A few years after having paid tribute to Ingmar Bergman, the Festival de Cannes awarded a Palme d’Or to Clint Eastwood in homage to the talent of a grand master at the summit of his craft.

Rome, February 9–The Board of Directors of the VENICE DAYS Association, which convened with the members assembly (of Italian audiovisual authors and film-makers associations) “unanimously praised Delegate Fabio Ferzetti for all his hard work and success from 2006 to 2008 and, in light of his decision to not renew his position for professional reasons, appointed journalist and film critic Giorgio Gosetti, currently a member of the Association, Delegate General of Venice Days 2009.”
 

Feb 2, 2009–Lionsgate has acquired the North American distribution rights to “Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire,” which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. 

Feb 2, 2009–South by Southwest unveiled Sunday its complete lineup for this year’s festival, which will be held March 13-21 in Austin, Texas. The nine-day festival and confab will feature 108 films, including 54 world premieres. Among the highlights are Spike Lee’s “Passing Strange,” Sebastian Gutierrez’s “Women in Trouble,” Wyatt McDill’s “Four Boxes,” David Lee Miller’s “My Suicide,” Tim McCanlies’ “The Two Bobs,” Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “Sin nombre,” Brant Sersen’s “Splinterheads,” Andrew Bujalski’s “Beeswax,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “Hurt Locker,” John Inwood’s “Exterminators,” Greg Mottola’s “Adventureland,” Joe Swanberg’s “Alexander the Last,” Duncan Jones’ “Moon,” Nash Edgerton’s “The Square,” Michael Paul Stephenson’s “Best Worst Movie” and Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday.”