
Forty-one songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 83rd Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

Forty-one songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 83rd Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

The first eight titles for the Competition programme of the 61st Berlin International Film Festival have been confirmed. In addition to the opening film True Grit by Joel and Ethan Coen another seven productions and co-productions have been selected. They include films from Turkey, the Netherlands, Israel, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the USA.

The Derby City Film Festival today announced the selected films for the 2011 edition. In total 67 films will screen during the three day festival which will be held February 18th – 20th, 2011 at the Clifton Center. Of those screening, 41 of the films have been selected for competition.

Toronto International Film Festival has compiled its list of the top 10 Canadian feature films and short films in 2010. “It’s a pretty diverse list, everything from micro-budget movies to international co-productions,” Steve Gravestock, TIFF’s associate director of Canadian programming said.

Big changes are planned for the the 2011 Staten Island Film Festival scheduled for June 8 – 12, 2011. First up the festival is moving and will not return to the College of Staten Island. Instead the festival will screen its films at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Staten Island Zoo and the St. George Theatre with an additional screening at the Joan and Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center of Staten Island.

Actor Sean Penn did not attend the Dubai International Film Festival where he was to accept the DIFF Lifetime Achievement Award at the Festival’s opening ceremony on December 12, 2010. The actor reportedly remained in Haiti with his charity the J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO), amid concerns for the charity’s staff in the wake of violent protests following the recent disputed presidential election

The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the 20th annual New York Jewish Film Festival at the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater, The Jewish Museum, and The JCC in Manhattan, Jan. 12-27, 2011. The festival’s 36 features and shorts from 14 countries—31 screening in their world, U.S. or New York premieres—provide a diverse global perspective on the Jewish experience. In celebration of the festival’s 20th anniversary, several film screenings will be followed by filmmakers and special guests in onstage discussions and/or performances.

The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards nominations were announced this morning and The Kings Speech lead the field with 7 nominations followed by The Fighter and the critics’ favorite The Social Network with 6 nominations.

The National Board of Review announced their film awards for 2010. No real surprises on the list.

Armenian-American documentary filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian, whose 70 educational and documentary films have won more than 160 national and international awards, including two Emmy nominations, died Dec. 10 in his Thousand Oaks, Calif., home. He was 97.

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their awards for the best films of 2010 on Monday night and again, The Social Network is the top film of the year. As reported by the NJ.com, this year’s voting, held at New York’s Regency Hotel and done by secret ballot, took nearly four hours. The prizes will be awarded at a gala dinner on January 10th at the Manhattan nightspot, Crimson.

The Toronto Film Critics Association has announced its 2010 winners and what is becoming very much expected, David Fincher’s The Social Network took the top prizes including Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Supporting Actor (Armie Hammer) and Best Screenplay. Not to be ignored is the documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” Winner of Best Documentary Feature and Best First Feature; and Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone.”