ITV

Category: Movies

  • ‘Baaria‘ to premiere at Venice Film Festival

    MUMBAI: The 2009 edition of the Venice Film Festival will run at Venice Lido from 2 to 12 September. The opening ceremony, hosted by Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, will be followed by the world premiere of Giuseppe Tornatore‘s Baar?a, one of the movies in competition.

    The official line-up of the 66th Festival includes six different sections – Venezia 66, Out of Competition, Orizzonti, Controcampo italiano, Corto Cortissimo and Questi Fantasmi – and two independent and parallel sections which are International Critics‘ Week – a series of 7 or 8 films, debut works, independently selected by a special commission nominated by the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics – and Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days – a series of 10-12 films independently organized by a commission nominated by the Italian Association of filmmakers and by the Association of Independent Directors and Producers.

    Five international juries will assign the official awards to producers coming from every corner of the world, in fact, all countries are represented during the Festival, with international directors who participate in order to show their works to an international audience.

    This year a pre-opening night has been organized that will take place on 1 September in the Campo San Polo Arena, with the screening of the Mario Monicelli‘s film La Grande Guerra (The Great War, 1959).

    The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms, as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance.

  • Quentin Tarantino to receive Kirk Douglas Award

    MUMBAI: Director Quentin Tarantino will receive the 2009 Kirk Douglas Award for excellence in film at an event at the 2010 Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California.

    The award will be presented to Tarantino by Douglas himself on 22 October.


    Says festival executive director Roger Durling, “We are excited to be able to honour a man who has turned filmmaking on its ear. He has forever changed the direction of American cinema.”


    The 25th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will run from 4-14 February, 2010.

  • Madhya Pradesh to float a film city, invites investors

    MUMBAI: The Madhya Pradesh government is setting up a film city 20 km away from Bhopal.

    Built on 430 acres of land, the idea is to provide infrastructure and attract the entertainment industry from across the country to invest in the state.


    Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan pitched to investors and industrialists in Mumbai, promoting the location over rival projects like Film City in Mumbai and Ramoji Rao studios in Hyderabad.


    Attending the meet were film personalities like Manmohan Shetty, Prakash Jha, Sudhir Misra, Boney Kapoor and Raza Murad.


    The chief minister pointed out that there were suggestions that the government should enter into a joint venture with film studios or give plots to studios to develop on their own.


    So will the idea catch on in the world of Bollywood? Says Manmohan Shetty who is planning to set up an entertainment park in the outskirts of Mumbai, “Right now the plan looks unviable, but only time will tell whether film people would vie for the Madhya Pradesh project or not when there are already film cities in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Jaipur.”


    The Madhya Pradesh government is toying with the idea of reducing entertainment tax if 50 per cent of a film is shot in the state. These are just a part of an initial plan and will be incorporated in the final policy.



    Not many, however, feel at this stage that these measures will be enough. Says filmmaker Harry Baweja, “I don’t think this plan would be accepted by film folks in general. Who will set up a studio in Bhopal, carry the entire equipment from Mumbai and set shop there? That’s another thing if latest film equipments are available there and the state government gives us enough facilities.”

  • Mumbai Film Festival to kick off on 29 October

    MUMBAI: The 11th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), is scheduled to take place from 29 October to 5 November in Mumbai.

    A Reliance Big Entertainment initiative, MMF has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organised by an independent body of practicing film professionals.


    A five-member international jury will include celebrated Hollywood scriptwriter, director and Martin Scorsese‘s long term collaborator Paul Schrader, scriptwriter of Taxi Driver and co-writer of Raging Bull amongst others, and eminent Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, a Golden Lion awardee at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.


    This year MFF will honour two talented filmmakers from India and abroad. Shashi Kapoor will receive the Indian lifetime achievement award at the inaugural function of the Festival on 29 October while Greek filmmaker Angelopoulos will be presented the international lifetime achievement award in the closing ceremony of the Festival on 5 November.


    A retrospective of Angelopoulos‘ films will be organised to salute the maestro. Considered one of the greatest living directors, Angelopoulos has won awards at all major International film festivals.


    Divided into five sections (International Competition for the First Feature Films of Directors, World Cinema, Indian Showcase, Dimensions Mumbai and Retrospectives), the Festival offers something to every film buff.


    “The festival will showcase the best in contemporary Indian cinema even while it takes a look back at cinema down the ages,” notes renowned film-maker Shyam Benegal, the chair-person of MAMI.


    “We also want to encourage young film talent and have a forum for that. Further, our audience will be treated to the works of Shashi Kapoor and Angeloupolous, two film-makers to be honoured with life-time achievement awards. Both have traversed a long path and made a distinctive niche for themselves in world cinema,” he adds.

    The 11th MFF will also organise a exhibition to commemorate and celebrate 60 years of Dev Anand‘s Navketan Films. A retrospective from Navketan will be screened to mark the occasion.

    Fun Republic, the four-screen multiplex, will be the central venue of the 11th MFF while films taking part in the festival will also be screened at Metro BIG Cinema and other theatres.



  • Zee Talkies readies to release its 7th movie on 28 August

    MUMBAI: Zee Talkies is set to release on 28 August its seventh Marathi film under its brand Hai Kai Nai Kai.

    The channel is releasing more than 120 prints of the movie across Maharashtra. The film is produced by popular Marathi actors Prasad Oak and Pushkar Shrotri.


    Produced by Pops Entertainment, Hai Kai Nai Kai is a full-time comedy film. The script is written by Suresh Jayaram with screenplay and dialogues penned by Asish Pathare.


    The star cast includes director-duo performing opposite each other besides Jitendra Joshi, Atul Parchure, Sonali Kulkarni, Sai Tamhankar and Ashwini Apte.


    The music is composed by Avadhoot Gupte and Saleel Kulkarni while lyrics is by Sandeep Khare and Shrirang Godbole. Sunidhi Chauhan and Avadhoot Gupte have rendered their voices for the songs in this film.


    The background score is by Avinash Chandrachud, while cinematography is by Sanjay Jadhav. Art direction is by Shailesh Mahadik.

  • Hollywood Film Festival announces jury of World Awards

    MUMBAI: The names of the judges who will be officiating for this year‘s Hollywood World Awards at the 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival have been announced.
    Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen International (US) will chair the panel, which has film critics Dan Fainaru, Jonathan Romney,Allan Hunter, Derek Malcolm, Lee Marshall and Howard Feinstein, Sarajevo Film Festival programmer; Sandra Hebron, artistic director of The Times BFI London Film Festival, Despina Mouzaki, director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Jacob Neiiendam, director of the CPH:PIX-Copenhagen Film Festivals and Clare Stewart, director of the Sydney Film Festival.

    The nominees will be announced on 30 September. The award for world film of the year will be presented on 26 October the culmination day of the festival.
    Qualifying films must have their world premieres between 1 October, 2008 and 1 October this year.

  • Film Sales Company acquires worldwide rights of ‘Cole‘

    MUMBAI: Andrew Herwitz‘s Film Sales Company has acquired the worldwide distribution rights of Carl Bessai‘s drama Cole. This move further enhances Film Sales Company‘s Toronto slate.
    Richard De Klerk and Kandyse McClure star in the coming of age story about a young man from a small town who tries to reconcile personal ambition and forbidden love with the expectations of a traditional upbringing.

    “Frankly, I was surprised by how much my entire staff and I responded to the film, given that the team that brought the film to fruition is relatively unknown, until now,” Herwitz said.

    Rampart Films and Jason James produced and Irene Nelson served as executive producer. Herwitz‘s Toronto slate includes My Dog Tulip and Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound.

  • Shooting of ‘Untitled 09’ commences

     MUMBAI: The principal shooting of Mike Leigh‘s Untitled 09 has commenced in London.

    The film stars Michele Austin, David Bradley, Jim Broadbent, Phil Davis, Karina Fernandez, Oliver Maltman, Lesley Manville, Stuart McQuarrie, Martin Savage, Ruth Sheen, Imelda Staunton and Peter Wight. Of the cast of twelve, only David Bradley and Stuart McQuarrie are working with Leigh for the first time.

    The crew of the film includes Leigh regulars like cinematographer Dick Pope, editor Jon Gregory, casting director Nina Gold, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and hair and make-up supervisor Chrissie Blundell.

  • Jet Li to star in Chinese film ‘Ocean Heaven’

    MUMBAI: Jet Li will soon star in a Chinese-language drama Ocean Heaven to be directed by Xue Xiaolu. This film marks the actor‘s first non-action project.

    Set in the harbour city of Qingdao, the film is jointly financed by Beijing-based companies BDI Films, Beijing Harmony and Harvest Media and Jiaxuan. Hong Kong-based Edko Films will distribute in mainland China and Hong Kong.

    Taiwanese actress Kuei Lun-mei and Chinese actor Wen Zhang will co-star with Li in the drama about father-son relationships. Jet Li will portray a father and Wen Zhang will play his son who suffers from autism. Kuei will portray a stage performer at Qingdao‘s Polar Ocean World, which is the main location of the film.

    Director Xue Xiaolu, who was the scriptwriter on Chen Kaige‘s drama Together, will also script Ocean Heaven. Christopher Doyle will handle cinematography while Hai Chung-man (Curse Of The Golden Flowers) will serve as art director of the film. The release date is set for spring 2010.

  • Reliance Big Pictures to release Three Idiots, Kites

    MUMBAI: Reliance Big Pictures has acquired the distrbution rights of two of the year‘s two upcoming big films, Three Idiots and Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites.

    Says Big Pictures distribution head Kamal Gianchandani, “With the acquisition of these two films, we have come out with a three-pronged strategy to distribute them nationally. We will distribute the films directly in all major territories across the country. We have the infrastructure to do so.”


    Big Picture will reach out to as many cities and towns in the first release phase of the film, adds Gianchandani.


    The second endeavour, as far as multiplexes are concerned, would be to maximise the showcasing of films “so that we are able meet up to the demand and expectations of viewers and stakeholders, in the first weekend.”


    Finally, the company would collaborate with exhibitors in promoting both the films and helping a 20 to 25 per cent escalation in the prices of ticket rates for the first weekend. “This will help us expand the box-office collection,” Gianchandani adds.


    Produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Three Idiots is directed by Rajkumar Hirani and stars Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor and Boman Irani in pivotal roles. The movie is slated for release on 25 December.


    Kites revolves around a love story between an Indian boy born who is brought up in Las Vegas and a Spanish girl from Mexico. Starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori, will release in early 2010.