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.
Here's our LIVE Oscar Blog for what was a fairly predictable and uneventful night that will go down in the books as the failed "Franco and Hathaway" experiment. ABC might want to start planning the format for the 84th sometime next week.
Before we unveil our most anticipated film of 2011, I figure we might want to emphasize some of the names that most frequently populated our Top 100 Most Anticipated Films list. Here is our version of 10 movers and shakers for 2011.