Tag Archives: Agnes Varda

Guillermo del Toro Selected as Guest Artistic Director for American Film Institute’s AFI Fest in October

Posted on by
Reply

Guillermo del Toro is leading the creative charge at this year’s AFI Fest.

The American Film Institute has announced that the 60-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning director, producer, screenwriter, author and former special effects makeup artist has been selected as the guest artistic director for AFI Fest, the organization’s annual fest that will run this year from October 22–26 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood.

Guillermo del ToroThe news comes as del Toro preps his latest film, Frankenstein, which is having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

Netflix will release the film in select theaters October 17 before dropping it on the streamer November 7.

“Guillermo del Toro is one of the great champions of the art form — a visionary filmmaker, a passionate cinephile, and a tireless advocate for bold, original storytelling,” AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale said today in a press release announcing the appointment. “As Guest Artistic Director of AFI Fest, he brings a singular perspective that will inspire audiences of all generations.”

Del Toro joins a roster of guest ADs that already includes Pedro Almodóvar, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, David Lynch and Agnès Varda.

This year’s AFI Fest will kick off October 22 with 20th Century Studios’ Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, the snapshot biopic of the rock icon starring Jeremy Allen White.

It will be coming hot off its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on September 28, and just before its theatrical release on October 24.

Pedro Almodóvar to Receive San Sebastian Film Festival’s Donostia Award

Posted on by
Reply

It’s another career honor for Pedro Almodóvar…

The San Sebastian Film Festival will fete the 74-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning filmmaker with its prestigious Donostia Award at its 72nd edition, running September 20-28.

Pedro AlmodóvarPresentation of the honorary award, which the festival said recognizes “extraordinary contributions to the world of cinema”, will take place in the Kursaal Auditorium before a screening of his latest movie, The Room Next Door.

The film is Almodóvar’s first in English and stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.

The Room Next Door will debut at Venice. Swinton will present Almodóvar with the award in San Sebastian.

Almodóvar first screened at San Sebastian with his second feature, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón / Pepi, Luci, Bom, competing in the New Filmmakers section.

He competed in the Official Selection with his next film, Laberinto de pasiones / Labyrinth of Passions (1982).

Almodóvar has also previously handed out Donostia Awards in San Sebastian. Over the years, he presented the honorary award to Al Pacino, Woody Allen and Antonio Banderas.

“My career began in San Sebastian in the year 1980 and since then I have returned to the festival often, with or without a film,” Almodóvar said.

“I have always immensely enjoyed myself. I have given the Donostia Award to Al Pacino, Woody Allen and Antonio Banderas. This year they are giving it to me, and I am delighted and grateful. I mean it, it’s an honor. San Sebastian is one of the cities where the cinema is celebrated with enormous enthusiasm. More than ever, at these times, we need the complicity of the spectators, and their presence in the film theatres. It is a dream to attend a festival like this, where the cinemas are always full.”

Last year, the Lifetime Achievement Award was handed to Javier Bardem. Other previous filmmakers to have received the Donostia Award include Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Agnès Varda, Hirokazu Koreeda and Costa-Gavras.

Alejandro G. Inarritu to Receive Special Oscar for His Virtual Reality Installation “Carne y Arena”

Posted on by
Reply

Alejandro G. Inarritu is getting a special Oscar…

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to give a special honorary Oscar to the 54-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s extraordinary virtual reality installation Carne y Arena. 

Alejandro G. Inarritu

It will be presented at the upcoming Governors Awards on November 11 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.

This joins previously announced Governors Award honorees this year including actor Donald Sutherland, director Agnes Varda, cinematographer Owen Roizman and filmmaker Charles Burnett.

In making the announcement of the Oscar to this unique achievement — full name: Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible) — the Academy said it was in recognition of a visionary and powerful experience in storytelling. It was first unveiled at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May in a nearby airport hangar where I was among the lucky ones to experience it. And experience is the word.

“The Governors of the Academy are proud to present a special Oscar to Carne y Arena, in which Alejandro Iñárritu and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have opened for us new doors of cinematic perception,” said Academy president John Bailey. “Carne y Arena, Iñárritu’s multimedia art and cinema experience, is a deeply emotional and physically immersive venture into the world of migrants crossing the desert of the American southwest in early dawn light. More than even a creative breakthrough in the still emerging form of virtual reality, it viscerally connects us to the hot-button political and social realities of the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Los Angeles residents currently have the opportunity to see Carne y Arena as it is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as at Fondazione Prada in Milan, and Tlatelolco Cultural Center in Mexico City. It’s a collaboration between Iñárritu, Lubezki, producer Mary Parent, Legendary Entertainment, Fondazione Prada, ILMxLAB, and Emerson Collective.

The Oscar will be Inarritu’s fifth Academy Award. He won three for Birdman including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay as well as becoming only the second helmer in 65 years to win back-to-back awards when he won Director again for 2015’s The Revenant.

Hayek Strips Down in “Americano”

Posted on by
Reply

Salma Hayek isn’t afraid to strip down to the bare essentials…

The 45-year-old Mexican actress plays a Tijuana stripper and prostitute in writer/director/actor Mathieu Demy’s film Americano.

Salma Hayek in Americano

The tense new drama centers on a Parisian real estate agent (Demy) who ends up going to Mexico to trace his roots after his mother dies.

Hayek plays a Tijuana stripper and prostitute who may or may not have been friends with Demy’s character’s late mother.

Americano

But this actually isn’t the first time Hayek has played a stripper: She also starred as a dancer in Dogma and From Dusk Till Dawn.

Americano—which Demy calls a tribute to his famous parents, filmmakers Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy—hits theaters June 15.