Actor, director, screenwriter, jazz musician, music composer, politician, philanthropist, film legend.....these attributes could describe a cadre of people, but when they all wrapped into one outsized personality, it is truly impressive. Such is the career of Clint Eastwood, a television and film master who remains at the top of his professional game at 80 years young. To honor the octogenarian's contribution to the history of cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is devoting much of its Ju...

  Actor, director, screenwriter, jazz musician, music composer, politician, philanthropist, film legend.....these attributes could describe a cadre of people, but when they all wrapped into one outsized personality, it is truly impressive. Such is the career of Clint Eastwood, a television and film master who remains at the top of his professional game at 80 years young. To honor the octogenarian's contribution to the history of cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is devoting mu...

Multiple Academy Award® winning director, producer, actor and composer Clint Eastwood has been selected to receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s highest honor, The Lucky Brand® Modern Master Award, it was announced by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Tribute will take place on Thursday, January 29, at the historic Arlington Theatre.The Lucky Brand® Modern Master Award is the highest honor presented by SBIFF. Established in 1995, it was created to honor an indivi...

Guests in attendance at the up-coming Paso Robles Digital Film Festival, will be invited to attend a slate of first-person panel discussions, featuring a list of well-known film industry professionals and personalities. PRDFF organizer Ben Standley is pleased to announce that panel discussions planned for the festival will be hosted and led by as many as 16 already-booked, knowledgeable Hollywood film-makers, actors, editors, composers and publicists. "What's unique, is that at a lot of ...

Clint Eastwood will receive this year’s Spirit of Independence Award at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival.  The Spirit of Independence Award will be given to Eastwood at a special event on Thursday, June 28 sponsored by Target.  Tony Bennett, who is the focus of a new documentary for which Clint Eastwood serves as executive producer, will present Eastwood with this honor.The Spirit of Independence Award event is an opportunity for emerging filmmakers to hear Eastwood speak about his work, h...

Monday, February 26-----While readers can turn to almost any newspaper, internet site or media outlet to get the results of the 79th Academy Awards (it is, after all, watched by over a billion people worldwide), this story will focus on what were, at least for me, the surprises of the evening….actually the surprises that kept the evening lively and unpredictable.   Among the night's biggest surprises:BEST PICTURE: While the choice of THE DEPARTED is certainly worthy (certainly compared t...

2007 0SCARS COMING UP -- AND THE WINNERS MIGHT BE ...by Alex Deleon, HollywoodNo self-respecting film critic can resist the temptation to try to predict who the winners will be on Oscar night, so, for better or for worse, with the big self-congratulation orgy less than a week away -- here are my predictions and conjectures.Helen Mirren(The Queen) and Forest Whitaker (The Dictator) will easily claim the Best Actress and Best Actor prizes, respectively. (The odds of anyone else upsetting the fron...

Wednesday, February 7----With the ballots for the Academy Awards in the mail, speculation is growing about what has become an impossible to predict Best Picture race. While BABEL was considered the frontrunner, especially following its Golden Globe win last month, there is now industry speculation that BABEL and Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED may split the "serious film" vote. So, what exactly does that mean? Well, one scenario points to an upset win by the indie smash LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (...

Tuesday, February 6----With the ballots for the Academy Awards in the mail, speculation is growing about what has become an impossible to predict Best Picture race. While BABEL was considered the frontrunner, especially following its Golden Globe win last month, there is now industry speculation that BABEL and Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED may split the "serious film" vote. So, what exactly does that mean? Well, one scenario points to an upset win by the indie smash LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (that'...

Friday, February 2----Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood (who has his fifth Oscar nomination as Best Director this year for LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA) will be the inaugural recipient of the Motion Picture Association of America's Jack Valenti Humanitarian Award at a gala ceremony to be held in Los Angeles on Tuesday, February 6th. The award, to be presented annually to an individual in the motion picture industry whose work has reached out positively and respectfully to all countries, creeds ...

Monday, January 15-----The Critics Choice Awards, chosen by members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), were announced at a gala awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Friday. Coming just days before the Golden Globe ceremonies, to be held later tonight, and just two weeks before the Oscar nominations are announced, the clear momentum for certain films and talents seems to be reaching a crescendo. Unless there are some major surprises this evening at the Golden Globes ceremonies, the w...

Saturday, December 30-----For Westchester County film buffs, and intrepid New Yorkers not adverse to going off-island, the Jacob Burns Film Center is a distinctive cultural resource in the heart of New York’s northern suburbs. For the past five years, the Film Center has offered a serious alternative to the megaplex monotony of film theaters outside of Manhattan, with unique special programs and the best of independent and international cinema. This is clearly evident in just the first we...

The marathon of end-of-the-year film nominees continues, with the announcement of the choice by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) of their annual Critics Choice Awards. The Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing 200 television, radio and online critics. Founded in 1995, the BFCA presents its annual Critics Choice Awards each year to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking. The winners will be revealed at a gala awards ce...

Monday, December 18----The marathon of end-of-the-year film nominees continues, with the announcement of the choice by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) of their annual Critics Choice Awards. The Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing 200 television, radio and online critics. Founded in 1995, the BFCA presents its annual Critics Choice Awards each year to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking. The winners will be...

Sixty-one years ago, US and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island’s soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them. The Japanese soldiers are sent to Iwo Jima knowing that in all probability they will not come back. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker who wants only to live to see the face of his newborn daughter; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ih...

And so we're off....the first major national critics association has announced their Top Ten Titles of the year, as well as honoring individual films and performances. In a very unexpected and in some ways alarming choice, the National Board of Review has chosen as Best Picture the Japanese-language film LETTERS OF IWO JIMA, a companion film to the much bigger budgeted FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, both directed by Clint Eastwood. It is a sign of Eastwood's clout at his home studio Warner Brothers that ...

Monday, December 11----With the glut of announcements from various film critics associations, the Oscar race is beginning to take shape. However, as opposed to recent memory, when one film (be it GLADIATOR, LORD OF THE RINGS or MILLION DOLLAR BABY) was recognized across the board as the Best Film of the Year, this year's race has been flung wide open, with a few films making an impression and certain to be among Oscar nominees for the Academy's highest honor. In the past 72 hours, film critic...

Friday, December 8-----And so we're off....the first major national critics association has announced their Top Ten Titles of the year, as well as honoring individual films and performances. In a very unexpected and in some ways alarming choice, the National Board of Review has chosen as Best Picture the Japanese-language film LETTERS OF IWO JIMA, a companion film to the much bigger budgeted FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, both directed by Clint Eastwood. It is a sign of Eastwood's clout at his home st...