Sep 06, 2007
MALIBU CELEBRATION OF FILM ANNOUNCES LINE UP OF
AWARD-WINNING FEATURE FILMS
Opening Night Film honors FILMS’COOL’
and The Motion Picture Fund with
“Man in the Chair”
MALIBU, CA (September
4, 2007) – Malibu Celebration of Film announced its line-up of “The Best of
The Best” from 2007 of award winning feature films for its 2nd
Annual film showcase on Sept 28th – 30th in Malibu,
CA. MCOF’s opening night screening will
feature “Man in the Chair,” starring Christopher Plummer and Robert Wagner,
directed by Michael Schroeder, the star-studded opening night will feature a
special presentation hosted by The Motion Picture Fund and will take place at
the Calamigos Ranch on Sept. 28th, 2007.
Executive Director Kim Jackson and Artistic Director Nancy
Collet selected the “Best of the Best” of award-winning films from US and
International festivals including AFI, Sundance, Toronto, Zlin International
Film Festival, Netherlands Film Festival and more. 13 films from 7 countries
are scheduled to screen and have collectively won 35 film festival awards in
several major categories.
Films’COOL’, The
Celebration’s high school and undergraduate new talent short film competition
co-chaired by Amy Madigan & Ed Harris and hosted by Daniel Stern, kicks off
the festival on Friday, Sept 28th at 10:00 AM at Pepperdine
University’s Smothers Theater.
MCOF is also screening retrospective films including “F For
Fake”, the last major film completed by Orson Welles and a silent film
screening of “Heart O’ The Hills”,
starring Mary Pickford, featuring a live score performed by The Malibu Coast
Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Scott Hosfeld and performances
by Maria Newman.
Says Jackson, “We’re honored to have the opportunity to
showcase such mindful and authentic storytelling.”
The closing night features a special advance outdoor
screening of “Sharkwater” directed by Rob Stewart, held under the full moon at
Malibu’s Bluffs Park. The closing night
Green themed celebration at the legendary Malibu Inn Bar & Restaurant,
honors MCOF’s commitment to the environment and its partnership with The
Hollywood Green Team.
Films in the Narrative Category include:
BELLA (Mexico)
Alejandro Gomez Monteverde – Director
Starring Eduardo Verastegui, Tammy Blanchard, Manny Perez,
Ali Landry
An emotional tale of self-discovery, two people whose lives
are about to be changed forever discover that sometimes it takes losing it all
to finally appreciate the things that truly matter.
- People’s
Choice Award at the 2006 Toronto Intl Film Festival
CUTTIN DA MUSTARD (USA)
Reed R. McCants – Director
A comedy that chronicles the lives
of young aspiring actors who battle slings and arrows in the process of
creating a community theater company.
- The Festival Choice Award at the 2007 Pan African Film
& Arts Festival
GRACE IS GONE (USA)
James Strouse – Director
Starring John Cusack
Upon hearing his wife was killed the Iraq war, a father
takes his two daughters on a road trip.
- Audience
Award Winner for Drama and Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the
2007 Sundance Film Festival
LITTLE HEROES (Israel)
Itai Lev – Director
Starring Avigail Ariely, Tzion Baruch, Daniel Damidov
A group of four children go on an adventurous journey
throughout Israel’s scenic wilderness in hopes of finding some missing teens.
- Winner
of the Golden Slipper for Best Feature Film for Children at the 2007 Zlin
Intl. Film Festival for Children and Youth
MAN IN THE CHAIR (USA)
Michael Schroeder – Director
Starring Christopher Plummer, Michael Angarano, M. Emmet
Walsh,
Robert Wagner, Joshua Boyd
A rebellious 17 year old from a
broken home is a fanatical film buff who longs to be an important cutting edge
filmmaker. He gets the opportunity to pursue his dream when he enters a
prestigious student competition, which offers the winner a scholarship to their
Hollywood motion picture school.
- Winner
of Best Ensemble Cast and Best Director’s Award at 2007 Method Fest
- Best
American Film at the 2007 Santa Barbara Film Festival
- Best
Feature Film at the 2007 Kent Film Festival
- Audience
Choice Award and Best Feature at 2007 Stony Brook Film Festival
- Best
Actor Christopher Plummer at 2007 Palm Beach International Film Festival
OWL AND THE SPARROW (Vietnam/USA)
Stephane Gauger – Director
Starring Cat Ly, The Lu Le, Han Thi Pham
In modern-day Saigon, three lonely
strangers form a unique family as a ten-year old orphan plays matchmaker to a
zookeeper and a beautiful flight attendant.
- Winner
of the Audience Award, Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 Los Angeles Film
Festival
Films in the documentary category include:
BUDDHA’S LOST CHILDREN (Netherlands)
Mark Verkerk – Director
A Thai Buddhist monk armed only
with his faith and master boxer skills, wages an inspirational battle to help
orphaned children, fight drug abuse, and preserve a vanishing way of life.
- Grand
Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2006 AFI Festival
- Best
Global Insight Film at the 2007 Jackson Hole Film Festival
- Winner
of 2006 City of Rome Prize
- Winner
of Silver Dove at 2006 DOK Leipzig Festival
- Crystal
Film Award at the 2007 at the Netherlands Film Festival
- Jury
Award Winner for Best Documentary at the 2007 Newport Beach Film Festival
HEAR AND NOW (USA)
Irene Taylor Brodsky – Director
Hosted by Women In Film LA
In this deeply personal memoir,
filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky documents her deaf parents' complex decision to
leave their world of silence and undergo a dangerous surgery to get cochlear
implants -- the only one of its kind that can restore a sense.
- Winner
of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2007 Sundance Film
Festival
PLEASE VOTE FOR ME (China)
Weijun Chen – Director
Director Weijun Chen conducts an
experiment in democracy on a third grade class at Evergreen Primary School in
Wuhan, a city in central China. The class has its
first encounter with this idea by
holding an election for Class Monitor.
The purpose of Weijun Chen's experiment is to determine whether
politicians all over the world behave the same ways, regardless of age or
culture.
- Sterling
Award for Best Feature at 2007 SILVERDOCS
SHARKWATER (Canada)
Rob Stewart – Director
Filmed in visually stunning, high
definition video, Sharkwater takes the viewer into the most shark rich waters
of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's
shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
- Best
Doc Winner, Spirit of Independents, People’s Choice at 2006 Fort
Lauderdale Intl. Film Festival
- Jury
Award Winner at 2006 Hawaii Intl. Film Festival
- People’s
Choice at 2006 Atlantic Film Festival
- Best
of the Festival at 2007 Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival
- Audience
Award and Best Feature at 2007 Gen Art Film Festival
- Best
Musical Adaptation at Antibes, France
- Prix
Planete Thalassa at Antibes, France
- International
Documentary Winner at 2006 Beverly Hills Hi-Def Film Festival
- Canada’s
Top Ten at 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
WAR / DANCE (USA)
Andrea Nix Fine, Sean Fine – Directors
Three children living in a
displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music
and dance festival.
- Directing
Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
- Audience
Award Winner at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Retrospective Films include:
F FOR FAKE (FRANCE/IRAN/WEST GERMANY 1974) (USA 1975)
Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson
Welles’s free-form documentary F for Fake, the legendary filmmaker (and
self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his
career—the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies.
Beginning with portraits of world-renowned
art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving,
Welles embarks on a dizzying cinematic journey that simultaneously exposes and
revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of whom is Welles
himself. Charming and inventive, F for Fake is an inspired prank and searching
examination of the essential duplicity of cinema. It also happens to be the
last film completed by Welles.
HEART O’ THE HILLS (USA 1919)
(Silent Film Featuring a live
performance by the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra)
Hosted by The Film Musician
Secondary Markets Fund
Sidney A. Franklin and Joseph De
Grasse – Directors
Starring Mary Pickford and Douglas
Fairbanks
Wild, hell raising, Kentucky farm
girl Mavis Hawn (Mary Pickford) has devoted her life to avenging the death of
her father, shot by an unknown man. Meanwhile, her mother’s farm is threatened
by rich city capitalists who are out to drive them off their coal-rich lands.
Mavis experiences the outside world at its best and worst – love, revenge and
murder – before she finds true happiness. As one inter-title reads, “Tragedies are quickly forgotten in the
mountains.”
Produced by the Mary Pickford Co.,
“Heart O’ The Hills features the actress at the peak of her career, when she
was one of the most famous women in the world. Pickford was also one of the
founders of The Motion Picture and Television Fund.
During the Malibu Celebration of Film’s three-day event,
audiences are estimated to be up to 1,000 per screening at diverse locations such
as Calamigos Ranch for Opening Night, outdoors at Malibu Bluffs Park and
indoors at two Pepperdine University theaters.
Panels:
Sept 29th, 2:00 PM Raitt Hall, Pepperdine
University
From Page to Screen
with Peter Dunne, Catherine, A. Jones, John Logan and Trevor Albert.
Sept 30th, 2:00 PM Raitt Hall, Pepperdine
University
The Art of Film
Criticism with Leonard Maltin and Kenneth Turan
Motion Picture and
Television Fund
Established in 1921 as the Motion Picture Relief Fund, the
Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) has been enriching the lives of
people in Southern California entertainment community by continuously evolving
to meet their health and human services needs. MPTF is dedicated to offering
programs and charitable services, which are provided with compassion and
respect for the dignity of the whole person. Going far beyond traditional
health care, MPTF offers a continuum of care for the very young and the elderly
by providing quality medical and surgical services, health care, child care,
residential living and care for older adults. For more information please visit
the website. www.mptvfund.org
The Malibu Coast
Chamber Orchestra
The Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra was formed in 2006 by
Music Director and Conductor, Scott Hosfeld. Comprised of Internationally
recognized chamber musicians and soloists, its members are among the finest in
their field. Dedicated to bringing great music to the coast community of
Malibu, the MCCO regularly gathers in the beach city, as well as convening for
concert tours.
The Hollywood Green Team
The Hollywood Green Team (HGT) is a non-profit,
all-volunteer organization that works with entertainment based events to make
them more environmentally friendly by recycling and reducing the waste created
at these events. Formed in 1999, the HGT has been invited to and/or given
on-the-ground "greening" to some of the most important entertainment
events in the world (Cannes Film Festival, Slamdance, AFI Fest, AVP.)
Malibu Celebration
of Film
MCOF was founded by esteemed Malibu community locals Bob
Klein, David Lyons and Delores Rivellino. The festival’s Board of Directors are
Bob Klein, Judith Gersten, Marnie Mitze and Marc Sternberg. Seasoned film festival
and entertainment industry professional Kim Jackson is the festival’s executive
director.
MCOF has a prestigious Advisory Board of members from the Malibu
community, which include Kathleen Quinlan Abbott, Bruce Abbott, Lisette
Ackerberg, David Arquette. Robert and Joan Chimento, Roger Corman, Courtney
Cox-Arquette, Grant Gerson, Brian Helgeland, Norman Jewison, Lora Kennedy, Tea
Leoni, Ali MacGraw, Grace Slick, Douglas Day Stewart, Dick and Michelle Van
Dyke. For more information please visit
the website. www.MCOF.org
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