Cannes 2022: My Favorite Films

My favorite films this year were small, female-centered and female-directed movies. I have never been partial to female oriented or directed films before, so perhaps the year of COVID has transformed my own understandings and/ or it has altered the directing choices women make. Or maybe they were just better than the male-made pictures this year, though only three out of 18 films competing are directed by women, four years after the festival pledged to improve gender representation. Five films directed by women — out of 15 films total — will be shown as official selections in the festival’s Un Certain Regard. Selections for the festival are chosen by the selection committee. Maybe it, like the new French Oscar Selection Committee needs to be overhauled.

Mia Hansen-Løve, Alice Winocur, Emily Atef

Moreover, Cannes messed up on its online ordering system and changes in the ticketing protocols, and so I among many missed several films we wanted to see, e.g., Corsage, for which Vicky Krieps won Best Acting Award. Marie Kreutzer’s period piece in which Krieps plays Empress Sisi of Austria, one of Europe’s first celebrity royals was a coproduction of Austria, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. MK2 sold it to IFC for US and Canada. Other rights went to Austria-Panda Lichtspiele; Benelux-The Searchers; France-Ad Vitam; Hungary-Cirko; Ireland, UK-Picturehouse; Italy-Bim; Spain-Adso Films; Poland-M2; Czech Republic-Aerofilm; Ex-Yugoslavia-Demiurg. I will see it in the Berlin cinema where Alamode is releasing it. You can see it along with these favorite films of mine in Toronto!

Vicky Krieps plays Empress SIsi in ‘Corsage’. She also stars in ‘More Than Ever’

Paris Memories, One Fine Day, and More Than Ever were all about women finding their own unique path for their own unique well-being which could only be discovered by their listening to their own (rather than society’s) inner promptings.

Alice Winocur wrote and directed Revoir Paris after her brother had been in Bataclan, the night spot in Paris shot to bits by a mass murderer. However, her story is not at Bataclan or about Bataclan. A young tv reporter goes into an upscale brasserie to get out of a rain storm and the shooting occurs. The story starts as she returns to Paris after recovering for three months at her mother’s country home and notices the restaurant. It proceeds as she goes on a quest to recover her lost memory of what exactly happened to her that night. One sees Paris in a new way and the kindness of strangers creates bonds beyond the every day conventional ones we hold dear.

The second, One Fine Day, starring Lea Seydoux, is a simple story of a young widow who falls in love again. Simple, clean, quiet and beautifully depicted, it is a perfect film for Seydoux. Mia Hansen-Løve has created a jewel of a study of a woman recovering from grief and finding a way to love again. Among Seydoux’ 51 films in 18 years of acting are Inglorious Basterds, Farewell, My Queen, last year’s Cannes entry The Story of my Wife whose poor editing doomed it, and the most visible, Blue is the Warmest Color which won 2013 Cannes Palme d’Or as well as Best Actress for both her and her co-star Adele Exarchopoulos and the FIPRESCI Prize. One Fine Day may well be the film for which she will be most remembered by her fans.

The third, More Than Ever, by Berlin director Emily Atef (3 Days in Quiberonabout the last interview of Romy Schneider) captures the pathos of a young woman with a fatal disease and how even her beloved is unable to help. A tear-jerker but not at all melodramatic, one might say this is Krieps’ best role since Phantom Thread. (However, I have yet to see her in Corsage!) She finds her way toward peace which, in the end, is the most precious gift.

The back story of this movie is as dramatic as the film, perhaps more so because in real life, the costar died. Her costar Gaspard Ulliel had a son with his former partner, model and singer Gaëlle Piétri, born in January 2016. They split up in 2020. Filming went from 14 April 2021to 4 June 2021. Gaspard died on 19 January, 2022, in La Tronche, Isère, France, after a skiing accident. Vicky Krieps, who was Gaspard Ulliel’s last companion — a version called into question by Gaëlle Pietri, got a drubbing originally from the popular French press and populace for this dating of events in which she was judged a home breaker.

Speaking to paper jam about More than ever, “Krieps said, ‘I hope that More Than Ever won’t just be anticipated because it’s Gaspard Ulliel’s last film. Above all, it is a very beautiful film (…) The projection can only be a nice moment, since, during this film, Gaspard will be alive on screen. To be present at Cannes, in a last feature film which thus speaks of the love of a couple, and of how this love can survive death, is a beautiful analogy. Strong and deep. I hope we manage to convey some of this truth to the public…’, she confided to paper jam, not without emotion.”

After the Cannes standing ovation for Corsage, the public has forgiven Vicky for her perceived real-life position. We look forward to her next movies now in post: Bachmann & Frisch; The Three Musketeers: Milady and The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan in which she plays Anne d’Autriche, and 
The Wall in which she plays a committed and zealous border patrol agent who loses control and kills a harmless migrant in front of three witnesses.

The three films I loved most in Cannes touched my innermost emotional core. They validate my own choices and strengthen my convictions. I am sure they will encourage others to recognize and follow their own promptings as they find new pathways in our quickly changing world.

International Women's Film Festival 12 Year in Seoul April 18

The International Women's Film Festival in Seoul kicks off its 12th edition April 8 with German drama The Day Will Come, directed by Susanne Schneider. Running for eight days at the Artreon Theater in Sinchon, west-central Seoul, the fest will screen 102 films from 27 countries under the banner “See the World Through Women’s Eyes.”


Main section New Currents presents 26 features representing the latest trends in women’s films. Included are three by Korean female directors, KWON Woo-jung’s documentary Earth’s Women, PARK Chan-ok’s award-winning second feature Paju, and KIM Jeong’s experimental drama Viewfinder.

Special highlight sections include Post-‘98 Indonesian Women’s Cinema, the newly-added Polemics section which this year focuses on ‘Maternity in Question’, a competitive Asian Short Film and Video section, and 13 new films in its annual Queer Rainbow section.

The festival will close April 15 with a screening of the winning short film. All films will be subtitled in English unless otherwise noted. The festival's website can be found at: http://www.wffis.or.kr/

Women in Film Korea, an association of female film professionals named Paju director PARK Chan-ok their choice for Female Cineaste of the Year. PARK’s sophomore feature drew wide critical acclaim when it premiered at the Pusan International Film Festival this October, winning the NETPAC prize.


Paju went on to be selected as the opening film of the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam, taking place Jan 27, 2010. PARK’s second feature was a labor of love that came seven years after her highly praised debut, Jealousy is My Middle Name (2002).

The award ceremony took place Dec 15 in conjunction with the two-day 2009 Women in Film Korea festival, which highlights Korean films in which women listed in the closing credits had a strong creative presence. The event was held at the Cine Cube specialty multiplex in central Seoul.

Guadalajara Film Festival (aka FICG) Celebrates 25 Years

This year's Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG - Festival International de Cine Guadalajara) has so many events, sections and sidebars that one barely knows where to begin. Established in 1986 it now has an attendence of about 66,000 with industry attendence at about 3,000 all of whom are interested in interacting with one another and with filmmakers in an extremely friendly upbeat environment.  Its festival has a competition for Mexican and Iberoamerican fiction, docs and shorts, French  features with a focus on Agnes Varda, animation, alternative, childrens, and of course gala sections.  It has a film market, numerous panels and has incorporated several key international initiatives.

About my ever active Women Directors' Tally:  Of 160 new features at the festival, 27 are by women, equalling 16%.   Those women are the ones who are currently playing the most important festivals: Paz Fabrega, Natalia Smirnoff, Florence Jaugey, Maria Novaro, Renate Costa, Urszula Antoniak, Elizabeth Chi Vasarhelyi, the ones not yet listed in IMDb: Luciana Burlamaqui nor is her film On the Edge of Light and Shadow a doc about two now ex con rappers over 7 years in Carandiru, the worst prison in Brazilnow closed down, Rosana Matecki and Story of a Day, Regina Alvarez, Ana Rosa, Ina Gomez Concheiro; new comers: Pettina Perut, Maya Da-Rin, Adriana Camacho Torres, Andrea Borbolla, Viviana Garcia Besne, Daniela Ludlow, Lilian Liberman, Julia Solomonoff, Elisabet Cabeza, Ana Perez y Marta Arribas, Diana Fabianova, and veterans: Jessica Hausner, Claire Denis, Barbara Kopple, Isabel Coixet.
 
1. Guadalajara's 8th Film Market (with the requisite film library) hosts the European Film Promotion umbrella representing all participating European films as well as EFP's huge membership of 30 European institutions. A catalogue of recent European films screening in Guadalajara, is online on EFP's website. Representatives from each international sales company are all here personally.

One of the 11 films supported by EFP is Autlook's documentary EPISODE III - ENJOY POVERTY by director Renzo Martens from The Netherlands and Belgium, an investigation of the emotional and economic value of Africa's most lucrative export: filmed poverty. Deep in the interiors of the Congo, Dutch artist Renzo Martens single-handedly undertakes an epic journey and launches an emancipatory program that helps the poor become aware of what is their primary capital resource: Poverty.  Autlook deserves first place here for its slate of political documentaries, including Gonzalo Arijon's doc which so impressed me in its premier at Mar Del Plata, Eyes Wide Open, a view of Latin America's democracies today.  I invite the reader to my December blog on the subject of Latin America. 

Others include:
Charivari Films (France)
77 Doronship by Pablo Aguero, France, Argentina 2009

Coach14 (France)
Police, Adjective (Politist, Adjectiv) by Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania 2009

Films Boutique (Germany)
She, A Chinese by Xiaolu Guo, UK, China 2009

Jinga Pictures (UK)
Only When I Dance by Beadie Finzi, UK, France, The Netherlands

m-appeal (Germany)
Lost Times (Utolsó Idök) by Àron Mátyássy, Hungary 2009
New York Memories by Rosa von Praunheim, Germany 2010

Media Luna (Germany)
Dirty Mind by Pieter van Hees, Belgium 2009

Oberon Cinematografica (Spain)
Masks (Màscares) by Elisabeth Cabeza & Esteve Riambau, Spain 2009

UMedia (France)
Cuchillo de Palo (108) by Renate Costa, Spain 2010

Wide Management (France)
Two In The Wave (Les deux de la Vague) by Emmanuel Laurent , France 2010

3. Talent Campus from the Berlinale.  The second edition of the Talent Campus Guadalajara for up-and-coming filmmakers and professionals from Central America and the Caribbean is hotsting a brand new hands-on training programme for film critics, the Talent Press.  The Goethe Institut is also a backer.

4. Iberoamerican Co-Production Market.  In an effort to contribute to the development of the Mexican and Ibero-American film industry producers of 25 projects in development are set up in one-on-one meetings with potential co-producers, buyers and international sales agents and  international financing funds including the Fonds Sud, the French fund devoted to support the production of films from developing countries.,

5. Producers Network from Cannes.  For the fourth year, Cannes and Guadaljara have cooperated in creating thematic roundtables to discuss issues relevant to the seasoned producers invited to attend.

6. Iberoamercan Crossing Borders.  To encourage films to circulate beyond their own countries, producers pitch and show their films to the industry professionals who will either represent the films internationally, distribute them in their territories or plan for future projects from the producers, directors or other talents.

7. Honoring France and an homage to Agnes Varda

8. Honoring Mexican actress Maria Rojo and actor Joaquin Pardave

9. Honoring Matt Dillon who is giving a masters class

10. Latinofusión Distribution Award to the Best Iberoamerican Fiction Feature Film and the Best Mexican Fiction Feature Film grants US$20,000 each as an advance for the international representation rights to the films. This award is in addition to the Latinofusión Award granted to the producers of the winning film in Guadalajara Construye which add up to a total of US$60,000.

11. Cinema en Construya (works in progress) for films, which once filmed find difficulties during their post-production stage and later on—while trying to guarantee theatrical release— is made of a maximum of 6 productions from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean region (including Colombia).  Accredited professionals —producers, distributors, sales agents, service companies, funds and festivals— watch them with an eye toward supporting the completion of projects and their subsequent exhibition.  Documnentaries are included.

Where do we begin?

International Women's Day: Women in Berlin

Until women reach a 50-50 parity with men directors, my mission continues to count the women directors in upcoming and recent film festivals (and an occasional informal glance at what’s selling in the markets). Women’s films in Berlin reflect women’s place in the world both in content and in the numbers of women represented as directors, producers, writers, etc. John Cooper of Sundance stresses the increasing and possibly 50-50 parity of women producers, but I am looking at the directors. As March is Women’s History Month (and all the other months are Men’s History Month according to Gloria Steinem’s L.A. Times Article of March 4, 2010) this blog is in honor of all women everywhere.

Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture.  LA Times puts into perspective the fact that the Best Director Oscar went to Kathryn Bigelow and that in the world of directors "...Although successful female directors appear to have gained higher profiles of late, the actual percentage of top films directed by women has remained static for 25 years at 7% to 9%, according to an annual study of women writers, directors, and producers of the 250 top-grossing films of the year by the Center for the Study of Women in Film and Television at San Diego State University.  'We're running in place. There's been no progress since 1987', said Martha Lauzen, the center's executive director.


I have learned much during this festival cycle of Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin from the lesbian filmmaking community. The lesbian community regards cinema from a historical point of view and their films, as I learned in The Owls (which stands for Older, Wiser Lesbians) are made (and seen) in the historical perspective of speaking up, and progressing from being ghettoized and to becoming mainstream…a progression applauded in The Kids Are All Right, one of the most acclaimed films both in its Sundance premiere and here in Berlin. The Owls’ broken narrative sheds illuminating light on the broad spectrum of lesbian “types” from femme to transmale as opposed to butch, etc. I think this inner reflection is definitely a female trait which in this film reaches a glorious compendium of naming as many types as there as there are individuals. I was charmed by the film and its storytelling techniques. As a companion piece to the picture it paints of modern day lesbianism, the newly restored 30 year old feature showing in the Forum Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives dovetails with this theme.


Wieland Speck, head programmer of the Panorama at the Berlinale has this to say of The Owls by Cheryl Dunye: a very interesting American filmmaker. Dunye works to some extent with a Brechtian V-Effekt (distancing effect) and, using a split screen, thereby repeatedly intervening in the dramatic process. The story is interrupted, the actresses reflect upon the characters and their life situations, but also on the current situation of lesbians in the US. In this story about an all-women band, they’ve survived everything imaginable, the glamour has faded, and relationships are disintegrating. Something new has to happen. And so a tragic story from the past related to the band resurfaces – here too you see the movement towards the past. These and other paths back into history are perhaps due to a certain zeitgeist, which is a little scared of the future, but which doesn’t want to remain passive.

To continue into the Berlinale counts, in Competition and Special Sreenings, women directors are represented by a mere 7 out of 30 or 35% if I am correct in attributing the female gender to these directors: Jasmila Zbanic’s On the Path from Bosnia, Natalia Smirnoff’s Argentinean Rompecabezas (Puzzle), Pernille Fischer Christensen’s A Family from Denmark, Doris Dorie’s The Hairdresser (Die Friseuse), Anusha Rizvi makes her feature directorial debut on Peepli Live, the story of a poor farmer who announces he will kill himself so his family can benefit from a controversial compensation scheme, Please Give by Nicole Holefcener and The Kids Are All Right by Lisa Choldenko. These last three screened in Berlinale competition as well as at Sundance. Revolucion features 2 women directors out of the 10 chosen -- Marianna Chenillo ('Nora's Will') and Patricia Riggen ('Under the Same Moon'). Nicht so viel (Not many)…

The Forum (15 out of 68 titles = 23%): Los Angelina Sharon Lockhart’s Double Tide about a female clam digger in Maine, Lockhart’s 4th film about work, American Laura Poitras’s The Oath which also played in Sundance, Chinese Yang Rui’s Fan shan (Crossing the Mountain), Finland’s Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio’s Seven Songs from the Tundra, France’s Chantal Akerman’s D’est, Tatjana Turanskyj’s Eine flexible frau (The Drifter), Imani by Uganda’s Caroline Kamya, Orly by Germany’s Angela Schanelec about two people meeting in the Paris airport, Argentinean Ines de Oliveira Cezar’s El recuento de los danos (The Counting of the Damages), Gamma Bak’s Schnupfen im Kopf (Head Cold) the staged video diary that Gamma Bak filmed in 1993 at her kitchen table, two years before she underwent her first psychotic episode. Five more episodes follow. Yang Yonghi, a Korean-Japanese with an M.A. in Media from The New School in New York City, tells the story of her family, a story that takes place between North Korea and Japan, in Sona, the Other Myself. Other films by women include Sunny Land by Berliner and Bennington and Humboldt Universities graduate Marietta Kesting and Aljoscha Weskott, Brandeis and Edinburgh educated, Debra Granik’s Winter Bone, acquired during Sundance by Roadside Attractions for the US and in time for EFM by Fortissimo, the still apt Mariposa Film Group’s Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, the lives of 26 lesbians and gay men in December 1977, a year before Harvey Milk was shot dead and just acquired by Rialto for US, and finally, Claire Denis’ Beau Travail.

Panorama (9 of 54 films = 17%): Film Unfinished by Yael Hersonski was in Sundance FF and is in Panorama Documentary, Cuchillo de Palo by Renate Costa, The Owls by Cheryl Dunye, Missing Man by Anna Fenchenko, Budrus by Julia Bacha, Lucy Walker’s audience winner Waste Land, Fucking Different Sao Paulo by Monica Palazzo, Joana Galvao and Max Julien, Death by Instalments by Ilona Ziok, Blank City by Céline Danhier, USA

 
Generation(s) The percentages are too small to calculate:

Pudana – Last of the Line (Sukunsa Viimeinen) by Anastsia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio of Finland in Generation Kplus, A Brand New Life from South Korea and France by Ounie Lecomte, Bran Nue Dae by Rachel Perkins, Dutch director Ellen Smit’s EEP!, La Pivellina by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel

Perspektive Deutsches Kino: Portraits of German Alcoholics by Carolin Schmitz, Cindy Does Not Love Me by Hannah Schweier, Desert Flower by Sherry Hormann

Market Screenings: A quick and informal glimpse at the market screenings: Stefanie Sycholt’s Themba from Germany and South Africa being sold by Sola Media, Sweden’s Teresa Fabik’s Starring Maja (Preinsessa), Lola Doillon In Your Hands being sold by Elle Driver, Sherry White’s Crackie being sold by Shoreline, Paz Fabrega’s Agua Fria being sold by Films Boutique, Dominque Monfery’s Eleonore’s Secret sold by Films Distribution, Adriana Magg’s Grown Up Movie Star, Luca (?) Guadagnino’s Io Sono L’Amore (I Am Love) (The Works sold it to Cineart for Benelux), Susanne Bier’s Vengeance (Trust Nordisk sold to Cineart), Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights (Hanway to Cineart), Anahi Berneri’s It’s Your Fault (Por Tu Culpa), Dania Paquini and Max Giwa’s Street Dance 3D, Urzulla Antoniak’s Nothing Personal, Charlotte Sieling’s Above the Street Below the Water being sold by The Match Factory, Bettina Oberli’s The Murder Farm, Simone Laine’s Michel Ciment, The Art of Sharing Movies, Children Of Glory, directed by Krisztina Goda and produced by Andrew G Vajna, an epic story of the 1856 revolution in Hungary. Visit licensed Picture Me to Strand Releasing for US. a documentary by Ole Schell and Sara Ziff, and is also selling Ramona Diaz’s Don’t Stop Believing: Everyman’s Journey. Wide is selling Valerie Minetto’s Mine, My Life Behind The Scenes, Ines Compan’s Open-Sky is a Mosaique Films and Le Hamac Rouge production about the Kolla natives of Argentina and their battle against a Canadian silver-mining company, In addition, Wide screened a 60-minute rough cut version of Laure Charpentier’s Gigola, with a cast including Lou Doillon, Eduardo Noriega, and Marisa Berenson. The drama focuses on a well-known character from 1960s Pigalle, an area of Paris, and is based on Charpentier’s controversial bestseller of the same name. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s The Extra Man. Leila, from director Audrey Estrougo, sold in Bulgaria (Pro Films), Hungary (DMC), Czech Republic (Hollywood Classics), South Africa (Video Vision) and Korea (Mars), among several others. Pierre Salvadori’s Full Treatment sold in Switzerland (Frenetic), Spain (Golem), Portugal (Lusomondo), the Baltic States (Acme) and China (Champs Lis), Donatella Maiorca’s Sea Purple (Viola di mare), She a Chinese by Xiaolu Guo, Rai Trade’s Ten Winters (Dieci inverni) by Isabella Ragonese, Michele Riondino, Glan Blackhall, France’s Mes Cheres Etudes by Emmanuelle Bercot, Cuban Rebeca Chavez’ City in Red, Canada’s Danishka Esterhazy’s Black Field, Dorothee van den Berghe’s My Queen Karo, Spain’s Mascares by Elisabet Cabeza,

Birgitte Berman’s Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel is seeking a sales agent. I would suggest Lightning or Arrow as both deal with mainstream and spiritual themes. Cinemavault would also be good.

Coming up: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnau (Persepolis)’s Waiting for Azrael by Celluloid Dreams, Studio Babelserg and Clou Partners, all under the umbrella of new European production powerhouse TheManipulators.
More soon on the Berlinale Co-Production Market, but for now: Alicia Scherson’s The Future.

Some Rotterdam Fest & Cinemart Tallies on Women and Latinos

Before going into my Women Directors Tracking which I have vowed to continue until women reach a parity with men in the film business and Latino Directors groove, I want to thank Howard Feinstein for watching the most obscure films of Rotterdam to find the jewels!  Scratching Below the Surface for Some Rotterdam Fest Gems - indieWIRE.  Kudos!  I wish I could have seen these!

Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful, if sad, narratives, which can carry their own weight without a lot of artsy fuss.

Other women directors of festival films: Les signes vitaux aka Morbid Fascination by Sophie Deraspe (France) which will also be in SXSW, the multi prize winning and Latina too! Agua fria de mar by Paz Fabrega (Costa Rica), Fuwaku no Adagio aka Autumn Adagio byInoue Tsuki (Japan), Li fa dian de nu er aka My Daughter by Charlotte Lay Kuen Lim (Malaysia), La vie au Ranch by Sophie Letourneur (France), Mama by Nikoly Renard and Yelena Renard (Russia), My Queen Karo by Dorothee van den Berghe (Belgium/ Netherlands), Ejszaka, hajnal aka Europa, East by Anita Doron (Hungary), Everyday is a Holiday by Dima El-Horr (France/ Germany/ Lebanon), Listicky aka Foxes by Mira Fornay (Czech Replblic/ slovakia/ Ireland), God No Say So by Brigitte Uttar Kornetzky (Sierra Leone/ Switzerland), My Tehran for Sale by Granaz Moussavi (Australia/ Iran), Paju by Park Chan-Ok (So. Korea), El Pasante aka The Intern by Clara Picasso (Argentina), Pepperminta by Pipilotti Rist (Austria/ Switzerland), Separations by Andrea Seligmann Silva, Mieke Bui (Netherlands), Lost Persons Area by Caroline Strubbe (Belgium/ Hungary/ Germany/ Netherlands), Hotel Atlantico by Suzana Amaral (Brazil), White Material by Claire Denis (France), Once Upon a Time Proletarian by Guo Xiaolu (UK), Lourdes by Jessica Hausner (Austria/ France/ Germany), Tian shui wei di ye yu su aka Night & Fog by Ann Hui (Hong Kong), Ruzhaye Sabz aka Green Days by Hana Makhmalbaf (France/ Iran), Russian Lessons by Andrei Nekrasov and Olga Konskaya (Russia/ Norway), Zanan bedoone mardan aka Women Without Men by Shirin Neshat (Austria/ France/ Germany), A falta que me faz aka Like Water Through Stone by Marilia Rocha (Brazil), Synok aka Sonny by Larisa Sadilova (Russia), Vlees aka Meat by Maartje Seyferth and Victor Nieuwenhuijs (Netherlands), De vliegenierster van Kazbek aka The Aviatrix of Kazbek by Ineke Smits (Belgium/ Netherlands), Mundane History by Anoucha Suwichakornpoing (Thailand). Total: 30 films, hardly a record breaking number. 

Cinemart projects have a better percentage with 11 of the 33 projects and include By the Time It Gets Dark by Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand) awarded the Prince Claus Fund Film Grant of €15,000. The jury, chaired by documentary filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak, was impressed by the “unconventional episodic storytelling” of Suwichakornpong's proposal – a highly personal take on contemporary Thailand.  The award, now in its tenth year, is given to a CineMart project by a filmmaker from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Caribbean, to support early-stage development. Anocha Suwichakornpong's feature debut, Mundane History, was also competing the IFFR 2010 Tiger strand.

Other Cinemart women's project included Erased by Patrice Toye (Belgium) who arrived directly from Sundance where her latest project The Spring Ritual was awarded the NHK Award, Island by JO Eun-kyung (South Korea), Je suis mort mai j’ai des amis by Guillaume Malandrin and Stephanie Malandrin (Belgium), Layla Fourie by Pia Marais (So. Africa/ Sweden/ Germany) winner of Art France Cinema Award for the best CineMart 2010 Project. The drama, written by Marais (who won a 2007 Tiger for her debut Die Unerzogenen), is set in present-day South Africa and revolves around a single mother who works as a polygraphist in a casino. The €10,000 prize is intended to support the production of independent filmmaking.

Also in the Cinemart: Leones by Jazmin Lopez (Argentina), A Life Half Lived by Denie Pentecost (Australia), Malmi Murderaz by Susanna Helke (Finland), My Sister Came By Today by Yan Ting Yuen (Hong Kong), Ola’s Universe by Coco Schrijber (Netherlands), Postcards from the Zoo by Edwin (Indonesia), Todos Nosotros by Paz Fabrega (Costa Rica) Tiger Award winner for Agua fria de mar.

And Latino directors: Agua fria de mar by Paz Fabrega, prize winning Alamar by Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio (Mexico), El Sol aka The Sun by Ayar Blasco (Argentina), El camino entre dos puntos aka The Way Between Two Points by Sebastian Diaz Morales (Argentina/ Netherlands), Vaho aka Becloud by Alejandro Gerber Bicecci (Mexico) and Los viajes del viento aka The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerro (Argentina/ Colombia/ Netherlands/ Germany), Avenida Brasilia Formosa aka Defiant Brasilia by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil), El calambre aka The Cramp by Matias Meyer (Mexico/ France), Manuel De Ribera by Christopher Murray and Pable Carrera (Chile), Norteado aka Northless by Rigoberto Perezcano (Mexico/ Spain), El Pasante aka The Intern by Clara Picasso (Argentina), The Sentimental Engine Slayer by Omar Rodgriguez Lopez (USA), Hiroshima by Pablo Stoll (Uruguay/ Colombia/ Argentina/ Spain), Hotel Atlantico by Suzana Amaral (Brazil), Rabia by Sebastian Cordero (Colombia/ Mexico/ Spain), Moscou aka Moscow by Eduard Coutinho (Brazil), Todo, en fin, el silencio lo ocupaba aka All Things Were Now Overtaken by Silence by Nicolas Pereda (Mexico/ Canada), A falta que me faz aka Like Water Through Stone by Marilia Rocha (Brazil). Cinemart projects include Another World by Alexis Dos Santos (Argentina/ Germany/ Mexico), Heli by Amat Escalante (Mexico), Leones by Jazmin Lopez (Argentina)

Women Directors in Sundance

As I said in Toronto and again at the Hof Flm Festival, until there is parity between male and female directors I will continue to look at women directors.  I heard the other day that the number of women directors is actually decreasing in the television world.

Here are some quick facts on Sundance this year:
If you include shorts- 51 women directors are represented at Sundance.

In the Premiere section, out of 16 films 7 have women directors.

John Cooper, Director, Sundance Film Festival, brought it to my attention that "Low Budget is dominated by the boys still but that is changing with Lynn Shelton, Katie Aselton etc stepping up. Even there, many have women producers. I have a hunch in the indie creative producer world women dominate. Like I said, that is just a hunch I have never done a study."

Sundance Film Festival is showing approximately 115 features.  Of those 25 (20%) are directed by women:

Pepperminta by Pipilottit, from Austria and Switzerland and being sold by The Match Factory, The Freebie by Katie Aselton, US, Women Without Men by Shirin Nesat and Shoja Azari of Iran and being sold by The Coproduction Office, To Catch a Dollar: Muhammed Yunus Banks on America by Gayle Ferraro of Bangladish and US, Lourdes by Jessica Hausner of Austria and sold by The Coproduction Offce, Countdown to Zero directe by Lucy Walker of US and produced by Lawrence Bender, Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann, The Kids Are Alright by Tze Chun of US being sold by Circus Road, It's A Wonderful Afterlife by Gurinder Chadha of UK and being sold by Hanway,  Brae Nue Dae by Rachel Perkins of Australia and being sold by Bankside, The Runaways by Floria Sigismondi of US and sold by Summit, The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer of US and being sold by SC Films International, Please Give by Nicole Holofcener of US produced by Sony Pictures Classics, The Extra Man by Shari Springer Berman and Roger Pulcini of US and being sold by Wild Bunch, Grown Up Movie Star by Adriana Maggs of Canada being sold by Mongrel Media, Waste Land by Karen Harley and Joao Jardin of UK and Brazil, Russian Lessons by Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov of Russia, Norway and Georgia, Kick in Iran by Fatima Geza Abdollahyan of Iran and Germany and being sold by Telepool, Obselidia by Diane Bell of US and being sold by Dominion 7, The Imperlialists are Still Alive by Zeina Darra of US in Spanish, French, Arabic, Korean and English, A Small Act by Jennifer Arnold of US, The Oath by Laura Poltras of US in Arabic and English, Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg of US, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child by Tamra Davis of US and produced and distributed in France by Pretty Pictures, Bhutto by Jessica Hernandez, Johnny O’Hara of US, 12th and Delaware by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing of US.

Hofer Filmtage 2009 Day 2 Women Filmmakers

More of the trade came in Thursday night including Rainer Kölmel who sold Kinowelt to Pathe just before the latest market crash and who has produced The Two Lives of Daniel Shore, playing here. Daniel Gluckau is still acquiring films for Kinowelt and has just had a son born. Former Kinowelt sales man Stlios Ziannis has created his own international sales agency Aktis Film whose film 13 Semester is premiering here and was produced by 20th Century Fox Germany signaling their possibly renewed interest in German production. This film, depicting life in college is a new subject for German film. Aktis also intends to enter coproductions as well. Also attending are Rudy Tjio of Universum UFA who will also be attending AFM, Antonio Exacoustos of ARRI Media Worldsales, Wigbert Moschall of mdc int., Prokino's Ira von Gienanth, MFA's Christian Meinke

Women in film are receiving some press these days, from an article discussing possible Oscar Best Director award to women, IndieWire's Celluloid Ceiling article at the London Film Festival, an earlier blog of mine, Toronto notes I made about the notable number of films made by women (around 51). And now, reviewing the Hof roster, of 39 shorts, 13 are by women and of 56 features, 14 are by women:


Nothing Personal, Urszula Antoniak, Polish born, German educated. Film is in English.
Porgy & Me, Susanna Boehm, German. Film is in English
Urville, Angela Christlieb, (Cinemania). German. Film is in French
The Song of Two Horses, Byambasuren Davaa. Mongolian.
One out of Eight, Sabine Derflinger. German
Queen of Hearts, Valerie Donzelli. French
Lourdes, Jessica Hausner. French
Wenn Die Welt Uns Gehoert, Judith Keil, Antje Kruska. German
Men on the Bridge, Asli Ozge, Turkish (The Turkish-German films are creating the most buzz among Germans these days)
Mazel Tov, Mischka Popp, German (There is usually 1 but this year are 2 Jewish films (also Such a Schlmazzel which was sold out)
Der innere Krieg , Astrid Schult, German
Hughezovka, Viola Stephan, German
Geburt, Silvia Haselbeck
Schwarz auf Weis, Susanne Jaeger