-By Andreas Fuchs

Thomas Hauerslev and Bill Lawrence, the Copenhagen and Halifax, U.K.-based masterminds behind www.in70mm.com, have once again gathered the latest news on films, festivals and the technology related to the great 70mm format.

After a debut party at Pictureville Bradford, U.K., celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Cinerama are ongoing from Hollywood to Karlsruhe, Germany, they are happy to report. So much for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosting “ The Last 70mm Festival” this summer. “Certainly some classics in there,” Hauerslev and Laurence wrote in their newsletter. But they “beg to differ on the title,” of course. “There will be many more across the globe, we are sure.”

Proving their point with Austria’s first 70mm festival in 20 years at the Gartenbau Kino in Vienna, a comprehensive listing of 70mm showings is regularly updated.

Berlinale Celebrates 10th Summer Season
From July 12 to 15, radioeins Freiluftkino showed a selection of films presented during the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival as well as in the Panorama, Perspektive Deutsches Kino and Retrospective sections that have not yet found theatrical distribution in Germany. Located in Volkspark Friedrichshain and offering benches for 1,500 people and bountiful lawn and meadow seating, the open-air cinema marked the 10th anniversary of the ever-popular initiative.

“We have a birthday to celebrate,” the Berlinale enthused, mentioning that both the Open-Air in Cologne and the Mobiles Kino Nürnberg will be showcasing Berlinale films as well. At 25 years old, the Nuremberg-based event has its very own reason to celebrate. The 11 area locations (with content to match) cover plenty of ground, from the medieval ruins of the Katherinenkirche (Superfly) to Westfriedhof cemetery ( The Descendants) and the eighth-story level of a parking garage ( Drive).

Cinema Paris Selects Kinoton
Also in Berlin, Germany’s Kinoton recently equipped Cinema Paris with its full DCS Digital Cinema Solution with integrated Dolby server and a new micro-perforated screen. The cinema is located inside la Maison de France, right on the Kurfürstendamm not far away, in fact, from the Astor, another landmark-protected 325-seat palace. “The tradition-steeped theatre has already been relying on our projection equipment,” Kinoton said, citing its FP 30 and FP 38 film projectors. The latter will complement the new d-cinema system “to enable screenings of classic film material,” as Cinema Paris has acquired a reputation as one of Germany’s leading art and repertory cinemas. Originally intended for French-language films exclusively, and owned by the French government and operated by the Yorck Gruppe, Cinema Paris today is part of Europa Cinémas, broadening its reach across the Union.

Nourished by Art and Food
After an appetizing start at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milano, Italy, the International Migration Art Festival hosted a June stopover in New York City before heading on to London, England, for the Summer Olympics. Artistic director Rossella Canevari, who is also a writer and screenwriter, conceived the IMAFestival to “discover new talents while focusing the spotlight on the relevant issue of migration, especially on its cultural and social dimensions.” In her introduction to the catalog, she opined that to “Art Your Food” is not as complicated as it seems. “Nothing is more natural and enjoyable than these elements, the food that feeds us and the art that entertains us and raises us from our daily concerns.”

Presented by EatArt and IMAO, “nonprofit organizations promoting artistic talent in different cultural venues and art categories,” the festival presented a gallery exhibit with works by “New Italians” and celebrity chefs appearing in life-sized holograms alongside their Olympic sports-inspired dishes. The final evening provided an opportunity to meet finalists in the literature and film categories. At press time, this author’s favorite video had received way too few votes. Take a look at www.imafestival.com/artwork/130/Gabbiani/?lang=en.

BFI Makes Films Available Worldwide
Online video platform Distrify formed a partnership with the British Film Institute to bring to worldwide audiences some 300 films from the BFI Production Board Collection that were co-funded between 1950 and 2000. Film fans can watch and download films in the growing collection at http://bfi.muvies.com. Pioneered out of Scotland, Distrify provides global distribution “through building unique viral film sales platforms,” the company noted.

The Distrify model turns every trailer for a film into an instant VOD player allowing the consumer to click “rent” or “buy” rather than having to go and find where to do so. “Anyone can set up their own collection and share it with the world, earning kudos and cash for recommending films that you love,” Peter Gerard, one of the Distrify founders, elaborated. “Imagine you discovered an amazing British film from the 1960s. You are going to tell your friends about it, and via Distrify, you earn cash for sharing it legally.”

With tech coming from Cologne, Germany, 20 European film archives from 15 countries are contributing to one of the largest online film projects, digitizing more than 650 hours of materials related to World War I. Using reelport’s PicturePipe streaming technology, “EFG1914” will be available through Europeana (“Explore Europe’s cultural collections”) and the European Film Gateway.

Hosting the kick-off meeting in Frankfurt am Main, and coordinating the EU initiative, Deutsches Filminstitut noted how EFG has become an important source for finding some 500,000 films and film-related material from the archives and cinémathèques of Europe. During the 1910s, a considerable amount of film material covered the events of the Great War. Today, about four-fifths is estimated to have been lost, the Institut noted. While preserving the analog copies, digitizing what remains will make the films available over the next two years, just in time for the 2014 centenary. At the same time, “the project serves as a means of facilitating good practices of film digitization and digital preservation by pooling the individual archives’ considerable experience in this field.”

For more information and the complete list of participating institutions, go to www.project.efg1914.eu.