The Queer Film Award ceremony on February 16, at Hangar2 at the airport Berlin-Tempelhof On Friday, February 16 at 10.00 p.m. the gay-lesbian-transgender film prize is given out for the 21st time. The TEDDY is celebrating its “bear’sday” with a glamorous festivity. Under the motto “TEDDY takes off” the Award ceremony is taking place in the glamorous ambience of the Hangar2 at the airport Berlin-Tempelhof. In the cockpit we find Wieland Speck, TEDDY co-founder and head of the Panorama s...

Friday, January 12----What do you do when you have won every acting accolade there is, including the coveted Oscar for an iconic role (that people will still be talking about 100 years from now)....direct an independent feature, of course. That is the decision made by Anthony Hopkins, whose Oscar-winning turn as Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, is the stuff of legend. After more than 100 feature and television films in a 40 year career, Hopkins (at the ripe young a...

Hello, this is my first ever blog anywhere!! I am Toni Powell and am the Festival Director of Heart of Gold in sunny sunny Queensland, Australia. This is our second year and our first was a runaway success with 123 films shown over 4 days to around 3,500 attendees. We gave out over $20,000 worth of prizes and $12,500 of that was cash!. Filmmakers who attended really raved about their experiences... I may post some of their letters on other blogs... ABOUT HEART OF GOLD. For better or worse,...

The International Film Festival Summit Europe will launch april 18th, 2007 in London at the Cumberland Hotel www.fest21.com is a ing media partner of IFFS Europe. The Conference Curriculum Overview and Call for Papers for the International Film Festival Summit Europe taking place April 18, 2007 in London at The Cumberland Hotel is currently open until February 15th, 2007. Waco Hoover co founder of the summit states "The 2007 IFFS Europe Advisory Committee brings together some of the ...

XDance the innovative action sports film festival comes back for its 7th year in Park City, Utah. Held during the media fest of Sundance XDance has grown to be the largest actions sports film festival to date. With a diverse array of adrenaline filled cinema of all genres. First started in 2001, XDance highlights the films, filmmakers of encomes surfing, snowboarding, free skiing, BMX, skateboarding and other action sports. This year XDance has ed forces with LAT34 to present the 2007...

Thursday, January 4-----Annie Leibovitz, the superstar photographer, has famously said that dance is the one medium that is almost impossible to correctly capture via the still photograph. Because of its key element, movement in space, it is much better suited for the moving picture format. That speaks directly to lovers of dance and dance on film who should revel in the Dance on Camera Festival, which premieres this week at New York’s Walter Reade Theater. Screenings continue this week thro...

Thursday, December 28----With documentary films experiencing a commercial and critical peak, the stakes have never been higher (and the rewards greater) for the sixteen American Independent documentary features competing at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Considering the box office clout of such films as AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS in the past year, one can expect some of the most ferocious bidding wars will be unleashed for distribution rights to many of these fil...

Until March 31, 2008, it will be possible to send in film works in order to take part in the fifth edition of IFF (Imaginaria Film Festival) which will take place in Conversano (Italy) on 20-26 July 2008. All the information regarding the registration and the official Call for Entry can be found on the website click here After the success of the fifth edition, which was particularly appreciated by the critics and by the audience because of the accurate selection of the competing works, the Fe...

Due to political major changes following new government elections in Papeete, the Tahiti capital, the Tahiti Film Festival has been postponed. Online submission have been extended to adapt to this new schedule. After a first postponment, we are sorry to announce that the Tahiti Film Festival's new date have not yet been decided between the organizers and the new Tahiti government. Temptative date are either November 2007 or March 2008.Either way, online submission will be accepted till Aug...

Sixty-one years ago, US and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island’s soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them. The Japanese soldiers are sent to Iwo Jima knowing that in all probability they will not come back. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker who wants only to live to see the face of his newborn daughter; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ih...

The continued expansion of film festivals and their financial by public authorities is well known. There are clear economic and political benefits derived from investing in cultural events since more visitors come to the venue of the festival and the local economy through expenditures on lodging, meals, local products and other leisure activities. Further, for the arts is an appealing political activity since there are no controversies involved and provides prestige for ...

Un peu d'exercice pour votre anglais? Withoutabox, Inc., the media company comprising the world’s largest independent film network and FilmFestivals.com, the leading information and practical application services for the film festival community, have struck a strategic alliance aimed at providing an unprecedented range of marketing solutions to film festival professionals both in North America and across Europe and Asia. Withoutabox CEO and co-founder David Straus and FilmFestivals.com CEO Ma...

Monday, December 4---- The 19th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) came to a rousing end on Saturday evening, with the awarding of the IDFA prizes in a number of categories. Films from Denmark made a remarkably strong showing, winning several major prizes at the Awards Ceremony held at De Zwijger. The VPRO Joris Ivens Award for the best long documentary was presented to Danish director Pernille Rose Grønkjær for her documentary THE MONASTERY--MR. VIG &...

Saturday, December 2-----It certainly makes logical sense that one of the world’s largest documentary film festivals would have a number of films that focused on the troubles in Iraq, but the sheer volume of them has been, at least for this journalist, an eye-opening and yet terribly difficult experience. IDFA has spared no one with some excellent and heart-rending films that continue to haunt. The films dealing with the Iraq war, at least the ones that I’ve seen, fall into two distinct ...

Friday, December 1----As the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) heads into its final weekend, the speculation is growing on which films will win the major prizes at the ceremonies on Saturday night. There has been, as one would expect at a festival with many heart-felt opinions, many ionate discussions on the merits (or demerits) of certain films. Last evening, the nominations were announced for IDFA’s competition programs: the Joris Ivens Competition for best lon...

COMRADES IN DREAMS by Uli Gaulke (producer: Flying Moon Filmproduktion/Potsdam) can be seen in the World Cinema Competition - Documentaries section at the most important North American festival for the independent scene, the Sundance International Film Festival. In addition, two more German-international co-productions will be screened in the World Cinema Competition - Dramatic section, the German-Belgian co-production KHADAK by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens (German co-producer: MA.JA.DE/L...

Thursday, November 30----While it is true that most major international film festivals do showcase important documentary films, the explosion of documentary-only film festivals, as evidenced here at the International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam, is nothing less than an explosion. With brochures littering the industry areas, it is amazing and heartening to see such a massive public interest in the documentary form. So, instead of writing a long article, I am simply going to l...

PÉTITION POUR SAUVER LA COORDINATION EUROPÉENNE DES FESTIVALS DE CINÉMA La Coordination européenne des Festivals de Cinéma, crée en 1995, à l’initiative d’une petite dizaine de manifestations, rassemble aujourd’hui près de 250 festivals de cinéma et audiovisuel dans les 25 pays de l’Union européenne Ces 250 festivals représentant le réseau le plus important qui ait su fédérer des professionnels de l’image à l’échelle européenne, pour favoriser la circulation des œ...

Wednesday, November 29----The Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) announced today the 12 finalists for the 2007 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards. These annual awards recognize emerging artists in international cinema and are presented to film directors from four global regions (Europe, Latin America, the United States and Japan) to them in realizing their next projects. The four winners, selected by of an international jury, will be announce...

The European Film Academy and the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI have announced that the EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY CRITICS’ AWARD 2006 – Prix FIPRESCI goes to LES AMANTS REGULIERS by Philippe Garrel As Andrei Plakhov, president of FIPRESCI, has explained, "Philippe Garrel made his first film when he was 16, and by 20 had earned the reputation of the Nouvelle Vague's Wunderkind and 'younger brother of Godard'. His sophisticated cinematographic style, with long concentrated ...

Monday, November 27----Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage will be the recipient of the Career Achievement Award at the 3rd annual Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), which runs from December 7 to 10 in the beautiful island nation in the Carribean. Cage, a long time Bahamas resident, will receive the Award by screen icon Sean Connery, who was recently honored himself at the inaugural Rome Film Festival last month. Over the four day Festival, BIFF will screen a selection of Nicolas Ca...

Monday, November 27----Three of the fifteen documentary feature films selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as contenders for this year's Best Documentary Oscar are associated with the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA). The 79th Academy Awards will be given out on Sunday, February 27, 2007 in Los Angeles. SISTERS IN LAW, co-directed by Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi, opened last year's Festival and also copped the prestigious IDFA Audi...

Friday, November 24---Among the more than 2000 international guests expected at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), which opened last evening, are veteran directors Michael Apted and Jennifer Fox, both of whom have new film projects making their debuts at the event. Michael Apted, whose career has embraced both narrative and documentary features, will be giving a Press Conference on Monday, November 27 at the Salon de Balie, IDFA's headquarters. Apted will be represen...