TWILIGHT PORTRAIT   Sergei Borisov (Andrei) Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina)  The proud winner of the 52nd Thessaloniki Film Festival Golden Alexander Award is the film that is taking the international festival world by storm this year, the Russian micro-budget indie film TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (2011) by newcomer Director/Writer/Producer Angelina Nikonova and Writer/Producer/Actress Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina).   When I met Angelina and Olga at a dinner in Iceland, I had not...

Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina) Sergei Borisov (Andrei)This was indeed the welcome surprise of the Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) this year. Newcomer Director/Writer/Producer Angelina Nikonova and Writer/Producer/Actress Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina) graced the festival with their presence in its final days to attend the Q and A screening of their film TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (‘Portret V Sumerkakh’, 2011) and the award ceremony at the end. Little did these passionate Russian Indie filmmak...

Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina) Sergei Borisov (Andrei)TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (2011) held its world premier at 68th La Biennale in Venice, North American premier at TIFF in Toronto, Nordic premier in Reykjavik at RIFF and now travels next to BFI London. This was indeed the welcome surprise of the Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) this year. Newcomer Director/Writer/Producer Angelina Nikonova and Writer/Producer/Actress Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina) graced the festival with their presence in it...

Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina)  Sergei Borisov (Andrei)This was indeed the welcome surprise of the Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) this year. Newcomer Director/Writer/Producer Angelina Nikonova and Writer/Producer/Actress Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina) graced the festival with their presence in its final days to attend the Q and A screening of their film TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (‘Portret V Sumerkakh’, 2011) and the award ceremony at the end. Little did these passionate Russian Indie filmm...

Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas' film Jean Gentil (2010) is the story of a Haitian immigrant living in the Dominican Republic and his daily life as he struggles to survive alone in the world of hard work and increasing solitude. The film uses Cinema Novo/Neo Realism reminiscent style of on location shooting, hand held camera and a barrenness of stripped production makeover as its advantage to give increasing sense of the isolation, poverty and many times hopeless ...

Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas' film Jean Gentil (2010) is the story of a Haitian immigrant living in the Dominican Republic and his daily life as he struggles to survive alone in the world of hard work and increasing solitude. The film uses Cinema Novo/Neo Realism reminiscent style of on location shooting, hand held camera and a barrenness of stripped production as its advantage to give increasing sense of the isolation, poverty and many times hopeless feelings of the main c...

25th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, that will take place from Saturday 13th to Sunday 21st November, confirmed the presence of Bruno Ganz and John Sayles, and the International Competition Jury.Bruno Ganz: angel and evil.An existentialist angel in Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1978), or Adolf Hitler in his last hours in Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2005): two roles that show the diversity of an actor of indelible image and which stayed in every movie-buff’s imagery. Two out of ma...

In many ways, the heart and soul of the Miami International Film Festival is its Ibero-American competition, which focuses on dramatic features by first or second time directors from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Not only is the competition prize a huge lure ($25,000 from the Knight Foundation plus a host of other services) but films coming from the region have a natural audience here in Miami, where expats from Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and the rest of Latin America make u...

  Friday, March 13-----In many ways, the heart and soul of the Miami International Film Festival is its Ibero-American competition, which focuses on dramatic features by first or second time directors from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Not only is the competition prize a huge lure ($25,000 from the Knight Foundation plus a host of other services) but films coming from the region have a natural audience here in Miami, where expats from Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and the...

In the last three decades, Fantasporto brought to Portugal for the first time the films of such names as David Cronenberg, André Tarkovsky, Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, Alain Resnais, David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar, Andrzej Zulawski, Ridley Scott, Luc Besson, Peter Greenaway, Neil Jordan, Jean-Jacques Beneix, Joel and Ethan Cohen, Sam Raimi, Brian Yuzna, Peter Jackson, Hal Hartley, Anthony Minghella, Quentin Tarantino, Roberto Rodriguez, Danny Boyle, Paul Anderson, David Fincher, James Mango...