A flashy two page center spread in the popular daily tabloid BERLIN KURIER offers a list of "Sixty Facts about the 60th Birthday" of the Berlin Film Festival, which is tantamount to listing sixty good reasons not to miss this one. The spread is adorned with a top to bottom leggy photo of a winsomely smiling Jessica Alba, star of Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me", and smaller shots spaced around the layout of Leonardo Dicaprio, who will be here to promote the new Martin Scorcese thril...
A flashy two page center spread in the popular daily tabloid BERLIN KURIER offers a list of "Sixty Facts about the 60th Birthday" of the Berlin Film Festival, which is tantamount to listing sixty good reasons not to miss this one. The spread is adorned with a top to bottom leggy photo of a winsomely smiling Jessica Alba, star of Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me", and smaller shots spaced around the layout of Leonardo Dicaprio, who will be here to promote the new...
With the Sundance Film Festival in almost its third decade, it is no surprise that there are certain filmmakers who have become Park City regulars and veterans of the American indie scene. One of the most successful of the women directors that Sundance has nurtured is Nicole Holofcener, who is back at the Festival with her latest film PLEASE GIVE. The writer/director was first at Sundance with her 1996 romantic drama WALKING AND TALKING.
Like that earlier film, PLEASE GIVE also...
Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Jonze premieres his latest work - I'm Here, a 30-minute short film - today at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the first-ever Opening Night's Shorts Program at the festival. The film is a collaboration with ABSOLUT VODKA, and the partnership acknowledges the brand's position as a pioneering and culture-shaping brand. ABSOLUT has always stood out in the marketplace as a groundbreaking company that has been supporting artists for decades. Previous collaborations incl...
Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Jonze premieres his latest work - I'm Here, a 30-minute short film - today at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the first-ever Opening Night's Shorts Program at the festival. The film is a collaboration with ABSOLUT VODKA, and the partnership acknowledges the brand's position as a pioneering and culture-shaping brand. ABSOLUT has always stood out in the marketplace as a groundbreaking company that has been supporting artists for decades. Previous collaborations incl...
by Marla Lewin
I attended the Film Festival Summit in Las Vegas and there were many interesting talks and panels presented. Most were aimed directly at teaching how to run and program a film festival. The most important function of the event however was to provide networking opportunities for festival directors and programmers to meet with their peers in a casual environment. We will be posting more reports from this event shortly. First up is a talk by Rajendra Roy Chief Curator ...
The 13th edition of POFF, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival held in the Estonian capital, kicked off a 10-day marathon of film premieres, special events and industry meetings with the premiere of the American indie hit (500) DAYS OF SUMMER last night. Today, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thai film director and jury member of the EurAsia Competition program, will hold a press conference prior to the presentation tomorrow evening of his latest film NYMPH. The director has been one of the innovators in...
The 13th edition of POFF, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival held in the Estonian capital, kicked off a 10-day marathon of film premieres, special events and industry meetings with the premiere of the American indie hit (500) DAYS OF SUMMER last night.
Today, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thai film director and jury member of the EurAsia Competition program, will hold a press conference prior to the presentation tomorrow evening of his latest film NYMPH. The director has been on...
"I've played all kinds of roles, but the one that seems to have stayed in the imagination of the public was one I did way back in 1975", veteran British actor John Hurt shared with audiences at the Berlin Film Festival last winter following the premiere screening of AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK. "When I played real-life gay pioneer Quentin Crisp in the television film THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT, it made an immediate impact not only on my life but on that of Mr. Crisp himself." The television film, bas...
"I've played all kinds of roles, but the one that seems to have stayed in the imagination of the public was one I did way back in 1975", veteran British actor John Hurt shared with audiences at the Berlin Film Festival last winter following the premiere screening of AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK. "When I played real-life gay pioneer Quentin Crisp in the television film THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT, it made an immediate impact not only on my life but on that of Mr. Crisp himself...
By Marla Lewin 9 PROJECTS FOR 2009 PRODUCERS LAB FILMMAKERS ALSO SELECTED BY FILM INDEPENDENT LOS ANGELES (October 12, 2009) — Last night at a special reception concluding the 2009 edition of Film Independent’s Filmmaker Forum, Josh Welsh, Film Independent’s Director of Talent Development, awarded Jenny Deller and Kristin Fairweather its 3rd annual Sloan Producers Grant for their feature film project Future Weather. Deller and Fairweather will receive a $25,000 production grant, and p...
Penelope Cruz in BROKEN EMBRACES (Spain)
The New York Film Festival, which enters its final weekend today, has presented a program with a large emphasis on European cinema. With a strong showing of films from Portugal (http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/filmnewyork/a_peek_at_portugese_cinema_at_nyff) and
France (http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/filmnewyork/the_french_invasion_of_new_york), the Festival finds that contemporary European cinema from other nations not only has...
The Woodstock Film Festival, which opens this evening with a pre-Festival screening of Oscar winning documentarian Barbara Kopple's WOODSTOCK: NOW AND THEN, is celebrating its 10th anniversary as one of the independent film festival's most intriguing and enjoyable events.
The Festival, which runs through Sunday, is set in the idyllic town of Woodstock, New York, about 3 hours north of Manhattan. While many might associate the town with the legendary 1969 rock concert (and cultur...
Organized by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), the 11th edition of the festival is scheduled to take place from October 29 to November 5, 2009 in Mumbai, the film capital of India. A Reliance Big Entertainment initiative MFF has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. A five member international jury will include celebrated Hollywood scriptwriter, director and Martin Scorsese’s long ter...
It was announced today that the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) has chosen Argentina as the country of focus for its popular New World View series at this year’s Festival. The announcement was made today by ZFF Directors Karl Spoerri and Nadja Schildknecht.Highlighting different countries every year, ZFF’s New World View series presents films from a country whose current filmmaking stands out in global comparison, opens new perspectives and broadens the cinematic horizon. From September 26 to Oct...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Online Dailies Editor
When the film history of our era is written for future scholars to examine, one of the interesting aspects will be the flowering of non-fiction film. Documentaries, once relegated to television or educational settings, have broken through to the theatrical box office. While not every film can be “Fahrenheit 911” (which topped $200 million at the box office) documentaries have been faring we...
Sebastian Lelio (Chilean director)
by Sandy Mandelberger, Online Dailies Editor
The hardest working band of professionals at this year’s ERA New Horizons International Film Festival, which closes today in Wroclaw, Poland, are undoubtedly the juries that have been viewing films from all over the world in the main Festival competitions. As the Festival headed into its final days, the juries moved from viewing and evaluating the films into the rigors of that favorite bl...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Online Dailies Editor
The Swedish master filmmaker Jan Troell is the subject of a major retrospective tribute at this year’s ERA New Horizons International Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. The 78-year-old film auteur has amassed a string of film jewels over a career that stretches back five decades. Many of these gems, including his latest masterpiece “Everlasting Moments”, nominated this past year for the Oscar, will be screened.
&nbs...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Online Dailies Editor
It takes a filmmaker of great daring to successfully combine genres and create a hybrid that is unique and exhilarating. Such is the case with Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, the 47-year-old Thai film director and screenwriter, who is part of a Thai new wave that includes such auteur names Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His singular films have made him one of the more intriguing film stylists of the moment. Pen-Ek beg...
The heart of the 9th edition of the ERA NEW HORIZONS International Film Festival, which begins its 11-day marathon of film premieres, special events and music concerts on July 23, is the NEW HORIZONS International Competition. This year’s program includes a selection of 14 premieres of a truly international roster of filmmakers, covering a mix of genres and styles to offer a survey of the best in international cinema. This year, three awards will be granted: the Grand Prix for Best Film, award...
HELEN (UK)
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
The heart of the 9th edition of the ERA NEW HORIZONS International Film Festival, which begins its 12 day marathon of film premieres, special events and music concerts on July 23, is the NEW HORIZONS International Competition. This year’s program includes a selection of 14 premieres of a truly international roster of filmmakers, covering a mix of genres and styles to offer a survey of the best in international c...
Director: Marie Losier.
Music video Papal Breakdance by PTV3-Genesis P-Orridge
With Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and many friends.
A campy music video in the style of a scopitone from the early 1960s, with the wonderful cast of 10 boys in sexy red singlets and girls in red tutus, all dancing with joy with Genesis P-Orridge in a boxing ring…all the ingredients for a slap stick boxing match in music.
Director: Marie Losier.
The latest in Marie Losier’s ongoing series of film portraits of avant-garde directors (George and Mike Kuchar, Guy Maddin, Richard Foreman), DreaMinimalist offers an insightful and hilarious encounter with Conrad as he sings, dances and remembers his youth and his association with Jack Smith.
New York audiences interested in a uniquely gay European point of view have several films to sample at the NewFest, New York's key gay and lesbian film festival event. The Festival obviously values this European perspective, having chosen a UK film as its Opening Night attraction. MR. RIGHT, written and directed by Jacqui Morris, was an audience pleaser as it unfolded its interlocking stories of a group of gay men and their "fag hag" compatriot in the gay-centric Soho neighborhood of London. In ...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Film New York Editor
New York audiences interested in a uniquely gay European point of view have several films to sample at the NewFest, New York's key gay and lesbian film festival event. The Festival obviously values this European perspective, having chosen a UK film as its Opening Night attraction. MR. RIGHT, written and directed by Jacqui Morris, was an audience pleaser as it unfolded its interlocking stories of a group of gay men and their &...
