For the 58th edition of the New York Film Festival, the event will be seen largely online with plans to utilize drive-ins in Brooklyn, Queens and a makeshift theater at the Bronx Zoo. The 2020 NYFF (with an expanded time which begins on September 17th and runs through October 11th) had hoped to be able to be show some films in a theater with a limited audience. Yet unlike in Venice, where this year's festival had indoor screenings, New York state officials are still insisting on theater restrictions and are keeping them locked down.
The fest opens with the return of Oscar-winning British filmmaker, Steve McQueen ("12 Years a Slave") and his latest, "Lovers Rock". It is part of his "Small Axe" anthology series of five original films (which includes "Mangrove" and "Red, White and Blue" that will be screened later at the fest in the Main Slate section) that will reach U.S. audiences through Amazon Prime. Set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, each film tells a different story involving London’s West Indian community and how they deal with rampant racism and discrimination in the country. "Lovers Rock" is a story of young love and music at a blues party in the early 1980's.
This year's Centerpiece Film is "Nomadland" from director, Chloé Zhao. This drama (which just won the top prize of Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival) features Frances McDormand as a recent widow who sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.
The Closing Night Film will be the surreal comedy, "French Exit" from director, Azazel Jacobs. Based on the novel from Patrick deWitt (who also wrote the screenplay), Michelle Pfeiffer stars as a widowed New York socialite who has lost most of her vast fortune. Desperate, she decides to head to a friend's empty Paris apartment by cruise ship with her son, Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) and their cat, Small Frank (voiced by Tracy Letts).
There is a new Spotlight section which is a showcase of sneak previews, gala events and special evenings. Some of the films included will be the world premiere of the latest from Sofia Coppola, "On the Rocks" which reteams the director with her "Lost in Translation" star, Bill Murray; "All In: The Fight for Democracy", a look at voter suppression directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés; "Hopper/Welles", a documentary that features a 1970 conversation between actor, Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles; "American Utopia", a filmed version of David Byrne’s Broadway musical concert directed by Spike Lee; and the film I'm most excited about: Pedro Almodóvar’s "The Human Voice", a thirty-minute short that is the Spanish director's first English-language film and stars the incredible, Tilda Swinton.
And I absolutely love this year's poster for New York 's Fest (see at the top) which was designed by none other than that eccentric filmmaker from Baltimore, John Waters. Even though none of his films were ever screened at this festival (a shocking crime!), the director is still thrilled to have been asked to create the poster which is done in the colorful style of those now-classic ads that promoted upcoming carnivals, rock & roll and R&B concerts in the '50's and '60's.
For the complete list of films, venues and to purchase virtual tickets, please click below :
After two weeks of successfully creating a safe environment in order for audiences to actually view movies in theaters, the 77th annual Venice Film Festival has concluded and director Chloé Zhao has received the top prize of the Golden Lion with her film, "Nomadland". This drama stars Oscar-winner, Frances McDormand as a woman who leaves her small town to travel around the American Midwest following an economic collapse in the country. The Cate Blanchett-lead jury selected this film, making Zhao the first female director to win this prize in ten years and only the fifth woman in this international fest's history to receive the honor.
Here is a list of winners from the 2020 Venice Film Festival:
Golden Lion: "Nomadland"
Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: "Nuevo Orden"
Silver Lion Best Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, "Wife Of A Spy"
Best Screenplay: Chaitanya Tamhane, "The Disciple"
Volpi Cup Best Actress: Vanessa Kirby, "Pieces Of A Woman"
Volpe Cup Best Actor: Pierfrancesco Favino, "Padrenostro"
Special Jury Prize: "Dear Comrades!"
Marcello Mastroianni Award (for Best New Young Actor or Actress): Roohollah Zamani, "Sun Children"
Golden Lion For Lifetime Achievement: filmmaker, Ann Hui and actor, Tilda Swinton
Horizons Awards:
Best Film: "The Wasteland"
Best Director: Lav Diazn, "Genus Pan"
Best Screenplay: Pietro Castellitto, "I Predatori (The Predators)"
Special Jury Prize: "Listen"
Best Actress: Khansa Batma, "Zanka Contact"
Best Actor: Yahya Mahayni, "The Man Who Sold His Skin"
Best Short Film: "Entre Tú Y Milagros"
Lion of the Future (Luigi De Laurentiis Award For a Debut Film): Ana Rocha de Sousa, "Listen"
"Women Make Film" is a fourteen-hour documentary film from filmmaker and critic, Mark Cousins. This timely project is a celebration, placing a much needed spotlight on female filmmakers from around the world and throughout history, some that certainly have not received the recognition that they and their influential work deserve. With narration from a cast of international performers, Adjoa Andoh, Jane Fonda, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton, Tilda Swinton, Sharmila Tagore and Debra Winger, this "road movie through cinema" is divided into forty chapters and features the work of one hundred and eighty-three directors. The director Cousins has not made a conventional doc, offering an introspective, almost academic, exploration on how their films are shaped and how they inventively depict love, life and death through the cinematic lens.
"Women Make Film" originally made it's premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival and is now being shown on Turner Classic Movies as one-hour episodes on Tuesdays beginning this month through December. TCM hosts, Alicia Malone and Jacqueline Stewart, will do the introduction before each showing and then will screen some of the films discussed in that installment on the channel. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about some of the unsung talent of cinema and discover their extraordinary movies.
The largely virtual 2020 Outfest Film Festival has ended and I have mixed feelings about the experience. While I certainly missed attending the fest in person and the wonderful sense of community that comes with watching these films with a captivated audience, I am just thrilled that the event was able to still happen with so many other film festivals forced to cancel. Watching the fest at home may not be an ideal setting but it's still better than not having the opportunity to discover these new LGBTQ feature films and shorts.
As I'm not a big fan of drive-in movies, I did not attend any of the screenings held at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu but I did watch several films through the Outfest Now streaming site. The screenings were available for a 72 hour time period which had some advantages as usually the films would have one showing in a theater, maybe two, and then would be over. But with the convenience of this extended time to watch a movie, I found myself rarely watching in one sitting. This is not a good plan for me since I tend to get distracted by other activities demanding my attention while being at home. One disappointment involved beginning to watch the sexually graphic Brazilian film, "Vento Seco (Dry Wind)" one day but by the time I had remembered to finish this intriguing movie, it was no longer available to screen.
This year's Venice Film Festival is occurring right now involving actual screenings with audiences in theaters (utilizing temperature checks and social distancing) which is an optimistic sign. I'm hopeful that we will be able to cautiously return back to theaters to celebrate and enjoy film together again very soon.
Here is the list of winners from the 2020 Outfest Film Festival:
Grand Jury Awards:
Grand Jury Prize for Best U.S. Narrative Feature: "Minyan"
U.S. Narrative Feature(Special Mention): "Tahara"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay (U.S. Narrative): Emma Seligman, "Shiva Baby"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Performance(U.S. Narrative): Sasha Knight, "Cowboys"
Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Narrative Short: "In France Michelle is a Man’s Name"
U.S. Narrative Short (Special Mentions): "Tape" & "Flex"
Special Mention for Performance: Chris Petrovski, "How to Say I Love You at Night"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature: "Your Mother’s Comfort"
Documentary Feature (Special Mention): "Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short: "Heavenly Brown Body"
Documentary Short (Special Mention): "Where My Girls"
Grand Jury Prize for Best International Narrative Feature: "Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones)"
International Narrative Feature (Special Mention): "Alice Junior" & "Dry Wind"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Performance in an International Narrative Feature: Thiessa Woinbackk, "Valentina"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay (International Narrative): Faraz Shariat & Paulina Lorenz, "No Hard Feelings"
Grand Jury Prize for Best International Narrative Short: "Babydyke"
International Narrative Short Film (Special Mention): "Instructions to Let Go"
Audience Awards:
Best Narrative Feature: "Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones)"
Best Debut Narrative Feature: "The Obituary of Tunde Johnson"
Best Narrative Short: "Kapaemahu"
Best Experimental Short: "Canis Major"
Best Documentary Feature: "P.S. Burn This Letter Please"
Best Documentary Short: "Where My Girls"
Special Programming Awards:
Emerging Talent: Terrance Daye, director of "Ship: A Visual Poem"
Award for Freedom: "Freedia Got a Gun"
Artistic Achievement: "Magic Hour"
And here are a few of the films I watched during the fest. "Shiva Baby", the feature film debut from writer/director, Emma Seligman, is an expansion of the short she made for her thesis project while attending NYU in 2018. Rachel Sennott (who played the character in the short) is Danielle, a bisexual college student who attends shiva following the service of a close relative with her parents (Fred Melamed and Polly Draper). This becomes very uncomfortable for Danielle when her former girlfriend, Maya (Molly Gordon) and Max (Danny Deferrari), an older gentleman who she's currently having a sexual relationship with are both at this Jewish observance.
With strong feelings still for Maya (which her overbearing mother wants to insist was just a "phase" and tries to keep them apart) and the discovery that Max not only knows her parents but is also married with a baby, Danielle struggles as she goes through an emotional rollercoaster. Ms Seligman's script is filled with biting wit and hilarious situations yet this comedy is unable to maintain an energetic pace throughout despite the fine work of the cast. Even only at seventy-seven minutes (sixty-nine longer than the original short), "Shiva Baby" feels overextended, never fully justifying a need to bolster this slight story.
The multi-tasking Matthew Fifer co-wrote, edited, co-directed (with Kieran Mulcare) and stars in "Cicada", an intimate, romantic drama with a script loosely based on experiences from the filmmaker and co-star, Sheldon D. Brown. Fifer plays Ben, a sexually-fluid young man in New York who had been dating women but is now "back on the dick" as one female friend succinctly puts it. And while most of his encounters are random and purely sexual, that changes when Ben meets Sam (Brown), a closeted, African-American tech worker. As this relationship begins to blossom, some dark traumas from their past that each man has tried to keep buried comes to the surface. This leaves the couple unsure if their potential romance will be able to hold-up as they each struggle to deal with these difficult, personal challenges.
The film touches on sexual abuse, religion-based homophobia, PTSD, cultural biases and their racial differences in ways that feel contemplative and emotionally authentic. But "Cicada" is also playful and sexy, with lovely moments of romantic gestures and heartfelt conversations. Like some first-time directors, Mr. Fifer has jammed too many ideas and themes in to his debut feature. Yet "Cicada" is still a moving, passionate and highly enjoyable first film that successfully helps place a spotlight on a promising new filmmaker.
And my favorite film from the fest was "The Capote Tapes", a documentary from Ebs Burnough, that uses recently discovered recordings that offer insight on the famed novelist, Truman Capote from some of the people who knew him best. George Plimpton had planned on writing a biography on Capote and interviewed several friends and colleagues of the mercurial writer. The film is built around these tapes, examining Capote's life and career from his troubled childhood in Alabama to his escape as a young man to New York City where he had several acclaimed short stories published before his 1948 first novel, "Other Voices, Other Rooms" would make the unabashedly gay writer an improbable overnight sensation.
Even with his unusual vocal affectation, diminutive stature and wild fabrications, Capote's razor-sharp wit and assured gift of conversation made him a welcome guest at many social gatherings, allowing him to mingle comfortably with the celebrated members of international high society. His fame continued to grow with the publication of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and what he referred to as a "nonfiction novel", "In Cold Blood". This book, which details the 1959 murders of members of the Clutter family in Kansas, would take six years for Capote to finally complete and the experience would take it's toll on him.
Capote's downfall began when he dared to bite the well-manicured hands of the wealthy socialites (like C.Z. Guest, Lee Radziwill, Gloria Vanderbilt and Babe Paley) who had befriended him when he announced his next novel called "Answered Prayers". After he allowed Esquire magazine to publish four chapters, these barely-veiled stories revealed the secrets of these women that had been shared with him in confidence. And although the book was never fully completed, many of these aristocratic ladies, who he referred to as "swans", would never speak to Capote again. We don't really learn anything new about Capote in this fascinating doc yet "The Capote Tapes" brings in to focus how he was able to achieve great success based on his astounding talent and largely on his own terms, despite the many challenging obstacles he faced by society at the time as an openly gay man.
With the summer movie season a complete loss, we have now reached September and theaters in the US are still struggling to be allowed to open in much of the country. I fully understand that we continue to be very much in a middle of a deadly pandemic and there are far more important things to worry about. Yet as I see the rest of the world cautiously reopening businesses, I am incredibly frustrated that there is no clear leadership in this country to help guide us safely in that direction (I will refrain from diving deeply in to my political views on this subject but will simply state that I hope in November there will be a much needed change at the top).
I have previously expressed how I don't understand at all how some state officials believe that gyms, museums and casinos are somehow safer for people to enter than movie theaters. And my opinion on that has not changed. There has always been risk in life and if theaters will invest in taking thorough safety measures in order to reopen, we should be allowed to make our own informed decision whether to reenter their establishments.
At this time, I would normally be sharing some of the upcoming movies coming out over the next four months that I can't wait to see. But with so much up in the air, I'm not really in the mood to invest the time. Luckily, Vulture has continued the tradition and rounded up a collection of thirty-nine feature films that plan to be released in movie theaters, streaming services or possibly both this fall. I'm hopeful that most of these films will actually be able to keep their planned release but all dates are most certainly subject to change.
