|
||
Pro Tools
FILMFESTIVALS | 24/7 world wide coverageWelcome ! Enjoy the best of both worlds: Film & Festival News, exploring the best of the film festivals community. Launched in 1995, relentlessly connecting films to festivals, documenting and promoting festivals worldwide. Working on an upgrade soon. For collaboration, editorial contributions, or publicity, please send us an email here. User login |
Canadian films at the Annual Sonoma International
Eleven Canadian films will be screened at the 15th annual Sonoma International Film Festival, a five-day feast of wine, food and more than 130 independent films from around the world, which runs from April 11 to 15, 2012. Included in the Festival program are two Oscar®-nominated animated shorts, two Québécois films featuring the same leading man, and two powerful documentaries about two very different global catastrophes.
Québécois superstar Patrick Huard is the lead actor in Ken Scott's STARBUCK and Daniel Roby's FUNKYTOWN, both of which will be screened at the Sonoma International Film Festival. Outside of Québec, Huard is best known for his role opposite Colm Feore in Erik Canuel's 2006 bilingual buddy comedy BON COP, BAD COP, which broke box-office records to become the highest-grossing Canadian film of all time.
STARBUCK follows the life of an immature man who discovers he has unwittingly fathered over 500 children after donating sperm to a clinic 20 years earlier. Directed by Montrealer Ken Scott, screenwriter of THE ROCKET (Maurice Richard), STARBUCK has won Audience Awards at both the Vancouver and Calgary International Film Festivals, and writer/director Scott and co-writer Martin Petit won Best Original Screenplay at the 2012 Genie Awards earlier this month.
Depicting the lives of eight people during the disco-era fashion excesses of the '70s, FUNKYTOWN snagged the Genie Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design for renowned Cirque du Soleil costume designer Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt. FUNKYTOWN is director Daniel Roby's follow-up to his first feature, the vampire-themed WHITE SKIN (La peau blanche), which was named Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.
Toronto-based music video director Rob Heydon has adapted one of Irvine Welsh's short stories into the darkly romantic comedy IRVINE WELSH'S ECSTASY. Welsh is the bestselling Scottish author of Trainspotting, which was adapted for the screen by Danny Boyle in 1996. The film stars Vancouver actor Kristin Kreuk, best known for her role in television's Smallville.
Two Canadian documentaries explore very different crises that have recently riveted world attention. Montreal-based Orlando Arriagada's BEYOND THE MIRACLE (Detrás del milagro) is a Canadian/Chilean co-production documenting the harrowing ordeal of 33 Chilean miners who spent 69 days trapped underground in the summer of 2010, while the whole world watched. The film follows four of the miners as they adjust to life in the spotlight following their dramatic rescue.
No less gripping is KIVALINA V. EXXON: The Most Dangerous Litigation in America, which explores an Inuit village's David-and-Goliath battle against the world's biggest polluters - the oil and gas corporations - to resist the devastating impact of global warming on their tiny Alaskan island. Directed by Montrealer Ben Addelman, KIVALINA V. EXXON is produced by Toronto's David Miller, who also produced the short film ISSUES. One of 11 Bravo!FACT-funded short films screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, ISSUES - the story of an angst-ridden professional clown - is co-directed by and features actor Hugh Dillon, star of the hugely popular Canadian television series Flashpoint and Durham County.
Canada's National Film Board (NFB) has long been known for producing internationally recognized animated short films. Two of the three Canadian animated shorts included in the Sonoma International Film Festival's program were nominated for the 2012 Oscar® for Best Animated Short: Patrick Doyon's SUNDAY (Dimanche) and WILD LIFE by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. The third is a Canadian co-production with Luxembourg entitled ROSE & VIOLET by Luc Otter and Claude Grosch.
Also courtesy of the NFB is Vancouver-based Jill Sharpe's BONE WIND FIRE, a visually luxurious 30-minute meditation on three iconic North American female artists: Mexico's Frida Kahlo, America's Georgia O'Keeffe and Canada's Emily Carr. Seven years in the making, BONE WIND FIRE premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in October and won Best Canadian Film at Montreal's International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) just last week.
Haligonian Andrea Dorfman's HOW TO BE ALONE is one of nine shorts which comprise LUNAFEST, a traveling program of short films by, for and about women. Sponsored by the makers of Lunabar, the whole nutrition bar for women, LUNAFEST screens each year to over 20,000 people in 150 cities to raise funds for local non-profits and the Breast Cancer Fund.
Canadian films have historically been very well-received at the Sonoma International Film Festival. Three years ago, three of the nine juried awards were presented to Canadian films, including Benoît Pilon's THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE (Ce qu'il faut pour vivre), which was named 2009 Best World Feature.
Here is the full list of Canadian films screening at the 15th annual Sonoma International Film Festival:
About the Sonoma International Film Festival
A destination film festival located in the heart of wine country, the Sonoma International Film Festival offers eclectic programming screened at eight centrally-located venues, including the 1930s Italian-Renaissance-style Sebastiani Theatre on the historic Sonoma Plaza. Through partnerships with world-class wineries and restaurants, the Festival showcases the best of Sonoma Valley, making for an epicurean experience which few film festivals in the world can rival.
Named one of America's "Top Ten Best Vacation Film Festivals" in Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide, the Sonoma International Film Festival is uniquely positioned to be a lively celebration of film, food and wine. An annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts and independent filmmakers, Sonoma is one of the most scenic and epicurean places to experience the art of film.
Founded in 1997 as the Sonoma Valley Film Festival, SIFF is now a five-day international event that takes pride in showcasing independent films.
SIFF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Festival supports the Sonoma Valley High School Media Arts Program established over a decade ago by the Sonoma Film Society.
Sponsors
The Sonoma International Film Society & Festival rely on the generous support of sponsors and corporate partnerships to help fund the year-round film society, Special thanks to this year's sponsors and partners:
The 15th annual Sonoma International Film Festival will take place from April 11 to 15, 2012. 30.03.2012 | Editor's blog Cat. : actor Amanda Forbis America Andrea Dorfman Author Ben Addelman Benoît Pilon Breast Cancer Fund Buena Vista Winery Calgary California wine Canada Chateau St Chile Chris Gore Cinema of Canada Claude Grösch co-writer Colm Feore Comcast Daniel Roby Daniel Roby Danny Boyle David Miller designer Director Disaster Disaster Don Sebastiani & Sons Durham Emily Carr Enrico Colantoni Entertainment Entertainment Erik Canuel Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn FIFA Film Film at Montreal's International Festival Films Flashpoint food Frida Kahlo General Geography of California Georgia Hugh Dillon Human Interest Human Interest IRVINE WELSH'S ECSTASY Jill Sharpe Ken Scott Kristin Kreuk Luc Otter Luxembourg Major Man Made Disaster Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt Martin Petit Montréal oil and gas Orlando Oscar Patrick Doyon Patrick Huard Person Career PRIMARY WINERY PARTNERS Pure Luxury Wine Tours Rob Heydon San Francisco screenwriter Smallville Sonoma County, California Sonoma International Film Festival Sonoma Plaza Sonoma Valley Sonoma Valley Film Festival Sonoma, California Sotheby's the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival the 2012 Genie Awards the 2012 Oscar the Sonoma International Film Festival The Sonoma International Film Society & Festival the Sonoma Valley Film Festival the Toronto International Film Festival the Vancouver and Calgary International Film Festivals the Vancouver International Film Festival Toronto Vancouver Wendy Tilby Wild Life writer /director
|
LinksThe Bulletin Board > The Bulletin Board Blog Following News Interview with EFM (Berlin) Director
Interview with IFTA Chairman (AFM)
Interview with Cannes Marche du Film Director
Filmfestivals.com dailies live coverage from > Live from India
Useful links for the indies: > Big files transfer
+ SUBSCRIBE to the weekly Newsletter DealsUser imagesAbout Editor
Chatelin Bruno
(Filmfestivals.com) The Editor's blog Be sure to update your festival listing and feed your profile to enjoy the promotion to our network and audience of 350.000. View my profile Send me a message The EditorUser pollsUser contributions |