Free Scott Pilgrim vs. the World screening in Toronto

In advance of next week's DVD/blu-ray release of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) is in Toronto to attend a signing and free screening. Today at 12:30pm, Wright will be joined by graphic novelist Bryan Lee O’Malley and actress Ellen Wong for a signing at the HMV store on Yonge Street at Dundas. You will have an opportunity to pre-order the film on disc. You can also win tickets for the screening later in the evening.

The free screening of the film takes place at 7pm at the Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West at Bathurst. Wright, O'Malley and Wong will be joined by director Don McKellar for a Q&A session after the screening. Tickets will be given on a first-come, first served basis starting at 6pm. You can also win tickets at hmv.ca, purehmv.ca and beguiling.com.

New call for submissions: One Minute Film & Video Festival

The One Minute Film and Video Festival previously put out a call for submissions on April 14, 2010. Unfortunately, they did not receive enough submissions to hold their usual November screening and so they've canceled that. However, they have opted to put out another call for submissions with a different theme. Whereas the previous theme was "social," they've asked for new submissions to be based on the theme "media."

The deadline for submissions will be January 15, 2011. Some time later in the spring, the festival will screen a program of films from both rounds of submissions. They will still accept films made with the previous theme "social."

For more information, visit the website at www.minutefilmfest.com

2011 Cinema Eye Honors - nominees announced

Today at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in the United Kingdom, the nominees were announced for the 4th Cinema Eye Honors ro recognize "excellence in artistic achievements in nonfiction filmmaking." The outstanding look at Chinese migrant workers Last Train Home by Montrealer Lixin Fan led the way with 7 nominations (Outstanding Feature, Direction, Production, Cinematography, Editing, International Feature and Audience Choice), a record 6 for Fan himself. Armadillo (one of my top 10 films from TIFF) and Exit Through the Gift Shop followed closely behind with 6 nominations. The Oath and Marwencol each received 4 nominations.

109 films were eligible for the 2011 Cinema Eye Honors and 88 of those films received votes from at least one member of the nominating committee which consisted of top documentary programmers from international film festivals.  This year’s nominations committee was chaired by Sean Farnel, programmer for the Hot Docs Film Festival.  Committee members included Meira Blaustein (Woodstock), David Courier (Sundance), Heather Croall (Sheffield), Joanne Feinberg (Ashland), Tine Fischer (CPH:DOX), Elena Fortes (Morelia/Ambulante), Ben Fowlie (Camden), Tom Hall (Sarasota/Newport), Doug Jones (Los Angeles), David Kwok (Tribeca), Amir Labaki (It’s All True), Grit Lemke (Dok Leipzig), Arthur Libehart (Planete Doc Review), Veton Nurkollari (Dokufest Kosovo), Janet Pierson (SXSW), Rachel Rosen (San Francisco), Charlotte Selb (RIDM), Sky Sitney (Silverdocs), Sadie Tillery (Full Frame), David Wilson (True/False) and Brit Withey (Denver).

2010 Cinemania French Film Festival, November 4-14, 2010

The 16th Cinemania French Film Festival gets underway starting tonight at Montreal's Imperial Theatre. Billed as the "leading French film festival in the Americas," all of the films are shown with English subtitles. They will screen 30 feature films from around the world, each film screening twice at the Imperial. Tonight's opening gala is Copacabana starring the renowned actress Isabelle Huppert. Huppert and director Marc Fitoussi will be in attendance at the screening. The closing night feature is Potiche with an all-star cast featuring Catherine Deneuve, Fabrice Luchini, Gérard Depardieu, Karin Viard, Jérémie Renier and Judith Godrèche.

The rest of the lineup looks to be equally impressive. Un homme qui crie (A Screaming Man)  
was winner of the Prix du Jury (jury prize) at the Cannes Film Festival and one of the best films I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival. Other award-winners include Lourdes, which was the winner of the FIPRESCI prize at the Venice Film Festival. Most of the films are Quebec and/or Canadian premieres if not North American premieres.

Call for submissions: 2011 ReelWorld Film Festival

The ReelWorld Film Festival is Toronto's film festival which celebrates multiculturalism. It is dedicated to screenings films by and about people of colour and others under-represented onscreen. They have put out a call for submissions for their 11th edition of the festival which will take place from April 13-17, 2011. 

The festival was founded by actor Tonya Lee Williams (Dr. Olivia Winters from TV's The Young and The Restless) in 2001. A Canadian actress who studied at Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, ReelWorld was her response to the lack of diversity on North American screens. 

The deadline for submissions is December 5, 2010

Film Review: Handsome Harry

Writer: Nicholas T. Proferes
Director: Bette Gordon
Producer: Jamin O’Brien, Jamey Sheridan, Eric Goldman and Marilyn Haft
Cast: Jamey Sheridan, Steve Buscemi, Mariann Mayberry, Aidan Quinn, John Savage, Campbell Scott , Titus Welliver, Karen Young.
Indie drama
1 hour 34 minutes

Mark Twain once said, “for the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment.” But sometimes the events of our past affect us in ways in which we aren't aware. With that in mind, Bette Gordon's latest film Handsome Harry takes a look at how an incident of violence haunts the five people who participated in the cruel act.

Harry Sweeney (Jamey Sheridan) is a well-liked electrician in his 50s, but is something of a loner. Having been divorced, he has an awkward and tense relationship with his adult son. When an old navy buddy from the Vietnam days Thomas Kelley (Steve Buscemi) calls him out of the blue to say that he's dying, he goes to visit him in hospital. Kelley tells him that decades later he's still heavily burdened by guilt from a vicious beating that they and several others gave to a shipmate Dave Kagan (Campbell Scott). Neither can remember the precise details as they were all very intoxicated, but each thinks they might have been the one to crush Kagan's hand, ending his potential future as a pianist.

Nominees announced for 2010 Moët British Independent Film Awards

The nominees and jury members for the 2010 Moët British Independent Film Awards were announced earlier today at St Martins Lane, London by Jared Harris (of TV's Mad Men and son of the late Richard Harris). The King’s Speech led the pack with a total of eight nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, two Best Supporting Actor nominations, Best Supporting Actress and Best Technical Achievement (Production Design).

Not far behind, there was a three-way tie with six nominations for Monsters, Never Let Me Go and The Arbor. The comedy Four Lions received  five nominations, while another three films tied with four: Another Year, Made in Dagenham and Brighton Rock. Impressively, filmmaker Gareth Edwards personally received four nominations for his directorial debut Monsters.

The Jury for 2010 includes:  Mags Arnold (Editor), Finola Dwyer (Producer), Matthew Goode (Actor), Matt Greenhalgh (Writer), Andy Harries (Producer), Gemma Jones (Actress), David Mackenzie (Director), James Marsh (Director), Hannah McGill (Writer, Critic & Festival Programmer), Sean Pertwee (Actor), Jamie Sives (Actor), Jason Solomons (Film Critic), Gary Williamson (Production Designer).

BAFTA screenwriting lectures - complete videos

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held a Screenwriters on Screenwriting lecture series in September. Now they've posted those six lectures online. I've posted them all below and included the links for a pdf file of the transcripts.

The featured screenwriters were Sir David Hare (The Hours, The Reader), Christopher Hampton CBE (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement), Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Slumdog Millionaire), Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon), Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada, Morning Glory), and Sir Ronald Harwood CBE (The Pianist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).

Quite an impressive lineup.

Each lecture was followed up by a Q&A with the audience. For a transcript of the lectures and discussions, click on the link after the video.

Film review: Inside Job

Writer/Director: Charles Ferguson
Producer: Audrey Marrs, Charles Ferguson
Narrator: Matt Damon
Documentary, 120 minutes

You may think you know what happened in during the great economic meltdown of 2008. But do you really?

Some films have tried to lay it all out for us, such as  Michael Moore's excellent Capitalism: A Love Story. But critics often dismiss Moore's work by attacking him personally and ignoring the films themselves. Charles Ferguson has the advantage of not being a personality, at least not yet. He was Oscar-nominated for his superb Iraq War documentary No End in Sight, but also has a B.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in political science. He puts his expert knowledge to use in meticulously laying out the events and machinations behind the financial crisis in his latest film Inside Job.

13th Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal, Nov. 10 to 21

The 13th Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) has announced its programming. This year's festival takes place Nov. 10-21 and opens with Stephanie Lanthier's Les Fros. The closing night film will be Lucy Walker's Waste Land which was just nominated for the  IDA Documentary Awards' top prize.

In between, you'll be able to catch many of the major hits on the festival circuit, such as those from Sundance (The People vs. George Lucas), Hot Docs (A Drummer's Dream) or the Toronto International Film Festival (Pink Saris). But be sure to catch some of RIDM's own discoveries. In the 2009 RIDM, one of the breakout films was the world premiere of Last Train Home by Lixin Fan, which won the Cinémathèque québécoise award for best film from Quebec/ Canada. It then went on to win numerous other awards at other festivals including the top prize at the world's largest documentary festival, the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA).

2010 European Union Film Festival, Toronto - programming announced

The European Union Film Festival takes place in Toronto annually in late November. This year, the festival runs from November18-30. It's different than the other film festivals because it doesn't have programmers. It is instead sponsored by the member states of the European Union, and each country is submits their own selection for screening. The screenings are free to the public, but they do accept donations.

All screenings take place at the Royal Theatre, 608 College St. West (5 short blocks west of Bathurst). Tickets are distributed on a first come, first serve basis one hour before the screening time. Audience members may leave their ticket stubs with the volunteer ticket collectors after the screening to give the film they just saw their vote for the Audience Award. Arrive early -- many screenings sell out, especially well-reviewed films or those with large ethnic communities in Toronto.

Nominees announced for 2010 IDA Documentary Awards

Earlier today, the International Documentary Association (IDA) announced their nominees for the 2010 IDA Documentary Awards. In the top category of Distinguished Feature Documentary, the five nominees were Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop, Laura Poitras’ The Oath, Joonas Berghaell and Mika Hotakainen’s Steam of Life, Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s Sweetgrass, and Lucy Walker’s Waste Land. All are very different in style, and it's debatable whether Exit Through The Gift Shop is a documentary in the true sense of the word. But they are all strong and interesting films.

In the category for Music Documentary Award, the nominees are Mark Moormann and Jim Bigham's For Once In My Life, Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont's Genius Within: The Inner Life Of Glenn Gould, Leanne Pooley's The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, Mark Landsman's Thunder Soul, and Mat Hames' When I Rise.  Previously announced awards are the IDA Career Achievement award for Barbara Kopple; the IDA's Pioneer Award for Susan Raymond and Alan Raymond; the Preservation and Scholarship Award for filmmaker and professor Mark J. Harris; and the 2010 IDA/Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award for Jeff Malmberg, director of Marwencol.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Friday, December 3rd at the Directors Guild Theater in Los Angeles. The gala will be hosted by famed documentarian Morgan Spurlock.

Nominees announced for the 2010 AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards

The Australian Film Institute earlier today announced their nominations for their 2010 AFI awards (not to be confused with with the American Film Institute). The announcement was hosted by Jacki Weaver, who was joined by various other actors including special guest AFI Ambassador Cate Blanchett. Ms. Weaver herself received one of the record 18 nominations by the crime thriller Animal Kingdom. It took at least one nomination in each category in which it was eligible. It cannot win all 18 awards, however, since two of its nominations were in the Best Lead Actor category and while three nominations were in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Next with 12 nominations was the war drama Beneath Hill 60. Jane Campion's period romance Bright Star about the relationship between John Keats and Fanny Fanny Brawne was next with 11 nominations. Other multiple nominees include Tomorrow When The War Began, Bran Nue Dae, The Tree and The Boys are Back.

The awards ceremony takes place over two nights on December 10 and 11 at Melbourne's Regent Theatre. 

Free screenings - The Worldwide Short Film Festival National Tour

The Worldwide Short Film Festival normally takes place in Toronto in early June. It is run by the Canadian Film Centre and is the largest short film festival in North America. Now they are taking the show on the road and offering a free screening of sample films from the recent festival in three Canadian cities -- Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver -- in their Best of the Fest National Tour.

Films include a number of prize-winners such as I.D. by Sam Firth, which won numerous awards such as the “Human Condition 60 Second Film Competition” at the Chicago International Film Festival. The Poodle Trainer won Best Documentary Short at this year's WSFF, which Slip won Best Experimental Short. There is a good mix of fiction and documentary, live-action and animation, and Canadian and international films.

Screenings take place in mid- to late-November. To RSVP, click on the link provided.

Award winners for the 11th imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

The 11th imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival came to a close on Sunday evening in Toronto at a closing night party where filmmakers, musicians, artists, media and industry celebrated, and where a number of awards were handed out. The awards reception took place at The Mod Club, hosted by award-winning actor Billy Merasty (Elijah).

The Best Dramatic Feature prize went to Boy, which was presented at the sold-out opening night gala. The Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award winner was Y el Rio Sigue Corriendo (And the River Flows On).

The festival's Executive Director, Jason Ryle congratulated the winners. "They embody the excellence and diversity of works presented at the festival. I am consistently impressed by the ingenuity and creativity of Indigenous artists worldwide and I look forward to future work from the recipients."