Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“Box Within a Box Feeling”: DP Paul Ozgur on John and the Hole
In Pascual Sisto’s John and the Hole, John (Charlie Shotwell), seemingly unprovoked, drugs his family and tosses them into a bunker where he holds them captive. Written by Birdman co-writer Nicolás Giacobone, John and the Hole is a zoomed in look at the psychology of boyhood. DP Paul Ozgur shares his frustrations with the changing of the seasons complicating shooting and the team’s move away from romantic imagery. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Ozgur: When you get a script […]
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The World at Home: New Directors/New Films 2020
COVID-19 brought two major changes to New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase of emerging filmmakers jointly presented by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. First, the festival was pushed from its usual March/April perch to December. Second, of course, it moved entirely online. In ordinary years, ND/NF takes place at the two poshest moviegoing venues in New York City, but in 2020, like almost every other communal-cultural event that makes city life worthwhile, it was reduced to a scattering of solitary viewers squinting at their home screens. Happily, the programming was up to its usual high […]
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Dark Streaming Clouds, Virtual Platforms and Coronavirus Tests: The 2020 Year in Film Festivals
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Sorry, Mr Dickens, there was no best of times in 2020 for film festivals. Indeed, some may question whether my annual trip down memory lane is even needed in a year that saw festivals shutting doors, industry-wide job losses and movies continually postponed and then delayed yet again. But with the coronavirus pandemic an accelerant to long-simmering changes in the film industry, for film festivals 2020 may be remembered as a critical inflection point. The cancellation of festivals — or more accurately the move to digital and hybrid […]
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SFFILM Selects Kiran Deol and Jon K. Jones to Receive 2020 Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship
Filmmakers Kiran Deol and Jon K. Jones have been selected by SFFILM to receive Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships, which will support the development of their narrative feature screenplays. The grants are part of Sloan’s “efforts to support programs that cultivate and champion films exploring scientific or technological themes and characters,” according to a press release. The fellowships come with $35,000 grants, virtual residencies at SFFILM’s Film House, access to SFFILM’s Artist Development programs, and connections to a science advisor and others in the Bay Area science and tech communities. From the press release: From an open call for […]
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Sundance Film Festival Announces its Full 2021 Program
The Sundance Institute announced today the full program — all categories! — for its 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Unspooling January 28 – February 3, the festival will occur both online, via a “feature-rich, Sundance-built online platform,” as well as, public health and safety requirements permitting, in person at Satellite Screens at venues across the country. Selected are 72 feature films from 29 countries, with 38 first-time feature filmmakers in the mix. Fourteen of the films and projects were supported in some way by Sundance Institute, and 66 features are world premieres. These films were chosen from 14,092 submissions including 3,500 feature-length films. […]
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Steve McQueen and Ryan Murphy to Receive Tributes at the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen and screenwriter, producer and director Ryan Murphy will receive, respectively, the Director Tribute and Industry Tribute at the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards. “Steve McQueen is a force within the industry, directing one of most impactful and influential films of the year. His bold, masterful storytelling has riveted audiences for the past decade making him one of the most iconic filmmakers today,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of IFP in a press release. “Ryan Murphy has created some of the most cherished and acclaimed television series and films in recent years. Ryan across his many successful […]
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Ring in the New: Top Female Filmmakers of IDFA 2020
As I’ve noted in the past, fulfilling the 5050×2020 Gender Parity Pledge is easy pickings for any nonfiction fest. Within the documentary realm female helmers have long consistently been behind half (and often more) of the highest quality work put out every year anyhow. And this year’s hybrid International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam — which like most non-Europeans I experienced exclusively online during varying states of pandemic lockdown over its ample (November 18-December 6) run — proved no exception to the rule. First there was the wealth of exhilarating new projects by acclaimed veterans to choose from. Czech master Helena Třeštíková […]
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Sundance Announces Live and Online Presentation Details of Its 2021 Festival
The Sundance Institute announced details of its 2021 edition — plans that will see Sundance offer titles to home audiences via a custom-designed online platform while socially-distanced live events (continent upon local health and safety guidelines at the time of the screenings) will occur in Park City, Utah as well as at a number of “satellite screens” across the country. Running January 28 – February 3, 2021, the Sundance Film Festival will stream its more than 70 features in three-hour blocks throughout the day, with films beginning simultaneously “to preserve the energy of a Festival,” according to the press release. […]
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Slamdance Announces 132 Features, Shorts and Episodics; Fest Passes Free Until December 31
The Slamdance Film Festival announced today the 132 features, shorts and episodic programs that will comprise its hybrid 2021 edition. Running February 12-25, the festival is billing the program “its most accessible festival ever,” and with good reason. All films, Q&A’s and panels will be available on Slamdance.com, AppleTV, Roku, Firestick and YouTube; “early adopter” passes will be free until December 31; and regular passes are only $10. Additionally, there’s a new section, Unstoppable, showcasing creators with disabilities. The festival’s live component will consist of a two-night drive-in presentation in Joshua Tree open to the public on February 13th and […]
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“It is Being Told Now—Because It is Supposed to Be Told Now”: Christopher Kahunahana on Waikiki and Native Hawaiian Storytelling
With Waikiki opening in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023 (official site here), we’re reposting Jason Sanders’s 2020 interview with Christopher Kahunahana. A film with “a seventeen-day shoot and two+ years of post-production,” Christopher Kahunahana’s long-awaited feature debut Waikiki marks a coming of age for the emerging Hawaiian filmmaking scene. The first completed narrative feature film by a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) filmmaker, Waikiki follows a young indigenous woman, Kea (a mesmerizing Danielle Zalopany), working multiple jobs—hula dancer for tourists, karaoke hostess for drunks, Hawaiian-language schoolteacher for kids—just in order to hold on, but slowly starting to […]
