Italian director Francesco Rosi will receive a Lifetimetime Achievement Pardo Award at the Locarno Film Festival this Friday, August 13. The award ceremony will take place in the city's famed Piazza Grande, one of Europe's most atmospheric town squares. An open air screening of one of Rosi’s masterpiece MANY WARS AGO (Uomini contro, 1970) starring Gian Maria Volonté and Alain Cuny, will be presented in a print restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca N...

A great film festival, like a great film, raises questions. The New York Documentary Film Festival- Festival dei Popoli, from its opening film tonight, has posed a controversial one; Why has one of Italy's most awarded auteur films, 'Below Sea Level', (winner of 10 prestigious international awards including Best Documentary Venice Film Festival 2008, Grand Prix Cinema Du Reel 2008 & European Film Academy Awards 2009) not yet premiered in the United States? As Director Gianfranco Ro...

A great film festival, like a great film, raises questions. The New York Documentary Film Festival- Festival dei Popoli, from its opening film tonight, has posed a controversial one;Why has one of Italy's most awarded auteur films, 'Below Sea Level', (winner of 10 prestigious international awards including Best Documentary Venice Film Festival 2008, Grand Prix Cinema Du Reel 2008 & European Film Academy Awards 2009) not yet premiered in the United States?As Director Gianfranco Rosi addressed the...

Films by famous directors in the over-seventy five category include “Kabei – Our Mother” by Japanese old master Yamada Yoji (third time in Berlin with a competition film), and the Polish non-competition entry “Katyn” by 80 year old  director Andrzej Wajda who has been a familiar figure in Berlin over the years and was warded a Life Work career Golden Bear here three years ago.  The Katyn film dealing with the mass murder of Polish Prisoners of war in WWII by the Russians which was�...

Wednesday, February 6---------As thousands of film professionals and cinemaphiles descended onto the German capital today, the buzz for this year's Berlinale is just beginning. Films in competition and the adjoining sections are already creating some must-see momentum, one day before the Festival officially opens tomorrow evening (with Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones on tap, no less). Attention is also being paid to the jury, which this year is headed by filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavr...

The 58th Berlin International Film Festival comes to a glamorous close with the Award Ceremony on Saturday, February 16. 1.600 guests are invited to the ceremony in the Berlinale Palast where, from 7 pm onwards, the International Jury, presided by jury president Costa-Gavras, will announce the winners of the Golden and the Silver Bears, as well as the Best First Feature Award. The performance of jazz trumpeter Till Brönner will be the highlight of the evening's musical programme, moderator Katr...

2008 is not only the 58th edition of this major European film festival, all old, but it is also the ninth anniversary of the move from West Berlin to Potsdamer Platz in the actual physical center of the new undivided Berlin. The present location, now an ultra-modern stand of new architecture including the space age SONY Center, a film museum, many upscale restaurants and two sets of state-of-the-art cinema multiplexes among its many attractions, was once a No-Man’s-Land hugging the sinister ...

 Friday, December 7---------The Berlin Film Festival, which will be held in February 2008, has begun to make announcements that are just now beginning to shape the flavour of one of the world's most important film showcases. News comes from the press office that Constantin Costa-Gavras, the celebrated Greek-born director of such films as Z and MISSING, will head the Competition Jury. The director, known for his ouevre of political and social message films, has won virtually every major film pri...

 Friday, October 19----------Even though Queen Elizabeth is in town (not the real royal but the one played by Cate Blanchett in ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE), and despite the fact that such industry heavyweights as Francis Ford Coppolla, Sidney Lumet and Tom Cruise are somewhere here in the Eternal City for screenings of their films this weekend, all eyes will be on Sophia tonight.....Sophia Loren that is. The iconic actress will walk the Red Carpet in advance of the screening of a new documentary...

Happy Birthday to you, Taormina. The oldest Italian internatiomal film festival, celebrates its 50th anniversary, Launched in 1954 when Taormina, Sicily, was the preferred resort of the Hollywoodian stars, At that post war time, Sicily development was a step behind (still a bit behind today), the institution of an international event was meant to promote its great touristic resources. The Italian island has given much to this Festival, the Festival did too. The "partnership" has led today to one...