Alternative Film Guide

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
If there has ever been a more over-interpreted and stolidly misinterpreted film than director Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 Straw Dogs, I’ve yet to encounter it. Films like Citizen Kane and 2001: A Space Odyssey have had more ink spilled over them, but most of the ideas tossed about are on the money, [...]

By Franck Tabouring
The Astronaut Farmer is considerably more than the story of a guy who builds a rocket. In truth, writer/director Michael Polish and co-screenwriter Mark Polish have concocted a tale about devotion, in which a man pursues his far-fetched dream at any cost, categorically refusing to let anyone interfere with his plans. As an [...]

Perhaps there’s hope for this evening’s Oscar ceremony.
On Saturday, I watched (most of) the French Academy of Film Arts and Sciences‘ 32nd César du cinéma ceremony held last night (late morning/early afternoon Los Angeles time) at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
The event, hosted by actress Valérie Lemercier and dedicated to recently deceased French film [...]

WNYC, New York Public Radio and the largest public radio station in the United States, has interviews with Oscar-nominated actors and directors, commentaries on the nominated films, discussions on the state of film soundtracks, and a weeklong Film Score Orgy streaming on their website.
Go to www.wnyc.org/arts/articles/73966 to listen to:

Film Score Orgy: 24/7 streaming audio [...]

The American Cinematheque is hosting an Oscar Viewing Party at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, a mere couple of blocks from the Kodak Theatre, where the statuettes will be handed out next Sunday.
Here’s the schedule and general information, from the Cinematheque’s press release:
2 PM sharp
Doors open for Buffet, Cocktails, Pre-Oscar® banter and [...]

Mexican-born Emmanuel Lubezki, one of filmdom’s top cinematographers, became the third non-American in a row to win the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) feature-film award for his work in the Anglo-American production Children of Men.
According to Variety, Lubezki’s win "further establish[es] the internationalization of a body that started doling out its own kudos partly in [...]

Via Jim Emerson’s "Your Oscar speech: How not to blow it" at MSN Movies. Below is Rule #2. It refers to Halle Berry’s 2002 acceptance speech:
Don’t Assume That God Voted for You
No incarnation of the Creator of All Things is registered as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and nowhere [...]

Oscar telecast producer Laura Ziskin has announced the musical performers at the upcoming 79th Academy Awards.
Beyoncé will perform “Listen” (music by Henry Krieger and Scott Cutler, lyric by Anne Preven), one of three Original Song nominees from the musical Dreamgirls.
Jennifer Hudson will be singing “Love You I Do” (music by Henry Krieger and lyric [...]

AMPAS has announced the — supposedly complete — roster of presenters at the upcoming Oscar ceremony, which will be held next Sunday, February 25, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.
The updated list consists of: Ben Affleck, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jessica Biel, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, George [...]

While checking out this week’s Truthdig news reports, I found the following link:
Pamela Anderson’s Explicit New Video
Sadly, however, this is a different sort of explicitness — it’s not the sensuousness of the human body that is exposed here, but the vileness of the human mind. Warning: The video on the PETA (People for the Ethical [...]

In the paragraph below, the word "entrepreneurs" surely means "workers"
Press Release:
The Jeevika South Asia Documentary Festival, which began in 2003, aims at capturing the livelihood challenges faced by the rural and urban poor and bringing it to the attention of current and future policy makers. Over the years, Jeevika has been successful in advocating for [...]

© Jeff Codori
 
By Jeff Codori
Those who truly know film history know Colleen Moore: the quintessential 1920s flapper whose bobbed hair was the fashion plate for millions of young women everywhere. What most people do not know is that there was far more to the actress than the fun-loving, zany image she left behind — [...]

Via San Francisco’s YBCA website:
2007 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
March 2, 8, 15 & 22
$8 regular, $6 seniors, students & teachers/ $6 YBCA members
In collaboration with the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, we present a selection of powerful documentaries. Human Rights Watch’s International Film Festival has become a leading venue for distinguished fiction [...]

2006 Bodil Awards
The Danish Film Critics Association’s 2006 Bodil Award winners were announced at the Imperial Biografen in Copenhagen on February 25, 2007.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Pernille Fischer Christensen’s A Soap revolves around the unlikely romance that develops between two neighbors: the owner of a beauty salon (Trine Dyrholm) and a pre-op transsexual [...]

Quebec’s 2007 Jutra Awards, presented on Sunday, Feb. 18, offered a whole array of surprises.
Even though the bilingual box-office smash Bon Cop, Bad Cop and the drama Un dimanche à Kigali / A Sunday in Kigali received the most nominations — 12 apiece — both were completely shut out of the film, acting, directing, [...]

A sophisticated spy thriller directed by Billy Ray, Breach creates suspense through intense dialogue exchanges and strong character development, thus avoiding big explosions, repetitive gunfights, and wild car chases.
The film is based on the true story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), a traitor who provoked one of the biggest security breaches in [...]

Via the European Jewish Press:
"The Israeli cinematographic industry has rarely come out on top in the official Competition Section but this year, Joseph Cedar changed all that by winning the Silver Bear for Best Director for his war-[sic] anti-war film Beaufort.
"The movie tells the story of Liraz Liberti, the 22-year-old commander of the south Lebanese [...]

"When I started making films, my teacher said film should show people’s dreams. This film made my dreams come true," remarked Chinese director Wang Quan’an upon accepting the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear for his rural drama Tu ya de hun shi / Tuya’s Marriage, a depiction of the social and environmental costs of China’s [...]

The feature-film winners at the 11th Art Directors Guild Awards — like those at the Costume Designers Guild Awards — were all international productions made outside Hollywood.
In the period film category, the ADG Award went to Huo Tingxiao for Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia / Curse of the Golden Flower; the fantasy [...]

The winners at the 9th Costume Designers Guild Awards were announced yesterday at a ceremony in Beverly Hills.
All three winners in the feature-film categories worked on movies outside Hollywood — in fact, outside the United States. The best costume design for contemporary film went to Consolata Boyle for The Queen; for fantasy film to Lala [...]

2007 Berlin Film Festival Awards
2007 Berlin Film Festival: February 8–18, 2007
Berlin Film Festival 2007 Winners - Article
2007 Berlinale: Films in Competition
 
International Competition

Golden Bear for the Best Film: Tu ya de hun shi / Tuya’s Marriage by Wang Quan’an
Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix: El Otro / The Other by Ariel Rotter
Silver [...]

Is Sandra Hüller possessed by the devil, or is she suffering from a bad case of indigestion? The Catholic priests, of course, are ready to believe in the worst.
The association of German film critics has announced their list of 2006 winners.
Surprisingly, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Das Leben der Anderen / The Lives of Others [...]

Press Release:
The 13th London Australian Film Festival
Thursday 15 March – Sunday 25 March
The ten-day London Australian Film Festival returns to the Barbican for its 13th consecutive year with the biggest and strongest programme yet of 25 new features (including for the first time this year all the 2006 Australian Film Institute award winners), eight documentaries, [...]

According to an AMPAS press release, voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must return their completed final Oscar ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20.
Ballots received after the 5 p.m. deadline will not be counted.
Following PricewaterhouseCoopers’ tabulation of the votes, the winners’ names will be placed in [...]

2006 Jutra Awards
2006 Jutra Award Winners: Théâtre Maisonneuve de la Place des Arts in Montreal on February 18, 2007
2006 Prix Jutra Winners - Article
2006 Prix Jutra Nominees - Article

("*" denotes the winner in each category)

 
BEST FILM / MEILLEUR FILM
Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Kevin Tierney (Park Ex Pictures)
* Congorama, Luc Déry — Kim McCraw (micro_scope, Tarantula)
Un [...]