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Kazakhstan’s official entry to the Academy Awards this year, the oscar nominated Genghis Kahn bio-pic, “Mongol”, directed by Sergei Bodrov, took home six Nika Awards on Friday, including an award for best film of the year.Mr. Bodrov, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Arif Aliyev, won the Nika for best director. “Mongol” also won awards for best cinematography, sound design, art direction, and costumes. Mongol beat out a slate of strong slate of Russian films nominated for best picture, including “Simple Things”, “Cargo 200”, “Traveling With Pets”, and “The Mermaid”.The other top awards of the night included best screenplay for…

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The Oscar nominated animated feature, “Persepolis”, will be coming back to a select number of theaters in April, this time in English. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, the English version will reach 100 screens nationwide on April 11. Originally in French, the film by Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi, who also co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud, was released in December in a limited number of theaters. Satrapi and Paronnaud directed the English actors while the original French version was being completed. “Persepolis”, based on Satrapi’s internationally best selling autobiographical graphic novel, tells the story of a young girl growing up in Iran…

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Audiences in New York City will have the opportunity to view Japanese filmmaker Koreyoshi Kurahara’s 1962 film, ”Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast”, for the first time with English subtitles when it is presented by the New York Japan Society on April 4th. Part of its monthly screening program that focuses on 1960’s action films from the Japanese Nikkatsu Studio, “Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast” is Kurahara’s homage to Frederico Fellini’s 1954 classic, “La Strada”. In this Japanese version of Fellini’s plot, Actress Izumi Ashikawa stars as the carefree victimized girl in the role originally inhabited by Guilietta Masina.The…

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The British born author Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his science-fiction writing, passed away today at the age of 90. Clarke was the author of over 100 fiction and non-fiction books and short stories, and was best known to the world of cinema for his groundbreaking and visionary 1968 screenplay and corresponding novel, “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Clarke collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick in writing the screenplay to the film, and the book was subsequently published after the release its release in 1968. The idea for the screenplay was initially loosely based on a 1948 short story of Clarke’s,”…

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One of the world oldest film festivals, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival , will honor Mexican director Arturo Ripstein with a retrospective of his works when the annual festival begins its 43rd program in July. The festival will take place in the Czech Republic town of Karlovy Vary from July 4th to July 12th. A writer and director for over forty years, Ripstein began his work in the early 1960’s as an assistant to Luis Buñuel on the film “El angel exterminador”. Since then he has made over fifty films and has been renown in international film circles. His…

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Today the Tribeca Film festival announced its lineup of short films that will be featured in the upcoming 2008 program. Along with the wide slate of feature films selected, the annual lower Manhattan festival will include 79 short films that will be incorporated in 11 different thematic programs. The selection of short films at this year’s festival will be representative of international filmmakers from 30 different countries, and feature a disparate thematic range. Indeed, the 11 thematic programs that makeup the short flims have wide range in subject, including the effects that humans have on the environment, the complexities of…

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“Secret Sunshine”, the South Korean film by director Lee Chang Dong, won a slate of awards, including the Best Film, at the Asian Film Awards held today in Hong Kong. Along with the Best film Award, the film, about a woman who moves to a small town with her child to in search of a fresh start after her husband dies, also took home two other major prizes. Lee Chang Dong was awarded as Best Director, and actress Jeon Do-Yeon took home the Best Actress award for her portrayal of the widow, Shin-ae. Veteran actor Tony Leung won the Best…

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Contemporary Polish cinema will be showcased late next month in Los Angeles at the Annual Polish Film Festival . Presented by the Polish American Film Society, the festival, in its 9th year, will include a wide range of Polish film, including documentaries, animated and live action shorts, as well as a strong slate of feature films. On April 24th an opening night gala at the Directors Guild of America Theater will kick things off, and will include an awards ceremony and a screening of Tomasz Konecki’s “Lejdis”. The festival will conclude on May 4th. Created to bring the works of…

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The UCLA Film & Television Archive will kick off its 18th Annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema at the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood on Friday, March 14. The month long program, which concludes on Sunday, April 20th, will feature an eclectic group of new works from Iran. This year’s celebration will include seven new feature films from Iran and the diaspora, as well as screenings of new documentary and short works on film and video. These films will all in their own way center around the theme of this year’s program, Iranian culture. The theme of culture will be seen…

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Vijay Amritraj, who has already produced Tamil movies like ‘Jeans’ is all set to make another movie in Tamil.This time Amritraj is going with a new director and the selection for the new director is to be on a competition basis.Sony’s TV channel has taken up the job of recruitment and for this they have selected 18 people and they will compete each other and the winner will direct the movie.When asked, whether the movie will have big budget, Amritraj says “Its very riskier to make big budget Tamil movies. Its safe to go with lower or medium one. Tamil…

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