2026 Toronto International Film Festival Platform Lineup

Before today I have not write about Toronto fest as even do each year read what's going on, there was not much about new movies from around the world except USA. But everything changed when AMPAS decided TIFF was going to be one of the world film festivals where the winner of a prize will get an instant spot at the Oscars in the International Feature Film category.

In the case of TIFF is the non-English-language majority winner of the Plataform program the one to qualify to be considered for #Oscars2027 shortlist of 15. The fest until recently was a non-competitive festival and became competitve thanks to this section. For those who do not know, the program was created 11 years ago and gets its name from Jia Zhang-ke's ground breaking second feature, Platform.

AMPAS selection it also implied changes to Platform as now the lineup has expanded to 12 films as well as the jury which was expanded to a five-member international jury. All 12 films are World Premieres.

Continue reading »

79th Cannes Film Festival Lineup

Update May 8. Yesterday the Cinéma de la Plage program was announced via press release and with 11 films.

With this update the post becomes final as info about all films is available at official site. That's it, unless festival releases extraordinary news. There are only four days to festival's opening day and let the major annual cinephiles feast begin!

---///---
Update May 6. Yesterday the Cannes Classics program was released with 2 new films, some short films including one by Jia Zhang-ke, and some documentaries plus some restored films. The list is at bottom of this post.

Worth highlighting is that restored El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) by Guillermo del Toro will be presented as a pre-opening screening of the festival on May 12 at 2:30 in the Debussy Theater in the presence of Guillermo del Toro and in a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the film's World Premiere.

Continue reading »

77th Festival de Cannes Award Winners

Been looking for an article/post/news etc. with ALL #Cannes2024 winners and surprise: couldn't find one! So, even if is not easy for me to sit down and write, decided to do the annual post that includes Official Selection, Quinzaine, Semanine, La Cinef, Marche du Film and Collateral Award winners in one place.

From what I was able to follow daily plus many winners, I believe 2024 edition was a successful one and perhaps we have to thank all sections film selection responsible and well, yes, also to Thierry Frémaux for a great unexpected selection in the main competition.

In the official selection there were twenty-two (22) films in competition and with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions, films were outstanding as there were films from master filmmakers I truly adore like Jacques Audiard, Jia Zhang-ke, Yorgos Lanthimos, Kirill Serebrennikov, Christophe Honore, Paolo Sorrentino, and David Cronenberg plus films by Payal Kapadia (remember 2021 Cannes Golden Eye winner documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing?), Sean Baker, Andrea Arnold (remember Fish Tank?), Agathe Reidinger (1st film), Gilles Lellouche, Michel Hazanavicius, Frances Ford Coppola (from trailer is quite different to what I imagined, now I'm curious), Karim Ainouz, Paul Schrader, Magnus Von Horn, Mohammed Rasoulof, Coralie Fargeat and 2024 Queer Palm winner by Emanuel Parvu. All right one missing, by an extraordinary director Ali Abbasi (remember outstanding Holy Spider), The Apprentice, a film I know will eventually watch because the director but gee the subject matter is one that highly dislike, sigh.

Continue reading »

70th Berlin Film Festival Lineup

Yes, I am (or was?) a huge fan of this festival and highly enjoyed Dieter Kosslick's black humor and many of his official selections during the many years he was the festival's director.  This is the first festival without Dieter Kosslick and under the Executive Direction of Mariette Rissenbeek and the Artistic Direction of Carlo Chatrian.  My first spontaneous reaction is that festival looks and feels different as Competition lineup (which always is the main festival event) seems different perhaps less festival particular and more like other festivals.

Time will say if my first impression is real or just my reaction to change.  Change does not come only at top levels as almost all sections have new heads.  So, no doubt the festival has gone a major overhaul.  Hope finds its own and different to the other 2 major film festivals niche as if not, will risk to go outside the major 3 and film festivals will have only 2 major participants until another grows to become the third one.

Continue reading »

71st Festival de Cannes Official Selection - Update 1

As announced during the press conference of April 12th, today, April 19, organizers announced the films added to the composition of the Official Selection 2018.

There is some relief to my not positive feeling that this year there is an incredibly great official competition jury and there are not many great films for them to select winners from.  But now things can change a bit as, ladies and gentlemen, please notice that Nuri Bilge Ceylan is as of now in the competition to win the Palme d'or and perhaps has become the top contender along Jia Zhangke.  Well, at least their films have become must-be-seen for me no matter whatever happens in Cannes.

Continue reading »

2018 Cannes Possible Films - The Buzz

As happens every single year, Cannes buzz starts during Berlinale and gets louder when Berlinale ends.  Even do been following the buzz since then this year haven't post anything as some of you guessed right, my life has changed and now it's not easy to keep on writing for you, loyal readers.  But no matter how many changes have happened or will occur, Cannes is Cannes for me and have to (or at least will try to) write my regular posts about the buzz, my wish list and all the other stuff done in the previous years.

No, this is not my Wish List but the usual compilation of possible films that could make it to Cannes which usually do in February but well, I'm doing it a month later and by now most industry publications have done their own lists, so it's not a novelty but will be a lot easier to make it, lol.

Continue reading »

11th Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 11th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), the region’s highest accolade in film, celebrating cinematic excellence were today announced in the seven narrative feature categories by Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, together with former APSA International Jury President Lord David Puttnam, member of the APSA 2017 Nominations Council Kiki Fung and Chair of APSA and its Academy, Michael Hawkins.

41 films from 21 countries and areas of the Asia Pacific region have received nominations in 2017, including the first nomination for a film from Bhutan. Winners will be announced at the 11th APSA ceremony on November 23, where they will be presented with a unique and exquisite handmade APSA award vessel made by Brisbane-based internationally awarded glass artist Joanna Bone.

This edition has no clear nominations leader as there area three outstanding films leading the pack with three nominations each: Sweet Country by Warwick Thornton, The Third Murder by Hirokazu Kore-eda and Scary Mother by Ana Urushadze.

Continue reading »

Day 4 at #Cannes2017

The most unusual question came up yesterday, why you don't do reviews anymore? Have no answer but to say that maybe will do it again, eventually when the "dry" spell I'm is over. No matter how dry the spell is, I love to learn about movies and there you have it, that's the reason why I like to do this day-to-day Cannes coverage where I learn about movies already know I like and more important, discover movies that I didn't have idea could like.  That's the answer to the second question, why do I do this daily Cannes coverage?  If you miss my reviews the next best thing for now is to learn which films call my attention as surely will enjoy them and perhaps you, loyal readers, too.  So, that's it. Thank you for your questions.

Today is another interesting day as there are several films that call my attention; unless I really lost my sight into the future, the Queer Palm winner will be seen today by audiences plus juries and was seen yesterday by the press with the very positive reactions. Also today a quiet American film which is kind of an oxymoron especially because has two top Hollywood stars and a Mexican film with all the right credentials including an actress from the last Almodovar film.

Continue reading »

64th San Sebastian Film Festival Lineup - Update 1

Update 1 with Jury members of the three competitive sections listed below.  Zabaltegi films and jury are not listed below, but it's worth mentioning that is the section's first competitive year and jurors are, Spanish filmmaker Virginia García del Pino (chair), Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Veiroj, and producer Corinne Castel.

8/26/16
This year organizers started very early to tease with constant drops that add to the torrent of films that make the Official Selection as well as the other sections of the festival. So, been trying to do post since a while back, but didn't wanted to do constant updates.

Seems that today finally the Official Selection has been announced completely and according to latest toll there are twenty-five (25) films in the Official Selection with seventeen (17) films in the main Competition, four (4) Out of Competition and four (4) Special Screenings.

Continue reading »

#TIFF16 Platform Selection

The directors-focused section is only in its second year, but has already lined up outstanding filmmakers with twelve (12) films from Canada, Australia, France, Bhutan, Belgium, USA, United Kingdom, and Netherlands.

“In its inaugural year in 2015, Platform successfully established itself as fundamental to the Festival, and we’re proud to present a dramatically thrilling and daring program for its second year,” said TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey. This year, Platform takes on complex and bold narratives that range from a dark, twisted fantasy, a dramatic crime thriller, an existential illusion to the reinterpretation of a satirical tragedy, a raw coming-of-age story, and tales of revolutions, radicals, and revenge. The program will open with the international premiere of the powerful and topical drama Nocturama from critically acclaimed director-writer Bertrand Bonello.

Continue reading »

9th La Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde Selection

Waited a couple of days to share the selection for the 2016 edition because organizers had to uncover a new website and yes, now is open, new and a lot easier to browse. Congrats to the Institut Français that by-the-way also has other programs to support cultural diversity like the Cinémathèque Afrique (African Film Archive) and Aide aux Cinémas du Monde (World Cinema Support), a fund which is co-managed with the CNC.

As not many are aware of this Festival de Cannes collateral event let's share some basics about the professional program.

La Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde is a professional program helping talented young directors from emerging countries increase their international exposure. Each year this program, developed by the Institut français, in partnership with France Médias Monde – RFI, France 24, Monte Carlo Doualiya- with the support of The International Organization of La Fancophonie, invites ten directors working on their first or second feature films to attend the Festival de Cannes along with their producers.

Continue reading »

10th Asian Film Awards Winners

Yesterday the Academy had their awards ceremony and as expected by many, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin swept the night by winning eight awards out of the nine nominations it had, which is a fantastic ratio in any world awards.

But Hou Hsiao-Hsien film steak left not much for other films; still, among the few other awards left, Jia Zhang-ke collected Best Script for his Mountains May Depart.

Continue reading »

52nd Golden Horse Awards Winners

Last Saturday night was the 2015 Golden Horse Awards ceremony and as expected the big winner of the night was Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin that collected five awards, including Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography and more. Following closely was Chang Tso-Chi's Thanatos, Drunk with four awards.

Worth mentioning is Jia Zhang-ke's Mountains May Depart winning Best Original Screenplay and Tharlo by Pema Tseden winning Best Adapted Screenplay.

Continue reading »

#Oscars2016 Foreign-Language Submissions Facts

Current edition missed by 2 films the submission record established last year of 83 submissions; still, 81 submissions is a huge amount of cinema to be considered and distilled into a short list of 9 films. AMPAS foreign-language committee members have once again the annual hard and uphill task of watching films from many places in the world, some with high quality and others with not so-much-so quality.

From the 81 countries that submitted a film, only one, Paraguay, is a newcomer with it's first submission ever; all other 80 countries have submitted before. Most interesting is to consider that this year there are some submissions in languages that usually are not represented in the Oscars like, for example, Welsh in UK's submission, Warao in Venezuela's submission, Basque in Spain's submission, and Kaqchikel in Guatemala's submission.

Continue reading »

63rd San Sebastian International Film Festival Award Winners

Perhaps is my perception but seems that main awards tend to go to European and European co-productions movies which is interesting.  Awards ceremony was really fast which makes us wish the same speed to those traditionally-very-long awards ceremony in America.

I'm glad that a movie that is must be seen for me got the top award as I have to see everything by Rúnar Rúnarsson as his second feature film, Sparrows, seems will be as good as his first one, Volcano. Cheers! and congratulations to Iceland.

So that's it until next year!

Continue reading »

40th Toronto International Film Festival Award Winners

Awards ceremony was quite informal, light and somehow fun-to-watch especially when the Platform jury took the stage and made us laugh (hard). Yes it was very unexpected to see Jia Zhang-ke, Claire Denis and Agnieszka Hollad doing light comedy but gee, it worked!!! Funny and fun-to-watch.

So, actually, there are several awards in Toronto fest, but will start with the Platform winners and then the others.

Continue reading »

Day 8 - Cannes 2015

Today is the day of Jia Zhangke, one of my most admired contemporary Chinese directors so will be no surprise when I share that I'm extremely pleased with yesterday's positive reactions via social media. That's the good news as the bad news are about the festival winding down as after today there are only four more films in the competition and three more days to start learning about the first awards.

Continue reading »

68th Festival de Cannes Official Selection Update 4

A few minutes ago organizers released the Screening Guide for all films in the official Selection. Go down to check the guide.

---///----
5/5/15
Today the Camera d'Or jury was announced with Sabine Azéma as the jury president. The Caméra d’Or, created in 1978, is awarded to the best first film presented in the Official Selection (In Competition, Out of Competition and Un Certain Regard), during La Semaine de la Critique or the Directors’ Fortnight, which represents a total of 26 films in 2015.

She will be accompanied by the director Delphine Gleize, the actor Melvil Poupaud, Claude Garnier representing the AFC (French Association for Cinematographers), Didier Huck, representing the FICAM (Federation of Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries), Yann Gonzalez, representing the SRF (Society of Film Directors) and Bernard Payen, representing the SFCC (French Union of Cinema Critique.

Continue reading »

Day 8 at Cannes 2014

The festival is fading away as practically we get only one more day of competition as on Friday we will start to learn winners in parallel sections. Still in the main competition we have four more movies by four great directors that unfortunately were scheduled to towards the end of the fest, when most of the media are no longer in Cannes. Next year maybe organizers will schedule in the final days whatever American films they have and then we will see that media stays until the last day. Sigh.

The Competition

The Search by Michel Hazanavicius

A few days ago I had a discussion about this film as the friends I was with could not understand that a remake was in competition and on top, the remake changed almost everything in story. So the question was: why keep the name? Why he didn't changed the name? We had no answers then and surely will not have answers today, but the first reactions to film are of the not positive kind, which undoubtedly in my mind is a consequence of doing a remake, changing a lot of the story, keeping the name and a not-good director.

Continue reading »

Day 1 at Cannes 2014

Today the cinema party begins with the opening ceremony followed by the screening of the out of competition opening film, Grace of Monaco and the day closes with the first official party. Also today the main jury is presented to the press as well as the fest host. Tomorrow the parallel sections begin and the festival goes into full force.

There are three versions of the Opening Ceremony with three different lengths and if you can't see the first two, I am sure you will be able to watch the video at the bottom of the post that has the red carpet plus the opening ceremony. Enjoy!!!

It was a very busy day at Cannes with too much happening and there was just one movie screened! So I'm leaving the not-serious news plus the parties for tomorrow, but imagine how is going to be tomorrow when all sections start to screen movies, crazy, crazy. Sigh.

Continue reading »