Festivals

As part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will continue to host special events, this time at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The HFPA will host a special “Women Breaking Barriers” panel featuring accomplished women from various fields in the film industry, moderated by HFPA member Elisabeth Sereda.

Sundance 2018 officially got underway with that time-honored ritual: the opening day press conference with founder and figurehead Robert Redford was joined on stage by Sundance Festival programmer John Cooper and Sundance Institute director Keri Putnam. Some of the proceedings were familiar to anyone who has trekked up Heber Pass to attend the festival before.

A trusted bellwether of the year in independent cinema, the 2018 Sundance Film Festival starts today, with a strong and diverse line-up – 38% from female directors, 32 % non-white- ready to repeat last year’s stellar performance, which yielded award-worthy titles such as Call Me By Your Name, Get Out and Mudbound, plus a roster of critically acclaimed films – The Big Sick, Patti Cake$, A Ghost Story and the documentaries An Inconvenient Documentary, Chasing Coral and Last Men in Aleppo. The 2018 vintage includes several titles already attracting attention from distributors – a direct result of the fierce competition between traditional channels like HBO and the new streaming, ever-expanding streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

The westernization of this commercial middle-eastern hotbed hits you at first sight. It's as if the masterminds behind the extremely rapid growth of the city-state of Dubai not only decide to create it ex-nihilo but also prescribed exactly how they wanted it to be: A place where every possible dream of luxury and good life can come true.

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival celebrates its 20th year bringing in top talent. Following the concept of ‘if you build it they will come’ and fostering close relationships with a powerful group of industry women, the Savannah College of Arts and Design makes full use of its student body during the film festival to enhance opportunities and relationships.

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival opened on Friday with a slew of A-listers including actress Holly Hunter (The Big Sick) who received the Icon Award, director Aaron Sorkin who received the Outstanding Achievement In Directing Award for his directorial debut, Molly’s Game, starring Jessica Chastain and actress Zoey Deutch (The Year of Spectacular Men).   Lea Thompson, Max Winkler, and Madelyn Deutch.

The 12th Rome Film Festival (Oct 26 – Nov 5) has secured a number of high profile participants and screenings in its eleven-day run. As in previous editions, the Auditorium Parco Della Musica will be the heart of the festival and its red carpet will be graced by Hollywood stars such as Christian Bale, Channing Tatum, Jake Gyllenhaal and Margot Robbie.

Director Rob Reiner held a masterclass at the 13th Zurich Film Festival and told the audience that he held the world premiere of his latest film Shock and Awe in Switzerland because Europe 'still hangs on to the free press'. Shock and Awe follows four journalists who pursued the real “weapons of mass destruction” story behind the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 for the news agency Knight Ridder.

The 13th Zurich Film Festival opened with Januz Metz’ drama Borg vs McEnroe and some special insights from Swiss tennis star Roger Federer. The festival, in Switzerland’s largest city, includes three main competition categories, several out of competition gala screenings and one last-minute surprise guest.

The unique coming of age story Stupid Young Heart, from director Selma Vilhunen, won the Finnish Film Affair Work-in-Progress award at the recent Helsinki International Film Festival. Around 60,000 people flocked to Finland to attend the 30th anniversary of the Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival, held from September 14-26 and the three-person jury for the September 19-21 industry showcase event included HFPA member Jenny Cooney Carrillo.