INSIDE WORD | "Humboldt County" Stirs SXSW

Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky's "Humboldt County" clearly struck a chord with festival attendees at SXSW this week. The film not only sold out all three fest screenings, but at the final two showings at the Alamo Lamar, organizers added a simultaneous second screening to accomodate the large crowds who turned up. The Alamo folks asked to book the film for a theatrical run next week, according to rep David Garber, but the "Humboldt" team decided to hold off on the booking to pursue a theatrical deal for the movie. Garber said that acquisitions screenings will be held in NY and LA next week. [Eugene Hernandez] 
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iW NEWS | ColCoa Fest Announces Line-Up

The Franco American Cultural Fund announced the lineup for the 12th Annual City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival that will run April 14-20 in Los Angeles. The festival will feature a week of French film premieres, 48 films in all, including 27 features, 20 shorts and the World Premiere of a restored version of Fritz Lang's "Secret Beyond the Door." The festival will opened with the wildly successful French comedy, "Welcome To The Land of Shtis," directed by Dany Boon, on April 14, 2008, and will close the competition with two features, Christian Faure's award-winning "Behind The Walls" and Abdellatif Kechiche's "The Secret of the Grain." Please visit the festival's website for more information. [Peter Knegt] 
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iW NEWS | Philadelphia Fest's "Dark" Lineup Announced

The lineup for Danger After Dark program at the 17th Philadelphia Film Festival was announced Thursday. Dedicated to films "exploring extreme ways of telling stories," the genre program is presented by the TLA Entertainment Group. Screening 19 films from 11 different countries, the program includes an archival screening of Toshio Masuda's "Like a Shooting Star," the World Premiere of Frank Henenlotter's "Bad Biology," as well as East Coast Premieres of Nacho Vigalondo's "Timecrimes and Slamdance favorite "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer." Henenlotter will also receive the festival's 2008 Phantasmagoria Award. The festival takes place April 3-15, 2008. For complete listings, please visit the fest's website. [Peter Knegt]  
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AP: Helen Hunt talks filmmaking in Austin

Helen Hunt is an Oscar winner (for "As Good As It Gets") and a four-time Emmy winner (for "Mad About You"). Now she has a new title to add to her esteemed collection: filmmaker. Christy Lemire reports. 
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iW NEWS | "Amal" To Open LA Indian Film Fest

Richie Mehta's "Amal" has been announced as the Opening Night Gala of the 6th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. The festival additionally announced that the world premiere of "Mumbai Cutting: A City Unfolds," which features the work of ten top Indian directors, will be its Closing Night Gala presentation. This year, the festival will honor the work of Madhuri Dixit with a tribute and screening of her films "The Death Sentence" (Mrityudand) and "My Heart is Crazy" (Dil To Pagal Hai). The festival will take place April 22-27, 2008 at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas in Los Angeles, and will feature close to 40 films. [Peter Knegt] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Festivals, World Cinema ]

LAT: SXSW is Swelling

Judging from the number of high-profile studio films in this year's lineup and listening to movie industry executives here, South By Southwest's Film Festival and Conference finally is coming out from under its reputation as poor cousin to its revered sister music fest. Chris Lee reports. 
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Guardian Interview: Harmony Korine

Harmony Korine wrote his first movie script at 19, and was directing by 23. Then he found his way on to drugs. Now 35, he's clean and making beguiling, beautiful films, writes Charlotte O'Sullivan. 
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SF360: San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival is always nothing less than enticing. There's pre-show dinner in Japantown; the noisy, neon-colored anticipation of a big show at the Castro; and you might drop in on a film like "My Secret Cache" for nothing more than the words "Japanese" and "comedy," and have one of the worst laughing-fit moments of your life when the heroine, escaping from a holdup, runs into trouble (two words: air bag). Erika Young reports. 
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HR: Ebertfest spotlights critic's favorites

Movie critic Roger Ebert, who has been laid low for the past few years by thyroid cancer that has robbed him of his voice, will make a rare public appearance next month at the Illinois film festival that bears his name. The 10th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival, a.k.a. Ebertfest, will take place April 23-27 in Champaign-Urbana, IL. Hollywood Reporter reports. 
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VAR | B-Side to Open Festival Submission Site

Clearly targeting Withoutabox, Austin-based B-Side is launching an online film festival submission site. Mike Jones reports for Variety, "B-Side will roll out its own Web destination where filmmakers can submit their work to multiple festivals. B-Side plans to undercut Withoutabox by not charging service fees to filmmakers, while festivals will be charged half of what WAB charges. B-Side will use its database, dubbed Submissions 2.0, to match films to particular fests that have a history of screening similar work." 
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iW NEWS | Sprockets Announces Line-Up

The 11th Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children have announced the program for the fest, which runs April 12-18, 2008. The line-up includes 68 films representing 26 countries and 15 languages. Among the 26 feature films are Charlotte Sachs Bostrup's "Karla's World," from Denmark, German Hayo Freitag's "The Three Robbers," and Gholam-Reza Ramezani's "Standing Alone, from Iran. "The focus of Sprockets is to offer audiences a cultural experience by providing diverse and quality programming," said Elizabeth Muskala, Co-Director, Learning, in a statement. For more information, please visit the festival's website. [Peter Knegt]  
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iW NEWS | "Away From Her" Leads Genies

Sarah Polley's "Away From Her" swept the main categories the 28th Annual Genie Awards, handed out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. The ceremony, held Sunday night and hosted by Sandra Oh, saw "Away From Her" take home 7 awards, including best picture. Polley won awards for director and adapted screenplay while cast members Gordon Pinset, Julie Christie and Kristen Thomson won acting statuettes. The film's overall total was tied by David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises, which swept most of the technical categories and took awards for best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor Armin Mueller-Stahl. For a full list of winners, please visit their website. [Peter Knegt] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Honors ]

iW NEWS | Goldwyn Brings "Paris" to America

Samuel Goldwyn Films has picked up U.S. rights to French director Cedric Klapisch's "Paris," the company announced Tuesday. The film, which recently had its U.S. premiere in New York at the Rendez Vous with French Cinema series, is set against the city of lights starring Juliette Binoche in a story that connects characters with "emotion, humor and sensitivity." The deal was negotiated by Peter Goldwyn with Studio Canal's Saya Huddleston on behalf of the filmmakers. "'Paris' works on every level -- it is a beautifully told story with an exceptional cast including the city itself which has never looked so radiant and compelling on screen," commented Goldwyn in a statement. "We are thrilled to be working with Cedric and could not be more excited to bring 'Paris' Stateside." [Brian Brooks] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Acquisitions ]

INSIDE WORD | "Four Eyed" Monsters In The Home Stretch with IFC and DVD Deals

At an indie distribution panel today at SXSW, "Four Eyed Monsters" filmmakers Susan Buice & Arin Crumley revealed that they will sell a DVD of their film, bundled with five brand new video podcast episodes, at Borders stores on April 29th. In a deal with IFC TV, they indicated that they will also broadcast their film on the cable network. Buice and Crumley were joined on the panel by filmmaker Lance Weiler; indieWIRE profiled the trio and their efforts back in August of 2006. [Eugene Hernandez] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Movies, SXSW ]

iW NEWS | SFIFF Goes For "The Wackness"

Jonathan Levine's "The Wackness" has been announced as the Centerpiece screening of the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). "The Wackness," which won an audience award this past Sundance, stars Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck and Mary-Kate Olsen. It will be released theatrically later this year by Sony Pictures Classics. SFIFF runs April 24-May 8, 2008. [Peter Knegt] 
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Variety: SXSW Fest Gets Hot with Directors

Even after 15 years, the South By Southwest Film Festival is no threat to Sundance -- but it is the festival Slamdance always wanted to be. Dana Harris and Michael Jones report. 
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iW NEWS | Gen Art Film Fest To Open With "Capacity"

The 13th Annual Gen Art Film Festival is set to kick off with Terry Kinney's "Diminished Capacity," starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda and Virginia Madsen. The festival, unique in its format of showcasing seven features, seven shorts from emerging filmmakers, and seven premiere parties over seven days, also announced its closing film, Brad Furman's "The Take," which stars John Leguizamo. "While there are only seven features, the slate represents a wide range of the powerful ideas and genres of independent filmmaking," said Film Division Vice President Jeff Abramson in a statement. "The slate includes some of the best from other festivals such as Sundance, Slamdance, SXSW and Toronto as well as one world premiere. The slate represents a common theme, of over-coming adversity and finding inner peace in a complicated world through humor, action and exploration." The festival runs April 2-8, 2008 in New York City. [Peter Knegt] 
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iW NEWS | Fortissimo Acquires "Captain Abu Raed"

2008 Sundance Film Festival award winner "Captain Abu Raed" has been acquired for worldwide rights outside the Middle East and North America by Fortissimo Films. "Captain," directed by Amin Matalqa is the first Jordanian feature film to ever be exported for the world's cinemas. It garnered the World Cinema Audience Award and Best Actor for Nadim Sawalha at Sundance, and will have its market premiere at upcoming Hong Kong Filmart and the Cannes Market. [Peter Knegt] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Acquisitions, World Cinema ]

iW NEWS | Weekend Estimates: "Paranoid Park" Leads Openers

According to indieWIRE Box Office Tracking (iW BOT) estimates from Rentrak, Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" looks to lead the iW BOT, grossing $30,678 on 2 screens. The IFC Films released averaged $15,339 to lead a slew of new speciality openers. Others included David Gordon Green's "Snow Angels," which took in $11,000 on 2 screens for Warner Independent Pictures for a $5,500 average; Bharat Nalluri's Focus Features' release, "Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day," which averaged a decent $4,750 from its ambitious 535 screen opening; and Ira Sachs' "Married Life," which came in just behind with $4,043 on 9 screens for Sony Pictures Classics. More disappointing was Sony Pictures Classics' other opener, "CJ7," which averaged just $2,163 on 19 screens. Among holdovers, Stefan Ruzowitzky's Oscar winner "The Counterfeiters" continued to impress, grossing $305,279 from its expanded 41 screens for a $7,446 averaged, bringing its cumulative total to just over $700,000. indieWIRE publishes its weekly box office column on Mondays and final weekend numbers for specialty and limited release films on Tuesdays. Get the latest in the indieWIRE Box Office section. [Peter Knegt] 
[permalink]   [ filed under Biz ]