134 Documentary Features submitted for 2014 Oscar 2014

One hundred thirty-four features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 87th Academy Awards®.

Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December.

The International Documentary Association Announces Nominees For 2014 IDA Documentary Awards

Emerging Documentary Award, Pare Lorentz Award, Creative Recognition Award Winners Named

The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced nominations for the 2014 IDA Documentary Awards today. This 30th edition of the world’s most prestigious awards for nonfiction filmmaking will take place on Friday, December 5th at the Paramount Theatre at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

The five films nominated in IDA’s Feature category are: CITIZENFOUR, Laura Poitras’ portrait of whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden, and the disturbing state of surveillance of civilians in the post 9/11 age; FINDING VIVIAN MAIER, John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s accounting of the discovery in an abandoned storage locker of what would turn out to be the work of one of the 20th Century’s greatest photographers; POINT AND SHOOT from Marshall Curry, the firsthand account of Matt Van Dyke’s personal odyssey in North Africa including fighting and imprisonment during the revolution in Libya; THE SALT OF THE EARTH, directors Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado’s poetic examination of the life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado; and TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, Nick Broomfield’s investigation of the notorious serial killer who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a twenty-five year span.

8 Documentary Shorts on 2014 Oscar shortlist

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 87th Academy Awards® has been narrowed to eight films, of which three to five will earn Oscar® nominations.

Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s 58 eligible entries and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tabulation.

2014 American Music Awards announces complete nominations

The American Music Awards, the world’s biggest fan-voted award show, today announced the 2014 American Music Awards nominees. In advance of today’s announcement, recording artists Jason Derulo and Charli XCX rose at the crack of dawn to reveal 5 categories of nominees on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” (See the full list of nominees below). It was also announced today on “GMA” that Charli XCX will perform for the first time on the AMAs. The American Music Awards will broadcast live from the NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE on Sunday, November 23rd (8:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT) on ABC.

Iggy Azalea leads this year with six nominations. John Legend, Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams follow with five nominations each, while Lorde earns four nominations. Additionally, Beyoncé, Eminem, Imagine Dragons, OneRepublic and One Direction were nominated for three awards. Bastille, Drake, Luke Bryan and Sam Smith each receive two nominations.

83 countries in competition for 2014 Foreign Language Film Oscar

A record 83 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 87th Academy Awards®. Kosovo, Malta, Mauritania and Panama are first-time entrants.

The 87th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 15, 2015, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

2014 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival announces full programming

REEL ASIAN CELEBRATES 18TH YEAR

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), presented by National Bank, celebrates its 18th annual edition from November 6 to 16, 2014 with high-profile guests from around the world, new venues and three special projects focused on themes of memory and archive. This year, Reel Asian will present 44 films from 10 regions including Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Canada and the United States.

This year’s festival will take place November 6 to 16, 2014 in Toronto and Richmond Hill. Highlights include:

· TORONTO OPENING NIGHT GALA: THE MIDNIGHT AFTER (director Fruit Chan, actor TBC in attendance, Hong Kong 2014, Toronto Premiere)

2014 Festival du nouveau cinéma, Oct 8–19

Tonight, the 43rd edition of Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma kicks off with a screening of Philippe Falardeau’s The Good Lie at Théâtre de Maisonneuve. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Corey Stoll, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Kuoth Wiel. The film tells the real-life story of an American woman who helps four Sudanese refugees who have won a lottery to be relocated to the United States. The film will be preceded by a screening of the short film Mynarski Death Plummet by Montreal's Matthew Rankin.

After the screening, there will be an opening night party at the Agora Hydro-Québec in UQAM’s Cœur des Sciences, which serves as the Festival headquarters. That is also where the festival holds its parties each subsequent night. The parties are free and open to the public.

Other highlights of the festival include works by other Quebeckers such as Maxime Giroux’s Félix and Meira, Rodrigue Jean’s Love in the Time of Civil War, The Price we Pay by Harold Crooks, In Her Place by Albert Shin, and Wild by Jean-Marc Vallée. Additional highlights include David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, Boychoir by François Girard, Nightcrawler by Dan Gilroy, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya by Isao Takahata. The closing film will is the documentary The Salt of the Earth (Le sel de la terre) by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

2014 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival announces complete programming

This morning, the complete 15th Anniversary imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival programme was announced at the TIFF Bell Lightbox by Executive Director Jason Ryle, and guests including TIFF's Cameron Bailey and actor Glen Gould.

The 15th Annual imagineNATIVE returns October 22-26, 2014 with the most compelling and distinctive Indigenous works from around the globe featuring: 130 films and videos; nine Radio Works; seven multi-platform New Media works; four art exhibitions featuring 19 media artists; 11 industry panels and public workshops; and 17 commissions. imagineNATIVE will feature 175 artists representing over 70 distinct Indigenous nations from 12 countries.

2014 BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters’ Lecture Series

Every year, BAFTA and BFI host a Screenwriters’ Lecture Series in London, England. This year's speakers were James Schamus (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm) Emma Thompson (Sense And Sensibility, Nanny McPhee) and Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises).

They have made available the audio for each of the lectures, as well as provided transcriptions. These are linked below for all three talks.


James Schamus
Thursday 18 September, 7.00pm
BFI Southbank

James Schmaus is behind some of the most loved and critically acclaimed films of the last 25 years. His collaboration with director Ang Lee has resulted in 11 films; as a screenwriter, these include the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), The Ice Storm (1997) and Lust, Caution (2007). As a producer Schamus’ credits include BAFTA Best Picture winner Brokeback Mountain (2005) and, during his extraordinary career as CEO of Focus Pictures, he helped steward Lost In Translation (2003), The Constant Gardener (2005), The Pianist (2002) and, most recently, Dallas Buyers Club (2013) to the big screen. Schamus is also Professor of Professional Practice in Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Chaired by Tanya Seghatchian.

imagineNATIVE Announces Feature Films & Documentaries and The Witching Hour Program

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, with presenting sponsor Bell Media, announces the return of The Witching Hour: Late Night Shorts Program and the Festival’s feature length films and documentaries. Opening night of the festival will be, People’s Choice Award-winner at TIFF’s Midnight Madness, What We Do In The Shadows, on Wednesday, October 22 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema with director, Taika Waititi in attendance.

The 15th anniversary of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will present feature length films from October 22-26, 2014 such as Black Panther Woman, about Marlene Cummins, an Indigenous teen full of political conviction, becoming a member Brisbane’s chapter of the Black Panthers, one of many in Australia in the early 1970s. As part of the Australia Spotlight, on Sunday, October 26, this powerful film will reveal how many Indigenous women paid a hefty price for their loyalty to a cause they thought was about equality for all.

Thursday, October 23 holds the World Premiere of The Lodge, a stunning stop-motion animation adopting equal parts Goldilocks and the traditional Anishnaabe legend of the Dandelion. The Lodge challenges colonial concepts of savagery, critiques the de-humanizing of Indigenous peoples and explores the powerful medicine of our animal relations. Later that night, the deadliness of Russian winters reaches psychologically destructive new ground in the International Premiere of A White Day by director Michail Lukachevskyi of the Yakut Republic.

Tanya Tagaq’s Animism Wins The 2014 Polaris Music Prize

Animism by Tanya Tagaq was voted as the winner of the 2014 Polaris Music Prize tonight at The Carlu in Toronto. The winner was decided and announced during the 9th annual gala event. Tanya Tagaq was awarded a cash prize of $30,000. The winner was announced by the gala host, actor Jay Baruchel.

“We've been doing it our own way without backing down artistically or conforming, so to be recognized in this way and have so many people latch on makes me feel the world is tolerable. There's so much hurt in the world and within indigenous cultures with colonialism,” said Tanya Tagaq. “Canada is in a desperate need for repair and I think a lot of people are tired of living this way and just to have people understand where we're coming from makes me have hope that we can move forward and expose the true history of Canada.”

Animism was produced by Jesse Zubot (Dan Mangan, Fond of Tigers) with additional production by Juan Hernandez. The record features Michael Red (Low Indigo), a live programmer whose wild northern field recordings often serve as Tagaq’s de facto backing band, percussionist Jean Martin and opera singer Anna Pardo Canedo.Slaight Music awarded $2,000.00 to each of the runners up – Arcade Fire, Basia Bulat, Drake, Mac DeMarco, Jessy Lanza, Owen Pallett, Shad, Timber Timbre and YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN. The gala was webcast live on AUX.tv and broadcast live on SiriusXM channels The Verge XM 173 and The Iceberg Sirius 161.

Call for submissions: fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company's Kitchen XII & Theatre Creators Reserve

Kitchen XII

Rage and Ecstasy: A Play Cycle by Emerging Asian Canadian Playwrights

Rage and Ecstasy is the title and theme of this year’s Kitchen Playwriting Unit for emerging Asian Canadian playwrights who are interested in honing their playwriting skills. This year the unit will be directed by Dramaturg Andrew Cheng, and will be working towards each participant creating their own original piece.

Call for submissions: 18th annual TIFF Kids International Film Festival

Submissions for the 18th annual TIFF Kids International Film Festival, running from April 7-19, 2015, are now open!

TIFF Kids is one of the largest children’s film festivals in the world! Presented each April, the festival offers a diverse slate of programming from Canada and around the globe, using the power of film not just to entertain children and parents but also to foster new ideas about the complex issues facing young people today.

Xavier Dolan's film Mommy selected as Canada's entry for 2015 Best Foreign Film Oscar

TELEFILM CANADA ANNOUNCES THAT XAVIER DOLAN’S MOMMY IS CANADA’S SELECTION FOR THE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OSCAR IN 2015

Telefilm Canada, which chairs the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, is pleased to announce that the feature film Mommy, directed by Xavier Dolan, has been selected to represent Canada for consideration in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 87th Academy Awards, to be held in Hollywood on February 22, 2015.

“For the last several years, Canadian cinema has made waves at the Oscars with strong and audacious films,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “The 2015 Academy Awards is just as promising because the Oscar selection committee has chosen Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, which has had a brilliant career since its release. Canada has had five films in nomination for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in five years, which bodes well for Mommy, a work that has profoundly moved Canadian and international audiences. There’s no question that members of the Academy will be moved by the film as well.”

WGC's Writers Talking Feature Film presents free screening of The F Word (What If)

Writers Talking Feature Film, with Elan Mastai, "The F Word"

Don't miss the WGC's inaugural "Writers Talking Feature Film" event. Elan Mastai, writer of The F Word, will be interviewed by Michael McGowan, writer of Still Mine.

This intimate evening of conversation about the craft and art of the feature film will include a screening of The F Word (U.S. title: What If), starring Zoe Kazan & Daniel Radcliffe (still in movie theatres). And the on stage conversation will wrap with audience Q&A. It's a great opportunity to get the insiders' view of feature film writing with two very talented writers working in the business. The theatre has limited seating, so please RSVP as soon as possible.