After five days of screenings and events, Aspen Film announced the competition winners of Aspen Shortsfest 2009. Roughly 2,500 entries were considered from over 60 countries, with more than 60 short films selected for Aspen Shortsfest from 21 countries for this esteemed, five-day Oscar®-qualifying International Competition. Considered one of the world's premier international short film and video showcases for this trend-setting art form, Aspen Shortsfest's centerpiece, the International Compe...
Aspen Film announced today its film selections that will be screening at Aspen Shortsfest 2009, April 1-5 at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen and Crystal Theatre in Carbondale. More than 2,500 entries were considered from more than 60 countries, and more than 60 short films were selected from 21 countries for this esteemed, five-day Oscar®-qualifying International Competition. In its 18th year, Aspen Shortsfest is considered one of the world's premier international short film and video showcase...
Jason Reitman, the 30-year-old film director who scored an Academy Award nomination for his second feature film, will be honored this evening at the Palm Beach International Film Festival with the PBIFF Visionary Award. The honor will be given following a special screening of his hit comedy JUNO, which will be released on DVD tomorrow by Fox Home Video. Following the screening, Reitman will participate in an on-stage Conversation with National Public Radio host and film critic Peter Rainer. Rei...
Monday, April 14-----Jason Reitman, the 30-year-old film director who scored an Academy Award nomination for his second feature film, will be honored this evening at the Palm Beach International Film Festival with the PBIFF Visionary Award. The honor will be given following a special screening of his hit comedy JUNO, which will be released on DVD tomorrow by Fox Home Video. Following the screening, Reitman will participate in an on-stage Conversation with National Public Radio host and film crit...
Jason Reitman, the 30-year-old film director who scored an Academy Award nomination for his second feature film, will be honored this evening at the Palm Beach International Film Festival with the PBIFF Visionary Award. The honor will be given following a special screening of his hit comedy JUNO, which will be released on DVD tomorrow by Fox Home Video. Following the screening, Reitman will participate in an on-stage Conversation with National Public Radio host and film critic Peter Rainer. Rei...
So I came to the last night of the screenings at Aspen Shortsfest filled with high expectations. Generally, the first and last programs are filled with great films. Program 7 fluctuated between good and fair films. The good ones included: CHIEF, TAXI, and my favorite PETER AND BEN. It’s another quirky English doc depicting the relationship of Peter (a man), and Ben (a ram). Both opt to live outside their respective flocks, and with each other. The eighth and last program of the...
Jealousy reared its ugly head last night at Program 6 here at the Aspen Shortsfest. I never thought I could be envious of a total stranger, a student nonetheless. I asked myself how someone so early in their career could create a piece so nuanced, so mature, so well done. I'm writing of ON THE LINE, a 30 minute German/Swiss coproduction that is clearly the best film I've seen here so far. That is saying a lot, since almost the entire program was stellar. SPIDER is a devastatingly fun...
"You're only limitation in animating is your own imagination", said Bill Plympton last night following program 4 at the Aspen Shortsfest.
This year Bill is part of the competition jury and is teaching a Master Class in Animation on Saturday afternoon. Each of the programs has one or two Plymptoons screening out of competition. THE FAN AND THE FLOWER is one of my favorite Plympton pieces. It screened in program 3 along with 6 other films, including my pick for fi...
Got here yesterday afternoon and headed to the Wheeler Opera House for the first program of the festival. It blew me away. As filmmakers Sylvia Johnson and Ismet Ergun said in the Q&A which followed - "It's all about the storytelling". Those stories ranged from cinema-going kids in Turkey, to a murder in Inuit country, to the streets of Brazil, and to the rehab clinic at Walter Reed. The second program screened later the same night. It was not quite as strong as the first, ...
Aspen Shortsfest celebrated a diverse mix of short films including several world, North American and US premiers to the delight of audiences and dozens of film guests from around the world during its 16th edition. The top winners were The Substitute (Andrea Jublin, Italy) for Best Comedy, Fair Trade (Michael Dreher, Germany) for Best Drama, Never Like the First Time! (Jonas Odell, Sweden) and Yours Truly (Osbert Parker, UK), which share Best Animation and City (Topaz Adizes, USA) for Best Short ...
The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences alerted the Port Townsend Film Festival today that it was selected as one of 28 U.S. film festivals to receive grants for calendar year 2007, Festival Grants Committee Chair Gale Anne Hurd announced today.
The Port Townsend Film Festival, which completed its seventh festival last month, will receive $5,000.
The fund will be used to bring filmmakers to the eighth annual festival next year, according to Peter Simpson, execu...
