Toronto Student Film Festival 2012, May 12

Lights. Camera. Action: Announcing 6th annual Toronto Student Film Festival
May 12th, 2012

Student filmmakers from around the world have flocked to enter the sixth annual Toronto Student Film Festival (TSFF). Toronto is recognized around the world for its passion for film in all of its forms and the many film festivals that run throughout the year. The Toronto Student Film Festival (www.tsff.ca) differs considerably: it is run by youth for youth. Since its inception in 2006, the festival has strived to promote and showcase the work of hundreds of young filmmakers aged 12 – 21 from almost every continent on the globe to screen their short films.

The 2012 showcase is taking place on May 12th at the Toronto Underground Cinema, one of the city’s last undiscovered gems. This year TSFF received 200 entries of which 25 have been chosen as finalists by the Festival Committee comprised of students and advisors, as well as industry experts including:

2012 Student Academy Awards – foreign film winners

Beverly Hills, CA (May 11, 2012) – Three student films, selected from 51 entries representing 29 countries, have been selected as winners in the Foreign Film category in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 39th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. The student filmmakers will be brought to Los Angeles to join U.S.-based Student Academy Award® recipients for a week of industry activities. The festivities will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 9, at 6 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The 2012 Foreign Film winners are (listed alphabetically by film title):

2012 Montreal Turkish Film Festival, May 11-20

The 4th Montreal Turkish Film Festival opens tonight at the Cinéma du Parc in Montréal.

The opening film is Güzel Günler Göreceğiz (To Better Days) by Hasan Tolga Pulat. The drama is an ensemble story of one day in the life of five characters.

The other features screening during the festival are Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever (Love Likes Coincidences), Nar (Pomegranate), Deli Deli Olma (Piano Girl), Kırık Midyeler (Broken Mussels), Kar Beyaz (White As Snow), Gişe Memuru (Toll Booth), Metruk (The Abandoned), Toroslarda Bir Efsane (A Legend in the Taurus Mountains), Zincirbozan and Batiya Bak (Look West).

Arirang Korea Smartphone Film Festival, May 11

The inaugural Arirang Korea Smartphone Film Festival takes place tonight in Toronto. The event is free and free food will also be provided.

Filmmakers were asked to make short films on their smartphones up to four minutes in length with some element of anything Korean. Prizes available to be won are $1,000 for the Arirang Korea Award – Best Film; a Samsung Galaxy Tablet for the Best Korean Element Award; a Pico Dolly System for Best Cinematography Award; $500 Audience Choice Award; a 2012 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival pass; and a LIFT 2012 Summer Workshop Voucher.

2012 Concordia Film Festival, May 10-12

Recognized as one of the best cinema schools in North America, the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema presents outstanding student work at their 39th annual year-end film festival. This year, the festival is presented at the Cinérobothèque at the National Film Board of Canada (1564 Rue Saint-Denis, Metro Berri-UQAM). Students and film enthusiasts are invited to experience this incomparable event.

The schedule consists of films made by Concordia film students, in first, second and third year, as well as a screening of Masters students’ work. The strength of the CFF is the diverse scope of work; audiences will find narratives and animation, documentary and experimental films.

Call for submissions: RCI World Filmmaker showcase

Radio Canada International (RCI), the international broadcasting service of the CBC, has put out a call for submissions for short films by Canadian students in University, College or CEGEP.

The theme for this year's submissions is "Cultural Crossroads." They prefer the films to be about ten minutes in length but the films may be as long as 30 minutes. If they are not in either English or French, they must be subtitled in English or French.

Selected works will be presented on the rcinet.ca/vision website and possible television broadcast.

TIFF Next Wave 2012 – May 10-12

Today marks the opening of the inaugural TIFF Next Wave Film Festival for youth age 14-18. Previously known as the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, TIFF divided the children's festival into TIFF Kids for 13 and under, and TIFF Next Wave for high school-age youth.

Films screened include Amir Bar-Lev’s Re:Generation Music Project, Muriel Coulin’s 17 Girls and Aurora Guerrero’s Mosquita Y Mari. The closing night film will be Matthew Lillard's directorial debut Fat Kid Rules the World with Lillard in attendance.

In addition to screenings, the festival will host various workshops, panels, the TIFF Next Wave Set Design Challenge, Future Frames and Games, and other fun activities for young people.

2012 National Film Awards (Bhutan) – winners

The Motion Picture Association of Bhutan (MPAB) in collaboration with the Department of Culture recently held their 11th Annual National Film Awards in Thimphu.

Kuenley Tshering Dorji’s I am Sonam Kuenga Namgyel, about a boy who is orphaned at birth and left in the custody of his uncle, swept the awards with ten wins. It won the awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer, Best Choreography, Best Newcomer – Male (Kuenga Rinzin Dorji), Best Child Artist (Sonam Kuenga Namgyel), Best Editor, Background Score and Lighting.

Next with six awards was Ashi Nangsa. Its wins were for Best Animation and Best Culture-Based Film, as well as Art Director, Music Composer, Playback Singer – Female (Pema Lhamo) and Playback Singer – Male (Pem Samdrup).

Volunteers now being accepted for TIFF 2012

The Toronto International Film Festival is currently accepting volunteer applications for the 37th edition of TIFF which runs September 6 through 16, 2012.

Unlike the American festivals, TIFF is a non-profit organization that relies on a large team of volunteer helpers. TIFF's volunteers are widely recognized for their hard work and dedication in keeping the festival machinery running smoothly.

New volunteers are required to attend an orientation session. For each shift that a volunteer takes, they receive a voucher which allows them to attend a screening during the festival itself or at TIFF Bell Lightbox when it is done. Not all of the shifts take place during the festival – you can sign up for volunteer shifts in the set-up and tear-down stages of the festival too.

Call for applications: Reel Asian's Youth Summer Video Production Workshop

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival has put out a call for applications for Reel Asian's Inaugural Youth Summer Video Production Workshop.

Young Asian Canadians are invited to apply for this program for aspiring filmmakers. The workshop is for those with little to no filmmaking experience, between the ages of 16 and 24, and live in the Greater Toronto Area (applicants under age 18 require parental consent).

Selected participants for The Summer Video Production Workshop will have their sessions during this July and August with experienced professionals in filmmaking. The program will help you make your own video of up to 8 minutes in length, including production costs. The finished films will premiere at the Reel Asian festival in November.

9th Student Film Showcase

TIFF RAISES THE CURTAIN ON EMERGING FILMMAKERS AT NINTH ANNUAL STUDENT FILM SHOWCASE
Showcase offers national exposure with presentations in Toronto and Vancouver

Scholars rejoice at the ninth annual Student Film Showcase, featuring 10 shorts made by budding filmmakers from across Canada. Presented in association with the Film School Consortium — a national group of 17 colleges and universities — the programme recognizes the nation’s roster of emerging auteurs at one-night-only screenings of the year’s top student films. Curated by TIFF programmers Magali Simard and Alex Rogalski, the Showcase hits Toronto on Tuesday, May 22 at TIFF Bell Lightbox, and returns to Vancouver for its second year on Saturday, May 26 at the Vancity Theatre. Past Showcase works have advanced to screen at major festivals around the world, including the Toronto International Film Festival®.

2012 Hellenic Film Academy Awards – winners

The Ελληνικής Ακαδημίας Κινηματογράφου (Hellenic Film Academy) held the Third Annual Ελληνικής Ακαδημίας Κινηματογράφου Βραβεία (Hellenic Film Academy Awards) tonight at the Onassis Cultural Centre.

The top award winner was Άδικος Κόσμος (Unfair World) by Φίλιππος Τσίτος (Filippos Tsitos). It won four awards in the top categories of Best Picture and Director, as well as Best Actor for Αντώνης Καφετζόπουλος (Antonis Kafetzopoulos) and Best Supporting Actor for Χρήστος Στέργιογλου (Christos Stergioglou). It had led the nominations with eleven along with Το Γάλα (Burning Heads). It now becomes the official Greek submission for the next Academy Awards in the Foreign Language Film category.

Το Γάλα (Burning Heads) by Γιώργος Σιούγας (Giorgos Siougas), however, did not fare as well. It only managed a single win for Makeup.

Call for submissions: 2012 Air Canada enRoute Film Festival

The 2012 Air Canada enRoute Film Festival call for entries: Taking Filmmakers to New Heights
New free public screenings added to Vancouver and Montreal, along with Toronto, $5,000 prize for Best Short Film

TORONTO - Air Canada is pleased to invite Canadian film students and emerging filmmakers to enter its sixth annual short film festival. Selected films will be broadcast on Air Canada's personal in-flight seatback entertainment system as part of its Canadian Movie programming viewed by millions of Air Canadacustomers around the world.

In addition, a free public screening of the top films will be held in Vancouver, Montreal as well as in Toronto, where an awards celebration will follow to honour the winners. All screenings will take place in November.

Hitchcock Master Classes with Guillermo del Toro, May 7–16

In addition to the event In Conversation with Kathleen Turner, tonight TIFF Bell Lightbox hosts the first of several master classes with director Guillermo del Toro on the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

The first film he examines will be the 1946 spy thriller Notorious starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains (not to be confused with the more recent biopic of the same name by George Tillman Jr. about the life and death of Notorious B.I.G.).

Other films screened in del Toro's master class series will be another spy thriller North by Northwest and the serial killer films Shadow of a Doubt and Frenzy.

2012 Hot Docs Audience and Filmmakers Awards – winners

HOT DOCS’ LARGEST FESTIVAL EVER SEES AUDIENCES OF 165,000

CHASING ICE NAMED PEOPLE’S CHOICE AND THE IMPOSTER TAKES FILMMAKERS AWARD

Toronto, May 7, 2012 – Hot Docs has wrapped its most successful Festival to date with audience numbers reaching an estimated 165,000. The 11-day event featured 395 public screenings of 189 films on 14 screens across Toronto, an internationally renowned conference and market for documentary professionals, and Docs for Schools, a phenomenally popular education program for youth. New this year, Hot Docs partnered with Cineplex Entertainment to simulcast the Canadian premieres of two Canadian documentary films to 37 cinemas across the country. A total of 143 screenings went rush, and the box office saw a ten per cent increase in revenue. The Festival welcomed nearly 200 filmmakers and special guest subjects from across Canada and around the world to present their films and take part in special post-screening Q&A sessions with audiences. Official film selections were chosen from a total of 2085 films submitted to the Festival.