Source: SBIFF Outstanding Performers of the Year Award honoring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone
Monthly Archives: January 2017
PHOTOS: Inside the AFI AWARDS 2016 Luncheon
Posted by Larry Gleeson
There are no winners or losers at AFI AWARDS. Instead, AFI recognizes all of the creative ensembles behind the year’s most outstanding storytelling in film and television. The talented members of these teams gathered in Beverly Hills yesterday to be honored at the AFI AWARDS 2016 luncheon. Guests at the event included the best of the best in the entertainment community, such as Clint Eastwood, Ryan Gosling, Naomie Harris, Chris Pine, Michelle Williams and more.
(Source: afi.com)
The Berlin International Short Film Jury 2017
Palm Springs International Film Festival – January 7th
Posted by Larry Gleeson
OPENING NIGHT OF THE
2017 PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
JANUARY 5, 2017
A packed house on Opening Night saw the World Premiere of “The Sense of an Ending” starring Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling. The director, Ritesh Batra, was in attendance along with PSIFF Artistic Director, Michael Lerman, PSIFF Chairman of the Board, Harold Matzner and Palm Springs Mayor, Robert Moon.
The screening was followed by a rousing reception at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
TALKING PICTURES: AQUARIUS
FASCINATING FILMS ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 8
WHITE SUN
Nepal/U.S./Qatar/Netherlands – 2016 – 88 minutes
Director: Deepak Rauniyar
NEW VOICES/NEW VISIONS
U.S. Premiere
A dark comedy about two brothers from each side of the Nepalese civil war brought together after 10 years for their father’s funeral. A trenchant, eye-catching parable, this is the best film to come out of Nepal in years. Winner: Interfilm Award, Venice.
Sun, Jan 8 – 10:30 AM – Camelot
Wed, Jan 11 – 6:30 PM – Rega
Director, Deepak Rauniyar and Actors, Dayahang Rai, Rabindra Singh Baniya to attend the January 8 screening. Purchase tickets HERE.
JEWEL’S CATCH ONE
U.S. – 2016 – 90 minutes
Director: C. Fitz
TRUE STORIES
North American Premiere
For 40 years the L.A. disco Catch One thrived against all odds as a haven for the black and brown LGBT community, thanks to the tenacity of its remarkable founder, Jewel Thais-Williams, who is celebrated in this vibrant history of the “West Coast Studio 54.”
Sun, Jan 8 – 1:00 PM – Regal
DID YOU KNOW?
NOW YOU CAN READ THE PSIFF PROGRAM BOOK ONLINE!
You can read the official 2017 Palm Springs International Film Festival
Souvenir Program Book online.
Souvenir Program Book online.
Just click HERE.
24 WEEKS
Germany – 2016 – 102 minutes
Director: Anne Zohra Berrached
WORLD CINEMA NOW
A German woman is told her unborn baby will probably have Down syndrome and must decide whether to abort the pregnancy in this moving drama. “A wrenchingly affecting picture… It’s an incredible, revealing performance from Jentsch (Sophie Scholl).” Screen
Sun, Jan 8 – 1:30 PM – Camelot
Wed, Jan 11 – 4:30 PM – Camelot
Sat, Jan 14 – 4:30 PM – Camelot
Purchase tickets HERE.
GUN RUNNERS
Canada – 2016 – 89 minutes
Director: Anjali Nayar
TRUE STORIES
Kenya’s Rift Valley produces many of the world’s top marathon runners. It’s also a place of gun-toting cattle rustlers. In this enthralling documentary, Julius Arile and Robert Matanda trade their AK-47s for running shoes… and a dream for a better life.
Sun, Jan 8 – 1:30 PM – Mary Pickford
Sat, Jan 14 – 5:15 PM – Palm Canyon
Sun, Jan 15 – 11:00 AM – Palm Canyon
Director, Anjali Nayar to attend January 8 screening.
Purchase tickets HERE.
FESTIVAL MERCHANDISE
A stand-alone Film Festival Store for the Palm Springs International Film Festival is featuring a complete collection of Film Festival Merchandise at Destination PSP. The Festival Store is now open and will be open every day through January 16.
The Festival Store is located in the Regal Cinema Courtyard Plaza, unit 16,
just down from the Regal Cinemas and across the courtyard from the
Festival Ticket and Information Center.
just down from the Regal Cinemas and across the courtyard from the
Festival Ticket and Information Center.
You can also shop online at Destination PSP by clicking HERE.
THE CONCESSIONAIRES MUST DIE!
U.S. – 2016 – 88 minutes
Director: America Young
WORLD CINEMA NOW
World Premiere
In another world not entirely unlike this one, the dedicated staff of a single screen repertory theatre put their heads together to keep their beloved picture palace open. This affectionate slacker comedy mixes pop culture trivia with goofy shoestring parodies of Hollywood classics new and old.
Sun, Jan 8 – 4:00 PM – Mary Pickford
Mon, Jan 9 – 6:30 PM – Rega
Director, America Young, Actors David Blue, Talia Tabin and John M. Keating to attend.
Purchase tickets HERE.
PERSONAL SHOPPER
France – 2016 – 105 minutes
Director: Olivier Assayas
MODERN MASTERS
Master filmmaker Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart re-team after Clouds of Sils Maria with another surprising collaboration. Personal Shopper is a most unusual and artful ghost story, a tense and eerie tale of a medium trying to reconnect with her recently deceased twin brother. Winner: Best Director, Cannes.
Sun, Jan 8 – 4:15 PM – PSHS
Mon, Jan 9 – 4:00 PM – Camelot
Thu, Jan 12 – 7:30 PM – Annenberg
Purchase tickets HERE.
ZACMA: BLINDNESS
Poland – 2016 – 114 minutes
Director: Ryszard Bugajski
FOCUS ON POLAND
An intimate, metaphysical art-house drama, Blindness posits a 1962 meeting between a now repentant Julia Prajs Brystygier, aka “Bloody Luna,” the former head of Department V in the Stalinist-era Ministry of Information, and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a man whose 1953 arrest she had facilitated.
Sun, Jan 8 – 7:30 PM – Camelot
Mon, Jan 9 – 7:30 PM – Camelot
Wed, Jan 11 – 5:00 PM – Camelot
Director, Ryszard Bugajski; Actor, Maria Mamona to attend.
Purchase tickets HERE.
(Source: psiff.org)
Paul Verhoeven Appointed Jury President of the Berlinale 2017
Palm Springs Film Festival – January 6th
Posted by Larry Gleeson
SUNNY SKIES AND WARM TEMPERATURES FOR FRIDAY, JANUARY 6TH
FILM SUGGESTIONS FOR SATURDAY, JANUARY 7
EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY
Mexico – 2017 – 90 minutes
Director: Catalina Aguilar Mastretta
WORLD CINEMA NOW
World Premiere
Living a picture-perfect life while in the fog of heartbreak, successful Mexican-American obstetrician Clara is on the verge of letting love back into her life just as her ex, Daniel, unexpectedly reappears, forcing a major life reappraisal in this funny and bittersweet bilingual romantic comedy.
Sat, Jan 7 – 8:00 PM – Annenberg
Sun, Jan 8 – 10:00 AM – Mary Pickford
Fri, Jan 13 – 10:00 AM – Regal
Writer/Director, Catalina Aguilar Mastretta and Actors, Karla Souza, José María Yazpik and Ben O’Toole will be attending.
Purchase tickets HERE.
BOUNDARIES
Canada – 2016 – 100 minutes
Director: Chloé Robichaud
NEW VOICES/NEW VISIONS
Quebecois filmmaker Chloé Robichaud arrives with her anticipated sophomore feature after 2013’s acclaimed Sarah Prefers to Run. An ambitious feminist political satire, Boundaries follows three women as they negotiate a deal that will allow foreign companies access to natural resources on a tiny Canadian island.
Sat, Jan 7 – 1:30 PM – Mary Pickford
Director, Chloé Robichaud to attend.
Purchase tickets HERE.
On Wednesday, January 4th some fascinating conversations occurred at Book To Screen, an event that shines a light on the often complex, always invigorating ways in which the written word informs and inspires motion pictures.
NO LIGHT AND NO LAND ANYWHERE
U.S. – 2016 – 75 minutes
Director: Amber Sealey
WORLD CINEMA NOW
In this raw, sexually graphic and unsettling odyssey, a lost, lonely Londoner, her marriage over, flies to Los Angeles, where she holes up in a seedy motel and searches for the father who abandoned her when she was an infant.
Sat, Jan 7 – 2:30 PM – Regal
Sun, Jan 8 – 8:00 PM – Regal
Director, Amber Sealey to attend.
Purchase tickets HERE.
BRIMSTONE
Netherlands – 2016 – 148 minutes
Director: Martin Koolhoven
AFTER DARK
U.S. Premiere
A fiery reverend (Guy Pearce) terrorizes a mute midwife (Dakota Fanning) in Koolhoven’s grim, violent Western. Told in reverse chronological order, this dark drama doesn’t want for blood and thunder.
Sat, Jan 7 – 4:15 PM – Annenberg
Sat, Jan 14 – 7:00 PM – Mary Pickford
Purchase tickets HERE.
DREAM VACATION PALM SPRINGS
VACATION PALM SPRINGS “DREAM VACATION” WINNER WILL RECEIVE:
* A Four (4) night stay for up to 4 people in a luxury 3-bedroom Palm Springs vacation rental home during the 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Winner will also receive the following:
* Opening -or- Closing Night Screening and Gala Reception – 4 Tickets
* Festival Screening Passes – 4 non-transferable passes, good for all regular screenings
Enter NOW through January 16, 2017
Must be at least 25 years of age to enter this contest.
No purchase necessary.
One entry per person; employees of PSIFF are not eligible.
X500
Canada/Colombia/Mexico – 2016 – 108 minutes
Director: Juan Andrés Arango
WORLD CINEMA NOW
U.S. Premiere
In Canada, Colombia and Mexico, three young migrants undergo familiar struggles with anguish, displacement and violence in this visually stunning sophomore film from acclaimed writer/director Juan Andrés Arango (La Playa DC).
Sat, Jan 7 – 6:30 PM – Regal
Mon, Jan 9 – 8:00 PM – Mary Pickford
Director, Juan Andrés Arango to attend.
Purchase tickets HERE
NELLY
Canada – 2016 – 100 minutes
Director: Anne Émond
WORLD CINEMA NOW
This inventive, non-linear biopic explores the life and work of the French Canadian author and former sex worker Nelly Arcan in explicit, sometimes erotic, sometimes anguished detail. “A movie every bit as racy, rough-edged and conflicted as the woman whose story it tells.” Montreal Gazette
Sat, Jan 7 – 7:00 PM – Camelot
Sun, Jan 8 – 10:30 AM – Mary Pickford
Mon, Jan 9 – 2:15 PM – Palm Canyon
Director, Anne Émond to attend.
Purchase tickets HERE
BREAKABLE YOU
U.S. – 2017 – 120 minutes
Director: Andrew Wagner
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
World Premiere
A smart and sophisticated movie about smart and sophisticated (but flawed and unfulfilled) people, this sensitive adaptation of Brian Morton’s novel about an over-the-hill writer, his ex and his fragile daughter is buoyed by beautifully calibrated performances from a terrific cast led by Holly Hunter and Tony Shalhoub.
Sat, Jan 7 – 7:30 PM – PSHS
Sun, Jan 8 – 10:00 AM – PSHS
Director, Andrew Wagner to attend
Purchase tickets HERE
THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS
UK/U.S. – 2016 – 110 minutes
Director: Colm McCarthy
AFTER DARK
When a viral outbreak transforms millions of people into flesh-eating predators, could the fate of civilization rest on the slender shoulders of Melanie, a young “hungry” who’s retained her genius-level IQ? Stylish and sophisticated, Colm McCarthy’s impeccably cast, post-apocalyptic thriller is calibrated for maximum tension.
Sat, Jan 7 – 10:00 PM – Mary Pickford
Sun, Jan 8 – 7:15 PM – PSHS
Fri, Jan 13 – 10:00 PM – Mary Pickford
Purchase tickets HERE
BONTA Restaurant & Bar
If you’re going to one of the great Festival films at the Mary Pickford (or even if you’re not) 
our friend Chef Hector Salvatierra at Bonta Restaurant & Bar, is offering a special discount to those attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
our friend Chef Hector Salvatierra at Bonta Restaurant & Bar, is offering a special discount to those attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival.10% off entire check includes all bar items and dinner menu!
Bonta is located at 68510 E Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 140, Cathedral City, CA 92234 (across the street from the Mary Pickford Theatres in the Desert Cinema building). Telephone: 760-832-6100.
Ticket and Pass holders need to show their pass or ticket they have purchased at any time during the Festival. Tickets will be honored throughout the festival dates, they expire at end of festival.
They will be serving lunch from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm, Happy hour from 2:00 pm until 7:00 pm, dinner from 4:00 pm. Cocktails $4.50, Wine $5.00. Martinis $5.50.
They will also have take-out lunch boxes:
Soup and Salad or soup and Sandwich combos
Our Famous Homemade Chips and Chef Hectors Famous Chili and Split Pea soup
Check out their full menu HERE.
Make sure to stop by and say hello to Chef Hector and enjoy his truly amazing food. Tell him Larry sent you for a special treat!
(Source: psiff.org)
Nashville Film Festival Competitions Closing
Posted by Larry Gleeson
Competitions Closing this Sunday!!
Don’t miss the chance to enter the 2017 Nashville Film Festival. Nashville Film Festival was voted one of “25 film festivals worth the entry fee” by MovieMaker Magazine and highlighted as One of the Best Film Festival Prizes by Film Festival Today. Brooks Institute named it one of the top 5 film festivals in the U.S. See the links for your gateway to entry!
Enter the Screenwriting Competition
Enter the Virtual Reality/360 Film Competition
More on NashFilm
NashFilm presents the best in World Cinema, American Indies, documentaries, and numerous short form programs by veteran masters, up-and-coming directors, and first-time filmmakers. NashFilm films have won the highest honors in the film world. Films screened in the past include 13 Assassins, (500) Days of Summer, Cyrus, Terri, Buck, Nowhere Boy, Project Nim and Academy Award nominees, I Am Love, Ajami, and Dogtooth.
With Academy Award qualifying status and numerous well-attended shorts programs, NashFilm has screened many prize-winning narrative and animated shorts.
NashFilm is also the place where many up-and-coming filmmakers get their first big break. Craig Brewer – Footloose, Hustle & Flow, and Black Snake Moon won his first award at NashFilm. Most recently, Clay Jeter received the Ground Zero Tennessee Spirit Award for Best Short Film and used the finishing funds to complete Jess + Moss, which then premiered at Sundance and was accepted for competition in Berlin before returning to the NashFilm 2011.
The 48th Annual Nashville Film Festival will take place April 20 – 29, 2017 at Regal Cinema Hollywood in Nashville, TN.
See you there!
(Source: nashvillefilmfestival.org)
Searching for — and Finding — the Best of 2016’s Films
As we swerved into the final quarter of this stress-filled year of 2016, something unusual began to happen. While our already coarsened political climate imploded,…
Source: Searching for — and Finding — the Best of 2016’s Films
2017 Writers Guild Awards Screenplay Nominations Announced
Posted by Larry Gleeson
This year’s Writers Guild Screenplay Awards Nominations were announced today, Wednesday, January 4th, 2017, under strict eligibility parameters as follows:
“Feature films eligible for a Writers Guild Award were exhibited theatrically for at least one week in Los Angeles during 2016 and were written under the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) or under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement of the Writers Guild of Canada, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Writers Guild of Ireland, Writers’ Guild of South Africa, New Zealand Writers Guild, Film Writers’ Association (India), La Guilde Francaise des Scénaristes (France), Scriptwriters Guild of Israel, Société des Auteurs de Radio, Télévision et Cinéma (Québec), or Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (VDD/Germany), collectively known as affiliate Guilds. Theatrical screenplays produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild must have been submitted for Writers Guild Awards consideration. Documentaries eligible for a Writers Guild Award featured an onscreen writing credit and were exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York for one week during 2016. Theatrical documentaries must have been produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild to be eligible for awards consideration.”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Hell or High Water, Written by Taylor Sheridan; CBS Films
La La Land, Written by Damien Chazelle; Lionsgate
Loving, Written by Jeff Nichols; Focus Features
Manchester by the Sea, Written by Kenneth Lonergan; Amazon Studios/Roadside Attractions
Moonlight, Screenplay by Barry Jenkins, Story by Tarell McCraney; A24
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Arrival, Screenplay by Eric Heisserer; Based on the Story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang; Paramount Pictures
Deadpool, Written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick; Based on the X-Men Comic Books; Twentieth Century Fox Film
Fences, Screenplay by August Wilson; Based on his Play; Paramount Pictures
Hidden Figures, Screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi; Based on the Book by Margot Lee Shetterly; Twentieth Century Fox Film
Nocturnal Animals, Screenplay by Tom Ford; Based on the Novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright; Focus Features
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
Author: The JT LeRoy Story, Written by Jeff Feuerzeig; Amazon Studios
Command and Control, Telescript by Robert Kenner & Eric Schlosser, Story by Brian Pearle and Kim Roberts; Based on the book Command and Control by Eric Schlosser; American Experience Films
Zero Days, Written by Alex Gibney; Magnolia Pictures
The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, new media, videogames, news, radio, promotional, and graphic animation categories. The awards will be presented at concurrent ceremonies on Sunday, February 19, 2017, in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton and in New York City at the Edison Ballroom. For more information about the 2017 Writers Guild Awards, please visit http://www.wga.org or http://www.wgaeast.org.
(Source:http://www.wga.org)
Palm Springs OPENING NIGHT – January 5th
Posted by Larry Gleeson
The Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Opening Night film and World Premiere of The Sense of an Ending, stars Charlotte Rampling and Jim Broadbent.
The screening and reception are SOLD OUT, however standby seats for the screening only at the Camelot Theatres may become available.
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 6
TONIO
Netherlands – 2016 – 100 minutes
Director: Paula van der Oest
AWARDS BUZZ-BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
International Premiere
A fragmented narrative constantly places the past alongside the present as a novelist and his wife try to make sense of the senseless death of their 21-year-old son. A high-wire emotional act from Dutch Oscar-favorite Paula van der Oest (Zus & zo; Accused).
Fri, Jan 6 – 1:30 PM – Mary Pickford
Sat, Jan 7 – 4:00 PM – Regal
Director, Paula van der Oest to attend.
Purchase tickets HERE.
POORNA
India – 2017 – 96 minutes
Director: Rahul Bose
WORLD CINEMA NOW
World Premiere
On May 25th, 2014, 13-year-old Malavath Poorna became the youngest woman to scale Everest. An adivasi (indigenous) teen, Poorna was selected as a champion of welfare schools, and Rahul Bose puts her accomplishment in the context of female empowerment while delivering the spectacle you would expect.
Fri, Jan 6 – 3:30 PM – Mary Pickford
Fri, Jan 13 – 10:00 AM – Camelot
Sun, Jan 15 – 4:00 PM – Mary Pickford
Director, Rahul Bose to attend the Jan 6 screening.
Purchase tickets HERE.
THE DANCER
France/Belgium/Czech Republic – 2016 –
108 minutes
108 minutes
Director: Stéphanie Di Giusto
WORLD CINEMA NOW
In this inquisitive biopic about artistry and competition, musician Soko gives a raw performance as Loïe Fuller, an American dancer who’s the toast of Paris in the early 20th century-until she’s swept aside by a rising talent named Isadora Duncan (a luminous Lily-Rose Depp).
Fri, Jan 6 – 4:00 PM – PSHS
Sat, Jan 7 – 10:30 AM – Annenberg
Thu, Jan 12 – 10:30 AM – Camelot
Purchase tickets HERE.
TALKING PICTURES: CAPTAIN FANTASTIC – VIGGO MORTENSEN
It was great to see Viggo Mortensen’s new film Captain Fantastic on Tuesday, January 3 and even better to get his insight into the making of this terrific film
during the Talking Pictures program! Thank you Viggo!
during the Talking Pictures program! Thank you Viggo!
THE UNTAMED
Mexico/Denmark/France/Germany/Norway – 2016 –
100 minutes
100 minutes
Director: Amat Escalante
AFTER DARK
A daring, disturbing and erotically charged sci-fi from the acclaimed director of Heli. A sexually omnivorous alien is holed up in a farmhouse in Guanajuato, and given her brutish, homophobic husband is cheating on her with her brother, Ale’s ready to take a walk on the wild side… Winner: Best Director, Venice.
Fri, Jan 6 – 6:30 PM – Mary Pickford
Sat, Jan 7 – 7:30 PM – Mary Pickford
Wed, Jan 11 – 7:30 PM – Regal
Purchase tickets HERE.
PAINT IT BLACK
U.S. – 2016 – 96 minutes
Director: Amber Tamblyn
WORLD CINEMA NOW
A young man’s suicide is the springboard for an epic battle between the two women who loved him: his punk girlfriend and his patrician mother. First-time director Amber Tamblyn’s ferocious and flamboyant adaptation of the Janet Fitch novel is a real gothic shocker.
Fri, Jan 6 – 7:30 PM – Camelot
Sat, Jan 7 – 11:00 AM – Regal
Wed, Jan 11 – 4:00 PM – Mary Pickford
Director, Amber Tamblyn to attend the Jan 6 & 7 screenings.
Purchase tickets HERE.
FESTIVAL MERCHANDISE
A stand-alone Film Festival Store for the Palm Springs International Film Festival is featuring a complete collection of Film Festival Merchandise at Destination PSP. The Festival Store is now open and will be open every day except New Year’s Day through January 16.
The Festival Store is located in the Regal Cinema Courtyard Plaza, unit 16,
just down from the Regal Cinemas and across the courtyard from the
Festival Ticket and Information Center.
just down from the Regal Cinemas and across the courtyard from the
Festival Ticket and Information Center.
You can also shop online at Destination PSP by clicking HERE.
’76
Nigeria – 2016 – 118 minutes
Director: Izu Ojukwu
WORLD CINEMA NOW
The failed 1976 Nigerian coup serves as the real-life backdrop for Izu Ojukwu’s taut “Nollywood” love story between an army captain (Ramsey Nouah, excellent), who falls under suspicion after refusing to conspire with the plotters, and his wife (Rita Dominic), who is heavily pregnant.
Fri, Jan 6 – 1:30 PM – Camelot
Mon, Jan 9 – 4:30 PM – Mary Pickford
Thu, Jan 12 – 11:00 AM – Regal
Director, Izu Ojukwu to attend the January 9 & 12 screenings.
Purchase tickets HERE.
DAGUERROTYPE
France/Japan/Belgium – 2016 – 131 minutes
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
MODERN MASTERS
U.S. Premiere
Japanese horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa switches gears for this atmospheric, French-made quasi-ghost story. Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) works for a photographer (Dardenne regular Gourmet) given to visions of his dead wife and obsessed with photographing his daughter (Rousseau). Love blossoms and a deadly scam unfolds…
Fri, Jan 6 – 10:30 AM – Annenberg
Thu, Jan 12 – 2:15 PM – Palm Canyon
Purchase tickets HERE.
DID YOU KNOW?
You can read the official 2017 Palm Springs International Film Festival
Souvenir Program Book online.
Souvenir Program Book online.
Just click HERE.
(Source:psiff.org)