Fests and events, 2/20.

Daniel Kasman has written six reviews so far on films screening in the Film Comment Selects series, running through February 27: Longing, These Encounters of Theirs, Tachigushi: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, Exterminating Angels, Exiled and Colossal Youth.

Also, three from acquarello: Play It As It Lays, Summer Palace and Exterminating Angels.

Hollywood Bitchslap's already posted 15 interviews (and counting) with directors who've got films screening at SXSW.

Aaron Hillis offers sharp and succinct notes and reviews on 17 films he caught at the Berlinale. And this is just for starters; he saw 32 in all. Related: EXBERLINER editor D Strauss grades 15 catches. Plus: Dig deep into the Berlinale in German via angelaufen, filmzeit and OutNow.

The list of filmmakers working on three-minute shorts celebrating Cannes' 60th anniversary: Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Chen Kaige, Michael Cimino, Ethan and Joel Coen, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Manoel De Oliveira, Raymond Depardon, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Aki Kaurismäki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raúl Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Tsai Ming-liang, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar Wai and Zhang Yimou. Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay's wonders if the sum can possibly measure up to its parts.

Andy Horbal: "I've been itching to write about the Black Maria Film Festival since I returned from the Pittsburgh screening of their touring program this Saturday, and I offer this post now in the 'contrarian' spirit of championing contemporary 'unseen cinema.'"

A Béla Tarr Trilogy - Damnation, Satantango and Werckmeister Harmonies - screens at BAM this weekend. Ed Halter: "Each shot becomes a mini-movie in itself, prying open a rare opportunity for deep contemplation, then filling it with the bitter antimatter of spiritual desolation." Also in the Voice, J Hoberman has the week scoped out.

Michael Tully's Cocaine Angel opens tomorrow for a week-long run at the Two Boots Pioneer in New York.

The New Haven Underground Film Festival is slated to run 18 hours straight on May 12, and at Bad Lit, Mike notes that it is not, at least intentionally, a shorts festival.

Posted by dwhudson at February 20, 2007 2:25 PM