2013 Festival de Cannes – award winners

Tonight, during the Closing Ceremony of this 66th Festival de Cannes, the Jury presided over by Steven Spielberg revealed the award winners.

Audrey Tautou hosted Uma Thurman on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière to award the Palme d’or to the best film among the 20 in Competition. The winner this year was La Vie d'Adele - Chapitre 1 & 2" (Blue is the Warmest Colour) by Abdellatif Kechiche. The film is a lesbian love story, and many consider it an appropriate choice especially in light of France's legalization of gay marriage this week.

Jérôme Salle’s Zulu starring Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker, was screened at the end of the ceremony.

GLAAD Media Awards 2013 – winners pt 3

GLAAD honored California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Grammy-nominated singer Adam Lambert, and the best in entertainment and journalism on Saturday night at the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco. Mel B, Guillermo Diaz, Tamala Jones, Jinkx Monsoon, Rex Lee and Laverne Cox were among the special guests.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives. The GLAAD Media Awards also fund GLAAD's work to amplify stories of LGBT people and issues that build support for equality.

At the ceremony, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom presented GLAAD's Golden Gate Award to her husband, Gavin Newsom. In accepting the award, Newsom said, "There's one fundamental that defines the best of this city, and the best of this organization, and that is we don’t tolerate our diversity, we truly celebrate our diversity. We highlight all those wonderful and interesting differences, but at the end of the day we unite around our common humanity. As Dr. King so eloquently said, 'We are all bound together by a web of mutuality.' We're all in this together."

2013 David di Donatello Awards for Italian film – nominations

The Accademia del Cinema Italiano (Academy of Italian Cinema) has announced the nominations for the 57th David di Donatello Awards.

Leading the way with 13 nominations were Daniele Vicari's Diaz and Giuseppe Tornatore's La migliore offerta (The Best Offer). The former received mentions for Best Film, Best Director, Best Producer and Best Supporting Actor (Claudio Santamaria). The latter was nominated in the top categories of Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Producer, but not in any of the acting categories.

The other nominees for Best Film were Gabriele Salvatores's Educazione siberiana (Siberian Education), Bernardo Bertolucci's Io e te (Me and You), and Roberto Ando's Viva la liberta (Long Live Liberty). Ando, however, was the only Best Picture nominee to miss out on a Best Director nod. The fifth spot went to Matteo Garrone for Reality.

TIFF announces Athens for its 2013 City To City programme

Toronto – Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, and Dimitri Eipides, International Programmer for the Festival, announced today that the city of Athens, Greece will be the focus of the 2013 City to City programme at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival®.

“City to City looks for cinematic hot spots around the world," said Bailey. “We want to introduce our audience to new generations of filmmakers unafraid to rewrite the rules. When we started thinking about the startlingly original films emerging recently from this ancient and contemporary city, the perfect choice for us this year was Athens."

TIFF Bell Lightbox announces upcoming A Century of Chinese Cinema programme

TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX CELEBRATES A CENTURY OF CHINESE CINEMA WITH UNPRECEDENTED FILM SERIES, EXHIBITIONS AND SPECIAL GUESTS
- Programme features 80 films, free exhibitions and guests including Chen Kaige, Johnnie To and Jackie Chan -
- Tickets on sale May 21 at 10 a.m. for TIFF Members, May 27 at 10 a.m. for non-members -

Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox, announced today details for a comprehensive exploration of Chinese film, art and culture. A Century of Chinese Cinema features a major film retrospective of over 80 titles, sessions with some of the biggest names in Chinese cinema, and a free exhibition featuring two internationally acclaimed visual artists. The flagship programme of the summer season, A Century of Chinese Cinema runs from June 5 to August 11, 2013.

"A Century of Chinese Cinema exemplifies TIFF's vision to foster new relationships and build bridges of cultural exchange," said Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF. "If we are, indeed, living in the Chinese Century, it is essential that we attempt to understand what that entails. There is no better way to do so than through film, which encourages cross-cultural understanding in our city and beyond."

Hot Docs Award Winners, part 2

HOT DOCS WRAPS 20TH ANNIVERSARY WITH RECORD-BREAKING AUDIENCES OF 180,000
MUSCLE SHOALS NAMED AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER AND
THE MACHINE WHICH MAKES EVERYTHING DISAPPEAR AND THESE BIRDS WALK TIE FOR FILMMAKERS AWARD

Toronto, May 6, 2013 – Hot Docs has wrapped its 20th anniversary edition with record-breaking audience numbers reaching an estimated 180,000. The 11-day event featured 418 public screenings—
157 of which went rush—of 204 films on 16 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 presented the Scotiabank Big Ideas series, featuring live onstage discussions with documentary subjects Anita Hill, Roméo Dallaire, Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss, and celebrated its 20th anniversary with a free outdoor screening to thank its loyal audiences. The Festival welcomed 180 guest filmmakers and 55 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 2386 films submitted to the Festival.

2013 Australian Directors Guild Awards – winners

The Australian Directors Guild held their 31st Annual ADG Awards this weekend. The event was hosted by Adam Zwar, while attendees included Rachel Ward, Bryan Brown, Susie Porter and Denise Roberts.

Women directors swept the top honours with Cate Shortland winning Best Direction in a Feature Film for her German-language World War II drama Lore; Rachel Perkins winning for Best Direction in a TV Drama Series for Redfern Now (Pretty Boy Blue); and Jessica Hobbs winning for Best Direction in a TV Mini Series for Devil's Dust (Parts 1 & 2). Grace McKenzie won for Best Direction in a Documentary Feature for Audrey of the Alps and Madeleine Parry took Best Direction in a Documentary (Stand Alone) for Meatwork.

Jessica Redenbach took out the Award for Best Direction in a Short Film for Tender, Jennifer Peedom for Best Direction in a Documentary Series for Life at 7.

2013 Golden Trailer Awards – winners

It was a big night for The Walt Disney Studios at the 14th Annual Golden Trailer Awards at the Saban Theatre on Friday night. The preview for Iron Man 3 took two awards, Best Summer Blockbuster and the top prize, Best In Show. The Wreck It Ralph trailer nabbed Best Animation/Family, Monsters University had the Most Original Trailer, and as a capper, Disney studio marketers were given the first-ever Top Of The Box Office award for their campaign on 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers. The studio got two additional offstage nods for Best Animation/Family TV Spot on Monsters University and Most Original Spot for Brave.

Between volleys of jokes by headliner Rob Schneider host Aisha Tyler, 18 of 67 total awards were handed out. Justin Chon of the Twilight movies presented, as did Lake Bell, writer, director and star of In A World…, a critically acclaimed new comedy which has its dramatic climax at a Golden Trailer Awards ceremony.

Among other kudos, the Skyfall promo took Best Action, and Best Documentary went to the Brooklyn Castle trailer, and Best Video Game went to the Tomb Raider preview. The 18 show awards are listed below. The full list, which includes the best of the year in TV Spots, posters, foreign trailers, festival trailers and more, can be found on the Golden Trailer website.

Hot Docs 2013 Award Winners Announced

Friday night at a reception hosted by Jian Ghomeshi (CBC Radio One’s Q) at the Windsor Arms Hotel, 11 awards and $89,000 in cash and prizes were presented to Canadian and international filmmakers, including awards for Festival films in competition and those recognizing emerging and established filmmakers.

Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award
WHEN I WALK (D: Jason DaSilva; P: Jason DaSilva, Alice Cook; USA, Canada)
Sponsored by the Documentary Organization of Canada, the award includes a $10,000 cash prize courtesy of Hot Docs.
An additional screening has been added on Sunday, May 5, at 6:30 pm at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

2013 Student Academy Awards finalists announced

Thirty-eight students from 17 U.S. colleges and universities as well as nine students from foreign universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards competition. Winners will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industry activities and social events that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title):

Call for submissions: The Fringe 100

The Toronto Fringe Festival has announced a call for submissions for its program The 100, a free immersive summer program for 100 emerging artists at the Toronto Fringe. The details are as follows:

The Fringe 100

If you join The 100 you will be given a free, all-access VIP pass to the Toronto Fringe Festival, as well as professional development, mentorship, arts immersion and networking opportunities. During our 12 day festival, you will be empowered to actively engage and interact with Fringe patrons, take workshops with leading industry professionals, learn tips & tricks from intimate artist-mentors and develop entrepreneurial skills under the guidance of Fringe staff and associates.