Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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San Sebastian Film Festival at 70
It might have been notching up its 70th birthday, but rather than reminisce about the past San Sebastian continues to focus on new voices, as evidenced by a set of award winners full of up- and-coming talent. Though the festival on Spain’s northern Basque Country coast managed to continue during the pandemic, this year was the first time since 2019 that a real sense of normality resumed. That meant more guests were able to return as restrictions eased—including David Cronenberg and Juliette Binoche, both picking up life-time achievement Donostia Awards—while masks were no longer required in cinemas. Picking up his […]
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Canadians in “Space”: Stéphane Lafleur on Viking
While Stéphane Lafleur’s third feature, 2014’s Tu Dors Nicole, chronicled the summer malaise between of aimless Quebecois post-grads, his follow-up, Viking, explores a different, slightly otherworldly strain of existentialism. High school gym teacher David (Steven Laplante) gets the opportunity to revive his dreams of becoming an astronaut by joining a behavioral research team called the Viking Society that will mirror the first manned mission to Mars. This B-team plans to replicate the mission in a controlled environment that resembles the probe—i.e., a Quonset hut in the desert—where they will game out potential interpersonal conflicts between the five-member crew in order […]
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Marcel the Shell with Shoes On‘s Team on IP Development at Gotham Week 2022
Several years back, Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp traveled with friends to attend an out of town wedding. Opting to scrimp on lodging costs, the duo shared a crowded hotel room with four other friends. Slate just happened to be the only girl in the group, which led to her adopting a “teeny-tiny” voice to communicate her comparative petiteness to the other men in the room. The voice, a running joke for the rest of the weekend, became the eventual creative spark that would launch a web series, children’s books and feature-length film released by A24. Soon thereafter, the first […]
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TIFF 2022: Walk Up, Dry Ground Burning and Other Festival Content
Unknown Wonders—a Bulgari ad (or, as the fashion house would have it, “brand film”)—was the second sponsor bumper before every public screening at this year’s TIFF. The first time I saw it, the credit “Anne Hathaway” was unsurprising enough, but being followed by one for Zendaya and “A film by Paolo Sorrentino” had a Family Guy mad libs quality. I laughed helplessly and instantly hated it, even though (or especially because) it’s a predictable commercial in which two stars vibe at a luxurious Italian villa. The assignment perfectly fits Sorrentino’s sensibility, down to a peacock entering the frame, and hence partially […]
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IBC Show 2022: The Fresh Gear Filmmakers Should Know About
IBC Show was back in full swing with its familiar multi-day in-person event, with more than 37,000 smiling faces eager to attend the festivities. The Amsterdam gala is like no other trade show in the industry, pinning studios, media entertainment companies, tech innovators, software providers, filmmakers and creators under one roof. You can literally have a meeting with Google or Amazon AWS in the morning, then learn about the latest offerings from Canon, Sony or Avid in the afternoon. Similar to this year’s NAB Show and Cine Gear Expo LA, the future of technology was a buzzy topic on the […]
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Filmmaker Hosts Conversations During Gotham Week Conference
Filmmaker is hosting four conversations next week at The Gotham’s Gotham Week Conference, all with filmmakers who have recent films we love and have covered extensively at Filmmaker. And, these talks are free to public. Three are in person at Brooklyn Navy Yards, and the fourth is on Zoom. RSVP by clicking on the links below. On Monday at 10:30 AM, I’ll be speaking with DEDZA founder Kate Gondwe, one of our 25 New Faces last year, about the distribution of Saul Williams’s and Anisia Uzeyman’s Neptune Frost, and particularly about the specialized techniques used to broaden the reach of this […]
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IDA Selects 20 Fellows for Its Inaugural Getting Real Fellowship Program
The International Documentary Association (IDA) announces the 20 fellows selected for its inaugural Getting Real Fellowship program. This new initiative is specifically geared towards highlighting emerging and mid-career documentary professionals. The program provides fellows with the opportunity to attend the biennial Getting Real conference, the world’s largest industry conference for documentary practitioners. As part of the fellowship, IDA covers costs concerning airfare, lodging and registration. It also provides fellows a unique communal path through the conference. They will share meals together, attend a celebratory reception and participate in curated meetings with industry delegates. Even after the conference concludes, fellows continue […]
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The Gotham Film & Media Institute Appoints Four New Members to Board of Directors
With the 2022 Gotham Week Conference and Expo just a few days away, The Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly IFP, and Filmmaker’s publisher) has announced four new members to its Board of Directors. Joining the organization are actor Jonathan Majors, actor Stephanie March, entrepreneur and women’s advocate Dee Poku, and entertainment strategic marketing and PR executive Lisa Taback. “We are thrilled that these four brilliant media and entertainment veterans are bringing their unique perspectives and expertise to The Gotham’s board,” Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute, said in a press release. “As we find […]
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TIFF 2022: Glass Onion, The Maiden
One argument for the eternally vexed question “Why film festivals?” might be “To watch Netflix movies in a theater.” The streamer does, of course, theatrically release some of its prestige titles but, because of its refusal to accommodate 90-day windows, has effectively barred itself from wide releases. Since I live in New York City, I can go see all of Netflix’s big titles when they come out with ease thanks to their acquisition of the Paris Theater, which isn’t all bad: while some of the programming is grimly reserved for week-long runs of titles like Red Notice, there’s room for pleasant […]
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TIFF 2022: The Fabelmans, The Good Nurse
After the first UFOs are sighted in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a group of true believers gather and wait for more to arrive. A light appears over the horizon, excitement builds—but disillusionment sets in when the approaching vehicles turn out to be helicopters, and everyone scatters. The chopper beams briefly look like trainlights, echoing the mini-train track Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) assembles in his family’s cramped living room and uses to try to demonstrate a math problem to son Barry by sending the train on a collision course towards a stalled miniature stockcar. The Fabelmans tells us where this image, […]
