The issue of gender equality in filmmaking was placed front and center by San Sebastian Film Festival this year as the festival signed the Charter for Parity and Inclusion of Women in Cinema. The initiative, which began in Cannes, requires the festival festival to commit to inclusivity, including producing a raft of statistics about female-led submissions and programming as well as having an equal number of men and women on the festival’s selection committee from next year—and it’s worth noting that its management committee already comprises four women and three men. During the course of this 2018 edition of the […]

It’s fitting that the first two films I saw at NYFF after returning from TIFF were Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana and Errol Morris’s American Dharma. It’s not that you never hear Our 45th President’s name in Canada (given that we’re at Twitter war with them or whatever the status is), but it doesn’t come up as much; to return to two movies that wrestle with Trump’s America was very much a “welcome home, whether you like it or not” moment. Monrovia is a highlight among Wiseman’s recent work, while Dharma continues what’s basically been a decade-plus downward spiral for Morris; nonetheless, the two pair […]

The New York Film Festival opens tonight with Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite and, over its three weeks, presents its usual assuredly-curated selection of highlights from the current festival season as well as number of strong filmmaker conversations, new media pieces and experimental films. Sidestepping most of obvious titles, here are twelve picks to dig-out from the current lineup. Ray & Liz. Richard Billingham’s directorial debut Ray & Liz expands on photographs he took of his alcoholic parents. Movies about alcoholics aren’t hard to come by; shot in elegant academy-ratio 16mm, Billingham’s contribution is notable for possibly being the quietest, least […]

Sound-only projects got an entire day at IFP Week 2018, which may irk sticklers wondering what podcasts are doing in a seminar once dedicated solely to film. Well, as more and more filmmakers consider themselves some-kind of cross-platform storyteller, podcasts are natural medium for their work. (See, for example, this Filmmaker article on filmmakers embracing that medium.) And, IFP itself added audio storytelling as one of its main areas of interest earlier in the year. To boot, independent aural projects and independent cinema share a lot of similar concerns, aesthetic as well as financial. Take Mission to Zyxx, an improvised […]

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today that actor Willem Dafoe will receive the Actor Tribute and Paul Greengrass will receive the Director Tribute at the 2018 IFP Gotham Awards. From the press release: “Willem Dafoe is one of the most iconic actors of our generation. Throughout his legendary career, he has consistently brought versatility, boldness and daring complexity to his roles. Whether a Hollywood tentpole franchise or a small-scale independent film, Willem’s artistic curiosity has led him to film and theatre projects all over the world, making him one of the most internationally respected actors. The […]

Most film festivals can claim a thing or two: A dramatic location, a slate of coveted premieres, fancy fetes, unique guests, a platoon of industry heavies making the rounds, and, for better or worse, the media spotlight. I’ve never attended any film festival where I had the chance to wrap my arms around a tree–in a public park, no less, and in full view of pedestrians–and plant my ear firmly to its bark, as one of its official selections. And yet, there I was, in Camden, Maine, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, tree-hugging away. The four selected trees on the […]

The team behind the ESPN podcast 30 for 30 hate the word “podcast.” They think “audio documentaries” is a better fit. “The word podcast is just so unhelpful,” said Jody Avirgan, the show’s host and executive producer. “A lot of people hear ‘podcast’ and think two people in a room talking. I like those podcasts. But we’re trying to do stuff that’s much more akin to a short film than to that kind of podcast.” Of course, the 30 for 30 audio documentary series only exists because of film. They’re a spin-off of the 30 for 30 films, which began […]

What is Frankenstein A.I.? The name itself is something of a Janus symbol, looking back to classic literature—an early work of horror and, lest we forget, of science-fiction—while looking forward to our potentially human-less future. And like Mary Shelley’s creature itself, it’s something of a patchwork, stitched together from different mediums. It’s part installation, part theater, part audience participation, part improv, even part dance. It’s not quite film, though there is a screen with moving images. Whatever it is, it premiered—under the full name Frankenstein A.I.: A Monster Made By Many—at Sundance last winter, earning raves and awe. Perhaps most […]

To be in the arts right now is to be excited and scared, often at the same time. The old ways are dying, but no one actually knows what the new ways even are. There’s so much potential in the digital landscape, but it’s unclear how it can be used—to find audiences, to fix old (and new) problems, to maybe even make money. These are issues that consume those involved with The Space, an English arts council set up at the BBC not only to fund art but to find new ways to get them out into the world. “There […]

Here’s a typical story about a documentary (or an indie, or occasionally even an experimental film): It cruises the festival circuit, likely at Sundance. It builds up buzz. Perhaps it collects some awards. It scores a distributor. Several months — or even a year, now and then even years — later it opens in theaters, riding on hazily recalled accolades and hopefully at least polite reviews. It is or isn’t a success, and there’s a chance it spends eternity lost in the vast bowels of iTunes. Some people (and a few reviewers) assume this is the tale of 93Queen, Paula […]