Gary Winick, a pioneering producer and director of independent digital films who found mainstream success with such movies as “13 Going on 30” and “Letters to Juliet,” has died. He was 49. Winick, who was diagnosed with brain cancer about two years ago, died Sunday at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, said Niels Mueller, a longtime collaborator. When Winick went to the Sundance Film Festival in 2002, he didn’t even have an […]
One World International Film Festival running in Prague from March 8 to 17, 2011 will use an “Empty Chair” to draw attention to imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. The Chinese dissident had been sentenced to 11 years in jail. During the One World festival viewers will come across an empty chair with the poster ofLiu in screening halls. In 2009, People in Need gave its Homo Homini award to the Chinese intellectual and […]
Tribeca Enterprises announced that Tribeca Film will expand to commercially release 26 films over the next year, more than double the number of titles released in 2010. The comprehensive distribution label for independent film also announced that it acquired U.S. rights to nine new titles to be released across multiple platforms. The curated selection of films includes many genres and features stars including Zach Braff, Vincent Gallo and Zoe Kravitz and filmmakers such as Peter […]
Dirty mouth. Actress Melissa Leo dropped the F-bomb while accepting the Oscar forr Best Supporting Actress at the 83rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday night. Making up her acceptance speech as she spoke, the actress said, “Yeah, I am kind of speechless,… when I watched Kate two years ago, it looked so f***ing easy.” Oscar co-host Anne Hathaway had the best come-back, “Wow, I thought the ‘F’ stood for ‘The Fighter.’ It’s the young and […]
“The King’s Speech” was the ‘King’ at the 83rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday night, winning four Oscars: including Best Picture, Directing for director Tom Hooper, Writing – Original Screenplay for David Seidler and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Colin Firth. And as expected Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in “Black Swan,” while Christian Bale and his co-star Melissa Leo took the Oscars […]
Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, handed out top honors to Black Swan, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours, and The Kids Are All Right at the 26th Film Independent Spirit Awards. The King’s Speech, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Get Low, Tiny Furniture, and Daddy Longlegs also received awards at the ceremony. This year’s major category winners were Fox Searchlight’s Black Swan, which won Best […]
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. This year’s festival will close on March 13 with a special screening of The Blair Witch Project and an appearance by Eduardo Sanchez, the film’s writer an co-director. The official Selection of Animated […]
Xavier Beauvois’ “Des hommes et des dieux,” (Of Gods and Men) took the top prize for Best Film but Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer,” lead the Cesar Awards aka the French Oscars with 4 wins including Best Director for Roman Polanski, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score and Best Editing. “Of Gods and Men,” which was also France’s official entry to 2011 Oscar and “Gainsbourg” tied for 3 awards. “Of Gods and Men took the awards […]
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. HAMILL, directed by Oren Kaplan, is an inspirational story of hope, perseverance, and the unbreakable belief in one’s dream. Starring Russell Harvard, Raymond Barry, Shoshannah Stern, and Michael Anthony Spady, the film is set to open the 35th Cleveland International […]
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. In Don’t Go Breaking My Heart Louis KOO plays a high-flying playboy who has […]
Zeitgeist Films has just acquired Miralan Productions’ SOMETHING VENTURED which looks at the early investors behind the revolutionary technology that created companies like Apple, Intel and Cisco and in the process completely changed our world. Directed by award-winning filmmakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller (BALLETS RUSSES) and narrated by best-selling author Po Bronson, SOMETHING VENTURED will have its World premiere at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival. SOMETHING VENTURED was Executive Produced by Miralan […]
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 […]