by Tom Llewellin A woman who has just murdered her husband walks into a parking garage, where she gives a strange man a couple of cigarettes. Now she’s on the ferry to a secluded Southeast Asian island, bundles of cash strapped to her body. The man straps the bills off, and they cast uneasy glances at each other. They sit on a white beach as waves lap the secluded shoreline, trying to to negotiate and renegotiate some level of intimacy. But it’s plain to see they are shaken by ...

  EUROPEAN FILM MARKET OPENS WITH HIGH HOPES The European Film Market, the professional parallel event to the Berlin Film Festival, opened yesterday with anticipation of a busy buying session that signal the reemergence of the market after three disasterous years of economic recession. Market registration has increased by 15% from last year and offices are filled to capacity at the Martin Gropius Bau, the Market’s main venue, and the Marriot Hotel. Unofficial offices have also been s...

  The Moet British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) have announced two of its honorees for its glamorous awards gala next month. Actress Helena Bonham Carter will receive the coveted Richard Harris Award and the Variety Award will be bestowed on actor Liam Neeson. The awards gala takes place at Old Billingsgate on Sunday, 5 December. The Richard Harris Award was introduced in 2003 in honor of veteran actor Richard Harris and recognises outstanding contribution to British film by an act...

London Screenwriters Festival is a festival that runs from the 29th - 31st October it is only about screen writing and its for screen writes. I'm not really a screen writer but the line up of events looked kinder cool. Also as most film makers know some times its just easier to write your own work then it is to wait for some one else to write it.The event i enjoyed from the first day was Kate Lays "Your Script, From Good to Great" this event was all about getting you script up to the b...

 YELLOW KID tells the story of Tamura, a young man who inspired by the "Yellow Kid" comic character decides to become a boxer. We are then introduced to Hattori, a mangaka who is looking to make a sequel to the original "Yellow Kid" and insinuates his way into a boxing gym to find his inspiration. Add to this a violent young thug, Enomoto, the middleweight boxing champion, Mikuni, who is engaged to Hattori's ex-girlfriend and just a few comic book sequences, that's Yellow Ki...

"Autumn Adagio" is Tsuki Inoue's first feature, made with the money she won for the Grand Prize in Yubari the previous with "The Woman Who is Beating the Earth" (more on this film later).      It tells the story of a repressed 40-year old nun, who through three encounters with different men, reflects on her femininity and her life. She meets a tedious middle aged man who cannot stop bothering her, a ballet dancer who advises her to play...

 Hi! Otsuka Drugstore’s beginning is misleading; it doesn’t hint at the emotional heart that underpins the film.The story revolves around the unlikely friendship between Otsuka, middle-aged woman owner of Otsuka drugstore (seen above) and a high school girl, Nakasaku Emi (also seen above). Otsuka tries to advise the girl with her crazy approach that actually hides some good advice and her similar experience in the past – of which we are informed throughout the film through flashback.I...

Miyake's film is exactly what it says on the tagline - "Something that is once lost but is found again."The characters in this film bump into each other by losing and finding things around a nameless train station. It is film dependent on causality and it is a rather affecting film. You begin to reflect on what you lost and what you have found. Ultimately, it is all about life. Life is all about losing and finding, being at a place and time, somewhere. And those are the best films - th...

  "Boys on the Run" (ボーイズ・オン・ザ・ラン) is most definitely a strange beast. The debut feature of successful theatre director, Daisuke Miura and starring Kazunobu Mineta (The Shonen Merickensack, Oh My Buddha) in the main role. Based on a manga of the same name, as many Japanese films are.  The description attached to it does not even come near to describing what this film really is - "A dementedly hilarious sex-comedy about a 29-year-old virgin obsessed...

  Ben Miller's first delivery as a film director is just as amateur as it sounds. Miller, of British comedy duo Armstrong & Miller, should be able to tackle the subject of his first film better than anyone else: the nature of a comedy duo. However, the story of the film feels old, too predictable and doesn't add anything new to the "comedian film". The story basically tells the story of Warren and Clark, a would-be comedy duo who have more in common with an old couple tha...

 The 18th Edition of the Raindance Film Festival has officially been announced. The festival's opening film will be "JACKBOOTS IN WHITEHALL" dir. Edward & Rory McHenry and starring Ewan McGregor, Rosamunde Pike, Richard E. Grant, Timothy Spall, Tom Wilkinson, Alan Cumming, Richard Griffiths, Stephen Merchant and Richard O'Brien - a satirical animation presenting the possibility, back in WWII, what would have happened had the Nazis invaded England. The closing film will be &...

With a lot of Europe preparing itself for a nice long summer break we seem to have stepped up a gear and had an incredibly busy month here at ÉCU this month – and the cool thing is that there appears to be no end in sight as we head down various roads and avenues at warp speed! Last week I was joined at the London Film Academy by Lousia Mayman (director of ÉCU 2010’s Best Student Film) for an ÉCU 2011 presentation and the screening of Lousisa’s film, The Highest Low. I...

The 18th Raindance Film Festival September 29 - October 10, 2010 Call for Entries - Click here Regular Deadline: 7 May 2010 Late Deadline: 4 June 2010 Final Deadline, Withoutabox Submissions Only: 18 June 2010 Contact Information: Raindance Film Festival 81 Berwick Street London W1F 8TW United Kingdom Telephone: 020 7287 3833 (UK country code is 44, and drop the first zero) Fax: 0207 439 2243 WEBSITE http://www.raindance.co.uk Email Contact Raindance ...

Film festivals are divided into categories based on the number of acquisition executives that attend. Majors The major film festivals, in rank, are: Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, Berlin, Rotterdam and Venice. Cannes is undoubtedly the premiere event. Toronto and Sundance vie for the number two spot, but since Sundance has become a launching pad for Hollywood films, I personally give the number two spot to Toronto - if for no other reason than the important slots it gives to foreign languag...

RAINDANCE 2007: The Killing of John Lennon (2006)In competition for the title of Best British UK Feauture, The Killing of John Lennon (2006) follows the life of killer, Mark Chapman from Hawaii to New York in the lead up to the killing of iconic Beatles legend, John Lennon. British Director, Andrew Piddington was first taken by Chapman when he heard of conspiracy theories relating the death of Lennon. Piddington explains the film took four years to make, and used location shooting throughout t...

15th Raindance Film Festival  will run September 25 - October 7thFeature Films and Feature Documentaries Screening  THE AMAZING LIVES OF THE FAST FOOD GRIFTERS [TACHIGUISHI RESTUDEN] Japan 104'Director: Mamoru OsuiiPrincipal Cast: Kaito Kissuoji, Mako Hyodo, Tosuio Suzuki, Shinji HiguchiShort Synopsis: Hit Japanese blockbuster from the director of Ghost in the Shell.THE AMAZING GRACE Nigeria 83'Director: Jeta AmataDirector of Photography: Joseph TaylorPrincipal Cast: Nick Moran, Scott...