Ken Loach doesn’t usually do ‘funny’ so his new film, Looking for Eric, is newsworthy and no wonder Clare Stewart has chosen it to open this year’s Sydney Film Festival; we need a good laugh that’s not at the expense of our bumbling politicians. And there are three Australian films out of the 12 in the Competition, albeit not comedies, vying for the $60,000 Hunter Hall cash prize, reports Andrew L. Urban. But it also ends on an upper, with Lone Scherfig’s An Education. In between, a ...
The Middle East International Film Festival executives announce dates for 2009 editionA month after returning from the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, the Middle East International Film Festival executives have announced the new dates for the 2009 Festival. To be held at the Emirates Palace, the third edition of MEIFF will take place from October 8-17 and will have a number of exciting projects that will be announced over the next few months and which promise to bring an even greater sl...
The official Black Pearl Awards ceremony for the second annual Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), organized by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage ADACH) was presented at Emirates Palace on Sunday 19th October.The awards were the culmination of ten action-packed days of cinema, with 152 movies and 186 screenings shown in five Abu Dhabi venues. A total of 76 feature films and 34 short films from over 35 countries competed for the MEIFF 2008 Black Pearl Awards.Winners of...
FESTIVAL DO RIORio de Janeiro Film FestivalSeptember 25 to October 9, 2008 Commencing this Thursday, September 25, the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, embarks on a 15 day celebration of cinema with the start of Festival do Rio, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.In presenting over 350 films selected from 60 countries at over 30 different venues across Rio, Festival do Rio digs deep into a rich catalogue of world premieres, Brazil and Latin premieres and tributes and retrospectives â...
Tuesday, September 9-------"It's the quietest Toronto Film Festival that I can remember", one prominent distributor commented to me yesterday. But despite the indie sector being in a cautious mood, a number of Toronto films have announced major distribution deals.Less than 24 hours after it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Darren Aronofsky's drama The Wrestler has been picked up for U.S. distribution by Fox Searchlight, the specialty division of 20th Century Fox (the...
 Thursday, August 28------The Toronto International Film Festival, which starts next week, has a good number of gala presentations on tap, featuring the newest works from such critically acclaimed directors as Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Lee and Paolo Sorrentino and featuring performances by such diverse talents as John Malkovich, Viggo Mortensen, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, John Leguizamo, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Michael Cera. In Disgrace by Australian director Steve Jacobs, Australia, cult actorÂ...
 Wednesday, July 10--------Although it does not start for almost two more months, the first press releases from the Toronto International Film Festival (www.tiff08.ca) are already stirring up anticipation for what has become one of the top film festival events in the world. Overlapping with the closing days of the Venice Film Festival and immediately following the boutique Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, the Canadian juggernaut is viewed by many industry insiders as the official start of t...
