Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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TIFF Critic’s Notebook 3: Hermia & Helena, The Dreamed Ones, Graduation
Matías Piñeiro has been living in NYC for a few years now, so it’s logical he’d eventually make a film set at least partially there. I can’t pretend to a lack of rooting interest: I know, casually or closely, a semi-significant number of people who worked on or acted in this, did a set report (meaning I spent part of the first viewing waiting to see what was actually being said in the shot I saw filmed) and, if you go to a lot of rep cinema in the city, Piñeiro — a serious, inveterate cinephile — is just kind of generally around. Hermia […]
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TIFF Critic’s Notebook 2: Nocturama, A Decent Woman, The Red Turtle
When Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama was conspicuously rejected from Cannes, fest director Thierry Frémaux wouldn’t comment on its absence: was he simply currently leery of any images of mass explosions in Paris, or was there something more offensive to the film? Nocturama is to some (arguable) degree a shallow movie with a flippant/trivializing attitude, rejecting the default gravity granted its subject, which means someone will definitely get upset about the film. It’s also a highly recommended, original and (this may seem like the wrong word, but it’s true) fun work. It’s impossible to discuss Nocturama without getting into the split between its first and second half, which shouldn’t count as […]
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TIFF Critic’s Notebook 1: Neruda, Toni Erdmann, Julieta
Pablo Larraín really and seriously screws up for the first time with Neruda. Few saw or recall the existence of his debut, 2006’s Fuga, which received a middling response on the festival circuit; I seem to recall interviews around the time of 2008’s amusingly appalling (and vice-versa) reputation-establisher Tony Manero where Larraín said Fuga‘s indifferent reception prompted him to rethink a rather conventional aesthetic and come up with something inescapably different. Each film since his coming-out has, in variously scabrous ways, dealt with Pinochet’s legacy: Manero and Post Mortem taking place at the moment of his coup, the late-’80s-set No a crowdpleasingly cynical comedy re: the political machinations around the dictator’s removal via referendum. Jumping to the present, The […]
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Ten Films Not to Overlook at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off today, and I’m flying up this weekend for what is probably my 20th or so trip. Managing Editor Vadim Rizov arrived yesterday, and he’s already posted his first Critic’s Notebook, a “Zero Edition” in that it surveys four Toronto selections that have premiered elsewhere. As for me, I’ll continue my tradition of forgoing the traditional curtain raiser, focusing instead on ten or so films, mostly premiering American independents, that either I have a strong feeling that you shouldn’t miss or else have some element — director, cast or simply catalog write-up — that […]
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Amy Adams and Ethan Hawke to Receive Actor Tributes and Oliver Stone to Receive Director Tribute at 2016 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today that Ethan Hawke and Amy Adams will be presented with Actor and Actress Tributes, and Oliver Stone will receive the Director Tribute at the 2016 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards set for Monday, November 28th at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. “We are honored to have Amy Adams, Ethan Hawke, and Oliver Stone as our Actress, Actor, and Director Tribute honorees at this year’s Gotham Awards,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center. “Each with a remarkable body of work that […]
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#DocsSoWhite?: A Panel on Diversity in Documentary Filmmaking
#OscarsSoWhite is hardly a new phenomena in dramatic narrative circles and Hollywood, but determining where the doc community fits into the debate – is. Without empirical data, it would seem the doc community is doing a better job at building diverse and inclusive opportunities than Hollywood counterparts. But if that’s true, by how much? What measures are in place to ensure that the people in front and behind the camera better reflect the world in which we live and the stories we tell? How do public vs. private dollars impact this outcome? If, in the end, it is determined that […]
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TIFF Critic’s Notebook 0: The Salesman, Aquarius, Things to Come, Elle
This first dispatch cheats a bit, as will the next few: there was an embarrassment of riches this year in NYC as far as pre-TIFF/long-lead screenings go, so I started writing up the festival before actually getting there to give myself a head start — today’s dispatch, hitting before the festival technically kicks off, digs into some of the Cannes/Berlin titles that are crammed into marathon competitive P&I slots on day one proper. This is my first year attending TIFF, and as excited as I am to finally be attending, it’s inevitable that doing daily coverage will take its toll. Local color perhaps […]
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Maisie Crow’s Jackson opens Women’s Film Series in the Bronx
The Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) kicked off its 2nd annual Women’s Film Series Friday night with Maisie Crow’s Jackson, a documentary about the only abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi and pro-life opposition attempts to shut it down. Situated in the Melrose neighborhood of the South Bronx, the BDC is a block away from both the only Planned Parenthood in the borough and a Bronx Expectant Mother Care, known as EMC Frontline. (“All about saving the unborn lives threatened by abortion,” is how EMC Frontline is described on its website.) The tension between these two organizations is heated, having […]
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“Shorter is Better”: Sundance Programmer Mike Plante Offers Advice on Short Film Strategy at the Sundance NEXT Festival
A calling card to showcase proficiency and ambition, a vehicle to find resources for a larger project, or simply the most appropriate, or simply cost effective, way to tell a story, short films continue to be crucial for the development and discovery of emerging storytellers. The lack of access to more substantial budgets and the relative democratization of the medium via new technologies are major reasons why filmmakers continue to rely on short form narratives to fine-tune their craft at a lower risk. Today, festivals are receiving more and more short film submissions, making standing out from the pack increasingly […]
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IFP Announces Public Events for IFP Film Week
IFP’s signature event, IFP Film Week, has expanded this year to include numerous screenings, talks, meet ups, exhibitions, and tours open to the public and centered on cutting-edge independent content for the big screen, small screen and Internet. Public programs run September 17-22 in and around IFP’s headquarters, Made in NY Media Center by IFP in DUMBO, Brooklyn. At a press reception last night at the IFP’s Made in New York Media Center, IFP’s Head of Programming, Amy Dotson, noted that some 5,000 meetings for attending filmmakers were being set up for Film Week itself, which remains the only international co-production market in the […]
