ITV

Category: Movies

  • Caleb Deschanel to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Camerimage

    Caleb Deschanel to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Camerimage

    NEW DELHI: Five-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel will receive the coveted ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at this year’s Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.

     

    The Festival is being held from 15 to 22 November in Poland.

     

    The legendary cinematographer and film/TV director will also screen his films at the event followed by a Q&A with the audience at the 22nd edition of the popular Festival.

     

    With over four decades of experience in the industry, Deschanel has been nominated for five Academy Awards for acclaimed features like Philip Kaufman’s ‘The Right Stuff’, Barry Levinson’s ‘The Natural’, Carroll Ballard’s ‘Fly Away Home’, Roland Emmerich’s ‘The Patriot’ and Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’. In 2010, he was awarded the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society of Cinematographers.

     

    Deschanel directed his first feature film ‘The Escape Artist’ in 1982, and later, ‘Crusoe’ in 1989. He has also directed episodes for various TV shows including the David Lynch series ‘Twin Peaks’, ‘Law & Order: Trial by Jury’, ‘Conviction’ and ‘Bones’

     

     Deschanel was an original member of the American Zoetrope production team, along with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.

     

    The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography is the most recognised festival dedicated to the art of cinematography and is the biggest international film festival in Poland. The unconventional format of the Festival, which awards films according to their visual, aesthetic and technical values, is a unique alternative to traditional film festivals.

     

    In addition to the Main Competition, the Festival offers a Polish Films Competition, Student Etudes Competition, Documentary Films Competition, Feature Debuts Competition, Music Videos Competition, Camerimage Market, Camerimage Forum, special screenings and premieres, various reviews, retrospectives, meetings and also accompanying events such as art exhibitions and music performances.

  • ‘Algorithms’ shortlisted for Britain’s Grierson Awards

    ‘Algorithms’ shortlisted for Britain’s Grierson Awards

    NEW DELHI: Algorithms, Ian McDonald’s award-winning documentary on India’s young blind chess players, is among films shortlisted for the prestigious Grierson Award in the Best newcomer documentary category.

     

    The final nominations for the Grierson awards will be announced on 16 September prior to the awards ceremony in London on 3 November.

     

    Excited about the nomination, the British filmmaker said, “We are really thrilled to make the shortlist. It is a great honour and it also means it will bring the story of India’s blind chess community to the attention of an audience in the UK and beyond.”

     

    Directed by McDonald and produced by Indian producer Geetha J, the documentary has been screened at over twenty international film festivals and won six awards, including Best Film at Film SouthAsia in Kathmandu.  It is the first ever feature documentary on Blind Chess. 

     

    Filmed over three years from just before the World Junior Blind Chess Championship in Sweden in 2009 to just after the next championship in Greece in 2011, it follows three talented boys from different parts of India and a totally blind player turned pioneer, who not only aims to situate India on a global stage but also wants all blind children to play chess

     

    The New York based First Run Features, a leading distributor of independent films in America, acquired the North American rights to the film early this year.

     

    Established in 1972, the Grierson Awards commemorate the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson, widely regarded as the father of the documentary.

  • Indian film on youth theme closes Rhode Film Festival

    Indian film on youth theme closes Rhode Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: The debut film by Agneya, ‘M Cream’, was the closing film of the 18th Rhode Island International Film Festival over the weekend, marking its world premiere.

     

    Shot in New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, ‘M Cream’, features Imaad Shah, Ira Dubey, Tom Alter, Barry John and Auritra Ghosh. ‘M Cream’ revolves around “a motley crew of university students, who set out on a journey in the pursuit of a mythical form of hashish, confronting a series of encounters that begin to unravel the myriad realities of rebellion.”

     

    The Festival held from 5 to 10 August also screen ‘Points of Origin’, a short film directed by Anya Leta from India, which explores the emotional conflicts of an American couple while attempting to have a baby with a surrogate mother in India.

     

    ‘Global Village’ (India/USA), a short documentary by Ezra Millstein, about two families from India and the United States, who work together to help build a new Habitat for Humanity home, will also be screened at the festival.

  • Actor-comedian Robin Williams found dead in apparent suicide

    Actor-comedian Robin Williams found dead in apparent suicide

    NEW DELHI:  In a development that left millions in shock, Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams was found dead in his California home in what is suspected by investigators to be a possible suicide. He was 63.

     

    The Marin County Sheriff’s office said Williams was found unconscious and not breathing inside his home in Tiburon, California around noon local time, and was pronounced dead shortly after. Tiburon is across the Golden Gate Bridge north of San Francisco.

     

    President Barack Obama also paid laudable tributes to the American actor.

     

    Williams was famous for films such as Good Morning Vietnam and won an Oscar for his role in Good Will Hunting.

     

    His publicist said he had been “battling severe depression”.     

     

    Also known for his stand-up comedy, Williams had inspired Kamal Haasan to make ‘Chachi 420’, based on Williams’ ‘Mrs Doubtfire’. In fact, many of his films including ‘Jumanji’ did very well at the Indian boxoffice.

     

    Robin McLaurin Williams born on 21 July 1951, was also a film producer and screenwriter.

     

    Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy (1978–1982), Williams went on to establish a successful career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting.

     

    His film career included such acclaimed films as The World According to Garp (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), and Good Will Hunting (1997), as well as financial successes such as  Popeye  (1980),  Hook (1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire(1993), Jumanji (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Night at the Museum (2006), and Happy Feet (2006). He also appeared in the video “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin.

     

    Nominated for the academy award for Best Actor three times, Williams received the academy award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting. He also received two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.

     

    There are four completed Williams films expected to be released posthumously: “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” “Merry Friggin’ Christmas,” “Boulevard,” and “Absolutely Anything.” Given his love for his craft and his fans, the final work feels like a gift left behind by the beloved actor.

  • ‘Kick’ continues successful run at BO

    ‘Kick’ continues successful run at BO

    MUMBAI: Entertainment, which opened to rather tepid response, continued to remain so; the film’s mouth publicity reports were not very complementary either. There was little raise over the Friday collections on Saturday.

     

    However, the film has been able to manage a not so encouraging Rs 30.9 crore. The film showed little improvement on Saturday but did better on Sunday improving by about 25 per cent over its Friday figures. Next weekend offers four holidays with Independence Day on Friday and Gokul Ashtami on Monday but that benefit won’t be available so much to this film as theatre chains are blocked for the release of Singham Returns. 

     

    Lateef The King Of Crime is a disaster.

     

    Kick has maintained excellent collections in its second week cashing in on open run and the aftermath of Eid. The film crossed the Rs 200 crore mark on its eleventh day and ended the second week with Rs 49.1 crore thus taking its two week total to Rs 213.05 crore.

     

    Hate Story 2 comes to the end of its run with adding Rs 20 lakh in its third week and taking its three week total to Rs 35.8 crore.

     

    Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania has collected Rs 1.20 crore in its fourth week taking its four week total to a healthy Rs 76.4 crore.

     

    Ek Villain has added 10 lakh in its sixth week to take its six week total to Rs 102.97 crore.

  • ‘Happy New Year’ trailer to be on Whatsapp

    ‘Happy New Year’ trailer to be on Whatsapp

    MUMBAI: In keeping with the tradition of innovatively marketing its films, Red Chillies Entertainments yet again comes out with a unique way to promote its movie ‘Happy New Year.’

     

    For the first time an Indian film will send its trailer via WhatsApp to the users of the application. Simply by giving a missed call or dropping in a WhatsApp message at +91 9819020202, the audiences will get the trailer on their mobiles and tablets. Also, the restriction by WhatsApp on a broadcast message has specially been removed for this campaign. 

     

    Talking on the first-of-its-kind trailer release, Red Chillies Entertainment CEO Venky Mysore said, “As a company there is a special focus on constantly improving fan experience through innovation. Whether it was the first look of the movie at the beginning of the year through one of the biggest Twitter innovations with fans receiving customised posters from their favourite artists, which received close to a billion impressions as a campaign, or the new innovations with WhatsApp and Twitter for the upcoming movie – ‘Happy New Year’, our endeavour is to delight fans.”

     

    “With over 50 million active users on WhatsApp in India who every day share millions of videos and images with individual friends and groups it was an obvious choice to use WhatsApp as a platform. The only challenge was the restriction by WhatsApp where a broadcast message cannot be sent to more than 250 friends/WhatsApp users but WhatsApp has specially removed this restriction for this campaign,” Mysore added.

     

    Directed by Farah Khan, the eagerly-awaited ‘Happy New Year’ brings back Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan together, after their last blockbuster `Chennai Express.’ The movie also stars Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah and Boman Irani and has been shot in Dubai. The trailer is scheduled to release on 14 August 2014, on the eve of Independence Day.

     

    The film is produced by Red Chillies Entertainments and distributed by Yash Raj Films worldwide. The film will release this Diwali in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages across the globe.

  • Swedish film wins top feature award at Durban International Filmfest

    Swedish film wins top feature award at Durban International Filmfest

    NEW DELHI: ‘The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared’ by Swedish director Felix Herngren won the Audience award for features at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF).

     

    Based on the internationally best-selling novel by Jonas Jonasson, this energetically black comedy begins with irrepressible pensioner and dynamite expert Allan Karlsson’s escape from a retirement home. His subsequent cross-county shenanigans are interspersed with flashbacks to a past studded with extraordinary events and famous historical figures. The film received nearly unanimous votes of excellent from the DIFF audience.

     

    While ‘The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared’ won the best feature, the DIFF 2014 audience award for best documentary went to ‘1994: The Bloody Miracle’ directed by Meg Rickards and Bert Haisma.

     

    As South Africa celebrates the 20th anniversary of the advent of democracy, ‘1994: The Bloody Miracle’, chronicles the many deaths and widespread chaos in South Africa during the early ‘90s when the country made its transition into democracy.

     

    More than 700 industry guests from around the world attended DIFF and its sister event the Durban FilmMart (DFM). The festival had 202 films spread over nine venues and more than 350 screenings. With just over 30,300 seats occupied, including workshop and attendance at DFM, attendance at the festival increased slightly, with the number of sold-out venues increasing dramatically.

     

    More than 2800 people attended the beach screenings, including the annual Wavescape opening event as well the additional four outdoor screenings funded by the British Council and the National Film and Video Foundation. As a visual literacy programme, the festival once again presented a programme of youth-oriented films for more than 4000 students from schools in the region.

     

    The Durban International Film Festival took place from 17-27 July in Kwazulu Natal.

  • 7th Advantage India Short Film Contest organized by Pocket Films, calls for entries

    7th Advantage India Short Film Contest organized by Pocket Films, calls for entries

    MUMBAI: Pocket Films has organized a short film contest, 7th Advantage India in association with River to River Florence Indian Film Festival, Italy. With a promise to be bigger and better like every year, 7th Advantage India Short Film contest is calling for entries from young budding film makers as well as professional filmmakers.

     

    Organized with an aim to uplift the filmmakers and give them the ‘center stage’ in the film industry by recognizing their talent internationally, the contest has carved its name in the industry through its initiative taken for short filmmakers.

     

    7th Advantage India organized by Pocket Films will render a lot of opportunities to filmmakers to show up their talent in filmmaking. It opens the doors for the 3 winning films to reach out to audiences and other festivals in Europe through screening at River to River and as promised 7th Advantage India is back this time to take the film makers a step closer to their dreams.

     

    The 3 winning films will be broadcast on the show ‘Prime Talkies with Pocket Films’ on NDTV Prime, getting a national audience.

     

    Further, Pocket Films is proud to present the first ever ‘India Chapter of the River To River, Florence Indian Film Festival’ in Mumbai in March 2015. All the winning films of the festival (not just Advantage India) will be screened at this event to be held at Blue Frog.

     

    The film entries will be judged by esteemed jury members like Film maker, Nagesh Kukunoor, Director of River to River, Florence Indian Film Festival, Selvaggia Velo and Specializer in casting, film programming and Academic research, and Editor of Film India Worldwide ‘Uma Da Cunha.

     

    According to Saameer Mody, Managing Director, Pocket films, “7th Advantage India is an initiative by Pocket films which is aimed to showcase the talent to respected professionals and veteran film directors from the industry. We aim to be at the forefront of these exciting, challenging and transformative times by giving alternate content and its creators the exposure and acclaim they deserve.”

     

    By organizing such contests, especially in association with respected International Film Festivals, Pocket Films provides a fantastic platform for filmmakers to show case their talent not only domestically but worldwide.

     

    River to River is the only festival in Italy that is totally devoted to films from and about India. This year will be its 14th edition, starting from 6 to 12 December in Florence and 13-14 December in Rome, under the direction of Selvaggia Velo and the Patronage of the Embassy of India.

  • Entries invited for NFDC script lab and We Care Film Fest

    Entries invited for NFDC script lab and We Care Film Fest

    NEW DELHI: Entries have been invited by the National Film Development Corporation for its script lab and by several Indian film festivals for entries in their respective events being held both this year and the next year.

     

    In its second year, the National script Lab is a long-running script development lab for Indian writers wanting to build and develop screenplays with three residential workshops over five months supported by interim feedback and work via Skype.

     

    Internationally acclaimed mentors will help up to nine selected writers through carefully staged development to prepare their scripts for introduction to the market in India and the rest of the world for financing and co-production.

     

     This year the special focus is on children and youth films. However, the lab will offer places to all genres of film, not exclusively to just children and youth screenplays. Entries with an application fee of Rs 2000 have to be sent by 1 September. Complete applications are to be sent to labs@nfdcindia.com with the first 20 pages of the script along with the application form.

     

    Meanwhile, the country’s first film festival on disability recognized by the United Nations; the We Care Film Fest has invited entries of short films and documentaries in four categories: up to one minute, five minutes, 30 and 60 minutes respectively from across the globe on various disability issues.

     

     The festival is also organising a conference, which will be held from 24 to 26 November, at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.

     

    The event is being organised jointly by UNESCO, the UN Information Centre for India and Bhutan, the Department of Disability Affairs, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry, the National Trust, the NGO Brotherhood and the We Care film fest.

     

     The screening of short films and documentaries will follow panel discussion, sharing of success stories by using audio-visual as information, communication and advocacy tools.  Though, the last date of submission of short films and documentaries for the We Care Film Fest is 12 December, films received till 31 October on the theme of the conference and on other disability issues will be screened during the conference. The preview committee will select the short films and documentaries for screening.

     

     The third Delhi International Film Festival being held from 20 to 27 December has called for entries by 30 September for full length feature, short films, NRI films, green films (environmental and wild life), student films, animation films, and documentaries. The festival will be held in collaboration with the New Delhi Municipal Committee and Delhi Tourism in Delhi. Details are available on info@delhiinternationalfilmfestival.com and the website: www.delhiinternationalfilmfestival.com

     

    Meanwhile, the Centre for Media Studies Environment has called for entries to its annual eighth edition of CMS Vatavaran: Environment and Wildlife Film Festival and Forum. Films produced on or after 1 January 2015 are accepted in the CMS VATAVARAN 2015 film festival scheduled from 9 to 12 October 2015 at New Delhi. The entry form and guidelines can be downloaded from our website www.cmsvatavaran.org.

  • Chu and Blossom Top Winner at 37th Asian American International Film Fest

    Chu and Blossom Top Winner at 37th Asian American International Film Fest

    NEW DELHI: The film Chu And Blossom won two significant awards at the 37th Asian American International Film Festival in New York this week.

     

    It received Audience Award as wellas the Emerging Director Awards for Charles Chu and Gavin Kelly.

     

    The awards were presented by AAIFF programme manager Lesley Yiping Qin, honouring the best in Asian American filmmaking and emerging directors.

     

    The screening of The Penny Farthing followed the ceremony. 

     

    The closing night presentation How To Fight In Six Inch Heels by Ham Tran and a question and answer session with producer Timothy Linh.

     

    The Special Jury Prize went to The Rice Bomber directed by Cho Li while the documentary award went to Tenzin Tsetan Choklay for Bringing Tibet Home.

     

    The Best Short was Sutures by Tiffanie Hsu and the One to Watch Award went to Animals, directed by Stefanos Tai (Shorts, For Youth By Youth)

     

    The Screenplay Competition Finalists were Eugene Park for Michael’s Story. Jisen John Ho for The Tragedy of Ziad and Aysel, and Carol Lee Hall for Donaldina.

     

    This year’s jurors were ‘Lunchbox’ fame Ritesh Batra (shorts), J.P. Chan (shorts), Clarissa de los Reyes (screenplay), Christopher Fiore (screenplay), Eric Lau (feature), Claus Mueller (feature), Brandon Ruckdashel (feature), Michael Sandoval (screenplay) and Tong Shen (shorts).

     

    The Asian American International Film Festival founded by Asian Cinevision, Inc. (ACV) in 1987, is a national media arts organisation that annually presents independent cinema by Asian and Asian Americans, panel discussions, special events, screenplay competition readings, gala receptions and after parties. ACV staff members include John C. Woo, Lesley Yiping Qin, Sophia Giddens, Judy Lei and Jason Chu.