As Jordan Peimer said in his introduction to the Tribute to Catherine Deneuve on Saturday evening, it's hard to think of anyone who epitomizes beauty and elegance more. Peimer, the Director of Cultural Programming for the Skirball Cultural Center, started off the night of clips from Deneuve's career and remembrances from the great French actress herself. A spectacular montage of Deneuve's over 100 films set up moderator and Los Angeles Times film critic Ken Turan's job of guiding the audience t...
AFI FEST announced the audience and jury award winners today. Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to all the filmmakers who submitted their films. JURY AWARDS Grand Jury Prize Shorts: SPIDER (Directed by Nash Edgerton) Grand Jury Prize for Feature: MUNYURANGABO (Directed by Lee Isaac Chung) Grand Jury Prize for Documentary: tie between AFGHAN MUSCLES (Directed by Andreas Mol Dalsgaard ) and OPERATION FILMMAKER (Directed by Nina Davenport) Best Animated short: I MET THE WALRUS ...
LOVE IN THE TIME OF TECHNOLOGY By JANE MOUNTAIN, Contributing Writer for AFI online dailies Technology has invaded and seized control of our world. Computers are as common as cars, and on the street we listen to our iPods, talk on our cell phones, and punch keys on our PDAs. Technology has also led to a revolution in filmmaking, from special effects-laden blockbusters, to independent shorts, to the thousands of homemade mini-movies shared on YouTube every day. Whether this is a good thing...
Tribute to Laura Linney: Lessons in passion and grace By MARC LEE for AFI online dailies Daily News Editor With speeches from Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ruffalo, an introduction by LA Weekly film critic and editor Scott Foundas and a wealth of stunning film clips, AFI FEST's tribute to Laura Linney brought the ArcLight audience to its feet more than once. Appearing at the AFI FEST Rooftop Village with fiance Marc Schauer, Linney had a brief moment of calm before having her portrait take...
HORROR: HA-HA By JON KORN, FPS Kodak Connect/Associate Programmer for AFI Online dailies Before the film begins... I'd like to get something off my chest regarding zombie movie behavior etiquette: If you happen to be one of a handful of survivors on the run from relentless zombie attacks AND you happen to get bitten during an unfortunate zombie skirmish. Do everyone a favor -- just admit it. Yes, it's awkward and yes, they will have to shoot you in the head (have to kill the brain, after ...
Female Faces in Film Story and photo by MICHELLE PASTER, AFI Daily News Magazine Editor Female filmmakers have a strong presence at AFI FEST this year. In two films, JELLYFISH, from Israel, and WITH YOUR PERMISSION, from Denmark, the female filmmakers' sensibilities impact character development and choice. Though the directors come from different cultures, the ties that bind their films are family, personal relationships, and love or the lack of it. In writer/director Shira Gefen's JE...
Girls On The Run by SHANNON DUNN for AFI oline Dailies When Dorothy admitted to Toto they weren't in Kansas anymore, she knew quite certainly she was in for a bumpy ride. It may be almost 70 years since audiences embraced the Wizard of Oz and that young girl on the run, but little has changed on the cinematic scene when it comes to women - young and old - who face and embrace turmoil to find an inner strength they didn't know they had. From female screenwriters who tell a real-life tale through...
Live dailies from AFI FestBy STUART BRAZELL, AFI online Contributing Writer There is no denying that music can have a profound impact on film. Nothing is more emotionally satisfying than watching a great movie scene with the perfect song playing. Music can also inspire a film, and that is clear in this year's lineup of music-related films at AFI FEST 2007. The world premiere PUBLIC ENEMY: WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME examines the powerful 20-year history of the influential hip-hop group, Public En...
IT'S A SMALL WORLD (Asian Cinema)BY JUSTINA WALFORD from AFI dailies As a second generation Japanese-American, I spent much of my youth sitting next to my mother and pretending I could understand her Japanese soap operas and melodramatic samurai serials. What my mother and I laugh about to this day is how I "get" Japanese film and TV more than she does. I will guffaw at SMAP's sketch comedy when I don't understand a word and I will cry over an emotional monologue in a tearjerker Tokyo ...
Way before Hollywood colonized the Southland, before even the Spanish Missionaries came to spread the word of God, the Tongva Indian tribe inhabited Los Angeles. As with most Indian tribes, they had a very close - almost spiritual - connection to the land. A simple "nga" sound gave words a sense of place. While we've inherited names like Cahuenga (the place of the mountain), Topanga (where the mountain meets the sea) and Tujunga (the place of the old woman), the city has most certainly...
Devous Michel 
