THE WORLD IS BIG AND SALVATION LURKS AROUND THE CORNER (Bulgaria) by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor    FORBIDDEN FRUIT, a comedic-drama about two religious girls who flaut their strict Christian fundamentalist community rules forbidding the pleasures of television, music, drinking and dancing, won the Gold Dolphin Award as Best Film at this year’s FESTROIA Official Competition. The Finnish film, written by Aleksei Bardy...

  by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor Each year, FESTROIA shines its spotlight on a different film producing country. This year, it is the turn of the Czech Republic, which has been at the forefront of international filmmaking since its celebrated heyday in the 1960s. One of its best known films of that era, CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS by Jiri Menzel was screened here on Sunday evening, with the 76-year-old director in attendance. A gentle satire on Czech life du...

  MAMMOTH (Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal) by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor The Golden Dolphin Competition at the 25th edition of FESTROIA, the oldest and most prestigious film event in Portugal, is reserved for films from countries whose yearly output does not exceed 30 films. That gives worthy films from somewhat smaller film industries a chance to shine and not be overshadowed by films from larger film-producing countries. Smaller is definitely mor...

Tiburon International Film Festival is pleased to announce the winners of its 8th annual Golden Reel Awards: Best Film: Guard No. 47 [Czech Republic] Best Director: Filip Renč for Guard No. 47 [Czech Republic] Best Actor: Nicke Lignell for Colorado Avenue [Finland] Best Actress: Lucia Siposova for Guard No. 47 [Czech Republic] Best Documentary: Final Image directed by Andres Habegger [Argentina] Best Cinematography: Karel Fairaisl for Guard No. 47 [Czech Republic] Humanitarian Award...