Sunday, June 4---Remember the good old days right after 9/11 when everyone was afraid to ride on airplanes, and those of us intrepid (or stupid) enough to continue flying off to film festivals always had empty seats around us? And airlines left on time? And the airline personnel were so happy to see a customer that you got treated like you were in first class (even though you were inevitably in the cheapo seats)? Well, I am here to tell you, brothers and sisters, that those times are long gone...

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...

Friday, June 2---SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival opens on June 13 with the world premiere of the HBO Films documentary BOFFO! TINSELTOWN'S BOMBS AND BLOCKBUSTERS, directed by Oscar-winning documentary director Bill Couturie. The film takes a behind-the-scenes look at the high risk world of Hollywood filmmaking, where all bets are off as to whether even the biggest budget film will not be a major box office bomb. Featuring candid, often amusing interviews, with such Holl...

Friday, June 2, Setubal---The 22nd edition of the TROIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, Portugal's oldest and most prestigious film event, had a gala Opening this evening in the beautiful coastal town of Setubal. The Opening Night festivities began with the screening of a rare silent film by director Victor Sjostrom. TERGE VIGEN, produced in 1917, is a film of rare beauty and quality from one of Scandanavia's earliest film giants. The film has been restored by the Norwegian Film Institute, with...

SILVERDOCS: AFI/DISCOVERY CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL has become one of the most prestigious events in the world of non-fiction film. The 2006 Festival, a mixture of film screenings, information seminars and special events, will take place from June 13 to 18, 2006 at the AFI Silver Center in Silver Springs, Maryland (USA). Return to this dedicated website to read articles, view photos, hear audio files and view video at North America's most intriguing festival devoted to the work of documen...

It is should be news to no one that the Americans and the French are still locked in their love/hate relationship. We Americans do love the French culture and its emphasis on beauty, refinement and good taste. The French do love our the American can-do attitude and our pioneering spirit. But since 9/11, our different geopolitics has driven a wedge into that relationship that has pushed us both into separate corners. Perhaps that is the reason why so many American films that are openly critical ...

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...

As the Cannes Film Festival moves into its final weekend, it seems that the fine art of booing is still very much “en vogue ...

Yesterday afternoon I was lucky enough to be handed an invitation to the final screening of the documentary, "Punk's Not Dead," directed by Susan Dynner, showing in a small viewing room at the Grey d'Albion Hotel around the corner from the Palais des Festivals. Somewhat reminiscent of vh1's 3Behind the Music" shows, the film was well paced, informative, humurous, and of course had an awesome soundtrack. Starting with the roots of Punk Rock in the late 70's/early 80's, they analyze the history of...

Well, if one needed further proof of how far apart most film critics are from the cinematic tastes of the general public, you need look no further than THE DA VINCI CODE. The film, which famously opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was practically laughed at by assembled critics on the Croisette, who had come to bury the film, not praise it. When the film opened internationally this past weekend, more film critics joined the chorus of nay-sayers, calling the film everything from “borin...

There may not have been much to chew on in Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code but there are stronger signs of female power at Cannes making this festival one of the best. First of all there is the veteran actor- the magnifique Gena Rowlands featured in Paris, Je T'Aime in Un Certain Regard and gave a Master Class on acting commencing with a standing ovation. Almost everything that comes out of the mouth of this veteran actor is inspirational and provocative: "We actors do not need to die to be r...

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...

Cannes was in full swing Friday with the regulars – old ladies and their dogs – having all but disappeared, and swarms of tourists and film types taking their place for the twelve-day event. Police were everywhere, as were the blue-suited men and women on hand to check badges and manage the herds of people streaming in and out of festival center, The Palais. Regular sunbathers were relegated to the far end of the beach with lines of pristine tents, housing private clubs, taking up much of th...

Had director Ron Howard been a woman, how would “The Da Vinci Code ...

BANGKOKIANS are due to get a special pre-festival screening of the classic Robert Wise Academy Award© winning film, West Side Story, on Sunday, February 12 (2006). The movie will be shown free of charge on outdoor screens set up in public areas outside the massive new Siam Paragon retail and entertainment complex which will be used as the centre for the upcoming Bangkok International Film Festival (Feb 17 - 27). The screening will feature musical performances of songs from West Si...

THE 10th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) gets under way this evening (Friday December 09, 2005) with the promise of record-breaking attendance following a new surge of interest in pure cinema here. Officials told filmfestivals.com they expect last year’s figure of 6,300 delegates to be surpassed, despite the fact that the budget for organizing, running and promoting the festival has remained more or less the same for the past three years. Some 180 titles, including 1...

HOTELS are filling up and local people are beginning to get excited at the prospect of this year’s event, the 10th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), which will open here 24 hours from now (08 December, 2005). US$32,000 to be awarded in the 10-day event The Kerala festival takes place in Trivandrum just a couple of hours drive from the southernmost tip of this vast continent. Kerala is one of the country’s 28 states and boasts one of the most cine-literate and discer...

THE 36th annual International Film Festival of India (IFFI) got of to a colourful start this afternoon (Thursday 24 November 2005) with a huge carnival that included a seemingly endless parade of floats, cultural pageantry and other festivities. The parade was the prelude to the inaugural film ‘Olga’, a Brazilian film directed by Jaime Monjardim, which chronicles the true story of the German revolutionary Olga Benario Prestes. Olga is one of some 200 films from India and abroa...