VENICE: Few directors can match Stephen Frears when it comes to getting just the right mixture of laughter and tears from audience and still end up with a thought provoking and intelligent film.
VENICE: Director Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves is rather hard to swallow as the premise for the film rests on the idea of radical environments blowing up a hydroelectric dam – regarded by most environmentalists as the cleanest form of sustainable and renewal energy.
VENICE: Sometime Hollywood action hero Nicholas Cage reminds us that he started out as a very fine actor in this outing directed by David Gordon Green.
GDYNIA: The biggest surprise of the 38 Gdynia Film Festival (9-14 September 2013) was undoubtedly the appearance of Polish director Roman Polanski at the closing ceremony to hand out the award to Pawel Pawlikowski for his Grand Prix winner Ida. Polanski had arrived at the festival earlier to present his film Venus in Furs at a special screening.
VENICE: A jury headed by Bernardo Bertolucci awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 70 Venice Film Festival to the Italian documentary Sacro Gra directed by Gianfranco Rosi. Rosi spent two years in a minivan filming on and around the GRA, Rome’s giant ring road, and the result is an extraordinary contemporary portrait of Roman life and its fringes.
VENICE: Lech Wałęsa attented world premiere of Andrzej Wajda's "Wałęsa. Man of Hope" world premiere in Venice, where the film received a standing ovation.
VENICE: FNE spoke to Loic Magneron president of international film sales company Wide Management and founder of the unique project Eye on Films about his strategy to bring more films to more audiences.
ZADAR: Avvantura Film-Forum in the beautiful Croatian city of Zadar is one of Europe’s newest film festivals but it is rapidly becoming one of the most important for the regional film industry with its unique focus on European Coproductions and European networking.
VENICE: Veteran Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda will receive the 2013 Persol Award at a special gala award ceremony at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice on 5 September.
CANNES: Director François Ozon’s newest film, Young and Beautiful, introduces the public to 23 year old French actress Marine Vacth in a starring role that already has some critics comparing her to a young Catherine Deneuve.
