Thursday, January 18----The Jacob Burns Film Center, an oasis of film culture in the northern New York suburbs, is presenting a six-week series of some of the landmarks of world cinema, in a program entitled 50 Years of Janus Films. The series is a tribute to the pioneering arthouse distributor, who for 50 years, was at the forefront of bringing the works of Bergman, Fellini, Truffaut and other film greats to the attention of American audiences. The series, which originated as part of the New ...
Wednesday, January 10----Narrative films from the European continent are among the most anticipated in the World Cinema Competition: Drama competition at the Sundance Film Festival, which opens next week. Of the sixteen films to be presented in the program section, eight are European productions or co-productions with other nations. The strong presence of European films, and the introduction of new film talents, will have industry executives keeping a watchful eye on Europe during the 10 day ...
Tuesday, November 6----When Argentinian director Fabian Bielinsky died suddenly this past June at the age of 47, the international cinema world mourned the loss of one of its more blazing contemporary talents. The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival will present the director's final work, a metaphysical thriller with strong spiritual overtones with the evocative title of THE AURA.
Bielinsky started shooting films at the tender age of 13. He later attended the National Cinematographic...
Monday, October 23----A celebration of African dance and film will be the high point on today’s agenda, as the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival moves into its second week of film discoveries and excitement.
The Festival will screen the Sundance Film Festival hit SON OF MAN this evening at 8:00pm at the Cinema Paradiso. The special screening tribute to South African film will be preceded by an African Dance performance by the Le Jump Afrique dance troupe. The troupe includes membe...
EFP Delegation at Pusan Film Festival
Friday, October 20----European Film Promotion, the pan-European promotion organization that represents the national film promotion agencies of over 30 European countries, is returning to New York for the third time with industry screenings of four excellent new European films. The goal of the program is to present new European films to New York-based film distributors, festival programmers and film critics. The four films will be presented on October 23rd a...
Festival Closing Night Gala
Saturday, October 14---The 44th edition of the New York Film Festival is drawing to a close, but not without one more weekend of film excitement and diversity. Saturday sees repeat screenings of two of the Festival's most anticipated and debated films, Sofia Coppola's post-modern take on the French Revolution, MARIE ANTOINETTE, and Emmanuel Bordieu's homo-erotic POISON FRIENDS.
Another film having its final screening on Saturday is the Turkish drama CLIMATES by d...
Scene from Almodovar's VOLVER
As the New York Film Festival moves into its second weekend, a diverse and tantalizing plate of cinematic offerings is on tap, catered to every kind of viewer. The Festival has created a mix of hotly anticipated films, some unknown gems and new works from some cinematic masters, all of which have their initial premieres this weekend.
Three filmmakers who have showcased their past work at the event are presenting their newest films this weekend. Veteran French dire...
Wednesday, September 13----The French can be credited for many things....romantic love, opulent architecture, delicious (and fattening) foods, and most of the "isms" of the last few centuries. In the middle of the 20th century, the "ism de jour" was existentialism, a world view that was both personal and communal in describing the human condition and man's place in the universe. With the help of such seminal figures as Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, existentialism became a major liter...
Most festivals, in their debut year, have a modest agenda and try to keep expectations at a low pitch. Not so the Rome Film Fest, which is approaching its inaugural session with the velocity of an unstoppable train.It has always seemed curious to Americans why some of Europe’s largest cities have not had a major film festival attached to them. Why, we wonder, did it take decades for Paris, the most cinephile of cities, to launch its own film event? Why are there no major film festivals in such...
The New York Film Festival has announced that its Retrospective program this year is devoted to a celebration of 50 Years of Janus Films, the pioneering arthouse distribution company, who singlehandedly brought the films of such film titans as Bergman, Kurosawa, Truffaut and Fellini to the attention of American film audiences.
The program, which opens on September 30th with the screening of a new 35mm film print of the Jean Renoir humanist classic THE RULES OF THE GAME, will showcase over 30 c...
During my current experiment of trying to "do" Cannes while not actually being there (in others words, virtually if not physically), it is quite astonishing to me that so little actual coverage is available to the average American consumer. Yes, we did catch a glimpse of Tom Hanks on the red carpet, and read much speculation about the fate of THE DA VINCI CODE, but it seems that anything that is not part of the tyranny of celebrity gossip finds scant space in American newspapers or television s...
New Directors/New Films, one of the most anticipated film events on the New York film calendar, celebrates its 35th year, presenting the works of new directors from around the world. The festival will unspool 25 feature films and 5 shorts from March 22 through April 2, 2006. The program is presented jointly by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Department of Film and Media of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Screenings will be held at the Walter Reade Theater, the Film Society’s year-r...
Formosa, the multi-award winning new comedy/drama from first time feature director Noah Kadner, whose filmmaking resume includes visual effects work on big budget films like X-Men and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has been selected to kick-off the opening night special event and awards ceremony at the upcoming 2005 FAIF Film Festival (Foundation for the Advancement of Independent Films) in Hollywood, Saturday October 8, 2005. The selection of “Formosa” to kick off the FAIF Film Fest...
Films from the European Union and the former East are a major component of the 7th edition of the BUENOS AIRES INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA. Nearly one third of the program, over one hundred films, is devoted to European works, which makes it the most represented region of all the films including films from Latin America.Buenos Aires, which is often referred to as the Paris of the South, is itself a mix of Latin American and European influences. The city has a strong connection t...
The Berlin International Film Festival, known locally as the Berlinale, already is one of Europe’s most highly prized film events. It is generally acknowledged as one of the most organized film events in the world, with a dazzling array of films from all over the world. Between the Competition Section, which hosts world and international premieres, and the parallel Panorama and Forum Of Young Cinema sections, the Festival is showcasing more than 300 films in its ten-day span.The Festival, whic...
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL----ASIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN INFLUENCESAs the New York Film Festival enters its final week, it continues its marathon of remarkable films from around the world. The Festival’s strong affinity for European and American Independent cinema has already been discussed, but among its most astonishing discoveries are new films from a variety of Asian and Latin American filmmakers.The new Asian Cinema continues to produce wondrous new talents, and this year’s Festival is highli...
The New York Film Festival, running through October 17, is in full swing, with enthusiastic audiences selling out nearly every film showing and film critics praising the films on offer. New York is in its prime at this time of the year: beautiful sunny weather, a Fall chill in the air, the turning of the leaves in nearby Central Park, and everywhere you go, chit chat about the Festival and the new films of the season. With such celebrated filmmakers as Mike Leigh and Pedro Almodovar in town, the...
TORONTO BIZ BUZZ 1SONY PICTURES CLASSICS HAS A RECORD TORONTOThe first few days of the Toronto International Film Festival has seen a spurt of buying for US distributor Sony Pictures Classics. The company already has a record six films screening in Toronto, including Festival opener Being Julia (directed by Istvan Szabo), Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education, Zhang Jimou’s House of Flying Daggers, John Duigan’s Head In The Clouds, and Al Pacino-starrer The Merchant of Venice, has announced som...
MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL : A CITADEL OF FILM CULTUREThe 28th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival is in full swing, with a heady mix of traditional arthouse films and innovative new voices giving this event its well-deserved reputation as the most European in style and substance of all of Canada’s film events.Perhaps it is its Francophone culture or its identity as a city of tradition (in direct contrast with the go-go atmosphere of its neighbor Toronto) but this Festival is definit...
Jury president Quentin Tarantino and Tilda Swinton locked horns over their conceptions of cinema when presented to the press on day one. The jury president asked Swinton if Hollywood was so bad why did so many British actors leave and come to Tinseltown. "Now Hollywood can be presented as the bad guy", he complained. People become stars and they get the hell out of there and go to Hollywood." Personally he believes that audiences just want to see the stars, which is why the American, Hong Kong...
NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2004June 18 - 27, 2004at the Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue @ Second Street)For the third year in a row, Subway Cinema presents its festival (one of only three in the US) devoted to new feature films from Asia. After watching 211 films, we feel we can safely say that this year¹s line-up includes the hands-down, no-holds-barred best new films from across the region. These are the movies that have been sweeping the awards ceremonies, racking up the box offi...
NORTHWEST FILM FORUM TO MOVE TO NEW LOCATIONNew space allows for much needed film facilitiesThe Northwest Film Forum is planning for the future. Already a force in Washington's filmmaking community, the NWFF is positioning itself to become the epicenter of Seattle's filmmaking community. In late Spring 2004, the nonprofit organization will transfer its headquarters to a new location, nearly tripling its size. This move is necessary to continue offering exceptional services to the filmmaking comm...
filmBUZZ RELEASES FIRST COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF FILM FESTIVALS’ INFLUENCE ON INDEPENDENT FILM SECTOR Preliminary Findings Show Regional Events Are Accurate Indicators of Arthouse Box Office Success Independent film research and tracking firm filmBUZZ released today the first in-depth, nationwide analysis of film festivals, concluding that these events provide important indicators forbox office success of specialty films. More than 25,000 audience members, 419 unique film titles, and 63 film fe...
