Interview with Amir Manor for ‘Epilogue’ (2012).
Amir Manor is an Israeli director who has made four short films ('Pouring Sun', 2006; 'Reds', 2007; 'Ruin', 2008; 'Lands', 2008) and one feature film, ‘Epilogue’ (2012), which screened in the international competition at the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The film won four awards at TIFF: Special Jury Award for Originality and Innovation, Best Screenplay Award, Human Values...
Director Richard Gray and screenwriter Michele Gray of 'The Lookalike' (2013) on set in New Orleans.
Crime drama ‘The Lookalike’ (2013) wrapped its fourth week of filming this week in New Orleans, Louisiana. While the set breaks for Christmas and New Years, filming will recommence in early January. The film has an air of magic about it, capturing the essence of organic New Orleans. Filmic jambalaya, this is Nola noir with an Australian accent. While reminiscent of ...
Nine foreign films out of seventy-five have been shortlisted for the 85th Academy Awards "Best Foreign Film" category. The list will be shortened to five and then only one will win the coveted Oscar.
The nine shortlisted films are:
Austria, “Amour,” Michael Haneke, director; Canada, “War Witch,” Kim Nguyen, director; Chile, “No,” Pablo Larraín, director; Denmark, “A Royal Affair,” Nikolaj Arcel, director; France, &ldquo...
‘Superclassico’ (2011) by Danish director Ole Christian Madsen was one of the best films I’ve seen of 2011. A relentlessly bittersweet romantic comedy set in Buenos Aires, Christian (played by Anders Berthelsen) is a middle-aged Danish wine seller whose wife leaves him for a younger man. Christian’s wife, Anna (Paprika Steen), is a soccer agent working in Buenos Aires who is tired of her routine married life with Christian and opts for an exciting existence with her Lat...
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ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY / DISTINGUISHED RUSSIAN DIRECTOR / WRAPS HIS 75TH BIRTHDAY YEAR WITH A BANG
The celebrations concluded in style as award-winning film and theatre director ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY wrapped his UK retrospective tour on November 21. A popular screening of his multi-award-winning Uncle Vanya at Warwick Arts Centre marked the final stop in a year-long series of international events and screenings which have taken place across Russia, Slovakia, B...
Interview with director Cristian Mungiu
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu is a prolific filmmaker with each of his feature films having held premiers at the Cannes Film Festival. His first feature ‘Occident’ (2002) screened in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes. He later won the Palme d’Or for his film ‘Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days’ (2007). His most recent film ‘Beyond the Hills’ (2012) was nominated for the Palme d’Or and won aw...
'A Month in Thailand' (2012) by writer/director Paul Negoescu
‘A Month In Thailand’ (2012) by writer/director Paul Negoescu screened in competition recently at the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The film depicts a grey Bucharest, Romania in the course of one night in the life of 'Radu' (played by actor Andrei Mateiu), a lost twenty-something who leaves his current girlfriend to go in search of his past one. In a world full of too many choices and endless possibilit...
Interview with Vahid Vakilifar at 53rd TIFF.
Persian filmmaker Vahid Vakilifar’s latest feature ‘Taboor’ (2012) ran in competition at the 53rd Thessaloniki Film Festival. This is his second feature; his first was ‘Gesher’ in 2010. As producer, screenwriter and director of ‘Taboor’, Vahid won a First Special Mention Award at TIFF. I interviewed him at the Electra Palace, Thessaloniki. Here is what he had to say.
ME: What does ‘Taboor&rsq...
HOLY MOTORS (2012) premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and most recently opened the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival
HOLY MOTORS:
Is it gratuitous shock-value pomp or high surrealistic cinematic genius? You decide…
A swarthy dwarfish (though not a dwarf) Parisian, ‘Monsieur Oscar’ (played by Denis Lavant), lives for the night like some kind of vampire or ancient fiend feeding off humanity’s basest Chthonic nature. By day he is a loving f...
Aki Kaurismäki is best known for his oeuvre of films including: ‘Leningrad Cowboys Go America’ (1989), ‘The Man Without A Past’ (2002), which ran in competition at Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar in 2002, and his most recent film ‘Le Havre' (2011), which ran in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Recently, Aki Kaurismäki was honored for his life achievement at the 53rd Thessaloniki Film Festival. On the 6th November, ...
During the 53rd Thessaloniki Film Festival, beloved Greek director Costa-Gavras attended the Greek premier of his latest film ‘Capital’ (2012). The film focuses on the world’s current economic situation where big business and capital are partaking in a form of economic terrorism with many conglomerate corporations controlling much of the world’s wealth resulting in the crippling of whole national economies. Greece itself has felt the repercussions of this crises and glo...
photo by Vanessa McMahon
Interview with Bahman Ghobadi
During the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi was honored for his great oeuvre of films. Five of his films- ‘A Time for Drunken Horses’, 2000; ‘Turtles Can Fly’, 2004; ‘Half Moon’, 2006; ‘No One Knows About Persian Cats’,...
The film ‘John Dies At the End’ (2012) screened at the 45th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival (October 4-14). ‘John Dies At the End’ won 3rd place for The People’s Choice Award at the 2012 TIFF’s Midnight Madness. The film’s veteran ‘fantastic’ director Don Coscarelli (‘Phantasm' saga; Bubba Ho-Tep, 2002) attended the Sitges screening of his latest film where he was awarded the Time Machine Award for his prestig...
The Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia; October 4-14, 2012.
Arguably the world’s most renown international horror/fantasy film festival takes place each year on the Balearic Sea riviera in Sitges, Spain at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. The festival opened yesterday for its 45th edition with the Spanish murder mystery thriller ‘El Cuerpo’ ('The Body', 2012) by director Oriol Paulo starring José Coronado, B...
Interview with English/Turkish Cypriot actor Akin Gazi, the hot new face of BIG cinema ('The Devil's Double', 2011; 'Black Gold' 2011; and now 'Zero Dark Thirty', 2012). Look out for this up and coming mega talent. He has already been on the side of buses in Qatar... Will UK be next? Read our up close and personal interview below.
ME: How did you get into acting and when did you know that you want to act?
AKIN: When I was a child I loved spending time in my imaginat...
The Slovenian film ‘A Trip’ (‘Izlet’, 2011) by writer/director Nejc Gazvoda will represent Slovenia at the 2013 Oscars. Out of all international films contending for the ‘Foreign Film’ category, only one will win for 'Best Foreign Film'. The 85th Academy Awards will take place Feb. 24, 2013.
'A Trip' has received nominations and awards at international film festivals the world over. It won ‘Best Screenplay’ by Nejc Gazvoda, ‘Best Acting&r...
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“TRASHED” (2012) screened Saturday, September 29 at 9:00PM at the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema in London
Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons and Academy Award-winning composer Vangelis attended screening
“TRASHED” HITS PICCADILLY AND TAKES JEREMY IRONS ON A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY, DISBELIEF AND HOPE
London, UK: Candida Brady brings her hot topic film "TRASHED" to the Raindance Film Festiva...
Aussie director/producer Miranda Edmonds with 'Tango Underpants' at Cinefest OZ, 2012
Aussie director/producer Miranda Edmonds' (Impian Films) latest venture is a short film entitled: 'Tango Underpants' (2012); it first began to create a buzz in August at Cinefest OZ 2012, and continues to do so during its development and production. Here's what Miranda had to say about this...
Reykjavík Fest Opens Thursday with Queen of Montreuil
Reykjavík International Film Festival opens on Thursday with a screening of Queen of Montreuil by Sólveig Anspach in Harpa Music Hall. The festival runs for eleven days, until October 7th. The award ceremony takes place on October 6th. RIFF was founded in 2004, making this its ninth edition. Honorary guests include Dario Argento, Susanne Bier and Marjane Satrapi. Geoff Gilmore leads jury.
The competitive section...
Mine Games (2012); A Review.
Australian director Richard Gray’s (‘Summer Coda’, 2010) latest film ‘Mine Games’ (2012) is an inventive psychological thriller ahead of its time with philosophical undertones akin to the deep esoteric style of Lynch and Hitchcock.
Produced by US production company Vitamin A Films, ‘Mine Games’ s...
THE TURNING (2013)
During Cinefest-OZ, actor and patron to the festival David Wenham discussed his recent turn from acting to directing in the film ‘The Turning’, an adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same title, ‘The Turning’ by Australian novelist Tim Winton.
The film will be produced by Australia’s award-winning director/producer Robert Connolly (Underground, 2012; Balibo, 2009) and will be an experimental venture of about 14 short films completely indepe...
The international singsong hit ‘The Sapphires’ (2012) held its world premier at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and this coming week it will hold its North American premier at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film is about a native Australian all-female soul band that travels to Vietnam during the Vietnam War to uplift the morale of the soldiers fighting there, during which time these young talented soul-sisters find greater meaning to their own life and have the t...
Six months ago, I flew out from Toronto to LA to screen the first ever cut of the film Mine Games (2012). There were four of us in the room, one of them being one of the industry’s most important icons of the psychological-thriller/horror genre. The film left us stimulated and full of ...
Mario Andreacchio
Many refer to Mario Andreacchio as the father of international co-production. Mario has been directing and producing for almost 30 years and has overseen the co-production of Australia with most European countries; most recently he has become an expert on co-production with China and the world.
Mario regularly leads panels and discussions on co-productions with China and the world. With all eyes presently on China for its increase in wealth and opportunitie...
David Barton (Chairman) and David Wenham (Patron).
Before attending ‘Cinefest-OZ’ 2012, I had never even heard of the small town of Busselton, WA, cozily tucked away in southwest Australia just 220km south of Perth. I came, I saw, I conquered, and now my international film festival experience is richer after having visited this unique little beach town and its one of a kind boutique wine and film festival.
This Western Australian region is simply s...
