13th Annual Young Hollywood Awards - winners

Organized to honour and celebrate the accomplishments of emerging young talent throughout the entertainment industry, the 13th Annual Young Hollywood Awards were held in Los Angeles, California on Friday night.

The winner for Actor of the Year in Film was Garrett Hedlund for his role in Country Strong. He also starred this past year in Tron: Legacy. The award for Actor of the Year in Film went to Elle Fanning (younger sister of Dakota Fanning) for her role in Somewhere. Hailee Steinfeld was presented with the Breakthrough of the Year award for her performance in True Grit.

The Television Actress of the Year and Actor of the Year awards went to Aimee Teegarden and Jesse Williams respectively. The cast for Pretty Little Liars was named the Cast to Watch.

For the first time in the history of the Young Hollywood Awards, the event will be nationally televised on Thursday, May 26 airing on the ION Network.

Cannes FIPRESCI and Ecumenical Jury - award winners

Prix Fédération internationale de la presse cinématographique
(The International Federation of Film Critics Prize)

At the 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) has been presented to Le Havre by Aki Kaurismäki (shown in the Official Competition); to The Minister (L'Exercice de l'état) by Pierre Schoeller (Un Certain Regard); and to Take Shelter by Jeff Nichols (Critic' Week).

Take Shelter was previously named the winner of the Grand Prix and the Prix SACD.

The FIPRESCI jury was headed by Brazilian critic José Carlos Avellar. Members consisted of Tereza Brdeckova (Czech Republic), Shahla Nahid (France), Ahmed Atef Dorra (Egypt), Josip Jurcic (Croatia), Laurent Aknin (France), Anna Louise Smith (United Kingdom), Joost Broeren (The Netherlands) and Malwina Grochowska (Poland). Pamela Biénzobas (Chile/France) coordinated the work of the jury.

Cannes Un Certain Regard 2011 - award winners

The award-winners have been announced for the Un Certain Regard section of the 64th Festival de Cannes.

The Un Certain Regard prize was shared by Arirang by South Korea's Kim Ki-duk and Halt auf freier Strecke (Stopped on Track) by German filmmaker Andreas Dresen. A Special Jury Prize was awarded to Andrey Zvyagintsev for Elena.

The Directing Award went to Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof for Bé Omid é Didar (Au revoir). Rasoulof is currently serving a seven year prison sentence and has a 20-year filmmaking ban in Iran as does his countryman Jafar Panahi.

Hitler is not amused by Von Trier's ban from Cannes

Well, it had to happen.

With the latest scandal involving Lars von Trier and his mention of Nazis and Hitler, appropriately enough someone has created a new version of the infamous re-subtitled Hitler meme from Der Untergang (Downfall) by Oliver Hirschbiegel.

Of course, I think this whole affair smacks of silliness and hypocrisy. Lars von Trier is really guilty of nothing more than just telling bad jokes -- badly.

Still, this video is quite amusing as many of them are. This has an added "meta" quality since it has the character Hitler complaining about a controversy in which he played a part. But be warned, the humour is raunchy. Enjoy!

1st Annual Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) Awards - winners

Last night, the Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) held its 1st Annual Editors Awards Night at the Capitol Event Theatre in Toronto.  This event is created by editors to celebrate the craft of editing in all mediums.

The winner for Best Editing in a feature drama was Michelle Conroy for her work on Vincenzo Natali's Splice. She had been up against fellow nominees Michael Doherty (George A Romero’s Survival of the Dead), Matthew Hannam & Gareth Scales (This Movie is Broken), Stephen Lawrence (Sophie) and Susan Shipton (Barney’s Version).

The winner for Documentary editing was Nick Hector for his work on the David Suzuki profile Force of Nature.

The prize for Best Editing in a movie-of-the-week or mini-series went to Mike Lee for the dramatization of the brash hockey personality Don Cherry Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story.

2011 Cannes Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) - award winners

At the Festival de Cannes, the 43rd Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) sidebar announced their award winners today.

Les Géants (The Giants) by Bouli Lanners was the big winner, picking up both the Prix SACD given by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers) for best French-language title and also the CICAE's Art Cinema Award presented by the Confédération Internationnale des Cinémas d'Art et d'Essai (International Confederation of Art Cinemas). Les Géants is a comedic coming-of-age story about two brothers left to fend for themselves one summer at their grandfather's house. It hasn't screened yet, as it is the closing night film for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.

The winner of the Europa Cinemas Label for best European film in the selection was Atmen (Breathing) by Karl Markovic. It is also a coming-of age story but darker in tone, about a delinquent teen who finds work in a morgue.

The Séance "Coup de coeur" prize went to Ruben Östlund's Play. Also a story about youths, Play is based on real incidents of bullying that occurred a few years ago.

Cinéfondation Prizes 2011 - winners

The awards for the student films of the Cinéfondation section of the 64th Festival de Cannes were announced today by the jury headed by Michel Gondry.

The First Prize went to Der Brief (The Letter) by Doroteya Droumeva from Germany. The Second Prize winner was French director Kamal Lazraq's Drari. The Third Prize was given to Ya-gan-bi-hang (Fly by Night) by South Korea's Son Tae-gyum.

Each award comes with a cash prize, with € 15,000 going to the First Prize, € 11,250 for the Second and € 7,500 for the Third.

Yesterday, the winners for the 50th Semaine Internationale de la Critique (International Critics' Week) were announced. The 64th Festival de Cannes continues until Sunday, May 22.

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/

4th Annual Toronto-Romanian Film Festival, May 20-22

This weekend brings the 4th Annual Toronto-Romanian Film Festival, presented by the ToRo Arts Group. The festival brings the best of recent Romanian cinema to Toronto audiences.

Screened films include many winners from the recent Premiile Gopo (Gopo Awards) for Romanian cinema. The opening night film will be Eu când vreau să fluier, fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle) which set a Gopo record with thirteen nominations and won six awards including Best Film. The closing night film is Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceauşescu (The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu) which won for Best Documentary and Editing.

Other films being presented include Medalia de onoare (Medal of Honour), Marţi, după Crăciun (Tuesday, After Christmas), Morgen and Kapitalism - Reţeta noastră secretă (Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula).

Films will be screened at the Bloor Cinema and Innis Town Hall. The festival runs until Sunday, May 22.

In defence of Lars von Trier, persona non grata at Cannes

Most people with an interest in film will have heard by now that Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier got into hot water at the 64th Festival de Cannes by making comments about being a Nazi and understanding Hitler. As a result, he has now been declared persona non grata by the festival's board of directors. Whatever you may think about his films or him as a person, this has to be the most ridiculous overreaction to a bad joke in recent memory.

Let me be clear, so that I don't provoke the same overreaction. I think what he said was in poor taste and obviously regrettable. He would agree himself, since he issued an apology very quickly, and gave a stronger ones again later. But to no avail, since so many have been so quick to crucify him.

The first thing to keep in mind, is that almost all reports of the incident have been overblown if not downright wrong. They've mostly omitted any context, too. And they're gone out of their way to sensationalize the incident as much as possible.

So the place to start is with the press conference itself, and not just the two-minute clips either. You can watch the entire 39-minute conference here:

Cannes Semaine de la Critique (Critics' Week) - award winners

Tonight at the Festival de Cannes, the sidebar 50th Semaine Internationale de la Critique (International Critics' Week) announced its award winners.

The Grand Prix winner was American filmmaker Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter which stars Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. It also won the Prix SACD given by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers).

The Cannes Semaine de la Critique jury was led by South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong and comprised of four critics, Scott Foundas (Film Comment Magazine, U.S.), Nick James (Sight and Sound, U.K.), Cristina Piccino (Il Manifesto, Italy) et Sergio Wolf (El Amante, Argentina). The jurors for the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD) were Laurent Heynemann, Gerard Krawczyk, Christine Laurent, Benjamin Legrand and Bertrand Tavernier.

Australia's Justin Kurzel received a President's Special Mention for Snowtown.

58th National Film Awards (India) - winners

The Government of India's Directorate of Film Festivals announced their 58th National Film Awards tonight in New Delhi. The National Film Awards is the leading film award given in India. The awards were dominated by Southern Indian films in the Tamil and Mayalayam language.

The Best Feature Film was the Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu by Salim Ahamed. It also received best cinematography and best music direction, and shared the award for best actor (Salim Kumar).

The Tamil film Aadukalam by Vetrimaran received the most trophies, taking a total of six for best director and original screenplay for Vetrimaran, actor (Dhaush), editing, choreography and special mention for V.I.S. Jayaraman. Dhaush was the co-recipient of the Best Actor award with Salim Kumar.

Winners are selected by jury. For this year's awards, the Feature Films jury was headed by JP Dutta, the Non-Feature Films jury by AK Bir and Best Writing on Cinema jury was led by Ashok Vajpeyi.

21st Annual Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival, May 19-29

Tonight, the 21st Annual Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival kicks off with the Toronto premiere of Loose Cannons. Ferzan Ozpetek's story is a comedic romp set in Puglia, Italy. It will be followed by the Opening Gala Party at 10pm with performances by Ill Nana and DJ Deko-ze. The party takes place at the OCAD Great Hall, 100 McCaul Street and is free with your opening night screening ticket.

Many of the filmmakers will be attending the festival. Expected guests include director Zanele Muholi (Difficult Love), director S. Casper Wong (The LuLu Sessions), director Tim Wolff (The Sons of Tennessee Williams), director Zacharius Mavroeidis (The Guide), executive producer Jack Chen and director Allan Neuwirth (What's the Name of the Dame?), director Jan Gassmann (OFF BEAT), director Jeanne Crepeau and actor Amelie Grenier (A Montreal Girl), director Rashaad Ernesto Green (Gun Hill Road), director Casper Andreas (Going Down in LA-LA Land), director Myriam Aziza (Evening Dress), director JC Calciano and actor Houston Rhines (eCupid), producer Laura Terruso and actor Lisa Haas (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same) and director Maryam Keshavarz (Circumstance).

In addition to screenings, the festival hosts many parties and events such as a Master Class with Samar Habib. The Master Class takes place after a Shorts Program that is part of the Spotlight on the Middle East.

34th Annual Gawad Urian Awards for Filipino cinema - winners

The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (the Filipino Film Critics) has handed out the 34th Annual Gawad Urian Awards for the year's best films from the Philippines. Remton Siega Zuasola's Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria (The Dream of Eleuteria) came out on top, winning a total of four awards - Best Picture, Director, Cinematography and Music. It tells the story of a girl from a poor family in Olango island in Cebu being sent to Germany as a mail-order bride and is shot in one long take.

Sheika was next with three awards, claiming Best Screenplay (Arnel Mardoquio), Actress (Fe GingGing Hyde) and Editing. No other films were multiple winners.

The Best Actor award went to previous Best Actor winner Sid Lucero (Muli) while Supporting Actor went to Joem Bascon (Noy). Rosanna Roces was named Best Supporting Actress for her work in Presa. Both Muli and Presa were directed by Adolfo Alix Jr.

A Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the veteran writer Jose "Pete" Lacaba.

The Evolution of the Symphony: l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal & Kent Nagano

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SYMPHONY

Giovanni Gabrieli: Excerpts from Symphonia Sacrae for brass
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonias 1 to 5 (for keyboard)
Anton Webern: Symphony, Op. 21
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonias 8 & 9 (for keyboard)
Igor Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonias 11, 12, &15 (for keyboard)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Kent Nagano, Conductor
Angela Hewitt, Piano

The full broadcast program of l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal's excellent season-closing concert at Carnegie Hall on Saturday May 14 is available online at NPR. They had played the same program in Montreal earlier in the week, but were the final show of the hall's first ever Spring for Music festival.

The festival was designed to allow participating orchestras to showcase their artistic philosophies through distinctive and adventurous programming. The OSM's The Evolution of the Symphony program featured a first half that contrasted the early music of Gabrieli and Bach with the modernity of Webern and Stravinsky, none of whom used the term "symphony" in the traditional classical/romantic sense. The second half is the quintessential symphony, Beethoven's monumental Symphony No. 5 in C minor.

38th Annual Student Academy Awards - winners

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the winners for its 38th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Fifteen films were selected as award winners. Twelve were from nine American colleges or Universities while three were from Europe (Sweden, Germany and Norway).

The Narrative winners were Soham Mehta (Fatakra), Shawn Wines (High Maintenance), Columbia University, and Julian Higgins (Thief). For Documentary, the winners were Anthony Weeks (Imaginary Circumstances), Theo Rigby (Sin Pais (Without Country)), and Wonjung Bae (Vera Klement: Blunt Edge).

The 38th Annual Student Academy Awards ceremony takes place on June 11 at Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. At that time, winners will learn whether they have received Gold, Silver or Bronze Awards in their respective categories.