Susan Gerhard Will Edit Online Magazine Devoted to Daily Year-Round Coverage of Thriving San Francisco Film and Media Scene San Francisco, CA ‹ Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, and Brian Clark, cofounder and managing member of indieWIRE, the leading online publication dedicated to American and international independent film, announced today that Susan Gerhard has come on board as the editor and bureau chief of SF360.org. The new copublished site, dedicated t...
“Paradise Now, which was featured at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, plays tonight at the University of California at Santa Barbara.Over the past few months, Hany Abu-Assad’s film, “Paradise Now” has been honored and excoriated simultaneously. While being nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, winning several other awards, and enjoying critical acclaim, the controversial Palestinian film about the last 48 hours of two would-be suicide b...
The 12th Annual Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films & Short Film Market (ShortFest) has announced it will be held from August 24 – 30, 2006 at the Camelot Theatres with widely respected film curator (and 2006 PSIFF Programming Manager) Anita Monga as the Director of Short Film Programming this year. The early entry deadline for ShortFest is April 15, 2006. Student entry fee is $30 and non-student entry fee is $40. Commenting on this year’s upcoming event, Festival Director ...
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting RoleGeorge ClooneySYRIANA Achievement in Visual EffectsKING KONGJoe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor Best Animated Feature Film of the YearWALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBITNick Park and Steve Box Best Live Action Short FilmSIX SHOOTERMartin McDonagh Best Animated Short FilmTHE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATIONJohn Canemaker and Peggy Stern Achievement in Costume DesignMEMOIRS OF A GEISHAColleen Atwood Ac...
"Tsotsi" Celebrates Miramax’s Oscar Nominated Best Foreign Language Film at Spark Woodfire Grill (BH)South Africa has earned its second consecutive Best Foreign Language Film nomination in the country's history; “Yesterday” 2004 and “Tsotsi” 2005. Written and directed by Gavin Hood and based on a novel by Athol Fugard, both South African natives, “Tsotsi” would be the country’s first Academy Award.Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 5, 2006 -- Set amidst the sprawling Johannesburg town...
AKEELAH AND THE BEE will open the 30th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) on Thursday, March 16th. The film, a heart-warming drama, directed by Doug Atchison, stars Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, and Keke Palmer is set to open nationwide April 28th. Akeelah and the Bee (rated PG) centers on a precocious eleven-year-old girl, Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), from south Los Angeles, who is discovered to have a talent for words. In spite of the objections of her mother Wanda (Angela...
New Orleans International Human Rights Film FestivalAPRIL 6 - 15, 2006The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival was created to support New Orleans’ social justice community. The 2006 festival is dedicated to a vision of justice for New Orleans and worldwide.In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the people of New Orleans are struggling for justice, human rights, and the right of return. We are proud to bring this festival of cinema to New Orleans in partnership with local social...
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 French are coming, the French are coming….again. The annual RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA, a leading showcase for new French films, returns to New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center for an eleventh year. The program of fifteen new features will screen at the Society’s Walter Reade Theater in uptown New York, and, for the first time, have parallel screenings at the IFC Center Theater in Greenwich Village. Festival dates are March 10 to 19.The series is co-presented by Unifrance USA,...
Sir Ben Kingsley, an Oscar winner for his lead role in GANDHI and an Oscar nominee for his role in SEXY BEAST, will receive the Maverick Spirit Award at the Cinequest Film Festival, to be held in the city of San Jose, California from March 1 to 12.Kingsley will present An Afternoon with Sir Ben Kingsley at the historic California Theater in downtown San Jose on March 5th. He will speak about his television, stage and film careers, which have made him one of the most distinguished actors of our t...
The winners of the 4th Bangkok International Film Festival Golden Kinnaree Awards were announced at a gala black-tie dinner attended by international dignitaries from around the world last night. HRH Princess Ubol Rattana presented the Kinnaree award to winners selected by an international jury of producers, actors and directors from the entertainment industry.French star Catherine Deneuve was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by HRH Princess Ubol Rattana in recognition of her contr...
Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) is a rancher near a small town in West Texas who befriends an undocumented Mexican cowboy named Malchiades Estrada. (Antonio Cerino) When Malchiades body is turned up by the border patrol Pete needs to find who killed his friend. Along the way Pete discovers the law is covering up the identity of the killer so he captures the suspect patrolmen Norton (Barry Pepper) and makes him unearth the body to be returned to Mexico. In a series of flashbacks we learn of Estra...
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Announces 2006 Festival WinnersMissoula, Montana - The award winning films of the 2006 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival were announced yesterday at the awards ceremony, closing the weeklong event. The award-winning films were selected by visiting and local jurors for the Best Documentary Feature Competition, Best Documentary Short Competition and the Big Sky Competition. The festival is the largest documentary film festival in the American West, and is an impor...
The Orange BAFTA – British Academy of Film and Television Awards - ceremony held February 19 in London turned out some surprises in an eclectic number of wins by various actors, directors and producers. The event was hosted by the outstandingly witty Stephen Fry, best known for his role as Oscar Wilde in Wilde. Absolutely every person he presented received a stunning compliment. Even Matt Dillon whom he told the audience he had seen Crash with at the same theater as the awards ceremony - the O...
And the Winners were...Golden Bear, the big one for best feature film in competition, "GRBAVICA" directed by Jasmila Zbanic of Bosnia. Zbanic has received fairly wide recognition for her documentary films, among them '"Do you remember Sarajevo?". This her feature film debut and the picture focuses on the traumas of the Yugoslavian wars and their current aftermath. This is basically a study of the relationship between a young mother and her twelve year old daughter. The child wants to believe t...
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...
With the Award Ceremony, the Berlinale reached its climax on Saturday, February 18. Hosted by Heino Ferch in the Berlinale-Palast, the event was broadcast live on 3sat. Viewers in the theatre and at home feverishly awaited the announcement of the winners (see the List of Prize-Winners). In addition to the prize-winners, the illustrious guests of the evening included: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Meret Becker, Bibiana Beglau, Jürgen Böttcher, Detlef Buck, Ingrid Caven, Hannelore Elsner, ...
During the ten days of the Berlinale most Berlin dailies adorn their front page with large colour photos of celebrity clowning the night before. On Thursday, day number 7 of the fest, however, what was to be seen on all Berlin front pages were shots of men in hooded white spacesuits holding up dead swans fished out of the city lakes, or otherwise attempting to deal with the sudden arrival of the dreaded aviary virus in the midst of the city. Of course, this does not mean that we can expect to s...
One of the great assets for a journalist at the Berlin film festival is the very well organized press conference structure and the constant parade of leading figures, directors, stars and others, from film industries around the world. The day here starts out with two matinee press screenings of films in competition in the same giant hall, the Berlinale Palast, where the gala red-carpet screenings are held in the evening. These press screenings are immediately followed by a press conference in th...
SYNOPSIS:Bob Barnes (George Clooney) is a veteran CIA agent nearing the end of a long and respectable career, with a son (Max Minghella) headed for college and the possibility of spending the latter days of his service in a cushy desk job. On Bob's last assignment, one of two Stinger missiles he is providing for a covert assassination falls into the wrong hands. Bob is promised a promotion after one last undercover mission - assassinating the independently minded Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig)....
New Hungarian features on view here range from the utterly ridiculous to the utterly sublime. At the ridiculous extreme is "TAXIDERMIA" by "Hukkle" director Pálfi György, while on the sublime side of the spectrum is the ethereally sensuous "The Bird Saviour, Clouds and Wind", by first time director István "Taikyo" Szaladják."Taxidermia" doesn't have much to do with the art of taxidermy (although a taxidermist does make a brief appearance toward the end), but everything to do with force feedi...
Phoning it inThe world’s first full-length movie to be shot entirely on cellphones has just been wrapped up in Joburg, writes Ryan FortuneIT’S 3AM on Christmas morning 2005 and while Santa makes his final deliveries to good children around the world, a bunch of filmmakers in the pool bar of Johannesburg’s Melrose Arch Hotel are accelerating the digital cinema revolution.They’ve been shooting for over a week now, mostly nights. Everyone’s dead tired, so this particular scene is taking a...
The film festival of Portugal is back to Oporto between the 20th February and the 5th March. As usual, the Rivoli is the main theatre of Portugal¹s leading festival- with its competitive sections, Fantasy, Directors Week and Orient Express, as well as the Retrospectives of the 26th edition. And they are the Hungarian Cinema, Bollywood Cinema, Bill Plympton, the Brothers Shaw and German Expressionism.Also included in the program is the best of the latest Portuguese cinema and an Homage to Manoel...
The 17th Alliance Française French Film Festival will open with the Australian Premiere of Jérôme Salle’s sexy romantic thriller Anthony Zimmer, starring Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal, headlining a program of 21 new features – the most in the event’s history. The Festival, touring Australia in March and April (see below for dates), supported by Peugeot, sold 45,000 tickets in 2005. "I’m proud to say that this is unquestionably the strongest Festival selection yet" said Chantal Girondi...
Despite the extra burden of responsibility of making a film in his native South Africa, filmmaker Gavin Hood has happily enjoyed riding the wave of film festivals to success. This has resulted in Hood’s film “Tsotsi” being nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at next month’s Academy Awards. The Oscars will held in Hollywood on March 5. Hood was recently on the South Coast to participate in the director’s panel at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Held ...