Here in the bizarro world of SXSW up is down and down is up. So is it any surprise that their film awards don’t occur at the end of the festival but in the middle? Or that instead of the winners getting choked up the presenters are the ones with the cracking voices. And so it goes in Austin Texas that on day five of a ten day film festival the awards were presented in the once posh, now just all-out retro cool Paramount Theater.
Most film festivals like to wrap things up with a kind of ‘best of the fest’ summation. But what if a festival was the best of not just one fest but of many fests? Then they would be the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Now in its 24th year, Palm Springs’ festival is held January 3rd-14th and one could argue it’s the first big film festival of the year. But it’s not. Contrary to its date it’s really the last film festival of the year. Especially since Sundance starts a few weeks later and is the real official beginning […]Read On »
A proper, successful film festival these days needs a savvy combination of 1) Fresh Discoveries, 2) Unique Foreign Films, 3) a smattering of the Boldly Bizarre AND to get the crowds big enough to support all those mentioned, 4) Highbrow Hollywood Pictures. The 2012 AFI Film Festival held November 1st-08th worked all those elements into play with amazing ease. Now in its fourth year of just giving tickets away to screenings, the AFI Fest seems to have hit its groove. Screenings were right on Hollywood Blvd at the iconic Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the satellite cinemas Chinese 1-6 and the historic […]Read On »
Dateline: Downtown Los Angeles Exactly why, you may wonder, would one need to attend a film festival in Los Angeles. Isn’t everyday a film day? Yes and no. Sure, any given day there might be a film premiere or a star appearance. But only the Los Angeles Film Festival offers such a magnificent mix of multimedia culture clash. It may be only the second year for the LA Film Festival in its new location—downtown’s glitzy steel and glass entertainment center known as L.A. Live—but it already seems as familiar as popcorn and butter. With most films showing at the Regal […]Read On »
The Toronto Film Festival has always been more than just a bunch of movies. With the easy mass transit, the wealth of great restaurants and swinging parties it’s a world class event. But who wants to hear about what I ate and drank? It’s all about the movies dummy. Here’s the highlights… BALADA TRISTE (THE LAST CIRCUS) The best film of the festival also had the most confusing title. In some press books it was referred to as THE LAST CIRCUS in others THE BALLAD OF THE SAD TRUMPET. Never mind. What you need to know about this Spanish film […]Read On »
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