Suddenly this summer documentary festivals seem to be mushrooming across England.On the eve of Cannes I attended a crowded croissants and coffees Launch for the Sheffield DocFest, in the smart offices of the The Guardian newspaper in Kings Place, on the fast-developing side of the Kings Cross railway station.It was a very professional presentation by the Festival Board and programmers with many clips of selected entries, and ample footage of previous festivals which seem to have filled t...

  http://www.filmafrica.org.uk/ Showcasing more than 50 of Africa's best films and 15 UK premieres, Film Africa 2011 presents an exciting programme of screenings, Q&As, panel discussions and live performances from the 3rd - 13th November 2011.   Film Africa will open with the multi-award winning film Microphone, featuring a special presentation by the Egyptian actor, director and human rights activist Khaled Abol Naga and a live performance by Dele Sosimi and D...

Selection Committee Announcement Kamran Shirdel (Head of Film Selection Committee)DocumentarianConsidered a pioneer of Iran's NEW cinema. Born in born 1939 in Tehran, he studied architecture, urbanism, and design at the University of Rome and film direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. After graduating in 1964, he worked as an assistant director with John Huston on The Bible before making his diploma film, Gli Specchi (The Mirrors), in Rome. He returned to Iran and star...

The general assembly of the Austrian Film Forum, the supporting association of the Diagonale, is delighted to announce that Artistic Director Barbara Pichler’s contract has been extended for three more years, until 2014. The general assembly unanimously decided to extend the contract based on the successful direction of the Diagonale 2009 and 2010. The general assembly congratulates Barbara Pichler for designing and realizing the first two festivals as artistic director: the growing public int...

Chris D'Arienzo was unable to make it to the first AIFF but his film was and indeed proved a hit among viewers. After the festival, I contacted my talented writer friend and asked him if he'd answer a few questions for me about the experience of making his first feature film. Ironically, I had asked to interview him 3 months before the festival for a research project I was doing for University of London but he was too busy so I wrote about David Lynch instead. Chris m...

The RIFF Cultural Association was created in January of 2001, but has been a project of the association's founder and president, Fabrizio Ferrari, since early 1999. It was conceived with the intention to promote both Italian and international independent cinema.     2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 C...

Technicolor Asia, one of Asia's leading post production facilities, recently added staff to its sales and marketing department in Bangkok. Gary Fong joins Technicolor as director of sales and marketing. Gary speaks English, Japanese and several dialects of Chinese and is ideally positioned to lead the sales and marketing team within the Asia Pacific region to ensure the highest standards of sales, marketing and customer services practices. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics & Sys...