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 March 12, 2008 iW NEWS | "Amal" To Open LA Indian Film Fest
Richie Mehta's "Amal" has been announced as the Opening Night Gala of the 6th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. The festival additionally announced that the world premiere of "Mumbai Cutting: A City Unfolds," which features the work of ten top Indian directors, will be its Closing Night Gala presentation. This year, the festival will honor the work of Madhuri Dixit with a tribute and screening of her films "The Death Sentence" (Mrityudand) and "My Heart is Crazy" (Dil To Pagal Hai). The festival will take place April 22-27, 2008 at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas in Los Angeles, and will feature close to 40 films. [Peter Knegt]  [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] March 10, 2008iW NEWS | Fortissimo Acquires "Captain Abu Raed"
2008 Sundance Film Festival award winner "Captain Abu Raed" has been acquired for worldwide rights outside the Middle East and North America by Fortissimo Films. "Captain," directed by Amin Matalqa is the first Jordanian feature film to ever be exported for the world's cinemas. It garnered the World Cinema Audience Award and Best Actor for Nadim Sawalha at Sundance, and will have its market premiere at upcoming Hong Kong Filmart and the Cannes Market. [Peter Knegt] [permalink] [ filed under Acquisitions, World Cinema ] February 29, 2008 FESTIVALS | French Vets Reign Supreme in a Roller Coaster Rendez Vous
by Erica Abeel (February 29, 2008) A trio of dazzling films from seasoned directors marks this year's Rendez-vous With French Cinema (running from February 29 to March 9 at the Walter Reade Theater and IFC Center in New York). Claude Lelouch -- known here primarily for his 1966 "A Man and a Woman" -- is in wicked form with thriller and series opener, "Roman de Gare," which hits more curves and speed bumps than Sarkozy's love life. "Paris" by Cedric Klapisch offers an eagle's eye view of the city's lives, while a young man waits for a heart transplant. And Claude Miller's "A Secret," suffused with personal resonance, probes the buried past of French Jews trying to pass as Aryans during the Occupation. Sad to say, though, the remaining twelve films, many from newcomers, are somewhat disappointing. Yes, they offer a hand-tooled look of French film -- always a welcome respite from studio product -- but overall, the selection is a grab bag ranging from worthy but flawed, to mildly entertaining, to duds. This year's uneven lineup raises questions about the always popular Rendez-vous, increasingly presented as a wine-and-cheese event for armchair travelers. Are some films included just to pad the roster and give viewers their French fix? [ read more in On The Scene ] February 27, 2008 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "City of Men" Director Paolo Morelli
by indieWIRE (February 27, 2008) In 2002, Fernando Meirelles' "City of God" became a $7.5 million foreign-language hit in North America, managing a bunch of Oscar nods with it, including best director. Six years later, longtime Meirelles collaborator Paulo Morelli is releasing a companion piece to that film, "City of Men." Largely based on characters and some storylines developed in television series loosely spawned from "God," "Men" largely uses the same cast as the series, which ran four seasons on Brazil's TV Globo (and was released on DVD in the U.S. in fall 2006). But apart from the setting, "Men" has no actual plot connections to "God," as Morelli's film follows the friendship of two favela teenagers. indieWIRE talked to Morelli about the film, which is being released in 77 locations across North America this Friday. [ read more in People ] February 26, 2008 DISPATCH FROM BRAZIL | Golden Bear Upset: A Look at the Controversy Behind "Tropa de Elite"
by Michael Gibbons (February 26, 2008) Shocking critics and industry insiders in a move that no one saw coming, the 58th Berlin International Film Festival awarded its top prize, the Golden Bear, to the Brazilian film "Elite Squad" (Tropa de Elite). The award was a remarkable coup for the film that made its international premiere with subtitle problems and that Variety had written off as "a one-note celebration of violence-for-good that plays like a recruitment film for fascist thugs." Yet, earlier this month the Berlin jury headed by Costa-Gavras, a renowned political filmmaker, defiantly gave the award in what they said was a unanimous decision. While it may seem like it came from nowhere, "Elite Squad"'s Golden Bear is far from the first time this provocative film has pushed buttons, nor will it be the last. [ read more in Biz ]  FESTIVALS | No !Fs Ands or Buts, Turkey Eats up the Indies
by Kerem Bayrak (February 26, 2008) Although in my last report from the Antalya/ Eurasia Film Festival back in October 2007, I had mentioned that there were two major film festivals in Turkey, it was a comment that I had not wholly given due care. The cities of Istanbul and Ankara have for the past seven years given way to a movement and creation of the !F Istanbul Film Festival whose onus was to promote global independent films to Turkish audiences and to screen international works that would not have necessarily secured a domestic theatrical release. The main event in Istanbul took place between the 14th - 24th February and in Ankara a smaller selection of Istanbul's screenings will be held between 28th February - 2nd March. [ read more in On The Scene ] February 21, 2008 REVIEW | Holding Court: Jacques Rivette's "The Duchess of Langeais"
by Nick Pinkerton (February 21, 2008) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] A chamber piece for two tragic almost-lovers, a coquettish Duchess and a noble French General. A chance flirtation at a Fauborg St-Germain party initiates an arduous campaign of romantic outflankings, accomplished through feigned illnesses, epistolary sallies, evocations of God, and threats of force. Abstemious with close-ups, "The Duchess of Langeais" is a two-shot duet for Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu. The performances are precise in the extreme, the combatants' war games regulated by elaborate rules of engagement, incremental charges and retreats. In visits to the Duchess's residence, they push and pull their conversations between the bedchamber, drawing room, and foyer, the camera softly slipping after. The Duchess, however, has underestimated the fortitude of this suitor, whose continual, nauseous glowering at his loose forelock hides a master strategian. [ read more in Movies ] February 20, 2008 REVIEW | Money for Nothing: Stefan Ruzowitzky's "The Counterfeiters"
by Michael Koresky (February 20, 2008) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Let's get it out of the way first: Stefan Ruzowitzky's "The Counterfeiters" was nominated for a Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar, controversially at the exclusion of a handful of borderline masterpieces, from Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" to the upcoming "Silent Light" and "Secret Sunshine." Though it feels disingenuous to bring up the most notoriously boorish, nonsensically designed of all Academy Award categories when discussing a film's merits, perhaps it's productive to point out all the reasons why a film such as "The Counterfeiters" gets that slot over more difficult, rewarding, and harder to categorize films that would need the recognition to make any waves outside of small, cinephilic circles. [ read more in Movies ] February 19, 2008 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "The Year My Parents Went On Vacation" Director Cao Hamburger
by indieWIRE (February 19, 2008) Brazil's official submission for the 2008 Academy Awards (for which it made the "longlist" of finalists but failed to receive one of the controversial nominations), Cao Hamburger's "The Year My Parents Went On Vacation" has made the rounds of over 30 worldwide film festivals, including Berlin and Toronto. Set around the 1970 World Cup, "Vacation" details a couple who leave their son Marco with his grandfather, only to have his grandfather die of a heart attack just after the parents leave. Alone and without knowing where is parents are, Marco stays with his grandfather's next door neighbor Shlomo in the Jewish community of Bom Retiro. Screening in limited release as of last Friday, Hamburger spoke with indieWIRE about his experiences on "Vacation." [ read more in People ] February 14, 2008 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "The Counterfeiters" Director Stefan Ruzowitzky
by Howard Feinstein (February 14, 2008) No, it's not for his famous flop of an American drag film, "All the Queen's Men," that he received an Oscar nomination. Forty-six-year-old Viennese director Stefan Ruzowitzky learned something facile but important in the industry: actors carry baggage. He had no idea that he cast not Matt LeBlanc as a World War Two interloper in women's clothes trying to learn war secrets, but in fact Joey from "Friends." How should Ruzowitzky know how popular the program was? In fact, his nomination is for Best Foreign Language Film, Austria's selection "The Counterfeiters," with less exposed but better performers who are known quantities, with serious drama outweighing the bad attempts at humor, and about a topic he knows well: the fact-based story of Jews who know how to create fake bills surviving, even living and eating fairly well, in concentration camps in return for their assistance in betraying the Allies in favor of the Nazis by creating money to undermine the enemies' economies. [ read more in People ] February 11, 2008iW NEWS | Benten Films Acquires "Free Will"
Benton Films, the first DVD label run by film critics, has acquired the North American DVD rights to Bavaria Film International's award winning 2006 drama "The Free Will." Directed by Matthias Glasner, the film won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2006 Berlinale, as well as Best Actor awards for Jurgen Vogel at both the Tribeca Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival. "We're honored to have acquired such a prestigious title," said Andrew Grant, President of Benten Films. "The Free Will" will be released on June 24, 2008. [Peter Knegt] [permalink] [ filed under Acquisitions, World Cinema ] iW NEWS | Filmcatcher Announces Digital Deal
Filmcatcher.com has announced a deal with The Global Film Initiative and its distribution partner, First Run Features, to make GFI's films available on Filmcatcher. "At FilmCatcher, we want our visitors to discover worthy new talent and films," said Alan Klingenstein, co-founder of FilmCatcher, in a statement. "Working with Global Film Initiative, we'll be able to see the best filmmakers from emerging markets around the world, and bring them to our audience, so it's a perfect match." GFI provides funding to filmmakers in various developing countries. Four films, both given grants and distributed by Global Film have represented their countries at the Academy Awards in the Foreign Film Competition category. [Peter Knegt] [permalink] [ filed under New Media & Technology, World Cinema ] iW NEWS | Locarno Announces Moretti Retrospective
The 61st Locarno International Film Festival announced a retrospective for Italian filmmaker, actor and producer Nanni Moretti. Locarno has a tradition of retrospectives that follow the work of contemporary auteurs that alternate with substantial historical monographs and more thematic programmes. Following Youssef Chahine, Abbas Kiarostami, Marco Bellocchio, Joe Dante, and Aki Kaurismaki, 2008 will spotlight Moretti. The festival runs from August 6-16, 2008. [Peter Knegt] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] iW NEWS | SPC Announces "12" Pact
Sony Pictures Classics has annonuced a deal for North American rights to Nikita Mikhalkov's "12," an Oscar nomineed in the best foreign language film category this year. The courtroom drama is loosely adapted from Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men." SPC also released Mikhalkov's Oscar-winner, "Burnt By The Sun." [Eugene Hernandez] [permalink] [ filed under Acquisitions, Berlin, World Cinema ] February 7, 2008 REVIEW | Grace Notes: Eran Kolirin's "The Band's Visit"
by Michael Koresky (February 7, 2008) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Though it's both a predictable culture-clash comedy and a gentle plea for people of different political backgrounds to "just get along," "The Band's Visit" nevertheless manages to use its central contrivances and inevitable cliches to its favor, and becomes something ethereal and winning. This debut from Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin, in which the soft-spoken members of an Egyptian brass band (the stodgy Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, to be precise) find themselves stranded in a small Israeli town on the way to a gig, parlays its initial good-natured dullness into surprisingly robust drama. Kolirin's schematics, both in its narrative turns and its overtly stylized compositions, threaten to reduce politics to bromides -- yet the filmmaker is wonderfully keyed into the subtleties of human behavior, and evinces a splendid love for all of his characters that borders on infectious adoration. "The Band's Visit" may wear its quaintness too much on its sleeve, but for a dose of what is essentially movie medicine, it goes down awfully easily. [ read more in Movies ] February 6, 2008 IndieWIRE INTERVIEW | "In Bruges" Director Martin McDonagh
by Erica Abeel (February 6, 2008) Talk to Martin McDonagh and the phrase he keeps returning to is "dark and dangerous." Certainly those words -- along with hilarious, twisted, fresh -- capture the "In-Yer-Face Theatre" of this Anglo-Irish writer. He crashed onto the scene at age twenty-three with "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" (which he claims he wrote in eight days), then knocked out a series of plays marked by violence and ghoulish glee, mostly set in Ireland in some "lonesome west" (the title of one play) of the soul. Lionized as an important new playwright, McDonagh at one point had six productions on London stages at the same time. Yet his great love, he claims, has always been film. After getting his feet wet with an Academy Award-winning short, McDonagh now makes the leap to feature length with "In Bruges." [ read more in People ]  FESTIVALS | Rendez-Vous Unveils 13th French Run Across the Pond
by Brian Brooks (February 6, 2008) Fifteen films will screen as U.S. or New York debuts at the 13th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance February 29 through March 9. As previously announced, Oscar-winner Claude Lelouch's thriller "Roman de gare" will launch the popular event at the Walter Reade Theater. Fanny Ardant stars in the films as a best-selling author researching her next crime story. Other veteran French filmmakers making their return this year include Cedric Klapisch ("L'Auberge Espagnole") with "Paris," described as "an emotional tour of the city through the eyes of a man waiting for a heart transplant, starring Romain Duris and Juliette Binoche. [ read more in On The Scene ] February 5, 2008 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "The Band's Visit" Director "Eran Kolirin
by Erica Abeel (February 5, 2008) After the screening in last year's Cannes, the applause wouldn't stop, keeping the visibly moved filmmakers and cast in the theater. The film was "The Band's Visit," a first feature from Israeli director Eran Kolirin. Arriving without buzz on the Croisette, it quickly emerged as a gem of Cannes '07, and nabbed the international critic's prize for the Un Certain Regard section. "Band" is a quiet, pared-down film, which like a story by Chekhov, strips bare its characters' lives. Toplined by the great Ronit Elkabetz, leading Israeli actor Sasson Gabai, and gifted Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, it concerns an Egyptian Police band that arrives in Israel to play at an initiation ceremony for an Arab cultural center. [ read more in People ] February 4, 2008iW NEWS | "La Soledad" Wins Big at Spain's Goya Awards
Jaime Rosales's critically acclaimed "La Soledad" was a big winner at Spain's Goya Awards on Sunday night in Madrid, nabbing the prizes for best picture and best director. An arthouse release that only reached a limited audience, the film topped Juan Antonio Bayona's hugely successful "El Orfanato" (The Orphanage) for best film and also won the best new actor prize for Jose Luis Torrijo, but "The Orphanage" did win the best new director prize, and the award for original screenplay, among other awards. Reporting to indieWIRE on the Goya's, a reader reiterated that the victory for Rosales' film was a major upset given that "The Orphanage" sold millions of tickets, while "La Soledad" was a modest release reaching just tens of thousands of moviegoers. [Eugene Hernadez] [permalink] [ filed under Honors, World Cinema ] February 3, 2008iW NEWS | "Persepolis" Wins IFFR Audience Award
As the festival came to a close, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Persepolis" won the audience award at the 2008 International Film Festival Rotterdam. The event concluded with a screening of Eran Kolirin's "The Band's Visit." [Eugene Hernandez] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] January 31, 2008 iW PROFILE | "Caramel" Director Nadine Labaki
by Lisa Rosman (January 31, 2008) "Caramel," the funny, sharp-eyed import about a beauty shop that opens in theaters today, set tongues a-flapping in Cannes last year as well as in 40 countries so far--by far the largest release a Lebanese film has ever received. It also is the first movie made in Beirut that doesn't reference the war. Director/writer/co-star Nadine Labaki, who was 17 when the war ended in 1990, says that omission was "a very conscious choice." During a recent whirlwind visit to NYC, she explained why to indieWIRE. [ read more in People ] iW NEWS | NonStop Paddles "Ping Pong"
Scandinavian-based sales company NonStop Sales has signed international distribution rights to Swedish director Jens Jonsson's "The King of Ping Pong," which won the world cinema jury prize in the dramatic category as well as a world cinematography award at the recent Sundance Film Festival. NonStop Sales will have the film's market premiere at the European Film Market coinciding with the Berlinale. The film centers on an ostracized and bullied teenager who excels only in ping pong descends into an acrimonious struggle with his younger, more popular brother when the truth about their family history and their father surfaces over the course of their spring break. In other NonStop news, the company is touting the box office success in Norway for "The Kautokeino Rebellion" and "Switch," both of which will screen in the European Film Market. [Brian Brooks] [permalink] [ filed under Acquisitions, World Cinema ] January 30, 2008 REVIEW | Caught in the Middle: Andre Techine's "The Witnesses"
by Michael Koresky (January 30, 2008) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Once again, with his new film "The Witnesses," great French filmmaker Andre Techine surveys the intersections of sexuality and politics, while offering up a compelling study in human strength and weakness. Instructive without ever falling into cheap bromides, dramatic without ever veering into overzealous melodrama, "The Witnesses" is a penetrating, even essential narrative. Techine is fascinated by the ways in which lives interact, personalities cross-pollinate, wounds are compounded, exacerbated, or even healed, yet never in that increasingly mundane American style of overlapping stories that prize fate or coincidence; he paints specifically, creating not vague character sketches but full lives, however defined by enigma or contradiction. Here, as in his superlative (and admittedly more vivid) "Wild Reeds," Techine introduces complicated people who may evolve throughout the course of the narrative but who are also unavoidably wedded to their specific time and place in history. [ read more in Movies ] January 20, 2008 REVIEW | The Body Politic: Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days"
by Chris Wisniewski (January 21, 2008) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" is as good as you've heard -- ravaging, provocative, deeply moving, and expertly crafted -- but it may not be what you expect. Billed by many as the "Romanian abortion movie" (something akin to labeling "There Will Be Blood" the "American oil movie"), "4 Months" isn't simply about abortion, even if the film uses it as its structuring conceit. So yes, Mungiu's film concerns two friends, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), who attempt to procure an illegal abortion for the latter in the waning days of the Ceausescu regime, but it is not an "abortion movie" in the vein of Mike Leigh's excellent "Vera Drake" or Alexander Payne's "Citizen Ruth." Otilia -- and not Gabita -- occupies the film's narrative and moral center, and through this character, magnificently rendered by Marinca and insistently studied by Mungiu's handheld camera, "4 Months" becomes something far more expansive than a simple plot description could imply -- a tense, riveting thriller (of a sort) that subtly evokes the experiences of women in a society that fiercely regulates their lives and bodies, often reducing them to commodities to be bought, sold, and bartered, no different at the extreme from the Kent cigarettes and orange Tic Tacs traded on the Bucharest black market. [ read more in Movies ] January 18, 2008 PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Eat, For This Is My Body" Director Michelange Quay
by indieWIRE (January 19, 2008) EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Screening in the New Frontier program at Sundance '08, Michelange Quay's first feature uniquely discusses the evolution of power and the relationship between black boys and white women in the director's native Haiti. As Sundance's Shari Frilot explains, "Eat" "seductively begs the viewer to abandon the rules of traditional storytelling and instead embrace a poetic, cinematic language." Frilot finds a "muscular confidence and inspired dreamlike quality to Quay's filmmaking." He "evocatively blends gorgeous imagery with an infectious musical energy to create a story that is largely free of dialogue and entirely visceral in effect." [ read more in People ] January 16, 2008iW NEWS | Samuel Goldwyn Takes "Fugitive Pieces"
Writer/director Jeremy Podeswa's Toronto Fest '07 opener "Fugitive Pieces" has been acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films, the company announced Tuesday. The film will have its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 2nd. Goldwyn VP of acquisitions Peter Goldwyn negotiated the deal John Sloss of Cinetic Media on behalf of the filmmakers. Based on the international bestselling novel by Anne Michaels, "Fugitive Pieces" is described by Goldwyn as a poetic and emotionally charged film about "love, loss and redemption." The film tells the story of Jakob Beer, a man whose life is haunted by his childhood experiences during World War II. As a child in Poland, Jakob is orphaned during wartime only to be saved by a compassionate Greek archeologist. Over the course of his life, he attempts to deal with the losses he has endured. Samuel Goldwyn plans a May release. [Brian Brooks] [permalink] [ filed under Acquisitions, World Cinema ] January 14, 2008 REVIEW | Missing Persons: Jia Zhangke's "Still Life"
by Michael Koresky (January 14, 2008) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Jia Zhangke, who has emerged as one of the great artists from the "Sixth Generation" of Chinese filmmakers, is one of those directors whose work will always be embraced and discussed by a number of devoted followers but whose discursive, searching approach to narratives and the people who inhabit them keep his films from appealing to a wider audience. At this juncture, I can't recall any of his earlier features creating much of an art-house stir once they found distributors after their North American festival debuts; it's a shame because, despite their refusal of cinematic conventions, Jia's films are hardly ossified, self-contained art works--in fact, today there are no films reaching American screens that reveal quite so much about the state of contemporary China, as important a topic as anything else going on in the world today (despite the understandable glut of films on Iraq and Darfur). [ read more in Movies ] January 10, 2008 ROTTERDAM '08 | "Lamb of God" Opening 2008 Rotterdam Fest; 14 More Films Also in Tiger Competition
by Eugene Hernandez (January 10, 2008) Fifteen films will screen in competition at the 2008 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) later this month and the festival will open on January 23rd with the world premiere of Lucia Cedron's "Lamb of God" (Cordero de dios) from Argentina. The film is described as, a family drama about the kidnapping of 77-year old man during Argentina's economic crisis in 2002, forcing his daughter to return from exile to Buenos Aires. Produced by Lita Stantic, who also produced "The Holy Girl" and "Paraguayan, Hammock" the film was supported by IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund. [ read more in On The Scene ] AFP: French film exports flounder
French film exports fell for the second year running in 2007, with ticket sales down to 53.7 million against 55.8 million the previous year, the export promotion board Unifrance said Thursday. AFP reports. [permalink] [ filed under Biz, World Cinema ]  PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Up The Yangtze" Director Yung Chang
by indieWIRE (January 11, 2008) EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Premiering at Sundance '08 in the Documentary Competition program, Yung Chang's "Up The Yangtze" examines the effects of the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. The dam is to become the largest hydroelectric power station in the world, but with this comes the displacement of millions of residents and the destruction of landmarks. Yang follows two young people effected by the project, and the result provides "a final snapshot of a rapidly disappearing cultural landscape," says Sundance's Rosie Wong. Wong notes that "juxtaposing the Yangtze's stunning panorama with the reality of Yu Shui's poignant story, Chang shows the tenuous balance between China's rich cultural past and its modernized future." [ read more in People ]  PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)" Director Ellen Kuras
by indieWIRE (January 10, 2008) EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. With the rise of a communist government in Laos, lillings and arrests became common among those afflicted with the former govenrment and the Americans. Families were torn apart -- some finally emigrating to the U.S. Spanning 20 years, vet D.P. Ellen Kuras debuts her first directorial effort "Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)"with Laotian co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath, who is the main subject of the film. The Sundance Film Festival's Cara Mertes comments in this year's fest catalog, "'Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)' is an exquisitely crafted tale about a country, a family, and a young man who discovers the power and resilience of the human spirit. The film is screening in SFF's documentary competition. [ read more in People ] January 9, 2008 PARK CITY '08 | Don't Overlook the World: 10+ International Films to Watch at Sundance '08
by Anthony Kaufman (January 9, 2008) Next week, the global film industry will turn to Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. But does Sundance, in turn, look back at the rest of the globe? The answer, of course, is sort of. While press, paparazzi and moviegoers will be tracking the every movement of this year's American celebs (Josh Hartnett, Charlize Theron and Jack Black, just to name a few), Sundance has increasingly tried to boost its international competition sections, with more prizes and more prestige value for the festival's global entrants. [ read more in Biz ] January 8, 2008 REVIEW | You've Got Male: Hong Sang-soo's "Woman on the Beach"
by Michael Joshua Rowin (January 8, 2008) It's clear that South Korean director Hong Sang-soo knows a thing or two about human relationships, of longings, self-delusions, attitudinal dead ends, and, once in a very miraculous while, he has a revelation or insight suggesting a new way to conduct them. On the basis of six heralded films, including 2004's "Woman Is the Future of Man" (his only one before "Woman on the Beach" to have gained distribution in the U.S.) Hong has been labeled an Asian Rohmer. At first glance he seems to have learned lessons directly from the French master in how to tell conversation-heavy, behavior-observant stories by means of an "economic" visual grammar, which in Hong's case includes long, patient single takes punctuated here and there by zooms or intrusive (and sometimes incongruously light) soundtrack music. [ read more in Movies ] January 7, 2008 PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Donkey Punch" Director Olly Blackburn
by indieWIRE (January 7, 2008) EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Sex, drugs and beautiful people on board a luxurious yacht in the Mediterranean--not your typical setting for a horror film, but "Donkey Punch" isn't your typical horror film, according to the '08 Sundance Film Festival catalog. Three beautiful women vacation in a Mediterranean beach town and meet three guys eager to show them a good time, and take them to the yachts where they serve as crew. With the owner away and the sexual tensions rising, the group heads out to sea -- and the terror begins... Says Sundance's Trevor Groth, "Blackburn's gut-wrenching, nerve-shredding 'Donkey Punch' stimulates the senses and shatters conventions." Co-writer/director Olly Blackburn's "Donkey Punch" will screen in the upcoming Sundance Film Festival's Park City at Midnight section. [ read more in People ] January 4, 2008 PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Anvil! The True Story of Anvil" Director Sacha Gervasi
by indieWIRE (January 4, 2008) EDITORS NOTE: This is the first in a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. At 14, Toronto school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, went on to become the "demigods of Canadian metal," releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's Metal on Metal. The album influenced a musical generation, including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, and went on to sell millions of records. But Anvil's career took a different path--straight to obscurity. Director Sacha Gervasi, according to the Sundance Film Festival's John Cooper, has "concocted a wonderful and often hilarious account of Anvil's last-ditch quest for elusive fame and fortune. His ingenious filmmaking may first lead you to think this a mockumentary, but it isn't...'Anvil! The True Story of Anvil' is a timeless tale of survival and the unadulterated passion it takes to follow your dream, year after year." The film will screen in Sundance's Spectrum section. [ read more in People ] December 27, 2007 REVIEW | Scare Quotes: Juan Antonio Bayona's "The Orphanage"
by Kristi Mitsuda (December 26, 2007) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] The organic foreboding conjured by an opening prelude torn from the past -- depicting children at play outdoors on a beautiful summer day full of pollen and petals, their caretakers looking on from inside a looming manor -- calls to mind elusive, unclassifiable films like Lucile Hadzihalilovic's "Innocence" rather than genre movies of the horror variety to which "The Orphanage" belongs. Too bad, then, that this beguiling subtlety is quickly upended as the opening credits roll -- kicking off with a big "Guillermo del Toro Presents" banner that signals the film's bald bid to become this year's "Pan's Labyrinth" (a dubious prospect if you happened to find that Foreign Language Oscar nominee overhyped, as I did) -- to the tune of a score distractingly reminiscent of "Psycho" and indicative of the more well-worn path Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona's feature debut will follow. [ read more in Movies ] December 20, 2007 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Persepolis" Co-directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
by Erica Abeel (December 20, 2007) When "Persepolis" screened in competition in Cannes this past May, Iran raised a ruckus, protesting to the French government about the film's negative take on Islam. But it will take more than Iran's ire to stop this baby, an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed graphic novels. Not only did France wave off the protests from Teheran, "Persepolis" -- co-directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud -- has continued to reap honors, including the Cannes Jury Prize, Oscar contender for Best Foreign Picture (France), winner for Best Animated Feature from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, a Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Film, and the list goes on and on. [ read more in People ] December 18, 2007 DISPATCH FROM HAVANA | Celebrating Latin Film and Contradictions
by Howard Feinstein (December 18, 2007) A healthy if strange disconnect colored the Havana Film Festival (December 4-14), officially the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano--but then Cuban society is a textbook model of disjunction. Take opening night, a tripartite schizorama in the 4800-seat Teatro Karl Marx that could only succeed in this surreal capitol of contradictions (which go far beyond the overly circulated images of the shells of '50s American cars that hide engines from God-knows-where or the crumbling facades of powerful, no-longer-pristine Deco houses). [ read more in On The Scene ] December 17, 2007REVIEW | Design for Living: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Persepolis"
by Kristi Mitsuda (December 17, 2007) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] At a moment in history where Iran, famously dubbed one-third of an "Axis of Evil" by Dubya, has again been making headlines as the next country with whom the Republicans wanna preemptively rumble (though the NIE's latest report on its lack of a nuclear weapons program throws this political gambit into a tailspin), Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical and surpassingly exquisite "Persepolis," co-written and directed with fellow comic book artist Vincent Paronnaud, is a corrective bomb of beauty launched lovingly into a terrified world. Based upon Satrapi's likewise superlative graphic novels and detailing her upbringing in Iran and eventual departure to (and return from) Austria amidst the Islamic Revolution, the personal-is-political telling deconstructs the absolute Otherness attributed to Iranians in an era scarred by boys who cry terrorist, even as the film rises to the status of coming-of-age classic. [ read more in Movies ] December 13, 2007 DISPATCH FROM DUBAI | Re-branding Arab Film with Only an Eye to the West
by Charlie Olsky (December 13, 2007) The Dubai International Film Festival, like the city itself, does not want for extravagance. Every night, there's a major gala screening followed by a lavish after-party, one for each section of DIFF's programming. Tuesday night's gala celebrated the festival's Arabian Nights program, a selection of non-competition films from Arab filmmakers with a focus on the interaction between Arabs and the Western world, with a screening of Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch's exceedingly sweet-natured "Whatever Lola Wants." The movie, about an American dancer's friendship with an Egyptian belly-dancer, demonstrated the festival's progressive nature by showcasing a positive gay Arab character and a sexually active unmarried woman, but it did so as inoffensively as possible. [ read more in On The Scene ] December 5, 2007ROTTERDAM '08 | Kiarostami, Fiennes, Puiu and Panahi Projects in Upcoming 25th Cinemart
by Brian Brooks (December 5, 2007) Thirty-nine projects have been selected to participate in CineMart, the co-production market taking place January 27 - 31, which coincides with the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam. This year's 25th CineMart, which focuses on low and medium budget films, includes projects by Abbas Kiarostami, Sophie Fiennes, Cristi Puiu, Jafar Panahi and Alex van Warmerdam. "The aim for the selection of the 25th anniversary of CineMart was a more focused and selective line up of projects," commented CineMart manager Marit van den Elshout in a statement. "In order to give each project the exclusivity it deserves, we have brought down the number of projects to below 40 projects. Considering the fact that a record number of applications was received this year, this meant an even more difficult selection process." [ read more in On The Scene ] December 1, 2007iW NEWS | "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", "The Band's Visit" Win Big at European Film Awards
Christian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," from Romania, won the award for best European film and Mungiu won the best director award at the European Film Awards in Berlin tonight. The film, winner of the Palme d'Or in Cannes this spring, is set for an awards qualifying run from IFC Films & Red Envelope Entertainment in the U.S. later this month. Sasson Gabai from "The Band's Visit" won the award for best actor and the film was named European discovery of the year at the ceremony. It will also open for a qualifying run this month. Helen Mirren was honored as best actress for "The Queen." Fatih Akin won the best screenplay award for "The Edge of Heaven" and the festival's FIPRESCI critics prize went to Alain Resnais' "Coeurs." Giuseppe Tornatore's "La Sconosciuta" won the people's choice award at the ceremony. indieWIRE plans to publish a dispatch from the European Film Awards on Sunday. [Eugene Hernandez] [permalink] [ filed under Awards Watch, Honors, World Cinema ] November 29, 2007 DISPATCH FROM GREECE | Festival Vets, Master Classes and an Eclectic Line up for 48th Thessaloniki Fest
by Rania Richardson (November 29, 2007) In a twist of fate, a film by a native of Thessaloniki garnered the most awards at Sunday night's closing ceremony of the 48th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. "PVC-1," directed by Spiros Stathoulopoulos, is a thriller made with one continuous 81-minute take, and earned the Silver Alexander, the audience award, and several other honors. The jury looked to China to award the festival's Golden Alexander top prize to "The Red Awn," a father-son drama directed by Shangjun Cai. Located in a northern port city on the Greek Aegean Sea, the festival continues to grow under the leadership of Despina Mouzaki, a whirlwind of energy with a charming, elegant demeanor. Variety recently named the 10-day event one of "50 Unmissable Fests" and The New York Times dubbed the city a counterculture center or "the Seattle of the Balkans." [ read more in On The Scene ] November 14, 2007 WORLD CINEMA | Gone Today; Here Tomorrow: Foreign Flicks Wait Out, Then Face Award Season Glut
by Anthony Kaufman (November 13, 2007) Foreign cinema lovers are facing a severe drought in U.S. movie theaters. During the crowded rush of award-season, when both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have recently published stories titled, respectively, "Not Just Some Movies: This is A Glut of Cinema" and "Arthouse Depression," there's one type of non-studio film that's nearly absent from both theaters and the debate surrounding the packed release calendar: world cinema. [ read more in Biz ] November 13, 2007 DISPATCH FROM NEW YORK | Iberoamerica: That's the Way We Are
by Howard Feinstein (November 13, 2007) At the beginning of November Mexico, Brazil, and, to a lesser extent, Spain and Portugal celebrated the Day of the Dead, a festive holiday whose symbol is a human skull. These cultures do not deny the finality of it all as do we North Americans, who mummify our decaying faces and bodies while we are still alive rather than in preparation for an afterlife. So it is absolutely natural that death, whether treated as comedy, tragedy, or simply generically, is a major presence in the cinema of Spain and Portugal and their former colonies in Latin America. The narratives and documentaries might be character or politically-driven, but they rarely stray from the netherworld. (We're talking real death, not the mindless mowdown perpetuated by the Hollywoodites who would sell their kids for a map to the Fountain of Youth). [ read more in On The Scene ] October 30, 2007 DISPATCH FROM TURKEY | Mysteries, Whirling Dervishes and Ancient Treasures Unfold at Antalya Fests
by Kerem Bayraktaroglu (October 30, 2007) In the mystical and ancient Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, sometimes referred to as the Turkish Riviera, international buyers and sellers from all over the world recently attended the Eurasia International Film Market (October 22 - 25), running parallel with the Antalya Film Festival and the third Eurasia International Festival, respectively (October 19 - 28th). Although one may instantly presume that Turkey has only one international film festival to offer, in the form of Istanbul, it is in fact Antalya that garners the most prestige and respect, as the country's oldest and more lavishly funded (by TurkSak). [ read more in On The Scene ] October 10, 2007 WORLD CINEMA | The Foreign-Language Oscar Race: Where (Almost) Anything Can Happen
by Anthony Kaufman (October 10, 2007) You've got to hand it to Bulgaria, Chile, and the Philippines: Year after year, the countries proudly enter their most celebrated films into the race for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film--with not a chance in hell of winning. And poor Portugal: it holds the record for most submissions without ever receiving a nomination. With the exception of Bosnian director Danis Tanovic's "No Man's Land" victory in 2002, the prize has never gone to a director from a developing country. [ read more in Movies ] October 9, 2007 DISPATCH FROM KOREA | Storms Brew for Korean Cinema, Though Pusan's Opening Night was Drenched with Fans
by Doug Jones (October 9, 2007) Rain crashed the party last Thursday at the opening night ceremony of the Pusan International Film Festival. With over 8,000 enthusiastic fans inside and out the open-air venue and a parade of Asian stars on the red carpet, the weather made itself felt for the first time in the festival's twelve-year history. For the pessimists in the crowd in search of a metaphor, the clouds overhead encapsulated the rough time Korean cinema has had this year. (Investment in film production is down from last year, and tickets sales for domestic films are at their lowest levels since 2001.) But for festival organizers, the rain was just a challenge to be meet with smiles, oversized umbrellas for the denizens of the red carpet and disposable plastic raincoats for everyone else. [ read more in On The Scene ]  DISPATCH FROM ICELAND | Reykjavik Turns Out for Young Fast Growing Festival
by Brian Brooks (October 9, 2007) Hungarian director Csaba Bollok took home the Reykjavik International Film Festival's "Discovery of the Year" award over the weekend, capping the eleven-day event in Iceland's capital. Though the festival is somewhat overshadowed Stateside by the New York Film Festival, which takes place concurrently, its northern counterpart has continued to attract an impressive list of guests, including this year Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, who received the festival's Creative Excellency Award from the President of Iceland as well as other special guests, including American filmmakers Larry Fessenden and Oscar-nominated doc director James Longley. [ read more in On The Scene ] October 8, 2007iW NEWS | IFC Gets 2 From NYFF: "Girl" & "Actresses"
IFC Entertainment has announced its acquisition two French films screening at the New York Film Festival, Claude Chabrol's "A Girl Cut in Two" and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's "Actresses." Already a box office hit in France, Chabrol's thriller opened there this summer and also screened at the Toronto and Venice festivals. Bruni Tedeschi's comedy "Actresses" was an award-winner at the Cannes Film Festival. Both films will be released theatrically and via cable V.O.D. next year. ]Eugene Hernandez] [permalink] [ filed under Acquisitions, World Cinema ] October 2, 2007AP: Paul Schrader to get film festival award
Paul Schrader, who gained his breakthrough with the script for "Taxi Driver," will receive a lifetime achievement award at this year's Stockholm International Film Festival. The 61-year-old writer-director is being recognized for his "unique voice, which gives life to sharp, relentless characters in a modern city," festival organizers said Tuesday. AP reports. [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] October 1, 2007  Ang Lee, James Schamus and "Lust, Caution"
photo by Brian Brooks, text by Eugene Hernandez (October 1, 2007) While Ang Lee's latest, "Lust, Caution" isn't playing at the New York Film Festival, Friday night on the Upper West Side of Manhattan it opened to huge crowds just across the street from Lincoln Center where the NYFF was kicking off (as reported in this week's indieWIRE BOT column). The night before, Focus Features toasted Lee's "Lust" after the director returned from a trip to Asia where the film has also been breaking records in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Introducing Lee at Thursday's Sunshine Cinema private screening, the film's screening (and Focus CEO) James Schamus praised the movie as a "translucent work of art" and quippped that the movie is, "our very first two-and-a-half hour Chinese porn movie." The film, set in Shanghai in 1942, is the story of a young woman (played by Tang Wei) who seeks to seduce a Japanese collaborator (Tony Leung), resulting in a torrid affair that becomes intense and emotional as the story unfolds. Welcoming the audience and calling the project ""really really special," Ang Lee added that making the movie and exploring such a profound period of history was like "getting something off my chest." The film expands to additional cities next week, October 5th. [ read more in iPOP ]  Introducing: Tang Wei
photo by Brian Brooks, text by Eugene Hernandez (October 1, 2007) Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" (Se, Jie) introduces the striking performance of 27 year old newcomer Tang Wei, an aspiring writer/director herself who had a small TV role before securing the part in Lee's sexy political thriller. At Thursday's Bowery Hotel party celebrating the film's New York City opening, the actress held court as a line of journalists waited to chat with her for a few moments. Chatting briefly with indieWIRE through a translator, she talked about the intense emotion of a performance that left her drained by the end of production. She seems particularly enthused by the reactions the film is stirring among its viewers, specifically women who have seen the movie. Explaining, she noted that while it can take men a bit of time to respond to her character's experiences, women seem to connect immediately. "Women can endure pain," she noted, adding that she is referring to not only the emotional aspects of the film, but also "the pain of history." [ read more in iPOP ] iW NEWS | Cinema Guild Gets Sokurov's Latest
Alexander Sokurov's "Alexandra" has been acquired for U.S. distribution by The Cinema Guild, the company announced today. Described as the story of "a Russian grandmother who travels to a remote military outpost to visit her grandson," "Alexandra" is set to screen later this week at the New York Film Festival after a debut earlier this year in Cannes. The pact was brokered by Rezo Films. 'Alexandra's' story of a nation mired in a seemingly endless war should resonate with many in this country," said Cinema Guild's Ryan Krivoshey, in a statement. [permalink] [ filed under Acquisitions, World Cinema ] September 25, 2007AFP: Holocaust in focus at San Sebastian Film Festival
Spain's San Sebastian Film Festival Monday turned to the Holocaust with Paolo Barzman's searing "Emotional Arithmetic" about three friends who are reunited decades after meeting in a Nazi concentration camp. The movie, based on a novel by the late Canadian author Matt Cohen, revolves around a middle-aged woman, played by Susan Sarandon, who catches up with two fellow survivors of Drancy--a transit camp outside Paris--in Quebec some 40 years later. AFP reports. [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] September 24, 2007AFP: Afghan girl's struggle for learning showcased at Spain film fest
A young Afghan girl's harrowing struggle for an education in the shadow of the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas is chronicled in a Franco-Iranian film screened Saturday at the oldest and most prestigious film festival in the Spanish-speaking world. Set in central Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, where the Taliban blew up the two giant Buddhas in 2001, "Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame" is "a very uncompromising film that shows the influence of real life on children," the San Sebastian Film Festival's director Mikel Olaciregui told AFP. Virginie Grognou reports. [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] September 20, 2007AP: San Sebastian Film Festival opens
Political and social stories again take center stage at the San Sebastian Film Festival--the oldest and most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world, which kicks off Thursday evening. The Iraq conflict gets high-profile attention with Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha" in the official competition, an investigation into the 2005 killing of 24 civilians in Haditha by U.S. Marines. The 10-day festival was opening with David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises," a thriller about London's criminal underworld starring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen. [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ]  REVIEW | Morning Glory: Zabou Breitman's "The Man of My Life"
by Michael Koresky (September 20, 2007) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Ebbing and flowing on the buzz of one all-night conversation, French director Zabou Breitman's "The Man of My Life" sketches the blossoming relationship between two fortysomething men: the happily married Frederic and his unattached, gay neighbor Hugo. And though occasionally its strength is sapped by heavy-handed symbolic gestures, "The Man of My Life" is a surprisingly unsentimental take on somewhat dubious character types. Just when it seems like Breitman's made another case study in how much the free-spirited homo can teach the sheltered hetero, the director actually manages to free her two main men from the burden of most cliches. [ read more in Movies ] September 13, 2007iW NEWS | Cronenberg, Lee, Anderson, Lynch and More on Tap for 51st London Film Fest
Seven world, 29 European and 128 U.K. premieres are slated for teh 51st BFI London Film Festival, taking place in the British capital October 17 - November 1. As previously announced, David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" will kick off the event, which will screen 184 features and 133 shorts in addition to "screen talks," masterclasses and other programs. Ang Lee's Venice Golden Lion winner "Lust, Caution" joins the roster along with Alexander Sokurov's "Alexandra," Francois Ozon's "Angel," Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," Takeshi Kitano's "Glory to the Filmmaker," Andrew Dominik's "The Assassination of Jesse Jame by the Coward Robert Ford," Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" and Rodrigo Pla's "La Zona" among many more. A host of filmmakers including Wes Anderson (whose "The Darjeeling Limited" will close the festival), Laura Linney, Steve Buscemi, Harmony Korine, Robert Rodriguez and Paul Greengrass will take to the stage to discuss their careers, while David Lynch and Donovan will take part in "Catching the Big Fish" together. "In a very strong year for world cinema, we are delighted to be able to present such a wide ranging and high quality programme of films and special events, in which work by internationally renowned directors sits comfortably alongside that from many exciting new talents," commented Artistic Director Sandra Hebron in a statement. "We look forward to welcoming filmmakers, audiences and press and industry delegates alike to our two week celebration of the best, most creative and original films of the year." For more information and a full line up, visit the festival's website. [Brian Brooks] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] September 6, 2007 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "The Bubble" Director Eytan Fox
by indieWIRE (September 7, 2007) Isreali director Eytan Fox has followed up 2004's "Walk On Water" with "The Bubble," a film that earned a warm reception at last year's Toronto International Film Festival. The film explores the Tel Aviv's isolated relationship to the rest of its conflicted country through the eyes of a group of friends with varying genders, religions and sexual orientations. The film opens this week in limited release. [ read more in People ] September 5, 2007 WORLD CINEMA | Foreign Flicks Checklist: 10+ New Films to Watch at Fall Fests
by Anthony Kaufman (September 5, 2007) Searching for the newest, best and most anticipated in world cinema at this fall's film festivals is no easy feat. Let's face it: the year's most significant foreign-language pictures probably already premiered last summer in Cannes. Many of these films will be showing up again in Venice, Toronto and New York--from "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "The Last Mistress," and "Persepolis" to "Secret Sunshine" and "Silent Light"--and it's often the case that the majority of what's new on programmers' plates doesn't compare. But, of course, with 101 world premieres at Toronto alone, one can hopefully expect another 5 - 10% of positive returns. [ read more in Movies ] September 4, 2007iW NEWS | "Ben X" and "A Secret" Share top Montreal Prizes
Dutch director Nic Balthazar's "Ben X" shared the Grand prix of the Americas prize with French director Claude Miller's "A Secret" at the recent Montreal World Film Festival. Also taking prizes were Swiss production "1 Day" (1 Journee) which received Best Director for Jacob Berger and Israeli Ayelet Menahemi's "Noodle, which received the special grand prix of the jury. Andrea Sawaktzki took best actress for her role in "The Other Boy" by Volker Einrauch. Best actor went to Filipe Duarte and Tomas Almeida for their roles in "The Other Side" by Luis Filipe Rocha. Laif Lahlou took best screenplay for "Samira's Garden." For more information and other awards, visit the festival's website. [Brian Brooks] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] August 29, 2007 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Vanaja" Director Rajnesh Domalpalli
by indieWIRE (August 28, 2007) Indian director Rajnesh Domalpalli's "Vanaja" centers on the 15 year-old daughter of a financially troubled fisherman. The girl goes to work in the local landlady's house hoping to learn Kuchipudi dance and does well. But, the landlady's son returns from the U.S. and what begins as an innocent sexual chemistry turns ugly, resulting in rape. Set in rural South India, a place where social barriers are built stronger than ancient fort walls, the film explores the chasm that divides classes as a young girl struggles to come of age. The fim screened last year in the Discovery section at the Toronto International Film Festival and also won Best Feature Debut at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival. "Vanaja" opens Friday, August 31 at New York's Cinema Village and September 14 in Los Angeles and Chicago with other cities to follow. [ read more in People ] iW NEWS | Chinese and Japanese Films to Bookend Pusan Film Fest
Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's "Assembly" and Japanese anime "Evagelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone" by Hideaki Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki will bookend the upcoming 12th Pusan International Film Festival, taking place October 4 - 12 in South Korea. Feng's ("The Banquet") "Assembly" is described as "a human drama of a soldier who devotes his entire life to redeeming the honor of his fellow soldiers who are declared missing in action." Adapted for the cinema from a 1995 television animation series entitled "Neon Genesis Evangelion," which itself eventually went to theaters in 1997 with "unprecedented" box office success in Japan, "Evangelion 1.0" is "re-born" according to organizers. The latest installment, which will have its international premiere in Pusan, contains what is described as a "new ending and new interpretation" from the original. [Brian Brooks] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] August 26, 2007iW NEWS | "A Man's Fear of God" Takes Top Prize at Sarajevo Fest
Turkish director Ozer Kiziltan's "A Man's Fear of God" (Takva) has won best film at the Sarajevo Film Festival Saturday night, taking the 25,000 euro "Heart of Sarajevo" Award, while local filmmaker Teona Strugar-Mitevska's "I'm from Titov Veles" received a special jury prize. Namik Kabil's "Interrogation" received best doc and Andrey Paounov received the Human Rights Award for "The mosquito problem and other stories." Best actor went to Sasa Petrovic for SFF's opening night film, "It's Hard to be Nice" by Srdan Vuletic, and "Egg" (director Semih Kaplanoglu) star Saadet Islil Aksoy won best actress. The prize for best short went to "The Waves" by Adrian Sitaru. [Brian Brooks] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ]  DISPATCH FROM MONTREAL | Back from the Brink, Montreal World Fest Kicks off
by Robert Avila (August 26, 2007) Opening weekend of the 31st annual Montreal World Film Festival (Festival des films du monde) saw prominent film talent feted for work in front of and behind the camera beginning, on Friday, with actor Jon Voight. Voight, on hand for lifelong achievement festivities in his honor, was also there with "September Dawn," making its Canadian premiere as one of two US films in international competition for the fest's grand prize (the other, "Spinning Into Butter," an indie starring Sarah Jessica Parker, is adapted from Rebecca Gilman's play about racism at a small New England college). "Dawn" describes another historic September 11 on US soil 150 years ago when Utah Mormons massacred a wagon train of men, women, and children. [ read more in On The Scene ] August 22, 2007 DISPATCH FROM SARAJEVO | Local Titles and International Hits Mix This Week at Sarajevo Fest
by Brian Brooks (August 22, 2007) "Sarajevo is certainly evidence of the resilience of the human spirit," commented one filmmaker off the cuff over the weekend at one of many informal gatherings organized by the very hospitable Sarajevo Film Festival. Now entering its teens, SFF may not have yet reached the cache of some of its older and richer Western European brethren in Berlin, Edinburgh or San Sebastian, but for a city that only a little over a decade ago emerged from a three year siege that left thousands dead in its wake, SFF has amassed a world class event luring top-notch filmmakers and others for its relatively young 13th outing, including high-profile titles like Cannes Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and Two Days" by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu who came into town, as well as fellow Cannes honorees "Persepolis" by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi (a highly praised animated film that has managed to continually piss off the regime in Iran). [ read more in On The Scene ] August 18, 2007Reuters: Sarajevo festival shows films it helped produce
Bosnia's soul-searching "It's Hard to be Nice" opens the 13th Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF), the biggest celebration of Balkan cinema, on Friday evening. Film selector Elma Tataragic said movies proposed as projects at the festival's CineLink co-production market in previous years would for the first time be shown. "We have finally fulfilled our dream--that authors propose and develop their projects at CineLink, find co-producers there, complete the films and show them at the festival," Tataragic told Reuters. [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ]  Sarajevo Film Festival | Opening Night
by Brian Brooks (August 18, 2007) Sarajevo Film Festival Panorama section head programmer Howard Feinstein (and frequent indieWIRE contributor) with "Suely in the Sky" director Karim Ainouz at the opening evening cocktail party Friday night near the historic old town of the city in the grounds of a villa once used by former Yugoslavian dictator Marshall Tito when he was in town. Ainouz's Brazilian film, about a wayward woman who returns to her small town after living in Sao Paulo and takes on menial jobs before giving prostitution a round only to give that trade and men in general up... The screening took place in a packed outdoor screening in the courtyard of a fire station with surprisingly great acoustics. The atmosphere prior to the screening was very festive with music as well as people drinking beer and dancing in their apartment balconies overlooking the courtyard waiting for the film to begin. Following the screening, Ainouz commented, "In Brazil, it is often that the men leave and it's the women who are left behind. So I wanted to try and imagine how it is when the women leave... For me, it was also giving empowerment to women." [ read more in iPOP ] August 16, 2007 FESTIVALS | Local Filmmaker's "It's Hard to Be Nice" Opening 13th Sarajevo Film Festival; Fest Spotlights Int'l Fare
by Brian Brooks (August 15, 2007) Local filmmaker Srdan Vuletic's "It's Hard to be Nice" is opening the 13th Sarajevo Film Festival this Friday, August 17, kicking off the event which continues in the capital of the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina through August 25. The Eastern European-heavy festival are also slated to host filmmakers Michael Moore and Terry George in addition to gala screenings for Cannes '07 Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" by Romanian Cristian Mungiu as well as Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's "Import Export." [ read more in On The Scene ] August 14, 2007iW NEWS | Pusan Promotion Plan Selects 35 Titles for October Event
Asian pre-market project the Pusan Promotion Plan has selected 35 films from 18 countries that will participate in its tenth edition, which coincides with the Asian Film Market and the Pusan International Film Festival in October. Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi ("Half Moon") joins the roster with his untitled project, while Fruit Chan ("Dumplings") will take part with "Don't Look Up." "Tsotsi" producer Peter Fudakowski will take part with "The Secret Sharer," while Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang travels to Pusan as producer for "New Sorrowful to a Ghost." U.S. co-productions include "First Page Taipei," "The Flicker's Dance" and "The Sea of Tranquility." Slated for October 8 - 11, the event will once again partner with IFP New York's No Borders project, in which select titles will screen at the IFP Market in addition to PPP's ongoing partnerships with Rotterdam's Cinemart, HAF (Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum) and the Producers Network of the Cannes Marche du Film. For more information including PPP's full line up, visit their website. [Brian Brooks] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] AFP: Biggest-budget S. Korean movie set for US debut
A monster movie which is South Korea's biggest-budget film has become a sell-out at home before its release next month in the United States, the distributor said Monday. "D-War," a graphics-rich science fiction blockbuster, has sold 5.7 million tickets since its release on August 1, distributor ShowBox said. At 30 million dollars the movie is the most expensive film ever made in South Korea. It is to be shown on 1,700 screens in the United States on September 14, the widest US release for a Korean film. AFP reports. [permalink] [ filed under Movies, World Cinema ] August 10, 2007iW NEWS | San Sebastian Fest to Showcase a Wave of Nordic Cinema
Thirty-eight films will screen during a recent retrospective of Nordic cinema set for the 55th San Sebastian Film Festival (September 20 - 29, 2007). Dubbed, "Cold Fever - The New Nordic Cinema," the program will feature work dating back to 1995, including the famous Dogme 95 movement. Films from Denmark will include a pair from Lars Von Trier ("Breaking the Waves", "The Idiots") as well as films from Thomas Vinterberg ("The Celebration") and Lone Scherfig ("Italian for Beginners"), among others, while from Sweden, work from Moodysson ("Fucking Amal", "A Hole in My Heart"), and Bergman ("Saraband") are on tap. From Norway, the fest will screen work by Bent Hamer ("Eggs", "Kitchen Stories") and Hans Petter Moland ("Zero Kelvin"), while from Finland a pair of Kaurismaki films ("Drifting Clouds", "The Man Without a Past") are among the titles on tap, and from Iceland, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's "Cold Fever" will join a roster of more recent films. The complete list of films set for the retrospective are available on the festival's website. [Eugene Hernandez] [permalink] [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ] August 9, 2007 DISPATCH FROM SWITZERLAND | Still Grounded and Focused, Locarno Fest Thrives at 60
by Jonny Leahan (August 9, 2007) Something must have been in the air during the summer of 1946, because in the span of about ten days, two of Europe's most important film festivals were born, and a third was re-launched. On august 23rd, some 60 years ago, the Locarno International Film Festival opened with a screening of Giacomo Gentilomo's "O Sole Mio" on the lawn of the Grand Hotel. In the coming days, the Venice Film Festival was reborn, followed by the debut of the Cannes Film Festival (technically founded in 1939 on the eve of WWII.) [ read more in On The Scene ] August 8, 2007 indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "2 Days in Paris" Director Julie Delpy
by Erica Abeel (August 8, 2007) Julie Delpy is the thinking man's ideal Frenchwoman--at least in her screen persona of Celine, the enchantress she created in Richard Linklater's cult films, "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset." An etherial porcelain blonde, Celine is sexually knowing yet unthreatening; independent but vulnerable; articulate, principled and a bit flaky. Better yet, she has a way with a Nina Simone song (see final scene of "Before Sunset") that would have kept even a steadier husband than Jesse from flying home to his wife. Now with "2 Days in Paris" (opening August 10th by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Red Envelope) multi-hyphenate Delpy makes her bow as a filmmaker. [ read more in People ]
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