Wednesday, October 24--------Although it is not on the radar of the public attending the London Film Festival this week, there has been a low key parallel event that has unspooled at the Curzon Soho Theater, where film sellers had the opportunity to showcase their newest films for industry buyers and programmers. The Industry Screenings is one of several resources available to industry delegates at the Festival, which combine with the excitement of the public screenings to highlight films look...

 Wednesday, October 24-------The Rome Film Festival has released the statistics of its parallel market initiative The Business Street. Just 48 hours after the second edition of The Business Street came to a close on Sunday, film sales and acquisitions are still being finalized, but the activity clearly points to a successful venture that gives the Festival a unique profile in the sales of films to the international marketplace.In all 142 industry screenings were held (up from 130 last year), ...

 Tuesday, October 23--------Having just been in Italy for the past 12 days (a week of vacation in Venice, mainly seeing art and sampling the food and wine, and 5 days in Rome to attend the Rome Film Festival), I've got Italy on the brain these days. Well, coming to London, there is still lots of Italian to appreciate, especially here at the London Film Festival. While it is not exactly an official section of the Festival, there are a good number of superb Italian films to be seen, mainly in the...

 Tuesday, October 23--------Having just been in Italy for the past 12 days (a week of vacation in Venice, mainly seeing art and sampling the food and wine, and 5 days in Rome to attend the Rome Film Festival), I've got Italy on the brain these days. Well, coming to London, there is still lots of Italian to appreciate, especially here at the London Film Festival. While it is not exactly an official section of the Festival, there are a good number of superb Italian films to be seen, mainly in the...

Monday, October 22-----Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning director of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN will take part in the evening tribute event on Wednesday night at the Rome FilmFest dedicated to Italian director Sergio Leone. The director's latest film, LUST, CAUTION, is currently playing in theaters worldwide. As a member of the Film Foundation, Ang Lee has been designated by Martin Scorsese to introduce the world premiere of the restored version of Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968), featuring an al...

The Rome Film Festival, in only its second year, has broken last year’s box office records. A total of 42,000 tickets have been sold so far, with many screenings filled to capacity. The Festival’s website, www.romacinemafest.org, has also seen a veritable boom in visitors, with more than one million webpage impressions recorded in the last few weeks. “The Festival has been a tremendous success with the public”, declares Goffredo Bettini, President of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, “wh...

 Sunday, October 21--------The Rome Film Festival, in only its second year, has broken last year’s box office records. A total of 42,000 tickets have been sold so far, with many screenings filled to capacity. The Festival’s website, www.romacinemafest.org, has also seen a veritable boom in visitors, with more than one million webpage impressions recorded in the last few weeks. “The Festival has been a tremendous success with the public”, declares Goffredo Bettini, President of the Fond...

 Saturday, October 20-------Aside from the glitz and the glamour that every film festival must muster to keep the crowds excited and newspaper editors interested, the London Film Festival is offering filmmakers and producers a number of opportunities to network with film professionals and the international press. While most are somewhat formal seminars and master class talks, the most cozy by far are the Filmmaker Breakfasts, which are held at The Sofitel Hotel in St. James. There are seven of...

 Friday, October 19----------Even though Queen Elizabeth is in town (not the real royal but the one played by Cate Blanchett in ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE), and despite the fact that such industry heavyweights as Francis Ford Coppolla, Sidney Lumet and Tom Cruise are somewhere here in the Eternal City for screenings of their films this weekend, all eyes will be on Sophia tonight.....Sophia Loren that is. The iconic actress will walk the Red Carpet in advance of the screening of a new documentary...

 Friday, October 19----------Even though Queen Elizabeth is in town (not the real royal but the one played by Cate Blanchett in ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE), and despite the fact that such industry heavyweights as Francis Ford Coppolla, Sidney Lumet and Tom Cruise are somewhere here in the Eternal City for screenings of their films this weekend, all eyes will be on Sophia tonight.....Sophia Loren that is. The iconic actress will walk the Red Carpet in advance of the screening of a new documentary...

This film festival continues to expand, though it lacks a clear profile, compared to other major fests like the New York Film Festival, Sundance, or the Berlinale. Each year it adds new components. If current trends prevail Tribeca will rank among the biggest film festivals in the world.  During the last edition (April 25 – May 6, 2007), the number of premieres had increased, more industry executives attended and a consensus emerged in the trades that Tribeca had become a viable place for dis...

This film festival continues to expand, though it lacks a clear profile, compared to other major fests like the New York Film Festival, Sundance, or the Berlinale. Each year it adds new components. If current trends prevail Tribeca will rank among the biggest film festivals in the world. During the last edition (April 25 – May 6, 2007), the number of premieres had increased, more industry executives attended and a consensus emerged in the trades that Tribeca had become a viable place for disc...

The Tribeca Film Festival has established a special bond with the inaugural Rome Film Festival, which launched on the international film festival circuit last October with an instant must-attend status as a serious showcase of international cinema. Highlights from last year's Tribeca Film Festival were showcased in Rome, and now it is Tribeca's turn to return the favor....presenting a program of European films that debuted at the Rome event.Dramatic features in the special program include: NAPOL...

The 24th Annual Miami International Film Festival will take placeMarch 2 - 11, 2007112 Films—92 Features and 20 Shorts—Highlight 2007 FestivalIncluding 7 World Premieres, 32 International, North American& U.S. Premieres, and 45 East Coast PremieresThe Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), presented by Miami Dade College (MDC), announced today the full schedule of films for the 24th annual festival to be held March 2-11, 2007. The Opening Night film this year will be “Black Book” from...

THE FIRST ROME FILM FIESTA, OCT. 13 – 21, 2OO6 The whole report day by day from day one. In less than a week, on the fateful FridayThe Thirteenth of the current month (October 13, 2OO6), the First International Film Festival ever held in Rome will open the gates of the Eternal City to a floodtide of media representatives, journalists, film professionals, actors, directors, film fans, and just plain curious stargazers of all stripes and colours. Whether this new festival turns out to be a blas...

Looking back at the just completed first Rome Film Festival and Fiesta combined one thing that can be said is that not only was it not a "flop", but it probably exceeded most people's wildest expectations. There was no lack of nay-sayers around the edges trying to disparage the event by accusing it of catering to the lowest common denominator, or slavishly bowing to Hollywood --(one paper called it "Romangeles") -- but the bottom line is that everybody had a good time, interest in cinema was gi...

If this is Saturday the festival must be over, but there is still so much going on all over the festival grounds, late movie shows, crowds flocking to the Viosconti cinema exhibit, etc., that it feels like this will last forever. A big crowd is assembled out by the red carpet for the last gala, "Fascists on Mars" a new Italian Comedy set in the near future on The Red Planet! De Niro's meet the people event was situated in the large Sinopolo auditorium and clips from various of his films were s...