Kyiv, Ukraine – As the Euro 2012 tournament reached its climax with Sunday’s final in Kiev, the Ukrainian hosts are being praised for their organisation and delivery of a first-class sporting event.

The Ukrainian government is now hoping to capitalise on the success of the tournament, reminding the global business community that it will find an efficient, reform-focused nation when it invests in Ukraine.

The government has cut red tape and deregulated the economy in the same five years it has taken to plan and stage Euro 2012. It has also adopted direct measures to make it easier for investors to enter the market.

“Where is used to take two to three years to enter the market here, it now takes six to nine months,” said the man driving the reforms, First Vice Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi. In fact, initial requests by investors are processed within 24 hours.

“The focus of this government is on scrapping outdated regulations and removing obstacles to investment, growth and jobs,” Khoroshkovskyi said.

The advances Ukraine has made aren’t going unnoticed. The prestigious European Cities and Regions of the Future Awards for 2012/2013 have rated nearly 20 Ukrainian cities and regions in Top Ten categories.

For the Cost of Doing Business category alone Ukraine grabbed six out of ten places.

Ukraine hopes to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union later this year – the first step towards EU membership.

But full membership will take time, and in the interim much is going on to improve the way Ukraine and the EU do business and cooperate in essential regulatory areas.

Over the past week, Khoroshkovskyi has begun the process of agreeing to a Customs Agreement with European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud, Algirdas Šemeta.

This will facilitate a strategic framework for customs cooperation that will make a difference in areas such as simplified VAT refunds for companies that trade between Ukraine and the EU.

“Ukraine’s developing relationship with the European Union is not about us waiting for full membership,” Mr Khoroshkovskyi said.

“In the meantime there are many areas where we can simplify processes and regulations to provide economic benefits and to attract investment.”

A recent international road show targeting the global business community in four continents resulted in bi-lateral negotiations on investments with 62 companies, from Germany’s Commerzbank to U.S.-based energy firm Chevron. These companies are expected to tap into some 15 large-scale investment projects, each of them linked to a key industry in Ukraine, which are designed to be implemented through investment and private public partnerships, effectively introducing a new business model in the country.

Ukraine is expected to allocate $3.5 billion to these investment projects.

Ukraine has recently published an Investor Guide – a series of brochures that explain how to do business in the country in simple language.

The brochures cover topics including understanding the taxation system, real estate and construction, intellectual property rights, and insurance.

Image Courtesy of  katatonia82 / Shutterstock.com

The article What future awaits for Ukraine after the Euro 2012? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Look at that! The playoffs are suddenly upon us. Seems like just yesterday, we were basically praying for an NBA season just to be played. Before we start worrying about all that postseason drama, how about taking a few moments to recognize the accomplishments of an exceptional few and explain why they will/should be honored with this season’s individual awards?

Let’s start with an obvious one, and go from there. Kyrie Irving, a.k.a. the number one overall pick of the Cavs, is clearly going to win Rookie of the Year, and deservedly so. Sure, there were some nice rookies out there like Iman Shumpert of the Knicks, the Pistons’ Greg Monroe, and Golden State’s Klay Thompson, but Irving displayed star power year round.

With an average of 18.5 points and 5.4 assists per game, there is only a 2.4 difference when comparing both of these numbers to the rookie stats of one of the league’s top-point guards, Chris Paul. Do not forget about his eight three-pointers, thirty-four points, nine assists, and MVP Award during the Rising Stars Challenge, either.

Next on the list is Most Improved Player of the Year. As much as you think that Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin is going to be the unanimous winner, you are unfortunately and sadly mistaken. Lin’s story may have been inspirational beyond belief, beautiful, and Hollywood-like, but he did not participate in enough games to contend for this award. His absence from the rotation before being given an opportunity, combined with a serious knee injury, caused him to miss 31 of the team’s 66 games.

Instead, the honor will go to Magic forward Ryan Anderson. Anderson, who completed his fourth season in the league, was able to up his scoring average from 10.6 points per game last year to a career high 16.1 in 2011-2012. In one year, he also increased his minutes per game by 10, jumped up to 7.7 rebounds a night after previously averaging 5.5, and made 32 more three-pointers while still shooting a respectable 39 percent from deep.

Sixth Man of the Year will undoubtedly be won by Oklahoma City forward James Harden. At 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, he is exactly the kind of beast you would want to have, so he can take care of things while the starters are getting a blow. In fact, he actually averaged starter-like minutes, at 31.4 per game, and scored a career high 40 points in an April 18 game at Phoenix. Having a guy like that to come off the bench sort of seems like cheating.

No one is more deserving of Defensive Player of the Year than New York’s Tyson Chandler. He did exactly what the Knicks hoped he would when they brought him in this season–make playing defense cool. New York went from the third worst defensive team in 2010-2011, giving up 105.7 points per game, to the eleventh best in 2011-2012, allowing just 94.7. It was a group effort, but Chandler, his average of 1.4 blocks, and seven-foot-one-inch frame definitely got the ball rolling.

Usually, Coach of the Year goes to the man who takes a bad team and turns them around. That should not be the case this time. Tom Thibodeau should be the recipient for leading his Bulls to the league’s best record at 50-16, despite not having last year’s MVP, Derrick Rose, for 27 games. He coached a suffocating, lock-down defense that surrendered a league best: 88.2 points a game.

Neil Olshey equals Executive of the Year. Who is Neil Olshey, you ask? He is the L.A. Clippers’ General Manager, the one that brought in superstar Chris Paul, solid Caron Butler, clutch Chauncey Billups, scrappy Kenyon Martin, smooth Nick Young, and high-energy Reggie Evans all in the same year, even with the lockout.

He is also the man that took last year’s 32-50 Clippers squad and turned it into a team worthy of a 40-26 record, giving them the fifth best record in the West as they clinched only their third playoff berth since 1997.

Finally, the moment for which you have all been waiting: the Most Valuable Player award. If it truly did go to the “most valuable” player, it would go to Chris Paul for what he means to the Clippers, but instead, it will go to LeBron James for the third time since it was actually claimed by the league’s most outstanding performer.

The Heat forward put up averages of 27.1 points, 6.2 assists, and 7.9 rebounds per game this season. Only Kevin Durant of the Thunder had relatively similar numbers, but his inability to play skin-tight defense like James will cost him the MVP in the end.

Now let’s wait and see!

Image Courtesy of   Domenic Gareri / Shutterstock.com

The article Who Should the NBA’s Individual Award Winners Be? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

At 51 Kathy Griffin has worn every single hat in the Show Business, the former D-lister, in reference to her Emmy Award winning reality show My Life On The D-List, is now a media mogul who collects Emmy, Grammy, GLAAD Media Award nominations while penning some New York Times best-selling books, hosting events or raising awareness about LGBT issues.

Reading up on her website we find out that she has been making audiences laugh for years discussing Hollywood gossip and celebrity blunders but according to her detractors she’s far from funny. Her act could be described as a commentary on Celebrity lifestyle, Show business scandals, Top-secret spilling and a lot of cursing that will target anyone from Oprah Winfrey to a whole religious group.

Her infamous moments include her Emmy speech mentioning Jesus Christ, her swearing on CNN, open feuds with radio phenomenon Ryan Seacrest or derogatory comments on Sarah Palin and her daughter. She claims to have been banned from most of the shows on National Television, kicked out of A-List events and confronted by celebrities at after-parties.

But is it all valid for a laugh? Where is the line between funny and offensive? Do we take some jokes too seriously? Comedians have always stirred up some, or a whole lot of, controversy in the name of comedy. It worked out just fine for Chris Rock, George Lopez or even Jay Leno.

As for the female headliners Chelsea Handler landed a TV gig that will pay her rent forever and Joan Rivers is one of the busiest artists out there. But what is so different about Kathy Griffin that enrages some so many people and yet maintains a growing loyal army of fans? It seems like no other comedian has been so honest about their social status, fans believe her stories and haters are horrified by her jokes but she seems to be frank to all audiences.

There’s  even more to Kathy Griffin’s enchanting side, she is also one of the biggest LGTB rights advocate, she lent her voice to the Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell campaigns where she would march with the crowds and even perform for the troops in Irak and Afghanistan. Let alone her mother Maggie, whose rising popularity and old-fashioned way of thinking may sweeten  and  smoothen her daughter’s image.

2011 has been a extremely successful year for Kathy Griffin who made a Broadway debut, landed roles on Glee and Drop Dead Diva and by the end of the year Bravo will have aired 4 of her comedy specials. She’ll strut the red carpet on September 18th as an Emmy Nominee and while the world discuss her artistry she will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Funny or not, it seems like Kathy Griffin knows what she is getting herself into. The day after the Emmys her special Kathy Griffin Emmys Aftermath will premiere on the TV Guide Network, just another excuse for spilling all kinds of inside details from a star-studded Show, classic Griffin.
Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

The article Kathy Griffin To Shock at The Emmy Awards. appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

64th Cannes Film Festival ended with an exquisite award night on 22nd of May, Sunday.

This year’s jury president was Robert de Niro. Other jury members were Olivier Assayas, Martina Gusman, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Jude Law, Nansun Shi, Uma Thurman, Johnnie To, and Linn Ullmann.

Here are the 2011 Awards for feature films:

Terrence Malick for his The Tree of Life won Palme D’or. Malick did not attend the Awards Night. The producer of the film, Bill Pohlad got the prize and said Malick is a shy and a discreet person, but he is very happy to have this honour.

This year, Grand Prix award went to two directors: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, for  Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) , and Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Le Gamin au Vélo (The Kid With a Bike).

Best Director award went to Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive.

Joseph Cedar got Best Screenplay for Hearat Shulayim (Footnote).

Kirsten Dunst got the award for Best Actress, with her performance in Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia. She thanked the Festival for keeping the film in competition. And she also thanked Lars von Trier for “letting her to play the role with such freedom”.

Jean Dujardin got the award for Best Actor in The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius.

Maïwenn for her Polisse (Poliss) got the Jury Prize.

This year’s festival was quite sensational due to Danish director Lars Von Trier’s nazi comments at the press conference of his film Melancholia. In the offical press release, Festival declared that they were disturbed because of Lars von Trier’s comments and acknowleged and passed his apology. His film Melancholia remained in competition.

The trailers of the films in competition are available on Festival de Cannes’ webpage:

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/trailers.html

The article 2011 Festival De Cannes Feature Film Awards appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

It is the 10^th annual Tribeca Film Festival! And tonight we watch the Awards show online from Germany, to make a great coverage of what went on, for all our dear readers to grab a look. It just couldn’t get better, with tons of excitement, and the exposure and appreciation of diverse tastes, and talented directors of incredible films, bringing their views and insight to incredible stories and plots, of all types of varieties, and styles.

The Tribeca Film Festival was co-founded by Robert De Niro and has gained special interest and value to all the different directors out there who create independent films. It has become a medium to present their work. The collaboration and founding sponsor American Express, awarded many directors with great prizes.  Tonight’s ceremony was hosted in New York City, at the W. Union Square.

The night started with the awards host, Gideon Yago. He started the awards mentioning that tonight; it’s been the time to see and hear from the filmmakers, directors that brought their talent to the festival.

The evening counted with many festival juries. Chief Geoff Gilmore presented chief creative officer the first two awards of the night. The first award of the evening went to Rider and Shiloh Strong with Dungeon Master.

The best feature film went to Donner Unknown by Jerry Rosswell. The award contain a price of $25.000 by the founding partner American Express, and also an artistic award by Chanel, a piece valued in $35.000. As the awards went on the first jury award, was presented by Ahmed Ahmed Juror. He presented the Student visionary award: Whose prize consisted on a Mac pro Desktop donated by Apple, valued at $35,000. The film was admired by appreciating its detail. “Sometimes Less is more,” said Ahmmed Ahmmed, referring to the film Rooms, by Johanna Jurewicz.

One of the most outstanding films of the night that reflected the experienced trauma in time of war, where a man struggles for his legacy, was the film Incident in New Baghdad by James Spione. He went to the stage and thanked saying: “It is a small firm, which was made by only four people”. He gave special acknowledgements and appreciation to Ethan McCore referring to him as: “A man that went to Irak as one person, and came back as another, what amazed me was his incredible courage in coming back and telling what he experienced there.

The comedian Denis Leary Juror presented the best Narrative Short award. He mentioned that it was a difficult category. “ There were about 40 short films, and we were only able to pick 2 films, very difficult”, he said.  He tried to bring a little bit of the publics attention to the film by saying: “The opening scene in that movie involves a dad shooting his son and its a comedy, it is a terrific movie, terrific acting, and it is their first short film, and the winner is David Leon and Marcus McSweeney, with their film Man and Boy.

The Tribeca Film Festival introduced a new category to the documentary section, the juror, Lauren Hutton presented the Best New Documentary Director. She said, “First I like to give special jury mention, to a film, and honor the films makers of 6 years of hard work, that exposed how a society has collapsed, in the movie Giving Up tomorrow, by Michael Collins.”

The Best new documentary director award went to the film Like Water, by Pablo Croce by opening up a violent world. Croce received his award by saying “This is very Surreal, It was quite a journey, quite an experience personally. We found a treasure behind this whole world.”

A very interesting award category was, the best new narrative director: Which was awarded with 25.000 dollars in cash and 50,000 dollars donated by company 3. The movie was valuated by its extraordinary journey of an outcast. The movie was “emotionally erasing” and the award went to Park Jung-bum, The Journals of Musan.

Later on, Amir Bar-Lev Juror presented the best of the world documentary competition. The award consisted on the best editing, with a prize $5000. The award appreciated the emotional personal narrative exposed in the film, Semper Fi: Always Faithful by Tony Hardmon and Rachel Libert.

Lastly the night ended with several final awards, the final award for best documental feature, for its beauty and literacy the award was given to one of the most outstanding films of the festival Bombay Beach, directed by Alma Har’El. She received the award saying these words “ It was just overwhelming, to see how people just respond to the film” She gave special thanks to her team who were open to do something different, and ended up saying “Go visit Bombay Beach is really cool”.

By the end of the awards, there were other films mentioned and awarded by the precious experience, which take us to various journeys, which make these films special. The juror Rula Jebreal mentioned, the 1^st award best screenplay, which was an anonymously award given by the jury, to the film by Jannnicke Systad, Turn me on Godammit.

The night ended up mentioning and depicting the best cinematography in a narrative feature, for a vivid depiction of external and internal landscape, awarding one of the most noticeable films of the night, Artificial Paradises by Luisa Tillinger.

The night finished with emotion. Where many directors, and filmmakers felt content to have a place where their work can be rewarded and shown. The Tribeca Film Festival has become an open door for many directors out there, who are very talented and wait with an inner sigh hoping to have their work appreciated and valued.

The article Insight of 2011 Tribeca Film Festival Awards Show appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.