Fests and events, 12/8.

"The Hong Kong historical drama The Warlords was the big winner Saturday night at the Golden Horse Awards, considered the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars," reports Peter Knegt. "Starring Jet Li, the film took home awards for best film and best director Peter Chan. Another big winner was Wei Te-sheng's Cape No. 7," which won best Taiwan film of the year, Taiwan director of the year, and best supporting actor for Ma Ju-lung."

Also at indieWIRE, Brian Brooks has the list of shorts, 96 in all, that'll be screened at Sundance in January.

"One industry insider recently complained to me that 'independent film has effectively made itself a niche of a niche,'" blogs Anthony Kaufman. "Given that Sundance is the biggest 'brand' for an indie film, what does it say that few people were interested in seeing the most buzzed-about 'Sundance products' from last year's festival, whether Ballast, Momma's Man, Trouble the Water or even Hamlet 2, for that matter? It certainly doesn't inspire confidence going into Sundance '09."

"One of our recent joys has been digging into the relatively new and frequently awesome blog of Hot Docs programmer Sean Farnel, particularly last month as he was sending nearly daily dispatches from a non-stop tour of European documentary festivals." AJ Schnack pulls together some highlights.

Michael Hawley launches film-415 with an overview of Quebec Film Week, running Wednesday through Sunday. More from Adam Hartzell at the Evening Class.

The IFC Center is screening Cries and Whispers this weekend; for the New Yorker's David Denby, it's "a radical masterpiece of an almost punitive intensity."

The cinetrix has tips for those in New York and Boston. More from Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog.

"Italian auteur Nanni Moretti has parted company with the Turin Film Festival after two years in the hot seat as the event's artistic director." Stuart Kemp in the Hollywood Reporter: "The Italian press was filled with speculation over Moretti's successor at the prominent Northern Italian festival with Gabriele Salvatores, Roberto Benigni and Giuseppe Tornatore all being talked about."

Posted by dwhudson at December 8, 2008 2:01 PM