• Complete List of 63 Countries Competing For 84th Academy Awards Foreign Film Oscar

    [caption id="attachment_1730" align="alignnone" width="550"]First time entrant New Zealand – The Orator directed by Tusi Tamasese[/caption]

    Sixty-three countries, including first-time entrant New Zealand, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 84th Academy Awards®.

    The 2011 submissions are:
    Albania, “Amnesty,” Bujar Alimani, director;
    Argentina, “Aballay,” Fernando Spiner, director;
    Austria, “Breathing,” Karl Markovics, director;
    Belgium, “Bullhead,” Michael R. Roskam, director;
    Bosnia and Herzegovina,”Belvedere,” Ahmed Imamovic, director;
    Brazil, “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within,” José Padilha, director;
    Bulgaria, “Tilt,” Viktor Chouchkov, Jr., director;
    Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar,” Philippe Falardeau, director;
    Chile, “Violeta Went to Heaven,” Andrés Wood, director;
    China, “The Flowers of War,” Zhang Yimou, director;
    Colombia, “The Colors of the Mountain,” Carlos César Arbeláez, director;
    Croatia, “72 Days,” Danilo Serbedzija, director;
    Cuba, “Havanastation,” Ian Padrón, director;
    Czech Republic,”Alois Nebel,” Tomás Lunák, director;
    Denmark, “Superclásico,” Ole Christian Madsen, director;
    Dominican Republic,”Love Child,” Leticia Tonos, director;
    Egypt, “Lust,” Khaled el Hagar, director;
    Estonia, “Letters to Angel,” Sulev Keedus, director;
    Finland, “Le Havre,” Aki Kaurismäki, director;
    France, “Declaration of War,” Valérie Donzelli, director;
    Georgia, “Chantrapas,” Otar Iosseliani, director;
    Germany, “Pina,” Wim Wenders, director;
    Greece, “Attenberg,” Athina Rachel Tsangari, director;
    Hong Kong,”A Simple Life,” Ann Hui, director;
    Hungary, “The Turin Horse,” Béela Tarr, director;
    Iceland, “Volcano,” Rúnar Rúnarsson, director;
    India, “Abu, Son of Adam,” Salim Ahamed, director;
    Indonesia, “Under the Protection of Ka’Bah,” Hanny R. Saputra, director;
    Iran, “A Separation,” Asghar Farhadi, director;
    Ireland, “As If I Am Not There,” Juanita Wilson, director;
    Israel, “Footnote,” Joseph Cedar, director;
    Italy, “Terraferma,” Emanuele Crialese, director;
    Japan, “Postcard,” Kaneto Shindo, director;
    Kazakhstan, “Returning to the ‘A,’” Egor Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, director;
    Lebanon, “Where Do We Go Now?” Nadine Labaki, director;
    Lithuania, “Back to Your Arms,” Kristijonas Vildziunas, director;
    Macedonia, “Punk Is Not Dead,” Vladimir Blazevski, director;
    Mexico, “Miss Bala,” Gerardo Naranjo, director;
    Morocco, “Omar Killed Me,” Roschdy Zem, director;
    Netherlands, “Sonny Boy,” Maria Peters, director;
    New Zealand,”The Orator,” Tusi Tamasese, director;
    Norway, “Happy, Happy,” Anne Sewitsky, director;
    Peru, “October,” Diego Vega and Daniel Vega, directors;
    Philippines, “The Woman in the Septic Tank,” Marlon N. Rivera, director;
    Poland, “In Darkness,” Agnieszka Holland, director;
    Portugal, “José and Pilar,” Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, director;
    Romania, “Morgen,” Marian Crisan, director;
    Russia, “Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel,” Nikita Mikhalkov, director;
    Serbia, “Montevideo: Taste of a Dream,” Dragan Bjelogrlić, director;
    Singapore, “Tatsumi,” Eric Khoo, director;
    Slovak Republic,”Gypsy,” Martin Sulík, director;
    South Africa,”Beauty,” Oliver Hermanus, director;
    South Korea,”The Front Line,” Jang Hun, director;
    Spain, “Black Bread,” Agusti Villaronga, director;
    Sweden, “Beyond,” Pernilla August, director;
    Switzerland, “Summer Games,” Rolando Colla, director;
    Taiwan, “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” Wei Te-sheng, director;
    Thailand, “Kon Khon,” Sarunyu Wongkrachang, director;
    Turkey, “Once upon a Time in Anatolia,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
    United Kingdom,”Patagonia,” Marc Evans, director;
    Uruguay, “The Silent House,” Gustavo Hernández, director;
    Venezuela, “Rumble of the Stones,” Alejandro Bellame Palacios, director;
    Vietnam, “The Prince and the Pagoda Boy,” Luu Trong Ninh, director.

    The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012; and the Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

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  • 8 Documentary Short Films Make 2011 Oscars Shortlist

    [caption id="attachment_1728" align="alignnone" width="550"]The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement[/caption]

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 84th Academy Awards® has been narrowed to eight films, of which three to five will earn Oscar® nominations.

    The eight films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company.

    “The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement,” Purposeful Productions, Inc.
    “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” Documentress Films
    “In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution,” Downtown Docs
    “Incident in New Baghdad,” Morninglight Films
    “Pipe Dreams,” Leslie Iwerks Productions
    “Saving Face,” Milkhaus/Jungefilm
    “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom,” Supply & Demand Integrated
    “Witness,” Buche

    The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012; and the Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

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  • Cucalorus Film Festival Announces Official Lineup Filled With Award Winning Films

    [caption id="attachment_1726" align="alignnone" width="550"]Happy (Sykt Lykkelig), Norway’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2011 Academy Awards[/caption]

    Cucalorus Film Festival released its official schedule of films and events for this year’s festival, revealing a roster of over 150 films from 23 different countries. The festival opens on Thursday, November 10th with Dance-a-lorus, an exploration of film and dance at the historic Thalian Hall.

    Other films include Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig), Norway’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2011 Academy Awards. Our Day Will Come,  the first feature film by Romain Gavras, the director of M.I.A.’s controversial “Born Free” music video; Simon Arthur’s Silver Tongues, winner of the Audience award at the Slamdance Film Festival, and Vikram Gandhi’s Kumare winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at SXSW also made the 2011 lineup.

    Last minute additions include the Norwegian comedy Turn Me On Dammit!, which won best screenplay award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

    In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of David Lynch’s classic American indie, the festival will host a staged reading of the play Blue Velvet: The Musical. Other special events like Norwood Cheek’s 10×10 and Visual Soundwalls solidify music’s position as guest of honor at Cucalorus 17.

    The Cucalorus Film Festival runs November 10 – 13, 2011 in historic downtown Wilmington, North Carolina.

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  • Finland’s Oscar submission LE HAVRE – opens in LA and NYC on October 21

    [caption id="attachment_1724" align="alignnone" width="550"]Le Havre[/caption]

    Finland’s official submission for 2012 Academy Awards – Best Foreign Language Film, ‘Le Havre’ by director Aki Kaurismäki will be released in NYC and LA on Friday, October 21 with an expected national release to follow.

    The film premiered at 2011 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the FIPRESCI Critic’s prize, and was screened at the recent Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals.

    In his wry and warm-hearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name, legendary Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past, The Match Factory Girl) pays tribute to the Gallic cinema he loves with a film that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Michel Carné.

    LE HAVRE, Kaurismäki’s 16th feature concerns a young African refugee (newcomer Blondin Miguel) who is thrown by fate into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-read bohemian who works as a shoe-shiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering solidarity of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. Kati Outinen, Kaurismäki’s muse who appears in most of his films, plays Marcel’s wife Arletty.

    2011  35 mm  In French with English Subtitles   Not Rated   93 min  Sound: Dolby SRD  Aspect Ratio: 1.85

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  • San Francisco International Animation Festival announces 2011 Lineup and Program

    [caption id="attachment_1722" align="alignnone" width="550"]A scene from FOUR ANIMAL CARTOONS TO HELP KIDS DEAL WITH DIVORCE, part of the Anthropomorphlolz shorts program at the San Francisco International Animartion Festival, November 10 – 13 at San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema. [/caption]

    The 6th annual San Francisco International Animation Festival, returns Thursday, November 10 through Sunday, November 13, 2011 at the Film Society’s new theatrical home, San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema.

    The San Francisco International Animation Festival includes an ‘enticing mix of the latest anime, family-friendly fare, documentaries, wonderfully unclassifiable shorts from around the world and a fabulous Opening Night party.’

    This year’s festival includes Cannes entry and multiaward-winning Tatsumi by Eric Khoo, the Bay Area-produced Annecy competitor Glitch in the Grid, the long-awaited feature-length film by Keita Kurosaka, Midori-ko and several shorts programs, including the always popular Best of Annecy compilation.

    Complete lineup and program information:

     

    Thursday, November 10  Opening Night
    7:00 pm Glitch in the Grid
    Eric Leiser
    A reclusive, talented artist, Jay, seldom leaves his small town home. Hoping to cheer him up, his cousins invite him to live with them in Hollywood, but the glitz and partying cannot satisfy his longing for spiritual renewal. Director Eric Leiser uses a hybrid live action/stop motion approach to reveal Jay’s inner life, pushing the boundaries of what we think of as animation. USA/England 2011, 83 min. Written by Eric Leiser, Photographed by Rory Owen Delaney, Marco Menestrina. With Jay Masonek, Jeffrey Leiser, Eric Leiser, Linda Darnall.
    8:30 pm Opening Night Party at Yoshi’s San Francisco, 1330 Fillmore Street (Ellis/Eddy) featuring modern Japanese cuisine inspired hors d’oeuvres and beverages.
    9:30 pm Glitch in the Grid


    Friday, November 11
    5:00 pm Top Drawers
    Is there anything more beautiful than the romance left in the trace of an artist’s absent hand? Animation sometimes leaves the impression that we come into direct contact with an artist’s personal vision, that we can experience their talent through their recorded gestures. This shorts program explores wondrous artistic effects produced through drawing, puppetry and even computing. Total running time 73 min.
    7:00 pm The Best of Annecy
    The Annecy International Animated Film Festival is widely regarded as the most important festival for animation in Europe. SFIAF is pleased to once again present a selection of the best shorts to have appeared in Annecy this year. An annual highlight of SFIAF, this year’s edition will again include a dynamic and entertaining range of styles, techniques and genres. Total running time 81 min.
    9:00 pm Tatsumi
    Eric Khoo
    Alternating between a memoir-like, first-person recounting of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s life and presentations of his manga works as animation, Tatsumi celebrates the life and work of the legendary Japanese comics artist. Realistic and disquieting, Tatsumi’s work redefined the manga landscape and elevated the genre to a whole new level of creative expression influenced by adult themes. Singapore 2011, 96 min. Written by Eric Khoo. With Tetsuya Bessho, Motoko Gollent, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Mike Wiluan. In Japanese with subtitles, not recommended for children.


    Saturday, November 12
    3:00 pm Nocturna
    Adrià García, Víctor Maldonado
    Nocturna reveals a child’s vision of the night sky as a wondrous landscape. Young orphan Tim is afraid of the dark, so when the stars start disappearing, he teams up with a cat named Tobermory to bring them back. The two become immersed in a world of strange powers, where their ultimate destination is as surprising as the journey itself. Spain/France 2007, 80 min. Written by Adrià García, Víctor Maldonado, Teresa Vilardell, With Imanol Arias, Natalia Rodríguez, Carlos Sobera. In Spanish with subtitles, recommended for ages eight and up.
    5:30 pm Ball of Confusion
    What if the world were constructed of impossible amusement park rides that appear to grow and breathe? What if tiny Lego-like creatures populated all of Paris? What if two chicken-ish things sang opera? These questions and many more await to be answered in this program of counterfactuals and a few music videos. Total running time 80 min.
    7:30 pm Midori-ko
    Keita Kurosaka
    Beloved artist Keita Kurosaka has fashioned an exquisitely dark sci-fi tale. Scientists work to develop a “dream food” that is both meat and vegetable to prevent an impending famine. One day, a magical light produces what they’ve been seeking: an animal/vegetable hybrid named Midori-ko, who promptly flies away. The culmination of a ten-year labor of love, Midori-ko is a spectacular achievement. Japan 2010, 55 min. Written by Keita Kurosaka. Photographed by Keita Kurosaka. With Sayaka Suzuki, Rina Yûki, Chicapan, Miwako Mishima. In Japanese with subtitles.
    9:00 pm Anthropomorphlolz
    Welcome to the strange and charmed world of guest programmer Jay Wertzler. In it you’ll find LCD Soundsystem, Tiny Fuppets and an array of current and potential cultural memes. During this shorts program, Wertzler will guide us through his animated universe, one that is as sweet and dangerous as a gingerbread house located deep in the forest of your hipster-critical mind. Total running time 77 min.


    Sunday, November 13
    2:00 pm The Best of Annecy  see 11/11
    4:00 pm Top Drawers  see 11/11
    6:00 pm Tatsumi  see 11/11
    8:30 pm Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos
    Kazuya Murata
    One of the most highly anticipated anime releases slated for 2012, this anime epic features a fugitive alchemist with mysterious abilities who leads the Elric brothers to a distant valley inhabited by the Milos, a proud people struggling against oppression. Director Murata creates an alternate reality in which alchemy is the most advanced form of science. Hagane no renkinjutsushi: Mirosu no seinaru hoshi, Japan 2011, 110 min. Written by Yuichi Shinpo. Photographed by Yoshiyuki Takei. With Romi Park, Rie Kugimiya, Maaya Sakamoto, Toshiyuki Morikawa. In Japanese with subtitles.

     

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  • My Week With Marilyn Added to 2011 Hamptons International Film Festival

    The new drama film, My Week With Marilyn has just been added to the 2011 Hamptons International Film Festival lineup. The film screens Saturday, October 16th at Guild Hall. My Week With Marilyn is directed by Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges; and stars Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh

    Early in the summer of 1956, American film star Marilyn Monroe set foot on British soil for the first time. On honeymoon with her husband, the celebrated playwright Arthur Miller, Monroe came to England to shoot THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL – the film that famously united her with Sir Laurence Olivier, the British theatre and film legend who directed and co-starred in the film.

    That same summer, 23-year-old Colin Clark set foot on a film set for the first time in his life. Newly graduated from Oxford, Clark aspired to be a filmmaker and found a job as a lowly production hand on the set of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. Forty years later, he recounted his experiences of the six-month shoot in a diary-style memoir entitled The Prince, the Showgirl and Me.

    But one week in Clark’s account was missing.

    It wasn’t until years later that Clark revealed why. In a follow-up memoir entitled My Week with Marilyn, he recounted the true story of one magical week he spent alone with the world’s biggest star… the week he spent with Marilyn.
    By turns comic and poignant, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN offers an uncommonly intimate look at the Hollywood icon, charting the brief, charged connection she forged with a young man who came to understand her better than anyone.

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  • 11 Nonfiction Short Film Finalists for 2012 Cinema Eye Honors

    Eleven films from six countries have been named as finalists for the 2012 Cinema Eye Honors for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking.  This is the second year that Cinema Eye has presented an award for Nonfiction Short Filmmaking.  Last year the award went to The Poodle Trainer, directed by Vance Malone.

    2012 Cinema Eye Honors Short Film Finalists:

    Bathing Micky (MICKY BADER) (Sweden/Denmark)
    Directed by Frida Kempff

    Diary (United Kingdom)
    Directed by Tim Hetherington

    Guanape Sur (Italy)
    Directed by János Richter

    Il Capo (The Chief) (Italy)
    Directed by Yuri Ancarani

    Incident by a Bank (Sweden)
    Directed by Ruben Östlund

    Minka (USA)
    Directed by Davina Pardo

    Out of Reach (POZA ZASIEGIEM)
    (Poland)
    Directed by Jakub Stozek

    Poster Girl (USA)
    Directed by Sara Nesson

    Ray’s Birds (USA)
    Directed by Deborah Stratman

    This Chair is Not Me (United Kingdom)
    Directed by Andy Taylor Smith

    Tussilago (Sweden)
    Directed by Jonas Odell

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  • Award winning film, Vegucated, kicks off Fall Tour in NY

     

    The new documentary Vegucated, recently awarded “Best Documentary Feature” at the 2011 Toronto Independent Film Festival is going on the road.

     

    The tour kicks off tonight in New York City with the U.S. premiere at the at the SVA Theatre, then to Midwest Premiere at the Show Me Justice Film Festival, on Saturday, October 15th, at University of Central Missouri. Other cities follow.

    Vegucated is a feature-length documentary that follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. There’s Brian, the bacon-loving bachelor who eats out all the time, Ellen, the single mom who prefers comedy to cooking, and Tesla, the college student who avoids vegetables and bans beans. They have no idea that so much more than steak is at stake and that the fate of the world may fall on their plates. Lured with true tales of weight lost and health regained, they begin to uncover hidden sides of animal agriculture and soon start to wonder whether solutions offered in films like Food, Inc. go far enough. Before long, they find themselves risking everything to expose an industry they supported just weeks before.

    But can their conviction carry them when times get tough? What about on family vacations fraught with skeptical step-dads, carnivorous cousins, and breakfast buffets?

    Part sociological experiment, part science class, and part adventure story, Vegucated showcases the rapid and at times comedic evolution of three people who share one journey and ultimately discover their own paths in creating a kinder, cleaner, greener world, one bite at a time

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  • Actress Famke Janssen’s Directorial Debut ‘Bringing Up Bobby’ Gets a Theatrical Distribution Deal

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    monterey media has acquired North American rights to actress Famke Janssen’s writing and directorial debut, “Bringing Up Bobby” with a late 2011 theatrical release date planned. “Bringing Up Bobby ” stars Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil, The Three Musketeers), Bill Pullman (Independence Day, Sleepless in Seattle, The Grudge) and Marcia Cross (star of “Desperate Housewives”). The film premiered recently at the Deauville American Film Festival and will have its US premiere at The Savannah Film Festival this November.

    About Bringing Up Bobby
    In an effort to escape her past and build a better future, Olive (Milla Jovovich), an attractive European con artist, and her 10-year-old American-born son, Bobby (Spencer List), find themselves living in Oklahoma.  But as Olive and Bobby blithely charm their way from one comical adventure to another, Olive’s criminal past finally catches up with her, forcing her to make the toughest judgment of all.

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  • Hollywood Film Festival to honor George Clooney

    George Clooney in The Descendants

    The 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, will honor Oscar winner George Clooney with the “Hollywood Actor Award” for his critically acclaimed performance in Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants.”

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  • Gotham Screen International Film Festival Moves To A New Home for 2011

    This year’s Annual Gotham Screen International Film Festival (GSIFF) moves to a new home — NY’s QUAD Cinema. GSIFF. This year’s festival showcases more than 10 ‘cutting-edge’ features, documentaries and three programs of short films from independent, first- or second-time directors as well as international releases making their East Coast or US debut. This year’s Festival is highlighted by the World Premiere of Henry Miller’s OCCUPANT; the World Premiere of Dana Packard’s, 40 WEST, starring Wayne Newton; and the East Coast premiere of the Indian film SHUTTLECOCK BOYS directed by Hemant Gaba.

    Gotham Screen International Film Festival Opens October 13-23, 2011 at NY’s QUAD Cinema on 34th Street.

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  • International Film Festival Rotterdam appoints Bianca Taal as programmer for 2012 edition

    The International Film Festival Rotterdam has appointed Bianca Taal as programmer for its upcoming edition. Bianca will oversee the 2012 selection of feature length films from Greece, Turkey, Israel, Iran and the Arab world. She is also a member of the CineMart Selection Committee.

    After finishing her Film and Television Studies at the University of Utrecht, Bianca Taal started working with the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2001 as a staff member of the Hubert Bals Fund and the CineMart. From 2005 – 2007 Bianca was co-Head of the CineMart. Consecutively Bianca has been director of the Hubert Bals Fund from 2007 – 2009.

    From 2009 – November 2011, Bianca worked as Head of Programmes at the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam. Bianca was an advisor on the Committee Feature Fiction Film of the Dutch Film Fund from 2006 – 2010. Furthermore she is a member of the CineMart selection committee as well as the commission moving images of the Rotterdam Culture Council and she is a board member of the Holland Animation Festival in Utrecht.

    The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) offers a quality selection of independent, innovative and experimental cinema, video and media art. During twelve festival days, hundreds of filmmakers and other artists present their work to a large audience (2011: 340,000 admissions) and 3,000 film professionals. The 41st edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam takes place from Wednesday January 25 up to and including Sunday February 5, 2012.

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