Spanish Film Academy Announces Goya Award Nominations

 San Sebastián 2013 Awards Night 

The Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced its nominations for the 28th edition of the Goya Awards, to be presented on February 9. The hosts were Quim Gutierrez and Clara Lago.

Six titles presented at the last 62nd edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival (SSFF), occupy a large part of the nominations and are now featured among the favorites of the year. The Goya of Honor will be presented to filmmaker Jaime de Armiñan this year.

"Witching and Bitching" (Las brujas de Zugarramurdi), directed by Álex de la Iglesia and screened out of competition in the Official Selection at  this year's 62nd SSFF, on the occasion of the Donostia Award presentation to Carmen Maura, leads with 10 nominations: best supporting actress (Terele Pávez), best music, best production supervision, best editing, best costume design, best sound, best cinematography, best art direction, best makeup and hairstyles, and best special effects.

Following its world premiere at the Toronto Festival in the Official Selection, where it received the Youth Award for Best Cinematography, Camibal (Cannibal), is nominated in eight categories: best film, best director (Manuel Martín Cuenca), best actor (Antonio de la Torre), best new actress (Olimpia Melinte), best adapted screenplay, best sound, best cinematography and best art direction.

Having won the Special Jury Prize for Best Film and Silver Shell for Best Actress at the SSFF, La herida (Wounded) bags six Goya nominations: best film, best new director (writer Fernando Franco), best actress (Marian Álvarez), best original screenplay, best editing and best sound.

The third Spanish film to compete in the SSFF, La herida (Wounded), Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados (Living is Easy with Eyes Closed), also competes for seven awards: 
Best film and best director, David Trueba,
Best actor, Javier Cámara,
Best new actress, Natalia de Molina, and
Best original screenplay, best music, best costume design.

Zipi y Zape y el club de la canica (Zip and Zap and the Marble Gang), presented on the Velodrome screen after its showing at the Toronto Festival, lands four nominations: best adapted screenplay, best production supervision, best art direction and best special effects.

The Spain-Argentina co-production Futbolín (Foosball), opening movie of the SSFF's previous edition - 61st, competes for the Goya in the best animated film category.

Another three titles programmed at the SSFF compete for the Goya for the best foreign film in the Spanish language: Gloria (from Chile), directed by Sebastián Lelio, was presented in the Pearls section and was a winner at the 60th SSFF edition of the Films in Progress Industry Award.

Alongside of it are, La jaula de oro (The Golden Dream) South Korea, directed by Diego Quemada-Díez, and El médico alemán, Wakolda (The German Doctor), Argentina, directed  by Lucía Puenzo. Both competed in the SSFF's Horizontes Latinos section, following their presentation in the "Un certain regard" section at the Cannes Festival last May.

28th Goya Awards Date February 9, 2014 Venue Centro de Convenciones y Congresos Príncipe Felipe, Madrid Host Manel Fuentes Network TVE 28th Goya Nominees: http://premiosgoya.academiadecine.com/nominados/?&idioma=EN Opt for Spanish or English version of page for finalists - link top of page.

Fall Film Festivals - Canada, Italy, Spain, USA

69th Venice International Film Festival

 The 69th Venice International Film Festival (la Biennale di Venezia - VIFF), directed by Alberto Barbera, kicks off today, Wednesday, August 29, with the Opening Ceremony and the Palazzo del Cinema screening of Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, out of competition. It will run through September 8th. Check out the Screenings schedule.

WEBSITE (English)

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Toronto, Canada, opens September 6, and runs through the 16th. The folks at Toronto claim, "The Toronto International Film Festival is the leading public film festival in the world, screening more than 300 films from 60+ countries every September." I have no facts to dispute that. I do know that their cinematic selection each year is one of the best if not, as they claim, the best. The TIFF has another distinction, that of managing to screen the Academy Award-winning  feature movie with regularity. Therefore, when I begin the process of trying to predict that winner, I turn to Toronto.

A small sample of films to be screened: From the U.S.A. Beasts of the Southern Wild, Great Expectations. Quebec writer-diector Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette's Inch’Allah, and the return of Austrian auteur and two-time winner at Cannes, Michael Haneke with Amour.

Ticket packages are available to buy now. Individual tickets go on sale September 2nd.

WEBSITE
 

60th SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL

French filmmaker Georges Franju will be the subject of one of the retrospectives programed for the 60th San Sebastian Festival (SSIFF), September 21 - 29, 2012. Franju would have been 100 this year. 

Georges Franju (April 12, 1912 / November 5, 1987) was an enormously influential figure in French film culture. In 1936 he founded the Cinémathèque Française with Henri Langlois, and his career as a director began in 1949 with documentaries. His early works demonstrated his particular talent for filming reality from unexpected angles, a trait akin to surrealism and expressionism.

American director Oliver Stone and Scottish actor, Ewan McGregor will each receive the Donastia Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributions to cinema.  Both of them have new movies, which will premiere after the presentation of their awards, September 23 for Stone's Savages. The Impossible starring McGregor and Naomi Watts, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, a young filmmaker from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, will premiere September 27. Bayona's most recent movie before The Impossible is The Orphanage (El orfanato, 2007), featuring Geraldine Chaplin.

Films in Progress will present six films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay. Four films from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco are selected to participate in Cinema in Motion.

Sixteen Spanish movies will premiere in the Made in Spain section, including Sleepless Knights, a German production in the Spanish Language, due to be released in 2013. The movie has been selected for the 2013 Forum section at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival and the Cine del futuro section at the Buenos Aires Festival. The full screenings schedule for the SSIFF has not yet been released.

The 60th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival will include screenings of the eight films selected this year for the Zinemira section, dedicated to films produced for the most part in the Basque Country. The Premiere's section will include six new productions, while Panorama will offer another two titles produced this year.The six premieres will contend for the Serbitzu Award, a new addition this year. The award will also be open to Basque productions presented in any of the other Festival sections.

WEBSITE  (English)

 

SAN DIEGO FILM FESTIVAL

The San Diego Film Festival (SDFF) will run from September 26 - 30, 2012, and has expanded to two locations, downtown San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter and La Jolla.

If you haven't experienced all the San Diego Film Festival events previously, you need to know this festival is known as "The Party Festival." Each night's fete is held at one of the Gaslamp Quarter's hot spots or in the gorgeous setting of La Jolla. Open to Patrons, Sponsors, VIP & Festival day pass holders, each party will feature a one-hour hosted bar. There are many other smaller parties open to all attendees. At any party, attendees must be 21 with a valid ID.

Gus Van Sant

Oscar nominated auteur Gus Van Sant will attend the special tribute and retrospective of his films. The Festival will screen some of his most acclaimed features, including early indie favorites Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho and more recent Academy Award winners Good Will Hunting, Milk and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Elephant. He is currently directing Promised Land, written by and starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski.

 A small sample of films to be screened: From the U.S.A. Beasts of the Southern Wild, Great Expectations. Quebec writer-diector Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette's Inch’Allah, and the return of Austrian auteur and two-time winner at Cannes, Michael Haneke with Amour. The full Festival schedule has not yet announced.

WEBSITE

Nicole Kidman will be honored, and there will be a special screening of a newly restored version of Lawrence of Arabia. Only two of the juicy events for the 50th New York Film Festival (NYFF), September 28 - October 14, 2012, under the auspices of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York City. More on this one later.

WEBSITE

As information is released there will be more from time to time on this blog about the above festivals.

It Isn't Fall Yet, But Festivals Don't Know It

I tried to stretch my hiatus out a little longer, but when the Venice International Film Festival started Wednesday, I knew it was time to start paying attention to what was happening on the movie scene. Thus, a break from the cookout today for this post.

Venice IFF's Golden Lion Award

Two major Film Festivals are underway this weekend. For starters, the granddaddy of the film festivals, the 68th Venice International Film Festival - La Biennale di Venezia - opened Wednesday, 31 August, with the well-received world premiere screening of The Ides of March, the highly anticipated new film written, directed, and starring George Clooney, in the Palazzo del Cinema, following the opening ceremony.  Co-starring with Clooney are:  Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling, Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei.

The Ides of March is the only U.S. film screening in competition. However, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, Germany/Canada, is worth noting. It stars Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, and Keira Knightley as a troubled young woman seeking treatment. There are no films of note from the USA screening out of competition.
The complete list of films in competition Here.

Telluride

George Clooney

The other festival is the 38th Telluride Film Festival (2-5 September), to which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a $50,000 grant to underwrite this year's  Festival’s Guest Director program, featuring musician Caetano Veloso, who is described as ". . . a musician who loves movies." For more on the Academy's grant to Telluride, click the title of this post.

George Clooney’s The Ides Of March may have been well-received in Venice, but it did not make the Telluride roster.  None-the-less, Clooney headed from Venice to the Colorado San Juan mountain festival to support the other movie in which he stars this year, The Descendants. It is the new film from director Alexander Payne, his first since his Oscar-winner Sideways (2007). Telluride will host tributes for Clooney, and actress Tilda Swinton, who won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2008 as Clooney's co-star in Michael Clayton.

Besides Venice, Telluride is also a stop in the film festival circuit between Cannes and New York. There's The Artist, a black and white silent film directed by Michel Hazanavicius, and Martin Scorsese’s new documentary about the late member of The Beatles - George Harrison: Living in the Material World, plus the Irish drama Albert Nobbs, co-written by Glenn Close, which has the actress playing a shy butler who is hiding the fact that he/she is a woman.

At Telluride, there are the "to be announced" slots, which keep festival goers guessing. In the past, some films shown in these TBA slots, including last year's The King's Speech, received Oscars. Therefore, there is big buzz of speculation about this year's TBA films. One that has been revealed is Butter, a comedy starring Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde and Hugh Jackman. Telluride Festival.

Coming up, the San Sebastian Festival in Spain (16-24 September), has set it's jury members.  Serving as part of the official selection jury will be Babel screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, director Álex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus) and actresses Bai Ling (The Crow), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and Frances McDormand (Fargo). American writer and film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum will chair the New Directors competition at the festival. This from Nikki Fink's Deadline/Hollywood blog.

San Sebastián IFF Presents Awards

Mo'Nique in PRECIOUS

The TCM AUDIENCE AWARD at the 57th San Sebastián International Film Festival was awarded to PRECIOUS, USA, directed by Lee Daniels. This is the third major festival audience award for PRECIOUS. The other two being Sundance and Toronto. Now, what will the movie do at the New York Film Festival NYFF, currently in progress?

At the SSIFF, the TVE-Another Look Jury also gave a special mention to LA MUJER SIN PIANO (The Woman Without a Piano), directed by Javier Rebollo (Spain-France). It also awarded a TCM AUDIENCE AWARD to an European film, DESERT FLOWER, directed by Sherry Hormann (Germany).

CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH

The Official Selection Jury for the Film Festival decided to award the Golden Shell for Best Film to CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH by LU CHUAN (China). The movies director of photography, Cao Yu, received the Jury's Best Cinematography Award.

CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH, filmed in wide screen and black and white, begins in 1937. Japanese troops have entered China's temporary capital, where their cruel occupation will be known as "The Rape of Nanjing." The film alternates between Japanese and Chinese points of view, presenting a portrait of surviving in wartime day-to-day living conditions amidst a devastated city while confronting never before encountered ethical dilemmas.

This and other awards were presented last evening at San Sebastián, Spain, in the Kursaal, with the entire media event being hosted in the Anoeta Velodrome where a broadcast of the closing gala was shown on the giant Velodrome screen. The evening was also broadcast live on the sansebastianfestivalTV channel via the Web.

The gala evening began with the showing of the final screening from the Zabaltegi-Pearls section with Johnnie To’s VENGEANCE. Following the awards, the evening closed with the screening of MOTHER & CHILD (USA), presented in person by director Rodrigo García and the actors Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and Jimmy Smits, who made an appearance on the Velodrome stage. Also in the movie, but not at the SSIFF, are Annette Bening, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Other awards from the Official Selection went to:

BEST DIRECTOR SILVER SHELL to JAVIER REBOLLO for LA MUJER SIN PIANO (Spain - France);

JURY PRIZE FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to BLESSED (Australia);

SILVER SHELL FOR BEST ACTOR to PABLO PINEDA for YO, TAMBIÉN (ME, TOO, Spain);

SILVER SHELL FOR BEST ACTRESS to LOLA DUEÑAS for YO, TAMBIÉN (Spain);

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to LE REFUGE by FRANÇOIS OZON (France).

The President of the International Jury was LAURENT CANTET (France), and the three other males on the jury were: BONG JOON-HO (Korea); DANIEL GIMÉNEZ CACHO (Spain); and JOHN MADDEN (United Kingdom). The females were LEONOR SILVEIRA (Portugal); PILAR LÓPEZ DE AYALA (Spain); and SAMIRA MAKHMALBAF (Iran).

The FIPRESCI Award for the Best Film Made in Spain went to Catalonian director Isaki Lacuesta's LOS CONDENADOS (The Condemned, Spain).

The HORIZONTES Jury Award for films in Spanish made outside of Spain, and carrying €35,000 (€10,000 for the director of the winning film and €25,000 for its importer in Spain), went to the film GIGANTE (Uruguay) directed by by Adrián Biniez, with a Special Mention to FRANCIA (Argentina) directed by Israel Adrián Caetano. Also, the movie CONTRACORRIENTE, by Javier Fuentes-León (Peru-Colombia-France-Germany), received the Horizontes Sebastian 2009 Award.

KUTXA’s social program granted €30,000 in aid to the film by Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro, YO TAMBIÉN, a competitor in the Official Selection, for highlighting the values of integration and equality, precisely the values promoted by Kutxa.

The FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Grand Prix for Best Film of the Year screening at the San Sebastián Festival was presented at the opening gala on Friday, 18 September, to THE WHITE RIBBON (Das Weisse Band, Germany), directed by Michael Haneke. In order for a movie to be given a FIPRESCI GRAND PRIX at an individual film festival, it must have won at least on major award at a major film festival. WHITE RIBBON won the Palme d'or at Cannes in May. Can't get more "major" than that. Will Germany place it in competition for this year's Best Foreign Film Oscar®?

SSIFF Honors to Brooks, McKellen and Uribe

Actor Ian McKellen, UK, and director Imanol Uribe, Spain, each received special awards yesterday at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. In addition, the Festival is honoring the late American writer / director Richard Brooks with a retrospective of his movies.

Sir Ian McKellen, 71, has left a lasting impression on millions with his diverse roles in movies such as THE DA VINCI CODE, THE LORD OF THE RINGS series, RICHARD III, KING LEAR and HAMLET, both in the movies and on television. He was the guest of honor at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, which honored him with the Donastia Award for years of exceptional work in Movies.

The date also signified McKellen's 40-year relationship with the Hollywood film industry. He received the Festival's Silver Shell (la Concha de Plata) for Best Actor in the 1998 movie, GODS AND MONSTERS, directed by James Whale.

What many do not know is that this diverse actor is a trained Shakespearean actor who originated the role of Antonio Salieri in the Broadway production of 'Amadeus,' has hosted 'Saturday Night Live,' and appeared in the original X-MEN. He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 1990 for his services to drama. He has been twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor but, alas, both alluded him.

In 1986, the Festival created the Donostia Award, to be given to a great film personality in recognition for their work and career. That year, the first one was awarded to Gregory Peck, and the honorees who have followed have been very diverse beginning with Peck to this year's honoree, Ian McKellen and last year's honoree, Meryl Streep. See all honorees.

Also on Wednesday, director Imanol Uribe received the Zinemira Award at the Basque Film Gala. Uribe was born in San Salvador (1950), but is of Spanish heritage and was raised in Madrid. After the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the Basque cinema could come forward, and it did with a vengeance in the late 1970's. The film that mostly facilitated the rise of the New Basque Cinema was written and directed by Uribe, THE BURGOS TRIAL (El proceso de Burgos). In 1979, the movie was awarded the Pearl of the Cantabrian Award for Best Film in the Spanish Language at San Sebastián.

He went on to make movies honored around the world such as, ESCAPE FROM SEGOVIA, (La fuga de Segovia, 1981), MIKEL'S DEATH (La muerte de Mikel), both films also related to the political situation of the time. Then, he turned his attention to other genres resulting in fine contemporary Spanish movies such as, BILBAO BLUES, (Adiós pequeña, 1986), THE DUMBFOUNDED KING (El rey pasmad, 1991), and two movies for which he landed the Golden Shell at San Sebastián Festival, Días contados (1994) and Bwana (1996).

The late American filmmaker Richard Brooks (1912 - 1991) is being honored by the Festival with a Richard Brooks Retrospective. Thirty movies, either written or directed by Brooks are being shown during the Festival, and their dates span the years from 1944 to 1985.

The movies of Richard Brooks, dubbed into Spanish of course, were very popular in Spain. Dubbed American movies, always older than those being shown elsewhere, were staples in the movie theaters and shown on television during era of dictator Franco. There was a complete industry in Spain devoted to dubbing movies from any language other than Spanish into Spanish, altering the content and dialogue at the same time in order to please Franco's censors.

When I first went to Spain, most people I met there knew more about American movies and movie stars than did I, even though I was practically raised in a movie theater in the American heartland. I wanted to know about films made in Spain and they did not want to talk about then, many saying they did not even go to see Spanish movies because they were mostly propaganda tools for, or against Franco.

To my dear friends in Spain, I wish I could be there this year to enjoy this Richard Brooks Retrospective with you, and here is the list (see more about them here):

COBRA WOMAN ( USA, 1944 )

BRUTE FORCE ( USA, 1947 )

CROSSFIRE ( USA, 1947 )

TO THE VICTOR ( USA, 1948 )

KEY LARGO ( USA, 1948 )

CRISIS ( USA, 1950 )

THE LIGHT TOUCH ( USA, 1951 )

DEADLINE-U.S.A. ( USA, 1952 )

BATTLE CIRCUS ( USA, 1953 )

TAKE THE HIGH GROUND! ( USA, 1953 )

FLAME AND THE FLESH ( USA, 1954 )

THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS ( USA, 1954 )

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE ( USA, 1955 )

THE LAST HUNT ( USA, 1956 )

THE CATERED AFFAIR ( USA, 1956 )

SOMETHING OF VALUE ( USA, 1957 )

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV ( USA, 1958 )

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF ( USA, 1958 )

ELMER GANTRY ( USA, 1960 )

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH ( USA, 1962 )

LORD JIM ( USA, 1965 )

THE PROFESSIONALS ( USA, 1966 )

IN COLD BLOOD ( USA, 1967 )

THE HAPPY ENDING ( USA, 1969 )

$ (DOLLARS) ( USA, 1971 )

BITE THE BULLET ( USA, 1975 )

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR ( USA, 1977 )

WRONG IS RIGHT ( USA, 1982 )

FEVER PITCH ( USA, 1985)

Iraqi Filmmaker wins Cinema in Motion Award at SSIFF

Iraqi Mohamed Al-Daradji's movie IN THE SANDS OF BABYLON received the 5th Cinema in Motion Award yesterday at the San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF). The award is worth about $50,000 in cash and services.

In the Program, San Sebastián's Cinema in Motion, together with Films in Progress, presented three films, one each from Iraq, Egypt and Palestine: IN THE SANDS OF BABYLON (Iraq) by Mohamed Al-Daradji; NOMAD'S HOME (Beit Sha’ar, Egypt) by Iman Kamel; and PORT OF MEMORY (Palestine-Germany) by Kamal Aljafari. Afterward, the participants in the program decided to grant their award to Al-Daradji.

Mohamed Al-Daradji (born in Baghdad, Iraq) is now a dual Dutch-Iraqi citizen. He studied theatre directing in Baghdad and fled to The Netherlands in 1995 where he specialized as a cameraman. Later, he graduated with a MA in cinematography in Leeds. He has created several short films and commercials. 

One of his first features was AHLAAM, 2005, which took him back to Baghdad to film for four months while the war was raging. It was dangerous and difficult to film. Production was slowed as electricity would often fail. In 2006, the movie won the Brooklyn International Film Festival's Spirit Award. His other films include: SON OF BABYLON, 2009, and The Actors, Match Report and Chicken Soup, all in 2004.

For more about the SSIFF, see previous posts, and for more on the films in the 'Cinema in Motion' program, click title of this post. For all posts about SSIFF, click SSIFF in tags at bottom of this post.

SSIFF High Tech, TIFF Brouhaha, NYFF Opening

Wouldn't you know. I posted yesterday about the San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF) and, low and behold, today I received a notice that many of the programs, including the opening and closing ceremonies, will be Web cast, and available on mobile phones.

But before I give you the skinny, remember, you can access every post on this blog concerning the Festival, and any other festival, by clicking the tag for that festival (i.e., SSIFF, TIFF, HFF, etc.) found at the bottom of almost every post. Okay, here is the skinny.

This year, San Sebastian Festival TV offers the opening and closing galas, the Donostia Award ceremonies and the press conferences, also a number of videos among which are the Zabaltegi Meetings and the Horizontes Breakfasts, the arrival to San Sebastian of guests, the photocalls, a summary of each day, interviews, different aspects of participation of the teams presenting films at the Festival, and all of the clips of the films participating in the different sections. The content is presented in easy-to-use galleries, with search options to simplify consultation and navigation.

The majority of the programs are broadcast in Spanish, with some English and French. Some subtitles, except for live events. The Official Web site's contents will be accessible also through mobile phones, with a new navigation system adapted to use on these devices accessible through the Festival Official site.

The Festival Newspaper, Festival Diary, will be available in digital (pdf), which will make it available for download from the Official site. There will be special sites for the Press, and for industry representatives. Besides the usual audio translations, the Festival will offer assistance to persons with visual and hearing impairments.

All the above will begin opening day, except for Festival TV where trailers, etc., are now being shown.

See previous posts for more on SSIFF, and click title of this post for Official Site.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Brouhaha is over the Festival's choice of Tel Aviv for this year's City to City program.

Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF and Cameron Bailey, Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival issued the following statement regarding the City to City program: (See (1) at end of statement)

The Toronto International Film Festival stands by our choice of Tel Aviv as the inaugural focus for the City to City program and we welcome the discussion that is being prompted by our series. We programmed City to City to give our audience a window into Tel Aviv from the perspective of filmmakers who live and work there -- this includes filmmakers who cast a critical eye on the status quo. The city's filmmakers are experiencing a renaissance right now, and we congratulate Tel Aviv director Samuel Maoz on winning the top prize Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his film LEBANON. Healthy debate about the role of cinema in society is at the core of our Festival every year.

It is unfortunate that the producers of the film HELIOPOLIS have decided to withdraw their film in protest of this year’s City to City program. While director Ahmad Abdalla has voiced his opposition to the program, he is a champion of ensuring that filmmakers from the Arab world continue to have a voice at our Festival. The producers, however, have the legal authority to withdraw the film. . . .

We have had to cancel the first screening for THE TRAVELLER due to a legal dispute between the Italian producer and the Egyptian producer, the Ministry of Culture. The Festival has received no communication from the film's director or producers referring to the issues surrounding the City to City program. . . .

We continue to encourage everyone engaged in the CTC debate to keep the work of these filmmakers front and center as we all grapple with that eternal question: what can art do?"

(1). Slightly edited for length and for American English.

The 47 New York Film Festival opens 25 September and runs through 11 October. Here are some of the special programs:

Opening Night - WILD GRASS (Les herbes folles) based on Christian Gailly’s novel 'The Incident,' Alain Resnais, 2009, France.

Closing Night - BROKEN EMBRACES (Los abrazos rotos), Pedro Almodóvar, 2009, Spain.

Center Piece - PRECIOUS, based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, directed by Lee Daniels, 2009, USA, winner at the Sundance Film Festival. PRECIOUS won both the grand jury prize and the audience award for drama as well as a special jury prize for acting to Mo'Nique.

Special Screening - LIFE DURING WARTIME, Todd Solondz, 2009, USA.,

Special Screening - LEBANON, Samuel Maoz, 2009, winner of the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival.

Special Screening - THE WIZARD OF OZ, Victor Fleming, 1939, USA. Celebrating the digital release of this beloved classic, and there will be some special surprise guests, plus a new Warner Home Video Release.

Tickets are on sale now, and are not cheap. Regular screenings, $20, special screenings and programs, $40. Rush Tickets: $10, and only 50 tickets will go on sale one hour before showtime, limit two. Check their Official Site for more options.

San Sebastián IFF Opens Friday

The 57th San Sebastián International Film Festival (the Zinemaldia) opens this Friday, 18 September, in San Sebastián, Spain. Renault, once again, will provide the official cars for the Festival.

Tickets went on sale Sunday and a total of 46,455 tickets were sold as compared to 37, 579 last year. Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, WATEVER WORKS and PRECIOUS were the first to sell out, the Tarantino movie within seven minutes.

This year's Festival will include a total of 202 films. The competitive sections are as follows: 17 films in the Official Selection, 14 in Zabaltegi-New Directors, 15 in Zabaltegi-Pearls and 13 in Horizontes Latinos. Made in Spain will offer 15 titles and Zinemira-Basque Film Showcase another 9, plus a short retrospective. The Zabaltegi-Specials has a recent addition of Hana Makhmalbaf’s GREEN DAYS.

The 57th Edition will offer 27 world premieres, 5 international premieres and 12 European premieres. The Selection Committee viewed a total of 1,819 films, compared to the 1,696 in 2008, in order to choose the titles presented in the different sections.

Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried star in the opening movie, CHLOE, which is almost sold out for the largest venue, the Kursaal Auditorium. As of now, there are still tickets available in the smaller venues for opening night.

Only a few tickets remain for the Cannes Festival winner, THE WHITE RIBBON (Das Weisse Band), also winner of this Festival's FIPRESCI Grand Prix. Same for THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS and SIN NOMBRE, all three expected to be among the most popular movies screening at the Festival.

Sir Ian McKellen will receive the Donastia Award on the 23rd. Cultivated in the Shakespeare classics, the British actor achieved worldwide fame in THE LORD OF THE RINGS and X-MEN. He won the Festival's Silver Shell for Best Actor in 1998 for GODS AND MONSTERS.

The Antonio Elorza Velodrome has been converted into an enormous 3-D cinema for screening the Spanish premiere of BATTLE FOR TERRA, OCEANWORLD, THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS and the 3-D version of TOY STORY. Almost 3,000 viewers at each screening will be able to enjoy the experience of watching films in three dimension as part of an enormous audience and before a giant screen.

Canadian director Atom Egoyan and producer Ivan Reitman will present their film CHLOE at the Festival opening gala. Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz will also present INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, the opening movie of the Zabaltegi-Pearls section, on the first day of the Festival at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre.

At the closing gala in the Kursaal, on Saturday, 26th, the director Rodrigo García, together with actresses Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington, are expected to present MOTHER AND CHILD, bringing the 57th edition to a close.

French director Laurent Cantet will chair the Official Jury. He will be accompanied by Mexican actor Daniel Giménez Cacho, Korean director Bong Joon-ho, Spanish actress Pilar López de Ayala, British director John Madden, Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf and the Portuguese actress Leonor Silveira.

Some of the glitterati expected to attend the festival, other than those mentioned above are: Ang Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam, Michael Winterbottom, François Ozon, Tom DiCillo, Jacques Audiard, Johnnie To, Bahman Gobhadi, Lee Daniels, Olivier Hirschbiegel, Christophe Honoré, Juan José Campanella, Matthias Glasner, Fernando Trueba, Isaki Lacuesta, Javier Rebollo, Nicolas Klotz, Jalil Lespert. Robert Duvall, Chiara Mastroianni, Miranda Otto, Brenda Blethyn, Ricardo Darín, Carmen Machi, Lola Dueñas and Ariadna Gil.

The International Film School Meeting 24 and 25 September will offer youngsters the chance to present their works. They and their teachers will also comment on them. The showings at the Kutxa Function Hall are open to the public.

Producer and director Lluís Miñarro will chair the jury consisting of students from the participating film schools that will choose the winning film, the director of which will win €10,000 in Panavision filming material for his or her next work, also earning the chance to participate in the Short Film Corner at Cannes. Twelve countries will participate in the Meeting, which includes a Masterclass.

For more see previous posts. For detailed ticket information, click the title of this post to link to the Festival's official Web site.

San Sebastián IFF Sets Competition

The 57th San Sebastián International Film Festival (SIFF) film competition for the Golden Shell will open 18 September with Canadian director Atom Egoyan's CHLOE, starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried. This is first time Egoyan will have a film in competition at the SSIFF.

Columbian born writer and director Rodrigo García, son of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Márquez, will close the Festival with his North American film MOTHER and CHILD, starring Naomi Watts, Annette Bening and Samuel L. Jackson. One of Garcia's best known films is NINE LIVES, 2005, and he has extensive credits in television.

American Aaron Schneider, Academy Award winner for Best Short Film, TWO SOLDIERS, 2003, will bring his directorial feature debut, GET LOW, which stars the Donostia Award recipient Robert Duvall, alongside Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek. GET LOW will also compete for the Kutxa-New Directors Award along with 17 others.

From Turkey comes the winner of the SSIFF's Zabaltegi-New Directors in 2005.Turkish director Pelin Esmer, who won with her directorial feature debut OYUN (The Play), will compete for the first time in the Official Selection with 10 to 11 (11’e 10 kala), a co-production between Turkey, France and Germany.

Three of France’s most prestigious directors will enter the competition. Bruno Dumont, having bagged the Cannes Grand Jury Prize twice with L’Humanité (1999) and FLANDERS (2006), will bring HADEWIJCH. François Ozon will present REFUGE (Le refuge). Christophe Honoré returns to the Official Selection for the second consecutive year with MAKING PLANS FOR LENA, starring Chiara Mastroianni, Marie-Christine Barrault and Jean-Marc Barr.

German cinema will be represented by Matthias Glasner with THIS IS LOVE. From Argentina, Juan José Campanella adds THE SECRET OF YOUR EYES (El secreto de sus ojos).

Three Spanish films will participate in the competitive Official Selection: THE DAMNED (Los condenados), THE WOMAN WITHOUT A PIANO (La mujer sin piano), and ME, TOO (Yo, también). In additioin, Fernando Trueba will present THE DANCER AND THE THIEF (El baile de la Victoria) out of competition.

From Iran there is THE WHITE MEADOWS (Keshtzarhaye sepid) by Mohammad Rasoulof. Asia will be represented by South Korean Jeon Soo-il's I CAME FROM BUSAN, and Chinese director Lu Chuan's THE CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH. Lu Chuan is also known as Chuan Lu.

Zabaltegi-Pearls, the showcase for movies feted at the big international festivals but not yet released in Spain, with open with Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (Tarantino's spelling). This film, winner of the Best Actor Award for Christoph Waltz at Cannes, will be screened on the first day of the 57th edition on Friday, 18 September.

Also in this showcase are new films by Woody Allen (WHATEVER WORKS), Ang Lee (TAKING WOODSTOCK), Jim Jarmusch (THE LIMITS OF CONTROL, filmed in Madrid), Bahman Ghobadi (NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS), Bong Joon-ho (MOTHER) and Johnnie To (VENGEANCE).

PRECIOUS, the big hit at Sundance Festival, winner of the Special Jury Prize, Best Actress for Mo’Nique and Audience Award, will also be screened in Zabaltegi-Pearls. This movie, initially presented at Sundance and Cannes with the title of PUSH, directed by Lee Daniels, is based on the novel by Sapphire.

Overall, 18 films will compete in competition (Official Selection), 13 Latin American films will compete for the Horizons Award, 17 in the Kutxa-New Directors, plus other sections, and more are yet to be announced. See previous posts for previously announced events, etc. Click title of this post to go to Web site for much more info.

SERIES: Upcoming Film Festivals - August Updates

Times BFI London Film Festival





The Times BFI London Film Festival (TBFI) is proud to announce that this year's Festival, the 53rd, will open Wednesday, 14 October with the world premiere of FAMTASTIC MR. FOX from visionary director Wes Anderson (THE ROYAL TENEBAUMS, THE DARJEELING LIMITED). The Festival runs from 14 - 29 October 2009.

MR. FOX is Anderson's first animated film, which he co-wrote with Noah Baumbach. He uses classic handmade stop motion techniques to tell the story of the best selling children's book by British author Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach). The film features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep (Mr. and Mrs. Fox), Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Jarvis Cocker and Helen McCrory.

Wes Anderson, George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Jason Schwartzman are expected to attend the opening night screening along with other members of the voice cast.

The Closing Night Gala will include the World Premiere of Ecosse Films' NOWHERE BOY, the highly anticipated debut feature from British artist Sam Taylor-Wood. The film is set in Liverpool, England, 1955. A smart and troubled fifteen year-old named John Lennon (newcomer Aaron Johnson) is hungry for experience.

In a family full of secrets, John's buttoned-up Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas), who raised him, and his prodigal mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), clash over him. Yearning for a normal family, he escapes into rock n' roll, and finds a kindred spirit in teenager Paul McCartney (Thomas Brodie Sangster). Just as John begins his new life, tragedy strikes.

Sam Bell, another newcomer portrays George Harrison alongside a strong supporting cast that includes David Morrissey and David Threlfall. Matt Greenhalgh (CONTROL) wrote the script.

Sam Taylor-Wood has confirmed she will attend the Festival. No word yet on the rest of the cast. The film will release in the UK on 26 December 2009.

The full program for The Festival will be announced at the Press Launch on Wednesday 9 September. The 2009 Festival Web site is not up yet. Click title of this post for Web site.





Sarajevo

The Sarajevo Film Festival (SHFF) announces the juries for the feature, documentary and short films competitions, as well as the jury to select the European short films for the festival. This year is the 15th edition, and it will run from 12 - 20 August.

Festival will host Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold, who will present her newest film, FISH TANK in the Open Air Program. American Actor Kevin Spacey, who helped found the Festival is expected to attend again this year. So is UK director Mike Leigh, another Festival sponsor.

Telluride

The 36th Telluride Film Festival (TFF), 4-7 September, 2009, in Telluride, Colorado, presented by National Film Preserve LTD, will present a special program in honor of artist and film critic Manny Farber. "The Celebration of Manny Farber" will include an intimate bookstore signing of The Library of America's September 2009 release, Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber, with editor Robert Polito and Farber's wife and collaborator, Patricia Patterson.




San Sebastián

Fernando Trueba, winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for BELLE EPOQUE (1992), will present his new film, El baile de la Victoria (The Dancer and the Thief), as part of the Official Selection, out of competition at the Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF).

Belle époque, n., French, Belle = beautiful, époque = era. Usually referring to an era of artistic and cultural refinement in a society, especially in France at the beginning of the 20th century.

For more on Spanish films at the Festival.

Hollywood Film Festival

The 13th annual Hollywood Film Festival (HFF) will run 21 - 26 October, 2009. Web page is up, and they are calling for entries.

San Sebastian IFF and Web Site Success

Awards Presentation and Gala 2008
Final report from San Sebastian IFF. Their improved Web site for the 56th International Film Festival (SSIFF) was a huge success attracting millions. Over-all attendance, media coverage and country participation were also up.

The Festival was followed online this year in record-breaking numbers. The official Web site, sansebastianfestival.com/, provided online live and repeat broadcasts of the opening and closing galas, plus the two Donostia award ceremonies. Those impressive new features, plus up-to-date information with a photo gallery, press conference videos, photocalls, Zabaltegi Meetings and other festival events helped the Festival enjoy a very successful run.

The official Web site logged more than four million visits during the ten days of the Festival. In addition, there were nearly 100,000 video downloads.

The Festival had the highest attendance on record. A total of almost 180,000 spectators took part in the various Festival activities. That figure includes 3,041 film industry professionals and members of the press. Among those were 1,091 registered journalists, representing media outlets from 41 countries. The highest film industry and media attendance in the history of the Festival.

A total of 64 films from 20 countries were part of the 14th edition of Films in Progress: Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, United States, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela. Of the 64 films presented, 13 were co-productions between different countries and 12 had participated in previous years.

Cinema in Motion included projects from 13 countries. Four films were selected to take part in the event during the Festival, attended by 63 companies.

Mimi welcomes follow-up reports from the festivals she follows on her Film Festival Page, which has also grown. The 2008 page is now in three parts: Part I (January - May), Part II (June - September), and Part III (October - December). Also, check Mimi's Awards Page as the Movie Awards Season is now open and will get hectic by December. Links to all these pages are on the right sidebar.

Are you a member of Facebook? Please join "Mimi's Movie Gang," in the Entertainment & Arts Groups.

San Sebastián Film Festival Winners

View of San Sebastián and Festival Office

Award winners at the 56th San Sebastián International Film Festival (56 Festival Internacionál de San Sebastián Donostia Zinmaldea), 18 - 27 September 2008, have been announced. The winner of the Golden Shell (Concha de oro) for Best Film was: PANDORANIN KUTUSU / PANDORA'S BOX, Yesim Ustaoglu, (Turkey - France - Germany - Belgium).

An American movie, FROZEN RIVER, won two awards for the director, Courtney Hunt, and a Silver Shell (Concha de plata) best-actress for Melissa Leo, in a tie with the lead actress of PANDORA'S BOX.

Here is the FULL LIST with many pictures and much info. Click title of this post for the Festival's official Web site.

There is extensive information about the Festival, including the opening gala, on my Film Festivals Page. Here's the direct link for 2008. The opening gala was broadcast live on the Festival's Official Video Site, Telefestival, the Screen of Plaza Oquendo, and on Spanish Television's 2nd channel. This is the widest coverage the SSIFF has ever guarnered. The General Coordinator of the multi-media broadcasts was my buddy Diego Galán, and Manuel Palacios directed.

June! Tony and Emmy Awards, and Film Festivals!

Whoopi Goldberg will host Tonys.

Regis gets Lifetime Emmy.
Ah. The month of June will be here next week. Two of my favorite award shows come out of the gate in June - the Tony Awards (15 June, NYC) and the Daytime Emmy Awards (20 June, Hollywood).

The nominations for both organizations are in, and the hosts have been announced. Click here for the Tony nominations, and for the Daytime Emmy nominations. To find much more, and access official sites, click my 2009 Awards Page link on the right sidebar.

At the same time the Theatre Wing and the Television Academy are honoring their own in June, the film festival crowd tries to beat the heat in Wyoming (Jackson Hole), Scotland (Edinburgh), or on the beach in L.A. It's a great life, if you can live it. Should they prefer more exotic and hotter times with their movies, they may head for Shanghai. Or, later, to Sarajevo.

I'm now following so many film festivals that one page is not enough. So, for 2008, I'm splitting the coverage into at least three parts.

Part I began in Palm Springs, California, and ended in Cannes, France. Cannes closed this week, but you can read about it, and others during the first part of year, for as long as you like by clicking the link for Part I on the right sidebar.

Film Festivals Part II is now online, with lots of interesting festivals. A link is also on the sidebar.

Part II begins with the Jackson Hole Festival and ends in early October with the 46th New York Film Festival in NYC. In between you'll find Montreal, Telluride, San Sebastian, and more.

Coming online in August will be Part III. It begins with Vancouver in September. I'm not sure where it will end. It may be necessary to add a Part IV. At any rate, watch this blog for notification when Part III is online sometime in August.

To get the overview of the film festivals I cover during a year, take a look at my Film Festivals Page 2007.

Spain Sends THE ORPHANAGE to Fetch BFLF Oscar®

It's official. THE ORPHANAGE (EL Orfanato, Spain, 2007) directed by J. A. (Juan Antonio) Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro (PAN'S LABYRINTH), will represent Spain in the contest for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®. That's a movie in languages other than English, and countries may submit only one film in the BFLF category.

ORPHANAGE bypassed the top film festival in Spain, San Sebastián, for the Film Festival of Catalonia at Sitges, a festival for fantasy and the fantastic. It will have its Spain premiere in Sitges at the opening gala 4 October.

Meanwhile, the Picturehouse release is making its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival as I write this, and is in competition. The movie stars Belén Rueda (Laura), Fernando Cayo (Carlos) and Geraldine Chaplin (Aurora), and it is the last name on the list that is very interesting, I think.

You see, one of the reasons the movie may have bypassed San Sebastián could be because that festival was pulling out all the stops to honor Carlos Saura for 50 years of filmmaking. They honored him with a Golden Shell. Before Saura, only Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, "the master," received one in 1981. Buñuel died in 1983.

If you don't know, Saura and Chaplin had a close relationship for many years in which she collaborated on the writing of the scripts, helped finance some of his projects, starred in a number of his movies and gave him his third son, Sean Saura Chaplin. Carlos was married with two sons. She was not. They never married, but were together shortly after she starred in DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) until the filming of her last movie with Saura, MAMA TURNS 100 (1979). There's much more, but you must wait for my book.

FADOS ("a musical documentary," from Portugal/Spain) is Saura's latest. The movie's Spanish premiere was at San Sebastián 21 September. It was a gala event where Saura received the Golden Shell from former Festival director and movie critic Diego Galán. Not only that, there was a live production of fado singers with flamenco dancers.

FADOS will have its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival in NYC, screening as a special event on 13 October. No word as yet if the fado singers will perform. The world premiere was at Toronto, the Spain one at San Sebastián, and the Canadian one at Vancouver. ORPHANAGE didn't appear at any of those.

Here, the plot thickens. FADOS is a Portuguese/Spanish production and Portuguese is spoken. So, I can hardly wait to find out if Portugal is submitting FADOS to AMPAS® as their official submission.

Geraldine Chaplin on the set of EL ORFANATO, 2007
The story of ORPHANAGE is that Laura (Rueda) returns with her family to the orphanage in which she grew up with the intention of opening a residence for children with disabilities. The new environment wakes up her son's imagination, and he begins to take on more and more intense games of fantasy.

As the games intensify, Laura becomes increasingly disturbed until she reaches the point where she thinks there is something in the house that is threatening her and her family. The escalation of events lead her to take her son for psychological help.


Scandinavian actor Per Oscarsson and Géraldine Chaplin in LA MADRIGUERS (The Burrow, 1969)
Have you seen Saura's movie LA MADRIGUERS, 1969? Take your pick of English titles: Honeycomb, The Burrow, The Den. If you have seen this movie, the above synopsis should prick your ears, because there is definitely a psychological similarity between the synopses of the two movies. At any rate, from what I am hearing, Geraldine may receive an Oscar nomination for her performance in this movie, and the movie stands a good chance, too.

Will someone please go see these movies in New York and send me a report? I Will appreciate it. If you have a fast Internet connection, you can catch the trailer here.

My Film Festival Page News

Counted today and found there is information and links for 34 film festivals so far this year on my Film Festival Page, including some that are difficult to find information about such as the Festival of New Latin American Cinema held each December in Havana, Cuba. Ten are upcoming, or going on now, with the rest already completed this year. Altogether, there's a wealth of info. Here is the list of the 34:

AFIFEST, Berlin, Boston, Times BFI London, Canadian Hot Docs, Cannes, Deauville, Edinburgh, Guadalajara, Huelva, Havana, Jackson Hole, Los Angeles Independents, Memphis, Miami, Montreal, New York, Palm Sprngs, Puerto Valarta, River Run, Rome, San Diego, San Sebatian, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Sarajevo, Sitges, Sundance, SXSW, Telluride, Toronto, Tribeca, Vancouver, and Venice.

This weekend, I installed quick links to help you find the festivals in which you are interested. Just find the name of the festival you want, click, and you are there. Click the title of this post, which will take you to my Film Festival Page, and near the top you will find the links for the festivals going on now, or upcoming through December, including the one in Havana. There is a separate set of links for those already completed. Remember, there is always a link to my Film Festival Page on the right sidebar of this blog as well.

George Clooney and Jerry Weintraub at a recent Boston Film Festival gala.

Want to know what Sally Field Said at EMMYs?

Would you like to know what was deleted from Sally Field's acceptance speech at the Emmys®? Do you know what Al Gore has won an Emmy and two Oscars® for this year (different projects)? You will find answers to these questions on my 2008 Award's Page.

Want to find out some more happenings in "Hollywood North" at the Toronto International Film Festival? How about what is, and will be, happening at the Film Festival in San Sebastián, Spain, and many others?

You need to access my Film Festival and Award Pages. The Emmy Awards for Prime Time were presented last night (15 September), and I have posted on my Award's Page, incorporating some information from the Creative Emmy Awards presented 8 September. There are extra tidbits as well.

So far this year, I have written about 25 international film festivals since the first of January on my Film Festival Page. I am currently following one recently closed (Toronto), one currently going (Boston), and five upcoming (San Sebastián, Vancouver, New York (NYC), Sitges (Spain), BFI-London). All have links to the Official Web sites, plus other links of interest. More upcoming festivals will be added the last of this month.

Once the last major film festival ends for this year, usually in late November, the awards season, in anticipation of the ultimate awards the last of February, kicks off. Those ultimate awards for movies are the Academy Awards® to be presented Sunday, 24 February 2008. There are links to both my Film Festival and Award pages on the right sidebar of this blog. Come visit.

My Film Festiva Page News

Wes Anderson’s new film, THE DARJEELING LIMITED, featuring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, and Anjelica Huston. (Fox Searchlight)

Winners at the Sarajevo and Edinburgh Film Festivals were posted today on my Film Festival Page as the fall film festival season is underway. My MIMI'S FILM FESTIVAL PAGE is currently reporting on happenings at the Edinburgh (England) and Sarajevo (Bosnia) festivals as well as the following: Montreal (Canada), Venice (Italy), Telluride (Colorado, USA), Toronto (Canada), San Sebastián (Spain), Vancouver (B.C.), New York (NYC, USA), Catalonian (Sitges, Spain), and the Times BFI London (UK) festivals. Others will be added as information becomes available.

The page is designed as a "quick stop" for viewers/readers to catch the highlights, and access the official sites immediately through quick links. Updates are sporadic, because they are made whenever information is received from various sources.

So, go visit and bookmark/favor the page for convenient frequent checking.