MoMA's "Global Queer Cinema"

The Museum of Modern Art will present "Another Wave: Global Queer Cinema," an exhibition of 56 international gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender film and media works produced since the late 1980s. The exhibition includes nonfiction, fiction, experimental shorts and feature films by filmmakers such as Francois Ozon ("Water Drops on Burning Rocks, 1999), Isaac Julien ("Young Soul Rebels," 1991), and Ulrike Ottinger ("Johanna d' Arc of Mongolia," 1989). Special programs devoted to the work of New York-based filmmaker Jim Hubbard, a series of personal films about AIDS, and a series dealing with issues of homosexuality and national identity conclude the exhibition. The program will be presented in two parts: July 5 through 21 and September 1 through 16. [Brian Brooks] 
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AP: Al Gore's Documentary Wins Special Award

The Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" (directed by Davis Guggenheim) will receive a rare recognition from the Humanitas Prize, which honors screenwriting that helps "liberate, enrich and unify society." "An Inconvenient Truth," which chronicles Gore's quest to draw attention to global warming, will receive the organization's first Special Award in over 10 years, president Frank Desiderio announced Wednesday. "It's a very important film," he said in a statement. "We want to shine a light on it." AP reports. 
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LA TIMES: Hollywood's backyard bash

The Los Angeles FIlm Festival kicked off in LA last night, moving to Westwood for the first timed. "So many people in L.A. are, quite frankly, ground down by life in the industry," Film Independent exec director Dawn Hudson told the LA Times, in a fest preview article. "We want to remind them why they came here in the first place. We want to remind them that it was for a love of film." 
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"Refugee All Stars" Tonight in NYC

The festival favorite documentary "The Refugee All Stars," by Zach Niles and Banker White, will screen for free at SummerStage at New York City's Central Park tonight, following a performance by the band from Sierra Leone. The doc, which has played at AFI Fest, SXSW, True/False and many others, is the story of the group of six musicians who fled the country and began playing together in Guinea. It follows three years in their lives as they return home to record their first album there. For more information, visit the SummerStage website.  
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IFP To Honor Cuban & Wagner at '06 Gothams

IFP announced today that it will honor 2929 Entertainment's Todd Wagner & Mark Cuban with a Gotham Award at the 16th Annual Gotham Awards ceremony, November 29th in Manhattan. Through their Wagner/Cuban Companies the duo own 2929, Landmark Theaters, Magnolia Pictures, and HDNet Films, among other holdings. They recently produced Good Night and Good Luck, and Akeelah and the Bee. "I cannot think of more deserving honorees than both Todd and Mark," said IFP's Executive Director Michelle Byrd, in a stateemnt. "Both exemplify true passion for bringing independent cinema to mainstream America. They are proven leaders in cutting-edge technology, delivering quality entertainment in unique and innovative formats. They are visionaries that have introduced exciting and new distribution models and who continue to showcase tremendous diversity in the films they produce, release and exhibit." Nominees for competitive prizes at the Gotham Awards will be announced in October. Entry forms for the categories are available on the IFP website. [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Awards Watch, Honors ]

The Guardian Interview: Cillian Murphy

He has won over fans, directors and fellow actors alike and his latest film, Ken Loach's "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", won the Palme d'Or last month at the Festival de Cannes. The 30-year-old Irishman, recently named one of Hollywood's most valuable players, tells Sean O'Hagan that the fame game is "all about having your head screwed on." 
[permalink]   [ filed under People ]

SF360: Tuesday: Julian Hernandez's "Broken Sky" and Joao Pedro Rodrigues's "Two Drifters" at the SF LGBT Film Festival

Two of the more ambitious movies at this year's San Francisco International LGBT Film Festivalprove that the handy (perhaps overly so) critical phrase "sophomore slump" is never entirely true. If even true at all: Joao Pedro Rodrigues's "Two Drifters," a follow-up to his 2000 debut feature "O Fantasma," is magnificent, and reflective of a formidable talent in bloom -- it's still not fully clear what more Rodrigues has to offer, because he's added twisted humor and unique spirituality to the carnal urban exploration of his first movie. Johnny Ray Huston reports. 
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals, Queer Cinema ]

IFC Films and fuse to Co-Release "Brothers of the Head"

IFC Films and music television network fuse, announced Tuesday that Lou Pepe and Keith Fulton's rock-odyssey feature, "Brothers of the Head," will open in theatres as a co-release on July 28th at the IFC Center in New York, followed by the NuArt in L.A. August 4th as well as other select locations. The project marks IFC Films and fuse's first co-release and fuse's first foray into feature films. Both entities are Rainbow Media companies. IFC and fuse will collaborate on all marketing initiatives with fuse dedicating substantial airtime to content premieres, special promotions and exclusive clips. The fuse brand will be incorporated in all film-related advertising and promotional materials and the two properties will work together on securing additional initiatives and creating word of mouth campaigns aimed at the mutual target audience. The film is also expected to makes its broadcast debut on fuse in the first quarter of 2007. [Brian Brooks]  
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Sony Classics Acquires Francis Verber's "The Valet" for U.S.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired from Gaumont the U.S. rights to "The Valet" (La Doublure) directed and written by Francis Veber ("The Closet"). According to SPC, “'The Valet' focuses around Veber's reoccurring protagonist Francois Pignon, who this time is played by Gad Elmaleh. Pignon and his best friend Richard (Dany Boon) are unassuming car valets at a posh Paris restaurant. After a paparazzi photograph of tycoon Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil) is published kissing the famous Elena, (Alice Taglioni) who also happens to be his mistress, the tycoon needs an airtight excuse to avert his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) from divorcing him. Egged on by his lawyer Maitre Foix (Richard Berry), Levasseur offers Pignon a large sum of money to pretend to be Elena's lover. Pignon, whose proposal of marriage was just turned down by his childhood sweetheart Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen), accepts." "We are thrilled to be doing this deal with Francis Veber and our friends at Gaumont," commented SPC co-presidents Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and EVP, acquisitions and production, Dylan Leiner in a joint statement. "Francis Veber's new movie shows he has not lost his exceptional touch in creating inventive and human laugh out loud comedy featuring brilliant performances. 'The Valet' will give great pleasure to many, many people." [Brian Brooks]  
[permalink]   [ filed under Acquisitions ]

Echo Lake Adds Management Unit

Mike Marcus will join the renamed Echo Lake Entertainment to head the newly formed Echo Lake Management. Echo Lake founder and president Doug Mankoff will continue to run the finance and production operation with EVP Andrew Spaulding. Amotz Zakai will serve as a VP at Echo Lake Management. Clients joining Echo Lake from Marcus' Cornice Entertainment include Deepa Mehta, Dover Kosashvilli, Toa Fraser, Paul Brickman, Jeremiah Chechik, Howard Deutch, Frederic Raphael, and David Ward. [Eugene Hernandez]  
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"Balance" and "Holiday Beach" Receive $25K McKnight Artist Fellowship Grants

IFP Minnesota announced the two recipients of The McKnight Artist Fellowship for Screenwriters Competition. Zach Hammill's "Balance" is about a man who travels constantly for work in order to avoid problems at home. On a routine trip he meets Gillian, a radio producer who hides troubles of her own behind a mask of constant cheer. Together, they attempt to figure out each other, their families, and themselves. Steven Larson and Gary Jenneke's "Holiday Beach" is a drama based upon events that took place on a desolate Navy radio base on Kodiak Island, Alaska in 1962. It recounts the terror faced by young sailors at the hand of a fellow sailor and psychopath - all framed against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis. The competition is a partnership between IFP Minnesota and the McKnight Foundation awarding $25,000 fellowships to two Minnesota filmmakers annually. The program recognizes Minnesota artists for "talent in working with film/video as demonstrated by two examples of completed, original works in any of the genres and formats of narrative, documentary, experimental, or animation in feature or short lengths." The program is intended to support mid-career artists by providing financial assistance, professional encouragement and industry recognition. [Brian Brooks] 
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"A Simple Curve" and "Trials of Darryl Hunt" Take Top Nantucket Prizes

The 11th annual Nantucket Film Festival wrapped Sunday night with Aubrey Nealon's "A Simple Curve" winning the fest's writer/director award.  The audience awards were given to Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's "The Trials of Darryl Hunt" for best feature and David Dean Bottrell's "Available Men" for best short. Showtime's Tony Cox Award for best screenplay was given to Sophie Barthes' "Cold Souls."  Barthes' film, "Happiness" also won Showtime's Tony Cox Award for Best Screenwriting of a short film. Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's "Half Nelson" won Showtime's Tony Cox Award for Best Screenwriting of a feature film. [Brian Brooks]  
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals ]

The Top Ten So Far...

Each Monday, indieWIRE receives the final weekend numbers for specialty releases in theaters. This is our top ten for the past weekend so far, with most numbers already in. The top ten is subject to change before the final chart is published tomorrow and the weekly box office column is written. three day weekend box office data provided by Rentrak as of Monday, 6:00 p.m. ET. 1. "Wordplay" (IFC Films) $32,847 wknd ($16,424 per scrn) 2. "Pandora's Box" (Kino) $9,950 wknd ($9,950 per scrn) 3. "Lower City (Cidade Baixa)" (Palm Pictures) $8,199 wknd ($8,199 per scrn) 4. "Mostly Unfabulous Social Life Of Ethan..." (Regent) $15,302 wknd ($7,651 per scrn) 5. "La Moustache" (CinemaGuild) $5,320 wknd ($5,320 per scrn) 6. "Only Human (Seres Queridos)" (Magnolia) $9,590 wknd ($4,795 per scrn) 7. "An Inconvenient Truth" (Paramount Classics) $1,911,747 wknd ($4,732 per scrn) 8. "Army Of Shadows" (Rialto) $17,914 wknd ($4,479 per scrn) 9. "Beowulf & Grendel" (Truly Indie) $4,360 wknd ($4,360 per scrn) 10. "The Heart Of The Game" (Miramax) $42,686 wknd ($3,881 per scrn) 
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"Oh" Wins Audience Prize in Brooklyn

Billy Kent's "The Oh in Ohio" won the audience award for best feature at the 9th edition of the Brooklyn International Film Festival, while Joseph Mathew & Dan DeVivo's "Crossing Arizona" was awarded the best doc award in audience ballotting. The 2006 Grand Chameleon Award and the prize for best feature went to Libero De Rienzo's "Blood: Death Does Not Exist", while the Diane Seligman Award for best documentary went to Julie Soto's "Radiophobia." Dyana Gaye's "Ousmane" won the award for best short film and Douglas Steiner, the chairman of Brooklyn's Steiner Studios, was presented the Brooklyn Excellence Award. The prize for best new director went to Joel Palombo for "Milk & Opium." For more information and the complete list of winners, please visit the festival's website. [Eugene Hernandez] 
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Palm Gets "Idols"

Palm Pictures has announced its acquisition of North American and Caribbean rights to S.A. Crary's "Kill Your Idols" and the company will release the movie in theaters early next month. A July 7th release date has been set for the documentary about New York's underground post-punk music scene. "We are excited to bring 'Kill Your Idols" to the widest possible audience and continue our tradition of putting out the best music films and documentaries," said Palm Picture's head of acquisitions and production David Koh, in a statement. He concluded the deal with Josh Braun and Dan Braun of Submarine Films, who executive produced the film. The DVD deal was negotiated with Eric Besner, VP of original programming from Netflix. Palm's DVD release of the movie is set for later this fall. [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Acquisitions, Documentary ]

"Jesus Camp" Wins Top Prize at SilverDocs

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's "Jesus Camp" was the top prize winner at the 2006 edition of SilverDocs, nabbing the Sterling Feature Grand Jury Award at the Silver Spring, MD festival. Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin's "Chairman George was presented an honorable mention in the fest's competition. indieWIRE will publish a full festival report later in the week. [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Documentary, Festivals ]

"Live Free or Die" and "Gitmo" Take Top Seattle Fest Prizes

The Seattle International Film Festival presented its awards Sunday afternoon at the city's Space Needle, giving its best new American film prize to "Live Free or Die" by Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin. Best doc went to "Gitmo: The New Rules of War" by Erik Gandini and Tarik Sale, with a special jury mention going to local director Linas Philllips' Walking to Werner." Audience prizes went to French director Michel Hazanavicius' "OSS 117" and best doc went to "The Trials of Darryl Hunt" by Rickie Stern and Annie Sundberg. Goran Dukic won best director for "Wristcutters: A Love Story" in the audience section. Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" will close out the the 32nd edition of SIFF, which screened 418 features and shorts over 25 days. indieWIRE will have an extended SIFF article running later this week. [Brian Brooks] 
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