Today, NEON exclusively premieres a nearly 14-minute featurette with Filmmaker on the making of Cornish writer-director Mark Jenkin’s experimental folk horror film Enys Men. Jenkin and the film’s star, Mary Woodvine, take viewers behind the scenes of the shoot and detail their individual processes while making the film. In his review out of Cannes, Blake Williams summarized the film’s loose plot and stylistic leanings: Set in 1973, Enys Men (Cornish for “Stone Island” and is pronounced—if I recall correctly—AYN-is Mayn) is an image-forward movie drenched in the kind of dense, thick film grain you can find in e.g. the work of Ben Rivers or […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 30, 2023
Two years after The French Dispatch finally landed in theaters after an extended COVID delay, the trailer has arrived for the first of two Wes Anderson films releasing this year, the star-studded Asteroid City. Boasting an extensive ensemble cast, the film stars Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Sophia Lillis, Ethan Lee, Jeff Goldblum and Rita Wilson. Written and directed by Anderson […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 29, 2023
After premiering at Venice and screening at the NYFF last year, Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener finally receives a release date. The writer-director’s latest, which completes his late-career trilogy after The Card Counter (2021) and First Reformed (2017), will hit theaters via Magnolia Pictures on May 19. The film’s official synopsis reads: Master Gardener follows Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton), the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, to pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). When Mrs. Haverhill demands that he take on her […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 28, 2023
The Sundance Institute announces today six fellows selected for the second edition of the Trans Possibilities Intensive. Hosted by the Intensive’s founder Moi Santos, the three-part event will take place from March 27-29 and feature mentorship from four creative advisors and Sundance’s Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program. The six fellows for 2023 are Seyi Adebanjo, Rajvi Desai, Malik Ever, Nick Janaye, Jamie John and Tee Park Jaehyung. They will receive guidance from creative advisors Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest), Aitch Alberto (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe), Félix Endara (UNSEEN) and Chase Joynt (Framing Agnes). Originally founded in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 27, 2023
A squirm-inducing sensation on the festival circuit, Harvard Sensory Lab leaders Lucien Castaing-Tayler and Véréna Paravel’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica has a new trailer ahead of its limited release next month. The film consists of raw medical footage—eye surgery, genital drilling and an assortment of equally unsettling internal procedures—shot between eight different French hospitals. Vadim Rizov covered De Humani during its Cannes premiere last year, writing: …Fabrica toggles between something like Fantastic Voyage and a particularly grody Wiseman documentary. Defamiliarizing images on the former front include a camera being inserted deep inside….whatever (I don’t want to know) that made me wonder why I’ve never […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 24, 2023
SFFILM announced today the full lineup for the 66th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival), which will take place in the Bay Area from April 13-23. The longest-running film festival in the Americas, this year’s program will screen films from 37 countries at various theaters in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. “It is SFFILM Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming in a press release. “The line-up includes a wealth of Bay Area filmmakers across all sections, and highlights new—and seminal—work from […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 22, 2023
Applications are now live for The Gotham Film & Media Institute’s (formerly IFP, and Filmmaker‘s publisher) annual Gotham Week Project Market. The overarching Gotham Week event takes place between September 16-22, and the Project Market will be held from September 18-22. This year’s programming will consist of in-person events in New York City as well as virtual offerings. The Project Market connects new documentary and fiction projects in various stages of production with industry executives looking to develop, finance or distribute works across mediums, whether they be audio, feature-length film or episodic works. In addition to pitching and receiving feedback, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 22, 2023
Watch the trailer for Acidman, Alex Lehmann‘s most recent directorial effort. Co-written by Lehmann and Chris Dowling, the film was produced in part by Liz Cardenas, who won the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Award for producing the Duplass Brothers’ 7 Days. This year, she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Producers Award. The film stars Dianna Agron as Maggie, a woman who decides to track down her long-estranged father Lloyd (Thomas Hayden Church), a recluse who’s been given the nickname “Acidman” by locals. Part of their reunion entails attempting to make contact with UFOs, a search that reveals difficult truths about Lloyd’s […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 21, 2023
Chicken & Egg Pictures has announced their latest initiative, teaming up with Netflix on a $450,000 fund to support women and non-binary documentary filmmakers who have previously made at least two feature films and are currently working toward their next project. As many as 30 filmmaking teams will receive a $10,000 grant for research or a $20,000 grant for development. In addition to the grant, recipients will be provided with “peer support, mentorship opportunities and deeper connections in the documentary film industry.” The Chicken & Egg Pictures Research & Development Grant is accepting applications through 12 p.m. ET on Monday, April […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 21, 2023
Talking to The Guardian’s Xan Brooks in 2014, Kelly Reichardt reflected on the students she’s taught in her teaching position as an artist in residence at Bard. “The kids I know, I love them, but they’re not mad the way we used to be,” she noted. “They seem so unafraid and so un-angry. It makes them very nice people. It doesn’t make for great art. I ask them all the time: ‘Aren’t you mad at anything?’ They look at me like I’m off my rocker.” That sense of simmering discontent percolates through Michelle Williams’s performance as Lizzy, a ceramics sculptor […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2023