Savage Popcorn

I really wish I was in Bologna right now

Slow Food on Film is an international festival of Cinema and Food promoted by the Slow Food movement and Cineteca di Bologna.

Slow Food on Film aims at promoting a new critical awareness of food culture through the screening of films, short films, documentaries and TV series that focus on food-related issues (drives, perversions, identity and emotional implications) in an original way, as well as on the agricultural and food industry’s repercussion on society and the environment, and on gastronomic memory as a common heritage to be safeguarded.

In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED Prize, an annual award granted at the TED Conference. She was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. The result is Pangea Day.

Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.

The program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part.

Films can’t change the world, but images can be powerful. And the people who see these images can be moved to make a difference. Check out the videos, bookmark the site and mark the date in your diary.

If you’re under 19 and happen to be in Leeds tomorrow, head over to Millennium Square in the City Centre at 1:00pm where the Leeds Young People’s Film Festival is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the largest ever Zombie Gathering.

If you’re over 19 and in the area, go along anyway and show the kids how it’s done.

The nominations for the 2008 Saturn awards have been announced (via). The complete list of nominations can be found at the official site so, rather than reproduce it here, I’m going to have a stab at predicting the eventual winners.

Best Science Fiction Film: Cloverfield
Best Fantasy Film: Enchanted
Best Horror Film: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Action / Adventure / Thriller Film: No Country for Old Men
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (here Will Be Blood)
Best Actress: Carice van Houten (Black Book)
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
Best Supporting Actress: Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Dakota Blue Richards (The Golden Compass)
Best Direction: Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
Best Writing: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
Best International Film: Eastern Promises
Best Animated Film: Ratatouille

This is not a complete list, by any stretch of the imagination and I have completely ignored the TV and DVD nominations. But you will be able to see how good I am at this guessing lark on on June 24th.

The latest issue of Midnight Eye is out and chock full of goodness, the highlight of which is an interview with Koji Wakamatsu, whose 1966 classic The Embryo Hunts in Secret has been banned in France. The film’s distributor is organising a petition which I would urge you to go and sign.

Back in the UK, the British Film Institute has put together a new 16-film retrospective of director Tomu Uchida which will be showing throughout December. The retrospective was compiled by Alex Jacoby and Jasper Sharp, both of whom will be on hand to introduce a number of the films.

It’s times like this that I almost wish I was in London.

The 2007 Hugo Awards were announced yesterday, with Pan’s Labyrinth winning the gong for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. But what really struck me was that all five of the nominated films were excellent in their own right.

• Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro. Directed by Guillermo del Toro [Picturehouse]
• Children of Men (2006) Screenplay by Alfonso Cuaron & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby. Based on the Novel by P.D. James. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron. [Universal Pictures]
• The Prestige (2006) Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan. Based on the Novel by Christopher Priest. Directed by Christopher Nolan [Touchstone Pictures]
• V for Vendetta (2006) Screenplay by The Wachowski Brothers. Based on the Graphic Novel illustrated by David Lloyd. Directed by James McTeigue [Warner Bros.]
• A Scanner Darkly (2006) Screenplay by Richard Linklater. Based on the Novel by Philip K. Dick. Directed by Richard Linklater. [Warner Independent Pictures]

See what I mean? And, if my memory serves me correctly, it’s been a very long time since we had this many seriously good mainstream science fiction films in a single year - certainly 2007 hasn’t managed to meet the same standard. So, was 2006 a high point for SF on the big screen?

If you find yourself in London in October, you could do a lot worse than head over to the Barbican Centre who will be showing a short season of films that have been banned or cut by the BBFC.

Seduced - Sex and Censorship in the Cinema begins on 18 October

Checking what’s on in Belgium next week, I found - and followed - an advert for EuroCine 25 a Belgian film festival that seeks to bring European audiences together by showing 25 films - one for each EU member state.

I think that this is a great idea. As Europeans, we should be talking to each other far more than we do and watching - and talking about each others films - is as good a way as any to promote the often hoped for European demos.

But all is not perfect and the organisational approach of the festival leaves much to be desired. First of all, all 25 films are shown on the same day at the same time. So you don’t get to see them all, you get to see one of them.

Secondly, and more significantly, the festival takes place in Brussels at 7:00pm on Tuesday 9th May. Since I do need to earn a living, and don’t earn that living in the Belgian capital, 7:00 is simply too early.

I would like to see EuroCine do well and I would like the festival to continue. I would also like the organisers to consider spreading the festival over the course of a week and screening at least some of the films at 9:00 in the evening.

So the Baftas were awarded last night. Brokeback Mountain did well and The Constant Gardener lost out. The full set of nominees and winners is:

ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP
Lord Puttnam

THE MICHAEL BALCON AWARD for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Robert (Chuck) Finch and Bill Merrell

It was nice to see a couple of the unsung heroes of cinema being recognised for once. With the focus so much on the directors, producers, writers and especially the stars, it can sometimes be too easy to forget that there is a wealth of unrecognised talent without which these films simply couldn’t be made.

FILM
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - Diana Ossana/James Schamus
CAPOTE - Caroline Baron/William Vince/Michael Ohoven
THE CONSTANT GARDENER - Simon Channing Williams
CRASH - Cathy Schulman/Don Cheadle/Bob Yari
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. - Grant Heslov

THE ALEXANDER KORDA AWARD for the Outstanding British Film of the Year
A COCK & BULL STORY - Andrew Eaton/Michael Winterbottom/Martin Hardy
THE CONSTANT GARDENER - Simon Channing Williams/Fernando Meirelles/Jeffrey Caine
FESTIVAL - Christopher Young/Annie Griffin
PRIDE & PREJUDICE - Tim Bevan/Eric Fellner/Paul Webster/Joe Wright/Deborah Moggach
WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT - Claire Jennings/David Sproxton/Nick Park/Steve Box/Mark Burton/Bob Baker

And it’s always good to see Nick Park getting some much deserved recognition.

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