March 13-April 13/New York: School of Visual Arts’ "The Art of Production Design." (212) 592-2010; proffice@adm. schoolofvisualarts.edu….
– March 17/New York: Cresta Awards call for entries deadline. Nancy Ross, (212) 696-1323; Fax: (212) 696-5505; crestaawads@aol.com; www.cresta-awards.com….
– March 18/New York: Havana Film Festival in New York. Patricia Gostyla, (212) 505-0726; www.newfilmmakers.com….
– March 21/New York: AAF Advertising Hall of Fame. Lisa Rubin, (202) 898-0089; lrubin@aaf.org…
– March 22/Chicago: Art Directors and Copywriters Club of Chicago hosts panel discussion "Drinking Stories: Working on Beer in Chicago." Liz Davis, (312) 951-4433; LizDavis@jwt.com….
– April 1/West Palm Beach, Fla.: Palm Beach Independent Film & Video Festival call for entries deadline. (561) 802-3029….
– April 6-10/Tahoe City, Calif.: The 4th annual Tahoe International Film Festival. (530) 583-FEST….
– April 7/Hollywood: 9th Annual Music Video Production Association (MVPA) Awards. Drea Clark or Shana Betz, (323) 469-9494….
– April 7-16/Houston: The 33rd Annual WorldFest Houston International Film Festival. Kim Roseland, (713) 965-9955; fax: (713) 965-9960; worldfest@aol.com; www.worldfest.org….
– April 20-May 4/San Francisco: The 43rd San Francisco International Film Festival. Brian Gordon, (415) 929-5014; ggawards@sfiff.org….
– May 3-June 4/Hollywood: World Animation Celebration. (818) 575-9615; fax: (818) 575-9620; wacfestusa@aol.com; www.wacfest.com….
– May 31/New York: Saatchi & Saatchi Innovation in Communication Award call for entries deadline. www.saatchi-saatchi.com….
– June 14-15/Chicago: U.S. International Film and Video Festival at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Hotel. (630) 834-7773; fax: (630) 834-5565; www.filmfestawards.com….
– June 20-22/Las Vegas: AAF American Advertising Conference. Karen Cohn, (202) 898-0089; kcohn@aaf.org….
– June 24/Los Angeles: Cine Gear Expo 2000. (323) 256-9056; fax: (323) 254-8696; details323@earthlink.net…..
– July 14-16/North Hollywood: VES 2000: A Festival of Visual Effects. Addie Bua, (818) 708-3355; adgogirl@aol.com….
– September 22-25/Los Angeles: 109th AES Convention. (212) 661-8528; fax: (212) 682-0477; hq@aes.org; www.aes.org….
Edward Berger Envisioned “Conclave” As A Political Thriller–With A Spiritual Dimension
Robert Harris had just completed a trilogy of novels about Cicero when he watched the election of Pope Benedict live on television. As a chronicler of power and its mutations, the scene — the Sistine Chapel smoke signaling a decision, of course, but also the whole, secretive tableaux — fascinated him.
"Just before the pope comes out onto the balcony and reveals himself, the windows on either side fill up with the faces of the cardinal electors who had come to watch him," Harris says. "And the camera pans along the faces — elderly, crafty, cunning, some benign, beatific. And I thought: My god, that's the Roman senate. That's the old men running the whole institution. I thought: There must be stories here."
That stoked Harris to write "Conclave," a 2016 novel that went inside the Vatican to imagine how "the ultimate election," as he calls it — with the added intrigue that the contenders must pretend they don't want to win — might unfold.
As page-turning as Harris made his novel, it might not have seemed the stuff of Hollywood. A bunch of old men in robes sitting inside and picking a pontiff is not your average elevator pitch. But director Edward Berger's adaptation, starring Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave, manages to be that rare thing in today's movie industry: a riveting, thoughtful, adult-oriented drama acted out through dialogue by a sterling ensemble.
"Yeah, we used to have 'em. A lot. We don't really have 'em anymore," says Stanley Tucci, who co-stars as Cardinal Bellini. "You have people who have been doing this for a long time, so it's a very mature film. If you take all of our ages and add them up, well, I don't want to know what the number is."
"Conclave," which Focus Features releases in... Read More