• 58th Sydney Film Festival Official Lineup; June 8-19, 2011

    [caption id="attachment_942" align="alignnone"]Closing Night Film – Beginners[/caption]

    The full 12 day film festival program for the 58th Sydney Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday, June 8-19, 2011 encompasses 161 titles: 75 features, 39 documentaries, 34 short films, 13 retrospective titles, 10 World premieres, 86 Australian premieres, 42 countries, 47 languages and 29 Australian productions (1 retrospective, 6 features, 10 documentaries, 12 short films).

    OPENING NIGHT GALA
    The Australian premiere of espionage thriller Hanna – directed by Joe Wright (Atonement) and starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana – will kick start the 2011 Sydney Film Festival.

    CLOSING NIGHT GALA
    The festival will host its Closing Night Gala at the State Theatre on Sunday 19 June at 7.45pm, with the Australian premiere of Beginners, directed by Mike Mills and featuring Ewan McGregor (SFF’s 2010 guest for Ghost Writer), Christopher Plummer and Mélanie
    Laurent.

    FAMILY GALA
    Stars Jack Black, Lucy Liu, Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson and CEO of DreamWorks Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg will be at Sydney Film Festival to introduce the Australian premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D. The stellar cast also includes Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, David Cross, James Hong, Gary Oldman, Michelle Yeoh, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Victor Garber.

    Competitive Sections

    OFFICIAL COMPETITION
    The 12 titles in this year’s Official Competition line-up are:
    • Direct from the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, two Australian films will have their Australian premieres at the 2011 Sydney Film Festival: Sleeping Beauty (Official Competition at Cannes) and Ivan Sen’s Toomelah (Un Certain Regard at Cannes)
    • Also direct from screenings at Cannes are The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain, directed by Terrence Malick (Official Competition at Cannes) and Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter, starring Academy Award® Nominee Michael Shannon (Critics’ Week at Cannes)
    • Two award-winners from Berlin Film Festival will also compete: Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation which won Best Film and both Best Acting awards for its ensemble cast and Joshua Marston’s The Forgiveness of Blood which won Best Screenplay.
    • Bold and inventive films from Spain – Fernando León de Aranoa’s Amador; Russia – Alexander Zeldovich’s Target and Egypt – Mohamed Diab’s Cairo 678 are also having their Australian Premieres in the Official Competition selection.
    • Completing the line-up are the three previously announced films – Attenberg by Athina Rachel Tsangari; The Future by Miranda July and Norwegian Wood directed by Tran Anh Hung.

    FOXTEL AUSTRALIAN DOCUMENTARY PRIZE
    The FOXTEL Australian Documentary Prize acknowledges excellence in local documentary production and is open to factual films of any length. The jury awards a cash prize of $10,000 which is presented at SFF’s Closing Night ceremony on Sunday 19 June.

    The 10 selected finalists to be shortlisted for this year’s FOXTEL Australian Documentary Prize include films on subjects as diverse as climate change, rollerskating and sexual expression.

    The finalists are:
    Carnival Queen: Director, Producer: Amy Gebhardt
    A Common Purpose: Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Mitzi Goldman
    Dancing with Dictators: Director: Hugh Piper | Producer: Helen Barrow
    The Hungry Tide: Director, Producer: Tom Zubrycki
    I’m Not Dead Yet: Director, Producer: Janine Hosking
    Life In Movement: Directors, Screenwriters, Producers: Bryan Mason, Sophie Hyde
    My America: Director: Peter Hegedus | Producers: Peter Hegedus, Jane Jeffes, Trish Lake
    Rollerboy: Directors, Screenwriters: Jayson Sutcliffe, Polly Watkins | Producer: Beth Frey
    Scarlet Road: Director: Catherine Scott. Producer: Pat Fiske.
    Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure: Director, Screenwriter: Matthew Bate | Producers: Sophie Hyde, Matthew Bate

    THE DENDY AWARDS FOR AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILMS
    The prestigious Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films have launched and aided the careers of many Australian filmmakers and have been sponsored by Dendy Cinemas for 23 years.

    The nominees are:

    Live Action:
    • At the Formal: Director, Screenwriter: Andrew Kavanagh. Producer: Ramona Telicican.
    • Comfortable: Director, Screenwriter: Laura Dudgeon. Producers: Mathew Chuang, Laura Dudgeon.
    • Cropped: Director, Screenwriter: Dave Wade. Producer: Bettina Hamilton.
    • The Palace: Director, Screenwriter: Anthony Maras. Producers: Anthony Maras, Kate Croser.
    • Peekaboo: Director, Screenwriter: Damien Power. Producer: Joe Weatherstone.
    • Tethered: Director, Screenwriter: Craig Irvin. Producer: Ashley Harris.
    • Two Laps: Director, Screenwriter: Owen Trevor. Producer: Lucas Jenner.

    Animation:
    • Fragments: Directors, Producers: George Varettas, Cosmin Hrincu
    • The Missing Key: Director, Screenwriter: Jonathan Nix. Producers: Garth Nix, Anna McFarlane, Jonathan Nix.
    • Nullarbor: Directors: Alister Lockhart, Patrick Sarell. Producers: Katrina Mathers, Merrin Jensen, Patrick Sarell, Daryl Munton.


    Pathways
    SFF developed the Pathways concept to establish an intuitive, experiential set of categories that would help Sydneysiders answer the question “What sort of film do I feel like seeing tonight?”

    FIRE ME UP
    Gear up for some high-octane action or fuel the fires of controversy with:13 Assassins (Miike Takashi, Japan), Cirkus Columbia (Danis Tanovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (José Padilha, Brazil), Even the Rain (Icíar Bollaín; Spain, France, Mexico), POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Morgan Spurlock, USA), Senna (Asif Kapadia, UK) and Tabloid (Errol Morris, USA). Sponsored by Maurice Lacroix.

    LOVE ME
    Art from the heart of cinema’s foremost emotional explorers, sometimes sweet and often passionate: 33 Postcards (Pauline Chan; Australia, China), All About Love (Ann Hui, Hong Kong) The Beaver (Jodie Foster, USA), Black & White & Sex (John Winter, Australia), The Good Life (Eva Mulvad, Denmark), Jane Eyre (Cary Joji Fukunaga, UK), Medianeras (Gustavo Taretto; Argentina, Germany, Spain), Old Cats (Sebastián Silva and Pedro Peirano, Chile), Project Nim (James Marsh, USA), Sacrifice (Chen Kaige, China), The Salt of Life (Gianni di Gregorio, Italy), Terri (Azazel Jacobs, USA), Three (Tom Tykwer, Germany) and Tomboy (Céline Sciamma, France). Supported by SBS.

    MAKE ME LAUGH
    Be amused, amazed and sometimes appalled at what’s so funny: Animals Distract Me (Isabella Rossellini, USA), Cedar Rapids (Miguel Arteta, USA), Exporting Raymond (Phil Rosenthal, USA, Russia), The Guard (John Michael McDonagh, Ireland), Happy, Happy (Anne Sewitzsky, Norway), Surviving Life (Jan Švankmajer; Czech Republic, Slovakia), The Trip (Michael Winterbottom, UK), Top Floor Left Wing (Angelo Cianci, France) and Win Win (Tom McCarthy, USA).

    FREAK ME OUT
    Guest programmer Richard Kuipers’ screamadelic selections mean you no longer have to wait until midnight for a serious fright: Corridor (Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm, Sweden), End of Animal (Jo Sung-hee, South Korea), Hobo with a Shotgun (Jason Eisener; Canada, USA), Kill List (Ben Wheatley, UK), Mutant Girls Squad (Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura and Tak Sakaguchi, Japan), Septien (Michael Tully, USA), Stake Land (Jim Mickle, USA), The Troll Hunter (André Øvredal, Norway) and Tucker & Dale vs Evil (Eli Craig, Canada).

    TAKE ME ON A JOURNEY
    The journeys are endless and they start right here: Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman, USA), HERE (Braden King, USA), How to Start Your Own Country (Jody Shapiro, Canada),
    I Wish I Knew (Jia Zhangke, China, The Netherlands), Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA), My Reincarnation (Jennifer Fox; USA, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland), Position Among the Stars (Leonard Retel Helmrich, Netherlands), Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino; Italy, Germany, Switzerland), Silent Souls (Alexei Fedorchenko, Russia) and Sleeping Sickness (Ulrich Köhler; France, Germany, Netherlands). Sponsored by Tourism NT.

    PUSH ME TO THE EDGE
    Test your emotional boundaries and find the edge where the personal and the political are contested: The Arbor (Clio Barnard, UK), Armadillo (Janus Metz, Denmark), Black Venus (Abdellatif Kechiche, France), Brownian Movement (Nanouk Leopold; Netherlands, Germany, Belgium), The Ditch (Wang Bing; Hong Kong, France, Belgium), Hail (Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Australia), How to Die in Oregon (Peter D Richardson, USA), Khodorkovsky (Cyril Tuschi, Germany), Life, Above All (Oliver Schmitz; South Africa, Germany), Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin, USA), Post Mortem (Pablo Larraín; Chile, Mexico, Germany), Third Star (Hattie Dalton, UK), The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr; Hungary, France, Switzerland, Germany) and Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine, UK).
    Specialised Programs

    FAMILY FILMS
    Jack Black, Lucy Liu, Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson and CEO of DreamWorks Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg will be at Sydney Film Festival to introduce the Australian premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D on the public holiday Monday 13 June, 6.30pm, at Vmax 1 & 2, Event Cinemas George Street.

    Other great family films screening in the Festival are:
    • Africa United – an energetic and enjoyable story featuring three Rwandan kids as they hit the road to soccer’s World Cup.
    • The charming animated feature The Great Bear, a Nordic tale (in English) featuring a host of wonderful creatures including a giant beer, a herd of mini-moose and puddles full of rainmaking frogs.
    • The 3D animation Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage, is a romantic turtle tale voiced by John Hurt and Dominic Cooper.
    • A new 35mm print of Jafar Panahi’s classic The White Balloon screening as part of the Free Panahi and Rasoulof tribute program.

    CREATIVE DRIVE
    Processes are uncovered, approaches are dissected and results are revealed in mediums ranging from the painting to the plate: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, USA), Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (Alex Stapleton, USA), El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (Gereon Wetzel, Germany), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (David Gelb, USA), A Letter to Elia (Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones, USA), and The Mill and the Cross (Lech Majewski; Poland, Sweden).

    SOUNDS ON SCREEN
    Music and film are inseparable dance partners,and films about music make for some of the most compelling cinema created: Ain’t in it for My Healt: A film About Levon Helm (Jacob Hatley, USA) Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (Michael Rapaport, USA), LENNONYC (Michael Epstein, USA), Mama Africa, a film about Miriam Makeba(Mika Kaurismäki; Germany, South Africa, Finland), Microphone (Ahmad Abdalla, Egypt) and Sing Your Song a film about Harry Belefonte(Susanne Rostock, USA).

    Also as part of SOUNDS ON SCREEN:
    • SFF & Vivid Creative Sydney present the Australian Premiere of Alex Munt’s musically-inspired ‘pop art film’ LBF. The film’s screening on Friday 10 June will be following by a live performance from bands featured in the film Fergus Brown, Kids at Risk and Tortoiseshell DJ set.
    • Dingo – A new preservation of print of Rolf De Heer’s 1991 feature, Dingo, starring Colin Friels and Miles Davis.

    GREEN SCREEN
    These films tackle the issues impacting on our environment with fresh and often surprising perspectives: Cool It (Ondi Timoner, USA), If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Marshall Curry, USA), Letters from the Big Man (Christopher Munch, USA) and Windfall (Laura Israel, USA). Sponsored by Toshiba.

    SHORT FILMS
    The festival’s line-up of short films which screen before features are: Bear (Nash Edgerton,Australia); Bird (Jane Shearer, Steve Ayson, Gregory King; New Zealand); Bunce (Peter Cattaneo, UK); Charcoal Burners (Piotr Zlotorowicz, Poland); Deerfall (Kate McLaughlin, UK); Hackney Lullabies (Kyoko Miyake, Germany); Heavy Heads (Helena Frank, Denmark); Il Capo (Yuri Ancarini, Italy); James Dean (Lucy Asten Elliot, UK); The Lady with the Dog (Damien Manivel, France); Library Of Dust (Ondi Timoner, Robert James, UK); A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation (Martin Wallner, Stefan Leuchtenberg; Germany); Pass the Salt, Please (Tatjana Najdanovic,USA); Paths of Hate (Damian Nenow, Poland); Scenes from the Suburbs (Spike Jonze; USA, Canada);
    A Screening at the Tatry Cinema (Igor Chojna, Poland); Sugar (Jeroen Annokkeé,
    The Netherlands); Susya (Dani Rosenberg, Yoav Gross; Israel, Palestinian Territories);
    The Wind (Marcio Salem, Brazil); Tiong Bahru (Desperate Optimists – Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor with Singapore community; Singapore); Tremblay-en-France (Vincent Vizioz, France).

    TV MARATHONS
    All-day cable marathons and full-season DVD sets of shows like Mad Men, Twin Peaks and The Wire have changed the way we watch TV. Immersing ourselves entirely in an imagined world one episode after another is now one of our most popular pastimes. SFF, in partnership with AFTRS, brings you Australian premieres of two stunning examples of cinematic television in mini-marathons at AFTRS’ comfy theatrette.

    This Is England ’86 Shane Meadows’ first foray into television-making sees him return to the characters of his provocative, BAFTA-winning feature film This is England (2006). Three years on and things have changed for the motley band of outsiders just as things have changed in Thatcher’s Britain.

    Dreileben: Pt. 1 Beats Being Dead; Pt. 2 Don’t Follow Me Around; Pt. 3 One Minute of Darkness This compelling three-part series plays like the love-child of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom born in the Thuringian Forest of former East Germany. Three directors – Dominik Graf, Christian Petzold and Christoph Hochhäusler – approach the same tabloid article, about a criminal escaping from police custody, each from a different story perspective.

    Retrospectives
    FREE PANAHI AND RASOULOF – A TRIBUTE
    There would be few cinephiles unaware of events over the last year concerning Jafar Panahi and his younger filmmaking colleague, Mohammad Rasoulof, which culminated in their receiving a six-year jail sentence and a twenty-year prohibition on leaving Iran or participating in the film industry. (The sentence is currently, as of May 2011, under appeal.)

    The Sydney Film Festival will honour award-winning Iranian director Jafar Panahi and his colleague Mohammad Rasoulof by screening a selection of their work: Panahi’s The Circle, The Mirror, Crimson Gold, Offside, The White Balloon and short film The Accordion; Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iron Island and The White Meadows and the Australian Premiere of Gesher, directed by Vahid Vikilifar, produced by Rasoulof and edited by Panahi.
    SFF is proud to have acquired a new 35mm print of the White Balloon to ensure the film will remain accessible for audiences in years to come. Rated G, The White Balloon screens as a family matinee on Public Holiday Monday 13 June at 12.20pm, State Theatre.

    Cannes Film Festival has announced that this year the Carrosse d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award for courage will be bestowed on Panahi.

    MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS: THE HOLLYWOOD MELODRAMAS OF DOUGLAS SIRK
    SFF invites you to flounce down a sweeping staircase past a patently-fake vista and into five of the best 1950s Hollywood melodramas of Douglas Sirk. Commercial successes for Universal Studios, they were critically maligned at the time. Reinterpreted by filmmakers from Reiner Werner Fassbinder (Fear Eats the Soul) to Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven), and reclaimed by feminist and neo-Marxist critics in the 70s and 80s for their social critiques, they remain pervasively influential, with hit TV series Mad Men also drawing deep from the Sirkian well of stylistic excesses, loaded subtexts and shimmering surfaces. His five showcased films are Magnificent Obsession, All that Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, There’s Always Tomorrow and Imitation of Life.

    New projects

    USER GENERATED
    The premieres of two new films created from up-loaded content give a glimpse of a powerful new direction in cinema. YouTube has revolutionised and democratised the moving image around the world. It was instrumental in creating both Life in a Day and WE WERE HERE: The Map My Summer Film – the latter of which is a special collaboration between Screen Australia, YouTube and Sydney Film Festival.
    Life in a Day For this ground-breaking user-generated project, Academy Award®-winning director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void) teamed up with YouTube and executive producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott to create a feature-length documentary shot in a single day – 24 July 2010 – from thousands of hours of footage submitted by people all over the world. Australian Premiere
    http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday

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  • Mountainfilm in Telluride 2011 Winners; Happy Wins Student Award and Audience Award

    [caption id="attachment_1425" align="alignnone" width="560"]Happy[/caption]

    Mountainfilm in Telluride, one of America’s longest-running film festivals, wrapped its Memorial Day weekend run, May 27 – 30, 2011 and announced its film awards at the Closing Picnic & Awards Ceremony. The documentary ‘Happy” was the big winner, taking home the Student Award and the Audience Award. ‘Happy’ is described as a documentary infused with wisdom and warmth and abounds with life lessons. Filmed in more than fourteen countries, the film takes you around the world looking for universal truths about happiness, inquiring of scientists and surfers alike. But what happens quite naturally is that you learn something about your own state of mind and how you best might be, yes, happy.

    Winners

    2011 Student Award
    Winner: Happy

    2011 Moving Mountains Prize
    Winner: We Still Live Here: As Nutayunean

    2011 Festival Director’s Award
    Winner: Undercity

    2011 Cinematography Award
    Winner: Into Eternity
    Life Cycles

    2011 Charlie Fowler Award
    Winner: Cold
    Towers of the Ennedi

    2011 Audience Award
    Winner: Happy

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  • 2011 Little Rock Film Festival Winners; The Interrupters Wins Audience Award

    [caption id="attachment_1423" align="alignnone" width="560"]Arkansas Times Audience Award – The Interrupters[/caption]

    The 5th annual Little Rock Film Festival came to an end on Sunday, after screening more than more than 100 films to a record audience of over 25,000 attendees.  The comedy “Natural Selection” won Best Narrative Film and ‘Marathon Boy’ won Best Documentary; but it was the documentary “The Interrupters” which took home the Audience Award.

    The winners:

    Best Music Video

    Matt and Todd Wolfe, Pillow Fight

    Best World Short

    The Man who Knew How to Fly

    Arkansas Times Audience Award

    The Interrupters

    Special Jury Prize for Courage in Filmmaking

    Hossein Keshavarz, Dog Sweat

    “Made in Arkansas” Best Actor

    Dustin Alford, Foot Soldier

    “Made in Arkansas” Best Director

    The Miller Brothers, Pillow

    Ishares Charles B Pierce Award for Best “Made in Arkansas” Film

    The Orderly Daniel Campbell

    The Golden Rock for Best Documentary

    Marathon Boy

    The Golden Rock for Best Narrative Feature

    Natural Selection, Robbie Pickering

    Oxford American Best Southern Film Award

    The Last Mountain

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  • CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival (WSFF) 2011 Winners; The Gruffalo is voted TELUS Audience Choice Award

    [caption id="attachment_1421" align="alignnone" width="560"]TELUS Audience Choice Award – The Gruffalo[/caption]

    Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival aka CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival (WSFF), announced the winners of the Festival’s 2011 awards. Nine awards and over $90,000 in cash and prizes were presented to Canadian and international filmmakers.

    This festival,now in its 17th year, is very important as it is one of only four Canadian festivals accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®, WSFF Canadian award winners are eligible for Genie Awards, while winners of the awards for Best Live-Action Short and Best Animated Short become eligible for the Academy Awards®.

    The Bravo!FACT Award for Best Canadian Short and a cash prize of $5,000 was captured by director Martin Thibaudeau for COLD BLOOD (SANG FROID) (Canada). The jury remarked: “This deftly-scripted emotional family drama doesn’t waste a single frame and caused the jury’s hearts to beat faster, and eyes to water.”

    The Deluxe Award for Best Live Action Short was awarded to Rudi Rosenberg’s AGLAÉE(France) garnering him $2,500 in cash and eligibility for next year’s Academy Awards®. The jury remarked: “This stand-out teenage drama captivated the jury with its outstanding young performances and its truthful portrayal of adolescence, in all its beauty and ugliness. A film directed with brio that is unsettling and above all else, refreshing.” An Honourable Mention goes to Samuel Tilman’s film SLEEPLESS NIGHT (NUIT BLANCHE)(Belgium).

    The Deluxe Award for Best Performance in a Live-Action Short was awarded to actors Aline Kolditz and Lea Kolditz as Mieke in Daniel Karl Krause’s FATHERMOTHERCHILD (VATERMUTTERKIND) (Germany) along with a $2,500 cash prize. The jury remarked: “These young actors deliver an amazing and convincing characterization in a film that delivers a powerful punch. The role required a maturity and complex understanding of an adult environment in a sustained performance that shocks to the core.”

    The Kodak Award for Best Cinematography in a Canadian Short was presented to Cinematographer Ian Lagarde for Annick Blanc’s film NOWHERE ELSEWHERE (AU MILIEU DE NULLE PART AILLEURS) (Canada) along with $2,000 in 35mm stock. The jury remarked: “The film transported us to a world where anxiety meets the naïveté of childhood thanks to a remarkable cinematography which gives a very specific tone to this cinematographic gem.”

    The Panasonic Award For Best Documentary Short: went to Susan Koenen’s I AM A GIRL!, (Netherlands). The jury remarked: “The winner of Best Documentary Short is a film that tackles a teenager’s challenging transformation, using an effervescent approach to its music, cinematography and symbolism to portray a femininity and innocence that is unexpectedly accurate.” The prize package includes a Camcorder, LCD television, Blu-ray player and a digital stills camera (total package $5,000)

    Best Animated Short honour and a Panasonic digital video camcorder (and Academy Award eligibility) went to Iain Gardner for THE TANNERY (UK). The jury remarked: “This lovely parable about the mysteries of the cycle of life is as beautiful as it is touching. A film that will stay with you long after viewing.”

    An Honourable Mention goes to Robert Proch’s THE GALLERY (GALERIA) (Poland), a film that playfully explores gender roles and behaviour with a wry sense of humour and a jaunty fluid line. The Best Experimental Short honour along with a Panasonic digital video camcorder went to Kiitos, Hannes Vartiainen and Pekka Veikkolainen for THE DEATH OF AN INSECT (ERÄÄN HYÖNTEISEN TUHO) (Finland). The jury remarked: “This particular short engaged the jury by its use of various innovative audio and visual techniques which evoked curiosity, wonder, disgust and fascination.”

    And finally, the Screenplay Giveaway Prize, a package of goods and services worth over $70,000 was awarded to David Widdicombe for his script WAKE. A runner’s up award was given to Jason Hreno for SAM AND REA’S FAULT.

    The TELUS Audience Choice Award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize was awarded to THE GRUFFALO.

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  • Tiffany Shlain’s award-winning documentary CONNECTED to be released in the Fall

    Tiffany Shlain’s award-winning documentary CONNECTED which premiered in the Documentary Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival will be released this fall by Paladin. CONNECTED will open in San Francisco in September, and expand to other major markets, including New York and Los Angeles, throughout the fall.

    With wonderful heart and an impressive sense of scale, Tiffany Shlain’s vibrant and insightful documentary, CONNECTED, explores the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time—the environment, consumption, population growth, technology, human rights, the global economy—while searching for her place in the world during a transformative time in her life. Employing a splendidly imaginative combination of animation and archival footage, plus several surprises, Shlain constructs a chronological tour of Western modernization through the work of her late father, Leonard Shlain, a surgeon and best-selling author of Art and Physics and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. With humor, curiosity and irony, the Shlain family life merges with philosophy to create both a personal portrait and a proposal for ways we can move forward as a civilization. An exhilarating rollercoaster ride, the film proposes that after centuries of declaring independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence instead.

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  • Music Box Films to release the French film, ‘The Conquest’ in the US

    Music Box Films will release in the US, the French film THE CONQUEST, directed by Xavier Durringer, a political drama about the political ascendency of the current French president Nicolas Sarkozy.  Based entirely on public documents and first person accounts, THE CONQUEST is the story of seemingly unstoppable ambition, riddled with backstage maneuverings, fits of anger and vicious confrontations with political rivals and loved ones alike. In short, the story of a man who gains the highest office at the price of his greatest love.

    Music Box Films is currently planning an aggressive US theatrical release of THE CONQUEST to precede the upcoming American presidential primary season.

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  • 9 Films to Receive $150,000 in Documentary Finishing Funds from Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund

    [caption id="attachment_1415" align="alignnone" width="485"]An American Promise, Directed by Michele Stephenson & Joe Brewster[/caption]

    The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) and Gucci announced the 2011 recipients selected for the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund. The Fund, now in its fourth year, provides finishing finances, year-round support and guidance to domestic and international documentary filmmakers with feature-length films highlighting and humanizing issues of social importance from around the world.

    A jury consisting of Jessica Alba, Amir Bar-Lev, Wendy Ettinger, Frida Giannini, Edward Norton, and Mariane Pearl, selected 9 projects from 450 submissions from 38 countries to receive a total of $150,000, to be administered by the Tribeca Film Institute.

    New this year, The PPR Corporate Foundation for Women’s Dignity & Rights, has joined the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, and created the Spotlighting Women Documentary Award which will annually provide funding of $50,000. Three film projects that illuminate the courage, compassion, extraordinary strength of character, and contributions of women from around the world have been chosen for the inaugural award.

    The projects that will collectively receive $100,000 total in funding for the 2011 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund are:

    –          An American Promise, Directed by Michele Stephenson & Joe Brewster—An American Promise  follows filmmaker-parents who spend 12 years with the camera turned on themselves and another African American family as their firstborn sons enter a prestigious college preparatory school in 1999. An intimate, poignant and complex portrayal of how race and privilege are experienced by African American middle class families today.

    –          Caught in the Net, Directed by Hilla Medalia—Caught in the Net follows China as the first country in the world to classify Internet Addiction as a clinical disorder. The film features a Beijing treatment center where Chinese teenagers are being de-programmed. We follow the lives of three teens from the day they arrive throughout their three month treatment period and their return home.

    –          Democrats, Directed by Camilla Nielsson and Produced by Henrik Veileborg—Democrats is a film about the creation of a new constitution in Zimbabwe. The film follows two top politicians, who have been appointed to lead the country through the reform process. The two men are political opponents, but united in the ambition to make history by giving the nation a new founding document – that can give birth to the future’s Zimbabwe.

    –          The Great Invisible, Produced and Directed by Margaret Brown and Produced by Jason Orans—The Great Invisible is a feature-length look at the global oil economy through the lens of characters that work in the oil and fishing industries on the Gulf Coast. Much like Margaret Brown’s last documentary The Order of Myths, this film will be shot in a verité style with select interviews to supplement verité information. In addition to the people in the film, the landscapes of the oil world will be established as a distinct character.

    –          Untitled Global Health Documentary, Directed by Kief Davidson— Untitled Global Health Documentary is the story of Partners In Health, a remarkable public health charity operating in the world’s poorest countries PIH’s controversial founders, including Dr. Paul Farmer are larger-than-life heroes, fighting to change the way the world cares for the poorest among us, by insisting on healthcare as an inalienable human right.

    –          Charge, Directed by Mike Plunkett—Charge is a look at the Green Revolution already underway,  and the conflict over lithium, a key energy resource, which has rapidly escalated. Against a background of conflict, the disparate fates of three men hang in the balance.

    The projects that will collectively receive $50,000 total in funding for the inaugural 2011 Spotlighting Women Documentary Award are:

    –          Barefoot Engineers, Directed by Jehane Noujaim—Barefoot Engineers follows three women who leave their remote villages to go on a life-changing journey to India with the hopes of becoming Solar Engineers. When they return to their villages, they will wire their communities and turn on the lights.

    –          Justice for Sale, Directored by Ilse & Femke van Velzen—Justice for Sale is a dramatic story which follows two young, courageous human rights lawyers who refuse to accept that justice is indeed “For Sale” in their country. Claudine and her husband Eugene, fight for justice to end impunity in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    –          The World Before Her, Directed by Nisha Pahuja—The World Before Her asks: Beauty Pageants– passé in the West–but in India, where women remain second-class citizens, can they actually be empowering? The World Before Her follows two converging story lines–that of the girls who want to become Miss India, and that of the forces that want the pageant banned.

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  • Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival to premiere on video-on-demand (VOD) beginning June 23, 2011

    [caption id="attachment_1324" align="alignnone" width="560"]TURKEY BOWL[/caption]

    Tribeca Film and ESPN have partnered to present the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival which will premiere on video-on-demand (VOD) beginning June 23, 2011, through August 25, 2011.   The Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival On Demand lineup of titles cover a wide spectrum of sports, including: CATCHING HELL, from director Alex Gibney, about baseball’s most famous scapegoats; TURKEY BOWL, a narrative feature about a group of friends that get together every year for the time,-honored tradition of touch football; RENÉE, about transgender tennis player Renée Richards; FIRE IN BABYLON, about the champion West Indies cricket team; and BOYS OF SUMMER, about the Little League World Series.

    The Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival On Demand will also feature select titles from ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, including: THE TWO ESCOBARS, THE U and PONY EXCESS.

    Following are the upcoming titles to premiere On Demand from June 23 – August 25:

    CATCHING HELL documents the pop fly that will live in infamy. When Chicagoan Steve Bartman fatefully deflected a foul ball in Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship, the city’s long-suffering Cubs fans found someone new to blame for their cursed century without a World Series title. Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney explores the psychology of diehard sports fans, the frightening phenomenon of scapegoating, and the hysteria that turned mild-mannered Bartman into the most hated fan.  Produced by ESPN Films, CATCHING HELL recently had its World Premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and will premiere on ESPN September 27th.

    FIRE IN BABLYON tells the captivating story of the glorious domination of the West Indian cricket team, who, with a combination of phenomenal skill and fearless spirit, became the one of the greatest teams in sports history.  Told in the words of legendary and revered players of the time, including Sir Viv Richards, Michael Holding, and Sir Clive Lloyd, FIRE IN BABYLON illustrates how this exceptional team fundamentally changed the sport forever. With their mastery of ‘fast-bowling’ with pitches that sometimes reached a deadly 90 miles per hour, they hijacked the genteel game of the privileged elite and played it on their own terms. With impressive archival footage and a robust soundtrack that includes the likes of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Gregory Issacs, Faithless and Horace Andy, FIRE IN BABYLON celebrates the emancipation of a people through sport, whilst painting a fascinating picture of this extraordinary era of sporting dominance and its roots in politics, pride, anti-colonial fury and music. Directed by Stevan Riley and produced by award-winning filmmakers Charles Steel and John Battsek, FIRE IN BABYLON recently had its US Premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

    RENÉE chronicles the life of trailblazing transsexual athlete Renée Richards, who shook the world of sports in 1977 with her controversial entry into the US Open. Simultaneously, it follows her today as she struggles to cope with a life of contradictions and personal conflict. Through interviews with tennis legends, family, friends and experts from the transsexual field, a story of perseverance, breakthrough and hardship unfolds. Directed by Eric Drath and produced by ESPN Films, RENÉE recently had its World Premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and will premiere on ESPN October 4th.

    TURKEY BOWL tells the story of 10 friends who gather together every summer in LA to play the Turkey Bowl – a co-ed touch football game that brings a piece of small-town tradition to the urban sprawl – all for the beloved prize for the winning team… a turkey. Friendships flare and fade, jealousy is met with laughter and pain, old and unrequited love threatens to remain old and unrequited – all of these undercurrents are revealed in the unique, improvised rhythm of this backyard sport and this real-time comedy. Written and directed by Kyle Smith (and funded by his win on the reality show “Crash Course”), feature film TURKEY BOWL was a fan favorite at the recent SXSW Film Festival.  TURKEY BOWL will also have a limited New York run beginning on June 3, 2011 at the reRun Theater.

    The following is available from July 21 – August 25:

    BOYS OF SUMMER follows a scrappy Little League® team from a tiny Caribbean island as they fight the odds to reach the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Curaçao youth baseball team has competed at the Little League World Series in America for an incredible seven consecutive years.  Over the course of one season, the boys face injuries and obstacles as they try to keep the winning streak alive.  Determined team manager Vernon Isabella and his players learn the meaning of national pride in a story that travels from a humble island ball field to the international spotlight and back.  Directed, shot and produced by Keith Aumont, BOYS OF SUMMER has had a successful run on the film festival circuit, including the Aruba International Film Festival, the New York International Latino Film Festival, the New Orleans Film Festival, the Palm Beach International Film Festival, the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival and the Latin American Film Festival.

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  • New York Asian Film Festival 10th Anniversary Line-up

    [caption id="attachment_1412" align="alignnone" width="560"]Official Opening Night Film, MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY[/caption]

    The New York Asian Film Festival celebrates its tenth birthday and returns to the Lincoln Center July 1 – 14, 2011, and Japan Society July 7 – 10, 2011. MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY will be featured as the official opening night film, and THE YELLOW SEA as the official closing night film. Other highlights, or presents as the festival calls them includes: A Takashi Miike World Premiere! The long-awaited animated epic based on Osamu Tezuka¹s life of Buddha! The International Premiere of the new movie from Johnnie To! Rare Filipino exploitation! An avalanche of retro screenings to celebrate our tenth birthday! And special guests Tsui Hark, Ryoo Seung-Wan, Su Chao-pin, Takayuki Yamada, Tak Sakaguchi and many more!

    The New York Asian Film Festival is presented in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Japan Society’s Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film.

    The Line-Up!!!!
    Official Opening Night Film
    MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY (Japan, 2011, North American Premiere, 90 minutes) Truly trippy, this bizarro musical/variety/samurai/love story from Japan is one solid slab of psychedelia from Yoshimasa Ishibashi, the mad genius behind the Fuccon Family.
    ***The movie’s director, Yoshimasa Ishibashi, and star, Takayuki Yamada, will be at the screenings
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    Centerpiece Presentation
    SHAOLIN (Hong Kong, 2011, North American Premiere, 131 minutes) It doesn’t get any bigger than this. Superstar Andy Lau, Nic Tse and Jackie Chan all star in this swank, blockbuster retelling of the primal martial arts story: the destruction of Shaolin Temple, which is the birthplace of martial arts. It’s a movie that’s been made many times (hence the alternate title NEW SHAOLIN TEMPLE) but never before has it been this massive, this lavish and this chock full o’action.
    ***The movie’s director, Benny Chan, will be at the screening

    Centerpiece Presentation
    NINJA KIDS!!! (Japan, 2011, World Premiere, 100 minutes) – Takashi Miike has been impressing critics with 13 ASSASSINS and his 3D remake of HARA KIRI that just played Cannes. Whatever. We’ve got the World Premiere of his insane new kid’s flick about feuding ninja schools. People wonder where all the craziness went from Miike’s two new films? He put it all in here. Your jaw will drop like an elevator with a snapped cable. We love you, Takashi Miike!!!
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    Official Closing Night Film
    THE YELLOW SEA (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 156 minutes) – from the director of THE CHASER, and fresh out of Cannes, this is the Korean action movie in excelsis. A North Korean immigrant is sent to Seoul to perform a hit. Soon the Chinese mafia, the Korean mafia and the cops, are after him and hatchets are deployed, trucks are flipped and all hell breaks loose.
    ***The movie’s director, Na Hong-Jin will be at the screening

    The 2011 Star Asia Awards will go to:

    Star Asia Rising Star Award
    Takayuki Yamada – Japan’s most versatile young actor has gone from being a TV heartthrob to a TRAIN MAN (his breakthrough role) to one of Takashi Miike’s 13 ASSASSINS. And in this year’s Opening Night selection, MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY, he plays every single male part.

    Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award
    Tsui Hark – One of our first events was a retrospective of Hong Kong’s veteran filmmaker and award-winning director, Tsui Hark, way back in 2001. We figured it was time to bring him to the festival and recognize his extraordinary, lifelong contributions to Hong Kong cinema, especially after his latest film, DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME, was a huge box office hit and won “Best Director” at the Hong Kong Film Awards 2011.

    The festival also has three special focuses:
    WU XIA: HONG KONG’S FLYING SWORDSMEN
    Presented with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, this special focus is on Hong Kong’s wu xia (literally “martial arts”) films. It’s a genre that’s unique to Hong Kong and while it’s all about showcasing the Chinese martial arts tradition it’s come to refer specifically to that brain-expanding genre of Hong Kong movies that use the cutting edge of cinematography and the best special effects of the time to paint a world full of flying swordsmen, deadly female warriors, legendary blades and more than a touch of fantasy.

    This line-up will include:
    DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (Hong Kong, 2010, 122 minutes) – Tsui Hark’s return to greatness is a Holmes-ian fantasia about spontaneous combustion and kung fu deer. An exiled detective is returned to favor in the Imperial court to solve a series of mysterious deaths that delay the inauguration of the Empress Wu, played by Carina Lau, who won “Best Actress” at the Hong Kong Film Awards 2011 for her performance. The movie also won top prizes in Art Direction, Costume and Make-up Design as well as in Sound Design and Visual Effects.
    ***The movie’s director, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    THE BLADE (Hong Kong, 1995, 100 minutes) – a rare screening of Tsui Hark’s martial masterpiece, this is one of the towering achievements of Chinese cinema. In a rare 35mm print.
    ***The movie’s director, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    DUEL TO THE DEATH (Hong Kong, 1983, 83 minutes) – Ching Siu-tung’s directorial debut deploys ninjas, poisoned blades and some of the world’s most innovative choreography to create a movie that’s one part martial arts film, one part exploitation shocker and one part ballet. Screening on a rare 35mm print!

    DRAGON INN (Hong Kong, 1992, 109 minutes) – two of Hong Kong’s greatest actresses, Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin, take on Donnie Yen’s bloodless eunuch in this Tsui Hark-produced swordplay romance. Directed by Raymond Lee, it’s a remake of King Hu’s 1967 masterpiece. A brand new print of this classic film, struck specially for the New York Asian Film Festival.
    ***The movie’s producer, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    ZU: WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (Hong Kong, 1983, 94 minutes) – the movie that launched a thousand wu xia, Tsui Hark’s surreal phantasmagoria will blow your mind. Recruiting Hollywood special effects technicians just off Star Wars and Star Trek the Motion Picture, Tsui Hark’s film reinvented a genre and kickstarted Hong Kong’s entire special effects industry. This is a rare chance to see a 35mm print of this movie in all its big screen glory.
    ***The movie’s director, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    Special focus:
    SEA OF REVENGE: NEW KOREAN THRILLERS
    In 2008, when the Korean film industry was at its lowest point, Na Hong-Jin released the word-of-mouth hit, THE CHASER, launching a wave of twisty thrillers focused on intense action and ace performances. In this special focus, presented in association with the Korean Cultural Service New York, we show you the best of what THE CHASER has wrought.

    This line-up will include:
    THE YELLOW SEA (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 156 minutes) – Na Hong-Jin reunites with his stars from THE CHASER to make this big, relentless follow-up. We’ve got it fresh from its Cannes screening as part of Un Certain Regard
    ***The movie’s director, Na Hong-Jin, will be at the screening

    THE UNJUST (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 119 minutes) – longtime festival favorite, action director Ryoo Seung-Wan, turns in this epic, sprawling corruption saga that recalls Sidney Lumet back in his PRINCE OF THE CITY days.
    ***The movie’s director, Ryoo Seung-Wan, will be at the screening

    BEDEVILLED (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 115 minutes) – this time, the ladies are doing it. An all-female version of DELIVERANCE, where a city slicker goes to an insular rural community where she’s not wanted. Possibly the greatest women vs. men movie ever made, lead actress Seo Young-Hee took home six “Best Actress” awards for her performance here.

    THE CHASER (Korea, 2008, 125 minutes) – the thriller that saved the Korean film industry, this mega-hit is what you’d get if you cross-bred Alfred Hitchcock with a pit bull.
    ***The movie’s director, Na Hong-Jin, will be at the screening

    HAUNTERS (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 114 minutes) – 50% superhero movie, 50% horror movie and 100% Korean thriller, this bigtime commercial hit is about a troubled kid who can control minds and the simple guy, immune to his ability, who’s out to stop him.

    THE MAN FROM NOWHERE (Korea, 2010, 119 minutes) – one part Batman, one part Bourne, Korean mega-star, Won Bin, revamped his image as a hard man of action with this movie about a spy coming out of retirement to take on a ring of organ harvesters. The number one movie at the Korean box office in 2010 (beating INCEPTION and IRON MAN 2), it took home SIXTEEN film awards!

    TROUBLESHOOTER (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 99 minutes) – produced by Ryoo Seung-Wan, this is a classic “wrong man” movie, only this time the wrong man is a hardcore ex-cop (Sol Kyung-Gu from the highly successful PUBLIC ENEMY series) and it’s got the black, bleak sense of absurdist humor most thrillers lack.
    ***The movie’s producer, Ryoo Seung-Wan, and director, Kwok Hyeok-Jae, will be at the screening

    Special focus:
    SU CHAO-PIN: TAIWAN’S KING OF ENTERTAINMENT
    In the US, we think of Taiwanese movies as an endless stream of art films. But with the support of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, we are proud to bring to New York one of the few Taiwanese directors who makes blockbuster hits that actual real live people go to see: Su Chao-pin!

    This line-up will include:
    REIGN OF ASSASSINS (Hong Kong/Taiwan/China, 2010, 117 minutes, New York Premiere) – co-directed with John Woo, starring Michelle Yeoh and Korean star Jung Woo-Sung, this massive martial arts hit gives the genre a beating, bleeding, romantic heart.
    ***The movie’s director and writer, Su Chao-pin, will be at the screening

    THE CABBIE (Taiwan, 2000, 94 minutes) – Su’s first movie set new trends in Taiwan for actually being entertaining. He wrote this flick based on his experiences driving a cab, and it’s a fast-paced black comedy about a cabbie in love with a traffic cop.
    ***The movie’s writer, Su Chao-pin, will be at the screening

    BTS: BETTER THAN SEX (Taiwan, 2002, 92 minutes) – one of the most hyperactive, funniest movies about sex you’ll ever see. Pity this poor teenage porn-addict who just wants to find a real girl. Way ahead of its time, this movie manages to be all about sex without feeling pervy. ***The movie’s director and writer, Su Chao-pin, will be at the screening

    And now the full line-up!

    CHINA
    BUDDHA MOUNTAIN (China, 2010, North American Premiere, 105 minutes) – gobbling up festival awards around the world, Sylvia Chang stars as a suicidal landlady who rents an apartment to three irritating young hipsters in this transcendent drama from Li Yu (LOST IN BEIJING) one of the only female directors working in China. Popular actress, Fan Bingbing (SHAOLIN), stars as one of the hipsters, but it’s Sylvia Chang, the most important woman in Chinese show business in the 70’s and 80’s, who owns this movie.

    OCEAN HEAVEN (China/Hong Kong, 2010, New York Premiere, 96 minutes) – directed by another female director, this movie sees Jet Li team up with cinematographer Christopher Doyle and composer Joe Hisaishi to make a restrained, heartbreaking movie about a dad (Jet Li) trying to teach his autistic son how to live on his own. Beautifully shot, scored, acted and observed, it’s got no action, all heartbreak.

    HONG KONG
    THE BLADE (Hong Kong, 1995, 100 minutes) – part of Wu Xia focus.
    ***The movie’s director, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (Hong Kong, 2010, 122 minutes) – part of Wu Xia focus.
    ***The movie’s director, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    DRAGON INN (Hong Kong, 1992, 109 minutes) – part of Wu Xia focus. Brand new print!
    ***The movie’s producer, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    DUEL TO THE DEATH (Hong Kong, 1983, 83 minutes) – part of Wu Xia focus.

    PUNISHED (Hong Kong, 2011, International Premiere, 94 minutes) – the latest movie produced by Johnnie To, this is a hardcore revenge drama featuring a powerhouse turn by Anthony Wong as a real estate billionaire whose wild child daughter has been kidnapped. Bullet-to-the-head action the way Hong Kong used to do it.

    SHAOLIN (Hong Kong/China, 2011, North American Premiere, 131 minutes) – Centerpiece Presentation
    ***The movie’s director, Benny Chan, will be at the screening

    RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY (Hong Kong, 1991, 91 minutes) – the classic Hong Kong midnight action movie about prison privatization and monsters who strangle you with their guts. Rarely seen on the big screen, this is a full-on, ridiculously crazy mind-melter full of crucifixion, flaying, classic kung fu combat and prison wardens who keep breath mints in their glass eyeballs.

    ZU: WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (Hong Kong, 1983 94 minutes) – part of Wu Xia focus.
    ***The movie’s director, Tsui Hark, will be at the screening

    JAPAN
    13 ASSASSINS: DIRECTOR’S CUT (Japan, 2010, 141 minutes, New York Premiere) – the complete UNCUT version of Takashi Miike’s samurai masterpiece. With 17 minutes of original footage restored.
    ***One of the movie’s stars, Takayuki Yamada, will be at the screening

    ABRAXAS (Japan, 2010, New York Premiere, 113 minutes) – straight outta Sundance comes this movie about a punk rocker turned Buddhist monk who still yearns to rock out.

    BATTLE ROYALE (Japan, 2000, 114 minutes) – a celebratory screening of Kinji Fukasaku’s masterpiece now that it finally – after 10 years!!!! – has a new distributor who wants people to actually see it.
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI (Japan, 2010, North American Premiere, 109 minutes) – the director of FISH STORY and GOLDEN SLUMBER returns to the festival with this family film about a samurai who winds up in the modern era. Surprisingly, it then becomes an exceptional food movie! This is the father-son movie you’ve been looking for.

    DARK ON DARK (Japan, 2011, International Premiere, 17 minutes) – this short film is the directorial debut from Makoto Ohtake, a well-known Japanese comedian and actor since the 80’s (he’s worked extensively with Takeshi Kitano and the popular City Boys troupe). It’s all about a two-bit talent manager and his outrageously endowed adult video talent bringing peace into the world via their various “gifts.” Screens with HORNY HOUSE OF HORROR.

    GANTZ and GANTZ: PERFECT ANSWER (Japan, 2011, 130 minutes & 150 minutes) – presented back-to-back it’s the uncut, subtitled, live action movies based on Japan’s existential sci fi action manga. It’s the New York Premiere of the subtitled GANTZ and the North American Premiere of the subtitled GANTZ: PERFECT ANSWER.
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    HEAVENS STORY (Japan, 2010, North American Premiere, 278 minutes) – “King of Pink Films” Takahisa Zeze spent almost two years shooting this 4 hour movie about two random murders and the heartbreak, trauma and healing that spills out from them over the next two decades. Monumental and strange, passionate and philosophical, this is an epic in every sense of the word and a towering achievement in film.
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    HORNY HOUSE OF HORROR (Japan, 2010, North American Premiere, 75 minutes) ­ Japan does the violent porno horror thing better than anyone else and this oddity features butt-walls, wiener-eating and demon hookers. This is the directorial debut from the writer of MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD, and it’s firmly in the vein of that film and ROBO GEISHA. Only, you know, set in a horny house that’s full of horror.
    Preceded by: DARK ON DARK (see above, 17 minutes)

    KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR (Japan, 2011, New York Premiere, 106 minutes) ­ Noboru Iguchi (Robo Geisha) makes his best film yet. Not just that, but this is the best-looking flick from label, Sushi Typhoon, yet. Slick, big budget and almost family friendly, it’s based on an obscure TV show from the 70’s about a young, bright-eyed police officer and his karate robot (who transforms into a motorcycle) fighting crime. But in Iguchi’s version, the two split up and have to reunite years later after middle-age has taken its toll.

    THE LAST DAYS OF THE WORLD (Japan, 2011, World Premiere, 96 minutes) – a return to the trippy, socially-engaged, blackly comic, ridiculously violent revolutionary movies of Japan’s 60’s. A high school student has a vision that the world is ending and so, faced with no consequences, he abducts a fellow student and goes on a crime spree.

    LOVE AND LOATHING AND LULU AND AYANO (Japan, 2010, North American Premiere, 105 minutes) – based on a book of interviews with porn film dayworkers, this exuberant, anime-influenced movie about life on the bottom rungs of the adult film business treats life in the porno business as a chance for some actors to escape their humdrum, everyday existences.
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY (Japan, 2011, North American Premiere, 90 minutes) – Opening Night Movie
    ***The movie’s director, Yoshimasa Ishibashi, and star, Takayuki Yamada, will be at the screenings
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    NINJA KIDS!!! (Japan, 2011, World Premiere, 100 minutes) – Centerpiece Presentation
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    OSAMU TEZUKA’S BUDDHA: THE GREAT DEPARTURE (Japan, 2011, North American Premiere, 111 minutes) – the much-anticipated animated epic based on Osamu Tezuka’s landmark life of the Buddha.
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film

    RINGING IN THEIR EARS (Japan, 2011, International Premiere, 89 minutes) – Yu Irie (8000 MILES 1 & 2) returns with this ambitious flick about an upcoming concert by a reclusive rock group and the managers, obsessed fans, shut-ins, single moms and kindergarten teachers who are affected by it. A true tribute to the healing power of rock and roll.
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    VERSUS (Japan, 2000, 120 minutes) – a tenth-anniversary celebration of the Japanese zombie action film that launched a thousand horror/splatter/action flicks.
    ***Star and action choreographer, Tak Sakaguchi, and writer, Yudai Yamaguchi, will be at the screening.

    YAKUZA WEAPON (Japan, 2011, New York Premiere, 105 minutes) – stuntman-turned-director, Tak Sakaguchi, turns in a high calibre, action-heavy riff on Robocop all about a robot yakuza out to put his fist through the skulls of the bad guys. From Sushi Typhoon, purveyor of movies like Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl.
    ***The movie’s director and star, Tak Sakaguchi, and co-director and writer, Yudai Yamaguchi, will be at the screening
    Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

    KOREA
    BATTLEFIELD HEROES (Korea, 2011, New York Premiere, 118 minutes) – an absurdist satire about war, this movie from Lee Joon-Ik (director of KING AND CLOWN, the highest-grossing Korean film of all time) is like a Terry Gilliam movie gone Korean as a farmer too poor to even have a name gets drafted into one of medieval Korea’s eternal wars.
    ***The movie’s director, Lee Joon-Ik, will be at the screening.

    BEDEVILLED (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 115 minutes) – part of Sea of Revenge focus.

    THE CHASER (Korean, 2008, 125 minutes) – part of Sea of Revenge focus.

    CITY OF VIOLENCE (Korea, 2006, 92 minutes) – an encore presentation of the best all-out action film from Ryoo Seung-Wan (THE UNJUST). Like a less ironic version of KILL BILL.
    ***The movie’s director, Ryoo Seung-Wan, will be at the screening

    FOXY FESTIVAL (Korea, 2010, North American Premiere, 110 minutes) ­ a “Making Our Neighborhoods Safe & Happy” festival has the vice cops working overtime in this multi-character comedy that’s like a Robert Altman flick about fetishes. Love – and handcuffs, and nipple clamps – all conspire to save the day from the forces of conformity.

    HAUNTERS (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 114 minutes) – part of Sea of Revenge focus.

    THE MAN FROM NOWHERE (Korea, 2010, 119 minutes) – part of Sea of Revenge focus.

    MSFF SHORTS (Korea, 2010) – Korea’s best directors assemble two selections of that country’s best short horror, action and comedy movies just for you.

    THE RECIPE (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 107 minutes) – a serial killer escapes from prison but is recaptured when he stops to eat a bowl of stew that’s so good he loses track of time. What is the secret behind the stew? Korea finally delivers its best food film with this kitchen romance.

    TROUBLESHOOTER (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 99 minutes) – part of Sea of Revenge focus.
    ***The movie’s producer, Ryoo Seung-Wan, and director, Kwok Hyeok-Jae, will be at the screening

    THE UNJUST (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 119 minutes) – part of Sea of Vengeance focus.
    ***The movie’s director, Ryoo Seung-Wan, will be at the screening

    THE YELLOW SEA (Korea, 2010, New York Premiere, 156 minutes) – Closing Night Movie
    Part of Sea of Revenge focus.
    ***The movie’s director, Na Hong-Jin, will be at the screening

    MALAYSIA
    SELL OUT (Malaysia, 2008, New York Premiere, 110 minutes) – one of the best, smartest and funniest movies ever made in Malaysia finally escapes from the clutches of its evil distributor and it was worth the wait. A musical about money, creativity and a reality show focusing on those who are about to die, this is like nothing else in our line-up except (maybe) MILOCRORZE.

    PHILIPPINES
    MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED (Australia, 2010, New York Premiere, 84 minutes) – from the people who made Not Quite Hollywood, comes this definitive documentary about the Filipino exploitation film bonanza that erupted in the 70’s and 80’s.

    RAW FORCE (Philippines/USA, 1982, 86 minutes) – one of the strangest Filipino/US co-productions from the 80’s, this rarely-screened exploitation fever dream is better known by its other title Kung Fu Cannibals. With zombies, ninjas, samurai, kung fu, and evil monks, this is the entire 1980’s exploitation industry fired into your eyes via firehose.

    TAIWAN
    BETTER THAN SEX (Taiwan, 2002, 92 minutes) ­ part of Su Chao-pin focus.
    ***The movie’s director, Su Chao-pin, will be at the screening

    THE CABBIE (Taiwan, 2000, 94 minutes) – part of Su Chao-pin focus
    ***The movie’s writer, Su Chao-pin, will be at the screening

    REIGN OF ASSASSINS (Hong Kong/Taiwan/China, 2010, 117 minutes) ­ part of Su Chao-pin focus.
    ***The movie’s co-director and writer, Su Chao-pin, will be at the screening

    THAILAND
    BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT (Thailand, 2010, New York Premiere, 105 minutes) – Tony Jaa’s mentor, Panna Rittikrai, will school you now. This exploitation stunt-tacular features all his best stuntmen and women unleashing muay thai, capoeira, dirt bike fu, shovel beatdowns, fights on fire, fights in the water, fights under trucks, fights in mid-air, and two back-to-back climactic smackdowns that have to be seen to be believed.

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  • REVIEW: Mike Mills Wonderful New Film “Beginners” stars Ewan MacGregor, Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent-and must be seen immediately!

    There are a certain few films that you know from the first few frames that something essential and true is being conjure. Mike Mills wonderful new film “Beginners,” starring Ewan MacGregor, Christopher Plummer, and Melanie Laurent, opens this week. Ewan MacGregor plays Oliver Fields, a sweet illustrator in his late thirties who quickly and quietly falls head over heels for French actress Anna (Melanie Laurent of “Inglorious Basterds”) while she is shacked up at the Biltmore Hotel during a film shoot. While falling into this new love, the commitment-shy Fields starts thinking about his late father, Hal Fields (Christopher Plummer).

    “Beginners” is based on a true story of Mills’ own elderly father’s decision to come-out as a gay man at 75- shortly after his wife’s passing-then begin to literally live out loud and proud as a gay man before succumbing to his own death from cancer, years later. Complete with a wonderful group of nurturing, gay friends and sweetly sexy, young lover (Goran Visnjic of “ER”), Hal’s new life enlightens and enables his son to see love in an entirely new light. In fact, his father’s joyous, fulfilling new existence allows Oliver to see that it is possible for him.

    Christopher Plummer plays Hal Fields with his own enigmatic, gorgeous ease, and it is amazing to see how MacGregor takes in and plays off the masterly performance from Plummer. It is truly one of the most beautiful father-son relationships I’ve ever seen depicted onscreen. Laurent is totally luminous, as usual, and also adds her own succinct generational weight to her portrait of Anna, a busy French actress who, before meeting Oliver, preferred the company of empty hotel rooms to any kind of real, breathing relationship.

    “Beginners” shows us how a certain post-Vietnam generation is still being haunted by the previous era’s mistakes, unhappiness and haunting nostalgia. Being a child born of the mid-Sixties himself, Mills uses his own highly creative and varied background as an music video director, illustrator and graphic artist to collage out feelings in a quietly beautiful, brand-new and whip-smart cinematic form. There is not a single false note in Ewan MacGregor’s performance. He and Laurent shine bright with both the quiet glory of new love, while battling off the heavy weight of their own, carried-down emotional baggage. Christopher Plummer is, quite simply, outstanding- giving a magnetic, warm and oh-so watchful performance as Oliver’s powerful memories of his now-deceased father resonate and collide with his present relationship.

    Amidst the memories, the nostalgia and the sweet tumult of the present, LA has rarely been given a better, more iconic treatment. The locations, from the Richard Neutra “Health House” occupied by Oliver’s dying father, to the hills of Griffith Park, to rollerskating (yes!) in the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel, Mills shows Los Angeles shining or smudged- all depending on Oliver’s mood. Oh, and there is a sanguine Jack Russell terrier, (once belonging to Hal,) who speaks to Oliver in hilariously plaintive subtitle.

    It’s an important, masterful film, as Mills seems to be shaping up to be one of only a handful of American filmmakers giving actual adults in this country a real voice and authentic identity. I cannot wait to see what he’s going to create next. Go and see this film for many reasons- but, please, please… just go and really see it.

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  • Bela Tarr’s “The Turin Horse” to be released in the US in the winter

    Bela Tarr’s apocalyptic masterpiece “The Turin Horse,” will be released in theaters in the US this winter, by Cinema Guild.

    On January 3, 1889 in Turin, Italy, Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the doorway of number six, Via Carlo Albert. Not far from him, the driver of a hansom cab is having trouble with a stubborn horse. Despite all his urging, the horse refuses to move, whereupon the driver loses his patience and takes his whip to it. Nietzsche comes up to the throng and puts an end to the brutal scene, throwing his arms around the horse’s neck, sobbing. His landlord takes him home, where he lies motionless and silent for two days on a divan until he mutters the obligatory last words, and lives for another ten years, silent and demented, cared for by his mother and sisters. Somewhere in the countryside, the driver of the hansom cab lives with his daughter and the horse. Outside, a windstorm rages.

    Widely considered one of the most important filmmakers in world cinema, Bela Tarr’s films include “Almanac of the Fall” (1985), “Damnation” (1988), “Sátántangó” (1994), “Werckmeister Harmonies” (2000) and “The Man from London” (2007). He has said “The Turin Horse” (2011) will be his last film.

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  • RIP: Leonard Kastle, Writer and Director of “The Honeymoon Killers”

    [caption id="attachment_1407" align="alignnone" width="560"]Leonard Kastle stands in front of a poster of The Honeymoon Killers[/caption]

    One-hit writer and director, Leonard Kastle, of his first and only film, “The Honeymoon Killers,” reportedly died May 18 at his home in Westerlo, N.Y., after a brief illness, said Tina Sisson, a friend. He was 82.

    “The Honeymoon Killers,” released in 1970, is described as a “grimly realistic, low-budget, black-and-white crime drama about a lowlife lothario and his overweight nurse lover whose partnership in conning lonely women leads to murder.”

    “The Honeymoon Killers” was based on the true-life story of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, the so-called Lonely Hearts Killers who were executed at New York’s Sing Sing prison in 1951.

    The film’s original director was reportedly a young Martin Scorsese. But Scorsese’s filmmaking pace was too slow and he was soon removed. Industrial filmmaker Donald Volkman then stepped in for a time before Kastle took over as the credited director.

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