Festival

Any films that we must see, film students and others who enter the festival centre ask me. Many, I answer, because there are many that have high quality. The problem in my answering is that many of the films I…

Time for a small report after three days at a festival that it is always pleasant to visit in a city, that it is always pleasant to visit. Eine Kulturstadt, that has developed immensely since the days around 1990 where…

The headline of the interview in Realscreen is “Mixing the real and the surreal” and the first lines go like this: “In time for its presentation as the cph:dox (Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival)’s opening film, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer tells…

Wang Bing got one more prize added to his impressive filmography through the ”Grande Prémio Cidade de Lisboa”, the first prize at the DocLisboa that ended sunday. The film in question is ”Three Sisters” (153 mins., France Hong Kong, 2012).…

Opening nights can be very long with speeches and introduction of juries and honorary guests. DOK Leipzig is no exception. It took looong time to get people seated so the ceremony was delayed up front, and it did not help…

As a festival guest and reporter for this blog you receive loads of mails about what is to happen. Of course. The Leipzig festival sustains a good tradition for press releases that  – unlike others – refrain from saying ”we…

As advisor for the festival (that starts on monday the 29th), when it comes to films from the Baltic countries I was happy this morning to see that the festival on their site put a focus on 9 films with…

Signe Byrge Sørensen is CEO and producer at Final Cut for Real, which is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has been a producer for 14 years… This is how an extended interview with the producer of the opening film of…

I met Hungarian Klara Trencsenyi at the Astra Film Festival, where her newest work “Corvin Variations” was screened. Two years ago Trencsenyi organised a project development workshop for creative documentaries in Budapest that I took part in. Since then the…

What is the future of hybrid films?… is one of many interesting debates that are to take place during the upcoming cph:dox in Copenhagen, November 1-11. It is the tenth edition of the festival with five international competition programmes, more…

The festival in Sibiu ended last night with a very professional international orientated prize ceremony, held in Romanian and English languages. The Grand Prix went to ”Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Polish director Pawel Kloc, who with this film has made…

The Serbian director held an inspiring and entertaining masterclass after the screening of his film at the Astra Film Festival in Sibiu in Romania. Radovanovic was one of the tutors at the DocStories Black Sea workshop session that includes filmmakers…

The first session of the DocStories Black Sea was held in Tbilisi, Georgia, the second one here in sunny Sibiu in Transylvania, Romania within the framework of the 19th edition of the Astra International Documentary Film Festival. Which has a…

This is the press release from the upcomoing DOK Leipzig. Of course there is a lot of publicity words in this but figures are impressive and interesting, and the quotes of he director document that the political engagement, and the…

Tomorrow I am going to Sibiu in Romania, to a workshop that takes place within the Astra Film Festival, that runs until the 21st, whereas DocLisboa with its new leadership started on the 18th and runs until the 28th, overlapping…

“Eighty films produced in twentyfive countries  to be screened in seven days”, this is the way that the Astra Film Festival (October 15-21) in Sibiu, Romania introduces itself. The festival has an international competitive programme of 9 films (see below),…

As stated above10 films are listed in the international competition of the Astra Film Festival in Sibiu in Romania. Among them are films that have made an impression on this blogger at other festivals like Petr Lom’s ”Back to the…

The St. Petersburg festival ended with several awards as the tradition goes at the festival that covers documentaries, long and short, animation, short fiction and experimental films. Headed by Austrian director Michael Glawogger the international jury gave the main prize,…

This is how the film was described at its international premiere in Locarno a couple of months ago: “Ten director graduates from Marina Razbezhkina’s School of Documentary Film and Documentary Theatre lived with a camera for two months in order to chronicle…

This morning, my daily newspaper reminded me of a John Cage-quote: “I like to be moved, but I don’t like to be pushed”. Two days ago in Oulu, Finland, I found myself in a situation which I liked. It might…

I guess that most readers know that James Marsh ”Project Nim” is about the dramatic life of a chimpanse… nevertheless read how Peter Bradshaw precisely introduced the film in Guardian August 11 2011: “Project Nim was a sensational Pygmalion-type experiment…

Awards were distributed at the Nordisk Panorama festival in Oulu. The best documentary prize went to the succesful Danish documentary “Ballroom Dancer” by Andreas Kofoed & Christian Bonke. The jury motivation: “The Nordic Documentary Award goes to a perfect example…

No, I did not see the pyramids or the Egyptian Museum. Yes, I saw the Nile from my hotel and had a quiet wonderful boat trip late night on the river. Yes, I crossed the Tahrir Square every morning on…

A kind of summing up after 5 intense days of Baltic Sea Forum in Riga Latvia, the16th edition. The reader should know that I have been part of the event from the very beginning, where it took place on the…

First day of pitching at Baltic Sea Forum in Riga taking place at the Albert Hotel on the top floor of the hotel, that has Albert Einstein quotes everywhere (!) – and a beautiful view to the city of the…

The Baltic Sea Forum in Riga – September 5-9 – includes several interesting film projects from the Baltic countries, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine plus some Western producers with themes relating to the East. The 16th edition of this classic forum that…

Every year late August the French documentarians go to Ardèche to discuss and to watch, and have a good time. This year (August 19-25) the seminars include themes like ”The Necessity of Criticism?” and how to ”build a Political point…

Info to our film professional readers: The 16th edition of DocsBarcelona will take place May 28 – June 2. In other words, the event will be moved away from the freezingly cold weather in Barcelona in February 2012, where the…

The fine documentary festival in the capital of Portugal celebrates its 10th edition this year, October 18-28. There are changes in the direction, which is now a collective, and there are exciting novelties in the programme. Here is the press…

… yes, what does that stand for? The answer is Festival International du Film Insulaire, taking place on the island of Groix that lies in France in Brittany. From August 22 to 26 the 12th edition of this festival takes…

… will be revealed tomorrow, according to Realscreen, TIFF being Toronto International Film Festival, prestigious and like other big festivals (Berlin, Cannes and Venice) nowadays putting a good focus on documentaries, or as they call it in the trade magazine,…

It started yesterday and runs until July 27. It is the fourth edition of DocMontevideo in the Uruguayan capital. And it has a very professional approach to why and how to reach a goal that is both regional and international.…

In the four years it has been in existence DocMontevideo has established a space in the continent for contacts and reflection using the information and communications media. Our mission is to contribute to constructing a market in Latin America that…

Filmkommentaren received this fresh and happy summer report from the Magnificent 7 team, Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, in Belgrade – after the open air screenings at the Belgrade Fortress, July 9-11: Dear Tue. We had three wonderful evenings with films…

The festival in neighbouring country to Georgia, Armenia, started yesterday. This 9th Yerevan International Film Festival runs until July 15 and has a fine international documentary competitive section within its red carpet profile programme that has Agnieszka Holland and Alexander…

Young Georgy Molodtsov, participant at the first session of DocStories, film director graduated from VGIK 2008, took the floor on the last morning to – with great commitment and energy – introduce the work that is being done to promote…

There are often too many viewings, too many opinions which can make the directors confused trying to please everybody and thereby losing their own voice, said Menno Boerema, Dutch editor, at the first session of the DocStories Black Sea workshop…

During the first session of the doc storytelling workshop DocStories Black Sea presentations were made. One was – naturally – about the Georgian National Film Center, whose director Tamara Tatishvili (photo) came up with a very clear and encouraging status…

The first session of the new documentary storytelling workshop DocStories with around 20 participants from the countries surrounding the Black Sea is coming to an end in wonderful Tbilisi, Georgia. Films have been screened and discussed and analysed, and the…