Search results for: Nick Simon

Today's announcement for the 2011 Venice Film Festival lineup basically crosses off plenty of sure bets we had been anticipating and makes us circle a bunch of titles we thought had a chance for a 2011 showing but now become hot items for the 2012 campaign. Films such as Juan Diego Solanas' Upside Down, Rodrigo Cortés' Red Lights, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Headshot, Brillante Mendoza's Prey look more and more like Cannes 2012 items, while acquisition titles such as Antonio Campos' Simon Killer and Nick Cassavetes' Yellow wouldn't be out of place for a Sundance showing.

Today co-directors Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling of the Toronto International Film Festival announce the first batch of titles that are the make-up of the 36th edition. Today's the pair will read off mostly Gala screening mentions (our Blake Williams will be LIVE tweeting), which in turn give us a strong indication as to what will be shown in Venice and what Telluride, NYFF and BFI London Film Festivals might salvage/lasso as their own.

Running between August 31st and September 10th, the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival would be a dandy last edition for festival impresario Marco Muller even if he doesn't nab the likes of Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster, Walter Salles' On the Road, Fernando Meirelles' 360 and/or Zhang Yimou's Heroes of Naking. In his final year of contract, with approximately twenty-two competition slots (minus the already confirmed opening film from Italian res George Clooney and his TIFF-bound The Ides of March), this thursday's announcement should be heavy on items from the the U.K along with a robust presence from European filmmakers headed by Roman Polanski's Carnage.

Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival turns 15 years old this summer, and sandwiched between the official opening and closing films - Kevin Smith's horror bow Red State and the Guillermo del Toro-scripted and -produced remake of 1973's Don't Be Afraid of The Dark, respectively - will be more than 120 features, 240 short films, 110 invited guests hosting screenings of their films, and numerous special events including the bestowing of lifetime achievement awards and round table discussions. Below is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's on offer this year.

This week gives us few potentially watchable flicks but nothing great. It’s mid-march, which means nothing will be very exciting (to be fair, the noteworthy Greenberg did come out same time last year, but there’s a particularly large amount of mediocrity going on. If you want a decent dramedy that has something for everyone, Win Win, starring Paul Giamatti, is probably your best bet.