Monday, June 16------EMPTIES, the ironic comedy by Czech director Jan Sverak, has won the Gold Dolphin, the top award at the 24th edition of Festroia in Portugal. The film, a comic love story about a man facing old age, is the third in a trilogy that includes the director’s previous films ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and the Oscar winning KOLYA. The film has previously won the Czech Lion (the local Oscar) for Best Director and Audience Prize, as well as the Audience Award at last year’s Karlovy Vary ...

Saturday, June 14------A very distinctive program here at Festroia is the presentation of Prix UIP, a European short film contest, sponsored by distributor United International Pictures and the European Film Academy.The short films are screeend at fourteen European film festivals, including events in Ghent, Valladolid, Ángers, Rotterdam, Berlin, Tampere, Krakow, Grimstad, Vila Do Conde, Sarajevo, Edinburgh, Venice, Drama and Cork. This year, Festroia was added to the European tour.The overall...

Saturday, June 14-------This evening, as part of the official Awards Ceremony of the 24th edition of Festroia, the Festival will honor the career achievement of Spanish actress Assumpta Serna with a Gold Dolphin award. The talented actress has won more than 20 Best Actress prizes and has acted in more than 60 films in six languages: Spanish, Catalan, Portugese, Italian, French and English. Born in 1957, she has acted in theater and fiilms in over 20 countries. She is a board member of the Europ...

 Friday, June 13-------American Independent cinema occupied a very specific niche in the American media landscape. I am talking here about true American Independent films.....not "independent spirit" projects that receive most of their monies from divisions of the major studios. This is more classic indie.....a filmmaker and a camera and a dream.FESTROIA, which enters its final weekend, has been a hospitable home to American Independent films and filmmakers. For the past ten years, th...

One of the strong contenders for the Festroia Golden Dolphin grand prize is the competition film WORLDS APART from Danish director Niels Arden Oplev. The film, which is based on a true story, is a compelling story of a young teenage girl, whose family are committed Jehova´s Witnesses, who falls in love with a "non-believer".Young actress Rosaline Mynster gives a passionate performance as Sara, a budding teenager who must fight the temptations of sex and partying that do not gel with her religio...

Thursday, June 12------One of the strong contenders for the Festroia Golden Dolphin grand prize is the competition film WORLDS APART from Danish director Niels Arden Oplev. The film, which is based on a true story, is a compelling story of a young teenage girl, whose family are committed Jehova´s Witnesses, who falls in love with a "non-believer".Young actress Rosaline Mynster gives a passionate performance as Sara, a budding teenager who must fight the temptations of sex and partying...

 Thursday, June 12-------This year, Festroia has devoted a special screening section to films that explore the difficulties and opportunities of multiculturalism. Dubbed "Migrations And Multiculturality", the series highlights 3 feature films and a program of shorts.In Spanish director Gerardo Olivares´THE GREAT MATCH, the director focuses on a family of Mongolian nomads and a group of Indians in the Amazon, bought of which live far outside the technological saturation of the West. W...

 Wednesday, June 11-------Although they are both part of the European continent, Poland seems as far away from Portugal as one can imagine. I’ve now been to both places, and while it is a cliché and an exaggeration that Poland is always rather cloudy, gloomy and weighed down by its difficult history, the Polish sensibility (and humor) are decidedly dark. It is intriguing to have that sober mood contrast with the lightness and sparkle of Portugal in early June, but that is exactly the contras...

 Tuesday, June 10--------One of the charms of Festroia is that it always falls in the period when Portugal celebrates Portugal Day, the national day of independence. Today is the holiday, which is characterized by colorful parades and a day at the beach. It also is an opportunity for local audiences and visiting filmmakers and professionals to sample the finest Portugese films of the past year.Festroia has a commitment to showcasing this work in a special section of Portugese Cinema of the Year...

Tuesday, June 10------One of the more arresting posters on display during Festroia is of an impossibly handsome young man who plays the lead in the Spanish film THIEVES (LADRONES). The film, directed by Jaime Marques, had its world premiere at the Malaga Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award. It has been a hit on the Festival circuit, winning a C.I.C.A.Ê. Award at the Locarno International Film Festival.The follows the story of Alex, who has spent his childhood in an orphanage and ...

Monday, June 9------Celebrated Israeli director Amos Kollek arrives at Festroia later today, in preparation for the screening of his new film RESTLESS in the Official Competition here.The director, the son of long time Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek (about whom he made a documentary in the 1980s) was born in Jerusalem in 1947, a year before the State of Israel was declared. He is a renaissance man, who has directed feature films and shorts, written five novels and is a regular contributor to news...

Sunday, June 8------One of the most celebrated American Independent films of the past year has opened the American Independents Competition at Festroia: Troia International Film Festival last evening. STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING, a character drama set in the literary world of New York City, features an award-winning performance by veteran stage and screen actor Frank Langella, who won the Best Actor prize from the Boston Film Critics last year. Langella's performance was critically hailed by maj...

Saturday, June 7-------The Troia International Film Festival (Festroia), known as the "Cannes of Portugal" opened last evening with a Gala Screening of the Oscar nominated Polish film KATYN. The film, directed by European screen legend Andrezj Wajda, is a dramatic recreation of the one of the great human crimes of the Second World War.....the mass slaughter of Polish army officers by the Russians in the beginning days of the conflict. Wajda brings his customary sweep mixed with intimac...