Istanbul International Film Festival assistant director, Ms Asize Tan, talks to Jeremy Colson on the occasion of the 25th edition of one of Asia’s biggest festivals where the audience this year is forecast to reach 140,000. Have you ever been involved in film-making yourself? I’ve been involved in short films and commercials and I’ve been in film circles since forever. I started work with the festival in 1994, worked in several different departments, became assistant director in 2003 and I...
Alain Delon backs out of Istanbul festival at last minutecites “ personal reasons” for cancellationThe 25th Istanbul International Film Festival (IIFF) kicked off last night with the conspicuous absence of its guest of honour, Mr Alain Delon.Much to the surprise of the organisers, Delon cancelled his much-hyped attendance at the event on Friday morning by placing a telephone call through a third party saying that he was unable to attend. No specific reason was given.The several thousand mem...
SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN DIRECTORSThe Directors Guild of America reports that less than 10% of its membership are women. In the history of the Academy Awards, only three women have ever been nominated for Best Director (Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola). While women head major studios and are prolific producers, there still is a “glass ceiling” regarding women directors. But at the Miami International Film Festival....it's a woman's world, and male journalists like myself just have ...
Backseat Film Festival 2006 Full Programming Announced!Six Days and Nights of Rock n’ Roll Movies and Booze!The Drinking Man’s Film Festival is please to announce its complete program, which takes place February 28th through March 5th at the Triangle Theater (1220 N. Lawrence Street, Btwn 4th and 5th St, Philadelphia, PA 19122). Ticket prices are cheap, $5 for one film program or $25 for an all access laminate (Advance tickets available on the web at www.backseatfilmfestival.com, The Fire [4...
The crush to get a gander at HOFFMAN AS CAPOTE was so great yesterday that an extra press screening had to be improvised a half hour after the initially scheduled one in the Cinemaxx multi-screen theatre complex. Presumably, the half hour decollage allows reels of the film to be switched from one hall to the other without missing a beat. Unfortunately, the press conference time remained unchanged, so that those condemned to the later viewing (like myself), found the conference already well unde...
The audiences’ ballots have been counted: the Panorama Audience Award 2006 – which is sponsored by “radioeins” of RBB, Berlin-Brandenburg’s public radio and television broadcasting station, and Berlin’s city magazine “tip” in collaboration with the Berlinale’s Panorama section – goes to Bubot Niyar (Paper Dolls), directed by Tomer Heymann. The Panorama Audience Award has existed since 1999. Movie-goers of the 56th Berlin International Film Festival were asked to cast their ba...
The nine members of this international jury – organisers of queer and other film festivals – view films within the framework of all programs of the Berlinale which have queer context.Three films are nominated for each category and one receives a TEDDY for best feature film, best short film and best documentary/essay film, each with a cash award of € 3,000.Members of the Jury:John Badalu (Indonesia), Noah Cowan (Canada), Matt Fox (Great Britain), KatrinKremmler (Hungary), Gary Mak (Hong Kon...
Legendary filmmaker Richard Leacock to be honored with Career AwardFull Frame Documentary Film Festival has chosen Sketches of Frank Gehry as the opening film of the 2006 festival. The first documentary by the Academy Award® winning director Sydney Pollack (The Interpreter, Out of Africa) is a look at the life and work of the renowned architect. The opening night screening is sponsored by Capitol Broadcasting. The festival also announced that it would present its Career Award this year to l...
The International Animated Film Showcase of Catalunya presents a retrospective selection about Surrealism and another about Mexican Animation.- Ron Diamond, founder of the Acme Filmworks studio in Hollywood, will explain, in a special session, the relationship that exists between independent animation, commercial production and advertising. Once more, ANIMAC offers a new opportunity to enjoy the thousand and one faces making up the international arena of animated cinema. The tenth ANIMAC, orga...
At a special gala ceremony at the Museum of World Culture, the Göteborg Film Festival Nordic Film Award went to the director Dagur Kári for Dark Horse (Voksne Mennesker), which, “with a young careless rebel in focus, with insight and humour unites fragments from an alienated society into an artistically challenging unity”. The award consists of 150 000 SEK and the Filmdraken (Film dragon)statuette."To be nominated for an award like this is like having a race horse", expressed a happy Dagur...
The 12th edition of Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (Haute-Saône, Franche-Comté region) will be held from 31st January till 7th February 2006. This is the oldest film festival in Europe entirely dedicated to Asian cinema, from the Near East to the Far East. 72 films will be screened, out of which 37 are unreleased and about 20 are French, European or world premières. Faithful to India : International Jury’s Chairman will be famous Indian director Buddhadeb Dasgupta (...
35th International Film Festival RotterdamJanuary 25 – February 5, 2006Rotterdam programme section ‘Vita Brevis’ on biographical filmsIn its theme programme section ‘Vita Brevis’, the 35th International Film Festival Rotterdam presents fifteen biographically inspired feature fiction and documentary films. The section includes world premieres of RETURN OF THE POET by Armenian film-maker Harutyun Khachatryan and KLIMT (DIRECTOR’S CUT) by Raúl Ruiz (starring John Malkovich). ‘Vita Br...
Film Sales Support (FSS) for Sundance Film Festival(19-29 January 2006)Film Sales Support (FSS) kicks off in 2006 with the support of 11 European films at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in the US. The support comprises an eclectic mix of feature films and documentaries from Denmark, Italy, Spain, the UK, France and Germany. Celluloid Dreams will receive financial incentives to promote Allegro by Christoffer Boe, I for India by UK director Sandhya Suri and Factotum by Norwegian director B...
Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep has been chosen to receive the prestigious Coolidge Award in Boston on April 5. The annual event, recognizing a selected film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema, was launched in 2004. The first film auteur so honored was Chinese director Zhang Yimou in 2004 (HERO, THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, RAISE THE RED LANTERN).Last year’s honors went to Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, whose long list of cinema masterpieces ...
Eight new Nordic films have been chosen to take part in the Nordic Competition at the Göteborg Film Festival. The award consists of an award sum of 150 000 SEK and the statuette Filmdraken (the Film dragon) by Swedish artist Ernst Billgren. Göteborg Film Festival will be inaugurated January 27. Opening film will be the Viking drama Beowulf & Grendel by director Sturla Gunnarsson. Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård plays one of the main characters and will also be present on the Opening night. Ne...
For a certain niche group of cinephiles ever since the release of a film called "Shakespeare Wallah" in 1965, the "Merchant-Ivory" label has become synonymous with high-class rarified taste in cinema in some way associated with India ("A Passage to India", "Heat and Dust"), or, in the later collaborations of this producer-director team, with ultra refined literary adaptations set in Victorian England such as "The Remains of the Day", and "Howard's end". To be brutally frank, since "Merchant-Ivor...
Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack tries his hand at the non-fiction format in SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY, his intimate film portrait of one of the world’s most successful and creative architects.Pollack, whose directorial career dates back to the 1960s, and includes such legendary films as THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, TOOTSIE and the multi-Academy Award winner OUT OF AFRICA, is one of a handful of directors who is also a prolific producer (THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY,...
The sixth annual Santa Fe Film Festival’s bowed this year with new partnerships, a new focus on international screenings with a decidedly American film as its centerpiece gala. 220 films screened out of 900 submissions from nearly 40 nations, including this years “Best of Fest” Award winner “The Syrian Bride,” by Eran Riklis.The five-day festival ran from Dec. 7-11, presenting films in 11 different venues and attracting 6,000-plus patrons.The festival partnered this year with the Natio...
Capote and Murderball Take Home Top Honors at 15th Annual Gotham AwardsIFP has announced its winners in the six competitive categories at the 15th Annual Gotham Awards which has been broadcast on NYC TV (Channel 25) on December 6 at 9 pm EST. Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin, Anna Paquin Awarded Best Ensemble Cast for The Squid and the Whale. Amy Adams and Bennett Miller Awarded "Breakthroughs". I Am A Sex Addict Awarded Best Film Not Playing at a Theater ...
3rd COPENHAGEN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVALNOVEMBER 4-13 2005In only 3 years the festival has become on of the biggest doc events in Europe.The festival has enjoyed a lot of positive response and attention from our large local audience as well as from international producers and distributors, the national and international press and the many international guests visiting cph:dox 2005. cph:dox strongly believe in the many opportunities this new platform has created for a future and possibly...
11th Festival of European Films11 november - 2 december 2005festival on wheels: ankara, bursa, izmir, kars europe europeThe Festival of European Films on Wheels presents, as usual, feature films produced in 2004-2005 from all around Europe to the viewers under the tile of Europe Europe. This section consisting of films selecting from a wide spectrum of productions from Danemark to Hungary brings together films of both directors already included in previous years' programs and promising talents. ...
RICHARD PENA ON HIS WORK and Interview for Filmfestivals.com by Claus Muller Are there specific criteria the New York Film Festival selection committee applies?You know In the end I think that this is not science, it [this work] really is art, so that basically our criteria are personal and probably pretty arbitrary You start of with saying why do I like that film and everybody brings their own criteria to it. Some people like the film, because they feel the film talks something import...
Moritz de Hadeln, president of the International Jury of The 14th Damascus International Film Festival The minister of Culture of the Syrian Arab Republic, Dr.Mahmoud Al-Sayyed, and the head of the Syrian National Film Organization and Festival Director, Mohamad Al-Ahmad, have invited Moritz de Hadeln - former director of the Locarno, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals - as President of the International Jury of the 14th Damascus International Film Festival, to be held from November 20 to 27, 2005...
16TH WASHINGTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVALDecember 1 - 1140 films • 9 countries • 5 venues • 10 daysThe 16th Washington Jewish Film Festival: An Exhibition of International Cinema presents 40 features, documentaries and shorts from 9 countries, in five venues, during the December 1 – 11, ten-day Festival. The Festival is presented by the Washington DCJCC's Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts and co-sponsored by the Embassy of Israel and Washington Jewish Week; and supported in part by a grant ...
The second annual Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) will debut two major Hollywood films. Opening night, December 8, 2005 will feature Jim Jarmusch’s “Broken Flowers”, and the final night of the festival, December 11, 2005, will feature Richard Sheppard’s “The Matador”. The Bahamas International Film Festival will be held at The Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.The opening film, “Broken Flowers”, is a heartfelt story of how perennial bachelor Don Johnst...
