Author: CWB News Department

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, the Chinese conglomerate that is emerging — controversially — as a superpower in the entertainment business, sat in an opulent armchair at the Peninsula Hotel here on Sunday and discussed his business ventures with a casual efficiency. His response to criticism from a member of Congress that Wanda, after a spectacular $8 billion shopping spree in Hollywood, is a propaganda threat and should be subject to more Justice Department scrutiny? It is “not like we are invading,” Mr. Wang said, contending that Wanda’s goal involves “helping” American film companies “to get…

Los Angeles September 26, 2016—ShortsHD™, the world’s only Short Movie Channel (www.shorts.tv), has just announced the winners of the Hispanic Heritage Short Film Award Competition. The competition, in partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF), received over 900 film submissions. The overall grand prize winners are Marcelo Mitnik and Santiago Paladines. The announcement was made live at the Hispanic Heritage Awards Gala in Washington D.C. The two winners of the Hispanic Heritage Short Film Award Competition each take home a $7500 cash prize and were offered distribution deals with ShortsHD™. The Hispanic Heritage Awards Gala will premiere on PBS on…

RED Digital Cinema is heading to CINEC from September 17-19 with Teltec (Hall 2, Stand C01). Those attending the show will have an opportunity to see RED’s entire line of DSMC2TM cameras – RED RAVEN™ 4.5K, SCARLET-W 5K, WEAPON® 6K, WEAPON 8K VV, and the limited edition white WEAPON 8K S35 featuring RED’s newest sensor, HELIUM™. On September 17 at 1:15 pm, Markus Förderer BVK, will share his recent experience shooting the feature filmIndependence Day: Resurgence on RED cameras at room K01. Förderer will review the production’s onset workflow, his personal workflow with REDCODE® RAW files in REDCINE-X, and showcase the industry-leading…

Irish Screen America, the annual festival that acts as a transatlantic bridge between the thriving Irish film industry and American audiences, has revealed its program for its 2016 event. Presented with the support of Glucksman House Ireland, the bicoastal festival will feature premieres of new Irish films, television series and short films. With a mission to seek out and promote influential and emerging Irish talent to the U.S. and showcase contemporary Irish film, TV and other media, Irish Screen America has cherry picked an impressive program of features for New York and LA audiences, that have so far only bowed…

Cairo, Egypt — Within the events of the 4th Venice Final Cut Workshop at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, the two Arab film projects Obscure by Syrian Director Soudade Kaadan and Ghost Hunting by Palestinian director Raed Andoni have won 4 awards that will provide support for the projects in the post-production phase. The first award that Obscure has earned is the MAD Solutions award that offers promotional and distribution services to the winning project across the Arab world. The second award is the Fribourg International Film Festival award that consists of producing a 35mm un-subtitled copy of the film or contributing €1500 to the DCP version…

The 4th Annual Portland Film Festival announced today the feature film and short film recipients of this year’s awards in theAudience, Grand Jury, Director’s Choice, and Screenplay categories.As in previous years, juries of leading industry experts and esteemed filmmakers determined Jury Awards for Feature Narrative, Feature Documentary, and Short Film categories. “What a great way to end this year’s Portland Film Festival – by celebrating the films our esteemed jurors and incredible audiences have awarded these talented filmmakers, who represent the best of truly independent filmmaking,” said Josh Leake, Founder and Executive Director of the Portland Film Festival. The fourth annual Portland Film…

Pretty soon your clothes, furniture, and basic plastic tchotchkes won’t be the only things bearing the ‘Made In China’ brand. Dalian Wanda’s chairman Wang Jianlin (China’s wealthiest man) has been making big statements about his desires to own a studio. Wang says, “My goal is to buy Hollywood companies and bring their technology and capability to China.” This isn’t just one studio either, by Wang’s own account, he’s interested in having a slice from each of the big six in Hollywood. The beginning of 2016 started with Wanda group acquiring Legendary Entertainment in January. A reported $3.5 Billion deal paired…

The 73rd Venice International Film Festival will award its prestigious Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award to Iranian director Amir Naderi for outstanding and original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema, it was announced Thursday.Naderi is one of the most well-known figures of contemporary Iranian cinema with classics including Tangsir (1974), Entezar (1974), The Runner (1985) and Ab, Bad, Khak (1989). His Vegas: Based on a True Story premiered in competition in Venice in 2008 and Cut opened the Venice Horizons section in 2011. Naderi’s career has been influenced by Italian neorealist cinema as he often makes use of nonprofessional…

The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, announced the sixteenth edition will be held April 19– April 30, 2017 in New York City. The Festival will expand its areas of submissions from feature films, short films, and experiential storytelling (Storyscapes) program, to include submissions across all of the programming areas of the Festival. Creators can submit work to debut at the Festival’s industry leading Virtual Arcade (virtual reality, 360 films, and augmented reality), the highly successful television section (episodic storytelling, anticipated premieres, and independent pilots), and N.O.W. program (new online work, stories created specifically for the online space). The…

The 2016 PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL will screen 54 narrative and documentary feature films and 89 short films selected from over 3,800 submissions. The fourth annual Portland Film Festival will take place August 29 – September 5, 2016, at Portland’s iconic Laurelhurst Theater, and will include over 20 educational panels & forums, 12 archival presentations, and many parties, events, and industry networking opportunities throughout the week. The festival will present two opening and closing night films (a documentary and a narrative film on each night) and feature films in the following sections: Narrative Competition Feature, Documentary Competition Feature, Narrative Spotlight, Stranger…