by Marla Lewinphoto by Ed KriegerTree is a metaphor for the roots, branches, and leaves of a family. It seems both solid and enduring. TREE by Julie Hebert depicts three generations, divided by race, culture, time, and location. Leo Price (Chuma Gault) is a divorced chef who is caring for an aging mother with dementia (Sloan Robinson) with the help of his college-age daughter, J.J. (Tessa Thompson). They connect when Didi Marcantel (Jacqueline Wright) a southern white woman barges into h...
As of January 1, 2010, The Filmmuseum, Holland Film, the Netherlands Institute for Film Education, and the Filmbank will pool their resources and form a new organization. The merger of these associate institutes will result in an umbrella body for Dutch film culture, known for now as the Netherlands Film Sector Institute.
The establishment of the Netherlands Film Sector Institute is the result of Education, Culture, and Sport Minister Ronald Plasterk's insistence that the secto...
The 2009 American Film Market today announced its schedule of seminars and conferences to be held between Nov. 4 and 11. Celebrating its 30th year, the AFM will showcase panels on film financing opportunities, local and international distribution trends, marketing strategies and digital technologies. The sessions will include film executives, producers, writers, directors, distributors, financiers and attorneys.
This year’s seminars and conferences will include the annual “AFM Finance Co...
The 2009 American Film Market today announced its schedule of seminars and conferences to be held between Nov. 4 and 11. Celebrating its 30th year, the AFM will showcase panels on film financing opportunities, local and international distribution trends, marketing strategies and digital technologies. The sessions will include film executives, producers, writers, directors, distributors, financiers and attorneys. This year’s seminars and conferences will include the annual “AFM Finance Confer...
The 30th American Film Market (AFM) Nov. 4-11 will screen 445 motion pictures in 27 languages, including 73 world premieres and 311 market premieres, to 8,000-plus film buyers and industry professionals from more than 70 countries. Jonathan Wolf, AFM Managing Director and Executive Vice President of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, made the announcement today.Films making their world and/or market premieres include Get Low, starring Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall (K5 Inte...
Technicolor Asia, one of Asia's leading post production facilities, recently added staff to its sales and marketing department in Bangkok. Gary Fong joins Technicolor as director of sales and marketing. Gary speaks English, Japanese and several dialects of Chinese and is ideally positioned to lead the sales and marketing team within the Asia Pacific region to ensure the highest standards of sales, marketing and customer services practices. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics & Sys...
The People's Choice Awards (PCA) and American Film Market (AFM) have teamed to create an unprecedented Favorite Film Pitch contest. The competition will provide industry professionals attending the AFM, Nov. 4-11, with the opportunity to get their pitches in front of producers, distributors and, in a unique twist, the voting public, PCA President Fred Nelson and AFM Managing Director Jonathan Wolf announced today.
"This is a great opportunity for fans to get a behind-the-scenes...
The People’s Choice Awards (PCA) and American Film Market (AFM) have teamed to create an unprecedented Favorite Film Pitch contest. The competition will provide industry professionals attending the AFM, Nov. 4-11, with the opportunity to get their pitches in front of producers, distributors and, in a unique twist, the voting public, PCA President Fred Nelson and AFM Managing Director Jonathan Wolf announced today.“This is a great opportunity for fans to get a behind-the-scenes look into the ...
Liz Rosenthal, founder and managing director of London-based Power to the Pixel, will deliver the Variety Cinema Militans Lecture 2009, in which she will articulate her views on ‘the position and viability of cinema in the present age’. The event will be held on Saturday September 26 at 18.00 hrs. in Ottone, Utrecht. The Variety Cinema Militans Lecture is held annually as part of the Holland Film Meeting, the international section of the Netherlands Film Festival.The theme of the Variety Cin...
Follow the Money
In the wake of the worldwide financial crisis, a particularly fascinating group of films has emerged that might help explain the mess we're in. In the Vancouver International Film Festival's Follow the Money series, various sectors of the economy (and aspects of human nature) are examined in illuminating, scarifying and perversely entertaining detail.
It's worth remembering that last year's VIFF took place in the midst of the very worst stret...
XXIV. Black International Cinema Berlin
Germany & USA 2009
May 7-10
Rathaus Schöneberg (city hall)
John-F.-Kennedy-Platz
10825 Berlin-Schöneberg
"A COMPLEXION CHANGE – International & Intercultural Diplomacy"
A tribute to:
Chancellor Willy Brandt
"The future will not be mastered by those who dwell on the past."
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Sponsorship Association „Friends of the German-Russian Film Academy“ constitutedIn the run-up of an official German-Russian Cinema Agreement, on Wednesday (July 29th, 2009) night the sponsorship association “Friends of the German-Russian Film Academy” was founded in Berlin. Peter Dinges, head of board of the Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) called this funding a historical act, underlining that the long preparations for German-Russian cinema relations had finally resulted in concrete activit...
Lloyd Kaufman, Chairman of the Board of Directors, announced today that the Independent Film & Television Alliance’s (IFTA) Board of Directors has renewed the contracts of President-CEO Jean Prewitt and Executive VP-American Film Market (AFM) Managing Director Jonathan Wolf through 2012. Ms. Prewitt has headed the global trade organization since 2000. Under her leadership, IFTA has emerged as a strong public advocate for the worldwide independent film and television industry. Mr. Wolf was appo...
The FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of Eastern European Cinema will increase the prize money. This is to be announced by Festival Director Roland Rust on the occasion of the reception at the befriended 44th International Film Festival in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary. The "DIALOG Prize for Intercultural Communication", endowed by the German Foreign Office, will come with an amount of 3,000 euros in the future. Through new prize sponsors, the "Prize for Best Debut Film" cou...
The FilmFestival Cottbus – Festival of Eastern European Cinema will increase the prize money. This is to be announced by Festival Director Roland Rust on the occasion of the reception at the befriended 44th International Film Festival in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary. The “DIALOG Prize for Intercultural Communication”, endowed by the German Foreign Office, will come with an amount of 3,000 euros in the future. Through new prize sponsors, the “Prize for Best Debut Film” could also be r...
The latest film by Felix van Groeningen, The Misfortunates, opens the 36th edition of the Ghent Film Festival on 6 October. A première of the film will be shown simultaneously in four of the cinemas in the Kinepolis complex and in the Vooruit arts centre. The Misfortunates (De helaasheid der dingen), named after the book by Dimitri Verhulst, is about 13-year-old Gunther Strobbe who lives with his father and his three uncles in his grandmother’s home in a totally slovenly place in Reetveerdege...
Telluride Film Festival (September 4-7, 2009), presented by National Film Preserve LTD., is proud to announce its 2009 Guest Director, Alexander Payne. The acclaimed American film director and screenwriter has been invited by Telluride Film Festival’s co-directors, Tom Luddy, Julie Huntsinger and Gary Meyer, to enhance the already prestigious program and select a series of films to show at the 36th Telluride Film Festival.Each year the Festival’s directors select one of the world’s great f...
Aspen Film announced today that film festival professional Michael DeVous Jr. has been named Communications Manager. Mr. DeVous will be responsible for Aspen Film's external communications, including proactively managing Aspen Film's brand and all marketing and public relations initiatives.
"We have a diverse slate of festivals and film series throughout the year, along with the desire to deepen our reach an...
Aspen Film announced today that film festival professional Michael DeVous Jr. has been named Communications Manager. Mr. DeVous will be responsible for Aspen Film's external communications, including proactively managing Aspen Film's brand and all marketing and public relations initiatives. "We have a diverse slate of festivals and film series throughout the year, along with the desire to deepen our reach and scope in the Roaring Fork Valley. We are pleased to welcome a seasoned professional w...
Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) Managing Director Ginnie Atkinson and Artistic Director Hannah McGill, today announced some of the expected guests at this year’s Festival as well as the film line-up for the Festival’s free outdoor screenings, FILM FESTIVAL UNDER THE STARS, in association with Homecoming Scotland.Returning to Scotland in 2009 are expected guests including: Alan Cumming, Alfonso Cuarón, Andrea Arnold, Anthony Dod Mantle, Bill Forsyth, Brenda Blethyn, Darren Arono...
Éva Vezér takes over Presidency - Claudia Landsberger stays on as Vice-President
The members of European Film Promotion (EFP) today elected a new Board of Directors, including President and Vice-President at its General Assembly meeting at the Cannes International Film Festival. After 12 years, Claudia Landsberger, Managing Director of Holland Film, hands over the Presidency to Éva Vezér, General Manager at Magyar Filmunió, Hungary, and will stay on a...
At the Opening Night party for Independent Film Festival Boston 2008, I asked Managing Director Brian Tamm about the festival’s selection process and whether they keep any themes in mind when filling out the schedule. His response was: “We just try to select the best films we can. You guys [the press] tell us what the themes are.”
Well, let’s see what they came up with.
With the Opening Night thriller’s frostbitten Siberian north (Transsiberian) and the Closing Nig...
Ten years ago saw European Film Promotion (EFP) bring ambitious up-and-coming producers together for the first time from various European countries for the PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE programme in Cannes. The goal was to support them in their networking on a European level and attract the attention of the international film industry and press. The programme, which is funded by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the EFP member organisations and sponsors, has since been established as a label an...
The Workshop of Workshops
Developing unique programs to set your festival apart and educate the filmmaker can be a key component to any festival. What can and should you do to properly enhance the filmmaker experience? Hear from established fests how year after year they continue to create an exceptional filmmaker experience.
Moderator: Phyllis Mollet, Consultant, International Film Industry
Ginnie Atkinson, Managing Director, Edinburgh Int'l Film Festival
Presentation at...
Final conclusion of the two day event at the luxurious but loud Saint James & Albany Hotel in Paris
Program of the afternoon sessions:
The Workshop of Workshops
Developing unique programs to set your festival apart and educate the filmmaker can be a key component to any festival. What can and should you do to properly enhance the filmmaker experience? Hear from established fests how year after year they continue to create an exceptional filmmaker experience.
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