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The
11th Annual Nortel Networks Palm Springs International Film Festival,
a non-competitive public festival best known for screening a record
number of Foreign Language Academy Award Oscar submissions, begins
January 13 and continues through January 24. This year the festival
will screen over 180 films representing 40 countries, 30 Foreign
Language Oscar entries, 12 world premieres and 45 U.S. premieres.
The festival office anticipates 50,000 ticket sales for the 10
day event.
Executive
Director Craig Prater says "what's different this year is that
we have the biggest collection of films yet, and of the 40 Academy
Award Foreign Language entries we have 32. We are also extremely
pleased to have the largest number of U.S. and world premieres
in the 11 year history of the festival."
The opening night film is Arthur Seidelman's Walking
Across Egypt starring Ellen Burstyn, Mark Hamill and Jonathan
Taylor Thomas in a story about a free-spirited 72 year old woman
who thwarts her family's attempt to make her old. An encounter
with a stray dog leads her to meet a teenaged boy, and together
the woman and the boy discover a second chance at life.
The closing night film is Grey Owl from revered
British director Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) which
stars Pierce Brosnan (Tomorrow Never Dies, Thomas
Crown Affair) in the true adventure story of a 1930's
frontier trapper who adopted the ways of the wild, found love
among the native Indians, and ended up championing the rights
of the land and its people from extinction. The festival will
dedicate special sections for programs of films from Canada, Germany,
Italy and the U.K.
More than 100 filmmakers and major actors are expected
to visit this sunny California desert oasis. Among the renown
filmmakers who will be here with their films are Brazilian-based
Argentinean Hector Babenco with Foolish Heart (Corazon
Iluminado), China's Zhang Yimou with one of his first films
Red Sorghum, and Spain's Pedro Almodovar
with All About My Mother (which won the best director
award at Cannes in 1999).
Among the 30 official Foreign Language Academy Award entries,
sponsored by Variety, which will screen are:
Belgium's
ROSETTA, winner of Cannes '99 Palme d'Or, directed by Luc and
Jean- Pierre Dardenne
Brazil's ORFEU directed by Carlos Diegues
Canada's SET ME FREE directed by Lea Pool
China's LOVER'S GRIEF OVER THE YELLOW RIVER directed by Feng Xiao
Ning
Czech Republic's RETURN OF THE IDIOT directed by Sasa Gedeon
Denmark's MIFUNE directed by Soren Kragh-Jacobsen
Finland's THE TOUGH ONES, directed by Aleksi Makela
Frances's EAST WEST, directed by Regis Warnier
Germany's AMY AND THE JAGUAR
India's EARTH directed by Canada-based Deepa Mehta
Iran's THE COLOR OF PARADISE directed by Majid Majidi
Italy's NOT OF THIS WORLD directed by Giuseppe Piccioni
Nepal's CARAVAN from French filmmaker Eric Valli
Spain's ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER directed by Pedro Almodovar
Sweden's UNDER THE SUN directed by Colin Nutley
Vietnam's THREE SEASONS directed by Tony Bui
The recipient of this year's Charles A. Crain Desert Palm
Award which is bestowed to an actor for high achievement will
be actress Annette Bening, most recently seen in the Sam Hughes
production of American Beauty. Bening will be honored
at a gala on January 15 at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
Other actors who have received this honor are Sophia Loren, Susan
Sarandon, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, and John Travolta.
The festival will also host its second annual Da Vinci
Award for International Excellence in Cinematography at the January
15 award's gala. This is part of the festival's Cinematographer's
Day 2000, a weekend event of provocative discussions exploring
concepts of cinematic language. Among the cinematographers who
will gather as conference faculty are John Bailey, Raoul Coutard,
Owen Roizman and John Seale.
On January 16 at the International Filmmaker's Symposium
and Reception, sponsored by Variety, Milos Forman will receive
the First International Filmmaker's Award.
The festival has a new home this year, the newly completed
Palm Springs Festival of Arts theater complex which houses state
of the art screening facilities. There will also be screenings
at five other venues. Also featured will be cultural events and
industry seminars with panel discussions. During the festival,
offices will be located at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Contributor/festival
specialist
Wendy Carrel
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This
year's Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival is an unparalleled
success in terms of quality of films screened, visits by filmmakers
and celebrities of international renown, attendance by industry
professionals, the public and media, and in revenues from the
Gala dinner and ticket sales.
As a result of the hard work and planning for the year
2000 edition of the Palm Springs fest, the organizers have probably
ensured a place "on the film fest map" for their serious focus
on international films and filmmakers of critical and artistic
merit. Of the record number of films submitted to the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the coveted Best Foreign
Language Film Award for the year 2000, 29 out of the 47 films
were screened in Palm Springs. And almost each of these films
was represented by the director and/or the stars for question
and answer sessions following the screenings. In addition, 85
other foreign language films were screened, not including English
language films from Australia, the U.K. or New Zealand, also with
talent in tow. The industry office counted about 345 filmmaker
and talent guests by the conclusion of the festival, the largest
number in the fest's 11 year history.
The biggest personality draws were the interview with French
actress and French national treasure Catherine Deneuve on stage
at the Palm Springs High School auditorium; directors Pedro Almodovar
(Spain), Hector Babenco (Brazil) and Milos Forman (U.S./Czechoslovakia)
on the international filmmakers panel; and Chinese director Zhang
Yimou , who was also interviewed on stage at the Palm Springs
High School auditorium. Deneuve was here with three films, East
West, which is the French submission for the Best Foreign
Language Oscar as well as a Golden Globe contender, Place
Vendome and Time Regained. Almodovar was
in the desert to screen All About My Mother, also
a Best Foreign Language contender and Golden Globe winner. Babenco
was present to screen his Foolish Hearts. Although
Zhang Yimou's latest film, Not One Less is not part
of the Best Foreign Language Oscar race this year, the film screened
twice for the festival audiences. Deneuve, Forman and Zhang Yimou
all received the festival's first International Awards in honor
of their work. They were each presented with individually designed,
personalized crystal statuaries from glass master Dale Chihuly.
Another event which drew a large crowd was the annual Awards
Gala at the Palm Springs Convention Center which packed over 1,000
celebrities, foreign diplomats, festival executives, festival
Board Members, filmmakers and Coachella Valley residents into
its huge hall. The evening honored actress Annette Benning (American
Beauty), escorted by her husband actor Warren Beatty,
with the Charles A. Crain Career Achievement Award. The Sonny
Bono Visionary Award (in honor of the festival founder) went to
director-writer M. Night Shyamalan for his film The Sixth
Sense. Songwriters Alan and Marilyn Berman received the
Frederick Loewe Award. Among other guests in attendance were Pedro
Almodovar, CNN's Christine Amanpour with husband Jamie Rubin,
Jacqueline Bissett, U.S. Representative Mary Bono (widow of Sonny
Bono), Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, American producer Roger
Corman, Tyne Daly, Richard Dreyfuss, Elliott Gould, Merv Griffin,
Lorenzo Lamas, Lynn Redgrave, French actress Line Renaud, TV host
Garry Shandling, desert resident Suzanne Summers with her husband
Alan Hamel and almost 20 members of the foreign consular corps.
The Gala was sold out over a week ahead of time, a first for the
festival, at $300 per ticket.
Although this is a non-competitive festival, there is voting
for the audience favorites resulting from polls following each
screening. The favorites were Not One Less, The
Annihilation of Fish, Caravan, Solomon
and Gaenor, Annaluise & Anton, Looking
For An Echo, After The Truth and The
Divine Ryans. The last day was devoted to screenings of
the festival favorites, providing that the prints are still available.
The top five, in order of selection were: East West
from France's Regis Warnier; All My Loved Ones from
filmmaker Matej Minac from the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic,
Poland and Germany; The Color Of Paradise, Majid
Majidi's film from Iran; Charles Burnett's The Annihilation
Of Fish from the U.S.; and Eric Valli's Caravan,
from Nepal.
Although the audience is comprised primarily of local residents,
mostly retirees, there are film buffs from Arizona, New York and
northern and southern California who can be seen in the seats
every year. The Cinema Society of San Diego brings in about 220
of its 800 members every year, and the Elderhostel has its contingent.
And there are the locals who devote their entire vacation from
work to attend the festival. Andy Friedenberg, founder and director
of the Cinema Society of San Diego, says, "This is our number
one cinema-travel destination of the season, it's a festival that's
people friendly, with state-of-the-art theaters, ideal weather,
wonderful restaurants and shops, and of course, a stellar collection
of films from around the world."
The 12 day run, which screened 184 feature films and documentaries
from 40 countries offered a substantial alternative to the Sundance
Film Festival, which runs simultaneously. And the advantages are
not just that Palm Springs is a sun resort and lucked out with
perfectly balmy 70ish weather everyday and that Sundance is in
the snow.
One of the reasons for the success of this year's festival
in general, is that the festival hired eight programmers who specialized
in countries, regions or special interest groups and these programmers
personally introduced the films and the filmmakers to the audiences.
Associate director Jennifer Stark focused on Australia, Canada,
the UK and U.S. motion picture studios. Jeannette Paulson Hereniko,
who was the first director of the Palm Springs Film Festival,
emphasized her forte, Asian films. Dr. David Kaminsky produced
the Italian program and the Cinematographer's Day, Fred Linch
paid attention to Eastern Europe and Edgy/Unseen Masters from
around the world, Pat Oygar and two colleagues worked on the 28
French films (including co-productions with France), Fatia Bustamante
Celes selected the Latin American films, and Charlotte Del Rose
selected the American independents.Danny Acosta selected the Gay
and Lesbian films.
The foreign language films were also supported in large
part by the Consul Generals in Los Angeles of the countries represented
in the festival. Many dignitaries turned out not only for the
opening night Gala but to honor the filmmakers of their countries
with a private dinner, or a reception, most notably the British,
the Canadians, and the Italians, who have a strong presence every
year.
Attendance by industry professionals, the public and the
media were up 20% this year from last year. And in terms of box
office receipts, 48,000 tickets were sold in 1998; 51,000 in 1999;
and it is expected that the 1999 number has already been exceeded
for 2000. Craig Prater, Executive Director of the festival expects
box office receipts to increase 10-20% from last year's total
of $250,000. Prater noted that despite the enormous financial
infusion from major sponsor Nortel Networks, a Canadian telecommunications
company, and $150,000 from the City of Palm Springs' annual budget
of $1.2 million, the festival will probably still finish with
a debt.
The Cinematographer's 2000 three-day symposium was comprised
of a series of screenings and panel discussions which explored
the use of visual metaphors, the role of the cinematographer as
principal collaborator of the film, and the importance of the
cinematographer's relationship with the director both in traditional
and Danish "Dogme" approaches. Among the well-regarded cinematography
talent who participated on the faculty or jury were John Bailey
(For The Love Of The Game, As Good As It Gets),
Lauro Escorel (Foolish Heart, Ironweed),
Changwei Gu (Ju Dou, Farewell My Concubine),
Anthony Dodd Mantle (Celebration, Mifune),
Owen Roizman (Tootsie, Roizman received this year's
Lifetime Achievement Award in Cinematography at a private reception
in his honor), John Seale and host and co-chairman Luciano Tovoli.
Special mention should be made of Martin Luther King Day
(Monday, January 17) and the program held at the Palm Springs
High School auditorium honoring films from around the world related
to civil rights/human rights issues. There were films from Canada,
New Zealand, Venezuela and the U.S., among others.
Closing statistics….. there were about 30 parties, and,
about 30% of the films screened were directed by women.
Upcoming festival dates to note:
Palm Springs International Short Film and Video Festival, August
1-7, 2000.
Nortel Networks Palm Springs International Festival, January 11-22,
2001.
Contributor/festival
specialist
Wendy Carrel
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