3rd Brazilian Film Festival of London to arrive in September

The third edition of the Brazilian Film Festival of London is coming to town and Sounds and Colours will once again be supporting the festival. Taking place from Tuesday 6th September, with an Opening Gala Night at BAFTA and ending on the night of Saturday 10th September at Odeon Covent Garden, the festival will show 10 feature length and 9 short films from Brazil (all with English subtitiles).
All films will be shown at Odeon Covent Garden, except for Man From The Future on the Opening Night, which will be at BAFTA.
One of the films we really can’t wait to see is Filhos de João, O Admirável Mundo Novo Baiano, now going by the much more English title of Sons of Joao, the Admirable New Baiano World, which tells the story of

Film of the week: “Elite Squad 2″, Dir: José Padilha

Armed men run through a favela in a scene from Tropa de Elite 2

Why Brazilian film Elite Squad 2 is a box office hit?
As 2010 draws to a close, Brazilian cinema is reflecting on a success story that has broken a 34-year old box office record.
Since 1976, the country’s most popular national film had been a love story, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, seen by more than 10 million cinema-goers and thought to be virtually unbeatable in the box office.
But this month, a gritty movie about police corruption in Rio de Janeiro’s shanty towns overtook Dona Flor’s total and seems set to soon pass the 11 million mark.
The film, Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora e Outro (Elite Squad 2: Now We Have Another Enemy), is a sequel to the 2007 hit, Elite Squad.

The best of The trinidad & Tobago Film Festival (TTFF)

Moloch Tropical

Whether you are new toThe trinidad & Tobago Film Festival (TTFF) or have become a regular, here is what you need to know to get the most from your festival experience. Panels will comprise local and international experienced and accomplished industry specialists and filmmakers.
The People’s Choice award
The public will get the opportunity to choose the winners of three awards—Best Short Film, Best Dramatic Feature and Best Documentary Film. This year all the awards carry cash prizes. Members of the public are asked to also fill in answers to the simple questions at the back of the People’s Choice award forms so that the organisers of the festival could become more familiar with their audience.
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
African Cinema
Last year the TTFF started a heritage focus initiative with the screening of a selection of films from India. This year the initiative will continue with a number of films from Africa. Indigenous African cinema has mushroomed in recent years.
The festival will be showing a number of films from the Zanzibar International Film Festival,

Brazil: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, save old movie theaters!

Brazil’s president is trying to keep movies, not preachers, in the country’s classic movie temples.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called for incentives that would keep theaters open rather than being sold to evangelist churches, the most common buyers of such venues.
“We need to prove that having a movie theater is better than selling the place to a church,” Lula said at the recent launch of the Cinema, Close to You government program.
The sight of large cinemas turned into evangelist temples is common in Brazil and Argentina, but the arrival of such multinational multiplexes as Cinemark and Hoyts has hurt neighborhood cinemas.
When not demolished, these stylish theaters have been saved from becoming parking lots thanks to their size: Some seat more than a thousand, about the number of people attending evangelist churches every weekend. Evangelist organizations like the Iglesia del Reino de Dios have been the most common buyers of these venues.
The Cinema, Close to You program plans to use public funds to finance the construction of 600 theaters throughout the country, including the setting up of moviehouses in the 89 districts that have a population of fewer than 100,000 — and no cinemas.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Hollywood Reporter)

Taipei International Film Festival 2010 focus on Brazilian Film

Taipei – The 2010 Taipei International Film Festival opened Friday with its focus on Brazil.

A total of 152 films from about 30 countries will be shown during the festival, and 12 films have been nominated for the International Young Director Award.

The award, which carries the top prize of 600,000 Taiwan dollars (19,000 US dollars), will be announced on July 2.

BNDES and ANCINE release support program

On June 23, the BNDES and the a Brazilian Cinema Agency (ANCINE), in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance, released the Cinema Close to You Program, which will support expansion projects for the Brazilian movie theater sector.

3rd Annual Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival

This year’s L.A. Brazilian Film Festival covered five fantastic days of films, seminars, workshops and networking events.  The seminars covered various topics from production to financing to distribution.  Taking place this year at the Landmark Theater in the Westside Pavilion, the film festival was greeted by a bevy of film industry faithful, attracting over 7,000 participants.  April 27th was the Opening Night Gala and Closing Night was May 1st.   Presenting over 60 films during the five days was a treat for participating filmmakers and the Brazilian filmmaking community in Los Angeles to promote Brazilian Cinema.

LABRFF 2010 WINNERS

Cultural Initiative Institute: Brazilian Cinema and Audiovisual Industry

The Cultural Initiative Institute and the publishing house Escrituras Editora are about to launch the collection “Brazilian Cinema and Audiovisual Industry”, a three-book series that presents a detailed panorama of the market, the economy and related public policy. The collection was coordinated by the researcher Alessandra Meleiro and features articles by managers, market professionals and other researchers.

In volume I, “Cinema and State Policy: from Embrafilme to Ancine”, the author Melina Marson creates a timeline of Brazilian cinema, taking a behind the scenes look at the demise of the state agency Embrafilme in the early 90s, the creation of the Rouanet and Audiovisual laws, the euphoria surrounding the industry revival and, finally, the re-politicization of cinema and the involvement of TV in 2002, culminating in the creation of the National Cinema Agency ANCINE.

Walter Salles filming Coppola’s On the road

An already exciting, starstudded year for Hollywood filming in Montreal has just become more exciting and starstudded with the news that the long-gestating movie adaptation of Jack Kerouac‘s classic novel On the Road will shoot in Montreal.

Twilight fans will undoubtedly be pumped to learn that none other than Twilight starlet Kristen Stewart has one of the lead roles, playing Marylou, the young wife of rebellious, troubled anti-hero Dean Moriarty.

Brazil: Festival Varilux de Cinema Frances

The Varilux French Film Festival in Brazil will be held from June 2 through 10, 2010.

This year’s Varilux  French Film Festival will include preview screenings of 8 films acquired by Brazilian distributors (Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, Little Nicholas, One for the Road, The Refuge, Oceans, Hadewijch, A Prophet, and Fais-moi plaisir!) as well as screenings of two films that have not yet secured a buyer, presented to Brazilian audiences by two crew members from the French artistic delegation. Anna Mouglalis will present Jean-Paul Lillienfeld’s film Skirt Day, while Laurent Tirard will present Xabi Mollia‘s film, Eight Times Up.

In addition to these artists, the French delegation traveling first to Sao Paulo and then to Rio de Janeiro, will also include Adel Bencherif, Jacques Cluzaud, Frédérique Bel, Bruno Dumont, Julie Sokolowski, François Cluzet, Philippe Godeau, and Jan Kounen.

Films :

8 fois debout

A Prophet

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

Fais-moi Plaisir!

Hadewijch

Le dernier pour la route

Little Nicholas

Océans

Skirt day

The Refuge

More info: http://www.festivalvarilux.com/