Queer Palm President Julie Gayet   The 2012 Queer Palm Jury was announced this week - which will bestow the LGBT Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm award on the best film with a gender, and LGBT perspective on May 27 in Cannes. The films are selected from the Official selection, Un Certain Regard, Semaine de la Critique, Quinzaine des Réalisateurs and ACID (selection of independents film-makers) -  about 100 films. Last year that prize was given to Oliver Herma...

A review of French films at festivals (selections, awards) and funding support for commercial release in January 2009. Festivals: delegations, selections, and awards (feature films) Unifrance’s 11th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris In keeping with its annual tradition, Unifrance welcomed this year 420 distributors from 45 countries, 34 French sales companies, 140 journalists from 25 countries, and around 100 artists at the Rendez-Vous event held in Paris over four days...

June is Gay Pride Month, and among the many celebrations are film festivals that showcase the new and provocative works of gay and lesbian film talents. Beginning this past weekend, two prominent film festivals dedicated to this niche opened nearly simultaneously in two of the most celebrated gay enclaves in the US: San Francisco, the California home of gay culture and queer politics, and Provincetown, the idyllic seaside resort on the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. With its premieres, filmmake...

Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake" won the coveted "Leone d’Oro" - Golden Lion - at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, presided over by John Boorman, jury president. The awards were announced at the closing ceremony September 11. Imelda Staunton who plays Vera Drake, a midwife in the 1950's prosecuted for "helping young girls and women in trouble" won the Coppa Volpi, best actress award. There is an irony in the award of the Golden Lion to Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake". Tod Solondz "Palindro...