The 55th BFI London Film Festival is delighted to announce the shortlists and juries for the 2011 Festival Awards, supported by MontBlanc, which will take place at LSO St Luke’s on 26 October. At this year’s ceremony, the BFI will bestow its highest honour, the BFI Fellowship, on David Cronenberg and Ralph Fiennes. The original and provocative Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg is internationally renowned for films exploring the darker impulses and inner lives of his characters. His disti...
Suddenly, everything's coming up doc-fests. Munich's has just ended (a well-run event organised in the famous Film Museum and other gemuetlich venues around the Bavarian capital since 1991), Sheffield's has just announced the complete programme for its event which moves dates from autumn to next month, and the now stand-alone Edinburgh International Film Festival, with its new team and slenderer budget, returns to its post-war orgins with a strong focus on the documentary for its 65th...
This is an overview of my 2011 Sundance experience
For Europeans, heading to a remote mining town now ski resort and festival headquarters in Park City, Utah, tucked away in the Wasatch mountains outside of Salt Lake City, it's no simple journey. It entails careful planning several months in advance, serious budgetary calculation to secure a bed in those expensive shared- condos, and blocking extra time to your return schedule as flipping time zones wrecks havoc with your metabolism a...
London based Asif Kapadia is of Indian origin with antecedents in Gujarat State. His debut work, the short film The Sheep Thief was set in his home State. I saw his first feature film, The Warrior which was also set in India, at a special screening held at the British Council in Mumbai. The film starred Irrfan Khan, which sparked this gifted actor’s international career.
Kapadia's new award winning documentary tells the story of Ayrton Senna, who, in the mid-1980s, expl...
While the name Sundance immediately is linked with the American Independent film movement, in the past number of years, international titles have found a home base in the ski resort of Park City. By creating competition sections for both narrative and documentary films from around the world, the Festival has not only expanded its scope but has forged a link between international producers, distributors and financiers across the globe in a real and tangible way. In terms of the marketpl...
Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four Competition Categories, the Festival presents films in six out-of-competition sections to be announced on December 2. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
On Day One, the Festival will forego the convention of one opening ni...
Wednesday, October 31----------The London Film Festival hosted its final Filmmaker Breakfast this morning, giving attending press and distributors a chance to get up close and personal with invited film directors from all over the world. The Breakfast initiative is a welcome one, giving journalists and distribution execs a chance to meet with filmmakers in a normal, non-chaotic zone (as opposed to the Red Carpet or the madly crowded theater lobby). This is an approach that other film festivals s...
The Times BFI 51st London Film Festival’s full programme, announced today by Artistic Director Sandra Hebron, includes 184 features and 133 shorts as well as a host of screen talks, masterclasses and live events. Opening the Festival on Thursday 17 October is the UK premiere of David Cronenberg’s EASTERN PROMISES with Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel, whilst Wes Anderson closes the Festival on November 1 with the UK premiere of THE DARJEELING LIMITED, starring Jason Schwartzma...
Britain’s biggest competitive short film festival, Encounters Short Film Festival (www.encounters-festival.org.uk) returns this Autumn (21-26th November) to Bristol’s Watershed with a new name which reflects the combined talents of Brief Encounters and its sister event, Animated Encounters, who have merged to present another glorious dose of the best of the world’s cinematic shorts.The expanded six-day film fest will present a bonanza slice of brand new international work, and screen over ...
Britain’s biggest competitive short film festival, Encounters Short Film Festival (www.encounters-festival.org.uk) returns this Autumn (21-26th November) to Bristol’s Watershed with a new name which reflects the combined talents of Brief Encounters and its sister event, Animated Encounters, who have merged to present another glorious dose of the best of the world’s cinematic shorts.The expanded six-day film fest will present a bonanza slice of brand new international work, and screen over ...
SUTHERLAND TROPHY SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEDA shortlist of three titles in competition for the British Film Institute (bfi) Sutherland Trophy was announced today (4 November), selected by a jury representing the film and entertainment worlds.The shortlist, chosen from twelve nominated titles, comprises No Rest for the Brave, a dreamlike coming-of-age odyssey from French director Alain Guiraudie; Osama, the first feature from post-Taliban Afghanistan directed by Siddiq Barmak; and Reconstruction, an exp...
