Shiri
Jo’burg Film Festival Returns
ALL roads lead to Johannesburg, South Africa, next month, for the 2023 edition of the Jo’burg Film Festival. Scheduled to hold between January 31 and February 5 at various locations across the city, the festival is returning in 2023 after a two-year hiatus. A statement by the organisers indicate that over 60 films carefully curated and programmed by a globally respected team including, Zimbabwe-born internationally renowned festival curator, Keith Shiri, and industry expert, Jack Chinagset, will be screened at the six day long festival which the organisers further indicated will showcase some of the finest films from over 35 countries across the globe including 20 African premieres and 27 South African premieres. The festival line-up comprises a mix of feature films and documentaries showcasing stories that cross cultural boundaries. Beyond the screening, the festival is expected to play host to a number of movie stars, producers, directors and distributors from across the world. Executive Director of the festival, Timothy Mangwedi, explained that the Joburg film festival offers a multicultural international standard cinema experience for film lovers, young and old, right in the heart of Joburg.
“Not only does the festival showcase thought-provoking and debate-stocking films from around the world, but also brings back the nostalgic storytelling from yester years via this selection of films being screened. Everyone is welcome to join in the celebration,” Mangwedi said. The Executive director also announced that the festival will also include a selection of films from the Africa Film Heritage Project, a partnership between the Federation of Pan African Filmmakers (FEPACI), Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project along with its affiliate archive, the Cineteca di Bologna, and UNESCO. Notable features that will be screened at cinema’s in Soweto, Maboneng, Sandton and Rosebank include the multi-award winning 2022 feature film ‘Utuma’, the South African doccie, Music is My Life and Surviving Gaza, which won three awards including, that of best director at the 2022 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) held in Lagos, Nigeria. Full listing of the films can be sourced from www.joburgfilmfestival.co.za
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204 Filmmakers For 2023 Berlinale Talent Programme
FROM February 18 to 23, 2023, organisers of Berlinale Talents will welcome 204 selected filmmakers from 67 countries for a six days exchange experiences along the theme, You Must Be Joking: Humour In Serious Times. The Berlinale Talent is a ticket to join what is one of the largest worldwide film communities, which is expected to grow to 10,000 Berlinale Talents alumnus soon. The 204 talents were chosen from 3,295 applications from 125 countries. The final selection this year includes filmmakers from countries that have rarely been represented at Berlinale Talents before (Myanmar, Palestine, Nepal, Mongolia, Lesotho, Bangladesh, Costa Rica and for the first time Saint Lucia). Many of the Talents have already participated in renowned film projects or initiated them themselves. More than 40 Talents have been involved in previous Berlinale films as directors or in other capacities, among them Evelyn Rack, the editor of last year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino opening film Wir könnten genauso gut tot sein. They are all united by their motivation to make a difference in their living and working environment – be it artistic or socio-political. In her feature film debut How is Katia? Ukrainian director Christina Tynkevych deals with the social power dynamics in Ukraine. She is one of a total of six Talents with a Ukrainian citizenship this year.
Australian actress Eliza Scanlen, well known for her roles in Little Women by Greta Gerwig and Babyteeth, for which she won the Australian Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, is making her debut as a director at Berlinale Talents. Director Dornaz Hajiha is one of four Talents from Iran. Her debut feature film Like a Fish on the Moon was selected in the Proxima Competition of the 56th Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2022. She is currently developing her second feature Diaphanous. The 204 Talents (112 female, 83 male, three diverse and six no answer) come from acting, cinematography, directing, distribution, film criticism, production, production and digital set design, screenwriting, sound design, film composition, film editing, and audience design. In addition to the summit, 40 talents are also developing and presenting projects for cinema to virtual reality in the Talents Labs
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Berlinale 2023 Honours Spielberg With Golden Bear
DIRECTOR, producer and screenwriter, Steven Spielberg, will be honoured for lifetime achievement with an honorary Golden Bear at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. The Homage will screen his latest film, The Fabelmans, with Spielberg on hand to accept the statuette on February 21, 2023 at the Award Ceremony in the Berlinale Palast . The artistic director of the Deutsche Kinemathek and coordinator for the Homage, Rainer Rother, says, “In a career spanning 50 years, Steven Spielberg has left a decisive and lasting imprint on the art of cinematic storytelling, while continuing to tackle sensitive subjects. Entire generations of enthusiastic moviegoers all over the world have grown up with his oeuvre. The Homage film selection exemplifies that multi-faceted opus.”
https://guardian.ng/art/broadcast-content-across-borders-35/
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