An abridged version of the Seattle Polish Film Festival closed out on Sunday, May 6, with a screening of the highly controversial "We Are All Christs" by veteran maverick director Marek Koterski. Only nine films were screened during the abbreviated week, but the closing entry featuring an alcoholic father bearing a full sized cross and a suffering son with a crown of thorns throughout, was an eye-opener. The screening was attended by Mister Koterski and his wife, an actress who appears in the f...
The Seattle Film Festival got off to a flying start on Friday, April 27 with a brace of strong films at its handsome new venue, the McCaw Theater in the Seattle Center cultural complex. The opening film, the touching story of a priest with AIDS, "He who has never Lived" (Kto nigdy nie zyl), is the directing debut of iconic Polish actor Andrzej Seweryn, and this was followed up by "Palimpset", a nightmarish study of a Warsaw Police inspector on the verge of a nervous breakdown -- with heavy echo...
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is pleased to announce the 2007 winning films, each of which will be screened during a special encore presentation Wednesday, February 21, at Missoula's historic Wilma Theatre.Best FeatureThe Cats of MirikitaniDirector - Linda HattendorfBest ShortA Revolving DoorDirector - Marilyn BravermanBest MiniDocHa Ha Ha AmericaDirector - JD LigonBig Sky AwardSalvation MountainDirector - Travis PetersonArtistic Vision AwardThe Colour of OlivesDirector - Carolina Riva...
The European Film Award has certainly changed...changed sex, changed location, and now ,at 19, Europe's attempt to emulate the "Oscar" has finally come of age with a well-presented,dignified ceremony and a splashy but stylish party in Warsaw, not perhaps the most beautiful of Old Europe's capitals,but the first venue in Eastern -sorry, Central- Europe to host the event so far.And, contrary to those who may think that most of the Polish population has recently taken up residence in England, the l...
Krzysztof Zanussi receives Arte Award at the Taormina Film Festival On June 21, 2006 the Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi received the prestigious "Harry Winston" Taormina Arte Award for Cinematic Excellence at the Italian international film festival held in Taormina, Sicily.Accepting the award, Zanussi stated that he had a special bond with Sicily. About fifteen years ago he staged two works at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, and presently he is directing a film in Catania and Syracuse cal...
KARLOVY PRIZES ANNOUNCED: AND THE WINNERS WERE ...GRAND PRIX -- CRYSTAL GLOBE (20,000 USD CASH!)Surprisingly, to the American independent film "Sherrybaby" the feature debut of Laurie Collyer, 2005. Former drug addict Sherry (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is released from prison where she did time for robbery, and so on ... Considering that all the other main competition pictures were darkhorses as well, maybe this award is not so surprising. Too bad this festival doesn't have bookies and pari-mutuel bet...
One of the great assets for a journalist at the Berlin film festival is the very well organized press conference structure and the constant parade of leading figures, directors, stars and others, from film industries around the world. The day here starts out with two matinee press screenings of films in competition in the same giant hall, the Berlinale Palast, where the gala red-carpet screenings are held in the evening. These press screenings are immediately followed by a press conference in th...
October 16, 2005
BANGKOK ~ The 3rd annual World Film Festival got under way in Bangkok today (Saturday 15 Oct) following Friday night’s grand opening at which Roman Polanski was guest of honour for the Asian premiere of his latest film, Oliver Twist.
The veteran director, who is no stranger to Thailand and who even speaks a smattering of Thai, introduced the film as his first attempt to produce work that will appeal to children as well as adults.
“I have children of my ow...
BANGKOK ~ The 3rd annual World Film Festival got under way in Bangkok today (Saturday 15 Oct) following Friday night’s grand opening at which Roman Polanski was guest of honour for the Asian premiere of his latest film, Oliver Twist.The veteran director, who is no stranger to Thailand and who even speaks a smattering of Thai, introduced the film as his first attempt to produce work that will appeal to children as well as adults.“I have children of my own and I wanted to make something which ...
GDYNIA -- BLUES ON THE BALTICAlex Deleon, Sept. 15Although there are no international or Hollywood stars prancing around the premises there are enough Polish film celebrities and industry VIPs in attendance, and the 30th Jubilee mood is so high that the local papers have picked up the catch-phrase "Cannes on the Baltic". One reason for the upbeat atmosphere is the announcement by festival artistic director Maceij Karpinski, that after many years of quibbling and struggling the new Polish Cinema...
GDYNIA AT THE MIDPOINT -- LIONS UP FOR GRABSAlex Deleon, September 14, 2005The annual feature film output of Poland has been hovering about the thirty marks since the mid nineties and this year is no great exception. Somewhat over thirty features were submitted for consideration, but the festival selection committee this year felt it necessary to make a distinction between high quality productions, mostly by seasoned directors, and cheapies thrown together by younger or first time directors wor...
German author, Nobel Prize laureate Gunther Grass, is a high profile visitor here in connection with the screening of a new Polish film based on one of his novels, "The Call of the Toad". Grass was actually born in Dansk in 1927 when it was a German city known as Danzig, so this amounts to a kind of home-town visitation. His novel, "The Tin Drum" also had a WW II Danzig setting and was made into a highly acclaimed film by Volker Schloendorff in Germany (1979) which featured the Polish actor Dan...
THIRTIETH POLISH FEATURE FILMS FESTIVAL IN GDYNIASeptember 12-17, 2005The Gdynia Festival of Polish Feature Films (Festiwal Polskich Filmow Fabularnych) is an annual event showcasing the entire feature film production of the country in the preceding twelve month period right up to curtain time. The festival was established on somewhat shaky ground in 1974 in the shipyard city of Gdansk -- later to become famous for the Solidarity strikes which led to the downfall of Communism in Poland -- but t...
The winning feature film in the Competition Section was announced july 9th during the course of the closing ceremony of the 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The festival’s grand prix, the Crystal Globe, was awarded by a unanimous jury to the Polish film My Nikifor (Mój Nikifor) and the trophy was presented to the director Krzysztof Krauze and producers Juliusz Machulski and Wojciech Danowski. The Special Jury Prize was won by the Israeli film What a Wonderful Place (Eize makom n...
Moscow festival jury members:MAIN COMPETITIONAlan PARKER — Chairman, director (United Kingdom) Jerzy STUHR — actor, director (Poland) Boris AKUNIN — author (Russia) Armen MEDVEDEV — film critic, film producer (Russia) Barbara SUKOWA — actress (Germany) Humbert BALSAN — film producer (France) COMPETITION PERSPECTIVESAlexei UCHITEL — Chairman, director, producer (Russia) Diana DUMBRAVA — actress (Romania) Stefan LAUDYN — festival director (Pola...
