Europa Cinemas at the Berlin festival

Further supporting its ongoing campaign to promote European films, Europa Cinemas will return once again to this years Berlin Film Festival, awarding its Label prize to the best European film in the Panorama section (February 8-18). This marks the third year that the Europa Cinemas Label will be awarded at Berlin, and complements the Labels awarded at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, the Venice Days section of the Mostra del Cinema, and Karlovy Vary.

A jury of four Europa Cinemas exhibitors will award the Label at Berlin, with the winning film receiving the support of extended theatrical exposure and additional promotion from the Europa Cinemas network. The Panorama jury will consist of Stas Ravter (Slovenia), Exhibitor at the Kinodvor cinema and General Manager of the Slovenian Cinematheque (Llubljana); Georgette Ranucci (Italy), Exhibitor at the Alcazar cinema in Rome; Michal Drobny (Czech Republic), Manager of the distribution/exhibition company Continental Film in Bratislava and Christian Schmalz (Germany), exbitor at the Off Broadway Kino in Cologne.

Founded in 1992, the Europa Cinemas network now consists of 1,689 screens in 690 cinemas in 403 cities in 55 countries. Europa Cinemas’ aim is to support the programming and visibility of European films outside their country of origin, and to foster initiatives aimed at encouraging younger audiences to develop their interest in European films and cultural diversity.


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Rotterdam festival

The Rotterdam International Film Festival has announced that its 36th edition will include 38 world, 21 international and 23 European feature premieres, focusing on ´independent and innovative filmmaking´. The full programme will be announced online next Thursday 18th January, and contains a mixture of brand new films, underestimated gems and highlights of the year.

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Andrzej Munk at London's Riverside 3-17 January 2006

A recent interest in Andrzej Munk’s work started with the distribution company Second Run's DVD release of his film The Passenger late last year. Following on from that, the Polish Cultural Institute in association with the Riverside in London are paying their own tribute to the director who died from a car crash at the tragically early age of 39.


The Passenger plays next week (17th Jan) and, though fictionalised, is one of the most harrowing accounts of Auschwitz you will see, emulating even Alain Resnais's Night and Fog. However, Munk also saw humour in the tragedy of life and tonight's (10th Jan) double-bill at the Riverside starts with his Bad Luck from 1960, about a Polish everyman who always finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's followed by its Andrzej Kotkowski directed sequel Citizen Piszczyk, made 29 years later and starring Jerzy Stuhr.

The film critic and historian Phiip Kemp will introduce the screenings on 17th Jan that, along with The Passenger, include Munk shorts and The Last Pictures, Andrzej Brzozowski's documentary on the great director from 2001. Brzozowski was Munk's assistant on The Passenger and here he takes us through the film and how he completed it to what he believed were Munk's intentions, also adding phtographs and a voice-over narration.

More information on the Andrzej Munk season at the Riverside can be found on this page

The Online Film Critics choose United 93 as Best Picture...

...with Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) taking Best Acting honours and Martin Scorcese winning Best Director. But the most interesting mentions on their list are in the smaller categories: the critics of the Online Film Critics Society (of which I am a member) choose Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly as Best Animated Film, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain for Best Score, and the screenplays of El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) and Children of Men as Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplays respectively, which is interesting since both were written (at least partly) by Mexicans, with El laberinto written in a foreign language (the Spanish-Mexican co-production also won Best Foreign Film). Children of Men also won the Best Cinematography category for its Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, with United 93 also winning the Best Editing category. Jackie Earle Haley won the Best Supporting Actor mention for his creepy character in Todd Field's Little Children, with the young Abigail Breslin taking home the Best Supporting Actress prize for the indie hit comedy Little Miss Sunshine. The full list of winners is available here.

Factory Girl trailer

Don't hold your breath for yet another film exploiting that whole Andy Warhol/Factory mythology, which has become something of a sub-genre, and a catastrophic one at that. Factory Girl focuses on the short life of It girl Edie Sedgwick, who was Warhol's muse for a while. In a truly astouding example os miscasting, they hired the mediocre Sienna Miller for the part. What about Guy Pearce as Warhol? If this trailer is anything to go by, Factory Girl looks, quite simply, ridiculous.

Factory Girl trailer +

And here's the trailer of Ciao Manhattan (1972), a film which the real Edie starred in:

Jonas Mekas 365 project kicks off

Jonas Mekas (pictured), that infatigable doyen of independent cinema, yesterday started posting short films on his site as part of his 365 project. The films can be downloaded for free on the day they are posted.

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Shepperton Studios book offer

To celebrate the end of the year in style, Kamera has teamed up with Southbank Publishing to offer readers the opportunity to buy Shepperton Studios: A Visual Celebration, by producer and broadcaster Morris Bright, at a special price of £79.95 (normal price £125).

In 2006 Shepperton Studios completed 75 years of cinematic activity. It was here that past classics such as The Third Man, The African Queen, Oliver!, The Omen, Alien, Gladiator and 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as recent blockbusters like Bridget Jones's Diary, Bend It Like Beckham and Troy were made since it was inaugurated in the winter of 1931.

The Limited Edition of 750 copies is presented in a box with unique cushion cover and includes an exclusive facsimile copy of an original Flicker Book (the success of which helped Norman Loudon create Shepperton Studios) and a facsimile copy of the film campaign brochure for The Wicker Man.

This elegant volume also includes exclusive contributions from directors, actors and producers and including over 300 stunning images and a DVD with trailers, besides much more. The book represents the first comprehensive illustrated account of Shepperton Studios. Here's a taster:

Kamera wishes all its readers a great Christmas and a truly amazing 2007.

All the best,

Antonio Pasolini
editor

SlamDance short film programme

Out of a staggering 2,150 short films from 20 countries that were submitted to the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival, 73 have been selected to screen, each of which is now

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New Hollywood?

The art newsletter artnews.com is currently carrying an article about contemporary film projects carried out by artists. The article tries to create an idea of movement, a trend, but I think that's pushing the envelope too far. There's always an artist working on a feature film project and most of them vanish without a trace - has anyone seen Tracey Emin's Top Spot? Besides, the artists mentioned are not really working in Hollywood, maybe Julian Schnabel gets close to that, but still, Hollywood is not interested in art, has never been and never will be. Even in the period of the so-called New Hollywood, when they drafted in European directors to make films (like Visconti's disastrous experience with Death in Venice (1969), Hollywood wanted people like Visconti because he was good box office in Europe and they thought that, at a time of a shortage of ideas in Tinseltown like the late 60s were, perhaps European auteurs could work their magic in the United States as well. Big mistake. But the article does provide a good round-up of who's doing what and here it is.

European Film Awards

The European Film Awards were announced yesterday. Among the many winners -and some surprising results there - Pedro Almodovar's Volver was all over the place with three awards: Best Director, BestActress for Penelope Cruz and the People's Choice Award.
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2007 Independent Spirit Awards

The 2007 Independent Spirit Awards nominees have been announced. David Lynch and Laura Dern are listed for a Special Distinction Award, the late Robert Altman for Best Director and Michael Arndt for Best First Screenplay Award, an undeserving entry in my opinion.

Independent Spirit Awards +

Kamera's editor tonight at the Brixton Ritzy

If anyone is around in Brixton, London, this evening, I'll be at Ritzy at 6:30 presenting a selection of short films from Brazil for the Discovering Latin America film festival, which ends on Sunday. More information here. Come and say hello.

Les Amants Reguliers wins Prix Fipresci 2006

Philippe Garrel won the Prix Fipresci 2006 for his beautiful homage to the Novelle Vague and the May 1968 generation, Les Amants Reguliers (whose recent UK DVD release was reviewed on Kamera). The president of Fipresci, Andrei Plakhov, said, "Philippe Garrel made his first film when he was 16, and by 20 had earned the reputation of the Nouvelle Vague's Wunderkind and 'younger brother of Godard'. His sophisticated cinematographic style, with long concentrated frames, is unique. His films are like fake detective stories, where mystery lies, not in the plot but in the style.”

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Omar Sharif at the Cairo Film Festival

For those of you wondering about Omar Sharif's (pictured) whereabouts, fret no more. Today he's in Cairo (well, he's lived in Egypt all his life), for the opening of the Cairo Film Festival, which started 30 years ago. Sharif is the honorary president of the festival. The event goes on until 8 December and will be dedicated to the Late Nobel Prize Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, who died earlier this year. Films based on his novels will be screened.

The festival will feature Arab and international movie stars such as the American actor Dany Glover and the British actress Jacqueline Bisset besides Jeremy Irons and Julia Ormond who will attend the festival's different sections. These include "The Official Contest", "Guest of Honor", "Arab Films Competition", "Arabs in International Movies", "Panorama of Lebanese Movies" and "Panorama of the Egyptian Cinema".

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RIP Robert Altman

The legends seem to keep dropping this year, don't they? RIP big man - for the last five minutes of The Player alone you were totally CLASSIC!!

Sighting of the month: Matt Dillon in the Amazon

We spotted Matt Dillon visiting an environmental project in the Amazon during his attendance at the Manaus (the capital of the Amazon) film festival. Shall we rename him 'Mata Dillon' in reference to the Portuguese word for jungle? Or am I paying too much attention to the antics involved in headline writing on British tabloids?

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Round up: Latin American and German cinema in London

In the run-up to the Christmas season (definitely a bad cinema season), there are quite a few options around London for those who want to get a proper film fix before heading off to the Christmas break to watch The Sound of Music for the umpteenth time.

The charity Discovering Latin America, whose main goal is to publicise Latin American culture abroad and raise funds for social projects it chooses to champion, arrives at the

5th edition of its annual film festival on Thursday, 23/11, running until 03/12. The festival will take place at the Odeon Covent Garden and Panton Street in the West End, Tate Modern in the South Bank, The Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and Everyman Cinema in Hampstead. Yours truly will be presenting a section of Brazilian short films at the Ritzy Cinema on 01/12 at 6:30pm, so please come and say hello. The Tate Modern will be showing Luis Bunuel's Viridiana and the rest of the programme is a mixture of films from all over the Latin American continent. Further information from the DLAFF site.


Also starting on 23/11 and running until the 26th is the 9th Festival of German Films promising 'a strong line-up of impressively crafted and compelling new features and documentaries from some of the most exciting German filmmakers working today'. The event also features a section called Critical Cinema of East Germany, presented by the London Goethe-Institut plus the regular Next Generation strand which showcases live-action and animated shorts from German film school graduates. More info here.


(Still from Dog Pound, DLAFF, screening on 3/12)

David Lynch's cow stunt

David Lynch is back after a five-year hiatus with a new feature film, Inland Empire, which reunites the top American surrealist with the ever lovely Laura Dern (Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart). Reviews have been good , but so far there's no UK release date scheduled. However, Lynch has been busy promoting his film, due out in the U.S. next month (15/12) and even took to the streets of Los Angeles to promote it. Don't you just love this man?

See it: Stella Polare

Anyone attending the Leeds International Film Festival should check out the striking Stella Polare (pictured left), by British filmmakers Anthea Kennedy and Ian Wilbin, which screens today at 1:45pm and tomorrow at 2:15 at the Carriageworks. Stella Polare is everything that British films quite often are not: meditative, mysterious and oblivious of the strictures of conventional narrative. I saw this film at the Osnabruck Media Art festival in May this year and absolutely loved it. An inspiration for indepedent filmmakers working with video technology; it shows how much can be achieved.

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Festival alert: Kassel and Leeds

The 23rd edition of the Kassel Film and Video Festival starts today and runs until the 12th. 214 current films and videos from 21 countries will be screened within the next six days, one third of which are premieres. About 100 directors and artists are expected to attend the festival for the presentation and discussion of their works. The exhibition MONITORING presents 16 media installations from five countries. The opening is going to take place on November 8 at 7 pm. The interdisciplinary conference interfiction as well as the Live Visuals in the DokfestLounge will close the festival. Altogether 68 contributions out of the program will compete for the three prizes of €10,000 in total and the A38-Artist-in-Residence Grant Kassel-Halle.

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Elsewhere, the Leeds International Film Festival is now well under way. The organisers remind us that although the Fanomenon Horror Weekend has now ended, there's a chance to catch some of the films at their repeat screenings - Silver Méliès winner Isolation (Tue 7 Nov), Resonnances, The Woods (Thu 9 Nov), Gruesome and Dark Remains (Fri 10 Nov). Still to come in the Film Festival are American Hardcore, a film about the American Punk Explosion (Wed 8 Nov), presented by director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush. Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell and Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback can be seen again later this week: the former plays on Sat 11 Nov (Hyde Park Picture House, 9:00pm) while the latter will be showing on Mon 6 Nov (The Carriageworks, 3:15pm).

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