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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
FLASH OF GENIUS WINS SLOAN AWARD 



For the 9th consecutive year, the $25,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize will be presented as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival. Given to a film that "explores science and technology themes," this year's recipient is Marc Abraham's Flash of Genius, which stars Greg Kinnear. HIFF is presenting the premiere of the film on Thursday, October 2nd at MoMA. Genius is based on the true story of a college professor and part-time inventor, Robert Kearns, and his long battle with the U.S. automobile industry.

The Hamptons International Film Festival runs October 15-19, 2008.

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# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 9/17/2008 12:26:00 PM Comments (0)
Monday, September 15, 2008
DEADLINE ALERT: TRIBECA 



Submissions for 2009 Tribeca Film Festival opens today. Click here to get fest deadlines and how to submit. The '09 festival will be held April 22 - May 3.

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# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 9/15/2008 10:00:00 AM Comments (0)
Sunday, September 14, 2008
BOYLE'S SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE WINS TORONTO'S PEOPLE'S CHOICE 



Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (pictured above) won the Toronto International Film Festival's Cadillac People's Choice Award when awards were handed out on Saturday. Other highlights include a special citation for Atom Egoyan's Adoration and the Diesel Discovery Award went to Steve McQueen's Hunger.

Full list of winners:

Cadillac People's Choice Award: Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire

The Cadillac People's Choice Award is voted on by Festival audiences. First runner-up was Kristopher Belman's More Than A Game and the second runner-up is Cyrus Nowrasteh's The Stoning of Soraya M. The award offers a $15,000 cash prize.


City of Toronto-CityTV Award For Best Canadian Feature Film: Rodrigue Jean's Lost Song

A special citation went to Atom Egoyan's Adoration.

CityTV Award For Best Canadian First Feature Film: Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujug Ivalu's Before Tomorrow

The jury notes: "for its arresting beauty, its humanist, innovative storytelling and its artistic integrity in capturing the narrative of a people through an intimate tale." The award carries a cash prize of $15,000. A special citation goes to Lyne Charlebois' Borderline.

Diesel Discovery Award: Steve McQueen's Hunger

Award For Best Canadian Short Film: Chris Chong Chan Fui's Block B

The jury notes: "simple, graphic, hypnotic - this is an achievement of bringing cinema to its bare essentials." The short film jury members are filmmakers Louise Archambault and Min Sook Lee, and Rotterdam International Film Festival programmer Peter van Hoof. The award offers a $10,000 cash prize and is supported by the National Film Board of Canada. A special citation went to Denis Villeneuve's Next Floor.

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# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 9/14/2008 12:52:00 PM Comments (0)
Monday, September 8, 2008
STOP THE PROJECTORS, START THE BLENDERS 

Some of the discussion here in Toronto (when everyone's not fashionably crying into their appletinis about the collapse of the indie film circuit) revolves around the festival's odd decision to stop all press and industry screenings at around 630pm. For those of us weaned on a steady diet of admittedly delirium-inducing 9am-2am screenings at other festivals, it's at first a bit disorienting to figure out what to do with all that free time (what's that? "try exercising"? Ah yes, very funny).

After a few days here, though, the reasoning is clear: someone has to attend all the parties that start at 7pm. On one block alone tonight I walked by several different festivals parties: two for films, one for a fashionable European distributor (where the sunglasses-clad Wong kar-wai popped in for a bit), and none that I had been invited to. There were also two rival national-cinema parties: one for the Germans, the other for the Norwegians (no word of any hooliganism trouble), as well as a few others scattered throughout town. Rumours of rival karaoke parties, though, are greatly unfounded. Last night the rooftop of a fancy downtown hotel was taken over by a Hollywood throwdown and the neckless men who provided security for it; with the rooftop closed, various star-fuckers were left scanning the tables of the hotel's other bar, where cries of "is that...??" rang through the oppressively cologned air.

And let's not even talk about the worst kind of parties: not the ones you weren't invited to, but the ones you hadn't even heard about. Just like how it's the films that you missed that are everyone's favorites, it's the party that you didn't know existed that was everyone's best time ever.

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# posted by Jason Sanders @ 9/08/2008 02:18:00 AM Comments (0)
PLAYLISTING TORONTO 


One of the most buzzed-about titles here at the Toronto Film Festival is Peter Sollett's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. The comedy/teen romance stars Juno's Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, seen recently in The House Bunny. At Toronto, it premiered to a packed house, all of whom seem to have squeezed into the Tattoo Rock Parlour on Queen Street West, where guests who included members of the band Vampire Weekend (featured on the film's soundtrack) partied and received temporary tattoos that were actually pretty cool looking. Pictured here are Sollett and his partner, Eva Vives, a writer and director who co-wrote the story for his previous feature, Raising Victor Vargas. Sony plans a 2,000 screen release for the film on October 3.

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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/08/2008 01:49:00 AM Comments (0)
PHILIPPINES LEGEND IN TORONTO 

One of the lovelier moments of Toronto's opening weekend was the appearance of the legendary 84-year-old Filipina actress Anita Linda, who flew from Manila with director Adolfo Alix, Jr and producer Arleen Cuevas for the premiere of Adela, their touching look at a grandmother living alone in one of Manila's notorious scavenger/dump sites.

With over 140 feature films to her credit (!), Linda began her film career in 1943 (her debut was filmed before the Japanese invasion of the Philippines), and has worked with some of the top names from every Filipine era: Gerardo de Leon in the 1950's, Lino Brocka in the '70s, Mike de Leon in the '80s and Mario O'Hara in the '9os, among others.

For all her success, this Toronto appearance was her first trip to an international film festival. For the audience in attendance, it certainly seemed worth the wait; those walking through the theater lobby afterwards could have been forgiven for thinking that Angelina Jolie was around, as Linda was mobbed post-screening by an eager gaggle of picture-takers and autograph-seekers. As elegant and charming in person as onscreen, Linda certainly could have shown Hollywood's current crop in Toronto a thing or two about glamour, and even more about working the crowd. More about Adela, and other Toronto debuts, later on.

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# posted by Jason Sanders @ 9/08/2008 01:43:00 AM Comments (0)
Saturday, September 6, 2008
WRESTLER BIG WINNER AT VENICE 



Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival. The film, starring Mickey Rourke, is also gaining a lot of buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival where it screened over the weekend.

Full list of Venice winners below.



GOLDEN LION for Best Film:

The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky (USA)

SILVER LION for Best Director to:

Aleksey German Jr. for Bumažnyj Soldat (Paper Soldier) (Russia)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:

Teza by Haile Gerima (Ethiopia, Germany, France)

COPPA VOLPI for Best Actor:

Silvio Orlando for Il papà di Giovanna by Pupi Avati (Italy)

COPPA VOLPI for Best Actress:

Dominique Blanc for L’autre by Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic (France)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD for Best Young Actor or Actress:

Jennifer Lawrence for The Burning Plain by Guillermo Arriaga (USA)

OSELLA for Best Cinematography to:

Alisher Khamidhodjaev and Maxim Drozdov for Bumažnyj Soldat (Paper Soldier) by Aleksey German Jr. (Russia)

OSELLA for Best Screenplay to:

Haile Gerima for Teza by Haile Gerima (Ethiopia, Germany, France)

SPECIAL LION for Overall Work to:

Werner Schroeter

The Jury decided to award a Special Lion for his uncompromising and relentlessly innovative work over a period of 40 years to Werner Schroeter.

“LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM

The “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film Jury at the 65th Venice Film Festival, comprised of Abdellatif Kechiche (President), Alice Braga, Gregory Jacobs, Donald Ranvaud, and Heidrun Schleef, has unanimously decided to award the

“LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to:

Pranzo Di Ferragosto by Gianni Di Gregorio (SIC - International Critics’ Week, Italy)

Aurelio De Laurentiis and Filmauro award a cash prize, of 100,000 USD, to the winning first film (50,000 to the director, 50,000 to the producer). To the director, an additional film voucher for 40,000 Euro will also be awarded, offered by Kodak.

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# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 9/06/2008 03:16:00 PM Comments (0)

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ON THIS PAGE

FLASH OF GENIUS WINS SLOAN AWARD
DEADLINE ALERT: TRIBECA
BOYLE'S SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE WINS TORONTO'S PEOPLE'S CHOICE
STOP THE PROJECTORS, START THE BLENDERS
PLAYLISTING TORONTO
PHILIPPINES LEGEND IN TORONTO
WRESTLER BIG WINNER AT VENICE


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