Interview with Craig Prater Executive Director Bangkok International Film FestivalWhat is your biggest challenge this year Craig?The biggest challenges for the film festival are certainly the management of two different staffs: - The event coordination staff with the Tourism Authority of Thailand; - The administration and creative staff of Film Festival Management. Although the TAT speak beautiful English, we are faced with concerns of understanding and communication. And then the obvious chal...

Strong presence of China and the Near East at 10th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemafrom 10th to 17th February 2004From 10th to 17th February 2004, faithful to its vocation, the 10th edition of Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema will once more reflect the Asian vast continent’s cultural pluralism, through films coming from the entire geographical Asia. Celebrating the Year of China in France, almost one third of the 67 films selected this year is dedicated to C...

Berlinale 2004: First announcement of Panorama presentations Panorama section present films for the upcoming art house season in Europe. This year’s main programme will include 18 films, complemented by 16 Panorama Specials, ten Panorama Dokumente presentations and 20 Panorama Short Films. All films are to screen as either World or European premieres. In February 2004, well over 15,000 movie-goers will again participate in choosing the winner of the Panorama Audience Award, which will be prese...

Thierry Frémaux, Artistic Director of the Festival de Cannes, has appointed the members of the selection committee for Cannes 2004 and finalised the list of correspondents working abroad. Two separate committees will watch films in Paris, one committee for foreign films (which account for about 70% of screenings) and another for French films. These committees have an advisory role, all final decisions being made by the Artistic Director. The Selection Committee for French FilmsGilles Lyon-Caen,...

The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to bring remarkable or urgent feature films and feature length creative documentaries by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries closer to fulfillment. The HBF provides grants that often turn out to play a crucial role in enabling these filmmakers to realize their projects. In its Fall 2003 Selection Round, Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam grants a total of Euro 467,000 to twenty-eight non-Western film-maker...

As Nantes’ competition has rolled on, the spot has already been occupied by four rather different titles: three of them were coming from Asia, Bar Girls (Gai Nhay) from Vietnam, Min from Malaysia and Ordinary People (Malen’kie Ljudi) from Kazakhstan; the fourth one, The Magic Gloves (Los Guantes Magicos), came instead from Argentina.The competition opened with Le Hoang’s Bar Girls, a film that depicts the life of female dancers and prostitutes in present days Saigon. Girls coming from diff...

Every year, the Jalladeau brothers, tirelessd globe-trotters, share the planet between them to go and see on location films that are born away from the major international channels. Philippe goes all over Latin America, the Arab and Muslim world and the Asian republics of the ex-URSS, while Alain travels throughout the length and breadth of Asia and Black Africa.After having screened several hundreds of ilms, they offer a selection which is the most capable of reflecting the social, historical a...

Created in 1979 in Nantes by Philippe and Alain Jalladeau, two brothers with a passion for cinema and travels, the 3 Continents Festival has assered itself, with the passing years, as a gathering which cannot be ignored by the cinematographies of Africa, Asia, and Latin and Black America. Since its creation, it has presented over one thousand films and has gained both national and international prestige. Exclusive screenings of works of fiction, tribute to an actor or an actress, historical pres...

According to Screen International Toronto's Piers Handling will be stepping aside from programming duties while remaining CE. He is reported to be taking applications for co-director job probably looking at the Cannes duo winning strategy.In a recent interview he gave to Filmfestivals he was speaking of his programing directions.What kind of films screen at Toronto?I think Toronto has always been opened to every variety of film. Of course, popcorn movies don't always belong in a festival, but th...