Wilmington, U.S.A. – Cucalorus Film Festival released its official schedule of films this week from the headquarters at Jengo’s Playhouse in downtown Wilmington. Tickets went on sale to the public early Friday morning. The festival screens over 190 films from 15 different countries with programs focusing on dance, social justice, emerging filmmakers, music videos and North Carolina artists.

Cucalorus director Dan Brawley commented, “We’re really embracing the other art forms that have been built into the festival – our dance program is taking a big leap forward and our music video program has nearly tripled.”

‘A Royal Affair’ (a period drama set in 1760′s Denmark) and ‘Casting By’ (a documentary about legendary casting agent Marion Dougherty) headline the festival’s crowd-pleasing Magnolia program. Michael Mohan (whose short Ex-Sex played the festival last year) returns to Cucalorus with his edgy romantic comedy ‘Save the Date’. Jared Moshe’s indie western ‘Dead Man’s Burden’ features a standout performance from Barlow Jacobs as an estranged son who returns home to deal with the family estate after his father’s mysterious death.

Josh Koury’s heartwarming and hilarious documentary ‘Journey to Planet X’ follows two amateur sci-fi filmmakers as they struggle to step up their game and produce their next film. NC School of the Arts Graduate Nate Meyer’s feature ‘See Girl Run’, starring Robin Tunney and Adam Scott, tells the story of a woman who questions her marriage and seeks out her high school sweetheart to reignite her life.

The festival’s opening night event, Dance-a-lorus, will bring dancers and filmmakers together for a live-stage event. Durham-based filmmaker Jim Haverkamp will be the focus of this year’s North Carolina Retrospective, which includes a weeklong project called the Strange Beauty Challenge, a hands-on film making project where fifteen teams (spots are still available!) make an experimental short film in less than a week.

Visual Soundwalls, shorts blocks named after imaginary monsters, and too many moonshine moments to remember all find their way onto the jam packed Cucalorus schedule. The full schedule with links to purchase tickets can be found at www.cucalorus.org.

The Cucalorus Film Festival is sponsored in part by PNC Bank.

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Los Angeles, U.S.A — The First Annual San Pedro International Film Festival (SPIFFest) opens Friday, October 12, 2012 at the Warner Grand Theatre with a special screening of The Loneliest Planet, an award-winning independent film written and directed by Julia Loktev.

The riveting and daring love story, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Hani Furstenberg and Bidzina Gujabidze, is a winner of the Los Angeles AFI Fest “Grand Jury Prize,” the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival’s “The Golden Lady Award” and the International Istanbul Film Festival’s “Golden Tulip Award.”

Special opening night guests include producer Felicia D. Henderson (“Everybody Hates Chris,” “Fringe,” “Soul Food: The Series”), director/actor Rockmond Dunbar (“Prison Break,” “Sons of Anarchy”), actors Golden Brooks (“The Great Divide,” “Hart of Dixie”), Brea Bee (“Breaking In,” “Nikki” in Silver Linings Playbook), andVeronica Milagro (“Gundown”); songwriter/producer Janet Cole Valdez (“Gladiator,” “The Young and the Restless”), and celebrity sculptor Joan Banks, along with prominent business and community leaders. Red carpet arrivals begin at 7:00 p.m., followed by the screening at 8:00 p.m. Tickets to the event and passes to both opening and closing night parties can be purchased online.

SPIFFest was founded to celebrate the city’s diverse culture and contributions to the cinematic arts by providing audiences with unique, independent films from around the world that both inspire and entertain. Following the festival, organizers plan to launch several youth-oriented community programs with a focus on filmmaking.

“For decades, San Pedro’s long history of film production has played a vital role in making Los Angelesthe creative capital of the world,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “The San PedroInternational Film Festival is a welcome celebration of the City’s creative spirit and unique filmmakers both locally and internationally.”

Many highly acclaimed major motion pictures have been filmed in San Pedro, including King Kong,Chinatown, Point Break, Silence of the Lambs, The Usual Suspects, Pearl Harbor , Pirates of the Caribbean, Titanic and 500 Days of Summer. The city has also been a popular shooting location for TV shows such as NCIS, Mad Men and Dexter.

SPFFest screenings will continue on Saturday with more new feature films, documentaries, short films and student works. The festival will close Sunday, October 14 with a screening of the Silver Linings Playbook, winner of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award.

Festival sponsors include San Pedro Business Improvement District (PBID), Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, The Friends of the Croatian Cultural Center, Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, San Pedro Convention & Visitors Bureau, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Monster Energy Drink, Kind Healthy Snacks, San Pedro Today, Script Pipeline, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, and Experience San Pedro.

The Warner Grand Theatre and Croatian Cultural Center of Greater Los Angeles are facilities of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

About SPIFFest

San Pedro International Film Festival’s mission is to celebrate the city’s cultural diversity and film production history. SPIFFest provides audiences with extraordinary films from new local and international filmmakers that educate, enlighten and entertain. We also support community programs that help young filmmakers develop the skills needed to achieve their aspirations.

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Mexico City, Mexico — From November 14-17, 2012, leading filmmakers and film enthusiasts from Mexico, the U.S. and around the world will gather in the beautiful Pacific resort of Los Cabos for the first annual Baja International Film Festival. The first international film festival in Mexico to be a true collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico, the Baja International Film Festival will stand alongside world renowned events like the Cannes Film Festival,Venice Film Festival and Sundance.

The program will include screenings of Feature Films, Documentaries, Short Films, and Student Films, as well as nightly galas, award ceremonies, panel discussions and filmmaker receptions, and will feature the work of leading filmmakers from Mexico, the U.S., and around the world. The inaugural Baja International Film Festival has strong support from film industry leaders and is proud to have acclaimed actor, Academy-Award nominee, and environmental activist Edward Norton as an advisor to the festival.

Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete, Chief Operating Officer of the Mexico Tourism Board, said “The Baja International Film Festival will not only raise the profile of Mexico’s film industry and filmmakers, it will also bring visitors and investment to Los Cabos, one of Mexico’s leading tourist resorts, reinforcing its reputation as a world class, luxury destination.” In addition to the Mexico Tourism Board, the festival is endorsed and supported as the Official Festival of Los Cabos by the State of Baja California Sur, and the Los Cabos Tourism Bureau.

Baja International Film Festival co-founders Scott Cross and Sean Cross also founded the Colorado Film Institute and the Vail Film Festival, named by Moviemaker magazine among the “Top Ten Destination Film Festivals in the World.” The Festival is founded and run by a bi-national team of experienced film and business managers. They share a passion to bring the two cultures together through film.

The Festival represents a true collaboration between Mexico and the U.S. and will serve as a bridge between the U.S. and Mexican film industry. The organizers’ goal is to showcase the best filmmaking from around the world and grow the Baja International Film Festival into the Cannes Film Festival of Latin America.

The Baja International Film Festival is currently accepting film entries for the inaugural event to be held from November 14-17 in Los Cabos, Mexico. The festival accepts films from all countries and will award prizes for Best Film in each category, an Audience Award, and a special prize for Best Mexican Film. For submission information, please visit the festival website at www.bajainternationalfilmfestival.com.

Just a short flight from Los Angeles, Los Cabos is well known as a favorite vacation spot for Hollywood’s A-list stars. George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio are just a few of the celebrities regularly spotted enjoying the pristine beaches, luxurious hotels and unsurpassed hospitality of one of Mexico’s premier resorts.

For more information on the Baja International Film Festival, visit www.bajainternationalfilmfestival.com.

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Terri Hooley may not be a household name, but to a music fan and punk lover in 1970s Belfast, he is a local treasure. Now, in his biopic ‘Good Vibrations’, named after the record store and label he owned in the city, the story can be told of how he gave punk a voice in a place city at a very troubled time.

Starring Richard Dormer and Jodie Whittaker, ‘Good Vibrations’ charts the journey of Terri (Dormer) from rock-bottom pub DJ to store owner and independent record producer. The Belfast Film Festival website lists the following synopsis, “Terri Hooley is a radical, rebel and music-lover in 1970s Belfast when the bloody conflict known as the Troubles shuts down his city. As all his friends take sides and take up arms, Terri opens a record shop on the most bombed half-mile in Europe and calls it Good Vibrations. Through it he discovers a compelling voice of resistance in the city’s nascent underground punk scene. Galvanising the young musicians into action, he becomes the unlikely leader of a motley band of kids and punks who join him in his mission to create a new community, an alternative Ulster, to bring his city back to life.”

He discovers one band, The Undertones, whose song ‘Teenage Kicks’ has gone on to become a punk anthem and covered by dozens of artists in the 34 years since its release. Yet, for the most part ‘Good Vibrations’ tells the story of a man who never achieves long-lasting success because he is led by sentiment and passion rather than any clear-headed business sense.

As a result, the film shows Terri’s marriage suffering, his finances waning, his drinking increasing and his focus wandering to the point where he is the victim of a brutal physical assault in his own store. Still, Terri’s resolve inevitably returns no matter how many times he gets knocked down, and it is this which drives the film through a somewhat meandering plot and ultimately unconventional conclusion. Terri’s optimism and idealism make him an incredibly endearing figure, due in large part to the sincerity and wholeheartedness with which Dormer brings to the role.

‘Good Vibrations’ launched the 2012 Belfast Film Festival, and it was clear from some audience feedback that it was a refreshing change to see a big-screen representation of Northern Ireland which did not exclusively detail the Troubles. Rather, this film operates on the level of almost any biopic, where the historical and political context remains mainly on the fringe while the personal trumps and failures elevate the narrative beyond any single cultural consciousness. Audience member Eamonn Knocker told Toonari Post, “I liked the fact that it was a part of Belfast history, that it was funny and sad, and that it’s a change [from films about The Troubles]“.

With the festival being bookended by ‘Whole Lotta Sole’, already previewed by Toonari Post, the message is loud and clear that Northern Ireland is acknowledging its past difficulties while still finding ways to move forward and explore new characters and untold stories.

Image Courtesy of  Terri Hooley

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The 12th annual Belfast Film Festival runs from May 31 – June 10, and sees a wide variety of films and events on offer for audiences of all ages and interests.

Last year’s festival, which takes place in the capital city of Northern Ireland, saw the premiere of Terry George’s Oscar-winning short film ‘The Shore’, and this year George is returning to the festival with his new film ‘Whole Lotta Sole’, which had its world premiere recently at the Tribeca Film Festival.

‘Sole’ brings together a diverse range of talent such as Brendan Fraser, Yaya DaCosta, Martin McCann, and Colm Meaney, and was shot at various locations all over Northern Ireland last Spring. The film will close the festival on June 10 at the Waterfront Hall, full details of which can be found here.

Opening the festival is the eagerly-awaited film ‘Good Vibrations’, which so far is set to have two screenings on May 31. The film brings together directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, along with Northern Ireland author Glenn Patterson who co-wrote the screenplay with Colin Carberry. The film stars Jodie Whittaker and Dylan Moran, and the official description is listed as:

“Terri Hooley … a radical, rebel and music-lover in 1970s Belfast when the bloody conflict known as the Troubles shuts down his city. As all his friends take sides and take up arms, Terri opens a record shop on the most bombed half-mile in Europe and calls it Good Vibrations.

Through it he discovers a compelling voice of resistance in the city’s nascent underground punk scene. Galvanising the young musicians into action, he becomes the unlikely leader of a motley band of kids and punks who join him in his mission to create a new community, an alternative Ulster, to bring his city back to life.”

Other highlights of the festival include:

• Gala screenings of ‘Shadow Dancer’, ‘Jump’, and ‘Toothbrush’. ‘Shadow Dancer’ screens on Wednesday June 6, and the director, cast and crew will be in attendance. ‘Jump’ will have a similar turn-out for its screening on June 8, where the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director (Kieron J. Walsh).
• Talks & Workshops with Terry George, James Marsh, Nick Emerson, and various people involved with ‘Good Vibrations’.
• A special screening of the 2002 film ‘Ghost Ship’ at The Lagan Boat on June 7.
• A ‘Zoolander’ night, bringing together fans of the 2001 film starring Ben Stiller.
• An Evening with James Ellis, the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

On top of all of these, the festival will feature short film competitions, screenings of documentaries and new cinema, a film quiz, and the 11th Belfast World Pong Championships.

The full festival program can be found here.

Image Courtesy of    Belfast Film Festival

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Boy Wonder, the urban psychological thriller, is a winner of 15 national and international awards, some of which include the Best Feature Film and the Audience Awards at the 2011 Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival, Best Feature at the 2011 Crystal Palace International Film Festival, the 2011 Vail Film Festival and the 2011 Hardacre Film Festival.

The movie makes its debut to DVD on November 8, 2011. Roger Ebert gives this Film 3 ½ stars out of 4, saying, “In a genre populated with formulas and dreck, Boy Wonder is an ambitious exception, well-made, drawing us in… dramatized in the style of dark graphic novels… works insistently on an emotional level.”

The film simultaneously packs riveting action and a strong sense of emotional connection. Sean Donovan is a child when he witnesses the murder of his mother. From that moment on, he exhibits signs of unresponsiveness and isolation. Sean is then left to be brought up by his alcoholic and abusive father.

Sean, played by Caleb Steinmeyer, who also appears in HBO’s True Blood, is an austere boy who takes pleasure in reading and classical music. When asked why the director used classical music, he replied, “I came up with this idea that this would be a connection for Sean and his mom.

People see classical music as soothing, but for Sean it reminded him of violence in the house, and violence put upon his mom. It was used as a setup for the aggressive memories in Sean’s head.” When classical music is played during the movie, it cuts to the horrible incident that haunts Sean’s life.

Another reason that classical music fits so well with the movie is that it is parallel with its flow. Most classical music begins slowly and quietly, building up a crescendo, where sounds come to a collision, making for an intense impact at the end. In terms of the film, this is where Sean’s dual personalities collide.

Morrissey said, “Definitely seeing Sean put the war paint on his face for the first time, when it felt like 150 degrees down on the train platform, but seeing this character do that on the monitor was wild. It was very cool to be able to see this character that I made up, come to life.”

This is one scene that shows Sean’s nocturnal persona. From all the rage that constantly consumes him, Sean creates a vigilante that rises out of the chaos inside his head. To Morrissey, the movie is all about perception and the way in which the viewer regards Sean’s character. Sean doesn’t do anything that is too heroic.

Sure, he kills a few bad people who deserve it, but he also attacks a student for being obnoxious, possibly to the point of dying. Does he even have the authority to kill a pimp? This, too, is debatable. Although the beating is uncalled for, some with different sensitivities may think differently, which brings questions of morality into the picture.

The reason Morrissey created this sense of distorted perception is because he wanted to create discussion regarding what is right and wrong. Check out the movie, and decide whether Sean’s actions should be considered  just or immoral.

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The New York Film Festival comes to New York City for its 49^th annual showcase of new and emerging films in the entertainment industry. The yearly film festival will run from September 30 to October 16, celebrating up and coming filmmakers and actors.

The New York Film Festival was created in 1969 by The Film Society of Lincoln Center with aspirations of creating an event for filmmakers to show their movies. The love of art and film are combined during this festival and brings movie goers from all across New York City to exciting movie premieres.

International filmmakers are able to showcase their movies at the prestigious New York Film Festival. The Main Slate is the optimal venue to screen movies. Filmmakers from countries such as the United States, Iran, France, United Kingdom, Israel and Denmark are among those who will show their movies at the Main Slate.

In the movie entitled “Miss Bala,” a young Mexican woman competes in a beauty competition in Baja, where she gets involved in the ongoing narcotics battle in Mexico. “Miss Bala” depicts drug related gang violence and how it plays a role in Mexico.

“The Artist,” is a movie that pays homage to the original Hollywood entertainment business where the art of movie making was through black and white silent movies. “The Artist” highlights wonderful acting even though it is a silent movie and allows the audience to go back in time to when movies were first created.

Famous Hollywood actors can be seen in some of the movies on display at The New York Film Festival. “Melancholia” has actress Kirsten Dunst playing a bride in this science fiction movie. “The Descendants” ushers in George Clooney as a man who must cope with his wife who is in the hospital and his two daughters with whom he has shaky relationships.

Michelle Williams brings a performance as sex icon Marilyn Monroe in “My Week With Marilyn,” one of the most anticipated movies of The New York Film Festival.

Aside from the Main Slate where much of the popular movies are watched, there are also other special events going on during the festival. Documentaries are also a part of the film festival where the daily international lives of people are portrayed through film. “Tahrir” is a documentary of the recent revolution in Egypt, as seen through the voices of Egyptians on the streets of Cairo.

“Paradise Lost 3,” is an American documentary that follows the lives of Alabama teenagers who are in jail for murdering three children. These documentaries are just a couple among many others that use film to highlight unique, real life stories. World renowned talent made appearances at the New York Film Festival.

Internationally famed director Martin Scorsese spoke by video during a press conference on October 3. Scorsese talked about “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” which is Scorsese’s new documentary. Special Anniversary Screenings of movies such as “The Royal Tennenbaums,” “Spirited Away” and “Howard’s End” will also be a part of The New York Film Festival.

Along with showing some of the world’s most talented actors and filmmakers, The New York Film Festival also gave the chance for bring up and coming movie makers to meet some famous directors and producers. The Emerging Vision event took place over the course of one day where 25 new and passionate film creators were given mentors to help produce high quality films.

The 25 chosen will have one year of ongoing guidance from professional directors and producers with the goal of helping young talents flourish in the entertainment industry. The New York Film Festival is a well respected annual event that gives both veterans and newcomers to the movie business a chance to share their talents for film with the world.
lev radin / Shutterstock.com

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