News

Exclusive: Cameras have started rolling in Tokyo on Akashi, the debut feature from Japanese and Canadian writer-director Mayumi Yoshida.

Yoshida, best known as an actor for her role in The Man in The High Castle, will also star in the film alongside veteran performers Hana Kino, Chieko Matsubara, Kunio Murai, and rising performer Ryo Tajima.

Described as a “coming-of-age love story,” Akashi follows Kana (Yoshida), an artist who is at a crossroads in her career. After finding out her Grandmother (Kino) has passed, she returns home to Tokyo for the funeral, where she rekindles a romance with childhood love Hiro (Tajima) and uncovers a family secret about her Grandpa (Murai).

Akashi is written and directed by Yoshida, who developed the script through the TIFF Writer’s Studio. The pic produced by Nach Dudsdeemaytha,...

Trier and Eskil Vogt will develop future projects at their company Don’t Look Now.

Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt are leaving Norway’s Oslo Pictures to develop future projects at their company Don’t Look Now. They are currently in talks with potential new production partners on future films.

The pair, who have been screenwriting collaborators since the early 1990s, joined forces with Oslo Pictures in 2018, most recently on their Oscar-nominated hit The Worst Person In The World, directed by Trier.

Don’t Look Now Productions is owned by Trier and Vogt and the company has been a producing partner...

Saint Maud: "Experience the terrifying film that Esquire calls “a mesmerizing horror masterpiece” when Saint Maud arrives on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital) and DVD November 30 from Lionsgate. Saint Maud stars Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle. Saint Maud will be available on Blu-ray™ + Digital and DVD for the suggested retail price of $17.99 and $14.98, respectively.

Official Synopsis

The debut film from writer-director Rose Glass, Saint Maud is a chilling and boldly original vision of faith, madness, and salvation in a fallen world. Maud, a newly devout hospice nurse, becomes obsessed with saving her dying patient’s soul — but sinister forces, and her own sinful past, threaten to put an end to her holy calling.

Blu-ray / DVD Special Features

Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Rose Glass A Higher Calling: The Rapture of Saint Maud"

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Lair: "Synopsis: When Ben Dollarhdye is accused of murder, saying he was possessed by a demonic force, Steven Caramore investigates his friend's claims,...

Director and producer Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers opens her documentary “Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy” with a peaceful, slow-motion scene of buffalo calves grazing alongside their mothers while the voice of the filmmaker’s mother, a family doctor, is heard gently speaking to a mother about her baby.

A coproduction between Tailfeathers’ Seen Through Woman Productions and the National Film Board of Canada, which is also selling the film, “Kímmapiiyipitssini” is a chronicle of her community’s steady efforts to confront its substance-use crisis and heal by cultivating empathy through harm reduction.

During its world premiere run this week in Hot Docs’ Canadian Spectrum competition program, the film was the centerpiece of a live streamed masterclass with Tailfeathers, who is a member of the Kainai First Nation as well as Sámi from Norway.

“For films about addiction or tough issues affecting our people, the chosen imagery is often rooted in sadness,...

Exclusive: XYZ Films has boarded world sales, excluding Canada and Australia/Nz, on Berlin Panorama entry Night Raiders, the apocalyptic sci-fi exec-produced by Taika Waititi.

Set in the year 2043 when a military occupation controls disenfranchised cities in North America and children are property of the state, the female-driven dystopian story follows a woman who joins an underground band of vigilantes to infiltrate a ‘children’s academy’ and get her daughter back.

The Canada-New Zealand co-production from writer-director Danis Goulet stars Elle-Maija Tailfeathers (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open) with Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction), Brooklyn Letexier-Hart, Alex Tarrant, Violet Nelson and Gail Maurice.

XYZ Films, which was previously aboard for U.S. rights only has upped its involvement to world rights ahead of the virtual EFM.

Producing are Paul Barkin, Tara Woodbury, Georgina Condor, Chelsea Winstanley (JoJo Rabbit) and Ainsley Gardiner (The Breaker Uppers). Thor: Ragnarok director Waititi is exec-producing along with Noah Segal,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe 49th annual New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf) has been rescheduled from March to December 9-20, with films slated to premiere in the Film at Lincoln Center Virtual Cinema. The line-up includes Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud in Her Room, Maya Da-Rin's The Fever, and Alexander Nanau’s Collective. Lynne Ramsay, who last directed You Were Never Really Here, will be adapting Steven King's psychological horror novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, about a young girl who becomes lost in the woods. Recommended VIEWINGAbel Ferrara's new documentary, Sportin' Life, which premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival in August, has gone an unusual premiere route, streaming first through Indiewire (currently unavailable), and now at The Film Stage. Shot by Sean Price Willaims, the documentary follows Ferrara as he...

As we observe Native American Heritage Month, there are as many historical contributions to celebrate by our people as there are things happening in the current cultural landscape. Within cinema, there’s been a recent blossoming of films by Indigenous filmmakers internationally on the festival circuit and beyond that have been pushing the form and actively engaging with the very open-ended question: what is an Indigenous Cinema?

Well, what is it? There’s no one style, genre or format to answer that question, which makes this current moment exciting and palpable in terms of what it’s laying down for the next few decades of Indigenous filmmakers to come. In essence, it’s Indigenous artists expressing themselves through their own culture, experience and ultimately, their own lens.

A good indication of what’s going on now and how that future might track can be seen through the following directors and their films:

“Fast Horse” (2019) – dir.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched a series of virtual panels aimed at addressing issues of race and gender equity in conversations led by Whoopi Goldberg, Lee Daniels and others.

The series called “Academy Dialogues: It Starts With Us” is part of the Academy Aperture 2025 equity and inclusion initiative and is a step toward the Oscars’ continued push for more diversity. The series kicked off with a virtual chat between Goldberg and civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson that was held on July 21 and is available online now.

Other panelists included in the series are Victoria Alonso, Lisa Cortés, Debra Martin Chase, Carmen Cuba, DeVon Franklin, Nadia Hallgren, Taraji P. Henson, Franklin Leonard, Delroy Lindo, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Bao Nguyen, Dawn Porter, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Ivette Rodriguez, Bird Runningwater, Misan Sagay, Bryan Stevenson, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Ligiah Villalobos, Lulu Wang, Emil Wilbekin and Roger Ross Williams.

Also Read: Oscars...

Whoopi Goldberg, Lee Daniels, Marvel executive Victoria Alonso and more Hollywood heavyweights are on board for a new virtual conversation series from the the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The series, titled “Academy Dialogues: It Starts With Us,” is part of the group’s Aperture 2025 equity and inclusion initiative. Topics will include race, ethnicity, gender, history, opportunity and the art of filmmaking.

“With our ‘Academy Dialogues’ series, the Academy is creating a space for our members — and the public — to talk about inclusion in a way that is timely, relevant and allows for a meaningful exchange on how to bring systemic change to Hollywood,” said Lorenza Muñoz, exec VP of member relations and awards. “These conversations may be uncomfortable for some, but they are necessary to broaden the stories that are getting told and increase opportunities for those who have been excluded.”

First up is a chat with...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is taking part of its Academy Aperture 2025 initiative public by expanding its in-house conversation series “Academy Dialogues: It Starts With Us” to include access not only for their entire membership but also the public — which, of course, includes a larger swath of the non-member industry members as well.

Aimed to provide discussions on race, ethnicity, gender, history, opportunity and the art of filmmaking, the series notably included one edition in July featuring AMPAS board member Whoopi Goldberg interviewing civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson on the “Power of Narrative.” It is available for view now on YouTube, but AMPAS is ramping up the volume, as it were, as these issues move front and center in a more urgent way, not only for the Academy...

Fifty percent of selections directed by women.

Telefilm Canada announced on Tuesday (August 18) the 16 filmmaker teams and first feature and narrative web projects selected for 2020-21 Talent To Watch programme.

Telefilm and Talent Fund will invest more than Usd $1663,000 (C$2.2m) in the English- and French-language work. Thirteen of the 16 teams are culturally diverse, with one who self-identifies as gender diverse. Fifty percent of the stories are directed by women.

For the first time, feature film projects will receive Usd $113,389, up from Usd $94,490 in support. Talent Fund is backed by private donations and launched in 2012 and to date has raised...

In her review, Sara Clements wrote that Blood Quantum is a "one-of-a-kind zombie horror flick," and following its release on Shudder back in April, the movie is coming to Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, and VOD on September 1st:

Press Release: Rlje Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, has picked up select rights to Blood Quantum from Shudder, AMC Networks’ streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural. Blood Quantum will be released on VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray on September 1, 2020.

Blood Quantum is directed and written by Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls). The horror film stars Michael Greyeyes, Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant), Kiowa Gordon (Twilight franchise),and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open). Rlje Films will release Blood Quantum on DVD for $27.97 and on Blu-ray for $28.97.

In Blood Quantum, the indigenous people in the isolated reserve of Red Crow are immune to...

Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing is adding to its library of inclusive narratives with the critically acclaimed drama Lingua Franca directed, written, produced, edited by and starring Isabel Sandoval. The film will debut on Netflix and open theatrically in select cities on August 26.

Lingua Franca made history at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival Venice Days program as the first film directed and starring an openly trans woman of color to screen in competition. The film follows the story of an undocumented Filipina trans woman Olivia (Sandoval) who is the live-in caregiver for Olga (the late Lynn Cohen), an elderly Russian woman in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. Olivia’s main priority is to secure a green card to stay in America, but when she unexpectedly becomes romantically involved with Olga’s adult grandson Alex (Eamon Farren), issues around identity, civil rights and immigration threatens Olivia’s very existence.

“The release...

Members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television voted to crown Sophie Deraspe’s “Antigone” as best film at the Canadian Screen Awards Thursday, presented virtually by broadcasters CBC and CTV.

The film, a contemporary spin on the Greek tragedy, also won awards for lead female actor for Nahéma Ricci, female actor in a supporting role for Nour Belkhiria, adapted screenplay for Deraspe, and editing for Geoffrey Boulangé and Deraspe.

Variety’s review of the film, which was named best Canadian feature at the Toronto Film Festival, said it “feels refreshingly liberated by the spirit of Sophocles’ original material.” The “impassioned” film was “electrified by a performance of immense self-possession and dignity from revelatory new star Nahéma Ricci,” the critic wrote.

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn won the prizes for directing and original screenplay for “The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open.” The film also took the cinematography award for Norm Li.

Antigone, Sophie Deraspe’s haunting French-language drama that set its adaptation of the Greek tragedy as a tale of a modern-day refugee family in Montreal, won Best Picture and tied François Girard’s The Song of Names with five wins overall Thursday at the Canadian Screen Awards, Canada’s equivalent to the Oscars.

Winners in the Cinematic Arts categories came tonight in a virtual ceremony held by The Canadian Academy, culminating three days of award handouts spanning film, TV, news, sports and documentaries.

Antigone won the Best Canadian Feature Film at last year’s Toronto Film Festival on its way to becoming Canada’s official submission in the 2020 International Feature Film race. Tonight, it also took best actress for star Nahéma Ricci, supporting actress for Nour Belkhiria, adapted screenplay for Deraspe, and Geoffrey Boulangé and Deraspe won for editing.

Song of Names, about an Englishman who searches for his childhood friend,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSGoodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)Cancellations, closures, and cuts continue in the wake of Covid-19. Box Office Pro, Cineuropa, and Complex will be regularly updating timelines of the virus's impact on theatres and the film industry. In response to these events, website Screen Slate and New York City-based cinema Light Industry have launched the Cinema Worker Solidarity Fund, which seeks to help movie theater workers whose jobs have been affected by the closure of local cinemas. Meanwhile, the fate of this year's Cannes Film Festival remains indeterminate, with film companies planning a virtual market (and online screenings) should the festival be cancelled. Elsewhere, SXSW pushes forward by opting to distribute screening links to its jurors for award decisions. Recommended VIEWINGAll of avant-garde filmmaker Sky Hopinka's short films are now available for free, including Fainting Spells...

As indie darlings and awards season contenders like Parasite, Jojo Rabbit, The Lighthouse, Waves and Dark Waters continue to impress, the Thanksgiving weekend has a handful of offerings when it comes to the specialty box office.

This week will see the premiere of Michael Apted’s 63 Up, the latest installment of his acclaimed Up Series. The BritBox documentary is part feature, part anthropologic study as it asks “whether or not our adult lives are pre-determined by our earliest influences and the social class in which we are raised.”

“63 Up is a landmark film and BritBox is proud to be the theatrical distributor, supporting Michael Apted and his lifetime of documentary filmmaking,” said Soumya Sriraman, President and Founder, BritBox.

The journey started in 1970 with 7 Up which spotlighted a group of British-born children. This served as the foundation for the series as Apted...

You can tell from the title. “The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open” stands out in a field of generic, cookie-cutter dramas, not simply in terms of representation — though the female-made, indigenous-focused thriller offers a field day for intersectionality theorists — but also in the unconventional way the story unfolds. Filmed in what looks like a single real-time tracking shot (not counting a 12-minute intro to establish the characters), this resourceful Canadian micro-indie establishes an immediate, urgent language all its own to confront the problem of domestic abuse, making the issue personal for both the characters and their audience.

After a healthy tour of the festival circuit — where such a project ticks multiple boxes on the identity-politics ballot — “The Body Remembers” reaches U.S. screens via Array, the Ava DuVernay-backed distribution organization that serves as a megaphone for marginalized voices. While it can be tough at times — earnest, agitated,...

"I'm gunna protect her... No one's taking my baby." Ava DuVernary's indie label Array has released a trailer for their latest film hitting theaters this month titled The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and also played at the Sydney & Toronto Film Festivals. The film takes place entirely in real time as a stitched continuous take in order to achieve an experience for the viewer which is urgent, intimate, naturalistic, and highly suspenseful. Skillfully written and directed by filmmakers Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn, the film is about a chance encounter on the street between two Indigenous women, one fleeing a violent domestic attack. Starring Violet Nelson and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, with Charlie Hannah, Barbara Eve Harris, Jay Cardinal Villeneuve, Aidan Dee, James Angus Cowan, and Anthony Bolognese. The film has received positive reviews across the board so far, calling it an "ambitious & gutsy...

The American Film Institute (AFI) just announced the films that will play in the New Auteurs, Cinema’s Legacy, Midnight, Shorts and AFI Conservatory Showcase sections at AFI Fest 2019 presented by Audi, completing the festival’s program.

The complete AFI Fest program includes 142 titles of which 51% are directed by women. This year’s program represents 52 countries and includes eight official International Feature Film Oscar®submissions as well as four World Premieres.

See online film guide at http://fest.afi.com/.

This year, they have transitioned back to a paid ticket system. For more information about ticket prices, Film Passes and Priority Passes, visit http://fest.afi.com. As an Official Supporter of the festival, I have five (5) complementary tickets to each screening of this film. They are available to the first to ask me! Please note that a ticket does not guarantee seating; be seated at 15 minutes prior to start time to ensure a seat.

Mexican event runs from November 13-17.

Sophie Deraspe’s Canadian Oscar submission Antigone, Matías Meyer’s Modern Love, David Zonana’s Workforce and Michael Angelo Covino’s The Climb are among the Los Cabos International Film Festival’s competitive sections, Competencia Los Cabos and México Primero, announced on Tuesday (15).

Entries in the Competencia Los Cabos are: Modern Loves, Matías Meyer; Antigone (Canada), Sophie Deraspe; Ash (Canada), Andrew Huculiak; Greener Grass (Us), Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe; Honey Boy (Us), Alma Har’el; Holy Beasts, Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas; The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open (Canada), Elle-Máijá...

“Girls need to see positive and authentic characters that can inspire them”.

The world’s most popular films are sending a message to girls and young women that leadership is mostly for men, according to new research from development organisation Plan International and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

Even if women are portrayed in positions of leadership, they are still shown as sex objects in most films.

The research, which analysed the 56 top-grossing films of 2018 in 20 countries, found that of the characters in leadership positions, women and girls are four times more likely than male characters to...

Exclusive: Array Releasing has acquired worldwide rights to the Canadian drama The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, expanding the company’s slate of inclusive films. Array founder Ava DuVernay said Thursday that the company plans a release later this fall.

Written and directed by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (who also stars) and Kathleen Hepburn, the drama explores two Indigenous women living very different lives who are briefly brought together by desperate circumstances. The film debuted at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and most recently, made its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

“Through emotional, passionate storytelling, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open showcases the rarely portrayed lives, challenges and perspectives of Indigenous women,” Array president Tilane Jones said. “This beauty of a film by two dynamic women filmmakers captivated everyone at Array. We’re thrilled to share Elle-Máijá and Kathleen’s talents while unveiling...

Top Picksdaniel KASMAN1. 2008 (Blake Williams)2. State Funeral (Sergei Loznitsa)3. About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)4. Seven Years in May (Affonso Uchôa)5. Uncut Gems (Josh & Benny Safdie)6. Crazy World (Nabwana I.G.G.)7. Austrian Pavilion (Philipp Fleischmann)8. Transcript (Erica Sheu)9. Collective (Alexander Nanau)10. Book of Hours (Annie MacDonell)Fernando F. CROCE1. The Traitor (Marco Bellocchio)2. The Cordillera of Dreams (Patricio Guzmán)3. Uncut Gems (Josh & Benny Safdie)4. Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles)5. The Wild Goose Lake (Diao Yinan)6. First Love (Takashi Miike)7. Anne at 13,000 ft (Kazik Radwanksi)8. The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (Karim Aïnouz)9. Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)10. It Must Be Heaven (Elia Suleiman)Kelley DONG1. To the Ends of the Earth (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)2. Jordan River Anderson, the Messenger (Alanis Obomsawin)3. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn)4. Liberté (Albert Serra)5. How to Build a Girl (Coky Gieroyc), Saint Maud (Rose Glass)Correspondences#1 Daniel Kasman...

Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit” has won the Grolsch People’s Choice Award as the audience’s favorite movie at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Tiff announced on Sunday.

The black comedy deals with a 10-year-old German boy in World War II who idolizes Adolf Hitler but is forced to reconsider his ideals when he discovers that his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their house. The film drew largely positive reviews at Tiff, but offended some who felt that Hitler and Nazis were not a laughing matter.

“Jojo” beat Todd Phillips’ “Joker” for the award, as well as less divisive films that included Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes.”

Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” was the first runner-up, while Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” was second runner-up.

Also Read: 'Jojo Rabbit' Film Review: Taika Waititi Insists That...

Five established producers and seven up-and-comers are in the running.

The Canadian Media Producers Association (Cmpa) has named the nominees for its 2019 Indiescreen Awards.

Up for the Established Producer Award are: Christina Piovesan, from First Generation Films (American Woman); Felize Frappier, from Max Films Media (Kuessipan); Jessica Adams, from Ja Productions (Tammy’s Always Dying); Judy Holm, from Markham Street Films (Level 16); and Lori Lozinski, of Violator Films (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open).

Nominated for the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award are: Julie Strifler, of Endgame Films (Easy Land); Katie Bird Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott, from Babe...