Films News

3 new Hopscotch films from Toronto

22 Sep 2010

Our September international film festival jaunt that is Venice and Toronto is over for another year - and okay, it's kinda fun, but we're a little wearisome. In two weeks we saw over 45 films, read more than 30 scripts and had more meetings than we care to remember! We noticed how beautiful Marion Cotillard is; how tall John Turturro is; and how truly excellent Bill Murray will always be.
We saw stories of friendship, family and love alongside revenge, internet predators, psychiatric wards (one funny, one horrific), infidelity, teenage lust, American history, ultra-violent clowns, sex with bakery products, road trips (one mesmerising, one hilarious), martial arts, cave paintings, grief, bank robbers and a couple of things we're still trying to work out what exactly it was we were watching...
We threw around words and phrases like "masterful", "train wreck", "great new director", "made me cry, twice", "this is going to get awards" and "pretentious, devoid of emotion and full of unnecessary tricksy camera work."
So, what came of all this for Hopscotch? Well, we have three new films to announce! Hurrah! In no particular order..

BEGINNERS, from filmmaker Mike Mills (who is also a renowned graphic designer, music video director and artist. More about Mike here.) It stars Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent and is both a funny and moving film about falling in love, understanding your family and generally being a wise and witty celebration of life. We absolutely adored it. Industry magazine Variety describes it as "the cinematic equivalent of Dave Eggers" "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." It's full of inventive flourishes including Mike Mills' own illustrations and a Jack Russell terrier that communicates via subtitles. 
McGregor is just brilliant - and it's so refreshing to see him play a normal guy - someone you could very well know. His two on-screen relationships are played by Laurent as his girlfriend and Plummer as his father - and the honesty and humanity in their performances is deeply poignant. Beginners was picked up by US distributor Focus Features, the same company that released The Kids Are All Right in the US. We'll be releasing Beginners in 2011.

Interview below with Mike Mills in Toronto (and a few sneaky clips from Beginners).

INCENDIES is already being tipped for a Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Oscars next year. It's a powerful drama about a brother and sister who are called before a notary for the reading of their mother's will. She leaves them with the instructions to deliver two sealed letters, one to their father, upsetting their impression that he died a heroic death; and one to a brother, that they didn't know they had. They must travel to the Middle East to uncover the secret past of their late mother, and what they discover shocks them to their core. It's a mesmerising and compelling film with a take-your-breath-away ending. It was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for the US, and we'll most probably release in Australian cinemas round about Oscars-time next year.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER, an intense thriller based on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer who accepts a well-paying UN peacekeeping job, courtesy of a private military contractor. Arriving on post-war Bosnia, she encounters disorder, irresponsibilty and rampant sexism, both among the local population and in the hallways of the UN. Bolkovac risks her life in unearthing an underworld of human sex trafficking and exposes the corrupt path of its source. The Whistleblower features an astounding lead performance from Rachel Weisz, in a role whose spirit channels Erin Brockovich. It is an accomplished piece of cinema - an intelligent, uncompromising political thriller based on true events. The formidable cast also includes Vanessa Redgrave, David Strathairn and Monica Bellucci.