Search results for: Julia Leigh

Breaking out around the time where NYFF is on its last legs, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (October 12 to 23) kicks in with about four times the size in volume, and obviously more of an eclectic range. This year is the festival's big 40 - and for the occasion they've commissioned some of the names who've been a part of the festival to each contribute a short film in the context of what is being called the "Cartes Blanches" series. Denis Côté, Deco Dawson, Sophie Deraspe, Rodrigue Jean, Zacharias Kunuk, Marie Losier, Catherine Martin, Bruce McDonald, Théodore Ushev and Denis Villeneuve will each submit a four minute short.

Another Australian Entry about the Tantalizing Tasmanian Tiger

It's official. The cruelest bunch on the film festival circuit are the programmers from TIFF. Once again they make choosing what films to cover during a film festival a painstaking process. A sizeable chunk of films among the just announced Gala and Special Presentations reflect ongoing trends, heavy on world premieres of Brit offerings, red carpet bling items that will be receiving a theatrical release with weeks of the T.O premiere, and a satisfying mix of Cannes items that are definitely worth re-watching and Venice items that have been circled as must see coverage items for the IONCINEMA.com team.

Regardless what larger themes or shifting styles that are discovered or get attached to this year's Cannes batch, one of the major conversation starters is the prominence of global female filmmakers at the festival. There are 22 feature films by female directors (and I'm not even including the short films) which should be a record for any festival in recent memory.

This year Korean writer and director Bong Joon-Ho will preside over the jury that hands out the Camera d'Or (Golden Camera) award - the only cross-section award on the Croisette that is given to the best first feature. This year's winner will join the ranks of Michael Rowe (Leap Year, 2010), Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah, 2009), Steve McQueen (Hunger, 2008), Etgar Keret & Shira Geffen (Jellyfish, 2007), Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest, 2006) who all won the prestigious prize in the last five years.