Film Buzz

The Oscar Nominations: Who Will, Who Might, Who Won't

Graham Fuller Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Of the other Best Picture Oscar nominees, David O Russell’s The Fighter has seven nominations, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan six apiece, the animated Toy Story 3, directed by Lee Unkrich, has five, and two indies, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right and Debra Granik’s Winter's Bone, have four each.

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Pete Postlethwaite, 1946-2011

Jasper Rees Monday, 03 January 2011

'It's a face, that's for sure': Pete Postlethwaite on his natural features

Pete Postlethwaite, who has died from cancer at the age of 64, was an extremely amicable man whom Hollywood had down as a lugubrious baddie. It happened in Aliens 3, in The Usual Suspects, in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

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Travel films from the dawn of movie time

Ismene Brown Tuesday, 07 December 2010

Some rare restored film of pre-First World War Europe, shot by intrepid travelling cameramen from 1905 to 1926, is being shown tomorrow in an intriguing event at Europe House, the new home of the EU in London.

From the Ballets Russes, BFI

Judith Flanders Friday, 01 October 2010

Where Busby Berkeley learned everything he knew

This is the second part of a series that has passed a little too quietly for comfort. The V&A’s grand Diaghilev show has received all the noise in the press – “fabulous”, “sumptuous”, “exotic” – in fact, all the words that were used at the time to describe Diaghilev’s company. The only word that isn’t...

František Vláčil Season at the BFI

Jasper Rees Tuesday, 14 September 2010

Of all the schools of film which were allowed to sprout behind the Iron Curtain, it was in Czechslovakia which contrived to export its work most successfully to the West.

Time for European film-goers to vote

theartsdesk Wednesday, 01 September 2010

Milking the audience: Francesco Scianna in Baaria

Every year the European Film Academy asks film-goers to become an electorate. They have the chance to vote on their favourite film for the People’s Choice Award. Last year they plumped for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. Previous winners include Volver, Life is Beautiful and Amélie. Which film will it be in...

Arts Council spared - but UK Film Council is to go

Ismene Brown Tuesday, 27 July 2010

The Arts Council of England has escaped the government axe - unlike the UK Film Council. Reports over the past week or two paint a grim picture of diminishing arts budgets in Scotland, Wales and England while the Conservative-Lib Dem Government takes its machete to what it considers the fat in public spending.

Let's twist again: send us your spoilers

Josh Spero Monday, 26 July 2010

To coincide with the release of a not-very-memorable film with a not-very-memorable twist - RPatz's Remember Me (no, we don't) - is a top-ten of twists. We want to hear yours.

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EIFF Launch

graeme Thomson Tuesday, 01 June 2010

I’m just back – goodie bag gripped greedily in paw – from this morning’s launch of the 64th Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs in the Scottish capital from 16-27 June.

Thai Film Takes the Top Prize in Cannes

Sheila Johnston Sunday, 23 May 2010

A scene from Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee, Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which won the Palme D'Or in Cannes tonight

At last, some good news for this beleaguered country: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, by the Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, took the Palme D'Or in Cannes tonight. Hailed as one of the most striking and unusual films in competition - and also the entry most in tune with the maverick spirit of the Jury President, Tim Burton - Uncle Boonmee is the story of a dying man who revisits scenes from his previous lives, as, inter alia, a buffalo and...

Brit has her first feature selected for Cannes

Sheila Johnston Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Alicia Duffy's feature debut, All Good Children

Cheering news for Brits in Cannes (always assuming anyone is actually able to travel there this year). Originally rumoured to be in line for the Critics' Week, a young British filmmaker, Alicia Duffy, has now secured an even better berth: her first feature has been selected by the Directors' Fortnight, the prestigious parallel (and rival) event to the main competition.

Cannes Film Festival line-up unveiled

Sheila Johnston Thursday, 15 April 2010

New films by Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears and Sophie Fiennes figure in the line-up of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, which was announced at a press conference in Paris this morning. As expected, Leigh's Another Year will vie for the Palme d'Or, the only British film to be selected. Frears's Tamara Drewe, based on the Guardian comic strip, plays out of competition, as does Oliver Stone's Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps and Woody Allen's London-set You...

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Become a film producer for £10

Sheila Johnston Monday, 12 April 2010

Making movies has never been cheaper. Learning how to make them is another matter altogether. Film courses abound, but they invariably cost many times more than, say, Marc Price claims he spent on Colin, his £45 zombie flick. Mindful of this, the East End Film Festival is offering impecunious would-be producers a chance to learn the business for a mere tenner. Subsidised by...

See 200 films in nine days...

Sheila Johnston Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Barney Platts-Mills' cult 1969 film Bronco Bullfrog opens the East End Film Festival

Now in its ninth year, London's East End Film Festival today announced its programme at a reception at the heart of its manor, at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane. The Festival kicks off on 22 April with a preview screening of Barney Platts-Mills' cult 1969 film Bronco Bullfrog, set in Stratford, East London and starring local kids, prior to its re-release this summer.

Fiennes to direct himself as Coriolanus

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Is this a good idea? It has been announced that Ralph Fiennes is to begin work as a director. Not that he is forsaking his more familiar job description in the mean time. For his debut behind the camera, he will also be in front of the camera in the modest, unchallenging part of Coriolanus. Yes, Fiennes is returning to a role that he first played on stage 10 years ago.

Variety spikes own critics

Josh Spero Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Variety, the most venerable entertainment trade journal in America, is sacking its chief film and theatre critics, including the man for whose film reviews many people read the magazine, Todd McCarthy.