Brussels' 28th
International Film Festival concluded with ever-increasing audiences for screenings
in some seven cinemas across the Belgian capital. Certainly the public, mostly
young but with a sprinkling of Eurocrats,press and professional visitors,gained
a prize with the introduction of the Festival Pass which for only 350 BFs permitted
entry -- according to the availability of a seat -- to virtually all the performances
during the 10-day event, without any further f...
Moondance 2001
Winners
The Moondance International
Film Festival 2001 was held January 19-21, in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, USA.
The winners of the writers & filmmakers competitions were announced January
20 at the gala awards banquet & ceremony.
Moondance 2001
Screenplay Winners
Child in the
Well by Regina Richardson Drama: A feisty youngster, fleeing a pre-arranged
marriage in medieval England, falls under the influence of a mysterious brigand,
a wise c...
Clermont-Ferrand Festival of Short Films
January 26- Feb 3
The 23rd edition
of "the Cannes of short films" has a new building to call its own and offers
enough movies to choke a horse or drive a mad cow sane. The carefully curated
and insanely well-attended annual event got underway January 26 and presents
its coveted and often quite generous slate of awards on the night of Feb 3.
It often seems
like every college student in town is playing hooky to stand in ...
Moxie! Film
Festival
Santa Monica, February 14 - 19
Moxie! Is the
spirit of the Santa Monica International Film Festival -- an homage to the sheer
guts and perseverance that independent filmmakers have in order to succeed in
an extremely competitive and challenging industry. The Santa Monica International
Film Festival is a year-round film festival that culminates into a week-long
film and music festival, taking place on February 14-19, 2001. The event is
a launc...
New York International
Children's Film Festival
February
2 - 12
Highlights of
this event include a Retrospective of Aardman Animations (also featuring the
making of Chicken
Run), short films in competition- in which audience members choose the
winners- and the screening of Disney's Recess: School's Out!
On February 2nd,
the New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) moves into its
fourth year, continuing its mission to celebrate the best in bot...
Sundance: Some
Observations
Sundance 2001 has now ended and the picturesque mountain resort of Park City
breathes a sigh of relief as industry moguls return to Los Angeles and New York.
The Festival is, among other things, big business for Park City. Reservations
at the town's top restaurants are harder to get than a distribution deal with
Miramax. Parties are either too democratically large or exclusively sparse.
Contrasts abound at every turn. From the empty ski ...
Do Publicists
Matter? Yes, but Here's how to Generate your own Buzz
The service of the Sundance Film Festival, other than to showcase the most recent
works from a cadre of talented filmmakers, has become that of empowerment and
education to the vast army of emerging filmmakers who have yet to find their
way onto the festival circuit.
While one could easily argue that Sundance has evolved into a factory of sorts
for producing filmmakers of roughly the same level...
Philip Gröning
is a happy man. His French-titled road movie L'Amour
l'Argent l'Amour (" it would have sounded like sociodrama in German"
he remarks) won his lead actress Sabine Timoteo a Bronze Leopard at Locarno
2000 and has been screened in quite a few festivals so far, not least Sundance
and Rotterdam. Gröning tells us the story
of three characters: Marie, a prostitute, David, an impulsive freebooter, and
Kurt, a German shepherd (a dog, not a sheep guardian). T...
The theme is frailty, but the budget is strong - $20 million strong. For Frailty,
his directorial debut, otherwise actor Bill Paxton has managed to get Lion's
Gate Films to bring together the most money they have ever raised for a production.
The film tells the story of the FBI's hunt for a serial killer who calls himself
The Hand of God. Not only will Paxton direct, but he will also appear before
the camera in a small role. The rest of the cast includes Powers Boothe, Luke
...
Rotterdam International
Film Festival
Weekend, January 27 & 28
One of the most
pleasant moments of the weekend proved to be Saturday night's Late Show, where
Battle
Royale director Kinji Fukasaku and his son/scriptwriter Kenta Fukasaku
cheerfully joined the celebration of the festival's good spirit.
Emcee: If you
had to choose your favorite weapon to go to the island, what would it be?
Kenta Fukasaku: "My favorite weapon is the pot lid. Because you can defend
y...
Festival Founders
Justin Henry, Cabot Orton, John Peterson, and Keith Speigel and newly appointed
Festival Director Kimberley Browning announced the awards for the fourth annual
Slamdunk
Film Festival. Special guests included Janeane Garofalo, who opened the
evenings festivities with an insightful and entertaining Q&A session along with
director Steven Kessler, whose film The Independent took Slammie Award
for Best Feature. Karen Black was also present, garnering the ...
Actors Al Pacino
and Beverly D'Angelo have become the parents of twins, a spokeswoman for the
couple announced on Friday. The boy and girl were born in Los Angeles on Thursday
night, each weighing just over five pounds. These are the second and third children
for Pacino, 60, and the first and second for D'Angelo.
...
Nicole Kidman may
have to leave the set of The Panic Room because of a recurring knee injury.
The actress, who reportedly hurt her knee while shooting Moulin Rouge
in Australia, has been advised by her doctors to withdraw from the role because
it is physically demanding and preventing her from recovering. The film's financial
backer, Columbia Pictures, is deciding whether to replace Kidman or postpone
production.
...
A western in the west country with a funk soundtrack and no guns.
...
p>
Ben (22) and Chris (19) Blaine have been working together for roughly 19 years, largely on projects involving lego.
However in recent years their joint interests have turned more toward film.
They started Charlie Productions Ltd in 1997 with money won cheating at poker
in school and set about making short films with no film education save a couple of decent paperbacks.
...
Sundance Film
Festival
January 18 - 28
The list of filmmakers
to watch emerging from Sundance 2001 will surely be topped by the writer/directors
of Series
7: The Contender, The Deep End, Scratch and Maelstrom,
most of which are sophomore efforts from filmmakers who were initially lauded
for their breakthrough feature debuts.
Certainly, hot
new filmmakers who no one has ever heard of before will grab the headlines first
as their 'fresh' profile is exploited t...
It's highly doubtful
that there are any films that everyone has seen at Sundance. But there is one
creative project that's ubiquitous here -- the festival's visual identity as
emblazoned on the covers of film guides, street maps, press kits, T-shirts and
post cards. The look changes annually, yet after the films unspool and the parties
are long over, it's the festival's print material that serves as a visual record
and resource.
Sundance's artful
2001 design identit...
January is a busy
month for Julianne Moore, the star of the upcoming film Hannibal
and the recipient of the Piper Heidseick Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sundance
Film Festival. This morning, she has flown from New York to Utah to receive
the festival's Tenth Annual Lifetime Achievement Award.
The day's schedule
brings a press conference, an awards ceremony (including a tribute to Ms. Moore
featuring no less then than Lyle Lovett and Wallace Shawn), and an evening p...
The Slamdance Film
Festival announced winners of their "Sparkys" Friday January 26 at closing night
ceremonies at the Silver Mine. Slamdance screens the winning films Saturday
at the Silver Mine and Sunday in Salt Lake City at Brewvies. Winners receive
a bronzed dog statue.
And the Sparkys
Go to:
Jury Award for
Best Feature
Hybrid by Monteith McCollum
Best Short
Boundaries directed by Greg Durbin
Audience Choice
Award, Best Feature
American Chai by Anu...
The winners of the 2001 Sundance Film Festival were announced in an awards ceremony
January 27, 2001 in Park City, Utah. Henry Bean's The
Believer, the dramatic tale of a religious boy-turned-Nazi skinhead
won the Grand Jury Prize, while Zhang Yimou's festival hit The
Road Home won the World Cinema audience award. The winning films will
screen Sunday, January 28 in Park City.
Dramatic Grand Jury Prize
The Believer by Henry Bean
Documentary
Grand Jury P...
Sundance Film
Festival
Thursday, January 25
The disturbingly
controversial and emotional documentary Raw Deal: A Question of Consent,
about the rape of stripper at a fraternity initiation party, is perhaps the
toughest and yet most important film to see here as the festival slides toward
the finish line with no breakaway movie or mega-bidding war relieving the week's
ennui.
Festival Founder Robert Redford (who is away shooting a film in Europe) has
...
Slamdance Film
Festival
Thursday, January 25
We gave nine filmmakers
$99 dollars each to make digital shorts. Or at least that was the plan. We recently
learned that we never forked over the money," said Slamdance programmer Paul
Rachman as he introduced the new '$99 shorts' program.
Despite their total lack of funds, the nine artists (all Slamdance alumni) made
their films, which can be seen online. The results are mixed, but good overall.
The Third...
Rotterdam International
Film Festival
Friday, January 26
Like Locarno, Rotterdam
is heavily weighted with Asian features. Full of brooding yakuza, sword-wielding
wizards, gun-toting lolitas and high voltage avengers, Friday the 26th was Japanese
Day at the Rotterdam Film Festival, featuring 4 exciting films in the Main Programme:
Another Battle by Junji Sakamoto, Battle Royale by Kinji Fukasaku,
Ko-rei by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Gojoe by Sogo Ishii.
Let us begin right ...
After a decidedly
slow start, this year's Sundance Film Festival finally caught fire with several
high profile announcements of acquisitions. Miramax Films grabbed actor Todd
Fields' debut feature In
The Bedroom starring Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson. The film, which
chronicles the breakdown of a long marriage has been praised by festival-goers
for its superb acting and the dexterity of Fields' direction.
IFC Films, the new distribution division of pay cable chan...
Regina Richardson
won the Screenplay Prize at this year's Moondance Film Festival for her work,
Child in the Well. The story follows a feisty youngster, fleeing a pre-arranged
marriage in medieval England, who falls under the influence of a mysterious brigand,
a wise crone, a mad child, and a bull of the purest evil. The stageplay winner
was Carolyn Gage, for Sappho in Love. The Moondance International Film
Festival 2001 was held January 19-21, in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, USA. Th...
