The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is proud to honor Penélope Cruz with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 24th edition of the Fest, which runs January 22-February 1, 2009, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.Cruz, who returned to theaters this summer with two powerful and diverse back-to-back performances in “Elegy” opposite Sir Ben Kingsley and Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” opposite Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johans...
This year, the Miami International Film Festival is putting a special spotlight on new Mexican films. Not only is this industry’s cinema among the most influential in the world right now, but this year’s MIFF ABROAD program, sponsored by American Airlines, will bring a group of US film industry professionals to network with their Mexican colleagues in August of this year. MIFF ABROAD is an industry exchange program linking film professionals from around the world with Latin America, hosting...
Tuesday, March 4-------This year, the Miami International Film Festival is putting a special spotlight on new Mexican films. Not only is this industry’s cinema among the most influential in the world right now, but this year’s MIFF ABROAD program, sponsored by American Airlines, will bring a group of US film industry professionals to network with their Mexican colleagues in August of this year. MIFF ABROAD is an industry exchange program linking film professionals from around the world w...
By Maria Esteves - January 12, 2007 The Fifth Annual New York AIDS Film Festival 2007 press coverage is dedicated in Loving Memory of Mel Cheren (January 21, 1933 - December 7, 2007). The Fifth Annual New York AIDS Film Festival (NYAFF) 2007 Opening Night Jack Valenti Humanitarian Awards Ceremony was held at the United Nations Dag Hammarkjold Auditorium, Thursday, November 29, 2007, 8:00 PM. The Red Ball Awards Ceremony was held at The Riverhouse on World AIDS Day, Saturday, Dece...
1920s 1928 Janet Gaynor - Seventh Heaven as "Diane", Street Angel as "Angela", and Sunrise as "The Wife (Indre)" Louise Dresser - A Ship Comes In as "Mrs. Pleznik" Gloria Swanson - Sadie Thompson as "Sadie Thompson" 1929 Mary Pickford - Coquette as "Norma Besant" Ruth Chatterton - Madame X as "Jacqueline Floriot" Betty Compson - The Barker as "Carrie" Jeanne Eagels - The Letter as "Leslie Crosbie" Corinne G...
Thursday, April 12----Few places in the world have the instant recognition and the glamorous reputation of Palm Beach, on the fabled Gold Coast of Florida. A playground for the rich and famous for more than a century, Palm Beach (and its sister city West Palm Beach and surrounding towns Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Lake Worth and others) has also built its reputation over the years as a place of cultural excellence and diversity. Those qualities are on abundant display as the Palm Beach Internat...
The Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), presented by Miami Dade College (MDC), closes the 24th annual Festival Sunday, March 11 with the World Premiere of The Heart of the Earth (Spain/UK/Portugal) from director Antonio Cuadri and starring Actress Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace). Scheduled to attend the 8:30 p.m. screening at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts are director Antonio Cuadri, actress Catalina Sandino Moreno, executive producer William Dietrich, producers L...
The 79th edition of the Academy Awards brought us its surprises along with the long list of nominees announced in Los Angeles early Tuesday by the AMPAS president Sid Ganis and actress Salma Hayek.Leading surprise was the absence of Bill Condon's Dreamgirls in the best feature category. The film leads with 8 nominationsPerformance by an actor in a leading roleLeonardo DiCaprio - BLOOD DIAMONDRyan Gosling - HALF NELSONPeter O'Toole - VENUSWill Smith - THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESSForest Whitaker - THE...
At 7pm on Friday 27th October, The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival will celebrate its jubilee year with ‘A Portrait of London’ - the largest live audiovisual free screening London’s Trafalgar Square has ever seen. Projected onto a 120 foot screen before Nelson’s column, it features writer/director/composer Mike Figgis mixing sound and moving image from some of London’s most exciting filmmakers, artists and music producers – creating an hour long spectacle to be enjoyed by Londone...
AN SEBASTIAN POST-MORTEM SPLIT TOP PRIZE QUESTIONED AND LACK OF STARS LAMENTEDIn my last report I got so carried away by the phenomenom of Bahman Ghobadi's second straight Golden Concha Best-Film prize, that I failed to mention that the award was an "ex-aequo" or shared award. I did, however, note that it might come in for some discussion in the post-festival press -- which, in fact, it did ---Bigtime!The top prize was shared with Mr. Ghobadi by Martial Fougeron of France for "Mon fils à moi" (...
LALIFF’s Opening Night Gala will be held on Thursday, October 5th. The festival will run until Sunday October 15th when the Closing Night Gala & Award Ceremony will take place. The Gabi Award Night will be held on Saturday, October 14th. All screenings will take place at the Egyptian Theatre. Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will be recognized with the Gabi Lifetime Achievement award at the 10th Annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF). The award ceremony will take pl...
A breathy "mistress of ceremonies"—Cécile de France greeted the special guests of the 58th Cannes Film Festival last nite. The young actress called her role as emcee "an honor, and great emotion when you’re frightened - so its an immense emotion to be with you here."De France then introduced the fabulous jury for the "Official Selection" of features this year. The mistress of ceremonies called the world of filmmaking a group of "unbelievable people meeting to tell the same story. When the s...
The curtain went up on the 58th edition of the Festival de Cannes at the bidding of the mistress of ceremony Cécile de France and Jury President Emir Kusturica; the latter was of course in the company of the other Jury members: directors Agnès Varda, John Woo, Benoît Jacquot & Fatih Aki, actors Nandita Das, Javier Bardem & Salma Hayek as well as writer Toni Morrison. The Jury has the task of bestowing the Palme d'Or to one of the 21 feature films in the Official Selection.Following the Openin...
Cannes jury members of the different sections could feed 10 smaller festivals. Some of them have very strong ties with the festival and accept to pay an hommage to a festival that did so much for their career. Kusturica can be considered an icon among them.FEATURE FILMS JURYEmir KUSTURICA, President (Director - Serbia-Montenegro)Toni MORRISON (Writer -United States)Nandita DAS (Actress - India)Salma HAYEK (Actress - Mexico)Agnès VARDA (Director - France)John WOO (Director - China)Fatih AKIN (Di...
THAT’S A WRAP!PALM BEACH CLOSES 10TH ANNUAL FILM FESTIt was a celebration of a decade worth of film as the Palm Beach International Film Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary. After a week of screenings, the jury votes were tallied to determine the winners for Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Director and Best Performance by an Actor/Actress, while audiences voted for their favorite in categories of features (including a separate Favorite Palm Beach Feature), documentaries and shorts. Wi...