Film Festivals
Director David Dusa’s FLEURS DU MAL (FLOWERS OF EVIL) earned him the coveted title as Calgary International Film Festival’s 2011 Maverick filmmaker. Dusa was one of the eight first-time feature filmmakers competing for the $5,000 cash prize. Beginning with a man in Tunisia burning himself to death in December 2010, and continuing through the Syrian and Lybian revolutions, pro-democracy rebellions erupted across the Middle East in the “Arab Spring.” Dusa’s film is the first to […]
The 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival’s (DTFF) announced today that Luc Besson’s The Lady is the closing night film for the five-day Festival (October 25-29) along with the Contemporary World Cinema programme.
Starring Michelle Yeoh, David Thewlis, William Hope and Sahajak Boonthanakit, The Lady is an epic biopic depicting the real life love story of Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s marriage to writer-academic, Michael Aris, as she fights against governmental oppression to instill democracy into Burma’s political system.{jathumbnail off}
The 14th Arpa International Film Festival wrapped on Saturday with a screening of FIVE MINARETS IN NEW YORK followed by a the awards ceremony. Taking top honors were THREE VEILS, MY UNCLE RAFAEL, THE LAST TIGHTROPE DANCER IN ARMENIA and BOLIS.
The Best Picture honor this year went to Rolla Selbak’s drama, THREE VEILS. BEST DIRECTOR and BEST SCREENPLAY kudos went to director Marc Fusco and writers Scott Yagemann and Vahik Pirhamzei for their comedy MY UNCLE RAFAEL.
Pirhamzei also received the festival’s 2011 Breakthrough Performance Award for his starring role in the film. Arman Yeritsyan and Inna Sahakyan’s THE LAST TIGHTROPE DANCER IN ARMENIA was given the award for Best Documentary with Eric Nazarian’s BOLIS winning BEST SHORT FILM.{jathumbnail off}
The Toronto International Film Festival in a press release expressed its deep concern in response to the recent arrest of six Iranian filmmakers by the Iranian authorities on charges of espionage. The six filmmakers are Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Katayoun Shahabi, Hadi Afarideh, Nasser Saffarian, Shahnama Bazdar and Mohsen Shahrnazdar. The detaineed filmmakers have been accused of collaborating with the BBC network, forbidden in Iran, and of portraying a negative image of the country in their films. […]
The Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) wrapped and announced the audience and other special award-winners of the 2011 festival. 2011 Twin Cities Film Fest Best Feature Award “Like Crazy,” directed by Drake Doremus 2011 Twin Cities Film Fest North Star Award for Excellence Tom Sizemore (For an indelible body of work, including TCFF official selection “White Knight”) 2011 Twin Cities Film Fest Shorts Film Award “14 Minutes,” directed by Elise Plakke 2011 Twin Cities Film […]
The 12th Anniversary Woodstock Film Festival which began Wednesday, Sept. 21st, will close Sunday September 25th, 2011, held its Maverick Awards Ceremony last night at the historic Backstage Studio Productions in Kingston, NY.
A special Tribute to Gary Winick was included in the ceremony, to honor the filmmaker and pioneering producer who passed away in February of this year from brain cancer at the age of 49.{jathumbnail off}
The next presentation of Kevin Smith’s SMoviola will take place during the upcoming New York Film Festival with a celebration of the cult hit THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION featuring the film’s star Peter Weller, John Lithgow and additional guests. The festival also released the lineup of filmmakers set for NYFF’s celebrated HBO Films® Directors Dialogues and the complete lineup of films for the 15th edition of the film festival’s Views From the Avant-Garde series.
Returning to the Film Society after a special screening of VALLEY GIRL during the launch of the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Kevin Smith’s SMoviola will now be a continuing series of appearances by the popular filmmaker and film personality during which he will take a look at a classic, and personally beloved film, with the filmmakers and stars of the film.
Directed by W.D. Richter, THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984) stars Peter Weller as an adventurer/surgeon/rock star who leads a band of men known as the Hong Kong Cavaliers versus nefarious alien invaders from the 8th dimension. Featuring a formidable cast including Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd as well as Russian comic Yakov Smirnoff and musician Billy Vera, the film was a made-to-order cult hit from its debut onward. The film will screen at the Walter Reade Theater on Saturday, October 15 at 7:30PM with Smith leading a discussion about the film with Weller, Lithgow and others following the screening.{jathumbnail off}
The 2011 New York Film Festival announced two short films programs as well as late-breaking updates for the Oliver Stone presentation and the Masterworks screening of BEN HUR.
Due to scheduling conflicts, Oliver Stone’s “Untold History of the United States” will no longer screen at the 2011 New York Film Festival. However, Oliver Stone will still be appearing at NYFF to present a 25th Anniversary screening of SALVADOR, a film that burst onto the American film scene with a force that immediately established Stone as an artist to be reckoned with. {jathumbnail off}
The 49th New York Film Festival will offer an ‘unprecedented’ selection of programs, led by the first-ever premiere screening of a new ending to Joe Berlinger’s and Bruce Sinofsky’s PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY including footage from the events surrounding the recent celebrated release of the West Memphis Three. PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY is an HBO Documentary Films production set to premiere on the network in 2012.
Oliver Stone will offer a special sneak preview of his new documentary project, The Untold History of the United States. Produced as a 10-part miniseries for Showtime (where it will premiere in 2012), NYFF will present this special sneak preview of Untold History’s first three chapters, which focus on the events leading up to America’s entrance into World War II, the war itself, and the unjustly forgotten figure of former U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace.{jathumbnail off}
Alexander Payne’s THE DESCENDANTS will be the Closing Night Gala selection for the 49th New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16). NYFF also released the main slate of 27 feature films as well as a return to the festival stage of audience favorite, On Cinema (previously titled The Cinema Inside Me), featuring an in-depth, illustrated conversation with Alexander Payne.
In his first film since the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, writer-director Alexander Payne once again proves himself a master of the kind of smart, sharp, deeply felt comedy that was once the hallmark of Billy Wilder and Jean Renoir. Based on the bestselling novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, THE DESCENDANTS stars George Clooney as ‘Matt King’, the heir of a prominent Hawaiian land-owning family whose life is turned upside-down when his wife is critically injured in a boating accident. Accustomed to being “the back-up parent,” King suddenly finds himself center stage in the lives of his two young daughters (excellent newcomers Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller), while at the same time being forced to decide the fate of a vast plot of unspoiled land his family has owned since the 1860s. Rooted in Clooney’s beautifully understated performance, Payne’s film is an uncommonly perceptive portrait of marriage, family and community, suffused with humor and tragedy and wrapped in a warm human glow.{jathumbnail off}
Two Galas will join the Opening, Centerpiece and Closing Night Galas for the upcoming 49th New York Film Festival (September 30 – October 16) with David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD set to screen on Wednesday, October 5 and Pedro Almodovar’s THE SKIN I LIVE IN on Wednesday, October 12.
Scheduled at Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday, October 5 will be David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD. Adapted by Christopher Hampton from his play The Talking Cure, the film chronicles the ever-shifting relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). Basking at first in Freud’s approval and encouragement, Jung increasingly questions his theories and methods. At the heart of their dispute is their rival approaches to the beautiful yet deeply unbalanced Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly), who eventually draws each man under her spell. Produced by Jeremy Thomas, the Sony Pictures Classics release also stars Vincent Cassel and Sarah Gordon. The film is set for a November 23 release.{jathumbnail off}
Simon Curtis’ MY WEEK WITH MARILYN will make its World Premiere as the Centerpiece Gala selection, screening at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday, October 9 for the upcoming 49th New York Film Festival (September 30 – October 16).
Based on Colin Clark’s diaries, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, is set in the early summer of 1956, when a 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. It was the film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott).
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