With the worldwide simultaneous release today of THE DA VINCI CODE across the globe, a question lingers in the air: Did Cannes kill The Code? Or more specificially, did the buildup and hype surrounding the Cannes opening create such a high expectation that the film will suffer from disappointed critics and viewers?While the mass hysteria over THE DA VINCI CODE has passed into memory in Cannes with all the subtlety of a hangover after too much champagne, the industry waits with bated breath the b...
With the worldwide simultaneous release today of THE DA VINCI CODE across the globe, a question lingers in the air: Did Cannes kill The Code? Or more specificially, did the buildup and hype surrounding the Cannes opening create such a high expectation that the film will suffer from disappointed critics and viewers?
While the mass hysteria over THE DA VINCI CODE has passed into memory in Cannes with all the subtlety of a hangover after too much champagne, the industry waits with bated breath th...
The fifth annual Tribeca Film Festival wrapped here Sunday with a political and international selection of winners including three war themed films which took the top prizes. Tristan Bauers tale of a Falklands War soldier won the Founders award, while Deborah Scrantons Iraq-themed The War Tapes took the Best Documentary prize. The audience award went to Linda Hattendrfs “The Cats of Mirikitani” the tale of an American who lost family in the Hiroshima bombings.Figures show this years fest att...
One of the highlights of this springs Tribeca Film Festival is sure to be the Animated New York program curated by Bill Plympton. When people think of New York City’s filmmakers most are unaware of the thriving, diverse independent animation community .Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been printed in The New York Times and The Village Voice , as well as the magazines Vogue , Rolling Stone , Vanity Fair , Penthouse , and National Lampoon . His political cartoon strip "Plympton", ...
One of the highlights of this springs Tribeca Film Festival is sure to be the Animated New York program curated by Bill Plympton. When people think of New York City’s filmmakers most are unaware of the thriving, diverse independent animation community .Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been printed in The New York Times and The Village Voice , as well as the magazines Vogue , Rolling Stone , Vanity Fair , Penthouse , and National Lampoon . His political cartoon strip "Plympton", ...
Before leaving her hand prints in the Boulevard Marítimo´s path, the actress Susan Sarandon and her husband, the director Tim Robbins, answered the audience's most different interests and they talked with the actors present there. "Bush´s re-election was useful only for the comedy actors and the punk rockers", said the director.An Oscar in the bathroomThe master class was signed by the actress´ sense of humour and the not always proper audience participation, which packed Hermitage´s Versai...
First docs from the Gulf Coast region featuring Nine World PremieresFull Frame Documentary Film Festival announces the Southern Sidebar: Katrina films. The screenings, sponsored by Turner South for the 2006 festival will show for audiences in Durham, North Carolina on April 6-9th this year. Traditionally showcasing regional films in the Southern Sidebar program, this year the program will feature documentaries shot of the Gulf region and its people following Hurricane Katrina. Full Frame is t...
Movie theater audiences have steadily shrunk over the past 50 years. This brings a very important concern to the forefront: will movie theaters continue to exist among all the new media and technology? With so many different ways to distribute a film, it is a matter of sociology as to why one would want to go into a dark movie theater and experience a film with a group of strangers or even alone in the dark.Several of these topics were addressed at a recent Sundance Film Festival panel I attende...
Madeinusa/ClaudiaLlosa Madeinusa is a sweet girl who lives in an isolated religiously zealous village in mountainous Peru. Everything changes when a geologist from Lima arrives and unknowingly reshapes Madeinusa's destiny. Kinky Boots/Julian JarroldIn an effort to save his father's small town shoe factory, a man finds an unlikely ally in Lola, a brassy cabaret singer. DeNADIE/Tin DirdamalThe story of Maria, a Central American immigrant forced to leave her family in search of a better life. O...
The Independent Feature Film Competition is the heart of the Sundance Film Festival program and has introduced audiences to many of the best American independent films and filmmakers of the past 22 years. Launched in 2005, The World Cinema Competition reflects the Festival’s commitment to international film and to stimulating creative dialogue among cultures. The dramatic and documentary sections of the Independent Film and World Cinema Competitions each present 16 films, for a total of 64 f...
Capote and Murderball Take Home Top Honors at 15th Annual Gotham AwardsIFP has announced its winners in the six competitive categories at the 15th Annual Gotham Awards which has been broadcast on NYC TV (Channel 25) on December 6 at 9 pm EST. Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin, Anna Paquin Awarded Best Ensemble Cast for The Squid and the Whale. Amy Adams and Bennett Miller Awarded "Breakthroughs". I Am A Sex Addict Awarded Best Film Not Playing at a Theater ...
The 31st Annual Seattle International Film FestivalThe 31st Annual Seattle International Film Festival announces award winners and concludes its 25-day run on Sunday June 12 with the North American premiere of award winning director Gus Van Sant’s film Last Days. Van Sant will be in attendance for the screening, which will be followed by the Closing Night Gala. SIFF 2005 was a great year and brought many eminent Seattleites together—from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Eddie Vedder of Pearl Ja...
NewFest: New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival, concluded its expansive 10 day program with the announcement of winners of its NewFest 2005 Filmmaker Awards at a closing ceremony on Sunday evening, June 12. The Awards, announced by Festival Director Basil Tsiokos, followed the New York premiere screening of Closing Night Film SUMMER STORM by German director Marco Kreuzpaintner.The Showtime Vanguard Award, which celebrates visionary achievement, was awarded to GOOD BOYS, ...
ELVIS MITCHELL AS GUEST CURATOR FOR THE 2005 LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVALJUNE 16 – 26, 2005Dawn Hudson, Executive Director of Film Independent (FIND), announced Elvis Mitchell as the Guest Curator for the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival, which runs Thursday, June 16 through Sunday, June 26, 2005. In this official position, Mitchell will be selecting a number of special screenings and moderating discussions for the 2005 festival. Mitchell joins Festival Director, Richard Raddon and Director of Pro...
PAUL HAGGIS TO RECEIVE INAUGURAL MAURICE KANBAR AWARD AT48th SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALApril 21–May 5, 2005)Writer/Director/Producer to be Honored for Excellence in ScreenwritingThe San Francisco Film Society announced today that Academy Award nominee Paul Haggis will be the recipient of the inaugural Maurice Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting at the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21-May 5, 2005). The award will be presented to Haggis at Film Soc...
Ella Waldek, 74, and Ida Mae Martinez, 73, don't look much like movie stars. But as they answered questions and kibitzed for an audience at the historic Little Theater at the High Falls Film Festival here, it was clear that they were born to entertain. Ms. Waldek and Ms. Martinez are two real-life heroines of ''Lipstick and Dynamite the First Ladies of Wrestling,'' a crowd-pleaser directed by Ruth Leitman about the brash and lovable pioneers of women's wrestling in the 1940's and 50's. It may no...
The fourth edition of the festival organized by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) wrapped November 7. Dedicated to showcasing filmmakers of Indian origin it had a successful four day run at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre and the Anthology Film Archives. As Aaron Shivdansani, the executive director of IAAC stressed in her welcoming speech, the opening film BRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Gurinder Chandha was not meant for afficiendos interested in high culture, an observation applicable t...
Across three continents, "MONDOVINO" weaves together the family succession sagas of billionaire Napa Valley power brokers, the rivalry of two aristocratic Florentine dynasties and the efforts of three generations of a Burgundian family fighting to preserve their few acres of land. But are all these struggles secondary to the exploits of a gleefully mischievious pirate from Bordeaux who spreads the gospel of modernity from Italy to New York to Argentina?Wine has been a symbol of Western civiliza...
OSCAR NOMINEE SHERIDAN AND TONY NOMINEE MAYER HEAD JURY FOR FIRST-ANNUAL CARIBBEAN FILM FESTIVAL Oscar-nominated screenwriter Naomi Sheridan heads the jury that will honor the best films in competition at the 1st annual Turks & Caicos International Film Festival, which will be held from November 13-20, 2004, in the Caribbean.Naomi Sheridan collaborated with her father, director Jim Sheridan, and her sister, director-writer Kirsten Sheridan, in penning IN AMERICA, the autobiographical film from 2...
Hollywood Film Festival & Film Threat celebrate Genre Cinema In HollywoodThe Hollywood Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Festival(TM)The Hollywood Film Festival will mark its triumphant return on October 12, 2004, to the state-of-art Arclight Theatres in Hollywood for an eight annual, weeklong series of screenings, seminars, competitions, awards, and other unique festivities.The HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL announces its alliance with FILM THREAT and Chris Gore, as well as this year's special focus on celeb...
"To Laugh or Not to Laugh"A FILM FESTIVAL***********************************The role of Humor in French Film about the HolocaustFull program of events in the festival.Friday, May 21st3:00 pm Screening of "Almost Peaceful," Dartmouth Hall 105 Followed by a discussion led by André Colombat, author of "The Holocaust in French Film," Dartmouth Hall 105Almost Peaceful (Un Monde Presque Paisible), 2002Directed by Michelle DevilleStarring Simon Abkarian, Lubna Azabal, Zabou Breitman, Clotilde Courau a...
UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQJOSEPH WILSON JOINS CINEMA LIBRE INTERNATIONAL AT CANNES FOR THEATRICAL DEBUTFormer acting U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, JOSEPH WILSON, will be attending the world premiere of 2004’s most talked-about documentary, UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ. Wilson sparked an international firestorm when he revealed to the New York Times that the Bush Administration’s claims about Saddam Hussein seeking to acquire uranium from Niger were false. Wilson, by special request, will attend a...
