Fests and events, 8/26.

"Baby boomers have a soft spot in their hearts for filmmaker and special-effects pioneer George Pal," writes Susan King. His movies are so humanistic in a genre that frequently passes by that element," noted director Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins). Wednesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is throwing a centennial celebration, George Pal: Discovering the Fantastic, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Dante hosts the event, which features a panel discussion with some of Pal's collaborators, including puppeteer Bob Baker and actors Barbara Eden, Ann Robinson, Russ Tamblyn and Alan Young."

Also in the Los Angeles Times: "[Eddie] Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for taking one of the most notorious photographs of the war, capturing the horrific moment when a South Vietnamese lieutenant colonel executed a Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon in 1968," writes Steve Appleford. "The story of that picture and Adams's long career is the focus of the documentary An Unlikely Weapon, directed by Susan Morgan Cooper and screening through Thursday at the ArcLight Sherman Oaks as part of DocuWeek's 12th annual festival for theatrical documentaries in Los Angeles and New York."

"Capturing Film History in the Making recently transferred from London's Getty Images Gallery to the exhibition space of the Walter Reade cinema at New York's Lincoln Center - apt enough for a show that celebrates transatlantic collaboration," writes Ben Walters in the Guardian. "A collection of photographs taken at Pinewood, Shepperton and Teddington, mostly in the 40s, 50s and 60s, it's a rum and variable grouping of the glamorous, the ordinary and the absurd." Through September 5.

"Filminute is the international one-minute film festival that challenges filmmakers, writers, animators, artists, designers, and creative producers to develop and submit the world's best one-minute films." The festival runs throughout September.

Previewing Toronto: Cinematical, TIFFReviews (with its Flickr and YouTube groups) and TOfilmfest.

Blogging for the Guardian, Ronald Bergan finds that "the spirit of the [Sarajevo Film Festival] is one of co-operation among the ex-Yugoslavian nations. An example of the harmony is the Croatian-Bosnian co-production, Buick Riviera, directed by the Zagreb-born Goran Rusinovic, which won the main 'Heart of Sarajevo' award. There was nothing political about the decision to name it Best Film by a jury headed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, even though the best film was far and away Kornel Mundruczo's Delta, the Hungarian film shown in competition in Cannes."

Posted by dwhudson at August 26, 2008 1:55 PM