Festivals & Events

2010 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL OPENS WITH “SHREK FOREVER AFTER”

Traditionally known for unveiling blockbusters on opening night, the Tribeca Film Festival will continue that tradition in 2010 when it screens the World Premiere of DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek Forever After. The final chapter in the successful Shrek franchise, the film will also be shown in 3-D. Shrek Forever After will be released nationally on May 21. The slate of films at this year’s festival, running April 21 – May 2, will be announced later this month. Tickets for the Tribeca Film Festival are available at www.tribecafilmfestival.com/festival.

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 2, 2010 Festivals & Events
THE ROTTERDAM FILM FESTIVAL VISITS BAM

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has always been an exciting oasis in the festival calendar, a place to see new directors, experimental programming, and to connect with new projects away from the din of more market-defined festivals and red-carpet affairs. (Full disclosure: I’m on the board of Rotterdam’s CineMart.) This year’s festival was a good one — you can read Michael Tully’s wrap-up here — and now New Yorkers have the opportunity to discover the filmmakers of the Tiger Competition. The Tigers consist of films by new filmmakers, and the gamut runs from edgy dramas to intriguing doc-fiction hybrids to […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 2, 2010 Festivals & Events
The Documentary Challenge’s Five-Day Work Week

Are you addicted to large oil drums of coffee? Feel alive only when you’re a sleep-deprived stumbling zombie? Relish your emotions ripping from ice berg to flame thrower? Then you are made for the International Documentary Challenge. Started in 2006, the International Documentary Challenge is a timed filmmaking competition — this year beginning on March 4 — where filmmakers have five days to craft a five-to-seven minute non-fiction film. In the last four years, more than 500 participating filmmakers — more than 125 each year — from some 20 countries chose to forgo sleep and sanity for this the ultimate […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2010 Festivals & Events
SXSW TRAILER WATCH: “TINY FURNITURE”

Here’s the trailer for “25 New Face” filmmaker Lena Dunham‘s second feature, Tiny Furniture, which premieres in the narrative Competition at SXSW. From the Vimeo page: 22-year-old Aura returns home after college to her artist mother’s loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her YouTube page, and no shoulders to cry on. Starring Dunham and her real-life family, Tiny Furniture is tragicomedy about what does and does not happen when you graduate with no skills, no love life, and a lot of free time. Tiny Furniture Trailer from Lena Dunham on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2010 Festivals & Events
2010 NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS REVEALED

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art have announced the films selected for this year’s New Directors/New Films. In its 39th year, the series, taking place March 24 – April 4 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters at MoMA, will screen 38 films from emerging filmmakers. Richard Press‘s documentary Bill Cunningham New York will be the opening film, while acclaimed Canadian writer-director Xavier Dolan will close ND/NF with the New York premiere of I Killed My Mother (J’ai tué ma mère). For tickets and more on ND/NF, […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 25, 2010 Festivals & Events
KERI PUTNAM NAMED NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE

Big news out of Sundance tonight: Keri Putnam, former President of Production at Miramax Films and Executive Vice President at HBO Films, has been named the new Executive Director of the Sundance Institute. The position was previously held by Ken Brecher, who left Sundance last April. Keri is well known to many of us in the independent community for her leadership at Miramax and HBO, where she opened the door to both new directors as well as established veterans looking to explore new ideas that wouldn’t fly in the mainstream studio system. Among the films she has been involved with […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2010 Festivals & Events
SXSW TRAILER WATCH: “AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE”

Here’s the just-released trailer for Elijah Drenner’s American Grindhouse, which plays SXSW next month.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 23, 2010 Festivals & Events
Exclusive: B-Side Entertainment Announces Shutdown

B-side Entertainment, the Austin-based tech and distribution company that provides website services to film festivals, is closing. The company, which launched a New York-based distribution arm just 13 months ago, lost its funding from venture capital fund Valhalla Partners in late 2009. “We have spent the last four or five months looking for a [financing] alternative,” B-Side CEO and founder Chris Hyams told Filmmaker. “But we reached the end of our cash before we could secure new investment. We had to shut the company down.” B-Side laid off the majority of its staff last week and throughout the weekend notified […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 22, 2010 Festivals & Events
“PUTTY HILL” DIRECTOR MATT PORTERFIELD BLOGS FROM BERLIN

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Matt Porterfield’s Kickstarter campaign for his film Putty Hill. He needed to raise $10,000, and with 30 hours left to go, he is still collecting funds over and above his goal; he’s currently at $18,926. Undoubtedly, the film’s high-profile premiere — in the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum section — helped. You can follow his adventure there over at the IFP blog, where Porterfield has been blogging. Here’s an excerpt where he talks about some of the people he has been meeting: I saw Claire Denis (pictured) speak to the Talent Campus today […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2010 Festivals & Events
VON TRIER/SCORSESE/DE NIRO MAY BE PONDERING “TAXI DRIVER” REMAKE

UPDATE 2/16: Screen reports that the remake rumors are just that. The biggest news so far to come out of the Berlin Film Festival is on a film that was made 36 years ago. Spreading all over the blogs, Lars von Trier and Martin Scorsese are supposedly mulling over the idea of remaking Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro to reprise the role of Travis Bickle. In Variety, Gunnar Rehlin reports: The idea behind the project is similar to the film The Five Obstructions that von Trier and Danish helmer Jorgen Leth made in 2003. In that film, von Trier […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 15, 2010 Festivals & Events

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