Monday, June 29, 2009
Los Angeles Film Festival Goes Out With a 'Squee!'
 Closing night of the Los Angeles Film Festival was packed - with kids, all assembled for the premiere of the English-dubbed premiere of "Ponyo" from Disney and Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli (maker of 2002 Academy Award-winner "Spirited Away"). The animated offering features the voices of Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas, the youngest of their respective celebrity clans, as well as the star voices of Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, and Liam Neeson.
A closing night party would've had to have included a carousel and cotton candy - not a bad idea for any after party really - given the screening's under-12 contingent, but no such luck for the tots in attendance, as the screening itself acted as a sayonara to 2009's festival. Cyrus and Jonas both hit the red carpet, along with "Hannah Montana: The Movie" actress Emily Grace Reaves, grown-up actor John C. Reilly and more.
"Ponyo" opens in the U.S. on August 14.
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
SILVERDOCS winners include "October Country," "The Cove"
The AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS Documentary Festival, held in
Silver Spring, Maryland, announced its award winners, honoring Michael
Palmieri and Donal Mosher with the Sterling Award for U.S. Feature for
"October Country," which documents the multi-generational story of a
working-class family coping with poverty, teen pregnancy, foster care
and the ineffable horrors of child molestation and war. (See MP's review from the Los Angeles Film Festival.)
The
Sterling Award for World Feature went to Lucy Bailey and Andrew
Thompson for "Mugabe and the White African," which explores, through
the lens of a 74-year-old white farmer, Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe's deeply controversial land seizure program, which intended to
re-distribute white-owned farmland. Both awards come with a $10,000
cash prize.
Louie Psihoyos' "The Cove" won the Feature Audience Award. (See MP's special "Exposing 'The Cove': Guerilla Filmmaking Required"
by Psihoyos.) The documentary follows Richard O'Barry, the man who
made "Flipper" a household name, as he and his team try to stop
Japanese fishermen from slaughtering dolphins for the consumer market.
Also honored:
Special Jury Mention: Michael Angus and Murray Fredericks' "Salt"
WGA Documentary Screenplay Award: "Off and Running," co-written by Nicole Opper and Avery Klein-Cloud
Music Documentary Award: Luciano Blotta's "Riseup"
Cinematic Vision Award: Lee Chung-ryoul's "Old Partner"
Witness Award: Landon Van Soest's "Good Fortune"
Animal Content in Entertainment (ACE) Grant: David Grabias' "Cinema Chimp"
Sterling Award for Short Film: Andreas Koefoed's "12 Notes Down"
Short Audience Award: Andreas Koefoed's "12 Notes Down"
For more information, go to www.SILVERDOCS.com.
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Rumble in the Los Angeles Film Fest Jungle?
 Press photographers practically took up arms on the
red carpet of the "Public Enemies" premiere last night. Their complaint? The
crowd assembled in the bleachers directly behind them were yelling louder than
they were, making getting the attention of superstars like Johnny Depp and
Christian Bale - who tend to dash through in the first place - nearly
impossible. The event was otherwise a complete success, as the stars signed
autographs, spoke to the TV media and posed, like sweet Marion Cotillard
(pictured here), for those feisty photographers.
Photo by Asim Bharwani for Moving
Pictures
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Karlovy Vary Competition Films Announced
 Sophie Barthes’ film “Cold Souls,” starring Paul Giamatti as a New York stage actor who decides to confront his approaching nervous breakdown by having his soul extracted and deep-frozen, is the American representative in competition at next month’s 44th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, it was announced today.
In all, 65 films will be screened at the festival in their world (19), international (34) or European (12) premieres.
The following is the complete list of official competition films:
“Angel at Sea” (Un ange à la mer)
Director: Frédéric Dumont
Belgium, Canada, 2009, 86 min.
“Applause"
Director: Martin Pieter Zandvliet
Denmark, 2009, 86 min.
"Black Sheep" (Oveja negra)
Director: Humberto Hinojosa Ozcáriz
Mexico, 2009, 83 min.
"Cold Souls"
Director: Sophie Barthes
U.S., 2008, 101 min.
"Freedom" (Tutta colpa di Giuda)
Director: Davide Ferrario
Italy, 2009, 102 min.
"Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells" (Barami Memounen Got, Himalaya)
Director: Jeon Soo-il
South Korea, France, 2008, 95 min.
"I am Not Your Friend" (Nem vagyok a barátod)
Director: György Pálfi
Hungary, 2009, 100 min.
"Piggies" (Swinki)
Director: Robert Glinski
Poland, Germany, 2009, 94 min.
"Soul at Peace" (Pokoj v duši)
Director: Vladimír Balko
Slovak Republic, 2009, 97 min.
"Twenty" (Bist)
Director: Abdolreza Kahani
Iran, 2009, 88 min.
"Villa Amalia"
Director: Benoît Jacquot
France, Switzerland, 2008, 97 min.
"Whisky with Vodka" (Whisky mit Wodka)
Director: Andreas Dresen
Germany, 2009, 108 min.
"Will Not Stop There" (Nije kraj)
Director: Vinko Brešan
Croatia, Serbia, 2008, 112 min.
"Wolfy" (Volcok)
Director: Vassily Sigarev
Russia, 2009, 86 min.
For more information on the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, go to www.kviff.com.
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Friday, June 19, 2009
LAFF Opening Night: Why "Paper Man" Stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Daniels Were MIA
 
“Paper Man” was an unusual choice to open this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, not just because the film doesn’t yet have a distributor—past openers include high-profile studio pics like “Wanted” and “The Devil Wears Prada” and major indie releases like "Garden State" and "Talk to Me"—but because so many of the film's stars (Jeff Daniels, Ryan Reynolds, Lisa Kudrow) couldn’t be in attendance. (Although the red carpet did attract Christina Ricci, Robert Downey Jr., Laura Dern and Christian Slater.)
Reynolds was in New York promoting his big-studio romantic comedy “The Proposal,” co-starring Sandra Bullock, which was opening the next day. Daniels was performing on Broadway opposite James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis in the much-acclaimed “God of Carnage,” which recently won the Tony Award for Best Play.
But the pair did send along a funny filmed bit that played before the movie in which they had a split-screen phone conversation one-upping each other with reasons why they couldn’t attend the film’s world premiere. “I’m donating marrow,” Reynolds quipped. Daniels said he was sending his assistant to the premiere instead—and told Reynolds he could call his assistant if he wanted “God of Carnage” tickets, prompting Reynolds to say after the call was done, “God, what a dick!”
Husband-and-wife team and first-time directors Michele and Kieran Mulroney went through the usual laundry list of thanks before the film, including thanking the festival for the “free parking” that night, eliciting knowing laughs from the Westwood crowd. Kieran Mulroney noted that during the years of struggling to get the film made, he came close to giving up and opening an artisanal cheese shop in Wales instead. Though the world of artisanal cheese may be the poorer for it, he said, he was much happier to be debuting their film that night.
Photos: Kieran and Michele Mulroney directing "Paper Man"; Jeff Daniels and Ryan Reynolds in "Paper Man." Photos courtesy of Los Angeles Film Festival
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Friday, May 29, 2009
CANNES: CINEMA DU LOOK DIRECTORS – Leos Carax, Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Beineix
Small talk at Cannes invariably turns to reminiscence and questions like: "Whatever happened to that gifted young director who is now not making any films any more?" When I asked a few French colleagues about a trio of young French directorial talent that had once exploded on the Cannes scene a couple decades ago by pioneering a "cinema of look," the news was anything but heartening. Their idea back in the 1980s was to foster a new French film movement that preferred an eye-catching visual style with a focus on young, alienated characters representing the marginalised youth under the current François Mitterand government.
Leos Carax (born in 1960; The Lovers on the Pont Neuf, 1991) hasn't shot a feature film since Pola X (1999) save for a segment in the Tokyo omnibus film, although he did make an appearance as a star imitator in Harmony Korine's quirky Mister Lonely (2007). Luc Besson (born in 1959; The Fifth Element, 1997) is deep into writing and producing animation films. His ongoing Arthur series combines live action with computer-generated images to achieve a stylistically original animated film. Jean-Jacques Beineix (born in 1946; Diva, 1981; Betty Blue, 1986) has given up filmmaking altoge | | |