YESTERDAY AT THE FESTIVAL (06.04.2012) • PLANS FOR THE FESTIVAL WEEKEND ARE MADE! While the second weekend of the festival has already come, festival audiences bought their tickets yesterday for a Saturday and Sunday full of festival films. Before the weekend, yesterday was full of screenings with the participation of their directors. • WHAT YOUNG ROMANIAN MASTER TELLS The stories in the second film of director Adrian Sitaru are based on his own experiences. Best Inten...

Human nature is one of those things that everybody talks about but no one can define. Human behavior is a product both of our innate human nature and of our individual experience and surrounding environment or culture.  Our preference for certain type or a size is an evolved psychological mechanism, it is something that we do not consciously choose; but it may feel as such a good subject to talk about. Do you know the situation at crowded movie in theatre, at the beginning of screening, wh...

Sunday, October 23, 2011 20th Philadelphia Film Festival - Shame Michael Fassbender has a Dirk Diggler size schlong!  And an Adonis rear-end. Beyond that, I don't remember anything about the film Shame.  Just kidding. Well, about the film resonance, not about Fassbender.  In actuality, the film stayed with me for quite awhile.  Seeing two people in so much pain with no clue how to get relief, yet basically from the outside, look as if they are managing the day in a...

Tim Roth, the star of “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction”, will receive in Kraków at the Off Plus Camera the “Against the Current” award. In the series of special screenings, you will be able to watch directed by him “The War Zone”. We have prepared much more on the occasion of the famous Brit's visit. Tim Roth, who gained international fame through Quentin Tarantino's productions (“Reservoir Dogs”, Pulp Fiction”, “Four Rooms”), will be a special guest at th...

  Long live the King……or The King’s Speech that is. The historical biopic made a nearly clean sweep of the Orange British Academy Awards this evening in London. The awards, best known as the BAFTAs, crowned actor Colin Firth as Best Actor, while recognizing his fellow thespians, including best supporting actress Helena Bonham Carter and best supporting actor Geoffrey Rush. The film also won as Best Film, Best British Film and for its Original Screenplay. Firth was honored wi...

  Figures are now emerging of the Top Ten international titles that saw the light of day in theatrical venues in the US and Canada in 2010. As one would expect, most of the films share the English language and come from the United Kingdom. Of the ten films cited in order of their theatrical box office take, three comprise the Swedish-language adaptations of the phenomenally successful Stieg Larsson trlogy. One film with French production origins (BABIES) and one title from Italy (I AM ...

The Girl Who Played With Fire, the highly anticipated second instalment of the Millennium Trilogy, is coming to Cornwall in September. Noomi Rapace reprises her role as Lisbeth Salander, described by esteemed critic Roger Ebert as “compelling as any movie character in recent memory.”   When a researcher and Millennium journalist on the cusp of exposing Sweden’s sex trade are murdered, Lisbeth’s prints turn up on the murder weapon, making her the prime suspect. With a history o...

  Hollywood has been buzzing about it all summer. Who would star as the male lead in the tinseltown version of the incredibly popular novel trilogy by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. Brad Pitt was considered the front runner and Tom Cruise was said to be interested. But word comes out from the Hills of Beverly that English actor Daniel Craig has closed his deal to star in Sony’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” plus the two potential follow-ups that will be based on author Stieg L...

I have come to the conclusion that the hit TV show “Dancing with the Stars” was inspired by the Greeks. On the 2nd day of the Los Angeles Greek Festival I was dancing through the films in my head. Matt Bolish, the main programmer has projected a personal passion in his choice of films. You feel that you are in Greece and are surprised not to be when you leave the Egyptian theatre and view Hollywood Blvd...You discover that many Greek filmmakers like Periklis Hoursoglou in The Building Manage...

Dancing with theStars of Greecein Hollywood I have come to the conclusion that the hit TV show “Dancingwith the Stars” was inspired by the Greeks. On the 2nd day of theLos Angeles Greek Festival I was dancing through the films in my head. Matt Bolish,the main programmer has projected a personal passion in his choice of films.You feel that you are in Greeceand are surprised not to be when you leave the Egyptian theatre and view HollywoodBlvd...You discover that many Greek filmmakers like Per...

 by Marla LewinLenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey celebrate with Lee Daniels at Spirit AwardsLee Daniels' Precious swept the 25th anniversary of the Film Independent Spirit Awards taking home the Best Feature, Best Director, Best First Screenplay, Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Female awards. Precious won in every category for which it was nominated taking 5 awards. The other winners were lucky that Precious didn't have any male actors nominated and Lee Daniels wasn't a first time filmmaker....

My friend, Ellen told me she was having a discussion with a neighbor about Precious and this person said they felt the film was patronizing. She in turn asked me if I thought so too? My response: I know the definition of the word "patronizing", but how would I put it in my own words - when someone feels superior in some manner and gives due or agrees with someone else, for that other person's benefit, but not because they really feel it. Since the film "Precious" is...

The 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Mariah Carey with the Breakthrough Performance Award for her performance in Lionsgate's Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" By Sapphire. 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. Festival chairman Haro...

  Dogtooth, Sin Nombre and Precious are the big Winners at the 20th edition of the 2009 Stockholm International Film Festival The jury now presents its selection for the 20th Stockholm International Film Festival. The film that leaves Stockholm with the 16 lb Bronze Horse 2009 comes from Greece, and tells a thought-provoking story that takes us into a nightmarish and metaphorical experiment of manipulation and oppression. The Bronze Horse for best feature 2009 goes to...

Dogtooth, Sin Nombre and Precious are the big Winners at the 20th edition of the 2009 Stockholm International Film Festival The jury now presents its selection for the 20th Stockholm International Film Festival. The film that leaves Stockholm with the 16 lb Bronze Horse 2009 comes from Greece, and tells a thought-provoking story that takes us into a nightmarish and metaphorical experiment of manipulation and oppression. The Bronze Horse for best feature 2009 goes to "Dogtooth" by Yorgos Lanthim...

The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), announced today the two features that will bookend the Festival as the Opening and Closing Night films. Bahamian filmmaker Kareem Mortimer's acclaimed indie drama CHILDREN OF GOD will raise the curtain at this year's festival as the official Opening Night Film while Lee Daniels' critically lauded drama PRECIOUS starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Sherri Shepherd and Paula Patton will bring the week's festivities to an end as the ...

  Oscar, meet Precious........the Academy Awards have just gotten their first blast of ghetto love with the rising tide surrounding the urban drama PRECIOUS: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire by producer-turned-director Lee Daniels. The film, a major hit out of Sundance and screened to great acclaim in Cannes, Toronto and New York, opened theatrically in the United States this past weekend…..and broke box office records for its per-screen performance. Logging in an astonishing $100,00...

Last night the AFI hosted a star studded, red carpet affair introducing the world to Clarice "PRECIOUS" Jones, directed by Lee Daniels. A film that will "split you open," is due to open later this week. Audience members, the likes of which made me feel like I was crashing a private party for all the cool kids, included Olivia Wilde, Lisa Edelstein, Mary J. Blige, Nick Cannon, Sidney Hicks, Gayle King, Paula Abdul, Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria Parker, Will Smith, Forest &...

Lee Daniels' Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push' by Sapphire takes Audience Choice Awards honors at 45th Chicago International Film Festival The Centerpiece film of the 45th Anniversary Chicago International Film Festival, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push' by Sapphire, was named the Festival's Audience Choice Award winner Friday. "Like everyone else who's seen it, I was left absolutely shattered by Precious," says founder and artistic director Michael Kutza. &qu...

By Maria Esteves - October 21, 2009 The 47th New York Film Festival 2009 (NYFF09) presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, was held at the new state of the art Alice Tully Hall, September 25 - October 11, 2009. A special press screening of  "PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE," preceded the press conference with director Lee Daniels moderated by NYFF selection committee Melissa Anderson, at the Walter Reade Theater, on Thursday, October 1, 1:00 PM. PRECIOUS,...