HIFF 2010 WITH PARTY PIX & RED CARPET SNAPSHOTS!

Alec Baldwin
At the Chairman's Party
Hamptons International Film Festival 2010

Alec Baldwin must be at least three people. He's announcing concerts, interviewing other actors onstage, and going to parties in the Hamptons.

And he was live (on 10/14) on 30 Rock, as well.

30 Rock Live was hilarious (10/14 8:30 NY time). I gather they did it again, live, for the West Coast -- That was Thursday, October 14, whatever time they do it live in California. (Hope you watched it!)

Alec Baldwin seems ubiquitous at HIFF... so he's at the top of this guide to stories about HIFF 2010. We'll be adding to this directory of articles as we process the photos and write the stories...

Here's some of what's still coming:

Interviews with Jane Goodall and others...
Notes on films, including...
=>Barney's Version
=>The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
=>The Debt
=>Sweet Evil

HERE ARE THE CURRENT STORIES FROM HIFF

Follow http://www.qporit.com/
Or check this page... http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/hiff-2010.html
For more stories about HIFF 2010 as they appear...

(For next year...) HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR FILM AT HIFF!
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-promote-your-film-at-hiff-and.html

KISSES, CHLOE with ROBIN SINGER and MIKAL EVANS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/kisses-chloe-with-robin-singer-mikal.html

ON THE PATH and ZRINKA CVITESIC
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-path-zrinka-cvitesic.html

Tweet... MIKAL EVANS from KISSES, CHLOE in concert Friday October 15 (Again, Nov 11!)
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/mikal-evans-from-kisses-chloe-in.html

HIFF 2010 - PRIZE WINNERS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/prize-winners-at-hiff-2010.html

HIFF 2010 - THE SLOAN FOUNDATION AT HIFF 2010 (& BEYOND...)
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/sloan-foundation-at-hiff-2010-beyond.html

HIFF 2010 - BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMERS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/breakthrough-performers.html

HIFF 2010 - FIRST PREVIEW: THE 2010 HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/09/first-preview-2010-hamptons.html

HIFF 2010 - PREVIEW: FILMS & EVENTS COMING TO THE HAMPTONS http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/09/hiff-2010-preview-films-events-coming.html

For links to stories about HIFF in prior years, please take a look at:

The QPORIT INDEX to stories about HIFF

PARTY PIX
AND RED CARPET SNAPSHOTS

WINE GLASSES
READY TO PARTY!
Photo by Eric Roffman


PRODUCERS AND DIRECTORS

Julian Schnabel
Director, MIRAL
On The Red Carpet
Photo by Eric Roffman

Lorenz Knauer, Director, and Jane Goodal
JANE'S JOURNEY
Photo by Eric Roffman

Nikhil Melnechuk and Andrea Wozny
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman
Andrea attended HIFF last year working on her film TO TIMBUKTU about singer Vieux Farka Touré of Mali. Since then she travelled to the World Cup Celebration for his performance. Nikhil helped her with cinematography. Nikhil was also a co-producer of FURTHER LANE, the short that played together with KISSES, CHLOE.

www.totimbuktu.com


Dennis Lynch
KING OF THE HAMPTONS
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman

Dan Rattiner
KING OF THE HAMPTONS
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman
KING OF THE HAMPTONS was the first film and then also the last film shown at HIFF this year. Dan Rattiner, who started publishing Dan's Papers in the Hamptons while still in college, introduces Dennis to the Hamptons.

Jeremiah Newton
BEAUTIFUL DARLING
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman
Jeremiah Newton was a close friend of Candy Darling and helped produce this documentary about her short life. Jeremiah has also been working with HIFF for many years on developing the student film program.

Iona Ramsey
CANARY
Photo by Eric Roffman
Visiting from the UK, Iona is the producer of the short film, CANARY.

David Roach
BENEATH HILL 60
Photo by Eric Roffman

David is the author of the screenplay for BENEATH HILL 60, the Sloan Prize winning film.

For more about the Sloan Foundation activities at HIFF:
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/sloan-foundation-at-hiff-2010-beyond.html

Ondi Timoner
COOL IT!
Photo by Eric Roffman
Ondi is the director of COOL IT! a documentary that takes a look at economic approaches to issues concerning global warming.

Jill Andresevic
LOVE, ETC.
Photo by Eric Roffman
Jill is the charming and charismatic director of the Audience Award Documentary LOVE, ETC which follows a handful of couples through some critical periods of their love lives. Filmed with great sophistication and insight, the stories evolve and diverge in unexpected ways.

Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan Tisch
LOVE, ETC.
Photo by Eric Roffman
Observing the diversity of couples around them when they were married provided the impetus for Jonathan to produce this (bittersweet) chronicle of love stories. (If the name sounds familiar, Jonathan's day job is CEO of Loews. His uncle, Larry, was CEO of CBS.)

Jonathan Tisch in WIKIPEDIA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Tisch

Harvey Weinstein with a member of his staff
Weinstein Company
At the Chairman's Reception
Photo by Eric Roffman


PRODUCTION STUDIOS AND EXHIBITION

Campbell Dalglish
The Plaza Media Arts Center
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman

THE PLAZA MEDIA ARTS CENTER: http://www.plazamac.org/

Jane and Mark Garcia
Ovasen Post Production
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman

Parviz Farahzad
Grumman Studios
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman

Believe it or not, Salt (Angelina Jolie) was not at CIA headquarters and elsewhere in the world making SALT. She was (conspiracy theorists claim) actually at Grumman Studios.

http://www.grummanstudios.com/


PARTIES, PRESS, CONNECTIONS

Freida Pinto's Earring
Press At the Red Carpet
Photo by Eric Roffman

Working Press
On the Red Carpet for THE DEBT
Photo by Eric Roffman
Though this videographer and his on-camera partner interviewing Jessica Chastain on the Red Carpet for THE DEBT may have been among the youngest working press, as far as I could see and hear, they were doing a top notch job.

Rula Jebreal and Freida Pinto
MIRAL
Photo by Eric Roffman
Rula, the screenwriter (and author of the source novel) for MIRAL had the best line of the festival. A reporter (for a major magazine, though arguably less professional than the previous interviewer) asked Freida what she was wearing. Rula replied: "She's wearing me."

The HIFF Event Staff
Photo by Eric Roffman

Party-ON!
At the LOVE, ETC. Premiere Party
Photo by Eric Roffman

FRANK PR TEAM
Photo by Eric Roffman

The FRANK PR team did a great job at the festival. Left to right: Tiffany Malloy, Lina Plath, Kerry McAleer, Dana Morini, Clare Anne Darragh.

Karin Dix
European Film Promotion (Shooting Stars)
At the Chairman's Reception
Photo by Eric Roffman
http://www.efp-online.com/en/about_efp/index.php

Shooting Stars meeting informally with Harvey Weinstein
At the Chairman's Reception
Photo by Eric Roffman


ACTORS

Alec Baldwin
At the Chairman's Reception
Photo by Eric Roffman

Stanley Tucci with young partygoers
At the Chairman's Reception
Photo by Eric Roffman

Stanley Tucci (first name only just seems wrong, here) was very friendly and approachable. Seems quite different from the characters he's played recently... OMG, he was acting.

Stanley (well, it still seems wrong but I'll do it anyway) directed LEND ME A TENOR last year on Broadway. He's currently developing MOMMY AND ME with Meryl Streep (Mommy) and Tina Fey (Me), which he is planning to direct. It will be the fifth film he has directed, the last being BLIND DATE in 2008.

Happy Birthday, Stanley! (He turns 50 on November 11.)

QPORIT on LEND ME A TENOR:
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/04/lend-me-tenor.html

Robin Singer and Mikal Evans
KISSES, CHLOE
At the Opening Night Party
Photo by Eric Roffman
Striking new talents, actress Robin Singer and actress/singer/songwriter Mikal Evans starred in the provocative sell-out indie feature KISSES, CHLOE. Robin will soon be seen in two comic web series, and Mikal performs solo and with her band frequently in New York. Her next show will be with the full band, November 11th, 9pm @RockwoodMusicHall. (Perhaps she'll sing Happy Birthday for Stanley Tucci? -- See previous item.)

QPORIT on KISSES, CHLOE:
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/kisses-chloe-with-robin-singer-mikal.html

Pihla Viitala
BAD FAMILY
Photo by Eric Roffman

A Shooting Star / Breakthrough Performer this year, Vihla co-starred last year in TEARS OF APRIL with the 2009 Breakthrough Performer Samuli Vauramo. (Samuli can be seen currently in George Clooney's THE AMERICAN)

Britt Robertson
CHERRY; also THE FAMILY TREE
Photo by Eric Roffman

A Rising Star / Breakthrough Performer, Britt can be seen in two films this year that were screened at HIFF. She often plays tough teenagers (she's actually just a bit past her teens). She can be seen currently on TV in LIFE UNEXPECTED.

Freida Pinto
MIRAL
Photo by Eric Roffman
A Rising Star / Breakthrough Performer, Freida was the object of desire in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

Anais Demoustier
SWEET EVIL
Photo by Eric Roffman
A Shooting Star / Breakthrough Performer, Anais is soon to be seen in a series (8 films in 2010 !!!! !!!!) of important French Films with some of France and Europe's biggest stars and most important directors. Watch for: SPONSORING with Juliette Binoche, FRACTURE, ELSEWHERE, BELLE EPINE with Lea Seydoux, and more!

Zrinka Cvitesic
ON THE PATH
Shooting Star / Breakthrough Performer
At the Chairman's Reception
Photo by Eric Roffman

ON THE PATH is an important film, brilliantly acted and directed.

QPORIT on ZRINKA CVITESIC and ON THE PATH:
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-path-zrinka-cvitesic.html

Jessica Chastain
THE DEBT
Rising Star / Breakthrough Performer
Photo by Eric Roffman

(I just realized that I once saw Jessica before, onstage. Jessica played Desdemona in the LAByrinth Theater / Peter Sellars production of OTHELLO: http://qporit.blogspot.com/2009/09/othello.html)

Jessica waves goodbye, after the Breakthrough Performers' Panel!

For more about the Breakthrough Performer Program:
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/breakthrough-performers.html

Check the top of this article
for links to other stories about the Hamptons International Film Festival!

QPORIT HOME
www.qporit.com LOVE'S FINE WIT -- Shakespeare's sonnets selected and rearranged to dramatize the story of an intense love triangle, with Elizabethan music.

One night only: April 23 2011 6:00
At the Cornelia Street Cafe - 29 Cornelia Street NY 212 989-9319.


Tweet this story!

ON THE PATH & ZRINKA CVITESIC

Zrinka CvitesicAt the Breakthrough Performers' Panel HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman

ON THE PATH is a terrific film, exceptionally richly directed by Jasmila Zbanic, and exceptionally richly acted by Zrinka Cvitesic.

This is a film which is all "sub-text." Nominally, and if you read the synopsis, the film seems to be about a man who becomes a devout Wahhabi Moslem. That is what is happening on the surface. But that text is just the enrichment of the real story.

The actress, Zrinka, speaking for herself and the director, says that in reality the film is about love -- about a couple that love each other with a bond that threatens to come apart when the man develops an obsession.

The story takes place in Bosnia, and is about a couple which is moderately, almost secularly Muslim. Then the man becomes more and more involved in very ritualistic, fundamentalist, orthodox (I'm not sure what the correct word is) Muslim practices.

But the man, they say, could have become a workaholic computer hacker, or developed any other obsession, and the essence of the story would have been the same.

The film gives life to the culture and geography of Bosnia. This immersion in the culture of Bosnia helps give the film its special richness. The richness is enhanced by the commitment of the actress and the actors to the specific life of this specific Bosnian couple. (In fact, although there is not one hint of it in the film, the principal characters are essentially created from the stories of very real people.)

But contrary to what one might expect -- what I certainly expected after reading the synopsis in the HIFF program -- there is no suggestion that the Muslim orthodoxy described in the film is in any way related to terrorism or international terrorism. This is in no way a story about politics -- though it is political. It is a love story. Still, it is political, because it seems to me the story is a defense of moderation, accommodation, compromise, and modern values in the service of love.

The description of the ways the man behaves in his Muslim orthodoxy, in reality, is not significantly different from a description that could be written about a non-religious man in love in New York who goes to Israel, where the man becomes involved in Ultra-Orthodox Zionist Judaism, with new rules for praying, touching women, and strict dietary rules; where everyone who used to be around him may fear (without any evidence) that these religious beliefs have political overtones that could have a violent outlet.

The film, in fact, is a celebration of moderation. Unlike films like Carlos and Che, where the film has a section in the beginning where the protagonist and title character is shown as idealistic, and committed to social improvement, as well as hunky, handsome and virile -- so that a section of the film could be taken out of context and used as a recruitment vehicle for terrorists -- ON THE PATH has no period where terrorism is glorified. It does not demean or mock the man's choice of religion either, though it does show the strains his choice puts on his relationships.

As a celebration of moderation, and a story of love, and a setting in a faraway, exotic land not well known to most Americans, and a story that explores religion and personal life, this film could (and I think should) have a commercial life in a circuit that includes colleges, and moderate Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious groups and organizations. Mel Gibson built a distribution system for a violent religious film. It is time to build (or re-build: these used to exist!) a distribution system for wholesome, dramatic films (foreign and domestic) that do not rely on violence or sophomoric humor.

(To expand on that thought for a moment, it may be that heavy promotion of free, full-screen, high-resolution streaming video of brilliant, but otherwise rarely seen, feature films could be used to build a market for films that currently have little or no American distribution.)

Bosnia, where the film is set, escaped about fifteen years ago from a war with neighboring Serbia in which atrocities were committed and houses and property were appropriated. That is the background for this story.

Throughout history, Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia (and other countries which were once part of Yugoslavia) have been the site of many, many wars of conquest and liberation and shifting alliances and unions.

Muslims are the largest religious group in Bosnia; Catholics the largest in Croatia; Serbia is largely Protestant.

The director, Jasmila Zbanic, is a moderate Bosnian Muslim woman. She is a very independent woman. She is interested in the lives of women, their love lives, their personal lives, their happiness. One usually thinks of a "feminist" as someone who is especially interested in women as professionals, so perhaps Jasmila might be called (at least on the evidence of this movie) a "womanist," rather than a feminist.

Her method of auditioning her actors was quite unique. She had the actors all become clowns for a week, and gave them almost impossible tasks to do. I think this helped her create a cast of fearless actors, who retained strong bonds with each other.

Her direction created a film of absorbing richness, both in the behavior of the actors, and the backdrop on which the love story was played. She provides a large palette of emotion and experience; and cinematography that can be beautiful or gritty as the scene requires.

On the strength of this film, I would expect her to become a major international directing talent -- provided that Bosnian films can reach the world market.

Zrinka Cvitesic (pronounced -- I'm guessing here -- Svi TEZ itch) has exceptional range, both physically and emotionally. In this film it seems as if at least three different actresses are playing her role as she evolves through the story of the film. She is not afraid of any kind of behavior. On her website, her portfolio (see the YouTube slideshow below) shows a whole spectrum of poses from "nice young lady" to exotic model. She can be quite plain or fabulously beautiful; young and innocent to sophisticated and worldly; under control and totally free.

Zrinka was selected as a Shooting Star by the EFP, European Film Promotions, and came to HIFF as one of the Breakthrough Performers. On the Breakthrough Performers Panel, and in person, she was charming, lovely, friendly, articulate -- in English, and very interesting in providing background to the film and her own creative development.


Breakthrough Performers Zrinka Cvitesic and Pihla Viitala
Talking with Harvey Weinstein
At the Chairman's Party HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman

The Breakthrough Performers Program and the Shooting Star Program were both designed to give exceptionally promising young actors the opportunity to develop creatively and professionally by networking and being mentored by established figures in the film world; and simultaneously they promote their films throughout the world.

Although not part of this film, it should also be noted that Zrinka is a singer and a terrific dancer: she won the Croatian version of Dancing With The Stars. (Two YouTube videos are below showing her singing --in English! -- and dancing. She is quite amazing in the range of her talents!)

For ON THE PATH, Zrinka, who is Croatian, learned the Bosnian dialect and manner. In fact, in preparing the role, she needed to represent a specific Bosnian woman who had been the subject of a famous photograph (showing her suffering from anti-Bosnian violence, from which she did survive). Although that identity never shows up in the film, I suspect that the specific identification helped to create the tangible feeling of reality that permeates the film.

Zrinka speaks excellent English. In fact she lived for a bit in the US. With a look that can be natural or exotic; beauty that could make her an international supermodel, prodigious acting talent, and the facility to dance her way to the top, I'm looking forward to Zrinka's next great films, and fantastic career.

Cvitesic may be hard to figure out how to pronounce. Supermodels often go by a single name. I'll call her Zrinka!


TRAILER FOR AN EARLY FILM -- HORSEMAN:




MODELING/POSING:




DANCING:




SINGING:




LINKS --

IMDB: ON THE PATH (NA PUTU)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156531/


WIKIPEDIA: ON THE PATH (NA PUTU)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Path


IMDB: ZRINKA CVITESIC
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0194152/


WIKIPEDIA: ZRINKA CVITESIC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zrinka_Cvite%C5%A1i%C4%87


HOME PAGE: ZRINKA CVITESIC
http://www.zrinkacvitesic.com/en/index.php


IMDB: JASMILA ZBANIC
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1120092/


WIKIPEDIA: JASMILA ZBANIC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmila_%C5%BDbani%C4%87

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMERS

One of my favorite programs at the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) each year is the Breakthrough Performers Program, run by Lina Todd, which recognizes a small number of extremely good young actors whose films are showing at HIFF.


Maryam Hassouni Anamaria Marinca & Hannah Herzsprung
Breakthrough Performers / Shooting Stars 2008
With Lina Todd
Photo by Eric Roffman

For the audience it is a chance to meet some actors at an early stage in their career, actors who have a real good shot at becoming huge stars. For the actors it is a chance to meet each other, to be mentored by distinguished talents in the American film industry, and to be introduced to American audiences.

In addition to seeing their breakthrough film (or films, sometimes an actor has more than one film at the Festival), there is the opportunity to speak with them informally at parties (and sometimes formally at interviews). There is also a panel presentation at which they talk about themselves, discuss filmmaking, and answer questions from the audience. Rajendra Roy in 2009
At HIFF to moderate the Breakthrough Performers Panel
Photo by Eric Roffman
The program began as Rising Stars in 2002, when the Festival honored some new young film actors. Beginning in 2008, the program partnered with the European Shooting Stars program and invited several European actors to join the Rising Stars, calling the joint program, Breakthrough Performers. The program is run by Lina Todd. In its early years, the program was championed by Rajendra Roy, the Programmer for the Festival (who is currently Film Curator at the Museum of Modern Art -- MOMA). Rajendra returned last year to the Hamptons for the Festival, and chaired the Breakthrough Performers Panel.

The Festival this year has a very distinguished group of European Shooting Stars and International Rising Stars:

RISING STARS at HIFF 2010:

Frieda Pinto from India (Miral)
Brittany Robertson from the US (The Family Tree, Cherry)
Jessica Chastain from the US (The Debt)

Noomi Rapace, the Swedish Actress who played The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was chosen as a Rising Star, but will not be able to come because of conflicts in her shooting schedule: she's currently working on the Sherlock Holmes sequel and Clean Out with Timothy Dalton.


SHOOTING STARS at HIFF 2010:

Zrinka Cvitesic from Croatia (On The Path)
Anais Demoustier from France (Sweet Evil)
Pihla Viitala from Finland (Bad Family)


MORE ABOUT THE BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMERS at HIFF 2010



Freida Pinto
MIRAL
Frieda Pinto (1984-10-18, 26 next week -- 5'6") was the object of desire in Slumdog Millionaire. She appears at HIFF in Miral by distinguished artist/director Julian Schnabel. She will soon be seen in Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

Britt Robertson
CHERRY
Brittany (or Britt) Robertson (1990-04-18, 20 -- 5'3") is current playing Lux in Life Unexpected on CW. She was earlier seen in Swingtown on TV and, in films, was in Dan in Real Life and will soon be in Wes Craven's Scream 4. At HIFF 2010 she'll be seen in two films, Cherry, and The Family Tree.

Jessica Chastain (1977-03-29, 33 (according to WIKI) -- or 1981-03-29, 29 (IMDB) -- 5'4") has appeared on TV in ER, Law & Order and Veronica Mars. She is soon to be seen in Wilde Salome (as Salome) directed by Al Pacino. She will also be seen in Coriolanus, directed by Ralph Fiennes, and The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick. She also joins an all-star cast in The Help. At HIFF 2010, she'll be seen in John Madden's The Debt as Young Rachel Singer.

The European Shooting Stars are chosen by a complex and super-selective process. 32 European countries are eligible to nominate a young star that has had an important and commercially successful film in the last year; then a jury selects 10 Shooting Stars who are announced at the Berlin Film Festival. The Shooting Stars receive many opportunities throughout the year to promote the films they have done; and they are given a statuette, the Maria. I am told that when Oscar and Maria stand next to each other, they make a nice looking couple!



Zrinka Cvitesic
ON THE PATH

Zrinka Cvitesic (1979-07-18, 31) from Croatia has acted in Theater, TV and Films. She is also a dancer, and won the Croatian version of Dancing With The Stars. She has won Best Actress Awards in her films Man Without A Moustache, and On The Path, the film being shown at HIFF.



Anais Demoustier
SWEET EVIL
Anais Demoustier (1987-09-29, 23) -- from France appeared with Isabelle Huppert in Michael Haneke's The Time of the Wolf. She appears in Sweet Evil at HIFF 2010



Pihla Viitala
BAD FAMILY

Pihla Viitala (1982-09-30, 26 -- 5'7") from Finland appeared in Tears of April, shown at HIFF in 2009, opposite Samuli Vauramo, a 2009 Shooting Star and Breakthrough Performer. She speaks English, Swedish, French and her native Finnish. She will be seen in Bad Family at HIFF 2010.

On The Path, Bad Family, and Sweet Evil are all "edgy" European films that deal in taboos and "politically incorrect" territory.

Over the years, the Rising Stars Program has spotlighted many important actors, including Emmy Rossum, Kate and Rooney Mara, Taylor Kitsch, Emily Blunt, Elizabeth Reaser, and Elizabeth Moss.

Hannah Herzsprung is the one actor distinguished by being selected first as a Rising Star (in 2007) and then returning the next year as a Shooting Star (in 2008).


Here is a list of the participants in the Breakthrough Performers Program at the Hamptons International Film Festival since it began in 2002. (I've tried to get all the years, participants and spellings correct... but do add a comment if you can correct an error in this list!)

In 2002, when the program started, James Coburn was the first Mentor and Rajendra Roy was the HIFF Program Director.

2002 –
Jordan Bridges
Jacqueline Kim
Ryan Locke
Andrea Navedo
Susan May Pratt

2003 –
Dean Wareham
Savannah Haske
Elizabeth Moss
GQ
Mylika Davis

2004 –
Mark Weber
Norman Reedus
Vinessa Shaw
Aaron Stanford
Eugenia Yuan

2005 –
Emily Blunt
Eugene Byrd
Florian Lukas
Jake Muxworthy
Kip Pardue
Elizabeth Reaser

2006 --
Carmen Chaplin
Dagmara Dominczyk
Matt Davis
Mido Hamada
Noah Fleiss

2007 --
Jess Weixler (Teeth)
Hannah Herzsprung (Four Minutes)
Egbert-Jan Weeber (Vivere)
Blake Lively (Elvis and Anabelle)

2008 –
Kate Mara (Stone Of Destiny),
Taylor Kitsch (Gospel Hill), and
Jake Abel (Flash Of Genius) from North America and

Maryam Hassouni (Dunya And Desie),
Anamaria Marinca (Boogie)
Hannah Herzsprung (Werther)

2009 –
Emmy Rossum (Dare)
Rooney Mara (Dare and Tanner Hall)
Zach Gilford and Emma Stone were selected, but were unable to attend

Alba Rohrwacher (Due partite --in English, The Ladies Get Their Say) from Italy
Cyron Melville (Love and Rage) from Denmark.
Samuli Vauramo (Tears of April)


2010 –
Freida Pinto (Miral)
Brittany Robertson (The Family Tree, Cherry)
Jessica Chastain (The Debt)

Zrinka Cvitešić from Croatia (On the Path)
Anaïs Demoustier (Sweet Evil) from France
Pihla Viitala (Bad Family) from Finland

The Shooting Stars program, with a long history, has had many very distinguished members. The actors known to an American audience, though, are primarily from the UK, Germany and France. Shooting Stars is a program of the European Film Promotion Network (EFP), and it can only be hoped that they will succeed in promoting films from all over Europe (the other 29 countries!) in the US.

In addition to those who've come to the US for the Breakthrough Performers Program, who are having terrific starts to their careers, here are some of the most famous participants in the Shooting Stars Program:

Moritz Bleibtreu - Germany - 1999
Sarah Bolger - Ireland - 2009
Daniel Bruhl - Germany - 2003
Daniel Craig - UK - 2000
Cecile de France - France - 2003
Nina Hoss - Germany - 2000
David Kross - Germany - 2009
Carey Mulligan - UK - 2009
Franke Potente - Germany - 1998
Ludivine Sagnier France - 2001
Rachel Weisz - UK - 1998

We should point out, though, that there are many exciting young actors in indie and studio films at HIFF that are not part of the Breakthrough Performers Program.

Some actors to watch that have not been in the Breakthrough Performer Program are:

Ashley Springer
At HIFF with DARE in 2009
Photo by Eric Roffman

Ashley Springer, terrific in 2009's Dare and in 2007's Teeth, both of which had other cast members in the Breakthrough Performers Program, though he was not. He's very intelligent, funny, and good looking, in addition to being an excellent actor, and game: in Teeth he was one of the unfortunate victims of Jess Weixler's "teeth".

Supermodel/Actress Xenia Siamas, smart, beautiful, entrepreneurial and supremely talented. Highly sought after as a model, she is doing more and more films. She played a drug addict in the 2006 Push with Chazz Palminteri. She has a featured role in Casino Jack at HIFF this year, as a stewardess, and is in development and pre-production with several film projects for next year. Watch for her!



Robin Singer
KISSES, CHLOE
Photo by Ramsey Fendall
Lovely Robin Singer has a starring role in the three character drama Kisses, Chloe: a man, a woman, and another woman, alone, together, in a house by the sea in the Hamptons (a perfect film for HIFF)!

Here are some links:

http://www.hamptonsfilmfest.org/

http://www.efp-online.com/


http://www.shooting-stars.eu/

Here are some older stories about participants in the Breakthrough Performers Program:

HIFF 2009 - ROONEY MARA IS THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
(Rooney was one of last year's Breakthrough Performers at HIFF 2009; these are some pix I took there.)
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/08/rooney-mara-is-girl-with-dragon-tattoo.html


HIFF 2009 - VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH EMMY ROSSUM FROM DARE
(Emmy Rossum was a Breakthrough Performer at HIFF 2009, and she had a starring role in the film, Dare. This is a video interview I did with her. Emmy is currently taping Shameless, a new TV series for Showtime.)
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2009/11/emmy-rossum-dare.html


HIFF 2009 - PREVIEW -- THE 2009 BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMERS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2009/10/breakout-performers-at-hiff.html

HIFF 2008 - VIER MINUTEN AND HANNAH HERZSPRUNG
(Hannah Herzsprung, one of the finest and most popular young actresses in German was in the Breakthrough Performers Program in both 2007 and 2008. This story and others about her from the Festival have been enduringly popular. Each time one of her films opens, or she comes into attention, QPORIT gets a huge flood of traffic (largely but not entirely from Germany and Europe) for stories that mention her. Most recently this just happened again a few weeks ago.)
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2008/11/vier-minuten-and-hannah-herzsprung.html

HIFF 2007 - TEETH
(Jess Weixler was one of the 2007 Breakthrough Performers.)
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2008/02/teeth.html