Tuesday, November 11-----American debut filmmaker Brian Hecker has been awarded the first International Film Guide Inspiration Award given at an American film festival, at this past weekend’s Awards Gala at the (www.fliff.com). Hecker won for his feature debut, the comedy Bart Got A Room, which closed the Festival. The film, a winning family comedy shot in south Florida, debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2008 and has been picked up for distribution by Plum Pictures (...

After nearly four weeks of film screenings, special events, receptions and information seminars, weary Festival honcho Gregory von Hausch took to the stage of the Cinema Paradiso last evening to announce this year's award winners at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF). Winning top prize as Best Film of the Fest was Gospel Hill, the feature debut of actor/director Giancarlo Esposito. The race relations drama, made even more relevant by last week's historic Presidential electio...

Gospel Hill (US, Giancarlo Esposito)    Monday, November 10---------After nearly four weeks of film screenings, special events, receptions and information seminars, weary Festival honcho Gregory von Hausch took to the stage of the Cinema Paradiso last evening to announce this year's award winners at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF). Winning top prize as Best Film of the Fest was Gospel Hill, the feature debut of actor/director Giancarlo Esp...

  Sunday, November 9-------Don’t let the twinkle in his eyes or the lilt in his Irish accent fool you….. Mark Mahon is indeed a man on a mission, at least when it comes to his feature film directing debut, the boxing drama STRENGTH AND HONOUR. The film, which screened last night to an enthusiastic audience response at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, is a redemptive story about the emotional and professional comeback of a wounded fighter, in many ways a parallel...

Don’t let the twinkle in his eyes or the lilt in his Irish accent fool you….. Mark Mahon is indeed a man on a mission, at least when it comes to his feature film directing debut, the boxing drama STRENGTH AND HONOUR. The film, which screened last night to an enthusiastic audience response at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, is a redemptive story about the emotional and professional comeback of a wounded fighter, in many ways a parallel to Mahon’s own dramatic story. A nat...

  Saturday, November 9---------In case you were curious to know where the center for swinging sex is in America (if you answer Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, you are dead wrong), the correct answer to the above question is: Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City? You mean that mini-metropolis smack dab in the middle of the country in the swing state that still is not sure if it is "red" or "blue". Well, according to the film FLING, which had its East Coast...

  Eli Wallach in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN Friday, November 7--------The venerable actor Eli Wallach, a raconteur at 93 years young, was honored last evening at the Cinema Paradiso following the rare screening of the 1950s cause celebre BABY DOLL, which was the actor's debut film. The event, sponsored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, also included a tribute to Wallach's leading lady (on the stage, screen and in real life), actress Anne Jackson. Both were at the...

  Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach Jane Lynch   Brandon RouthRichard Chamberlain Thursday, November 6---------The stars were not only in the sky but on the red carpet at a special Gala Event at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival this evening.  Over 15 celebrity a...

  Wednesday, November 5------It may seem tame to today's audiences but in 1955 when director Elia Kazan was making the Southern gothic classic BABY DOLL, it was a cause celebre. The film, which was banned by the Catholic Legion of Decency and was the subject of church boycotts (priests told their parishioners that if they saw the film that their souls would be damned for all eternity), became one of the most notorious films of the repressive Eisenhower Years.   Wel...

  Tuesday, November 4--------The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival marks its half way point tomorrow evening with the screening of its Centerpiece Film, the engaging PLAY THE GAME. The film, by writer/director Marc Fienberg, is an original comedy with surprising and clever twists about a young ladies' man, David, who teaches his dating tricks to his lonely, widowed grandfather. But as David's supposedly foolproof techniques fail him, Grandpa Joe quickly transforms into...

Monday, November 3-----From iconoclastic American indie director Michael Berggmann comes this sexy political thriller starring Mario Van Peebles and Bonnie Loren. The film begins on the last day of Naomi Holbroke's marriage to a high-ranking British government official. Seeming to be a failure as a housewife, Naomi sets off to reclaim the acting career she gave up “for him” twenty-five years ago. In France at a film festival, she meets film director Billy Rust and ...

Saturday, November 1---------The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) and BigStar.TV (BST) are working together on a new joint venture that will offer a broader range of opportunities for the independent filmmaker to showcase their work. “BigStar.TV and FLIFF have officially joined forces to develop a unique online short film competition, film screenings, and an innovative new plan that will streamline festival film trafficking, programming, decrease costs of shipping prints, ...

  Friday, October 31---------The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival has been chosen to be the first film festival in the US to give out a special new award to an emerging filmmaker. The International Film Guide Inspiration Award, presented by Wallflower Press (www.wallflowerpress.co.uk), the largest independent film book publisher in the UK, and the Criterion Collection (www.criterion.com), the leading distributor of classic world cinema, is a unique prize of film books, r...

The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival has been chosen to be the first film festival in the US to give out a special new award to an emerging filmmaker. The International Film Guide Inspiration Award, presented by Wallflower Press (www.wallflowerpress.co.uk), the largest independent film book publisher in the UK, and the Criterion Collection (www.criterion.com), the leading distributor of classic world cinema, is a unique prize of film books, reference guides and film DVDs designed to p...

From iconoclastic American indie director Michael Berggmann comes this sexy political thriller starring Mario Van Peebles and Bonnie Loren. The film begins on the last day of Naomi Holbroke's marriage to a high-ranking British government official. Seeming to be a failure as a housewife, Naomi sets off to reclaim the acting career she gave up “for him” twenty-five years ago.In France at a film festival, she meets film director Billy Rust and falls in love with…his script, particularly with ...

 Monday, October 29----------Since the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival always falls over the Halloween holiday, the Festival makes a special effort to involve youngsters and those young at heart with special film programs to celebrate the Halloween horrors. On Wednesday evening at the Cinema Paradiso,, the festivities begins with a late night double feature. First up is FEAST, the film that emerged from the HBO Project Greenlight. In this gore-rama, humans keep trying to outwit n...