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Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2021)

Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji Run Time: 110 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2020

Country: Bhutan
Language: Dzongkha


Returning to the Film Center as part of ICYMI: Winter Season 2022, a curated selection of films you might have missed.


About the film:

Winner of audience awards for Best Feature Film and Best of the Fest at the 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival. A disillusioned schoolteacher is transferred to the most remote school in the world, cut off from modern life deep in the Himalayan glaciers. In a classroom with no electricity or even a blackboard, he finds himself with only a yak and a song that echoes through the mountains.

“this big-hearted crowd-pleaser marks a bright debut… an ideal balance of gentle humor and life-affirming drama… irresistibly entertaining”

—Richard Kuipers for Variety

Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom received a nomination for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

About the filmmaker:

Pawo Choyning Dorji is a Bhutanese photographer who has contributed to publications like “VICE”, “Esquire”, and “Life”, and has authored a trio of photography essay books. His first foray into filmmaking came when he worked as a director’s assistant for Buddhist Master and filmmaker Khyentse Norbu’s 2013 feature Vara: A Blessing, then as a producer on Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait.

Only the second feature ever submitted to the Academy Awards by Bhutan, Dorji’s debut film Lunana features a charming cast comprised almost exclusively of first-time actors and was filmed in one of the most remote human settlements on the planet in a country that measures progress by the happiness of its citizens. Read more from the filmmaker here.

Learn more about ICYMI See our upcoming films
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Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners
National Endowment for the Arts
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G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media
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They/Them/Us (2022)

Director: Jon Sherman Run Time: 90 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2021

Starring: Amy Hargreaves, Joey Slotnick

Country: United States
Language: English


Returning to the Film Center as part of ICYMI: Winter Season 2022, a curated selection of films you might have missed.

Join us for a meet-and-greet with filmmaker Jon Sherman following the screening on Saturday, April 9th.


“Unexpected take on modern parenting… a tender, witty tale of life, love and kink in Columbus”

—Hope Madden for MaddWolf

About the film:

Charlie and Lisa, two divorced parents in their 40’s, find themselves at a midlife crossroads. Both are single parents and they have four complicated teenagers between them: one non-binary gender kid, one who orders his weed through the mail, the outspoken one, and last but not least, the “good” child. Lisa and Charlie meet on a dating site, fall madly in love and move in together way too soon.

About the filmmaker:

Columbus writer and director Jon Sherman (he/him) is a champion for local, independent filmmaking, mentoring new filmmakers as an Associate Professor of Film at Kenyon College and giving students the opportunity to participate in active productions. He has written and directed films for the Oxygen Network and worked with Working Title Films, Depth of Field Productions, and Universal Pictures. After crafting his debut feature Breathing Room and the romantic comedy I’m With Lucy in New York City and Florida, Sherman was determined to craft a story with an authentic midwest identity that “shows Columbus for what it is: an energetic city filled with diverse families and open-minded, creative people.” Read more.

Sherman’s third feature film, the somewhat-autobiographical comedy They/Them/Us, was selected to be the first production of the Columbus Pictures Film Fund and employed local crew and students from Kenyon, CCAD, Otterbein, and OSU.

Filmmaker Jon Sherman joined us for a special screening and discussion on Saturday, January 29, 2022.

Learn more about ICYMI See our upcoming films
MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners
National Endowment for the Arts
WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media
See full details for They/Them/Us (2022) See full details
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Catch the Fair One (2022)

Director: Josef Wladyka Run Time: 85 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2022

Starring: Daniel Henshall, Kali Reis, Kevin Dunn, Mainaku Borrero, Michael Drayer

Country: United States
Language: English


Returning to the Film Center as part of ICYMI: Winter Season 2022, a curated selection of films you might have missed.


“a riveting vigilante story that can hold its own… In a word, it’s a knockout.”

—Peter Debruge for Variety

About the film:

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. A Native American woman embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister. The former boxer intentionally gets entangled in a human trafficking operation in order to retrace the steps of her kid sister and work her way up the chain of command to find the man responsible.

About the filmmaker:

Josef Kubota Wladyka received an MFA from New York University and was the 2010 recip­i­ent of the Spike Lee Fellowship Award. He won Best New Narrative Director at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival with his debut Manos Sucias, and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards. He directed episodes of the shows Narcos, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Terror.

His second feature Catch the Fair One is co-written by and starring real life U.S. boxing world champion Kali Reis in a debut role that earned her a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination.

Learn more about ICYMI See our upcoming films
MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners
National Endowment for the Arts
WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media
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Parallel Mothers (2021)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar Run Time: 120 min. Rating: R Release Year: 2021

Starring: Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Israel Elejalde, Milena Smit, Penélope Cruz, Rossy de Palma

Country: Spain
Language: Spanish


Returning to the Film Center as part of ICYMI: Winter Season 2022, a curated selection of films you might have missed.


“That magical connection between Almodóvar and Penelope Cruz continues to grow stronger and burn brighter with their eighth film together over the past quarter century.”

—Christy Lemire for RogerEbert.com

About the film:

Official Selection of the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Two women, Janis and Ana, forge a bond in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Over the next two years, their connection changes their lives.

Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers received nominations for Best Original Score and Best Actress for Penelope Cruz at the 94th Academy Awards.

About the filmmaker:

A regular at Cannes, Pedro Almodóvar is an internationally celebrated Spanish filmmaker known for his complex and passionate stories. Unable to attend film school, he purchased a Super 8 camera and began making short films with friends, later becoming a star of “La Movida”, the pop cultural movement of late ’70s Madrid. After founding the production company El Deseo with his brother, he crafted Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which was nominated at the 61st Academy Awards and screened at the Center alongside his recent Venice selection The Human Voice. He won his first Academy Award with All About My Mother followed by Talk to Her. His other acclaimed projects include Bad Education, The Skin I Live In, and Pain and Glory. Almodóvar has received numerous awards, including the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2019 Venice Film Festival.

In Parallel Mothers, Almodóvar worked with some of his regular collaborators, including Academy Award winner Penelope Cruz and Rossy de Palma.

Learn more about ICYMI See our upcoming films
MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners
National Endowment for the Arts
WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media
See full details for Parallel Mothers (2021) See full details
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