Category: International

MUMBAI: Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival will open with the Canadian premiere of Kevin Smith’s Red State.

Red State is a powerhouse film featuring Michael Parks, along with Academy Award winner Melissa Leo and John Goodman. The film is said to be quite simply one of the best horror works of the year. It will be distributed by Phase 4 Films which plans on releasing the film in theatres this August.

The festival takes place from14 July to 7 August.

This year, Fantasia will pay tribute to the history and heritage of Canadian and Quebecois genre cinema by way of a special event that will honour the producing team of John Dunning and André Link, responsible for films like Shivers, Rabid, Happy Birthday To Me, Death Weekend, My Bloody Valentine among others. 

Over the span of their 40-year partnership, Dunning and Link founded Cinepix production company – which eventually became Lionsgate. They also helped launch the careers of some of Canada’s most celebrated independent film titans like David Cronenberg, Denys Arcand, Ivan Reitman, Denis Héroux, George Mihalka, Larry Kent and Jean-Claude Lord.

Fantasia will award the duo with Lifetime Achievement Awards at a ceremony that will feature reminiscences by a score of Canadian film industry players, the careers of whom were shaped by their gutsiness and vision.

The film festival will also hold retrospectives of Dunning and Link in collaboration with the Cinémath?que québécoise., “There was a time when genre and exploitation filmmaking was the backbone of Canada’s film industry, and a great deal of the most influential forces behind this scene came tearing out of Quebec”. “What better way to celebrate our 15th anniversary than by championing an aspect of our national film history that makes every one of us proud?,” Fantasia Co-Director Mitch Davis has been quoted as having said.

Fantasia will also honour the career of director John Landis with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Landis films include The Blues Brother, Animal House, Trading Places, Kentucky Fried Movie and Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.

MUMBAI: David Strathairn has joined Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film Lincoln.

Strathairn will play William Seward, who served as Lincoln’s Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869. Seward was a passionate abolitionist and fiercely loyal to Lincoln as he served in his cabinet during the Civil War. On the other hand, Day-Lewis will play Lincoln while Field will play his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.

“Throughout his career, David Strathairn has consistently delivered performances of strength and character.

That‘s why I am so pleased that he will portray the Secretary of State, who became such a dominant figure in Lincoln‘s ‘team of rivals’ cabinet,” director Spielberg has been quoted to have said.

The film is being produced by Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy and the filming is expected to roll this fall. Disney’s Touchstone is looking at a fourth-quarter release date in 2012.
 
 

MUMBAI:Stephane Lafleur‘s Familiar Ground has won the Narrative Film Competition at the The Los Angeles Film Festival while Beverly Kopf and Bobbie Birleffi‘s Wish Me Away took away the best documentary award. Both the awards include a $15,000 cash prize.

Amber Sealey, Kent Osborne, Amanda Street, and Gabriel Diamond collectively received the Best Performance award for their roles in Amber Sealey’s How to Cheat. The award for Best Narrative Short Film went to Saba Riazi’s The Wind Is Blowing on My Street while short Best Documentary went to Susan Koenen’s I Am a Girl!. Mikey Please’s The Eagleman Stag won the award for Best Animated short film.

In Audience Awards, the award for the best narrative feature went to Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block while the award for the best documentary was lapped up by Michael Rapaport‘s Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest. Asif Kapadia’s Senna won the Audience Award for best international feature.

The Audience Award for best short film went to Joe Rosen’s Blind Date while Can’t Shake This Feeling directed by The General Assembly’s Adam Littke, Ryan McNeill, Adam Willis won the Audience Award for best music video for Grum.

The Los Angeles Film Festival opened on 16 June with the world premiere of Richard Linklater’s Bernie and closed on Sunday with the world premiere of FilmDistrict’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.

MUMBAI: Outpacing expectations, Walt Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2 grossed $ 68 million in its first weekend beating the $60.1 million debut of the original Cars. Overseas, the Pixar sequel grossed $42.9 million from 18 markets for a worldwide debut of $110.9 million. Heading into the weekend, tracking had suggested an opening of $50 million to $55 million for Cars 2.

On the other hand, the Cameron Diaz comedy Bad Teacher grossing $ 31 million overpowered Universal’s Bridesmaids that grossed $26.1 million. Made at a cost of $20 million, the film earned another $12.9 million internationally for a global opening of $49.3 million.
 
In North America, Bad Teacher edged out Green Lantern for the No. 2 spot. The latter fell a steep 66 per cent in its second weekend by grossing $18.4 million. Disney said that a contributing factor to the film’s success was the popularity of Pixar titles.

On the other hand, rival studios pointed out that Cars 2 dropped 10 per cent from Friday to Saturday, suggesting that bad reviews, unusual for a Pixar title, may have had an impact. However, Disney said that the drop had to do with the fact that most kids are out of school now with Friday playing more like a Saturday. Opening on the same weekend last year, Toy Story 3 also dropped 10 per cent on Saturday.

At the international box office, Cars 2 grossed $9.3 million in Russia and in Australia, the film beat Kung Fu Panda 2 by grossing $5.2 million.

MUMBAI: The American Film Market (AFM) will launch a new five-day conference program at the 2011 market set scheduled for 2 to 9 November in Santa Monica.
 
The inaugural AFM Conference Series will cover five topics spanning from treatment to screen. The AFM‘s 8,000 attendees will have the opportunity to hear from the industry‘s global thought leaders, decision makers and experts who all converge annually at the AFM.
 
The AFM Conference Series, scheduled from to 8 November will comprise the Finance Conference, Production Conference, Marketing Conference, Distribution Conference and Pitch Conference.

 
The AFM Conference Series will enhance the experience for AFM attendees, offering tremendous value, knowledge, insight and direct access to global luminaries.
 
In addition, AFM will introduce an Industry Conversations programme comprising 14 intimate, interactive and informative discussions led by visionaries, trendsetters and experts, which will be offered free to market attendees daily.
 
“The AFM Conference Series and Industry Conversations are two significant initiatives that will bring greater value and benefit to our thousands of attendees.

MUMBAI: Iranian film Nader and Simin, A Separation has won the top award, the Sydney Film Prize at the recently concluded Sydney Film Festival. Along with director Asghar Farhadi won Australian $ 60,000 as cash prize.

The film edged out other films like The Tree of Life, Sleeping Beauty, Take Shelter and The Future.

The film focuses on an Iranian middle-class couple who separate and the intrigues that follow when the husband hires a lower-class woman caretaker for his elderly father. What follows forms the crux of the film.

 
The concept of the film came from a number of personal experiences and abstract pictures that had been in Farhadi‘s mind for some time. Once he decided to make the film, about a year ago, it was quickly written and financed.

Akin to Farhadi‘s last three films, Nader and Simin, A Separation was made without any government support. The financing went without trouble as the producers was granted 25,000 US dollars in support from the Motion Picture Association‘s APSA Academy Film Fund

MUMBAI: Actress Demi Moore has filmed a documentary partnered with CNN Freedom Project to create awareness about human trafficking in the country.

The film is titled Nepal‘s Stolen Children and will premier this Sunday on CNN.
 
Moore, who is an advocate for victims of human trafficking, met the 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala and her organization ‘Maiti Nepal‘ that has rescued children from trafficking.
 
The actress spent time at Maiti shelter gathering first hand information and interacting with the victims.
 
Moore and husband Ashton Kutcher have formed DNA Foundation which aims to protect women who have been forced into prostitution.
 
This is not the first time that the actress is standing up for a noble cause. Earlier DNA Foundation addressed the issue of child sex slavery and made a series of viral videos called ‘Real Men Don‘t buy Girls‘. After that she also used the micro-blogging site, Twitter, to voice her objection to puppy-mills. She also travelled to Haiti to lend a helping hand to the earthquake victims.

MUMBAI: Riding on the 3D wave in Hollywood, Dolby Laboratories has launched a line of 3D glasses for children.
 
The glasses are priced at $12 each.
 
Designed particularly for children, these glasses are not over-sized for a child‘s face and fit perfectly. These reusable glasses will be cheaper than the disposable 3D glasses and will be purchased and maintained by theatre owners. They do not require battery or charging.
 
The green in colour glasses have a sensormatic and RFID tag which ensures that children don‘t walk away with it after the movie.
 
These glasses will be available during the release of Cars 2.

MUMBAI: Oscar-winning director Ron Howard best known for his films A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code is set to direct the Formula 1 inspired movie Rush. The film will have Howard reunite with screenwriter Peter Morgan who had earlier paired on the Frost/Nixon.
 
Rush is about Niki Lauda’s 1976 season that features highlights like a rivalry with English racer James Hunt and a near-fatal crash in which Lauda lost the track, crashed, burned and went into a short coma. James Hunt won that race, but Lauda persisted in challenging him throughout other Grands Prix that year.
 
Lauda and Hunt, dominated Formula 1 in the 1970‘s but their contrasting lifestyles made for a compelling rivalry Hunt was known for his high-end London dining and party lifestyle while Lauda led a subdued life and once contemplated suicide during a low point in his career.

The 57-year-old director intends to shoot the film in Europe this year on a budget of around $ 50 million.

MUMBAI: Mike Cahill’s Another Earth has won the Audience Award for narrative feature at the Maui Film Festival while Oren Kaplan’s Hamill won an award in the independent feature category and Building Hope won the same in the documentary category along with Connected and Love Shines.
 
Another Earth is a science fiction drama film in which Rhoda Williams , an astrophysics student kills a family when she sees a planet and leans out for a closer look. She is imprisoned for four years, and upon release seeks out the widower of the family. The planet she saw was a mirror planet of Earth, and an essay contest is held where the winner could ride a space shuttle to visit it. Williams considers the possibility of visiting it to find out what kind of life her mirror self would have led to.
 
Hamill tells the powerful and invigorating story of young Matt Hamill‘s struggles with his disability and the people in his life who have kept him motivated to overcome this major obstacle while Building Hope chronicles the construction of Mahiga Hope High and the connection between a thousand people in the US and an African community working to create a better future for their children.

Said Maui Film Festival Director Barry Rivers in a statement, “Months ago, I chose the mantra ‘Create the Future’ for the 2011 Maui Film Festival. And the Future delivered big time with a stellar list of Audience Award winning and crowd pleasing films, unforgettable culinary arts events, filmmakers panels and impecable weather for each evening’s under-the-stars, lit-by-the-moon and powered-by-the-sun celebrations for the enjoyment of over 18,000 attendees,”
 
As many as 18,000 people attended the film festival held in Wailea, Hawaii from 15 to 19 June.