Author: CWB News Department

SundanceNow Doc Club, the advertising-free boutique subscription VOD service dedicated solely to documentaries, announced today that “Susan Sarandon Favorites,” a program guest curated by Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon, is now available on Doc Club. Included in the program are eight documentaries, two of which – STORIED STREETS and WAITING FOR MAMU – were executive produced by Sarandon and have never before been released on SVOD. Of the program, Sarandon said: “I appreciate a doc when it encourages you to be the protagonist in your own life or when it makes you itch to solve a problem, fight for justice.…

The 68th Festival de Cannes (13-24 May 2015) has chosen to pay tribute to Ingrid Bergman with this year’s poster, following on from Marcello Mastroianni in 2014. Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman was a modern icon, an emancipated woman, an intrepid actress, and a figurehead for the new realism. She changed roles and adoptive countries as the mood took her, but never lost sight of her quintessential grace and simplicity. This year’s poster captures the actress, who worked with Alfred Hitchcock, Roberto Rossellini and Ingmar Bergman, and starred opposite Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Gregory Peck, in all her beauty, her…

Sun Valley, ID….The 4th annual Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF), presented by Zions Bank, wrapped up a successful, fun-packed festival with an intimate Saturday night dinner for SVFF Lifetime Vision Award recipient Clint Eastwood, and a lively awards party hosted by comic Seth Herzog. Music by The Weeks entertained the crowd as the winners, filmmakers and movie lovers celebrated into the night. The Festival concluded Sunday with encore screenings of some of the Festival’s most popular films. “We couldn’t be happier with this year’s festival,” said SVFF executive director Teddy Grennan. “We seem to be on a great trajectory with this…

The Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles is delighted to announce the fourth annual touring program of the best current Czech films in a festival titled “Czech That Film”. The fest will take place from March 27th through 31st, 2015 at the University of Southern California. “We are thrilled to return as hosts for the Los Angeles edition of Czech That Film in 2015, an exciting showcase of the best of current Czech cinema. Building upon the success of last year’s festival, wehope to continue to inspire passion and interest for Czech cinema, and to engage our…

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi won Berlin’s prestigious Golden Bear earlier this year and the FIPRESCI International Critic’s Prize last week, and now Kino Lorber announced today it has acquired all North American rights to the film. It will be released theatrically in the fall.In the film, Panahi himself drives through Tehran with a camera set on the dashboard of a yellow cab and interviews the diverse characters that make up his fares.Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon, which won the Caméra d’Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award won by an…

Hollywood – Feb 22 – Tonight IDA directed by Paweł Pawlikowski from Poland won Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. “Ida” (Poland), directed by Paweł Pawlikowski. As she prepares to take her vows, a young novitiate (Agata Trzebuchowska) who has grown up an orphan in a convent in post-war Poland learns that she is Jewish. She joins her aunt (a judicial official with a taste for liquor and men, played by Agata Kulesza) and sets off on a journey to uncover her parents’ fate,This haunting drama of self-discovery, shot in shimmering black and white, won the European Film Awards’ top prize…

(Reuters) – Banned Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” which shows a cabby driving an odd assortment of people around Tehran but is really a condemnation of censorship, won the Golden Bear for best film on Saturday at the Berlin International Film Festival.The award, which the director was not in Berlin to accept, was hailed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a statement as “an important sign for the freedom of art.”On an Instagram account said to be Panahi’s, Iranian journalists at a post-awards news conference said he had posted a message in Farsi saying: “This is an important artistic…

Sleeper hit at this year’s Santa Barbara fest, Serbian director Darko Lungulov’s Monument to Michael Jackson was awarded today the top prize in the Eastern European (Eastern Bloc) competition. Festival’s executive director Roger Durling announced the winners earlier today at the Fess Parker hotel. “It is a great honor to win the award at such an amazing film event,” said Lungulov who attended the festivities. “International filmmakers have a great opportunity in Santa Barbara to present their work to highly educated and sensitive audience. I was so fortunate to have the U.S. premiere of my film at the Santa Barbara International…

A spur-of-the-moment trip to the South provided unexpected inspiration to filmmaker Vera Mulyani, who will be screening two short films and a new animation project on Feb. 9, 2015 at a fundraising event in Santa Monica.Following her passion for new creations, Mulyani traveled to Shreveport, La., for an inventors’ event. While there, Mulyani met the mayor of Shreveport, who was so impressed with her filmmaking background that he asked her to create a film to promote the city.Despite the city’s beauty, what struck Mulyani most was the poverty she observed — especially children trying to make a life in unimaginable…

Memoir films – what some have called diaristic or first-person documentaries – have a long and accomplished tradition in independent cinema. Among many standouts, one thinks of Alan Berliner’s ”Nobody’s Business,” (about a recalcitrant father), or Ira Wohl’s classic duet “Best Boy” and “Best Man” (about a challenged family with a severely retarded “man-child”). Other strong examples hail from Lithuanian-born filmmaker and World War II exile Jonas Meklas, whose 70-year film career essentially documents a relentless, lifelong quest to find a place to call home. Within this diary genre is a sub-genre of what might be dubbed the cancer documentary…