Les Blank, the award-winning American director, producer and cinematographer who died in April will be honored by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a “New York salute.” The commemoration to honor Blank, ‘known for his portraits of American musicians and his unique ability to capture culture through film’, will kick off at the Academy Theater on July 30, with screenings of restored 16mm film prints from the Academy Film Archive.
The Bollywood film, SHUDDH DESI ROMANCE, has been invited for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2013 for the Gala Red Carpet Premiere. The grand screening, on September 11th at the prominent Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, will be attended by director Maneesh Sharma and writer Jaideep Sahni along with the cast Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra and debutant Vaani Kapoor.
L to R: Alan Inkles, founder/director of the Stony Brook Film Festival; Gert Embrechts, director/writer, ALLEZ EDDY!; Ate de Jong, director and co-writer, THE BLITZ; John Burgess, director, ONE SMALL HITCH; John Anderson, film critic and master of ceremonies at the Stony Brook Film Festival awards reception; Georg Maas, director/co-writer of the Closing Night film TWO LIVES.
The 18th Annual Stony Brook Film Festival wrapped up on Saturday night with a Closing Night Reception and announced the winners of the 2013 festival. MY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY written and directed by Michaela Kezele was selected by the jury as the 2013 Jury Award-Best Feature; and the 2013 Audience Choice-Best Feature a tie between ALLEZ, EDDY! written and directed by Gert Embrechts and THE BLITZ directed and co-written by Ate de Jong.
In honor of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival‘s 20th Anniversary next year, the SLOIFF will celebrate by screening Hollywood movies that have been made in San Luis Obispo County over the past 90 years. SLO County on the Silver Screen will present a wide variety of notable films, and screen each in the part of the County they were principally filmed in. The series will begin in August and run through the next Festival, scheduled for March 5-9, 2014.
THE LAND OF HOPE
The 34th edition of the Durban International Film Festival announced its award-winners, presenting the award for Best Feature Film to the film THE LAND OF HOPE. The International Jury commended Sion Sono for a film that “masterfully and humbly draws together an array of cinematic means of expression to engage us in a story”. The Best South African Feature Film was awarded to South African filmmaker Andrew Worsdale for his film DURBAN POISON.
New trailer was released for Martha Shane’s and Lana Wilson’s directorial debut AFTER TILLER which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film title refers to Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who provided late-term abortions and was assassinated by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder in 2009. AFTER TILLER will be released in theaters September 20, 2013.
163 new films in development have been selected for the Project Forum at 2013 Independent Film Week taking place September 15-19, 2013 at Lincoln Center in New York City. Through the Project Forum, creatives connect with the financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences.
WORLD WAR Z Director Marc Forster
Swiss-German director, producer and screenwriter Marc Forster, whose most recent film WORLD WAR Z starring Brad Pitt is currently in theaters will preside over the jury for the 2013 Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), taking place September 26 – October 6.
THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL
Anne Bogart and Holly Morris’ THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL, Jamie Meltzer’s FREEDOM FIGHTERS and Jimmy Goldblum and Adam Weber’s TOMORROW WE DISAPPEAR are the winners of the 2013 San Francisco Film Society SFFS Documentary Film Fund award. The awards totaling $100,000 support feature-length documentaries in postproduction.
Keanu Reeves directs MAN OF TAI CHI
Keanu Reeves’ MAN OF TAI CHI is among the initial lineup of films screening at this year’s Fantastic Fest taking place September 19-26 in Austin, Texas at the Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline. Keanu Reeves stars in and makes his directorial debut in the multi-lingual narrative, MAN OF TAI CHI. Partly inspired by the life of Reeves’ friend, stuntman Tiger Chen, MAN OF TAI CHI tells the story of a young martial artist whose unparalleled Tai Chi skills land him in a highly lucrative underground fight club. As the fights intensify so does his will to survive and his desire to protect his way of life.
The 2013 Fantastic Fest will open with the world premiere of Robert Rodriguez’s MACHETE KILLS on September 19, 2013. Robert Rodriguez along with Danny Trejo and Alexa Vega, both featured in the film, are expected to be in attendance at the premiere. The festival will be held in Austin, Texas at the new Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline location from September 19-26, 2013.
Bill Siegel’s documentary THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI, that premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival will be released in the US by Kino Lorber. The documentary film opens in New York at the IFC Center on August 23rd with a national rollout planned through the summer and fall.