Newport Beach Film Festival

The Newport Beach Film Festival announced the recipients of nearly 50 awards Thursday, the end of the eight-day festival, including the first ever MacGillivray Freeman Films Awards. The closing-night film, "A Beginner's Guide to Endings," directed by Jonathan Sobol, was named by the Jury Awards as Best Feature Film, according to the news release. The film also won in the same category for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematographer. The jury panel consisted of Academy Award-nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis, cinematographer Eric Roizman, Emmy Award-winning producer, writer and director Mary Lou Belli, creator of the Showtime's Soul Food series, Felicia D. Henderson, producer, writer and director Amanda Pope and UC Irvine Extension Director of Continuing Education Kirwan Rockefeller.

Two groups may receive more than 70% of the city's annual special event grants, if the Newport Beach City Council approves the city staff recommendations Tuesday. Combined, the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Newport Beach Film Festival are likely to receive about $130,000 of the total $180,000 allocated for community events, based on outlined recommendations in a staff report prepared for Tuesday's council meeting. The chamber produces the Christmas Boat Parade and the Taste of Newport each year.

Mary O'Hara's popular novel "My Friend Flicka," a beloved, coming of age family classic about a rider's passionate connection with a wild horse — has enchanted children and adults for more than 70 years. And now, the next chapter of the saga unfolds with "Flicka: Country Pride," the third installment of the contemporary film adaptations. Back by popular demand, "Flicka: Country Pride" galloped on to Blu-ray and DVD on May 1 exclusively at Walmart, Sam's Club and Walmart.com , courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Here is the official list of award winners for this year's Newport Beach Film Festival, which wrapped up May 3 after screening some 450 films from 50 countries: * Jury Awards Best Feature Film: "Apartment In Athens" Best Actor: Gerasimos Skiadaresis ("Apartment In Athens") Best Actress: Mélanie Laurent ("The Day I Saw Your Heart") Best Director: Jennifer Devoldère ("The Day I Saw Your Heart") Best Cinematographer: Vladan Radovic ("Apartment In Athens" Best Screenplay: Ruggero Dipaola, Heldrun Schleef ("Apartment In Athens")

The foreign feature film "Apartment in Athens" won big during the 13th annual Newport Beach Film Festival juried competition, taking away four awards in multiple categories. The film, also known as "Appartamento ad Atene," won for Best Feature Length Film, Best Actor (Gerasimos Skiadaresis), Best Cinematography (Vladen Radovic) and Best Screenplay (Ruggero Dipaola, Heldrun Schleef). "It is an immense joy, both for me and the screenplay [writer], the director of photography and the actor," Dipaola, the film's director and co-writer, said via email from Italy on Thursday.

The 2012 Newport Beach Film Festival overcame an opening weekend plagued by late starts, eventually sorting out the technical difficulties that gave projectionists trouble, organizers said. The festival was to wrap up on Thursday night, but the large majority of showings since Monday were trouble-free, festival co-founder Todd Quartararo said. "After the few bumps during the opening weekend, technical problems have been at a minimum or nonexistent," he said. Theaters at Fashion Island and Triangle Square reportedly had some of the worst difficulties.

The 13th annual Newport Beach Film Festival will close Thursday night to a sold-out crowd at the world premier of "Shanghai Calling" at the Regency Lido Theatre. Written and directed by Daniel Hsia, the romantic drama stars Daniel Henney ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine," 2009), Eliza Coupe ("What's Your Number?" 2011), Bill Paxton, Alan Ruck, Geng Le and Zhu Zhu. The story follows Henney as Sam, a young Chinese American lawyer, who must go to Shanghai on business where cultural differences and a dramatic event threatens his career and love life.

"Songs for Amy," the debut feature film from Irish director Konrad Begg that premiered this week at the Newport Beach Film Festival, opens with a quotation. "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. " Begg treats Aldous Huxley's epigram more as hypothesis than comment. His movie is as much about that silence as it is about the music. His protagonist, Sean O'Malley (played by Sean Maguire), is an inarticulate singer-songwriter. Sean falls in love with a girl called Amy (Lorna Anderson)

While most parents think to check the liquor cabinet or smell their teen's breath after a party, some are realizing that youths are turning to a much more elusive drug. Without a thought, you see it everyday when you open the medicine cabinet and brush your teeth: prescription drugs. "Behind The Orange Curtain," Brent Huff's first documentary to hit the big screen, examines the abuse of prescription drugs by chronicling the stories of 15 Orange County families, and speaks to addicts and parents.

"The Ice Dragon" is a family movie. That doesn't mean the same thing to Swedish director Martin Högdahl as it might to an American audience. For one thing, no American family movie would have an 11-year-old protagonist so often by name refer to his dad's heavy metal band, The "M******s. " Högdahl says he's aiming at an "audience of kids aged 8 to 12. Sweden hasn't had many good films in that age group. " " The Ice Dragon " is a family movie not because it's packed with kid-safe genre conventions; it isn't.

With the veil lifted, theater buffs were some of the first to see inside the renovated Port Theater during the building's sneak preview Saturday.  The historic Corona del Mar film house hosted filmmaking seminars during the annual Newport Beach Film Festival.  Audience members oohed and aahed as wood-paneled doors opened to the public for the first time since the theater closed in 1998. One of the few remaining single-screen cinemas, the Port was originally built in the 1950s.