The star-studded international competition judgment panel under the baton of celebrated Greco-French director Constantine Costa-Gavras was reduced to a Sextet when Danish ace director, Susan Bier, and top drawer French actress, Sandrine Bonnaire, both announced their enforced withdrawal from jury duty due to inescapable commitments elsewhere. In Bier's case it was a sudden need to visit the location of the next movie she's shooting, while Bonnaire submitted her regrets due to "personal fami...

AN SEBASTIAN POST-MORTEM SPLIT TOP PRIZE QUESTIONED AND LACK OF STARS LAMENTEDIn my last report I got so carried away by the phenomenom of Bahman Ghobadi's second straight Golden Concha Best-Film prize, that I failed to mention that the award was an "ex-aequo" or shared award. I did, however, note that it might come in for some discussion in the post-festival press -- which, in fact, it did ---Bigtime!The top prize was shared with Mr. Ghobadi by Martial Fougeron of France for "Mon fils à moi" (...

Actress Jacqueline Bisset and French director Luc Besson called in their regrets, cancelling their expected visit to Karlovy Vary, but the celebrity slack has been taken up by the arrival of somewhat less shining lights of interest, and the party scene surges on unabated. The latest arrival was rapidly rising British actress Saffron Burrows, here to present her new film "Gangster No. 1" which, she says, is perhaps too violent for her own taste. I‘m worried about the audience watching it today,...