Nosferatu, the classic 1922 German Expressionism film will open San Luis Obispo’s 22nd Annual SLO Film Fest on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 8 PM at Cal Poly’s Spanos Theater. German composer and pianist, Markus Horn, has composed an original score to accompany the film. For tickets and for more information click here: SLO Film Fest 22 Tickets/Passes.
Actress Rooney Mara, joined a notable group of honorees last night at the historic Arlington Theater, including last year’s recipients Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as she accepted the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s (SBIFF) prestigious Cinema Vanguard Award.
The event was moderated by Joe McGovern from Entertainment Weekly. McGovern engaged with Mara gently drawing out the diminutive actress. Throughout the conversation, clips were intermittently shown from Mara’s body of work including the Side Effects , Her and The Social Network, a biographical drama of Mark Zuckerberg and the genesis of Facebook.
Festival Director Roger Durling praised Mara by saying,
“From her scene-stealing turn in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to her outstanding performance in Carol, Rooney has repeatedly showcased her talents as one of the most gifted actors of her generation. I truly admire the enigmatic and complex nature of her performances. She’s an adept, beguiling actor, and we are proud to present her with this year’s Cinema Vanguard Award.”
Rooney’s Carol Director, Todd Haynes presented the award with Aussie Cate Blanchette providing a rousing tribute recorded earlier from her home Down Under.
Past recipients of the award include Amy Adams, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman, Ryan Gossling and Stanley Tucci. The award was created to recognize “actors who have forged their own path – taking artistic risks while making a significant and unique contribution to film.”
The “Creative Forces: Women in the Biz” panel debuted in 2005 and celebrates influential women in film. Women from all stages of film production, including editing, directing, costuming, casting, production design, and producing come together to discuss the unique challenges they have faced and successes they have had in the film industry.
The 2016 panel will feature:
Susan Cartsonis (STOREFRONT PICTURES)
Svetlana Cvetko (THE ARCHITECT – Cinematographer)
Alison Eastwood (BATTLECREEK – Director)
Liz Garbus (WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? – Director)
Shannon McIntosh (HATEFUL EIGHT – Producer)
Rosa Tran (ANOMALISA – Producer)
Madelyn Hammond, President, Madelyn Hammond & Associates will moderate. Brooks Institute is sponsoring the event.
Tickets are available here: sbiff.org
The 66th Berlin International Film Festival, also known as Berlinale, is set to open February 11th and run through the 21st of February, 2016. This year’s President of the Jury will be Meryl Streep. Opening night film is Hail Caesar! from the Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan.
(Courtesy: Berlinale Festival)
Each year up to 400 films are shown in a splendid array of world cinema with ticket sales around 300,00 and admissions estimated at 500,000 Berlinale is widely considered the world’s largest publicly attended film festival. In addition, the festival’s media events are very reputable. Dieter Kosslick is embarking on his 15th year as the festival’s director. Stay tuned for daily updates! Until then, I’ll see you at the movies…
Excitement and anticipation abound Friday evening as Rachel McAdams electrified the red carpet at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, CA for the American Riviera Awards at the 31st annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). McAdam’s stunning Jonathan Simkhai gown awed the crowd as the Canadian actress gracefully made her way from her limousine greeting the onlooking crowd and signing autographs for adoring fans.
A near capacity crowd jostled into the 2000+ seat venue as bags were checked and festival passholders were granted priority access. Roger Durling, Executive Director of SBIFF and moderator for the evening, greeted the audience and provided a short discourse on the importance of film and its ability to unite communities across the globe and proceeded to introduce the evening’s honored guests, Rachel McAdams and Michael Keaton. The Arlington audience welcomed the pair with a rousing wave of applause. Unfortunately, Mark Ruffalo could not be in attendance.
Durling began the tribute with insightful remarks about SPOTLIGHT delving into what attracted them to the story and their experience in working with director Tom McCarthy. McAdams spoke specifically about the real-life character she portrays, reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, who sat in the audience this evening.
As an added caveat, the audience was treated with a trip down memory lane as a montage of film clips highlighting significant moments in their respective careers including MEAN GIRLS and THE PAPER. McAdams recounted her memorable role in THE HOT CHICK and how it was “probably the scariest job she’s ever had because she had to become Rob Schneider” and Keaton commented on his Boston accent in SPOTLIGHT, and why he “prayed that he would never have to do one”. In rounding out the 2016 American Riviera Award conversation Keaton and McAdams shared stories about their favorite filmmakers.
Tom McCarthy came on stage to present the honorees with their American Riviera Award, an SBIFF award established to recognize actors who have made a significant contribution to American Cinema. McCarthy shared a few words about Ruffalo’s incredible determination as a performer, McAdam’s unique listening ability and her space as the heart of SPOTLIGHT, and Keaton’s remarkable energy and tenacity that he brings to the film.
On Sunday, February 7th, Terrance Malick’s experiential KNIGHT OF CUPS will have its US Premiere at the Arlington Theatre as the festival’s Centerpiece Film. The highly anticipated film stars Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Frieda Pinto, Isabel Lucas, Imogen Poots, Wes Bentley, Brian Dennehy and Teresa Palmer, among others. Xavier Giannoli’s funny and emotional drama MARGUERITE will close out the festival on Saturday, February 13th. 1921, the beginning of the Golden Twenties. Not far from Paris. For information on tickets, passes and packages click here.
If air travel is required for your attendance, Alaska Airlines, the official airline for the 31st Santa Barbara International Film Festival, is offering 10% discounts on airfare between Santa Barbara, Los Angeles or Burbank, California and any of Alaska Airlines departure cities (excluding Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica and Prudhoe Bay) now through February 16th, 2016. Click here. Discounts are automatically applied. Restrictions apply. See site for details.
(Source: Santa Barbara International Film Festival)
SBIFF Programming Director, Michael Albright, a Santa Barbara City College Associate Film Studies Professor of Documentary Film, moderated a widely diverse, yet talented panel of documentary filmmakers this morning at the Engels and Volkers Pavilion as part of the SBIFF *Free Admission Filmmakers Seminars before an audience including many students in the Santa Barbara City College Film Studies Film Festival Course and several participants from the SBIFF Film Studies Program as well as a throng of Santa Barbara community filmmakers.
The panel was comprised of Jeff Bowden, Executive Producer, A Single Frame; Jeffrey Brown, Producer/Director, Vinyl Generation; Lilibet Foster, Director, Writer, Producer, Be Here Now (The Andy Whitfield Story); Laura Gabbert, Director, City of God; and, Leanne Pooley, Director, 25 April. The films are screening during the festival. Visit the festival site for a complete, up-to-date film schedule: http://sbiff.org/
Albright introduced the participants to the audience and proceeded to politely ask the panel members to introduce themselves respectively. Jeff Bowden started revealing the inspiration behind his film – a photograph given to him by his daughter. It wasn’t just a photograph, however. The photo was hanging in a War Photo Limited gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia when War Photo was exhibiting work by female photographers. Among the cataclysmic cover photos of bombed out buildings and incinerated automobiles was the face of an Albanian boy with an expression Bowden has carried with him ever since. In an effort to uncover the boy’s identity, Bowden embarked upon a journey that has inckuded six trips to Kosovo and has culminated in A Single Frame.
Next, Jeffrey Brown, a veteran filmmaker with over 20 films including a number of award-winning global features and documentaries. His latest work Vinyl Generation, examines the influence a renewed interest in vinyl LP’s had on Czech Generation X during the 1980’s.
Picking it up, Academy Award Nominated and multi-award winning filmmaker Lilibet Foster captured the moment as she shared her emotional, heartfelt journey in capturing the wrenching saga, Be Here Now (The Andy Whitfield Story).
Not one to sit idly by, Laura Gabbert, grabbed a hold of the microphone and mesmerized the audience with her shot description showcasing the City of Angels – Los Angeles, California – in City of God, her expose of flamboyantly Old World, Pulitzer Prize winning food critic, Jonathan Gold. The film premiered at Sundance 2015 and was picked up by IFC/Sundance Selects and is slated for a March 2016 theatrical release. Also, Gabbert received her MFA from the UCLA School of Theater, Television and Film.
Wrapping up the introductions was Leanne Poooley, a New Zealand filmmaker with over 20 films under her belt including her the recent 25 April, an animated excursion into a retelling of the bloody and ill-fated Gallipoli campaign form the annals of World War I.
Seemingly, such an extraordinary self-described introduction would have been satisfactorily enough for most audiences. Albright, however, with a keen sense of his audience demographic, peppered the panel with intelligent questions to draw out the inner workings of these successful, highly charged filmmakers. For example, how do you as filmmakers balance creativity with financial realities? It appeared as though a strong illumination surrounded the group as the response button was activated immediately after the question left Albright’s lips. Answers varied from panelist to panelist eventually segueing into narrative structure, storytelling versus topical material, film distribution channels, production, post-production and the ensuing miracle inherent to the magic of filmmaking. And, what started out as a Filmmaking Seminar on Documentary Film morphed into a master filmmaking class running the gamut from the inspirational spark to finished product. Stay tuned!
Until next time….I’ll see you at the movies.
Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider rolled out the welcome mat to a sold-out, energetic audience and then introduced “the-one-and-only Roger Durling,” the Festival’s Executive Director, at the opening of the 31st edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival inside the historic Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, California, February 3rd, 2016.
(Credit: Larry Gleeson)
SBIFF Executive Roger Durling introduced The Little Prince director, Mark Osborne to a rollicking Arlington Theater audience. Osborne reminisced about how his wife had introduced him to the novel years ago and inspired him to make the film. In addition, Osborne credited his own daughter as inspiration for the character of the young girl and revealed that his son was the voice of the Little Prince. Soon after, star Mackenzie Foy appeared and mesmerized the crowd in a full-length evening gown as she gushed, “I’m honored to be a apart of this unique film.” Last but not least, local Santa Barbarian and long-time resident, Jeff Bridges, joined the group by saying he was looking forward to seeing the film in his hometown.
(Credit: YTS Digital Films)
For the complete line up visit: http://sbiff.org/
On Sunday, February 7th, Terrance Malick’s experiential KNIGHT OF CUPS will have its US Premiere at the Arlington Theatre as the festival’s Centerpiece Film. The highly anticipated film stars Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Frieda Pinto, Isabel Lucas, Imogen Poots, Wes Bentley, Brian Dennehy and Teresa Palmer, among others. Xavier Giannoli’s funny and emotional drama MARGUERITE will close out the festival on Saturday, February 13th. 1921, the beginning of the Golden Twenties. Not far from Paris. For information on tickets, passes and packages click here.
If air travel is required for your attendance, Alaska Airlines, the official airline for the 31st Santa Barbara International Film Festival, is offering 10% discounts on airfare between Santa Barbara, Los Angeles or Burbank, California and any of Alaska Airlines departure cities (excluding Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica and Prudhoe Bay) now through February 16th, 2016. Book by February 16, 2016. Click here. Discounts are automatically applied. Restrictions apply. See site for details.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) announces screen legends and beloved titles for its 7th annual TCM Classic Film Festival set to take place April 28-May 1, 2016, in Hollywood including:
The 2016 TCM Film Festival will also feature a special live event:
Additionally, festival attendees will enjoy four premiere restorations of the following films:
Complete bios for each of the artists appearing at the 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival can be found at filmfestival.tcm.com
The Asian Film Awards Academy announced the nominations for the 10th Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong today, with 18 nominations for Japanese films (including co-production film for the Best Film Award) and talents in 15 categories, including a nomination for “Three Stories of Love” (Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi) for the Best Film Award.
*Full list of nominations of 10th Asian Film Awards: https://www.tiff-jp.net/pr/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/10th-AFA_NominationList_2016.pdf
Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), together with the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival, created the Asian Film Awards Academy (AFA Academy), a nonprofit organization, in 2013 to promote and develop Asian cinema and its talents. Organized by the AFA Academy, the Asian Film Awards (AFA) will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year.
Today’s announcement encompassed 77 nominations for 15 awards. The nominations represent 36 films from 9 countries and regions. World-renowned Hong Kong director Mr. Johnnie TO Kei-fung will serve as this year’s Jury President and lead a jury comprising two charismatic and popular celebrities, Hong Kong actor Mr. Sean LAU Ching-wan and mainland Chinese actress Ms. GAO Yuanyuan, as well as 12 respected film industry professionals, festival programmers and critics from around the world, who will together choose the best Asian works.
The 10th Asian Film Awards is scheduled for March 17, 2016 at The Venetian Macao. To commemorate the special occasion of the AFA’s 10th anniversary, a new award has been created in the category of Best Sound. Skillful recording, editing and mixing of sound is an often unnoticed but critical element in filmmaking, and this award is being given to recognize excellence in the field and to encourage talent.
Dr. Wilfred WONG Ying-wai, SBS, JP, Chairman of the AFA Academy and the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, said,
- “The Asian Film Awards’ annual ceremony recognizes many outstanding Asian filmmakers and we have also launched year-round initiatives to sustain the promotion of Asian movies. Our Academy has developed from the annual awards to an entity that now organizes audience and professional development programs such as master classes, film festival visits for students, young professional training programs and film roadshows around the globe. The 10th anniversary is a special occasion for all the past winners to join together in this spectacular event and to testify to the great work of Asian filmmakers and industries.”
For further information or inquiries, please contact:
TIFF Public Relations Group
Tel: +81-3-6226-3012; Fax: +81-3-6226-3023
email: tiff-pr2016@tiff-jp.net
Official Website: http://www.tiff-jp.net
