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Author: Competitions

To mark the release of The Free Man on 24th April, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.

To reach the level of liberty encapsulated by the concept of being truly free is both a physical and mental endeavour that many will risk their life to obtain. Is life worth risking for the feeling of conquering fear and becoming truly free? These are the questions Jossi Wells must ask himself as he meets extreme sports performance artists, The Flying Frenchies, and takes on the challenge of his lifetime thousands of metres above the ground.

Directed by Toa Fraser (Dean Spanley, Giselle), who brings a breathtakingly cinematic sensibility and narrative construction to the world of extreme sports, The Free Man is as beautiful a film as it is a thrilling one. Shot in New Zealand and France, the film offers a rare insight into the story...

Production has begun in New Zealand on Welcome to the Thrill, an extreme sports action adventure movie starring Olympic freestyle skier Jossi Wells.

In the film, Wells takes up the challenge of new extreme sports in which he has no experience at all.

The film examines why adrenaline junkies do what they do.

It is laced with philosophical reflections ranging from Mark Twain to the athletes themselves.

Directed by Toa Fraser(The Dead Lands, Giselle), Welcome to the Thrill brings Fraser.s cinematic sensibility and narrative construction to the world of extreme sports..

It is the latest film from producer Matthew Metcalfe.s General Film Corporation and is his fifth collaboration with Toa Fraser (6 Days, The Dead Lands, Giselle, Dean Spanley).

Filming will take place in New Zealand, USA, France and Hawaii..

New Zealand distribution is by Rialto Distribution.

Fraser and Metcalfe are currently in post-production on action thriller 6 Days,...

Since launching his career in Park City with the World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic winning No. 2 (2006 Sundance Film Fest), Toa Fraser has been mapping out his filmography with items such as Dean Spanley (2008), Giselle (2013) and The Dead Lands (2014). A true story from 1980, his shot in New Zealand June/shot in London in August fifth feature is an action thriller that features a stellar threesome in Jamie Bell, Mark Strong and the underused Abbie Cornish. Perhaps it’s time for Fraser to reunite with Sundance?

Gist: Co-written by Fraser and Glenn Standring, this is based on the actual events of April 1980 when six armed gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy at London’s Princes Gate, taking 26 people hostage. Six days of tense stand-off ensued as a group of highly trained soldiers from Britain’s Special Air Service (Sas) prepared to raid the building.

Production Co./Producers: General Film Corporation’s Matthew Metcalfe...

On May 5, 1980 an Sas squad abseiled down the side of the Iranian Embassy in London's Princes Gate to rescue the 26 hostages trapped inside. 6 Days, a new action thriller, tells the full story behind that raid and the nerve-knotting days leading up to it. These three new stills give a flavour of what to expect.Although character details are still underwraps, Jamie Bell is looking like he's either leading a special forces team or there's a bit where he goes on the world's most elaborate paintballing outing. Judging by the pic below, Mark Strong will be helping out in a hostage negotiation capacity.Shot partly in New Zealand and now underway near the notorious incident's actual epicentre, 6 Days is the latest from Kiwi director Toa Fraser (The Dead Lands, Dean Spanley). He's teamed up again with his Dead Lands writer Glenn Standring, with several former Sas members helping bring realism to...

Action adventure The Dead Lands is in UK cinemas this weekend. Director Toa Fraser talks about its making and how James Cameron’s a fan...

A taut and intense action adventure, The Dead Lands is a superb showcase for director Toa Fraser. It provides an insight into a culture not often explored on screen - set in pre-colonial New Zealand, the film’s dialogue is entirely in the Maori language - while delivering the kind of pared-back revenge story you might expect from a western or a samurai film.

In other words, The Dead Lands is both unique to its country and universal; its historical setting and subtitles might suggest something for the arthouse crowd, but its bruising fight scenes will please the action crowd, too. What’s more, James Cameron is officially a fan.

As The Dead Lands makes its debut in UK cinemas, we caught up with Toa Fraser...

Dead and Buried: Fraser’s Sumptuously Filmed, Familiar Revenge Drama

Premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and snagging the distinction of representing New Zealand as the official best foreign language selection in 2014, Toa Fraser’s The Dead Lands is the first film to be shot entirely in the Maori language and to be told entirely from their character perspective (and not in their relation to white characters). That the narrative is entirely derivative, and with a brutality that will put one, peripherally, in mind of Apocalypto (yes, that Mel Gibson about the Mayans) is sometimes easy to overlook considering the film’s vibrant palette. But as well intentioned as these honorable characterizations are intended in Glenn Strandring’s script, on film they are shapeless archetypes of good vs. evil in an endless cycle of violence brought to a wishful thinker’s fantastical resolution.

Wirepa (Te Kohe Tuhaka), the young leader of a bloodthirsty,...

Exclusive: Toa Fraser’s action-thriller sells to UK, Germany and China, among others.

Xyz Films has closed a raft of deals led by a UK sale to Icon Film Distribution on The Dead Lands, already seen by press and industry and received its world premiere on Sept 4.

Rights have also gone to Ascot Elite for Germany, Movies Inspired for Italy, Fabula Films for Turkey, Falcon for the Middle East and Hgc for China. The Jokers previously acquired rights for France.

Toa Fraser’s New Zealand-set action-thriller is based on a screenplay by Glenn Standring, who produced with Matthew Metcalfe, Norman Merry and Tainui Stephens.

The film was shot on location in Auckland and the central North Island of New Zealand and follows a chieftan’s son who sets out to avenge his father’s murder.

James Rolleston from Boy stars alongside Lawrence Makoare, Te Kohe Tuhaka, Xavier Horan, George Henare and Rena Owen.

Ian Dawson at [link...

Jack Webb didn.t go to film school and taught himself the art of directing. He.s just demonstrated that a lack of formal training is no barrier to writing and directing a feature film.

Hand of Art follows a young artist who pursues his passion regardless of the doubts and the costs to his relationships. Webb aims to finish a cut next month in time to submit to the Sydney Film Festival.

The cast includes Bradley Murnane as the lead, Dee Harding, Mercedes Porter as Dee.s high school sweetheart, Stephanie King and newcomer Ebony Nave.

He used two DOPs, Will Edmunds and Nathan Frost, with whom he had worked on his short films. He says the crew were paid and there are some deferred payments.

Webb spent 21 days filming on his parents. historic farm near Canberra plus three days in Brisbane and a day each on the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.

Best known for arthouse fare such as Dean Spanley, New Zealand director Toa Fraser will be taking a hard left turn into entirely different territory with his freshly announced new film The Dead Lands. And whatever lessons he learned about shooting choreography with his acclaimed ballet film Giselle - a selection of the Toronto International Film Festival - will be put to use with choreography of an entirely different sort.After his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery, Hongi - a Maori chieftan's teenage son - must avenge his father's murder in order to bring peace and honor to the souls of his loved ones. Vastly outnumbered by the band of villains, Hongi's only hope is to pass through the feared and forbidden Dead...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

New Zealand auteur Toa Fraser attended the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008 with his whimsical comedy-drama Dean Spanley and returned this year with Giselle, an acclaimed filmed ballet starring world-renowned dancers Qi Huan and Gillian Murphy. Made in collaboration with the Royal New Zealand Ballet company and featuring a score by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, the film departs occasionally from the traditional stage settings into real-world vignettes in New York and Shanghai. I spoke to him about returning to the great North American film festival.Twitch: What makes Toronto a special festival?Toa Fraser: It's big and blingin' and very glamorous and at the same time it has real heart and is a real local, intimate festival. For me, personally, it has been very satisfying to...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Swashbuckling screenwriter behind Rob Roy, Ulzana's Raid and Night Moves

Alan Sharp, who has died of brain cancer aged 79, once claimed that as a screenwriter he was most interested in "moral ambiguity, mixed motives and irony", all of which are applicable to two of his best movies, the western Ulzana's Raid (1972), directed by Robert Aldrich, and the thriller Night Moves (1975), directed by Arthur Penn. Most of his screenplays were written in the 1970s and reflect the era in which America was suffering the effects of the Vietnam war and post-Watergate paranoia. This goes some way to explaining the bleakness and cynical sense of destiny in Sharp's films, which he called "existential melodramas".

He was born in Alyth, near Dundee. Although the majority of his scripts were set in the Us, where he lived for many years, Scotland remained pre-eminent in his character and culture. His script for Rob Roy (1995), a...

Novelist and film and television writer Alan Sharp has died. Sharp passed away on February 8 in Los Angeles after a long illness, CAA said in a statement. He was 79. Sharp, a Scotland native, launched his writing career in 1965 with A Green Tree In Gedde. The acclaimed novel, initially banned in Scotland for its sexual content, won the 1967 Scottish Arts Council Award and was the first of a proposed trilogy. The second novel in the trilogy, The Wind Shifts, was published in 1968. The third, Don’t Cry, It’s Only A Picture Show, was left incomplete when Sharp relocated to Hollywood to focus on screenwriting for film and television. Sharp went on to pen screenplays for as many as 20 feature films, including Rob Roy, Night Moves, The Osterman Weekend, Little Treasure, and Dean Spanley. Sharp also wrote the screenplay for the mini-series Ben-Hur, which aired on CBC in Canada and ABC in the U.

As a prelude to the opening of the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will air a special on-air tribute to eight-time Oscar® nominee and honorary Academy Award® recipient Peter O’Toole, who took center stage at last year’s festival. OnWednesday, April 11, TCM will premiere Peter O’Toole: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival, a one-hour special taped at the 2011 festival in which TCM host Robert Osborne interviews the legendary actor in front of an audience of festival attendees.

Peter O’Toole: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival is set to premiere at 8 p.m. (Et). The special will be followed by three O’Toole classics. The following is the complete schedule for the evening (all times Eastern):

8 p.m. . Peter O’Toole: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival(2012) . Premiere

9 p.m. . The Lion in Winter (1968)

11:30 p.m. . Peter O’Toole: Live...

In today’s edition of the casting couch, Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom travel to the different Cities, Joel Kinnanman is given lead crown in Arthur and Lancelot, and Sylvester Stallone takes The Tomb.

In a report from ComingSoon.net Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom have joined up to star in the international thriller Cities. The two join Clive Owen and Anil Kapoor in the new project from writer/director Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job, 13 Days).

Shooting is scheduled to start in the Spring and will shoot in multiple locations (get the title now) that will include London, Mumbai and New York. The official description is as follows:

“Cities” is a cautionary tale about greed and ambition that takes place in the exuberant months leading up to the Dow Jones all-time stock market high. Fortunes, both big and small are put at risk as people around the globe gamble that...

Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom are set to star again onscreen in a new film. Comindsoon reports that the Elizabethtown stars are set to star in the international thriller Cities. They will star opposite Clive Owen and Anil Kapoor in the film from writer/director Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job, 13 Days). Filming is scheduled to star this coming Spring in locations that include London, Mumbai and New York.

Here is the official description:

"Cities" is a cautionary tale about greed and ambition that takes place in the exuberant months leading up to the Dow Jones all-time stock market high. Fortunes, both big and small are put at risk as people around the globe gamble that the financial market’s meteoric rise will continue. In New York, a hedge fund manager (Owen) has everything he wants – money, sex and power, but he wants more. In London, a young couple just want to buy their first home,...

Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom have joined Clive Owen and Anil Kapoor in acclaimed director/writer Roger Donaldson's (The Bank Job, Thirteen Days) next directing project entitled Cities.

The international thriller is being produced by Matthew Metcalfe (Dean Spanley, Love Birds) and Chris Curling (Hannibal Rising, The Last Station).

Julie Christie, Eyeworks New Zealand CEO, will executive produce alongside Eyeworks New Zealand who will partner on the production. Lisa Wilson's Parlay Films is handling international rights to the film that is set to lens in Spring 2012. The film will shoot in multiple cities that will include London, Mumbai and New York.

Cities reunites Dunst and Bloom who first appeared together in Cameron Crowe's indie comedy Elizabethtown in 2005. Kirsten Dunst joins the cast in the role of "Kate" alongside Clive Owen. Dunst most recently won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Lars von Trier's Melancholia.

...and if you thought that it was only the 'lucky' Freida Pinto who's cashing and bagging in all the big Hollywood films, then you better re-think because here's why! So what's the first thing a journalist would do when he hears the 'Breaking News' coming all the way from Hollywood? We all know, don't we? Well, I happened to text my dear friend Anil Kapoor. Read on! Breaking News has just come in from the other side of the ocean that acclaimed director / writer Roger Donaldson (Hungry Rabbit Jumps, The Bank Job, The Recruit) has locked in his next directorial project titled Cities which will star Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Clive Owen (Duplicity, Inside Man, Children Of Men, Closer) and our very own Anil Kapoor. This is Anil Kapoor's second big Hollywood film that he has bagged after getting famous in the West with his Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire.

Director Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job) has set two lead actors for his latest film, Cities. Clive Owen and Anil Kapoor will star in the financial thriller that takes place in the months leading up to the Dow Jones reaching an all-time high. The film tells three intertwining stories: a hedge fund manager in New York seemingly has everything, a young couple in London are attempting to buy a new home, and a cop in Mumbai fights against corruption between property speculators and colleagues. Filming is set to commence in October in multiple locations including New York, London and Mumbai. Parlay Films is set to handle international rights. Donaldson recently wrapped Hungry Rabbit Jumps starring Nicolas Cage, January Jones and Guy Pearce. Hit the jump to read the full press release regarding the aptly named Cities. Here’s the full press release: Roger Donaldson And Clive Owen Head To “Cities...

photo: Mathieu Young TCM (C) Turner Classic Movies. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved

Wamg was in attendance among the many film enthusiasts for the 2nd Annual TCM Classic Film Festival. The multi-faceted Festival, which ran April 28 – May 1, 2011 in Hollywood, was filled with more than 70 screenings, including special introductions, guest appearances, panel discussions and more. The festival opened with the red-carpet gala screening of An American in Paris and TCM host and film historian Robert Osborne served as official host.

The 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival was sold out. The festival had total attendance of 25,000 at more than 70 screenings and events. There were passholders from 49 states and five foreign countries: Italy, Australia, France, Argentina and Canada.

Highlights of the 2011 festival included appearances by Julie Andrews, Alec Baldwin, Drew Barrymore, Warren Beatty, Leslie Caron, Kirk Douglas, Angela Lansbury, Hayley Mills, Peter O.Toole, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney and many,...

Regional body, one of nine that made up Screen England, promoted film-making in east of country

Screen East, an agency set up to promote film-making in the east of England, is the first large-scale victim of the government's surprise decision to close down the UK Film Council.

The regional body, responsible for luring film productions such as The Duchess, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Atonement, Stardust and Children of Men to its locations, has folded after it was declared insolvent this month. It was one of nine regional agencies that made up Screen England and was funded jointly by the national film council and by the East of England Development Agency, both now being disbanded by the government.

In an unexpected twist, the agency's collapse was followed by the arrest of its finance manager, Melvin Welton. The 61-year-old from Great Yarmouth was held by police on suspicion of theft and...

Finance manager of Norwich-based company arrested by police on suspicion of theft

Screen East, a government-backed film agency, has folded following reports of financial irregularities and the arrest of one of its managers. Based in Norwich, the company was responsible for promoting the east of England as a location for film and TV productions.

"The directors of Screen East have concluded that the company is insolvent and can't meet its debts as they fall due," executive director Laurie Hayward told the trade publication Screen Daily. "The directors have taken advice and are appointing an insolvency practitioner to take the company into administration."

Screen East also reported that its finance manager, Martin Welton, had been arrested as part of an investigation by Norfolk police. A police spokesperson said: "Norfolk Constabulary can confirm that a 61-year-old man from Great Yarmouth has been arrested on suspicion of theft and released on bail pending further inquiries.

London -- Screen East, the government-backed agency set up to support filmmaking in the East of England, has collapsed amid allegations that one of its executives has run off with the money.

The agency's finance manager, Melvin Welton, has been arrested on suspicion of theft by local police.

The agency invests in the development of film, television and digital media businesses based in the East of England and allocated north of £2 million ($3 million) across various projects last year.

Screen East CEO Laurie Hayward said the agency is "insolvent and can't meet its debts as they fall due" in a statement to local press.

"The directors have taken advice and appointed an insolvency practitioner to take the company into administration. We've no further comment at this time," Hayward said.

A spokesman for the U.K. Film Council, one of Screen East's two key financial backers, confirmed the agency was in administration...

Murray… Present! Flight Of The Conchords scene stealer Murray Hewitt – better known as actor Rhys Darby – has been forging a career for himself with small roles in big films such as Yes Man. But he’s headed back to New Zealand for a leading man part in romantic comedy Love Birds.Paul Murphy is directing the tale of a lonely man who cares for a wild bird back to health, using the time spent caring for the creature to get over being dumped by his last girlfriend.But, as the title might suggest, his time with the feathered friend leads him to meet a lady, in the shape of Happy Go Lucky’s Sally Hawkins, playing a kooky vet.Writer Nick Ward, who worked with Murphy on Dean Spanley, has written the script, which, while it sounds a little bit like a cookie-cutter rom-com, is lifted by the idea of two solid performers working together.

Actor/comedian Rhys Darby ("Flight of the Conchords") and award-winning British actress Sally Hawkins ("Happy-Go-Lucky") have teamed for the bitter-sweet New Zealand romantic comedy "Love Birds" for Icon Entertainment International.

Darby plays an ordinary guy whose long-term girlfriend has just left him. When a shelduck (a native large goose-like duck) crash lands into his life, he's forced to nurse it back to health and sees the errors of his own approach to life. Hawkins plays a sassy animal specialist with whom he forms a romantic bond.

Bryan Brown, Emily Barclay, Craig Hall and Dave Fane also star. Paul Murphy directs from a script by Nick Ward who previously worked together on the highly successful "Second Hand Wedding". Matthew Metcalfe and Alan Harris ("Dean Spanley") will produce.

Filming kicked off in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday and will run through until mid-May. Icon will release the film in the UK, Australia...

Here are the new MPAA ratings from Bulletin No: 2110.

The Back-Up Plan Rated PG-13 For sexual content including references, some crude material and language. Release Date: April 23, 2010 Chain Letter Rated R For strong bloody sadistic violence throughout, language and brief nudity. Dean Spanley Rated PG For some thematic material and mild language. Release Date: Tba 2010 (Direct-to-Video) Four Boxes Rated R For language and some sexuality. Gangster Exchange Rated R For strong bloody violence, drug and sexual content, and pervasive language. Hidden Beauty Rated G Release Date: Tba 2011 Marmaduke Rated PG For some rude humor and language. Release Date: June 4, 2010 Not The Messiah: He's A Very Naughty Boy Rated PG For suggestive material and language. Outrage Rated R For violence, language and brief sexuality. Rampage Rated R For prolonged strong sadistic bloody violence, and language. See What I'm Saying Rated PG-13 For some thematic material and language including sexual references. You...

MPAA ratings: March 3, 2010. The following feature-length motion pictures have been reviewed and rated by the Classification and Rating Administration pursuant to the Motion Picture Classification and Rating program. Each of the designated ratings is defined as follows under the Motion Picture Classification and Rating program.

G -- General Audiences. All ages admitted.

PG -- Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG -13 --Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

R -- Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Nc-17 -- No One 17 And Under Admitted.

Film Distributor Reason Rating Back-Up Plan, The

CBS Films Inc.

Rated for sexual content, including references, some crude material and language.

PG-13 Chain Letter

New Films International

Rated for strong, bloody, sadistic violence throughout, language and brief nudity.

R Dean Spanley

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Rated for some thematic material and mild language.

PG Four Boxes

E1 Entertainment U.

Cinema Releases for the Week 03/05/09

Beautiful - New Aussie feature from debut writer/director Dean O'Flaherty. I thought it was a pretty mess.

Dean Spanley - Toa Fraser's period comedy starring Sam Neill, Jeremy Northam, Pete O'Toole and Bryan Brown. It is a co-production between the UK and Fraser's native New Zealand.

Jcvd - Jean Claude Van Damme stars in this self-mocking movie. Screens exclusively at Acmi here in Melbourne. For other states I can't tell ya, unfortunately.

Let the Right One In - If this movie were being released wide I'd make a joke and hoping fans of Twilight go see it and then realise what they've been wasting their time on. Alas, it's only screening at one cinema in Victoria and I'm sure not many more around the rest of the nation. I didn't think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread when I saw it at Miff last year,...

Here are the final results for Portland own film festival. Great turnout, great films. And now on to the press release ... The Northwest Film Center Announces The 32nd Portland International Film Festival’s Audience Awards The 31,000 audience members at this year’s 32nd Portland International Film Festival have selected their favorite films from among the 78 feature and 36 shorts screened February 6-22. Tying for first place for Best Feature Award are Toa Frazer’s Dean Spanley (New Zealand) and Dorie Dörrie’s Cherry Blossoms (Germany). Two films also tied for the Best Documentary Award—Festival guest Jennifer Grausman’s film Pressure Cooker (Us), co-directed with Mark Becker, and Agnés Varda’s The Beaches Of AGNÉS (France), both of which tied for second place in the overall balloting. The winner...

• It has received some love from back at home, but when it opened at the Toronto Film Festival last September, Dean Spanley got dissed from the trades like The Hollywood Reporter who found that this was the type of "low-budget project where no one has to worry about commercial appeal. Film festivals will be most understanding but distributors who want to make money will not" and Variety thought it felt like "an after-dinner anecdote presented with the full ceremony of a formal meal".  Clearly this won't be this year's Happy-Go-Lucky project for the company, but perhaps a slate filler nonetheless in the fall? Screen Daily reports that Toa Fraser's Dean Spanley was picked up by the English-fair friendly Miramax folks and unless they paid a dirt cheap price for it, I'm surprised that Miramax projects a return on their money -- unless they think O'Toole can pack in some remaining audiences.

...

Boy oh boy, the British Academy sure meant it when they said longlist, 'cause folks, their nomination list is long!

Just an example, under the Best Picture category, 15 films are nominated!

Leading the pack are "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Frost/Nixon" with 14 nominations each.

"Slumdog Millionaire," "The Reader," "Revolutionary Road," "Changeling" and "The Dark Knight" received 13 nominations each, and "Milk" and "Burn After Reading" 11.

The awards will take place Feb. 8 at London.s Royal Opera House.

Click Read More to see the complete list, or, longlist of nominees.

Longlist for the British Academy Film Awards:

Best Film

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"

"Burn After Reading"

"Changeling"

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Dark Knight "

"Doubt"

"Frost/Nixon"

"In Bruges"

"I've Loved You So Long"

"Milk"

"The Reader"

"Revolutionary Road"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

"Wall-e"

"The Wrestler"

Adapted Screenplay

"The Baader Meinhof Complex"

"The Boy in the Striped...

"Slumdog Millionaire" has dominated another awards as the London Critics' Circle announced their nominees for the 29th London Critics' Circle Film Awards. Though a press release on Thursday, December 18, the indie movie about an orphan who gets the shot to be a millionaire from a game show has been revealed to be the one movie which collected most of the nods with six nominations.

One of the counts put "Slumdog" on the run for the British Film of the Year, competing with "Happy-Go-Lucky", "Hunger", "In Bruges" and "Man on Wire". Another one gave Simon Beaufoy, the film's writer, a Screenwriter of the Year nod. Two others

gave its director, Danny Boyle, a chance to win both Best Director and Best British Director titles, while the rest belonged to its star, Dev Patel, who received nominations for British Actor of the Year and Young British Performer of the Year.

Though "Slumdog...

London -- Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" continued to wow critics, leading the field for next year's London Film Critics' Circle awards.

"Slumdog" received six nominations, including the Attenborough Award for British film of the year, director of the year and British actor of the year for Dev Patel.

Artist Steve McQueen's directorial debut, "Hunger," Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon" are all in the chasing pack with five noms apiece.

"Millionaire" faces competition for British film of the year from "Happy-Go-Lucky," "Hunger," "In Bruges" and "Man on Wire."

Animated blockbuster "Wall-e" will need to see off "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk" and "The Wrestler" to be crowned film of the year.

Competing for director of the year are Clint Eastwood ("Changeling"), Gus Van Sant ("Milk"), Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire"), Darren Aronofsky ("The Wrestler") and David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button").

Unusually,...

And we’re back around to Friday. Where does the week go? If you’re anything like us here at Boxwish HQ, the past seven days were probably spent in a haze of frantic Christmas shopping, yet there’s no reason to despair and panic just yet. Today we present part one of our female gift guide packed full of great ideas for the woman in your life and we’ll follow this up with part two next Monday. However, if you long for a break from present hunting and are wondering what’s playing at your local cinema we’ve got the rundown on all of today’s big new releases.

If you see… The Day the Earth Stood Still, a modern remake of the 50s sci-fi classic starring Keanu Reeves as an alien visiting Earth with an important message.

Why Not Go retro and check out the original 1951 version.

Hats Off to Peter O’Toole Dean Spanley director and cast give a nod to their iconic lead Equal to its gala surroundings at the massive Roy Thomson Hall, the period comedy Dean Spanley, debuting at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), featured a larger-than-life lead performance from Peter O’Toole. The well-received costume fantasy, based on Lord Dunsany’s 1936 novel My Talks With Dean Spanley, screened in front of thousands at the festival’s largest venue, Toronto’s spaceship-like concert hall. Before the screening, director Toa Fraser took to the stage and read a greeting from O’Toole who was unable to attend.

Hats Off to Peter O’Toole Dean Spanley director and cast give a nod to their iconic lead Equal to its gala surroundings at the massive Roy Thomson Hall, the period comedy Dean Spanley, debuting at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), featured a larger-than-life lead performance from Peter O’Toole. The well-received costume fantasy, based on Lord Dunsany’s 1936 novel My Talks With Dean Spanley, screened in front of thousands at the festival’s largest venue, Toronto’s spaceship-like concert hall. Before the screening, director Toa Fraser took to the stage and read a greeting from O’Toole who was unable to attend.

Hats Off to Peter O’Toole Dean Spanley director and cast give a nod to their iconic lead Equal to its gala surroundings at the massive Roy Thomson Hall, the period comedy Dean Spanley, debuting at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), featured a larger-than-life lead performance from Peter O’Toole. The well-received costume fantasy, based on Lord Dunsany’s 1936 novel My Talks With Dean Spanley, screened in front of thousands at the festival’s largest venue, Toronto’s spaceship-like concert hall. Before the screening, director Toa Fraser took to the stage and read a greeting from O’Toole who was unable to attend. While Dean Spanley featured British stage actor Jeremy Northam as Fisk Junior, an adult son who takes his elderly father (O’Toole) to a lecture about the transmigration of souls, it’s O’Toole who offered the funniest moments in the costume comedy. In every scene,...

Hats Off to Peter O’Toole Dean Spanley director and cast give a nod to their iconic lead Equal to its gala surroundings at the massive Roy Thomson Hall, the period comedy Dean Spanley, debuting at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), featured a larger-than-life lead performance from Peter O’Toole. The well-received costume fantasy, based on Lord Dunsany’s 1936 novel My Talks With Dean Spanley, screened in front of thousands at the festival’s largest venue, Toronto’s spaceship-like concert hall. Before the screening, director Toa Fraser took to the stage and read a greeting from O’Toole who was unable to attend.

"The Lonely Maiden," starring Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken; "The Killing Room," starring Timothy Hutton; and "Powder Blue," starring Forest Whitaker, will all screen for the first time at the 29th American Film Market, running Nov. 5-12 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and Le Merigot Beach Hotel in Santa Monica.

The market will present 513 films, including 102 world premieres and 375 market premieres.

In addition to Freeman and Walken, the Yari Film Group's "Maiden" stars William H. Macy; "Killing Room," from ContentFilm International, stars Chloe Sevigny, Nick Cannon and Peter Stormare along with Hutton; Qed International's "Powder Blue" boasts a cast that includes Whitaker, Jessica Biel, Kris Kristofferson, Ray Liotta and Patrick Swayze.

Other pictures set for world premieres include "Baby on Board," with Lara Flynn Boyle, John Corbett, Heather Graham and Jerry O'Connell (Entertainment 7); "Evil Angel," starring Ving Rhames (Arrow Entertainment); "High Life," with Timothy Olyphant (Shoreline Entertainment); "La Linea,...

• In an ideal film festival going experience, I'd take my cinephile know how, equate it into educated guesses and a little gut instinct, and cover about 40 films, take in some parties and nab some great interviews. The reality is, with a festival the size of this year's bewildering 312 film choices, the Toronto Film Festival feels like a crap shoot. Instead of watching 80 plus hours of film and collapsing, this year I'm taking a more flexible approach to Tiff. For starters, I'm avoiding anything that opens within a three month theatrical window (I'll be seeing them anywaysand in better conditions). My strategy this year is to select titles that are for the most part, without distribution. The major difference this year is that by scaling back my movie-watching habits, I'll increasing my daily content outtake -- which in the past was always an issue with me because 40 minutes between two

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After all the body slams that the market for finished films has absorbed in the past few years, could a movie like Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" mark the beginning of a comeback?

Looking to defy the odds, a number of high-profile movies are hoping to find receptive buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday.

Whether they succeed -- and at what price tags -- will depend less on the films themselves than on how much risk the battered acquisitions community is willing to take.

As John Sloss of sales outfit Cinetic Media said, "fear and anxiety are in the air" but also "a sense that distributors still have a need for good films, and the audience eyeballs haven't gone away."

One of the films most likely to snag a deal at Toronto's unofficial market is Aronofsky's "Wrestler," a profile of an aging athlete (Mickey Rourke...

A few films will be pulling out the stop when Toronto unfurls early next month. The list of gala presentations is interesting: Caroline Link’s A Year Ago in Winter; starring Karoline Herfurth, Josef Bierbichler, Corinna Harfouch, Hanns Zischler and Mišel Maticevic Toa Fraser’s Dean Spanley, starring Peter O’Toole, Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill and Bryan Brown Jodie Markell’s The [...]...

For a total of 312 films from 64 different countries. Wow, I wish I could go. Of the remaining announcements in 3 different sections, the most intriguing would have to be Vincent Cassel playing legendary French gangster Jacques Mesrine in Public Enemy No. 1. It's listed as a "work-in-progress" so I guess that means what will be screened is not the final cut. Another I'm looking forward to is The Lucky Ones which stars one of my favorites, Tim Robbins. It's about some returning soldiers who go on a road trip across America. Check out the full list following.

Real To Reel

Paris, Not France Adria Petty, USA

World Premiere

Polls show that in certain demographics, more people identify the name Paris with "Hilton" than with "France." Gaining intimate access to the glamorous and chaotic day-to-day life of one of the world's biggest icons, director Adria Petty explores the businesswoman and the human...

Toronto -- U.S. directors Rod Lurie, Neil Burger, Jodie Markell and Gavin O'Connor were among those snaring world premieres Tuesday as the Toronto International Film Festival finalized its lineup.

Lurie will bow his political thriller "Nothing But the Truth," a Yari Film Group title that stars Kate Beckinsale as a Washington reporter put behind bars for revealing the name of a covert CIA agent.

O'Connor will bring Warner Bros.' "Pride and Glory," a cop family drama that stars Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight, while Burger will debut Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions' Rachel McAdams/Tim Robbins starrer "The Lucky Ones," about a road trip by returning U.S. soldiers.

Markell's "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" is based on a rediscovered Tennessee Williams screenplay and stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans and Ann-Margret.

As Toronto completed its lineup for its Sept. 4-13 run, it unveiled 312 films from 64 countries. These include 249 features, most of which are world, international or North American premieres, and 61 of which are directorial debuts.

Other new Roy Thomson slots include German filmmaker Caroline Link's "A Year in Winter"; Toa Fraser's "Dean Spanley," toplined by Peter O'Toole, Jeremy Northam and Sam Neill; Jerry Zaks' "Who Do You Love," a biopic about famed record producer Leonard Chess; and Indian director Anees Bazmee's romantic action comedy "Singh Is Kinng."

Also on tap is a North American premiere for Ethan Coen and Joel Coen's Venice opener "Burn After Reading," the CIA comedy that stars George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt.

Three French films will receive gala treatment in Toronto: French director Anna Fontaine's "La Fille de Monaco," Jean-Francois Richet's "Public Enemy No. One" and Daniel Burman's "Empty Nest." In all, France will be represented by 30 movies.

Toronto also has booked "New York, I Love You," a compilation of short films from 12 directors including Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Allen Hughes, Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair and Brett Ratner.

Click here for a complete list of Toronto titles.