Festival de Cannes Announcement

With the usual fanfare, Festival de Cannes announced the lineup for the 60th edition of the granddaddy of them all. The festival runs May 16-27 in Cannes, France.
At least eight films from our seven Sister City countries made it into the festival. There may be more, but Cannes doesn’t identify all “home” countries of the films or directors.
I’m lifting info here from the best web site I could find on Cannes: “Cannes – A Festival Virgin’s Guide”.
Also, Cannes has a new web site of its own with a lot of info.
Here for starters are films from our countries that made the cut. First I’ll give a category description, a la Virgin’s Guide, and underneath I’ll list our films. But go to there site, because it’s cool.

Compétition: The competition is the festival's main event and this is where you'll find all the glamour and glory. Films screening in this section are referred to as being "in competition" and vie for an assortment of awards. The Holy Grail is of course the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for best picture, one of the most prestigious film awards on the planet. Winning the Palme d'Or generally gives the film a massive lift: for art-house films, it can bring in millions of extra dollars at the international box-office, for foreign films it means worldwide distribution. Historically, the competition has only been open to narrative films, although occasionally a documentary is slipped in (such as Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" which won the top prize in 2004). The competition welcomes both features and shorts, and there are different awards in each category.
Germany - Fatih AKIN, Auf de Anderen Seite 2h02
Japan - Naomi KAWASE , Mogari No Mori (The Mourning Forest) 1h37
Mexico - Carlos REYGADAS, Stellet Licht 2h22
Hungary - Béla TARR, The Man From London 2h12
SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION
Mexico - Elisa MILLER, Ver Llover

Un Certain Regard: Created in 1978 to absorb several ambiguous sidebars, Un Certain Regard is now the main showcase section of the festival and is intended to be a "survey of current world cinema". Historically there were no awards attached to Un Certain Regard, but in recent years the festival has created the Prix Un Certain Regard to help the best film in the sidebar achieve distribution in France. Occasionally other awards are made in this section as well.
Italy - Valeria BRUNI-TEDESCHI, Le Reve de la Nuit d'Avant, 1h47
Italy - Daniele LUCHETTI, Mio Fratello e Fiblio Unico 1h48
Germany - Robert THALHEIM, Am Ende Kommen Touristen 1h22

Cinéfondation: Added in 1998, Cinéfondation is the festival's competition for short and medium-length films made at film schools around the world. The Cinéfondation sidebar has its own jury and there are three awards (which include a cash prize) for the best films in this section.
Germany - Nicolas WACKERBARTH, Halbe Stunden

The most prestigious award given out at Cannes is the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for the best film. The jury of the festival, made of a small international selection of movie professionals, grants other awards, including the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) — the second most prestigious award.

Hellboy in Hungary

Helllboy 2: The Golden Army will be the first film shot at Korda Studios near Budapest, Hungary.

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Pan's Labyrinth, said he selected Korda over Prague's Barrandov Studios. Del Toro shot Hellboy and the vampire movie Blade II at Barrandov.

Luke Goss has been cast as the main villain opposite Ron Perlman. Goss worked with del Toro in Blade II.

The second installment of the comic-inspired film will have some parallels to Pan’s Labrynth, according to Cinematical.

So what’s the appeal of Korda Studios? The Etyek, Hungary-based complex includes six studios of different size (2,205 sqm, 961 sqm, 1,769 sqm and 1,946 sqm) and equipment levels. It features a 5,546-sqm (59,696 sq.ft.) giant water stage, with Europe's largest indoor watertank for filming - 3,850 sqm (41,441 sq.ft.) with depth of 1.5 metres.

Adjacent to the sound stages will be 8,500 sqm (91,500 sq.ft.) of production support buildings, featuring production offices, make-up and hair facilities, dressing rooms, post-production facilities, screening rooms and various multifunctional areas. The studio's total area is 19,811 sqm (428,522 sq.ft.).

This Just In: DVD Release

Zoo (2005), Japan
Five different directors adapt the works of Japanese author Otsuichi in this collection of unconventional live-action and animated shorts. A woman is murdered under odd circumstances in the title film, "Zoo"; twin sisters are treated differently in "Kazari and Yoko"; two siblings find themselves trapped in "Seven Rooms"; a survivor learns about life and death in "When the Sun Shines"; and parents lose the ability to see each other in "So Far."

Italy's Silver Ribbons

Nominations are out for Italy’s , awarded by the national film journalists union SNGCI. The Silver Ribbons are the country’s oldest film award.
Directors recognized, include:
Marco Bellochio, Il Regista di Matrimoni
Saverio Costanzo, In Memoria di Me (In Memory of Me)
Emanuele Crialese, Nuovomondo
Nanni Moretti, Il Caimano
Giuseppe Tornatore, La Sconosciuta.
Il Caimano (The Cayman) and La Sconosciuta (The Unknown) both received nine nominations.
Thirty-nine films received nominations and awards will be presented in June.

Indonesian marketability

Kamal and Sugiono

An Asian film group has set out to create films that appeal to multiple countries in the Asian market.
Tipu Kanan ... Tipu Kiri, the second film fitting this formula, stars Indonesian actors Christian Sugiono, Titi Kamal, Catherine Wilson and Irene Kleefstra.
The film is targeting Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and India for release this June.
Here’s a synopsis from New Straits Times online: "This latest effort is a musical/romantic comedy about a married Indonesian pop star, Wulan, who accepts a recording contract in Kuala Lumpur with a “no marriage” clause.
"The problem is, she is already married to dashing Rudy (Sugiono). To hide their married status, Rudy hires Sara (Natasha Hudson) to pose as his girlfriend. Lies beget more lies until all of them, especially Wulan and Rudy, get into a fine mess."

Texas Film Taxes

The Texas House has tentatively approved a bill authorizing tax incentives for film and TV producers if they shoot in Texas.
The bill, authored by Rep. Dawna Dukes, D-Austin, would provide $20 million to the Texas Film Commission over the next couple years to attract productions to the Lone Star State.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, my hometown paper, “To qualify for a grant, a film or TV show would have to generate at least $10 million in in-state spending. A commercial or video game would have to generate at least $500,000. In addition, at least 70 percent of the production crew, actors and extras must be Texas residents. A video game is not eligible if it is considered excessively violent or sexually explicit. Adult films are also not eligible.”
Twenty-six states have tax incentive programs, with Louisiana and New Mexico boasting the most aggressive programs.
The whole push for incentives came about when producers of Dallas the movie, decided not to film in North Texas. Sad to think John Travolta (J.R.) and Jennifer Lopez (Sue Ellen) will have to go elsewhere to film Dallas.
Currently TV shows Friday Night Lights and Prison Break shoot some scenes in Texas. Walker Texas Ranger was the last show to regularly film in Fort Worth.
According to the ST, Texas gained about $200 million in revenue from film and TV productions in 2006.. That could rise to $500 million if the incentives bill becomes law.

Werewolf of Germany

A fun and kitchy part Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double feature are the fake trailers for fictional movies.
Sandwiched between Tarantino’s Death Proof and Rodriguez’s Planet Terror is a fake trailer for Werewolf Women of the S.S. featuring German actor Udo Kier, directed by Rob Zombie.

Kier is a prolific actor and has eight films in production or waiting for distribution. American audience know him from Blade, Johnny Mnemonic, Barb Wire, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.