Top brass at the 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) have announced a new programme on Canadian Cinema as well as the traditionally strong roster of foreign-language films eligible for the FIPRESCI Award in the Awards Buzz section, and Modern Masters.
The festival will screen 45 of the 76 official foreign-language Oscar submissions under the umbrella of Awards Buzz.
“We’ve selected Canadian films for a special focus at this year’s festival for many reasons, not the least of which is the wealth of talent emerging from its relatively small, indigenous film industry, and the depth and richness of story and character portrayal its films exemplify,” said festival director Darryl Macdonald.
“Whether it’s established auteurs like Denis Coté, Denis Villenueve and Atom Egoyan, gifted actor-directors like Don McKellar and Sarah Polley or newly emerging talents like Chloé Robichaud, Craig Goodwill and Sébastien Pilote, Canadian creative ingenuity is on abundant display in its films. All of this makes our spotlight on Canadian cinema the perfect match for the 25th anniversary of a festival that has focused on that attribute since its inception.”
“This is an exceptionally strong year for the foreign language Oscar competition, as evidenced by the 45 films we have selected for our Awards Buzz competition in Palm Springs,” said artistic director Helen du Toit.
“In years past there have usually been five to seven films that were considered obvious choices from countries whose films often make the shortlist.
“But this year there are more obvious choices than usual as well as very exciting group of dark horses emerging from countries whose entries rarely make the shortlist – such as Iceland’s Of Horses and Men, Romania’s Child’s Pose, The Palestinian Territories’ Omar, Mexico’s Heli, Georgia’s In Bloom, and Morocco’s Horses Of God. This bodes extremely well for the health and diversity of world cinema.”
Awards Buzz
A jury of international critics will award FIPRESCI prizes for best foreig- language film of the year, best actor and best actress. The following 45 films in alphabetical order by country are:
The German Doctor (Argentina), Dir Lucía Puenzo
The Rocket (Australia), Dir Kim Mordaunt
The Wall (Austria), Dir Julian Pölsler
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium-Netherlands), Dir Felix van Groeningen
An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker (Bosnia), Dir Danis Tanovic
The Missing Picture (Cambodia-France), Dir Rithy Panh
Gabrielle (Canada), Dir Louise Archambault
Gloria (Chile/Spain), Dir Sebastián Lelio
Back To 1942 (China), Dir Feng Xiaogang
Halima’s Path (Croatia-Slovenia-Bosnia-Herzegovina), Dir Arsen Anton Ostojic
The Hunt (Denmark), Dir Thomas Vinterberg
Winter Of Discontent (Egypt), Dir Ibrahim El Batout
Disciple (Finland), Dir Ulrika Bengts
Renoir (France), Dir Gilles Bourdos
In Bloom (Georgia-Germany-France), Dirs Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Gross
Two Lives (Germany-Norway), Dir Georg Maas
Le Grand Cahier (Hungary-Germany-Austria-France), Dir János Szász
Of Horses and Men (Iceland), Dir Benedikt Erlingsson
The Good Road (India), Dir Gyan Correa
The Past (Iran-Italy-France), Dir Asghar Farhadi
Bethlehem (Israel), Dir Yuval Adler
The Great Beauty (Italy-France), Dir Paolo Sorrentino
The Great Passage (Japan), Dir Yûya Ishii
The Old Man (Shal) (Kazakhstan), Dir Yermek Tursunov
Mother, I Love You (Latvia), Dir Janis Nords
Heli (Mexico-Germany-Netherlands-France), Dir Amat Escalante
Horses Of God (Morocco-France-Belgium), Dir Nabil Ayouch
Borgman (Netherlands), Dir Alex van Warmerdam
White Lies (New Zealand), Dir Dana Rotberg
I Am Yours (Norway), Dir Iram Haq
Omar (Palestinian Territory), Dir Hany Abu-Assad
Transit (Philippines), Dir Hannah Espia
Walesa. Man Of Hope (Poland), Dir Andrzej Wajda
Child’s Pose (Romania), Dir Calin Peter Netzer
Stalingrad (Russia), Dir Fedor Bondarchuk
Wadjda (Saudi Arabia-Germany), Dir Haifaa Al Mansour
Circles (Serbia-Germany-France-Croatia-Slovenia), Dir Srdan Golubovic
Ilo Ilo (Singapore), Dir Anthony Chen
Class Enemy (Slovenia), Dir Rok Bicek
Juvenile Offender (South Korea), Dir Kang Yi-kwan
15 Years and One Day (Spain), Dir Gracia Querejeta
More Than Honey (Switzerland), Dir Markus Imhoof
The Butterfly’s Dream (Turkey), Dir Yilmaz Erdogan
Metro Manila (UK-Philippines), Dir Sean Ellis
Anina (Uruguay/Colombia), Dir Alfredo Soderguit
Spotlight on Canadian Cinema
Included in the showcase will be an opening weekend reception and Canadian Film Day highlighting Canadian film-making guests, sponsored by Telefilm Canada. Films in this programme feature actors Brendan Gleeson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor Kitsch, Mélanie Laurent, Aidan Quinn, Isabella Rossellini and Taylor Schilling. The 12 films selected in the programme are in alphabetical order:
The Auction, Dir Sébastien Pilote
Empire Of Dirt, Dir Peter Stebbings
Enemy, Dir Denis Villeneuve
Gabrielle, Dir Louise Archambault
Gerontophilia, Dir Bruce LaBruce
The Grand Seduction, Dir Don McKellar
The Manor, Dir Shawney Cohen
Patch Town, Dir Craig Goodwill
Sarah Prefers To Run, Dir Chloé Robichaud
Siddharth, Dir Richie Mehta
Stay, Dir Wiebke von Carolsfeld
Vic + Flo Saw A Bear, Dir Denis Côté
MODERN MASTERS
Ten films from international directors “who set the standards for contemporary cinema.”
Burning Bush (Czech Republic), Dir Agnieszka Holland
Enemy, Dir Denis Villeneuve
The Last Of The Unjust (France), Dir Claude Lanzmann
Like Father, Like Son (Japan), Dir Hirokazu Kore-eda
One Of A Kind (France), Dir François Dupeyron
The Priest’s Children (Croatia), Dir Vinko Bresan
The Unknown Known (USA), Dir Errol Morris
The Wind Rises (Japan), Dir Hayao Miyazaki
The Wonders (Israel), Dir Avi Nesher
Young & Beautiful (France), Dir François Ozon.
The 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival will run from January 3-13 2014.
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