Docudays Ukraine 2020
I was invited to come back to Kiev to one of the festivals that I have loved to attend – but I can’t make it this year. I will miss the atmosphere created by a team of committed and knowledgeable…
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Articles/Reviews ENGLISH
Read MoreDocudays Ukraine 2020
ZagrebDox 2020
It’s become a nice tradition that I praise the ZagrebDox for its programme put together, as always, with Nenad Puhovski as director. Having seen the selection for the 16th edition, 112 films to be shown between the 15th and 22nd…
Dragon of Dragons Award to Péter Forgács
Absolutely no objctions to this choice of the Krakow Film Festival that will take place on May 31 – June 7, 2020: “Every year, the Krakow Film Foundation Programme Council grants the Dragon of Dragons award for the exceptional contribution to the…
One World Festival Prague
Some of the best new documentaries are in competition at the big One World Festival in Prague, that has this subtitle “international human rights film festival” and takes place March 5-14. Let me mention Alexander Nanau’s ”Collective » (PHOTO) and « The…
CPH:DOX – Movements
March 18-29 – are the dates for the CPH:DOX festival programme, that was announced today. I am copy-pasting from the newsletter I received. It is amazing. I will ”dig in” as the organisers write and come back with comments. Website, see link…
Roy Andersson at CPH:DOX
A new film is on its way by Swedish master director Roy Andersson. ”About Endlessness” will be premiered this year, maybe at Cannes? The director has said that this will be his last film. Alas. Until then there is a chance…
Iryna Tsilyk: The Earth is Blue Like an Orange
It is an emotional journey that director and writer Iryna Tsilyk takes the viewer on. For 74 minutes. One full of beauty. Very much because of the mother in the film, Anna, the protagonist, whose face expresses, what it means…
D Like Documentary, D like Denmark
A quick copy-paste (almost) note on the fact that the wonderful Krakow Film Festival, in its celebration of its 60th edition (!), dedicates its special section to documentaries from Denmark. The programme director of the festival, Barbara Orlicz-Szczypula, has this…
Festivals in Stockholm & Copenhagen
The Oscar event is over – and we can be happy that all five documentaries nominated this year were of high quality in cinematic terms, and dealt with important themes of our time. Let’s leave the glamour and the red…
Tabitha Jackson to be Sundance Festival Director
The IndieWire brings a fine article yesterday about Tabitha Jackson, who at Sundance «will replace John Cooper as festival director, bringing 25 years of experience in the arts and non-fiction film to the position». Read the whole article (written by…
Laila Pakalnina: Spoon
You never know what to expect from Latvian director Laila Pakalnina. She makes short films, she makes fiction and she makes documentaries, which are far from mainstream, with quite their own language and definitely Cinema. Like this one, ”Spoon”, she…
Docs & Talks 2020 /4 Putin’s Witnesses
Vitaly Mansky: Putin’s Witnesses … A good point I think, Mansky masters the personal commentary and it is nothing but a scoop that he is using material he made at the beginning of Putin’s period as president, where he, Putin…
Docs & Talks 2020 /2
”Today truth is being more and more frequently questioned when it comes to news and the constant stream of information. This makes the dissemination of research-based knowledge more important than ever in order to separate the wheat from the chaff,…
Oscar Doc Nominations 2020
Sooo, here they are the five nominated in the category for long documentaries, director(s) and producer(s) mentioned. The links will bring you to the reviews on the filmkommentaren site: American Factory (Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and and Jeff Reichert) –…
Red Carpet for Docs…
and Nordic films, is the headline for an interview brought by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, link for the whole text below. Kim Foss, director of the art house cinema Grand in Copenhagen since 2006, AND through the associated…
Feras Fayyad: The Cave
Filmens åbning er formidabel. Intet mindre. For øjne og øre. Fra krigens helvede på jord, fra billedet af den ene ødelæggende bombe-eksplosion efter den anden i syriske Ghouta. Til kameraet bringer tilskueren ned og atter ned i én glidende bevægelse,…
Best Documentaries 2019 Intro
On this last day of 2019, and of a decade, Filmkommentaren wishes you all the best in the new year. It’s been a pleasure for us to give you news and opinions about the (mostly) documentary world. We intend to…
Best Documentaries 2019
Thomas Heise: Heimat is a Space in Time Alexander Nanau: Collective Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov: Honeyland Artemio Benki: Solo Sergey Loznitsa: A State Funeral Feras Fayyad: The Cave Review with top marks will…
Oscar Thoughts
The other day I read that Ingmar Bergman had returned his Oscar Nomination Certificate for ”Smultronsstället”. He apparently did not like the competitive circus. Nor did Francois Truffaut when he expressed no interest in sitting in film juries. To judge…
El Clásico
”It’s exactly one week until el clásico and, like all fans, I am already counting down the days until the big date of December 18. A clásico is always a special match, and in the weeks before the game it…
Richard Brody in New Yorker
To read critic Richard Brody is always a pleasure. In this article – link below – he brings forward his Best Films of the year, 35, whereas 11 of them have NOT been theatrically released, which brings him to reflect…
Zelig: Essays on What is a Documentary/ 3
In November I was at the Zelig Film School in Bolzano to meet the new students. I organised a small game: Which three words come to your mind, when I say DOCUMENTARY. We put the words on the whiteboard: Freedom…
Zelig: Essays on What is a Documentary/ 2
In November I was at the Zelig Film School in Bolzano to meet the new students. I organised a small game: Which three words come to your mind, when I say DOCUMENTARY. We put the words on the whiteboard: Freedom…
Zelig: Essays on What is a Documentary/ 1
In November I was at the Zelig Film School in Bolzano to meet the new students. I organised a small game: Which three words come to your mind, when I say DOCUMENTARY. We put the words on the whiteboard: Freedom…
Ny Litauisk Film
Litauiske film bliver vist i Cinemateket i København fra i morgen. Her er et copypaste af beskrivelsen. To af filmene – de dokumentariske – har været anmeldt på filmkommentaren, links forneden: Med filmen ‘Frost’ tager den litauiske instruktør Sarunas Bartas…
The IDA Awards
More awards: From the International Documentary Association, under the leadership of Simon Kilmurry: Here is some more info on the winners of the IDA Documentary Awards: BEST FEATURE For Sama Director/Producer: Waad al-Kateab Director: Edward Watts DIRECTOR American Factory Steven…
EFA Doc Award to "For Sama"
A week after it won the Audience Award at the IDFA festival in Amsterdam “For Sama” by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts was on the top in the EFA Documentary category. In strong competition with films like “Honeyland” by Tamara…
Sundance Film Festival 2020
…announced yesterday: 118 feature-length films, representing 27 countries and 44 first-time feature filmmakers. Of the 65 directors in all four competition categories, comprising 56 films, 46% are women, 38% are people of color, and 12% are LGBTQ+. In the U.S.…
Sergei Loznitsa: State Funeral
March 1953. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin dies. The great leader is to be mourned all over the Soviet Union. For five full days. Cameramen are sent to all republics to catch the well orchestrated mise-en-scène of the State Funeral. Loads of…
IDFA Audience Award 2019
Of course it is something special to win an audience award. At IDFA, that is indeed (also) an audience festival apart from being the place, where documentary professionals meet every year. Here is how the award is decided, from the…
IDFA: Life Achievement Award to Jørgen Leth
… to be given tonight at the Amsterdam festival, where his new film, ”I Walk”, has its world premiere. In an interview on the IDFA website – the director says: “In observing life, I’ve always been very frank in…
IDFA: Talks. Advice. And a Film Called Faith!
After Thursday’s film-watching, friday was the day to meet documentary friends, catching up on what they are working on and saying sorry “can’t make it for your screening, I am back in Copenhagen at that time“. I said so several…
IDFA: Y in Vyborg
Film History. And History. Vyborg, once Finnish, now Russian. Next time I am in St. Petersburg I must go to the city. Thanks to Patricio Guzman, who picked Pia Andell’s wonderful archive-based love story as one of his favourites to…
IDFA: That Which Does Not Kill
The English title of this superbly staged French language documentary is a bit complicated, I prefer the simple original „Sans Frapper“. Below you find the IDFA website description ending with „listen carefully“; yes do so, the stories are amazing, but…
IDFA: Collective
This is definitely a film that I want to watch again. A must-see film for busy IDFA visitors. And notice that on tuesday there will be a meeting with the director and protagonists. Would have loved to be there, maybe…
IDFA Opening Night 2019
The opening night at the beautiful Royal Theatre in Amsterdam, Carré, was very well put together. As an homage to D.A. Pennebaker, who died this year, 94 years old, his five minutes long jazzy (Duke Ellington) ”Daybreak Express” from 1953…
IDFA Tips from Filmkommentaren
When 300+ films are to be screened, how do you decide where to go. This is the situation for those going to Amsterdam very soon. IDFA is a big festival and you/I need help. And help is given. The festival…
Latvian National Film Awards
…were distributed the other day in Riga. I mention the documentary awards – many of them have been reviewed/noticed on this site. They are still strong in documentaries in the country of Herz Frank, Uldis Brauns, Ivars Seleckis, Juris Podnieks…!…
Zelig Film School Film Festival
10 films were screened Friday and Saturday, November 8 and 9, at the Capitol cinema in Bolzano. The graduation films of the students, who had been studying at the Zelig School for Documentaries, Television and New Media. For three years,…
Zelig: What is a Documentary
I was invited to give a pep talk to the new Zelig students by showing documentaries, talk about them and have them talk. They did, I enjoyed the four days a lot bombarding them with names of directors and film…
DOK Leipzig Makes a Summing Up
… which by all means is positive. 48.000 spectators, many full houses as I heard and saw for myself, good atmosphere. In the newsletter the press department asks ”How have the media experienced DOK Leipzig?” and below they highlight the…
Quay Brothers at DOK Leipzig
It started at 7pm and ended at 10.30pm with half an hour break. 90 minutes talk with Stephen and Timothy Quay followed by the screening of their live action film (105 minutes) ”Institute Benjamenta”. (PHOTO) It was an entertaining night…
DOK Leipzig – History
With History two meanings, both of them personal related to film and film people. The first one came to me just after arriving to the Festival Centre Thursday late afternoon. I was waiting at the bar to be served and…
Elsa Kremser & Levin Peter: Space Dogs
„Das ist Laika. Am 3. November 1957 wurde die sowjetische Straßenhündin in einem Sputnik in die Erdumlaufbahn geschossen und war damit das erste Lebewesen im Weltall. Überlebt hat sie diese Mission nicht. Doch es gibt die Legende, dass sie als…
Johannes Holzhausen: The Royal Train
The daughter of King Michael 1 of Romania (who died in 2017), Princess Margareta, and her husband Radu, travel in the train of her father to meet the people and have them remember him and the good old monarchy that…
Mickevičius & Milerius: Exemplary Behaviour
I knew Audrius Mickevičius from several meetings in his wonderful Vilnius. As I remember it, he lived in the ”freetown” of the Lithuanian capital, Uzupis. He made in 2006 the film ”Man – Horse” that he pitched at Baltic Sea…
Ji.hlava IDFF 2019 Conclusions
The 23rd edition of the annual Ji.hlava IDFF closed its doors yesterday. The festival programme showcased 277 films in nine screening halls, hosting almost two hundred discussion sessions. The overall attendance again exceeded 40,000 visitors; with 5,330 accredited visitors and…
Awards at Ji.hlava Documentary FF
Below a link to the awards that were given at the 23rd edition of the festival in Ji.hlava. There were many. I take the liberty to mention only a handful of them, films that I know about: ● Best Czech…
ArtDoc Fest Winners + One More
Awards were given in Riga last night for the International FF and for the ArtDoc Fest. I mention the awards in the latter, which, as the name says, include documentaries plus a special mention to a documentary in the Feature…
Enrico Cerasuolo: The Passion of Anna Magnani
It was shot in 1945, “Rome – Open City”, director Roberto Rossellini, with Anna Magnani in the role as Pina. I am sure you know the scene, where she is running after her husband Francesco, who has been arrested by…