Days of European films started to exist thirteen years ago thanks to several Prague ambassadors from the European Union who loved movies. At the beginning OF nineties, there were not so many films in Czech cinemas like today and these diplomats wanted to show the Czech audience the best what could be seen from the European cinematography. With a minimal organizational and technical background they created a film festival that was accepted with great interest and showed that events OF this type are very tempting for Czech public. The first „experimental“year of this festival saw about 6:000 visitors and the 13th…
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Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us about the history of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and how you got involved with it? Roger Durling: The film festival has been around for 22 years. I took over four years ago when the festival was floundering and it was in dire straits financially. What we did was position the festival smack in the middle of Awards season. The festival now opens two days after the Academy award nominations are announced. Four years ago, we hosted Peter Jackson and Charlize THeron a month before they were to be crowned at the Oscars –…
The 2007 Santa Barbara International Film Festival has announced the films for the 22nd installment of the event. The festival will be sponsored primarily by Chrysler and The New Yorker and will take place over 11 days beginning Thursday, January 25, through Sunday, February 4, and will feature 28 World Premieres, 18 US Premieres, and introduce films from 40 countries. SPIFF Director Roger Durling is ecstatic. “This is the most ambitious and most diverse line up of events and films the Festival has ever had,” he said. “There’s a film to satisfy any film-lover’s taste in here.” SBIFF will also…
Pan’s Labyrinth has won the FIBRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, has been hailed by critics as one of the best films of the year. Pan’s Labyrinth combines fantasy and reality in a film that has pleased audiences worldwide. El Labirinto Del Fauno, as the film is known outside the U.S., has been subject to endless praise. The fantasy film masterfully tells the story of a girl obsesses with fantasy stories that one day becomes trapped in her own world. The…
The selection of Sacha Cohen for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy for Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan was the best thing that happened at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards. Of course, the question still remains as to why there are two categories for best actor. Borat and Little Miss Sunshine were the only movies with fresh, new ideas made in US. To our surprise, amongst the presence of great movies such as Pan’s Labyrinth, The Lives of Others, and Volver—the real foreign language movies—Clint Eastwood’s…
Park City, UT –Recently, the 2007 Sundance Film Festival announced details for the panel discussions and events emphasizing the importance of music in filmmaking, as well as the artists performing at the Music Café, Music on Main, and at other Festival events in Park City. The events are part of the Festival’s focus to bringing musicians and filmmakers together in an environment where they can work with each other and exhibit their creativity. FILM MUSIC During the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Institute’s Film Music Program and BMI will be holding events that exhibit the relationship between film and…
Environmental film-makers and producers from around the world will come together with the Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and the Socorro community this month in the inaugural RioFest International Environmental Film Festival. The groups will have a special opportunity to showcase their work and promote environmental awareness during the three day event, scheduled for January 19–20 at the Macey Center on the campus of New Mexico Tech in Socorro. RioFest Executive Producer Cat McGrath-Farmer expressed his thoughts and said, “What we watch in the media influences how we feel about our surroundings and how we react…
Park City, UT – iTunes users are in for a treat as Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel today announced they will offer narrative, documentary and animation shorts from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival for download via iTunes. The announcement highlights Sundance’s stance on using technology to help filmmakers exhibit their work and to bring the Festival to fans all over the world. A wide array of the short films from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival will be available on iTunes for purchase and download priced at $1.99 each beginning Monday, January 22, 2007. “I have felt, from the earliest days,…
I met Lagan Sebert, a young publicist, at AFI FEST 2006. Lagan did such a great job helping journalist that we decided to introduce him to our readers. CWB: Please tell us about your AFI FEST experience and how you felt working with the media? Lagan: AFI Fest 2006 presented by Audi was a great experience for me. It is a very international festival with equal parts glamour and substance. One great thing about AFI Fest is that it brings out everyone from some of the largest news networks in the world to the smaller on-line and foreign language press.…
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has announced that the Bangkok International Film Festival 2007, which was supposed to take place January 26-February 5, 2007, has been postponed to July 2007. This festival has been postponed because a probable cinema venue decided to end talks with the TAT because of financial reasons. This decision came as a surprise to the TAT and has forced them to make extensive changes to the festival’s plans, which had been going well until the recent change by the operator of the venue. Because of this situation, the TAT has decided that it is best…