ShortFest 2009!

Didja hear? ShortFest will be taking place JUNE 23-29, 2009!

Oscar results

The Academy definitely favored the Indian production that could, Slumdog Millionaire. Other winners included Milk for screenplay & Best Actor (Sean Penn), Kate Winslet as Best Actress for The Reader, and Penelope Cruz & Heath Ledger in the supporting acting categories.

Did you notice that "Toyland" won the Best Live Action Short Oscar, after winning the 2008 ShortFest Audience Favorite Live Action Short? And Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner, Departures, recently won the 2009 PSIFF Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature?

What do you think?

And what do you think of the change in format?
It seemed to target a broader audience by including clips of more popular but non-nominated films and using popular actors, such as the stars from High School Musical.

What did you think of the five previous winners presenting the acting categories?

See full results here.

Checking in with BAFTA

The Brit's big awards show, BAFTA, announced their winners. Slumdog sweeps again!

Slumdog Millionaire: Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Adapted Screenplay, Best Music, Best Sound [PSIFS membership screening, star Freida Pinto received the PSIFF Breakthrough Performance Award]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Production Design, Special Visual Effects, Make Up & Hair [PSIFS membership screening]
Hunger: Carl Foreman Award for Best British Director/Writer of First Feature Film [PSIFF entry]
Man on Wire: Best British Film
I've Loved You So Long: Best Non-English Language Film
The Wrestler: Best Actor (Mickey Rourke) [PSIFS membership screening]
The Reader: Best Actress (Kate Winslet)
The Dark Knight: Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Best Supporting Actress (Penelope Cruz)
The Duchess: Costume Design [PSIFS membership screening]
In Bruge: Original Screenplay
Wall-E: Best Animated Film
Wallace & Gromit - A Matter of Loaf & Death: Best Animated Short
September: Best Short Film
Noel Clarke: Orange Rising Star Awards
Terry Gilliam: Academy Fellowship

Milk auction

A suit ensemble worn by Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in the film, Milk, will be auctioned off to benefit both Variety – The Children's Charity of Southern California and NYC's Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School. Costume designer Danny Glicker re-created the ensemble worn by Mr. Milk on November 7, 1978 -- the Election Night on which he celebrated the statewide defeat of Proposition 6, which sought to ban gays from teaching in California public schools and to remove known homosexuals and their supporters from their posts.

The Clothes Off Our Back Foundation will host the online auction of Glicker's specially created ensemble as seen in Gus Van Sant's Milk, which is nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Costume Design. Auction ends February 28.

February Cin-E-File

The latest February Cin-E-File is out!

What did you think of PSIFF 2009?
Did you attend the first-ever Student Screening Day? How was it?
Did you roam the gala's red carpet? Star sightings?
What do you think of the Oscar noms?

Chat it up while we prepare for another year of great film!

Oscar noms straight from PSIFS

THE OSCAR NOMS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED

Three of the five nominated Best Foreign Language Films were honored this week at PSIFF 2009:
• Departures - Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
• Revanche - FIPRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
• Waltz with Bashir - Bridging the Borders Award
Nominees The Baader Meinhof Complex and The Class also played at the festival.

ShortFest 2008 honored a Best Documentary Short Subject nominee, "The Witness: The View from Room 306," with both the Best Documentary Short & Audience Favorite Documentary Short awards.

"This Way Up" is a Best Animated Short Film nominee and winner of the ShortFest Audience Favorite Animation Short. Nominee "Lavatory - Lovestory" was a ShortFest 2007 entry.

Best Live Action Short Film nominees "Manon on the Asphalt" and "New Boy" were ShortFest 2008 entries, as well as "Toyland" which won the ShortFest Audience Favorite Live Action Short.

Best Documentary nominees Encounters at the End of the World and The Garden were shown at PSIFF 2008 and 2009, respectively.

PSIFF 2009 Black Tie Awards Gala honorees are well represented:
• Career Achievement Award: Clint Eastwood, whose Changeling earned three nominations
• Life Achievement Award in Directing: Ron Howard, who earned a Best Director nom in addition to Frost/Nixon's 4 other noms including Best Picture and Awards Gala presenter Frank Langella for Best Actor
• Sonny Bono Visionary Award: Gus Van Sant, who earned a Best Director nomination for Milk, which earned 8 noms including Best Picture
• Desert Palm Achievement Award – Actor: Sean Penn, a Best Actor nominee for Milk along with Awards Gala presenter Josh Brolin, nominated for Best Supporting Actor
• Desert Palm Achievement Award - Actress: Anne Hathaway, a Best Actress nominee for Rachel Getting Married
• Spotlight Award: Amy Adams, who earned a Best Supporting Actress nom in addition to Doubt's 4 other nominations including Awards Gala presenter John Patrick Shanley for Best Adapted Screenplay
• Ensemble Performance Award: The cast of Revolutionary Road, which earned 3 nominations including Supporting Actor for Michael Shannon
• Breakthrough Performance Award: Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire, which earned 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture
• Chairman's Award: Dustin Hoffman, who helped voice Best Animated Film nom Kung Fu Panda
• Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing: Alexandre Desplat, who earned a Best Score nom in addition to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button's 12 other nominations including Best Picture, including Awards Gala presenter Taraji P. Henson for Best Supporting Actress

The following nominees were Advance Member Screenings:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Defiance, Doubt, The Duchess, Frost/Nixon, Happpy-Go-Lucky, Milk, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler.

Once again, PSIFS proves itself as the place for good film!

PSIFF 2009 Awards

The PSIFF 2009 Awards have been announced & the full Best of the Fest schedule is in.

What do you think?