The Last Circus brilliantly opens 2011 BIFFF

The start of any film festival is hectic and shaky. It's been two days since the 2011 BIFFF brilliantly opened with Alex de la Iglesia's The Last Circus (Balada Triste de Trompeta), and it's only now that the strenuous pace of the fest starts to really gain momentum.
The cavernous main hall of Tour & Taxis, the venue where the festival is held, was packed to the gills on Thursday night as I arrived to get my press pass, with people queuing everywhere seemingly for the sake of it.

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De la Iglesia's The Last Circus kicks off 2011 BIFFF

In less than 24 hours Alex de la Iglesia's The Last Circus (Balada Triste de Trompeta) will officially kick off Belgium's arguably most important and definitely coolest film festival, the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival –or, to use the name that rolls more knowledgeably off the tongue, the BIFFF.

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2011 Goya Predictions

Ok, so let's try this.

A couple of weeks ago I accidentally came across a book titled How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, by French author and literature professor Pierre Bayard. As its self-explanatory title indicates, it is an erudite but hilarious guide on how to comment on books you haven't even opened. My Goya Predictions contribution this year is something similar, since I've only seen one of the four Best Picture nominees (Rodrigo Cortés' Buried) and virtually none of the other films in contention for any category. I have, however, a secret weapon that can help me out in this blind guess: the Spanish Academy's dull predictability and its far from opaque inner mechanics.

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Balada Triste de Trompeta leads Goya nominations with 15 nods

Balada Triste de Trompeta leads the nominations for the Goya Awards, which were announced this morning by the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with 15 nods and will probably cruise to victory at a ceremony to be held in Madrid on Sunday, February 13, and which will mark the 25^th anniversary of the Spanish Film Awards.

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