It was announced last fall that SIFF (the Seattle International Film Festival) was the 2012 recipient of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences multi-year grant for its African Pictures program, which comprises of a total of $150,000 over a three-year period - funds that will go toward...
Read More »Norway's Oscar-nominated Foreign-Language entry, the enjoyably supersized “Kon-Tiki,” follows the real-life adventures of explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who, in 1947, embarked on an eccentric mission across the Pacific Ocean, from Peru to Polynesia, on a wooden raft. His goal was to prove that Polynesia.....
Read More »Brit filmmaker Ben Wheatley had brought his prior two low-budget features, "Down Terrace" and "Kill List," to the Cannes market. Then he made his proper Cannes debut with "Sightseers" in the Director's Fortnight, an unexpected breakout during an unexceptional year. Then the film played the fest circ...
Read More »It never ocurred to me that the 2007 drama, Pride, which starred Terrence Howard, Kimberly Elise, Bernie Mac and others, was directed by a Zimbambwean filmmaker named Sunu Gonera. Film blogging wasn't anything I was doing at the time, and I think was more focused on filmmaking, so I don't recall i...
Read More »When we sat down with Matthew McConaughey last November, he looked scarily thin. He'd lost 38 pounds to prep for passion project "The Dallas Buyer's Club," about a straight man fighting HIV who becomes a dealer in unapproved drugs to stave off AIDS. (The film just landed a distributor.) The actor wa...
Read More »Veteran broadcast journalists Maiken Baird and Michelle Major spent four years obtaining access to the private world of tennis superstars the Williams sisters for "Venus and Serena," which debuted last week at the Toronto Film Festival. But when the tennis documentary finally premiered, it did so wi...
Read More »Change is good and Marjane Satrapi seems to thrive on it. She broke out in 2007 with the beloved, critically acclaimed, Oscar nominated "Persepolis," but has hardly made a predictable step since. Her followup was the fantastical live action tale "Chicken With Plums" and not long after came the comi...
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Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to the SXSW crowd-pleasing documentary "Good Ol' Freda," directed by Ryan White ("Pelada"). The film profiles Freda Kelly, The Beatles' lifelong secretary, who tells her story for the first time in 50 years over the course of the documentary.
Read More »Now in its eleventh year in Washington DC, AFI Docs presented by Audi (formerly Silverdocs) kicks off of on June 19th and runs until the 23rd. The documentary festival has just announced that their opening gala on the 19th will be a presentation of Bill Couturie's "Letters to Jackie" at the Newseum....
Read More »Our final dispatch from a deeply personal film festival.
Read More »This week, Michael Bay is going indie -- kinda -- with "Pain & Gain," his first non-"Transformers" movie in quite some time. And it seems theater owners aren't too happy about it. At last week's CinemaCon, Deadline revealed that after seeing the completed movie, some theater folks complained it was ...
Read More »Oh man, if this movie goes south like Shia LaBeouf's mooted Broadway turn with Alec Baldwin, those leaked emails are gonna be epic. Not that we would wish ill on a movie production, and if you look past the title, there is actually something potentially interesting brewing between LaBeouf and Robert...
Read More »Magnolia Pictures has snagged North American distribution rights to Ryan White's "Good ol' Freda," a documentary that tells the unsung story of Freda Kelly, The Beatles' secretary. Magnolia plans to release the film theatrically later this year.
Read More »To orient you to a filmmaker who's been away for far too long: If Wes Anderson’s central preoccupation is tightly-controlled diorama-like compositions, Tim Burton’s obsession is dark, kooky misfits, and Sofia Coppola’s fixation is alienated teenagers soundtracked to exquisite pop songs, then Laurie ...
Read More »Though Ray McKinnon won an Oscar for his 2001 short "The Accountant" and went to Sundance with his 2004 film "Chrystal," starring his late wife Lisa Blount and Billy Bob Thornton, he's best known for his work as an actor. He's a familiar face from features like "That Evening Sun" and the upcoming "M...
Read More »Sure, Sunday tends to be overcrowded with high-end TV, including "Mad Men," "Veep," "The Borgias," "Game of Thrones," "Nurse Jackie" and more, but what to watch the rest of the time? Every Monday, we bring you five noteworthy highlights from the other six days of the week.
Read More »Monday night, the Film Society at Lincoln Center in NY pays homage to Barbra Streisand for their 40th annual Chaplin Award Gala, which follows her recent performance of "The Way We Were" during the In Memoriam segment on the Academy Awards telecast.
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