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 […]
The grand premiere of Les Fros, the second feature by the Mont Laurier-based director Stéphanie Lanthier, kicks off the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) on November 10. Produced by DOC Productions and co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Les Fros takes us inside the world of Abitibi’s brush cutters. Every year, workers from Romania, Mali, Russia and Albania travel north to swell the ranks of local cutters. For long months, they toil in […]
“Bedrooms,” directed by Michael D. Olmos and Youssef Delara, was announced as the winner of Best Feature film award at the Naples International Film Festival’s closing ceremonies Sunday evening at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts. Bedrooms is an evocative drama about the walls that separate people, the heartbreak and infidelity that are often the result and the redemption that is possible when we choose to speak the truth and tear those walls down. […]
The Kerry Film Festival, in Kerry, Ireland, which is celebrating eleven years of bringing film to Kerry, announced the winning short films from the 2010 edition of the festival. The 2010 Kerry Film Festival Award Winners are:Children’s Audience Award, THE END IS NIGHT, James Cotter When a farmer discovers an ancient amulet with the power to destroy the world, he does what any of us would do… Audience Award, CHRISTMAS SWIM, Keith Mannix While for […]
Sheffield Doc/Fest, which describes itself as “bringing the international documentary family together to celebrate the art and business of documentary making for five intense days in November” recently wrapped and announced its 2010 winners. “Pink Saris” bested nominees “12th & Delaware,” “The Embrace of The River,” “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “Marwencol,” “Nostalgia for the Light,” “Russian Lessons,’ and “Secrets of The Tribe” to take top prize for The Special Jury Award. Pink Saris: […]
Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” took the lead at the 23rd European Film Awards with seven nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ewan McGregor. Now on DVD in the US, The Ghost Writer is a political thriller starring Ewan McGregor as a ghost-writer who researches and works to complete the biography of former Prime Minister Adam Lang, played by Pierce Brosnan. Eventually the writer, played by McGregor, becomes suspicious that there […]
Actress Jane Russell will be honored with The Lifetime Achievement Award by Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The event is SOLD OUT. She was working as a receptionist at a doctor’s office when discovered by producer and studio mogul Howard Hughes and director Howard Hawks. Hughes signed her to a seven-year contract at his RKO Studios and she was cast as the female lead in “The Outlaw.” Russell followed “The Outlaw” with a number of […]