Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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The Power of “I Don’t Know”: Antonio Campos and Rebecca Hall at IFP Film Week
Before the recently-completed IFP Week fades too far from memory, we’ll wrap up our coverage with something new: an IFP Instagram Diary. We’ve already clocked how many times the words “branded,” “followers” and “content” were used at the event, and apparently social media is the future. Who knew? When Refinery29’s CCO Amy Emmerich urged during a panel, “Paramount Pictures should not be above Snapchat,” well, we figured we should hop on the social media bandwagon too. No, we don’t have a Snapchat yet – we will? The tag line for the conference, “Everybody Gets Creative,” acknowledges the way we’re all […]
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I Made a Film. I’m Exhausted. Now What?
For me, IFP Film Week fell at a serendipitous time. It was the week leading up to the final Sundance short film submission deadline — the looming September 23rd — that also happened to be my birthday. I told myself that if I could finish this damn movie I’d have the best birthday I’ve ever had in my life. I was one audio mix and one color session away from sending this butt naked baby off into the frigid forest that is the larger industry. How cute, how hopeful my film is! Yes, it is time to actually do something with […]
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Christopher Doyle, Live and Uncut, at the Big Screen Symposium
Screen luminaries from around the world are invited once a year to New Zealand for its annual industry gathering, the Big Screen Symposium. Last year, guest speaker Sebastiàn Silva (Nasty Baby, The Maid) shared his horror stories of working with Christopher Doyle, who (Silva claimed) exposed himself to everyone on the set of Magic Magic, refused to shoot close ups (“That’s HBO bullshit”) and generally caused chaos. When Doyle himself was announced as a guest speaker for this year’s event, it was clear the Symposium intended to take the announced theme of “Playing With Risk” quite literally. And so from […]
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Eating a Monica Bellucci By the Sea: The 64th San Sebastián Film Festival
San Sebastián may have a population of less than 190,000 but when it comes to culture and gastronomy the Basque seaside resort punches well above its weight. It combines the two during its annual film festival, even going so far as to team up with local bars to offer movie-themed pintxo snacks and a bottle of beer for less than $3, with names ranging from the elegant Monica Bellucci (roe and smoked herring perched on bread), to the less cerebral Porky’s (braised ham, pepper, onion and cheese) and the frightening Tarantino, which features a mushroom whose name translates as “trumpets […]
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The Indie Memphis Film Festival Unveils Film Slate for 19th Edition
The Indie Memphis Film Festival has announced the full slate of films for the 19th edition of the film festival, which runs from November 1-7. Prichard Smith’s documentary The Invaders will open the festival and Stephen John Ross’s documentary Kallen Esperian: Vissi D’Arte is the Closing Night title. World Premieres include Mike McCarthy’s Destroy Memphis, Kathy Lofton’s I Am A Caregiver, Madsen Minax’s Kairos Dirt & The Errant Vacuum, Flo Gibb’s Mentality: Girls Like Us, and Lakethen Mason’s Verge, with Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott’s The Act of Becoming making its U.S. Premiere. Festival favorites include Sophia Takal’s Always Shine, Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, Ira Sachs’ Little Men, David Farrier and […]
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“Storytelling in VR is Changing What We’re Used to in Traditional Film”: Yelena Rachitsky on Virtual Reality
Is virtual reality beginning to be embraced by the mainstream? The question was raised last weekend at IFP Film Week’s Cinema in the Age of VR panel. Roughly 50 people had gathered at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP in Dumbo to hear from four pioneers working at the forefront of VR. Every year at Film Week, IFP programs The Screen Forward Conference, a six-day event that dissects the current state of independent film. Located this year in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood for the first time, the event features panels that serve as micro think tanks for the film […]
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“DUMBO is the Best Thing to Happen to Film Week”: Reinaldo Marcus Green Wraps it Up
As IFP’s Independent Film Week has officially come to an end, I’m reminded again of how amazing it is to do what I do, with the people I get to do it with. With the close of this year’s program, this marks my first “hat trick” — three years in a row! Five years ago I was sitting behind a desk, staring at a blank Excel spreadsheet, working for an insurance giant. Fast-forward five years, I’ve graduated film school, became a husband, father and a filmmaker. And in the last 72 hours, I just had more than two dozen meetings […]
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Episodic Series Bring an Innovative Spirit to IFP Film Week
Filmmakers, industry and IFP staff are breathing an accomplished sigh of relief today as IFP Film Week came to a close last night. The bulk of the week was centered around meetings between filmmakers and industry with IFP playing matchmaker. As Deputy Director of IFP Amy Dotson said, “It’s a first date.” I’d been on a lot of first dates, and recently rode one all the way to an actual wedding. So I felt prepared. Throughout the week filmmakers were given a chance to pitch their project to potential financiers, production partners, networks, agents and film festivals. Some filmmakers returned […]
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2016 Camden International Film Festival and Points North Winners Announced
Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced the winners of the 2016 Festival, which ran from September 15-18 in Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine. For the second year, Conservation Media Group partnered with the Points North Institute to select projects from filmmakers and organizations alike that use video to create measurable action in ocean conservation or sustainable energy. 2016 CMG Action Grant finalists included: Alex Finn’s Whale Heritage Sites, Jeff Talbot’s Protect the Great Bear Sea, and Doug Woodring’s Global Alert – Floating Trash. This year’s $10,000 CMG Action Grant cash prize was awarded to Whale Heritage Sites. The 2016 class of […]
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My IFP Film Week Experience, Part 2: The Pitch Perfect(ed)
Read Part One of Isabel Sandoval’s IFP Film Week Diary, “The Female Gaze, Anyone?”, here. Forget Project Greenlight. If anyone wants to do a reality series based on the No Borders pitch meetings, it would be a more grizzled Swingers meets The Hunger Games — but with lookbooks subbing for bows and arrows. The thing is, I’m sure somebody actually used that logline for their own project. The proceedings have a jovially survivalist element to them. While my No Borders project Lingua Franca is my third feature, it’s my first U.S. production so Film Week doubles as Indie Film Financing […]
