Fests and events, 12/1.

"Joy! In less than two months from now the International Film Festival Rotterdam will be in full swing again, albeit with a thoroughly changed programme format, when compared to previous years." Ard Vijn explains at Twitch.

"Anders Ostergaard's Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country was without question the buzz title of IDFA 2008," writes Eugene Hernandez in his wrap-up for indieWIRE. The story of last year's uprising against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, told through secret home video footage, offers a direct look at the movement and it's organizers. Burma won both the Joris Ivens Competition for feature length films and received the Movies That Matter prize tonight at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The film also finished near the top in audience award balloting, but that prize went to Brett Gaylor's RiP: A Remix Manifesto."

At All these wonderful things, "Sascha Paladino, director of the award-winning documentary Throw Down Your Heart, files this reflection on IDFA after his first trip to the festival in Amsterdam."

The Cinema Capacete project is showcasing work at the 28th Bienal de São Paulo through Saturday.

The exhibition Video Performance: Models of Self-Reflection is on view at the Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössische Kunst Münster through January 11.

Rooftop Films returns to Chelsea Market on Monday to screen short films from Wholphin.

On December 12: Tzadik Music Label Series IV: Tribute to Teiji Ito at Japan Society in New York.

Tony Manero's the big winner at the Turin Film Festival. The Guardian's Ben Child has more; Todd Brown has a full-blown wrap-up at Twitch.

The 25th anniversary of A Christmas Story was celebrated over the weekend at the house in Cleveland where the film was made.

"Director Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir was awarded the grand prize at the conclusion of the 9th edition of Tokyo Filmex (Nov 22-30)." A wrap-up from Jason Gray for Screen.

The Big Apple Film Festival announced its award-winners last week.

Online viewing tip. "Getty Images recently joined forces with London's popular weekly short film evening Short & Sweet to launch a competition for filmmakers to create a short inspired by, and using visual content from, its enormous archive, housed at the Hulton Archive. Laurie Hill scooped the top prize for his film Photograph of Jesus," blogs Eliza, who's got a few of the works, including Photograph, at Creative Review.

Posted by dwhudson at December 1, 2008 1:36 PM