Sofia Coppola’s Venice Golden Lion winner Somewhere, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Venice Jury Prize winning Essential Killing (which also received the Best Actor award for Vincent Gallo); Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix and Best Director winners Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods and Men and Mathieu Almaric’s Tournée, the Latin America premieres of Andrucha Waddington’s Toronto and Venice selected Lope and Ben Affleck’s The Town; actors Bill Pullman, Charlotte Rampling, Irène Jacob, and Michael Mads...

 Roger Corman Independent Film Legendby Marla LewinThe LA film festival had a free outdoor screening at a new mixed use residential complex named The Los Angeles Center it is a short walk from the Disney Concert Hall and the MOCA, The Museum of Contemporary Art. It was a film named Climate Refugees based on the effects of climate change. Marc talked with Ed Begley, Jr, who remembered him from working with The Grifters, at that time Ed was dating Annette Benning.  Ed had driven to the Acade...

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...

The Sunday morning festival reports in the Spanish papers, whose writers represent a cross-section of leading Spanish film critics, were nearly unanimous in denouncing the prizes dished out the day before by the Angelica Huston led official competition jury. The main prize, which went to the Czech film "Something Like Happiness", came in for the strongest condemnation. Three critics used the word "absurdo" (absurd) to describe the top award, one going so far as to say that there were at least e...

The Donostia-San Sebastian film festival on the incredibly picturesque North Spanish coast, ("NAZIOARTEKO ZINEMALDIA" in the exotic Basque language of the region), has opened heavily "front loaded" as the saying goes these days, which means that many of the big guns, films with high prize potential, have already been fired off in the first few days. The festival opener was, appropriately, "Obaba", one of the most eagerly awaited Spanish films of the year based on a Basque language best seller b...

53RD SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL OPENS WITH SEVERAL BANGSby Alex Deleon, San SebastianThe Donostia-San Sebastian film festival on the incredibly picturesque North Spanish coast, ("NAZIOARTEKO ZINEMALDIA" in the exotic Basque language of the region), has opened heavily "front loaded" as the saying goes these days, which means that many of the big guns, films with high prize potential, have already been fired off in the first few days. The festival opener was, appropriately, "Obaba", one of the m...

Friday's competition program opened with “BOMBON, The Dog”, an Argentine film by Carlos Sorín who won a jury prize here two years ago with “Minimal stories”. This director works characteristically with non-professional actors who appear in his films under their real names. “Bom-Bon” is the name of a docile white mastiff who shares the lead with a gentle man from Patagonia by the name of Juan Villegas. Juan, after losing his job in a remote desert gas station, held for twenty ye...

Friday's competition program opened with “BOMBON, The Dog”, an Argentine film by Carlos Sorín who won a jury prize here two years ago with “Minimal stories”. This director works characteristically with non-professional actors who appear in his films under their real names. “Bom-Bon” is the name of a docile white mastiff who shares the lead with a gentle man from Patagonia by the name of Juan Villegas. Juan, after losing his job in a remote desert gas station, held for twenty ye...

Friday's competition program opened with “BOMBON, The Dog”, an Argentine film by Carlos Sorín who won a jury prize here two years ago with “Minimal stories”. This director works characteristically with non-professional actors who appear in his films under their real names. “Bom-Bon” is the name of a docile white mastiff who shares the lead with a gentle man from Patagonia by the name of Juan Villegas. Juan, after losing his job in a remote desert gas station, held for twenty years, ...

There is nothing about this festival that is small from the giant projection halls in the Giant "CUBE" Building on the beachfront which houses the main events, to the big names that come and go every day. Hungarian director Istvan Szabo and his leading lady of "Being Julia", Annette Benning, took a side trip to Bilbao on Monday to see the new Guggenheim -- which is closed on Mondays -- but for these ultra special guests it was opened for a "private screening" of the collection. Yesterday it was ...

THE 52nd SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVALAs if to serve notice that this festival is solidly back on track in the "Big Time" the 52nd edition of this Basque Country autumn extravaganza opened with a bang on September 17 with a screening of Woody Allen's latest opus, "Melinda Melinda" and an opening night lifetime award presented to the American director who was here in person to accept the honor from the hands of Spanish super-star director, Pedro Almodovar.. Allen who is well known for his dislike ...

THE 52nd SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVALby Alex DeleonAs if to serve notice that this festival is solidly back in the "Big Time" the 52nd edition of this early autumn Basque Country extravaganza opened with a bang on September 17 with a screening of Woody Allen's latest opus, "Melinda Melinda" and an opening night lifetime award presented to the American director who was here in person to accept the honor. Allen who is well known for his dislike of festivals (the only one he condescends to visit up...