Search Results for “claire denis” – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

WEEK IN WOMEN: Claire Denis receives LA Film Critics Career Achievement Award – Brandy McDonnell reports

January 1, 2023January 6, 2023 Brandy McDonnell claire denis, claudia puig, LA film Critics, twiw, week in women

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has chosen French writer-director Claire Denis as the recipient of its Career Achievement Award. The critics organization will honor the filmmaker on January 14, 2023, at its first in-person awards event in three years. The L.A. Film Critics Association also will recognize 2022’s top achievements in filmmaking as decided by the membership at the ceremony.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Claire Denis’ HIGH LIFE Acquired by A24 – Brandy McDonnell reports

September 22, 2018September 23, 2018 Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments a24, claire denis, High Life, sci fi, the week in women

French filmmaker Claire Denis’ long-awaited English-language debut “High Life” is coming to theaters. A24 has acquired North American distribution rights to the Beau Travail helmer’s new sci-fi drama, which recently made its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. The distribution deal is reportedly in the low seven figures.

Festivals Reviews

THE FENCE (NYFF 2025) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

October 5, 2025October 11, 2025 Margaret Barton-Fumo claire denis, Isaach de Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce, NYFF 2025, the fence

Undeniably a master filmmaker with over 35 years of experience directing features, Claire Denis has reached the inevitable point in her career where it is difficult to live up to the standards set by her previous work. This film in particular could use a little more formal pizzazz. Due to its theatrical structure, the film runs a bit flat. The screenplay addresses many of Denis’ often explored themes, such as colonialism, desire, and homosocial relationships, but these are all touchstones represented by mostly familiar talking points. By the time night ends and the drama comes to a head, Denis has wrangled the film into something interesting, but overall The Fence stands as a rather anemic work.

Festivals News

WEEK IN WOMEN: 50+ Femme-helmed movies at TIFF 2025 – Brandy McDonnell reports

August 26, 2025August 25, 2025 Brandy McDonnell chloe zhao, female directed films, female directors, laura poitras, TIFF 2025, toronto international film festival

Directorial debuts from Scarlett Johansson, Shu Qi, Maude Apatow and Alice Winocour, the latest films from Academy Award winners Chloé Zhao and Laura Poitras, and new movies from Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland, Nia DaCosta, Isabel Coixet, Claire Denis and more are on the high-profile slate for the 50th anniversary Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Festivals

NYFF 2022’s Unfamiliar Faces: Where are they now? – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

November 17, 2022July 25, 2023 Margaret Barton-Fumo a24, Aftersun, charlotte wells, Corsage, Descendant, ifc, Laura Citarella, Laura Paredes, Margaret Brown, Marie Kreutzer, netflix, nyff, NYFF 2022, Trenque Lauquen, Vicky Krieps

A lot of big titles screened at the NYFF this year, many of which were directed by esteemed women filmmakers, including festival darlings Claire Denis, Kelly Reichardt and Joanna Hogg. Also of note were new films by Sarah Polley and Maria Schneider. Several women directors snuck in under the radar with films that largely challenged the status quo. Most of them were first-time directors or unfamiliar faces, infusing fresh blood into a somewhat tired festival circuit. We should be on the lookout for such women who enrich our filmgoing experience, introducing us to new methods of filmmaking. But where do these films go after the festival screening? The answer is not always clear-cut.

Reviews

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE – Review by Diane Carson

July 4, 2022July 9, 2022 Diane Carson Both Sides of the Blade, Christine Angot, claire denis, Grégoire Colin, Issa Perica, juliette binoche, Vincent Lindon

Winner of the prestigious Best Director Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, French director Claire Denis tackles tough emotional fare in Both Sides of the Blade. It dramatizes three people’s lives hurtling into passionate, tense moments.

Reviews

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE – Review by Leslie Combemale

June 28, 2022June 28, 2022 Leslie Combemale Both Sides of the Blade, Christine Angot, claire denis, Grégoire Colin, Issa Perica, juliette binoche, Vincent Lindon

Spending time with an old and not entirely extinguished flame when in a supposedly happy relationship is always a bad idea. It will be an ill-advised test of willpower at best, and at worst the height of hubris. That’s what happens in director Claire Denis’s romantic drama Both Sides of the Blade, which Denis wrote with co-screenwriter Christine Angot, based on Angot’s 2018 novel Un Tournant de Vie (A Turning Point of Life). They’ve created a visceral, intense slow burn about a destructive love triangle that spirals out of control with the help of stars Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, and Grégoire Colin. Denis won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival for her work on the film.

Reviews

BEAU TRAVAIL – Review by Diane Carson

September 1, 2020September 4, 2020 Diane Carson 0 Comments Agnès Godard, Beau travail, Billy Budd, claire denis, Grégoire Colin, Sailor

Inspired by Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor, French director Claire Denis’ Beau travai moves that apocryphal story from the vastness of the ocean to the desolate expanse of the desert bordering the Red Sea. Set in the East African country Djibouti at a French Foreign Legion outpost, Chief Master Sergeant Galoup narrates in flashback from Marseilles his self-destructive obsession with Gilles Sentain.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: BBC Survey Shows Women Are Left Out of Cinema History — Brandy McDonnell reports

November 9, 2018November 5, 2018 Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments agnes varda, awfj top 100 films, bbc gender study, best films, chantal ackerman, claire denis, gender parity, katia Lund

According to the BBC, 209 critics sent in their 10 greatest foreign-language films for the poll. Of these respondents, 94 were women – that’s 45 percent – yet there are only four female directors with titles in the top 100: Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels), Claire Denis (“Beau Travail), Agnès Varda (Cleo from 5 to 7), and Katia Lund (co-director of City of God).

Festivals Reviews

TIFF18 Review: High Life – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas 0 Comments claire denis, High Life, TIFF

With all the spectacular SFX majesty that has dominated the representation of space across the science fiction genre, that Claire Denis’s High Life begins less fascinated with its cosmic surroundings than the ‘spectacle’ of a single working dad sets the tone in many ways for her first English-language feature.

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