Michael Kutza, Founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival, Mimi Plauché, Head of Programming, and Associate Programmers Joel Hoglund and Penny Bartlett proudly announce the winners of the 46th Chicago International Film Festival competitions. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named after the mythological God of Discovery.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival announced on Friday that Chair Iain Smith has made the decision to leave the board of the festival.
The 4th Annual GSIFF International Film Festival drew to a close yesterday after eleven days of screenings and events in the Tribeca area in New York. Film competition and screenplay contest winners were announced at the awards brunch for filmmakers, industry and press.
The 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival concluded its 16-day run with the closing gala screening the French film THE ILLUSIONIST (L’illusioniste), directed by Sylvain Chomet. The winners of two juried awards and five audience awards were announced prior to the screening; two other juried awards were announced previously.
Korean films – Yoon Sung-hyun’s “Boys into the Night” and Park Jung-bum’s “The Journals of Musan” won the New Currents competition at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival.
The Syracuse International Film Festival is the latest victim to the recession. CNYcentral is reporting that the film festival will lose all its county funding next year, which amounts to $20,000. The executive director of the Syracuse Film Office, Dennis Brogan, says the Onondaga County Budget is cutting culture. He hopes lawmakers will see the big picture. “When you cut the arts you are going to dramatically affect economic development. Our whole armory square is based on the arts,” he said.
Over 40 films from 25 countries will be playing during the Petaluma International Film Festival, October 22-24 inTiburon, California. Petaluma plays a role in two local films, “Out of Annapolis” and “Sunset.” In “Out of Annapolis,” the stories of eleven gay and lesbian alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy express the difficulties and joys of coming out and being out in the naval service. In the short film, “Sunset,” the regularity of life for a twine-braiding machine owner is thrown awry when the machine mysteriously begins to move – right out the door and down the street – causing unexpected adventures.
Thirty-one documentary, animated, children’s and feature films from 15 countries and areas have been nominated for Asia-Pacific’s highest accolade in film with Best Feature nominees from Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China.
The American Museum of Natural History will be hosting its 34th Annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival from November 11–14 in New York City. The Festival will screen an outstanding selection of titles culled from more than 1,000 submissions.
The 8th Morelia International Film Festival will be held from Oct. 16 to 24, 2010, and as in past years, will focus on its sections in competition: Mexican Short Film, Mexican Documentary, Michoacán Section and Mexican Feature Film. This year there will be 46 shorts, 20 documentaries, 13 Michoacán works and 7 features by directors from different states in Mexico: Michoacán, Nuevo León, Jalisco, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Yucatán, Baja California and Mexico City. Since 2008, the winner of the fiction and animated shorts will be considered for an Oscar nomination.
The San Francisco Film Society presents the fifth annual San Francisco International Animation Festival (SFIAF), a four-day celebration of the Bay Area’s preeminence as a hub for one of the most creative forms in cinema, November 11 – 14 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. This year’s International Animation Festival ranges from FX-based features to family-friendly cartoons and includes Hayao Miyazaki protégé Sunao Katabuchi’s Mai Mai Miracle, the Decemberists-inspired Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, six wildly diverse shorts programs and a live animation and musical performance by artist duo Semiconductor.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 83rd Academy Awards® has been narrowed to eight films, of which three to five will earn Oscar® nominations.