War, Climate Change, & Music: Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2022

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 03 March 2022 10:51

Written by Brad Balfour

The Horizon

With a lineup of 23 films, the 2022 installment of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival arrives at Lincoln Center. Running March 3 to 13th, the festival features essential new films from returning favorites Christophe Honoré, Arnaud Desplechin, Mathieu Almaric, and Jacques Audiard, as well as exciting films from up-and-coming talents Emilie Carpentier, Vincent Maël Cardona, Rachel Lang, Leyla Bouzid, and more with stories of pain, passion, and romance.

In Rise, directed by Cédric Klapisch, ballerina Elise (Marion Barbeau) suffers two injuries at the same time: a devastating fall on stage that leaves her injured and unable to dance for up to two years, and her partner suddenly and humiliatingly breaking up with her for another dancer. Initially devastated, Elise slowly rebuilds her life while redirecting her efforts to contemporary dance in the troupe of real-life Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter, playing himself.

Secret Name, directed by Aurélia Georges, is set against the harsh front lines of World War I, as a former sex worker who’s now a nurse, Nélie Laborde (Lyna Khoudri, The French Dispatch), is given the unexpected chance to start a new life when one of her patients, Rose Juillet (Maud Wyler), is seemingly killed by invading German troops and Nélie assumes Rose’s identity and leaves the field of battle for the north of France, where the well-off Eléonore de Lengwil (Sabine Azéma) lives. 

Set in 1980s Brittany, Magnetic Beats, directed by Vincent Maël Cardona, two brothers operating a post-punk pirate station named (in homage to Joy Division) Radio Warsaw both fall for single mother Marianne, just before one of the brothers has to begin his compulsory year of military service abroad in Berlin.

Emilie Carpentier’s debut feature The Horizon follows 18-year-old Adja (Tracy Gotoas), a girl disconnected from her community—indifferent to climate change and mocking the efforts of activists to oppose construction of a new mixed-use facility. But when she grows closer to classmate Arthur (Sylvain Le Gall)—an earnest activist and fellow intern at a nursing home—Adja begins to find a sense of purpose in political engagement, drifting away from her shallow group of friends. 

Along with the lineup of films, free talks include a sit-down with filmmakers Claire Denis and official Guest of Honor at this year’s Rendez-Vous Jim Jarmusch, in an extended conversation about their decades-spanning careers; Juliette Binoche and Déborah Lukumuena, meeting to discuss their professional trajectories and creative influences; and “Working the image : a French-American look at cinematography,” a special panel organized in partnership with French In Motion and the Gotham Film & Media Institute and bringing together French and American filmmakers and cinematographers to discuss their varied inspirations, creative philosophies, and artistic practices.

To learn more, go to: https://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/rendez-vous-with-french-cinema/

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2022
March 3 - 13, 2022

Film at Lincoln Center
70 Lincoln Center Plaza #4
New York, NY 10023

French Animation Online: Animation First 2022

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 14 February 2022 16:25

Written by Brad Balfour

The Night Watch, directed by Julien Regnard

The 2022 Animation First Festival goes nationwide and online starting February 14th, 2022. Animation First is the only festival in the US dedicated to French animation. This year, the festival presents 51 premieres of feature-length and short films, Works in Progress of highly anticipated films, a 2nd Annual Student Short Film Competition, and more.

Films include The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily directed by Lorenzo Mattotti, which was inspired by the 1945 classic Italian children’s book by Dino Buzzati. In The Tower, directed by Mats Gorud, Wardi, an eleven-year-old Palestinian girl, lives with her whole family in a refugee camp in Lebanon and learns her family’s history. Shorts programs include Best of Annecy 2021: Spotlight on Women Directors, as well as two blocks of new French animated shorts, while the Fontevraud Presents block showcases animators from around the world. In Liberated! writers and broadcasters Ovidie and Sophie-Marie Larrouy examine prejudice and taboos around sex. Uncanny Stories is a showcase of horror centric animation, and for those looking for less unsettling fare, there's a screening of Don Bluth's classic An American Tail.

The online portion of the festival can only be viewed from within the United States.

To learn more, go to: https://fiaf.org/animation-first-2022/

Animation First 2022
February 14 - 21, 2022.

Online

Music, Monsters, & Murder at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 18 January 2022 13:50

Written by Brad Balfour

Mija

One of the most important film festivals in the world, The Sundance Film Festival, returns January 20th to the 30th online and in theaters. Held in Park City, Utah, this year the festival is offering satellite screenings at theaters in North Carolina, Massachusetts, California, Tennessee, Kansas, Washington, and Maryland, along with streaming the films on the Sundance website.

Ramin Bahrani’s feature-length documentary, 2nd Chance, chronicles the life of former pizzeria owner and body armor magnate Richard Davis, and his eventual downfall. In Piggy, an overweight teen is tormented by her bullies, but when the same bullies are kidnapped by a stranger, the girl is torn between telling the police what she saw, and her fascination for her rescuer. In Every Day In Kaimukī, Naz, a listless radio DJ in Hawaii has a life change dropped in his lap when his girlfriend pushes him to move to New York. Now Naz contemplates his place in the world and what is truly home for him. Mija tracks the life of Doris Muñoz, and her path through music management and finding voices that are unrepresented. Body horror is served sunny-side up in Hatching as a young girl escapes from her smothering mommy-blogger mother and obnoxious brother by caring for an egg she found in the woods. But when the egg starts to grow and hatch, bizarre occurrences befall the family.

Not just an occasion for watching films, Sundance also features panels, discussions, and networking events, even online. The Outfest Queer Brunch at Sundance will be a gathering of festival alumni, industry, community, and fans of cinema celebrating the LGBTQ+ films at Sundance & Slamdance  in an immersive virtual platform Sunday, January 23rd. How To Live (After You Die) has multiple Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and media artist Lynette Wallworth unearthing the story of her coming-of-age as a prophet in a radical Christian community, as Wallworth charts with tenderness and wry humor an artist’s journey to reclaim her voice and find her place in the world. The Story of Us- Reclaiming the Narrative has legal Scholar and civil rights advocate Kimberlé W. Crenshaw moderating a conversation interrogating how censorship, legislation, and storytelling are creating a distorted national narrative, and the crucial role of new cinematic genres in challenging these myths.

To learn more, go to: https://festival.sundance.org/

Sundance Film Festival 2022
January 20 - 30, 2022

Online and In Person