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Sundance continues to add to its list of premieres, as does Berlinale (the Berlin festival also announced their 2019 poster series, which seems to be catering primarily to furry fans), which means it must be time for a new Festival Circuit thread...

I'll try to update this post with program, jury, awards, and other relevant information on the major film festivals compiled in this post as the year in fests continues to develop. If you're lucky enough to be able to attend one of these or another local or specialty festival, let the rest of us know which films to keep an eye on!

Compilation of Critic Ratings for Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes

UPDATED 9/12/2019


2019 Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 24 - Feb. 4): Program / Awards
Notable premieres: Velvet Buzzsaw - Dan Gilroy; Native Son - Rashid Johnson; The Souvenir - Joanna Hogg; The Report - Scott Z. Burns; The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - Chiwetel Ejiofor; Late Night - Nisha Ganatra; I Am Mother - Grant Sputore; Official Secrets - Gavin Hood; Cold Case Hammerskjöld - Mads Brügger; Clemency - Chinonye Chukwu; Luce - Julius Onah; The Farewell - Lulu Wang; The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Joe Talbot; Wounds - Babak Anvari


69th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb. 7 - Feb. 17): Program / Jury (President: Juliette Binoche) / Awards
Notable premieres: Grâce à Dieu (By the Grace of God) - François Ozon; Der Goldene Handschuh (The Golden Glove) - Fatih Akin; The Kindness of Strangers - Lone Scherfig; Mr. Jones - Agnieszka Holland; Varda par Agnès - Agnès Varda; The Operative - Yuval Adler; Light of My Life - Casey Affleck; Monos - Alejandro Landes; Monsters. - Marius Olteanu; Synonymes - Nadav Lapid


72nd Cannes Film Festival (May 14 - May 25): Program / Jury (President: Alejandro González Iñárritu) / Awards (Palme D'or: Parasite)
Notable premieres:
Competition: Bacurau - Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles; The Dead Don't Die - Jim Jarmusch; Dolor y Gloria - Pedro Almodóvar; La Gomera - Corneliu Porumboiu; A Hidden Life - Terrence Malick; Little Joe - Jessica Hausner; Matthias and Maxime - Xavier Dolan; Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo - Abdellatif Kechiche; Oh Mercy! - Arnaud Desplechin; Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino; Parasite - Bong Joon-Ho; Young Ahmed - Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne;

Un Certain Regard: Beanpole - Kantemir Balagov; Chambre 212 - Christophe Honoré; Joan of Arc - Bruno Dumont;

Other Screenings: Family Romance, LLC - Werner Herzog; The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil - Lee Won-Tae; The Lighthouse - Robert Eggers; Lux Aeterna - Gaspar Noé; Rocketman - Dexter Fletcher; Tommaso - Abel Ferrara; Too Old to Die Young - Nicolas Winding Refn;


76th Venice International Film Festival (Aug. 28 - Sep. 7): Program / Jury (President: Lucretia Martel) / Awards (Golden Lion: Joker; Silver Lion: J'accuse)
Notable premieres:
Competition: About Endlessness - Roy Andersson; Ema - Pablo Larraín; J'Accuse - Roman Polanski Joker - Todd Phillips; The Laundromat - Steven Soderbergh; The Painted Bird - Václav Marhoul; La Vérité / The Truth - Hirokazu Kore-eda;

Out of Competition: Adults in the Room - Costa Gavras; The Burnt Orange Heresy - Giuseppe Capotondi; The King - David Michôd; Seberg - Benedict Andrews; State Funeral - Sergei Losnitza


46th Telluride Film Festival (Aug. 30 - Sep. 2): Program
Notable premieres: First Cow - Kelly Reichardt; Ford v. Ferrari - James Mangold; Marriage Story - Noah Baumbach; Motherless Brooklyn - Edward Norton; The Two Popes - Fernando Meirelles; Uncut Gems - Safdie Bros.; Waves - Trey Edward Shults


2019 Toronto International Film Festival (Sep. 5 - Sep. 15): Program / Awards
Notable premieres: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Marielle Heller; Bad Education - Cory Finley; Coming Home Again - Wayne Wang; The Goldfinch - John Crowley; Harriet - Kasi Lemmons; Jojo Rabbit - Taika Waititi; Just Mercy - Destin Daniel Cretton; Knives Out - Rian Johnson; The Personal History of David Copperfield - Armando Iannucci; While at War - Alejandro Amenábar


57th New York Film festival (Sep. 28 - Oct. 14): Program
Opening Night - The Irishman - Martin Scorsese
Centerpiece - Marriage Story - Noah Baumbach
Closing Night - Motherless Brooklyn - Edward Norton

Notable premieres: The Irishman - Martin Scorsese

Final list of Berinale restorations announced, including Ung Flukt (The Wayward Girl), a 1959 Norwegian film featuring Liv Ullman's first lead performance, and Destry Rides Again restored with consultation by Scorsese and Spielberg.

As Sundance winds down, here's an overview of the major acquisitions, as well as festival diaries from Justin Chang at the LA Times, Manohla Dargis at The New York Times, and AA Dowd at The A.V. Club.

Sundance Awards announced:

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Clemency, Chinonye Chukwu

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
One Child Nation, Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Honeyland, Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov

Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic
Brittany Runs A Marathon, Paul Downs Colaizzo

Audience Award: U.S. Documentary
Knock Down the House, Rachel Lears

Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Queen of Hearts, May el-Toukhy

Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary
Sea of Shadows, Richard Ladkani

Never Cursed wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:28 am Really hoping this isn't the exact type of movie that The House That Jack Built taught us we didn't need. Not optimistic based on the trailer

This was in reference to a different serial killer movie premiering at a major festival, but from the sound of early reviews Fatih Akin's The Golden Glove from Berlin might be an even bigger test of the post-Jack viability of the subgenre:

David Ehrlich in IndieWire:

‘The Golden Glove’ Review: One of the Most Vile Serial Killer Movies Ever Made — Berlinale

It’s relentlessly pungent; the cinematic equivalent of an overflowing porta potty. The sets reek of shit and decaying flesh, while even the living characters appear to rot before our eyes. Maggots fall through the ceiling and rain into a young girl’s soup. A jar of pickled sausages grows enough white fur to make a winter coat. There’s no reprieve from all this rancidness. It opens with a long, unblinking take of its sociopathic protagonist stripping the body of a bloated old prostitute and (after the help of some liquid courage) sawing her head off with the wild-eyed clumsiness of a chronic drinker. It’s hard to fathom at the time, but this will be the most pleasant sequence of this godforsaken story...

It’s a film about the depravity that can infect a country in the wake of a lost war, told with the clarity of a clogged toilet; a film informed by the radicality of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the artfulness of Uwe Boll; a film that contrasts the visceral grotesquery of “Se7en” with the psychological depth of Kevin Spacey’s “Let Me Be Frank” video. Most of all, it’s an act of karmic revenge against those who bemoaned the supposed banality of “The House that Jack Built.” 20 minutes into this and you’ll find yourself begging the movie gods for another trip through the abattoir of Lars von Trier’s anxieties.

Guy Lodge in Variety:

A recurring controversy flared up again at last month’s Sundance festival, this time with the Zac Efron-starring Ted Bundy biopic “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” as its lit match: Where is the line drawn between representation and celebration in films about appalling figures, particularly with a swoon-worthy sex symbol in the lead? That’s an issue less likely to be raised with “The Golden Glove,” Fatih Akin’s hyper-grisly true-crime study of another notorious 1970s serial killer, Fritz Honka: No one could accuse the German filmmaker of glamorizing anyone or anything in a film so strenuously dedicated to its own seaminess, you can practically smell the human flesh rotting on screen...

That’s all very well, but it’s not a compelling reason for a film this oppressively repellent to exist: Though based on a well-received nonfiction bestseller by Heinz Strunk, it’s not psychologically insightful as a study of violently toxic masculinity, nor even particularly informative as a cold account of a corrupt life. Instead, Akin’s vacant provocation functions purely as a cruel terror exercise, teasing viewers with uncertainty over which hapless woman on screen will be carved up next, and pressing half-heartedly for empathy with a real-life psychopath who, as written and presented here, hardly seems worth such a complex investment.

Deborah Young in The Hollywood Reporter:

The Bottom Line: Beyond sordid

Watching old alcoholic prostitutes being lured to their deaths has the morbid fascination of all true crime tales, but the unremitting bleakness of Akin’s vision, atmospherically visualized by production designer Tamo Kunz and a host of grungy actors, is likely to be too much for most viewers to take...

...it remains to be seen how much gruesome slumming audiences are willing to pay to do. On some level Fritz’s story is compulsive viewing, only you wish you weren’t there. Located uncertainly between a seriously repulsive horror film and Germanic black humor, this particular vision of hell owes a visible debt to Rainer W. Fassbinder. All that is missing is the camp note of a true Fassbinder film and compassion for suffering humanity.

I loved Akin's last film — In the Fade, which won Diane Kruger Best Actress recognition at Cannes — so I'll see this regardless, but with considerably more reluctance than I was feeling yesterday.

BERLINALE FILM FESTIVAL 2019 WINNERS
Golden Bear for Best Film
Synonyms, dir. Nadav Lapid

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
By the Grace of God, dir. François Ozon

Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize
System Crasher, dir. Nora Fingscheidt

Silver Bear for Best Director
Angela Shanelec, I Was at Home, But

Silver Bear for Best Actress
Yong Mei, So Long, My Son

Silver Bear for Best Actor
Wang Jingchun, So Long, My Son

Silver Bear Best Screenplay
Mauricio Barucci, Claudio Giovannesi and Roberto Saviano, Piranhas

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Rasmus Videbæk
Cinematographer, Out Stealing Horses

Glashutte Original Documentary
Talking About Trees, dir: Suhaib Gasmelbari

GWFF Best First Feature Award
Oray, dir: Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay

Golden Bear Best Short Film
Umbra, dir: Florian Fischer, Johannes Krell

Silver Bear Jury Prize Short Film
Blue Boy, dir: Manuel Abramovich

Awesome

Oof---I thought with the long delay in announcing a president, they were going to go with an Oscar contender ala Spike Lee or Alfonso Cuarón, although Spike would have been yet another American.

Tribeca 2019 Feature Lineup includes new films by Werner Herzog, Abel Ferrara, and Christoph Waltz (!).

lzx wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 8:41 am Tribeca 2019 Feature Lineup includes new films by Werner Herzog, Abel Ferrara, and Christoph Waltz (!).

Very intrigued by that Nabil Elderkin as his music video work is quite good (love his "DNA" video for Kendrick and "Two Weeks" for FKA Twigs) and the cast is strong (Charlie Plummer, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Terrence Howard, Amber Heard). Guardian described the story of Gully as "Clockwork Orange in South Central Los Angeles." Doesn't hurt that he's working with Fukunaga's DP from Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre.

DarkImbecile wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:01 pm THR's speculative list of Cannes possibilities

Unless The Hollywood Reporter knows something I don't (if they don't know what Critics' Week is, then they probably don't), the Weerasethakul definitely won't be ready for this year's Cannes. The new Mendonça Filho also seems a good contender, especially since Verhoeven's film won't be present.

Of the Americans, I really hope they go with a newbie, like they routinely did in the nineties with the likes of Hartley (man, I miss him), Haynes, Kerrigan, and, sure, Tarantino. At the moment, we're staring down another round of Jarmusch, Tarantino, and Gray (all fine enough). Of the contenders, I suppose Benh Zeitlin fits the bill, although it's hard to get amped for what he has next at the moment. Ira Sachs is continually being tipped because he has the right producer and the right actress, but as we saw last year, Fremaux is willing to reject anyone not named Ken Loach. The hope is for Reichardt to finally make her Competition debut, and I do think it's possible despite it being filmed in December.

Kore-eda's latest with Binoche, Deneuve, and Hawke is basically tailor made to open the festival OOC with its combination of star and auteur power---hopefully its production company doesn't insists on a competition slot ala last year's Everybody Knows. And hopefully they can get more than one film in Spanish in Competition---that's long been a blind spot of Fremaux's and getting a Mexican to head the jury doesn't fix it.

EDIT: Forgot there was a thread for The Beach Bum.

Omensetter wrote:

DarkImbecile wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:01 pm THR's speculative list of Cannes possibilities

Unless The Hollywood Reporter knows something I don't (if they don't know what Critics' Week is, then they probably don't), the Weerasethakul definitely won't be ready for this year's Cannes.

The Weerasethakul hasn’t even started shooting yet!

Deadline speculates about the Cannes lineup. Says Radegund will be screened, but Wendy won't.

I wonder if it's because it's not ready or because it's bad re: Wendy

Cremildo wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:09 pm Deadline speculates about the Cannes lineup. Says Radegund will be screened

FINALLY

Unlike his past few, Malick spent his sweet time with that one.

Wow. That's great.There hasn't been an IMDB update since late 2017.

FrauBlucher wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:49 pm Wow. That's great.There hasn't been an IMDB update since late 2017.

I was reading an interview with one of the actors and he was just like, "Well, I hope it comes out this year. We finished shooting it two years ago."

Well, it will screen at Cannes and then disappear until 2020 because it’s Terrence Malick.

I wonder if what helped the last couple films was a lack of predetermined idea. As if the presence of an originating structure (i.e. screenplay) actually hinders Malick's ability to achieve an end product he's satisfied with.

John Waters’ annual hosted film at this year’s Maryland Film Festival is... Mom and Dad?! Okay then