Hannah Montana: The Movie, the inaugural adaptation of Disney’s insufferable sitcom-lite television show, almost caught me off by. Coasting by on typical Disney archetypes and a broad but winning message, the film begins to promise a cyclical success as the minutes go by, doing away with the borderline-ironic laugh track of the series and integrating its slapstick elements into a personal story about a girl trying not to lose track of her personal identity in the face of global fame and a worldwide fanbase of undiscerning teenage girls….

Buddhadev Dasgupta’s ‘Swapner Din’ (2008) is subtitled ‘Chased by Dreams’. Literally speaking, one would have to say something like, Days of dreams. No doubt it’s a poetic re-creation of the original title, but I distinctly had the feeling that Swapner Din was more about characters travelling with their dreams…

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles has announced the IFFLA Film Fund to support Indian filmmakers as well as filmmakers interested in India-centric films. According to IFFLA, “program seeks to help emerging filmmakers realize their feature-length narrative and non-narrative film projects that reflect universal themes inherent within international Indian culture.”

Jean Renoir is a director associated with realist cinema and his films cannot be called ‘generic’ - in the strict sense - although this will need to be elaborated upon. Genre films are, by and large, self-conscious works that refer to film convention while realist cinema is concerned with producing a ‘true’ picture of the world. While genre cinema cannot exist without precedents, realist filmmakers like to believe that their vision of the world is not mediated by other films….

The Ahmedabad International Film Festival (AIFF) from 25th-28th June, 2009 ended on a euphoric note for the filmmakers and the team. The award ceremony saw 14 awards been picked in divergent categories by young film-makers who perceived cinema differently…

Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films(MIFF) invites entries in the following categories…

Clint Eastwood’s directorial style, simple, precise and old-fashioned, bothers only about the story and the characters that live it. The slight variation is probably the only thing one can call visual style. The performances in his films and his direction of sound and music are essential to the dark, deep and painful moods he attempts to create. He is a great director…

The award for Best New International Feature went to director Kyle Patrick Alvarez for his film “Easier With Practice” at the recently concluded Edinburgh International Film Festival (17-28 June). The winners were announced at the EIFF Awards Ceremony in the presence of Festival Patrons, Sir Sean Connery and Seamus McGarvey.