TWILIGHT PORTRAIT
Sergei Borisov (Andrei)
Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina)
The proud winner of the 52nd Thessaloniki Film Festival Golden Alexander Award is the film that is taking the international festival world by storm this year, the Russian micro-budget indie film TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (2011) by newcomer Director/Writer/Producer Angelina Nikonova and Writer/Producer/Actress Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina).
When I met Angelina and Olga at a dinner in Iceland, I had not...
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) TIFF PRESS RELEASE!52nd THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 4 - 13 NOVEMBER, 2011 FILM LIST OPENING FILM – November 4th, 2011 - The Descendants by Alexander Payne, 2011, USA CLOSING FILM - November 12th, 2011 - Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin, USA, 2011 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION • ALOIS NEBEL, Tomas LUNAK, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovak Republic, 2011, 84’ • BEHOLD THE LAMB, John MCILDUFF, United Kingdom, 2011, 83’ • BURROS/D...
• From the creators of Secret Cinema • Anyone Anywhere can set up their own film festival• Filmmakers, audiences and festival partners come together to create the next generation film festivalLaunching in November, the Future Shorts Festival will become the first ever global pop-up festival, showcasing the most exciting short films from around the world. Anyone, anywhere can set up a screening and be part of a massive screening network and a powerful global community. The fe...
The juries for the 15th Black Nights Film Festival promise to bring debate and intensity to their careful scrutiny of competition films as they head to Tallinn, Estonia between 16th and 30th November 2011. Jury members include Sergei Loznitsa, the director of the hugely praised My Joy which won the Grand Prix at PÖFF 2010, and Oscar nominated filmmaker Juanita WilsonThe International Competition EurAsia Jury will award a Grand Prix and jury prizes for Best Director, Actor and Actress from a div...
We will be covering the festival with dailies...stay tuned
52nd THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL will run November 4 - 13, 2011
With less than a week to go before the start of the event, we have the pleasure to contact you with the latest news from this year's 52ND Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which kicks off Friday, November 4th.
A complete list of this year's line-up can be found at the end of this pres...
Environmental films played a key role in this year's Abu Dhabi Film Festival. One of the eco-docs to screen at the 2011 ADFF was ECO-PIRATE: The Story of Paul Watson (2011), a film that focuses on the notorious eco-pirate, Paul Watson, who once had been named ‘persona non grata’ in Iceland after he had sunk two whaling ships in the Reykjavik harbor in 1988. The film tackles a heated political debate from the 1970’s till present day about the whaling industry, which is responsible for decim...
Few films can boast such raw and gritty realism as VOLCANO (ELDFJALL, Iceland, 2011). While the film is set in its native Iceland, it is a far cry from the expansive Nordic Eden we have been exposed to after Eastwood's FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (2006) and TOMB RAIDER (2001), with VOLCANO exposing the more tangible truth of everyday life in Iceland of a fisherman (Hannes) and his wife and the driest peak in their lives, where everything they once knew is about to erupt and explode into an even tough...
Few films can boast such raw and gritty realism as VOLCANO (ELDFJALL, Iceland, 2011). While the film is set in its native Iceland, it is a far cry from the expansive Nordic Eden we have been exposed to after Eastwood's FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (2006) and TOMB RAIDER (2001), with VOLCANO exposing the more tangible truth of everyday life in Iceland of a fisherman (Hannes) and his wife and the driest peak in their lives, where everything they once knew is about to erupt and explode into an ev...
VOLCANO (2011) by Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson, which held its world premier at Cannes this year, opened to home audiences during the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF), 2011. The film's Nordic premier at RIFF enjoyed a full house and a smash after party with the film's cast and crew and RIFF guests alike. photo by Vanessa McMahon
VOLCANO (2011) by Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson, which held its world premier at Cannes this year, opened to home audiences during the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF), 2011. The film's Nordic premier at RIFF enjoyed a full house and a smash after party with the film's cast and crew and RIFF guests alike. photo by Vanessa McMahon
VOLCANO (2011) by Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson, which held its world premier at Cannes this year, opened to home audiences during the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF), 2011. The film's Nordic premier at RIFF enjoyed a full house and a smash after party with the film's cast and crew and RIFF guests alike. photo by Vanessa McMahon
VOLCANO (2011) by Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson, which held its world premier at Cannes this year, opened to home audiences during the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF), 2011. The film's Nordic premier at RIFF enjoyed a full house and a smash after party with the film's cast and crew and RIFF guests alike. photo by Vanessa McMahon
VOLCANO (2011) by Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson, which held its world premier at Cannes this year, opened to home audiences during the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF), 2011. The film's Nordic premier at RIFF enjoyed a full house and a smash after party with the film's cast and crew and RIFF guests alike. photo by Vanessa McMahon
VOLCANO (2011) by Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson, which held its world premier at Cannes this year, opened to home audiences during the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF), 2011. The film's Nordic premier at RIFF enjoyed a full house and a smash after party with the film's cast and crew and RIFF guests alike.
photo by Vanessa McMahon
The first time I had heard about Béla Tarr was from a Serbian filmmaker friend who told me that if I wanted to know some real avant-garde plucky cinema, I hadn’t lived until I had seen a Béla Tarr film. As a writer myself, I’m big on unadulterated organic creativity and this exemplary director has gone against all the rules doing everything a filmmaker is taught not to do, making himself quite a name in his 34 years of doing so. Tarr even holds the credit to having directed one...
With so much percipitation outside, one thing to do a lot of in Iceland is EAT! and so we did :-)dinner in Reykjavik, RIFF 2011photo by Vanessa McMahon
The first time I had heard about Béla Tarr was from a Serbian filmmaker friend who told me that if I wanted to know some real avant-garde plucky cinema, I hadn’t lived until I had seen a Béla Tarr film. As a writer myself, I’m big on unadulterated organic creativity and this exemplary director has gone against all the rules doing everything a filmmaker is taught not to do, making himself quite a name in his 34 years of doing so. Tarr even holds the credit to having directed one of the ...
By Vanessa McMahonThe first time I had heard about Béla Tarr was from a Serbian filmmaker friend who told me that if I wanted to know some real avant-garde plucky cinema, I hadn’t lived until I had seen a Béla Tarr film. As a writer myself, I’m big on unadulterated organic creativity and this exemplary director has gone against all the rules doing everything a filmmaker is taught not to do, making himself quite a name in his 34 years of doing so. Tarr even holds the credit to having direct...
Opening with true love – The Icelandic romantic comedy OKKAR EIGIN OSLÓ (Our Own Oslo) by Reynir Lyngdal will start off the 60th International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg The great anniversary edition of the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg, which is now 60 years old, starts cheerfully and amourously: the romantic comedy OKKAR EIGIN OSLÓ (Our Own Oslo) by newcomer director Reynir Lyngdal marks the official start of the programme of the second-oldest German film festival....
In Retrospect... From RIFF 2010 to MIPCOM 2011... Last year the film at RIFF 2010 which stirred up quite a debate was this documentary, WHEN THE DRAGON SWALLOWED THE SUN (2010), which threatened to destabilize the friendly relationship between China and Iceland (the film is about China's oppressive hold over Tibet). Now one year later the film is being sold at the world's biggest TV market, MIPCOM, at Cannes; October 03-06, 2011.
Interview with director Dirk Simon from ...
BELA TARR receives Lifetime Achievement Award at RIFF, 2011 The legendary, exemplary, unconventional and inspiring filmmaker Bela Tarr traveled from his native Hungary to Reykjavik, Iceland last week during the 8th annual Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) to receive the honorary award for Lifetime Achievement for greatness in filmmaking. The president of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, awarded a statue of the nation's symbolic puffin to an emotionally touched Bela. The ce...
BELA TARR receives Lifetime Achievement Award at RIFF, 2011
The legendary, exemplary, unconventional and inspiring filmmaker Bela Tarr traveled from his native Hungary to Reykjavik, Iceland last week during the 8th annual Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) to receive the honorary award for Lifetime Achievement for greatness in filmmaking. The president of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, awarded a statue of the nation's symbolic puffin to an emotionally ...
Bela Tarr's Puffin Statue for Lifetime Achievement awarded by the Icelandic president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson photo by Vanessa McMahon
photo from Venice poster at La Biennale, 68.This past week I attended the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF) after going nonstop from Venice La Biennale, then to TIFF and then to RIFF. I was tired of course but so anxious to catch up on the films that I had missed at the former festivals that appeared also in Iceland. One of these films was one that had received a great buzz in Venice, a lyrica...
My goofy pose with super cool and sweet Bela Tarr at the president's house in Iceland.
