Long atop the list of the best unfilmed novels, Jack Kerouac’s totemic Beat text On the Road has, after 55 years, made it to the big screen, directed by Walter Salles and with a cast led by Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst. The film’s executive producer, Francis Ford Coppola, originally optioned the book in 1980 and had previously hired such writers as Russell Banks and Michael Herr to adapt it. In 2004, he saw Salles’ biopic about the young Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries — a period road movie about idealistic, politicized young men — and […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 29, 2013Ingrid Jungermann, one half of the team behind The Slope and a “25 New Faces” alum from 2012, has just launched her new very funny web series, F to 7th. It’s a “homoneurotic” sequel of sorts to The Slope, again featuring Jungermann’s screen alter ego Ingrid, and exploring further comic territory that pokes fun at the LGBT community and Park Slopers. The first two episodes are online now and feature guest appearances by Michael Showalter (in “Off-Leash Hours”) and Compliance actress Ashlie Atkinson (in “Tweener”). Go here to check out the show.
by Nick Dawson on Jan 28, 2013Tonight at a ceremony in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival handed out the awards for this year’s edition. The night’s top awards went to Fruitvale — directed by one of the “25 New Faces” of 2012, Ryan Coogler — in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and the documentary Blood Brother, directed by Steve Hoover (previous a guest blogger for the Filmmaker site), with both movies taking both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award in their respective categories. Fruitvale, based on the true story of the killing of Oscar Grant, was picked up by The Weinstein Company earlier in the week, following a frenzy […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 27, 2013At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here Andrew Sensenig, the actor who plays The Sampler in Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color, offers his recommendations.
by Nick Dawson on Jan 26, 2013At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here Frances Bodomo, writer/director of the short Boneshaker, offers her recommendation.
by Nick Dawson on Jan 26, 2013At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here Hannah Fidell, writer/director of A Teacher, talks about the films she is looking forward to seeing.
by Nick Dawson on Jan 25, 2013At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here James Ponsoldt, director of The Spectacular Now, offers his recommendations.
by Nick Dawson on Jan 25, 2013At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here Jonas Carpignano, writer/director of the forthcoming feature A Chjàna, offers his recommendations.
by Nick Dawson on Jan 25, 2013Last night, the winners of the Slamdance Film Festival were announced. The Grand Jury Prize on the narrative side was awarded to Matt Johnson’s The Dirties, arguably the buzz title of the festival, in which two teens set out to make a movie about the bullies who are making their lives a misery. In the doc section, the main award went to Nicole Teeny’s Bible Quiz, about a lovelorn teen hoping to win the National Bible Quiz Championship and the love of her team captain, which stood out to a jury which included Filmmaker‘s own Dan Schoenbrun. The audience awards for narrative and […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 25, 2013Tonight the winners of the short film awards for the Sundance Film Festival were announced. The Grand Jury Prize went to Polish director Grzegorz Zariczny’s The Whistle, while two directors known for their feature-length work — Damien Chazelle and Michael Almereyda — also picked up awards. The full list of winners is below: The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to: The Whistle / Poland (Director: Grzegorz Zariczny) — Marcin, a lowest-leagues football referee who lives in a small town near Krakow, dreams of better times. At his mother’s urging, he decides to change his life and find himself a girlfriend and a better job. […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 23, 2013