Award season might be in full swing, but the year’s film festival season is also under way. TheSundance Film Festival wrapped in Utah on February 1st and Damien Chazelle’s drama Whiplashtook home the Grand Jury Prize for a Drama at Sundance this year, as well as the Audience Award for a Drama. Originally a Sundance Film Festival award-winning short film, Whiplash tells the story of Andrew, an ambitious young student at a cutthroat Manhattan music conservatory who strives for greatness and perfection at any cost. The film stars Miles Teller as Andrew and J.K. Simmons as his teacher in what have been described as “fierce, searing performances”. For a full list of winners, head to www.sundance.org/festival/stories/award-winners/.
Award season might be in full swing, but the year’s film festival season is also under way. The Sundance Film Festival wrapped in Utah on February 1st and Damien Chazelle’s drama Whiplash took home the Grand Jury Prize for a Drama at Sundance this year, as well as the Audience Award for a Drama. Originally a Sundance Film Festival award-winning short film, Whiplash tells the story of Andrew, an ambitious young student at a cut-throat Manhattan music conservatory who strives for greatness and perfection at any cost. The film stars Miles Teller as Andrew and J.K. Simmons as his teacher in what have been described as “fierce, searing performances”. For a full list of winners, head to www.sundance.org/festival/stories/award-winners/.
The Berlin Film Festival also kicked off on the 6th of February, opening with Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. I've had a sneak peak at this film and let me just say fans of Anderson’s quirky aesthetic will love visiting the Budapest Hotel. The film opens in New Zealand on April 10th.
In the meantime, there are plenty of film festival gems screening this week on Rialto Channel, here are a few of my highlights.
Starring: Koki Maeda, Ohshirô Maeda & Nene Ohtsuka
Directed by: Hirokazu Koreeda
Screening: Friday 14th February, 8.30pm
Remote record
From the writer / director of Like Father, Like Son and Nobody Knows comes another utterly delightful Japanese family drama driven by two young brothers who have been separated by their parent’s divorcee. 12 year-old Koichi (Maeda), the eldest of the two lives in Kagoshima with his mother, and his younger brother Ryunosuke (Ohshirô Maeda) lives with their musician father in Fokuoko. When Koichi hears a new bullet train will soon start running, he comes up with a plan to reunite his parents – and it’s more complicated than just buying them train tickets! It’s impossible not to get sucked into this gentle, observant film, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with these two young actors who take us on an amusing and moving journey.
Starring: Melissa George, Alec Newman and Holly Boyd
Directed by: Julian Gilbey
Screening: Saturday 15th February, 8.30pm
Melissa George has come along way since her Home and Away days. While not quite as successful as fellow soap stars Liam and Chris Hemsworth, she’s a busy actress most recently starring in The Good Wife, and finds herself interesting projects, like this thriller A Lonely Place to Die. Written by British brothers Will and Julian Gilbey and directed by Julian, this twisting and turning thriller kicks off in the Scottish highlands where a group of climbers including George as Alison, head off on a day expedition. While having lunch in the middle of nowhere, one member of the party hears a faint cry and discovers a young Serbian girl buried alive. Alison and her friends do their best to get this young girl to safety; however, this turns out to be trickier than imagined. Fast paced, well acted and tightly scripted, A Lonely Place to Die will make you think twice about heading off into the wilderness.
Starring: Bob Parker & Jan Gehl
Directed by: Andreas Møl Dalsgaard
Screening: Thursday 13th February, 8.30pm
According to the World Bank, over the next 35 years, 2.5 billion people will be added to the current population of 6 billion. In Danish director Andreas Møl Dalsgaard’s documentary The Human Scale (Thursday 13th February, 8.30pm), Dalsgaard claims that 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas and by 2050 this will increase to 80%. Local and international migration will have a resounding affect on our cities and the way we live within them and this is just one of the issues addressed in this documentary. Dalsgaard’s film is centered on the work of Danish architect Jan Gehl, who has studied cities and the way we live in them since the 1960s. Unlike the modernists who built cities around cars, Gehl believes we should build cities around people, giving them opportunities to live in a more intimate and inclusive environment.
Conversations take place in China, New York, Dhaka, and post earthquake Christchurch, making this documentary even more relevant. The questions posed here are worthy of discussion, even if they’re delivered in a rather dry, gently paced manner.