Fests and events, 8/30.

"Sundance has swag, Cannes has yachts, Toronto stars. Telluride has class." In the Los Angeles Times, John Horn previews this weekend's edition of the festival that really is all about the movies and nothing else - and risks a few predictions as to what might be in the lineup, usually a secret right up to opening day. Which is Friday. The fest runs through Monday. And Jeffrey Wells is sure Severance will be there.

The Venice Film Festival is open and running through September 9; the Guardian and Time Out have previews and the AP's Colleen Barry already has what seems to be the first press conference report with lots of Black Dahlia quotage. Hollywoodland, also screening at the fest, and Dahlia are both are set in mid-20th century Los Angeles. And, as Borys Kit notes in the Hollywood Reporter, both were shot outside the US.

Euro | topics rounds up a dossier on the Venice vs Rome feud: "The European press has already declared Venice the cinematic winner, but nonetheless sees great potential in its rival in Rome."

Matt Dentler follows up on Tom Hall's and Eugene Hernandez's thoughts on the "how many is too many" question when it comes to festival lineups. Also, a reminder for Austinites as to Surviving the Blacklist: Joseph Losey in Europe, a series running September 5 through October 10 at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown.

In the run-up to its month-long series London on Screen, Time Out runs an extract from a 1971 interview with Mick Jagger, in which he talks about Performance.

For the Independent, Charlotte Cripps previews the Bird's Eye Film Festival, "devoted entirely to the work of international female filmmakers" (September 15 through 17 at the ICA in London).

Back in the Guardian, Ronald Bergan looks back on the Sarajevo Film Festival.

The award-winners at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which wrapped on Sunday: the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film goes to Brothers of the Head (Joe Bowman's take); the Standard Life Audience Award to Clerks II; the Best Documentary Feature Award to The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief; the Skillset New Directors Award to London to Brighton. Brian Brooks has more at indieWIRE and Trevor Johnson files an overview for Time Out.

Related: "On opposite sides of Edinburgh... two grand septuagenarians - each, in his different way, a British cultural icon - were taking the opportunity to vent their respective spleens." Charlotte Higgins reports in the Guardian on comments from Sean Connery and Harold Pinter.

Mark Swed caught "A Tribute to the Sounds of Forbidden Planet" last Friday and reports for the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at August 30, 2006 9:35 AM