DISPATCH FROM AWARDS SEASON | Docs in the Spotlight: Oscar Nominee Michael Moore Calls for Distribution Reform

Oscar nominee Michael Moore stirred members of the doc community on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, laying out a plan to create a new theatrical distribution outlet for non-fiction film. On stage at the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Moore rallied attendees at the annual International Documentary Association (IDA) celebration for feature and short film doc Oscar nominees. "We have to correct this situation with documentary films," Moore said of the challenges that have recently faced theatrically distributed documentaries. "This cannot go on any longer."
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DISPATCH FROM AWARDS SEASON | "4 Months" Crowned in Berlin as European Film Awards Celebrate 20 Years

Pride was the theme of the evening on the occasion of 20th anniversary of the European Film Awards, and fittingly so. The awards, first presented with a small group of founding members in 1988 -- with Pedro Almodovar's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" winning best picture == has now grown into one of the most prestigious film awards in the world. The European film community, maybe losing a little of it's identity with the euro zone, is still a strong symbol of creative filmmaking, with films emerging from sometimes unexpected places along with a continued strong proliferation of work from France, England, and Germany.
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Jia Zhang-Ke's "Still Life" Takes Golden Lion At Venice

As the 63rd Venice Film Festival came to a close, winners were announced from the twenty-two films in competition. Chinese feature "Still Life" by (Sanxia Haron) took the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize for best feature film. Director Jia Zhang-Ke, whose previous efforts "The World" and "Platform" competed in past years, took the award for his sixth feature. The Silver Lion for best director, meanwhile, went to French director Alain Resnais for his work on "Private Fears in Public Places."
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"Bluma", "Mantis", "China" Take Top Prizes at Palm Springs Shorts Fest

The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and Short Film Market concluded on September 26, with the "Best of Festival Award" - accompanied by a cash prize of $2,000 - going to American filmmaker Benjamin Ross' "Torte Bluma," about the relationship between a German commandant and the Jewish prisoner who cooks his meals in a concentration camp during World War II.
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"C.R.A.Z.Y.", "3 Needles", and "Whole New Thing" Win Multiple Awards At Atlantic Film Fest

The Atlantic Film Festival in Nova Scotia announced the winners of its 25th edition over the weekend with Jean-Marc Vallée’s “C.R.A.Z.Y.” a multiple award winner at the event. The film won the festival's People's Choice Award and the award for Best Canadian Feature honor, a $2,000 cash prize. Winner of the award for best Canadian feature at the Toronto International Film Festival last week, the film was described by fest organizers as a "wildly entertaining film (that) is an ambitious and magical cinematic homage to the pop-culture-saturated middle class of the seventies."

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IFP Toasts Winners as 2005 Market Wraps

Independent Film Week organizers presented their annual prizes to IFP Market participants today with jurors singling out a handful of filmmakers to receive cash and services awards totaling more than $50,000 towards the development of new independent film projects. At a luncheon in SoHo (hosted by the Hollywood Reporter and SAGIndie), actress Gloria Rueben presented the top prizes. Marlo Poras received a $31,500 goods and services prize in the Documentary Works-In-Progress section. Her new project, "The Candidate" (currently in post-production), is the story of a 94-year-old woman who runs for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire.

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"Tsotsi" Wins Top Toronto Fest Honor, "C.R.A.Z.Y." Awarded Canadian Prize

Awards were presented today at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, with Gavin Hood's "Tsotsi" winning the event's People's Choice Award voted by attendees of the festival. Juried prizes were presented to a number of Canadian films, with groups of critics and journalists again awarding prizes as well. The 30th Toronto festival officially closes tonight with a gala screening of David J. Burke's "Edison", followed by the annual closing night party.

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"Brokeback Mountain" Wins Golden Lion in Venice

Ang Lee's latest film "Brokeback Mountain" won the Golden Lion for best film, capping the 62nd Venice Film Festival, the world's oldest. The feature, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, is the story of two cowboys who meet and eventually fall in love in 1960s Wyoming and are forced to try and maintain a veil of "normalcy" by marrying women and having children. The film won the top Venice award on the same night that it had its gala premiere here at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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"Tsotsi" Takes Two Edinburgh International Film Festival Prizes

About 100 people gathered at the stately Caledonian Hilton Hotel at noon yesterday for a brunch and the announcement of winners of the 59th Edinburgh International Film Festival, concluding the 12-day event here in the Scottish capital. EIFF artistic director Shane Danielsen emceed the short ceremony, joking that the festival had spent all of its money, so he would be the host. U.K./South African production "Tsotsi" by Gavin Hood was the afternoon's biggest winner, collecting both the festival's "Standard Life Audience Award" and the "Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film."
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Stony Brook Awards Short "West Bank Story" its Grand Prize and Announces a Festival Buy

The Stony Brook Film Festival concluded its 10th edition last weekend, awarding a prize to its closing night film, "The Five of Us," and presenting its biggest award to a short film. The ten-day festival had over 15,000 attendees.
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