by Alex Farba-Deleon
The dean of Indian film directors, Yash Chopra, passed away on October 21 at the age of eighty.
Yash Chopra was not just another Bollywood director --he was one of the world's top craftsman of the seventh art although he always crafted his films to suit the taste of the Indian audience, which is the main reason he remains practically unknown in the West. In Asia where Bollywood films are far better known than here Chopra was honored ...
by Alex Deleon for <filmfestivals.com>
Bahman Ghobadi
RHINO SEASON is Ghobadi's first film since he fled Iran
The stars of Rhino Season (from left) Behrouz Vossoughi, Monica Bellucci, Bahman Ghobadi, Belcim Bilgin and Arash Labaf
IRANIAN CINEMA BRAIN DRAIN CONTINUES
With Bahman ...
HONOURING JAPAN AT THE 41ST FESTIVAL DU NOUVEAU CINÉMA
Pop trade and culture of the avant-garde.
This year, the Festival du nouveau cinéma is honouring Japan. Operation seduction, post Fukushima and other disasters, far from the media stereotypes of a culture and a country that have always fascinated the West. It is the ideal opportunity for public and journalists alike to reflect on a film industry that is among the most important, dynamic and influential in the worl...
The UPC Audience Award of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012 goes to Philippe Falardeau’s MONSIEUR LAZHAR (Canada, 2011). The award comes with prize money of 10,000 Euro.The Dioraphte Award (also 10,000 Euro) for the highest-scoring film in the audience poll among the seventeen festival films made with support from the Hubert Bals Fund was won by GOODBYE by Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof.IFFR 2012 counted 274,000 visits to films, exhibitions, performances and events. The first...
Oliver Stone has done a fabulous job rearing his son, Princeton graduate, Sean Stone. Sean's wings have been strengthening as he has been working, interning, and meeting world leaders along side of his brilliant filmmaker father, and is demonstrating to the world that he, too, can soar. With a recent journey to Iran, with film as the primary focus, and his first feature film, "Graystone", nearing completion, this 26 year old has seen and done things most of us only read about.Q: SHARON ABELLA:...
For most of the planet, the official end of summer does not come until the autumn equinox on September 21. However, for people in the film industry, the Fall season begins in only a few weeks, with the beginning of the autumn film festival cycle. Kicking off (startingly early this year) in Montreal on August 18 with the Montreal World Film Festival and then dashing across the pond to the Venice Film Festival, which begins on August 28, and then back across to the Toronto Film Festival, ...
The Manhattan Film Festival is proud to announce their 2011 official selections. A total of 132 films were revealed including more than 30 international selections. John Gray's "White Irish Drinkers" was selected to headline opening night festivities. Gray's film made its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the Woodstock Film Festival. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said "The performances are uniformly terrific" and David Friend of Vanity Fair said "Raucous,...
A RANGE OF 128 MOUNTAIN FILMS
This year, the world's oldest mountain film festival features highly anticipated debuts from across Europe and Italy. Werner Herzog is involved in two films, directing "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" and writing "Happy People, a Year in the Taiga". The latter will be competing for the honours with "180° South" by director Chris Mallory and "Alpi" by photographer Armin Linke. The screening of the 128 participan...
With THE SOCIAL NETWORK winning top prize at both last week's Golden Globe Awards and with other critics associations, the inevitability of its winning the Best Picture Oscar seemed more than assured. However, this past weekend's upset win for its closest challenger has now made the Oscar race less certain then it was a few days ago.
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is one of the most reliable guilds when it comes to predicting Oscar success. It is the only one that actually...
Sundance Selects, the theatrical and video-on-demand film label, today announced the second partnership with the not-for-profit Sundance Institute for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival (January 20th - 30th, Park City, UT). As part of the "Direct from the Sundance Film Festival" initiative, five films being screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival will simultaneously be available nationwide, on-demand, through Sundance Selects. The films include four world premieres recently acquired by Sundanc...
I SAW THE DEVIL is the last delivery from cult Korean director, Kim Jee-woon exploring the theme of vengeance; young secret agent goes on a hunt and torture rampage of the killer of his fiancée. I SAW THE DEVIL does not shy away from vicious violence, both displayed by the killer and the agent, with some graphic scenes that resulted in the film being panned by critics in Korean and also banned. Twice. The government being fearful for the mental health of Korean citizens. However, when th...
Never Let Me Go is an Oscar Contender
By Ron Gilbert
The Oscar race for best actress
has begun; Carey Mulligan will be a contender. There are many great elements to
the film but, Carey Mulligan's (Kathy) phenomenal performance is the main focus
of the film), l After seeing her performance in this film you realize that this
actress has “IT” Keira
Knightley (Ruth) is also a big surprise showing me her depth as an actress in this film and also in director Massy Tadjed...
At the time of going to press, a woman in China has sued a cinema and the distributors of the movie ‘Aftershock’ for wasting her time with adverts. According to the Xinhua news agency, Chen Xiaomei claims the Polybona International Cinema and film distributors Huayi Brothers Media Corporation should have told her of the length of the pre-movie commercials. Chen, a lawyer, accused the Xian-based picturehouse and the distributors of violating her freedom of choice and wasting her time. The cla...
Corneau was expected to attend the Toronto Film Festival in September
French film director Alain Corneau has died of cancer aged 67, his agent has said.
The director hit international fame with his 1991 film Tous
les Matins du Monde, starring Gerard Depardieu as a 17th-Century viola
da gamba player.
The movie was awarded seven Cesars - the French equivalent of the Oscars - including best film and best director.
His last film, Love Crime, starring British actress Kris...
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...
SOMEWHERE (Sofia Coppola)
The world premieres are coming strong and fast for the Fall film season as the Venice Film Festival has announced a particularly stellar competition section. For North Americans not making the trip to the Lido, many of these films will receive their North American premieres at the Toronto Film Festival a week later in September (the two festivals actually overlap for a few days on the first weekend of September).
Twenty-two films have been set to ...
It has been a decade and a half since Gen Art, the nationwide networking organization devoted to art, fashion, music and movies, first launched a New York-based film festival to highlight works from emerging American independent artists. But different from other festivals of a similar stripe, the Gen Art concept was quite simple: seven films shown over seven nights with audience members invited to an after-party at a hot club or restaurant each evening. This winning formu...
Film buffs will continue to be spoiled in 2010 as the awards season continues in full swing with the long awaited release of ‘Precious’ at the end of January. Produced by Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey, Precious (Based on the novel 'Push’ by Sapphire) is set in Harlem in 1987 and is the powerful and disturbing story of an obese teenage black girl whose life is a living hell. Pregnant for the second time by her father and bullied and abused both emotionally and physically by her mother, she ...
The 12th annual Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, will take place from Saturday, October 31-Saturday, November 7.
Films to receive special gala screenings will include Jean-Marc Vallée's "The Young Victoria"; Oren Moverman's "The Messenger," with Moverman and stars Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster in attendance; Grant Heslov's "The Men Who Stare at Goats"; Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces"; Lone Sher...
The 12th annual Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, will take place from Saturday, October 31-Saturday, November 7. Films to receive special gala screenings will include Jean-Marc Vallée’s “The Young Victoria”; Oren Moverman’s “The Messenger,” with Moverman and stars Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster in attendance; Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare at Goats”; Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces”; Lone Sherfig’s “An Education”; the ...
The 12th annual Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, will take place from Saturday, October 31-Saturday, November 7.Films to receive special gala screenings will include Jean-Marc Valles The Young Victoria; Oren Movermans The Messenger, with Moverman and stars Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster in attendance; Grant Heslovs The Men Who Stare at Goats; Pedro Almodovars Broken Embraces; Lone Sherfigs An Education; the United States premieres of James Ivorys The City...
The horrors of war and the toll that it takes on both civilians and the soldiers themselves are film topics that, unfortunately, never go out of style. While it can be argued that audiences tend to stay away from such strong fare, a film that brings the audience to the center of the action and that involves it emotionally has a better chance to transcend the grimness of the material and make an impact with what is often a reluctant public.
LEBANON, the new Israeli film by Samuel M...
The New York Film Festival provides extraordinary access to some of world cinema's most interesting film talents via the HBO Films Directors Dialogue Series. Among those who are participating (all of whom have films in the festival proper):
MARCO BELLOCCHIO
With a career that spans the heyday of 60s Italian art cinema (Fists in the Pocket, China is Near) to religion (My Mother’s Smile, NYFF 2002) to political drama (Good Morning, Night, NYFF 2003 and this year’s Vincere), Marco B...
The New York Film Festival provides extraordinary access to some of world cinema's most interesting film talents via the HBO Films Directors Dialogue Series. Among those who are participating (all of whom have films in the festival proper): MARCO BELLOCCHIO With a career that spans the heyday of 60s Italian art cinema (Fists in the Pocket, China is Near) to religion (My Mother’s Smile, NYFF 2002) to political drama (Good Morning, Night, NYFF 2003 and this year’s Vincere), Marco Bellocchio ha...
