Founded in 1999 by students at the University of Frankfurt, Germany, the Nippon Connection film festival has become the biggest platform for current Japanese cinema outside of Japan. The festival prides itself on the proportion of premieres: in 2012, of 142 shorts and features screened, 42 were world premieres and 14 international premieres. Most of [...]
Göteborg is the home of Scandinavia’s most important international film festival, offering one of the world’s most generous prizes: a Dragon Award of 1 million Swedish kronor (nearly 158 000 USD) for Best Nordic Film. But comparatively speaking, the festival’s short film award is even more remarkable: this year, a selection of Swedish films [...]
The 2012 Beneath the Earth Film Festival kicked off with an international selection of independent films Thursday. This year’s official selection, which includes films from the US, Taiwan, Germany and London, consists of five dramatic shorts, one dramatic feature and one documentary short. Head film critic for The Moving Arts, Eric Armstrong, was selected as one [...]
“Village at the End of the World,” a documentary set in Greenland, presents some interesting similarities with “Eat Sleep Die,” the last film I reviewed. Both revolve around unemployment, and the threat it poses to community. Admittedly, the village of Niaqornat in the north of Greenland makes the southern Swedish village of “Eat Sleep Die” [...]
“Eat Sleep Die” (“Äta sova dö,” dir. Gabriela Pichler), treats a topic of central concern in this time of financial crisis: unemployment. Set in a village in Sweden, the film revolves around 20-year-old Raša, a sturdy, virile but tender-hearted only child who lives with her father. At the local salad processing plant, Raša has [...]
“Wadjda” (Haifaa Al Mansour, 2012) and “Tall as the Baobab Tree” (“Grand comme le Baobab,” Jeremy Teicher, 2012) are set in far distant countries: the first in Saudi Arabia, the second in Senegal. But both films treat a surprisingly similar theme: girls who won’t let tradition stand in the way of their desires. “Wadjda” centers [...]
The BFI London Film Festival 2012 starts tomorrow, and if you haven’t bought tickets yet, it’s not too late. There are still tickets left for many films, including the ones reviewed here. While neither of the following films is a masterpiece, both are engaging, and you’ll leave the cinema feeling you’ve seen something a little [...]
As public ticket sales for the BFI London Film Festival open Monday (24 September), the time is ripe for a preview blog. Having attended a number international film festivals this year, I’ve already had the chance to see a handful of the films that will be screening here in London next month. The complete list [...]
Documentarist-Istanbul Documentary Days celebrated its fifth year with yet again a superb selection of films as well as stimulating side events. As organizer Necati Sönmez put it, this festival created its own audience, and since its launch as the biggest festival dedicated to documentary film in Istanbul, there has been a visible increase of interest [...]
“Extraterrestrial” Director: Nacho Vigalondo Writer: Nacho Vigalondo Starring: Michelle Jenner, Carlos Areces, Julián Villagrán “Extraterrestrial” is a movie I’ve been excited about for a while, in part because of how it was marketed – the small, almost invisible glimpses of the alien ships in the posters, and the creative viral marketing aspect to it all. [...]
Why did we watch ‘Amour?’Short and Swede
No: Too Good at Recreating the 80s
Lawrence of Arabia: Deserving of its Place in the Sun
Top 10 of 2012
Sound of My Voice (2012)
The Master (2012)‘Village at the End of the World’: Help Wanted?‘Eat Sleep Die’: Asking for a little moreFrom Senegal to Saudi Arabia: Girls working for change
