The 13th annual Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) will take place March 3-13, 2011. DCIFF will showcase more than 100 features, shorts, animations, and documentaries created btalented artists from around the world. Films are grouped by theme into 26 different sessions.
The 35th Cleveland International Film Festival, scheduled for March 24 to April 3, 2011, will open with Oren Kaplan’s Hamill, based on Ohio wrestler Matt “The Hammer” Hamill; and close with Sean McNamara’s Soul Surfer.
The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) announced Miriam YEUNG as the ambassador of the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF); and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, by the Hong Kong film industry’s duo of Johnnie TO and WAI Ka-fai; and Quattro Hong Kong 2, jointly directed by four award-winning filmmakers as the two opening films of this year.
The 14th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will open with the U.S. Premiere of “Guilty Pleasures.” Director Julie Moggan’s vibrant feature traces the experiences of five individuals from around the world marked by their particular connections to Mills & Boon romance novels. We meet a successful romance novelist whose female pseudonym produces countless bestsellers, a male cover model in search of a soul mate and three women enraptured by paperback romances, whose perceptions of relationships are entangled with the scripted portrayal of courtship. As they navigate love in a modern age, we are captivated by their endearing and all-too-human journey.
The Fargo Film Festival announced its 2011 program schedule complete with screening times and locations. The festival opens on Tuesday, March 1 with “The Lutefisk Wars,” a regionally produced feature film, shot in a faux documentary style, which follows the comic misadventures of a neighborly Norwegian, a heated rivalry and a mysterious recipe.
The Seattle International Film Festival continues to expand to new communities outside Seattle, adding Renton as a SIFF venue in 2011. Renton screenings will take place May 20-26 at the IKEA Performing Arts Center. A special Opening Night Screening will take place in Renton on May 20, with a gala reception following at the Renton Pavilion Event Center.
Just a year after declaring bankruptcy, Gen Art is back. Gen Art announced that it has been acquired by Sandow Media and its first 2011 event will be the 16th annual Gen Art Film Festival in New York. This year the festival will run in June.
The GI Film Festival, the nation’s only film festival dedicated to the American Armed Forces, will celebrate its fifth anniversary May 9-15, 2011 in Washington, DC. The week-long festival, held during Armed Forces Appreciation Month, will bring Hollywood and the military together to create a venue for artists to tell the story of the American soldier, both past and present.
The Glasgow Film Festival returns for it’s seventh year to the city of Glasgow, Scotland, from February, 17–27, 2011. The Festival will open on Thursday 17 February with the UK gala premiere of François Ozon’s crowd-pleasing comedy Potiche starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu. Set in small-town France in the 1970s, the film is pure delight, combining hilarious farce with withering social commentary. Catherine Deneuve has one of the best roles of her recent career as a trophy wife in a period of rampant chauvinism who throws off the shackles of domestic servitude to assert her independence.
Asghar Farhadi’s “Nader and Simin, A Separation” was the big winner at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival, taking the Golden Bear for best film, with best actor and actress prizes split among the films’ ensemble male and female cast, which included the director’s teenage daughter, Sarina.
Louisville native Greg King and New Albany, Indiana filmmaker Ray Cart are among the winners of the top prizes at the 2011 Derby City Film Festival which was held February 18th through the 20th. Greg King and David Teague’s “Our House” took home Best Documentary and Cart’s “Queens of the Dead” won the Audience Choice award for favorite film.
The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF), April 7-17, 2011 in Sarasota, FL, and legendary San Francisco based punk rock video collective Target Video announced a collaboration today that will see the Sarasota Film Festival present a program of Target’s legendary performance videos. Entitled Futility Is Resistance: Treasures From The Target Video Archive (1977-84), the program features three nights of Target’s seminal, rarely seen punk rock performances. Shot by members of Target Video between 1977 and 1984, these videos, interview segments and live performances have long been sought after by underground video traders and music fans around the world. Target Video and The SFF will present three separate programs, featuring over 60 bands and four and a half hours of music, all presented on the big screen at the festival’s main screening venue, The Regal Hollywood 20.