The Indian medical community is upset with producers of the Bollywood film Guzaarish after posters were released showing the lead actress holding a cigarette. Doctors think it is sending a wrong message to the youth on smoking. The medics are also reportedly upset with BEST, which is a government entity, for allowing such posters to be displayed on their vehicles. “We are going to write a letter to BEST and request the filmmakers to remove […]
The Algerian film “The Outlaws” by director Rachid Bouchareb won the Gold Award and the Best Arab Film Award at the 18th edition of Damascus International Film Festival. The Silver Award went to the Iranian film “Please Do Not Disturb”, directed by Mohsen Abdolvahab and the Bronze to the Syrian film “September Rain”, by director Abdellatif Abdelhamid. Turkish director Reha Irdem received the Mustafa al-Akkad Award for Direction for his film Cosmos. The Jury Award […]
In a Samson and Goliath tale, the gritty crime drama Animal Kingdom shares the lead in nominations with box-office hit Mao’s Last Dancer despite the latter pulling in almost three times the box office numbers making over $15 million locally. Both films are up for seven awards at the Australian Inside Film IF Awards ceremony in November. Animal Kingdom, which has received international critical acclaim and received the prestigious World Cinema Jury Prize at the […]
Director, Luis Garcia Berlanga of Spain, passed away on Saturday at his home in Madrid, Spain’s film academy announced via the BBC. He was 89 years. Berlanga was best known for the 1952 satirical comedy Bienvenido, Mr Marshall! (Welcome, Mr Marshall!). He was nominated three times for the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or award; and his film, Placido, was nominated in 1961 for the Academy Award for best foreign language film.
Ethiopia has its first contender for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with (Ateltu) “The Athlete’. Co-directed by Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew, the low budget independent film is about Ethiopian barefoot marathon runner, Abeba Bikila who became the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal. Rasselas Lakew, who also wrote the screenplay, plays Abeba Bikila. Running the streets of Rome in 1960, an unknown, barefoot Ethiopian man stunned the world by […]
The San Francisco Film Society announced today the finalists and honorable mention for the second SFFS/Hearst Screenwriting Grant. The grant of $15,000 will be awarded to a mid-career screenwriter who has been a practicing writer for at least five years and who has previously written a minimum of one feature screenplay. The grant is open to writers residing in the United States whose project expresses both a unique personal perspective and an artistic approach to […]
JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, a documentary on the life and career of Joan Rivers, made as the comedienne turns 75 years old, is one of the films screening this weekend as part of the West Virginia International film festival. The festival kicks off Thursday night at the West Virginia State University Capitol Center Theater on Summers Street with a screening of the documentary Papers, the story of undocumented youth and the challenges they […]
Mexican film, “On Childhood”, from director Carlos Carerra bested “Uninhabited” and “Monsters” to take home the Audience Award for Best International Feature Film at the 2010 Canberra International Film Festival in Canberra, Australia. The festival described the film as “A visual masterpiece set in the slums of Mexico, this crime thriller sees a ghost help a young boy deal with the violent father he worships and fears.” Ten-year-old Francisco is no innocent boy, growing up […]
Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis died on Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 91. Mr. De Laurentiis produced more than 500 films over six decades covering a wide range of styles and genres. His long filmography includes several major titles of the early Italian New Wave, including the “Bitter Rice” (1949); two important films by Fellini (“La Strada,” 1954, and “Nights of Cabiria,” 1957); and David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” (1986). The […]
Of the hundreds of film festivals held each year in the U.S., Cinema Arts Festival Houston, held November 10-14, 2010, is the only festival specifically programmed to celebrate films by and about visual, performing, and literary artists. With support from city leaders, enthusiastic patrons and a highly developed network of arts organizations, the festival is a truly civic project, conceived to highlight one the most vibrant and diverse arts communities on earth. Joining for the […]
The seventh annual Wavescape Surf Film Festival kickstarts the 2010 summer season in Cape Town with a bumper crop of adrenaline-charged surf movies. Presented by the Save Our Seas Foundation, the festival (from December 1 to 19) focuses on the critical plight of the world’s oceans, and surfing development in South Africa. The festival begins with the Wavescape Surfboard Art Exhibition from December 1 to 7 at the trendy Cape Town restaurant Depasco Cafe. Twelve […]
Festival Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool today announced the final program details for the 7th edition of the Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), which takes place December 1-5, 2010 in Nassau. The Weinstein Company’s highly acclaimed period drama “The King’s Speech” has been selected as this year’s closing night film. Based on the true story of the Queen of England’s father and his remarkable friendship with maverick Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue “The King’s […]
The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), announced that Sony Pictures Classics’ acclaimed comedy “Tamara Drewe” will be the opening film at this year’s festival, which takes place December 1-5 in Nassau. The special event screening will take place on Wednesday, December 1s at the Atlantis Theatre on Paradise Island. The announcement was made by BIFF Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool. Directed by two time Academy Award® nominee Stephen Frears (“High Fidelity,” “The Queen,” “Dangerous […]
The 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards will give a new award called the First Ever Festival Genius Audience Award at this year’s award ceremony on November 29th. This new award celebrates audience award winners from across the Top 50 US and Canadian film festivals. Over 12,000 votes came in to narrow the list of 26 audience award winning films down to the 5 nominees. The nominated films are: Winter’s Bone Waiting for Superman White […]
White Irish Drinkers, now has a US Spring 2011 theatrical release date, after Screen Media Films acquired North American rights. The film which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival, was written and directed by John Gray,and stars Nick Thurston, Geoff Wigdor and Leslie Murphy. White Irish Drinkers is set in 1975 in the Bay Ridge area in Brooklyn, an enclave of working-class, hardscrabble […]
W Magazine announced today the launch of its inaugural online film festival: Fashion on Film, the definitive online destination for fashionable films, artful videos and designer shorts, featuring the premiere of a short documentary, The Remaking of W. “W is known for its images and now we will be known for images in motion,” says Editor-in-Chief Stefano Tonchi. “Fashion on Film will showcase the stories of people with style, featuring a talented, eclectic roster of […]
Robert De Niro will be honored at next January’s Golden Globe® Awards telecast with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his outstanding contribution to the entertainment field. Philip Berk, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), was joined by Golden Globe Award-nominated actor Kevin Spacey in making the announcement this morning. The Cecil B. DeMille Award will be presented to De Niro at The 68th Annual Golden Globe® Awards on Sunday, January 16, 2011, […]
Film Movement is bringing Eran Riklis’s “The Human Resources Manager,” to the US with plans for a theatrical release in March of 2011. The film, “Human Resources Manager” was the winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival and is Israel’s foreign film submission for the Academy Award. The Human Resources Manager of Jerusalem’s largest bakery is in trouble. He’s separated from his wife, distanced from his daughter and stuck in […]
Soenke Wortmann’s “Pope Joan” was awarded Best Narrative Feature, and Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath’s “Enemies of the People” was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the 2010 Ojai Film Festival. Nominated for three German Film Awards including Best Costumes, Production Design and Supporting Actress, Pope Joan (in German with English subtitles) is described as “She is the legend that will not die – Pope Joan, the 9th century woman who disguised herself as a man […]
The first ever Salty Horror International Film Festival, Utah’s first ever film festival for horror and sci-fi/horror, wrapped on Sunday November 7, 2010. Deadderrickreviews did a great review of the festival but here are the top winners. The Demon Chaser challenge (created by Brian Higgins) was a challenge to create a short horror film with four rules: 1. It had to contain salt in it! 2. It had to be completed within 36 hours of […]
Audience members participating in a panel discussion about Shlomi Eldar’s documentary “Precious Life,” the closing night film of the 25th Annual Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles, received a surprise when the subjects of the film video-conferenced in from Gaza to participate in the talk. Palestinian mother Ra’ida Abu Mustaffa, her husband Faozi and son Muhammad, who is now three, participated in a discussion with Israeli television correspondent Shlomi Eldar, film producer Ehud Bleiberg and […]
To Be Heard by directors Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer and Amy Sultan won both the Viewfinders Grand Jury Prize and Metropolis Grand Jury Prize at the DOC NYC Film Festival. Karina, Pearl and Anthony are three New York teenagers in a radical poetry workshop called Power Writing that has a profound affect on their lives. Putting pen to paper they’re able to imagine a future where fathers aren’t in jail, mothers aren’t […]
The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) will welcome musician turned filmmaker Lou Reed to its 13th edition. Mr. Reed will present his first film, Red Shirley, on Monday, November 15 at 9 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise. Red Shirley, a 99-year-old formally known as Shulamit Rabinowitz, is the star of this film co-directed by her cousin, none other than former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed. Rabinowitz lived through the devastation of the First World War; and fled Poland for […]
The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) announced the closing film for its 13th edition. Directed by Lucy Walker, Waste Land has won the Audience Award in Sundance and the Amnesty International and Panoramic Audience Award at the Berlinale. In exile in the United States following a gunshot wound to his leg, Brazilian-born artist Vik Muniz enjoys the enviable international notoriety that has come from his work: an intermingling of photography and domestic, industrial matter. With […]