February 9, 2010

2010 Sundance Film Fest Winners Announced

by Rebecca Pahle | Published Feb. 1, 2010

The Sundance Film Festival has announced this year’s winners in the Jury, Audience and NEXT categories. Of the 3,724 feature-length films submitted to Sundance this year, only 117 of them were selected to participate in the festival. “Great films make for a great festival," says John Cooper, who took over the role of Sundance director earlier this year. "This year it was as if I could feel a shift in the DNA of the film community—the reaction to the films was inspiring.” Also new this year to Sundance was the NEXT category, a program of low-budget independent productions. (1 comment)

Cigarettes, Accordions and Movies in Serbia

by Jessica Rhys

I just returned from Serbia, where my husband, MM Publisher Tim Rhys, and I attended a strange and fascinating film festival at the home and “personal village” of famed Serbian auteur moviemaker, musician and actor, Emir Kusturica, deep in the mountains of the Mokra Gora region near Bosnia.

Brian Wimmer Takes Action at X-Dance

by Josh Elmets

Established in 2001, Salt Lake City's X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival has become one of the few viable outlets for extreme sports moviemaking.

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China Pulls Two Films From Palm Springs Film Festival

by Natalie Sullivan
The Palm Springs International Film Festival announced yesterday that two Chinese films set to screen at the 2010 festival, City of Life and Death and Quick, Quick, Slow, have been withdrawn. (1 comment)

Paul Osborne Gets His Official Rejection

by Paul Osborne
"Oh, yeah, you guys are infamous," said Bruce Fletcher as he leaned back in his chair, his trademark jack-o'-lantern grin stretching across his face. "You're downright notorious." He was referring to the reaction our documentary about film festivals, Official Rejection, generated when it came up in conversation during a recent informal gathering of various festival directors at the Toronto International Film Festival. (No comments yet)

Film Festival Dos and Don’ts

by Paul Osborne
You’ve made your little independent feature film, financed with love, credit cards and some spare change from mom and dad. Now you’re going to take it to Sundance, where it will be watched by excited buyers from all of the major distributors. One of said distributors will cut you a big check, gather your movie up into its warm, welcoming arms and sprinkle it into theaters all across the land. Right? (4 comments)

25 Coolest Film Festivals: 2009

by Jennifer M. Wood
Depending on the era in which one grew up, what is “cool” can be a very different thing. But whether you watched James Dean on the big screen, were introduced to cinema through Quentin Tarantino or believe that great movies begin and end with Michael Bay, “cool” cinema takes us beyond the expected, captures the zeitgeist and changes the way we view the films that come along for us afterward. The same can be said for the 25 film festivals profiled below. With the help of hundreds of independent moviemakers, festival directors and fest attendees, we scoured the world to identify more than two dozen fests that are creating a truly unique film festival experience (for moviemakers and festival-goers). (16 comments)

Lynn Shelton Celebrates Humpday

by Lynn Shelton
This year has been a bit surreal for me. Humpday is my third feature and the first of mine to be accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. I made the film on a shoestring budget in Seattle, the town where I live, with talented, wonderful friends whom I love—just as I have made my previous two movies. (2 comments)

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