The Toronto Film Festival is underway, the first purely in-person edition since before the COVID-19 pandemic. There are high profile premieres, including Ryan Johnson’s Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion, a number of films traveling on their awards march from Telluride and/or Venice (Florian Zeller’s The Son, Laura Poitras’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), as well as smaller acquisition titles that are always in danger of being overlooked amidst the galas. Below are a number of films, most but not all TIFF premieres, that we’re recommending you check out, whether that recommendation is based on pre-screening or just our knowledge […]
Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente announced today that Eugene Hernandez will join the nonprofit as the new Festival Director and head of public programming of the Sundance Film Festival. His first festival leading as Director will be in 2024, while the forthcoming 2023 edition will be led by Vicente in collaboration with Director of Programming Kim Yutani and the Institute’s broader leadership team. Hernandez is the fourth Festival Director in the Sundance Film Festival’s history, succeeding Tabitha Jackson, who served for two years. He will join the Institute’s core leadership team beginning in November, reporting to Vicente and being based […]
Todd Field’s TÁR simulates ethical complexity to “call into question” cancel culture, which—no matter what Gina Carano, Peter Vack et al. have to say about it—is not an unprecedentedly bold or unthinkable move; millions of Americans are waiting to nod in vociferous agreement. The titular Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) first speaks at the New Yorker Festival, in onstage conversation with the magazine’s Adam Gopnik as himself. This prolonged opening (somewhere around 15 minutes) provides an excuse for a lot of expository background: Tár is an EGOT honoree, a revered modern conductor, a lesbian who’s also the first woman appointed to lead a […]
The non-profit Sundance Institute has shared preliminary updates for the 2023 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, which will take place January 19-29. Most notably, the festival will pivot back to being a largely in-person festival, with screenings kicking off in Utah on January 19 in Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance Resort. Sundance will then introduce on-demand film streaming via its festival platform on January 24 for all of the competition titles (U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, World Cinema Dramatic, World Cinema Documentary, and NEXT) as well as episodic and short film titles. Also kicking off on the […]
SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, announced today the 18 feature projects that will receive SFFILM Rainin Grants totaling $450,000. These grants will provide funding to advance each project to its next creative stage, generally entailing support for screenwriting and further development. Distributed on an annual basis, the SFFILM Rainin Grant is typically awarded to “to filmmakers whose narrative feature films meaningfully explore pressing social issues and/or have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community,” according to a press release. However, this does not mean that the grants are reserved exclusively for Bay Area […]
The panels have been announced for the 2022 Gotham Week Conference, the first time the event will occur in person since 2019. The panelists include Jenny Slate and other team members behind Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, director of Bodies Bodies Bodies Halina Reijn and co-directors of The Janes Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes. Slate, who voiced the title character and co-wrote the script, will be joined by Marcel director Dean Fleischer Camp and animation director Kirsten Lepore. Other panelists at the 2022 Gotham Week Conference include Adamma and Adanne Ebo, the respective director and producer of Honk For Jesus. […]
New York’s Metrograph Theater will pay homage to the “unsung” innovators of New York City’s independent film landscape in their repertory series The Process: A Tribute to Robert and Irwin Young. Running from August 12 through 21, the series highlights the directorial work of Robert M. Young as well as a slew of renowned titles that were processed at the now-defunct DuArt Film Laboratories, where his brother Irwin Young acted as owner and chairman until his death earlier this year at the age of 94. Series curator Nellie Killian was originally approached by Caught screenwriter Edward Pomerantz to program that […]
For its 26th edition, the Fantasia International Film Festival returned to a fully in-person, three-week event in downtown Montréal. The festival has always been my own personal summer retreat, affording me a few days in Canada to embrace the undying creativity of the independent horror scene and the festival’s homegrown traditions. For reasons I’ve never fully understood but have always been happy to accept the entire audience erupts in applause at a generic TV spot for Nongshim ramen and, as the lights go down before a film, loudly meows like a cat. If you attend a screening in Concordia University’s Sir […]
Film at Lincoln Center has announced the main slate for the 2022 New York Film Festival, featuring anticipated films from celebrated auteurs and promising newcomers alike. Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise will open the 60th edition of the festival, while Laura Poitras’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed serves as the Centerpiece selection and The Inspection, the narrative debut from director Elegance Bratton, closes it out. Directors also featured in the program include James Gray, Claire Denis, Frederick Wiseman, Park Chan-wook, Paul Schrader, Kelly Reichardt, Ruben Östlund and Todd Field. Filmmakers Mia Hansen-Løve, Joanna Hogg and […]
The Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly IFP, and Filmmaker‘s publisher) announces today the 144 projects comprising the 44th annual Gotham Week Project Market, which includes fiction and nonfiction features, series and audio projects. Taking place both at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and online, the in person segment will run from September 19-21, while the virtual portion will be hosted from September 22-23. “Covering a wide range of formats, subjects, and genres, this year’s Project Market slate features some of the boldest and most exciting voices in independent storytelling,” said Jeffrey Sharp, The Gotham’s Executive Director in a press release. “We […]