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Robert Redford is taking his show on the road. The 75-year-old actor and champion of independent film is taking the Sundance Film Festival outside of the US for the first time, for a run at London’s O2, April 26-29. A total of 14 films, which premiered in January at the festival’s usual location in Park City, Utah, will make the trip to the UK, along with the filmmakers, and fest chairman Redford. “I welcome the opportunity to see how people in the UK experience these films,” Redford said when announcing the London event. “While they are American productions, they speak to universal experiences and global challenges.” The festival had humble beginnings in 1978 as an effort to encourage filmmakers to shoot in Utah, and was taken over in 1985 by Redford’s NPO and renamed after his character in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It quickly won a reputation as the indie film event, and directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Darren Aronofsky, and Jim Jarmusch got their first big break in Park City. The move overseas will deliver a wider audience to up-and-coming directors. “Sundance London also is the perfect opportunity to continue our long-time commitment to growing a broader international community around new voices and new perspectives,” Redford said. www.sundance-london.com.

By: Kevin Mcgue | Apr 26, 2012 | No Comments | 90 views

Kevin Mcgue

The fantasy adventure John Carter made headlines when Disney announced it expected to lose up to $200 million on the film, but the cast and crew were upbeat during a recent trip to Tokyo. “We are proud of our work, and happy that the film was selected to commemorate the 110th birthday of Walt Disney,” said Lynn Collins, who plays Princess Dejah. In-demand title star Taylor Kitsch, who also appears in Battleship, which opens the same day in Japan, commented that it was “great to be a part of the Disney family.” The release also marks the 100th anniversary of the first appearance of the title character, an American Civil War veteran who has adventures on Mars in 11 fantasy novels by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. Disney attempted to bring the character to screen as early as 1931 with an animated version that was shelved, and various plans were made over the decades until Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) was given the reins. Although CGI helped create the creatures in the film, Stanton insisted on having Willem Dafoe perform motion capture for the 15-foot Martian Tars Tarkas, as the interaction of the two characters left a strong impression on him when he first read the book at the age of ten and dreamt of making a film about it for 30 years. The project was also a dream come true for Collins, who quipped “I get to play a Disney princess in this, something I have wanted to do since I was four years old.”

John Carter opens on April 13.

By: Kevin Mcgue | Apr 11, 2012 | No Comments | 157 views

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The Tribeca Film Festival has announced nominees for this year’s installment, to be held April 18- 29 in New York. Interestingly, two of the works in the lineup were made in Japan by non-Japanese directors. In the short documentary competition is Scenes From A Visit To Japan (pictured), by NYC-based experimental filmmaker Joel Schlemowitz, who eschews the digital trend and shoots his works on super-8 film. In the “Viewpoints” program is the Japanese-language drama Cut by acclaimed Iranian director Amir Naderi, who spent over a year in Tokyo to plan, shoot and promote his film. Other highlights from Asia include the docs High Tech, Low Life about outlaw Chinese bloggers and Planet of Snail, a Korean love story between two people suffering from disabilities. Tribeca was started in 2001 by veteran actor Robert De Niro and film-producing couple Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff to encourage filmmakers to stay in the Big Apple following 9/11, and has since screened more than 1,300 films from more than 80 countries. The fest promotes New York as a film center by hosting not only the normal screenings and parties, but panel discussions and even a drive-in theater on the Hudson river.

Award winners will be posted at www.tribecafilm.com

By: Kevin Mcgue | Mar 28, 2012 | No Comments | 154 views

Courtesy of Okinawa International Movie Festival

If you were planning a new film festival, what ingredients would you want to stir into the mix? Put it in a tropical paradise ? Give it a thematic twist like making it a comedy festival? Even add a marketplace (or “Contents Bazaar”) where international and Japanese producers can meet to talk about co-productions? That’s pretty much the formula that major entertainment agency Yoshimoto Kogyo has hit upon for their Okinawa International Movie Festival (www.oimf.jp/en), now in its fourth year. Held in Naha, the film fest will run March 24-31 and feature world premieres, including Japanese political satire Ah! Minister, and Signal, starring popular actor Kengo Kora. It will also showcase the flick that swept the Academy Awards, The Artist, and feature the Japan premiere of the Oscar-nominated comedy Bridesmaids. The fest always runs retrospectives and this year we’ll be able to see the film of respected actor Yoshio Harada and much-heralded director Yoshimitsu Morita, both of whom passed away since the last fest was held. All screenings will have English subtitles and, in all, over 80 films will unspool in this meeting of tropical paradise and celluloid.

By: Rob Schwartz | Mar 13, 2012 | No Comments | 206 views

Courtesy Magnolia Pictures

British documentarian Lucy Walker [pictured] has been busy forging bonds with Japan. The director was planning a piece on the cherry blossom season in Japan when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck. After having doubts as to whether she should carry on with the project, Walker and co-director Kira Carstensen travelled to Miyagi to film the people most affected by the disaster as they drew some amount of hope from the beauty of the cherry blossoms that returned as usual despite the tragedy. The result is The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, a moving, beautifully filmed tribute to the human spirit. “I think the film is about life and death and truth and beauty,” Walker commented. In January, film was nominated for the short doc Oscar and won a Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival on the same day. In accepting the Sundance award, Walker quipped that another memorable moment of the day came when she ordered a celebratory drink and was asked to show ID. Walker is no stranger to film festivals and award ceremonies. Her previous doc Waste Land on Brazilian artist Vik Muniz was an official selection at the 2010 Tokyo International Film Festival, and was nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar in 2011.

Oscar winners are posted at http://oscar.go.com.

By: Kevin Mcgue | Mar 1, 2012 | One Comment | 289 views

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