Author: CWB News Department

BERLIN, Germany — The bitter winds of winter are back at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, and I don’t just mean the snow flurries and frozen writing fingers here in the Potzdammer Platz. (Global warming has made a brief appearance, but only as a film seminar topic, so bring along Arctic gloves.) Many of the official films themselves have gotten a chilly reception from the critics here, some justifiably, and some decidedly not. On the justifiable side is Stephen Frear’s disappointing period piece, Cheri, about an aging prostitute finding love in the very late afternoon of fin-de-siecle Paris. You…

Hollywood- Sunday January 11 – Tonight Waltz With Bashir won the Golden Globe’s Best Foreign Language Film Award.Other nominees were The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany), Everlasting Moments (Sweden, Denmark), Gomorrah (Italy) and I’ve Loved You So Long (France).Waltz With Bashir: One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember…

The 20th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) Awards Gala, presented by Cartier, was Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at the Palm Springs Convention Center hosted by “Entertainment Tonight’s” Mary Hart. Honorees Amy Adams and Gus Van Sant were presented with an original Chihuly Glass Sculpture designed by Dale Chihuly while the other honorees received the John Kennedy “The Entertainer” statue. Guests enjoyed “The Cîroc Desert Palm” created especially for the Festival by Diageo.The Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala honors individuals in the entertainment industry with several prestigious awards for acting, director, achievement in film scoring and life…

From October 17 to October 31, the YouTube Screening Room – a platform for premium film content from around the world – will showcase four films by some of today’s foremost Asian filmmakers. From award-winning festival darlings to undiscovered gems submitted directly to YouTube, The Screening Room is a special curation of high quality films from around the world. Rotating the films every other Friday, The Screening Room creates a space for filmmakers to engage a global audience like never before.Leading the line up is “The Princess of Nebraska”, a new feature film from BAFTA-award-nominated Chinese filmmaker, Wayne Wang, director…

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…