Author: Mark Shaffer

Two-time Oscar winner Arthur Schmidt to receive Jean Ribaut Award for Excellence in Film Editing By Mark Shaffer “The essence of cinema is editing. It’s the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.”       – Francis Ford Coppola, Director, The Godfather Coal Miner’s Daughter. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Back to the Future 1,2 &3. Cast Away. The Last of the Mohicans. The Birdcage. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Forrest Gump. All of these films (and a good many more) have something in common.

UNCSA dominates BIFF Student Film Category By Mark Shaffer This year’s Beaufort International Film Festival comes with what Vegas odds makers would call a mortal lock: the Student Film trophy will go back to Winston-Salem. All eight finalists hail from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

The 8th Annual Beaufort International Film Festival Returns February 12-15 By Mark ShafferFor most of a decade now Ron and Rebecca Tucker have done something a lot of people around here would consider nuts. Each February, in the absolute dead of winter, in the lowest slump of the off-season in the Lowcountry, they put on a film festival. Crazier still, they expect people to show up for it, buy tickets, book hotel rooms and spend their money in the local shops, restaurants and bars. And here’s the really crazy part: it’s worked. Hell, it’s boomed.