Author: CWB News Department

After several years of planning, Madrid will finally serve up its newest entrée in the city’s tapas bar of international cultural events with the first edition of Filma Madrid, otherwise known as the Madrid International Film Festival, from March 28 through April 5. You may be one of those cineastes who feels the world hardly needs another film festival; there’s already more than 500 worldwide, catering to every manner of major and not-so-major features, shorts and videos. (Filma Madrid itself falls right between two of the granddaddies, Berlin and Cannes.) But this promising upstart appears to have the all private…

Kazakhstan’s official entry to the Academy Awards this year, the oscar nominated Genghis Kahn bio-pic, “Mongol”, directed by Sergei Bodrov, took home six Nika Awards on Friday, including an award for best film of the year.Mr. Bodrov, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Arif Aliyev, won the Nika for best director. “Mongol” also won awards for best cinematography, sound design, art direction, and costumes. Mongol beat out a slate of strong slate of Russian films nominated for best picture, including “Simple Things”, “Cargo 200”, “Traveling With Pets”, and “The Mermaid”.The other top awards of the night included best screenplay for…

The Oscar nominated animated feature, “Persepolis”, will be coming back to a select number of theaters in April, this time in English. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, the English version will reach 100 screens nationwide on April 11. Originally in French, the film by Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi, who also co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud, was released in December in a limited number of theaters. Satrapi and Paronnaud directed the English actors while the original French version was being completed. “Persepolis”, based on Satrapi’s internationally best selling autobiographical graphic novel, tells the story of a young girl growing up in Iran…

Lisa Jackson’s, The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo, which won the Sundance Special Jury Prize, began its world tour on the opening night of the One World Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Prague. It is being reported that the film, produced in association with HBO Documentary Films and the Fledgling Fund, played to a packed, standing-room-only audience for both its screenings.After seeing the film, the director of the One World festival, Igor Blaževič, began a donation fund to assist the women of the DRC. The festival’s organizer, People in Need, then announced that it is donating $10,000 to…

Director Sarah Polley’s “Away From Her” took home virtually all the major prizes at Canada’s Genie awards ceremony this past week. Held by the Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television, the 28th annual Genie Award ceremony honors the best achievements in Canadian film over the past year. This year’s ceremony was held on March 3rd.The top prize of the night, Best Motion Picture, was awarded to “Away From Her”. The film—about the story of a woman undergoing symptoms of Alzheimer’s, and the love and sacrifices that it takes for her husband to cope with her disease—was nominated for two Academy…

On Sunday February 12th, 2008, I was invited by Avid to attend the ACE Eddie Awards at the Beverly Hilton in the Beverly Hilton Ballroom. If you have never been to the Beverly Hilton, the ballroom is a glamorous location for an awards ceremony. It was beautifully laid out Black Tie affair. The Golden Globes have been held here. The ACE Eddie awards honor those wonderfully creative Editors whose work in the past year have been of the utmost excellence. You could not find a more talented group of honored nominees. Norman Jewison was honored with a Golden Eddie for…

Visiting the European Film Market is a bit like going out for pot luck in the neighborhood: you never who or precisely what you’ll encounter, you just pray the food is edible and the diners are bearable. Like any market, this one has its fair share of unappetizing and half-baked movies among the over 400 offerings here. But there’s always good stuff too, for those bothering to play hooky from the festival and head down the street to the Market’s grandiose three-story home, past the gold line in the sidewalk that marks the site of the old Berlin Wall.Like the…

Hope Springs Eternal is a short animated film by Ron Noble. I had the opportunity to see this eclectic and wonderful film over the rainy days of winter in California. What is remarkable about this film is seeing the dynamic personality Ron gives his character Mort through simple expressions. Hope Springs Eternal is not a children’s film. Why should animation be limited to just family films? This film is about someone who has suffered deep loss and gives up hope. In the process of he finds himself suicidal. When he tries to end everything it actually does not work out…

BERLIN (Feb. 8) – Despite a bitter chill in Berlin, crowds here at the opening night of 58th Berlinale warmed up quickly when all four of the Rolling Stones arrived on the red carpet for the world premiere of Martin Scorcese-directed concert feature “Shine A Light..” Keith Richards bounded out of the limo first, followed by Ron Woods and drummer Charlie Watts. Finally, a huge roar from the crowd met Jagger when he jumped out sporting a long wool scarf and started hobnobbing with a long lineup of TV microphones stuck in his face. And there was Scorcese, darting around…

Some weeks ago, way back in 2007, I said I’d deliver the second part of my column on the folks behind the extraordinary The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which since has snagged two Golden Globes (best foreign language film, best direction). Alas, that story seemed to have fallen down a mystery rabbit hole located somewhere in the nether regions of my computer desktop. I’m now happy to report that I have dived down after it (sans diving bell, thankfully) and have retrieved the orphaned item. Apologies for the late rescue. It’s nice when filmmaking runs in the family. Somewhere…