Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Spring 2020 SFFILM Rainin Grant Winners Announced
SFFILM announced today the seven narrative feature films that will receive a total of $195,000 in funding in the Spring, 2020 round of its SFFILM Rainin grants. Awarded twice annually, the funds support films in the “next stage of their creative process,” which can range from screenwriting to post-production, and which “will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community and/or meaningfully explore pressing social issues.” The panelists who reviewed the finalists’ submissions are Sofia Alicastro, SFFILM Artist Development Manager: Filmmaker Programs; Sophie Gunther, SFFILM Artist Development Manager: Film Funds; Anne Lai, SFFILM Executive Director; Angela […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 14, 2020 -
Filmmaker’s Summer 2020 Issue is Online and Available for Purchase
As previously announced, Filmmaker‘s Summer 2020 issue is being published as a PDF, and it’s now online and available for single-issue purchase. It’s our largest page-count ever (244 pages!), and our designers, Caspar Newbolt and Charlotte Gosch, tweaked the whole design to make it a beautiful and comfortable experience on both a tablet and a laptop in either portrait or landscape view. For the first time, we’ve also enabled the issue to be purchased individually as a PDF for $5.95, and you can do that by clicking here or on the button below using PayPal or your credit card. On […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 9, 2020 -
The Pandemic Diaries: Filmmakers on Art, Life, Filmmaking and Politics in the Age of Coronavirus
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. “At Present, Many of Us are Living in the Conditions of My Speculative Fiction…”: Alison Nguyen on Her Isolated, Computer-Simulated Woman, “Andra8” “… Every Night I Dream That I am Shooting a Film”: DP Benoit Delhomme on Life […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 8, 2020 -
Different Ways of Learning
Across U.S. film schools this spring, a similar scene played out. The novel coronavirus went from faraway topic to urgent local threat. As rolling stay-at-home orders were issued, administrators shut down campuses, students scrambled for transport home and film departments quickly improvised online teaching methods that would allow instruction to continue even as students couldn’t attend classes and screenings in theaters or crew each other’s shoots in person. Three months later, we know much more about the coronavirus: its asymptomatic transmission, resistance to warm weather and ability to target multiple organ systems in the body. And with early, erratically applied […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2020 -
Editor’s Letter
Welcome to the summer 2020 issue of Filmmaker. We began working on this issue shortly after shipping our spring edition, with Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always on the cover. I finished my editorial work on it from Berlin, where I attended the festival, stayed for a few days to see friends and the city, then returned home. Shortly thereafter, stay-at-home orders were issued. About that spring issue: Many copies didn’t even make it to bookstores and newsstands, which shuttered just as it was due to arrive. We decided to share a PDF of the issue, so that’s how many […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2020 -
The Next Day: Writer/Director Amy Seimetz and Actress Kate Sheil on the Eerie, Darkly Comic Anxiety Dream of She Dies Tomorrow
“It’s so great that you own a house,” biologist Jane (Jane Adams) says to sister Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) by phone early in Amy Seimetz’s trippy drama of psychological contagion, She Dies Tomorrow. “This is the best thing you could have done.” Amy has only just moved in, boxes are everywhere, but a new L.A. mortgage hasn’t quelled whatever demons have pushed her to a tremulous and despairing state—Jane can hear it in her voice. “I’ll come over,” Jane says. “Don’t do anything you might regret. Go for a walk. Or why don’t you try watching a movie?” “A movie’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2020 -
Filmmaker Thanks Its Summer Issue Advertisers
Filmmaker is an advertiser-supported publication, and we are grateful to our Summer issue advertisers for advertising in our current issue. Thanks to all the companies below, and please consider clicking on their links below and learning about their current products, projects and initiatives. FX Networks, AKA Jane Doe HBO, For Your Consideration SAGindie Newsletter Metropolitan Post Virginia Film Office Cherokee Nation (OSIYO TV) Fairleigh Dickenson University Vermont College of Fine Arts Columbia University School of the Arts Emerson College LA Film School Johns Hopkins University Temple University Seven Seas (Rights Workshop) Warner Archive City of San Antonio
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 2, 2020 -
Back to One, Episode 112: Tom Pelphrey
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! […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 24, 2020 -
Back to One, Episode 111: James Norton
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 […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 18, 2020 -
Directors Dave Boyle and Lynn Chen Premiere a New Trailer and Discuss The Surrogate Valentine Trilogy
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, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 10, 2020
