city Golden, county Bee: Last News

Turkish director Zeki Demirkubuz drama Life scooped the top Golden Bee award for Best Feature Film at Malta’s second Mediterrane Film Festival over the weekend.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Zeki Demirkubuz’s “Life” was awarded the Golden Bee for Best Feature Film at the second edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival. Mahdi Fleifel’s Un Certain Regard breakout “To a Land Unknown” took the Jury’s Choice prize, while Brandt Andersen’s “The Stranger’s Case” won Golden Bees for Best Director for Andersen and Best Acting for Yasmine Al-Massri.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The Mediterrane Film Festival, held in the Maltese capital of Valletta, returns for its second edition between June 22-30 with a revamped programming structure led by new artistic director Teresa Cavina. The inaugural Golden Bee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cinema will be awarded to British filmmaker Mike Leigh, following last year’s Memorandum of Understanding between the British and Malta’s film commission to enhance the collaboration between the countries’s screen industries.

Ellise Shafer Mike Leigh, the veteran director of “Vera Drake,” “Another Year” and “Happy-Go-Lucky,” will be honored at Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival with its Career Achievement Golden Bee Award. Leigh will also host a masterclass at the festival, the second edition of which is taking place June 22 to 30 in Malta’s capital city of Valletta.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Teresa Cavina has been appointed artistic director of Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival the second edition of which will run June 22-30 in Valletta, the island’s capital. Cavina, who has over twenty years of experience in programming and artistic director roles at festivals including Locarno, El-Gouna, Rome, Venice and Abu Dhabi, is structuring the Mediterrane fest’s selection in four programming strands: In Competition, featuring films from across the Mediterranean; Out of Competition, featuring films from the rest of the world; Mare Nostrum – ‘Our Sea’, showcasing narrative and documentary films dedicated to sustainability and the environment; and Future Visions – a selection of experimental VR projects.

Jerusalem Film Fest Unveils 2023 Industry ProgramNir Bergman (Broken Wings, Here We Are) and Yona Rozenkier (The Dive, 35 Downhill) will be among the Israeli filmmakers presenting new projects at the Jerusalem Film Fest’s Pitch Point event this year. The annual meeting connecting Israeli directors with international partners is one pole of the festival’s Jerusalem Industry Days, running July 13 to 15. Jurors will be Olivier Père (Arte Cinema France), Thorsten Ritter (Beta Cinema), Kevin Chan (MUBI) and Claudia Solano (The Match Factory), alongside Helge Albers (MOIN, Hamburg Film Fund) and producer Yael Fogiel (Les Films du Poisson). The Industry Days will also host the final pitching session for the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab. Other highlights include a focus on Austria, accompanied by Austrian Films’ Anne Laurent-Delage and Emilie Dauptain and producers  Antonin Svoboda (coop99), Oliver Neumann (FreibeuterFilm), Sabine Gruber (Golden Girls) and Barbara Pichler (KGP Filmproduktion). Filmmakers Sebastian Meise, Barbara Albert and Rainer Frimmel will also be in attendance. The program will also feature an industry talk with Joana Vicente, CEO of Sundance Institute, moderated by Israeli producer Osnat Handelsman-Keren (The Lost Daughter). The Jerusalem Film Festival runs from July 13 to 23.