Sunday, June 11....At a gala Awards Ceremony at the Forum Luisa Todi last night, the 22nd edition of the Troia International Film Festival came to a conclusion with the announcement of Fetival Awards in a number of competitiom categproes. An analysis of the films and the awards will follow, but here is the list of award winners. FESTROIA – FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA SPECIAL AWARDS AUDIENCE AWARD To the film THE WEDDING PARTY, by Dominique Deruddere (Belgium/Germany) PRIZE MAN AND HIS...

SILVERDOCS: The AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, which begins next week, has announced the 10 films that will be competing for the Sterling Award Feature Film prize at its event. The Festival, which has become one of the leading showcases of non-fiction film in the world, mixes film screenings with information panels and special events to offer a comprehensive look at the current state of the art of documentary film, and where the art form may go in the future. As one can imagine ...

Thursday, June 8---Ali Selim is a softspoken man from Minnesota with an expressive face and an obvious passion for filmmaking. His first film, SWEET LAND, which is the only American film included in the First Works competition at the Troia International Film Festival, has the scope, integrity and humanity of a John Ford epic. The film captures the limitless landscapes of the Minnesota plains in the period just after World War I, when immigrants from Scandinavia began to exert their cultural h...

Thursday, June 8-----Every major film festival has its specific focus. At the Troia International Film Festival, first works by up-and-coming directors is a major part of the Festival, having its own competition section named Primeiras Obras. This year, the section boasts 13 films of diverse genres and geographic origins. Films from Europe represents the lion’s share of the section. A SOAP is an unusual love story between an independent woman who has just split with her longtime boyfriend and...

Monday, June 5---Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese will be honored at the SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, which launches on June 13th. Scorsese will be commemorated at the Charles Guggenheim Symposium on Thursday, June 15th at the AFI Silver Center, the hub of the annual documentary event. The Symposium and Award are a tribute to the late Washington DC filmmaker and philanthropist Charles Guggenheim. Scorsese is one of the rare Hollywood directors who has worked in t...

Saturday, June 3----FESTROIA: The Troia International Film Festival, will present nearly 180 films, representing 48 countries, with a strong predominance of European cinema, during its 22nd annual showcase. The Festival, the oldest and most prestigious in Portugal, has several competition sections in its wide-ranging program. The Official Section, in competition for the Golden Dolphin Award, is made up of 14 films, from nations that produce fewer than 30 films per year. This is a unique approa...

All Cannes awards The Palme d'Or goes to the Wind that Shakes the Barley by Ken Loach. Palme d'Or videos: Red Carpet, Film extract, Red Carpet and standing ovation after the film premier & Press conference. Credits for the Wind that Shakes the Barley: Director: Ken LOACH Screenplay: Paul LAVERTY Cinematography: Barry ACKROYD Set Designer: Fergus CLEGG Music: George FENTON Film Editor: Jonathan MORRIS Actors: Cillian MURPHY Pádraic DELANEY Liam CUNNINGHAM Orla FITZGERALD Synopsis...

The Cannes 2006 Grand Prix goes to Flanders by Bruno DUMONT Credits: Director: Bruno DUMONT Screenplay: Bruno DUMONT Cinematography: Yves CAPE Film Editor: Guy LECORNE Sounds: Emmanuel CROSET Sounds: Philippe LECOEUR Actors: Adelaide LEROUX Samuel BOIDIN Synopsis: Today, in Flanders, the local young men leave as soldiers to fight in a distant land. The story of soldiers going to the front, their march, the comrades, the misery of war. The wait for horror - the horror itself - and what...

The Best Screenplay Award goes to Pedro ALMODOVAR for the film Volver: Director: Pedro ALMODOVAR Screenplay: Pedro ALMODÓVAR Cinematography: José Luis ALCAINE Set Designer: Salvador PARRA Music: Alberto IGLESIAS Film Editor: José SALCEDO Sounds: Miguel REJAS Actors: Penélope CRUZ Raimunda Carmen MAURA Grand mère Irène Lola DUEÑAS Sole Blanca PORTILLO Agustina Yohana COBO Paula Chus LAMPREAVE Tante Paula Synopsis: Three generations of women survive the east wind, f...

The prize goes to Alejandro González IÑ ...

The prize goes to all actors from Indigènes from Rachid BOUCHAREB: Jamel DEBBOUZE Samy NACÉRI Sami BOUAJILA Roschdy ZEM Bernard BLANCAN Credits for Indigènes: Director: Rachid BOUCHAREB Screenplay: Olivier LORELLE Screenplay: Rachid BOUCHAREB Cinematography: Patrick BLOSSIER Set Designer: Dominique DOURET Music: Armand AMAR Music: KHALED Film Editor: Yannick KERGOAT Sounds: Olivier / Thomas HESPEL / GAUDER Synopsis: 1943. They had not yet set foot in France, but because it's war, Saïd...

The prize goes to the 6 actresses of Volver by Pedro Almodovar: Penélope CRUZ Carmen MAURA Lola DUEÑAS Blanca PORTILLO Yohana COBO Chus LAMPREAVE Director: Pedro ALMODOVAR Screenplay: Pedro ALMODÓVAR Cinematography: José Luis ALCAINE Set Designer: Salvador PARRA Music: Alberto IGLESIAS Film Editor: José SALCEDO Sounds: Miguel REJAS Synopsis: Three generations of women survive the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition and even death by means of goodness, lies and boundless vitali...

Credits: Andrea ARNOLD Director Andrea ARNOLD Screenplay Robbie RYAN Cinematography Helen SCOTT Set Designer Nicolas CHAUDEURGE Film Editor Actors: Kate DICKIE Tony CURRAN Martin COMPSTON Natalie PRESS Synopsis: Jackie works as a CCTV operator. Each day she watches over a small part of the world, protecting the people living their lives under her gaze. One day a man appears on her monitor, a man she thought she would never see again, a man she never wanted to see again. Now sh...

Credits: Director: Bobbie PEERS Screenplay: Bobbie PEERS Cinematography: Jakob INGIMUNDARSON Set Desig: Guri GIÆVER Set Designer Music Evan GARDNER Film Editor: Pål GENGENBACH Film Editor Sounds: Thomas Angell ENDRESEN In a society where everyone has the ability to fly, the citizens anchor themselves to the ground via "gravitation boots". Devoid of sunlight and the open sky, the members of society go about their routine without any hope of personal gratification. One day, however, ...

After 12 days of a rich Festival, the award sceremony took place at 7:30 pm on Sunday 28, 2006. And the winners are: - Feature Films Palme d'Or: the Wind that Shakes the Barley by Ken Loach Grand Prix: Flanders by Bruno Dumont Best Actress Award: Penélope CRUZ, Carmen MAURA, Lola DUEÑAS, Blanca PORTILLO, Yohana COBO, Chus LAMPREAVE for Volver Best Actor Award: Jamel DEBBOUZE, Samy NACERI, Sami BOUAJILA, Roschdy ZEM, Bernard BLANCAN for Indigènes Best Director Award: Alejandro González IÃ...

The American short film, "B is for Bomb," directed by Carey Mckenzie won the Official Cannes 2006 Online Competition for short films the other day. This 10 minute documentary is narrarated by a young girl, explaining the problems with bombs and nuclear warfare by going through the letters of the alphabet, giving an innocent prospective on a deathly scary and very politcal topic, ranging for historical lesson letters such as "C is for Cold War," to poetic reflections such as, "E is for Enemy, F i...

Seven days in, the 59th Festival De Cannes’ Competition section is heating up. While Pedro Almodovar’s Penelope Cruz starrer, “Volver, ...

During my current experiment of trying to "do" Cannes while not actually being there (in others words, virtually if not physically), it is quite astonishing to me that so little actual coverage is available to the average American consumer. Yes, we did catch a glimpse of Tom Hanks on the red carpet, and read much speculation about the fate of THE DA VINCI CODE, but it seems that anything that is not part of the tyranny of celebrity gossip finds scant space in American newspapers or television s...

The Udine Far East Film Festival is one of the largest panoramas of Asian film in Europe. Most of the 73 films chosen for the eighth edition that ran April 21-29 enjoyed their European or international premiere. The festival catches the films that are produced between the Venice, Berlin and Cannes festival so its an excellent showcase to attend to see the latest Asian films. Udine hopes together with the Venice Film Festival to double the amount of Asian films to the Venice Friuli-Venezia-Giulia...

The 58th installment of the Locarno film festival at the Tippety-top of glorious Lago Maggiore in the Italian Speaking part of Switzerland (Ticino) got underway on Wednesday, August 3rd and concluded August 13. Some 300 films of all kinds will be projected at numerous venues all over town, but the main event is the slate of 18 features in competition for the spotted leopard awards, the jungle cat in question being the symbol of this fabulous Alpine resort city for nearly a hundred years – or...