GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – NPR puts the issue in a nutshell when it says that the decision of the Academy Awards leaders to allow two journalists to prune down the films contending for Best Documentary is just the latest in an “old problem”: “It’s hard to find anyone to defend the Academy’s documentary record or to deny its apparent capriciousness.” The Academy decided to follow a suggestion that seems to have come from Michael Moore, to change its rules and reduce the number of candidate documentaries by allowing only movies that have theatre reviews, and those reviews must appear in the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.
The other rule change is that the entire Academy, and not just the documentary group, will in future vote to select the winners, from the pruned-down group.
The change to the rules is causing a stir, not least because it puts decisions about award-winners in the hands of just two newspapers, both in large coastal cities.
Links to other sites: Indie Wire, Time, Telegraph (UK)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Ten world premieres and 96 films from around the world will feature during the Zurich Film Festival 22 September to 2 October and the lineup includes several big names in the cinema world. The opening night film is “Contagion” by Steven Soderbergh, starring Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. Equally star-studded is the 2011 summer hit in the US, “The Help”, directed by Tate Taylor, with Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell and Sissy Spacek.
“Moneyball”, directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt, has its European debut in Zurich. “Rampart” by Oren Movermann will play with an all-star cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright and Ben Foster.
Also playing:
“Rampart”, Oren Movermann
“Restless”, Gus Van Sant
“Melancholia”, Lars von Trier
“Ides of March”, George Clooney
“A Dangerous Method”, David Cronenberg
“Shame”, Steve McQueen
“Wuthering Heights”, Andrea Arnold
“Cave of Forgotten Dreams”, Werner Herzog
Israeli Arab filmmaker was murdered 4 April
Visions du Réel runs 7-13 April in Nyon
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The Nyon documentary film festival opens Thursday on a somber note, with a tribute to Juliano Mer Khamis, an Israeli Arab filmmaker and actor who was murdered 4 April in the West Bank. His film “Arna’s Children” was awarded the prize of the Jury du Jeune Public of Visions du Réel in 2004.
This is a year of change for the Nyon festival, with Luciano Barisone, its new director, taking charge for the first time. On a more practical level for festival-goers, a new electronic ticketing system is in place.
The festival opens Thursday 7 April, with some 50 films making their world or European debuts at this festival that has grown in scope and importance to the film industry in recent years. Films fall into three categories: long, medium-long and short.
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - French news headlines Monday 11 January pointed to two deaths: first the death over the weekend, by hanging, of the former wife and mother of two children of French musician Bernard Cantat, 41-year-old Kristina Rady, and then the death of 89-year-old French filmmaker Eric Rohmer.
by Jared Bloch
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Cinéma Verité Film Festival has, since 2007, pushed audiences to explore the connection between socially conscious filmmaking and social action. The foundation behind the festival offers a combination of documentary and feature film screening and public debate.The 6-8 October screenings this year, held in Geneva and in Paris, included a cross-section of films from around the world that were used to highlight the eight Millennium Development Goals embraced by the United Nations in 2000.
The screenings took place from Tuesday to Thursday at Geneva’s Arditi Wilsdorf theater. Genevalunch sampled four of the documentary presentations:
L’Appel de Diégoune, directed by Marc Decosse and Eric Dagostino, tells the story of a campaign to end the practice of female genital cutting in Senegal, and one village’s decision to abandon this tradition.
By Jared Bloch
Writer/Director Peter Kerekes
What happens to the war effort when the Army chef spoils the food? As one character in Peter Kerekes “Cooking History” proclaims, “there is no war without food.” And maybe no successful war campaign without good food.
The premise for this alternately wry and sobering movie evolved out of a conversation between Kerekes and his father. “The idea was to collect stories from ordinary people, and to show how they can, and have changed history,” Kerekes told Geneva Lunch during a conversation on the final day of the 2009 Visions du Réel Film Festivalin Nyon.
Film reviews from Visions du Réel
For writer and director Shen Ko-Shang, character development is fundamental to movie making. “I have seen many nice films here [at the Visions du Réel Film Festival] but for me to really like a movie, the characters have to have heart,” Ko-Shang explained through an interpreter. Shen Ko-Shang, whose documentary “Baseball Boys” and film short ”Fading” were screened this week at the Visions du Réel Film Festival, shared with GenevaLunch his impressions of the festival and thoughts on filmmaking.
Film characters have to "have heart"
A native of Taipei, Taiwan, Ko-Shang travelled “half-way” around the world for the premier of “Baseball Boys.” The documentary is based in a rural area of Taiwan, characterized by its native inhabitants and traditional lifestyle.
It was this unique background which interested Ko-Shang, and inspired him to document the trials and tribulations of an aspiring Little League boy’s team in Hulien Province on Taiwan’s East Coast. “These kids are unique due to their background and rural heritage. This way of life is very distinct from my reality in Taipei and I find their experiences interesting.”
Claude Berri, one of France’s most noted film producers, has died, age 74, following emergency surgery last weekend. Among his films: Oscar winner Le Poulet (1963), Tchao Pantin (1983), Jean de Florette et Manon des sources (1986). Obituary and links to films, Le Monde, Fre
