With a couple of hours still left to go until the official kick-off of this "Mother of all Film Festivals" activity is feverish along the short stretch of the Lido known as Viale Marconi, the actual location of this oldest of all world film festivals --Now that was rather a mouthful, calling for a bit of elucidation. The first Venice film festival took place way back in 1932 when the Fascist government under Benito Mussolini, taking a page from Lenin, realized that film was a powerful propaganda...

The 63rd edition of the Venice film festival has opened with a salvo of noir or noirish films during which the 'dark horse' "Hollywoodland" has upstaged the odds-on favorite "Black Dahlia" which arrived with far more ballyhoo. While Dahlia, with its high-powered cast, name director Brian De Palma, and big time writer James Ellroy all on hand, was rather tepidly received at various screenings, "Hollywoodland” or 'the Death of Superman’ as the press has dubbed the film, was roundly applauded...

Nominations for the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for outstanding performances in 2005 in five film and eight primetime television categories were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center’s SilverScreen Theater.Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg introduced Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy) and Benjamin Bratt (E-Ring), who announced the nominees for this year’s Actors®.Screen Actors Guild will honor its own at the 12th Annual SAG Awards™ ceremon...