His Excellency Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan Chairman, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage invited the Cannes festival professionnals at Mint Villa to celebrate the launch of the Middle East International Film Festival and The Abu Dhabi Film Commission.Embracing both the art and business of film, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival aims to become the essential destination for film-makers looking to reach global audiences. The Abu Dhabi Film Festival will play host to financiers, studi...

                The Cannes International Film Festival has almost nothing in common with the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and Hollywood, and yet, people tend to treat each other in the same way: every man for himself. When someone takes time out of their schedule to speak to you, knowing that you are not going to buy their movie or advance their career in some way, that person is someone who is worth talking to. This was the sort of situation that led me to Ken Feinberg, write...

From August 15th to 26th the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will run for the 61st time, and this year with new ventures.  EIFF, the longest continually running film festival in the world,  announced two new aspects to their festival.  The first will be a UK Talent Show, entitled "Trailblazers."  The talent show will be comprised of 20 people, half will be graduating students from the UK's screen academies of Skillset (A UK company funded by industry and governm...

Richard Moore, executive Director of the Melbourne Internation Film Festival, just announced new programs to be added to this years 19 day festival, which will be held from July 25th to August 12th.  New programs will include: "Africa! Africa!" which will show films from the last two years from all over the continent of Africa, "Stars of David" which will include Israeli cinema and documentaries, "Next Gen" comprised of films from all over the world geared for ...

Four years ago Dubai commenced their international film festival and today in Abu Dhabi, another Persian Gulf  town approximately 150 km south of Dubai, officials announced that they too will hold an international film festival during the second half of October.Dubai is well on its way to establishing itself as an regional film hub, and its own international film festival, set to run December 9-16, will be a direct competitor with Abu Dhabi's.  Although according to Abdulhamid Juma, Ch...

The will take place:  May 21: 3pm  to 4pm Short Film Corner: Screening RoomInvitation event RSVP [email protected] From Janet Murray's Holodeck to Lev Manovich's Database Cinema, the interactive narrative represents the "holy grail" of the interactive medium. For some, the pleasure derived from interactive stories is found in the theorizing of them. For others such pleasure has yet to be found in mainstream practice. Indeed, today, most traditional entertainm...

  Festival du Cinéma Brésilien de Paris 25 April through 8 May, 2007 FESTIVAL DE CINEMA DO BRASIL IN PARIS The first week of this 9th two-prong event (feature competition and then documentaries) has ended at the L’Arlequin Cinema in Paris 'trendy Quartier Latin with the presence of top-knotch Brazilian filmmakers, actors and producers, flown over for the event to present each of the two doze...

WANT MORE SCOOP ON THESE FILMS" HEAR EXCLUSIVE FILMMAKER INTERVIEWS (see below)! Go now to www.blogtalkradio.com/moviegeeksunited and listen now!  And call this Sunday at 6pm eastern / 5pm central to ask questions concerning these films!The recent 9th annual Sarasota Film Festival was the biggest yet, hosting around 210 films from all over the world.  This event has become increasingly popular with both film fans and industr...

The previous articles provided the context for the growing film festival tourism phenomenon.  In this last installment, more specific information is provided about the participants in festival tourism, the services  provided by the few agencies in this new niche market, and the characteristics of the film festivals that would most likely benefit from film festival tourism.As noted before, comprehensive Canadian research on US festival tourism enthusiasts, including those groups who reported 60...

The International Film Festival Summit IFFS Europe will bring together leading film festivals and professionals from around the world to network, innovate, and share ideas. The summit will address the proliferation of festivals, sponsorship strategies, operations & management, technology, programming, and the distribution of film. your peers and colleagues for an event you can't afford to  miss!SPEAKERS INCLUDE:Henri Behar,Press, Toronto & Cannes Film Festival Despina Mouzaki...

I will be reporting from the Cuberland in London next week at the Festival Summit Europe. ...