Film, at its most loftiest, can be a unifying force on the planet and the people who work in it, both in front and behind the camera, can be its "global citizens". That is the spirit that has inspired the Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival (MVIFF) to bestow their first ever Global Citizen Award to actor/activist Matthew Modine.
The award, created by local sculptor Barney Zeitz, will be presented on Saturday, September 11, 2010, following the screening of TH...
The Chinese film WINTER VACATION (Han Jia) has won the top prize, the Pardo d’oro/Golden Leopard for its director Li Hongqi at the Locarno Film Festival, which ended its 63rd edition on August 15. The award includes a 90,000 CHF cash prize. The film also won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize, shared with fellow Chinese production KAMARAY by Xu Xin, which received a special mention.
WINTER’S VACATION centers on four idle, aimless adolescents who gather...
Moving into its final 5 days, the Locarno Film Festival, set in the beautiful mountain city in southern Switzerland, has announced its first set of awards for its 65th edition. The awards for the 2010 Open Doors Factory, the Festival’s co-production lab that is organised with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), were announced on Tuesday, August 10.
The 2010 session was devoted to cinema from...
Thai cinema scored an impressive second major victory (after winning the Cannes Palme d'Or for UNCLE BOONMEE) at the ERA New Horizons International Film Festival, Poland's most important film event, this past weekend. MUNDANE HISTORY (Jao Nok Krajok/), a biting critique of Thai society by fledgling director Anocha Suwichakornpong has won the Grand Prix of the NEW HORIZONS International Competition, the Festival's highest honor. The award includes a cash prize of 20,000 Euros and g...
The American indie film THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER has won the inauguaral American Indie Newcomer Prize at the Munich Film Festival for debut filmmaker David Robert Mitchell. The prize includes a 5000 Euro cash award endowed by the U.S. Consulate General. The Festival wrapped this past weekend.
The coming-of-age story about a few teenagers who sneak out of the house one night premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March, where it received a special jury prize for Bes...
WARBRICK (Meihana and Pere Durie, New Zealand)
Since the Inuit drama ATANARJUAT won the prestigious Camera D'Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, dramas and documentaries from the native peoples of Canada and elsewhere have been highly appreciated at film festivals and film events around the globe. For this year's 20th anniversary of the Montreal First Peoples Festival, an event that combines visual arts, performances and film and video productions, the attention on the quality ...
Bollywood casts such a strong shadow over Indian cinema, that it may be surprising to many film buffs that many other regional cinemas in the country of India are thriving. With 50 different languages and vast differences between various states, films from Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab are only four of the various film cultures that are producing interesting and varied work. In this regard, documentaries, short films and animated works from India are also virtually unknown ou...
The 26th edition of FESTROIA, the oldest and most prestigious film event in Portugal, concluded last weekend with the announcement of the Golden Dolphin Awards. This has been a rough period for cultural organizations in Portugal, with an already uncertain economy facing new challenges from what could be a long period of austerity. However, despite this, Festival Director Fernanda Silva continue the traditions begun by Festival founder Mario Ventura to create an event that reaches hig...
The 15th edition of the GEN ART FILM FESTIVAL came to a rousing ending on Tuesday night with the NY Premiere Screening of MERCY, a morality tale starring Scott Caan set in the shark-infested waters of Los Angeles, followed by the announcement of the award winners for this year's event.
The Acura Grand Jury Award for Best Feature went to Tatiana Von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini’s “Tanner Hall” with both directors on hand to receive their award. The Acura Grand Jury Awar...
(UNTITLED), the satire of the New York art world directed by Jonathan Parker, has secured distribution by Swedish sales company Nonstop Enterrtainment as a result of its win in the North American Independents competition at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival held this past December in Estonia.
The film, which stars Adam Goldberg as an avant-garde musician who romances a gallerista who is involved with his successful painter brother, was one of ten American and Canadian films...
The Oscars are returning to February come 2011, after holding off until March this past year due to the Winter Olympics. By thus shortening the "Oscar season", and still expanding the list of Best Picture nominees to ten films, look to this next year to be a shorter but more intense Oscar marathon.
The 83rd annual ceremony will take place on the last Sunday in February, which falls on February 27th, 2011. For decades, the ceremonies were held in late March or early A...
With the announcement of Oscar nominations this morning and a definitive win at last weekend's Directors Guild of America Awards, helmer Kathryn Bigelow is poised to make history as the first women director to win a Best Director Oscar for her work on the intense Iraq War drama THE HURT LOCKER.
Bigelow is only the fourth woman director ever to be nominated in the 85 year history of the awards (her predecessors included Italian director Lina Wertmuller for SEVEN BEAUTIES, Amer...
Yes, we all expected AVATAR and THE HURT LOCKER to have good showings for this morning's Oscar nomination announcements (they are both tied at 9 nominations each) and we were not surprised when the names George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep were intoned at the 5:30am ceremony in Los Angeles. And yes, even the six nods for PRECIOUS (including well-deserved nominations for Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Geoffrey Flet...
Well, after watching the Golden Globe Awards ceremonies last evening, I had the distinct feeling: who needs the Oscars? I've already seen the winning films, directors and actors and heard their acceptance speeches. The Oscar ceremony, which is not scheduled until six weeks from now, seems quite besides the point. Except for the fashion ("who are you wearing?" is the question of the moment), I am imagining that last night's Golden Globe winners will be simply re-doing their &...
While most of the films that are being showered with awards by the various film critics and guild organizations in the end-of-the-year awards season are a mix of Hollywood and American independent films, a few European films (most notably from France) are seizing some of the awards thunder.
When the National Society of Film Critics made their awards announcements earlier this week, a few French films and talents were prominent. Although THE HURT LOCKER was the overwhelming winner ...
While most people go to the movies to escape the avalanche of bad news that seeks to overwhelm us, two films with topical subjects are emerging as the frontrunners in the Best Picture Oscar race. THE HURT LOCKER, the much lauded Iraqi War drama directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and UP IN THE AIR, the Jason Reitman-helmed, George Clooney-starrer that has the economy and corporate layoffs as its background motif, are the most honored films of the year so far by a range of critics groups and ...
In the 81 year history of the Academy Awards, nearly 500 films have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Up until now, not a single film that was directed by a black filmmaker has been included on that list. However, this year, with the critical and popular success of the urban indie drama PRECIOUS, that ignoble record could be history.
PRECIOUS, directed by Lee Daniels, has undergone a fascinating journey to become the "it" film of the indie film season.....a jo...
AN EDUCATION, the 1960s-set drama by Danish director Lone Scherfig, led the pack at the announcement of the 30th London Film Critics’ Circle Awards nominations. The film scored seven nominations, including British Film of the Year and notices for actors Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike and Olivia Williams.
AN EDUCATION will compete for Best British film with the likes of Jane Campion’s BRIGHT STAR, Armando Iannucci’s IN THE LOOP, Andrea Arnold’s FISH TANK, ...
NINE (directed by Rob Marshall)
The Screen Actors Guild, the most important union of actors and actresses working in film and television, have announced their award nominees for this year. With the focus squarely on the acting arts, the list of those tapped for possible awards makes another pit stop in the road to the Oscars (which will be given out this year on March 7).
As expected, lead and supporting actors in the films as UP IN THE AIR, PRECIOUS and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS ...
Jeremy Renner in THE HURT LOCKER
It happens every year.....key performances, outstanding films and worthy indies and international titles that seem primed for awards consideration are inexplicably ignored. This has happened again with the announcement last week of the Golden Globe Award nominations, considered second only to the Oscars.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group of 80 international film critics and journalists who vote for the prizes, is known f...
How do you follow up an international success like JUNO?Well....writer/director Jason Reitman, who has only three feature films to his credit, is sailing into Oscar town with his latest serious satire, UP IN THE AIR. The George Clooney-starrer has already been named Best Picture of the Year by several critics groups and has now posted the biggest nomination record for this year's Golden Globe Awards (will Oscar gold be far behind????).
UP IN THE AIR has scored six 2009 Golden G...
The awards season is officially on with the presentation last evening of the GOTHAM INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS in New York City. The Awards are sponsored by the Independent Feature Project/IFP, a filmmaker organization that is at the forefront of the American independent film movement.
The Iraq war drama THE HURT LOCKER has solidified its chances at Oscar gold by winning two awards, was named Best Feature and captured the prize for Best Ensemble Cast (shared by Jeremy Renner, Antho...
The Oscar for Best Animated Short Film is in the group of 10 nominated films announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday. In all, 37 short animated films from around the world were submitted, and that list has now been culled down to 10 films.
The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting in screenings held in New York and Los Angeles. They will now select the fin...
Michael Moore's name and his latest film CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY were stark omissions when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named 15 films that have made the short-list in the Documentary Feature category for the 82nd Academy Awards. Of 89 films submitted, the Oscar race has been pared down to these fifteen.
“The Beaches of Agnes”
Agnes Varda, director (Cine-Tamaris)
“Burma VJ”
Anders Ostergaard, director (Magi...
The MIAAC Indian Film Festival, sponsored by the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council, wrapped up five days of premiere screenings, special events, chic parties and industry networking events with a gala awards ceremony on Sunday night, November 15th at the Walter Reade Theatre at New York's Lincoln Center. The ceremony included the US premiere of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s ANTAHEEN. Stars Rahul Bose and Kalyan Roy attended the premiere along with actors and filmmakers including Sh...
