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Though she didn’t become an established director until the age of 40, Claire Denis quickly solidified her status as one of France’s most important contemporary auteurs. Her films are known for their combination of shocking realism and sparsely gorgeous stylistics, treating postcolonial themes of estrangement, immigration, violence, and the exploitation of those living on […]
Michelangelo Antonioni, the neo-realismo influenced Italian director which escaped the confining film regulations, setting fire to preconceptions and paved his own road for success. There is a sense of indifference that critics have towards him, this timid irreverence has surrounded his career for years, but now more than ever he is being recognized for his […]
For this week’s world renowned ÉCU movie review, we have decided to venture back to the fargone year of 2011, to examine an under discussed event in world history: the release of The Guard, now known as Ireland’s most successful independent film of all time. The Guard revolves around a small, untroubled community within Connemara, […]
ÉCU – The European Independent Film Festival 2018’s LAUNCH PARTY will be held at Rive Gauche night club 1 rue du Sabot, 75006 Paris on April 11th, 2018 at 7:30pm. Live music, mingle with the filmmakers competing in the Official Selection, great indie vibe. Free entrance! During the night it will be […]
Despite the fact our St Patrick’s Day hangovers have only just began to subside, we want to continue on celebrating the great patrons of the Emerald Isle. Instead of looking to its Holy Saints, however, we thought we would pay heed to its most heavenly indie souls, particularly two exceptional brothers: John Michael and […]
We would like to extend a very big thank you to all our submission judges who participated in the 13th edition of ÉCU – The European Independent Film Festival. Each year we strive to highlight the very best independent filmmakers and we are very proud of the reputation that we have garnered over the years. […]
Recently released in French theaters, Djamel Kerkar’s Atlal (2016) is a rare documentary on the specter of Algeria’s Black Decade as it continues to haunt the country’s present landscape. When civil war broke out between the government and Islamist militants in the ‘90s, it left more than 200,000 dead in its wake. Today, images of […]
The filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia, recently honoured with a tribute at Gérardmer’s festival in 2018, was born on December 4, 1965 in Bilbao, Spain. From a young age, he had a stark fascination with comics and this was the foundation for where he began his career as a set designer in cinema. Later on, […]
The 13th edition of ÉCU-The European Independent Film Festival will showcase 81 films from 37 countries on May 4th, 5th, 6th 2018 in Paris, France. European Dramatic Feature European Dramatic Short European Documentary Non-European Dramatic Feature Non-European Dramatic Short Non-European Documentary Student Film Arab Special Selection European Music Video European Comedy Film Experimental Film […]
Looking back on the first quarter of this year, there’s no doubt that Daniel Kaluuya’s 2018 has started off pretty well. He received an Oscar nod for Best Actor, and his current film in theaters is in the process of obliterating box office records. With several projects in the pipeline, including a film directed by […]
“Call Me By Your Name” has been revered by critics and movie-lovers everywhere. James Ivory has won many an accolade (most recently an Oscar at last Sunday’s ceremony!) for penning its stunning script. Timothée Chalamet has received nothing but acclaim for his exceptional portrayal of the film’s protagonist “Elio”. So much so, you can barely […]
Saturday, May 5th 10:15 – 11:00 WORKSHOP: “Fundamentals of Directing Actors”, held by HorizonVU Music & Bilingual Acting Workshop In this seminar, acting instructors from Bilingual Acting Workshop Celia Anne Browne and Sei Shiomi will introduce the basic tools of directing actors for film and TV through various American methods. Participants will discover the […]
Before I begin recanting his extraordinary life and career, I would firstly like to thank James Ivory for single-handedly ending my quarter-life crisis. For, like many in their early twenties, I spent a long time feeling utterly lost, only too aware of the milestones I had not yet completed by 23. However, after achieving his […]
Our wonderful indie filmmakers, we once again have some tremendously exciting news for you to hear – hooray! We are absolutely delighted to announce that our Ahmed Khedr Award for Excellence in Arab Filmmaking will now be presented in collaboration with the Arab Cinema Center ! The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is an amazing organisation dedicated […]
Set in the dark bowels of Denmark’s rural limestone mines, Winter Brothers is a deeply weird and unsettling film about the beast of isolation. With brutality as its backdrop, it centers on two siblings: the skinny, sensitive, and unstable Emil who struggles for acceptance by his fellow miners, and the normal nondescript Johan, who blames […]
The phrase “breakout year” and the name Timothée go together like peaches and cream. All it took was one year or us all to come to know (and love) him. Released toward the end of 2017, the film “Ladybird” struck a chord with many audiences, but specifically Chalamet’s performance, short yet significant (he plays the […]
In Paul Thomas Anderson’s gothically-titled Phantom Thread, Daniel Day-Lewis plays a man as famously exacting as himself: a renowned dressmaker in ’50s London named Reynolds Woodcock. The actor’s approach to his work finds its supreme outlet in the couturier, whose methods are likewise painstaking even as they guarantee his craft. Anderon’s camera glides up and down the spiral staircase […]
Even with the boundless new talent present in cinema today, it would be difficult to find an up-and-coming filmmaker with a track record quite as astonishing as Ryan Coogler’s. With just three feature films under his belt, he has managed to tell three outstandingly engaging and intimate stories, contribute to two major franchises, and thread […]