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A three-and-a-half-hour run time didn’t change the way The Brutalist cinematographer Lol Crawley worked. The low budget (under $10 million), the fact that he had worked with director Brady Corbet before (on 2015’s The Childhood of a Leader and 2018’s Vox Lux) and Corbet’s directorial approach all contributed to a concise way of shooting the film.

“I think filmmakers are like, ‘I didn’t know you could do that anymore: shoot on 35mm, have this thematically epic film — but also scale and length of run time with an intermission — for less than $10 million,” Crawley tells The Hollywood Reporter of the A24 release. “It didn’t feel dissimilar to the way that I have worked with Brady in the past, and there was never a discussion about the run time.”

The Brutalist — about Hungarian Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who escapes the Holocaust and moves to the U.S.

The European Film Academy is honoring German filmmaker Wim Wenders with the European Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wenders, who has been nominated for three Oscars and a Grammy, is known for works such as the Road Movie trilogy (1974-1976), Paris, Texas (1984), and Wings of Desire (1987).

“With this award, we celebrate Wim Wenders’ outstanding body of work which keeps exploring and experimenting with a curious eye and an open mind,” said Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy. “As one of the founding members of the European Film Academy, its Chairman from 1990 until 1995 and President until 2020, Wim Wenders has a strong connection to the European Film Academy and we’re additionally happy to also celebrate his outstanding commitment and say thank you.”

Wenders began his career as a film critic for various German publications, and was later a founding member of film distributor Filmverlag der Autoren.

In 1975, he...

Veteran German director Wim Wenders broke new ground during the Oscar nominations on Tuesday morning when he was nominated for his Japanese-language drama Perfect Days in the best international feature category.

This isn’t Wenders’ first Oscars rodeo. The 78-year-old German director has three Academy Award nominations to his name but all have come in the best documentary category. He was nominated in 2000 for the music doc Buena Vista Social Club about aging Cuban street musicians; in 2012 for Pina, a groundbreaking 3D documentary tribute to the work of legendary dance choreographer Pina Bausch; and in 2015 for The Salt of the Earth, a portrait of famed Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, co-directed with Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Perfect Days does, however, mark Wenders’ first-ever Oscar nomination for a drama.

“It’s a bit ironic to be nominated for a Japanese-language film but at the same time a great honor for...

Danish IDFA winner Phie Ambo (“Family”) will be attending Amsterdam’s major doc showcase for the 8th time with “Fire, Water, Earth, Air,” bowing at the Forum Pitch alongside 20 other projects. Ahead of their industry pitch Nov. 13, Ambo and her producer Rikke Tambo Andersen of Copenhagen-based Tambo Film, have just secured two co-producers: Mantaray Film Sweden’s Stina Gardell and leading Faroese producer Jon Hammer of Kyk.

Securing Swedish and Faroese partners was paramount for the making of Ambo’s first creative documentary conceived as a fully-fledged collaboration with filmmaking teams in Sweden, the Faroe Islands and Norway, on top of the helmer’s own Danish crew.

The four elements-focused “Fire, Water, Earth, Air” is a poetic portrait of climate change in the global North, weaving together scientific findings with stories of everyday life in the four nations, with each country representing one element.

Nature-lover Ambo, credited for the “human...

Lyon, France — Four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and “Time Bandits” helmer Terry Gilliam will join a star director-studded lineup at this year’s Lumière Film Festival including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Wim Wenders.

Cuarón is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner.

Gilliam will screen the newly restored version of his 1995 sci-fi thriller “Twelve Monkeys.”

One of Anderson’s latest shorts, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” part of four Roald Dahl adaptations to be released on Netflix later this month, will screen at Lyon’s plush 2,000-seat Auditorium, where he will give a masterclass.

Like other guests, he will not only be introducing a retrospective of his own films but works by others, as part of an ongoing drive by the festival “to strengthen the link between the past and the present of cinema,...

One of the pleasures of Telluride is watching a master auteur accept the Silver Medallion. Telluride Executive Director Julie Huntsinger was shocked to discover that in the 50 years of the festival, no Silver Medallion was ever awarded to German filmmaker Wim Wenders. So this year, he brought his two Cannes selections, 3D documentary “Anselm” (Sideshow and Janus) and Competition title “Perfect Days” (Neon), whose star Koji Yakusho (“Shall We Dance?”) won Best Actor at Cannes. Despite its German director, Japan has chosen to submit the film for the Oscar.

At Thursday night’s first tribute, Werner Herzog dug into his pocket to fish out the Silver Medallion, and placed it around his old friend’s neck. “The same time several years ago Tom Luddy put this on my neck,” said Herzog. “I kept thinking, ‘this is an injustice if you hadn’t received this medallion in 1978, and 1981, and 1995, and 2015.’ Because...

Nearly two decades ago, “March of the Penguins” crossed a frontier hardly any nonfiction film ever does: not just the Antarctic Circle, but the even more remote $100 million mark at the global box office. A bona fide global phenomenon, Luc Jacquet’s wondrous nature doc got audiences from practically every continent to turn their attention to the South Pole and the adorable, surprisingly relatable emperor penguins its director found there.

The focus of “March” (and its 12-years-later sequel) was the 100-kilometer trek these remarkable black-and-white birds do between their mating grounds and the water. What undeniable force compels them to make that journey? In “Antarctica Calling,” it’s a different but no less irresistible urge that fascinates Jacquet: specifically, the almost-magnetic pull that draws the French filmmaker back to the South Pole time and again. He’s been coming since he was 23 years old. Now in his mid-50s,...

The Forest Maker (Der Waldmacher) director Volker Schlöndorff on meeting Alternative Nobel Prize winner Tony Rinaudo in Berlin, 2018: “Six weeks later I was already meeting him again in Bamako, Mali …”

The Forest Maker (Der Waldmacher) from director Volker Schlöndorff is an evermore important film essay on the decades-long work of Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo with African farmers and the community at-large. Idriss Diabaté from Ivory Coast, Senegal’s Alassane Diago, and Laurene Manaa Abdallah from Ghana are credited as co-directors and provide us with vital insights in their own individual sections.

“Nothing is lost” Rinaudo says and everything can be regrown again. Angela Winkler, star of Volker’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum, lends her enchanting voice to the prologue, which recounts an old African legend about the cradle of mankind, as collected by Carl Einstein.

Volker Schlöndorff with Anne-Katrin Titze on Sebastião Salgado:...

After genocide comes chronocideThere exists no footage of the massacre of 33,771 Jews that took place on September 29–30,1941 in Babi Yar, a deep ravine northwest of Kiev, the capital and most populous city of Ukraine.

And yet Babi Yar. Context is based entirely on archival footage as it reconstructs the historical context of this tragedy by documenting the German occupation of Ukraine using the events leading up to the massacre and the aftermath of the atrocity of September 29–30,1941 when Sonderkommando 4a of the Einsatzgruppe C, assisted by two battalions of the Police Regiment South and Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, and without any resistance from the local population, shot dead in the Babi Yar ravine in the north-west of Kiev 33 771 Jews.

Scriptwriter/Director Sergei Loznitsa presented the film, a coproduction of The Netherlands and Ukraine, in Cannes Film Festival 2021 where it won the Special Jury Prize, the L’Oeil d’Or for Best Documentary.

At his press conference he said, “When memory turns into oblivion, when the past overshadows the future, it is the voice of cinema that articulates the truth. Such events push the artist to tell the story in a way that is interesting to people. Cinema brings people into the event and changes our perception. “

Scriptwriter/Director Sergei Loznitsa

Says Loznitsa, When I put together the story of Babi Yar, I tried to reconstruct the historical context of life in German occupied Kiev. A lot of German officers and soldiers had brought with them amateur film cameras and filmed daily life in the city. This footage wasn’t suitable for propaganda newsreels, but I find this material the most interesting and fascinating of all. You get to see some fragments of daily life in Kiev in 1941–1943. I believe that it is crucially important to connect the tragedy of the extermination of the entire Jewish population of Kiev with the realities of life under German occupation.

The footage comes from a number of public and private archives in Russia, Germany and Ukraine. We have been researching this material quite extensively: our researchers worked at the Russian State Archive in Krasnogorsk (Rgakfd), at the Bundesarchiv and at a number of regional archives in Germany, and also we managed to access some private collections. The quality of the footage differed greatly. Some material was in a reasonably good condition, while some other reels were seriously damaged. The restoration work lasted for several months.

Some of the footage I work with has been buried in the archives for decades — nobody has ever seen it. Not even historians, specialising in the Holocaust in the Ussr. One such episode is the explosions of Kreschatik in September 1941. Kiev’s central street was mined with remote controlled explosives by the Nkvd (Soviet secret service) before the Red army had retreated from Kiev. The detonations of the explosives were carried out a few days after the Germans took the city. There were civilian casualties, and thousands were left homeless. The Soviets, who planted the bombs, did not consider human casualties and mass destruction as a significant factor in their military planning.

Another rare piece of footage, which I use in the film, is the footage of the last public execution in Kiev in January 1946. Twelve Nazi criminals were hanged in the city’s central square, which was then known as Kalinin square. 200 000 residents of Kiev gathered in the square to watch the execution. The whole scene has a very medieval feel to it. Or, perhaps, biblical — “an eye for an eye” …

What 33,771 bodies look like can only be imagined through this documentary’s use of footage of the masses of Soviet prisoners of war (more than 600,000) marching, most of whom never returned home, or of citizens digging ditches for miles and miles, including women stripped to their underwear, barefoot, or the 1 million citizens of Kiev who turned out for the public hanging of the Nazis who ordered and carried out the massacre of the Jews.

The initial shock one had long ago on seeing the photographs which were first shown as proof of the Holocaust, bodies piled on one another, photographs which today seem to have lost their original shock value as we become immune to brutality seen over and over again, is replicated during a prolonged experience watching Babi Yar. Context. Its use of the archival footage depicting the masses and masses of puts us, the viewer, into a state of silent shock. The impact recalls my emotional reaction on seeing photographs of ‘Miners in Brazil’ by Sebastião Salgado in1986 on view at the Tate.

The film opens with an explosion and a black and white interstitial card reading “June 1941 Soviet Ukraine”. One hears a distant yell and a dog barking, a vague mix of human voies. A peaceful village burns as does the power plant. Endless billows of smoke spread across the country side. People quietly gather in the city to watch planes overhead, and a loudspeaker which says, “Moscow calling with a special broadcast. Cititens of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941 at 4 am…”

Germans move in and the people greet them with waves and the smiling Germans say “danke” as they are given bouquets of flowers. As people cheer, they happily tear down the posted of Stalin.

One sees male prisoners gathered on the ground and hears a German say, “He can’t walk. What will we do with him?”

One sees beautifully photographed masses of men, prisoners or Jews? Surrendering or being arrested. A color still photograph shows ruined houses and women left among ruins, the ruined bridge, a house burning, dead soldiers and civilians.

Shortly after the Wehrmacht occupied the city, a team of Soviet secret police (Nkvd) dynamited most of the buildings on the main street of the city, where German military and civil authorities had occupied most of the buildings; the buildings burned for days and 25,000 people were left homeless.

Allegedly in response to the actions of the Nkvd, the Germans accused the Jews of collaborating.

On 26 September 1941 the following order was posted:

All Yids of the city of Kiev and its vicinity must appear on Monday, September 29, by 8 o’clock in the morning at the corner of Mel’nikova and Dokterivskaya streets (near the Viis’kove cemetery). Bring documents, money and valuables, and also warm clothing, linen, etc. Any Yids who do not follow this order and are found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilians who enter the dwellings left by Yids[a] and appropriate the things in them will be shot.

Notice posted in Kyiv dated on or around 26 September, 1941 in Russian, Ukrainian with German translation ordering all Kyivan Jews to assemble for supposed resettlement.

Expecting 5 or 6,000, nearly 34,000 reported and were taken to Babi Yar and massacred. In the months that followed, thousands more were taken to Babi Yar where they were shot. It is estimated that the Germans murdered more than 100,000 Jews at Babi Yar during World War II, wiping out the entire population.

As an aside, and not included in this documentary, which is not a political statement in any way, several attempts were made to erect a memorial at Babi Yar to commemorate the fate of the Jewish victims. All attempts were overruled. A turning point was Yevtushenko’s 1961 poem on Babi Yar, which begins “Nad Babim Yarom pamyatnikov nyet” (“There are no monuments over Babi Yar”); it is also the first line of Shostakovitch’s Symphony №13. An official memorial to Soviet citizens shot at Babi Yar was erected in 1976.

Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, an international non governmental organization, was established in 2016 in order to acquire, study and disseminate knowledge about the tragedy. It is planning a museum complex at Babi Yar, which will be one of the world’s largest Holocaust memorial centerss with research institutes, a library and a museum. But the first building to appear on the site is a house of prayer.

Babi Yar. Context is part of the Center’s efforts to use art as a medium for commemorating the Babi Yar tragedy, with a number of powerful sculptures and installations already unveiled during the past year at Babi Yar. The launch of the film is also an important component of the Center’s efforts to mark this year’s 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre — Activities are taking place throughout the year across the world and will culminate in an international event including global leaders in October.

Sergei Loznitsa’s years of research culminates in what he considers just a starting point for discussion, not about history but about people who live(d) not only Ukraine but who today are also witnessing genocidal massacres throughout the world. The emotional impact is what needs to be felt and film makes emotional moments live as they resonate with the viewers’ emotions.

Some voices, some few subtitles, a lot of silence, fabulous photography of the faces of the prisoners, long endless lines and groups of people, Nazis arresting people, invading quiet homes followed by them setting them aflame — you hear the surprised screams of the people within, men, women and children shoveling and carrying dirt, building fortifications.

August 1941 celebrations with Nazi signs, military and Nazis warmly greeted. Lots of pomp and then a black halt. Switch to lines of tanks moving forward shooting, starting fires, miles and miles a burned autos and trucks, masses and masses of people, pure devastation of burned landscapes, much like we are seeing today as fires destroy our countries. Triumphal Germans allow women to take their prisoner husbands home, smiling, a mere token.

September 24, 1941, Kiev, hanging potsers of Hitler: The Liberator, a peaceful city until the explosion by the Soviets leads to the exterminatinog of the entire Jewish community.

However, even more incredible was the actions taken by the Nazis … SS mobilized a party of 100 Russian war prisoners, who were taken to the ravines… these men were ordered to disinter all the bodies in the ravine. The Germans meanwhile took a party to a nearby Jewish cemetery whence marble headstones were brought to Babii Yar [sic] to form the foundation of a huge funeral pyre. Atop the stones were piled a layer of wood and then a layer of bodies, and so on until the pyre was as high as a two-story house. Vilkis said that approximately 1,500 bodies were burned in each operation of the furnace and each funeral pyre took two nights and one day to burn completely. The cremation went on for 40 days, and then the prisoners, who by this time included 341 men, were ordered to build another furnace. Since this was the last furnace and there were no more bodies, the prisoners decided it was for them. They made a break but only a dozen out of more than 200 survived the bullets of the Nazi machine guns.[38]

July 1944 Soviet troops tour Lviv, Polish Lwów, German Lemberg, Russian Lvov, the largest city in Western Ukraine, historically the center of Galicia, a region now divided between Ukraine and Poland.

Down come the German street signs, up go the Cyrillic signs, down come the posters of Hitler, up go the posters of Stalin. Flowers are offered to new carloads of officers, dancers celebrate, masses and masses of people again crowd into testimonies and for the execution by hanging in the public square of those guilty of the brutal extermination of Soviet citizens and prisoners of war, for the destruction of cities and villages, and the enslavement of the population of Soviet Ukraine.

As if the Ukrainian population had no responsibility for helping kill the Jews, the Gypsies, the mentally ill…there is no mention of that…only masses of onlookers watching as it happens.

On December 2, 1952 the Kiev city council decided to fill the spurs of Babi Yar ravine with industrial waste from the nearby brick factory which was erecting boxlike multistoried apartments.

One is left to wonder, what is the legacy of war and of Babi Yar?

How did Sergei Loznitsa, director/script writer/producer, born on 5 September 1964 in Baranovici (Ussr) come to make this film? Was he merely commissioned by the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center which will commemorate the 80th anniversity of this on October 6, 2021?

He grew up in Kiev, and in 1987 graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in applied mathematics. Sergei Loznitsa went on to study feature film making at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (Vgik) in Moscow.

He has already directed 22 internationally acclaimed documentary films and 4 feature films, all of which premiered in the Official Selection of Cannes Film Festival.

His answer illuminates the need for this film:

When I was little, we lived in the Nyvki district of Kiev. There is a forest between Nyviki and the Syretz district, where Babi Yar is located. From the age of 10, several times a week, I used to take a bus from my house to the «Vanguard» swimming pool in Syretz, and come back on foot, through the wooded area and the ravine, occasionally stumbling across the stones with faded inscriptions in a strange language. In fact, I was walking through the remains of the old Jewish cemetery, abandoned at the time, or to be precise, not yet completely raised to the ground by the local authorities. One day, when on my usual route back home, I came across a new stone. This stone had a fresh inscription in Russian, which stated that there would be a monument inaugurated on this very spot. Having read the inscription, I went home to my parents and asked them what had happened in Babi Yar and why was it necessary to put a monument there. I never received a direct answer. Adults tried to avoid the subject, and their answers seemed vague. As far as I know, this was a taboo subject in Kiev in the 70-s. Even in the 50-s, immediately after the war, the tragedy of Babi Yar was covered in a shroud of silence.

Today, they say that Soviet ideology was to blame for this silence, but I think that the problem lies deeper. It’s about human nature in general. Talking about this tragedy makes one feel uncomfortable. The memory of it is shameful and scary. In Vasily Grossman’s «Life and fate» there is a passage — a letter written by a Jewish mother to her son. She wrote it just before being taken to the ghetto. This text has a documentary reference: Grossman quotes the letter from his own mother, who died in the Berdichev ghetto. She wrote that as soon as the Jews were declared «outlaws», her neighbours in the communal apartment threw her out of her room, and she found her possessions piled up in the cellar. It was neither the communist party, nor the Soviet authorities, it was her neighbours who threw her out of the flat. They simply told her that she no longer had the right to live there. The Jews were «against the law».

I study dehumanisation, the loss of humanity by a human being. This is why it is important to begin the documentary about Babi Yar with the German invasion. There was a regime change, and prior to that — a short period of chaos, of lawlessness. It is during this moment, when the true nature of a human is revealed. Without control and pressure from the authorities, in an atmosphere of chaos, it seems that anything is allowed, any action can go unpunished.

I have every reason to believe that back in September 1941, many residents of Kiev had suspected that Jews were going to be killed and not “relocated to the south”. But no one protested. Of course, it is impossible to judge people, who had found themselves in the most extreme and difficult circumstances, but it is possible to reflect upon this whole situation. In fact, it is necessary to think about it. No doubt there were the righteous among them — those who hid the Jews in their houses, who helped them survive. But they were few and far between. This is what scares me. Certain individuals committed heroic acts and risked their lives by helping the Jews, while thousands of others remained indifferent to the fate of the Jews, preoccupied with their own “housing issues” and dividing the remaining Jewish property. Neighbours reported on their neighbours, concierges acted as informants — they used the same lists of residents, which they had previously supplied Nkvd with, to report the Jews to the Germans. After the massacre, a few remaining invalids and elderly Jews in the Podol district of Kiev, who were too frail to walk to Babi Yar, were hunted by the local residents, dragged out of their apartments and stoned to death. The locals did it on their own initiative, without any German involvement. I saw the archive documents, describing these atrocities, with my own eyes.

I believe we must learn the truth. The knowledge of history is the best-known defence against chronocide. It is also the only way out of the Soviet/Post-Soviet swamp, where the countries, heirs to the former Ussr, find themselves today.

The world premiere of the documentary Babi Yar. Context was held on July 11 in the Séances Speciales section of the Cannes Film Festival. Ukrainian audiences will be able to see this film in the fall during events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre.

The documentary film Babi Yar. Context was produced by Atoms & Void (The Netherlands) by order of Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (Ukraine).

The film received the L’Œil d’or (Golden Eye) award for documentaries. Since 2015, the honor has been awarded to the best documentary presented in one of the sections of the Cannes Film Festival.

Following the award, director Sergey Loznitsa commented, I hope that this award will enable us to reach wider audiences worldwide. And, of course, I very much hope that this film will be screened in Ukraine and will inspire a meaningful discussion. This is particularly important for the country, on whose territory these tragic events took place 80 years ago. Thank you very much! Merci beaucoup!

Babi Yar. Context

Script writer/Director: Sergei Loznitsa

Editors: Sergei Loznitsa, Danielius Kokanauskis, Tomasz Wolski

Sound: Vladimir Golovnitski

Image restoration: Jonas Zagorskas

Producers: Sergei Loznitsa, Maria Choustova

Associate Producers: Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Max Yakover

Production: Atoms & Void for Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial

Center

2021, documentary, 121 min, The Netherlands, Ukraine

contact@atomsvoid.com

© Atoms & Void...

When composer and musician Jean-Michele Jarre received a call to craft a score for a photo exhibit, he said yes. As challenging as the task would be, the brief was to create music for the sounds of the Amazon for famed photographer Sebastião Salgado.

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While the 52-minute score can be streamed, it is best experienced as a binaural version alongside Salgado’s “Amazonia.” The photographer spent six-years traveling through the region,...

Less Is More (Lim), a European development scheme for limited-budget feature films, has unveiled its selection of 16 projects, a majority of which are from women filmmakers and talents coming from theater, visual arts or documentary.

In spite of the pandemic, the 7th edition received as many as 350 applications from more than 70 countries. The final roster includes projects from territories that were not represented in previous editions, such as Uganda, Vietnam and South Africa.

Among the projects selected are “I Love My Guodoheaddji,” set in the Arctic Circle within Norway’s Sámi community; “I Matter,” about a Romany community in Romania, and “A Song That Slays,” set in a Pokot tribe in Kenya. Other projects explore a cult in Czech Republic (“Goddess), sex addiction in Lithuania (Sofia’s World), and Celtic tales (“Birds of a Feather…).

Lim, which develops first, second and third feature projects, is organized by the Groupe Ouest,...

A few weeks before TIFF 2020, actor-turned-helmer Michelle Latimer is missing the cooler climes of Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior, where she grew up.

But the hottest ticket in Toronto can’t skip town before her rare premiere double-header.

In 2008, Latimer, who is of Algonquin, Metis and French heritage, left a busy acting career and has (mostly) worked behind the camera directing docs and series, notably, Viceland’s eight-parter “Rise,” about Indigenous-led resistance movements, which included an extended episode about the Standing Rock occupation protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. In January 2020, Latimer was the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs. She’s currently developing a dramatic feature based on the true story of Canada’s only female dangerous offender, in collaboration with Sienna Films.

This week, Latimer is one of a handful of directors attending their physically distanced in-cinema premieres. Hers include feature doc “Inconvenient Indian” (National Film Board...

Despite producing only around 15 feature films per year, Portuguese cinema has consistently won significant festival prizes.

In 2018, awards for Portuguese films included Cannes’ Critics’ Week winner, “Diamantino” by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, and “The Dead and the Others” by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, which took a Special Jury Prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Portuguese filmmakers have survived through a mixture of dedication, creative ingenuity and co-productions. Amid economic crisis, in 2012, the situation seemed dire, with Portugal’s National Film and Audiovisual Institute (Ica) unable to open any funding lines.

However a 2012 film law, revised in 2014, provided new revenues for the Ica by introducing levies on subscription TV services. As a result, the Ica has been able to channel significant additional funding into the domestic industry, including new support programs for TV series and animation features.

Investment obligations for domestic broadcasters have also been upped including reinforced commitments for public broadcaster,...

Wim Wenders is a sophisticated man of cinema, a nine-time Cannes Palme d’Or contender who led the 1989 jury that gave Steven Soderbergh the Palme d’Or over Spike Lee. (He says he was not the architect of that collective decision.) The graduate of the ’70s German New Wave who has close ties to America has shown deep spirituality in such films as Cannes Best Director-winner “Wings of Desire,” “Faraway, So Close,” and “The Salt of the Earth.”

Still, choosing Wenders to direct a documentary about the Holy Father did not look obvious at first. It turns out that Wenders was raised in a Catholic family where “faith was important,” he told me at Cannes. He admired his father, a doctor who “lived life and his profession as a believer, he loved people and was always there for anybody who was sick.”

More recently, Wenders was struck by the joyful way his father embraced death,...

Wim Wenders is a sophisticated man of cinema, a nine-time Cannes Palme d’Or contender who led the 1989 jury that gave Steven Soderbergh the Palme d’Or over Spike Lee. (He says he was not the architect of that collective decision.) The graduate of the ’70s German New Wave who has close ties to America has shown deep spirituality in such films as Cannes Best Director-winner “Wings of Desire,” “Faraway, So Close,” and “The Salt of the Earth.”

Still, choosing Wenders to direct a documentary about the Holy Father did not look obvious at first. It turns out that Wenders was raised in a Catholic family where “faith was important,” he told me at Cannes. He admired his father, a doctor who “lived life and his profession as a believer, he loved people and was always there for anybody who was sick.”

More recently, Wenders was struck by the joyful way his father embraced death,...

Colin MacCabe on shooting Berger: "John absolutely refused to plan things." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Author, artist, self-declared storyteller John Berger is the focus of the intricately woven strands that make up The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits Of John Berger. Produced by The Derek Jarman Lab as a quartet of individual film essays, directed by Tilda Swinton, Christopher Roth, Bartek Dziadosz and Colin MacCabe, the combination allows for fascinating interplay of concerns.

On the opening day in New York, Colin MacCabe and I had a conversation that led from Berger's kitchen to Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake, The Spectre Of Hope on Sebastião Salgado, Chris Marker, Neil Jordan collaborator Patrick McCabe, Isaac Julien, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, the editing by Christopher Roth and the cinematography of Bartek Dziadosz, apples, raspberries and cows, Brexit and Northern Ireland.

Tilda Swinton: "As soon as we finished the first one,...

As an avid photographer myself, I truly love coming across a documentary that expands my mind about the artistic qualities and emotional power of excellent photography. Along with The Salt of the Earth (about legendary photographer Sebastião Salgado), the documentary Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures is the latest to leave me floored. This utterly inspiring and eye-opening doc examines the (entire) life of Robert Mapplethorpe, a controversial gay photographer whose work was banned from museums in the 90s because it was deemed too obscene. Boy were they wrong. Hearing him talk about his life and then seeing the photos he produced - I couldn't help repeating in my mind, "this guy is a true master of photography." Seriously. Robert Mapplethorpe never studied photography and had a fairly standard childhood. He eventually started exploring his sexuality while growing up and moved to New York City (spending time at the Hotel Chelsea), inspired primarily by Andy Warhol,...

Anne-Katrin Titze presents The Salt Of The Earth - IFC Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

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Sebastião Salgado could be John Ford looking out over the plains

In an upcoming conversation on Until The End Of The World, Wim and I discuss Sam Shepard's influence before he worked with Volker Schlöndorff on Max Frisch's Homo Faber. We also talk about Yasujiro Ozu actors Chishû Ryû and Kuniko Miyake, Alfred Hitchcock and San Francisco, Chen Kaige and China, Robby Müller and Vermeer, and look forward to Michael Almereyda's Experimenter.

Starring Solveig Dommartin, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Jeanne Moreau, Rüdiger Vogler and Sam Neill,...

Wim Wenders with Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: Claire Brunel

The director of recent documentaries Pina on the late great choreographer poet Pina Bausch and the Oscar nominated The Salt Of The Earth with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado on master photographer Sebastião Salgado, is in New York for Wim Wenders: Portraits Along The Road, the first stop for a major retrospective of his films. Wenders has many long-term collaborations along the way including Peter Handke and Nick Cave who will appear with Reda Kateb (great in David Oelhoffen's Albert Camus adaptation, Far From Men, opposite Viggo Mortensen) and Sophie Semin in his latest film, The Beautiful Days Of Aranjuez (Les Beaux Jours D’Aranjuez).

We also talked about how in Nanni Moretti's Mia Madre the poster of Wings Of Desire made it into a dream sequence and Wim's Film4Climate involvement.

In the elevator on my way to meet Wim,...

So here we are, smack dab in the middle of the dog days of summer (and if you don’t get that little saying, try lying out on the sidewalk in 100-degree heat for 15 minutes or so, like Fido does, and see if a light bulb doesn’t go off). The dogs are often howling in movie theaters too—at times it seems as though August has replaced January in the hearts of moviegoers as the dumping ground for pictures not really worthy of our attention (or a serious investment in the marketing department). Movies like Pixels and Fantastic Four have their perverse fascination—just how bad can they possibly be? Both were greeted with reviews so scathing and unyielding in their acidity that studio heads can only pray nothing in October, November or December will be perceived as worse, and I have to admit a certain curiosity. But that...

Image conscious (from left): Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Sebastião Salgado and Wim Wenders, collaborators on The Salt of the Earth. The atmosphere was not always so amicable ... Photo: Thierry Pouffary

The epic still photographs of Brazilian artist and environmentalist Sebastião Salgado take pride of place in a spectacular new documentary about his life and work. Directed by Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club, Pina) in association with Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, The Salt Of The Earth was awarded Un Certain Regard Special Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was Oscar nominated. The relationship between Salgado fils and Wenders was strained to breaking point at times...

Richard Mowe: Have you been bowled over by the way the film has been received so enthusiastically?

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado: Its success is a huge surprise – from that first moment in Cannes when we had such an amazing reception, to...

Wim Wenders’s collaboration with Sebastião Salgado’s son speaks volumes about the photographer, his motivations and subject matter

Wim Wenders co-directed this documentary about Sebastião Salgado with the photographer’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, bringing “an outsider’s view” to a wealth of extant footage and photos. From stunning images of the gold mines of Serra Pelada (“I had travelled to the dawn of time”), to the horrors of famine in the Sahel and genocide in Rwanda (“We humans are a terrible animal… our history is a history of war”), and ultimately to the rebirth of the “Genesis” project, The Salt of the Earth finds Salgado revisiting and confronting his turbulent past.

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“Everyone should see these images to see how terrible our species is.” Yet there is hope in this portrait of social photographer Sebastião Salgado, too. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

I think the first time I became aware of the work of Sebastião Salgado — although I didn’t learn his name until I saw this film — was when his stark black-and-white photographs of the hellish landscape of the burning oil fields in Kuwait in 1991 were all over magazines at the time. You may also have seen his harrowing yet powerfully humanistic images of people impacted by war, famine, displacement, and other 20th-century nightmares: he has documented such now infamous places-and-times as early-80s Ethiopia and Bosnia and Congo in the 1990s. Of his work in Bosnia, Salgado says here, sadly: “Everyone should see these...

A documentary, directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, about capturing humanity, The Salt of the Earth follows the career of photographer and ethnologist Sebastião Salgado, whose photos depict the vanishing lifestyles of the world's indigenous people. The Salt of the Earth, which was nominated for an Oscar this year, is released in the UK on Friday 17 July Continue reading...

This deeply considered documentary from Wim Wenders and the photographer’s son looks at the Brazilian artist behind monochrome images that transcend history itself

The amazing monochrome images created by 71-year-old Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado are the subject of this deeply considered documentary study, co-directed by Wim Wenders and the photographer’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. The cinema screen is a good platform for work so passionately idealistic and, perhaps, grandiose. The pictures are the result of Salgado’s remarkable 40-year career as a photojournalist – although that word does not do justice to a vocation closer to artist, ethnographer and self-described “witness to the human condition”.

Related: The Salt of the Earth: the Wim Wenders and Juliano Salgado double bill

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Endlessly trekking the globe to capture breathtaking images of the natural and human realms, Sebastião Salgado is regarded as one of the most talented photographers alive. His work documents moments in time that sometimes are reminiscent of surreal realities and others harsh reminders of the evils of mankind.

Four over 40 years the Brazilian artist has visited isolated communities in remote corners of earth and witnessed striking events that have shaped his perception of our flawed world. Having to flee his homeland in the 60s as the military dictatorship became more oppressive, Salgado and his wife relocated to France where he bought his first camera with no real intentions beyond a hobby. But after taking his first photograph, of her of course, he was hooked and eventually dismissed his stable career as an economist to pursue this burning new passion.

Now, the explorer has been observed in the Academy Award-nominated "The Salt of the Earth," an elegantly achieved documentary by veteran filmmaker Wim Wenders and Salgado's own son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Revisiting his most acclaimed work and following him into new photographic adventures, the film serves not only as a portrait of the creator but it also illuminates the reasoning for his devoted pursuit. There is a subtly political component to his work that demands social justice by exposing inequality and the dangers of voracious capitalism with haunting beauty This journey into the sensitivities and concerns of such exceptional visionary is a documentary that only Wenders could envision and that could only be as insightful as it is due to Juliano’s involvement as co-director.

“The Salt of the Earth” is confrontational, spiritual, revelatory, compassionate, and deeply humanistic. It’s the story of one man who relates to pain and joy through his camera and how that connects with those who get to see it thanks to him.

After a successful theatrical run grossing over $1.3 million dollars, Sony Pictures Classics has released “The Salt of the Earth” on Blu-ray and DVD. This release includes great extra content such as numerous deleted scenes that add to the incredible visual experience the film already is and an intimate conversation between the two directors about the making of it. Unmissable.

Special Features

-Deleted Scenes: Over 35 minutes of beautifully-shot deleted scenes.

-Commentary with Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

-Looking Back: Wim and Juliano reflect on the making of their film.

★★★★☆ "Everyone should see these images to see how terrible out species is," says Brazilian photography Sebastião Salgado as he reviews the photographs that he has taken throughout his career. It has been a career that has been inspired by an intense social conscience, a fierce and bold curiosity, and an eye for beauty and the arresting image that can actually change the conditions he seeks to record. German film maker Wim Wenders came to The Salt of the Earth (2014) as a fan of Salgrado having purchased a print of his some years ago. Salgado’s son Juliano, who is Wenders' co-director, had already begun filming his father, and the seventy-year-old photographer proves as fascinating as his art.

With the first half of 2015 officially coming to a close, it’s time for our mid-year list of best theatrical releases. As seems to be the trend, a bulk of these titles were selections premiering in the late fall circuit of 2014, a move sometimes granting offbeat art-house selections a bit more breathing room (though not always). Here’s a glance at what represents the best of the year thus far, including two directorial debuts, one posthumous work, and one studio feature:

10. The Salt of the Earth – Dir. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado

Premiering at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, German auteur Wim Wenders explores the prolific career of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, here with the help of his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado serving as co-director. Known for capturing catastrophic events in striking fashion, the documentary finds the artist in search of something positive after decades documenting human nature at its worst.

After half a century of making films, the director is back on form with The Salt of the Earth and shows no signs slowing down

Wim Wenders is responsible for some of the most profound films made about America – quite a feat considering he doesn’t have a drop of starred-and-striped blood in his body. Paris, Texas is the obvious example: a western in mood and iconography, no matter that it is set in 1980s Los Angeles. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1984 and remains the director’s masterpiece. In that film, and many others, he showed the world what America looked like, and helped America to see itself through foreign eyes. Even those pictures not set in the Us – such as the great 1970s road movies Alice in the Cities and Kings of the Road, which made Wenders an arthouse darling – explore the influence, the voodoo romanticism,...

Last year’s bumper crop of engrossing art documentary feature films included one set in the world of photography called Finding Vivian Maier which went on to earn an Oscar nomination. It showcased the Chicago-area pictures taken by a nanny/ caregiver in the 1950’s to the 70’s which were discovered recently by a modern-day photog. In a way, the film was a mystery movie, investigating the largely unknown life of this hidden artist, In the new film The Salt Of The Earth (also an Oscar nominee), there’s no such mystery, as its main subject has been known and celebrated for the past 40 years: Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado. Plus, he never limited himself to his native land as he spans the globe in search of the drama of life.

As the film begins, we’re bombarded by remarkable black and white images of a gold mining dig down in South America.

The once-winning Nicholas Sparks formula of a young couple.s quest for love being derailed by illness, death or other misfortune seems to be losing its allure at cinemas.

The Longest Ride, a romantic melodrama based on Sparks. 2013 novel, rang up $1.45 million on 220 screens, including previews, last weekend.

That.s better than the anaemic $758,000 debut last year of The Best of Me, which ended up with $2.2 million,. but it's debatable whether the film will have the legs to match previous Sparks adaptations such as The Notebook (which made $6.4 million back in 2004) and Nights in Rodanthe. ($4.55 million in 2008).

The Longest Ride follows the star-crossed love affair between Luke (Scott Eastwood, son of Clint), a former champion rodeo rider looking to make a comeback, and Sophie (Britt Robertson), a college student who's about to embark on her dream job in New York City's art world.

Alan Alda is along for the ride as Ira,...

There’s a perceptible reverence for Sebastião Salgado and his work as a social issues photographer in the Oscar-nominated documentary The Salt of the Earth, out this Friday in New York and Los Angeles. Considering the filmmakers’ relationship with their subject, it isn’t hard to figure out why. Three time Oscar nominee and The Salt of the Earth co-director, Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club, Pina) bought one of Sebastião’s photos when he first discovered him, and immediately became enchanted with both the photography and the man. Wenders’ co-director is Juliano Salgado, Sebastião’s son who first began filming his father when Sebastião asked Juliano to accompany him on a trip to photograph the reclusive Amazonian Zo’é tribe.

Wenders and the younger Salgado spent several years assembling a documentary that combines intimate behind-the-scenes moments alongside Sebastião as he makes progress on his “Genesis” collection with reflective examinations...

You've seen Sebastião Salgado's photographs, even if you did not know who shot them. The Brazilian photographer has been wandering the globe, seeking out some of the most benighted places on earth and finding hideous beauty there. Even more than some war photographers, he has seen the worst of humanity. And after decades he did burn out on The Horror and had to go home to the plantation where he grew up to find renewal. Read More: "Watch: Provocative New Clips from Wim Wenders doc 'The Salt of the Earth'" German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who has been experiencing his own artistic renewal via documentaries that serve to showcase other people's art, such as 3D masterpiece "Pina," joined forces with Salgado's filmmaker son Juliano on "The Salt of the Earth," which debuted at Cannes and went on to play the fall festivals to much acclaim. Juliano shot much of the...

Making The Salt of the Earth was a labor of love for co-director Juliano Salgado. If you've seen the film, then you know the subject, Sebastião Salgado, is his father. Interviewing Juliano was one of the most surreal experiences I've had as a journalist -- you could, at moments, see the pain in his eyes and how much he wears his heart on his sleeve when talking about his father -- who's known for his amazing work as a humanitarian photographer -- and the struggles of making the film. This is a very long interview, but folks who've seen this film will surely finish to the last word. There's a lot discussed here: from the difficulties of working with his estranged father, to bringing acclaimed filmmaker Wim Wenders on...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

The first time Wim Wenders saw Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado’s work — a haunting black and white portrait of workers toiling in the Amazon’s Serra Pelada gold mine — he bought the print on the spot. Soon, he began collecting the artist’s pictures, chasing down stills for sale and picking up books of the artist’s work wherever he could find them. “Whenever I was asked in interviews who my favorite photographer was,” the 69-year-old German filmmaker says, “I would tell people about Sebastião. He’s able to create...

This weekend, Will Ferrell turns to Kevin Hart to prep him for prison in the (very) R-rated comedy "Get Hard," an alien on the run lands on Earth and makes friends with an adventurous child in the animated "Home," and a middle-aged couple (Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts) has their lives overturned when they meet a disarming young couple (Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried) in "While We're Young."

Also in theaters this weekend: "Serena" stars Bradley Cooper as a timber magnate in Depression-era North Carolina whose empire becomes complicated when he marries Serena (Jennifer Lawrence). "The Salt of the Earth" follows world-renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado as he embarks on the discovery of pristine territories and grandiose landscapes to capture the planet's beauty in his latest photographic project. In "The Riot Club," two first-year Oxford students join the infamous Riot Club, where reputations can be made or destroyed in a single evening. The film stars Sam Claflin,...

Over the course of four decades, German filmmaker Wim Wenders has directed more than 30 feature-length films of all different types. There’s the Palme d'Or-winning “Paris, Texas,” the Criterion-minted “Wings of Desire,” and he's a three-time Oscar nominee for the documentaries “Buena Vista Social Club,” the visually striking 3D “Pina,” and his upcoming film, “The Salt of the Earth,” about Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, which opens this weekend (our review from Telluride). Overshadowed to some degree by Werner Herzog, as they came of cinematic age during the 1970s German New Wave movement, Wenders has been getting his due recently thanks to a gigantic retrospective of his work at Moma that just finished. Underappreciated gems getting a second look there were "The American Friend" starring Dennis Hopper, the director's long form cut of "Until The End Of The World," and the documentary about dying filmmaker Nicholas Ray, “Lightning...

Award-winning photographer and ‘witness of the human condition,’ Sebastião Salgado, has traveled the world a few times over capturing photographs for his books:

Other Americas: 1977-1984 – The People of the Andes Mountains, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, his homeland, Brazil, and Mexico.

Sahel: The End of the Road: 1984-1986 – Capturing Drought, Famine, and Disease in Niger, Mali, and Ethiopia.

Workers: 1986-1991 – Archeology of Industrial Areas. Paying homage to the men and women who build the world. Travel to the oil fields in Kuwait.

Exodus: 1993-1999 – Refugees-The displacement of entire populations by wars, famine and the rules of the global marketplace. Burundi, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Serbia.

Genesis: 2004-2013 – Landscapes and wildlife- a more optimistic view of the Earth’s regeneration

Directed by Wim Wenders (”Buena Vista Social Club”) along with Sebastiao’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, “The Salt of the Earth,” captures Sebastiao’s mesmerizing, soul-fulfilling life. He gave up a well paid career as an economist to become a photographer instead.

Traveling to remote areas of South America, Wrangel Island, Russia, Bangladesh, India, Kuwait, Vietnam, Palestine, Philippines, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia, Galapagos, and Africa, he found his true calling capturing remote societies, nature, famine, working class people, the Earth’s regeneration, and his own family.

“The Salt of the Earth” opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, March 27, 2015.

The Salt Of The Earth (Le Sel De La Terre) directors Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Photographer Sebastião Salgado's images on the big screen are a visual gift as much as the subject matter of his work is a scream for change. Salgado, when we first see him in The Salt Of The Earth (Le Sel De La Terre), could be John Ford looking out over the plains. Co-directed by Wim Wenders, in silvery black and white, with the photographer's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, shooting in colour, the film raises awareness through storytelling that can have the composition of a Bruegel painting or show a father's personal tragedy with the force of Schubert's Erlkönig.

International Center for Photography - Sebastião Salgado Genesis exhibition Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Anne-Katrin Titze: Would you say the story is what is protecting the photography?

Wim Wenders: Yes, it's the...

"A photographer is literally somebody drawing with light. A man writing & rewriting the world with light & shadows." I love this documentary, it's so utterly beautiful and awe-inspiring. The Salt of the Earth is a documentary by Wim Wenders exploring the life & work of legendary Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, co-directed by his son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. No doubt you've seen some of Sebastião's photos, many of which are featured in this doc. It's a mesmerizing look at a man who documented humanity in such a remarkably honest and intimate way, and the doc becomes something else when it focuses on how much he (Sebastião) loves this planet we are destroying. It was nominated for an Academy Award this year. Here's the official Us trailer for Wim Wenders & Juliano Salgado's doc The Salt of the Earth, from Spc: For the last 40 years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents,...

Human Rights Watch Film Festival

Celebrating Individual and Community Efforts to Effect Change

18-27 March 2015, London

Barbican, British Museum, Curzon Soho, Ritzy Picturehouse

(London, February 12, 2015) – The 19th edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London will be presented from 18 to 27 March, 2015 with a programme of 16 award-winning documentary and feature films, Human Rights Watch said today.

The festival will include live music performances following screenings of Beats of the Antonov and No Land’s Song and a Guardian Masterclass focusing on human rights reporting and digital storytelling. The festival will take place at the Barbican, British Museum, Curzon Soho, and Ritzy Brixton.

“This year’s festival features many determined, brave individuals – such as Colombia’s philosopher-politician-teacher Antanas Mockus, the Afghan school founder Razia Jan, and Guatemala’s first female attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz – who have made huge personal sacrifices to bring about change”, said John Biaggi, director...

The Salt Of The Earth Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade:  B Director:  Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado Screenwriter:  Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders, David Rosier Cast:  Sebastião Salgado, Lelia Wanick Salgado, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado, Hugo Barbier, Regis Muller, Jacques Barthelemy.  Narrated by Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado Screened at:  Sony, NYC, 1/12/15 Opens:  March 27, 2015 As with any field, photography has levels of professionalism.  At the bottom of the heap are the folks who take selfies with their cheap, digital cameras.  I call them the narcissists.  Several notches higher are special events photographers who capture the happy  [ Read More ]

The post The Salt of the Earth Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Glenn here while Nathaniel is travelling back from the wonders of Sundance. I do so enjoy looking at national awards since they paint such a gloriously global view of the film world that most of the American award bodies simply do not even attempt. They're always a good way of finding out about films that may otherwise go unnoticed in the ever-expanding world of film festivals (increasingly the only way to see many of these films, anyway) and a great way of finding the next big thing to which you can tell your friends and colleagues, "I saw them first in that tiny foreign film."

This year's César Awards from France have announced their nominations and it's a handsome looking bunch, even if I've only seen a few of the actual nominees (again, blame those tricky new age distribution methods and diminishing foreign indie market). I was super happy to...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

German director Wim Wenders received his third Oscar nomination Thursday morning for The Salt of the Earth, a documentary about the life and career of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, which he co-directed with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Sebastiao’s son. Wenders had become a fan of Sebastiao’s work after discovering some images in a gallery, which led him to pursue the documentary. It won the Un Certain Regard Special Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered.

Wenders’ first Oscar nomination was for Buena Vista Social Club (1999), a documentary about Cuban musicians gathered together by American music producer and guitarist Ry Cooder after he traveled to Havana. The musicians recorded an album under the name of the Buena Vista Social Club and toured in Amsterdam and New York City. The film won best documentary from the National Board of Review and also landed three BAFTA nominations.

Eddie Redmayne tells of ‘once in a lifetime’ experience and Benedict Cumberbatch is knocked for six while Emma Stone finds the whole occasion ‘surreal’. Hear what the nominees had to say.Oscars 2015The Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman lead chargeTimothy Spall, David Oyelowo among shutoutsNominations in fullNominees reactionsBest Film nominees in detail

Comment: Jeremy Kay reflects on who’s in and outGALLERIES: Films / ActorsVIDEO: Nominations announcement

The 87th annual Academy Awards will take place in Hollywood on February 22. This story will continue to update for several hours.

Motion Picture / Executives

“I am very happy for the whole Birdman flock because it took a lot of courage to make this film out of conventions. These nominations reflect the recognition of our colleagues as well as the members of the Academy. I am proud, thankful and humbled.”

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman

“Thank you Academy for recognizing Birdman. Nine nominations is a huge feather in our cap. I am particularly...

Eddie Redmayne tells of ‘once in a lifetime’ experience and Benedict Cumberbatch is knocked for six while Emma Stone finds the whole occasion ‘surreal’. Hear what the nominees had to say.

The 87th annual Academy Awards will take place in Hollywood on February 22. This story will continue to update for several hours.

Motion Picture / Executives

“I am very happy for the whole Birdman flock because it took a lot of courage to make this film out of conventions. These nominations reflect the recognition of our colleagues as well as the members of the Academy. I am proud, thankful and humbled.”

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman

“Thank you Academy for recognizing Birdman. Nine nominations is a huge feather in our cap. I am particularly proud of my friend Alejandro for his fearlessness and creativity and to our entire cast and crew for their unparalleled precision and excellence. Congratulations as well to our fellow nominees.”

John Lesher, [link...

As is usually the case, 2014 held a rich vein of great nonfiction cinema … that went mostly untapped by any wide audiences. But just because documentaries are perpetually under-served by popular (and even critical) attention doesn’t mean that we should neglect these films. This is a celebration of all the best docs to come out this year.

But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here are all the notable docs of 2014 that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet:

1989, 20,000 Days on Earth, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Big Joy, Big Men, Code Black, Evolution of a Criminal, The Great Flood, The Great Invisible, The Kill Team, National Gallery, The Missing Picture, Maidentrip, Manakamana, The Naked Opera, Virunga, Watchers of the Sky, What Now? Remind Me, Whitey

Next,we have some honorable mentions — other docs of 2014 that are well worth seeking out:

A Will for the Woods, Art and Craft,...

Wim Wenders’ masterful new documentary, The Salt of the Earth, explores the fascinating life and work of acclaimed Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado. Wenders, who co-directs with Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, takes audiences on a stunning visual journey that chronicles the 40-year career of the elder Salgado through his photography. Sebastião Salgado travelled to over 100 countries for his photographic projects and bore witness to some of the most notable humanitarian events that shaped the world in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In an exclusive interview, Wenders and Salgado revealed how the project first emerged, why this was an important story to tell, the innovative cinematic tool Wenders devised to film Sebastião as he discussed the genesis of various photographs and the emotions he felt while shooting them, what they discovered in the editing process, how the project brought father and son closer, how...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Yesterday, the Academy’s documentary branch narrowed down the list of 134 documentaries to 15 for the shortlist. Of these 15, five will be announced Jan. 15 as the nominees for the 87th Academy Awards, which will be held on Feb. 22.

Over the past few months, I wrote about three documentaries and the precedent past nominees set for them: Rory Kennedy’s Last Days in Vietnam, John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s Finding Vivian Maier and Orlando von Einsiedel’s Virunga. All three films made the shortlist. The lists of related documentaries that landed nominations for best documentary consist of eleven Vietnam documentaries, six photography-related documentaries and eight documentaries about the animal world.

Two weeks ago, I looked at ten of the top documentary contenders that debuted at Sundance, and five made the shortlist: The Case Against 8, about the battle to overturn California’s Proposition 8; Last Days in Vietnam,...

Doc NYC Director of Programming Basil Tsiokos Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

What do Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado's portrait of Sebastião Salgado in The Salt Of The Earth, Ben Cotner and Ryan White's The Case Against 8, Rory Kennedy's Last Days In Vietnam, Life Itself, based on Roger Ebert's memoir directed by Steve James, D.A. Pennebaker and William Ray's David on jazz trumpeter David Allen, Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo's Rich Hill and Divide In Concord directed by Kris Kaczor and Dave Regos have in common?

All of these documentaries and more are screening in the 2014 Doc NYC Film Festival.

David

Albert Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards, Citizenfour director Laura Poitras will receive the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence and Dan Cogan the Leading Light Award which honours "an individual making a crucial...