend, two highly-regarded festivals—the Chicago International Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival—wrapped up, announcing awards for the best of their respective selections.
The Windy City was dazzled by NYFF Main Slate selection Holy Motors, which is now playing daily at Film Society. Leos Carax's first film in seventeen years was awarded the Gold Hugo (for Best Film), and two additional awards for Best Actor (Denis Lavant) and Best Cinematography (Yves Cape and Caroline Champetier).
Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone
Across the pond, the British Film Institute held its annual London Film Festival, where Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone took the top prize. This marks the second Best Film award for Audiard at the festival, having won it in 2009 for his Oscar-nominated A Prophet. Other accolades were handed out, including Best Documentary, awarded to Alex Gibney for his Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God, and Best First Feature, which went to Benh Zeitlins's Beasts of the Southern Wild—continuing its year-long enchantment of film festivals around the world from Sundance and New Directors/New Films, to Cannes and now London.
Sundance in London
Staying in the UK, today the Sundance Institute and AEG Europe announced that Sundance London is here to stay, or at least for two more years. The British sibling event is a four-day film and music festival meant to introduce European audiences to American independent film. The first edition was held this past April at the world-famous O2 Arena. In a statement, Sundance founder Robert Redford said, 'The vibrant arts community in London has informed this decision [to bring back the festival] as much as anything. Seeing what comes of nurturing a broader global community for new voices and varied perspectives in American independent film and music seems a worthy 21st century endeavor.”
Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles
The 2012 IDA Documentary Awards Nominees<br />The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced their nominations for the 2012 IDA Doumentary Awards yesterday. The five films nominated for the top prize are Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles, Kirby DIck's The Invisible War (HRW '12), Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon’s The Central Park Five, Malik Bendjelloul’s Searching for Sugarman and Peter Gerdehag’s Women with Cows. The IDA Awards will take place on December 7th.
IFP at the reRun
Here in New York, exciting things are afoot. Yesterday, the Indendent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced a new partnership with the beloved reRun Theater in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Starting next month, IFP, along with Filmmaker Magazine, will oversee film programming at the reRun in a joint effort to provide theatrical releases in New York to emerging independent filmmakers. “In today's climate, there are more ways than ever for filmmakers to get their work out into the world,” said IFP Execitive Director Joana Vicente,”but it’s the reRun's emphasis on the communal moviegoing experience, and their drive to open New York City’s highly competitive theatrical market to a new community of artists and storytellers, that sets the theater apart.”
