Abe’s AFI Fest Wrap

By Abe Friedtanzer

This was my first year covering AFI Fest, and also my first time covering a virtual festival during the festival itself. It was a positive experience on both fronts, and the viewing platform I used – the AFI Fest app for Roku – worked pretty well and including plenty of interesting conversations with talent.

AFI announced the following winners:

Audience Award - Narrative Feature WOLFWALKERS (DIR Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)
Audience Award - Documentary Feature 76 DAYS (DIR Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous)
Audience Award - Short Film LONELY BLUE NIGHT (DIR Johnson Cheng)
Grand Jury Prize – Animation TIGER AND OX (호랑이와 소) (DIR Seunghee Kim)
Grand Jury Prize – Live Action PILLARS (DIR Haley Elizabeth Anderson)
Special Mention - BLACK GOAT (DIR Yi Tang)
Special Mention  MAALBEEK (DIR Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis)
Special Mention UMBILICAL (DIR Danski Tang)

I personally had the chance to screen 17 films, which represent a third of the features shown. I also saw 6 of the other films at Sundance, but it hardly seems fair to include some of my favorites, like Nine Days and Farewell Amor, in this piece since I already cited them in my Sundance wrap. Without further ado, I submit my choices for the best of this year’s AFI Fest...

Abe’s 'Jury-of-One' Top Five AFI Fest 2020 Films 

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Chi Film Fest: "Summer of 85"

Coverage from the 56th annual Chicago Film Festival

by Nick Taylor

One fun thing about not really watching trailers anymore is that a movie can surprise me pretty easily. For example, I knew from teasers that François Ozon’s Summer of 85 was pitching itself as the French answer to Call Me By Your Name. The story sees two incredibly handsome teenagers named Alex (Felix Lefebvre) and David (Benjamin Voison) have a life-altering romance during a life-changing special summer. But I completely missed the trailer that revealed a whole second narrative where a zombie-like Alex is being tried for an unspecified crime that sounds a lot like murdering David. 

So, there’s the part of Summer of 85 that’s very much Ozon doing a Call Me By Your Name-style romance and the part that's the melancholic aftermath...

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Chi Film Fest: "Undine"

Coverage from the 56th annual Chicago Film Festival

by Nick Taylor

Undine opens immediately after the titular character (Paula Beer) has been told by her boyfriend Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) that he’s leaving her for another woman. Seated at an outdoor café, Beer’s expression remains piquant and internalized as Johannes explains himself, half listening to him talk and half deciding how to respond. When she makes up her mind, she informs Johannes they’re still in love, and if he’s not at the café when she gets back from work in half an hour she’ll kill him. He’s not there, obviously. But after hearing an unexpected figure call out her name, she meets a man named Christoph (Franz Rogowski). The two are instantly captivated by each other, and their meet-cute is so strange, heartfelt, and semi-chaotic I’d hate to spoil it. It might be the best scene in the film...

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NewFest: Alice Junior

By Abe Friedtanzer

Attitude can make a world of difference in a difficult situation. Sage advice dictates that a person can only change themselves, not others. Positivity may not prevent pain or misery, but when it’s the only option, it’s better than nothing. A strong front doesn’t mean that assailants will be deterred, and it may even encourage offenders to only continue what they are doing. But bravery and acceptance can, in certain circumstances, help lead to a better future in which others won’t need to shield themselves in the same way thanks to the creation of a new culture. 

Alice Junior (Anne Celestino Mota) is a social media star with many followers who ask her admiring questions about the experience of being trans. When her father (Emmanuel Rosset) gets a new job, she is forced to move to a conservative town and attend a Catholic school where the close-minded principal insists that she wear a male uniform...

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AFI Fest: New Order

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It’s not often that I truly regret watching a movie. The rare occasions on which it does happen make me question my policy of reading as little as possible about a film before I see it. I might have, for instance, read these important disclaimers from Elisa’s brief rave review of Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize winner New Order: “it feels like your hope for the future of humanity is being beaten to death” and “‘Chilling’ does not even begin to describe the act of witnessing this story play out. Do not get attached to any of the characters.” I agree fully with those warnings and would add a few of my own when it comes to breaking down this brutal film…

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