Authors — Scott Macaulay

REBECCA YELDHAM NAMED DIRECTOR OF THE LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL

Film Independent announced today that producer and former executive and festival programmer Rebecca Yeldham has accepted the post of Director of the Los Angeles Film Festival. From the press release: “Rebecca has a wide range of experience in the industry and she’s an inspiring leader — her many talents make her a natural fit for the Los Angeles Film Festival,” said Dawn Hudson, Executive Director of Film Independent. “She has been intimately involved in the building of this festival and the organization over the last nine years as a Film Independent Board member. Rebecca shares our vision of expanding the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2009
IF YOU HAVE A FILM AT SOUTH BY…

If you have a film at SXSW and would like to send short reports on the festival, your film, and your experience there for Filmmaker blog posting consideration, you can email me at editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. We have a number of feature interviews going up throughout the festival, and we’ll be posting from the ground, but Filmmaker always welcomes first-person pieces from those involved with the films themselves. And, if you are attending, stop by my panel on Sunday at 1:00pm. (Why does the SXSW calendar function keep auto-syncing it do my calendar at 2:00pm?) It’s entitled “Self-Distribution: Not All […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2009
SOUTH BY GIRLS JUST WANNA…

As I sit here editing the interviews and short reports we’ll be posting in our SXSW section beginning Thursday night/Friday morning, I’m wondering what level of SXSW reporting rises to the level of the impactful meaningfulness we aspire to on this blog. There is less industry news at SXSW, and fewer (try no) eight-figure acquisitions… but does that mean that we should be promoting a contest in which all you aspiring filmmakers create a music video for Double D’s “South By Girls”? From the site: It all started as a joke. On a Twitter challenge from a record-industry friend, Eston […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2009
GO, SPEEDCINE, GO!

Former publicist Reid Rosefelt resurfaces today with the launch of SpeedCine, a site that acts as a database for legal film viewing and downloading on the web. It’s a clever idea. You scan through the titles listed on the site, click one, and you’re sent to a page with links to the various viewing options on the ‘net. For example, say I want to watch Jeff Lipsky’s Flannel Pajamas. One click and I see that I can instantly watch it on Amazon VOD or, if I have a subscription, via Netflix. I can also download to rent from Jaman or […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2009
JOHN COOPER ANNOUNCED AS DIRECTOR OF THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Tonight the Sundance Institute announced the appointment of John Cooper as the new director of the Sundance Film Festival. Cooper has been with Sundance for 20 years and now, following Geoff Gilmore’s departure to Tribeca Enterprises, steps into the leadership position. When Holly Willis interviewed him for this magazine three years ago she wrote, “Funny, self-deprecating and entirely approachable, Cooper is known to thousands of American filmmakers as the guy who calls with really excellent news. For the festival, he’s integral, the armature that supports everything.” We congratulate Cooper on the appointment and look forward to talking with him in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2009
HBO’S IN TREATMENT THREATENS TO LEAVE NEW YORK OVER TAX CREDITS

While we wait for a resolution to the problems facing the New York Film and Television Tax Credit program, pressures mount on the filmmaking community here in New York as more productions contemplate moving out of the State. The latest is the HBO series In Treatment. From Roger Kimpton in the New York Post: The executive producer of HBO’s In Treatment series said he will yank the show and its 70 jobs from the Big Apple if Gov. Paterson doesn’t fund the state’s 30 percent tax credit for TV and movie production. The producer, Warren Leight, said the four episodes […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 9, 2009
THE NEW YORKER DISCOVERS MUMBLECORE

A bit late to the Dance Party USA, David Denby discovers mumblecore in this week’s New Yorker, devoting his entire film column to the genre. From the piece: You’re about twenty-five years old, and you’re no more than, shall we say, intermittently employed, so you spend a great deal of time talking with friends about trivial things or about love affairs that ended or never quite happened; and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you fall into bed, or almost fall into bed and just enjoy the flirtation, with someone in the group. This chatty sitting around, with sex occasionally added, is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 9, 2009
KEN BURNS LOSES GM FINANCING

The economic crisis has hit filmmaker Ken Burns. As reported in the Detroit News, General Motors, which has been a major funder of the director, is ceasing its support due to its own economic woes. From the piece by Robert Snell: The cash crunch ends a 22-year relationship between GM and Burns, a graduate of Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School and award-winning filmmaker who has created documentaries for public television about the nation’s wars, jazz and baseball, among others. Under a 10-year deal that started in 1999, GM paid for 35 percent of each film’s budget and funded educational outreach […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 9, 2009
TRAILER TALKBACK: PUBLIC ENEMIES

Mann, Depp, Bale, French Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard, and digital cinematography by Dante Spinotti… what do you think? 'Public Enemies' Theatrical Trailer @ Yahoo! Video
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 8, 2009
WEEKEND LINK ROUND-UP

Here are a few links that have caught my eye in the past week: Barack Obama is doing his small part to cut back on federal spending by regifting an AFI box set of the “25 Greatest American Films of all Time” to visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. As The Guardian reports, the British press is up in arms by the chintzy perceived snub, noting that Brown previously gave Obama a pen carved from the sister ship the White House desk is made from and a first edition of a seven-volume Churchill biography. The gift has also turned political […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 8, 2009

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