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Cannes Film Festival 2021 May Hold In July

THERE are speculations that the 2021 edition of the Cannes International Film Festival will be held outside its traditional month of May. According to sources, organisers are working at moving the festival from its usual May to July. The festival could not hold last year after a series of postponements due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID- 19 pandemic, but the organisers have resolved to hold a physical edition of the festival in 2021. They are expected to announce new dates for the 2021 edition in the next couple of days ruling out speculations that the festival will, like the 2020 edition, be cancelled. Soon as the festival was called off in 2020, Festival Director, Thierry Fremaux, who had noted that the cancellation of the festival last year would delay the release of high- quality films and would impact on the international release circuit, presented a selection of over 50 films, including, Lovers Rock and Mangrove from Steve Mcqueen’s Small Axe anthology for the BBC. Observers say that July seem the only feasible month to hold the festival outside the month of May as the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival will hold in June in Cannes. August and September are also not likely months to shift the festival to, as two of the world’s prestigious film festivals, Venice and Toronto International Film Festival, usually take place in August and September.

Nigerian Filmmaker, Ade Sultan, Ready For Berlinale Talents’ Programme

NIGERIAN filmmaker, Ade Sultan Sangodoyin, who is participating in this years Berlinale Talent programme is excited about the prospects of participating in the prestigious talent programme of the Berlinale. Sultan, director of the short film, A Cemetery of Doves and co- Producer of the welltravelled film by Guardian Studios, Eyimofe ( This Is My Desire), is on the list of 205 talents invited from several countries around the world to be part of 2021 Berlinale Talent, which is held within the scope of the industry- led first part of the Berlin International Film Festival. Promoted as a home for encounters between outstanding artists and the film- loving public, Berlinale Talents offers a host of familiar events featuring top- class guests, which can be attended virtually by invited talents, as well as by the Berlin- based and international public between March 1 to 5. The 2021 theme, Dreams, floats through each of the talks, panels and workshops, available live and cost- free, to be streamed at berlinaletalents. de and on social- media platforms, and made available on berlinale. de. The following guests are expected to take the digital stage: Céline Sciamma, whose Petite Maman is in the 2021 competition; the grandmaster of dream state cinema, Apichatpong Weerasethakul ( Cemetery of Splendour); Ava DuVernay ( Selma, When They See Us) is joined in conversation with ARRAY and Berlinale filmmakers Takeshi Fukunaga, Hepi Mita and Elle- Máijá Tailfeathers; and the International Jury of this year’s edition, who come together as a multifaceted artistic team to create a daydreamers’ Talents Tabletalk in the presence of Carlo Chatrian, the artistic director of the Berlinale. Kirsten Johnson ( Cameraperson, Dick Johnson is Dead) guides Berlinale Talents this year throughout as a mentor in the Camera Studio and brings her inspiration to the fore in an open session that outruns the usual format of moderated talks. Fiction and reality converge when Uli Hanisch walks the talents through the development of sets seemingly American, Mexican and Russian, yet ultimately very Berlin, that have captivated audiences worldwide in The Queen’s Gambit — all the while sitting in yet another “filmset”, the one that Hanisch and Talents alumnus Josef F. Brandl designed at the HAU3 especially for Berlinale Talents. The organisers have said that the entire programme, including all guests and event- formats, will be available online at www. berlinale- talents. de.

PAFF Opens February 28 With David Oyelowo’s The Water Man

DAVID Oyelowo’s The Water Manis the opening night film of the 2021 edition of the Pan African Film Festival ( PAFF) In Los Angeles, USA. The festival opens on February 28 and will close on March 14, 2021. Directed by Oyelowo, The Water Manis a fantasy- adventure film about a young boy named Gunner ( Lonnie Chavis) who sets out on a quest to save his ill mother ( Rosario Dawson) by searching for a mythic figure who knows the secret to immortality. Gunner enlists the help of a mysterious local girl ( Amiah Miller) who has her own terrifying tale of meeting this figure, known as the Water Man, face- toface. Together, they journey into the remote Wild Horse forest, but the deeper they venture, the stranger and more dangerous the forest becomes. Back home, Gunner’s father, Amos ( Oyelowo), who has grown distant from Gunner over the years, will stop at nothing to find his son — and in the process discovers who his son really is. A question and answer session will follow the screening of the much- anticipated PAFF opener. Meanwhile, the organisers of PAFF have announced a special pre- PAFF screening of Gregory Everett’s award winning documentary 41st and Central: The Untold Story of the L. A. Black Panthers. The screening will hold this evening. Directed by Everett, the documentary won the 2010 Pan African Film Festival’s Audience Favorite Documentary award. It features exclusive interviews from Black Panther party leaders, Geronimo Ji Jagga, Elaine Brown, and Kathleen Cleaver, retired Los Angeles City Councilmember and former L. A. P. D. Police Chief Bernard Parks. The film was the first part of a documentary series by Everett that follows the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party for self- defence from its glorious black power beginnings through to its tragic demise. The film explores the Black Panther ethos, its conflict with the L. A. P. D. and the U. S. Organisation, and the events that shaped the complicated and often contradictory legacy of the L. A. chapter. The Pan African Film and Arts Festival ( PAFF) is America’s largest and most prestigious Black film festival. Each year, it screens more than 150 films made by and/ or about people of African descent from around the world. PAFF holds the distinction of being the largest Black History Month event in the country. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ( AMPAS) has designated PAFF as an official qualifying film festival for live action and animation short films. PAFF is a non- profit corporation, founded in 1992 by award- winning actor Danny Glover and executive director, Ayuko Babu, an international legal, cultural and political consultant who specialises in Pan African Affairs. PAFF is dedicated to the promotion of ethnic and racial respect and tolerance through the exhibit of films, art and creative expression.