Festivals

The weather in Cannes is abysmal, which plays havoc with the hair. Women continued to choose controlled hair that would not fall apart in drizzle.

It was a Rocketman kind of night. Accessories dominated and Elton got a three-minute standing ovation.

Women wore flounces and chiffon. Trends: detailed construction to create soft shapes, while hair, for the most part.

You could call The Dead Don’t Die a neo-noir small town zombie comedy. The apocalypse here hits the small upstate hamlet of Centerville, an actually slightly off-center Mayberry style all-American town, inhabited by zany characters: a movie buff convenience store clerk, amiably gruff diner waitresses, a resident mumbling racist (Steve Buscemi), the motel owner and two somewhat hapless sheriff deputies (Chloë Sevigny and Adam Driver) led by nonplussed sheriff Bill Murray.

On the Cannes red carpet, women’s style fell into two categories- soft flowing feminine gowns or super structured tailoring with the bust on display.

BAFICI, the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, celebrated its 21st birthday with 10 days of intense activity. Non-stop screenings, some of them at capacity, professional meetings, labs, a 48-hour marathon of free cinema marked the festival as well as parties, lots of them.

The 2019 edition of SXSW left no doubt in anyone’s mind that it has a rightful place among the major festivals. It has become a leader in combining film, music, art, keynote speakers, discussions and forums in one nice ten-day package.

As far as festivals in big cities go, SXSW is as good as it gets. Unlike Berlin, where sliding on icy sidewalks from screening to press conference to party to another screening in the dead of winter, or Rome where the event locations are so spread out that it might take an hour and a half to get there on public transportation, Austin is an easy place to navigate and a pleasant one for attendees.

This Thursday, January 24, marks the opening of yet another edition of Robert Redford’s film festival in Utah. This year’s film line-up is impressive as are some of the fest’s sideshow attractions.

After a short but intense week, the third edition of the Macao International Film Festival, also known as IFFAMACAO, concluded last Friday with an award ceremony and a screening of Zhang Yimou’s Shadow, submitted this year to the Golden Globes in the Best Foreign category. The fact that the opening film was Green Book, an American production that received five nominations at the Globes, including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy is a perfect example of what this festival’s goals -   a  balance between what the East and the West have to offer, with an equal amount of films from both sides of the world.