The 61st Venice International Film Festival has long been an “A” festival of world renown. This year an anti-globalization manifestation on the first day raised the question of how Venice may more and more be bowing to Hollywood glamour and celebrities by staging world premieres to market films outside the US. Many of these films do better in the global box office as proof. The manifestation was designed to blow the horn about the presence of Hollywood movie headliners with top stars as majo...
Several films in Venice are turning heads on days 4 and 5. Agnes und seine Brüder(Agnes and His Brothers) by Oskar Roehler (Germany) is a kitchy tale of three brothers who grew up with an alcoholic pedophile. The grown children make messes of their relationships--or lack of them. Hans-Jorg (Herbert Knaupt)is a sex addicted librarian and Werner(Moritz Bleibtreu) - a rageaholic politician that ignores his wife and kids. The most tender of the three - Agnes (Martin Weiss) as had a sex change and i...
The out of competition film Michael Radford's Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare passed the test by Italian journalists who assembled at a press conference on day 4 of the Venice International Film Festival. Nearly all questions went to ---Al Pacino and enthusiasm about his performance may suggest an Oscar nod next year. Pacino who only understands a little Italian had on his headphones and fielded questions. He said that Radford was great in telling him how to take down the volume and r...
MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL : A CITADEL OF FILM CULTUREThe 28th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival is in full swing, with a heady mix of traditional arthouse films and innovative new voices giving this event its well-deserved reputation as the most European in style and substance of all of Canada’s film events.Perhaps it is its Francophone culture or its identity as a city of tradition (in direct contrast with the go-go atmosphere of its neighbor Toronto) but this Festival is definit...
The first prominent names to arrive at the 61st Venice International Film Festival were Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to help kick off their out of competition opening film The Terminal. Fans and press bent over the Lido lagoon to catch a glimpse of Spielberg and Hanks boating in by water taxi to Hotel Exelsior's private dock.The 61st Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica met with the press corps the same day at Hotel Excelsior. On hand were president of the jury - director John Boorma...
The international juries of the 61st Venice Film Festival Venezia 61. - Venezia Orizzonti - Venezia Cinema Digitale Venezia 61 - Golden Lion John Boorman (UK, President). Director. He began his career as a documentary filmmaker in 1955 at the BBC. He won the Best Director Award at Cannes in 1998 for The General (the story of an Irish criminal) and in 1970 for Leo the Last (with Marcello Mastroianni). What stands out in his work is his great iconographic and narrative talent. Since his first Ame...
THE TERMINAL, a film by Steven SPIELBERG (with Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Luna) will open the 61st edition of the Venice festival under new management by Marco Mueller.An impressive crowd is expected to attend the Lido.The Terminal tells the story of Viktor Navorsky, a visitor to New York from Eastern Europe, whose homeland erupts in a violent coup while he is on the plane en route to America. Stranded at Kennedy Airport with a passport from nowhere, he is...
Venice Days is the new Side Bar in 61 biennale influenced by Director's Fortnight from Cannes.A new space for free cinema, new talents, new stories, organized by the ANAC (National Association of Cinematographic Authors) and the API (Independent Authors & Producers) 4directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky A COSTA DOS MURMURIOS / MURMURING COASTdirected by Margarida Cardoso CARO VITTORIOdirected by Marco Risi CONFITUUR / SWEET JAMdirected by Lieven Debrauwer DARWIN'S NIGHTM...
ROIS ET REINE (Kings & Queen)(France) 150 minutes Venice 61, In CompetitionA film by ARNAUD DESPLECHIN(IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, ESTHER KAHN, COMMENT JE ME SUIS DISPUTE.)starring Mathieu Amalric (INQUIETUDES, ALICE ET MARTIN, COMMENT JE ME SUIS DISPUTE.)Emmanuelle Devos (L'ADVERSAIRE, SUR MES LEVRES, ESTHER KAHN)Catherine Deneuve (8 WOMEN, DANCER IN THE DARK, INDOCHINE)Valentin Lelong"I love genre films, and the idea of seeing Nora dive into her memories made me feel that 'Kings & Queen' was a kind...
MONTREAL UNVEILS PROMISING WORLD COMPETITIONA new film by the team that brought us the stunning French documentary Microcosmos, Carlos Saura 's return to socially conscious cinema, and the latest from Aussie underrated actor Hugo Weaving are among the premieres that will highlight the competition of the Montreal World Film Festival.Away from the hype to which film festivals are increasingly succumbing, Montreal has developed a reputation for offering a platform to filmmakers whose work has not b...
Toronto festival (Sept. 9-18) has revealed its full line upGALA PRESENTATIONSWorld PremiereARSÈNE LUPIN (F)Jean-Paul Salomé, France / United Kingdom / Spain / Italy, 2004World PremiereBEING JULIA (F)István Szabó, Canada / United Kingdom / Hungary, 2004World PremiereBEYOND THE SEA (F)Kevin Spacey, United Kingdom / Germany, 2004North American PremiereCLEAN (F)Olivier Assayas, France / United Kingdom / Canada, 2004World PremiereDOWNFALL (F)Oliver Hirschbiegel, Germany, 2004World PremiereFIVE CH...
Locarno International Film Festival 2004It is common knowledge since Lenin's famous statement that film and politics are very intricately connected. This was nicely demonstrated by this year's Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. More surprisingly, this year even the Locarno Film Festival, traditionally associated with young, off mainstream and world cinema, also took an explicitly political turn. The Locarno Film Festival was always the odd one out on the European festival scene. After the ...
The 61st International Film Festival, organised by the Biennale di Venezia and presided over by Davide Croff, will be held at the Lido from 1st to 11th September 2004, directed for the first time by Marco Müller.The new lines of an "agile, competitive" FestivalFollowing his nomination by the Biennale's board of directors, the new director immediately declared that he hoped the 61st Festival "would be an agile festival, created in a climate of constant dialogue with the film industry and culture...
Venezia Cinema Digitale is one of the 5 sections of the 61st Venice International Film Festival (September 1-11, 2004)Venezia 61Venezia Corto CortissimoVenezia Orizzonti (Venice Horizons)Venezia Mezzanotte (Venice Midnight)Venezia Digitale (Venice Digital): this section intended to provide an overview of the new expressive possibilities granted by the new digital technologies. Only feature-length films made using digital technology and never publicly screened outside their country of origin and ...
HIGHLIGHTS FREE OUTDOOR SCREENINGS PROGRAM AT MONTRÉAL WORLD FILM FESTIVALSA cornucopia of acclaimed movies from Canada and around the globe will be screened free-of-charge nightly during the 12-day run of the 28th Montréal World Film Festival, August 26 – September 6.The Cinema Under The Stars program, presented by Loto-Québec in association with the MWFF, will feature two hit films each night starting at 8:30 pm on the Esplanade of Place des Arts, Sainte-Catherine at Jeanne Mance. Only on...
Eighteen movies (three in the Official Section and fifteen in Zabaltegi-New Directors) will compete at the 52nd San Sebastian International Film Festival for the Altadis-New Directors Award, sponsored by Altadis and carrying Euro 90,000 (approx US$95,000).Seventeen countries feature in this selection offering an overview of films with very little in common. Two Argentine movies and another from Colombia represent Latin American cinema. Europe is present with titles from Switzerland, Italy, Germa...
The President of the Venice Biennale, Davide Croff, has asked two great image masters, Dante Ferretti and Matteo Thun, to make some significant changes to the facade of the historical Palazzo del Cinema on the Venice Lido. The building will greet both the general public and the stars with a completely new look for the 61st Venice Film Festival (1-11 September 2004), run by Marco Müller for the first time this year.Dante Ferretti has been set designer for great Italian (Fellini, Ferreri, Pasolin...
Venezia 61 The British director John Boorman is to be chairman of the international Venice 61 jury, which will award the Golden Lion at the 61st Venice Film Festival (1-11 September), with Marco Müller making his debut as Festival director.The Venice 61 jury also includes:Wolfgang Becker (Germany, director)Mimmo Calopresti (Italy, director)Scarlett Johansson (USA, actor)Spike Lee (USA, director)Dušan Makavejev (Serbia-Montenegro, director)Helen Mirren (UK, actress)Pietro Scalia (Italy, editor)...
“Zatoichi,” winner of the Silver Lion Award at the 60th Venice Film Festival and the People’s Choice Audience Award at the 28th Toronto International Film Festival, will be the opening film at the 6th Makati Cinemanila International Film Festival, which runs from July 1 to 12 at the Greenbelt Cinemas.“Zatoichi” (2003), a revival of the cult series that hit Japan in the early 60s, is writer/director/actor Takeshi Kitano’s first venture into period drama. Aside from winning in Venice ...
VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2004: VENICE DAYSFor the first time in the history of the Venice Film Festival, the Italian authors from ANAC (the National Association of Cinematographic Authors,) and API (Independent Authors and Producers) are launching an independent showcase for quality cinema as part of the Festival. It’s called Giornate degli Autori / Venice Days and the event will be taking place with the agreement of the Venice Film Festival board, though it will also have complete autonomy with r...
The Venice Biennale Board, chaired by Davide Croff, welcomed Marco Müller's proposal to award Manoel de Oliveira and Stanley Donen the two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement of the 61st Mostra, which runs September 1-11.On the occasion of the prize awarded to de Oliveira, his new film O Quinto Império will be premiered during the second week of the festival.The Golden Lion to Stanley Donen will be awarded on September 11, the closing night of the festival, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice....
The streets of Saugatuck, Michigan were deceptively empty during the first couple days of the 2004 Waterfront Film Festival, which began June 10. The steady rain kept the usual stream of weekend tourists away from all the specialty shops and gourmet restaurants in this West Michigan town of just over a thousand permanent residents, but poor weather’s apparently not a major deterrent when films are screened indoors, as the opening night presentation – a restored print of Clara Bow’s celebra...
“A POLITICAL THUNDERBOLT”UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQScreeners available upon requestLOS ANGELES, CA – June 8, 2004 - Demand for the feature length documentaryUNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ has grown exponentially since its highly successful world premiere at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Worldwide distributor Cinema Libre International is fielding offers throughout Europe and Asia and the film has been requested by film festivals such as; Munich, London, Deauville, Venice, Stockholm and Locar...
The Moscow International Film Festival is held since 1959 and has since become one of the most representative and prestigious film events in the world. In 1972 the MIFF was registered by the International Association of Film Producers (FIAPF) as a "class A festival" alongside forums in Berlin, the Cannes, San-Sebastian, Karlovy Vary and Venice. The constitutor of the Moscow International Film Festival is the Government of Russia. Among the winners of the Moscow Film Festival in different years w...
The 26th MIFF Competition Films program will include: ANGULIMALADirector: Sutape Tunnirut, Thailand, 2003Cast: Nopachai Jayanama, Stella Malucchi, John Rattanaveroj, Caterina Grosse A parable based on the code of Buddhist morality. The story allegedly happened in India more than 2,500 years ago. Ahimsaka was born of Brahmin parents, the social group of high virtue in the Hindu caste system. Despite his noble birth, Ahimsaka was predestined to become a murderous bandit killing those people to who...
