JUDE LAW AND SIR MICHAEL GAMBON TO BE HONOURED AT THE 15th MOËT BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS Recipients of both The Richard Harris Award and The Variety Award were announced today by Johanna von Fischer and Tessa Collinson, joint Directors, The Moët British Independent Film Awards. Sir Michael Gambon will receive the Richard Harris Award and Jude Law The Variety Award at the awards ceremony on Sunday 9th December at Old Billingsgate. The Richard Harris Award was introduced in 200...

  HELEN MIRREN RECEIVES EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA AWARD "A very meaningful honour," says the British actress (picture: Giles Keyte) The European Film Academy takes great pleasure in presenting Dame Helen Mirren with the honorary award EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2012 for her outstanding body of work. “It was discovering the immense diversity of European filmmaking that gave me an enduring love and respect for the art form,” stated Helen Mirr...

Helen Mirren and István Szabó (The Door)  by Alex Deleon, for <filmfestivals.com>   Dame Helen Mirren, patently the dominant figure of the first two days, held court on Saturday morning at the first official festival press conference. As Helen Mirrenová she is getting front page coverage in the Czech daily press in the manner of visiting royalty and her gracefully smiling visage adorns the cover of the widely read TVstar weekly with a bold gold lettered caption reading ...

Another big name of Cinema City Novi Sad, Serbia is no doubt Nick Powell. A man on Virgin label and a big boss of nowadays biggest Film and Television School in UK. I promised that I will write another article about a Nik Powell’s visit to Novi Sad, Cinema City because as I said in previous articles I’ve had a little problem with a voice recorder who failed to record interviews with Powell. In the 60s and 70s Richard Branson and his partner Nik Powell loved music and saw an opportunity to...

  The 47th installment of this high powered central European film festival, one of the oldest on the continent, opened a nine day run on June 29 with a spectacular display of fireworks and an appearance by regal British actress Helen Mirren (66) on the red carpet for the opening gala.  Mirren was introduced to the crowd at the enrance to the great Hall theater by festival president Jiri Bartosha, himself a prominent Czech actor, as he presented her with a crystal globe statuette i...

  It has been a difficult few months for the British film industry. Not only has the economic recession made the film business even more challenging, but the controversy surrounding the shuttering of the UK Film Council has been acriminious, amidst charges of economic abuse and political favoritism. Even the venerable London Film Festival, which unspools next month, losts its main corporate sponsors and had to scramble to find replacements. However, based on the bounty of British film...

  In these days of high cost travel and rapidly shrinking bank accounts, I quietly considered the bundle I had saved by not needing to board the Concorde to attend the hit London production of the Victorian satire LONDON ASSURANCE, the latest offering from the National Theatre's worldwide satellite broadcasts. Sitting in the plush, air-conditioned environment of the Jacob Burns Film Center thirty miles from New York City, I could only marvel at the experience of a delicious "nig...

by Marla Lewin Left to Right: Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren Photo taken by Stephan Rabold, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics I am at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and got to spend opening night interviewing the creative team responsible for this year’s opening night film. I had already seen The Last Station back in November in Los Angeles for the Tribute to Christopher Plummer so this was a wonderful opportunity to meet with these talented people...

Writer/director Michael Hoffman has made a diverse bunch of movies, from the quirky comedy Soapdish to the romantic comedy One Fine Day to his take on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now he has tackled the final days of Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station, based on the novel by Jay Parini. It took Hoffman nearly two decades for the stars to align on the picture, which was originally to star Meryl Streep as Sofya Tolstoy and Anthony Hopkins as the Russian novelist during his final days w...

by Marla LewinHelen Mirren Photo taken by Stephan Rabold, Courtesy of Sony Pictures ClassicsThe 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Academy Award winner Helen Mirren with the Career Achievement Award. Presented by Cartier, the Awards Gala will kick off the 2010 awards season on Tuesday, January 5 at the Palm Springs Convention Center and will be hosted by "Entertainment Tonight's" Mary Hart. The Festival runs January 5-18, 2010.Mirren will join pre...

by Marla Lewin Christopher Plummer as Dr. Parnassus Photo taken by Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Christopher Plummer not only stars as a mystic who sells his soul to the devil in Terry GIlliam’s Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,but he plays Leo Tolstoy in the Last Station by Michael Hoffman.  He has also just finished his memoirs called “In Spite of Himself”.   Scott Foundas from the LA weekly, had just read the book, and was prepared to ...

by Marla LewinChristopher Plummer as Dr. Parnassus Photo taken by Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Sony Pictures ClassicsChristopher Plummer not only stars as a mystic who sells his soul to the devil in Terry GIlliam’s Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,but he plays Leo Tolstoy in the Last Station by Michael Hoffman. He has also just finished his memoirs called “In Spite of Himself”. Scott Foundas from the LA weekly, had just read the book, and was prepared to question the actor for the tribute. P...

Oscar Nominations - Wordtracker PredictionsThe movie and gossip columns today are awash with speculation on the Oscar nominations. Asking who will walk away with the prizes is great fun not only in the US but throughout the world. But is there anyway to really get an inside track? Wordtracker, a keyword research company thinks that search engine behaviour could be just such a predictor.London, UK (PRWEB) February 24, 2007 -- The names that people type into search engines give an indication of th...

Wednesday, February 14---The Brits were back as big winners (on their home turf) of the BAFTA Awards, more formally referred to as the Orange British Academy Film Awards. The Best Film honors went to THE QUEEN, as did the Best Actress nod to Helen Mirren (dust off that bookshelf for your Oscar, Mrs. Hackford), with the Best British Film prize going to THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, and its lead actor Forrest Whitaker for his portrayal of Uganda strongman Idi Amin. Other Brits who shined include Best...

Film festivals come in various shapes, sizes, formats and orientations. The currently ongoing 22nd installment of the Santa Barbara Film Festival is a bit off-beat in certain aspects. Lasting eleven days and presenting some 200 films it is certainly not small -- more like "medium to large." In terms of importance, however, while it is not considered to be quite in the same class as the North-American majors, Sundance, Telluride, Chicago, New York, Toronto and Montreal, it can nevertheless ce...

MIRREN AND WHITTAKER SHINE AT S.A.G. AWARDS by Alex Deleon, Santa Barbara This is the jolly season of awards in Southern California -- seems like there's a different one every week somewhere in L.A. or vicinity. Following the Golden Globes (Foreign Press Awards) a couple of weeks back we now have the Screen Actors Guild (S.A.G.) awards which are similar and yet a bit different. Both sets of awards go to both film and television personalities, but the Globes recognize all kinds of categories (w...

Screen Actors Guild presented its coveted Actor® statuette for the outstanding motion picture and primetime television performances of 2006 at the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® in ceremonies attended by film and television’s leading actors, held Sunday, Jan. 28 at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center. The 13h Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® was simulcast by TNT and TBS at 8 p.m., ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT The honorees were selected by the active Guild membership nation...

Friday, January 5------With the 2007 only four days old, the awards season frenzy that had a brief respite over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays has resumed in full force. Yesterday morning, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the organization that represents acting talent on both the large and small screen, announced its nominations for the prestigious SAG Awards. Announcements were made by Elijah Wood (LORD OF THE RINGS) and Sandra Oh (SIDEWAYS, GREY’S ANATOMY). The honors, which are p...

Helen Mirren at New York Film Festival Monday, November 20----The London Observer has reported that the documentary film THE ANGELMAKERS, which won the Silver Wolf Award at the 2005 IDFA for Dutch director Astrid Bussink, will be made into a feature film starring Helen Mirren and John Hurt. The film will be a fictionalized version of the gripping short documentary, which investigated the story of the mysterious killing by hundreds of women of their husbands in a small Hungarian village in the...