It has been a decade and a half since Gen Art, the nationwide networking organization devoted to art, fashion, music and movies, first launched a New York-based film festival to highlight works from emerging American independent artists. But different from other festivals of a similar stripe, the Gen Art concept was quite simple: seven films shown over seven nights with audience invited to an after-party at a hot club or restaurant each evening. This winning formu...

  One would imagine that a film entitled I KILLED MY MOTHER would be a wild ride of incestuous violence, but Montreal-based Xavier Dolan’s semi-autobiographical debut feature is more of a testament to the loving bonds between mother  and son, no matter how ferocious and unpleasant. The film, which marks the emergence of an enfant terrible auteur in the 20-year-old former child star Dolan, will be the closing night presentation of this year’s New Directors New Films on Sunday ev...

    "I still consider myself a New Yorker, even though these days I have been spending more and more time in Los Angeles", filmmaker Noah Baumbach explained on the stage of the Jacob Burns Film Center on Saturday afternoon immediately following a screening of his latest "dramedy" GREENBERG, which is set in the City of Angels. "ittedly, I am seeing that city differently these days......maybe because my wife Jennifer Jason Leigh grew up there, so some...

  WOMEN WITHOUT MEN (Shirin Neshat)  For most people, a trip to the cinema is a welcome escapism from the harshness of the world and its problems. For others, films with political subjects or contexts are sought out for a population hungry to engage and feeling starved for perspective and analysis. While New Directors New Films is not an overtly political affair, it is hard to avoid the powerful political discourses that careen through some of the films in this year’s pro...

For the first time in memory (if my faulting memory serves me well and it increasingly does NOT), the New Directors New Films showcase opened last evening with a documenary feature. This annual rite of the Spring film season, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Film Department of the Museum of Modern Art, was ushered in by BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK, a fascinating look at the New York Times photographer and his love/hate obsession with the city he calls both his mu...

  New Yorkers are in love again, l'amour fou as they say, with French cinema. Not only has the film "Un Prophete" emerged as one of the big international hits of the year (a much deserved Oscar nominee that should have won the prize) but the current program of new Gallic titles that is the 15th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema offers francophiles (count me in) some boundless treats. The Rendez-Vous, a favorite New York rite of spring, is presented by the Film Society of Li...

  Veteran actor Dennis Hopper is battling prostate cancer and is said to be bedridden. The actor, age 73, announced today that he was seeking a divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy, with whom he has a 6-year-old daughter, Galen. Hopper has three other children from previous marriages. Concern is mounting about the health of the actor when a released statement from his publicist had him declaring that he "only wants to spend these difficult days surrounded by my child...

  James Ivory, the legendary director of such classic films as ROOM WITH A VIEW and HOWARD’S END, and part of the legendary Merchant/Ivory producing team, returns to the big screen with his newest film THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION. The film also marks his reunion with actor Anthony Hopkins, who starred in the director’s HOWARD’S END and THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, as well as a stellar cast that also includes Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Norma Aleandro an...

  A group of very lucky Russian filmmakers will have the double opportunity of impressing North American audiences and industry professionals via a unique program sponsored by CEC ArtsLink. The not-for-profit organization has partnered with the Sundance Film Festival to co-host a group of four independent Russian filmmakers in the US from January 20 to February 2. Their award-winning short films will have a North American premiere screening in New York. The filmmakers will then continu...

  It is often said that everyone in New York, no matter what your religion or ethnicity, is just a little bit Jewish. The Jewish influence in culture, art, politics and in every stratum of society gives all New Yorkers a kind of common bond that no other group quite inspires. If you can recite the lines from a Woody Allen film, if you cannot imagine breakfast without a bagel, if you find yourself uttering the words "oy vey" with a heartfelt sigh, you are Jewish, if you are a Ca...

  In this awards season, where the industry unveils prizes for some of the world's wealthiest and most pampered celebrities, can we not find a small prize for a filmmaker with almost unimaginable courage? I am referring to Bahman Ghobadi, the Iraqi filmmaker who has been forced to leave his native country because of a crackdown by the government over "unauthorized" filmmakers. As another example of its repressive agenda, the Iraqi government made a Christmas Day announce...

  With 2009 coming to a close, which represented a challenge to the specialty distribution market in North America (and everywhere else), French cinema was the sole bright light in what has become a shrinking market for European quality film. While there were some celebrated films from (The Baader Meinhof Complex), Spain (Broken Embraces), Italy (Gomorrah) and the UK (Bright Star, Hunger), their overall box office performances were considered very modest. The BBC co-prod...

   Louis Malle, the legendary French director whose career spanned four decades and whose influence on the language of cinema continues to grow in stature, will be the subject of a mini-retrospective starting New Year’s Day at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, the flagship venue of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.   The week-long celebration will showcase six of the director’s most enduring works, including a special event screening on Wednesday, January ...

  On any poll where the greatest directors who ever lived is compiled, the name of Japansese director Akira Kurosawa is certain to show up in the top three slots. More loved outside of his homeland (as are many film artists) and acknowledged by film scholars as a true visual artist, the oeuvre of this cinematic giant is the focus of a 4-week festival to be held at the Film Forum, New York's great arthouse treasure. The 28-film festival celebrating the centennial of director Akira...

  Richard Lorber and Donald Krim Two of the New York film community's most solid ers of indie and international cinema have announced a merger that will offer a safe haven for quality films in a time of great uncertainty. Richard Lorber, the head of Lorber HT Digital/Hidden Treasures Inc., and Donald Krim, the long-time head of Kino International, have announced the merger of their companies to create a new distribution organization to be known as Kino Lorber. The n...

    In what has to be a first, the prestigious Museum of Modern Art in New York is  devoting considerable museum space to a working Hollywood filmmaker. Just opening this weekend is Tim Burton, a major retrospective exploring the full scale of Tim Burton’s career, both as a director and concept artist for live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. On view through April 26, 2010, the exhibition brings together over 700 examples ...

  With foreign-language films (with "dreaded" sub-titles) becoming more and more difficult to find theatrical distribution, the action has moved to the home screen for even films that have been major presences on the international film festival circuit. IFC Films, which still does do day-and-date simultaneous openings in theaters and on its on-demand television network, is increasingly showcasing films strictly on its IFC ON DEMAND service, available via cable and satellite tel...

  CRACKS,  starring Eva Green (Casino Royale, The Dreamers), which premiered to critical acclaim at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, has been picked up for North American distribution by IFC FILMS. The UK/US co-production is the directorial debut of Jordan Scott, who was born in England and has directed campaigns throughout the world for RSA Films. She directed a short-film advertising campaign for Prada as well as public service announcements advocating gun control. She also co-direct...

  New York City prides itself as being the "capital of the world", as it has attracted immigrants from all over the globe and set up individual communities within the city's urban grid. For the past few decades, the communities of South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan, have become vibrant parts of the city's mosaic, producing in their midst the finest curry dishes, sari shops and music concerts this side of Delhi and Peshawar. This past weekend, New York opened up ...

  Link to video interview with director Lee Daniels of the American indie hit PRECIOUS, on stage at the Jacob Burns Film Center, New York on Monday, November 9: http://www.burnsfilmcenter.org/films/precious-moreinfo ...

  Oscar, meet Precious........the Academy Awards have just gotten their first blast of ghetto love with the rising tide surrounding the urban drama PRECIOUS: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire by producer-turned-director Lee Daniels. The film, a major hit out of Sundance and screened to great acclaim in Cannes, Toronto and New York, opened theatrically in the United States this past weekend…..and broke box office records for its per-screen performance. Logging in an astonishing $100,00...

  It doesn’t get much better than this…..the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which presents the New York Film Festival each Fall, is in the midst of a revelatory review of one of the major film movements of the 20th century, presenting a list of acknowledged classics along with previously unknown (at least to me) gems. ITALIAN NEOREALISM AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN CINEMA is an exhaustive look at the cinema that flourished in Italy in the post-war period and that still remains a high poi...

   Guru Dutt in PYAASA (1957) With the continued  appeal of Bollywood and last year’s Oscar win by SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, the history of Indian cinema is en vogue. This year as part of its Masterworks section, the New York Film Festival is offering the first compete New York retrospective of the works of Indian film artist Guru Dutt.   Born in 1925, Dutt was an Indian film director, producer and actor, who is often credited with ushering in the golden era of...

  Penelope Cruz in BROKEN EMBRACES (Spain)  The New York Film Festival, which enters its final weekend today, has presented a program with a large emphasis on European cinema. With a strong showing of films from Portugal (http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/filmnewyork/a_peek_at_portugese_cinema_at_nyff) and (http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/filmnewyork/the_french_invasion_of_new_york), the Festival finds that contemporary European cinema from other nations not only has...

  It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomfortably intimate HAPPINESS (1998) and the less well receive...