The Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival (LEFF), formerly known as Estoril Film Festival, is making a name for itself as one of Europe’s leading film festivals. As a newcomer, the festival has been able to bring big names from the film industry since its debut in 2007. Some who have taken part in the event have included Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, Oscar-winning actor John Malkovich, Catherine Deneuve, and Kathryn Bigelow.

The festival takes pride in awarding the best of the best in the movie industry while creating a meeting point for artists and performers of the trade in the capital of Portugal.

The best distinguishing feature is the fact that there is no red carpet at most of the screenings, even at the premieres. One could simply stand in line waiting to get inside and Paul Giamatti or David Cronenberg could walk by you and even stop by for a chat.

Movies competing in the official selection are mostly European films, and some of the movies shown are already generating Oscar buzz. The festival will premiere “A Dangerous Method” (David Cronenberg),” The Ides of March” (George Clooney), “Melancholia” (Lars von Trier), “Restless” (Gus van Sant). “Faust,” directed by Alexander Sokurov and the winner of the Berlinare and the Venice Festival’s Golden Lion, will also premiere at the festival.

This is undoubtedly LEFF’s best edition to date. It hosts a jury panel of world-renowned authors, such as Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee, and will showcase the first images of Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” starring Robert Pattinson. In addition, LEFF will also host several events simultaneously in some of Lisbon’s most iconic venues. The festival proves its versatility while dabbling in other areas, holding events specially aimed at college students, classes with Giamatti and Cronenberg, musical concerts, an international symposium on the future of the culture industries, ateliers, and several other exhibitions.

One of the main attractions of the festival is an exhibit on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which portrays the everyday life of a Palestinian village. The work is by photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer, winner of the first Carmignac Gestion Foundation Photojournalism Award.

If you happen to be in Lisbon in November 3 to November 14, be sure to check out LEFF. It is an event you don’t want to miss.

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Widely acknowledged as provocative and fairly enigmatic, Lars Von Trier was the first director to have officially been declared ‘persona non grata’ at the Festival de Cannes over its 64 years. The misplaced “playful” remark on being a Nazi was made by the Danish director, who has previously won the Palms for Dancer in the Dark in 2000, during the press conference about his apocalyptic movie Melancholia. According to the Board of the Directors, the banishment was related to “comments that are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity,” but what are we exactly talking about? In case you didn’t catch the comment in full, here is the uncut version of the offending speech the director made after being questioned about the influence of Nazi aesthetic, such as of the architect Albert Speer, on his film by one journalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHKojTI-pNM

As it can be readily understood, regardless of his complete lack of humour and sensitivity,  what Von Trier may have been trying to say – without knowing ‘how to get out of this sentence’ – was that a man such as Hitler is not beyond our imagination. After all, concentration camps themselves speak volumes and volumes about our ‘rational’ and over-productive Occidental logos. Yes, man is evil, and, as written by Primo Levi in The Drowned and the Saved carrying it to the extreme, none of us, not even a concentration camp survivor, can be easily claimed innocent. Hence, although his attempt to escape from an impasse created by himself can be considered as failed without any doubt, Von Trier is very unlikely to be that anti-Semitic monster.

It also seems misconceived to call the director of the brilliant film about the Second World War Europa (1991) a ‘Nazi’. To think, in addition, that for all his life Trier has believed himself to be a Jewish as the son of Ulf Trier – only to discover, in a confession by his mother shortly before her death, that his real father was a German by the name of Fritz Michael Hartmann. “The Holocaust is the worst crime that ever happened. I have nothing against Jews. I have a Jewish name, and all my children have Jewish names,” the director also pointed out in a new press-conference with Danish journalists apologizing repeatedly.

Despite his Nazi jokes being quite rude, it remains a fact that during his now notorious commentary, Trier touched a problem of paramount importance: the complex relationship between arts and politics. Should we stop appreciating work made by incredible artists and thinkers such as Speer, Pound, Heiddeger, Nietzsche, Wagner, and so on, simply because of their wicked and abominable political convictions? Certainly their geniality triggers a big shame in all of us, as we remain wondering how it could be possible to produce beauty when having such devilish beliefs. Maybe Trier was provokingly trying to touch this sorely disquieting issue to make us think about it – even when we would prefer not to. Could it be that the viewer, ravished by the impressive and sentimental shoots of Melancholia – “whipped cream on top of whipped cream”, the director pointed out – forgets that behind the grandeur lies the dark planet of Nazism on collision course: is it the end of the world? Unfortunately, the Third Reich has fed, destroying and staining forever the great German Romanticism but something has left us with a contradicting tangle of emotions: can we peacefully love a cultural background which, notwithstanding its high value, is so compromised by history?

Luckily, the extreme clumsiness Von Trier tried to set an over-burning question up with, creating an outrage without precedent at Cannes, eventually did not cast a big shadow over the movie: in fact, on Sunday, Kirsten Dunst won the Cannes festival’s award for best actress for her terrific portrayal of a depressed bride in Melancholia. And maybe Kirsten herself had the final word about the banality of Trier’s evil: “He’s a great film-maker who, sometimes I feel should let his films speak for themselves”, the 29-year-old star has recently witty claimed to the Mail Online. How can we disagree with her?

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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

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Today marks the beginning of the Cannes International Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the south of France. In the Danish newspaper Politiken’s online edition, film critic Kim Skotte took a look at this years selection of competing features and noted that Denmark still have what it takes to walk among titans.

For Danes, the oldest and most prestigious film festival in the world is often centered on the surprisingly consistent representation of Danish craftsmanship. You could say that after winning this years Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Denmark is not afraid to strut their feathers at the French Riviera. This year has Lars von Trier and his movie Melancholia as well as Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive competing while a third movie, Labrador, has been chosen for an exclusive screening in the official program.

However, the Danes do realize that the Cannes is not just about our own contributions.

If we look at the contenders for the Palme d’Or, this year sports an unusually strong mix of directors – that is, if we base our predictions on the accomplishments of these which is really all we can go on at this point. Of course, the pro can sometimes fail miserably while the virtually unknown can bring positive surprises. Guesswork aside, the battle for the golden palms is gonna be fought amongst established ‘old-timers’, upcoming talents and the odd jokers.

Besides Lars von Trier, who won the highest prize in 2000 with Dancer In The Dark, the selection holds several other winners and especially – nearly-winners.

Amazingly enough, the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has never won the Palms though he came close in 1999 with Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother). This year he has a new shot with La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I live In), based on the novel Tarantula by the French crime author Thierry Jonquets. The movie is said to be a new direction for the filmmaker with a twist of old. This is founded in the fact that the story has been described by Almodóvar to Cineuropa as “a horror story without screams or frights” and stars Antonio Banderas as the troubled plastic surgeon.

The jury, headed by veteran Robert De Niro this year, has the opportunity to fall for an array of other styles however. The Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have previously won two times already and their film Le Gamin au Velo could prove a third success.

From Italy, two strong contenders are present. Paolo Sorrentino first made an impression with his experimental Il Divo which won the Jury prize in 2008. This year is his fourth time at the French resort with his American excursion This Must Be The Place, starring Sean Penn. He is matched by Nanni Moretti, a seventh time contender who have also managed to win in 2001 with La Stanza Del Figlio (The Son’s Room)

Overall, the field is speckled with experienced people – Terrence Malik, director of The Thin Red Line, brings The Tree of Life while the Finish director Aki Kaurismäki makes his fourth appearance along with Japanese Naomi Kawase, the youngest winner of Caméra d’Or.

The scene is set for a battle of established names and talents and even though film is regarded an art form, the competition between May 11-21 could prove a fierce race, leaving us gasping for air. If you want to learn more, please visit the Festival site.

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