CAIRO DRIVE from director Sherief Elkatsha took home a prize at this year's DOC NYC festival.
This week DOC NYC finished out it’s fifth year. Writing for Indiewire, Ben Travers reported that CAIRO DRIVE, HOMME LESS and MIRROR IMAGE took home DOC NYC’s jury awards this year, while THE HAND THAT FEEDS won the festival’s audience award. Manori Ravindran of Realscreen also had coverage of the awards. Also at Indiewire, Anthony Kaufman took note of DOC NYC’s emergence as a major documentary showcase. At the POV blog, Tom Roston covered Sundance Institute doc head Tabitha Jackson’s DOC NYC keynote address calling for increased focus on artistic practice in documentary, while Scott Macaulay covered the speech for Filmmaker Magazine. Paula Bernstein interviewed Jackson following her address. Writing for Nonfics.com, Daniel Walber shared six discoveries from the festival. VOD platform VHX shared a slideshow presented at the festival. Finally, Indiewire compiled all of their coverage on one DOC NYC news page, containing a host of links to recaps of panels and other events (definitely worth a browse.)
At Realscreen, Kevin Ritchie reported on this year’s winners of the BRITDOC Impact Awards. The POV blog also recapped the winners. In a piece for Indiewire, director Joshua Oppenheimer shared his thoughts on the role of the documentary filmmaker and the idea of impact.
At the What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the International Documentary FIlm Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in two parts: part one and part two. Writing for Realscreen, Manori Ravindran covered an IDFA panel on the issues faced by female directors and other women in the doc world. Ravindran also spoke with festival head Ally Derks about the event. At the POV blog, Kel O’Neill spoke with IDFA DocLab head Casper Sonnen. Also, The D-Word documentary forum has a dedicated thread to the festival (registration and professional status required). And Inoo Kang spoke with Eline Jongsma about her immersive documentary project EMPIRE.
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20 FEET FROM STARDOM from director Morgan Neville was one of the films named to the Oscar doc shortlist this week.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) this week announced the 15 docs named to this year’s Oscar shortlist. Adam Benzine of Realscreen covered the news, as did Peter Knegt of Indiewire and Tim Gray of Variety. Basil Tsiokos took a look at the shortlisted films and linked to previous coverage of them at his What (Not) to Blog, while Larry Rohter of the New York Times noted a focus on politics and music. Inkoo Kang of the Women in Hollywood blog at Indiewire took note of five women directors whose films made the shortlist. In his Docutopia post at the SundanceNOW blog, Anthony Kaufman examined the effect that recent rule changes had on the doc Oscar process. And Lily Rothman of Time explained how viewers could watch every film on the doc shortlist.
The other big news came this week when the Sundance Film Festival announced the films in its 2014 lineup. Again, Adam Benzine had coverage at Realscreen, as did Daniel Fienberg of Hitfix. Indiewire had a rundown of the films in the World Cinema doc competition, and in the U.S. doc competition. Christopher Campbell had a nice rundown of the Sundance films, along with some trailers for films. And Kevin Ritchie of Realscreen had coverage of the docs screening at this year’s Slamdance.
The International Documentary Association (IDA) also had its awards ceremony this week, with Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio of the Thompson on Hollywood blog at Indiewire providing coverage. Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter also wrote up the awards.
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This week the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) named its award winners, with SONG FROM THE FOREST named the best feature-length documentary. At DocGeeks, Alexandra Zeevalkink also had coverage of the awards, as did Jennifer Merin of About.com. Brian Brooks of the Film Society of Lincoln Center website reported on the the new doc AI WEI WEI: THE FAKE CASE from director Andreas Johnson, which premiered at IDFA. Emma Norton of the DocGeeks blog also took a look at the new Ai Wei Wei doc. Peter Knegt of Indiewire also reported that IDFA had named a special jury award in honor of the late Peter Wintonick. Realscreen’s Adam Benzine reported that international rights–excluding the U.S.–for AMERICAN ARAB had been nabbed by Cargo Film & Releasing at IDFA. And the POV blog this week took note of the digital storytelling manifesto that came out of Quebec recently.
Award season unofficially kicked off this week, apparently. Barry Walsh of Realscreen reported that Ken Loach would receive an honorary Golden Bear award at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival. Walsh also had news of the Film Independent Spirit Awards’ nominees for the documentary prize, as did Christopher Campbell of Nonfics.com and Peter Knegt of Indiewire. At The Wrap, Steve Pond had coverage of the Producers Guild of America doc award nominees. And Adam Benzine covered the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM) awards for Realscreen.
The Cinema Eye Honors named its nominees for its Heterodox award, given to a film that bridges the gap between fiction and documentary. Kevin Ritchie covered the news at Realscreen, with Sara Salovaara doing the same for Filmmaker Magazine. At Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell wrote up the Heterodox award nominees, along with the news that Josh Fox would receive the Hell Yeah Prize for his GASLAND docs.
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The short film SLOMO from director Josh Izenberg was one of several shorlisted for the Oscar this week.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) this week named the short docs named to their shortlist. Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times covered the news, as did Jon Weisman of Variety. At Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell had the vitals on the films on the shortlist.
Realscreen’s Adam Benzine reported on the lineup at this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Writing for DocGeeks, Alexandra Zeevalkink zeroed in on the IDFA offerings from the National Film Board of Canada. IDFA’s DocLab also announced details on the interactive titles selected for the festival,
In a thoughful piece at Nonfics.com, Christopher Campbell contemplated docs that could be construed as platforms for an evil ideology. Campbell’s piece was, at least in part, a response to a critical review of THE ACT OF KILLING from About.com writer Jennifer Merin.
This week Stranger Than Fiction is hosting a screening of Andrew Jarecki’s 2003 film CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS on Tuesday, October 15 at 8pm at the IFC Center in Manhattan. The film follows the story of a Long Island family torn apart by accusations of child molestation. Director Andrew Jarecki will be in attendance for a Q&A following the film. For more information or to purchase tickets please go here.
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