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.
Africans with Mainframes (Kima Hibbert)
What if electronic music was invented in the 1920s by Black sharecroppers in the American South? That’s the premise of Kima Hibbert’s debut short, in which a reclusive blogger uncovers a major conspiracy surrounding the origins of electronic music.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two...
Africans with Mainframes (Kima Hibbert)
What if electronic music was invented in the 1920s by Black sharecroppers in the American South? That’s the premise of Kima Hibbert’s debut short, in which a reclusive blogger uncovers a major conspiracy surrounding the origins of electronic music.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two...
- 2/16/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Amat Escalante brings great intensity to this story of a young man seeking out the truth of his mother’s disappearance, but the point gets rather lost
Amat Escalante is the Mexican film-maker who created the brutal and politically engaged crime drama Heli in 2013, for which he won the best director award in Cannes, and in 2016 the deeply strange body horror parable The Untamed which was a prizewinner at Venice. Now, after a stint on the streaming TV drama Narcos: Mexico he has directed and co-written this contorted Lynchian melodrama about Mexico’s corruption, cynicism and indifference, and all the secrets and lies that bloat the country’s ruling classes.
Lost in the Night concerns what may be the corpse of a woman buried in the grounds of a super-rich family and in this respect it rather resembles Robe of Gems from Natalia López Gallardo, who like Escalante has worked with Carlos Reygadas.
Amat Escalante is the Mexican film-maker who created the brutal and politically engaged crime drama Heli in 2013, for which he won the best director award in Cannes, and in 2016 the deeply strange body horror parable The Untamed which was a prizewinner at Venice. Now, after a stint on the streaming TV drama Narcos: Mexico he has directed and co-written this contorted Lynchian melodrama about Mexico’s corruption, cynicism and indifference, and all the secrets and lies that bloat the country’s ruling classes.
Lost in the Night concerns what may be the corpse of a woman buried in the grounds of a super-rich family and in this respect it rather resembles Robe of Gems from Natalia López Gallardo, who like Escalante has worked with Carlos Reygadas.
- 11/21/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Mubi Podcast: Encuentros returns for a fifth season.The first episode features:Lois Patiño (Spain), visual artist and filmmaker. Her experimental and contemplative feature and short films have been screened at venues such as the Directors Fortnight, the New York Film Festival, and Ficunam. His debut feature Costa da morte won the award for Best Director in the Filmmakers of the Present competition at Locarno and, more recently, Samsara, his third feature, won the Special Jury Prize in the Encounters section at the Berlinale.Natalia López Gallardo (Bolivia-México), editor, actress and director. She has edited films such as Heli, by Amat Escalante; Jauja, by Lisandro Alonso, and Silent Light (Luz silenciosa) by Carlos Reygadas, for which she was nominated for an Ariel Award. She made her directorial debut in 2006 with her short film En el cielo como en la tierra, presented in Rotterdam, and 17 years later, her first feature film...
- 11/8/2023
- MUBI
Trojan Women: Lopez Crafts Collage of Complicity in Stellar Debut
For her directorial debut Robe of Gems (Manto de gemas), Natalia López Gallardo resists expectations in a chilly narrative of complex intersections. Heretofore celebrated as the editor of critically revered titles from Amat Escalante, Lisandro Alonso and her partner Carlos Reygadas (with whom she co-starred in the underrated 2018’s Our Time – read review), Lopez’s stylistic choices remain self-evident, but there’s an almost harsh reticence in how she continually undermines not only a certain arthouse convention, but the inherent apathy of those balanced precariously in this world on a wire.…...
For her directorial debut Robe of Gems (Manto de gemas), Natalia López Gallardo resists expectations in a chilly narrative of complex intersections. Heretofore celebrated as the editor of critically revered titles from Amat Escalante, Lisandro Alonso and her partner Carlos Reygadas (with whom she co-starred in the underrated 2018’s Our Time – read review), Lopez’s stylistic choices remain self-evident, but there’s an almost harsh reticence in how she continually undermines not only a certain arthouse convention, but the inherent apathy of those balanced precariously in this world on a wire.…...
- 9/19/2023
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Largely known as a film editor for having worked with partner Carlos Reygadas on 2007 masterwork Silent Light and with further collaborations with the likes Amat Escalante, Daniel Castro Zimbrón and Lisandro Alonso, it’s after several years in development (film market murmurs it was known as Supernova), Natalia López Gallardo unveiled her sensory-filled feature debut Robe of Gems (Manto de Gemas) at the 2022 Berlinale — where she walked away with the Jury Prize Silver Bear.
Per our review – Gallardo “focuses on how class, privilege and social status tend to evaporate when the women connecting her narrative dare to employ any real sense of agency, highlighting their often chilling relationship to a power structure which demands their complicity.…...
Per our review – Gallardo “focuses on how class, privilege and social status tend to evaporate when the women connecting her narrative dare to employ any real sense of agency, highlighting their often chilling relationship to a power structure which demands their complicity.…...
- 9/18/2023
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Natalia López Gallardo’s debut feature, Robe of Gems, refuses to go down smooth. If its images make no concessions to audience comfort, that only sharpens López Gallardo’s vision of a Mexico numbed by horror and corruption. A Bolañesque waking nightmare, the film insists that we come to terms with it rather than straightforwardly enjoy it.
After the collapse of her marriage, Isabel (Nailea Norvind) and her two children, Vale (Sherlyn Zavala) and Benjamín (Balam Toledo), hole up in her mother’s villa in the countryside. It’s there that they reconnect with their domestic worker, Maria (Antonia Olivares), who suspects her missing sister of being kidnapped, and Isabel tries to help find out what happened. Meanwhile, the local police chief (Eugenia Salazar) goes through the motions of an investigation, even as she struggles to keep her teenage son, Adàn (Juan Daniel García Treviño), from falling in with criminal elements,...
After the collapse of her marriage, Isabel (Nailea Norvind) and her two children, Vale (Sherlyn Zavala) and Benjamín (Balam Toledo), hole up in her mother’s villa in the countryside. It’s there that they reconnect with their domestic worker, Maria (Antonia Olivares), who suspects her missing sister of being kidnapped, and Isabel tries to help find out what happened. Meanwhile, the local police chief (Eugenia Salazar) goes through the motions of an investigation, even as she struggles to keep her teenage son, Adàn (Juan Daniel García Treviño), from falling in with criminal elements,...
- 9/10/2023
- by William Repass
- Slant Magazine
Lost in the Night (Amat Escalante).The more familiar one becomes with Cannes, the less one comes to expect anything like aesthetic coherence from it. Even if one accepts its nominal (or self-proclaimed) status as the standard-setter for international arthouse cinema, there’s still a fair amount of variation within its vast program. Which is to say that while one can lament the general calcification of festival-circuit aesthetics, the arbitrary programming decisions of Thierry Frémaux, or the often perplexing set of awards handed out each year, there are always films worth seeking out. In 1982, the French critic Serge Daney remarked that Antonioni’s Identification of a Woman and Godard’s Passion were part of cinema’s “secret factory”: that is, films which wouldn’t receive awards, but from which future directors would draw inspiration in years to come. The challenge with each edition, of course, is to discover which films those are.
- 5/25/2023
- MUBI
When Rigoberto Duplas, the worrying conceptual artist and antagonist of Amat Escalante’s new film, tells Emiliano, our steadfast lead, that the cheap glass in his modernist mansion has a tendency to “rattle,” it sounds like a dig. Luckily, it’s a tendency our hero doesn’t share. Played with furrowed seriousness by Juan Daniel García (a standout in the recent Robe of Gems), Emiliano is the most convincing part of Escalante’s muddled mystery: a film about a young man on a mission to avenge his mother who disappeared after protesting the sale of a local mine.
After breaking out in Un Certain Regard with Blood in 2005, Escalante’s ascension on the festival circuit has been nothing if not steady: awarded best director for Heli by Steven Spielberg’s jury in 2013, the director followed that success with a Silver Lion in Venice for The Untamed in 2016. That agreeably slimy...
After breaking out in Un Certain Regard with Blood in 2005, Escalante’s ascension on the festival circuit has been nothing if not steady: awarded best director for Heli by Steven Spielberg’s jury in 2013, the director followed that success with a Silver Lion in Venice for The Untamed in 2016. That agreeably slimy...
- 5/18/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Capping a year of extraordinary success among Bolivian filmmakers in the international arena, Rodrigo Bellott, a key driving force behind the tiny Central American country’s cinematic advances, has inked with the Gersh Talent Agency and is prepping his first U.S. feature, “Cutting Season.”
To be shot in English with an American cast, “Cutting Season” is written by actor-scribe Brock Yurich, who also stars. It tracks bodybuilder Eddie (Yurich) as he strives towards achieving Pro-card status. Once he realizes that his single mother/de-facto coach can’t help him reach the next level, he hires a new coach but faces a new set of challenges as their complex relationship unfolds.
“Brock has written an incredible script that explores profound aspects of masculinity and the relationship between Eddie and his coach,” said Bellott who has taken up body building himself to better understand the sport.
“I’ve been working with trainers,...
To be shot in English with an American cast, “Cutting Season” is written by actor-scribe Brock Yurich, who also stars. It tracks bodybuilder Eddie (Yurich) as he strives towards achieving Pro-card status. Once he realizes that his single mother/de-facto coach can’t help him reach the next level, he hires a new coach but faces a new set of challenges as their complex relationship unfolds.
“Brock has written an incredible script that explores profound aspects of masculinity and the relationship between Eddie and his coach,” said Bellott who has taken up body building himself to better understand the sport.
“I’ve been working with trainers,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Natalia López Gallardo's Robe of Gems is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries—including Brazil, Germany, Italy, India, and the Netherlands—starting February 20, 2023, in the series Festival Focus: Berlinale.I have lived in the Mexican countryside for over fifteen years; it is a place to witness the progressive collapse of the social tissue and dream about falling heads. With two kids of my own, I have imagined, laterally through the mist, the daily lives of parents with murdered or missing children, which has awakened the darkest of sadnesses.I spent a year talking to people around my village for Robe of Gems’s casting process. I met a family that had abducted a man and kept him in their house. But from afar, everything seemed normal. The father was devoted to his work as a taxi driver and loved his children. The kids continued to go to school,...
- 2/17/2023
- MUBI
Sales include re-release deal for ’Welcome To The Dollhouse’ in UK.
Visit Films, which is jetting in to Berlin to launch EFM sales on Berlinale section Dreams’ Gate among other titles, has announced a wave of deals on recent festival hits including a US deal and multiple territories on last year’s Berlin Silver Bear winner Robe Of Gems.
Natalia Lopez’s tale of redemption, family and violence in Mexico will open in the US this summer through Monument Releasing and has also gone to Madman Entertainment for Australia and New Zealand, as well as Mubi for Italy, Baltics, Africa,...
Visit Films, which is jetting in to Berlin to launch EFM sales on Berlinale section Dreams’ Gate among other titles, has announced a wave of deals on recent festival hits including a US deal and multiple territories on last year’s Berlin Silver Bear winner Robe Of Gems.
Natalia Lopez’s tale of redemption, family and violence in Mexico will open in the US this summer through Monument Releasing and has also gone to Madman Entertainment for Australia and New Zealand, as well as Mubi for Italy, Baltics, Africa,...
- 2/10/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Thanks in part to a strong co-production drive, 13 Mexican-nationality movies play at San Sebastian this year, a major presence.
Perlak frames Alejandro G. Iñarritu Venice player “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” Much of the heat, in industry terms at least, will come from the the premieres and sneak peeks.
In one highlight, Natalia Beristáin will world premiere “Noise” (“Ruido”), before its Netflix November bow. In possibly another, Mexico’s Laura Pancarte (“Non-Western”) unveils “Sueño Mexicano” as a pic-in-post.
Eyes will also be turned to Mexico’s latest generation of auteurs. One director is suddenly very well known: Longtime editor Natalia López Gallardo, a Berlin Jury Prize winner for “Robe of Gems.”
Others are bubbling under: Juan Pablo González whose “Dos Estaciones” impressed at Sundance, Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson, director of “Summer White,” another Sundance title, and Bruno Santamaría, a Gold Hugo best doc winner at the 2020 Chicago Festival...
Perlak frames Alejandro G. Iñarritu Venice player “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” Much of the heat, in industry terms at least, will come from the the premieres and sneak peeks.
In one highlight, Natalia Beristáin will world premiere “Noise” (“Ruido”), before its Netflix November bow. In possibly another, Mexico’s Laura Pancarte (“Non-Western”) unveils “Sueño Mexicano” as a pic-in-post.
Eyes will also be turned to Mexico’s latest generation of auteurs. One director is suddenly very well known: Longtime editor Natalia López Gallardo, a Berlin Jury Prize winner for “Robe of Gems.”
Others are bubbling under: Juan Pablo González whose “Dos Estaciones” impressed at Sundance, Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson, director of “Summer White,” another Sundance title, and Bruno Santamaría, a Gold Hugo best doc winner at the 2020 Chicago Festival...
- 9/16/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
10 films underscoring Mexican cinemas drive into diversity:
“Huesera,” (Michelle Garza Cervera)
Valeria is pregnant, but something is wrong with the baby. Shades of “Rosemary’s Baby,” but “Huesera” goes its own way, as Valeria gradually realizes what for her is really horror.
Genre and LGBTQ, a double winner at Tribeca, taking its coveted New Narrative Director hardware, and picked up by XYZ Films for most world sales. “A terrifying, bone-breaking body horror nightmare,” said Variety. Produced by Mexico’s Napa Films and Machete Films, the latter behind Cannes winners “Leap Year” and “La Jaula de Oro.”
“Mom,” (“Mamá,” Xun Sero)
Selected for Canada’s Hot Docs, Guadalajara Mezcal Award competition, where it won an honorable mention, and now Morelia’s doc strand, one of the banner titles of a new Chiapas cinema. A portrait of Sero’s mom, yes, but also of a remarkable, resilient woman who defied the conventions of her village,...
“Huesera,” (Michelle Garza Cervera)
Valeria is pregnant, but something is wrong with the baby. Shades of “Rosemary’s Baby,” but “Huesera” goes its own way, as Valeria gradually realizes what for her is really horror.
Genre and LGBTQ, a double winner at Tribeca, taking its coveted New Narrative Director hardware, and picked up by XYZ Films for most world sales. “A terrifying, bone-breaking body horror nightmare,” said Variety. Produced by Mexico’s Napa Films and Machete Films, the latter behind Cannes winners “Leap Year” and “La Jaula de Oro.”
“Mom,” (“Mamá,” Xun Sero)
Selected for Canada’s Hot Docs, Guadalajara Mezcal Award competition, where it won an honorable mention, and now Morelia’s doc strand, one of the banner titles of a new Chiapas cinema. A portrait of Sero’s mom, yes, but also of a remarkable, resilient woman who defied the conventions of her village,...
- 9/16/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Eight of the 10 directors in the Morelia Festival’s main Mexican competition are women, led by two of the biggest Mexican fest hits of the year,“Robe of Gems,” Natalia López Gallardo’s Berlin Special Jury laureate, and “Huesera,” from Michelle Garza Cervera, a double Tribeca winner.
Features with Indigenous or Black Mexican protagonists have shot up in Mexico, from 14 in 2019 to 31 in 2019, according to Imcine’s Mexican Cinema Yearbook.
In 2017, Mexico’s biggest homegrown hit was Nicolas López’s “Do It Like an Hombre,” a merciless taunt of a Mexican macho’s helpless homophobia, which grossed 11.0 million in the country.
For centuries an entrenched bastion of machismo, in film terms, the dial is finally moving on diversity.
“When I started out, like 20 years ago, I could count with my fingers the female directors I knew in Mexico; and today, there are almost 100,” says Natalia Beristáin, director of 2017’s Morelia...
Features with Indigenous or Black Mexican protagonists have shot up in Mexico, from 14 in 2019 to 31 in 2019, according to Imcine’s Mexican Cinema Yearbook.
In 2017, Mexico’s biggest homegrown hit was Nicolas López’s “Do It Like an Hombre,” a merciless taunt of a Mexican macho’s helpless homophobia, which grossed 11.0 million in the country.
For centuries an entrenched bastion of machismo, in film terms, the dial is finally moving on diversity.
“When I started out, like 20 years ago, I could count with my fingers the female directors I knew in Mexico; and today, there are almost 100,” says Natalia Beristáin, director of 2017’s Morelia...
- 9/16/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
After 18 days of in-person screenings, over 370 movies and the allocation of a new prize fund totaling 210,000 Aud the Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has to be one of the lengthiest, liveliest and now most lucrative film festivals in the world. The winning films were announced at Saturday evening’s closing gala, with Afrofuturist sci-fi musical “Neptune Frost,” a U.S.-Rwandan co-production directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, taking the Bright Horizons top prize of 140,000 Aud. Jub Clerc, the Indigenous Australian director of coming-of-age road movie “Sweet As,” scooped the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award of 70,000 Aud.
This is the first year of the Bright Horizons competition. After being selected from an exceptionally strong 11-film lineup, which included festival favourites like Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Laura Wandel’s “Playground” and Natalia López Gallardo’s “Robe of Gems,” Williams and Uzeyman were clearly moved while accepting the award via Zoom.
“It...
This is the first year of the Bright Horizons competition. After being selected from an exceptionally strong 11-film lineup, which included festival favourites like Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Laura Wandel’s “Playground” and Natalia López Gallardo’s “Robe of Gems,” Williams and Uzeyman were clearly moved while accepting the award via Zoom.
“It...
- 8/20/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
After years of on-screen successes led by the likes of Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, female directors are making their mark with urgent, disquieting cinema
When young Ana is forced to have her hair cut in Tatiana Huezo’s film Prayers for the Stolen, her tears indicate the heartbreak of lost youth. It’s a protective measure taken by her mother who is desperate to prevent Ana from being kidnapped, like so many other young girls in their town have been, by the drug cartels who patrol the surrounding area. Prayers for the Stolen, the first fiction feature from Mexican-Salvadorian documentary-maker Huezo, captures the brutality and fear of growing up in such circumstances.
The facts are grim. An Amnesty International report released in September 2021 found that 10 women and girls are killed every day in Mexico. More broadly, the Congressional Research Service estimates that since 2006, 150,000 people have been killed in...
When young Ana is forced to have her hair cut in Tatiana Huezo’s film Prayers for the Stolen, her tears indicate the heartbreak of lost youth. It’s a protective measure taken by her mother who is desperate to prevent Ana from being kidnapped, like so many other young girls in their town have been, by the drug cartels who patrol the surrounding area. Prayers for the Stolen, the first fiction feature from Mexican-Salvadorian documentary-maker Huezo, captures the brutality and fear of growing up in such circumstances.
The facts are grim. An Amnesty International report released in September 2021 found that 10 women and girls are killed every day in Mexico. More broadly, the Congressional Research Service estimates that since 2006, 150,000 people have been killed in...
- 4/19/2022
- by Caitlin Quinlan
- The Guardian - Film News
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
FireFollowing a successful but necessarily impersonal virtual edition in 2021, the Berlin International Film Festival returned to in-person activities this year, drawing skepticism in some quarters but ultimately quieting the naysayers with a safe and efficient event that put the movies back where they belong: on the big screen. With mandatory daily Covid tests, 2G plus vaccination protocols, ticket reservations, assigned seating, and half-capacity venues, the Berlinale’s typically convivial vibe was sterilized and regimented in a way that’s already become familiar in an era of masks and social distancing. But no matter: the program, overseen by Carlo Chatrian in his third year as artistic director, while never quite reaching the skyscraping heights of recent editions (in which films like Days and What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? confirmed the new regime’s dedication to auteur-driven art cinema), provided a deep and rewarding wellspring of work...
- 2/25/2022
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSCarla Simón’s Alcarrás (Courtesy of MK2 Films)This year's Berlinale has now concluded, with Carla Simón’s Alcarrás taking home the Golden Bear, and Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis and Natalia Lopez Gallardo taking home prizes as well. Check out the full list of awards winners here.Horror filmmaker and production designer Alfred Sole has died at the age of 78. Sole famously directed the cult horror classic Alice, Sweet Alice (1976). However, he first gained notoriety with his X-rated film Deep Sleep (1972), which was pulled from theaters. Sole continued as a prolific production designer for many television films and shows like Veronica Mars and Melrose Place. Netflix has officially signed an updated windowing agreement with France's film industry, which will "see the window between theatrical and SVOD release significantly reduced" from 36 months to 15 months. And as Deadline points out,...
- 2/23/2022
- MUBI
2022 has already been a fruitful year for Carlos Reygadas. Working in a producer capacity for some time now, he saw the fruit of his labors land back to back festival prizing when the Rotterdam preemed Paz Encina ecological drama Eami claimed the Tiger Award, and when his creative-collaborator and life partner Natalia Lopez Gallardo won a Silver Bear Jury prize at the Berlinale for Robe of Gems. In our interview with Gallardo, we learned that Reygadas will likely shift outside his native Mexico for his next project. More specifically: Poland. With a tax rebate on film productions in the area of 30 percent — even fellow countryman Michel Franco is possibly looking to film there as well.…...
- 2/22/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
2020 got off to a fine start. In February I made my first visit to the Berlinale, where I interviewed a couple of filmmakers and indulged in the competition lineup, a King Vidor retrospective and the 50th anniversary of Forum. Like all of my festival trips, I considered it a working vacation—a chance to see friends, explore a city and escape for a few days from my suburban, white-collar life. At the last press screening I attended, another critic asked if I was Italian before taking a seat a few feet away. Even in the cloistered environment of the festival, […]
The post Berlinale 2022 Critic’s Notebook: The Novelist’s Film, Both Sides of the Blade, Robe of Gems first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Berlinale 2022 Critic’s Notebook: The Novelist’s Film, Both Sides of the Blade, Robe of Gems first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/19/2022
- by Darren Hughes
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
2020 got off to a fine start. In February I made my first visit to the Berlinale, where I interviewed a couple of filmmakers and indulged in the competition lineup, a King Vidor retrospective and the 50th anniversary of Forum. Like all of my festival trips, I considered it a working vacation—a chance to see friends, explore a city and escape for a few days from my suburban, white-collar life. At the last press screening I attended, another critic asked if I was Italian before taking a seat a few feet away. Even in the cloistered environment of the festival, […]
The post Berlinale 2022 Critic’s Notebook: The Novelist’s Film, Both Sides of the Blade, Robe of Gems first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Berlinale 2022 Critic’s Notebook: The Novelist’s Film, Both Sides of the Blade, Robe of Gems first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/19/2022
- by Darren Hughes
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Afternoon subscribers. Max Goldbart here with your weekly dose of International Insider news and analysis and it’s been as busy as ever over the past seven days. Scroll down for more.
Of Paramount Importance
Via-Who? ViacomCBS is no more. Paramount (or Paramount Global to be precise) is here and streaming is the name of the game. This week’s investor day set out a new path for the recently-merged outfit, with SVoD Paramount+ being positioned as almost entirely responsible for the planned growth. And there was plenty for the international world to pay attention to following Deadline U.S.’s expert coverage.
Canal+ ties: Paramount+ has been rolling out to dozens of global territories over the past year and more are incoming. Amongst a barrage of investor day announcements, CEO Bob Bakish unveiled a tie-up with France’s Canal+, which will see Paramount+ enter France as an offering to all Canal+ Ciné Séries subscribers.
Of Paramount Importance
Via-Who? ViacomCBS is no more. Paramount (or Paramount Global to be precise) is here and streaming is the name of the game. This week’s investor day set out a new path for the recently-merged outfit, with SVoD Paramount+ being positioned as almost entirely responsible for the planned growth. And there was plenty for the international world to pay attention to following Deadline U.S.’s expert coverage.
Canal+ ties: Paramount+ has been rolling out to dozens of global territories over the past year and more are incoming. Amongst a barrage of investor day announcements, CEO Bob Bakish unveiled a tie-up with France’s Canal+, which will see Paramount+ enter France as an offering to all Canal+ Ciné Séries subscribers.
- 2/18/2022
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Alcarràs won the Golden Bear Photo: Courtesy of Berlinale Spanish director Carla Simon’s Alcarràs won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival yesterday.
The film, which charts the tale of a family of peach farmers facing the squeeze in Eighties Catalonia was praised for its "extraordinary" child performances by the jury, headed by M Night Shyamalan.
The Grand Jury Prize Silver Bear went to Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, while Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s Robe Of Gems won the Jury Prize and Claire Denis' Fire took home the best eirector Silver Bear.
The acting awards are gender neutral, with the top prize going to Meltem Kaptan for Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W Bush - which also saw Laila Stieler take best screeenplay - and Laura Basuki taking the best supporting performance for Before, Now And Then.
Ruth Beckermann’s Mutzenbacher was named best film prize in the Encounters section,...
The film, which charts the tale of a family of peach farmers facing the squeeze in Eighties Catalonia was praised for its "extraordinary" child performances by the jury, headed by M Night Shyamalan.
The Grand Jury Prize Silver Bear went to Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, while Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s Robe Of Gems won the Jury Prize and Claire Denis' Fire took home the best eirector Silver Bear.
The acting awards are gender neutral, with the top prize going to Meltem Kaptan for Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W Bush - which also saw Laila Stieler take best screeenplay - and Laura Basuki taking the best supporting performance for Before, Now And Then.
Ruth Beckermann’s Mutzenbacher was named best film prize in the Encounters section,...
- 2/17/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Top prizes for Hong Sangsoo’s ‘The Novelist’s Film’, Claire Denis’ ‘Fire’.
Carla Simon’s Alcarras won the Golden Bear at the 72nd Berlinale, in a ceremony held at the Berlinale Palast this evening (Wednesday 16).
“I feel like I should just move here, because every time I come here something amazing happens,” said Simon on accepting the award.
Alcarras: Berlin review
The award was presented by Competition jury president M. Night Shyamalan, who praised the film “for its extraordinary performances from the child actors to the actors in their 80s and for the ability to show the tenderness and comedy...
Carla Simon’s Alcarras won the Golden Bear at the 72nd Berlinale, in a ceremony held at the Berlinale Palast this evening (Wednesday 16).
“I feel like I should just move here, because every time I come here something amazing happens,” said Simon on accepting the award.
Alcarras: Berlin review
The award was presented by Competition jury president M. Night Shyamalan, who praised the film “for its extraordinary performances from the child actors to the actors in their 80s and for the ability to show the tenderness and comedy...
- 2/16/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The winners for the 2022 Berlin Film Festival have been revealed. The in-person event took place this year February 10–20. The competition jury, led by president M. Night Shyamalan, included filmmaker Karim Aïnouz, producer Saïd Ben Saïd, filmmaker Anne Zohra Berrached, filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga, Oscar-nominated “Drive My Car” director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and actor Connie Nielsen.
The festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear for Best Film, was presented by Shyamalan. “For its extraordinary performances, from the child actors to the actors in their 80s, for the ability to show the tenderness and comedy and struggle,” he awarded Spanish drama “Alcarras,” from director Carla Simon.
The festival did away with gendered acting awards once again, instead offering Silver Bears for Best Supporting and Best Lead Performance. Beloved auteur Claire Denis won best director for her romantic psychodrama “Both Sides of the Blade” — or “Fire,” as it’s known in the United States. (IFC Films has stateside rights.
The festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear for Best Film, was presented by Shyamalan. “For its extraordinary performances, from the child actors to the actors in their 80s, for the ability to show the tenderness and comedy and struggle,” he awarded Spanish drama “Alcarras,” from director Carla Simon.
The festival did away with gendered acting awards once again, instead offering Silver Bears for Best Supporting and Best Lead Performance. Beloved auteur Claire Denis won best director for her romantic psychodrama “Both Sides of the Blade” — or “Fire,” as it’s known in the United States. (IFC Films has stateside rights.
- 2/16/2022
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Winners have been announced at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival, with Carla Simon’s Alcarràs scooping the coveted Golden Bear prize as the best film of the festival’s International Competition. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which were revealed Wednesday night at the Berlinale Palast.
Alcarràs follows the life of a family of peach farmers in a small village in Catalonia, whose world changes when the owner of their large estate dies and his lifetime heir decides to sell the land, suddenly threatening their livelihood.
Simon previously picked up Berlin’s Best First Feature Award in 2017 for her debut Summer 1993.
Other winners in the International Competition included Hong Sang-soo’s The Novelist’s Film, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize (read Deadline’s review here); Natalia Lopez Gallardo, who picked up the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Robe of Gems (review here); and Claire Denis, who...
Alcarràs follows the life of a family of peach farmers in a small village in Catalonia, whose world changes when the owner of their large estate dies and his lifetime heir decides to sell the land, suddenly threatening their livelihood.
Simon previously picked up Berlin’s Best First Feature Award in 2017 for her debut Summer 1993.
Other winners in the International Competition included Hong Sang-soo’s The Novelist’s Film, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize (read Deadline’s review here); Natalia Lopez Gallardo, who picked up the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Robe of Gems (review here); and Claire Denis, who...
- 2/16/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
How you respond to the news that “Robe of Gems” director Natalia López Gallardo is making her feature debut after editing work by the likes of Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas may ultimately guide your response to the film as a whole. Though the first-time writer-director forges her own cinematic path here and is very much an artist unto herself, the influence of her collaborators is evident in this elliptical exploration of a criminal underbelly that’s spent so much time in the light it’s hardly even dark anymore.
Nailea Norvind stars as Isabel, who moves into her mother’s villa in rural Mexico along with her husband and children following the matriarch’s departure. There they learn that the sister of Mari, who’s taken care of the family home since time immemorial, has gone missing — a development that so upets Isabel it spurs her into ill-advised action.
Nailea Norvind stars as Isabel, who moves into her mother’s villa in rural Mexico along with her husband and children following the matriarch’s departure. There they learn that the sister of Mari, who’s taken care of the family home since time immemorial, has gone missing — a development that so upets Isabel it spurs her into ill-advised action.
- 2/14/2022
- by Michael Nordine
- Variety Film + TV
Brisk business around US packages and a raft of deals on festival titles signal green shoots of recovery.
Sony’s $60m acquisition of Tom Hanks comedy A Man Called Otto delivered a shot of adrenalin into the first days of the EFM market and was swiftly followed by some eye-catching deals on the early festival titles.
Golden Bear contender Fire has sold to 30 territories for Anton and Wild Bunch International (Wbi) and further competition films Rimini (Coproduction Office) and Return To Dust (m-appeal) as well as Berlinale Special Gala titles Call Jane (Protagonist) and Dark Glasses (Wbi) have also posted sales.
Sony’s $60m acquisition of Tom Hanks comedy A Man Called Otto delivered a shot of adrenalin into the first days of the EFM market and was swiftly followed by some eye-catching deals on the early festival titles.
Golden Bear contender Fire has sold to 30 territories for Anton and Wild Bunch International (Wbi) and further competition films Rimini (Coproduction Office) and Return To Dust (m-appeal) as well as Berlinale Special Gala titles Call Jane (Protagonist) and Dark Glasses (Wbi) have also posted sales.
- 2/14/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow¬Jeremy Kay¬Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Bolivian-Mexican filmmaker Natalia López Gallardo enjoyed tandem careers in editing and acting (“Nuestro Tiempo”), as she made her debut as auteur with the short film “En el cielo como en la tierra.” In her first feature-length project, “Robe of Gems,” she tackles the parallel individual struggles of three women against a backdrop of unrelenting cartel infiltration.
What lured you into directing after careers in editing and acting? Was it a natural progression?
Definitely, yes, it was there, but I think maybe it took time to accumulate the big necessity. I think it’s very important to have that need to do a film. It’s not a desire; it’s not an objective; you have to need it because that impulse that makes you start a film has to last maybe five years with the same power. The necessity has to be big.
“Robe of Gems” not only deals with...
What lured you into directing after careers in editing and acting? Was it a natural progression?
Definitely, yes, it was there, but I think maybe it took time to accumulate the big necessity. I think it’s very important to have that need to do a film. It’s not a desire; it’s not an objective; you have to need it because that impulse that makes you start a film has to last maybe five years with the same power. The necessity has to be big.
“Robe of Gems” not only deals with...
- 2/13/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
I made the mistake of worrying about plot while watching Natalia López’s feature directorial debut Robe of Gems. The synopsis dares you to worry with its talk of three women colliding courtesy of a missing person in Mexican cartel territory, asking us to wonder how things will resolve. Except we already know. The bodies found in landfills and marshes throughout the film prove it. If those who are kidnapped aren’t already found dead, you can assume they will be soon. That doesn’t mean María (Antonia Olivares) won’t continue to hope for her sister’s return, though. Nor does it stop her recently-returned-to-the-countryside boss Isabel (Nailea Norvind) from joining the cause. Add Roberta’s police chief (Aida Roa) to the mix and know the woman’s memory isn’t forgotten.
The problem with having expectations for a resolution, however, stems from the fact that María’s sister...
The problem with having expectations for a resolution, however, stems from the fact that María’s sister...
- 2/11/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Veteran editor Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s feature directing debut Robe Of Gems screens in competition today at the Berlin Film Festival, check out the first trailer above.
Set in the countryside of Mexico, the film sees the fates of three women collide when the case of a missing person leads them on a path of pain and redemption.
Robe Of Gems stars Nailea Norvind, Daniel García (Narcos) and newcomers Antonia Olivares and Aida Roa.
In the midst of divorce, Isabel (Norvind) settles in the countryside where she discovers that her housekeeper María (Olivares) has a missing sister. When Isabel offers her help, an unspoken pact to find the missing one is born between the two women. Meanwhile, Roberta (Roa), the local police commander, hopes to rescue her son from the criminal underworld, and ends up crossing paths with Isabel and María. Their destinies come together in...
Set in the countryside of Mexico, the film sees the fates of three women collide when the case of a missing person leads them on a path of pain and redemption.
Robe Of Gems stars Nailea Norvind, Daniel García (Narcos) and newcomers Antonia Olivares and Aida Roa.
In the midst of divorce, Isabel (Norvind) settles in the countryside where she discovers that her housekeeper María (Olivares) has a missing sister. When Isabel offers her help, an unspoken pact to find the missing one is born between the two women. Meanwhile, Roberta (Roa), the local police commander, hopes to rescue her son from the criminal underworld, and ends up crossing paths with Isabel and María. Their destinies come together in...
- 2/11/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
The 72nd Berlin Film Festival got off to a promising if somewhat subdued start Feb. 10 amid strict restrictions due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, which put a major damper on this year’s festivities and kept crowds to a minimum.
While only some 800 guests attended the opening night ceremony at the Berlinale Palast — less than half of the normal capacity of the festival’s grand main venue — the event was nevertheless a hopeful sign for the local film industry and for cinema in general.
The festival was uncompromising in its mask policy for the red carpet, rendering most high-profile guests unrecognizable — although many whipped them off for the phalanx of photographers. But the Berlinale Palast’s famous disco ball spun nonetheless and aside from the Covid of it all, the scene felt very much like old times, both on the red carpet and inside, where a number of local guests...
While only some 800 guests attended the opening night ceremony at the Berlinale Palast — less than half of the normal capacity of the festival’s grand main venue — the event was nevertheless a hopeful sign for the local film industry and for cinema in general.
The festival was uncompromising in its mask policy for the red carpet, rendering most high-profile guests unrecognizable — although many whipped them off for the phalanx of photographers. But the Berlinale Palast’s famous disco ball spun nonetheless and aside from the Covid of it all, the scene felt very much like old times, both on the red carpet and inside, where a number of local guests...
- 2/10/2022
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
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