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Kaleem Aftab, director of international programming at the Red Sea Film Festival, has cast his net wide in selecting the 14 films in the festival’s International Short Film Competition program.

Aimed at attracting emerging talent from across Africa, Asia and the Islamic world, the section includes fiction, animation and documentary in films that average 15-20 minutes long, but may be as short as a couple of minutes, or as long as an hour.

With films ranging from Iranian director Farnoosh Samadi’s Iran-French co-production, “Titanic” – which takes a darkly comic look at Iranian film censors confused by how to interpret new regulations – to Kazakh filmmaker Shugyla Serzhan’s “The Late Wind,” about a young pregnant woman suddenly abandoned by her boyfriend, the section pushes boundaries of subjects that are already part of the public conversation in the countries from which it selects.

“One of the biggest things about these films...

Toronto — Today, the Toronto International Film Festival® announced this year’s Short Cuts lineup, supported by Ontario Arts Council, showcasing 42 live action narrative, documentary, and animated shorts by a groundbreaking group of filmmakers representing 23 countries. More than half of this year’s selections are directed or co-directed by female and female-identifying filmmakers. TIFF alumni directors with new films at Short Cuts include Yann Demange, Jasmin Mozaffari, Miryam Charles, Farnoosh Samadi, Halima Ouardiri, Renee Zhan, Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto, and the team of Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan. Among the directors with short films at the Festival for the first time are Malia Ann and Canadian actor Mackenzie Davis. Among the notable performers in this year’s slate of new shorts are Riz Ahmed (Dammi) and Kaniehtiio Horn (Redlights).

A robust selection of new animated short films will be showcased in the programme this year. Animated films in Short Cuts include the...

Toronto — Today, the Toronto International Film Festival® announced this year’s Short Cuts lineup, supported by Ontario Arts Council, showcasing 42 live action narrative, documentary, and animated shorts by a groundbreaking group of filmmakers representing 23 countries. More than half of this year’s selections are directed or co-directed by female and female-identifying filmmakers. TIFF alumni directors with new films at Short Cuts include Yann Demange, Jasmin Mozaffari, Miryam Charles, Farnoosh Samadi, Halima Ouardiri, Renee Zhan, Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto, and the team of Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan. Among the directors with short films at the Festival for the first time are Malia Ann and Canadian actor Mackenzie Davis. Among the notable performers in this year’s slate of new shorts are Riz Ahmed (Dammi) and Kaniehtiio Horn (Redlights).

A robust selection of new animated short films will be showcased in the programme this year. Animated films in Short Cuts include the...

The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its Short Cuts showcase counting 42 live action narrative, documentary, and animated shorts from global filmmakers repping 23 countries.

That’s comprised of 21 World Premieres, 13 North American Premieres, and five International Premieres presented in 19 different languages.

More than half of this year’s selections are directed or co-directed by female and female-identifying filmmakers. TIFF alumni directors with new films at Short Cuts include Yann Demange (White Boy Rick), Jasmin Mozaffari, Miryam Charles, Farnoosh Samadi, Halima Ouardiri, Renee Zhan, Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto, and the team of Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan. Among the directors with short films at the Festival for the first time are Malia Ann and Canadian actor Mackenzie Davis. Among the notable performers in this year’s slate of new shorts are Riz Ahmed in Dammi and Kaniehtiio Horn in Redlights.

Animated films in Short Cuts include the...

Forty-two short films from 23 countries will screen in the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival’s Short Cuts section, TIFF organizers announced on Wednesday.

The shorts include “Dammi,” which stars Riz Ahmed and was directed by Yann Mounir Demange, an Emmy nominee in 2021 for “Lovecraft Country”; “Electra,” a new film by Czech director Daria Kascheeva, who was nominated for an Oscar for the animated short “Mother”; “27,” for which director Flora Anna Duba won the Short Film Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; and “Woaca,” the directorial debut of Canadian actor Mackenzie Davis.

According to TIFF, more than half the films are directed or co-directed by female or female-identifying filmmakers. Almost half the films, 19 out of the 42, are by Canadian filmmakers. Twenty one of the films will have their world premieres at TIFF.

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival will run from Sept. 7 through Sept. 17.

The Short Cuts lineup, separated...

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled 42 short films to feature as part of its Short Cuts program in September, led by the Riz Ahmed-starrer Dammi and Redlights, toplined by Kaniehtiio Horn and Ellyn Jade.

Ahmed, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Sound of Metal and last year earned a Oscar for the live-action short The Long Goodbye, toplines Dammi, a short directed by French auteur Yann Mounir Demange and set to world premiere in Locarno before landing in Toronto. The film also stars Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba and is produced by Ami, the French fashion brand, which teased a trailer for the film in Cannes.

Demange has TV series credits that include Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Dead Set, and movie credits like ’71 and White Boy Rick. Renee Zhan, who earned the Jury Award for best animated...

Persian helmers Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami have teamed again to make a movie about what they call “one step forward”. Built in the form of 12 short, completely separated stories that bare the names of their main protagonists, “Terrestrial Verses” shows different situations of oppression, some of them completely absurd and some uncomfortable, with most of them handled with a great dose of deadpan humor.

At the international premiere of their movie in the Uncertain Regard competition program of the festival, Alireza Kathami addressed the packed Debussy theatre with words about the current situation in Iran.

Asian Movie Pulse met the directors to ask them about their idea to make a film out of twelve tableaux, about the inspiration found in old Persian form of poetry, about the importance of humor to battle one's rights and taking that actual one step forward.

Terrestrial Verses is screening at Cannes Official poster...

The news of the arrest of Jafar Panahi, Mostafa Al-Ahmad and Mohammad Rasoulof last week came to cement the oppressive tactics of the current Iranian regime, with the industry now being in more fear than ever for more incarcerations. At the same time, and despite these issues and the whole censorship that dominates all aspects of life, the Iranian movie industry remains rather vibrant, still one of the biggest in the world, with hundreds of movies produced every year. In a homage to both the arrested and the industry, we present 25 Iranian movies, released post-2010, in alphabetical order.

1. 180° Rule (2020) by Farnoosh Samadi

Based on real events, Samadi’s first feature film after 3 increasingly successful short ones, is not an easy work. It’s highly dramatic and is a real punch in the guts; we assist, unable to intervene, to a self-destructive behaviour that appears fool to say the least. However,...

Known for her impressive short films The Silence and Gaze, Iranian filmmaker Farnoosh Samadi makes her feature debut with family drama 180 Degree Rule (Khate Farzi). It explores how one seemingly simple decision made by a parent can be drastically life-changing.

Based on a friend of Samadi’s real-life experience, this story set in Tehran follows teacher Sara (Sahar Dolatshahi) who is married to Hamed (Pejman Jamshidi). Their relationship feels strained when we first encounter them, like a union of convenience to care for their young daughter Raha. Sara wants to go to a family wedding in the North, but Hamed is not so keen. He is suddenly called away on a work trip, and forbids his wife from going. Sara makes the decision to go with her daughter anyway, but in secret. The consequences of her actions have a dire effect, with her resorting to secrets and lies upon Hamed’s return.

There’s so much to learn about Iranian schoolteacher Sara (Sahar Dolatshahi) in the opening act of Farnoosh Samadi’s feature directorial debut, “180 Degree Rule.” She’s popular, well-regarded by both her fellow teachers and her teenage students, the kind of person who gets things done, a loving mother to her young daughter Raha, and a major part of her boisterous and big family. Her relationship with her uptight husband Hamed (Pejman Jamshidi) is something different, however, and he seems to think her can-do attitude is really just nagging. No wonder her deep empathy never seems to apply to him.

In her previous series of short films, Samadi turned her attention to the kind of thorny, character-rich dramas often associated with contemporary Iranian cinema (shades of Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation” are not hard to find in “180 Degree Rule”). For her feature directorial debut, Samadi again takes on...

Tehran-set drama is first film in a planned trilogy revolving around the theme of secrets and lies.

Berlin-based Pluto Film has boarded sales on Iranian director Farnoosh Samadi’ s drama 180° Rule ahead of its premiere in TIFF’s Discovery section.

The film is based on real events and is about a school teacher who is preparing to attend a wedding in northern Iran. When her husband suddenly forbids her from attending, she makes a decision that will impact her life forever.

180° Rule is writer-director Farnoosh Samadi’s first feature after three successful shorts including the 2018 Gaze, which premiered in Locarno,...

The fall film festival season, one unlike any other, continues on as BFI London Film Festival have announced the full lineup for their 68th edition. Featuring both virtually and physical screenings, the festival takes place between October 7-18. The physical screenings will occur at BFI Southbank and cinemas across the UK while all virtual screenings are geo-blocked to the UK, though Festival talks and Lff Expanded are available to experience for free from anywhere in the world. The lineup features Pixar’s latest animation Soul, as well as new films by Tsai Ming-liang, Francis Lee, Chloé Zhao, Steve McQueen, Garrett Bradley, Christian Petzold, Chaitanya Tamhane, Miranda July, and more.

“This has been such a period of uncertainty and change across the industry and when we embarked on a radical new plans for our 2020 edition, we stepped into unknown territory,” said Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director. “But we’ve...

This year’s BFI London Film Festival, taking place as a hybrid of online and physical activities due to ongoing pandemic disruption, has unveiled a program of 58 titles.

A selection of screenings will take place at cinemas and others will take place in a virtual form for audiences across the UK. The films come from 40 countries. All screenings are geo-blocked to the UK, though festival talks will be available to experience for free around the world.

As previously announced, Steve McQueen’s Mangrove will open this year’s fest and Francis Lee’s Ammonite will close.

Titles include Pixar’s new movie Soul, which would’ve been at Cannes, Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, which is set to premiere in Venice, Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, which was part of this year’s Cannes Label, Miranda July’s Kajillionaire, which debuted at Sundance, Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli, which was at Berlinale,...

Pixar’s ‘Soul’ and Chloe Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’ are two of four cinema-only titles.

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the full programme for its 2020 physical-virtual hybrid edition, with 58 features playing to audiences across the UK from October 7-18.

Pixar’s Soul and Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland starring Frances McDormand join Steve McQueen’s festival opener Mangrove and Francis Lee’s closer Ammonite as the four cinema-only titles, playing at select venues across the country.

Scroll down for the full lineup of features

A further 10 titles will play both in cinemas and via the festival’s online platform. These...

The 45th edition of the Toronto Film Festival is still very much a go, although made up of a reduced programme. After announcing that Spike Lee’s filmed version of the Broadway-acclaimed David Byrne’s ‘American Utopia’ will open the festival the full line-up has now been released.

Taking place between September 10 – 19, the festival will see the first 5 days made up of physical screenings. The program will also be made up of drive-ins, digital screenings, virtual red carpets, press conferences, industry talks.

The highlights of this year’s festival will include ‘God’s Own Country’ helmer Francis Lee’s ‘Ammonite,’Chloe Zhao’s ‘Nomadland,’ Florian Zeller’s ‘The Father’ and Werner Herzog’s doco “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds as well as films directed by Regina King, Viggo Mortensen and Halle Berry.

Also in news – Netflix release first look images from Ryan Murphy’s ‘Ratched’

See the full line-up below;

“180 Degree...

Naomi Watts in ‘Penguin Bloom’ (Photo credit: Hugh Stewart.)

Glendyn Ivin’s Penguin Bloom, the adaptation of Bradley Trevor Greive and Cameron Bloom’s novel starring Naomi Watts, The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln and Jacki Weaver, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The drama produced by Emma Cooper, Watts and Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea, Jodi Matterson and Steve Hutensky is among 50 features in the line-up.

The festival’s 45th edition will run from September 10–19, a combination of physical, socially-distanced screenings, drive-ins, digital screenings, virtual red carpets, press conferences and industry talks.

Penguin Bloom’s selection is another welcome boost for Australian cinema after the news that Roderick MacKay’s The Furnace will have its world premiere in the Horizons section of the Venice International Film Festival.

Scripted by Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps, the film follows Watts as Sam Bloom, a young Sydney...

After unveiling a few of the works that would be at the fest, the Toronto International Film Festival has today releases their full lineup for 2020. Obviously, this comes in the wake of Covid-19 and the coronavirus pandemic changing what film festivals will be like this year. Toronto had already detailed that their festival will be a hybrid of limited in person screenings and virtual ones, but now we have a better idea of what will be playing. At first glance, the fest does seem to have less in the way of overt Oscar bait than usual, but that might be deceiving. After all, the Academy Awards will be picking through a different crop than planned, to begin with, so perhaps TIFF will still debut some major players? Joining the previously announced flicks like Francis Lee’s Ammonite (as well as Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland), Toronto has added movies like Regina King...

Nicolás Pereda's FaunaToronto International Film Festival have unveiled a dramatically reduced selection of films from their upcoming 2020 edition, including new films by Spike Lee, Nicolás Pereda, Naomi Kawase, and Werner Herzog. The festival's tailored lineup of 50 features, plus five programs of to-be-announced shorts, will screen both physically (for the festival's first five days) and virtually (for the festival's full 10 days.) As previously announced, selected films—such as Chloé Zhao's Nomadland—will premiere in a non-competitive alliance with other major fall festivals in Venice, Telluride, and New York.Opening Night FILMDavid Byrne’s American Utopia (Spike Lee)Closing Night Filma Suitable Boy (Mira Nair)Official SELECTION180 Degree Rule (Farnoosh Samadi)76 Days (Hao Wu, Anonymous, Weixi Chen)Ammonite (Francis Lee)Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)Bandar Band (Manijeh Hekmat)Beans (Tracey Deer)Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili)The Best Is Yet To Come (Wang Jing)Bruised (Halle Berry)City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)Concrete Cowboy...

As announced last month, the Toronto International Film Festival will look quite different this year in the era of Covid-19. Featuring a drastically reduced lineup, physical screenings for only the first half of the festivals, and more changes, the festival has now unveiled their complete feature film lineup.

Along with previously announced films like the opener, Spike Lee’s filmed version of David Byrne’s American Utopia, Francis Lee’s Ammonite, and Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, the festival also includes directorial debuts by Halle Berry and Regina King as well as new work by Werner Herzog, Mira Nair, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Frederick Wiseman, and more.

“We began this year planning for a 45th Festival much like our previous editions,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF, “but along the way we had to rethink just about everything. This year’s lineup reflects that tumult. The names you already...

Female filmmakers are behind nearly half of the films that will screen at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, representing a high-water mark for the annual celebration of the best in movies and pushing the gathering tantalizingly close to achieving gender parity.

The lineup includes new works by ​Roseanne Liang​ (“Shadow In The Cloud​”), Tracey Deer​ (“Beans”), Sonia Kennebeck​ (“Enemies of the State”), Chloé Zhao​ (“Nomadland”), as well as the feature directorial debuts of Oscar-winning actresses Regina King (“One Night in Miami”) and Halle Berry (“Bruised”). Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy,” a BBC drama series about a university student’s coming-of-age, will be the closing night film, a sign of the continued blurring of the lines between film and television. All told 46% of the films were directed or co-directed by women, an improvement on last year, when 36% of entries were from female filmmakers.

“We’ve reached a watershed moment...

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its 2020 lineup of 50 new features, a dramatically smaller selection than last year, where the typically stuffed festival hosted more than 300 titles. Nevertheless, the festival program — which is expected to take place as a combination of virtual screenings and physical premieres, but no press and industry — features plenty of recognizable names.

As previously announced, Spike Lee’s “David Byrne’s American Utopia” will open the festival, which today announced it will close with a special presentation Mira Nair’s latest, the miniseries “A Suitable Boy,” based on Vikram Seth’s novel of the same name.

Chloe Zhao’s Francis McDormand-starring “Nomadland,” already set for a starry festival run, will screen at the festival, joining previously announced titles like Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” Vinterberg’s Mads Mikkelsen drama “Another Round,” Ricky Staub’s Idris Elba vehicle “Concrete Cowboy,” Mexican-Canadian director Nicolas Pereda’s “Fauna,” Reinaldo Marcus Green...

The feature directorial debuts of Halle Berry and Regina King will be part of the lineup at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, organizers announced on Thursday.

Berry’s film, “Bruised,” features the actor and director as a mixed martial arts star fighting for custody of her young daughter. King’s “One Night in Miami” is based on a play that fictionalizes a night in 1964 in which boxer Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammad Ali), singer Sam Cooke, football player Jim Brown and activist Malcolm X met in a Florida hotel room.

Nearly half of the 50 selected features, 23, have a female director or co-director.

Other films among the 50 titles announced by TIFF include Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a drama from “The Rider” director that stars Frances McDormand; Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” a female romance set in 1840s England and starring Saoirse Ronan, Kate Winslet and Fiona Shaw; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “Good Joe Bell,...

The Toronto Film Festival (September 10-19) has revealed the lineup for its hybrid 2020 edition, which has had to be pared back due to the impact of coronavirus.

Joining movies previously announced for the festival are new projects by the likes of Werner Herzog, Regina King, Francois Ozon and Naomi Kawase. Mira Nair’s BBC-Netflix TV series A Suitable Boy has been set as the festival’s closing night event. Scroll down for the list in full.

As revealed earlier this month, the slimmed down festival will open with Spike Lee’s concert movie version of David Byrne show American Utopia. Movies previously announced for Sundance and Venice which are also heading to Toronto include Viggo Mortensen’s Falling, Olivia Colman-Anthony Hopkins starrer The Father, Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces Of A Woman and Frederick Wiseman’s City Hall. Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland will debut at Toronto and Venice simultaneously.

Films include ’Ammonite’, ’Notturno’, ’New Order’ and ’Penguin Bloom’.

New work from Francis Lee, Werner Herzog, François Ozon, Gianfranco Rosi, Regina King and Mira Nair are among the line-up for the 45th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

As previously announced, Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia will open this year’s edition, which runs from September 10-19.

The festival will close with Nair’s A Suitable Boy (pictured), a six-part TV drama that debuted on the BBC in the UK last Sunday (July 26). Netflix has online global rights, excluding North America and China.

Scroll down for full line-up...

Five first feature projects will be pitched in front of industry professionals at Focus CoPro, a new event hosted by Cannes’ Short Film Corner that will take place May 17 at the Cannes Film Market.

The pitching session, which is run in collaboration with Nisi Masa, was established to fill a gap in the market, according to Short Film Corner head Camille Hébert-Bénazet.

“This is something that the festival is missing: Filmmakers who pitch their films,” she said. “This is one of the reasons we are doing this.”

Though the Short Film Corner in the past has been “very focused on beginners,” Hébert-Bénazet said the new pitching session will engage with “directors and producers at another level of creation and production.”

“We really have to be in each part of the creation process,” she said.

The pitches will be heard Thursday morning by a gathering of producers, film funds, institutions, distributors,...

Of the 86 feature films (34%) by women directors that screened in Toronto, I saw three in particular which have kept me thinking about how the feminine, or even how woman herself is defined. Speaking generally of “those men” in the power positions throughout the world, I am becoming increasingly convinced that “those men” set an example in their over zealous coveting wealth and resources, and included in their materialistic extremes, is a push to redefine women “as they were” in the days, not so long ago, when they did not have much to say about their status.

The women depicted in the movies in Toronto take daring leaps to change the circumstances of their lives. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, Audience Winner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, the first runner up for the Audience Award about the Olympic ice skater I, Tonya, Battle of the Sexes about Billie Jean King...

Marking his leap to feature filmmaking, award-winning director Ali Asgari and his cowriter and life partner Farnoosh Samadi are dealing with an issue which is not discussed in Iran, but occurs often enough to be brought to light in this story about young love and loss of innocence in Iranian society today. Disappearance had its North American premiere in Toronto after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Emerging with teenage temerity out of a dark alleyway, Sara reaches out for help at one of the many Tehran hospitals that she will visit over the course of the night. Doe-eyed and withdrawn, Sara is reluctant to divulge the details of her delicate injury, or any personal information, and this renders the medics unable to help. Even when her boyfriend, Hamed, shows up, posing as her brother, the urgent procedure cannot begin until her parents give their authorization.

So begins...

Farnoosh Samadi and Ali Asgari’s “The Silence,” a tender story about a young girl and her Kurdish mother, won the Industry Prize at TheWrap’s Shortlist Film Festival on Wednesday. Joe Talbot’s “American Paradise,” a dark comedy about race and bank-robbing, took the Audience Prize at a ceremony at IMAX headquarters in Playa Vista, California. And “Fanny Pack,” a story by a USC student about a young Indian woman hilariously clashing with her conservative father, won the first-ever ShortList prize for a student film. Also Read: ShortList 2017: 'The Silence' Is Haunting Tale of Grief Lost in Translation...

With her ability to speak other languages and navigate the modern world, teenager Fatma has to do a lot for her mother as the two try to get by as Kurdish refugees living in Italy. But there’s one thing Fatma isn’t equipped to handle: passing along a devastating diagnosis, even when time is of the essence. “The Silence (Il Silenzio),” an Italian short film directed by Farnoosh Samadi and Ali Asgari that is a finalist in TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival (presented with support from IMAX), begins with Fatma (Fatma Alakus) accompanying her mother Cahide (Cahide Ozel) to the hospital where a doctor.

Ben & Joshua Safdie's Good TimeThe lineup for the 2017 festival has been revealed, including new films by Wang Bing, Radu Jude, Raúl Ruiz and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes dedicated to Jean-Marie Straub, Jacques Tourneur and much more.Piazza GRANDEAmori che non sonno stare al mondo (Francesca Comencini, Italy)Atomic Blonde (David Leitch, USA)Chien (Samuel Benchetrit, France/Belgium)Demain et tous les autres jours (Noémie Lvovsky, France)Drei Zinnen (Jan Zabeil, Germany/Italy)Good Time (Ben & Joshua Safdie, USA)Gotthard - One Life, One Soul (Kevin Merz, Switzerland)I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, USA)Iceman (Felix Randau, Germany/Italy/Austria)Laissez bronzer les cadavres (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium/France)Lola Pater (Nadir Moknèche, France/Belgium)Sicilia! (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, Italy/France/Germany)Sparring (Samuel Jouy, France)The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, USA)The Song of Scorpions (Anup Singh, Switzerland/France/Singapore)What Happed to Monday (Tommy Wirkola,...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– Cardiff Animation Nights will be returning to run a dedicated animation strand at Cardiff Independent Film Festival (C.I.F.F.) for a second year this May. This year’s animation strand at C.I.F.F. will comprise three programs of animated short films in competition for the Best Animation Award, as well as an Animated Family Shorts program curated by renowned Cardiff-based studio Cloth Cat Animation, networking events, and an Animation Quiz run by the team at Skwigly Animation Magazine.

The competition program features animated short films from across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Australia, including Mikey Hill’s The Orchestra, Anete Melece’s Analysis Paralysis, Chris Shepherd’s Johnno’s Dead, Ross Hogg’s Life Cycles and Alois Di Leo’s Way of Giants.

Lucy Gaffy with her.Canon Award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film for 'Dream Baby'.

The 26th annual Flickerfest closed last night with an awards ceremony at Bondi Pavilion, celebrating both international and Australian films..

The award for Best Australian Short Film went to Christopher Sferrazza.s Beast, which had its world premiere at the festival.

Lucy Gaffy took out the award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film for Dream Baby, following on from the short.s recent Aacta Award.

The award for Best International Short Film went to the Icelandic film.Ungar (Cubs), from writer-director Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir..

Flickerfest.s Academy-accredited awards include the Flickerfest Award for Best International Short Film, the Yoram Gross Award for Best International Animation, the Virgin Australia Award for Best Australian Short Film and the Flickerfest Award for Best Documentary Short Film..

.We are thrilled that the 2017 festival...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Full Lineup Announcements

– The Denver Film Festival (Dff), produced by Denver Film Society (Dfs), has announced its full festival lineup including all feature film selections, short films and complete sidebars. “Our 39th Festival program truly has something for everyone — from the delightful dance-filled comedies of Tribute guests Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon to the diverse slate of works that makes up our country of focus, Spain, from timely and serious documentaries such as ‘Do Not Resist’ and ‘Jackson’ to the always curious and creepy Late Night Showcase,” said Brit Withey, Artistic Director. Other highlights include “I, Daniel Blake,” “The Ornithologist” and “Off the Rails.”

During the 12-day Festival, DFF39 will present more than 200 titles representing local, national and international independent films, as well as industry panels, workshops,...

The Hamptons International Film Festival’s top prizes have gone to Bulgarian-Greek drama Glory (Slava) and Us documentary The Eagle Huntress.

The Hamptons International Film Festival has given is Best Narrative Feature award to Bulgarian-Greek drama Glory (Slava) (pictured), directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov and its Best Documentary Feature award to Us entry The Eagle Huntress, directed by Otto Bell.

French-Qatari crime story Divines, from Houda Benyamina, and Denmark’s Those Who Jump, from Estephan Wagner, Moritz Siebert and Abou Bakar Sidibé got honourable mentions in, respectively, the narrative feature and documentary feature categories.

The festival’s Tangerine Entertainment Juice Fund Award, which honours an outstanding female narrative filmmakers, went to Wakefield, directed by Robin Swicord.

Other winners announced in the festival’s East Hampton awards ceremony included:

Hiff Award Winner for Best Narrative Short Film presented by the Wall Street Journal

The Silence (Il Silenzio), directed by Ali Asgari and Farnoosh Samadi.

Hiff Award Winner...

The Hamptons International Film Festival’s top prizes have gone to Bulgarian-Greek drama Glory (Slava) and Us documentary The Eagle Huntress.

The Hamptons International Film Festival has given is Best Narrative Feature award to Bulgarian-Greek drama Glory (Slava) (pictured), directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov and its Best Documentary Feature award to Us entry The Eagle Huntress, directed by Otto Bell.

French-Qatari crime story Divines, from Houda Benyamina, and Denmark’s Those Who Jump, from Estephan Wagner, Moritz Siebert and Abou Bakar Sidibé got honourable mentions in, respectively, the narrative feature and documentary feature categories.

The festival’s Tangerine Entertainment Juice Fund Award, which honours an outstanding female narrative filmmakers, went to Wakefield, directed by Robin Swicord.

Other winners announced in the festival’s East Hampton awards ceremony included:

Hiff Award Winner for Best Narrative Short Film presented by the Wall Street Journal

The Silence (Il Silenzio), directed by Ali Asgari and Farnoosh Samadi.

Hiff Award Winner...

Naomi Kawase to head the Cinéfondation and Short Films jury.

With the Official Selection of features for the 69th Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22) set to be revealed tomorrow (April 14), the line-up of Short Films has been unveiled in advance.

This year the Selection Committee received 5,008 short films – 458 more than in 2015.

Ten films will compete for the Short Film Palme d’Or, to be awarded by Japanese director Naomi Kawase, president of the Cinéfondation and Short Films jury, at the festival’s awards ceremony on May 22.

The titles are mostly from Europe and Latin America, with one from Asia and one from Africa.

Short Films Competition

La Laine Sur Le Dos

Lofti Achour (Tunisia, France)

Dreamlands

Sara Dunlop (UK)

Timecode

Juanjo Gimenez (Spain)

Imago

Raymund Gutierrez (Philippines)

Mother (Madre)

Simón Mesa Soto (Colombia)

The Girl who Danced with the Devil (A Moça Que Dançou Com O Diabo)

João Paulo Miranda Maria (Brazil)

Après Suzanne

Félix Moati (France...

The odds of having your short film included in this year’s Sundance Film Festival are .008 percent. Out of the 66 short film line-up (selected among 8,161 submissions) we find actress Rose McGowan move behind the camera for her directing debut (Dawn), we have Ain’t Them Bodies Saints producer Toby Halbrooks shovel out Dig (see pic above) and Todd Rohal (The Guatemalan Handshake) returns to the fest in between features with Rat Pack Rat. Filmmaker Magazine New Faces of Independent Film director Dean Fleischer-Camp rolls up his shirt sleeves with Catherine, Matthew Lessner returns to Park City with the helping hand Chapel Perilous while The Strange Ones (’11 accepted short) co-helmer Christopher Radcliff won’t be making a dissappearing act with Jonathan’s Chest. Finally docu feature-film helmer Lucy Walker moves into The Lion’s Mouth Opens. I’ll of course be covering several of these – look out for our coverage.

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Short films can go a long way. Especially when they’re showcased at the Sundance Film Festival. The festival’s Shorts program, which was announced today, has a tradition of identifying remarkable filmmakers as well as introducing stories that ultimately make it to the big-screen as features. For example, David O. Russell brought his first film, a short titled Bingo Inferno to Sundance in 1987, while Half Nelson, which earned Ryan Gosling his first Oscar nomination, grew out of Ryan Fleck’s 2004 Sundance short titled, Gowanus, Brooklyn. “If you look back at the directors who got their start by having a short at Sundance,...