CINEMATEXAS INTERNATION SHORT FILM FESTIVAL CONCLUDES, ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERSCinematexas International Short Film Festival concluded its ninth year of cinematic emersion September 26th. Established by the Aronofsky family, the BARBARA ARONOFSKY LATHAM MEMORIAL AWARD is given each year to an exceptional emerging video artist to further their work, and to support excellence, diversity and vitality in the field of experimental video and electronic visualization art. This year’s winner is filmmak...
The 12th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival presented its Golden Starfish Awards at a ceremony held at Guild Hall on Saturday, October 23, 2004.On hand to present the awards were the Fest’s Executive Director Denise Kasell, Board Chairman Stuart Match Suna, Programmer Rajendra Roy, and Emcee Bob Balaban. Also on hand with welcoming remarks was Evan Shapiro on behalf of presenting sponsor IFC. The Golden Starfish Award for Best Narrative, with a prize of over $180,000 in goods and in-...
THE GAYEST FILM FESTIVAL OF ALL AT THE GAYEST PLACE ON EARTH (September 20, 2004)Pirates of the Caribbean is not the only film to makes its premiere at Disneyland. The resort will become host to the West Coast Premiere of a new Australian film and a new Southern California gay film festival. Presented by Technophiliax and Midway Ford the Pixie Flix Fest will have screenings of their winning films at the Disneyland Hotel on Sunday, October 3rd. Coined "the gayest film festival of all... at the ga...
The first annual Slamdance Teleplay Competition(August 9, 2004) Slamdance announces the arrival of its ORIGINAL TELEPLAY COMPETITION and is now accepting entries. With ten years of history, the Slamdance Film Festival has built a solid reputation as a major source for emerging talent in filmmaking and screenwriting. Lee Daniels, producer of MONTER¹S BALL and the Slamdance Screenplay winner and Sundance hit, THE WOODSMAN, says, ³The best material comes from Slamdance². In theatres now, write...
LALIFF closed its Eighth Edition at the Egyptian Theatre, in the heart of Hollywood. The juries gave their verdicts at a ceremony conducted by LALIFF’s chairman Edward James Olmos and Marlene Dermer, Executive Director. Actress Lupe Ontiveros spoke on behalf of the Feature Film Jury. The award to Best Opera Prima went to Hoy y mañana (Argentina) by Alejandro Chomski, Best Screenplay to India Pravile (Argentina) by Mario Sabato, Best Director to Nancy Savoca for her film Dirt, and the “Ri...
This year's NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL saw the Korean film, PLEASE TEACH ME ENGLISH, win the Audience Award by a landslide.Both screenings of ENGLISH sold out in short order, and a third screening was added for the overflow audiences.ENGLISH is a manic, hyperactive comedy about learning English as a second language in Korea, and it also features an incredibly cute little pig who can count. Korean comedies are that country's secret weapon, and it's great to see them so appreciated by our audien...
Ferenc Toth's Unknown Soldier, Joshua Marston's Maria Full of Grace, and Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation were among the winners Saturday night at the closing of the 10th annual Los Angeles Film Festival. Tarnation was created by director Cauoette on his Macintosh computer i - Movie program for a reported $293.00. Filmmakers Gus Van Sant and John Cameron Mitchell executive produced this charming biography. Tarnation, which centers on the troubled life of the director--who grew up gay with a schizo...
Over 6,000 film fans attended the 35 performances of the sixth Festival of German Cinema in Madrid (8-12 June, 2004). The extensive programme was enthusiastically received by the Spanish audience and press. Compared to last year, the attendances increased by a third.The event was opened by Eric Till's LUTHER in the presence of producer Alexander Thies. LUTHER generated great interest among the audience, press and distributors in Catholic Spain. Rosenstrasse by Margarethe von Trotta won the Audie...
CineVegas Makes Winners on the Las Vegas Strip for MITCHELLVILLE, SOUTH CROSS BRONX and THE TALENT GIVEN US. CineVegas Film Festival 2004 announced the Jury Award, which goes to Andrew Wagner's THE TALENT GIVEN US. Larry Golin's CROSS BRONX was awarded the Audience Award and John Harkrider's MITCHELLVILLE received the jury's Honorable Mention. The CineVegas Film Festival came to a close on Saturday, June 19th, 2004 culminating with tributes and award presentations to Jack Nicholson and Holly...
The closing ceremony of Ecocinema 4 th International Environmental Film Festival took place in the National Theatre in the city of Rhodes , Greece , due to a slightly windy weather that could have made the scheduled event in the Rodon outdoor theatre somewhat uncomfortable. Yet the indoor setting perfectly fitted the theme of the evening since the ceremony began with the screening of documentaries on Rhodes filmed by the Istituto Luce between 1924 and 1941. In fact, the theatre was built at the ...
Controversial Indian Film Wins Best Feature at Commonwealth Film FestivalThe 3rd Commonwealth Film Festival closed last week (Sun 9 May) with the UK Premiere of the star-studded Indian epic, Maqbool, complete with guest appearances from lead actor Irfan Khan and director Vishal Bhardwaj. This sumptuous Indian gangster tale, which relocated Macbeth to the Mumbai underworld, preceded a special presentation of the festival’s Audience Awards for the categories of Best Feature, Best Documentary and...
FRAGILE by Sikander Goldau nominated for Honorary Foreign Film Student OscarAcademy AwardAMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) has selected five films from 39 entries coming from 23 countries. The winner of the Honorary Foreign Film Student Oscar Academy Award automatically qualifies for participation in the OSCAR competition for the best short film. The short fiction film FRAGILE by Sikander Goldau – student at the Academy of Television & Film Munich (HFF/M) - was produced by Sc...
JESTER TILL (TILL EULENSPIEGEL) receives Audience Award for best animation film at the prize-giving ceremony for the 7th International Children's Film Festival SPROCKETS in Toronto. The Audience Award for Best Animation Film was presented at the closing ceremony of SPROCKETS in Famous Players Canada Square to the animated feature JESTER TILL (TILL EULENSPIEGEL) by Eberhard Junkersdorf. The film was produced by Munich Animation Film (in co-production with CP Medien/Ludwigsburg and De Familie Jans...
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival wrapped up its seventh year with record attendance resulting in sixteen sold-out screenings and events. The number of passes issued this year was 1520 compared to last year's 1000. Tickets also exceeded last year's totals. By Saturday evening, 12,495 tickets had been issued; at that point last year the festival had issued 11,670. As of Sunday's Award Barbecue, tickets issued climbed to 13,278 and, with the balance of Sunday's afternoon and evening scree...
The Florida Film Festival, which celebrated its 13th anniversary at a Gala Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening, 13 March, has secured its position as one of the best run and most popular regional festivals in the US. With an eclectic mix of films, devoted audiences and a large turnout of filmmakers, the Festival is giving Sundance a run for its money as a showcase of American Independent Cinema.The Festival, which presented almost 150 films in the film boom town of Orlando, Florida and its envir...
SLAMDANCE EXPANDS SCREENPLAY COMPETITION IN 2004The 9th Annual Slamdance Screenplay Competition has issued its official call for entries. The competition is riding high from the success of past competition winners Nicole Kassell and Stephen Fechter of «The Woodsman» and Joshua Marston of «Maria Full of Grace.» Both screenplays were developed into feature films and competed at Sundance 2004, the latter winning the audience award for best narrative feature film. «Thank God for Slamdance. They...
24th edition of the Oporto International Film Festival Fantasporto hasclosed its doors on Saturday, again with more than 100,000 spectators.SOUTH KOREA, DANEMARK AND SPAIN SHARE THE AWARDS LIST IN FANTASPORTO 2004Spanish cinema with KILLING WORDS and EL OUTRO LADO DE LA CAMA, and SouthKorean cinema with A TALE OF TWO SISTERS and ACACIA are on the path tosuccess in Fantasporto. Also the Danish cinema, a frequent visit at Oporto(which presented and awarded in past editions the first films to co...
Pre-festival Laurels: Two Perspektive Deutsches Kino Films Win Prestigious AwardsJust one day before the beginning of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival, two films from the series Perspektive Deutsches Kino made a big splash in Saarbrücken und Rotterdam: Muxmäuschenstill, actor Marcus Mittermeier’s directing debut, was awarded not only the main award at the “Max Ophüls Prize” film festival for up-and-coming German-language filmmakers in Saarland’s capital last Sunday, but als...
The 7th annual Latino Film Festival took place from November 6-16 at various locations throughout the Bay Area and included a record 68 films from 12 countries. The second night of the Festival, at the historical Castro Theater, Hollywood’s most heralded and influential Latino producer, Moctesuma Esparza, was honored and given the first annual “Mocte de Oro” prize. The “Mocte” will be an annual LFF award to recognize the most important Latino filmmakers contributing to the cinematic...
"Break a Leg" was honored with the Milagro Award at the Santa Fe Film Festival for Best Independent Feature. Break a Leg is directed by Monika Mitchell and is written by Frank and John Cassini.John Cassini plays the lead character and recently won Best Performance at the Marco Island Film Festival, the film also garnered the Audience Award at Cinevegas in June. Break a Leg is a black comedy with an unflinching portrayal of the classic anti-hero who will sink as low as he must to get to the to...
Grand Slam winner Schultze Gets the Blues rides away with Stockholm
Bronze Horse and BEST FIRST FEATURE
The phrase "Independent
Movie" has been abused over the last
five years. "Indies" now have bankable stars, studio
financing and distribution deals. Where's the real
independent projects with no names, low budget and people
working for the love of filmmaking - not the money?
"Bachelorman"
is just such an in...
Marco Island Film FestivalBest Actor this year went to John Cassini for his performance in Break a Leg. Directed by Monika Mitchell and written by Frank and John CassiniBreak a Leg earlier this year won the Audience Award at Cinevegas film festival for Best Feature. Jim Sheridan won Best Director for In America ...
Late Sunday evening, AFI FEST 2003 ended a glorious run of 10 days and 10 nights of the best films in the world, but not before announcing its coveted Audience Awards and unveiling the World Premiere of Patty Jenkins' MONSTER, starring Charlize Theron. In front of a sold-out audience at ArcLight's Cinerama Dome, Nancy Collet, the Director of Programming, announced that Jim Sheridan's IN AMERICA took the Audience Award for Feature Film. The film, which stars Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine, f...
