Each year, Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see last year’s question and responses, click here.) We also send out cinematographer and editor questionnaires. This year’s question: Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Below, find links to each director’s individual response to the prompt. Keep checking back here during the festival, as more responses will be posted daily! “A Rare […]
Each year, Filmmaker sends all Sundance feature film or series cinematographers a questionnaire to complete ahead of their film’s festival screening. We also send out editor questionnaires and a single question for feature directors to answer. Below, find links to individual cinematographer responses, which will be updated daily during the festival. “We Had To Capture Bioluminescence on Camera in the Most Organic Way”: DP PJ López on La Pecera “It Was -30 to -40 Degrees Celsius for Most of the Shoot”: DP Bryn McCashin on My Animal “You Hope the Work Can Play a Small Part in Moving the Needle […]
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Toward the end of our shoot, I was given the green light to conduct a 20 minute interview with astronaut Kayla Barron—one of our main subjects—while she was on the space station. I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous about an interview (also, it kinda felt like I was going to space). Following up on an interview I did […]
The Sundance Film Festival is always the American independent scene’s bellwether. The festival’s curatorial decisions vault a select group of films — this year, 99 features out of 4,061 submitted — to the top tier of pictures receiving attention from distributors, critics, curators from other festivals and, through copious media coverage, audiences. And while longtime festival veterans — I’ve been attending since 1993 — are accustomed to the usual first-half rhythms (“the festival seems slow”; “the documentaries are stronger”; “did you hear Company X bought film Y for $Z million dollars!”), Sundance’s return to in-person combined with its first true hybrid […]
At the end of the recent Hawai’i International Film Festival, Filmmaker reached out to director Scott W. Kekama Amona to learn more about E Mãlama Pono, Willy Boy, which won the festival’s Audience Award for Best Short Film. An astonishingly assured, measured debut, Willy Boy is one of the more important Native Hawaiian and indigenous titles to come out in recent years, successfully addressing issues like land-rights injustice, political disenfranchisement, police overreach and native identity in a concise narrative framework that takes place in only one day, from one character’s awakening to their eventual “awakening.” Shot in a steely, timeless black-and-white […]
The nonprofit Sundance Institute has announced the 12 projects selected for the Screenwriters Lab and the 10 projects selected for the Screenwriters Intensive for 2023. The fellows come from both the U.S. and abroad, with participants hailing from the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Nepal. This year’s projects were chosen from over 2,000 submissions, and the selected fellows will work to develop their scripts with Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Sundance Institute’s Artist Programs, and Ilyse McKimmie, Deputy Director of the Feature Film Program. Lab fellows will develop their projects in-person at the Sundance Mountain Resort from January […]
Over the past decade or so, the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival presented by Halekulani—like any good organization—has been in a state of evolution. Ten to 15 years ago, under the then-leadership of executive director Chuck Boller, it was considered one of the best American festivals to celebrate and discover East Asian populist cinema, with guests lists of Hong Kong icons, Japanese auteurs and Korean superstars that put most other festivals to shame. In the 2010s, it shined through its programming of independent Asian American cinema, providing a platform for voices and visions typically shut out of mainstream media. In recent […]
The winners of the 16th annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards, which recognizes excellence in nonfiction filmmaking, were announced last night during an in-person ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. All That Breathes, Shaunak Sen’s Cannes-winning documentary, took the top prize in the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking category as well as nabbing an award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography. Yet Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love took home more wins overall, winning in categories Outstanding Achievement in Editing, Outstanding Achievement in Original Score (by Nicolas Godin of French electro duo Air) and tying with Brett […]
SXSW has announced the first wave of film and television programming for its 30th edition. The festival will take place exclusively in-person in Austin, Texas from March 10-19. The festival will open with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, an adaptation of the popular RPG directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. Other noteworthy titles include the Evil Dead Rise, the latest entry in the Sam Raimi-created horror franchise, Problemista, Julio Torres’s directorial debut starring himself and Tilda Swinton and Flamin’ Hot, Eva Longoria‘s doc about the creation of the Frito-Lay snack. “We are thrilled to announce the first wave of […]
The Cinema Audio Society announces today the nominees for the 59th CAS Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing 2022. The contenders in all seven categories were chosen by professional sound mixers from hundreds of submissions to highlight excellence in their field. At this year’s ceremony, the CAS Career Achievement Award will go to Oscar-nominated production sound mixer Peter J. Devlin CAS (Black Panther, Wakanda Forever), while Alejandro González Iñárritu (Bardo) will receive be honored as the 2023 CAS Filmmaker of the Year. “There are a plethora of award-worthy contenders this year,” said CAS president Karol Urban in a press […]