Friday, October 19---------BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas, presents its annual presentation of New French Films from October 24 to 28. The series returns with five new features from , all New York premieres.  The series includes comedies, thrillers, and dramas, as well as a documentary investigating the relationship between filmmakers and critics. New French Films is presented in association with Uni NY and the French Cultural Services in New York....

 Monday, October 15--------No sooner has the New York Film Festival wrapped (screening its Closing Night film PERSEPOLIS yesterday evening) that the busy beavers at the Film Society of Lincoln Center are pulling more cinema treats out of their hats. No rest for the weary, either at the Society or among Festival audiences. Starting this Wednesday, in honor of the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's incorporation into the Peoples Republic of China (a date either revered or loathed by the local popul...

 Friday, October 12--------As the New York Film Festival enters its final weekend, there are still ample opportunities to sample a very tasty smorgasboard of international film offerings. The mix of titles includes modern film noir, an instant animation classic, a contemporary American farce, and some intriguing films from Asia and south of the border. If you've been delaying getting to Lincoln Center for this year's event, it is now last call.Don't be daunted by the 163 minute running time o...

 Monday, September 8----------From October 18–21, BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Rose Cinemas will present the  Pordenone Silent Film Weekend,  featuring highlights from the legendary Pordenone Silent Film Weekend in Italy, the world's most prestigious film festival devoted to the art of the silent cinema.  The series, which is celebrating its sixth anniversary at BAM, focuses this year on the early silent classics from the Danish film studio ...

Friday, October 5--------As the Hamptons, the celebrated resort area on the eastern end of Long Island, moves into arguably its most beautiful season, the 15th edition of the Hamptons International Film Festival will bring a mix of film and glamour to complement the burnt orange and reddish hues of the Fall. The Festival begins on October 17th and runs through October 21st. This is a pivotal year for the event. Its longtime Festival Director Denise Kassel departed after being at the helm for the...

 Wednesday, October 3--------The New York Film Festival is, if nothing else, loyal to its cinema masters. Hell, it practically invented them. For the past 45 years, the Festival has been as influential as any in introducing and sustaining interest in some of the world's most celebrated filmmakers. While some other festivals focus almost exclusively on emerging talents (and they certainly are well represented at this year's NYFF as well), few other film events of this stature continue to pay hom...

 Monday, October 1---------Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke is among the most celebrated and controversial figures in the world of contemporary world cinema. His films have been divisive and disturbing affairs that leaves audiences shaken and uncertain. He holds up a mirror to a world of extreme anxiety, offensive violence and a lack of human empathy. He has inspired amazing performances from his actors, leading many to win international awards. His cinema is ferocious, compelling and unforget...

 Friday, September 28-------The 45th edition of the New York Film Festival, one of New York's most coveted cultural events, opens tonight with the US Premiere of THE DARJEELING LIMITED, directed by Wes Anderson. The film, which stars Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, traces the fractured journey of three American brothers on a spiritual quest in India. The trio, who have not spoken to each other in a year, set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and ...

 Wednesday, September 26---------Fritz Lang is perhaps best known for his pioneering work in the silent cinema of German Expressionism, with such films as DR. MABUSE and METROPOLIS often appearing on the Top Ten list of greatest films ever made. However, when he was forced to flee Nazi because of his libertarian politics, Lang had a long, if bumpy, career in Hollywood, mostly making genre "b pictures". These films were regarded as the equivalent of "pulp fiction".......

 Wedneday, September 20---------- A little bit of Australia is making its way to downtown Manhattan this Sunday, when Tropfest@Tribeca 2007, the latest venture by the Tribeca Film Festival, gets into gear to offer New York film buffs a chance to sample some of the world's most provocative short films. Tropfest began in Australia in 1993 and has become the world's largest short film festival. Now, a New York version will unspool as a FREE EVENT (nice)  at the World Financial Center Plaza near G...

 Monday, September 17---------The New York film season begins in earnest this week, with parallel events in uptown and downtown Manhattan that turn the Big Apple into a veritable "subway series". Uptown, specifically at the famed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the Press and Industry Screenings of the 45th edition of the New York Film Festival began its three week run. Downtown, in Manhattan's artsy Soho district, the Independent Feature ...

Monday, September 10----------HONEYDRIPPER, the latest film from indie icon John Sayles that is having its world premiere this evening in Toronto, will be the Opening Night Film of Independent Film Week, the annual celebration of American Independent Cinema sponsored by the Independent Feature Project (IFP). The jam-packed event includes the public FILMMAKER CONFERENCE, featuring a host of fun and informative s and screenings; the prestigious 29th IFP MARKET for industry professionals; ...

For the two weeks, editorial focus will be on the Montreal World Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Check out all the excitement via the Online Dailies Sites.  Montreal World Film Festival Dailies: www.fest21.com/blog/montreal_world_film_festival    Toronto International Film Festival Dailies: www.fest21.com/blog/toronto_film_festival   Come back for more Film New York coverage in 2 weeks.............Sandy Mandelberger, Film New Y...

 Friday, August 25------There are still a few days to catch the final  offerings in the NYC NOIR series that has been running at the Film Forum for the past few weeks. Dedicated to a depiction of New York as a place of grit, grays and ghosts, the series offers a tidy endgame of treats, a mix of classics and little known gems. With temperatures expected to hit the 90s in the final dog days of August, New York never looked quite so noir. But at least this NYC is air conditioned.REAR WINDOW (1954...

 Monday, August 20---------Next to the United States, (a country about 25% the population) has the world's most prolific and dynamic film industry. And luckily, the interest in French cinema has remained consistently strong, with a new crop of directors, writers and actors making impressions on ever-increasing audiences. For those of us who proudly call themselves "francophones" (like myself),  this is very good news. Still, the number of French feature films and documen...

 Friday, August 17-------The New York Korean Film Festival, a sprawling event that begins on Tuesday, August 21st and runs through September 2nd, is gearing up for a full series of feature films, shorts, information s and reception events, held at the Cinema Village and IFC Center in lower Manhattan and at the BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn. The Festival, now in its seventh year, is sponsored by The Korea Society. The program includes 16 contemporary films from the burgeoning South Korean fi...

 Wednesday, August 15------The title of the latest film series at the Museum of Modern Art strikes one as somehow.....wrong. THE OTHER CLAUDE CHABROL? Could there be such a thing? Chabrol is one of the most prolific and consistent French directors of the past half-century. Well into his 70s, he continues to come out with at least one film per year, and his notoreity and influence continue unabated, long after his Nouvelle Vague contemporaries have either bitten the dust or become obscured in th...

 Monday, August 13---------Even though Hong Kong has officially been absorbed into the People's Republic of China, it remains its own political and cultural animal. This is certainly reflected in its national cinema, which has been a major international sensation for decades. To mark the 10th anniversary of the end of colonial rule, the BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas, is presenting THE NEW DECADE: HONG KONG FILM, starting this Thursday, August 16th.This nine�...

 Friday, August 10-------For the fifth year, Anthology Film Archives invites amateurs and professionals alike to share their 8-millimeter, Super 8 or 16-millimeter home movies for its annual Home Movie Day. Decaying images from family vacations, bar mitzvah celebrations, long forgotten family and other ephemera are the order of the day, with the prevailing ethos that one man's trash is another man's treasure. The only rule is that the home movies must be that, movies, not vide...

 Wednesday, August 8---------There is no equivalent in the United States.....the actor Gerard Depardieu is a truly French phenomenon, a pasty-faced, barrel-chested, unpolished, roughly handsome leading man, who somehow is an enduring Gallic sex symbol. He does not have the sensual prettiness of an Alain Delon, the rail-thin sex appeal of a Jean-Paul Belmondo or the intelligent visage of a Yves Montand. He is, in fact, his own unique creation, and his enduring appeal in French cinema is mostly...

 Monday, August 6--------An award-winning documentary on a group of refugees who take hold of their fate and destiny through musical expression is making its New York premiere at the IFC Center next Monday, August 13th. SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL-STARS, a powerful and inspirational film by Zach Niles and Banker White, has been a hit on the international film festival circuit, having won the top Documentary Prize at the 2006 AFI Los Angeles Film Festival. This new documentary tells the remar...

 Wednesday, August 1--------Robert Redford's got Sundance. Robert De Niro's got Tribeca. So why not let Paul Giamatti into that exclusive club? Well, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) apparently agrees and has scheduled an 8-film series of movies selected by the Oscar nominee (and indie fave) entitled PAUL GIAMATTI SELECTS. The series begins tonight at the BAM Rose Cinemas and continues through September. Giamatti and Brooklyn are actually a perfect fit. Not only is he a longtime res...

Monday, July 30----------A true film pioneer, documentarian DA Pennebaker is considered one of the finest filmmakers working today, in any film genre. At age 82, he is still highly prolific, creating new and challenging works that continue to enrage and inspire his legion of irers. The documentary devotees will assemble this Wednesday at the IFC Center for AN EVENING WITH DA PENNEBAKER, part of the FILM DIALOGUES series sponsored by Filmmaker Magazine.Donn Alan "D. A." Pennebaker wa...

 Friday, July 27-------It did not seem like it at the time, but the films of a new generation of filmmakers in the 1970s truly did revolutionize the industry and save the studios from financial disaster. By the following decade, Hollywood was back to its old tricks of mounting blockbusters and lowest-common-denominator genre films. But for a period of about ten years (from 1967 to 1977, roughly defined by the release of Mike Nichol's THE GRADUATE and the unprecedented boxoffice extravaganza...

Wednesday, July 25--------New York audiences bored with the blah-blah-blah of summer blockbusters and curious about the new directions in film and media arts should make their way to Lincoln Center this weekend, to be part of the excitement of SCANNERS: The 2007 New York Video Festival, the always unpredictable and richly rewarding survey of new trends in the world of digital media. The series, a kind of wide-awake digital dreaming, opens this Friday and runs through Sunday, July 29th at the W...