Film Fests Coming To Tinseltown

London does it, Venice does it, so surely Hollywood Cannes do it too. By Bob Strauss


It s surprising that Hollywood, the iconic film town, does not have its own splashy film festival. Cannes, Berlin, Venice and London all stage events that focus on the unique film heritage in their region.
In the US, however, Robert Redford s Sundance Festival is aimed specifically at non-Hollywood films, and Robert de Niro s Tribeca Festival in New York focuses on local and international art-house products.

This year, with a recession looming and cinemas being challenged by DVD and video games, the American Film Institute (AFI) decided to reposition their event as the American Film Festival and not just, as in the past, a set of screenings of new products.

It started, as so many Hollywood movies do, with a crisis. The opening-night, world-premiere feature was supposed to be The Soloist starring Jamie Foxx and the eternal comeback kid, Robert Downey Jr, in the true tale of a schizophrenic musical genius living on LA s streets.

But with tickets for The Soloist nearly sold out, Paramount Pictures decided to delay the movie s release so as to increase its Oscar chances later on. An intense studio battle followed with everyone scrambling to place one of their prestige movies in that slot. Finally Doubt, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep, was chosen.

This opening-night kerfuffle was flashy and news-generating. It alerted the media and the public to the depth of quality in Hollywood productions. It was like a hard statement as a parade of serious, powerful, impressive films were screened.

Five films had their world premiere there , including the World War Two epic, Defiance, starring Daniel Craig and directed by Edward Zwick, and shockproof digital camera which is a strong Oscar contender. Then came Steven Soderbergh s Che, starring Benicio Del Toro (pictured) as the iconic revolutionary; Darren Aronofsky s acclaimed The Wrestler, with Mickey Rourke in a comeback role; Last Chance Harvey, with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson; and Danny Boyle s feel-good India indie, Slumdog Millionaire.

We ve certainly dialled up the volume, the quality and the attendance by notable filmmakers and technika camera talent, says festival director Rose Kuo. We re excited to have a bigger festival, and vivitar mini digital camera we re thrilled to be reconnecting with Hollywood and the world.

What we noticed about this year s selection is that while Hollywood trained its eyes on fantastical superhero characters, filmmakers around the world were making a lot of reality-based movies, Kuo says. Both in terms of form playing with real time and a cameracontent, there are a lot of stories about families this year.

We re taking Hollywood back, essentially, Kuo explains. We re really positioning ourselves as the Hollywood festival.
Has Hollywood finally got the festival it deserves? We ll have to wait for this time next year to find out. New York Times Partner Publications



Read more about network camera software on top sites:


camera

dpreview

bhphotovideo