Author: Francesca Castro

Francesca Castro's love for film surfaced watching cult movies and films like 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Shawshank Redemption'. Inspired, her interest in moving images emerged, sparking her media career at the age of 17. She volunteered for her local cable channel, Rogers Cable 10 in Mississauga, Ontario, filling a variety of positions such as Studio Camera Operator, Floor Director and Production Assistant, her main position as a News Show Editor. Her passion for motion pictures grew with age, and Francesca now, 'lives, breathes, and eats cinema!' She is currently building on her superb knowledge of film at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario.

In Canada, October brings fall foliage, low temperatures and rings the dinner bell for zombies and gore-lovers to surface and witness the spectacle of the 2008 Toronto After Dark Film Festival. This year, the festival showcased a myriad of award-winning international films and shorts with genres ranging from cult cinema to horror, sci-fi and back. Only in its third year, the festival received over 700 entries—200 of which were feature films—and over 8,500 fright fans in attendance. The festival runs in correspondence with the Toronto Zombie Walk, where hordes of horror buffs unite dressed as the living-dead and parade down…

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The Popular Jury, made up of 50 members and presided over by Ettore Scola, has yesterday assigned the Rome FilmFest’s official awards to the following films: The award for Best Film goes to Izobrajaya Zhertvy / . The RomeFilmFest – BNL Best Actress Award is for Ariane Ascaride in Le Voyage en Arménie / Armenia by Robert Guédiguian. The RomeFilmFest – Chamber of Commerce award for Best Actor Award goes to Giorgio Colangeli in L´ aria Salata by Alessandro Angelini. Finally, the Jury Special Prize is for This is England by Shane Meadows A special Rome FilmFest – BNL Award…

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A great new festival taking place in a great city: for the first time, the city of cinema will host an international festival of cinema. Did you remeber? I announced it last month, and now it is at its kick off. For nine days, in fact, from 13rd to 21st October, Rome will transforme the Auditorium Music Centre (the Rome’s new Auditorium designed by architect Renzo Piano) in the Cinema Centre. Auditorium will be the heart of the event, with four screening theatres vaunting state-of-the-art equipment, as well as conference rooms and reception areas. But all the city is involved…

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A controversy between the Venice Film Festival and the upcoming Roma Cinema Festival, which I mentioned in my last article, has been left out for the moment, and there haven’t been many other events to gossip about. The only extra noteworthy incident to talk about was the cast from The Black Dahlia arriving at the opening ceremony with a delay of one hour because of a precious brooch that didn’t want to have anything to do with Scarlet Johansson’s hairdo. So, after four days from the official opening and three days packed with films, we can finally talk about cinema.…

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63rd Venice Film Festival was opened on August 30th. Just to give you an idea of what it is going to happen, here are some headlines and useful information about the Film Festival… Organized by the Venice Biennale, the Festival will be held – as always – on the Venice Lido from August 30th to September 9th, 2006. The opening ceremony will be hosted by Italian actress Isabella Ferrari and will be followed by the world premiere of Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia, that screens in competition. Four international juries will assign the official awards of the Festival: the…

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