Companies set to collaborate on feature and TV docs.
Ahead of this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest, UK documentary specialist companies Roast Beef Productions and Nutopia have struck a creative partnership to produce feature and television projects.
Roast Beef, the company behind 2014 Oscar-nominated feature docs The Square [pictured] and Hell And Back Again, will join Nutopia in its newly-expanded London office.
Television-focused Nutopia’s credits include the 2010 Primetime Emmy-winning series America: The Story Of Us and 2013 series The ’80s: The Decade That Made Us.
In their new partnership, the companies will develop feature and television documentaries, including long-form and short-form projects, aimed at the international market.
The Roast Beef team is led by Oscar-nominated producer Mike Lerner and also includes Martin Herring, Havana Marking and Janet Knipe.
The company’s latest feature, Lana Wilson’s The Departure, premiered Tribeca and will have its European premiere at Doc/Fest on June 9.
Nutopia is led by Jane Root. The company...
Ahead of this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest, UK documentary specialist companies Roast Beef Productions and Nutopia have struck a creative partnership to produce feature and television projects.
Roast Beef, the company behind 2014 Oscar-nominated feature docs The Square [pictured] and Hell And Back Again, will join Nutopia in its newly-expanded London office.
Television-focused Nutopia’s credits include the 2010 Primetime Emmy-winning series America: The Story Of Us and 2013 series The ’80s: The Decade That Made Us.
In their new partnership, the companies will develop feature and television documentaries, including long-form and short-form projects, aimed at the international market.
The Roast Beef team is led by Oscar-nominated producer Mike Lerner and also includes Martin Herring, Havana Marking and Janet Knipe.
The company’s latest feature, Lana Wilson’s The Departure, premiered Tribeca and will have its European premiere at Doc/Fest on June 9.
Nutopia is led by Jane Root. The company...
- 6/8/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Even Bill Murray and Barry Levinson cannot rescue this confused rags to rock riches story, inspired by a real-life talent show contestant
One presumes that veteran director Barry Levinson envisaged this Mitch Glazer-scripted comedy about a has-been rock promoter working his shtick in Kabul as Good Morning Afghanistan, although the phrase “Good Night, Vienna” better describes its reception in America, where it tanked spectacularly last year. No wonder: it’s a dog’s dinner of a movie which not even the usually reliable Bill Murray can raise above the level of confused, cliched claptrap. Murray plays Richie Lanz, who comes to Kabul on the promise of rich pickings, and winds up attempting to help Leem Lubany’s Pashtun prodigy Salima defy death threats by singing on national TV.
Kate Hudson plays a toe-curlingly generic hooker with a heart of gold, Scott Caan and Danny McBride are salesmen for weight-loss firm Herbalife turned wacky gun-runners,...
One presumes that veteran director Barry Levinson envisaged this Mitch Glazer-scripted comedy about a has-been rock promoter working his shtick in Kabul as Good Morning Afghanistan, although the phrase “Good Night, Vienna” better describes its reception in America, where it tanked spectacularly last year. No wonder: it’s a dog’s dinner of a movie which not even the usually reliable Bill Murray can raise above the level of confused, cliched claptrap. Murray plays Richie Lanz, who comes to Kabul on the promise of rich pickings, and winds up attempting to help Leem Lubany’s Pashtun prodigy Salima defy death threats by singing on national TV.
Kate Hudson plays a toe-curlingly generic hooker with a heart of gold, Scott Caan and Danny McBride are salesmen for weight-loss firm Herbalife turned wacky gun-runners,...
- 3/20/2016
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
The second Sundance Institute | Ted Prize Filmmaker Award, including a $125,000 grant, has been awarded to Havana Marking (HBO's "Silencing the Song: An Afghan Fallen Star,' pictured above) for her short documentary "Bloody Money," about corruption in the Ukrainian government and featuring the work of Ted Prize winner Charmian Gooch of Global Witness, a watchdog group that advocates for full transparency in the logging, mining, oil, and gas sectors worldwide. "Bloody Money," currently in production, reaches from Kiev to London to Washington, D.C., exposing the ways in which global financial systems actively enable and encourage corruption. The film, following Global Witness, examines how anonymous shell companies and Western banks are used to enable corrupt governments to rob their nation’s wealth and natural resources. Gooch received the $1 million Ted Prize in 2014, and Marking’s intention is to illuminate the extent and malign effects of anonymous...
- 11/10/2015
- by Matt Brennan
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Missing Picture producer Catherine Dussart to head documentary jury.Scroll down for titles in competition
The juries for the 11th Zurich Film Festival (Sept 24-Oct 4) have been unveiled.
Elizabeth Karlsen, producer of Todd Haynes’ Carol, will head the international feature film jury, which will comprise ‘71 director Yann Demange; French producer Rosa Attab; German actress Maria Furtwängler; and German director Katja von Garnier.
The international documentary film jury will be presided over by Catherine Dussart, the French producer of Rithy Panh’s Oscar-nominated The Missing Picture, which won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes 2013.
The doc jury includes French director Abbas Fahdel, Belgian editor Joelle Alexis, German director Alexander Nanau and UK director/producer Havana Marking.
The Focus: Switzerland, Germany, Austria jury will be headed by German producer Nico Hofmann (The Physician), also co-ceo of Ufa Group.
The jury comprises German writer/director Anika Decker, German actor Alexander Fehling, Austrian actress...
The juries for the 11th Zurich Film Festival (Sept 24-Oct 4) have been unveiled.
Elizabeth Karlsen, producer of Todd Haynes’ Carol, will head the international feature film jury, which will comprise ‘71 director Yann Demange; French producer Rosa Attab; German actress Maria Furtwängler; and German director Katja von Garnier.
The international documentary film jury will be presided over by Catherine Dussart, the French producer of Rithy Panh’s Oscar-nominated The Missing Picture, which won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes 2013.
The doc jury includes French director Abbas Fahdel, Belgian editor Joelle Alexis, German director Alexander Nanau and UK director/producer Havana Marking.
The Focus: Switzerland, Germany, Austria jury will be headed by German producer Nico Hofmann (The Physician), also co-ceo of Ufa Group.
The jury comprises German writer/director Anika Decker, German actor Alexander Fehling, Austrian actress...
- 9/22/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Films include a collaboration between Sing Sing prison inmates and a leading contemporary dance company from Turner Prize nominated visual artist Phil Collins.
Scroll down for full list of projects
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 5-10) has revealed the titles that will pitch for funding at its MeetMarket initiative, celebrating 10 years in 2015.
A total of 64 filmmaker teams from 19 countries will pitch to international and UK decision makers for research, development and production funding
At Crossover Market, which includes digital titles, a further 26 interactive projects from 12 countries will pitch in one-to-one meetings to a range of specialist decision makers.
Among the Crossover projects being pitched are the latest from Oscar Raby who won last year’s Interactive Audience Award with Assent; and Ram Devineni who attracted funding at last year’s Crossover Market and Tribeca New Media Fund for Priya’s Shakti.
New pitch opportunities this year include a BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Stories commission for young filmmakers, the Guardian...
Scroll down for full list of projects
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 5-10) has revealed the titles that will pitch for funding at its MeetMarket initiative, celebrating 10 years in 2015.
A total of 64 filmmaker teams from 19 countries will pitch to international and UK decision makers for research, development and production funding
At Crossover Market, which includes digital titles, a further 26 interactive projects from 12 countries will pitch in one-to-one meetings to a range of specialist decision makers.
Among the Crossover projects being pitched are the latest from Oscar Raby who won last year’s Interactive Audience Award with Assent; and Ram Devineni who attracted funding at last year’s Crossover Market and Tribeca New Media Fund for Priya’s Shakti.
New pitch opportunities this year include a BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Stories commission for young filmmakers, the Guardian...
- 4/27/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Oscar-nominated UK director Tanel Toom and Estonian documentary maker Jaak Kilmi are among 22 film-makers with film projects in the fifth edition of the When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum (Jan 18-20).
Estonian-born Toom, who was nominated for The Confession (his graduation film from the UK’s Nfts), will be in Trieste with his fiction feature debut, the sci-fi thriller Gateway 6, to be produced by Matt Wilkinson and Ben Pullen’s Stigma Films, while Latvian producer Antra Gaile of Mistrus Media will be pitching Kilmi’s People From Nowhere.
A total of 10 documentaries and 12 fiction feature projects from 13 countries were selected from a record 285 submissions, including 57 from Italy, 38 from the UK, 19 from Canada, 15 from Ireland, 13 from the Us, and 143 from Eastern Europe.
Since Wemw’s 2015 edition has a focus on English-speaking countries, the line-up includes:
veteran Canadian film-maker Anne Henderson’s documentary project Missing Persona;
the Us-Italian co-production The Oldest Man Alive by Antonio Tibaldi, to be produced...
Estonian-born Toom, who was nominated for The Confession (his graduation film from the UK’s Nfts), will be in Trieste with his fiction feature debut, the sci-fi thriller Gateway 6, to be produced by Matt Wilkinson and Ben Pullen’s Stigma Films, while Latvian producer Antra Gaile of Mistrus Media will be pitching Kilmi’s People From Nowhere.
A total of 10 documentaries and 12 fiction feature projects from 13 countries were selected from a record 285 submissions, including 57 from Italy, 38 from the UK, 19 from Canada, 15 from Ireland, 13 from the Us, and 143 from Eastern Europe.
Since Wemw’s 2015 edition has a focus on English-speaking countries, the line-up includes:
veteran Canadian film-maker Anne Henderson’s documentary project Missing Persona;
the Us-Italian co-production The Oldest Man Alive by Antonio Tibaldi, to be produced...
- 1/5/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Earlier this year, word emerged that Danny Boyle was going to direct a feature film adaptation of the documentary, “Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers.” But, hadn't he just come off a heist thriller with "Trance"? Wasn't the presumed story of a bunch of jewel thieves a bit rote for someone like Boyle who likes to go deep narratively, and push things aesthetically? Certainly, on the surface, there's nothing particularly original about 'Smash & Grab' but the documentary by director Havana Marking is something of a con itself, less about the major heists the titular Pink Panthers pulled, but rather about the circumstances that made a life of crime an attractive and lucrative option for those involved, but no less a criminal one as well. Employing a variety of stylistic tics that could've easily overwhelmed the movie including animation (to mask the identity of the Pink Panthers who...
- 12/20/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Exclusive: UK filmmaker Havana Marking is developing a new documentary about the brutal murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in 2008.
“It’s early days and we’re investigating access to various parties. It’s very complex but if we can pull it off, it will be amazing,” said Marking.
The director is attending Diff this week with her hit documentary Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers about a notorious gang of Balkan-based jewel thieves, which is screening in the Cinema of the World section.
The BBC’s international feature documentary strand BBC Storyville is part funding the project. Marking, who also produces under the Roast Beef Productions banner, is looking for additional funding, preferably from the Middle East.
Us-Egyptian producer Jehane Noujaim, whose Oscar shortlisted The Square was associate produced by Roast Beef, will act as executive producer on the project.
Tamim was found with her throat slit in her luxury Dubai apartment...
“It’s early days and we’re investigating access to various parties. It’s very complex but if we can pull it off, it will be amazing,” said Marking.
The director is attending Diff this week with her hit documentary Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers about a notorious gang of Balkan-based jewel thieves, which is screening in the Cinema of the World section.
The BBC’s international feature documentary strand BBC Storyville is part funding the project. Marking, who also produces under the Roast Beef Productions banner, is looking for additional funding, preferably from the Middle East.
Us-Egyptian producer Jehane Noujaim, whose Oscar shortlisted The Square was associate produced by Roast Beef, will act as executive producer on the project.
Tamim was found with her throat slit in her luxury Dubai apartment...
- 12/11/2013
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: UK filmmaker Havana Marking is developing a new documentary about the brutal murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in 2008.
“It’s early days and we’re investigating access to various parties. It’s very complex but if we can pull it off, it will be amazing,” said Marking.
The director is attending Diff this week with her hit documentary Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers about a notorious gang of Balkan-based jewel thieves, which is screening in the Cinema of the World section.
The BBC’s international feature documentary strand BBC Storyville is part funding the project. Marking, who also produces under the Roast Beef Productions banner, is looking for additional funding, preferably from the Middle East.
Us-Egyptian producer Jehane Noujaim, whose Oscar shortlisted The Square was associate produced by Roast Beef, will act as executive producer on the project.
Tamim was found with her throat slit in her luxury Dubai apartment...
“It’s early days and we’re investigating access to various parties. It’s very complex but if we can pull it off, it will be amazing,” said Marking.
The director is attending Diff this week with her hit documentary Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers about a notorious gang of Balkan-based jewel thieves, which is screening in the Cinema of the World section.
The BBC’s international feature documentary strand BBC Storyville is part funding the project. Marking, who also produces under the Roast Beef Productions banner, is looking for additional funding, preferably from the Middle East.
Us-Egyptian producer Jehane Noujaim, whose Oscar shortlisted The Square was associate produced by Roast Beef, will act as executive producer on the project.
Tamim was found with her throat slit in her luxury Dubai apartment...
- 12/11/2013
- ScreenDaily
DVD & VOD Release Date: Dec. 3, 2013
Price: DVD $19.95
Studio: Music Box
Diamonds are the Pink Panthers' best friend in Smash & Grab.
Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers is a 2012 documentary on the formidable Balkan crime organization dubbed “The Pink Panthers” that has stolen nearly a billion dollars of jewels from boutiques in the world’s most opulent cities, including Paris, London, Geneva, and Tokyo.
Director Havana Marking first read of the Pink Panthers in 2003 when they pulled off a wildly ambitious $30 million jewelry raid of the Graff store on London’s Bond Street. It was the British press that labeled them “The Pink Panthers” after the police recovered a huge diamond in a tub of face cream in a scene reminiscent of a classic Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther movie starring Peter Sellers. Although nothing was known of them at that time, the name stuck—and Marking’s fascination and...
Price: DVD $19.95
Studio: Music Box
Diamonds are the Pink Panthers' best friend in Smash & Grab.
Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers is a 2012 documentary on the formidable Balkan crime organization dubbed “The Pink Panthers” that has stolen nearly a billion dollars of jewels from boutiques in the world’s most opulent cities, including Paris, London, Geneva, and Tokyo.
Director Havana Marking first read of the Pink Panthers in 2003 when they pulled off a wildly ambitious $30 million jewelry raid of the Graff store on London’s Bond Street. It was the British press that labeled them “The Pink Panthers” after the police recovered a huge diamond in a tub of face cream in a scene reminiscent of a classic Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther movie starring Peter Sellers. Although nothing was known of them at that time, the name stuck—and Marking’s fascination and...
- 10/24/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Slumdog Millionaire director aims to film real life story of 'Pink Panther' jewel robbers
• Jonathan Freedland meets Danny Boyle
• Danny Boyle on Philip French
Danny Boyle is getting back in the heist game. The Oscar-winning British director is set to shoot a feature adaptation of a recently released documentary about the world's most successful gang of diamond thieves.
Boyle, whose art theft thriller Trance hit cinemas earlier this year, will base his new project on the film Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers. Havana Marking's documentary centres on a crew of Balkan thieves who became notorious over more than a decade of activity. Reviewing the film in the Guardian last month, critic Mike McCahill described it as a documentary which "pursues its subject from multiple angles, quizzing reporters, cops and sometime gang members, while carefully marshalled archive frames a deeper sociopolitical inquiry".
Marking's film should give...
• Jonathan Freedland meets Danny Boyle
• Danny Boyle on Philip French
Danny Boyle is getting back in the heist game. The Oscar-winning British director is set to shoot a feature adaptation of a recently released documentary about the world's most successful gang of diamond thieves.
Boyle, whose art theft thriller Trance hit cinemas earlier this year, will base his new project on the film Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers. Havana Marking's documentary centres on a crew of Balkan thieves who became notorious over more than a decade of activity. Reviewing the film in the Guardian last month, critic Mike McCahill described it as a documentary which "pursues its subject from multiple angles, quizzing reporters, cops and sometime gang members, while carefully marshalled archive frames a deeper sociopolitical inquiry".
Marking's film should give...
- 10/7/2013
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
It looks like there's more crime in Danny Boyle's future. After finishing and releasing the art heist thriller Trance earlier this year, Variety is now reporting that the British filmmaker has signed on to direct a feature adaptation of the documentary Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers. Being developed by Pathe and Fox Searchlight, who will both co-finance the project with Boyle's longtime producing partner Christian Colson, the real life story is about a a group of diamond thieves who made off with $30 million in diamonds in a 3-minute heist in London. Directed by Havana Marking, the doc was released this summer. The report says that Danny Boyle, coming off of directing Trance and the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony, saw the documentary Smash & Grab and "became very interested in turning it into a movie." He got Fox Searchlight involved in helping pull it together, and here we are reporting the news.
- 10/4/2013
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Earlier this year Danny Boyle experimented with the heist genre for the first time directing the psychological thriller Trance, but it would seem that he enjoyed the process so much that he's already ready to dip into the genre again. Variety is reporting that the British filmmaker has settled on his next feature film project, and it will be an adaptation of the recently released documentary Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers. According to the trade's sources, Boyle saw the film recently and was inspired by its story to make it into a feature of his own. Made by director Havana Marking, the documentary follows a team of the most successful jewel thieves in the world, known as the Pink Panthers, as they run through operations in the Balkans, Europe, and Asia as well as the Interpol and global police officers who hunt them down. Film fans...
- 10/4/2013
- cinemablend.com
When you’re an Oscar-winning director, you can go to the movies and walk out with your next project. That reportedly happened for Danny Boyle, who saw Havana Marking‘s 2013 documentary Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers and immediately decided he wanted to turn it into a narrative. So that’s what he’s going to do. [...]...
- 10/4/2013
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
Danny Boyle has lined up a new project in the form of a narrative take on director Havana Marking's recent documentary Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers , Variety reports. Released last month in the UK, the documentary is officially described as follows: The Pink Panthers are the world's most successful jewel thieves. With incredible unprecedented access, gang members Mike and Lela reveal the gang.s networks, history and human story. Playing out like a noir thriller and using cutting edge animation, the film keeps a Hollywood-style heist at its centre. We also follow the global police forces determined to stop them - with increasing success. But beneath the glitz and excitement of the heists lie the dark truths of the illicit diamond trade and the war-shattered...
- 10/4/2013
- Comingsoon.net
Blue Jasmine | Prisoners | Greedy Lying Bastards | Mister John | Hannah Arendt | Runner Runner | It's A Lot | Girl Most Likely | Smash & Grab: The Story Of The Pink Panther | Austenland
Blue Jasmine (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2013, Us) Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard. 98 mins
In the downward trajectory of late-era Allen comes a startling spike to remind us how great he still can be, especially when it comes to women's roles. This show belongs to Blanchett, playing a Manhattan one-percenter brought down to earth. Propped up by alcohol, drugs and her sister, she's an accident that's already happening, and a magnificent, tragicomic creation.
Prisoners (15)
(Denis Villeneuve, 2013, Us) Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano. 153 mins
A kidnapping case refuses to crack in this weighty, slippery whodunit.
Greedy Lying Bastards (12A)
(Craig Scott Rosebraugh, 2012, Us) 90 mins
Climate-change deniers get a dose of their own medicine, as this impassioned doc lays out a history of hypocrisy.
Mister John (15)
(Christine Molloy,...
Blue Jasmine (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2013, Us) Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard. 98 mins
In the downward trajectory of late-era Allen comes a startling spike to remind us how great he still can be, especially when it comes to women's roles. This show belongs to Blanchett, playing a Manhattan one-percenter brought down to earth. Propped up by alcohol, drugs and her sister, she's an accident that's already happening, and a magnificent, tragicomic creation.
Prisoners (15)
(Denis Villeneuve, 2013, Us) Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano. 153 mins
A kidnapping case refuses to crack in this weighty, slippery whodunit.
Greedy Lying Bastards (12A)
(Craig Scott Rosebraugh, 2012, Us) 90 mins
Climate-change deniers get a dose of their own medicine, as this impassioned doc lays out a history of hypocrisy.
Mister John (15)
(Christine Molloy,...
- 9/28/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
A documentary about a famous gang of Balkan jewel thieves asks some fascinating questions – and has fascinating footage to match
The 10 years of audacious heists committed by the shifting network of Balkan jewel thieves known as the Pink Panthers would be a gift for any documentarist with a thriller bent, not least for the astonishing CCTV footage the robbers have generated. Havana Marking's detailed Panther primer pursues its subject from multiple angles, quizzing reporters, cops and sometime gang members, while carefully marshalled archive frames a deeper sociopolitical inquiry. As one working Serb wonders, if the gang members are the folk heroes their propaganda wing frames them as, why aren't he and his fellow countrymen swimming in diamonds? Could the Panthers be a flamboyantly acquisitional manifestation of the mob mentality that swept through the Balkans after communism fell? The casefile remains open, but this considered investigation matches the Panthers' bravura...
The 10 years of audacious heists committed by the shifting network of Balkan jewel thieves known as the Pink Panthers would be a gift for any documentarist with a thriller bent, not least for the astonishing CCTV footage the robbers have generated. Havana Marking's detailed Panther primer pursues its subject from multiple angles, quizzing reporters, cops and sometime gang members, while carefully marshalled archive frames a deeper sociopolitical inquiry. As one working Serb wonders, if the gang members are the folk heroes their propaganda wing frames them as, why aren't he and his fellow countrymen swimming in diamonds? Could the Panthers be a flamboyantly acquisitional manifestation of the mob mentality that swept through the Balkans after communism fell? The casefile remains open, but this considered investigation matches the Panthers' bravura...
- 9/26/2013
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
In 341 robberies, the Pink Panther gang have stolen jewels worth £276m. But who are they? Havana Marking meets them
Hidden cameras on the walls of the exclusive Wafi shopping mall in Dubai captured, in 2007, two Audi S8s smashing through its glass doors. The first – white with silver wheels – crashes through in reverse, while the second – a black car with a woman at the wheel – drives head on. The white car pauses briefly as a man in a black bodysuit and balaclava jumps out before the driver hits the gas again. You have to imagine the screeching of tyres as they speed on through the public atrium and reverse the car into the door of the Graff jewellery store.
The man in black runs into the shop and another joins him; both are carrying revolvers in one hand and small pickaxes in the other, and have pouches attached to their bodies.
Hidden cameras on the walls of the exclusive Wafi shopping mall in Dubai captured, in 2007, two Audi S8s smashing through its glass doors. The first – white with silver wheels – crashes through in reverse, while the second – a black car with a woman at the wheel – drives head on. The white car pauses briefly as a man in a black bodysuit and balaclava jumps out before the driver hits the gas again. You have to imagine the screeching of tyres as they speed on through the public atrium and reverse the car into the door of the Graff jewellery store.
The man in black runs into the shop and another joins him; both are carrying revolvers in one hand and small pickaxes in the other, and have pouches attached to their bodies.
- 9/22/2013
- by Havana Marking
- The Guardian - Film News
Bill Murray will be teaming up with Rain Man and Good Morning, Vietnam director Barry Levinson for Rock the Kasbah, a comedy, from Scrooged writer Mitch Glazer’s screenplay. The film is to be introduced to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), and is being billed by Qed International as “the story of a burned-out music manager who goes to Afghanistan on the Uso tour with his last remaining client. When he finds himself abandoned, penniless and without his passport, he discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice, who stows away with him back to Kabul to compete on the popular television show The Afghan Star, Afghanistan’s equivalent of American Idol.”
The film will be produced by Qed’s Bill Block, Venture Forth’s Jacob Pechenik and Shangri-La Entertainment’s Steve Bing, and Block goes on to say that “(Murray and Levinson are) the perfect team to capture the lunacy,...
The film will be produced by Qed’s Bill Block, Venture Forth’s Jacob Pechenik and Shangri-La Entertainment’s Steve Bing, and Block goes on to say that “(Murray and Levinson are) the perfect team to capture the lunacy,...
- 9/4/2013
- by Rob Batchelor
- We Got This Covered
Title: Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers Director: Havana Marking A delightful documentary that dances along the edge between intellectual think-piece and ring-a-ding, “Ocean’s”-style criminal lifestyle celebration, director Havana Marking’s “Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers” is remarkable in how it sketches, connects and contextualizes the work and mounting success of an international criminal syndicate, humanizing its players without absolving them from blame. A shadowy and inventive group of jewel thieves who started snatching massive amounts of diamonds from European jewelry stores early in the new millennium, and then moved onto Asia and even Dubai, this mysterious collective has been dubbed the Pink Panthers [ Read More ]
The post Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 8/24/2013
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
A complex network of more than 200 thieves work together to conduct heist after heist, netting about half a billion dollars in stolen diamonds throughout Europe and the Middle East. It sounds like a complicated Hollywood thriller, but this is real life.
It's the story of the Pink Panthers, a clandestine pack of jewel thieves who have captured international attention for their illegal antics. The Panthers are the subject of a new documentary called "Smash And Grab: The Pink Panther Story." Director Havana Marking talked with HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri about the sometimes glamorous and always risky life of a Panther.
Marking interviewed three former Panthers for her film, which examines the increasing danger for the heist group as police get better at catching them and the most talented thieves are leaving the game.
"As law enforcement in Europe has really, really started closing down on them -- and they've...
It's the story of the Pink Panthers, a clandestine pack of jewel thieves who have captured international attention for their illegal antics. The Panthers are the subject of a new documentary called "Smash And Grab: The Pink Panther Story." Director Havana Marking talked with HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri about the sometimes glamorous and always risky life of a Panther.
Marking interviewed three former Panthers for her film, which examines the increasing danger for the heist group as police get better at catching them and the most talented thieves are leaving the game.
"As law enforcement in Europe has really, really started closing down on them -- and they've...
- 7/31/2013
- by Ryan Buxton
- Huffington Post
You know what isn't fun at all, it turns out? The life of the international jewel thief, which, based on the evidence Havana Marking assembles in the diverting, revealing Smash & Grab, involves everything that is the opposite of glamour: endless planning, waiting, paranoia, and being bossed by distant toughs whose exact identities you're not supposed to know. The title here is accurate in the sense that the Serbian heist masters known as the Pink Panthers ultimately smash into jewelry stores and start grabbing, but that smashing is choreographed for months and that grabbing is sharply targeted, even in the spectacular case that opens this doc: a pair of SUVs, seen in security footage, crashing down the corridors of a Dubai mall. In hundreds of jobs all over the world, the Panthe...
- 7/31/2013
- Village Voice
With all the canny timing of a master criminal, Havana Marking’s documentary about the notorious jewel thieves the Pink Panthers is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere just days after one of its members escaped from a Swiss prison and became a principal suspect in the robbery of $50 million dollars’ worth of jewelry. The loot was taken at the same French Riviera hotel where Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief was set. You can’t make this stuff up. But Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers would be fascinating even if it wasn’t so timely. It grippingly
read more...
read more...
- 7/30/2013
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Photo of Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Shia Labeouf in Nymphomaniac, and the Thracian army in the Dwayne Johnson-led Hercules.
"Paul Greengrass' 'Captain Phillips' will be the opening-night selection at this year’s New York Film Festival…" (full details)
"Regal Cinemas has just revealed a list of theaters nationwide that will screen all three films in Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy on August 22nd, capping off with a 10pm screening of 'The World’s End'…" (full details)
"Despite being out for nearly two months, Paramount is giving Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' a one-week only North America IMAX release from August 2nd. The film previously screened on select IMAX screens internationally…" (full details)
"The upcoming 'Star Wars Celebration VII' expo will be timed to the theatrical release of 'Star Wars: Episode VII' and will be held in Anaheim, California...
"Paul Greengrass' 'Captain Phillips' will be the opening-night selection at this year’s New York Film Festival…" (full details)
"Regal Cinemas has just revealed a list of theaters nationwide that will screen all three films in Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy on August 22nd, capping off with a 10pm screening of 'The World’s End'…" (full details)
"Despite being out for nearly two months, Paramount is giving Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' a one-week only North America IMAX release from August 2nd. The film previously screened on select IMAX screens internationally…" (full details)
"The upcoming 'Star Wars Celebration VII' expo will be timed to the theatrical release of 'Star Wars: Episode VII' and will be held in Anaheim, California...
- 7/29/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Music Box Films’ genre arm has acquired Us rights to Smash & Grab: The Story Of The Pink Panthers, Havana Marking’s documentary about the world’s most successful diamond thieves.
The film uses animation and surveillance camera footage to tell the story of the Balkan gang known as The Pink Panthers, one of whom reportedly escaped from prison this week [25].
The gang is understood to have stolen approximately $1bn in jewels from around the world.
Pascal Degove of Goldcrest Films International negotiated the deal with William Schopf of Music Box Films.
The film uses animation and surveillance camera footage to tell the story of the Balkan gang known as The Pink Panthers, one of whom reportedly escaped from prison this week [25].
The gang is understood to have stolen approximately $1bn in jewels from around the world.
Pascal Degove of Goldcrest Films International negotiated the deal with William Schopf of Music Box Films.
- 7/26/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Music Box Films’ genre arm has acquired Us rights to Smash & Grab: The Story Of The Pink Panthers, Havana Marking’s documentary about the world’s most successful diamond thieves.
The film uses animation and surveillance camera footage to tell the story of the Balkan gang known as The Pink Panthers, one of whom reportedly escaped from prison this week [25].
The gang is understood to have stolen approximately $1bn in jewels from around the world.
Pascal Degove of Goldcrest Films International negotiated the deal with William Schopf of Music Box Films.
The film uses animation and surveillance camera footage to tell the story of the Balkan gang known as The Pink Panthers, one of whom reportedly escaped from prison this week [25].
The gang is understood to have stolen approximately $1bn in jewels from around the world.
Pascal Degove of Goldcrest Films International negotiated the deal with William Schopf of Music Box Films.
- 7/26/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Pussy Riot, Uri Geller: Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 line-up The United Kingdom’s Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 kicks off on June 12, featuring 27 World Premieres. Topics range from "psychic spy" Uri Geller (Uri Geller and Vikram Jayanti’s The Secret Life of Uri Geller — Psychic Spy) to shale mining (Lech Kowalski’s Drill Baby Drill), from the science behind Planet Earth’s fast-approaching climactic armageddon (David Sington and Simon Lamb’s Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science) to the life and times of international professional thieves (Havana Marking’s Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers). Below are a few Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 highlights. (Photo: Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer.) Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer follows the Pussy Riot trial in which three of the band’s members stood accused of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” following a performance staged at Moscow...
- 5/29/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Park City, Ut (January 20, 2013) – HBO Documentary Films today announced the acquisition of the crowd-pleaser “Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer” at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. HBO Documentary Films acquired U.S. television rights. Directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, the film made its world premiere Friday night to a sold out crowd. “Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer” tells the incredible story of three young women: Nadia, Masha and Katia. As members of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, they performed a 40 second “punk prayer” inside Russia’s main cathedral. This performance led to their arrest on charges of religious hatred and culminated in a trial that has reverberated around the world and transformed the face of Russian society forever. With unparalleled access and exclusive footage, this film looks at the real people behind their now famous colorful balaclavas. Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, the directors of “Pussy Riot” “are thrilled...
- 1/21/2013
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
Over the long weekend, plenty of folks got the news that they’ve had their feature, doc or short films accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. This Wednesday, the festival begins making their line-up official while keeping the short film announcements for the following week. The previous week we’ve made some prognostications as to what should be included in the 2013 edition. Here’s an easy to click recap of some of those predictions. We’ve added those who’ve been mentioned in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, the fortunate ones who’ve had their work run inside the Sundance Labs, those who are working from a Blacklist named screenplay, those who are basing their feature on a short film that was accepted into the festival in a previous edition and finally those who’ve had funding via Kickstarter. * denotes feature directorial debut while ++ denotes that person...
- 11/26/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
British docu helmer Havana Marking broke into the film world via Sundance with the double prize winning (World Cinema Documentary Directing and Audience Awards) 2009 docu Afghan Star, three years later Havana Marking will preem Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers at the Ifda and probably follow that up with the U.S premiere.
Gist: The Pink Panthers are the world’s most successful jewel thieves. With incredible unprecedented access, gang members Mike and Lela reveal the gang’s networks, history and human story. Playing out like a noir thriller and using cutting edge animation, the film keeps a Hollywood-style heist at its centre. We also follow the global police forces determined to stop them – with increasing success. But
beneath the glitz and excitement of the heists lie the dark truths of the illicit diamond trade and the war-shattered ruins of the Balkan states.
Production Co./Producers: Mike Lerner...
Gist: The Pink Panthers are the world’s most successful jewel thieves. With incredible unprecedented access, gang members Mike and Lela reveal the gang’s networks, history and human story. Playing out like a noir thriller and using cutting edge animation, the film keeps a Hollywood-style heist at its centre. We also follow the global police forces determined to stop them – with increasing success. But
beneath the glitz and excitement of the heists lie the dark truths of the illicit diamond trade and the war-shattered ruins of the Balkan states.
Production Co./Producers: Mike Lerner...
- 11/21/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
New York – The Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) today announced several program award winners and grantees at the Tfi Awards Luncheon at Riverpark NYC during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Two winners of the Tribeca All Access (Taa) Creative Promise Awards presented by Time Warner; seven new Taa alumni grants and fellowships; four winners of the Latin America Media Arts Fund; and four grantees supported by Insurgent Media for the inaugural Tfi Documentary Fund were all presented today, totaling $125,000 in funds.
“This year’s winners and grantees are true examples of the incredible strength of films and talent resulting from the support of the Tribeca Film Institute,” said Beth Janson, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute. “Our main hope is that these films go on to completion and build strong relationships with audiences.”
During the Tfi Awards Ceremony at Riverpark NYC in Manhattan, the following Tribeca All Access Creative Promise winners...
“This year’s winners and grantees are true examples of the incredible strength of films and talent resulting from the support of the Tribeca Film Institute,” said Beth Janson, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute. “Our main hope is that these films go on to completion and build strong relationships with audiences.”
During the Tfi Awards Ceremony at Riverpark NYC in Manhattan, the following Tribeca All Access Creative Promise winners...
- 4/29/2011
- by The Moving Arts
- The Moving Arts Journal
The Tribeca Film Institute has announced today award winners and grants totaling $1,000,000. Winners included two of the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Awards, seven new Taa alumni grants, four for the Tfi Documentary Fund, as well as four winners of the Latin America Media Arts Fund. For more details, please read the press release below or visit Tribeca Film.
[New York, NY – April 28, 2011] – The Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) today announced several program award winners and grantees at the Tfi Awards Luncheon at Riverpark NYC during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Two winners of the Tribeca All Access (Taa) Creative Promise Awards presented by Time Warner; seven new Taa alumni grants and fellowships; four winners of the Latin America Media Arts Fund; and four grantees supported by Insurgent Media for the inaugural Tfi Documentary Fund were all presented today, totaling $125,000 in funds.
“This year’s winners and grantees are true examples of the incredible strength of...
[New York, NY – April 28, 2011] – The Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) today announced several program award winners and grantees at the Tfi Awards Luncheon at Riverpark NYC during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Two winners of the Tribeca All Access (Taa) Creative Promise Awards presented by Time Warner; seven new Taa alumni grants and fellowships; four winners of the Latin America Media Arts Fund; and four grantees supported by Insurgent Media for the inaugural Tfi Documentary Fund were all presented today, totaling $125,000 in funds.
“This year’s winners and grantees are true examples of the incredible strength of...
- 4/29/2011
- by Christopher Clemente
- SoundOnSight
In the 2010 HBO documentary .Afghan Star,. Setara, a young singer, was voted off the .American Idol.-style show of the same name. She danced across the stage and her head scarf slipped, revealing her hair. This seemingly benign incident lit up the religious fanatics in post-Taliban Afghanistan, where music, dancing and TV were completely banned just ten years ago, with some traditionalists saying Setara .deserves to be killed.. In the new documentary Silencing The Song: An Afghan Fallen Star, .Afghan Star. director Havana Marking revisits Setara as she deals with ever-present threats to her safety and starts a new life as a wife and mother-to-be, while continuing to nurture dreams of becoming a pop-music idol. Wednesday...
- 1/7/2011
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Los Angeles, CA – Following up on last month's announcement of the Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue initiative, Sundance Institute announced today the ten films selected to participate in the inaugural year of this cultural exchange program. The first Film Forward slate includes five American and five international films which will be presented in collaboration with public and private partners. These films and their filmmakers will kick off the ambitious project in New York and Tunisia in December. The five American films that will tour throughout the United States and abroad as part of the initiative are: A Small Act directed by Jennifer Arnold; Amreeka directed by Cherien Dabis; Freedom Riders directed by Stanley Nelson; La Mission directed by Peter Bratt, and the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winner, Winter's Bone, directed by Debra Granik. The five international films chosen to complete the line up of independent films are: Afghan Star...
- 11/29/2010
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline Hollywood
Lixin Fan's "Last Train Home" led the nominations for the 2011 Cinema Eye Honors, which were announced today at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in the UK by filmmakers Havana Marking ("Afghan Star"), Kim Longinotto ("Pink Saris") and Cinema Eye Co-chair Aj Schnack ("Convention"). Recognizing excellence in artistic achievements in nonfiction filmmaking, Cinema Eye Honors hands out awards in eleven categories. "Home" was nominated in seven of them, tying the record previously ...
- 11/4/2010
- Indiewire
Director of Afghan Star tells of impact on young audience
"Usually at screenings people ask questions which include a statement about what they believe, and then they don't bother listening to your answer," says Havana Marking. "What was great about the kids was that they actually wanted to know what you were going to say."
As the director of Afghan Star – a documentary about Afghanistan's version of Pop Idol and its eventual winner, 21-year-old Rafi Naabzada – Marking is used to Q&As about her More 4-funded film. She has accompanied it around the world from Stockholm to Sundance and faced interrogation from audiences ranging from human rights workers to indie film buffs. Recently, however, her audience was 150 kids, aged 11 or 12, sprawled in the gym at St Augustine's School in Kilburn, north London, just before lunch hour.
"The most obvious difference was that every other screening has the audience asking you,...
"Usually at screenings people ask questions which include a statement about what they believe, and then they don't bother listening to your answer," says Havana Marking. "What was great about the kids was that they actually wanted to know what you were going to say."
As the director of Afghan Star – a documentary about Afghanistan's version of Pop Idol and its eventual winner, 21-year-old Rafi Naabzada – Marking is used to Q&As about her More 4-funded film. She has accompanied it around the world from Stockholm to Sundance and faced interrogation from audiences ranging from human rights workers to indie film buffs. Recently, however, her audience was 150 kids, aged 11 or 12, sprawled in the gym at St Augustine's School in Kilburn, north London, just before lunch hour.
"The most obvious difference was that every other screening has the audience asking you,...
- 6/14/2010
- by Stephen Armstrong
- The Guardian - Film News
Life During Wartime (15)
(Todd Solondz, 2009, Us) Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Ciarán Hinds. 98 mins.
It doesn't matter if you don't remember too much about Solondz's 1998 hit Happiness beyond taboo subjects and squirmingly dark comedy, since the characters are played by completely different actors. It sort of fits, as they've all relocated to Florida, seeking a new start, but they shouldn't get their hopes up. The treatment is similarly unforgiving and uncomfortable, often captivatingly so, and happiness is as distant a prospect as ever.
Dogtooth (18)
(Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009, Gre) Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni. 97 mins.
Front-runner for oddest film of the year: a warped slice of domestic surrealism in which a family wall in their teenage kids and creatively misinform them about the outside world. It's so wrong, you've got to laugh.
Date Night (15)
(Shawn Levy, 2010, Us) Tina Fey, Steve Carell. 88 mins.
Michael Scott and Liz Lemon – a match made in small-screen heaven keeps...
(Todd Solondz, 2009, Us) Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Ciarán Hinds. 98 mins.
It doesn't matter if you don't remember too much about Solondz's 1998 hit Happiness beyond taboo subjects and squirmingly dark comedy, since the characters are played by completely different actors. It sort of fits, as they've all relocated to Florida, seeking a new start, but they shouldn't get their hopes up. The treatment is similarly unforgiving and uncomfortable, often captivatingly so, and happiness is as distant a prospect as ever.
Dogtooth (18)
(Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009, Gre) Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni. 97 mins.
Front-runner for oddest film of the year: a warped slice of domestic surrealism in which a family wall in their teenage kids and creatively misinform them about the outside world. It's so wrong, you've got to laugh.
Date Night (15)
(Shawn Levy, 2010, Us) Tina Fey, Steve Carell. 88 mins.
Michael Scott and Liz Lemon – a match made in small-screen heaven keeps...
- 4/23/2010
- by Damon Wise
- The Guardian - Film News
Documentary that follows three of its presidential candidates in the run-up to last year's disastrous elections. By Cath Clarke
Havana Marking's last documentary followed the fortunes of contestants on Afghanistan's Pop Idol equivalent. Here, she takes on three of its presidential candidates in the run-up to last year's disastrous elections. The view from the street is that they're all the same, which goes to show the west can export voter apathy. It would all be downbeat but for interviews with young political movers and activists and memorably a young woman in a polling booth with the big, awed smile of a first time voter that says, yes, I do have a stake.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryAfghanistanCath Clarke
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
Havana Marking's last documentary followed the fortunes of contestants on Afghanistan's Pop Idol equivalent. Here, she takes on three of its presidential candidates in the run-up to last year's disastrous elections. The view from the street is that they're all the same, which goes to show the west can export voter apathy. It would all be downbeat but for interviews with young political movers and activists and memorably a young woman in a polling booth with the big, awed smile of a first time voter that says, yes, I do have a stake.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryAfghanistanCath Clarke
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 4/22/2010
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Afghan Star is Afghanistan's wildly popular version of American Idol, and is breaking social barriers in a country that is rife with them. Havana Marking captures the movement in her documentary premiering tonight on HBO at 9 p.m. Often we forget that music and the act of performing it are expressions of freedom. In a scene that evokes Elvis Presley's hip-shaking performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, a young Afghani girl defiantly casts off her headscarf and dances on stage as Muslim viewers gasp. Less than a decade ago music was banned in Afghanistan under the Taliban. When the regime fell in 2001, the restrictions on music were lifted. Since then, music has gradually returned to Afghanistan, and with it, a melodic revolution has played out. Donning white-lapelled suits and diamond-studded hijabs, young liberal-minded Afghanis use...
- 3/18/2010
- by Nathaniel Cahners Hindman
- Huffington Post
On American Idol, they try to create “triumph over adversity” backstories with anyone who's ever had a paper cut. But if you want to see people putting their lives on the line for their love of singing, you have to tune into Afghan Star tonight on HBO, at 8:30 p.m. (it repeats through March 30). This documentary explores the lives of four contestants on Afghan Star, an Idol-type TV talent competition in Afghanistan. The show was started after the end of Taliban rule, which had banned TV and even made listening to music illegal. So a TV show about singing was quite a new thing.
- 3/18/2010
- by Wendy Mitchell
- EW.com - PopWatch
Havana Marking’s Afghan Star, the United Kingdom’s submission for the 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, will be shown on HBO beginning March 18 at 9 p.m. The film chronicles the obstacles faced by ordinary Afghanis who want to — you guessed it — become the top dog in the local version of American Idol. The information below is from the film’s press release: After 30 years of war and five devastating years of Taliban rule, pop culture is beginning to return to Afghanistan. Since 2005, millions have been tuning in to Tolo TV’s wildly popular “American Idol”-style series “Afghan Star.” And when viewers vote for their favorites via cell phone, it is the first encounter with the [...]...
- 2/26/2010
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
In the mid-'70s, when women (among them Claudia Weill, Joan Micklin Silver, Joan Darling) were getting the chance to direct mainstream movies, Pauline Kael cautioned against expecting great things right away. Filmmakers needed a chance to learn and develop, she said, and there was always a chance they might not, or might simply become proficient hacks. It didn't matter, she was quoted as saying, whether there was a king or a queen on top of the garbage heap.
Daphne Merkin's profile of Nancy Meyers in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks back was an attempt to claim that a Garbage Queen was a step forward. The trouble with the piece, as with almost every plight-of-women-in-film article, is that the relentless focus on Hollywood winds up saying that the women directors working outside the mainstream don't exist.
The institutional sexism that still cripples Hollywood is appalling. When Mira Nair...
Daphne Merkin's profile of Nancy Meyers in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks back was an attempt to claim that a Garbage Queen was a step forward. The trouble with the piece, as with almost every plight-of-women-in-film article, is that the relentless focus on Hollywood winds up saying that the women directors working outside the mainstream don't exist.
The institutional sexism that still cripples Hollywood is appalling. When Mira Nair...
- 1/21/2010
- by Charles Taylor
- ifc.com
An Education, In the Loop and Afghan Star also recognised by Rottentomatoes.com's Golden Tomato awards
Up, Pixar's animated tale of an elderly adventurer and his balloon-propelled house, has been named as one of the two best-reviewed films of 2009 by the critical aggregator site Rottentomatoes.com. Pete Docter's film won the Golden Tomato award for best-reviewed wide-release movie, while Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq tale The Hurt Locker picked up the corresponding gong for limited-release films.
The awards are gleaned from ratings collated by the site from the published opinions of more than 200 top film critics. Up's success means Pixar has scored a hat-trick – the Disney-owned animation studio won the award in 2008 and 2007 for Wall-e and Ratatouille respectively.
Lone Scherfig's coming of age drama An Education was the best-reviewed British film, and also picked up an award for best drama. There was more UK success for Armando Iannucci...
Up, Pixar's animated tale of an elderly adventurer and his balloon-propelled house, has been named as one of the two best-reviewed films of 2009 by the critical aggregator site Rottentomatoes.com. Pete Docter's film won the Golden Tomato award for best-reviewed wide-release movie, while Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq tale The Hurt Locker picked up the corresponding gong for limited-release films.
The awards are gleaned from ratings collated by the site from the published opinions of more than 200 top film critics. Up's success means Pixar has scored a hat-trick – the Disney-owned animation studio won the award in 2008 and 2007 for Wall-e and Ratatouille respectively.
Lone Scherfig's coming of age drama An Education was the best-reviewed British film, and also picked up an award for best drama. There was more UK success for Armando Iannucci...
- 1/13/2010
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
While I've yet to see the doc myself (I reference Claire Denis' White Material when I think of what the film might hold narratively), when the Cinema Eye Honor Noms were released I was surprised to see that, despite the positive buzz, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson's Mugabe and the White African only manage to grab one nomination. Clearly the film is a favorite for the 2009 edition of the Ida Awards - it picked up three nominations in the Feature Documentary, ABCNews VideoSource Award an the Pare Lorentz Award categories. - While I've yet to see the doc myself (I reference Claire Denis' White Material when I think of what the film might hold narratively), when the Cinema Eye Honor Noms were released I was surprised to see that, despite the positive buzz, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson's Mugabe and the White African only manage to grab one nomination.
- 12/13/2009
- by Ioncinema.com Staff
- IONCINEMA.com
From Albania to Vietnam, 65 countries are hoping that their film entries will get picked to fill one of the five slots for Best Foreign Language Film for the 82nd annual Academy Awards.
Five slots, 65 countries, the competition is fierce! Our friends from Variety gave us this list, is your country of choice one of the 65 hopefuls?
I'm happy that my home country, the Philippines, has a fighting chance with the dramedy "Ded na si Lolo" ("Grandpa is Dead"). Take a look at the complete list.
Albania
Alive!
(Artan Minarolli)
Synopsis: A carefree Albanian student gets drawn into an ancient blood feud when he returns home for a funeral, only to find himself a wanted man.
Awards: Belgrade Film Festival B2B development grant
Sales: Wildart Film
Argentina
El secreto de sus ojos
(Juan Jose Campanella)
Synopsis: An ambitious, complex work that combines two generation-spanning love stories, a noirish thriller, some...
Five slots, 65 countries, the competition is fierce! Our friends from Variety gave us this list, is your country of choice one of the 65 hopefuls?
I'm happy that my home country, the Philippines, has a fighting chance with the dramedy "Ded na si Lolo" ("Grandpa is Dead"). Take a look at the complete list.
Albania
Alive!
(Artan Minarolli)
Synopsis: A carefree Albanian student gets drawn into an ancient blood feud when he returns home for a funeral, only to find himself a wanted man.
Awards: Belgrade Film Festival B2B development grant
Sales: Wildart Film
Argentina
El secreto de sus ojos
(Juan Jose Campanella)
Synopsis: An ambitious, complex work that combines two generation-spanning love stories, a noirish thriller, some...
- 11/7/2009
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences unveiled the long list of 65 countries vying for a Best Foreign Language nomination Oscar.
Variety says that a shortlist of nine semi-finalists will be unveiled in January, with the complete nominees to be announced Feb. 2 along with the contenders in the other categories.
The Academy Awards will be presented March 7 at the Kodak Theater.
And now, from Albania to Vietnam, see the complete list right now (I.m proud that my home country of the Philippines has an entry!!!):
Albania, "Alive!," Artan Minarolli, director
Argentina, "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Juan Jose Campanella, director
Armenia, "Autumn of the Magician," Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov, directors
Australia, "Samson & Delilah," Warwick Thornton, director
Austria, "For a Moment Freedom," Arash T. Riahi, director
Bangladesh, "Beyond the Circle," Golam Rabbany Biplob, director
Belgium, "The Misfortunates," Felix van Groeningen, director
Bolivia, "Zona Sur," Juan Carlos Valdivia, director
Bosnia and Herzegovina,...
Variety says that a shortlist of nine semi-finalists will be unveiled in January, with the complete nominees to be announced Feb. 2 along with the contenders in the other categories.
The Academy Awards will be presented March 7 at the Kodak Theater.
And now, from Albania to Vietnam, see the complete list right now (I.m proud that my home country of the Philippines has an entry!!!):
Albania, "Alive!," Artan Minarolli, director
Argentina, "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Juan Jose Campanella, director
Armenia, "Autumn of the Magician," Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov, directors
Australia, "Samson & Delilah," Warwick Thornton, director
Austria, "For a Moment Freedom," Arash T. Riahi, director
Bangladesh, "Beyond the Circle," Golam Rabbany Biplob, director
Belgium, "The Misfortunates," Felix van Groeningen, director
Bolivia, "Zona Sur," Juan Carlos Valdivia, director
Bosnia and Herzegovina,...
- 10/16/2009
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
This is the week before Austin Film Festival starts, and the studios are slowly starting to release their Oscar hopefuls. It's quite a selection this week, a little something for everyone.
Where the Wild Things Are - This adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book is one of the most anticipated films of the year, I had very high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to them, although I'm hard pressed to say exactly why. It's definitely a good film, and worth catching, although it's more a film about childhood than a kid's flick. Check back with Slackerwood later today for my review. (wide)
Afghan Star - Havana Marking's documentary (pictured above) about the risks that aspiring pop stars take to appear on the Afghanistan television show Pop Idol was popular at SXSW, and finally gets a local theatrical release. I haven't seen it but I've heard great things,...
Where the Wild Things Are - This adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book is one of the most anticipated films of the year, I had very high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to them, although I'm hard pressed to say exactly why. It's definitely a good film, and worth catching, although it's more a film about childhood than a kid's flick. Check back with Slackerwood later today for my review. (wide)
Afghan Star - Havana Marking's documentary (pictured above) about the risks that aspiring pop stars take to appear on the Afghanistan television show Pop Idol was popular at SXSW, and finally gets a local theatrical release. I haven't seen it but I've heard great things,...
- 10/16/2009
- by Jenn Brown
- Slackerwood
Jacques Audiard's French film "A Prophet," Michael Haneke's German film "The White Ribbon" and Korea's "Mother" -- three films that have figured prominently on this year's festival circuit -- are among the 65 films being considered for the foreign-language film Oscar.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its list Thursday of the 65 countries that have submitted films for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.
Nominations will be announced on Feb. 2, and the awards ceremony will be held March 7.
The 2009 submissions follow (click the links on select countries for full stories):
Albania, "Alive!," Artan Minarolli, director;
Argentina, "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Juan Jose Campanella
Armenia, "Autumn of the Magician," Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov
Australia, "Samson & Delilah," Warwick Thornton
Austria, "For a Moment Freedom," Arash T. Riahi
Bangladesh, "Beyond the Circle," Golam Rabbany Biplob
Belgium, "The Misfortunates," Felix van Groeningen
Bolivia, "Zona Sur," Juan Carlos Valdivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina,...
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its list Thursday of the 65 countries that have submitted films for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.
Nominations will be announced on Feb. 2, and the awards ceremony will be held March 7.
The 2009 submissions follow (click the links on select countries for full stories):
Albania, "Alive!," Artan Minarolli, director;
Argentina, "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Juan Jose Campanella
Armenia, "Autumn of the Magician," Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov
Australia, "Samson & Delilah," Warwick Thornton
Austria, "For a Moment Freedom," Arash T. Riahi
Bangladesh, "Beyond the Circle," Golam Rabbany Biplob
Belgium, "The Misfortunates," Felix van Groeningen
Bolivia, "Zona Sur," Juan Carlos Valdivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina,...
- 10/15/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Afghan Star, Havana Marking's documentary about an American Idol-style singing contest that captured the hearts of the country, really couldn't come along at a better moment. As the threat of a resurgent Taliban increases steadily, it puts an extraordinarily human face on the victims of the escalating violence and nightmarish civil rights abuses in that region. Unfortunately, since it screened on U.K. TV this year, that disqualified it for competition in the Documentary category at this year's Oscars. But all hope is not yet lost -- the film is taking an unusual route on the way to awards season, as it's been submitted as the U.K.'s selection in the Foreign Language Film category.
- 10/7/2009
- Movieline
London -- The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has picked Havana Marking's documentary "Afghan Star" to rep British hopes in the race to secure an Oscar foreign-language film nomination slot.
Marking's documentary follows the competitors entering "Afghan Star," an "American Idol"-style singing competition that airs on Afghanistan's Tolo TV channel.
Produced by Roast Beef, Redstart and Kaboora Prods., it sang its way to the world documentary directing and audience awards at Sundance earlier this year.
The selection of Marking's Afghan-u.K. production was made possible by changes in Oscar rules that now allow films in a language that is not one of the principal languages of the submitting country.
Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced Feb. 2 and the awards will take place on March 7.
Marking's documentary follows the competitors entering "Afghan Star," an "American Idol"-style singing competition that airs on Afghanistan's Tolo TV channel.
Produced by Roast Beef, Redstart and Kaboora Prods., it sang its way to the world documentary directing and audience awards at Sundance earlier this year.
The selection of Marking's Afghan-u.K. production was made possible by changes in Oscar rules that now allow films in a language that is not one of the principal languages of the submitting country.
Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced Feb. 2 and the awards will take place on March 7.
- 10/7/2009
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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