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...

One of the kickoffs to the new film season in New York is the annual IFP Market, which celebrates its 28th edition from September 17 to 21 at the Angelika Film Center and other downtown New York venues. Over the years, the Market has introduced leading films that have become acknowledged indie film classics and have launched the careers of many young filmmakers. The IFP, which stands for Independent Feature Project, is the leading national organization devoted to the art and industry of indepen...

Thursday, August 10---Excitement is building in London, one of the world's great film cities, as details are being revealed for the upcoming Times BFI London Film Festival, which celebrates its milestone 50th anniversary this year. The celebrations have begun this summer, with an ambitious screening of films that were featured in the very first London Film Festival, back in 1957. The National Film Theater, the cinematheque treasure run by the British Film Institute, which also presents the a...

July 11-----I first heard the term “global warming ...

Monday, July 10---It's been quite a year for the MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL!!! Not only has it emerged triumphant from a near-fatal loss of federal funding and the creation of a rival festival event last year, but it has confounded its critics by coming back stronger than ever in time to celebrate its 30th anniversary as North America's only FIAPF approved competition festival. The rival event, funded by local media powerhouse Equipe Spectra and headed by former Berlinale topper Mortiz de Ha...

Monday, July 10----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...

Tuesday, June 6---New York filmmakers always have the added advantage of shooting in a city that is in itself a major character in their films. No matter the genre, or even the time period, shooting on the New York streets offers an ambience that is instantly recognizable to a world audience (and sorry, cannot be faked on the too-clean streets of Toronto, Chicago or, God forbid, Los Angeles). Anthony Ng, born and raised in Hong Kong, went to the famed New York University Film School, and ins...

Monday, June 5----One of the more anticipated programs at the TROIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is its annual competition for American Independent films. The Festival, over the past 22 years, has been an important showcase for films made outside the Hollywood studio system. This year, six worthy films are competing for the award. The first of them kicks off the section this evening. FLANNEL PAJAMAS, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, is unique in two important ways. It...

Sunday, June 4---Remember the good old days right after 9/11 when everyone was afraid to ride on airplanes, and those of us intrepid (or stupid) enough to continue flying off to film festivals always had empty seats around us? And airlines left on time? And the airline personnel were so happy to see a customer that you got treated like you were in first class (even though you were inevitably in the cheapo seats)? Well, I am here to tell you, brothers and sisters, that those times are long gone...

It is should be news to no one that the Americans and the French are still locked in their love/hate relationship. We Americans do love the French culture and its emphasis on beauty, refinement and good taste. The French do love our the American can-do attitude and our pioneering spirit. But since 9/11, our different geopolitics has driven a wedge into that relationship that has pushed us both into separate corners. Perhaps that is the reason why so many American films that are openly critical ...

As the Cannes Film Festival moves into its final weekend, it seems that the fine art of booing is still very much “en vogue ...

Well, if one needed further proof of how far apart most film critics are from the cinematic tastes of the general public, you need look no further than THE DA VINCI CODE. The film, which famously opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was practically laughed at by assembled critics on the Croisette, who had come to bury the film, not praise it. When the film opened internationally this past weekend, more film critics joined the chorus of nay-sayers, calling the film everything from “borin...

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...

With the worldwide simultaneous release today of THE DA VINCI CODE across the globe, a question lingers in the air: Did Cannes kill The Code? Or more specificially, did the buildup and hype surrounding the Cannes opening create such a high expectation that the film will suffer from disappointed critics and viewers? While the mass hysteria over THE DA VINCI CODE has passed into memory in Cannes with all the subtlety of a hangover after too much champagne, the industry waits with bated breath th...

For several personal reasons, I am not attending the Cannes Film Festival this year, a sojourn that I have taken more than 15 times in the last 20 years. So, here I sit nearly 5000 miles and six time zones away, remembering previous Croisette crawls and still feeling the rumblings of an event like no other in the film business. I remember the long, meandering walks along the famously crowded Croisette, the flop sweat of rushing from one meeting to another interview, the exasperation of negotia...