The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (affectionately known as FLIFF) has become one of the significant regional showcases of world cinema and American indie films. This year, FLIFF is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and despite the economic downturn in south Florida, is pulling out all the stops for a no-holds-barred celluloid celebration. The Festival comes to its nearly four-week climax this coming weekend. The festivities began on October 22 with the premiere of NICE GUY JOHNN...
The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (affectionately known as FLIFF) has become one of the significant regional showcases of world cinema and American indie films. This year, FLIFF is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and despite the economic downturn in south Florida, is pulling out all the stops for a no-holds-barred celluloid celebration. The Festival comes to its nearly four-week climax this coming weekend.
The festivities began on October ...
Hawi won Best Arab Film and Balls picked up the award for Best Arab Filmmaker in recognition for its screenplay at the second Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) which came to a dramatic end at the Closing Night Gala and open-air concert by superstar Ragheb Alama along the Arabian Gulf at Katara Cultural Village.The First Grader and Grandma, A Thousand Times won the Audience Awards for Best Narrative Film and Best Documentary Film. The prize for Best Arab Short Film went to Sirwar Zirkly’s Missi...
12th Annual EROS Film Festival Sends a Message: It Gets BetterAs our nation cries out in grief and disbelief at the recent tragedies surrounding gay youth in America, the question that begs an urgent answer is: how do we prevent this from happening again and again? The answer is simple: support, support, support. Support takes many forms – from reaching out on a personal level to gay and lesbian youth in our lives to mentoring an at risk youth we’ve never met to linking ourselves and othe...
The second annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) kicked off tonight to an excited crowd of thousands, with the Middle Eastern premiere of award-winning French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb’s Outside the Law. H.E. Sheikh Jabor Bin Yousuf Al Thani, Doha Minister of Culture H.E. Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulazz Al Kuwari, Outside the Law director Rachid Bouchareb, producer Jean Brehat, and co-producer Tarak Ben Ammar, DFI Executive Director Amanda Palmer and managing director Maggie Kim, DFI progr...
The International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year, is internationally well regarded and sustains its position as being one of the top 100 film festivals worldwide and as being the festival which exclusively presents films by newcomers.From out of thousands of newcomer films the festival selects only roundabout 30 and is thus driven by a very conscious programming process.„We practically fall in love with each single film. The authors and pr...
Wow! What a place for a film festival! This was a special festival aimed at the discussions and concerns on new world cinema and most importantly, new pan-Arabic cinema.
When I arrived in Bahrain airport and passed through customs, the customs officer asked my reason for heading further for Abu Dhabi. I told him I was to attend the Abu Dhabi film festival for a conference on new Arabic cinema. He laughed in my fa
During a press conference at the Villaggio Cineplex in Doha this morning, the Doha Film Institute (DFI) announced the Arab Film Competition, the first 30 titles in the World Panorama section, the Arab Short Film Competition and a Special Screening for the 2nd annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF). This year the Festival, which runs from 26-30 October, will present a rich showcase including 4 world premieres. Headlining the second edition is award-winning French-Algerian director Rachid Boucha...
Sidewalk Film Festival is proud to announce the 2010 Short Film Line-up. Sidewalk Film Festival will take place September 24th, 25th and 26th in downtown Birmingham. Tickets are on-sale now at www.sidewalkfest.com. Local Alabama Short Block #1 (Saturday, Sept. 25th – 10:20am – Carver Theatre)Dramatic Narrative Shorts The Thing About Being An AssassinAn intimate look at a super-sly assassin working in the realm of the ultra-business class.DetourJason and Christine were a couple in love. But t...
Machete, Robert Rodriguez’s highly anticipated new action film, conceived as an expansion of the faux Grindhouse trailer, directed by Rodriguez with Ethan Maniquis, will have its world premiere at the Lido as the Midnight film, on the opening night of the 67th Venice International Film Festival. The 67th Venice International Film Festival will take place September 1 through 11, 2010, directed by Marco Müller and organized by La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta. To be released on ...
Directors Naomi Kawase, Bent Hamer, Peter Mullan and Victoria Galardi will compete for the first time at San Sebastian Festival alongside John Sayles, Raúl Ruiz and Daoud Aoulad-Syad, all repeat contenders for the Golden Shell.The Japanese moviemaker Naomi Kawase will present Genpin. Kawase won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes with Moe no Suzako (1997) and was the first woman to win the Special Jury Prize in Cannes in 2007 for Mogari no More (The Mourning Forest). The British director, screenwriter...
I have the fantastic privilege to share my interview with the fabulous Larry Thomas, first class talented actor of TV and Film and the world famous Soup Nazi from the hit series Seinfeld. Read about Larry's latest projects as well as his experience being forever branded SOUP NAZI with the famous line: ‘NO SOUP FOR YOU!' When I asked Larry if he would do an interview with me, first he replied: ‘No interview for you!' LOL! But then he softened up and his the interview flowed like so...
Ernest Borgnine, who is exuberantly entering his seventh decade of creating memorable characters and award-winning performances, will receive Screen Actors Guild (SAG)’s most prestigious accolade-—the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Borgnine, who has performed in more than 200 motion pictures, five television series and dozens of television films and guest appearances, will be presented the Award, given annually to an actor w...
Interview with Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, the grand Icelandic director of Polite People (2010) and City State (2011). Olaf speaks in depth about both films and being a filmmaker far north, in Iceland.
ME: First, can you speak about how you got into writing and directing and producing for film?
OLAF: I was depressed, probably because I always take life much more seriously than needed. Out of that depression came a longing to create something and film...
Director: Anu Aun.
When Miina, a seemingly well-off woman is caught shoplifting, the female officer truly uses her chance to show off her contempt. She sees a rival in the shoplifter and decides to teach Miina a lesson. Surprisingly, both women meet just a few hours later in a situation where the previous rivals become partners in crime and must trust their fates in the hands of each other.
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Documentary films are supposed to wake us up -- usually to some strange sub-culture (read: the world of Baby Beauty Pageants or Professional Eating Contests) -- to give a glimpse at how remarkably bizarre human beings can be. Typically with films, we're allowed to become voyeurs, stare agape at the amusing spectacle of mankind. Not so with TORN FROM THE FLAG, filmmaker Klaudia Kovacs' chronicle of the 1956 October Revolution in Hungary that...
My dear friend, Dr. Harriet Fields, a Social Affairs Officer for the government in Washington, has long dedicated herself in restoring the 'grumpy' image of her grandfather, W.C. FIELDS, who she says was a "very sweet and generous person". Enjoy the recent National Public Radio (NPR) interview recorded and broadcast last month in New York. http://www.wcfields.com/news/17-news/36-the-leonard-lopate-show.html. The W.C. Fields Exhibit is going beautifully. Now through August 21 at the Ne...
Day 2 kicked off with rain and wind and yesterday was sunny and hot. I am not sure which I prefer... The day promised a lot and I didn't realise that the 3 films that I was about to see all had the same basic theme - acceptance. I caught Coming out of the nkuta, a film from Cameroon, at the Royal Hotel and was stunned at how prejudiced the society in Cameroon is. Homosexuality is still banned with "culprits" going to jail for five years. Apparantly, this country is even worse than mo...
I have arrived yesterday 28 July and what a day it was! Flying in from Johannesburg was memorable as I saw two South African singing sensations making out at the drop-off. They can be compared to Bollywood stars as they have just starred in a local film together called Jakhalsdans where they fell in love on the set! It was something to behold to see thse two kissing as they would have been arrested in places like Dubai. The flight down - just under 50 mins - was routine and then Durban hit me...
I saw this Sundance 2010 Grand jury prize winner at the www.lafest.com and it rocked. The director David Michod and I met there and last week we had an in depth conversation to be posted in the next issue of www.independentfilmquarterly.net.The words that stick out in my mind are complexities and preparation. Everybody wants to make their movie so they get a camera and start shooting their script. Very different with this awesome feature film debut of this extremely talented writer /director. So...
Director David Michod rules in Animal Kingdom
I saw this Sundance 2010 Grand jury prize winner at the www.lafest.com and it rocked. The directorDavid Michod and I met there and last week we had an in depth conversation tobe posted in the next issue of www.independentfilmquarterly.net.
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by Alex Deleon The Los Angeles film festival calendar is so crowded that three of them have currently been running in overlapping juxtaposition. The LA Indian film festival and the LA Polish film festival both started on the same day, April 20, but the Indian one only lasted six days leaving another six days to catch up with the second half of the Polish action. There is also an Asian festival going on simultaneously in Koreatown, but since it is physically impossible to be everywhere at once, ...
The ninth annual Tribeca Film Festival, co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, and presented by founding sponsor American Express, announced the winners of its world competition categories tonight at a ceremony hosted at the W Union Square in New York City. The world competition winners for narrative and documentary films were chosen from 12 narrative and 12 documentary features from 20 countries. Two awards were given to honor New York films, which were chosen from sev...
Immigration Tango, a new romantic comedy starring Madonna's ex Carlos Leon (Oz, Law & Order) and Boston resident Elika Portnoy, won the Boston International Film Festival's award for both best picture and best actor Carlos Leon at the closing ceremony on Sunday, April 25. The film simultaneously screened April 25 and 26 at the Palm Beach International Film Festival to standing room only audiences.
Directed by David Burton Morris, the story revolves around two couples-...
"Modoki" is the Japanese word for "similar, yet different." Take for example the Tribeca Film Festival (April 21 to May 2, 2010), and October's New York Film Festival. Both are Manhattan cinema extravaganzas — whose overlaps end there. Populist Tribeca plays teriyaki to artsy NYFF's sashimi.
Nearly four decades the Lincoln Center event's junior, Tribeca was founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff as a goad to downtown development in th...
