Authors — Tomris Laffly
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“I Find the Truth of the Scene in the Moment”: Fatih Akın on Amrum
Fatih Akın had reservations going into Amrum, a soulfully classical coming-of-age tale set on the eponymous German island in the waning days of WWII. The story was by and about Akın’s friend and frequent collaborator Hark Bohm, a veteran of the German New Wave alongside Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Initially, Akın was only set to produce, but when Bohm fell ill and asked Akın to take over directing duties, the Turkish German filmmaker behind deeply personal films like Head-On and In the Fade had to find a way into Bohm’s personal recollections of life during wartime. (Bohm ultimately passed away in […]
by Tomris Laffly on Apr 16, 2026 -
What I Saw, Heard, and Felt as Sundance Bid Farewell to Park City—and Robert Redford
“What I’m saying is, if you want to go, I won’t stop you.” At the final Park City edition of Sundance last week, my 14th consecutive one, I contemplated this line from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid daily. That’s because a gorgeous, Western-style artwork painted on plywood by local artist Ryan Williams stood not far from The Library Theater, displaying the dearly departed Sundance Kid Robert Redford (who passed away last September at age 89) next to these famous words spoken by his character. The quote felt like a homegrown farewell steeped in bittersweet resignation, an ingenious marking of […]
by Tomris Laffly on Feb 4, 2026 -
“These Guys Don’t Miss”: Padraic McKinley on Directing Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe in The Weight
When Padraic McKinley first received The Weight screenplay from producers Nathan and Simon Fields, he loved the atmospheric world it summoned forth. Original screenwriter Matthew Booi, along with Leo Scherman and Matthew Chapman, had created something special with this Western-adjacent Depression-era crime-thriller. But as a longtime editor across film and TV (Igby Goes Down, Dexter), as well as a producer with strong instincts about story and pacing, McKinley knew the screenplay still needed work. Ethan Hawke had a similar feeling about the original script. McKinley asked him to play lead character Samuel Murphy, an incarcerated man desperate to reunite with […]
by Tomris Laffly on Jan 27, 2026 -
“It’s Like Funny Ordinary People”: Jay Duplass on See You When I See You
Twenty three years have passed since Jay and Mark Duplass made a seven-minute short titled This is John for $3—yes, three dollars—that premiered in Sundance in 2003 and effectively launched their careers. This year, Jay (who recently directed the intimately sweet The Baltimorons) is back in Park City as a director with See You When I See You, a darkly funny dramedy about coping with PTSD—and your family. “It feels excellent,” Duplass says about his return to the Utah mountains that’s hosting the Sundance Film Festival for the final time, before next year’s move to Boulder, CO. “Some of my […]
by Tomris Laffly on Jan 26, 2026 -
“Duality is Emblematic of Identity”: Writer/Director James Sweeney on “Twinless”
Writer-director James Sweeney can’t pinpoint the exact time when he learned about the uniquely complex notion of twin loss and bereavement. But he can clearly recall what resonated with him the most before he wrote the first draft of Twinless in 2015. “It was the idea of this deep and singular form of grief, like a loss of self,” Sweeney remembers during a recent conversation with Filmmaker Magazine on his sophomore feature, which premiered in Sundance to rave reviews, and is opening theatrically on September 5 through Roadside Attractions. “It just seemed like such a multifaceted way to explore themes […]
by Tomris Laffly on Sep 7, 2025 -
“This Film is a Celebration and Examination of My Fears and Anxieties about Fully Committing to Somebody”: Director Michael Shanks on NEON Body Horror Film, Together
Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks met his life partner of 17 years at what he calls the Aussie equivalent of spring break. “It probably sounds more glamorous than it actually is,” Shanks laughs. “A week after high school, you just go and get drunk with people in a park or something.” For the couple, it was love at first sight, a union that settled into a committed long-term relationship of nearly two decades. “We’ve been together for so long that when we started to live together, I was confronting the idea of sharing a life,” Shanks remembers. “We have all the […]
by Tomris Laffly on Aug 1, 2025 -
“Compassion Should Rule the Day, Not Punishment”: Director Cole Webley on His Sundance-Premiering Drama, Omaha
A family of four—an unnamed Dad (John Magaro), his children Ella and Charlie (Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis), and their Golden Retriever—hit the road at the start of Omaha, towards Nebraska. We don’t get to know too much about them at first—just that they have an old car that needs a little push, and they’ve been evicted from their home, forced to collect their most treasured possessions quickly, like they are saving memorabilia during a fire. We don’t even know why they are heading there. Cole Webley’s deeply compassionate gut-punch of a movie, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic […]
by Tomris Laffly on Jan 31, 2025 -
“There Are No Good Harnesses, Clips and Clamps That Keep a GoPro on a Dog”: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady on Their Sundance Doc Premiere, Folktales
For Jesus Camp and Detropia directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, a film can be born from the most inconspicuous of things, like something they have overheard, or a phrase that stayed with them. Folktales, their stunning documentary set in a folk school in the snow-clad Northern Norway, was no exception. During the early days of Covid, Ewing was catching the end of a podcast when American dog sledder Blair Braverman was talking about her vocation, as well as what happens to your mind when you’re alone for 12 days with a pack of dogs. As a dog and nature […]
by Tomris Laffly on Jan 29, 2025 -
“Be With the Girls, Be Active Listeners, Be in Awe of Their Imagination”: Angela Patton and Natalie Rae on Their Powerful Netflix-Premiering Doc, Daughters
In 2012, Angela Patton delivered a viral TED Talk about her revolutionary Date with Dad prison program—a father-daughter dance between incarcerated dads and their daughters, giving separated families a unique chance to connect and reunite without any physical barriers. The CEO of Girls for a Change—a youth development nonprofit with a mission to empower Black girls in Central Virginia—Patton then found a partner in Natalie Rae, who reached out to collaborate on a film together. The result of their nearly a decade-in-the-making work is Daughters, a heartrending documentary that premiered in Sundance in January 2024, where it was bought by […]
by Tomris Laffly on Aug 22, 2024 -
“…Just Being Aware of How Much Grief There Is In Our Collective Experience All the Time”: Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan on Ghostlight
Back in January, Sundance 2024 couldn’t have started on a stronger note for those of us who have kicked it off with Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan’s Ghostlight, a gentle tearjerker and a surprisingly tender comedy, marking the duo’s follow-up to their 2019 feature, Saint Frances. A film on the healing properties of a community of artists and a love letter to the joys of scrappy artmaking, Ghostlight set the right tone from the start for the indie festival with a story about grief, familial bonds and the therapeutic beauty of the artistic process. Written by O’Sullivan and co-directed by […]
by Tomris Laffly on Jun 14, 2024
