Schatzberg to receive Indie Star award. “Moonrise Kingdom” to have its Polish premiere at the Wrocław event.
American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland (13-18 Nov), the first event in Eastern and Central Europe focused entirely on independent American cinema, pays tribute to two great American filmmakers: Jerry Schatzberg and Wes Anderson.
Jerry Schatzberg, the legendary director and accomplished photographer, will be a special festival guest. He will receive the annual In...
The 18th Sarajevo Film Festival (6-14 July 2012) will proudly present the Tribute to Todd Solondz. This exceptional US filmmaker will be joining us in Sarajevo to present to our viewers a selection of his impressive opus that earned him a place among the most renowned directors and writers of today.
Solondz has been critically acclaimed for his examination of the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia", a reflection of his own background in New Jersey.
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The second edition of the American Film Festival came to an end. The Wrocław-based event was the only film event in Poland focused on American independent cinema. The audience saw 76 films, including 40 Polish, 6 European and 1 world premiere.
Just like at the first edition of the festival, the awards were given in the American Docs and Spectrum sections after an audience vote. The winners were announced at the closing gala of the festival on the 20th Nov. Out of the 11 US features...
New Directors/New Films, the program of film discoveries co-presented by New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, has been a strong launching pad for debut directors over the past four decades. In its 40 years, the event has introduced such leading international cinema auteurs as Chantal Akerman, Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo Del Toro, Agnieszka Holland, Wong Kar Wai, George Miller and Christopher Nolan, as well as such important American film talen...
While the Polish public certainly is aware of the latest Hollywood films, and with current American television series also freely available here, it is a little surprising that some of the American indie world's most celebrated auteurs are virtually unknown. That is one of the goals of the inaugural American Film Festival, the first film event in Eastern Europe solely devoted to contemporary and classic American cinema. And if the size of the audiences at the screenings is any indica...
It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomfortably intimate HAPPINESS (1998) and the less well receive...
It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomfortably intimate HAPPINESS (1998) and the less well received STORYTELLIN...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomf...
Presenting the best in independent, foreign and local films. Incudes the annual awarding of the Filmmaker on the Edge Award, the 2007 recipient was Todd Solondz. Past recipients include John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, Gus van Sant, Mira Nair Gregg Araki..
VISIONFEST 07: The Other Festival (VF07) wrapped its five-day run last night, at the Tribeca Grand Hotel Screening Room, with its “closing night” Official Selection, pretty in the face, directed by Nate Meyer, and its 2007 Awards Ceremony, which saw the aforementioned film walk off with three major awards: Outstanding Achievement in Acting (female lead) for Meagan Moses; directing (Nate Meyer); and the festival’s top filmmaker recognition, the Domani Vision Award for Emerging Talent, also ...
Christine Vachon can now add “Cinequest Maverick” to honors ranging from the Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Media in 1994, Producer of the Year from the National Board of Review in 2003 and New York MoMA retrospective honoree in 2005. Her films have garnered Independent Spirit Awards and Oscars in numerous categories. Following a rollicking interview with Jens Hussey, Cinequest Director of Public Relations, Vachon accepted the festival’s highest honor, the M...
Friday, March 2---Christine Vachon can now add “Cinequest Maverick” to honors ranging from the Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Media in 1994, Producer of the Year from the National Board of Review in 2003 and New York MoMA retrospective honoree in 2005. Her films have garnered Independent Spirit Awards and Oscars in numerous categories. Following a rollicking interview with Jens Hussey, Cinequest Director of Public Relations,...
Tuesday, January 30----Coming on the heels of the Sundance Film Festival, the film world's annual love fest with American indie cinema, it was perfect timing for the Jacob Burns Film Center to invite veteran indie producer Christine Vachon to give a talk as part of the Center's Women Filmmakers series. Drawing on experiences from her recently published tell-all book on the inner workings of the indie film scene, A KILLER LIFE, the prolific Vachon was in fine form as she was interviewed on stage...
48th Annual San Francisco Film Festival Offers Something for EveryoneJudging from the level of activity it is apparent that the San Francisco Film Festival was celebrating its 48th Anniversary with the array of panels, seminars, films, and parties that were offered this year. The attendance hit record levels coming in at a monstrous 77,000 a 5% increase over last year. In just over two week’s time, thousands of festival attendees packed into theaters that screened 185 films from 48 countries....
The PALINDROMES Interview by Craig ParishSolondzian Cruelty: No Such ThingLike a Palindrome the world turns in on itself, unchanged and unchanging. Director Todd Solondz still lives alone in the same place he did 10 years before WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE stormed Sundance in 1995.“Free will is an illusion but limitations are liberating” - TSBorn in 1959 in Newark, NJ, Solondz studied at NYU Film School and made severalshort films, one of which turned studio heads at 20th Century Fox. The upsi...
The 45th Thessaloniki International Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday 28 November, with its awards ceremony dishing out its main prize of the Golden Alexander to Mohsen Amiryousefi’s Bitter Dream from Iran. The competition is restricted to the first three features of directors, and the festival has shunned the so-called Class A festival status, which imposes restrictions on competitive events to give it more flexibility in its selection, part of a philosophy that makes the event popular with ...
It is hard to believe that the Stockholm International Film Festival, November 18-28, is already at year 15, and to celebrate, the festival will be showing some of the favorite films from past years and former recipients of the "Stockholm Bronze Horse" award. The horse evolved from the handpainted replicas from Dalecarlia in the heart of Sweden, a suitable icon given a somber spin by the festival. Past Bronze Horse winners include Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino (parts of ...
CLOSES THE CURTAINS ON THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FESTIVAL YETTonight The Times bfi 48th London Film Festival closed the curtains on the most successful Festival yet with the international premiere of David O. Russell's existential comedy I ♥ Huckabees. Over the past 16 days and nights film-makers, journalists, industry professionals and the general public have flocked to London to attend Europe's largest and most prestigious public film festival. This year the Festival broke all previous records...
Stockholm International Film Festival will take place between November 18th and November 28th. The Festival celebrates its 15th edition by screening 170 films from more than forty countries. In its 15th season, the Festival retains its focus on young and innovative filmmakers. In the competitive section we will be screening directors’ first, second or third feature films competing for the festivals main prize, the Bronze Horse Award.Oliver Stone is the recipient of this year’s Stockholm Life...
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...
Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake" won the coveted "Leone d’Oro" - Golden Lion - at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, presided over by John Boorman, jury president. The awards were announced at the closing ceremony September 11. Imelda Staunton who plays Vera Drake, a midwife in the 1950's prosecuted for "helping young girls and women in trouble" won the Coppa Volpi, best actress award. There is an irony in the award of the Golden Lion to Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake". Tod Solondz "Palindro...
Other screenings on day 8 and 9 include Horizon selection Izo by Takashi Miike. An assassin for the anti-Shogun Lord Hampeida is crucified in 1865 and comes back to revenge his murder. But what has he learned? The film is an endictment on war and displays a basic hatred of women for giving life. Briefly featuring Beat Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano) as prime minister, the film reminds Venice fest goers of what cinema is about with multilayered tableau, entries to new worlds, imagery that confronts. ...
