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Tom Pelphrey is getting accolades from both critics and viewers for his performance as Ben (brother of Laura Linney’s character Wendy) on the third season of Netflix’s hit series Ozark. In Pelphrey’s hands Ben’s vulnerability and explosiveness both seem to have deep-seated roots; there is a vast world behind his piercing eyes. On this episode he talks about how the atmosphere on the set of Ozark helped him bring that character to life, how his early success on daytime television prepped him for other aspects of the work, and why endless takes with David Fincher was heaven. Plus much more! […]

British actor James Norton gives an affecting and haunting performance in Agnieszka Holland’s important new film Mr. Jones, which opens June 19th. Last year he played James Brooke (Meg’s love interest) in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. The discussion in this episode comes back often to those two directors, as Norton generously takes us on a deep dive into his stage and screen work, lets us peek under the hood of his process, and talks about why he’s not consumed by his expanding “leading man status.” Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google […]

With Lynn Chen’s I Will Make You Mine now in release on digital platforms as well as DVD and Blu-ray, Chen and filmmaker Dave Boyle, whose films Surrogate Valentine and Daylight Savings form the first two parts of a loose trilogy in which Chen’s film is the finale, have released a trailer for the complete three-film story. All three films, which premiered, or were set to premiere, at SXSW, feature musician Goh Nakamura, playing himself as he navigates relationships with a trio of  women. Chen plays “Rachel,” who appears in all three films, and in her conclusion to the trilogy, […]

We’ve been wanting to publish this news regarding Filmmaker‘s Summer, 2020 issue for the last week, but we haven’t wanted to take space in your feeds while energies and attention have needed to be directed towards protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. But because our publication date is approaching, we are publishing this today. Dear Reader, I’m writing with news about Filmmaker’s Summer, 2020 issue as well as, for print subscribers, your subscription. For reasons I will detail here, we’ve decided to make Filmmaker’s summer issue a PDF edition. Of course, the issue will be available to all subscribers […]

Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP, and Filmmaker‘s publisher) announced today that the 2020 edition of its long-running signature program, IFP Week, will be virtual. The program, which has drawn thousands of directors, producers, screenwriters, financiers and executives to panels, workshops and one-on-one meeting events in IFP’s Brooklyn home, will, this September 20 – 25, take place through digital platforms. The announcement today makes IFP one of the first film organizations to announce a virtual Fall event in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. “Given the ever-changing landscape of today’s world we have decided to host IFP Week virtually this year to […]

Mark Jackson’s This Teacher — a Slamdance Closing Night film as well as the final U.S. Fiction winner at the now-shuttered Los Angeles Film Festival — is being released on DVD and digital formats June 9 by Breaking Glass, and the trailer has just dropped. Jackson (Without, War Story) is a 2011 Filmmaker 25 New Face who won the 2012 Audi Independent Spirit Award. Starring Cesar-winner Hafsia Herzi, the film’s a kind of existential cabin-in-the-woods thriller dealing with Islamophobia and American madness. The synopsis: This Teacher follows a French Muslim woman (Hafsia Herzi) as she travels to New York City […]

The Sundance Institute announced today the 22 projects from filmmakers all over the world that will receive funding from its Documentary Fund. Filmmakers from 19 countries with projects in all stages of production will receive unrestricted grant support totaling $525,000. “At Sundance Institute, we know that these unprecedented times demand creative and nimble support,” said Documentary Film Program interim Director, ​Kristin Feeley​, and Documentary Film Fund Director, Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs​ in a press release. “We’re fortunate to have a collaborative and strong network of partners that allow us to ensure material support for these filmmakers as they develop bold new work, […]

Lynn Shelton, who wrote and directed features including Hump Day, Your Sister’s Sister and Laggies, and who directed numerous television episodes, died yesterday in Los Angeles of a previously undiagnosed blood disorder. She was 54. Long associated with the Seattle independent film scene, Shelton began feature filmmaking in her mid-30s, after working in a variety of other artistic mediums. She told Filmmaker in 2012, “As far back as I can remember I always knew I wanted to be an artist. Finding myself smitten with nearly every creative medium in existence probably made the fact that I ended up deeply exploring […]

“Theater engages the whole organism,” says Biosphere 2 Director of Systems Engineering William Dempster. “Movement, through emotion — [it] gives you insight into yourself. Building a foundation from which we could go on and do other projects.” Accompanying Dempster’s voiceover early in Matt Wolf’s engrossing and unexpectedly stirring documentary, Spaceship Earth, is black-and-white footage from the first public activity of John Allen’s band of “Synergists”: a traveling theater production called The Theater of All Possibilities. The artistic value of the production is indeterminate; seen in brief clips, it falls somewhere on the continuum between The Living Theater and an Allan […]