39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Special Cinema & Special Guests

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 05 February 2024 13:23

Written by Brad Balfour

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, now in it’s 39th entry, is set to have eleven days of cinema and special guests. The festival runs February 7th to the 17th at the Arlington Theatre, the festival features a wide swath of films. 

The opening night film is Madu, directed by Matt Ogens and Joel ‘Kachi Benson. Madu is a documentary that goes from the streets of Lagos to stages in England, as twelve-year-old Anthony Madu leaves his home in Nigeria to study at one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world. His journey is a story of extraordinary obstacles, courage, growth, and ultimately, his search for belonging. 76 Days is a uniquely immersive documentary, in which Steven Callahan gives a gripping first-hand account of his New York Times bestselling novel, Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea. Forced into his emergency raft after colliding with a whale, Steven drifts across the entire Atlantic Ocean. The closing night film is Chosen Family, which is written, directed by, and starring Heather Graham. Yoga teacher Ann is trying to find inner peace, despite having a manic family, a miserable dating life, and an inability to say no that keeps her busy trying to fix everyone else’s problems.

Among its guests, the festival has announced  that cinema icon Robert Downey Jr. will receive the Maltin Modern Master Award, its highest accolade.  The ceremony will include an in-person conversation between Downey and legendary film historian and critic Leonard Maltin, for whom the award is named. Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, America Ferrera, and Andrew Scott will discuss their work and receive their awards in-person on Saturday, February 10. Other special guests include Jeffrey Wright, Mark Ruffalo, Annette Bening, and Paul Giamatti.

Also part of the fest is a selection of free filmmaker seminars. Topics include:

• First-time Female Filmmakers 
• The Long and Short of Short Filmmaking Monday
• Fight the Power: Documentary Activism at Work
• Independent Filmmaking
• Global Lens: Conversations with International Filmmakers
• My So Cal Life: California Filmmakers’ Roundtable 

To learn more, go to: https://sbiff.org/

39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival
February 7 – 17, 2024

The Arlington Theatre
1317 State St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Museum of the Moving Image Curators’ Choice 2023 Looks Back on the Year in Cinema

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 14 December 2023 17:07

Written by Brad Balfour

Fallen Leaves

Located in Queens, the Museum of the Moving Image is one of the top curators of cinematic history in the country. Now looking back at the film and TV of the past year is MoMI’s Curators’ Choice 2023. Running December 26 through January 28, the program features 31 titles (with possible additions) and includes some of the most critically acclaimed films of 2023, such as Oppenheimer, Anatomy of a Fall, Fallen Leaves, Killers of the Flower Moon, May December, The Boy and the Heron, Ferrari, The Holdovers, and Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, along with cult hits suchs as R.M.N., Beau Is Afraid, Pacifiction, Godland, Scarlet, Dry Ground Burning, and more.

The series will include special screenings and events such as Oppenheimer, presented in both DCP and 70mm (Dec. 26–Jan. 4); Beau Is Afraid with director Ari Aster in person (Jan. 3); Succession, Season 4, Episode 3: “Connor’s Wedding” with director Mark Mylod in person (Jan. 7); The Holdovers with director Alexander Payne in person (Jan. 10); Passages with director Ira Sachs in person (Jan. 12); The Eternal Memory with director Maite Alberti in person (Jan. 13); Nothing Lasts Forever with director Jason Kohn in person (Jan. 13); Unrest, featuring a video introduction by director Cyril Schäublin (Jan. 20); Todd Haynes’s May December in 35mm (Jan. 20); Showing Up with director Kelly Reichardt in person (Jan. 26); De Humani Corporis Fabrica with directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel in person (Jan. 27); and Dry Ground Burning with director Joana Pimenta in person (Jan. 27). MoMI will announce additional special appearances as they are confirmed.

For the culinarily inclined, on January 14 Frederick Wiseman’s documentary Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros will be paired with Tran Anh Hung’s period drama The Taste of Things. The series also includes two dramas set in Parisian hospitals, Claire Simon’s Our Body and Castaing-Taylor and Paravel’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica. This is a cinematic buffet that’s not to be missed.

To learn more, go to: https://movingimage.org/series/curators-choice-2023/

Museum of the Moving Image Curators’ Choice 2023
December 26, 2023 - January 28, 2024

Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35th Ave.
Queens, NY 11106

Massive Morricone Retrospective at MoMA

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 28 November 2023 16:28

Written by Brad Balfour

 Photo© Piano B Produzioni

The name Morricone is synonymous with sound and cinema. The legendary composer has left an indelible mark on film history during his brief time on Earth. The Museum of Modern Art will be doing a massive retrospective of Morricone’s career, simply called ENNIO MORRICONE, running December 1, 2023 to January 10, 2024.  The retrospective includes more than 35 films, spanning his nearly 60-year career. 

With more than 17 new digital restorations as well as 35mm archival prints, from classics such as A Fistful of Dollars to his work with Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The retrospective opens  with a screening of Cinema Paradiso, written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. On Saturday, December 2, the documentary Ennio: The Maestro, also directed by Giuseppe Tornatore will be shown. The documentary was released shortly after the composer’s death in 2020.

Other works being screened include:

• The Thing
• Le clan des Siciliens (The Sicilian Clan)
• Two Mules for Sister Sara
• Once Upon a Time in America [European theatrical version]
• Diabolik (Danger: Diabolik)
• A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin

And more!

MoMA has a long history of showcasing Ennio Morricone’s work, with an exhibition of his films in 2007 to celebrate his first concert at Radio City Music Hall.

To learn more, go to: https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5658

Ennio Morricone
December 1, 2023 -  January 10, 2024

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street