ITV

Category: Movies

  • Trinity International Film Festival showcases cinema from 14 countries

    Trinity International Film Festival showcases cinema from 14 countries

    New Delhi: At the eighth annual Trinity International Film Festival, Get A Job directed by Maui’s Brian Kohne took top honours for a full feature film while The Doorman  by director Serena Dykman took top accolades for a short film at the eighth annual Trinity International Film Festival held at the Carr Art Center in Detroit in the United States.  

     

    “The mission statement of the film festival is to provide a multicultural festival experience,” said festival co-director Gregory Taylor. He continued, “With the showing of all these culturally diverse independent films, I know we hit the mark.  If people are entertained we did our job.”

     

    Over 40 films from 14 countries were juried and showcased and over 100 entries were received. 

     

    Director Walter V. Marshall of Michigan got a special award as Best New Artist for the full feature, A Love That Hurts.    

     

    Raymond Rolak, one of the producers from Get A Job said, “The people of Hawaii were the real stars of the film. Also, Brian Kohne weaved the musical talents of Willie K and Eric Gilliom along with the other world class island entertainers masterfully. The film and music video were giant grand slam homeruns. The jokes, pratfalls and island humor in the screenplay are all added value to leaving viewers thoroughly entertained.”

     

    French born Serena Dykman said at the afterglow, “I am totally thrilled for my cast and crew. This award really validates all the hard work that went into the project.  Manhattan was the star of our project. As a writer I see so many more stories coming from New York City.  This award documents a team effort”

     

    Winners of this year’s best feature and short film categories received a professional prize pack from Sony that included more than $3,500 worth of Sony Vegas editing software and sound effects. 

     

    Marshalle Montgomery, festival co-director added, “We tried to expose a wide variety of feature and short films for people to enjoy, everything from action, drama, animation and comedy — we definitely have movies that captured attention.”

     

    Nate Hapke of Los Angeles got the special Emerging Talent Award for the short Alvie.  

     

    I Am Sami by Kae Bahar of the United Kingdom, Let Be by Matt Boatright-Simon (USA, Wisconsicn) and featuring actress Val Vega, along with Trapped: The Ultimate Sacrifice by Carlonese Powell (USA, Detroit) were all 15 minute shorts judged as exceptional and got festival choice awards.

  • Nagesh Kukunoor gets SRK for a cameo

    Nagesh Kukunoor gets SRK for a cameo

    MUMBAI:  In a bid to give the noble cause of eye donation an impetus director Nagesh Kukunoor has got none other than the Baadshah of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan to do a cameo in his upcoming Marathi film Dhanak.

     

    According to media reports, SRK recently shot for this movie in Rajasthan for two days despite his busy schedule.

     

    Nagesh Kukunoor’s last film Laxmi highlighted the plight of young girls forced into prostitution in Hyderabad. His film Dhanak, being made in Marathi, hopes to support the noble cause of eye donation. Even though Shah Rukh Khan’s role in the film is now known, buzz is that he will be playing himself in the film and will endorse the noble cause of eye donation.

     

    Dhanak tells the story of the deep bond that an older sister shares with her blind, younger brother and how she works towards restoring his eyesight before he turns nine. 

     

    Dhanak which means a ‘rainbow’ in Rajasthani language is reportedly a remake of the Iranian film Besak. Even though the film’s title is Dhanak, it will be called as Rainbow overseas.

     

    SRK is currently busy promoting his upcoming movie Happy New Year, directed by Farah Khan which is slated for Diwali release this year.

  • A big night for ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’ at 66th Emmy Awards

    A big night for ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’ at 66th Emmy Awards

    MUMBAI: 66th Primetime Emmy Awards was a big night for Breaking Bad, The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family.

     

    The awards opened with Jim Parsons winning his fourth Emmy in the lead actor category for his work as Sheldon Cooper on the CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory.  The 41-year-old actor plays the role of nerdy Caltech physicist Sheldon Cooper in the Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady-created series. Parsons beat William H Macy, Matt LeBlanc, Louis CK and Ricky Gervais in the category.

     

    Cult drama series Breaking Bad was the other big winner of the night bagging the Emmy for Best Drama Series, while Game of Thrones went home with none of the big prizes despite garnering the most nominations. The series saw a fourth Best Lead Actor win for Bryan Cranston as chemistry teacher-turned-meth drug lord, Walter White aka Heisenberg. His co-star Aaron Paul took home his third Emmy win for Best Supporting Actor and Anna Gunn became a two-time Emmy Award winner for Best Supporting Actress in the show. Moreover, the now-departed, much beloved AMC series also took another Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing as well as Best Drama. The show won six Emmys in total.

     

    Hit TV series Modern Family made Emmy history by winning the title of Best Comedy series for a record-tying fifth year in a row at television’s equivalent of the Oscars and has now tied the record set by NBC’s Frasier. Ty Burrell won the Best Supporting Actor for the comedy series, and the show also won a directing award.

     

    Other significant Emmy Award winners included Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman for BBC’s Sherlock: His Last Vow as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, as well as comedienne Sarah Silverman’s win for Variety Show Writing.

     

    The Emmy Awards also held its traditional memorial tribute to industry members who have died in the past year. The presentation concluded with Billy Crystal giving a moving tribute to longtime friend and fellow comedian Robin Williams, who tragically committed suicide just two weeks ago.

     

    Among the other notable winners, Julianna Margulies won the Best Drama Actress for The Good Wife, while Best Television Movie went to The Normal Heart about gay activist Larry Kramer’s work to raise HIV/AIDS awareness during the early 1980s.

     

    Julia Louis-Dreyfus received her third consecutive Best Comedy Actress Emmy for the political comedy Veep on HBO. Shows like Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards, Showtime’s Shameless, and HBO’s True Detective neither benefited from tactical category choices nor garnered any Emmy Awards this year, despite their popularity and stellar storytelling.

  • ‘Mardaani’: A decent opening at the BO

    ‘Mardaani’: A decent opening at the BO

    MUMBAI: Mardaani, a Rani Mukerji show, her own Dabangg or Singham, gets an indifferent opening response. It improves a little on Saturday and again on Sunday to end its opening weekend with Rs 14.46 crore. Besides routines content, it’s ‘A’ certification also kept younger lot at bay.

     

    Three other films released last Friday have all proved to be irrelevant failing to find audience. They are MAD: Mad About Dance, Life Is Beautiful and Katiyabaaz, though the last mentioned won some critical appreciation.

     

    Singham Returns made the most of its extended weekend which included holidays of Independence Day on Friday and Gokul Ashtami on Monday by putting together Rs 85.3 crore for four days. The slide began Tuesday onwards as the film ended its first week with Rs 110 crore. Despite weak opposition in its second week, the drop was drastic on the eighth day as the film managed to collect a little over Rs 3 crore.

     

    Entertainment has added Rs 11.75 crore in its second week to take its two week total to Rs 61.55 crore.

     

    Kick has collected Rs 2.2 crore in its third week taking its three week tally to Rs 226.1 crore.

     

  • DJ Aqeel to remix ‘What the Fark’

    DJ Aqeel to remix ‘What the Fark’

    MUMBAI: A track mischievously titled ‘What the Fark’ from actor Virr Das’ latest film ‘Amit Sahni Ki List’ has caught the attention of DJ Aqeel.

     

    The DJ who earned his fame after the track ‘Shake it Daddy Mix’, followed it up with his other super-hit remixes of old Hindi songs around the year 2000, and is looking at remixing more songs.

     

    Composed by Virr Das along with his comical rock act ‘Alien Chutney’, ‘What the Fark’ is currently a club favourite across the country with fans going crazy on this number.

     

    Sources close to the DJ confirmed saying, “DJ Aqeel is very choosy about the songs he mixes. ‘What the Fark’ is a catchy number with lots of potential for a re-mix version and that’s the reason why he wants to mix it himself. He has on prior occasions heard Alien Chutney’s elaborate renditions of quirky songs. He loved their composition of ‘What the Fark’ and wants to now add his own flavour to it.”

     

    Das has a good equation with DJ Aqeel and is pleased to have his song remixed by him. They are glad the song has worked so well and hope the re-mixed version will be as popular as the original song.

     

    DJ Aqeel also promises an EMD version of this quirky number and hopes to launch it soon across the nation.

     

    Amit Sahni Ki List is a 2014 Indian romantic comedy film produced by Pyxis Pictures and directed by Ajay Bhuyan. The film stars Virr Das, Vega Tamotia, Kavi Shastri and Anindita Nayar in lead roles, and tells the story of Amit Sahni (a successful investment banker) which revolves around his quests, pursuits and twists in finding love and Ms. Perfect based on his list.

  • Richard Attenborough, director of ‘Gandhi,’ dies at 90

    Richard Attenborough, director of ‘Gandhi,’ dies at 90

    MUMBAI: Oscar-winning British filmmaker Richard Attenborough, renowned for his critically-acclaimed biopic on Mahatma Gandhi, died on 24 August 2014 after his long illness. The death of the 90 year old was confirmed by his son, according to BBC.

     

    Paying his tribute, British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: “His acting in Brighton Rock was brilliant, his directing of Gandhi was stunning – Richard Attenborough was one of the greats of cinema.”

     

    In London, he was the original detective in Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap. On the British screen, he made an early mark as the sociopath Pinkie Brown in an adaptation of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock (1947). His acting CV consisted movies like The Great Escape (1963), In Which We Serve (1942), Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) etc. To a later generation, he was well known as the scientist-entrepreneur who clones dinosaur DNA in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993).

     

    He won back-to-back Golden Globe Awards for best supporting actor, in The Sand Pebbles (1966), also starring McQueen, set during China’s civil war in the 1920s, and Doctor Dolittle (1967), playing Albert Blossom, a circus owner, alongside Rex Harrison as the veterinarian who talks to animals.

     

    But for most of Attenborough’s later career, his acting was sporadic while he devoted much of his time to directing. Gandhi (1982), an epic but intimate biographical film, was his greatest triumph. Gandhi was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won eight, including best picture, best director, best cinematography, best original screenplay and best actor. The film had 430 speaking parts and used over 300,000 extras for Gandhi’s funeral. No one expected it to recoup its $22 million cost, but it wound up earning 20 times that amount.

     

    Richard Samuel Attenborough was born in Cambridge on 29 August 1923, the eldest son of Frederick Attenborough, an Anglo-Saxon scholar who became the principal of University College, Leicester, and his wife, Mary, a writer who crusaded for women’s rights and took in Basque and German refugees.

     

    Leaving school at 16, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and eventually married a fellow student, Sheila Sim, who became a well-known actress herself before abandoning the theater to look after their three children and become a magistrate.

     

    Attenborough leaves behind his wife, son Michael and daughter Charlotte. His eldest daughter Jane was killed alongside her mother-in-law Jane and her daughter Lucy in the 2004 tsunami.

  • New stills from ‘Mary Kom’ revealed!

    New stills from ‘Mary Kom’ revealed!

    MUMBAI: Priyanka Chopra’s portrayal of India’s boxing champion MC Mary Kom in her upcoming sports biopic titled ‘Mary Kom’ has attracted widespread praise for the actress. Building a boxer’s physique in the short span of 90 days is no easy task, but Priyanka Chopra has left no stone unturned to perfect the look.

     

    A series of new stills from the film reveal moments in the film where Priyanka, as Mary Kom, is seen pushing herself beyond her limits while working out. The unyielding determination is clearly visible in Priyanka’s eyes as she performs incredibly taxing exercises. She is seen flexing rock-solid shoulders and biceps like never before. Trained by MC Mary Kom’s real-life boxing coaches and fighting real-life boxers, Priyanka Chopra has really gone the extra mile to make the film as authentic as it can get!

  • Akshay Kumar to star in the ‘Warrior’ remake- ‘Brothers’

    Akshay Kumar to star in the ‘Warrior’ remake- ‘Brothers’

    MUMBAI:  Finally making it official, Karan Johar has announced the Hindi remake of Gavin O’Connor’s 2011 contact sports drama Warrior. Named Brothers, the movie stars Akshay Kumar, Sidharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff and will be produced by Dharma Productions and Lionsgate, Endemol India.

     

    Tweeting about the same, Karan Johar posted, “Dharma Productions, Lionsgate, Endemol India present Brothers directed by Karan Malhotra and starring Akshay Kumar, Sidharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez and Jackie Shroff. Releasing Oct 2nd, 2015.”

     

    The original film shows the story of two brothers, one a former Marine and the other a former UFC fighter-turned-school teacher. Driven by their own motives, the siblings eventually find themselves competing in the same mixed martial arts tournament with the grand prize of 5 million dollars. It starred Nick Nolte, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton.

     

    Lead star Akshay Kumar who will be seen playing the role originally played by Tom Hardy posted on Facebook, “My first association with @karanjohar…Brothers”

     

    Going on floors on 2 October 2015, the movie will be directed by the Agneepath famed Karan Malhotra.

     

    Interestingly, this will be Sidharth Malhotra’s third film with the Dharma banner after his debut Student of The Year and Hasee Toh Phasee. In the meanwhile, director Karan Malhotra’s next release however is the much-talked about film Shuddhi which stars Salman Khan in the lead.

     

  • Fourteen films make it to co-production Forum of San Sebastian

    Fourteen films make it to co-production Forum of San Sebastian

    NEW DELHI: Fourteen projects from a total of 181 projects submitted from 22 countries are taking part in the third Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum as part of the 67th San Sebastian International Film Festival.

     

    The Forum will be held from 22 to 24 September. The selected films are largely from Latin American countries  including Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Venezuela.

     

    During the Forum, those responsible for the projects will work to a busy meeting agenda with industry professionals from across the world. The aim by attending the Forum is to make contact with potential co-producers, financial partners and sales agents in order to complete their funding and ensure their international production and distribution. 

     

    In addition, and as part of the festival’s collaboration with the Ibermedia Programme, a project selected in the workshop to develop film projects from Central America and the Caribbean will also participate in the Co-Production Forum.

     

    The Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum is fostered by the Basque Government Department of Economic Development and Competitiveness and the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.

     

    As in previous editions, the final selection includes projects by directors and producers of recognised prestige alongside others by new directors and recently created production companies. Nine of the 17 projects presented in 2012 have been completed, while three of the 16 presented in 2013 have been filmed, and shooting is expected to start on another six in the coming months.

      
    For the second year running, the EGEDA Award for Best Project at the Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum 2014 will be presented. The Award comes with a cash prize of €10,000 and is sponsored by EGEDA, the Audiovisual Producer’s Rights Management Association.

     

    As a new feature this year, the Festival will also organise a Focus on Canada with Telefilm Canada. A delegation of 12 Canadian producers will come to San Sebastian to experience the Festival in person, make professional contacts and participate in the Co-production Forum and the other Industry Club activities.

     

  • Mumbai Women’s Filmfest in December invites entries

    Mumbai Women’s Filmfest in December invites entries

    NEW DELHI: Entries have been invited for the second edition of the Mumbai Women’s International Film Festival (MWIFF) to be held later this year with the goal of showcasing women’s talent behind the camera and giving them the spotlight they deserve. 

     

    The Festival organised by Oculus Creations will be held from 6 to 13 December. Entries have to be sent in by 30 September.

     

    Talking about the filmfest, MWIFF director Avinash Pawar says, “This is the first biggest Women’s International Film Festival in India, through which we aim to unleash the talent of filmmakers from all over the world.”

     

    “We also have master class and seminars by Indian Film industry professionals to provide deep-rooted knowledge about cinema to aspiring filmmakers. MWIFF will prove to be a stepping stone for filmmakers in converting their dreams into reality,” he added.

     

    The competition will be held in various categories, which include short films, documentary films, and feature films; the non- competitive category includes world cine-busters, world panorama and world premiere.

     

    MWIFF will comprise six days of film screenings, closing night networking parties, industry panels, post-screening discussions, celebrities, an award ceremony and a pink carpet.