The Seattle International Film Festival continues to expand to new communities outside Seattle, adding Renton as a SIFF venue in 2011. Renton screenings will take place May 20-26 at the IKEA Performing Arts Center. A special Opening Night Screening will take place in Renton on May 20, with a gala reception following at the Renton Pavilion Event Center.
Just a year after declaring bankruptcy, Gen Art is back. Gen Art announced that it has been acquired by Sandow Media and its first 2011 event will be the 16th annual Gen Art Film Festival in New York. This year the festival will run in June.
The GI Film Festival, the nation’s only film festival dedicated to the American Armed Forces, will celebrate its fifth anniversary May 9-15, 2011 in Washington, DC. The week-long festival, held during Armed Forces Appreciation Month, will bring Hollywood and the military together to create a venue for artists to tell the story of the American soldier, both past and present.
The Glasgow Film Festival returns for it’s seventh year to the city of Glasgow, Scotland, from February, 17–27, 2011. The Festival will open on Thursday 17 February with the UK gala premiere of François Ozon’s crowd-pleasing comedy Potiche starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu. Set in small-town France in the 1970s, the film is pure delight, combining hilarious farce with withering social commentary. Catherine Deneuve has one of the best roles of her recent career as a trophy wife in a period of rampant chauvinism who throws off the shackles of domestic servitude to assert her independence.
Asghar Farhadi’s “Nader and Simin, A Separation” was the big winner at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival, taking the Golden Bear for best film, with best actor and actress prizes split among the films’ ensemble male and female cast, which included the director’s teenage daughter, Sarina.
The Cinema Audio Society consisting of Sound Mixers and Associates from the Film and Television Industries announced the 47th Annual CAS Awards honorees and winners.
American Cinema Editors (ACE) announced the winners for the 61st Annual ACE Eddie Awards recognizing outstanding editing in nine categories of film, television and documentaries. Christopher Nolan received the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, while Career Achievement honors were bestowed on veteran film editors Michael Brown, A.C.E. and Michael Kahn, A.C.E. Director Joe Sargeant presented to Brown, with Steven Spielberg presenting to Kahn.
Walter Seltzer, a Hollywood producer who made seven films with Charlton Heston, has died. He was 96.
Louisville native Greg King and New Albany, Indiana filmmaker Ray Cart are among the winners of the top prizes at the 2011 Derby City Film Festival which was held February 18th through the 20th. Greg King and David Teague’s “Our House” took home Best Documentary and Cart’s “Queens of the Dead” won the Audience Choice award for favorite film.
The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF), April 7-17, 2011 in Sarasota, FL, and legendary San Francisco based punk rock video collective Target Video announced a collaboration today that will see the Sarasota Film Festival present a program of Target’s legendary performance videos. Entitled Futility Is Resistance: Treasures From The Target Video Archive (1977-84), the program features three nights of Target’s seminal, rarely seen punk rock performances. Shot by members of Target Video between 1977 and 1984, these videos, interview segments and live performances have long been sought after by underground video traders and music fans around the world. Target Video and The SFF will present three separate programs, featuring over 60 bands and four and a half hours of music, all presented on the big screen at the festival’s main screening venue, The Regal Hollywood 20.
The 2011 Oxford Film Festival came to a close last weekend, and Mississippi Innocence, the non-competition documentary by filmmaker Joe York, took home the top prize for overall audience favorite. Two years in the making and produced with Tucker Carrington and the Mississippi Innocence Project at the UM School of Law, Mississippi Innocence tells the compelling story of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, two men who combined spent over thirty years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit.
The Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada just wrapped its 7th edition and announced the 2011 winners. The festival The 2012 Dam Short Film Festival screened over 100 short films from all corners of the world with 38 film crews traveling to Boulder City. The next/upcoming – 2012 festival is scheduled for February 8-11, 2012.