Call for submissions: ReelWorld's Indie Film Lounge

The ReelWorld Film Festival has announced its call for submissions for participants in their development program for diverse and emerging filmmakers called Indie Film Lounge.

The Indie Film Lounge is a career-maker

Each year, we offer 20 emerging and racially diverse artists (E20s) a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Writers Guild of Canada's 2014 WGC Screenwriting Awards – winners

The 18th annual WGC Screenwriting Awards took place Monday night at Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, and it was a great night.

The show, hosted by Seán Cullen and written by Seán Cullen and Luciano Casimiri, was fun (and funny!). The pre-show reception was packed with WGC members and our colleagues in the industry. All in all it was a terrific evening celebrating the excellence of Canadian screenwriters, and we salute all of the nominees.

2014 Festival du Cinéma Latino-américain de Montréal, Apr 24-May 8

LATIN AMERICA LIVES HERE

From April 24 to May 8, Cinema du Parc is featuring a selection of the best Latin-American films, a few Spanish films, and a Portuguese film by a Brazilian director, which is opening the festival. Sixteen films were chosen from Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Guadalajara in 2013-2014.

Come discover the hidden wealth of talented directors, actors and actresses from countries whose films we don’t get to see all year long. As long as there isn’t a Latin-American movie on the bill in Montreal every week, a festival like this will always have a raison d’être.

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal announces indoor shows for 35th annual festival

35 candles…and a thousand musical fireworks!
Tickets go on sale Saturday at noon
Exclusive pre-sale for Infolettre Spectra subscriber starts tomorrow!

And yes, sparks will fly during the indoor program of this 35th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, presented by TD in collaboration with Rio Tinto Alcan! Sparks will light up our eyes and our stages, ignited by a constellation of the greatest names from the world of music! Night after night, fans can expect unexpected encounters, exclusive creations, musicians who flirt with or achieve perfection, or soar into the sublime… In other words, the Festival treats itself—and all of us!—to an unprecedented 35th birthday program! From June 26 to July 6, jazz unveils all of its splendour in our venues, featuring the greatest artists from here and abroad, breathing new life into the music in its purest form or its many related musical genres, from blues to hip-hop. Tickets for these concerts go on sale this Saturday, April 26 at noon… although Infolettre Spectra subscribers (subscription is free at infolettrespectra.ca) can purchase them starting tomorrow at 9 a.m. until Friday at 9 p.m.!

North by Northeast announces film programme for 2014 festival

NXNE FILM BREAKS OUT OF THE MUSIC BOX!
JUNE 13 – 15, 2015 | BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

NORTH BY NORTHEAST (NXNE) is boldly expanding the scope of its acclaimed NXNE Film programming from just music-themed movies to the best films across all genres. Today, the festival announces its first round of flicks for 2014 - including silent film La Voz De Los Silenciados (The Voice Of The Voiceless) and the horror-comedy Whoops!. NXNE Film will include World, North American and Canadian premieres, all of which will screen at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema between June 13-15, 2014.

"Being the 20th Anniversary of NXNE and the 14th year for our film festival we wanted to broaden our horizons this year and add features which are not necessarily about music,” says NXNE Film programmer Cameron Carpenter. “Of course we remain enthusiastic about music and there are many great new music-driven films to keep our audiences entertained. This year, however, we have added a great series of unique narrative features to our line-up, including La Voz de Los Sileciados; a silent Brechtian recanting of modern-day slavery in a criminal organization in New York. These kinds of features, along with our great partnership with The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, will no doubt continue to expand on our growing audience.”

Inaugural Niagara Integrated Film Festival to take place June 19-22, 2014

Peter Sellers’ worked with Mordecai Richler? See it and believe it.
The Vault to Lost Film Treasures is Opened As Toronto Film Fest Founder
Bill Marshall turns Niagara Region into Summer Cinema Central

(photos by Allan Tong)

They once were lost, but now they’re found. And the inaugural Niagara Integrated Film Festival has them! The hugely-anticipated event from Toronto International Film Festival founder, Bill Marshall, kicks off June 19-22 with some incredible recently-uncovered featured programs.

Among them: two short films from the ‘50s – a combination of sketch-comedy and sitcom - starring a pre-Pink Panther Peter Sellers and written by Canada’s Mordecai Richler, and one of the earliest silent films with Mary Pickford, the Canadian-born “America’s Sweetheart.”

Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) at Cannes announces 2014 lineup

The Festival de Cannes' sidebar Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (or Directors' Fortnight) has announces the programming selection for its 46th edition.

The opening night fil will be Bande de fille (Girlhood) by Céline Sciamma. It is her third film after similarly-themed Naissance des Pieuvres (Water Lilies) and Tomboy which also explored adolescence and sexuality.

The closing night film will be Pride by British filmmaker Matthew Warchus. It is a gay-politics comedy starring Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Paddy Considine.

Canada is represented by two Quebec films. Tu Dors Nicole by Stéphane Lafleur is the latest film from micro_scope Productions, makers of acclaimed films such as Philippe Falardeau's Monsieur Lazhar, and Denis Villeneuve's Incendies and Enemy. Montreal-based Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre will present her animated documentary Jutra about the groundbreaking Quebec director in the short film section.

Semaine de la Critique (Critics' Week) at Cannes announces 2014 lineup

The programme for the Cannes festival sidebar known as 53rd Semaine de la Critique or Critics' Week was announced this morning. Along with the seven main competition features, the lineup opens with Faire L’Amour from Haitian France-based director Djinn Carrénard and closes with Hippocrate from France's Thomas Lilti. In addition, there will be two special screenings: Respire, the second directorial work from French actress Mélanie Laurent, and L’Institutrice (The Kindergarden Teacher) from Israeli's Nadav Lapid.

The only American film in the programme is the zombie film It Follows by David Robert Mitchell. Canada's only selection is the short film Petit Frère by Rémi St-Michel.

67th Festival de Cannes announces full official film selections [UPDATED]

The Festival de Cannes announced the full lineup for its 67th annual edition of the festival this morning. Included in the Competition films will be three works by Canadian directors.

David Cronenberg will be presenting the world premiere of Maps To The Stars, starring Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack and Robert Pattinson. Atom Egoyan returns with The Captive, starring Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman and Rosario Dawson. Quebec’s Xavier Dolan enters the Competition section for the first time with Mommy, starring Anne Dorval, Antoine-Olivier Pilon and Suzanne Clément.

Yet again, there are few women filmmakers amongst the official competition selections. The only two selected were Alice Rohrwacher with La Meraviglie and Naomi Kawase for Still the Water. This is too bad, since Jane Campion has been selected to preside the Jury for this year. She is the only female director to have won the Palme d’or, for The Piano in 1993, and had previously won a Short Film Palme d’or back in 1986 for Peel.

Festival de Cannes announces short film selections

While the Official Selection of feature films for the 67th Festival de Cannes will be revealed on Thursday 17th April, the list of Short Films is unveiled in advance.

The Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury, presided by Abbas KIAROSTAMI, will nominate the prize-winners for the Short Film Competition and the Cinéfondation Selection.

2014 Billboard Music Awards – nominations

With help from pop R&B singer Jason Derulo live this morning on “Good Morning America,” dick clark productions and Billboard, the ultimate authority in music and home of the iconic Billboard charts defining success in music, today announced the finalists for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards, honoring the year’s most successful artists in 40 categories. The 2014 Billboard Music Awards will broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 18, on ABC from 8:00 PM–11:00 PM ET, with performances from music’s biggest stars. The “2014 Billboard Music Awards” is produced by dick clark productions. Allen Shapiro and Mike Mahan are Executive Producers. Larry Klein and Barry Adelman are Producers.

Derulo appeared in the 8:00 AM ET hour of “Good Morning America” today, to announce his participation as a performer in this year’s Billboard Music Awards. Derulo also announced five of the 40 finalist categories, including: Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Female Artist, Top R&B Artist, and Top Country Artist.

Finalists Imagine Dragons and Lorde lead with twelve categories each. Imagine Dragons is vying for its first Billboard Music Award this year. The quartet burned up the charts in 2013 with its album "Night Visions" (which is also a finalist for Top Rock Album) and its many hit singles. Among those is the smash hit "Radioactive," which broke the record for the most weeks ever on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Lorde broke through in 2013 as well with her inescapable No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single "Royals" and debut album "Pure Heroine." The two musical acts go head-to-head in nine categories, including Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Digital Songs Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Rock Artist, Top Rock Album, Top Hot 100 Song, Top Digital Song, Top Streaming Song (Audio), and Top Rock Song.

Film review at ReelWorld Film Festival: Millions

Writer/Director: Andrew C
Producer: Christian Peterson
Cast: Hubert Tran, Andrew “Pyro” Chung, Ben Brillantes, Jasmine Chen, Stephan Kim, Lee "Lethal" Pham, Tanya Mok, Eric Regimbald, Ins Choi
Indie drama
1 hour, 34 minutes

Review by Allan Tong

This year's Asian-Canadian films at ReelWorld, a festival showcasing racial diversity on screen, includes three Toronto filmmakers: Johnny Vong whose short, The Marvelous Girl, premiered at Cannes, Austin Wong's short Gaysian, which challenges queer stereotypes, and Andrew C's feature Millions.

Millions actually collects episodes from its web series of the same name.  The movie and the series is an ensemble piece about a bunch of 20somethings in modern T.O. trying to strike it rich before they hit 30.  Brandon (Hubert Tran), who is frustrated working a dead-end 9-to-5 call centre job, is the movie's/show's anchor.  He still lives with his folks who are stuck in the Old Country, still eating rice for breakfast while resisting Western gadgets like the internet.

4th Annual Canadian Cinema Editors Awards – nominations

The Canadian Cinema Editors (C.C.E.) announced today their nominations for the 4th Annual Canadian Cinema Editors Awards, which were selected by a panel of fellow editors, directors and other skilled industry professionals.

The Canadian Cinema Editors (C.C.E.) is a non-profit organization with the goal of bettering the art and science of picture editing in all media. Through a better understanding of each other, and teaching others in our industry we hope to advance the profile of professional film editors. Our aim is to spark passion in us all and bring recognition to those who create the last draft of the script by weaving a mosaic of picture and sound in the cutting rooms across Canada.

Call for submissions: 12th Annual Regent Park Film Festival

The 12th Annual Regent Park Film Festival – Call For Submissions is Now Open!

Regent Park Film Festival is Toronto’s only free-of-charge, multi-cultural, film festival dedicated to showcasing the best local and international film and video works. The stories we celebrate resonate with the inner city, community-driven, trans-national, transient context of Regent Park, as well as with other similar communities all over the world.

Regent Park is the oldest and largest public housing project in Canada. It is home to a diverse group of communities, prominently new immigrants and Indigenous peoples. Regent Park is currently undergoing a long-term revitalization, where mixed income housing is being introduced into the community.

The stories celebrated resonate with the inner city, community-driven, trans-national, transient context of Regent Park, as well as with other communities in Toronto, across Canada and all over the world. We encourage local, national and international participation.

Call for submissions: imagineNATIVE 2014

Be part of imagineNATIVE’s 15th Anniversary Year!

Be a part of 15 ground-breaking years showcasing the rise of the Indigenous media arts movement! It’s time to submit your film, video, radio and new media works for the 15th anniversary imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. This year’s Festival runs from October 22-26, 2014 in Toronto, Canada.

imagineNATIVE is an international Festival that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples at the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio and new media. Each fall, the Festival presents a selection of the most compelling and distinctive Indigenous works from Canada and around the globe. The works accepted reflect the diversity of the world's Indigenous nations and illustrate the vitality and excellence of our art and culture in contemporary media. Last year, imagineNATIVE presented 127 works, and had 70+ artists and 15,558 people in attendance at the Festival.

Canadian documentaries out in force at MIPDoc 2014

Telefilm Canada and the Canada Media Fund (CMF) are pleased to announce Canada’s presence at MIPDoc 2014, the world’s leading international documentary market, taking place April 5 and 6 in Cannes, France. The productions Inside the Mind of Leonardo, Secouristes de l’extrême, Arctic Defenders, Avatar Secrets, Burgundy Jazz and Who Killed Gandhi? will be screened at this forum devoted exclusively to documentary content. In addition, the documentary series Apocalypse: World War One and the production Fort McMoneywill also be presented at conference sessions.

“Telefilm takes great pride in its documentary industry, which is recognized worldwide for films that impact society,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “Canada’s presence at MIPDoc is very important, because this must-do event allows producers to network, promote their projects, find strong subjects and locate financing sources.”

Call for submissions: Festival du nouveau cinéma 2014

Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma has announced a call for submissions for its 43rd edition of the festival. They are looking for films, interactive works and performances.

The Festival du nouveau cinéma is committed to the exploration and development of new practices in cinema and new media. It is a premiere showcase for original and brand-new works, particularly in the fields of independent cinema and digital creation.

Only works produced after January 1st, 2013 and not previously shown in Montréal, Québec are eligible. All selected entries must be in their original language and subtitled in French (preferably) or in English.