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Reuters: Oscar-nominated actors are bad--and that's good

They are a bloody dictator, diamond smuggler, crack-smoking school teacher, lecherous old man, and self-centered dad. But when it comes to winning an Oscar for best acting, the more human flaws, the better. This year's Oscar nominees for best lead actor--Forest Whitaker, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosl...

AP: "Bordertown" shown at Berlin film fest

Jennifer Lopez brought "Bordertown," in which she plays a reporter trying to solve multiple killings of women in a Mexican border city, to the Berlin International Film Festival Thursday and said the role had been a life-changing experience. The movie, directed by Gregory Nava, aims to focus attenti...

Variety: High-profile fans help 'Walker'

BERLIN '07 DAILY DISPATCH | With Eslinger's "Forest" in Competition, American Films (Indies In Parti

There was a significant moment inside the Berlinale Palast here in Germany this week when Berlin International Film Festival director Dieter Kosslick led twenty-five year-old American filmmaker Ryan Eslinger by the hand, directing him to walk in the spotlight to his seat for the world premiere of hi...

World Cinema Web: Can Digital Downloads Offer Viable Avenues for Int'l Films?

The diversity of this year's Oscar nominees has sparked discussion about an increasing globalization of the American film industry and audience. With its six nominations, "Pan's Labyrinth" recently broke the box-office record for a Spanish-language film in the U.S., while a trio of foreign-tongued a...

Austin Screening for 'Starter'

Sony Classics to Bring "The Children of Huang Shi" to North America

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American rights to "The Children of Huang Shi," the company announced Friday. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode ("Tomorrow Never Dies") and written by Jane Hawksley and James MacManus the "heroic tale," set in a war-torn China in 1938, concludes production today in Shanghai. Inspired by true events, the film is the story of George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a young British journalist, who rescues 60 orphaned children who them on a treacherous 1000-mile journey along the Silk Road, through the Liu Pan Shan Mountains into the spectacular Gobi desert. Over the course of the journey he falls in love with a...

NY Times: Whimsy, Pessimism and "Lady Chatterley" in Berlin

The 57th Berlinale, as the festival here is known, might best be thought of as an average festival. Not only because the films were generally so-so, with a few outright disasters balancing some high-quality work, but also because it seemed to typify what a film festival is these days. Once a bastion of difficulty and high seriousness--an identity that suited an event held in midwinter in a city with a vexed, often grim history--the Berlinale, which began last Thursday and concludes with awards on Sunday--has grown into something bigger, more varied and perhaps less distinctive. A.O. Scott gives his take on the Berlin International Film Festiv...

Friday Miscellaneousness