A decline in funding has forced the Calgary International Film Festival to lay off most of its full-time staff, including the director of programming, Trevor Smith, director of operations Christian Argyll and sponsorship marketing manager Danielle Kondruk, leaving executive director Jacqueline Dupuis as the only full-time staff member.
The Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival has reported that this year was a record-breaking year for the festival, with the highest ticket sales ever. Over 18,400 tickets were sold, compared to the approximately 17,900 sold last year.
After applying her Midas touch to the book publishing world with her book club, talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey is looking to do the same to the film world with a documentary club. OWN:Oprah Winfrey Network has announced it has acquired three films, “One Lucky Elephant,” “65_RedRoses” and “Most Valuable Players,” that will join the upcoming monthly documentary film club lineup
Canadian director Bruce LaBruce’s controversial gay porn horror film LA Zombie, which stars a French porn star as a schizophrenic homeless man who believes he is a cannibalistic ghoul,” and depicts homosexual sex, full-frontal male nudity, and necrophilia, was withdrawn from the Melbourne International Film Festival in July after it failed to get a pass from the Australian Film Classification Board.
CMJ Network, Inc. has announced the dates for its 2011 CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival. The festival will take place from Tuesday, October 18 to Saturday, October 22, 2011 in New York City.
Fifteen features have been accepted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.
Documentary film “The Human Experience” produced by Grassroots Films of Brooklyn, New York, is getting some marketing help from some local Catholic organizations in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Six screenings of the film are planned for next week in Kalamazoo as part of a “Welcome Home for Christmas” campaign aimed at lapsed , said Steve Goffeney, executive director of the organization planning it, Newman’s Bookshoppe: The Catholic Information Center of Southwestern Michigan.
It took seven years but Colorado filmmaker Neil Truglio, has written and directed his very first feature film, We Are the Sea.
The Indian medical community is upset with producers of the Bollywood film Guzaarish after posters were released showing the lead actress holding a cigarette. Doctors think it is sending a wrong message to the youth on smoking.
The Algerian film “The Outlaws” by director Rachid Bouchareb won the Gold Award and the Best Arab Film Award at the 18th edition of Damascus International Film Festival. The Silver Award went to the Iranian film “Please Do Not Disturb”, directed by Mohsen Abdolvahab and the Bronze to the Syrian film “September Rain”, by director Abdellatif Abdelhamid.
In a Samson and Goliath tale, the gritty crime drama Animal Kingdom shares the lead in nominations with box-office hit Mao’s Last Dancer despite the latter pulling in almost three times the box office numbers making over $15 million locally. Both films are up for seven awards at the Australian Inside Film IF Awards ceremony in November.
Director, Luis Garcia Berlanga of Spain, passed away on Saturday at his home in Madrid, Spain’s film academy announced via the BBC. He was 89 years.