The expanded second edition of Marketing to Moviegoers peels away the tinsel to explain the complex selling of Hollywood movies in domestic marketing blitzes spending up to $50 million per film, Super Bowl movie commercials, Oscar awards campaigns courting industry insiders, film festival marketing, seven types of consumer research that major studios conduct, the blurred line between free publicity and paid ads on the Internet, tie-in promotions with Madison Avenue and product merchandising.“T...
The 24th edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF)presents its film line-up for 2009, featuring over 200 films including 21 World Premieres, 29 U.S. Premieres and a rich selection of films representing 41 countries. The Festival takes place over 11 days beginning Thursday, January 22, through Sunday, February 1, 2009.“For the past 24 years the film festival’s goal has been to bring the best of world cinema to light in Santa Barbara,” commented SBIFF Director, Roger D...
Saturday, June 21------As SILVERDOCS enters its final weekend, one is both encouraged and discouraged by the assessments of many professionals who have appeared on panels as part of the parallel International Documentary Conference.While the sheer number of films here (over 120 screened, over 1500 submitted)) is evidence of a spike in documentary production around the world, the performance of recent films at the box office has made for quite a sober event here. "We are experiencing th...
Making Trouble, the acclaimed documentary about legendary funny Jewish women that has received standing ovations and rave reviews across the country, is coming to the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival on Tuesday, May 13th at 7:30pm. Joan Rivers will be honored with the Marlene Adler Marks MorningStar Award before the screening of film."A standing ovation for performers who have earned one," says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Making Trouble profiles six Jewish women who struggled and sacrifice...
The Northwest Film Center and the Institute for Judaic Studies present the 16th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival. The selection of films express specific Jewish experiences, resonate beyond their cultural inspiration and speak to ideas, experiences and issues that confront our common humanity. APRIL 3 THUR 7 PMFUGITIVE PIECESCANADA 2007DIRECTOR: JEREMY PODESWA Based on the international best-seller by Anne Michaels, FUGITIVE PIECES is a poetic and emotionally charged film about love, loss a...
The 23rd installment of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) presents its film line-up for 2008, featuring 215 films including 20 World Premieres, 22 U.S. Premieres and a rich selection of films representing 49 countries. The Festival takes place over 11 days beginning Thursday, January 24, through Sunday, February 3.“The Festival has continuously grown in stature,” commented SBIFF Director Roger Durling, “and this year’s film slate certainly reflects that. We’re ver...
As Jordan Peimer said in his introduction to the Tribute to Catherine Deneuve on Saturday evening, it's hard to think of anyone who epitomizes beauty and elegance more. Peimer, the Director of Cultural Programming for the Skirball Cultural Center, started off the night of clips from Deneuve's career and remembrances from the great French actress herself. A spectacular montage of Deneuve's over 100 films set up moderator and Los Angeles Times film critic Ken Turan's job of guiding the audience t...
The 11th Annual Hollywood Film Festival's "Hollywood Awards(r)" ceremony, honoring independent filmmakers and established Hollywood professionals, was held last night before a standing-room-only audience of over 1,200 Hollywood Film Festival(r) attendees at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.The festival, presented by STARZ, announced this year's winner of the "Hollywood Movie of the Year Award" -- Zach Snyder's "300" -- which was chosen by the public voting online at the Yahoo! Movies we...
Away From Her, one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, comes to the 8th Annual Ojai Film Festival (Oct. 4 - 7) on Saturday October 6th, 12:30 p.m. at the Ojai Playhouse. Featuring outstanding performances from Academy Award® winner Julie Christie (Darling), Gordon Pinsent (The Good Shepherd) and Academy Award® winner Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck), the film tells the poignant story of a long-married couple who are faced with the reality of one’s fading memory due to the debilit...
Film Independent announced the full program line-up for the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival (Thursday, June 21 – Sunday, July 1), including the Opening Night and Closing Night films.As previously announced, Academy Award®-winning actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood will receive this year’s Spirit of Independence Award on Thursday, June 28 at a special event sponsored by Target. Tony Bennett, who is the focus of a new documentary for which Clint Eastwood serves as executive producer, will pre...
Wednesday, February 7----With the ballots for the Academy Awards in the mail, speculation is growing about what has become an impossible to predict Best Picture race. While BABEL was considered the frontrunner, especially following its Golden Globe win last month, there is now industry speculation that BABEL and Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED may split the "serious film" vote. So, what exactly does that mean?
Well, one scenario points to an upset win by the indie smash LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (...
Tuesday, February 6----With the ballots for the Academy Awards in the mail, speculation is growing about what has become an impossible to predict Best Picture race. While BABEL was considered the frontrunner, especially following its Golden Globe win last month, there is now industry speculation that BABEL and Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED may split the "serious film" vote. So, what exactly does that mean? Well, one scenario points to an upset win by the indie smash LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (that'...
Debuting its slate of local and international films, and welcoming filmmakers and stars to town, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival opened over the weekend to enthusiastic audiences.
Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, and director George Hickenlooper were lauded by a packed house at the Arlington Theatre on Thursday as “Factory Girl,” a film about 1960s “It Girl” Edie Sedgwick, who was born and tragically died in Santa Barbara. Also in attendance were Edie’s brother Jonathan Sedgwi...
The creative minds behind some of this year’s best big-budget and independent films will share their experiences and anecdotes with audiences during the panel series at the 22nd Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Creative challenges and successes will be unearthed during several panels over the two weekends of the SBIFF.The series kicks off at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 29, with “Directors on Directing,” which takes place on Saturday, January 27 at 11:00 a.m. Moderate...
During my current experiment of trying to "do" Cannes while not actually being there (in others words, virtually if not physically), it is quite astonishing to me that so little actual coverage is available to the average American consumer. Yes, we did catch a glimpse of Tom Hanks on the red carpet, and read much speculation about the fate of THE DA VINCI CODE, but it seems that anything that is not part of the tyranny of celebrity gossip finds scant space in American newspapers or television s...
The 17th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival came to a successful close on Sunday, January 15, 2006. The Festival, which ran from January 5-16, 2006, screened 232 films from 71 countries, including 84 premieres and 49 of the 54 foreign entries for this year’s Academy Awards. Palm Springs’ increasingly popular Festival continues to expand its diverse programming of quality independent and foreign films, setting the stage for this year’s film festival circuit.“We were overwhe...
14TH PORTLAND JEWISH FILM FESTIVALSAT JAN 14 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUMSUN JAN 15 4 PM GUILD THEATRELIVE AND BECOMEFRANCE/ISRAEL 2005DIRECTOR: RADU MILHAILEANUWinner of (cheering) Audience Awards at the Berlin and Vancouver International Film Festival, LIVE AND BECOME is an epic, emotional story of one boy's chance survival amidst the Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s. A mother conspires to place her nine-year-old, non-Jewish son with a group of Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) bound for Israel as par...
The 31st Annual Seattle International Film FestivalThe 31st Annual Seattle International Film Festival announces award winners and concludes its 25-day run on Sunday June 12 with the North American premiere of award winning director Gus Van Sant’s film Last Days. Van Sant will be in attendance for the screening, which will be followed by the Closing Night Gala. SIFF 2005 was a great year and brought many eminent Seattleites together—from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Eddie Vedder of Pearl Ja...
HALLE BERRY, SAMUEL L. JACKSON Serve as Co-Chairs for 2004 IFP/LA Film Festival, Neil Young is Artist In ResidenceHalle Berry and Samuel L. Jackson are serveing as Honorary Co-Chairs for the 2004 Los Angeles Film Festival. Also, musician and filmmaker Neil Young is assisting as Artist in Residence for this year’s festival.“Both Halle Berry and Samuel L. Jackson have been able to use their stature in the industry to support independent film, the Spirit Awards, and now the Los Angeles Film Fe...
Hollywood Film Festival & Film Threat celebrate Genre Cinema In HollywoodThe Hollywood Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Festival(TM)The Hollywood Film Festival will mark its triumphant return on October 12, 2004, to the state-of-art Arclight Theatres in Hollywood for an eight annual, weeklong series of screenings, seminars, competitions, awards, and other unique festivities.The HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL announces its alliance with FILM THREAT and Chris Gore, as well as this year's special focus on celeb...
LA Film Festival Blooms with Fox Searchlights GARDEN STATE as Opening Night FilmThe 10th annual Los Angeles Film Festival opens on June 17th through June 26th with the Sundance favorite GARDEN STATE Premier Sponsors In Style and Target Stores will sponsor the Opening Night Gala and Closing Night Gala, to the appreciative filmgoers.Dawn Hudson Executive Director has been fortunate to have Rachel Rosen and the staff working around the clock to assemble the 10th Years outstanding program. The numb...
