Academy Museum to Tribute Marlon Brando, ‘Star Wars,’ Premiere 4K Restoration of ‘Amadeus’ — Film News in Brief
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The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has unveiled its slate of public programming for the 2024 spring season, which will include a tribute and retrospective of the work of Marlon Brando, a May the 4th “Star Wars” celebration and a world premiere 4K restoration of “Amadeus,” among others.
The Academy Museum will screen John Waters’ short films “Roman Candles” and “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket” with live commentary by Waters. Exhibitions include a celebration of Oscar-winning music in Indian cinema, a film series focused on queer female lensers in early Hollywood, a retrospective on actor Youn Yuh-Jung, a behind-the-scenes presentation of Dykstraflex, used to film the original “Star Wars” trilogy.
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Special guests will include Ed Begley Jr., Cary Elwes, Jane Fonda, Yunte Huang, Nyla Innuksuk, Dr. Naomi Oreskes, Patricia Rozema, Bird Runningwater, Mink Stole, John Waters, Youn Yuh-jung and more.
“This spring, we’re delighted to present an array of one-of-a-kind programming, which includes welcoming back the incomparable John Waters for a rare presentation of his early short films,” Amy Homma, chief audience officer, said in a statement. “In addition, we are excited to announce the return of programs such as our annual May the 4th celebration, themed family workshops, original film series and a variety of experiences for families and movie lovers that you can only find at the Academy Museum.”
Tickets can be purchased at the Academy’s website, where you can view the full schedule of slated programming.
32nd Hamptons International Film Festival to Take Place Oct. 4-14
HamptonsFilm has revealed that the 32nd annual Hamptons International Film Festival will run from Oct. 4-14, involving live and in-person screenings and events in the Hamptons. Project submissions are currently being accepted here, where you can also find details on deadlines.
“After 31 successful editions, we are incredibly proud to witness our festival’s continued growth year after year,” said HamptonsFilm executive director Anne Chaisson. “It is thanks to our loyal and passionate audiences that we are able to expand our festival days and continue showcasing the year’s most exciting titles each fall. We are counting down the days until October!”
HamptonsFilm will maintain its tradition of giving out awards totaling $130,000 and hold special awards events during the festival. A myriad of films involved in last year’s HIFF programming have been nominated for a collective 43 Oscars, ranging from best animated feature nominee “Robot Dreams” to best picture nominee “Past Lives.”
The organization also hosts year-round programming including the HamptonsFilm Screenwriters Lab from April 5-7, the 17th annual SummerDocs documentary showcase, and the Outdoor Screening Series featuring family favorite movies during the summer.
All access passed to HIFF are on sale now. For additional information on the festival, visit here.
Film at Lincoln Center, MOMA Announce 53rd New Directors/New Films Lineup, ‘A Different Man’ Premiere to Open Festival
Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art have announced the lineup for their 53rd annual New Directors/New Film screenings, a festival that “has celebrated filmmakers who speak to the present and anticipate the future of cinema.”
Aaron Schumberg’s “A Different Man” is opening the event, which debuted at this year’s Sundance and will now have its New York premiere at the festival.
This year’s selection will introduce 25 features and ten shorts, including one world premiere, 14 North American premieres, four U.S. premieres and 16 New York premieres.
“It just feels right for us to bookend this year’s edition of ND/NF with two exciting new features by local filmmakers, as a reminder of what ND/NF has always been about: early encounters between the most cutting-edge emerging artists in international cinema and the New York audience who will be engaging with their work for years to come. Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man is a delirious, complex, and hilarious work that evokes the best black comedies produced on the streets and inside the apartments of New York City in the 1960s and ’70s (with a healthy dash of body horror and metanarrative),” Dan Sullivan, programmer, film at Lincoln Center and ND/NF co-chair said in a statement.
He further added: “Likewise, Theda Hammel’s similarly funny and spellbindingly chaotic ‘Stress Positions’ conjures the irreverence and messiness of that era’s cinematic underground but in an utterly contemporary and accessible vernacular, yielding a comic and incisive picture of trans and queer life in the city.”
The festival will run from April 3 to April 14, and you purchase tickets at their website. See the full festival lineup here.
The complete 2024 New Directors/New Films lineup:
Features
“All, or Nothing at All” dir. Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang
“Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” dir. Elene Naveriani
“Blaga’s Lessons” dir. Stephan Komandarev
“Cu Li Never Cries” dir. Pham Ngoc Lân
“The Day I Met You” dir. André Novais Oliveira
“A Different Man” dir. Aaron Schimberg
“Dreaming & Dying” dir. Nelson Yeo
“Exhibiting Forgiveness” dir. Titus Kaphar
“Explanation for Everything” dir. Gábor Reisz
“Foremost By Night” dir. Víctor Iriarte
“Good One” dir. India Donaldson
“A Good Place” dir. Katharina Huber
“Grace” dir. Ilya Povolotsky
“Hesitation Wound” dir. Selman Nacar
“Intercepted” dir. Oksana Karpovych
“A Journey in Spring” dir. Wang Ping-Wen, Peng Tzu-Hui
“Lost Country” dir. Vladimir Perišić
“Malu” dir. Pedro Freire
“Meezan” dir. Shahab Mihandoust
“Of Living Without Illusion” dir. Katharina Lüdin
“Omen” dir. Baloji
“Otro Sol” dir. Francisco Rodríguez Teare
“The Permanent Picture” dir. Laura Ferrés
“The Rim” dir. Alberto Gracia
“Stress Positions” dir. Theda Hammel
Shorts Program I
“Via Dolorosa” dir. Rachel Gutgarts
“Goodbye First Love” dir. Shuli Huang
“Shimmering Bodies” dir. Inês Teixeira
“Nos Îles” dir. Aliha Thalien
“The Voice of Others” dir. Fatima Kaci
Shorts Program II
“Break no. 1 & Break no. 2” dir. Lei Lei
“The night of the minotaur” dir. Juliana Zuluaga Montoya
“Kill ’Em All” dir. Sebastian Molina Ruiz
“The Porn Selector” dir. Lou Fauroux
“Digital Devil Saga” dir. Cameron Worden
James Marsden, Auli’i Cravalho, Sarah Hyland Among CSA Artios Awards Presenters
The Casting Society has announced presenters for the 39th annual Artios Awards on March 7 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles and the Edison Ballroom in New York City.
The Los Angeles presenters are comprised of Wells Adams, Kate Berlant, Tantoo Cardinal, Auli’i Cravalho, Stephanie Courtney, Ronald Gladden, Sarah Hyland, Trace Lysette, James Marsden, Kevin Miles, Ashleigh Murray, Michael Urie, Ming-Na Wen and Sofia Wylie. Presented by David Oyelowo, Ava DuVernay will receive the Lynn Stalmaster Award for career achievement, and Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, will present The Hoyt Bowers Award to Sharon Klein, head of casting for Disney Entertainment Television.
Hosts for the ceremony will be Niecy Nash-Betts for Los Angeles and Alex Edelman for New York.
At the New York ceremony, presenters include Rachel Brosnahan, Cirie Fields, Rachel Fuda, J. Harrison Ghee, Carla Gugino, Alfred Molina, Miriam Silverman, Brandon Uranowitz and Kara Young. Samantha Morton will host the London ceremony, which takes place on the same day at the White City House in London.
CSA previously announced the nominees for this year’s Artios Awards.
Neon Sets Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ for One-Night Screening and Q&A in 500 Theaters
Neon will screen Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” in 500 theaters on Wednesday, Feb. 28, for a one-night special screening event including an exclusive pre-recorded introduction and post-screening Q&A with DuVernay. “Origin” is based on the book “Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson.
“Origin” has been awarded multiple honors by the African American Film Critics Association and is also currently nominated for several NAACP Image Awards.
Per the film’s official description, DuVernay’s drama “explores the mystery of history, the wonders of romance, and a fight for our future. While investigating the global phenomenon of caste and its dark influence on society, a journalist faces unfathomable personal loss and uncovers the beauty of human resilience.”
DuVernay wrote the script and served as producer alongside Paul Garnes of Array. The cast includes Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Emily Yancy, Finn Wittrock, Victoria Pedretti, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Isha Blaaker, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Connie Nielsen, Blair Underwood, Nick Offerman, Stephanie March and Myles Frost.
American Genre Film Archive Names Jackson Cooper Executive Director (EXCLUSIVE)
Jackson Cooper has been named executive director of American Genre Film Archive. The Austin-based nonprofit preserves, restores and shares a collection of more than 3,000 35mm feature films.
Additionally, AGFA oversees restoration and home video releases for 12 projects every year and runs a theatrical catalogue of 1,800+ genre and cult features for global distribution to theaters, festivals and museums.
Cooper said of his new position, “I’m thrilled to be joining the American Genre Film Archive as its next Executive Director. I look forward to building upon the incredible work the staff and board have done and to continue to keep genre film alive through the preservation, restoration, and presentation of these great film experiences. Whether through donating, partnerships, or volunteering, AGFA is for all and I’m honored to work alongside the incredibly talented staff, board, our partners, and the community to move the organization into this exciting new chapter.”
Cooper has more than 15 years of experience in the nonprofit arts world, having previously worked at Pacific Northwest Ballet, the North Carolina Museum of Art, Chamber Music Raleigh and North Carolina Theatre, among other institutions. In addition to programming for Alamo Drafthouse Raleigh and writing for Arrow Video home releases, Cooper has been a part of boards and juries for the Seattle International Film Festival, the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Seattle Queer Film Festival, and The Cinema Inc.
Some of AGFA’s current projects include booking screenings for Severin Film’s 4K restoration of the Italian horror film “Cemetery Man” and restoring the filmography of underground icons George and Mike Kuchar. AGFA is also celebrating its 15th anniversary with a screening series in partnership with USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Impact Crew Partners With Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix to Modernize Production Hiring
Impact Crew will team up with Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix to improve how productions source and hire crew talent.
“We’re thrilled to be working with two of the most innovative studios in the industry to optimize the way that global productions assemble, hire, and onboard the incredible crew talent who bring stories to life,” Impact Crew co-founder and CEO Tyler Mitchell said in a statement.
The studios and their productions will gain access to Impact’s global network of over 600,000 below-the-line crew members. This includes more than 10,000 members of diversity organizations, such as ARRAY Crew, The Handy Foundation, ReelWorks, The London Screen Academy, NOVAC, MediaMKRS, MEAA, MAAC and the EICOP.
Working closely with Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix productions, Impact Crew will build new custom features and reporting tools that are tailored to each studio’s hiring and talent management needs. For instance, Impact Crew’s specialized search engine can filter 600,000 crew network by role, location, association and genre to pinpoint the best candidate for the job.
Executives and department heads can also use Impact’s AvailCheck feature, which creates hiring grids for each job and tracks crew responses in real time. Additionally, they have exclusive access to the AvailCheck PRO service, an internal team dedicated to rapidly sourcing available crew in 24 hours or less, seven days a week.
‘We Grown Now’ Wins Jury Best Feature Narrative at Pan African Film Festival
The winners of the 2024 Pan African Film & Arts Festival, which showcases African and African diaspora cinema and arts, were announced during an awards ceremony at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.
Minhal Baig’s “We Grown Now” won the festival jury’s best feature narrative prize. The film is set in 1992 and follows best friends Malik and Eric around Chicago as they seek to escape the mundaneness of school and hardships of growing up in public housing. When tragedy strikes their community, their bond is challenged. Jurnee Smollett, S. Epatha Merkerson, Blake Cameron James, Gian Ramirez and Lil Rel Howery comprise the cast.
“We Grown Now” will be released on April 19 in New York and Los Angeles, prior to its May 10 wide release.
For the full list of PAFF winners, visit paff.org/awards.
Ava DuVernay Receives Kodak’s Auteur Award
Ava DuVernay received the Auteur Award at the Kodak Film Awards Friday night.
DuVernay was recognized for her body of work and her latest feature “Origin.” The filmmaker brought her cinematographer Matthew Lloyd up to the podium with her and mentioned how “Origin” marked the first time she had shot on film. “We shot in 37 days on three continents, it spans seven time periods and covers 400 years.”
Talking about her experience of shooting on film for the first time, DuVernay said, “I learned that throughout the history of cinema, some of my favorite films ever made, the filmmakers can’t see what they’re shooting.” DuVernay continued she and Lloyd would project dailies in the evening on a hotel room wall. “Now I can’t imagine doing it any other way.”
“Past Lives” filmmaker Celine Song, “Oppenheimer” cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and producer Christine Vachon were also among the other honorees.
Van Hoytema who was bestowed with the Lumeire Award thanked producers Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan. Speaking to their advocacy for shooting on film. Kodak developed 65 mm film for Van Hoytema to deliver “Oppenheimer’s” black-and-white sequences. He said: “I could be sure if we would still be shooting on analog film today. I feel deeply that their stubbornness and commitment has been the single greatest gift to us analog film purists.”
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