It perhaps seemed improbable that one of the world's funniest filmmakers was a devoted acolyte of one of the world's most serious. But that was the case for Woody Allen, whose devotion to the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman was a life-long obsession. He often referenced the great director in his films. In ANNIE HALL, in a scene that all hardcore cinephiles can relate to, Woody refuses to go to a screening of Bergman's FACE TO FACE because he and Diane Keaton have missed the first 60 seconds of ...
I thought this was a particularly good interview with Michael Bay and since Transformers premiered at the LA Film Festival, I wanted to include this interview in this blog. Robin Rowe, a Los Angeles screenwriter and facilitator of weekly filmmaker events, asks Bay practical questions that I think a lot of filmmakers will appreciate. Enjoy! (Contact information for Robin is at the bottom of this email.) Michael Bay Interview: Transformersby Robin Rowe [More articles] Read Robin's Sci-...
On the opening day of its 60th anniversary, Wednesday May 16 from 2:30pm to 5:30pm, the Festival de Cannes is offering a moment of reflection on the opportunities and challenges of the next decade by holding a conference focused on the evolution of audience practices and on the ties between cinema creation, new promotional and broadcast platforms. Film industry representatives, new media players, journalists and sociologists will share their experiences and views on how the fast evolving digit...
MySpace, the world's leading lifestyle portal, today announced the launch of a dedicated video community to debut online theatrical trailers for film releases. The new video community, MySpace Trailer Park (http://www.myspace.com/trailerpark), opens in collaboration with Lionsgate (NYSE:LGF), the leading independent filmed entertainment studio renowned for the Academy Award(R) winning CRASH, the hit SAW franchise and the upcoming HOSTEL PART II. The first trailer premiere is for the raucous come...
Eight World Premieres, a dozen Southern Premieres, appearances by international recording artist Rob Thomas and The Shields' Walton Goggins and discussions with producers Lawrence Bender and Steve Oederkerk are among the many highlights of this year's Nashville Film Festival, taking place April 19-26 at Regal Green Hills Cinema. In total, the festival will include screenings of 240 films from 40 countries. The complete lineup of films and ticket sale information is available now at nashvillefilm...
Wednesday, March 21-----Acclaimed actors Carrie Fisher and Richard Dreyfuss are serving as the co-chairs of the Jury at the 2007 Bermuda International Film Festival. The Jury is charged with the duty of deciding the winning films in three categories: Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Award for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary, and the M3 Wireless Bermuda Shorts Award. Carrie Fisher is the actress/novelist/television personality daughter of singer/actress Debbie Reynolds and singer/actor...
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's film THE LIVES OF OTHERS (DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN) has received the Academy Award for "Best Foreign Language Film" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood. "This award is an honour and the greatest compliment both for me as well as the fantastic work of so many people who worked on this film and gave their best. The German cinema is full of power and has experienced an enormous upswing in recent years. I am very happy and grateful to be ...
Scorsese Wins DGA Prize At the annual DGA Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday night, Martin Scorsese was awarded the best director of the year prize from the Directors Guild of America, for his latest feature "The Departed" Scorsese bested Bill Condon ("Dreamgirls"), Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Stephen Frears ("The Queen"), and Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu ("Babel"), making him a front-runner for the Academy Award for best director. In the Oscar race, he is facing Frea...
The screenwriter and director Bobby Moresco (2006 Academy Award®-winner for the screenplay "Crash" with Paul Haggis) has been named chairman of the second annual “LOS ANGELES, ITALIA” FILM, FASHION AND ART FESTIVAL” February 18th to the 24th, 2007 at the Mann's Chinese 6 Theaters at Hollywood & Highland Center. "I'm proud of the chairmanship, which I assume with much respect towards Italian cinema and its traditions, not to mention the emotional ties that I have towards my Ligurian ances...
THE ELITE:
In a career teeming with brilliant work, these are Al Pacino's greatest films.
The Godfather: This is where the legacy begins, both of the greatest one-two punch in film history and Pacino's stellar career. Pacino first plays the highly moral idealist Michael sheepishly, until he subtly morphs into a cold-blooded gangster right before your eyes. It is the most amazing transformation ever portrayed in the cinema; made all the more powerful because you barely register it happening. A+
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Thursday, December 14----The Museum of Modern Art continues its grand tradition of honoring visionary artists from Hollywood's golden age, with a 21-film retrospective of the films of famed film score composer Franz Waxman, on the centenary of his birth. FRANZ WAXMAN: MUSIC FOR THE CINEMA opens on Saturday, December 16 and runs through January 17th at the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters at New York's citadel of culture, the Museum of Modern Art.
Franz Waxman was one of the best known and most in...
Monday, December 11----With the glut of announcements from various film critics associations, the Oscar race is beginning to take shape. However, as opposed to recent memory, when one film (be it GLADIATOR, LORD OF THE RINGS or MILLION DOLLAR BABY) was recognized across the board as the Best Film of the Year, this year's race has been flung wide open, with a few films making an impression and certain to be among Oscar nominees for the Academy's highest honor.
In the past 72 hours, film critic...
Un peu d'exercice pour votre anglais?
Withoutabox, Inc., the media company comprising the world’s largest independent film network and FilmFestivals.com, the leading information and practical application services for the film festival community, have struck a strategic alliance aimed at providing an unprecedented range of marketing solutions to film festival professionals both in North America and across Europe and Asia. Withoutabox CEO and co-founder David Straus and FilmFestivals.com CEO Ma...
Aiming at better serving the festival community worldwide the industry leaders have struck an alliance that was announced at the recent festival Summit in Las Vegas. THE NEW CO OP SERVICES AND MARKETING SUITES WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.
Withoutabox, Inc., the media company comprising the world’s largest independent film network and FilmFestivals.com, the leading information and practical application services for the film festival community, have struck a strategic alliance aimed at providing...
Aiming at better serving the festival community worldwide the industry leaders have struck an alliance that was announced at the recent festival Summit in Las Vegas. THE NEW CO OP SERVICES AND MARKETING SUITES WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.Withoutabox, Inc., the media company comprising the world’s largest independent film network and FilmFestivals.com, the leading information and practical application services for the film festival community, have struck a strategic alliance aimed at providing a...
Three talented artists from the Academy award-winning team at Sony Pictures Imageworks (US) and Sony Pictures Animation will be anchoring the Australian Effects & Animation Festival Sydney. They will be providing an inside view of three of the year’s biggest cinema events: Superman Returns, Monster House and Open Season.
Day One sees Imageworks’ animation supervisor Troy Saliba deliver the opening presentation on the animated feature film Monster House, which utilizes the proprietary Ima...
Sunday, November 12--- Mel Stuart, the veteran director, was honored on Saturday evening at the FLIFF Uncorked! Awards Gala with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his five decades as a pioneering director/producer. Stuart was a trend-setter, who effortlessly moved between the worlds of big-budget Hollywood and independent documentaries in a career move that has been emulated by such contemporary filmmakers as Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme and Steven Soderbergh. In a long and distinguished car...
Sal de Mar Award
Monday, October 23----The first annual Turks & Caicos International Film Festival (TCIFF) announced its winners on Saturday evening at a gala Closing Night Awards Ceremony, held on the Carribean island nation of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Premier Michael Misick joined with his wife, actress LisaRaye Misick to congratulate the night's winners and honorees.
Michael and LisaRaye Misick
Nearly two hundred guests joined the Premier and First Lady, as well as Festival co-di...
EFP Delegation at Pusan Film Festival
Friday, October 20----European Film Promotion, the pan-European promotion organization that represents the national film promotion agencies of over 30 European countries, is returning to New York for the third time with industry screenings of four excellent new European films. The goal of the program is to present new European films to New York-based film distributors, festival programmers and film critics. The four films will be presented on October 23rd a...
EFP launches October Session of Industry Screenings in New YorkThird edition in 2006 presents four new European films at the Tribeca Screening Room, October 23rd and 24thWith Spanish/German comedy THE GREAT MATCH by Gerardo Olivares recently sold to Film Movement as result of the past showcase European Film Promotion (EFP) has set a third programme of Industry Screenings in New York for 2006. On October 23rd and 24th four new films from different European countries will be introduced to U.S. dis...
Thursday, October 5----A documentary co-directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple on the controversial country-and-western group The Dixie Chicks, will have its International Premiere at the Turks & Caicos International Film Festival, a unique event that fuses film and music. The Festival opens on October 17 on the beautiful Caribbean island archipelago of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
DIXIE CHICKS: SHUT UP AND SING, co-directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, follows the D...
From July 15 to July 22, 2006, for the 24th time, Munich will be the setting of Germany's largest summer film festival.Among the highlights of our International Program are spectacular debut films such as THANK YOU FOR SMOKING by Jason Reitman from the USA, VALERIE by Birgit Möller from Germany and MÜETTER by French director (but Munich resident) Dominique Lienhard. As always, there are exciting discoveries to be made - like American Wunderkind Andrew Bujalski, whose first two films (FUNNY HA...
Surprises aren’t always a good thing in San Francisco. Exhaustive media coverage of the centennial of the 1906 great earthquake and fire—the defining event of the city’s history and biggest natural disaster in America until Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last year—recently shook Bay Area residents with constant reminders that this is shake-rattle-and-roll country.
On Saturday morning, Talk Cinema founder and former Film Comment editor Harlan Jacobson admitted to being a “n...
Premiers, Packed Houses, Prestigious Jury Awards and More… Aspen Shortsfest celebrated an eclectic mix of short films including several world and North American premiers to big crowds and dozens of film guests from around the world during its 15th edition. Laughter, applause—even screams—could be heard throughout the festival in Aspen and Carbondale. The Audience Favorite Award was a 3-way split between The Danish Poet (North American premier, Torill Kove, Canada/Norway; animation), Mons...
One of the highlights of this springs Tribeca Film Festival is sure to be the Animated New York program curated by Bill Plympton. When people think of New York City’s filmmakers most are unaware of the thriving, diverse independent animation community .Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been printed in The New York Times and The Village Voice , as well as the magazines Vogue , Rolling Stone , Vanity Fair , Penthouse , and National Lampoon . His political cartoon strip "Plympton", ...
