The Bangladeshi drama Aynabaji will open the 11th annual Seattle South Asian Film Festival, which runs October 14-23. The festival will include 23 feature films and 22 shorts from nine countries, plus a landmark community symposium about film censorship in South Asia and topical film programs centered on youth, sexual minorities, and mental health.
The 8th Downtown L.A. Film Festival, September 21-28, which is being held at Regal Cinema’s L.A. Live has announced its feature films and special series. The line-up includes films from all genres and curated programming covering a wide range of topics Income Inequality, Art, Architecture & Design, Actions Sports, and The People and The Police.
In what could be the most immersive movie experience ever, producers Alex A. Ginzburg and Tony Lee of Let It Play have announced a partnership with 4DX and ScreenX that will make their recently announced film We Kill Death the first feature film produced specifically for each of the two immersive cinema technology formats. We Kill Death focuses on YouTube stars Mustang Wanted, Oleg Cricket and the duo of Vitaliy Raskalov and Vadim Makhorov, who are familiar to millions of viewers around the world for their imaginative and death-defying stunts and adventures.
Funimation Films has announced the October release of Shin Godzilla from Toho Company. The movie will screen in more than 440 theaters across the U.S. and Canada October 11-18.
The Event Cinema Association will host its first annual overseas convention October 14 in Stockholm, Sweden. Held at the Bio Rio cinema in central Stockholm and organized by the ECA’s partners Folkets Hus och Parker, the event intends to shed light on the Nordic region, celebrate it successes and learn from its achievements.
3 Weeks in Yerevan, a new comedy by the Award-winning collaboration of writer-director Vahe Berberian and producer-co-director Vahik Pirhamzei, will have its North American premiere September 14 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Sponsored by the Analysis Research Planning for Armenia Foundation, the premiere will feature a post-screening Q&A with the film's three leading men Berberian, Pirhamzei (who also star in the film), and actor-comedian Hrant Tokhatyan.
Independent distributor Abramorama has announced the theatrical release of Made In Venice, a documentary about the inside story of the street-wise skateboarders of Venice, California, and their endless struggle to make the dream of a skate park come true.
Four Christie digital cinema projectors will transform Toronto’s Sugar Beach into an outdoor movie theater from August 18-20 at PortsToronto’s sixth annual Sail-in Cinema. For the first time, Christie will be a major sponsor of Sail-In Cinema– an annual event that invites movie-goers to bring their lawn chairs and blankets, or anchor their boats in Toronto’s Harbor to enjoy three nights of movies under the stars. Movies will be shown on a two-sided, four-story screen mounted on a barge in Lake Ontario.
Event cinema works best when the programming is directed at groups passionate about a specific cause. In those instances the movie theatre turns into a town square where people can share thoughts and ideas about how to make their cause a reality. A case in point, the theatrical run for Making a Killing: Guns, Greed and the NRA is scheduled for August 12-18 in Los Angeles and August 19-25 in New York City. Brave New Films, the documentary and short film production company headed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald, will partner with gun-violence prevention activists to turn multiple screenings during the theatrical run into opportunities to inform audiences about the issue and to organize against the forces of gun profiteering.
More2Screen will distribute Warner Bros. Records new music event, Michael Bublé – Tour Stop 148, to be released in cinemas worldwide September 25. The event includes a special fifteen-minute introduction by Michael Bublé exclusive to cinemas. The agreement does not include the United States.
