Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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Eight Sundance Veterans with Advice on Eating, Interview Technique and Hot Tubs
As part of our lead-up to the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, yesterday we published producer Mynette Louie’s advice for Sundance newcomers. Today we’re following up with eight suggestions from veterans of the ’14 and ’13 editions. Read on for advice, much of which you should take and some you will hope you don’t have to… — SM Ana Lily Amirpour (director, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night): The day I arrived at Sundance I got terrible news that my production designer Sergio De La Vega passed away in a sudden tragic accident. So that night we were drinking at […]
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Sundance 2015: The Queer Cinema Landscape
Just to remind everyone what a bellwether of LGBT cinema it is — last year’s Sundance Film Festival brought us the U.S. (and often World) premieres of such exciting LGBT films of 2014 as Love Is Strange, Stranger By The Lake, Lilting, To Be Takei, The Skeleton Twins and the Oscar-shortlisted The Case Against 8 just to mention a few. So basically you can expect that many of the films listed below will become the hits of 2015! This year’s festival runs January 22- February 1 in Park City, Utah. Nearly 120 films will be shown (selected from amongst the […]
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Approaching the Elephant, She’s Lost Control, L For Leisure and I Believe in Unicorns to Have Theatrical Runs at Screen Forward
Following the Fall and Winter slate of Summer of Blood, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, Butter on the Latch, The Foxy Merkins and the currently screening Something, Anything, IFP has announced their Spring lineup for Screen Forward. The four films set for week long theatrical runs at Dumbo’s Made in NY Media Center by IFP are Approaching the Elephant, She’s Lost Control, I Believe in Unicorns and L For Leisure. Both Approaching the Elephant and L For Leisure screened in MoMa and Filmmaker‘s Best Film Not Playing At A Theater Near You series last December, while Approaching the Elephant and I Believe in Unicorns participated in IFP’s Independent Film Labs. Find […]
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Led by Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Complete 2014 Academy Award Nominations
Here’s the full list of the 2015 Academy Award nominees, led, improbably, by Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel with nine apiece. Best Picture American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything Whiplash Best Actor Steve Carell, Foxcatcher Bradley Cooper, American Sniper Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game Michael Keaton, Birdman Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything Best Actress Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything Julianne Moore, Still Alice Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl Reese Witherspoon, Wild Best Supporting Actor Robert Duvall, The Judge Ethan Hawke, Boyhood Edward Norton, Birdman Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher J. K. Simmons, Whiplash Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood Laura Dern, Wild Keira Knightley, The Imitation […]
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2014: The Year in 11 Film Festivals
The start of the Sundance Film Festival is when film festivals traditionally reboot. A new wave of films comes in with the new year and festival films that have been trotting around the globe throughout 2014, especially the last three months of the year, will fall by the wayside. The changing modes of distribution of recent years, and the increased number of films being released, has meant that frequently the only time to catch certain films – often the best of the year – is at film festivals. A few years ago, some were questioning whether film festivals were still relevant, […]
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That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Jewish: The 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival
I was appalled by a posted comment on this site about the title of my coverage of last year’s New York Jewish Film Festival. A pun on a seminal German novel, “How Jewish Is It” was to me not just incredibly clever but apt. I felt the festival’s mission admirably expansive compared to some earlier editions and sister events in other cities. The commenter, who self-identified only as “The Judge,” felt differently: “How Jewish? Give me a break! Everything about movies is Jewish, or did I miss something?” Lo and behold! The Judge’s snarky observation was prescient. I had commended […]
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CITIZENFOUR Wins Big at the 8th Annual Cinema Eye Honors
“Eight years ago, the shortlist came out, and the Academy failed to recognize not just three or four good films. They left off all the good films,” began Laura Poitras, the first presenter and undisputed star of last night’s 8th Annual Cinema Eye Honors, held at Astoria’s Museum of Moving Image. Recounting a bit of the organization’s history before bestowing Finding Vivian Maier with Best Debut, Poitras remarked that Founding Director AJ Schnack forged a necessary “response to what was happening in the community” in creating this close-knit, nonfiction awards ceremony. Cinema Eye Honors is always a pleasure to attend on account of that sense of “community,” […]
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2015 Rotterdam International Film Festival Line-Up
Falling smack dab in the middle of this year’s Sundance, the Rotterdam International Film Festival presents a hearty, intercontinental alternative to the Park City indie calendar starter. The program has trickled out over the last few weeks, and looks to be about buttoned up with the Spectrum and Bright Future sections announced today. Of note on the American end is the world premiere of Nathan Silver’s Stinking Heaven, which I covered on a set visit this summer, and the international premiere of Britni West’s Tired Moonlight, starring Alex Karpovsky. There’s also a generous helping of some of last year’s most notable festival circuit […]
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CES Roundup: 4K TVs are Great, But Pay Attention to What’s Going on in Streaming Platforms and Services
As expected, 4K has dominated the TV news at CES, with manufacturers announcing models that are bigger (Samsung) thinner (Sony) and have even higher resolution than 4K (Sharp.) But while the manufacturers continue to build bigger and better displays, it’s in platforms and streaming services that the real changes seem to be happening. Platforms Back in June Google unveiled Android TV, a platform to compete with the likes of Apple TV and Roku. Sharp, Sony and TP Vision have all announced TVs based on Android TV. The platform will also be coming on a set top box from Huawei and […]
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Martell Harding on His Award-Winning Scarface Redux Entry
Winning the prize for the best entry in the Borscht Film Festival’s Scarface Redux contest was Florida International University student Martell Harding, whose “Shootout” is 11 intense seconds of action-figure mayhem. Borscht’s crowdsourced remake of Brian DePalma’s modern neo-classic, Scarface Redux consists of, in the vein of Star Wars Uncut, homemade clips reinterpreting the film in a variety of styles and genres. And while Borscht 9 is over, the project is continuing, with some clips yet to be covered. Meanwhile, though, the competition aspect of the project is over, with Harding’s the winning clip. The filmmaker, who is studying Communication […]
