Director: George Melford.
The legendary Spanish "Dracula" was filmed at night on the same sets in 1931 in Hollywood and at the same time as the famous Todd Browning/ Bela Lugosi version--but in Spanish, with a Spanish speaking cast and a British director! Film historians consider this version far superior, more "full-blooded"--the editing is more fluid (the original Dracula is quite static, basically a photographed stage play), the lighting more inventive, the camerawork and compositions much bolder, the acting is juicier, and the women are hotter :-) Like "Dracula", it contains no music--Gary Lucas provides a continuous solo guitar underscore that has won praise at film and music festivals all over the world: Review of the World Premiere of Gary Lucas' Spanish "Dracula" project at the Havana Film Festival 12/11/09: "The US guitarist Gary Lucas defied the gods and brought back to life one of the darkest and most terrifying creatures in the literature of horror... Dracula did not need to rise from his coffin in order to return from the realm of the dead; he did it through the guitar of this legendary musician, who, like the most celebrated vampire from Transylvania, has been 'condemned' to immortality." --GRANMA (Cuba), 12/12/09 Review of the European premiere of Gary Lucas' Spanish "Dracula" project at the Transylvania International Film Festival 5/30/10: "One of the most impressive events in this year's edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival... Gary Lucas was formidable--the audience was speechless as for almost 2 hours Lucas' fingers never disconnected from his guitar... an event that no one will ever forget." ADEVARUL, Romania 6/1/10 Review of the New York premiere of Gary Lucas' Spanish "Dracula" at the 48th New York Film Festival 10/9/10: "The event Saturday evening event was terrific, an intoxicating mix of music and imagery. Gary's score builds a nice, eerie immersion an atmosphere of perdition and romantic longing." --SOME CAME RUNNING (film critic Glenn Kenny's column) full review here: http://bit.ly/ckizt5 "Gary Lucas' brilliant musical dialogue with George Melford's Spanish-language "Dracula" rescues this film from mere camp, highlighting the films many innovative and indeed modernist flourishes." --Richard Pena, director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center Full house and standing ovation for the Spanish premiere of Gary Lucas' Spanish "Dracula" at the 7th Sevilla Film Festival 11/8/10: Check out an interview with Gary Lucas from Spanish National TV RTVE beginning at 3:34 here: http://bit.ly/b5i8bO 4 Star review in The Guardian for the UK premiere of Gary Lucas' Spanish "Dracula" at the London Jazz Festival at Queen Elizabeth Hall: http://bit.ly/jLaP1K
This year's three finalists for the 2nd edition of the Stockholm Feature Film Award have been selected. The winner will receive production support of more than five million SEK.
- To highlight female directors and provide a platform is a concrete way of letting new talents reach their audiences. It is with great joy to see that both the business world, government and culture stand together behind a project so important, says Git Scheynius, Festival Director.
Female directors who have made a ...
Miguel Gomes’ feature film ‘Tabu’ has won the Grand Prix for Best Film at the 39th Ghent Film Festival. The international festival jury, chaired by Joan Dupont, announced the results of the jury’s deliberations at Ghent’s town hall. The other films that received awards are Olivier Assayas’ feature film, ‘Après Mai’ (Best Music and Sound Design) and the short films ‘As Ondas’ by Miguel Fonseca (Best European Short Film) an...
HIGH TENSIONS AS FESTIVAL DO RIO AWARDS 2012 PREMIERE BRAZIL PRIZES
The Rio Film Festival, which has been running in the city these past two weeks, came to an end tonight, Thursday October 11, and at a glittering closing ceremony at Rio’s Cine Odeon BR presented its “Redentor” awards given to the best filmmaking and acting achievements of its Premiere Brazil competitive section.
Premiere Brazil, the centre-strand of the festival, focuses specifically on n...
Mission & History
The Bahamas International Film Festival is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the local Bahamian community and international visitors with a diverse presentation of films from around the world. In addition to offering films that might not otherwise be released theatrically in the Bahamas, BIFF will provide a unique cultural experience and set of educational programs and forums for exploring the past, present and future of cinema.
The Bah...
The festival like a bridge from heart to heart; 10 years passed, everything is still ahead
The Opening Ceremony of the 10th anniversary Film Festival “Pacific Meridian” was surprisingly heartfelt, absolutely sincere. All the speakers congratulated the festival on its first and, as they pointed, not the last anniversary. Everybody was saying that: festival’s guests, spectators and even official persons. And the master of ceremony – an actor Alexander Ol...
Diane Pernet will welcome a host of iconic and inspirational figures from the creative industries as well as several exciting stars-in-the-making to the fifth anniversary edition of her festival, ‘A SHADED VIEW ON FASHION FILM’ (ASVOFF). Actors, designers, filmmakers, artists, critics, entertainers, fashion photographers and celebrities will gather to celebrate ASVOFF's pioneering spirit, leadership and stamina as the world’s first and foremost film festival dedicated to ...
Yesterday the organisers of the International Film Festival Tofifest revealed the last secrets of the 10th edition of the event, during a press conference. Zbigniew Zamachowski shall be the chairman of the Jury of the On Air Feature Films Competition section. Krystyna Janda shall be awarded the Golden Angel of Tofifest for Artistic Insolence and Jakub Gierszal shall receive the Flisak Tofifest Film Award. This year’s special retrospective will focus on blaxploitation films and the In...
„Future of film festivals - between the Local and the Global": Film Forum guests list
The Forum is parrt of Ars Independent, organized by Anita Skwara for the Festival.
THE AGENDA
September 24th at Rondo Sztuki
10:00 - 10: 30 welcome speech Introduction during which the managers will present goals and ideas of the Forum and intro-duce the attendees.
"Authorial word&...
The Board of Governors decided, at a special meeting held on Tuesday 4 September 2012, to designate Carlo Chatrian as the new Artistic Director of the Festival del film Locarno. Carlo Chatrian will take up his post from 1 November 2012, following Olivier Père, who is leaving the Festival to head up Arte Fran...
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival, wishing to honor the memory of celebrated Greek auteur Theo Angelopoulos, who passed away in January of 2012, organizes a tribute to his work. Angelopoulos was born in Athens in 1935 and studied Law in the University of Athens and the Sorbonne, from which he dropped out to study cinema in the University of Paris IDHEC. He started his career as a film critic and made his first –unfinished– film, Forminx, in 1965. Throughout his life, Angel...
The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) announced today the revered group of industry professionals that will headline the Festival’s signature Master Class series. 2012 ZFF Master Class instructors include:
● Three-time Academy Award® nominated writer, producer and director Frank Darabont ("The Green Mile,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Walking Dead”)
● Two-time Academy Award® nominated producer Michael Shamberg (“Pulp Fiction...
THE JURY OF THE FIRST FILMS WORLD COMPETITION
Klaus Eder
Born in Augsburg, Germany, Klaus Eder lives and works in Munich. He studied German literature at the University of Stuttgart and has worked as a film critic since the 1960s. Currently a reviewer for the Bayerischer Rundfunk national radio network he contributes to several German language film magazines. He has published books on numerous international filmmakers, including monographs on Andrzej Wajda, Luis Bunuel, Nikita ...
Australian actress Greta Scacchi will preside over an international jury of film personalities from around the world.
Her fellow jurists:
Véra Belmont, one of France's top producers, began her career as an actress but quickly sensed that her talent lay not in front of the camera but behind it. In 1966 she produced Paul Vecchiali's The Devil's Tricks and over four decades...
The President:
Wim Wenders, Director, Germany
Wim Wenders attended the Academy of Film & Television in Munich, worked as a film critic for various German publications, and was a founding member of Filmverlag der Autoren. In 1976 he set up his own production company, Road Movies, and, in 2002, Reverse Angle. Often hailed as one of the most important German directors on the international scene, Wenders has received various international awards, including the Golden Lion (TH...
Writer Dimitre Dinev has been living in Austria for years now. As a co-writer of Anja Salomonowitz’ debut feature Spain, he was a special guest at the 16th Sofia IFF. The following are excerpts from the press conference that turned into a cosy conversation between Dinev and the film critic Antonia Kovacheva, and the P.S. for four eyes and two swings in front of the festival center Matti’D.
How did you meet Anja Salomonwitz and how did you work together on the script of Spain?
An...
Kino Otok Isola may offer new experience of film reviewing, chill out spirit and direct contact with the audience, celebrating the originality of cinematic language, radical contents or unconventional forms. The picturesque ancient town center of Izola in Slovenia is reborn as a true cinema island with its romantic Manzioli Square, with open cinema at its centre emerges as the festival's main attraction. Its thorough selection of the films and an interesting experience of the open cinema within...
The much maligned profile of Black British actresses has been well documented on this blog over the past 18 months and most recently in the London Evening Standard with the forthcoming feel-good flick ‘Fast Girls’ and the supposed significance of Leonora Crichlow playing the lead role in a British film. On such matters is primarily where Twitter comes into its own as a live news editor run by the public. It doesn’t take long before feedback is immediate and corrected (many thanks to @ECF...
The official programme of the 16th Sofia International Film Festival
will end tonight with the gala screening of Borislav Kolev's
documentary debut Stoichkov.
The
festival presented a total of 260 films from 52 countries from all
over the world. Over 300 international guests came to Sofia, amongst
them were directors, producers, festival directors as well as media and
film experts.
The Award Ceremony took place on the 17th of March in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Cu...
SFF is organized by Art Fest under the patronage of the Sofia
Municipality, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, the National
Film Centre and National Palace of Culture, with the support of the
programs MEDIA and MEDIA Mundus of the European Commission, UNESCO –
Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, national and foreign
cultural institutes and sponsors. The main sponsor of the 16th edition
of the festival is Jameson Irish Whiskey.
The 16th Sofia
Intern...
Zack Parker and ‘Scalene’ continue to ride CFF success
Two decades spent working in and around movies is beginning to pay dividends for filmmaker Zack
Parker, and he credits the recognition he received at the 2011 Cincinnati Film Festival for helping to
push his film Scalene to greater heights. Parker was named Best Director and Scalene Best Narrative
Feature at the Cincinnati Film Festival in September, and coupled with his Grand Jury Prize at Dances
With Films in Los Angeles earlier...
LOS ANGELES JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL OPENS WITH TONY CURTIS DOC AND MAMIE VAN DOREN APPEARANCE
by Alex Deleon for http://www.filmfestivals.com/
The seventh edition of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival (LAJFF) opened on May 4 at the plush Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills with a feature length documentary on
recently deceased Jewish actor Tony Curtis and a Gala reception at which another legendary youth idol and sex symbol of the fifties, Mamie Van Doren, was the...
Rachel Rosen, director of programming for the San Francisco Film Society, Benoit Jacquot, director of FAREWELL, MY QUEEN, and Melanie Blum, SFFS interim executive director, arriving at Opening Night of the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 19, 2012. Photo © Pamela Gentile, courtesy of San Francisco Film Society
The longest-Running Film Festival in the Americas Enjoys a Spectacular Year with Superb Programming, Numerous Spe...
A little more about Serbian Short Film production and Serbian filmmaker Marko Kostić and about his promising career and interesting ideas you can read in this interview. Marko Kostić directed short film Mašinica (The Gadget), a little film that Belgrade film lovers had the chance to see on the last Documentary and Short Film Festival in Belgrade.
- What is the advantage of the short film in Serbia and general?
Distribution options are limited to short film festi...