63RD CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Cannes film festival is one of the famous, recognized and respected international film festivals of the world. The ‘63rd Cannes film festival’ was started on 12th May, 2010 with the Hollywood film “Robin Hood” directed by Ridley Scott. In this year, 19 films are competing for  “Palme d’Or” prize. In these films, six are from French productions, five are Asian films and other films come from Britain, Mexico, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia. The films such as “Outrage”, “Another Year”,  “Biutiful”, “On Tour”, “Outside the Law” etc are some of the films competing for highest price “Palme d’Or”. Another 19 films have been selected for “Un Certain Regard” category and 9 films to be shown ‘Out of competition’ category. Famous American film director Tim Burton is presiding the jury with the support of other eight jury members including Italian cinematographer Alberto Barbera, English actress Kate Beckinsale, French screenwriter and director Emmanuel Carrere, Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro, French composer Alexandre Desplat, Spanish director Victor Erice and Indian director Shekhar Kapur. Many celebrities were attended opening ceremony of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. They included Indian actress and former Miss world Aishwarya Rai, who has been a permanent Cannes attendee for many years, actors Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchet and Salma Hayek. British actress Kristin Scott Thomas presided the opening ceremony and this 12 day film festival will be ended on 23rd May with an Australian film “The Tree” directed by French female director Julie Bertuccelli. So get ready for watching this amazing film festival.

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

A Cannes film festival is one of the famous, recognized and respected international film festivals of the world. This festival was founded in 1939 as a suggestion of the French minister Jean Zay. It is considered as one of the world’s most prestigious and oldest film festivals along with the Venice Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, and Toronto Film Festival. The first Cannes festival was held from September 20 to October 5, 1946 in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France. Since then, it has been held annually in the May at the ‘Palais des Festivals et des Congrès’, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France. In this festival, many films are viewed and judged by the internationally selected film committee which usually includes film experts from around the world. This festival not only brings world recognition to little-known directors, actors and writers, but also honors the film industry players who either have been forgotten or were not recognized in their lifetime. In addition, this festival attracts many celebrities such as Pamela Anderson, Aiswarya Rai etc from around the world. The’Palme d’Or ‘(Golden Palm)award is the most prestigious Award in Cannes Film Festival. It is given for the ‘Best Film’. The award is sometimes shared by multiple films in one year. ‘The Grand Prix’ is second the most prestigious prize of this festival. ‘The Jury Prize’ is considered as the third most prestigious prize at the Cannes film festival, after the Palme d’Or and the Grand Prix. A total of 57 full-length films from across countries is showcased in the festival. This global audience festival is attended by many movie stars and is a popular venue for movie producers to launch their new films and attempt to sell their works to the distributors who come from all over the globe.

Posted by bindu, filed under Film Festivals, Overview, World Happenings. Date: May 13, 2010, 2:41 am | 5 Comments »

14TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF KERALA

God’s own country, Kerala is today witnessing an international film festival. The ‘14th International Film Festival of Kerala’ will be held at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala from 11th to 18th December 2009. The festival is jointly organized by the state-run Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the ministry of culture. The famous filmmaker Mrinal Sen will inaugurate this festival. In this eight-day-long film extravaganza, 164 films in 11 categories will be screened and there will be more than 500 shows. In the competition section, 14 films including two Malayalam films “Pazhassiraja” and “Kerala cafe” would be screened. A special film titled “The Women in Malayalam Cinema” which is based on some memorable female characters featured in Malayalam films will also be screened in this festival. Films on Madhavikutty, Sobhana Parameswaran Nair, Murali, Rajan P. Dev, K.P. Thomas and Adoor Bhavani will be screened in the homage section.The famous Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi is the chairperson of the jury and Sri Lankan Director Prasanna Withrarenge, Congolese filmmaker Balufu, Indian film maker Mamtha Sanker and Egyptian Director Al Khalisi are other jury members. Famous Bollywood Actress Sharmila Tagore and French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont will be the chief guests at the inaugural function. This festival honor Mrinal Sen with ‘Life Time Achievement award’ and also honors Oscar winning sound editor and designer Resul Pookutty. Another pecularity of this edition of the festival is there are special sections of Cuban, French and African films and seats can be reserved through SMS. The prize of this festival is also amazing. The best film would receive a golden peacock and a cash prize of Rs ten lakh. The director of the winning film, debutant director, the director of the best film selected by the viewers would receive a silver peacock and Rs three, Rs two and Rs one lakh respectively. So get ready for watching this amazing festival.

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF KERALA (IFFK)

The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is one of the important film festivals of India, which held annually in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. This film festival was started in 1996, and it is organized by the state-run Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the ministry of culture. The films produced from Asia, Africa and Latin America are competing in this festival, and it has a special section on Malayalam films. Contemporary World Cinema, New Malayalam Cinema, Retrospectives of Major filmmakers, Homage and Tributes, Contemporary Indian Cinema, Short films and Documentaries are screened during this film festival. Film Market and Seminars on important issues are also conducted in this festival. ‘The Golden Crow Pheasant Award’, ‘The Silver Crow Pheasant Award’, ‘Best Debut Film Award’, ‘Audience Prize’, ‘FIPRESCI Award’, ‘Netpac Award’ is the awards given in this festival. Malayalam film industry is famous for its story oriented movies and many Malayalam movies won awards in various film festivals. So a film festival like ‘International Film Festival of Kerala’ is a great success in Kerala.

Posted by bindu, filed under Film Festivals, Overview, World Happenings. Date: December 11, 2009, 5:46 am | No Comments »

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