Taika Waititi will attend the 2012 Berlinale with his new film project (currently in development) JOJO RABBIT (2012). Taika is an actor/writer/director from the Raukorekore region of east coast New Zealand and of Te-Whanau-a-Apanui descent.
Two years ago his film BOY (2010) held its North American premier at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film BOY, above and beyond, is everything a superb film can aspire to be. It is by far one of the greatest film achievements I have seen ...
FOR ALL NEWS, INTERVIEWS AND FILM REVIEWS OF FILM LINEUP AT THIS YEAR'S PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (to be updated daily) READ HERE:
http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/palm_springs
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Four films from the Middle East in competition at Sundance!
Read article: http://varietyarabia.com/Docs.Viewer/bcca711f-f994-4451-a618-4d175892df0f/default.aspx
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THE ARTIST (2011) had its world premier in Cannes last May where it won Best Actor (Jean Dujardin) and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Recently it won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musicaland, Golden Globe Best Original Score - Motion Picture Ludovic Bource, and Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical Thomas Langmann.
The Oscar nominations have now been announced and THE ARTIST holds heavy at the top o...
A SEPARATION (Iran, 2011) by director Asghar Farhadi
Nominated for an Oscar for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’, A SEPARATION has been stunning audiences since its open at the 2011 Berlinale last February. Most recently, it screened at the 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF 2012).
Bank employee Nader (played by Peyman Moadi) wants to stay in Iran but his wife Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to leave. A traditionalist stuck in the past and unable to leave his be...
Generation "П" (GENERATION P, 2011) held its world premier this week at the 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2012.
Based on the book by Russian writer Victor Pelevin, the film is directed by American/Russian director Victor Ginzburg. The film is about Babylen Tatarsky, a copywriter for a major advertising company in the late 90’s in
Post-Soviet Russia. Babylen is put to the test by the advertising firm to find the 'new Russian identity'. Well, what se...
EMILY BLUNT TO ATTEND OPENING NIGHT SCREENING OF
“SALMON FISHING IN TH E YEMEN ” AT 2012 PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
PSIFF PRESS RELEASE
British actress Emily Blunt will attend the Opening Night screening of SALMON FISHING IN YEMEN
The Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on Thursday, January 5 with the screening of CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, followed by a reception at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Directed by Oscar©-nomi...
APOCALYPTO
While bringing in the New Year in Mayan Mexico, how can I not think of this extraordinary film APOCALYPTO (2006) by Mel Gibson that gives cinematic verisimilitude a new meaning… Not only are they speaking ancient Yucatan Mayan!... but seriously, this film takes us hundreds of years back to pre-Columbian Meso-America. Gibson creates true cinema remarkably achieved, transporting us to this ancient world and its collective myth psychology.
In this arresting scene, ...
Focus on ARAB CINEMA at the 23rd Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.
At the 23rd Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival this year (January 05-16, 2012), a showcase of Arab cinema from North Africa to the Middle East will be screened. The film lineup entitled: ‘ARABIAN NIGHTS: A Showcase from the Middle East’ will premier 11 films from the new wave of pan-Arabic cinema this past year during one of the region’s most explosive and revolutionary per...
WITHOUT (2011) is a haunting coming of age psychological drama about a young girl who becomes a caretaker to an old man who is practically a vegetable. In small town America almost in the middle of nowhere Joslyn has little to no internet signal and is cut off, ‘without’ any and all outside communication. She has to assimilate into this new life with her near-death patient and the provincial frustrated locals; further, she is dealing with the overwhelming loss of the love of her l...
It's Christmas time and of course there are so many great Christmas classics to choose from for a 'Looking Back'...
I don’t know why I always think of this film at Christmastime... maybe because this arresting Zemeckis masterpiece begins at Christmas when FedEx boss Chuck Noland is torn from his life and the love of his life, Kelly (Helen Hunt), after undergoing a fatal plane crash over the South Pacific. Chuck is the only survivor and, against all odds, subsists on...
At this year’s Festival du Film de Marrakech, the competition selection included fifteen films from over fifteen nationalities. The Festival Grand Prize went to OUT OF BOUNDS (Denmark, 2011) by director Frederikke Aspöck.
Danish director Frederikke Aspöck
Frederikke Aspock’s film -Out of Bounds-, which debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, won The Golden Star Grand Prize. When I asked the film’s producer Thomas Heinesen about his film winning this award he stated: “Ob...
Jean-Jacques Annaud in Marrakech
One of the significant features of the 2011 Festival International du Film de Marrakech, (aside from the comprehensive selection of international films screened in and out of competition) was the lineup of five master classes held da...
Last week during the 2011 Festival du Film de Marrakech, the legendary English/French director Roland Joffé gave a master class to attentive fans. Joffe has directed such classics as THE KILLING FIELDS (1984), THE MISSION (1986), CITY OF JOY (1992) and VATEL (2000). When asked in particular about his most celebrated masterpiece- THE MISSION- Joffe expressed the following:
Roland Joffé:
When I made THE MISSION (1986) and worked with Robert De Niro, of cour...
It's high time for another one of my
'LOOKING BACK, Cinema's Greatest Moments'...
With all the TWILIGHT: SAGA's (I must be one of the only people in the world who is NOT a fan) I can't help but fill up with nostalgia for the vampire films I was watching to obsession when I was a teenager...
BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (in my opinion) is one of Coppola's great masterpieces... The film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel: 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'. Here are some scen...
With the opening of Indian film 'DON 2' (2011) starring Bollywood giant Shah Rukh Khan, Khan has been popping up everywhere recently to promote his new film. Last week it was the Festival du Film de Marrakech and this week Dubai at DIFF. While Khan tells the world that his character ‘Don’ of the DON feature film series is his favorite character he has ever played, I would venture to say that the favorite character the world has seen him play is that of 'Rizvan Khan' in the blockbuste...
Last night December 7th, 2011 saw the opening of the 8th Dubai International Film Festival. This was pure madness at the Madinat Arena theater when Tom Cruise came to walk the red carpet for the DIFF opening feature- MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL (2011).
This was one of the most anticipated events in cinema for all of 2011. The megablockbuster hit was partly shot in Dubai and therefore made a proud open for the festival. The premier was followed by an exclusive beach party ...
Director Gabriel Achim
When I met Romanian director Gabriel Achim, I asked him about his film and he said this: 'Well, if you like intellectual porn then you will like my film...' Well, what a pitch because I couldn’t wait to see it, and indeed ADALBERT'S DREAM (Visul Lui Adalbert, 2011) IS ‘Intellectual Porn’… Read below to get to first base. But to go all the way, you’ll have to see the film!
ME: why is it called ‘Adalb...
A TRIP (2011) producer Ales Pavlin
The Slovenian film IZLET (A TRIP, 2011) by writer/director Nejc Gazvoda and producer Ales Pavlin most recently traveled to the 52nd Thessaloniki Film Festival (TIFF) and screened in competition at 'Cinedays' in Skopje, Macedonia. A TRIP's 'trip' will continue to Goa, India for the Goa Film Festival and then begin its tour in the USA. It is the first feature film (of what promises to be many) for both writer/director Nejc and producer Ales.
I in...
The Slovenian film IZLET (A TRIP, 2011) by writer/director Nejc Gazvoda held its world premier in Sarajevo this year at the 17th Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF). The film screened in competition and was nominated for Best Film. In only four months of touring festivals, the film has been nominated for Best Film in several festivals around the world and won the award for Best Feature Film at its national Slovene...
film still from 'BEHOLD THE LAMB' (2011) The Irish film BEHOLD THE LAMB (2011) by writer/director John McIlduff walked away with the Golden Alexander for Best Screenplay at the 2011 Thessaloniki Film Festival (TIFF). As director John McIlduff had already departed the festival, the film’s producer Kevin Jackson accepted the award for him and carried it with him all night with it clasped tightly to his chest.Well, it seems that this black comedy ...
Production company California Pictures' first theatrical release, A WARRIOR’S HEART (2011), makes a warrior-like entrance into cinemas on Friday December 02, 2011. While American audiences have seen umpteen sports films about baseball and football, this will be the first film about Lacrosse, giving insight to a lesser known but age-old North American sport, which originated with the Native Americans and continues to be played today in various parts of the nation. When the loose...
70 FILMS IN 10 DAYS!!!
I have just returned from CINEDAYS in Skopje, Macedonia where they impressively screened 70 films in just 10 days! The film event is now 10 years old, but as of the last 2 years it has started to hold a competition section for Balkan films, as well as press conferences and Q and A series with competition film directors. So, it looks like Cinedays, Skopje is changing face. Might it become an important international event in the near future and put Skopje mo...
photo still from 'THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD' (2011) THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (2011) screened last week at the 52nd Thessaloniki Film Festival (TIFF) 2011. Director Joshua Marston once again impresses audiences with his one-of-a-kind filmic verisimilitude. Similar to his international hit MARIA FULL OF GRACE (2004), which was filmed in Columbia and in Columbian Spanish with English subtitles, this globe-trotting American does the same with FORGIVENES...
EIGHTY LETTERS (2011) by Czech director Václav Kadrnka is a day in the life of European bureaucracy in 1987 Czechoslovakia. While the mother of a fourteen year-old boy runs around town from one office to another, signing this paper and that, the boy joins her and watches with intrigue this dizzying official system of communist Eastern Europe. In one scene, the boy must run to the post office to get a stamp that is missing on the papers, this...
