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Hushed audiences witnessed footage of the first Russian shells hitting cities in Ukraine on the opening night of the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival on Tuesday as frontline filmmaking was honored.

Oksana Moiseniuk’s “8th Day of the War” screened at the Czech city’s venerable Dko cultural hall after audiences heard from the Ukrainian director via video link from Kiev, which remains under shelling in the eighth month of the war. The film’s diary-like immediacy captures the outbreak of the Russian attacks through the eyes of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic as they try to carry on with a semblance of normalcy, while their minds are consumed with the events taking place back home and they try to help any way they can.

Amid dimly lit tables in the decades-old theater building, Romanian producer Ada Solomon, a key film figure in regional art film behind “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,...

Retrospective to include films from Danis Tanovic, Cristi Puiu, Mira Fornay and more.

A total of 50 films are to make up the retrospective Eastern Promises: Autobiography of Eastern Europe at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 19-27).

The line-up includes movies produced since 2000 in the countries that lived under Soviet influence after the Second World War and include some that were never released theatrically in Spain.

Several directors of films in the retrospective will attend the festival to present their works including Sarunas Bartas (Lithuania), Kristina Buožytė (Lithuania), Marian Crisan (Romania), Mira Fornay (Slovakia), Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Anna Viduleja (Latvia).

A book will be published to accompany the retrospective with contributions from journalists and critics across Europe.

The titles are:

Kruh In Mleko / Bread And Milk

Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia) 2001

A modern classic of Slovenian cinema, the tale of a man who went out for bread and milk and lost himself to alcohol...

This year’s European Co-Production Award – Prix Eurimages will go to Ada Solomon from Romania.

The award, acknowledging the role of co-productions in the European film industry, will be presented during the European Film Awards ceremony in Berlin on Dec 7.

Since setting up HiFilm, Solomon has produced award-winning shorts by Cristian Nemescu (Marilena From P7) and Radu Jude (The Tube With A Hat).

She also produced debut features by Radu Jude (The Happiest Girl In The World), Melissa de Raaf, Razvan Radulescu (First Of All, Felicia), Paul Negoescu (A Month In Thailand), and documentaries by Alexandru Solomon (Kapitalism - Our Improved Formula), among others.

She has produced the Eurimages-supported film Best Intentions by Adrian Sitaru, winner of two awards at the Locarno Iff 2011 and of two Romanian Gopos Awards, and Everybody In Our Family by Radu Jude which was also supported by Eurimages and won six Gopos Awards and the ‘Heart of Sarajevo’ 2012.

She is currently developing...

This year’s European Co-Production Award – Prix Eurimages will go to Ada Solomon from Romania.

The award, acknowledging the role of co-productions in the European film industry, will be presented during the European Film Awards ceremony in Berlin on Dec 7.

Since setting up HiFilm, Solomon has produced award-winning shorts by Cristian Nemescu (Marilena From P7) and Radu Jude (The Tube With A Hat).

She also produced debut features by Radu Jude (The Happiest Girl In The World), Melissa de Raaf, Razvan Radulescu (First Of All, Felicia), Paul Negoescu (A Month In Thailand), and documentaries by Alexandru Solomon (Kapitalism - Our Improved Formula), among others.

She has produced the Eurimages-supported film Best Intentions by Adrian Sitaru, winner of two awards at the Locarno Iff 2011 and of two Romanian Gopos Awards, and Everybody In Our Family by Radu Jude which was also supported by Eurimages and won six Gopos Awards and the ‘Heart of Sarajevo’ 2012.

She is currently developing...

Romanian film producer Ada Solomon: European Film Awards’ Prix Eurimages 2013 The European Film Academy has announced that the 2013 European Co-Production Award — Prix Eurimages will go to Romanian film producer Ada Solomon. The purpose of the European Film Awards’ Prix Eurimages is to acknowledge "the decisive role of co-productions in the European film industry." (Photo: Ada Solomon.) According to the European Film Academy’s press release, Ada Solomon has been in the film business for two decades. She is Head of Distribution at Parada Film and Executive Director of the NexT International Film Festival in Bucharest. Additionally, she teaches at the Romanian capital’s National Film School and, along with Tudor Giurgiu, manages three mini-plex movie theaters in that country. Ada Solomon movies Since establishing her production company HiFilm, Ada Solomon productions include documentaries by her husband, filmmaker Alexandru Solomon (Kapitalism — Our Improved Formula); shorts directed by Cristian Nemescu (Marilena...

Hubert Sauper's Darwin's Nightmare Head-on, Javier Bardem, Imelda Staunton: European Film Awards 2004 European Film Academy Documentary – Prix Arte Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer by Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill / UK * Darwin's Nightmare by Hubert Sauper / Austria / France / Belgium Die SPIELWÜTIGEN (Addicted to Acting) by Andres Veiel / Germany La Pelota Vasca, La Piel Contra La Piedra (Basque Ball, Skin Against Stone) by Julio Medem / Spain Le Monde Selon Bush (The World According to Bush) by William Karel / France Mahssomim (Checkpoint) by Yoav Shamir / Israel The Last Victory by John Appel / The Netherlands Touch The Sound by Thomas Riedelsheimer / Germany / UK / Finland European Film Academy Short Film – Prix Uip * Prix Uip Ghent: J'attendrai le suivant… by Philippe Orreindy / France Prix Uip Valladolid: Les Baisers des Autres by Carine Tardieu / France Prix Uip Angers: Poveste La Scara "C" by Cristian Nemescu / Romania Prix Uip Berlin: Un Cartus De Kent Si Un Pachet De Cafea...

It's more than simple eulogy to suggest that the world lost a bright, emerging talent with the death of writer/director Cristian Nemescu, tragically killed in an automotive accident at the age of just twenty-seven, not long after wrapping this his debut full-length feature. Riding the crest of a so-called new wave Nemescu represented a commercially viable face of Romanian cinema, a vibrant young filmmaker who had the pulse of his generation - mostly teenagers when the Soviet Bloc collapsed, eager for the promise of western liberalism - now disillusioned at seeing their country teeter on the brink of third world status, beached somewhere on the black market shores of corruption.

A festival hit on it's initial release, landing the prestigious Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes in `07, California Dreamin' is a blackly comic social farce lamenting not only the maddening inability of Nemescu's homeland to seemingly get it's act together,...

New waves come and new waves go, but they can also linger on in the careers of filmmakeres as they spiral out and become individuals. The Romanian New Wave that began to break only five or so years ago seems to have already dissipated -- only Corneliu Porumboiu's "Police, Adjective" has emerged in the last two years. Maybe the Romanian vibe itself was just too dire to last, or maybe the economy kneecapped the movement. Perhaps momentum was lost when one of the Wave's most vibrant and commercially orthodox voices, Cristian Nemescu, died in a car wreck in 2006, forever 27, amidst the post-production on his first feature, "California Dreamin'" (2007), which itself has taken three arduous years to finally be made available to American viewers.

The Romanian films we've seen in the last five years were all made by thirtysomethings, all of them still teenagers and film-school students when Romania became...

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

Check out my new column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

Robin Hood - Free Passes

Who lives in Arizona and wants to see Russell Crowe dispatch dirty peasants with a bow and arrow?

I sure do. After loving every last morsel of the last Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott team-up this film at least gets an emotional buy-in simply because lighting may very well strike twice.

For those that would like to see this film Tuesday, May 11th, at 7:00 at Harkins Fashion Square please shoot me a line at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com and let me know you’re interested in winning some tickets. I don’t have many so get those entries in quick.

And, for those that need an explanation of what this movie has in store for you, read...

Cornelieu Porumboiu’s absurd anti-policier Police, Adjective, a hit at last fall's New York Film Festival, has pushed the Romanian director into the forefront of a young group of Romanian filmmakers who have in the past four years taken the world of International Art Cinema by storm. Along with Cristian Mungiu (2008 Palme D'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days), Cristian Nemescu (California Dreamin') and Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu), Porumboiu has found success at the highest levels of the international festival circuit while still trying to carve out audiences at home. In his latest film, the follow up to his outrageous and insightful 2006 debut 12:08 East of Bucharest, he turns the police procedural on its head in order to...

Cornelieu Porumboiu’s absurd anti-policier Police, Adjective, a hit at last fall’s New York Film Festival, has pushed the Romanian director into the forefront of a young group of Romanian filmmakers who have in the past four years taken the world of International Art Cinema by storm. Along with Cristian Mungiu (2008 Palme D’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days), Cristian Nemescu (California Dreamin’) and Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. L?z?rescu), Porumboiu has found success at the highest levels of the international festival circuit while still trying to carve out audiences at home. In his latest film, the follow up to his outrageous and insightful 2006 debut 12:08 East of Bucharest, he turns the police procedural on its...

By Neil Pedley

This week, a strong international lineup stacks up alongside some domestic B-movie madness and traditional big-budget nonsense.

"California Dreamin"

Despite being technically unfinished at the time of its 27-year-old director's tragic and untimely death in a car accident in 2006, this raucous satire from the late Romanian filmmaker Cristian Nemescu ably illustrates what a great young talent was sadly lost. Partly a slight of American hegemony, partly a where-do-we-go-from-here meditation on his homeland post-Cold War, Nemescu's darkly comic tragedy was inspired by true events. Unfolding against the backdrop of the Kosovo conflict, the story centers on a train carrying Nato military equipment through Romania before being delayed in a station by a corrupt railway chief in order to exploit its cargo and the U.S. Marines guarding it.

Opens in New York.

"Crips & Bloods: Made in America"

Having previously chronicled the origins and the history of surf culture...

Director Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven" was selected as the best narrative feature at the 10th annual RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The jury also awarded a best actress nod to "Heaven"'s Hanna Schygulla and gave Akin the award for best screenplay, an award he also won for the film at 2007's Festival de Cannes.

The BB&T Audience Award for best narrative went to Gareth Lewis' "The Baker". Best actor was Razvan Vasilescu for "California Dreamin'". The cinematography prize went to "California Dreamin"'s Cristian Nemescu, who also received a posthumous special jury prize for directing.

"Up the Yangtze" by Yung Chang won best documentary feature. The film's Shi Ging Wang won best cinematography. The audience award for documentary feature went to Helen Hood Scheer's "JUMP!" A special jury prize for best editing was given to Joelle Alexis for "The Champagne Spy".

"Intimacy", directed by Asley Sabin and David Redmon, won the Human Rights Award.

"Milan" won best narrative short and "Board Control" was selected best documentary short. "I Met the Walrus" received the best animated short prize.

Celebrating its tenth year in April, The Sarasota Film Festival will honor Charlize Theron, Ted Hope and actor/writer/director Stanley Tucci. United Artists' Paula Wagner and CAA's Rick Nicita will serve as honorary chairs at the festival, which runs April 4-13.

As part of this year's festival lineup, Helen Hunt's "Then She Found Me" will be highlighted in the narrative feature competition along with Cristian Nemescu's "California Dreamin'" and Fatih Akin's "Edge of Heaven", among others.

Nanette Burstein's "American Teen" will be showcased in the best documentary feature competition along with seven other documentary titles.

The Independent Visions competition lineup was also announced, including such titles as "Medicine For Melancholy" by Barry Jenkins and "My Effortless Brilliance" by Lynn Shelton.

As the festival's 2008 Master of World Cinema Award winner, Liv Ullmann will be honored while the complete retrospective of the twelve film collaborations between Ullmann and director Ingmar Bergman will be presented.

BRUSSELS -- "California Dreamin", by the late Romanian director Cristian Nemescu, has won the Iris Award, the top prize at the Brussels European Film Festival.

The movie, a satire on the Culture Clash between American NATO troops and small-town Romanians during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, already won the 'Un Certain Regard' award at Cannes in May.

The film also received two other important prizes at the Brussels festival: the Audience Award and the Canvas TV Award for the best film. Director Cristian Nemescu died last year in August in a car accident, aged just 27.

The RTBF TV and the Be TV prizes both went to Gabriel Range's controversial faux documentary, "Death of a President", about the fictional assassination of President George W Bush.

The nine-day European Film Festival showcases debut or second features from young directors across the continent. The festival, which celebrated its fifth anniversary this year, screened 28 new films, 17 of which were first features and 11 of which were second efforts.

CANNES -- After 12 days, 22 films and 60 years of the Festival de Cannes, Stephen Frears' jury reached its verdict Sunday night, bestowing the coveted Palme d'Or to Cristian Mungiu's 4 Luni, 3 Saptamini Si 2 Zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days).

The honor proved that all roads lead to Romanian cinema after Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' won the Un Certain Regard prize one day earlier.

Wild Bunch is handling international sales for Months and has already sold the film to IFC in the U.S., the U.K.'s Artifical Eye and Italy's Lucky Red.

The second place Grand Prix went to Japanese underdog Mogari No Mori (The Mourning Forest), directed by Naomi Kawase, about an old man and a caretaker at his retirement home struggling to overcome the death of their loved ones.

Julian Schnabel was named best director for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Turkey's German-born Fatih Akin won the best screenplay award for The Edge of Heaven.

Jeon Do-yeon's portrayal of a mother dealing with tragedy earned her the best actress prize for Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine, and Konstantin Lavronenko took home the best actor award for his role in Andrei Zviaguintsev's Russian entry The Banishment.

The Jury prize was split between Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis, a black-and-white animated adaptation of her popular comic book about growing up during the Iranian Revolution, and Stellet Licht, Carlos Reygadas' tale of forbidden love among Mennonite farmers.

• Judging by this year’s winners of the Grand Prix in the Un Certain regard section and the Palme d’Or in the main comp, it looks like the emerging Romanian cinema has a healthier chance of breaking out onto the international scene. Cristian Mungiu's 4 months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the top prize at Cannes, while California dreamin' (Nesfarsit) whose director Cristian Nemescu who died during post-production won the Un Certain Regard crown.Us folks at Ioncinema.com are extremely happy with the diverse mix of titles that received awards in Cannes this past Sunday night – it proves that great cinema can come from smaller film nations and art house theatres can still count on diversity no matter what language is spoken and regardless if the film holds popular names/stars. Both films flew extremely low on my radar before I came down to the festival, but even

...

CANNES -- Pascale Ferran and her fellow jury members showed a certain regard for Cristian Nemescu's "California Dreamin'" as the Romanian film took home the 2007 Prix Un Certain Regard on Saturday.

The film tells the story of local gangster/chief of a railway station in a small Romanian village during the war in Kosovo in 1999.

The prize is bittersweet as director Nemescu died in a car accident in August at age 27.

The Special Jury Prize went to Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's "Actresses", and the jury Coup de Coeur to Israeli Eran Kolirin's "The Band's Visit".

The four-member special jury, led by "Lady Chatterley" Cesar winner Ferran, was composed of Italian actress Jasmine Trinca, Chinese critic Qin Bian, Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu and American critic Kent Jones.

MADRID -- The inaugural Ibiza and Formentera International Film Festival announced Thursday that it will screen 18 films during its May 29-June 7 run.

The films are divided between six regional sections: Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, Africa and co-productions. The winners of each section will compete against each other for the top prize, the Eleanor Falcon.

The European section comprises Juan Carlos Falcon's La Caja from Spain, Roberto Ando's Viaggio Segreto from Italy and Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' from Romania.

From Asia, there will be Lee Hyung-gon's The Fox Family from Korea, Yibai Zhang's The Longest Night in Shanghai from Japan and Mani Ratnam's Guru from India.

From the U.S., there will be Steve Barron's Choking Man, Douglas McGrath's Infamous and Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation.

Latin America will offer three Argentine productions: Enrique Gabriel's co-production with Spain, Suspiros del Corazon; Santiago Otheguy's La Leon; and Ariel Winogerad's Cara de Queso.

On offer from Africa are Laura Muscardin's Billo le grand dakhaar, from Italy-Senegal, Laurent Salgues' Dreams of Dust from France-Canada-Burkina Faso and Salif Traore's Faro, la reine des eaux, from Mali-France-Burkina Faso.

• Lots of first time filmmakers make up this year's Un Certain Regard. Here is the complete list. (Still below: Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely)Bross Malos HABITOSValeria Bruni-tedeschi Le RÊVE De La Nuit D’Avant (Bad Habits)Carmen Castillo Calle Santa Fe (Santa Fe Sreet)Chung Lee Isaac Munyurangabo (Liberation Day)Lola Doillon Et Toi T’Es Sur Qui ?Enrique Fernandez & César Charlone El BAÑO Del Papa (And Along Come Tourists)Eran Kolirin Bikur HATIZMORETHarmony Korine Mister LONELYKadri KÕUSAAR Magnusli Yang Mang Shan (Blind Mountain)Daniele Luchetti Mio Fratello È Figlio Unico (My Brother Is An Only Child)Cristian Nemescu California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit) California Dreamin' (Endless)Jaime Rosales La Soledad (Fragments Of Loneliness) Barbet Schroeder L’Avocat De La TERREURCéline Sciamma Les PIEUVRESRobert Thalheim Am Ende Kommen TOURISTENEkachai Uekrongtham Kuaile Gongchang...

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