El Aura / The Aura (2005)
Direction and screenplay: Fabián Bielinsky. Cast: Ricardo Darín, Dolores Fonzi, Pablo Cedrón, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Jorge D’Elia<
THE OTHER SIDE
I had high hopes for writer-director Fabián Bielinsky’s second feature film, El Aura / The Aura — Argentina’s 2005 submission for the Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award and the winner [...]
After debating whether to catch a late Tuesday night show at the Los Angeles Film Festival or just hit the sack early and catch more movies the day after, I finally decided to watch writer-director Mike Ott’s Analog Days, which revolves around a group of aimless twenty-somethings stuck in the dredges of Southern California - [...]
Last night , after miraculously crossing the Wilshire & Westwood intersection at rush hour without being run over - no small feat, even when the WALK sign is on - I watched Sarah Kelly’s The Lather Effect at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The theater was packed - considering the amount of whistles, squeals, and [...]
On Sunday, I watched Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Thus far, this has been one of the most unusual films I’ve seen all year. I’m not talking about bizarre camera angles or special photographic effects. What’s unusual about this well-acted (by Daniel London and Will Oldham), beautifully photographed (by Peter [...]
I caught Half Nelson at the Los Angeles Film Festival this past Saturday. Although this raw, edgy drama could use a little trimming, I was mesmerized by Ryan Gosling’s performance as Dan, a crack-addicted, inner-city school history teacher who resorts to drugs in spite of (or perhaps because of) his desire to change the [...]
9th Shanghai International Film Festival Awards
The 9th Shanghai International Film Festival was held between June 17-25, 2006.
The 9th Shanghai International Film Festival Awards were announced on June 25, 2006.
BEST FILM
VIER MINUTEN / FOUR MINUTES (Germany) by Chris Kraus
JURY GRAND PRIX
THE FOREST RANGER (China) by Qi Jian
BEST DIRECTOR
Fabienne Godet for SAUF LE [...]
Posted in Film, Film Festivals on June 26th, 2006 No Comments »
Today’s highlights at the Los Angeles Film Festival include:
Andrucha Waddington’s Casa de Areia / House of Sand (2 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood), a period Brazilian drama starring real-life mother and daughter Fernanda Montenegro (Central do Brasil / Central Station) and Fernanda Torres;
Bohdan Sláma’s Czech comedy-drama Stestí / Something Like [...]
The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
Direction: Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross. Screenplay: Uncredited. Cast: Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Afran Usman, Waqar Siddiqui
CIRCUS OF HORRORS
In Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross’s docudrama The Road to Guantanamo, you won’t find the trio Bing Crosby-Bob Hope-Dorothy Lamour making merry with the natives of some tropical paradise or other. Instead, [...]
Press Release:
An evil goblin king, a talking door knocker, fairies and a colony of goblins will join producer/director Brian Henson and members of the Jim Henson Creature Shop at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 20th anniversary screening and onstage discussion of Labyrinth (1986) on Thursday, July 20, at 8 p.m. at the [...]
The Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills will present a “retrospective of the early films of the first ‘film town,’ Fort Lee, New Jersey.”
Additionally, a series of films will pay tribute to New Jersey-born comedian Lou Costello’s centennial.
From Studio Screenings:
“Greetings From New Jersey” at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills presented by the [...]
© A.M.P.A.S.
Press Release:
The 1968 Best Picture nominee Funny Girl will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. Director William Wyler’s only musical will be shown on Monday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Academy’s [...]
Vincent Sherman, the director of numerous glossy Warner Bros. melodramas of the 1940s, died of natural causes Sunday night at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills.
Among his most important films are The Hard Way (1942), with Ida Lupino and Joan Leslie; Mr. Skeffington (1944), with Bette [...]
Via the Daily Mail: A chance find has unearthed what is supposed to be - and I stress supposed to be - the first British film and the first crime film ever made. No, this is not a feature-length film noir, but a fifty-second depiction of a pickpocket at work in the late 19th century.
Arrest [...]
Film and television actor Arthur Franz, 86, died Saturday, June 18, at St. John’s Hospital in Oxnard, Calif., of heart failure and emphysema. Until recently, Franz had been living in New Zealand.
The New Jersey-born actor appeared in a number of feature films from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, usually playing amiable supporting characters. [...]
The Lake House (2006)
Direction: Alejandro Agresti. Screenplay: David Auburn, from the motion picture Siworae / Il Mare, written by Eun-Jeong Kim and Ji-na Yeo. Cast: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Christopher Plummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Willeke van Ammelrooy, Dylan Walsh
FORWARD TO THE FUTURE
In The Lake House, Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves play two pen [...]
Via The [London] Telegraph: Private correspondence between actor Dirk Bogarde (Victim, Darling) and film critic Dilys Powell reveals that Bogarde - one of the most popular and respected British actors of the 20th century - was considerably more caustic in his letters than in his autobiographies. (He wrote several books of memoirs, none of which [...]
Posted in Film, Film Awards on June 20th, 2006 No Comments »
Michel Hazanavicius’s French spy spoof OSS 117: Le Caire nid d’espions / OSS 117: Nest of Spies won the Golden Space Needle Award at the 32nd annual Seattle International Film Festival.
Other winners include Best Director Goran Dukic for Wristcutters: A Love Story (U.S.), a comedy set in a way station for those who have [...]
Posted in Film, Film Awards on June 18th, 2006 No Comments »
32nd Seattle International Film Festival Awards
The 32nd Seattle International Film Festival was held between May 25-June 18, 2006.
The 32nd Seattle International Film Festival Awards were announced on June 18, 2006.
2006 Seattle Film Festival Winners — Article
Jury Awards
New Directors Showcase Award: Host & Guest, director Shin Dong-il
Special Jury Prize: Grain in Ear, [...]
7th International Indian Film Academy Awards - IIFA Awards 2006
The 7th International Indian Film Academy Award winners were announced at the Airport Expo in Dubai on June 16, 2006.
Note: Winners of the Popular Categories are chosen by the public, who vote on the nominees selected by the International Indian Film Academy. Technical Categories have [...]
More on Olivia de Havilland: The actress will reportedly write her memoirs for HarperCollins. Editor Maureen O’Brien will work with her on the book.
Last night at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne was on hand to chat with de Havilland, who received three standing ovations throughout the evening.
De Havilland, who [...]
Tonight is the Academy Tribute to Olivia de Havilland (who will turn 90 on July 1). According to the Academy’s press release, the tribute "will feature film clips from many of her unforgettable performances and testimonials from several of her co-stars and long-time friends."
The Academy will also screen several de Havilland films in the next [...]
Via MSNBC/Associated Press: Catherine Deneuve will preside the jury of the 2006 Venice Film Festival. In a joint statement, Venice Biennale president Davide Croff and festival director Marco Muller said they were "proud that a personality like Catherine Deneuve" would act as jury president.
Deneuve won the Best Actress Volpi Cup at Venice in 1998 [...]
Via the Morocco Times: Kamal Kamal’s Moroccan Symphony will be Morocco’s submission for the 2007 Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award. The film tells the story of a group of people who create an orchestra in order to play a symphony composed by a recently deceased friend. Their ultimate goal is to perform at London’s Albert [...]
Recommended reading: Aviva Berlin has an interesting interview with Yael Reuveny, director of Kleine Miriam´L, which is described as "a brilliant short film about Yiddish, and living in Berlin as a Jew."
Brief excerpt:
"My identity is defiantly an Israeli one. People born in Israel are a product of a cultural melting pot. This produces a kind [...]
Press Release:
The 1967 Best Picture nominees Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Bonnie and Clyde will be screened as the next features in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. Both films received 10 Academy Award® nominations and took home Oscars® in two categories. A brand new print of [...]
