Authors — Scott Macaulay

GOTHAM LIVEBLOGGING

The evening has just kicked off at Cipriani’s in Wall Street following cocktails at the perhaps appropriately named Museum of Finance across the street. Terrence Howard opened with a performance on acoustic guitar, Michelle Byrd gave her opening remarks and intro’d Aasif Mandvi, the host. (Culinary note: Our table was split on the identity of the opening course, with most calling it an omelette, some calling it a pizza, and others just saying it was pasta.) Mandvi quipped that Jon Stewart was originally asked to host but that he outsourced the gig to him. The first award is Filmmaker‘s award, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2008
LIVE BLOGGING THE GOTHAMS

If you're not attending the Gothams tonight, in addition to the various online updates and Twitter feeds that Jason mentioned below, you can check back to this site where we'll be posting our updates live, as they say, from the heart of the U.S. financial crisis. (The Gothams are being held at Cipriani’s on Wall Street.)
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2008
SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES NEW FRONTIER SELECTIONS

The first wave of Sundance selections has just been announced by the festival with this list of filmmakers who will appear in the fest’s New Frontier program. (Congrats to Filmmaker contributor Mike Plante, whose Lunchfilm series made the cut!) Said Sundance programmer Shari Frilot, “New Frontier is best understood both as a physical space and a metaphor for discovery. It is a convergence of art, film, and technology where creative alliances are formed around innovative methods of cinematic storytelling, and where audiences are drawn in to a story through visual, aural, and tactile stimuli.” This year’s films and filmmakers are […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 1, 2008
KILLER JUMPS THROUGH TIME

A few weeks ago we blogged about Killer Film’s 50% equity sale to venture capital fund GC Corp., a deal that will see Killer developing and producing larger-budgeted properties. Today, Jones reports on one such project. From Variety: GC Corp. has bought rights to Israeli TV series “Danny Hollywood,” assigning it to the venture capital fund’s production unit, Killer Films. Story follows three time-traveling journalists investigating the mysterious death of a pop star. Killer will reset the skein in 1960s America.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 1, 2008
THE FLAMING LIPS IN OUTER SPACE

“How couldn’t you be existentialist in space?” asks Mike Plante in his just-posted interview with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips about his feature, Christmas on Mars. From the piece: Indeed, the film has more existentialism on purpose than accidental ambience. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” Coyne said with a laugh. “I think some kind of bleak isolation left over from my childhood in Oklahoma seeped into this. I don’t know if you are feeding off your subconscious, but there are things about making movies that you cannot justify or understand. I like stories and I like intense things, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 1, 2008
SUNDANCE’S GILMORE INAUGURATES POLLACK AWARD

Congratulations to Sundance Film Festival director Geoff Gilmore for receiving the inaugural Sydney Pollack Award at tonight’s tribute to Samuel L. Jackson presented by the American Cinematheque in L.A. Anne Thompson has the story at Variety. From Thompson’s piece: Cinematheque said the award honors “someone who has been of critical importance and continuing influence in nonprofit film exhibition, film preservation and/or independent film promotion and distribution –people whose work Sydney supported and found to be so valuable, who are not often recognized for their efforts.” Cinematheque director Barbara Smith wanted to honor the memory of the late producer-director, who as […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 1, 2008
HOMEMADE THRILLER

Okay, one more music video posting. Via Kottke, who gets a hat tip: In a compilation of 64 videos all shown on the same page, one man recreates “Thriller” — the beats, the howling, the singing — all by himself. This is pretty awesome, like Christian Marclay on speed.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 1, 2008
PLAYLISTING AUTEUR DIRECTORS

At his blog Keef has assembled a tasteful playlist of music videos by feature film directors. Van Sant, Jarmusch, Wong Kar Wai, Sayles, Scorsese, Lynn Ramsay and Gaspar Noe all make appearances. Here are two. “Savoure le Rouge” by Indochine, directed by Marc Caro. “Disapearer,” by Sonic Youth, directed by Todd Haynes.Sonic Youth – New Music – More Music Videos
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 30, 2008
HAMMER TO NAIL FIRST OUT OF THE AWARD SEASON GATE

The excellent indie criticism site Hammer to Nail has taken the stratagem of being the first to publish its 2008 “10 Best” list, posting its selection (a baker’s dozen of 13, actually) the day after Thanksgiving, when some of us film bloggers were still digesting the previous evening’s turkey dinner. The rules: eligible films had to be American narrative films (features or shorts) budgeted at less than $1 million and which premiered or received theatrical distribution in 2008. I’m very happy to see Filmmaker favorite Frownland nabbing the number one spot! Ronnie Bronstein’s miserabilist masterpiece has been heralded here many […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 30, 2008
A SUNDAY AFTERNOON WITH THE GOTHAM BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTORS

I moderated a panel this rainy Sunday afternoon in New York with the five nominees for the Gotham Breakthrough Director Award: Lance Hammer (Ballast), Dennis Dortch (A Good Day to be Black and Sexy), Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy), Antonio Campos (Afterschool) and Alex Rivera (Sleep Dealer). I’m not a big fan of reading (and writing) panel conversation blow-by-blows, but it was a good talk and some interesting contrasts and comparisons between the directors emerged during the conversation. I’ll note them here. 1. Independent films can take a long time to make. Four out of the five directors spend several […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 30, 2008

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.