The 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival concluded its 16-day run with the closing gala screening the French film THE ILLUSIONIST (L’illusioniste), directed by Sylvain Chomet. The winners of two juried awards and five audience awards were announced prior to the screening; two other juried awards were announced previously.
Korean films – Yoon Sung-hyun’s “Boys into the Night” and Park Jung-bum’s “The Journals of Musan” won the New Currents competition at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival.
The Syracuse International Film Festival is the latest victim to the recession. CNYcentral is reporting that the film festival will lose all its county funding next year, which amounts to $20,000. The executive director of the Syracuse Film Office, Dennis Brogan, says the Onondaga County Budget is cutting culture. He hopes lawmakers will see the big picture. “When you cut the arts you are going to dramatically affect economic development. Our whole armory square is based on the arts,” he said.
Over 40 films from 25 countries will be playing during the Petaluma International Film Festival, October 22-24 inTiburon, California. Petaluma plays a role in two local films, “Out of Annapolis” and “Sunset.” In “Out of Annapolis,” the stories of eleven gay and lesbian alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy express the difficulties and joys of coming out and being out in the naval service. In the short film, “Sunset,” the regularity of life for a twine-braiding machine owner is thrown awry when the machine mysteriously begins to move – right out the door and down the street – causing unexpected adventures.
Thirty-one documentary, animated, children’s and feature films from 15 countries and areas have been nominated for Asia-Pacific’s highest accolade in film with Best Feature nominees from Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China.
The American Museum of Natural History will be hosting its 34th Annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival from November 11–14 in New York City. The Festival will screen an outstanding selection of titles culled from more than 1,000 submissions.
The 8th Morelia International Film Festival will be held from Oct. 16 to 24, 2010, and as in past years, will focus on its sections in competition: Mexican Short Film, Mexican Documentary, Michoacán Section and Mexican Feature Film. This year there will be 46 shorts, 20 documentaries, 13 Michoacán works and 7 features by directors from different states in Mexico: Michoacán, Nuevo León, Jalisco, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Yucatán, Baja California and Mexico City. Since 2008, the winner of the fiction and animated shorts will be considered for an Oscar nomination.
The San Francisco Film Society presents the fifth annual San Francisco International Animation Festival (SFIAF), a four-day celebration of the Bay Area’s preeminence as a hub for one of the most creative forms in cinema, November 11 – 14 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. This year’s International Animation Festival ranges from FX-based features to family-friendly cartoons and includes Hayao Miyazaki protégé Sunao Katabuchi’s Mai Mai Miracle, the Decemberists-inspired Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, six wildly diverse shorts programs and a live animation and musical performance by artist duo Semiconductor.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 83rd Academy Awards® has been narrowed to eight films, of which three to five will earn Oscar® nominations.
Sixty-five countries, including first-time entrants Ethiopia and Greenland, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.
The San Francisco Film Society, New Italian Cinema Events of Florence, Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco present New Italian Cinema, November 14 – 21 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. The eight-day festival is dedicated to bringing Italy’s newest directors and films to Bay Area audiences and celebrating the country’s rich cinematic tradition. The 2010 edition opens with Ferzan Ozpetek’s humorous drama Loose Cannons and a three-film retrospective of this talented and prolific auteur’s work, and closes with Paolo Virzì’s moving new film The First Beautiful Thing. The core program of New Italian Cinema features seven recent films by breakthrough filmmakers vying for the City of Florence Award.
The San Francisco Film Society and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation today announced the ten finalists for the fourth round of SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants of up to a total of $225,000, to be given to one or more feature films that through plot, character, theme or setting significantly explore human and civil rights, discrimination, gender and sexual identity and other urgent social justice issues of our time. Additionally, the grants support films that have a significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community. The total amount disbursed in 2009-13 will be more than $3 million, including a total of $275,000 already awarded in the first three rounds. Finalists for the Fall 2010 grants follow.