“In the Streets” is the first edition of the Notebook Insert, a seasonal supplement on moving-image culture. Each issue, published over the course of a week, will include a number of features on a particular theme, accompanied by original illustrations. For this inaugural offering, we consider the ever-increasing presence of video in public spaces, from live streams to protest projections, from commercial advertising to state propaganda, and from architectural marvels to in-flight entertainment.In this issue:Illustration by Lale Westvind."Las Vegas Plays Itself" by Nicholas RussellIn cinema, if not in live streams, the sense of the city is confirmed by pre-chewed images.Illustration by Lale Westvind."The Illuminator Strikes Again" by Maxwell Paparella The mobile projection collective shines a light on the structures of power.Illustration by Lale Westvind."Multiplex | In the Streets," with contributions by Martine Syms, Radu Jude, Amalia Ulman, Pan Lu, and Allee Errico Short-form responses to...
- 5/2/2024
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSBreak no.1 & Break no.2..The lineups for select sections of the 2024 editions of the Berlinale and International Film Festival Rotterdam have been unveiled, with films from Panorama, Forum, Forum Expanded, Generation, and Berlinale Special announced for the former, and the Tiger and Big Screen competitions at the latter. In Berlin, so far, we are excited by the prospect of new films by Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) and Jérémy Clapin (I Lost My Body), whereas in Rotterdam, we have our eye on new work by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and Lei Lei. As the year comes to a close, the Best of 2023 lists keep coming. Sight & Sound shared the seventh edition of their always-interesting poll of the best video essays of the year,...
- 12/20/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHam on Rye.Tyler Taormina, director of the idiosyncratic Ham on Rye (2019) and Happer's Comet (2022), has wrapped production on his next feature. Filmed on Long Island, Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point is a Christmas comedy that stars Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, and Gregg Turkington, plus the progeny of two prominent filmmakers in Francesca Scorsese and Sawyer Spielberg.The Guardian reports that filmmaker Brian Rose is attempting to “recreate” the lost version of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), which was altered significantly by Rko prior to its release. Using “the latest technology to reconstruct lost material and animate charcoal sketches,” Rose has reportedly spent four years recreating “around 30,000 frames” of Welles’s original rough cut in order that viewers can visualize what Welles intended in lieu of seeing the director’s original cut,...
- 6/21/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.REMEMBERINGInauguration of the Pleasure Dome.Kenneth Anger has died at the age of 96, as reported this morning by his gallery. "Anger forged a body of work as dazzlingly poetic in its unique visual intensity as it is narratively innovative," wrote Maximilian Le Cain of the pioneering avant-gardist (and devoted occultist) for Senses of Cinema. "Anger’s films are cinematic manifestations of his occult practices. As such, they are highly symbolical, either featuring characters directly portraying gods, forces and demons or else finding an appropriate embodiment for them in the iconography of contemporary pop culture."The Austrian actor Helmut Berger died last week aged 78. He was best known as Luchino Visconti’s muse, unforgettable in The Damned (1969), Ludwig (1973), and Conversation Piece (1974). Among his additional...
- 5/24/2023
- MUBI
At the sold-out annual gala of Moca on Saturday night, April 15, Keanu Reeves and his girlfriend artist Alexandra Grant, walked the red carpet and shared a kiss in front of the phalanx of photographers, before joining around 600 other guests inside the museum’s Geffen Contemporary building in downtown L.A.
During the cocktail hour, attendees — who also included Tiffany Haddish, Jodie Foster and Alexandra Hedison, Paramount Animation chief Ramsey Ann Naito and Reeves’ one-time Bill and Ted co-star Alex Winter, Jennifer Tilly, Lisa Edelstein, David and Susan Gersh, producers Lawrence Bender and Carolyn Folks, and CAA’s Joel Lubin — got the first look at Moca’s new exhibit, Carl Craig: Party/After-Party, an immersive soundscape and light installation, ahead of its opening today. “It’s so intense and the vibrations are so strong, that you can’t even hang art in the adjacent building,” Moca director Johanna Burton told THR of the show.
During the cocktail hour, attendees — who also included Tiffany Haddish, Jodie Foster and Alexandra Hedison, Paramount Animation chief Ramsey Ann Naito and Reeves’ one-time Bill and Ted co-star Alex Winter, Jennifer Tilly, Lisa Edelstein, David and Susan Gersh, producers Lawrence Bender and Carolyn Folks, and CAA’s Joel Lubin — got the first look at Moca’s new exhibit, Carl Craig: Party/After-Party, an immersive soundscape and light installation, ahead of its opening today. “It’s so intense and the vibrations are so strong, that you can’t even hang art in the adjacent building,” Moca director Johanna Burton told THR of the show.
- 4/16/2023
- by Degen Pener
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘Aftersun’ wins Best First Feature, ‘Joyland’ Best International Film.
A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once has dominated the 2023 Spirit Awards, claiming seven of the eight awards it was nominated for including film, director for the Daniels, and lead and supporting performance for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, respectively.
As awards season nears its climax, the madcap multiverse adventure heads into next weekend’s Oscars as the clear frontrunner for major honours after a triumphant Saturday evening under the traditional Film Independent tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
This follows major wins at three of the four US...
A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once has dominated the 2023 Spirit Awards, claiming seven of the eight awards it was nominated for including film, director for the Daniels, and lead and supporting performance for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, respectively.
As awards season nears its climax, the madcap multiverse adventure heads into next weekend’s Oscars as the clear frontrunner for major honours after a triumphant Saturday evening under the traditional Film Independent tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
This follows major wins at three of the four US...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Everything Everywhere All at Once cleaned up at the 38th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, winning seven awards, including best feature.
Stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan each collected another award to add to their hauls, taking home best lead performance and best supporting performance, respectively, while Stephanie Hsu won best breakthrough performance. The film’s writer-directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, won the Spirit Award for best director and best screenplay, and Paul Rogers won for his editing work.
Heading into the show, Everything Everywhere All at Once led the film nominations with eight nods, winning every category in which it was nominated. Jamie Lee Curtis also was nominated but lost to her Eeao co-star Quan for best supporting performance.
On the TV side, The Bear was named best new scripted series, with Ayo Edebiri taking home the award for best supporting performance in a new scripted series.
Stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan each collected another award to add to their hauls, taking home best lead performance and best supporting performance, respectively, while Stephanie Hsu won best breakthrough performance. The film’s writer-directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, won the Spirit Award for best director and best screenplay, and Paul Rogers won for his editing work.
Heading into the show, Everything Everywhere All at Once led the film nominations with eight nods, winning every category in which it was nominated. Jamie Lee Curtis also was nominated but lost to her Eeao co-star Quan for best supporting performance.
On the TV side, The Bear was named best new scripted series, with Ayo Edebiri taking home the award for best supporting performance in a new scripted series.
- 3/5/2023
- by Kimberly Nordyke
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
My roundup of the year in cinematic soundtracks is a sonic collage of emotion and sensations, mixed together with both pop and orchestral flourishes.We start off with music from Tár, Todd Field’s return to filmmaking and the story of the renowned conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic (Cate Blanchett). Hildur Guðnadóttir’s concept album features music from within the film and inspired by it, with original pieces alongside beloved works by Elgar and Mahler.Experiencing Memoria at the cinema turned my senses upside down. Here Apichatpong Weerasethakul is in full force, offering a cinematic experience of the sensory. If one were to critique a film based solely on its sonic sensibilities, Memoria achieves the highest embodiment of altered states possible through the marriage of sound and visuals. The realms of human consciousness are Apichatpong's focus and it is through sound design and music that we fall into his world.
- 12/20/2022
- MUBI
As the arthouse cinema market continues to regain its footing, the list of what may be considered an overlooked film could be quite vast, depending on one’s metrics. For our yearly feature highlighting the 50 most overlooked films––arriving before our overall top 50 films––we’ve sought to dig deep to find the gems that deserved more attention upon their initial release and have mostly been left out of year-end conversations. Hopefully, with many widely available on a variety of streaming platforms, they will begin to find an expanded audience.
Sadly, many documentaries would qualify for this list, but we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. While they aren’t included on this list, we also hope a number of 2022 qualifying films find an audience when they get a proper release next year, including Saint Omer, One Fine Morning, and Return to Seoul.
Sadly, many documentaries would qualify for this list, but we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. While they aren’t included on this list, we also hope a number of 2022 qualifying films find an audience when they get a proper release next year, including Saint Omer, One Fine Morning, and Return to Seoul.
- 12/15/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Though we aim to discuss a wide breadth of films each year, few things give us more pleasure than the arrival of bold, new voices. It’s why we venture to festivals and pore over a variety of different features that might bring to light some emerging talent. This year was an especially notable time for new directors making their stamp, and we’re highlighting the handful of 2022 debuts that most impressed us.
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
One of the most exciting directorial debuts of the year, Martine Syms’ The African Desperate is an electrifying ride through a day in the life of Palace Bryant (Diamond Stingily). An Mfa grad on her final day of academia, she navigates...
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
One of the most exciting directorial debuts of the year, Martine Syms’ The African Desperate is an electrifying ride through a day in the life of Palace Bryant (Diamond Stingily). An Mfa grad on her final day of academia, she navigates...
- 12/8/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSThis week, we’re remembering the iconoclastic, anti-capitalist filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub, who has died at the age of 89. In the course of revisiting Christopher Small’s Straub-Huillet Companion column, we were moved by this quotation from Straub, from a 1974 edition of Jump Cut:The revolution is like God’s grace, it has to be made anew each day, it becomes new every day, a revolution is not made once and for all. And it’s exactly like that in daily life. There is no division between politics and life, art and politics. I think one has no other choice, if one is making films that can stand on their own feet, they must become documentary, or in any case they must have documentary roots. Everything must be correct,...
- 11/23/2022
- MUBI
Celebrating its 38th edition, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have unveiled their 2023 nominations, with the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once leading the pack with eight nominations while Todd Field’s TÁR secured seven. Along with those two, rounding out the Best Feature nominations were Bones and All, Our Father, the Devil, and Women Talking. Elsewhere, some of our favorites of the year––including Aftersun, Murina, The African Desperate, The Cathedral, After Yang, All That Breathes, Saint Omer, and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed––were recognized.
Check out the nominations below ahead of the March 4 ceremony.
Best Feature (Award given to the producer)
Bones and All
Producers: Timothée Chalamet, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Luca Guadagnino, David Kajganich, Lorenzo Mieli, Marco Morabito, Gabriele Moratti, Theresa Park, Peter Spears
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Producers: Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang
Our Father, the Devil
Producers: Ellie Foumbi,...
Check out the nominations below ahead of the March 4 ceremony.
Best Feature (Award given to the producer)
Bones and All
Producers: Timothée Chalamet, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Luca Guadagnino, David Kajganich, Lorenzo Mieli, Marco Morabito, Gabriele Moratti, Theresa Park, Peter Spears
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Producers: Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang
Our Father, the Devil
Producers: Ellie Foumbi,...
- 11/22/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The film has eight nominations, followed by Todd Field’s ’Tár’ with seven
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All At Once leads the 38th Independent Spirit Awards nominations with eight nods, followed closely by Todd Field’s Tár which has seven nominations.
Both films are up for best feature alongside Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All, Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, The Devil, and Sarah Polley’s Women Talking.
Everything Everywhere’s nominations include best director and screenplay. The film’s star Michelle Yeoh is also nominated for best lead performance in the awards’ first year using gender-neutral acting categories.
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All At Once leads the 38th Independent Spirit Awards nominations with eight nods, followed closely by Todd Field’s Tár which has seven nominations.
Both films are up for best feature alongside Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All, Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, The Devil, and Sarah Polley’s Women Talking.
Everything Everywhere’s nominations include best director and screenplay. The film’s star Michelle Yeoh is also nominated for best lead performance in the awards’ first year using gender-neutral acting categories.
- 11/22/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Click here to read the full article.
The 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations in film categories were revealed Tuesday morning.
Taylour Paige and Raúl Castillo announced this year’s movie nominees in a livestream on Film Independent’s YouTube channel.
A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the nominations with eight nods including best feature, directing and screenplay (for filmmaking duo Daniels). Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu were also honored for their performances. Other leading Oscar contenders landing Spirit Awards nods include Focus Features’ Tàr (which earned seven nominations, among them for Todd Field’s direction and writing, as well as performances from Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss), United Artists’ Bones and All (recognized with three nods including for its performances from Taylor Russell and Mark Rylance) and A24’s The Inspection (earning nods for actors Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union, in addition...
The 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations in film categories were revealed Tuesday morning.
Taylour Paige and Raúl Castillo announced this year’s movie nominees in a livestream on Film Independent’s YouTube channel.
A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the nominations with eight nods including best feature, directing and screenplay (for filmmaking duo Daniels). Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu were also honored for their performances. Other leading Oscar contenders landing Spirit Awards nods include Focus Features’ Tàr (which earned seven nominations, among them for Todd Field’s direction and writing, as well as performances from Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss), United Artists’ Bones and All (recognized with three nods including for its performances from Taylor Russell and Mark Rylance) and A24’s The Inspection (earning nods for actors Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union, in addition...
- 11/22/2022
- by Hilary Lewis and Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Bones and All,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Our Father, the Devil,” “Tár” and “Women Talking” have have been nominated as the best independent films of 2022 at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which announced its nominations on Tuesday morning by Taylour Paige and Raúl Castillo.
Acting nominees in the gender-neutral categories include Brian Tyree Henry for “Causeway,” Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss for “Tár,” Regina King for “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul” and Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Those three acting nominations for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” along with a Breakthrough Performance nom for Stephanie Hsu, pushed that film to eight nominations, the most of any film. “Tár” finished second with seven nominations, followed by “Aftersun” with five and “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” “Women Talking” and “Emily the Criminal” with four each.
Also Read:
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once...
Acting nominees in the gender-neutral categories include Brian Tyree Henry for “Causeway,” Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss for “Tár,” Regina King for “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul” and Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Those three acting nominations for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” along with a Breakthrough Performance nom for Stephanie Hsu, pushed that film to eight nominations, the most of any film. “Tár” finished second with seven nominations, followed by “Aftersun” with five and “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” “Women Talking” and “Emily the Criminal” with four each.
Also Read:
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once...
- 11/22/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Martine Syms's The African Desperate is now showing exclusively on Mubi in the series Debuts and Glitch Zone: Films by Martine Syms.When the college campus is deployed in film or in fiction, it is usually a symbol of possibility: the point at which the world is said to open up. But in Martine Syms’s debut feature, The African Desperate, the college campus feels like the claustrophobic vortex where possibility goes to die. The film’s protagonist, Palace, played brilliantly by the artist and poet Diamond Stingily, is in the last 24 hours of her low-residency Mfa program. Her final critique, supposedly celebratory, is less about her work and more about her teachers’ projections onto it. The day that follows is all anticlimax, like the slow afternoon hours still colored by bad morning sex. Much of the film’s tension is sustained by negation. Palace is consistently forced to say no: to her classmates,...
- 11/16/2022
- MUBI
As 2022 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our eyes on titles that may have slipped under the radar or simply gone unseen, so—as we do each year—we’re sharing a rundown of the best titles available to watch at home.
Curated from the Best Films of 2022 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up with. While our year-end coverage is still to come, including our staff’s top 50 films of 2022, this streaming guide will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to find notable, perhaps underseen, titles of late.
Note that we’re going by U.S. releases and that streaming services are limited solely to the territory as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with new titles being made available,...
Curated from the Best Films of 2022 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up with. While our year-end coverage is still to come, including our staff’s top 50 films of 2022, this streaming guide will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to find notable, perhaps underseen, titles of late.
Note that we’re going by U.S. releases and that streaming services are limited solely to the territory as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with new titles being made available,...
- 11/15/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“The Fabelmans,” Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical look at his movie-loving childhood, will kick off the 15th edition of “The Contenders” at The Museum of Modern Art.
The annual program, which features a wide range of many of the awards season’s most critically acclaimed films, along with some well-reviewed blockbusters, will run from Nov. 10, 2022, through Jan. 19, 2023. The lineup includes indie fare like Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking”; international features such as Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina, 1985” and Jerzy Skolimowski’s “Eo”; and more populist works like Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and Jordan Peele’s “Nope.” MoMA will also screen the year’s highest-grossing release, Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” “The Fabelmans” gets things started on Nov. 10 and will be followed by a conversation with cast members Michelle Williams, Judd Hirsch, Seth Rogen and Gabriel Labelle.
“It...
The annual program, which features a wide range of many of the awards season’s most critically acclaimed films, along with some well-reviewed blockbusters, will run from Nov. 10, 2022, through Jan. 19, 2023. The lineup includes indie fare like Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking”; international features such as Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina, 1985” and Jerzy Skolimowski’s “Eo”; and more populist works like Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and Jordan Peele’s “Nope.” MoMA will also screen the year’s highest-grossing release, Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” “The Fabelmans” gets things started on Nov. 10 and will be followed by a conversation with cast members Michelle Williams, Judd Hirsch, Seth Rogen and Gabriel Labelle.
“It...
- 10/25/2022
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
Early into Martine Syms’ The African Desperate, Mfa finalist Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her last exam in an upstate New York art school tucked deep in the woods. It’s the end of a three-year voyage, the kind of moment that should trigger swaths of pride and relief. But Palace, a Black student in an exceedingly white college, is frustrated, tired, on the verge of a breakdown. Her art has already shown at the Venice Biennale, a feat her all-Caucasian examiners don’t really know how to respond to. Even after they christen her a Master of Fine Arts, the mix of animosity and envy lingers acridly in the room. “There are lots of female artists...
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
Early into Martine Syms’ The African Desperate, Mfa finalist Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her last exam in an upstate New York art school tucked deep in the woods. It’s the end of a three-year voyage, the kind of moment that should trigger swaths of pride and relief. But Palace, a Black student in an exceedingly white college, is frustrated, tired, on the verge of a breakdown. Her art has already shown at the Venice Biennale, a feat her all-Caucasian examiners don’t really know how to respond to. Even after they christen her a Master of Fine Arts, the mix of animosity and envy lingers acridly in the room. “There are lots of female artists...
- 10/21/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Art student Palace Bryant coolly contemplates the people crowding up to her, wanting to hang out or have sex – but there’s not much else here
Despite a (potentially) interesting central character and a genuinely confrontational and uncomfortable opening scene, this feature from artist and film-maker Martine Syms spins its wheels dramatically, with indulgent, undirected performances and ideas. It is archly knowing about the art world, yet never quite earns its putative status as satire: a movie about someone graduating from art school that itself feels like a graduation project.
The contemporary artist and writer Diamond Stingily (who has collaborated with Syms on other work) plays Palace Bryant, a young woman of colour about to undergo a viva voce exam from an uptight panel of advisors as part of her Mfa degree. Some of them are supportive, some uneasy and one is openly sceptical about Palace’s claims to be...
Despite a (potentially) interesting central character and a genuinely confrontational and uncomfortable opening scene, this feature from artist and film-maker Martine Syms spins its wheels dramatically, with indulgent, undirected performances and ideas. It is archly knowing about the art world, yet never quite earns its putative status as satire: a movie about someone graduating from art school that itself feels like a graduation project.
The contemporary artist and writer Diamond Stingily (who has collaborated with Syms on other work) plays Palace Bryant, a young woman of colour about to undergo a viva voce exam from an uptight panel of advisors as part of her Mfa degree. Some of them are supportive, some uneasy and one is openly sceptical about Palace’s claims to be...
- 10/17/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Exclusive: Filmmaker Martine Syms has inked with CAA.
Syms recently made her directorial debut with The African Desperate, which had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and was the closing film at the New Directors/New Films Festival.
Mubi acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film in a deal negotiated by CAA Media Finance.
She also hosts Double Penetration, a monthly radio show on the global radio platform Nts.
As an artist, Syms is known for her conceptual grit, humor and social commentary, and has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tate Modern. She has done commissioned work for such brands as Prada, Nike, Celine, Kanye West and Nts among others.
Syms is a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award, the Creative Capital Award, a United States Artists fellowship, the Tiffany Foundation Award and the Future Fields Art Prize.
Syms recently made her directorial debut with The African Desperate, which had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and was the closing film at the New Directors/New Films Festival.
Mubi acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film in a deal negotiated by CAA Media Finance.
She also hosts Double Penetration, a monthly radio show on the global radio platform Nts.
As an artist, Syms is known for her conceptual grit, humor and social commentary, and has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tate Modern. She has done commissioned work for such brands as Prada, Nike, Celine, Kanye West and Nts among others.
Syms is a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award, the Creative Capital Award, a United States Artists fellowship, the Tiffany Foundation Award and the Future Fields Art Prize.
- 10/3/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month and amongst the highlights are Martine Syms’ The African Desperate, Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s Free Chol Soo Lee, Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Earwig, plus films from George A. Romero, Dario Argento, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Thomas Vinterberg, Nanni Moretti, and more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
October 1 – Goodnight Mommy, directed by Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz | Thrills, Chills and Exquisite Horrors
October 2 – Van Gogh, directed by Maurice Pialat | I Don’t Like You Either: A Maurice Pialat Retrospective
October 3 – The Great Buster: A Celebration, directed by Peter Bogdanovich | Portrait of the Artist
October 4 – Invisible Demons, directed by Rahul Jain | Viewfinders
October 5 – Pulse, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Thrills, Chills and Exquisite Horrors
October 6 – Diary of the Dead, directed by George A. Romero | George A. Romero: Double of the Dead
October 7 – Free Chol Soo Lee, directed by Eugene Yi,...
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
October 1 – Goodnight Mommy, directed by Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz | Thrills, Chills and Exquisite Horrors
October 2 – Van Gogh, directed by Maurice Pialat | I Don’t Like You Either: A Maurice Pialat Retrospective
October 3 – The Great Buster: A Celebration, directed by Peter Bogdanovich | Portrait of the Artist
October 4 – Invisible Demons, directed by Rahul Jain | Viewfinders
October 5 – Pulse, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Thrills, Chills and Exquisite Horrors
October 6 – Diary of the Dead, directed by George A. Romero | George A. Romero: Double of the Dead
October 7 – Free Chol Soo Lee, directed by Eugene Yi,...
- 10/1/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
One of the only Black students on a mostly-white art school campus, Palace (Diamond Stingily) is exhausted. She just sat through her final Mfa review with four white professors, where they approached her work with a mix of hyper-seriousness and outright condescension, flinging art-world jargon and vaguely racist assessments at her with abandon while maintaining an air of performative woke-ness.
“People out here really want me to get mad,” she tells her friend Hannah (Erin Leland) afterward as they sit by a lake near their bucolic Upstate New York campus. “And it’s like, I don’t wanna fight you.”
Palace oscillates between this sense of incredulity and indifference as she encounters various shades of ignorance and insensitivity from her teachers and peers. With its everyday setting and social interactions mixed with an obtrusive, innovative soundtrack and hyperactive visual style, .
Through this frenetic approach, director Martine Syms — who co-wrote the...
“People out here really want me to get mad,” she tells her friend Hannah (Erin Leland) afterward as they sit by a lake near their bucolic Upstate New York campus. “And it’s like, I don’t wanna fight you.”
Palace oscillates between this sense of incredulity and indifference as she encounters various shades of ignorance and insensitivity from her teachers and peers. With its everyday setting and social interactions mixed with an obtrusive, innovative soundtrack and hyperactive visual style, .
Through this frenetic approach, director Martine Syms — who co-wrote the...
- 9/15/2022
- by Susannah Gruder
- Indiewire
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Roxy Cinema
The series “Woman as Witch” offers 35mm prints of von Sternberg’s Dishonored and Alan Rudolph’s rarely screened Remember My Name.
Bam
In advance of her debut feature The African Desperate, Martine Syms has curated a series of influences—among them Spike Lee’s Girl 6, Paprika, and Happy Together.
Film Forum
A Miloš Forman retrospective celebrates the filmmaker’s 90th birthday; “Loving Highsmith” has its second weekend with Purple Noon, Strangers on a Train, and The American Friend; restorations of Alain Resnais’ The War Is Over and Carnal Knowledge continue.
Film at Lincoln Center
Three Colors: Blue, Three Colors: White, and Three Colors: Red all play in new 4K restorations.
Museum of the Moving Image
One of Johnnie To’s best films, Vengeance, screens on Friday as part of a retrospective on The Story of Film, while...
Roxy Cinema
The series “Woman as Witch” offers 35mm prints of von Sternberg’s Dishonored and Alan Rudolph’s rarely screened Remember My Name.
Bam
In advance of her debut feature The African Desperate, Martine Syms has curated a series of influences—among them Spike Lee’s Girl 6, Paprika, and Happy Together.
Film Forum
A Miloš Forman retrospective celebrates the filmmaker’s 90th birthday; “Loving Highsmith” has its second weekend with Purple Noon, Strangers on a Train, and The American Friend; restorations of Alain Resnais’ The War Is Over and Carnal Knowledge continue.
Film at Lincoln Center
Three Colors: Blue, Three Colors: White, and Three Colors: Red all play in new 4K restorations.
Museum of the Moving Image
One of Johnnie To’s best films, Vengeance, screens on Friday as part of a retrospective on The Story of Film, while...
- 9/8/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After perusing our massive, 60-film, two-part fall preview, there shouldn’t be too many surprises on our first monthly highlights of the season. While September is often thought of as prelude to awards-season favorites, there are also a number of stellar, smaller-scale offerings we hope don’t get lost in the cracks––including a rather strong honorable mentions list to follow. Check out our picks below.
12. Petrov’s Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov; Sept. 23)
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been invited to back-to-back Cannes, premiering Petrov’s Flu last year and Tchaikovsky’s Wife this year. The former is finally getting a U.S. release, and Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Petrov’s Flu opens on a stuffy commute—a Moscow bus in the early years of post-Soviet Russia. The eponymous protagonist is already bent over a handrail, stricken with his affliction. The mood is fevered, almost circus-like, the lighting like pea soup. In a moment of madness,...
12. Petrov’s Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov; Sept. 23)
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been invited to back-to-back Cannes, premiering Petrov’s Flu last year and Tchaikovsky’s Wife this year. The former is finally getting a U.S. release, and Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Petrov’s Flu opens on a stuffy commute—a Moscow bus in the early years of post-Soviet Russia. The eponymous protagonist is already bent over a handrail, stricken with his affliction. The mood is fevered, almost circus-like, the lighting like pea soup. In a moment of madness,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Mubi has released a new trailer for The African Desperate, the feature debut from acclaimed visual artist Martine Syms. Filmmaker previously interviewed Syms during the film’s premiere at this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films as well as for our most recent Summer print issue. The African Desperate follows Palace Bryant (Sym’s frequent collaborator Diamond Stingily) on her final day at an Mfa program in New York’s Hudson Valley. During these last 24 hours of art school, Palace experiences the full gamut of grad school woes and (synthetic) wonders—including a racist final thesis review, encounters with her insufferable classmates and […]
The post Trailer Watch: Martine Syms’s The African Desperate first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Trailer Watch: Martine Syms’s The African Desperate first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 8/31/2022
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
‘The African Desperate’ Trailer: Martine Syms’ Feature Debut Deconstructs Race in the High Art World
Los Angeles-based artist Martine Syms is turning the high art world upside down with her feature debut “The African Desperate.”
A coming-of-age comedy, the film premiered at New Directors/New Films this year as the closing night selection, and opens in theaters September 16 at Brooklyn Arts Museum (Bam) and the Quad in New York City, as well as select theaters nationwide, from Mubi
Per the official synopsis, “The African Desperate” tracks one very long day for Palace Bryant (an expertly deadpan Diamond Stingily), a newly minted Mfa grad whose final day of art school becomes a real trip. Palace is not going to the fucking graduation party! She hates the woods. If this were a reality show, she would be the person who was not here to make friends. Palace needs to get home, back to Chicago from upstate New York. But that means surviving a hazy, hilarious, and hallucinatory night-long odyssey,...
A coming-of-age comedy, the film premiered at New Directors/New Films this year as the closing night selection, and opens in theaters September 16 at Brooklyn Arts Museum (Bam) and the Quad in New York City, as well as select theaters nationwide, from Mubi
Per the official synopsis, “The African Desperate” tracks one very long day for Palace Bryant (an expertly deadpan Diamond Stingily), a newly minted Mfa grad whose final day of art school becomes a real trip. Palace is not going to the fucking graduation party! She hates the woods. If this were a reality show, she would be the person who was not here to make friends. Palace needs to get home, back to Chicago from upstate New York. But that means surviving a hazy, hilarious, and hallucinatory night-long odyssey,...
- 8/31/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
After a fairly quiet summer––outside of a few gems––the fall movie season is near and there’s much to anticipate. As we do each year, after highlighting the best films offered thus far, we’ve set out to provide an overview of the titles that should be on your radar––and while some dates will certainly shift and some films added, it’s quite a promising lineup.
Featuring 40 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews.
The Cathedral (Ricky D’Ambrose; Sept. 2)
What makes the fabric of our upbringing? The memories we’ll reflect on after those years have passed are often not what we...
Featuring 40 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews.
The Cathedral (Ricky D’Ambrose; Sept. 2)
What makes the fabric of our upbringing? The memories we’ll reflect on after those years have passed are often not what we...
- 8/25/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Mubi has acquired world rights to Martine Syms’ feature The African Desperate, which is due to open theatrically in New York on September 16, with a wider rollout to follow.
The film had its world premiere at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam and North American premiere as the closing night film at New York’s New Directors/New Films. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.
Pic follows artist Palace Bryant (Diamond Stingily) on one very long day in 2017 that starts with her Mfa graduation from a white liberal arts college in upstate New York and ends at a Chicago Blue Line Station. Palace navigates the pitfalls of self-actualization and the fallacies of the art world.
Syms will present the film internationally as part of an in-person event tour throughout September and October in the U.S. and Europe. Following the theatrical release and events,...
The film had its world premiere at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam and North American premiere as the closing night film at New York’s New Directors/New Films. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.
Pic follows artist Palace Bryant (Diamond Stingily) on one very long day in 2017 that starts with her Mfa graduation from a white liberal arts college in upstate New York and ends at a Chicago Blue Line Station. Palace navigates the pitfalls of self-actualization and the fallacies of the art world.
Syms will present the film internationally as part of an in-person event tour throughout September and October in the U.S. and Europe. Following the theatrical release and events,...
- 7/6/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Newsmmxx.Cristi Puiu's latest project, titled Mmxx, is currently in post-production. The film is one of the selections of FIDLab, FIDMarseille's program for works-in-progress, due to take place next month. The film will run 2 hours and 40 minutes, according to FIDMarseille's project page, and will follow “the wanderings of a bunch of errant souls stuck at the crossroads of history.”Aki Kaurismäki has formally announced what will be his 19th feature. Dead Leaves, which will be shot by Kaurismäki's regular cinematographer Timo Salminen and feature popular Finnish actors Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen, will premiere sometime in 2023. Little has been revealed about the film, but when asked about it, Kaurismäki said that “tragicomedy seems to be my genre."Later this year, Isabel Sandoval will begin production on Tropical Gothic, the follow-up to her acclaimed 2019 feature Lingua Franca.
- 6/17/2022
- MUBI
‘The African Desperate’ Review: Martine Syms’ Directorial Debut Is Full Of Insight & Vitality [Ndnf]
Late on in “The African Desperate,” director Martine Syms cuts away from the narrative to a montage of bucolic upstate New York imagery: rolling green fields and farmland, charming B&Bs, and village shops. On the soundtrack, we hear audio from a viral clip of a Black man telling off his former coworkers, a fuming, embattled screed: “I quit, you can’t tell me nothing. Call the police, what they gon’ do?
Continue reading ‘The African Desperate’ Review: Martine Syms’ Directorial Debut Is Full Of Insight & Vitality [Ndnf] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The African Desperate’ Review: Martine Syms’ Directorial Debut Is Full Of Insight & Vitality [Ndnf] at The Playlist.
- 5/4/2022
- by Mark Asch
- The Playlist
The 2022 edition of New Directors/New Films — the annual showcase of emerging filmmakers co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art — concludes this weekend with three screenings of its closing-night film, Martine Syms’ The African Desperate. Syms is an art-world luminary whose work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim, Lacma, MoMA, and the Tate, among others, and her extraordinarily varied and prolific output includes video art, installations, essays and manifestos, and a publishing press. Much of her oeuvre reflects a deep engagement with the moving image, from her […]
The post “I Want to Make Big, Unforgettable, Life-Changing Works”: Martine Syms on Her New Directors/New Films Closing-Night Film, The African Desperate first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Want to Make Big, Unforgettable, Life-Changing Works”: Martine Syms on Her New Directors/New Films Closing-Night Film, The African Desperate first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 4/29/2022
- by Nelson Kim
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The 2022 edition of New Directors/New Films — the annual showcase of emerging filmmakers co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art — concludes this weekend with three screenings of its closing-night film, Martine Syms’ The African Desperate. Syms is an art-world luminary whose work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim, Lacma, MoMA, and the Tate, among others, and her extraordinarily varied and prolific output includes video art, installations, essays and manifestos, and a publishing press. Much of her oeuvre reflects a deep engagement with the moving image, from her […]
The post “I Want to Make Big, Unforgettable, Life-Changing Works”: Martine Syms on Her New Directors/New Films Closing-Night Film, The African Desperate first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Want to Make Big, Unforgettable, Life-Changing Works”: Martine Syms on Her New Directors/New Films Closing-Night Film, The African Desperate first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 4/29/2022
- by Nelson Kim
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Kicking off this week at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, the 51st edition of New Directors/New Films brings together highlights from Sundance, Berlinale, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and many more to provide an essential snapshot of new filmmaking talent. With Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winner Happening commencing the annual festival starting Wednesday, it’s one of 12 films we can recommend as we also look forward to catching up with the rest. Check out our picks below.
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
It’s a hot July day in upstate New York when Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her final art school exam, a passive-aggressive interview with an all-white faculty that leaves her with that soul-crushing question: what are you going to do next? The answer, in Martine Syms’ rollicking debut feature, is a night-long graduation party, a bacchanal that sends Syms’ friend...
The African Desperate (Martine Syms)
It’s a hot July day in upstate New York when Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her final art school exam, a passive-aggressive interview with an all-white faculty that leaves her with that soul-crushing question: what are you going to do next? The answer, in Martine Syms’ rollicking debut feature, is a night-long graduation party, a bacchanal that sends Syms’ friend...
- 4/19/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Returning from April 20-May 1 for its 51st edition, New Directors/New Films has announced this year’s lineup. Taking place at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, the slate includes the top prize winners at Sundance and Venice this past year, Nanny and Happening, respectively, as well as the latest work from Ricky D’Ambrose, Eskil Vogt, Sierra Pettengill, Sara Dosa, and more.
La Frances Hui, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA and 2022 Nd/Nf Co-chair said, “Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup. This year’s new directors look inwards and draw on events past and present to reflect on our collective humanity. Together, these films reaffirm the creative power of cinema to see, critique, and inspire the way we live.”
See the full lineup below, including...
La Frances Hui, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA and 2022 Nd/Nf Co-chair said, “Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup. This year’s new directors look inwards and draw on events past and present to reflect on our collective humanity. Together, these films reaffirm the creative power of cinema to see, critique, and inspire the way we live.”
See the full lineup below, including...
- 3/30/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art has set Audrey Diwan’s Happening and The African Desperate by Martine Syms will bookend the 51st edition of their collaboration, New Directors/New Films running April 20–May 1 in NYC.
The festival will introduce 26 features and 11 shorts and total of 39 directors — 21 of which are women.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup,” said La Frances Hui, curator of MoMa’s film department and event co-char.
Happening (L’Événement), winner of the 2021 Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is the portrait of a young woman attempting to secure an illegal abortion in 1960s provincial France. It was acquired by IFC Films and will be released May 6.
The African Desperate, a debut feature from Syms, rushes through 24 hours in the life of protagonist Palace...
The festival will introduce 26 features and 11 shorts and total of 39 directors — 21 of which are women.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup,” said La Frances Hui, curator of MoMa’s film department and event co-char.
Happening (L’Événement), winner of the 2021 Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is the portrait of a young woman attempting to secure an illegal abortion in 1960s provincial France. It was acquired by IFC Films and will be released May 6.
The African Desperate, a debut feature from Syms, rushes through 24 hours in the life of protagonist Palace...
- 3/29/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Golden Lion winner “Happening” will open the 2022 New Directors/New Films Festival, Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art announced Tuesday.
Now in its 51st year, the New Directors/New Films Festival screens the best films made by young filmmakers, many of which tend to be their debut features. The festival has served as an early showcase for many notable directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Guillermo del Toro and Luca Guadagnino. This year, the festival will screen 26 features and 11 shorts.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone for the lineup,” 2022 Nd/Nf co-chair and MoMa department of film curator La Frances Hui said in a statement. “This year’s new directors look inward and draw on events past and present...
Now in its 51st year, the New Directors/New Films Festival screens the best films made by young filmmakers, many of which tend to be their debut features. The festival has served as an early showcase for many notable directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Guillermo del Toro and Luca Guadagnino. This year, the festival will screen 26 features and 11 shorts.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone for the lineup,” 2022 Nd/Nf co-chair and MoMa department of film curator La Frances Hui said in a statement. “This year’s new directors look inward and draw on events past and present...
- 3/29/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Variety Film + TV
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) hosted its 10th annual Art+Film Gala on November 6, 2021, honoring artists Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Leonardo DiCaprio and honoree Steven Spielberg, and Bob Iger attend the 10th Annual Lacma Art+Film Gala
Credit/Copyright: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Lacma
Co-chaired by Lacma trustee Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio, the event was attended by more than 650 prominent guests from the art, film, fashion, and entertainment industries, among others. This year’s event raised $5 million to support Lacma’s film initiatives, as well as future exhibitions, acquisitions, and programming. Returning once again as presenting sponsor of the Art+Film Gala, Gucci expanded its longstanding and generous partnership with the museum by supporting Lacma’s presentation of The Obama Portraits Tour and the companion exhibition Black American Portraits. Audi provided additional support for the gala for the third year.
Leonardo DiCaprio and honoree Steven Spielberg, and Bob Iger attend the 10th Annual Lacma Art+Film Gala
Credit/Copyright: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Lacma
Co-chaired by Lacma trustee Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio, the event was attended by more than 650 prominent guests from the art, film, fashion, and entertainment industries, among others. This year’s event raised $5 million to support Lacma’s film initiatives, as well as future exhibitions, acquisitions, and programming. Returning once again as presenting sponsor of the Art+Film Gala, Gucci expanded its longstanding and generous partnership with the museum by supporting Lacma’s presentation of The Obama Portraits Tour and the companion exhibition Black American Portraits. Audi provided additional support for the gala for the third year.
- 11/10/2021
- Look to the Stars
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