You can be excused if you believe that new starlet Jessica Chastain is in every movie opening this season. The busy actress can currently be seen on the big screen in three major summer movies, including Terrence Malick’s THE TREE OF LIFE, the best seller adaptation THE HELP and the espionage actioner THE DEBT. At the recent Venice Film Festival, she regally walked the red carpet along with co-star and director Al Pacino for WILDE SALOME, his meta-textual adaptation of the Oscar Wilde ...

  The Woodstock Film Festival, which opens this evening with a pre-Festival screening of Oscar winning documentarian Barbara Kopple's WOODSTOCK: NOW AND THEN, is celebrating its 10th anniversary as one of the independent film festival's most intriguing and enjoyable events. The Festival, which runs through Sunday, is set in the idyllic town of Woodstock, New York, about 3 hours north of Manhattan. While many might associate the town with the legendary 1969 rock concert (and cultur...

  by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor    ENTRE NOS, a hard-hitting and emotionally involving drama about the struggles of an illegal immigrant to make a life for herself and her children on the mean streets of New York City, was chosen as the Best Film in the North American Independents Competition of the 25th edition of FESTROIA: The Troia International Film Festival. The Festival, the oldest and largest in Portugal, ran from September 4 to 1...

  by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor   It takes a tremendous amount of courage and insight to make a film that cuts so close to the bone, but in ENTRE NOS, an American Independent film screening at FESTROIA, the actress/writer/director Paola Mendoza delves into her own troubling past to create a universal story of perseverance and triumph.   Mendoza, who co-wrote and co-directed the film with Gloria La Monte, also stars as Mariana, a Colombian refuge...

Following an actor, writer and would-be chanteuse on their solitary quests for fame and glory, Marc Fitoussi’s La Vie d’artiste bristles with sharp observations and unpalatable truths about creative pursuit, artistic compromise and personal disappointment. La Vie d’artiste concerns a singer, an actress and a writer in pursuit of recognition. Are there any parallels with your experiences as a filmmaker? How did you come up with this story? I wrote it when I was not re...

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The London Film Festival is not necessarily against the idea of premiering controversial films......in fact, they generate good press and audience interest. But two such films had their premieres just hours apart on Friday, making it a red-hot day for the press and opinionmakers. Locally, it was BRICK LANE, the adaption of the best selling novel by local author Monica Ali, that generated the most media buzz. The film had its world premiere last evening and was the subject of much discussion in t...

 Saturday, October 27----------The London Film Festival is not necessarily against the idea of premiering controversial films......in fact, they generate good press and audience interest. But two such films had their premieres just hours apart on Friday, making it a red-hot day for the press and opinionmakers. Locally, it was BRICK LANE, the adaption of the best selling novel by local author Monica Ali, that generated the most media buzz. The film had its world premiere last evening and was the...

 Saturday, October 27----------The London Film Festival is not necessarily against the idea of premiering controversial films......in fact, they generate good press and audience interest. But two such films had their premieres just hours apart on Friday, making it a red-hot day for the press and opinionmakers. Locally, it was BRICK LANE, the adaption of the best selling novel by local author Monica Ali, that generated the most media buzz. The film had its world premiere last evening and was the...

The Deauville Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 33rd edition, which takes place Aug. 31- Sept. 9.The Festival focuses on American films and will screen some 64 features, including world premieres of Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and Ben Affleck's "Gone, Baby, Gone."PREMIERE"1408" - Mikael Hafstrom“All The Boys Love Mandy Lane” - Jonathan Levine“Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead” - Sidney Lumet"Bonneville - Christopher N. Rowley“Death at a Funeral�...

Wednesday, January 10----Narrative films from the European continent are among the most anticipated in the World Cinema Competition: Drama competition at the Sundance Film Festival, which opens next week. Of the sixteen films to be presented in the program section, eight are European productions or co-productions with other nations. The strong presence of European films, and the introduction of new film talents, will have industry executives keeping a watchful eye on Europe during the 10 day ...

Saturday/Sunday, December 2/3-----The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) presents the theatrical world premiere of Jonathan Nossiter's MONDOVINO in its 10 hour entirety, starting today at the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. The 10-part series on the aesthetic, politics and commerce of winemaking is being presented in five two-hour programs. MONDOVINO was one of the first documentary films ever presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. Tracing winemaking’s past and present and, j...

Across three continents, "MONDOVINO" weaves together the family succession sagas of billionaire Napa Valley power brokers, the rivalry of two aristocratic Florentine dynasties and the efforts of three generations of a Burgundian family fighting to preserve their few acres of land. But are all these struggles secondary to the exploits of a gleefully mischievious pirate from Bordeaux who spreads the gospel of modernity from Italy to New York to Argentina?Wine has been a symbol of Western civiliza...

Jack Valenti steps down from his power position at the Motion Picture Association of America and has named Dan Glickman as his successor. Valenti, 82, will officially retire Sept. 1, Will he celebrate his birthday with Anne d'Ornano during the Deauville Film Festival remains uncertain.Texas born, Harvard educated, Jack Valenti has led several lives: a wartime bomber pilot, advertising agency founder, political consultant, White House Special Assistant, movie industry leader. In his current role ...