Every year, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival welcomes a variety of activities to support charity projects, and strives to present and support the work of people who, despite their disabilities, create interesting things. This year, the festival will host a nontraditional series of films entitled Mental Power Prague Film Festival, which offers “other” people a chance at self-realization. The results are often highly exceptional film stories made and acted with tremendous enthusiasm, passion, and candor by people with mental or physical afflictions. This special festival creates space for original film works by people with disabilities. The movies are not…
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Presided by Italian director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino, the UCR Jury panel included actress Julie Gayet, Toronto Festival Director Piers Handling, and journalists Uma Da Cunha and Marit Kapla. At tonight’s closing ceremonies in Salle Debussy, the following prizes were announced: UN CERTAIN REGARD AWARDFONDATION GROUPAMA GAN POUR LE CINEMAKynodontas (Dogtooth) by Yorgos LanthimosThe Jury AwardPolice, Adjective by Corneliu PorumboiuUN CERTAIN REGARD 2009 Special AwardKasi Az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh (No One Knows About Persian Cats) by Bahman GhobadiFather of my Children by Mia Hansen-Løve
Coming into the second week of the Cannes Film Festival, Jaz Films has acquired the last screenplay written by celebrated Lifetime Achievement Academy Award Winner, and two-time Academy Award nominated Italian visionary Michelangelo Antonioni (L’Avventura, La Notte, BlowUp). The script titled Two Telegrams was the last script he penned just before he passed away in 2007. Jaz Films Partners, Zev Guber and Jeremy Wall acquired the project from the estate of Michelangelo Antonioni.Two Telegrams is co-written with screenplay veteran, Rudy Wurlitzer (Little Buddha, Voyager and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid). Two Telegrams, inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s short story of…
Reporters from the international press were able to meet the entire crew of the feature Broken Embraces. Voluble as ever, director Pedro Almodóvar was accompanied by cast members Penélope Cruz, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Lluis Homar, Tamar Novas, and Rubén Ochandiano, as well as producer Augustin Almodóvar. Excerpts follow.Pedro Almodóvar on how he directs actors: “First of all, the way in which I work with the actors depends on who the actor is. I believe that someone who fails to understand the human dimension, who can’t communicate well, could never be a good director. The actors I work with…
The Certain Regard selection opens its doors to a Greek film today, Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos. This second feature, following debut film Kinetta in 2005, portrays a deranged, dysfunctional family cut off from the outside world. Living a recluse existence, the three children have no choice but to abide by the rules their father has imposed. The only person allowed to visit is Christina, an employee at the father’s business, to satisfy the sexual urges of the son…Yorgos Lanthimos studied directing in Athens, at the Stavrakou school. Since 1995, he has juggled filmmaking, theater directing, dance videos and a number…
Filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Film with his 2004 The Sea Inside, a plea to legalize voluntary euthanasia. Now he is stepping out in Cannes for the first time with Agora, a historical drama set in 4th-century Alexandria, Egypt. At that time, Egypt was ruled by Rome, and rebellion was brewing among the Christians. In the film, the brilliant astronomer-philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) and her disciples are barricaded inside the great Library, attempting to preserve the knowledge that has been accumulated over the centuries. But there’s a battle outside…”Four years ago, I’d never have believed…
In 2008, Bong Joon-Ho was a member of the trio directing Tokyo! which screened in Certain Regard, his co-filmmakers being Leos Carax and Michel Gondry. This year, Certain Regard has selected the Korean director’s latest film, the suspenseful Mother. A widow, determined to prove that her son is innocent of the murder accusation leveled against him, single-mindedly pursues the real killer herself. Bong, whose monster movie The Host, which screened at Directors Fortnight in 2006, won him international renown, focuses here on portraying the inner strength of a mother in search of truth, and her emotional fluctuations and doubts. The…
Mumbai:- Slumdog Millionaire child star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail is back on the streets after his shanty house was demolished by BMC officials here on Thursday .Azharuddin, who played young Salim in Danny Boyle’s multiple Oscar winning film, lost his make-shift home after officials from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai demolished the shanties in Garib Nagar slum of Bandra East.“All the illegal encroachments on the nullah were demolished on Thursday today because it needs to be widened to avoid flood-like situation during monsoons,” Umashankar Mistry, H-East ward officer told PTI here.Azharuddin said his family would rebuild the house. “There is…
American director Martin Scorsese, who needs no introduction to film buffs, again spoke up for the quality and value of filmmaking today, announcing the World Cinema Foundation’s latest alliances to the journalists here at Cannes Festival. Highlights follow:Introducing the Foundation, which he chairs:We started the World Cinema Foundation to provide assistance to films and filmmakers who needed it, with restoration and the preservation of their work… Film preservation is always an uphill battle. There’s never enough time. Films are delicate, and they’re apt to deteriorate unless they’re stored under optimal conditions. Of course, to make matters more difficult, conditions are…
The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival will return to The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater in June for its 20th anniversary with a packed program of films dedicated to raising awareness of human rights issues around the world . The festival, co-presented by Human Rights Watch and The Film Society, will run from June 11 to 25, featuring 21 feature-length films and 11 shorts from 17 countries, including 26 New York premieres. “When the festival began 20 years ago, it was a rare oasis for people to see compelling and timely human rights films,” said John…