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The Doctors Are In: Sundance Ponders New Distribution Solutions
Inspired by an indieWIRE article last fall, the forum featured some 15 panelists speaking to the changing nature of independent film distribution and offering solutions and information for the near future.
Queers, Tears and Cheers: Prop 8 Doc Rallies Sundance Audience
One woman got an intense round of applause as she stood up and admitted that, although she was practicing Mormon, she fully supported same-sex marriage and suggested there was hope for her church.
Kristen Stewart and “The Runaways” Hit Park City
“Very surreal. But in a good way.” That’s how rock icon Joan Jett summed up seeing her story brought to the big screen at the premiere of Floria Sigismondi’s “The Runaways” last night at the Sundance Film Festival.
Lynette Howell: “Are we looking at every option, or are we taking the easy way out?”
Independent producing is not a job you can interview for, nor does anyone really give us a road map.
Duplass Brothers Score at Sundance With Bizarrely Hilarious “Cyrus”
“We came here first in 2003 with a short film called ‘This is John’ that we shot for three dollars in our kitchen in Austin, Texas,” they said. “And now we’re here with this movie. It’s awesome.”
Holofcener Brings Life Experience & Dynamic Words to “Please Give”
Holofcener’s smart and entertaining script deftly combines sass, issues of self-esteem, commitment, body issues and contradicting moral ambiguity, which brings dynamism and sparks to the crowd pleaser.
“happythankyoumoreplease” Is a Sundance Crowd Pleaser
As for Radnor, he appeared to relish the feedback as anyone would at Sundance following a great screening, and he credited his actors for the film’s great play.
James Franco: “I Never Thought I Would Be Playing Allen Ginsberg”
“But I never thought I would be playing Allen Ginsberg. I thought I would be playing one of the other ones but [Epstein and Friedman’s] approach seemed so great and I guess I thought if they have faith that I can do it, I guess I’ll give it a shot.”
In “The Oath,” Poitras Poignantly, Quietly Questions Her Country
Yet, the more you ponder “The Oath,” the clearer its message becomes: America imprisoned a man with little apparent connection to the 9/11 attacks and swiftly released an Al Qaeda recruiter who claims a close connection to Osama bin Laden while driving his taxi in Yemen.
Messy “Hesher” Disappoints in Sundance Debut
Representatives from numerous distributions - from Focus Features to Summit Entertainment - were in attendance, though reaction might suggest a buyer’s frenzy is not on the horizon.
Sundance Shorts: Thirteen Must-See Student Films
Actor-turned-NYU-student James Franco wrote and directed “Herbert White,” a 14-minute rural tale of mystery and deception that officially world premieres in Shorts Program III after previewing at Sundance’s Down and Dirty Los Angeles screening a few months earlier.
Redford & Cooper Eye Future as Sundance Opens
“My films are all about America - my country fascinates me. That’s who I am,” Redford said, “[And] the festival is enormously pleasing and there’s some legacy there I guess, but the most satisfying thing is actually ‘doing it.’”
Into the Future: Anticipating the Good & Bad of Sundance 2010
Confusing times call for desperate measures. Sundance’s programmers, undoubtedly acting with the best of intentions, have provided a whimsical category to help boost the stature of smaller movies less likely to catch the wave of festival buzz.
Sundance Roundtable, Parts 3 & 4: “Who’s the audience?”
“Who’s the audience,” she heard people wonder. “It kind of pisses me off,” she said during a roundtable conversation with a leading group of producers at Sundance ‘09.
Sundance Roundtable, Parts 1 & 2: Movies and Movie Screens, Large and Small
Success earlier in the decade is what hurt smaller independent films later in the decade,” veteran producer and executive Maud Nadler told a group of colleagues last year, during a roundtable at the Sundance Film Festival.
REVIEWS
Highs & Lows of Sundance: “Gift Shop,” “GasLand” Lead Critics Poll
As the 2010 Sundance Film Festival closes in on its final weekend, indieWIRE‘s poll of dozens of Park City-present critics and bloggers is quickly making clear the best and worst of this year’s fest.
REVIEW | The Toxic Avenger: Josh Fox’s “GasLand”
osh Fox’s “GasLand” is the paragon of first person activist filmmaking done right.
REVIEW | Drama in Absence: “Winter’s Bone”
An elegant, soft spoken noir, Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” exudes desolation. Adapting Daniel Woodrell’s novel of the same name, Granik simultaneously develops a dreary backwoods environment while situating her layered story of deceit within it.
REVIEW | Cholodenko’s “All Right” with Forward Moving Family Film
Although at times predictable, the movie never loses its forward momentum, mainly due to its precise focus on familial stability.
REVIEW | When Social Media Attack: Arial Schulman and Henry Joost’s “Catfish”
While “Catfish” takes an sensationally engaging twist within the first fifteen minutes, leading to a bizarre and completely unpredictable mystery that practically defies conventional expectations of nonfiction cinema, part of the movie’s underlying appeal comes from its progression of enigmas.
REVIEW | Cinema of Attraction: Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine”
Gosling and Williams put on some of the best performances of their careers, conveying a series of complex sentiments with subtle movements and gestures.
REVIEW | “Smash His Camera”: Capturing the Phantom of Twentieth-Century Show Business
“Smash His Camera” exposes less about its subject than it first seems; instead, he emphasizes the mythology surrounding Galella’s work.
REVIEW | Almost a Masterpiece: “Four Lions” an Explosive Comedy
Shot with a handheld documentary style, “Four Lions” contains an engine of rapid-fire dialogue reminiscent of last year’s hit British satire, “In the Loop.”
REVIEW | Waititi’s Remarkably Insightful “Boy” Succeeds On Many Levels
Like the British director Shane Meadows, Waititi demonstrates a keen ability to tap into the whims of the adolescent male mind and take them at face value.
REVIEW | Counterculture Fetishization With Familiar Faces: Sundance’s “Howl”
Although “Howl” technically didn’t provide Sundance with its opening night film—it was one of two competition films screened on opening night—it reeks of the stigma associated with the aforementioned slot: Poorly executed, socially relevant counterculture fetishization executed with a few familiar faces.
NEWS
“Winter’s Bone,” “Restrepo” Lead Sundance Award Winners
Closing its 2010 edition in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival presented its annual awards.
Roadside Warms to “Winter’s Bone”
Roadside Attractions has picked up all North American rights Sundance 2010 U.S. Dramatic Competition feature “Winter’s Bone” by Debra Granik.
IFC Buys Controversial Winterbottom Movie
Michael Winterbottom’s “The Killer Inside Me”, a film that stoked controversy when it debuted here at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week, has been acquired for U.S. distribution by IFC Films.
UPDATED: Weinstein Deal for “Blue Valentine”
An acclaimed entry from the dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival, Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine,” has been acquired by The Weinstein Company, a film rep confirmed this morning.
Focus Seals “Kids” Deal at Sundance
Nine films, including Sundance 2010 feature “One Too Many Mornings,” have allied with The Film Collaborative, a new non-profit group that aims to provide a range of services, including distribution and social networking services.
UPDATE: New Non-Profit Aims to Rep & Support Indie Films
Nine films, including Sundance 2010 feature “One Too Many Mornings,” have allied with The Film Collaborative, a new non-profit group that aims to provide a range of services, including distribution and social networking services.
Sundance and NHK Announce 2010 Filmmaker Awards
Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) announced the winners of the 2010 Sundance / NHK International Filmmakers Awards.
“Drunk History” Leads Sundance Shorts Winners
The Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was awarded to “Drunk History: Douglass & Lincoln,” directed by Jeremy Konner, written by Derek Waters, and starring Don Cheadle andWill Ferrell.
Sundance Surprise: Banksy’s “Gift Shop”
“‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ is one of those films that comes along once in a great while, a warped hybrid of reality and self -induced fiction while at the same time a totally entertaining experience,” said John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, in a statement.
Five Sundance Films, 3 From This Year’s Fest, Coming to YouTube This Week
YouTube, which is sponsoring the Festival’s new NEXT section for lower-budget indie films, reached out to filmmakers in the sidebar and signed non-exclusive revenue share deals with the filmmakers, making their movies available only during the festival for a $3.99 three-day rental price
3 More Sundance Films Set for Immediate VOD Debut
Dubbed, “Direct from the Sundance Film Festival,” the Sundance Selects initiative will make the three films available to 40 million cable households for thirty days, starting on the day that each movie debuts at the festival.
SLAMDANCE
“Snow and Ashes” & “American Jihadist” Top Slamdance
“Slamdance 16 celebrated, as always, the best in independent film and emerging talent,” said Peter Baxter.
DISPATCH FROM SLAMDANCE | Against Contrived Road Movies and Meet-Cute Romanticism
With these low budget features, Slamdance succeeds at demonstrating the capacity for strong cinematic storytelling with an economy of means—the alleged intent of Sundance’s recently launched “NEXT” section.
INTERVIEWS
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Sundance ‘10 | “Blue Valentine” Director Cianfrance On the Film’s 11 Year Road
“I implemented a rigorous process during the preparation and making of the film - everything from writing a manifesto which laid out separate rules to filming each of the two threads of the film to living with the actors in their characters’ home during a hiatus in our production. The goal of this process was to make a film that allowed for surprises and captured fleeting moments with the performers.”
Sundance ‘10 | Drake Doremus Talks “Douchebag”
“I think the biggest challenge was not having a locked script that I was going out to execute. It’s freeing in a way to just go get great stuff but it all has to fit into the story I am telling and it was scary at times knowing I was going out without a safety net.”
Sundance ‘10 | “The Dry Land” Director Ryan Williams Focuses on Authenticity
“After I wrote my script, I asked many soldiers to read it and comment on the authenticity of it. They helped me tremendously in making even the small details feel true to a soldier’s life.”
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