DALLAS Intl Film Fest Announces First Ten Picks

The DALLAS International Film Festival Announces Ten Titles in Official Selections

Films feature such stars as

Michael Douglas, Jesse Eisenberg, John Goodman and Tilda Swinton

Lineup marks return to DALLAS Intl Film Fest by filmmakers

Alex Gibney, Steve James and Tim McCanlies

Dallas, TX, February 10, 2010—The DALLAS International Film Festival announces ten films that will screen at this year’s festival (April 8 – 18) including films starring Michael Douglas, Jesse Eisenberg, John Goodman and Tilda Swinton, and films directed by returning DALLAS Intl Film Fest filmmakers Alex Gibney, Steve James and Tim McCanlies.

SOLITARY MAN, which stars Michael Douglas and Jesse Eisenberg, as well as Swinton’s Italian love story, I AM LOVE both come to Dallas after recently debuting at the Toronto Film Festival.

Gibney returns to Dallas with his documentary, CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY following its debut at the Sundance Film Festival two years after screening GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON at AFI DALLAS. James brings his documentary NO CROSSOVER: THE TRIAL OF ALLEN IVERSON after also screening AT DEATH HOUSE DOOR in 2008’s edition of the film festival.  McCanlies returns one year later with his children’s adventure film, ALABAMA MOON, after attending with his comedy THE 2 BOBS in 2009.

The list also includes two recent film festival award winners: Tom Huckabee’s CARRIED AWAY, starring John Goodman, which just won Best Feature Film at the Oxford Film Festival and Charles-Olivier Michaud’s SNOW AND ASHES which received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Film at the recently concluded Slamdance Film Festival.

The ten official selections include:
ALABAMA MOON (USA)
Director: Tim McCanlies
Cast: John Goodman
Based on the novel by Watt Key, Tim McCanlies’ ALABAMA MOON is a children’s story of adventure and survival that follows the journey a young boy takes from Alabama to Alaska after being orphaned by the death of his anti-government radical father.

CARRIED AWAY (USA)
Director: Tom Huckabee
Directed by Tom Huckabee, CARRIED AWAY is a drama about a young man who, upon returning home to Fort Worth to find a fractured family, sets off on a cross-country pursuit after rescuing his beloved Granny from a nursing home.

CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY (USA)
Director: Alex Gibney
The latest film by Academy Award winning documentary director Alex Gibney, CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY, is a probing investigation into the lies, greed and corruption surrounding D.C. super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his cronies.

CLIMATE REFUGEES (USA)

Directed by: Michael Nash
Michael Nash directs CLIMATE REFUGEES, a documentary that uncovers the unbelievable plight of people around the world displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters, illuminating the human face of climate change and the collision that civilization now finds itself at between over population, lack of resources and our changing climate.

I AM LOVE (Io sono l’amore) (Italy)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti
Starring Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and directed by Luca Guadagnino, I AM LOVE is a tragic love story set at the turn of the millennium in Milan. The film follows the fall of the haute bourgeoisie due to the forces of passion and unconditional love.

NO CROSSOVER: THE TRIAL OF ALLEN IVERSON (USA)
Director: Steve James
Academy Award nominee Steve James (HOOP DREAMS), explores the fallout from a racially inspired incident and the handling of the subsequent trial which landed a young Allen Iverson in jail and sharply divided his hometown along racial lines.

SIN ELLA (Mexico)
Director: Jorge Colon

Directed by Jorge Colon, SIN ELLA is a drama about a successful reality show producer whose life and relationship with his children is turned upside down following the tragic death of his wife. When she appears in his thoughts to tell him what she would have done in each situation, the two begin to relive their love story.

SNOW AND ASHES (Canada)
Director: Charles-Olivier Michaud
Directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, SNOW AND ASHES is a war-based drama where a war journalist attempts to piece together the events that landed him in the hospital after he awakens from a coma to discover that his long time collaborator and photographer has not come back with him from the war zone.

SOLITARY MAN (USA)
Directors: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Cast: Michael Douglas, Jesse Eisenberg, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Jenna Fischer, Mary-Louise Parker
Directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, SOLITARY MAN stars Academy Award winner Michael Douglas as a former car dealership mogul dealing with a string of business problems and issues in his personal life through a number of relationships with women – many women.

THUNDER SOUL (USA)

Director: Mark Landsman
Directed by Mark Landsman, THUNDER SOUL is a documentary which turns the camera on a reunion of the 1970’s Kashmere High School band and its director, Conrad Johnson, which became an international funk sensation at the time. Thirty years later, his students return to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives.

“These first 10 selections are indicative of the great variety of films we will offer Dallas audiences at this year’s film festival. They represent the latest work from Academy Award winners, inspiring films that we have found at the latest film festivals, and a return to Dallas by some of our favorite filmmakers like Alex Gibney, Steve James and Tim McCanlies that we consider to be part of the DALLAS Film Festival family,” said James Faust, DALLAS International Film Festival Artistic Director.

The DALLAS International Film festival will run April 8 – 18, 2010. Passes are currently on sale, tickets go on sale March 18. Passes and tickets will be made available via online (www.dallasfilm.org), and phone (214.720.0663).

TV Land Prime airs AFI Life Achievement Award on July 19th

“TV LAND PRIME PRESENTS THE AFI LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD” ON JULY 19TH AT 9PM ET/PT

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE HONORS MICHAEL DOUGLAS
WITH THE 37TH LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

JACK NICHOLSON, CATHERINE ZETA-JONES AND TOBEY MAGUIRE ARE AMONG THOSE SALUTING DOUGLAS

Log On To http://www.tvlandprime.com For A Chance To Win A Special Edition DVD Box Set Featuring Michael Douglas

LOS ANGELES, JULY 15, 2009—Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Matthew McConaughey, Tobey Maguire, Martin Sheen, Oliver Stone, Benicio Del Toro and Kathleen Turner are among those honoring Michael Douglas in “TV Land PRIME Presents the AFI Life Achievement Award” airing on July 19th at 9pm ET/PT on TV Land PRIME, TV Land’s prime time programming block.

After introductions by Sony President and CEO Sir Howard Stringer and AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale, the show opens with a surprise ”made-for-the movies” moment as a stunt double fell through a fake ceiling (re-enacting Douglas’s climactic dinner entrance in his film, “The Game”). The show pulls out all the stops in celebrating both Douglas impressive career as an Academy Award-winning ® actor and producer, and the art of film itself.

Show highlights include moving appearances by the honoree’s father, film legend and 1991 AFI honoree Kirk Douglas, and Steve Swankay, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone whose education Douglas has sponsored, as well as a show-stopping performance of “One” from the musical “A Chorus Line” (the film version which starred Douglas), featuring Douglas’s wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones and a surprise musical performance by music icon Bob Dylan. Several of Douglas’s notable co-stars and friends also pay tribute.

Jack Nicholson, 1994 AFI Life Achievement recipient and star of the Douglas produced 1975 Oscar®-winning film “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” had the honor of presenting the award to Douglas saying, “I’ve had so many of my high moments and so many of my fine moments with you.”

Upon receiving the award, Douglas thanks the NBA for making sure the Lakers had an away game so Nicholson could attend.  Douglas continues, saying that in his travels around the world he is frequently struck by the fact that American films export the nation’s culture in a way that reflects incredibly well on the country and its values.

Among those Douglas thanks are both of his parents for his “acting DNA,” noting that both continue to act. Douglas also pays tribute to former “The Streets of San Francisco” co-star and mentor, the late Karl Malden.  Following up on Malden’s taped tribute in which Malden considered Douglas an adopted son, Douglas says, “I’ll be his adopted son anytime.”

Also among the guests present are Viacom’s Sumner Redstone, Anne Archer, Sean Astin, Genevieve Bujold, Christopher Lloyd, Eric McCormack, Jesse Metcalfe, Sharon Stone, Deborah Unger, Paul Verhoeven and members of the AFI Board of Trustees.

Viewers can log on to http://www.tvlandprime.com and enter The 37th AFI Life Achievement Award Michael Douglas DVD Sweepstakes for a chance to win a special edition DVD Box Set featuring Michael Douglas in nine of his blockbuster hits: “The American President,” “Basic Instinct,” “The China Syndrome,” “Falling Down,” “Fatal Attraction,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Romancing the Stone,” “Wall Street” and “Wonder Boys.”  The deadline to enter the sweepstakes is Thursday, August 12, 2009.

The evening is presented by HP and Intel.

Additional sponsorship provided by Stella Artois.

The 37th AFI Life Achievement Award marks the first of a four-year deal between AFI and TV Land.

AFI Announces Golin to receive 19th Annual Schaffner Alumni Medal

STEVE GOLIN TO RECEIVE THE 19TH ANNUAL
FRANKLIN J. SCHAFFNER ALUMNI MEDAL

Honor to be Presented at
37th AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute to Michael Douglas on June 11

LOS ANGELES, CA, May 26, 2009—American Film Institute (AFI) today announced that producer Steve Golin will receive the 2009 Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal.  Golin will be presented with the medal as part of the AFI Life Achievement Award honoring Michael Douglas on June 11, 2009, to be held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.

Bob Gazzale, AFI President and CEO commented, “Steve Golin is not only a producer of the highest caliber and the guiding force behind some of the most daring films of modern day, but also one who inspires other artists to realize their dreams,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI President & CEO.  “It is an honor to recognize him as a graduate of the AFI Conservatory, particularly on this night when we celebrate Michael Douglas, with whom he collaborated on THE GAME.”

Golin is the Founder and CEO of Anonymous Content, a development, production and management company. He is the producer of over 40 film and television projects, including BABEL, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, which was honored with multiple Golden Globe and Oscar nominations; and won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, and Best Director at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Other highlights include BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999) directed by Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry’s ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004).

Golin’s earlier producing credits include AFI alumnus David Lynch’s WILD AT HEART (1990), TRUTH OR DARE (1991) with Madonna, Jane Campion’s THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1996), David Fincher’s THE GAME (1997) which starred AFI Life Achievement honoree Douglas, and Neil LaBute’s YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS (1998) and NURSE BETTY (2000). He also produced such television series as BEVERLY HILLS 90210, THE L WORD and David Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS.

Golin co-founded his first firm, Propaganda Films, with AFI alumnus Joni Sighvatsson in 1986. It became the largest music video and commercial production company in the world, earning more MTV Video and Palme d’Or awards than any other company. Golin helped launch the careers of David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Michael Bay, Antoine Fuqua, Gore Verbinski, Alex Proyas, David Kellogg and Simon West among others.

Steve Golin is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America.

The 18 prior recipients of the Schaffner Alumni Medal are David Lynch (1991), Edward Zwick (1992), Randa Haines (1993), Martin Brest (1994), Jon Avnet (1995), Carl Franklin (1996), John McTiernan (1997), Amy Heckerling (1998), Mimi Leder (1999), Terrence Malick (2000), Darren Aronofsky (2001), Todd Field (2002), John Dahl (2003), Patty Jenkins (2004), Paul Schrader (2005), Marshall Herskovitz (2006), Gary Winick (2007) and Mark Waters (2008).

The Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal recognizes the extraordinary creative talents of a graduate of the AFI Conservatory or of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women who symbolizes the legacy of Franklin Schaffner. Over the course of a remarkable 40-year career, Schaffner earned a total of 28 Academy Award nominations and the directing Oscar for PATTON in 1970.  Schaffner’s association with AFI began in 1975, with his election to the AFI Board of Trustees, and lasted until his death in 1989.

The AFI Life Achievement Award will air on TV LAND on July 19. The event is sponsored by Hewlett Packard, Intel and Stella Artois.