Zdenek Sverák in KOLYA
For this year's 50th anniversary Jubilee edition of the Zlin Film Festival, held in the UNESCO Heritage City of Zlin in northeastern Czech Republic, several programs heralding Czech cinema of the past and the present are among this year's highlights. This includes a special sidebar for actor/writer/composer Zdenek Sverák, one of Czech cinema's best known faces and talents.Â
Zdenek Sverák is a true renaissance man, having scaled the heights of the fil...
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On the eve of the Zlin Film Festival, which kicks off its 50th anniversary celebrations on Sunday, May 30, I spoke with the very busy Petr Koliha, the Festival's Artistic Director. As the first major film event following Cannes, the Zlin Film Festival takes up the mantle of film appreciation, with a particular focus to film and media projects produced for the children and youth market. As all eyes turn east to the UNESCO heritage city of Zlin in eastern Czech Republic, Petr Koliha sha...
On the eve of the Zlin Film Festival, which kicks off its 50th anniversary celebrations on Sunday, May 30, I spoke with the very busy Petr Koliha, the Festival's Artistic Director. As the first major film event following Cannes, the Zlin Film Festival takes up the mantle of film appreciation, with a particular focus to film and media projects produced for the children and youth market. As all eyes turn east to the UNESCO heritage city of Zlin in eastern Czech Republic, Petr Koliha shares his tho...
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The Aruba International Film Festival (AIFF) announced today that legendary, Academy Award® winning filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist, The Dreamers) will be bestowed with The Golden Aruba Award for outstanding achievement in film at the inaugural Film Festival, taking place June 4-11, 2010. The announcement was made by AIFF Artistic Director Claudio Masenza.Serving as the Festival's most prestigious symbol of r...
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EYES WIDE OPEN (Israel)Â
After a mercilessly cold and snowy winter, spring has finally sprung in New York, with its explosion of flowers, smells and colors. Amidst the ruby reds, the dazzling yellows and the intoxicating shades of green, there is a distinct shade of lavender, as gay and lesbian films make their annual pilgrimage to the city and its environs in the run-up to the area's gay pride celebrations in June.
First out of the starting gate is the Jacob Burns Film C...
Director Ridley Scott has pulled out of the Robin Hood screening at the Cannes Film Festival this wednesday (Having recently undergone surgery, Scott had to decline invitation from Universal) Cate Blanchett and Russel Crowe were in town wwith producer Brian Grazer) to attend the photo call earlier today...
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Oscar-winning director Istvan Szabo will be attending this year's Zlin Film Festival, the first major film event after Cannes. The Festival, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a number of special events, takes place in the UNESCO heritage city of Zlin in eastern Czech Republic from May 30 to June 6. Website: www.zlinfest.cz/en
Szabo was born in Budapest in 1938 to an upper middle class Jewish family. His family were hidden by family friends during the Holo...
Lynn Redgrave Gets Personalby quendrith johnsonWhen Lynn Redgrave materializes for her interview, we're both shocked to find out that three consecutive Los Angeles-area eateries are closed because it is just after 3 pm, the apparent post-lunch witching hour. Who would miss a chance to be in the company of Lynn Redgrave, two-time Oscar® nominated actor (Gods and Monsters, 1998, Georgy Girl, 1966), Tony winner, author of the outstanding one-woman show "Shakepeare for My Father," sister ...
Today the 17th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film opened its doors. That means six exciting days full of animation with hot topics, colourful worlds and strange figures. The crème de la crème of the international animated film industry were all present at the opening gala which was held at the city's largest cinema and completely sold-out. Public interest is huge and as a result many of the other events such as the world premiere of "The Sandman - Adventure in the Land of Dreams", t...
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The Aruba International Film Festival (AIFF) announced today that legendary, Academy Award® winning filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist, The Dreamers) will be bestowed with The Golden Aruba Award for outstanding achievement in film at the inaugural Film Festival, taking place June 4-11, 2010. The announcement was made by AIFF Artistic Director Claudio Masenza.
Serving as the Festival's most prestigious symbol of recognition, t...
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One of Connecticut's most illustrious residents, English-born actress Lynn Redgrave died in her Kent, Connecticut home last evening, surrounded by family members. She had been battling breast cancer for the past seven years, bravely documenting her journey in a photo essay published with her daughter and performing in a one-woman show last year about her health battles.
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Redgrave , the youngest sibling of the Redgrave acting dynasty, was a double Oscar nominee over a caree...
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Alex Gibney
Last week, Tribeca Film Festival founder Jane Rosenthal jokingly referred to this year's Festival as "The Alex Gibney Film Festival". Gibney, a respected documentarian who won the Oscar for the film TAXI TO THE DARKSIDE, has three films featured at this year's event.
In MY TRIP TO AL-QAEDA, Gibney adapts an acclaimed one-man theater piece by playwright Lawrence Wright to offer a deft and alarming look at...
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At his year´s 7th festival, DOCUMENTA MADIRD is offering broad programming in it´s parallel sections, including a series entitled "USA INDEPENDENTS" retrospectives of three filmmakers -Peter Hutton, Ben Russell and Joseph Strick- who have left their mark on recent history for their creative and revolutionary visions of the genre.Â
Peter Hutton has been a crucial figure in American documentary and experimental film for forty years. Hutton is the last link in the Nort...
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LA Indian Film Festival
By Alex Deleon
"Cooking With Stella", Canada/2009/103 min. Director Dilip Mehta:Â
The opening film of the festival was a re-run of the Toronto opener back in September, where 'Cooking Wiith Stella' was selected for that honor spot because of a a direct Canadian story  line connection and the fact that the director, Dilip Mehta, is a brother of eminent Canadian based Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta. "Stella" of the...
 The New York City International Film Festival, NYCIFF, purpose is to bring together new, existing talented and emerging filmmakers from all over theworld to have the opportunity to showcase their film in a New York City setting.The NYCIFF debutsand will run from August 12 to 19, 2010. THE RED CARPET OPENING GALA Theopening Gala, a Black tie event, will take place at the Hudson theatre, 44thstreet and Broadway. There will be a special cocktail hour prior to the Gala.We will have 2 Oscar-winne...
TCM Classic Film Festival kicks off today with a special screening of "Neptune's Daughter". Esther Williams (making her first public appearance in four years) and Betty Garrett will be on-hand for a special poolside screening of the aquatic musical "Neptune's Daughter" (1949). The screening will include a live performance by the Aqualillies (http://www.aqualillies.com), a team of synchronized swimmers, performing a special aqua-ballet tribute to three songs, including a s...
GERMAN CINEMA - VIBRANT AND VARIED
Vibrant and varied, German cinema is riding a wave of popular and critical success - and this festival is a showcase to some of its offerings, ranging from the Opening Night comedy Whisky With Vodka about an actor in crisis, through the Oscar winning and astringent The White Ribbon to the sensuous relationship drama of unlikely love, in Aimée and Jaguar. And then there is young Adolf ....  Andrew L. Urban reports.
Aimee and Jaguar
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In its 7th year, DOCUMENTA MADRID continues its commitment to quality in its Competitive sections, which for the second consecutive year will be making their premieres in Spain. Of the 1153 documentaries submitted to competition, 87 have been selected. By category, there will be: 38 films in the Original Documentary Film Competition (18 full-length and 20 short films); 22 in the Documentary Competition and 27 in the National Competition (11 full-length and 16 short films). The 87 movies from 30 ...
After six days of screenings and special presentations, Aspen Film announced today the competition winners of Aspen Shortsfest 2010. The Aspen Shortsfest Awards Ceremony was held Sunday, April 11, at the Wheeler Opera House. Aspen Shortsfest is recognized as one of North America's premier showcases for short film.
The festival's centerpiece, the Oscar®-qualifying International Competition, reflected the incredible diversity and breadth of today's short films - whether drama, comedy, anim...
The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) has announced the 2010 line-up of films for its 8th annual festival, which runs April 20-April 25 at ArcLight Hollywood. The six-day festival is proud to showcase 33 films from 5 countries, including 4 world premieres and 7 US premieres.Â
 This is a true celebration of the art and business of Indian film and culture as well as an opportunity to connect with the game changers and emerging filmmakers of Indian themed content,Â...
New York City International Film Festival will Premier " PACO " , an Argentinian movie with the Oscar Winner Norma Aleandro at the ZIEGFELD movie Theatre in New York City August 12, 2010New Yrok City International film Festival will give the  New Yrok City Achivement Award to Norma LEANDRO. Please submit your film to be part of the Fantastic Red Carpet Event ...
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WOMEN WITHOUT MEN (Shirin Neshat)Â
For most people, a trip to the cinema is a welcome escapism from the harshness of the world and its problems. For others, films with political subjects or contexts are sought out for a population hungry to engage and feeling starved for perspective and analysis. While New Directors New Films is not an overtly political affair, it is hard to avoid the powerful political discourses that careen through some of the films in this year’s pro...
For the first time in memory (if my faulting memory serves me well and it increasingly does NOT), the New Directors New Films showcase opened last evening with a documenary feature. This annual rite of the Spring film season, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Film Department of the Museum of Modern Art, was ushered in by BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK, a fascinating look at the New York Times photographer and his love/hate obsession with the city he calls both his mu...
Cinema According to Véra Belmont featuring special screenings with Véra Belmont and Jackie Raynal April 6 - April 27, 2010 FIAF · Florence Gould Hall 55 East 59th Street, NYC
This April, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, will celebrate France's "Grande Dame" of cinema for the last 45 years with a new CinémaTuesdays series entitled, Cinema According to Véra Belmont. The series will examine the prolific artist's...
Spring has sprung and Kino pavasaris" (or Cinema spring) is fast approaching. This year the motto of the Festival is "Reborn at the Cinema" and from March 18 to April 2 you are all invited to rediscover the magical world of film.
2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the Festival an...