Director and producer Steven Spielberg will head up the jury of the 66th Cannes Film Festival taking place May 15-26, 2013. “The memory of my first Cannes Film Festival, nearly 31 years ago with the debut of E.T., is still one of the most vibrant memories of my career, Spielberg goes on. For over six decades, Cannes has served as a platform for extraordinary films to be discovered and introduced to the world for the first […]
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will honor who the festival describe as “three remarkable Americans who have impacted the art, issues and business of documentary filmmaking” at its 16th annual festival April 4-7, 2013.
Full Frame will pay tribute to Jessica Yu’s visionary film work, has selected Amir Bar-Lev to curate the Thematic Program and will honor A&E IndieFilm’s Vice President Molly Thompson with the Advocate Award.
The world premiere of Mistaken for Strangers will open the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Director Tom Berninger chronicles his experience on tour with his brother, The National’s frontman Matt Berninger, in what the festival describes as a “funny and affecting film.” which will also play during the Festival’s 12th edition. The premiere, taking place on Wednesday, April 17, will be followed by a special performance by The National. The Festival will run through April 28.
Mistaken for Strangers follows The National on its biggest tour to date. Newbie roadie Tom (lead singer Matt Berninger’s younger brother) is a heavy metal and horror movie enthusiast, and can’t help but put his own spin on the experience. Inevitably, Tom’s moonlighting as an irreverent documentarian creates some drama for the band on the road. The film is a hilarious and touching look at two very different brothers and an entertaining story of artistic aspiration.
First Time Fest (FTF) – a celebration of first time filmmakers – is a new and unique film festival taking place in New York City from March 1 through 4, 2013. FTF is set to discover and present the next generation of great cinema artists.
Martin Scorsese will add his illustrious presence and belief in that art of cinema at The Players to present the first John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema. The inaugural Award will be bestowed on an individual who has made a significant contribution to the art of cinema: Darren Aronofsky. First Time Fest is dedicated to discovering talented new filmmakers who will go on to fulfill the promise of their extraordinary debut films. John Huston was one of the most prolific and versatile directors in the history of cinema. And with his mesmerizing debut film, Pi – made independently on black-and-white 16mm film – Darren Aronofsky was instantly recognized as a uniquely gifted new talent. His subsequent films: Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler and Black Swan, have more than fulfilled that promise.
Award-winning director Adam Strange was attacked and killed yesterday by what is believed to be a great white shark while swimming at popular Muriwai Beach north of Auckland, New Zealand. Strange was 46 years old.
“All of a sudden, we saw the shark fin and next minute, boom, attack him and then blood every where on the water,” said witness Pio Mose. “He was still alive, he put his head up, we called him to swim over [to] the rock to where we were. He raised his hand up, and then while he was rising his hand up we saw another attack pull him in the water.”
Argo and Life of Pi were the big winners last night at the 85th Academy Awards. Argo took the biggest prize, Best Picture, in addition to Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay; and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi grabbed four wins including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Score.
Searching for Sugar Man won the award for Best Documentary and as expected Amour won the award for Foreign Language Film.
The full list of winners of 85th Academy Awards:
Toy’s House, which filmed in Northeast Ohio, will get the honorary hometown treatment to open the 37th Cleveland International Film Festival on Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the film stars Nick Robinson, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie and Mary Lynn Rajskub. The film which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, is described as “a unique coming-of-age story about three teenagers who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a […]
Silver Linings Playbook, The Sessions and The Perks of Being A Wallflower were among the winners at the 28th Film Independent Spirit Awards held on Saturday night. Beasts of the Southern Wild, Magic Mike, Amour and The Invisible War also received awards at the ceremony, which is held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
This year’s major category winners were Silver Linings Playbook, which won Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Female Lead and The Sessions, which won Best Supporting Female and Best Male Lead; The Perks of Being A Wallflower, which won Best First Feature and Safety Not Guaranteed, which won Best First Screenplay; Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won Best Cinematography, Magic Mike, which won Best Supporting Male and Middle of Nowhere which won the John Cassavetes Award; Sony Pictures Classics’ Amour, which won Best International Film and The Invisible War, which won Best Documentary. A Special Distinction Award was given posthumously to Cinematographer Harris Savides.
The 6th annual Robert Altman Award was given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast. Sean Baker’s Starlet received this award, along with casting directors Julia Kim and ensemble cast members Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Karren Karagulian, Stella Maeve, James Ransone.
The 2013 Chaz and Roger Ebert Fellowship, which is awarded to a filmmaker in Project Involve, Film Independent’s diversity mentorship program and includes a cash grant of $10,000, was given to Melissa Haizlip, director of the documentary Mr. SOUL!.
The following is a complete list of the winners:
A film about a young man who set aside his comfortable life to help children at an AIDS orphanage in India won the top prize at the 2013 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The film, “Blood Brother,” a 93-minute film directed by Steve Hoover, was named Best Feature Documentary.
“Not Yet Begun to Fight,” by Sabrina Lee and Shasta Grenier, won the 2013 Big Sky Award, given each year to the best documentary film about the American West. The 60-minute film tells the story of a retired Marine colonel who brings five traumatically wounded military veterans to Montana to learn to fly fish. Notably, that film’s director of photography, Justin Lubke, himself won the Big Sky Award in 2008 for his film, “Class C.”
The American Documentary Film Festival and Film Fund (AmDocs) returns for it’s second year with over one hundred documentary films from all over the world. The festival opens on Thursday, April 4th and runs through Sunday, April 8th, 2013.
“We’ve expanded our program quite a bit this year,” said Festival Director Ted Grouya. “We’ll be utilizing all three of the screens at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, as well as one screen at the Cinemark Century Theatres at The River in Rancho Mirage. The fact that we’ve been able to expand so quickly is a testament to the success we had with last year’s festival. People love documentaries!”
Opening Night for The American Documentary Film Festival and Film Fund, AmDocs will screen documentary filmmaker and producer Gary Keys’ new documentary, VOICES OF LOVE: WHITNEY HOUSTON AND HER FAMILY.
Congratulations are in order for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences notified the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival last week that it has been chosen as an Academy Award® qualifying festival in the Documentary Short Subject category.
Reeling from a weekend tryst gone awry, wanting more from his co-worker, Boston research scientist Paul (Alex Karpovsky) fantasizes daily about what could be, he uses their ocassional greetings and pleasantries at work as a means to hope that their by-chance encounter will turn into a relationship. However, on the mind of Danielle (Jaime Ray Newman) is the opposite. With a new day comes a new interest, in the form of a new hire. Much to the ire of Paul, Danielle’s interaction with the newbe leaves Paul green with envy. As Paul becomes more obsessive by the day, the elephant in the room (Danielle’s lust, his anguish, their weekend turned nothing) wiill ultimately be addressed.