Tuesday, August 28, 2007

And the Winner is...

So, as the festival has drawn to a close here are the final bits of news on EIFF 2007.

The Suprise Movie this year was The Kingdom, an FBI thriller starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Chris Cooper and directed by Peter Berg. One can't help wonder if it isn't the year of "Chris Cooper - FBI" between The Kingdom and The Breach, however Knocked Up's director, Judd Apatow, has offered (on Radio 4's Film Programme) to give Cooper a part in a comedy so who knows what he may be starring in a few years from now...

With our team far too tired out from reviewing to work the party scene - and with the whole delagate centre emptying of filmmakers, press and industry types with eery speed when the Guardian Edinburgh Television Festival began on Friday) - we have no more gossip from the stars, critics or judges (although we did see Richard Bacon pottering past the Filmhouse on Friday to remind us the TV festival had begun).

So our final act of blogging EIFF 2007 is to tell you this years Award Winners...

Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film, sponsored by the UK Film Council

Control” – directed by Anton Corbijn



PPG Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film

Sam Riley – “Control



Standard Life Audience Award

We Are Together”, directed by Paul Taylor



Sky Movies Best Documentary Award

Billy the Kid,” directed by Jennifer Venditti

Special Jury Commendation to “The Monastery: Mr Vig and the Nun” directed by Pernille Rose Gronkjaer



Skillset New Directors Award

Lucia Puenzo - “XXY



UK Film Council Kodak Award for Best British Short Film

The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island”, by James Griffiths

Special mention to – “Dog Altogether”, by Paddy Considine



European Film Academy Short Film 2007 - Prix UIP

Soft” by Simon Ellis

Special mention to “Final Journey” by Lars Zimmermann and “Ottica Zero” by Maja Borg



Short Scottish Documentary Award Supported by Baillie Gifford

Breadmakers”, by Yasmin Fedda

Special mention to “How to Save a Fish From Drowning”, by Kelly Neal



McLaren Award for New British Animation in Partnership with BBC Film Network

Over the Hill” by Peter Baynton

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Surreal Sites at EIFF today...

In a busy film day your mind can start to wander as your brain is still stuck in the plots from half the movies so you can start to wonder if you're going a little crazy...

This morning saw a 9am start with the excellent Weirdsville (a bizarrely successful and funny Canadian hybrid of Ferris Beullers Day Off, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Spun) which was so full of the lead characters drug-fuelled dreams and hallucinations that at first the green carpet being laid at the entrance to the Cameo had me wondering if I'd left the Cameo yet. I had and the weird astroturf jigsaw puzzle was, apparently, part of a promotional stunt for Cobra beer and their film sponsership.

Deciding a croissant would clear the mind and wake me up a little I trotted to the nearest Tesco only to see the queue entirely consisting of Film Festival delegates except for the one lad in front of me with an Outlaw tattoo. Nothing too odd there until I noticed his shopping consisted only of 6 red onions and 21 packets of lard. Yes 21 packets. And, no, I didn't like to ask...

Rolling on to pick up a coffee (before my screening of George Cukor's fabulous The Women) I now saw another odd sight, albeit expected: the MySpace audition tent is in town for one day only. Here's what they say they are up to:

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THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A MOVIE STAR?


MySpace, Vertigo Films and Film4 offer budding actors in Edinburgh the chance to act in the world’s first user-generated feature film

Wednesday, 22nd August. Edinburgh, UK – MySpace, the UK’s biggest social network, is coming to Edinburgh to begin its nationwide talent search for stars for its first movie, ‘Faintheart’.

As the next stage in the £1million MyMovie MashUp project – the world’s first fully user-generated feature film, being made in partnership with Film4 and Vertigo Films – MySpace is hoping to uncover new acting talent in the way new artists and musicians have been discovered on the site.

Aspiring actors can audition for eight different roles in ‘Faintheart’ by visiting the official casting bus at Festival Square on from 22nd August.

Alternatively, entries can be submitted via MySpace at www.myspace.com/mymoviemashup. All people have to do is upload a video of themselves acting out one of the available roles in the film, from big kid and movie lead Richard to comic fanatic Daredevil. Each part is outlined on the film’s MySpace profile.

The film’s casting director, Gary Davy, comments: “MySpace has provided an entirely new method of casting that will give professional and amateur actors an unprecedented level of access to the industry. We’ll be watching the MashUp profile with great interest as we are all excited at the possibility of discovering new talent”.

Video auditions must be uploaded to the site by September 10th and the best entries for leading or speaking roles, will be shortlisted and called back for an in-person casting session from September 17th-21st. Those selected for the roles will be announced at the end of September. The film will begin principal photography in early October and the film is currently scheduled for release in October 2008.

Over the next few weeks, the casting bus will continue its tour to nine other major cities in the UK, offering people the opportunity to come on board and audition via video cameras and laptops on the bus.

The lucky winners will begin work with director Vito Rocco (himself selected by the MySpace community) and writer David Lemon on Faintheart, a hilarious romantic comedy about the lives of a group of people who re-enact Viking battles as a hobby.

The casting of MyMovie MashUp is the last stage of the project before Faintheart begins shooting. So far, users have already been instrumental in selecting the film’s director and are currently able to contribute dialogue to the script again via the film’s MySpace profile.

The MySpace Film Channel (film.myspace.com) offers users forums, information, networking tools and access to a whole community of like-minded film enthusiasts and professionals.

Jamie Kantrowitz, SVP Marketing and Content, MySpace Europe, said: “The MySpace community is expressive, creative and often keen to be discovered. With online casting we’re confident we will uncover major new talent for MySpace’s first feature film.”

Peter Carlton, Senior Commissioning Executive for Film4, said: "By its very existence, the MySpace community allows the producers and director to preview a much larger amount of potential candidates for the roles that we are attempting to cast. As a result, this there is a great opportunity to discover new talent. The community has already been integral in helping to find our director (Vito Rocco), and Film4 believes that MySpace could definitely be a new professional resource for recruitment in film.”

James Richardson Producer Vertigo Films, said: “Using the community to cast MashUp offers users accessibility to what is normally a notoriously difficult industry to penetrate. After successfully using the mechanic of mass participation in music and theatre with “X-Factor” and “Any Dream Will Do,” the film business can now join other performing arts industries in creating product in conjunction with its audience.”
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Thank goodness for the relative sanity of the Anita Loos retrospective (although the Jean Harlow stand-in with the big hat in the last 20 minutes (shot after Harlow's death) of yesterday's Saratoga, was a little weird). On the way in I did see Mark Cousins in one of his favourite pairs of outrageous sunglasses (huge white frames mark them out as extreme designed wear or very very market stall cheap but chic either way) and bekilted which is a tad odd but nothing compared to the lard.

Here's hoping for the next 4 films of my day being as good as the first one albeit with hopefully less surreal excitement!

Monday, August 20, 2007

A week in the life of EIFF (or: Nude Ushers are the way forward!)

The Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007 is now well underway so here's what's been heard, seen and happening that we've caught (but bear with us, we're working on 3 hours sleep and we've been in films all day so the BFFS Scotland brains are a little fried!):


Spotted: Edinburgh local and Hallam Foe co-star Ewen Bremner pottering between the Cameo and Filmhouse cinemas in a very fetching flatcap.

Overheard: This year's Micheal Powell Jury are apparently not big Lynn Ramsey fans - we overheard them gossiping at the Seach'd screening!

Experienced: Intense security at the industry screening of Hallam Foe - 2 huge bodyguards and a mini interrogation preceeded us actually filing in. It seemed over the top to us but the film was well worth the effort in the end!

Seen: The hugest coolest crowd of filmmakers seeing an early screening of Control, so hip is the film. also...

Print Gossip: Berlin Alexanderplatz is apparently going well (albeit with niche interest for this long haul viewing of 11 hours+) but the print is, we hear, a bit dodgy....

Cancelled: Bob Hoskins has had his shoulder operated upon and had to cancel his In Person event as it was all a bit too delicate to move...

Spotted: Sam Riley, the star of Control, throwing some shapes in the street in preparation for the Control press conference this week.

Sold Out: Billy the Kid; Razzle Dazzle; Anita Loos Rediscovered...

Overheard: Could the Screen Academies be about to change their names? We overheard some industry types suggesting various changes including a name switch... hmm...

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Launch of EIFF 2007

Just back from the launch of the 2007 Edinburgh International Film Festival and it looks set to be a starry and rather fabulous year.

It's Hannah McGill's first year as Artistic Director and the festival is thus replete with welcome changes: new branding for the festival; new names for some old staples (Reel Life if now In Person for instance); new collaborations with the Screen Academies, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Collective Gallery, and the Traverse Theatre; and a new sponser (Sky Movies Indie).

The launch opened with a tribute to Penny Thompson, Director of EIFF from 1992-1994, who died earlier this week after a long battle with cancer. Apparently one of her last texts to the festival had been to compliment McGill on her choice of opening film, Edinburgh-based Hallam Foe, and it was therefore appropriatte that this tribute was followed by an introduction to David MacKenzie, the film's director, and Jamie Bell's co-star in the film, Sophia Myles. MacKenzie praised the festival and added that the international premieres of all his films - 8 shorts and 4 features to date - had been at Edinburgh and added to the earlier tributes by describing how Penny Thompson had encouraged him in the earlier years of his career. Myles gave a warm introduction to Hallam Foe: though she had never been to Scotland before filming she has clearly loved filming in Edinburgh and felt it's selection was hugely appropriatte as "the city is really the star of our film".

Hannah McGill (see picture below), looking glamourously retro in 40's cut skirt suit and seamed stockings (a look perfectly in tune with this year's Golden Age of Hollywood era retrospective of Anita Loos), presented a fuller selection of the programme of her first festival as Artistic Director highlighting her favourites including: Control, Sugar House, Extraordinary Rendition, WAZ, Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park and Malle Noche, The Counterfitter, Breech, The Witnesses, Knocked Up, The Year of the Dog, Tarantino's Death Proof and documentaries including the Shadow of the Moon, Flying - Confessions of a Free Woman and Crazy Love.



McGill also ran through some of the stars slated to be in town for the festival from Julie Delphy, whose enjoyable Two Days in Paris will be the Closing Night Gala, to Chris Cooper, Irvine Welsh, Mike Leigh, Paul laverty, Samantha Morton, Stellan Skarsgard, Stephen Frears, William Nicholson, Judd Apatow, John Waters and new EIFF patron Tilda Swinton. You can also assume Jamie Bell will be along for opening night as he appeared on film to endorse the festival, introduce a great looking set of clips of Hallam Foe, and to let us know that he'll see us in August.

This year's programme is themed around the written word with a fabulous looking retrospective of screenwriter Anita Loos' work which will include her most famous work, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, showing alongside the brilliantly catty The Women and a number of her less famous - but ripe for rediscovery - cinematic output including Intolerance (she worked on the witty title cards), Red-Headed Woman, Susan and God (with the ever watchable Joan Crawford), Saratoga and His Picture in the Papers (one of Loos' many collaborations with star Douglas Fairbanks Snr). There will also be a special talk on Loos' by her biographer Cari Beauchamp which will include rare screenings of two of Loos' earliest filmed scenarios: The Mystery of the Leaping Fish and The New York Hat.

All in all it looks to be a bumper year with collaborations to show new work form the UK Screen Academies, the ever strong Mirrorball, Document and Black Box sections and a number of readings and events that link EIFF 2007 into the wider world of Edinburgh Festivals.

Watch this space.... !

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Spring is Sprung - With Films and Festivals Galore!

A belated Happy Saint David's Day and an even more belated Happy New Year to all!

I felt it was time to update what's been happening at BFFS Scotland (or the Information Officer's corner at least) as the lighter days, sunnier weather and post-Oscar season seem to have brought a lot of film festivals, new movies and lots of stuff to do and tell you about...

Firstly, we have the next Committee meeting taking place this Saturday 17th March 2007 at the Gillis Centre, Edinburgh. This will be to discuss our plans for the Spring Event and which films we'll be showing. The date is tentatively booked for Sunday 6th May and the venue will definitely be Glasgow Film Theatre but everything else is yet to be decided - let me know by email (info@bffsscotland.co.uk) if you have any ideas.

Secondly, it seems to be film festival season a-go-go... Last month was the Glasgow Film Festival (my partner and I attended the opening night screening of so-so British film Cashback - see BBC Film item), this week is the first Cinema China festival in Edinburgh (touring elsewhere over the spring), next week sees the inaugeral New Europe Film Festival in Edinburgh and the launch of the 2007 French Film Festival and over the next few months there will be the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and a batch of international festivals before our own annual Scottish blowout, the Edinburgh International Film Festival. We are trying to get to as many of the launches, screenings and events as possible to report on for the bffsscotland website but I'd also really appreciatte any reviews or comments anyone has on any of this year's festivals.

Finally, thanks to my colleagues at iofilm.co.uk, I now have a massive batch of short and feature films to review for them and bffsscotland.co.uk so watch out for the reviews shortly.

In other news: ahead of the Spring event I'll be spending a few late nights and fraught lunch hours getting our next newsletter out to societies, cinemas and arts organisations throughout Scotland. If you have anything you'd like to see in the next edition, let me know and I'll do my best.

Also, does your film society/community cinema/film group/whatever have a blog or website you'd like to tell us about - post a comment here with a link and (a) everyone will be able to visit it and (b) I'll add links to the main bffsscotland website for your group - or you can if you register to use the site and click Weblinks/Add Link. Also please feel free to add links, info or whatever to our bffs scotland wiki - just email me for the password and you can start editing and adding stuff!

Have a great March and hopefully hear from you or see you soon!

Nicola

Information Officer, BFFS Scotland
Editor, bffsscotland.co.uk

Sunday, January 21, 2007

New Year, New Challenges?

Firstly, a Happy New Year to all!

BFFS Scotland is starting the new year with a day of reflection, discussion and planning for the future as we try to work out what we are doing well and what we should be doing for film societies in the next few years. So more news on that after next week.

Elsewhere it's nice to see the UK, including Scottish filmmakers, doing well in Awards season. With Bafta, Golden Globe and Oscar awards to keep an eye on we'd welcome your comments on the last year of films and what your top tips are for your next film society season. Do you follow the awards or go your own way? Personally I think pragmatism might give the best season but awards do usually mean good turn outs.

Anyway, as ever comment here, on the website or add to our new and beautiful wiki at: http://bffsscotland.pbwiki.com/

Keep warm and dry in this wintery gloom and we'll update you on all things BFFS Scotland very soon,

Nicola.
Information Officer | BFFS Scotland

Friday, July 07, 2006

Summer is here!

Yes! Summer is here and with it, the festivals are a-happening...

The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival is about to tour Scotland, the Edinburgh International Film Festival is about to announce it's programme and the Cambridge Film Festival takes place this weekend... exciting stuff and it means that lots of great unusual films are on their way.

Talking of great films I'm looking foward to Pirates of the Carribean 2, Superman and whatever else the summer brings. If you see something great at the cinema (anything from mainstream blockbuster to obscure yugloslavian documentary or indeed anything else) then please add your review to bffsscotland.co.uk - I could definitely use some guidance in picking what to see at the cinema (or on the small screen - there are a lot of good DVD sales at the moment with the Odd Couple and Vertigo at £2.99 in HMV last time I checked).

Anyway, I have booked my Edinburgh Fringe Festival tickets, am reviewing the tapes for the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and looking forward to a summer of diversions in case the weather remains this patchy...

Enjoy the football and tennis finals!


Nicola
bffs scotland

P.S. I hear that A Canterbury Tale is on BBC2 this Tuesday - it's suppossed to be one of the best Powell and Pressberger films so I'll have the video set...