AFI Fest is fast approaching and the event unveiled Centerpiece Gala and Special Screenings details with Ang Lee's Life of Pi (3-D) and Walter Salles' On the Road on tap for their West Coast debuts. Peter Ramsey's Rise of the Guardians and Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone will also debut. Bone star Marion Cotillard will receive a tribute during the festival, taking place November 1 - 8. All galas will take place at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
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The Hamptons International Film Festival handed out awards Sunday for its 20th edition of the event with Umat Dag's Kuma and Cate Shortland's Lore tying for the Golden Starfish narrative prize, while Tora Martens' Colombianos took the Documentary prize. Toronto audience winner Silver Linings Playbook, meanwhile, also took the equivalent prize in the Hamptons, while No Place on Earth won the audience nod in the documentary category.
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The scene outside East Hampton's usually civilized Guild Hall was almost as frenzied as a mosh pit on Saturday night when an overflow crowd turned up to watch Alec Baldwin interview fellow leading man Richard Gere. The spirited conversation, which focused mostly on Gere's pre-Pretty Woman career, was a precursor to the Arbitrage actor receiving the Hamptons International Film Festival's 2012 Golden Starfish Award for Lifetime Achievement in Acting. more »
An invitation-only crowd at the Hamptons International Film Festival got schooled on"The Secrets of Schamus" — that's Focus Features CEO James Schamus — by his former producing partner Ted Hope on Friday night. Schamus, whose career includes screenwriting credits for The Ice Storm and an Oscar nomination as producer of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, was the recipient of the festival's Industry Toast at East Hampton Point. more »
Sopranos writer/director/producer David Chase resisted saying his latest venture, Not Fade Away is autobiographical, but it certainly resembles large swaths of his upbringing. Born in Upstate New York and raised in suburban New Jersey, he used to dream of becoming a successful drummer in a rock band. He is also unabashedly a fan of '60s-era music and all those elements fit front and center in his first big return to the spotlight since The Sopranos had its final shot in 2007. Fittingly, James Gandolfini stars as the father in Not Fade Away, the title of course being an ode to the 1964 Rolling Stones cover of a song credited to Buddy Holly and Norman Petty. The film will have its Gala World Premiere as the Centerpiece of the New York Film Festival Saturday night.
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All decked out, Nicole Kidman received a gala tribute at the New York Film Festival Wednesday night ahead of the U.S. premiere of her latest starrer, The Paperboy, directed by Lee Daniels. Appearing like audiences have never seen her before, Kidman said she pushed her boundaries in the role in which she plays a sultry vixen who is carrying on with a convicted murderer in prison (played by John Cusack). Kidman opened up about the role and why she decided to take on the part which required her to — among other things — spread her legs and even pee on fellow co-star Zac Efron; she also shared why she never spoke to John Cusack on the set outside of their characters. But despite pushing herself into admittedly uncomfortable territory, there was one thing she would not do.
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AFI Fest released more details for its L.A. event. Selections in its Young Americans and New Auteurs sections highlight emerging U.S. first and second time global filmmakers. As previously announced, the World Premiere of Hitchcock will open the festival, while Lincoln will close out the event, which takes place November 1 - 8 in Los Angeles.
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Tuesday night, the New York Film Festival and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences hosted something that is likely a rarified event in the usually hallowed theater venues at Lincoln Center - a boisterous and rowdy crowd, but the event had a noted culture shift. The occasion was the 25th anniversary of The Princess Bride and a good chunk of the living cast showed up, including Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn and Billy Crystal in addition to director Rob Reiner as well as author William Goldman. Random shouts of "meathead" could be heard from the audience - all loving of course - when Reiner was introduced on stage as first coming to prominence as Michael Stivic in 1970s television show All in the Family. The Princess Bride was also likened to The Wizard of Oz (1939) - something Reiner fully embraced.
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Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairman Tom Rothman hit headlines two weeks ago when an announcement came from the studio that the 59 year-old would exit the studio at the end of the year, effectively ending a longstanding pairing with fellow co-chairman/CEO Jim Gianopulos. News soon came out that he'll produce Steven Spielberg's next project, Robopocalypse. At a New York Film Festival event over the weekend, Rothman remained tight lipped about casting rumors surrounding the feature.
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It's too bad they don't give Oscars out for individual performances in documentaries because Liv Ullmann's work in Dheeraj Akolkar's Liv & Ingmar would be worthy of consideration. The Norwegian actress and filmmaker discusses her 42-year relationship with the late Swedish filmmaking legend Ingmar Bergman with such emotional candor and poetic economy that the movie becomes something much more than just a re-telling of one of the most famous work-love relationships in cinema. more »
Years in the making, director Ang Lee was apparently still tweaking his ravishing Life of Pi up until the Friday morning pre-gala screening of his latest for press and industry Friday morning. The epic 3-D adaptation of the book by Yann Martel delivered a rare cinematic experience about a young Indian boy who endures a seemingly endless time at sea. Fox released visuals from the film during summer, but suppositions about what the film is about may be dashed — at least for those who have not read the book. One thing is predictable, however: Oscar night will certainly reserve some — and likely many — spots for Life of Pi, Lee will certainly be up for another Best Director nomination, and the feature will undoubtedly be up for Best Picture. The Film Society of Lincoln Center scored a coup debuting this spectacle on its opening night of the 50th New York Film Festival.
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“What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?” The affecting spirit of Cloud Atlas was palpable last night as Fantastic Fest unveiled its second Secret Screening — the ambitious sci-fi adaptation — with Lana and Andy Wachowski (“Formerly the Wachowski brothers, now Wachowski Starship,” quipped Andy) making a rare public appearance.
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The filmmaker-critic relationship has always been complex — as demonstrated last weekend with hearty debate and even more heartfelt punches in the epic Joe Swanberg-Devin Faraci throwdown, henceforth known as the Mumble in the Jungle — but Sunday night, Looper director Rian Johnson and journalist Aaron Hillis united in sweet synergy to drop a rousing rendition of Weird Al's Kinks-meets-Star Wars classic "Yoda." I wish I had a futuristic time machine to take us all back to relive the moment with our younger selves, but this YouTube video capturing the entire number should suffice.
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The new Universal Soldier picture, the latest in the series about genetically-modified supermen raging against their government creators, is a curious exercise in cognitive dissonance; here you have an action flick high on gory, bone-crunching slicing and dicing and kicking and punching — everything star and Ben Affleck doppelganger Scott Adkins (Undisputed II and III) can possibly do to evoke oohs and aahs in 3-D in the serious-faced, beefy fashion of his '80s and '90s predecessors — and yet director John Hyams didn't sound completely delusional this week at Fantastic Fest when he said his UniSol fourquel was influenced by David Cronenberg, Michael Haneke, and (yes, I see it, kinda!) even art house provocateur Gaspar Noe.
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There's no film festival quite like Fantastic Fest, as the annual Austin event proved Monday night when festival awards were handed out in a rollicking ceremony in which winning filmmakers accepted their prize by receiving a stein/trophy filled with beer. In an awards show filled with chugging winners and festival guest/presenter Doug Benson toking on his beer alternative of choice, Kristina Buožytė's sci-fi drama Vanishing Waves nearly swept the feature competition while Adrián García Bogliano's Here Comes The Devil won its entire category and the kid-battle pic I Declare War took home the Audience Award. Full winners inside!
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