One need not look up at the skies in the Canadian metropolis of Toronto to see stars. There will be as many stars at street level (make that red carpet level) as there will be in the heavens as the 2011 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival continues through this Sunday. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, James Franco, Rachel Weisz, Salma Hayek and Viggo Mortensen will be backing a flurry of Hollywood and indie movie bows in Toronto, as will Keira Knightley, Clive Owen, Ge...

Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced nominations this morning for the 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards.  Eva Mendes and Jeremy Renner served as presenters and 2011 Spirit Awards host Joel McHale was also on hand.  Nominees for Best Feature include 127 Hours, Black Swan, Greenberg, The Kids Are All Right and Winter's Bone. Please Give was selected for the Robert Altman Award, which is given...

  Connecticut Studios, South Windsor, CT  At last week's Connecticut Film Festival (www.ctfilmfest.com), the movers and shakers of the Connecticut film scene assembled at a seminar panel to discuss how film and television production is a vital component in the state's initiatives to create jobs, attract professionals and help the state climb out of the biggest deficit in its history. Economic advisors for several cities in the state as well as the head of the Connecticut Office of Film, Televi...

"Modoki" is the Japanese word for "similar, yet different." Take for example the Tribeca Film Festival (April 21 to May 2, 2010), and October's New York Film Festival. Both are Manhattan cinema extravaganzas — whose overlaps end there. Populist Tribeca plays teriyaki to artsy NYFF's sashimi.    Nearly four decades the Lincoln Center event's junior, Tribeca was founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff as a goad to downtown development in th...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent There's an amazing new 3D Catherine Keener movie out directed by Nicole Holofcener. You know, the real 3 D's? Death. Divorce. Disaster.  Rebecca Hall, Amanda Peet et Catherine Keener PLEASE GIVE, which opens April 30, deals with all of these  big special effects in life that most of us would rather escape from.  "It's nice when we laugh," Keener noted, "because there is some very heavy material" in PLEASE G...

  With the Sundance Film Festival in almost its third decade, it is no surprise that there are certain filmmakers who have become Park City regulars and veterans of the American indie scene. One of the most successful of the women directors that Sundance has nurtured is Nicole Holofcener, who is back at the Festival with her latest film PLEASE GIVE. The writer/director was first at Sundance with her 1996 romantic drama WALKING AND TALKING. Like that earlier film, PLEASE GIVE also...

SYNOPSIS:For three years after being forced from office, Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) remains silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agrees to a series of interviews -at a price - with David Frost (Michael Sheen) intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a better place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Frost's team harbours doubts about their boss' ability to hold his own. But as the cameras roll, a charged battle of wits ...

For three years after being forced from office, Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) remains silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agrees to a series of interviews -at a price - with David Frost (Michael Sheen) intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a better place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Frost's team harbours doubts about their boss' ability to hold his own. But as the cameras roll, a charged battle of wits ensues. D...

Nominations for the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for outstanding performances in 2007 in five film and eight primetime television categories and for the new SAG honors for film and television stunt ensembles were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theater in West Hollywood.Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg introduced Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love) and Actor® recipient Terrence Howard (The Brave One), who announced the nomin...

9th Annual Sarasota Film FestivalApril 13 – 22, 2007Among the many great filmmakers and special guests expected in for the Festival are Edward Norton, Brian Koppelman, Norman Jewison, Joe Pantoliano, Marcia Gay Harden, Chad Lowe, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jonathan Sehring, Tom Bernard, Mark Urman, Jon Gerrans, Marshall Persinger, Elias Koteas, Kim Raver, Dagmara Dominczyk, Patrick Wilson, David Call, Anna Chlumsky, Zoe Cassavetes, Michael Badalucco, Juha Wuolijoki, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, David Singt...

Slamdance, in a landmark precedent for a film festival, has joined forces with Angel Baby Entertainment and Executive Producer Michael Malagiero to annually produce a feature film based on that year’s prize-winning entry culled from the newly-created Slamdance Horror Screenplay Competition, it was jointly announced by Peter Baxter of Slamdance and Gregory Segal, a partner at Angel Baby. In addition to having their screenplay guaranteed to be made into a feature motion picture, the winning wri...

AFI FEST 2005 presented by Audi Announces Award WinnersCapping another successful year, AFI FEST 2005 announced its award winners at a special Awards Presentation hosted by Tom Arnold at The Loft at the Festival's Rooftop Village--Sunday evening, November 13, in advance of its Closing Night Gala Presentation, sponsored by Los Angeles Magazine, of director Lasse Hallström's CASANOVA, starring Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Lena Olin and Oliver Platt. After the showcasing of 127 films from 44 count...

November 3rd to the 13th, 2005 With 16 World Premieres and 17 North American Premieres the AFI FEST 2005 presented by Audi is paving the way for a dynamic Los Angeles Film Festival. Now in its 19th year the Festival is known as one of the top-ten Film Festivals in the US. Known for its stellar presentation of programming and outstanding participation of filmmakers and cast, the Festival draws a large number of passionate film goers in Southern California and many international guest as well.AFI ...

Lasse Hallström’s out of competition film Casanova is the story of Casanova, a man searching for way out of being condemned to death for his amorous adventures. He needs a wife or maybe a new perspective. Soon he meets Francesca (Sienna Miller),a young Venetian who writes under the name of Bruno Guardia. Jeremy Irons plays the inquisitor Pucci who searches for both Guardia and Casanova (Heath Ledger). Lisa Olin, Hallström’s real life wife plays Francesca’s mother, and Oliver Platt, a lar...

Casanova Directed by Lasse Hallstrom screens today out of competition and will be followed by a lavish paris at the Palazzio Ducale attended by crew and cast: Heath Ledger who plays Casanova, Lena Olin, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt...1700s Venice – He was the legendary adventurer whose amorous dalliances would go on to inspire countless lovers throughout the centuries. She was the most virtuoso writer of her time who was waiting to find that rare man with a true understanding of steadfastness a...

The current busy film festival season has harvested a bonanza of awards for worthy films at a number of film festival events. The Provincetown International Film Festival, which held its ninth and most successful session from June 14 to 19, announced a host of awards at its Gala Closing Night Party at the Boatslip Resort overlooking beautiful Cape Cod Bay.The Best Dramatic Feature prize was won by HEIGHTS, the multi-character drama starring Glenn Close and James Marsden. The film, directed by Ch...

The 40th Chicago International Film Festival will kick it off with KINSEY,the new film by Bill Condon starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan Baker.Thursday, October 7th at the Chicago Theatre The film fresh from its Toronto VIACOM GALAS premiere is quite remarkable: a star-studded, glossy Hollywood film about Alfred Kinsey, a man who was once considered among the most dangerous figures in post-war America...