Cottbus (Germany, Festival of East European Cinema, November 6-11, 2012). Prize: "Kolka Cool" (Kolka Cool) by Juris Poskus (Latvia, 2011), shown in the feature film competition. Motivation: "The FIPRESCI award goes to "Kolka Cool" for its poetic portrait of the ennui of young people in provincial Latvia." Jury: Alison Frank, UK ("The Moving Arts Film Journal"), Tomislav Sakic, Croatia ("Hrvatski Filmski Ljetopis"), Jennifer Borrmann, Germany (&...

The 27th Midnight Sun Film Festival (13.-17.6.2012) will be graced by the presence of two female actors who began their career in the 1950s: Finland's only Hollywood star Taina Elg, and Ingmar Bergman's protégé Harriet Andersson. Of directors, together with their productions, the American cult movie maker Alan Rudoph, Hungarian Béla Tarr, whose quite personal films never fail to cause a stir, two Swedish talents of a younger generation - Ruben Östlund and Axel Petersén - and the Portugues...

Retrospective on Jacques Demy at the 59th San Sebastian Film Festival The season will be presented by hi widow Agnès Varda, Mathieu Demy and Rosalie Varda   The 59th San Sebastián Film Festival will be devoting a comprehensive retrospective to the work of the French filmmaker Jacques Demy (Pontchâteau, 1931- París, 1990), a key figure in French cinema who breathed fresh life into the musical genre. Although initially linked with the young directors who formed part of the nouvelle v...

A couple of years ago, the Vancouver International Film Festival (October 1 – 16, 2009) used to be one of the best film festivals, not just in North America, but in the world. This is a very strong claim and it is not just the usual rhetoric exaggeration of the film critic. But this is no longer the case. It is still a very good film festival, but, alas, it has lost the bold and unconventional flavour that used to make it absolutely exceptional. The reason why the Vancouver International Film ...

The 35th Seattle International Film Festival has concluded with the announcement of juried SIFF 2009 Competition Awards and Golden Space Needle Audience Awards, bringing to a close the largest and most highly attended film festival in the United States. Over the last 25 days, SIFF presented 203 narrative features, 11 archival features, 54 documentary features, and 124 short films from 62 countries, including 31 World Premieres (10 features, 21 shorts), 45 North American Premieres (36 features, 9...

“The Whole World Fits in Lisbon” is the rallying cry of Doclisboa’s sixth annual blitz of international documentaries that rains down on the Portuguese capital October 16-26. Rousing words indeed for Lisbon audiences who, still hungover from Portugal’s Age of Discovery, crave global stories that the inward-looking media tends to eschew.And that’s the big seduction of the country’s sole festival dedicated to nonfiction films. In its short trackrecord, Doclisboa has cultivated a public...

Saturday, September 27-----As newspapers drop local film critics and rely on syndicated national opionionmakers, what is the role of the film critic in today's go-go film culture? Can film critics help a more specialized film find its audience? Is the existence of film critics online and the notion that anyone with a blog receives instant critical entitlement dilute the discerning talents of the critical establishment?   These and other issues will be examined at the first of...

The Toronto International Film Festival came to a close today with the announcements of various awards. Although Toronto does not have an official competition section (positioning itself as a "public festival"), positive critical praise, strong industry reaction and awards from the discerning Toronto public are important components for the life of the films that have risen to the top at this important event. With ceremonies held at the Awards Reception at the Intercontinental Hotel on the waterf...

The Toronto International Film Festival came to a close Saturday with the announcements of various awards. Although Toronto does not have an official competition section (positioning itself as a "public festival"), positive critical praise, strong industry reaction and awards from the discerning Toronto public are important components for the life of the films that have risen to the top at this important event. With ceremonies held at the Awards Reception at the Intercontinental Hotel on the wat...

 Saturday, September 13------The Toronto International Film Festival came to a close today with the announcements of various awards. Although Toronto does not have an official competition section (positioning itself as a "public festival"), positive critical praise, strong industry reaction and awards from the discerning Toronto public are important components for the life of the films that have risen to the top at this important event. With ceremonies held at the Awards Reception at ...

Organizing a major film festival in Vancouver may seem an impossible task. Two of the very best film festivals in North America take place in Toronto and Montreal, and if one thinks of major Canadian film festivals, Vancouver will not be the first one to spring to mind. North American film festivals, however, tend to cater for the most important ethnic minorities present in their location. Vancouver has the great advantage of being home to minorities that happen to come from those countries (Jap...

Tuesday 5 September, from 3.30 to 5.30 p.m.The European Films in the United States conference is scheduled for Tuesday 5 September, in the Conference Room (2nd floor, Palazzo del Casinò), from 3.30 to 5.30 p.m. Chaired by the initiative’s guardian, Peter Cowie, journalists Molly Haskell (New York Observer), Jonathan Rosenbaum (The Chicago Reader), Richard Corliss (Time Magazine), Nick Vivarelli (Variety), having first sketched out a brief history of European films in the United States, will d...

The 25th Annual Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) will open on September 28 with a screening of Pedro Almodóvar’s VOLVER. Festival Director Alan Franey also announced a few of the special events and thematic highlights of this year’s festival, which will take place September 28 to October 13 at ten theatres in the Vancouver area, again centred at the Empire Granville 7 Cinemas.“In our 25th year, rather than reflecting on the past, the VIFF looks to the future with much curiosit...

Once a year hundreds of foreigners from around the world flock to the picturesque city of Jeonju, in Jeollabuk province, where one of Korea’s top festivals is held. Praised for both its audience record and its organization, the 7th Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) is set to take off next week for a 9-day run. Beginning April 27th, over 190 films from 42 countries will be presented to the general public. Both Koreans and expats, seeking a reprieve from the smog and bustle of the capita...

From the 6th until 8th of October 2005, the Cork Film Festival in association with Cork 2005, will host a Short Film Symposium which will bring together short film specialists, curators, programmers, film makers and film critics from all over the world to Cork.The Cork Film Festival has, since its inception, been a champion of the short film. Though a varied festival, with feature and documentary programmes, the short film is at the heart of its work. The festival has long recognized that despit...

From the 6th until 8th of October 2005, the Cork Film Festival in association with Cork 2005, will host a Short Film Symposium which will bring together short film specialists, curators, programmers, film makers and film critics from all over the world to Cork.The Cork Film Festival has, since its inception, been a champion of the short film. Though a varied festival, with feature and documentary programmes, the short film is at the heart of its work. The festival has long recognized that despit...

To mark Cork Film Festival’s 50th Anniversary and to celebrate Cork’s tenure as European Capital of Culture, the festival is hosting a major international Symposium on the Short Film.This prestigious Symposium which will take place in Cork from 6th until 8th October, 2005, will bring together short film specialists, curators, programmers, film makers and film critics from all over the world. Since its inception in 1956, the Cork Film Festival has championed the short film and has an internat...

33rd International Film Festival RotterdamWednesday, January 21 - Sunday, February 1, 2004During the IFFR 2004 Awards Ceremony on Friday, January 30, 2004 in Concert and Congress Centre 'de Doelen' in Rotterdam, the winning films of the 33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam were announced. The three VPRO Tiger Awards were granted to BU JIAN (THE MISSING) by Lee Kang-sheng from Taiwan, UNTERWEGS (EN ROUTE) by Jan Krüger from Germany and the Hubert Bals Fund supported LJETO U ZLATNOJ DOLNINI...