The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is proud to honor Penélope Cruz with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 24th edition of the Fest, which runs January 22-February 1, 2009, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. Cruz, who returned to theaters this summer with two powerful and diverse back-to-back performances in "Elegy" opposite Sir Ben Kingsley and Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," opposite Javi...

  In line with the Middle East International Film Festival's (MEIFF) objective of advancing the development and creation of social and humanitarian cinema, MEIFF organisers - the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) -presented five special Tribute Awards to industry giants Saturday evening at Emirates Palace.   Sir Ben Kingsley was presented with an Honorary Black Pearl Award for Cross Cultural Contributions to Cinema by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamm...

The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival is very pleased to announce that legendary entertainer Dick Van Dyke will make a special appearance at the "The Wonder Kids" East Coast Premiere, which will be held on Friday September 19th at 8pm at  Village East cinema (181 2nd Ave. and 12th Street). Mr. Van Dyke narrated the documentary which scooped the prestigious Grand Jury Prize for Be st Documentary at the NYIIFVF in LA. The legendary performer is expected to...

Nanni Moretti, the Italian director, actor and producer was given a carte blanche to pick a set of films which will be screened during the 61st Locarno International Film Festival as a complete retrospective dedicated to him.19 full-length features are included in the selection, split into two parts with titles chosen by Moretti the exhibitor in one, and films dear to Moretti as spectator in the other. The first raft of titles includes movies which Moretti first enjoyed and later backed up by pr...

Nanni Moretti, the Italian director, actor and producer was given a carte blanche to pick a set of films which will be screened during the 61st Locarno International Film Festival as a complete retrospective dedicated to him.19 full-length features are included in the selection, split into two parts with titles chosen by Moretti the exhibitor in one, and films dear to Moretti as spectator in the other. The first raft of titles includes movies which Moretti first enjoyed and later backed up by pr...

Tuesday, May 20---------At a special reception held yesterday in Cannes at the Plages des Palmes Cafe, the Hamptons International Film Festival and indieWIRE announced the recipient of their annual Industry Toast Honoree, to be presented during thed 16th edition of the Festival, from October 15 to 19, 2008.This year's recipient is Wouter Barendrecht, founder and co-chairman of Fortissimo Films, one of the world's leading international film, television and video sales organizations specializing ...

 The Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) – is very proud to report that it has received a nomination for a New England Emmy Award. RIIFF was recently notified by The Board of Governors of the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences about the nomination in the category of Community/Public Service (PSAs) Campaign. The campaign featured two spots. Entitled "No Excuses," it was created by William Smith, Director; Miraj Be...

 Saturday, April 12--------Tonight, the Palm Beach International Film Festival holds its most glamourous event, the annual Grand Gala at the Boca Raton Country Club. This year, the Festival is honoring the likes of acting legend Mickey Rooney, Oscar winner Louis Gosset Jr., hot director Jason Reitman, actress Cheryl Hines and up-and-coming actor Josh Hutcherson. In a series of articles over the next few days, I will offer a bio and filmography of the honorees and why their careers have been dub...

"la virgen de la lujuria"“I’m interested in the dark sides of the human psyche,” says director ARTURO RIPSTEIN, whose work will be the subject of a retrospective at the 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The son of a successful Mexican producer, Arturo Ripstein (born Dec. 13, 1943, in Mexico City) grew up among the cables and floodlights of film sets and was sure about what he wanted to do from his childhood. His teacher and mentor was Luis Buñuel, whom he assisted i...

Friday, April 4-----Jules Dassin, an American director, screenwriter and actor who found success making movies in Europe after he was blacklisted in the United States because of his ties to the Communist Party, died Monday in Athens, where he had lived since the 1970s. He was 96. Mr. Dassin is most widely remembered for films he made after he fled Hollywood in the 1950s, including NEVER ON SUNDAY (1960) with the Greek actress Melina Mercouri, whom he later married; TOPKAPI (1964), with Ms. Merco...

 Thursday, March 27--------No one quite mastered the sneer as did actor Richard Widmark, who died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut at the age of 93. That sneer and a high-pitched giggling laugh is what shot him the stardom in 1947, when he played the psychopathic killer Tommy Udo in the gangster film KISS OF DEATH. Nothing in the movies before or since can compare with the scene in that film when Widmark tied up an old woman in a wheelchair with a cord ripped from a lamp and shoved he...

Friday, March 21-----Paul Scofield, the golden-throated British actor of stage and screen, who won a Best Actor Oscar in 1966 for his portrayal of Sir Thomas More in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, passed away on Wednesday. The seasoned actor, 86, who died at a hospital near his home in southern England, had been suffering from leukemia. Scofield had a lifelong attachment to the theatrical stage, where he began his career 60 years ago. He found his first successes in a variety of Shakespearean roles dur...

 Thursday, March 20----Anthony Minghella, the British filmmaker who won an Academy Award for his direction of THE ENGLISH PATIENT in 1997, died Tuesday morning in London at the age of 54. The cause was a brain hemmorage, brought on by complications from surgery he underwent a week ago to treat tonsil cancer. Anthony Minghella was born on January 6, 1954, and grew up on the Isle of Wight, where his parents, immigrants from Italy, ran an ice cream factory. Minghella began his career writing scri...

 Wednesday, March 19------Acclaimed UK director Mike Leigh will be honored with inaugural Founder's Directing Award at the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival (24 April-8 May). The Founder's Award will be presented to Leigh at the Film Society Awards Night, the annual benefit gala, on Thursday, 1 May at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.The Founder's Directing Award is presented each year to one of the masters of world cinema and is given in memory of Irving M. Levin, who founded the San ...

CALL FOR ENTRIES It's time to send a screener of your FEATURE FILM to the Taormina Film Fest 2008, taking place in Sicily from June 15 to 21, 2008. Our deadline for submissions is MAY 9. We are now accepting films for selection in the most exciting summer festival in Europe, a boutique showcase for just 20 new films to be shown to our audiences and distributors from around the world. Once again we will privilege world and international premières, divided into the following three sections: ME...

Academy Award-winning writer Bobby Moresco received the Cinequest Maverick Spirit Award, the festival’s highest honor. The straight-talking screenwriter/producer of CRASH (2004) and co-producer of MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004) was joined on the San Jose Repertory Theatre stage by producing partner Mark Harris (CRASH, THE BLACK DONNELLYS). The lively Q&A with moderator Robert G. Phelps and an audience sprinkled with aspiring writers was part of the Film and Technology Forum titled "Sigh...

Monday, February 25------European films and talents were the big winners at last night's Academy Awards, making the event very much a foreign affair. In the acting categories, the winners were all European thespians of note. Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrays a morally corrupt oil baron in early 20th century America, won his second Best Actor Oscar for his role in THERE WILL BE BLOOD. In the Best Actress category, the surprise winner was French actress Marion Cotillard, for her stunning reincarnati...

            "La graine et le mulet" a dominé la 33e cérémonie des César vendredi soir, en remportant quatre récompenses, dont celle du meilleur film et du meilleur réalisateur pour Abdellatif Kechiche. "La môme" le biopic d'Olivier Dahan récolte cinq récompenses, mais moins prestigieuses, à l'exception du César de la meilleure actrice pour Marion Cotillard qui, grâce à son interprétation impressionnante...

  “I think this is the most important role of my life,” Angelina Jolie remarked upon playing Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Pearl is the famous widow of fellow Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan. Pearl’s heart is mighty indeed, as the clips shown in Jolie’s conversation with film critic Pete Hammond reveal.   She graciously accepted the award presented by renowned actor and director Clint Eastwood. The two praised each other...