Author: CWB News Department

Music on Film, Film on Music (MOFFOM) in Prague, Czech Republic announced the award winners of 2008. The festival jury evaluated the best of the competition section entries; here are the authors and films who received the awards at the closing ceremony at Lucerna: the main prize was given to Maciej Pisarek’s SOLO. This Polish movie gives a true picture of the MOFFOM festival vision Music on Film-Film on Music. Two directors received honorable mentions: Jim Heneghan for Kiss Loves You and Ben Herson for African Underground: Democracy in Dakar. Margarita Jimeno’s Gogol Bordello Non-Stop won the Audience Award at…

NICE, New Italian Cinema Events will start its 18th New York edition from November 13 to 17 at the Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick Street at Laight Street) presenting seven North American premieres. The traveling festival is dedicated to presenting first films by Italian directors to an international audience. The festival will open with MAR NERO (“BLACK SEA”) in the presence of first-time director Federico Bondi, whose protagonist Ilaria Occhini won the award for Best Actress at the International Film Festival Locarno. “Acclaimed Italian star Ilaria Occhini and Romania’s Dorotheea Petre make a lasting impression in a variation on the odd…

A sensitive, intimate film opened the German Currents series at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica last night, “A Year in Winter” by Academy Award-winner Caroline Link (Nowhere in Africa). The movie explores grief and the process of mourning as well as the intricacy of relationships. Although it deals with very strong emotions, it keeps a certain delicacy and modesty throughout.We have five main characters: 22 year old Lili, strong-willed, talented dancer but rebellious, her father, her mother, her brother Alex, deceased a year earlier, and Max, the painter who is commissioned by the mother to paint a portrait of…

On September 5th, all three major networks will collaborate on an unprecedented historical commercial free fundraising event for the fight against cancer with the broadcast of “Stand Up To Cancer”. The networks are donating an hour of commercial free time in hopes of rallying the public around the goal of ending cancer. “Stand Up To Cancer” is a new initiative founded to raise money to accelerate the funding of cancer research to find life saving treatments for cancer patients. Stand Up to Cancer will feature actors, sport figures, recording artists, and entertainment industry professionals who will perform and present filmed…

Tex box The Film Society of Lincoln Center will host actors, directors, journalists and a judge this August as three of its ongoing programs present four films, mixing political dramas with inventive coming-of-age tales.The editors of Film Comment magazine bookend the month of August with the New York theatrical premieres of two little-seen gems, beginning with the Film Comment Selects screening of Stephen Frears’s “The Deal” (UK, 2005; 90m), Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 8:00 p.m. Frears and writer Peter Morgan’s prequel to “The Queen,” the film traces the devolution in the relationship between the old-fashioned and hard-nosed Gordon Brown (David…

What a refreshing comic experience…you must see Kung Fu Panda. It has been a long time since I have been to an animated feature that was so much fun. The IMAX film experience was gorgeous. If you see the film this is the way to see it. Jack Black is brilliant as Po the overweight not ready for prime time kung fu master. The story is what makes this movie sing. Dustin Hoffman as the voice of Master Shifu was a much unexpected performance. I loved him. Considering he is playing against type, I was very impressed. Angelina Jolie, Lucy…

As a writer for Cinema Without Borders, I wanted to write about these current negotiations between unions and producers & studios. I found a SAG actor who wrote his own letter and decided what he said was something rarely published but needs to be said. This is a letter from SAG union member Tony Stengel. After you read the article please feel free to comment…thanks so much…Akiko AshleyBefore you get the idea that I am just writing to bash SAG, because I am going to a little bit. You need to know that I am a BIG supporter of the…

Tofu, The Vegan Zombie “Zombie Dearest” is absolutely the cutest little family comedy. “Zombie Dearest” is the collaboration between two super talented people Creator William Vaughan and Lee Stringer; both are instructors at the Dave School. William Vaughan co-created the characters, co-wrote and produced. Lee Stinger co-wrote and directed. William and Lee put together a team of talented artists from the Dave School to bring Tofu’s world to life. The entire production design had a nice warm feeling for a zombie film. (Smile.) “Zombie Dearest” features a brilliant cast with voices from Billy West, Ellen Muth, April Warren, Bridget Crowley…

Banned 15 years ago because of governmental resistance in early post-Soviet Estonia, the original, uncensored version of “City Unplugged” is now available on DVD and downloads through the distributor IndiePix films . Directed by Ilkka Javilatury 1993, “City Unplugged” is set in Tallinn, 1991, shortly after Estonia separated from the Soviet Union, and squarely depicts the uneasy and chaotic times that faced the newly independent nation. The portrait of a country in flux is a reason many give for its eventual banning by the government. IndiePix President Bob Alexander expressed the importance of this release, noting, “ [its] a great…

An official selection at last years Cannes and Toronto Film festivals, “My Brother Is An Only Child” will be released on Friday, March 28th in New York, coupled with an April 4th release the following week in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Royal Theatre. The film will then reach Pasadena on April 11th, before hitting more screens nationally. Directed by veteran Italian filmmaker Daniele Luchetti (“Its Happening Tomorrow”, “Il Portaborse”), “My Brother Is An Only Child” is set in a small Italian town during the 1960’s and 70’s. The film tells the story of two brothers who have divergent ideological principles…