Thompson on Hollywood

AFI Introduces Eight New Women Directors at Shorts Program, Ava DuVernay to Give Keynote Address

News

The American Film Institute will introduce eight new female filmmakers at its Directing Workshop for Women on May 6, where new short films by each director will screen.

By Ryan Lattanzio
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May 2, 2013 1:44 PM
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Review and Trailer for Oscar-Nominated 'Kon-Tiki' - An Enjoyable, Supersized High-Seas Adventure

Reviews

Norway's Oscar-nominated Foreign-Language entry, the enjoyably supersized “Kon-Tiki,” follows the real-life adventures of explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who, in 1947, embarked on an eccentric mission across the Pacific Ocean, from Peru to Polynesia, on a wooden raft. His goal was to prove that Polynesia...

By Beth Hanna
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April 25, 2013 12:46 PM
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AFI FEST 2013 Announces Dates and Calls for Entries

Festivals

AFI FEST has announced the dates for its 2013 installment: November 7-14, about one week later than its usual kick-off. The festival takes place in the heart of Hollywood.

By Beth Hanna
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March 5, 2013 1:58 PM
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Review: In Tavianis' Dreamy, Meta Docudrama 'Caesar Must Die,' All the Prison's a Stage

Reviews

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s docudrama “Caesar Must Die,” Italy's Oscar entry that runs February 6-19 at Film Forum, takes place at Rome’s maximum-security Rebibbia Prison, and stars the facility’s actual inmates. Many of the men are serving life sentences, with a variety of high crimes on their records: drug trafficking, Cammora and Mafia affiliation, and murder.

By Beth Hanna
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February 6, 2013 12:01 PM
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AFI FEST Audience & Jury Awards Announced; 'A Royal Affair,' 'Nairobi Half Life,' 'A Hijacking' & More

Festivals

AFI FEST 2012, which concluded yesterday, has unveiled the recipients of this year's Audience and Jury Awards. Winners include Nicolaj Arcel's Danish Oscar entry "A Royal Affair," starring Mads Mikkelsen, and David Tosh Gitonga's Kenyan Oscar entry "Nairobi Half Life." Full list below.

By Beth Hanna
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November 9, 2012 11:55 AM
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Cotillard and Schoenaerts Talk the Mystery of Audiard's 'Rust and Bone' [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

Interviews

"Rust and Bone" is the first film that Marion Cotillard has carried on her shoulders since playing Edith Piaf. But her supporting roles --in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," Christopher Nolan's "Inception" and "The Dark Knight Rises," Rob Marshall's "Nine," never failed to steal the show.

By Sophia Savage
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November 6, 2012 11:43 AM
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AFI Mid-Fest Report: On the Red Carpet with 'On the Road' and 'Silver Linings'; 'The Hunt,' 'Hitchcock,' 'Our Children' & 'War Witch' Reviews

Festivals

We're in the thick of AFI Fest, with too many films to see and not enough time. TOH's Anne Thompson reviews opening night film "Hitchcock" here, Matt Mueller reviews "Holy Motors," Beth Hanna tackles the devastating Belgian Oscar entry "Our Children," and I checked out "Silver Linings Playbook," "On the Road," "War Witch" and "The Hunt." Part One of our AFI Fest coverage is here.

By Sophia Savage
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November 5, 2012 3:59 PM
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Weinstein Co. Is Smart to Move Up 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Box Office

Harvey Weinstein is moving up the release of the much-buzzed about comedy "SIlver Linings PLaybook" by one week, opening on November 16 in ten key cities such as NY and LA, to generate some box office momentum before the final awards push in December and January.

By Anne Thompson
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November 5, 2012 2:22 PM
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AFI FEST Review: 'Our Children' Is Strong, Distressing Portrait of a Woman on the Verge of a Murderous Breakdown

Reviews

Belgium's official Oscar entry “Our Children,” directed by Joachim Lafosse, is based on real events that took place in a Brussels suburb in 2007, where a woman systematically murdered her children with a kitchen knife. It spans six or seven years, starting from the happy honeymoon between schoolteacher Murielle (Émilie Dequenne) and Mounir (Tahar Rahim, "A Prophet"), through the birth of their four children and the increasingly strained tension in their marriage, to the killings. This isn’t a spoiler -- the film, told in flashback, begins with a shot of four small coffins being loaded into a plane’s cargo hold.

By Beth Hanna
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November 5, 2012 6:00 AM
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Rating 'Psycho,' Behind-the-Scenes 'Hitchcock' and the Universal Hitchcock Fifteen

Features

I got over the awful HBO "The Girl," starring Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren, by watching the entire Dick Cavett Hitchcock interview. I had more fun with Thursday night's AFI FEST world premiere of Sacha Gervasi's light-hearted "Hitchcock," starring a superb ensemble led by Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren as the master auteur and his collaborator and wife Alma Reville, who the director thanked when he won his AFI Achievement Award, but I confess that I'd rather stick with the real thing.