By Gary M. Kramer. The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival offered attendees hundreds of films—documentaries, dramas, thrillers, comedies, and character studies—that sought to reveal some aspect of the human condition. Here is a rundown of five films from the festival. One of the best entries at the festival this year was BIG JOY: The Adventures of [...]
By Jacob Mertens. I have become convinced that I bring bad weather with me to Austin. For the last three years I have attended the SXSW Film Festival, and for the last three years it has rained on me. In one absurd moment in 2012, I rode a friend’s bike into downtown Austin during a [...]
By N. Buket Cengiz. At the 32nd International Istanbul Film Festival organized by İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), which ran from March 30th to April the 14th, outstanding examples of the art of cinema from all around the world were screened yet again this year. The film What Richard Did (2012), directed by [...]
By Moira Sullivan. The 35th Créteil International Women’s Film Festival, which was held from March 22 to 31, featured several special events this year. First, tributes were given to veteran filmmakers and actresses who have attended previous festivals such as Margarethe von Trotta, Suzanne Osten, Mira Nair, Ulrike Ottinger, Agnes Varda, Carmen Maura, Maria Schneider [...]
By Anthony Killick. The success of the 2012 Bristol Radical Film Festival proved how the demand for socially and politically engaged film hasn’t dwindled, despite attempts by those in power to abstract politics away from the day-to-day lives of the public. The festival showed how film is one of the most powerful tools for education [...]
By Yun-hua Chen. Against a backdrop of the Berlinale bear, the film festival opens with Wang Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster (2012), the five-year’s lavish-looking work of the president of the international jury. During the ten-day celebration of cinema, the city was honoured by the glamorous presence of international stars every night, among them three divas [...]
By Jacob Mertens. The road sweeps before me, and I watch snowcapped mountains peer through the dark like ghosts. They tower above, catch the faint light of sunrise, and I would be in awe if I were not so paranoid that any moment a truck could smash into me, obliterating my shoebox-sized rental car. Yes, [...]
By James Udden. Before attending the Festival des 3 Continents, I had only associated Nantes with a historical edict and a film festival I hoped to attend someday. Now I associate the actual film festival with an actual city, and a delightful one at that. Since very little is written about the Festival des 3 [...]
By Michael Miller. Unspooling at eight venues across Center City and West Philly, the 21st Philadelphia Film Festival celebrated mainstream, independent, and foreign cinema from local filmmakers and world masters. The festival offered something for every film lover from its various programs, which included World Narratives, New French Films and Spanish Language Cinema; the festival [...]
By Yun-hua Chen. This year Viennale celebrates its 50th anniversary. After the opening gala, Ben Affleck’s Argo (2012), Viennale offers two weeks’ feast of feature films, short film programs, In Focus programme, and retrospectives. Especially striking in its selection of documentaries are those documenting musicians of different gender, generations, geopolitical backgrounds and artistic interests: Marcelo [...]