Shanghai, once called the Paris of the East, is rapidly becoming one of the major cultural and financial destinations in the world.  The Shanghai International Film  Festival, sponsored by Jaeger Le Coultre , watch maker extraordinaire,  wrapped its 15th edition Sunday night with a bang and a Closing night ceremony featuring a Broadway like production number. Chinese Superstar Chow Yun Fat received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Martial Arts legend Jackie Chan.   I...

Celebrating their 17th anniversary, the prestigious Time For Peace Film & Music Awards, founded by Marion and Robert Einbeck, will be this year devoted exclusively to music and films from Europe.It is with this in mind that the European cinematographic and musical works were selected based on criteria of high artistic quality but also on those of humanist values, such as tolerance, respect for difference, solidarity, care provided to others, better understanding between peoples, freedom of expre...

Film music city Ghent will present a unique concert in Tallinn on 2 December On 2 December 2010 the Ghent Film Festival will present in cooperation with the city of Ghent, the province of East Flanders, the Flemish Community and Fluxys a concert in Tallinn featuring film music by Gabriel Yared, Shigeru Umebayashi and Arvo Pärt. The concert will take place on the eve of the European Film Awards in the Estonian capital, which is also the European Capital of Culture 2011 and a twin town of Ghent. ...

13TH ARPA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN L.A."AGHET, a German View of a Turkish Genocide"by Alex Deleon, for ARPA is the name of the river that flows through Yerevan, the capital of the free Armenian Republic, which until 1991 was part of the former Soviet Union. Consequently, it is not surprising that an international film festival so-named is primarily (although not entirely) concerned with the presentation of films from Armenia, films dealing with Armenian topics, and/or films made by Armen...

by Marla Lewin Ed Asner was born the same year as the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play, Once In A Lifetime, was written 1929. Ed has been a regular performer for the LA Theatre Works readings of great plays since its inception in 1985. The first live reading of this play back then had guests Steven Spielberg and Barry Diller in the audience. The producer explained that their technique and equipment for that performance had not been as good as they would have liked so they had always wanted...

A “Once In A Lifetime” Backstage interview with Ed Asner of Pixar’s “UP”by Marla LewinEd Asner was born the same year as the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play, Once In A Lifetime, was written 1929. Ed has been a regular performer for the LA Theatre Works readings of great plays since its inception in 1985. The first live reading of this play back then had guests Steven Spielberg and Barry Diller in the audience. The producer explained that their technique and equipment for that perf...

The season has finally kicked off with the arrival of the 62nd annual Festival de Cannes, adding even moreexcitement to the already lively Croisette. As the air is filled with anticipation, fans anxiously crowd around hotels such as Martinez, Majestic, and the Carlton in hopes of catching a glimpse of the stars.Elizabeth Banks, from 2008's hilarious comedy, Role Models, graced the streets of Cannes with her prescence, causing a frenzy of paparazzi and fans.  The famous French actor/composer, C...

Charles Aznavour, the voice talent in the French version of the Pixar feature Up, and the young actress Hafsia Herzi had the honors of calling this 62nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival officially open in the Grand Théâtre Lumière. It was then Edouard Baer who came on stage as Master of Ceremonies for the second year in a row. One by one, the jury members came front and center: Asia Argento, Shu Qi, Sharmila Tagore, Robin Wright Penn, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, James Gray, Hanif Kureishi...

Thursday, June 28------Legendary singer/actress/director Barbra Streisand performed her first-ever concert in France this week — and was rewarded with a medal of the Legion of Honor. Newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy honored the singer in a ceremony in Paris this evening at the Elysee Palace, the first time the new president had bestowed the honor upon anyone since he took over last month from Jacques Chirac. "You are the America that we love," Sarkozy announced at the ...

Marion Cotillard will receive the Hollywood Film Festival's "Hollywood Breakthrough Actress of the Year Award" at the Festival's October 22 awards ceremony.Marion Cotillard's selection was determined due to her distinguished performance in Olivier Dahan's "La Vie en Rose," a biography of the famous French chanteuse Edith Piaf. From the slums of Paris to the limelight of New York, Edith Piaf's life was a battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in poverty, Edith's magical voice and he...

Tuesday, April 10----One of Asia's biggest movIe stars, South Korean screen idol Joong-hoon Park, will attend a mini-retrospective of his career, starting tomorrow evening at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville (that's 30 minutes on Metro North, for Manhattan islanders). A household name in Asia, Park began his career in the 1980s in domestic dramas, but hit it big in comedy and action films as part of the South Korean film renaissance of the past decade. Park will present his n...

40 new films, including 20 features (all premieres) and 20 new shorts, will be shown at the 11th Annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA). Acclaimed Berlin Film Festival opening film, “La Vie En Rose,” writer-director Olivier Dahan’s masterful biopic of Edith Piaf, starring Marion Cotillard and Gérard Depardieu, will open the showcase on Monday, April 16, 2007. Picturehouse will release the film on June 8th in New York and Los Angeles. The U.S. Premiere of “Michou D’Auber”...

THE FIRST ROME FILM FIESTA, OCT. 13 – 21, 2OO6 The whole report day by day from day one. In less than a week, on the fateful FridayThe Thirteenth of the current month (October 13, 2OO6), the First International Film Festival ever held in Rome will open the gates of the Eternal City to a floodtide of media representatives, journalists, film professionals, actors, directors, film fans, and just plain curious stargazers of all stripes and colours. Whether this new festival turns out to be a blas...