Sffilm has announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Awards competition and the Audience Awards at the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival (Sffilm Festival). The awards serve as a launching pad for internationally renowned filmmakers who are early in their careers, and they qualify films under 40 minutes for the Oscars. Past Golden Gate Award winners include Panah Panahi, Reid Davenport, Nadav Lapid, Marlon Riggs, Céline Sciamma, Jia Zhang-ke, Stanley Nelson, and Tasha Van Zandt.
This year, the 2024 Sffilm Festival ran five days from April 24 – 28 rather than its usual sprawling two weeks. The Sffilm board opted to pull back conservatively where others would have gone bigger to keep a more expansive footprint. Altogether they brought in 130 filmmakers this year, an excellent global selection of films despite the calendar disadvantage of being caught between Sundance and Cannes.
The big talk at this year’s Sffilm was the news that San...
This year, the 2024 Sffilm Festival ran five days from April 24 – 28 rather than its usual sprawling two weeks. The Sffilm board opted to pull back conservatively where others would have gone bigger to keep a more expansive footprint. Altogether they brought in 130 filmmakers this year, an excellent global selection of films despite the calendar disadvantage of being caught between Sundance and Cannes.
The big talk at this year’s Sffilm was the news that San...
- 4/30/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio and Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
For the perpetually impecunious (see: poor) indie filmmaker, a well-executed short or feature project can often be your best passport to the larger world. Left to our own scant devices, our calendars are unlikely to fill up with myriad jaunts to such exotic locales as Cannes, Venice, Locarno or, erm, Arkansas. But with a piping hot Dcp in hand, you not have not just an excuse to visit such places but an invitation. And few American cities are quite as dreamily summoned in the mind as day-glow Miami. After all: if it’s good enough for LeBron James, it’s good enough for us.
For 41 years, the Miami Film Festival has been showcasing innovative, inclusive work from new and emerging independent creators worldwide. Unsurprisingly, many of said creators are our own beloved Film Independent Fellows. In fact, a whopping 38 Fi Fellows will be in the Magic City next week to show new work,...
For 41 years, the Miami Film Festival has been showcasing innovative, inclusive work from new and emerging independent creators worldwide. Unsurprisingly, many of said creators are our own beloved Film Independent Fellows. In fact, a whopping 38 Fi Fellows will be in the Magic City next week to show new work,...
- 3/28/2024
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
Four documentary filmmakers have been selected to participate in Yeti’s inaugural Pretty Wild fellowship program, which supports documentaries that give a fresh perspective on the outdoors and the people and stories that live there.
The projects are: Tasha Van Zandt’s “The Arctic Women,” Mike Day’s “Baby Highlander,” Emily Cohen Ibañez’s “River” and Juliana Schatz Preston’s “Rare Bird.”
The four filmmakers, chosen from 330 submissions spanning 30 countries, are currently in Austin, Texas, for the first of two immersive retreats featured in the eight-month program.
In addition to $50,000 in unrestricted grants, each of the four selected filmmakers will receive guidance throughout the development of their films from a board of mentors. That includes the retreat in Austin, which comes to a close on March 7, as well as another retreat in September in Camden, Maine, leading up to Points North’s 20th annual Camden International Film Festival. The retreats include feedback sessions,...
The projects are: Tasha Van Zandt’s “The Arctic Women,” Mike Day’s “Baby Highlander,” Emily Cohen Ibañez’s “River” and Juliana Schatz Preston’s “Rare Bird.”
The four filmmakers, chosen from 330 submissions spanning 30 countries, are currently in Austin, Texas, for the first of two immersive retreats featured in the eight-month program.
In addition to $50,000 in unrestricted grants, each of the four selected filmmakers will receive guidance throughout the development of their films from a board of mentors. That includes the retreat in Austin, which comes to a close on March 7, as well as another retreat in September in Camden, Maine, leading up to Points North’s 20th annual Camden International Film Festival. The retreats include feedback sessions,...
- 3/7/2024
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Sandbox Films (Fire of Love) and Xtr (Ascension) have teamed to produce feature doc A Life Illuminated, exploring the life and legacy of pioneering marine biologist Edie Widder, in association with ocean exploration nonprofit OceanX.
Set to direct the pic is Tasha Van Zandt, the filmmaker behind such award-winning documentaries as After Antarctica, about legendary polar explorer Will Steger, and One Thousand Stories, about renowned artist Jr.
A Life Illuminated watches as Widder undertakes an extraordinary journey into the magical world of bioluminescence, through which she decodes the language of light that allows deep-sea life to communicate in complete darkness. It’s Widder’s unceasing need to understand and communicate with the most enigmatic forms of life on Earth that leads her to dive into the unknown, exploring the profound mysteries hidden beneath the ocean’s surface.
The film will draw upon Widder’s vast archive, from her earliest dives in deep sea submersibles,...
Set to direct the pic is Tasha Van Zandt, the filmmaker behind such award-winning documentaries as After Antarctica, about legendary polar explorer Will Steger, and One Thousand Stories, about renowned artist Jr.
A Life Illuminated watches as Widder undertakes an extraordinary journey into the magical world of bioluminescence, through which she decodes the language of light that allows deep-sea life to communicate in complete darkness. It’s Widder’s unceasing need to understand and communicate with the most enigmatic forms of life on Earth that leads her to dive into the unknown, exploring the profound mysteries hidden beneath the ocean’s surface.
The film will draw upon Widder’s vast archive, from her earliest dives in deep sea submersibles,...
- 12/19/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Savanah Leaf’s feature debut “Earth Mama” is starting to look like an early awards season prospect for distributor A24. After successful premieres at both Sundance and New Directors/New Films, the drama about a young Black mother’s fight to wrest her kids from the foster care system just won the Audience Award at Sffilm, also known as the San Francisco International Film Festival. “Earth Mama” is notably a Bay Area-grown production, with former Olympian athlete turned filmmaker Leaf casting non-professional actors for the feature.
IndieWire shares the full list of Golden Gate Award winners out of Sffilm, now in its 66th year and which ran from April 12 through 23, below.
The prize winners range from narrative features to documentaries and shorts. The awards are also notable as a qualifier for films under 40 minutes for the Oscars. Previous Golden Gate Award winners include Panah Panahi, Reid Davenport, Nadav Lapid, Marlon Riggs,...
IndieWire shares the full list of Golden Gate Award winners out of Sffilm, now in its 66th year and which ran from April 12 through 23, below.
The prize winners range from narrative features to documentaries and shorts. The awards are also notable as a qualifier for films under 40 minutes for the Oscars. Previous Golden Gate Award winners include Panah Panahi, Reid Davenport, Nadav Lapid, Marlon Riggs,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Isabella Rossellini has a connection to two Hamptons Doc Fest selections: Roger Sherman’s The Soul Of A Farmer and Stina Gardell’s Movie Man: “She is Stig Björkman’s very good friend over many many years.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second instalment with Artistic Director Karen Arikian we discussed Lisa Hurwitz’s The Automat; Lifetime Achievement Award honouree at the 12th edition of Doc NYC Joan Churchill and her short Shoot From The Heart with Haskell Wexler, Chris Hegedus, and Da Pennebaker; Asaf Galay’s The Adventures Of Saul Bellow; Tasha Van Zandt’s After Antarctica (recipient of the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Environmental Award); Dom Aprile’s Farming Long Island; Roger Sherman’s The Soul Of A Farmer with a connection to Isabella Rossellini, who is in Stina Gardell’s Movie Man, starring Stig Björkman, director of the Opening Night film Joyce Carol Oates: A Body In...
In the second instalment with Artistic Director Karen Arikian we discussed Lisa Hurwitz’s The Automat; Lifetime Achievement Award honouree at the 12th edition of Doc NYC Joan Churchill and her short Shoot From The Heart with Haskell Wexler, Chris Hegedus, and Da Pennebaker; Asaf Galay’s The Adventures Of Saul Bellow; Tasha Van Zandt’s After Antarctica (recipient of the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Environmental Award); Dom Aprile’s Farming Long Island; Roger Sherman’s The Soul Of A Farmer with a connection to Isabella Rossellini, who is in Stina Gardell’s Movie Man, starring Stig Björkman, director of the Opening Night film Joyce Carol Oates: A Body In...
- 12/4/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Two of the most acclaimed climbing films of the year, Max Lowe’s “Torn” and The Alpinist, from Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen, have taken big awards at this year’s Kendal Mountain Film Festival, held in the U.K.’s Lake District.
Its hybrid edition proved once more a dazzling showcase of mountain and sports films whose subjects, themes and emotions went far beyond the adrenalin-rush thrills of reportage.
Awards for the festival’s main international film competition were unveiled Saturday night. A further category prize – the People’s Choice Award – awarded to Menna Wakeford “A Woman’s Place,” was announced at the end of the Festival, which wrapped Sunday.
“Torn” won the Festival’s top award, the Grand Prize. Seen at Telluride and directed by photographer and explorer Max Lowe, the feature takes an intimate look at Lowe’s own family, following the discovery of his father’s body on a Himalayan peak,...
Its hybrid edition proved once more a dazzling showcase of mountain and sports films whose subjects, themes and emotions went far beyond the adrenalin-rush thrills of reportage.
Awards for the festival’s main international film competition were unveiled Saturday night. A further category prize – the People’s Choice Award – awarded to Menna Wakeford “A Woman’s Place,” was announced at the end of the Festival, which wrapped Sunday.
“Torn” won the Festival’s top award, the Grand Prize. Seen at Telluride and directed by photographer and explorer Max Lowe, the feature takes an intimate look at Lowe’s own family, following the discovery of his father’s body on a Himalayan peak,...
- 11/22/2021
- by George Bird
- Variety Film + TV
Sundance Institute and Sandbox Films announced 12 filmmakers who will be in the next batch to receive support for their projects, along with eight films selected to receive unrestricted and non-recoupable grants totaling $255,000, through the Sandbox Fund.
The Sandbox Fund aims to elevate the voices of independent artists working in the realm of science and nonfiction storytelling as they produce and promote work and discourse the highlights that overlap science and art in the U.S. and abroad.
The filmmakers and projects receiving grants are Márton Vizkelety and Zoltán Moll’s “Give Love Create,” Lacey Schwartz Delgado and Mehret Mandefro’s “How Free People Think,” Tasha Van Zandt’s “A Life Illuminated” and Eleanor Mortimer’s Untitled Deep Sea Taxonomy Documentary. Also in the group are Leandro Listorti’s “Herbaria,” Francisco Forbes, Ferran Romeu and Matthew Barton’s “Science Fiction,” Natalia Solórzano Vásquez’s “Space Is a Monstrous Animal” and Julie...
The Sandbox Fund aims to elevate the voices of independent artists working in the realm of science and nonfiction storytelling as they produce and promote work and discourse the highlights that overlap science and art in the U.S. and abroad.
The filmmakers and projects receiving grants are Márton Vizkelety and Zoltán Moll’s “Give Love Create,” Lacey Schwartz Delgado and Mehret Mandefro’s “How Free People Think,” Tasha Van Zandt’s “A Life Illuminated” and Eleanor Mortimer’s Untitled Deep Sea Taxonomy Documentary. Also in the group are Leandro Listorti’s “Herbaria,” Francisco Forbes, Ferran Romeu and Matthew Barton’s “Science Fiction,” Natalia Solórzano Vásquez’s “Space Is a Monstrous Animal” and Julie...
- 9/17/2021
- by Jennifer Yuma
- Variety Film + TV
The Woodstock Film Festival has announced the slate for its 22nd edition, with 11 world premieres among the 43 features on the bill.
The festival will take place September 29 to October 3 in three Hudson Valley communities about two hours north of New York City. In-person screenings and events will be featured throughout the fest’s five days, but online options will also enable attendees to connect amid the ongoing challenges of Covid-19.
Panels, concerts and comedy sets along with film screenings are planned in Woodstock, Kingston and Saugerties. Neon chief Tom Quinn is slated to receive the festival’s Honorary Trailblazer Award, an honor announced in 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.
The festival will kick off with Fanny: The Right to Rock, a documentary about a pathbreaking Filipina-American garage band, with a performance by some of the band’s members following the screening. Music is an annual touchstone for Woodstock’s lineup,...
The festival will take place September 29 to October 3 in three Hudson Valley communities about two hours north of New York City. In-person screenings and events will be featured throughout the fest’s five days, but online options will also enable attendees to connect amid the ongoing challenges of Covid-19.
Panels, concerts and comedy sets along with film screenings are planned in Woodstock, Kingston and Saugerties. Neon chief Tom Quinn is slated to receive the festival’s Honorary Trailblazer Award, an honor announced in 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.
The festival will kick off with Fanny: The Right to Rock, a documentary about a pathbreaking Filipina-American garage band, with a performance by some of the band’s members following the screening. Music is an annual touchstone for Woodstock’s lineup,...
- 9/1/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Will Steger, a Minnesota man of 75, is the ultimate outdoors explorer-adventurer. He appears to be a typical rugged American. As he tells it, as a seven-year-old, writing a school essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said he wanted to have his belongings in a bag on a stick and to be riding the trains as a hobo. That did not go over too well in school or with his father, but he maintained his urge to embark on adventures all his life, through three marriages and from his first foray at 19 to mountain climbing. When he witnessed two very experienced climbers fall to their death, he changed drastically and went through such a life crisis that he was hospitalized and later retreated to a Zen monastery on the West Coast. After that, he returned home, started exploring to the North of Minnesota and finally reached the North Pole (The Arctic). He became legendary as a polar explorer. He saw it as a Zen exercise in discipline and inner learning. ‘After Antarctica’ directed by Tasha Van Zandt is more than a tribute to Steger; it is a dramatic warning about global warming today.…
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Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...
- 4/21/2021
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Just when the year starts to wind down, the Sundance lineup arrives to remind us of all the new movies right around the corner. But wait! Before you shout “Already?!” and hide under your desk, we’re not quite there yet: The festival drops the program for its 2020 edition after Thanksgiving weekend, which means there are still a few weeks left to enjoy the current movie season before sifting through a whole new set of options.
At IndieWire, however, we simply can’t wait that long. Over the past several months, we’ve been tracking projects in various states of production and post-production as filmmakers rush to submit their rough cuts to the festival in the hopes of making a splash at Park City in January. Our Sundance wish list contains movies that we’re excited to see, but if our research tells us that an upcoming release simply won’t be ready in time,...
At IndieWire, however, we simply can’t wait that long. Over the past several months, we’ve been tracking projects in various states of production and post-production as filmmakers rush to submit their rough cuts to the festival in the hopes of making a splash at Park City in January. Our Sundance wish list contains movies that we’re excited to see, but if our research tells us that an upcoming release simply won’t be ready in time,...
- 11/18/2019
- by Eric Kohn, Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich, Chris O'Falt, Chris Lindahl, Tambay Obenson, Jude Dry and Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
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