• Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli in “LA GRANDE BELLAZZA” at Cannes Film Festival

    Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli, stars of “LA GRANDE BELLAZZA,” directed by Paolo Sorrentino, and the only Italian film in competition at the 2013 Festival de Cannes. The cast which also includes Sabrina Ferilli, Isabella Ferrari as well as Roberto Herlitzka, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Anna Della Rosa and Giusy Merli, Kravos, visited the lounge of Cannes Movie Star at 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

    LA GRANDE BELLAZZA is described by the festival as “Aristocratic ladies, social climbers, politicians, high-flying criminals, journalists, actors, decadent nobles, prelates, artists and intellectuals – whether authentic or presumed – form the tissue of these flaky relationships, all engulfed in a desperate Babylon which plays out in the antique palaces, immense villas and most beautiful terraces in the city? They are all there, and they are not seen in a good light? Jep Gambardella, 65, indolent and disenchanted, his eyes permanently imbued with gin and tonic, watches this parade of hollow, doomed, powerful yet depressed humanity. A moral lifelessness enough to make one’s head spin? And in the background, Rome in summer. Splendid and indifferent, like a dead diva?”

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  • Napster documentary ‘DOWNLOADED’ Sets Theatrical Release Dates

    “DOWNLOADED,” Alex Winter’s documentary about the rise and fall of Napster, will open in New York City on June 21 and Los Angeles on June 28, and will then expand to Albuquerque, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Martha’s Vineyard, San Francisco and Seattle, among other cities.

    The film examines the music-business revolution caused by Napster, which allowed users to share music without paying royalties. Rather than embracing the new technology and trying to monetize it (as Apple did with its iTunes Store), the record industry sued Napster and tried to drive the company out of business – but by the time Shawn Fanning’s and Sean Parker’s company folded, the damage had been done to the traditional business model.

    Fanning and Parker are among those interviewed for “Downloaded”; Winter also talked to Henry Rollins, the Beastie Boys’ Mike D., Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, record executives Seymour Stein, Don Ienner and Chris Blackwell, and Napster critics that include the Recording Industry Association of America’s former CEO, Hilary Rosen.

    “DOWNLOADED” which premiered at SXSW and also screened at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival,  is part of VH1’s rockDocs series, which has also included “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” “The U.S. Vs. John Lennon” and “Marley.” The film will air on the cable channel in 2014.

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  • “MIELE” Director Valeria Golino and Lead Actress Jasmine Trinca at Cannes Film Festival

    “MIELE”, director Valeria Golino and lead actress Jasmine Trinca in the Cannes Movie Stars Lounge at  the 66th Cannes Film Festival. “MIELE” is an official selection in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.

    MIELE is described as the story of Irene a 30 years old girl who helps suffering people.Terminal patients who want to make shorter the struggle with death, people whose suffering injure the dignity of an human being. One day a 70 years old man in good health, who simply thinks to have lived enough, asks her to help him. The meeting will put to the test Irene’s convictions. It will open a stringent debate between the two. Their relation becomes more and more full of implications and emotional ambiguities.

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  • Documentary “HEY BARTENDER” from SXSW Kicks Off Theatrical Run on June 7 in NYC

    Douglas Tirola’s documentary HEY BARTENDER, which had it’s world premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, will begin it’s theatrical run on June 7, 2013 in New York City at the Village East Cinema.   

    Directed by Douglas Tirola (An Omar Broadway Film, All In – The Poker Movie) and featuring a number of the world’s renowned bartenders and cocktail drinkers, HEY BARTENDER is a love story to the cocktail and the people who make them. The film gives insider access to the most exclusive bars in New York, chronicling the story of the comeback of the cocktail and the rebirth of the bartender. The film also features commentary from some of New York City’s best cocktail hosts including Graydon Carter, Danny Meyer, Amy Sacco, and Frank Pelligrini of Raos, among others.  

    On June 7th the film will be released at the Village East Cinema in New York City and on June 14th the film will spread into ten more markets including Sundance Select in Los Angeles, the Denver Film Center, and the Gaslamp Theater in San Diego.  The film will continue to open in various markets across the country throughout the summer and early fall, including the Roxie in San Francisco on June 28th and The O-Cinema in Miami on July 12th.   

    http://youtu.be/ZLHdqCXe-OM

     

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  • LA Jewish Film Festival to Feature THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT to Commemorate Assassination of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evans

    The LA Jewish Film Festival, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers with the screening of THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT: IS RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE?  The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival will run June 1 – 6, 2013.

    THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT: IS RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE? discusses Paul Saltzman’s experience as a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1965 and his return in 2007 to find the KKK member who had assaulted him.  Is reconciliation possible? His assailant was Byron de la Beckwith Jr., whose father, Byron de la Beckwith Sr., murdered NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers

    http://youtu.be/85z_pYawYJM

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  • Mark Cousins, Director of Documentary, “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM” at Cannes Film Festival

    Mark Cousins, director of documentary, “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM”  – official selection at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Classics – in The Cannes Movie Stars Lounge.

    “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM” is described by the festival as a personal and poetic essay by Mark Cousins which explores what cinema tells us about childhood, and what childhood tells us about cinema, by reference to movies from all around the world. The
    is also described as the world’s first movie about kids in global cinema … as seen through 53 great films from 25 countries. 

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  • Oscar winning Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci at 2013 Cannes Film Festival

    Bernardo Bertolucci, the 9-time Oscar winning Italian director and screenwriter of “The Last Emperor”, whose movies include “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), “The Sheltering Sky” (1990), and “The Dreamers” (2003) in The Cannes Movie Stars Lounge at the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival. During the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Mr. Bertolucci was awarded the “Palme d’Honneur” for his life’s work in film.

    The director is in Cannes to present his movie, “The Last Emperor”, which is in the 66th Festival de Cannes Classics Selection. Mr. Bertolucci met with the press in the Cannes Movie Stars Lounge for afternoon TV and print interviews. 

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  • Eighteen Projects by African Filmmakers Selected for Durban FilmMart at 34th Durban International Film Festival

    Eighteen film projects by African filmmakers have been selected for the finance forum of the Durban FilmMart (DFM) which takes place from July 19 to 22 during the 34th Durban International Film Festival held July 18 to 28 in Durban South Africa.

    The Durban FilmMart (DFM) is a co-production and finance market and is a joint program of the Durban Film Office (DFO) and the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). DFM provides filmmakers from across Africa a valued opportunity to pitch projects to financiers, distributors, sales agents and potential co-producers, and participate in meetings, project presentations and a series of master classes and workshops on latest industry trends.

    Selected Documentaries

    Blindness (South Africa): Directed by Sarah Ping Nie Jones and produced by Jean Meeran  
    Behind the Falls (South Africa): Directed by Rowan Pybus and produced by  Sydelle Willow Smith
    Miners Shot Down (South Africa): Directed/Produced by Rehad Desai, produced/written and co-directd by Anita Khanna and produced by Brian Tilley 
    Not Just a Stripper (South Africa): Directed and produced by Izette Mostert 
    GTI – Paradise in Hell (Rwanda): Directed and produced by Yves Montand 
    Searching for Janitou (Algeria): Directed by Mohamed el Amine Hattou and produced by Anusha Nandakumar and co-produced by Claire Mazeau-Karoum 
    Unearthed (South Africa): Directed and produced by Jolynn Minnaar
    We Want Development (Kenya): Directed by Phillipa Ndisi-Hermann and produced by Atieno Odenyo 

    Selected Fiction Projects

    Andani and the Mechanic (South Africa): Directed and produced by Sara Blecher 
    Black Sunshine (Ghana): Directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu and co-produced by Julio Chavezmontes and Angele Diabang
    Five Fingers for Marseilles (South Africa): Directed and produced by Michael Matthews and written and produced by Sean Drummond 
    Free the Town (Kenya): Directed by Nikyatu Jusu and produced by Vincho Nchogu 
    Life More or Less (Nigeria): Directed by Julius Morno and produced by Kinsley Madueke 
    Njangi- Fifty Fifty (Cameroon): Directed and produced by Victor Viyuoh 
    Sea Monster (South Africa): Directed by Anthony Silverston and co-produced by  Stuart Forrest and Mike Buckland 
    Solidarity (Zambia): Directed by Rungano Nyoni and produced by Juliette Grandmont 
    The Bill (South Africa): Directed by Nosipho Dumisa and produced by Travis Taute 
    Whiplash (South Africa): Directed by Meg Rickards and produced by Jacky Lourens 

    The 4th edition of the Durban FilmMart takes place from July 19-22 2013, during the 34th edition of the DIFF (18-28 July 2012).

    Image: From top left clockwise

    Julius Morno (Life More or Less – Nigeria); Victor Viyuoh (Njangi- Fifty Fifty – Cameroon); Rehad Desai (Miners Shot Down – South Africa); Izette Mostert (Not Just a Stripper – South Africa); Phillipa Ndisi-Hermann (We Want Development – Kenya); Nikkia Moulterie

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  • Weinstein Co Grabs “BLUE RUIN” at Cannes Film Festival for Fall 2013 Release Date

    BLUE RUIN, one of the select few American films world premiering in Director’s Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is expected to get a Fall 2013 US release date after being snagged by The Weinstein Co.’s label RADiUS – TWC.

    Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier’s whose first feature MURDER PARTY was a cult hit, BLUE RUIN tells the story of a man who finds his quiet life upended by unwelcome news and subsequently sets off for his childhood home to carry out an act of revenge. Proving an improbable assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.”

    http://youtu.be/uIwzTUzmXto

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  • Tribeca Film Fetival Winner “THE ROCKET ” Expected to Get Fall 2013 Release Date

    Kino Lorber is expected to release the award winning film “THE ROCKET” in US theaters this Fall 2013 after it snagged the top awards early this year at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival. 

    “THE ROCKET,“ the first feature film from director and writer Kim Mordaunt, won the Best Narrative Feature award, the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film and the Best Actor in a Narrative Feature award for 10-year-old Sitthiphon Disamoe at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival; and the Crystal Bear – Generation Kplus prize for Best Film, Best First Feature award and The Amnesty International Award at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.

    The film is set in contemporary Laos and tells the story of a boy named Ahlo, played by Sitthiphon Disamoe, who is believed to be a bearer of bad luck and is therefore blamed for a string of disasters – including his mother’s death. When his family loses their home and is forced to move, Ahlo meets the spirited orphan Kia and her eccentric uncle Purple: an ex-soldier with a purple suit, a rice-wine habit and an unbridled love for James Brown.


     
    Struggling to hang onto his father’s trust, Ahlo leads his family, Purple and Kia through a land scarred by war in search of a new home. But bad luck seems to follow Ahlo, and in a last plea to prove he’s not cursed, Ahlo builds a giant explosive rocket to enter the most lucrative but dangerous competition of the year: The Rocket Festival.”

    http://youtu.be/dDxt4gKyGfo

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  • Champion Snowboarder Kevin Pearce Documentary “THE CRASH REEL” on Course for Winter 2013 Release Date

    Phase 4 Films is planning an early Winter 2013 theatrical release in the US for Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker’s documentary “THE CRASH REEL” which premiered earlier this year at 203 Sundance Film Festival.

    “THE CRASH REEL” tells the story of U.S. champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce using years of verite footage to expose the excitement and appeal, as well as the high stakes, of participating in extreme-action sports coupled with a soundtrack that includes music from Chemical Brothers, Underworld, and Moby.

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  • METRO MANILA from Sundance Film Festival To Get US Release

    Sean Ellis’ acclaimed thriller, METRO MANILA, which had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for “Best Film” in the World Cinema dramatic competition will be released in the US by distribution partners 108 Media and Paladin.

    METRO MANILA centers around Oscar Ramirez, a poor rice farmer from the Northern Philippine mountains, who moves his family to the capital mega-city of Metro Manila in search of a better life. The sweltering capital’s bustling intensity soon overwhelms the Ramirezes, and they fall prey to the manipulations of hardened locals. Left penniless, Oscar gets a lucky break when he is offered steady work at an armored truck company and is taken under the wing of its friendly senior officer, Ong.  Grateful for the job, Oscar doesn’t realize how dangerous it is; after all, Manila is a city where machine gun-wielding security guards are seen in every shop, from banks and jewelry stores to Starbucks, and where armed robbery has become a daily occurrence. Driving a cash-laden armored truck makes Oscar a moving target, but robbery isn’t the only danger he faces: when it becomes apparent that Ong was lying in wait for someone just like Oscar for some time, and that his motives for hiring him were far from altruistic, Oscar finds himself ensnared in a web of intrigue far more perilous than anything he faces on the mean streets of Manila.

    http://youtu.be/UjQK6rOWXTY

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