Scottish gangster flick Man Dancin' (US title Kerrigan's Passion) has won the prestigious Gold Remi Award for Best Dramatic Feature at the 39th WorldFest Film Festival in Houston. It then went on to win the title of Critics' Choice. This comes just a month after Man Dancin' won Best International Feature at the Garden State Film Festival in New Jersey, which considerably animated discussions surrounding US territory distribution.
Arun Kumar's directorial debut feature Truck of Dreams set around a travelling rural cinema in India, has won the World Cinema Award at the Washington DC Independent Film Festival. The film's European premiere is on 3rd May 2006 at Cineworld West Quay as part of the East End Film Festival. An extended feature about the making of the film was published by Netribution on the 4th April.
Extras, the follow-up to worldwide hit The Office, triumphed at the Rose d'Or festival in Switzerland, scooping Best Sitcom and the Best Actress accolade for Ashley Jensen.
When the veteran director Ken Loach found himself shortlisted for the Palme d’Or trophy for an eighth time this week, he proclaimed it a greater honour than the Oscars. Loach said that Cannes, the world’s leading showcase for international cinema, was not only the premier film festival, but that its choice of films was not dictated by the intense lobbying of Oscar recognition.
The selection unveiled today has a distinctly European flavour with no fewer than 11 European films in competition announced so far. British director Andrea Arnold whose short film Wasp was an Academy Award Winner, is the only first time feature director to be featured in competition with Glasgow-set Red Road.
Ken Loach's Irish Film Board-backed film, the Wind That Shakes the Barley, has been selected for International Competition at Cannes. Starring Cillian Murphy (Breakfast on Pluto) Liam Cunningham (A Love Divided), Orla Fitzgerald and newcomer Padraic Delaney in the leading roles it was produced by Rebecca O’Brien for Sixteen Films and executive produced by Andrew Lowe for Element Films.
Mr Bean creator Rowan Atkinson will be in Cannes during May filming the second feature-length film about the adventures of the internationally famous comedy character he created with Richard Curtis. Bean II is a Working Title Films production, in association with Tiger Aspect
The Fourth International Low-Budget Film Festival (April 17-23) opened its doors on Monday in the northeastern Cuban coastal town of Gibara, its traditional venue.