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Barcelona-born, Beirut-based Irene Bartolomé’s experimental feature Dream Of Another Summer won the top prize in Locarno Pro’s First Look section which this year focused on works-in-progress from Spain.

Bartolomé, who has worked for the past 10 years as a film editor, received the Antaviana Films First Look Award, covering services towards the completion of films in post-production up to the value of €50,000.

The international First Look jury, comprising Istanbul Film Festival director Kerem Ayan, Venice Critics’ Week artistic director Beatrice Fiorentino and Rotterdam programmer Mercedes Martínez-Abarca, described the co-production between Colibrí Studio, I.B. Films and The Attic Productions as...

Locarno, Switzerland — Two affecting doc-fiction hybrids from Barcelona – “Dream of Another Summer” and “Downriver, a Tiger”– triumphed Sunday at Locarno’s First Look pix-in-post strand, focused on Spain.

In other awards announced by Locarno Pro, the festival’s dynamic industry arm, Liliana Cavani’s 1970 “The Year of the Cannibals” won Locarno Pro’s Historical Restoration Contest.

Laureates at European co-production initiative Alliance 4 Development took in, notably, “Bourgeois Paranoia” by Lukas Nathrath, a former Locarno First Look winner.

Composed of a series of extended fixed-frame shots of the streets of Beirut and parts of am apartment, Irene Bartolomé’s “Dream” builds, often elliptically, as a portrait of a woman returning to Beirut after Lebanon’s 2020 financial crash and a massive chemical explosion in the city’s port.

She’s on an emotional slide; Beirut and Lebanon are – sometimes literally – near to collapse. Doc feature specialist Colibri Studio produces.

“This film could...

The Locarno Film Festival’s Locarno Pro industry strand on Sunday unveiled the winners of its industry

awards, including its First Look works-in-progress section focusing on projects on the verge of completion, the co-development program Alliance 4 Development, and the second Heritage Restoration Contest.

The winners were unveiled during the Locarno Pro Award Ceremony on Sunday. The promising feature film projects that competed for the First Look awards were from this year’s focus country, Spain.

The Locarno Pro industry strand of the Locarno festival this year included industry panels on AI and more, as well as a masterclass by Romanian auteur Radu Jude.

Check out the full list of winners below.

First Look

First Look was held in partnership with Icaa, the Spanish Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, and Icex Spain Trade & Investment.

The jury that awarded the prizes was comprised of Beatrice Fiorentino, artistic director of Venice’s International Film Critics’ Week,...

Experimental feature Dream of Another Summer has picked up Locarno Pro’s Antaviana Films First Look Award, the biggest prize handed out by the festival’s industry section. The award comes with post-production services up to €50,000.

The feature is helmed by Barcelona-born, Beirut-based filmmaker Irene Bartolomé. Producers on the project are Pere Marzo (Colibrí Studio), Bartolomé (I.B. Films), and Elie Kamal (The Attic Productions).

Discussing their choice, the Locarno Pro jury — comprised of Beatrice Fiorentino, Kerem Ayan, and Mercedes Martínez-Abarca — said the film is “a poetic and rigorous project that elaborates on collective trauma by rewriting the topography of a city wounded many times by history.”

The jury added: “In its dual public and private dimensions, it restores the complexity of a territory marked by the past and the drive for modernity.”

Elsewhere,...

In the Tokyo International Film Festival’s competition section with “Tel-Aviv/Beirut,” Michale Boganim has directed a historical drama set against the backdrop of the Israeli–Lebanese conflict in 1982 and 2006. Set in Northern Israel, the film tells the journey of two families on each side of the border whose fate intertwined because of the war raging in Lebanon. In particular, it sheds light on the little-known story of Lebanese people who collaborated with the Israeli army to fight Hezbollah. She spoke to Variety about her work.

Why pick this topic and why tell this piece of recent history now?

I experienced war myself. I was very shocked by it. Also, because my father experienced war, I began to realize that this war is trans generational. It can repeat and repeat and repeat.

And then I discovered a story of this Lebanese people while living in Israel. It was by chance...

Click here to read the full article.

In a welcome return to normalcy, the Tokyo International Film Festival rolled out the full red carpet, all 541 feet of it, for the first time since 2019, once again welcoming guests from around the globe to a new venue for its opening ceremony on a brisk autumn evening in the Japanese capital.

The Covid-19 pandemic had kept international visitors away for the last few editions, but the opening of the 35th Tokyo festival felt like old times. More than one hundred overseas guests are joining the proceedings this year — some paying their own way to Tokyo as sky-high airline ticket prices drained the event’s budget — up from just eight at the 2021 edition.

The red carpet, which clocked in at almost two hours, snaked its way from Toho’s famed Godzilla statue in front of Hibiya Midtown to the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. Once a fixture of Roppongi,...

Exclusive: Alon Schwarz’s hard-hitting documentary Tantura, revisiting the conflicting accounts around an alleged massacre of the residents of a Palestinian village by Israeli fighters in 1948, will open the 16th edition of New York’s Other Israel Film Festival.

The festival run by The Marlene Meyerson Jcc Manhattan (Mmjccm) will showcase more than a dozen works exploring Israeli and Palestinian societies.

Schwarz’s documentary world premiered at Sundance. It explores a contested massacre during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, touching on how the different narratives around that period feed into the Middle East conflict to this day.

Other Israel Film Festival executive director Isaac Zablocki, who is also head of Mmjccm’s film center, acknowledges the film could prove a controversial choice for the opening film but emphasized he hopes it will prompt “proper debate”.

“It raises important questions in such a way that starts a conversation as opposed to a way that is preaching at you.

Tokyo International Film Festival’s 35th edition will include titles from Bui Thac Chuyen, Olivia Wilde and Hiroki Ryuichi.

The 35th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today unveiled its line-up for its first full-scale physical edition since the pandemic started, with 15 international competition titles including its first from Vietnam - Bui Thac Chuyen’s Glorious Ashes.

Set to make its world premiere at TIFF, the film was a recipient of the Asean Co-production Fund (Acof) launched by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (Fdcp) and the Southeast Asia co-production grant (Scpg) established by the Singapore Film Commission (Sfc), as...

Iranian action drama “World War III,” which won two awards at the recent Venice festival, will feature among the main competition titles at next month’s Tokyo International Film Festival.

The festival will operate as an in-person event with foreign filmmakers, media and other guests in attendance from Oct. 24-Nov. 2, 2022.

“World War III” is joined in the competition section by the world premiere of Milcho Manchevski’s “Kaymak,” Spanish director Carlos Vermut’s “Manticore” and Roberta Torre’s “The Fabulous Ones,” Michale Boganim’s “Tel Aviv Beirut,” and Youssef Chebbi’s debut film “Ashkal.”

The 15-strong competition also includes two Japanese films Imaizumi Rikiya’s “By The Window” and Matsunaga Daishi’s “Egoist” and two Japanese co-productions, Fukunaga Takeshi’s “Mountain Woman,” and Kyrgyzstan director Aktan Arym Kubat’s “This Is What I Remember.”

Winners from the competition section will be chosen by a jury headed by Julie Taymor, along with Joao Pedro Rodrigues,...

it’s time for cannes!Rays of promotional sunshine will highlight 46 European finished and unfinished films at this year’s Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival (17–28 May 2022).‘Triangle of Sadness’ by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/ Coproduction Office)

21 international sales agents are drawing on Film Sales Support (Fss) - totalling €78,000 - to bolster and innovate promotion and marketing campaigns of brand-new films to trigger sales to countries outside of Europe at one of the most prestigious markets of the year. Overseas buyers on-site and off-site will have the fortune to catch sight of a number of new films from Europe premiering at the Croisette.

Amongst the many to be discovered at the Marché are Competition titles, Pacifiction by Albert Serra (Spain, Portugal, Germany/Films Boutique,France), Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/Coproduction Office), Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh (Sweden, France, Finland, Denmark/Memento International), Un Certain Regard titles, Metronom by Alexandru Belc (Romania, France/Pyramide International) and Rodeo by Lola Quivoron (France/Les Films du Losange) as well as films in Directors’ Fortnight, Will-o'-the-wispby Joao Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal, France/ Films Boutique,Germany) and The Super 8 Years by Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot (France/Totem Films).

For the first time, Fss will also be awarded to a Ukrainian film in solidarity with the country. Indie Sales is the happy recpient for its film Pamfir by Ukrainian director, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, a multi-coproduction between the Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Chile and Luxembourg. By a lucky twist, 3 of Efp’s Producers on the Move and their films will benefit from the support indirectly: Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli (producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar from Norway/Memento International), The Woodcutter Story by Mikko Myllylahti (producer Derk-Jan Warrink from the Netherlands) and Tel Aviv Beirut by Michale Boganim (producer Janine Teerling from Cyprus/Wt Films).

13 European films in the companies’ line-ups are yet unfinished but ready to be announced and promoted.

**Click here for the full list**

Thanks to Swiss Films, 4 films from Switzerland will similarly receive Fss for the promotion in Cannes: Men Caves by Céline Pernet (Lightdox), Continental Drift by Lionel Baier (Switzerland, France/ Les Films du Losange), 99 Moons by Jan Gassmann (m-appeal world sales) and The Black Spider by Markus Fischer (Switzerland, Hungary/The Playmaker Munich).

Fss is supported by Creative Europe Media and part of Efp’s (European Film Promotion) many activities for the promotion of European films and talent around the world.

Rays of promotional sunshine will highlight 46 European finished and unfinished films at this year’s Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival (17–28 May 2022).

‘Triangle of Sadness’ by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/ Coproduction Office)

21 international sales agents are drawing on Film Sales Support (Fss) - totalling €78,000 - to bolster and innovate promotion and marketing campaigns of brand-new films to trigger sales to countries outside of Europe at one of the most prestigious markets of the year. Overseas buyers on-site and off-site will have the fortune to catch sight of a number of new films from Europe premiering at the Croisette.

Amongst the many to be discovered at the Marché are Competition titles, Pacifiction by Albert Serra (Spain, Portugal, Germany/Films Boutique,France), Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/Coproduction Office), Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh (Sweden, France, Finland, Denmark/Memento International), Un Certain Regard titles, Metronom by Alexandru Belc (Romania, France/Pyramide International) and Rodeo by Lola Quivoron (France/Les Films du Losange) as well as films in Directors’ Fortnight, Will-o'-the-wisp by Joao Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal, France/ Films Boutique,Germany) and The Super 8 Years by Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot (France/Totem Films).

For the first time, Fss will also be awarded to a Ukrainian film in solidarity with the country. Indie Sales is the happy recpient for its film Pamfir by Ukrainian director, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, a multi-coproduction between the Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Chile and Luxembourg. By a lucky twist, 3 of Efp’s Producers on the Move and their films will benefit from the support indirectly: Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli (producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar from Norway/Memento International), The Woodcutter Story by Mikko Myllylahti (producer Derk-Jan Warrink from the Netherlands) and Tel Aviv Beirut by Michale Boganim (producer Janine Teerling from Cyprus/Wt Films).

13 European films in the companies’ line-ups are yet unfinished but ready to be announced and promoted.

**Click here for the full list**

Thanks to Swiss Films, 4 films from Switzerland will similarly receive Fss for the promotion in Cannes: Men Caves by Céline Pernet (Lightdox), Continental Drift by Lionel Baier (Switzerland, France/ Les Films du Losange), 99 Moons by Jan Gassmann (m-appeal world sales) and The Black Spider by Markus Fischer (Switzerland, Hungary/The Playmaker Munich).

Fss is supported by Creative Europe Media and part of Efp’s (European Film Promotion) many activities for the promotion of European films and talent around the world.

get in touch with °efp

Efp European Film Promotion

info@efp-online.com

www.efp-online.com

Efp (European Film Promotion) is an international network of film promotion institutes from 37 countries from throughout Europe, each representing their national films and talent abroad. Under the Efp flag, these organisations team up to jointly promote the diversity and spirit of European films and talent at key film festivals and markets, in particular outside of Europe.

Competition titles ‘Pacification’, ‘Triangle Of Sadness’, ‘Boy From Heaven’ also backed.

Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s Ukrainian co-production Pamfir is one of 49 European films at this year’s Marché du Film to receive Film Sales Support (Fss) from the European Film Promotion (Efp) network.

Twenty-one sales companies are receiving a total of €78,000 for promotion and marketing campaigns of the 49 titles. Thirty-three of the films are completed, with a further 13 still in later stages of production.

Pamfir is Ukrainian director Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature, and plays in Directors’ Fortnight at the festival. A co-production between Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Chile and Luxembourg, it...

Retracing the route that her father took after leaving Morocco and emigrating to Israel in 1965, Michale Boganim’s hybridized documentary “The Forgotten Ones” works as both a personal recovery of Boganim’s father’s life and a larger investigation into the mistreatment of Mizrahi Jews – families and their descendants who emigrated from North Africa and the Middle East – at the hands of the Israeli government. Framed around the various stops that Boganim and her daughter visit – Yeruham, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Jerusalem, etc.

Continue reading ‘The Forgotten Ones’ Review: Michale Boganim’s Film Is A Personal Reflection On The Discrimination Of Mizrahi Jews [Doc NYC] at The Playlist.

Following the Sundance premiering “Odessa, Odessa” and Venice title “Land of Oblivion,” French-Israeli filmmaker Michale Boganim is back on the Lido with “The Forgotten Ones”.

The film, represented in international markers by Reservoir Docs, is a heartfelt documentary exploring the systemic discrimination against Oriental Jews in Israel through the story of Boganim’s late father, who emigrated from Morocco and was part of Israel’s lesser-known Black Panthers movement in the 1970s. “The Forgotten Ones,” which world premieres in the Venice Days section Sept. 6, was just acquired by Sophie Dulac Distribution and will be released in France in early 2022.

Boganim, who started developing the film years ago, embarked on a road trip across Israel’s impoverished suburbs along with her young daughter and met Sephardi Jews from different generations whose lives have been shaped in some ways by this discrimination. Many of them are children or grandchildren of people who...

Director Michale Boganim explores her father’s role in Israel’s own Black Panther movement in her new Venice documentary: “The Forgotten Ones”.

The 1950s movement sprang from the Mizrahim community – Jews who were ethnically cleansed from North Africa and the Middle East – who sought refuge in Israel. Battling discrimination, Mizrahi Jews looked to the U.S. Black Panther movement for inspiration, Boganim’s father and his friends fought back, politically and otherwise.

In the documentary, Boganim embarks on a road trip to search for some of her father’s colleagues, taking a tour of Israel’s history and meeting with three generations of Mizrahim in the process.

Boganim, who was born in Israel and later studied in France, won the Gras Savoye award for her student film “Dim Memories,” which was selected for Director’s Fortnight in Cannes. Her first fiction feature, “Land of Oblivion,” which starred “Bond” actor Olga Kurylenko,...

The programme for the 2021 Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Jane Campion, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michelangelo Frammartino, Pablo Larraín, Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, and more.Parallel MothersCOMPETITIONParallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (Ana Lily Amirpour)Un Autre Monde (Stephane Brize)The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)America LatinaL’Evenement (Audrey Diwan)Official CompetitionThe Hole (Michelangelo Frammartino)Sundown (Michel Franco)Lost Illusions (Xavier Giannoli)The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)Spencer (Pablo Larrain)Freaks Out (Gabriele Mainetti)Qui Rido Io (Mario Martone)On The Job: The Missing 8 (Erik Matti)Leave No Traces (Jan P. Matuszyński)Captain Volkonogov EscapedThe Card Counter (Paul Schrader)The Hand of God (Paolo Sorrentino)Reflection (Valentyn Vasyanovych)The Box (Lorenzo Vigas)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesDune (Denis Villeneuve)Il Bambino Nascosto (Roberto Andò)Les Choses Humaines (Yvan Attal)Ariaferma (Leonardo Di Costanzo)Halloween Kills (David Gordon Green...

“Madeleine Collins,” the buzzy psychological drama directed by France’s Antoine Barraud (“Portrait of the Artist”) and toplined by popular Belgian actress Virginie Efira who plays the lesbian nun in Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” is among ten competition titles set to launch from the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section.

The Venice section modeled around the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight is largely made up of international first works this year. All entries are world premieres.

Besides “Madeleine” in which Efira (pictured) plays a woman who leads a double life –– and which also features Nadav Lapid, who is also the Israeli director of “Synonyms” and also Jacqueline Bisset –– the three other pics competing in Venice Days that are not first works are: the drama “Private Desert,” by Brazilian director Aly Muritiba (“Rust”) that is centered around a 40-year-old-cop’s Internet love interest who goes missing; “Dusk Stone,” by Argentina...

Michale Boganim is directing “Tel-Aviv/Beirut,” a historical drama set against the backdrop of the Israeli–Lebanese conflict in 1982 and 2006.

Set in Northern Israel, the film tells the journey of two families on each side of the border whose fate intertwined because of the war raging in Lebanon. “Tel-Aviv/Beirut” sheds light on the little-known story of Lebanese people who collaborated with the Israeli army to fight Hezbollah.

Spanning over 20 years, the film follows two women, a Lebanese and an Israeli, who bond amid the war and embark on a road trip together to rescue a loved one.

“Tel-Aviv/Beirut” is headlined by an international cast of Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese actors including Zalfa Seurat, Sarah Adler (“Foxtrot”), Shlomi Elkabetz (“Our Boys”), Younès Bouab (“The Unknown Saint”), Sofia Essaïdi (“La promesse) and Maayane Boganim.

The movie completed shooting during the pandemic in Cyprus and was particularly eventful as it brought together...

“Resistance” the story of the famed mime Marcel Marceau and how he learned to mime in order to survive and to save the lives of Jewish orphans in World War II France, written and to be directed by “Hands of Stone” director Jonathan Jakubowicz and produced by Claudine Jakubowicz and Carlos Garcia de Paredes, will star the curly haired and fast talking Jesse Eisenberg who played Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 film “The Social Network”. Baptiste Marceau, the oldest son of Marcel, has been closely involved in the research for this European coproduction that CAA is packaging and representing in Cannes. Marceau the artist of silence gave his first major performance to 3,000 American troops after the liberation of Paris in August 1944.

Michael Jackson and Marcel Marceau

The producers of last year’s Norwegian hit, “The Wave”, have turned their attention to Marius Holst’s “Betrayed”, the story of the Norwegian Jews...

At Cph:Forum, Eurimages Award goes to Maria Back’s Psychosis in Stockholm; 31 projects pitched.

Cph:dox expanded its industry offerings this year by adding a Work-in-Progress session on the eve of its Cph:forum for six Nordic documentaries currently in production or post-production.

Short presentations including footage was shown for projects including:

The Acali Experiment (Swe/Den/Ger/Us), dir Marcus Lindeen, prod Erik Gandini

The story will examine what happened when Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés tried a unique experiment in 1973, putting 10 people on a raft for a 101-day voyage to study human behaviour. Lindeen brought the participants together for the first time in 43 years to talk about Genoves’ manipulative behaviour. “I wanted make a reunion and let them talk about their memories of what happened on the raft,” he said. “We let the subjects make a study of the scientist.” The team aims to deliver the film in the autumn.

Contact: gandini@fasad.se

[link...

Russian director Alexander Velidinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe Away was the big winner at the 4th Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff).

The tragi-comedy picked up the Grand Prix Golden Duke, voted for by the festival audience, and the International Jury’s Golden Duke for Best Film

The $4m production, which had screened to an enthusiastic capacity audience of over 1,200 in Odessa’s Festival Palace on Thursday evening, is being handled internationally by fledgling Russian sales outfit Antipode Film Sales & Distribution and will be released theatrically in Russia on 400 prints on November 7.

Last month, Velidinsky’s film won the Grand Prix and three other awards at the Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival in Sochi.

The prize for Best Acting went to the female leads Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’s In Bloom, which won the main prize at Voices in Vologda two weeks ago. The Odessa...

Plus Director Michale Boganim On Bringing Chernobyl To The Screen With a lead role in Terrence Malick's upcoming untitled film and a supporting role in Martin McDonagh’s "In Bruges" follow-up "Seven Psychopaths" (read what she has to say about those projects here), Olga Kurylenko’s star is firmly in the ascendant. But these roles also mark a shift away from the looking-hot-while-things-blow-up parts in "Max Payne," "Hitman" and, of course, "Quantum of Solace" that first brought her to our attention. During our interview at the Marrakech Film Festival, we asked whether this new direction was an accident or something she had planned. “It was deliberate.” she said, instantaneously. “I had to refuse a lot of parts that were like [those] because at some point I didn’t want to do too much of that. It’s very hard to refuse some things, especially good productions and great actors,...

"Land of Oblivion" It is 25 years ago in the small Ukrainian town of Pripyat. People are fishing. A boy goes to look at the tree he and his father planted. A woman prepares for her wedding. And then it starts to rain - not, in itself, a doom-laden event, except if you know that Pripyat was essentially the ground zero town for the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, and what we are really watching is more like a snapshot of Pompeii in the days before Vesuvius erupted. In the quarter of a century since it happened, what's perhaps most shocking about Chernobyl is, for a disaster of its scale, how little it has been memorialized, in film or, really, anywhere else. With "Land of Oblivion" Israeli writer-director Michale Boganim wisely does not attempt to redress this imbalance in one fell swoop, instead honing the focus onto the before-and-after stories of a few of Pripiat's aforementioned inhabitants.

Today, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc), which will take place between October 12 to 23. Here's the complete line-up of feature films according to the press release we received.

Opening and closing

The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.

Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.

I will soon post a list of films I have already seen that I highly recommend as well as a list of my most anticipated films screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema. For now here is the press release from the festival. Make sure you read carefully because there are a ton of great films to check out.

Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, George Clooney, Carey Mulligan, Rachel Weisz, Gerard Butler and Ryan Gosling are heading to Toronto for the 36tht international film festival, which kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 8.

The fest today confirmed the hundreds of celebrities that will be attending the can’t-miss event, promoting films and making the rounds as the annual awards season starts to take shape.

Davis Guggenheim, Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, Luc Besson, Oren Moverman, Malgoska Szumowska, Bennett Miller, Sarah Polley, Jessica Yu, Michael Winterbottom and Werner Herzog are just a few of the filmmakers who have confirmed their attendance.

Celebrities making the trek include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Clive Owen, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young also are expected to...

Toronto - The 36th Toronto International Film Festival® welcomes hundreds of guests this year. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Davis Guggenheim, Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, Agnieszka Holland, Guy Maddin, Luc Besson, Bill Duke, Oren Moverman, Malgoska Szumowska, Bennett Miller, Darrell Roodt, Sarah Polley, Jessica Yu, Michael Winterbottom and Werner Herzog.

Actors expected to attend include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Clive Owen, Gerard Butler, Jeon Do-Yeon, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Ryan Gosling, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians include: U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young.

The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.

The following filmmakers are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:

Adam Shaheen, Adam Wingard, Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr., Agnieszka Holland, Akin Omotoso,...

As noted in previous lineup announcement entries, (Visions, Wavelengths, Future Projections, Galas and Special Presentations), the Toronto International Film Festival (September 9 through 18) has released some of its most anticipated lineups today. We're taking them one at a time, first posting them program by program with descriptions provided by the festival — and then returning over the coming hours and days to add links and further notes. Here's the lineup for the Contemporary World Cinema program.

Karim Aïnouz's The Silver Cliff. A phone message from her husband propels Violeta into the streets of Rio until sunrise. Telling their teenage son that a last minute trip has come up, she sets out to find her husband. Rio at night is her sole companion as she struggles to face his abrupt and sudden change of heart, but the beach also provides renewal, unexpected meetings and a window to a whole other world.

Ozcan Alper's Future Lasts Forever.

Tiff has just announced the final batch of films slated to hit the fest in September. The number of additions is overwhelming. We just posted the complete line-up for the Gala and Special Presentation programs. Now comes the massive wave of movies in the Contemporary World Cinema program. Here is the press release.

Toronto – The Contemporary World Cinema programme delivers 51 cinematic gems from around the globe at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival®. Offering a variety of filmmakers’ voices and perspectives from around the world, the lineup draws from Brazil, China, South Africa, France, Iran, Morocco, the Netherlands, Israel, Portugal, Russia, Canada and more. This snapshot of global trends in cinema also features the North American premieres of new films by directors such as Andrey Zvyagintsev, Gerardo Naranjo, Sion Sono, Asghar Farhadi, Karim Ainouz, Ole Christian Madsen and Cristián Jiménez

Always Brando Ridha Béhi, Tunisia

World Premiere

After meeting Anis Raache,...

After three separate announcements (here, here and here), the Toronto International Film Festival has announced the final line-up for their Galas and Special Presentations, as well as a few other categories. Most notable is Andrea Arnold‘s Fish Tank follow-up Wuthering Heights, the next film from Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo, as well as Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps.

We also get Whit Stillman‘s Damsels in Distress starring Greta Gerwig and Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy starring Saoirse Ronan and James Gandolfini. In what should be a little fun we have Gary McKendry‘s Killer Elite starring Robert De Niro, Clive Owen and Jason Statham. We also get Owen’s horror flick Intruders and Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass starring Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage. Check out the full line-ups below.

Galas

Closing Night Film

Page Eight David Hare, United Kingdom

International Premiere

Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) is a long-serving M15 officer.

By G. Clay Whittaker

Hollywoodnews.com: A stacked lineup is set to impress at the Venice Film Festival, and more is likely to come later this week. But for now the 26th Critics’ Week list is looking strong, if absent representation from the U.S. and Asia.

New works from David Cronenberg, Steven Soderbergh, Roman Polanski, Todd Solondz, Jonathan Demme, Alexander Sokurov, Mary Harron, William Friedkin, George Clooney and Madonna will all show at the festival, but for the Critics’ Week the lineup is largely Eurocentric.

The 26th Critics’ Week features a largely European set of films. Italy’s two home teamers include Francesco Lagi and his comedy “(Mission of Peace)” and a mob thriller by Guido Lombardi. Swedish director Simon Kaijser da Silva has a picture in the competition, as do Cyril Mennegun and French-Ukranian Michale Boganim. Mexico and Argentina have films in play thanks to Kyzza Terrazas and Hernan Belon,...

Le Pacte are spread across the Croisette this year with three films in competition including Kamen Kalev's The Island.  Ave by Konstantin Bojanov - Completed Bachelor Days Are Over (Pourquoi Tu Pleures?) by Katia Lewkowicz - Completed The Island by Kamen Kalev - Completed Amazonia - Pre-Production Land Of Oblivion (La Terre Outragee) by Michale Boganim - Production Last Winter (L'hiver Dernier) by John Shank - Production Of Women And Horses (Sport De Filles) by Patricia Mazuy - Completed The Day Of The Crows (Le Jour Des Corneilles) by Jean-Christophe Dessaint - Production The Screen Illusion (L'illusion Comique) by Mathieu Amalric - Completed...