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Tag: film festival

  • Sundance Institute to host a four day Summer Film Festival in Los Angeles in August

    Sundance Institute to host a four day Summer Film Festival in Los Angeles in August

    MUMBAI: ‘Next Weekend‘ presented by Sundance Institute will take place from 8-11 August, 2013 at Sundance Cinema and additional venues throughout Los Angeles. The event is an extension of the Next – section at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, which showcases adventurous films that take a bold approach to storytelling.

    There will be four days of screenings, parties and artist programmes that celebrate the renegade spirit of independent filmmaking. Over one summer weekend film fans will have the chance to choose from eight yet-to-be-released feature films. There will also be a panel discussion deconstructing how these films get made, a shorts programme and the annual ShortsLab: Los Angles, a half-day short filmmaking workshop.

    Next Weekend will include films that have been featured in the Festival‘s Next – section, as well as new films and films that have premiered elsewhere. Filmmakers cast and crew will be invited to discuss their work and the creative inspiration driving it.

    Sundance Institute founder and president Robert Redford said, “The best part of independent filmmaking is the freedom to tell your stories your own way, to take risks and not be beholden to convention of any kind. At the core of Next Weekend are artists that are taking risks and pushing boundaries. As such, it‘s fitting that Sundance Cinemas will be the home for this festival and these films.”

    Sundance Institute executive director Keri Putnam said, “The Next – section at our festival in Utah, built under the leadership of festival director John Cooper and director of programming Trevor Groth, showcases films that marry form and content in a way that pushes boundaries and offers fresh perspectives on storytelling. We look forward to celebrating the energy of this work and these artists and to sharing it with a larger community in collaboration with like-minded cultural institutions.”

  • Fourth edition of TCM Classic Film Fest in April next year

    Fourth edition of TCM Classic Film Fest in April next year

    MUMBAI: The annual TCM Classic Film Festival is set to return in Hollywood for its fourth edition from 25 to 28 April next year. The 2013 event will center on the theme “Cinematic Journeys: Travel in the Movies.”
     
    Robert Osborne, TCM host, film historian and former longtime columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, will serve as the host, with TCM‘s Ben Mankiewicz also introducing various events. One event has already been announced in the form of 13 October showing of the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Orlando.
     
    The 2012 festival included appearances by Liza Minnelli, Kirk Douglas, Mel Brooks, Kim Novak, Debbie Reynolds, Angie Dickinson, Robert Wagner and Stanley Donen.
     
    Leading to the festival, TCM again will conduct a nationwide “Road to Hollywood” tour of local screenings.

  • California-based Eureka Productions wins 14 awards

    California-based Eureka Productions wins 14 awards

    MUMBAI: California-based film production company Eureka Productions won 14 awards at the recently held 45th annual Worldfest-Houston International Film festival.
     
    "We are delighted to say that your Remi Award assumes a very special significance this year, as more than 4,200 category entries were competing from 32 countries," said Houston director Hunter Todd.
     
    "More than 550 international filmmakers attended the 10 day cinema and video celebration and conference with masters classes in various aspects of film production,, finance, and distribution. We were blessed with filmmakers from all over the world; China, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nepal, Nigeria, England, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Bosnia, Eritrea, Croatia, Iraq, Iran, Canada, India, Pakistan, Italy, Taiwan, Israel, Japan, Germany, Scotland, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia, Bermuda, Viet Nam, Serbia, Poland, Greece, England, Poland, and even the good old USA," he added.
     
    Films that won Eureka Productions awards included "how- to" instructional videos and documentaries about world peace, ‘breaking news,‘ sports, fitness and healing, the integration of spiritual teachings in Indian government policies and more.
     
    The production house had previously won awards for its documentaries on Afghanistan, Central America, the Himalayas, sustainable logging, sustainable farming and more.
     
    Eureka Productions specialises in martial arts, healing, and social issues documentary videos. The company‘s martial arts production department focuses on cutting edge presentations of gigong, meditation, healing and the internal martial arts.

  • Illustrator-author Graeme Base to direct film

    Illustrator-author Graeme Base to direct film

    MUMBAI: Australian children‘s author and illustrator Graeme Base is to make his film directorial debut.
     
    Base will co-direct The Gallant Captain, an adaptation of his book ‘The Legend of the Golden Snail‘ with Katrina Mathers.

    Mathers and Daryl Munton of The Lampshade Collective were behind last year‘s The Nullabor that won Sydney Film Festival‘s Best Animated Short Film Award at both the Sydney Film Festival 2011 and the AACTA Awards 2012.
     
    Incidentaly, the short film has received funding from Screen Australia through the agency‘s short animation production programme.

    Base‘s work includes Animalia and The Eleventh Hour, is to make his film directorial debut.
     
    Also to receive funding from Screen Australia is The Crossing, a stop-motion sand animation from writer/director/animator and visual artists Marieka Walsh. Sand animation is the use of sand on a lighted piece of glass to create each frame.

    The film follows on from the success of Walsh‘s team with The Hunter, also using sand animation, which was selected for competition at the recent SXSW Film Festival.

  • Patwardhan’s docu Jai Bhim Comrade at Hong Kong film fest

    Patwardhan’s docu Jai Bhim Comrade at Hong Kong film fest

    MUMBAI: Anand Patwardhan‘s 198-minute documentary, Jai Bhim Comrade, will compete at the 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival that would be held from 21 March to 5 April.

    Shot in over 14 years, the documentary follows the music and the tradition of activism of the Dalits in India.

    It won a special mention at the Dubai International Film Festival 2011 followed by an award at the 12th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation films.

    The other documentary that would be screened at the festival is Bitter Seeds by Micha X. Peled of USA. The film that centers around the plight of a cotton farmer in India, how crops are grown, how they reach the consumers and the real human cost is involved.

    Lucky (South Africa), directed by Avie Luthra, will also be screened at the festival.

  • Political thriller Shanghai almost ready

    Political thriller Shanghai almost ready

    MUMBAI: With his ambitious political thriller Shanghai almost ready, Dibakar Banerjee will soon fly to Greece to show his film to author Vassilis Vassilikos on whose novel ‘Z’ the film is based.

    Ideally, Banerjee would have liked the author to come down to India to watch the film. But if that is not possible, considering the author‘s age, the director is all set to fly down to Greece to show his film.

    “The author has every right to see what has been done to his work, and in what context,” feels Banerjee. “It‘s amazing how relevant Vassilikos‘ novel
    is to present day Indian politics although he wrote it 45 years ago. He must see the deep and far-reaching resonance of his words. He is now a sprightly 78. But if he can‘t come to India, I‘d most certainly take Shanghai to Greece for his viewing.”

    Dibakar also plans to screen the film at Greece‘s Thessaloniki International Film Festival in November.

  • MIFF 2012 opens in Mumbai, environmental filmmaker Mike Pandey gets V Shantaram Award

    MIFF 2012 opens in Mumbai, environmental filmmaker Mike Pandey gets V Shantaram Award

    NEW DELHI: Veteran environmental filmmaker Mike Pandey from Delhi was today honoured with the prestigious V Shantaram Life Time Achievement Award of the Mumbai International Film Festival for shorts, documentaries and animation films – MIFF 2012 – which commenced this evening in the western metropolis.

    The award carries a citation, a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 500,000. Instituted in 1996 in memory of India’s foremost film maker V Shantaram, the Life Time Achievement Award aims to recognise the multi-faceted contributions of an Indian for the documentary film movement.

    The Award was presented to Pandey by Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan in the presence of Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhury Mohan Jatua, veteran film historian Vijaya Mulay and popular Marathi actor Amrutha Khanvilkar.
     
    MIFF, which is organised by the Films Division every alternate year, will showcase more than 101 documentary, short and animation films from 37 countries.

    World renowned filmmaker John Bradbury of Australia, Japanese animation director/producer Sayoko Kinoshita, Austriancinematographer and Director Michael Glawogger, Bulgarian filmmaker Adela Peeva, Irish filmmaker Stefanie Dinkelbach, acclaimed film maker Kumar Shahni are attending the event taking place at NCPA which will conclude on 9 February with the presentation of 22 Awards including the Golden Conch Award for best films in International Competition, Indian Competition, best fiction, and best animation films.

    Mike Pandey is one of India‘s foremost wildlife and environmental filmmakers with over 300 national and international awards. Several of his films, such as Shores of Silence, The Last Migration, Broken Wings and The Timeless Traveller have been directly instrumental in bringing about legislative changes to protect species such as whale sharks, elephants, vultures and horse-shoe crabs.

    The Delhi based film maker Mike Pandey was born in Kenya and trained and educated in the UK and the USA. In 1994, he became the first Asian producer / director to win a Wildscreen Panda Award, also known as the Green Oscar, for his film The Last Migration – Wild Elephant Capture in Sarguja.

    In 2000, his film Shores of Silence – Whale Sharks in India, won a ‘Green Oscar‘ for the second time. The film also led to the ban on the killing of whale sharks on Indian shores. This film has also won a National Award for Best Film in the "Exploration & Adventure" Category, 2005.

    On October 2004, he did India proud once again by winning a Panda Award for the Third time for his film Vanishing Giants – a story of his passion and involvement with elephants. This film also led to the ban of cruel and outdated techniques of elephant capture in India.

    The prestigious United Nations International Award For Outstanding Achievement In Global Conservation, the Prthvi Ratna was awarded to Mike at the Vatavaran Film Festival in November 2003, for his outstanding contribution towards generating awareness, which led to the conservation of a global heritage – the Whale Shark.

    Mike Pandey’s Riverbank Studios has produced some of India‘s most popular programmes like Earth Matters, aired on Doordarshan national network for 13 years, so far reaching over 800 million viewers.

    With over three decades of filmmaking experience, Mike Pandey has produced over 600 films. His powerful films are living proof of the difference a film can make in bringing about changes locally, nationally and globally.

    The Festival opened with a Bamboo Symphony – ‘Mula Paadum Ravu’ – which is a unique Indian Folklore Fusion, founded by Unnikrishna Pakkanar of Thrissur, Kerala. It is based on the principle that music has its origin in nature and hence there is a need to develop an art form that is eco-friendly.

  • Slamdance fest awards declared

    Slamdance fest awards declared

    MUMBAI: This year the Slamdance Film Festival has awarded Keith Miller‘s Welcome to Pine Hill the grand jury award for feature narrative, while Jens Pfeifer‘s No Ashes, No Phoenix won the grand jury award for feature documentary at its 18th edition.
     
    The closing-night awards ceremony was held at the Treasure Mountain Inn. Exclaimed Slamdance co-founder and president Peter Baxter, “What a great way to end Slamdance‘s 18th festival — by celebrating the films our excellent jurors and incredible audiences have awarded these emerging filmmakers.”
     
    "This year‘s narrative and documentary competitions are stronger than ever, and these filmmakers represent the vanguard of true independent filmmaking," he added.
     
    Getting Up by Caskey Ebeling was given the Audience Award for Feature documentary, while the Audience Award for feature narrative was bagged by Andrew Edison’s Bindlestiffs.
     
    Besides the Grand Jury award to Keith Miller’s film for its poetic and emotionally honest depiction of one man‘s final journey in life, crafted from a true spirit of humanity and community, the Special Jury Award for bold originality was awarded to Heavy Girls by Axel Ranisch for its joie de vivre, an incredibly life-affirming film that is presented with a unique vision and an amazing cast.

    The Grand Jury award for feature documentary was given away to No Ashes, No Phoenix by Jens Pfeifer, the Grand Jury award for short documentary was awarded to Skylar Neilsen’s The Professional.

    The Slamdance Film Festival takes place every year in Utah.

  • NewsX launches annual documentary film festival

    NewsX launches annual documentary film festival

    NEW DELHI: NewsX has launched the ‘Annual NewsX documentary film festival’. The documentary film festival will begin in the last week of December in New Delhi. Currently, the event is in the final phase of short-listing process.

    Says NewsX marketing director Gautam Mukerjea, “We intend to extend the recesses of mainline or parallel cinema and offer an enriching and wholesome experience to our audience. The festival will serve as an exchange forum where the audience gets an opportunity to interact with the directors and vice-a-versa. It truly mirrors the spirit of our channel at large.”

    The festival is divided into short and feature documentaries and caters to a select audience that includes the decision makers in every business.

    The grand fiesta will kick off with director to audience tête-à-tête’s on the behind the scenes of the documentaries, followed by a daily showcasing of four to six documentaries.

    The winning documentary will get showcased on NewsX. Film makers can send their entries latest by 30 November.