And the Winner is ...

German Film Awards nominees have been announced. The awards known as the Lolas, are now given by an "academy," having given up the controversial "award jury" format.

Perfume: The Story of a Murder and Four Minutes each received eight nominations including best picture and director.

Four Minutes is the story of an piano teacher who trains a prisoner at a women's penitentiary. The film was a critical success but only brought in $1.7 million at the box office. In contrast Perfume brought in $52 million.

Winners of the 57th German Film Awards will be announced May 4 in a galaceremony at Palais am Funkturm in Berlin.

The Lolas come with a €3 million award and are the biggest symbol of the German government's support of film and culture.

Let the Competition Begin!

The Lone Star International Film Festival has begun accepting entries for the inaugural festival to be held Nov. 8-11, 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas. The first entry was a work filmed in the United States and France.

The competition categories include: Documentary Feature Length, Documentary Short, Feature, Short and, Animation.

Additionally Fort Worth Sister Cities International, will present a film series during the festival focusing on its seen sister cities and countries, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Nagaoka, Japan; Trier, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; Bandung, Indonesia; Mbabane, Swaziland; and Toluca, Mexico. If you know of a great film from these countries or featuring an actor, director or link to these cities/countries, let me know.

FWSCI will host delegations from our cities during a week-long celebration, which will include the Fort Worth Mayor’s International Dinner and a celebration of the 20-year relationship between Fort Worth, Trier and Nagaoka.

The Lone Star International Film Festival competition will be held in downtown Fort Worth with special events, receptions and a gala recognizing the best the world has to offer.
To enter your film in the competition, go to http://www.withoutabox.com/login/5602

Good Luck!

Still playing

You still have the chance to see several top movies on the big screen before they go to DVD and small screens. Below are four films that you should see and a repeat of previous blogs about them.

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth is still showing at many screens (Sundance 11 in downtown Fort Worth, as well as Inwood and Magnolia in Dallas.)
After weeks of waiting, I finally saw Pan’s Labyrinth – great picture. Also nice to see a full theater. It’s also a surprising movie. You never know what a film is going to be like based on clips and hype. It’s not all fantasy. It’s not like Lord of the Rings. If you’re not a fantasy film fan, don’t steer clear of the movie just because of that. In fact the storyline I enjoyed the most was following the housekeeper, Mercedes, played by Maribel Verdú http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0893941/, and her brother’s band of resistance fighters against Franco’s Spain. The majority of the film is set in the real world. It had a real Hitchcock feel and urgency about it as in Notorious. It’s violent. There are a lot of cringe-worthy screens, and once out on DVD I don’t’ recommend it for children. Go see it in a theater for the spectacle.

The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others is showing at the Inwood and Magnolia in Dallas.
FWSCI Filmies will go see The Lives of Others next weekend at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The movie shows for two weekends, starting next Friday. We'll be at the 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 25. See the announcement at right.

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) opens in area theaters today, Feb. 23. The film, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film is directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/ It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his chief officer Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreymann, and Martina Gedeck as his lover Christa-Maria Sieland. In 1984 eastern Germany, Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, is assigned to spy on playwright Georg Dreymann, who is suspected of western leanings. The agent finds out the real reason for the spying is that the spy agency’s minister is attracted to Dreymann’s girlfriend and wants to get the playwright out of the way. While Pan’s Labyrinth has garnered most of the buzz in that category. The Lives of Others made a case for it’s popularity a couple weekends ago during its US premier. The film opened with more than $200,000 in 13 theaters for an average of $16,430. The film is currently an exclusive locally at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth March, The Magnolia, Dallas, and the Angelika Plano. http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/movies/16758431.htm

Letters from Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima is still showing at the Inwood in Dallas.
Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima is causing a stir on both sides of the Pacific. The film is up for a fistful of Academy Awards and is pulling audiences into the theater across Japan. Already it’s landed a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film Award. Some 7,000 American soldiers died at Iwo Jima and more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers died there. The battle ranged for more than a month from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945. Eastwood’s companion film Flags of Our Fathers, which tells about the battle from an American standpoint, is out now on DVD. The film has been doing well in Japan, and according to Time Magazine: “the Oscar-nominated Letters has grossed just under $40 million, earning it the top spot during the Japanese cinema industry’s all-important New Year holiday season.” Now’s a good time to watch both. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1581828,00.html http://iwojimathemovie.warnerbros.com/lettersofiwojima/framework/framework.html

Babel
And Babel is showing at the Angelika in Dallas. Babel has already gone to DVD.
Babel makes its DVD arrival tomorrow, just in time for pre-Academy Awards viewing. http://www.paramountvantage.com/babel/ The movie features an international cast, locations and languages – and it’s a candidate for Best Picture. Since I’m behind on my film watching, I’ve decided to wait to watch Babel on DVD. So many films left to see. Stars Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt lead the Hollywood cast, but not the award list. The Academy instead smiled upon two actresses virtually unknown in the United States: Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi. http://imdb.com/title/tt0449467/ Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also was nominated for Best Director. Altogether there are seven Academy Award nominations. Inarritu won a Best Actor Award at Cannes Film Festival. The film won Best Picture Award at the Golden Globes and Kikuchi won Best Actress Award from the Chicago Film Critics Association.

SXSW Student FIlms

Two student films from the Fort Worth area have won top honors at Austin’s South by Southwest Film Festival. http://2007.sxsw.com/film/. Both are students in the Birdville ISD Media Tech program.

Brandon Day, a senior at Richland Hills High School, won for his 5-minute short Murder for 9 Points. The film features Phil Pratt, Karen Seimears and D.C. Goode.
Synopsis:
An innocent game of Scrabble turns into something entirely different.
Watch the video trailer: http://2007.sxsw.com/film/screenings/film/F8495.html#top

Adela Escobar, a student at Haltom High School, won for her 3-minute film Daily Routine.
Synopsis:
At the last moment we try to look back at all the things we've done, and all we ever did. Have you lived your life to the fullest?
Watch the video trailer: http://2007.sxsw.com/film/screenings/film/F8511.html

Congratulations to our future filmmakers. And kudos for school districts like Birdville who make film programs available for students.

German Film Tax Break
Money makes the world go round! And film money is even better.
Germany has joined Hungary in offering tax break incentive for films produced within its borders, according to the Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/on_location/e3ib79dcd249fa48ad4d6470ba5a7100913?imw=Y
The German Federal Film Fund, which offers a 20 percent rebate for film production in Germany, was launched in January.

According to the Hollywood Reporter:
“To qualify, 25 percent of the total budget must be spent in Germany. If the budget is more than $26 million, that drops to 20 percent. For international co-productions, the German participation must be at least 20 percent; if the budget is more than $32 million, a participation of $6.5 million is sufficient. The budget of the film project must be more than $1.3 million for feature films, $3.3 million for animation films and $226,000 for documentaries.

“A project must have at least 75 percent of its financing in place, and it must pass a "cultural test," with points given for using German locations or studios; German actors, artists or technicians; and German story or history. A little bit of everything would be the perfect match.”

Two for Tribeca

Tribeca Film Festival in New York has announced films slated for its World Narrative Features category. Mexico and Germany scored entries in the field of 34 features and documentaries competing for a share of $100,000.

Tribeca, founded by film legend Robert De Niro (at left), runs April 25 – May 6 in New York.

The films are Two Embraces (Dos Abrazos) from Mexico and Vivere, directed and written by Angelina Maccarone, from Germany.

http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2007/03/tribeca_07_slim_1.html

Tres Amigos
The New York Times has a great feature on Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/style/tmagazine/11tdirectors.html?_r=2&ref=movies&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

This Just In

This week brings multiple new releases from our seven Sister City countries. DVDs are available in stores, via Amazon or Netlfilx.
Two samurai classics from Akira Kurosawa get reissued by Criterion with improved features. The New York Times gives a great review of the improvements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/movies/homevideo/23dvd.html?ex=1173844800&en=33a621435556605b&ei=5070

Fires on the Plain (Nobi) 1959
Director Kon Ichikawa's harrowing film set in the Philippines during World War II, a Japanese soldier, his emotional and physical resources nearly depleted, endures the vicissitudes of war. Ichikawa, whom some cineastes say was as talented as his better-known contemporaries, including Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, had a way with infusing light in the darkest places.

The Burmese Harp (1956) – Japan
Also directored by Kon Ichikawa. Set during World War II's last days, this indelible antiwar drama chronicles a Japanese soldier's transformation after coming face to face with the human cost of war. Sent to inform another platoon the war is over, Cpl. Mizushima (Shôji Yasui) can't persuade the men to surrender and becomes the lone survivor when the British attack. But the casualties he sees on the way to rejoin his unit overwhelm Mizushima, and he soon finds a higher calling.

Tales of Terror from Tokyo and All Over Japan: Vol. 3: Part 2 (2006) – Japan
Demons materialize during a high school video project and ghouls stir up deadly mischief in a deserted office space in this collection of 20 supernatural stories from horror writers Kihara Hirokatsu and Nakayama Ichiro. These startling stories are adapted from accounts of true events that occurred all across Japan. This collection showcases truly terrifying episodes of the TV series Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro.

Con Artists (1978) – Italy
Directed by Sergio Corbucci, Bluff storia di truffe e di imbroglioni, features, a notorious con man named Bang who somehow manages to elude the long arm of the law – just barely. As he weaves in and out of trouble, Bang’s misadventures involve him with a delightfully rakish cast of characters.

Hellbenders (1967) – Italy
An earlier work by director Sergio Corbucci Italian. In this gritty spaghetti Western helmed by Sergio Corbucci, Joseph Cotten headlines the cast as a bitter ex-Confederate officer named Jonas who hatches a scheme to reignite the Civil War by robbing a freight train carrying Union soldiers. After slaughtering them, Jonas and his three sons find themselves in a battle against the U.S. Cavalry and a tribe of Indians. Julián Mateos, Ángel Aranda, Gino Pernice and Norma Bengell also star.

Simpsons No Mas

Mexican voice over artists are still feuding with Grabaciones y Doblajes Intl. (GDI) over The Simpsons Movie slated for this summers. GDI handles dubbing for Gracie Films, which produces The Simpsons TV show.

GDI wants at least 40 percent of the dubbing voices to be non-union.

The National Actor's Association is now threatening to boycott the movie in Mexico if the voice over artists who have created the characters of Homer, Bart and the rest of the TV cast for the last 15 years are not used for the upcoming movie.

The TV series is in its 18th year.

Filmies Meeting Today

FWSCI Filmies has it's first meeting today at 6 p.m. in Fort Worth, Texas. See full info below. See you at the meeting,

Steve.