Families in Conflict, Psychotic Murderers, Anti-Semitism, Censorship: Berlin 2010

Kate Hudson, Casey Affleck in The Killer Inside Me (Berlin Film Festival) (top); Lene Maria Christensen, Johan Philip Asbæk in A Family (Zentropa / Rolf Konow) (middle, upper); Moritz Bleibtreu, Tobias Moretti in Jud Süss — Film Without a Conscience (Petro Domenigg / Concorde Film) (middle, lower); Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island (Paramount) (bottom)

THE GHOST WRITER at 60th Berlin Film Festival
Also of note at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival are Michael Winterbottom’s violent crime drama The Killer Inside Me, starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Kate Hudson, which caused a furor at the Sundance Film Festival due to its graphic depiction of violence against women; Thomas Vinterberg’s Submarino, the story of two estranged, downtrodden brothers; and 2006 Golden [...]

by Arthur Leander | February 1, 2010   
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European Film Awards 2009 Predictions: Best Actress, Actor

Penélope Cruz has already won a best actress European Film Award (for Volver in 2006) and since her role in Broken Embraces is borderline supporting, my guess is that Cannes winner Charlotte Gainsbourg (above, with Willem Dafoe) will be the one taking home the prize for her bereaved sexed-out mother in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. But who knows? Oscar winner Kate Winslet (for The Reader) could be the dark horse who splits the vote with the brown one (Katie Jarvis for Fish Tank) so the rainbow-colored equine (French Academy’s Cesar winner Yolande Moreau in Séraphine) can win.

For the best actor award, I’d say the race is between two Cannes favorites: Tahar Rahim (above) for his [...]

by Andre Soares | December 12, 2009   
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European Film Academy Ambassadors

Maria de Medeiros (top); Belén Rueda (middle); Kim Rossi Stuart (bottom)

The European Film Academy (EFA) has enlisted a group of Ambassadors of European Film to cooperate in the promotion of European cinema and the European Film Awards.
From the European Film Academy’s press release, the EFA Ambassadors are:

Moritz Bleibtreu, actor, Germany
One of the best-known German faces in international cinema, Moritz Bleibtreu first shot to international attention as Manni in Tom Tykwer’s RUN LOLA RUN (1998). He was nominated in 2001 for the EFA People’s Choice Award for THE EXPERIMENT by Oliver Hirschbiegel and is now nominated for European Actor for his role as Andreas Baader in THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX by Uli Edel.
Stephen Daldry, director, UK
[...]

by Edwige Andersson | November 17, 2009   
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Fatih Akin’s SOUL KITCHEN Photos

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen is a comedy set at a Hamburg restaurant inhabited by a disparate group of Hamburgese.
At IFC, Stephen Saito calls Soul Kitchen "a lark, but an enjoyable one. The film sees the director of Head On and The Edge of Heaven doing schtick for the first time — not as odd a transition as one might think from his previous dramas, which have in common a deeply felt human touch and sense of interconnection."
"As far as European comedies go," writes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE, "it’s fairly by the numbers, assembling a motley crew of emphatically crazy characters [...]

by Anna Robinson | September 15, 2009   
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Venice 2009: Fatih Akin, Moritz Bleibtreu, George A. Romero

Anna Bederke, Pheline Roggan, Dorka Gryllus, Fatih Akin, Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu at the Soul Kitchen premiere at the 2009 Venice Film Festival

Alberto Petrolini, Caterina Varzi, Tinto Brass, Vincenzo Varzi at the Hotel Courbet photocall

George A. Romero
Photos: Courtesy Venice Film Festival
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

by Monica Montenegro | September 13, 2009   
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