Film Fest in The Hamptons

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 05 October 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 19th Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) 2011 runs October 13 - 17, 2011 at the United Artist Theater and Regal East Hampton Cinema 6 in the village of East Hampton, the Bay Street Theatre and Sag Harbor Cinema in Sag Harbor, the Montauk Movie in Montauk, Regal Bay Cinemas in Southampton, and the Hampton Arts Cinema in West Hampton Beach, in New York.

"The Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to celebrate the Independent film -- long, short, fiction and documentary -- and to introduce a unique, varied spectrum of international films and filmmakers to the public.

The Festival is committed to exhibiting films that express fresh voices and differing global perspectives, with the hope that these programs will enlighten audiences, provide invaluable exposure for filmmakers and present inspired entertainment for all."

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Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 04 October 2011 22:20

Written by Adrienne Kehn

Humor to horror, Hollywood to Bollywood, heart-pounding blockbusters to heart-breaking romances –- audiences in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)  have access to a remarkable diversity of film choices.

So what makes the Abu Dhabi Film Festival held October 13-22, special?

Here are several factors that makes this film festival experience so exciting.

ADFF also pays special attention to developments in Arab cinema, fostering the region’s distinctive film culture and celebrating its achievements with a global audience. This year, nearly half of the Festival’s program of short and feature-length films is from the Arab world, providing local audiences the chance to explore and understand what is exciting and distinctive about Arab film culture.

Then there’s the advantage of access: Filmmakers attend nearly every screening during the 10-day Festival and take questions from the audience at special post-screening Q&A sessions. And be on the lookout for movie stars from the Arab world and beyond who attend screenings and participate in the Festival’s special events.

Film festivals are renowned for the excitement percolating around the red carpet, and ADFF is no exception with celebrities, camera-toting press, eager fans and all the glamor you’d expect of an international celebration of cinema.

Celebrating its 5th year, the ADFF will screen more than 200 feature and short films by established and emerging filmmakers representing 43 countries. Among the feature films 8 will have their World Premieres and 6 will celebrate their International Premieres. 5 of the features were co-produced with SANAD, the Festival’s fund that provides development and post-production support for films from the Arab world.

The Festival opens October 13 with the critically acclaimed Monsieur Lazhar, directed by Philippe Falardeau and starring Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, Émilien Néron,
Danielle Proulx, and Brigitte Poupart.

The Festival closes with the Black Pearl Awards ceremony on October 22.

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (formerly the Middle East International FilmnFestival) was established in 2007, with the aim of helping to create a vibrant film culture throughout the region.

Presented each October by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, the event is committed to curating exceptional
programs to engage and educate the local community, inspire filmmakers and nurture the growth of the regional film industry.

Executive Director Peter Scarlet remarked, "A film festival like ours -– in fact any film festival worthy of the name -- exists for very different reasons. We are showing the films in our program simply because, at one point or another, one of us here on the programming team fell in love with it.

"We travel the world all year, we explore, we are detectives, we try to find the most wonderful work made everywhere, and we bring it back to Abu Dhabi to help to open windows to what’s happening in the rest of the world for the people here.

One of the first reasons people come to festivals is to ind out what some of the great filmmakers been doing lately.

We are happy to present an especially strong line-up this year.Going almost at random:

• Andrey Zvyagintsev, one of Russia’s great filmmakers
• David Cronenberg, one of Canada’s major filmmakers
• Nanni Moretti from Italy
• Steven Soderbergh,Martin Scorsese and George Clooney from the US
• Michael Winterbottom from the UK
• Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders from Germany
• James Marsh, who won an Oscar is back with his latest doc
• Arturo Ripstein, maybe Mexico’s greatest filmmaker
• Hirokazu Kore-Eda from Japan
• Asghar Farhadi from Iran,
• Chen Kaige from China

These are some of the top names in world cinema and we are proud to have been able to bring their latest films here."

For a complete list of films visit http://www.abudhabifilmfestival.ae/

Abu Dhabi Film Festival
October 13-22, 2011

Fairmont Bab Al Bahr
Marina Mall
Abu Dhabi Theater
Abu Dhabi, AE

Gold Coast Int'l Film Festival Debuts in Long Island

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 04 October 2011 14:01

Written by Laura Blum

Long Island´s Gold Coast, where F. Scott Fitzgerald set his Great American Novel The Great Gatsby, is now home to a movie bash aspiring to be the Great American Film Festival. Can the Gold Coast International Film Festival also beat the lingering blas of the Great Recession?

One and a half million dollars say it can. That's the budget of the Festival, which launches June 1-5, 2011, in such North Shore towns as Roslyn, Manhasset and Great Neck (aka East and West Egg). Hatched by Great Neck Arts Center founder Regina Gil, GCIFF is meant to revitalize local business, still bedraggled by the late-2000s financial downturn.

Burnishing the cultural life of the Gold Coast is a twin Festival goal. To trumpet that point,  the organizers threw an artsy evening with Isabella Rossellini at the NYIT Theater in Manhattan on May 9th. The actor-turned-director-writer-and-animal-devotée showed her whimsical My Father is 100 Years Old, selections from Green Porno and Animals Distract Me.

David Schwartz, chief curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, led a post-screening chat with Rossellini. If the event was any indication, festival-goers are in for an engaging, ship-shape affair along the Gold Coast.  

With literally hundreds of film festivals a train hop away -- Tribeca, the New York Film Festival and the Hamptons FF, to name but three -- do the Manhattan suburbs really need another one?

“There are too many film festivals!,” concedes FCIFF senior programmer Sean McPhillips, a former Miramax acquisitions executive who curates the Great Neck Arts Center's Furman Film Series. “But there´s another perspective that says, If there´s no film festival in this place, there should be.”

And the Gold Coast fest boasts a few assets its rivals can only envy. Just imagine the parties to light up its sprawling mansions. Australian director Baz Luhrmann is surely doing just that as he pre-preps his screen adaptation of Gatsby. 

Something of the literary spirit also possesses the Festival. Taking the cue from Nassau County's most celebrated novel, it has selected a program of films adapted from books.

Other categories include:

• comedy
• documentary
• horror
• family
• works from Southeast Asia
• works from Israel -- whose immigrant communities dot the region

The 40,000 expected revelers will have 40 or so films to choose from during the five-day bash, which kicks off the first of June. Highlights include two documentaries:

Chris Paine´s Who Killed the Electric Car?, accompanied by electric car fanfare off-screen, and the New York premiere of Jeff Prosserman´s Chasing Madoff, about the infamous Ponzi schemer (who had a Long Island beach house).

In comedy, there´s Gil Cates Jr.´s Lucky, with Colin Hanks, and The Best and the Brightest, directed by Josh Shelov and featuring Neil Patrick Harris and Amy Sedaris.

As McPhillips knows, snagging buzz-worthy titles for a first-time festival can be quite a challenge. The ultimate gold star for the Gold Coast will be getting new films from the likes of native daughter Natalie Portman -- and a certain Baz Luhrmann production.

Gold Coast International Film Festival
June 1-5, 2011

the GCIFF Information Hub
292 Plandome Road, Manahasset, NY

(across from the LIRR train station)


Hours of the Hub will be posted shortly

Screenings venues include:

Clearview Cinemas
Great Neck – Squire Cinemas

115 Middle Neck Road

Great Neck, NY 11021

New Hyde Park Cinemas – Herricks Cinema
4
3324 Hillside Avenue

New Hyde Park, NY 11040

Manhasset Cinemas

430 Plandome Road

Manhasset, NY 11030

Port Washington Cinemas

116 Main Street

Port Washington, NY 11050

Roslyn Cinemas

20 Tower Place

Roslyn, NY 11577

Special event venues include:

The Great Neck Arts Center

113 Middle Neck Road

Great Neck, NY 11021


Landmark on Main Street

232 Main Street

Port Washington, NY 11050
www.landmarkonmainstreet.org
516-767-6444

Nassau County Museum of Art

One Museum Drive

Roslyn Harbor, NY 11576

NYIT DeSeversky Mansion

Northern Boulevard

Old Westbury, NY 11568

Louie’s Oyster Bar and Grille

395 Main Street

Port Washington, NY 11050

www.louiesoysterbarandgrille.com

Manhasset Public Library

30 Onderdonk Avenue

Manhasset, NY 11030
http://manhassetlibrary.org

North Hempstead Beach Park

175 West Shore Road
Port Washington 11050

Port Washington Public Library

One Library Drive

Port Washington, NY 11050

www.pwpl.org

thyme – restaurant & café bar

8 Tower Place

Roslyn, NY 11576
http://thymenewyork.com

United States Merchant Marine Academy

300 Steamboat Road

Kings Point, NY 11024
http://usmma.edu/

Mansion at The Village Club of Sands Point

Thayer Lane

Sands Point, NY 11050
http://www.villageclub.org

www.goldcoastfilmfestival.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(516) 444-FILM