40 new films, including 20 features (all premieres) and 20 new shorts, will be shown at the 11th Annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA). Acclaimed Berlin Film Festival opening film, “La Vie En Rose,” writer-director Olivier Dahan’s masterful biopic of Edith Piaf, starring Marion Cotillard and Gérard Depardieu, will open the showcase on Monday, April 16, 2007. Picturehouse will release the film on June 8th in New York and Los Angeles. The U.S. Premiere of “Michou D’Auber” (also starring Depardieu) written and directed by Thomas Gilou, will be the closing night film on April 21st. COL•COA’s program will…

Women Make Movies (WMM) has acquired a number of films from Sundance and other Film Festivals in 2007. Enemies of Happiness, which took home esteemed awards at the Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary) and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Silver Wolf Award), has been acquired by WMM. The film, by Eva Mulvad and Anja Al-Erhayem, tells the inspiring story of 27-year-old Afghan women Malalai Joya. Malalai is a women’s rights activist and local hero who was elected to the newly formed democratic parliament of Afghanistan in 2005. WMM also announced that they acquired These Girls and…

“Do We Accept the Truth” a project first time introduced as a Project in The Studio section of Cinema Without Borders takes a big step towards complition. “Do We Accept the Truth” a short film project by Alexis Dias has received the Central Board of Film Certificate from the Government of India. The CBFC, popularly known as Censor Board is a quasi-judicial body coming under the control of the Govt. of India. Once a film is certified, the exhibition of the film in the cinema halls comes under the purview of the respective State Government. Good Luck, Alex!

TEHRAN, Feb. 24 (MNA) — Two Iranian films won prizes at the 13th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema, which was held in the north central French city from February 13 to 20. “Friday Evening” won the International Jury’s Grand Prize for dealing with a taboo subject with strength and courage. The movie also received the Special favorite Langues ‘O Award of the festival for the tragic dimension of the story. The film, which is Mona Zandi’s directorial debut, is about a woman called Sogand and her son Omid, who are shunned by her family and thus experience hard…

The winners of the 2007 Pan African Film and Arts Festival were announced at the closing awards ceremony in Los Angeles, California today. PAFF is the largest international Black film festival in the United States showcasing films from the United States, Africa, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. The award-winning films were selected by PAFF’s urors while Audience Choice Awards were given to films based on the results of ballots cast by Festival filmgoers. Jury Awards were handed out for Best Documentary, Best Short, Best Director – First Feature, Best Feature, and Jury Favorite. PAFF Festival Choice Awards…

Russian blockbuster “Day Watch” comes into town today for its international premier at a special Berlinale presentation hosted by distributors Fox Searchlight Pictures.<br> The fantasy epic where the forces of light are put against the forces of dark with the future of mankind at stake shattered all Russian box-office records when it opened in Moscow just over a year ago. The film took in about $35 million domestically.<br> The films producers, First Channel and Fox Searchlight, have hopes that the shorter international version of “Day Watch” will repeat the success of the original film of the franchise, “Night Watch.”<br> “Night…

The members of the international short film jury are: Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima (Nigeria) , Riina Sildos (Estonia), Ning Ying (China)<br> The GOLDEN BEAR award was given to RAAK by Hanro Smitsman (The Netherlands)<br> RAAK was given the award “for being a brilliant film on its approach to the subjects of love, anger and desperation. But you mustn’t forget to mention the humour of the film. We honour the ability of the director to show in a compact manner three angles of the same story.” <br>The SILVER BEAR was given to DECROCHE by Manuel Schapira (France)<br>DECROCHE was awarded with the Silver bear…

The 57th Berlin International Film Festival opens Thursday with the world premiere of Olivier Dahan’s “La Vie en Rose” and runs until Feb. 18. A total of 373 films will be shown during the 11-day festival. Twenty-six films will be shown in the official competition section, with 22 of them competing for the festival’s Golden and Silver Bear awards. The bear is the symbol of Berlin and is an icon for the festival. The president of this year’s jury is American director Paul Schrader, famous for his classic “American Gigolo.” One of Schrader’s own films, “The Walker”, whose cast includes…

The jury and audience award-winners of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival were just announced at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony in Park City, Utah. The films receiving jury awards were selected by renowned jurors from the pool of films screening in the Independent Film Competition and the World Cinema Competition. Awards were given out to both dramatic and documentary films screening in the four categories: Documentary Competition, Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, and World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The films in these four categories were also eligible for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards as selected by Film Festival…

Los Angeles, CA–Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) today announced the winners of the 2007 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards. Of the 12 finalists, four winners were selected by members of an international jury which included Guillermo Arriaga, Carlos Digues, Toshio Endo, Bent Hamer, Yoshio Kakeo, Mitsuo Yanagimachi, Pawel Pawlikowski, Brad Silberling, and Rafael Yglesias. These annual awards were started in 1996 to recognize outstanding film directors from four global regions (Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Japan). The four winners are presented with the award at the annual Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Saturday, January 27. The…