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Please check out our AFM line-up in the festivals section.
This year we’ll be presenting two hot new projects at the AFM.
The award winning director of the THE WAVE – Dennis Gansel’s Berlin Vampire chick flick WE ARE THE NIGHT and celebrated documentary director Frederick Wiseman’s exploration of the ledgendary Parisian cabaret club CRAZY HORSE. Please download our PDF line-up here for more details.
Franny Armstrong’s drama-documentary-animation hybrid THE AGE OF STUPID which the Huffington post called “The future of film, film culture and film distribution and marketing” has not only been revolutionising the film industry but is also a wake-up call to all of us on this planet. Following it’s hugely successful global premiere in New York in September find out more about the project by clicking on their website
Line-up now online
Please click here for more details
To download our full line-up and screening times please click here
Audiences have danced their way into cinemas in celebration of Mao’s Last Dancer’s opening day, making it the biggest Australian film opening for 2009 and the 5th biggest Australian film opening ever.
The success in Australia follows recent news that Mao’s Last Dancer proved an audience winner at the Toronto International Film Festival where it was runner up for the highly coveted People’s Choice Award won last year by “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Mao’s Last Dancer is the inspirational true story of a small boy’s extraordinary journey from poverty to international stardom. Filmed in China, the US and Australia and with a brilliant performance from Chi Cao as Li Cunxin, the film is an exhilarating exploration of what it means to be free.
Sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams and Co-distributed in Australia by Roadshow Films and Hopscotch Films, Joel Pearlman Managing Director, Roadshow Films and Troy Lum, Managing Director Hopscotch Films agreed: “Mao’s Last Dancer is a film that Australian audiences have been waiting for. The outstanding opening day figures demonstrate that audiences are willing to rush out to cinemas for an Australian film that they want to see.
The creative team of writer Jan Sardi, producer Jane Scott and director Bruce Beresford have done an outstanding job of bringing Li Cunxin’s best selling book to the screen. We are excited at the prospect of what is the start of an amazing journey for Mao’s Last Dancer.”
After it’s Premiere Gala Screening in Toronto, Mao’s Last Dancer comes first runner up in the Peoples Choice award only a few votes behind ‘Precious’ confirming its audience pleaser status.
“Veteran Australian director Bruce Beresford’s new film, “Mao’s Last Dancer,” feels almost like a remake of the equally heart-warming “Billy Elliot,” but this time around, what the aspiring, “Rocky”-like, against-all-odds dancer is escaping is not working-class ignorance and poverty, but hardline Chinese communist officials.
Like most films in this underdog genre, the emotional manipulation of the audience is constant and obvious. Beresford, the director of “Breaker Morant” and “Driving Miss Daisy” (which won four Oscars, including best picture), knows exactly what he is doing at every moment, and most viewers will be more than happy to go along for the ride.
Distributors and programmers who are looking for a film that will move audiences, rather than deeply probe the meaning of life, should give “Mao’s Last Dancer” a serious look. This is the kind of film that critics may look down on but go on to win audience awards at festivals (and, presumably, make money at the box office).”
The Hollywood Reporter
“Bruce Beresford’s handsome movie version captures the epic simplicity of Li’s story — astonishing luck coupled with a fierce determination — and stirs strong primal emotions about love of family, country, personal freedom…Sardi and Beresford marshal this rich material with precision, treating it as a ‘hero journey’, a mythic tale of victory over impossible odds… The film is a must for ballet-lovers and a strong arthouse contender… Cao, Chinese-born-and-trained Principal Dancer of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, leaps, soars and spins just as brilliantly as the movie requires.”
Screen International
Click here to watch the trailer.
“Powerful and original… an astonishing piece of cinema.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Visceral, torn-from-the-memory filmmaking that packs every punch. LEBANON is the boldest and best of the recent mini-wave of Israeli pics (“Beaufort,” “Waltz With Bashir”).
VARIETY
“A highly personal and intimate portrait of 24 hours in hell. Frighteningly convincing. A tour de force.”
SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
“A wrenching concentration of raw emotion. Disturbing… Powerful… High voltage.”
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Dear friends, It is with great pleasure that we unveil this year’s fall festival line-up.IN COMPETITION at this years VENICE Film Festival is Samuel Maoz’ LEBANON. Bruce Beresford’s much anticipated MAO’S LAST DANCER will be presented in a Gala screening at this year’s TORONTO film festival and appearing both at TELLURIDE and TORONTO is Margarethe Von Trotta’s VISION. Cannes Competition Grand Prize winner A PROPHET also shows in TORONTO in masters alongside Italian Maestro Marco Bellocchio’s tour-de-force biopic VINCERE
To find out more please click here
To download our Fall listing (pdf format), click here
We are delighted to announce our selection in this years LOCARNO film Festival. IN COMPETITION is Diego Martinez Vignniati’s THE TANGO SINGER and on the PIAZZA GRANDE Marc Recha’s LITTLE INDI
To find out more please click here
A PROPHET by Jacques Audiard wins the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes. Celluloid Dreams congratulates and thanks all those who made this a very memorable Cannes.
After the official press conference of the Cannes Film Festival 2009 We are delighted to announce TWO Celluloid Dreams co-productions IN COMPETITION this year in Cannes: The hotly awaited new film by Jacques Audiard A PROPHET and Marco Bellocchio’s VINCERE.
To find out more please click here
To download our Cannes listing (pdf format), click here
To download our Cannes screening times (pdf format), click here
Please click here to learn more about our exciting partnership with The Auteurs, who with Celluloid Dreams and The Criterion Collection are currently developing a uniquely curated library of films delivered through high-definition streaming and download on demand. A worldwide online cinémathèque and movie community rolled into one.
