Category: International

MUMBAI: According to data released by a file-sharing blog, James Cameron‘s Avatar was the most pirated film of the year.

The highest film in history was downloaded from torrent websites 16.6 million times, according to TorrentFreak. This act shows a 33 per cent increase in download activity from last year‘s top-pirated film Star Trek that was downloaded a little below 11 million times.

Avatar grossed nearly $2.8 billion at the worldwide box-office to become the highest-grossing movie ever.

Second on the list was Kick-Ass with 11.4 million downloads off torrent websites. This was followed by Inception that recorded 9.7 million downloads, Shutter Island with 9.5 million and Iron Man 2 with 8.8 million downloads.
 

MUMBAI: Ben Affleck and Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle will receive special honours at upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival in January.

While Affleck will receive the Chairman‘s Award ‘for his ability to do it all‘, Boyle will receive the Sonny Bono Visionary Award, previously awarded to directors like Baz Luhrmann for Moulin Rouge and Gus Van Sant for Milk. 

The festival will also honor Javier Bardem, Robert Duvall and Natalie Portman among others, this year.

The Palm Spring festival will be held between 8 to 17 January.
 

MUMBAI: The Iranian government has sentenced filmmaker Jafar Panahi to six years imprisonment for standing in opposition to the ruling system. In addition, the filmmaker was banned from making films or traveling abroad for 20 years.

49 year old Panahi supported Mir Hossein Mousavi in last June‘s contested presidential election against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“This is a catastrophe for Iran‘s cinema,” Professor Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University told in a story about the sentencing. He goes on to say that the sentencing is a blow to the entire arts community in Iran.

“By the act, Iran has sent a clear message that they don‘t have any tolerance and can‘t bear arts, philosophy or anything like that. This is a sentence against the whole culture of Iran. They want the artists to sit in their houses and stop creating art. This is a catastrophe for a whole nation, Dabashi said.”
 

MUMBAI: The King‘s Speech and Another Year lead the London Critics‘ Circle Awards nominations, with seven apiece.

Speech bagged nominations in top categories, including film of the year, actor of the year and actress of the year while Mike Leigh‘s Year also received top honors, including the British director, British actress and British actor categories.

While The Social Network bagged five nominations including film of the year, actor of the year, British actor in a supporting role, screenwriter and director, The Arbor, the debut British feature from Clio Barnard was nominated for four awards along with True Grit.

Awards contenders Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right each lapped up three nominations.

This year, 197 films received votes from members. The London Film Critics‘ Circle is made up of more than 120 members of U.K. film critics, broadcasters and writers.
 

MUMBAI: Blake Edwards, known for his comedy films in the Pink Panther franchise and Breakfast At Tiffany‘s expired of complications related to pneumonia last Wednesday. He was 88.

Edwards, one of the most prolific and enduring helmers of his time, was not well for sometime. His wife actress Julie Andrews and other family members were at his bedside when he died on Wednesday.

“He was the most unique man I have ever known – and he was my mate. He will be missed beyond words and will forever be in my heart,” Andrews said in a statement.

Edwards is best known for his work in The Pink Panther series in which Peter Sellers played the role of the bungling police detective Jacques Clouseau and 1961‘s classic Breakfast at Tiffany‘s in which he worked with Audrey Hepburn.

Apart from directing, Edwards also worked as writer-producer on several films. Though he never got an Oscar or a Golden Globe for his films, Edwards was given an Honourary Oscar in recognition of his cinematic contribution.
 

MUMBAI: 66-year old Michael Douglas, recuperating after undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment for throat cancer, will attend the Golden Globe awards ceremony. He has been nominated in the Best Supporting actor category in the awards.

Douglas has been nominated for his role in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

The actor has been placed on a special diet to help him regain the weight he lost during cancer treatment. Douglas has to eat a lot to gain back the weight and help him find his strength again. He needs to gain weight. He looks thin.
 

MUMBAI: The Palm Springs International Film Festival that will be operative from 6 to 17 January will spotlight on African Cinema.

Dubbed Cinema Safari: A Showcase of African Cinema, the programme will present 13 new films made in Africa or presenting contemporary African stories or themes.

The section will include Debs Gardner-Paterson‘s Africa United; Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew‘s The Athlete; Sherry Hormann‘s Desert Flower; Gabriel Range‘s I Am Slave; Caroline Kamya‘s Imani; Claus Wischmann‘s Kinshasa Symphony; The Last Lions; Lance Bangs‘ The Lazarus Effect; Oliver Schmitz‘s Life Above All; Michael Henry Wilson‘s Reconciliation: Mandela‘s Miracle; Mahamat-Saleh Haroun‘s A Screaming Man; and Hawa Essuman‘s Soul Boy.

Organisers of the festival also released the line-up of films that will compete for the FIPRESCI Award, New Voices/New Visions Award and John Schlesinger Awards.

The titles in the New Voices/New Visions lineup that focuses on international directors making their feature debut are Emre Sahin‘s 40; Johannes Naber‘s The Albanian; Juanita Wilso‘s As If I Am Not There; Pernilla August‘s Beyond; Vardis Marinakis‘ Black Field; Edoardo Leo‘s Eighteen Years Later; Alexandru Maftei‘s Hello! How Are You?; Mikkel Munch-Fals‘ Nothing‘s All Bad; Hans Van Nuffel‘s Oxygen; Emilio Aragon‘s Paper Birds; Ola Simonsson and Stjarne Nilsson‘s Sound of Noise; and Nayra Illic‘s Square Meter.

Ten documentaries by first-time filmmakers that will compete for the John Schlesinger Award are Clio Barnard‘s The Arbor, Jan Tenhaven‘s Autumn Gold; Richard Press‘ Bill Cunningham New York; David Sievekin‘s David Wants to Fly; Edmon Roch‘s Garbo: The Spy; Nicola Belluci‘s In the Garden of Sounds; Risteard O‘Domhnail‘s The Pipe; Shlomi Eldar‘s Precious Life; Joonas Berghall‘s Steam of Life; and Lynn Trues Summer Pasture.

The festival will also screen 40 of the 64 films that have been submitted for an Academy Award in the foreign-language film category.
 

MUMBAI: Robert Duvall, well-known for his film Get Low that helped him receive a SAG Awards nomination, will place his hands and feet in cement in the forecourt of Grauman‘s Chinese Theatre on 5 January.

The ceremony would be in celebration of Duvall‘s 50-year career in the span of which he won the Oscar for Tender Mercies and Golden Globes for Apocalypse Now, Tender Mercies, Lonesome Dove and Stalin.
 

MUMBAI: Director Duncan Jones‘ new action thriller Source Code will have its world premiere as the opening-night film at the South By Southwest Film Festival, Texas, on 11 March next year.

The complete lineup for the 2011 festival will be announced in early February. The event runs till 19 March.

The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier who continually wakes up in the bodies of different train commuters in the last eight minutes before each dies in a bombing. Eventually, it becomes clear that he is on a mission to discover who set the explosive so he can prevent a second, larger detonation.

Jones, the son of David Bowie, screened his first film, Moon at the same festival last year.

The Summit Entertainment release will open in theaters on April 1.

MUMBAI: After a deal inked with Warner Bros., United International Pictures (UIP) will distribute films of the production company in Central America beginning next year.

Current general manager of Warner Bros. Pictures in Central America, Miguel Joseph, has been tapped to head up UIP Central America from January. He will replace industry veteran Jose Victoria.

UIP reached a similar agreement last year to handle Warner Bros. titles in Mexico, Latin America‘s top market in terms of box-office revenue.