Richard Raddon is currently in his ninth year as Festival Director at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Before joining the festival, Mr. Raddon worked as an independent producer. His credits include: A Slipping Down Life, starring Guy Pearce, Lily Taylor, and Bruno Kirby, which premiered in competition at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Lions Gate Entertainment in May 2004; Shooting Lily, which garnered the grand prize at the 1997 South by Southwest Film Festival; …And God Spoke which was released theatrically by Live Entertainment; and Flow, an organ donation educational film for the Jamie Redford Institute.…
Browsing: Festivals
As Israel turns 60 this year, many celebrations and events have been taking place around the world and New York is no exception. One such birthday celebration came in the form of a major retrospective covering the past 10 years of Israeli filmmaking, co-produced by the Film Society of Lincoln Center together with the JCC, the Jewish Museum, and the Office of Cultural Affairs of the Consulate General of Israel. Curated by Richard Peña, program director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, this retrospective saluted Israel with a series of films, that gave a comprehensive overview of the past…
Founded in 1998 by Italian filmmaker and Brooklyn resident Marco Ursino, this independent film festival in the borough of Brooklyn is a hidden gem that deserves to be noticed beyond its local audience. Truly dedicated to the independent filmmaking community, it is a great place to discover new and emerging talent from around the world, with most films by first or second time filmmakers. Now in it’s 11th year, this year’s festival theme and subheading is “CINERGY: a mutually advantageous conjunction where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, as defined in the festival catalog. Between May…
The Polish American Film Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting a higher level of understanding of Polish culture through film. This organization showcases outstanding achievements of Polish cinema right in the heart of Hollywood. Each year, the Polish Film Festival of Los Angeles screens the finest selection of contemporary Polish cinema including full-length features, documentaries, animations, and shorts. The Polish Film Festival provides an exciting venue for Polish filmmakers and actors to share their talents with an American audience. In an interview with Cinema Without Borders, Vladek Juszkiewicz, Director of the Polish Film Festival of Los Angeles talked…
After completing a Master’s degree in politics in Paris, François Truffart was Cultural Attaché in charge of cinema promotion at the French Embassy in Hungary, Japan, and the United States (Los Angeles) successively, from 1991 to 2001. In 2002, he was Director of the Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival and then represented Le Marché du Film of the Cannes Film Festival in the US. He has been in charge of programming for COLCOA since 2004 before being assigned as Director and Programmer in 2007. He is a consultant for film finance and acquisitions for the Japanese market, through his…
Marc-Olivier Louveau (Lou Ma Ho) is a French film director and author who started his career as a scriptwriter for film and television. He has directed several commercials, documentaries and short films, which have received numerous awards and were selected at many film festivals worldwide. Parallel with his film career he has written several books in which spiritual themes are not uncommon. Marc-Olivier is an expert of the martial arts and has created his own school in Paris. He is the founder and president of the European Spiritual Film Festival, of which the first edition will be held on March…
The 2008 NEW YORK INT’L CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL is going on now from FEB 29 – MAR 16, and for these three fun-filled, kids geared weekends, be sure to catch this festival, which delivers to you, young filmmakers’ visions from 25 countries in several premieres. Opening Night featured the US Premiere of “Razzle Dazzle: A Journey Into Dance- a Mockumentary from Australia. The filmmakers range from ages 3 to 18 and Films will be showcased at the IFC Center and Cantor Film Center, The DGA (Directors Guild of America) Theatre in NYC. What is unique to this festival, is its…
Roger Durling has been at the helm of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for the past five years. He was born and raised in Panama and has a graduate degree from Columbia University. He has been teaching Film Studies at Santa Barbara City College for the past three years. He writes a column about film entitled Roger Durling¹s THE BIG PICTURE in Santa Barbara¹s weekly paper the Independent and serves on the Board of Directors of Santa Barbara’s Downtown Organization. In 2004, he was recognized as Santa Barbara¹s Citizen of the Year.Bijan Tehrani: Congratulations on a wonderful 2008 festival.…
Starting from February 13-16, the Japan Society of New York City, presents 38 black & white animated films circa 1920s, through pre-WWII- 1940s. Delving into the past, long before the anime we view today, are the rich cultural gems which gave rise to modern day Japanese animation. What is intriguing is the utilization of the katsuben style, in which a live narrator (benshi) speaks over the silent film. First the time, many of these films are now with English translation. This is a unique look into how animated films were seen in Japan during these times.For the four days of…
Red carpets ribboned through the week at the 23rd Santa Barbara International Film Festival, spanning oohs and ahhs, yelps and squeals for Julie Christie, Cate Blanchett, Javier Bardem, Ryan Gosling, Tommy Lee Jones, and Angelina Jolie, in that order. And stars shone brightly as well on the faux black-sky ceiling of the 2,000-seat Arlington Theater, walled with real gold and amber lanterns and façades of the old Spanish mission town that the city once was. This site for the endless tributes was nearly as packed for a new film from Kazakhstan by Sergei Bodrov, Mongol. A glorious old-style action film…