16th IFFK 2011 : Films by directors Aditi Roy [India], Carlos Cesar Arbelaez [Colombia],Hamid Reza Aligholian [Iran], Ozcan Alper [Turkey], Pablo Perelman [Chile],Salim Ahmed [India] and Sebastian Hiriat [Mexico] win prizes.A brief observation of events and films seen at 16th International Film Festival of Kerala 2011 [Trivandrum, India 09-16th December,2011] by film critic Mr.Lalit Rao (lalitrao@gmail.com)A successful film festival is known not only for its eclectic selection of films but also ...
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will honor Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman with the Cinema Vanguard Award at the 26th edition of the Fest, which runs January 27 -February 6, 2011, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Tribute will take place on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at the historic Arlington Theatre.The Cinema Vanguard Award was created in recognition of an actor who has forged his/her own path - taking artistic risks and making a significa...
By Ron GilbertRuth Gruber was really ahead of her time.” I am experiencing that feeling of zest which goes with exploration. I am in the thick of an historic moment” were the first lines she dispatched from the Soviet Artic in 1935.I felt exactly like that as I watched this film at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Here was this 98 year (She will be 99 when this article is posted) female journalist share her experiences on her early days in these historical moments of her career. She h...
“Ahead of Time” a fascinating documentary on Ruth Gruber
By Ron Gilbert
Ruth Gruber was really ahead of her time.”
I am experiencing that feeling of zest which goes with exploration. I am in the
thick of an historic moment” were the first lines she dispatched from the
Soviet Artic in 1935.
I felt exactly like that as I watched it. This special documentary which
had its LA Premiere at the LA Jewish Film Festival was presented with the help
and associat...
Two of Hollywood’s most impressive artists, Peter Graves and Haskell Wexler, descend upon the cities of Ojai and Ventura to be recognized by film industry peers and admirers for their lifelong bodies of work at the 10th anniversary of the Ojai-Ventura International Film Festival. Honorees Graves and Wexler will be presented with Lifetime Achievement awards during the Festival’s Closing Night Gala and Awards Ceremony. Presenting their awards will be several key individuals who have influenc...
Abel Gance's J'Accuse (1919), a politically and stylistically daring anti-war drama produced while the trench warfare of World War I was still grinding up soldiers on both sides of the battle, opens with the title spelled out by the bodies of soldiers striding into formation, like a marching band at a half-time show. Then they collapse, as if dead, to startling effect. Appropriating the cry leveled by Emile Zola during the Dreyfus affair, Gance levels his accusations at war itself.
The fil...
The Film Department of the Museum of Modern Art is mounting a career retrospective of Mike Nichols, one of the most successful and idiosyncratic filmmakers who has done the almost impossible: create original films with a specific voice within the gears of the assembly line Hollywood system. After a celebrated career as a comedian (part of the incomporable duo of Nichols and May) and theater director, Nichols, at the tender age of 32, took on the twin dragons of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burto...
There are at least half a dozen daily newspapers that come out every day in Berlin and it is easy to see which personalities are the flavors of the day just by glancing at the pictures that adorn the front pages every day here during the festival. Yesterday it was all Tom Tykwer, tall pleasant-looking 43 year old director of the festival's opening film "The International", with a bit of backup by the star of his pic, handsome English action hero Clive Owen. Now that former avant-garde German dir...
The Scottish actress Tilda Swinton will be President of the International Jury at the Berlinale 2009.
Tilda Swinton is one of the most prominent and versatile acting talents of her generation. She has received numerous international film awards for her exceptional work – most recently the 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Michael Clayton.
Also this year, she founded, co-curated and produced a film festival in her hometown of Nairn, Scotla...
Berlinale 2009: Academy Award-Winner Tilda Swinton will be Jury President The Scottish actress Tilda Swinton will be President of the International Jury at the Berlinale 2009. Tilda Swinton is one of the most prominent and versatile acting talents of her generation. She has received numerous international film awards for her exceptional work – most recently the 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Michael Clayton. Also this year, she founded, co-curated and produced ...
1920s 1928 Janet Gaynor - Seventh Heaven as "Diane", Street Angel as "Angela", and Sunrise as "The Wife (Indre)" Louise Dresser - A Ship Comes In as "Mrs. Pleznik" Gloria Swanson - Sadie Thompson as "Sadie Thompson" 1929 Mary Pickford - Coquette as "Norma Besant" Ruth Chatterton - Madame X as "Jacqueline Floriot" Betty Compson - The Barker as "Carrie" Jeanne Eagels - The Letter as "Leslie Crosbie" Corinne G...
Tuesday, October 2---------George Grizzard, a veteran actor who made memorable appearances on film, television and the Amerrican stage, died yesterday from lung cancer at the age of 79. The much loved and respected Grizzard is probably still best known for originating the role of Nick, the studly young professor in Edward Albee's original production of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (a part he lost to actor George Segal in the celebrated film version).In a career that spanned more than 50 ye...
Friday, September 7--------FUGITIVE PIECES, the latest film from Toronto-based filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa, had its world premiere last evening at two back-to-back gala screenings as the Opening Night attraction of the Toronto International Film Festival. Clearly a labor of love, the film is based on the award-winning international bestseller by Canadian author Anne Michaels (with the script adapted by Podeswa). The film is one of the high profile films of newly formed Maximum Films, the new dist...
Thursday, June 21---------The American Film Institute has revealed the Top 100 Films of the Past 100 Years during a special telecast on the CBS Network last evening. Drawing on a group of cinemaphiles and film experts, the AFI has compiled its list with one major criteria.....what American films have stood the test of time and remain enduring icons of cinema excellence? Of course, by restricting the list to American (and almost exclusively Hollywood) titles, the list is a little suspect, but it ...
Saturday, June 10---When screenwriter Barry Stringfellow was pitching his original screenplay of a teenage boy dying of cancer whose final wish is a date with a blonde supermodel, he was repeatedly asked how to much the film more "upbeat". Well cancer is never very upbeat, but, as Virginia Woolf famously said, "a character needs to die so that the other characters can value life".
That is the sentiment and the message of Stringfellow's alternately moving and hilarious ONE LAST THING, directed b...
The 2nd annual Pride International Film Festival has just announced its “Lifetime Achievement and Distinction” Honoree this year. This special award, which was given to Hollywood actor and British thespian Sir Ian Mckellen in 2004, will be presented to Hollywood icon & Academy Awardee, Ms. Elizabeth Taylor.Pride International Film Festival had developed one of the most important exhibition of GLBT works with its pioneering advocacy in the country towards the education of HIV/AIDS awareness, ...
The London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival runs March 30- April 13th. Opening film is:Prey for Rock & Roll (USA, 2003), starring the queen of gender bending, Gina Gershon. (USA, 2004) Mysterious Skin by Greg Araki (USA, 2004) closes, which had its world premiere in the Horizontal section at Venice 2004. One of the largest gay and lesbian film festivals, the London event tries to accord equal representation for the latest films by gays and lesbians. US/UK films predominate the selection, and there ...
World Premiere of “When Do We Eat?” opens the fest U.S. Premiere of “Checking Out” to closeOver 150 films headline fest with 11 World PremieresOver a 150 diverse films will screen at the Palm Beach International Film Festival event, including features, documentaries and shorts. The eight-day Fest will introduce 11 world premieres, 6 U.S. premieres and 43 Florida premieres, including 30 international films.“This is an exciting year for us--we have reached the milestone of our 10th anni...
The 16th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will honor Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman with the distinguished Chairman’s Award and Academy Award winner Howard Shore with the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing at the Festival’s Annual Awards Gala, announced Chairman Earl Greenburg. Alejandro Amenábar (director of The Sea Inside), who directed Kidman in The Others, will present the award to her, Shore’s presenter will be announced at a later date. The Awards ...
THE SANTA FE FILM FESTIVAL 2004 December 1 – December 5 The Santa Fe Film Festival, which opens Wednesday, is preserving its reputation as an Oscar bellwether.Seven titles that played in last year’s Santa Fe Film Festival subsequently netted Oscar honors, collecting a grand total of 16 nominations among them.This season’s Oscar finalists won’t be announced until Jan. 25, 2005, with the awards ceremony following on Feb. 27.But two documentary features in this week’s Santa Fe Film Festiv...
1. Six motion pictures have received 13 or more nominations. Name the two most nominated films, how many nominations they received andwhat years they were nominated."All about Eve" 1950, "Titanic" 1997, 14 nominations.2. What film has won the most Oscars without beingnominated for Best Picture?"The Bad and the Beautiful" won in five 1952, in theSupporting Actress, Art Direction (Black-and-White),Cinematography (Black-and-White), Costume Design(Black-and-White) and Writing (Screenplay) categories...
1. Six motion pictures have received 13 or more nominations. Name the two most nominated films, how many nominations they received andwhat years they were nominated."All about Eve" 1950, "Titanic" 1997, 14 nominations.2. What film has won the most Oscars without beingnominated for Best Picture?"The Bad and the Beautiful" won in five 1952, in theSupporting Actress, Art Direction (Black-and-White),Cinematography (Black-and-White), Costume Design(Black-and-White) and Writing (Screenplay) categories...
Meryl Streep Follows De Niro in AFI Life Time Achievment tribute for 2004.The actress has been selected by the American Film Institute's (AFI) Board of Trustees to receive the 32nd AFI Life Achievement Award, the highest honor for a career in film, it was announced today by Sir Howard Stringer, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. The award will be presented to Streep at a gala tribute on June 10, 2004, which will be held in the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland. Mr. Stringer commented, "Mer...
