Cannes Film Festival 2011 Date: May 11 to May 22

Take note: the International Cannes Film Festival in 2011 will take place from May 11 to May 22.

And for Christina Aguilera, who famously asked "So, where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?",: This year's Cannes Film Festival will be held in Cannes :)

Taormina Film Festival Winners

The Italian movie "From the Waist Up" (Dalla vita in Poi) not only won the Taormina Film Festival top prize, the "Golden Tauro", but also got the awards for "Best actress" (Cristina Capotondi) and "Best Actor" (Filippo Nigro).

Best Actress winner Cristina Capotondi and Cast of Golden Tauro winner "From the Waist Up"

The only other prize awarded by the international jury went to Spanish director Jorge Coira for "Best Director" of the movie "18 Meals".

The German movie "Friendship" was awarded the top prize by the audience jury, and the student jury awarded the film Brazilian film "Besouro" as well as "53 Dias de Invierno" from Spain.

The Sicilian short film award went to "Rec Stop and Play".

Robert De Niro Master Class

In a master class at the 2010 Taormina Film Festival, the cinema "ueber"-icon Robert De Niro talks about his work as a Director, his recent successes in comedies and how working with Michael Mann turned him into a potential bank robber.

We just saw the movie “The Good Shepherd” which you directed - what attracted you to this story about the CIA?

Robert De Niro: Intelligence - any intelligence service - is interesting to me. That whole world is fascinating. It's fascinating stuff - great stuff for a movie.

How could the story develop? What would be the sequel?

Robert De Niro: The first sequel would be from 61 to 89 – covering the building of the wall to the falling of the wall. That's what the intention is. The next one if I ever did it would be to the present.

Mainstream American cinema is not providing the same pleasures as when I was young. Enteraining and smart cinema seems to go away. Do you feel that you arrivedat exactly the right moment to do your career?

Robert De Niro: There are more independent films being made than when I started out. There was de palma and others but today it seems there's a whole lot more. Now there is a swing to spectacle cartoon type situations - they are all fine, but I don't know how I fit in that kind of stuff. Then again, you do see more movies that are made independantly than in the 60s and 70s.

You produced over forty films - How do you select the film you will produce?

Robert De Niro: We do all kinds of things - personally the kind of movies that I like are the ones that have a real story characters and so on. Making movies is so hard - making “The Good Shepherd” was such an uphill struggle because it was a big budget. So you have to get the actors that can support the movie from a business perspective. I don't know if in the end I will be able to do second part. Getting the script, right, getting the actors then getting the money - it's a long haul.

Now that you have done all three things that an actor can do – acting, directing, producing - which gives you the most pleasure?

Robert De Niro: Acting and then directing. When you're directing you have to do so many things at the same time – that takes a lot more of you . So I have to really want to direct the movies. It takes years to do all these things.

As an actor you can prepare but you still have days off even if your in most of the movie. Being Director is more satisfying because you make a lot of decisions that an actor cannot do. But it can be a nightmare.

It seems to me that the really fruitful collaborations between actor and director happen if they have the same passion but not the same vision. I read that you and Scorcese come from the same neighborhood but didn't know eachother very well.

Robert De Niro: We have a very sympathetic working relationship. We don't hang out together, but have great working relationship. He might be doing the movie for his reasons and me for mine. He has religious overtones, I'm not thinking in that direction.We do I think complement each other. He's very responsive to any kind of idea. If it doesn't work out he directs you in another direction towards compromise.

This makes me think of working with Michael Man on "Heat". It seems you do your best work when you work with somebody who is professional in all areas.

Robert De Niro: Michael Man really cares about what he's doing. There's a certain intensity to what he's doing. He creates that through the rehearsal process, so you get a sense that this is going to be special. In the case of “Heat”, we did all this training with guys who know how to do this - the heast and all that.

You could probably rob a bank now?

Robert De Niro: Probably that too

We shouldn't forget the comedies. You had enormous success in recent years with those. How do you feel about doing comedy?

Robert De Niro: I enjoy it. They are fun to do. Because they are not serious you can try things you normally wouldn't do from my sense. In that sense, its' fun. Even the big set pieces - that's fun too. It may be a relief. They're not that easy, you gotta think about what you're doing.

Robert De Niro Returns to Sicily for first time since Godfather and is not exciting

An either bored, seriously jetlagged or both Robert de Niro was met today by an enthusiastic Sicilian audience in the packed grand meeting hall of the Taormina conference center.
This was only de Niro's fourth visit to an island that seems to have determined so much of his "mafioso" roles, and his first since he made "Godfather", which was - yeah - now a long time ago.
The start of de Niro's "Master Class" was delayed by the fifteen minutes it took to clear out the alleys and front of the stage of worrysome-for-the-firemen audience members.
Once things got started off, de Niro chose to keep it bland - intelligence movies (like "The Good Shepherd") are "fascinating" to him as well as "great stuff" and directing is a "nightmare" - who would have thought?
The more interesting stuff came near the end - de Niro and Scorcese are working on what he described as "Goodfellas" like project based on a book called "I heard you paint Houses". Half of the script is done, the other one is still in development, and IMDB gives a release date of 2011. So another gangster based story. De Niro described the project as "ambitious" so it seems there's still a lot of work to do.
De Niro also half-way admitted that the comedies he did in recent years require a little less work for him than his usual character-acting-based dramatic personae, although he was quick to catching himself by saying that "they are not that easy".
(check out the transcript)

Disney Toy Story 3 World Premiere before 4000 People

Allegedly (and I guess everything in Sicily is "allegedly") 90.000 Dollars (or was it Euros?) went into making the 2000-year-old Greek theater 3D- ready for the World premiere of Disney's "Toy Story 3". The open-air screening in front of again allegedly 4000 people was allegedly the movie's world premiere - it was allegedly shown before the premiere screening in L.A.

The movie itself lived up to the high expectations one has for Pixar films - very entertaining, and always surprisingly engaging for a "toy story". The only potential criticism is that the 3D really didn't add much to the picture - the movie would have worked just as well in 2D.

So what's new in toy land? Well, things aren't looking so great - the toy owner has grown up and reached the ripe age of seventeen - so time to go to college, clean out the room at home, which also means: an uncertain future for his toys. Donation? Attic? Or even trash? These are the toy options.

Turns out all options become true one way or another, and along the way, the movie also features a traumatized strawberry-smelling bear, hilarious encounters between Ken and Barbie and to top it all off, Buzz discovers his Spanish side.

Overall, this is a movie definitely worth seeing, and a great start for this years Taormina Film Festival. Definitely not a "kids-only" movie, and it contains a level of darkness that might even be a little disturbing for more impressionable youngsters.

Ever so fashionable, in Italy, even 3D glasses come from Milano.

Cannes Film Festival Winners 2010

FEATURE FILMS

Palme d'Or
LUNG BOONMEE RALUEK CHAT (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) directed by Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL

Grand Prix
DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX (OF GODS AND MEN) directed by Xavier BEAUVOIS

Award for Best Director
Mathieu AMALRIC for TOURNÉE (ON TOUR)

Award for Best Screenplay
LEE Chang-dong for POETRY

Award for Best Actress
Juliette BINOCHE in COPIE CONFORME (CERTIFIED COPY) directed by Abbas KIAROSTAMI

Award for Best Actor Ex-aequo
Javier BARDEM in BIUTIFUL directed by Alejandro GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU
Elio GERMANO in LA NOSTRA VITA (OUR LIFE) directed by Daniele LUCHETTI

Jury Prize
UN HOMME QUI CRIE (A screaming man) directed by Mahamat-Saleh HAROUN

SHORT FILMS

Palme d'Or - Short Film
CHIENNE D'HISTOIRE (BARKING ISLAND) directed by Serge AVÉDIKIAN

Jury Prize - Short Film
MICKY BADER (BATHING MICKY) directed by Frida KEMPFF

Variety reviews "Wall Street"; other films at today's Cannes Film Festival Movies

• The Housemaid: "his high-end softcore thriller is juicily watchable from start to over-the-top finish"
• Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: "shrewdly opportunistic, glibly entertaining sequel"

"Robin Hood" Director Ridley Scott won't be at Cannes Film Festival

The Director of this year's Cannes Film Festival Opening Film "Robin Hood" will not be able to make it to Cannes. Ridley Scott, whose past successes include the multi-award winner "Gladiator", has not yet recovered from a knee operation so will miss the glamorous opening on the red carpet in Cannes (see also Cannes Festival Opening Film "Robin Hood": Review, Trailer)

Ken Loach's "Route Irish" accepted at last minute into Cannes Film Festival Competition

It has just been announced that Ken Loach's "Route Irish" has been added to the Cannes Film Festival competition line-up. Movie is described as an " Iraq drama".

Cannes Festival Opening Film "Robin Hood": Review, Trailer

Review
"Featuring no beating heart or compelling raison d’etre" according to Todd McCarthy, former head-critic at Variety, now blogging at Indiewire
Trailer
]

Director's Fortnight 2010 Program

Feature films (22)
--------------------------

A alegria - The Joy - Brazil - 1h46 (2010)- Felipe Bragança, Marina Meliande
All Good Children - Irland, Belgium, France - 1h20 (2010) - Alicia Duffy
Alting bliver godt igen - Everything Will Be Fine - Denmark, Sweden, France - 1h30 (2010) - Christoffer Boe
Año bisiesto - Leap Year - Mexico - 1h32 (2010) - Michael Rowe
Benda Bilili ! - France - 1h25 (2010) - Renaud Barret - Florent de la Tullaye
Cleveland contre Wall Street - Cleveland Versus Wall Street - Swiss, France - 1H38 (2010) - Jean-Stéphane Bron
Des filles en noir - Young Girls In Black - France - 1h25 (2010) - Jean Paul Civeyrac
Ha’Meshotet - Le Vagabond - Israel - 1h26 (2010) - Avishai Sivan
Illégal - Illegal - Belgium, Luxembourg, France - 1h30 (2010) - Olivier Masset-Depasse
La casa muda - The Silent House -Uruguay - 1h19 (2010) -Gustavo Hernández
La mirada invisible - The Invisible Eye - Argentina, France, Spain - 1h37 (2010) - Diego Lerman
Le quattro volte - Italy, Germany, Swiss - 1h28 (2010) - Michelangelo Frammartino
Little Baby Jesus of Flandr - Petit bébé Jésus de Flandr - Belgium - 1H14 (2010) - Gust Van den Berghe
Picco - Germany - 1h45 (2010) - Philip Koch
Pieds nus sur les limaces -Lily Sometimes - France - 1h48 (2010) - Fabienne Berthaud
Shit Year - U.S.A. - 1h35 (2010) - Cam Archer
Somos lo que hay - We Are What We Are - Mexico - 1h39 (2010) - Jorge Michel Grau
Svet-Ake - The Light Thief - Kyrgyzstan, Germany, France, Netherlands - 1h20 (2010) - Aktan Arym Kubat
The Tiger Factory - Malaisia, Japan - 1h24 (2010) - Ming jin Woo
Todos vós sodes capitáns - Vous êtes tous des capitaines - Spain - 1h18 (2010) - Oliver Laxe
Two Gates Of Sleep - U.S.A. - 1h18 (2010) - Alistair Banks Griffin
Un poison violent - France - 1h32 (2010) - Katell Quillévéré

Short films (9)
--------------------

Căutare - Quest - Romania - 30 min (2010) - Ionuţ Piţurescu
Ett tyst barn - A Silent Child - Sweden - 13 min (2010) - Jesper Klevenås
Licht - Light - Netherlands - 15 min (2010) - André Schreuders
Mary Last Seen - U.S.A. - 14 min (2010) - Sean Durkin
Petit tailleur - France - 44 min (2010) - Louis Garrel
Shadows of Silence - France - 11 min (2010) - Pradeepan Raveendran
Shikasha - Japan - 11 min (2010) - Isamu Hirabayashi
Tre ore - Three Hours - Italy, France - 12 min (2010) - Annarita Zambrano
ZedCrew - Canada, Zambia - 45 min (2010) - Noah Pink

Special screenings (2)
--------------------------------

Boxing Gym - U.S.A. - 1h31 (2010) - Frederick Wiseman
Stones In Exile - United Kingdom - 1h01 (2010) - Stephen Kijak

Carrosse d'Or (1)
------------------------

Lions Love (...And Lies) - France - 1h50 (2010) - Agnès Varda

Critic's Week Program

COMPETITION
----------------------

Feature films

Armadillo - Janus Metz (Denmark)
Bedevilled - Cheol-soo JANG (South Korea)
Belle épine - Rebecca Zlotowski (France)
Bi, dung so ! (Bi, Don’t Be Afraid)
The Myth of the American Sleepover - David Robert Mitchell (USA)
Sandcastle - BOO Junfeng (Singapore)
Sound of Noise- Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjärne Nilsson (Sweden - France)

Short films

A distração de Ivan - Cavi Borges & Gustavo Melo (Brazil)
Berik - Daniel Joseph Borgman (Denmark)
The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Lion- Alois Di Leo (UK)
Deeper Than Yesterday - Ariel Kleiman (Australia)
Love Patate - Gilles Cuvelier (France)
Native Son - Scott Graham (UK)
Vasco - Sébastien Laudenbach (France)

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
-------------------------------------

Feature films

Opening Night

Le Nom des gens (The Name of Loves) - Michel Leclerc (France)

Copacabana - Marc Fitoussi (France)
Rubber - Quentin Dupieux (France)

Screening with the support of the Cannes Film Festival

Women Are Heroes - JR (France)

Short and medium length films

Closing Night

Bastard - Kirsten Dunst (USA)
The Clerk’s Tale - James Franco (USA)
L’Amour-propre - Nicolas Silhol (France)
Cynthia todavía tienes las llaves (Cynthia Still Got the Keys) - Gonzalo Tobal (Argentina)
Fracture - Nicolas Sarkissian (France)

Program Cannes Film Festival 2010

OPENING FILM
-----------------------

Ridley SCOTT ROBIN HOOD (Out of Competition) Robin des bois 2h11


COMPETITION
----------------------

The following movies compete for the "Golden Palm" at the Cannes Film Festival 2010:

Mathieu AMALRIC TOURNÉE (On Tour) 1h51
Xavier BEAUVOIS DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX (Of God And Men) 2h00
Rachid BOUCHAREB HORS LA LOI (Outside Of The Law) 2h11
Alejandro GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU BIUTIFUL 2h18
Mahamat-Saleh HAROUN UN HOMME QUI CRIE (A Screaming Man) 1h40
IM Sangsoo THE HOUSEMAID 1h46
Abbas KIAROSTAMI COPIE CONFORME (Certified Copy) 1h46
Takeshi KITANO OUTRAGE 1h49
LEE Chang-dong POETRY 2h15
Mike LEIGH ANOTHER YEAR 2h09
Doug LIMAN FAIR GAME 1h44
Sergei LOZNITSA SCHASTYE MOE - 1st film - (My Joy) 2h07
Daniele LUCHETTI LA NOSTRA VITA (Our Life) 1h33
Nikita MIKHALKOV UTOMLYONNYE SOLNTSEM 2: PREDSTOYANIE (Burnt By The Sun 2: Exodus) 2h21
Kornél MUNDRUCZÓ SZELÍD TEREMTÉS – A Frankenstein Terv (TENDER SON - The Frankenstein Project) 1h58
Bertrand TAVERNIER LA PRINCESSE DE MONTPENSIER (The Princess Of Montpensier) 2h15
WANG Xiaoshuai RIZHAO CHONGQING (Chongqing Blues) 1h45
Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL LUNG BOONMEE RALUEK CHAT (Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives) 1h54

UN CERTAIN REGARD
-----------------------------------

This is a so-callled "side program" of the official selection. Movies in this program also compete for an award.

Derek CIANFRANCE BLUE VALENTINE - 1st film - 1h34

Xavier DOLAN LES AMOURS IMAGINAIRES (Heartbeats) 1h35

Manoel DE OLIVEIRA O ESTRANHO CASO DE ANGÉLICA (The Stange Case of Angelica) 1h34

Ivan FUND, Santiago LOZA LOS LABIOS (The Lips) 1h40

Fabrice GOBERT SIMON WERNER A DISPARU… - 1st film - (Lights Out) 1h27

Jean-Luc GODARD FILM SOCIALISME 1h41

Christoph HOCHHÄUSLER UNTER DIR DIE STADT (The City Below) 1h45

HONG Sangsoo HA HA HA 1h56

JIA Zhang-Ke HAI SHANG CHUAN QI (I Wish I Knew) 2h05

Lodge KERRIGAN REBECCA H. (RETURN TO THE DOGS) 1h11

Ágnes KOCSIS PÁL ADRIENN (Adrienn Pál) 2h16

Vikramaditya MOTWANE UDAAN - 1st film - 2h18

Radu MUNTEAN MARTI, DUPA CRACIUN (Tuesday, After Christmas) 1h39

Hideo NAKATA CHATROOM 1h37

Cristi PUIU AURORA 2h59

Oliver SCHMITZ LIFE ABOVE ALL 1h40

Pablo TRAPERO CARANCHO 1h47

Daniel VEGA, Diego VEGA OCTUBRE - 1st film - (October) 1h23

David VERBEEK R U THERE 1h27


OUT OF COMPETITION
-----------------------------------

Grand Théâtre Lumière

Woody ALLEN YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER 1h38

Olivier ASSAYAS CARLOS 5h30

Stephen FREARS TAMARA DREWE 1h49

Oliver STONE WALL STREET - MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (Wall Street - l'argent ne dort jamais) 2h16

Salle du 60ème

Andrei UJICA AUTOBIOGRAFIA LUI NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU
(L'autobiographie de Nicolae Ceausescu) 3h00

Midnight Screenings

Gregg ARAKI KABOOM 1h28

Gilles MARCHAND L'AUTRE MONDE
(Black Heaven) 1h40

Special Screenings

Charles FERGUSON INSIDE JOB 2h00

Sophie FIENNES OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW 1h40

Patricio GUZMAN NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (Nostalgia for the Light) 1h30

Sabina GUZZANTI DRAQUILA - L'ITALIA CHE TREMA (Draquila-Italie Trembles) 1h30

Otar IOSSELIANI CHANTRAPAS 2h05

Diego LUNA ABEL 1h20

Lucy WALKER COUNTDOWN TO ZERO 1h30

Manaira CARNEIRO,
Wagner NOVAIS,
Rodrigo FELHA,
Cacau AMARAL,
Luciano VIDIGAL,
Cadu BARCELOS,
Luciana BEZERRA 5 X FAVELA POR NOS MESMOS 1h36


CLOSING FILM
----------------------

Julie BERTUCCELLI THE TREE 1h45