Forget about good cinema , the corporates are redefining the movie viewing experience of audiences

The Anil Ambani led Reliance group has entered the film Industry in a big way RelianceADAGroup of Anil Dirubhai Ambani says their ”Big Motion Pictures is India's first motion picture studio with a countrywide presence and a vision to create movies that entertain Indian—and global—audiences. ….Big Motion Pictures is poised to redefine the movie viewing experience of audiences. The company has established world-class production facilities that will offer a platform for unfettered creativity and cutting-edge filmed entertainment content. With a production pipeline exceeding 40 films, Big Motion Pictures is poised to become a dominant player in one of the world's fastest growing film industries.” .The corporatisation in film making will hamper the true spirit of film making .To down play this aspect the corporate houses are signing agreement with filmmakers from regional languages including those who got recognition under the pretext as “ Messiahs of good cinema “ . They too have declared that film making is for money making .. They are still playing in the space of good cinema .They have the backing of super stars of regional language films. The corporatisation in film making in turn will result in increasing the production expenses to an unimaginable range. The result would be the end of aesthetically conceived small budget films which are even now struggling for existence .There are number of good films ,won national and international acclaims , which are yet to be released because the production-distribution-exhibition mafia has already decided to convert this art form into a pucca money making profitable entertainment and not to allot screening time for non commercial ventures...The hard earned money or the money taken as loan is waiting in ‘cans ‘in the form of film reels , instead of screening it in Cannes. They are in doldrums . The Corporates have finally decided to create movies that entertain Indian—and global—audiences. Another theatre group , Pyramid Saimira , the largest theatre chain company having around 500 screens now planning to open 2000 screens in 1500 locations. Pyramid Saimira Production International Limited, the production arm of Pyramid Saimira Group, has announced that it will be producing a total of 52 films this year .The question is where will small budget film makers screen their works. Film making has become a product similar to oil ,steel or cement . Almost all cinemas are being purchased by real estate mafias or converted into Auditorium /marriage halls. Now the corporates are building Multiplexes in a big way mainly to screen their products. Is India has a film policy ?or the rulers have buried good cinema ? I think there should be a hue and cry and the attention of Govt of India drawn. Only a public outcry can thwart the monopoly of multi-trans national corporates entering the film industry in a big way. Political parties raising their voices against the entry of the multi national firms in the consumer market should discuss this in their party forum and take initiative and support this endeavor before the Capital Finance Mafia redefine the movie viewing experience of audiences.

Cannes 2008-Revelation of the Year: "Lake Tahoe"

FIPRESCI informs :

Every year, FIPRESCI presents its "Revelation of the Year" at a special screening during the International Critics' Week in Cannes. One film is chosen out of the first or second films awarded by the Federation during the previous year, in the belief that it deserves the chance to be seen by the Cannes audience, and that the Cannes audience deserves the chance to see it.

This year's Revelation is Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke's second feature Lake Tahoe, awarded at the Berlinale, where it was selected in the official competition. His first film, Duck Season , had been revealed by the Critics' Week in 2004, and went on to have an impressive international career.

This year, the screening will begin with Andrea Hydake's short film The Runt , which received the FIPRESCI Prize at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

The screening, followed by a Q & A Fernando Eimbcke, will take place on Saturday, May 17th, at 15 h at the Espace Miramar.

Festival cinema Africano, d'Asia e America Latina

Festival cinema Africano, d'Asia e America Latina ,Milano , which concluded in Milano on 7^th of this month , is the only festival in Italy entirely devoted to the knowledge of cinematography, realities and cultures of the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. This year’s best feature film prize goes to: BUDDHA COLLAPSED OUT OF SHAME by Hana Makhmalbaf. Other details follow:

OFFICIAL PRIZES

- The Official Jury – Windows on the World Feature Film Competition, made up of :Tahar Ben Jelloun – writer – Morocco – President ,Danny Glover– actor/producer – USA ,Teresa Cavina– Artistic Director, Festa del Cinema, Rome – Italy , decided:

Best Feature Film

ENI Prize for the best feature film, Euro 15,000

BUDDHA COLLAPSED OUT OF SHAME by Hana Makhmalbaf. Iran, 2007

“For the great importance of the film both on the artistic and political level. A film on the origins of fanaticism as it has developed in Afghanistan. And the fact that the story represents children playing at being Taliban shows us how adults ready to kill and die for obscurantist ideas are moulded. It is a moving film which also conveys a very effective message.”

- The Official Jury - Competition for the Best African Film at the Festival

(The African feature films present at the Festival, without any distinction of category compete for this prize) made up of the journalists

Paola Piacenza – Italy – President ,Daniela Faggion – Italy ,Boris Sollazzo – Italy

decided:

Best African Film at the Festival

The Lombardy Region Prize for the Best African Feature Film, Euro 10,000

LA MAISON JAUNE by Amor Hakkar, Algeria/France 2007

“La maison jaune by Amor Hakkar is a brilliant example of return cinema, without emphasis and rich in content. A road movie born out of the journey that the director made to his homeland in 2002, it reflects the simplicity of life in small Berber communities.

The visual and narrative language is as immediate as it is effective, strong in genres and archetypes used without cunningness. This allows the audience to make the same journey as the protagonist (who is, not surprisingly, the director) ) and to give in to the same powerful emotion.”

Special mentions

ANDALUCIA by Alain Gomis, Senegal/France/Spain, 2007

Alain Gomis, who is French with a Senegalese father, offers us a perfect example of métisse cinema, an indefatigable reflection in identity and contamination. The vehicle of this almost mystical experience, is the body of the protagonist, Samir Guesmi, an actor of furious power.

Yacine is all of us!

DELICE PALOMA by Nadir Moknèche, Algeria/France, 2007

Tenacious, intelligent and human: Madame Aldjeria- Biyouna- is definitely the strongest female figure in this section. Through a performance of rare intensity, the actress, well directed by the director Nadir Moknèche, becomes a metaphor of Algeria in transition.

- The Official Jury – Competition for Windows on the World Documentaries and African Documentaries, made up of

Dimitri Eipides - Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival– Greece – President ,Heidi Lobato – Director Africa in the Picture ,Cristina Piccino – Journalist – Italy , decided:

Windows on the World Documentary Competition

Province of Milan Prize for the best documentary, Euro 7,500

NGWENYA, O CROCODILO by Isabel Noronha, Mozambique, 2007

“For themoving synthesis with which the director unites the artist Malangatana Ngwenya, his world and the history of his country, transforming all the elements of his art into filmic power.”

Special Mentions

CIRCUNSTANCIAS ESPECIALES by Marianne Teleki and Jennifer Maytorena Taylor,

Chile/Usa, 2007

NOUBA D’OR ET DE LUMIERE by Izza Génini, Morocco, 2007

African Documentary Competition

FNAC Prize for the Best African Documentary, Euro 5,000

EN ATTENDANT LES HOMMES by Katy Lane Ndiaye, Senegal, 2007

“For the delicate approach and unexpected and very intimate way on which the director approaches the private space of women, where the absence of men becomes an opportunity to break the taboos of female sexuality and desire.”

- The Official Jury – African Short Film competition

Clarence Delgado – Director - Senegal – President ,Alexandre Ogou– Actor – Ivory Coast ,Erminia Dell’Oro – Writer – Italy, decided:

African Short Film Competition

ENI Prize for the best African short film, Euro 7,500

SARAH by Khadija Leclère, Morocco/Belgium, 2007

“A moving film without rhetoric. In the encounter with her daughter who comes to Africa to meet her, a mother sees the “immigrant” solely as a source of money. In the silences and in the expressions of the daughter, the painful perception of a now non-existent relationship, which disappoints and hurts her.”

Special Mention

C’EST DIMANCHE! by Samir Guesmi, France/Algeria, 2007

SPECIAL PRIZES

“City of Milan” Prize for the feature film receiving the greatest number of votes from the public

Euro 7,500

GETTING HOME by Zhang Yang, China, 2007

CEM-Mondialità / COE Prize for the Best Short Film

The prize will be awarded by a Jury made up of Italian and foreign pupils from secondary schools in Milan and consists of the acquisition of the home video distribution rights in Italy.

FOOSKA by Samy Elhaj. Tunisia/Morocco, 2007

“For the realism with which the director reproduced a particular situation of school life and for having been able to show the audience how far appearance and prejudices can often be deceiving.”

Special Mention

C’EST DIMANCHE! by Samir Guesmi, France/Algeria, 2007

SIGNIS Prize (OCIC and UNDA)

TERRA SONAMBULA by Teresa Prata, Mozambique/Portugal, 2007

“A man and a child, linked by conflicting friendship, love and mutual respect, caught up in by the bloody civil war that has torn Mozambique apart, pass through these horrors meeting the unforeseen and death on a daily basis.They flee and defeat the intolerable reality by creating, from a diary, real and poetic parallel stories,which feed their desire to hope in the future and cancel the past.Filmed with colourful liveliness, realism and cinematographic skill, the film is supported and enhanced by dialogues full of humanity and poetry.”

Special mentions

IL VA PLEUVOIR SUR CONAKRY by Cheik Fantamady Camara, Guinea - 2007

ANDALUCIA by Alain Gomis Senegal / France / Spain – 2007

SARAH by Khadija Leclère Morocco / Belgium – 2007

CINIT – CIEMME Prize

The prize consists of the acquisition of the home video distribution rights of an African short film.

PERCUSSION KID by Mohamed Achaour, Morocco, 2006

“For the universality of the work, which skilfully combines the transfiguring gaze of the small protagonist with the sounds, rhythms, colours and harshness of his land.”

"City of Venice" Prize

The prize consists of an invitation (travel and accommodation) at the International Film Festival in Venice for a director or film critic from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

CONFESSION by Daddy Ruhorahoza, Rwanda, 2006

ISMU PRIZE

The Fondazione Ismu (Iniziative e studi sulla Multietnicità) awards a Prize to the best short film at the Festival with an educational value. The prize consists of the acquisition of the home video distribution rights in Italy and is awarded by a group of teachers.

C’EST DIMANCHE! by Samir Guesmi, France/Algeria, 2007

“In the footsteps of Truffaut, the short film looks at the world of adolescence and some of its universal problems from the inside. The trials and tribulations of the young protagonist are narrated with a skilful and light hand, alternating moments of pure comedy with others in a more serious tone, at times almost dramatic. The original and delicate ending takes the audience by surprise and reverses the facile stereotypes of an authoritarian and violent Arab father. It is well acted, well photographed and skilfully directed.”

CUMSE Prize

The prize consists of the acquisition of the home video distribution rights in Italy for an African short film or documentary and is awarded by a jury of representatives of the foreign communities in Milan and volunteers of the CUSME

EN ATTENDANT LES HOMMES by Katy Lane Ndiaye,, Senegal, 2007

9th Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) announces Stellar Line-up

The 9^th edition of the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF), Korea’s major independent film festival, second only to Pusan among Korea’s top movie-going events, will take place May 1 – 9, 2008 in its picturesque namesake city, in North Jeolla province.The fest will open with the International Premiere of The Kiss directed by Japanese writer-turned-director MANDA Kunitoshi ,who won prizes at Cannes for his previous films. Korean anthology film If You Were Me 4 will close the festival, this time featuring five shorts on the theme of contemporary Korean youth. Rising Korean directors including PANG Eun-jin (Princess Aurora), KIM Tae-yong (Family Ties), and YOON Seong-ho (Milky Way Liberation Front) participated.

JIFF has renamed its ‘Indie Vision’ section the ‘International Competition’ section, raising its profile and adding a second-best film prize, the ‘Daum Special Jury Prize’ worth US$7 000 alongside its existing first prize, the Woosuk Award worth $10 000. The jury this year consists of Korea’s top director BONG Joon-ho (The Host), actress UM Ji-won (A Tale of Cinema), Iranian director Abolfazi JALILI, author and critic Chris Fujiwara, and Turkish culture writer Defne Gürsoy. The latest films by world class directors include Rolf De Heer’s Dr. Plonk, John Sayles’ Honeydripper, Alexander Sokurov’s Alexander, Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, WAKAMATSU Koji’s United Red Army, Raul Ruiz’s La Recta Provincia, Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, and Manoel de Oliveira’s Christopher Columbus: The Enigma.Highlights this year include a retrospective on Hungarian master, Béla Tarr; a Stranger Than Cinema focus on New German Cinema ‘godfather’ Alexander Kluge; Jeonju Digital Project 2008 with works by 3 prominent African directors; an exploration of Vietnamese and Central Asian cinema in the Discovery section; and a Screenwriter’s Masterclass featuring Korean writer-director KONG Su-chang (R-Point, GP 506) and Chinese writer LU Wei (Tuyu’s Marriage, To Live).The Korean Cinema section will feature 15 films, many of them world premieres, along with an ample selection of Korean short films, while the Outdoor Screenings will feature popular films such as Forever the Moment, The Happy Life, Going By the Book, and the US film Juno among others.