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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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.
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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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