The organizers at Vancouver’s International Film Festival were rightly pleased as they wrapped up. The Festival has generated enormous public interest and, in particular, put the spotlight on some deserving films. The audience award went to ‘The lives of others’, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s thriller about surveillance in the former East Germany, and Vancouver’s very own Douglas Coupland-scripted ‘Everything’s Gone Green’ scooped the Western Canada Feature Film Award. Even ...
Dragons & Tigers Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival
Felicitas Becker
This year’s Dragons and Tigers Award at VIFF went to the Philippine director John Torres for TODO TODO TEROS. This award is one of the most prestigious for Asian films. Many of today’s most renowned directors from the region, considered among the most significant figures of world cinema, were awarded this prize early in their
This year’s Dragons and Tigers Award at VIFF went to the Philippine director John Torres for TODO TODO TEROS. This award is one of the most prestigious for Asian films. Many of today’s most renowned directors from the region, considered among the most significant figures of world cinema, were awarded this prize early in their career. Winners have included Kore-eda Hirokazu (Maborosi, 1995), Hong Sang-Soo (The Day the Pig Fell Into the Well, 1996), Zhang Ming (Rainclouds Over Wushan, 1996), L...
The Douglas Coupland-scripted film 'Everything's Gone Green' (already abridged to 'EGG' by some) screened for the third time this blindingly sunny morning in Vancouver, and was again overrun. This is a star-struck city where the free news rags regularly report which Hollywood greats have been spotted drinking in local bars or letting their dogs foul the pavements, but locals are forever irked by the fact that their city so rarely stars in films as itself. In EGG, it does, and Vancouverites are h...
Fathers and SonsPula International Film FestivalPula has everything that is needed to become one of the major film festivals. It has a Roman amphitheatre to show its films in – only comparable to Locarno’s Piazza Grande in size and ambiance. It has a lovely seaside on the Adriatic Sea, and, last not least, it has a long tradition: Pula, surprisingly, is one of the oldest film festivals in Europe. Yet, Pula is not a festival that film critics fear to miss. It is not on the festival circuit, e...
The third Discovering Latin America Film Festival in LondonThe third edition of the ‘Discovering Latin America Film Festival’ closed in London on December 5th amid great satisfaction among the organizers. Although the event had grown considerably since last year, with a larger number of films and, for the first time, master classes, they had managed to make it run smoothly. This is an unusual film festival, run by a group of enthusiastic amateurs. The artistic director personally introduced ...