The Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Entertainment to entertainment entrepreneur Suzanne de Passe Nov. 1.R&B singer Kenny Lattimore serenaded de Passe from the award stage, singing the hits And I Love Her and Come Down in Time from his new album, Timeless. Fellow entertainment moguls Michael Mauldin, chief executive officer of the Artistic Control Group, president of Mauldin Brand Agency and chairma...

The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to bring remarkable or urgent feature films and feature length creative documentaries by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries closer to fulfillment. The HBF provides grants that often turn out to play a crucial role in enabling these filmmakers to realize their projects. In its Fall 2003 Selection Round, Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam grants a total of Euro 467,000 to twenty-eight non-Western film-maker...

’Once We Were Birds: Romani Cinema’ is one of the thematic sidebars within the festival (alongside ’Homefront USA’ and ’Power : Play’). It will be devoted to films by and about the Roma and thus continues a tradition in the festival of celebrating the voices and the riches of unsung cultures. A large selection of features, shorts and documentaries will include films by Romani directors featuring Romani actors and the majority of them in the Romani language. Very rarely seen clas...

ZATOICHI opening film IFFR 2004Special sidebar ‘Once We Were Birds: Romani Cinema’Isaac Julien (UK) selected as ‘Artist in Focus’The major director, star and entertainer Takeshi Kitano will attend the opening of the 33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam to present his latest feature ZATOICHI. Kitano himself plays the title role as the legendary, blind swordsman with the young star of Japanese cinema Asano Tadanobu as his opponent. “Full of vitality, wit and marvellously choreograp...