By Liza Foreman It seems that TIFFCOM, the market arm of the Tokyo International Film Festival (October 23-31, 2010), is not the highest-grossing film market in Asia for nothing.Drawing in all of the major players from the Asian industry and a handful of key European companies, this year’s market took place in a luxurious high-rise building, offering fabulous views of Tokyo, perfect organization and just the right mix of business and pleasure. With a bustling scene at the four-day event ...
By Liza Forman Tokyo International Film Festival Winners 2010/TIFFCOM WrapAt this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (October 23-31, 2010),Intimate Grammar took home the $50,000 Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix -- the second time Israeli director Nir Bergman has won the main award.Bergman’sBroken Wings also took the mainprize at TIFF in 2002, making him the only director to win it twice. 98-year-old Japanese director, Kaneto Shindo won the special jury prize, for POST CARD, a film about the...
Tokyo International Film Festival Winners 2010/TIFFCOM WrapAt this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (October 23-31, 2010),Intimate Grammar took home the $50,000 Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix -- the second time Israeli director Nir Bergman has won the main award.Bergman’s Broken Wings also took the mainprize at TIFF in 2002, making him the only director to win it twice. 98-year-old Japanese director, Kaneto Shindo won the special jury prize, for POST CARD, a film about the effects of WWII o...
Projects submitted by APSA Academy members from 17 countries including Armenia, Australia, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Philippines, Fiji, Lebanon, Japan, Israel, People’s Republic of China, Singapore and New Zealand are to be considered for the US$100,000 script development fund which was formed earlier this year by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).Four grants, of US$25,000 each, will be allocated to the script development of four new projects...
By Liza Foreman TIFFCOM 2010 (October 25-28), the Contents Business Marketaffiliated with TIFF, opens today after a set-up day yesterday in the toweringskyscraper in the middle of Tokyo which is home to the annual market. TIFFCOM2010has registered a record-breaking number of exhibitors, participating countriesand pre- registration, putting it on track to make Tokyo a mainhub for the content business in Asia.The numberof exhibitors this year is 222, up 4 percentage points from last year.Exhi...
*ANIMACAM.TV (INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION ONLINE) **WINNERS** OF THE THIRD EDITION 2010*The audience from 106 countries, Jury of the Festival through their vote Online, with 500.000 visits registered, decided that the Winners of the Three Categories, sponsored with 2000 each one by the Entity Xacobeo S.A., were for films coming from /Colombia and Spain /Best short film Animation*T**ati n (la casa en l rbol)*/Josu Jaramillo//Colombia. 2010//Best Multimedia Animation/*L**os d as del Kr...
By Liza Foreman Catherine Deneuve, Jesse Eisenberg and The Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin all made the trek tothe Japanese capital to join Asian glitterati on the Tokyo International FilmFestival’s green carpet, which snaked through a mass of neon-clad high-rises in Downtown Tokyo to celebrate opening night.After speeches from the festival head Tom Yoda and top Japanese politicos, including the country’sminister for economics, industry and culture, who spoke about the country’s ...
HANOI ~ Vietnam’s first ever major international film festival got underway today following a magnificent opening ceremony held in Hanoi’s National Convention Center and attended by an estimated 3,100 guests.
The timing of the festival coincides with the 1,000 year anniversary of the founding of the city of Hanoi in 1010, and the precise dates of VNIFF, 17 October to 22 October fall nicely between the end of Korea’s Phusan festival and the beginning of Japan’s Tokyo Film F...
HANOI ~ Vietnam’s first ever major international film festival got underway today following a magnificent opening ceremony held in Hanoi’s National Convention Center and attended by an estimated 3,100 guests. The timing of the festival coincides with the 1,000 year anniversary of the founding of the city of Hanoi in 1010, and the precise dates of VNIFF, 17 October to 22 October fall nicely between the end of Korea’s Phusan festival and the beginning of Japan’s Tokyo Film Festival next we...
Thirty-one documentary, animated, children’s and feature films from 15 countries and areas have been nominated for Asia-Pacific’s highest accolade in film with Best Feature nominees from Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China. View the list of 2010 nominees at: http://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/the_awards/nominees_2010 Winners in the fourth annual APSAs will be determined by an International Jury headed by Academy Award-winning producer Lord David Puttnam...
Film fans from near and far should note down a date in their calendars: Between November 12 and November 21, 2010, exground filmfest in Wiesbaden – one of Germany‘s most important independent festivals – presents 220 highlights from the current range of independently produced short and feature films. These were selected from more than 2000 submissions from 89 countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe. Among them are 8 world premieres, 3 international premieres, 8 Europe premieres, and 33 Germa...
Main International Competition Jury members: Zbigniew Rybczyński (Poland) – Chairman, Siddiq Barmak (Afghanistan), Judith Blackburn (USA), Nino Kirtadze (Georgia), Bojidar Manov (Bulgaria) awarded following prizes: Grand Prix – Another Sky by Dimitri Mamulia, Russia, 2010Best Feature Film – Nothing Personal by Urszula Antoniak, Netherlands / Ireland, 2009Best Documentary Film – Enemies of the People by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, Cambodia / UK, 2009 (Award goes to Thet Sambath)Best...
A Gracious and
Grateful Closing Night at ARPA International Film Festival
By Ron Gilbert
On one of the warmest
evenings the closing night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Alex Kalognomos the festival’s artistic director introduced
the hostess
actress Raya Meddine who welcomed everyone in 6 languages The event
was
attended by many celebrities and dignitaries including
Grigor Hovhannissian, Consul General of
the Republic of Armenia
I was very tak...
13TH ARPA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN L.A."AGHET, a German View of a Turkish Genocide"by Alex Deleon, for ARPA is the name of the river that flows through Yerevan, the capital of the free Armenian Republic, which until 1991 was part of the former Soviet Union. Consequently, it is not surprising that an international film festival so-named is primarily (although not entirely) concerned with the presentation of films from Armenia, films dealing with Armenian topics, and/or films made by Armen...
By Liza ForemanThe 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced another eight films for the competition section.The films in the competition section will be competing for six awards, including the prestigious “Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix.” The winners will be announced at the festival's Closing Ceremony on October 31st.The Competition So Far -“Beautiful Boy” - U.S.ADirectors: Shawn KuA shooting massacres in a college. Parents fear their son's safety, but the news they receive ...
For several months, and daily for the past week I have been fielding emails and telephone calls from around the world questioning who is in charge of the Clearwater Film Festival.The answer is Mike Rembis. It is solely owned by me and nobody else.I was asked again today who sponsors The Clearwater Film Festival. The answer is me - Mike Rembis. I invented it and put my life savings into it and I have a few sponsors who have provided me with in-kind advertising and local support in exchange ...
Selection Committee Announcement Kamran Shirdel (Head of Film Selection Committee)DocumentarianConsidered a pioneer of Iran's NEW cinema. Born in born 1939 in Tehran, he studied architecture, urbanism, and design at the University of Rome and film direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. After graduating in 1964, he worked as an assistant director with John Huston on The Bible before making his diploma film, Gli Specchi (The Mirrors), in Rome. He returned to Iran and star...
Audience Award
All the films presented during the Warsaw International Film Festival take part in the Audience Poll for the best film. Before each screening, members of the audience receive a coupon on which they mark the film as “very good”, “good”, “so-so”, “poor”, „bad”.
The coupons are collected after the screening.
The poll results are announced once all the votes have been counted. The winner is the film given the highest marks by audiences. The winning film receiv...
SILENCE LIES (Julie Hivon, Canada)
The Montreal World Film Festival, which is at the midway point of its celebration of world cinema, also sees part of its mission as a showcase for new Canadian film talents to shine for both local audiences and for visiting professional guests from all over the globe. While Canada’s film industry is rather strong, it still must compete with the overwhelming marketing machine of its powerful neighbor to the south. Fighting for screens an...
Nothing ignites interest like a world premiere, and this year's Montreal World Film Festival is boasting several. Among its most highly anticipated red carpet events is the presentation of THE NEIGHBOR, a film written and directed by Naghmeh Shirkhan. The film will be screened in the First Films World Competition section.
Starring Azita Sahebjam, Tara Nazemi, Parisa Wahedi, Kamyar Mahinsa, Matt Dean, Ramin Sanadizadeth and Parvin Sahebjam this Canadian/USA co-production set in ...
Emmanuel Itier provokes in “The Invocation” by Ron Gilbert Emmanuel and I sat down in his suite at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood to discuss his journey. I have known him for over 20 years and after seeing his film, The Invocation, I discovered what I didn’t know about him. So we let the fur fly on this interview and there were no holds barred. RGEmmanuel I just want you to know that since we are very close friends you can let me know about anything that you do not want me to pu...
"Emmanuel Itier provokes in “The Invocation” by Ron Gilbert Emmanuel and I satdown in his suite at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood to discuss his journey. I have known him for over 20 yearsand after seeing his film, The Invocation, I discovered what I didn’t knowabout him. So we let the fur fly on this interview and there were no holdsbarred. RGEmmanuel I just wantyou to know that since we are very close friends you can let me know aboutanything that you do not want me to pu...
Motion Picture Association (MPA) President and Managing Director Asia Pacific, Mike Ellis announced this evening that Ronin Films Managing Director Andrew Pike will sit on the judging panel for the inaugural MPA APSA Academy Film Fund.The announcement was made from the Australian International Movie Convention (AIMC) on Australia’s Gold Coast where Mr Ellis reported that in just two weeks a strong calibre up of submissions had already been received for consideration in the US$100,000 script de...
Director: Majid Beladpas.
A short animated film about CINEMA.
A new interview with Borys Lankosz, director of the Polish hit film Rewers, Reverse (2009). Set in the 1950's, this film is
shot first in black and white, then in color; it tells the story of the sweet and innocent Sabina (30) who lacks adventure and romance in her life until she meets Bronislaw, bringing a world of desire and excitement into her former
colorless world.
me: What inspired you about this story? And can you speak to us about the dreamy style in which you directed...
