Tuesday, November 6----When Argentinian director Fabian Bielinsky died suddenly this past June at the age of 47, the international cinema world mourned the loss of one of its more blazing contemporary talents. The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival will present the director's final work, a metaphysical thriller with strong spiritual overtones with the evocative title of THE AURA.
Bielinsky started shooting films at the tender age of 13. He later attended the National Cinematographic...
Tuesday, November 7----Stories set in the South have a gothic tradition. Think William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Harper Lee. This Southern gothic tradition is carried on by the Florida-based film THINGS THAT HANG FROM TREES, adapted by director Ido Mizrahy from the autobiographical novella by Aaron Louis Tordini.
Set in the 1960s in America's oldest city, Saint Augustine on Florida's Atlantic coast, the film features an eccentric cast of characters centered around an unusual eight-year-old...
Monday, November 6-----The focus is on world cinema, as the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival enters its final week of international and independent offerings. Films from around the world make up a considerable share of the premieres at the Festival, and offer South Florida audiences the unique opportunity to see films that may never open commercially.
The range of international films on tap for Monday alone is impressive. The program begins with the Florida premiere of the Dutch fi...
Sunday, November 5----The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival presents the US Premiere of the US-Columbian co-production GRINGO WEDDING at a special screening on Sunday evening at 7:00pm at the Parker Playhouse. The film, which stars telenovella queen Ana Lucia Dominguez, is a romantic comedy about crossing borders and cultures to find love.
Directed by Tas Salini, a local Fort Lauderdale filmmaker who teaches television and video production at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. ...
Sunday, November 5-----Audiences hooped and hollered at last night’s screening of the romantic comedy GRAY MATTERS, the directorial debut of Sue Kramer. The film, a frothy comedy about sexual identity and embracing one’s inner beauty, was shot on location in New York City, and the city itself is one of the film’s more interesting characters.
Heather Graham, of BOOGIE NIGHTS fame, stars as a perky advertising executive who lives with her brother and best friend, played by ED’s Thomas...
Sunday, November 5-----Film festival revelers who partied late into the evening following the evening screening of the enthusiastically received romantic comedy GRAY MATTERS last evening, had to rouse themselves with double cappuccinos this morning in order to make the scene early this morning at the Chairman’s Brunch and Cruise. The cruiseship Caprice, docked next to the Festival’s official hotel, Gallery One Doubletree Suites, was waiting to receive visiting filmmakers, special guests and ...
Director Amy Talkington
Saturday, November 4-----A lively Question and Answer session followed the screening this afternoon of the comedy THE NIGHT OF THE WHITE PANTS at the Parker Playhouse. Director Amy Talkington and actress Geri Jewell attended and answered questions from the very enthusiastic audience.
THE NIGHT OF THE WHITE PAINTS is a Dallas, Texas-based comedy about one very long night in the life of a former oil tycoon, played with Southern fried charm by acclaimed English actor Tom W...
Saturday, November 4---Following the triumphant screening of the Festival Centerpiece Film PITTSBURGH last evening at the Parker Playhouse, Online Festival Dailies Editor Sandy Mandelberger sat down with Chris Bradley, the co-director and co-cinematographer of the entertaining mockumentary, in the lounge of the official Festival hotel, the Gallery One Doubletree Suites.
Bradley and his production partner Kyle LaBrache are the principals behind International Orange, a Los Angeles-based produ...
Saturday, November 4----As the winds howl (South Florida is experiencing a high wind alert this weekend), Saturday's schedule at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival is certainly a full one, with back to back films at the Cinema Paradiso and Parker Playhouse that appeal to all tastes and sensibilities. It is expected to be an exhausting day for Festival staff and visiting filmmakers, but a satisfying one.
The full day of events begins quite lyrically with a free screening at 9:45am...
Friday, November 3----The theater was packed on Friday evening at the historic Parker Playhouse for the highly anticipated Festival Centerpiece Film, PITTSBURGH, a deliciously funny mockumentary that spotlighted the comic sensibility of actor Jeff Goldblum. Although the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (affectionately known as FLIFF) has been showing films for more than two weeks now, it is the next 10 days that are the meatiest, with the addition of the Parker Playhouse and the La...
Friday, November 3-----The spotlight is on the noted actor Jeff Goldblum this evening as the Festival presents its Centerpiece Film, PITTSBURGH, tonight at 7:45pm at the historic Parker Playhouse. The film is a rollicking mockumentary of Goldblum's decision to take a breather from his active Hollywood career to take up the lead role of Professor Harold Hill in a low-budget local theater production of THE MUSIC MAN, in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.
The circumstances of what led him to this ...
Thursday, November 2------Film directors always have a colorful history. Some come from film school. Some come from advertising. Some come from other industries entirely. But there are not too many that can claim that they first found fame as a drag artist.
Well, that is how Charles Busch became a household name (at least in my household) for his campy portrayals of glamourous women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (to borrow a title from another queen of camp melodrama). Busch is, in the...
Man Ray's Famous Photograph
Wednesday, November 2----Three films showing at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival will focus on the creative life and careers of three different artists, each in a style all its own. The three films make an interesting triptych that demonstrates how the art of film can be used to interpret the art of the canvas or photograph.
A local South Florida artist with an international following, Purvis Young is a prolific painter who uncovers the beauty and uni...
Tuesday, October 31-----The coming-of-age film is now a staple of international cinema. It is a form that continues to fascinate, particularly debut directors. Such is the case with the Australian film 48 SHADES, the writing and directorial debut of actor Daniel Lapaine.
Lapaine made his film acting debut in 1994 in the international arthouse hit MURIEL’S WEDDING, which introduced Toni Collette, a much sought after actress down under and in Hollywood. He had substantial roles in the films ...
Monday, October 30----When your film festival falls over Halloween, I guess it is expected that you need to throw in a little "scare" into the proceedings. This year, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival does not disappoint, presenting two creepy classics tomorrow evening at the Cinema Paradiso.
The first part of the evening, starting at sundown, is for the kiddies, with short films, live music, costume and scream contests, balloons and hayrides. This is family friendly fun without...
Saturday/Sunday, October 28/29----If you cannot afford the $350 per ticket to see Barbara Streisand live in concert during her current sold-out tour, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival offers you a front-row seat to appreciate the enduring vocal, dramatic and directing talents of La Streisand . The Festival will present a four-film mini-retrospective this Sunday, with proceeds benefiting the Streisand Foundation, a not-for-profit agency involved with social and environmental conce...
THE SHAPE OF WATER
Friday, October 27----The excitement is certainly revving up at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) this weekend, with a torrent of challenging new films, well-loved classics and enough social events to fatigue even the most energetic party animal.
The Festival has a reputation on the festival circuit as one that is high on discoveries, offering its sophisticated audiences a chance to discover new talents and ponder film themes and techniques. This weeken...
Thursday, October 26----As the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) moves into its second consecutive weekend, the schedule for Friday is a full and varied one. Listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as "the world's longest film festival", this year's edition runs for 30 days, with an extra week of programming and special events to be held in the resort town of Key West when the Festival comes to an end in its Fort Lauderdale home on Sunday, November 12. When do these Festi...
Wednesday, October 25----Life can be hard for a character actor. The same ability that the actor has to totally disappear into a role is the same drawback that he has in creating a distinct personality on the stage or screen. Such are the paradoxes explored in the fascinating documentary portrait THE LIFE OF REILLY, which focuses on the long and varied career of character actor Charles Nelson Reilly. The film screens twice on Thursday (a FREE Senior Matinee at 2:00pm and an evening screening a...
Tuesday, October 24----The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival will present an inspiring documentary film on contemporary classical music, on Wednesday evening starting at 6:00pm, at the Cinema Paradiso.
PIANISTS - DEFINING CHOPIN is a breathtaking musical documentary that follows the four winners of the 2005 National Chopin Piano Competition, which was held in Miami in March of last year, as they compete in the International Chopin Piano Competition, the oldest and most prestigious ...
Monday, October 23----A celebration of African dance and film will be the high point on today’s agenda, as the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival moves into its second week of film discoveries and excitement.
The Festival will screen the Sundance Film Festival hit SON OF MAN this evening at 8:00pm at the Cinema Paradiso. The special screening tribute to South African film will be preceded by an African Dance performance by the Le Jump Afrique dance troupe. The troupe includes membe...
Saturday/Sunday, October 21/22-----THE ARCHITECT is a sophisticated urban drama about a Chicago architect (played by Anthony LaPaglia) confronted by an outspoken female activist (Viola Davis) living in a dangerous housing project of his design. LaPaglia plays Leo Waters, an idealistic architect and patriarch of an affluent, suburban Chicago family. Viola Davis is Tonya Neeley, a pragmatic activist who is trying to keep her family together while living in one of the city’s most drug and crime...
Friday, October 20----It is a rather unusual career move for a film distributor to transition from buying and selling films to actually making them, but that is exactly what Jeff Lipsky has done. After co-founding October Films (which was bought out by Universal Pictures and eventually morphed into Focus Features) and Lot 47 Films, releasing indie and international gems such as Lars Von Trier's BREAKING THE WAVES, Mike Leigh's SECRETS AND LIES, David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY, Michael Cuesta's L.I....
Writer/Director Dito Montiel and Executive Producer Sting
Thursday, October 19---With the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival already in high gear, a number of special guests and VIPs are expected in town over the next few days, bringing some film star power to South Florida audiences.
Tonight, writer/director Dito Montiel will be present at the screening of his debut film A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS. The film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, was a d...
Wednesday, October 18----Rupert Grint (of HARRY POTTER fame) stars as a shy teenage boy in this comedic coming-of-age drama reminiscent of the 1970s cult hit HAROLD AND MAUDE. Oscar-nominated actress Laura Linney, one of our finest film stars, gives another terrific performance as the boy's domineering mother, who continues to exert an influence on him as a way of holding on to him. The boy learns independence and a sense of self when he begins to work for a retired actress, played by Oscar n...
