Cinequest presents its highest honor, the Maverick Spirit Award, to legendary actor Elliott Gould on March 2 at the California Theatre, following the 9:30 p.m. screening of Dorfman starring Gould and Sara Rue (Rules of Engagement and Less than Perfect). Gould plays Burt Dorfman, Deb Dorfman's (Sara Rue) father, in this romantic comedy, directed by Palo Alto native, Brad Leong (Director of Palo Alto). Previou...

  Cinequest Film Festival 21 (CQFF21) proved to be so much more than a film festival by continuing to transform lives across the globe through discovery, innovation, connecting and creativity. The festival celebrated 75 U.S., North American and World Premieres representing over 41 countries. Enhancing its position as the place to discover the future of film innovations, Cinequest produced 22 art and innovation forums and workshops. A record 91,000 participants enjoyed premier venues loaded ...

Monday, March 12—The Cinequest Film Festival may not generate buzz about industry distribution deals or celebrity sightings, but a record-breaking 70,102 indie film lovers joined several hundred filmmakers and technology innovators in downtown San Jose for the 12-day salute to all things maverick. Writer-director-cinematographer Stephane Gauger, Executive Producer Timothy Linh Bui (director of GREEN DRAGON, co-producer of THREE SEASONS) and actor Cat Ly (JOURNEY FROM THE FALL) closed the festi...

Cinequest Film Festival 17 closed last Sunday night with the Vietnamese film Owl and the Sparrow in the capital of the Silicon Valley after 12 days of showcasing 160 films. Over 40 features and over 40 shorts were World, North American or United States premieres. Several hundred filmmakers and a collection of distributors came in from around the globe, and over 70,000 film fans were in attendance. This year’s festival broke attendance records and was about true discovery, empowerment through k...

It is Monday, March 12th, and Cinequest has come to an end. This is a bitter-sweet moment; on the one hand I am already missing the frenetic buzz of running from film to forum and back to film, stopping to chat with filmmakers and attendees along the way and getting another caffeine dose in order to do it all over again. On the other hand, this now frees me up to actually get to the blog entries I have been meaning to assail you with, covering everything from my favorite festival films, to my fi...

Christine Vachon can now add “Cinequest Maverick” to honors ranging from the Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Media in 1994, Producer of the Year from the National Board of Review in 2003 and New York MoMA retrospective honoree in 2005. Her films have garnered Independent Spirit Awards and Oscars in numerous categories. Following a rollicking interview with Jens Hussey, Cinequest Director of Public Relations, Vachon accepted the festival’s highest honor, the M...

Friday, March 2---Christine Vachon can now add “Cinequest Maverick” to honors ranging from the Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Media in 1994, Producer of the Year from the National Board of Review in 2003 and New York MoMA retrospective honoree in 2005. Her films have garnered Independent Spirit Awards and Oscars in numerous categories. Following a rollicking interview with Jens Hussey, Cinequest Director of Public Relations,...

Globally unique in its concept, the seventeenth edition of the Cinequest Film Festival presents an event that goes beyond the traditional concept of “film festival," providing the world of independent and foreign filmmakers, technology innovators, students and film lovers with a revolution of discovery, empowerment and distribution. Cinequest Film Festival is not only a platform to premiere films and celebrate talent, but Cinequest Distribution is a viable option to reach a worldwide audi...

Academy Award-nominated actor/director Edward James Olmos will receive the Maverick Spirit Award at the Cinequest Film Festival, which opens on today in the city of San Jose, California. Nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for his role as a tough-love principal of a Los Angeles inner city high school in the film STAND AND DELIVER (1988), Olmos has received many awards for his theater, film and television work.Olmos began as a rock musician, forming several “garage bands...

Sir Ben Kingsley, an Oscar winner for his lead role in GANDHI and an Oscar nominee for his role in SEXY BEAST, will receive the Maverick Spirit Award at the Cinequest Film Festival, to be held in the city of San Jose, California from March 1 to 12.Kingsley will present An Afternoon with Sir Ben Kingsley at the historic California Theater in downtown San Jose on March 5th. He will speak about his television, stage and film careers, which have made him one of the most distinguished actors of our t...

The final judgements at Rouen, Festival of Nordic Cinema, were as follows :Best film, professional jury, "Uno" by Aksel Hennie, a very violent and morose Norwegian product, about scruffy Norwegian hoods who hang out at a boxing gymnasium on the underside of Oslo, directed as far as I can see, at people with deep agressive urges: Best actor, Bjorn Sundquist -- the barber of "My Favorite (Jealous) Hairdresser", and best actress, Monic Hendrickx, for her role as an attractive woman who has suffered...