Tag: Screen International

QCinema International Film Festival is back with its much-anticipated Screen International section, a lineup of the year’s most celebrated films from across the globe. Featuring ten exceptional films from renowned directors, this year’s selection showcases a diverse array of storytelling, capturing the world through fresh, unique perspectives. Running from November 8 to 17, the festival invites cinephiles to witness some of the most critically acclaimed films from the festival circuit, including winners from Cannes, Venice, and San Sebastian.

Cannes Highlights: Celebrating Award-Winning Stories

Four of Cannes’ standout films grace QCinema’s Screen International lineup. These films offer not only artistic brilliance but also poignant narratives that resonate universally:

From Cannes, QCinema presents four major award winners: All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia, the first Indian film in decades to compete in Cannes’ main competition, where it won the Grand Prix; Best Director winner Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes, Portugal’s entry for the 97th Academy Awards; Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner Simon of the Mountain by Federico Luis; and Palme d’Or winner Anora by Sean Baker, regarded as a strong Oscar contender.

Set in Mumbai, All We Imagine as Light captures the lives of three nurses, Prabha, Anu, and Parvaty (Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam). Each woman faces complex issues related to the men in their lives: an estranged husband, a relationship tainted by gossip, and an uncertain future due to missing documentation. Through their stories, Kapadia crafts an evocative portrayal of the challenges of urban life.

Grand Tour is set in 1917 and follows Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a British civil servant in Burma who, upon receiving a telegram from his fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate) after years apart, panics and embarks on a journey across Asia in search of love. The film presents an Orientalist depiction of an Asia permeated by Western influence.

Simon of the Mountain follows Simon (Lorenzo Ferro), whose eccentric behavior and enigmatic nature leave others questioning his motives as he befriends a group of intellectually disabled individuals, while his mother insists he is simply misunderstood. This film delves into reality and perception, creating a story about belonging in a world where no one quite understands him.

Anora centers on Brooklyn sex worker Anora (Mikey Madison), who is paid $15,000 by a Russian billionaire’s son to spend a week with him. After an impulsive, ketamine-fueled wedding in Las Vegas, word reaches Russia, prompting Ivan’s father to annul the marriage. Determined to make the marriage work, Anora fights for the life she envisions, showcasing Baker’s signature exploration of class struggle’s human side.

Venice Premieres: Unveiling New Cinema Gems

Fresh from the Venice Film Festival, QCinema’s Screen International showcases four more captivating films:

Phantosmia by Pinoy auteur Lav Diaz; The End, a musical-fantasy by Joshua Oppenheimer; The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de la Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, the most expensive French film of 2024; and the Venice Golden Lion winner, The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodóvar.

Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia follows Hilarion Zabala (Ronnie Lazaro), a retired soldier haunted by a mysterious, lingering phantom smell that prevents him from leading a normal life. Recommended to re-enlist, he is stationed on a remote island, confronting violent memories from his past. Diaz offers a reflective journey through memory, trauma, and survival.

In The End, an affluent family resides in a mansion built inside a salt mine, cut off from a devastated outside world. Living comfortably, they refuse to confront their potential role in the disaster until an unexpected visitor (Moses Ingram) forces them to question their lives and face the disturbing reality they helped create.

An adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic, The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney), wrongfully imprisoned on his wedding day. After escaping and discovering hidden treasure, he returns to society as the Count of Monte Cristo, seeking revenge against those who betrayed him.

The Room Next Door, based on Sigrid Nuñez’s What Are You Going Through, follows Ingrid and Martha (Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton) as they reconnect after years apart. Once colleagues, they find themselves reunited when Martha requests that Ingrid stay by her side through a medically-assisted suicide, exploring friendship, mortality, and dignity in Almodóvar’s singular style.

From San Sebastian to QCinema: Award-Winning New Titles

Completing the section are two recent titles from the San Sebastian Film Festival – Afternoons of Solitude by Albert Serra, a documentary feature that won three awards, including Best Film, and When Fall is Coming by François Ozon, which won Best Screenplay.

Afternoons of Solitude provides an intimate glimpse into the life of Andrés Roca Rey, a celebrated toreador. The documentary captures the ritualistic preparation and personal solitude surrounding his blood sport, offering an honest look at both the spectacle and intense private world of bullfighting.

When Fall is Coming centers on Michelle (Hélène Vincent), living a quiet life in Burgundy, gardening and attending church until a poisonous mushroom accident threatens her relationship with her daughter. As tensions rise, Michelle confronts old wounds, leading to a tender exploration of family ties.

QCinema 2024: A Celebration of Cinematic Vision

This year’s Screen International highlights the theme “The Gaze,” inviting audiences to see the world through varied lenses and perspectives. QCinema provides an intimate experience, reflecting cinema’s power to bridge cultures and spark conversations.

Running from November 8 to 17, QCinema will be held across multiple premier venues, including Gateway Cineplex 18, Ayala Malls Cinema at Trinoma, Robinson’s Movieworld at Robinsons Magnolia, Red Carpet at Shangri-La Plaza, and Powerplant Mall.

For more information on schedules, tickets, and the full festival lineup, visit www.qcinema.ph. Don’t miss this unique chance to experience the world’s most celebrated films, right here in the Philippines!

The late French New Wave director, Jean-Luc Godard, once said that “with mobile phones and whatever, everyone is now an auteur.”

In QCinema’s specially-curated section, Screen International, however, the bar is certainly set higher as it showcases the world’s renowned directors whose distinctive styles make their acclaimed works undeniably their own.

David Cronenberg, Canada’s body horror master, is back in form with his sci-fi horror, Crimes Of The Future, with Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux and Kirsten Stewart. The film premiered in Cannes’ main competition.

Cronenberg’s latest film was from a script he had written twenty years ago. It follows a world-renowned performance artist couple, who performs surgery to audiences, in a future world where human evolution has accelerated for some individuals.

Also from Cannes competition, Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, which was awarded the Jury Prize. 

With more than 20 films since his debut in the early sixties, this Polish auteur has been the recipient of top prizes in Cannes and Venice.

EO is inspired from a Robert Bresson classic film, Au Hassard Balthazar, and it follows the life of a donkey born in a Polish circus. The circus animal encounters good and bad people along its journey through Europe, experiencing both joy and pain. Isabelle Huppert, who recently visited the country, joins the cast of Polish actors.

Arthouse favorite Hang Sang-soo graces QCinema’s screens for the first time with his latest ouevre, Walk Up. 

A recipient of the top awards in Berlin, Locarno and Venice, he works another variation of his casual encounters and chatter that grace his works with melancholic gentleness. The film reflects on familiar spaces and characters that the prolific Korean master has been known for. 

One of Costa Rica’s renowned filmmakers, Valentina Maurel, scored multiple wins in Locarno, winning Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Director awards for I Have Electric Dreams.

Its young adult protagonist lives with her mother while struggling to reconnect with her estranged father. This, as she tries to balance the tenderness and sensitivity of teenage life.

Denmark-based Iranian film director and screenwriter Ali Abbasi’s third feature film Holy Spider will also be screened at QCinema.

Holy Spider is an internationally co-produced Persian-language crime thriller that depicts a fictional female journalist investigating a serial killer. It is based on the true story of Saeed Hanaei, a serial killer who targeted sex workers and killed 16 women from 2000 to 2001 in Mashhad, Iran.

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It won for  Zar Amir Ebrahimi the festival’s Best Actress Award. It was also selected as the Danish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.

The 2022 drama film of Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer, whose films were screened at Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, and New York, Corsage is also at Screen International.

Corsage had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2022, in the Un Certain Regard section. It is a fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.

Close, French-language Belgian drama film, is directed by Belgian film director and screenwriter Lukas Dhont.

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, to critical acclaim and the Grand Prix. It is Belgium’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.

Close is about the friendship between two thirteen-year old boys Leo and Remi, which suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi’s mother.

QCinema’s other sections  showcase other established directors in their latest works that exemplify their stature as master storytellers.

At the Special Screenings section is Love Life, Koji Fukada’s newest film since his last, A Girl Missing, which screened in QCinema’s 2019 edition. Fukada previously won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize for Harmonium, a 2016 critical hit.

The compelling Japanese drama tells about a couple whose routine is disrupted by a sudden family tragedy which reunites the wife with her mute ex-husband.

Also from the same section is a surprisingly candid coming-of-age story that deserves greater exposure. 

Janchivdorj Sengedorj, one of Mongolia’s most prominent directors with a particular affinity for depictions of contemporary youth, won the Best Feature award at the New York Asian Film Festival for The Sales Girl.

Its an amusing portrayal of an introverted student’s new job in a sex-shop and her growing bond with the owner, a former exotic dancer.

Philippine cinema’s renowned auteur, Lav Diaz, is back in the festival for the third time, with his Venice out-of-competition entry, When The Waves Are Gone.

Shot in 16mm, Diaz’s characteristic black-and-white new opus untypically clocks in at a modest 3 hours 7 minutes – a far short from his usual long-form meditative narratives.

Frequent collaborator, John Lloyd Cruz, heads the cast of this revenge tragedy that focuses on two corrupt cops with a grudge, loosely based on Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

This year’s Silver Lion winner in Venice is at the New Horizons section. 

Saint Omer is the first narrative feature of Alice Diop after working as an acclaimed documentary filmmaker.

It centers on a pregnant novelist in France who attends the trial of a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her baby. In the course of the court proceedings, she tries to blend the accused woman’s fate into the novel she is writing, a modern adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea, but things don’t go as expected.

Argentina, 1985, by Santiago Mitre, is one of the acclaimed titles in the new festival section, Advanced Screenings.

Based on real events, the story follows a team of lawyers on the heads of Argentina’s bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s, in a battle against odds and a race against time. Winner of the Venice FIPRESCI Award and San Sebastian People’s Choice Award, this gripping historical drama is presented by Prime Video Philippines.

The venues for the 10-day festival include Gateway Cineplex, Trinoma Cinemas, the new Cinema76 (in Tomas Morato), Rockwell Power Plant Cinema, and SM North EDSA.

Details about in10City, QCinema’s 10th anniversary presentation will be available at qcinema.ph and updates are posted at its social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.