by Marla Lewin   Jeff Bridges CRAZY HEART Photo by Lorey Sebastian (c) Fox Searchlight 2009 The final day of the 25th festival was proclaimed Jeff Bridges day. It is a full day of films starring Jeff Bridges concluding with a screening of Crazy Heart for which he is nominated for a Best Actor nomination by the Academy. A tribute to the Santa Barbara native will cap the evening. At a Sunday morning brunch at the famed Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort the winners of the 201...

Winding Down By Kimberly Deisler Could it possibly be day ten already? While the week was excruciatingly long in that everyone’s exhausted and choking with some kind of cough or cold, we’re finally here … on the last day of the festival. Although most of the world considers this to be Valentine’s Day, those in Santa Barbara are celebrating the local sweetheart with Jeff Bridges Day by screening all of his Oscar nominated films, The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt...

The 25th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced the winners of the 2010 festival competition at a Press Conference and Sunday morning brunch at the famed Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort, hosted by KTYD Radio's Julie Ramos. The festival, which celebrated its Silver Anniversary February 4-14, was a huge success. By the look of the theaters you'd never know the economy was in the fight of its life as audiences packed the theaters for the last 11 days, proving once again how p...

Celebrating its Silver Anniversary, The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) presents its stellar line-up for 2010.  The 25th edition features 196 films including 18 World Premieres, 28 U.S. Premieres and a vast selection of films representing 45 countries.  SBIFF is proud to welcome immensely talented filmmakers and honorees as we look back at 25 years of cinematic history and has assembled exceptional and evocative movies to entertain the expansive SBIFF audience.  The Fest...

THE WHITE RIBBON wins European Film 2009. Picture: EFA/ActionPress/Guido Ohlenbostel Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy now unites more than 2,000 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting Europe’s film culture. Few surprises at the 22nd EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS: Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon), Germany/Austria/France/Italy written and directed by Michael Haneke produced by Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz, Margaret Menegoz & Andrea ...

  Highlights of the 7th london short film festival Full details at http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/   ISOLATION - atmospheric, impressionistic documentary portrait of ex-soldiers experiencing the physical and emotional scars of life after the Army. Co-director Luke Seomore, who wrote original music for the film, will be performing the soundtrack live with musicians Michael Garrad and David Stephens. Presented in association with Branchage Festival.   Transfor...

BIFA’s jury is comprised of professionals and talent from across the British film industry including: Actress Jodie Whittaker, Actors Idris Elba, Liam Cunningham, Eddie Marsan and Peter Mullan, Directors Sarah Gavron and Eran Creevy, Producers Dixie Linder, Anita Overland and Adrian Sturges, Documentary Filmmaker Kate Blewett, Film Marketing Consultant Robert Mitchell, Projectionist Paul Speed and Head of Distribution and Exhibition at The UK Film Council Peter Buckingham. Johanna von Fischer ...

NOMINATIONS AND JURY ANNOUNCED FOR THE 12TH BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS The nominations and jury members for the twelfth annual British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) were announced today, Monday 26 October, at Soho House in London. The nominations this year reflect the up and coming and internationally renowned on and off screen talent. The film receiving the most nods is Fish Tank with eight nominations. Moon follows with seven nominations. An Education, In The Loop and Nowhere Boy each...

by Marla LewinTHE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (for outstanding contribution to British Film) is being awarded to Daniel Day Lewis The  twelfth annual British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) were announced today, Monday 26 October, at Soho House in London. All of the films nominated for best picture and most of those in the other major categories have been or will be released in the United States. This is a major accomplishment in today's independent market which is under major assault.BEST BRITISH I...

Today, under the auspices of the 66th Mostra, the European Parliament unveiled the three contending films for the LUX Prize 2009: Eastern Plays (Kamen Kalev), Sturm (Hans-Christian Schmid) and Welcome (Philippe Lioret) will compete for the film prize that has been awarded by the European Parliament to a European co-production for the last two years. For the winner, the LUX Prize 2009 (lux is the Latin word for light), worth about 87,000 Euros, will finance subtitling in the EU's...

Today, under the auspices of the 66th Mostra, the European Parliament unveiled the three contending films for the LUX Prize 2009: Eastern Plays (Kamen Kalev), Sturm (Hans-Christian Schmid) and Welcome (Philippe Lioret) will compete for the film prize that has been awarded by the European Parliament to a European co-production for the last two years.For the winner, the LUX Prize 2009 (lux is the Latin word for light), worth about 87,000 Euros, will finance subtitling in the EU’s 23 official lan...

5th Zurich Film Festival: September 24 – October 4, 2009Thursday, September 10, 2009Thirty Films in Three Competitions, Ten World Premieres and Celebrated GuestsThe 5th Zurich Film Festival has announced further film highlights, introduced the three competition juries and presented the entire festival program.Festival directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri and curators of the Competition Program Christine von Fragstein and Nikolaj Nikitin, announced the Competition and the Out of Compet...

  Sebastian Lelio (Chilean director) by Sandy Mandelberger, Online Dailies Editor The hardest working band of professionals at this year’s ERA New Horizons International Film Festival, which closes today in Wroclaw, Poland, are undoubtedly the juries that have been viewing films from all over the world in the main Festival competitions. As the Festival headed into its final days, the juries moved from viewing and evaluating the films into the rigors of that favorite bl...

The jury declares that this year’s competition presents a broad range of films whose central aim consists in exploring ways to further the interpretation and understanding of important topics of our time. Therefore the jury has decided to award prizes to those efforts which achieve a balance between the political statement and the poetic form. Golden Bear for the Best Film  La teta asustada (The Milk Of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix  A...

The jury declares that this year’s competition presents a broad range of films whose central aim consists in exploring ways to further the interpretation and understanding of important topics of our time. Therefore the jury has decided to award prizes to those efforts which achieve a balance between the political statement and the poetic form. Golden Bear for the Best Film La teta asustada (The Milk Of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix Alle...

The jury declares that this year’s competition presents a broad range of films whose central aim consists in exploring ways to further the interpretation and understanding of important topics of our time. Therefore the jury has decided to award prizes to those efforts which achieve a balance between the political statement and the poetic form. Silver Bear - Best Actor  Sotigui Kouyate in London River by Rachid Bouchareb Silver Bear - Outstanding Arti...