-THE WRAP 'SHORTLIST' FILM FESTIVAL 2013-
FINALISTS ANNOUNCED IN THEWRAP’S “SHORTLIST” FILM FESTIVAL 2013. ENTRIES INCLUDED WINNERS OF SUNDANCE, BOSTON AND LA FILM FESTIVALS. MTV & CINEDIGM OFFER PRIZES.
On August 29, 2013 in Los Angeles – TheWrap.com awarded the finalists for its second annual “ShortList” Online Film festival, August 19-29, 2013.
The 12 distinguished finalists include shorts prize winners from the Sundance Film Festival and t...
Producer/Director Bob Connolly (The Turning, 2013)
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-OFFICIAL CINEFESTOZ MEDIA RELEASE-
24th August 2013. CinefestOZ Gala Night wraps up star event with record growth: New vision opportunity
CinéfestOZ has exceeded expectations with over 39 film events extended from Bunbury to Augusta and a total ...
CINEFEST OZ OFFICIAL MEDIA RELEASE.
21st August 2013 CinèfestOZ Opening Night set to shine!
CinèfestOZ, the rapidly expanding Busselton-based Film Festival will present its strongest line-up of Australian film over five days, beginning today with the acclaimed Opening Night Australian film The Rocket.
The film is one of 12 premiere screenings at the festival, created to showcase the best of new Australian and French film against the stunning backdrop of the S...
THE ACT OF KILLING (2013) is a 7-10 year in the making documentary about the mass-killings of communists in Indonesia in the mid 1960’s. The film has international audiences in awe of its avant-garde filmmaking techniques never before explored. Joshua Oppenheimer’s organic and daring originality is so visceral that the film screens like a painting, which journeys directly into the oftentimes dark and arresting void of human nature.
Recently the film’s Executive Produ...
At a time when independent cinema is struggling to survive more than ever, one independent film producer is at the top of his game, currently taking over Hollywood and the world. Prolific powerhouse producer Randall Emmett has produced over 77 films during his career and he is just getting started. There are few places in the world that have escaped the saturation of P&A for his latest film 2 GUNS (2013) by acclaimed Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (CONTRABAND, 2012; THE DEEP, ...
There are three films in development right now about the impressive historical figure Gertrude Bell (aka the 'female Lawrence of Arabia') by these three directors- Ridley Scott, Werner Herzog and Alexa-Sascha Lewin. While Alexa is the less known director, she is the only one that is a woman telling the story of the nonconformist peacemaker and 'kingmaker' Gertrude Bell from the perspective of the female gaze. Having spent over five years of her life devoted to the research...
On July 24, the Latin American premier for HELI (2013) by Mexican director Amat Escalante took place at the Guanajuato International Film Festival in Mexico.
Anyone who has seen the film agrees that HELI is heavy… The film opens with a bloody teenaged boy beaten by thugs and hung to death from a bridge with his pants down. HELI proves a veritable Hell of a world. It’s a lawless desert where the sun has set on things like justice, morality and basic human decency. After all, ...
The Deflowering of Eva Van End by Dutch filmmaker Michiel ten Horn is a quirky comedy reminiscent of the American hit Little Miss Sunshine (2006). The Deflowering of Eva Van End is a smart comedy about an eccentric dysfunctional Dutch family that hosts a well-traveled German exchange student who uses his weird and worldly ways to open the minds of his hosts.
The film recently screened at the 2013 Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF). I interviewed actor Tomer...
The winner of this year’s Aruba Flavor Shorts
at the 4th annual Aruba International Film Festival (AIFF) is newcomer Mexican/American director Leonardo Aguirre for his film Back of Beyond (2013).
The film ends with this Latin phrase: ‘A diabolo, qui est simia dei’ (‘From the devil, who is the ape of God’).
With an almost supernatural tone, this haunting tale is a question of faith in a world standing at the edge of a precipice. The film is set...
Peruvian director Adrián Saba’s breakout first feature film ‘The Cleaner’ (‘El Limpiador’, 2012) has won multiple awards (including the prestigious the New Voices/New Visions award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival) and traveled to numerous film festivals around the globe since its world premier in the New Directors category of the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
This haunting and lyrical Peruvian gem is reminiscent of the post apo...
When I met Sebastián Lelio it was under the influence of ‘Carpathia’ vodka and in the bowels of a dark Transylvanian nightclub. Sebastian, myself, and a group of others were dancing our booties off to this summer’s club music hits. None of us knew each other’s name, but we were all smiling cheek-to-cheek, dancing and bonding. We were happy and free celebrating life beyond worldview, career or age. The next day I went to see Sebastián’s f...
At the Cannes film market during the 66th Cannes Film Festival, I thought it would be interesting to interview an international buyer from one of the hottest (and rapidly transforming) international territories; Asia.
While running to a meeting to see the famous Bob Jones (president of IPA Asia Pacific), I was stopped by two sales agents and asked to attend a lunch with them. I said I couldn’t as I was already running late for an important meeting with ‘Bob’. Immediate...
SAMSARA (2011) by filmmakers Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson is the follow-up to the epic non-narrative film BARAKA (1992), which made cinematic history twenty years ago with its arresting 70mm Panavision System images filmed in 24 countries. Described by director Ron Fricke as a ‘guided meditation’ BARAKA still has people dropping their jaw at the astonishing innovative camera work and intercutting of the haunting musical score. Now, the filmmakers bring...
‘Paradise: Love’ (‘Paradies: Liebe’, 2012).
No one comments about sexual tourism when it deals with men traveling to foreign countries for bargain sex (Amsterdam, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, etc., etc.) but when Ulrich Seidl takes on the anything but subtle subject of women traveling the globe for sex tourism, the film is controversial and hotly debated. Sometimes labeled as racist and vulgar, ‘Paradise: Love’ is a story about consensual sex for money between ...
painting: The Titian painting Venus with a Mirror, from which Severin gets the idea of Venus in furs.
'Venus with a Penis' by Vanessa McMahon.
Based on the 1870 Austrian novella ‘Venus im Pelz’ by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Roman Polanski’s latest film, "La Vénus à la fourrure" (‘Venus in Fur’, 2013) recently screened in competition at the 66th Cannes Film Festival.
Set in a Paris theater playwright and director &ls...
During the illustrious and world-renown Cannes Film Festival, which just celebrated the close to its 66th year, the St Tropez International Film Festival took place next door in Nice, France from May 13th-17th. One of the films to feature at this year’s St. Tropez Film Festival was ‘Dusty’s Trail: Summit of Borneo’ (2013), a labor of love documentary about Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disease that affects boys and young men around the world. The film by newcom...
If love had a color would it be blue?
Directed by Tunisian born French native Abdellatif Kechiche, ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ ("La Vie d’ Adèle", 2013) is an enterprising story that reminds us of the nature of true love. Despite the awe-inspiring explicit lesbian lovemaking scenes that even had the French gasping for air in the theater, this is not merely a story about a gay couple and their passionate bedroom affair; rather, it’s about the na...
Irish director Ruairi Robinson’s feature film debut, sci-fi thriller ‘Last Days on Mars’ (2013), screened at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight section. Written by Clive Dawson, the film is about the last days an astronaut crew spends on their journey to Mars. During their trip they find some vestiges of life on this supposedly dead planet. In their last hours before leaving, the extraterrestrial life turns out to be more evolved than they thought...
‘Terms and Conditions May Apply’ (2013) is an acutely relevant documentary that anyone who uses any communication tool whatsoever-internet, computer, tablet, phone, etc.- must see. It is an accurate nail-biting suspense of a very real situation all of us buy into and sign up for every day, and yet neglect to really think about. Director Cullen Hoback’s thesis in ‘Terms and Conditions’ is a vital piece of journalism reminding us of the essence of freedom th...
'Matt’s Chance' (2013) is the third feature by the prolific talent Nicholas Gyeney. This is a surreal Dramedy about ‘Matt’ (Edward Furlong) who hasn’t had much luck in his young life, so who can blame him for drowning out his sorrows in a seedy bar professing the blues? The film opens on an inebriated Matt drinking a beer at the bar as he recounts a story to his friend about how he finally got lucky and met the girl of his dreams, ‘Jessica’ (Brandy K...
‘The Iceman’ (2012) is based on the true story of Richard Leonard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, a veritable sociopath who led parallel lives- a brutal contract killer and a devoted family man- until his arrest in 1986. Richard was an American hitman who joined the mafia as a contract killer for the DeCavalcante crime family in New Jersey and the Five Families in New York. Directed by Ariel Vromen, the film stars Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta, Chris Evans, David Schw...
Director Paul Osborne’s film ‘Favor’ (2013) is a dark dramatic satire about two best friends who help each other with a series of favors. ‘Kip’ (Blayne Weaver) lives a seemingly perfect male chauvinist life with a well-paying ‘suit’ job, a hot stay-at-home wife and a sexy mistress on the side. One day, tragedy hits the calm in Kip's life, sending everything into a domino-effect series of chaotic events until it all seems anything but perfect. Enter...
Produced by Geoff Clark and his ‘Something Kreative’ production company, and directed by Justin Le Pera, ‘Isolated’ (2013) is a film about five professional surfers who travel to a ‘No Media Zone’ in western Papua New Guinea in search of unexplored virgin waves and a unique adventure, but find themselves in the midst of a political hot zone and a journey that will change their mission and their lives.
What starts as a story of extreme surfers in search of p...
Not many professional actresses in the film industry can boast that they are also an award-winning stuntwoman, and a film producer. The beautiful and charismatic Kiwi actress/stuntwoman/producer Zoe Bell started her career as a gymnast in New Zealand and later became a stuntwoman for TV’s ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ and 'Hercules' and for films including ‘Kill Bill’ Vol. 1&2, ‘Inglorious Bastards’ and ‘Django Unchained&rsqu...
"Battle for the Elephants" (2013) by director John Heminway screened recently at the 16th Sonoma International Film Festival.
In this stunning and emotionally harrowing film that gives a voice to the endangered elephant, we follow journalists Bryan Christy and Aidan Hartley between Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and China as they attempt to penetrate into the psychology of the Chinese and their reasoning behind the ongoing slaughter of these majestic animals for their ivory tusks, even at ...
