NY 2006 South Asian International Film Festival will run from October 4-8 in New York City. SAIFF will host over 50 of the latest and most celebrated short, documentary and feature films from the South Asian subcontinent. The five-day film festival continues SAIFF's mission to present the best in South Asian cinema from across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This year's festival will include 21 World Premieres and 11 North American premieres. "We had an overwhelming numb...

“Devil’s Miner” wins Estonian People’s Award at PärnuBest Film prize goes to “Before Flying Back to Earth”The Devil’s Miner, directed by Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson, beat off stiff competition from seven other entrants to win top prize at Estonia’s Pärnu International Documentary Film Festival last night (July 16,2006).The 20th edition of the festival, which is held in the country’s delightful summer capital some 130 kilometres south of the administrative capital Tallin...

The 47th Marché du Film , which took place at the Festival de Cannes from May 17th – 27th, ends with positive results . Strong international participation from industry professionals, combined with the large number of films on offer, made for a very harmonious event that was appreciated by all. The general level of satisfaction reflects the positive evolution across all the indicators measured by the Marché du Film. This year, 10,061 professionals were registered, from 91 countries, compare...

A conversation with Selvaggia VeloFestival Director; ‘River to River’ Florence Indian Film FestivalWendy DentSV: How did it begin? In ’98 I organised an exhibition of Bollywood movie banners. Still Bollywood was not fashion in Europe. And so this was done, and then in ’99 we invited those same painters, artists, to have a live show during the Florentine summer. There are a lot of events during the summer here in Florence, the start of Fiorentina. And so those painters were coming and ...

The fifth edition of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival will take place from 9th to 15th December 2005 at the cinema Spazio Uno in Florence, Italy, under the direction of Selvaggia Velo.The Festival was made possible thanks to the support of: the Cinema Management of the Ministry for Arts and Culture of Rome, the Region Tuscany, the Council Department for Culture of the Town of Florence, the Savings Bank Office of Florence, the APT, and the patronage of the Embassy of India in Rome.Th...

November 15, 2005 THE 11th annual Kolkata(Calcutta) Film Festival (KFF) is in full swing this week with more than 125,000 people expected to see a total of 138 films at 240 screenings in eight venues. The festival got off on a high note with the showing of Christophe Barratier’s Les Choristes for the inaugural evening, marking the first time the French box-office hit has been shown in the sub-continent. The film was shown in the largest of the three halls that make up Nanda...

Record-Breaking attendance of more than 125,000 anticipatedThe 11th annual Kolkata(Calcutta) Film Festival (KFF) is in full swing this week with more than 125,000 people expected to see a total of 138 films at 240 screenings in eight venues.The festival got off on a high note with the showing of Christophe Barratier’s Les Choristes for the inaugural evening, marking the first time the French box-office hit has been shown in the sub-continent.The film was shown in the largest of the three halls...

The fifth edition of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival will take place from 9th to 15th December 2005 at the cinema Spazio Uno in Florence, Italy, under the direction of Selvaggia Velo.The River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival is the first film festival of the world to be completely consecrated to the Indian cinema and the films concerning India; and to achieve the purpose of offering a more complete vision of India, the Festival has been opened also to the films coming from ...

Twenty-two first films will vie for nine awards across eight categories namely Best Producer, Best Director/Best Film, Best Cinematographer, Best Actor and Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Writer (Script/Screenplay), Best Documentary and Best Director of Documentary at the Asian Festival of 1 st Films (AFFF). The AFFF is the world’s first annual film and documentary festival to celebrate the best of first-time films as well as producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, actors and doc...

The 27th IFP market, the largest convocation of aspiring and actual independent film makers in North America closed September 22 expanding to more participants and more industry speed networking. It reduced the number of works screened from 400 in past markets to 199 from the more than 1400 submitted in 2005. Thus IFP is shifting from a market and or festival to an efficient networking event that arranged this year an estimated 1,500 buyer-driven meetings with film makers. A new component, Th...

7th International Panorama: 24/9 to 1/10 The International Panorama of Independent Creators appeals to young creators and it offers them the chance to present prolusions or not, with the only precondition to respect the culture and values of every population, to creators who do not have the financial support of governmental institutions and big studios. In this way the International Panorama is concerned with the “creator” cinema and the presented films are little “gems” of the internati...

At the 58th Cannes International Film Festival (France, May 11-22, 2005) the Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize)was presented to films - in the competitive section- in the section Un Certain Regard- in the Directors' Fortnight or the Critics' WeekThe winners are:Competition:"Hidden" (Caché) by Michael Haneke (France, Austria, Germany, Italy, 2005, 1h 57, 35mm)Un Certain Regard:"Sangre" by Amat Escalante (Mexico, 2005, 1h 30, 35mm)Directors' Fortnight / Critics Week:"Crying Fist"...

The Asia Society presented the third annual three-day South Asia Human Rights Festival from April 7- 9, 2005 for a receptive audience . Undoubtedly reinforcing the viewers’ concern for extensive past and present human rights violations, the organizers succeeded in selecting productions which linked South East Asian issues to problems faced by advanced industrial societies as well. Thus the productions included the first Indian feature film on HIV/AIDS, Phir MiLinge / We will meet again by R...

Critics' Prizes at the festivals of Sofia, Fribourg, Mar del Plata, Guadalajara and ToulouseToulouse (Rencontres Cinémas d'Amérique Latine, France, March 11-20, 2005). Prize: "Live-in Maid" (Cama adentro) by Jorge Gaggero (Argentina, 2004). Jury: Anette Olsen, Denmark ("Dox Magazine", "Mifune"), Maja Bogojevic, Serbia-Montenegro ("Zinec"), Karin Wolfs, The Netherlands ("De Filmkrant", "Screen International"). Print source: Aquafilms, Cabello 3644, C1425APN Buenos Aires, T +54 (11) 4802 4218, v...

Berlinale Talent Campus - Hosts Emi Wada, Dante Ferretti and Walter Salles Creative synergy – with 530 film talents from 90 countries and a total of 80 international experts the 2005 Berlinale Talent Campus is turning into the school for those wanting to make it in the film business. It takes place from 12 – 17 February 2005 in the Berlin House of World Cultures. This year more countries have joined: For the first times talents from Swaziland, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Jordan, Ethiopia, Tog...

The first Dubai International Film Festival [DIFF] is being organized by the Dubai Media City and will start on Monday December 6th and end on the evening of Saturday December 11th 2004. The festival will feature 80 films, which include 55 main features, 10 sidebar screenings and 15 Arab short films, which will showcase contemporary and classic global cinema. The main venue of the Dubai Film Festival will be the new Madinat Jumeirah, The Arabian Resort of Dubai, but other screenings will take pl...

Inaugural Dubai International Film Festival aims to build cultural bridgesCultural understanding and international harmony will be the themes of the inaugural Dubai International Film Festival, Dubai Media City’s newly launched film festival scheduled for December 2004 6-11, 2004.To be held under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, the festival will showcase a wide selection of contemporary and classic glo...

At the Dhaka International Film Festival (Bangladesh, January 15-23, 2004)The film "The Wind Bird" (Sulang Kirilli) by Inoka Sathyangani (Sri Lanka, 2002)won the Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize).Jury members were: Lydia Maslova, Russia Shaheen Kabir, Bangladesh Sajedul Awal, Bangladesh. At the Palm Springs International Film Festival(USA, January 8-19, 2004)the Prize of the International Critics for the Best Official Foreign Language Film of 2003 has been presented to the Retu...

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...