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...

Wednesday, June 7---The political thriller THE WAR WITHIN, which is being shown as part of the American Independents competition at the Troia International Film Festival, has been generating controversy and much discussion. The film, directed by Joseph Castelo, tells the unsettling story of a young Pakistani man who is sent to New York City to be a suicide terrorist. His target is New York's beautiful Grand Central Station, a Beaux Arts train station right in the heart of Manhattan. The Paki...

Wednesday, June 7---Inspired by the seminal 7 UP films of British director Michael Apted, which followed the same group of youngsters at ages 7, 14 and 21, the SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival will present the premiere of 21 UP AMERICA, directed by Christopher Quinn. The film is the third installment in a series that has recorded the same subjects at ages 7 and 14, and now turns its focus on what it is like to be 21 in America today. The film provides a provocative case s...

Tuesday, June 6----The SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival begins on June 13th, and has announced a number of Special Event Screenings to compliment its roster of the best of international documentary film. The New York Times, one of the event's sponsors, is presenting two Times Talks. The first, screening on Friday, June 16, features Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas L. Friedman, whose recent book THE WORLD IS FLAT, pointed to the dangers and opportunities of economic ...

Tuesday, June 6---New York filmmakers always have the added advantage of shooting in a city that is in itself a major character in their films. No matter the genre, or even the time period, shooting on the New York streets offers an ambience that is instantly recognizable to a world audience (and sorry, cannot be faked on the too-clean streets of Toronto, Chicago or, God forbid, Los Angeles). Anthony Ng, born and raised in Hong Kong, went to the famed New York University Film School, and ins...

Tuesday, June 6---New York filmmakers always have the added advantage of shooting in a city that is in itself a major character in their films. No matter the genre, or even the time period, shooting on the New York streets offers an ambience that is instantly recognizable to a world audience (and sorry, cannot be faked on the too-clean streets of Toronto, Chicago or, God forbid, Los Angeles). Anthony Ng, born and raised in Hong Kong, went to the famed New York University Film School, and ins...

Tuesday, June 6----The Troia International Film Festival is presenting a celebration of the 100th anniverary of Norwegian cinema. The program, which is sponsored by the Norwegian Film Institute in cooperation with the Norwegian Embassy in Portugal, is showcasing 10 films, which range from an early silent gem to two films from the current Norwegian auteur Bent Hamer. The Tribute program began on the Festival opening night, with the rare screening of the 1917 silent film TERJE VIGEN, directed b...

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...

Monday, June 5----One of the more anticipated programs at the TROIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is its annual competition for American Independent films. The Festival, over the past 22 years, has been an important showcase for films made outside the Hollywood studio system. This year, six worthy films are competing for the award. The first of them kicks off the section this evening. FLANNEL PAJAMAS, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, is unique in two important ways. It...

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 ...

We organized, with our partner L&A, the Cannes Market Download stations for PDA, Palm for all Market contacts and screening schedules. 2 stations are available, at each entrance of the Riviera, the one bellow coming from the Palais: Online version available for your PDA or Palm at: download ...

Fest21.com started here in Cannes on May 17th 2006 with a booth in the Palais (01 - 24.07). With various promotions in Moving Pictures Magazine, the Cannes Market Guide, flyers, and more. And a column in the middle of the central way through the Palais. ...

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

I was invited by the Cannes Short Film Corner to talk with Jacques Bensimon, head of the Canadian National Film Borad, with Stephan Lechère from Google Video and Orna Ghenassia from Cinézime at this conference. Interesting exchanges on fragmented markets, number of opportunities, long tail, community building... ...