Thursday, January 25---The stars were out tonight for the world premiere screening of THE GOOD NIGHT at the Sundance Film Festival. Among the attendees were Danny DeVito, Steven Spielberg and Gwyneth Paltrow, pictured above at the Eccles Center. Paltrow and DeVito co-star in the film, which is the writing and directing debut of Gwyneth's brother, Jake Paltrow. The film, one of the high profile projects coming to Sundance without a US theatrical deal, also stars Oscar nominee Penelope Cruz, M...

Friday, January 19-- With over 3,500 films submitted, the 13th annual Slamdance Film Festival opened with the World Premiere of WEIRDSVILLE directed by Allan Moyle and starring Scott Speedman (FELICITY), Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY), and Taryn Manning (HUSTLE AND FLOW, 8 MILE). In attendance from WEIRDSVILLE: Scott Speedman, Wes Bently, and Allan Moyle. In addition, Slamdance President/Co-Founder, Peter Baxter attended the Red Carpet Arrivals. WEIRDSVILLE revolves around one crazy n...

Tuesday, January 2-----One of the highlights of the upcoming Sundance Film Festival is the annual Salt Lake City Gala, to be held on Friday, January 19th. This year, the Festival will present the US Premiere of AWAY FROM HER, the directorial debut of Canadian actress Sarah Polley. Polley, best known for her work in such recent films as THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997), THE LAW OF ENCLOSURES (2000) and her Genie Award-winning performance in MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (2003), co-wrote the screenplay with n...

Thursday, December 21----If another indication of the growing influence of non-fiction film was needed, the prestigious Sundance Film Festival has decided to open its ten-day celebration of indie and international cinema with a documentary film. CHICAGO 10, a factual and fanciful look at the infamous trial of organizers of the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1968, a turning point in America’s evaluation of the Vietnam War, will open the Festiv...

Sixty-one years ago, US and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island’s soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them. The Japanese soldiers are sent to Iwo Jima knowing that in all probability they will not come back. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker who wants only to live to see the face of his newborn daughter; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ih...

Friday, December 15----Nominations for the Golden Globe Awards were announced yesterday morning in Los Angeles. The Awards, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a membership group of less than 100 international journalists whose beat is coverage of Hollywood and the American film scene, has grown in stature over the past few years, making them almost the most stellar in a glut of end-of-the-year honors. Now broadcast on a major television network in the US and seen via satellite t...

Tuesday, December 12---UNITED 93, the harrowing re-enactment of the last hours on one of the doomed planes hijacked on September 11, 2001, has received the nod as Best Picture of the Year, from the New York Critics Circle, considered the most prestigious and influential of all the national film critics associations. The win by UNITED 93, which was echoed last week by the Washington DC Film Critics Association, catapults the docudrama into prime position for multiple Golden Globe and Oscar nomi...

Tuesday, December 12---UNITED 93, the harrowing re-enactment of the last hours on one of the doomed planes hijacked on September 11, 2001, has received the nod as Best Picture of the Year, from the New York Critics Circle, considered the most prestigious and influential of all the national film critics associations. The win by UNITED 93, which was echoed last week by the Washington DC Film Critics Association, catapults the docudrama into prime position for multiple Golden Globe and Oscar nomi...

Monday, December 11----With the glut of announcements from various film critics associations, the Oscar race is beginning to take shape. However, as opposed to recent memory, when one film (be it GLADIATOR, LORD OF THE RINGS or MILLION DOLLAR BABY) was recognized across the board as the Best Film of the Year, this year's race has been flung wide open, with a few films making an impression and certain to be among Oscar nominees for the Academy's highest honor. In the past 72 hours, film critic...

Monday, December 4---- The 19th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) came to a rousing end on Saturday evening, with the awarding of the IDFA prizes in a number of categories. Films from Denmark made a remarkably strong showing, winning several major prizes at the Awards Ceremony held at De Zwijger. The VPRO Joris Ivens Award for the best long documentary was presented to Danish director Pernille Rose Grønkjær for her documentary THE MONASTERY--MR. VIG &...

Friday, December 1-----The Gotham Awards, held in a former luxury cruise line docking pier on the Hudson River, has become New York's biggest film party. Now in its 16th year, it has established a reputation and a following among the indie film world, particularly filmmakers, executives and talent that call New York home. It has reorganized in the past year (after splitting with the former IFP West, which presents the Independent Spirit Awards in Los Angeles over Oscar weekend), putting great...

International screen stars and industry leaders of the European, American and Italian film communities will celebrate the ever-evolving culture of cinema at the 10th Annual Capri, Hollywood - Kimbo International Film Festival on the spectacular Isle of Capri, Italy from December 27th through January 2nd. The Capri, Hollywood – Kimbo International Film Festival has established itself over the past decade as one of the world’s most distinguished Winter-season film festivals – boasting an ar...

Monday, November 27----Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage will be the recipient of the Career Achievement Award at the 3rd annual Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), which runs from December 7 to 10 in the beautiful island nation in the Carribean. Cage, a long time Bahamas resident, will receive the Award by screen icon Sean Connery, who was recently honored himself at the inaugural Rome Film Festival last month. Over the four day Festival, BIFF will screen a selection of Nicolas Ca...

Saturday/Sunday, November 25/26----The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has announced the "short list" of feature documentaries that will compete for Best Documentary honors at the 79th Academy Awards in February, 2007. The AMPAS Documentary Screening Committee viewed 81 eligible documentary features, shortening the list to 16 contenders. From this group will come the 5 films that will be compete for the final Best Documentary Oscar. Films on the "short list" include such r...

Friday, November 24----The Independent Feature Project (IFP), the membership organization that represents the interests of independent filmmakers across the United States, has announced the nominees for its 16th IFP Gotham Awards, which will be given out at a gala Awards Ceremony on November 29th in New York City. The event, which was begun in 1991 as a way of recognizing New York-based independent producers and distributors and their films, also serves as a major fundraiser for the organizat...

On Sunday, November 26th, New Line Cinema’s The Nativity Story will become the first feature film ever to premiere at the Vatican. The Nativity Story is scheduled for a Dec. 1, 2006 release in the U.S., and will open in territories worldwide throughout the month of December. The premiere, to be held at the Vatican’s Aulo Paolo VI (Pope Paul VI Hall), will be attended by The Nativity Story ’s director Catherine Hardwicke, actors Shohreh Aghdashloo and Oscar Isaac, producers Marty Bowen and...

Innovative American documentary filmmaker Alan Berliner will be a Special Guest of the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (idfa), the leading showcase and market for non-fiction film. The Festival, which brings together film, television and industry professionals, as well as a local enthusiastic audience, opens on November 23 in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Berliner has been chosen as a Master of Documentary and will give a special lecture on his varied film...

Monday, November 13----Registered in the Guiness Book of World Records as the "world's longest film festival", the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival reached its zenith this past weekend, with the announcement of its Jury and Audience Awards, as well as a Tribute Gala which paid homage to established and emerging talent. On Sunday evening, at the La Playa Mediterranean Restaurant, the Festival presented JURIED AWARDS for films in competition. Members of the Jury included: Joe Amadea, H...