Authors — Jason Guerrasio

NATALIE PORTMAN CHAT @ APPLE STORE

As part of the Apple Store’s Meet The Filmmakers series during the Tribeca Film Festival, I’ll be sitting down with Natalie Portman and business partner Christine Alyward tomorrow @ 3:30 to talk about their website, MakingOf. They’ve been hush-hush about it, so all I can really say is what’s been posted by Apple, “a site that promises to transform the way people view, enjoy, and participate in entertainment.” Having seen the site I can tell you it’s certainly something aspiring filmmakers should take note of. So if you’re in SoHo (103 Prince St.) tomorrow come by and check it out.
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 23, 2009
CANNES ’09 LINE UP ANNOUNCED

The 2009 Cannes Film Festival lineup was announced in Paris today. Opening the fest will be Pixar’s latest, Up. Notable titles in competition for the Palme d’Or include Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, Gasper Noe’s Enter The Void, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, Ken Loach’s Looking For Eric, Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock and Michael Heneke’s The White Ribbon. Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell and Lee Daniels’s Sundance winning film Precious (formerly titled Push) will screen out of competition. The full line up is below. Competition Line Up Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces), directed by Pedro […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 23, 2009
TRIBECA: ALLEN RETURNS TO NYC WITH WHATEVER WORKS

The Tribeca Film Festival opens its eight year with the world premiere of Woody Allen‘s Whatever Works, marking his return to NYC after a four film absence. Screening earlier this evening at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan (though Allen did show up, sadly he did not introduce the film or do a Q&A afterwards), Allen’s latest work can hardly match his earlier ones shot in his beloved city, so we won’t even go there, instead he constructs an entertaining, conventional (for Allen’s standards) comedy about an eccentric named Boris (Larry David) who describes himself as a “Nobel Prize-worthy thinker” with a […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 22, 2009
Spring Issue Online

Select stories for the Spring issue are now online. Check out our interview with Steven Soderbergh who talks about his latest low budget project, The Girlfriend Experience. Plus, a Q&A with the film’s star, Sasha Grey. Darius Marder talks about his hypnotic treasure hunting debut doc, Loot. And Olivier Assayas chats about his latest film, Summer Hours. Also, in Jon Reiss‘s latest instalment he looks at DIY Web marketing. We highlight the filmmakers using still cameras to make their movies. And Esther B. Robinson walks us through what’s needed to do to make that next credit card-financed film. And don’t […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 20, 2009
Tribeca: Leaner and Nicer

That’s how Stephen Holden opens his preview of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in today’s New York Times. Beginning next Wednesday with the world premiere of Woody Allen‘s Whatever Works, Allen’s first film in four years set in Manhattan, the 8th edition of TFF will be a smaller and less serious in theme than its previous years, as Holden points out: The 12-day festival’s identity as a hybrid of serious film forum and family-friendly community celebration catering to cinéastes and tourists alike is now firmly established. At Tribeca highbrow meets no-brow with everything in between. Leaner means smaller but more […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 17, 2009
IFP ANNOUNCES DOC LINE UP FOR FILMMAKER LAB

The IFP has just released the ten projects selected for their Independent Filmmaker Lab, hosted by Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. For five days this week the filmmaking teams will participate in workshops in which they receive advice on technical, creative, and post-production issues. There are two tiers of mentorship support: via the program’s Lab Leaders who lead each of the five-day-long intensive sessions, and workshop leaders who provide technical, creative and strategic support to help bring films to completion. The 2009 Documentary Lab leaders are producer Lori Cheatle (51 Birch Street) and producer Lesli Klainberg (Paul Monette: The Brink […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 16, 2009
SWEETHEARTS AT SXSW

Head over to Festival Ambassador to see Bradley Beesley‘s photo diary he did for us using the Nokia N95 while at SXSW premiering his latest film Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo. Here’s the synopsis from the SXSW cataloge:Filmmaker Bradley Beesley visits and explores an oddball American phenomenon: that of the prison rodeo. He journeys with his cameras to Oklahoma State Prison – the only remaining U.S. prison rodeo that is actually located on penitentiary grounds – and watches, cameras rolling, as ill-prepared male and female convicts risk their lives for the promise of cash and a brief spotlight. And to […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 13, 2009
BASHIR WINS FOUR AWARDS AT 2nd CINEMA EYE HONORS

Ari Folman‘s Waltz With Bashir took home four awards including Outstanding Achievement in Direction at last night’s Cinema Eye Honors, which highlight the year’s achievements in non-fiction. Handed out by the event’s creators — filmmaker AJ Schnack and Thom Powers, documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival — at the Times Center in the New York Times building, James Marsh‘s Oscar winning doc Man on Wire was awarded the evening’s big award, Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction, along with two other prizes. Yung Chang‘s Up the Yangtze won the Debut Feature award as well as Audience Choice. The full list […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 30, 2009
TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE ANNOUNCE PROJECTS FOR ALL ACCESS

Tribeca Film Institute today announced the selected projects for Tribeca All Access (TAA). TAA is designed to help foster and nurture relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Celebrating its sixth year, Tribeca All Access will present 27 new projects during the six-day event taking place April 20 – 25 during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, held from April 22 – May 3. This year’s TAA jury is comprised of respected industry professionals – actors, writers, producers and directors – who will review script excerpts and work samples prior to the Festival, and deliberate over the […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 23, 2009
MADE IN CHINA & 45365 TOP SXSW AWARD WINNERS

The winners of the SXSW jury and audience awards were just announced and Judi Krant‘s Made In China (pictured right) was awarded Best Narrative Feature while Bill Ross‘s 45365 took home Best Documentary. Another standout is Scott Teems‘s That Evening Sun which won a Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast and the Narrative Audience Award. The complete list of winners are below. Feature Jury Awards DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Winner – 45365Director: Bill RossAn inquiring look at everyday life in Middle America, the film explores the congruities of daily life in an American town Sidney, Ohio. Honorable Mention – The Way […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 17, 2009

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