Festivals

John Carpenter's Starman, David Cronenberg's The Fly, George Romero's  Dawn of the Dead, and Roberto Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy have something in common according to Italian director Luca Guadagnino: they are among his favorite films ever. An odd aesthetic choice for the acclaimed author of the 2017 delicate gay romance and intimate portrait Call Me by Your Name, nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Picture Drama, and one Oscar nominee for Best Picture, and the film that launched the career of Timothée Chalamet among its many values.

A Demogorgon from Stranger Things, Marvel’s Scarlet Witch and Rick Sanchez from the animated comedy Rick and Morty were three of the intricately costumed fans invited to ask David Harbour questions at his Spotlight panel at New York Comic Con. The Golden Globe-nominated actor hosted an hour-long panel at Manhattan’s Javits Center, where he discussed his acting career in television, movies, and on stage.

Jacqueline Lentzou’s Moon, 66 Questions won the New Visions Award and the Golden Puffin at the Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF), which closed its 18th edition on October 10th. The Golden Puffin is the main prize at RIFF, given to the “Discovery of the Year”, as selected by an international jury.

The Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) prides itself on being a low-key and unpretentious film festival without VIP treatments and long red carpets. The festival, which lasts 11 days and this year was from September 30 until October 10, is young and hip.

It was 1946, right after World War II, when Margarita Carmen Cansino attended the just created Karlovy Vary Film Festival. It took place in a spa city in what was then Czechoslovakia, that had been saved from the bombs and remained as beautiful as when rich families visited it by the thousands at the end of the 19th century to spend their vacations.

In 1983, Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver made the pilgrimage to the Croisette to support Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously. The drama, set in mid-60s Indonesia, a country in a political crisis that would soon overthrow president Sukarno.

When Thierry Frémaux recently spoke to HFPA journalists, he touched on a wide range of subjects, from cinema to his twin lifelong passion for Judo and cycling.   Especially close to his heart are the two festivals he directs: the Lumière Film Festival, devoted to classic and restored films, which is held in Lyon each October, and of course the Cannes Film festival.

The Cannes Film Festival may have moved from its pre-COVID May dates and will instead take place in person from July 6-17, but the return to tradition was apparent when festival president Pierre Lescure and director Thierry Fremaux announced the line-up of 63 films from the Normandie Theater in Paris with the poignant opening statement: “Cinema is not dead”. A French-made (albeit English-language) film will open the 74th annual edition on July 6 at the Palais du Festival.

As much as the world likes to believe progress has been made in the equality of human rights, last summer’s Black Lives Matter movement illustrated that clearly, there is still much to be done. As often as we are told to learn from history sadly, we witness too many times history repeating itself.

Tenoch Huerta’s career has taken a giant leap with a slew of first class roles in his native Mexican cinema. He won an Ariel Award and was nominated four other times, in productions like the renowned Sin nombre (by Cary Joji Fukunaga), and the streaming series Narcos: México, where he played Rafael Caro Quintero, as well as the upcoming The Forever Purge.