Festivals, Screenings and Awards

This round table, moderated by Benjamin B., brought together cinematographers Matthew Libatique, ASC and Dick Pope, BSC, Steadicam operator Thomas English, gaffer Helmut Prein, focus-puller John Bailie, and DIT Peter Marsden, in order to discuss the various steps in the work of the image team and their implications.

Seizing the opportunity of Cameraimage, Arri Rental organized the first public try-outs of its Alexa 65 camera within the framework of a workshop led by Spanish cinematographer Daniel Vilar.

Camerimage 2014.

In a filmed interview in English, cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, discusses what, according to him, has changed in the way that one makes movies nowadays.

The Dinard British Film Festival has celebrated its 25^th anniversary from 8-12 October 2014. This year, the jury was presided by Catherine Deneuve, and the festival has screened six feature-length films in competition for the “Golden Hitchcock” award and fifteen exclusive previews of upcoming films. This festival has also celebrated the centenary of Technicolor.

AFC Associate Members K5600 Lighting, Transvideo and Thales Angénieux, invited students from two French cinema schools (six students from La fémis and six from ENS Louis-Lumière) and the Polish school in Lodz to attend the 21^st Cameraimage Festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Five of them wrote articles published in English on [Film and Digital Times] website.

In my hotel room last night, before my last night spent in Bygdoszcz, coming home from the last party of the 23^rd annual Camerimage event, I suddenly understood that for over thirty years, I have been leading a secret existence, a life that I can only discuss with other cinematographers, the only people who are capable of understanding it because they lead the same double life.

Nikon Inc. has joined with the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) by
sponsoring the Harris Savides Student Heritage Awards for 2013. The ASC Heritage
Award was inaugurated for the purpose of encouraging filmmakers to pursue careers in cinematography.

Cinematographer for Godard, Welles, Skolimowski, Pialat, Gainsbourg and more recently Garrel, Willy Kurant has had a prolific, eclectic, yet coherent career since his early days as a cameraman for television news reports in the 1950’s. In order to synthesize his career, we have made the (of course) arbitrary choice of describing it as seven cinematographical lives, each of them related to the others

The Ostrava Kamera Oko Festival is a small event created by Jacub Felcman, a young film lover who is an active participant in juries at international festivals. This is a festival dedicated to our profession. Jacub is a former student of the Famu, the famous Prague school whose graduates we can thank for the funny and creative Czech New Wave.

During its Summer Luncheon at Pinewood on Sunday 22^nd July 2012, the BSC was delighted to announce the winner of the Best Cinematographer Award for 2011 : Guillaume Schiffman, AFC for The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius. The award was presented in presence of Guillaume himself.

With painter Albert Sauteur, we decided to conduct a one-of-a-kind experiment: he would paint a painting and I would film him image by image while he was doing it. A low-resolution video on my blog has allowed viewers to follow this project since mid October.

I went to meet Julie in New York a month and a half after finishing shooting Skylab with her. We shot one film right after the other and wanted to keep the same HD filming and data archival procedures.

At the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announced the nominations for the European Film Awards 2011. The more than 2,500 EFA Members will now vote for the winners which will be presented during the awards ceremony on 3 December in Berlin.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, shot by Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC, has been named the best-shot film of 1998-2008 in a recent online poll conducted by American Cinematographer. "This is real honor for me, especially considering the other movies in this list," said Delbonnel. "These are some of the finest cinematographers, and I’m not sure I deserve to be among them, but I am very happy to be. They are all explorers." (More comments from Delbonnel and other Top 10 cinematographers will appear in AC’s August issue.)

We learned of this via a Newsletter from its founder Marek Zydowicz. The Plus Camerimage festival will no longer take place in Lodz (Poland). This important decision follows a total disagreement with the new policy of the township.

The 17^th Plus Camerimage Festival was held between November 28 and December 5, 2009 in Łódź, Poland. This year’s international jury, composed of chief designer Alan Starski and directors of photography Dean Cundey, ASC, CSC, Edward Lachman, ASC, Igor Luther, Phil Meheux, BSC, and Anastas Michos, ASC, had to decide between 17 feature films.

At the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announced the nominations for the 22^nd European Film Awards. At the same time, the new EFA-website with lots of information about the Awards went online at www.europeanfilmawards.eu
The nominations for Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer Award 2009:
- Christian Berger, AAC for Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)
- Anthony Dod Mantle, Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, BSC for Antichrist & Slumdog Millionaire
- Maxim Drozdov & Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev for Bumazhny Soldat (Paper Soldier)
- Stéphane Fontaine, AFC for Un prophète (A Prophet) directed by Jacques Audiard.

From October first to November fifth 2008, the French Cinematheque screened a series of films in tribute to the director of photography Pierre Lhomme, AFC. In his presentation, The Way of Light, Serge Toubiana retraces Pierre’s journey:
"After Giuseppe Rotunno and Raoul Coutard, the French Cinematheque honors Pierre Lhomme. As a way of entering into cinema, not through the door of directors, but through that most beautiful of windows: the film’s lighting. The royal road of those "making" film lighting. Pierre Lhomme has been one of the greatest directors of photography of French cinema for the past four decades..."