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The well-liked film critic is fondly remembered as a passionate supporter of arthouse films.

Figures from the UK and international industry have been paying tribute to the beloved former Guardian, Screen International and Evening Standard film critic Derek Malcolm, who died aged 91 at the weekend.

“Derek Malcolm was a great critic and a true friend of the Venice Film Festival. Even at the Lido he exercised his great curiosity and sensitivity towards global cinema. It’s a big loss for film culture,” Alberto Barbera, artistic director of the Vernice Film Festival, told Screen.

Legendary US documentary maker Fred Wiseman reminisced...

Eight shows to include an opera from Alison Jackson and Steven Berkoff performance.

Odeon is teaming with digital arts outfit Hibrow to screen acts from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.

Eight shows, spanning theatre, comedy, opera and visual art, will be transmitted via satellite to Odeon cinemas.

The 90-minute transmissions include three new plays, an opera from filmmaker Alison Jackson, comedy acts and a show from Steven Berkoff.

Don Boyd, artistic director for Hibrow, commented: “Our Hibrow Hour at Summerhall was conceived with the intention of offering audiences everywhere a flavour of Edinburgh’s creative buzz in August. Our relationship with Odeon has given us the opportunity to fulfil that ambition and so extend the great work pioneered by the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House in bringing exciting new shows to local cinemas all over the country”.

“Odeon is excited to work with the Arts Council, the fabulous Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Hibrow to bring...

News.

The latest edition of La Furia Umana is now available in print, with some content online as well, and features a collection of pieces on Joseph Losey and Bertrand Bonello. Esteemed film critic Dave Kehr has been named the MoMA Adjunct Curator for Film. The Rome Film Festival is just a couple weeks away, and the competition (which will be presided over by this year's head of the jury, James Gray) has some exciting titles. I'm especially jealous of those who'll get to see Takashi Miike's brilliantly titled The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji, which had an awesome teaser pop up recently. Out of competition it looks like there's an hour-long film from Miike as well, and Castello Cavalcanti, a new short from Wes Anderson.

Finds.

Above: the first trailer for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. A web exclusive piece from Sight & Sound: filmmakers Ben Rivers...

Dcms says it’s ‘baffled’ at BFI complaints; industry says Government is sending mixed messages.

Britain’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms ) has issued a sharply worded statement calling on the British Film Institute (BFI) to accept the 10% cut in its resource funding that was announced last week.

“The Government will do whatever it takes to ensure Britain remains as at the forefront of the global film industry. The UK film industry is worth billions, with our tax breaks securing hundreds of millions of pounds of inward investment,” a Dcms spokesperson noted. “However, we cannot, and public bodies should not, ignore the need to tackle the country’s deficit. We are baffled that the BFI, despite vastly increased amounts of Lottery funding, and having received an additional £1.3m of capital, (part of which will support the development of a BFI player to unlock new revenue streams) appear unable to recognise the role that they have...

There's practically no information on this online yet, but I thought it was worthy of a mention - something to watch for in the future, whenever more is released, and/or the film debuts. I learned last night that a feature length documentary on Fespaco, continental Africa's largest and most significant film and arts celebration (which is going on right now, and ends this weekend) is in the works. Titled AfriqueCannes, its listed directors are Brits Dave Calhoun and Don Boyd. I found both gentlemen on Twitter luckily, and inquired about the film, but haven't received a reply yet. I did notice that others had asked them about it, wondering whether it'll screen in their cities, and Calhoun's...

Naked wrestling, religious mania and The Who's Tommy: director Ken Russell transformed British cinema. His closest collaborators recall a fierce, funny and groundbreaking talent

Glenda Jackson

I worked with Ken on six films. Women in Love was the first time I'd worked with a director of that genius, and on a film of that size. What I remember most was the creative and productive atmosphere on set: he was open to ideas from everyone, from the clapperboard operator upwards. Like any great director, he knew what he didn't want – but was open to everything else.

As a director he never said anything very specific. He'd say, "It needs to be a bit more … urrrgh, or a bit less hmmm", and you knew exactly what he meant. I used to ask him why he never said "Cut", and he said, "Because it means you always do something different." They gave...

Most teachers either don't feel they have permission to teach the subject, or don't know how

Don Boyd says the study of film is as important as literature and science, and rightly calls for "a system to empower schools to teach film" as "one vital responsibility" of the BFI-led film policy review (Now we're all film-makers, 26 September).

I worked at the British Film Institute for 27 years trying to get film study established in schools, with limited success. Film can and should be taught from the earliest years in primary schools, as well as at secondary level; but I don't believe the review, with its focus on film production and distribution, can achieve this.

Film has been taught in many British schools for 60 years. It now sits within a widening circle of moving-image media consumption and creation, and need not be limited to what's shown in cinemas. But most teachers tend...

Arts Council England admit to a mistake, plus the playwright plumber, and Tate Britain's underlining fetish

Arts Council England admit to a mistake

There were 1,333 applications for Arts Council England (Ace)money this year and 695 winners. Except we can now make that 696 after Ace admitted – get ready – that it made a mistake.

Homotopia, the Liverpool-based gay, lesbian and transgender arts organisation, has been told it will receive £70,000 a year until 2015, after a complaint it made was upheld.

Keen-eyed readers might recall that appeals against refusal were not allowed, but a spokeswoman for Ace told the Diary there was a complaints process when arts organisations felt it had not followed its own procedures: "We wanted to make sure we were absolutely fair."

It received 28 complaints and decided that three should be reassessed, including Homotopia, which had initially been ruled ineligible because it did not have a business model. Homotopia successfully argued...

Want to see cutting-edge drama from Edinburgh? Then just pop into your local cinema. Andrew Dickson on why the Traverse theatre is being besieged by cameras

The Traverse theatre in Edinburgh has a cute name for this year's series of morning play readings: Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Technically, it's a misnomer – your ticket includes breakfast, or at least a bacon buttie and a splash of coffee – but in other respects the title, borrowed from Alice in Wonderland, seems fair enough.

Last year, festival audiences had to endure hostage crises (a new work by Enda Walsh) and were forced to act out chunks of the script (David Greig). This year, Simon Stephens dwells on the fallout from a stabbing in T5, while Linda McLean's new play This Is Water is a verbatim account of interrogation. Quite a lot to deal with at 9am, especially if you've a hangover the size of Arthur's Seat.

The Technicolor technician visited the London Film School, a bedrock of anarchic creativity, in 1968 and set a keen student on his way. Don Boyd has never forgotten his masterclass

I first met the great cinematographer and director Jack Cardiff when he came to the London Film School in 1968 to show his film The Girl on a Motorcycle, which starred Marianne Faithfull. I was a student there, and he presented a mesmeric lecture, which in simple, unpretentious terms explained the complexities of that film's almost hallucinogenic colour photography. He also talked about the lessons he had learned from the great painters about colour and light, lessons which had come from spending hours at the National Gallery.

In October 1968 the London Film School was a bedrock of anarchic creativity. Many of the students were engaged in the political flotsam and jetsam of the time – the Vietnam war being the most obvious target...

NEW YORK -- Richard Harris, who died Friday, could still be the focus of one last Oscar campaign. Indie distributor First Look Pictures will roll out My Kingdom, featuring Harris in his last starring role, for a qualifying awards run Dec. 6. Harris nabbed a best actor nomination at the British Independent Film Awards for his role in Kingdom after the movie's release in the U.K. several weeks ago. The film, which had its world premiere at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, is billed as a "modern British gangster" story inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear. Directed by Don Boyd (Twenty-One), and produced through Sky Pictures, Kingdom also stars Lynn Redgrave. Harris was twice nominated for a best actor Academy Award during his lifetime.