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Winners Announced for the 10th Annual British Independent Film Awards
Winners of the 10th annual British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) were announced on Wednesday November 28, 2007. Newcomer director Anton Corbijn’s Control won big with the now decade-old BIFAs. Control won Best British Independent Film and Corbijn won both Best Director and The Douglas Hickox Award, given to the year’s best debut director. Toby Kebbell won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Control and Sam Riley, Control’s lead actor, won for Most Promising Newcomer.
BIFA also acknowledged a wide scope of other deserving projects, as BIFA co-directors Johanna von Fischer and Tessa Collinson say, to “celebrate the increasingly diverse range of talent out there.” Such diversity ranged from psychodrama Notes on a Scandal, which won both for Best Screenplay (Patrick Marber) and Best Actress (Judi Dench), to historical drama The Lives of Others (Best Foreign Independent Feature) to sci-fi disaster film Sunshine (Best Technical Acheivement—Mark Tildesley, Production Design).
For the full list of winners, visit http://www.bifa.org.uk.
November 30th, 2007 | Category: Awards Watch | By Daniel Fritz
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>2008 Sundance Film Festival Lineup Announced
The Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films selected for competition in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 17-27, 2008 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. 121 films were selected from a record-breaking 3,624 feature film submissions. Feature-length films will screen in four Competition categories including drama and documentary films, featuring domestic and international moviemakers.
The variety of subjects range from media and culture, with Alex Gibney’s Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and Steven Sebring’s Patti Smith: Dream of Life, to political examination and allegory with Eric Schmid’s American Son and Veit Helmer’s Absurdistan.
Besides screening 87 world premiere films, 14 North American premieres and 12 U.S. premieres, the 2008 Sundance Film Festival will also feature panels and discussions with industry leaders throughout its 10-day run.
For more information, visit http://www.sundance.org/festival.
November 29th, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Daniel Fritz
Rhino Pops Up in Los Angeles
Warner Music Group’s Rhino Entertainment, a pop culture staple for nearly 30 years, will be offering limited edition boxed sets of everyone’s favorite movies this holiday season.
The catch? These precious collector’s items will only be available for one month, beginning this Saturday and ending December 31, 2007.
Rhino will be opening a “pop-up” retail store to celebrate the gift-giving season. The outlet will open at 8032 West Third Street in Los Angeles, near The Grove shopping complex. Think of it as another version of Halloween Adventure.
“For those of us old enough to remember, Rhino started as a record store—so now [we’ve] come full circle, even if for only one month at the holidays,” says Scott Pascucci, president of Rhino Entertainment. “If you’re in the neighborhood, we hope you will stop by.”
Visit www.rhino.com for more info.
November 28th, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Mariel DiSibio
2008 Spirit Award Nominations Announced
Despite the current writers strike and a looming threat of awards shows being cancelled, Film Independent is putting on its 22nd annual Spirit Awards February 23rd. Nominations for this year’s awards were announced this morning in California and include multiple nominations for Best Feature nominees The Savages, directed by Tamara Jenkins, Jason Reitman’s Juno, Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park and Michael Winterbottom’s A Mighty Heart.
November 27th, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Mallory Potosky
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Frank Darabont Comes Out of The Mist
Frank Darabont has had quite a rollercoaster of a film career. He has experienced both extraordinarily positive feedback from audiences and critics, for his uplifting prison epic The Shawshank Redemption, as well as ruthless critical backlash, for his Capra-aping story of memory loss in The Majestic. With his first film since The Majestic, Darabont looks to rebound from that career low point. To do so, he is going back to the well that has thus far treated him kindly: Stephen King texts.
November 26th, 2007 | Category: Moviemaker of the Week | By Andrew Gnerre
James Ivory Receives the French Institute Alliance Francaise Trophee des Arts Award
Director James Ivory will be honored with a French Institute Alliance Francaise Trophee des Arts Award by actress Uma Thurman on Nov. 27th at New York City’s Gotham Hall.
The moviemaker is known for directing and/or producing such movies as Quartet (1981), with Isabelle Adjani; Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward; and A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (1998), with Kris Kristofferson and Jane Birkin.
“With this Trophee des Arts, the French community in New York celebrates the most Parisian of all New York filmmakers and salutes the 50th anniversary of James Ivory’s first film,” notes Marie-Monique Steckel, FIAF’s president.
An exclusive preview of Ivory’s next movie, The City of Your Final Destination, starring Anthony Hopkins and French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, will be screened during the gala evening.
November 25th, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Mariel DiSibio
Miami International University of Art and Design
A truly complete film education not only keeps students technically savvy, but also challenges them to widen their perspectives on life and the world at large. Miami International University of Art and Design's film and digital production program strives to provide just that type of education.
November 22nd, 2007 | Category: Film School of the Week | By Daniel Fritz
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Oscar Short List for Docs is Topical
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 15 films that have made it to the “short list” in the category of Best Documentary Feature for the 2008 Academy Awards. Culled from 70 submissions, AMPAS’ Documentary Branch members will select five nominees from the short list, which includes:
Autism: The Musical, Body of War, For the Bible Tells Me So, Lake of Fire, Nanking, No End in Sight, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Please Vote for Me, The Price of Sugar, A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, The Rape of Europa, Sicko, Taxi to the Dark Side, War/Dance and White Light/Black Rain.
Final nominations will be announced on January 22, 2008.
November 21st, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Jennifer M. Wood
Noah Baumbach’s Wedding
Noah Baumbach made a splash in the independent film world with his debut film, Kicking and Screaming (no, not the movie about a children’s soccer team starring Will Ferrell, but the coming-of-age tale of four recent college graduates who struggle with the idea of entering the real world). Ten years later, a period during which he would release two feature films to lukewarm receptions, Baumbach struck back with The Squid and the Whale. The loosely autobiographical film, about two brothers dealing with their parents’ divorce, saw even more praise upon its release than his first film. The film won two awards at Sundance, for directing and screenplay, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, as well as five Independent Spirit Awards and one Oscar.
November 18th, 2007 | Category: Moviemaker of the Week | By Andrew Gnerre
Bill O’Reilly Spins--and Slams--Brian De Palma’s Redacted
Director Brian De Palma has turned his sights on the Iraq War in his new movie, Redacted, and it’s been met with another boycott demand by Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly. The film covers the dirty work done by US soldiers in Iraq--including murder and rape--and is based on an actual incident involving a young Iraqi girl. It also criticizes the media for sugar-coated reporting instead of showing the true calamities of the war. O’Reilly claims De Palma will be responsible for more American deaths in Iraq by inciting Muslim hatred, even though Redacted is indisputably an anti-war film.
Not satisfied with blasting De Palma, O’Reilly is also going after billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner and amateur dancer Mark Cuban, whose Magnolia Films financed the film. The anchor got hopping mad, claiming in a scolding rant that General Patton would have “slapped the tar out of” Cuban. That would make a historical showdown for the ages, with Cuban firing back, “there is every bit of me that just wants to say, ‘Bill O’Reilly is a moron.’”
O’Reilly has called on Mavs fans to bring “support the troops” signs to American Airlines Center even though they’re probably more concerned with avenging this year’s playoff defeat to the Golden State Warriors. Let’s wait and see if Commissioner Stern will have to step in.
November 15th, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Andre Ward
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Delbert Mann: Jan. 30, 1920 - Nov. 11, 2007
In parts of Europe if you create just one great work of art you’re forever after known as a “maestro,” a genius, a rock star… You don’t have to buy yourself another cup of espresso as long as you live. On the “what’ve you done for us lately?” side of the Atlantic, though, it of course isn’t quite like that. Over here, if you’re a great master of your art form and you live long enough, you’re likely to die in obscurity after decades of buying your own coffee, completely forgotten by the audiences that you once so moved with your work.
Oscar-winning director Delbert Mann died Sunday night at the age of 87. On a warm June day last spring I had the good fortune to spend an afternoon with him at his apartment in Hollywood, where we talked for hours about his movies, his life and his relationships with various people in the business, most of whom he’d outlived. He was very frail and had to be propped up on the sofa by his nurse, but he was warm and generous and very sentimental—exactly the kind of guy I expected the director of one of my favorite movies of all time, Marty, to be.
If Mann had only done Marty, his little film which won the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay Academy Awards in 1955, he would be the maestro. (If you’re an independent moviemaker and you haven’t seen this film, do yourself a favor and rent it tonight. This is how indie films should be made—smart and cheap and with passionate attention to story, character and performance. It was shot in just 16 days and because Mann was so well-prepared, nothing was rushed—that’s all the time he needed.) But Mann also directed the wonderful Separate Tables with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, which won two Oscars and was nominated for five others, and dozens of other important productions for the big and small screens. What virtually all of them had in common was their human scale. Delbert Mann was a genius at capturing the essence of the human condition. He told me he cared nothing for special effects and would never consider using them.
“All this fancy technology is just bull,” he said. “I have no interest in that whatsoever. Never did. The key is to have a great writer. You need to seek out real stories about real people.”
Delbert Mann, thanks for the lessons and the inspiration. Rest assured that many of us will miss you very much.
You can read Tim Rhys’ complete article on Delbert Mann in our Winter 2008 print edition.
November 14th, 2007 | Category: MM Remembers | By Timothy Rhys
Norman Jewison is Speechless in Denver
The 30th annual Starz Denver Film Festival kicked off on November 8th, and MM’s Joe Leydon is on hand to report back on some of the happening. Here, Joe renders Oscar-winning moviemaker Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, ...And Justice for All) utterly speechless after telling him he’s being interviewed for MovieMaker. Photo: Zan Buckner
November 12th, 2007 | Category: Festival of the Week | By Joe Leydon
Full Sail’s Real World Film Education
It sounds like the name of a nautical academy, but Full Sail Real World Education has offered moviemakers a quality education over the last 28 years. Located on the outskirts of Orlando in Winter Park, FL, the school offers a bachelor's degree over the course of 21 months and also offers a degree in Entertainment Business. The school's Website claims that that it can "help you make a better movie than Battlefield Earth." If that doesn't entice you to sign up today, maybe the school's unique approach to learning will do the trick.
November 12th, 2007 | Category: Film School of the Week | By Andre Ward
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Matthew Michael Carnahan Had a Little Lamb
For someone who is fairly new to the film industry, Matthew Michael Carnahan has certainly found his footing rather quickly. The second script he ever wrote turned into The Kingdom, starring Jennifer Garner and Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx. He now has three more movies in the pipeline, the next being the Robert Redford-directed Lions for Lambs. The film, starring Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, features the intertwining stories of a college professor, a journalist and a presidential hopeful and their connections to two American soldiers facing deadly circumstances in Iraq.
November 11th, 2007 | Category: Screenwriter of the Week | By Andrew Gnerre
The Coen Brothers Nail Old Men
It all started with Blood Simple back in 1984, when Joel and Ethan Coen showed the world that two moviemakers are better than one. Well, these two anyway. The movie landed three nominations and two wins at the Independent Spirit Awards two years later and the legacy began. In the years following, the Coen brothers, as they are affectionately referred to, would produce some of independent cinema’s most memorable scenes—and movies. After Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter abducted a child yet somehow landed laughs in 1987's Raising Arizona, the brothers found themselves striking gold with a string of critical (and sometimes popular) hits, including Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy and 1996's Fargo.
Since landing a Best Writing Oscar statuette for their unique take on Midwestern values and awkward conversation in Fargo, Joel and Ethan Coen released movies unfortunately lesser received than their predecessors (the exceptions being the Oscar-nominated movies O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Man Who Wasn't There—grand exceptions for sure). However, it is with this month's No Country for Old Men that the brothers seem to have regained the audience anticipation they inspire in so many.
November 11th, 2007 | Category: Moviemaker of the Week | By Mallory Potosky
Kick Back at the Dominican International Film Festival
Thousands of moviemakers, industry executives, stars and film fans—legendary character actor Joe Pantoliano (pictured) among them—are mingling on the beach for a long weekend at the third annual Dominican International Film Festival (DIFF), held at Sun Village Resort & Spa in Cofresi Beach. DIFF kicked off Thursday with a day full of screenings and an outdoor opening night bash. Screenings and panel discussions featuring notable industry professionals--including MM‘s very own Timothy Rhys--will continue through Saturday, November 10. Sunday the 11th marks the festival’s wrap-up day with final screenings at three venues. Fortunately for DIFF attendees, the Dominican Republic’s wet season is holding off at Cofresi Beach, leaving the festival’s climate enjoyably tropical. Visit www.dominicaninternationalfilmfestival.com for the latest happenings, or check back here for more tropical happenings!
November 9th, 2007 | Category: Festival of the Week | By Daniel Fritz
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>The Kite Runner Fans Deal With Delays
For movie with such positive pre-release buzz, the delayed opening of The Kite Runner, a film about a man’s return to his home country of Afghanistan, is somewhat surprising. The film, based on the novel of the same title, has had its recently been pushed back to December 14. But with the help of a few friends, and a little Internet savvy, you can secure an advanced screening of the film for your town. To do so, visit www.kiterunnermovie.com and either start your own Kite Runner Club or join somebody else’s.
The more people a group acquires, the better prizes its members will receive. To land an advanced screening, a club needs to acquire 100 members. Also, the captain of the most active club, a designation determined by tracking the group’s “Kite Club Activities,” can win a trip to Los Angeles for the film’s red carpet premiere or a trip to San Francisco to dine with Khaled Hosseini, the author of the novel. “Kite Club Activities” include tasks such as posting on “Kite Runner” message boards and placing trailers and banner ads on personal Websites. Basically, you’re giving the film free advertising, but with the chance to win your own advanced screening of the film, the contest just seems too good to pass up.
November 9th, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Andrew Gnerre
Rus Thompson’s Short Takes: November 2007
Favorite of the month: The TV Set (2007)
What could be more fun than watching Sigourney Weaver as a stone-hearted bitch of a TV executive? How about the underrated David Duchovny as a compromised sitcom writer with Faulknerian delusions? This movie is a sneaky gem, a smart, scruffy painfully funny dressing down of the inside games people in the TV industry play. The best part about the movie is the way it refuses to pin down its characters. You’re never quite sure how much of Duchovny’s soul he is willing to sell, or how much of it Weaver would gladly eat in order to boost a Nielsen rating. The movie probably failed at the box office precisely because it refused to play by the rules it skewers.
New Release of the Month: A Mighty Heart (2007)
Angelina Jolie’s star power and director Michael Winterbottom’s gritty, shoot-from-the-shoulder style make for an uneasy blend in the initial scenes of this film based on the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, but the rigorous approach to details, place, language and international tensions ultimately results in a moving, powerful drama. Please don’t shy away from this film simply because we know it doesn’t have a happy ending, but instead watch it for its authentic rendering of the intimate interplay between the characters, and for what is in the end--a convincing portrayal by Jolie of Marianne Pearl, a brave and all-too-human woman whose husband was an early tragic sacrifice in Bush’s so-called “war on terror”.
Classic of the month: The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Rudy Vallee has one of the funniest scenes a human being has ever had in the history of cinema in this picture--and I say that without reservation. And this in a film made by a writer-director, Preston Sturges, who created perhaps the greatest series of comedies in the history of cinema (although Woody Allen, rightfully, would argue with that statement). Okay, hyperbole aside, Sturges wrote witty, cutting, rapid-fire dialogue for a retinue of dames, dummies, stooges, losers, winners, eccentrics, screwballs, aristocrats and bums involved in outlandish plots of goofy intrigue, cornball coincidences, mistaken identities and get-rich-quick dreams and schemes. Watching this film is like spending 90 minutes with your funniest, sharpest friend on a speedboat to a great party and you’re already working on your second martini.
Documentary of the month: To Be and To Have (2002)
This patient, respectful documentary by Nicolas Philibert takes us inside a one-room French schoolhouse in rural Saint-Etienne Sur Usson, where the dedicated Georges Lopez has the job of teaching his 13 students that life is so much rewarding if lived with a love of learning. This documentary is not for the fan of talking head smorgasbords or quaking YouTube aesthetics. It’s a quiet, watchful, real-time film, with sensitive camerawork capturing the intimate expressions of the kids and the admirable attentiveness of Lopez, a teacher we all could have used.
Under-the-Radar: Talk to Me (2007)
In this film based on a true story, Don Cheadle stars as ex-con Petey Greene, who cut a deal to get out of prison and get on the radio as one of the first AM talk and music jockeys, a man who pulled no punches on the air about the state of the black man and woman in one of the most violent and racist cities in America: Washington, D.C. He is reluctantly recruited by Dewey Hughes, a black radio executive played with style by Chiwetel Ejiofor. As the black man who has made it in the white man’s world, he is the antithesis of Petey’s ghetto jive talker. Watching these two characters verbally duke it out on screen is a marvelous and rare event in cinema: Two black actors not dressed in female fat suits. Director Kasi Lemmons engages us with thoughtful arguments about black on black racism and sets the bar higher for other films about the black experience.
Give this a miss: Zoo (2007)
Zoo is about the infamous horse-sex case in Enumclaw, WA in 2005, which resulted in the death of man from a perforated colon after being penetrated by a stallion (no, I’m not kidding). Filmmakers Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede have crafted a picture that is atmospherically beautiful and moody, but artistically and emotionally remote. If their goal was to detail the specifics of the incident that led to the man’s death on that fateful night, or to illuminate the secretive world of the zoos, or zoophiles—their motivations, their private conflicts—or to argue for a more tolerant attitude toward alternative sexual pursuits, then they botched it, badly.
Zoo is coy about delivering basic information, relying on the voiceovers of actors and, in some cases, actual participants in the horse sex incident, commenting elliptically on the lifestyle of zoos and their hidden desires, but both they and the filmmakers constantly dance around the elephant in the room: That their predilection toward bestiality is a bizarre sexual obsession practiced by misfits who came to Washington state because, at the time, sex with animals was not against the law. If Devor and Mudede had engaged with the political, moral and legal aspects of what went down on that summer night two years ago--if they had applied a bit of journalism, or even coherent storytelling to a serious exploration of the events--then they could have made an accessible and quite fascinating film without sacrificing any of the craft or imagination on display here. But instead, with its murky titillations and teasing long shots, Zoo runs ridiculously close to soft-core porn.
November 6th, 2007 | Category: Rus Thompson's Short Takes | By Rustin Thompson
Writers Strike Is On!
Months after the threat was raised and less than a week after their contract expired, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has gone on strike. Close to 12,000 screenwriters are expected to cease work in what is the first strike by the WGA since 1988. That strike lasted for 22 weeks, costing the film and television industry over $500 million. Economist Jack Kyser estimates that this strike could end up in close to $1 billion in losses.
Despite negotiations continuing late Sunday night, a contract could not be agreed upon, forcing WGA East to declare a strike at 12:01 a.m. EST, with the West Coast branch following three hours later. The two most significant points of contention have been the writers’ demand for larger portions of DVD profits as well as a new deal regarding their residuals for Internet downloads and replays. The WGA claims to have withdrawn its demands for a larger percentage of DVD revenues, but their desire for a better deal concerning Internet residuals continues to prevent negotiations from continuing.
The strike will immediately affect late-night talk shows, forcing shows like the “Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Daily Show” to go into reruns, as much of the writing for these shows takes place on the day of filming. Other scripted shows will soon be affected as well, requiring production to stop. Many films studios, on the other hand, have prepared for this event, stockpiling scripts to last into 2008. Reality programming addicts rejoice!
November 5th, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Andrew Gnerre
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Ridley Scott, Original Gangster
Acclaimed moviemaker Sir Ridley Scott has tackled the Crusades, rejuvenated sword-and-sandal epics and given us icy visions of a robotic future. Now the director turns his attention to a different kind of period piece in American Gangster, out in wide release from Universal Pictures on November 2. American Gangster chronicles the rise of New York heroin hustler Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) from drug apprentice to public superstar in the early 1970s, running a tight ship with a strict business ethic. Matched up against him is renegade cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), his home life in shambles, but refusing to partake in the corruption overwhelming the police department.
November 4th, 2007 | Category: Moviemaker of the Week | By Andre Ward
The Evolution of Cinevolve Studios
When it comes to marketing and promoting features, independent productions often get the short end of the stick. Studios will pump all their money toward promoting their blockbuster releases and leave the indie pictures out in the cold, struggling to find an audience. But Cinevolve Studios, set to be in full operation by the upcoming fourth quarter of 2007, promises to change all that and focus on supporting smaller features by any means necessary--focused public relations, traditional and non-traditional distribution methods and grassroots marketing.
November 4th, 2007 | Category: Exhibitor of the Week | By Andre Ward
Hollywood Writers Strike
After three months of back-and-forth negotiations, the Writers Guild of America Negotiating Committee recommended calling a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The decision, reached at a membership meeting in Los Angeles Thursday night did not include a beginning date, but WGA panels meeting today are expected to settle on Monday as the first official strike day. If a decision is not reached before weekend's end, it will only be a short while before the entertainment industry and television in particular is affected.
November 2nd, 2007 | Category: News/Commentary | By Daniel Fritz
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