Variety's Festivals & Markets -

Variety's Festivals & Markets

Film Festivals

Markets

Current Reports

Variety Vision

Editorial Calendar

AwardCentral.com - Variety's comprehensive kudo coverage

Variety's exclusive Special Features are created to give you in-depth information about entertainment events, festivals, and other topics.

EYE ON THE OSCARS: MUSIC/GRAMMY AWARDS
2/8/06
Early next week, when presentations, performances and Sly Stone are memories, the Recording Academy will start to think anniversary. Specifically, gold.

BERLIN FILM FEST
2/9/06-2/19/06
If one indicator of a festival's status nowadays is the number of world premieres it manages to attract, the 56th Berlin Film Festival wins in spades. Of its 19 competition titles, a record 17 will be making their global bows.

NATPE
1/24/06-1/26/06
The three-day extravaganza (Jan. 24-26) has morphed into a variegated event in which high-tech demos and high-minded gab have largely replaced the hijinx of the old-style domestic syndication biz.

SUNDANCE FILM FEST
1/19/06-1/29/06
Fest brass may characterize this year's Sundance lineup as going "back to its roots," emphasizing fewer star vehicles and more films from newbie helmers, but that's not what some industryites see -- or want, necessarily.

EYE ON THE OSCARS: NOMINEES FINISH LINE
1/16/06
It wouldn't be an Oscar race if no one complained about the foreign-language prize. In what has become something of a tradition, a handful of the year's highest-profile international pics won't be competing for a nomination, having been stymied by either the politics of their national film boards or the much-maligned Academy qualifying rules.

EYE ON THE OSCARS: NOMINATIONS WRAP
1/13/06
Each year, eager publicists seek the one truly brilliant idea that will make their nominees break out of the pack, dazzle the award voters and win for their clients prestigious awards. Especially key: That client would have been overlooked -- shamefully, even criminally, overlooked -- had not that bright idea been put into effect.

Posted: Fri., Dec. 2, 2005, 4:47pm PT

The Bloodettes
Les Saignantes
(Cameroon-France)
A Quartier Mozart Films (Camaroon), e4 Television production. (International sales: IDE, Paris.) Produced by Jean-Pierre Bekolo. Executive producers, Michel Gue, Pascale Obolo, Jim Fink, Andre Bennett, Lisa Crosato, Adrienne Silvey. Directed, written, edited by Jean-Pierre Bekolo.

With: Adele Ado, Dorylia Calmel, Emile Abossolo, Essindi Mindja, Josephine Ndagnou, Balthazar Amadagoleda, Venant Mboua.

By LESLIE FELPERIN

Digitally shot Cameroonian-French sci-fi satire, "The Bloodettes" may sport bargain basement production values and the sexual politics of a Russ Meyer exploitation pic, but it nevertheless reps strangely compelling viewing. Sophomore feature by Cameroonian helmer Jean-Pierre Bekolo ("Quartier Mozart") sends two feisty babes through a bizarre nighttime adventure as they try to dispose of a corpse. Use of Godardian intertitles and other highbrow touches should get egghead crowd stroking their chins at a few further fests, but distribution prospects will be limited to tiny releases at best in Francophone African and European territories.

In a nameless African state sometime in the future, the secretary general (Balthazar Amadagoleda) dies while having sex. His erstwhile partner, prostitute Majolie (Adele Ado), freaks out and calls on her best friend, sassy Chouchou (Dorylia Calmel), to help her get rid of the stiff. As this farcical project gets under way, the girls cross paths with a ruthless politician (Emile Abossolo) determined to take advantage of the situation, a sleazy taxi driver (Venant Mboua) and other dodgy men, plus a mysterious power called Mevoungou that shapes events. Tech package is slapdash, but dancehall soundtrack is rousing if repetitive.

Camera (color, DigiBeta), Robert Humphreys; music, Joelle Esso, Adam Zanders; production designer, Thierry Bekolo. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Visions), Sept. 10, 2005. French, English dialogue. Running time: 92 MIN.