54th San Francisco International Film Festival Award Winners; ‘Crime After Crime’ wins top documentary award

54th San Francisco International Film Festival Award Winners; ‘Crime After Crime’ wins top documentary award

Yoav Potash’s documentary film, ‘Crime After Crime’, won the top Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival. The documentary film on the legal battle to free Debbie Peagler, a woman imprisoned for over a quarter century due to her connection to the murder of the man who abused her, received a $25,000 cash prize. The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival ran April 21 – May 5, 2011 at […]

REVIEW: Octubre is an enjoyable film, careful and deliberate

REVIEW: Octubre is an enjoyable film, careful and deliberate

Octubre is a lauded new Peruvian film that was recently at New Directors/New Films and has been at multiple other international festivals; it is the first feature of a team of brothers—writers/directors Daniel and Diego Vega Vidal. It’s a film of few words, so to speak, simple, with not too much fuss made. The film begins with Clemente (Bruno Odar), a moneylender who’s trusted and known in Lima as the pawnbroker’s son. He lives alone, […]

Showtime to release MIxed Martial Arts documentary ‘Fightville’

Showtime to release MIxed Martial Arts documentary ‘Fightville’

Showtime Networks Inc. has acquired their latest documentary, FIGHTVILLE, for release in the US. The premium network closed a deal on the film, directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, shortly after its rousing world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX last month. FIGHTVILLE chronicles the story of a minor league Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion run by Gil “The Thrill” Guillory in Lafayette, Louisiana—a place where, for many, fighting […]

Britta Wauer’s In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee, Berlin Film Fest Winner to be released in the US

Britta Wauer’s In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee, Berlin Film Fest Winner to be released in the US

7th Art Releasing will release Britta Wauer’s In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee in the US, reports The Hollwyood Reporter. In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Panorama Audience Award; and is currently at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. North of Berlin’s noisy city centre, tucked away in a residential area and surrounded by a […]

Jack Osbourne does NOT like Variety review of dad’s new film “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne”

Jack Osbourne does NOT like Variety review of dad’s new film “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne”

Jack Osbourne, Ozzy Osbourne’s son, reportedly slammed Variety writer John Anderson over Anderson’s review of the documentary film “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.” Anderson described the film as “…rather affectionate and candid portrait of a singer/TV personality whose continuing respiration is regarded as a marvel of human achievement. Fans will respond enthusiastically; nonfans will grow restless as Osbourne’s late-inning sobriety is dwelt upon at length. Theatrical play seems a long shot, but VOD’s a no-brainer. “ […]

Sony Pictures Classics to Release 2011 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear Winner “Nader and Simin, a Separation” in the US

Sony Pictures Classics to Release 2011 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear Winner “Nader and Simin, a Separation” in the US

Sony Pictures Classics acquired Asghar Farhadi’s NADER AND SIMIN, A SEPARATION for release in the US.  The film won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Farhadi was awarded Best Director for his previous film, ABOUT ELLY at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival. Set in Contemporary Iran, NADER AND SIMIN, A SEPARATION is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage.  Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter […]

RIP: Yvette Vickers; B-Movie Actress and Playboy Playmate

RIP: Yvette Vickers; B-Movie Actress and Playboy Playmate

Yvette Vickers, an actress best known as the femme fatale in two late 1950s cult horror films, “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches,” was found dead Wednesday at her Benedict Canyon home. She was 82. The body’s mummified state suggests that she could have been dead for close to a year, police said. Read more in the LA Times

2011 Los Angeles Film Festival announces the first round of US and international selections

2011 Los Angeles Film Festival announces the first round of US and international selections

You Hurt My Feelings

The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival will screen over 200 feature films, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries.  Returning to downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. LIVE, the Festival will run from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday, June 26.

The festival announced the first round of official US and international selections.

10th Annual Tribeca Film Festival Announces Attendance Numbers

10th Annual Tribeca Film Festival Announces Attendance Numbers

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) numbers are in, and they reveal that more than 430,000 people attended screenings, panels, talks and free community events – including the opening night world premiere of Cameron Crowe’s The Union, the Tribeca Drive-In series, Street Fair and Family Festival, Tribeca/ESPN Sports Day, Tribeca Disruptive Innovation awards, and NYFest – during  the Festival’s 10th edition. Of all the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival Facts, Figures and anecdotes, the most interesting […]

Maryland Film Festival 2011 Feature Local Docs THE LEARNING and CAFETERIA MAN

Maryland Film Festival 2011 Feature Local Docs THE LEARNING and CAFETERIA MAN

Maryland Film Festival 2011 opens tomorrow, and among the many documentaries screening are two honing in on fascinating stories within the Baltimore school system. Imelda director Ramona Diaz’s THE LEARNING documents a year in the lives of four Filipino women recruited to work as teachers in the Baltimore school system; Richard Chisolm’s CAFETERIA MAN follows Tony Geraci as he attempts to revamp Baltimore’s school lunch program with an emphasis on fresh, healthy, local, and even student-grown […]

‘Queen of the Sun’ documentary opens in NY on June 10 and in LA on June 17

‘Queen of the Sun’ documentary opens in NY on June 10 and in LA on June 17

QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us?, the award winning documentary by Taggart Siegel, (director of “The Real Dirt on Farmer John”).  QUEEN OF THE SUN will open at Cinema Village in New York on Friday, June 10, and at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on Friday, June 17.  Many other cities will follow. QUEEN OF THE SUN is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis. Taking us on a journey through the […]

Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal’s new documentary opens to lukewarm Box Office

Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal’s new documentary opens to lukewarm Box Office

Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal’s new documentary Exporting Raymond opened over the weekend and grossed an estimated $36,010 from 13 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other markets for a location average of $2,770 reports THR. Directed by, written by and starring Phil Rosenthal, the synopsis: Phil Rosenthal created one of the most successful sitcoms of all-time, “Everybody Loves Raymond.” He was a bona-fide expert in his craft. And then…. the Russians […]