iW NEWS | SXSW Names 'click' Winners; Accepting Submissions for '08

The South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) announced the winners of its 4th annual SXSWclick Festival with Dan Brown's "Pierre" taking the grand jury prize as well as the "Animate-It" nod, while "Peterson's Savings and Loan" by Will Elliott won the 'Popularity Contest' with 1,000 online votes in addition to taking the prize in the "Old School Shorts" category. Other winners included "Ubuntu" by David Serota (Really Real Shorts), "Always Near" by Andrea Giacomini (Sound Checks), and "The Timebox Twins" by Tipper Newton (What the F*#!?). In addition to its winners, SXSW is now accepting entries for its 2008 edition next March 7 - 15. The early submission deadline is November 16 and the final deadline is December 7. For more information, visit the festival's website. [Brian Brooks] 
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iW NEWS | Responding to Opposition, NYC Mayor's Office to Re-Draft Film Permit Rules

New York City's Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB) Commissioner Katherine Oliver announced today that her office will re-draft proposed new rules for filming and photography in the city. The announcement came on the final day of the current public comment period over the controversial rules that have generated national attention and considerable opposition in New York (see related indieWIRE story). In making the announcement, MOFTB indicated that a new public hearing and 30-day comment period will be scheduled and they reiterated that the original proposal of permit procedures came out of a settlement from a recent lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). "The goal is to maintain a safe environment for the public, while balancing the needs of filmmakers whose work may have a significant impact on pedestrian or vehicular use of public space," MOFTB said on Friday, in a statement. The initial rules, proposed back in late-May, generated increasing attention after a downtown protest one week ago; an online petition from Picture New York collected more than 31,000 signatures through this afternoon. "We are dedicated to fulfilling our obligation to create film permitting rules as mandated by the City Charter," said Commissioner Oliver, in a statement on Friday. "We appreciate the feedback and collaboration of the production community in the city, and look forward to revising our proposal." The entire MOFTB annoucement is available on their website. [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Biz ]

iW NEWS | Dreamachine's Celluloid and Hanway to Operate Separately

In a shift from its merger plans announced prior to Cannes, Dreamachine principles, Paris-based Celluloid Dreams and London-based HanWay Films will now be run as separate sales businesses, the companies announced Friday. Celluloid's Hengameh Panahi and HanWay's Jeremy Thomas will continue as joint chairmen of Dreamachine, which will license the combined 500 title library of the two units, headed by director of library sales, Alessandro Raja. Additionally, the Dreamachine brand will focus on its video-on-demand platform and aggregation business. In the announcement, they further stated that Philippe Aigle, Tim Haslam and Peter Watson will implement the company's strategic plans for new media, digital and catalogue distribution. Panahi and Thomas had announced the merger of their companies back in April 3rd. [Brian Brooks] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Biz ]

iW NEWS | Media Luna Takes Rights to Locarno Pic "Un Journee"

Cologne, Germany-based sales company Media Luna Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Jacob Berger's latest, "Un journee," which will have its world premiere at the Piazza Grande at the Locarno International Film Festival, currently underway. Meanwhile, the documentary "La Reina del condon" by Reto Stamm and Silvana Ceschi, whose worldwide rights are also handled by Media Luna, has been selected at the Semaine de la Critique of the festival. [Brian Brooks] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Acquisitions ]

SFC: "Gumby Dharma" Documentary looks at tumultuous life of Art Clokey

In a world of Pixar and CGI, stop-motion clay animation can seem hopelessly retro. But watch Bay Area resident Art Clokey's creations--the iconic green Gumby and his trusty horse friend, Pokey--and the appeal is just as strong as when they were made. As Robina Marchesi's documentary "Gumby Dharma" shows, Clokey's cheerful work came out of a difficult life. The filmmaker, who died in 2005 when the film was mostly done, conducted long interviews with the idiosyncratic Clokey, and her husband, Pixar animator Tim Hittle, contributed new Gumby works. Reyhan Harmanci reports. 
[permalink]   [ filed under People ]

SF360 | Abbas Kiarostami: "Image Maker"

As a filmmaking icon as well as a filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami occupies two prominent positions: a central figure in Iran's celebrated and multigenerational cinema movement, and one of a handful of supreme masters in that more rarefied, rootless milieu called "world cinema." This straddling, dual status is not all that arbitrary: while Kiarostami's aesthetic is heavily indebted to indigenous influences (perhaps Persian modernist poetry and the groundbreaking work of his late contemporary Sohrab Shahid-Saless in particular), he's also famously influenced (like other Iranian filmmakers) by Italian neorealism and France's nouvelle vague. Robert Avila reports. 
[permalink]   [ filed under People, World Cinema ]

"Liberty Kid" and "Children of War" Take top NY Latino Film Fest Prizes

Director Ilya Chaiken won best picture for her post 9/11 teen drama "Liberty Kid" at the New York International Latino Film Festival, while Alexandre Fuch's story of a street gang, "Hijos del la Guerra" (Children of War) received the festival's best documentary award. In other prizes, Ciro Altabas won best short for "DVD" and Sergio Castilla received the Heineken Red Star Award for his direction of "Take the Bridge." And, Will Fonseca's "Rewind" won Verizon's NYILFF On the Edge Short Film Award. For more information, visit the festival's website. [Brian Brooks] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals ]

NY TIMES on Bergman & Antonioni | Before Them, Films Were Just Movies

"Since Mr. Bergman was 89 and Mr. Antonioni 94, neither man’s death came as much of a shock, but the simultaneity was startling. Not only because they were both great filmmakers, but more because, in their prime, Mr. Antonioni and Mr. Bergman were seen as the twin embodiments of the idea that a filmmaker could be, without qualification or compromise, a great artist," notes A.O. Scott in an advance version of A.O. Scott's Sunday New York Times article about the late filmmakers, Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman. He continues, later in the article: "Mr. Antonioni and Mr. Bergman, for their parts, were the supreme modernists of world cinema. Mr. Antonioni helped to push Italian film beyond realism, infusing landscapes with psychological rather than social meaning and turning eroticism from a romantic into a metaphysical pursuit. Mr. Bergman, heir to a Nordic strain of modernism represented by Strindberg and Ibsen, developed a film language dense with psychological symbolism and submerged emotion." 
[permalink]   [ filed under People ]

iW NEWS | Woody Allen and Julie Taymor added to Toronto Fest

Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream" and Julie Taymor's "Across The Universe" are set for next month's Toronto International Film Festival, running September 6 - 15, 2007 in Cananda. Taymor's film is described by the festival as "the story of two star-crossed lovers [and] is set against the backdrop of the 1960s, amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll." The musical, including such songs as "Hey Jude," "I Am the Walrus," and "All You Need is Love," stars Jim Sturgess, Evan Rachel Wood, Bono, and Eddie Izzard. It is a Columbia Pictures film. Meanwhile Allen's latest, again set in London, is descibed as a, "story about two brothers (Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell) who are desperate to better their troubled lives. One is a chronic gambler up to his ears in debt; the other is a young man in love with a beautiful actress (newcomer Hayley Atwell) whom he has just recently met." The new film includes music from Phillip Glass and will be released in the U.S. by The Weinstein Company. [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals, Toronto ]

iW NEWS | Lynn Hershman Leeson's "Strange Culture" Set for NYC Theatrical Debut

Documentary coverage sponsored by SnagFilms.

After a special Museum of Modern Art screening in New York City on October 1, Lynn Hershman Leeson's "Strange Culture" will be released theatrically by L5 Productions with a two-week run at Cinema Village in downtown New York City, October 5th - 14th. The provocative doc explores the true story of artist and college professor Steve Kurtz whose tools and supplies were impounded after his wife suddenly died of heart failure. In an era of hyper-sensitivity and increasing clamp downs on artistic expression, suspicion was cast upon Kurtz as he prepared to present (at MASS MoCA), a project exploring genetically modified food. A founding member of the art and theater group, Critical Art Ensemble, Kurtz was named a terrorism suspect and because of pending litigation and other complications, actors Tilda Swinton, Peter Coyote, and Josh Kornbluth were tapped to star in scenes where the actual people can't speak for themselves. Other theatrical and festival dates continue before and after the NYC run, with the film currently screening at Laemmle Grand in Los Angeles, while next month it will have a week-long run at Facets Cinema in Chicago (August 24 - 30), and a week at both the Rafael Film Center in Marin County and the Roxie Theater in San Francisco the same week (September 21 - 27). New Video is handling the DVD release of the film, which debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Check out the film's website for more details. [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Documentary, Movies ]

BBC: Festival to offer gay film prize

Films with a gay theme or character are to be recognised with a new award at the Venice Film Festival. The Queer Lion award, a take on the festival's main Golden Lion prize, will go to the best full-length film featuring a gay theme or character. Competition director Daniel Casagrande said it had taken four years of negotiations to introduce the award. BBC reports. 
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals ]

iW NEWS | LA Film Critics Announce Date for 33rd Achievement Awards

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) will hold its 33rd annual film achievement awards ceremony on Saturday, January 12, 2008, Lael Loewenstein, the organization's president announced Wednesday. The event will take place at the InterContinental Los Angeles in Century City. The date of the group's voting meeting this year will be December 9, 2007. Founded in 1975, LAFCA is comprised of Los Angeles-based, professional film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media. [Brian Brooks] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Awards Watch, Honors ]

NYT: A Chronicler of Alienated Europeans in a Flimsy New World

Decades before it was given a name, Michelangelo Antonioni recognized the malady we now call attention deficit disorder. In his great 1960s films, "L'Avventura," "La Notte," "Eclipse" and "Red Desert," but especially in "L'Avventura," his masterpiece, it wasn't diagnosed as a chemical imbalance, but as a communicable social disease. Stephen Holden reports. 
[permalink]   [ filed under People ]

AFP: Film row over French wine-tasting debacle

The producers of two rival Hollywood films are locked in a nose-to-nose row over an infamous Paris wine-tasting event which embarrassed France's top experts, a report said Wednesday. A British merchant who organised the 1976 blind tasting--in which French experts hailed Californian wines over some of France's finest vintages--is caught up in the middle of the dispute, according to the Guardian daily. AFP reports. 
[permalink]   [ filed under Movies ]

iW NEWS | TIFF Adds Ten Titles, Including Vanguard and Midnight Films

In addition to the Real to Reel documentary section lineup which was unveiled earlier today, the Toronto International Film Festival has announced the titles of another 10 films that screen at this year's festival. Set for the Vanguard section of films that push boundaries and take risks are Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park," Gael Garcia Bernal's "Deficit," Julien Leclercq's "Chrysalis," Koen Mortier's "Ex Drummer," Lee Kang-sheng's "Help Me Eros," Rafa Cortes' "Me," Jessica Yu's "Ping Pong Player," and Lucia Puenzo's "XXY." Meanwhile, in the Midnight Madness section, the festival has added, Dario Argento's "The Mother of Tears" and Takashi Miike's "Sukiyaki Western Django." [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals, Toronto ]

iW NEWS | Cronenberg's Latest, "Eastern Promises," to Open 51st London Fest

David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" will open the 51st London Film Festival on October 17th. The film, a thriller set in London, stars Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, along with Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl. It is described by the festival as the story of "mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Mortensen), who is tied to one of London's most notorious organised Russian crime families. A harrowing chain of murder, deceit and retribution is put in motion when he crosses paths with Anna (Watts), an innocent midwife, trying to right a wrong she accidentally uncovers..." The film will be released in the UK by Pathe on October 26, 2007. "It's hugely exciting that a director who has consistently thrilled and challenged us throughout his career has made a film in our city," said Sandra Hebron, the Festival's Artistic Director, in a statement, "This gripping, powerfully directed and acted story of lives colliding in contemporary London is the perfect opener for our Festival." [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals ]

GUARDIAN | First Ingmar Bergman, now Michelangelo Antonioni

"Ingmar Bergman left in the early hours of yesterday morning. Within a few hours, Michelangelo Antonioni had followed him through the exit door," notes Xan Brooks on the Guardian's film blog, "It remains to be seen whether this signals the onset of some art-house apocalypse - some Biblical purge of revered European auteurs - but the omens are hardly encouraging. How are Godard, Resnais and Rohmer bearing up? Can we urge them to stay indoors, wrap up warm, and maybe put on some old DVDs. Anything to keep them out of circulation until the curse has run its course." And in a separate post on the same blog, Andrew Pulver considers some of the best scenes from Antonioni films. 
[permalink]   [ filed under People, World Cinema ]

NYT & LAT | Michelangelo Antonioni, 94, Italian Director, Dies

The New York Times reports on the death of filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, calling him, "The Italian director whose chilly canticles of alienation were cornerstones of international filmmaking in the 1960s, inspiring intense measures of admiration, denunciation and confusion." The Italian master director died on Monday in Rome, on the same day as Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish filmmaker who died at home in Sweden. The Los Angeles Times praised him as "the master Italian film director who depicted the emotional alienation of Italy's postwar generation in films such as 'L'Avventura' and 'La Notte' but achieved his greatest popular success with 'Blowup', an enigmatic tale set in 'swinging' London of the 1960s." 
[permalink]   [ filed under People ]

INDUSTRY MOVES | Variety Editor Named to Lead Hollywood Reporter

Elizabeth Guider has been named to the editor post at The Hollywood Reporter, joining the paper from Variety where she worked for 18 years, according to an HR announcement today. The Hollywood Reporter is published by Nielsen Business Media. 
[permalink]   [ filed under Industry Moves ]

iW BOX OFFICE | The Top Ten So Far

Each week, indieWIRE receives the final weekend numbers for specialty releases in theaters. This is our top ten for the three day 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. Weekend box office data provided by Rentrak as of Monday, 6:00 p.m. EST.
1. "This Is England" (IFC First Take) $18,430 wknd ($18,430 per scrn) 2. "No End In Sight" (Magnolia Pictures) $31,533 wknd ($15,767 per scrn) 3. "The Devil Came on Horseback" (International Film Circuit) $11,143 wknd ($11,143 per scrn) 4. "Talk To Me" (Focus Features) $801,709 wknd ($6,971 per scrn) 5. "Arctic Tale" $22,607 wknd ($5,652 per scrn) 6. "Moliere" (Sony Pictures Classics) $32,601 wknd ($5,434 per scrn) 7. "12:08 East Of Bucharest" (Tartan Films) $8,083 wknd ($4,042 per scrn) 8. "My Best Friend" (IFC Films) $192,602 wknd ($4,013 per scrn) 9. "The Camden 28" (First Run) $3,429 wknd ($3,429 per scrn) 10. "Rescue Dawn" (MGM) $1,650,282 wknd ($3,301 per scrn) [To be included in the indieWIRE Box Office Chart, distributors must submit information about their films to Rentrak at studiogrosses@rentrak.com by the end of the day each Monday.] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Biz ]

iW ANNOUNCEMENT | Julie Delpy at Apple Store Los Angeles on Thursday

indieWIRE continues its monthly series with Apple that presents indie film professionals discussing various aspects of the filmmaking process. These events are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first come, first serve basis.

Apple Store, Third Street Promenade Thursday, August 2 - 7:00 p.m.

Actress, singer, director, and Oscar-nominated writer Julie Delpy discusses her many artistic endeavors, including these critically acclaimed films: "Before Sunrise"; "Before Sunset," which she cowrote and starred in; and "2 Days in Paris (Deux jours a Paris)," her new film, which she wrote, directed, edited, produced, scored, and starred in. Samuel Goldwyn Films is releasing the film in NYC and LA on August 10th. Additional cities follow on August 24th.

Check out a exclusive scene from the film here.  
[permalink]   [ filed under Events ]

AP: Filmmaker Ingmar Bergman dies at 89

Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, an iconoclastic filmmaker widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema, died Monday, the president of his foundation said. He was 89. Bergman died at his home in Faro, Sweden, Swedish news agency TT said, citing his daughter Eva Bergman. A cause of death was not immediately available. Louise Nordstrom reports. 
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The Guardian: Ingmar Bergman: A Life in Photos

A quick tour through the legendary Swedish filmmaker's oeuvre of more than 40 films. An undisputed colossus of the 'art' cinema whose work astonished with its recognition of cruelty, death and above all the torment of doubt. The Guardian gives a short collection of photo highlights from the director's life. 
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E Online: Moore: I've Been Served

Maybe Michael Moore isn't paranoid, because it sure seems like the government really is out to get him. The firebrand filmmaker says he has been served with a subpoena by the federal government for a trip to Cuba for his hit healthcare documentary, "Sicko." Appearing Thursday on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Oscar winner said that he had just learned backstage that he had been served with an order compelling him to testify about his sojourn to the communist nation. Josh Grossberg reports. 
[permalink]   [ filed under People ]