Milos Forman

At 77, two-time Oscar-winning director Milos Forman is abuzz with projects and still making movies, but says cash is hard to come by thanks to the credit crunch. The "Amadeus" and "One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest" director began work last year with friend and former Czech president Vaclav Havel on a geo-political movie of sorts revolving around the 1938 Munich agreement that helped shape World War II. But Forman, briefly in France for a festival in his honour before flying to Italy to head this week's Rome film festival jury, said "The Ghost of Munich" was in limbo and shooting delayed due to ... Read Full Story

Oscar-winning Hollywood director Milos Forman made an impassioned plea on Wednesday for greater copyright protection for film-makers, musicians and other artists, saying digital pirates were not "Robin Hoods" but "thieves." "The Internet today is functioning as a dreamlike supermarket where you can go and take anything your heart desires without paying for it," the director told delegates here at the 2nd World Copyright Summit. "It is so easy with a flip of the button at any time anywhere in the world to upload or download an entire film, musical composition, television program or book," he said. "The 'free Internet' folks are trying to convince ... Read Full Story

Oscar-winning director Milos Forman was welcomed as a star to his native Czech Republic Friday for the opening of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The filmmaker arrived to applause at a hotel in the western city for the opening ceremony, attended by Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Jan Fischer. During the festival, the 77-year-old will present the film version of "Well-Paid Stroll", a jazz opera that he directed in Prague's prestigious National Theatre. Forman fled into exile in 1968 from the former Czechoslovakia, first to France and then to the United States. He launched a stellar career as a Hollywood director ... Read Full Story

The 44th International Film Festival opened Friday in the Czech Republic with a week of events planned, including an award for French actress Isabelle Huppert and a world premiere by Milos Forman. The festival in the spa resort of Karlovy Vary features 220 movies this year, including Czech-born Forman's "A Walk Worthwhile," which the Oscar-winning director adapted from a 2007 staging of a 1960s Czech musical. The film will show Saturday. On Sunday, Huppert is to receive the Crystal Globe award for her outstanding contribution to world cinema. American screen legend Robert de Niro received the prize last year. Huppert is known for her ... Read Full Story

US filmmaker Milos Forman, 30 years after his second major screen success with the musical "Hair," will chair the jury at the 2009 Rome Film Festival in October, organisers announced Friday. "Milos Forman will be supported by six figures from show business and the arts including, for Italy, the director Gabriele Muccino and the architect Gae Aulenti," a festival communique said. Forman came to wide critical and public notice with his 1975 adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and in the 1980s brought Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" to the screen. His latest film, "Goya's Ghosts," was released in 2007. During ... Read Full Story