Film Festivals

Le Havre and Being Elmo are Centerpiece films of the 5th San Joaquin International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_2090" align="alignnone"]Le Havre[/caption]

The 5th San Joaquin International Film Festival (SJIFF) announced that its Centerpiece films will be the Valley premiere of “Le Havre” (Finland’s official entry for the 2012 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) by Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki and “Being Elmo – A Puppeteer’s Journey” by American documentary filmmaker Constance Marks.

The films selected for the Centerpiece program are cinematic stories that capture the essence of humanity, power of expression and universality of cinema arts.

“Le Havre ” will screen Saturday, January 14th, 2012 at 7:00pm at the Stockton Empire Theatre (1825 Pacific Avenue).

“Being Elmo – A Puppeteer’s Journey” will screen Sunday, January 15th at 3:00pm at the Janet Leigh Theatre on the campus of University of the Pacific (3601 Pacific Avenue).

LE HAVRE

“A stylized and sentimental fairy tale about the way the world might be… Aki Kaurismäki has become a major inheritor of the comic-humanist tradition of Charlie Chaplin, Jean Renoir and Jacques Tati.” –A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Four stars! There is nothing cynical or cheap about it, it tells a good story with clear eyes and a level gaze, and it just plain makes you feel good.” –Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

Synopsis from Janus Films : “In this warmhearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name, fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-spoken bohemian who works as a shoeshiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering support of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Marcel Carné, Le Havre is a charming, deadpan delight..” (93 minutes; in French with English subtitles; produced in Finland, France and Germany in 2011)

“Le Havre” held its World Premiere in Competition for the Palm d’Or at the prestigious Festival de Cannes in May 2011, where it won the FIPRESCI International Federation of Film Critics Award. After Cannes, it was selected for many of the world’s leading international film festivals, including Toronto, Busan, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary, Stockholm, Sarajevo, Rio de Janeiro, Taipei, Torino, Melbourne, Haifa, Haugesund Norwegian, New York, Telluride and Hamptons. In Munich, it was honored with the Arri-Zeiss-Award. In Locarno, it screened to 8,000 spectators at the open-air Piazza Grande. In Chicago, it won the top prize, the Gold Hugo. “Le Havre” is currently nominated for four 2011 European Film Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenwriter.

Director Aki Kaurismäki was born in Orimattila, Finland. His early work was featured in the Festival’s 1988 Spotlight programme. His feature films include Crime and Punishment (83), Calamari Union (85), Shadows in Paradise (86), Hamlet Goes Business (87), Ariel (88), Leningrad Cowboys Go America (89), The Match Factory Girl (90), I Hired a Contract Killer (90), La Vie de Bohème (92), Total Balalaika Show (94), Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana (94), Drifting Clouds (96), Juha (99), The Man Without a Past (02), Lights in the Dusk (06) and Le Havre (11).” –Toronto International Film Festival

BEING ELMO – A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY

[caption id="attachment_2231" align="alignnone"]BEING ELMO – A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY[/caption]

“Critics’ pick! A winning tale of the persistence and creativity behind one of the most famous and fuzziest faces in the world.” –Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times

“Production values are top-notch, particularly the cinematography by James Miller and Joel Goodman’s energetic, fanciful score. ‘Being Elmo’ is a rare documentary that will connect across generations and cultures to delight viewers worldwide for years to come.” –Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter

Synopsis from BeingElmo.com: “Beloved by children of all ages around the world, Elmo is an international icon. Few people know his creator, Kevin Clash, who dreamed of working with his idol, master puppeteer Jim Henson. Displaying his creativity and talent at a young age, Kevin ultimately found a home on Sesame Street. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, this documentary includes rare archival footage, interviews with Frank Oz, Rosie O’Donnell, Cheryl Henson, Joan Ganz Cooney and others and offers a behind-the-scenes look at Sesame Street and the Jim Henson Workshop.” (85 minutes; in English; produced in USA in 2011)

“Being Elmo – A Puppeteer’s Journey” held its World Premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize. It won the Audiencec Award and a Special Jury Award at the Traverse City Film Festival, and has screened at various festivals around the world, including Hot Docs Canada International Documentary Film Festival, AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs, SXSW and Mill Valley. It is currently nominated for the Audience Award at IFP’s 2011 Gotham Awards.

Director Constance Marks is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker. She is the founder and president of Constance Marks Productions, Inc., a documentary production company based in New York City. Marks began her filmmaking career over 30 years ago as an assistant editor for the renowned Cinema Verite pioneers, David and Albert Maysles.Marks’ critically acclaimed films have been shown theatrically, broadcast widely, and garnered numerous awards. Her productions include Return to Appalachia which aired on PBS, Let’s Fall in Love: A Singles Weekend at the Concord Hotel. which was selected by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as one of the outstanding documentaries of the year, and Green Chimneys – a full-length documentary feature film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO. Marks has produced numerous films focusing on important social issues including homelessness, the elderly, experimental charter schools and substance abuse recovery residences. –beingelmo.com
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International Film Festival Rotterdam announces first five films for 2012 Tiger Awards Competition

[caption id="attachment_2397" align="alignnone"]SUDOESTE (SOUTHWEST) by Eduardo Nunes[/caption]

The International Film Festival Rotterdam announces the first five films selected for its Tiger Awards Competition 2012. Polish-American co-production IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE by Anka and Wilhelm Ankal ventures into the darker sides of country life. Midi Z’s RETURN TO BURMA is a rare contemporary fiction from the Southeast Asian country. Eduardo Nunes’ black and white, fairylike SOUTHWEST from Brazil has been supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund. A FISH from South Korea is the first 3D-film in the Tiger Awards Competition. Focusing on the plights of a young adolescent girl, Huang Ji’s EGG AND STONE from China will receive its world premiere at the festival.

Only first or second films can be selected for IFFR’s Tiger Awards Competition. All the films mentioned here are first fiction features. A jury will decide on three equal Tiger Awards, each with prize money of 15,000 Euro. The Tiger Awards Competition will comprise approximately fifteen titles.

The first five films selected in the Tiger Awards Competition 2012 are:

JIDAN HE SHITOU (EGG AND STONE) by HUANG Ji
China, 2012, World premiere

Huang Ji shot her feature début drama in her Hunan province hometown with a cast of non-professional actors. Like numerous others in China, the 14 year old protagonist is living with relatives because her parents are working a big city. She has few friends, and at home she tries to keep her door shut.

Z DALEKA WIDOK JEST PIEKNY (IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE) by Anka & Wilhelm Sasnal
Poland/USA, 2011, International premiere

In their début feature film, renowned visual artists and painters Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal explore the dark and antisocial sides of life on the beautiful Polish countryside, where in a hot summer everything seems to fall apart.

GUI LAI DE REN (RETURN TO BURMA) by Midi Z
Burma/Taiwan, 2011, European premiere

Film maker Midi Z, born in Burma and raised in Taiwan, shot his début feature film in his native country, working with non-professional actors. A realistic and authentic portrayal of daily life in the least known and least accessible Southeast Asian country, RETURN TO BURMA will see its European premiere in Rotterdam.

SUDOESTE (SOUTHWEST) by Eduardo Nunes
Brazil, 2011, European premiere

Eduardo Nunes made several successful short films, three of which were screened at IFFR. A tale of fantasy and mystery shot in stunning black-and-white, his fiction feature début SUDOESTE is situated in a sleepy Brazilian coastal village. Here, a baby, a girl and a woman named Clarice seem to live their (or is it her?) life in one single day.

MULGOGI (A FISH) by PARK Hong-min
South Korea, 2011, International première

Park Hong-min’s first feature film A FISH will be the first 3D-film in the Tiger Awards Competition. Produced for only about 100,000 Euro, A FISH tells a tragic absurdist tale of a professor who travels South in search of his wife who apparently has deserted him to become a shaman.

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2011 Leeds International Film Festival Announces its Winners and Celebrates its acceptance as Academy Award qualifying festival

[caption id="attachment_1849" align="alignnone"]Fanomenon Audience Award: Juan of the Dead[/caption]

The 25th Leeds International Film Festival which ran November 3 to November 20, 2011, attracted its largest ever audience of over 35,000, including a record audience for a single screening with 1000 people attending Closing Gala Shame. The Festival today announced its Audience Award winners and three prestigious Jury prizes.

LIFF25 Audience Awards

Official Selection Audience Award: The Artist (dir. Michael Hazanavicius, France, 2011)

The Artist is a highly original and hilariously funny story about ambition and passion set in 1920s’ Hollywood. George Valentin is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky’s the limit – major movie stardom awaits. Acclaimed French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius has directed a glorious cinematic surprise, featuring a stunning recreation of the silent era and superb performances from all, including Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, Malcolm McDowell, and Uggy the dog.

Fanomenon Audience Award: Juan of the Dead (dir. Alejandro Brugues, Cuba, 2011)

For Juan and his rag-tag bunch of Cuban slackers, a new revolution is about shake up their laid-back Havanan lifestyle. Juan of the Dead has a bit of everything for fans of the genre: zombie splatter, belly laughs, great characters, social and political comedy, and laconic Cuban style. A crowd-pleasing zombie comedy with intelligence, shedding a humorous light on life and politics in modern Cuba through the premise of the zombie apocalypse, Juan’s UK premiere is a significant event as it is not just the country’s first zombie film, but the first independently produced film to break out of Cuba in 50 years.

Cinema Versa Audience Award: Sound It Out (dir. Jeanie Finlay, UK, 2011)

A cultural haven in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, Sound It Out Records in Stockton-on-Tees is thriving against the odds and the film pays tribute to the eccentric and enthusiastic Northern community that keeps it alive. Sound It Out is presented in collaboration with Jumbo Records.

LIFF25 Golden Owl Award – 22nd May (dir. Koen Mortier, Belgium, 2010).

The Golden Owl Jury presented the Golden Owl Award to 22nd May (dir. Koen Mortier, Belgium, 2010).

The Méliès d’Argent

Méliès d’Argent (feature film Winner): The Divide (dir. Xavier Gens, Germany/USA/Canada, 2011)

In The Divide, Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens delivers an incredible nightmarish portrayal of fear, paranoia, love and survival set against an apocalyptic backdrop. As nuclear bombs fall on New York eight strangers take refuge in the basement of their now destroyed apartment building, home to paranoid superintendent Mickey (a brilliant performance from The Terminator’s Michael Biehn). With food, water and supplies they are safe for now, but it isn’t long before anger and mistrust starts to divide the group and it soon becomes clear that the fight to survive has only just begun.

Méliès d’Argent (feature film) Special Mention: Masks (dir. Andreas Marschall, Germany, 2011)

Director Andreas Marschall disturbed LIFF audiences in 2004 with his previous film Tears of Kali. Now he’s back with a giallo-esque bloody thriller in a homage to Suspiria. Stella, an ambitious but unfocused acting student, is offered a place at the mysterious Mateusz Gdula school, which was infamous for a strange method which killed a number of students in the 70s. As Stella begins to hear strange noises and the other girls start to disappear she suspects that the method is still being practiced. Intrigued, she decides to investigate, but finds herself sucked into a nightmare beyond her control.

Méliès d’Argent (short film) Winner: Decapoda Shock (dir. Javier Chillón, Spain).

Méliès d’Argent (short film) Special Mention: Tommy (dir. Arnold du Parscau, France, 2011)

Both The Divide and Decapoda Shock will now go forward to compete for the coveted Méliès d’Or at Sitges International Festival of Fantastic Film in Spain in 2012.

The Augustin Awards (short film)

World Animation: The Gloaming (dir. Nicholas Schmerkin, France, 2010)
Louis le Prince International Short Film: Bear (dir. Nash Edgerton, Australia, 2011)
British Shorts: Grandmothers (dir. Afarin Eghbal, UK, 2011)
Yorkshire Short Film – (We are Poets) ‘I Come From…’ (dirs. Alex Ramseyer-Bache, Daniel Lucchesi, UK, 2011).

Leeds also received news that it has been accepted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles as qualifying festival in the Academy Awards® category of Short Film. Starting with 2012’s 26th Leeds International Film Festival, the winners of the annual World Animation and Louis Le Prince International Short Film awards at the Film Festival will be considered by the Academy voters in the Academy Awards® categories of Live Action Short Film and Animated Short Film of the from the 2013 Oscars® onwards.

Submissions for the 26th Leeds International Film Festival will open in January 2012.

film descriptions via LIFF
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George Clooney to be honored at 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_1847" align="alignnone"]George Clooney in The Ides of March[/caption]

The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Academy Award® winner George Clooney with its prestigious Chairman’s Award for The Descendants and The Ides of March.

“George Clooney brings new definition to the word ‘star,’” said Film Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “A consummate actor, director, producer and screenwriter, he’s demonstrated that no discipline within the film industry is beyond his reach. In The Ides of March as an actor, director, producer and screenwriter, Clooney exposes the gritty world of political campaigns where winning is the only option, no matter how devastating the consequences. In The Descendants, he gives a bravura performance as a reluctant patriarch, living in a Hawaiian paradise, who is thrust into making life and death decisions affecting his entire family. To this star of many talents, whose career, fortunately for all of us who admire him, is still a work in progress, the Palm Springs International Film Festival is proud to present the 2011 Chairman’s Award to George Clooney.”

Past recipients of the Chairman’s Award include Ben Affleck, Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman.

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Academy Awards $455,000 to US Film Festivals in 2012
The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded $455,000 to 25 U.S. film festivals for the 2012 calendar year.

The 2012 film festival grants allocations are as follows:

$50,000
- Chicago International Film Festival – World Cinema Spotlight program
- Cleveland International Film Festival – Focus on Filmmakers
$30,000
- Los Angeles Film Festival – Free Screenings program
- San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival – World Cinema Spotlight program
$20,000
- Ann Arbor Film Festival (MI) – 50th Anniversary Archival program
- Chicago International Children’s Film Festival – Directors in the Schools, Educational
  Curriculum Development and free tickets
- Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Durham, NC) – Thematic program
- Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival – “30 Years of Outfest” retrospective program
- Palm Springs International ShortFest – Filmmaker Forums
- Santa Barbara International Film Festival – Field Trip to the Movies program
- True/False Film Fest (Columbia, MO) – Visiting Filmmaker program; SWAMI Mentoring program; Film Academy Student Track; Outreach to Students and Minorities
- Virginia Film Festival (Charlottesville) – Community Outreach and Education program
$15,000
- RiverRun International Film Festival (Winston-Salem, NC) – 2010 Spotlight program: Landmark Science Fiction Films
- St. Louis International Film Festival – Women in Film Sidebar
$10,000
- Athens International Film and Video Festival (Ohio) – “Let’s Talk About Water” screening and seminar program
- Berkshire International Film Festival (Great Barrington, MA) – Talent Campus
- Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Missoula, MT) – Retrospective Programming and the
  Reel Sounds Sidebar
- Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington, NC) – Voices program
- Indie Memphis Film Festival – Visiting Filmmakers and Community Outreach
- Maryland Film Festival (Baltimore) – New Waves in World Cinema program
- Pan African Film Festival (Los Angeles) – StudentFest
$5,000
- New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival (New York City) – Retrospective Program
- South East European Film Festival (Los Angeles) – Audience Development
- Tallgrass Film Festival (Witchita, KS) – Filmmaker Hospitality
Since its establishment in 1999, the Academy’s Festival Grants Program has distributed 277 grants totaling $4.85 million in funding.
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Final Deadline For Entries For 55th San Francisco International Film Festival.

The San Francisco Film Society is now accepting submissions for the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival. Works in all genres, forms and lengths are considered. The final deadline for short films is Monday, December 5; and the final deadline for features is Monday, December 12.

The Festival’s Golden Gate Awards include a juried award for Best Documentary Feature with a $20,000 prize; Best Bay Area Documentary Feature with a $15,000 prize; and awards totaling $20,000 in other categories of documentaries, shorts and works for television.

New Directors Prize A juried cash award of $15,000 to the director of a first-time narrative feature at the Festival.

FIPRESCI Prize Awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics. SFIFF is one of only three festivals in the U.S. selected to present this prestigious award.

Entry form and information

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Mamitas wins Best Film at Inaugural Napa Valley Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_1838" align="alignnone"]Mamitas[/caption]

Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) announced its Jury and Audience Awards for the inaugural film festival which ran November 9 – 13, 2011.

The coming-of-age film Mamitas, based on director Nicholas Ozeki’s award-winning short film of the same name took the top prize Best Narrative and the cash award of $10,000. In the film, cocky teenager and self-proclaimed Casanova Jordan Juarez thinks he knows everything about girls. But one day, while teaching his best friend how to pick up “hot mami chulas,” he learns just what it means to be a man who can truly connect with a woman.

The complete list of winners:

Jury Awards for Narrative Features:

Best Narrative Feature ($10,000 Cash Prize presented by Meadowood Napa Valley; wine from Gustavo Thrace) Mamitas, directed by Nicolas Ozeki

Special Jury Award for Creative Excellence (wine from Hill Family) David, directed by Joel Fendleman and co-directed by Patric Daly

Mt. Veeder Peak Performance for Best Acting in a Narrative Feature ($1000 Cash Prize and wine from Mt. Veeder Appellation) Amber Jaeger in Take Me Home, directed by Sam Jaeger

Jury Awards for Documentary Films:

Best Documentary Feature (wine from Peju) Kumare, directed by Vikram Gandhi

Special Jury Mention for Social Impact (wine from Trinitas) First Generation, directed by Adam and Jaye Fenderson

Best Documentary Subject (wine from Chappellet) Jack Sanderson in Becoming Santa, directed by Jeff Myers

Best Documentary Short Subject (wine from Chiarello) Sin Pais, directed by Theo Rigby

Special Jury Prize for Artistic Vision (wine from Broman) Library of Dust, directed by Ondi Timoner and co-directed by Robert James

Jury Awards for Narrative Short Films:

Best Narrative Short (wine from Laderra) Fatakra, directed by Soham Mehta

Special Jury Mention for Creative Achievement (wine from Hope and Grace) Grave Dawn, directed by DJ Turner

Audience Awards:

Favorite Narrative Feature (wine from Jessup) Mamitas, directed by Nicholas Ozeki

Favorite Documentary Feature (wine from Cornerstone) Wild Horse, Wild Ride, directed by Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus

Favorite Documentary Short Subject (wine from Tallulah) Sin Pais, directed by Theo Rigby

Favorite Narrative Short (wine from Freemark Abbey) Grave Dawn, directed by DJ Turner

Favorite Lounge Feature (Narrative or Doc) (wine from Houdini) The Other F Word, directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins

The second annual Napa Valley Film Festival will take place November 7 – 11, 2012.
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Bahamas International Film Festival Announces 2011 Official Film Lineup

[caption id="attachment_1836" align="alignnone"]Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary[/caption]

“The Rum Diary” starring BIFF’s 2009 Career Achievement tributee and Bahamian home owner, Johnny Depp, will open the 8th Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) on Thursday, December 1st while sports dramedy “Breakaway” starring Rob Lowe will close the festival on Sunday, December 4th.

This year, the Festival, which takes place December 1-4, 2011 in Nassau, will showcase 68 films from 33 different countries, including 42 features of which several are international premieres and all are Bahamian premieres. The four competition categories at BIFF are Spirit of Freedom: Narrative; Documentary; New Visions; First Look; and Short Film. Special sections include Caribbean and Environmental sidebars as well as a World Cinema showcase.

The official BIFF lineup is comprised of the following films:

SPIRIT OF FREEDOM (NARRATIVE)

MOTHERS (Macedonia) / Director: Micho Manchevski

MAYA (Albania) / Director: Pluton Vasi

WHERE THE ROAD MEETS THE SUN (USA/Singapore/Indonesia) / Director: Mun Chee Yong

BETTER MUS’ COME (Jamaica) / Director: Storm Saulter

VIPS (Brazil) / Director: Toniko Melo

SPIRIT OF FREEDOM (DOC)

MARATHON BOY (USA/UK/India) / Director: Gemma Atwal

ZERO PERCENT (USA) / Director: Tim Skousen

FAMBUL TOK (USA) / Director: Sara Terry

GIVE UP TOMORROW (USA / UK) / Director: Michael Collins

DONOR UNKNOWN (UK) / Director: Jerry Rothwell

NEW VISIONS

BRINGING UP BOBBY (USA) / Director: Famke Janssen

YELLING TO THE SKY (USA) / Director: Victoria Mahoney

JE T’AIME I LOVE YOU TERMINAL (Israel) / Director: Dani Menkin

RESTLESS CITY (USA) / Director: Andrew Dosunmu

WITHOUT (USA) / Director: Mark Jackson

LOVE.NET (Bulgaria) / Director: Ilian Djevelekov

WORLD CINEMA

FACE TO FACE (Australia) / Director: Michael Rymer

SAVAGE (Sweden) / Director: Martin Jern, Emil Larsson

SWEET LITTLE LIES (USA) / Director: William Saunders

THE WEDDING PARTY (Australia) / Director: Amanda Jane

TIRZA (Belgium/The Netherlands/Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) / Director: Rudolf van den Berg

CAPSULAS (Guatemala) / Director: Verónica Riedel

TOAST (USA) / Director: SJ Clarkson

Y-NING? (Trinidad & Tobago) / Director: Emilie Upczak

BOMBAY BEACH, CALIFORNIA (USA) / Director: Alma Har’el

THE CREATORS (South Africa) / Director: Laura Gamse, Jacques de Villiers

BIG IN HOLLYWOOD (India/USA) / Director: Bill Bowles, Kenny Meehan

DO WOMEN KNOW WHAT THEY WANT (USA) / Director: Michael Baisden

REAL VOODOO (Canada) / Director: Sandra Whiteley

SENNA (UK) / Director: Asif Kapadia

SPECIAL SCREENING

THE RUM DIARY (US) / Director: Bruce Robinson

BREAKAWAY (Canada) / Director: Robert Lieberman

A DANGEROUS METHOD (Germany/ Canada) / Director: David Cronenberg

FIRST LOOK

ON THE WINGS OF MEN (USA/The Bahamas) / Director: Calvin Dwight Harris

ISLANDS OF LIFE (USA/The Bahamas) / Director: Bo Boudart

COCOON (The Bahamas) / Director: Giovanna Swaby

TALL TALE OF AN ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (The Bahamas) / Director: Jason Evans

FIVE BONES (The Bahamas) / Director: Tyler Johnston

DEVOTEE (The Bahamas) / Director: June Collie

AMOS (The Bahamas) / Director: Karen Arthur, Thomas Neuwirth

SHORTS

ANYTHING FOR YOU (USA) / Director: Laura Belsey

SEXTING (USA) / Director: Tim Harms

THE SEA IS ALL I KNOW (USA) / Director: Jordan Bayne

THIEF (USA) / Director: Julian Higgins

15 SUMMERS LATER (Norway) / Director: Pedro Collantes

ALAMBAMENTO (Angola/Egypt/USA) / Director: Mario Bastos

AUGENBLICKE (Germany) / Director: Martin Bargiel

HOMECOMING (USA) / Director: Gursimran Sandhu

CHRISTMAS PIGGY (Denmark) / Director: R.S. Soderstrom

GOOD MORNING BEAUTIFUL (USA) / Director: Todd Cobery

MERCY GRACE & CRAB MEAT (USA) / Director: Jonathan Thompson

MI HATICE (Turkey) / Director: Denis Metin

MISH MUSH (Syria/Canada) / Director: Amar Chebib

KILL BRASS (Canada) / Director: Michael Kandinsky

THE SHORE (Northern Ireland) / Director: Terry George

LAN (USA/China) / Director: Taylour Chang

POST-NUP (USA) / Director: Katharine Woodman-Maynard

TELL-TALE (UK) / Director: Greg Williams

MY BIG RED PURSE (USA) / Director: Giancarlo Iannotta

NORTH ATLANTIC (Portugal/UK) / Director: Bernardo Nascimento

THE BURNT CORK (Australia) / Director: Alexandra Edmondson

THE HAYMAKER (Canada/USA) / Director: Daniel D’Alimonte

TORA (Canada) / Director: Glen Samuel, Wendy Ord

TOY SOLDIER (Australia/France/Israel) / Director: Jeremy Bliss

10 AVE MARIA (Aruba) / Director: Ryan Oduber, Juan Francisco Pardo

INCEST! THE MUSICAL (USA) / Director: Grant Reed

BOFFIN & BOFFIN (USA) / Director: Ed Blythe

MUMBIA CHARLIE (UK/ INDIA) Director: Deepak Verma

Actress/singer Zoe Isabella Kravitz (“X-Men: First Class,” “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” “Yelling to the Sky”), daughter of legendary American/Bahamian musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, will be honored with BIFF’s signature Rising Star Tribute. Kravitz will be on hand for the special award tribute presentation on Friday, December 2nd at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island.

The festival will also bring back the Filmmaker’s Residency Program. For the second year BIFF has broadened the program to include filmmakers from around the world to submit screenplays that are based in The Bahamas or Caribbean region.

BIFF 2011 begins Thursday, December 1st in Nassau and runs through Sunday, December 4th.
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Chinese non-fiction and work by Ai Weiwei to be screened at Film Festival Rotterdam

Recent films by Chinese documentary makers and films by versatile artist Ai Weiwei will be screened during the 41st edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The films highlight hidden aspects of Chinese society in an intimate and surprising way. These films and Ai’s work will be shown in Hidden Histories, a themed program of the IFFR main Signals section.

Signals: Hidden Histories

What the films in Hidden Histories have in common is that their makers focus on hidden aspects of Chinese society such as for example poverty, corruption or misrule. The ‘hidden’ aspect also applies to the films themselves: screenings and distribution are often thwarted. In spite of this, the makers have managed to create convincing, substantively strong and visually impressive work on minimal budgets.

As part of Hidden Histories, the festival will also be showing works of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei: six long films which he refers himself to as ‘social documentaries’ and four documentary art videos. There is a remarkable difference between Ai’s sometimes highly conceptual art videos and his social documentaries. For the latter, he acts – before and behind the camera – as a committed research journalist, persistent to bring injustice in the open. Hidden Histories is being compiled by IFFR programmers Gertjan Zuilhof and Gerwin Tamsma.

Documentaries in Hidden Histories

Hidden Histories will include the film APUDA by He Yuan. This film won the main prize at Yunfest in China and its only other prior screening was during the Vancouver film festival in Canada. APUDA provides a sober portrayal of the daily life of a carpenter and his dying father.

Hidden Histories will also be showing BACHELOR MOUNTAIN, the new documentary by Yu Guangyi and the sequel to his SURVIVAL SONG, which was screened at IFFR 2009. In BACHELOR MOUNTAIN, Yu returns to the barren north of China and provides an intimate portrait of the uneasy friendship between a lumberjack and the women he has taken a shine to.

The documentary SHATTERED is filmmaker Xu Tong’s third work. In 2010 and 2011, the IFFR screened his films WHEAT HARVEST and FORTUNE TELLER. In SHATTERED, socially committed Xu once again films the daily lives of those on society’s margins in a very straightforward manner. This time around he follows with his camera a retired railway worker and the former’s daughter, who is also active in the underworld.

The complete line up of Hidden Histories will be available online at www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com as of Thursday 19 January 2012.

About Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, who was born in 1957, is a conceptual artist, political activist and philosopher. He is a multifaceted artist who also engages in architecture, photography and film. He is also known for his criticism of the social and cultural changes in his country, and this has resulted in his being hampered in many ways by the Chinese authorities. Spring 2011, Ai Weiwei was imprisoned for 81 days. He was released after being issued a hefty fine for alleged back taxes. Recently Ai paid the bond raised by supporters from China and abroad.

Ai grew up in Sianking in the northwest of China. Because his father – a famous writer, painter and poet – was banished to a labour camp twice during the 1950s and 1960s, the family lived in poverty. In 1975 they moved to Beijing. Ai enrolled at the film academy and was a classmate of, among others, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. After living in New York for 12 years, Ai returned to Beijing. In 1999, he founded the gallery Chinese Art Archive & Warehouse in the south of the city with Dutch artist and collector Hans van Dijk and the Flemish art collector Frank Uytterhaegen. From the mid-1990s onwards, Ai often exhibited his large-scale installations in and outside China, founded a firm of architects, wrote books on the new generation of artists in China and collaborated on the design for the Olympic stadium (the bird’s nest) in Peking. At the moment, Ai is China’s most famous artist and this year he topped the magazine ArtReview’s ‘Power 100 List’.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has a long tradition of screening independently made feature films, shorts and documentaries from China. In recent years, some of these films came about thanks to contributions from the Hubert Bals Fund, including, for example, the epic TIE XI QU: WEST OF THE TRACKS by Wang Bing. In 2012, the IFFR intends to continue on this course and will select films from China for several parts of the programme. On Thursday 19 January 2012, the full festival programme will be made available as an insert in the Volkskrant newspaper and online at: www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com. The 41st edition of the festival is set to take place from 25 January – 5 February 2012.

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Durban International Film Festival Announces 2012 Dates, and Call for Films

The 33rd DURBAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL will take place from July 19 to 29, 2012, and will present over 200 screenings of films from around the world, with a special focus on films from South African and Africa. Screenings will take place throughout Durban, South Africa, including township areas where cinemas are non-existent. The festival will also offer an extensive seminar and workshop programme featuring local and international filmmakers. 2012 will also see the return of Talent Campus Durban and the Durban FilmMart.

The festival calls for entries from around the world. Feature films, short films and documentaries are all welcome. The festival does have a competition component.

The deadline for entries is March 16, 2012 for short films and documentaries; April 6, 2012 for feature films. Early submissions are encouraged.

All submissions can be done via the Festival’s Eventival online system.

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WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT and the Complete List of Winners of 2011 AFI FEST

[caption id="attachment_1831" align="alignnone"]WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT by Alexandra-Therese Keining[/caption]

AFI FEST 2011 announced the features and short films that took home this year’s Audience and Jury Awards. The audience voted the lesbian themed drama, WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT by first-time writer/director, Alexandra-Therese Keining the winner in the Breakthrough Section.

The 2011 AFI FEST complete list of winners:

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Breakthrough Section (award accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize)
WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT by Alexandra-Therese Keining

New Auteurs Section
BULLHEAD by Michaël R. Roskam

World Cinema Section
A tie: JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI by David Gelb and KINYARWANDA by Alrick Brown

Young Americans Section
WUSS by Clay Liford

LIVE ACTION AND ANIMATED SHORT FILM SECTION JURY AWARDS
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recognizes each winner as a qualifier for the annual Academy Awards®.

Live Action Short Film Section
Grand Jury Prize: FROZEN STORIES from Grzegorz Jaroszuk “for its world of meta-reality suffused with enough context to rend a beautifully nuanced story for the most heightened elements.”

Honorable Mention: BABYLAND by Marc Fratello “for its assured direction, stunning lead performance and the ability to balance humor and pathos all the way up to its shocking conclusion.”

Animated Short Film Section

Grand Jury Prize: THE EAGLEMAN STAG by Michael Please “for its ambitious and elegant storytelling, both narrative and aesthetically, in which the bigness of life and the concept of time are deftly unpacked in a moving nine minutes.”

Honorable Mention: THE VOYAGERS by Penny Lane “for its skillful juxtaposition of archival footage and personal narrative to tell a moving story of exploration, romance and space travel.”

NEW AUTEURS SECTION CRITIC’S PRIZE

Grand Jury Prize: THE LONELIEST PLANET by Julia Loktev “for its bold exploration of societal structures and gender roles, set against a landscape that conveys both profound beauty and profound alienation.”

Special Jury Prize: ATTENBERG by Athina Rachel Tsangari “for its wit, distinct voice and playful sense of storytelling.”

Acting Award Prize: BULLHEAD’s Matthias Schoenaerts “for his nuanced and intensely physical embodiment of bruised masculinity.”
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Aaron Eckhart, James Marsden, Jay and Mark Duplass honored at 2011 Savannah Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_1812" align="alignnone"]Golden Globe-nominated actor Aaron Eckhart [/caption]

The 14th annual Savannah Film Festival rounded out a full week of special screenings and award presentations by honoring Golden Globe-nominated actor Aaron Eckhart (“The Dark Knight,” “Erin Brockovich”), actor James Marsden (“27 Dresses,” “X-Men”) and the writing/directing brother team of Jay and Mark Duplass (“Cyrus,” “The Puffy Chair”) during the event’s closing weekend.

Accepting the Outstanding Achievement in Film Award before a packed theater, Eckhart thoughtfully reflected on the driving motivation behind his career. “Early on in my career, I had the privilege to work with Morgan Freeman. Every word out of his mouth was perfect, and take after take was flawless. I asked Morgan, ‘How do you do it?’ and, without missing a beat, he turned and looked me in the eye and said, ‘Thirty years.’ I’m halfway there. After 30-plus movies, I continue to ask, ‘How do you do it?’ The perfect film role—perfection—that’s what drives me, and drives me crazy. Every role I’ve always wanted to be real so you, the audience, can have the most pleasurable experience. That’s why I continuously ask, ‘How do you do it?’”

[caption id="attachment_1813" align="alignnone"]Actor James Marsden[/caption]

Marsden received the Savannah Film Festival Spotlight Award, which is given to an outstanding young filmmaker. “I moved to L.A. when I was 19, and I’ve been doing this since then. I’ve been doing this for half my life, which just occurred to me today,” he said. “I want to be that guy in his 80’s that people say, ‘You would know him if you saw him. He’s been in everything.’ That’s the actor who’s brave enough to take risks. This award is special because it means I’m doing something right.”

[caption id="attachment_1814" align="alignnone"]Jay Duplass accepted the SCAD Cinevation Award[/caption]

Jay Duplass accepted the SCAD Cinevation Award prior to the screening of the Duplass’ new film “Jeff, Who Lives at Home.” Starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon, the film follows a man who looks to the universe to determine his path but, through a series of comedic and unexpected events, ends up crossing paths with his family in the strangest locations and circumstances. “I want to commend the festival on your excellent taste for choosing my brother and me for this award,” laughed Duplass. “We feel so lucky and it feels so surreal to receive this award.”

Earlier in the week actress Ellen Barkin (“The Big Easy,” “Ocean’s Thirteen”) and actor Ray Liotta (“Goodfellas,” “Hannibal”) received Outstanding Achievement in Cinema Awards while actress Lily Tomlin (“9 to 5,” “All of Me”) and writer/director Oliver Stone (“Platoon,” “Wall Street”) were honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

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