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Hayao Miyazaki might as well be called a legend in the animation field, and rightly so – after all, he has given fans even Oscar-winning pieces like The Boy and the Heron through his Studio Ghibli. His works have been so iconic that the visionary might as well have inspired many artists worldwide. And yet, when it comes to his own self, very few things manage to inspire Miyazaki.

Hayao Miyazaki. | Credits: 大臣官房人事課/Cca-4.0/Wikimedia Commons.

As much of an incredibly creative artist as he is, the Japanese animator is also a staunch critic of many things. To say the least, a lot of the pieces Hollywood fans would consider masterpieces have faced the wrath of the manga artist. This included Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s best film after The Godfather, which Miyazaki unhesitantly revealed he felt was pointless.

Hayao Miyazaki Has Harsh Criticism for Apocalypse Now

Released in 1979, Apocalypse Now...

Got something you’d like to ask the flugelhorn-tooting forensic scientist and all-round star of stage and screen? Send it our way and we’ll put it to her

You might think of her as forensic scientist Eve Lockhart from BBC series Waking the Dead, or as Queen Selyse Baratheon in Game of Thrones, but Tara Fitzgerald is a long-termer when it comes to film. Her first big role was in Peter Chelsom’s 1991 nightclub comedy Hear My Song, after which she went on to a couple of roles opposite Hugh Grant: Sirens in 1994 and The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain in 1995. In between the two she was in A Man of No Importance with Albert Finney. Then came the flugelhorn-tooting Brassed Off, and the Czech war film Dark Blue World. More recently she played Miriam in Ridley Scott’s biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Cinematographer Vladimír Smutný Photo: Courtesy of Kviff/Ludek Hudec Karlovy Vary Film Festival has made its first programme announcements this week - including tributes to Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine and Czech cinematographer Vladimír Smutný.

The Czech festival - which runs from June 28 to July 6 - will also commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution by screening a selection of films shot between 1989 and 1992. It will also hold a premiere screening of restored Czech classic The Cremator, directed by Czechoslovak New Wave filmmaker Juraj Herz, which describes the transformation of an ordinary man into a psychopathic killer.

Smutný will receive the President's Award for his contribution to cinema, with his work on films including Encounter With The Shadows (1982), End Of The Lonely Farm Berghof (1983) and Kolya (1996) as well as more recent work Dark Blue World (2001), Barefoot (2017) and Golden Sting (2018).

The retrospective dedicated to Chahine, who died in 2008, will feature...

Festival will also pay tribute to Velvet Revolution, unveils industry strands.

The 54th Karlovy Vary Film Festival (June 28-July 6) will honour Czech cinematographer Vladimír Smutný and Egyptian director Youssef Chahine.

Smutný, a seven-time winner of the Czech Lion for best cinematography, will receive the Kviff President’s Award. His best-known work includes films with Jiří Svoboda and Jan and Zdeněk Svěrák.

Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine (1926-2008), a five-time Palme d’Or nominee and Silver Bear winner (for Alexandria Why? in 1979), will be honoured at Kviff with a retrospective of 11 remastered films, comprising early lesser-known works and internationally recognised classics.

The...

Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival is to honor Czech cinematographer Vladimír Smutný, whose credits include Jan Svěrák’s Oscar-winning “Kolya.” The festival will also pay tribute to the career of the late Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine.

Smutný will receive the festival’s President’s Award. He started his career in the 1980s working with directors Jiří Svoboda, on films like “End of the Lonely Farm Berghof” (1983), winner of the jury prize at Karlovy Vary, and Karel Kachyňa.

As well as “Kolya” (1996), he worked with Svěrák on “Dark Blue World” (2001), “Empties” (2007), “Kooky” (2010), “Three Brothers” (2014), and “Barefoot” (2017).

Other directors he worked with include Ivan Fíla, Jiří Vejdělek and Václav Marhoul.

A Chahine retrospective at Karlovy Vary will feature 11 films restored by the director’s production house, Misr International Films, along with other institutions such as La Cinémathèque française and Cineteca di Bologna.

“A thorough look at the work of Youssef Chahine has...

Czech director Tomáš Krejčí has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise 50k Usd for the final VFX compositing along as well as grading, music recording, sound design and sound mix to his already shot and edited film. The Tower of Dreams (domestic title The Last of Aporver) has been in development since 2006 with the budget rising to over a quarter of a billion Czech crowns (approximately 8 743 029 Usd). The title of the most expensive film in Czech history was previously held by father-son filmmaking duo Jan and Zdeněk Svěrák's war drama Dark Blue World, which boasted a budget of 230 000 000 Czech crowns. Because of the mammoth budget, this project has a complicated funding model with many partners in play....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

The American Film Institute’s AFI Fest opens tonight in Hollywood with the world premiere of J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year. The film stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain as a couple trying to run a business and live in New York City during 1981, which was statistically one of the city’s most violent years. This is Chandor’s first film to premiere in Los Angeles. Though the film is hoping to garner some Oscar nominations, only six of the past 14 films to open AFI Fest have gone on to receive Oscar nominations and none have been for best picture.

Of the six films to garner Oscar nominations, the only film to win an award was 2005’s Walk the Line, which resulted in Reese Witherspoon taking home the Oscar for best actress. The Johnny Cash biopic scored four other nominations, including film editing and best actor.

Hunger Games DoP Tom Stern and 12 Years a Slave cinematographer Sean Bobbitt among those chosen for jury duty.

The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Jury members of the main competition jury are:

Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition

Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...

From aerial bravery in Wwi to Tom Cruise in an F-14 Tomcat, Mark lists his top ten all-time favourite flying movies…

This is a personal list, and as such, won't please everyone. I accept that, but I wanted to look at the films that have best represented flying for me over the years.

I've also excluded helicopters in exchange for a festival of fixed wings. But as a person who loves aircraft and flying of all kinds, these are the ones that made me feel the need. The need for speed...

The Dam Busters (1955)

Gosh, what a place to start. For the most part, the film's an historically accurate retelling of the ultimate daring-do of WWII. Richard Todd plays the unflappable Guy Gibson, who lead the amazing 617 Squadron on their secret mission against the dams of the Ruhr valley.

Using the Barnes Wallis (played by Michael Redgrave) utterly inspired bouncing bomb,...