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Stockholm
Celebrates Asian Cinema
November 9 - 19
Digital
film production - the medium for 10 percent of the films produced
this year - is notable at more and more film festivals. Stockholm
hosted one of the first virtual film festivals last spring. The
i-festival, representing both the internet and independent
film is not surprising in the second largest IT capital of the world,
where 10 short films will premiere over the net on November 9-and
which filmfestivals.com isl showcasing on this site.
Newcastle
Film Festival
November 17 - 19 (UK)
Newcastle Film Festival is a three-day program of screenings of
local & international films, seminars and the Newcastle Short Film
Awards. Now in its fifth year, the festival is open to public and
has a competition.
Asolo
Festival of Art Films and Artists' Biographies
November 23 - 26 (Italy)
Established in 1973, the festival was,
for years, a landmark in the field of films and TV programs on the
arts, until it closed a few years ago. In addition to the festival’s
usual sections, this year's event will feature a new section on
videoart, a milieu whose niche has also been steadily growing in
museums and international exhibitions.
Florida
Festival Looking for Films
Deadline to apply: November 25
For this year's fifth annual Cinevue Film Festival, the goal is
to encourage competition among filmmakers and film students to create
better films and videos on every level in order to raise the storytelling
and technical skills of the motion Picture and Video Art! The festival
is inviting women's films and films made by Canadians with true
Canadian story content (not American!) Entries are encouraged at
every level and the Avante Garde is welcomed at all times for it's
exciting imaginative and innovative content!
Meet
The Cinema Of The World
Deadline to enter: December 15
FIPRESCI, the international critics association, has announced a
trainee project for young film critics to take place at the 30th
International Film Festival Rotterdam, January 24 - February 4,
2001. The trainee project of the International Film Festival Rotterdam
offers three young, motivated and talented film critics a chance
to get acquainted with the festival and the cinema of the world.
In the past three editions trainees hailed from Argentina, Australia,
Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Hungary, India, Sweden, and the USA.
Fritz
Lang Retrospective at Berlinale 2001
"He was a true master. Feared for his temperament and his absolute
devotion to directing, he kept both himself and his team in a state
of constant agitation. He was the incarnation of perfectionism."
With these words Robert Siodmak describes his director colleague
Fritz Lang, to whom the Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin is
dedicating its forthcoming Retrospective. The newly reconstructed
film classic Metropolis will be premiered at the Berlinale-Palast
as one of the attractions of the retrospective. Not only was Fritz
Lang a great German and American director, but also a man who loved
to embellish his legend, molding our image of him and his life.
Wanting to keep a low profile privately, he launched his own public
image all the more emphatically. During the Weimar Republic, Lang
scored his first great hits, which were seismographic readings of
political and social changes. In 1933 he left Nazi Germany, emigrating
in 1934 via France to the USA. Many of his American films were also
politically inspired, revolving around involvement and guilt. They
were marked by an "anti-utopian fatalism", and dealt with the presence
of National Socialism and war. After World War II, Fritz Lang attempted
a comeback in Germany. In France he was recognized early on as one
of the most influential representatives of Autorenkino. The Retrospective
of the Berlinale 2001, conceived and organized by the Filmmuseum
Berlin - Deutsche Kinemathek, will present all surviving films by
Fritz Lang. Many of these have been reprinted, restored and/or reconstructed.
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Wrap-up/Awards
Largest
Film Event Sponsored by the European Union
November 9 - 14 (France)
The 5th Strasbourg European Film Forum followed the lead on November
14 by awarding Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot, which vied with 14
other European films in the thematic contest "Being Young and European
in the Year 2000". For the father of the European Film Forum, Pierre
Henri-Deleau, there cannot be any room left for dilly-dallying.
"The construction of the European Union entails the need for a common
regulation of audio-visual issues. And the regulations mustn't be
devised by politicians only, ruling out the movie industries in
all European countries.
St.
Louis International Film Festival
November 10 - 12
At the ninth annual event, The Emerson Electric Audience Choice
Award for Best Feature was Dinner Rush by Bob Giraldi and
the Leon Award for Best Documentary Audience Choice Award was Sound
and Fury by Josh Aronson. The Best of Fest Short Subject (Juried
Award) went to Dolphins by Farhad Yawari and the Interfaith
Award (Juried Award) went to Long Night's Journey into Day,
by Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffman.
TCM
Awards the Largest Short Film Prize in Europe
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) awarded the largest short film prize
in Europe to newcomer Toby MacDonald at a packed house at the National
Film Theatre, as part of the Regus 44th
London Film Festival Monday November 13th. Judge Stephen Woolley
presented director Toby MacDonald and producer Luke Morris with
a check for £5000 and then, as a complete surprise to almost everyone
in the cinema, producer Nik Powell joined them on stage to hand
over an automatic nomination for the Prix UIP, presented at the
European Film Awards 2001. Toby's film Je T'Aime John Wayne,
a stylish comedy about an Englishman who tries to live in modern
London as if he were Jean Paul Belmondo in the Paris of the 60's,
beat off strong competition from 240 other entries. It was made
on a shoestring, and the final print only completed this week.
FIPRESCI
Awards in Kiev and Cottbus
At the Kiev International Film Festival (October 21 - 29) the FIPRESCI
Prize was awarded to the short film Graffiti by Ukranian
filmmaker Evgen Khovostyanko, "for the original way of showing the
need for artistic expression of freedom, as a metaphor of the Ukrainian
culture." The short film To Be Continued by Swedish filmmaker
Linus Tunstrom was awarded a Special Mention "for its general qualities
and its use of time as an element of expectation." One week later,
at Cottbus
Festival of Eastern European Cinema, in Germany, Musime si pomahat
Diveded We Fall by Jan Hrebejk of the Czech Republic, was the
FIPRESCI pick "for daring an approach to the theme of collaboration,
which is rareley seen in contemporary film, as well as for the simple
human statement that good people can be found on both sides of historical
barricades."
European Film Academy Awards
 The
European Film Academy has unveiled its nominations for the
European film of the year award. The list of seven films, dominated
by comedies and box office hits, bears witness to the Academy's
efforts to broaden the scope of its recognition to include mainstream
productions. Prizes will be awarded at the Theatre National de Chaillot
in Paris on December 2. The nominees are: Billy
Elliot by Stephen Daldry; Chicken Run by Peter Lord
and Nick Park; Dancer
in the Dark by Lars von Trier; Faithless
by Liv Ullman; Harry,
un Ami qui vous Veut du Bien by Dominik Moll;
Bread and Tulips by Silvio Soldini; and Le Goût des
autres by Agnès Jaoui.
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