iW NEWS | "Munyurangabo," "Afghan Muscles" and "Operation Filmmaker" Among Top AFI Fest Winners

Lee Isaac Chung's story of a Rwandan orphan who travels from Kigali to the countryside on a quest for justice, "Munyurangabo" won the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival's grand jury prize for best feature Sunday afternoon. "Afghan Muscles" by Andreas Dalsgaard and "Operation Filmmaker" by Nina Davenport shared the best documentary prize. Also taking nods at AFI Fest were "Spider," which won best short and "I Met the Walrus," which received best animated short. In audience prizes, Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" won best feature and Jeffrey Schwarz's "Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story" took best doc. "Kids + Money" received the audience prize for short and "Heckler" director Michael Addis won the festival's Audi "Truth in Art" competition. The three Jury Award winners each receive a $5000 prize of Eastman Kodak Motion Picture Film stock & Entertainment Partners Budgeting and Scheduling software package. The three Audience Award winners receive an AVID Technology Suite & Entertainment Partners Budgeting and Scheduling software package. "As with the all of the films we had at AFI FEST this year, the films in the competitive categories included really accomplished and inspired work from a diverse group of talented filmmakers," commented AFI Fest Artistic Director Rose Kuo in a statement. "I know the members of our jury had a particularly difficult time singling out one film." [Brian Brooks]  
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BBC: Deneuve to be lauded at festival

French actress Catherine Deneuve will be honoured for her career at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival next month. The 63-year-old star will be the subject of a tribute along with US actress Laura Linney. BBC reports. 
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iW News | Kuo Named Artistic Director at AFI Fest

Film festival programmer, consultant and filmmaker Rose Kuo has been named Artistic Director at AFI Fest, the organization announced Monday. In her new position, Kuo will oversee the programming direction and "overall artistic vision" of the annual festival, taking place this year November 1 - 11 in Los Angeles. A fixture at the Telluride Film Festival for many years, Kuo has also served as a programming consultant specializing in Asian cinema and has worked for the San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Mill Valley Festivals. "Rose has a gift for spotting emerging talent, as well as a deep knowledge and appreciation of world cinema," said AFI Fest Director Christian Gaines in a statement. "Her leadership, along with the considerable programming talents of Shaz Bennett and Lane Kneedler, has combined to create a formidable programming team." [Brian Brooks] 
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AFI Fest Honors "Grbavica" and "Buddha's Lost Children" With Top Jury Prizes

AFI Fest 2006 awarded its prizes Sunday in Los Angeles with Jasmila Zbanic's "Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams" winning the narrative grand jury prize at the festival. Bosnia and Herzegovina's official entry for the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, the film was recently acquired by Strand Releasing. Mark Verkerk's "Buddha's Lost Children" won the documentary grand jury prize. Feature audience awards went to Carla Garapedian's "Screamers" and Lucy Walker's "Blindsight" (tie, documentary) and Fredi M. Murer's "Vitus" (narrative). The festival will close tonight (Sunday) with the world premiere of Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower." [Eugene Hernandez] 
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AFI Fest Invites Audience Feedback

In a partnership with Audience by Withoutabox (a new online social network), AFI Fest is inviting its festival attendees to rate films, post comments, and review films after event screenings. Visitors can visit the new interactive website and keep blogs or access the social software via the on-site "Blog Bar" inside the box office at the fest's Arclight Cinemas Rooftop Village. The festival continues through November 12th. In a statement, festivals director Christian Gaines said:

Our audiences are discoverers and tastemakers. It's wonderful for us to know what they think of the films we program, and for our filmmakers to get broader feedback. Withoutabox has done it again with Audience.

 
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LA Weekly: Film Critics' Picks at AFI Fest

"Directed by John Ford," "Family Law," "Full Grown Men," "The Host," "Inland Empire," "Ten Canoes," "12:08 East of Bucharest," and "Who Loves the Sun" among the critics' picks at the LA Weekly. The films are currently screening at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, which continues through Sunday. 
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Strand Takes US Rights to Bosnia Herzegovina Oscar Entry "Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams"

US rights to Jasmila Zbanic's "Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams" have been picked up by Strand Releasing from Match Factory Films, the Los Angeles-based distributor announced Monday. The film, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in February, is Bosnia and Herzegovina's official entry for the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The deal was negotiated by Strand's Jon Gerrans and Match Factory's Michael Weber at the American Film Market (AFM), currently underway in Santa Monica, CA. The film screens Tuesday night at AFI Fest, also underway in Los Angeles. Set in a contemporary Sarajevo still reeling from the aftermath of war, the film, according to Strand, is "a textured and authentic testament to the innate drive to triumph over conflict." Esma (Mirjana Karanovic) is a single mother who lives with her rebellious twelve-year-old daughter, Sara (Luna Mijovic), in the Grbavica district of Sarajevo, a neighborhood used as an internment camp during the conflict in the nineties. Unable to survive on government aid and hoping to provide some "extras" for her daughter, Esma takes a day job in a shoe factory and a night job as a nightclub waitress in order to pay for her daughter's school trip, and along the way, Sara discovers a dark secret. [Brian Brooks]  
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Regent Releasing Takes Worldwide Rights to "Freshman Orientation"

Regent Releasing has acquired the worldwide rights to Ryan Shiraki's comedy "Freshman Orientation," with Regent Worldwide Sales handling international sales at this year's American Film Market (AFM). The film, produced by Element Films, will be released in Spring 2007. The film centers on a typical Midwestern 18-year-old freshman (Sam Huntington) at a large state university eager to begin his wild college party life, but he instead discovers that school is not the beer-driven, sexual fantasy of his imagination. Determined to do anything to win over a beautiful sorority girl, he decides to pose as gay in order to entrench himself in her life. "Regent Releasing is thrilled to be working with the talented Ryan Shiraki and the creative forces at Element Films to bring 'Freshman Orientation' to theatres nationwide," commented Mark Reinhart, Regent's EVP of distribution and acquisitions in a statement. "This sharp and witty comedy is a welcome addition to our growing 2007 slate of quality film projects." [Brian Brooks] 
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AFI Fest Set for '06 Event

AFI Fest 2006, the Los Angeles International Film Festival from the American Film Institute, kicks off tonight (Wednesday) in Los Angeles. As Christy Lemire wrote in the Associated Press earlier today, "In a city where people leave to see movies -- and see and be seen -- at film festivals around the world, the American Film Institute is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its own festival." indieWIRE will have dispatches from AFI Fest beginning tomorrow in a special section of indieWIRE.com. 
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Maya Gets First Film, Carla Garapedian's "Screamers"

Maya Releasing, Moctesuma Esparza's new distribution company, has announced its first acquisition. The company has nabbed Carla Garapedian's modern-day genocide documentary "Screamers," featuring music from System of a Down. The film will have its world premiere at the upcoming AFI Fest in Los Angeles next month. A December opening in Los Angeles is on tap for the film, followed by a national launch in January. In other company news, co-chairman Esparza named Jeff Valdez, the former CEO and Chairman of Si TV, as his co-chairman at Maya Entertainemnt. Michael Harpster and Kevin Benson are on board as Maya Releasing's COO and President, respectively. [Eugene Hernandez] 
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American Film Institute Launches AFI Project 20/20

The American Film Institute has announced a new international cultural exchange program aimed at marking the 20 year anniversary of AFI FEST and connecting filmmakers around the world. AFI Project 20/20 will include up to 20 filmmakers with movies playing at this year's festival (November 1-12 in Hollywood, CA). With support from a number of national organizations, the program will promote cultural understanding and nurture filmmakers, connecting the directors and their work with audiences at festivals and other venues around the world as part of an international tour that will also include events and universities and other institutions. 
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AFI FEST Sets "Bobby" for Opening Night and Unveils 13 World Premieres

Emilio Estevez's "Bobby," the story of the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968, will open the 2006 AFI FEST, the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, much of the large ensemble cast from the film are expected to attend the opening night at the festival. Also announced were 13 of the films that will have their world premieres at the 2006 AFI FEST, including David Cunningham's "After," J.B. Rutagarama's "Back Home," Chad Lowe's "Beautiful Ohio," David Boyle's "Big Dreams, Little Tokyo," Alan White's "Broken," Daniel Jones & Dann Sytsma's "Comic Evangelists," Alante Kavaite's "Fissures / Ecoute Le Temps," David Stenn's "Girl 27," Henry Jaglom's "Hollywood Dreams," Yokihiko Tsutsumi's "Memories of Tomorrow," Sedika Mojadidi's "Motherland Afghanistan," Arnie Williams' "No Sweat," and Carla Garapedian's "Screamers." The festival will run from November 1 - 12, 2006, anchored again at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood. For more information, visit the festival's website. 
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AFI Fest To Celebrate 20 Years

AFI Fest, the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, will celebrate 20 years and add a day for this year's edition as they mark their anniversary and commemorate fifteen year of FILMEX, the LA festival that was the predecessor to AFI Fest. The event will kick-off on Wednesday, November 1st and run through November 12th, based again at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood. Among the plans already unveiled for AFI Fest include a performance of the one-man show "Sacred Monsters" by Peter Bogdanovich and a 24-hour movie marathon fundraiser. [Eugene Hernandez] 
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Gigolos in Hollywood

A Guardian Unlimited blog post by Jon Morrison from Punk Cinema (producers of the "The Gigolos") in the U.K. details the early reactions to their AFI Fest debut, and has the filmmakers chasing Paris Hilton and Andy Garcia in Hollywood:

"Improvised publicity moment" is one way of describing our behaviour. "Shameless" would be another. We spotted Paris Hilton flouncing out through a nightclub at 3am and chased her down the street. We dragged Sacha - the top Gigolo in the movie - after us, trying to position him next to her and get it all on a camera phone.

 
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AP: "Housewives" Come out for "Transamerica"

Emmy winner Felicity Huffman got by with a little help from her "Desperate Housewives" friends at the Hollywood premiere of her big-screen headlining debut in "Transamerica." Screened Sunday night at AFI Fest 2005, the dark comedy appears to be on the Oscar fast-track, with wide praise for Huffman's performance as a transsexual woman. "It's a funny road movie," Huffman told AP. "And the backdrop happens to be it's about a transgendered woman, which I play, named, 'Bree.' Not Marcia's (Cross's "Housewives" character) 'Bree,' my 'Bree.' And i''s about her going on the road with her long-lost son." 
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"Farce of the Penguins"...THINKFilm Says Yes

An insider commenting on a press release received today by indieWIRE doubted that it was legit, but here it is...THINKFilm has announced the acquisition of a new movie dubbed "Farce of the Penguins." The movie, by Bob Saget (featured in "The Aristocrats" and star of "Full House"), is described as "comedic adventure that will combine spectacular and heartwarming wildlife photography with an irreverent and decidedly R-rated theme and soundtrack." In the spirit of his voiceovers from "America's Funniest Home Videos," Saget will give life to penguins images after coming up with the idea "organically" -- "I was watching the "March" movie at a screening at my friend's house, and I couldn't stop doing the voice-overs of the penguins," he said in a statement, "Reminiscent of when I did the voices of the animals on the video show. My friend David Permut (who is producing the film) said, there's a great comedy movie in this!!" Rights are being sold at the AFM. the project is one of a few new ones for Saget, who is developing a salty sitcom for HBO. [Eugene Hernandez]  
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Its AFM Time, But What Does That Mean?

In Santa Monica, CA today, the American Film Market (AFM) opens for the first time as solo Fall event. Today's Hollywood trades offer a range of insights on this year's market with Hollywood Reporter writing, "film buyers and sellers attending the meet, which runs through Nov. 9, say they are anticipating a busy market" and Variety offering, "North American buyers say they aren't expecting much from the new pics unspooling at AFM this year, but the mart will still yield valuable schmoozing and a sneak peek at pics coming to Sundance early next year." The event is underway today and will coincide again this year with AFI Fest which will open tomorrow in Hollywood. 
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