Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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SXSW Releases 2014 Features Lineup
Here we go. Unlike many other major festivals who favor an incremental approach, South by Southwest unloads 115 films from their extensive lineup (barring the midnight and shorts selections) in one fell swoop, so there’s plenty to parse through here. 68 of the featured films are directorial debuts, a number of which can be found in the Visions section, which housed my favorite discovery from last year’s festival: Petra Costa’s Elena. That’s not to say there aren’t a few familiar faces: Lawrence Michael Levine’s Wild Canaries will premiere in the Narrative Competition, while Festival Favorites boasts Sundance selections from a bevy of […]
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Rotterdam Announces the 2014 CineMart Awards
The International Film Festival Rotterdam tonight announced the winners of its 2014 CineMart Awards. A feature project about the youth generation following the war in Bosnia and an Italian-French co-production setting personal stories in North-East Italy picked up the two top prizes, while three projects received €10,000 grants funded by the Global Film Initiative. Winning the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award for the best CineMart 2014 project with a European partner was Tabija, Igor Drljaco (Bosnia and Herzegovina), a production of SCCA/pro.ba. Said the jury in a statement, “This is a project with great urgency developed by a young team, in […]
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Angular Visions: Vertical Cinema at Rotterdam
What would vertical cinema be like? It is a question that must have percolated in the minds of many a cinema enthusiast. After all, there is no rule decreeing that a film can be made only in horizontal format. But, of course, theaters, distributors and historical viewing practices have made us think of cinema in no other way. However, there could have been an alternate universe where films resembled portraits, not landscapes. At the 43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), underway right now, delegates got a peek into that alternate universe through a special section called Vertical Cinema. A Sonic […]
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Park City Critic’s Notes #5: Short Shrift
There were movies. Some, like New York Times film critic (and my fellow SUNY Purchase Film alum) Manohla Dargis, said there were too many — even before she saw any of them. Sales, at least during the festival, weren’t robust; perhaps some of the weary execs, including a couple she overheard dishing on their inability to sit through American Hustle while in line for a theater, are taking her advice and sitting on their pocketbooks. Perhaps we’ll find some of these movies on VUDU or Seed&Spark or NoBudge. Maybe someone will tap an unexpected and unforeseen audience outside of the […]
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Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash Wins Two Top Prizes at the 30th Sundance Film Festival
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash soared to victory in the major awards categories in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 30th Sundance Film Festival Saturday night. The picture, which was picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics during the festival, took home both the U.S. Dramatic Competition Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. Starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons, Chazelle’s second feature tells the story of an ambitious young jazz drummer and his unrelenting instructor in a no-holds-barred conservatory environment. The 28-year-old Chazelle first gained attention in 2009 when his feature directorial debut Guy and Madeleine on a Park Bench surfaced at […]
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Dance on Camera: Organizing a Dance Film Series
While much of the indie film community’s attention remains on Park City, there’s more than enough going on elsewhere to keep filmmakers and art lovers busy. Foremost among such events is the Dance on Camera film series, co-presented by Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association and held from January 31 – February 4. Dance films date back at least to Edison’s very first Vitascope exhibition in April 1896 and have been a mainstay of popular and arthouse cinema ever since, from Loie Fuller through Gene Kelly, Maya Deren, and the work of hundreds of choreographers, film directors, and documentarians today. DFA […]
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Grace of Monaco to Open 2014 Cannes Film Festival
Well this is an interesting choice. After yesterday’s news that The Weinstein Company pulled Grace of Monaco from their release calendar had everyone clutching their pearls, it appears the reason behind the move is not nearly as titillating as many presumed. TWC will not release the film as scheduled in March, because it will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 14. Cannes is not necessarily a stickler for surefire quality or intelligence when it comes to their opening night selections — see The Great Gatsby, Moonrise Kingdom and Midnight in Paris — but they do tend to favor a good auteur. Grace of Monaco, however, […]
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2014 Slamdance Award Winners
Yesterday, Slamdance announced its jury, audience and special award winners for its 20th anniversary festival. The jury award for Best Narrative Feature went to Rezeta, the story of a Kosovan model’s trip to Mexico City, while Elliot, which follows the eponymous Elliot “White Lightning” Scott, intent on becoming Canada’s first action hero, scooped up the Best Documentary Feature prize. The winners, perhaps suggestively, received $5,000 in film from Kodak, in addition to $3,500 in legal services. The audience awards went to Copenhagen for Narrative Feature, and Kidnapped for Christ for Documentary Feature. See the full list of winners below. AUDIENCE AWARDS Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Kidnapped […]
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Co-Present Film Festival Connects Solitary Viewers through Twitter
Held once a month on a Saturday and lasting the whole day, CPFF is an online film festival with both public and private viewing capabilities. Conceived by Sherri Wasserman, “a citizen of the realm of timezone independence,” the idea is that viewers watching solo from their homes or private spaces can connect with other viewers watching the same film at the same time. The theme of the festival, born out of this concept of the solitary viewer, is “Prisons Real & Imagined.” Wasserman explains the ideas behind the festival: We, as a group of watchers, are (mostly) in physical isolation. […]
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Director Sydney Freeland Discusses Drunktown’s Finest
I’ve been hearing the praises of Drunktown’s Finest director Sydney Freeland being sung for some time now. The 2004 Fulbright scholar and Sundance alum – whose long list of awards includes a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellowship and a Sundance Institute Directing Fellowship in 2010, and a 2009 Sundance Institute Native American Lab Fellowship – has also long been a fixture on the cozy New Mexico filmmaking scene. (Since I programmed the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival 2012 it’s not surprising the Gallup native and I even share mutual friends.) That said, as a jaded critic it’s second nature for me […]
