Cairo International Film Festival president, Dr Ezzat-Abou-Ouf, talks to Jeremy Colson about this year's festival and his hopes for the future.  CAIRO ~ 20 November 2009 Could you tell us a bit about yourself, your background? I graduated from medical school but still being young I wanted to practice something more creative than medicine so I enrolled at the conservatoire and learned more about music. After that I played western and jazz music. It was a family affair, me a...

Director of the Perspektive Deutsches Kinosection Alfred Holighaus will be taking on new tasks this coming year: inJanuary he will join the management of the Deutsche Filmakademie e.V., though he will still carry out his curatorial duties at the Berlinale 2010.   In summer2001, Holighaus was appointed the Berlin International Film Festival'scommissioner for German film by Festival Director Dieter Kosslick. In autumn of the same year, he became the curator ofPerspektive Deutsches...

Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced today that esteemed Newsweek film critic David Ansen is joining the organization as Artistic Director of the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.   Senior Programmer Doug Jones has been promoted to Associate Director of Programming for the Los Angeles Film Festival. "As a consummate movie lover, David is one of the finest critics thinking, watching, and writin...

A scarcity of Mexican production and the absence of exhibition platforms prompted Sarah Hoch to establish  the festival Expresion en Corto twelve years ago which she has helmed ever since. As a publicly funded film festival, Expresion en Corto had a primary focus on short films. By 2009 it has morphed into one of the most important Latin American fests offering a comprehensive program with productions drawn from many countries, a program which stands comparison to much bigger major impo...

by Marla LewinI spent almost an hour with Robert Koehler who has gone from a top movie critic for Variety, to Artistic Director, Programmer of the AFI Film Festival and he gave me a look inside how he approached putting together this years festival and where it is going.Marla: Congratulations,  Robert, this is your second year programming the festival, How different is it from being a critic? How is it going? Robert: I was at the Los Angeles Times, and started in 94 writing for Variety, w...

Do you want to have your film screened at one of Australia's most prestigious short film festival? Do you want to win cash for your film? Or how about some of the funkiest trophies you will ever see? Do you want your film to screen at some of Australia's most unique communities and venues? How about getting paid for your film to tour with In The Bin? Just download an entry form, send your film on DVD with 2 pictures and we'll do the rest. In The Bin is looking for films for its three fes...

Find out more about film festival submissions at:  costaricafilmfest.com  Enter your film and join us in paradise November 11- 20, 2011! ...

By Maria Esteves - October 26, 2009Dedicated to the loving memory of Florence Perlow Shientag (September 9, 1908 - October 7, 2009)As Lincoln Center celebrates it's 50th Anniversary (October 15, 2009 - January 16, 2010), Richard Pena (RP) program director and chairman of the selection committee at The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents Italian Neorealism and the Birth of Modern Cinema at the Walter Reade Theater, October 30 - November 24, 2009. Pena discovered his love of film early in l...

NEW Sophia was just cast as a "Godess' in the new feature film 'Falcyyr' of Unicovia Pictures Sophia started out in dance, community theatre and playing piano since she was five years old. Sophie's first introduction to film was in ”Santa Claus in Baghdad” RA Visions Productions" as an extra and was hooked. She then participated as an extra in ”Soul Sister”OracleVoice Films" . She started taking acting classes and loved it with a passion that would contin...

I got to sit down with Zoe Elton, Director of Programming at The Mill Valley Film Festival 3 days before the close of this year's fest.  She's been with the Festival since it's inception 32 years ago, when she sort of fell into the position at random.  Previously she worked in England as a theatre director and writer.  Check out our conversation below to see what she has to say about the video art community in the 80s, how documentary has changed, it feeling like a "vintage year" fo...

I had the opportunity to interview Karl Spoerri Artistic Director of Zurich Film Festival a few days before the festival was over. Polanski's arrest  suddenly put the festival in the spotlight. It clearly was wrong unwanted publicity...but still publicity. This being said, my first question to Karl BC: What are you most proud of in the 2009 edition of Zurich festival? RS: A brilliant competition (30 films in 3 competitions) so beautiful, and the reaction in the audience wonde...

'What is the cinema, if not dreams?' I heard these words, spoken by a character in The Organization of Dreams, during the last days of selecting our programme, and they couldn't have come at a better time. Head down, mired in the discussion and the decision-making process about which films would make the final cut, they were a timely reminder that the pleasures and pull of cinema can't always be defined in conscious terms. We need films that appeal to our hearts as well as our heads. In...