Venice 2009: Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe Tornatore, Margareth Madè

Ennio Morricone, Margareth Madè, Giuseppe Tornatore, Francesco Scianna at the Baarìa photocall at the 2009 Venice Film Festival

Margareth Madè

Francesco Scianna

Ennio Morricone
Photos: Courtesy Venice Film Festival
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Cannes 2009: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds

Richard Corliss/Mary Corliss in Time:
"… Inglourious Basterds — first word as in "glower," second as in "turds" — is an alternative history of World War II from the writer-director of Pulp Fiction, the Palme d’Or winner 15 years ago. As with all of his recent work — the two Kill Bill movies and Death Proof — Basterds draws portraits of strong women facing down evil men; and in Shoshanna (Mélanie Laurent) and Third Reich screen star Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) he’s created two of his fullest female portraits. But Basterds is long and, for the hypercharged auteur, surprisingly wan. It has to be declared a misfire."
***
J. Hoberman in The Village Voice:
"So what is [...]

Nastri d’Argento 2008

2008 Nastri d’Argento
National Union of Italian Film Journalists’ 2008 Nastri d’Argento (Silver Ribbons) nominations: May 11, 2008
2008 Nastri d’Argento winners: Teatro Antico di Taormina, Sicily, on June 14, 2008
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

Isabella Ragonese plays a college grad who struggles to find work in A Whole Life Ahead
 

Best Director
Antonello GRIMALDI – Caos calmo
Daniele LUCHETTI – Mio fratello è figlio unico
Silvio SOLDINI – Giorni e nuvole
* Paolo VIRZÌ – Tutta la vita davanti / A Whole Life Ahead
Gianni ZANASI – Non pensarci
Best European Film
Across the Universe – Julie Taymor
Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Shekar Kapur
Atonement – Joe Wright
La vie en [...]

Oscar 2007: Best Documentary Short, Animated Short

Oscar 2007: Best Cinematography, Music

Achievement in makeup
Apocalypto (Buena Vista) Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
Click (Sony Pictures Releasing) Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso
* Pan’s Labyrinth (Picturehouse) David Marti and Montse Ribe

Best documentary short subject
* The Blood of Yingzhou District
A Thomas Lennon Films Production
Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
Recycled Life
An Iwerks/Glad Production
Leslie Iwerks and Mike Glad
Rehearsing a Dream
A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production
Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Two Hands
A Crazy Boat Pictures Production
Nathaniel Kahn and Susan Rose Behr
Best animated short film
* The Danish Poet (National Film Board of Canada)
A Mikrofilm and National Film Board of Canada Production
Torill Kove
Lifted (Buena Vista)
A Pixar Animation Studios Production
Gary Rydstrom
The Little Matchgirl (Buena Vista)
A Walt Disney Pictures Production
Roger Allers and Don Hahn
Maestro (Szimplafilm)
A Kedd Production
Geza M. Toth
No [...]

Oscar 2007: Ennio Morricone to Receive Honorary Academy Award

Over his 45-year career, prolific composer-conductor Ennio Morricone has created more than 500 scores for both films and television — including my all-time favorite movie score, the Once Upon a Time in the West ballad.
He will finally be given his Oscar due on February 25, 2007, when he’ll be picking up an Honorary Academy Award for his contributions to film art. More than a film composer, Morricone has been frequently the lone savior of poor films made bearable — at times even memorable — merely because of his compositions.
Thus far, Morricone has earned five Academy Award nominations for original score — for Days of Heaven (1978), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Bugsy (1991) and Malena [...]