Word comes from Europe that the celebrated director Roman Polanski will be returning to Zurich, Switzerland this week to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Zurich Film Festival. This could have been a standard issue awards story except for the fact that Mr. Polanski’s trip to Zurich two years ago to pick up this same honor precipitated a one-year legal battle that led to months of house arrest and his possible extradition to the United States to face a prison term for fl...

Roman Polanski is returning to Zurich (you remember the arrest fiasco at ZFF 2 years ago that made international headlines). He is claiming his award and unveiling a BRAND NEW SURPRISE FILM!  Director Roman Polanski will attend the upcoming 7th Zurich Film Festival to accept the lifetime achievement award that was intended for him two years ago, to honor his outstanding career achievements as a filmmaker. The announcement was made today by Zurich Film Festival Directors Karl Spoerr...

It has been quite a year for director Roman Polanski…..house arrest in Switzerland, Silver Bear at the Berlinale, legal victory and return to his adopted home of Paris, and film adaptation of the international theatre sensation “God Of Carnage”. Now, Polanski caps a year full of ups and downs with a sixtuplet win at the European Film Awards, held this evening in the Nokia Concert Hall in the Estonian capital city of Tallinn. “The Ghost Writer”, Polanski’s adaptation of the Thomas Ha...

A flashy two page center spread in the popular daily tabloid BERLIN KURIER offers a list of "Sixty Facts about the 60th Birthday" of the Berlin Film Festival, which is tantamount to listing sixty good reasons not to miss this one. The spread is adorned with a top to bottom leggy photo of a winsomely smiling Jessica Alba, star of Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me", and smaller shots spaced around the layout of Leonardo Dicaprio, who will be here to promote the new Martin Scorcese thril...

In what has to be one of the most bizarre red carpet scenarios in many a moon, the Berlinale is bracing for the buzz storm surrounding the world premiere of THE GHOST WRITER, the latest film from director Roman Polanski. And while the stars of the film, Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan will officiously walk the red carpet at the Berlinale Palast this evening, the film's celebrated director remains under house arrest in his ski villa in Switzerland. Of course, this is not the first time that a fi...

The eary morning press conference for HOWL was better than the film itself. Both directors Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein were on hand to field probing questions from a sparse but more sophisticated press assemblage than usual.Press screening for Polanski's "The Ghostwriter" starring Ewan McGregot and Pierce Brosnan, was packed to the rafters. The Press convfernce immediately following created a traffic jam at the top of the Hyatt stairs as ga-ga journalist/fans milled around to cop a closeup...

  In what has to be one of the most bizarre red carpet scenarios in many a moon, the Berlinale is bracing for the buzz storm surrounding the world premiere of THE GHOST WRITER, the latest film from director Roman Polanski. And while the stars of the film, Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan will officiously walk the red carpet at the Berlinale Palast this evening, the film's celebrated director remains under house arrest in his ski villa in Switzerland. Of course, this is not t...

The first seven titles for the Competition of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival have been confirmed. The films selected so far are from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, India, Iran, Turkey, the UK and the USA.   This first group of films selected for the Competition is characterized by up-and-coming young directors, stars and masters of filmmaking like Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski.   "The Competition of the 60th anni...