Movies

THE Italian-American actress and director Isabella Rossellini will be the President of the Jury for the 61st Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20, 2011)."It's fantastic that Isabella Rossellini will be the President of the Berlinale Jury in 2011," says the festival's director Dieter Kosslick. "She is a multifaceted, creative film artist with extensive experience in European, American and international cinema."Isabella Rossellini is one of the most renowned actresses in international cinema. Over the past years, she has also become a distinguished producer and director. The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and of Italian director Roberto Rossellini, she first started her career as a fashion designer and journalist. At the time she worked mainly in New York . Her acting debut came in 1976, when she appeared alongside her mother in Vincente Minelli's A Matter Of Time. She then went on to roles in films by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Norman Mailer, Robert Zemeckis, Joel Schumacher, John Schlesinger, Peter Weir, Abel Ferrara, Stanley Tucci, Guy Maddin, Peter Greenaway and many others. She acquired international fame above all for her performance in David Lynch's films Blue Velvet (1986) and Wild at Heart (1990). In addition to her career in cinema, Isabella Rossellini was also a top cosmetics model in the '80s onward.Isabella Rossellini first attended the Berlinale in 1994 as the lead actress in Peter Weir's Competition film Fearless. She has been a regular guest at the Berlin International Film Festival in recent years: in 2005 she created the short film My Dad is 100 Years Old with Canadian experimental filmmaker Guy Maddin, an homage to her father Roberto Rossellini which screened in Berlinale Special in 2006. In 2007 she returned to Berlin as a narrator for Guy Maddin's experimental silent film Brand Upon the Brain! in the festival's Forum section. She presented her directorial debut Green Porno in the Forum Expanded section of the 2008 Berlinale: Eight playful episodic shorts explaining the sexual behaviour of earthworms, dragonflies, snails, bees and praying mantises.

ONE of the most glamourous motion picture film awards, the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards may have come and gone but its memories will remain evergreen in the minds of many. Presented by  the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and broadcasted by  NBC, the event which took place last last Sunday at   at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, United States had among winners,   George Clooney, who was awarded the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his efforts to raise funding and awareness campaigns for victims of past natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Darfur; Jim Parson, Eldie Falco and so on.  Previous winners of the Bob Hope Award include Oprah Winfrey (2002), Bill Cosby (2003), and Danny Thomas (2004).

THE ninth edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus will take place in Hebbel am Ufer Theatre (HAU 1-3) in Berlin Kreuzberg from February 12  17, 2011. "Framespotting  Filmmakers positioning themselves" is the thematic focus for the 2011 Talent Campus, which 350 young international filmmakers will attend during the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.Today's demanding world asks for outspoken filmmakers who don't just follow the rules, it needs a generation of filmmakers who are ready to assume responsibility, take risks and find new approaches.

A US couple has been sent to jail in Los Angeles for bribing a Thai official so they could take control of the Bangkok Film Festival. Gerald Green and his wife Patricia were sent to prison for six months, ordered to serve six months' home detention and pay back $250,000 (N37, 500 000).The film producers paid a Thai tourism boss to secure the annual event and make millions of pounds. Actor Kirk Douglas submitted a letter supporting them during the trial.

Bursting Out *****
GENRE  DRAMA
LANGUAGE  ENGLISH
ORIGIN:  NIGERIA
RELEASE DATE: 2009
PRODUCED  BY: EMEM ISONG
DIRECTED BY: DESMONDELLIOT/DANIEL ADEMINOKAN.
STARRING:  GENEVIEVE NNAJI
   MAJID MICHEL
   NSE IKPE ETIM
   OMONI OBOLI

The tension crated by the recent feud  between the Nigerian and Ghanaian movie industries caused by the imposition of work permit fees is becoming a source of worry to industry practitioners. Many see the development as being counter productive to the quest to producing quality films from both countries coming at a point when the collaboration between Nollywood and Gollywood is rife. Dr. Victor Olatoye, a film critic from Plantinum Entertainment based in the U.S in this interview proffers ways of moving the industry forward.

MY AMERICAN NURSE 2
GENRE :  DRAMA
RELEASE DATE:  2010
ORIGIN:   NIGERIA
LANGUAGE:  ENGLISH
WRITTEN BY: PASCAL ATUMA
 DIRECTED BY: PASCAL ATUMA
STARRING:  
PASCAL ATUMA  VIDAH DARKO  HAKEEM KAE-KAZIM  MICHAEL BLACKSON  ALOMA WRIGHT

GENRE:  DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ORIGIN:  USA
RELEASE DATE: 2009
WRITTEN BY: GRANT NIEPORTE
DIRECTED BY:  GABRIELE MUCCINO
STARRING:  WILL SMITH
 ROSARIO DAWSON
 WOODY HARRELSON
MICHAEL EALY
SYNOPSIS
Ben Thomas an IRS agent with a fateful secret,embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.

THE evangelist and film maker Helen Ukpabio who is the general overseer of Liberty church with its headquarters in Calabar is set to release another movie which she titled “Echoes of the Ancestors”. The movie which was shot in Calabar featured some of the major Nollywood actors like Zach Orji, Yemi Blach, Bob Manuel Udokwu, Enebeli Elebuwa, Gentle Jack, Vivian Anani etc.The movie which is religiously expository entails preaching and winning souls for God. It will be shown in different cinemas before it will be released into DVD.

NOT many actors deem it fit to celebrate but veteran actor, Peter Bunor has reasons to. The popular actor is celebrating his 30 years on stage and that is something that calls for rolling out the drums. After starting in  1980 with the popular soap opera called Mirror which was shown on NTV now NTA, there has not been any stopping him became a popular face on the screen, featured in Cock Crow at Dawn in 1981 and  was also among the team that produced the Village Headmaster in the year 1984.

NOLLYWOOD producer Chike Ibekwe is really having a ball as one of his films emerged tops as the Best Film.   Ibekwe's 'Letter to the Prof' won the Best Film Prize at the just concluded 14th Ecrans Noire Film Festival in Cameroun. His 'Eternal' also shared the Golden Screen Best Film Prize with 'An Unusual Woman' by Burkinabe director, Abdoulaye Dao. Ibekwe got funding for the film from France.Ibekwe, however, is not the only beneficiary of international sponsors. Kenneth Gyang, an alumnus of the National Film Institute, Jos, will receive support from the Hubert Bals Fund in Netherland to produce his film 'Confusion Na Wa'. The film will be distributed in Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Gyang had previously worked as director on the BBC's 'Wetin Dey'. He also produced and directed the 'Finding Aisha' series.

THE Berlinale and World Cinema Fund (WCF) congratulate Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul on winning the Palme d'or in Cannes for his latest film. Loong Boonmee Raleuk Chaat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), which received support from the WCF, took home the top prize at the festival on May 23, 2010. In the Semaine de la critique section, another WCF-funded film - Bi, Don't Be Afraid by Vietnamese director Phan Dang Di - won the SACD Prize for Best Screenplay and the ACID/CCAS Support Award.Since its establishment in 2004, the WCF has awarded production and distribution funding to a total of 70 projects chosen from 1165 submissions from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central and South East Asia, and the Caucasus. All of the WCF films completed so far have screened in cinemas and/or in the programmes of renowned international film festivals - proof of the international success of the initiative.The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival in cooperation with the Goethe Institute.

THE Berlin International Film Festival protests against the arrest of Iranian director Jafar Panahi. With his film The Circle, Panahi won the Golden Lion in 2000; and with Offside, the Silver Bear in 2006.

They are icons in Hollywood and come from two worlds; one is a renowned film maker and director whose deep cinema root dates back to the 40's and 50's while the other is a young actor that is steadily finding his feet and growing up to becoming one of the greatest actors of all times. Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio are always an item.

The hope of one day seeing a movie from the Nigerian motion picture industry, otherwise known as Nollywood, participating in an international film festival is unlikely to happen anytime soon. According to Guido Huysman, Director of the African Film Festival, who was at the 60th Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) held in Berlin, Germany, the local film industry still has a lot of catching up to do, despite being acclaimed the second largest movie industry in the world.

LAST Saturday,  the 60th Berlin International Film Festival came to a glamorous close with the award ceremony which bestowed the awards on the winners of the  the Golden Bear and the Silver Bears, the Alfred Bauer Prize, and the Best First Feature Award were announced to an astonishing 1600 guests and  millions of TV viewers who watched the awards ceremony in the Berlinale Palast.

PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY

GOLDEN BEAR FOR THE BEST FILM
Bal Honey by Semih Kaplanoglu

JURY GRAND PRIX-SILVER BEAR
Eu cand vreau sa fluier, fluier If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle
by Florin Serban

With the Berlin Film Festival coming to an end since last week when it commenced, film makers and film lovers are getting their money’s worth in movies shown during the festival. Some series of awards have been given to deserving and aspiring young film makers.