What the Film » Festivals

International Film Festival of Marrakesh

what film — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:24:33 +0000

The 9th International Film Festival of Marrakech is being held these days in the Moroccan city, gathering some important names of the film industry. Personalities within the jury panel this year are Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami as president, Italian actress Isabella Ferrari, Argentinian director Pablo Trapero, French actress Fanny Ardant and British director Mike Figgis among others.

The festival has been an annual event since 2000, put in place thanks to the promotion of Prince Moulay Rachid and the patronage of HM King Mohammed VI. Over the years, the Festival has been gaining further visibility on the international landscape, thanks to the important cinema personalities invited but also to the impeccable organisation of the event.

The charm of Marrakech, a town that has always been a crossroad of different people, cultures and ethnicities, adds its own very particular element to the event. In fact, the fifteen films competing this year make quite a multicultural mix with very well known names as well as new films from directors Ahmad Abdallah (Egypt), Urszula Antoniak (Netherlands), Nosir Saidov (Tajikistan), Rigoberto Perezcano (Mexico) and Enrique Buchichio (Uruguay).

Some of the non competing films that have been shown in the event especially discovered the emerging Thai cinema, with new talents such as Aiptchapong Weerasetakul and Songyos, Sugmakan, as well as Korean cinema. Other special moments of the Festival in program are tributes to be paid to actor Christopher Walken, Sir Ben Kingsley (famous for playing in Schindler’s List), directors Emir Kusturica and Said Taghmaoui.

Finally, a nice initiative was also that of a series of screenings for the visually impaired and a photography exhibition of shots taken by visually impaired people. There is also a charity purpose to this in order to provide cataract operations to patients in the region of Marrakech-Tensift Al Haouz.

Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscar awards

what the film — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:27:43 +0000

The Oscar awards night of 2009 was the night of glory for Slumdog Millionaire. The film won 8 Oscar awards: Best Film Award, Best Director, Original Song, Best Sound Mixing, Best Adapted Screenplay – Simon Beaufoy, Cinematography – Anthony Dod Mantle, Best Film Editing and Best Original Song.

The Lead Actor is Sean Penn in Milk, Lead actress – Kate Winslet in “The Reader”. The Best Supporting Actor was awarded post-mortem to the late actor Heath Ledger. Best supporting actress is Penelope Cruz for her role in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”.

Best original screenplay – Dustin Lance Black for “Milk”.

The Art Direction Award was won by “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, the Best Costume Design was awarded to Michael O’Connor for “The Duchess”, Best Visual Effects: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

Best Foreign Langugae Film award went to a Japanese film – “Departures”. The Best Animated Feature award went to Andrew Stanton for “WALL-E”.

The Best Documentary Feature was awarded to James Marsh and Simon Chinn for “Man on Wire”.

BAFTA Nominations 2009

cinema review — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:30:37 +0000

BAFTA is giving awards for people in film, television and video games and they’ve been doing this for 60 years now and they continue to go strong. They help support the people in the moving images art to continue developing better movies and shows for people to watch and enjoy.

The Orange British Academy Film Awards for 2009 will be held on Sunday, February 8th and it’s going to be the 12th year that BAFTA is in partnership with Orange to give a better awards night for all people to enjoy.

For Best Film, the nominees are Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire and The Reader. For Outstanding british film, the nominees are Hunger, Mamma Mia!, In Bruges, Slumdog Millionaire and Man on Wire. For Best Director, the nominees are Clint Eastwood for Changeling, David Fincher for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Stephen Daldry for The Reader, Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon and Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire. Wall-E, Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis are nominees for the best Animated Film.

If there’s any award that is most sought after, it’s these two awards- Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress. For Leading Actor, the nominees are Frank Langella, Dev Patel, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Mickey Rourke. For Best Leading Actress, the nominees are Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Kristin Scott Thomas and Kate Winslet for two films; the Reader and Revolutionary Road.

There are many more awards to be given away on this great evening and for sure it’s going to be another successful award’s night.

Full Battle Rattle, unconventional Iraq war documentary? Really?

what the film — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:03:09 +0000

There have been several documentaries recently about Iraq. It’s probably Michael Moore’s doing with Farenheit 911, which gave documentary star status and brought it closer to reality TV than quality film making. That sparked lots of low budget on line documentaries, some indeed involving the war in Iraq, and it also sparked a more general interest in documentaries, both on the side of the film makers, as well as that of audiences.

Most documentaries dealing with this war (Farenheit 911, Iraq For Sale, Taxi To The Dark Side, etc.) may have small elements of comedy, in order to break the string of extremely serious issues being discussed, but for the most part are solemn affairs, dealing with death, lies and manipulation. Surprisingly enough, death, lies and manipulation (and the Iraq war) seem to be the main themes of Full Battle Rattle, however they make it funny. And poignant. But mostly funny.

The documentary explores a training facility for the US military in the Mojave desert where military units spend 3 weeks practicing for war with hundreds Iraqi and US role players. So the story follows young US troops, Iraqi refugees who are now acting in the war they escaped, as well as veterans playing insurgents. When you first hear of the film being funny you may find it hard to believe. But the trailer is hilarious. There are bumbling young troops who are still training so they may not always get it right, “casualties” covered in blood or with they eyes popped out of their sockets giggling like school girls because they feel silly, and an Iraqi man showing his family a video of himself being beheaded by terrorists, and all this takes place on what the director himself says “looks like a B-movie film set”.

It is a very interesting approach to the war in Iraq and I’m sure we will be taken on a journey that will start off with excitement and suspense, only to reveal to us the hilarity of pretending to be at war, then move into poignant passages about the Iraqis that are acting there and are in fact refugees whose families are still suffering back in Iraq, then it will reinject us with some comedy, only to conclude with the young soldiers heading off to war, in a melancholy thoughtful independent cinema shot. Possibly involving a sunset in the desert.

I hope it does not. The film’s site talks of unconventional films about war (Dr. Strangelove, MASH, Hearts and Minds) and that is exactly what those films are, unconventional. But how unconventional can you make a film about a war that is still going on and get permission from the military to show it? I want to believe that the film will be exactly as the trailer, it will highlight what a shame it is to send these kids to a country far away to fight and die for a non-existent cause, while pointing out that they are just that, kids, but I’m afraid it won’t. For no other reason apart from the fact that I cannot see them getting away with it.

For more information about the film, check out the official website. It includes a blog and the film’s trailer. For the moment, even though I have misgivings, I would go and watch it, so I guess I recommend it. Not the most wholehearted of recommendations, I know, but you should see what I said about Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and that made millions. Of course, there are reviewers (Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, and the New York Times) who have seen it at screenings and you can find their reviews on the films official site. The film’s world premier was at the Berlin Film Festival, hopefully we should catch it in the UK soon.