Closing its 15th year, the Slamdance Film Festival announced the winners of its 2009 edition Friday night with Mo Perkins‘s A Quiet Little Marriage winning the Best Narrative Feature Award. The full list of winner are below. Best Narrative FeatureA Quiet Little Marriage, directed by Mo Perkins Special Jury Mention for Best Performance: Larry Fessenden in I Sell the Dead Best Documentary FeatureStrongman, directed by Zachary Levy Special Jury Mention: Second Sight, directed by Alison McAlpine Best Narrative ShortPrincess Margaret Blvd, directed by Kazik Radwanski Best Documentary ShortRare Chicken Rescue, directed by Randall Wood Best Animated ShortUndone, directed by Hayley […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2009[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 23, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] Moon was a challenge to write. There were a set of pretty stringent criteria that we had come up with for ourselves in order to give us the best chance of getting the film made. I had to keep in mind a very limited budget, keep the cast as small as possible, write something that would best be done in a controlled, studio environment all while utilizing a very specific set of visual effects that would maximize production value for minimum cost. All that, and we didn’t want […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 23, 2009Over on the main page, select stories from the Winter issue have been posted. Steve McQueen talks about his amazing first feature, Hunger; Greg Mottola chats about his return to indie films with Adventureland; and the always talkative James Toback reveals how it was to get inside the mind of Mike Tyson for his documentary, Tyson. Also, Jon Reiss continues his series of pieces on self-distribution, this time focusing on the home video aspect, and Lance Weiler gives tips on how to build a film industry via the Web. And much more, enjoy. Don’t forget: You can get the latest […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 23, 2009[PREMIERE SCREENING: Thursday, Jan. 22, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I wanted to tell a comic story with a fast, screwball structure but set in the real world and that feels genuine and convincing at every moment. It was inspired by the real-life story that’s kept the world gobsmacked for the past five years: a U.S. President (using and abusing a UK Prime Minister) who mounts an ill-thought-through military invasion in the Middle East that looks like it’s been planned on the back of a cigarette packet. I wasn’t interested in portraying those high up in power, but […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 22, 2009Opening this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival is Michael Imperioli’s directorial debut, The Hungry Ghosts, a gripping look at five New Yorkers all struggling to satisfy their physical and spiritual needs while facing down their own – and society’s – flaws. Best known for his Emmy-winning portrayal of Christopher on The Sopranos, Imperioli has over the course of his 20-year career worked with such top directors as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. He’s also built a sub-career as a screenwriter, having penned numerous episodes of The Sopranos and Lee’s Summer of Sam, which originally Imperioli was going to direct. For […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 21, 2009[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, Jan. 21, 9:30 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I started out writing Motherhood from a place of frustration with contemporary movies because I couldn’t think of a single one that dealt nearly exclusively in a complicated, human, reasonably authentic way with the subject of what it’s like to be a mother. Moms in the movies tend to be neglectful, embarrassing, screwballs, alcoholics, bitches, or monsters of controlling will, which may be true of some mothers some of the time, but certainly not all mothers all of the time. As a serious fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 21, 2009Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 22, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Jason Guerrasio interviewed Vicky Cristina Barcelona star Penélope Cruz for our Gotham Independent Film Awards special section in the Fall ’08 issue. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is nominated for Best Actress (Penélope Cruz). Talking over the phone from London where she’s rehearsing her role in Rob Marshall’s film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical, Nine, Penélope Cruz sounds humbled when congratulated for being named one of this year’s Gotham Award Tributes, but […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2009Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 22, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Nick Dawson interviewed Waltz With Bashir writer-director Ari Folman for our Fall ’08 issue. Waltz With Bashir is nominated for Best Foreign Film. It’s been said that the job of the filmmaker is to put on screen things that have never been seen before. And while cinema is essentially an infant art form, these days there are still relatively few films that move into genuinely new territory. Waltz with Bashir, which […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2009Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 22, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Brandon Harris interviewed The Class co-writer-director Laurent Cantet for our Fall ’08 issue. The Class is nominated for Best Foreign Film. Starting with 1999’s Human Resources, Laurent Cantet has quickly built an international reputation as France’s most socially engaged narrative filmmaker, crafting films that highlight the ever lingering issues of race and class in both France and, as in the case of his 2006 film Heading South, its former colony of […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2009Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 22, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Howard Feinstein interviewed Trouble The Water directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal for our Summer ’08 issue as well as the film’s subjects, Kim and Scott Rivers, in a sidebar to the piece. Trouble The Water is nominated for Best Documentary. Brooklynites Tia Lessin and Carl Deal had the near-perfect recipe for what I consider the near-perfect documentary: a unique situation, inimitable subjects, a strong but non-didactic political thrust and that […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2009