New Times SLO, CA - Director Guillermo del Toro set his fantasy film, Pan’s Labyrinth, against the gruesome real-world backdrop of the routing out of the last of the rebel forces at the end of Spain’s Civil War in 1944. The fantasy locales are frightening though never quite as terrifying as the real world in del Toro’s painterly universe

After helping to create that universe, Cafe FX, the Central Coast’s visual effects powerhouse, is now sharing in the numerous accolades the foreign-language film is garnering. After a lot of positive buzz at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Pan’s was nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign film (though Letters from Iwo Jima won), and the International Press Association (IPA) presented it with a best animation/mixed media award last month. It’s getting some serious notice… [Full Story]

Courier Mail, Australia - WITH all the success his indigenous language film Ten Canoes has already had around the world, director Rolf de Heer refuses to be disappointed that it has been snubbed for an Academy Award nomination.

Australia’s first Aboriginal language feature film was overlooked for a best foreign language film Oscar nomination when a nine film shortlist was announced today.

The veteran director said he had little hope Ten Canoes would be considered for film’s most glittering prize, despite it being the Australian Film Commission’s official entry in the category… [Full Story]

Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - FOREST Whitaker tends to stick to the fringes, a softly spoken man best known for restrained supporting roles and hushed characters who would not stand out in a crowd.

So it’s surprising to see him at the centre of the throng, whipping people up to a frenzy. And even more surprising that he’s doing it as that tyrannical boogeyman of the 1970s, Idi Amin, in The Last King of Scotland.

Whitaker approaches the Ugandan dictator the way the finest actors to play Adolf Hitler have done, putting a frighteningly human face on a leader able to enchant the masses and media even as his brutal regime tortured and killed people.

A teenager when Amin’s eight-year reign ended in 1979, Whitaker initially was aware of the man only as the despot depicted in the news… [Full Story]

Business Wire (press release), CA - Audiences everywhere made sexy-time excitement over the hilarious, politically-incorrect mockumentary antics of Borat Sagdiyev, the Kazakhstani TV celebrity sent to the “U.S. and A.” to research American customs on behalf of his home country. Filled with outrageous interviews, shocking observations and some of the most uproariously memorable images ever committed to celluloid, his blockbuster movie-film Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America To Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan makes its DVD debut on March 6, 2007 from Fox Home Entertainment… [Full Story]

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AZ Central.com, AZ - In a hotel room in Toronto, the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro shows a reporter one of the notebooks he kept during the making of his latest movie, the critically acclaimed and wholly remarkable “Pan’s Labyrinth.” The pages are alive, crammed with orderly yet obsessive handwriting and full-color illustrations of phantasmagoric creatures and architecture.

Del Toro is the comics geek who is growing up in public… [Full Story]

Variety (subscription) - Forest Whitaker is getting plenty of kudos attention, but that isn’t stopping Fox Searchlight from mounting a big Gotham event in the heat of voting season.

Specialty division has partnered with Film Society of Lincoln Center for a Whitaker weekend Jan. 19-20. Org will screen several movies at the Walter Reade Theater, including “Ghost Dog” and “Bird.”

Whitaker, who actually helped get the awards buzz going with a press conference that mesmerized the media at the Toronto Film Festival in September, will also sit for an interview with org’s associate director of programming Kent Jones.

Thesp, who plays Idi Amin in Kevin Macdonald’s historical pic “The Last King of Scotland,” has won nearly every major acting award to date, including, most recently, a nod from the National Society of Film Critics. “Scotland” will also screen at the Whitaker weekend… [Full Story]

Globe and Mail, Canada - With last week’s opening of his dark “fairy ale for grownups,” Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro completed a triple crown of masterful films from Mexican filmmakers in 2006. Critics may debate which film — Pan’s Labyrinth, Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Babel — deserves the most Oscar nominations, but they would surely agree del Toro has the most fans.

That’s because of the popularity of Blade II (2002) and especially Hellboy (2004), del Toro’s adaptation of Mike Mignola’s graphic novels, which probably accounted for the personable del Toro being constantly surrounded by autograph-seekers in cinema and hotel lobbies during his visit to Toronto in September for the North American premiere of Pan’s Labyrinth at the Toronto International Film Festival. Young fans were overheard peppering him for tidbits about Hellboy 2, slated for release in 2008. It remains to be seen whether fans of del Toro’s comic-book adaptations are also embracing the more personal Spanish-language film many critics are calling his masterpiece… [Full Story]

Toronto Star, Canada - The check-out line at the supermarket that says “10 Items or Less” is where you go for quick service – and the movie of the same title starring Morgan Freeman fits just that scenario.

The film, which premiered at the Toronto film festival in September, had a limited release on Dec. 1 in New York and Los Angeles cinemas.

Then, on Dec. 15, it became instantly available to people elsewhere online, at www.cstar.com, through a new digital service called ClickStar… [Full Story]

Israel 21C, CA - Somewhere along the line though, Shaul learned the lesson and took it to heart – so much so that today he’s considered one of the top filmmakers in Israel. His current movie Sweet Mud is the first Israeli film to be selected participate in the prestigious world cinema competition in the Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 18-28) where it will have its US debut. It’s also been selected as Israel’s entry for Oscar consideration in the Foreign Film category, and this week in Los Angeles will be screened to the American Academy Members at the foreign film Oscar competition… [Full Story]