Authors — Jason Guerrasio

NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS ’09 SLATE ANNOUNCED

The line up for this year’s New Directors/New Films was announced moments ago. The opening film will be Cherien Dabis’s Amreeka and Lee Daniels’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire is the closing film. The full list of titles are below. ND/NF will be held at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center March 25 – April 5. OPENING NIGHT Amreeka Cherien Dabis, USA/Canada/Kuwait, 2009; 96m Cherien Dabis’s humanist miracle of a first film chronicles the bittersweet adjustment to a multicultural way of life after Muna, a single […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 12, 2009
FROZEN RIVER BLU-RAY CONTEST

Today Courtney Hunt‘s Oscar nominated debut feature, Frozen River, is released on DVD and Blu-Ray. We here at the magazine have been big fans of the film since seeing it at Sundance last year. So we’re holding a small contest for a FREE Blu-Ray disc of the film. The first person to e-mail us the correct answer to the question below will get the disc. (DISCLAIMER: Contest is only available for those living in the U.S.). The answer can be found in our cover story of the film in the Summer, 2008 issue. UPDATE: Well, that was quick. Congrats to […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 10, 2009
LIONSGATE, TWC FILE LAWSUITS OVER PUSH

On the same day The New York Times published a piece on the difficulties facing the marketing of Lee Daniels‘s Push: Based on The Novel by Sapphire, indieWIRE‘s Eugene Hernandez reports that lawsuits have been filed by Lionsgate, which according to reports has acquired the film, and The Weinstein Company, which says they are the ones who closed a deal for the film (TWC is also suing the film’s sales rep Cinetic Media). An excerpt from the iW story: Bert Fields’ TWC statement noted that Lionsgate filed a pre-emptive suit against TWC yesterday. “This is obvious forum-shopping by a party […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 5, 2009
“W.”

Oliver Stone is no stranger to mixing presidents and controversy, so his look at the 43rd president in his latest film, W., comes to no one as a surprise. But unlike JFK or Nixon, decades have not passed in Stone’s look at George W. Bush. As time has judged the actions and events depicted in those films long before Stone made them, the wealth of information on Bush’s decisions in office and our addiction to have everything instantly has lead to the making of a film that was released while its subject was still in office, and is probably its […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 3, 2009
2ND BABELGUM FEST KICKS OFF

Babelgum, the free-to-view independent Web TV service, announced this week that the finalists of their 2nd annual Online Film Festival is now available for public screening and voting. Heading the festival jury this year is Spike Lee, who will award the top films in each category (Short Film, Animation, Documentary and Mini Masterpiece) with a cash prize of $27,000. Screening and voting are currently available at: http://www.babelgum.com/online-film-festival
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 3, 2009
A MONTH OF OSCAR

Beginning today on the main page, we will be posting stories that ran either in the magazine or online of films nominated for Academy Awards this year. Check in often as we’ll be running pieces all the way up to the big night on Feb. 22. First up is Howard Feinstein‘s piece on Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor, which is nominated for Best Actor (Richard Jenkins).
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 3, 2009
LIONSGATE TAKES PUSH

According to Variety, Lionsgate has taken North American rights to Lee Daniels‘s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire. Film will also get the help of powerhouses Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, who have signed on to help promote the film. A release date was not mentioned in the Variety piece.
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 2, 2009
CANDID CAMERA

Over at Festival Ambassador, check out the photo diary director Jay DiPietro did for us from Sundance where his debut feature, Peter And Vandy, starring Jess Weixler and Jason Ritter, screened in competition.
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 2, 2009
In Conversation with Postif Editor Michel Ciment

In connection with the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s new series “Mavericks and Outsiders: Positif Celebrates American Cinema,” Jamie Stuart spoke recently with Positif‘s editor, the noted French film critic and author Michel Ciment. FILMMAKER: I probably know you best from your Kubrick book. What was that like, having the ability to interview him over the years? CIMENT: Well, it came very naturally. I don’t know why. I think he had a piece of mine translated from 1968 — a long essay I did on the work of Kubrick. It was probably the first essay in France to try to […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 30, 2009
SUNDANCE AWARDS PUSH WITH THREE AWARDS, INCLUDING TOP HONOR

The award winners of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival were announced this evening and Lee Daniels‘s Push: Based on a novel by Sapphire was the big winner as it took not only the Dramatic Grand Jury prize but also the Audience Award and Special Jury prize for actress Mo’Nique. Ondi Timoner‘s We Live In Public was awarded the top Documentary prize. The full list of winners are below. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize:Push: Based on a novel by Sapphire, Lee Daniels Documentary Grand Jury Prize:We Live In Public, directed by Ondi Timoner Dramatic World Cinema Jury Prize:The Maid, directed by Sebastian […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2009

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