Actor, film director, writer, lyricist, composer, theatre director Melvin Van Peebles, dubbed Godfather of modern Black-American cinema since his seminal Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, stormed through the 23d Nantes Film Festival with a rollering gig performance alongside the French band Little Rabbits. This clip shows Melvin Van Peebles on stage and interviewed about his long-lasting links with the Nantes Three Continents Film Festival....
Pawel Pawlikowsky's Last Resort has scooped awards at dozens of festivals already but when it was released (on March 16 in the UK) it passed by unnoticed. Filmed on a tiny budget, it will probably suffer from an inexcusable lack of promotion despite its immense success. Tom Fogg talked to Pawel about the film, his unformulaic style that allows a cast to collaborate on the script and how magical things must happen for a film to work.I watched a film with someone who is from Scotland and...
Arriving for the Gala Screening of Sexy Beast, Kingsley related how he had to « find the Demon within » for his role as Gary in this psychological thriller....
This UK director, coming from a music video background, presented his first feature, Sexy Beast, at a Gala Screening in Toronto. The film is a thriller where action takes second place to a good old-fashioned battle of two immovable wills: Oscar-award winning actor Ben Kingsley and British stalwart Ray Winstone. Jonathan talks openly about working with Ben Kingsley and a number of projects in the works....
January 1, 2001 - Awards Year Begins December 3, 2001 - Deadline for Official Screen Credit Forms to Qualify Feature Films December 31, 2001 - Awards Year Ends (at midnight) Janurary 8, 2002 - Mail Nominations Ballots February 1, 2002 - Nominations Polls Close February 12, 2002 - All Nominations Announced February 16, 2002 - Begin Screenings of Nominated Pictures in Samuel Goldwyn Theater February 27, 2002 - Mail Final Ballots March 19, 2002 - Final Polls Close March 24, 200...
The revolutionary 1977 science fiction spectacular film, George Lucas's Star Wars, has been chosen as the "greatest film of all time" by an extensive polling of 20,000 viewers by the UK's Channel 4, according to the Guardian. The polling results, compiled from voting via the website, by phone and in one-to-one interviews throughout August, were given at the end of a two-part show broadcast last night which was presented by Graham Norton. Other films chosen for their all time greatness following...
The 22nd International Documentary Film Festival, the world's biggest event of its kind as regards attendees and film screenings, opens in Amsterdam today with Startup.com, the fascinating documentary about the sudden success and downfall of Govworks.com and, moreover, the dot.com industry, according to Variety. The event, which attracted more than 65,000 visitors in 2000, is predicting an increase by as much as 10,000 by the end of the fest on Dec. 2 due to the pre-sale requests. With some 300 ...
Best Picture Eligible for nomination? All feature-length films (more than 40min) of whatever language that are first publicly exhibited (in 35mm or 70mm film) for at least seven consecutive days in a theatre in the Los Angeles area between January 1 and midnight on December 31, 2001. In 1998 the number of eligible features was 286, in 2000 it tallied in at 246. No film will be considered for a nomination which has already shown on broadcast or cable television, home video marketing or...
Sundance 2002, the premiere world event for independent filmmakers running January 10-20, 2002 in Park City, Utah, has announced its line-up of films for the American Showcase, American Spectrum and Competitions sections. The event has moved up its dates this year for security reasons due to the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics which will be held February 8 - 20 and partly performed in the Park City mountain area. According to indieWIRE, the Sundance 2002 programmers received considerabl...
Fulfilling a lifetime dream, Christopher Lee became part of the Tolkienworld through the Peter Jackson adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic sagaLord of the Rings. The tall, deep-voiced actor made famous for hisportrayal of Dracula in the long-running Hammer series of the sixties,portrays Saruman, the evil wizard coveting the One Ring to enhance hislethal power. Prince of Darkness Lee shares with us the secrets of astrange casting session conducted two years ago by Peter Jackson himself....
The 21st Asbury Shorts Show of New York presented a sold out evening of outstanding award winning short films in Manhattan's prestigious DGA Theatre. Short film laureate Tom Schiller hosted the festivities. Tom was the original creator of short films for Saturday Night Live in their glory days. Two of his award winning shorts were screened from those years including "La Dolce Gilda" starring Gilda Radner, John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. The show lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes ...
Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick has appointed his advisory film selection committee. Thirteen representatives from the fields of film production, directing, distribution, movie theaters, film review and history will serve as advisors at selection screenings for the Competition of the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival.This year's committee also includes Forum director Christoph Terhechte. This decision reflects how the Berlinale and the Forum will cooperate more closely in th...
The closing night of the Regus London saw the announcements of the FIPRESCI and the Sutherland Trophy award winner. The FIPRESCI international critics award gave special mention to Babak Payami's Secret Ballot, but the winner was Israel Adrian Caetano's Bolivia, a film shot very cheaply in black and white about a woman working in Buenos Aries. The Sutherland Trophy award, an award given by the BFI for the most original and imaginative first feature in the festival, went to Asif Kapid...
Fifty-one countries have submitted films to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Academy Award® consideration as Best Foreign Language Film of 2001. It is the largest number of films ever entered in the competition, besting last year's record by five films. Films from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania and Uruguay qualified this year for the first time. This year's submissions are: Albania, Slogans, Gjergj Xhuvani, director; Algeria, Inch'Allah Dimanche, Yamina ...
Raoul Peck's Lumumba deemed not fit to qualify as the Haitian nominee for consideration in the Best Foreign Film category by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Commentary sent to Filmfestivals.com by Jasmine Dellal <dellal@americangypsy.com>The Committee for Foreign Language at the AMPAS has rejected Lumumba, the award winning film of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, as the Haitian entry for Best Foreign Film consideration by the Academy. This serves as a foreboding me...
One of the consequences of the September 11 air attacks against the US has been a decrease in transatlantic filmmakers to European film festivals. It started at the San Sebastian Film Festival (September 20-29) and has taken its toll at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Exit the Coen brothers, Lea Pool, John Cameron Mitchell, Todd Solonz and a host of others. But the most devastating absence at this festival is that of Jean-Luc Godard who due to illness was unable to attend ...
Films receiving eight or more Academy Awards 11 AwardsBen-Hur, MGM, 1959 (12 nominations) Titanic, 20th Century Fox/Paramount, 1997 (14 nominations) (pictured) 10 AwardsWest Side Story, United Artists, 1961 (11 nominations) 9 AwardsGigi, MGM, 1958 (9 nominations) The Last Emperor, Columbia, 1987 (9 nominations) The English Patient, Miramax, 1996 (12 nominations) 8 AwardsGone With The Wind, MGM, 1939 (13 nominations) The Best Years Of Our Lives, RKO Radio, 1946 (8 nominations) From Here...
Lantana by two-time feature film director, Ray Lawrence has emerged as the film of the year in the Emirates 43rd Australian Film and Television Awards presented by Australian Film Institute. The psychological thriller collected seven Awards including major categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress. The Lantana sweep was significant for producer Jan Chapman, whose last AFI win was The Piano in 1993, while Lawrence's previous win was 16 years a...
The life and career of Walt Disney will be celebrated with a tribute by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday, December 5, at 8 p.m., in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The event takes place on the date of what would have been Disney's 100th birthday. Born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, and raised in Marceline, Missouri, the pioneering animator, studio founder, live-action filmmaker, theme-park creator and Hollywood legend will be remembered at this c...
31st International Film Festival Rotterdam 23 January - 3 February 2002 The trainee project of the International Film Festival Rotterdam offers three young, motivated and talented film critics a chance to get acquainted with the festival and the cinema of the world. The project was created in 1998 motivated by the fact that young and upcoming film critics get less opportunities to explore this range of cinema and the festivals, like Rotterdam, that present it. In the past four editions we have w...
One of the special sections at this year's Stockholm Film Festival featured new Bollywood films. Hollywood occupies only 5% of the Indian market whereas Indian cinema is produced in 39 Indian languages and Bollywood films are the most popular. The patent formula for these films is a combination of romance, comedy, action, and fantasy set to music and dance. Every film has at least one star, six songs and three dances. Some of the actors in this genre can find themselves working in ...
1st International Encounter On Cultural Policies To Film Development & Rio de Janeiro Int Short Film Festival December 6 - 8, 2001 Where is world cinema headed? Does the appearance of new cinematographies, new industries and new markets depend on protectionist policies in the face of American production? This and other questions are the focus of our attention, principally in the establishment of long-range cultural policies. Many foreign institutions and foundations have clear po...
Our Small Planet productions is soliciting producers from various locations around the word to contribute to a television report about the the Earth Summit. The program will review the actions (and non-actions) taken by various countries who signed treaties and made actions agendas in regards to endangered species covered in biodiversity / forests treaties signed in Rio in June 1992. We currently have ten hours of footage from the 1992 Earth Summit in stock. We are currently assembling a progr...
Huelva Festival of Iberoamerican Cinema November 17 - 24 (Spain) Here comes the 27th edition of a festival that presides over the Association of Iberoamerican Film Festivals and offers a most comprehensive insight into contemporary Latin-American cinema.Twelve films from first-time or second time directors, representing 10 Iberoamerican countries, will compete for the Golden and Silver Colons, and the Silver Caravel awarding best first or second feature films. Films with a prior festiva...
Mumbai International Film Festival November 21 - 29 (India) The only independent international film festival in India, the 4th Mumbai International Film Festival will kick off in Bombay on November 21 with opening night Hollywood blockbuster film Bandits by American filmmaker Barry Levinson. Bandits, starring Cate Blanchett and Bruce Willis, was produced by Indian-born, and Los Angeles based, Ashok Amritraj who will be attending this year's event. The closing film is New York based Mi...
Chatelin Bruno 
