By Maria Esteves – June 7, 2007 The Sixth Annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) Official Selection World Premiere AUTISM: THE MUSICAL documentary film, directed by Tricia Regan was held at the Regal Battery Park Cinemas, Sunday, April 29, 4:00 pm. A special Q&A immediately followed. The world premiere after party was held at The Knitting Factory venue, 7:00 pm. I had the honor of interviewing director Tricia Regan, at the TFF Filmmaker’s Lounge, Monday, April 30, 2007, 5:30 pm. M...

Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and Los Angeles Film Festival, has announced the screenwriters and film projects selected for its 10th annual Screenwriters Lab, sponsored by the Writers Guild of America, West. Taking place in Los Angeles from August 17 until September 16, the Screenwriters Lab is an intensive five-week incubator designed to help writers improve their craft, and take their current scripts to the next level in a nurturing, yet ch...

The Oregon Media Arts Fellowship, established to recognize and support the work of Oregon film and video makers, announces its 2008 awards: $10,000 and $5,000 Fellowships to Portland filmmakers Chel White and David Walker, respectively.Funded by the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Public Broadcasting and the Gordon D. Sondland and Katherine J. Durant Foundation, with additional in-kind support from The Oregon Film & Video Office and Chambers Communications, the Fellowships are a collaborative un...

The Middle East International Film Festival – Abu Dhabi announces the Official Competition slate, with filmmakers competing for the coveted Black Pearl awards. “The production support awarded with the Black Pearl is truly one-of-a-kind,” said Nashwa Al-Ruwaini. “We are confident that it will help propel its recipient into the next level of filmmaking.”“We are thrilled with the line-up of films we have in Competition,” said Festival Director Jon Fitzgerald. “They represent world-...

The Tribeca Film Festival came to a smashing close today with the final screenings of THE GATES, the world premiere HBO documentary on last year's public art phenomenon in New York's Central Park. The concept of artists/collaborators Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who have made a career of wrapping prominent public spaces (including the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin and Biscayne Bay Islands in Miami), the project to create fabric-paneled gates in Central Park was always a controversial...

Sunday, May 6------The Tribeca Film Festival came to a smashing close today with the final screenings of THE GATES, the world premiere HBO documentary on last year's public art phenomenon in New York's Central Park. The concept of artists/collaborators Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who have made a career of wrapping prominent public spaces (including the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin and Biscayne Bay Islands in Miami), the project to create fabric-paneled gates in Central Park...

Saturday, May 5--------The Cadillac Audience Award , voted on by Festival audiences, was announced this evening as the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival moves towards the finishing line. The Award winner is WE ARE TOGETHER (Thina Simunye),  a documentary film from the U.K. directed by Paul Taylor and produced by Paul Taylor and Teddy Liefer. The film tells the story of children in the South Africa Agape Orphanage, most of who have lost their loved ones to AIDS.  Told with compassion and grace, thi...

Saturday, May 5--------The Cadillac Audience Award , voted on by Festival audiences, was announced this evening as the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival moves towards the finishing line. The Award winner is WE ARE TOGETHER (Thina Simunye),  a documentary film from the U.K. directed by Paul Taylor and produced by Paul Taylor and Teddy Liefer. The film tells the story of children in the South Africa Agape Orphanage, most of who have lost their loved ones to AIDS.  Told with compassion and grace, thi...

The previous articles provided the context for the growing film festival tourism phenomenon.  In this last installment, more specific information is provided about the participants in festival tourism, the services  provided by the few agencies in this new niche market, and the characteristics of the film festivals that would most likely benefit from film festival tourism.As noted before, comprehensive Canadian research on US festival tourism enthusiasts, including those groups who reported 60...

The previous articles provided the context for the growing film festival tourism phenomenon. In this last installment, more specific information is provided about the participants in festival tourism, the services provided by the few agencies in this new niche market, and the characteristics of the film festivals that would most likely benefit from film festival tourism.As noted before, comprehensive Canadian research on US festival tourism enthusiasts, including those groups who reported 600,...

David Freeman has been selected as the winning screenwriter in the Tribeca/Sloan Screenplay Development Program, a joint project of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, whose purpose is to support film and video projects that educate and inform the public on matters of science. Freeman's project A FIRST CLASS MAN, a fictional examination of the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan, will receive financial support over the course of a year as he works...

    Wednesday, March 28------David Freeman has been selected as the winning screenwriter in the Tribeca/Sloan Screenplay Development Program, a joint project of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, whose purpose is to support film and video projects that educate and inform the public on matters of science.  Freeman's project A FIRST CLASS MAN, a fictional examination of the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan, will receive finan...

New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival 2007, 2/23 – 3/4There is a constant creation of new film festivals defined by regional, thematic, distribution (such as video ipods), or other parameters, propelled by a large supply of production and an ever increasing number of new film makers. This phenomenon is caused by expansion of film schools, access to low cost production equipment, and last not least public and corporate funding for film festivals. By now it is hard to ascertain how many fes...