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Vanessa is a novel writer, screenwriter, rep and a film producer. She shares her discoveries and film surprises. :-)
Read her bio on: www.vanessamcmahon.com
 Vanessa in Aruba: AIFF
Martin Scorsese wins The American Riviera Award at the 27th Santa Barbara Film Festival.. “We have to keep this wonderful life-sustaining conversation going with cinema”.
On the night of January 30, 2012, the legendary director Martin Scorsese, whose latest film HUGO (2012) is nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, was awarded The American Riviera Award at the 27th Santa Barbara Film Festival (SBIFF) by celebrated actor Ben Kingsley. Before receiving the award, M...
Algerian director Fatma Zohra Zamoum (‘How Big is Your Love’, 2011); speaks.
The film ‘How Big is Your Love’
(Kedach ethabni, 2011) by writer/director/producer Fatma Zohra Zamoum is set in modern Algiers, Algeria. It is a touching tale about a young eight year-old boy, Adel, whose parents are in the midst of an irreconcilable separation, during which time Adel stays with his grandmother. To cope with the emotionally challenging situation, Adel finds an escape with...
WINNERS OF THE 27TH ANNUAL SANTA BARBARA FILM FESTIVAL (SBIFF 2012)
With closing film of festival, the Lebanese hit film by actress/writer/director Nadine Labaki, WHERE DO WE GO NOW? (Arabic: وهلّأ لوين؟ w halla' la wayn, French: Et maintenant, on va ou?, 2011) which held its world premier during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival as part of 'Un Certain Regard'. It was the Lebanese 2011 Oscar submission this year. The film held its North American premier in Toronto at TIF...
During the 27th Santa Barbara Film Festival on the night of February 3rd, while I was celebrating my birthday, celebrated documentarian filmmaker and venerated cinematographer Mike DeGruy died in a helicopter crash in Australia. DOP of docs like DEEP BLUE (2003) and TV series like PLANET EARTH (2006), to name but a few, this talented and adventurous artist will be missed by all. The following statement is notice from Santa Barbara Press.
written by Vanessa McMahon
SBIFF PRESS...
MOMA ‘Global Lens’ Focuses on Moroccan film ‘PEGASE’ (2010).
‘Global Lens’, 2012 is a selection of ten films which screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art gallery (MoMA) from January 12–28 as part of an effort between MoMA and The Global Film Initiative (GFI) to raise international awareness to developing cultures of cinema from politically and economically challenged countries.
One of these films was ‘PEGASE’ (Morocco, 2010), the FESPACO (Pan-Africa...
Twenty years ago a film was released that changed the way people viewed cinema because its filmmakers dared to go where no other film has ever been, and none since...
...BARAKA (1992), directed by cinematographer Ron Fricke and produced by Mark Magidson, does everything against the rules in textbook filmmaking- it uses no stars, no script and no dialogue!!! - yet in so doing, BARAKA made history with its transcendent cinematic language. The point of this film was made loud and c...
Ben Kingsley at The Arlington Theater at 27th SBIFF, 30th January, 2012
I spoke to Sir Ben as he walked up the red carpet into the theater...
ME: Tonight you’re going to be presenting an award to the great Scorsese.
BEN: The great Scorsese! Yes!
ME: So, how does that feel?
BEN: Well, when I think of the number of men or women that could be presenting this award, people who owe their greatest moments on screen to him, people who owe t...
Rotterdam dates (January 25th- February 5, 2012)
Vanessa McMahon – Rotterdam: While Western technology and social media has influenced modern life in the Middle East, as experienced with the wave of revolutions across the Arab world over the past year, the West has likewise been greatly influenced by the Middle East, with its growing economy and growing West-to-East diaspora...
READ MORE HERE:
www.varietyarabia.com/Docs.Viewer/7cae757c-cdbe-4880-9532-d5...
Tonight on January 26th, 2012 will see opening of the 27th SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (SBIFF) in Santa Barbara, California. The festival will open with the world premier of Lawrence Kasdan's film: “DARLING COMPANION” (2012) with an all star cast including Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest. The film will open with a an Oscar-nominated Animated Pixar Short, “LA LUNA” (2011).
The screening will take place in the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA wit...
James Franco and Val Lauren in Palm Springs for 'SAL' (2011) by PSIFF press
James Franco’s feature film SAL (2011) held its world premiere at the 68th La Biennale Venice Film Festival. Most recently the film debuted in Palm Springs during the 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival. After the screening of the film, Franco appeared with lead actor in SAL, Val Lauren, to attend a Q and A to audiences. Read some of Franco’s answers to questions below.
JAMES...
Taika Waititi will attend the 2012 Berlinale with his new film project (currently in development) JOJO RABBIT (2012). Taika is an actor/writer/director from the Raukorekore region of east coast New Zealand and of Te-Whanau-a-Apanui descent.
Two years ago his film BOY (2010) held its North American premier at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film BOY, above and beyond, is everything a superb film can aspire to be. It is by far one of the greatest film achievements I have seen ...
FOR ALL NEWS, INTERVIEWS AND FILM REVIEWS OF FILM LINEUP AT THIS YEAR'S PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (to be updated daily) READ HERE:
http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/palm_springs
...
Four films from the Middle East in competition at Sundance!
Read article: http://varietyarabia.com/Docs.Viewer/bcca711f-f994-4451-a618-4d175892df0f/default.aspx
...
THE ARTIST (2011) had its world premier in Cannes last May where it won Best Actor (Jean Dujardin) and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Recently it won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musicaland, Golden Globe Best Original Score - Motion Picture Ludovic Bource, and Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical Thomas Langmann.
The Oscar nominations have now been announced and THE ARTIST holds heavy at the top o...
A SEPARATION (Iran, 2011) by director Asghar Farhadi
Nominated for an Oscar for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’, A SEPARATION has been stunning audiences since its open at the 2011 Berlinale last February. Most recently, it screened at the 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF 2012).
Bank employee Nader (played by Peyman Moadi) wants to stay in Iran but his wife Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to leave. A traditionalist stuck in the past and unable to leave his be...
Generation "П" (GENERATION P, 2011) held its world premier this week at the 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2012.
Based on the book by Russian writer Victor Pelevin, the film is directed by American/Russian director Victor Ginzburg. The film is about Babylen Tatarsky, a copywriter for a major advertising company in the late 90’s in
Post-Soviet Russia. Babylen is put to the test by the advertising firm to find the 'new Russian identity'. Well, what se...
EMILY BLUNT TO ATTEND OPENING NIGHT SCREENING OF
“SALMON FISHING IN TH E YEMEN ” AT 2012 PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
PSIFF PRESS RELEASE
British actress Emily Blunt will attend the Opening Night screening of SALMON FISHING IN YEMEN
The Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on Thursday, January 5 with the screening of CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, followed by a reception at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Directed by Oscar©-nomi...
APOCALYPTO
While bringing in the New Year in Mayan Mexico, how can I not think of this extraordinary film APOCALYPTO (2006) by Mel Gibson that gives cinematic verisimilitude a new meaning… Not only are they speaking ancient Yucatan Mayan!... but seriously, this film takes us hundreds of years back to pre-Columbian Meso-America. Gibson creates true cinema remarkably achieved, transporting us to this ancient world and its collective myth psychology.
In this arresting scene, ...
Focus on ARAB CINEMA at the 23rd Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.
At the 23rd Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival this year (January 05-16, 2012), a showcase of Arab cinema from North Africa to the Middle East will be screened. The film lineup entitled: ‘ARABIAN NIGHTS: A Showcase from the Middle East’ will premier 11 films from the new wave of pan-Arabic cinema this past year during one of the region’s most explosive and revolutionary per...
WITHOUT (2011) is a haunting coming of age psychological drama about a young girl who becomes a caretaker to an old man who is practically a vegetable. In small town America almost in the middle of nowhere Joslyn has little to no internet signal and is cut off, ‘without’ any and all outside communication. She has to assimilate into this new life with her near-death patient and the provincial frustrated locals; further, she is dealing with the overwhelming loss of the love of her l...
It's Christmas time and of course there are so many great Christmas classics to choose from for a 'Looking Back'...
I don’t know why I always think of this film at Christmastime... maybe because this arresting Zemeckis masterpiece begins at Christmas when FedEx boss Chuck Noland is torn from his life and the love of his life, Kelly (Helen Hunt), after undergoing a fatal plane crash over the South Pacific. Chuck is the only survivor and, against all odds, subsists on...
At this year’s Festival du Film de Marrakech, the competition selection included fifteen films from over fifteen nationalities. The Festival Grand Prize went to OUT OF BOUNDS (Denmark, 2011) by director Frederikke Aspöck.
Danish director Frederikke Aspöck
Frederikke Aspock’s film -Out of Bounds-, which debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, won The Golden Star Grand Prize. When I asked the film’s producer Thomas Heinesen about his film winning this award he stated: “Ob...
Jean-Jacques Annaud in Marrakech
One of the significant features of the 2011 Festival International du Film de Marrakech, (aside from the comprehensive selection of international films screened in and out of competition) was the lineup of five master classes held da...
Last week during the 2011 Festival du Film de Marrakech, the legendary English/French director Roland Joffé gave a master class to attentive fans. Joffe has directed such classics as THE KILLING FIELDS (1984), THE MISSION (1986), CITY OF JOY (1992) and VATEL (2000). When asked in particular about his most celebrated masterpiece- THE MISSION- Joffe expressed the following:
Roland Joffé:
When I made THE MISSION (1986) and worked with Robert De Niro, of cour...
It's high time for another one of my
'LOOKING BACK, Cinema's Greatest Moments'...
With all the TWILIGHT: SAGA's (I must be one of the only people in the world who is NOT a fan) I can't help but fill up with nostalgia for the vampire films I was watching to obsession when I was a teenager...
BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (in my opinion) is one of Coppola's great masterpieces... The film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel: 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'. Here are some scen...
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McMahon Vanessa 
