The Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) has announced the appointment of four new officers to its 2017 Board of Directors:
- 1st vice-chairman, Nick Maniatis, director, New Mexico State Film Office (US)
- 2nd vice-chairman, Dr. Marijana Stoisits, CEO, Vienna Film Commission (AT)
- Treasurer, Karen Carberry-Warhola, director, Maine Film Office (US)
- Secretary, Jess Conoplia, sr. VP–US Production & Events, British Film Commission (UK)
Kevin Jennings, executive manager, Film Otago Southland (NZ), continues as AFCI Chairman completing the final year of his two-year term that began in 2016.
In October 2016, AFCI announced its elected two-year term board members: Tim Clark, Buffalo Niagara Film Commission (US); Sigmund Elias Holm, film commissioner, Western Norway Film Commission (NO); Heather Page, director, Texas Film Commission (US); and Virginia Pearce, director, Utah Film Commission (US).
They join current board members with one year remaining in their respective terms: Jeanne Corcoran, Sarasota County Film & Entertainment Office (US), and Pamela Haynes, West Virginia Film Office (US).
AFCI executive director Kevin Clark applauded the results of the election. “Once again we look forward to working with a diverse, experienced and capable group leading our organization.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting โ quite literally โ into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat โ who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival โ has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive โ a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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