Film Festivals
The film “Music High” was pulled at the last minute from the Oceanside International Film Festival in San Diego, California, after organizers learned that March Charles Maine, who produced, wrote and directed the film, is a registered sex offender. As reported by NC Times, Maine, a former San Diego police officer, plead guilty in 2007 to a charge of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 years of age in connection with a 1995 incident […]
Film critic Leonard Maltin will serve as President of the Jury for the second annual Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) to be held November 7 – 11, 2012. As President of the Jury at NVFF, Maltin will oversee the Judging process, providing leadership to the other Jurors grouped into three categories: Narrative Features, Narrative Shorts, and Documentary Features and Shorts. Mr. Maltin will participate most closely in the evaluation of films in the Narrative Features Competition. […]
The New York Film Festival will open with the World Premiere of Ang Lee’s Life of Pi on Friday, September 28. “I am both delighted and honored to be back at the New York Film Festival with Life of Pi,” Ang Lee said in a statement today. “I have the deepest respect for Richard Peña and his team and to be selected by them as the Opening Night film for the 50th Anniversary is extremely […]
The Toronto International Film Festival has added 3 Galas and 18 Special Presentations, including 8 World Premieres, to its 2012 slate. The Festival will close with Paul Andrew Williams’ A Song For Marion, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp.
Films added include Spike Lee’s Bad 25 which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Michael Jackson “Bad” album with unseen footage, and Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy starring Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, David Oyelowo and Zac Efron,
The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2012.
The Contemporary World Cinema program at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival will feature the world premieres of films by directors such as Sara Johnsen, Kasia Rosłaniec, Edward Burns, Sion Sono, Robert Connolly, John Akomfrah, Saïd Ould-Khelifa, Annemarie Jacir, Jo Sung-hee and Licinio Azevedo.
The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2012.
Film lineup includes:
The New York International Short Film Festival aka NY Shortsfest held May 29 – 31 in New York City, announced its 2012 winners. And the winners are BEST DRAMA The Man Who Knew How To Fly Director: Robi Michael BEST COMEDY Derek Director: Ricky Gervais BEST ANIMATION A Morning Stroll Director: Grant Orchard BEST OF NEW YORK Harry Grows Up Director: Mark Nickelsburg .
The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF) announced the winners for its annual festival, themed DECOY. The competitive event ran from June 1 through June 10 at indieScreen in Williamsburg and Brooklyn Heights Cinema.
Winners were chosen from 104 film premieres that were selected from over 2,000 submissions coming from 111 countries. This year, BFF featured more than 30 New York City based film directors with over a dozen projects shot in Brooklyn.
Through the resources of industry-related sponsors, the Brooklyn Film Festival awarded the 2012 winners with a total of $57,000 in prizes and film services.
deadCENTER Film Festival announced its 2012 award recipients on Saturday evening, June 9, 2012. The awards ceremony was held immediately before the free, outdoor screening of “Under African Skies”, on the Great Lawn at the Myriad Gardens.
“This year, deadCENTER Film Festival’s submissions were judged by 25 individuals from across the country, ranging from film critics and distributors, to academics and filmmakers,” said Festival Director Kim Haywood. “Our winners truly represent independent film voices from around the world.”
The 2012 winners are as follows:
DARK HORSE, described as the latest “sad comedy” by filmmaker Todd Solondz,has been selected as the Closing Night film of the 2012 Maryland Film Festival scheduled to run May 3-6 in downtown Baltimore. The film, starring Jordan Gelber and co-starring Selma Blair, Justin Bartha, Mia Farrow, and Christopher Walken,will be screened on the evening of Sunday, May 6th in the historic Charles Theater, with Solondz and members of his cast presenting.
Abe (Jordan Gelber), is an overgrown and selfish man-child who, firmly on the far side of 30, still lives at home, working for his father and collecting toys. Deeply lonely yet full of blustery delusions of grandeur, Abe aggressively pursues troubled beauty Miranda (Selma Blair). In a moment of weakness, she goes along with his advances, built around his grandiose vision of a life together in his room full of collectibles. This stroke of good fortune surprises no one more than Abe’s long-suffering parents (a note-perfect pairing of Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken)—until, that is, things begin to unravel. [via MFF]
The Opening Night program, which each year since 2004 the festival has dedicated to a program of short films, will take place the evening of Thursday, May 3rd in the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Brown Center, with each film presented by its director.
Elena directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev took home this year’s Narrative Feature Jury prize, and Big Boys Gone Bananas!* by director Fredrik Gertten was the Documentary Jury Prize winner at the 2012 Sarasota Film Festival. Two special jury prizes were awarded; in the Narrative category Alps directed by Giorgos Lanthimos took home a Special Jury Prize and for documentary Feature Competition special jury prize for Radio Unnameable directed by Paul Lovelace.
Kristina Nikolova’s Bulgarian film FAITH, LOVE & WHISKEY won the narrative category and Bill and Turner Ross’s TCHOUPITOULAS for documentary at the 2012 Dallas International Film Festival.
The Narrative competition jury also gave a Special Mention for Breakout Performance to Michael Rainey Jr. for LUV and a Special Mention for Acting for Kim Kold in TEDDY BEAR.
Benh Zeitlin, director of “the highly imaginative and much acclaimed independent narrative feature” Beasts of the Southern Wild, will be the recipient of the inaugural Graham Leggat Award at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19 – May 3). Zeitlin is a director, animator, composer and a founding member of Court 13. He lives in New Orleans where dogs, cats, ducks, chickens and a 350-pound swine run wild in his home. Director of […]