Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? The second day of the shoot will be forever seared into my memory, partly because everything that can go wrong did, but mainly because it was the moment I realized just how extraordinary my team was and how grateful I was to be surrounded by them. It was the first day that another actor, […]
A Brigham Young University graduate and longtime Utah resident, Cole Webley’s repeatedly testified how much it means to have his debut feature premiere here after years of rejected shorts. The Utah runs deep in Omaha, whose opening minutes seem to take place in, if not the exact neighborhood, a dead ringer for the suburban setting of fellow BYU alum and screenwriter Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers. One morning a father (John Magaro) wakes adolescent daughter Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and even younger son Charlie (Wyatt Solis), piles them and adorable golden retriever Rex into the car, and gets […]
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? We filmed a few scenes in the woods behind my childhood home. I know these woods like the back of my hand. I know where the deer paths are and where the ground is steep and where the old abandoned stone building is. I’ve been playing in these woods for as long as I […]
In OBEX, the secluded Conor finds his life take a turn for the worse when a state-of-the-art computer game begins to intrude into his reality. The film, directed by Albert Birney (The Strawberry Mansion), will premiere as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section. Multi-hyphenate Pete Ohs was a co-writer as well as the director of photography for OBEX. He speaks in his capacity as cinematographer below, describing the goals and influences for the film’s look and explaining how his close friendship with Birney informed the film. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and […]
Two Women is retelling of the 1970 cult classic Two Women in Gold with a feminist spin, directed by Chloé Robichaud (Sarah Prefers to Run). In the film, a pair of struggling women decide to let loose and fulfill their unmet desires. Sara Mishara (Tu Dors Nicole, My Salinger Year) shot the film on 35mm. Below, she explains that choice and how the film’s cinematography offers thematic answers to its source material. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
Atropia takes place at a military role-playing facility when the real emotions between an actress and a soldier role-playing an insurgent begin to complicate the establishment’s purpose. The film, premiering as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition, is the feature debut of director Hailey Gates after playing in front of the camera in Twin Peaks: The Return, Challengers and Uncut Gems, among others. Eric Yue (I Saw the TV Glow, A Thousand and One) served as Atropia‘s cinematographer. Below, Yue discusses navigating the film’s separate levels of reality through lighting and camera technique. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: What were […]
Pavel Talankin, a teacher at a small town in the Ural Mountains, found himself in an extraordinary situation when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to the militarization of his school. He began filming his life and the changes around him, and that footage became the basis for Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Mr. Nobody Against Putin will premiere as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. Talankin, the film’s co-director and cinematographer, sheds some light on what spurred him to begin filming below. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
In Two Women, an adaptation of Claude Fournier’s Two Women in Gold (1970), two women, one struggling with depression and the other on a difficult maternity leave, find that misadventure and taboo make their lives a bit more invigorating. The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entry is directed by Chloé Robichaud (Days of Happiness, Sarah Prefers to Run). Matthieu Bouchard, a veteran of TV comedy, took his first turn as a feature film editor on Two Women. He reflects on achieving that dream and helping Robichaud realize her vision below. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? A few months before starting the film shoot, I invited Sara Mishara, Louisa Schabas, and Patricia McNeil to my home—respectively, the director of photography, the production designer, and the costume designer. I live in the countryside, and we settled in front of a fire and spent an entire day discussing our feelings about the […]