London Film Festival 2008
52nd London Film Festival is set to be bigger than ever, with a huge selection of screenings, talks and special events lined up.
London film fest artistic director Sandra Hebron unveiled a program that includes 15 world, 20 European and 119 U.K. preems.
“We are excited that London in October will play host to world renowned directors, writers and actors, as well as to some of the most important new voices in international cinema,”
she said and added:
“I spent the weekend reading about the Venice Film Festival and some of the things that I read suggested that it wasn’t a vintage year for cinema. Well, luckily for us, while we do give awards for short films, the fact that we are not a prize-giving festival gives us much freer reign to screen a series of great films.”
The festival’s opening and closing gala screenings had already been announced: Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” reimagines a series of interviews between the British TV personality and the disgraced American president and Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire.”
With films from all over the world, each year there are close to 180 feature films screened as well as documentaries, restored classics, shorts, animation and artists’ film and video installations, featuring approximately 20 screenings and special events every day.
This year’s London Film Festival includes a record number of world and European premieres with a total of 189 features and 108 shorts screening.
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Cannes 2008 - Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir
Playing in the Official Selection, Israeli director Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir, a documentary about the Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of 1982, is a major revelation.
Waltz with Bashir documents the struggle of the filmmaker, Ari Folman, to come to terms with the gaps in his memory surrounding the part he played in the first Lebanese war and the 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians in the West Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.
An animation that is visually bold and politically combustible, it’s based on the director’s own experiences as a draftee soldier. The film begins with him confessing to a friend about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by savage dogs. This is interpreted as being something to do with his military past, a past he has blocked out over subsequent decades.
Synopsis:
One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs.
Every night, the same number of beasts.
The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties.
Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life.
Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself.
As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images…
Ari Folman - Director / Screenplay
Yoni Goodman - Animation
David Polonski - Cinematography
Max Richter - Music
Waltz With Bashir official site
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Cannes Reveals Two Animated Films In Competition
Cannes Film Festival officials on Wednesday revealed the lineup for the 61st festival in France.
Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman’s ‘Waltz With Bashir‘, an animated feature about Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon is entered in the competition, and is garnering some buzz.
‘My Rabbit Hoppy‘ from Anthony Lucas (Australia) is one of nine films in the shorts competition. He was nominated for an Oscar for his 2005 short ‘The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello’.
DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Kung Fu Panda‘ will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday May 15. The film will be released on June 6 in the U.S. and most major world markets by the end of July.
DreamWorks has previously shown clips or screenings of films at Cannes, including clips of ‘Bee Movie, a screening of ‘Over the Hedge‘, clips of ‘Shark Tale‘ and a screening of ‘Shrek‘.
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