Hosting the U.S. premiere of Crash turned out to be a coup for the 2005 Newport Beach Film Festival, whose organizers noticed a marked increase in interest from Hollywood for this year's April 20-30 run. Last year, director Paul Haggis led a small Crash contingent (sadly missing promised attendee actor/producer Don Cheadle, who was stuck somewhere else) to a makeshift stage next to a free vodka line in a Fashion Island courtyard to thank everyone for coming. I know because I was the last person
To say that Indiefest/FAIF suffered from a few opening day jitters might be understating it a bit. The main Downtown Disney parking lot was barricaded off, the theater personal didn’t let anything start on time until Disney brass showed up and laid down some laws, and there were just a few projection errors – poor Chris Harrington saw his excellent Spanish language short “El Perfecto Percanse” projected without English subtitles. Running a film festival on three screens simultaneously is
And yes, I'm up prior to the crack of dawn to get them to you. The biggest surprise, if you can call it that, is the strong showing by MICHAEL CLAYTON, with six nominations. Not so surprisingly, THERE WILL BE BLOOD and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN each have eight.
Via CNN, because it announced even before the official Oscar site:
The nominees for best picture are "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Atonement," "Juno" and "Michael Clayton."
JUNO? Really? Just goes to show there's a ri
Tickets for the 10th annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF), which runs April 23-30, are now on sale here. Those will cost you $12 for general admission (or $8 if you are a student or senior buying before 5 p.m.); $30 for all Spotlight films and parties; $55 for the Opening Night film and party; and $125 for the Opening Night film and gala, which is like a party only you have to dress like you belong there.The April 23 opener at Edwards Big Newport is a solid one this year: Derick Martini's L
