A scene from Metropia, not for the kids

If you happen to be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend and are looking for a last-minute culture fix, our suggestion is the Fourth Annual S.F. International Animation Festival. The festival's kick-off took place earlier this week, with an Opening Night screening of the new Wes Anderson movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

While Fox is a larger studio release, most of the festival's programming gives due time and attention to films that don't have the same hype or budget attached to them as a Pixar release—obscure international offerings, shorts, and other movies that don't usually find a place at your local cineplex. Don't get us wrong, we're still Pixar devotees, but this weekend's lineup is refreshingly challenging and less mainstream than, say, the umpeeth movie in the Shrek series. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-13T16:44:27-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/2/0730/23367

Experience the Australian Alps from the comfort of a movie theater

Film, at its best, has the ability to transport us to a different time, place or state of mind. The great leisure of cinematic travel is that you do so parked in a plush theater chair for two or so hours, with a jumbo pack of Milk Duds and Red Vines by your side. The Fifth Annual Backcountry Film Festival aims to take theatergoers on a tour of wintry locations the world over, from Vermont to Japan.

Your lift ticket to mountainous and blistering-cold regions comes in the form of films shot in the backcountry of different nations, including unlikely places such as Australia. It's a little-known fact that there is snowboarding along with surfing down under. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-02T15:34:20-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/21/122656/96

Austin gets all the credit for being the arty city in Texas, and Houston residents probably like it that way: When no one's depending on you to bolster your state's reputation, you get a lot more work done! But the city where "Reality Bites" and "Rushmore" were filmed is stepping into the limelight with next month's Cinema Arts Festival Houston.

Held November 11 to 15, the fest says it focuses on "films by and about artists," offering events like a conversation with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga ("Babel") Nov. 13 and a screening of the new documentary "Yes Men Fix The World" with one of the Yes Men, who have been wreaking havoc in Washington D.C. this week with fake press conferences and silly costumes—that's on November 14 and 15. ]]> egw 2009-10-21T16:28:41-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/13/143047/98

A scene from Noriben, playing at this year's Hawaii International Film Festival.

Though the time for Tribeca, Cannes, and Toronto has come and gone, the film festival circuit hasn't screeched to a halt. There's Sundance to look forward to, of course, but a welcome alternative to similar large-scale hype galas are festivals held far away from Los Angeles, New York, and other metropoles.

Hawaii may not be Hollywood, but there's still creativity abound on the big island. And while it may not attract as much attention as, say, Berlin, the Hawaii International Film Festival has earned a well-respected reputation among cinema's inner circle, with people like Roger Ebert praising its East-meets-West sensibility. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-10-13T15:38:13-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/9/28/1098/54336

What's surprising about Roman Polanski's arrest isn't that it happened 32 years late, it's that police waited for him to make an actual border crossing before they arrested him on that 32-year-old warrant.

The director of "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was detained Saturday at Zürich Airport en route to the Zurich Film Festival, on a warrant given to Swiss authorities a few days earlier by the U.S. Justice Department by request of the Los Angeles county district attorney's office. Polanski fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and serving 42 days in prison, not returning even to accept his Best Director Oscar for "The Pianist" at the Academy Awards in 2003. ]]> egw 2009-09-28T12:14:34-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/9/22/11132/5594

The National Baseball Hall of Fame is holding their annual Baseball Film Festival on Oct. 2-4 at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. The festival will feature 13 baseball-themed movies including The Lost Son of Havana about Major League Baseball star Luis Tiant's return to Cuba and She's Baseball Mad!, a look at the role women played in building Seattle's family-friendly ballpark.

Tickets for each screening are free, and can be reserved in advance. Members can reserve their tickets now and any remaining seats will made available to the general public on Monday, Sept. 28. For more information call the Membership Department at 607-547-0397 and be sure to check our suggestions below for getting the most out of your weekend in Cooperstown.

Where to stay and eat and what to do while in Cooperstown: ]]> cmb 2009-09-22T12:38:47-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/9/11/142030/110

The big news at the 66th Annual Venice Film Festival—aside from George Clooney introducing his latest girlfriend to the world—has to do, as always, with movie debuts that tend to get film buffs riled up in their plush, reclining chairs. This year's festival drew names including Oliver Stone, Matt Damon, Michael Moore, and—oh, god—Paris Hilton to the celebration of international film.

Stone had one of the more memorable red carpet moments of the festival when he walked buddy-buddy style with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to the premiere of South of the Border, his film about the leader and stereotypes associated with him. As The Telegraph UK reports, the two were surrounded by a swarm of 50 bodyguards. Necessary, sure, but also in keeping with Stone's penchant for controversy. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-09-11T14:45:18-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/