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The feature film “Freda” and short film “You Can Always Come Home,” both family dramas, earned top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format this year, with both in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4-13.

Making its U.S. premiere at this year’s Festival, “Freda,” directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award. The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. Of the film, the jury noted, “this film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop thinking about this world and these characters, and we appreciated being immersed in a place that we don’t often see onscreen – portrayed in such a realistic,...

Two family dramas, the feature film Freda and short film You Can Always Come Home, have earned the top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format with in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4 through tomorrow.

Making its US premiere at this year’s Festival, Freda, directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature. Set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award, supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is an international competition for new narrative feature films that best exemplify richness and resonance for cinema’s future.

The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins, and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. The jury said, “This film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop...

Exclusive: Sk Global and LA-based production and literary outfit The Mazur Kaplan Company have closed a first-look development deal, with an initial five books set for adaptation. The pact was jointly announced Tuesday by Sk Global President of Television Marcy Ross, and Mazur Kaplan principals Paula Mazur and Mitchell Kaplan. It is part of Sk Global’s expansion into television under Ross who joined the company in April. The deal also is part of book IP-focused Mazur Kaplan’s push into TV.

Here are the first five books identified for television or feature adaptation under the pact, along the creative auspices attached to each project:

The Hierarchies. Written by debut novelist Ros Anderson and set in the not-too-distant future, The Hierarchies is a character driven story about a sentient pleasure robot designed to cater to her husband’s needs, and her startling self-discovery as she begins to realize more about...

Ten days before Christmas 1979, 33-year-old Arthur McDuffie, a Marine and a manager at a life insurance company, had already wrapped presents for his two young daughters, but he never got the chance to deliver them. In the early hours of December 17th, a group of cops beat McDuffie into a coma after a bizarre motorcycle chase through downtown Miami, with one officer cracking McDuffie’s skull with a Kel-Lite flashlight, a witness later testified. McDuffie died in the hospital four days later.

McDuffie’s killing would lead to the worst...

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Lionsgate and Google are teaming for "District Voices," a weeklong video series in which top YouTube creators tacke the dystopian world of "The Hunger Games". The move is part of the distributor's efforts to promote next month's release of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1".

Each episode will cover a different facet of life in the fictional world and will be presented as "programming sanctioned by the totalitarian Panem regime". The videos will run on both the Capitol TV website and the film's YouTube channel. Amongst those participating are members of popular Youtube channels such as iJustine, Feast of Fiction, Veritasium, FightTIPS and Threadbanger. [Source: Variety]

Doctors

20th Century Fox has scored the rights to Dash Shaw's indie graphic novel "Doctors" with David Goyer set to produce through his Phantom Four production company.

The story follows a doctor and his team who can go into...

Vanity Fair's attack reflects a wider loathing, but at least the actor is brave enough to venture beyond Hollywood's accepted script for women

Gwyneth Paltrow is feuding with Vanity Fair, which is not easy if you are a famous actor: the magazine, dedicated to the placement of luxury goods into spindly hands, is essentially a marketing arm of Hollywood – although it acknowledges the current wretchedness of the medium, consciously or not, by repeatedly placing dead ("better") actresses on its cover. Even so, it's widely reported that Vanity Fair is working on a "take-down" of Paltrow, which is yet to appear. She has responded by emailing famous friends, who I imagine as the Bratz dolls, telling them not to contribute. Now she has guest-edited the December edition of Red magazine, filling it with philosophy from her lifestyle website, the oddly named Goop.

But why "take down" Paltrow? This may be a...

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Knocking out three jokes in his introduction to the support act, it’s immediately clear that Sand-Dancer Chris Ramsey is a talent on par with the best of them. His amiable nature and almost constant Cheshire grin make him impossible not to like, creating a sense that he really is thrilled to be performing and helping build up a relationship with the audience to the point that they almost feel he’s a personal mate come the show’s climax.

Unfortunately one must first sit through twenty minutes of weak support act Carl Hutchinson before seeing the main man himself, which is a challenge considering he’s about as relatable as Nick Griffin on Pcp and comes across as uncomfortably aggressive from the off. It’s suspected he might have been chosen simply to make Ramsey look better, as Hutchinson sets such a low standard a...

When the opening moments of a film see Sean Connery explain through voiceover that he is part of a band of immortals born at the dawn of time, immortals that are locked in battle with one another until only one remains, you know that you’re in for something special. When this opening monologue is followed immediately by a title sequence to the tune of Queen’s ‘Princes of the Universe’ and an opening sequence that cross-cuts between a contemporary wrestling match and a Medieval Scottish battle one begins to sense the sort of cinematic lunacy that is to follow.

You’re watching Highlander, the tale of the immortal Connor ‘The Highlander’ MacLeod’s present and past lives. Rarely are films able to assume plots of such bafflingly Metal proportions; the fact that these immortals can only die through being beheaded reinforces the distinct possibility that the film’s plot could,...

Here is last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...

"Something something tragic circumcision accident something.... "

Thanks to Fred for this week's winning caption!

Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). Matt Smith (above) is 30, Frank Ocean is 25, Jaclyn Smith is 65, Hilary Clinton is 65, Dylan McDermott is 51, Patrick Breen is 52, Natalie Mechant is 49, Keith Urban is 45, Kelly Osbourne is 28, Annie Potts is 60, Jami Gertz is 47, and Julia Roberts is 45. Proving the U.S. doesn't have a monopoly on bigoted asshats ...presenting Nick Griffin G4 has canceled the two shows that put it on the map, Attack Of The Show and X-Play. Catching up with Alicia Silverstone. "I’ve had so many crushes on gay boys. My first love was so gay,...

Stars of the small screen talk TV

The total package: Zawe Ashton

I'm a massive disappointment," says Zawe Ashton, star of C4's Fresh Meat. Ashton's wayward, partying character Violet, better known as Vod, won the hearts of viewers in the first series – so much so that when Ashton meets people at parties they expect her to be the last one standing. "It's a compliment that people think I'm going to be like her – it means I'm doing my job properly. But I can see the disappointment in people's eyes when I switch to fizzy water before heading for the door at a decent hour!"

Ashton's star has been on the ascent for a couple of years now. She's appeared on stage as well as screen, and she's also honing her skills as a writer, including a stint as writer-in-residence for production company Clean Break. Having just finished her run...

Attention all WTFers, Wtf buddies, WTFineers, WTFniks, and WTFericans. Soon, you'll be able to buy a two-disc compilation documenting the first 100 episodes of of Marc Maron's groundbreaking podcast. Ast Records will release the 2-cd set, which will include all of the early episodes of "Wtf with Marc Maron" as well as a video of Maron doing a live podcast taping.

But those who want to keep their Cat Ranch broadcasts for posterity will need to act quickly. Only 1,000 copies of the die-cast packaged box set will be released, and the limited edition release is sure to become a collector's item. Pre-orders will begin April 17 and the set will officially go on sale April 24. The set costs fifty bucks, and can be ordered on Ast Records' website.

The first 100 episodes of the biweekly Wtf, spanning from September 2009 to August 2010, include a number of the comedian interviews that made an impression...

Once in a while, we comedy lovers get a good, solid Dave Chappelle sighting. He comes out of hiding to do some standup and then disappears again into the ether. But now the hilarious comic—who fell off the radar (on his terms) in 2005 when he abruptly quit Chappelle's Show—seems to be prepping for a comeback and has reared his head in New York. No word yet on if it's a show or a comedy special, but he's taking to stand-up stages and practicing for something. See where he showed up last night... The audience downtown at the Comedy Cellar last night waiting for a lineup that included Nick Griffin, Sherrod Small and Dave Attell, were shocked when Chappelle...

A transformed festival is now a marketplace for deal-making and fundraising by doc-makers, as some fine films are recognised with awards

This year's Sheffield documentary festival ended with veteran film-makers scratching their heads. Since Doc/Fest was launched 16 years ago, both the festival and the industry it covers have changed beyond recognition.

In its early days, Doc/Fest showcased the output of what was still a structured world in which elite gatekeepers called the shots. This year, 65 films were still shown, including 15 world, five European and 23 British premieres. Yet the emphasis was on networking, tip-swapping, deal-making and fundraising by the film-makers themselves, all of whom were grappling with a world ever more in flux.

During recent years, the number of industry delegates to Doc/Fest has increased four-fold: this year it stood at around 2,000. In Sheffield's fabled MeetMarket, 175 power-brokers haggled over 64 projects with film-makers from 22 countries; a thousand meetings were...

Unilever has launched legal action against the far-right British National Party (BNP) after an image of its Marmite product was seemingly used in an online election broadcast. A jar of the yeast-based spread was visible in the top left-hand corner of the video featuring an address from party chairman and former National Front member Nick Griffin, Sky News reports. A statement from Unilever read: "We want to make it absolutely clear that Marmite did not give the BNP permission to use a pack shot of our product in their broadcast. Neither Marmite nor any other Unilever brand are aligned to any political party. "We are currently initiating injunction proceedings against the BNP to remove the Marmite jar from the (more)...

Mark highlights lots of screen politicians - and one banker - you wouldn't want running your country...

Here in Britain, Parliament has been dissolved and there's just under a month until the UK goes to the polling booths to decide who has to put up with taxes, education and all that joy for the next five or so years. This isn't the time for Den Of Geek to get political, but we would like to say don't worry - politicians could be a lot worse than they are.

So often in films, politicians are all that is villainous, slimy or incompetent about the cast of characters, so imagine if one of these movie politicians got into office next month.

You'd be yearning for the days when a ministerial cock-up entailed the receipt for a Battlefield Earth DVD turning up on the register of ministers' interests, rather than the destruction of...

It's finally here, the long-awaited pairing of Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz who showed great chemistry in 2001's "Vanilla Sky."

This looks like an interesting film, directed by James Mangold (from "Walk the Line" to "3:10 to Yuma," he's a great storyteller in my book). But, this film has been rewritten soooooooo many times (look at the credits below) that it's not a good sign. Hopefully, Mangold and company were able to straighten the script prior to shooting. We'll see...

So what is the movie all about? According to Yahoo Movies:

A wholesome, Midwestern woman accidentally gets involved with an international super spy and is forced to flee the country with him while he protects a dangerous new piece of technology.

Twentieth Century Fox is releasing this film on July 2nd, to brighten up your 4th of July weekend :happy

Here's the trailer!

Here's more info on the film:

Actors...

A survey has revealed that a third of Britons believe that the right-wing British National Party (BNP) is headed by Peter Griffin. The questionnaire to promote money-saving site MyVoucherCodes found that a number of respondents matched a picture of BNP leader Nick Griffin with the name of the animated Family Guy character. It also found that 82% of the 1,498 people surveyed were able to identify Celebrity Big Brother winner Alex Reid, compared to 81% for Prime (more)...

Johnny Depp lost his bid to film The Carbon Diaries books by London teacher Saci Lloyd when she picked the BBC instead

Not many sixth-form teachers from east London can claim to have said "No" to Johnny Depp, but Saci Lloyd is getting used to her double life. By day, she teaches A-level students at an inner-city college: by night, she is one of Britain's most successful crusading authors.

Her first book, The Carbon Diaries 2015, shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards last year, already has a slavish following among teenagers in this country and in America. The futuristic story introduced the world to a hapless new heroine, Laura Brown, a figure who now threatens to become as potent in the entertainment industry as Harry Potter.

Depp's film-making company, Infinitum Nihil, was negotiating in the run-up to Christmas for the right to make a screen version of the book, but Lloyd...

Queen Elizabeth thinks the British National Party (BNP) is "a disgrace". The 83-year-old monarch is reportedly furious the controversial political party - led by right-wing convicted racist Nick Griffin - has used Winston Churchill's image in a party election broadcast. A palace insider told Britain's News of the World newspaper: "The queen thinks it is a disgrace that the name of such a courageous leader in our hour of need has been hijacked in this way. "She believes it is important the royal family redoubles its efforts to stem the tide of this division. It is unhealthy and not British." Griffin also quoted the famous wartime leader's iconic "blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his party's manifesto and claimed Churchill...

London -- BBC bosses avoided chaos and scenes of violence Thursday night and woke up Friday morning with 8 million viewers -- three times the typical number -- after the appearance of right-wing nationalist politician Nick Griffin on its flagship current affairs panel show "Question Time."

With Griffin's screen-grabbed face on the front of every national newspaper Friday morning after his appearance, the BBC faced a fresh round of debate and accusations of "publicity-seeking" naivety in the wake of the politician's appearance.

The corporation noted that the 8 million viewers for the show, which aired late Thursday evening, is "triple its typical audience."

Security has been stepped up inside and outside the BBC's West London studios, where hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators gathered to protest Griffin's appearance.

BBC deputy director general Mark Byford insisted it had been "appropriate" to invite Griffin to appear given the level of support his party achieved in the last European elections.

London -- BBC bosses are braced for chaos and possible scenes of violence Thursday after inviting right-wing nationalist politician Nick Griffin to appear on its flagship current affairs panel show "Question Time."

Security has been stepped up inside and outside the BBC's West London studios, where hundreds of anti-fascist supporters are expected to take on the likes of the local BNP as the show goes on air Thursday night.

A last ditch effort to take control of the situation by the BBC Trust, who met late Wednesday night to discuss rescinding the invitation, ended in impasse after the trust said it could not act ahead of the program.

"We have decided it would be wrong for the trust to intervene in a program not yet broadcast -- even one as plainly controversial as this," BBC trustee Richard Tait said.

"To do so would undermine the editorial independence of the BBC...

Screening

Venice and Toronto international film festivals

"Matchstick Men" gambles that a movie about con artists, usually the cinematic equivalent of a highly strategic chess game, is elastic enough to focus on psychosomatic neuroses and a nascent father-daughter relationship blooming before our very eyes. Director Ridley Scott and writers Nicholas and Ted Griffin (working from a Eric Garcia novel) want us to concentrate on characters and not the con. They push the swindle deep into the movie's background while actors Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman perform heavy lifting in the emotional department, almost to the point we forget the movie is about con artists -- which turns out to be the film's own con.

Whether "Matchstick Men" will satisfy audiences is an open question. The movie so successfully raises the emotional and psychological stakes in the first half that not all audiences may like the film's reversion to con-artist form in the second. The con itself is preposterous and full of holes when we think back after the movie. A coda struggles to convince any viewers bummed out by this con job that everything turns out for the best some time later. Whether viewers will go for that or not, this is not a typical Ridley Scott movie, so Warner Bros.' marketing department has its hands full.

When we first meet Roy (Cage) and Frank (Rockwell), the two small-potatoes grifters are working the phones and making house calls to sell a water filtration system for 10 times its value. Then we notice Roy's neurotic tics, some bad enough he nearly blows a "sale." Soon we realize his mind and body are at war with each other.

Roy is a nicotine-addicted, obsessive-compulsive, germ-phobic, quasi-suicidal agoraphobic who really should find another line of work -- only he's too damn good at it. Just ask his protege Frank, who is learning all he can from the master. Concerned about his friend's increasingly neurotic behavior, triggered by the accidental loss of his tranquilizers, Frank sends Roy to a shrink. Once he has his patient stabilized, Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman) probes his past.

Quickly -- maybe a little too quickly -- the shrink hits the root of much of Roy's psychosomatic ailments: a long-ago, troubled marriage and a possible child he has never met. A little digging by the psychiatrist turns up a 14-year-old daughter, Angela (Lohman), who wants to meet the dad she believed was either dead or in prison.

Their meeting forever changes Roy. In his own nutty way, for the first time in years he reaches out to another human being. And he digs fatherhood! When Angela discovers his calling and asks him to show her a few tricks of the trade, Roy balks. But he relents, of course, and she soon is involved in Roy and Frank's latest con of a shady, crude businessman (Bruce McGill).

Working on his first film in a while that doesn't require extensive stunts, visual effects and an army of technicians, Scott clearly revels in directing top actors in out-and-out character studies. The film definitely draws a viewer into its strange, compelling interpersonal dynamics. Then, gradually, the dynamics of the con game take over, much of it predicated on the well-established psychology of its characters.

The film owes a clear debt to "Paper Moon" but lacks that film's gallery of whimsical characters. The Griffin brothers write scenes with enough sharp dialogue and clear intent that we might wish the canvas were a little larger and the writers had dug a bit deeper. Ultimately, the movie settles for being clever rather than deep.

While set in an unnamed contemporary city, the film's production design and music -- Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Wayne Newton -- is '50s/early '60s. The retro look exists for no discernible thematic reason but does give the movie a stylish kick. All technical credits are excellent, though an attempt to approximate Roy's distorted point of view through weird lenses and jump cuts never quite works.

MATCHSTICK MEN

Warner Bros.

An Imagemovers/Scott Free production in association with Rickshaw Prods. and LivePlanet

Credits:

Director: Ridley Scott

Screenwriters: Nicholas Griffin, Ted Griffin

Based on the book by: Eric Garcia

Producers: Sean Bailey, Ted Griffin, Jack Rapke, Ridley Scott, Steve Starkey

Executive producers: Robert Zemeckis

Director of photography: John Mathieson

Production designer: Tom Foden

Music: Hans Zimmer

Co-producers: Charles J.D. Schlissel, Giannina Facio

Costume designer: Michael Kaplan

Editor: Dody Dorn.

Cast:

Roy: Nicolas Cage

Frank: Sam Rockwell

Angela: Alison Lohman

Dr. Klein: Bruce Altman

Chuck Frechette: Bruce McGill

Kathy: Sheila Eastin

Running time -- 116 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...