“A Chicago advertising man must struggle to travel home from New York for Thanksgiving, with a lovable oaf of a shower-curtain-ring salesman…” – IMDb
Thanksgiving has come and gone and so have John Hughes and John Candy – way too soon, I might add. Nevertheless, I’m thankful for their abundant work and art – not the least of which is the 1987 classic, Thanksgiving comedy, Planes Trains and Automobiles, written and directed by Hughes and stars Candy as good-hearted, shower-ring salesman, Del Griffith,and Steve Martin as an uptight, snobbish, advertising professional, Neal Page.
In addition to Del and Neal, other colorful characters include, Doobie (Larry Hankin), scene-stealing Edie McClurg (car rental agent), Taxi Racer (Kevin Bacon) and Dylan Baker, satirical misogynist character, Owen.
The duo of Candy and Martin play off of each other in Planes Trains and Automobiles, as well as any comedic duo in the history of cinema including Martin (Dean) and Lewis, Laurel and Hardy, and Abbot and Costello, delivering a plethora of laughs and guffaws. Top pick for Thanksgiving 2024!
Bad Santa, a dark, holiday comedy embodied in a modern-day Christmas tale with a no holds barred, real “eating, drinking, shitting, fucking Santa Claus.” Billy Bob Thornton, as Santa, turns in his trademark surly, Napoleonic complex baring performance in raw format. Tony Cox plays his sidekick, Marcus, a lollipop kid club member, delivering colorful dialogue that stops Bernie Mac’s department detective, Gin, in his tracks. John Ritter plays straight man, Bob Chipeska, department store manager. Heather Graham turns in a earthy performance as a bartender who has a Santa complex. Scene stealer, Ajay Naidu’s character provides comic relief in his confronattion of Santy Claus, who he blames for his confused sexuality. But, it’s Brett Kelly’s performance as The Kid that makes the narrative work – think of Hitchcock’s McGuffin.
“A miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid.” – IMDb
Not to be outdone with one of the biggest Christmas light scenes, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation delivers the gift of true Christmas spirit with family co-workers, and employers coming together admitting oversights and finding a way to fulfillment for the Griswolds. Written by the late John Hughes, Christmas Vacation is the third film in National Lampoon’s Vacation Series.
OVERVIEW: As the holidays approach, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wants to have a perfect family Christmas, so he pesters his wife, Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), and children, as he tries to make sure everything is in line, including the tree and house decorations. However, things go awry quickly. His hick cousin, Eddie (Randy Quaid), and his family show up unplanned and start living in their camper on the Griswold property. Even worse, Clark’s employers renege on the holiday bonus he needs.
A New Screening Venue and a Festival Hub at Potsdamer Platz for the 75th Anniversary Edition of the Berlinale Festival
The Berlinale is revitalising the festival’s home at Potsdamer Platz with two new venues close to the Berlinale Palast and the CinemaxX and in close proximity to the European Film Market at Gropius Bau.
The Stage Bluemax Theater at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz will become a new premiere screening venue for the next edition. Once adapted, the venue will offer a seating capacity of approximately 500 seats, and will host screenings over the entire festival period. The new venue will become the home of the newly created Perspectives first feature competition, as well as hosting key premieres from other Berlinale sections.
In addition, with the Berlinale HUB75, a temporary festival hub will be built at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz. HUB75 will host a series of free morning talks and events for public audiences, as well as providing a networking space for industry and filmmaker guests. More details on the public and industry programme schedules will be announced in January.
Tricia Tuttle
“Since the closure and redevelopment of key cinemas in 2022, Berlinale has missed some of its former presence and buzz around our centre in Potsdamer Platz. These new venues are part of our longer term plans to recreate a more readily walkable festival heart, and inject additional energy and visibility back into this central hub,” says Tricia Tuttle, Festival Director.
With the closure of some key screens in the area and with the reduction in capacity at other venues, the festival has lost approximately 150,000 screening seats around Potsdamer Platz. These seats could be compensated for by other Berlinale venues, but the goal remains to offer more options on the square again.
The new plans will facilitate professional work and networking for Berlinale’s industry audiences, while also creating new access for public audiences.
Now that the construction work around the Berlinale Palast has been almost completed, the festival can make better use of the square in its new design. The redesign enables more opportunities for encounters.
All venues of the Berlinale 2025 will be published in December.
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET TO RECEIVE ARLINGTON ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD
AT THE 40TH ANNUAL SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2025
[November 25, 2024] Santa Barbara, CA – Cinema maverick Timothée Chalamet will be honored with the prestigious Arlington Artist of the Year Award at the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). Chalamet will receive the award during an in-person tribute and career retrospective on Tuesday, February 11, 2025. The evening will highlight his performances in three highly acclaimed films: A COMPLETE UNKNOWN (Dir. James Mangold), DUNE: PART TWO (Dir. Denis Villeneuve) and WONKA (Dir. Paul King). This honor recognizes Chalamet’s unparalleled talent and his enduring impact on the cinematic landscape.
Timothée Chalamet will be honored with the prestigious Arlington Artist of the Year Award at the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Photo courtesy of SBIFF Press Office)
Timothée Chalamet was the youngest “Best Actor” Oscar nominee since 1939 for his breakout role in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. He has starred in five “Best Picture” OscarⓇ nominees: CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, LADY BIRD, LITTLE WOMEN, DUNE, and DON’T LOOK UP. Additional credits include BONES AND ALL, THE FRENCH DISPATCH, BEAUTIFUL BOY, THE KING, INTERSTELLAR, and DUNE: PART TWO. He is currently in production on A24 and Josh Safdie’s MARTY SUPREME, inspired by the late American table tennis legend Martin ‘Marty’ Reisman.
SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling (Photo by Larry Gleeson/HollywoodGlee)
“I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan, and I was blown away by Chalamet’s transformation in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. His performance is galvanizing and electrifying, especially coming on the heels of the major box office triumph earlier this year with DUNE: PART TWO. Truly, this is the age of Chalamet” said SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.
The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place LIVE February 4 – February 15, 2025. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes, will be held at SBIFF’s Riviera Theatre and its new Film Center, plus the historic Arlington Theatre. Passes for the 2025 Festival are on sale now at sbiff.org.
Last year, the festival had a program of 200+ films from over 48 countries with honorary awards feted on Robert Downey Jr., Bradley Cooper, Mark Ruffalo, Jeffrey Wright, America Ferrera, Lily Gladstone, Greta Lee, Charles Melton, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Andrew Scott, Martin Scorsese, Justine Triet, Billie Eilish, and Ludwig Göransson.
A-list and industry guests will once again ascend to Santa Barbara, making it a must-stop location on the awards circuit, and delivering a record number of films with many World and U.S. premieres. The film lineup and schedule will be announced January 2025.
About the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization dedicated to discovering and showcasing the best in independent and international cinema. Over the past 39 years, SBIFF has become one of the top 10 film festivals in the United States – attracting 100,000 attendees and offering 11 days of 200+ films, tributes and symposiums, fulfilling their mission to engage, enrich, and inspire the Santa Barbara community through film.
SBIFF continues its commitment to education and the community throughout many free educational programs and events. SBIFF’s programs support over 18,000 kids, students and families in our local community by introducing film as an art form to young children with programs like AppleBox and Mike’s FieldTrip to the Movies; teaching film analysis to highschool and college students with programs like Rosebud and the Film Studies Program; and teaching the craft of screenwriting and filmmaking with Film Camp and 10-10-10 Mentorship programs. Most importantly SBIFF’s programs are always directed towards the under-represented and under-served communities within Santa Barbara County.
More recently, SBIFF secured a long-term lease for the iconic multi-plex at 916 State Street in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. This landmark acquisition paves the way for the creation of a state-of-the-art Film Center — a vibrant, year-round destination that will serve as a central hub for cinema enthusiasts and the heart of SBIFF’s renowned Film Festival. Building on the success of the Riviera Theatre revitalization in 2016 and the opening of its own Education Center in 2019 in the downtown area, SBIFF continues to strengthen its commitment to the cultural fabric of Santa Barbara.
Well, it’s that time of year to discover your inner self. Modern-day traditional Christmas films are streaming. I took the bait with Elf, starring Will Farrell, the late James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel. Farrel portrays Buddy, a human raised at the North Pole with elves. Much like older children discovering the real meaning of Christmas, Buddy has discovered his father, portrayed by Caan. lives in New York and needs some Christmas spirit.
What transpires is magical. At its bare-bones, Elf is a re-telling of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, with Buddy, the over-sized Elf, saving the day. While seeing Farrell’s performance would be enough in of itself, the supporting cast of Caan, Deschanel, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen, and scene-stealer Faizon Love, ro0und out this festive film with holiday joy abundantly.
Streaming on MAX, TBS, and TNT and with a runtime of one-hour and thirty-seven minutes and with never a dull moment, Elf, is warmly recommended.
“Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You. Only better in every way. Seriously. You’ve got to try this new product. It’s called The Substance.”
The Substance Writer/Director, Coralie Fargeat gave the Cinema Society a master class on film construction in a Q & A moderated by Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Executive Director Roger Durling, at the Riviera Theatre, November 22, 2024, in Santa Barbara, California. (Photo by Larry Gleeson/HollywoodGlee)
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good…I went to the Riviera Theatre to watch The Substance. It turned out to be a SBIFF Cinema Society ($$) screening. By the time I entered the screening. The few remaining seats were upfront.Viewing The Substance from the front row would be akin to viewing a Cinerama from the front row. I had extreme reactions from a feeling I was about to vomit to a deep feeling of ecstatic joy from the visual stimulations – utterly unparallelled in my experience. The Substance vacillates between drama, psychological horror, dark comedy, monster horror, and body horror.Admittedly, I had not experienced much cinema in the form of body horror until recently. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds at the recent AFI FEST 2o24 at the TC Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.
Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat has created a visual masterpiece with an undulating soundtrack in The Substance starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid. Moore portrays an aged actress, Elisabeth, relegated to leading televised Jane Fonda-like aerobics classes to a national audience.Elisabeth is involved in a smash up car crash on her birthday. Miraculously, she survives the crash with shaken sensibilities and no apparent physical complications. After the initial exam, a young physician feels the spinal cord and utters, “you’d be a fine candidate.”
This is the moment. Elisabeth ponders the experience and arrives back to her high-rise condominium with floor to ceiling glass view of the cityscape, In her direct line of sight is a massive billboard of herself in a Columbian Blue aerobics’ instructor leotard. Elisabeth makes the call for The Substance, a procedure that promises to make Elisabeth young again. What transpires could be seen as cliche were it not for the dynamic visual storytelling. I’ve seen a lot of films, and I have never had such a visceral response to a film.
The performances were highly nuanced and beyond the realm of normalcy. Quaid is a sight-to-behold in numerous extreme, wide-angle closeups focusing on everything from his feet to his hair on the top of his head as well as smacking chops as he ravages shrimp and dip. The French filmmakers have an extraordinary fetish with photographing food as it’s being devoured, in my filmic experiences. As for Margaret Qualley, Fargeat creates a phenomenal physicality with Qualley’s impressive screen presence.
However, the star goes to Moore and her character, Elisabeth (pun intended). Moore is not only a mature, veteran actress with time and again proven chops, she is a tour-de-force in The Substance. A visual nod was given in The Substance with female gaze to Moore’s Vanity Fair cover featuring a bared, very pregnant Moore. one of numerous nuances Fargeat injects.
The Substance is an extraordinary film with an exceptional mise-en-scen and soundtrack. Fargeat’s attention to detail in a highly constructed mise-en-scen allowed the narrative to unfold in exquisite cinematic language. With a runtime of 140 minutes, viewers with a faint of heart, the temptation to vacate may enter the imagination. Trust me, the end is well worth staying for. Absolutely brilliant.
“Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You. Only better in every way. Seriously. You’ve got to try this new product. It’s called The Substance. It changed my life. It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance… what could possibly go wrong?” —Festival Cannes
Spain Becomes the European Film Market’s “Country in Focus” at the 75th Berlinale in 2025
Spain will be the “Country in Focus” at the upcoming edition of the European Film Market. Its many filmmakers make Spain a dynamic and strong European film location with international appeal, as well as a long-standing and successful tradition of numerous films in the festival programme as well as at the EFM and in the Berlinale’s industry initiatives.
Continuing an initiative that started in 2017, the EFM annually places a major film region in the spotlight with its “Country in Focus” programme. The country’s film industry and creative work will be presented from a multifaceted point of view, new stimulus will be provided, and international connections promoted. After Mexico, Canada, Norway, Chile, the Baltic States and Italy, the “Spain in Focus” programme will examine the Spanish film scene and offer numerous opportunities for dialogue with producers, distributors, investors and film industry experts across the entire genre spectrum – from animated film to drama and series.
Tricia Tuttle
“Spanish filmmaking has enriched the Berlinale programme for decades. Many hundreds of Spanish productions, created by outstanding and acclaimed talents, have dazzled audiences and juries alike, with nine films having won the festival’s highest accolade, the Golden Bear for Best Film: Carla Simón’s beautiful Alcarràs in 2022 being the most recent of these. Pedro Almodóvar also has an important place in Berlinale history, since his world premiere of La ley del deseo won the very first TEDDY AWARD as it premiered in Panorama in 1987. Through the years, the Berlinale has welcomed countless distinguished Spanish filmmakers as jury members, festival guests and emerging talents. We are so looking forward to celebrating the Spanish film industry at the upcoming European Film Market,” says Festival Director Tricia Tuttle.
Spain is firmly committed to the expansion of sustainable film production and forward-looking digitalisation of the film sector. Thanks to attractive tax incentives and subsidies, the EFM 2025 focus country is also in great demand as a film location for international co-productions. In addition to the well-known film locations, Madrid and Barcelona, regions such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, the Canary Islands and Andalusia also enjoy a vibrant film industry with unique regional features.
Tanja Meissner
“The Spanish film and media industry has solidified its reputation and global acclaim to become a European powerhouse thanks to creative excellence, targeted investments, and technological innovations, enjoying a strong international presence with high-quality content and originality,” Berlinale Pro* Director Tanja Meissner commented. “The country offers competitive tax incentives, co-production agreements, and a strong industry infrastructure.”
Ernest Urtasun
“The European Film Market is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful platforms for European cinematography and Spain being a ‘Country in Focus’ will allow us to make visible the enormous talent of the Spanish industry in all its areas: creation, production, distribution and the global positioning of our cinema. That is the task and pride of this Ministry of Culture: to support and make known our film industry, our creators, and to allow Spanish cinema to continue growing, as it already is, in the global market and among viewers around the world”, says Spanish Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun.
The European Film Market will take place from February 13-19, 2025, in the context of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
Todd Haynes to be Jury President of the Berlinale 2025
The US-American director, screenwriter and producer Todd Haynes will be President of the International Jury of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
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“Todd Haynes is a dazzlingly gifted writer and director with an impressive range; his body of work is at once stylistically versatile but also unmistakably his. Ever since his debut feature Poison won the TEDDY AWARD in 1991, the Berlinale has followed and loved his filmmaking, and we are overjoyed to have him join the festival as the President of the International Jury for our 75th edition,” says Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle.
Tricia Tuttle
Over nearly 40 years, Todd Haynes has been one of the most bold and distinctive filmmaking voices in US-American cinema, beloved for his great sensitivity in exploring the interior worlds of outsiders and women, and his fascinating investigations into gender and identity.
His skill at creating complex characters has attracted many of the world’s finest actors. Stars such as Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kate Winslet, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Christian Bale and Ewan McGregor have played the multi-layered characters in his films. Todd Haynes’ films and their actors have won awards at numerous international film festivals.
Emerging into international prominence in the early 1990s as part of a thrilling new generation of US-American directors (dubbed “New Queer Cinema” by critic B. Ruby Rich), by the time of his four-time Oscar nominated film, Far from Heaven (2002), Haynes was fully established as a major force in US filmmaking. His feature film debut Poison received the TEDDY AWARD, the queer film prize at the Berlinale, in 1991, and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Other key works include Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), the fictional Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There (2007), which won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice, the mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011), Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017), Dark Waters (2019), The Velvet Underground (2021) and May December (2023).
The Retrospective of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival will be “Wild, Weird, Bloody”: the offbeat and the wacky, mix it up with action, thrills, and graphic visuals in 15 selected genre films from East and West Germany made in the 1970s.
Dr. Rainer Rother, head of the Retrospective and Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, says: “A longstanding preconception says that Germans can’t do genre. But in fact, early German cinema laid a groundwork that was influential in the international development of fantasy and science fiction moviemaking. And even beyond that, both auteur filmmakers and commercial productions were drawn to genre films over the decades. Our Retrospective showcases pictures, made amid other film currents such as New German Cinema that embraced the appeal and played with the possibilities of a good genre flick.”
Influenced by the wave of exploitation films of the era, the 1970s are a treasure trove of offbeat movies that followed new narrative and aesthetic paths. It was a decade when a generation of young directors took their shot and tested the boundaries between the genres. With Deadlock (FRG, 1970), Roland Klick served up a mixture of post-apocalyptic gangster film and psychedelic western. That same year, Hans W. Geißendörfer turned his sights on the horror genre with his commanding vampire film Jonathan (FRG, 1970). West German filmmakers had counterparts in East Germany, such as Horst Bonnet, with his unusual adaptation of the operetta Orpheus in der Unterwelt (Orpheus in the Underworld, GDR, 1974), and Günter Reisch’s satire Nelken in Aspik (Cloves in Aspic, GDR, 1976). The section will also be showing films by directors such as Rainer Erler, Klaus Lemke, Ulli Lommel, and Wolfgang Petersen, expanding the Retrospective 2025 to include genres such as the biker film, thriller, and musical.
“Modern audiences eagerly embrace genre cinema and enjoy tracing crime, science fiction, horror and other genre roots all the way back to the earliest days of the form. This selection of deep thrills and blood spills offers so many discoveries, and shines a light into new corners of German cinema. We cannot wait to share it with audiences, local and international”, comments Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle.
The complete line-up for “Wild, Weird, Bloody. German Genre Films of the 70s” will be announced in December 2024. During the Berlinale, the Retrospective screenings will be complemented by a series of event at E-Werk, the new home of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
