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AFI FEST 2009: THE LAST STATION, AFTER.LIFE

Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti in The Last Station

AFI FEST 2009, Sat., Nov. 7 at the Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4 on 2nd Street in Santa Monica.
AFI FEST 2009 comes to a close with the following screenings:

Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station, which is set near the end of Leo Tolstoy’s life, has been getting lots of Oscar buzz for its stars: James McAvoy as Tolstoy’s assistant; Helen Mirren as Tolstoy’s wife; and Christopher Plummer as the verbose author of the never-ending War and Peace.
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash’s Sweetgrass offers a look at sheepherding in Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth mountain range. Apart from the sheep and the high peaks, there’s no connection to Brokeback Mountain.
Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar’s stop-motion [...]

AFI FEST 2009 Awards

AFI FEST 2009 Awards
AFI FEST 2009: Hollywood/Santa Monica, Oct. 30-Nov. 7, 2009
 

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank focuses on a working-class teenager (Katie Jarvis) frustrated that her mother has found a new beau (Michael Fassbender); Javier Rebollo’s Woman Without Piano is a dramatic portrait of 24 hours in the life of a Madrid housewife (Carmen Machi); and Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s Ajami (above) chronicles the day-to-day, anything-but-routine lives of several denizens of a tough neighborhood in Jaffa, where Muslims, Jews, and Christians are sworn to live in bloody disharmony.
 
NEW LIGHTS COMPETITION AWARD WINNER

FISH TANK DIR: Andrea Arnold UK

WOMAN WITHOUT PIANO (LA MUJER SIN PIANO) DIR: Javier Rebollo Spain/France

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
AJAMI DIR: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani Israel/Germany

AFI FEST 2009 NEW LIGHTS [...]

AFI FEST 2009: POLICE, ADJECTIVE; TO DIE LIKE A MAN

To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues (top); Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 continues in a more compact version on Friday and Saturday at the Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4 on 2nd Street in Santa Monica. There’ll be only four screenings per day, with the last one starting at 5:00 p.m.
The screening films on Friday, Nov. 6, are:

Japanese filmmaker Sabu’s Kanikosen, described as "Sergei Eisenstein put into a blender with Busby Berkeley."
João Pedro Rodrigues‘ To Die Like a Man, a chronicle of a Lisbon drag queen who has been living as a woman for decades, but ends up meeting her maker as a man. Rodrigues is the director of the intriguing O Fantasma.
Jiri Barta’s stop-motion [...]

AFI FEST 2009: A SINGLE MAN, THE SINGULARITY

Colin Firth, Julianne Moore in A Single Man (top); Steve Evets, Eric Cantona in Looking for Eric (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 highlights on Thursday, Nov. 5:

Robert Barry Ptolemy’s The Singularity sounds fascinating: Futurist Ray Kurzweil discusses the just-around-the-corner impact of human technology, which has been growing exponentially. Imagine a world without death, hunger, disease. (Well, I’m assuming all those great things will happen if humans don’t self-destruct first. After all, all lab studies indicate that human imbecility is growing even faster than the species’ technological advances — talk about a scientific paradox; someone should come up with a documentary about that.)
Directed by Tom Ford, A Single Man stars Venice 2009 winner Colin Firth, who’ll quite likely receive an Oscar nod come [...]

AFI FEST 2009: THE ROAD, EASIER WITH PRACTICE

Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Road (top); Brian Geraghty in Easier with Practice (bottom)

Tonight, Wed., Nov. 4, at AFI FEST 2009 in Hollywood:

The Road has been getting a lot of Oscar buzz for star Viggo Mortensen, director John Hillcoat, and for the film itself, a futuristic father-son adventure drama set in a post-apocalyptic world.
In Eduardo Coutinho’s documentary Moscow, the director of a theater group in Brazil’s third largest city sets out to stage a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s Easier with Practice sounds like an unusual road movie, one in which a book author (Brian Geraghty) traveling with his brother (Kel O’Neill) becomes emotionally attached to a sexy voice on the phone. Could his brother have something [...]

AFI FEST 2009: SOMETHING’S GONNA LIVE, ABOUT ELLY, DOCTOR PARNASSUS

Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (top); A Lake by Philippe Grandrieux (middle); Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 highlights, Nov. 2:

Daniel Raim’s documentary Something’s Gonna Live, which features interviews with several behind-the-scenes veterans, including Robert Boyle, Conrad Hall, and Haskell Wexler
Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which marks Heath Ledger’s last film appearance
Asghar Farhadi’s drama About Elly, winner of the Silver Bear for best director at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival
Andrea Arnold’s family drama Fish Tank, winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows About Persian Cats, about the obstacles faced by a couple of Iranian teenagers trying to form a rock band [...]

AFI FEST 2009: PRECIOUS, THE WHITE RIBBON, AJAMI

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire by Lee Daniels (top); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (middle); Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi in Vincere by Marco Bellocchio (bottom)

Among the Sunday, Nov. 1, highlights at the AFI FEST 2009 at the Chinese Theater complex in Hollywood are:

Lu Chuan’s historical drama City of Life and Death, winner of the Golden Shell for best picture at the San Sebastian Film Festival
Claude Chabrol’s psychological mystery-drama Bellamy, his first collaboration with Gérard Depardieu
Lee Daniels‘ Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, a strong possibility for the Oscar 2010 best picture shortlist and the Sundance 2009 US Narrative Jury Prize winner
Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner and potential Oscar 2010 contender [...]

AFI FEST 2009: Phone Sex Gets EASIER WITH PRACTICE

Brian Geraghty in Easier with Practice

Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s feature-film debut Easier with Practice, CineVegas Grand Jury Award winner and Best International Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival, will screen at the AFI FEST 2009 on Wed., November 4, at 10 p.m.
Easier with Practice tells the story of a writer (Brian Geraghty of The Hurt Locker) who, in a desperate attempt to promote his still-unpublished novel, hits the road with his younger brother (Kel O’Neill) on a self-planned book tour. Things don’t go very well at first, but when out of the blue a sexy female voice calls the writer at his ordinary motel room — to ask what he’s wearing, no less — everything changes. The phoning couple [...]

AFI FEST 2009: SOMETHING’S GONNA LIVE, NORTH BY NORTHWEST

Cary Grant in North by Northwest

Among the highlights of AFI FEST 2009 is the Nov. 2 screening of AFI Conservatory Alumnus Daniel Raim’s documentary Something’s Gonna Live, which profiles several behind-the-scenes Hollywood veterans — most of whom have already passed away — including production designers Robert Boyle (who turned 100 this past Oct. 10), Henry Bumstead (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Sting), Harold Michelson (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Mommie Dearest, Dick Tracy), and Albert Nozaki (When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, The Ten Commandments), in addition to cinematographers Conrad L. Hall (In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Road to Perdition) and Haskell Wexler (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, In the Heat of [...]

AFI FEST 2009: Christopher Plummer, Viggo Mortensen Tributes

James McAvoy, Christopher Plummer in The Last Station (top); Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 has selected Christopher Plummer, who’ll turn 80 next December, and Viggo Mortensen, 51, as this year’s tribute honorees.
Sponsored by the Skirball Cultural Center, Plummer’s tribute will precede the screening of The Last Station, in which he plays Leo Tolstoy, on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Mortensen’s tribute will precede the US premiere of John Hillcoat’s futuristic drama The Road on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Both tributes will take place at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
A stage, film, and television and television veteran, during the course of his 50-plus-year career Plummer has won two Tony Awards (for Cyrano [...]

AFI FEST 2009: A SINGLE MAN – Closing Night Gala

Colin Firth, Matthew Goode in A Single Man

AFI FEST 2009’s Closing Night Gala presentation, the US premiere of Tom Ford’s A Single Man, will take place at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday, November 5. (The festival, with screenings in Santa Monica, actually ends on Nov. 7.)
Based on a Christopher Isherwood novel, A Single Man chronicles a day — possibly the last one — in the life of a gay British college professor (Venice 2009 best actor Colin Firth) in the Los Angeles of the mid-’60s, as he seriously considers suicide following the unexpected death of his partner (Matthew Goode).
Written by Ford and David Scearce, A Single Man also features Julianne Moore (a likely best supporting actress [...]

AFI FEST 2009: Heath Ledger, PRECIOUS, FANTASTIC MR. FOX

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson (top); Gabourey Sidibe in Precious (middle); Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009, the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, kicks off next Friday, Oct. 30, with a screening of Wes Anderson’s animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox, featuring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Owen Wilson, among others.
Other gala presentations include Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, starring Christopher Plummer — who’ll be the recipient of this year’s AFI FEST Lifetime Achievement Award — and featuring Heath Ledger’s last performance; Kirk Jones‘ Everybody’s Fine, starring Robert De Niro in this remake of Giuseppe Tornatore’s melodrama about a widower on his way to meet his family; and Sundance [...]

AFI FEST 2009: THE WHITE RIBBON / THE PROPHET Swap

AFI FEST 2009 presented by Audi has announced that Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner and Oscar contender The White Ribbon will replace Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Grand Prix winner A Prophet in the festival’s line-up. Reason for the AFI FEST swap: "a recent change in the release date for A Prophet." Both films are being distributed in the US by Sony Pictures Classics.
The White Ribbon is set in a German farming village disturbed by inexplicable acts of cruelty just before the start of World War I. The film is due for release in the US on December 30. The film will screen on Sunday, November 1, at 7:00 PM.
Good that The White Ribbon will be screened; bad that A Prophet [...]

AFI FEST 2009: Halloween Movies

The Loved Ones by Sean Byrne (top); The Hole by Joe Dante (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 presented by Audi has announced the list of films scheduled for Halloween. They are:

Joe Dante’s The Hole
Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones
Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright
Michael Stephenson’s Best Worst Movie

All four films will screen on Saturday, October 31, at the Mann Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood.
Presented in 3-D — a first for a feature film at AFI FEST — Joe Dante’s thriller The Hole follows two young brothers who "stumble upon a mysterious hole in their basement that houses an evil force that can create a physical manifestation of their deep-seated fears. After unwittingly unleashing [...]

Meryl Streep, Amy Adams at DOUBT Premiere: AFI FEST 2008

AFI FEST 2008 opening night premiere of Miramax Film’s Doubt held at ArcLight Hollywood on October 30, 2008
Photos: Kevin Winter /
2008 Getty Images

Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, John Patrick Shanley

Meryl Streep

Amy Adams

Amy Adams, Meryl Streep

 

AFI FEST 2007 Awards

AFI FEST 2007 Awards
AFI FEST 2007: ArcLight theater complex in Hollywood, Nov. 1-11, 2007
AFI FEST 2007 Award Winners
 

 Stephen Berkov (Director, Brand Marketing & Innovation, Audi of America), Jenny Lund (MUNYURANGABO), Nash Edgerton (SPIDER), Lauren Greenfield (KIDS + MONEY), Jeffrey Schwarz (SPINE TINGLER! THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY), Andreas Mol Dalsgaard (AFGHAN MUSCLES), Micheal Addis (HECKLER), Mike Cagle (Region Director, Western Region, Audi of America)
 

JURY AWARDS
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE COMPETITION GRAND JURY PRIZE: MUNYURANGABO by Lee Isaac Chung, Rwanda/USA
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION GRAND JURY PRIZE (tie): AFGHAN MUSCLES by Andreas Mol Dalsgaard, Denmark, & OPERATION FILMMAKER by Nina Davenport, USA
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION GRAND JURY PRIZE: SPIDER by Nash Edgerton, Australia
BEST ANIMATED SHORT: I MET THE WALRUS by Josh Raskin, Canada
 
AUDIENCE AWARDS
FEATURE: THE DIVING [...]

AFI FEST 2007 – Dark Horizons

AFI FEST 2007 – Dark Horizons

ECHO (EKKO) Cast: Kim Bodnia, Villads Milthers Fritsche, Stine Fischer Christensen DIR: Andres Morgenthaler PROD: Sarita Christensen CO PROD: Louise Vesth, Marie Gade. Denmark
POP SKULL Cast: Lane Hughes, Brandon Carrol, Hanna Hughes, Maggie Henry, L.C. Holt DIR: Adam Wingard PROD: Adam Wingard, E.L. Katz, Lane Hughes. USA

SAKURAN Cast: Anna Tsuchiya, Kippei Shina, Hiroki Narimiya, Yoshino Kimura DIR: Mika Ninagawa PROD: Masao Teshima, Mitsuru Uda, Yoshinori Fujita. Japan

STRANGE CULTURE (Documentary) Cast: Tilda Swinton Peter Coyote. DIR: Lynn Hershman Leeson PROD: Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lise Swenson, Steven Beer. USA

VIVA Cast: Anna Biller, Jared Sanford, Bridget Brno, Chad England DIR: Anna Biller PROD: Anna Biller. USA
 
AFI FEST 2007 – Latin Showcase
AFI FEST [...]

2004 AFI FEST Awards Winners

Terry George’s Hotel Rwanda (above) has won the top audience award at the 2004 edition of AFI Festival, while Temporada de patos / Duck Season, by Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke, won the Grand Jury Prize for best feature film in competition.
The Jury Prize in the International Shorts Competition went to Taika Waititi’s Two Cars, One Night from New Zealand, with a special mention to Chris Landreth’s Ryan, from Canada. Another Canadian picture, The Take, directed by Avi Lewis, won the Documentary Prize. Robin Scovill’s American-made The Other Side of AIDS received a special mention.
Other audience award winners (audiences voted on all films shown at the ten-day festival) were Neele Leana Vollmar’s Meine Eltern / My [...]

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