Fests and events, 3/5.

"The 22nd annual Israel Film Festival officially opens Wednesday at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood with Shemi Zarhin's Aviva, My Love, a drama about a hard-working mother who has a secret writing talent," writes Susan King in the Los Angeles Times. "But on Tuesday, the organizers will kick things off with a gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel that honors Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen, Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal and Israeli actress Gila Almagor."

Also: "Fifty Years of Janus Films, holding court weekends at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is more than just a celebration of the eclectic distribution company - it's akin to a film school's master class." Through April 7.

"Entering the media installation portion of the Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1's joint Abbas Kiarostami retrospective (entitled Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker) is akin, one suspects, to entering the Iranian master's head," writes Keith Uhlich at the House Next Door.

Acquarello on Rendez-Vous with French Cinema entry Ambitious: "[Catherine] Corsini strikes a delicate balance between humor and pathos, revulsion and affection to create a slight, yet acerbic dysfunctional fairytale of the idiosyncratic intersections of deception, manipulation, betrayal, and desire that define the inscrutable course of neurotic true love."

And: "Evoking the slapstick comedies of Francis Veber in its tortuous, absurd, over-the-top, rapid fire scenarios, Eric Lartigau creates a whimsical, charming, and infectious, if perhaps, characteristically outré romantic farce in I Do: How to Get Married and Stay Single."

"Nearly 200 films are on tap for the first AFI Dallas International Film Festival, kicking off later this month in Texas." Eugene Hernandez has got the full preview at indieWIRE. March 22 through April 1.

Mike has the lineup for the Boston Underground Film Festival (March 22 through 25) at Bat Lit.

"Like Todd Haynes and Pedro Almodóvar before him, Angel finds [François] Ozon paying tribute to the Hollywood of yore, and in the grandest style possible," writes Filmbrain, catching up with the films he caught at the Berlinale (as I'll be doing soon, too, no, really, etc). "Angel is a remarkable achievement from one of Europe's most consistently interesting (and continually evolving) directors."

Meanwhile, Stefan Steinberg has just launched a series of Berlinale roundups at the WSWS today.

Posted by dwhudson at March 5, 2007 12:48 PM