The AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL (AFF), the first film event in Eastern Europe solely devoted to the works of contemporary and classic American cinema, announced the two winners of its Audience Awards, chosen by the public as their favorites among the films presented over the past five days in Wroclaw, Poland. The winner of the American Independent Narrative Audience Award is WINTER’S BONE, the celebrated debut by filmmaker Debra Granik that won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Screenpl...

The AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL (AFF), the first film event in Eastern Europe solely devoted to the works of contemporary and classic American cinema, announced the two winners of its Audience Awards, chosen by the public as their favorites among the films presented over the past five days in Wroclaw, Poland. The winner of the American Independent Narrative Audience Award is WINTER’S BONE, the celebrated debut by filmmaker Debra Granik that won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Screenplay awards at the...

The AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL (AFF), the first film event in Eastern Europe solely devoted to the works of contemporary and classic American cinema, has announced the American Documentary Features that will compete for an Audience Award, with a cash prize of USD$5,000 and a chance at Eastern European distribution. The program in the AMERICAN DOCS section of the Festival is drawn from films that made strong impressions at such film festivals as Cannes, Sundance, South By Southwest (SXSW), Tribeca, L...

  The AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL (AFF), the first film event in Eastern Europe solely devoted to the works of contemporary and classic American cinema, has announced the American Documentary Features that will compete for an Audience Award, with a cash prize of USD$5,000 and a chance at Eastern European distribution. The program in the AMERICAN DOCS section of the Festival is drawn from films that made strong impressions at such film festivals as Cannes, Sundance, South By Southwest (SXSW), T...

I wrote yesterday about 2 films receiving a lot of buzz, then felt a little worried they wouldn't meet up to my high expectations... too often the case when you hear about the best of the fest. SO- it was such a relief to emerge from the LA Film Festival cinemas yesterday and say yes, those films deserved all that buzzing. 'Where Are You Taking Me' took me to Uganda with a sincere observational eye that simply lets the magical moments unfold before you, untouched except by Kimi Takes...

Ron Gilbert and I raced from the screening of "Farewell" last night, looking for the drinks. "Let's go the Elephant party!!" he was saying, and who can resist a line like that. "The elephants are all the way down the end there", he said, scanning LA live cinemas 1, 2, 3, 4 and... nothing. "Where are the elephants?" he asked the first person to step into the elevator, "and did you see the zeppelin film?". We'd been hoping to see the premie...

Documentaries screened at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival tended to be superior to the feature films in its program an assessment not disputed by its creative director Geoff Gilmore.  In one of the seminars Gilmore admitted that the Sundance festival which he had directed before coming to New York experienced a similar discrepancy.  Similar to the US market position of foreign language films, documentaries play a minor role at the US box office. In the 2009 U.S. total box office of $10.6 billio...

Documentaries screened at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival tended to be superior to the feature films in its program an assessment not disputed by its creative director Geoff Gilmore. In one of the seminars Gilmore admitted that the Sundance festival which he had directed before coming to New York experienced a similar discrepancy. Similar to the US market position of foreign language films, documentaries play a minor role at the US box office. In the 2009 U.S. total box office of $10.6 billion,...

  SONS OF PERDITION It can be argued that what separates A list film festivals from their colleagues are the number of World Premieres that grace their theaters. No matter what the ultimate reception is for these films, the wanna-see anticipation of films in their first public and industry showings provide a sizzle. At the Tribeca Film Festival, which is entering its first weekend, there are an impressive number of World Premieres that are grabbing attention from the public and in...

"The Two Escobars" by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, Showing at Tribeca Film Festival, April 22, 23, 25, and May 1st, 2010 With 54 Days, 04 Hours, 40 minutes and 00 seconds left until the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held this summer in Johannesburg, South Africa, many may really enjoy this fantastic film comparing the lives of two humble, yet powerful men born in the same city, Medellin, Columbia, who share the same last name, but have no relation to one another, except the fact that they both sim...

“The Two Escobars” by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist   With 54 Days, 04 Hours, 40 minutes and 00 seconds left until the 2010 FIFA World Cup  to be held this summer in Johannesburg, South Africa, many may really enjoy this  fantastic film comparing the lives of two humble, yet powerful men born in the same city, Medellin, Columbia, who share the same last name, but have no relation to one another, except the fact that they both  simultaneously held a major impact on the economi...

  Space Tourists, Tigers, Wind Horses, Winnebagos, Dublin's Pyjama Girls and the Dalai Lama; this year's IFI Stranger Than Fiction documentary film festival is packed with more reality than ever 15th-18th April 2010 With twenty-two of the finest documentaries, including 19 premieres, this year's expanded IFI Stranger Than Fiction festival promises to be bigger and better than ever before. Launching the programme today Niall Macpherson, Festival Programmer said, ‘We're ...

Not counting The Cocoanuts 's Marx brothers, any fool can thrive in Florida during boon times. To ride a bust takes vision, though, which must be what the Miami International Film Festival has. For its 27th edition (March 5-14, 2010), the Festival has reportedly seen a 35 percent bump in advance ticket sales, and surely that makes it a seer. The MIFF is produced and hosted by Miami-Dade College. With jobs down and campus admissions up, the only major film festival with such academic credentials...

  While Amsterdam certainly boasts its own unique cast of characters that one can observe on the streets, in the stores and the coffee shops, some of the most intriguing people I met during my stay at IDFA were on the film screen. When you immerse yourself in as many films as I did (an average of four per day), one comes away with a contact high from the encounters with unique individuals with unique stories and circumstances that stay with you (with me, at least). And while I am already...

While Amsterdam certainly boasts its own unique cast of characters that one can observe on the streets, in the stores and the coffee shops, some of the most intriguing people I met during my stay at IDFA were on the film screen. When you immerse yourself in as many films as I did (an average of four per day), one comes away with a contact high from the encounters with unique individuals with unique stories and circumstances that stay with you (with me, at least). And while I am already at a new ...