Seven features and 23 shorts have been selected for the the 4th Slamdunk Film
Festival, kicking off in Park City, UT on Saturday January 20th. The festival
will run four full days, and will include filmmaker discussions, industry panels,
and special presentations and seminars by Macromedia and Level 13. Founded in
1998, Slamdunk began as an alternative showcase to the Sundance fest. In the
three years since its inception, Slamdunk has quickly established itself as...
French actress Jeanne Moreau on Wednesday became the first woman to be inducted
into France's prestigious Academie des Beaux Arts. The ceremony was studded with
stars such as academy member Roman Polanski, actress Fanny Ardant, and fashion
designers Sonia Rykiel and Pierre Cardin. At 72, Moreau has enjoyed a career in
cinema and theater spanning 50 years and some 100 films, including Louis Malle's
classic Ascenseur pour l'échafaud.
...
Three noise-making films top the list of nominations for this year's Independent
Spirit Awards to be held March 24, one day before the Oscars. Chuck
& Buck, Requiem
for a Dream and You
Can Count on Me have each been nominated in five categories. Sponsored
by the nonprofit organization Independent Feature Project/West, the Spirit Awards
celebrate films with provocative subject matter and vision. The ceremony will
be hosted by John
Waters. ...
Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger has been hospitalized in California following
a stroke. Acclaimed for his 1970 film Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustan
Hoffman and Jon Voight, the 74-year-old British filmmaker is said to be in stable
condition. His illness will cause him to miss the upcoming Palm
Springs Film Festival, which has scheduled screenings of his films as part
of a tribute to him....
Actor Jon Voight has signed on to play the late Howard Cosell in Ali, which
began shooting this week. Directed by Michael Mann, the Columbia Pictures biopic
stars Will Smith in the title role. A controversial figure in American sports
broadcasting, Cosell, who died in 1995, was one of the first to publicly acknowledge
boxer Casius Clay's Muslim name....
Usually sequels
are the domain of big Hollywood studios, but it seems as if Russia is following
suit. After having had a taste of big-budgeted productions with The
Barber of Siberia, Nikita Milkhalkov intends to embark on the sequel
of Burnt by the Sun (winner of the Jury Grand Prize at Cannes 1994),
according to the Russian television station RTR. The heroine of the sequel,
a nurse taking care of the wounded on a battlefield during W.W.II, will be played
by Nadia, th...
Why bother covering film festivals, anyway? What's the big deal about
Cannes? How does Cannes compare with Berlin, Sundance, Venice, Deauville,
Chicago, Toronto, et al? See what Ruda Dauphin (Deauville), Robert Altman
(Venice, Deauville, Chicago), Piers Handling (Cannes, Toronto), Maria de
Medeiros (Cannes), Lloyd Kaufman (Cannes), Karyn Kusama (Sundance, Cannes,
Deauville), Bob Swaim (Chicago), Ben Younger (Deauville), Christopher Nolan
(Rotterdam, Venice, Deauville), Raymond de Fellita...
Fresh-faced pop star Britney Spears will make her feature acting debut in a coming-of-age
film for director Tamra Davis. Spears' own record company, Jive, will co-finance
and produce the $10 million project. The script centers on a teenage threesome
that sings its way across the country. Shooting is slated for March of this year.
...
John Cusack has signed up for double duty on the film Cosmic Banditos.
Last seen on the screen in High
Fidelity, Cusack will star in and produce the feature, about the misadventures
of some Colombian marijuana smugglers. The story is based on a soon-to-be-republished
novel by A.C. Weisbecker. ...
The 51st Berlin film festival will open on February 7 with the world premiere
of Enemy at the Gates, a German-American co-production about the pivotal
World War II battle of Stalingrad. Starring Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes and Ed Harris,
the English-language feature was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is said to
be one of the most expensive films ever made in Germany. ...
Sources in Hollywood say that Kurt Russell has been offered $5 million to play
opposite Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct 2. Just a few days ago, word had
it the film was to be dropped from the MGM roster due to complications in finding
a male match for Stone, who is reportedly receiving $15 million to get back into
the role of icepick-wielding novelist Catherine Trammel. ...
The Tromso International Film Festival will open with Sveits by Erik Smith
Meyer and Heftig og begeistret (Cool and Crazy) by Knut Erik Jensen. The
fest will close with Pierre Paul Renders' Thomas est Amoureux, which premiered
at the Venice Film Festival.
Films in competition
Aïe by Sophie Fillières
Barking
Dogs Never Bite by Joon
Bong Ho
La
Noce by Pavel Lounguine
Belo odelo by Lazar Ristovski
Djomeh
by Hassan Yektapanah
England! by Achim von Borries
A
Time for ...
The non profit
American Film Institute, announced its first ever Top-Ten list of the movies
of the year. They focused on primarily US-financed movies, which could explain
why critically acclaimed films such as Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Billy
Elliot did not make the cut.
And the winners
are ...
Almost
Famous
Before
Night Falls
Best
in Show
Erin
Brockovich
Gladiator
High
Fidelity
Requiem
for a Dream
T...
Titanic star Kate Winslet was quoted as saying she is going on her first
diet. A vocal critic of the Hollywood imperative to be thin, the curvaceous
Kate is now worried the weight she put on during pregnancy will prevent her
from getting major parts in films. The actress is currently taking time off
to get to know her daughter Mia, born last October. Her latest film, Quills,
is slated for a UK-release later this month. ...
The award-winning team behind One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus
is undertaking a film about the life of Spanish painter Francisco Goya. As usual,
Milos Forman will be in the director's chair with Saul Zaentz producing. The
story will focus on Goya's life as painter, political figure and lover within
a greater historical context including the Spanish Inquisition. Zaentz is hoping
for a spring-2002 start date. ...
Courtney Love has joined the cast of Welcome to Collinwood, from directors
and writers Anthony and Joe Russo. A Full Monty-esque comedy, the story
centers on a group of working-class Cleveland men who try to rob a pawn shop.
Love will star as a woman who helps them in their endeavor. Shooting is scheduled
for late March. ...
Jennifer Aniston is getting friendly with Miguel Arteta and Matthew Greenfield,
the director-producer duo behind last year's indie flic Chuck
& Buck. They are hoping to cast her in their next project, Girl,
about the strife of a young woman working at a discount store in a small town.
The Myriad-produced feature is slated for a March shooting start. ...
The American Peter Scarlet has been named to replace Dominique Païni as director
of the French Cinematheque. Born in 1943, Scarlet has directed the San Francisco
Film Festival for the last 18 years. He was chosen despite a letter signed by
filmmakers including Pedro Almodovar and Youssef Chahine requesting that Pierre-Henri
Deleau, director of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs de Cannes, be selected. Scarlet
will be assisted by Catherine Gaston-Mahé. ...
Nortel
Networks Palm Springs International Film Festival
January 11 - 22 (Palm Spring, CA)
Opening Film
The
Golden Bowl by James Ivory
One half of the award-winning team of Merchant Ivory, Ivory was
born in Berkeley, California. His credits include Heat and Dust
(1982), Room with a View (1986), Howard's End (1992)
and Remains o...
The American Peter Scarlet has been named to replace Dominique Païni as director
of the French Cinematheque. Born in 1943, Scarlet has directed the San Francisco
Film Festival for the last 18 years. He was chosen despite a letter signed by
filmmakers including Pedro Almodovar and Youssef Chahine requesting that Pierre-Henri
Deleau, past director of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs de Cannes, be selected. Scarlet
will be assisted by Catherine Gaston-Mahé. ...
Nortel
Networks Palm Springs International Film Festival
January 11 - 22 (Palm Spring, CA)
Opening Film
The
Golden Bowl by James Ivory
One half of the award-winning team of Merchant Ivory, Ivory was
born in Berkeley, California. His credits include Heat and Dust
(1982), Room with a View (1986), Howard's End (1992)
and Remains o...
Nortel
Networks Palm Springs International Film Festival
January 11 - 22
"We are truly delighted to be honoring Nicolas Cage, Ridley Scott
and Randy Newman this year," says Denis Pregnolato. "These individuals
are unparalleled in their individual professions. Their acceptance
of our awards, is an honor for us as well."
Nicolas Cage will receive one of the...
Goteborg
Film Festival
January 26 - February 4 (Sweden)
Films
at Goteborg vie for a number of prizes, including the Göteborgs-Posten's
Nordic Competition Award, in co-operation with Göteborg Film Festival
(SEK 100.000 and the statuette "The Film Fox"), for the best film;
the Kodak Nordic Vision Award (SEK 50.000) for best photography;
and the Canal+ Nordi...
35 year old
director, Rob Schmidt's 2nd feature, Crime
& Punishment in Suburbia was intended to be a straight
to video, point of reference, teen-cult movie for an audience that he
was once part of - the disenfranchised youth of the suburban mid west.
Then it went to Sundance and London, kicked up a big stink, was unfairly
referred to as another American
Beauty and received an 'R' rating for violence on the cusp
of th...
You
shoot Vincent’s school to look like a prison. Was that how it felt
to you as a teenager?
Yeah, I was really unhappy in High School; much of what went on wasn’t
about learning, it was about order. I’m not sure how I’d feel
about it now, at 35, but a lot of what went on in my High School I couldn’t
relate to or understand. High School was like a prison for me. At the
same time I was president of ...
