Fests, 8/23.

The Venice International Film Festival opens in about a week (August 31 through September 10) and, via Perlentaucher's "Magazinrundschau," L'espresso prepares with a nifty little package (in Italian) that opens with an interview with festival director Marco Müller. He's pretty much as Peter Kiefer describes in his piece in the Hollywood Reporter on the rocky road that's led to this year's edition: "Contrary to what many observers might expect, a feisty Müller seems emboldened by this year's Venice film lineup and by the prospect of having a go at naysayer."

If you want anyone's initial impressions of a trio of films screened at the International Documentary Association's DocuWeek ("not 'festival'"; and it isn't, no, but this belongs here nonetheless), it's Doug Cummings's: Thomas Riedelsheimer's "aesthetically immersive but philosophically overextended" Touch the Sound; the "lively and amiable" Who Gets to Call it Art?, focusing on the guy with the greatest name ever given a curator, Henry Geldzahler (that's him on the left); Hubert Sauper's "quiet, shattering" Darwin's Nightmare.

Blake files a report from the Asian Film Festival of Dallas (through August 26) at Cinema Strikes Back.

The complete lineup for the Toronto International Film Festival (September 8 through 17) is up. Kurt picks out several and links to titles to previous Twitch entries on them.

The latest review from Richard Brunton at the Edinburgh International Film Festival is up at Twitch and the Movie Blog: Serenity.

Brian Brooks at indieWIRE: "Launching what it calls it's most 'extensive tour yet,' RESFEST 05 will debut in New York September 15-18, the first of 40 cities worldwide bringing its signature mix of short film and music video programs, special events, parties and live music."

The Reeler catches a quote or two from the director of programming for the LaCinemaFe Film Festival of New York (through August 27) about the Latin American lineup.

Posted by dwhudson at August 23, 2005 2:36 PM