Hollywood Mavericks was a 1990 documentary focusing on seventeen maverick directors who were not afraid to break the rules of filmmaking to advance their art from John Ford to Martin Scorsese. Directed by Florence Dauman and Dale Ann Stieber and written by Todd McCarthy and Michael Henry Wilson, with interviews directed by Lance Bird, Hal Lansberry and Don McGlynn. I became interested me to watch this comprehensive look at our great indie directors again particularly because of Sam Fuller!
To see the surprisingly long list of famous names in this 90 minute documentary go to IMDb. I can’t begin to…
‘Oleg: The Oleg Vidov Story’, a U.S.-Russia co-production will premiere this year at the Moscow International Film Festival April 23 and 25, 2021, the spiritual home of this great actor, once called the Robert Redford of the USSR. The 95-minute documentary which memorializes his rise to fame, his ill-fated marriage into the inner circles of the Brezhnev family, and his desperate escape to the West by illegally crossing a border was directed by Nadia Tass and produced by Joan Borsten.
Joan, whom he met in Rome, and married in the U.S., states:
This film is about my late husband, but it is not a “vanity” project. His life was so unique and interesting it deserves to be documented.
I grew up in Hollywood (my father was a studio executive). For more than ten years I worked first as a political reporter for Israel’s respected English language daily Jerusalem Post and then became an entertainment reporter for the LA Times Calendar section traveling from Spain to India, Poland to West Africa.”
Joan goes on to tell how she met Oleg…
I…
Academy Award® winner Helen Mirren (‘The Queen’) will portray Israel’s legendary and only female Prime Minister, Golda Meir. Produced by BAFTA winner Michael Kuhn (‘Florence Foster Jenkins’, ‘The Duchess’) ‘Golda’ will be directed by Academy Award® winner Guy Nattiv. Embankment will represent international sales with CAA Media Finance and ICM jointly handling the North American rights. Production is planned to start as early as October.
The screenplay by Nicholas Martin (Florence Foster Jenkins), who also produces, focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stake responsibilities and decisions that Meir — also known as the “Iron Lady of Israel” — faced during…
Japan Society revived this 1988 film in November 19, 2019 as part of its film series, ‘Tokyo Stories: Japan in the Global Imagination’. It was followed by a Q&A with Fran Rubel Kuzui, its creator, director and co-writer, a New Yorker who has resided with her husband Kaz Kuzui in Japan since 2000.
When I acquired Tokyo Pop for the U.S. market in 1988, none of us had any idea that this largely forgotten gem of ’80s American independent cinema by Fran Rubel Kuzui would bring such success to its director or star. Tokyo Pop’s name star, Carrie Hamilton, the daughter of Carol Burnett, was bound for stardom until her life ended prematurely (1963–2002).
The film itself is slated to be a classic, and, if I may say, it was perhaps the precursor to Sophie Coppola’s own classic, Lost in Translation.
This year Academy Voting starts April 25 and ends April 20. This year’s batch of short films are all highly professional and highly moving. Gone are the days when shorts were a step below the features in quality. The crossover between major studios, indies, TV and now shorts is a constant flow back and forth.
This year ShortsTV will present Oscar® Nominated Short Film Categories in nationwide theatrical and virtual cinemas starting on April 2, 2021 across USA.
Watch the trailer here.
If you share this blog, please tag @ShortsTVUS in socials.
ShortsTV is the first and only global channel and network dedicated to short films. This is their 16th annual Oscar® Nominated Short Films theatrical release.The program will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical markets including New York and Los Angeles and due to theaters being directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, through virtual cinematic releases with a portion of proceeds benefiting the local theaters…
This year Academy Voting starts April 25 and ends April 20. This year’s batch of short films are all highly professional and highly moving. Gone are the days when shorts were a step below the features in quality. The crossover between major studios, indies, TV and now shorts is a constant flow back and forth.
This year ShortsTV will present Oscar® Nominated Short Film Categories in nationwide theatrical and virtual cinemas starting on April 2, 2021 across USA.
Watch the trailer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPlNiZMp7g4
If you share this blog, please tag @ShortsTVUS in socials.
ShortsTV is the first and only global channel and network dedicated to short films. This is their 16th annual Oscar® Nominated Short Films theatrical release.
The program will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical markets including New York and Los Angeles and due to theaters being directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, through virtual cinematic releases with a portion of proceeds benefiting the…
This year Academy Voting starts April 25 and ends April 20. This year’s batch of short films are all highly professional and highly moving. Gone are the days when shorts were a step below the features in quality. The crossover between major studios, indies, TV and now shorts is a constant flow back and forth.
This year ShortsTV will present Oscar® Nominated Short Film Categories in nationwide theatrical and virtual cinemas starting on April 2, 2021 across USA.
Watch the trailer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPlNiZMp7g4
If you share this blog, please tag @ShortsTVUS in socials.
ShortsTV is the first and only global channel and network dedicated to short films. This is their 16th annual Oscar® Nominated Short Films theatrical release.
The program will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical markets including New York and Los Angeles and due to theaters being directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, through virtual cinematic releases with a portion of proceeds benefiting the…
The contradictory mix of modernity and ancestral practices in love and marriage are combined here with a cultural mix of South Africa and America. A tough act to pull off but Muzi Mthembu and Phumi Mthembu succeed in their first feature and have created an engaging series of adventures and misadventures. This film could actually be turned into a series that would engross audiences around the world.
Police brutality. Donald Trump. Anti Blackness. Being South African in America. Immigration. Racial injustice. Being African-American in America. Living your dreams despite many, many obstacles. As everyone around the world understands what it means to have the American Dream even as they see its false veneer peeling away, so this depiction will resonate with them.
The story revolves around the spunky young woman named Nompumelelo who, upon discovering her acceptance into Julliard, embezzles funds from her workplace and abandons her fiancé in South Africa and flies to America to live out her Broadway dream in New York City. There she…
Better Days takes place in a Hong Kong we never see…the poorest neighborhoods, the massively huge prep school, maze-like apartment buildings, jails, and freeways, traffic jams, umbrella jams…and it is told in a style that typifies Hong Kong urban films with quick cuts, and sometimes almost indecipherable scenes with darkness hiding and revealing to a puzzled eye. When you let the storytelling of Derek Tsang play out as Dongyu Zhou plays Chen Nian and Jackson Yee plays Xiao Bei take over, it takes you to a great place, which you know only when you get there. Possibly a metaphor on the bullying of a small nation by a much larger nation as we are witnessing today.
The time period is during the major prep time for the “gaokao” the college entrance exam, which determines the professional fates of millions of Chinese students aiming for the best universities.
For Chen Nian, success means everything; without it, her life will hold no promise to better herself. Her single mother must take the worst jobs which take her away from home and creditors and leave her daughter to cope for herself as she studies night and day for the exams but is bullied mercilessly by her better-off and super-competitive classmates.
All of these are exceedingly original, well-made, engrossing and worthy of the Oscar, however…only one can win and so, by the process of elimination I give my reasons and come to my choice for the Award. The nominations are Denmark’s ‘Another Round’ by Thomas Vinterberg, Hong Kong’s ‘Better Days’ by Derek Tsang, Bosnia & Herzogovina’s ‘Quo Vadis, Aida’ by Jasmila Zbanic, Romania’s ‘Collective’ by Alexander Nanau, and Tunisia’s ‘The Man Who Sold His Skin’ by Kaouther ben Hania. I ask forgiveness of my friends in the business who are involved in the other pictures…
The nominations are Denmark’s Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg, Hong Kong’s Better Days by Derek Tsang, Bosnia & Herzogovina’s Quo Vadis, Aida by Jasmila Zbanic, Romania’s Collective by Alexander Nanau, and Tunisia’s The Man Who Sold His Skin by Kaouther ben Hania.
Each of these films deals with important universal issues: Another Round about the evils of alcohol, Hong Kong’s Better Days’ subject of bullying, Bosnia & Herzogovina’s Quo Vadis, Aida issues of genocide and motherhood, Romania’s Collective with healthcare and corruption of the governing bodies, Tunisia’s The Man Who Sold His Skin with the commoditization of humans and immigration.
…
Sydney Levine
Sydney’s 40+ years in international film business include exec positions in acquisitions, twice selling FilmFinders, the 1st film database, teaching & writing.
