Russian Film Festival, in Bangkok It seems to be an epidemic of Film Festivals , in Bangkok, this year ! The first-ever Indian Festival’s gone, and now, it’s the first-ever Russian Film festival. Soon, there will be the World Film Festival of Bangkok (16 Nov - 25 Nov). The Russians are celebrating their 150th Anniversary of relations with Thailand ,and what better way to celebrate, than through Cinema? The ‘ Russian W...

 In a welcome gesture to Indian Cinema, the City of Brampton in Ontario, Canada,  will name a street after the ultimate Showman – the late Raj Kapoor. Introducing a new street into the infrastructure of the city, when constructed it will be named, the ‘Raj Kapoor Crescent’.  The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will host a tribute to the patriarch of the Kapoor clan,  Raj Kapoor. Titled, ‘Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema’ the festival will run for six ...

Sholay (Embers)                          PHILIPJI --I watched the complete Sholay last night, and can easily see why it is such a landmark film in India,but --if you are not familiar with the iconic personalties of Amitji, Dharamji, Sanjeev Kumar, and Hema Malini -- it would just be a long Spaghetti Western with Masala sauce, fairly primitive in parts (Like the unerring accuracy of the shots by the dynamic Duo --every single shot drops ...

                 An Indian Citizen Kane in Florence by Alex Deleon   The basic objective of the River to River Indian film week in Florence is to present a wide selection of new Indian films by lesser-known or emerging directors with a balance between features, documentaries, a...

  An Indian Citizen Kane in Florence by Alex Deleon The basic objective of the River to River Indian film week in Florence is to present a wide selection of new Indian films by lesser-known or emerging directors with a balance between features, documentaries, and a varie...

Time was when Indian film was synonymous with a single name --Satyajit Ray. The famous Bengali director, generally recognized as a major world class cinema auteur, made 28 films between 1955 (Pather Panchali) and 1991, most of which were religiously shown in the west, primarily for the benefit of a tiny coterie of esoterically inclined foreign language film buffs, while the works of numerous other Indian directors, some far more interesting than Ray, were studiously ignored. This lamentable dis...

River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival5-11 December 2008Cinema Odeon - Piazza Strozzi, 1 - Florence, ItalyThe 8th edition of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival is finished on Thursday December 11th, with a big success among the audience and the press, for a total of 2000 people, reconfirming the good idea of the 50 giorni di cinema internazionali in Florence and the beautiful venue of Odean movie theatre.The films in competition, the special sections and the retrospective devo...

Raj Kapoor, a Bollywood-style Charlie Chaplin from the FiftiesThe 2008 River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival will hold a retrospective on the great director Raj Kapoor, on the occasion of his 20th death anniversary, and screen a rich selection of the latest Indian films, as well as new special sectionsThe eighth River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival, completely devoted to Indian cinema and directed by Selvaggia Velo, will take place in Florence, Italy, from 5 to 11 December 2008....

Raj Kapoor, a Bollywood-style Charlie Chaplin from the FiftiesThe 2008 River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival will hold a retrospective on the great director Raj Kapoor, on the occasion of his 20th death anniversary, and screen a rich selection of the latest Indian films.The eighth River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival, completely devoted to Indian cinema and directed by Selvaggia Velo, will take place in Florence, Italy, from 5 to 11 December 2008.Supported by Mediateca Regionale...

Films bring in the diverse hues of South Asia to Goa From Frederick Noronha in IndiaSpread over four days, the South Asian Film Festival, being held in the coastal holiday resort of Goa, brings in diverse moving images to three screening halls in Panaji, the Goan capital that is also host to India's international film fest IFFI towards Nov-Dec each year.After its launch on Friday (June 27), the first film to be screened here has been 'Osama' from Afghanistan.This 2003-award winning film is about...

The 6th Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) announces the full schedule of films for the 2008 edition of the popular festival which runs April 22-27, including four feature films making their world premiere, five features making their U.S. premiere, and nine features making their L.A. debut.Celebrating its 6th anniversary, IFFLA has firmly established itself as the first and largest film festival in North America dedicated entirely to presenting the cinema of India by showcasing films by...

GOA, India, Nov 24, 2007: The 38th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-07) got off here with Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan inaugurated the event late Friday. Politicians also pledged that India's premier festival would continue to be hosted in this small coastal state that New Delhi wants to build into an "Indian Cannes". Shahrukh Khan called IFFI a pride of the nation. Recognizing the contribution of the common citizen in raising the popularity of cinema, he said, "Let's d...

GOA, India, Nov 24, 2007: The 38th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-07) got off here with Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan inaugurated the event late Friday. Politicians also pledged that India's premier festival would continue to be hosted in this small coastal state that New Delhi wants to build into an "Indian Cannes".Shahrukh Khan called IFFI a pride of the nation. Recognizing the contribution of the common citizen in raising the popularity of cinema, he said, "Let's dedicate the 38th...

The Middle East International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi (MEIFF) unveils its international star-studded guest line-up at the Opening Night Gala, featuring Joe Wright’s critically acclaimed international film, ATONEMENT, and a spectacular after-party on October 14, 2007. Celebrated choreographer Otis Sallid will be producing the Opening and Closing Night presentations.From Bollywood…An impressive all-star Bollywood line-up ensures that MEIFF asserts itself as a major force in the international ...

Bollywood Dream factory, a mass phenomenon that is staggering in its sheer scale and impact... Although popular Indian cinema has overspilled into many other countries, it is still largely unknown in France. And yet these lavish movies which throb to music and dance, and sparkle with hero-worshipped stars, have a thematic and artistic richness that is far removed from the simplistic vision we might have of them.Beaubourg Center is showing a retrospective on Bollywood playing about 50 films (2 sc...

BOLLYWOOD AND BEFOREIndia has an extremely prolific film industry turning out anything between 700 and 800 films a year, with peaks sometimes reaching more than 900! (905 in 1985, for example.) Most of these films are produced in regional centres in languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam... Indeed India is made up of 22 States and has 17 main languages. The Bollywood term covers films produced in Hindi in the Bombay studios. Although such films only account for a quarter of the total Indian...