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.
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 4th Annual Charleston International Film Festival (CIFF) will be held at the classic and swanky American Theater in historic downtown Charleston, SC, May 18–22, 2011.
AFI FEST 2010 will host the world premiere of Edward Zwick’s LOVE & OTHER DRUGS as the festival’s Opening Night Gala on November 4. Darren Aronofsky’s BLACK SWAN closes the festival on November 11. AFI FEST 2010 will take place in Hollywood, California at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Mann Chinese 6 theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel from November 4-11, 2010.
The 11th annual Gala Maverick Awards Ceremony was held tonight at the historic Backstage Studio Productions Arts & Entertainment Complex in Kingston, NY. The festival, which began Wednesday, September 29, will close Sunday, October 3, after celebrating 11 years of exceptional independent film, panels, concerts, events and parties, with the best of the best in the indie film world.
Acclaimed actors Liam Neeson, Sir Ian McKellen and Isabella Rossellini will be honored as part of the 13th Annual Savannah Film Festival, which will take place Oct. 30 to Nov. 6. McKellen will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award on Nov. 4, Neeson will receive an Achievement in Cinema Award on Nov. 2 and Rossellini will receive a similar award on Nov. 5.