At the 64th edition of the Festival del film Locarno, the Pardo d’onore Swisscom (Leopard of Honour) to go to the american filmaker Abel Ferrara. Every year the Locarno Festival’s Pardo d'onore celebrates one or more major contemporary filmmakers. Previous recipients include Manoel de Oliveira, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Wim Wenders, Aleksandr Sokurov, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Amos Gitai, William Friedkin and, in 2010, Alain T...

Pardo d’onore Swisscom goes to Abel Ferrara At the forthcoming edition of the Festival del film Locarno, American director Abel Ferrara will receive the Pardo d’onore Swisscom, the prize for career achievement awarded every year to a contemporary director for an outstanding body of work. © Frenetic Films The award ceremony will take place on Friday August 5, at 9.30 pm on the Piazza Grande, when Abel Ferrara will introduce, for the occasion, an exclusive preview of extracts ...

  New Yorkers in need of a cool, affordable yet satisfying indie film fix will be happy to hear that The New York International Festival (NYIFF) has announced their slate of domestic and international films and premieres. NYIIFF runs from July 22nd-29th in Manhattan and will showcase a diverse range of features, shorts, documentaries and animations from all over the globe. The opening night kick-off party takes place at lower east side hotspot BLVD from 6-10pm. Film screenings begin J...

New Yorkers in need of a cool, affordable yet satisfying indie film fix will be happy to hear that The New York International Festival (NYIFF) has announced their slate of domestic and international films and premieres. NYIIFF runs from July 22nd-29th in Manhattan and will showcase a diverse range of features, shorts, documentaries and animations from all over the globe. The opening night kick-off party takes place at lower east side hotspot BLVD from 6-10pm. Film screenings begin July 23rd on 2...

THE ONGOING publicity surrounding the insults being traded by Werner Herzog and Abel Ferrara over whether “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is a remake of Ferrara’s 1992 original or not, maybe of interest to the industry, and particularly to film critics, but is of little interest to movie-goers. Both versions tell the story of a drug-addled cop trying to solve a case of murder, but the interpretation is as different as chalk from cheese. Herzog, more highly thought of for his...

THE ONGOING publicity surrounding the insults being traded by Werner Herzog and Abel Ferrara over whether “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is a remake of Ferrara’s 1992 original or not, maybe of interest to the industry, and particularly to film critics, but is of little interest to movie-goers. Both versions tell the story of a drug-addled cop trying to solve a case of murder, but the interpretation is as different as chalk from cheese. Herzog, more highly thou...

 Abel Ferrara wins the “Ciak di Corallo” for his career achievements at the Ischia Film Festival seventh edition (July 5-11), the only international contest dedicated to the filming locations.The American director, born July 19 1951 in the Bronx, will receive the cinema’s world tribute thanks to his work, that has always been visionary, original and restless in a unique way in the international movie scene.The Ischia Film Festival will present a short preview of Ferrara’s docufiction ex...

This Saturday's New York International Independent Film and Video Festival reception at 2nd Avenue's Pangea restaurant was a convenient walk across the street from the Village East Cinemas where Filmmakers, actors, and artists assembled from Japan, China, Austria, Botswana, South America, Italy, India, and all across the USA. Though interpreters were used to translate across language barriers - no translators were necessary to convey the passion and pride these Independents showed for each oth...

It is not as unusual as it may at first sound…..a filmmaker with over 40 years of experience and over 25 films in the can is lionized in Europe but underappreciated in his home country. That has been the fate of many of the original American indies of the 1970s, including such celebrated auteurs as Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley, Amos Poe and Susan Seidelman, and a more recent crop that includes Harmony Korine and Todd Solondz. Most prominently on this list is the idiosyncratic filmmaker Abel Ferra...

  Thursday, March 12-----It is not as unusual as it may at first sound…..a filmmaker with over 40 years of experience and over 25 films in the can is lionized in Europe but underappreciated in his home country. That has been the fate of many of the original American indies of the 1970s, including such celebrated auteurs as Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley, Amos Poe and Susan Seidelman, and a more recent crop that includes Harmony Korine and Todd Solondz. Most prominently on this list is the idi...

The actor John Malkovich will visit the Festival from the 17th to the 20th of November to receive an Honorary Golden Alexander for the body of his work, on the 18th of November at 21.00 in the Olympion theater. The nominee for two Academy Awards and star of such films as Dangerous Liaisons, The Sheltering Sky, The Glass Menagerie, Beyond the Clouds and In the Line of Fire, Malkovich was and remains a multi-faceted artist. The director of The Dancer Upstairs with Javier Bardem and the producer of...

Saturday, September 1----------Photographic moments from the 31st edition of the Montreal World Film Festival, with photos courteosy of the Festival organization....

Last week, audiences continued to support the independent films being screened as part of this summer's New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (NYIIFVF). A record number of evening screenings were sold out despite the humidity and heavy rain, further substantiating that indie film is alive and very vibrant in the best city in the world. Low key stars spotted at the festival ticket booth included, Joy Bryant (Bobby, Get Rich or Die Tryin), Dave Gahan lead vocalist of Depeche M...

Marion Cotillard will receive the Hollywood Film Festival's "Hollywood Breakthrough Actress of the Year Award" at the Festival's October 22 awards ceremony.Marion Cotillard's selection was determined due to her distinguished performance in Olivier Dahan's "La Vie en Rose," a biography of the famous French chanteuse Edith Piaf. From the slums of Paris to the limelight of New York, Edith Piaf's life was a battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in poverty, Edith's magical voice and he...

The Donostia-San Sebastian film festival on the incredibly picturesque North Spanish coast, ("NAZIOARTEKO ZINEMALDIA" in the exotic Basque language of the region), has opened heavily "front loaded" as the saying goes these days, which means that many of the big guns, films with high prize potential, have already been fired off in the first few days. The festival opener was, appropriately, "Obaba", one of the most eagerly awaited Spanish films of the year based on a Basque language best seller b...

53RD SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL OPENS WITH SEVERAL BANGSby Alex Deleon, San SebastianThe Donostia-San Sebastian film festival on the incredibly picturesque North Spanish coast, ("NAZIOARTEKO ZINEMALDIA" in the exotic Basque language of the region), has opened heavily "front loaded" as the saying goes these days, which means that many of the big guns, films with high prize potential, have already been fired off in the first few days. The festival opener was, appropriately, "Obaba", one of the m...

Willem Dafoe honored with Donostioa Prize at 53th San Sebastian Festival.With a face of sharply cut angles and restless eyes, this peculiar actor could well have found himself typecast in villainous roles like the one he played in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. But he has in fact achieved enormous popularity for characters having nothing in common with this stereotype, such as Sergeant Elias in Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Paul Schrader’s sleepy New York night-time dealer in Light Sleeper or Jesu...