MUMBAI: Academy of Motion Pictures has invited Sound Engineer, Resul Pookutty to be a voting member of the Academy. Pookutty had, this year, won the Oscar for his work in Slumdog Millionaire.
Now, Pookutty is among the 134 privileged artistes who have received an invitation to join the Oscar roster of voting.
Other big names who are part of this elite group include Hollywood legends like Will Smith, Jack Nicholson, Quentin Tarantino besides Indians such as Mira Nair and A. R.Rahman.
MUMBAI: The 11th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) will be held from 29 October to 5 November.
Organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), MFF, a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative, has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organised by an independent body of practicing film professionals.
Says filmmaker Shyam Benegal, “All the sections of the festival carry some of the best films made the world over. Whether it‘s the thematic or the director‘s point of view that makes every film so distinctive, our audience will be able to see and experience it for themselves.”
The festival is divided into five sections – international competition for the first feature films of directors, world cinema, Indian showcase, dimensions Mumbai and retrospectives.
Above The Cut, an out of competition section, will highlight those debut features which are extraordinary but could not be included in the competition section. Films to be screened in the section include Rwanda, The Day God Walked Away (France), She A Chinese (UK-France-Germany), Ajami (Germany-Israel), La Pivellina (Austria-Italy) and Should I really Do It? (Turkey).
Some of other Indian films to be screened at the festival include Bengali films like Buddhadeb Dasgupta‘s Janala and Rituparno Ghosh‘s Abohomaan along with Marathi films like Umesh Kulkarni‘s Vihir and Renuka Shahane‘s Rita and Madhupal‘s Malayalam film, The Crown.
MUMBAI: Hanoi will be celebrating its 1000th anniversary with the opening of Vietnam‘s first international film festival in 2010.
This was announced by the cinema department of the country‘s ministry of culture, sports and tourism that will be the co-organiser of the festival. The festival will run from 27 to 31 October, next year.
Said Vietnam Media vice president of sales & acquisitions Ngo Thi Bich Hanh, “We want to start out small but stable so that we can make sure to do things right and not try to grow too quickly. For the first year we‘re going to invite 50 to 60 feature films.”
The festival will have a feature competition section for Asian directors with a focus on South-East Asia and competitions for shorts and documentaries.
An international jury will select the best feature, short and documentary, while the audience will choose a favourite actor or actress.
The fest will also have a ‘Vietnam Cinema Today‘ section that will have recent feature film from Vietnamese directors and a World Cinema Today section.
The ‘Country In Focus‘ section will showcase established directors from a chosen country each year while the Tribute section will showcase films from a certain notable Vietnamese filmmaker, actor or actress.
MUMBAI: Tatum O‘Neal will be seen in the title role of the indie drama Sweet Lorraine.
She will play a former queen of the New York underground scene who, after moving to small-town New Jersey, gets caught up in local politics when her ex-lover becomes the mayor.
The actress recently completed shooting for The Runaways opposite Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. She also has a role in the FX series Rescue Me.
O‘Neal has appeared in My Brother, Little Darlings and Paper Moon for which she received an Oscar award while she was 10 years old.
MUMBAI: The 30th American Film Market (AFM) that runs from 4 to 11 November will screen films like Get Low starring Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall; Unthinkable starring Samuel L. Jackson and Harry Brown starring Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer.
More than 8,000 film buyers and industry professionals from more than 70 countries are expected to attend, according to AFM managing director Jonathan Wolf.
The AFM has lined up 445 films including 73 world premieres and 311 market premieres.
The simultaneous AFI Fest, which is partnered with AFM, will screen 23 films that are represented at the market, including Joe Dante‘s The Hole, Michael Hoffman‘s The Last Station and Lee Daniels‘ Precious.
MUMBAI: Three Hollywood actors namely Julianne Moore, Bradley Cooper and Ryan Kavanaugh are among the honourees who will be feted at the upcoming 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival (HFF) and Hollywood Awards.
The ceremony will take place in Beverly Hills on 26 October.
Julianne Moore stars in two of the award contending films like A Single Man and Chloe and is due to collect the Hollywood
supporting actress award while Bradley Cooper will receive the Hollywood comedy award for The Hangover.
Relativity Media chief Ryan Kavanaugh will collect the Hollywood producer award. His films include the remake of Brothers, War Of Gods and The Strangers 2.
Actors Shohreh Aghdashloo, Melanie Lynskey, Paul Schneider and Zachary Quinto will be presented with the Hollywood spotlight awards.
MUMBAI: The department of film festivals affiliated to the Information & Broadcasting ministry has organised public screenings of award-winning films of the 55th National Film Awards 2009 from 10 to 16 October at Siri Fort Auditorium II & III.
Some of the notable films that will be shown in the screenings are: Taare Zameen Par, Chak De India, Jab We Met, The Journalist and the Jihadi, The Last Lear, Gandhi My Father, Antardhwani, Gulabi Talkies,Lal Juto, Making The Face, Sivaji, Echoes of Silence among others.
Entry to all PIB-accredited journalists will be free for all shows on production of valid PIB accreditation card.
MUMBAI: Ashok Amritraj‘s Hollywood-based Hyde Park Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi will invest $75 million to produce three to four films per year over the next five years.
For the same, the two companies will establish an alliance with Singapore‘s Media Development Authority (MDA).
“Hyde Park and Imagenation‘s activities in Hollywood and throughout Asia are further strengthened by this new relationship with Singapore. We look forward to working closely with the MDA and being a leading force in the global media growth in Asia,” Hyde Park Entertainment
The multi-party venture will commence with an English language cross-cultural production, to be named in the coming weeks.
Last year in May, Ashok Amritraj‘s Hyde Park Entertainment had announced that it was planning to set up a multi-million dollar fund in Asia for the production of feature films.
The fund aimed to raise $55-$73 million.
Imagenation Abu Dhabi and Hyde Park Entertainment first partnered in November 2008 on a $250 million financing deal to develop, produce and distribute up to 20 feature films over seven years with additional financing for the production of local language and cross-cultural films.
MUMBAI: Vistaar Religare Film Fund (VRFF) in association with Cinergy Pictures unveiled the theatrical trailer of Rann yesterday at the hands of Amitabh Bachchan at PVR Juhu.
Also present at the unveiling were director Ram Gopal Varma and producers Madhu Mantena and Sheetal Vinod Talwar.
The screening of the trailer was followed by a cake-cutting by Bachchan to celebrate two special occasions – one, his four-decade journey of mesmerizing fans across the globe and second, his 67th birthday.
Said Vistaar Religare Film Fund Chairman and managing director Sheetal Vinod Talwar, “We are thrilled to be unveiling the theatrical trailer of our film at such a momentous juncture in Mr.Bachchan‘s career. We are positive that Rann will be extremely well-received by the audiences. We at VRFF are committed to funding quality films and Rann is fine example of our endeavour.”
Co-producer Madhu Mantena averred, “It‘s a historic day in the annals of Indian cinema – today we celebrate India‘s most celebrated Icon – Mr. Bachchan. He has given us several of the most memorable characters in Indian cinematic history. Today, along with Varma, he brings us yet another character to define the times we live in.”
Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, Rann stars Ritiesh Deshmukh, Kannada mega-star Sudeep, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Rajat Kapoor, Mohnish Behl, Neetu Chandra, Gul Panag, Simone Singh and Suchitra Krishnamoorti among others.
MUMBAI: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International‘s Up has hauled $21 million from overseas territories thus boosting its overall total to $257.1m.The film surged past $250m and overtook Terminator Salvation to rank as the studios‘ fifth biggest international release of 2009.
Screening in 3,500 screens in 25 markets, Up was number one in the UK delivering $9.7m (?6.1m) from 550 screens in what is the biggest animated launch of the year-to-date.
The Disney/Pixar release remains potent in Germany after one month of release and ranks third on $3.2m from 680 for $20.3m.
In Australia, it took Universal‘s new release