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In 2024, it seemed like the running theme across a lot of Netflix crime dramas was “disjointed families or communities coming apart at the seams due to a criminal act.” I’m not saying that it was an enjoyable trend; I’m just saying that the streaming giant was consistently churning out stories which were following a set pattern, despite originating from all over the globe. Now, we’re one week into 2025, and I’m starting to notice a new trend amongst Netflix TV series and miniseries set in the crime drama subgenre: bloated subplots and bad editing. For starters, there’s Missing You, where the story about breeding dogs and scamming rich people took up more time than the murder and missing person cases. Bandidos Season 2 was so interested in the death of Lili’s father that it forgot to make its treasure hunt adventurous or fun. The breakthrough in...

SkyShowtime has set its first Polish original, a fictional drama series that follows the tragicomic adventures of a 40-year old playboy.

In Warszawianka, Franek Czułkowski aka Czuly, played by Borys Szyc, is a talented writer who has experienced success and failure and now finds himself trapped between his personal struggles and societal expectations. The show follows his adventures as he struggles to grasp the meaning of his own existence in the modern world.

Helmed by Jacek Borcuch and written by Jakub Żulczyk, Warszawianka is the first Polish-language series for Comcast/Paramount Jv SkyShowtime, the new streamer which is available in numerous European territories in which Comcast’s Peacock or Paramount+ aren’t available.

Piotr Uznański serves as Director of Photography on Warszawianka. Additional cast includes Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Skolimowski, Ilona Ostrowska, Piotr Polak, Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, Zofia Wichłacz, Paulina Gałązka, Jan Peszek, Marta Ścisłowicz, Marianna Zydek, Jakub Wieczorek, Tomasz Włosok, Maja Pankiewicz and Milena Goździela.

“Never Gonna Snow Again,” which was chosen as Poland’s Oscar submission prior to its world premiere in Venice, marks a further step in cinematographer Michał Englert’s long collaboration with Małgorzata Szumowska. It started in the 1990s with her short “Silence,” followed by her feature debut “Happy Man” in 2000, and continues with “Never Gonna Snow Again,” with Englert serving as both cinematographer and co-director, alongside Szumowska, on the film.

“Our way of working, or our sense of humor, hasn’t really changed. Although the scope of my involvement is constantly expanding,” says Englert, who has been developing screenplays with Szumowska since 2013’s “In the Name Of,” and describes their process as “instinctive.”

“I definitely have an ego, but you can’t make movies all by yourself and in the case of ‘Never Gonna Snow Again’ we decided its power will be bigger if we sign it as a directorial duo.

Producers on the Move, a networking forum for up-and-coming producers from Europe, takes place as a virtual event this week. The organizer, European Film Promotion, has given Variety exclusive access to the projects the producers are pitching to sales companies.

Here are their projects, including the latest films from the directors of SXSW standout “Lake Bodom” and Cannes breakout “Fire Will Come.” (Biographies of the producers can be found at this link.)

“After”

Producer: Andrea Queralt, 4 A 4 Productions (France)

Director: Oliver Laxe

Genre: Existential Road-Movie

The next film from Oliver Laxe, the director of Cannes breakout hit “Fire Will Come,” winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. “After” follows a disparate group of ravers who go in quest of the ultimate party in a remote corner of Africa. They embark on an odyssey into the depths of the Saharan desert, a mirror of sand for the characters.

“La Bella Estate”

Producer: Giovanni Pompili,...

The 12th edition of the festival will unspool from 29 November-2 December, showcasing movies by Filip Bajon, Jan Komasa, Jagoda Szelc, Adrian Panek and Jacek Borcuch. The period film The Butler by Filip Bajon, which won two Eagles (the Polish film industry’s annual national awards) this spring, scooped the Silver Lions at the Gdynia Film Festival, and portrays the intertwined destinies of a Polish family between 1900 and 1945 in the north of the Kashubia region, will tomorrow open the 12th edition of Kinopolska, out of competition and in the presence of its director. Every year, the festival, which will unspool in Paris from 29 November-2 December, in the Le Balzac cinema, just off the Champs-Elysées, trains its spotlight on the sheer diversity of Polish film output, which sometimes finds it tricky to secure decent distribution in France (apart from big names such as Pawel Pawlikowski). Interestingly, Filip Bajon will...

The UK Jewish Film Festival winners have been revealed. The Best Debut Feature Award has gone to Leona, directed by Isaac Cherem. The Spanish-language Mexican film, which received its UK premiere at the event, follows a young Jewish woman from Mexico City who finds herself torn between her family and her forbidden love with a non-Jewish man. The Dorfman Best Film Award went to Polish film Dolce Fine Giornata, directed by Jacek Borcuch. Pic charts how the stable family life of a poetess begins to fall apart as she makes a controversial speech. The movie beat out other titles Flawless, Jojo Rabbit, My Polish Honeymoon, Stripped and The Unorthodox. The Best Documentary Award winner has been announced as Advocate, directed by Philippe Bellaiche and Rachel Leah Jones. The film is a look at the life and work of Jewish-Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel who has represented political prisoners for nearly 50 years.

Another eight documentaries and 25 short films will screen in the competition sections, and the festival has scheduled master classes by Paul Schrader and Krzysztof Zanussi. The Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival (Biaff) is set to take place for the 14th time from 16-23 September. Biaff is again organising a carefully curated programme consisting of fiction-feature, documentary and short competitions, plus sidebar sections including Georgian Panorama, Masters and Special Screenings. In the Feature Competition, there are ten films: Mark Jenkin's Bait (UK), Veit Helmer's The Bra (Germany/Azerbaijan), Reza Mirkarimi's Castle of Dreams (Iran), Elmar Imanov's End of Season (Germany/Azerbaijan/Georgia), György Pálfi's His Master’s Voice (Canada/Hungary/France/Sweden/USA), Kıvanç Sezer's La Belle Indifference (Turkey), Marko Škop's Let There Be Light (Slovakia/Czech Republic), Jacek Borcuch's Dolce Fine Giornata (Poland), Emin Alper's A Tale of Three Sisters (Turkey/Germany/Netherlands...

Madrid — Berlin-based Films Boutique has acquired international sales rights to Maryam Touzani’s Cannes Un Certain Regard women’s drama “Adam,” the feature debut of the Moroccan screenwriter-director who co-wrote Nabil Ayouch’s 2017 hit “Razzia,” in which she also starred.

In early distribution deals on “Adam,” Ad Vitam has acquired French distribution rights and Cinéart those to Benelux.

A women’s tale of friendship, rebirth and oppression, “Adam,” which world premieres at the Cannes Festival. It turns on the chance but life changing and enhancing encounter in Casablanca’s Medina between Samia, a heavily pregnant, single young woman down from the countryside to have her soon-to-be-born child adopted, and Abla, a widow with a vivacious eight-year-old daughter who has set up a bakery in her home to make ends meet.

Abla takes Samia in; Samia introduces Abla to some secrets of traditional Moroccan pastries, taught to her by her grandmother,...

Review by Peter Belsito‘Dolce Fine Giornata’ is a Polish movie about expats immersed in Italy.Krystyna Janda, Dymitr Solomoko and Kasia Smutniak

The current public and journalistic obsessions with immigration, terrorism, and nationalism are a running theme in Sundance this year. Including Jacek Borcuch’s Dolce Fine Giornata.

Krystyna Janda stars as a well known poet whose remote life under the Tuscan sun rapidly falls apart when her she speaks and appears to support violent suicide bombers.

Janda plays plays Maria Linde, a child of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors who left the oppression in her homeland long ago. She has a comfortable life in the Tuscan hills with Italian husband Antonio, her alone daughter Anna, mother of the two grandkids.

It’s a casual, privileged existence in the gorgeous countryside.

Maria presides over parties and outings as if on permanent vacation, magnetizing admiration — including the Nobel Prize — that she pretends to shrug off,...

Fears related to immigration, terrorism, and nationalism are a running theme in many Sundance entries this year, although probably none of the films addresses the commingled issues in such a potent yet roundabout way as Jacek Borcuch’s “Dolce Fine Giornata.” This satisfyingly complex drama stars Polish cinema veteran Krystyna Janda (going back to Wadja’s 1977 “Man of Marble”) as a celebrated poet whose enviable semi-retired life under the Tuscan sun rapidly frays when her “artistic license” in a public speech appears to condone suicide bombers.

This very European take on various hot-button topics lacks the kind of easily encapsulated gist that makes for easy marketing. But it’s a fine fifth feature for actor-turned-auteur Borcuch, as good as, yet very different from, 2009’s excellent teenage punk flashback “All That I Love.” Specialty distributors may want to climb on board his train now, as another film or two this strong...

Under the Tuscan Sun: Borcuch Presents Compelling Intersection on Art and Political Responsibility

Polish director Jacek Borcuch travels abroad once again for his fifth feature, Dolce Fine Giornata, a superbly written and performed exercise about a Nobel prize winning poet whose controversial interpretation of terrorism in contemporary European contexts allows for a formidable representation on the complex intersections of art, politics and the tenuously elevated platform afforded celebrated artists. A more academically minded approach to the ongoing refugee crisis and its prolonged effect on the crumbling democracy of Italian politics, Borcuch makes excellent parallels to European and Polish history (the obvious defining moments—the Holocaust and the early 80s Martial law in Poland) with iconic actress Polish actress Krystyna Janda (whose early career was also defined by this period) as his marvelous centerpiece.…...

The rich they are a funny race. Take Polish-Jewish author Maria Linde (Krystyna Janda), Nobel Prize winner and owner of a villa in Tuscany, where she has spent a good portion of her life writing acclaimed literature and luxuriating in a patronizingly liberal kind of privilege. Co-writer and director Jacek Borcuch doesn't even begin Dolce Fine Giornata with Maria, instead focusing on a group of poverty-stricken fishermen who return from an early morning trawl with the fish that Maria will eventually, cheerily buy from them. There's a yawning gap between their experience and hers (no ethical consumption under ...

The rich they are a funny race. Take Polish-Jewish author Maria Linde (Krystyna Janda), Nobel Prize winner and owner of a villa in Tuscany, where she has spent a good portion of her life writing acclaimed literature and luxuriating in a patronizingly liberal kind of privilege. Co-writer and director Jacek Borcuch doesn't even begin Dolce Fine Giornata with Maria, instead focusing on a group of poverty-stricken fishermen who return from an early morning trawl with the fish that Maria will eventually, cheerily buy from them. There's a yawning gap between their experience and hers (no ethical consumption under ...

Berlin-based Films Boutique has acquired international sales rights to Wayne Blair’s “Tod End Wedding” and Jacek Borcuch’s “Dolce Fine Giornata,” which will have their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival.

Set to play in the premieres section, “Top End Wedding” marks Blair’s first Australian feature film since his critically acclaimed period musical “The Sapphires” which opened out of competition at Cannes in 2012.

The film follows an engaged couple who embark on a road trip across Australia to find the future bride’s mother who disappeared somewhere in the remote far north of the country days before their planned dream wedding.

“Top End Wedding” reunites Blair with Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens, who starred in “The Sapphires.” They star opposite Gwilym Lee (Bohemian Rhapsody), Kerry Fox (“Cloudstreet”), Huw Higginson (“Home and Away”), Ursula Yovich (“The Code”) and Joshua Tyler (“Plonk”).

“It’s a great wedding comedy boasting...

Poland’s new generation of producers has been gearing up as the country’s films gain burnished profiles on the world stage — and they’re deeply invested in driving further advances, especially as the country’s parliament is poised to pass rich production incentives.

Building on the success at Cannes of Pawel Pawlikowski’s retro romance “Cold War,” the film’s producer, Ewa Puszczynska, recently joined forces with two other established talents in Poland, Klaudia Śmieja (producer of “High Life” and “Gareth Jones”) and sales agent Jan Naszewski of New Europe Film Sales to form production company Nem Corp.

Puszczynska (who also produced Pawlikowski’s “Ida”) has committed to embracing Poland’s new production incentives in addition to securing both public and private project financing, reflecting a strategy used by many colleagues.

Projects have been rolling into Poland or launching locally with international partners at a brisk pace even without incentives,...

New Horizons International Film Festival and the Polish Film Institute presented a selection of six Polish films in various stages of production (works-in-progress) in the ‘New Horizons’ Polish Days Goes to Cannes’ program at the biggest film market Marché du Film, during the 71thCannes International Film Festival.

The Polish producers presented: Fisheye — a fiction debut by Michał Szcześniak, Hurray, We’re Still Alive! — a fiction debut by Agnieszka Polska, Of Animals and Men– a documentary directed by Lukasz Czajka The Language of the Birds — a fiction film directed by Xawery Zulawski(co-directed by Jan Komasa, Jacek Borcuch, Piotr, Kielar), Werewolf — a fiction film directed by Adrian Panek as well as the latest film from

Jan Jakub Kolski Pardon.

The Goes to Cannes is a program that invites the largest festivals to present domestic films to the international film industry, films that do not yet have agents, distributors or set premiere dates.

The European Film Academy’s (Efa) chairwoman Agnieszka Holland has spoken of a ¨crisis of content¨ in European cinema and called on the continent’s broadcasters to invest more in ambitious TV series.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, the Polish director and Efa chair said: ¨The real crisis of European cinema is one of content.

¨We always have some good movies, but not enough. We have to make better ones, ones that are not just artistic and self-involved, but are searching for an audience.

¨Something which doesn’t help is the weakness of European television in terms of the production of ambitious TV series. We don’t have European stars, but nowadays they can be made by European television and that can be later reflected in the cinema.

“If you have this element [from television], it is then much easier to promote the films in the cinemas.¨

Holland also touched on the issue of EU audiovisual policy ahead of the...

Guilt and indecision narrate a story of two young Polish students trying to come to terms with their own escalating problems in Lasting (Nieulotne), the latest film from Jacek Borcuch (All That I Love). To appreciate how precious life really is, they must first stand face to face with sudden tragedy and important decisions that not only gradually lead them further into adulthood, but also force them to reinterpret the meaning of love completely anew.The characters' journey starts in a place, which might very easily be called an idyll, undisturbed by any influences from the outside world and enriched by moments of pure sexual excitement aplenty. In Spain, because that's where they've decided to spend their summer vacations, Michal (Jakub Gierszal) and Karina (Magdalena Berus)...

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

The line-up of the 2nd edition of the Dharamshala International Film festival has been announced. The festival will showcase feature films, documentaries and short films.

Organised by White Crane Arts & Media; the festival will be held from October 24 – 27, 2013 in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala.

This year, a new section ‘Art and Film’ has been introduced at the festival in collaboration with Vienna-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation. The section will feature art films made by international artists Sean Snyder, Wael Shawky, Marine Hugonnier, Omer Fast, Walid Raad and Rabih Mroué.

The Best of recent Indian Shorts curated by filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni will also be showcased.

Besides, Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky’s Watermark will make its world premiere at the festival.

Some of the film personalities who will attend the festival are: Jacek Borcuch (Lasting), Nishtha Jain (Gulabi Gang), Nitin Kakkar (Filmistaan), Avijit Mukul Kishore (To Let the World In), Nagraj Manjule (Fandry...

New Delhi, Sep 24: The second edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival (Diff), starting Oct 24, will showcase a mix of 30 films, including fiction, documentaries, short movies and experimental cinema.

"This year's journey has been in trying to define what the festival is about. We will have independent films, documentaries, panel discussions and master classes," documentary filmmaker and Diff director Ritu Sarin told reporters at a press meet here Tuesday.

The international line up includes Indian premiere of Russian documentary "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Polish filmmaker Jacek Borcuch's.

Exclusive: Piotr Kobus’ distribution-production company Manana is to produce Tomasz Wasilewski’s third feature which aims to go into produciton at the end of 2014.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily at this week’s New Horizons Film Festival in Wroclaw, Wasilewski, whose second feature Floating Skyscrapers won the main prize at the East of the West Competition in Karlovy Vary earlier this month, revealed that he is currently working on a new screenplay with the working title of Zjednoczone Stany Milosci (United States of Love).

“My third film is going to be a portrait of four women right after Communism collapsed,” he explained. “This is an interesting period because it is a kind of ‘no man’s land’ for Polish cinema. There are films about the Communist period and nowadays, but there is a gap about how the changes influenced people.

“The mentality of the Polish people, and especially women, changed a lot during this time following the fall...

Lasting (Nieulotne) by Jacek Borcuch

Lasting (aka Nieulotne)  by Jacek Borcuch from Poland (Isa: AP Mañana) is a Polish-Spanish co-produciton produced by Piotr Kobus and Agnieszka Drewno of Mañana Producitons. It is an emotional love story about a pair of Polish students who meet and fall in love with each other while working summer jobs in Spain. An unexpected nightmare brutally breaks into their carefree time in the heavenly landscape and throws their lives into chaos. The film premiered in Sundance where it won the World Cinema Cinematography Award and is screening on February 8 and 11 at the European Film Market in Berlin.  The half hour Q&A at Sundance gave him a view of the audience reaction which made him realize the second part about life and death, abortion as an option which is illegal in Poland, elicits a universal questioning.  In his films, everyone sees a different story; discussions grow as more people watch the film and different themes come to the fore of discussions.  An example is a discussion that took place about the motorcycle which the young man brings to life and which dies along the way.

This film in constructed in two parts.  This was risky he knows, but Jacek made a conscious decision not to make it a classic narrative.  Because it is a character study of a relationship, the first part is the male's story and the second is the female part, dealing with life and death in an existential way.  It is not just the story of a man.  It is the  woman who must look for answers to her questions of living with the man, becoming a mother and her answers must be made in a brief period of time.  The man does not ask her about herself and she does not tell him her dilemma, so she also must decide how to act with him. They never had time to talk during the first luscious moments of their coming together; youth with emotions, black and white turn into thoughtful issues with many shades of gray.  This is a story of two young people with no life experience shaping stories of unknown futures.  This is Borcuch's fourth feature.  It got its start at the Rotterdam Cinemart.

Jacek Borcuch's third feature, All That I Love, was the Polish Oscar contender in the early 80s.  It played for 3 months in Poland and then went to Pusan.  That was an autobiographical story in the time of Solidarity, a Romeo and Juliet story of the son of a Communist aparachnik and the daughter of a Solidarity leader.  His second feature, Tulips, was timeless in that the period is indefinable; it is a tribute to Claude Lelouch.  Now Jacek is 43 years old and the time demands a realistic approach.  Lasting is about today for the first time.

The film's Polish release is February 8 with 120 prints which is a large release for Poland, a country of over 38.5 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union.  The actor, Jan Nowicki is a big star in Poland and last year was a Shooting Star, the Efp's Berlinale salute to the rising stars of Europe.  He is perfect in English and German and could become a major actor.  The actress, Magdalena Berus, is 19 years old.  Her first film, Baby Blues, was done when she was 18.  She was found in a casting call which brought 4,000 interviews.  She's a natural in this role.  Months before the film, her own brother died and her grief, internalized, shows itself true in this film.  Magdalena has completed two films in one year with no prior acting experience. 

This film is being represented for U.S. by Traction.  Its European premiere is in Rotterdam.  It is being sold in Berlin and Hong Kong by Mañana, the sales and production company of the film's producer, Piotr Kobus.  No one has seen the film except in Sundance and now in Rotterdam.  No screeners have been sent out.  Starting his own company for selling his own films is a step toward further international coproductions, and his eye is on Latin America.  He is smart in this regard.

This is the first time producer Piotr Kobus has worked with Jacek Borcuch, but it is not the last. They have two more projects.  One is a Polish-Spanish coproduction about an Argentinian exiled writer who died in the 60s in France.  It will shoot in Argentina in the period in the writer was just coming into prominence.  It could go to U.S. Labs and Workshops in Sundance and New York. The next project is an English language project, a human story that takes place in the far, far future.  It is not a technological sci-fi picture however.  It is based upon two naked people on the beach 2,000 years in the future.  They have been speaking with John Nein of Sundance about connecting U.S. and European sensibilities in this more abstract film, whose form has still not taken shape.

Piotr and Jacek are taking a long range approach to their ongoing projects.  The working style of the company as well as of Piotr himself and Jacek are being defined carefully and with intelligence. For example for the past four years Piotr and Jacek have spent every Monday together to work out issues on the films.  Lasting itself will be made available by invitation only for screening after Berlin on Cinando for those who missed it.  Keeping it personal and controlled, with select invitations sent out, Mañana, a new international sales company will have all prospects lined up in a month.  This company, looking to coproduce across cultures, is a company to keep watching as are the film's director and producer.

Here is a complete listing of the films that were shown/covered by the Ioncinema.com team comprised of Nicholas Bell (Nb), Jordan M. Smith (Js) and Eric Lavallee (El). We’ll be populating this page up until March.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Afternoon Delight – Jill Soloway: Nb (★★ 1/2): Review

Ain’T Them Bodies Saints – David Lowery: El (★★★ 1/2), Nb (★★★ 1/2): Review // Interview

Austenland- Jerusha Hess: Nb (★): Review

C.O.G.- Kyle Patrick Alvarez: Js (★★ 1/2), Nb (★★ 1/2): Review

Concussion – Stacie Passon: El (★★★), Js (★★★ 1/2), Nb (★★★): Review // Interview

Emanuel And The Truth About Fishes – Francesca Gregorini: Js (★★★), Nb (★★★ 1/2): Review

Fruitvale – Ryan Coogler: El (★★★), Js (★★★★★), Nb (★★★★): Review // Interview // Video

In A World… – Lake Bell: El (★★★): Review

Kill Your Darlings – John Krokidas: El (★★★), Nb (★★★): Review

The Lifeguard – Liz W. Garcia: El (★★ 1/2): Review

May In The Summer...

I’ve read some overriding impressions of this year’s Sundance, Peter Knegt’s on Sex and Sundance naturally caught my attention immediately. While I agree with his observations and would add that CAA’s party was the cherry on top of it all, I actually think that whatever one’s concerns of the moment are, that subject will be addressed for that person by more than one film at Sundance. After all, the reason sex sells so well is that everyone is concerned with sex just about every minute of the day (according for Freud, that is)

The Wrap cites “a Sundance for bold, kinky subject matter, for lots of sex (onscreen), for indie directors ramping up the excess and melodrama in a way that would have seemed completely out of place back in the days when the phrase ‘a Sundance movie’ usually meant something restrained and naturalistic like ‘Frozen River’ or ‘In the Bedroom’."

Sundance might also be said to be skewed this year toward: Women (on the rise), Violence (by gun, government, war), or, for me personally, reality.

Whether the loss of reality as in Escape from Tomorrow, Crystal Fairy or Magic Magic, or even The World According to Dick Cheney, or God Loves Uganda in which the person’s grasp on reality was lost in the normal course of living, or the thin border between reality and fiction as expressed in the panels on documentaries or “true fiction” or the Sloan Foundation panel on Science and Film, I found that most of what I was watching and hearing was concerned with “reality”. For those who know me, they are aware that my concerns at this time are dealing with the shifting realities of my life. And that is what I found being addressed by the events of Sundance.

I did not see the acquisitions films. I concentrated on World Cinema and mostly Latino and Eastern European cinema, though I was lucky to catch What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love from Indonesia. The reality of the deaf, mute and blind differs from ours though love is the same and is summed up when one person says, “the male loves what he sees and the female loves what she hears”.

I was also lucky to have seen Fruitvale, the winner of so much acclaim. The huge disconnect between reality and fantasy is found in the security guards’ readiness to resort to violence simply by seeing the color of another man’s skin. They were either looking for a fight or were panicked by the number of revelers on the train. Either way it was a tragic ending, redeemed only by the yearly memorial held in Oscar Grant’s honor. God Loves Uganda shows an entire nation deluded by extremists who speak only the deadly evil of homosexuality. I couldn’t stand watching the degradation of a people taking place because of the glib jabber of a white right-wing evangelist purporting to be speaking for G’d. Circles deals with a reality creating events otherwise unimaginable except for their occurring within a context of race hatred and war. Crystal Fairy’s gringo protagonists live in an unreal world inspired by past emotional injuries and only come to reality through the support of compassionate and accepting friends. Magic Magic, Escape from Tomorrow, A Teacher and Houston are about complete breaks from reality by the protagonists. Il Futuro likewise, in the way of Last Tango in Paris, shows how Thanatos’ antithesis Eros create an extreme sexual acting out of grief. In Lasting, winner of the Cinematography Award, reality finally wins out and a wiser love ensues. The doc Who is Dayani Cristal shows a reality we cannot deny as people brave unreal challenges just to aspire to the American Dream. The World According to Dick Cheney shows a man so blind that he cannot think of a single fault in his own character. The havoc he caused to the U.S. as a result was so devastating that I could barely watch the film to its end. No brings the role of media to a happy conclusion, though the media hype itself was based totally in fantasy, as media most often is. I Used to be Darker is the exception as it is deals entirely with reality. Inequality For All was the only dose of realism I received and I was inspired by the film to speak out!

Fifteen films in six days is not too bad, though it doesn’t give me bragging rights to having seen the top winners of awards or acquisitions, except for Fruitvale.

A big change for me was that I attended panels along with attending my traditional Creative Coalition luncheon for inspiring teachers.

The panels also dealt with the thin line between reality and fiction, “true fiction” and documentaries, communication and sharing between science and film.

Science in Film Forum a 10 year collaboration between The Sloan Foundation and the Sundance Film Festival which aims to encourage more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology themes and characters seemed somewhat debilitated by the very issue of how scientists and filmmakers communicate. I will write more on this later, but in terms of reality and unreality, the difference between the delivery of a scientist and an actor (in this case Kate Winslet in Contagion) as they explain the phenomenology of contagion itself is dramatically different. And the questions a filmmaker asks of a scientist will determine how communicative a scientist can be in terms of making a movie more realistic. Frankly speaking, Jon Amiel and screenwriter Scott Burns made more sense to me than the scientists. More on that later as well. In Imitation of Life, the panel with Sarah Polley, Michael Polish, Segio Oksman and others, about how art mirrors life was completely about reality vs. lies, another form of unreality. The best panel was one I caught accidently about the N.Y. Times online Opinion Pages and the shorts on Op-Docs, the best of which is called The Public Square by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, taking place in Times Square where protesters counter an anti-Islamic speech by pastor Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who set fire to the Koran, by singing The Beatles. This is a great new venue for short films. If I were making shorts, I would aim to land here.

In the editors’ own words:

"Since Op-Docs, our forum for short, opinionated documentaries, produced with creative latitude across many subjects, started in November 2011, 46 short films and videos have been published on nytimes.com. Today (December 16), we begin a new Op-Docs feature: Scenes. It will be a platform for very short work — snippets of street life, brief observations and interviews, clips from experimental and artistic nonfiction videos — that follow less traditional documentary narrative conventions. This first Scenes video presents a classic New York moment, recorded last year." — The Editors

The morning of my last at Sundance, I went to the Marriott Headquarters and wrote, saw friends as they passed by...shared the good news of my friend Rigo’s We Are What We Are selling to eOne for six figures for the U.S. and shared his excitement for the future of this film. eOne already had acquired Canada and U.K., South Africa and Australia/ N.Z. too, so this was an affirmation of its sincere approval of the finished product. Since EOne's merger with Alliance, not only is it the largest distributor and international sales agent in Canada, with branches In U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but it is also the Only Big One. The smaller companies now have the chance to move up to second position since the number one and two companies have merged. I have no doubt that Mr. Victor Loewy, the seller of Alliance, will still hold the position of victor, after all, his wallet is bigger than any and everybody else's. It's funny because eOne, though it seemed to pop up from nowhere (tv), the people running it are the same configuration as always: Patrice Theroux, Patrice Roy, Bryan Gliserman, Patrick Roy, consultant and former Lionsgate founder Jeff Sackman. I love it when I see him, because he has succeeded in this business without ever changing who he is. That in itself merits reward.

This afternoon I met with Gamila Yistra who is in Sundance for the first time, exploring ways to extend and reconfigure The Binger Institute in Amsterdam where we began our professional teaching in its first years. From the idea to the screen, projects and their producers, writers and directors will have extensive workshopping, and the relationships will be lasting ones. As we were leaving the Marriott Headquarters to go to the Planned Parenthood party to meet Caroline Libresco who announced a special women's initiative in Sundance, we ran into Paul Federbush, Director of international for Sundance Institute's Film Program; he told her, to her surprise, that the had a meeting set for the next day.

At the party where Gamila met Caroline, we ran into Mary Jane Skalski who's Two Good Girls is playing here. Others at the Planned Parenthood reception were producer Nermeen Shaikh of Democracynow.org’s whose Daily Independent News Hour with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez is drawing great praise. The event was marked by the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade (January 22, 2013).

“As the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood understands that abortion is a deeply personal and often complex decision for a woman to consider, if and when she needs it,” said Cecile Richards, president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “A woman should have accurate information about all of her options around her pregnancy. To protect her health and the health of her family, a woman must have access to safe, legal abortion without interference from politicians, as protected by the Supreme Court for the last 40 years.”

I took a walk down Main Street and a walk up some stairs and discovered a jewel of a hotel for those with the money to spend. Next time you’re there, check out the Washington School House. It was like stepping into an enchanted history where you could almost imagine living in 1889 when it was built.

As my last act in Sundance, I searched the lost and found for my lost hat (didn’t find it!), and went to the 6:30 press screening of Magic Magic. Stay tuned for my interview with Sebastian Silva about this and his other film, Crystal Fairy, which as my readers know, I liked very much. How did it happen that he got two films into the limited space of Sundance is not a question answered in my interview.

After that I saw the 9:00 screening of Houston, an adult film about a German "headhunter" who is sent from Germany to Houston to recruit the CEO of a large petroleum company for a German based conglomerate. Both films' central concern was the perception of reality, especially across cultural lines.

In conclusion, I would repeat that this year's theme was the nature of reality and its fluid parameters as perceived by various individuals.

The next day I left in the morning to return my car by noon. The road became icy and the planes were unable to take off until 4pm. Lucky for me my plane was scheduled to leave at 9 pm and left on schedule. I had hours to spend at the airport and was lucky in meeting Michele Turnure-Salleo, the Director of Filmmaker 360 of the San Francisco Film Society (http://www.sffs.org/). We have been trying to catch up all year and this was our chance. At the same little table where we set up our computers, we were joined by another Sundance refugee Anecita Agustinez who is a journalist nad producer for www.onnativeground.org a news site dealing with native American issues.

Watch for further blogs on Sundance:

Interviews with:

Director Jacek Borcuch and producer Piotr Kobus of Lasting (Isa: Manana), winner of the Sundance’s World Cinema Cinematography Award Director Srdan Golubovic and producer Jelena Mitrovic of Circles (Isa: Memento) and winner of World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Artistic Vision Director Sebastian Silva of Crystal Fairy, winner of Sundance’s Directing Award, and Magic Magic (Isa: 6 Sales). Documentary and science panels

See you in L.A. Or Berlin! Or Guadajara in March!

Lasting

Directed by Jacek Borcuch

Written by Jacek Borcuch

2012, Poland/Spain

Vacationing from school in Poland, Michał (Jakub Gierszal) and Karina (Magdalena Berus) spend their days drinking wine, laughing with friends and making love, but their idyllic sun-soaked existence among the fields of a Spanish vineyard are brought to an end when an argument with a local property owner gets out of hand and Michał’s impetuous mistake threatens to drive a wedge between the young couple. Further complicating matters is the fact that Michał’s confession makes Karina’s own secret impossible to confide.

Filmmaker Jacek Borcuch (All That I Love) prefaced the screening of his latest feature by stating that “This is not a crime film,” and it’s easy to see why he would make that distinction. The events that unfold in the film’s first 30 minutes provide the impetus for the scenes that follow, but Borcuch...

Title: Lasting Director: Jacek Borcuch Starring: Jakub Gierszal, Magdalena Berus, Ángela Molina, Joanna Kulig Young love may well be the most frequent subject of fiction, be it literature, cinema, or any other medium. There is an intoxication that comes with a chance encounter or fated meeting, and, while the allure still exists, the feeling of closeness can be overwhelming. International cinema has recounted such tales recently to various extremes, from Mia Hansen-Løve’s Goodbye First Love, emphasizing the romance, to Tribeca Film Festival entry brilliantlove, which was later retitled The Orgasm Diaries, evidently emphasizing the physical passion. Jacek Borcuch’s Lasting falls somewhere else entirely, spending much more of its runtime with [ Read More ]

The post Lasting Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

As the Sundance Film Festival approaches (January 17-27), trailers for a variety of titles are hitting the web. We'll be adding to this post as more trailers become available. Below, take a look at "Upstream Color," "Lasting," "Wrong Cops," docs "American Promise," "God Loves Uganda," "Google and the World Brain," "Narco Cultura," plus narrative features "Big Sur," "Newlyweeds," "I Used To Be Darker" and more. The 2013 fest lineup is here. "Wrong Cops" Dir. Quentin Dupieux - via Twitch "Upstream Color" Dir. Shane Carruth "The Summit" Dir. Nick Ryan "Lasting" Dir. Jacek Borcuch - via Indiewire "American Promise," via Documentary Channel "Big Sur," via ThePlaylist "The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear," via Documentary Channel ...

Polish director Jacek Borcuch, whose "All That I Love" played Sundance and was Poland's Oscar entry in 2011, is back in Park City this year with his latest, "Lasting." Ahead of its world premiere at the festival, Indiewire has the exclusive trailer. Read More: Meet the 2013 Sundance Filmmakers #6: Jacek Borcuch Examines the "Human Condition in Micro Scale" in 'Lasting' "Lasting" is an emotional love story about Michał and Karina, a pair of Polish students who meet and fall in love while working summer jobs in Spain. An unexpected nightmare brutally breaks into their carefree time and throws their lives into chaos. Watch below:...

"Lasting" director Jacek Borcuch, from Poland, is also a screenwriter, actor, and musician. His past films include "Tulips," "Kallafiorr" and "All That I Love," which also played Sundance and was Poland's Oscar entry in 2011. "My film path is an everlasting search," he told Indiewire, "rooted simply in human existence. "Directing is what enables me to encompass all my strengths, all kinds of arts I mastered." What It's About: "'Lasting' is an emotional love story about Michał and Karina, a pair of Polish students who meet and fall in love with each other while working summer jobs in Spain. An unexpected nightmare brutally breaks into their carefree time in the heavenly landscape and throws their lives into chaos." What It's Really About: "'Lasting' is a contemporary attempt to look closer at the human condition in micro scale. Through the eyes of young people we...

As has been the case for several years now, Indiewire is the place to get to know the Sundance Film Festival filmmakers ahead of the annual event in Park City, Utah. Over the next week, we'll be posting the 2013 batch of filmmaker profiles leading up to the launch of this year's edition on January 17. Indiewire invited directors with films in the the Competitions, Next category and Midnight Madness section to take part by submitting responses to a series of questions in their own words. Go Here to view their responses.   Full List (click on name and title to view profile): 1. Calvin Reeder, "The Rambler" 2. The Team Behind "99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film" 3. G.J. Echternkamp, "Virtually Heroes" 4. Mouly Surya, "What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love" 5. Morgan Neville, "Twenty Feet From Stardom" 6. Jacek Borcuch,...

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 17-27 and today the fest unveiled their competition slates including film in the Dramatic, Documentary, World Cinema Dramatic, Word Cinema Documentary and Next competitions. As always, these lineups are incredibly hard to predict, but amid this group there are a few interesting titles. The Dramatic competition includes Jill Soloway's Afternoon Delight, a dark comedy starring Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor and Jane Lynch that centers on a L.A. housewife who hires a stripper as a live-in nanny. I had not heard of David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints, but a cast that includes Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker and Keith Carradine is immediately appealing, while the plot compares itself to Terrence Malick's Badlands and Bonnie & Clyde telling a story of Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie, two young outlaws who are brought down by the authorities in the hills of Texas.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is teaming with the Polish Cultural Institute of New York for a week of contemporary Polish cinema. The series features Jacek Borcuch's "All That I Love," which played at this year's Sundance Film Festival and a two film tribute of digitally restored prints featuring Zbigniew Cybulski, known to many as the "Polish James Dean." The series runs from September 9-15. For more information, check ...

Jacek Borcuch's All That I Love is definitely a fantastic little film: just bear in mind you've almost certainly seen a great deal of it before. The story of a teenager growing up in 1980s Poland, set against the ongoing struggle between the emerging workers' movement and the government it lifts from practically every coming of age narrative going. There's the plot thread where the protagonist discovers girls (and by extension sex) are confusing, that his parents are surprisingly complicated human beings, that the future's an unknown and frightening quantity and more besides... but it excels in so many areas, from Borcuch's direction to the terrific performances to Daniel Bloom's achingly gorgeous score that it never, ever seems like a cliché.

As a young man living in the Communist bloc in the eighties Janek (Mateusz Kosciukiewicz) idolises all things American. He plays in a punk band with his friends,...

While I do not think that something as edgy or unusual as Giorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth (pictured above) will make the 'final five' short list, but kudos to Greece for throwing it out there.  Perhaps something like Tetsuya Nakashima's Confessions will make the cut despite its similarly unsettling subject matter.  Either way, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did put out a big release yesterday with all of their Foreign Language film submissions, 65 of them in total even Greenland, from various countries.  Many of these films have reviews in our archives.

Albania, East West East, Gjergj Xhuvani

Algeria, Hors la Loi ("Outside the Law"), Rachid Bouchareb

Argentina, Carancho, Pablo Trapero

Austria, La Pivellina, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel

Azerbaijan, The Precinct, Ilgar Safat

Bangladesh, Third Person Singular Number, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

Belgium, Illegal, Olivier Masset-Depasse

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Circus Columbia, Danis Tanovic

Brazil, Lula the Son of Brazil,...

65 Countries Enter Race for 2010 Foreign Language Film Oscar®

Beverly Hills, CA: Sixty-five countries, including first-time entrants Ethiopia and Greenland, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.

The 2010 submissions are:

.Albania, .East, West, East,. Gjergj Xhuvani, director;

.Algeria, .Hors la Loi. (.Outside the Law.), Rachid Bouchareb, director;

.Argentina, .Carancho,. Pablo Trapero, director;

.Austria, .La Pivellina,. Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, directors;

.Azerbaijan, .The Precinct,. Ilgar Safat, director;

.Bangladesh, .Third Person Singular Number,. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;

.Belgium, .Illegal,. Olivier Masset-Depasse, director;

.Bosnia and Herzegovina, .Circus Columbia,. Danis Tanovic, director;

.Brazil, .Lula, the Son of Brazil,. Fabio Barreto, director;

.Bulgaria, .Eastern Plays,. Kamen Kalev, director;

.Canada, .Incendies,. Denis Villeneuve, director;

.Chile, .The Life of Fish,. Matias Bize, director;

.China, .Aftershock,. Feng Xiaogang, director;

.Colombia, .Crab Trap,. Oscar Ruiz Navia, director;

.Costa Rica, .Of Love and Other Demons,. Hilda Hidalgo, director;

.Croatia, .The Blacks,...

I have been keeping track of all of the Foreign Language Oscar submissions in my "The Contenders" section of the site and today the official list of sixty-five films from sixty-five countries was unveiled by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration for the 83rd Academy Awards. On January 20, 2011 a shortlist of nine contenders will be announced prior to the naming of the nominees on January 25, 2011.

I have included the complete list directly below, which includes first-time entrants Ethiopia and Greenland. The only film that was originally thought to be under consideration, but didn't show up on the Academy's final list was Afghanistan's entry, Black Tulip, directed by Sonia Nassery Cole. IMDb doesn't list a release date for the film, which means it may not have met the release requirements in time.

I have linked each film to their corresponding IMDb page for those films not included...

I'm not sure what the cutoff date is for from the individual countries for the Foreign Language Film nominations, but Sony Pictures Classics are glad to see Canada select Denis Villeneuve's Incendies. The company now has three horses in the race and once again, places the distributor in a pretty good position to grab the most of the spots in the final five nominations. Their solid trio so far includes: the Villeneuve film that played at Venice, Telluride and Tiff with Cannes items Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men and Olivier Schmitz's Life, Above All. Having seen all three mentioned titles, I can say that this will please Academy voters. Cross your fingers for Dogtooth folks. Algeria: Outside the Law, Rachid Bouchareb Austria: La Pivellina, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel Azerbaijan: The Precinct, Ilgar Safat Belgium: Illègal, Olivier Masset-Depasse Bosnia and Herzegovina: Circus Columbia, Danis Tanovic Bulgaria: Eastern Plays,...

Cologne, Germany -- Poland's Oscar committee has picked Jacek Borcuch's "All That I Love," a coming of age story about four teenagers trying to form a punk band amid the political upheaval of 1980s Poland, as the country's official candidate for Best Foreign Language Film.

"All That I Love" bowed at the Polish Film Festival last year, where it won the Audience Award. It's U.S. debut was in Sundance earlier this year. Borcuch also wrote the screenplay to "All That I Love" with Poland's Prasa i Film producing together with Telewizja Polska and Canal Plus. Wide is handling international sales.

Polish films have been nominated eight times for the Foreign Language Oscar, most recently with Andrzej Wajda's "Katyn" (2007). But the country has never won the Academy Award.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film on Jan. 18 and...

With filmmakers from Iraq, Bolivia, India and out of all places, Greenland, it's no wonder that many of the filmmaker names selected in Sundance's 2010 edition World Cinema Dramatic Competition are drawing a blank stare. Among those that we do know we find Taika Waititi returning to the festival (after the little seen charmer Eagle vs. Shark) with a set in the 80's pic called Boy, and David Michod will be coming to the festival as the scribe for Hesher, and as the the writer-director of Animal Kingdom starring Guy Pearce. - With filmmakers from Iraq, Bolivia, India and out of all places, Greenland, it's no wonder that many of the filmmaker names selected in Sundance's 2010 edition World Cinema Dramatic Competition are drawing a blank stare. Among those that we do know we find Taika Waititi returning to the festival (after the little seen charmer Eagle vs. Shark) with a set...

Polish director Jacek Borcuch is putting away the laughs for a more serious turn. That’s not to say Borcuch’s newest film, the Sundance pick All That I Love (“Wszystko co kocham”), won’t have a few laughs but it’s certainly not being sold as a comedy.

Set in 1981 during the growing Polish Solidarity movement, it’s the story of four small-town teenagers who form a punk rock band with the hope of playing at a local festival.

I'm sure we're going to get some teenage drama, some political overtones and girlfriend dramas but what I love best about this trailer? The energy which seems to radiate off of my computer monitor. If the trailer has me tapping my foot, this is bound to play well to full screening rooms. Looks like one to watch with an energetic crowd.

Trailer after the break.

Embedded video stripped, see full HTML version.

I feel a special bond with the Sundance Film Festival. Not because I’ve been there, but because the guy in charge of it this year, John Cooper, shares my name. Because we share this bond, I feel that I’m able to take license in referring to the man as Coop for the rest of this article.

For the annual event held in Park City, Utah from January 21-31, thousands of films are submitted and screened — this year, 3,724 films were viewed by the festival’s ten programmers. I wonder when they slept.

Coop has high hopes for the festival as a whole:

“We may even be going into a golden age for independent films, in that the technology will make it possible for the films to be made and for audiences to see them. The industry is going through a major evolutionary stage right now, there’s no doubt about that,...

Sundance Film Festival 2010 is a little over a month away and that means we can now bring you a list of the competition films that will be playing. Here you go boys and girls… enjoy!

Documentary Competition

“Blue Valentine” – Directed by Derek Cianfrance, written by Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, a portrait of an American marriage that charts the evolution of a relationship over time. With Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman. “Douchebag” – Directed by Drake Doremus, written by Lindsay Stidham, Doremus, Jonathan Schwartz and Andrew Dickler, in which a man about to be married takes his younger brother on a wild goose chase to find the latter’s fifth-grade girlfriend. Features Dickler, Ben York Jones, Marguerite Moreau, Nicole Vicius, Amy Ferguson, Wendi McClendon-Covey. “The Dry Land” – Directed and written by Ryan Piers Williams, in which a returning U.S. soldier tries to reconcile his experiences overseas with his life in Texas.

Photo: Sundance Today the Sundance Institute announced the films that will be in competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in both the U.S. and International dramatic and documentary categories. The festival will run from January 21-31 in Park City, Utah. There are a few changes this year as there will be no opening-night picture and the festival will take select festival films to eight cities during as the fest plays out.

Last year notable films such as this year's major Oscar contenders Precious and An Education debuted at Sundance 2009 as did audience and critical favorite (500) Days of Summer.

As for this year's crop I have highlighted a few titles among the list below in red, but I have primarily done so considering the names attached to the pictures not necessarily based on any advanced buzz I've heard around any of the films. Names to look out for include Ryan Gosling,...

The Sundance Film Festival is where some of the great films of the year will get their first viewings, and if you don’t believe me, here’s just some of the great films this year that made their debut at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival: Precious, World’s Greatest Dad, Big Fan, Bronson, Moon and even (500) Days of Summer, which I didn’t care for but made a big splash.

The festival is where buzz starts happening and now Sundance has released the list of which films will be in competition for 2010. Keep in mind that there are plenty of other films which play out of competition and can be just as great. But some of the big names fighting for the crown are the Allen Ginsberg obscenity trial film Howl starring General Hospital’s James Franco, Hesher starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo’s directing debut Sympathy for Delicious,...