Slamdance will screen 19 feature films 7 documentaries and 21 shortsFEATURE FILMS SCREENING IN COMPETITION: DEAR PILLOW - (USA, 85 min., Narrative, 2003). WORLD PREMIERE A 17-year-old supermarket bag boy finds a mentor in a porno magazine writer and soon he is enmeshed in some very adult situations. Directed by Bryan Poyser. www.dearpillow.com GOLDFISH GAME - (Belgium, 105 min., Narrative, 2002) US PREMIERE In this modern day fable about an extended family that comes together at a castle in the ...
Slamdance's motto is "By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers" aptly describes the programming team, which is largely comprised of alumni filmmakers. The Slamdance Film Festival serves as a showcase for the discovery of emerging film talent. Slamdance's mission is to support and nurture innovative artists. The organization's goals for the future are to strengthen its year-round organization and evolve the Slamdance brand into new ventures that will support emerging filmmakers. Special screenings have show...
THE WINNERS OF THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2003 were announced December 6 in a celebration of European film uniting filmmakers, film fans and film students from across Europe for the 16th European Film Awards at Berlin's Arena. Absolute favorite in view of massive european box office success for a german film Good Bye Lenin took 4 home, much to the surprise of the director and Main actor Daniel Bruehl.4 awards include best eurpean film, best director, best actor, best actress.(What's missing Lenin?...
How good does a movie have to be to be “relevant?” Is it the implied message, or the delivery system, the power of the story itself that makes or breaks it. The obvious answer, of course, is the story. No story, no characters that are interesting and relatable, then no relevance. Or so it goes.It’s a tried and true formula, be it from the biggest of studios to the tiniest of indie films shot on the run, but I witnessed an interesting twist on the premise this past week-end at the Santa Fe ...
Sundance, Park city, Salt Lake City
Opening
Night
Riding Giants
will open Sundance festivities in Park City, January
15th
A documentary by Stacy Peralta (the skateboarder-turned-filmmaker who won the
director's prize at Sundance 2001 for the extreme-sports documentary "Dogtown
and Z-Boys). Screenwriters - Stacy Peralta and Sam George. The first docu to
open Sundance ever.
"Watching
a 90-foot wave coming across the screen at the Eccles is somethi...
It wasn’t shown first at Cannes or Venice this year, instead Saraband , Ingmar Bergman’s latest film made for television, premiered on SVT1 - Sveriges Television on December 1. Television is where the film will stay, as Bergman refuses to allow it to be shown in movie theaters in Sweden. The reason why Saraband was not part of the lineup at Venice allegedly was because Bergman was unhappy with the technical quality of the HDTV but he claims it was never meant for the movie theater.
...
River to River. Florence Indian Film FestivalFrom December 10-14, 2003 the third edition of the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival, the only European film festival entirely dedicated to cinema both from and about India, will arrive in Florence. The festival is organized by Luca Marziali and Selvaggia Velo of bdjMEDIA.Screenings will take place at the Spazio Uno Cinema in Via del Sole, 10, Florence - Italy. PRESS RELEASE N.3River to River. Florence Indian Film FestivalFrom December 10-1...
The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to bring remarkable or urgent feature films and feature length creative documentaries by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries closer to fulfillment. The HBF provides grants that often turn out to play a crucial role in enabling these filmmakers to realize their projects. In its Fall 2003 Selection Round, Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam grants a total of Euro 467,000 to twenty-eight non-Western film-maker...
’Once We Were Birds: Romani Cinema’ is one of the thematic sidebars within the festival (alongside ’Homefront USA’ and ’Power : Play’).
It will be devoted to films by and about the Roma and thus continues a tradition in the festival of celebrating the voices and the riches of unsung cultures. A large selection of features, shorts and documentaries will include films by Romani directors featuring Romani actors and the majority of them in the Romani language. Very rarely seen clas...
Forty-seven film projects have been selected for the 21st CineMart, the first and largest co-production market worldwide, to be held January 25 - 29, 2004 as part of the 33rd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.CineMart director Ido Abram: "With this promising line up of film projects by established film-makers as well as projects by new talents from all continents, we are looking forward to a very strong 21st CineMart. We feel that this selection connects extremely well with th...
Fiction film sectionOrisel Gaspar, one of the lead actresses of Siete dias, siete noches (Seven Days, Seven Nights), had written a song especially for the closing ceremony of the Festival of the 3 continents in Nantes, western France. She definitely put her whole heart in her voice when she sung her moving lyrics after Cuban director Joel Cano received the Montgolfière d’Or for the film in which she co-stars. The movie, which depicts a week in the lives of three very strong women in Cuba, i...
After nearly two years of planning, organizers estimate over 8,000 tickets were sold throughout the four day event.A sell-out crowd of 400 gathered at Blue Ridge Motion Pictures Saturday night for the Asheville Film Festival’s awards program during the Charles Schwab Spotlight celebration. After screening more than 50 films throughout the weekend, festival attendees anxiously awaited the announcement of winners from the documentary, feature, short and student film categories. Event organizer,...
Cold Creek Manor" was born when screenwriter and executive producer Richard Jefferies was writing "Tron 2.0" for Walt Disney Pictures. Over dinner with the studio's top creative executives one night, Jefferies mentioned an idea that he had been toying with for several years. It was a thriller about a family that moves from the city to the country, where they buy a great old fixer-upper house. But their dream turns into a nightmare when the home's former owner shows up and a mystery unravels. ...
Untitled Document
The Future's Bright, The Future's Figgis
Despite the imminent release of Cold
Creek Manor,a thriller he
made for Touchstone, Mike Figgis spent last week promoting artistic autonomy
and experimentation. Returning to the very cinema in Newcastle where he was
first infected with the film bug, Figgis performed - yes performed - an enthralling
remix of his real-time, split-screen LA story Timecode. The performance was
the final act of the city...
At the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film
Festival
(Germany, November 20-29, 2003)
The Prize of the International Critics has been awarded to
"The Arm of Jesus" (De arm van Jezus) by André van der
Hout (The Netherlands)
"For its visually and intellectually multilayered and also humorous and musical
representation of an existential search."
Special mention:
"Saturday" (Sábado) by Matías Bize (Chile)
"For its innova...
The International Festival of Cinema and Technology launches its second annual event taking place in Manhattan December 6th-10th. The event will showcase a wide variety of independent cinema including dramas, comedies, documentaries, features, experimental films and animations. The "Technology" in the festival's name occurs both in the content of the festival, which tends to focus on themes of technology or feature unique creation techniques, as well as in the method of showcasing content at th...
HistoryThe Katorza Cinema, where most of the festival of the 3 continents takes place, has a long history that makes it play a special role in the hearts of Nantes’ moviegoers. In fact, it was founded on June 4, 1921 by a Jewish immigrant from Tunisia named Salomon Kétorza. This fairground entertainer was at the time quite famous in the City of the Dukes because he had created in 1900 a huge 14-wagon long travelling cinema and 2 brick-and-mortar theatres : the Apollo which opened in December ...
Fiction film sectionOrisel Gaspar, one of the lead actresses of Siete dias, siete noches (Seven Days, Seven Nights), had written a song especially for the closing ceremony of the Festival of the 3 continents in Nantes, western France. She definitely put her whole heart in her voice when she sung her moving lyrics after Cuban director Joel Cano received the Montgolfière d’Or for the film in which she co-stars. The movie, which depicts a week in the lives of three very strong women in Cuba, i...
The first ever Salford Film Festival drew to a close with crowds flocking to see the premiere of Oscar-tipped Salford short, Talking With Angels. Two screenings had to be hastily arranged at the 500 seat theatre at Red Cinema, in Salford Quays, as the 15 minute feature, starring 12 year old Stephen Buckley and a host of residents from the city's Langworthy Estate, proved incredibly popular. At the premiere - a highlight of the Salford Film Festival - messages of support were read out from an ar...
THE TREATY was honored as the BEST SHORT FILM at the 2003 Midwest Entertainment Industry Conference in Lexington, Kentucky. The MEIC is the nation's FIRST non-profit entertainment industry conference. The conference is an annual convergence of national entertainment industry personnel representing a wide spectrum of companies and services within the entertainment industry, and artists from the worlds of film, music, game development, and publishing. THE TREATY also made its international debut...
Main Award Mannheim-Heidelberg, Best Fiction Feature Film goes to Plastic TreeRainer Werner Fassbinder AwardMatias Bize for "Sábado"Special Award of the JuryDaniel Lind Lagerlöf for "Miffo"Special Mentions of the International JuryRyuichi Hiroki for "Vibrator"Blanca Lewin in "Sábado"Best Short FilmAndrus Tuisk for "Perebisnes"Audience Award of Mannheim-HeidelbergGoran Rebic for "Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea"Prize of the FIPRESCI-JuryAndre van der Hout for "De Arm van Jezus"Prize for the...
At first sight, the title of Ryuichi HIROKI’s latest movie refers to sexual misery and loneliness. After all, it’s what a vibrator is about and we cannot forget that the helmer made his directing debut in 1982 in erotic films before receiving the Grand Prix in the video section of the Yubari Fantastic Film Festival for the 1993 film "Sadistic City". Or maybe it refers to the cellphone that vibrates in the inner jacket of 30-year old Rei Hayakawa (played by Shinobu Terashima, Arts Festival pr...
On Saturday the 29th the competition arena of Nantes’ 3 Continents was haunted by the cinematic ghosts of Tsai Ming-liang’s Goodbye Dragon Inn (Bu San) and by the torturing spectres of a dramatic political past in Pakistani Sabiha Sumar’s Silent Waters (Kamosh Pani). Tsai’s sixth feature, winner of the Fipresci award in Venice, pays homage to cinema and to the magic experience of viewing films in movie theatres. Taking an old theatre bound to permanently shut its doors as his actual prot...
13th Annual Quebec International Festival of Science and FilmGO FIGURE!2003 AwardsTéléscience is proud to announce the award winners of GO FIGURE !, 13th Annual Quebec International Festival of Science and Film. During this ceremony, hosted by Gregory Charles, in attendance of Madame la Sous-Ministre associée à la Science et à la Technologie au Ministère du Développement Économique et Régional., 8 awards have been handed :Grand Prize for the Best Film (all categories)Awarded to A Nose f...
The 25th edition of Nantes’ Festival des 3 Continents kicked off on the captivating tunes of rai, Algerian traditional music. Singer Abderrahman Djalti, also the star of one of the documentaries on show, Jamel Fezzaz’s La mélodie de l’espoir (Melody of Hope), unwrapped the opening ceremony singing a song usually performed during circumcision ceremonies.The quarter of a century anniversary of Nantes’ 3 Continents was introduced as an unexpected achievement for a festival that started sma...
