Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Nicole Kidman and Ed Lachman to Receive Tributes at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards
Nicole Kidman, in the midst of an extraordinary year of well-received performances, and legendary DP Ed Lachman, whose latest Todd Haynes collaboration is due for release in November, were announced today as the latest 2017 Gotham Award Tribute recipients. “It is truly an honor to present Nicole Kidman with the Actress Tribute this year,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in New York Media Center, in a statement. “Her choices in projects throughout her career have been bold and carefully selected, ranging from thought-provoking independent films and studio blockbusters to unique and original television series. She […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 13, 2017 -
25 Films We’re Looking Forward to at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival got underway today with Janus Metz’s Borg/McEnroe as Opening Night and a number of heavily anticipated Fall titles — including mother!, Battle of the Sexes, Downsizing, I, Tonya — making either their world or North American premieres. Vadim Rizov will be on the ground filing his critics dispatches for Filmmaker, and we’ll have select interviews and other editorial as the fest goes on. But before diving into our preview of 25 films we’re especially excited about, I want to comment on what may be TIFF’s biggest news this year, which arrived a week before the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 7, 2017 -
SFFILM Announces Major New Suite of Artist Development Programs
SFFILM, the presenter of the San Francisco International Film Festival, has announced two new artist development programs as well other grants and partnerships. Supporting producers will be the New American Producer Fellowship, a program for a producer who has recently immigrated to the United States. Supported by the Flora Family Foundation and intended to “provide a stage for the perspectives of underrepresented filmmakers and to enrich the understanding, empathy, and curiosity of the general public,” the Fellowship will provide a $25,000 cash grant as well as an artist residency at SFFILM’s FilmHouse. The new Women, Peace and Security Fellowship, supported […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 30, 2017 -
Trailer Watch: Yance Ford’s Strong Island
Yance Ford, a 2011 Filmmaker 25 New Face, premiered his feature documentary debut Strong Island at Sundance this year, and the film’s new trailer has just dropped from Netflix. One of this year’s essential docs, Strong Island is a formally assured, highly thoughtful examination of racial injustice, family tragedy and the complexities of memory and grief. Filmmaker Contributing Editor Brandon Harris wrote about the film earlier this year at The New Yorker: In the annals of cinematic memoir, there are very few films like Yance Ford’s Strong Island, a stylish and wrenching rumination on familial grief that had its première […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 22, 2017 -
Camden International Film Festival Announces 2017 Slate and Expanded VR Section
The Camden International Film Festival, which takes place September 14 – 17 throughout Camden, Rockport and Portland, Maine, announced its 2017 lineup today. Opening the festival is a world premiere, Dustin Nakao Haider’s basketball doc, Shot in the Dark, and the lineup also contains eight films, including The Reagan Show, All That Passes By Through A Window That Doesn’t Open and Whose Streets?, that received support from parent organization Points North Institute’s Artist Programs. “Screening at CIFF this year feels like a homecoming,” said Sabaah Folayan, Director of Whose Streets?, in a press release. “This community believed in our project […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 22, 2017 -
“He’s More a Painter, Maybe, Than a Director”: Jean-Luc Godard on Jerry Lewis
Amongst the many tributes pouring out today to the late, great Jerry Lewis, slot this interview clip of Jean-Luc Godard from The Dick Cavett Show in 1980. Seeing him as continuing the great physical comedy tradition of Harry Langdon and Buster Keaton, Godard goes on to extoll Lewis’s precise framing and sense of geometry. “But do you find him funny,” Cavett asks, and the answer is worth rolling this clip.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2017 -
Al Gore, Jason Blum To Receive Tribute Awards at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards
IFP announced today that former Vice President Al Gore, whose work on the issue of climate change has been featured in two feature documentaries, will receive a newly created Humanitarian Tribute at this year’s IFP Gotham Awards. Blumhouse topper Jason Blum, the producer behind low-cost, high-profit, zeitgeist-zinging horror hits like this year’s Get Out, will receive the Industry Tribute. “We are thrilled to be presenting Vice President Al Gore with the Humanitarian Tribute and Jason Blum with the Industry Tribute” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center, in a press release. “Mr. Gore’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2017 -
IFP Week Programs Announced, Including Filmmaker-Hosted Opening Day with Barry Jenkins, Safdie Bros, Dee Rees and More
IFP, Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today programs to be included in its annual signature event, IFP Week. They include, I’m excited to say, an opening day hosted by Filmmaker timed to the celebration of this magazine’s 25th Anniversary and 100th issue. On Sunday, September 17, I and other Filmmaker editors and writers will be moderating a day of presentations and discussions at BRIC with speakers who’ve been important our collective history, including Oscar-winning filmmakers Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski of Moonlight; Josh and Benny Safdie of Good Time; and Emmy-nominated director Dee Rees of the forthcoming Netflix release Mudbound. The running […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 15, 2017 -
Watch: David Lynch’s Bonkers MacDowell Colony Medal Acceptance Speech
David Lynch is an alumni of MacDowell, the storied New Hampshire artists colony. He was awarded this weekend their MacDowell Medal in a ceremony hosted by author and MacDowell Colony chairman Michael Chabon but, due to a prior engagement, was unable to attend. He did send, however, a personalized, appropriately Lynchian video thank-you. Watch it above.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2017 -
Cinematographer Lucas Alvarado-Farrar on Shooting Whose Streets?
Opening today in theaters is Sabaah Folayan’s Whose Streets?, co-directed by Damon Davis. Both visceral and thoughtful, it looks back at the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO in September, 2014, capturing all the turbulence and outcry of the moment before moving forward and following the activist energies ignited by the event. There’s archival and citizen-shot material, most only on cell phones, in the movie, but also expertly-captured footage of the original protests and following actions shot by the film’s DP, Lucas Alvarado-Farrar. Here, in an interview conducted just prior to the film’s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 11, 2017
