In a truly European combination, the hosts fort his year's European Film Awards on 1 December will be the French actress EMMANUELLE BEART and German actor JAN JOSEF LIEFERS. They will be leading the 1,400 guests at Berlin's Arena through a celebration of the European Film Awards' 20^th anniversary.EFA President WIM WENDERS will welcome to Berlin founding members of the European Film Academy and two of the greatest faces on European screen - French actress JEANNE MOREAU and Norwegian actress/dire...
Barely recovered from the road fatigue suffered on an arduous 26 hour bus trip through six intervening countries down from Poland, 2000 Km. north of here and -- Whiz-Bang -- we're already three days into the festival. Friday, opening night, was a mighty gala with good vibes inside and outside of the stately cavernous OLYMPION theater, in spite of a heavy sprinkle from the skies above Plateia Aristoteles (Atistotle Square). For once on an opening night the speeches, ably translated from Greek for...
The Romanian winner of the Palme d'Or and the FIPRESCI Award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", will be the opening movie of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) which begins in Goa Nov 23.The film is set in communist Romania in the final years of the Nicolae Ceausescu era. It tells the tragic story of two students, roommates in the university dormitory, who try to arrange an illegal abortion for one of them in the late 1980s.After making its worldwide d...
Full houses and strong interest from the audience: that is the end result of the 6th German Panorama at the Warsaw International Film Festival (12.-21.10.) and the Days of German Cinema which were held after the festival in Cracow (26.10.-1.11.). In Warsaw alone, more than 3,500 cinema-goers saw the 13 German films in the country focus German Panorama which was opened in festive manner by the German Ambassador Michael H. Gerdts. HOUNDS (JAGDHUNDE) by Ann-Kristin Reyels was shown as the opening f...
Items to Watch for at the Festivals in 2008by Alex Deleon1. Harvey Milk by Gus Van Sant2. Tom Cruise as German Officer with Eye-patch3. Bollywood version of Casablanca4. A Polish version of Don Giovanni5. The Earth Stands Still Once Again ...Macho actor Sean Penn (47) is set to play gay San Francisco mayor, Harvey Milk, who was murdered by a rabid gay-baiter in 1978 -- the assassin, by Matt Damon! The Milk affair has been milked nearly dry before in various documentaries, but this will be the fi...
ROME: The Corriere de la Sera reports that reclusive, camera-shy American director Terence Malik showed up as scheduled for an audience with the festival press corps during the current second edition of the Rome International Film Festival with his specified precondition in place – No Photographs. During the session he steered clear of any commentary on his personal life, talking only about his film work while simultaneously demonstrating a surprisingly extensive knowledge of Italian film hi...
Wednesday, October 24-------The Rome Film Festival has released the statistics of its parallel market initiative The Business Street. Just 48 hours after the second edition of The Business Street came to a close on Sunday, film sales and acquisitions are still being finalized, but the activity clearly points to a successful venture that gives the Festival a unique profile in the sales of films to the international marketplace.In all 142 industry screenings were held (up from 130 last year), ...
On the fourth day of the Festival new authors whose films are on today’s program introduced themselves to the press. Shira Geffen, director of 'Jellyfish', came to Zagreb without her husband Etgar Keret, film co-director and author of a short story turned into a film by Goran Dukić, 'Wristcutters: A Love Story' Shira, who also wrote the screenplay for 'Jellyfish' began by saying: 'So far I've worked in theatre, this is my first excursion into the world of film. Theater direction is simple...
Just forty-eight hours after the second edition of The Business Street has come to a close, while film sales and acquisitions are being confirmed and deals finalized, it's the figures that best represent the success of this event:- 142 screenings (up from 130 in 2006)- 83 films available in the video libraries (Hotel Bernini, the Auditorium Cinema Village)- 25 market premieres, among them Piano, solo by Riccardo Milani (sold by Adriana Chiesa Enterprises), The Secret by Vincent Perez (EuropaCorp...
Just forty-eight hours after the second edition of The Business Street has come to a close, while film sales and acquisitions are being confirmed and deals finalized, it's the figures that best represent the success of this event:- 142 screenings (up from 130 in 2006)- 83 films available in the video libraries (Hotel Bernini, the Auditorium Cinema Village)- 25 market premieres, among them Piano, solo by Riccardo Milani (sold by Adriana Chiesa Enterprises), The Secret by Vincent Perez (EuropaCorp...
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL OF NAVARRA - PUNTO DE VISTAFebruary 15 - 23, 2008The Official Section of Punto de Vista has received 804 entries from 70 countries preparing for its best edition ever next February.The number of participants for the festival (a client of filmfestivals.com Bulletin Board Service) doubles last year´s figureA total of 804 films are to take part in the selection process for the Documentary Film Festival Punto de Vista, to be held in Pamplona for the fourth ti...
FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of East European Cinema In around a month's time, the 17th FilmFestival Cottbus – Festival of East European Cinema will be opened. It will be offering a representative overview of the feature film production from all of the Central and East European area from November 6th to 10th. From the Baltic states to the Balkans, from Poland through to Central Asia, the festival will be inviting cinema-goers to explore fascinating film landscapes and lively cinematographie...
We are pleased to inform you about the selection of films and projects that will be presented at the 3rd CentEast Market Warsaw. CentEast Market Warsaw will be held October 17-21, 2007 and is organised by the Warsaw Film Foundation. The Sponsors and Partners are: MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Nescafé, Film Finders – A Division of Withoutabox, Hotel Sofitel Victoria, Twins, British Airways, BenQ, and MEDIA Desk Poland. The event is supported by Polish Film Institute and Polish Ministr...
NESCAFE is kind of a magic word in Poland where all during the gray Communist daze it meant "Real coffee from the West" at a time when anything from The West was labeled as "decadent" by the nauseating Red Regime. Since the "regime changes" of 1989 the Swiss Company has established itself bigtime in Poland with all kinds of other consumer items, not just coffee, and is now raising its corporate profile to new heights by sponsoring the Warsaw Film Festival, a festival that has been coming on lik...
On Tuesday Andrzej Wajda accompanied by a retinue of actors and others connected with the 'Katyn' production showed up in Gdynia as scheduled for a press conference preceding multiple screenings of the heavily anticipated film. (One screening especially for the foreign press had English subtitles). The 81 year old director sporting a full head of white hair, full cheeks, and a ruddy complexion, seemed to be in good health and spoke with confidence about his latest work before a roomful of journ...
Andrej Wajda’s new film “KATYN” concerning the mass murder of Polish Prisoners of War perpetrated by the Russians in 1940 and for years either hushed up or cynically blamed on the Germans, is more than just another film by a famous director – it has become a “cause celebre”and a national event stirring up the collective Polish memory of this incredible Russian atrocity. “Katyn” is the name of a forest area outside of the city of Smolesk where over a three day period in May, 1940,...
The first edition in Apulia Region from 26th to 30th NovemberThe visual media as an occasion of dialogue and meeting Inter – religiousAt the beginning of 3000 men and people discover and recover the values of the faith that has marked the end of their civilization and the history of their places. A film festival with a documentary subject is the occasion for utilizing the visual media as an iconographic recall to places and characters that have marked a thousand-year history of faith, as sugge...
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...
Friday, September 7--------FUGITIVE PIECES, the latest film from Toronto-based filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa, had its world premiere last evening at two back-to-back gala screenings as the Opening Night attraction of the Toronto International Film Festival. Clearly a labor of love, the film is based on the award-winning international bestseller by Canadian author Anne Michaels (with the script adapted by Podeswa). The film is one of the high profile films of newly formed Maximum Films, the new dist...
42 films on the selection list for the European Film Awards 2007. In contrast to other years, none of the big film nations have more than three films on the list and with 26 countries represented, this year’s selection vividly illustrates the great diversity in European cinema.As you know, in the 20 countries with the most EFA members, these members have voted one national film directly into the selection list.To complete the list, a Selection Committee consisting of EFA Board members and invi...
Monday, September 3----------European Film Promotion (EFP), the pan-European agency of the continent's film promotion boards, again returns to the Toronto International Film Festival with a program of support for European filmmakers and sales agents. For this year's edition, 39 European films will benefit from the Film Sales Support (FSS) initiative sponsored by EFP. 26 different European sales agents and production companies are receiving support for the promotion of 39 European films in ...
Andrzej Wajda, 81, the dean of Polish filmmakers and generally recognized as one of the all time great film directors -- period -- will open the 32nd Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia on September 17. This long awaited dissertation on the egregious massacre of Polish officers (POW!) in WW II perpetrated by the Russians -- then cynically blamed by them on the Germans-- has been a pet project brewing in the mind of the Polish screen maestro for a number of years. The new Wajda opus will pr...
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...
Monday, August 27----The 32nd edition of the Toronto International Film Festival opens a week from Thursday on September 6th. While totally international in its scope, the Festival is also a prime launching pad for the newest works from the thriving Canadian film industry. One of the most anticipated films from one of the industry's most celebrated filmmakers will receive its World Premiere as a Gala Presentation. FUGITIVE PIECES, produced by Robert Lantos and directed by Jeremy Podeswa (TH...
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...
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