The ninth annual Woodstock Film Festival this week will feature appearances by filmmaker Kevin Smith, ’60s troubadour Donovan and more than 120 films.
The festival runs Wednesday through Sunday at venues in Woodstock and nearby Kingston, Rosendale and Rhinebeck. Honorary awards will be presented to Smith, cinematographer Haskell Wexler and veteran writer-producer James Schamus, chief executive officer of Focus Features.
Festival director Meira Blaustein said 124 films will be screened this year, about half of them full-length features and documentaries. She said participants will be coming to this famous artists’ colony north of New York City from all over the world.
“This area is going to be buzzing with filmmakers,” she said.
Smith’s new movie, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” will be featured on closing night. Opening night will feature “Pride and Glory,” ”Happy-Go-Lucky” and “Flash of Genius.”
In a nod to Woodstock’s history and the eponymous 1969 concert, the festival routinely features music along with the movies. Donovan, best known for ’60s standards like “Mellow Yellow,” will perform and appear on a panel. Bela Fleck will perform in an opening-night concert with Abigail Washburn and The Sparrow Quartet.
For the first time, the festival is opening its awards ceremony to the public. The admission fee for the ceremony and after-party is $50.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More