Category: International

MUMBAI: After making its presence at several film festivals around the world. Sabina Guzzanti’s documentary Draquila will be shown at the Hot Docs, Toronto, North America’s largest documentary Festival.

A film that creates no few controversies because director Guzzanti points a finger at Premier Berlusconi and the Civil Protection authorities through Draquila. Leaving behind her satirical tones, Guzzanti embraces the journalistic inquiry approach to substantiate how big a windfall the 6 April, 2009 Abruzzo earthquake has been for certain interests. 

Every year , the festival, founded in 1993 by a national association of independent documentary filmmakers, presents a selection of over 150 avant-garde documentaries from Canada and throughout the world.

I this year’s edition, there’s added focus on Italy with a special section featuring seven documentaries. Besides, Draquila, Cosmic Energy, El Sicario, Room 164, Heart-Quake, Housing and I Am Jesus will be screened.

The festival that got underway on 23 April 23 will go on till 8 May.
 

MUMBAI: Looks like the recent revolution in Egypt has paid off and more to its film industry. Egypt has become the first country to be welcomed as guest country at the 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Beginning this year, a country will be named as guest country every year when films would be screened and film personalities remembered.

The tribute to Egypt will take place on 18 May when Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine would be remembered. It will be followed by the screening of 18 jours, a work grouping short films of ten Egyptian filmmakers. 

These filmmakers along with twenty actors, six writers, eight cameramen, eight sound engineers, five set-designers, three costume designers, seven film editors, three post-production companies and a dozen technicians filmed ten short film stories based on the 25 January revolution in Egypt.

Apart from this, Cannes Classics selection will screen Facteur (Al Bostagui) by Hussein Kamal (1968) while Le Cri d’une fourmi by Sameh Abdel Aziz (2011) will be screened at the Cinéma de la Plage.

The festival will close on 22 May.

MUMBAI: MPAA chief Chris Dodd, Sharon Stone and Morgan Freeman formally released a new Gregory Peck commemorative stamp at a first-day-of-issue ceremony.

The “forever” stamp is the latest in the US Postal Service‘s Legends of Hollywood series features a film still of Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Stone acted as master of ceremonies at the event at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills. Laura Dern, a friend of the Peck family, and Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines also attended.

Remarked Dodd, “For better or worse, in this case for the better, movies and actors influence perceptions of who we are not only as an industry, but as a nation. Through the characters he brought to life and the ideals he brought to the screen, Gregory Peck connected international audiences to an America whose core values are respected and emulated around the world.”

MUMBAI: Superman has always been treated as a American national who constantly fights evil, but not anymore.

In Action Comics‘ 900th issue, the super hero has renounced his US citizenship following a clash with the federal government. “I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my U.S. citizenship,” the ‘Man of Steel‘ has reportedly said. “I‘m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of US policy,” he added. 

Said DC‘s co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio in a statement, “Superman is a visitor from a distant planet who has long embraced American values. As a character and an icon, he embodies the best of the American Way. In a short story in Action Comics 900, Superman announces his intention to put a global focus on his never ending battle, but he remains, as always, committed to his adopted home and his roots as a Kansas farm boy from Smallville.”

Not everyone is outraged by Superman‘s citizenship surrender, though. Wrote Wired blogger Scott Thill, “Superman has always been bigger than the United States. In an age rife with immigration paranoia, it‘s refreshing to see an alien refugee tell the United States that it‘s as important to him as any other country on Earth-which, in turn, is as important to Superman as any other planet in the multiverse.”
 

MUMBAI: American director, producer and screenwriter Darren Aronofsky, will preside over the International Jury at the 68th Venice International Film Festival for the Competition section.

Aronofsky’s latest film Black Swan, that opened the 67th edition of the Venice International Film Festival last year received 5 Oscar nominations including Best Director and Best Picture and 4 Golden Globe Award nominations.

His earlier work The Wrestler (2008) was awarded the Golden Lion at the 65th Venice International Film Festival.

The International Jury will award the Golden Lion and other official prizes, at the festival due to go underway from 31 August to 10 September.

MUMBAI: Currently under arrest, Iranian director Jafar Panahi will receive this year’s Carrosse d’or or the Golden Coach Prize. Carrosse d’or is a tribute by Directors’ Fortnight to a director for his or her innovative qualities, courage and independent-mindedness of his or her work.

Panahi won the Camera d’Or award at the Cannes film festival in 1995 for his debut feature The White Balloon. He was jailed for six years and banned from directing films for 20 years after his films were regarded to be critical of the current regime in Iran in December last year.

Festival de Cannes will keep a seat empty in the middle of the orchestra at the Croisette theatre, the venue for the festival’s Directors’ Fortnight.

Berlin International Film festival too kept a chair empty at this year’s Jury in protest of his confinement, early 2011.

The Carrosse d’or comprising of a bronze statuette inspired by the figures of the Comedia dell’Arte and Jean Renoir’s film of the same name, has been earlier awarded to Jacques Rozier, Clint Eastwood, Nanni Moretti, Sembene Ousmane, David Cronenberg, Alain Cavalier, Jim Jarmusch, Naomie Kawase and Agnes Varda since it was first presented in 2002.

The Cannes Film Festival will take place from 12 to 22 May.
 

MUMBAI: Fourteen films including the colour version of Georges Melies famous A Trip to the Moon will be part of the Cannes Classics at the 64th festival de Cannes. The programme also comprises five documentaries and a Masterclass by actor Malcolm McDowell.

The films that have been singled out for Cannes Classics are A Trip to the Moon, Clockwork Orange,The Machine to Kill Bad People, A Bronx Tale , The Conformist , Sugar Cane Alley, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, The Law of the Border, No Man’s Land , The Children of Paradise, Despair, The Savage , Chronicle of a Summer and The Assassin.

Documentaries that would be screened are: The Look, Corman’s World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel, Belmondo … Itineraire, Kurosawa’s Way and Once Upon a Time … A Clockwork Orange.

Established in 2004, Cannes Classics showcases heritage cinema, re-discovered films, restored prints and theatrical, television or DVD releases of the great works of the past.

Mrinal Sen’s Khandahar and Ritwik Ghatak’s Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (A River Called Titas) were presented in this section last year.

MUMBAI: Blue water Productions is working on a biographical comic book comic titled ‘Infamous: Lindsay Lohan‘ showcasing the actress‘s wild lifestyle, dysfunctional family and struggling career.

The book is set to release in September this year with news of the latest legal troubles, that can be added about the 24-year old actress in the issue. 

“Lohan is both a victim of the all-consuming celebrity culture and a perpetrator of bad decisions, lack of self-control and an unhealthy sense of entitlement,” writer, Marc Shapiro has been quoted as saying. “This issue can be seen as a tragedy in motion; its last chapter is yet to be written,” he added.

According to the writer, the 32-page book also tries to examine the underlying causes of Lohan‘s inability to straighten out her life.

MUMBAI: Imax Corporation, Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment have got together to release the superhero adventure film Thor in digital Imax theatres worldwide day-and-date on 6 May.

The film, based on the well-known Marvel comic book is directed by Kenneth Branagh and stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins among others.

The release marks the continuation of the partnership between Imax, Paramount and Marvel. 

Says Marvel Studios COO Tim Connors, “We‘re excited to continue our relationship with Imax following the success we shared on Iron Man 2, and we look forward to fans experiencing the thrill of Thor in the immersive Imax 3D format.”

“Bringing iconic characters to life is something that Marvel Entertainment and Paramount do very well, and we‘re confident that Thor will also come to life on the Imax screenplay. This highly-anticipated summer title is tailor-made for the Imax audience,” said Imax CEO Richard L. Gelfond.

MUMBAI: A environmental documentary by a University of Otago student has been selected to screen at the London International Documentary Festival due next month.

River Dog tells the story of film-maker James Muir‘s father, Grant, and his three-year battle to stop farmers grazing stock on the Pahaoa River bed in the Wairarapa. The film shows his frustration and feelings of isolation in the community as he challenges traditional New Zealand farming practices. 

It is said that South Wairarapa district councillor and farmer Julie Riddell threatened defamation proceedings against Muir and the Paramount Theatre in Wellington if the film was shown. The film was screened regardless, with Mr Muir dismissing the legal threats as “a bullying tactic meant to scare me and the theatre into withdrawing the screening”.