In the spirit of the ongoing global ‘quest for the gold' born in Athens, Greece, over two centuries ago, filmmakers will experience their own moment of triumph as they step onto the red carpet at Hollywood's famed Egyptian Theatre, May 31st, for the opening night of the 2012 Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, to culminate June 3rd with the prestigious Orpheus Awards ceremony.   While the people of Greece confront unprecedented challenges, their heartache shared by Gre...

Twenty-two feature and short narrative and documentary films, a screenwriting master class, and a tribute to the late director Theo Angelopoulos-as well as gala opening and closing nights and the annual Orpheus Awards ceremony-aimed at "Defeating the Crisis Through The Viewfinder" May 31 - June 3rd, 2012 "There is no more timely reflection of Greece's struggles than the one offered by its burgeoning cinema," stated Ersi Danou, Co-Founder/Artistic Director...

  2012 LOS ANGELES GREEK FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP REFLECTS GREECE'S STRUGGLES Twenty-two feature and short narrative and documentary films, a screenwriting master class, and a tribute to the late director Theo Angelopoulos-as well as gala opening and closing nights and the annual Orpheus Awards ceremony-aimed at "Defeating the Crisis Through The Viewfinder" May 31 - June 3rd, 2012 "There is no more timely reflection of Greece's struggles than the one offered...

In addition to the exhibitions at the Kunstsaele Berlin (Critique and Clinic) at Gutschow-Haus and the various events to be held at HAU, Forum Expanded will also be presenting ten film programmes at the Arsenal and Delphi cinemas. The programme is open for a wide range of different lengths and formats, with the works presented trying out individual forms of expression in experimental fashion in order to create new, critical perspectives on the world. Perhaps the most radical of these attempts ...

Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins lead British cast of venerable maestros for Hoffman’s directorial debut   Dustin Hoffman has assembled a cast of Britain’s most virtuoso actors for his feature film directorial debut QUARTET, which starts principal photography today, shooting for nine weeks in and around Buckinghamshire. BBC Films and DCM Productions present a Headline Pictures and Finola Dwyer Productions production in association with Decca and Han...

 French Collector, Archivist and Showman Extraordinaire Will Present Retour de Flamme: Rare and Restored Films in 3-D at the Castro Theatre   San Francisco, CA – The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21–May 5) will present the 2011 Mel Novikoff Award to the extraordinary showman Serge Bromberg for his invaluable work as a collector, preservationist, exhibitor, programmer and enthusiast of cinematic treasures, Sunday, May 1 at 5:00 pm at the Castro Th...

The weather this Berlinale has been more or less "as usual" -- chilly, around freezing every day, a few snowflakes in the air, and brightly overcast -- no sunshine, but bright cloudy days casting a bright silver haze on the cobblestone meadows of Potsdamer Platz -- the kind of bracing weather that makes one happy to be inside a warm cinema rather than out on a tempting beach ... like at Cannes, Venice, or San Sebastian. Berlinale veterans --which means anyone who was here before...

A surprisingly large number of films in the programme of the 41st Berlinale Forum revolve around family, relationships and identity. Although exploring the human psyche is the number one subject for independent filmmakers from the whole world, the majority of these films in this year's selection can also be read politically within the context of social change and political upheaval.   In this way, artist Kelvin K. Park's documentary Cheonggyecheon Medley places the threatened demolition of a tr...

The 41st Forum: Cracks in the Facade A surprisingly large number of films in the programme of the 41st Berlinale Forum revolve around family, relationships and identity. Although exploring the human psyche is the number one subject for independent filmmakers from the whole world, the majority of these films in this year’s selection can also be read politically within the context of social change and political upheaval. In this way, artist Kelvin K. Park’s documentary Cheonggyecheon Medley p...

Nine Finalists for $15,000 Award to be Given to Support the Work of a Mid-Career American ScreenwriterThe San Francisco Film Society announced today the finalists and honorable mention for the second SFFS/Hearst Screenwriting Grant. The grant of $15,000 will be awarded to a mid-career screenwriter who has been a practicing writer for at least five years and who has previously written a minimum of one feature screenplay. The grant is open to writers residing in the United States whose project exp...

Forum Expanded, which explores the intersections between film and other arts, remains a programme on the move. Looking at the selection of more than 40 films, installations and performances from 20 countries reveals that this year’s Forum Expanded will be making room for new perspectives, both artistically and geopolitically. "Cinema City", for example, an installation project initiated by Indian filmmaker, curator and activist Madhusree Dutta will be on display in several cinema ...

THE August screening in Bangkok of Stefan Haupt's "A Song for Argyris" is still on my mind, even though a month has gone by and I have seen more than 20 movies since. Haupt is of Swiss-German extraction which makes this documentary all the more extraordinary, because it tells the true story of terrible atrocities committed by the Nazis during their occupation of Greece in WWII. Haupt lives in Zurich and wasn't in Bangkok for the screening, but he is on record as ack...

2008 is not only the 58th edition of this major European film festival, all told, but it is also the ninth anniversary of the move from West Berlin to Potsdamer Platz in the actual physical center of the new undivided Berlin. The present location, now an ultra-modern stand of new architecture including the space age SONY Center, a film museum, many upscale restaurants and two sets of state-of-the-art  cinema multiplexes among its many attractions,  was once a No-Man’s-Land hugging the sinis...

2008 is not only the 58th edition of this major European film festival, all old, but it is also the ninth anniversary of the move from West Berlin to Potsdamer Platz in the actual physical center of the new undivided Berlin. The present location, now an ultra-modern stand of new architecture including the space age SONY Center, a film museum, many upscale restaurants and two sets of state-of-the-art cinema multiplexes among its many attractions, was once a No-Man’s-Land hugging the sinister ...

During the ten days of the Berlinale most Berlin dailies adorn their front pages with large color photos of celebrity posturings the night before. On Thursday, day number 7 of the fest, however, what was to be seen on all Berlin front pages were shots of men in hooded white spacesuits holding up dead swans fished out of the city lakes, or otherwise attempting to deal with the sudden arrival of the dreaded aviarian flu virus in the midst of the city. Of course, this does not mean that we can exp...

The nine members of this international jury – organisers of queer and other film festivals – view films within the framework of all programs of the Berlinale which have queer context.Three films are nominated for each category and one receives a TEDDY for best feature film, best short film and best documentary/essay film, each with a cash award of € 3,000.Members of the Jury:John Badalu (Indonesia), Noah Cowan (Canada), Matt Fox (Great Britain), KatrinKremmler (Hungary), Gary Mak (Hong Kon...

54th Berlin International Film Festival goes digital Worldwide digitalization has also brought changes to the cinema. Not only are more and more films digitally processed but they are also digitally produced and projected. With the advancement of digital cinema, the Berlin International Film Festival has increasingly turned to using digital projection for its movies. Ten festival cinemas are now equipped with digital projectors. Whereas the Zoo-Palast went digital some time ago, the Berlin Inter...