Notes from a Darkened Theater: Frameline Winners Announced, Brüno Under Fire, More Moneyball

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With festival attendance topping 60,000 and ticket sales up from the last two years despite a sluggish economy, Frameline 33, the oldest and largest celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender films and filmmakers in the world, reached its conclusion Sunday with the world premiere of Wendy Jo Carlton’s Hannah Free. Now, there’s only one thing left to do: announce the winners.

After 226 films in 11 days screened at theaters in San Francisco and Berkeley, Swedish director Ella Lemhagen’s Patrik, Age 1.5 earned the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. Patrik, the story of an eager-to-adopt gay couple who, through an ironic twist of fate, wind up taking a 15-year-old homophobe into their home, sounds at first like an invitation to broad, sitcom-style comedy, but comes across as something gentler and more genuine, a feel-good story of unusual depth.

Directors Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker won in the Best Documentary category for Training Rules, their expose of longtime Penn State women’s basketball coach Rene Portland, whose homophobic athletic program has been condemned in recent years by former players and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Rounding out the big three as winner of the Best Short Film award was Maria Breaux’s Lucha, a chronicle of two women facing hard lessons about love, patriotism and armed resistance against the backdrop of El Salvador’s 1982 civil war.

The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival has been presented for three-plus decades by Frameline, a nonprofit whose mission is "to strengthen the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and to further its visibility by promoting ... artistic expression in film, video and other media." To learn more about Frameline or to take an audience survey, click here.






Elsewhere…

Oscar- and Emmy-winning Streets of San Francisco star Karl Malden has died at 97.

It’s been a star-crossed summer for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Sacha Baron Cohen

No joke: Pauly Shore is planning to sueBrüno’s Sacha Baron Cohen for intellectual theft. Meanwhile, Los Angeles school officials are blasting Baron Cohen’s GQ photo shoot, in which he strikes predictably outrageous poses with members of the Birmingham High School football team.

Sigourney Weaver, long reported to be rejoining Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis for a third go-round with the Ghostbusters, has denied any involvement with the project. And don’t hold your breath waiting for her to reprise her role as all-around badass Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s rumored Alien prequel.

Could Alec Baldwin be the next governor of Ohio?

If you’ve spent the past 17 years yearning for a less racially charged remake of The Bodyguard, your prayers may have been answered. The original, which Pamela Bruce of the Austin Chronicle described as “unbearable… with a formulaic script, lousy acting and muddled direction,” starred Kevin Costner as an ex-Secret Service hotshot hired to protect Whitney Houston’s pampered diva. This time, Hugh Jackman is reported to be teaming up with Miley Cyrus in Personal Security, an update geared toward the elementary-school circuit.

Also in the unnecessary remakes department: a reboot of John Landis’ 1981 cult favorite An American Werewolf in London. Miley Cyrus

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (gag) is no longer an idle threat. It has a trailer, and two stars (in My Name is Earl’s Jason Lee and Mr. Show’s David Cross) capable of more challenging stuff.

Cloverfield’s Matt Reeves acknowledges that his upcoming Let the Right One In remake (simply entitled Let Me In) could leave fans of the Swedish original seeing red. All he asks is the benefit of the doubt.

Stan Lee will play legendary talk-show host Larry King in Iron Man 2.

More fallout from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, whose four-week IMAX contract means only three IMAX screens in the nation will feature Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when it opens July 15. None of them is located in San Francisco.

With the critic-proof Revenge of the Fallen breaking box-office records right and left, Michael Bay has signed a deal with DreamWorks to produce and possibly direct I Am Number Four, a science-fiction fantasy inspired by A Million Little Pieces author James Frey’s unpublished book of the same name.

Whether Steven Spielberg and Will Smith’s proposed remake of Oldboy ever reaches the screen could be decided by the courts.

Will SmithThe new thriller RoboGeisha has a trailer, and it has to be seen to be believed.

Justin Timberlake and Guy Ritchie are rumored to be collaborating on a new Guys and Dolls.

Sony's Amy Pascal is talking about the Moneyball flap.

Terry Gilliam is ready to make Don Quixote. Can he get Johnny Depp to follow suit?

Thomas Jane's Hung is giving HBO executives reason to smile.

 

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