Filmfest Chief new head of CIFFT

Lee Gluckman (right in photo), chairman of US International Film & Video Festival and of Mobius Awards in California, is the newly elected president of Comité International des Festivals du Film Touristique), i.e. The International Committee of Tourism Film (CIFFT). Here he is with Martha Schultz, vice president of Federal Economy Chamber (WKO), Vienna, and representatives of “Styria – The Green Heart of Austria,” which won the Grand Prix at CIFFT’s annual ceremonies last week in Vienna. CIFFT was formed in 1989 by organizers of the Viennese “Festival of Festivals” to assure an international platform encouraging global tourism through audio-visual media.  

In Japan for Awards, Cicadas

July 28--Here I am in Japan to present two Best of Festival Awards and Gold Camera Awards and Silver Screen Awards to the two main broadcasters – NHK and MBS.

Arrived late in the afternoon on Tuesday in Osaka, a wonderful city with a lot of history and

the headquarters of MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting). This morning, I took the time to wander around the area near my hotel to adjust to the high temps (35 C) and could hear very little of the city sounds because of the noise from the cicadas. Wow, I’m talking about loud. Wonder if this is like the 17-year locusts I’ve experienced over the year in the States.

It’ll be a very busy afternoon when the events begin at 3 at MBS with many

of the senior executives, international department execs, and the producers from both MBS and AMUSE Inc, who jointly produced the Best of Festival winners: “A Passionate Challenger, Alice Sara Ott: Born to be a Pianist,” a wonderful production.

Early in the morning, I’m taking the Bullet Train (Shinkansen) from here to Tokyo to present at NHK for its winning productions and Best of Festival Award: “Light of the River.” NHK has been one of the landmark winners for its productions over the years so I am looking forward to my awards presentation there. Last year, they were co-producers of the Best of Festival winner: “Supermen of Malegaon.” I went to Singapore during the Asian Pitch to present that award.



--Lee Gluckman, Filmfest Chairman


Pictured here is Atsuhiko Sumoto, Manager, International Relations, MBS.

LifeOutLoud Films' interesting lake project

http://www.lifeoutloudfilms.com/ Sara Elizabeth Timmins, Producer/Creative Director, Life Out Loud Films, Studio City, CA., has taken on an interesting film project at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.

Her mission: "To create work that is inspiring and a catalyst for positive change while also making a positive impact in the communities in which we shoot." Check out this young filmmaker's plans for "Lake Effects."

Previous work included "Tattered Angel" with Lynda Carter; it won two awards in 2008, the Appalachian Film Festival (Best Feature) and WorldFest Houston (Best in Titles).

'Last Bogatyr' wows!

Amazing work came in from our student winners, especially from Sarah Lotfi, who with Kevin Beechwood, produced "The Last Bogatyr." They are students at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Their film has been recognized by several festivals and was a finalist in the 2010 Student Academy Awards.
Sarah, 21, (here in her pix from www.imdb.com) was writer-director-producer on the project.
Shooting was done in the Pikes Peak region with Monument Valley Park and Holy Theophany Orthodox Church in key scenes.
Sarah recently won an internship with Emmys Foundation, according to her website, www.sarahrlotfi.net/
Check out the film's website: www.thelastbogatyr.com/

Don't just look at First Place

It's always great to win a First Place Gold Camera Award, but some really interesting work also can be found among the Silver Screen and Certificate winners in FilmFest. Check those out under the Award Winners button on the left of our opening page. You can search that database in a variety of ways. Check out: www.filmfestawards.com

Meet the student winners

Over the coming weeks, we hope to introduce the student winners in some detail here because they are an interesting bunch who came to their winning works from a variety of angles.

Several were doing a class assignment. Some had special grants to support a documentary on a subject and another was trying his hand at an animated film for the first time.

Tony Cammarata, an MFA Film-Television Production student at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, produced "DANCER AND THE RED BALL," which uses motion capture technology for the dancer's performance. (See sample shot here.)

Tony, who lives in Los Angeles, also studied film at the University of Minnesota and the University of Bologna in Italy.

More on him and others as we move along.

Tough decision faces BOF Documentary Judges

Documentaries “NATURE: Kilauea: Mountain of Fire,”“Nine Days That Changed the World,” and “A Passionate Challenger, Alice Sara Ott: Born to be a Pianist” are vying for Best of Festival-Documentary, which makes the judges’ decision really tough. Broadly different in subject matter, the films give us a front row seat on nature as Kilauea boils out new land masses, on the nature of a nation as Pope Paul II made his historic trip to Poland in 1979 and on human nature in the look at Alice Sara Ott.

“Kilauea,” by THIRTEEN, New York, can be viewed at www.pbs.org.

Learn more about “Nine Days That Changed the World,” featuring Newt and Callista Gingrich, at www.ninedaysthatchangedtheworld.com.

Mainichi Broadcasting System Inc., Osaka, produced the film on the stunning Japanese-German pianist, Alice Sara Ott. Ott has her own website, www.alice-sara-ott.com where you can learn about this exceptional woman and follow the links to hear some of her performance of Chopin’s works.