One of the main theme's at this year's IFFS the convergence of technology with film festivals, and several issues relating to this topic will be addressed in a morning session on Monday, Dec. 3rd. The film and entertainment industries realize the evolution of technology is seriously impacting how content is promoted and delivered. The 2007 IFFS will address digital content shedding light on this evolving landscape. New York, NY (PRWEB) September 20, 2007 -- The 4th Annual International Film Fes...
The 2007 Flake Film Festival premiere screenings have just finished with a huge sell out finale and awards presentation night at the Jindabyne Cinema in the NSW Snowy Mountains where the 2007 winners were also announced. This years festival was a huge success- "2007 was our 5th Birthday and we celebrated with our best fest yet! The final 15 films were truly amazing and showed off the high quality of filmmaking talent we have in Australia" says festival founder and director Anthony Trovatello (Ch...
The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has introduced a number of new initiatives for its Industry Office, including a Project Market, a producer's training program, and a screenwriting master class. Under the guidance of Associate Director Jane Williams (industry consultant for reputed organizations such as Cinemart and The European Commission), the DIFF Industry Office has been designed to provide a platform for information exchange and share of best practice between Arab f...
For the first time ever, a Swedish film opens the Stockholm film festival. Josef Fares latest film Leo will have its world premiere at the 18th international film festival, which takes place November 15-25. Leo celebrates his 30th birthday. Surrounded by family and friends, he toasts to the future. But as the party ends and Leo and his girlfriend walk back home, something happens which will forever change their lives. After great success with Jalla! Jalla! (2000), Kops (2003) and Zozo (2005), Sw...
Saturday, September 15---------There are very few words in our contemporary culture that are as charged as the word "jihad". It has been used as a kind of talisman for conjuring up the fears of Western society for the resurgence of political, economic and ideological influence of the Muslim world. Indian-born Muslim director Parvez Sharma uses the word in the title of his debut documentary film in its more literal Arabic meaning. Rather than simply being equated with "holy war...
There are very few words in our contemporary culture that are as charged as the word "jihad". It has been used as a kind of talisman for conjuring up the fears of Western society for the resurgence of political, economic and ideological influence of the Muslim world. Indian-born Muslim director Parvez Sharma uses the word in the title of his debut documentary film in its more literal Arabic meaning. Rather than simply being equated with "holy war", Sharma unfolds a story of its literal meaning.....
The 2007 Flake Film Festival premiere screenings have just finished with a huge sell out finale and awards presentation night at the Jindabyne Cinema in the NSW Snowy Mountains where the 2007 winners were also announced. This years festival was a huge success- "2007 was our 5th Birthday and we celebrated with our best fest yet! The final 15 films were truly amazing and showed off the high quality of filmmaking talent we have in Australia" says festival founder and director Anthony Trovatello (Ch...
16 European films receive EFP´s Film Sales Support at the Rio International Film Festival (20 September – 4 October 2007)Starting off on 20 September and closing on 4 October, the Rio International Film Festival is one of the most important and longest events in Latin America. It has meanwhile become a busy place to discover Brazilian as well as international films and to conduct business as the festival also holds its new RioMarket which runs from 21 September to 3 October. RioMarket combin...
Thursday, September 13---------In a Toronto Film Festival, at over 350 films, a tale of hit or miss (how could it be anything else?), some of the most satisfying and resonant films come not from the new young turks, but from the old masters. Several of Europe's finest filmmakers have shown their latest masterworks here in the past week. It is interesting to consider that most of these films may not make a big splash in the theatrical distribution market (a far cry from some of these masters' e...
TRICKS by Andrzej Jakimowski, awarded at Venice today, will open the 23rd Warsaw International Film Festival on Friday, October 12.TRICKS got two awards: the Europa Cinemas Label, given by a Jury of European exhibitors, and Laterna Magica Award. The Europa Cinemas network, supported by MEDIA Plus Programme of the European Union, includes 479 cinemas in 29 countries. The award has a concrete dimention - Europa Cinemas created a mechanism to encourage its members to screen the awarded film. The Ju...
7 September 2007: Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski’s TRICKS (Sztuczki) has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Giornate degli Autori/Venice Days section, it was announced today by a jury of four Europa Cinemas exhibitors. The Label will be awarded tomorrow.This marks the fourth year that the Europa Cinemas Label has been awarded at Venice, and complements the Labels awarded at the Panorama section in Berlin, the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes and Karlovy Vary.TRI...
Thursday, September 6--------From a cursory look at the films to be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, which opens this evening, it can seem as if Hollywood is dominating the program schedule. This is far from the truth. The Festival is very international in its scope, with a high percentage of film auteurs and fledgling directors from Europe, Asia and Latin America. It is also a terrific place to check the pulse of the Canadian film scene and discover local talent.One talented ...
Sunday, September 2--------The Montreal World Film Festival, which ends tomorrow evening with the announcement of its awards, is one of the few major film festivals that has a competition section for debut directors. This year, the quality of the films from first-timers is especially strong and make up some of the most buzzed films at the Festival. The First Films World Competition is featuring 23 features from 16 countries. Three films are from "local heroes" from Canada: FINN'S GI...
39 European films benefit from Film Sales Support at the Toronto International Film Festival, 6-15 September 200726 different European sales agents and production companies are receiving EFP’s established Film Sales Support (FSS) for the promotion of 39 films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. For the third year in succession, FSS, which is backed by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, is helping to increase the visibility of European films outside of Europe by encour...
Saturday, September 1--------The Montreal World Film Festival is honoring one of Europe's most prolific and dynamic film producers in a special tribute to Spanish producer Andres Vicente Gomez. He has been in force in Spanish cinema for almost 25 years, having produced some of Spain's best known film exports. Born in Madrid in 1943, he first became involved in film in the 1960s as a distributor, importing many European films at a time when the Franco regime still held a tight grip on the cultura...
117 Features and Documentaries from 24 of European Film Promotion’s 28 Member Countries to Screen at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival®European Film Promotion (EFP) with support from the European Union's MEDIA Programme, will attend the Toronto International Film Festival® (September 6-15) for the eleventh consecutive year. Joining the 17 EFP member countries who comprise a de facto European delegation with display booths in the Festival’s Sales & Industry Office, are two EFP me...
Friday, August 25---------In a sure sign that summer is definitely in its last throws, the Toronto International Film Festival held its major press conference earlier this week, announcing the full roster of films and special events that will be presented from September 6 to 15. In less than two weeks, the titans of the film industry, and a smattering of first-timers and more humble folk like this journalist, will venture to the "New York of the North" to be part of an extravaganza t...
Monday, August 20---------Next to the United States, France (a country about 25% the population) has the world's most prolific and dynamic film industry. And luckily, the interest in French cinema has remained consistently strong, with a new crop of directors, writers and actors making impressions on ever-increasing audiences. For those of us who proudly call themselves "francophones" (like myself), this is very good news. Still, the number of French feature films and documen...
Chaim Pevner, Film CriticFILM NOTES TO THE BARBICAN YIDDISH FILM RETROSPECTIVE(London, October 12-24, 1996) THE YIDDISH language cinema is nearly unique among world cinema cultures in that it had no specific homeland. Yiddish films, including “silent Yiddish” films, were produced wherever there were major Yiddish speech communities and a Yiddish theatrical circuit from which talent could be recruited. The majority of Yiddish language films were therefore made in New York or in P...
Wednesday, August 15---------Tom DiCillo is one of the original New York indies. He started making low-budget indie films in one of the first waves of the American independent film movement in the early 1980s, when independent was more of a lifestyle than a corporate brand. Beginning his career as a cinematographer, he brought his spare but powerful visual aesthetic to such envelope pushing films of the period as Jim Jarmusch's STRANGER THAN PARADISE, Eric Mitchell's UNDERGROUND USA ...
LOCARNO 2005 -- THE FULL REPORT 58th LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL FEATURES MOST COMPLETE ORSON WELLES RETRO EVER -- by Alex Deleon -- (for <www.filmfestivals.com>) The 58th installment of the Locarno film festival at the Tippety-top of glorious Lago Maggiore in the Italian Speaking part of Switzerland (Ticino) got underway on Wednesday, August 3rd and will go on until August 13. Some 300 films of all kinds will be projected at numerous venues all over town, but the main event is the slate of...
Tuesday, August 14----------The Locarno International Film Festival, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year in the picturesque city of Locarno in the Swiss canton of Ticino, held its Gala Awards ceremony on Saturday evening, honoring a group of exceptional films from around the world. The Japanese drama THE REBIRTH won the Golden Leopard, the Festival's highest honor. Director Masahiro Kobayashi collected his award at the ceremony held in the city's expansive Piazza Grande. The dir...
Monday, August 13------Films with a Holocaust theme remain a bottomless pit of fascination for those who still attempt to comprehend the immensity of the tragedy nearly 70 years after the fact. As with any human experience, the power of an individual story is infinitely more moving, fascinating and haunting than the repetition of numbers (in this case, a staggering six million) that the mind can simply not comprehend. A worthy addition to the canon of Holocaust films is the new documentary, PR...
Wednesday, August 8---------There is no equivalent in the United States.....the actor Gerard Depardieu is a truly French phenomenon, a pasty-faced, barrel-chested, unpolished, roughly handsome leading man, who somehow is an enduring Gallic sex symbol. He does not have the sensual prettiness of an Alain Delon, the rail-thin sex appeal of a Jean-Paul Belmondo or the intelligent visage of a Yves Montand. He is, in fact, his own unique creation, and his enduring appeal in French cinema is mostly...
The official website has launched (www.meiff.com) for the first annual Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), premiering October 14-19, 2007; and the Call for Entries is now under way. Over five days, MEIFF will present more than 50 films within a diverse slate of regional and international films with an emphasis on emerging artists. Grand Jury Prize winners will receive substantial production grants towards the funding of their next project, awarded in the categories of Narrative, Do...
