VENICE: One of the new partners of Venice Days this year at the Biennale Film Festival was Toscana Resort Castelfalfi.
BERLIN: Levan Koguashvili made his feature debut with Street Days which was a hit on the festival circuit. With the accomplished Blind Dates he stakes his claim as perhaps the hottest of Georgia’s new generation of young directors.
BERLIN: Paris based director Rachid Bouchareb presents a remake of the 1973 thriller Duex homes dans la ville which was originally written and directed by novelist Jose Giovanni.
BERLIN: Cypriot born director Yannis Economides shows us the world of post economic melt-down Greece where economic misery and betrayal of civilized values are telescoped into this gangster tale as a metaphor for a much wider malaise throughout Greek society where the refrain “what can we do we need the money” is justification for any indecency or brutality.
BERLIN: Alain Renais the doyen of French cinema continues his love affair with British playwright Alan Ayckbourn with a successful adaptation of his stage play for his Berlin competition contender Life of Riley.
BERLIN: Fans of Wes Anderson rejoice. This might just be the film that he has been moving towards making since the beginning of his career. It works on every level and entertains as well as never ceasing to be a work of cinemagraphic art.
BERLIN: As Georgian film continues its return to the international scene there seems to be no shortage of young, talented Georgian directors emerging from this small country. The latest new talent from Tbilisi is director Tinatin Kajrishvili who arrives in Berlin with her debut feature, Brides, which screens in Panorama.
BERLIN: Director Richard Linklater arrives in Berlin with the totally unique Boyhood, a feature film that he created by filming the same actors every year for 12 years. Boyhood enables the audience to watch a young boy, Mason, played by young actor Ellar Coltrane, grow up on screen as Linklater filmed him from the age of six until his graduation from high school and heads off for college.
PRAGUE: Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s acclaimed Burning Bush won 11 Czech Lions in Prague including a best director and best film. The 21 edition of the Czech Lions which was held over Saturday night in Prague (22 February 2014) is the Czech film industry’s national equivalent of the Oscar.
BERLIN: The Golden Bear for Best Film went to the producer of Bai Ri Yan Huo/ Black Coal, Thin Ice directed by Diao Yinan while the popular and star studded Grand Budapest Hotel directed by Wes Anderson picked up the Grand Jury Prize and a Silver Bear. Richard Linklater picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director as well as a number of other awards for his critically successful Boyhood.
