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Slamdance’s Big Footprint in Hollywood: First-time Directors Have Grossed $10.618 Billion
19 hours ago
Feeling self-satisfied and/or congested from your annual Sundance winter camp? I’ve got news for you: Hollywood doesn’t care about another head-scratching indie with pigs in it, or an over-hyped VOD deal from a company you’ve never heard of for a film no one will ever see. Nope. Hollywood counts success in dollars, rubles and yuans. The films in Park City may not spin the world’s turnstyles, but the filmmakers who make them most definitely will. At the Slamdance Film Festival, a snowball’s throw across the street from Sundance, we’ve been saying for 20 years that our focus is on discovering […] »
- Dan Mirvish
Berlinale 2014: Josephine Decker on Thou Wast Mild and Lovely and Butter on the Latch.
20 hours ago
At every festival, there are “did you see that?” moments which create a buzz among audiences and critics. One such early example at this year’s Berlinale came midway through Josephine Decker’s hypnotic, farm-set thriller Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, when the point of view of a violent, ambiguously-rendered sexual encounter suddenly switches to that of a cow, through whose eyes we see the next few scenes. It’s a playful, idiosyncratic touch which recalls the chimp’s flashback in Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, although it would be wrong to attempt to draw obvious comparisons between Thou Wast Mild and Lovely and […] »
- Ashley Clark
“The Misery of Some People:” Paolo Sorrentino on The Great Beauty
7 February 2014 10:52 AM, PST
Since its premiere at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty has enjoyed much critical and theatrical success — alongside the more unwanted La Dolce Vita comparisons and projected criticism of the Berlusconi era. In speaking with the filmmaker behind this alternately bombastic and meditative examination of a writer adrift in the eternal and ostentatious city, however, one senses that Sorrentino’s intentions were not nearly as biting as some have gathered. Yes, there is a Bishop more infatuated with food than God, a woman who strips for the love of the profession, a child who earns millions by having […] »
- Sarah Salovaara
Apocalypse School: John Huddles on After the Dark
7 February 2014 9:55 AM, PST
Titled The Philosophers in Europe, John Huddles’ most recent film After the Dark is a sneakily beautiful, remarkably thoughtful rumination on the final day of school for a portion of Abercrombie & Fitch photo shoot-ready philosophy students at an international school in Indonesia who engage in a thought experiment with their equally fetching professor (James D’Arcy). The experiment? Were the world to be nearly destroyed that very day by nuclear war, who amongst the group would be chosen to take shelter in a bunker, one too small for all of them, during the atomic holocaust and be charged with repopulating the world? Feelings are hurt, suppositions about […] »
- Brandon Harris
With 4K GH4, Panasonic Comes Out Swinging
7 February 2014 3:09 AM, PST
Tetraphobia is the east Asian practice of avoiding the number 4 because it sounds like the word for death. But to ignore 4K would be certain death for any manufacturer serious about digital motion imaging. It was only a matter of time before Panasonic dropped the other shoe. A couple of hours ago Panasonic announced the Lumix Dmc-GH4, a small but explosive shot across the bow of rival 4K and Ultra HD camera technologies. It was a mere few weeks after they had revealed under glass a prototype 4K “Gh Next” single-lens mirrorless camera at CES in Las Vegas. But a […] »
- David Leitner
Sffs Announces Documentary Film Fund Finalists
6 February 2014 12:40 PM, PST
The San Francisco Film Society has announced this year’s finalists for the Documentary Film Fund, which is set to divy up $75,000 next month. Open to nonfiction films in post-production, the Fund has previously supported such Sundance titles as Narco Cultura, American Promise and the Oscar-nominated Cutie and the Boxer. Making the list is Western, the Ross Brothers’ follow-up to Tchoupitoulas, and Blood Brother director Steve Hoover’s Gennadly. The Fund is made possible by Jennifer Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation, and you can view the full list of finalists below. Anatomy of an American Dream — John Ryan Johnson, director Antoine Hood is a charismatic 28-year-old former college basketball […] »
- Sarah Salovaara
Airborne Footage from the 6K Red Dragon
6 February 2014 9:41 AM, PST
A few weeks back, I posted a breakdown of the camera packages selected by this year’s Oscar-nominated cinematographers. Red was nowhere to be found. After a long delayed release, the 6K Red Dragon finally hit shelves this summer alongside some pretty nice test footage from Mark Toia. Making another case for Arri’s underling is some new airborne footage from Freefly, shot with a 11-16 mm lens. In places, the images are so clean, they almost look computer generated. »
- Sarah Salovaara
True/False Announces Full 2014 Slate
6 February 2014 9:17 AM, PST
The True/False Film Fest today announced its full 2014 program, just days after grabbing headlines for its innovative Pay the Artists! program.The festival takes place in Columbia Mo, between February 27 and March 2. Among the 43 films unveiled are a number of world premieres, including Robert Greene’s Actress, a portrait of Brandy Burre (best known for The Wire) which seems perfect for the fest’s embrace of the blurring of lines between nonfiction and fiction, and Kitty Green’s Ukraine is Not A Brothel, about the radical feminist nudist group Femen. Also playing for the first time are Amanda Wilder’s film […] »
- Nick Dawson
Mohammad Gorjestani’s “25 New Faces” Tour Photo Diary
5 February 2014 1:30 PM, PST
Last November, three short filmmakers from our 2013 “25 New Faces” hit the road for a special traveling screening series, sponsored by Arri and Sony Creative, with myself in tow. Anahita Ghazvinizadeh (Needle), Mohammad Gorjestani (Refuge) and Scott Blake (Surveyor) played their films in six Midwest cities across six days, with myself in tow as Q&A moderator/tour manager/nanny. It was a unique and extremely memorable experience to be part of the tour, and you can now get an inkling of what went on at that time by checking out Gorjestani’s just-posted photo diary on Exposure, which is well worth your time. »
- Nick Dawson
Submissions Open for Ifp Independent Filmmaker Labs
5 February 2014 12:00 PM, PST
Debut directors with either documentary or narrative features in post-production should highly consider submitting to the Ifp Independent Filmmaker Labs. Their track record – An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Blue Caprice, Concussion, Our Nixon, Pariah, to name a few — speaks for itself. A year-long mentorship program, the Labs are designed to support filmmakers through the lengthly process of completing, marketing and distributing their first films. Available exclusively to features with a budget under $1 million, the Labs pair filmmakers with leading industry personnel for three distinct programs throughout 2014. You can read more about the program and apply here. The deadline for documentaries […] »
- Sarah Salovaara
Freezing Filmgoing in Tromsø and the Phenomenon of Site-Specific Cinema
5 February 2014 12:00 PM, PST
The Tromsø International Film Festival has always pushed the boundary when it comes to open-air cinema. The only international film festival that takes place in the Arctic Circle has a Winter Cinema, an open-air cinema with sofas positioned on top of the snow in front of a large screen with picturesque hilltops on the horizon. Most of the program is made up of short films made for children that play in the dark afternoons, but this year Festival Director Martha Otto put on a late-night screening of Dead Snow to boot. It added a new challenge for the audience, to […] »
- Kaleem Aftab
The Radiant Godfather’s Trusty Sarcophagus: A Requiem for René Ricard
5 February 2014 11:45 AM, PST
Lipstick Traces René Ricard, Massachussets-born poet, painter, art critic and Warhol superstar, died February 1 after a battle with cancer, and the Botticellian angels quarrel, seeking revery as trumpets blare in heavenly jubilee for a luminous child. Ricard was published as a teen in the Paris Review in 1967. During the ’70s and ’80s, his articles for Artforum magazine helped launch the careers of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel and Francesco Clemente. Upon meeting the pop artist Andy Warhol and his protégée, Edie Sedgwick, Ricard found his feral adopted family and went on to appear in the 1965 film […] »
- Michele Civetta
SXSW Announces Midnighters and Shorts Lineups
5 February 2014 11:00 AM, PST
Coming off the heels of last week’s announcement, SXSW rounds out their lineup with the Midnighters and Shorts sections. As was the case with the bulk of the festival’s Features, there’s not a huge carry over from Sundance, beyond Adam Wingard’s The Guest and Jonathan’s Chest, Person to Person, Notes on Blindness, Funnel, Dig, Verbatim and Marilyn Myller in the Shorts section. Also of note are 25 New Faces Mohammad Gorjestani and ornana’s Danny Madden, who will screen Refuge and Confusion Through Sand, respectively. Check out the full list of Midnighters; Narrative, Documentary, Animated, Midnight, Texas and Texas High School Shorts; and Music Videos below. Midnighters Scary, funny, sexy, controversial – […] »
- Sarah Salovaara
“I Jumped on a Running Train:” Interim Artistic Director Mart Dominicus on Rotterdam 2014
5 February 2014 10:15 AM, PST
The Artistic Director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam since 2008, Rutger Wolfson had begun work on this year’s edition of the festival, the 43rd, when fate interceded. In November, Wolfson was hospitalized with a rare autoimmune disease. (Happily, he is expected to make a full recovery.) With the festival two months away from its starting date, Mart Dominicus — a lecturer at the Netherlands Film Academy, a screenplay and editing coach, and a member of the festival’s Supervisory Board since 2010 — stepped in to become Artistic Director for this year’s festival. At the festival’s end, Filmmaker sat down […] »
- Laya Maheshwari
“25 New Faces” Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair Launch Latest High Maintenance Episode, “Matilda”
5 February 2014 8:21 AM, PST
Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, from 2013 crop of “25 New Faces,” have just debuted the latest episode of their awesome and very funny web series High Maintenance. “Matilda” deviates a little from the usual rules of the show as Sinclair’s unnamed pot dealer is for the first time the central figure in the story, and the action extends beyond its usual environs of New York City. For regular watchers of the show, there are also some welcome return appearances by notable characters from previous episodes; to say more would only be ruining things… »
- Nick Dawson
January 24, 2014 Captured by 100 iPhones Around the World
4 February 2014 1:39 PM, PST
Jake Scott, filmmaker and son of a man named Ridley, directed this 30th Anniversary spot for Apple, showcasing the cinematographic capabilities of an iPhone 5S. Shot on 100 smartphones around the world, “1.24.14″ depicts a day in the life of Mac products and their users, that is equal parts horrifying and awe-inspiring given the Macintosh’s ubiquity. Culled from more than 70 hours of footage, the ad was cut by 21 editors under the guide of regular David Fincher collaborator, Angus Wall. »
- Sarah Salovaara
Interview with Vic + Flo Saw a Bear Director Denis Côté
4 February 2014 9:30 AM, PST
Quebecois filmmaker Denis Côté makes an unassuming, unabashedly regional kind of cinema, drawing on the rhythms and landscapes of his native province. It’s taken him a long time to get attention south of the border – I had to travel to the Toronto Film Festival to see his first film, Drifting States. He seemed to have a breakthrough of sorts in the U.S. with Curling, which at least got some attention on the festival circuit and was acquired by New Yorker Films, who never released it. Bestiaire, a semi-documentary shot in a Montreal zoo, got him more attention, and Vic […] »
- Steven Erickson
The Paragon of Audience Outreach? Robbie Bryan Talks Black Hat
4 February 2014 9:00 AM, PST
Any panel, roundtable or seminar that concerns technological advancements in film is bound to hit upon the issue of audience engagement. How we can best make use of the embarrassment of riches the internet affords us in finding the right people to watch our film. Filmmaker Robbie Bryan has managed to collect (at the time of this writing) 235,427 Facebook likes for his upcoming film Black Hat, that’s still only in the development stage. He’s leveraged his fan base into an ambitious Seed & Spark campaign, interacting with them along the way and soliciting their input in the shaping of his […] »
- Sarah Salovaara
True/False Film Fest Announces Innovative “Pay the Artists!” Program
4 February 2014 7:30 AM, PST
Today, the True/False Film Fest‘s Paul Sturtz and David Wilson announced the launch of their organization’s innovative (and highly laudable) “Pay the Artists!” program. The heads of the 10-year-old Columbia, Mo-based festival (which runs February 27 – March 2), initiated the patronage program as a way of helping to sustain the documentary film ecosystem, and this year will be offering $450 to the filmmaking teams who attend the festival. (T/F already covers travel, accommodation and food expenses.) It is Sturtz and Wilson’s hope that in the next few years, this amount will increase to $1,000. There has long been a […] »
- Nick Dawson
Commissioning Music for Short Films – 10 Questions a Director Might Ask
3 February 2014 2:01 PM, PST
The following is a guest post written by composer Kim Halliday, a U.K.-based composer who has written music for shorts, features, documentary and fiction. You can find his work at www.kimhalliday.com, under “Kim Halliday – Music” on Facebook, and @hallidayk on Twitter. Many film composers learn their trade by scoring short films. Many continue to score short films, and many never get an opportunity to score a full feature. The truth is that there are many challenges for a composer with a short – how do you get coherent themes into so few cues, for example, and how do you […] »
- Kim Halliday
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