IFFS: International Film Festival Summit will run December 2-4, 2007 at the Loews Lake Las Vegas ResortJoe Pantoliano will Present IFFS Excellence Awards presented by BabelgumThe Inaugural IFFS Excellence Awards takes place Monday, Dec. 3rd at Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, and will honor and pay tribute to the dedicated professionals and executives managing film festivals.A total of six Excellence Awards will be presented at this year's IFFS. Don't miss the opportunity to represent and support yo...
Ending what was undoubtedly a highly successful sophomore edition, the Cinema: Rome Filmfest announced its major awards at a gala Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening, in conjunction with a live concert event saluting and playing the music of Italian master composer Ennio Morricone. The Festival delivered on the glamour and the glitz, while also highlighting many worthy films in its various film sections.The Popular Jury of the official Competition Section, made up of 50 members and presided over...
Monday, October 29-------Ending what was undoubtedly a highly successful sophomore edition, the Cinema: Rome Filmfest announced its major awards at a gala Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening, in conjunction with a live concert event saluting and playing the music of Italian master composer Ennio Morricone. The Festival delivered on the glamour and the glitz, while also highlighting many worthy films in its various film sections.The Popular Jury of the official Competition Section, made up of...
Monday, October 29-------Ending what was undoubtedly a highly successful sophomore edition, the Cinema: Rome Filmfest announced its major awards at a gala Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening, in conjunction with a live concert event saluting and playing the music of Italian master composer Ennio Morricone. The Festival delivered on the glamour and the glitz, while also highlighting many worthy films in its various film sections.The Popular Jury of the official Competition Section, made up of...
Monday, October 1----------EASTERN PROMISES, the acclaimed new film from legendary Canadian director David Cronenberg, will open the Times BFI 51st London Film Festival on Wednesday, October 17th. The film, which recently won the Peoples Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, has received some of the strongest reviews of the year when it opened theatrically in North America in the past week. Oscar nominations and end-of-the-year critics prizes should be in the offing for ...
The Middle East International Film Festival – Abu Dhabi (MEIFF) is thrilled to announce their Special Presentations including the Opening Night Film. MEIFF will kick off its impressive first annual event on Sunday, October 14th with Joe Wright’s ATONEMENT starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. Veteran choreographer Otis Sallid will direct the Opening Night and Closing Night Galas’ dance numbers. His Excellency Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei, Director General of Abu Dhabi Authority ...
The Middle East International Film Festival – Abu Dhabi (MEIFF) is thrilled to announce their Special Presentations including the Opening Night Film. MEIFF will kick off its impressive first annual event on Sunday, October 14th with Joe Wright’s ATONEMENT starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. Veteran choreographer Otis Sallid will direct the Opening Night and Closing Night Galas’ dance numbers. His Excellency Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei, Director General of Abu Dhabi Authority for...
Monday, September 17---------The Toronto International Film Festival marathon (365 films in 10 days.....pant, pant) came to a close on Saturday evening with the announcement of the film awards at the historic Fairmont Royal York Hotel. While the Festival is mainly a non-competitive affair, the Canadian entries are up for a number of awards, which only helps to strengthen their international profile. Toronto International Film Festival Award WinnersAWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILMThe award ...
Sunday, September 16----------The Toronto International Film Festival marathon (365 films in 10 days......pant, pant) is over and whichever way the pundits will lean, it is clear that this is an adventurous, rigorous and exciting event for film buffs and film lovers. While the overall analysis was that the sales/acquisition activity was a little underwhelming, the fact is that the story is not completely written on that aspect of the Festival. Perhaps, considering the chances taken by so many of...
Sunday, September 16---------The Toronto International Film Festival marathon came to a close last evening with the announcement of the film awards at the historic Fairmont Royal York Hotel. While the Festival is mainly a non-competitive affair, the Canadian entries are up for a number of awards, which only helps to strengthen their international profile. Toronto International Film Festival Award WinnersAWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILMThe award for Best Canadian Short Film goes to Chris Cho...
As the Toronto International Film Festival enters its final weekend, it has saved some of its choicest Gala Films for last. The Red Carpet arrivals continue tonight and tomorrow evening, with such luminaries as Shirley MacLaine, Max Von Sydow, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer, Brenda Fricker and Sir Richard Attenborough expected the walk the walk. Set against wars both between nations and within hearts, CLOSING THE RING is an intimate epic, the latest work of Oscar-winning director Sir Richar...
Friday, September 14----------As the Toronto International Film Festival enters its final weekend, it has saved some of its choicest Gala Films for last. The Red Carpet arrivals continue tonight and tomorrow evening, with such luminaries as Shirley MacLaine, Max Von Sydow, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer, Brenda Fricker and Sir Richard Attenborough expected the walk the walk. Set against wars both between nations and within hearts, CLOSING THE RING is an intimate epic, the latest work of ...
Thursday, September 13---------As the Toronto International Film Festival moves into its final weekend, more distribution deals were announced. While the film trades have dubbed this session a little underwhelming in terms of acquisitions, expect news to trickle out in the coming weeks. As one film buyer I talked to said: "With the marketplace so difficult for international films and documentaries doing less than last year, it is difficult to fall under the pressure to pick up something a...
Wednesday, September 13---------Mexican hearthrob Gael Garcia Bernal (AMORES PORRES, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES) has made his directorial debut, which is getting it s North American premeire here at the Toronto International Film Festival (after bowing at the Cannes Film Festival). DEFICIT is a low-budget drama that focuses on class differences in Mexico. The story is an adaptation of an episode of "Ruta 32," a series that his production company Canana Films has be...
Tuesday, September 11----------The sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon provided an auspicious landscape for the debut of the new Iraq documentary BODY OF WAR here at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film tells the stirring tale of Tomas Young, a wounded Iraq war veteran who has become a powerfully effective anti-war activist. The film is co-directed by Ellen Spiro (GREETINGS FROM OUT HERE) and former talk show personality Phil Donahue., wi...
America-wide newspaper USA Today has cited the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in a recent expose entitled, “Where in the World are the Hottest Film Fests?” DIFF ranked along with industry giants such as Sundance, the biggest independent festival in North America, and Cannes, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year.The article pointed to the importance of DIFF’s mandate to bring people together in the Middle East to share cultural differences, and complimented its spirit a...
Sunday, September 9---------If one missed them at the Venice Film Festival, the major winners of that Festival on the Lido (announced last evening) are playing here in Toronto. As part of the roundelay that has become the Fall Festival circuit, buyers, programmers and the press can pick up on films they have missed by simply waiting for another turn of the merry-go-round. If not Venice, then Toronto. If not Toronto, then New York. If not New York, then San Sebastian.. So for those who have st...
Sunday, September 9---------If one missed them at the Venice Film Festival, the major winners of that Festival on the Lido (announced last evening) are playing here in Toronto. As part of the roundelay that has become the Fall Festival circuit, buyers, programmers and the press can pick up on films they have missed by simply waiting for another turn of the merry-go-round. If not Venice, then Toronto. If not Toronto, then New York. If not New York, then San Sebastian.. So for those who have st...
Saturday, September 8----------The first two distribution pick ups have been revealed here at the Toronto International Film Festival, as the town has become overrun by film buyers and sellers from all over the globe. IFC Entertainment confirmed a deal for the Icelandic thriller JAR CITY by edgy director Baltasar Kormakur. The graphic film follows an aging police detective as he becomes embroiled in a messy murder and the secrets and lies that go back over three decades. JAR CITY, which has ...
Friday, September 7--------September is a month of decision for the US policy in Iraq. Next week, General Petraeus, the head army honcho supervising the "surge" of additional troops on the ground in Iraq, will make his long awaited report to the US Congress about the state of the War. As has been noted in newspapers and on television programs both in the US and around the world, the patience of the American people is at its breaking point, and politicians from both the opposition and...
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...
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordOpens in Select Theatres September 21Jesse James (BRAD PITT) was one of the country's first bona fide celebrities. There have been countless books written and tales told about America's most famous outlaw--all of them colorful and fascinating, all focused on his larger-than-life public persona and daring exploits, and most of them bearing only incidental reference to the truth. To those he robbed and terrorized, and to the families of tho...
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD by American director Andrew Dominik was announced at a press conference today as the Opening Film of the 2007 Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) presented by American Express. The film will be presented at the American Express Opening Night Gala on the eve of the Festival September 20, 2007. “CIFF will be the second Festival in Canada to see this film after the Toronto International Film Festival,” explained CIFF’s Executiv...
Thursday, September 6-----------The build up is finally over.....the 31st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival officially opens this evening, with the world premiere screening of FUGITIVE PIECES, the latest film from local boy Jeremy Podeswa. Based on the international best-seller by Canadian author Anne Michaels, the film will make its bow at the beautifully restored historic Elgin Theater in downtown Toronto's theater district. Expect the cultural, political and business mukk...
Thursday, September 6--------From a cursory look at the films to be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, which opens this evening, it can seem as if Hollywood is dominating the program schedule. This is far from the truth. The Festival is very international in its scope, with a high percentage of film auteurs and fledgling directors from Europe, Asia and Latin America. It is also a terrific place to check the pulse of the Canadian film scene and discover local talent.One talented ...
