There are so many scams in the world: fake insurance, fake computer virus protection, fake princes from Saudi Arabia who want to send you money, etc. It’s a wonder that any of us can make it through the week without getting jimmied. Well, here is one more for a very specific target audience: filmmakers. That’s right, I’m talking about the film festival scam. Just as technology has allowed more and more people to create movies, short and feature length, technology has also al...

  "PASSIONE" AND "SOUL SURFER" TO OPEN AND CLOSE CINEQUEST FILM FESTIVAL John Turturro, AnnaSophia Robb and Bethany Hamilton To Receive Cinequest Maverick Spirit Awards The Cinequest Film Festival announced today the two features that will bookend the upcoming Festival as the Opening and Closing Night films. John Turturro's acclaimed Italian music documentary Passione will raise the curtain at this year's festival as the official Opening Night Film while Sean ...

            The 20th Anniversary Cinequest Film Festival (CQFF20), Feb. 23 - March 7, 2010, celebrates the vision of Cinequest's founding artists and innovators: Mavericks. In the past year, our country increased its national debt by $1.9 trillion, including $245 billion in bailout funds as part of a greater effort to create change. Conversely, Cinequest, a company that has stayed in the black since inception, spent less than $2 m...

The 18th Cinequest opened Wednesday, February 27, with the world premiere screening of Paul Leuer's Eden Court starring Thomas Lennon (Reno 911), Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Father of the Bride, According to Jim) and Stephnie Weir (MADtv). Eden Court is a dramatic yet humorous story of a washed up baseball star living in a trailer park trying to escape his current life by running off to Australia in pursuit of his "American Dream." It's not a story where one man beats the odds to become...

Sunday, March 11—Cinequest Co-founder Kathleen Powell presented the awards on the closing night of the festival.(Descriptions excerpted from the Cinequest program guide.)Director's AwardsGLOBAL VISION AWARD: to the filmmaker who defies convention and exhibits work of universal vision, making bold use of storytelling to create evocative cinema of the future.FRESH AIR/FRISS LEVEGÕ (Hungary)From its wry opening in a Hungarian Lonely Hearts ballroom dance to its daring ending, Ágnes Kocsis�...

Monday, March 12—The Cinequest Film Festival may not generate buzz about industry distribution deals or celebrity sightings, but a record-breaking 70,102 indie film lovers joined several hundred filmmakers and technology innovators in downtown San Jose for the 12-day salute to all things maverick. Writer-director-cinematographer Stephane Gauger, Executive Producer Timothy Linh Bui (director of GREEN DRAGON, co-producer of THREE SEASONS) and actor Cat Ly (JOURNEY FROM THE FALL) closed the festi...

No one seems better suited to transform Jhumpa Lahiri’s touching prose into film than Mira Nair. Both the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of INTERPRETER OF MALADIES and the director of SALAAM BOMBAY and MONSOON WEDDING know firsthand about the Indian-American immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, and the search for identity that informs their art. Adapted from Lahiri’s eponymous first novel, published in 2003, the deeply felt family drama doesn’t disappoint.The narrative unfolds diffe...

Saturday, March 3---Stewart Copeland makes his entrance with a bang. Whether bounding onto the California Theatre stage before a packed house of 1,100 people or striding into a small room for a press conference, the founder of the newly reunited The Police radiates high energy. He flings his arms in the air, and his voice booms all the way to the last row of the balcony and back. Never has anyone been so enthusiastic about receiving a Cinequest Maverick Spirit Award. Just a 50-year-old suburban ...

Saturday, March 3---Minnie Driver slowly removed her sunglasses at the Cinequest press conference, and quietly said, “I don’t want to force my bloodshot eyes on you.” She had worked until 3:30 a.m. before traveling to San Jose to receive the Maverick Spirit Award at an event scheduled later in the afternoon. “I’m really happy to be here. Exhausted but happy,” stated the London-born actor.When asked if she considered herself a maverick, Driver thoughtfully replied, “I don’t lie i...

Friday, March 2---Christine Vachon can now add “Cinequest Maverick” to honors ranging from the Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Media in 1994, Producer of the Year from the National Board of Review in 2003 and New York MoMA retrospective honoree in 2005. Her films have garnered Independent Spirit Awards and Oscars in numerous categories. Following a rollicking interview with Jens Hussey, Cinequest Director of Public Relations,...

Wednesday, February 28---More than 1,000 festivalgoers joined the Cinequest 17 Revolution on opening night in downtown San Jose, California. The cinematic revolution of discovery and empowerment will not be televised, but you can bet it will be distributed over the Internet. Only connect. When Cinequest Co-founder and Executive Director Halfdan Hussey welcomed the crowd at the meticulously restored California Theatre, a 1927 movie palace, he urged everyone to “open minds and hearts” to the 5...

Globally unique in its concept, the seventeenth edition of the Cinequest Film Festival presents an event that goes beyond the traditional concept of “film festival," providing the world of independent and foreign filmmakers, technology innovators, students and film lovers with a revolution of discovery, empowerment and distribution. Cinequest Film Festival is not only a platform to premiere films and celebrate talent, but Cinequest Distribution is a viable option to reach a worldwide audi...