2023 has been one of the most professionally exhilarating years of my life but also one of the hardest. I have been affected deeply by losing Tom Butchart suddenly in June, the childhood friend “the keeper of sacred knowledge and provider of affordable dreams” that I made Sound It Out (my 2011 film) about. We also lost my mother-in-law Pat and documentary titan Jess Search. The impact of these deaths have intertwined with hugely positive experiences that I could never have predicted, leaving me a little discombobulated, determined to live with boldness, albeit with a twinge of melancholy.
In February I received the Chicken & Egg Award, which is given to eight established filmmakers from marginalised genders a year. The recipients form a cohort, are given mentorship, and an unrestricted prize. I spent some of my award going out to New Mexico to experiment with the arts lab at the University of New Mexico...
In February I received the Chicken & Egg Award, which is given to eight established filmmakers from marginalised genders a year. The recipients form a cohort, are given mentorship, and an unrestricted prize. I spent some of my award going out to New Mexico to experiment with the arts lab at the University of New Mexico...
- 12/31/2023
- by Jeanie Finlay
- Directors Notes
Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce debuts in 568 cinemas while André Rieu’s White Christmas is the widest opener.
Concert films and anniversary screenings dominate the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce opens in 568 cinemas for Trafalgar Releasing.
It is not quite as many locations as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which debuted in 651 venues back in October. Swift’s film opened on £5.7m and broke the record for the highest-grossing concert film in the UK, currently standing at around £12m.
Renaissance is directed and produced by Beyonce, through her company Parkwood Entertainment, and...
Concert films and anniversary screenings dominate the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce opens in 568 cinemas for Trafalgar Releasing.
It is not quite as many locations as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which debuted in 651 venues back in October. Swift’s film opened on £5.7m and broke the record for the highest-grossing concert film in the UK, currently standing at around £12m.
Renaissance is directed and produced by Beyonce, through her company Parkwood Entertainment, and...
- 12/1/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce debuts in 568 cinemas while André Rieu’s White Christmas is the widest opener.
Concert films and anniversary screenings dominate the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce opens in 568 cinemas for Trafalgar Releasing.
It is not quite as many locations as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which debuted in 651 venues back in October. Swift’s film opened on £5.7m and broke the record for the highest-grossing concert film in the UK, currently standing at around £12m.
Renaissance is directed and produced by Beyonce, through her company Parkwood Entertainment, and...
Concert films and anniversary screenings dominate the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce opens in 568 cinemas for Trafalgar Releasing.
It is not quite as many locations as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which debuted in 651 venues back in October. Swift’s film opened on £5.7m and broke the record for the highest-grossing concert film in the UK, currently standing at around £12m.
Renaissance is directed and produced by Beyonce, through her company Parkwood Entertainment, and...
- 12/1/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Documentary suggests that when performer Gena Marvin takes to the streets she is squaring up not only to prejudice but to the state
It often takes actual physical courage to be different anywhere you grow up – but it takes superhuman courage to be different in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Queendom is a study of queer drag performance artist Gena Marvin (born Gennadiy Chebotarev), who challenges the machismo of the Putin regime, the attack on Ukraine and the Russian state’s homophobic attitudes in general by taking to the streets in Moscow, either as part of a demonstration or on her own, always in extravagant, surreal outfits and vertiginous heels, like a Giacometti figure — sometimes subversively assuming the three colours of the Russian Federation’s flag. Often she is beaten up.
Gena was born in the grimly remote far eastern town of Magadan, associated with forced labour camps of the Stalin...
It often takes actual physical courage to be different anywhere you grow up – but it takes superhuman courage to be different in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Queendom is a study of queer drag performance artist Gena Marvin (born Gennadiy Chebotarev), who challenges the machismo of the Putin regime, the attack on Ukraine and the Russian state’s homophobic attitudes in general by taking to the streets in Moscow, either as part of a demonstration or on her own, always in extravagant, surreal outfits and vertiginous heels, like a Giacometti figure — sometimes subversively assuming the three colours of the Russian Federation’s flag. Often she is beaten up.
Gena was born in the grimly remote far eastern town of Magadan, associated with forced labour camps of the Stalin...
- 11/29/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Sony’s magnum opus “Napoleon,” directed by Ridley Scott, debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with a regal £5.2 million ($6.6 million), according to numbers from Comscore.
In its second weekend, Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes” dropped down a spot to second place with £2.6 million for a total of £10.1 million. Disney’s “Wish” debuted in third position with £2.4 million.
In fourth place, in its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Saltburn” earned £572,728 for a total of £1.9 million. Rounding off the top five was Disney’s “The Marvels” that collected £485,099 in its third week for a total of £6.5 million.
Trafalgar Releasing’s concert film “Cliff Richard: The Blue Sapphire Tour 2023” bowed in sixth place with £329,826. Universal’s 20th anniversary rerelease of Richard Curtis’ evergreen romantic comedy “Love Actually” entered the charts at No. 10 with £104,728.
The coming weekend all eyes will be on Trafalgar’s concert film “Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce.
In its second weekend, Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes” dropped down a spot to second place with £2.6 million for a total of £10.1 million. Disney’s “Wish” debuted in third position with £2.4 million.
In fourth place, in its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Saltburn” earned £572,728 for a total of £1.9 million. Rounding off the top five was Disney’s “The Marvels” that collected £485,099 in its third week for a total of £6.5 million.
Trafalgar Releasing’s concert film “Cliff Richard: The Blue Sapphire Tour 2023” bowed in sixth place with £329,826. Universal’s 20th anniversary rerelease of Richard Curtis’ evergreen romantic comedy “Love Actually” entered the charts at No. 10 with £104,728.
The coming weekend all eyes will be on Trafalgar’s concert film “Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce.
- 11/28/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Mstyslav Chernov’s unflinching account of the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine wins the public vote at the documentary festival
Mstyslav Chernov’s unflinching account of the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 20 Days In Mariupol, has won the Npo IDFA Audience Award at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
The €5,000 prize was awarded at the Royal Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam on Saturday night, (November 18) followed by a special screening of the film. The award is based on votes by festival visitors who rate the films directly following their screenings via a Qr code.
Mstyslav Chernov’s unflinching account of the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 20 Days In Mariupol, has won the Npo IDFA Audience Award at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
The €5,000 prize was awarded at the Royal Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam on Saturday night, (November 18) followed by a special screening of the film. The award is based on votes by festival visitors who rate the films directly following their screenings via a Qr code.
- 11/20/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Dogwoof has debuted the trailer for the upcoming documentary ‘Queendom.’
The doc follows Gena Marvin, a queer artist from a small town in Russia who dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape and protests the government on the streets of Moscow.
Born and raised on the harsh streets of Magadan, a frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Gena is only 21. She stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism. By doing that, she wants to change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community.
The performances – often dark, strange, evocative, and queer at their core – are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious. But they come at a price.
Also in trailers – Official trailer lands for ‘The Archies’
Having had it’s world premiere playing in competition at SXSW, the doc has since picked...
The doc follows Gena Marvin, a queer artist from a small town in Russia who dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape and protests the government on the streets of Moscow.
Born and raised on the harsh streets of Magadan, a frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Gena is only 21. She stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism. By doing that, she wants to change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community.
The performances – often dark, strange, evocative, and queer at their core – are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious. But they come at a price.
Also in trailers – Official trailer lands for ‘The Archies’
Having had it’s world premiere playing in competition at SXSW, the doc has since picked...
- 11/14/2023
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Each of the winners takes home festival’s Golden Eye trophy and a Chf 20,000 cash prize.
Turkish drama Hesitation Wound by Selman Nacar has won the Feature Film Competition prize at the 19th Zurich Film Festival.
Hesitiation Wound, which world premiered last month in Venice’s Horizons section, is the story of a female Turkish lawyer fighting both a murder case and her own personal issues.
The Swiss festival awarded the top prize in its Focus competition, which is for films from Switzerland, Germany and Austria, to the Afghanistan set documentary Hollywoodgate by Ibrahim Nash’at.
Hollywoodgate, which world premiered out...
Turkish drama Hesitation Wound by Selman Nacar has won the Feature Film Competition prize at the 19th Zurich Film Festival.
Hesitiation Wound, which world premiered last month in Venice’s Horizons section, is the story of a female Turkish lawyer fighting both a murder case and her own personal issues.
The Swiss festival awarded the top prize in its Focus competition, which is for films from Switzerland, Germany and Austria, to the Afghanistan set documentary Hollywoodgate by Ibrahim Nash’at.
Hollywoodgate, which world premiered out...
- 10/8/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Updated with juror names and winner of 2023 Points North Pitch.
Earlier: A first-time filmmaker has claimed the top prize at the 19th Annual Camden Film Festival in Maine, one of the country’s foremost all-documentary festivals.
Director Yousef Srouji earned the Harrell Award for Three Promises, a film set in the Occupied Territories. “At the start of the 2000s, the Israeli army retaliated against the second intifada in the West Bank,” notes a description of the documentary. “All the while, Suha, a mother of two young children, decides it’s time to start a film diary. Years later, her youngest son Yousef picks up the archive and discovers the difficult choices she faced then. The three promises, made and broken, evidence the strong love of a mother to her children, to her land, and to herself. The result is a reflexive act of love in a time capsule.”
‘Three Promises...
Earlier: A first-time filmmaker has claimed the top prize at the 19th Annual Camden Film Festival in Maine, one of the country’s foremost all-documentary festivals.
Director Yousef Srouji earned the Harrell Award for Three Promises, a film set in the Occupied Territories. “At the start of the 2000s, the Israeli army retaliated against the second intifada in the West Bank,” notes a description of the documentary. “All the while, Suha, a mother of two young children, decides it’s time to start a film diary. Years later, her youngest son Yousef picks up the archive and discovers the difficult choices she faced then. The three promises, made and broken, evidence the strong love of a mother to her children, to her land, and to herself. The result is a reflexive act of love in a time capsule.”
‘Three Promises...
- 9/19/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Updated with the addition of The Holly and American Symphony to the FallDocs lineup.
The Holly, Julian Rubinstein’s documentary about conflict over a gentrifying neighborhood near Denver, and Matthew Heineman’s film American Symphony, about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, have been added to the IDA’s FallDocs screening series.
American Symphony will hold an in-person screening on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles, followed by a live Q&a with Heineman.
The Holly will hold an in-person screening on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at the Culver Theater, followed by a live Q&a with Rubinstein, main participant Terrance Roberts, and Aqeela Sherrills, anti-violence activist and co-founder of Community Based Public Safety Collective.
Earlier: Exclusive: The International Documentary Association announced the lineup for its prestigious FallDocs 2023 program, featuring a slew of Oscar contending nonfiction films as well as more than two dozen films that haven’t yet nailed down distribution.
The Holly, Julian Rubinstein’s documentary about conflict over a gentrifying neighborhood near Denver, and Matthew Heineman’s film American Symphony, about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, have been added to the IDA’s FallDocs screening series.
American Symphony will hold an in-person screening on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles, followed by a live Q&a with Heineman.
The Holly will hold an in-person screening on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at the Culver Theater, followed by a live Q&a with Rubinstein, main participant Terrance Roberts, and Aqeela Sherrills, anti-violence activist and co-founder of Community Based Public Safety Collective.
Earlier: Exclusive: The International Documentary Association announced the lineup for its prestigious FallDocs 2023 program, featuring a slew of Oscar contending nonfiction films as well as more than two dozen films that haven’t yet nailed down distribution.
- 8/31/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the titles that will compete in its official, first feature, documentary and short film competitions.
Festival director Kristy Matheson said: “The films represented in each of these competitive strands offer audiences an exciting array of U.K. and global filmmaking voices and cinematic forms. We’re so proud to be showcasing each of these films and thank all the filmmaking teams in competition for sharing their films with us.”
Official Competition
“Baltimore”
“Dear Jassi”
“Europa”
“Evil Does Not Exist”
“Fingernails”
“Gasoline Rainbow”
“I Am Sirat”
“The Royal Hotel”
“Self Portrait: 47 Km 2020”
“Starve Acre”
“Together 99”
First Feature Competition
“Black Dog”
“Earth Mama” (U.S. Dir-scr. Savanah Leaf)
“Hoard”
“In Camera”
“Mambar Pierrette”
“Paradise is Burning”
“Penal Cordillera”
“The Queen of My Dreams”
“Sky Peals”
“Tiger Stripes”
“Tuesday”
Documentary Competition
“Bye Bye Tiberias”
“Celluloid Underground”
“Chasing Chasing Amy”
“A Common Sequence”
“Dancing On...
Festival director Kristy Matheson said: “The films represented in each of these competitive strands offer audiences an exciting array of U.K. and global filmmaking voices and cinematic forms. We’re so proud to be showcasing each of these films and thank all the filmmaking teams in competition for sharing their films with us.”
Official Competition
“Baltimore”
“Dear Jassi”
“Europa”
“Evil Does Not Exist”
“Fingernails”
“Gasoline Rainbow”
“I Am Sirat”
“The Royal Hotel”
“Self Portrait: 47 Km 2020”
“Starve Acre”
“Together 99”
First Feature Competition
“Black Dog”
“Earth Mama” (U.S. Dir-scr. Savanah Leaf)
“Hoard”
“In Camera”
“Mambar Pierrette”
“Paradise is Burning”
“Penal Cordillera”
“The Queen of My Dreams”
“Sky Peals”
“Tiger Stripes”
“Tuesday”
Documentary Competition
“Bye Bye Tiberias”
“Celluloid Underground”
“Chasing Chasing Amy”
“A Common Sequence”
“Dancing On...
- 8/29/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
New works by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kitty Green, and Christos Nikou are among the titles that have been set to play in competition at the upcoming 67th edition of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) London Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list.
Eleven films will screen in the official competition, competing for the best film award. Another eleven titles will screen in the first feature competition, competing for the sutherland award. Eight titles will play in the documentary competition, with the winner taking the grierson award.
The winners of these four competitive awards will be chosen by Lff Awards Juries, the members of which the BFI said will be announced in the coming weeks. This year, Lff runs October 4—14 and marks festival head Kristy Matheson’s first edition in charge after she took the helm last year following the exit of Tricia Tuttle. Saltburn, the latest film from Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell,...
Eleven films will screen in the official competition, competing for the best film award. Another eleven titles will screen in the first feature competition, competing for the sutherland award. Eight titles will play in the documentary competition, with the winner taking the grierson award.
The winners of these four competitive awards will be chosen by Lff Awards Juries, the members of which the BFI said will be announced in the coming weeks. This year, Lff runs October 4—14 and marks festival head Kristy Matheson’s first edition in charge after she took the helm last year following the exit of Tricia Tuttle. Saltburn, the latest film from Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell,...
- 8/29/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Nearly 150 documentaries set to screen at festival in South Korea.
South Korea’s Dmz International Documentary Film Festival (Dmz Docs) has overhauled its programme structure ahead of its 15th edition, which will open with Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory.
A total of 147 documentaries, comprising 83 features and 64 shorts, from 54 countries will be screened at the festival from September 14-21 at cinemas in and around Goyang city, near the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, in Gyeonggi Province.
The programme, which previously included the Global Vision and Dmz Open Cinema sections, have been reorganised into three competition strands: International, Frontier and Korean.
South Korea’s Dmz International Documentary Film Festival (Dmz Docs) has overhauled its programme structure ahead of its 15th edition, which will open with Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory.
A total of 147 documentaries, comprising 83 features and 64 shorts, from 54 countries will be screened at the festival from September 14-21 at cinemas in and around Goyang city, near the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, in Gyeonggi Province.
The programme, which previously included the Global Vision and Dmz Open Cinema sections, have been reorganised into three competition strands: International, Frontier and Korean.
- 8/24/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The Grand Jury winners of the 41st Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, presented by Genesis Motor and Warner Bros. Discovery, have been announced, with “Something You Said Last Night” and “Anhell69” winning the top awards for North American Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature. Select award winners will be available on the Outfest Los Angeles’ virtual platform through Sunday, after which Audience Award winners will be announced.
The Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature, now in Year 2 thanks to a generous donation from Lerner and Reis to the Outfest Empathy Fund, will see the awarded filmmaker, “Anhell69,” director Theo Montoya, receive a $5,000 prize.
The festival opened with Aitch Alberto’s “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” and closed with Sav Rodger’s “Chasing Chasing Amy.” For the first time in Outfest’s LGBTQ+ Summer Film Festival history, both the opening...
The Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature, now in Year 2 thanks to a generous donation from Lerner and Reis to the Outfest Empathy Fund, will see the awarded filmmaker, “Anhell69,” director Theo Montoya, receive a $5,000 prize.
The festival opened with Aitch Alberto’s “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” and closed with Sav Rodger’s “Chasing Chasing Amy.” For the first time in Outfest’s LGBTQ+ Summer Film Festival history, both the opening...
- 7/24/2023
- by Scott Mendelson
- The Wrap
Updated from July 24 story with Audience Award winners: Outfest announced the winners of audience awards, as voted on by attendees of the Lgbtqia+ festival in Los Angeles. Big Boys, directed by Corey Sherman, won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture, directed by Sharon Marie Roggio, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, and the Audience Award for Best Episodic Series went to Day Jobs, directed by Stevie Wain and Auri Jackson.
Earlier: Outfest announced its grand jury prize winners today, after the Lgbtqia+ film festival in Los Angeles wrapped its 41st edition.
Anhell69, directed by Theo Montoya, won the Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Award for Documentary Feature, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize. The film set in Medellín, Colombia takes a hybrid doc-fictional approach to explore the country’s history of violence and the bleak prospects for many young people in Colombia.
Earlier: Outfest announced its grand jury prize winners today, after the Lgbtqia+ film festival in Los Angeles wrapped its 41st edition.
Anhell69, directed by Theo Montoya, won the Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Award for Documentary Feature, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize. The film set in Medellín, Colombia takes a hybrid doc-fictional approach to explore the country’s history of violence and the bleak prospects for many young people in Colombia.
- 7/24/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Kaouther Ben Hania’s heartbreaking Tunisian documentary Four Daughters has taken the top prize of best international film at the 2023 Munich International Film Festival.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose two eldest daughters left the country to join the Islamic State in Libya, never to be seen again. In her exploration of Hamrouni’s story, Ben Hania hires two actors to play Olfa’s missing daughters. The docu-drama hybrid premiered in Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary (shared with Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies).
Another hybrid feature from Cannes, The Buriti Flower, took Munich’s CineVision Award for best international emerging director for helmers João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film, made in close collaboration with the Krahô people of Brazil, is a fusion of ethnography and poetic narrative, exploring the group’s tribal memories.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose two eldest daughters left the country to join the Islamic State in Libya, never to be seen again. In her exploration of Hamrouni’s story, Ben Hania hires two actors to play Olfa’s missing daughters. The docu-drama hybrid premiered in Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary (shared with Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies).
Another hybrid feature from Cannes, The Buriti Flower, took Munich’s CineVision Award for best international emerging director for helmers João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film, made in close collaboration with the Krahô people of Brazil, is a fusion of ethnography and poetic narrative, exploring the group’s tribal memories.
- 7/1/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Retrenchment by many distribution platforms has made for “highly turbulent times” in the documentary industry, the Sundance Institute acknowledges, but with help from a major foundation it is injecting some much-needed positive news into a field beset by anxiety.
The nonprofit institute announced today that under a three-year partnership with the John Templeton Foundation the size of the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund will swell by $500,000 a year, allowing it to double the size of grants “across the board, from development to post-production.” The current open call for applications – which closes Monday, April 17 – will “award selected projects at the development stage grants of up to $40,000 and Production and Post-Production grants of up to $100,000.”
“Given what is happening in the field, it just seems incredibly urgent to me and to many others that the nonprofit ecosystem kick in,” Carrie Lozano, the Sundance Institute’s director of documentary film program and artist programs,...
The nonprofit institute announced today that under a three-year partnership with the John Templeton Foundation the size of the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund will swell by $500,000 a year, allowing it to double the size of grants “across the board, from development to post-production.” The current open call for applications – which closes Monday, April 17 – will “award selected projects at the development stage grants of up to $40,000 and Production and Post-Production grants of up to $100,000.”
“Given what is happening in the field, it just seems incredibly urgent to me and to many others that the nonprofit ecosystem kick in,” Carrie Lozano, the Sundance Institute’s director of documentary film program and artist programs,...
- 4/12/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Motherland, a “dark and monumental” film about neo-nationalism in Belarus, earned the top prize tonight at the prestigious Cph:dox festival in Copenhagen.
Belorussian directors Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka accepted the Dox:Award honor at a ceremony at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in the Danish capital. Jurors praised Motherland as “a cinematic and meaningful film that took its time unfolding the complexity of living within an oppressive and unjust system. It poses questions about the idea of an individual choice within a cornered society. The title of the film is a way to give back the power to the women who are at the forefront of this fight.” [See the full list of Cph:dox winners below].
‘Motherland’
The world premiere of Motherland at Cph:dox comes at a particularly timely moment, just over a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine with key assistance from the Kremlin-allied Belorussian government. Russian forces trained in Belarus in advance of the war...
Belorussian directors Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka accepted the Dox:Award honor at a ceremony at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in the Danish capital. Jurors praised Motherland as “a cinematic and meaningful film that took its time unfolding the complexity of living within an oppressive and unjust system. It poses questions about the idea of an individual choice within a cornered society. The title of the film is a way to give back the power to the women who are at the forefront of this fight.” [See the full list of Cph:dox winners below].
‘Motherland’
The world premiere of Motherland at Cph:dox comes at a particularly timely moment, just over a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine with key assistance from the Kremlin-allied Belorussian government. Russian forces trained in Belarus in advance of the war...
- 3/24/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The top Dox:Award at Cph:dox, the Copenhagen documentary festival, has gone to “Motherland” by Ukrainian-Belarussian director Alexander Mihalkovich (“My Granny From Mars”) and Ukrainian director Hanna Badziaka.
Described by Variety as “an ominous portrait of the oppressive culture of cruelty in post-Soviet Belarus,” the film follows Svetlana, whose son died during his military service as the result of violent abuse, in her quest to expose and prosecute those responsible for his death.
Dedicating the award to “all the Ukrainians fighting Russian aggression and to Belarussian political prisoners,” the directing duo thanked all those who helped them make the film, in particular the protagonists, “who were brave to stand in front of the camera and patient with us as it was a long journey of four years.”
Handing out the prize, the jury said: “This was such a cinematic and meaningful film that took its time unfolding the complexity of living...
Described by Variety as “an ominous portrait of the oppressive culture of cruelty in post-Soviet Belarus,” the film follows Svetlana, whose son died during his military service as the result of violent abuse, in her quest to expose and prosecute those responsible for his death.
Dedicating the award to “all the Ukrainians fighting Russian aggression and to Belarussian political prisoners,” the directing duo thanked all those who helped them make the film, in particular the protagonists, “who were brave to stand in front of the camera and patient with us as it was a long journey of four years.”
Handing out the prize, the jury said: “This was such a cinematic and meaningful film that took its time unfolding the complexity of living...
- 3/24/2023
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Further winners include ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’, ‘Mrs. Hansen & The Bad Companions’.
Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka’s Motherland, about the brutal military culture in Belarus, has won the main Dox:Award prize at Cph:dox 2023.
The Sweden-Ukraine-Norway co-production follows two storylines: a woman trying to shed light on the culture of violence and abuse in the Belarusian military after her son was found dead while in the army; and a group of young friends from the techno underground who face being drafted soon.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The awards were handed out at a ceremony this evening...
Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka’s Motherland, about the brutal military culture in Belarus, has won the main Dox:Award prize at Cph:dox 2023.
The Sweden-Ukraine-Norway co-production follows two storylines: a woman trying to shed light on the culture of violence and abuse in the Belarusian military after her son was found dead while in the army; and a group of young friends from the techno underground who face being drafted soon.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The awards were handed out at a ceremony this evening...
- 3/24/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Austin, TX – It’s ironic that the film “Queendom” played the SXSW Film & TV Festival right down the street from the Texas legislature, which is leading the charge in American for the dissolution of LGBTQ+ rights and specifically drag queens. This story is from Russia, which at one time was held up as the opposite to where American should be.
Gena, a 21-year-old queer artist from a small town in Russia, dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape, and protests the government on the streets of Moscow. Her radical performances in public became a new form of art and activism, and by doing that, she changed people’s perception of beauty and queerness, as well as brought attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. The performances are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious, and are strange, evocation and queer to the core. But they ultimately come at a price.
Gena, a 21-year-old queer artist from a small town in Russia, dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape, and protests the government on the streets of Moscow. Her radical performances in public became a new form of art and activism, and by doing that, she changed people’s perception of beauty and queerness, as well as brought attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. The performances are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious, and are strange, evocation and queer to the core. But they ultimately come at a price.
- 3/22/2023
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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