Rio International Film Festival 2006 will run September 21 - October 5 It is not by chance that the city which has inspired filmmakers across the world hosts the world's fifth largest film festival. Last year, a record 230,000 tickets were sold in the two week period of the festival, and more than 300 filmmakers and industry delegates turned up to celebrate the art and craft of cinema. This year's Rio Int'l Film Festival (Festival do Rio), which kicks off this Thursday, September 21 and continue...
9 European films get Film Sales Support for promotional activities at Brazil’s most important film festival6 European sales agents and production companies are being awarded Film Sales Support (FSS) for the promotion of 9 European films in total at Latin America’s Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (21 September 5 October 2006). Amongst the supported films are Aleksandar Maniæ’s documentary, The Shutka Book of Records (Czech Republic), Nils Tavernier’s Aurore (France), Pedro Co...
Sundance hit “Beyond the Ocean” by Tony Pemberton – named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” – is now available in a new DVD release by Indiedocs.com. It includes a bonus, never-before-seen short film starring Parker Posey.Beyond the Ocean, a new film by Tony Pemberton premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and was a pionneer in VOD distribution on filmfestivals.com online streaming platform, has been released on DVD with never-before-seen bonus short Description of a Stru...
43 European Films get Film Sales Support for promotional activitiesFor the second time, Film Sales Support (FSS), European Film Promotion’s (EFP) support initiative for European sales agents, is assisting with the promotion and marketing of European films at the Toronto International Film Festival (7-16 September 2006). Toronto is the event at which FSS supports the most films. 30 different sales agents and production companies handling 43 feature films, including two documentaries and one ani...
From 6th to 10th September, the “German Sundance“ festival will turn the contemplative city in Northern Germany into a mecca for film enthusiasts.This year´s opening film is “Vineta” by Franziska Stünkel, who gained international reputation with her short films. Her testosterone-laden debut features some of the most prominent German actors and tells the story of an architect coming to the edge of reason while trying to build the perfect city. The International Section shows a series o...
THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP, the latest film from film auteur Michel Gondry, will be the Opening Night Gala of the first Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival. The film, which is slated to open theatrically in late September, will have an avant-premiere at the event on September 17th. Gondry, the writer/director who clicked with international audiences with his cult hit ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, has cooked up another romantic fantasy, this time starring Mexican hearthrob Gael Garc...
Inaugural documentary film festival announces in-competition features, special screenings & shorts 26th – 28th July 2006, Keble College, OxfordA true portrait of the Iraq war as filmed by soldiers on the frontline (THE WAR TAPES); the modern-day life of a former concentration camp and the town in which it stands (KZ); a witty satire on the ludicrous assassination attempts on Castro (638 WAYS TO KILL CASTRO); an insight into the lives and dreams of six Indian call agents (JOHN AND JANE); the re...
Important regional film festivals like Newport, now in its ninth edition, rarely show outstanding new film makers for the first time since those tend to enter first in national or international fests such as Sundance, Tribeca, Telluride the New York Film Festivals, Toronto or the Berlinale. Yet this apparent disadvantage is not troublesome since the audience views many remarkable productions which gained their cache already in national or other regional festivals. Thus the Newport program fea...
The Philadelphia Film Society is proud to announce Sandra Bernhard and Charles Busch as the recipients of the 12th Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival’s Artistic Achievement Award. Bernhard and Busch truly exemplify what it means to be a Renaissance artist, all the while standing proud as openly gay.Actress, musician, author, activist… Bernhard has cemented her reputation as Hollywood’s most versatile artist and has done so while remaining unapologetically forthright wit...
The Tribeca Film Festival has rapidly evolved since its founding in 2002 into the biggest U.S. film festival. In 2006 the Tribeca fest lasted thirteen days and served 465 thousand individuals including 203 thousand who purchased tickets for film screenings and panels. About 4200 productions were submitted coming close to the 4350 entered for the different Berlinale sections (excluding market films). Tribeca has retained its successful eclectic programming approach ranging this year from Holly...
BRITDOC 06 – the UK’s first international feature documentary festival (26th – 28th July) – has announced it will host the first international documentary pitching forum in the UK, giving British filmmakers the opportunity to present their projects directly to the most influential international commissioners and funders in documentary filmmaking. The BRITDOC Pitching Forum presented by More4 will bring together a panel of international commissioning editors and foundation fund holders ...
During the San Francisco International Film Festival, Susan Tavernetti spoke with Alan Berliner about his intriguing new documentary, WIDE AWAKE. The first-person film offers an understanding of insomnia in cinematic terms, inventively tossing and turning through the sleepless nights and bleary days of Berliner’s world while he ruminates on the topic. Nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, the multi-layered work is a delightful collage of interviews, dream interpretation, quirky arcs of ...
During my current experiment of trying to "do" Cannes while not actually being there (in others words, virtually if not physically), it is quite astonishing to me that so little actual coverage is available to the average American consumer. Yes, we did catch a glimpse of Tom Hanks on the red carpet, and read much speculation about the fate of THE DA VINCI CODE, but it seems that anything that is not part of the tyranny of celebrity gossip finds scant space in American newspapers or television s...
The power and impact of British feature documentaries is celebrated at a new festival, BRITDOC 06, an annual showcase and meeting of the best documentary talent from Britain and around the world.BRITDOC 06, in association with Nokia, will be the essential calendar fixture of every key player in British feature-documentary production, bringing the leading international film producers, distributors, and financiers together in the UK for the first time to meet British talent face-to-face.Documentar...
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney joins the director of American Blackout for the closing night of the alive! Deep Focus Film FestivalOrganizers of the second annual alive! Deep Focus Film Festival, Columbus’ own festival of great independent film, are happy to announce that Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney will be a guest at the festival’s closing night screening of American Blackout. She’ll join a previously announced guest, director Ian Inaba, in introducing the film to Columbus audi...
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE NAMES NEW DIRECTOR OF DOCUMENTARY FILM PROGRAMCARA MERTES, HEAD OF PBS SHOWCASE P.O.V., TO OVERSEE INSTITUTE’S DOCUMENTARY FUND AND INITIATIVESSundance Institute announced today the appointment of Cara Mertes as the new Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. Mertes, who is currently the Executive Director of American Documentary, Inc., andExecutive Producer of the PBS documentary showcase P.O.V., has an extensive background in independent non-fiction fi...
Established in 1998, and now in its ninth year, The Newport International Film Festival NIFF has grown into one of America's leading regional film festivals. The Festival, which critics have called a "low key Cannes," has distinguished itself as one where, according to Vanity Fair "art ranks before commerce". Over 10,000 filmmakers, celebrities, journalists, and film enthusiasts of all kinds attend drawn by the less frenzied, less commercial, and more intimate environment that the Newport fe...
The next edition of the Brussels European Film Festival will be held at the prestigious Flagey venue from June 30 till July 8, 2006. In its search for talented new directors, the Film Festival focuses on first and second European movies. Following the footsteps of events such as the festivals of Sundance and Angers, Brussels wants to give these young directors a suitable forum to show their excellent results. Therefore, an official jury composed of great personalities in European cinema, will be...
The next edition of the Brussels European Film Festival will be held at the prestigious Flagey venue from June 30 till July 8, 2006. In its search for talented new directors, the Film Festival focuses on first and second European movies. Following the footsteps of events such as the festivals of Sundance and Angers, Brussels wants to give these young directors a suitable forum to show their excellent results. Therefore, an official jury composed of great personalities in European cinema, will be...
The 8th edition of the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which opens this weekend, is the official kick off of the US gay film festival season, which will see similar events in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Springs and more than 15 other cities in the coming months.But Miami is the first out of the gate…setting the standard with an intoxicating and provocative mix of dramatic features, documentaries and short films that will make the rounds of the gay film festival circuit.The ...
Malibu - The Malibu Film Festival wrapped it’s 7th year here Monday and it seems like after a few false starts this regional festival is finding an identity. Malibu Beach is a community that is known worldwide. The point break at Surfriders is where the sport of surfing gained popularity in the early 60’s and the town is home to countless residents associated with the entertainment and record industry. This years festival featured a potent combination of surf/skate films, music documentaries...
Yesterday, Hot Docs announced its official programming line-up for the 2006 festival, coinciding with the opening of the CBC Newsworld Advance Box Office, where tickets and passes for Hot Docs screenings can be purchased from now until the end of the festival. Hot Docs will screen 99 films from 23 countries between April 28 - May 7, including 18 world premieres, 17 international premieres, 13 North American premieres, 30 Canadian premieres, and seven Toronto premieres. Hot Docs' Canadian Spectru...
The Florida Film Festival, one of the most respected regional festivals in the US, kicks off this evening, bringing more than 141 films over to the next 10 days to its home city of Orlando, Florida. The Festival is headquartered at the Enzian Theater, a not-for-profit arthouse cinema that brings adventurous independent and international programming to Orlando audiences throughout the year.This year, the Festival is presenting 51 feature films (33 narrative films and 18 documentaries) and a stagg...
New Directors/New Films, one of the most anticipated film events on the New York film calendar, opens this week end. The program, jointly presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Department of Film and Media of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), will unspool 25 feature films and 5 shorts from March 22 through April 2, 2006. The program opens with the East Coast Premiere of HALF NELSON, a Sundance sleeper about a committed teacher in New York’s public schools, played by rising star...
Susan Gerhard Will Edit Online Magazine Devoted to Daily Year-Round Coverage of Thriving San Francisco Film and Media Scene San Francisco, CA ‹ Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, and Brian Clark, cofounder and managing member of indieWIRE, the leading online publication dedicated to American and international independent film, announced today that Susan Gerhard has come on board as the editor and bureau chief of SF360.org. The new copublished site, dedicated t...
