Fests and events, 11/24.

"Robert De Niro has launched a Middle East version of the New York Tribeca Film Festival, to be held in the oil-rich state of Qatar next year," reports the BBC. More from Al Jazeera.

"The Discovering Latin America Film Festival or DLAFF starts this Thursday in London, and there's a very particular reason for booking tickets," writes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "This festival is to showcase a remarkable film which when first shown at Cannes was variously jeered at for being a boring muddle, or hailed as compelling and inspired. Every time I think about it, I drift further into the latter category. Even if it isn't a work of genius, I'm inclined to say it's the work of a genius, or at the very least one of the most talented filmmakers in the world. The film is La Mujer Sin Cabeza, or The Headless Woman, by the 41-year-old Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel."

"Humor may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the citizens of North Korea, a country known mostly for militant anti-Western propaganda, chronic food shortages and an internationally isolated government pursuing nuclear weapons." Malte Herwig in the New York Times: "And yet audiences at the 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival here clearly enjoyed themselves this fall during screenings of Western dramas and comedies, occasionally even erupting into riotous laughter."

Rania Richardson wraps up the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, award-winners and all, for indieWORE.

Matt Dentler: "10 Things I Liked About the Denver Film Festival."

Ray Pride's report on Sheffield Doc/Fest has got lots of pix: parts 1 and 2.

Posted by dwhudson at November 24, 2008 1:52 PM