Tokyo 2005

TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2005 Credit festival chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa with the remarkable revival of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). Three years ago, when the Kadokawa Group (the "Japanese Bertelsmann" in some literary circles) expanded its publications-and-media base to rejuvenate a then moribund national film event, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, together with Yusuke Okada (executive committee chairman), pulled out all the stops to assure that TIFF would become a key international festival on both the world and Asian film scenes. "I like to think of the Tokyo International Film Festival as the mirror of the world cinema industry," Kadokawa stated in his address penned for the festival catalogue. And, indeed, the 18th Tokyo International Film Festival (22-30 October 2005) was one for the books. A balanced slate of 15 art and entertainment films competed for the renamed Tokyo Sakura (Cherry Tree) Grand Prix, with its US$100,000 purse going to the..

Berlinale 2000 Report

BERLINALE 2000 AT FIFTY FOR the first time in the history of the festival, the 50th Berlinale (9-20 February 2000) was opened by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Johannes Rau. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder joined Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen at the grand inauguration of the new festival location cum headquarters on the Potsdamer Platz. Cultural Minister Michael Naumann presented Jeanne Moreau with an honorary Golden Bear and chatted with her about co-founding a new German-French Film Academy. L'Oréal sponsored the VIP lounge. The party for Danny "Trainspotting" Boyle's screen adaptation of Alex Garland's The Beach (UK-USA), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was voted the festival's most lavish and exotic. Kenneth Branagh enlivened the press conference for his Love Labour's Lost (UK) with a droll quote: "Shakespeare has been an excellent meal ticket!" MPAA's Marc Spiegel reminisced how the Berlinale became a major international festival event a half-century ago...

Sochi 99

THE 10th SOCHI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ASK ANY devotee of the Sochi International Film Festival, and you will hear that this innovative and visionary festival on the Black Sea, founded by Mark Rudinstein under the nickname "Kinotavr" with actor Oleg Yankovsky as festival president, far outstrips all other Russian film events when it comes to programming the best national feature films and debut productions made in the course of a year. Lately, under programming directors Sergei Lavrentiev and Andrei Plakhov, the festival has shifted into high gear until, for its 10th anniversary celebration (3-14 June 1999), it expanded its horizon to include an international competition devoted to "Young Directors" and secure the support of the nation-wide Russian TV Channel to cover the event. Indeed, this "Black Sea Riviera" with its subtropical climate, palm trees, first-class hotels, beach restaurants, and bevy of prominent guests needs only an international..

Cannes Celebrates 60

Feature Report: Cannes Celebrates 60 By all counts, the 60th Festival de Cannes (16-27 May 2007) will go down as one of the best in its distinguished history as the queen of international film festivals. Délégué Artistique Thierry Frémaux achieved a remarkable balance in the Competition, mixing veteran filmmakers with debutantes and blending, in particular, Asian entries with films by American mainstream and European auteur directors. Further, the Competition was backed by a high-caliber Un Certain Regard section. Indeed, some French critics, reaching for straws, felt that a couple of films in Un Certain Regard surely deserved a slot in the Competition, while a few fiascos in the top drawer section could easily have been downgraded a notch. But this only added to the scuttlebutt in Le Club, the hangout for journalists atop the Palais des Festivals...

Karlovy Vary 2006

41st KARLOVY VARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL "This year we have reason to celebrate two anniversaries," reflected Eva Zaoralová, artistic director of the 41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (20 June-8 July 2006). "It was exactly 110 years ago, on 15 July 1896, that this famous spa town first set eyes on the Lumière brothers' invention and, fifty years later, the first postwar summer of 1946 saw the launch of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), back then also held in the neighbouring town of Mariánské Lázně (aka Marienbad)." Indeed, had not Karlovy Vary been forced by FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) rules to alternate with Moscow for the A-Competition summer festival slot during the socialist era, then Eva Zaoralová and KVIFF president Jiří Bartoška might well be celebrating the spa festival's 60th anniversary. And that would make Karlovy Vary-Mariánské Lázně one year older than Cannes! Karlovy..

The Andrzej Wajda-Philip Morris Freedom Prize

Cinema is not just art and entertainment," said Polish director Andrzej Wajda in dialogue with German colleague Volker Schlöndorff during a program scheduled at the American Academy in Berlin. "Cinema also has a social, moral, philosophical function. This is often forgotten today." Asked for further clarification, Wajda answered, without hesitation but on a note of nostalgia: "Compare today's cinema with Italian Neorealism, with postwar Swedish and French cinema, and the gap is evident!"..

Tirana 2005

TIRANA INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2005 After two strong outings, abetted by the breaking news that Tirana was chosen "World City 2005," it was a sure bet that the Third Tirana International Short Film Festival (5-11 December 2005) would go big time on the world festival stage too. With more than 20,000 Euros in purse prizes as bait, this year's TIFF received over 700 applications from 65 countries for entry in its five sections: 370 in the fiction category, 185 in animation, 85 in documentary, 60 in experimental, and 30 more in the cross-country Albanian-language shorts section. In addition, festival director Ilir Butka and programmer Genc Permeti programmed 27 feature films in free-fall evening programs that ran deep into the night. Most important of all for a festival's continued existence, TIFF 2005 could count on the support of 35 sponsors, plus the city's foreign ambassadors and cultural centres, for..

Cottbus 2000

10th COTTBUS FESTIVAL OF EAST EUROPEAN CINEMA For its first nine years, Cottbus was a film festival with an eye on young (or new) directors based in what used to be the socialist bloc of East Europe. For its 10th anniversary (1-5 November 2000), however, festival director Roland Rust modified its image slightly to embrace all films of quality found in those restructured film lands. Now Cottbus ranks as a splendid showcase of films in all categories of production found in scattered studios from Berlin eastward to Siberia, one that informs (in a 200-page German-English catalogue) as well as programs. Moreover, film professionals familiar with the field are welcome to participate in one of the nine juries, three of which offer purses from the City of Cottbus, Land Brandenburg, and individual sponsors. Besides the three main official competitions -- features, shorts, children and youth films -- the 10th Cottbus..

Karlovy Vary 99

THE 34th KARLOVY VARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL One film can make a festival unforgettable. That film at the 34th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (2-11 July 1999) was G.W. Pabst's Der Schatz (The Treasure, Germany, 1923), a restored print of a previously declared lost classic presented in the restored Divadlo (Czech for "theatre") opera house - a splendid decorative edifice dating from 1886, when it opened with Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" and now reopened after a 10-year reconstruction effort. Not only was Pabst's first feature film pieced together by the Prague Film Archive in collaboration with the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin and the Cinematheque Royale in Brussels, but Max Deutsch's original score for the film's premiere in Dresden on 26 February 1923 was also found in the archive of the Frankfurt Film Museum. Another stroke of good fortune, for Deutsch's score is historically recognized as the first complete..

Mumbai 1998

MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR DOCUMENTARY, SHORT AND ANIMATION FILMS 1998 Founded in 1990 as a biannual event, and now only five festivals old, the 5th Mumbai (Bombay) International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (1-7 March 1998) already numbers among the most important of its kind. Indeed, MIFF pulled out all the stops this year to celebrate India's 50 Years of Independence in the country's largest city and undisputed finance-and-film capital, where the Films Division has been chronicling the country's history, culture and heritage with scores of documentaries over the past five decades. Altogether, including retrospectives and the information section, over 300 films and videos were programmed by festival director Bankim. Two juries, for film and video entries, awarded 22 prizes and citations, along with purses amounting altogether to $45,000 (1.8 million rupees). Golden and Silver Conches were awarded in four film categories: Long Documentary (over..