A film by Péter Bergendy Variety's review by By BOYD VAN HOEIJ "It's an enjoyable ride that helmer Bergendy and screenwriter Kobli take auds on, with possible loyalty reversals and unsuspected motives surfacing as the action goes back and forth between Jung's dwelling and the hideout of those spying on him from the building across the street. Despite its historical background, the pic is not a character piece a la "The Lives of Others," with a continued emphas...

Audience Award All the films presented during the Warsaw International Film Festival take part in the Audience Poll for the best film. Before each screening, members of the audience receive a coupon on which they mark the film as “very good”, “good”, “so-so”, “poor”, „bad”. The coupons are collected after the screening. The poll results are announced once all the votes have been counted. The winner is the film given the highest marks by audiences. The winning film receiv...

 Tuesday, December 11----------With the announcement over the past two days of the winners of the Los Angeles and New York Film Critics Associations, the leading contenders for the Oscar have finally crystallized. Prize winners from the two most prestigious film critics societies in the United States have definitely turned both films and talents into the frontrunners…..in other words, the ones to beat come Oscar night.  The first to announce, on Sunday afternoon, was the Los Angeles Film Cri...

In their 11th year, the Hollywood Film Festival(r) and Hollywood Awards(r), have named the panel of international judges assembled to decide on the nominations of this year's Hollywood World Awards(r). The awards will be bestowed October 22 at the Hollywood Awards(r) Gala ceremony, which takes place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.The awards have become a good predictor of international films which are set to receive kudos in the year's awards season.Last year's winner was Pedro Al...

The 35th Belgrade International Film Festival FEST 2007 was (as every year), prepared and organized with great care and attention. Regarding the fact that this festival is one of the most important cultural events in Serbia, it is indeed, recognizable the maximum improvement of overall quality of the program and the highest possible level in organization, in every segment. The guest of honor of FEST 2007, was Bob Rafelson an exceptional director with nominated four Academy Awards and manager of ...

Tonight, February 25, the world will watch in baited breath to see if one of their cinematic favorites walks away with the industry's highest honor – the Oscar. Every year presents its fair share of surprises, triumphs, heartaches and snubs. What makes this Academy Award ceremony particularly exciting is the monumental year of quality films that it represents. 2006 was a sensational year at the movies, highlighted by an unprecedented number of fine roles for women. With so much great work...

Wednesday, February 7----With the ballots for the Academy Awards in the mail, speculation is growing about what has become an impossible to predict Best Picture race. While BABEL was considered the frontrunner, especially following its Golden Globe win last month, there is now industry speculation that BABEL and Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED may split the "serious film" vote. So, what exactly does that mean? Well, one scenario points to an upset win by the indie smash LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (...

Tuesday, February 6----With the ballots for the Academy Awards in the mail, speculation is growing about what has become an impossible to predict Best Picture race. While BABEL was considered the frontrunner, especially following its Golden Globe win last month, there is now industry speculation that BABEL and Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED may split the "serious film" vote. So, what exactly does that mean? Well, one scenario points to an upset win by the indie smash LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (that'...

Interview (Part 1) with Nancy Collet, Driector, Programming, AFI FestWe were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to interview Nancy Collet, programming director for the AFI film festival. She has been with the festival for 10 years and is originally from Manhattan. In 2006, AFI Fest is celebrating its 20th year as a program of the American Film Institute. The festival grew out of Filmex, which premiered "The Last Picture Show" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. An exThe move to the Arclight happe...

Interview With Nancy Collet, Director, Programming, AFI Fest Rita M. Johnson We were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to interview Nancy Collet, programming director for the AFI film festival. She has been with the festival for 10 years and is originally from Manhattan. In 2006, AFI Fest is celebrating its 20th year as a program of the American Film Institute. The festival grew out of Filmex, which premiered "The Last Picture Show" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. An ex The move to the...

At midday, I caught the German feature "The Lives of Others". Directed by Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck, the film is set in East Berlin during the eighties, spanning from 1984 to around 1992. It tells the story of a Stasi officer who is assigned to watch a group of artists. As he puts a prominent theatre director, Georg Dreyman and his actress wife under survellience, he is drawn more and more into their story. As the officer gets grows to empathize with the couple, he begins to look the o...

Toronto Opens 2006 Festival with World Premiere of “The Journals of Knud Rasmussen”The largest and one of the most respected Film Festivals in the world will open its doors to the public with Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn's “The Journals of Knud Rasmussen". Their last film "Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner),” had won the Camera D'or in Cannes and then the prize for best Canadian film here in Toronto in 2001. Festival Co-Director Noah Cowan felt that this was one of the most important film...