Fests and events, 6/11.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival is still a week away (June 18 through 29), but the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw has already written up his "top 10 picks to whet the appetite."

To that list, Ben Slater adds Helen, "a strange, unusual and beautiful film" that's also screening in Sydney.

Another upcoming festival, another preview in list form. "10 Films To Put On Your Schedule" - if you'll be able to make it to CineVegas, that is - from Erik Childress at Hollywood Bitchslap. Tomorrow through June 21.

With Tokyo Sonata screening in competition at the Sydney Film Festival, Mathieu Ravier profiles Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Live by the Lens, Die by the Lens, an exhibition on view at the National Media Museum in Bradford, England, from June 20 through September 28, "explores how a star is made, and how that process has changed over the years, from the early Hollywood glamour portraits to more revealing journalistic photographs and the rise of the paparazzo image," writes Hannah Duguid in the Independent.

"Kino21's Warren Sonbert triptych concluded last Thursday evening with the Narrative Vertigo program featuring A Woman's Touch and Short Fuse. Afterwards, a fellow gawker puzzled over whether Sonbert's work made him want to see more films or live more life." Max Goldberg talks with series programmers Konrad Steiner and Johnny Ray Huston.

"Some of Michael Haneke's early made-for-TV movies are showcased in the aptly titled mini-retrospective Bitter Pills at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts," notes Dennis Harvey in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "In them, Haneke's now-characteristic austerity - long static takes, cryptic narrative omissions - is yet undeveloped. But his nihilistic take on society is already present." Tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday and June 19.

"Brendan Lott's Memories I'll Never Have, currently showing at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, makes use of the Internet in inspiring ways," writes Sean Uyehara at SF360:

He has culled photos from social networking sites. You know these photos. As Lott describes, they are often of people who may have had a little too much to drink. Lott sends a URL of the image to southern China where it is meticulously reproduced as an oil painting and paid for through PayPal. Then Lott receives the paintings and displays their photorealistic glory in shows likes this one. How inspiring is it? Suffice to say that the paintings look so great, are so funny and beautiful and the process seems so easy (perhaps too easy) that everyone I spoke to who saw the show asked the same thing: "How much does it cost to get one of those paintings made?" I don't want this to turn into a plug for commissioning oil painting reproductions in China, but let's just say it is very reasonable.

Mike Everleth has the lineup for the San Antonio Film Festival. June 19 through 22.

The Jackson Hole Film Festival has presented its awards; Michael Jones has the list.

At Cineuropa: Theodore Schwinke has the 48th Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth award-winners; Fabien Lemercier previews the 32nd Annecy Animated Film Festival (through Saturday); and Vitor Pinto takes note of the Italian films screening in Lisbon at the 8½ Festa do Cinema Italiano.

Matt Prigge, Philadelphia Weekly, local goings on.

Posted by dwhudson at June 11, 2008 2:22 PM