It has been a difficult few months for the British film industry. Not only has the economic recession made the film business even more challenging, but the controversy surrounding the shuttering of the UK Film Council has been acriminious, amidst charges of economic abuse and political favoritism. Even the venerable London Film Festival, which unspools next month, losts its main corporate sponsors and had to scramble to find replacements. However, based on the bounty of British film...

Nik Powell, Vice-President of the European Film Academy and Director of the National Film and Television School in London, has agreed to be the president of the feature film section of the festival. In 1972, Nik Powell set up Virgin Records with Richard Branson, nowadays a multi-million pound company. In the 80’s, Nik Powell went into partnership with Stephen Wooley and formed Palace Productions, later on producing three of Neil Jordan’s most succesfull films - COMPANY OF WOLVES, ...

"Lifetime Achievement Award" recipient David Cronenberg cut the 'ribbon' - a strip of celluloid - at the Stockholm Film Festival kick off November 17. "Are you sure you want to give me those scissors--that's kind of dangerous", he quipped to fest director Git Scheynius, and introduced the opening film: A History of Violence. He joked as he cut that he was going to do some fast editing of his latest feature, the one he is most proud of, the one he admits to "selling out" on because of its huge bu...

Twenty-four films from eighteen countries will compete at the 53rd San Sebastián International Film Festival (Sept 15-24) for the Altadis-New Directors Award, sponsored by Altadis and carrying a cash prize of €90,000 (approx. US$95,000). Five of these movies will be screened in the Official Selection and the other nineteen in Zabaltegi-New Directors. ALTADIS-NEW DIRECTORS AWARDZABALTEGIAGUA CON SAL (SALTED WATER), Pedro Pérez Rosado, SpainIn this, his second film, the director of Cuentos de ...