The annual Dallas International Film Festival takes place on April 12th – 22nd, 2012, in its titular Texas neighborhood showcaseing some of the finest new films to be released around the globe including two world premieres and nine Texas premieres. Approximately 180 films from all over the world will be screened over its 11 days.

The festival is a presentation of the Dallas Film Society. In addition to producing one of the largest festivals in the southwest, the Society produces numerous year round events, screening series and partnership programs with arts organizations around the city.

The Film Society celebrates films and their impact on society. As a non-profit organization, it recognizes filmmakers for their achievements in enhancing the creative community, provides educational programs to students to develop better understanding of the role of film in today's world, and promotes the City of Dallas and its commitment to the art of filmmaking.

For the first year since the festival’s inception there will be a Festival Village at the fashionable Mockingbird Station. The Festival Village will serve as the hub of the festival where filmmakers and film fans will have the chance to mingle and network at the Festival Lounge, and CBS Radio will present its first ever Music Lounge -- showcasing local music to the public every evening for the festival’s 11-day duration.  

The International Society for Improvised Music Festival 2012, taking place February 16^th – 19^th at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, will kick-off 9am Friday morning with a distinquished Keynote Panel featuring Karl Berger, founder and director of Creative Music Studio, and Douglas Ewart, Chair of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.  

The panel's presentations and discussions will focus on the interactions that took place between members of Creative Music Studios and AACM during the 70’s and 80’s, and the repercussions that are still being felt today.

"The discussions concerning the philosophies that governed CMS and AACM should prove to be ofgreat interest to the new generation of improvisers today, " said Berger, who has been actively developing improvised orchestras for the past forty years.  Berger, the co-founder with Ornette Coleman and Ingrid Sertso of the legendary Creative Music Studio and its parent organization, the Creative Music Foundation. CMS is credited as the birthplace of Worldjazz - the improvisational and compositional expansion of the world's musical traditions. Now one of the main driving forces in many styles of music, this concept was pioneered very early at CMS, guided by authentic leaders. Hundreds of live concerts were recorded, many heralded as landmark performances. Thousands of workshops, master classes, concerts and colloquia inspired a generation of musicians who took with them the ideas, concepts and practices developed with Berger. The CMS community still exists in a remarkable network of creative musicians, many of whom came to the studio from Asia, Europe and South America. Fellow panel participant Douglas R. Ewart is a composer, improviser, sculptor and is internationally recognized as one of the world’s most important talents in improvised music.  

Saturday events conclude with an evening festival concert directed by Karl Berger with the 25-member University of Michigan Creative Arts Orchestra. A key component of this concert will be the CMS model of a site-specific open workshop followed by a complete orchestral performance. The event has already begun, so act now!

For more information on the Conference, check out their web site here: Int'l Society for Improvised Music ISIM

Intern'l Society for Improvised Music Festival 2012
February 16-19, 2012

William Paterson University
300 Pompton Rd
Wayne, NJ

Upheaval; it's a subject that the city of Berlin is not unfamiliar with, and it's the motif of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, being held February 9 - 19, 2012, at the CinemaxX Potsdamer Platz, the CineStar theatres and other venues around Berlin.

The Berlinale, which has been running since 1951, will feature an expected international blend of titles in this year’s selection of over 400 films. But this year, there is a particular focus on Middle Eastern filmmakers.

Casting off the shackles of Tiananmen Square VHS-era technology, the recent Arab Spring was captured in pristine HD, provoking filmmakers from both within and outside the Middle East, to address the subject with films such as Mohammadreza Farzad’s Falgoosh / Blames and Flames.

The 41st Annual International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is being held January 25 - February 5, 2012 all over downtown Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

From its start with an audience of 17 people in 1972, through the 1973 festival which hosted over 7,000 visitors, IFFR has grown to be one the largest audience driven film festivals in the world. It is also one of the largest cultural events in the Netherlands.  

Concurrently with IFFR, the 29th CineMart, IFFR's co-production market, is taking place from January 29 - February 1.

"CineMart was the first platform of its kind to offer filmmakers the opportunity to launch their ideas to the international film industry and to find the right connections to get their projects financed.

Every year, CineMart invites a select number of directors/producers to present their film projects to co-producers, bankers, funds, sales agents, distributors, TV stations and other potential financiers."

Between IFFR’s longtime venue LantarenVenster and Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Pathé Schouwburgplein, Cinerama Filmtheater, Oude Luxor Theater and Sub-urban Video Lounge, among others, something Festival-related is happening everywhere, be it film showings, video installations or arts exhibitions.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival can take credit for being the first film festival in the U.S. in the new year, running January 5 - 16, 2012. The festival is screening at the Annenberg Auditorium, Camelot Theatres, Palm Canyon Theatre, Palm Springs High School and Palm Springs Regal 9 Theatres in Palm Springs, California.

Now in its 23rd year, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming 130,000 attendees each year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries.

The Opening Night film is Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, directed by renowned Lasse Hallström. The film is a tale of fly-fishing, politics, heroism and love, based on the novel by Paul Torday. Heading the cast are Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristen Scott Thomas.

The Special Presentation film is Haywire, directed by Steven Soderbergh, with a stellar cast including Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas. A government security operative is double crossed and left for dead by one of her own, and must now learn the truth in order to stay alive.  

The Closing Night film is Almanya, Welcome to Germany / Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland (Germany), directed by Yasemin Samdereli and starring Vedat Erincin, Fahri Yardim, Lilay Huser, Demet Gul, Aylin Tezel, Denis Moschitto. This award-winning comedy centers on multiple generations of a German-Turkish clan, replete with "cultural misunderstandings and the question of what constitutes national identity."

World Premiere films include:

If I Were You
dir. Joan Carr-Wiggin (Canada/UK)
starring Marcia Gay Harden, Aidan Quinn, Leonor Watling
A woman learns of her husband's affair and starts stalking his girlfriend.

A Thousand Cuts
dir. Charles Evered  (USA).
starring Michael O’Keefe
A director of splatter films is confronted by a man whose daughter's murder was inspired by the director's first film and he is determined to get revenge.

The Festival will screen 40 of the 63 official submissions to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. For those who missed them at last year's festivals, here's your chance:

• Breathing (Austria), dir. Karl Markovics
• Bullhead (Belgium/Netherlands), dir. Michaël R. Roskam
• Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (Brazil), dir. Jose Padilha
• Tilt (Bulgaria/Germany), dir. Viktor Chouchkov
• Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), dir. Philippe Falardeau
• The Flowers of War (China), dir. Yimou Zhang
• Alois Nebel (Czech Republic/Germany), dir. Tomáš Lunák
• Superclásico (Denmark), dir. Ole Christian Madsen
• Le Havre (Finland/France, Germany), dir. Aki Kaurismäki
• Declaration of War (France), dir. Valérie Donzelli
• Pina (Germany), dir. Wim Wenders
• Attenberg (Greece), dir. Athina Rachel Tsangari
• A Simple Life (Hong Kong/China), dir. Ann Hui
• The Turin Horse (Hungary/France, Germany, Switzerland), dir. Bela Tarr
• Volcano (Iceland/Denmark), dir. Rúnar Rúnarsson
• Abu, Son of Adam (India), dir. Salim Ahamed
• A Separation (Iran), dir. Asghar Farhadi
• Footnote (Israel), dir. Joseph Cedar
• Terraferma (Italy), dir. Emanuele Crialese
• Postcard (Japan), dir. Kaneto Shindo
• The Front Line (Korea), dir. Jang Hun
• Back to Your Arms (Lithuania/Germany, Poland), dir. Kristijonas Vildziunas
• Miss Bala (Mexico), dir. Gerardo Naranjo
• Omar Killed Me (Morocco/France), dir. Roschdy Zem
• Sonny Boy (Netherlands), dir. Maria Peters
• The Orator (New Zealand/Samoa), dir. Tusi Tamasese
• Happy, Happy (Norway), dir. Anne Sewitsky
• In Darkness (Poland/Canada/Germany), dir. Agnieszka Holland
• Jose and Pilar (Portugal/Spain, Brazil), dir. Miguel  Goncalves Mendes
• Morgen (Romania/France, Hungary), dir. Marian Crisan
• Montevideo - Taste of a Dream (Serbia), dir. Dragan Bjelogrlic
• Tatsumi (Singapore/Indonesia), dir. Eric Khoo
• Gypsy (Slovakia), dir. Martin Sulík
• Black Bread (Spain), dir. Agustí  Villaronga
• Beyond (Sweden/Finland), dir. Pernilla August
• Summer Games (Switzerland/Italy), dir. Rolando Colla
• Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan), dir. Te-Sheng Wei
• Once Upon a time in Anatolia (Turkey/Bosnia-Herzegovina), dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
• Patagonia (United Kingdom/Argentina, Wales), dir. Marc Evans
• Rumble of the Stones (Venezuela), dir. Alejandro Bellame Palacios

Some highlights:

Postcard / Ichimai no hagaki
dir. Kaneto Shindo (Japan)
starring Etsushi Toyokawa, Shinobu Otake, Naomasa Musaka
This is the latest film by the 99-year-old elder-statesman auteur, and by his own pronouncement, his last. Based on his own experience in World War II as one of six survivors from a unit of 100 men, the homefront drama "not only pays tribute to those lost lives but also to the wounded souls left behind to pick up the pieces."

"I have always had the souls of the 94 with me and have made them the theme of my existence," said Shindo.
 
The Flowers of War
dir. Zhang Yimou (China)
starring Christian Bale, Huang Hai-Bo, Tong Da-Wei, Qin Hao, Paul Schneider, Shigeo Kobayashi, Tenma, Ziang Bin, Nie Yuan
Zhang's long awaited opus about the Nanking Massacre at the beginning of World War II in China is the story of a missionary who, rather than evacuate with other Westerners, remains behind to help the schoolgirls and prostitutes being victimized by the invaders.

In Darkness 
dir. Agnieszka Holland  (Poland/Canada/Germany)
The story of a Polish sewer worker and petty thief in 1943 Lvov whose encounter with a group of fleeing Jews compels him to save lives by hiding them in the sewers.

Le Havre
dir. Aki Kaurismäki (Finland/France, Germany)
A shoe shiner risks legal punishment as he hides an African refugee from the police.

The Orator / O le tulafale
dir. Tusi Tamasese (New Zealand/Samoa)
Samoa’s very first feature film tells the story of a village pariah who learns his stepdaughter's family intends to steal her away. He must settle the dispute through the Samoan tradition of oration.  

Palm Springs is not just a winter playground anymore -- it's a place to start the year with some of the finest films the world has to offer.

For more information, visit www.psfilmfest.org.

Palm Springs International Film Festival
January 5 - 16, 2012

Annenberg Theater
Palm Springs Art Museum)
101 Museum Drive

Camelot Theatres
2300 E. Baristo Road

Palm Canyon Theatre
538 N. Palm Canyon Drive

Palm Springs High School Auditorium
2248 E. Ramon Road

Regal Cinemas Palm Springs Stadium 9
789 East Tahquitz Canyon Way  
Palm Springs, CA 92262
760-323-4466

The 8th annual International Film Festival Summit (IFFS) takes place December 4 - 6, 2011 at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown in Austin, Texas.

The International Film Festival Summit is the largest international organization representing the film festival industry.

The 9th Annual Global Peace Film Festival (GPFF) 2011 takes place September 20 - 25, 2011 at Plaza Cinema Café, Orlando Science Center in Orlando, and Rollins College in Winter Park, and other venues in and around Orlando, Florida.

With international films ranging from the human condition to sustainability and the environment, the Festival goes beyond anti-war, activist, or ideology statements to "suggest a more personal message as reflected in the daily lives of individuals and communities the world over."

The Festival kicks off with the Opening Night outdoor screening of Fire in Babylon, directed by Stevan Riley. The film tells the story of how the West Indies triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted cricket teams in sporting history.  

The 38th Telluride Film Festival (TFF), the "SHOW", takes place September 2 - 5, 2011 at the historic Sheridan Opera House, Masonic Hall, Palm Theatre, Galaxy, Pierre and Backlot Theatres, and the Chuck Jones Cinema, all in scenic Telluride, in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.

Telluride Film Festival, presented by National Film Preserve, Ltd., is an international event celebrating the art of film, hosting a special selection of feature length and short films. This Festival ranks among the world’s best film festivals and is an annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and critics.

Many films first launched at the Telluride Film Festival have gone on to award-winning recognition including Blue Velvet, Sling Blade, Brokeback Mountain, Juno, Slumdog Millionaire and The King‛s Speech.

First-time filmmakers discovered at TFF include Terry Zwigoff, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Rodriguez, Doug Liman and Robert Luketic.

Films selected to screen at Telluride Film Festival are shown out of competition and kept secret until Opening Day. "What's playing in the Telluride program is not revealed until you reach the mountains." Thus, by definition, every film is a World Premiere.

"Three distinguished artists will be honored with a silver medallion, one presented each night of the Festival.... [W]e also like to spring a real surprise and pay tribute to those you may have forgotten, or never even knew: Abel Gance, D.A. Pennebaker, [et al.].

Each year, TFF recruits a different film enthusiast to act as Guest Director to help create their dream festival. This year, the Guest Director is Caetano Veloso.

In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Veloso’s film selections will be kept secret and unveiled on Opening Day.

Events include:

• Noon Seminars in Elks Park
• Labor Day Picnic seminar
• "Conversations" in the County Courthouse:
• Film premieres in the Open Air Cinema
• Filmmakers of Tomorrow programs
• Films at the Back Lot

For more information, go to www.telluridefilmfestival.org.

Telluride Film Festival
September 2 - 5, 2011

Historic Sheridan Opera House
110 N. Oak Street
Telluride, CO 81435
970-728-6363

Masons Hall
200 East Colorado Ave
Telluride, CO

Michael D. Palm Theatre
Telluride High School
721 W. Colorado Avenue
Telluride, CO 81435
970-369-5669

"Galaxy Theatre"
Telluride Middle/High School
725 W. Colorado Avenue
Telluride, CO 81435
970-728-6617

Le Pierre Theatre
725 West Colorado Avenue
Telluride, CO 81435
970-728-4377

Backlot Theatre
100 West Pacific Avenue
Telluride CO 81435
970-728-4519

"Chuck Jones Cinema"
Conference Center Plaza
Telluride Conference Center
580 Mountain Village Blvd.
Telluride, CO 81435
970-369-5120

BAMcinématek is presenting its third annual BAMcinemaFest June 16–26, 2011 at BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn, New York.

BAMcinemaFest is a festival of American independents, international discoveries, and repertory classics that celebrates emerging voices in American independent and international cinema.

Opening the festival on June 16 is the New York premiere of Weekend, a film written, edited, and directed by Andrew Haigh and starring Tom Cullen, Chris New. Russell casually picks up an artist, Glen, at a bar on a Friday night and develops a strong bond with him over the course of 48 hours.

SummerStage 2011 runs from June 7 - September 2, 2011 at the MainStage in Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, with additional performances and attractions at East River Park, Marcus Garvey Park, Tompkins Square Park, and 12 other parks throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

Summer in the City is not all air-conditioned offices and sizzling sidewalks. Thanks to SummerStage, performances ranging from American pop, Latin and world music to dance, spoken word and family programs fill a vital niche in New York City’s summer arts festival landscape.