THE 2019 DOC EDGE AWARD WINNERS JUST ANNOUNCED

THE 2019 DOC EDGE AWARD WINNERS JUST ANNOUNCED

Film: Call Me Intern

The 14^th annual Documentary Edge International Film Festival (Doc Edge) officially opened last night with Assholes: A Theory at Q Theatre. The festival runs in Auckland until 9^th June, before heading to Wellington (13^th – 23^rd June) with a fantastic selection of inspiring and poignant documentaries. This evening at The Civic’s stunning Wintergarden, Doc Edge celebrated documentary excellence alongside local and international filmmakers as they announced the 2019 award winners.

Doc Edge is an Oscar-qualifying film festival and the winner of the Best NZ Short, NZ Feature, International Short and International Feature all qualify for consideration for the 2020 Academy Awards.
 

Call Me Intern, by filmmakers Leo David Hyde and Nathalie Berger took out Best NZ Feature and Best NZ Editing. The documentary gives a voice to the growing movement for intern rights across the globe. Another kiwi film, Camino Skies by filmmakers Fergus Grady and Noel Smyth also received two awards, for Best NZ Director and Best NZ Emerging Filmmaker, with their inspiring documentary following six strangers from NZ and Australia as they hope to overcome personal and physical trauma by taking on the Camino de Santiago walk.

Taking out the award for Best International Feature is Midnight Traveler, with the judges calling it “an unwaveringly brave and intensely urgent film”. The director Hassan Fazili was both filmmaker and protagonist, sharing an intimate insight into the treacherous journey of his refugee family fleeing Afghanistan, capturing moments of familial love, tension and humour amidst the hardship.

Yang Sun and S. Leo Chiang won the Best International Director award for their film Our Time Machine. The documentary tells the story of a father and son as they confront their mortality through a visually stunning and haunting time-travel adventure.

Full list of Doc Edge Awards 2019 Winners: 
Images for winning documentaries available here.

New Zealand Competition – Feature Documentary
Best New Zealand Feature: Call Me Intern – Cash prize of $8,000 from NZ On Air
Special Mention: Marks of Mana
Best New Zealand Director: Fergus Grady & Noel Smyth – Camino Skies
Best New Zealand Emerging Filmmaker:  Fergus Grady & Noel Smyth – Camino Skies - Cash prize of $1,000 from Department of Post
Best New Zealand Editing: Call Me Intern
Best New Zealand Cinematography: Marks of Mana

New Zealand Competition – Short Documentary
Best New Zealand Short: Humans - Cash prize of $2,000 from NZ On Air
Special Mention: The Breath Connection

International Competition – Feature Documentary
Best International Feature: Midnight Traveler  - Cash prize of $3,500 from Panasonic
Special Mention: On Her Shoulders
Special Mention: Ghost Fleet
Best International Director: S. Leo Chiang & Yang Sun – Our Time Machine

International Competition – Short Documentary
Best Short: Beneath the Ink - Cash prize of $1,500 from Panasonic
Special Mention: Again/Noch Einmal

Doc Edge Superhero: Heddy Honigmann

Festival Category Winners 
All In The Family: Our Time Machine
Around the World in 8 Films: American Factory
Art Attack: Megalodemocrat: The Public Art of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Best of Fest: Midnight Traveler
Crime & Conspiracy: Sea of Shadows
Fearless: On Her Shoulders
Future Watch: Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain
 

Rambo Last Blood teaser trailer

Rambo Last Blood teaser trailer

About RAMBO: LAST BLOOD:

Almost four decades after he drew first blood, Sylvester Stallone is back as one of the greatest action heroes of all time, John Rambo. Now, Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission. A deadly journey of vengeance, RAMBO: LAST BLOOD marks the last chapter of the legendary series.

RAMBO: LAST BLOOD is directed by Adrian Grunberg and stars Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adrianna Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Genie Kim aka Yenah Han, Joaquin Cosio, and Oscar Jaenada.

RAMBO: LAST BLOOD releases in New Zealand in theatres on September 19, 2019.

The Kitchen trailer

The Kitchen trailer

About THE KITCHEN:

The gritty, female-driven mob drama “The Kitchen,” from New Line Cinema and BRON Creative, was written and directed by Andrea Berloff, who was nominated for an Oscar for the original screenplay for “Straight Outta Compton.”

“The Kitchen” stars Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as three 1978 Hell’s Kitchen housewives whose mobster husbands are sent to prison by the FBI. Left with little but a sharp axe to grind, the ladies take the Irish mafia’s matters into their own hands—proving unexpectedly adept at everything from running the rackets to taking out the competition…literally.

THE KITCHEN also stars Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian d’Arcy James, with Margo Martindale, Oscar winner Common, and Bill Camp; as well as Jeremy Bobb, E.J. Bonilla, Wayne Duvall, Annabella Sciorra, and Myk Watford.

THE KITCHEN releases in New Zealand cinemas on August 29, 2019.

On The Basis of Sex: DVD Review

On The Basis of Sex: DVD Review

Swathed in sincerity so tightly that it almost becomes claustrophobic, Mimi Leder's take on Ruth Bader Ginsberg is a film that wants us to embrace RBG rather than earning the right to do so.

In fact, compared to the recent doco RBG which detailed her life with both chutzpah and joe de vivre, On The Basis of Sex is lacking, even if it does choose to dwell mostly on the case which saw Ginsberg make her name.

Starting back in 1956 with Ginsberg wide-eyed and eager to be entering Harvard, Leder's film wastes no time showing the obstacles that she faces from the get go. Whether it's being a woman in a sea of men as the opening shot details or watching as Ginsberg is asked to justify why she was able to take the place of a man, Leder's film is about stacking the obstacles in Ruth's path - and piling them high.

Equally, the health problems faced by her husband (played with ease by a smooth Hammer) simply serve to show Ginsberg's ferocity in the face of it - and her determination for her family. All of which Jones delivers with relative aplomb, even if the film follows a formulaic and occasionally borderline dull execution of the biopic.

Things are crystallised a little more when the movie comes to the Charles Moritz case for which Ginsberg made her name - and while the spark rises a little more here, as the fire comes out, the film's choice of course lends itself to speechifying rather than natural dialogue.

It's very much a case of the usual underdog tropes, and is perhaps underscored more by what's been learned in the RBG doco and what is currently happening in America, but On The Basis of Sex makes a good strong case for a TV movie, rather than a big screen outing. Sure, there's a solid take behind the camera, but there's scant flourishes which render this exciting or enticing, despite the good work delivered by both Jones and Hammer.

Women's World Cup Update

Women's World Cup Update

Starting today, fans can play the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final as one of 22 Women’s National Teams in FIFA 19 via a free content update. 

Fans can play a custom match in Lyon Stadium that features authentic national team kits, crests, the official Women's World Cup Final match ball, stadium dressing, ad boards, and the iconic trophy.

The Women's World Cup Final is available to play now in Kick-Off mode on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch. 

For more information, you can check out https://www.ea.com/games/fifa/fifa-19/news/fifa-19-womens-world-cup.

 

The Goldfinch trailer

The Goldfinch trailer

About THE GOLDFINCH:

From Warner Bros. Pictures and Amazon Studios, “The Goldfinch” is the film adaptation of Donna Tartt’s globally acclaimed best-selling novel, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Theodore “Theo” Decker was 13 years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day...a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch. The Goldfinch.

THE GOLDFINCH is directed by John Crowley and stars Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Oakes Fegley, Aneurin Barnard, Finn Wolfhard, Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Ashleigh Cummings, Willa Fitzgerald, Aimee Laurence, Denis O’Hare and Boyd Gaines.

THE GOLDFINCH releases in New Zealand cinemas on September 26, 2019.

NZIFF Announces Guest Selector for Short Film Competition

NZIFF Announces Guest Selector for Short Film Competition

Jane Campion will be the Guest Selector for the New Zealand International Film Festival’s (NZIFF) only competition strand, the New Zealand’s Best short film competition.  

Six selected New Zealand shorts will premiere in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch where audiences in Auckland and Wellington are encouraged to vote for their favourite short from Campion’s shortlist. Previous Guest Selectors have included Leon Narbey (2018), Gaylene Preston (2017), Lee Tamahori (2016), Christine Jeffs (2015), Andrew Adamson (2014), Alison Maclean (2013) and Roger Donaldson (2012).  

New Zealand director, producer and screenwriter Jane Campion is the only female director to receive the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival (1993) and the second of four women ever to be nominated as Best Director at the Academy Awards (1994) for The Piano. Jane studied at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and her first short film, Peel (1982), won Best Short Film Palme d’Or in 1986 at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1989 Jane directed Sweetie, her first feature film, and in 1990 An Angel at My Table about New Zealand author Janet Frame. Subsequent to the multi-award-winning The Piano were, The Portrait of a Lady (1996); Holy Smoke (1999); In the Cut (2003);  Bright Star (NZIFF 2009) and the mystery thriller Top of the Lake (2012), a six-hour TV mini-series which Jane executive produced,  co-wrote and directed three episodes for the BBC and the Sundance Channel. Jane completed production on the second Top of the Lake series in 2017 (NZIFF 2017) which she created, co-wrote, directed two episodes and executive produced.  

91 submissions were received for the New Zealand’s Best competition this year with the programming team at NZIFF team shortlisting twelve films for Jane to consider. “It was moving and invigorating to watch the twelve shortlisted short films and experience their energy, raw talent and the occasional truly sophisticated achievement” says Jane Campion.  

This year’s New Zealand’s Best finalists will be eligible for four prizes. Madman Entertainment will again support the title award, the Madman Entertainment Best Short Film Award. The cash prize of $5,000 is donated by the Australasian distribution company. The winner will be chosen by a three-person jury appointed by NZIFF and Madman Entertainment.  

The Audience Choice Award will be selected by audience members who attend New Zealand’s Best screenings in Auckland and Wellington. Audience members will be invited to rank the finalists and the film that receives the highest rating will win a 25% share of the box office takings from the New Zealand's Best screenings in the four main centres. In 2018 this prize was $4,800. 

The Creative New Zealand’s Emerging Talent Award is a cash prize of $4,000 and recognizes a fresh voice: film-making that gives life to stories of those less often represented in film, or that speaks to new or existing audiences in different ways. The winner of this award will be selected by the jury. 

The Auckland Live Spirit of The Civic Award is a newly created award to be selected by the jury and has a $4,000 cash prize attached. 

NZIFF is run by a charitable trust and encourages lively interactions between films, filmmakers and New Zealand audiences in 13 towns and cities around the country. The full NZIFF programme will be available from Tuesday 25 June for Auckland, and Friday 28 June for Wellington. NZIFF starts in Auckland on 18 July and in Wellington from 26 July in 2019.