Fests and events, 12/20.

"A roster of 222 films from 66 countries are on tap for the 19th Palm Springs International Film Festival, including 69 premieres (4 World, 40 US and 25 North American) in addition to 55 of the 63 films submitted for best foreign language Oscar consideration," reports Brian Brooks at indieWIRE. "As previously announced, Helen Hunt's US debut Then She Found Me will open the festival taking place in the California desert community January 3 - 14. Romantic comedy Priceless by French director Pierre Salvadori, starring Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh will close the festival January 13."

Also: "Director Andrew Fleming's Hamlet 2 has been added to the non-competitive Premieres section at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival."

Lou Reed will be the keynote speaker at this year's SXSW Music Festival - and Julian Schnabel's Lou Reed's Berlin will be screened as well.

"American artist Christian Marclay turned to video in the 1980s. His work has featured in two Venice Biennales and in major exhibitions at the Tate, Pompidou and Guggenheim Museums. As a musician and DJ, he has collaborated with groups as diverse as Sonic Youth and the Kronos Quartet." Replay Christian Marclay is on view at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image through February 3.

"1,2,3... Avant-Gardes - Art as Contextual Art is the next stage of an exhibition and research project that explores the 'continuous' history of experimentation in film and art and the interaction of both fields." At sala rekalde in Bilbao through March 30.

The Berlinale's Perspektive Deutsches Kino will open with 1. Mai - Das Ende vom Lied (1st of May - All Belongs to You: "This episodic film directed by Jakob Ziemnicki, Sven Taddicken (Emmas Glück/Emma's Fortune), and duo Carsten Ludwig and Jan-Christoph Glaser recounts legendary and true tales about Labor Day in present-day Kreuzberg. 24 hours set between a local square and a hospital, the Lausitzer Platz and the Urban Krankenhaus; something between a political pageant and a carnival of afflictions. Three stories - unfolding at the same time and place - merge into a film."

Posted by dwhudson at December 20, 2007 3:39 PM