Fernanda Valadez’s “Identifying Features” Added to NYC’s New Directors/New Films Series Lineup

Fernanda Valadezis bringing her award-winning new project to the Big Apple.

Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art have announced the complete lineup for the 49th annual New Directors/New Films, which includes the Mexican filmmaker’s Identifying Features.

Fernanda Valadez

Valadez’s film, which won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival,tells the story of Magdalena, a mother who embarks on a journey in search of her son who disappeared en route to the US border. Traveling through the foreboding towns and landscapes of northern Mexico, she meets Miguel, a young man recently deported from the United States who is making his way home. The two accompany one another: Magdalena looking for her son, and Miguel eager to see his mother again in a territory where victims and aggressors ramble together.

Other films in the lineup include Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ Boys State; Maite Alberdi’s The Mole AgentZheng Lu Xinyuan’s debut feature The Cloud in Her RoomJanis Rafa’s Kala azarArun Karthick’s Nasir;Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Atlantis; Brazilian filmmaker Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever;Mamadou Dia’s Nafi’s Father; and Aneil Karia’s Surge.

In all, the iconic series will screen 27 features and 10 short films from 35 countries, with 13 North American premieres and 4 U.S. premieres, 15 films directed or co-directed by women and 15 works by first-time feature filmmakers

“The New Directors/New Films selection is always international in scope, but I’m particularly struck by the sheer breadth of this year’s lineup,” said Dennis Lim, Film at Lincoln Center Director of Programming and 2020 New Directors/New Films co-chair.

“We have everything from speculative war films to intimate dramas, unnerving works of science fiction to political documentaries, hailing from countries often represented on screen as well as some less commonly seen ones. Collectively these films speak to the continued vibrancy and daring of world cinema in an age of political uncertainty and cultural sameness. They prove that cinema still has what it takes to reflect and enhance the moment we live in,” said Lim, who was just named Director of Programming for Film at Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival.

This year’s New Directors/New Filmsseries will run from March 25 – April 5.

“A Febre” Star Regis Myrupu Wins Best Actor Prize at Locarno Film Festival in Acting Debut

Regis Myrupu is making a memorable debut…

The Brazilian actor was named Best Actor at this year’s Locarno Film Festival for his beautifully understated performance as a security guard at Manaus Harbor in Brazilian filmmaker Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever.

A Febre Maya Da-Rin

“I never thought this would happen,” said Myrupu of his win for his performance in the film, which earned Da-Rin the FIPRESCI Prize.

Carlos Lenintook home the Peace Hotel Award for his film La Paloma y El Lobo. The 36-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s earned the award for his “future promise in world cinema.”

The international jury was headed by French filmmaker and novelist Catherine Breillat.

TheGolden Leopard, the Locarno Film Festival’s top honor, went to Portuguese directorPedro Costa, for his latest feature Vitalina Varelawhich had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.

The 2020 Locarno Film Festival will be from August 5-15.

This year’s winners are below:

International competition

Golden Leopard: Vitalina Varela by Pedro Costa, Portugal
Special Jury Prize: Pa-Go (Height Of The Wave) by Park Jung-Bum, South Korea
Leopard For Best Direction: Damien Manivel for Les Enfants D’isadora, France/South Korea
Leopard For Best Actress: Vitalina Varela for Vitalina Varela by Pedro Costa, Portugal
Leopard For Best Actor: Regis Myrupu for A Febre by Maya Da-Rin, Brazil/France/Germany
Special Mentions: Hiruk-Pikuk Si Al-Kisah (The Science Of Fictions) by Yosep Anggi Noen, Indonesia/Malaysia/France, Maternal by Maura Delpero, Italy/Argentina

Filmmakers Of The Present Competition

Cineasti Del Presente Golden Leopard: Baamum Nafi (Nafi’s Father) by Mamadou Dia, Senegal
Best Emerging Director Award: 143 Rue Du Désert by Hassen Ferhani, Algeria/France/Qatar
Special Jury Prize: Ivana Cea Groaznica (Ivana The Terrible) by Ivana Mladenović, Romania/Serbia
Special Mention: Here For Life by Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Adrian Jackson, United Kingdom

Moving Ahead

Moving Ahead Award: The Giverny Document (Single Channel) by Ja’tovia M. Gary, Usa/France
Special Mentions: Those That, At A Distance, Resemble Another by Jessica Sarah Rinland, United Kingdom/Argentina/Spain, Shān Zhī Běi (Osmosis) by Zhou Tao.

First Feature

First Feature Award: Baamum Nafi (Nafi’s Father) by Mamadou Dia, Senegal
Peace Hotel Award: La Paloma Y El Lobo (The Dove And The Wolf) by Carlos Lenin, Mexico
Special Mentions: Instinct by Halina Reijn, Netherlands, Fi Al-Thawra (During Revolution) by Maya Khoury, Syria/Sweden

Leopards Of Tomorrow – International Competition

Pardino D’oro For The Best International Short Film: Siyah Güneş (Black Sun) by Arda Çiltepe, Turkey/Germany (Locarno Short Film Nominee For The European Film Awards 2019)
Pardino D’argento: Umbilical by Danski Tang, Usa
Pardi Di Domani Best Direction Prize: Otpusk (Leave Of Absence) by Anton Sazonov, Russia
Premio Medien Patent Verwaltung Ag Prize: White Afro by Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana/USA

Leopards Of Tomorrow – National Competition

Pardino D’oro For The Best Swiss Short Film: Mama Rosa by Dejan Barac, Switzerland
Pardino D’argento Swiss Life: Tempête Silencieuse by Anaïs Moog, Switzerland
Best Swiss Newcomer Prize: Terminal by Kim Allamand, Switzerland
Piazza Grande Award: Instinct by Halina Reijn, Netherlands

Other awards

Ecumenical Jury Prize: Maternal by Maura Delpero, Italy/Argenti
Special Mention: Vitalina Varela by Pedro Costa, Portugal
FIPRESCI Prize: A Febre by Maya Da-Rin, Brazil/France/Germany
Europa Cinemas Label: Maternal by Maura Delpero, Italy/Argentina

Still Moving Releases Trailer for Maya Da-Rin’s Drama “A Febre”

Maya Da-Rin’Feveris spreading…

Paris-based Still Moving has released the first international teaser-trailer for the Brazilian filmmaker’s drama A Febre, which world premieres this week in main International Competition at the 2019 Locarno International Film Festival.

A Febre Maya Da-Rin

One of two Latin American Locarno Golden Leopard contenders, with Maura Delpero’s Argentine-Italian Maternal, A Febremarks one of the latest productions from Germany’s Komplizen Films, the recipient of Locarno’s 2019 Best Independent Producer Award.

Produced by Dar-Rin’s label, Tamandua Vermelho, and Sao Paulo-based Enquadramiento FilmesA Febreis co-produced by Komplizen and Still Moving, which has also stepped up to handle international sales.

Brazil’s Vitrine Filmes, the go-to-distributor for many top Brazilian films will release A Febrein Brazil.

At a time when Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonarohas drawn world attention to the fate of the Amazon, championing its predominantly illegal logging industry, A Febre nails the fate of many indigenous Brazilians.

In the teaser trailer, Justino, 45, of Desano origin, pops his grandson onto his knee at dinner and tells him a story about a hunter who has a lot of food, but decides he wants more, falls asleep in the forest and is taken off by big monkeys to their magic kingdom. Now, the hunter doesn’t know how to go home.”

He could of course be talking about himself. Having come 20 years ago to Manaus, the Amazon’s huge port, Justino works as a society guard at a container depot, speaks perfect Portuguese, but yearns to go home. Unable to, when his daughter announces she has just won a place at med school at Brasilia U, an event which threatens to leave him not only lost but alone, he begins to run a high fever.

Beautifully sound-engineered, the trailer ends and the film begins with Justino listening to the night sounds of the Amazon rainforest, a hunter at heart, in exile.

“Far from exotic folkloric cliches, Maya [Da-Rin] takes us to the edge of a mysterious world where dreams and reality, human and animal, city and forest intertwine,” said Still Moving co-founders Pierre Menahemand Juliette Lepoutre.

They added: “The sweetness in her gaze and her beautiful empathy for such characters reflect an amazing maturity for a debut feature. Very few Brazilian filmmakers have dared to explore universes so far away from their own world.”

A Febre originated in conversations between Da-Rin and indigenous families now living in cities, when Da-Rin was shooting two documentaries in the Amazon Basin.

“The stories they told me about their experiences revealed the complex and tense relationship between indigenous cultures and Western civilization, which has marked Brazilian history since colonial times,” she recalled.

“I began to jot down my first notes for a movie centered on the relationship between two generations, a father and daughter living in Manaus,” she added.

Shot by ace cinematographer Barbara AlvarezA Febrehas been put through many of Europe’s most prestigious development initiatives. Da-Rin first developed A Febreat the Cannes Festival’s Cinefondation, before it was selected for the TorinoFilmLab’sScript & Pitchand the Fabrique des Cinemas du Mondein Cannes.

It has received funding from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fundfor development, Brazil’s Ancine Audiovisual Sectorial Fund, the Aide aux cinemas du monde, run by France’s CNCfilm agency, the TorinoFilmLab, Berlin’s World Cinema Fundand Paris’ Ile de Franceregion. Few films can claim such approbation.