Alternative Film Guide

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards ceremony was held earlier this evening at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The 2008 winners are (synopses from the Academy’s website):

Honorary Foreign Film
On the Line (Auf der Strecke) (above), Reto Caffi, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Germany

Alternative*
Gold [...]

I’ve just learned that Flags of Our Fathers actor Adam Beach will be on hand at a reception and awards ceremony celebrating the eighth annual Media That Matters Film Festival in New York City on Thursday, May 29th.
According to its website, the Media That Matters Film Festival "is the premier showcase for short films on [...]

Today, the quarterly DVD Journal of Short Film released its Volume 11 (Spring 2008) issue, which features 24 filmmakers from Portland, Oregon. Portland filmmaker Karl Lind served as guest editor.
Following is a list of the films in Volume 11:
1.SPHERES Jeremy Bird (1:00)
2.TO WATCH IN PREPARATION OF THE DEEP FALL Mack McFarland (1:30)
3.THE FOREST John [...]

Eleven students from eight US colleges and universities have been named winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. The winners will take part in a week of industry-related activities and social events, culminating in the awards ceremony on June 7 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater [...]

Thirty-two students from 20 American colleges and universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Their films will be judged by Academy members, who will then vote to select the winners.
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal awards, in addition to cash prizes [...]

Five finalists will compete for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Honorary Foreign Film award in the 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. As per the Academy’s press release, the winning foreign student filmmaker and the US-based Student Academy Award winners will be brought to Los Angeles "to participate in a week of [...]

Pangea Day, billed as "the result of documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim’s 2006 TED Prize wish" is a global film event to be held on May 10, 2008.
According to the organization’s press release, "Pangea Day aims to leverage the unifying power of film by encouraging everyone in the world to watch the same films, submitted [...]

Students representing 114 U.S. colleges and universities are competing in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Student Academy Awards. Additionally, film students from 29 countries are vying for the Honorary Foreign Film award, including a first-ever entry from Cuba. The winners will be announced on Saturday, June 7, at the Samuel Goldwyn [...]

One dozen cartoons, including Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937), Heckling Hare (1941), and What’s Opera, Doc? (1957), will be screened at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Monday Nights with Oscar" presentation of "Putting Looney in the Toons," on Monday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy Theater in New York City.
Animator John [...]

The Journal of Short Film (JSF) is inviting filmmakers to submit short films for consideration in their Volume 12 (Summer 2008) issue. The deadline is May 6. The JSF, a DVD quarterly published since 2005, has, as per its press release, "an open and free submissions process." Submission guidelines can be found at www.theJSF.org.
The JSF [...]

To celebrate Bette Davis‘ centenary, Dr. Martin Shingler will give "an illustrated lecture on Bette’s movies and why gay men and lesbians love her so." (Talk about a sweeping generalization…)

Many consider Irving Rapper’s Now, Voyager (1942) the best Bette Davis vehicle of her Warner Bros. years. I’m not one of those many. I find [...]

Mala Noche (1985) was Gus Van Sant’s first feature film. Its stream-of-consciousness narrative may be off-putting to some, but Tim Streeter’s performance as a Portland man madly in lust-cum-love with a Mexican immigrant (Doug Cooeyate) should impress just about everyone.

Todd Haynes‘ all-star homage to Bob Dylan, I’m Not There, was considered innovative by some, tedious [...]

Fitna, the work of hate created by Dutch far-right-wing member of Parliament Geert Wilders, is now available online. (Don’t expect a link to it here.)
I managed to watch bits and pieces of it before fast-forwarding through repetitive hate-filled discourses by fanatical Muslim clerics interspersed with scenes depicting terrorist attacks committed by Muslim fanatics. By using [...]

The documentary-focused Full Frame Film Festival, to be held in Durham, N.C., from April 3–6, has announced its 2008 film line-up.
Among the entries are James Marsh’s Man on Wire, about Frenchman Philippe Petite’s balancing act between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, and the winner of the World Cinema Jury Prize [...]

More than 40 programs will showcase new work from filmmakers, performers, and artists from 20 countries at the 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF), which runs from March 25-30.
On the avant-garde front, the AAFF will present the U.S. premiere of Pip Chodorov’s Faux Mouvements (Wrong Moves) in the Cracking the Space/Time Continuum program "of [...]

The Dancing Pig, The Haunted Hotel (above and bottom, right), Ben-Hur, and The Teddy Bears will be among more than a dozen early short films screened at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Monday Nights with Oscar" presentation of "A Century Ago: The Films of 1907," on Monday, April 7, at the Academy [...]

And you thought that Australia is a democracy, where adults are allowed to make their own choices regarding the movies (or books?) they want to enjoy without government interference? Well, think again…
Via the 2008 Melbourne Queer Film Festival website:
"The films they didn’t want you to see!
"The Melbourne Queer Film Festival special presentation of The Erotic [...]

Babelgum, described as "the new interactive web TV portal," has made available for viewing all entries to the Babelgum Online Film Festival. More than a thousand entries — about a quarter of which are "premieres"; average length: 12 minutes — from 86 countries (mostly the US and the UK) are available so Internet users [...]

Since March 6, the American Cinematheque has been screening the 2008 Oscar nominated shorts (both live action and animated — but no documentaries). The screenings continue until Thursday, March 13.
Schedules and brief synopses are from the Cinematheque’s press release. (All films have English subtitles if in another language.)

OSCAR NOMINATED LIVE ACTION SHORTS
Screens nightly at [...]

Tuesday, April 1 is the deadline for U.S. student filmmakers to submit their films for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Student Academy Awards. As per the Academy’s press release, "the Student Academy Awards is a national annual competition designed to recognize and encourage promising new filmmakers.
"Applications and a complete list of [...]

Looney Tunes collaborators Tex Avery and Michael Maltese will be honored in a double centennial tribute by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater at the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood.
"Putting Looney in the Toons" will showcase several [...]

Recommended reading: On the The Independent’s Indyblogs, Jerome Taylor discusses Geert Wilders‘ as-yet-unreleased anti-Islam short Fitna.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
"An unapologetic critic of Islam, Mr [Geert] Wilders‘ rabidly populist rhetoric has won him both fans and enemies in a country already strained with religious tension following the murder of the controversial Dutch [...]

Agence France-Presse reports that organizers of the Cairo International Film Festival for Children has agreed to reinstate Mischa Kamp’s Dutch film Where is Sinterklaas’ Horse? (above) after banning it because Dutch far-right member of parliament Geert Wilders is planning to show a 15-minute anti-Muslim short, Fitna, online this month.
As per the AFP report, Fitna in [...]

CineKink NYC 2008 will take place from February 26–March 2. The scheduled shorts and features sound kinky enough, but I can only vouch for two that I’ve seen: John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus and Anna Biller’s Viva.
The former, a sexual dramatic-comedy about various New York City couples of myriad sexual orientations and dysfunctions, was screened [...]

CineKink — the name says it all — has announced the opening night selections for its fifth annual film festival, CineKink NYC. The event, scheduled for February 26–March 2, 2008, is described as "a pansexual celebration that will also feature music, live performances and a fundraising silent auction."
The selections are:

Richard Kimmel’s Schwarzwald, which [...]