Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Wroclaw’s American Film Festival Announces Winners of the 10th U.S. in Progress
The 10th edition of U.S. in Progress, the American Film Festival in Wroclaw’s post-production forum that brings together American independent projects with the Polish and international film industries, concluded on Friday with the announcement of the winning films. Among the awardees are Homebody, by Joseph Sackett, who was selected for this year’s Filmmaker 25 New Faces list, as well as a prior 25 selection, Geoff Marslett, who brought his The Boardinghouse Reach to the event. As the American Film Festival’s Artistic Director explained earlier to Filmmaker, this year’s event was held online, with projects being presented to European sales agents, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 16, 2020 -
Sundance Announces 23 New Documentary Fund Grantees
Twenty-three projects hailing from 21 countries will receive support from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. Announced today, the projects will receive $540,000 in unrestricted grant support with funds made possible by The Open Society Foundations and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. “During a time of shared crisis, it is essential that Sundance continue its steadfast support of artists across the globe,” said Documentary Film Program Director Carrie Lozano in a press release. “These films creatively assert our common quests, conditions and resilience as they interrogate notions of individual and collective power.” “Creative support for nonfiction storytellers feels […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 30, 2020 -
Crime Family
“We don’t call you ’hun’ or ’sweetheart’ or ’baby,’” says Theresa (Debra Winger) to her daughter Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) late in Miranda July’s new Kajillionaire, the filmmaker’s dreamily eccentric interrogation into the social construct of familial love. “We don’t wrap little birthday presents with ribbons,” she continues, acidly, as Old Dolio looks on in despair. Old Dolio has just brought in $1,575 from an airport luggage scam—the family, which includes dad Robert (Richard Jenkins), makes their living from a succession of convoluted small-time cons that net in the two and three and, only sometimes, four figures—and she’d just […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2020 -
Editor’s Letter
Welcome to Filmmaker’s 28th anniversary edition. If you are reading this editor’s letter, there’s a good chance you are reading it in a print issue that has been delivered to your mailbox or that you purchased at a newsstand or bookstore. After a summer issue break, when Filmmaker went PDF due to bookstores closing and all the uncertainty around the pandemic, we’re grateful to be back with a physical edition—grateful to our advertisers, our publisher, IFP and to you for your continuing readership and support. There’s a reason we pushed hard to return to print with this issue, and it’s partly sentimental: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2020 -
Watch: A Masked and Distanced Kronos Quartet Playing the Requiem for a Dream Theme
The pandemic has upended many film anniversary tribute plans, as well as inspired others. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Darren Aronofsky’s iconic Hubert Selby adaptation, Requiem for a Dream, its soundtrack players, the Kronos Quartet, perform composer Clint Mansell’s now iconic theme. Of course, they’re appropriately distanced and masked. Listen here to a lovely version of a track that’s graced countless indie film mood reels in the two decades since its composition. Lionsgate has released a new 4K Blu-ray edition of the film you can read about here.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 16, 2020 -
Gina Duncan Announced as New Producing Director, Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Institute announced today that Gina Duncan, most recently Vice President of Film and Strategic Programming at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), will join the Sundance Film Festival in the newly-created role of Producing Director. Writes Sundance in a press release, “Duncan will integrate the artistic vision of the Festival with its practical, audience-facing elements. She’ll work with the programming team as they curate works for exhibition, and serve as a leader for creating strategic vision and decision-making on both the Sundance Film Festival and year-round public programs. Further key duties of the position: continuing to build policies […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 25, 2020 -
Watch: Narrative and Documentary Shorts from the 2020 Filmfort Film Festival
Filmmaker is very happy to partner with the Filmfort Film Festival for its 2020 Filmfort Online Showcase. These films are available to watch here, free, on the site through Sunday, September 27. (Click here for the other two sections of films.) Check out the rest of the lineup at Filmfort and keep up via social @filmfortfest and #filmfort2020 #filmfortweekend. Enjoy! 32 Goldfish from Erik M.G. Fox on Vimeo. 32 Goldfish Erik M.G. Fox 2019, USA, 11:20 A hitman does one last job to afford his way back home before it’s too late. www.erikmgfox.com/32goldfish Bennifer from Ryan McGlade on Vimeo. Bennifer […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 25, 2020 -
Watch Now: Shorts by Idaho Films and Filmmakers At Filmfort 2020
Filmmaker is very happy to partner with the Filmfort Film Festival for its 2020 Filmfort Online Showcase. These films are available to watch here, free, on the site through Sunday, September 27. (Click here for the other two sections of films.) Check out the rest of the lineup at Filmfort and keep up via social @filmfortfest and #filmfort2020 #filmfortweekend. Enjoy! IDAHO FILMS AND FILMMAKERS A.B.O.V.E Directed by Zach Voss 2019, Papua New Guinea, 15:00 Aerial Based Observations of Volcanic Emissions follows an international team of volcanologists who visit Papua New Guinea with experimental drone technology to measure gas emissions at […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 25, 2020 -
Watch: Brandon Colvin’s Feature, A Dim Valley from the Filmfort 2020 Festival
Filmmaker is very happy to partner with the Filmfort Film Festival for its 2020 Filmfort Online Showcase. These films are available to watch here, free, on the site through Sunday, September 27. (Click here for the other two sections of films.) Check out the rest of the lineup at Filmfort and keep up via social @filmfortfest and #filmfort2020 #filmfortweekend. Enjoy! A Dim Valley Directed by Brandon Colvin 2020, USA, 92:00 A curmudgeonly biologist and his slacker graduate assistants muddle their way through a summer research project. Deep in the Appalachian woods, they encounter a trio of mystical backpackers who change […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 25, 2020 -
“There Was No Going Back”: IFP Talks Change, Innovation, Circumstances and the 2020 IFP Week
“Once we said, ‘We’re doing this’, there was no going back,” stated IFP Executive Director Jeffrey Sharp earlier this week, remembering the moment this past March when he and the organization decided that the 42nd edition of IFP Week would go virtual. IFP Week, which began today, was among the first of the Fall film industry events to definitively move online, and it was a risk. “No one knew anything at that moment,” said Sharp about the progression of the pandemic and its impact on the industry. “But it was our board that really encouraged us to move quickly and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 20, 2020
