Authors — Nick Dawson
-
Win This is 40 Combo Packs
One of the funniest films of last year was Judd Apatow’s quasi-sequel to Knocked Up, the pre-midlife crisis comedy This is 40. (I like to think of the film as a comic precursor/companion piece to Michael Haneke’s Oscar-winning Amour, which could easily have been titled This is 80.) Apatow’s movie is out on DVD in a couple of weeks, but you can bag yourself a copy early thanks to the generosity of our friends at Universal, who are offering three DVD/Blu-ray combo packs of the release to Filmmaker readers. All you need to do to win is to be one of the first three people to […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 8, 2013 -
Five Questions with euphonia Director Danny Madden
When the filmmaking collective Ornana (led by director Danny Madden) was chosen for Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” last summer, it was their charming and inventive animated short about a robot elephant, (notes on) biology, that first attracted our attention and admiration. However, it was group’s radically different follow-up project, euphonia (then still in rough cut), which assured us of Madden and co.’s genius. The 50-odd minute live-action film, which was first planned as a short, tells the tale of a high schooler (Will Madden, Danny’s younger brother) who buys a digital sound recorder and becomes increasingly fixated with capturing the sounds around […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 8, 2013 -
Dissecting My Brooklyn’s Success
Over at the IFP website, Filmmaker‘s Associate Editor Dan Schoenbrun has a comprehensive case study of Kelly Anderson’s My Brooklyn. The doc has had unprecedented success at the reRun Theater, selling out countless shows and bringing highly engaged audiences to the theater to both watch the film and discuss the issues it tackles surrounding local gentrification. Here’s a few choice extracts. Firstly, Anderson discussing “event-izing” screenings: I think that it gets at this deep question of – why do you make films? Maybe that’s what people need to do – sit back and think about why they made the film that they made. Do you just […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 6, 2013 -
Tribeca’s Spotlight, Midnight, Storyscapes and Special Screenings Announced
Today the Tribeca Film Festival announced the second half of its feature slate for 2013, and it’s shaping up to be the most robust and exciting lineup the festival has had in recent years. In the Spotlight section, there are a fair number of titles notable for their marquee names, some recent festival favorites but also a number of intriguing world premieres, such as the addiction drama Bottled Up, starring Melissa Leo and Marin Ireland; Christina Voros’ Gucci doc The Director; Josh Fox’s Gasland Part II, the sequel to his Oscar-nominated fracking doc; Adam Bhala Lough’s skateboarding doc The Motivation; Marina Zenovich’s latest biographical […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 6, 2013 -
Sundance Selects Pick Up Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice
IFP Lab film Blue Caprice, a chilling drama about the Beltway sniper starring Isaiah Washington, was today acquired by IFC’s Sundance Selects imprint. The movie is the debut feature by NYC-based French director Alexandre Moors — one of Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” of 2012 — and had its world premiere in the NEXT section at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Later this month, it is the opening night selection at New Directors/New Films. Commenting on the pickup, Sundance Selects/IFC Films president Jonathan Sehring said, “Alexandre Moors has made one of the most distinct and haunting American independent films of the year […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 5, 2013 -
Sarasota Film Festival Announces Partnership with Factory 25
Today the Sarasota Film Festival announced that it is joining forces with Factory 25 to offer a distribution deal as the prize for one of its competition sections. The winning movie in the Independent Visions strand will get a deal with Matt Grady’s Brooklyn-based boutique label, which has released many Sarasota alumni films from recent years. Here’s the info from the press release: The Sarasota Film Festival today announced that its Independent Visions Award will be presented by Factory 25, heralding a new partnership with Brooklyn-based film distributor. The winner of this prestigious award will also be presented with an unprecedented […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 4, 2013 -
Win Barry Levinson’s The Bay on DVD
Barry Levinson’s found-footage chiller The Bay, which played at Toronto and New York Film Festivals last year, is available to buy on DVD tomorrow, March 5, but you can get your hands on it for free thanks to our friends at Lionsgate. Here’s a quick rundown of the film: Two million fish washed ashore. One thousand blackbirds dropped from the sky. On July 4, 2009 a deadly menace swept through the quaint seaside town of Claridge, Maryland, but the harrowing story of what happened that Independence Day has never been told – until now. The authorities believed they had buried […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 4, 2013 -
Watch Kenton Bartlett’s Missing Pieces for Free
Here’s a good way to get the weekend started: download or stream for free Kenton Bartlett’s wonderfully original and inventive Missing Pieces, starring Melora Walters and Mark Boone Jr. The film, which the 24-year-old Bartlett began work on at the age of 19, was made on a shoestring budget but brilliantly used its meager resources to fashion a compelling and unique narrative. Birmingham, Alabama-based Bartlett cites filmmakers like Christopher Nolan as inspirations, and indeed Missing Pieces has much of the ambition and canny creativity of Nolan’s early works such as Following and Memento, though it has more heart than those […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 1, 2013 -
Frankie Latina’s Killer Kickstarter Campaign
I’ve been a huge fan of Frankie Latina’s since I saw his awesome debut feature, the new wave-tinged exploitation flick Modus Operandi, at CineVegas in 2009. Scott shared my love of the movie and that same summer put Latina on Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” list. Modus Operandi came out in 2010, and since then Latina has been somewhat quiet. Until now, that is. Yesterday he launched a Kickstarter campaign for his new film, Snap Shot, with an excellent, attention-grabbing video starring Danny Trejo, who’s one of the leads in Operandi and will also appear in this upcoming project. Latina’s $75,000 target […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 28, 2013 -
POV Wins MacArthur Grant
Congratulations to our friends and near neighbors POV for today winning a MacArthur Grant! You can read more here.
by Nick Dawson on Feb 28, 2013
