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 […]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 84th Academy Awards®. One hundred twenty-four pictures had originally qualified in the category. The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company: “Battle for Brooklyn” (RUMER Inc.) “Bill Cunningham New York” (First Thought Films) “Buck” (Cedar Creek Productions) “Hell and Back Again” (Roast […]
by Francesca McCaffery RID OF ME, James Westby’s latest black comedy that follows Meris, (an awesome Katy O’Grady!) an awkward young woman trying too hard to perfect her marriage, amongst a new group of friends. RID OF ME follows Meris’ rejection from the cool crowd down a path towards truth and salvation which includes a job at a local candy shop, a group of punk friends, community gardening and a newfound love for Cambodian rock music! (Yes!) […]
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: {jathumbnail off}
“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: {jathumbnail off}
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 […]
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 […]
Shot in the picturesque French port city of the same name, “Le Havre,” directed by Aki Kaurismaki, looks like it truly could have been created forty-five years ago. It’s an amazing and lovely film about community and solidarity, without any maudlin nostalgia to muck it up in the middle. It’s truly an original, and already feels like a dyed-in-the-wool classic. {jathumbnail off}
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: {jathumbnail off}
Morgan Freeman will receive the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes ceremony in January. The award is given every year by the HFPA for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment. Freeman won a best actor Golden Globe in 1990 for Driving Miss Daisy and was nominated three more times, for The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, for which he won an Oscar, and Invictus. The Cecil B. DeMille was first given in […]
Oliver Platt and Edie Falco will co-host the 21st annual Gotham Independent Film Awards ceremony scheduled to take place November 28th 2011 in New York. “We are absolutely thrilled to be co-hosting this year’s Gotham Awards,” Platt and Falco said in a joint statement. “We look forward to an evening that celebrates outstanding independent film-making, brave and bold voices against the backdrop of this incredible city.”
Billy Crystal will replace Eddie Murphy as the host of the 84th Academy Awards. The funny man announced in a tweet, “Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions. Looking forward to the show.” This will mark Crystal’s ninth time as host. Only Bob Hope has hosted more Academy Awards presentations, with 19 ceremonies between 1940 and 1978. Crystal last hosted […]