When the Cannes International Film Festival 2006 opens on 17 May, this will mark a particularly successful year for Europe’s film industry. Seventeen European films, which all received funding under the EU’s MEDIA programme, have made it into the final selection. The future of the MEDIA programme, the development of business models for Film Online services and the competitiveness of European films abroad will be on the agenda when the EU’s Ministers for Culture and Audiovisual meet with C...

For the past three years the Cannes Film Festival has officially included the Short Film Corner, which litterally takes up an entire corner of the rez-de-chaussé of the Marché du Film. This year there are 930 short films representing 73 different countries, ranging in all types of genres including drama, comedy, documentary, animation, family, action/adventure, science-fiction, thriller, musical, romance, erotic, historical...and even more that can't quite be categorized. The films range from...

Yesterday afternoon I was lucky enough to be handed an invitation to the final screening of the documentary, "Punk's Not Dead," directed by Susan Dynner, showing in a small viewing room at the Grey d'Albion Hotel around the corner from the Palais des Festivals. Somewhat reminiscent of vh1's 3Behind the Music" shows, the film was well paced, informative, humurous, and of course had an awesome soundtrack. Starting with the roots of Punk Rock in the late 70's/early 80's, they analyze the history of...

Well, if one needed further proof of how far apart most film critics are from the cinematic tastes of the general public, you need look no further than THE DA VINCI CODE. The film, which famously opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was practically laughed at by assembled critics on the Croisette, who had come to bury the film, not praise it. When the film opened internationally this past weekend, more film critics joined the chorus of nay-sayers, calling the film everything from “borin...

Last night I went to see the Singapore film, "One Last Dance" at the Tous les Cinemas du Monde Theatre. The director Max Makowski came into the small theatre (that almost looks like it is made with tin foil from the outside) and presented the film himself. The film was about the revenge of an assassin, but there was a lot more to it than a series of murders. The movie was full of metaphors and symbolism, along with an artistic and exciting style of cinematography and camera movement, making ...

Throughout the festival people have the opportunity to attend screening of old school, aka "former", Cannes film festival winners while enjoying the beautiful scenery of the plage at night time. Low-sitting beach chairs provide a casual and comfortable viewing experience, but if you need to read the sub-titles, I recommend getting there early in order to get front row seats, otherwise they are hard to see. Fortunately, even people who do not have any film festival badge can still have a...

Sunday night at 12:30am was the premier of the controversial independent film, "Shortbus," directed by John Cameron Mitchell. While many films these days seem to have a lot of sexual content, this one most likely takes the cake. "Shortbus" starts out going back and forth between seeing an animated, almost claymation-like, scenery of New York, zooming in on several different people's appartments, giving the audience a sneak peak into the private lives of very different New Yorkers, each trying t...

During my current experiment of trying to "do" Cannes while not actually being there (in others words, virtually if not physically), it is quite astonishing to me that so little actual coverage is available to the average American consumer. Yes, we did catch a glimpse of Tom Hanks on the red carpet, and read much speculation about the fate of THE DA VINCI CODE, but it seems that anything that is not part of the tyranny of celebrity gossip finds scant space in American newspapers or television s...

This Blu-Ray association presents this new High-Definition platform with impressive specifications. Blu-ray discs hold from 25 to 50GB, video and sound quality is superior, interactivity is on a new level, Internet access will be included in the coming versions of hardware... Remains to be seen at what price the first harware and disks will be priced in Q3 or Q4 of this year and how the digital rights management handles all this... Check also the interview of Blu-ray Disc Association head, ...

With the worldwide simultaneous release today of THE DA VINCI CODE across the globe, a question lingers in the air: Did Cannes kill The Code? Or more specificially, did the buildup and hype surrounding the Cannes opening create such a high expectation that the film will suffer from disappointed critics and viewers? While the mass hysteria over THE DA VINCI CODE has passed into memory in Cannes with all the subtlety of a hangover after too much champagne, the industry waits with bated breath th...

The critics may have not liked "The Da Vinci Code" but surely they have been able to handle complex material before. At least that is what they claim was the problem. After all, Fibonnaci numbers are only used to access a Swiss bank account.Todd McCarthy at Variety wrote a scanty review of little insight. Problem with pic is not the information but the potboiler approach by helmer Ron Howard. Second, there is NO chemistry between Hanks and Tatou. You can feel her warmth but Hanks is somewhere e...

THE BUG, THE MURDER, THE MONSTER & THE SUICIDE BOMBER For Cannes 2006, Directors’ Fortnight has compiled an eclectic mix of 22 films from 19 countries, ranging from Bug, by the 70 year old William Friedkin, who famously directed The French Connection (1971) and Rules of Engagement (2000) to Jindabyne, by Australia’s Ray Lawrence who famously directed Bliss (1985) and Lantana (2001). Andrew L. Urban and Louise Keller report on the selection. From its inception in 1969 by the French Direc...

THE DA VINCI CODE COCKTAIL – FACT, MYTH, FICTION & RELIGION Fuelled by controversy both within its covers and in the courts, The Da Vinci Code arrives on our screens with its intoxicating mix of fact, myth, fiction and religion, crowned by the honour of opening the Cannes film festival. Andrew L. Urban explores the duality behind the phenomenon, and the filmmakers discuss the core elements that drive this religion flavoured adventure thriller. There’s nothing new about Jesus surviving t...

November 24, 2005 GOA, India ~ In an effort to gain additional worldwide recognition as a production base, India will sign a film co-production agreement with the United Kingdom on December 05 and will ink similar agreements with Germany and China in the near future. News of the agreements was revealed today (Thursday 24 November) prior to the inauguration of the 36th annual International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. The agreement with the UK, which runs to 15 pages ...