SHAME (UK, Steve McQueen) Although it began rather slowly, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which just concluded on Sunday, saw a good degree of sales and acquisition activity, with many more deals to be announced in the coming weeks. Although it does not have an official market sidebar like Cannes or Berlin, there is a good amount of informal rubbing of shoulders between members of the international film community who were in attendance in force. According to ...

Sydney movie hub - The Entertainment Quarter, went crazy tonight as 1000s showed up for the Abduction premiere. Twilight star Taylor Lautner advised he was shocked at the awesome reception he received when Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire were just a few metres away filming The Great Gatsby. "It's amazing the support I get. You never really get used to it," he told the press at tonight's premiere of his flick Abduction. ...

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...

It was announced today that the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) will present multiple Oscar® winner Paul Haggis (“Crash,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Casino Royale”) with the Festival’s prestigious Golden Eye Award for his life work as a screenwriter and filmmaker. The announcement was made today by ZFF Directors Karl Spoerri and Nadja Schildknecht. Haggis will receive the “Golden Eye” for his life’s work on Saturday, October 1st within the framework of the prestigious “A Tribute t...

After nine and a half years as Festival Director/ CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival, Katrina Sedgwick today announced she would be leaving the Festival at the end of 2011 to pursue other opportunities in the arts as well in film. She will continue in her role until the end of the year before handing over to a new Festival Director in early 2012.“It has been a wonderful opportunity for me to have been able to develop and deliver my own fairly idiosyncratic version of a film festival over the pa...

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) announced today the members of the two juries that will preside over the international competition categories at the 7th edition of the Festival, which takes place September 22 – October 2, 2011. Academy Award® nominee Laurence Fishburne (“The Matrix” trilogy, “Mystic River,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It”) will serve as Jury President for the ZFF’s international section. The Festival will also be honoring Fishburne with a special achieve...

  The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival is proud to announce the acceptance of the following films to be screened at this inspiring festival from October 12 to October 16, 2011. Tickets will be available for purchase, beginning September 5, 2011, at the Festival website: http://www.chagrindocumentaryfilmfestival.org.   Festival film categories and the accepted films in each include: Community Documentary: Breaking Through (USA) by Muarianna Zingarelli, Where Hope Works (USA) by Ted ...

<p>Bollywood, one of the largest centres of film production in the world, has recently taken on the flavours of  Melbourne which has Australia’s highest concentration of convention facilities located in the city centre, including the MCEC, the world’s first and only ‘Six Star Green Star’ rated convention centre. It  is also home to five of the six most significant annual sport events held in Australia – the Boxing Day Cricket Test, the Australian Football League Grand Final, ...

The 32nd edition of the Durban International Film Festival, with principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, last night announced its award-winners, prior to the closing film. Winner of the Best Feature Film award, Nader and Simin, A Separation (Iran), directed by Asghar Farhadi, was lauded by the International Jury as a “masterpiece” with “astonishing performances from the ensemble cast”. The Best Feature Film award carries a cash prize of R50 000. ...

In front of a dedicated vampire crowd, we have announced this year's winners of Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival in Ljutomer, Slovenia. Without further ado, let us list them: VICIOUS CAT International jury consisting of Dinko Tucaković, Phillip Bergson and Lars Nilsen has decided that Vicious Cat (Best Feature Film award) goes to: THE LAST CIRCUS /BALADA TRISTE DE TROMPETA Spain/France; 2010 Directed by: Alex de la Iglesia Genre: comedy The award was taken by acto...

Here is the official selection of short films and music documentaries for this year's Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival, which will take place from July 25 to July 30 in Ljutomer, Slovenia. More information about other film program sections, music program and other features of this year's Grossmann can be found on the official site. SLAK'S VICIOUS CATS (Best Short Film Competition) 108.1 FM RADIO Italy; 2011; 15 min; Angelo & Giuseppe Capasso ATTACK OF THE GIANT B...

7th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival Takes off August 11-18 at Various Locations in Hollywood, CA Hollywood, July 16, 2011—The organizers of HollyShorts (www.hollyshorts.com) have announced the full lineup for the 7th annual HollyShorts Film Festival, which takes place August 11-18 in various locations throughout Hollywood. Acclaimed writer Jamie Linden (Dear John, We Are Marshall) will premiere his short film “The Envelope in the Glovebox” which he used to pitch into the ...

Saturday, July 16, FilmOneFest returns to Atlantic Highlands. "We're working hard to make FilmOneFest 2011 'leap' with unexpected moments, new experiences, and beautiful filmmaking," says co-Director Robert O'Connor of New Jersey's only one-minute film festival. FilmOneFest offers succinct, exciting minutes by local, national, and international filmmakers, films that capture the essence of an artist's vision in just 60 seconds. And it's not just film – this out...

Screening to be Followed by a Special Conversation with Award-Winning Director Phillip Noyce Ovation, the only television network dedicated to arts culture, is holding a special screening at the Bing Theater at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) for the winners in its 2nd Annual Short Film Contest on Thursday, July 14. The screening will include a discussion with the filmmakers and award-winning director Phillip Noyce. The Ovation Short Film Contest, which is sponsored by popp...

The first of the month saw another first for the  Barbican Arts Centre, nestling in the City of London, as it hosted the first New Zealand Film Festival in its capacious Cinema 1 (from 1-3 July, 2011). Timed to coincide with the City of London's arts festival which takes Oceania as its focus for a continuing season of recitals,lectures and large-scale concerts in a number of historic venues, the opening night was spectacularly successful with a memorable pre-film reception in the Barbican's ...

Silver Princess Statuette (replica of the original "The Palace" statue of Ilijana, daughter of the Romanian Queen Mary of Edingburg) The voices of this year's directors show more clearly than ever that people from all nations are bonded by the same love, loss and laughter. Whether from Africa, Asia, America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand or the Middle East we are one in our needs and emotions. Perhaps in the 21st century the hand written note has been replaced by th...

Bahiya & Mahmoud Receives Best of Festival Award; UMOJA: No Men Allowed Receives Panavision Grand Jury Award; Tsuyako Receives Future Filmmaker AwardThe 2011 Palm Springs International ShortFest, the largest short film festival and market in North America, announced its Festival award winners on Sunday, June 26, 2011. 331 short films screened throughout the Festival along with more than 3,000 filmmaker submissions available in the film market. A total of $128,800 in prizes, including $14,000 i...

Sydneysiders braved one of the coldest winters in many years to make the 2011 Sydney Film Festival another resounding success. “Revenue targets were exceeded and total box office takings were higher than ever, despite reduced capacity due to renovations underway around the State Theatre, and having one day less in the Festival.” says CEO Leigh Small.Sold-out sessions increased to 72 in 2011 from 63 last year, and percentage capacity attendance increased significantly, resulting in nearly hal...