For a festival that only runs for four days, YIFFF certainly knows how to spread itself as wide as possible and pack in as much quality programming as the city can accommodate. In addition to everything I have alrerady covered in these previews, the festival includes a World Fantastic section, featuring films such as THE NIGHT OF THE CHUQACABRAS from... More »

There are only a few days to go until the Northern City of Yubari, Japan opens its gates to fans of weird and wonderful cinema for this year's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, and it's time to look a little deeper into the delights on offer between 23-27 February. As part of the Yubari Choice programme, this year's festival is... More »

Here's an interesting fact about the Berlin Film Festival: Almost everybody gets an award. Seriously, besides the well-known jury awards, there are approximately 1,867 other awards given about by various organizations, from the international film organizations of the Protestant and Catholic Churches to Amnesty international. Not surprisingly, reading through this list of awards made me feel stupid for missing... More »

Not one to often rub shoulders with A-list celebrities, earlier this evening I found myself at an event celebrating the re-opening of arguably Hong Kong's finest art house cinema, the Broadway Cinematheque, when through the crowd emerged the unmistakable locks of acclaimed director Peter Chan Ho Sun. Famous for such works as COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY, THE WARLORDS and,... More »

"Why is the public so stupid?" -- George Lucas in 1997, as quoted by Peter Biskind in his book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. (Hollywood Grind is a column that examines filmmakers working within the studio system to produce and/or distribute their work.) The re-release of Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D may have grabbed the attention... More »