San Diego Asian Film Festival Rides The Wave of Success In 5th YearSan Diego Asian Film Festival now in it’s 5th year will commence this October 21st, 2004, opening with the independent feature film from Hawaii, THE RIDE. The Festival runs form October 21st to October 24th, with most films screening at the Mann Hazard Center 7 Theaters in Mission Valley. THE RIDE was a hit at the Hawaii International Film Festival were an estimated 15,000 festival attendee’s watch outdoors at Waikiki Beach...
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL----ASIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN INFLUENCESAs the New York Film Festival enters its final week, it continues its marathon of remarkable films from around the world. The Festival’s strong affinity for European and American Independent cinema has already been discussed, but among its most astonishing discoveries are new films from a variety of Asian and Latin American filmmakers.The new Asian Cinema continues to produce wondrous new talents, and this year’s Festival is highli...
Tale of Two Film Festivals: Telluride and SundanceI was in the lobby of a hotel in Telluride when the actress Laura Linney started singing and dancing to a song from the Broadway play Dreamgirls. Dylan Kidd, director of a film called P.S. starring Linney which premiered at Telluride, was in the lobby, too. Because Kidd may direct the film version of Dreamgirls, Linney was doing an impromptu, playful audition for a part. She received a smattering of applause from the hotel clerk and a small nu...
The New York Film Festival, running through October 17, is in full swing, with enthusiastic audiences selling out nearly every film showing and film critics praising the films on offer. New York is in its prime at this time of the year: beautiful sunny weather, a Fall chill in the air, the turning of the leaves in nearby Central Park, and everywhere you go, chit chat about the Festival and the new films of the season. With such celebrated filmmakers as Mike Leigh and Pedro Almodovar in town, the...
7th IFFR Trainee Project for Young Film Critics34th International Film Festival Rotterdam, 26 January – 6 February 2005The seventh IFFR Trainee Project for Young Film Critics of the International Film Festival Rotterdam offers three young, motivated and talented film critics a chance to get acquainted with the festival and the cinema of the world. The project was created in 1998 motivated by the fact that young and upcoming film critics get less opportunities to explore this range of cinema an...
The SWISS AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL (SwissAm) proudly returns to New York for seven days of screenings, seminars and parties bringing together American and Swiss Independent filmmakers with a selection of 30 Swiss and 24 US films.In addition to screenings in three categories (Focus, Panorama, Shorts), SwissAm will present a retrospective of the work of renowned Swiss essay filmmaker Peter Liechti. SIGNERS KOFFER (1995), LUCKY JACK (2003) and NAMIBIA CROSSINGS (2004) will be shown in New York for th...
JAOUI OPENS NEW YORK FILM FESTIVALThe 42nd edition of the New York Film Festival opened this past weekend, with one of its most diverse and anticipated slates in recent years. Featuring an exciting mix of the new works of acknowledged film masters and fresh discoveries, the Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, is generally acknowledged as the crown jewel of film events in a city that boasts more than 25 film festivals during the year. “It is the gold standard as far as Ne...
The 42nd edition of the New York Film Festival helmed by Richard Pena opened to raving reviews affirming its unique position as an upscale intellectually oriented festnot compromising its criteria to compete with the new Tribeca film festival. Out of 25 features from 21 countries produced this year and not shown before in the United States eight were made in the U.S. but none of these films corresponded to “Hollywood fare”. Even Sam Fuller’s reconstructed 1980 studio production THE BIG RED...
12th Raindance Film FestivalLondon, 1-10 October 2004Raindance just kicked off last Thursday September 30 with the London premiere of Shane Meadows hotly anticipated and highly rated new film Dead Man’s Shoes, this year’s Raindance Film Festival which celebrates independent filmmakers and filmmaking, promises ten days of discovery, debate and surprise with probably the richest slate of films in the Festival’s history.French shock-filmmaker Catherine Breillat’s Anatomy of Hell, (Friday Oc...
In the following interview Miguel Pereira, Director of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, speaks about his ideological position, his views about the past, the image he wants for the festival and the procedures to reach this aim. Fernando Madedo: First of all. Define Film Festival? Miguel Pereira: Today it`s very difficult to know what a Film Festival is, because there are more than seven thousands festivals around the world. I think that the word had included events that aren...
MOUNT SHASTA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OFFERS EXCITING GETAWAY WEEKEND FOR FILM BUFFS AND OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTSNorthern California and Southern Oregon movie buffs can look forward to viewing 20 wonderful films from eight countries along with an opportunity to enjoy spectacular outdoor adventures during the inaugural Mount Shasta International Film Festival. The festival, helmed by Founder/Director Jeffrey Winters, unspools the weekend of October 8th-10th at Coming Attractions Theatre in downtown...
Opening Night: National Premiere of United Artists' "The Yes Men" and Gala PartyThursday, Sept. 23, 7:30 pm; tickets $48"The Yes Men" follows the real-life group of prankster-activists () as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating officials of the World Trade Organization. The film is directed by Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price, the filmmaking team behind acclaimed Sundance Grand Prize Jury winner "American Movie" A special appearance by The Yes Men themselves promises to make th...
FILM Festival OF THE AMERICAS Launches IN Puerto VallartaIn a inspiring tropical setting, steeped in a tradition of great filmmaking, the Pacific Mexican coastal city of Puerto Vallarta will host the 2004 Puerto Vallarta Film Festival of the Americas. To be celebrated November 6-14 in Puerto Vallarta, the annual festival will showcase contemporary full-length films and documentaries from across both American continents.The breadth of programming allows for a wide range of North American indepen...
It may not be a record, but 120 European films in the Toronto Film Festival certainly represents the largest contingent of any one film community at this very international event. The films are included in every section of the Festival, from the highly commercial Gala Screenings to the obscure Midnight Madness offerings.The Festival is presenting the latest works from such acknowledged film masters as Jean Luc Godard (with Notre Musique, a poetic meditation on modern life and anxiety), Pedro Alm...
With over 350 films being screened and over 2000 industry professionals in attendance, the Toronto International Film Festival is a crowded but important launching pad for the best new films from Canada’s prolific film industry.In the past, all Canadian films were relegated to the Perspective Canada section, which provided a strong promotional platform but also was criticized by many in the Canadian film industry as a kind of “film ghetto”. This year, the Festival has decided to “desegre...
Toronto International Film Festival Opens with BEING JULIAThe 29th annual Toronto International Film Festival is one of the largest Festivals in the world. Not a Market unlike the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto highlights films from all around the world with a focus on film and less hype. With 328 films that will screen during the 29th Toronto International Film Festival, over half are World Premieres. The Festival is set to run from September 9th to the 18th 2004, in Toronto, Canada and the ...
MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL : A CITADEL OF FILM CULTUREThe 28th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival is in full swing, with a heady mix of traditional arthouse films and innovative new voices giving this event its well-deserved reputation as the most European in style and substance of all of Canada’s film events.Perhaps it is its Francophone culture or its identity as a city of tradition (in direct contrast with the go-go atmosphere of its neighbor Toronto) but this Festival is definit...
International competition highlights from Leipzig: "Touch the Sound" is this year’s opening film at the festivalThe new film of Thomas Riedelsheimer (Two German Film Awards for "Rivers and Tides") will celebrate its first German screening as the opening film of the 47th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Films on October 19, 2004. "Touch the Sound" has recently been awarded the Main Prize of the "Semaine de la Critique" at the International Locarno Film Festival. The f...
MONTREAL UNVEILS PROMISING WORLD COMPETITIONA new film by the team that brought us the stunning French documentary Microcosmos, Carlos Saura 's return to socially conscious cinema, and the latest from Aussie underrated actor Hugo Weaving are among the premieres that will highlight the competition of the Montreal World Film Festival.Away from the hype to which film festivals are increasingly succumbing, Montreal has developed a reputation for offering a platform to filmmakers whose work has not b...
NEXT WEEKEND - AUGUST 27-29 The Westcliffe Digital Film Festival – a Truly Guerilla Film Festival Featuring Truly Independent FilmsThe Westcliffe Digital Film Festival—a production of the Westcliffe Independent Film Association (WIFA), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization—is a unique festival that showcases the newest filmmakers who self-finance their vision and create truly independent feature and short films on digital video. The festival will screen 17 DV films NEXT WEEKEND, Friday through...
Locarno International Film Festival 2004It is common knowledge since Lenin's famous statement that film and politics are very intricately connected. This was nicely demonstrated by this year's Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. More surprisingly, this year even the Locarno Film Festival, traditionally associated with young, off mainstream and world cinema, also took an explicitly political turn. The Locarno Film Festival was always the odd one out on the European festival scene. After the ...
Black Box 2004 HighlightsThe world of art collides with film and videoBLACK BOX programme, at the 58th Edinburgh International Film Festival, will include a major retrospective of the work of Scottish filmmaker Margaret Tait and the world premiere of Sam Taylor Wood˜s installation art —STRINGS.˜The Black Box programme was developed in order to explore video art and performance within the realm of film. This year˜s programme includes some of the most thought-provoking and pioneering work in ...
The 61st International Film Festival, organised by the Biennale di Venezia and presided over by Davide Croff, will be held at the Lido from 1st to 11th September 2004, directed for the first time by Marco Müller.The new lines of an "agile, competitive" FestivalFollowing his nomination by the Biennale's board of directors, the new director immediately declared that he hoped the 61st Festival "would be an agile festival, created in a climate of constant dialogue with the film industry and culture...
Europe’s only film festival devoted to Australian, New Zealand and South Africans ready to kick off in a week.The London-based UpOverDownUnder Film Festival, now in its 4th year, has grown from a one-night short film competition to a week-long festival, with more than 3000 people passing through the festival doors last year. This year’s UODU festival promises even more, with the short film competition preceded by a week of the best new features and shorts from the three countries, plus filmm...
International Offspring for the Berlinale Talent Campus With the Talent Campus India (19 - 23 July), that finished only recently, the idea behind Berlinale Talent Campus was exported to Asia for the first time. 50 film talents from all over India joined the workshops of Osian's Cinefan Film Festival to learn from the likes of cameraman Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love) and Mohsen and Samira Makhmalbaf.The Berlinale Talent Campus is extending its network further: This year similar events w...
