The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) launches on Friday evening with a three week marathon of premieres, special events, chic soirees and a number of tributes to celebrity guests. Actress Penelope Ann Miller, best remembered for her roles in such films as CARLITO’S WAY, CHAPLIN and KINDERGARTEN COP, will receive a Career Achievement Award on Saturday evening at the gala screening of her new film THE ARTIST. This contemporary black and white silent film by French di...
The 25th edition of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival wraps tomorrow night after a record-breaking 28 days of world cinema, special events and tribute evenings. The "official" wrap was on Sunday evening, with the local premiere of CASINO JACK, the final film of director George Hickenlooper, who died last week at the very young age of 47. FLIFF President and CEO Gregory von Hausch dedicated the evening to Hickenlooper, who had been a guest of the Festival sever...
Florida has more coastline than it does land mass, so it makes sense that Floridian film audiences love films that accentuate the seas and the creatures that inhabit it. They also have a sense of urgency about the threats to their tropical paradise (as evidenced by the recent Gulf of Mexico oil disaster), so a film like BENEATH THE BLUE appeals to audiences a the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival not only for its underwater photography, its natural beauty but its strong ecolo...
The number of film stars who embodied the golden age of Hollywood who are still here to tell the tale are few and far between. However, this evening the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) will have one such diva in their presence, Miss Jane Russell. The busty, brunette bombshell who set pulses racing in the 1940s and 1950s made only 25 films in a two decade career, but she was one of the iconic figures who defined Hollywood glamour. The discovery of millionaire Howard H...
WOMEN WITHOUT MEN (Shirin Neshat, Iran)
At the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, bringing international cinema to the attention of local audiences is a major priority. Since most of the films presented will never find traditional theatrical distribution, their showings are FLIFF are (unfortunately) a rare occurrence and maybe the only opportunity for a film to be seen on the big screen. The lack of ...
The 25th edition of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) comes to a climax this weekend. Among the special events is a hommage to English stage and screen actress Claire Bloom, who will receive a Career Achievement Award on Saturday evening for her 60 years in show business. The Festival, centered at the Cinema Paradiso art theater, will screen the actress' film debut, a role for which she won a BAFTA Award as Best Newcomer. She was chosen to play the crippled...
The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) has a reputation for showcasing the best new films from the American indie movement. With the difficulties of the theatrical market and the overall economic slump in the industry, film festivals have become a prime outlet for these kinds of films.
This evening, the breezy comedy SEDUCING CHARLIE BARKER by Amy Glazer, will make its Southeast Premiere at the Festival, followed by a swanky after-party. The film tells the tale ...
The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (affectionately known as FLIFF) has become one of the significant regional showcases of world cinema and American indie films. This year, FLIFF is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and despite the economic downturn in south Florida, is pulling out all the stops for a no-holds-barred celluloid celebration. The Festival comes to its nearly four-week climax this coming weekend.
The festivities began on October ...
ENTRE NOS, a hard-hitting drama of an illegal immigrant and her childrens' struggle for humanity on the mean streets of New York City, swept the top awards at the Fort Lauderdale International (FLIFF) , which ends its three-week run today with a marathon screening of award winners. Awards were announced on Sunday at the Festival's Closing Gala at its home base o the Cinema Paradiso. FLIFF President Gregory von Hausch hosted the presentation, honoring both American and international...
In an earlier article on this Dailies site, I wrote about the European films that make up the core of the World Cinema section at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, which is entering its final weekend. However, choice non-European films from around the globe are among this year's highlights.
ADELA, by Filipino director Adolfo Borinaga Alix, won a Best Actress prie at the Cinemanila Film Festival for its lead actress, the octogenarian Anita Linda. She stars as Ade...
It is always tempting for a filmmaker who takes on the thriller to emulate the great master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, the term "Hitchcockian" is as overused as it is complimentary. However, in the case of IN MY SLEEP, a nifty thriller presented this evening at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the parallels are there in spades.
IN MY SLEEP, written and directed by Allen Wolf, takes on a very Hitchcockian subject: the fuzzy line between imagin...
It is a long journey from Nazi-occupied Rome to the sunshine glitz of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.....but this is the journey that cinematographer Mario Tosi has taken to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in Cinematography at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on Wednesday evening prior to the screening of ITALIANS by writer/director Giovanni Veronesi.
Mr. Tosi has shot over 35 films including such Hollywood projects as HEARTS OF THE WEST (Jeff Bridges, Blythe D...
Tales of the Mafia continue to fascinate the public. Even after THE GODFATHER trilogy and television's THE SOPRANOS would seem to have covered every angle of this sub-genre, the new American Indie film CHICAGO OVERCOAT still finds some interesting life in the tales of the underground. The film has attracted strong audience response at its premiere at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival this week.
A hit at the recent Chicago International Film Festival, the homegrown p...
Ferris Bueller himself arrived in Fort Lauderdale today to receive a Career Achievement Award from the Fort Lauderale International Film Festival. Well, to be more accurate, the actor who embodied the teen rebel in the iconic 1980s film FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, the stage and screen thespian Matthew Broderick, is in town to receive the kudos and to introduce the screening tonight of the American indie film WONDERFUL WORLD.
The son of acclaimed character actor James Broderick, the ...
Penelope Cruz in BROKEN EMBRACES (Spain)
European cinema has always had a strong presence at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. This year is no exception as FLIFF showcases a strong collection of films from a mix of emerging and established European film talents.
Most of the European films are situated in the World Cinema section, which is not exclusively but overwhelmingly dominated by European titles. AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK, UK direct...
"I've played all kinds of roles, but the one that seems to have stayed in the imagination of the public was one I did way back in 1975", veteran British actor John Hurt shared with audiences at the Berlin Film Festival last winter following the premiere screening of AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK. "When I played real-life gay pioneer Quentin Crisp in the television film THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT, it made an immediate impact not only on my life but on that of Mr. Crisp himself...
In his role as the avenging "brutha" in the blaxploitation spoof BLACK DYNAMITE, Michael Jai White is all muscle and attitude, sporting a trendy (for the time) Afro, polyester suit and thick moustache. But in person, White shows a more sensitive, aesthetic side, which he has demonstrated at various appearances at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival this weekend. Playing a part so convincing that is so unlike your real self....I guess that is what is known in the ...
As the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (affectionately known as FLIFF) enters its first weekend, its reputation as a supporter of American Independent cinema remains intact. FLIFF audiences love a good indie and this weekend's roster is as interesting and diverse as they come.
The Opening Night film, TiMER, took an unusual look at romance in the near future, as tempered by a technological timer device that predetermined when the characters would meet their soul mates. ...
The 24th edition of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival kicked off this evening with the premiere of TiMER, a sci-fi romantic comedy set in the near future. The film's director Jac Schaeffer and lead actress Michelle Borth were both present for the gala screening.
Prior to the film screening, awards were given to veteran actor Kevin McCarthy (FLIFF Lifetime Achievement Award), Mario Tosi (FLIFF Lifetime Achievement Cinematographer) and Michelle Monaghan, star of T...
After winning the Best New York Narrativee prize at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, the Serbian immigrant drama HERE AND THERE has become a hot hit on the international film festival circuit. It makes its Southeast Premiere at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on Saturday night.
In his debut film, Serbian helmer Darko Lungulov tracks two strangers in two strange lands, contrasting the adventures of an enterprising young Belgrade native in New York with the ...
For her gritty performance in the new American indie film TRUCKER, the rising actress Michelle Monaghan is getting the best reviews of her career and percolating some Oscar buzz in the bargain. She has become one of the most sought-after actresses of her generation in Hollywood. Michelle Monaghan will receive The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival’s Star On The Horizon Award on Friday evening and will attend a screening of TRUCKER on Saturday night.
Monaghan made her...
For a classically trained actor, it has probably been a source of much amusement to him that he is best remembered for his role in a low budget sci-fi film that has since become a classic. As the lead in the 1950s film THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, Kevin McCarthy played a doctor who becomes alarmed when he discovers that the people in his small town have been transformed.....into aliens. The fact that the film, produced at the height of the McCarthy period, was a deep allegory...
What if a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate, would you want to know? That is the provocative question at the heart of TiMER, a quirky and arresting sci-fi romance that will open this year's edition of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on Friday evening.
The American indie film, written and directed by talented newcomer Jac Schaeffer, is set in the near future, when technology has taken the guesswork out of love and commitment. Most people...
After several weeks of miserably rainy and too-cold-for-October weather in New York City, a jaunt to the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in sunny South Florida is exactly what the doctor ordered. The Festival, which is celebrating its 24th year, is one of the most respected regional events on the festival circuit, with an ambitious slate of film premieres, celebrity tributes and chic after-parties. Festivities begin this Friday and run through November 8.
Affectionate...
The Fort Lauderdale Int’l Film Festival is an annual event screens 100 films from over 30 countries. The 28 day Festival is the longest film festival in the world, and is Florida`s biggest and second oldest.
