Friday, June 16----The new frontiers in distribution of documentary films has been a running theme at the SILVERDOCS International Documentary Conference. While other topics such as film financing, working with non-profits and foundations, and producing for public television are rather evergreen and non-changing from years past, the arena of distribution is on fire, with a number of panels pointing to incredible new opportunities for documentary filmmakers to reach wider audiences. On Thursday ...

Thursday, June 15----It doesn't get much better than this....legendary film director Martin Scorsese being honored for his documentary film career, in a rare on-stage dialogue with independent auteur Jim Jarmusch. That was the scenario this evening, as Scorsese was honored at the SILVERDOCS 2006 Guggenheim Symposium, named in honor of four-time Academy Award winning documentarian, and Washington DC resident, Charles Guggenheim. Scorsese is one of the few Hollywood directors who has moved from...

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...

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...

The 5th annual Tribeca Film Festival opened on Tuesday evening with the world premiere of a controversial 9/11 docudrama. United 93, which opens nationally in theaters this Friday via Universal Pictures, is a dramatized version of the events that occurred on September 11th, 2001, when Al Qaeda terrorists took over a US airplane that was meant to crash into the White House, on the same day that other airplane hijackings attacked the Pentagon in Washington DC, and brought down New York’s World T...

Veteran director Martin Scorsese will be honored at SILVERDOCS: The AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, the most prestigious showcase for non-fiction films in the United States.Scorsese will receive the Festival’s highest honor at the Charles Guggenheim Symposium on June 15th, during the Festival’s six-day mix of screenings, seminars and tributes to be held at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Springs, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington DC. The Festival, a collaboration between th...

16TH WASHINGTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVALDecember 1 - 1140 films • 9 countries • 5 venues • 10 daysThe 16th Washington Jewish Film Festival: An Exhibition of International Cinema presents 40 features, documentaries and shorts from 9 countries, in five venues, during the December 1 – 11, ten-day Festival. The Festival is presented by the Washington DCJCC's Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts and co-sponsored by the Embassy of Israel and Washington Jewish Week; and supported in part by a grant ...

The current busy film festival season has harvested a bonanza of awards for worthy films at a number of film festival events. The Provincetown International Film Festival, which held its ninth and most successful session from June 14 to 19, announced a host of awards at its Gala Closing Night Party at the Boatslip Resort overlooking beautiful Cape Cod Bay.The Best Dramatic Feature prize was won by HEIGHTS, the multi-character drama starring Glenn Close and James Marsden. The film, directed by Ch...

The Hero (O Heroi) by first time director Zeze Gamboa: starring:Oumar Makena Diop which won one of the top awards in Sundance this year and was the opening film of MOMA’s New Directors series in New-York, will competing at the upcoming Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The film won recognition and prizes at Sundance 2005, "Winner Best Film World Cinema Competition"Washington DC 2005, "Capital Focus Award"LA 2005 Pan African Festival 2005, "Best Film"Opening Film New Directors/New Films 2005Fespaco 2...

SOMETHING IN THE “WATER” FOR AUDIENCE AWARDS At 15TH Anniversary Washington Jewish Film FestivalThe 15th Washington Jewish Film Festival: An Exhibition of International Cinema revealed the winners of its Audience Awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary and Best Short film. As luck would have it, the three winners are all Israeli films. Coincidences continue, as two of the films have the word “water” in their titles. Best Feature -- Walk on Water(Director: Eytan Fox, Israel)www.walk...

International PEN (London) and One World Human Rights Film Festival (Prague)Fourteen Nobel Literature Laureates are joining Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic and renowned playwright, and Jiri Grusa, acclaimed Czech writer and President of International PEN to urge Senior General Than Shwe of the Burmese Military Junta to immediately release Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other imprisoned Burmese writers. Burmese writers serving long sentences include 74-year-old...

DC Independent Film Festival March 5-11, 2004In its fifth edition the 2004 DC independent film festival (DCIFF) continues to establish itself as a platform for independent film makers, carving an identity that sets it apart from the larger and more prestigious 15 year running Washington DC International Festival. Carol Bidault, the fest director has the challenge of creating a niche for the DCIFF in the immense US film festival market that counts up to 900 fests with new one added each wee...

Sundance Hollywood and Politics In Park City 2004 is a Presidential Election year and the players are out across the country jocking for position.  With the major media eyes here in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, many of the candidates are making the rounds.  Al Gore is one most visible, visiting shops along Main St, viewing films and meeting everyone form Hollywood elite or regular filmgoers.  Gores presence added a buzz throughout the ...