Karlovy Vary 2004 – The atmosphere this year around the Hotel Thermal was electric, something like Time Square on a busy evening, (and the comparison is not that excessive!) especially outside the main entrance to the Velky Sal. Live music was continuously played on stage where crowds of youngsters gathered to drink, cheer, and indulge in what is surely one of the highlights of the Czech social calendar attended by international showbiz figures such as Elijah Wood, Harvey Keitel, John Cleese o...
The 39th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 2 -10), a non-specialized festival with a competition of full-length feature films and a competition of documentary films came to a conclusion July 10 and awarded its prizes:The Grand Jury includedAl Ruban – President of the Jury, USAFlorinda Bolkan, ItalySimon Field, Great BritainKatarzyna Figura, PolandHong Sang-soo, KoreaVladimir Mashkov, RussiaAlice Nellis, Czech RepublicGRAND PRIX – CRYSTAL GLOBE (20 000 USD)Certi bambini (A Childr...
The Cologne MedienForum, June 20-23, 2004Organized by the Media Authority of the state of North Rhine Westphalia and major German public and private media industries, the 16th annual MedienForum was held again in the fair grounds of Cologne, Germany’s dominant television centrum and home of Europe’s largest public television group WDR and Germany’s largest private television stations. Catering to the second largest television market in the world, the MedienForum is of particular relevance ...
KinderFilmfest opens with German PremiereDirector Peter Timm’s new family comedy MY BROTHER IS A DOG opens KinderFilmfest on September 24th.The children’s film section KinderFilmfest goes into its second round from September 24 to 30, 2004. It was brought into being by the festival director Albert Wiederspiel in 2003 and is once again aiming at attracting seven- to twelve-year-old film enthusiasts.The KinderFilmfest opens on September 24 with a German premiere in the presence of the film’s...
A CILECT Project by Joost Hunningher CILECT is the association of the world's major film and television schools. Its goals are to provide a means for the exchange of ideas among member schools, and to help them understand the future of education for creative personnel in film, television, and related media. It is dedicated to the creation, development and maintenance of regional and international co-operation among its member schools, and to the encouragement of film and television training in...
V MEDIA FORUM of the ХХYI Moscow International Film Festival«ART-reality show / Conversion»The objective of Media Forum is to demonstrate the connection between traditional and modern branches of screen culture, the impact of technological innovations on visual arts.Media Forum as action is an exchange of ideas, infusion of new forces into contemporary culture and vice versa. It is an attempt to demonsrtate the logic of new thought and new communications.At the moment it is inside ...
II EMERGING EUROPEAN FILMMAKERS 71st MIFED (Oct. 12 – 16, 2004)On the occasion of 71st MIFED, the Mercato Internazionale del Cinema e del Multimediale [International Cinema and Multimedia Market], which will take place in Milan from the 12th to the 16th October 2004, the Ministero per I Beni e le Attività Culturali [Ministry of Cultural Property], the Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia [National Film School] and Audiovisual Industry Promotion-MIFED are promoting the second edit...
“WHICH MARKET FOR EUROPEAN FILMS?”The aim of this research by MEDIA Salles is to provide a detailed description of the distribution of European films in Europe and to make a quantitative analysis of the phenomena lying behind the difficulties that have always been experienced by European films in crossing the threshold of their country of origin.Although the results of the research are rather complex and difficult to classify, some main trends do emerge:1. The considerable variation in admis...
MEDIA Salles was hosting a reception yesterday evening at the ‘Pavilion of the European Union – Int’l Village’ for the traditional rendezvous marking the publication of the MEDIA Salles’ Newsletter “European Cinema Journal” no. 3/2004,which includes the figures on cinema-going in 2003.MEDIA Salles’ coming initiatives were presented:The “Focus on Europe” events:- Kidflix Special at the 44th Zlín International Children’s Film Festival, Prague and Zlín, Czech Republi...
Vancouver, site of Canada’s first International Hip Hop Film Festival.Next September 1st-5th, Vancouver, BC will be the site of the first International Hip Hop Film Festival in Canada. Hip Hop is music. It's Fashion. It's attitude and for 5 days in September, it will be Cinema as way of life.Crossing racial, gender & generational frontiers and with movies from Canada, the United States, Cuba, Columbia, Australia, Venezuela, New Zealand, Brazil, France, Holland, South Africa and Japan, the F...
Ateliers du Cinéma Européèn: ACE Producers films in CannesOfficial Selection / In CompetitionTilde Corsi (R&C Produzioni) co-producer of the film La Niña Santa (The Holy Girl) by Lucrecia Martel Official Selection / Out of CompetitionEmmanuel Giraud (Les Films de la Croisade) for Mondovino by Jonathan NossiterOfficial Selection / Un Certain RegardNatacha Devillers (Artcam/Les Petites Lumières) co-producer of the film Schizo (Fifty Fifty) by Gulshad OmarovaCritic’s WeekAlain Benguigui (Som...
"DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies for European Cinemas" Kuurne, Belgium31 March - 4 April 2004Dear friends, the Barco headquarters in Kuurne, Belgium, just saw the closure of the specialized course for cinema exhibitors: "DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies for European Cinemas", organized by MEDIA Salles, that was specifically dedicated to digital cinema. A highly positive evaluation of the course emerged from the more than 40 participants and experts, arriving from 13 European countries, fr...
One World, 6th Annual Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Prague, Czech Republic, 15-22 April 2004The Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic Award for the Best Film:Arna's Children, directed by Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel ArnaDanniel, Israel, Netherlands, Palestine When you sign on as a juror for the One World International Human Rights Film Festival you know you will be meeting people whose rights are being wronged and whose stories are deeply moving. But few of us jurors expected to m...
PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL SETS NEW RECORD OF 61,000 ATTENDANCE AND 70 SELL-OUTS Award Winners include ANATOMY OF HELL, BAADASSSSS!, UNKNOWN SOLDIER and Documentaries THE CORPORATION and PROTEUS The 2004 Philadelphia Film Festival ended its 14-day celebration of cinema by posting an attendance record of 61,000, beating last year’s record of 57,500. Of the 293 screenings the Festival held from April 8-21, 70 screenings sold out, and 16 films drew an audience of over 600.At its Closing Night on...
“Corto in Bra”, Brief Emotions on The Big ScreenFrom 21st to 25th April the international festivaldedicated to short films.Three competition categories with a prize for the best original Italian screenplay, the best short films coming from the whole of Europe and a space reserved for food lovers organised with the help of Slow Food.Among others, Antonio Albanese and the young directors, Shimmy Marcus and Alessandro Piva will sit on the Jury. Three categories, five prizes and juries made up o...
« The Green Butchers » and « El tren de la bruja » win the Méliès d’Or for Best European Fantastic Film.The 8th Méliès d’Or Ceremony for Best European Fantastic Film took place this Saturday, April 17th 2004 at the occasion of the 20th Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. The Jury, presided by Dutch filmmaker Rudolf van den Berg, has awarded the Méliès d’Or for Best Fantastic Feature to « The Green Butchers » directed by Anders Thomas Jensen and the Méliès d’Or for Best Fanta...
For the 17th time, one of the greatest European multimedia events will be taking place in Osnabrueck, from 21 to 25 April: over a period of five days, the EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL (EMAF) will present current trends and the latest developments in international media art.As an international forum for experimental films and videos, performances, multimedia installations, CD-ROM, DVD and Internet projects, the EMAF will introduce both creative newcomers and renowned artists.In its exhibition (bei...
"Technological innovation is a crucial factor for economic development and it is even more so regarding digital technology applied to the cinema sector, an activity that involves both economic and cultural values”. These were the words of Gianni Profita, Director General for the Cinema of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Affairs, commenting on the course on digital cinema promoted by MEDIA Salles, on which he affirmed: “It’s very significant for Europeans working in the cinema sector to r...
The 37th Annual WorldFest programApril 16-25, 2004More than 500 theatrical feature films were reviewed for the 2004 WorldFest. Program and Artistic Director Kathleen Haney announced the film selections: 60 titles, "A Good Story, Well Told" is the festival theme. -- "12" - USA - Comedic Epic - DVD digital -- 17 Times - Cecile Cassard - Drama - Panorama de France -35mm -- A Piece of Heaven - Drama - Panorama de France - 35mm -- The Affair - Drama - Suspense - USA - DVD digital -- Afghan Massacre ...
The 26th Créteil Festival Films de Femmes kicked off on March 12 to a fully seated ‘Grand Salle’. This year the festival has as its theme, ‘exile cinema and cultures in exile’ with special discussion forums. This includes films that embrace the subject of women and immigration. Flores de Toro mound by Icier Bollain from Spain is one example in the official competition, the true story of the village of Aragon where single men invited women of foreign birth in 1985 to visit and become fut...
Foreign Films – and Denys Arcand -- Invade HollywoodThough fewer and fewer foreign films flicker on America’s screens every year, foreign films – and foreigners -- enjoyed a strong showing at Sunday night’s Academy awards. Nominations went to Brazilian’s City of God, New Zealand’s Whale Rider, France’s The Triplets of Belleville and Germany’s Die Rote Jacke, to name a few. Not one of these films walked away with the gold Sunday night, but plenty of New Zealander from the Lord of ...
The short film awards from the Competition and Panorama sections:INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILMThe International Short Film Jury awards prizes for short films screened in the Competition and Panorama sections.The members of the jury Christine Dollhofer (Austria), Sophie Maintigneux (France) and Vinca Wiedemann (Danmark)award the following prizes: Golden Bear for Best Short Film toUN CARTUS DE KENT SI UN PACHET DE CAFEA Cigarettes and Coffeeby Cristi Puiu Jury Prize, Silver Bear, to the short film...
The truly gigantic success at the local box office of Erik Van Looy’s De zaak Alzheimer (The Alzheimer Case) and Jan Verheyen’s Team Spirit II, in combination with indigenous arthouse hits such as Tom Barman’s Any Way the Wind Blows and the Oscar-nominated French-Flemish-Canadian-UK co-production Les triplettes de Belleville (Belleville Rendezvous/The Triplets of Belleville) resulted in a quadrupling of admissions for Flemish films last year. A total of well over 1 million Flemish and Br...
Oscar – and Latin Flair - is in the air at Santa Barbara This year’s Santa Barbara Film Festival feels like an Academy Awards kick-off party thanks to appearances by directors, producers and screenwriters associated with Oscar hopefuls from Lord of the Rings to Monster. SBIFF unspooled Friday night with a screening of Argentina’s official Academy Award foreign language submission Valentin. Alejandro Agresti’s comedy, about a little boy who yearns for a mother, did not make it to the Osc...
Fribourg International Film Festival – 18th edition / 21st – 28 March 2004That we may not forget, the 18th edition of the Fribourg International Film Festival is placed under the sign of remembrance. There is the remembrance of peoples and that of conflicts; the remembrance of crises and that of roots. The cinema is a powerful remembering machine. Fernando Solanas knows that well. He questions the Argentine crisis of December 2001 in his new film, co-produced by Thelma Films, “La Memoria d...
