It so happens that Rotterdam's extensive Chinatown is located just around the corner from the film festival centre, and the Chinese New Year which is reckoned according to the lunar calendar, came out extra late this year on January 30th, smack-dab in the midst of the film festival. Consequently, all afternoon today, festival filmgoers navigating between film venues in the area, were treated to an extraordinary side-show -- fabulous colourful dragon mock-ups held aloft by teams of dragon dancers...
The Federation of National Film Association of Thailand whose 940 members represent 11 branches of the film industry in the Kingdom today called on its members to boycott the Bangkok International Film Festival which will take place February 17-27, 2006. In an emergency meeting of its Executive Committee last Friday, January 20th, the Federation decided on the harsh action after agreeing that the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), organizers of the Festival had failed to cooperate with the Fed...
The NY International Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, the first festival dedicated to showcasing international films with distinctly Sephardic themes, celebrates 10 years of cinematic explorations of Sephardic Jewry presented in a weeklong series of screenings, compelling panel discussions, and events. The festival, co-sponsored by the Yeshiva University Museum and the Manhattan JCC will take place from February 2 to 8, 2006 with screenings at the Center for Jewish History and one screening at t...
14TH PORTLAND JEWISH FILM FESTIVALSAT JAN 14 7 PM WHITSELL AUDITORIUMSUN JAN 15 4 PM GUILD THEATRELIVE AND BECOMEFRANCE/ISRAEL 2005DIRECTOR: RADU MILHAILEANUWinner of (cheering) Audience Awards at the Berlin and Vancouver International Film Festival, LIVE AND BECOME is an epic, emotional story of one boy's chance survival amidst the Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s. A mother conspires to place her nine-year-old, non-Jewish son with a group of Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) bound for Israel as par...
A conversation with Selvaggia VeloFestival Director; ‘River to River’ Florence Indian Film FestivalWendy DentSV: How did it begin? In ’98 I organised an exhibition of Bollywood movie banners. Still Bollywood was not fashion in Europe. And so this was done, and then in ’99 we invited those same painters, artists, to have a live show during the Florentine summer. There are a lot of events during the summer here in Florence, the start of Fiorentina. And so those painters were coming and ...
Hanan had the courage to take up the role as it reflected her personalityDunia (Kiss me not on the eyes) seeks to address and confront social issues in the Arab world. As a clear indication of the controversy surrounding the film, heated debate broke out during a press conference held at the 2nd Dubai International Film Festival to discuss the movie.Written in French and translated into Arabic, shot in Egypt by a Lebanese Director Jocelyne Saab, Dunia (Kiss me not on the eyes) proves the borderl...
Private investment is key to develop the UAE’s budding film industry, concludes expert panel on "providing finance to the film industry in the UAE" at DIFF 2005A panel discussion that brought together financial experts and film industry players was held at the 2nd Dubai International Film Festival yesterday. It concluded that private investment would be the single most significant source of funding to drive film industry development in the UAE. Other avenues that aspiring film makers could suc...
Bosta (Autobus), the third of five free family films being screened at the giant purpose-built amphitheatre at Dubai Media City during the ongoing Dubai Film Festival, is a fun and upbeat story of what happens when modern and alternative ideas clash with the traditional Dabkeh dance of Lebanon. The film, which will make its UAE premiere at the amphitheatre at 8pm on Wednesday, December 14, follows the story of Kamal, who returns to Beirut after 15 years of exile in France determined to revive hi...
International and regional film stars, industry leaders and filmmakers from around the world expected to grace tonight’s red carpet opening gala Months of planning and preparation will culminate in grand style tonight as international celebrities, regional stars and UAE VIPs walk up an 80-metre long red carpet and into the Madinat Jumeirah Arabian Resort at 8pm Sunday (December 11, 2005), to officially open the second Dubai International Film Festival. Lit up by sky trackers and a state-of-the...
Feature filmsHari Om by BharatbalaThe directorBharatbala, a filmmaker with a distinctive visual style, has produced innovating images of India throughout his entire career. Crossing the whole length and breadth of India and its rich cultural heritage, his films seem to capture the essence of the land, resulting in some of the most dynamic works to be rewarded at the Cannes and New York Film Festivals. Hari Om is the first of a series of stories from India that Bharatbala has envisioned to tell a...
November 24, 2005
GOA, India ~ In an effort to gain additional worldwide recognition as a production base, India will sign a film co-production agreement with the United Kingdom on December 05 and will ink similar agreements with Germany and China in the near future.
News of the agreements was revealed today (Thursday 24 November) prior to the inauguration of the 36th annual International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
The agreement with the UK, which runs to 15 pages ...
GOA, India ~ In an effort to gain additional worldwide recognition as a production base, India will sign a film co-production agreement with the United Kingdom on December 05 and will ink similar agreements with Germany and China in the near future.News of the agreements was revealed today (Thursday 24 November) prior to the inauguration of the 36th annual International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.The agreement with the UK, which runs to 15 pages of fine print, states that the maximum n...
In line with the ‘Cultural Bridge’ theme of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), multi-award winning helmer Albert Brooks’ LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD has been selected to have its world premiere in Dubai on December 15, 2005, as part of the festival’s second edition. DIFF will take place from December 11 – 17, 2005. The comedy will be screened in DIFF’s flagship “Operation Cultural Bridge” section, which underlines the event’s objectives to build cultural b...
35th Roshd International Film Festival (RIFF 05), naming the oldest film festival in IRAN , would be on screens during 10-16 November 2005.MIROSLAV NIKOLIC , OLGA VASILEVA MARKOVA , RONALD LEE HOLLOWAY , JORGE C. DORADO , MAIT LASS , ANDRZEJ LICHOTA , VAHID VAHED , VLADIMIR PEROVIC , AMIR MOHAMMAD DEHESTANI , ESMAIL MIR FAKHRAI would judge marvelous films from 44 countries on Documentary/scientific/animation/fiction sections in this educational and cultural event in one of the biggest cities...
It was one of those times I wished I had a documentary crew following me around. How could I capture my incredulity at having my own documentary premiere in Azerbaijan?... From the first moment- when I was intrigued by an invitation by the Film Directors Guild of Azerbaijan to premiere my documentary "Dear Juliet" at their upcoming international film festival... to the moment when I realised that the award being called out for "Vendi Dent" was indeed meant for me. Where to begin, where to begin?...
Pusan International Film Festival Awards Heralded as the biggest film festival in Asia, PIFF ran Oct. 6 – 15th and celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with some of Asia’s greatest talent including Hou Hsiao-hsien, Abbas Kiarostami, and Jackie Chan on hand at its numerous ceremonies.The festival wrapped last weekend with the top award – the New Currents award for Best New Asian Filmmaker of the Year – going to ZANG Lu of China for directing Grain in the Ear. ZANG uses a restraine...
The second Dubai International Film Festival (“DIFF”) will be bigger and better than its predecessor, with more and diverse films, a strengthened team of programmers, and changes in ticketing procedures and scheduling, Festival organizers announced at a press conference at the Madinat Jumeirah today. Apart from the enhancements, the 2005 Festival, which will run from December 11 to 17 this year, will retain most of its successful inaugural framework. Mr. Ahmad bin Byat, the Director General ...
"Just an Ordinary Jew" ('Ein Ganz Gewohnlicher Jude') directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel of the Berlin Bunker drama "The Downfall", and starring Ben Becker in a mesmerizing 89 minute screen monologue, turned out to be the capstone of the Hamburg film festival. Based on a recent book by Swiss author Charles Lewinsky, this heady piece of work adresses itself to the thorny issue of what it means to be a Jew in contemporary Germany. Emanuel Goldfarb, a German journalist of Jewish heritage, but not a...
It's fairly unusual at a film festival with umpteen titles to pick from that one selects three names out of a hat, and all three turn out to be not only winners, back to back, but films of quality ranging from excellent to astounding. Today's triple winning ticket: "ZOZO" from Norway by way of Beirut, "Fratricide" Brudermord) -- astounding turf battle between Turks and Kurds in a German city, and "Bashing", a hypnotic Kafkaesque look at life on Desolation Row in a northern Japanese industrial w...
The 10th PUSAN Int'l Film Festival, which will celebrate its 10th year anniversary edition from October 6th through 14th, has confirmed its official jury members. For the New Currents, the only competitive section dedicated to discovering new talents of Asian cinema, world’s renowned Abbas KIAROSTAMI will be serving as president of the jury
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California’s Big Bear City Film Festival Showcases Papa G Studio’s Donnie’s TreeIt’s good to know there are professional films coming from student filmmakers. Writer/director, and producer Isung Hwang, has brilliantly created Donnie’s Tree, a short film about an elderly man’s desire to come to terms with his wife by means of a kumquat tree. As a graduate student at Chapman University in Orange County, California, Insung created his characters, plot, and locations all in a 7 day shoot...
KUKTAU - THE SKY MOUNTAINTartar Feature debut at ZLINKUKTAU is the first full-length feature film ever made in Tatar. Its premier presentation at the 45th ZLIN International Childrens Film Festival on May 30th has raised considerable interest, highlighted by the onstage appearance of lovely Alina Rizvanova, Executive Producer, in native costume, singing a song in Tartar before the audience "Children should not be separated from their Parents".A production of the The Kazan Documentary Film Studi...
Kilometre Zero , Hiner Saleem, France, 2005The title of Hiner Saleem’s new film is used metaphorically to explain that in the 80 years of Iraqian modern history there has been virtually no progress. Saleem who fled Iraq under Saadam Hussein claims , “when you start from zero, the only direction to go is forward”. In real life Saleem’s brother was taken against his will on the way to the bakery one day and inducted into the Iraqian army. Saleem did not return to Kurdistan until the fall...
As always, the festival took place in November, in Taipei. This year the festival was held between November 25th and December 5th, it screened 113 feature films from 20 countries and 78 short films from 18 countries. The 2004 edition of the festival also reached out to Taichung, where a selection of the films was presented and where the award ceremony took place.The outstanding revelation was “Kekexili: Mountain Patrol”(可可西里) by Chinese director Lu Chuan (陸...
BLACK MOVIEFilm Festival from Other Worlds18 – 27 February 2005To , Black Movie celebrates its 15th anniversary with a cinématographic voyage through 27 countries, with close to 50 films never before shown in Switzerland.On this occasion, the 3 Continents Section, entitled ‘15’ pays tribute to the citizens of tomorrow and takes a closer look into the anxieties of adolescence. An age of paradox with all its restraints and many trials, it is also an age where, believing themselves to be in...